“We’ll reach Antarra in six hours, Charli. How’s she doing?” My mate inquired as she appeared out of the elevator.
“She took being told she was pregnant way better than Hope, sweetie.”
“She’s what? How? When?” Lokust demanded.
“All questions you should already know the answer to, Lokust Grunfuller. Come on! Didn’t mommy and daddy give you the ‘Birds and Bees’ speech?” Charli guffawed humorously.
“Well… yeah… buuttt…”
“A little off target, but I’ll give it to you, sweetie.” Charli joked. “Congratulations on a job well done. Lokust!”
“Don’t I get any ‘kudos’?” I asked with a little attitude.
Charli leaned over and hugged me tightly. “Well done, my impossible daughter!”
That felt really good!
It was then I noticed Sohn and Cleo; reclined in a couple lounge chairs staring- unblinking- up at the vibrant blue stars streaking past.
“Are they going to be okay, Dad?” I pointed to the two Lynxin ‘statues’.
“I think they’ve been like that since we went Transdimensional, sweetie. Eventually they’ll have to breathe.” Dad smirked; she paused a moment to look me in the eyes. “Of course you know that Tau Sohn’s mother, Tau Siam, was also a reporter and that she covered the FeLane Monarchy exclusively, right?”
“I researched the family while we were here for Kitty’s Coronation,” I nodded, “I feel for the family- they seemed to have suffered along the same lines as the Sinae’s.”
I wiped a tear or two from my eyes and paused to dismiss those images and to think a moment.
“Have they noticed their tails yet?” I asked quietly.
“Don’t think so… We’d probably have to divert to Mare to get their hearts back online. Norge has the facilities if they notice after the next five hours though… plus, there’s always Christina.”
“I just can’t imagine the number of nobles that selected that painful operation, dad!” I sniffled.
“It was that or a gruesome death at the hands of Haturo himself. The guy was a complete monster. Like Christina said- Dr. Moreau combined with Joseph Mengele! At first, your mom, Chantell, Kate, and I tried to operate a ‘Nobles Underground Railroad’ of sorts. Our hope was to rescue as many Libra supporters as possible, but the dick seemed to know our every move. Also don’t forget that we didn’t have the resources… or you, at the time, sweetie. If we had then maybe…? It was a terrible loss- and a major defeat for the Corps! Hope, Shan, and I cried for almost a month after we heard what he did to Kitty’s mom, Lisle! Kate was so angry about our failure to save Her Royal Princess Lisle that she more or less exiled herself to Kane. EFMC’s coffers suffered heavily from that huge, six-month, drinking binge. We decided it best if the Current Mages ‘died out’, so we tried to lay low to avoid Haturo’s long reach. Coincidentally, that’s when the damn Hobgoblins began a huge surge.”
“Coincidence, dad?” I asked as I tried to process the newly revealed information.
“There again, we didn’t have the ‘Think Tank’ we have today, sweetie.”
I felt an urgency that something was wrong flood through me and Nike suddenly felt like she wanted to physically take over my body!
“Chance? Sweetie? What’s up?” Dad looked shocked and very concerned.
“Perfessor! You’re with me! Bring those two with us!” I ordered as I pointed to Cleo and Sohn.
I found myself standing before the Grand Entrance of the Royal Residence- Christina standing on my right. Sohn and Cleo on my left. We were all in uniform.
“So you saw it too, Nike?” Christina asked without looking to me.
“Where are we?” Tau Sohn asked, having snapped out of her ‘trance’.
“I ‘felt’ something is wrong, Christina. I take it you know what that something is?”
“High Priestess? Why have we returned to the Residence?” Cleo, obviously a little more observant, asked as she looked around.
“We’ve been played, Chance! I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to be played… not if I have anything to say about it! I’ve put up with this kind of shit since I was fourteen!”
“High Priestess? What are you doing back here? I saw you leave.” Sinae shouted as the Foyer’s doors flew open and she hurried out to meet us. She paused only a second then looked to my left- at Sohn and Cleo.
“We sensed a disturbance in the Force, my queen.” Christina told her.
“It’s my old man! I knew blowing his balls off felt wrong!” She instantly snapped to that conclusion.
“We need to get to the prison ASAP-!” I began to say.
The Warden’s outer office appeared around us.
“-to alert the Warden… Gods, Christina! Must you skip ahead without warning?” I finished.
“Queen Kitty!” the Warden’s assistant gasped. “We weren’t informed of your visit. Ummmmm- umm how did you do that… appear out of thin air?”
“No time. We need to see the warden. Stat!” Christina interrupted.
“He just left for the infirmary to check on Prisoner 35AD223.”
“Translation, honey?” I prodded.
“The Ex-Regent, Lady Chance. Why?”
“I want the block encompassing the infirmary locked down and evacuated of all Staff- the Warden included! Do it now!” Sinae commanded instantly.
Once the assistant communicated her orders, Christina transported the five of us into the hallway just outside the prison’s hospital ward.
“Protective wards are up, Chance. Only untainted personnel can egress.”
“What about ‘Multiversers’ like you, Scion,” I asked.
Christina narrowed her eyes a moment.
“I’m modifying the wards to reveal any possible individuals that meet the criteria.”
Both Christina and I ‘shimmered’ a little bit, but one additional ‘person’ emerged from the ether as all color washed out of my vision.
Whoever else was down here, they quickly disappeared through the Infirmary doors.
Great! Everything was now ‘monochromatic’- black and white. Somehow I also expected the loss of all audio and for live organ music and crude subtitles to start playing!
“Well, this is interesting.” Sinae commented as she looked around us.
I just shrugged my shoulders and rolled my eyes.
“Oh look, we have intruders! Now what we do? Should we beat into submission or shall we incapacitate and experiment to see what make them function?” An unseen, very malevolent, nondescript, but accented voice hummed arrogantly.
“Sooo, which one are you then?” I asked in a no nonsense tone.
The voice laughed ominously.
“I see. Couldn’t splurge for the cost of color film, eh?” I asked then smiled as I received no answer. “So… Noir it is then.”
My uniform changed to a retro pair of grey pants, black leather loafers, white button down blouse with a narrow black tie, and a long, grey, duster. I kept my pointed hat because I thought it looked ‘cosmopolitan’.
Christina, on the other hand, was dressed in a dark grey ankle-length skirt, Black two-inch pumps, a similar white blouse- but without the tie, a dark grey jacket and a woman’s Panama.
“You two are insane, you know that?” Sinae commented as she shook her head a few times in amazement.
I just gave her a devious smile.
“Fine!” Sinae changed into an off-white housedress with light gray flowers all over it. The dress was only broken up by a slightly darker gray cloth belt riding high above her bump and tied in a big bow at her back; on her feet, white fabric flats. “Cousins, I’m sorry for doing this up front.”
Both reporters were now wearing dark grey skirts, off white blouses, and black leather pumps. Both also carried a pencil and small, fabric-bound, stenographer’s notepad.
“I hope you two are happy now that we all look like rejects from an old Terran ‘C’ class film-noir murder mystery… and what’s with the damn background music?!” Sinae griped.
“I didn’t pick the theme this time, Kitty.” Christina advised. “Our unwanted mystery guest seems to be multiversed; that has chosen the theme.”
“Let me guess… through those doors is my dad in a dirty white lab coat just on the cusp of yelling ‘throw the switch, Igor’, right? How corny will this get, ladies?”
“Well, when there’s a monster involved, a Mad Scientist isn’t that far out of the question, is it?” I challenged.
Sinae glared intensely at me and Christina; Sohn and Cleo simply remained quiet and completely perplexed.
“Shall we knock?” Christina asked just before the double swinging doors blasted explosively off their hinges and into the room.
The explosion impressed me. I believe Christina used more than black powder, as did many cinematic productions of the ‘Black and White’ era.
“Hey, honey, we’re hoooome! Did yooou miss us?” She asked dramatically.
The scene inside was not what we expected!
Haturo lay strapped to an operating room gurney and a rather petite, female Lynxin wearing a blood-soiled, ancient, white surgical apron stood over him.
“Welcome, ladies! You next in line but I be a few minutes. Take seat.”
An invisible force shot the four of us backwards into some chairs along the wall by the doors we had just destroyed.
Christina stood defiantly where she was though.
“Is that all you’ve got?” She snapped her fingers and Sinae, Sohn, Cleo, and I were standing next to her again. “Sorry, girls; I wasn’t expecting such a ‘warm’ welcome.”
“Ohh! So you the one they call ‘Scion’? I expect more than sex-starved Antarran bimbo.”
Did I hear that accent in her voice?
“How did you get out?” I chanced to ask.
“It not so hard, Summers! I very patient. Very resourceful.”
I knew it!
 
 

 
 
“You’ve met ol’ Doc Hu before, Chance?”
“You could say that. She’s Mom and Dad’s Mission Specialist- Lieutenant Ling Hu Guan of the Peoples’ Republic of China’s Space Ministry. She was sentenced and locked up here nine years ago. I thought I had limited her Current capabilities though.
“I see. Soooo… Not pleased to make your acquaintance, doc. In hindsight, I personally think NASA could’ve done way better in selecting a Mission Specialist for Pegasus and the Kuiper Belt Mission.”
“You no idea what you talk about, little girl.”
“Ummm… Yeah I do? Graduated CMU 2101AD with a Doctorate in Astrophysics, honey. I also hold six patents on the modern Ion Propulsion Drive System?” Christina informed with a hand on her hip. “So, yeah… I’m that old. Now… what do you intend to do with that old, used up, Lynxin?”
“It will be means to complete annihilation of all lifeform in universe unless all bow to me.”
Christina and I began to snicker. Sinae joined us; then Cleo and Sohn reluctantly joined in.
“Hate to break it to you, Howl-ling, but we don’t want to. We prefer our freedom from tyranny… ya know, that shit you’re promoting here? Don’t force me to do to you what I did to Boogerovich or whatever his name was.” Christina gave a snort of disgust. “Really doesn’t matter now anyway. He’s nonexistent- Ka-put! Nothin’ but subatomic bits of un-cohesive random particles, not even enough left to make a quark.”
“Did anyone ever say you talk too much?”
“No… not really? The only reason I do it now is to distract you from what I was actually doing. Thanks for playing along by the way.”
Sometime during their exchange, Haturo had become a life-sized mannequin. Actually, it looked more like a blow-up sex doll that resembled Haturo.
Kitty and I began laughing and we even heard Cleo and Sohn giggling.
“I just move onto next patient. Care to lie on table and donate body to masochist science and excruciating pain, young Lynxin noble?”
I expected Cleo or Sohn to instantly replace the Haturo dummy on the table.
But no.
“Nice trick, Guam, buuut yeeeerrrr tooooooo sloooooooow, Buuuuckeeeerooooo!” Christina chirped in a much lower, Dopplered, register than her normal voice as Guan was now strapped to the table instead. She was also naked, hands and legs cuffed, and ball-gagged?
“Just a reminder,” Sinae advised? “You do know it is illegal to play with your food while in Confederation territory, Christina Everhardt? Buuuut since you are Antarran royalty and therefore have diplomatic immunity… well…”
“Oh, I don’t intend on ‘eating’ this… ‘entity’, Queen Kitty!” Christina’s face turned sour. “I already know a great place for fantastic Chinese and this isn’t it. Thank you for the considerate warning, but I intend to utterly destroy this nuisance. She and her two Compadres have done nothing but screw up this whole Galaxy and ruin it for the rest of us. I mean… what’s an omnipotent girl got to do in this Universe to have some peace? You think I like dishing out my ‘wrath’ on dorks like this?” She thumbed to Guan. “Seriously?”
“Great! You let her get away, Scion!” Sinae griped as Guan vanished. “And can we please ditch these damn awful drab clothes and kill the Noir setting and that campy, minor key, Brass-heavy Jazz music?”
“She went back to Haturo’s cell, Kitty. I never lost track of her for a sec- and just so you know: It’s a trap!!!” Christina giggled then she pinched her finger and thumb to her wide brimmed Panama and wiped along its edge dramatically.
“Ladies? Care to follow me to Lt. Guam’s end…game?” She added with a stiff, male swagger as she walked confidently out of the Infirmary- hands buried deep in her duster’s pockets.
The Ex-Regent’s private cell appeared around us.
“High Priestess? Why are we here? Lady Christina seems to have this well in hand- crazy as it seems.” Sohn asked, confused.
Haturo was curled up in a fetal position on his blood soaked cot in obvious pain- a tortured expression twisting his face. His attention seemed to be focused on his injury, and not on us.
The smell of spoiled blood and urine was almost overpowering.
“How’s it feel?” Sinae asked her deposed, disgraced father coldly.
That caught his attention.
“You! You did this to me! You neutered me! I will kill you!”
“Yeah, old man, keep telling yerself that! I think losing my tail was still more painful! You just lost your dick. No big deal.” Sinae replied calmly.
“I brought you into this world!” He shouted, enraged, cringing with the pain that caused.
“Actually, First Princess Lisle Sinae brought me into this world! You just did the old ‘wam-bam-thank-you-oh-by-the-way-I’m-taking-the-throne-ma’am’ schtick.” Sinae countered. “And actually…,” Sinae smirked, “it was Lady Christina that blew yer balls off! She did what I couldn’t bring myself to do.”
“Thank you my queen, and it was the least I could do to help. However-” Christina raised her right hand and began to count backwards by folding her fingers down one at a time.
“Three, two, one. Why hello, Mad Dr. Hu. We’ve missed you terribly.” She smiled.
“Huh! Dumbly fallen in my trap!” Guan boasted, apparently not paying attention to the tall Antarran.
“Well… I guess a guy without a dick could technically be called a ‘trap’. Huh. And we didn’t fall into anything. We arrived standing on our own about two minutes ago. You’re late, guaq.”
“I have you now! You all die!”
Christina simply placed her hand to her mouth to cover a yawn.
“You all meet gruesome end; I change you in terrifying, traumatic ways.”
Again Christina just covered another yawn.
I gave the former NASA Astronaut a neutral stare.
Sinae looked between the two of us.
“Nice to know you two feel so calm and collected. What about me, my kitten, and my two cousins, here?”
“My queen? We aren’t related to you. Why keep calling us ‘cousins’?” Cleo begged.
Sinae sighed loudly.
“Your grandmother covered everything happening in the ‘Royal Court’, correct?” Sinae asked.
“She did. Auntie told me she had complete access to the Royal Family- starting with Her Most Royal Highness Libra. Just before her passing.”
“Tell her, Tau Sohn.” Sinae prompted the elder reporter.
All focus on our ‘captor’ seemed suddenly forgotten.
“Tell her what, my queen?”
Sinae’s mouth dropped open. “You mean you don’t know either?”
“Know what? What are you hinting at, my queen?”
“Hey!” Guan protested.
“Shhh!” Christina instantly turned, putting her finger to her lips to silence the villain’s angry protest then turned back to Sinae.
Sinae shook her head a few times. “The Court Reporter has always been family, ladies. According to the Royal Lineage, you are my fifth cousins. If you don’t believe me, ask your tails.”
“Our tai-”, Tau Sohn screamed shrilly as she finally noticed her long tail then Cleo’s.
“Very… um… observant… for reporters that is.” Christina giggled lightly.
“Hey! You ar-.”
Christina turned back to our ‘villain’ quickly.
“Quiet, guano, this is a really touching family reunion we’re witnessin’ here! Warms me heart it does- seein’ these two sides o’the same fam’ly reaquaintin’ themselves fer ta first time since dat ting!” She pointed to Guan then turned her attention back to our Lynxin reporters.
Sohn and Cleo were wiping tears as they gently examined their royal appendages.
A bubble around the villain suddenly illuminated as Guan’s anger flared! Another smaller bubble (a comic strip-style speech bubble?) appeared just to the right of her head and displayed several very bold, Chinese characters and several exclamation points. She quickly, silently screamed in pain and looked confused as she noticed the Chinese text displayed in the bubble. I noticed fear replace her angry, pain-addled expression. Apparently, she now realized she had grossly overestimated her superiority in this situation.
And that Christina’s force shield reflected her attacks back at her.
“Really?” Christina asked in amazement. “Why is it always about you- the villain? Can’t we have just a single moment to enjoy this touching reunion?”
Guan seemed to freeze in place within the ‘bubble’ Christina had cast around her, but the speech bubble kept displaying new, lighter contrast Chinese text- like it was now displaying Guans thoughts.
“Better.” she nodded as she turned back to our embedded reporters with a smile. “Please, ladies, continue.”
She winked at me with a devious smile.
“We can wait for a more convenient time and place, Lady Christina.” Sohn deferred, pointing back to Guan.
“Well, I wanna know if we can finally dispense with this stupid monochrome theme, Christina!” Sinae growled as she produced her wand and re-summoned her maternity uniform.
“Oh, all right.” Christina replied tiredly as we turned our attention back to our newly ‘colorized’ adversary.
Things looked a little less mysterious and ‘cinematic’ in ‘living color’. I took the liberty of changing Cleo and Sohn’s clothes back to their uniforms then I changed back into mine.
“You can beg for ‘mercy’ at any time, Miss Guano. I might just be swayed to think about it.”
“You cannot hold me! I more powerful than you!” Guan declared arrogantly- her accompanying speech bubble still displaying the English-to-Chinese translation.
Christina began ‘tisking’ the villain.
“Ew! Ew! Can I say it? Can I? Can I?” I screeched like a first-grader- raising my hand excitedly and everything.
Christina sighed in defeat. “I have been hogging the festivities, haven’t I, High Priestess?” She sighed again and motioned for me to take over. “Go ahead.”
“It’s not how big and powerful it is, Guan! It’s how you use it!” I grinned as I heard Sinae, Sohn, and Cleo groan loudly.
“Gods! Tell me you didn’t just use that tired, worn-out, old expression, Chance.”
I turned to smile at her. Sinae pulled her palm down her face. “Libra, help me!” She said in disgust.
“Are they always like this, my queen?” Cleo asked in disbelief.
“Welcome to Witch Corps, sisters.” Sinae giggled, nodding her head in answer.
“But this is a serious issue! We could be killed!” Sohn interjected.
“We could if Guan actually posed any kind of threat, but she doesn’t. She thinks she has set and sprung her trap on us, whereas Christina has sprung a superior trap.” I informed our two reporters.
They both looked confused.
“To catch a villain thinking herself superior, you need a superior trap, ladies. Or… in this case, just a very simple trap.”
“But what of what she tried to do to us? To Ex-Regent Haturo?” Cleo pushed.
“Honey. Any one of us Current Mages could do stuff like that. It’s not rocket science!” Christina giggled.
“Sohn and I can do those things?”
“And more, Lady Cleo!” With the proper training you’ll both be able to do ‘the impossible’!” Christina smiled brightly and gave our two new sisters ‘jazz hands’. “Now… as for our opponents…” Her malevolent gaze shifted to Guan and Haturo.
“I’ll disarm this one, Lady Christina. Watch and learn, girls.” I said as I called my wand and took aim on Guan. “I will now ‘purify’ this entity’s latent Current.”
“Purify, High Priestess?” Sohn asked this time.
“Yes, ‘purify’. Current, if severely mistreated, can become ‘tainted’. Oh, I almost forgot. Please ask your Current to allow you to ‘see’ it and blink your eyes to engage and disengage it. Try that first and I’ll know when you’ve both done it.”
Both reporters blinked- almost simultaneously- and began looking around the room in disbelief.
That is until they both set eyes on me. Both winced back in pain and shielded their eyes.
“Why are you so blindingly orange, High Priestess?” Sohn protested as she looked away from Christina and I.
“And why is Lady Christina so dazzlingly white?” Cleo cried while still shielding her eyes from our intense ‘auras’.
“Long story for another day, ladies. Now, take a gander at ol’ Guan there.” I answered.
“Her’s is a sickly dark red- her and the Ex-Regent! The color is reminiscent of congealing blood.” Sohn declared with a sour expression.
“That is what we call ‘tainted’ Current. If left to intensify it can transform its host into a Hobgoblin. That was their origin by the way. We have had success with purifying Hoblins back into their previous ‘original’ forms within a certain period of time. The longer one remains a Hoblin, or ‘Conscripted’ by them, the less chance of returning them to normal. Oh… yes, how silly of me! I almost forgot!”
I pointed at our newest sisters- to the pendants around their necks.
“The pendants you now wear help purify the Current you intake. It also monitors your Current reservoir and begins to glow as said reservoir reaches ‘full’. The pendent also acts as a private and secure line of communication between members of Witch Corps.”
“Kitty to Chance, Christina, Sohn, and Cleo. Can we get on with this? The Royal Offspring is getting agitated. Kitty, out!” Sinae deadpanned as she demonstrated how the Comms worked.
I rolled my eyes dramatically at my impatient friend.
“So… I point my wand at the target and ask my Current to purify it and recover the ‘whole’ original person…entity in this case, if possible. In some worse cases the whole person may not be recovered. Sorry. That’s just the way it is sometimes.”
I concentrated on purifying Guan. Hopefully it would ‘stick’ this time. A typical blue beam shot from my wand as expected. It only lasted for a second or two.
What was left was a petite Terran of Asian descent- completely nude. She was staring blindly into open space- almost like a trance.
I knew better though.
“She is not Lynxin?” Cleo gasped.
“Nope!” Christina grinned. “She’s as Terran as they come, ladies.”
“But she has a scaly red tail with a spade point on the end!” Sohn pointed out in alarm.
“Christiiiiiinaaaaa!” I growled.
“Oh! Did I just do that, Chance? My bad. She is the devil incarnate though, right? At the very least a diabolical, insatiable succubus?”
“You forgot her horns.” I told her with a faux scowl.
“Oh… so I did. Well… horns can be very dangerous and cause damage…Safety first, you understand.” She grinned.
“You cannot do to me! I not allow it! I not demon!” Guan declared heatedly.
“You’re absolutely right, Guano. You’d fare much better as a plushie.” Christina smiled evilly. A small, stuffed, red silk robed, ‘Guan doll’ fell to the floor in place of the live, nude, Terran with the devil tail.
“Now to see to your punishment.” Christina smiled with the same evil grin at Haturo.
“Lady Sohn? Care to ‘purify’ his Ex-eminence?”
“Me?”
“He killed your mother, did he not?”
“I could never prove that, Lady Christina.”
“Well, I was there as an invisible observer. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very pretty. Lady Tau Siam was a very strong woman, Tau Sohn; she remained loyal to Pride Sinae and defiant til the very end.” Christina looked to the ground sadly. “Sadly, I was not permitted to intervene at the time.”
Christina set her attention to the remaining convict. “What was it you feared from the Sinae’s? Was it the loss of power?” Christina asked the cowering male Lynxin laying on the cot. She narrowed her eyes and frowned.
“Or was it jealousy? Maybe…envy?”
Christina thought for a moment.
“Maybe I should turn you into a suppository.” She smiled. “At least you could do something good for once.”
“Turn him into an old fashioned diaper, Christina! He seemed to always be on my ass when I was young…and-and mom was still alive!” Sinae recommended with a sad laugh.
I could see a tear or two forming in her eyes.
“Wouldn’t that make you just like him, Lady Christina? My queen?” Cleo replied cautiously- still holding her aunt tightly to her shoulder after Christina’s verbal recollection.
“It is said that ‘revenge is a dish best served cold’, sisters. Whatever is decided it cannot be any more vulgar or grotesque than what this… this monster… has done to his people, my ladies.”
“Still, he has been tried and found guilty by a jury of his peers, my lady.” Tau Sohn replied as she lifted her head from her niece’s shoulder. “He has been sentenced to several life terms here, in this prison. Here he shall make amends for his crimes.”
“Powerful words combined with even stronger conviction, Lady Sohn! By the Oracles, I cannot guarantee this one will repent anything- let alone feel remorse for his numerous transgressions.”
“At least heal his wound to allow him some comfort, Lady Christina?” Cleo pleaded soulfully.
“Also wise and moral intentions, Lady Cleo. I shall grant it.”
Hutaro’s tear-streaked face became clouded with confusion, but the pain seemed to have passed.
“I demand to know what you have done to me!” He cried out- though his voice sounded slightly different- higher in pitch.
“I repaired your wound as requested by Lady Cleo.” Christina answered back condescendingly. “Your balls were blown off, so I did the best I could… under the circumstances.”
“But it feels different. Very different.”
“You’ll get used to it after a couple months. I wouldn’t complain if I were you, honey, you could’ve become a ‘plushie’ too.”
Saying that, Christina bent down, picked up the newly minted, stuffed Guan doll, and tossed it at him.
“Here,” she smiled, “for those long, lonely nights ahead. You’ll thank me in a few years.”
“Why would I want a Terran that looks like a stuffed toy?”
“That isn’t alive, honey… not any longer. That inanimate, vibrating, ‘Guan Ho’ doll will be your only companion until you pass onto your next life. Take care of it and use it for comfort when you feel life becoming too ‘difficult’- too ‘stressful’.”
“Oh! And make sure you ask to have the batteries changed every so often!” Christina added.
We found ourselves back in the Royal Residence.
“Well, now that that little issue has been rectified…” Christina sighed. “I’m afraid we must be on our way, majesty. Witch Corps has an important mission to finish. We’ll be back for the shower and birth though. Au du.”
 
 

 
 
“Anything happen while we were gone, dear?” I asked when Pegasus’ Observation Lounge appeared around us.
Lokust closed her eyes a moment then shook her head a few times.
“Not in the five minutes you were gone, why?” My mate replied while rolling her eyes.
“Just wondering.” I said as I sat down to relax in a lounge chair. Keeping the enemy thoroughly off balance and confused had worked yet again, but this time I felt more fatigued than I usually did. However- and more disturbing- it seemed Christina was getting magnitudes better.
The sister I had just thought about turned to look at me then her eyes toggled to my abdomen and back to my face a few times. Yes, she was monitoring my thoughts, and yes, I knew the reason for my exhaustion was the new life I had in me… doesn’t take a rocket scientist!
Christina winking at me caused me to roll my eyes at her.
The tease!
“So, I did some cross-checking of the FeLane Databases- the twenty-five year old Hutaro back-ups versus the seventy year old pre-Hutaro back-ups. Apparently, we have more royalty on board.” Charli nodded to Sohn Tau and Cleo Shift after quietly observing my silent, visual interaction with Christina.
“Fifth cousins to Sinae, dad. She told them while we were at the prison in Capital.” I revealed.
“Ah.” Charli nodded once. “Took care of that little family problem, ay?”
“Your ex-science specialist, Lt. Guan, somehow escaped and was running things from the shadows. It was all cut and dry- black and white- nothing out of the ordinary though.”
Christina let out a loud snort.
“Good one, Chance.” She nodded her head in approval.
“How in the worlds did she escape? I thought you put the ‘whammy’ to her good the first time, sweetie?”
“So did I?” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. “This time, she thought she set a trap for us… emphasis on ‘thought’. Christina turned the tables on her though.”
“So all three of our nemeses have returned to challenge us and all three have now been vanquished… to some other realm to regroup and threaten the Way again. Will the cliché, Soap Opera plot twists ever stop?” Charli questioned with a stupid grin.
“I’m afraid the ‘realm’ they now reside in has been permanently pre-empted, Charli.” Christina offered reassuringly.
“Oh?” Charli challenged.
“Ever hear of the Crab Nebula?” She grinned.
My eyes went wide!
“It’s pretty much dissipated these days, but yeah, I’ve heard of it.” Charli replied.
“You didn’t!” I gasped. “I thought ‘Scion’ hated the ‘Borg’?”
“Transported each of our three felons back a few million eons- differing time periods for each of course. Did you know that that galaxy was the only one in all of existence that has no Current- totally devoid of any ‘Godly Lifeblood’? Hence the ‘Borg’ ‘Hive’ mentality, but that won’t develop for several million years from where I dropped those three off.”
“All three? You didn’t arrive until after we sent Evans packing, Christina.” I called her on her error.
“Oh, him… Yeah… I felt that little jagoff on Stillwater. Somehow he had sweet-talked that planet into allowing him to hide. Don’t worry, I gave her back her Current and then some to make things right, Chance. Ya know, that place was really warped though. Kinda reminded me of ‘Westworld’… only without the creepy robot gunslinger, but with way more sweaty rednecks.” Christina said with a shiver.
“So… how’d the noble’s do on their first outing, sweetie?” Charli asked to change the subject. She glanced over to the two, silently lounging figures. They were still in uniform.
And fast asleep!
“Rough day?” Charli grinned.
“Confusing as hell… by their perspective.”
Charli looked at Christina and I for a long minute.
“You two couldn’t go easy on the newbies, could you?”
“Easier to yank the band-aid off.” Christina giggled quietly.
Charli rolled her eyes.
“Gods! I’d swear you were a Summers!”
“Maybe. Odds are pretty good that it’s just the Antarran side though.” Christina assured.

Lyra and Greer popped into the lounge.
“Heard we had family up here, Ladies.” Lyra said as she regarded the two napping reporters.
“Daughter and Grandniece of Lady Tau Siam, Court Reporter. Fifth cousins to Kitty Sinae.” I informed them.
“Chance? Honey, I’m going down to check on Hope. She’s probably gnawed through your ‘special’ set of handcuffs by now.” Charli grinned just before popping out.
“So how’d they do, Chance?” Greer asked as she cautiously eyed the two.
“Weeell… I got them outfitted and on Comms…” I began to answer.
“Then things went back to SOP.” Christina concluded.
“That explains how tired they are. Witch Corps brain strain does that to the newbies- unfortunately.” Greer giggled. “I definitely know what that feels like!”
“My queen? Princess Lyra? Why are you here?” Cleo yawned out her questions. She suddenly looked over to Sohn and snapped to full consciousness!
“That really happened?! By Libra! It all happened?” She then turned back to Christina and me. “You,” she waved her hand and her wand appeared- which she instantly dropped, “then that horrid Terran became… Then all the color drained from… Then you,” Again she waved her hand which again manifested her wand- which she again dropped, “And we both had these pendant things… and you said they helped purify… they’re communicators?!” Cleo rambled excitedly.
“Cleo? What are you going on about? You’re not making any sense.” Sohn gave a big yawn and rubbed her eyes lazily.
“Auntie! It was all! Real! We’re witches! Real witches!” Cleo bubbled enthusiastically.
Mom popped in next to me and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing tight.
“Oh, honey, I’m so happy for you and Grunfuller! And I’m sorry for being such a pain in the ass to everyone before.” She cried happily.
“I’m happy for you too, mom. So… I’m gonna be a big sister, huh?” I pushed away a little to look her in the eyes.
“We weren’t really trying, honey.” Hope admitted, but quickly narrowed her eyes at Christina.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hey now, I had nothin’ to do with it, Hope! That was all on you two.” Christina vehemently denied any complicity. “Congrats though, Hope.”
“Greer and I also offer our congratulations, sisters.” Lyra smiled as she moved to hug both of us, Greer following.
“Princess Greer? You are not our queen? How?” Cleo Shift’s mouth dropped open.
“I remember an article a few months back about a long lost princess being located hiding on Earth’s Horizon!” Sohn recalled.
Greer’s face began to flush.
“That was you?” Sohn asked in amazement.
“I, um… I didn’t know until I was activated.” She confessed. “I was assigned as Princess Lyra’s cabin steward by the queen herself.”
“So Queen Kitty knew?” Sohn seemed to go into reporter mode as her DataTab manifested in her hand and she began making notes- oblivious as to what she had just done.
“Auntie? Auntie! Did you realize what you have just done?” Cleo attempted to get her aunt’s attention.
“Not now, Cleo. I’m conducting an interview with her highness Princess Greer. So tell me, Princess Greer, how did you manage to remain anonymous for so long from the Haturo regime… or from the Royal Lineage Investigators for that matter?”
Greer thought about the question for a long moment.
“Like this.” Greer’s male form answered honestly.
“I guess this interview will continue after Sohn wakes up. Cleo? You got any…” Christina began, but looked at the other reporter. “Okay, no more questions until they both wake up. Drinks, anyone?”
 
 

 
 
“First off… you aren’t going to faint again if I start to explain my situation, right?” Greer, who had changed back to her female form, asked as first, Cleo came around then Sohn rejoined us.
“Have you always been a Current Mage, Princess Greer?” Cleo asked cautiously.
“Didn’t know I was one until I met Lyra then Savanna Summers.” Greer answered. “I was just happy to be assigned to attend Lyra while on Earth’s Horizon. I had no idea that I had any noble blood at all. Then Savanna activated me and I looked like this.”
“Activated? Care to explain?” Sohn pressed in her practiced ‘journalistic’ tone.
“Both of you have been activated, Lady Sohn and Lady Cleo.” Greer motioned to the pair still wearing their uniforms. “By ‘activating’ someone they are given the potential to see and ask the latent current within them to do… things. Like manifest you’re DataTab, Lady Sohn. Or you’re wand, Lady Cleo.”
“Manifest my… DataTab? Oh, my stars! I did pull that right out of the air, didn’t I?” She gasped then smiled brightly.
“High Priestess? Antarra in two hours.” Aquia announced from Navigation.
“We’re here already?” Sohn gasped.
“Charli told you thirty-seven hours, ladies.”
“To travel to the opposite side of the Way in such a short time, High Priestess? How is that possible?”
“Pegasus’s cruising velocity is somewhere around forty-five LY’s per standard second, ladies. That little tidbit, by the way, is way above Top Secret level and I would appreciate you two keeping it that way, got it?” I told them.
Both nodded and I wondered how their jaws stayed attached as they did.
“I didn’t know such velocity was possible, High Priestess?”
“Ladies Christina and Simone could better explain it to you… strictly off the record, of course.” I smiled.
“For now, we need to prepare for our entry into Antarran Space. Care to join me on the Bridge?”
 

 
“Chance? Do we really have to add insult to injury?” Link pleaded as we made preparations to cross over into Antarran Space. “It costs Aunt Cora financially every time we visit. I mean… I love to see the old man soil himself and all, but… it’s just wasteful.”
“Nonsense, Coraline. Each time we destroy the target arrays, the designers are forced to modify and adapt. Theoretically there will come a time when Pegasus will no longer best our border defenses.” Aunt Cora defended.
Christina and I fought to hold our laughter.
“You think it will not happen, High Priestess?” My aunt countered.
“Refinements are always being made on both sides, Queen Norge.” I warned with a devious smile.
 
 
“Uncloak us, Wrench.” I ordered.
“You got it, boss.”
“Unknown spacecraft, you are nearing the Antarran Home System boundary! Stop and prepare to be boarded!”
“Wow! Not even a ‘hi, how are ya’. That’s not very neighborly, is it?” Christina complained.
“Does he always do this, Chance?” Citrus questioned- her face displaying her disgust.
“And not just to us, sister.” Kate groaned.
“Don’t they know their queen and royal court are onboard Pegasus, Queen Norge?” Citrus asked her boss.
“We have Mini-Van on our belly, ladies. We don’t match our last known configuration.” I revealed. “Charli? You’re on. Give them something to look forward to.”
She nodded, changed clothes to something very provocative then faced the forward display screen as a man appeared on it.
It was the Major General himself.
“I’m sorry? Who is this again?” Charli asked in a high-pitched, sickeningly sweet voice. I imagined someone that had maybe two brain cells firing?
“You are in violation of the sovereign Antarran Defensive Boundary! Disable all propulsion and prepare to be boarded.”
“Oh! I like it when they play rough, but I also like a good thrusting, too. Hehehehe.” Charli giggled as she poured it on.
“You are commanded to disable all propulsion and await boarding!”
“Oh, please hurry? I haven’t had a good ‘boarding’ in over twenty standard months. Heeheeheehee.”
Citrus was absolutely rolling on the floor as she fought to keep quiet.
“Prepare to be boarded.”
“By just you, sweetie, or will there be more like you? This sounds like it will be fun!”
“She isn’t cutting power, Major General.” A voice in the background advised.
“I order you to disable propulsion or I will have no choice but to target you with our weapons!”
Charli released a shrill shriek of joy!
“Oh goody! I’m gonna have an orgy! I’m gonna have an orgy!” She chirped happily as she jumped up and down and clapped her hands together excitedly.
“Major General?” The background voice called as we watched sweat drip from our favorite hard-ass’s brow. “General? What are your orders, sir?”
The General seemed to be debating his options: Get laid or protect the Trade Federation.
“All defensive arrays! Target that ship!”
Aunt Cora quietly exhaled in relief that he chose to protect her realm.
“What are arrays, sweetie?” Charli asked vapidly.
I nodded to Christina. She nodded back before disappearing.
“Major General! All defensive arrays have vanished! I can’t explain it, sir! One minute they were there, the next, nothing but empty space!”
Christina had popped in behind our favorite Major General and was smiling impishly.
“How can that be?! Nothing can just vanish from existence! It’s impossible!” He shouted as the chaotic voices in the control room ramped up exponentially.
“Major General! Behind you, sir! The Goddess Christina herself! In the flesh!”
“Sorry to ruin your fun, boys, but don’t you think you are taking this ‘Stop and be boarded’ routine a bit too far?” Christina asked as the Major General jumped at least fifty centimeters.
“What is this?! Who are you really?! Identify yourself!”
“Okay.” Christina began to glow brightly. “TADA! Tis I! Your Omnipotent Goddess of Antarra: Christina! Doesn’t that just make you want to ‘prostate’ yourselves before me.”
“By the Goddess! Look at the rack on her!” An unseen voice declared in awe.
“Up here you preverts! I said Tah-dah. Not tah-tahs. I wonder what Aunt Cora would do if she found out about you boys losing her toys, hmmm?”
“Aunt Cora?” The Major General questioned. “Who is this…Aunt Cora?”
I nodded to Aunt Cora. She replaced Charli in front of the display screen and I nodded to Dell to change the virtual background Charli had been standing in front of.
“Goddess Christina? Why are you there, Sugar Plum?” Queen Norge asked.
“Oh, hi, Aunt Cora! I was just visiting the Major General and some of his boys.”
I nodded to Citrus and she walked into frame and stopped at Cora’s side. To the Major General it looked like they were in Aunt Cora’s office.
Rodyard had outdone himself with the virtual office set.
“My queen? I have just received an urgent communication from EFMC Pegasus that the defensive border arrays have all vanished. They are offering to conduct a full investigation of the Boundary Defense Headquarters.” Citrus informed.
“By all means, offer them Carte Blanc. I want this matter investigated thoroughly!” Cora looked to her right angrily. “End transmission.”
Dell laughed gregariously as she tapped her console.
“Oh! My! Gods! This is soooo fun!” Citrus and Dell declared between their fits of laughter.
“My turn, Aunt Cora.” I said as I tapped her on the shoulder. “Uniforms, everyone.”
As soon as Cora was clear I asked Dell to re-enable our display screen- this time with our real Bridge as background.
“Antarran Boundary Defense Headquarters, this is EFMC Pegasus. I am High Priestess, Chance Summers. I am ordering you to disable all perimeter defenses and prepare to be boarded for an in-depth investigation into the disappearance of…” I leaned over as if reading from a status display, “Five hundred forty-eight thousand, nine hundred, and sixty-six defensive weapons arrays. By order of Queen Caroline Norge herself, I have been given Carte Blanc to conduct the investigation as I see fit, sir. Prepare to be boarded!”
I made the sign to cut the communication.
“Deep Space Camo! Mom? As quick as you can, take us into a tight orbit around the Headquarters asteroid then wait to decloak. Lokust? Ready Hope and a Pair, Clean Up, Pin Up, and Eight I Smart for immediate departure. Double Take, you go with Porno; Ariel with Laidy-in-Wait; Cleo, Seeker; Sohn, you’re with me.”
 

 
“Hey girl! Miss me?” I asked as I accessed Hope and a Pair’s docking pylon.
“Very much! I take it we’re going to have some fun with the Major General, Chance?”
“Yes we are girlfriend! By the way, I’d like you to meet one of our new ‘embedded’ reporters. Sohn ‘Galmour Girl’ Tau, Hope and a Pair.”
“Welcome aboard, Glamour Girl! Good to have you.”
“Ummmm… Glamour Girl? Why call me that, High Priestess?” Sohn seemed confused as I motioned her through the pylon’s short tunnel.
“We use ‘call signs’ when in our brooms, Sohn. You can always change it if you want.” I told her as I motioned for her to sit in my second seat and helped her buckle in.
“I just thought about you the first time we met…at Kitty’s coronation? Remember? You looked absolutely stunning in that formal, designer gown.”
Sohn blushed deep red.
“Thank you, High Priestess.” She replied near a whisper.
“Nope! That is not proper procedure, Glamour Girl! In here… in this cockpit I’m Chance. That’s my call sign.
“But that is also your real name, High Priestess! Why?”
“It fits.” I answered as I finished strapping in and began initializing my broom.
“Pegasus Control. Pegasus1 is ready to roll.”
“Roger, Chance. Pegasus5 has priority. Stand by.” Lokust acknowledged.
“Copy, Pegasus Control.” I replied. I felt that I needed to explain our slight delay.
“Because we have Mini Van with us, Simone- or Laidy-in-Wait- needs to perform a very tight maneuver to undock from her pylon.”
“Pegasus5 is clear, Pegasus Control.”
“Roger, Laidy-in-Wait. Pegasus1. You have a go and departure vector. Have a good time, Chance.”
“Copy Pegasus Control.” An audible ‘click’ indicated we had a successful release and Hope and a Pair began to slowly move away from Pegasus.
“Oh my stars! This is sooo amazing!” Sohn… Glamour Girl tittered with glee.
I don’t think Lyra was ever this excited!
 

 
“Alright ladies, we all go in as a group. Once the hangar doors are closed and re-pressurized, we join up and approach with wands drawn. Got it?”
“Aren’t they friendly, Chance? Why be armed at all?”
“For the past nine years- actually forty years- the Major General has overreached his authority concerning detaining and bullying known allied spacecraft. You see… most every vessel- be it large or small- is required to have an Identification Transponder.”
“So they knew who we are?”
“Usually. Pegasus has the ability to turn off her transponder as well as to transmit other Identities. It comes in handy when we don’t want our enemies to know we’re coming. When we first crossed the system boundary, we were transmitting the ID of a ‘Peddler Freighter’.”
Sohn…Glamour Girl began to laugh hysterically.
“Oh! Oh that is rich! And Lady Charli’s manner of… So that’s why the guy got all flustered?”
I nodded. “That’s right. We then bounced Queen Norge’s transmission off of Antarra- Queen Norge’s mansion to be exact. So they thought their queen was planet-side. Lastly, we transmitted our true identity to let them stew. Right now we’re camouflaged and are invisible to all- and I do mean all- detection sensors. By the way, Gee-Gee, are you allergic to sewage?” I giggled.
“Why ask such a strange, off-handed question like that, Chance?”
“Because we’re definitely going to scare the shit out of these knuckleheads.”
“Chance, Seeker. Time to do what you do best. Let’s get those landing bay doors open. Make it look like a systems malfunction- though I suspect they’ll be expecting something like that from us.”
“Copy, Chance. I’m in and cueing the Decom Alerts.” Charli acknowledged professionally. “Full Decom in five.”
“Who is Seeker again?” Gee-Gee asked curiously.
“Charli is ‘Seeker’. She’s flying ‘Eight I Smart’: Pegasus7.”
“How can you remember all that?”
“It’s a military thing. It’s not that hard after using it a while.” I told her. “Don’t worry; you’ll catch on.”
“I have been embedded and covered the military before, Chance Summers!” Glamour Girl informed me with attitude.
“So what’s the problem? Why act like you’ve never done this before?”
“Well…umm… this is Witch Corps… I guess?”
“So?”
“So…” Sohn Tau paused for a moment. “So its been a dream of mine for over nine years… even longer… ever since momma first told me of the Corps and how you travel the galaxy… helping people… Oh, the tales she would tell… The stories she would pass-along from Her Most Royal Highness Libra!”
“Sooooo, ‘hero envy’?”
“Does it show so clearly, Chance?”
“Like a billion gigawatt space beacon, sweetie!” I giggled.
“Defense Headquarters bay doors are open, ladies. All-ye, all-ye, in-free!” Seeker announced.
“Chance, Flight two.” I activated my Comm. “Let’s scare the pants off ‘em, girls! All Brooms remain Camo’ed. Porno, you, Double Take, Laidy-in-Wait, and Ariel wait for escort.”
“Who’s ‘Ariel’?”
“Gretchen Norwood. She’s Queen Colleen Norge’s Master-at-Arms. Her husband, Christian Norwood is Captain of the Royal Guard back in ancient Antarra.”
“Wait. What?!” Sohn- Glamour Girl goggled. “How can they be here? Now?”
“Well… that’s what you and Quill are here to find out.” I giggled.
“I’m beginning to think this assignment is only a dream, but one that is heading straightaway into a nightmare, High Priestess!”
“Naw. It’s all just pure fantasy… be it a true, real life fantasy, but… the real nightmare is the dresses of the time period. Style was everything and ladies’ comfort? Well, not so much.”
My second seat was quiet until I activated my canopy.
“Where are the others, Chance? They were just there before you opened Hope and a Pair’s canopy?” Glamour Girl whispered.
“Still camouflaged. You won’t see anyone until they clear their Broom’s camo field. Our canopy’s decrypt the other’s camo fields so we can see each other…it cuts down on incidents and ‘oops’s’.”
“Oh.” She nodded just before Charli appeared hanging in thin air, then Cleo.
“Oh my stars, is that freaky!”
I wasn’t sure if Gee-Gee meant our sisters just appearing three meters above the deck, my ‘hovering’ out of the cockpit, or both. I thought I should cover both.
“We look just as ‘freaky’ getting out of Hope and a Pair, and we all can hover up and out of our brooms, Gee-Gee. Try it; just ask your Current.”
Glamour Girl nodded and slowly began to rise from her seat. I noticed Quill rising similarly from Eight I Smart.
I gave Gee-Gee an eight for her landing; Quill got a nine and a half.
We hurried over to the landing bay’s access hatch.
“Everyone ready? Wands to stun, but keep them hidden.” I asked as Simone, Gretchen Link, Citrus- Christina had obviously returned and got her from Pegasus, and Aunt Cora dismissed their uniforms for their ‘noble’ clothing, and we formed up to surround the Antarran Royals.
Just in time too! The hatch suddenly opened and before it even finished opening all our wands were called and aimed!
Major General Christoff- of all people was the first face we saw.
He was also the first person to get knocked out by a blast from one of our wands!
The others he preceded looked horrified!
“Oops.” Alley Cat giggled.
Now where had I heard that phrase before, I thought sarcastically?
Lyra rolled her eyes too. “A little excited, Cousin?”
“I guess I expected a big Hoblin and not a dwarf. Funny, he looked bigger on the main display!”
Murmurs of: ‘The Queen!’ started echoing through the unseen hallway ahead of us as the noise level increased.
“Clear the passage!” Simone snarled as she pushed out into the passage with her wand drawn and into the erupting chaos the Major General’s men had become.
“He’s out cold, Chance. Alive, but out cold.” Charli reported as she finished her scan of the diminutive Head of Antarran Boundary Defenses.
“Bring him along! Confine everyone to quarters!” Aunt Cora ordered as she took charge and point.
“You all heard the Queen! Everyone to quarters until called upon or you’ll end up like Maj. Gen. Christoff!” Simone hissed. “Move it before I really get angry, people!”
The passageway began to clear immediately and within a minute it was completely devoid of all assigned personnel.
“At least they understand the tone of an order. Some previous candidates for the Regent’s Guard were absolutely tone deaf… that or completely stupid!” Gretc…Ariel commented to Simone.
After a few minutes we arrived at the base’s control room and Aunt Cora pointed to a plush, very comfortable chair.
“Put him there.” She commanded. Aunt Cora then looked toward the ceiling.
“Time to pop back in Sugar Plum.”
“Wow!” Christina grimaced as she appeared. “Maj. Gen. Christoff is really having a bad month.”