Resurgence: Imortum

by JK Stone

  Doran seemed to think about it a moment, then he said, “I am not quite sure how to answer that question. There are a few reasons, but off the top of my head, there is the fact that I have experienced what it is like to die, and I am not sure I am ready to experience that again anytime soon.

  “The thought of leaving the ship on my own like Alise, Calia, and Eneria can, intrigues me, and I know I will do it before long. But for now, I just want to learn more about you without any added distractions. I seem to have enough of those as it is,” Doran said.

  Terrah nodded and asked, “Do you know what the reactions your body was going through mean?”

  Doran looked like he was about to die from embarrassment, so Terrah attempted to put him at ease and said, “I know what they mean and I was feeling them too. Remember, I passed out the first time I saw you.”

  Terrah hoped by putting herself in that position it would ease Doran’s discomfort.

  Apparently it did, because a moment later Doran sighed and said, “Now that I am aware of the natural mental barrier, and know there is no problem, I can see the symptoms more clearly. Apparently, I am exceptionally attracted to you. I would have figured it out if it had not been for the fact I could not access your memories.

  “My mind jumped to my programming being defective, and I wanted to ensure you were taken care of, even if it meant sacrificing my current self for an older version. Then when I passed out it really confused me. Before the crash, my body never had issues that were not fixed by having the ship create a new body.”

  Terrah chuckled and said, “That’s my fault as well, I should have taken it slower. My only excuse is that I’ve had a vision of the perfect man for me ever since I was a young girl, and that’s you. I even knew his name… your name. When I got back to the ship I saw you staring at me.

  “When I told you what Baelac told me, I felt sadness emanating from you and I kissed you in an attempt to make you feel better, but I lost control of myself. Next time I say we begin in bed. It will be more comfortable and less chance of gaining a head injury.”

  Doran cracked a comical looking smile, he must have figured she was trying to make him feel better again and apparently, it was working. When she said the next time they would use the bed, she could feel Doran’s excitement rise, then nerves build as his eyes shot to the bed, and back to her.

  Terrah looked at Doran and said, “I’m going to lie down and rest for a while, at least until the probes get the information we need. Would you join me?” she stood and held her hand out.

  Doran looked at her hand for a moment, he took it and she led him over to the bed.

  Terrah was looking at Doran intently. He was lying beside her flat and stiff as a board staring at the ceiling, and he looked most uncomfortable and though she fought it, Terrah lost the battle and let out a chuckle. Then she reached out to place her hand on Doran’s chest.

  The moment Terrah made contact Doran tensed up and she sighed saying, “You need to relax. Could you turn on your side and face me?”

  Doran rolled over and she tucked in a pillow to support his head. Resting back on her own pillow Terrah said, “There, isn’t that better? Now we can talk face to face while relaxing.”

  Doran sighed and closed his eyes a moment. Terrah could feel it the moment he finally relaxed. She was talking quietly, not really paying attention to what she was saying. She was taking the time to examine Doran’s features, not that she really needed to, she had seen him in her dreams, and his features were remarkably the same. He was about six-foot-four-inches tall, short jet black hair with cobalt blue eyes, a chiseled jaw, and lips that made her jut her tongue out to moisten her own.

  Doran was exactly as she had envisioned him as she grew up, and Terrah wanted so much to caress his face, but she was going to wait for him to make the next move.

  Doran re-opened his eyes and was peering so deeply into hers that she felt as though they were connected by their gaze.

  Doran smiled warmly at her. “This is much better. Would you mind if I touched your face?” he asked.

  It was more than she had hoped for a moment ago, and Terrah nodded in acceptance. She closed her eyes and she took in the sensations as Doran’s fingers slowly traced along her neck and jawline, and then they trailed across her lips. She opened her eyes and saw he was attentively staring into hers. Her tongue made a fleeting appearance as she moistened her lips again, then a moment later his lips were tenderly gliding across hers. He pressed in and she opened her mouth, and when she did, he took her lower lip in and suckled it.

  Terrah’s heart was beginning to thrash a bit and she ran her hand down the length of Doran’s body. She pulled her lip back and when he opened to reacquire it, she moved in and deepened the kiss. His hand found its way to the back of her neck and he ever so gently ran his fingers through her hair.

  Breaking the kiss Terrah looked down in amusement to find she had managed to open Doran’s shirt without him noticing. Smiling she ran her fingers across his exposed nipple, and he drew in a quick breath.

  The expressions crossing Doran’s face were delightful, and Terrah loved the sensations she was experiencing in return. She was able to feel some of his emotions through the binding disk, and those emotions spurred her own on.

  Terrah peered down where her hands had glided along his body. She noticed how uncomfortable his pants looked as his erection began making an appearance, and Terrah was getting excited.

  Terrah figured it wouldn’t hurt to shed a layer of clothing herself, and she had to chuckle inwardly at that notion because the body suit she wore was a one piece, and there was nothing beneath it. She reached up to peel it off but soon became frustrated when she was unable to find a way to remove the suit.

  Terrah closed her eyes and thought remove clothing. That didn’t work so she tried Remove Armor, but that was unsuccessful as well.

  She tried sifting through the database to locate the instructions, but there was too much information to sift through at the moment, so in desperation she held her finger up and called for help. “Eneria… could I ask you something?”

  There was a moment of silence then Eneria replied, “What can I do for you?”

  Terrah sighed and came up with a quick lie. “I wanted to take this body suit off to take an Ion shower, but I can’t figure it out. Could you tell me how it’s done?”

  Eneria chuckled a bit then said, “You can shower with it on, the Ion shower will clean you and the suit at the same time.”

  Shaking her head, Terrah figured she would have to embellish. “I was actually wanting to change into something comfortable to sleep in.” She had to stifle a laugh at that one. The body suit was so comfortable that she almost felt as if she didn’t even have it on.

  Eneria must have figured out what was up, because a moment later she said, “I understand,” then Eneria told her where to locate the information.

  Terrah thanked Eneria then closed her eyes and located the instructions, and then with a smile she opened her eyes.

  Doran had been watching and apparently listening to her, and when she opened her eyes she could see he was confused.

  “Why did you tell her that? Are you going to shower now?” Doran asked sounding a little disappointed that the kissing was over.

  Terrah grinned and told him, “I needed to know how to remove this suit, and as for the shower, I think we should get a little dirty first.” Terrah smiled then she ran her hand down Doran’s body, focusing on dematerializing the fabric. And she openly chuckled when with a start, Doran asked what had happened to his clothing.

  Looking Doran right in his mesmerizing gaze Terrah said, “The same thing that happened to mine.”

  That statement got Doran looking down at her and it took a moment to get him to re-focus on the task at hand.

  Terrah moved in for another kiss, a few minutes later she had to laugh as she realized she had worked him onto his back and she threw a leg over and straddled him.

  Terrah hadn’t be
en a monk in her forty-five years, but it had been a very long time since she found her pleasure with someone or even something that didn’t require batteries. There was no need to prolong her torment any longer; Terrah had been ready for this since she first laid eyes on Doran.

  Doran was lying there staring up at her and she brought her mouth down to his in a deep sensual kiss. She moved up and down along the length of him and with a little more forward movement she rocked backward she came to rest with him buried deep within her.

  Doran let out a moan a moment later and said, “That feels so warm.”

  Terrah could not only see it, she could feel Doran was about to lose control and tried to keep him focused. She wanted this to last a while, but she was unable to stop Doran’s release. She was about to groan in frustration when an emotional overload hit her and to her surprise, Terrah found her release as well.

  Terrah kept herself motionless as wave after wave pleasure seemed to pulse between the two of them. When Terrah was finally able to catch her breath and looked down, she noticed Doran’s eyes were opened in what she could only imagine was total astonishment.

  Terrah smiled and said, “We’ll have to work on making that last longer,” she was about to move from atop him when her body came to life once again.

  The few men she had been with in the past would have selfishly found their release and would either call it a day or have fallen asleep. But Doran was very much awake and looked in no hurry to be anywhere but here.

  Terrah bent down and kissed Doran again, and then they began the rhythmic dance Terrah’s body cried out for.

  Terrah was moving and gyrating with the pleasure their bodies were creating. The sensations coursed throughout her being and were intensifying with every movement and touch.

  The pleasure had been building for a good fifteen minutes, she could feel Doran’s excitement rising, then she would hold still, as to allow him to calm down, then she would proceed to bring him to the brink again and again. With the feelings threatening to overwhelm her, Terrah pushed past the peak this time and she cried out in pleasure as she found her release once again, and she collapsed in utter bliss.

  Terrah was lying beside Doran with her head resting on his heavily pounding chest. She was watching as little spots were dancing in front of her vision and she struggled to catch her breath.

  Doran managed to get his breath first and asked, “Did that last long enough for you?”

  Terrah had to laugh and replied, “Any longer and I would have needed the medical unit to revive me.” Then she placed a kiss on Doran’s chest.

  “That is good to know, I will have the medical unit on standby next time,” Doran stated assuredly.

  “You don’t need to— Terrah began to say.

  Doran burst out in laughter then said, “I said that in an attempt at levity, I knew you did not mean it seriously.”

  Terrah laughed and looked down. “Well I think it’s time for another round… or a shower, but I’ll leave that up to you,” Terrah said with a wink.

  Apparently, Doran was not ready for a shower quite yet, and by the end of the next round, Terrah had forgotten about the shower all together as she fell into a blissful slumber.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Terrah awoke with a smile affixed, she looked from side to side but couldn’t see Doran. She’d been told she would be able to speak in mind with the AI but hadn’t had an opportunity to do so yet, so she closed her eyes and called out to Doran in mind to see if it worked. Doran, can you hear me?

  Yes, I am up on the observation level.

  Do you want to be alone, or would you like some company? Terrah asked.

  Not at all, come up here, the sights are fascinating.

  Terrah got up from the bed and remembered she hadn’t showered yet and called out, I’ll be there in a few minutes, I just need to freshen up a bit.

  Terrah hustled to the bathroom and activated the Ion shower and with a static zap she was cleaned. Then she focused on donning her body suit. Terrah ran her hands up her body and the next moment she was back in her comfortable golden suit once again.

  Smiling at how easy that was, Terrah exited the bathroom and making it to the center of the room she ascended to the observation level.

  *****

  The room was much brighter than Terrah had remembered. With Earth glowing brightly in the background the room was almost too bright, and she asked, “How did our search for the probe go?”

  “I only just managed to locate the Probe about a minute before you called on me. For some reason, the probe was knocked out of Earth’s orbit about fifteen thousand years ago, and over time it drifted away, but it was caught in Lanna’s gravity and it is in a decaying orbit there,” Doran explained.

  Terrah was confused and asked, “Lanna? Where’s that?”

  “Lanna is the fourth planet from the star in this solar system, and it is also the original home planet of the Lantin people,” Doran said.

  “Ah, okay we call it Mars on Earth, how long will it take for us to retrieve the probe?” Terrah asked.

  Doran smiled and said, “Less than a minute, I was waiting for you to come up here so you could watch. Interplanetary travel in these ships is fast and can be enjoyable to observe. Are you ready?”

  Terrah nodded and Doran pulled her close and holding her tight he said, “Watch there,” as he pointed to the wall filled with Earth.

  Terrah was staring out at Earth one moment, the next Earth became a small dot as stars seemed to streak, then a few seconds later Terrah experienced an almost roller-coaster dropping pit in her stomach as TDS 4 came to a halt with Mars filling the display wall instead. Quite happy that Doran was holding her, Terrah sighed in pleasure saying, “Wow, now that’s a thrill ride.”

  Doran laughed and said, “You did say you enjoyed amusement rides.”

  Terrah chuckled, Doran had her on that one. “So, where is the probe?” she asked.

  Doran brought up a tracking display and said, “Right there. The ship cannot interface with the probe at the moment because it is powered down, so we will have to transport it aboard in order to retrieve the data.”

  A second later Doran said, “Alright, we have it. The probe is in Decon at the moment.”

  Terrah took Doran’s hand and transported the two of them into Decon as well.

  Doran was walking around the probe a moment later then he said, “It appears to be undamaged for the most part. Something buckled the outer casing, but the auxiliary power connector is still accessible.”

  Doran created an item, opened a panel and plugged it into a port on the side of the probe, and then a moment later there was a beep and a slight hum emanating from the probe.

  “I have interfaced with the probe and the data is being uploaded to our database. The process should only take a couple of minutes,” Doran stated.

  Terrah nodded and said, “Alright, let’s go to the control room and see what we can find.”

  Sitting at the mission prep console Terrah scanned the surface of Mars as she waited for the data to finish uploading. A bit confused Terrah asked, “Do you know what happened to Lanna to make it uninhabitable?”

  Doran slid his seat next to Terrah’s and said, “From what my first commander told me, something passed through the planet’s upper atmosphere and created a massive breach in the protective ozone layer. Necessity forced the inhabitants to re-develop spacefaring ships and seek out new planets to colonize.”

  “How many planets did the Lantin’s colonize?” Terrah asked.

  Doran chuckled and said, “The Lantin’s only went to Anukan, if you’re asking about the other survivors of Lanna, then I would say there are, or were twelve ships that colonized other planets that I know of.”

  “What’s the difference between Lantin’s and the survivors of Lanna?” Terrah asked.

  “All of the survivors of Lanna are Lannan’s, but almost all of them took on the identifiers of the city ships they escaped on. Thus, those on the city sh
ip Lantis became Lantins. Originally there had been one hundred city ships created, and a lottery system was put in place to choose who was to be saved. Of the one hundred ships, only nine were privately funded, and the owners of those vessels were allowed to choose who they let onboard.

  “All of the nine privately created ships made it to their destinations, but of the other ninety-one ships, all but three seemed to vanish and never made it to a new planet to create a new colony, at least none that we could ever find.

  Terrah thought more to herself than to Doran, Why didn’t the Lantin’s assist them with these ships.

  Doran must have heard her thought because he said, “The Lantin’s were not in command of these ships at the time, and I only know about the eleven other city ships because we happened across their civilizations in our travels.

  “Anyway, Lantis was one of the private city ships created by Atlas’s father Posidus Iapetus. The other ships that Posidus commissioned were the Asaria, Elysia, Olympus, Titus, and Valhalis, and each of those city ships was commanded by one of Posidus’s seven children. Posidus lived long enough to see his heirs launch their ships, but he refused to take a valued spot on one of the vessels that could save someone much younger than he was, and he chose to die on Lanna where his wife was buried. It was lucky for my first commander Ventus that he did, because Ventus’s father was the final person selected to escape on Lantis as a child.”

  Terrah peered down at what was left of the ruins on Lanna and wondered how it was that with Earth’s technology, that they were unable to see the few buildings that were still intact after all that time, then she considered those not lucky enough to escape on the city ships. “How many people died on Lanna?” Terrah asked.

  “Nearly the rest of the population, almost a billion people,” Doran said.

  “What do you mean nearly the rest? Did others survive?” Terrah asked.

  “Only the few thousand who made it to Terra, but the planetary conditions were so hostile and food so scarce that the majority of them eventually died off as well,” Doran explained.