HeVan & Earth

by Lucy Kelly

  Sarah went through another twenty files. Josephine was beginning to wonder why she was sharing all this with her. It made sense that she’d tell her about what they had done for other women, but she was sharing too much information. Josephine would be able to track these women, and the whole idea was to keep them hidden.

  “Why are you giving me such detailed information?” she asked, taking the bull by the horns.

  “When we discovered you were an FBI agent, we knew we could trust you with this. Obviously, since we don’t want to be raided, it behooved us to share,” Sarah simply stated.

  Josephine tried to laugh it off, “FBI agent! I wish. I’m just an out-of-work waitress,” she said.

  Sarah responded by bringing up a file on the computer with Josephine’s name on it. They had all her information—the real information—including her sister’s.

  “It wasn’t hard for Becky to find the original police report of your car accident. Some more searching netted her a video of the car chase, which had been posted to social media by a witness. Between the two of us, you’d have to do a lot better to get a cover to be believed. You know my background; Becky is ex-CIA. She spent years making deep covers for agents; she didn’t have a problem breaking yours. You can consider us the WITSEC for abused women. I think you’ll find your cell phone no longer works and we’ve removed your weapon from your luggage. There’s no cell signal here, anyway.”

  Sarah could see the anger and frustration on Josephine’s face. She pushed the phone across the desk.

  “Here, why don’t you call your boss? I’ll give you the coordinates; he’ll have to come in via jet copter or small plane. We want to cooperate with the authorities. It’s just that it’s imperative this location remain secret. We have good security, but we don’t need the abusers finding us.”

  Josephine fought it for a moment and then gave up. Her cover was blown. Reaching for the phone, she called her boss on his direct line.

  “This is Mike,” he answered.

  “I’ve got some bad news and some good news, boss. Bad news is my cover was blown almost from the first. Good news is these guys haven’t kidnapped the missing women and sold them into sexual slavery. You’ve been invited to pay them a visit,” she said.

  “The hell you say!” he exclaimed. “Damn! Well, this explains a few things. We haven’t been able to dig up anything on this Becky Anderson you texted about.”

  “She’s ex-CIA, boss. Her sister is Sarah Kline, the programmer of the “Finder” software. We never had a chance, boss; they’ve got some serious tech,” she explained.

  “How sure are you there’s no criminal activity going on?” he asked.

  “From what I’ve seen, these are the good guys. As I stated before, you have an open invitation. In fact, there’s a jet copter waiting for you at the downtown heliport to bring you here for a visit,” she said, reading a message Sarah had quickly typed on the computer screen.

  “I think I will. I’ll need a couple of hours to take care of a few things here, and then I’ll head over to the heliport. We’ll have a long talk when I get there as to why these women didn’t set up their operation within proper channels,” he said before hanging up.

  Josephine hung up the phone and looked over at Sarah. “What happens now?”

  “Now, we head over to the clinic and the doc will tape up those ribs. I can see you’re still having some discomfort. Then I’ll give you the full tour. When you’re ready, I’ll tell you more about your heritage. Because of that birthmark, you’re one of us.”

  As the two women got up and left the room, Sarah looked over at Josephine.

  “Tell me, what kind of psychic power do you have?”

  Chapter Five

  HeVan…

  It had taken three days to question all the inhabitants of the House Celestia. Grace found she could ensure each person answered all her questions truthfully if she used her power. She had to be careful not to influence them, and she tired easily. Now they were getting ready to leave and continue the investigation. On their way to the Seraphian region, they were stopping at the border to see Councilman Hend. He was the one who supposedly sent the explosive case of Brandy onto Malpha’s shuttle.

  Councilwoman Tulia had reluctantly offered them rooms in her house while they were there. Grace was really happy she was able to turn the woman down. She discovered Addie wasn’t the only one who could teleport. She had Addie set up a teleportation room at the palace, a place that would always be empty. She had found out about the gift when she wished she could take Branca to see Addie, where she could be kept safe until the situation was resolved.

  When she discovered the new talent, she began teleporting herself and her Ankida home each night. The difference in time zones meant she wasn’t exactly sleeping during the night, but Jett was keeping them all on schedule. Now they were going to say their goodbyes to the councilwoman and take the transport they had left outside her house to their next destination.

  Grace walked down the hall to the great room where Lady Tulia held court.

  “Lady Tulia, I have completed my interviewing with the members of your house. We will be traveling to Seraphian next. You will be informed when I’m ready to make my judgment in this case.”

  “Where is Branca?” she demanded.

  “Do not worry, she is safe with the Nam-Nin. I judged it best to keep her sequestered for a time,” Grace said.

  The woman’s tone turned wheedling. “You don’t understand, Lady Grace. Branca’s health has never been good. She doesn’t like to be separated from me or from her people. She is well cared for here; we understand her needs. I would hate to make this a Council matter. Keeping a daughter from her mother is a crime on HeVan.”

  Grace was amazed at the woman’s temerity. She was a foul creature. Unfortunately, she could not render judgment until she had spoken to all parties.

  “I will take your words under advisement. Fortunately, your daughter is of age so I am not in violation of the law in having her away from her home for a visit to the queen. When I left her this morning, she was happily playing with my own daughters. Being around the babies is very healing. I’m sure you’ll agree,” she said smoothly.

  Boxed in, Lady Tulia had to backtrack. As they took their leave, she was all smarmy and unctuous. Grace was glad to be out of her company. The four of them got in their transport and started down the road. After they left the grounds immediately surrounding the building, Jett would convert from road to air.

  “How long is the flying time again?” she asked.

  “It’s just a little over two hours,” answered Jett.

  Grace looked around at the countryside, they were driving through fields of some kind of vegetable. She hadn’t been on the planet long enough to recognize crops. With all the knowledge she had crammed in her head from using the nano-patches, she had not learned anything about farming. She could quote any law, current or ancient, but she couldn’t tell a flower from a turnip. It bothered her a little, she made a mental note to learn things not connected with the law. She would want to share this world with her daughters.

  Her attention left the fields and she turned back to look at her Ankida, as Jett sped up and launched the transport into the air. They remained in a steep climb until they leveled off at the correct altitude. It was similar to the feeling she got in a regular airplane leaving the runway, only different. But then, she’d never flown in a fancy private jet, just commercial, and this transport wasn’t commercial. It was comparable to a limo on steroids, with wings. The other thing she liked about the transports on HeVan was you could get up and walk around; even the ones that never left the ground were geared for long distances and passenger freedom. The driver didn’t even need to remain in the pilot chair. After the destination had been coded in and the flight plan locked into planetary air and ground control, the system kept them on course and prevented any collisions. Sensors on the transport itself continually monitored the surroundings and fed information back
into the system.

  Jett turned his chair around to face the group. “Nothing to do for another two hours, when I’ll take over again for landing,” he said, giving Grace a smile. His smile made her nervous.

  “What?” she asked.

  “When we were on Earth, I heard of something called ‘The Mile High Club’. It sounded intriguing,” he explained.

  Grace gave her Ankida a grin, “Oh, really? Are you three applying for membership?”

  All three of them nodded their heads enthusiastically.

  “Just remember, the application process can be quite…rigorous. I hope you’re all up for it,” she said as she began to remove her clothing.

  Jalen plucked her out of her seat and helped her remove her clothes. Justyn pulled a blanket out of a panel and laid it out on the floor, as Jett folded and stowed three of the four seats. Grace was amazed at their coordination; they had definitely planned this out.

  “It’s been too long since I had a taste of your sweet cream,” said Jalen as he knelt between Grace’s spread out legs. She was already dripping when he began licking her crease.

  Justyn ran his hands over her breasts. They were so much larger now, filled with milk for their daughters. Her areolas were larger and darker and her nipples stood up, begging for his attention. He lay on the floor next to her and took one in his mouth, nipping, and suckling. Jett joined him, taking the other breast.

  Grace was amazed her breasts always knew when they were being stimulated for sex or for nourishment. At least the guys had never said anything about getting a mouthful of milk. As always, when her Ankida lavished her with attention, her body heated and her erogenous zones prepared her for maximum enjoyment. Her drive for sex had increased since having the babies too. She was about to suggest they all stop what they were doing and fuck her already, when she hit her first peak. The sensation built so fast, she had trouble catching her breath.

  “Inside me—I need you all inside me now!” she shouted as they continued to tease her.

  “Does this mean we get to join the club?” Justyn asked, lifting his head. He lay down beside her and the others were already turning her so she rested above him and could take him in.

  What club? She’d already forgotten about the joke in her passion.

  “Hurry,” she said, swallowing. Her throat was already adjusting, her secondary breathing passage opening. Her voice was lower and rougher. Reaching out, she took Jett’s cock in her hand, pulling him closer so she could take him in her mouth.

  Jalen had guided her onto Justyn and now he tested her back hole to see if she were ready there as well.

  Suddenly, the transport bucked. They all went tumbling, and the alarms sounded.

  “Engine is off-line. Attempting to start emergency secondary engine. Stabilizers at seventy percent,” the computer said.

  The transport had gone into a dive, and the computer’s attempts to stabilize were tossing the passengers around like a fist shaking dice. Bracing his feet and grabbing onto a door handle, Justyn reached out with his other hand and pulled Grace into his body. The blanket was tangled up around his legs, and Jett was trying to move it out of his way so he could get into the command chair. Jalen had hit his head, knocked unconscious as his body continued to tumble with the motion of the transport.

  “Stabilizers at forty percent, twenty seconds until terminal velocity. Unable to change trajectory to avoid populated area, self-destruct in fifteen seconds. All passengers must eject before self-destruct,” the computer said.

  “How do we eject?” Grace asked urgently.

  “We have to put on the emergency ejection suits. They have built-in parafoils,” Justyn said.

  “Bring it on,” she shouted.

  The computer was counting down to twelve seconds.

  “There’s not enough time,” he said, holding her through another shake and role of the transport.

  “Jett, do something,” she cried.

  He had worked his way into the command chair. They were down to eight seconds. Jalen was hung up on one of the seats, which had popped out of its stowed position.

  “I’m trying…got it!” he said, and the transport leveled off.

  “Oh, thank God!” she said. Justyn shared a look with his brother. They knew this was only a temporary reprieve.

  “The emergency power has only bought us another ten seconds. After that, we’ll be in free-fall until the self-destruct,” he said.

  “I can teleport us, hurry up,” she said.

  Desperate, she wished they were back at the palace in their bed. She felt the momentary feeling of otherness, a disassociation with her body and mind. Blinking her eyes, she saw she was lying in her bed, still wrapped in Justyn’s arms. Looking beside her, she saw Jett. She sat up. “Jalen!”

  She tried to jump up. “Let go of me, Justyn!” she yelled as she pounded him with her fists.

  “He’s gone, honey, you did the best you could,” he said, holding tight.

  She didn’t bother trying to fight him, he was too strong for her. She closed her eyes and concentrated on Jalen, wishing she could touch him. Between one blink and the next, she was back in the transport. For a split second, she was suspended in air and then gravity took over, and she fell against the bulkhead. She grabbed hold of Jalen’s arm, her body hanging free. He was jammed between two of the seats they had stowed along one side. The transport was diving toward the planet’s surface and the computer was counting down from five. She was trying to teleport both of them back. It was difficult; she had used up a lot of her energy. The impact with the bulkhead made it harder to concentrate. Her vision blurred for a moment.

  “Jalen! Help me! We have to concentrate, I need you,” she shouted. She closed her eyes; she was so tired.

  Think about Justyn and Jett, about all of us being together.

  Then she blacked out. Three…two…one…the explosion rocked the sky.

  *****

  Addie was in the main throne room greeting citizens. The Nam-Nin had returned and many made the pilgrimage to see her in person. While some had definite business with the royal court, most just wanted to make sure she was real. Addie tried to spend several hours each day greeting people. She had told Granny Mac she understood what the department store Santas went through at Christmas. Long lines of visitors, all of them wanting just a few brief words, to be acknowledged. The only difference, she joked, was they didn’t sit on her lap!

  She said goodbye to a warrior and glanced up to see how many more were waiting. Her guards had quickly caught on to the general number of people she could meet before needing a break. They only allowed in small groups for the sake of security. By the third day, they started an appointment book to reduce the crowds with each citizen needing to arrive within a half hour of their appointment time.

  As she greeted the next in line, she suddenly heard babies crying in her head. She instinctively knew they were her own daughters and were in distress. Before she could get up, Aelwen teleported to her lap. Addie ignored the gasps coming from the Nephilim in the room who witnessed her arrival. Addie whipped her arms up and around the baby before Aelwen could roll off her lap and fall. As she did, she and baby disappeared altogether.

  Chapter Six

  Earth…

  Josephine put off answering Sarah’s question about her gifts. She’d never told anyone of her special abilities. They were her secret. The only people with whom she had shared this information were her family because her mother and sisters all had gifts too.

  Aimeé was a veterinarian; her career was decided at a young age when she realized she could communicate with animals. Depending on the species, she got everything from emotion and feelings, up to simple words. A domesticated dog could have the vocabulary of a toddler.

  Josephine didn’t know why she was thinking of her next youngest sister just then; she just knew she needed to contact her. Out here in the boonies, her cell phone didn’t work. She had a feeling of urgency. She hurriedly pulled on her parka and r
an out the door of her bedroom, pulling her mittens on as she went. She ran all the way to the main lodge. She knew there was a phone in the room Sarah used for her orientation. Since she and Angela were the only newcomers, the room should be unoccupied.

  She zipped through the front door and stepped down the hall to the left. She was relieved to find the door unlocked. Rushing inside, she went straight to the desk and picked up the phone. She got a dial tone immediately, so she quickly called her sister’s cell, praying she would answer the unfamiliar number.

  “Come on, come on, pick up!” she muttered into the receiver.

  Josephine didn’t want to think of why her sister wasn’t answering. Hanging up, she dialed her sister’s vet clinic. It was the middle of a Monday; the clinic would be in operation. Aimeé was probably with a patient. Josephine started to worry when the clinic phone went unanswered too. After ten rings, the answering machine picked up. When the beep came on, she left a message.

  “This message is for Doctor Aimeé—Josephine calling. I’m calling from the road so if you see an unusual number on your cell, pick up. It’s urgent we speak; please wait for my call.”

  Hanging up again, she was about to call her parents, when the door behind her opened. Sarah and her Ankida were crowded in the doorway.

  “Josephine? Is there a problem?” Sarah asked.

  “I can’t reach my sister. I got the feeling I have to get in touch with her right away,” Josephine explained.

  She was happy when Sarah didn’t question her about it. Sarah went around, sat at the desk, and started booting up the computer.

  “Do you have her cell number and cell provider?” she asked.

  Josephine responded by quickly providing the information.

  “It’s frustrating. I hate snow, but I felt I had to move to Chicago. My entire family was considering moving too, but it was harder for them. Their businesses are all on the west coast. Then a few months ago, the urge to move kind of went away. Now I’m the only one here and they’re all in San Diego, except for Aimeé. She lives in San Francisco. She has a vet clinic near the zoo. When she’s not taking care of people’s pets, she’s on-call at the zoo.”