“We should have entered warpdrive while we slept,” Madalena said as she rubbed soap over my chest and shoulders.
“How long will we be in warpdrive?” I asked.
“We will exit at eight forty-five,” the Prime Valkyrie replied. “My father’s forces will have either have retreated or been destroyed by now, so I will meet with my admirals as soon as we dock.”
“Do you need me to come with you?” I asked as she reached down to clean my stomach and groin.
“If you wish,” she said. “They will treat you with respect since I am submitted to you, but they will not follow your orders. The discussion will happen in our native tongue.”
“Ahh,” I said, or maybe it was a bit of a gasp because her soapy fingers wrapped around my erection.
“There are four places where I believe my father would retreat to,” she continued as she washed my thighs. “One is a tropical paradise world that our scouts discovered three years ago. It is named Nyr Valhalla. He often travels there on vacation, and it is far removed from the rest of the Nordar systems.”
“Sounds like a good place to start,” I said.
“Turn around, Adam, and I will wash your back.”
I did as she instructed and felt her hands rub along my calves. Her touch wasn’t sensual, but I felt her desire for me still, and it was exciting me again.
“What are the other places?” I asked to change the subject.
“We have two battle fortresses on the outskirts of our territory. One is named Argkaron. The other is named Malifoaron. He might go there because the troops there will not know of his betrayal.”
“Makes sense,” I said as her hands rubbed soap on my ass and lower back.
“The last is the least likely choice,” she said. “Do you recall the Magate Order slaver speaking of Jey-Lune Station?”
“Yeah,” I said as I thought about the fuckers who we’d questioned on Red Eye - 13.
“It is a large station. About ten or eleven times the size of Queen’s Hat.”
“That’s not a large station,” I chuckled. “That’s a fucking huge station. It’s like a small planet.”
“Yes,” she agreed as she rubbed the soap on my shoulders and back. “It is also a somewhat lawless station, with fiefdoms set up by various corporations and governments who agree to disagree about the rules.”
“Sounds like a flaming pile of shit,” I said.
“This is why I believe he would go there, since it would be the last place he might think I will look.” She finished rubbing soap on all my body parts, and I stepped into the flow of water to rinse.
“Will your admirals have a better idea?” I asked as I took some soap from the dispenser and motioned for her to allow me to return the washing favor.
“I will get their opinions and then decide.”
“What about your ship?” I asked.
“Dance to the Dirge?” she asked.
“Yeah. Don’t you want to find her and your crew?”
“Yes,” she answered, and then she closed her eyes and sighed while my fingers rubbed soap across her breasts and nipples.
“Do you know where they went?”
“I have been too preoccupied with you, Adam,” she whispered. “I am submitted to you. If you do not wish to find my ship or the rest of my crew, then I will not look.”
“I’d like to find them,” I said. “After your father is taken care of.”
“And you complete your rite,” she said, but her eyes were still closed and I could feel her pleasure cascading into me as I touched her.
“One problem at a time,” I said.
“Yes, Adam,” she sighed and then her mouth upturned into a half-smile. “I believe my breasts are clean. Will you rub your hands over the rest of my body?”
“Ahh, sorry,” I said. “Got a bit distracted there.”
“Our bond can cause that. Normally, when men and women are submitted, they spend a week or so as lovers because it is hard to break out of the pleasure cycle.”
“Pleasure cycle?” I asked.
“Yes, you felt my pleasure, I felt yours, and then you felt mine. Our bond is Ouroboros, where we have become one. The serpent eating its tail.”
“Yeah,” I said when I thought about last night and the passion we had just enjoyed a few minutes ago. Our bond made every caress, kiss, lick, and thrust have twice the sensation.
“It was why I wanted us to consummate our marriage,” she said as I moved my soapy hands across her washboard abs. “I told you that you will want no other lovers after me.”
“You are wrong about that, Madalena,” I said as I got more soap. “Eve and Zea aren’t going anywhere.”
“I know,” she sighed.
“You know?” I asked with surprise.
“Yes,” she replied. “I feel your love for them. You know I was jealous. Now I am less jealous.”
“You made an ultimatum yesterday. It might have not ended well for you, or Eve and Zea.”
“I was willing to take the risk,” she said. “You took risks with their lives on Queen’s Hat.”
“I don’t want to argue with you,” I said as I crouched and moved my hands over her perfectly toned legs. I should have been angrier because of her words, but part of me also knew that this was Madalena being the Prime Valkyrie. She was used to being the best and being the one giving out orders.
Now I was in charge, and she was going to have to learn how to get in line.
“I do not wish to argue either,” she said. “I will make more of an effort to befriend your women. Zea seems easy. I will compliment her often and ask for her opinion.
“Sincerity will be important,” I said. “She can smell bullshit five kilometers away.”
“As can I,” Madalena said. “I will be sincere. The engineer will also be easy; she merely wants to feel as if she belongs.”
“Everyone wants to feel like they belong.”
“True,” Madalena agreed.
“Also, her name is Paula,” I said. “You aren’t going to make friends forgetting her name.”
“I know her name,” Madalena said. “Kasta is worrisome. She is too clever.”
“All of them are clever,” I said.
“Perhaps,” Madalena said. “I will get to know them better. Paula desires you but is too timid to risk Eve’s wrath. Kasta is not worried about Eve, or me.”
“You are making too big of a deal out of it,” I said. “You, Eve, and Zea need to get along. Paula and Kasta will be fine with you if you treat them with respect and ask for their opinions. You don’t need any sort of strategy or angle to deal with them. Just be their friend. Oh, and turn around, I’m done with your front.”
Madalena pivoted so that I could wash the back of her legs, and I ran my hands up to her ass, felt her pleasure, and had to fight against the beast in my stomach. He wanted to devour her again, and her body trembled when she felt my emotions.
“How much time until we are out of warp--” I started to ask, but she was already bending over and pressing against the wall of the shower with her right hand while her left led me into her. I purred with pleasure when we were joined again, and the steam in the shower seemed to swallow us whole.
Afterward, we finished cleaning each other and hit the dryers. I’d already brushed my teeth, but I watched her brush hers, and then apply the various oils and ointments to her face and lymph nodes before she worked on brushing out her long hair.
“I will make you breakfast,” she said once she finished with her hair.
“Okay,” I said. I had been staring at her naked body, and her words broke me out of my trance.
“You will need to put your suit on,” her lips curved into a slight smile, but I could feel her pride, gratitude, and love.
“Yeah. I’ll get right on that.” I pulled her into my arms for one last kiss, and then we walked to the closet so we could put on our clothes.
“Prime Valkyrie?” Nikki’s voice came into my room through the speaker.
“Yes?” Madalena asked.
“We have ten minutes until we exit warpdrive.”
“Ahh, I lost track of time,” Madalena said as her eyes found mine.
“Let’s get the crew on the bridge,” I said.
“Did you hear the order, Nikki?”
“Yes, I will summon them,” the pilot replied, and then Madalena pressed the button to close communication on her transponder.
A moment later Nikki’s voice came across Persephone’s alert system instructing all bridge crew to their stations.
“We will have breakfast on the battle fortress instead,” the Prime Valkyrie said.
“Sounds good,” I said, and then we exited my suite and walked down the hallway to the bridge.
Lux, Milda, and Calisto exited the elevator as we walked past it, and they saluted us before they took their seats at the gunner’s stations.
Kasta and Paula were already on the bridge. Kasta sat in her seat at the end of the officer’s row, and Paula was in the copilot’s seat next to Nikki.
“Hey, Adam,” Paula said as the three women stood.
“Hey, Paula,” I said, then I turned to the blonde warrior woman standing next to her. “Greetings, Nikki.”
“Greetings, my lord.” She nodded.
“Hi, Adam,” Kasta greeted me. “Did you have a good night?” Her smirk was obvious.
“Yes,” I said as I gestured for them all to sit.
“I bet,” the android said as she gave Madalena a strained look. The Prime Valkyrie was already strapping herself into the chair next to mine, and she wasn’t paying any attention to the android.
“How many minutes?” I asked.
“Six,” Nikki replied as she turned back to her controls.
“You aren’t expecting any problems in Nordar - 13, are you?” I asked Madalena.
“No, but it is good practice to be ready to battle as soon as we exit hyper or warpdrive.”
“Agreed,” I said, and then I looked over my shoulder toward the elevator. Mikhael, Josefinna, Hegeia, Uma, and Waiola had all taken their positions at the gunner’s stations, but Eve and Zea were nowhere to be seen.
“Eve and Zea?” I asked after I hit the transponder on my suit. “You coming?”
“Sorry!” Zea said. “Be there in a few minutes.”
“We are out of warpdrive in five,” I said. “Get here quick.”
“Sorry!” she replied again, and I heard her shout something over the sound of water.
“Hrmpf,” Madalena grunted, and I turned to meet her gaze.
“This is what I was speaking of,” she whispered as she leaned into my ear.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I whispered a reply. “We gave them four minutes to get up here.”
“You’ve served on a starship before,” Madalena said. “Would your Jupiter Marines allow--”
“Look,” I interrupted her. “You said you would try to get along with them. Do you keep your word?”
“Yes,” she whispered quickly. “I apologize.”
We sat for a few minutes, and I felt the tension in my shoulders rise with each passing second. I couldn’t get mad at Zea and Eve for not being here since I had also lost track of time and would have missed our exit if Nikki had not let us know. I was going to need to change the policy so that we were all alerted at least thirty minutes before we exited warp or hyperdrive.
“A minute,” Nikki said, and I could feel Madalena trying to control her annoyance.
“Here! Sorry!” Zea said as she sprinted past the row of officer chairs and jumped into her copilot’s chair. Eve glided behind her and gave me a smile before she gracefully sat in the chair next to me.
“Good morning, my love.” The vampire smiled at me, and I felt my heart warm. “I apologize for my tardiness.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “You made it in time.”
“We should have been more prepared,” Eve said as she leaned over me a bit so Madalena would hear her speak. “It was our own fault since we knew the time when we would be exiting warpdrive. Perhaps a bit more notice would prevent us from making the mistake again?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I was just thinking that, but you know that.”
“Of course,” she replied. “Good morning, Madalena.”
“Good morning, Eve,” the Prime Valkyrie replied without looking at Eve.
“Good morning Paula, Kasta, and Nikki,” Eve said to the other women on the bridge.
“Good mor--” the twins began to say, but Nikki interrupted them.
“Ten seconds.”
“Battle stations,” I commanded.
“Yes, Captain!” came the chorus of voices behind me, and I turned to Madalena. Her eyes met mine, and a slight smile touched her lips.
“Exiting warp drive,” Nikki said, and I forced a breath out of my lungs.
Persephone’s alarm blared a few seconds after the display showed a massive space battle.
“Shit!” I growled as a carrier class starship glowed, expanded, and then melted next to us.
“Jotnar!” Madalena shouted, and Persephone’s scanners began to highlight the enemy craft in a red outline.
There were a shitload of them.
“Nikki! Dive!” I shouted, but the pilot was already pushing Persephone’s nose down to avoid a pair of bird-looking craft angling toward us. Their blue plasma blasts missed us by what was probably only fifty meters, and the sudden movement of the ship made my chest feel like someone was standing on it.
“Focus fire on the left craft!” I ordered, and the crew behind me shouted to indicate they had received the order.
“We’ve got incoming communication from the Odin Geirr!” Zea shouted over the alarm siren.
“Audio,” Madalena ordered, and the hacker nodded.
Half a moment later a man’s voice came over the bridge. I had been around these people long enough to know they seldom expressed emotion, but the calm words between Madalena and the voice from the battlefortress were a stark contrast to the elaborate moves that Nikki forced Persephone to dance.
“What is he saying?” I asked after Madalena spoke to the man for fifteen seconds in their language.
“The Jotnar attacked a day after we left the system,” she growled.
“How? Did they know about the conflict between you and your father?” I grabbed my armrest as Persephone shook, and I turned away from Madalena to see Nikki spiral between twin streams of plasma fire.
“Shields at ninety-four percent,” Paula gasped. It was hard to tell if she was gasping because of the G-forces pressing against us, or because of the trio of starships that suddenly turned into molten balls of magma.
“Fuck, please tell me those weren’t ours,” Zea gasped as Nikki spun us through the space between the blazing hot hunks of twisting metal.
“They were Jotnar,” Madalena said, and then she continued to talk to the voice coming through the bridge speaker.
“What’s the plan?” I asked her after another ten seconds of Nikki trying to shake the twin ships on our tail.
“They have two supercarriers at heading 342.58, -356.03,” Madalena said. “They are staying out of range of our greater cannons and must be dealt with. Then the Jotnar will probably retreat.”
“Shit.” I felt my head spin and my heart shudder. Supercarriers were massive warships capable of carrying thousands of drones and fighters. They weren’t nearly as large as Madalena’s battlefortress, but they’d be at least a kilometer long.
“Do you want to attack them?” Zea gasped as Nikki spun, banked, and then pulled Persephone’s nose up to avoid another stream of plasma fire.
“Yes,” Madalena said. “We have exited behind their lines, and have a few precious minutes to focus fire, or distract them while the rest of our armada pushes through their lines.”
“That sounds fucking crazy!” Zea shouted, but then Persephone rocked again, and her face turned white.
“Two Jotnar cruisers are down,” I heard Lux announce
from behind me.
“Good job!” I shouted as I stared at the part of the screen that had our rear visual. There were two more Jotnar birds behind us, but I saw one of our plasma shots connected with the wing of one, and then a long red plasma beam hit the other wing a moment after. The enemy craft’s shields seemed to seize with electric sparks, and its hull began to turn a bright color.
“Nikki, begin to angle toward the supercarriers,” Madalena instructed.
“Yes, Prime Valkyrie,” the blonde pilot said as she pulled Persephone around to the right. In the far distance, I could see the two carriers. Part of the bottom left screen zoomed in on them, and I saw that they looked like massive space caterpillars.
And they were surrounded by hundreds of drones.
They were also escorted by eight other ships, and Persephone’s scanners began to feed the information down the side of the display screen.
Supercarrier: ICE FIST
Manufactured by: Jotnar Overlord Clan. Nordar - 18 - f
Branding: Jotnar Overlord Clan Navy. King Banal Jotnar.
Hyperdrive: Jotnar Twin-paired sequencer. 40 hours to 1 light year.
Warpdrive: Jotnar Magnetic hue. 0.5 light years per hour for 2 hours. 100 hour charge time.
Foldingdrive: No
Length: 1,050 meters
Estimated Crew: 980
Estimated fighter craft: 600
Estimated drone payload: 1,100
Heavy plasma cannons: 200
Light plasma guns: 200
Laser arrays: 200
Supercarrier: ICE HAMMER
Manufactured by: Jotnar Overlord Clan. Nordar - 18 - f
Branding: Jotnar Overlord Clan Navy. King Banal Jotnar.
Hyperdrive: Jotnar Twin-paired sequencer - a. 38 hours to 1 light year.
Warpdrive: Jotnar Magnetic hue. 0.8 light years per hour for 2 hours. 100 hour charge time.
Foldingdrive: No
Length: 1,250 meters
Estimated Crew: 1,120
Estimated fighter craft: 650
Estimated drone payload: 1,200
Heavy plasma cannons: 260
Light plasma guns: 210
Laser arrays: 100
I blinked as the scanners began to feed us the data on the supercarrier’s escorts. The other eight ships were all heavy cruiser class and were each equipped with at least thirty heavy plasma cannons.
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