“We just wait then?” the android asked. “Gonna get so bored.”
“She said ten minutes. Also, I’ll take bored over playing chicken with a supercruiser,” Zea said.
“Agreed.” Paula nodded. “Here comes Milda.”
We turned to face the Vaish woman. I had only a passing relationship with her, and couldn’t recollect having an actual conversation with her. Like most of the Vaish, she was tall, beautiful, and had an athletic body. She wore her strawberry blonde hair a bit shorter than Zea’s, and I could see the corner of an intricate knot tattoo poking out of the collar of her uniform.
“The Prime Valkyrie would like me to escort you to our spas,” she said without smiling.
“Great,” I said.
“She asked that you arm yourselves first.” Milda pointed in the direction of our armory.
“Why?” Paula asked.
“The Prime Valkyrie is concerned about her father’s followers.”
“What does that mean?” Zea asked. “Why didn’t she say anything to us a few minutes ago when she was on the bridge?”
“She spoke with her general on the way to see her admirals.” Milda shrugged. “I do not believe it is a major concern, but she does not want Adam to be unarmed, and we will meet with an escort once we leave Persephone.”
“Maybe we should just stay on board,” I said.
“No,” Milda said as she shook her head. “The Prime Valkyrie wishes you to relax. I can see how the request for you to bring your weapons has raised your guard, but you do not need to feel concern for your safety. Think of it as wearing a seatbelt when you are in a vehicle.”
“Fuck it,” Kasta laughed. “I’d rather we were allowed to carry our guns anyways. Let’s grab them and go. I want to see Adam naked.”
“What makes you think you are going to see Adam naked?” Paula groaned.
“It’s a Viking spa!” the android exclaimed. “There will be hot steaming waterfalls, forests, one of those cornucopia baskets filled with food, beautiful women with their hair done in braided pigtails, muscular men with big beards, mead, and a tasteful orgy.”
“Tasteful orgy?” her sister asked.
“Yes.” The android nodded.
“I don’t even want to know what you mean by ‘tasteful.’ Also, what is wrong with you?” Paula covered her face with her hands.
“I dunno, you made me.” Kasta shrugged and then wiggled her eyebrows at me while we all walked to the armory. “What do you think, Adam?”
“You’re actually right about the waterfalls, forests, and food,” I said with a chuckle.
“What about the orgy?” She grinned.
“Let’s just grab our sidearms,” I said, and we walked back to our armory. The women all grabbed pistols, and I strapped my trusty chrome revolver to my chest and checked to make sure I had plenty of speed loaders in my ammo pouch. We were out of the armory half a minute later, and I noticed that the women walked with a bit of a quicker pace. Even Eve seemed excited to go to this spa, and she gave me a small smile as we descended the ramp and came out in the massive Vaish harbor.
Queen’s Hat was meant to be a bit of R&R, but it was cut short. We all need some time to relax together as a crew.
I nodded in agreement and held out my arm so she could wrap her fingers around my bicep.
I apologize for being late. Zea and I were up most of the night discussing our relationship.
I nodded again and hoped the blonde hacker was feeling a bit better about Madalena.
She is, it will still take some time for both of us. Madalena will need to get to know us better as well. You need to speak to Zea alone and reassure her of your love for her. She was terrified of the idea of marriage, but it was more fear of the word. She does want to spend the rest of her life with you and me.
Paula, Kasta, and Zea were walking ahead of us and were whispering to each other as they pointed at the crazy amount of air traffic inside of the harbor. I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but Kasta suddenly smacked Zea’s ass, and the hacker burst out laughing.
We have all come to love each other. I’m sure Madalena will fit in. After last night, her love for you has grown dramatically. She is more open to the idea of being equals with Zea and me. I believe it will work, eventually. She wants to make you happy more than she wants to prove she is better than us.
I nodded again and thought about how insignificant the problem with my love life was in the grand scheme of our mission. We were engaged in a war with a super-powered vampire race that could easily destroy all life in the galaxy. Worrying about keeping the women in my life happy seemed like a misuse of my attention.
You are both correct and incorrect, my love. Yes, we should be focusing on the SAVO, but what good is life if not for love? They seek to destroy all life and all that loves. They feed off terror and death. We fight by loving each other. It is quite possible we will all die when we finally fight them, but that doesn’t mean we should deny ourselves the pleasure of love and lust. I spent too long isolated in a tube, and you spent too long with a control collar on. Let us love as much as we can. Let it fill us to the brim and then we can ask for more. That is the way we should live. Not in fear, but in love.
Our eyes met, and I felt my emotions threaten to overwhelm me. My love for Eve caused my throat to constrict, and I had to blink a few times before I cleared my throat. She knew my thoughts, and her smile grew larger. I never thought it possible to love someone as much as I loved her. And I never would have thought I could have felt this way about more than one woman.
A group of heavily armored guards drove up in a hovercraft, and my right hand strayed to the grip of the revolver on my chest. Milda didn’t seem uneasy with their presence, and she gestured for us all to get on the craft with them.
Moments later we were seated and speeding across the floor of the massive harbor, and my friends were occupied by the beehive of activity around us. I had been the same way during my first trip here, but Eve’s conversation reminded me of our upcoming battle and I began to think about the future.
How many SAVO would come to Uraniel? What would happen when we fought them? I knew that acquiring the cooperation of all the Nordar tribes would raise our chances of success, but how powerful were these vampire fuckers? Did they all have ships like Persephone? Did they have more powerful ships?
My thoughts grew a bit darker when I considered what we knew about this race of powerful beings. We knew almost nothing besides that they fed on terror and death. They drank blood but didn’t really seem to need it to survive. There was evidence these other tiger-men were working for them, but I didn’t know anything about the relationship. I hadn’t talked to Madalena much about them either, so I got the impression she might not know more about our enemies.
My thoughts turned to the image Persephone had shown me on the holographic map of the three planets stuck between the two red stars. If I had to guess, that was the homeworld of these fuckers or at least a place where they were. Should I take the battle to them before they got to Uraniel? A surprise attack might give us an advantage, but it would take us a long ass time to get all the way to the other side of the Milky Way.
One step at a time, my love. First, we should deal with Madalena’s father. She is grateful you have decided to pursue him. She feels remorse that she had a moment of weakness and allowed him to escape.
I exhaled and gave her another smile. Then I turned my attention to the ships that Zea, Kasta, and Paula were pointing at and let my worries slide away for a time. Eve was right, we all did need a bit of a break, and I was looking forward to sitting in a spring full of hot water with my beautiful friends.
We soon drove out of the harbor, and then transferred to another hover vehicle which we drove through the city-like interior of the battlefortress. My friends continued to point and gasp at the architecture, and I could see a bit of pride showing on Milda’s face.
“Maybe you could tell us a bit more about the battlefortress
,” I asked her, and my friends turned to the strawberry blonde warrior woman.
“Of course,” she replied and then she dived into a long tour guide style explanation of how the fortress was built, its structure, and various military capabilities. The latter subject was what Milda focused on the most, and it became apparent that the Vaish woman was well suited to her military role.
We eventually arrived at the glass and crystal castle where I’d first met Madalena’s father. My friends were just as amazed by the architecture as I had been, and Milda explained that the glass was actually a highly polished metal with embedded display screens. The screens were kind of like a cloaking device, and they could make the castle appear or disappear easily by showing the appropriate images.
“It is not much of a defensive tactic because an invading military would soon figure out the castle is here,” she explained. “However, it might buy half a minute of time, and it could make the difference in battle.”
“The Nordar seem well versed in combat,” Paula observed.
“Most humans are,” Milda said.
“I suppose so,” the engineer sighed. “This is a work of art, though, and I saw many beautiful buildings on the way here. Your people do create beautiful things.”
“Of course,” the Vaish woman said, and then she gestured for us to exit the hovercraft when it parked in front of the castle.
The guards followed us inside of the reflective building, and we were soon led into a waiting room which looked similar to the one Madalena and I once spent a few hours inside. There was no stuffed uiun-bair in this room though, but a pleasant fire lived in the hearth, and the tables were filled with meats, fruit, wines, and ice water.
“I will have them prepare massages and baths,” Milda said. “Would you all prefer to bathe together or separately?”
“Together?” Paula asked.
“Yes,” Milda said with a nod. “We have larger hot spring pools where men and women often bathe together.”
“Will there be other people there?” Zea asked with concern.
“No, just you five, if you wish. Or you can each have your own private bath, or we can give Adam his own and you four can be together.”
“I don’t mind seeing Adam naked,” Kasta said with a large grin.
“Uhh, I’m--”
“Come on, Sis!” Kasta interrupted Paula. “Stop being such a stick in the mud. It’s just a big pool of water. Not like we are all going to be sitting on each other’s lap.” The android smiled at me, and I took it to mean that she intended to try to sit on my lap.
“I am fine with us all bathing together,” Eve said.
“Of course, you are,” Zea laughed.
“Are you okay with us?” Paula asked.
“I heard massages, and I’m kind of focused on that. I’ve never had one before.” Zea’s blue eyes looked dreamy. “Adam’s a big boy. I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to be jumping his bones in front of us.
“Oh, no!” Paula exclaimed as her face turned red. “I would never--”
“So it’s settled!” Kasta said, and then she turned to Milda. “One bath for all of us.”
“No one asked for my opinion,” I said.
“You gonna turn down a bath with four beautiful women?” Kasta raised her eyebrow at me. “We already know what your opinion is.” My friends all laughed, but I was a bit surprised Zea was okay with all of this. Eve had mentioned that she wouldn’t mind bringing the twins into our bed, but I knew Zea wasn’t interested.
“I’ll return when it is ready,” Milda said to us with a nod. “Please eat and rest until I return. The guards are posted outside in the hallway, please do not leave.”
The Vaish woman pivoted and marched out of the room. The five of us turned to smile at each other, and then we made our way over to the food and plush leather chairs.
“Ahhh! I could get used to this!” Zea said after she poured us each a glass of wine, stacked a roll of bread with sliced meats, and collapsed into one of the chairs.
“They certainly do know how to treat guests,” Eve said as she sipped some of the wine and nibbled on a pear.
“Massage and bath? Can I go through the rites with you two so I can become Adam’s wife and live the Nordar life?” Kasta laughed and then took a big bite of a sandwich.
“Madalena has considered the rite for Zea and me,” Eve said, and we all turned toward her. “At first, she planned on making it moderately difficult, but her opinion of us has changed, and now she is leaning toward having us accompany Adam through the rest of his rite. It will make it easier since we will all be together.”
“But what about the hanging?” Paula asked.
“No, she does not wish for us to hang.” Eve smiled.
“But she wants her husband to? Ha. Women.” Kasta raised her wine glass, let out another short laugh and then drank half the liquid.
We spend the next half an hour eating, drinking, and chatting about the last few days. Milda returned after enough time had passed for relaxation to set in, and we followed her down a long hallway and into a chamber that I recognized as the place where Madalena’s mother and her two assistants prepared me for my rite.
“Ha! I was right about the trees!” Kasta said as she gestured to the foliage coming out of the metal ground. The sight made the other women gasp with amazement, but then they gasped again when they saw the beautiful waterfall.
There were five tables set around the water, and a pair of Vaish women stood beside each table. There was also another table loaded with more food, wine, water, and a trio of white-robed women played on string instruments a few dozen meters from the edge of the pool.
“They will massage and attend to your needs,” Milda said as she gestured to the robed women standing beside the massage tables.
“They have braided pigtails!” Kasta hissed. “Soooo cute! Can they braid my hair like that?”
“Of course, they will do whatever you wish. Just ask.” Milda actually smiled.
“Whatever I wish?” Kasta asked.
“Don’t get any ideas, Sis,” Paula said.
“I always have ideas.”
The ten women walked toward us, and I recognized Nilda and Fiuna. They both reached me first, gave me wide smiles, and led me back to their table. Once we were there, they both whispered to each other as they began removing my suit.
“Uhh, should I wear a robe or something?” I asked as I looked around at my friends. They were letting the Nordar women take off their suits, though, so I just decided to roll with it.
A few moments later I was lying face down on the table, and the two women were whispering with each other while they massaged my back. All ten of the women were speaking to each other in hushed whispers, and Kasta started laughing.
“Ohhhh my,” the android said.
“What’s wrong?” Zea asked.
“Oh nothing,” Kasta giggled.
“Sis, come on,” Paula said. “No secrets.”
“These girlies don’t know I speak their language and they don’t really speak English. They are saying the most delicious things about Adam. Especially the ones rubbing him down. Ha! If I could blush, I would be. Eve has to know what they are thinking.”
“Yes,” the vampire said. “I am amused.”
“You should let them know,” Paula said. “It’s not nice to eavesdrop.”
“Awww, you are no fun,” Kasta said. “Hey Adam, do you like the way they do their hair?”
“Uhhh, yeah. It’s fine,” I said.
“Good, I’ll ask them to give us all the Nordar woman look.”
“My hair’s not really long enough to--”
“They can do little braids. I’ll ask them to make it look cute,” Kasta interrupted Zea, and then she started speaking to the women that were massaging us.
Nilda and Fiuna’s hands paused when the android started talking, and then they all started giggling a few seconds after Kasta answered one of their questions.
“What did you
say?” Zea asked.
“Ohhhh, nothing,” Kasta replied, but the women were all giggling now, and they whispered to each other in excited voices.
“Kasta,” Paula moaned.
“I told them we wanted them to do our hair,” the android said, but Eve was giggling from her table beside me, and I’d never heard the vampire woman laugh so hard.
“Eve?” Zea asked, and I heard her move on the table beside me. Nilda and Fiuna had stopped rubbing my back, and they were both howling with laughter.
“She…” Eve started to say, but she couldn’t speak because she was gasping for breath.
“For fuck’s sake, what did you say?” I asked Kasta as I raised my head out of the face hole in the table.
“I asked if they could braid our hair. They said ‘yes’ and then asked ‘Everyone?’ and I said ‘you’ll have to massage Adam for another year before his hair is long enough to braid, but sure.’ Honestly, I don’t think it’s that funny, but they went kind of crazy.”
“In their minds, it was one of the funniest jokes they have heard,” Eve explained after she laughed for a few moments. “They are quite stoic, and you struck their humor perfectly.”
I let out a laugh and then lowered my face back into the table. The women stopped giggling after another minute or two, and then they went back to massaging us. Kasta continued to speak to them, and each time she talked, the group of ten women exploded into giggles.
“I think I could live here forever, these women laugh at pretty much everything I say,” Kasta said after she’d caused them to laugh for the tenth time. “I’m drunk with power, or they just have a fit of the giggles now.”
“You are very entertaining,” Zea said.
Nilda and Fiuna worked on my back for what felt like another half an hour, and then they motioned for me to turn over so I was face up. I hesitated because I was naked, but Nilda held up a towel and gestured that she would cover my groin with it, so I followed their instructions.
My friends were on their backs now, but the women massaging them hadn’t covered up their breasts, so I kept my eyes on the ceiling to avoid accidentally catching a glimpse of Kasta or Paula.
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