Valishnu Rising

by Chogan Swan

  The sound of Amber’s inner thighs rubbing back and forth across her ears, buffered her hearing, and the pounding between her legs vibrated her entire body. But she felt the fire when Kest’s seed splashed against the end of her bagua and the burn as his coronal ridge pulled the fire back across her already sensitized nerves. More molten fluid gushed into her, and she screamed into the fork of Amber’s legs as they clamped around her head.

  Inside the growing storm, she fell to a place where she shook with delicious waves of heat and melted into the chorus of flames.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  What she knew was that she couldn’t let go. Voices, almost obscured by the sound of a distant drum, seemed to come from far away.

  “Amber, I can’t move. It’s like I’m caught in a vise, and it won’t get any softer until she stops squeezing me like that. Also, I’m worried about her. Do you think she’s in any danger?”

  “I don’t think so. I remember something like this happening with Tiana and Jonah once. I solved it with a bucket of ice water. But Tiana’s only problem with it was she didn’t want to be out of control for an extended period. I’m not going to worry about this. Besides, her tongue is still moving in there, so I’m not ready to move on anyway.”

  “Look, Mestre, I’m serious. HumanaH says it’s an emergency meeting.”

  “Caly, even if I could move, I wouldn’t until you leave anyway. They’re called private parts for a reason.”

  “Hey! I was knocking for a long time. And you realize you can’t make me leave without getting up and coming over here, right?”

  “This is your fault for not locking the door, Amber.”

  “Kest, there are times you just have to decide what’s really important. Now, what’s it going to be? The fate of the world, or having an extra-long afterglow with your co-wives?”

  “Do I really need to choose what’s more important if I have no way to change things without self-emasculation?”

  “I would say choosing is even more important under those conditions. Excuse me. I think I’m about to experience another mind-expanding event.”

  The voices faded as the sound of the drum grew more urgent. A warm trembling pressure increased on her head and tongue as the world began to rock. A delicious pounding at her core blended with the drumming, and she was suddenly aware that she was the one in control of the pounding as she pulled her locked ankles to her in time to the sensation.

  I must be sleep walking … sleep fucking.

  But at the moment, the events between her legs seemed more important than leaving the dreamstate. The throbbing inside continued rising until she crested and rode down another long wave of orgasm, no longer fiery, but still entirely satisfying.

  At the end, she relaxed as her lucid mind pulled her into the waking world. She unlocked her springheels from Kest’s hips, and her legs fell to the mattress. She released the gripping muscles in her bagua, and Kest’s knot popped free.

  His body slid down her legs. The thump of his knees hitting the floor coincided with Amber’s weight falling forward and following him. Ayleana opened her eyes to see Amber’s ass and legs disappearing below the edge of the bed, and Calypso, eyes wide, staring at what must be a pileup on the floor.

  “Wow! That’s not the same equipment I saw through the hole in the boy’s shower when we were in high school,” Calypso said. “What happened to you?”

  Kest’s voice drifted up from the floor. “Well, Caly, sometimes you have to make adjustments when you get married, and sometimes that can get complicated.”

  “Can I touch it?”

  “No,” said Kest. The bed rocked as he staggered to his feet. “I’m going to take a shower. Maybe after that I’ll go to the emergency meeting.” He turned and limped to the bathroom.

  “Aren’t you going to help me up?” said Amber.

  “No. Just lay there and get some rest. I need to work through the emotional trauma of you two ambushing me.”

  “You know you loved it. What’s the problem anyway? Did you forget the safe word?”

  “There was a safe word?”

  “Well, ‘let me go’ would probably have worked if you’d used it in time.”

  “Right. Silly of me.”

  The door closed behind him.

  Caly covered her mouth, and Ayleana smiled. But it was Amber’s giggle that set them all to laughing.

  CHAPTER 35 – DEPLOYMENT

  From where she sat in the co-pilot seat of the Leonardo AW189 chopper, Una could look out the overhead window and watch the stars through the blur of the whirling overhead rotor. The moon was only a sliver of light in the clear desert sky, so the view of the cosmos was stunning. As they neared Puerto Peñasco, the lights of the city and the port began steadily encroaching on the view, fading the stars into a blur.

  Grateful the chopper’s engine and rotors were on the quiet side, she closed her eyes for a few minutes and let sleep take her. She woke again when the chopper began its descent to the Nii Embassy landing pad. Her time sense told her it was shortly after 1900 hours.

  Since she’d been here before, the embassy walls had been built higher and thicker—now they were reinforced with an interior wedge of sandbags. Looking down at the grounds, Una spotted the OH-58 Scout Tiana used to commute to Mexico City parked at the corner of the landing pad, leaving room for Bartlett to land their larger bird—with her fifteen passengers and crew of two.

  Una turned her head to scan the passenger section in time to see all fifteen of the Rodriguez sisters yawn, stretch and rub sleep from their eyes, moving together like synchronized swimmers. She turned to Bartlett see if he’d seen the event too, but he was busy shutting down the chopper’s systems.

  He’d been even quieter and more preoccupied than usual ever since picking them up. When they’d stopped at Sun Sea Farm to get the rest of the sisters, he’d excused himself to go visit one of his buddies rather than eat with them. Marian and Marlee had showed up, however, and the ensuing celebration had pushed away Una’s irritation at his reserve … until now.

  She opened the door, jumped to the ground then opened the sliding passenger door. Grabbing her backpack from the storage slot while the girls were stilling getting their things together.

  Tiana had declined to brief Una over the radio on what it was that had caused her to recall them to the embassy. Instead, she’d told her to get some rest when she arrived and scheduled a time to meet with her at dawn. The whining electric motor of a forklift approaching from the embassy grew louder. “Let’s go everyone,” Una said. “It’s time to de-chopper so the ground crew can unload the groceries.”

  “De-chopper? Is that really a word?” said Aphrodite.

  Una winked at her and held out a hand to Alabastra to help her down the step, not that she needed it, but she knew the girls still liked it when she picked them up and tossed them on their way a bit. “Well, if deplane and debark can be words then sure it is. Now move your tuckusae everyone.”

  “So many new words to research,” said Alabastra on her way to the ground.

  Una breathed deep, enjoying the salty breeze from the bay as she continued tossing girls toward the embassy entrance. With the chopper de-girled, she followed her team up the sidewalk and through the side entrance. Two marines, Native Americans wearing the Nii Federation uniform with body armor and P-90 bullpups, saluted her smartly as she passed. “Good evening, gentlemen,” she said, passing through the heavy revolving door.

  Tiana had decided to keep her Earth Embassy headquarters in Puerto Peñasco, remodeling a small seaside luxury hotel, instead of relocating to Geneva to be near the European United Nations. Twenty-four countries had already appointed ambassadors to the Nii Federation. A number of them had simply inserted another ambassador into their Mexico City facilities, but some had leased property nearby, bringing an added boost to Puerto Peñasco’s real estate and business sector.

  Una continued following her bevy. At the head of the column, the rapid-fire voice of the unsinkable Ir
ene Velasquez, Tiana’s major domo, drifted back through the hallway as she gave the girls room assignments. It was clear who was in control, even of a group of girls who were all carrying chest-holstered Glock 43s.

  Finished with getting the girls settled, Irene turned to Una. “Buenas noches, Una.” She handed Una a keycard. “La habitación 6 esta para ti.”

  “Gracias, Irene. Buenas Noches.” Una stepped through the door of room six, where she’d stayed in the past when at the embassy. She’d spent her first night on a real bed here and had her first female orgasm … if you didn’t count the one’s lodged in her inherited memories. She tossed her backpack onto the table and opened the bulletproof sliding door to the balcony.

  The soft sound of the waves on the sandy beach lulled her. She sat on the patio chair and propped her springheels on the railing. The embassy’s new pier stretched out into the bay like a spindly finger pointing to the cutter and patrol boats anchored in deeper water. The little fleet didn’t look like a threatening presence, but they offered the added protection of sensor systems above and below the water that no other navy in the world could touch combined with self-guided torpedo and surface-to-air missile capability should the need arise.

  When the sound of Bartlett’s voice speaking with a man she didn’t know outside the embassy walls registered on her awareness. Una followed his progress. The man walking with him was doing most of the talking and keeping his voice intentionally low.

  Of course, that made Una pay closer attention.

  “So, Bartlett, glad to see you again. Thanks for returning my call. I gotta say, it’s comforting to know a man of honor like you is working for the aliens. It makes me feel like maybe they aren’t the threat some people are claiming they represent. But what’s with the girl-child soldiers you flew in here tonight? Did your ET girlfriend pick that recruiting tactic by spending time in fucking Uganda, or is that the way things roll in the new world order? Weren’t they, like nine-years-old? It makes it look like maybe as long as it’s human kids in the line of fire, they don’t give a shit?”

  How did he see who was on the chopper? … And how does he know to refer to me as ‘your girlfriend’?

  Bartlett didn’t reply right away. Then … “Roscoe, I need to go report in quick. You can come inside the gate with me, but you’ll have to hang out in the yard with the guards for a few minutes until I get back. Then we can go have that beer.”

  “How about we meet at the bar in an hour?”

  “I’ll call you when I’m on my way.”

  “That’ll do,” Roscoe said. His footsteps headed away.

  Una vaulted the balcony railing and dropped to the ground. She triangulated on the sound of Roscoe’s footfalls as he walked back along the wall the way he’d come. She dashed across the compound on an intercept course, cutting behind Bartlett who strode toward the door oblivious of her passing. Ten meters from the wall, she launched, hurtling over the coiled razor wire on top and clearing it by a satisfactory margin.

  She’d aimed high, knowing the ten meters next to the fence should be clear and offer her a place to land clean. She landed directly in front of Roscoe, her kilt flapping around her waist. “Roscoe,” she called, stepping forward to disguise her standing tackle and bite as a hug in case someone or some camera was watching. She had to assume he’d be wearing a microphone.

  “Come with me,” she said. “I know Charles will want to see you. How long has it been anyway?” She put her arm through his and walked him back toward the gate, pulling him along while his feet followed automatically.

  “Just a minute ago,” Roscoe said.

  The compound …. already working.

  He would be chatty now if she asked him a question. She’d need to wait until she could check him for bugs before asking him anything. He might say something inconvenient and tip off his handler.

  Una laughed. “Well come on. I want to catch up with you too.” She turned the corner of the compound and hustled him up to the gate. “He’s with me,” she said, and the guards fell back out of her way.

  She pulled Roscoe with her into the empty guard shelter by the gate, deployed her folding kukri knife and began slicing away his clothes. A few seconds later, when he was completely naked, she turned and pointed to the handheld scanner one of the guards had attached to his belt. The guard hurried over and scanned the pile of clothes while Una held Roscoe’s chin between her fingers and pried open his mouth. The guard’s scanner beeped several times.

  The guard running the scanner deposited Roscoe’s cell phone and shoes as well as all the scraps Una had made of Roscoe’s clothes into a heavy lockbox by the wall. If the security team had followed ShwydH’s recommendations, the box would be lined with lead and contain an active jamming device. A roll of paper towels stood on the work stand, and Una crumpled two of them into a wad and shoved them past Roscoe’s teeth, wedging his jaws apart. Many human spies hid suicide capsules in a false tooth. Though to make that work, they had to be able to bite it. She ran her fingers through Roscoe’s hair, feeling for bugs. The guard closed and latched the box then started scanning Roscoe from head to toe. The scanner beeped, and Una used her knife to remove the subdermal tracking chip on the back of his head. By the time she had it out, the guard had found another.

  By the time Una was satisfied Roscoe had been debugged, she could hear and smell Bartlett approaching at speed.

  She took one of the guard’s big umbrellas from a hook and stuck it out the door, deploying it with the button on the handle. Taking Roscoe by the elbow again, she strolled out of the guard shelter and up the walkway to the embassy’s revolving doors. Bartlett, standing on the walkway, red-faced and breathing hard, stepped out of her path then followed.

  As Una chivvied Roscoe through the door, Tiana appeared in the foyer and beckoned with a jerk of her chin for Una to follow. Just around the corner, Tiana walked through an open door. Una paused at the entrance and turned her head. “Charles, I’d like a few minutes with my branch-sister,” she said and closed the door behind her.

  The room was familiar from ShwydH’s memories. He’d designed it for interrogation. Una pulled Roscoe to the fixed table and pushed him gently into the only chair. She stepped back and regarded Tiana in silence for a moment. “Are you going to tell me about the problem that I now have standing outside this door or shall we just move on to the one in the chair here?” she said in HumanaH and Tiana’s dialect of nii. ShwydH could imitate HumanaH’s accent perfectly, so Una wasn’t too concerned that Tiana might hear anything odd in Una’s speech patterns.

  “That depends on the one in the chair,” Tiana said.

  “He won’t remember anything he hears. I don’t know how important or time sensitive it is to hear what he has to say. But that’s only because you’ve left me out of the loop. I’d like to think it’s a minor issue, because otherwise I might be disappointed in your decisions. I’m already disappointed in his.” She jerked her chin to where Bartlett still waited outside.”

  “Might be?”

  “Yes, I suppose there is a slight chance that you didn’t tell him to keep me in the dark about this.” She pointed to Roscoe. “Or that this has nothing to do with the ongoing investigation of Alice that Charles was read in on. And that someone from his past just showed up now without you being aware of it. But something has been going on with Charles for some time that I haven’t confronted him about … yet. So … tell me.”

  “I didn’t order Charles to keep quiet about it.”

  Una kept her eyes on Tiana, dipping into the icy calm that ShwydH knew how to maintain for over four centians.

  … and waited.

  She may not have ordered him, but she did something. He’s loyal to her, not me.

  Young Riniana Tiana whimpered. What happened to me? I turned into a real asshole.

  Infantry scout Tiana lifted her chin in agreement. A flaming officer-level asshole ….

  ShwydH stirred, rolling to the surface. She has to be ruthless. She’s a po
litician now. We need her in order to win the war. Don’t kill her.

  Una laughed. Throwing her head back, she laughed again, letting it roll out of her as despair fought for a piece of her heart. “Meet the new boss,” she said, laughing even harder. “We have met the enemy, and she was us.”

  Still laughing, she bowed low, sweeping her arm across her body then she walked to the door. Finding it locked. She put both hands on the knob and braced her tail on the floor. With both feet on either side of the knob, she ripped the lock assembly out of the metal door, letting it fly across the room to smash into the wall and clatter to the tile. She yanked on the door and it flew open to crash into the wall. The noise it made as it ripped from its hinges and clattered across the room amused her even more.