Urusei Yatsura Fan Fiction ❯ The Senior Year ❯ Marcia's Story ( Chapter 66 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

"Leave that to me!"

Marcia looks up as the voice faintly echoes through the walls of
their containment chamber. It was a voice with an odd accent, but it wasn't
the clicks or chirps the monsters that had doomed her. A faint glimmer of the
frail angel called Hope surges from deep within her still-human soul...but it
is dashed down by the snarling creature within her, feeding on her, slowly
building its energies into breaking itself loose.

A *crash!!* is heard as something smashes through the wall. Marcia
rises, trying not to trip over the other women here, then notices a glimmer of
light shining through the growing hole in the wall. The creatures normally
entered this way, burrowing a hole, then filling it in behind them...but they
weren't so loud when they did it. Who was coming?

The noise stops, then that woman's voice breathes out in
satisfaction. "There. That should be big enough for us."

"Let's go in." That was a man, Vosian by accent, sounding like he
was in charge of whoever had come to see them.

Who was crazy enough to come INTO a hive?

Footsteps. Three people. "Hello?" the Vosian ventures into the
dark, barely heard.

Marcia shudders. A dozen possibilities race through her mind. The
ones now with them were also impregnated. They were escapees of an insane
asylum choosing to die in the most grotesque way possible just for the
thrills. Or...they were from somewhere that had learned how to overcome the
beast now growing inside Marcia and her friends. Hope shines brighter than
ever, but the monster within seems to laugh, knowing it wouldn't be denied.

"I know there are people in this room," the Vosian declares. "We
mean you no harm."

Then the woman. "We're here to rescue a friend of ours from the
Lannarkites!"

Nearby, several of the captives/hosts mutter. Marcia blinks, trying
not to laugh. Rescue someone FROM the bugs?! Fat chance of that happening!
Then a light turns on. Marcia blinks as her eyes adjust, then she notices
the visitors. The Vosian was a tall man, in a blue uniform with white
cygnet...a rebel against the Mikado...brown hair, moustache and beard. His
kill-belt was knotted so many times, Marcia wondered how old he was. Beside
him was a rather plain-looking man with long brown hair, moustache and beard,
now with infrared goggles over his eyes. The woman was also ordinary, also
with brown hair. Both wore armoured skinsuits obviously to protect themselves
from the monsters that lived within this giant hive.

Seeing that no one had volunteered to speak, Marcia sighs as she
approaches them. "W-who are you?" she stammers, keeping herself on guard in
case the worst could happen.

"My name is Nassur of Home Base," the Vosian smiles, then waves to
his companions. "These are my friends, Ataru Moroboshi of Sagussa and Shinobu
Miyaki of Earth."

Marcia blinks. Nassur was a legend among a dozen races in the local
cluster, including her native Fukunokami. Hope swells anew in her breast as
she notes the two Terrans. Ataru was also well-known though the name
"Sagussa" confused her; wasn't he from Earth? Most on Fukunokami these days
admired him for his willingness to protect Earth from Uru and Ipraedos, not
to mention his destroying the Masters of Noukiios some months ago.

"Who are you?" Nassur then asks.

Marcia freezes. Who am I?

"My name..." she blurts out, looking away from him as she tries to
fight back her tears, "...is...WAS...Marcia Gyatan."

She wouldn't be that for long.

"I was from Fukunokami."

"Why are you referring to yourself in past tense?"

Marcia gazes sadly at Ataru. His eyes, as chocolate as his hair,
seemed wide with genuine concern. Despite his past reputation as a skirt-
chasing idiot, one couldn't deny his overwhelming love for women. "Because
everyone in this room is condemned to die a horrible death!" her voice is full
of ashes.

Ataru and Shinobu exchange curious looks. "We are cursed!" Tawn
Lightstorm wails from a corner. "Leave us be!"

Marcia shudders, tears brimming her dull blue eyes. Tawn, a brown-
haired woman from the Zephyrite colony of Yoinsu, had been the emotional rod
everyone turned to. "You can't help us," Karc, a woman who said she hailed
from a place called Nyoogranj'sha, shudders. "We're BEYOND your help!"

Hope was fast fading as Marcia hears the hoarse laughter...or was it
her imagination? ...of the monster within her. The Terrans wouldn't
understand but Nassur could. "Please," she gently seizes his jacket, her
self-control disintegrating. "You must put us out of our misery soon.
Should THEY hatch, we'll die horribly!"

The hunter's eyes widen with grim understanding as Marcia sobs into
his jacket. Sighing, he draws his pistol, then backing away, aims at her
forehead. "This will only take a moment," Nassur regretfully nods. "For
whatever it's worth...I'm sorry."

Nassur begins to pull the trigger...but the hot flash of a full-power
particle shot doesn't come. Marcia's eyes open in surprise as she sees Ataru
belting the hunter with a giant wooden mallet. "Don't do it!"

"Are you out of your mind, Ataru?!" Nassur demands. "This IS the
only way to help anyone impregnated with a Lannarkite egg!"

Marcia looks at Ataru. A serene look crosses his face. "No. I know
a better way!"

Was he blind? Couldn't he see what would soon happen to them?
"There can be no other way!" Marcia shudders. "Once impregnated, the egg
cannot be removed without killing the host! I don't want this THING within me
to take my life! I'd rather DIE first!"

All the other girls voice their agreement to Marcia's demand. "But,
ladies," Ataru gazes warmly at them, his hand rising. "I can show you an
alternative."

The women gape in shock as the hand begins to glow with a blinding
radiance akin to those who had seen Bensaiten's Grave in a near-death
experience. Even stranger, Ataru's eyes glowed with that same luminescence.
Marcia had heard he now possessed the ability to transformed into an armoured
cyborg; that was what he used to kill the Masters. As the Cyborg, Ataru was
said to be able to perform miracles. Would this be one?

Hope burned brightly now.

"***I have the power to make sure that egg will NEVER become an
insectoid Lannarkite,***" Ataru smiles at her.

"What's happening to him?" Shinobu gasps.

"I have no idea," Nassur blinks. "That voice doesn't sound like the
Cyborg."

Marcia shudders. Within her, the egg, sensing the power bleeding
from Ataru, urged her to flee, protect it from the creature who had stated he
would spare them and destroy the unborn Lannarkites within.

"What's wrong with your hand?!" she gulps, backing away.

Ataru fixes her with a stare, smiling...as if he knew what the
creature within her was trying to do. "***Don't worry. Only the evil within
you shall be harmed.***"

His hand touches her stomach...

...and Marcia Gyatan dies.

* * *

Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year: "Marcia's Story"
by Fred Herriot
**** **** ****
Edited by E.B. Kushnir
**** **** ****
A story based on the series in turn based on "Urusei Yatsura," created by
Rumiko Takahashi
**** **** ****

WRITER'S NOTES: The teaser is a repetition of Marcia's transformation scene
in the last part of "Nassur's Story." The main part of the story stretches
from "Be Forever Nassur" to a month prior to "Shinobu: Warrior Princess of
Kyotos." Any scenes taken from "Nassur's Story" or "Be Forever Nassur" were
originally written by Mike, but the narrative is mine.

**** **** ****

Three hours later.

Marcia surveys the destruction around her. It was strange looking
out of a sea of eyes instead of the twinned lenses of normal humans, but her
new sight gave her nearly 270 degrees of clear vision. That had saved her a
few times in the hectic two hours or so between her rebirth and when the hive
had been brought down around the monsters who had used them as host bodies for
newborn Lannarkites.

Who am I?

She gazes at her hands. They were still humanoid, though the
musculature was more pronounced. The skin colour had changed too, from the
pale pink of Fukunokami to a ruddy chestnut, dotted with black and gold spots
akin to the markings of the sunmoths she had seen in the forests around
Bensaikyou. Her whole body was that way now, though she hadn't taken the time
to locate a mirror and survey the extent of her transformation.

What am I?

She couldn't complain. The sentience of the egg within her was gone,
obliterated by the power Ataru called on to save her soul. The minute
squeaks from deep within her just stopped at one moment, like someone
shutting off a CD player. The transformation had not been painful, but...it
was as if her body had been shed from her, then moulded like silly-putty into
its new form.

Am I Marcia?

Wiping the dust from her, Marcia looks around. This had been the
impregnation chamber, the place where not three weeks before, her old life
effectively ended. The carcass of the hive queen and several of her breeders
lay on the floor, parts shattered by gunshot or mashed by falling masonry.
Also there was a pool of red blood. Ataru's blood.

Marcia blinks, feeling tears in her eyes, as the horrid scene of
Ataru being impaled by the hive queen replays in her mind. She could still
cry? Walking over, she kneels beside the pool. At least two litres were
lost. Average humanoids had five to six litres in their bloodstream. She
hoped someone aboard Nassur's ship had his blood type.

"...help me..."

Marcia looks around. Her eyes focus on a raised table nearby, the
same one where she...

"Oh, shit!!"

Moving over, she throws off two fallen beams, then gapes on seeing a
frail Vosian girl there, her eyes blankly staring into space. Her abdomen was
exposed, the precision cut the hive queen made in her belly now slowly
healing. Damn, too late...or was it? Walking over, she smiles. "Are you
okay?"

The girl blinks, then she turns to confusedly gaze on the woman now
standing beside her. "Who...are you...?"

"I'm Marcia. Relax. It's all over. What's your name?"

"I'm...Nenba...what...are you...?"

Marcia sighs. She had given up hope before Ataru transformed her.
Nenba deserved the chance. "I was like you. Impregnated with an egg. But
someone...helped me."

"You...you're not human..."

"I don't know what I am anymore," Marcia bites her lips...then stops.
She had lips? "According to Ataru...he's the one who did this to me...what
you see now...is what a Lannarkite's SUPPOSED to be like. Not that," she
thumbs the slain hive queen.

Nenba looks, then taking a deep breath, slowly rises. She was quite
cute in her own way, with shaggy brown hair and hazel eyes, just starting to
grow out in the right places. If this hadn't've happened to her, someone
might consider her quite a catch. Keep her hopes up. Don't panic her.
"Then...can I be saved? Can Ataru remove the egg from me...?"

"No," Marcia frowns. She had lips? "If the egg could be removed,
I'm sure Ataru would've done it. The only thing that can be done is...for you
to become like me...or else that," she nods to one of the breeders in
emphasis. "Nothing else."

Nenba blinks. She then smiles. "Well, I...can think of worse things
to happen..."

Both laugh, then Marcia draws her into an embrace. "Good. Don't
give up hope, Nenba-chan. I did and I nearly died for it. You can't give up,
either. Promise me you won't?"

"I promise," Nenba nods.

Movement. Marcia tenses, then turns to see someone with dark raven
hair walk into the room. "Is that you, Miryoku?"

The former Ipraedies, a *Dowe'on* underpriestess who had been one of
the first to be impregnated by this hive, is no longer the portly twenty-year
old everyone else knew. Her green skin was still there, though it was
splotched with silver diamonds and half-moons. The bony ridges over her
crystal eyes were Noukiite in a way, though the tips of the protrusions stuck
through her now centre-parted hair. Strategic muscles on the arms and legs
were augmented with hard bone shields, giving her a vaguely ankylosaur look.
Like Marcia, Miryoku isn't dressed in tattered rags but in a toga-like robe
with short skirt. "It's me," she smiles, her face still quite human despite
the very alien eyes and the skin decoration. "Are you alright, Marcia?"

"I'm fine, but this one isn't," Marcia indicates Nenba. "We didn't
come in time."

Miryoku gazes at the Vosian. "Forgive us for being so late to spare
you, little one."

"Marcia said I can be like you," Nenba asserts, pointing at the ex-
Fukunokami.

"Aye...if Ataru doesn't die on us first," Miryoku indicates the pool
of dried blood on the floor nearby. "That queen wasn't the least bit
courteous to him."

"He'll be fine," Marcia sighs. "From what I heard, he's taken
everything up to a starship shooting at him and come out of it without a
scratch. He'll be okay."

"I hope so," Miryoku bites her lips. Marcia blinks on seeing the
teeth, which was still white and square like most humanoids. Was this REALLY
what Lannarkites were like who knew how long ago?

More movement. Both turn to see a tawny-skinned woman with gold and
black markings, including a vaguely phoenix-like spot on her cheeks. "Tawn?!
How is everyone?!" Marcia relaxes on sensing who this woman once was.

"We're all alive and well save for the odd scratch," Tawn smiles.
"Whatever else you can say of these new bodies, they're built to take an
unbelievable amount of punishment. The rest of us are in a commune space some
metres that way," she points down a corridor. "Who's this?" she then nods to
Nenba.

Marcia does the introductions, then the four women head out of the
impregnation chamber. "Okay, as soon as we check out everyone, let's wait
until Nassur is done with Ataru before deciding what to do with ourselves,"
the ex-Fukunokami sighs. "Moreover, we have to find some way to prevent
Nenba from transforming too soon or else she'll wind up a bug. We better
find some food, too; I don't think we can stomach whatever these bugs liked
to eat."

"Good point," Tawn nods...

* * *

A half-hour later, a small campfire had been built using the torn
clothes from several warrior-drones. Sitting around it, the thirty humanoid
Lannarkites and their untransformed friend relax. Several were, much to
Marcia's surprise, eating the torn limbs from the slain warriors, commenting
on the tolerable flavour. Marcia then looks up to see Takau Renning walk up,
a leg in hand. "You want some, Marcia?"

Marcia nods, taking the offered leg, then sniffing it...she had a
nose?...takes a bite. The flavour, reminding her of a landshark, makes her
mouth water, then she digs in. "Damn, this is good!" she smiles, then feels
her empty stomach rumble. "Shit, I guess I do need something to eat! Thanks,
Takau-chan."

Takau smiles as she relaxes nearby. "But Nenba needs food, too,"
Tawn calls out. "I doubt she could eat any of these things."

"There were those nutrient packs back where we were held," Karc
muses. "I think that could tide her over for a while."

"I'll go fetch some right now," Miryoku stands, walking out.

The others snicker. "What's so funny?" Nenba blinks, turning to
Marcia.

"Don't mind her," Marcia winks. She had eyelids? "Miryoku had some
pounds on her before she changed. All through the fight, she complained that
she was so skinny, her grandma wouldn't recognize her..."

Marcia stops, looking down on herself, gazing at the alien
hands...her hands...now holding the half-eaten leg. Home. Her home was
Fukunokami, with a small family, friends and everything else. Could she go
home now, looking like this?

"We can't go home," Takau whimpers.

Marcia looks up. The others were staring at themselves, seeing the
changes that had overcome them. They weren't Fukunokami or Oni or Zephyrite
or Ipraedies or Nyoogranj'sha.

They were...Lannarkite.

Lannarkite!

"We can't go home," Marcia tosses the leg away, then buries her face,
sobbing.

"Hey, everyone!!!" Miryoku hails.

The others turn as the ex-Ipraedies runs in. "What is it, Miryoku?"
Tawn stands.

"You're not going to believe what I saw!" she points into the
corridor. "C'mon!"

The others rise, following Miryoku out of the commune space, down a
shattered corridor, then leaping down several floors, stopping by a chamber
close to where they had been held prisoner. A miasmic odour seems to escape
the room as the group peeks in.

"What was in here?" Marcia wonders.

Shuffling noises echo from inside. Marcia blinks as her eyes adjust
to the darkness, the sensitivity in her many lenses pitching into infra-red
mode. Sure enough, there were about two dozen humanoid shapes in there.
"Someone get a lamp! Quick!!" she barks before heading inside. "Hello?"

The beings inside seem to shy away from her. In a minute, Tawn steps
inside, hand holding an emergency lantern that had been found on one of the
ships the hive captured. Turning it on, she flashes it to those inside, then
gapes. "Ram and Atar...!"

Now laid out on the floor are a group of humanoid Lannarkites. To
their surprise, all appear male, without the enormous breasts that their
group had almost as a birthright. Marcia does a quick count. Thirty-nine.
However, her infra-red sight had revealed a count of twenty-three. "Turn it
off."

Tawn shuts off the light. Marcia looks.

Twenty-three.

Twenty-three...alive.

"Bensaiten have mercy..."

* * *

"Eat," Marcia urges.

The male blinks, then his mouth feebly gnaws at the flesh. Marcia
looks around the commune space. The living males had been shifted upstairs to
keep them warm; their dungeon had been surpassingly cold...as if it was the
chamber of the condemned. But why?

He then gazes at her, smiling. "You...very beautiful..."

"Thank you," she feels her cheeks heat. Could she blush? "Do you
have a name?"

"No...no name. Host...name...J'jou."

Marcia blinks. She knew Lannarkite prisoners were segregated by
gender, but she didn't remember someone by that name...unless? J'jou? Her
eyes widen. "Jojou?!"

He nods. "Yes...name...J'jou..."

Marcia gasps, tears in her eyes. Tawn walks over. "What is it?
What's wrong?!"

Marcia shakes her head, the horror of it all sinking on her with the
weight of a mountain. "This...this is...my brother..."

Tawn blinks, then stares at the frail being before them. Her eyes
narrow, then with a sad sigh, she closes J'jou's eyes. "I'm sorry, Marcia,"
she looks down.

That snaps her. "No!!!" she leaps up, then flees. "NO!!!!"

"Marcia!!!" Miryoku screams out...

* * *

Marcia runs through corridors littered with shattered concrete and
mangled bodies, screaming as images of her past life, her happy home and
family, replay again and again. Finally, she reaches a relatively undamaged
part of the hive, then slows down, gasping for air as she sinks to her knees.
Everything, gone! Gone!! Why had this happened to her? Would it have been
better to...?

No!

Anything was better than THAT happening!!

Taking several deep breaths, Marcia relaxes, staring at a gaping hole
in the ceiling. The hive was actually quite airy despite the lack of light;
the corridors were built for the more massive insectoid Lannarkites, including
the queen, which to Marcia the day she was impregnated, looked as large as a
hoverbus. Well, that one had paid for what she did, not to mention who knew
how many breeders, warriors, drones and Heaven knew what else was in this
place...not to mention her, her friends and...

Other humanoid Lannarkites?

Drying her face, Marcia rises. The hive was large, the whole
structure roughly ten kilometres wide by three high, built in a
triad-building format. Who knew HOW many of the damn bugs lived here. Best
estimates from earlier encounters of operational hives stated that the
population could range from 10,000 to TEN MILLION Lannarkites. Marcia hoped,
prayed that the population before Nassur's and Ataru's arrival was on the low
side and that the orbital bombardment got them all.

Oh, Jojou...

<<Who there?>>

Marcia jolts, then looks down the hallway as the sounds of something
shuffling toward her tickle her ears. Rising, she blinks on seeing that it is
a slender drone, about her height, now staring curiously at her. Unlike
warriors, who were impossibly muscular like Goliath beetles, the drones were
mantises in their leanness. Further, drones weren't born to be aggressive.
The creature stops, then gazes at her. <<How you leave cage?>> its pincers
framing its mouth click in that maddening alien language of theirs, though the
words do seem to echo true in her mind.

She shrugs. "I escaped with the others. I...was just transformed.
Who are you?"

The drone shuffles towards her, then extends its tongue to dance over
her skin. Marcia titters as the assault surprises her. <<I healer drone.
Yes, you bear hive queen markings. You hive queen daughter, yes?>>

"I...I wouldn't know," Marcia blinks. "I...my mind is still that of
the woman I was...before the queen impregnated me."

The healer drone stares at her, clearly surprised. <<Not thing like
that happen before. Other late hatchlings same, yes?>>

"Yes. I'm Marcia. Do you have a name?"

<<No name,>> the drone clicks. <<What happened to hive? Did fur-
skins attack?>>

Fur-skins. Mammalian humanoids like Vosians, Terrans...and
Fukunokami. "Yes. Most of the central part of the hive's wrecked. I, the
other late hatchlings and some male humanoids escaped. We found the
males...in a cold room..." she looks down.

<<Friend in group, yes?>>

"My brother..."

A slender arm strokes her cheek, stemming her tears. <<Mourn with
you. Sorrow for loss. Do all males live no more?>>

"No...about twenty are still alive..."

<<Good, good. Life still there, hope still there. Brother now in
Black Hive, but others now need new nest. Nest you and other females must
provide. Come, come. There more "mutants" this way. Come, come.>>

She hears the sarcasm in one word. "'Mutants?!' Is that what you
call us?"

The two head to a large chamber. <<What most sick kin call normal
kin. 'Sick kin' like me, not able to bear hatchlings through own body.
'Normal kin' are you, who can have hatchlings through own body.>>

Marcia blinks, remembering what Ataru said. "So why do sick kin call
us 'mutants?' Don't they know we're what Lannarkites're supposed to be?"

<<No, few know. Only healer drones like me and few queens who
listen. Queen here was thick as rock. She breathe no more, yes?>>

"Oh, yes!" Marcia hisses.

The drone chatters in delighted laughter. It then parts a thick
woolen shawl. <<Enter, M'cia. See other normal kin.>>

Marcia ducks in, then blinks. Now in the room were almost fifty
females, dressed in shaggy woolen shawls. Reasonably well fed, they all gaze
at the newcomer with confusion, then one emerges, her eyes wide. "Mama!!"

Marcia gasps as the girl nearly shatters her spine with a fierce
hug. "H-hey...!"

"Oh, Mama come take K'chi away, yes?! We be family, yes?!" the girl
sobs happily as she buries her face in Marcia's chest.

"Hey, hey, hey, hold off here a sec'!!" Marcia shoves her off. "What
makes you think I'm your mother?! I ain't got no kids!!"

K'chi sniffs. "Mama hate K'chi..."

Guilt rears up her spine as the girl collapses, wailing. Marcia then
notices that K'chi has the same types of markings she has. Same skin colour,
same general build. Biting her lips, she turns to the drone. "Why does she
think I'm her mother? Doesn't she realize where she comes from?!"

<<She no know better; rock-head queen no let me teach different.
M'cia and K'chi have same tribe marking. K'chi only think M'cia her mother.
Other hatchlings here same,>> the drone makes a waving motion with its claw.

Marcia looks at the others. Sure enough, save for some difference in
hair style and slender bodies probably due to malnutrition, K'chi's friends
could be doubles of all her friends back in the commune room. Sighing, she
kneels before the sobbing girl. "K'chi?"

K'chi stares at her, her cheeks still damp. "Yes, Mama?"

"Mama very sorry. Mama loves K'chi."

Crying out, the girl fiercely embraces her. Marcia smiles, then
looks at the drone. "Why were the boys separated?"

<<Hives female-led. Female normal kin given more respect than male.
Male normal kin seen as useless, thought weaker than warriors, workers or
drones. Female normal kin respected as if they were queens and breeders, like
sick kin queens and breeders. Allowed to live with dignity, yes?>>

Matriarchy, Marcia nods understandingly. The only good thing males
were useful for in most insectoid societies were the guardians of the hive
(warriors), the builders (workers) and the servants/slaves (drones). "Then
you're male?" she blinks.

<<No,>> it shakes its head. <<Sick kin healer drone cannot bear
hatchlings.>>

"What about normal kin?"

<<Normal kin female.>>

"Okay," Marcia nods, smiling at it, HER, as she turns back to the
very happy K'chi. "We better get these kids over to meet their kin. I hope
Ataru's okay..."

* * *

In "Renegade's" sickbay, Ataru Moroboshi shudders as his body
convulses from the hideous trauma it just underwent an hour before. The
scantily-clad Emergency Medical Hologram monitors him as Shinobu drapes a
blanket over Lum. "Well, that's over with," the pale Terran sighs. "What do
we do now?"

"We watch zem to avoid shock," the nurse reports, then blinks. "Zut
alors! Ataru's heartbeat, it is picking up speed!!"

"What's wrong?!" Shinobu demands...

...before Ataru's eyes snap open, both orbs glowing!

* * *

Marcia watches as the other children intermingle with their new
"mothers." Their chattering was understandable, as was their blatant naivete.
While born physically as full adults, these other hatchlings had the mentality
of babies. They had no real idea what they had to go through to get to this
point. Gestated as an egg in a queen's or breeder's body, then after
fertilization by a warrior or worker, impregnated in a host for the incubation
period. Once hatched and discovered to be "mutants," they were isolated
without being told why, with only the good offices of the healer drone to
protect them from a dark fate like their brothers.

Suddenly, the fire warming them increases in intensity until it melts
into human form...a familiar one! "Ataru!!!" Tawn gapes.

***NO,*** the being within the flames intones, now draped in the
crinole-trimmed black skinsuit and phoenix-embossed shawl of post-Clone Rights
War Sagussa. ***YOU MAY ADDRESS ME AS ATAR, SPIRIT-KIN TO THE FIRST FATHER OF
THE FIFTH REPUBLIC OF SAGUSSA, ATARU MOROBOSHI. DUE TO HIS INJURIES, HE IS
MENTALLY UNABLE TO FINISH THE WORK HE STARTED HERE. I HAVE COME IN HIS
STEAD.***

"Atar...?!" Tawn pales, then shrieking, drops to her knees, turning
away from the image of one of Zephyrus' holiest icons.

***DO NOT DO THAT, TAWN LIGHTSTORM,*** Atar smiles bemusedly.
***THOUGH I NOW RESIDE WITHIN THE* TE'A, *I AM STILL THE MORTAL THAT FREED MY
BELOVED RAM FROM THE TOMOBIKI OF OLD. IN THE MEANTIME, THERE ARE TWO AMONGST
YOU WHO ARE STILL SEPARATE FROM THE COMMUNE YOU NOW SEEK TO FORM. YOU ARE
ONE, NENBA.***

A bolt of energy lashes out to snare Nenba, shredding her skin as her
body morphs from a fourteen year old Vosian girl to a Lannarkite with pale
skin trimmed in black and red. Seeing her, two girls scream out in joy as
they embrace her. "Mama!!!"

Atar smiles, then turns to the healer drone. ***NOW FOR THE I'SAGH
WHO HAPPILY SACRIFICES SO MUCH TO SEE HER RACE WHOLE.***

Another bolt encompasses the drone, shattering her old skin as her
body morphs to humanoid standards. Everyone gapes on seeing who emerges: a
statuesque woman with blue-green skin dotted in gold, silver and dark red,
dressed in the traditional light green of Sagussa's medical services. ***IT
IS DONE,*** Atar smiles as he melts back into the flames, hand raised in
farewell. ***PEACE, LOGIC AND HARMONY TO YOU ALL...AND GOOD LUCK.***

The Lannarkites remain silent...

* * *

...as Ataru's eyes close. "Alors!" the EMH gapes. "His heartbeat,
it slow down again! I no understand..."

Shinobu blinks, then stares at her. "It must be this *te'a* he
speaks of on occasion...whatever that is!"

The hologram hums. "According to my memory banks, they say *te'a* is
a Zephyrite word, it implies the divine forces of all Existence...what you
would call God, non?"

The young girl blinks, staring at her sleeping ex-boyfriend...

* * *

"Where are we going again?!"

Varena stows her gear into the shuttle's main cargo bay. "We've been
ordered to follow Captain Otasur's ship to the Planet of Shadows," the young
hunter stares at the Marine sergeant in charge of the warpshuttle's crew. "We
just received a message from them stating that the 'Renegade' had stopped over
a planet. It's still there now."

"Why did they stop?" the sergeant blinks as they head back to the
sleek ship's bridge.

"Lannarkites," Varena sighs as she sits in the command chair. "Okay,
let's go!"

The marine nods as everyone takes her places. The shuttle was
equipped with the most powerful engines the Vosian Defence Force dared put on
a ship of its size. With the coordinates from Otasur's command, they would
be over target in six days. The group exchange grim looks. Regardless of
where you stood on the Civil War, confronting the Lannarkites overshadowed
everything else. Varena, the daughter of a Colony Nine sorcerer and a
Yehisrite shaman, had destroyed two small hives in her thirty year career
with the Special Hunter Corps. If anyone knew how to deal with the damn
bugs, it was her.

Unseen, in the hunter's quarters, a small space-warp appears,
revealing a squat, diminutive humanoid dressed in flowing robes. A furred
hand ending in sharp claws places a small bag on her nightstand, then
disappears just as quickly. On the bag is written a small note signed by a
cat's paw print...

* * *

"K'chi, can I talk to you?"

K'chi's eyes open. "Yes, Mama?"

Marcia bites her lips. Once Nenba and the healer drone, now called
Isha to designate her place in the new hive, were remade into humanoid
Lannarkites, everyone shifted to the intact wing of the hive to settle down
for the night. Some of the women were out scouting around for any equipment
to contact "Renegade" and inquire on everyone's status. Excitement wore down
the young children quickly enough, thus seeing them put to bed as the
planet's sun began to dip below the western horizon. "K'chi, I want to tell
you something," Marcia begins. "I'm not your mother."

"But Mama and K'chi have...!"

"I know," Marcia smiles. "In truth, we're sisters, not mother and
daughter. But unlike you, I was born with my host's memories intact and a
part of me. You weren't. You know about your host?"

"Only name," K'chi frowns. "K'chi host very nice. K'chi sad that
host no more. M'cia...remember host?"

"M'cia and host...one," Marcia clasps her hands together to signify
the union of Fukunokami and Lannarkite. "But...it doesn't mean that I don't
understand...how lonely you are. Your...mother saw you as someone...who was
different than her. You remember the food we gave you when you were hungry?"

K'chi nods. "Well...your mother looked like that," Marcia sighs.
This topic was in some way taboo but she wouldn't stint on the truth; K'chi
deserved that.

"Was K'chi mama...bad?"

"I don't know," Marcia sighs. "K'chi, our people are in a very bad
way. Many are sick, changed into something that shouldn't be. But they've
been sick for so long, they think THEY'RE normal and WE aren't. That's why
your mother wouldn't want anything to do with you. You were diseased in her
eyes."

K'chi blinks. "M'cia...be K'chi mama?"

Marcia stops, then looks down, smiling. How typical. K'chi's real
mother was a stranger, perhaps someone she'd never seen. The only ones who
demonstrated that K'chi was special was Isha...and Marcia. "Yes," she nods.
"I'll be your mother."

"Go sleep?" K'chi pulls back the blanket.

Marcia sighs, then nods, slipping in...

* * *

"'Morning."

Marcia smiles as Tawn approaches. The sun now peeked over the
eastern horizon. Both stood on the roof of the intact wing of the hive,
staring at the sea of wreckage before them. "'Morning, Tawn. Nice sight,
huh?"

"Glad we weren't a part of it," the ex-Zephyrite smiles, then looks
at her. "So, how was your first night as a mother?"

"Even though there's no husband?!" the ex-Fukunokami snorts, then
laughs. "It was wonderful. How about you and your three?"

"A delight. I wonder where Ataru-sama and the others are. I hope
they're safe."

"Me, too," Marcia looks up, trying to see the fast moving star to
indicate "Renegade." "By the way, can you tell me who or what Atar is? That
couldn't've been Ataru yesterday."

"No, it wasn't," Tawn nods. She had been studying at a theological
seminary on Yoinsu when the Lannarkites captured her. "Atar lived many
millennia ago. He went to a cursed placed called Tomobiki to rescue His
beloved, Ram, from evil. It's one of the oldest legends of my people, Marcia.
To actually see Atar Himself was...beyond profound. But it also means
something else."

"What?"

"What Atar said. Ataru-sama is the Holy Birth Father of the Ancient
Homeworld, Sagussa...the Chosen One of the Eternal Voyager in your terms. If
that is so and if Ataru-sama is a prisoner of the Mikado, that heretic has
slit his own throat."

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Marcia snorts, then blinks. "But
then again, if it wasn't for the Mikado, who knows what could've happened to
all of us."

"True," Tawn stares at her. "So, Marcia, shall we try to build a
life together?"

Marcia sees the woman's fingers dance to her top, the glint in her
eyes all too blatant despite the lack of physical details in those crystal
orbs the ex-Fukunokami could use to detect Tawn's mood. "Well, we should
give our new bodies a workout, shouldn't we?" she muses, leaning over.

The kiss that follows is hesitant as both women make themselves
comfortable with, the many new sensations of being a humanoid Lannarkite.
Their skins were soft and pliant, very much like mammalian skin, though if
you pressed hard enough, it hardened to rock-like consistency. The sensitive
points on the body seemed concentrated around the junctures between the skin
and the bony plates, especially in the area below their breasts and above
their lower abdomen. The skin in that region was supported with strips of
loose bone suspended by tendons. Did it stretch when they were pregnant; if
what Isha said was true, they could have babies like normal humanoids. Do
they give live birth or eggs?

Marcia then draws the toga away from Tawn, gaping at the ample chest
now freed from its flimsy covering. Their breasts were firm, round and quite
large, the nipples a pronounced darker shade than the surrounding skin
decorated in circular patterns of colours. Hesitantly, Marcia's finger flecks
Tawn's hardening buds, instantly drawing milk. She blinks, then tastes. "How
human are we?"

"Now, that's not fair," Tawn meows. "Why won't you let me taste your
milk, Marcia?"

The ex-Fukunokami laughs as she feels her top being drawn off
her...then both blink as they feel someone's shadow fall over them. Turning,
they see Isha standing there, her long blonde hair flowing aimlessly in the
wind, a hesitant look on her slender face. "Is there a problem, Sensei?"
Marcia blinks.

Isha blushes. "May...may I join you?"

Tawn and Marcia exchange looks...

* * *

"Where did you go, Koruneko-kun?"

Koruneko smiles as he walks behind his bar. His two best friends
relax, having shut down their shops to join the felinoid for evening tea and
gossip. "I had to go to Vos, Yakuzaishi-kun," he smiles at the dinosaur-like
pharmacist. "It appears Ataru Moroboshi and several of his friends
discovered a small colony of humanoid Lannarkites. That news has just been
relayed to the Mikado, who's dispatched a ship to investigate."

"Typical, so typical," Hitode grumbles. "You'd think people would
teach themselves to see the really important things in life."

"How true, my friend," Koruneko pours himself some tea, then glances
at the small crowd at one corner of his bar.

Yakuzaishi and Hitode look. Uchiki was busy chatting with a Seishin
teenager, her violet hair now decoratively braided around her head. Mikan was
busy with another, an older fellow who ran a cabaret down the street. Given
her natural endowments, the orange haired girl would draw many customers; the
cabaret owner had tried for months to get Mikan to become part of his revue.
By herself, Aoiko nursed her newborn daughter M'e (named in Mie Seikou's
honour; the Gladiator pilot was the baby's godmother). However, she had a
boyfriend, an Oni farmer formerly of Shingetsu now busy trying to petition the
Tribal Council to resettle the colony.

None of the three, much less anyone else who came into the bar, knew
that Uchiki, Mikan and Aoiko, whom Koruneko had taken under his charge after
Ataru and Mie found them, were Lannarkites. Nearest assumption was that they
were of a reptilian-type race living somewhere past the veil of galactic
exploration. After all, their blood was iron-red, not copper-green or cobalt-
blue. As evidenced with M'e (an Ipraedies-Lannarkite hybrid), they could mate
with most humanoid races, so they COULDN'T be of those race of bugs who had
ravaged the local cluster for so long.

After thirty millennia, Koruneko knew most sentient beings tended to
believe what they wanted to believe despite hard evidence to the contrary.
Humanoid Lannarkites, though the first generation was born in the same manner
as their insectoid brethren, WERE different, the first SAGUSSAN race (or
Sagussa-aisen'a) before rabid A'g'sans had their way. But if those now taking
interest in these three learned they were related to the Lannarkites, what
would happen? Would they be brave enough to accept things...or run away? Who
knew? Koruneko was telepathic, but even he couldn't predict the future.

But he could influence its outcome...

* * *

Sometime later, the three women doze in a mattress salvaged from an
Ellsian yacht, blankets flung over them haphazardly. Marcia rests with one
of Isha's arms as a pillow, the healer's other arm draped over the former's
abdomen. The ex-Fukunokami smiles as she stares at the healer's content
face, then Tawn's to her other side. Given the tight quarters, the isolation
and the overwhelming sense of doom, many of Marcia's companions had become
intimate, groping for some tenderness in a sea of death. Now, with their
fate still uncertain, no one had anything better to do than stick to what
they knew. The bonds between the new mothers and their children were still
being established. Further, they still had to get used to BEING Lannarkites,
coming to grips with all they had lost.

Marcia sighs, then notices Isha staring at her. "What is it,
Sensei? Are you okay?"

The healer smiles. "I...never thought I'd experience that," she
smiles. When Atar transformed her, He boosted her language skills, allowing
her to speak the Federation common tongue with a natural flow common to a
native speaker. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Marcia gazes at her. "Sensei, I don't mean to be
rude, but how old are you? You still seem so young..."

"By your terms, I'm 757 years old."

"Seven hundred and...?!! No way!!"

Isha laughs. "Marcia, normals like us can live for over two
millennia as you reckon time. Few normals have had the chance since the sick
ones viewed us as mutants and not the way things are supposed to be! What did
you expect? We'd be as fragile as them?"

"I'm glad we weren't," Marcia hums, then kisses the just-awakened
Tawn. "Sensei, what happened to your people? Why did they become those damn
bugs anyway?"

"Few remember. Many, many millennia ago, we lived on a nice
world...not too far from here, in fact. But then another race came to us one
day...and spread a plague, turned us into what you nearly became were it not
for Ataru. When we tried to heal ourselves, they banished us to the ends of
the cosmos...and we've spent all our time trying to come back."

"Eternity have mercy!" Tawn gapes. "No wonder you people are so
angry! Were your attackers...fur-skins?!"

"From what can be remembered. "Not exact sort of details; we're not
sure if they're still alive. But they were mammalian...'fur-skins'...like you
were."

"I'm sorry," Marcia frowns.

"Don't apologize," Isha muses. "It happened over twenty-five hundred
generations ago. For most sick kind, our homeworld, what we once were...are
just legends."

"Five million years," Marcia calculates the time, her eyes widening
on understanding the length of the Lannarkite's tragic saga. "Bensaiten's
Grave, all that time..."

"Aye," Isha nods. "Our hatred, our mistrust of 'fur-skins' is so
deeply embedded, we look on them like they were cattle, fit to be eaten or
turned into carriers for our eggs. As I said, few see fur-skins as anything
BUT intelligent. Only when normal kind began to reappear among us did some
change their attitudes, but they're few and far between."

"And because we're so different from the sick kind, none of them
could bring themselves to trust what we say concerning what fur-skins are
really like," Marcia concludes.

"Exactly."

Silence falls as the two reborn women absorb those words. They knew
this hive was part of a growing network that had been advancing into the
Milky Way galaxy for the past several hundred years. There was something
called the Great Hive, though neither knew what that was, somewhere out
there. How big it was, no one knew. But if somehow, they could impress on
their adopted people that fur-skins weren't a threat...

No time to think of such far-reaching things. Survival on this
planet was the first priority...or escape to...where? Where could they go?
Marcia sighs as she gently squeezes Tawn's hand. So many questions.

"Marcia?" Isha stares at her.

"What is it, Sensei?"

The healer gazes at her. "Because you are of the leader's
blood...that now makes you the new hive queen."

"ME?!?!?! What makes you say that?!!"

"You are of the hive queen's blood, aren't you?" Isha remains calm.
"Even if we shift from the sick kind to normal kind, the continuity must be
kept or we'll fall apart. Everyone, even your friends, will be genetically
disposed to aid you. That was the way it was before the Migration into Night.
We may be humanoid, can even mate with other humanoids, but there are still
things about us that aren't so different from insects."

Marcia shakes. As a Fukunokami, she believed in democracy, in
electing one's local leaders and representatives at higher levels. The idea
of being GENETICALLY bred to be a leader...that was wrong! "I can't do it!"
she bites her lips. "I can't be your queen..."

"You must!!" Isha hisses. "I'm just a healer! I can't bring myself
to lead others, only cure them if they're ill!! The male drones in the main
room only live to serve us; that's the way Nature created us! All the others
in here, you and your children, are the ones genetically primed to keep this
hive whole! If we fall apart now, we ARE doomed!!"

The ex-Fukunokami shudders as she gazes again at her hands. Queen.
She was no Bensaiten wanna-be. She was just a simple girl whose life was
destroyed when her small ship was caught by a Lannarkite craft hundreds of
light-years away from the normal shipping routes. Closing her eyes, Marcia
takes a deep breath, then gazes at Isha. "I'll need help."

The healer smiles as she draws Marcia back into bed. "I'll be happy
to help you. After all, you are my queen."

* * *

A while later, Marcia enters the commune hall. Already, some of the
drones, those well enough to walk around, are busy sanitizing the space using
captured cleaning materials from a dozen ships. At that moment, Miryoku and
Takau walk into the room. "Marcia," the ex-Ipraedies calls out.

"What is it, Miryoku?" Marcia wonders.

"We found some of our ships in a chamber in the lower levels of this
place," Miryoku smiles. "Some are in good enough shape that if we cannibalize
some spare parts, we could get one moving and get off this planet."

Marcia blinks, then nods. "Yeah. If you need some help, go ask some
of the others."

"Sure thing," Miryoku nods.

They head off. Marcia sighs, then looks down. It was happening.
Even though it was something they all wanted, all Marcia had to do was say
something and it would get done. *I don't like this!* a part of her screams,
though a soothing voice akin to Isha's told her this was right. The hive
depended on HER now. But was she up to the job?

"Mama, you okay?" K'chi wonders.

Marcia smiles at her. "I'll be fine."

* * *

Some hours later, two people appear outside the hive, then drawing
their weapons, head in. Minutes later, attracted by the sounds of industrious
work, Nassur and Junba walk into the commune hall. "Hello?!" the former calls
out. "Anyone here?"

"Nassur!" Marcia walks over to embrace him. "Hey, what happened?!
How's Ataru?"

"He's still unconscious," Nassur smiles. "But according to the
ship's EMH, he'll make it through with flying colours. Ataru's one tough
person, in his own way as tough as you. Oh, this is Junba," he nods to his
companion.

"Junba," Marcia nods. "So, what brings you down here? Aren't you
worried about the Mikado coming after you?"

"Well, Junba has...surrendered, allowed us to decide what we can do
with ourselves," Nassur crosses his arms. "We came down here for a couple of
reasons. First, we don't like the idea of leaving you here, so if it's at all
possible, we'd like to help you get off."

"I doubt your ship could take all of us," Marcia shakes her head. "I
was in Bensaikyou when you were having 'Renegade' built; my father was one of
the yard foremen. There are about a hundred of us now; including fifty or so
children. We've all come to an agreement; no matter what, we all go as a
group."

"Of course," Nassur nods. "If you want, could some of you come to
the 'Renegade' so we could pass messages on to your relatives? I'm sure some
of you would like to inform family that in all essence, you're still alive."

Marcia blinks, then nods. "No problem."

* * *

Sometime later, Shinobu looks up from Ataru to see Isha walk into
sick bay. Seeing the wounded man, the healer heads over, then begins an
examination. "Pardonnment, but he is my patient," the EMH breathes, walking
up.

"Silence this light show," Isha hisses.

"Computer, deactivate Emergency Medical Hologram," Shinobu
immediately orders.

The hologram fades. "Thank you," Isha feels Ataru's neck, then
examines the repairs. "His life-link is still very strong. The blood of
Sagurei burns within him now; soon it will remould him as a Sagussan.
Excellent."

"Good," Shinobu nods. "You a doctor?"

"Yes. I am Isha. Your name?"

Shinobu introduces herself. Once done with Ataru, Isha examines Lum.
"She gave much to her heart-mate, didn't she?" the healer muses on seeing
the Oni's pale skin.

"She almost died," Shinobu sighs, gazing at Isha. "If I didn't
remind her of Ataru and Noa, she would have. Pardon me, but I don't remember
seeing you in the hive."

"I was until yesterday a healer drone, a sick one like those you
fought. But Ataru's spirit-friend saw to it that I could be one with my hive.
Have Ataru's heart-mate rest for a couple of days; no strenuous activities.
Ataru himself should be ready to move by tomorrow morning at the latest."

"Yes, Sensei," Shinobu nods.

"Do you seek to be a healer, Shinobu?"

"I'm...leaning in that direction."

Isha hums, gazing intently at her. "Yes. Your spirit is well-
disposed to be a good healer. A pity you cannot stay with us; I would gladly
teach you many things."

"Thank you. I'd be very tempted; the EMH on this ship leaves a lot
to be desired."

"Feh! Using light-spirits to do something only real healers should
do. I sense that you've been under considerable physical abuse sometime
recently."

"It was...Junba. She...believed that I was lower than dirt because I
associated with Nassur. She...used a cardiac band on me," she holds up her
wrist to show the device. "One time it got really close. Lum saved me."

"Closer than you think," Isha then stares at the cabinet of
medicines. Opening bottles, she sniffs, then pours out the contents of
several. "Let me mix up something."

Shinobu watches Isha open pills, mix the contents together on a
sterile tray, then to her shock reaches to her breast to draw a small amount
of milk. "Healers such as I produce milk that serves as a regenerative
fluid. Not as powerful as the blood of Sagurei, but quite effective in its
own right," she mixes the milk with the pills, then pours the paste into a
spoon. With that, she turns, zipping open Shinobu's jumpsuit to apply the
paste over her chest.

"You know, you're as straightforward as Catty!" the Terran muses,
trying not resist the Lannarkite's ministrations.

"Where the preservation of life is concerned, nothing can be left to
chance, even someone's modesty," Isha smiles.

Shinobu nods, then feels a strange rush through her chest as the
paste seeps through her skin, enters her bloodstream, then races for her
heart. The muscle picks up the beat for a minute as the paste goes to the
damaged sections, healing the scar tissue and forcing new strength into its
cells. Shinobu then breathes out as the heartbeat restores itself. "Wow,
that feels good!"

"Yes, your heart's back to normal again," she smiles, then proceeds
to make two more globs of paste from different medicines.

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm making different medicines for Ataru and his heart-mate. For
him, this will dull the influence of the blood of Sagurei enough to keep his
spirit intact. You see, the blood of Sagurei is a voracious monster, capable
of searing one's mind clean of all memory. Even distilled by blood into
natural regenerative enzymes, it can cause untold havoc when that blood is
transferred into another body."

*'Blood of Sagurei?'* Shinobu thinks, then remembers the phrase
"regenerative enzymes." When she was in Oshio during the earthquake, Catty
had told her while treating Linna for some cuts and bruises that Sagussans
produced those enzymes to cure most minor wounds with great speed. That had
come from the matrix found in the upper magma of Sagussa's moon Sagurei.
"What about Lum?"

"For her, this should stimulate her body to produce more white, grey
and red blood cells to replace that which she has lost," Isha finishes with
the paste meant for Ataru, then walks over to apply it over his abdomen.
"She should drink plenty of fluids; that will help in forming a base for new
blood."

"I'll start a saline solution IV, then."

In a minute, Lum's arm is hooked up to an IV bag pumping salty water
into her. Isha applies the other sample of healing paste to her chest. Lum's
eyes open. "Shinobu?"

"Yes, Lum?" Shinobu nods. "How are you?"

"Very weak, but okay," Lum nods, then sees the Lannarkite healer.
"You're one of...those people...Darling saved, right?"

"In a sense," Isha nods.

"I've a message...for you," Lum sighs, her voice suddenly firming up
as her eyes glow. "***Take food for six days. A ship is coming. Take the
ship and go to Sakusei. There, Koruneko will care for you.***"

Shinobu backs away as Lum's eyes revert to normal. Isha blinks.
"Are you alright?"

The Oni sighs. "Now I know how Darling feels at times," she smiles,
then looks at the quaking Terran. "It's okay, Shinobu. Ram didn't mean to
scare you."

Shinobu blinks, then remembers something else. "Ram?! She's the
girl from Sagussan myth Noa told us about..."

"*Tcha,*" Lum nods, smiling. "Atar helped Darling transform Isha-
sensei's friends into humanoid Lannarkites. If it was me down there, Ram
would've come to help me."

Shinobu shudders, her world-view now taking the biggest hit since Lum
first came to Earth. "Lum, Atar and Ram died years ago, even if they did
exist..."

"A hundred thousand years ago," Lum supplies, trying to keep the
Terran calm. "Shinobu, Darling and I can tap into the *te'a,* remember? All
Sagussans can. But in our case, because of our connection to Ram and Atar, we
can use That Power on rare occasions to help other people. Darling does it as
the Cyborg, remember? How do you think he got that power? Atar helped him."

Shinobu blinks. In the language of Roman Catholicism, Atar and Ram
were angels. If that was so and if Ataru and Lum mentally communicated with
their namesakes, then her two former classmates were living saints. "If the
others heard this, they'd freak!"

"I know," Lum lowers her voice to a barely audible whisper. "Mendou
and Megane are eavesdropping on us right now."

Shinobu turns to the door. "Computer, where are Shutaro Mendou and
Aisuru Megane?"

"*They are in the corridor outside Sick Bay,*" the computer
immediately responds.

A *thump!* of someone falling onto the deck is heard. "Idiot, I told
you not to make so much noise!!" Mendou snarls.

"I didn't!" Megane cries.

Shinobu, Lum and Isha chuckle as the two men scramble away. The Oni
then gently squeezes the Terran's hand. "Shinobu?"

"What is it, Lum?"

"You have that power, too," Lum smiles. "Like it or not, sooner or
later, you'll have to become one of us...become Sagussan. It'll be the only
way you can really know peace."

Shinobu blinks...

* * *

"Welcome aboard, Hunter Varena."

Varena smiles as she exchanges salutes and handshakes with Captain
Otasur. Her sloop now runs parallel with the Mikado Marines' ship some
parsecs away from Marcia's planet, another two days travel. After detecting
Lannarkites on the world, Otasur contacted Lecashuto for assistance. It
wouldn't do to have Nassur be killed by the bugs before he could be properly
humiliated and executed by the Mikado...and it certainly wouldn't do to have
the Maidens of the Eternal Voyager swoop in to claim their Chosen One in the
confusion! For that, the best had to be called in.

Since Marinba's death, Varena was that best. A major in the Hunter
Corps (one who was out of Lecashuto when Furusur and his officers had been
slain), Varena was also from Colony Nine. Like her countrywoman, Varena
volunteered to serve as a spiritual-mystical guide in the Corps during
Hisur's brief tenure as acting commandant in the wake of Osur's death.
Trained by both her parents...her father, a sorcerer; her mother a shaman
from the northern hill tribes of Kyotos...the *azhis'f* was always called in
whenever strange problems arose. Like Lannarkites.

"How many Lannarkites are on the ground?" Varena asks as they head to
the bridge.

"According to our sensors, when the smoke cleared, there were just
under fifty left, all concentrated in one wing," Otasur reports. "However,
we also detected nearly a hundred humanoids of a race we've never seen
before. It was strange. The planet they were on showed no signs of humanoid
habitation. Before we left, we noticed that Junba's group had been
interacting with them."

"Good. Any losses on our side?"

"None," Otasur shakes his head. "It appears the strange luck of
Tomobiki follows those people wherever they go."

A good thing too, Varena muses. She learned of Ataru Moroboshi's
connection to the Maidens of the Eternal Voyager, not to mention some strange
recent events over Earth through spies now active on Phentax Two.
Personally, she knew that trying to force the Maidens to aid the Mikado was
stupid; those women were a power never to be challenged, her father warned.
She also heard how the technicians who tried to modify "Renegade" to respond
only to Junba had failed. The Maidens were responsible. She was barely able
to prod the news of the destruction of Nathanba's regiment of Marines from
the Mikado before leaving Lecashuto, thus could guess the Maidens were now
Nassur's silent allies. Varena could only guess what the Maidens would do if
ANY harm befell their Chosen One.

"As soon as 'Renegade' leaves, we'll head in to see what's going on
down there," the hunter smiles. "There's been some strange rumours about the
Lannarkites circulating from some time, rumours that gained some credence
after the Shingetsu massacre. If those others on that planet are what I
think they are, we might get a handle on why the Lannarkites are so vicious
in the first place."

"Sir, by the looks of it, 'Renegade' appears to be preparing to leave
orbit," a sensor officer reports.

"You got your chance," Otasur hums...

* * *

"Ataru will survive his wounds. Although he'll be out of action for
a while."

"Pleased to hear it," Marcia smiles. She and Nassur were now down by
the commune hall the Lannarkites were using as their living quarters. "We
finished scouting around the hive for survivors and found some more like us.
It seems the bugs were trying to destroy them. Most were males."

"Well," Nassur smiles. "At least, we did some good here. If you
want you can all come aboard my ship and we can take you home."

Marcia sighs. There were a hundred humanoids under her charge. A
third were like her, really not a part of the society Fate forced them to be a
part of. Nassur saw them as separate from the others living here. And given
Isha's warning about the relationships within the hive, she couldn't walk away
on K'chi and the other children. Besides, if Lum's mysterious friend was
right, they'd soon have their own way home...or at least to Koruneko. NONE
dared challenge the mysterious felinoid and lived to tell the tale. "If it's
alright with you," she smiles. "We would like to stay here...if you don't
mind."

"I understand," Nassur presses a button on his communicator. "I'll
have supplies sent down to tide you over until I can contact some friends to
look over you. Take care, Marcia."

"Thanks, Nassur."

Nassur waves as he disappears. Marcia sighs, then notices several
large boxes of food and other survival gear beaming in. Nodding, she looks
at Takau and Nenba. "Get that set up. Let's hope whoever's bringing that
ship to us isn't late."

"Right," they nod as they get to work...

* * *

Two days pass.

Living here, the newborn Lannarkites realize that life on this barren
world, if it ever came, wouldn't've long survived the harsh desert winds and
relentless sun. Fortunately, given the sturdy construction of the hive, none
of Marcia's new extended family have to proceed outside to forage for food
and other essentials. Water came from an artesian well sunk into the bedrock
right below the commune room; Isha reported there were other wells in the
other wings of the hive. And with the abundance of slain insectoid
Lannarkites for food, starvation was no threat.

On the third morning, Marcia blinks as her hearing picks up the
distant hum of starship engines. Blinking, she rises, then slipping on her
dress, walks to a window to gaze outside. Her eyes widen on seeing a sleek
warp courier, considerably larger than "Renegade," slide to a graceful
landing several kilometres away from the hive. "Damn, she was right!" Marcia
grins, then looks at the other dozing forms. "Everyone up!! Rescue party
just came!!"

Moans and grunts reply. "Already?" Takau covers her mouth in a yawn
as she walks over to gaze out the window. "Who is it?"

"Can't tell from here," Marcia's eyes narrow as her eyes focus on the
craft, then looks around. "Did someone pick up a pair of binoculars from any
of the ships captured?!"

"Here!" Miryoku walks up with a pair of macrobinoculars in hand.

Marcia takes them, then stares through the lenses. Sure enough, the
sloop's black cygnet marker comes in clear. "Oh, shit, it's the Mikado's
people!!" she spits out.

"Mikado?!" Nenba walks up. "What would he want with us?"

"I don't know," Marcia bites her lips, then notices the boarding ramp
lowering to see a small troop of soldiers march out led by a woman. "Heads
up! We got Marines on the loose...and a hunter by the looks of it."

"Can I see?" Nenba holds out her hand.

Marcia hands her the binoculars. Nenba adjusts the lenses'
sensitivity range, then looks. The leader's husky skin and the decorative
shamanist symbols tattooed into her skin around her eyes and on her exposed
arms and legs stand out like neon. "Lecasur's Soul, that's Varena!!" she
gasps.

"Who's Varena?" Tawn inquires.

"Shaman from Colony Nine, *azhis'f,*" Nenba whistles. "A major in
the Special Hunter Corps, probably the best outside Captain Mujanba. She's
always called in to handle the special cases...like Lannarkites."

"Terrific," Marcia sighs, then notices the group moving toward
another part of the hive, one her group hadn't explored. "Wait a second! Why
are they heading that way for?!"

Nenba looks. "I don't know..."

* * *

The Marines move to shielded positions five hundred yards from the
hive's outer wall. Varena relaxes, gazing at the dark structure through her
own binoculars. "By the looks of it, no one's home," the hunter bites her
lips.

"Do you think 'Renegade' got them all or whoever's in that part of
the hive?" Corporal Gwanba gazes at the other intact wing.

"Did it look like it from orbit?" Varena smiles at the young girl,
then draws her pistol. "Okay, we move in slow. Go!"

The group rises...then before they could react, the sand explodes,
revealing a dozen or so warriors, creatures whose musculature and armour made
them more durable in combat than a worker or a drone. "Ambush!!!" Gwanba
screams as she levels her gun on one and fires.

The bolt blows off one arm. The Lannarkite howls as his other arm
slams the girl in the forehead, knocking her aside. The warning cry is
useless as the other warriors swarm over Varena's team of nine. <<Kill the
male ones, save the females!>> one warrior clicks to the others. <<Quick!!>>

There are three males in Varena's group. In under a minute, all drop
to the sands, their bodies forcibly ripped open by pincers and stingers. The
females are seized before they could bring weapons to bear, disarmed and
grabbed in tight bear-hugs before the warriors take flight for the hive. The
leader of the group helps his wounded friend stagger back. In less than three
minutes, peace falls over the scene save for the gasping breath of one Marine,
the sergeant in charge.

Minutes pass. A hovercycle is heard, dropping off Marcia and Isha as
Miryoku takes Takau, Tawn and Nenba to the nearby shuttle. The healer races
up to gaze at the shredded chest, the barely visible heart still beating
under a shattered lung. As the blood soaks his jersey and stains the sands a
dark brown-red, Isha turns to Marcia, shaking her head. Sighing, the
ex-Fukunokami looks at the ashen face of the Vosian. "Can you hear me?"

He coughs, his eyes barely registering anything but a dark humanoid
shape with flowing hair. "Are...you an...angel...?"

"No. A victim...like you."

It is too late. Isha sighs as she closes his lifeless eyes, then
stares at the hive. "Those females'll be hosts before long."

"Do you know who lives in this part?"

"Two breeders and several female workers who can also bear children,"
Isha reports. "The breeders are the ones who create the warriors and special
workers like me. Female workers bear normal workers and drones. I don't give
those women much chances."

"Let's improve the odds," Marcia scowls.

The two head toward the hive...

* * *

"Ship's in good operational condition," Tawn reports as she inspects
the bridge. "Very nice, fast...must be a special courier."

"Large enough to get all of us to Sakusei?" Takau wonders.

"Should be no problem," the ex-Zephyrite hums, staring at the ship
status indicator. "I can hotwire the system to block out any surprises the
Mikado's goons might've slipped in here. Should take me about ten minutes.
Give me a hand here, Nenba?"

"Sure," the ex-Vosian kneels beside her.

Miryoku returns to the bridge, a small package and a note in hand.
"What did you find?" Takau wonders.

"This is from Koruneko!" the ex-Ipraedies gapes. "It's for Varena."
Opening the pack, she notices several dozen vials of an orange-red liquid
along with a dozen or so vials of a dark brown liquid. "What is this?!"

"Hey, a note!" Takau plucks the letter from the bag. "'Dear Varena.
In case the worst happens, use the orange vials to convert any insectoid
Lannarkites into their humanoid versions, then use the brown vials to save
yourselves and your friends in case you are impregnated. Come to Sakusei as
soon as you can if you don't wish to return to Vos. Koruneko.'" The ex-Oni
blinks as she wonders how Koruneko, someone who did NOT like the Mikado,
managed to get this to Vos so Varena and her friends could be helped.
"Strange!"

"The guy's lived for thirty thousand years and more; I'd think he'd
know how to deal with the Lannarkites by now," Miryoku hums. "C'mon, let's
tell Marcia."

"Right," Takau nods...

* * *

Varena moans. "Where am I...?"

She finds herself in a dark space. Flat on her back atop some sort
of diagnostic table, hands and legs bolted down. Further, her uniform is
open to expose her abdomen. Concentrating, she detects the other women in
her squad, Gwanba and four scared privates formerly of Lecashuto's streets.
Taking a deep breath, the shaman-hunter looks around. The room they were in
was vast. Despite its darkness, the room had a clean, antiseptic smell to
it. "Damn! Impregnation chamber!!"

"You know where we are, Major?" Gwanba's panicked voice echoes from
her right.

"Yeah. In a lot of trouble, Gwanba."

"Major!!!" one of the privates screams.

Varena sees several hulking forms lumber into the chamber. Her eyes
widen on seeing the largest move right up to her, gazing at the husky-skinned
hybrid through two half-globes of many eyes. She then notices someone the
same size move up to Gwanba, the smaller ones taking one of the privates.
The two large ones were breeders, the others breeder-workers. Biting her
lips, the shaman-hunter concentrates all her power on the breeder before her,
a vain hope of trying to tap into the Lannarkite's mind and sense what the
insectoid was thinking.

The breeder stares at the slender fur-skin, curious to see the
decorative tattoos marking Varena's personal faith. So strange. Of the many
times she had used these animals to host her many children, she had never seen
something like this. A twinge of uncertainty moves through her frame. Could
her sibling the healer-drone be right? Could these ugly bipedal things be
truly sentient, intelligent? True, they built ships and cities and moved
between planets, very much like those of the Great Hive. Many other animal
species did the same things...and many of THEM were hunted by these bipeds as
food. Still, should she not try to communicate with it, let it understand why
it would soon die to let her child live?

<<S'wi?>>

The breeder turns to see a warrior, her mate, walk up to her. <<What
wrong, K'yn?>>

<<Why you not insert egg?>> he strokes her head. <<Egg no survive
long after creation. Child die soon.>>

<<Understand,>> S'wi nods, then stares again at Varena. <<But will
host know why?>>

K'yn clicks disapprovingly. <<Listen too much to healer-drone. No
think such stupid things less egg become mutant.>>

S'wi shudders. <<Understand.>>

With that, the breeder shuffles into position, shifting the table to
bring Varena into a semi-standing position. The shaman-hunter redoubles her
concentration, focusing all her powers into the alien before it, ignoring the
shrill cries of Gwanba and the privates as the other breeders got to work.
<<Please, please, can you hear me? Please, try to hear me! Please, in the
name of the Lady Pizalna, answer me!! Please!!!>>

Suddenly, as if That Lady heard Varena's plea, the breeder stops,
gazing curiously at her. <<What wrong?>> K'yn clicks.

<<It spoke to me! It speak to mind!>>

<<What it say?>> K'yn wonders.

<<No understand. It no angry. Curious. Not chattering like other
hosts,>> S'wi ignores the blood-curling shrieks from Gwanba and the privates
as their stomachs are ripped open to allow the eggs to be inserted. <<It
want to know about Hive.>>

<<What stupid fur-skin know about Hive? Egg must live. Who cares
about fur-skins?>>

S'wi shakes her head as K'yn exits. *I love him but he's such a rock-
head at times!* the breeder sighs, then stares at Varena. <<Sorry. No
choice. Egg no live in me. Egg only live in you. Child first here.>>

Varena blinks as her empathic powers detect the regret in the
breeder's mind. Unlike other Lannarkites she had encountered over the last
several decades, this one believed that "fur-skins" were sentient and worthy
of respect. Unfortunately, breeders weren't queens, who had the final say in
all matters concerning relations between the various hives and outsiders.

Varena also senses the gamut of emotions S'wi feels. For her mate,
testosterone-driven idiot that he was. For the others in the hive, who Fate
now forced her to lead. But most of all, for her unborn whose life
precariously hung in her gestation sac now, unable to grow within her mother's
body, unable to survive in the outside due to a lack of a proper shell.
Impregnating a host body was the only way for the child to live. Alien or no,
S'wi was acting like any other mother concerned for her child's welfare.

"Do it," the shaman whispers.

S'wi tenses, then thrusts in, her impregnation probe lancing into the
hybrid's abdomen to allow the precious seed to place itself somewhere near
the pancreas. Varena grunts as her mind overloads from the sharp pain, the
nauseating feeling of something VERY foreign being thrust into her, but true
to her mother's people, didn't scream out. If the Three-Faced One decreed
that this was the way she would enter the Afterworld, she would face it with
honour and dignity, not as a coward.

<<Thank you,>> S'wi exhales.

A hole is punched into the wall, causing a whole section to collapse
in. The breeders spin around as two lithe forms step into the room.
<<Mutants!!!>> Om'yng, S'wi's sister and fellow breeder, clicks disgustedly.

Marcia steps into the weak light. "Is that the way you normally
address your hive queen?" she icily inquires.

Varena blinks on seeing the two humanoid Lannarkites. So the
intelligence reports from Sakusei Station were true. Before the Marine
company was wiped out by the Nendo-kata, one of the privates had reported
seeing three strange humanoids in Koruneko's bar. When asked, one happily
told the fellow she was a Lannarkite, a "mutant" in the eyes of the insects
but resembling the original Lannarkite race destroyed many eons ago. The
Mikado had hinted to Varena that if the strange humanoids in this hive were
the same as the three under Koruneko's care, they were to be captured and
returned to Lecashuto for study.

<<You no queen!>> Om'yng chatters furiously. <<Go back to...>>

Marcia sighs, then punches the breeder in the snout, knocking her
into a wall. "Shut up!!" she growls, then notices the whimpering Marines.
"Oh, shit, we're too late!"

Isha walks over to touch Gwanba's body. "Yes, we're too late to keep
them as fur-skins," she sighs. "But with some luck, they might become normal
kind like us."

Om'yng hisses. <<No egg of mine hatch into mutant!!>>

Before the breeder could lunge at the healer, S'wi gets in the way,
then smacks her sister hard across the head. <<Idiot! No see who
blue-skinned one really is?!>>

Om'yng collapses. "You always were a rock head, weren't you,
Om'yng?" Isha sighs.

"Your sister, I take it?" Marcia muses.

"Unfortunately," Isha then smiles at her other sister. "Are you
okay, S'wi?"

S'wi turns to stare at the healer. <<How you become normal?>>

"A...long story," Isha sighs. "In the meantime, I have to think of a
way of not only saving these, but also find a way to replicate Atar's action
and make you all normal!"

"No problem!!" Takau announces.

Everyone turns as the ex-Oni marches up, the bag from Koruneko in her
hand. "What did you find, Takau-chan?" Marcia wonders.

"Oh, a care package from Koruneko," Takau beams, pulling out the
vials. "Seems he knew Varena and her friends were coming our way, so he
placed this in a room on that courier for us. This one," she holds up an
orange vial, "...can make any of them humanoid," she nods to S'wi. "And this
one," she holds up a brown vial, "...can help Varena and her friends."

"Great," Marcia takes an orange vial, then hands it to S'wi. "Drink."

The breeder shudders, then looks at Isha. The healer shrugs. With
that, the insectoid grasps the small vial in her hand, then drops it down. A
second later, her whole body glows as the armour plates shatter, her inner
body morphing. Isha then lunges forward to catch her now-humanoid sister.
"No need to make you hurt yourself on your first day of a normal life!" the
healer helps her to her knees.

"Oooh..." S'wi groans as she feels her head. "What happen to me?
Why I feel so strange...EEEK!!!!" she yelps on seeing her hands. "What you do
to me?!!"

Isha sighs, then bashes S'wi over the head. "You're just as rock-
headed as Om'yng and your mate at times!" the healer snarls.

S'wi yelps, then gazes at herself again. Now blue-skinned, her
markings were different, more indicative of a breeder than a healer. Feeling
her face, she rises. "Different movements," she hums, then stares at Varena.
"What about my child?" she spins on Isha.

Marcia takes a brown vial, then walks over. "I hate to do this to
you, but there's only one way out for you at this stage," the ex-Fukunokami
sighs. "Unless you really like the idea of becoming a sick Lannarkite."

"Not really," Varena laughs.

Marcia allows her to drink the vial. As soon as the potion hits her
oesophagus, the hybrid screams. Everyone watches as her skin becomes blue
like her hive-mother and hive-aunt, the dark tattoos becoming her new skin
markings. A second later, she relaxes, then shatters the bonds holding her
down. "Well, that was fun," she moans, slowly rising as she blinks to get
used to her new eyesight.

"Are you still Varena?" Marcia asks.

"Yes, I'm still Varena," the ex-hybrid sighs, feeling herself.
"Well, this isn't too bad at all. What about my friends?"

"Takau!" Marcia barks.

"Right," the ex-Oni gets to work.

In minutes, the breeders and their eggs' hosts are transformed. As
the former group tries to get used to walking in a different manner, much less
the sensations of being humanoid, the ex-Vosians quickly gather around their
leader. "So now what?" Gwanba demands. "We still have a mission to perform!"

"The mission's over," Varena sighs. "Unless you want to go back to
Vos looking like that! Guaranteed that the Mikado's scientists'll be
dissecting you before long!!"

Gwanba jerks, then gazes at herself. Despite the different markings,
she was now in effect Varena's cousin. "Er...right!" she looks at her hive-
mother, now sulking in a corner. "What's with her?" she looks at Isha.

"Your mother was too influenced by the old queen to accept that
normal kind like us were true Lannarkites," the healer sighs. "At least
Varena's mother isn't so rock-headed."

Gwanba blinks, then stares at the healer. "How could I be her
daughter? I was born..."

"On your planet," Isha nods. "But now, you have the body of a
Lannarkite. Could your fur-skin parents accept you like this?"

"My parents are dead," she sighs.

"Well, now you have new ones," Isha smiles. "Your mother is an idiot
at times, but she's nice once she gets to know you. Your father is much
nicer; he never like the idea of isolating the 'mutants' from their birth
parents. He'll like you."

Gwanba blinks, then walks over to kneel beside Om'yng. The elder
looks up to see her transformed child gazing concernedly at her, then shies
away. "No touch..."

"Hey, stop that," Gwanba sighs. "Look, I don't know what's going on
here, but at least you're still alive."

"How can mate love me? Child dead, now I dead, mutant! Not fair...!"

"I'm still your child...Mother."

Om'yng blinks, then stares quizzically at Gwanba. Seeing her smile,
sensing her delight at having a family again, the elder feels her mouth twitch
into a smile as she allows Gwanba to lift her back to her feet. The two then
sink into a warm embrace. Nearby, the others grin. "Well, that solves that
little domestic crisis," Marcia breathes out in relief.

"Now we need to worry about the others," Isha waves Takau with her.
"Let's go, Takau."

"Right behind you, Doc," Takau nods.

Marcia sighs, then looks at S'wi and Varena, who now gaze at each
other. "Fur-skin parents dead?" the elder wonders.

"Yes," Varena sighs. "My parents...were killed in a rebel raid when
we tried to declare our neutrality in the Civil War; it's why I joined the
Mikado's side."

S'wi beams. "Then I now mother, yes?"

"Yes...Mother," Varena beams.

They embrace. Marcia relaxes as the others slowly draw together,
bridging the chasm between races and beliefs to forge new ties, start new
families. A minute later, an scream echoes from nearby. She turns to see a
large, well muscular male humanoid storm in, staring at what to him looks like
very deformed limbs. "***I MONSTER!!!!!!***" he bellows, grabbing his short
hair and yanking on it as he bellows like a possessed madman.

"Yours, I take it?" Marcia gazes at S'wi.

"Yes," S'wi looks down.

The transformed K'yn appears before her. "S'wi, look at me!!! See
what witch healer-sister did to me...AAAAH!!!!" he doubles back on seeing his
mate and daughter. "You mutants too!!! No, no, make nightmare stop!!!"

"Father, stop acting like a trench-wave!!" Varena snaps as she and
S'wi bash K'yn with a diagnostic table!

K'yn moans, feeling the new lump on his head. "I see that family's
off to a good start," Marcia laughs...

* * *

A hectic day later, the 160 members of Marcia's extended family board
the courier. Despite its small size, the ship was designed with an eye
towards emergency evacuation of senior personnel (a sister craft was always
on standby for the Mikado), hence there is enough space and rations for the
six day journey to the Federation worlds. The bodies of the three dead
Marines and the deceased male drones are buried near the abandoned hive, then
the whole place is set to the torch. Marcia solemnly watches the dark
buildings surrender to the heat, shatter into their primary elements, then
turns and walks aboard the courier. "Sayonara, Jojou," she turns back for a
final look, her eyes glistening with tears, then heads to the bridge.

Varena and Gwanba are now at the helm station. "Marcia, we're all
set to go," the former smiles. "What course?"

Marcia sighs, then sits in the command chair. "Set a course for
Sakusei Station. Engage warp when we clear the system."

"Yes, ma'am," Varena turns back.

The courier lifts off from the surface, does a beauty pass of the
burning hive, then soars into orbit. As she feels the light tremble of the
ship escaping the planet's gravity well, Marcia leans back in her chair.
"Okay, we'll have to watch out for any border patrols when we get close to
Sakusei," she muses. "I don't know how we're going to explain this if we
bump into a stray border patrol. Varena, how close will we get to any border
points before we hit the Dead Zone?"

"Several, I'm afraid," Varena sighs. "We'll zip close to the edge of
Kurakoan space, then we'll have to skirt through the Vosian- Tengu and
Vosian- Ellsian frontier zones before we make it to Yiziba. We should be
okay for the first four days, then it'll get dicey for the next one,
especially since we can't get rid of the ship's outer markings. Once people
see that, they'll yell for the rebels to send some assistance."

"We'll worry about it when we get there," Marcia sighs, then
relaxes. "I just hope Koruneko knows what he's doing."

"So do I," Varena hums.

"Ma'am?" one of the ex-Marines, Mulnba, looks up. "We're receiving a
transmission from Lecashuto. It's the Mikado!"

Marcia blinks, then shudders. "Oh, shit, this isn't what we needed!
Mulnba, respond with static! Varena, can this ship be remote-controlled from
Lecashuto?"

"Most likely," Varena leans down to open a circuit panel. Gazing at
the chips, she sighs. "Yep! Give me two seconds!!"

She yanks out some chips, then does some quick rewiring. The courier
shudders for a moment, then returns to normal. "Helm control is still with
us," Gwanba reports.

"That should do it," Varena relaxes. "Setting course and speed.
Engaging warp."

"Go!" Marcia barks.

The courier vanishes...

* * *

In Lecashuto, the Mikado turns to Sussur. "Do we have any agents
close to the probable flight-path of that courier?"

"I believe so, sir," the colonel nods. "On Colony 112 and One-
fifteen. Should I have Colonel Grisur look in on it?"

"No," the dictator shakes his head. "Send someone else. I don't
want my wife and child's safety compromised."

"Yes, sir," Sussur nods...

* * *

"There you are," Koruneko smiles. "I'm glad you could come on such
short notice."

"What's the problem?" Sylia inquires...

* * *

"Varena?!"

Aisur blinks confusedly as he gazes at his commander. "That's her,"
Gomasur nods. "Perhaps the last senior officer of the Hunter Corps.
According to our latest intelligence, Varena was dispatched to assist Captain
Otasur keep watch on the Planet of Shadows mission."

"That pathetic farce Hunba's boy's on?" Aisur bites his lips, running
his hand through his beard. "So what do you want me to do? We know Varena's
a possible convert to our cause. So was Mujanba before she disappeared."

Gomasur nods, rubbing his eyes. Shortly after Mujanba had "died,"
the commander of the *an'san-Mikado* contacted Abraham Shapiro to learn if
the Colony Nine witch-hunter was alive. People in the rebel hierarchy knew
that Mujanba could be brought to their side if the lunatic fringes of the
Rebel Alliance Army were suppressed. Mujanba was the most feared hunter in
the Corps, someone Furusur feared and even, so rumour had it, intimidated the
Mikado once when several trainees died in one botched mission. Security
wasn't a problem; Shapiro was neutral on the whole Civil War and would help
the rebels as he would help Furusur. Besides, Shapiro owed Gomasur one and
the observer always paid his debts.

Once Mujanba was confirmed alive and well, Gomasur arranged to meet
and offer her a golden opportunity to help them take down the Hunter Corps'
leaders and cripple a vital part of the Mikado's fighting force. It would be
no skin off Mujanba's nose; her contempt for her fellow officers was no
secret. However, by then, Mujanba had become Mujanba McTavish and was
planning to have children with her life-mate Nicole. Thus disqualified,
Gomasur had to turn to the next possible candidate.

Major Varena.

"Seems a waste of time to chase after a blade-runner like Varena,"
Aisur hums. "The other officers are dead, killed some months ago. By the
way, did they ever find out what 'Tarun-Chong' was and who are they?"

"Tarun-Chong means 'the Other Party,'" a voice hails from behind the
widower. "It was a political resistance movement that existed fourteen
millennia ago on the planet Sagussa. When it moved to armed rebellion, it
unleashed an armageddon that lasted five hundred years and killed ten billion
people."

Aisur spins around to see a slender woman step out of the shadows of
the colonel's office, now in her black combat uniform. "Captain Aisur, this
is Squadron Commander Sylia, commander of Sagussa's Pathfinder Troop Six,"
Gomasur smiles. "Koruneko-san sent her group to help us find Varena and her
friends."

"Pleased to meet you," Sylia smiles...

* * *

Some minutes later, Aisur and Sylia step out of Gomasur's tent on
Colony 112 to head to the capital city airfield. Parked amidst of cargo
shuttles and fast attack craft was a sleek black warship painted with a golden
phoenix-like insignia. "So where is Sagussa again?" the former stares at the
latter.

"Fourth Stellar Cluster, system 4SC-289, first planet," the latter
smiles. "I believe that's your designation for our home. You can scan
outside the Barrier by the stellar telescope array near Colony 104, right?"

"I'm not into stellar cartography," Aisur chuckles, trying to hide
his peaked curiosity. What was a Seishin-Urusian doing living out there where
no one inside the Barrier could ever reach? "So, how does someone like
Koruneko know about you people?"

"Koruneko-san is a friend of ours," Sylia smiles, sidestepping
Aisur's attempt at probing Sagussa's secret. "He helps us from time to time,
ensuring our existence remains hazed in mystery until the proper time comes
for us to reveal ourselves. That will be very soon, I assure you. Relax,
Captain. We mean you and your cause no harm; it's the mad one in Lecashuto
you and your friends now fight that we have a very serious dispute with."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"He kidnapped two people very close to my race and forced them on
that fool's errand to the Planet of Shadows," her eyes narrow. "We helped
Nassur take precautions to ensure the Mikado and his clone servant Junba
doesn't step too far out of line until the proper time, but rest assured, when
that time does come, the Mikado and his kind will realize how insignificant
they really are."

"Um...don't mind my asking, but how vital are these two people to
your race?"

"They're our leader and his life-mate."

"Ouch!!" Aisur winces. "Shit, that's cause for war. I don't think
Hunba and her generals'll have a right to stop you."

"They won't. Ah, here we are."

"Sylia!" Priss leans on the "Kiboo'cha's" landing strut, arms
crossed. "This him?"

"Yes," Sylia then does the introductions.

Aisur blinks on seeing Priss' cheek tattoo. Was this girl a fan of
the *pirpirsiw'r* or actually one of them? "Nice to meet you," Priss shakes
his hand, then sees his braided hair. "Oh. I'm sorry for your loss. When
did your wife pass away?"

Aisur jerks. Sylia kicks the coxswain in the shins. "Idiot!" she
snaps. "I'm sorry, Aisur. Priss here has as much couth as a sandpanther with
diarrhea at times!"

"I'm trying to be nice!!" Priss winces.

"It's okay," Aisur laughs embarrassingly, then sighs. "Actually, my
wife...died many years ago. I just...haven't had the time to go to Sabaku for
the *nicha* ceremony."

"Killing the Mikado's goons must keep you busy," Priss hums as they
board the ship.

"That...and other things," Aisur hisses.

"What other things?"

"It's...nothing," Aisur shakes his head as they step onto the sloop's
bridge. So many years since Munba had died. So many...

Sylia and Priss exchange raised eyebrows, then shrug as they assume
their places. "Let's go, Nene," the former nods to the Troop hacker. "We
have a courier to intercept and humanoid Lannarkites to save from the
Mikado."

"In a moment, Sylia," Nene growls. "That hussy computer on Home Base
is trying to send a love letter to Henry!"

"Again?!" Asukanoevan blinks. "What's that bitch's big problem?"

"Search me!" Nene taps on her board, then nods. "There!! That
should tone it down a bit! Okay, off to the rescue!!"

Aisur feels confused. "What's with her?" he turns to Sylia. "I know
the computer at Nassur's base is sentient, but who's Henry?"

"He's a friend of ours," Nene cheerily replies. "The nicest,
warmest, fuzziest CPU mainframe you could ever meet!"

"He's a computer?" Aisur squeaks.

The "Kiboo'cha" lifts off from the spaceport and soars away, turning
its prow to the Confederation's frontier with the Tengu Kingdom. "Yeah, but
the dweezil on Home Base doesn't get the idea that Henry's a bit celibate!"
Nene explains, ignoring the Vosian's shocked stare. "You know, there was once
this crazy CPU called Suzy that Henry told me about; always had this thing for
him!"

"*What does Suzy have that I don't?!*" the tres-feminine voice of
Home Base's master computer demands over the comm line.

"Shut up, you oversexed excuse for a mainframe, or I'm gonna force-
feed a virus on you!!!" Nene growls at the speaker.

REAL big sweat drop. "Nassur's computer always like that?" Aisur
turns to Sylia.

"Supposedly. Don't mind Nene, Captain. She's just having a little
fun right now."

VERY BIG sweat drop. "Gomasur, you trench-wave, I'm gonna kill you
for this..."

* * *

"Approaching the Vos-Tengu frontier. Border Post Two ahead."

Marcia relaxes in the central chair, trying to stay calm as Gwanba
guides the courier towards the very thin strip of space claimed by neither
Vosian or Tengu. Threading through the corridor, in places only thousands of
kilometres apart, was easy if you kept your speed down. But given the
Mikado's interest in capturing some of her hive for study, they had to get to
the Dead Zone as soon as possible. "I wish there was some way we could keep
to the Tengu side of things," she muses aloud. "I mean, half the elders on
this ship were formerly of Federation worlds, so we'd have freedom of
passage. Besides, none of you can go back to Vos, so you'd be refugees."

"I wouldn't want to go back to Vos anyway, especially looking like
this," Gwanba sighs, gazing at her light blue skin. "We'll be passing Border
Post Two in five minutes."

"Good. Maintain speed and keep a watch for anything coming from the
Vosian side. Gwanba, do you still have your tracking powers; I never thought
to ask you before."

Gwanba concentrates, then her pale eyes glow. "Yes, they're still
there. I can sense everyone aboard the ship and all the Tengu customs
officers at Post Two. Incredible! I think my range has increased
dramatically."

"Good!" Marcia claps her hands. "We'll borrow a page from your
former boss' book." She taps the intercom. "This is Marcia. All former
Vosians who are now elders, please come to the bridge. I need you."

In a minute, Nenba, Varena, the privates of Gwanba's squad and five
others transformed by Ataru step onto the bridge. "You wanted to see us,
Marcia?" Nenba bows lightly.

"Do all of your tracking powers still work?" Marcia asks. At their
affirming nods, she indicates the chairs on the bridge. "Please stay up here
and keep a 'watch' on the Confederation side; they're off to port. Instant
you feel anything, warn me."

"Yes, ma'am," the women nod, then sit down, relaxing as they
concentrate their minds on the space that was once their home.

Marcia stands by Varena. "Wish I didn't feel like I was forcing you
to do this."

"It's alright, Marcia," the shaman grins. "Isha explained our
relationship to you and how things work in a hive. Don't worry; we sense how
much you want us to survive. Remember, our necks are on the line, too."

"Doesn't make me feel much better..."

* * *

"Still no response," the sensor officer at Post Two reports.

"Are you sure it's a Mikado courier?"

"Yes, ma'am," the Tengu nods. "It's shields are up, but no weapons
are armed. By the course it's taking right now, it appears to want to avoid
entering Vosian space."

"How curious," the woman lounging in the throne-like chair sips her
wine, then gazes at the image of the small craft. "How many sentients are
aboard and what type are they?"

"Scanning now, Countess," he turns to the board, then types in
commands. "There are 160 beings aboard the ship. Scanners cannot confirm
what sort of beings they are. They're not from any previously encountered
race!"

The woman sitting at the command post blinks her sensually long
lashes, her pink eyes gazing at the craft. "An unknown race piloting a
Mikado- Vosian courier and they're wanting to stay clear of Vosian space.
How curious. Signals, please send a message to my cousin; she should be back
from Earth by now."

"Yes, Countess Karasu."

Karasu sighs, absently brushing aside her long brown locks, styled
like all Tengu humanoids into crow-like wings. Despite the business-like
atmosphere hovering over the others at this border post, the countess was
dressed scandalously in a see-through negligee and panties. Truly an
embarrassment to the royal family she was a part of, Karasu...like Toji of
Triton, a member of the Intergalactic Boy-Chaser's Club...had been sent here
by Kurama to keep her from making mischief and unleashing a scandal that
could rock society to its foundations. Ironically, this aided in keeping
incursions by the Mikado's forces to a minimum; the countess' sexual prowess
was too much for a hunter or Mikado Marine!

A second later, Kurama's face appears in a screen before Karasu.
"What is it, cousin?" the princess blinks. "A problem?"

"A strange one, I confess, dear cousin," Karasu muses. "We've a
Mikado courier passing by us trying to thread his way through the corridor
between our space and Vos'. Sensors indicate there are humanoids aboard but
not of any race previously encountered."

"That is odd," Kurama sighs dejectedly. "Still, capturing a courier
may deliver a small message to that pig in Lecashuto. I need to do something
after learning what he did to poor Natsu-chan! Vector me in, Karasu-chan;
this shouldn't take long."

"Alright...but be a dear, Kurama-chan; if there are very nice men
aboard, do save some for me, will you?" Karasu sweetly smiles.

Kurama faints!

* * *

"Problem!" Nenba's eyes glow.

"Vosian?" Marcia tenses.

"No, Tengu," Nenba reports. "I sense a group coming right at us.
Large group, one humanoid and five hundred Tengu."

"Sensors just picked up a patrol cruiser on intercept!" Tawn stares
at the sensor board. "Only ship of that size registered to Tengu is Princess
Kurama's personal cruiser."

"Kurama?!" Marcia sighs. "Well, that idiot's better than no one!"
She stabs the intercom. "Jii, come to the bridge, please."

A second later, a dark-skinned woman with green and gold markings,
her hair styled back in what could have been the Tengu wing style, steps onto
the bridge, then goes to one knee. "What may I do for my queen?" she
announces.

Marcia sighs. When Isha gave her lecture on hive structure, the ex-
Tengu immediately began treating Marcia like she was a real queen. "Jii-chan,
stop that! It appears that Kurama is on her way here to speak to us."

"Does my queen desire me to speak to the princess on our behalf?" Jii
inquires.

"***JII, WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT?!?!?!***" Marcia screams, knocking the
girl...Jii was Nenba's age...over. "Stop acting like Bensaiten made me her
successor!!! I was condemned to be this way!!! Relax!!!"

"Sorry, Marcia-chan!" Jii embarrassingly laughs. "I'll talk to
Kurama-san!"

"Better!!" Marcia relaxes in her chair.

The others laugh as Varena opens a channel. A second later, Kurama's
stern face appears on the front viewscreen. "Mikado ship, you are trespassing
in the sovereign space of the Kingdom of Karasutengu!! Surrender and prepare
for boarding!!!"

"Cousin, it's me, Jii!!! Yoh-hoo!!!"

"What?!!" Kurama blinks, then looks away. "Ridiculous!!! You don't
even BEGIN to look like my cousin!!! Who are you?!!"

"Kurama-chan, it's me!!!" Jii's eyes instantly water. "Oh, you're
just as mean as Karasu-chan!!! Whaaaaaaaaa!!!"

Tawn appears beside the ex-Tengu. "Jii-chan, you never said a thing
about you being related to Kurama!"

Jii stops, gazing innocently at the ex-Zephyrite. "You never asked,
Tawn-chan."

Everyone faints! The forward viewscreen changes to an image of an
enraged Karasu. "***I RESENT THAT!!!!!!***" the countess thunders, her eyes
ablaze. "It's not my fault you kept stealing my dolls!!!"

"It's not my fault you kept stealing MY dolls, you selfish nest-
thief!!!" Jii counters, icily glaring at her older sister.

Big sweat drops appear on everyone on both ships and Border Post Two!
"That is Jii," Kurama sighs, then turns to Old One. "Have our chief medical
officer beam over to that ship and examine those people! We must learn
what's happened to them!"

"At once, Princess K.," the elderly Tengu nods. "Though I must
confess, I've never seen Countess J. look so beautiful!"

"Yes," Kurama muses, then laughs. "I dare say Karasu-chan might get
very jealous! Her vanity has always been her problem."

"You may be right, Princess," Old One cackles. "I'll have Sensei
head over now."

He turns to head aft. "Old One?"

"Yes, Princess?" he faces Kurama.

"If there are males in that group, do keep them away from poor Karasu-
chan," Kurama smiles. "I want first dibs."

"Of course, Princess."

* * *

"Unbelievable!!" Kurama's doctor, an elderly Tengu of the same
generation as Old One, gasps. "This is DNA rewriting like I've never seen
before!! Virtually the same as what happens when one becomes a Lannarkite,
but the end result is so strikingly different! If Isha-sensei didn't tell us
about the truth of her species, I'd swear that this race and the Lannarkites
were two different species!"

Everyone now stands in the main medical station of Border Post Two,
Jii relaxing on the diagnostic bed as Sensei flutters around her. Kurama,
Karasu, Marcia, Isha, Tawn and Varena stand nearby. "So this is what a
Lannarkite is supposed to be, eh?" the Tengu princess hums. "Once the news of
this gets out, the way all of us look on that race will change drastically."

"Yes, especially since there's not a flaw in any of them!" Karasu
snorts derisively, finding herself VERY wanting after a quick comparison
between herself and Jii.

"Too bad," Varena winks at her mates.

The others snicker. "What's so funny?!!" Karasu snarls, spinning on
them.

Innocent whistles answer. "Never mind, cousin," Kurama waves her
down. "Sensei, is there any way to reverse this? Make Jii-chan and her
friends normal again?"

"I doubt even the regeneration matrix on Sagurei could do that,
Princess K.," Sensei bows to her. "Like it or not, Countess J. and her
friends are stuck this way."

"It's not bad," Jii smiles. "Especially since it was YOUR former
groom Ataru Moroboshi who saved my life!" she gazes at Kurama. "And you
always said he was such a hentai! The man who saved my life was as noble as
Nassur himself!! I wish he wasn't engaged to marry Lum so **I** could marry
him!!!"

Kurama jolts, her eyes flashing with sullen rage. "ATARU saved
you?!! That useless, ungrateful moron...?!!"

A whole bank of computers is tossed at the princess, burying her!
"Hey, lady!!!" Marcia snaps. "He saved us, too!!!"

Kurama feels the bump on her skull. "I rather wish Ataru was still
the way he was before that farce on Icarus," Karasu sighs wistfully. "He
seemed so much more fun then!"

"I'm glad he did change!!" Marcia asserts. "If he didn't, I'd be a
bug right about now instead of eating them!!!"

"Are we done?" Jii yawns. "As much as coming home is fun, we have to
go to Sakusei!"

"Why?!" Karasu blinks.

"Because Koruneko-sama wants us there!" Jii shrugs. "Don't ask me
why! He's the one who saved Varena-chan and her friends."

"If that's true, we best see you escorted there right away, then,"
Old One asserts, then turns to an aide. "Have the Mikado markings struck off
their courier and replaced by our markings. Summon Kaizoku-san, too; they'll
need to change their identification codes in case the Ellsians or the
Fukunokami get upset when they pass by their territories."

"Oh, I haven't seen Kai-chan in a while!" Jii claps her hands.

"Who's Kaizoku?" Varena blinks.

"My brother. He's into computers."

A minute later, Kaizoku arrives. One of the first male humanoids
born in the wake of the genocide of males by the Seifukusu a millennia ago, he
is a slender, bespectacled, bookish type with very big glasses over narrow
green eyes and reddish wing-styled hair. With him is a labtop with a multi-
purpose computer jack. "What's the problem?"

"Hi, Kai-chan!" Jii slips her arm around his. "We need you to fix up
some things on our ship so we can get to Sakusei."

"Oh, hi, Jii-chan," he smiles at her, unfazed that she was no longer
Tengu. "It's already been fixed."

"You already fixed it?" Marcia squeaks.

"Sure!" Kaizoku grins embarrassingly. "The instant I heard Jii-chan
was aboard, I hacked into the mainframe and found out from your helm logs you
wanted to get to Sakusei. After checking into the mission logs for Varena-san
and her friends, I also learned the Mikado wanted to capture you for study and
possible conversion into slave warriors so he could use you against the
rebels. He was even thinking of making a special hit squad so he could use
them to assassinate Dakejinzou Shogai, her daughters and those clones of hers
Professor Ninko created sometime ago."

"Why would he think we could take on a fighter of Dakejinzou's
class?!" Marcia gapes.

"Search me, but comparing the genetic structures of humanoid
Lannarkites and Umanoshippo synthezoids, I'd say it'd be a pretty good
fight," Kaizoku shrugs. "Shogai-san would win since her kind has the greater
endurance potential, but it'd be close."

"Hey, wait a minute!!!" Varena appears before the Tengu man. "How'd
you know all that?! Those are top secret mission plans!!!"

"Them?!" Kaizoku embarrassingly laughs. "It usually takes me two
days to break a new programming code! You Vosians've really gotta work more
on your cryptography skills!"

Varena blinks. "You're Corsair, aren't you?! The Visionary who's
been supplying the rebels with the Mikado's computer codes and signal cyphers
for the last two decades!!"

"That's right," Kurama proudly places an arm around her cousin's
shoulders. "Kai-chan here is Tengu's small contribution to the downfall of
the Mikado."

Varena smiles, admiration in her voice. "Were this before I became a
Lannarkite, I would've killed you for that. But one must admire good work
when one sees it. The Mikado has a million-credit bounty on you, you know!"

"Big deal," Kaizoku shrugs. "Instant I find out someone's trying to
come after me, I vector Colonel Gomasur's troops into stopping him long before
they could guess where I am."

A rumble is heard. Everyone blinks as Varena's eyes glow.
"INCOMING!!!!!!"

An explosion in a hangar bay nearly vents the station to the outside
vacuum!! Everyone runs out of the medical station to see a platoon of Mikado
Marines appear, weapons out and ready. "BY COMMAND OF THE MIKADO, SURRENDER
AT ONCE!!!!!!" their lieutenant thunders at the top of his lungs.

"Damn!!! What are they doing here?!!" Kurama snarls as the group
gathers by an enclosed observation gallery over the hangar, which now
contained the stolen courier ship.

"Oh, shit, everyone's still aboard!!!" Marcia cries out.

Suddenly, a transporter beam sends in another man dressed in a long
coat, a VERY big rifle in hand as his braided blonde hair seems to flow with
the gentle gusts inside the hangar. "I suggest you surrender right now,"
Aisur smiles. "You have one chance."

The Marines gape at the lone hunter, many moving to bring their
weapons to bear on him. Aisur doesn't flinch. Up above, another recognizes
their would-be rescuer. "Aisur?!" Varena gasps. "What's he doing here?!!"

"What type of ship did the Mikado's goons come in on?!" Kurama spins
to a technician.

"It's a fast frigate now trying to jam your cruiser from sending in
reinforcements, Princess K.!" the technician produces an image of the Mikado
ship nose-to-nose with Kurama's.

"Hack into that ship and make its warp-core overload!!" Jii turns to
Kaizoku.

He flips open his laptop and types. Suddenly, the Mikado ship blows
up in a violent display of pyrotechnics and antimatter gone insane!! "Did
it!!!" Kurama laughs, kissing her cousin. "Good work, Kai-chan!!"

"Um...er...yeah!" Kaizoku blushes.

The Marines spin around to see their ship flash into a billowing
cloud of gasses and shattered metal, then hear someone clearing his throat.
They turn back to see Aisur pointing his gun at them. "Well?"

Weapons clatter to the deck. "I thought so," Aisur nods as security
personnel flutter in with handcuffs to secure the survivors. "Princess
Kurama, are you alright?"

"We're fine, Captain Aisur," Kurama steps onto the hangar deck.
"Please convey my thanks to Colonel Gomasur for the rescue, but what brings
you out our way?"

"The same thing you're dealing with right now, Princess," Aisur
relaxes as the Mikado troops are escorted away. "The leader of the group that
used this ship here is Varena, a hunter we'd like to defect. The propaganda
value of having a warrior of her class siding with Hunba would be worth a lot
to us."

"I see. Much that I would gladly help you deliver such a blow to
that superannuated slime in Lecashuto, I'm afraid Varena-san was forced to
defect to someone else."

"What do you...Lecasur's Soul!"

Varena walks up, then crosses her arms. Despite the blue skin and
crystalline eyes, Aisur is quick to recognize her, especially since she is
still in her normal work clothes. Sighing, she glares at him. "Aisur, you
dork, do I have to personally drag you to Sabaku so you can do your *nicha*
for Munba?!!"

Aisur and Kurama faint!

* * *

"Since Koruneko-sama is the one who wants you to come to Sakusei,
I'll be more than happy to escort you there," Aisur hums as everyone has tea
in the border post's reception lounge. "Once the markings are changed by
Karasu's teams, we'll head out. The Marines you have in the brig'll be
picked up by Colony 112 Security tomorrow, so they shouldn't be much of a
problem."

"Thanks," Marcia nods, feeling her cheeks heat on gazing at his rough-
hewn features. Despite his mark of widowhood, Aisur was positively gorgeous,
someone definitely worth going after. "So...once we're there, what happens to
you? Do you have to go back to finish the fight with the Mikado?"

"No, this is my last job for the *an'san-Mikado,*" Aisur sighs.
"Gomasur's agreed to let me go since it's so close to the finish. And with
what Marcia's said about Junba, not to mention the Sagussans' involvement, I
think once the Sceptre of Lecasur's found, Nassur and his friends will make a
break for Earth. I don't give Otasur's regiment a chance."

"Good riddance is all I say!" Kurama snorts, still angry over
Otasur's trying to kill her not even a month before. She then gazes at Jii.
"A pity you couldn't stay with us, Jii-chan. Though you may be Lannarkite
now, you're still part of our family."

"I know, Kurama-chan, but my loyalties are now with my hive-queen,"
Jii indicates Marcia. "I can't escape that."

"Then serve her well," Kurama smiles.

Jii nods. "By the way," Aisur looks at Kaizoku. "Nice work with
that frigate. You always work that fast, son?"

"Actually...it wasn't me."

"Then who was it?!!" Karasu blinks.

"Velvet Rose," the young man blushes.

Kurama, Karasu and Jii sigh. "Kai-chan, you have to get her out of
your head!!" Jii gazes sadly at her brother. "Chianne-chan's been dead for a
hundred and fifty years!!! Will you stop being so shy?! It's okay to admit
that you're better than she was!"

"Who's Chianne?" Marcia blinks.

"A friend," Kaizoku heads to his room.

Everyone blinks confusedly as he goes. "Who's Chianne?" Marcia asks
again.

"Chianne du Maratok, a.k.a. Velvet Rose," Kurama sadly muses. "A
Visionary from Elle that Kai-chan was in love with when he became a Visionary.
She was the greatest hacker ever according to most experts. He wanted to marry
her, but she committed suicide a century and a half ago. He was very...hurt
over it."

"I know how that feels," Aisur sighs.

"Every time something spectacular happens, he always credits her,"
Karasu sniffs. "How romantic!"

The others nod. Meanwhile, Kaizoku walks into his quarters. "Thanks
for the help."

"Anytime," Nene rises, labtop in hand. "We Visionaries have to watch
out for each other. I've got to go. Sylia's got orders from Noa to get to
the Planet of Shadows so we can rescue Ataru and the others."

"You better go," Kaizoku sighs.

Nene nods, then turns to tap her wrist-comm for the beam-back to the
"Kiboo'cha." "Chianne-chan?"

The Ellsian-born Visionary blinks. "That's not my name anymore, Kai-
chan."

"Do you wish it happened?"

Tears flow down her face. "Many times."

She disappears in a transporter beam...

* * *

"Everyone. There's an announcement."

The members of Force One move into one of the auditoriums located
deep in the Chamber of Eternity. Sitting down, the 650 troopers ordered to
provide civil security to Sagussa remain at attention as their six troop
commanders gather on the stage. "Alright, we've some good news!" Natsumi,
commander of Troop Delta, begins. "Earlier today, Pathfinder Troop Six and
the 'Hasei'cha' extracted Ataru-sama and his friends from the Mikado's
control at the Planet of Shadows. They're now heading back to Earth."

The women assembled cheer. "Hold it!!!" Natsumi holds up a hand.
"That doesn't mean Ataru-sama is going to be on his way here right away," she
warns, then sighs. "In return for our keeping an eye on him during the trip,
Nassur-san agreed that Sagussa would be in on the kill when the time comes to
deal with the Mikado. Noa has informed us that probably within the next three
weeks, the Defence Force will deploy to Vos to participate in the final battle
for Lecashuto alongside Commander Hunba's liberation army."

"Aw, how come those ship-drivers get all the fun?!!" someone heckles
from the audience.

"Relax, we're not trained for that, remember?!" Natsumi smiles as
some others echo that question. "Once we're finished with the Vosians, we'll
then be moving to bring Ataru-sama here. You know what that means. The
government will probably be organized within the next month. After that, our
first order of business is our treaty with Earth. You know what THAT could
mean. If our first battle was any clue, we'll have to help clean out whatever
spies Oogi may still have on the ground. And that will involve us!"

Grins cross many faces. At last, action! "We'll spend the next few
ten-days brushing up on our skills," Natsumi sighs. "Concentrate on weapons
and stun-stick use. Also test your language skills. Spend time in the holo-
simulators. Remember, as police officers, people look to you. Don't let them
down!"

The policewomen nod. Once the meeting is dismissed, they head to
their personal quarters. One of these women is a sergeant from Troop Alpha.
A light smile cuts across her face as she heads into her room, then stops.
"You going somewhere, Ai-chan?"

Ainoneko looks up from her bed, half-way packing through her
dufflebag. "Yeah, Mu-chan. The fleet's been ordered to second stage of
readiness. I'll be staying aboard the 'Virgin'cha' until this whole thing
with the Mikado's settled."

"Good luck, then," the blonde Vosian-born policewoman stares at her.
"Ai-chan, why do you insist on calling me Munba? That was my name in my first
life; it doesn't apply now."

"That's the name I remember you by," Ainoneko chastely kisses her.
"See you."

"Yeah. Be careful," Munba waves as the watchmistress leaves for her
ship, then lays back, gazing at the ceiling. "Aisur..."

* * *

Two weeks later...

"...news from Lecashuto. The Rebel Alliance Army, aided by the Fifth
Republic of Sagussa, took the capital city of the Vosian Confederation in a
bloody pre-dawn strike that nearly destroyed the remainder of the Mikado's
troops. Reports are vague, but rumour has it that the Mikado did flee the
capital prior to the final assault. The new commander of the Rebel Alliance
Army, Hessur, has reported that Commander Hunba was killed in the attack..."

Aisur shuts off the speaker, then stretches, glancing right to see
Marcia curled up in bed, a content look on the hive queen's face. Four
weeks. Four weeks that part of him said might've been better served hunting
Mizu. But the other part had advised that the time had come for him to let
it all go, put Munba behind him and start anew. A hundred years since that
dark day. A hundred years of a lonely trek often interrupted by his time in
the Defence Force and later the *an'san-Mikado.* A hundred years since Mizu
had last taken lives. His hunt could still wait.

Besides, he couldn't deny enjoying his four week vacation here on
Sakusei. Anyone who came to stay with Koruneko either paid for room and board
or else worked to earn their keep. Aisur did the latter, working as a general
handyman and bouncer. While few people pushed their luck in Koruneko's
presence, there were the usual drunks and trouble-makers that disturbed the
other guests, people the master of the establishment was loath to deal with
personally. Part of being of such a long-lived race, Koruneko once confessed
to Aisur, was that he had to remember that shorter-lived race saw things at a
different, faster pace. Koruneko had no right to impose his vast vision on
others.

That made Aisur wonder why Koruneko was being so courteous to
Marcia's hive, not to mention the three humanoids he had watched over since
the Shingetsu massacre. Yes, these people had problems. Their own society
viewed them as mutants, monsters to be shunned. Few mammalian humanoids
would be pressed to accept them the instant "Lannarkite" was uttered in
reference. Granted, two of the three present before Marcia's arrival had
local boyfriends who were recently told of their origins, but what about the
160 he had escorted here from Tengu space? Where could they go?

Standing, he stretches, then proceeds to dress. Drawing the covers
over the dozing Marcia, Aisur leans down to kiss her cheek, then heads into
the bar. "Good morning, Aisur-kun," Koruneko smiles as he dries his wine
glasses. "You heard the news?"

"I did," he sits. "Bad luck for Hunba. She deserved better. I
wonder if Nassur knows who she was. Say, Koruneko-san, do you have any idea
where the Mikado might have run to?"

"Are you planning to go after him?" Koruneko wonders. "If you did,
it might interfere with your quest to destroy Mizu."

"No, not personally, but if he's out there somewhere, it'll be best
to track him down and nail him right away instead of waiting for him to
reappear when the Confederation least needs it," Aisur muses. "He's running
now. No set base of operations. Few forces to call on and he'll have no hope
of getting help from the outside, even someone like Sheko. Best to take him
down very soon."

"Agreed, but even I cannot sense where he might be," Koruneko sighs.
"I've only met the man three or four times in the past hundred years. I must
spend more time with people before I can track them down with any hope of
success. And as you well know, the Mikado has never given me cause to like
him."

"Don't blame you," Aisur smiles. "By the way, can you answer a
question for me?"

"Certainly."

"Why're you caring for Marcia's hive?"

Koruneko sighs. "Let me ask you a question first, then. What do you
think of when you hear the name 'Lannarkite?'"

"Bugs," he shudders. "Nastiest critters around. Don't ever let your
guard down around them. Don't expect to reason with them. They'll kill you,
so kill them first."

"Exactly. Given their behaviour, that's to be expected. Now, could
you associate those attributes to Marcia and her hive?"

"No."

"Exactly," Koruneko smiles. "The transformation that turned Marcia's
people into the monsters you know occurred fifty generations ago by my race's
count. A crime unparalleled in the history of all races, so my mother told
me. My race was around back then, doing as we always did: watching but never
interfering when we could've avoided it. We had the power to stop those who
hurt the Lannarkites...but we didn't interfere. That is a guilt my race has
borne for many generations, my friend. So, if we ever do encounter
Lannarkites, we resolve to revert them to humanoid form and care for them,
allow them to live their lives in peace."

"So why doesn't your whole race come together to deal with the
Lannarkites en masse? Everyone would be grateful."

"But what would it teach, Aisur-kun?" Koruneko blinks. "If we
banished the terror, the fear the Lannarkites produce among other races, does
that really do anything? Does it teach anything, my friend? To the races
here? To the Lannarkites themselves? No, it doesn't. Yes, it would solve
many problems, but no race evolves by getting lucky breaks. A race evolves by
enduring and learning from crises, disasters, even facing their own
armageddon. That is why I hope you will continue your quest for Mizu, Aisur-
kun. With it, you've learned how to prioritize, when to hunt and when to
rest. You've learned there are more basic needs than what you were used to.
And the people of Mizu have learned. They've learned their actions against
others has a cost. Three dozen have you killed? And sooner or later, they'll
encounter a race that will be too strong. That will be their armageddon.
Either they learn from it...or they die. That is how simple life is."

Aisur whistles, then his eyes glow. Turning to the door, he sees a
middle-aged Fukunokami couple standing there, glancing around the cosy pub.
"Ah, good morning," Koruneko walks over to them. "Welcome to Koruneko's. May
I show you to your seats?"

The wife bows. "I'm sorry, Koruneko-sama, but we received a call
from here sometime ago concerning our daughter Marcia."

"Ah, Marcia's parents! Please, sit down and make yourselves
comfortable. Tea?"

"Please," Mrs. Gyatan nods as they relax.

Koruneko walks to the bar. "You best fetch her," he whispers.

"Right," Aisur nods, heading upstairs.

Tea is served. Two minutes later, Marcia jogs downstairs, stopping
to glance around a corner to gaze on her parents. "I don't think they'll be
happy to see me," she whispers.

"Go in there and tell them what happened," Aisur urges. "It's the
only way for you to be at peace with yourself."

Marcia kisses him. "I love you."

She turns and heads into the bar. Aisur remains in place, a twinge
of guilt arcing up his spine. "If only I could truly love you back,
Marcia..." he sighs.

She clears her throat as she approaches the table. Her parents
tense, then turn to gaze at the dark-skinned woman with the crystal eyes and
the curious body markings. Marcia's mother blinks as she stares intently into
her daughter's face, then her eyes widen in shock and disbelief as her heart
confirms what her eyes were telling her. "Marcia...!"

"Mom!!!" Marcia cries out as she embraces her. "Oh, Mom!!"

Koruneko smiles as he prepares breakfast.

* * *

"This is a Lannarkite?!"

"The original Lannarkite race, you might say," Koruneko smiles as
everyone enjoys breakfast later. Aisur and K'chi sit to either side of the
Gyatans' transformed child. Marcia tries not to wince on seeing her parents'
overwhelmed looks. They were expecting a slim Fukunokami girl, not a busty
humanoid Lannarkite caring for a child in an adult body. "As you well know,
once an egg is implanted in a host body, it cannot be removed without killing
that host. But the chance is there...and it is happening more frequently as
we speak...the child will be humanoid when she hatches. Marcia was lucky in
that regard."

"I'd hardly call this 'lucky!!'" Mr. Gyatan growls, then spins on
Marcia. "See what happens when you blast off into the unknown like that?!
You're damn lucky you're still alive and breathing, even though I'd not call
becoming THIS being 'lucky!!'"

"Dear!!!" Mrs. Gyatan snaps at her husband. "It's that pathetic
attitude of yours that drove Marcia and Jojou away from us in the first
place!! Now look what's happened?! Our son's dead and our daughter is more
isolated than ever!! When will YOU start curbing that mouth of yours?!!"

Marcia's father shies from her. "Mom, relax!" Marcia laughs. "I
kinda missed hearing you and Dad snipe at each other!"

Her parents blush. "So what happened to your brother?!" her father
then sighs.

"He was isolated from me after being impregnated," Marcia shakes her
head. "It's the way it works in most hives according to Isha-sensei. Males
and females mature separately. When the egg hatched, Jojou's mind was
destroyed and the child's mind took over. But some memories were absorbed.
The child called himself J'jou in honour of his host. But because he was a
'mutant,' he was seen as less than dirt and thrown into a cold space...to die.
By the time we found out about them, it was too late."

Marcia looks down, allowing her tears to flow. Silence falls as
everyone absorbs those words, then Mrs. Gyatan walks over to embrace her
daughter. "Hush, baby! It's alright! You tried to do your best! It's
okay!"

"Jojou..." Marcia sobs.

After a moment, the hive queen composes herself, then wipes her
eyes. "So what happens now?" Mr. Gyatan turns to Koruneko.

"That is the problem," Koruneko sighs. "The other 'elders' who still
possess their hosts' psyches have contacted their parents and families...those
who are still alive, by the way. Many are re-establishing links with those
families, but no matter what, the bonds everyone holds to the hive take
precedence over everything else. Where Marcia decides to go, the hive will go
with her."

"No wonder the Lannarkites are so hard to defeat," Mrs. Gyatan shakes
her head. "Their solidarity is a very potent weapon."

"Tell me about it," Marcia muses.

"So where can you go?" Mr. Gyatan shrugs. "I doubt any of the
affected families'd be willing to take you in; there are what, 160 of you?!
That doesn't mention what could happen when outsiders find out! Koruneko-sama
has a point; it'll be hard for you to be accepted anywhere. Maybe Vos...?" he
turns to Aisur.

"We're busy with ending the Civil War to worry about refugees, sir,"
Aisur smiles. "Yehisril'll be out unless someone volunteers to do the Test
of Life; outside Varena, there are no ex-Yehisrites in Marcia's hive.
Ipraedos is definitely out; Miryoku's family warned that if Schwartz ever
found out about them, they'd be off to the nearest laboratory for
experiments. And I doubt the Zephyrites have a spare colony in a safe part
of their territory that could be given over for the hive's use even if Ataru
Moroboshi's grandmother is asked to intervene. Like it or not, staying with
Koruneko-sama is the safest option for the next while."

"Pity," Mrs. Gyatan sighs. "K'chi-chan, come sit with your
grandmother!"

"Okay!" K'chi walks over, then relaxes in her grandmother's lap.
"Grandmama pretty... even if fur-skin!"

"I assume that's a compliment," Mrs. Gyatan grunts under K'chi's
weight.

"Isha-sensei says they'll evolve very fast now that they're not
restricted," Marcia smiles. "By this time next year, K'chi might be ready to
seek a mate of her own. Humanoid and insectoid Lannarkites born this way
mentally evolve at the same speed to be of greater benefit to the hive."

"That's good," Mrs. Gyatan sighs, then looks at Aisur. "What of you,
Aisur-san? What are your intentions towards my daughter?"

"Ma'am!" Aisur blushes. "I...I like your daughter very much. If I
was free of some pressing prior obligations, I'd happily stay with her. But
sooner or later, the target of my quest, the beings who murdered my wife and
friends, will make its reappearance. When it does, I intend to be there."

"I hope your quest won't be the end of you," Mr. Gyatan hums, then
grinning, slaps the Vosian's back. "But anyone who catches Marcia's eye is
okay in my books!"

Aisur grunts, his face smashed into the table! Marcia and her mother
laugh. Koruneko smiles. "Grandpapa strange," K'chi muses.

* * *

Seven weeks later...

"***YOU'RE LEAVING?!?!?!***"

Aisur winces, shaking in fear at the sight of Marcia about to launch
their whole bed at his face. "M-marcia, I can explain!" he stammers, her
Shinobu-esque strength having long left its impression on him.

"You better, buster, or you ain't gonna get your white whale after
I'm done with you!!!" the hive queen snarls as she puts the bed down, then
kneels beside him. "What's with you?!! You've been after this damn thing for
a hundred years!! Can't you let it go?!"

"After what happened to me?! To how many others for who knows how
long?!" Aisur moves to sit on the bed. "No, Marcia, I can't let it go!! One
way or another, it ends!!"

"Shit, the Sagussans are protecting Earth now!" Marcia sits beside
him. "You can relax and let them handle it!! One man against a wandering
asteroid is suicide!"

"Do you think the Sagussans can handle it?!" Aisur looks at her.
"Yes, they have vast technology! Yes, they were able to blast the
Niphentaxians into the Stone Age! Yes, they were able to help my people get
rid of the Mikado! But those monsters on Mizu are a different ball of wax,
Marcia!! What's to stop one of them from seducing a Sagussan and use her to
drown everyone on Earth?!"

Marcia stares at him, then sighs. The last two months had been as
close to Heaven as she could ever wish for. Aisur was more than she could've
hoped to get in a mate. The shopkeepers and permanent residents on Sakusei
accepted them as a couple; the dashing Vosian hunter and the beautiful alien
queen born as a Fukunokami (still very few understood what Marcia really
was). The other elders, even the seniors from S'wi's wing of the hive, loudly
approved of their coupling, even though Varena warned it couldn't really
happen until Aisur went to Sabaku to expunge his grief from Munba's loss.
There hadn't been a mention of Mizu since the day Aisur met her parents until
this morning, when Koruneko told the Vosian the water-asteroid was vectoring
on Earth.

"Okay, go warn them," Marcia sighs, tightly embracing him. "But you
come back to me, you hear?! You come back!"

"I'll be back. I promise."

With a kiss, he grabs his bags, then heads out. Marcia watches him
go, then slumps onto the bed, tears in her eyes. That is where K'chi finds
her later. "Why Mama sad?"

Marcia blinks, then gazes at her child. "Mama sad...because Papa had
to go somewhere."

"Where Papa go?" K'chi sits on the bed. Ever since Marcia and Aisur
had begun to sleep together, the child had automatically accepted the fur-skin
as her adopted father.

"He go to fight the bad people who killed his first wife," Marcia
smiles lightly.

"Fur-skin-fish who live in waterworld?"

"Yeah. If they aren't stopped, the Great Hive on Earth will drown.
Millions will die."

K'chi nods. That she understood well. "Papa come back?"

"I hope so," Marcia sighs as she draws K'chi into her embrace.

* * *

"Marcia?!"

Marcia looks up. "What is it, Tawn?"

Tawn walks in. "From Aisur."

Marcia takes the letter, then opens it. Tawn withdraws. Koruneko
had said that morning that Mizu had been captured by the Sagussans, then
teleported to their world and destroyed, the water to be used to refill the
long-dry seas of that wrecked planet. She hoped Aisur would've come back
right away, though Varena had hinted he might've finally decided the time had
come to pay Sabaku a call. Gazing at the envelope, she notices the golden
phoenix insignia in the corner. Taking the sheet of paper, she opens it and
reads:

"Chamber of Eternity, Tere'na Province,
"1-Ataru'cha Year 1, Day 75
"Dear Marcia,
"First of all, let me reassure you that I'm alright. I came to Earth
looking for a friend, an observer sent here some years before the Civil War.
He, now known as Abraham Shapiro, told me that the Sagussans are in fact the
Maidens of the Eternal Voyager. Don't worry if you forgot to tell me about it
when I told you about my wife; I guess you didn't consider it that important.
"Please don't think of this as a Dear Jane letter, but...Marcia,
Munba's alive! I told you that she had become a Maiden along with the fifty-
one others Mizu killed a hundred years ago. Here on Sagussa, she was known as
*Daishi'cha* #98671 until I gave her back her old name. She even remembered
who I was, remembers a lot of our life together back on Vos. Seeing
her...well, how would you feel if your brother suddenly turned up alive and
well? That's what happened to me.
"She's a police officer, a sergeant in their Force One, which is
tasked to keep the peace on Sagussa. Well, I...don't really know how to
explain this, but...I was asked to remain here as their Commissioner of
Internal Security. I agreed. I don't want to leave you, but staying on
Sakusei Station and doing nothing other than bounce and clean for Koruneko
doesn't suit me well. I haven't mentioned you to Munba yet. You see, she
thinks herself a Sagussan now. I suppose I can't deter her from that sort of
thinking; that's how much a person changes when she becomes a *daishi'cha.* I
intend to tell her; I never kept any secrets from her before and I won't start
now. Please try to understand..."

Marcia sighs, then feeling a blast of rage rip through her body, she
crumples up the letter and tosses it away. "DAMN YOU!!!!!!" she screams out,
then slumps down, sobbing...

* * *

"***YOU JUST LEFT HER THERE?!?!?!***"

Aisur howls as a bed smashes into his face, slamming him into the
wall of the room he shared with Munba! "*Calm down, Munba,*" James' voice
echoes over them. "*You may damage your child-mate to the point where we may
not save him...!*"

"QUIET, JAMES!!!!!!" Munba shrieks, then glares at him. "You
moronic, stupid, trench-wave, no-mind, stoneheaded...!!!" she thunders on in a
litany of Sagussan and Vosian curses.

"Is there a problem here, Chief?" Makinoshoo leans into the room.
"We heard something hit something..."

"OUT, MAKI!!!!!!" Munba spins on her.

"I'm going, I'm going!!!" Maki runs off.

Munba spins around to glare at Aisur. "Men!!! You're so damned
typical!! You leave a vulnerable woman all alone after caring for her,
staying with her, sleeping with her for two whole months, make her think you
care for her, then like a typical Lone Ranger, promise you MIGHT come back
while you go off hither and yon to slay the bad guys!!! Lyna's Soul, we
can't live with you and we can't wish you were all gone because we aren't
Nendo-kata!!!"

"I do care for her, Mu-chan...!"

"You do, do you?!" Munba glares. "Then what in the name of the Fates
was all that slobbering over me back in Tomobiki?!!"

"Because I still care for YOU!!!!" he gets back up. "Good grief, do
you think anyone else who lost their relatives to Mizu and were resurrected by
the regeneration matrix WOULDN'T react that way when they saw them alive and
well?!! How do you think old man Kalisur would behave when he saw Ainoneko?!!
He's been a hermit for the last hundred years!! Everyone else is the same way
if the Civil War hadn't claimed them!! What was I supposed to do?!!"

"Maybe you should've thought about going to Sabaku and trying to put
your life back together again!! Maybe it wouldn't've blinded you to the fact
that on Sakusei Station right now, there is a sweet girl who is feeling like
the whole galaxy is falling on her head!! Because that's the way Marcia must
be feeling since the one man who's treated her with respect, love and kindness
just upped and deserted her when she needed him the most!!! And that doesn't
count what Marcia's poor daughter must be feeling right now!!"

A knock is heard. Munba spins around to see Noa standing there.
"What's all this?! We can hear you up and down the length of the Chamber?!"
the *ashi'cha* crosses her arms.

"*De'ne* here decided he was going to come live with me and he
conveniently forgot that he's got someone waiting for him now on Sakusei
Station!!" Munba thumbs Aisur.

"Oh? Who's that?"

"A girl named Marcia Gyatan," he sighs.

"Marcia...?!" Noa blinks. "Say, is she that Fukunokami girl that
became a humanoid Lannarkite Ataru helped sometime back?"

"That's her," Aisur nods.

"Well, then," Noa hums, then looks at Munba. "Munba-chan, what do
you think yourself as right now? Vosian or Sagussan?"

"Sagussan, of course!" Munba asserts, then points to Aisur. "I'm
just trying to convince THIS lunkhead about that!!"

"Well, then," Noa smiles. "What happens to a Sagussan when she finds
out there's someone wanting her child-mate?"

"Bond with her!" Munba asserts. "But if he thinks I'm going to solve
his problem with Marcia for him, he's mistaken!"

"What about Marcia's hive?!" Aisur asks. "Noa, there are 160 of
them!! Where Marcia goes, they go! I can't drag them all the way out here
just on a whim, you know!!"

"A hundred and sixty, you say," Noa muses, then walks outside.

Aisur and Munba exchange looks, then step outside. Noa now stands at
the guardrail of the catwalk overlooking the multi-level complex that had
been the Sagussans' home for the past ten thousand years. One is struck by
the sheer room of the place; despite it being underground, lighting had been
set up to present an airy feeling akin to the interior of a multi-storey
complex like Toronto's Eaton Centre. "Gee, I guess we have enough room
here," Noa then looks at Munba. "Munba-chan, are there males in Marcia's
hive?"

"Um, I think so," Munba blinks. "About fifty, right?" she then looks
at Aisur.

"So I counted," Aisur hums.

"Then what are you doing letting all those males languish on
Sakusei?! Where's your sense of duty to the Grand Design?! Get going and get
them over here, you two!!"

Munba and Aisur sweat as Noa leaves...

* * *

"Are you feeling better, Marcia?"

"Not so good," Marcia sighs as she nurses her drink of super-vodka,
trying to smile. "I suppose Aisur's right," she wipes her eyes. "After all,
if Jojou suddenly showed up alive and well, I'd be pretty freaked out."

"Yes," Koruneko hums. "Even more so since Munba was one of the very
late *daishi'cha.* She would have considerable memories of her first life.
It must be as disorientating for her as it is for him. Still, you did a good
thing for Aisur. You did show that it was time to let his quest for Mizu go
and get on with his life."

Marcia blinks confusedly. "I thought you told him going after Mizu
was good."

"It was good, child," Koruneko smiles. "But your being with him gave
him a lesson Mizu couldn't. You showed him more sharply than his time with
the Vosian Defence Force and the *an'san-Mikado* was over and that it was
time for Mizu to stop being the be-all and end-all of his life. It was time
to settle down and have a family. Fate just intervened by bringing Munba
back into the picture."

"Yeah, I guess," Marcia sighs...

...then gasps as hands fall over her eyes. "Surprise."

She turns to see Aisur standing there, a sheepish look in his eyes.
Rising as a quick blast of anger fires up her spine, she raises her hand to
slap him...then smiles as the anger fades, then embraces him. "Don't you EVER
do that to me again, you idiot!!"

"Hi, yourself," he smiles as they kiss, then stands back to show off
his uniform. "Well, what do you think?"

Marcia looks. "It's nice. Black and dark blue looks pretty good on
you. Is this your duty jumpsuit?"

"Yeah, it is," Aisur sighs.

Marcia looks left as a blonde Vosian woman walks up to them, dressed
in a more militaristic version of Aisur's uniform, the four tabs of a Sagussan
police chief on her collar studs. Still, not much had changed since her
picture was taken a hundred years before, the same picture Aisur showed her
when he first told the hive queen about her. "Hello, Marcia," she smiles.
"I'm Munba."

"I'll be damned," Marcia whistles, then smiles, her hand out. "Hi."

They shake hands, then Munba smiles at Aisur, then her. "Well,
Marcia. I...we have come to ask you and your hive if you'd be willing to come
live with us on Sagussa."

"Wait a sec'...you want me to come live with you?" Marcia wonders.
"Both of you?!"

"Not just you, Marcia!" Munba laughs. "ALL of you! The whole hive
is invited!" She then offers her hand again. "Please."

Marcia blinks, then gazes quizzically at Aisur. He smiles at her.
Finding herself smiling, the hive queen then squeezes Munba's hand. "Sure,
why not?!" she laughs...

* * *

Three months later...

The alarm bell rings. Marcia moans as she tries to pull the pillow
over her ears. "Hey, Mu-chan, shut it off, huh?!"

"I can't reach it, Ma-chan..." Munba mutters. "Ai-chan...?"

Aisur's hand deactivates the clock, the controls over his head. With
that, the three fall back asleep. A minute later, the door to their bedroom
opens and Wanderer trots in. Walking over to Marcia's side of the bed, he
leans in and starts licking her face. "Hey!!" she gasps, then sighs.
"Alright, alright, already! I'm up, I'm up!!"

"Do we have to?" Munba mutters.

"Mama!!" K'chi enters, now in her beige-and-white civilian jumpsuit.
As she was emotionally a minor, she had to wear that when attending the
general scholastic training institute set up by the Education Ministry for
the Lannarkite children and the younger Colony Four hunters. "Papa!!
Mashi!! I'm going!"

"Have a good day, sweetie!" Marcia smiles, rubbing Wanderer's
forehead. "You're lucky, Wanderer. When you have kids, you don't have to
worry about sending them to school and all that."

Wanderer growls as he leans over to draw the blankets off them. "I
don't think he's letting us sleep in," Aisur grunts.

With that, the three stumble out of bed. It had been awkward at
first, adjusting to a three-way communal bonding, trying to adopt to not only
one's child-mate, but one's bondmate. Still, it seemed the best. As Marcia
slips on her housecoat, she walks into the kitchen, then out the front door
into the hustle and bustle of the Chamber. K'chi was now sitting on a small
hovercycle piloted by one of the young Colony Four hunters, Nomasur.
"Nomasur, don't you be fresh with my daughter now, hear?!" Marcia warns.

"Marcia-sempai!!" he blushes.

They head off. "Crazy kid," Marcia mutters as she heads back inside.

Munba prepares breakfast as Aisur scanned the day's schedule for him
and Munba. Marcia slips off her housecoat, then draws out her uniform, black-
and-gold. "What did Noa want to see you for later, Ma-chan?" Munba wonders.

"Search me," she stretches. "Something to do with what position
they're willing to give me. Most of the others are fitting in, but they're
worried about how the others'll react if they don't give me something vital."

"Hard to do that; all the major slots are taken," Aisur muses.
"Unless someone's tired of her job already and wants to quit."

"Doubt that'll happen..." Munba muses.

"Yeah, I know," Marcia sighs. "Well, we'll have to see."

* * *

Some minutes later, Marcia walks out of her apartment, then takes the
escalator to the upper gallery, the site of all the main government offices
while the Hall of the Republic was still under construction. Waiting by the
door to Noa's office is her private secretary Kana. "The Minister is waiting
for you now," she waves the hive queen inside, then secures the door after
her.

"Thanks, Kana," Marcia nods. "Yo, Noa."

"Hello, Marcia," Noa waves her to a seat. "Make yourself at home.
Would you like some tea or coffee?"

"No thanks. So, what's the problem?"

"Well," the *ashi'cha* sits behind her desk. "Even though we've now
just started the main part of the reconstruction work and many are now
starting families, we need to take some time to anticipate problems in the
future. Later, I'll be meeting two elders of the T'Kon Concordat to establish
some rapport with them, maybe press things beyond the basic detente our
predecessors maintained with theirs. Still, there are some disturbing signs
appearing right now that could become big problems in the future."

"Like what?"

"Nepotism for one," Noa sighs. "Our first public elections won't be
until Year 20, when the eldest of our children would be mature enough to
participate. That's a very long time away. Already, I'm starting to notice
favouritism to those *daishi'cha* possessing names over those who've yet to
get names. Moreover, within two years, we'll be receiving our first
immigrants from Earth...not to mention the new open-door policy we have with
political refugees...and humanoid Lannarkites like you."

"Can't you do something about it?"

"Not really. As *ashi'cha* I have to be politically neutral in all
respects of government work, much like Madoka. But there are some things I
can't ignore. I need a troubleshooter, someone who can sweep in to clean the
mess before it becomes a disaster. I want you to be that troubleshooter,
Marcia. You've shown a pretty level head caring for your hive. I need
someone like you, an outsider who can see things more clearly than someone
born here. I've persuaded Ataru to create the post of Interior Minister.
Administration, Education, Logistics, Justice and Internal Security will be
under yours, plus you'll have influence over the other parts of the central
government outside the House and the provincial governments: Defence,
Intelligence and External Affairs."

Marcia blinks. "Shit, Noa!! What happens to Shinobu, Oyuki, Carla,
Asuka and Aisur?! They get demoted..."

"No," Noa shakes her head. "As the applicable ministers for their
departments, they have responsibility at both the national and provincial
levels, the latter responding to their provincial governments. When it comes
to Republic policy, your opinion can counter theirs. I need someone to be
around to do that. You'll be equal to Madoka and Lumunookaa, responding
directly to Sakura. But most of all, you'll answer to me."

"I'd be your hatchet-girl," Marcia hums. "Okay, why me?! Why not
Lum or someone else?"

"Two reasons," Noa smiles. "One, Lum and Ataru won't be here long
enough. They have to go so we can start weaning ourselves of our emotional
dependence on Ataru and get on with directing our own lives. Two, you're a
humanoid Lannarkite. Your position will be much more visible than Aisur's.
If people both here and those to come live here in the future see that
someone not born of Sagussa is trusted with the power you'll have, then
society will mesh together better. Racism and the other isms won't have a
chance to grow roots here, especially as we open our society up to outside
influences. You'll be guarantor to the philosophy of the Non-Interference
Directive, Marcia. Can you do it?"

Marcia blinks. When this all started over a year ago, she was just a
rebellious biker kid escaping a rough home. Now she was the genetic leader of
a hive being absorbed into a greater society. She had a daughter, was now
pregnant with a second child, had both a child-mate and bond-mate, and now was
being trusted with a position of great influence by those who had happily
welcomed that rebellious biker kid into their lives and hearts.

No choice.

"You have me," Marcia nods, smiling...

*** The End ***