Terran Times 18 - Emerald Envisage Read online

  Heat flashed at the contact and she shivered.

  When he straightened, Venel was back in control, his eyes shining silver once again.

  “Does he just hijack you whenever he wants to?”

  “There is a bit more to it than that. I allow him full access to my mind and body.”

  “So the comments about you finding me attractive…” She could feel her own eyes twinkling as the relief that it wasn’t just a one-sided attraction washed through her.

  He moved close to her and their bodies touched, igniting her lust into a conflagration that took over her body and mind. She was in his arms and their mouths were locked in a matter of seconds. His height became an obstacle so she simply climbed him, linking her legs around his waist to make them both more comfortable.

  He broke the kiss to laugh. It started as a chuckle and then grew into a fully grown laugh as he walked them into the personal section of the small station. She clung to him like a monkey as he moved into an area of the small facility that she had never been in. His private quarters.

  Blue, green and white complimented every part of the simple quarters. His bed was large enough for four and so inviting. His fingers worked at and opened her ship suit, peeling her like a banana. As he lay her on the bed and tugged off her suit and boots, she scooted back to watch the show.

  His own clothes consisted of a tunic and trousers with boots. Her stomach clenched as the rippled muscles of his abdomen were exposed and her heart sped up as his upper torso was bared. “Wow.”

  His smile turned into something feral as he stripped off his boots and trousers. “The sentiment is returned.” The column of his erection made her wince in anticipation, it was going to be a tricky fit, but the heat of the moisture her body was producing was more than enough to ease her mind.

  He crawled onto her, not touching her anywhere and overlapping her completely. Sofee shivered as the warmth of his skin was absorbed into hers. He kissed her and she closed her eyes to the intense silver of his gaze. When his weight began to push her thighs apart, she opened her eyes again to meet a startling combination of black and silver.

  The blunt head of his cock rubbed against her, parting her for his invasion. If he was invading, she was surrendering. Sofee bent her knees and raised her hips to him as he slowly pushed inside, the whole time maintaining eye contact with Venel-Nero as his body forged into hers.

  Her lubrication eased the way, but it was still a slow process until Venel’s body began to produce its own lubricant, after that it was clear sailing. Or stroking. Whatever, it felt fantastic. Each rub and slide of his cock inside her took him deeper until she was holding her breath and waiting for the final stroke that would slam him into her cervix. It never came, but she did. She moaned and shivered, her clear blue gaze still meeting his silver and onyx one as her body reveled in his.

  They moved faster inside her, the delicious friction moving her back to the precipice of pleasure more rapidly than she would have imagined. The precum that Venel’s body was producing was having an aphrodisiacal effect on her. She wanted more and he was giving it to her. And how.

  She peaked again, but this time he joined her as she shook in his grip. He groaned heavily and pumped into her with short sharp thrusts. Sofee didn’t know how he didn’t crush her when his body slumped onto hers, but somehow it felt right. Comfortable. It was her last thought before sleep overcame her.

  An alarm woke Sofee. With little to no insinuation into her consciousness, she slammed her chronometer off and then realized what it meant. “Damnit!” She stumbled out of the bed only to be handed a hot cup of broth the instant that she left Venel’s quarters. He had been waiting for her.

  “It hurt me to leave you, but you are here to do your job and I didn’t want to slow the process.” His eyes were the same swirling black and silver that she was acquainted with from the night before. Venel and Nero were both eager for her to start. It was obvious by his erection and the space he kept between them.

  “Fine. I will be ready to go in a moment.” She bolted down the hot broth and gasped as it seared her from neck to toe. It was time for the formal wear. She strapped into the layers of buckles and ribbons in brilliant emerald studded with gems. With a deep breath to keep her inner calm, she picked up the control rod that would transmit the power of her mind to the stations that she had planted on the surface of Nero. She thought of it as her scepter.

  The final touch was her personal transmitter in the form of a tiara, gems, metal and all, all green.

  Another deep breath calmed her before she faced her audience of one, well, two.

  “Let’s rock and roll, boys.” Venel had dressed, but Nero had still not left his eyes. They were both going to watch her bring the planet to life. They also appreciated her outfit, if the small growl she heard was any indication.

  Too bad. This was business. She walked through the station to the projection point and centered herself. Dawn had not yet reached her, and the instant that it did, she would begin. More deep breathing calmed her and she could see the still figure of Venel out of the corner of her eye.

  Time for him to get the show that he paid for. Her mind swirled into work mode and she knew without looking that the gem on her forehead was glowing brilliantly. She faced the rising sun and, the instant that the light touched the tip of her scepter, she let her mind flow out and into the tools of her trade.

  One by one, she set off the stations, each carrying a load of once indigenous bacteria and the building blocks of life. Moisture, atmosphere, wind and currents all took on their own lives, the tectonic plates shifted and the planet lived.

  Sofee stood silent and still, as she would be until the sun set, her mind catalogued and kept track of every station releasing and the body of the world springing to life. The world seeder ship would be along in a few months once seasons had settled into a somewhat predictable pattern. The livestock ship would come one year after that.

  Bio-forming a planet took time, took energy, but most of all, it took money. Fortunately, Venel had all three. Plus lips that she could spend eternity kissing, and that body, wow.

  Her moment of inattention cost her. With all stations launched, she only had to monitor the planet’s reactions. Her distraction let the tectonic shift under her feet slide past her senses, right until the moment that there was no ground underneath her.

  “Sofee!”

  She heard his cry as she spun into the depths of Nero, bouncing and twisting against the newly exposed rock on her way down. They had shared a wonderful night, and who knew, they could have shared more. She saw a giant rock coming toward her and then the pain stopped.

  A harsh voice was right in front of her.

  “Sofee. Wake up. You are whole now, wake up.” Venel was in front of her, but Nero was driving. Venel’s body looked a little pale, less cerulean and more baby blue.

  “Whole? I was whole before.” She was strapped to something. It looked like they were in a lab, but few labs would put her on her feet and then strap her to an upright table. She looked down to see her body, but she had two hands and two feet, so she must be whole. Each limb responded to her, sluggishly at first, but eventually her fingers and toes all wiggled in order.

  “You have felt your limbs, yes?” He waited until she nodded. “Well, Venel gave them to you. Literally. He used your DNA to grow copies from his own body for transplant to yours.”

  “What? You are kidding. These are my hands and feet.” Nero sighed and unbuckled her.

  She stumbled forward, but he let her find her own balance. Sofee looked closely at them and a chill ran through her. Scars were missing, as were birthmarks, beauty marks and her chronically misshapen nail. They were also unmistakably pale blue in color. She was wearing a wrap around tunic and she tore it open to look at her body. Each arm and leg had an obvious mark of delineation between her flesh and the transplants. She suddenly had no power in her new limbs. She hit the floor, ass first. “What happened?”

  “Your f
all through the surface rift caused several shattered limbs. The head injury was the easiest to treat, and the internal injuries were repaired swiftly. The shattered limbs caused a problem because it took Venel hours to get to you and they had started to rot. The bacteria that you released were aggressive in trying to consume you, so using the Afax talent was all that Venel could think to do.”

  “Weren’t the Afax the original species of, well, you?”

  “And they were hunted to extinction by those who wanted to be able to grow a new limb with no DNA conflict. An adult Afax can produce limbs for over one hundred people, but when one of them dies, they take the Afax with them. That is how the race died out. They came at night, raiding the adults, leaving the children to fend for themselves. Venel was one of those who was left behind. I paid to have his species hidden behind genetic overlays until he was an adult and the rest of his race was dead. I let the surface of my body die and waited. He was always near, and when I called him, he answered me.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “Fifteen hundred years or so. He has been waiting a long time for someone like you, who saw him and not the wealth he represented. He needs you, and not just because if you die, he dies.”

  “Seriously?” Her job was dangerous. If she died, she took an entire species with her. She couldn’t, no wouldn’t do that. “Wait, how does he grow the limbs?”

  Nero stepped toward her and opened his tunic, four scars decorated the perfect abs that she had admired so ardently.

  “So he puts some of my tissue in the area as a culture, then the limbs sprout? Doesn’t that eat a lot of his body’s minerals and resources?”

  Venel was suddenly in control. “It does. Thank you for taking it so well, not a lot of women would be happy knowing that I had to cut their arms and legs off to save them.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes at the genuine fear in his eyes. “You put them back.” She hugged him. “I am up and around thanks to you.” She leaned back and traced the scarring tissue on his abdomen. He covered her hand with his, then relaxed it as she stroked him again, learning the feel and the shape of the muscles that she loved.

  Their gazes met and they hugged again, clinging together at the lack of choice that they had been given.

  “It was my fault. I forgot to monitor the fault line and it opened underneath me. I was distracted.”

  “By what? I was completely still.”

  She burrowed her face into the protection of his open tunic. “I was remembering our night together and how perfect your lips are to kiss.” The growl that she had heard before the Bio-forming sounded, only this time much closer. She looked up and met his feral grin. He lifted her into the air for his kiss, but the shaking of his arms had him putting her down far before she would have wanted him to.

  “Sorry sweet, Sofee, but that is all you get out of me until we are bonded. I am not letting you get into my pants without a formal commitment. I am not that kind of a male.”

  Blinking with confusion, she leaned back. “I think I am going to have to research the social habits of the Afax.” Black eyes were looking out at her.

  “I have already scheduled time for that, but first, go and look at me, I am starting to bloom and I look wonderful.”

  Sighing, she walked out of the area that she now recognized as her launch station lab and wandered into the daylight. There was wind where there had been no wind, a hint of moisture reminded her that there was an ocean less than three miles away. Blooming was not happening here, not yet, but the soil was darkening and preparing for the seeds that were coming. Soon? “When do the seed ships start their runs?”

  “In three days.”

  “Then I was out for…”

  “Four months. We are currently in a temperate zone, nice weather, good microclimate for growing anything and an abandoned city five miles north if you wish to live there. Venel is eager for you to be comfortable.”

  “Okay, since you are here, what does he mean, formal commitment?”

  “The Afax were a matriarchy. The women chose the males, but the males were entitled to know that the woman wanted him to care for his and her children.”

  “Couldn’t people just fool around?”

  “Only a formal commitment will result in children, and even then, not all of the time. Anything else?”

  “What is involved in a formal commitment?”

  “A simple sharing of blood, which you have already done, but I believe Venel wants the formal rites. We now have a fabricator on hand to create clothing, as well as your storage items from the Khalic. You have all the comforts of home at your disposal and an open com for ordering anything you wish. My finances are your finances. Bring in whatever springs to mind.”

  “Wow. Does that include people?”

  “Your friend Ella has already been invited to attend the formal commitment ceremony. Venel was adamant that you have a witness.”

  “We only need one witness?”

  “No, two. Ella is bringing her mate. She caught him on one of her Hunter runs and decided to keep him.” His phrasing was precise.

  She smiled as he quoted her friend directly. “I knew she would find someone eventually. He is Nyal, isn’t he?”

  “Indeed. How did you know?”

  “I just had a feeling. She was always blushing when she saw them on training vids.” Ella had been her bunkmate in basic training. They had gone through alien identification class and a dozen others together until they were separated for their specific branches of training.

  “They are in orbit right now. We were just waiting until you actually agreed to it before sending for them.”

  “You are back to being a we now?” She looked him in the eye and saw Nero fade to leave Venel behind. “Good. Venel, show me what is a traditional outfit for a formal commitment ceremony.”

  Relief lit his face. “We will have it soon?”

  “In eight hours if I send for the witnesses. The clothes?”

  Instead of heading to the fabricator, he returned to his rooms and dragged out a box made of blue, purple and silver woods. “These belonged to my mother.” Instead of collapsing under the weight of their age, the fabric swirled and held together, creating robes that were made of drifting panels in a rainbow of jewel tones. “I would be honored if you would wear them.”

  “I would be honored to accept. Do I change now? Or right before the ceremony?” She held the robes up against her body and swung her hips from side to side to watch them swirl.

  “You might want to put something on or at least close the tunic. It may as well be the robes, just don’t get them dirty.” He came forward suddenly and planted a kiss right between her eyes. “Enjoy the day of your joining.”

  He shooed her out of his rooms before she had a chance to see his clothing for the joining and she scuttled away to her quarters.

  The gown was as beautiful as she thought it would be, and a certain warmth appeared between her thighs as she wore it. One way or another, she was getting laid tonight.

  The meeting between friends started with girly screams that alarmed their respective men, but the babble that followed it made them smile indulgently.

  Sunset was approaching rapidly. The time for the rites that would enable Sofee to jump Venel was almost here. They had transported to the city as a group, with both Sofee and Venel hiding their finery from the other. The shuttle landed in the center of an area that could only have been a temple of sorts. The other hooded figure on the shuttle looked over at her and she knew what it was. “Oh, gods. It is a temple to Nero.”

  “Of course. The Afax were planet worshipers, similar to the Gaia cult on earth. You know that.” Ella was surprised by her friend. It showed, but she also didn’t know that Nero was standing next to her, riding around in a very attractive body.

  “Yes, I knew that. I just never put it together.” She had to keep her mouth shut. She wasn’t sure of how many people knew about the Sentient planets and she wasn’t going to add to the number.<
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  Venel wasn’t talking, he just walked to the temple in a direct line, leaving the rest of the party to trail in his wake. The doors to the temple opened in front of him with no hands to touch them. Panels of light streamed through the doors as they entered and bathed in the emerging radiance.

  Venel was standing on a ring of green stone imbedded in the floor.

  On instinct, she took up the opposite position. The green stone began to glow and, with the two witnesses watching, Venel and Sofee began to rise. Their cloaks fell, leaving them in their formal wear, which consisted of the robes for Sofee and a blue and green sarong for Venel. He had never looked more beautiful to her, even with the black swirling in his silver eyes. Once they were fifteen feet over the floor of the temple, they began to spin. Each slow rotation took them closer to each other until they were finally within arm’s reach.

  Venel looked down and reached out, a knife flew from his cloak to hover between them, again on instinct, she reached out to grip the knife near the tip and Venel gripped it above the hilt on the blade. They both pulled at the knife, which opened their skin. As her hand flew free, so did his, and she gripped the blade again, now on top of his wound mark. His hand went near the tip, where hers had been. Again, they tugged, this time letting the knife fall to the center of the circle.

  Their bleeding hands met and held. “My life to yours, my body to yours and my planet to yours,” Venel’s voice boomed out.

  “My life to yours, my body to yours, my children as yours, my mind to yours.” She was too wrapped up in what was going on in her mind to pay attention to the witnesses.

  “As Avatar to Nero, I pronounce us mated. As a bringer of life, I pronounce you goddess.” The voice that Venel was using was not his own. It was Nero, plain and simple. The planet itself was conducting the final part of the ceremony.

  To shut him up, she used the oldest trick in the book. She kissed him. Kissing Nero was not like kissing Venel, but he surrendered control to his avatar rather rapidly. It may have had something to do with her mind pushing him back. Ah well.