Center Worlds - Spark

“Pregnancy is desired in our women, Commander,” Lya explained as they walked the paths of the small city. “What with the radiation from the cobalt impacts and the near-constant barrages, my people have lost most of our population. We need to rebuild.”

“My ship is currently doing some deep science scans of the entire planet, Lya. With any luck, we may have some answers soon as to how best to help you. This was never supposed to happen to you.” Ryo said, patting her hand as they walked.

“It may be too little, too late, my Lord. My best scientists say the radiation has penetrated deep into the ground. We may not be able to purge it for centuries.” Lya said. “When the bombardments began we were unprepared. We lost eighty percent of our population. I am not part of the original Clan Desinlo. All full-blood members died centuries past. We were down to less than fifteen thousand people before one of our scientists figured how to make a magnetic shield powerful enough to deflect the Cobalt Projectiles.”

She paused and looked out beyond the edge of the glowing blue shield that wrapped the entire city. They could clearly see just a wreck of craters as far as the eye could see beyond the shield wall.

“Building this shield cost us that scientist, and a thousand workers. But we got it finished, and when it was turned on, the Cobalt Projectiles were deflected away from here. We rejoiced. It was short-lived. We realized that the radiation was still penetrating, still spreading. The shield was tuned and modified. We managed to develop a filter to deflect even the radiation particles. The air became easier to breathe and we had a working biome under the shield. Elsewhere, the planet was devastated, as you can see.” She turned to Ryo, and he could see her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

“Less than twelve thousand people survived. That is too small of a gene pool for safety, what with the radiation. Our children were stillborn, or born with defects that made them die shortly after birth. We were dying, we still are. We began to inbreed as much as we safely could. Tracking pregnancies, couplings, trying to find which was the strongest match for that time. The population began to slowly rebuild. We had also had some trading with cargo ships that had found their way through the nebula. We had much to offer them, goods that could be found nowhere else. We also offered the crews ... us. It was an easy trade-off. We got fertility, they got recreation. Our population continued to slowly grow, despite the continued bombardments.”

She took Ryo’s arm and they continued to walk around the outer ring of the city, just inside the softly humming shield that worked to keep the deadly radiation from saturating the surviving population.

“By the time I was born, to a Clan mother, and a trader father, we were eighty thousand. However, birth rates have begun to decline again. The radiation is seeping in and the shield is just not able to keep it filtered out.” She finished as they returned to the main entrance to the hall.

“We will help you, Lya. The Clan Camelin does not back down from a challenge, and we protect our own.” Ryo said, gripping her arms hard enough to leave bruises.

“We’re not your own, Ryo. We are a banished Clan. A lost and forgotten world. Nobody remembers us except Jasinlo and Kerilac, and they have nearly succeeded. My planet is dying, and my people along with it.” Lya said as they walked into the hall. Her final words were clearly heard in the quiet hall, and Captain Kalen turned as they walked in.

“If you are dying, Lady Lya. Then we will give you life. If you are injured, we will heal you. As you were lost, Lord Camelin found you. Clan Camelin will not let you be lost again.” He said, then formally saluted Lya, as did all the other officers standing in the hall.

The next weeks were filled with activity. Knowing the cycle of attacks like clockwork, Ryo brought the majority of the crew down to the planet to help repair and rebuild what they could of the city, and to do as Lya asked, expand the gene pool. Many Desinlo women became pregnant within a very short time.

Science teams worked hand in hand with the shield technicians to determine exactly how the generator operated, then they carefully began to tune and boost it to better enhance against the omnipresent radiation. The city shield was enhanced and tuned back to the level it had been more than a hundred cycles ago.

Tactical and military groups worked with the City defenders to try and develop better ways to defend or offset the attacks, although the Commander and Captain said quite succinctly, No more projectiles would reach the surface. The Desinlo, unable to build any large ships, had developed small, agile one man aerospace craft that were bristling with weapons. Those could be landed inside the TGX docking bay and launched within moments. A wing of them could cut apart a hostile ship and they were so quick that the TGX targeting systems had trouble tracking them. This could be an advantage that traditional Confederacy military minds had refused to think about. Ryo was not traditional, and he got his people working to modify one of the landing bays to house a full wing of these Superiority fighters, and made allowances for their flight crews to live on board the massive ship.

A contingency plan was put in place, that a Camelin deep space liner would be on station, out of the way, running dark with only a skeleton crew on board. It was an immense but defenceless ship. If required, it would come into low orbit, and the entire population would be evacuated. Lya hated the idea, but she was grateful for it meant that her people would be saved, even if the planet had to be abandoned.

Two months after they arrived, the TGX received word that Gyo Camelin was in the final stages of the radiation illness, with less than weeks to live. Ryo had to return home.

It was time, Ryo discussed it with Kalen and all the senior officers, at length. They had all spent considerable time on Sinlo, and all of them were in agreement. This world was now part of Camelin territory and it would not be abandoned. Lya and some of the other women who had become constant companions to the senior officers travelled with them back to the TGX for the flight back to the Camelin clanworld. Other crew were permitted to stay on Sinlo as the ship was going through rotations and could safely function with a reduced load anyway.

The troop shuttle landed on board the massive battlecruiser, and the large group walked off slowly, letting their visitors take in the sheer size of the ship. Had the TGX been capable of landing, it would have been larger than the entire city itself.

“I knew this ship was large, but it is even larger than I imagined, Commander.” Lya said as they walked across the flight deck to the inboard corridors.

The crew gave a grand tour to the Desinlo group, and once they had settled into the quarters, Lya joined Ryo and Kalen on the bridge to see how they drove this massive vessel.

“Breaking orbit, engines up to full speed.” Navigation reported.

“Science station fully active, new coordinates are mapped, plotting neospace pipes now.” Came the report from the science team where they had loaded a full new set of details into the ship’s systems from the Desinlo charts. Showing hundreds of safe passages through the dense nebula.

“Engage neospace drive. Get us back home.” Kalen ordered and the entire ship vibrated as it formed an inertia bubble and then slipped into it’s secondary FTL capability. “Entering nebula shell now.” Came the report and an eerie sighing noise filled the hull.

“What is that noise?” Lya asked.

“That is the Oxymax nebula, particles impacting and being deflected from the Neospace bubble as we travel. This nebula is full of exotic particles that are still able to interact with us even at faster than lightspeed. We have full shields up so it’s not a problem. The trip in was much worse.” Ryo answered.

“We’ll be out of the shell in eighteen minutes, Commander, then we can shift to Vortex drive.” Navigation reported.

Ryo chuckled and glanced at Kalen. “A lot easier getting out than when we plowed our way in, Captain.”

Kalen nodded. “A good chart and proper navigation always makes the road smooth, Commander.”

Lya’s first experience travelling through the Vortex was shocking. The ship pulled into clear space and dropped out of Neospace to allow the power to shift into the massive Vortex generators.

“We’re about to transit into the Confederacy’s preferred mode of travel. Using a hyperspace continuum we call the Vortex. We can travel a thousand solar lengths in minutes. We still have to do real space manoeuvring, but it cuts our travel time down to hours instead of days.” Ryo explained as he guided her to a seat.

Lya sat, one hand firmly gripped in her Consort’s as she watched the bridge crew prepare to shift the immense vessel into the Vortex.

“Corona building. Insertion point located and locked. Power levels stable, insertion open. We’re ready to transit. Beginning transit.” Navigation reported as the items scaled off the checklists.

Lya suddenly felt like her head was going to explode, she gasped and found it very hard to breathe. Ryo turned to her in shock and knelt down.

“What is wrong? Lya, You’re covered in sweat! What is the matter?”

She couldn’t answer him, her muscles refused to work, all she could so was sit and focus on breathing, allowing the vise-grip on her mind to slowly weaken and then it was gone, just as navigation reported transit was complete.

Ryo pulled her up into his arms and told Kalen to send medical teams to check on the other Desinlo passengers, he was taking her to medical. He rushed his Lya down to the medical deck where the other Desinlo women were also being gathered. All of them had experienced the same effect. It was determined to be a form of psionic backwash from the Vortex transit. Only one in a hundred thousand Tarans ever suffered from this effect, and it looked like all of the Desinlo women were sensitive to it.

They were proscribed a neuron inhibitor that would basically put them to sleep for the duration of the transit as that was the only way they would be able to handle the sudden blast of white noise that filled their heads while the ship was in Vortex.

Back in Ryo’s quarters, Lya lay on the bed, feeling her body still in turmoil over what had happened.

“How long until we reach orbit?” She asked.

“Eight hours. The Vortex points around our clanworld are far off, and we do not permit neospace within one Length of the planet. So we go in using realspace drives.” Ryo replied.

She sat up and held out her arms. Ryo came over to the bed and embraced the woman he had grown very fond of and was beginning to love.

She hugged him, and murmured in his ear, “Do you have time, for me?”

Ryo nodded into her hair and gently lay her back so he could lie down alongside her, him propped up on an elbow as she reclined.

His fingers traced her stomach, where the tiny child was growing. Not beginning to show yet, but definitely there. Another seven months and they would have a child to show that clan Desinlo had a place in the Confederacy and was part of Camelin space.

She gently traced his face with her long fingers, then drew them down his tunic and across his chest as he kissed her. She slipped his tunic off his shoulders as he undid the side fasteners on her dress, and again, she did the movements that still amazed him, and lay naked before his hungry gaze. Ready and wanting him.

Ryo slipped out of his tunic and her hands went to his pants, quickly undoing the clasps so he could remove them as well. This time, she stroked and held him as he knelt over her, slowly building his desire with soft caresses along his shaft and head. Delicate yet firm were her touches, as he grew erect and solid, ready to plunge into her depths.

She pulled him forward until he was pressed against her nether lips, and then he slid into her moistness as she lifted her hips to join him. She wrapped her legs around Ryo’s hips to hold him inside her as he began to move, joining his mouth to her with kisses and light nips on his lips as he began to steadily thrust into her depths.

She had an urgent need this time, and it was not too long before Lya felt a surge of her own and orgasmed while her partner, the Lord Ryo Camelin, continued to enjoy her for his own pleasure. He filled her with his seed as she orgasmed a second time, then lay, her arms wrapped around him, sated, filled, and more at rest than before the terror of the vortex flight.