Chapter 3

I opened my eyes and felt exactly as I had before. I wiggled my fingers and toes, inventoried my parts and took a deep breath. I seemed the same physically, although I also knew that my DNA had been altered, and even now my body was adjusting to the life form that infected me.

My memories were intact. I knew my name and recalled Christian clearly, aching with a deep urgency to be near him. I remembered my parents and the pain of losing them. The thoughts and memories that made Kelly Michaels who she was remained and I nodded my head, grateful that Talis had been telling me the truth.

"Talis." I slipped naked from the table and stood close to her, reaching out to stroke her face and hair with my fingertips. "Sleep now. Sleep well, my old friend."

I leaned over to kiss her forehead and I had tears in my eyes.

"Eva," I said after a long moment and I was joined by one of my servants, a slender girl with blue skin and silver eyes to match her long, fine hair.

She wore a plain white shift from her shoulders to her thighs and sandals on her feet. Kelly had never seen Eva before, but I knew her intimately now and smiled with renewed pleasure at her graceful motion. It was the reason I'd bought the girl, a dancer from a world full of them, Eva's unearthly grace.

"Mistress." She knelt briefly and I caressed her face before letting her dress me in a simple robe of scarlet, the color of my office.

We left the medical bays and unlike my previous experiences over the last forty-eight hours, now the ship looked busy, animated by a large crew who deferred to my passage with bowed heads. I recognized many of them, if not by name, then by sight. They were all humanoid, gathered from a myriad of planets throughout the Empire, and soon humans from Earth would be added to their number.

Halfway to my quarters we were joined by Ellicent, my personal assistant, secretary, and confidante. She was Riavean, an ancient race and among the first to join the Empire. Her home planet of Riave was located nearer the galactic core and we shared a certain kinship, her race and mine. She'd become very much like a sister to me in many ways and I depended upon her greatly.

"I've made preparations for Talis," she said without preamble, falling into step behind me. "After the ceremony she'll be interred on Earth, as you've ordered."

"I want to see the place first," I said. "She missed her home very much."

"I understand," Ellicent agreed.

She had elfin features, prominent cheeks and a tapering chin beneath a broad forehead. I'd always enjoyed looking at Ellicent, not in a sexual way, but with an appreciation for her beauty which was considerable. Now I had a new perspective, a human perspective, and I thought her blood red eyes gave her a vampiric quality. They were formed as almonds with the points turned downward at the bridge of her nose. Of course the sharp fangs in her mouth only reinforced that image, but her golden hair and caramel skin suggested nothing of the kind and it gave her an interesting contrast.

"Send Aris to North America, to Denver in Colorado. I want a human named Christian Michaels brought here." I looked over my shoulder at Ellicent. "I want him to go personally and tell Aris not to frighten the man. He's my husband."

"Yes, Mistress."

"And tell him to pick-up some toilet paper while he's down there." I shook my head and then caught Horus coming towards us, full of good news, I was sure.

"Toilet paper?" Ellicent asked.

"Cousin, how radiant you look!" Horus smiled, but I didn't believe any of it. "I almost didn't recognize you."

"Pity." I smiled back. "Did you come all the way up here just for that?"

"Talis..."

"Kelly," I corrected him. "Or Mistress, if you like."

"Kelly, of course." Horus ignored my barb. "No, actually I've come for a perfectly good reason. The disposition of force is wholly unsatisfactory..."

"Don't ask for more troops," I said, sensing where this conversation was going.

"Two legions of shock troops, that's all," Horus said. "There is strong resistance in Asia Minor and the Middle East. Religious fanatics. Extremists who won't limit their rebellion to geopolitical boundaries."

"Strong resistance?" I looked at him as we continued to walk. "How many of our troops have they killed? How many dropships and gunboats have we lost to these rebels?"

"None," he admitted. "That isn't to say we're secure, only that time and opportunity have favored the Empire thus far."

"Is the station secure?" I asked him.

"Of course," Horus replied. "Construction is on schedule. We'll be able to begin full scale operations within the month."

"Then we stick to the plan," I said. "The one we agreed upon, remember? Once the station is operational, we'll begin rehabilitation with the Americans. The rebellion, as you call it, will have to be dealt with through political and economic coercion. Human coercion."

"Coercion." Horus frowned and finally dropped his head just far enough to insult me. "As you command, Mistress."

He turned with a flourish, his purple robes snapping the air as he walked away. My cousin had taken the form of a Pleiadine, a handsome race of virile men and soft, demure females. His sleek body had a rosy sheen and I admired his strength and grace, but the man's ambition frightened me. Or it would have if I'd not been Talis, rather than fear it I considered the myriad ways of putting my cousin's greed to good use.

"He'll go to the Emperor," Ellicent said after Horus had left us. "He has friends at court."

"I know." I raised a hand and the entrance to my quarters opened. "Horus imagines himself a warlord. More troops..." I sighed. "We have to minimize our presence. He's a fool."

"That's why the Emperor sent him here. Veils..." Jericho said.

He'd been waiting for us and at his word the great curving bulkhead around us became transparent. We were greeted with a view of the Earth rotating slowly some thirty thousand kilometers beneath us.

"To punish me?" I looked at Jericho and he was nothing but a hologram created by the computer, but it could be easy to forget that.

"To keep him out of trouble," he replied. "I have your morning brief prepared."

"Later." I waved that idea away. "I want a bath first. Eva..."

"Yes, Mistress." She'd already prepared the tub, or more of a pool really. A deep bath formed of short marble steps had appeared in the center of the room and it filled quickly with steaming water.

"You're male?" Ellicent asked a moment later, watching as Eva removed the robe from my shoulders, letting it fall carelessly around my feet.

"You didn't know?" I laughed lightly, pleased that I'd actually kept a secret from my best friend, albeit unintentionally. "No, I'm female. This..." I looked down at my soft cock and hairless balls, " ... is simply the universe having a little fun with me."

"I understand why you were chosen," she said as a luxurious divan grew out of the floor nearby.

"Did you think I would be uninterested in her otherwise?" I asked Ellicent, mocking a pout.

It seemed funny speaking about myself that way, because the alien and I were completely one, but my point of reference changed as I desired to express our once separate opinions. For the old Kelly it would have been quite maddening, but the new me felt very comfortable that way and Ellicent seemed to understand perfectly.

"The Emperor will be pleased, but I suppose you considered that," she said, taking a seat and tilting her head.

"Actually, I hadn't," I answered, stepping into my bath as Eva held my hand. "Ellie, don't be angry with me."

"Never," she said without smiling. "But you might have consulted me first."

"You couldn't have changed my mind." I giggled, looking around Eva's hips as she'd removed her shift to join me in the bath. This was very much my morning ritual and I saw no reason to change it.

"I think you're lovely, Mistress," Eva whispered, smiling shyly although I'd had her for many years already. I liked that about her, the innocence.

She sat opposite me and the bath was large enough that I could stretch fully, letting the girl work her hands across my body as she desired. I would enjoy a massage as much as anything else and I found this brief respite wonderfully relaxing. Much of my day would be much more taxing emotionally, if not physically, and even in my bath I couldn't escape my responsibilities.

"Hmmm ... Now tell me of York," I said, closing my eyes.

"The Emperor has commanded that Cerberus be opened for settlement at the earliest opportunity," Ellicent said. "The Crown Prince has been tasked to negotiate with Lord Bertrayne for passage through his space..."

"We should crush him." I frowned. "I don't understand the Emperor's reluctance."

Eva took my left foot in her hands and then her mouth, kissing and suckling my toes gently while she stroked my calf and thigh. I opened my eyes just to see her, and found the girl entirely beautiful.

"Bertrayne controls the Gyre Nebula and the space within it. He uses a technology we haven't been able to duplicate and as you know, any ship entering the nebula is vulnerable..."

"Except his," I sighed, pulling my foot from Eva's mouth and gave her the other. "It is such a small space..."

"Small and vital, Mistress," Ellicent said. "The Prince will make the alliance..."

"And his favor will grow, while we sit here and watch."

" ... and Cerberus will be settled. I think we must focus our attentions there. New space is always filled with opportunity."

"Yesss..." I agreed with a smile, leaning back and watching Eva work her long pink tongue around my toes. "I'll go to Court, it's been entirely too long anyway." I paused, giving Ellicent time to protest, but she didn't. "I'll speak of Cerberus with the Emperor. Review the settlement plan and have Erid prepare his brief."

"He's been waiting for an appointment," Ellicent told me with a smile. "He thinks you're going to replace him."

"Let him. Inform the Marshall I want Plan Yellow updated. Quietly. Don't go through Heward."

"Very good." Ellicent nodded.

"And arrange for me to meet with that trainer, do you know the one?" I pulled my foot away and held out my arms for Eva.

"Vonald? You wish to enter the games?" Ellicent asked, and then waited patiently as I was engaged in a kiss.

"When in Rome..." I smiled, brushing a lock of hair from Eva's silvery eyes.

For a moment I wished I could be a real boy, just to know what it would be like making love to a girl like her. She didn't arouse me in that way, however, and it was enough to simply love her.

"Admiral Heward is here," Jericho interrupted us, flickering to life near Ellicent.

"Speak of the devil," I sighed and pushed Eva way so I could roll over. "Wash my back now."

"Yes, Mistress."

"Admiral, what news?" I asked the man, turning just enough to see him lower his head in ceremonial deference.

He served as my military liaison with the general staff and was too young for his position, but I'd found him capable and wonderfully ambitious. Heward paused for a moment, raising his eyes to take in Kelly's teenage body, a human body, but he hid his surprise well enough. All of my staff and advisors knew I'd needed to find another host, so this wasn't as unexpected as it may have seemed.

"Duchess, one of our mining colonies, Orthos-Nine was attacked twelve hours ago," the Admiral lifted his head. "We lost a full shift and nearly two weeks of polonium production. The frigate Naiad was patrolling less than a parsec away at the time. She responded to the distress signal, but by the time Naiad arrived..."

"I see." I frowned slightly and put my chin on my crossed arms, making it clear that I didn't. "Why didn't this frigate detect the raider, Admiral? That's why it's out there, isn't it?"

"They reported a sensor malfunction shortly before the attack," he replied, staring at me. "The commander of Naiad is the second son of the Marquis de Windham."

"Ah..." I nodded as it became clear why this had been brought to my attention. "Execute him, I'll sign the order. Send a battle squadron to Windham to deliver the traitor's head to his father."

"Mistress..." Ellicent would offer me a different solution, but only because it was her duty.

"Do you dispute my interpretation of these events, Admiral?" I asked, cutting Ellicent off.

"We are in accord, Mistress." Heward bowed his head. "The crew will be interned and scanned, of course. The saboteur will be found."

"You have your orders then." I dismissed him and looked at Ellicent, knowing she'd grown impatient. "Oh, very well, get on with it then."

"You have your daily briefing with Jericho at 0800 ... Which was thirty minutes ago, I might add..." Ellicent recited my schedule as she had to and it only rarely varied.

I was responsible for over a thousand systems, countless planets and their resources. All of them with their unique problems demanding my sole attention. We were on the borders of colonized space, at the edge of the Empire, and so we had piracy and raiders, uprisings and mutinies and rebellions. Trade routes to establish and maintain, taxes to collect, laws to enforce, and a million other things beside. That I'd fought tooth and nail for the position didn't make me feel any better. There was much glory and power to be gained, but the precipice was ever beneath my heels.

I depended upon men like the Marquis de Windham, and he upon the counts and various nobles beneath him. Executing the captain of the Naiad was necessary, the Marquis would understand that, but it would cause tension that I didn't need. The battle squadron would send the old man a message, perhaps even insult him, but again it would be necessary for the good order of the Empire and he'd be reminded of his place in the greater scheme of things. Sons could be replaced, miners and their equipment as well, but two weeks of production...

"The good of the empire," I sighed softly.

" ... Mistress?" Ellicent paused and I waved at her to continue. We were already running late and the day had only started.

"Christian." I stroked his face and watched him stir groggily.

"Who hit me?" he asked, managing a weak smile and I kissed at the corner of his mouth.

We were in my chambers and I'd redone it in a classical Grecian style just for us. There were marble pillars and braziers of cast bronze, burning around us. A fountain and the pool I'd bathed in earlier with Eva. Much of it was an illusion, holograms created by the computers, but some of it was real. The bed we were laying upon was real enough and I'd undressed us both while Christian had slept. The transport was clumsy and taxing on the body, but for the time being I'd prohibited the use of shuttles, even though it inconvenienced us greatly.

"I missed you so much," I whispered, sliding my hand down the man's chest, following the trail of fine hair that led to his cock.

"Kelly..." He smiled and opened his eyes for me. "I'm having the strangest dream."

"I know," I said. "I'm having it too."

I lifted my eyes and Eva nodded, filling a glass with water and she brought it over carefully.

"Drink this, my Lord," she said, but Christian heard only the bird-like trilling of her sweet voice.

"It's alright," I said as he jerked with surprise, not understanding until just then that we weren't alone. "It's good for you, like Gatorade, kinda. You need electrolytes."

"She's blue," Christian said and then swallowed as Eva held the glass to Christian's lips.

"Yeah, she is." I giggled, watching him drink slowly. "Pretty cool, huh? I call her Eva because her real name is kind of long."

"Oh." Christian nodded and licked his lips. I think he was looking for a sheet to cover us with, since we were quite naked. I fondled his cock in my gentle hand, coaxing it to thicken with desire for me.

"It's okay, you don't have to be shy in this place," I smiled, jerking him off while Eva watched. He'd have to get used to that sort of thing.

"Why not?" Christian asked and I just shrugged and laughed at him. "She's an alien?"

"Well, duh!" I smirked a little.

"No, I mean..." Christian swallowed hard and turned his eyes from Eva to me. "She's one of the aliens who destroyed LA?"

"Eva?" I shook my head. "She's a servant."

"Then who..." Christian let his head fall onto the pillow. "What's going on? Where are we? What are we doing here?"

"You have a lot of questions, I know." I pressed my body to his, kissing Christian's chest and putting my right leg over his thighs, stroking him that way.

"They just told me I was going to see you," Christian said and he seemed to wake-up suddenly. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you, Kelly?"

He tried to sit up, to examine me, I thought. He remembered that he was my husband and supposed to protect me. I just smiled, pushing him back down with small, reassuring kisses. I had so many things to try and explain to him and I barely knew where and how to start. I was afraid he'd reject me, once he knew all of it. Afraid that he wouldn't love me anymore and I needed him. Christian was my link to the past, to who I'd been, and without him I'd be lost completely.

"I'm fine. They didn't hurt me at all," I told him, spending more kisses on Christian's body so that he held me tightly and kissed the top of my head. "Nobody will hurt either of us, I promise."

I worked my way down his body slowly, loving Christian with my mouth and hands until I could take his cock between my lips. He wasn't very hard, not yet, the stress and the toll of transport made that difficult, I imagined, but I could make it feel better. Eva left us, but not completely; she merely moved out of the light. I knew she wanted to watch us and I wouldn't dismiss her in any event. Christian would have to get used to her, and the rest of my entourage as well. We'd have precious little privacy and yet, for all practical purposes, all the privacy in the world.

Christian hardened for me after a few minutes and I grinned happily as I straddled his hips with my knees. I'd readied myself in preparation for my husband's arrival, letting Eva wash me thoroughly and apply a wonderful ointment to my anus. I was moist and hot and Christian groaned with the sensation of penetrating my asshole with his swollen cock. I felt no pain in it and I arched my back, rocking my hips so that we could work his penis back and forth inside me. We enjoyed a slow, deliberate fuck and I wanted to make it last as long as I could.

When Christian told me he was close, I stopped moving and just held him inside me, pressing my palms to his chest and feeling the strength of his beating heart. I looked into his eyes, letting him see how much I loved him. My own cock had grown erect and wet with precum, my freshly shaved scrotum resting on his damp, sweaty skin. We let his excitement recede slightly, his orgasm would wait another few minutes while we made love.

Christian caught his breath and tightened his fingers around my waist and after a long moment we were fucking again. It was everything we needed right then and when he finally did cum, helpless to stop himself from filling my body with his seed, I found my sex with my fingers and joined him. I collapsed onto his body, kissing the man I loved with every ounce of passion I possessed, spending my orgasm between our flushed bodies.

"Lights, Jericho," I said and we hadn't slept for much of the night, but soon Ellicent would be coming to start my day.

"Who's Jericho?" my husband asked me and we'd both been awake for sometime, not speaking, but only touching the way lovers do.

"He's my computer," I told him as the lights came up. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Christian smiled.

"Ellicent is here. Would you like breakfast?" Jericho asked in English.

The computer had taken form and I'd changed his appearance the previous day so that he looked like my old science teacher. Tall and thin and serious, but I'd liked the man and hoped he'd gotten out of LA before it had been destroyed. If anyone should have been a computer, I thought, it was Mr. Burdett and who knows, his first name could have been Jericho for all I knew.

"Coffee and bagels," I agreed and while I hadn't found time to instruct Jericho on all of my human idiosyncrasies, I'd made sure he'd at least gotten breakfast right.

"Breakfast in bed?" Christian chuckled, but he was confused by it all. Eva had appeared, of course, with fresh robes for us. My usual scarlet and consort blue for him.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Ellicent marched into the room and her question was rhetorical at best. "Veils, Jericho."

"Uh..." Christian froze when he saw her and Ellicent largely ignored him, fixing her crimson eyes on my husband's just long enough to decide he wasn't a threat.

"This is Ellicent," I said. "My assistant and chief counselor."

"Oh." He started fixing his robe again while Eva finished dressing me.

"She's my best friend too, so..." I grinned, " ... be nice, okay?"

"Me?" Christian blinked and I knew he wanted to say something about vampire aliens, but probably didn't know where to start.

"I'm your only friend, Mistress." Ellicent smiled, showing off her fangs and her English too, since it was brand new.

"Mistress? Wait ... You have an assistant? And a servant and that computer guy?" He frowned, trying to figure it out.

"I have a planet too," I said, gesturing to the transparent wall behind him and Christian about had a heart attack when he saw the earth, I think.

"Oh shit," he said after a few seconds of silent contemplation and by that time our breakfast table had been readied.

"I guess I'd better explain, huh?" I bit my bottom lip and felt vaguely guilty, but not about anything in particular.

It was just the form my nervousness had taken and I knew the alien part of me didn't understand it at all. Welcome to the club, Talis, I thought. This is what love does to a girl. I felt my tummy tighten and I felt frightened not by what I had to say, but that it might cost me Christian's love. More than anything else in the universe, I was scared of losing him.

"I think you'd better. Yeah," he agreed and he looked nervous too, but did take a seat at the table with me.

Eva stood off to the side, waiting patiently in case I needed her, while Ellicent busied herself with Jericho. The two of them were going over my schedule, I imagined. They worked closely together anyway and it gave her a good excuse to let me speak with Christian alone, although she'd be unhappy with the time lost. The woman should have been born Swiss, I thought, she had a fetish for time. I'd made it clear to her though, that time was exactly what Christian would need from us.

"I'm the Duchess of Cepheus and Protectorate of the Spinward March," I said. "Except duchess isn't really our word for it, um ... but I guess it works. We use those kinds of titles, like they do on Earth, you know?"

"You're a duchess?" Christian didn't know if he was supposed to laugh or not, but the corners of his mouth went up and I smiled nervously.

"I'm not explaining very good, am I?" I frowned. "See, there's sort of an alien inside me now..."

"What?" He wasn't smiling then and his brown eyes narrowed.

"This alien is sort of in my DNA, like part of me. It's in my brain too, so we're basically one person, see?" I spoke faster, watching his eyes become suspicious. "It doesn't hurt me or anything; it's not even like conscious. It doesn't talk to me. We just know what we're doing ... Kinda. I mean, not now because it was never married before, but..."

"How do you get it out?" Christian asked and he was totally serious.

"Get it out?" I shook my head. "It can't come out. I told you, we're one person."

"So, I'm really talking to this alien right now, huh?" Christian leaned forward, looking into my eyes and he seemed cold then. "This Duchess, that means you're in charge right? Did you kill my wife?"

"Christian, it's me," I said, reaching for his hand, but he drew back.

"You did do it," Christian nodded. "You're not Kelly. She wouldn't have joined you, not after that."

"I am Kelly. I'm your wife. Christian, you have to let me explain, okay?" I begged him. "I was mad too. I wanted to kill her, but she explained it to me."

"Explained?" He almost laughed and no human could imagine a reason for what Talis had done.

"She had to do it," I said. "There are things you don't understand yet."

"And you do?" Christian shook his head. "You'd understand about something like that?"

"We did what was necessary," I told him then, dropping the pretense that I could separate myself from Talis and what she'd done. "For the good of the Empire."

"Yeah, you're the alien." Christian nodded slowly.

"I'm the alien," I agreed. "A hundred years from now, when the generation born today has closed its eyes forever, what happened to Los Angeles will be a rumor. The reality will be a world free of cancer. Faster than light travel to other stars. A unified earth without war, or hunger, or poverty. That's why your wife died."

"That's bullshit," Christian said. "A pipedream. No one can promise those things and I don't care who you say you are. You're not God. You don't have the right to kill innocent people."

"I know that," I said. "The alien knows that. It's why it chose me, because of my parents. It knows the pain I feel, the anger inside and it wasn't fair. It wasn't right, Christian, but I swear to you, it was a sacrifice that had to be made."

"Why?" he asked, just as I had. "Why not just come down and shake hands? You bring the cure for cancer and they'd throw you a fucking parade."

"Some people would want more than just that," I said. "The earth must be united with a single people, to a single purpose, sharing the same resources and technology without borders or limitations. The Empire is here and even if we ignored your planet, bypassed the earth without a word, there are others who wouldn't."

"What do you mean, 'others'?"

"Earth has been discovered now. It's on the map, so to speak, and there will be traders and merchants, prospectors and slavers, all looking to exploit this system," I said. "Some of them would sell weapons and technology, trade for resources and rights which belong to your race, not individuals or nations. Think of the traders coming to North America and buying land from Indians for glass beads. Selling guns to tribes so that they could war with their neighbors and each other."

"I think we're a little smarter than that," Christian said.

"Are you?" I asked him. "Are you so far removed prejudice and greed? The Empire is a thousand centuries old and we aren't."

"You're not perfect, huh?" Christian almost smiled at that. "I thought you were selling utopia?"

"No, nothing like that," I sighed. "We're bringing you the future, that's all, and what you do with it is up to you. The Empire will serve you and require your service. We're not altruistic; we want prosperity and security for our people, the same as you. Subjugation is neither efficient nor reliable and so we offer a partnership instead."

"And we're the junior partners?" He did smile. "You sound like a politician."

"I'm first cousin to the Emperor, sixth in line to the Onyx Throne." I looked at my husband, "I'm also human, Christian, and I will never forget that. Earth is not a junior partner, as you put it. I love my planet and I won't see it tearing itself apart. Nations will war if given opportunity. I've removed that threat and given our people a motive to unite."

"By blowing up cities? Right," Christian said and we were back where we started. "I got that part."

"Would Russia, China, France ... Would any of them stand for a United States of Earth? They'd resist and those nations would destroy each other. Or the aliens would take a side and half the earth would be rendered uninhabitable by the end of it."

"Well, you blew up the United Nations, so I guess we'll never know," he said.

"This way, for the moment, the earth is united against us. They've suffered common disaster and share a common enemy. They have to rebuild their economies, overcome great difficulties and it won't be easy, but soon we'll begin a program to rebuild the planet. We'll provide technical assistance, food and manufactured goods, and help establish a centralized government."

Christian didn't say anything and I couldn't tell if my argument was convincing or not.

"Jericho, give me a map," I said without looking at him. "Show us the Spinward March, please."

"Of course," the computer replied and a second later our view of earth had been replaced with a rather confused holograph of the galaxy. I waited while Jericho refined it for us; he knew what I wanted.

"Highlight Sol," I said and one point of light began to flash yellow. It was near the edge of one spiral arm of the galaxy and quite unremarkable in any way. "Give us the boundaries now."