Chapter 1

‘Fire all around! I’m burning up!’

Forcing herself to remain in the teleportation zone, even though her skin was blistering and her hair was on fire, she cried out one last time. “Lisa? Where are you? Béla? Please! Answer me!”

She gave up, her ability to concentrate overwhelmed by the unbearable heat as her body began to blister, the nuclear fire so intense that, even through her time shield, it was unbearable.

‘So hot!’

Tabatha shrieked as she awoke, sitting straight up on her sick bed. The twenty-plus patients sharing the cramped ward jumped as well, many crying out and complaining in their own pain and misery as Tabatha radiated her terror through the ward.

In an instant, Tanya was beside her. “It’s okay, Baby – You’re going to be okay! I promise!”

“Mom?” Tabatha gasped. “What happened? You’re all burned.”

“It’s okay, Honey,” Tanya repeated anxiously. “You’re going to be all right!”

“Mom ... Tanya...” Tabatha blinked and put her hands up to hold her head steady as a sudden wave of dizziness swept over her. An instant later, she pulled her hands back so she could look at them. Did she really see what she thought she saw? “I’m all burned...” As her mind woke up more, she began to remember. “Oh, God ... They’re all dead!”

“Honey,” Tanya said, her voice pleading for calm, “It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have saved them. Lisa tried to teleport a missile and it went off in her travel zone. No one could reach her to pull her back...”

“No! Mom, that’s all wrong...” Tabatha insisted. “I can shield and go back! I can still save her...” She fell back as another wave of dizziness overwhelmed her. “Save them ... all...” she muttered, then passed out again.

“She’s severely dehydrated,” Doctor Frank said, pushing his way over to Tabatha’s bed, “just as you are, Mom. Here. Drink this!” He shoved a tin cup into Tanya’s nearly numbed fingers. “It will help you regenerate.”

Her son’s insistence was such that Tanya automatically raised the cup to her lips and took a gulp. Nearly choking, she managed to swallow the viscous fluid as it flowed heavily over her tongue, insisting that it not become separated as it slid in a long, slippery lump down her throat. “Gawk! Gack! God!” Tanya gasped. “What the hell was that?”

“Raw egg white,” her son grinned. “Good, huh?”

“Gack!” Tanya coughed in reply.

“Come on, now,” insisted Doc Frank. “Back to your own bed, Mother. Katie will be just fine. Now let me give her a new I.V. Okay?”

“Frankie, please,” Tanya begged, “get her well, fast! I’m scared that we won’t be able to save Béla and Lisa. And your sister’s down there, too...” Tanya stopped talking as she swooned, nearly fainting back into her bed.

“Lay down!” Doctor Frank insisted. “You’re still weak from your burns! We have as much time as we need. Nobody’s going anywhere until we get everybody back, I promise!”

“Jake...” Tabatha whispered in her sleep. “My darling...” Frank Junior wondered whether Tabatha was just having a nightmare or was actually dream-walking down in the radioactive crater where Solar City had been only sixteen hours ago.

What had happened was beyond horrible. Over half the population had still been inside the mountain when the nukes hit. Alicia, Jake Pestova and Jake Hedron had all been down there at ground zero, along with Béla and Lisa. Only the need for his professional services kept him going, now – helping to keep his own grief at bay by handling other injured people who had been lucky enough to transport up before that final blast vaporized the mountaintop and caved it in on top of everyone else.

As he reached up to change the empty I.V. bag, everything shimmered. Doctor Frank lost his balance and nearly fell over as he was moved into his new position as the reality wave swept through. Tabatha became Béla, cut up badly and with her wings still formed. Her skin was badly burned and half of her hair was simply missing, along with most of the skin on her face and the front half of her body. Jake, her husband, was standing anxiously next to her on the other side of the bed, anxiously pleading with his eyes for Doctor Frank to do something to help her. Tanya was nowhere to be seen.

‘She’s monitoring from the bridge, ‘ Doc Frank realized. ‘Why did I think Mom was here in Sick Bay?’ Doctor Frank shook his head to clear his mind, then got back to work.

“She’ll be fine, Jake,” Doctor Frank promised. “She’s alive and simply unconscious. She’s regenerating quite nicely. The reason her skin looks mottled like that is because new skin is growing beneath the radiation burns. See?” He used a small pair of tweezers to lift a loose scab off of Béla’s burnt shoulder, showing Jake fresh, new, pink flesh. Jake breathed a sigh of relief and blinked tears out of eyes.

“Thanks, Doc,” he whispered gratefully. He couldn’t ask. Doctor Frank wouldn’t know the answer. And Tabatha was still jumping back and forth from the ship to the surface, rescuing people from inside their mountain hideaway; a few people each trip. The Focal Press on the surface was still operating, as well, protected from the nuclear blasts by Tabatha’s time shield, firmly in place over the underground city.

“These are the last of the burn victims,” Tabatha gasped breathlessly from behind them both. Jake turned and gazed hopefully at the small group Tabatha had retrieved from outside her time-shielded city. Lisa wasn’t among them.

Jake and Tabatha gazed at each other for a few seconds, then Tabatha slowly shook her head, No. “I’m sorry,” she gasped, exhausted, starved and barely able to stand. Tears flooded her eyes and flowed down her face, matching Jake’s own.

‘There’s too much energy in Lisa’s travel zone – I couldn’t get back far enough in time to find her, ‘ Jake heard in his mind, since Tabatha was too exhausted to speak out loud anymore.

Jake knew Tabatha had done the best she could. A single instant after that missile went off, she had time-shielded and teleported down directly into the center of the blast. Her time-shield had protected her, but she simply couldn’t push hard enough to go back in time to before...

But she did manage a miraculous catch, snagging Béla scant feet away from smashing into the ground at two-hundred kph and teleporting her to Sick Bay. Then she returned to Solar City and shielded the whole place as best she could, almost as if she knew more bombs were coming.

Then, hugging her husband to her bosom quite desperately, she teleported back up to the safety of the Phoenix, bringing both Jakes with her. Alicia was left behind to coordinate the constant loading of the Focal Press and transported up with the last load of passengers.

The sign above the door said, “Mess Hall”. Tanya grimaced as she looked through the entrance to see several hundred people jammed in there. Some were actually sleeping, having tethered themselves, to a bolted down table leg with their belts so they wouldn’t float loose and bump into something or someone in zero gravity.

She turned away and headed toward Engineering, hoping to find an empty space where she could relax and get a few hours of sleep. She was suddenly hit with a broadcast of pure sexual sensation.

‘That feels like Lisa!’

There was definitely an image of Lisa associated with that orgasm. The sensation had emanated from the other side of the bulkhead she was climbing. ‘She’s alive?’ Tanya hoped, tears of joy coming to her eyes at the prospect.

Tanya looked in vain for a hatchway into the compartment where Lisa was obviously having sex. Evidently that set of prefabs was accessed from the next passageway over. ‘There’s an easier way to do this... ‘ she thought, and simply teleported into the room on the other side of the wall.

Reentering the physical universe on the other side of the wall was a real problem. The compartment was full of naked bodies – at least six horny girls were floating in the 6’ x 8’ x 8’ sleeping compartment. Tanya found a spot near the bottom of one wall where a cot was folded out into the room and popped in.

“Hi, girl,” someone called out from somewhere in the floating mass of undulating female flesh. “Welcome to the wake! Find a body part and start licking...”

“No guys?” Tanya complained.

“No room!” someone yelled back.

A pretty face and a nice pair of naked breasts appeared in front of Tanya. “Hi, sweetie! What’s your pleasure? Top or bottom?”

“Uh, top?” Tanya conjectured, not sure what to say. The girl reached out, pulled Tanya into the merry-go-round of floating bodies, and opened her blouse, exposing Tanya’s nice, firm breasts. The girl began licking and kissing with obvious pleasure. “Oh, that’s nice,” Tanya said into the girl’s ear. ‘This is a wake?’ she asked herself, somewhat surprised.

She began kissing the girl’s hair and the side of her head, then the girl raised her head and began kissing Tanya in return. In a moment, they were tonguing each other and playing with each other’s nipples. As their bodies started to align, Tanya felt someone pulling her slacks down past her knees. From another angle, someone continued pulling them down and completely off her feet. She had no idea where her clothes or her shoes went after that.

Tanya felt something delicately crawling along her thighs and looked down. It was hair, floating in free-fall. The girl she was making out with had another girl between her legs. Now she recognized them. They both worked in the machine shop back in Solar City. The second girl’s hair was floating free and brushing against Tanya’s sensitive thighs.

Noticing another pussy right next to the one she was sucking on, the girl pulled herself through a little farther and began rubbing between Tanya’s legs with one hand. Then she went back to licking the pussy of the girl who was kissing Tanya.

“I’m coming!” someone cried out. An instant later, a small shudder of sensual excitement flowed through the entire group. Tanya suddenly realized that these girls were Lisa’s little clique and that Lisa had taught them all how to mind-link with each other so they could experience one another’s orgasms. ‘That’s why I thought Lisa was in here, ‘ Tanya realized sadly. ‘This is her signature mind-link... ‘

The first girl’s orgasm started a chain reaction of orgasms throughout the group. Girls began to cry out and shudder as the broadcast wave of sensuality passed through them. Tanya felt the girl she was hugging and kissing tense up for a moment and moan into Tanya’s mouth. The hand massaging Tanya’s pussy seemed to get lost, then returned a moment later, moving less energetically than before.

“That was six,” the girl who came first sighed. “One from each of us for everyone here...”

The girl Tanya was kissing broke away for a moment. “Didn’t count – the fresh meat didn’t come. She wasn’t connected. We’re still at five...”

‘God! They even talk like Lisa... ‘

Tanya suddenly found that she was the center of attention. Half a dozen naked girls, all radiating various levels of lust mixed with a deep, longing sadness surrounded her and began licking and caressing her, all over. Tanya got the idea that these girls did this a lot – every chance they got, but this was the first time that Lisa’s little clique had ever played together without Lisa. They were determined to honor her as best they could, each one fully knowing that Lisa would spit at them for crying over her.

There was one girl on each breast and two hands playing down between Tanya’s legs. Another girl came up from behind and daintily wrapped her arms over her shoulders. The girl began kissing and delicately licking Tanya’s neck and shoulders from behind, making Tanya shiver from head to toe.

The hands between Tanya’s legs stopped and a warm, wet tongue licked from her anus all the way around to her clit. Another girl started licking the back of Tanya’s leg.

“Oh, God!” Tanya cried, trying to reach down past all the other girls surrounding her to guide that wonderful tongue up against her clitoris and lock her legs around the girl’s head so she wouldn’t float away in free fall.