Chapter 5

Elaine, Marla and Annalisa watched joyously as the inner doors to the gigantic vacuum chamber swung open to admit the very first spaceship ever to come from Earth. They had flown straight up for several miles in order to view this momentous first entry. It had been an easy flight in the null gravity above Northern Depot. Although the enormous space doors opened quite rapidly, the winged girls were so far away that the entrance seemed to be opening inch by laborious inch, creeping wider and wider.

As soon as the heaviest vapor had rushed into the opening, they darted forward on their fragile wings to see this sleek, magnificent teardrop of a ship that was bringing their sister Béla and her earth family home.

Elaine actually touched down on the wide, rounded nose of the craft as it slowly moved into the depths of the hollow moon.

"No problem!" Elaine said as she suddenly stood next to her favorite sister in the whole, wide universe!

Then they were hugging and crying and laughing all at the same time, as the rest of the bridge crew (both of them) tried to act like everything was normal.

"Oh!" Béla said, laughing as she disengaged from her gorgeous, sweet-smelling blond sister. "Let me introduce you! This is Amber – Commander Cutberg. She's the bridge officer and this is Tony – he's in security."

"This," Béla proudly indicated her blond sister, "is my sister, the Goddess Elaine."

Amber smiled and held out her hand. Elaine reached out and hugged her. 'You must be very trusted for my sister to permit you this honored station.'

Amber blinked, recognizing the respect that Elaine gave her by speaking mind to mind.

'Thank you, Goddess, ' she replied in her mind, remembering the lessons in protocol that Béla had taught her, like, yesterday. (It really was just yesterday when Béla had taught her that!)

Annalisa and Marla appeared on the bridge. They were as naked as Elaine. The watch officer was beginning to get flustered.

"This is Annalisa and this is Marla," Elaine introduced them to the others, knowing that Béla already knew who they were. "They are my current sparring partners."

"I thought Dawn was one of your partners," Béla mentioned.

"She got pregnant," Elaine said, then laughed. "She had twins."

"I'll want to meet them!" Béla replied excitedly.

"And there's someone I want to meet, too," Elaine said, more solemnly now, knowing Béla would know who she meant.

"There's a celebration going on in the Grotto," Béla told all of her sisters. "We can join her there."

'Grotto?'

Béla laughed, 'I'll explain later, ' and teleported the group down to Lisa's Grotto.

There were only a few humans, there – entire families celebrating their last day aboard the Phoenix III. Most were in the cargo bay queued up to transport down to the surface. Elaine gazed around, her mind easily seeing every intention behind everything she saw – the lake, the waterfall, the wormholes that fed life-giving air, water and sunlight into the ship, the trees and the open, park-like appearance of the entire space.

"What's that?" Elaine asked as she noticed the six refrigerator cars sitting on railroad tracks that ran around one side of the park.

"That's our fruit storage," Béla said brightly. "There's enough left for us to have a really great celebration when we get back to the manor."

"There's plenty of fruit at the manor," Elaine replied. "Didn't I tell you about the greenhouse I had built for you?"

"Oh!" Béla replied, embarrassed that she hadn't remembered. "You did. I remember."

"So where is..."

"Elisabeth," Béla said, supplying the name. "She calls herself 'Lisa', now, rather than 'Beth'. She has a new body, as well, which is why she prefers her new name."

"Yes, I remember," Elaine replied, trying to ignore the decades that now separated them. "She's become your daughter. I'm glad she survived. It must have been a rough journey for her."

"I recommend that you not mention that," Béla warned, "unless you wish to incur her eternal wrath."

"Has she changed that much?" Elaine needed to know.

"Yes, and more," Béla replied, quietly, perhaps with some sadness. "She doesn't trust. Anyone. And her powers are beyond comprehension. She provided the mind power to build this ship, and the energy that propels it. It was her mind that punched those wormholes through to the earth. If she did not wish to be controlled, no one would be able to control her."

"But she hasn't destroyed everything," Elaine mentioned, still looking around with wonder, "so she's basically civilized."

"No, not really," Béla admitted, "but sometimes I think that her fear of being alone is all that keeps her in line. She fears being alone more than she fears being betrayed."

"Mother! What a horribly unfair thing to say!" a voice said from behind Elaine. "Are you really that afraid of me?"

Elaine turned and met Beth's eyes. For an instant, those eyes smoldered, then became more peaceful.

"It's not fear that rules your heart," Elaine pronounced. "You love these people, even if you don't completely trust them."

"You. You sent me to my death," Lisa mentioned, almost casually changing the subject, no noticeable venom in her voice.

"And yet, here you are," Elaine replied, fearless in her knowledge, and standing as nakedly regal as she could, "more powerful than before."

"Don't you take credit for that!" Lisa snarled, her rage evident now. "You would have sacrificed me to save your sacred sister!"

"Yes," Elaine admitted, "And I would do it again. I love Béla more than anyone except my life-mate. I would die for her, and I would let you die for her as well. But you didn't die just for her. Everyone on this vessel is alive and here because of what you sacrificed."

"You could have told me what would happen," Lisa said accusingly. "I would have come, anyway. I would willingly die for she who is now my mother. I have always loved her at least that much, even when I was Beth."

"I..." Elaine faltered now, not entirely willing to confess, but knowing the necessity for complete honesty, "I was weak, Beth. I was afraid and uncertain. I would not send you to die today without telling you."

"No," Lisa agreed, her ire easing as she recognized the truth of what this blond goddess was telling her. "I can see the changes in you. You are a hawk where before, you were a weasel. We have both grown since that day. I will overlook your deceit."

"Thank you, Goddess," Elaine replied formally, respectfully bowing before her sister's daughter.

Lisa looked at her mother, now. Sadness was in her eyes. "Surely you don't really fear me."

"You shut me out, Daughter," Béla replied. "You spent hundreds of years away from us with your Lord Dracula. Then when you return, you begin teaching your blood-sisters the art of war – the art of throwing fire. New Eden is a peaceful world where there is no armed conflict. What am I to think? Is there to be conflict between us?"

"Never! I swear!" Lisa proclaimed with real emotion in her voice. "I wanted to pass on what I had learned. I wanted there to be others like me! I didn't know you feared what I was doing. He told me I was being given a second chance!"

"Who told you, Child?" Elaine asked, flowing her love over her sister's distraught daughter. "Who gave you this second chance?"

Lisa's lips twisted in a half-snarl as she remembered. She would have never been able to return to the present without that special passageway provided by the vile Hurrahs. She knew full well that they had guided her back so she would return only a few days after she'd left. She didn't have anything like that kind of power, nor was its application that precise.

"I see," Elaine said quietly, the image clear in her mind.

"And I've killed thousands of them," Lisa cried, tears glistening in her eyes. "Why would they help me when all I've ever done is slaughter them on sight?"

"Perhaps they realize that the power of a phoenix is needed here," Elaine replied, hugging Lisa. "It may be that we'll need several of you, and your return to New Eden is as vital to our survival as was my sending you away."

"Am I going to die this time?" Lisa asked, her voice small and quiet in the Golden Goddess' arms.

"Probably," Elaine replied. "But you've died many times, my child. A phoenix requires death in order to live. Don't tell me you don't enjoy it."

"Oh, I do," Lisa replied, stepping away and standing on her own. "But I like to be in control of when I do it."

"Don't we all!" Elaine grinned. "But you'll be fine. I'm glad to hear you're training others to control the fire. It's lonely being the only one of your kind."

Béla and Lisa were hugging now, tears of regret in the mother's eyes. "I believed ill of you, Lisa, and I'm deeply sorry. I put myself at your disposal, casting aside my status as Carte Blanche so that you may discipline me as you require."

"Mother," Lisa whined. "Don't do that! I just want you to trust me. Jeez!"

"As you command," Béla replied, dead serious. "I trust you. With all of our lives."

"Praetor, record this judgment," Elaine called into the air, hoping to end this sad soap opera and get on with the festivities.

'This judgment is recorded in history, ' the Praetor replied in all their minds.

'Just incidentally, ' Elaine privately asked the Praetor, 'A 'Carte Blanche' has submitted herself to another for the sake of justice. What does that make Beth?'