Chapter 10

'My!' Alana cheerily thought at Tabatha as she looked down at the red-head's bloody, torn torso. 'And that feels good, does it?'

Tabatha opened her eyes at Alana's cheerfully intrusive thought and laughed; tried to, anyway, and ended up choking on her own blood. Ong sat up from where he'd been resting and licking her blood from his fingers and nails, concerned at the sounds of distress coming from his new mate.

Tabatha lay back and tried to smile, but a trickle of blood ran from the edge of her mouth and across her cheek, and Ong was down next to her, concerned and wanting to help, but not understanding what he could do. Not wanting to be damaged further, Tabatha tried to radiate waves of 'calm' at him. It didn't seem to be working until Alana reached out in her dream state and moved her hand through Ong's body. He immediately became quieter.

'Thanks, Queeny, ' Tabatha sighed, then relaxed back onto the surprisingly soft mattress of tanned furs beneath her.

'Don't call m... ' Alana began, then gave up, sighing her defeat. 'Are you all right?'

'Yeah ... I will be, anyway, ' Tabatha mentally replied. Speaking out loud to someone who wasn't there might upset Ong, again. 'God ... What an incredible fucking machine!'

'You sound like you had fun, ' Alana mused. 'What you were radiating was certainly, um, entertaining, anyway. Sy and I enjoyed your broadcast immensely.'

Alana sat down next to Tabatha, ignoring the fact that Ong's legs were now half-way through her invisible dream self. She and Tabatha simply enjoyed each other's company for a few minutes. The odd emotions radiating from her friend needed to be explained, and Alana was willing to sit and wait until Tabatha sorted things out and was ready to talk.

'That might be a long time, ' Tabatha chortled in her mind, letting her queenly friend know that her thoughts had been leaking. 'I'm still figuring stuff out, myself.'

'Figuring out what?' Alana wanted to know.

'My life, our lives, my purpose in all of this... ' Tabatha sighed. 'You know ... Stuff.'

'I've spent thousands of years wondering about ... stuff ... very similar to what you're wondering about, ' Alana confessed. 'You know what I finally decided?'

Tabatha turned her head, pretending to look at her invisible, dream-walking friend. She raised her eyebrows in a question.

Alana replied, 'I don't have a clue.'

Tabatha laughed. Her insides were healing nicely, and she didn't cough up any blood this time. Ong turned his head to look at her, but otherwise simply lay where he was.

'You're the queen of the entire human race, ' Tabatha chortled in her mind. 'As well as the creator of a new race of gods and goddesses. And you don't have a clue?'

'Nope! Not a single hint of what I'm supposed to do, ' Alana confessed. 'Everybody does it all for me. Elaine's at the helm, guiding us through these tempestuous waters... '

'Ha-ha. Tempestuous; I like that. She truly is a temptress, isn't she?'

'Hey, I'm being serious, here, ' Alana insisted. 'She's the one who says what, and the rest of us just do it. She should've been the friggin' queen.'

'So it comes down to the same ol' whine, huh?' Tabatha smirked. 'Is that all that's bothering you?'

'That depends ... Are you done interrupting me?' Alana asked imperiously. Tabatha kept her mouth shut, though she made a small sigh through her nose. Ong smiled at her.

'That's better, I think, ' Alana continued. 'The things that drove me when I was on Earth don't apply here. For centuries, all I tried to do was stay alive and try to stay interested in what was happening around me. It seemed important, somehow, but in the end, it didn't really make any difference; my interest, I mean. It didn't matter; I survived, and no one else did. I have only what I remember.'

'So this is a eulogy about your past, huh?' Tabatha asked, feeling safe enough in her friendship with the queen to dare such a question.

'No, ' Alana replied, giving her friend a soft, invisible smile. 'This is about your past.'

'My past?' Tabatha wanted to know. 'What are you going on about?'

'You ... are troubled, ' Alana said quietly. 'I can feel it, and it feels a lot like the way I've felt; many, many times in the past.'

'I'm fine, ' Tabatha insisted. 'In fact, I'm better than fine! I am ... well fucked, ' she concluded, sounding lame even in her own mind.

'Yeah, right, ' Alana chided her. 'I look at you, and I see a great big question mark. You are questioning your very existence. I can't begin to count the different waves of uncertainty roiling off your body. Please. Talk to me, Tabby. Let me help you sort things out.'

Tabatha lay still for a few moments. Alana, she knew, had her own agenda, her own plans and purposes for those who surrounded her, and Tabatha was certain she was included in those plans. Any 'talking' Alana might want to do would almost certainly be an effort to get Tabatha to go along with her royal plans for the future. In New Eden.

And, that was the problem.

Tabatha didn't want to go back.

Yes, New Eden was brightly lit, peaceful, full of friendly people who counted her among those whom they worshiped. But it was frightfully dull, and Tabatha had spent most of her 'Tabatha' time on Earth, in the far distant past, sharing an exciting life with Frank and Tanya and their Jurassic Lodge.

But the wormhole to Jurassic Lodge was closed. No one was permitted to go there anymore. This new venture, introducing humans into Mesopotamia, was beginning to claim her interest. Even that was something she could resist, maintaining a main residence with her husband in New Eden while occasionally visiting the Mesopotamian colony.

Now, she'd just been captured and raped by a primitive species of humanoid that didn't even exist anymore. And ... she had loved it! She wanted to stay here, and experience life on this primitive level. Life was rough, and deliciously painful, especially for a human female. But, how could she tell her dearest friend that she and the life she offered in New Eden were no longer enough?

Alana sensed a change in Tabatha's demeanor, and turned to look at her. Tabatha sensed Alana's invisible movement, as well.

'Do you remember our first mission together, ' Tabatha began. 'It was shortly after I got married, and we were shutting down that drug lord and his cronies.'

Alana nodded, a slight hum coming from her throat in acknowledgment.

'During the battle, I found myself in a hacienda, caught by one of the leaders and his radio man. I had the chance to grab a grenade, so I pulled the pin and threw it onto the desk. Neither man could get to it in time, and even if they did, what would they do with it?'

'Interesting problem, ' Alana conceded, 'for them.'

'Yeah, ' Tabatha agreed. 'It was an interesting problem for me, too. One of them shot me in the ass, and I was having trouble concentrating on the fight. Somehow, I managed to teleport to safety just as the grenade exploded. I could feel it at the edge of the T-zone, trying to follow me through. I managed to seal it off, though, so no shrapnel came through when I exited.'

'That was a close call, I suppose, ' Alana replied. 'I had some fun, too, getting shot up by a couple of guards with machine guns.'

'Yeah, but, you see?' Tabatha asked, 'That's the difference between you and me. You went for the ... exposure ... the thrill of it! Alana, I almost didn't teleport – on purpose.'

'Hey, girl, ' Alana sat up, interrupting. 'You almost got blown up! You wouldn't recover from that! Hell, I wouldn't recover from that ... not without a lot of help, anyway. You were right to run away.'

'I suppose I was, ' Tabatha agreed. 'But, I didn't want to. And I don't want to run away now. I want to stay here.'

'With that hairy ape man?' Alana asked, shocked and surprised. 'He almost KILLED you! And you want to stay with him? Oh, I get it; you want to explore! You want to live closer to death than you have been.'

Tabatha sat up and stared at where Alana would have been sitting had she actually been there. After a moment, she said, "Yes."

She could feel the tears in Alana's eyes in the words she felt in her mind; 'Tabby, I love you. I wouldn't do anything to make you unhappy. But, please ... reconsider this decision. What will your husband say? What can I tell him? Tabby Vader went over to the Dark Side?'

'Don't press me right now, Queeny, ' Tabatha growled. 'I don't have all this worked out, yet. Give me time, alright? You and Jake and everybody else are important to me, and I don't want to give you up.'

'But... ' Alana thought back at her.

'Yeah, there's a but. I want to explore this ... primitive-ness. I want to explore Ong. That's the shaggy guy's name, by the way; Ong. And he's a Neanderthal, and he's rough and uncivilized, and he has feelings for me.'

'You're giving everything up to go primitive?' Alana asked. 'I thought New Eden was plenty primitive enough for all of us.'

'Well, there's no TV or cars and most the humans have to walk in order to get anywhere, but since it's all the same, one town's pretty much like every other. It's tame. It's friggin' DULL, Alana, and I need to get away from all that – for just a little while.'

'For a while... ' Alana repeated, not certain if she was asking a question or simply making a comment.

'Yes, ' Tabatha replied. 'You know I'll come back. Hell, we live almost forever. Of course, I'll come back.'

Alana sighed. Tabatha could feel her rise up, the image obvious in her mind; 'Okay, then. I'll find something to say to the others... '

'Alana, I love you. Please don't be upset.'

'I'm not upset, Tabby... ' Alana decided. 'I'm just ... confused.'

'But according to you that's your normal state, right?' Tabatha replied, trying to laugh and lighten the mood between them.

'Yeah, right... '

Alana faded from Tabatha's awareness, then she was gone.

A caterpillar slowly crawled up his chin, catching its tiny legs in his whiskers as it attempted its arduous task. When it reached his nose, it tried to crawl inside. Frank snorted and tried to bat it away. His hand slapped against human skin and a startled laugh greeted his ears.

His eyes flew open! "Tanya!"

Tanya looked around as though pretending to search for herself, then nodded; "Um-hum..."

"You're alive!"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much," Tanya replied, turning her head to question his strange actions. He'd seen her die before; hell, he'd killed her at least dozens of times. Why was he so shocked to see her alive now?