Chapter 30

Awakening, she kept her eyes closed, listening to the soft even breathing of the Warrior Prime beside her, his body a welcome source of warmth inside the cave that they'd carved out of the glacier after their lovemaking the previous night. He merely moaned in his sleep as she snuggled closer, remembering the hours of frenzied passion, his Prime's body such a welcome change after the Betas.

After a few more minutes, she arched her back like a cat, her powerful body flexing lithely to float upward from their nest, the coverings sliding noiselessly from her nude body, the silky black of her hair cascading down from her head to cover her strong shoulders as she rotated upright. Despite a night's sleep, each strand of her hair was as fresh and as shiny as if she'd just showered.

She came to a stop floating a few inches above the nest while continuing her stretching exercises. Clasping her hands behind her shoulders, she stretched from side to side, rotating her head in a wide circle at the same time. She finally leaned her head far back to stretch her back, running her slender fingers through her soft hair. A final flex of her gorgeous legs was sufficient to lift her from the nest and carry her silently across the cave. Extending her long legs, she was suddenly standing on the icy floor in front of the back wall of the cave.

It was a most unusual way to awaken, but then, Mirrin was a most unusual girl; something that the other members of her team were as yet unaware of. Among the invasion force, only her adoptive mother and the Colonel knew that she was in actuality a Velorian and not an Arion Prime by birth.

She played her heat vision lightly across the wall, smoothing the ice until it reflected the light of their single lamp. She slowly began to flex her muscles in front of her new full-length mirror, imagining that she was doing this in front of Telner. Men, especially Arions, were so wildly and uncontrollably attracted to her. Staring at her image in the huge mirror, she admired her large up-thrust breasts and her narrow hips and her long shapely legs. She was in every way a true goddess. No man could look upon her without being awed by her beauty and overwhelmed with wild desire.

At least if not they were awake, which Telner wasn't. She glanced over to see that he was still asleep, his breathing soft and slow. She thought about waking him, then decided against it. He really wasn't a morning person, barely civil until after he'd satisfied his appetite. Not his appetite for her, which had seemed insatiable last night, but for food.

She herself didn't feel hungry at all, the female Supremis body having natural energy reservoirs that the male bodies lacked. Crossing her arms as she looked at herself in the mirror, she contemplated the extent of her physical powers. She didn't look strong when she was relaxed like this, yet she so loved being strong. Stronger than any Arion Prime, stronger than anybody she knew. She began to gently trace her fingers across the muscles of her arm as she tightened it, her biceps growing larger and larger until it was too big to surround with only the fingers of a single hand.

She began the morning exercises that she'd begun even before entering the Academy, each muscle of her body began to oppose another in a series of isometric exercises. Exerting the star-born powers that no Terran material could contain, not rock or steel, she'd learned by then that it was only the steel of her own body that could resist her fabulous strength.

Her body slowly expanded into a maze of hard-edged muscle as she got further into her workout, Her arms exploded into sharply-defined curves that would be the envy of a Terran bodybuilder, her body transforming itself from slender to muscular. She had grown up model slim, but no model had ever dreamed of having the muscles of a supergirl, muscles that began their sensuous dance as she worked herself up to her full potential, the energy demands of her straining body making her breasts grow warm as they generated the energy needed to fuel her metabolism. Expending energy at a ferocious rate as she tensed every muscle on her body to its full strength, her nipples became engorged and then began to smoke slightly. The oils of her skin burned off quickly to reveal nipples that stood straight out for nearly an inch from her firm young breasts, both of them glowing cherry-red from the heat as they began to tingle wildly with undeniable desires.

Staring proudly at herself in the icy mirror, she began lowering her hands to trace her fingers over the hard edges of her massive quads, her legs flexing spectacularly as her entire body turned into living steel. Rising into mid-air to protect the structure of the cave from what was to come next, she was wildly turned on now, her body tingling so powerfully that she could not form a coherent thought about anything. Anything that is except that of increasing her own pleasures.

Her fingertips had barely found the center of her sexual pleasure when she arched her body backward, a silent cry forming on her lips. Throwing her head wildly from side to side, she created a dark cloud about her shoulders, a wild flurry of bluish sparks crackling loudly as they shot back and forth between her outstretched nipples. She was soon oblivious to anything on the planet except her own solitary pleasure. Flexing her body tighter yet, the lightening grew stronger as she soared into the most exciting part of her morning workout. It was perhaps a measure of his exhaustion that Telner continued to sleep through it.

It was nearly an hour later when she finally collapsed onto the floor in total exhaustion, her body soaked in steaming hot sweat, her breasts glowing like the sun from the violent discharge of energy. Curling herself into a fetal ball on the floor of the cave, hugging her knees to her glowing chest, she rocked back and forth while waiting for the wild spasms of her long orgasm to gradually slow down.

They did not slow. She found instead that her mind was lost in a swirling tornado of mindless arousal. She struggled to bring her thoughts back to her morning. More training sessions. More planning sessions. It was so hard. Leaning forward, her black hair spilled across Telner's still-sleeping body as she leaned heavily against him, her legs still too weak to lift her. Taking a deep shuddering breath, she finally managed to struggle to her feet, her sweat-soaked hair plastered to her face.

She again thought about waking Telner. Again she decided against it, instead turning toward the rough opening in the icy wall.

Feeling her skin cooling rapidly, she pulled her cape over one shoulder and staggered out of the cave to head for the surface. She felt as weak as a Beta.

Once outside, the first person that she met was Darven, Sirren's partner. He was coming out of their own ice cave when they met head-on.

Mirrin flew backward from the impact, the slender young girl bouncing off his heavier body like a hockey puck bouncing off the boards. Reacting instinctively as a man, he reached out to hold onto her shoulders to help her keep her footing. He was rewarded with a wave of scented wildflowers and honey.

He immediately knew that Mirrin wasn't well. Her hair was a tangled mess, her face a shining mask of sweat, her body somehow feeling so very weak while her muscles were pumped up at the same time. Struggling to hold each other up, her cape fell open to reveal the front of her body down to her waist. Her body was rippling with the most incredible muscles she'd ever seen, the hard curves extending from Mirrin's neck to her toes.

He had never seen Mirrin looking this powerful before, yet at the same time feeling so weak. Staring down at her upper body now, he could see the blue-green sparks arcing between her hugely engorged nipples. Her sweat-covered skin, her pumped up muscles, not to mention the cloud of pheromones that surrounded her, all told him that she was ready for something else.

Under the enticing wave of her pheromones, his body reacted strongly to her beautiful body in the only way that it could. Releasing her shoulders, his hands went to cup her breasts, squeezing them with more than enough force to crush steel.

Feeling his hands on her breasts, and looking into his deep blue eyes, she felt her earlier arousal returning. That arousal brought with it a surge of power. And it also brought more, much more. Mirrin may have been brought up as an Arion Prime, but the black hair dye did not change the fact that she was biologically a Velorian. Neither she nor any of the Arions around her realized that she was entering into Ples'tathy.

Ples'tathy was an elevated state of arousal that only Velorian females were capable of. It was an arousal that served to feed on itself, one that no woman could satisfy by the strength of her own hand. It was a rare state of total arousal that required a patient and powerful lover to expunge. It was also something completely unknown among Arions.

Darven was a powerful man, even among Arion Primes. And he was not an unaccomplished lover, at least according to what Sirren had told Mirrin. But like many male Primes, he was not exactly a patient lover. And naturally, he had never encountered a Velorian in the throes of Ples'tathy.

Darven'd had his eyes on the tall young girl ever since she'd first arrived. But then, he'd had his eyes on just about every female Prime aboard the ship. He knew that she was the daughter of the Major. That had only served to attract him more; like all of the men he'd dreamed of melting the Ice Queen's frosty façade.

It wasn't that he'd ever had complaints about Sirren, for he didn't. At least, now while she was around; she had been down on the surface of this dirtball of a planet for so much of the time. This time he was with her, and he had been enjoying it.

Though Mirrin's proximity definitely was a distraction. She did have strong pheromones, though of course he couldn't have known that they were so strong because they were Velorian and not Arion.

As enticing as Mirrin was, Darven knew that he shouldn't be doing this with Telner's woman. He and Telner had staked out their individual claims. Or perhaps it had been Mirrin and Sirren who had decided on the pairings. Either way, Mirrin and Telner were a pair. Steeling himself, he tried to push her away from him.

Even though she was quite a bit slimmer than he was, she seemed to be stronger. He found himself helpless as she wrapped her powerful arms and legs about him. Her large breasts pressed against his chest, harder than any woman's breasts ever had before.

Almost before he knew it, he was being pressed down against the snow. His warm body and her even warmer one sank through the snow, almost as if they were diving into water. Wrapping her legs around him, she tried to impale herself on his shaft.

"Mirrin!" he managed to gasp out, trying to extricate himself from her embrace.

Her legs tightened about him as she bent over him, her hair engulfing his face, her pheromones once again flooding his nostrils.

One part of him wanted this girl, as he'd never wanted a female before. Yet, even as that part of him sent his hands back up to fondle her breasts, another part of him felt the pain as her legs continued to tighten about him. That second part of him forced a searing scream out of his lungs.

Even muffled by the snow, the sound of Darven's scream was enough to awaken the other two sleeping Warriors Prime in their respective caves.

With Mirrin's pheromones taking over more and more of his system, Darven wasn't resisting as much. Using her flight powers to propel her, she increased the pace and force of her motion.

"Mirrin!" another voice shouted into her ear. Despite its softer feminine tone it had enough volume to rupture a Terran's eardrum. At the same time a pair of hands closed on her arm, trying to pry it away from Darven.

Mirrin shook her arm free and then swung it back. Her elbow connected with something solid, tossing it into a snow bank. Before she could bring her arm back down, another pair of hands closed about her wrist, pulling her arm behind her back.

She tried to bring her arm forward but it remained in place, held by two arms. Making another attempt, she slowly brought her arm forward. When the hands refused to let go of her arm, she reached across her body with her other hand and grabbed the back of his head. For it was a he, a corner of her mind recognizing Telner.

That same corner remembered what Telner liked so much about her. One of them, at any rate, since the other was occupied. Pulling him down in front of her, she wrapped her arms around him and forced a nipple into his mouth.

Even though she had landed in snow and ice, a substance that to her was much softer than a feather mattress would have been to a Terran, such was the force of Mirrin's blow that it took Sirren nearly a minute to regain her senses.

It took her a few more seconds to remember how she had gotten here. Quickly digging herself out and brushing the snow out of her eyes, she looked around. Not only was Mirrin still mounted atop Darven, but she also had Telner in her arms. Both men were struggling, but Mirrin seemed not to notice.

Taking two struggling men at once. Sirren had done that herself, but only with the feeble Terrans. Mirrin was doing it with two Warriors Prime.

In their brief acquaintance, Sirren had never seen the tall girl act quite like this before. Something was wrong with her. She had to get Mirrin away from the two men. With a shout, she launched herself at Mirrin again.

Something slammed into Mirrin's back, bending her forward. Telner was sandwiched between Darven and Mirrin. If he had been anything less than an Arion Prime, he would have been crushed instantly. As it was, two of his ribs, built of a much harder substance than anything native to Earth, were broken. The ribs on either side of them were also cracked.

One leg was caught behind Mirrin's body. It stretched too far and the knee straightened. The kneecap cracked and then the joint was dislocated as the leg began to bend in the opposite direction.

Telner was the lucky one. Mirrin's legs, already locked tight about Darven's body as she used her flight powers to stroke herself on his shaft, tightened even further, driving her heels against his back even as his entire body was bent back from having Telner's body smashed into his chest.

The Warrior Prime's body, able to withstand any Terran weapon up to and including a tactical nuclear warhead, succumbed to the force of the girl's heels being driven into his body by the longest and strongest pair of legs in the entire Arion invasion force. His hips were crushed between her thighs, just before his spine snapped from being bent back too far.

Pheromones are effective only on living beings. Even as Mirrin straightened up, she could feel Darven's shaft softening inside her. Then his entire body crumbled to powder, not even an Arion Prime's body able to withstand that much damage.

Still lost in the throes of Ples'tathy, Mirrin rose up from the Darven's remains and tried to move Telner's body into the proper position. A pair of arms wrapped around her waist and tried to prevent her from impaling herself on Telner.

"Mirrin!" the voice sounded in her ear again.

It was too much to ignore. She turned her head toward the sound.

Even though she wasn't actively fighting them, with the full power of Ples'tathy surging through her body, it took all of the combined strength of the two Primes to pull Mirrin off what remained of Darven.

"Mirrin! Snap out of it!" Sirren punctuated each word with a slap. Each slap would have gone through the side of an armored car, but they barely rocked Mirrin's head back.

Eventually they broke through her fog. She reached out to catch the hand before it could slap her again. "Sirren?"

He was eyeing the Rocky Mountain Oyster on the table between us. Pretending to keep my full attention on what he was saying, I watched out of the corners of my eyes as his hand edged toward the last of our appetizer. His other hand was on mine as it lay on the table. With my free hand I raised my paper napkin to my face and dabbed at my mouth.

As his hand made the final grab for the RMO, I let go of the napkin, grabbed the bowl, moved it about a foot across the table, and still managed to grab my napkin before it had cleared my chin.

His hand closed on empty air. He gasped, looked around, and finally located the bowl. He then looked up at me. "Jule!"

"Yes?" I responded sweetly, as if nothing had happened.

"If you want it, just take it."

"Want what?" I asked, going into my dumb blonde routine, still trying to play innocent. "Take what?"

"You know what, Jule," he answered, trying to look stern. "The last oyster."

I looked down at the plate on the table as if I was seeing it for the first time. "Oh, that? No, you have it. You're paying for it." I put on my best smile. "Besides, I have to watch my figure."

He came close to snorting. The dumb blonde routine never did work on him, not even when we had been just friends in high school. And he knew that my Velorian metabolism made it very hard for me to put on weight. "Well then, quit playing with our food."

"Yes, my darling husband. I hear and obey."

This time, he did snort. We've been married long enough; he knows just how much I obey him. Watching me carefully, he grabbed the last RMO, dipped it in the sauce, and then popped it into his mouth.

He knew that my Velorian metabolism lets me eat just about anything that I wanted to, and as much of it as I wanted to. Besides, he spent more time watching my figure than I did. And exploring it with his hands.

But he wasn't going to be doing any of that for the next week. My darling husband was leaving tonight on another business trip. This time to the East Coast. I had made my usual offer of giving him a lift there, but as usual we compromised on my taking him only part of the way there.

We had spent much of the afternoon getting ready and saying our good-byes. Now we were having dinner at the Trail Dust in Westminster so that he could replenish his energy. He could catch up on his rest during the flight, and while on his trip. As befits the name, the Trail Dust isn't a fancy place; if anybody wears a necktie to the place, they cut it off. We weren't after fancy tonight. And if the steaks here aren't the best in the area, they certainly are the biggest.

The sky was clouding up when we finished our dinner and I drove him the rest of the way to the airport. Even though he was the son of the company owner, he was taking the red-eye to Boston. At least he was flying first class, though I again reminded him that we could already be in his hotel room right now doing something else if he'd chosen to fly Velorian Express.

Arriving at the passenger drop-off zone, I turned off the engine, popped the trunk, and walked around to the back. Looking around to make sure that nobody was watching too closely, I reached in and hooked a finger around the handle of his suitcase. Easily lifting it out of the trunk, I let him see me holding it on my finger for a second.

His eyes widened at the sight. As often as he'd seen me do things like that, I don't think he'd ever get tired of seeing more. I know that I'd never get tired of showing him.

"You're on your own with this from now on," I told him, setting the suitcase down on the curb. I then gave him a final kiss and hug and then watched as he wheeled the suitcase into the terminal, his briefcase under his other arm. A light snow, the first snow of the season, was beginning to falling as I got back into the car and left the terminal.

The snow got heavier as I drove home. There wasn't much traffic, but what there was slowed down. Up ahead I could see flashing lights; red, blue, and yellow. Zooming in with my telescopic vision, I saw that a car had gone off the road and into a ditch. The police had traffic stopped in both directions while a tow truck tried to get the car out of the ditch.

Even as I stopped behind the car in front of me, I kept watching. I thought about turning around and taking another route, but we were way out in the boonies. Going back would mean going back several miles back to Tower Road before I could turn north.

I could always leave my car here and fly home. But with my luck, they'd probably tow my car away before I came back for it. And carrying the car would be a little too obvious. I sat back and watched the work in front of me.

I thought about helping. But the driver behind me would see me getting out of my car. Besides, the tow truck just about had the car out of the ditch anyway, the front wheels were already on the shoulder. Moving my car a little to get it under a tree and out of the worst of the snow, I popped another CD into the player, turned up the volume, and settled back to wait.

That was when one of the links in the tow chain snapped.

The car went sliding back across the shoulder and back into the ditch. Freed from its load, the tow truck sprang forward across the road, onto the shoulder on the other side, and nosed into the ditch.

There was only one thing that I could do. Shutting off the engine, I grabbed my purse and opened the door. I walked out of the car as if I was merely stretching my legs. Getting out of the glare of the headlights and behind another tree, I quickly changed into my converted Arion uniform. I then leaped up into the falling snow.

I landed behind the tow truck driver, who along with one of the troopers was inspecting the damage to the front of the truck. "Gentlemen, can I be of assistance?"

The two men jumped at my voice. The trooper spoke as he started to turn around. "Go back and wait in your car, lady." His jaw almost hit the ground when he finished his turn and saw me standing in the lightly falling snow wearing not much more than a bikini.

The tow truck driver didn't say anything, but his jaw also almost hit the ground and his eyes popped out until they were sticking out in front of his nose.

Walking around them, I went to the back of the truck. Bending down, I grabbed the rear bumper with my right hand. Walking backwards, I pulled the truck out of the ditch, straightening it out on the shoulder.

I then walked across the road to the car. This one was going to take a little more work, since it had high-centered when it slid back. Jumping down into the ditch, I bent down and grabbed the rear bumper, this time with my left hand. Straightening up, I raised my arm until the car was level and then pushed it back onto the shoulder. Still holding the bumper, I jumped up onto the shoulder and turned the car around so that it was parked neatly on the shoulder, out of the way of traffic. I then set it down.

I brushed off my hands and flung the cape back over my shoulder. "Anything else I can do for you, officer?" I asked the trooper, putting my hands on my hips.

The two men still had their jaws hanging around their knees. A college-aged girl, all bundled up in a ski parka, had joined them, apparently the driver of the car. She was the only one of the three who had a functional vocal apparatus. "Supergirl....?"

"Try to be a little more careful in the snow," I told her. "It's not like driving in Florida." I had noticed the plates while pushing her car out of the ditch. "Save your sliding for the slopes." I hadn't needed my tachyon vision to see the snowboard on the roof rack.

Some of the people in the nearest cars were getting out, presumably to get a better look at me. And considering that the Arion uniform wasn't covering all that much of me, there was a lot of me showing for them to look at. I decided it was time to leave. "Drive safely," I told the girl again, before leaping up into the sky.

Getting back into my car was no harder than getting out of it, and fortunately all attention was now focused on where Supergirl had just been. Putting on my other clothes, I walked out from behind the trees and got back into my car.

By the time that I had my seat belt fastened, the trooper had gotten the traffic started again. Starting the engine, I waited for my turn and then pulled out to join the slow-moving parade.

When I got up to the site of the mishap, the trooper and the tow truck driver were talking together, probably discussing what to say in their report. The girl from Florida had gotten her car started and was already long gone.

The pace picked up once we got past. So did the snow. It was still coming down when I got home at nearly midnight. Putting the car in the garage, I went in through the kitchen.

I'd just gotten up the stairs when a rapping sound caught my attention. It was coming from the bedroom window, as if something or somebody was tapping on it. At first I thought that it was a branch from the tree outside. Then I knew what it was. Floating across the room to the window, I opened it and stepped back.

Karen flew in and lowered herself onto the foot of the bed, tucking her legs under her as she sat. Despite the snow and chill outside, she was barefoot and dressed only in a pair of old and torn blue jeans and a white scoop-neck tee shirt. Despite the way her chest was sticking out, I knew that she wasn't wearing a bra, the proud owner of the second firmest set of breasts on the planet. I also knew that she wasn't wearing any panties.

She'd apparently flown here fast enough to keep from getting too wet. Either that or she'd shaken herself dry once she'd gotten under the roof over my balcony. Either way, the bed wasn't getting too wet.

"Well, well, there's a black-haired Raven perched upon my bed. So, my little Raven, or should I call you Lenore? What brings you here upon such a midnight dreary?"

"Huh?" she replied, her eyebrows rising as she frowned in confusion.

I closed the window. "Aren't you supposed to say 'Nevermore'?"

"Huh?" she repeated, her frown deepening.

I moved a pillow aside and sat down at the head of the bed. "They didn't teach you guys much American Literature when they were getting you ready to conquer this planet, did they?"

"Huh?" she said yet again, looking at me as if I had lost my mind. "What are you babbling about, Julie?"

I shook my head and waved a hand in the air. "Forget it." I dropped my hand into my lap. "So, why are you here, Karen? I thought you were with Bill."

"I was." She looked down, hooking her thumbs in the waistband of her jeans. "But he fell asleep. You know how men are."

I sighed and nodded in agreement. "Yes, they do tend to have that problem."

"I'm not ready to go to sleep yet," she continued, looking up at me. "And since you're alone tonight too, I thought maybe we could do something together."

"And just what did you have in mind, you nasty little Arion?"

"I thought a twisted Velorian mind like yours could come up with something." She grinned at me. "After all, that's all you ever think about."

Now that was unfair. I do think about it a lot, I am a Velorian after all, but I don't think about it all the time. No more than she does, and I told her as much.

She responded by pulling her tee shirt off over her head. The sight of her twin mounds drove other thoughts out of my head. I stripped off my own clothes as she slipped out of her jeans.

One other thought did cross my mind when she grabbed my breast and tried to push me down onto the bed. I grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "Not here. I don't want you wrecking my bedroom." Prying her hand from my breast, I stood up and went to the window, opening it and leaping out.

A few minutes later we were up in the mountains, above the thick black clouds and their snow. Turning around, I dived at Karen. She twisted around, trying to evade me. I grabbed an ankle and turned, spinning her around and then letting go, hurling her nearly half a mile away.

She tried to recover control, her legs and arms flailing wildly. Unfortunately for her, all that flailing completely uncoordinated her flight efforts, causing her to drop like a rock.

I'd been working with her on that, but she was still having trouble dealing with unexpected changes in her flight.

She started to regain control, slowing her descent. But not completely stopping it; she struck a snow-covered boulder, shattering it and bouncing up into the air again. She came down a little more gently this time, coming to rest on her ass in a couple of inches of snow.

Descending, I hovered a couple of feet above her and wagged a finger at her. "Gonna have to work on that some more."

Her right arm shot out, grabbing for my foot. I rose up a little higher, evading her grab. "You're also gonna have to work on that Arion temper of yours." I wagged my finger at her again.

"I'll give you something to work on!" Scrambling up to her feet, she leaped up at me.

I easily evaded her. I feinted at her, and when she tried to grab me, I went around and tapped her lightly on her rump. When she whirled around, I dived under her and rapped her on the rump again. A little harder this time, hard enough to punch through the armor of a main battle tank. The blow set her spinning again.

She regained control a little quicker this time, meaning that she did it before she hit the ground. She came climbing back up at me. Again I evaded her grasp, dodging to the side and down a little. I'd been coaching her on her flying, but I haven't taught her everything that I know. "Yep, you still need to work a little more on that," I told her, floating still with my hands on my hips.

"Work on this!" She clenched her fists and dove at me.

Whipping around faster than she could, I came up behind her and closed my hands on her breasts. She went completely limp, leaving me to support our bodies. "What if I just work on these?" I whispered into her ear when our feet were once again on the ground, squeezing her breasts with enough force to crush steel. I then turned her around to face me. "And this." Before she could answer, I planted my lips on hers.

She responded to my kiss, sliding a hand between our bodies and cupping a breast, squeezing me as hard as I was squeezing her. She lifted me off my feet, my entire weight resting on the breast in her hand.

A flick of her wrist sent me flying against the trunk of a pine. And through, the severed tree all but falling on top of me. She couldn't have learned that little trick from me, she had to have learned it from Mom. I mean, it's so typically Arion.

Managing to stop my flight before I hit another tree, I flew back at her. "Oh, so you want foreplay, do you, you nasty Arion!"

She tried to evade my charge but I was too quick for her. I drove my shoulder into her stomach, lifting her off her feet before slamming her down on her back. But before I could trap her legs, she managed to get a knee into my stomach. She kicked me off her, sending me flying over her head.

I stopped my flip, using my flight powers to keep myself suspended upside down with my head hanging over her head. Grabbing hold of her breasts, I 'pulled' myself down, planting my lips on hers, my legs still pointed straight up at the sky.

She responded to the kiss and started to reach for my breasts. I quickly righted myself, holding her over my head by her breasts. Swinging her around, I slammed her down onto a fallen tree trunk. The rotten wood splintered under her, scattering more snow.

I was on top of her before she could get up. "Had enough?" I asked, grabbing a breast and pulling her up to her feet.

"No," she replied, wrapping her arms around me, lifting herself up to kiss me.

Even after spending all afternoon with my husband, I still had more than enough energy to go all night. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband dearly. But there are some things that he just can't do. Things that only Karen had the strength to do.

It wasn't long before we were back down on the snow-covered ground, our hands and mouths working over each other's bodies in a way that only two Supremis women can do to each other.

The skies were just beginning to brighten with the dawn when the two of us finally landed on the balcony outside my room and went inside to use the shower and get ready for the new day.

Even with my darling husband gone on his business trip, there was plenty to keep me occupied. And I'm not talking about having men, or Karen, for that matter, in my bed. Or out in the snow.

Of course, the fact that we hadn't run across any Arions didn't mean that we were completely idle. We'd had to deal with our share of Terran problems.

One such incident happened down in southern Arizona. Mark had been checking into a suspected white slavery operation when he called me in. Actually he had originally called for Karen, but since she was busy on something else Mom assigned me to fill in for her.

Great. The only Velorian on the whole planet, and I'm the second string. Anyway, second string or not, I flew out to Tucson to meet with Mark. Sitting in his hotel room, he filled me in on his plan.

I blanched at the plan. "You're kidding. You want me to pretend to be a hooker?" Now I could see why he'd originally asked for Karen. She's got more experience at this kind of stuff. Heck, she'd had professional training. Okay, so it was from the Arions, but all I had was a little on-the-job training.

"Hey, it's either that, or you go in with guns blazing, so to speak. But too many eyes will see you that way. I say, get to Pérez in private and take him out, and that's the only way I know to get him private."

I sighed, I suddenly wished as I sometimes do that I'd been born a man. Nobody would ask Arnold to use his body to seduce the perpetrator. They'd just give him bigger guns and more grenades and drop him out of a helicopter. On the other hand, Arnold wasn't bulletproof like I am. And I'm a lot cuter than he is, even if I say so myself.

He led me into another room and closed and locked the door behind us. "Here are your working clothes, my super lady." His eyes twinkled.

The outfit he handed me was garish and bright and it didn't cover more of me than was necessary to avoid getting arrested for public nudity. Somehow he'd arranged to get stuff in my size, not Karen's. I noticed the decided lack of undergarments.

"I figured that you still don't wear underwear," he said with a smile. "It fits your new image in any case."

I stuck out my tongue at him.

"Get dressed," he simply told me, his eyes still twinkling.

I looked back to see the tent in his pants, a faint scent of arousal filling the room. I ignored his obvious invitation as I concentrated instead on getting dressed. After all, he's a married man, and I'm a married woman. And we're not married to each other.

He handed me an impossibly tiny pair of shorts, the fabric glittering in silver and black. I quickly pulled the tight garment up to find that it hugged me like a second skin, the back leaving little to the imagination, the front about an inch on the good side of modesty. As soon as I'd wiggled into it, he handed me a matching top and a pair of silver heels. I tied the top off below my breasts and held myself for a moment as I turned to the side and looked into the mirror. I couldn't help but giggle at my reflection.

"Sleazy, but very expensive and profoundly beautiful," he confirmed as he started to brush my hair. "You look like you should be hanging out in the bar in the Beverly Hills Hotel."

"Or at an Oakland Raiders game," I said, having seen enough Raiders fans when Steve and the Broncos hosted them at Mile High Stadium. Silver and black was not one of our favorite color schemes.

"Just remember. You're supposed to be the most expensive hooker in town, something you've definitely got the bod for, so all you have to do is act like one and you'll find your way to Pérez."

"Like I have a lot of experience acting like a hooker."

"You're a Velorian," he said with that twinkle in his eye. "It'll come naturally."

I stuck my tongue out at him again. "If anyone else said that, I'd deck them." He was different. I was tempted to drop him to the floor, tear his clothes off, and show him some things that a hooker wouldn't do. But I'm a happily married woman, not that I'd let that stop me in the past. And he's a happily married man, not that I'd let that stop me in the past, either.

It was about an hour after that when I climbed out of cab to find myself standing in a very bad section of town. The cab driver took the money I handed him through the window and floored the accelerator, my fifty dollar bill for a twenty dollar fare going with him. I turned and squinted my eyes his way to focus two very pale beams on his right rear tire. They converged at light speed to vaporize enough rubber to blow the tire out, the flat tire sending the cab skidding satisfyingly over to lurch to a halt against the curb. The cabbie jumped out and started cursing his smoking tire as I turned to walk up the front steps of the graffiti-stained building behind me. I was just reaching for the door handle when the door swung inward and a strong man's hand gripped my wrist and jerked me through it. He tossed me bodily to the side to smack bodily into another man who was hiding in the darkness. A very big and very muscular man.

"Search her," the first man commanded. I heard the man behind taking a deep breath as his hands began to trace over me. His hands soon found my breasts as he proceeded to squeeze me very hard. I gasped in simulated pain, even as I kept myself as soft as an ordinary woman. His grip was almost too strong to believe. His brutish examination soon moved lower, finally over my shorts, his fingers checking every hiding place. He was unnecessarily thorough in his investigation, something I had to hold my breath and concentrate on allowing him. I was supposed to be human. It was not yet time to become Supergirl.

"Take off your shoes."

"My shoes? Why? They aren't..."

He landed a hard slap against my cheek. "Shut up, bitch. You're here to entertain the boss, and you don't need no shoes for that. Besides, those long heels are sharp. Weapons, maybe." The first man reached out and grabbed my tits again to continue his now unnecessary search. I felt a flash of anger as I imagined an ordinary woman's breasts bruising from his violent grip. Mark had told me about the other girls who'd wound up in the hospital after visiting this place. Without thinking of the consequences, I let my imagination run free regarding what these men must have done to them. That made me even madder. Without thinking of the consequences, I angrily raised both feet from the floor at the same time as I took off my shoes. Their eyes were staring in astonishment as I slowly rotated in midair to fly over their heads and land behind them. They spun around to face me as I distracted them further by handing a shoe to each of them.

"Surprise!" With that, I kicked them both in the balls at the same time, my dual kick landing hard enough to lift them off the floor and toss them ten feet back against the wall.

I landed lightly back on the floor and put my shoes back on before turning to walk toward the stairway that led upstairs. I was almost there when a violent blow slammed between my shoulder blades. A flash of light and the roar of a large-caliber handgun filled the narrow hallway behind me as the impact of the heavy bullet knocked me off balance. Two more bullets followed the first, both of them crashing into my lower back to drop me to my knees. A final bullet landed low, racing under my shorts, its unwelcome force making me flinch violently enough to fall on my face, my arms and legs spreadeagled. Cursing myself for not anticipating their brutal gunmanship, I rolled on my side and rose lightly back to my feet. Their guns blazed in the narrow hallway again, my chest absorbed the heavy caliber punishment this time. I rubbed my hand across my chest as I turned to walk up the stairs, hoping the assholes had run out of ammunition. They hadn't. The stairwell behind me suddenly exploded into a riot of muzzle flashes and smoke as a dozen steel-tipped projectiles marched up and down my backside, most of them hitting low across my back.

I felt the fabric shredding as I continued to walk up the stairs, their aiming point naturally moving lower as I climbed the steps. I gasped as their shooting angle became critically low, only to stumble and fall to my knees again as a bullet found a particularly sensitive spot. That only encouraged the men to pull their triggers faster. The blows hammered me from head to toe now as I struggled to crawl up the last steps and throw myself around the corner, all the while wishing I could turn and give them those assholes the heated stare that they deserved. But I knew too well what my heat vision would do in the confined stairwell. In my current mood not only would the men would vaporized instantly but the entire building would also be incinerated completely, and I had no idea how many people were in it. Too many. Innocents for sure. Terrans. Protector or not, I couldn't do that.

I had to keep reminding myself that my target was only one man. Even at that, I wasn't sure yet if I was going to kill him or just scare the hell out of him. I briefly released my growing impulse toward violence by throwing myself against the heavy wooden door at the top of the stairs. My shoulder shattered the hardwood as I fell through the door to land on my knees at the entrance to a very large room.

It was empty except for single huge bed. A large man was in the bed, and he in turn was engaged in pounding himself against a very pretty Hispanic girl in her mid-teens. She was crying out in obvious pain as I saw the man deliberately trying to hurt her, his body flexing powerfully as he used her slender body for his own purposes. I turned away disgustedly to see two other girls and three slightly older women along the far wall, all of them handcuffed to a railing. The injured looks in their eyes said that they'd had more than one turn on that bed themselves.

I was suddenly furious, and my anger empowered me enough for my feet to lift off the floor. Without thinking, I flew across the room to grab the brute's shoulders. It was all I could do not to tear his arms from their sockets as I lifted him over my head and tossed him the other way across the room. He tumbled head over heels once before hitting the wall very hard. I turned back to comfort the girl, hugging her tightly to myself as I lifted her from the bed. I was twisting around in midair to guide her toward the door when I saw the muzzle flash of another gun. Instead of feeling the impact against my skin, I instead felt the girl stiffen in my arms. I was shocked by the realization that the bullet had missed me and hit her instead. I looked down to see a neat, round hole in her back, directly in line with her heart. She gave a soft cough and slumped to the floor. It didn't take tachyon vision to see that she was dead. I spun around to face the shooter, my eyes blazing in anger.

"You killed her," I screamed.

"No loss." There was absolutely no trace of emotion in his voice. "Just another filthy hooker."

"She was only a girl," I yelled back at him.

"She was just like the rest of you bitches, " he growled menacingly. "You all have to die."

I had no idea what he was talking about. Killing all of us? He didn't exactly sound like an Arion. Or like anybody else. Unfortunately, he gave me little time to think as he began to wave his gun at the other women. I felt a cold knot of fear in my stomach as I realized that there was nothing I could do to keep him from shooting again. I'm fast, but I'm not nearly fast enough to catch a bullet inside this room. Give me a couple of seconds and I can break the Mach, but not ten milliseconds. I raised my hands instead and gave myself up.

"Okay, you got me."

"You a cop?"

I nodded as I lied. "Colorado's best." Well, maybe it wasn't completely a lie.

"Then you can die first," he spit at me. He raised his gun and snapped off a shot at my chest. The bullet was well aimed, another heart shot, but instead of killing me, it merely bounced from the inside curve of one breast to plow into the softness of the other before falling, spent and useless, on the floor in front of me. A cloud of torn fabric from my top floated in front of me as the remains of my top threatened to fall off me.

"Jesus! I ain't seen no bulletproof vest that looks like that," he said in shocked amazement. He turned and placed the barrel against one of the girl's heads. "You take it all off."

"What?"

"Your vest. Do it now or she dies."

I saw his finger tightening on the trigger. He was truly ready to kill the girl, that much was for sure. I quickly raised my hands to grab the fabric of my halter and pulled outward. His eyes opened wide as I proudly held my hands to the sides, exposing my breasts. I knew the effect that my chest normally had on men. Unfortunately, he seemed less impressed than I'd hoped for.

"Now, eat lead and die, cop," he growled as he squeezed off two more perfectly aimed shots. I stood perfectly still as my left breast blunted the bullets to drop them onto the floor by his feet.

"What the fuck," he started to say as he stared down at his now useless gun. I took advantage of his confusion to leap toward him. He was quicker than I had given him credit for, his gun rising back up to crack into my mouth as I came to a stop in front of him. He jammed it forward and pulled the trigger. "Eat this."

The violent explosion in my mouth felt like it was going to tear my head off as the bullet impacted the back of my throat. The sting of the bullet faded quickly, but not the bad taste. I bit down as hard as I could against the steel barrel, only to bite the end of his barrel clean off. It tasted so much like sulfur that I promptly retched up the terrible smelling gunmetal. My hair fell over my face to blind me as I leaned over and vomited. My stomach was still heaving half a minute later when I felt another gun jabbing into my stomach from below. I tossed my hair to the side to see an older woman holding it. She looked like his sister, her eyes as gray as were his.

I felt the next bullet coming even before I saw the flash. It skimmed across the skin of my flat stomach to catch my left breast from below, the impact nearly lifting me off the floor. I ignored the tingling pain as I threw myself forward to wrap my legs around his head, my weight pinning him to the floor as I fell to my knees. He dropped his ruined gun and began to claw at my legs like a man gone berserk. His sister came to his rescue by sticking her gun in my ear, her other hand grabbing my hair to pull my head back with surprising strength.

"Let him go. Now," she screamed in my ear. I quickly reached up to crush her gun in my grip, the woman's scream and the snap of her bones telling me that her finger had still been on the trigger when the gun steel had collapsed around it. Too bad, I thought as I returned to my primary task --- stopping him for good.

I closed my eyes as I felt his hands tearing futilely at my invulnerable skin, his panting breath an obscenity as his sister continued to scream in my ear. I tightened my legs around his head until his hands went limp from the pain. The sensation of his skull slowly yielding between my legs somehow excited me, especially when he started to pound his fists frantically on my thighs. I was just about to close my knees and send him to the Hell he deserved when I heard a pin fall to the floor. I snapped my eyes up to see a hand grenade rolling across the floor to stop at one of the girl's feet.

I didn't have time to think now as I released him and threw myself forward, tearing my hair from his sister's grip at the same time. I quickly grabbed the grenade, only to find that it was larger than my hands could contain. A split second passed as my mind raced to find another way to smother it or get rid of it. There were no windows. Realizing that I had but a second left, I jammed it roughly against my stomach, up under and between my breasts, and then kneeled down on the floor to scrunch my body into a ball. I barely had time to wrap my arms around my knees when a blow like a hundred sledgehammers exploded between my breasts. The explosion blasted my arms open and sent me flying across the room. Another grenade landed beside me. It was all I could do to roll over to trap it between my breasts and the floor, surrounding it with the soft invulnerability that was mine alone. The violent explosion sent a shock wave through my chest as the blunted force tore a huge hole in the floor. I went flying upward to smash into the ceiling, a riot of sparks radiating from the center of my chest. A hail of bullets struck me from head to toe as I tumbled back to the floor, my arms and legs flailing wildly.

My eyes were barely focusing well enough now to see him running for the door with his sister behind him. A quick squint of my eyes let me look through the wall to see him running down a stairwell to climb into a red BMW that was parked behind the building. Behind me, a girl who'd been hit by a ricocheting bullet began to moan. I turned around and kneeled beside her. A flash of tachyon vision showed me that the bullet had gone clean through her shoulder, but nothing vital had been hit. She was bleeding to death, however. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I narrowed my eyes and sent a burst of heat vision through the bullet hole to cauterize the wound from her front to her back, the flash of my eyes so powerful that it tore a hole in the floor beneath her. The girl screamed in pain and fainted.

Knowing that she was going to live, I leaped to my feet and ran across the room as fast as I could. I was probably doing better than eighty miles per hour when I hit the back wall. The concrete blocks shattered as I head-butted the wall, my skull proving that it was harder than any substance made by man. I fell through the crumbling wall to tumble downward toward the ground. I snapped out of my fall at the last second to spread my legs and propel myself downward to land feet first on the hood of the car. My feet and legs went clean through the thin sheet metal to leave me straddling the hot roaring engine. His eyes grew as large as saucers as I smiled through the windshield at him while tightening my inner thighs. My calves crushed satisfyingly inward against the red-hot exhaust manifolds. I began to squeeze harder and harder until I felt the engine grinding and screaming internally as I slowly distorted the shape of the block to crush the pistons in their bores. The crankshaft promptly shattered into a hundred pieces as the engine exploded and fell silent. I smiled up at the shocked face in the car as I slowly squeezed my legs the rest of the way together. My thighs were touching each other when the engine split in half and fell to the ground. I leaped back just as the gas tank exploded.

That took care of Pérez. That still left the woman, who hadn't gotten in the BMW.

Looking around, I saw that Mark and his people were standing around on the other side of an open field. Apparently they had started to move in when the grenades had made them think better of it. I'd just walked over to join them, tying the remains of my top in front to at least partially cover up my breasts, when a red jeep roared down toward us. The woman was behind the wheel.

Even in my high heels, and without using flying, I still had no problem beating the men to the road. "Relax, boys," I told them, "I've got her." With that, I walked onto the dirt road and turned to face the onrushing jeep.

I simply stood there with my legs spread apart as the jeep bore down on me. Knowing that my shoes wouldn't be able to take the strain, I flexed my legs and prepared to use my flight powers to oppose the jeep's momentum.

My tattered top slid further up on me as I reached out with my hands to catch the front end, exposing the rest of my breasts. But this was no time to worry about my modesty; I had a speeding jeep to worry about.

She made it easy for me, making not the slightest attempt to avoid me. Instead she chose to try to run me over, bearing straight down at me. And of course, I made no attempt to evade him. The fender crumpled in my hands as the jeep came to a sudden halt, all four tires spinning in the dirt and kicking up dust as the engine strained against me. But of course the Detroit engine was no match for the power of a single Velorian female; the jeep wasn't going anywhere that I didn't let it.

And right now, I wasn't going to let it go anywhere. Looking back over my shoulder at Mark and the other men, I smiled at them before leaning forward, pressing my soft breasts against the cool metal of the hood.

The steel bent back as it too proved to be no match for even my softest flesh. I gradually brought my arms back until the grille was right up against the front of my body. I could feel the throbbing vibrations of the engine against my thighs and lower body. It felt so good! So vibrant, so powerful. If it was up to me, I could have stayed there savoring it all day. Or at least until a better offer came around.

However, apparently the driver wasn't enjoying it as much as I was. Leaving the engine running, she bailed out and began running back the way she had just driven.

I couldn't go after her with the engine still running, I had to do something about the jeep first. Moving my right hand down, I gripped the bottom of the fender. Raising my arm, I flipped the jeep over onto its side.

Leaving the jeep with its four tires spinning uselessly in the air, I ran after the driver, high heels and all. Catching up to her before she could make it into the trees, I reached out and grabbed her by the back of her belt, lifting her up off her feet. I then carried her back to where the men were waiting to take her into custody.

It turned out that the woman was the driving force behind the gang. Pérez, the man who had died in the explosion of the BMW's gas tank, was indeed her brother. Had been her brother.

We had shut down that particular gang. Leaving Mark to help clean up the mess, I flew on home. But it took me a while to recover from the operation; I'd seen too much of what had gone on.

Yes, I know. I've been known to be more than a little rough on my partners in the past; it does get a little tough at times, being a Velorian surrounded by these fragile Terrans. But I hadn't been deliberately cruel, like Pérez and his men were. Well, only when they deserved it. These women hadn't done anything to deserve their treatment, only being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And while I wasn't a real Protector, I must still have gotten some of those genes, for I felt as if I personally had let them down.

My darling husband took even longer to recover from my therapy. A couple of times, I even had to break down and serve him his meals in bed.

I glanced around the table before our weekly Monday morning conference. The only other person who was early was Steve.

He still had the body of a professional athlete from when he used to terrorize opposing ballcarriers at Mile High Stadium. The gray was beginning to show in his hair, though it remained as thick as ever. Not for the first time, I wondered how much of that gray was due to the two main women in his life. But then, I hoped that Mom and I had given him more than enough compensation for any premature gray.

Mom came in just then, gave him a quick kiss, and took her seat next to him. They still made a striking couple, the apparent age difference not too obvious yet. At least, until you took in the fact that she had been the older one when they had gotten married. Now she looked to be the younger of the pair. In a few more years, people might start thinking of her as his second wife, a successful businessman's 'trophy wife.'

That was a problem that my darling husband and I hadn't had to face. Yet.

It was something that we would have to face eventually, however. Before George turned sixty, I'd still look pretty much the same as I do now. I'd look more like his daughter than his wife.

We'd talked about it, a few times. Neither of us really wanted to think about the fact that we'd eventually have to separate. Neither of us wanted to face that just yet, though we knew that it was coming.

In a way, the long life span of the Supremis was a curse. It meant watching the man I love grow old while I stayed young.

Not that I would give up being a Velorian. Not for anything in the world.

Karen came in with Bill and took their seats. After Mother's enhancement, Karen had nearly the full strength of a Prime. And she could fly, which was something that very Primes could do. I was pretty sure that she'd tried to enhance him, though I didn't know whether a half-Beta could enhance a Beta. I did know that she hadn't asked me to try.

Our head exobiologist came in. Linda was alone today. Even though we hadn't run across any Arions in Arizona, her husband Mark was still down in Tucson helping to clean things up. Linda was my most successful enhancement to date. Perhaps a little too successful. They had been trying to have a baby. That's something that we seem to get a lot of practice at, and they were no exception, but so far she hadn't caught.

"Welcome home, Julie." Mom started the meeting off with no preamble. "Mark tells me that you did your usual excellent job." She glanced over at Linda. From my angle, I couldn't tell whether she winked. "Though he also added that he almost wished you'd stayed just a little longer."

The fact that Mark and I had been lovers once was no secret. Okay, so it was more than once. But heck, I've had sex with every person in this room, male and female, except for Bill.

But for right now, we weren't talking about Terran troublemakers. Mom was asking Karen whether she'd picked up any clues as to what the Arions were up to now.

"But they haven't shown themselves since that time when we were in Florida, last winter, when we met Mother." And Kathy and Randall, as well.

"That's what bothers me," Mom said. "I'd almost feel better if they were doing something. At least that way we'd know where they were."

I shot her a glare. The fact that she was echoing my thoughts didn't help matters any. "Oh, thanks a lot, Mom. That's easy for you to say. You're not the one who's going to have some Warrior Prime pounding on you."

Mom held up her hands. "No, no, my little one. I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I wouldn't mind kicking some Arion ass, as long as they're not kicking my Velorian ass at the same time."

"I'll kick your Velorian ass any time," Karen chimed in helpfully.

"In your dreams, little raven, in your dreams. I'll kick your ass any time, any place."

"Nevermore!"

"Girls! Girls!" Mom quickly tried to restore order. Karen and I stuck our tongues out at each other but didn't say anything else.

Mom shot me a glare and then turned to Karen. "Have your people been able to pick up any of their communications?"

Of course we hadn't. I mean, it's not like you can look up the Arion communications schedule in the TV Guide. You have to have a receiver on the right frequency at the right time, pointed in the right direction. And even if we picked up anything at all, we wouldn't be able to break their encryption, so we wouldn't be able to read their email. Still, it would at least tell us that they were still hanging around.

And it's not like they have a homepage on the Web.

Mom turned to me. "Julie, can you lend them a hand?"

I looked up in surprise. "Me? It's not really my strong suit."

"Put that twisted Velorian mind of yours to work," Karen suggested, ever helpful.

"My twisted Velorian mind is telling me to kick the stuffing out of a little half-breed Arion."

"Girls!" Mom quickly got us settled down again. Karen and I did manage to behave the rest of the meeting.

Linda was still having no luck finding a virus that would weaken an Arion, let alone kill one. At least, not without risking killing everything else on Earth as well. Of course, even if she was getting close, we didn't have any good way of testing it. So far, all of her work was purely theoretical, based on computer simulations.

We've been able to make some progress on recharging the energy packs for the captured Arion laser rifles. But still nothing like a full charge. And those rifles wouldn't stop a Prime, anyway.

"Okay, I guess that wraps it up for this week," Mom said, closing the meeting. People shut down their laptop computers, closed their notebooks, stood up, and began filing out.

Karen and Bill were heading for their lab. I was about to follow them when Mom called me back. She waited until everyone else left, then wrapped her arms around me in a hug. "Oh, my little one, I'm glad you got back safely."

I returned her hug. "Oh, Mom. It was nothing."

"I still worry about you, Juliree." Her use of my Velorian name showed the depth of her feelings as her arms tightened about me. "It's a mother's job to worry about her children."

"Oh, Mom. I can take care of myself. I'm a big girl. Besides, they were only Terrans."

"But next time they might not be."

"I'll be careful."

"You do that, my little one." She reached up and mussed my hair. Considering that I had it pulled back into a ponytail, she didn't do much damage. "You'd better be careful. I've already seen one Velorian die on this planet. I don't want to see another."

What could I say in answer to that? My birth mother had died giving me birth, Mom unable to do anything other than to give comfort in her dying moments. I simply stood there with her, our arms around each other. I felt my eyes begin to tear.

Mom disengaged herself after about a minute, tugging on my ponytail. "You'd better run along now and see if you can help Karen out with anything."

Work, work, work. But then, that's what we were here for. I might not be a real Protector, but I am the closest thing to it, being the only Velorian on the entire planet. It was a job that I simply couldn't turn over to someone else. "Sure, Mom." I tilted her head back and gave her a quick kiss before releasing her from my hug. I wiped away the tears and turned, walking out of the conference room and heading for the communications lab.

When I walked in, Bill was occupied mostly with a rack of instruments, though he kept stealing glances at Karen. And I really couldn't blame him. Karen was seated at her desk, her phone in her hand as she called Mike and Rob to ask them to join us.

After the meeting she had divested herself of her 'formal' clothes and changed into her 'working' clothes.

Karen's idea of working clothes differ a bit from mine. Her clothes would have gotten her kicked out of any other office in the country. Or gotten her raped. Except that no dozen Terran men could force themselves on her against her will. But then, knowing Karen, she was just as likely to rape the men before they could do the same to her.

The black outfit covered a little more of her than a bikini would have. Very little more. Even bearing in mind that we had real work to do, and knowing that she couldn't have fought me off even if she wanted to, it was all I could do to stay standing where I was and keep my hands to myself.

Her breasts looked as if they would fall out of her fringed top at the first sudden movement. Heck, they looked as if they would plop right out with one good deep breath. She'd kept her heels on in an effort to make herself appear taller, even though she was sitting down at the moment.

I heard the door open behind me and some soft footsteps on the carpet. Turning around, I pulled Mike and Rob to me and gave them each a quick kiss. I don't usually go around kissing every male in the place, but I did have a bit of an excuse; this was the first time that I'd seen them since getting back from Arizona. And they did respond properly.

However, I reminded myself, we had work to do. Letting go of the two guys, I turned to Karen. "Okay, what have we got?"

"We don't have anything," she said, shaking her head as she got up from her desk and joined Bill at the equipment.

Bill adjusted a couple of controls and I heard what sounded like static coming out of a speaker somewhere before he could shut it off.

Karen and Bill launched into a technical explanation. It was all Greek to me. Even with Mike translating into layman's terms, it was still way over my head. It made me feel blonde. There really wasn't much that I could add; it seemed to me as if they were doing everything that they could.

"Wait a minute!" Rob said, interrupting Mike's latest translation. "What about..." He began talking rapidly, waving his hands in the air.

I really felt blonde. I didn't understand most of what he was saying, but the others seemed to, nodding their heads.

"It's worth a try," Mike said when Rob paused for breath. "Nothing else has worked."

The Arions seemed to agree, for they moved over to another rack and began fiddling with switches and cables. Mike and Rob moved to another rack and began doing the same. Then both pairs split up, Karen and Rob each going to a new set of racks and repeating the process.

I saw Karen look back over her shoulder and shrug her shoulders. Bending down, she picked up the rack and started to carry it over next to Bill. Her little black outfit didn't leave much to the imagination, even one as wild as mine. I just stood and watched the play of muscles on her body as she carried her rack. And the rack of instruments, as well. Even through the hum of the electronics, I could clearly hear the elevated heartbeats behind me that told me that the men were watching just as raptly as I was.

Together, the four of us watched as she carried the rack across the room. Acting as if she was doing no more than setting down a coffee cup, she casually set down the rack next to Bill. The rack of instruments, that is. The other rack remained firmly attached to her chest. I continued to gaze longingly at that one.

"Uh, Julie?"

Rob's voice snapped me out of my reverie. I turned my head to see him standing next to a rack in the back of the lab. "Yes?"

"Could you give me a hand with this?"

At last. Something that I could contribute to the effort, even if it was in the typical blonde manner, with my body instead of with my brains. "Sure, Rob." I glided over to him, floating above the cables snaking across the floor. "Where do you want it?"

"Over there, with the others." He pointed to where Karen and Bill were connecting more cables.

"Sure thing." I reached down and grabbed the bottom of the frame with my right hand, my left hand steadying the tall rack. Straightening up, I lifted the rack clear of the floor. It wasn't all that heavy, not much more than three hundred pounds. Rising up into the air, I carried the rack over the cables on the floor. I could feel Rob's eyes on me the whole time, even as he gathered up the cables trailing from the rack itself.

Setting the rack down, I stepped back and let the others hook things up.

Watching them work didn't really bring me any closer to understanding what they were doing. I consider myself computer literate, what with both my stepdad and husband in the field. I have no trouble hooking up the printer and the scanner at home when I need to. Nor do I have any problems setting up the modem and dialing in to my Internet Service Provider. And I've taken some telecommunications courses when I was in school. But what those four were doing in the lab was still way over my head.

Eventually they must have finished whatever they were doing, for everybody except Karen stepped back from the racks of instruments. "Here goes," she said, throwing a switch and stepping back.

Apart from a few blinking lights, I didn't see anything. "Is it working?" I asked.

Karen turned her head and looked at me but didn't say anything.

"Everything seems to be," Mike said, looking up from a little display.

"So, where are they?" I asked.

"Patience, Julie," Rob said, walking toward me. "We just switched it on. We're gonna have to let this run at least overnight."

"Oh." I wasn't sure whether that was good or bad.

"It would be too much to expect to catch something five seconds after turning it on," Mike tried to explain.

"So do we just hang around all night and watch?"

"Don't be silly, Julie. That's what computers are for."

Of course. I knew that. We had computers monitoring everything else, and they would raise the alarm if and when they detected something. "So what do we do until then?"

"I can think of something," Rob said, looking at me. He wasn't looking at my face, but rather a little lower. "What about you, Mike? Can you think of something?" Mike simply nodded, also looking at me.

Typical males. "You guys have one-track minds, you know that?"

"We got it from you," Rob said.

He did have a point. "Karen," I looked over at her, "can I borrow these two for a couple of hours?"

Karen had an arm around Bill's waist. She barely looked up. "Sure, Julie. Enjoy your lunch."

Yeah, right. Lunch. I was going to be putting something inside me, but it wasn't going to be food. "Okay, you heard the boss. Let's go." I reached for the guys and started to push them to the door. They didn't resist, not that they could have withstood my Velorian strength anyway.

It was a short walk to one of our sleeping rooms. Not that we were going to be getting in much sleep in the next couple of hours.

It had been a while since I've been with these guys. I couldn't be as physical with their unenhanced bodies as I could be with my darling husband, but he was still recovering from my 'therapy.'

Karen and Bill were in the lab when we returned. It was obvious that they had been doing the same thing that we had been doing. The machines had been doing something else, but had nothing to show for it yet.

There wasn't much that anybody could do. I hung around for a few more minutes while the others walked around checking things, then made my excuses and left. I was really hoping that the Arions had given up on us, but deep down I knew that they were still around someplace. If we only knew where they were and what they were planning...

As the door closed behind the young Lieutenant, the Colonel turned off the console and leaned back in his chair. As his feet went up onto his desktop, the Major braced herself and patiently waited for the explosion that she knew was coming.

When the Colonel finally spoke, his voice was quieter than she had expected. "She is supposed to be on our side. Instead, we have one Warriors Prime dead and another in sick bay."

"Accidents will happen in training, Colonel."

The explosion finally came, his voice rising several decibels in volume. "A training accident? You call this a training accident? Darven is dead. And Telner will never fight again. At best, he will walk with a limp for the rest of his life."

"Regrettable, Colonel. But it was an accident. It is not the first time that the Empire has had casualties during training, and it will not be the last."

The Colonel merely stared at her over his crossed ankles.

She calmly met his gaze. "As regrettable as the accident was, I believe that this also shows that she is indeed ready to face the Velorian Planetary Protector. I believe we should go ahead with the operation to draw her out. It was originally planned to send two people. Mirrin and Sirren can still do it. And once they do, we still have more than adequate personnel to finish off the Protector once and for all."

"Very well, Major. We will go on with the next phase of the plan as scheduled, except with the two females."

"As you command, Colonel." She rose to her feet, bowed, and exited.

Even though the Ice Queen's face betrayed no trace of emotion, she was very satisfied with the results of the interview. She had good news to pass on to her daughter.