"Where? You're planning to go where?"
Velder tightened his hold on the arm that had nearly swept him off the bed, a leg scrabbling for a foothold. "I didn't say I was going. In fact, no one's going anywhere just yet. It's just something Tillek and I are talking about."
Sitting up straight, Leysen reached out with her other hand and pulled the Beta back to the bed beside her. "Why were you two even talking about it?"
Feeling the bed under him, Velder slowly relaxed his grip on the Prime's arm. "How else can we find out who's behind all these raids?"
"Who cares? We beat off the last raid without any trouble."
Finally releasing her arm, he turned around to face her. "Haven't you learned anything from your Tactics classes? Or haven't you learned that yet?" Like many Betas, he often thought that Primes didn't know any approach other than the straight-ahead, brute-force one. Of course, he wouldn't have dared say that to a Prime's face --- and most certainly not this particular one.
She drew her arm back, her hand open with her fingers together. She then swept her arm forward as if to slap him. He reflexively flinched and tried to duck under her other arm, even though a Beta stood absolutely no chance of avoiding a blow from a Prime. Not if the Prime really intended to strike the target.
She really didn't intend to strike him, knowing as well as he did that even a moderate blow would kill him. Instead, she brought her hand to her face and rubbed the bridge of her nose again.
Lowering her hand, she went over some of what she had learned. Primes were taught tactics almost from birth. It was one of the fundamental items of the basic curriculum. It was also a continuing subject; even senior officers --- such as her father --- continued to study it.
She quickly dismissed further thoughts about her father, whom she would never see again. Realistically, she had accepted that she would be spending the rest of her life here on Talis. At least that life would last longer --- had already lasted longer --- than those of her classmates aboard the ill-fated Empress Jiltan'th.
"But we have the chance to stop them at the source. All we have to do is find who's behind them."
She rubbed her fingers over the bridge of her nose. "Okay, what makes you think there's anybody behind them anyway? Isn't all this just the normal Talisi way of doing business?"
"No, it's not. None of the older warriors can remember this many raids by the Poreans this far north."
"Okay, so what makes you think there is somebody behind all this?" she asked, continuing to rub her nose.
He didn't answer her directly. Instead, he asked a series of leading questions, drawing out further points and continuing her aborted education.
"Okay, so there might be a purpose for all this," she finally conceded when he had finished his impromptu seminar. "But how do you know that there's one person or group behind all this? And how do you know that they're in Simpore?"
"Simpore's the center of Porea. And even if they're not there, we'll be able to ask some questions. We're certainly not finding any answers sitting up here in Turea and waiting for the raiders."
"But is it safe to go there? That far? If they're raiding the villages, how can you get all the way to Simpore?"
"A trading caravan comes through Panture next moon."
"A trading caravan?" There was a look of incredulity on her face. "They'll just take your heads and offer to trade them back to us next year."
"They don't do that to the trading caravan." He went on to explain that the trading caravans operated under a state of immunity. The caravans were safe from attack, as were the villages in which they were currently staying. Of course, once a caravan left the gates... "And the caravan goes all the way into Porea."
Leysen stretched out a leg and flexed, grimacing as she did so. She and Velder had spent a part of the day in the air in their airplane. It had been a while since they had last flown. Her legs were, well, not quite sore, but they were more than a little tired after the unaccustomed exertion. "Well, that's good then, because I'm not flying you there," she declared, stretching her other leg. "I don't think my legs would last that long."
"I think your legs are long enough," Velder said, signifying the end of the tactics lesson and putting one hand on her ankle in order to steady it. For one brief moment, he found most of his weight hanging on her leg before she relaxed it and allowed him to guide it into position. His other hand started at the ankle and began to work its way up the back of her calf, squeezing and kneading her muscles.
"Mmmm, that feels good," purred Leysen, relaxing her leg and letting it fall into Velder's lap. Her legs might not stretch all the way to Simpore, but they were certainly more than adequate in length.
Knowing that he couldn't hurt her even if he tried, he put all of his Beta strength into his hands as he massaged the Prime's leg. "Did the flight really take that much out of you?"
They'd flown out to the coast today. The thermals off the ocean had provided an interesting challenge for both of them. "It's a good thing we don't do this every day," she said, carefully rolling over onto her stomach while leaving one leg in his lap and swinging the other over his head.
He adjusted his own position, sitting up in order to be able to put all of his weight into it as he kneaded her calf muscles. He'd had to service engines before, but there'd never been one he enjoyed servicing more.
Even though his massages weren't doing all that much to work the knots out of her legs, it felt too good for her to ask him to stop.
He must have known that, for his hands worked their way up her leg, skipping over the knee before working up her thigh. Soon, his fingers were poking around at the lower edge of her garment. She was still in the school uniform that she had worn for the flight.
Turning her head, she looked at him over her shoulder. "That's not where I'm tired," she told him, smiling.
Even though he was unable to actually slip his fingers under the Prime's school uniform, when he drew his hand back his fingers were damp with her moisture. "This part never gets tired, does it?" His fingers returned to their gentle teasing.
She slowly closed her thighs, capturing his hand between them. A little gentle pressure was warning enough; he quickly withdrew his hand before she could trap it completely.
Carefully swinging her leg over his head, she rolled onto her back. Hooking an ankle behind his back, she pulled him down toward her. He didn't try very hard to keep from falling atop her, his hands coming down on her breasts. His face came down about a second later, his mouth quickly working its way around the edges of her uniform.
Knowing well from past experience that he couldn't get under it, she chose to tease him a little. Easily moving under him, she refrained from removing the uniform. Placing a hand on the back of his head, a little gentle pressure all but buried his head in the deep valley between her rounded mounds. His hands tightened their grip on her breasts, his fingers dimpling her firm flesh through the sheer material of her uniform.
She had to disengage his hands briefly while removing his garments. Then rolling them over and sitting astride his legs, she teasingly scooped one breast free of its confinement. Leaning forward, she dragged it across his face.
Just missing the nipple, his teeth closed on her fleshy mound. His head came off the bed as she continued her motion, sliding a hand under his shoulders to help support him. She then reversed her motion to lay his head back down on the bed, before gently pulling herself away. Brushing aside his hands, she removed the top half of her uniform. She then fell forward again, burying his head between her breasts again.
With much of her weight resting on Velder's head, she worked the lower half of her uniform off her hips and down her legs. Kicking it free, she spread her legs and lowered them on either side of his body.
His hands were busy on the outside of her breasts even as his mouth worked on the inside. Putting her palms on the bed and raising herself a little, she slid down his body until she could place her lips over his.
Eventually letting him up for air, she rose up on her knees and then lowered herself again, this time impaling herself on his erect shaft.
They'd been in this position often enough; his hands found their way to her breasts without any guidance from her, caressing and fondling them.
The advance scouts had reported that the trading caravan would be arriving in Panture that evening. All three of the Arions would be going with it when it left --- even though the caravan was immune from attack, armed warriors always accompanied it. Secretly, they still entertained hopes that they might run across another Arion scouting party, like the one that the two Betas had been on when they'd visited the planet earlier. Hopes weren't very high, however. The initial survey had decided that the planet was not worth conquering, and its location made it of little strategic value.
Velder had seen nothing this time around to make him change that opinion. However, as much as he enjoyed having a young Prime for a lover --- or being had by a young Prime as her lover --- he wanted to go home. Both Tillek and Leysen shared that sentiment --- they'd been stuck here on this primitive planet long enough.
Before leaving Panture, Velder wanted to make sure that his airplane was secure. Even though there was nobody native to the planet who could power it, its mere presence indicated the presence of somebody from off planet. And if word of it was to get to the Velorian Planetary Protector --- if there was one on the planet --- she would most certainly know who was responsible for it...
So far, they had seen no indications that there was a Velorian on the planet. Still, there was no such thing as being too careful where Velorians were concerned.
He glanced around. Leysen had told him that she would come to help him secure the airplane. Despite her complaints about how tiring it was to power the vehicle, he knew that she loved the flying almost as much as he did.
Seeing no sign of the young Prime, he called out, "Ley! Are you here?"
"I'm over here, Velder."
Turning his head toward the answering voice, he saw Leysen stepping out from behind a tree. The sight was enough to take his breath away. No matter how many times --- and how many ways --- he saw her, she could still do that to him.
While a little more substantial than her Arion uniform --- just barely --- her leather garments were very revealing by Talisi standards. In fact, the top didn't quite cover her large breasts, leaving her nipples exposed. Her boots only covered the lower half of her calves. A sword was in her left hand, a crossbow in her right.
Females --- other than Leysen --- were not allowed to touch, let alone carry, weapons. However, they did not look out of place in her hands. And why not? She had made both of them, the former with her introduction of steel and the latter was of her and Velder's design.
"What do you think?" she asked, stepping toward him, lowering her arms and holding the weapons out to the sides.
Velder finally got enough of his breath back to speak. "You're not really going like that, are you?"
"Don't you like it?" Still holding her weapons she did a graceful pirouette, letting him see her from all sides.
"I... I love it." And he did, no matter what she wore. Or didn't wear. "But the Poreans wouldn't understand."
She pouted. "That's their problem." But then, she bent down and laid her weapons down atop a hurja skin. She wrapped them up before returning to the tree from behind which she had initially appeared.
The Council of Warriors had decided --- and both Leysen and Velder had agreed --- that under no circumstances would steel weapons be traded to the Poreans. And no one was to teach the Poreans the secret behind making the superior weapons material. The truce covered the trading caravan, but nobody in Turea wanted to face Poreans wielding the steel weapons once that caravan had completed its journey.
Velder had little time to ponder such concerns, as Leysen quickly reappeared, this time with a reed basket in one hand. "What's that?" he asked.
She set the basket down beside her weapons, then seated herself beside the basket. She then gestured for him to join her. "You don't think I'm going to help you put your airplane away on an empty stomach, do you?" She smiled up at him.
Velder couldn't help but smile back at her as he walked toward her. He knew from experience that it would take more than half a day of hard labor to really empty her stomach. Still, eating here would save him the walk back to the village for the midday meal. He'd probably have to pay for the meal, but it would be a form of payment that he would enjoy very much. He sat down next to her.
The meal was nothing to write home about --- not that he could have written home to Tiburon --- just the normal Talisi fare that he'd eaten every day since settling in Panture. However, it wasn't just a meal.
Even after all their time together, Velder still found the company of a beautiful young female Prime intoxicating. Growing up as a Beta, he'd often fantasized about being with one, but had never actually expected his dreams to come true.
"Ready to put the plane away?" he asked her after the meal, as she was packing the remains in the basket.
"Are you?" she asked, turning around to face him, one hand going to the throat of her garment.
It took every ounce of his willpower to resist the temptation. "We'd better get it put away first," he said with a smile. "I don't want to tire you out."
She smiled back and leaned closer. "You mean, you don't want me to tire you out."
He held out his hands, conceding the point. However, he wasn't going to let her win the argument completely. "Let's get the plane put away first," he repeated.
"Very well," she said, dropping her hand and rising to her feet. "Let's get your toy put away. But you're going to owe me."
"I owe you everything." And he did. If it hadn't been for the Prime, he and Tillek would have perished in their first days on Talis. In fact, if it hadn't been for her, they might not even have been aboard the lifeboat when the Empress Jiltan'th blew up. "And," he added, "it's just as much your toy as it is mine."
"I suppose. If it wasn't for me, it wouldn't go anywhere."
The airplane was at the edge of the clearing that they used for their "runway." As the Beta opened the "hangar" --- a wooden structure with heavy leather flaps for one wall --- the Prime ducked under a wing and grasped hold of the fuselage. Straightening up, she supported the entire weight of the craft on her slim shoulders. Velder took hold of the wingtip, ready to use all of his weight to steady his machine.
Carrying the craft the short distance to the hangar, she set it down on its resting cradle. Coming out from underneath the craft, she rotated her shoulders while following him outside and watching him secure the flaps.
"Now it's time for you to pay for the freight hauling." Moving up behind him, she turned him around and wrapped her arms around his big body.
He responded by wrapping his own arms around her, tilting his head down to press his lips against hers.
She picked him up and then laid him down on the grass just inside the tree line.
The arrival of a trading caravan in a Talisi village was always a big event. Caravans brought supplies and other items that couldn't be produced locally. There was also exotic foodstuffs from distant lands --- which made for quite a feasting experience, entertained by minstrels who sang songs that brought news of distant parts.
The caravan also brought other things, other people. Watching a group of the visitors sitting off to one side --- and the attention that they were drawing from the locals, Leysen was going from annoyance to disgust.
She had been surprised when she discovered why there were so many females accompanying the caravan. If either Velder or Tillek had known about they, they certainly hadn't seen fit to tell her.
The females weren't exactly slaves, and they weren't exactly for sale. However, they were available to the local warriors who wished a mate from outside their own village. There was no compulsion involved; any female had to agree to her suitor. And they had come willingly with the caravan, the females themselves wishing to take mates outside their own home villages.
Even though the practice served to prevent inbreeding, Leysen found the whole thing demeaning to her gender. The fact that the Talisi --- of both genders --- found nothing wrong with the traditional practice didn't help any.
Leysen managed to isolate Velder during the evening's festivities, both of them going outside for some fresh air. "If you think I'm going with that slave train..." she began, once they were alone.
"They're not..." Velder interrupted.
She cut him off. "You know what I mean!"
Startled by her vehemence, he took a step back, spreading his arms out placatingly.
She took a step forward. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Taking another step back. "I didn't know myself until tonight." He spread his arms wider and smiled. "Everybody here thinks I already have a mate."
"Oh, they do, do they? Well, that can be changed!" Whirling, she started to walk away.
Reversing direction, he ran forward and grabbed her shoulder. "Ley, wait!"
She did no such thing, her slender female body slowed not in the least by the weight of the big male hanging on her shoulder.
"Ley, stop!" he called out again.
The figure seemed to materialize in the center of the courtyard --- one moment the courtyard was empty, the next moment the tall golden-haired man was standing almost at its exact center, wearing nothing but a small strip of shimmery fabric around his waist covering his genitals. Without bothering to look around, he walked up to what appeared to be a blank side wall of the temple. The wall wasn't completely blank, however. Slipping his fingers in between two massive stone blocks, he grabbed one and pulled.
The block was of solid volcanic rock, wider than the man was tall and weighing several tons, yet he pulled it aside with one hand as if it was nothing more than a thin curtain.
He pulled the door closed behind him as he stepped into the darkened temple. Even though none of the sconces were lit, he had no trouble making his way toward the inner sanctum.
He wasn't the only one with extremely sharp senses. He'd just stepped into the waiting room when she came out of the inner sanctum. Having already prepared for the evening's activities and not knowing who had dared to invade her personal space, she was stripping for action, the flimsy garment all but falling off her shoulders as she removed the thin gold chain from around her throat.
Tani'a's expression changed as she recognized her visitor. "Daffyd! What're you doing here? You weren't due for another four days."
Daffyd pretended to be hurt, bringing a hand up to cover his heart. "Can't I come early to see my favorite Protector?" Despite all the beautiful women on his circuit --- for all Protectors were beautiful even by the standards of their race --- she truly was his favorite, her beauty making the others pale by comparison.
And she was quite something to see. She gathered up her garment --- if something so flimsy could be justified by such a name --- though she stopped short of actually donning it, and wrapped one end of the gold chain around an arm. The other end remained draped over a shoulder, glistening in the light of the fire behind her. Even though he saw plenty of Protectors --- among the most beautiful women that his planet could produce --- on his route, the Protector of Talis truly was something special.
She grinned. "Of course! My favorite Messenger can come any time he wants."
He kept his hand over his heart. "I'm the only Messenger who comes here."
Her grin merely widened. "That's why you're my favorite. Let me cancel the services for tonight. That is, if you still have enough energy left after your trip."
He knew to what services she referred and what their cancellation meant for him. Fortunately for him, the last wormhole transit to Talis was a short one. Still, they both knew that he would run out of energy first, even if he had been completely fresh and she was the one just coming off the wormhole transit.
"Before you go, let me give you these." Retrieving a pair of message crystals from a concealed pouch in his garment, he held them out in the palm of his hand.
Taking them, she glanced down briefly at the crystals. Both of them were color-coded as routine, lacking the red marking of urgent messages. "These can wait," she decided, tucking them into a small pouch on her own garments before turning away to inform the temple priests that tonight's services were canceled.
They quickly met again in the darkness above the building as Daffyd reached out to take Tani'a's hand; the Velorian super girl and a matching super man --- she in the blue and red of a Planetary Protector and he still in the uniform of a Messenger.
Evading his hand, Tani'a strongly flexed her legs, climbing at many times the force of gravity. She continued accelerating until she was moving so fast that a conical shock wave formed around her outstretched hands, her fingers beginning to glow cherry-red from the air friction, as the surface of Talis streaked by many miles below them. They climbed steeply upward, high into the stratosphere, climbed upward to the very fringes of space.
Tani'a felt a tingling warmth spreading across her chest as she realized that her nearly naked body, traveling at many times the speed of sound, was heating up from the air friction. She looked down to see that what she felt as a comfortable warmth was actually coming from the red-hot glow of her breasts, her nipples glowing nearly white-hot, as the heat spread across her chest. Her hard nipples were suddenly tingling very pleasantly as the strong hypersonic shock waves played across them, teasing her firm flesh with their raw power. Her muscles flexed even more strongly now as her body suddenly leaped forward at incredible accelerations, the planet finally curving away beneath her.
She felt an incredible sense of peaceful calm and absolute silence, as the atmosphere was left behind, her body floating through the silent void of space. Not for the first time, she felt an urge to explore the incredible freedom of being able to soar in space, unfettered by no more than a trace of clothing, her bare skin exposed to the hard vacuum. She silently urged herself to soar far beyond the planet.
Tani'a looked beside her to see Daffyd struggling to maintain the pace, straining every massive muscle on his body to keep up with her dramatic acceleration. She continued to soar upward, far from the surface, quickly reaching escape velocity, more than twenty-five thousand miles per hour. He continued to struggle to stay up with her, yet she was only using her legs and buttocks, she clearly wasn't even near her full speed potential, not by any means. Once again, Tani'a appreciated that she was significantly more powerful than this large Velorian male, her Protector genetics making her more powerful than any other living creature in the universe. This both pleased and thrilled her at the same time. She was truly a goddess.
As the atmosphere fell far behind, Tani'a flew even faster as she continued accelerating to more than a hundred thousand miles per hour in the vacuum of space. She sensed the hard vacuum tugging at her, causing her body to swell slightly, particularly her breasts, yet it was not uncomfortable, just strange feeling. Her vision was incredibly clear, the hard vacuum right against her pupils. No windows or spacesuit visors to look out of, nothing to distort her vision. Just her remarkably clear eyesight. She looked behind her, the dark globe of Talis rotated below them as it also seemed to shrink rapidly behind them, their bodies seemingly motionless in space. Above her, the stars were steady and unblinking, just bright pinpoints of light, many with a very distinct color to them.
The sun suddenly rose over the horizon of Talis, a brief surge of colors visible before the hard white ball of fire began to noticeably heat her body. She felt the moisture still freezing on the dark side of her body while the sun boiled it from the other. Slowly rotating her body to even out the warmth, Tani'a sped toward the nearer moon as her speed continued to increase. Talis rapidly shrank as the moon rushed up, their crossing completed in only ten minutes. She flexed all the muscles of her gorgeous body now, decelerating at hundreds of Gs, holding Daffyd's hand to help slow him, as they dropped into a low orbit about the moon. They soared down, floating between tall mountain peaks, racing across flat plains, to land in a wide flat landscape, brightly lit by the unblinking sun.
Tani'a felt Daffyd's arm around her waist. She turned to face him, her arms gently surrounding his neck as he leaned down to kiss her. Their mouths opening slightly, the last wisps of air escaping their lungs.
Tani'a felt her body, now barely a tenth of her normal weight, as she was lifted off her feet by Daffyd's dramatic reaction to her warm kiss. She reached down to caress him again, his eyes nearly closing in pleasure as the strength that could crush steel was now used to fondle a man. After a moment, she released him as her powerful calves flexed, launching her into space at nearly escape velocity in a single mighty leap. She smiled as she turned to see him struggling to catch up to her, his erection clearly visible, sticking out into space in front of him.
She flexed her legs strongly as she accelerated outward and around the back side of the moon as she built up her velocity for the return trip. She felt his hand finally reaching for hers as she held him tightly while strongly flexing the wonderfully powerful muscles of her legs yet again. Their bodies accelerated to incredible speeds as the moon shrunk rapidly behind them and Talis rushed at them, finally filling their vision with gorgeous blue and green colors.
He dropped behind as she accelerated to take the lead, plunging back into the atmosphere at more than three hundred thousand miles per hour. The wispy threads of the atmosphere began to tingle along Tani'a's body, first tickling her breasts, then walking down her stomach to even more sensitive areas. The shock waves sent hundreds of pleasant sensations across her body, much as a lover would while tracing a feather across her bare skin. The air soon began glowing white-hot at the front of her outstretched hands as they crashed into the thicker air below them, finally producing an intense ionized corona of energy around their bodies. The thicker air now sent far stronger sensations into her body, her breasts flattening against her chest as the air friction from the strong hypersonic shock waves made her nipples glow red then white-hot, their bodies looking like a huge meteor entering the atmosphere over the continent. They continued slowing rapidly, finally dropping below Mach three, their superheated bodies now glowing as brightly as the sun itself.
Daffyd and Tani'a twisted and rolled in the air, Velorian Messenger and Velorian Planetary Protector. The incredible sensation of flight, flying far freer than even the birds now soaring through the warm air near the ground, was enough, all by itself, to put Tani'a into a state of ecstasy. The light of the half-moon, the moon they had stood on only minutes before, was so bright, reflecting off the walls of the mountains and canyons, that it seemed like daytime to her enhanced vision. Then they were over the ocean.
They curved back toward the continent, soaring supersonically over the peaks of the northern range --- the same mountains that the three Arions down below had struggled to cross during their first days on Talis --- their bodies playfully touching them, supersonic shock waves kicking up snow from the snowy summits as they playfully crashed through some huge snow cornices that overhung deep valleys. Their rapid flight quickly left the mountains behind as they descended over the gorgeous canyon terrain of the central desert.
They hung in the air, fifty feet from the ground, silently taking in the beauty of the moonlit canyons as their amazing bodies cooled from their atmospheric re-entry followed by their rapid low-level flight. Tani'a's breasts and buttocks were still glowing cherry-red in the early morning shadows, softly lighting the walls of the canyon as they descended toward its floor.
Daffyd floated over to take her in his arms, her glowing breasts comfortably warming his own chest as her hands traced over the warm reddish glow of his broad shoulders. They felt their bodies slowly cooling together, absorbing the heat energy from their superheated skin back inside themselves.
Finally, they settled to the ground, bare feet landing on a dusting of snow covering the dried leaves in the middle of the thick grove. All too soon, more than just their feet were on the ground as she all but threw him down and then threw herself on top of him.
His body was driven down through the snow and the leaves to the underlying earth, and yet she continued to drive him down further until they were both buried in the loose dirt.
It took just about all of his strength and agility, but Daffyd was able to roll aside, putting his large muscular body on top of Tani'a's much slimmer form.
Despite her smaller size, Tani'a had the superior strength of a Planetary Protector. She used it to roll the two of them over again, putting herself on top. Not that he was resisting, at least not too much.
He did manage to get himself on top long enough to get the top half of her uniform off of her, a feat that no Talisi male could have accomplished. Another roll resulted in the removal of the bottom half of her uniform, as well as his.
Things started to get physical after that.
The sun had nearly set on the following day when they finally returned to her temple, both of them flying considerably slower than they had on the trip out. Before retiring to her private quarters, Tani'a remembered to cancel services for that evening.
The Golden Goddess of Simpore had better things to do that evening. But until then, Daffyd could use a little rest.
