The Unexpected Companion, Part One

By Shadar

An Aurora Universe story set in the late Companion era of Velorian Culture. It starts on a developing world on the outer rim of Terran populated space, and draws inspiration from beyond the AU, including a little touch of Dune culture. 

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The planet Ostremity, in Dispersed Sector Theta. Part of the Independent Outer Rim federation.

Christmas was over and it was time for me to return to the University for my winter term. And as luck would have, the first blizzard of the season was hitting at the same time, bringing with it the kind of cold that has made Ostremity infamous for its brutal winters. 

But neither cold nor blizzard snows were going to stop me. I had to get this over with, and the University was thankfully far south and on the shore of the warmer Sophie Sea. 

I was returning after technically flunking out last term. Fortunately, Mother had smoothed things over with the Administration, blaming my uncharacteristic neglect of my studies on a confidential ‘family crisis’. 

I’m nearly convinced that if Mother were to shoot someone dead in cold blood right in front of a Judge and a squad of Cops, she’d find a way to smooth that over too. She knew how to use the Voice.

But neither Mother nor the University were my real problem. Instead, I couldn’t shake a growing feeling that maybe I didn’t really belong there anymore. A strange compulsion that said I should be doing something far more important with my life. Except I had no idea how or what that even meant.

But until I figure that out, I took the default path — back to school. I was going to have to work doubly hard now to catch up if I wanted to graduate on time. After all, academics were why we were here on Ostremity, given they had the best Engineering school on the otherwise remote and largely blue-collar Outer Rim. 

Mother’s plan for this term meant no distractions from academics. No sports, no travel, and most of all, no crazy girlfriends. Girls were my curse given that many girls were drawn to me. Mother was a remarkably beautiful woman, and I was her son, and was imbued with much of her beauty except in a squared-jaw, ruggedly masculine way. And I wasn’t very good at drawing boundaries. 

My academic decline began when breaking up with the love of my life. Or rather, after she broke up with me. We were both jocks. Marissa was a star athlete of Track and Field, a sprinter, and I was a competitor in Cross Country running. We were both Engineering majors, which was a rarity for girls, at least out here on the Rim. But Marissa wasn’t like other girls. We seemed were a match made in Heaven, both academically and athletically and we made the perfect couple. Everyone said that. We even believed it.

Until Marissa turned it all into frozen Hell. 

Waiting at the train station and stamping my feet to stay warm in the extreme cold, I stood apart from all the other passengers, who sensibly remained inside the warm terminal. But I needed the excruciating cold to focus my thoughts. To freeze all distractions by freezing myself. Mother had long ago taught me how pain can be used to clear the mind and find a way forward. And painful cold is a life and death battle that is won or lost by mere degrees.

The other passengers were undoubtably laughing at the dumb-ass Uni who was freezing his balls off standing outside, thinking he was going to get somewhere faster than they were. But that wasn’t why I was out here. I’m a strong believer that Fate makes its own plans for us, and that we mere humans are powerless to resist. Also that conflict and difficulty and lonesomeness opens the door to Fate. 

So it was that I was staring down the long platform, shivering as I watched the frozen tracks fading away into the bitterly cold fog rising from the warmer ground into the Arctic night. Staring unfocused as I turned inward to savor my suffering, it took me a moment to realize that someone else was walking my way down the long platform. I focused my eyes to find a vision of loveliness appearing out of the darkness at the far end of the platform. A stunningly cute blonde girl was walking my way — and dressed for summer, of all things.

Blinking, I shook my head to clear my vision, but she was still there. Had to be an advanced holographic image given she was dressed as if for a warm summer day, not this windy -60 Centigrade. Cold so deep that it wasn’t even safe to breathe without warming it first through a scarf or mask. The biting wind should have frozen her exposed skin in seconds. 

Yet this HoloGirl image seemed unaware of any of that. Wearing a thin blue jacket that fit tightly over a white tunic, both of which looked several sizes too small given her dramatically rounded chest, her only other clothing was a burgundy red skater’s skirt that bared her long legs, Her blue jacket was held closed by a couple of black strings attached to buttons that couldn’t come close to meeting given her dramatic figure. 

Holograph or not, she was a real eye-full. It was always amazing what AI could do. Figuring that’s all she was, I drank in the view. Her nicely toned abs were mostly bare, and her head was uncovered, freeing a huge expanse of blonde hair that hung long over her shoulders. Despite the deathly cold, her skin and hair gave off a golden glow as if she was vacationing in the sunny tropics. 

She was a natural blonde given the strands of white-gold interspersed among yellows and several shades of gold, the lighter strands seemingly glowing as if lit from inside. Her long hair framed a heart-meltingly cute face set with biggest, brightest blue eyes I’d ever seen, and a sparkling golden choker around a strong neck. Despite the harsh artificial lighting of the train station, she seemed to be bathed in the early light of a tropical sunset.

All of which confirmed my first impression that this was the absolutely best HoloAd I’d ever seen. Solid and opaque and in such lifelike 3D that I could detect none of the usual falseness of an open-air projection. Clearly, this was a new kind Tech being used to promote some warm, sunny resort where one could escape the coldest period of winter. There was money to be made given the fares on southbound trains were always doubled during such weather. 

I was waiting for her to get close enough to start her pitch for some hotel or resort, when a sharp gust of wind lashed my heavy parka with ice crystals, and at the same time blew her hair and lifted her filmy skirt, the crystals peppering her bare legs. My jaw fell as the Engineering student in me noted that the Holo was realistically capturing the complex interaction between an AI-generated image and natural phenomena. I’d never seen that kind of Tech outside of a HoloChamber.

My brain struggled to shift gears. So maybe she wasn’t an AI Holo. Android maybe, although she was moving extraordinarily smoothly for robotics. Flesh and blood? No possible way, not in this cold. She was walking barefoot on bricks so cold that her skin would have instantly frozen to the stone. 

In winter on Ostremity it wasn’t unusual to find people frozen rock hard on the coldest of mornings, usually after slipping and falling while walking home drunk from one of the ubiquitous Pubs. Swaddled in heavy clothing, artificially warm from the booze and sleepy drunk, some of them failed to get back on their feet before the permafrost sucked the heat out of them. Even in daytime, everyone bundled against the terrible cold and wind, always booted and gloved, hiding behind scarves and layers of advanced fabrics that covered everything but a sliver for their eyes. Some had heated clothing and face masks. 

Yet this beautiful blonde seemed completely oblivious to all of that. 

Confused and astounded as she approached, she looked more and more real as she approached. I was so gobsmacked now that I couldn’t tear my eyes from her, not even when my MagLev train swished almost silently into the station to stop. By now my entire world had shrunk down to this angel. 

Strangest of all, she was headed straight for me, almost as if she was looking for me. Which made no sense whatsoever given I was far too bundled up for anyone to recognize. 

Climbing the upper platform steps toward me, she surprised me with her height, which was greater than mine, and I’m pretty tall for a man. She walked with a loose, athletic shimmy that implied perfect posture and control, along with the kind of litheness that comes from an elite level of athletic training and extreme flexibility. So much so that I swore she looked weightless.

My newly-formed vow of chastity evaporated as I found myself smitten, unable to look away, or even blink, just staring. I’d never seen a creature half so beguiling, her face softly rounded as you see with girls in the midst of becoming women. She walked as if she was inside her own bubble of warmth.

I was starting to wonder if I was hallucinating when an older woman rushed out of the terminal to offer the girl a long, knitted wool coat of local make. The girl took it briefly, bowing her thanks to the woman, holding one hand to her chest as she impossibly claimed she wasn’t cold — and handed the coat back. The old woman looked at her like she was insane, and then scurried back into the warmth, shaking her head as she talked with the others, most of whom were now staring through the ice-coated windows at the girl.

Okay… I wasn’t hallucinating. 

Turning back to me, the girl’s cheeks dimpled cutely, her eyes sparkling with astounding clarity as she gave me the warmest smile ever, her perfect teeth so brilliantly white. I was enchanted. If not for having jail-bait written all over her face, I’d have fallen head over heels in love right there. 

“Are you perchance Winston Pernakin?” she asked while climbing the last steps to my level. Her voice carried a trace of an accent, distorted as it was by the biting wind.

“Oh Lordy, I most surely wish I was,” I said, trying to sound cool in the way of a college man. “But I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong man. Winston Smythe, at your service.”

Her eyes sparkled brighter yet as she looked me up and down, seemingly focusing right through me. She tilting her head slightly and smiled again. “But isn’t your mother’s name Jessica?”

“That is her name, yes, but I’ve never heard of anyone named Pernakin.”

“Well, you look a lot like images I’ve seen of Salvador Pernakin at your age. He was a very handsome man whose wife was Jessica and her only son named Winston. I’ve recently learned that they might live on this planet.”

Now I was really intrigued, and not just by her otherworldly beauty and imperviousness to cold, both of which qualified as super powers in my book. I knew nothing about my father. Mother had always kept her past very secret, even from me, telling me only that she’d fled here while pregnant to avoid the abusive man she claimed was my father. A man whose name she would never say out loud. 

Could this cyborg — which by now I’d now decided she had to be — actually be looking for me?

Unfortunately, before I could indulge my hopeful imagination further, the MagLev’s high-pitched whistle signaled it was departing. The other passengers had already hurried out of the terminal to climb aboard their various carriages.

I took a risk and went for it, cyborg or not. “Look, if you want to explore this further, we gotta catch this train. I’ve got plenty of room in my suite. I’m headed for Calabasis University.” 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the train move slightly as it began to depart. 

The girl smoothly pivoted to stand beside me, interleaving her warm fingers with my frozen gloves. Her soft hair flowed over me in a gust of wind, somehow also feeling warm as well despite the bitter cold. 

“Then lead the way, my good Winston.” 

My thoughts raced wildly as my body thrilled to her beauty and the intimacy of her interleaved fingers. The only thing that got my boots moving was knowing we had but seconds to get aboard. I began running toward the First Class carriage’s doorway, and to my surprise, she easily kept up with me, which was impressive on its own. I’m a top-ranked runner and I was racing a train. 

But then, I was wearing thick, heavy boots and four layers of clothing, and she was as barefooted and seemingly lithe as an Elvish maiden. 

I’d nearly made it to the doorway and was reaching for the polished brass bar to swing us both aboard, my legs pumping for all they were worth, when the train suddenly accelerated faster. My nearly frozen fingers just missed the handhold as I half tripped over my heavy boots and began to slow. The girl chose that instant to race ahead of me, jerking me off my feet to pull me after her. Astoundingly, she leaped at the very last moment to carry us both up and over the low fence at the end of the platform and through the train’s doorway — where I crashed down on top of her on the steel-edged steps. 

I immediately felt terrible for having landed so hard on her, but it didn’t seem to bother her as she pulled me to my feet and dragged me the rest of the way up the steps with surprising strength. The train was really gathering speed now, and we needed to get inside.

“So… what suite are we in today, Mr. Winston?” she asked casually, almost as if this was her normal way of getting aboard.

I shook my head, confused and amazed by that final sprint and leap of hers, disbelieving the way she’d seemingly pulled my larger and heavier body behind her. Not to mention that she was unfazed by my landing on her. 

Dazed, I led the way through the automatic doors into the warmth of the First Class carriage. Glancing back as I quickly loosened my outer gear, I found her following closely behind as I led the way down the long corridor towards the open doorway of Suite 22B. 

My heart was racing wildly as I finally stepped to the side and gestured for her to enter first — and held my breath. This was surely where she’d realize what a perv I was and turn to escape. She couldn’t be more than seventeen.

Instead, she walked confidently through the doorway, giving me a view of her red miniskirt as it clung wetly to her tightly rounded backside. Ice crystals were melting as they beaded up along the smooth, golden skin of her legs. Snow kicked up by the train’s passage coated her expanse of blonde hair. She was without a doubt the healthiest-looking girl I’d ever seen, and I’ve always hung out with athletes. 

She was also too young to be sharing this suite with an older man who was a complete stranger. Especially dressed like this.

The suite’s AI woke up as a few unworthy thoughts crossed my mind, and the walls and ceiling began displaying live Holos of passing buildings and bridges beneath a snowy sky. Except for being warm, we could have been sitting outside on the top of the train as it left the city behind. 

Pulling my eyes from the screens and back inside, I found a very comfy-looking couch on one side and a double bed opposite it. An open doorway led to a small bathroom, and across from that was a snack area and bar that looked very well stocked.

“All this just for you?”

“Not any more…” I said, feeling a bit like a lecher. After all, I was a college man of 21 years. 

When I finally clicked the door closed behind me, that entire wall also turned into a Holo, this one showing the view from the other side of the train. If not for the solid floor and furniture, we could have been floating on thin air. 

“A gift from Mother,” I explained with a shrug, embarrassed by the unaccustomed luxury. “She’s kind of a Bene Gesserit type. Wise, scheming and formidable. Knows everything. But gentle and gracious. Usually.” 

She tilted her head to study me. “From Dune, right? Jessica Nerus of the Bene Gesserit. She was the official concubine of Duke Leto Atreides. Her father was secretly Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.”

My jaw fell. I’d never met anyone else who’d read those old Earth novels. “You actually read Dune? And you remember that kind of detail?”

“Just the first two books. Required reading in Fictional Future Cultures of Old Earth.”

I shook my head in wonder. “Well, no one else I’ve met has even heard of those novels. They actually teach Dune on your world?” 

She clearly wasn’t from Ostremity — not dressed this way.

“Yes. Along with many other fictional works from Old Earth. What fascinates me is the difference between our current reality and the visions that those ancient Earth-bound Terrans’ had about their future reality. After all, we are the ones who actually travel between stars and live in that future.”

I couldn’t help but grin. She did NOT talk the way she looked! She’d be right at home in a SciFi conference.

“You have an amazing memory for obscure trivia. Cybernetic recall?”

“Eidetic memory, to be exact,” she shrugged, trying to look modest. “Nothing cyber about me. And while I’ll give you your point about obscure, I don’t agree that Dune has ever been trivial. I wish our galaxy was as rich and delightfully varied and weird as Herbert imagined it might someday be.” 

“Well, we don’t get visitors from other worlds very often here, and definitely not beautiful girls with photographic memories who wear summertime clothing in a lethal blizzard. Least of all a Dune nerd.”

She laughed while dipping her head while holding her open hand over her chest the same way she’d done with the woman offering the coat. “You are being too kind. But I am a little weird, I know.”

“Weird is definitely NOT one of the words I had in mind. But hey, at least we’ll have something to talk about on the long ride. My holiday up to now has truly sucked — a bad breakup and academic problems. Mother figured a little luxury would motivate my return to the university, so she booked me this suite. But she never imagined my sharing the ride with such a lovely companion.”

“So you know who I am then?” she asked, her bright eyes finding mine again.

I shook my head. “Sorry, I’ve never laid eyes on you before. I’m assuming a cyborg-skinned android given that the cold didn’t bother you. But I am so very glad to meet you. I’m Winston Smythe.” I held out my hand, very aware that the very best Sexbots are all cyborgs. This could be a long and memorable trip.

She took my hand in hers, her skin so smooth and warm, yet with strength in her grip. “You already told me that. I’m Mikaela Sif’fort, but you can call me Miki, and I am indeed a Companion. My clothing alone communicates that.”

“That’s like a title or something?”

She shrugged. “More of a job.”

“Of the… ah, the… you know, the professional kind?” I asked hesitantly, only to instantly regret it as her eyes narrowed slightly.

“What do you know about Companions?”

“Well, I’ve kind of heard of such people, but in an almost mythological way. Some kind of paramour or courtesan if I heard it right. But more than that. A special assistant too. A body guard. But only for extremely wealthy men. Something out of our distant past.”

“Gently said and unusually polite,” she smiled, dazzling me with her sparkling eyes. “Some people are far less charitable. I’ve been called a whore by people who don’t generally use such words. And as I already said, I’m not a cyborg, which means I’m not a Sexbot either. Flesh and blood.”

I blushed as she betrayed where my inner thoughts were starting to go. “What I see is a very sophisticated and beautiful young woman. A woman of knowledge and poise and special abilities to make things happen. Any kind of thing.”

I was really laying it on thick now. No one this young could be all that. But I was falling for her charms. 

“That is all technically true, but most people can’t get past the fact that a very great deal of money changed hands to buy my contract. Probably equal to the Gross Annual Product of a small, developing planet such as this.” 

“That’s… that’s billions…” I gasped. “I don’t understand… for just a…?” I caught myself before I said Companion. Or worse. 

She heard what I didn’t say, smiling a bit vacantly as she shook herself to send a flurry of melting snowflakes flying from her long hair. 

I mentally kicked myself. I have a bad habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong times. 

“But then, what do I know,” I shrugged, trying to recover. “I’m only repeating whispered rumors from distant worlds. We’re way out here on the Rim without any decent wormhole Comms. All we get are rumors. Plenty of those, but most of them are unbelievable.” 

Her gaze moved back to me as she brightened. “Not in this case. I have indeed been your father’s faithful Companion for the last twenty years.”

“My father… I… I don’t even know who he is,” I stuttered. “You’re actually a professional Companion?” 

“I was your father’s, but he died recently, despite my preserving him for his last years. He was already old and growing frail when I first came to him.”

“But… twenty years? That’s impossible. You’re younger than me.”

She smiled. “You really don’t know anything about Companions, do you?” 

“Obviously not. And as far as my father goes, I have no clue who he is either… or was. I didn’t think he even knew I existed. So how could you know about me?”

“I’m not 100% sure I do, but you fit the description of the man I’m looking for. Salvador’s last words were to come to this planet and find his son.”

“Assuming that I’m him, which I seriously doubt.” 

How could I be the son of a man who spent billions for a Companion? Mother and I always got by on very little.

“Well, there is one test to positively determine paternity.” She held out a small circular disk. “Touch this.”

I did, and something pricked me, leaving behind a drop of blood. “What the heck…!” 

She slipped the disk into a tiny device and then stood with her back to me as she read the result. Then she ran the test again.

When she finally turned around, she was smiling very warmly. 

“My luck seems to be improving. You are the first man I’ve tested since leaving Pernakis, and this test proves that you are indeed my deceased patron’s only son, and his legitimate heir.”

She kneeled to bow her head, her golden hair cascading over my snowy boots. “I now declare that my contract is transferred to you, Winston Pernakin, for the years that remain. You are my new Patron.”

Shocked, I reached down to hold her surprisingly strong shoulders as I guided her back to her feet. The idea of a girl this stunning and young bowing to me was just wrong. Yet if I’d heard her right, twenty years of service to my father put her at least in her mid-30’s. Maybe 40. Which was impossible given she looked like jail-bait. 

More importantly, what did it mean that I held her contact now? Whatever that was. And that I was her Patron now? What the hell did that mean? I was just an ordinary college student. I had no money, no station in life yet, just school. 

“This is all very confusing, Miki. My mother never talked about my father, other than to claim he’d been a very bad decision. I was born after she traveled here to hide on this Rim planet.”

“Well, she knows everything about your father given she remained married to him until the day he died. He was the Emperor of an entire planet. The owner of it, in fact.”

“What? She never said anything about marriage or any of that!” 

“Not surprising given she ran away after she found she was pregnant with you. She’d learned to abhor your father, given he literally owned a planet where millions live — and he was not a benevolent man. I knew none of that when I was contracted to protect and serve him by being his constant and faithful Companion for the contracted 99 years. A contract that must be passed on if there is an heir.”

“Serve for a century? That’s… that’s chattel slavery — owning a person for their entire lifetime!”

She shook her head, her shimmering blonde hair flying. “Not own. Agreement by paid contract for a set period of time, with prescribed boundaries. And my term of service is but a small portion of my lifetime.”

“What are you talking about… a hundred years IS a lifetime.” 

“Not for a Velorian.”

I stared at her blankly. “Which is exactly what?”

She smiled, amused for some reason. “So, you’ve heard fragmentary rumors about Companions but not Velorians? You really are out of touch here on the Rim. At least now I understand why you’ve been looking at me so… intently.”

I winced, doubting that was a compliment. 

“Yeah, well we’re pretty remote here,” I shrugged. “Comm-Bots only do single jumps so all we hear is news from the small group of independent star systems in our corner on the Galactic Rim, all a single jump away. Young worlds that are all still developing.”

“Well, all you really need to know at the moment is that all Velorians look very much like me. Enough that most Terrans have trouble telling us apart, given we are always blue-eyed blondes who look much younger than we are. Our men rarely travel off-planet, but if you were to meet one, you’d find that they almost look the same, except for being slightly taller and of course, male. Our secondary sexual traits are nearly identical. Our men even carry their Power the same way.”

She reached up to cup the magnificent boobs I’d been trying not to stare at. So large that they were preventing her tunic and too-small jacket from closing. “If you knew anything about Velorians, you’d know we carry our Orgone here. And as far as our males go, they all have XXY chromosomes, and not XY like with Terrans, or Arions for that matter. Which is why our men are often mistaken for females by Terrans.”

“They have man boobs…?” I laughed, finding that hilarious. That was something only old, fat men had.

“Yes, and often well developed ones. Which causes immense confusion within Terran societies given we dress much the same too. My twin brother and my sister are so close in appearance that they used to impersonate each other, and me, just for the fun of it.” She shrugged. “He’s now on a Companion contract as well, on a distant world, bound to a powerful and wealthy woman.”

“Fraternal triplets?”

She shrugged. “Not that unusual on Velor.”

I tried to imagine her brother passing for her, but found that vision unsettling. That was just wrong.

“But more importantly than any of that, Win, you have inherited the remainder of my contract. Among other things, that requires me to protect you from all threats.”

My jaw fell again as I just stared at her, my mind way behind now. One does not just inherit a girl like her. 

She paused to tilt her head at me, giving me an impish smile as she saw the confused wonder on my face. “To be very specific, I’m your personal Companion, contracted for the next 79 years, 3 months, 4 days, 11 hours and 17 minutes. And you are about to become the emperor of a planet”

I slowly shook my head. “No way. People don’t own people. Or planets.”

She smiled brighter. “Actually, a very few do, and your father was among them. We need to quickly return to Pernakis before things get too far out of hand there.”

“Leave here? Leave Mother? The University? My life? Why would I fly off and leave all that? And what kind of planet is Pernakis anyway?” 

“The sooner we get there the better,” she continued. “I’ll explain everything along the way. What’s crucial is that our government is in disarray, with a number of ministers and generals seeking the throne, believing there is no heir. Once we get there, and your identity is independently verified, you will immediately be crowned the new Emperor. For without a strong inherited kingship, our family and Pernakis society will fragment into numerous power struggles. Struggles that will eventually turn into wars, leading to chaos and death. Human history is quite clear on this.”

“Human history, huh. As opposed to…?”

She shrugged again. “Humans are but one sentient species among many.”

“But… what the hell do I know about being an Emperor? Nothing. Or a King. Worse. I didn’t even think there were such things anymore. And how do I know that any of what you’ve just told me is true?”

“Well, if I prove I’m a Velorian, will that satisfy you?”

“Given I don’t know anything about Velorians beyond what you’ve just told me… no.”

She gave me a little smile. “I like your honesty and skepticism. And your lack of ambition for power. It’s refreshing.” 

She turned her back to me, leaving me staring at the way her long, blonde hair tapered to a point that teased her lower back. I’d never seen such a perfect backside, nor such beautiful legs. I had to force my eyes upward, intrigued by the variety of colors in her hair, the strands ranging from white-gold to various shades of yellow gold. 

Natural blonde hair was a rarity on Ostremity, and I’d never seen hair half as beautiful as her, even in Holos. All I could think about was Tolkien’s Galadriel. Was a Velorian actually some kind of Elf?

“Touch your thumbs to the small circles on the back of my choker to allow it to learn your touch. Make sure you are touching my skin and hair with the rest of your fingers at the same time.”

My hands were shaking slightly from excitement as I eased her warm hair to the side, finding it wondrously silky as I wrapped a few strands around my fingers. Her skin felt warm and silky smooth as well beneath my fingertips as I gently touched my thumbs to the golden circles on her choker. Instantly, a strange vibration came from inside it, and a moment later a hidden latch snapped open on the back. 

She quickly reached up to catch the choker as it slipped free of her neck. 

“You are now the only person I will ever allow to place this on me.”

“I don’t understand… it’s just jewelry.” 

She lowered the choker to store it in a small pouch on the right side of her belt. Turning around to face me, she removed the small backpack she wore, and then her blue jacket, handing them both to me. Beneath she wore a rumpled long-sleeved white tunic. 

Her jacket felt very warm and seemingly alive the way it neatly arranged itself across my arm. Her small backpack was surprisingly heavy given its size.

“This skirt is unfortunately the only thing I have that’s made of Galen Vitamax, which makes it as invulnerable as me. The rest of my outfit is Terran make, albeit from the best technology available, but it has its limits.”

“Invulnerable? That’s not possible. But even if so… why does that matter?” I asked.

“You’ll see, soon enough.”

She turned her back to me again as she unbuttoned and removed her white tunic, leaving me staring at her nude, sculpted back and strong shoulders. Her skin was an absolutely uniform shade of gold as I traced my vision down the maze of tight curves to those cute Dimples of Venus — she was remarkably lean and fit. I was still admiring her sculpted back when I was startled by reddish light that was reflecting from the wall-sized Holo display. It grew brighter and brighter to reveal in the reflection that she was holding her hands tightly over her breasts, her fingers spread widely. In the gaps between her fingers, her boobs were glowing, seemingly as if burning deep inside. 

“Orgone metabolism is restarting. You need to keep some distance…” she started to say, only to cry out sharply as the glow flared, a dazzlingly bright light shining out from between her fingers now. 

Stepping quickly back and away from her, she started to shake as her fingers dug deeper and deeper into her softness as she held herself with great strength. She slowly sagged to her knees as waves of heat radiated from her skin now, lifting her golden hair to float around her head as she cried out sharply again, not in pain but in ecstasy, almost like she was struggling to control a series of misplaced orgasms. Leaning far forward to hug her legs, the back of her skirt lifting to reveal a shocking burst of red light from between her legs. 

I backed up a few more steps as she hugged her knees to her chest, her face nearly touching the floor now, her golden hair spreading across the floor of the suite as she slowly curled up into a tight ball, her body growing so hot that I had to back up all the way up against the door, holding my hands in front of my face. Her hair was now floating above her in a cloud now as she radiated so much heat that I started to get worried. Was she going to combust?

That’s when clefts and curves of fantastically tight muscle began forming across her bare shoulders, which became stronger and broader. Other muscles joined in as they grew thicker, deeply embedding her spine all the way down her back, revealing an amazing array of muscular clefts on either side. Her golden skin began to shimmer as if it was oiled, and the lighter strands of her hair started glowing as if from an inner light. 

In less time than I can describe it, she morphed from fabulously fit to superhumanly defined, every tight muscle now sharply outlined with smooth curves and deep clefts between them. Powerful curves, yet still sexy as hell in my eyes. 

Rising slowly back to her feet, her entire body now seemed to be carved from a maze of sculpted steel. Turning her head to reveal a sinewy neck, she twisted herself around from the waist to reveal incredible flexibility, smiling brightly back at me with eyes that were now an inhumanly bright blue. Even deeper dimples shaped her cheeks as she smiled. 

Yet her face otherwise looked much the same as before, which combined with her muscular body made her apparent youth even more shocking, especially the way her already large breasts rose higher on her chest as powerful pectorals expanded beneath. Those perfectly-rounded boobs were now giving off a muted, fleshy glow except for her nipples, which glowed cherry-red. 

She’d been metaphorically hot before, but now she was actually hot — as in glowing. Wearing only that red skater’s skirt, with sleek, hard, smooth muscle reshaping her from head to toe, she gave off a profound impression of girlish innocence combined with massive, extreme strength. Her lustrous hair was glowing now as if under a summer sun, and with those overly blue eyes and that lovely girlish face, she was the poster girl for a superhuman. Which she most assuredly was.

Lost in wonder as she turned to fully face me, her boobs sitting so high and firm, my amazement turned to utter astonishment when she lifted both feet from the floor to cross her long legs lotus-style to float in mid-air, her eyes now perfectly level with mine. 

My jaw fell open. “How did you… how can you…?” I gasped. 

“Told you I was Velorian. We all have antigrav organs, called Volatai, located under here.” She cupped herself tighter yet, making me suddenly wish those were my hands. 

“Galen flight organs utilize the same basic physics as your technological antigravs, except for being biologically based.” 

My jaw fell as I stared at her as she isometrically tensed every muscle in her body at the same time. She had several times the muscular expansion of any woman I’d seen, and I hung out with jocks. And then there was her levitation. I couldn’t comprehend how such a biological antigrav could possibly work. 

She slowly released her grip on herself as the glow faded, finally lowering both hands to rest them proudly on her hips, standing with perfect posture, her large, erect nipples in the exact center of those firm boobs. Orbs that seemed to ignore gravity as she began floating higher yet, lifting her nipples to my eye level.

“Like all other Velorians, Win, I prefer not to cover myself when I’m empowered, unless it’s culturally required. After all, my breasts hold the source of all my power. I hope this isn’t a problem for you.”

My mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. ‘Problem’ was definitely not the word. I was just astounded that there really was such a thing as superhuman boobs. And filled with weird alien energy — that Orgone stuff she’d mentioned? This was beyond any fantasy I’d ever had.

The glow from her chest faded quickly, as did the glow beneath her skirt, which fell back into place as she cooled. Her skin now took on a slightly deeper shade of polished gold as her hair grew lighter, the contrast strikingly beautiful. She extended one leg and then the other to touch the floor with her bare feet, shaking them out while twisting and turning from her waist as her fantastically-developed musculature began visibly relaxing as she slowly shifted from outrageously defined to merely wickedly lean and fit. Except that now, every movement brought a flex of those hard muscles back to the surface. 

“Ok, I’m stable again, Win, but now I’m vastly stronger. I was only a few times stronger than you while wearing gold, and with only a minimal ability to levitate. I barely flew well enough to get us both on this train. But now you can multiply my previous strength and flight ability by a thousand times. Or more.”

“Thou… thousand of times… more!” I gasped. 

She nodded as she shrugged, revealing powerful muscles briefly across her shoulders before smoothing out again. 

“A portion of my muscle strands are enhanced human, but the majority are Galen, and each of those is both finer and vastly stronger whenever I’m metabolizing Orgone. And as you’ve undoubtably noticed, Galen muscles are far more expansive than human.”

“But… but why so strong? So dramatically toned? Thousands of times…?” 

I couldn’t get past that.

She shrugged, more muscles briefly appearing. 

“Long story, but in short, the Galens needed a superwoman who could replace their infertile females and bear the children of their men. Procreators. They found humans were fertile and adaptive enough to do the job, but only after they made us nearly as strong and invulnerable as they are. Between their men’s super strength and their bodies being harder than steel and larger, the physical power a Galen man releases during orgasm can bring down buildings. Shatter boulders. Collapse mountains. We had to be able to endure that power, focused in and through our bodies. More than endure — greatly enjoy.”

“A super-orgasm…?” I said softly, my voice falling off as my imagination raced. “Mating with a god?”

She shrugged. “Unfortunately, that was all they wanted from us as their so-called Procreators. To bear their next generations given that their women no longer could.”

“Wow. Talk about application-specific engineering!”

“Hope I’m not scaring you with all this, but we don’t have a lot of time to take this slow, Win. I don’t normally remove my gold in polite company. The power surge and physical changes you just saw freaks most people out. But I am your Companion. You need to get to know me, inside and out, sooner than later.”

My mouth was almost too dry to talk now. 

“God… you look… astounding, both before and even more now. Powerful yet so mind-bogglingly beautiful, but way, WAY off any athletic scale for a Terran. I can’t even wrap my head around the way you pack so much muscle into such a slender body. Thousands of times stronger than human you say?” 

“To be exact, a thousand times stronger than the strongest possible human. Think some massive bodybuilder, all ‘roided up and chemically enhanced. That’s 1x strength. Here’s 1000x…”

She clenched her fist, and her slender forearm grew massively defined as incredible clefts of steel muscle rose from her arm. When she bent her elbow and focused on her biceps, it grew into an insanely large ball of steel, slightly split down the center. Yet smooth and without the slightest hint of vascularity.

I just stared at those astounding curves of steel, jaw falling. No way muscles that large could rise from such a slender arm — yet they were doing just that! Glancing back and forth between her profoundly cute face and her other arm, still slender and relaxed, and then back to that incredible biceps — it was absolutely insane that both those arms and that face could be connected to the same body!

“Check it out…” she winked.

My hands were shaking as I wrapped my fingers around that ball of warm steel, her skin stretched so tightly that there was absolutely no give. I held her as tightly as I could, with my single hand proving too small to get all the way around her biceps — and I have large hands. Running my other hand down the deep clefts of her forearm, I came to a slender wrist made of steel tendons, and then her hand, which was both silky soft and compliant, but somehow steely as well. It made no sense.

Lifting my hand from hers after a long moment, I worked my way back up her incredible arm, putting both hands around her upper arm, finding that I could barely get both of them around that amazing biceps. 

She was clearly a super-being, no doubt of that now. So how was I supposed to be HER Patron? Her master or whatever. She had all the power. Thousands of times stronger than the strongest possible man — that claim continued rattling around in my skull as I tried to imagine what a thousand very powerful men could do, especially with all their power somehow channeled through Miki’s slender body. I found the thought wildly erotic… and also intimidating. 

I was just a nobody. An accomplished athlete at the University level perhaps, but just a student, and not a good one at the moment. My mother still called most of the shots in my life. The same mother I’d often accused of secretly being a Bene Gesserit. It wasn’t a compliment. 

“All that I am is all for you, Win. This power, this body, is yours to use however you wish.That’s what a Companion is about. No secrets. No limits. No boundaries. You will soon know everything about me.” 

“I… I’m not sure about this. My controlling you. I don’t want to, you know, own you or anything. Can’t we just be, you know, friends?”

She shrugged as powerful muscles briefly revealed themselves again. “Your father certainly liked the idea of ownership. He saw me as the most powerful weapon on Pernakis. A girl whose beauty and power he could flaunt in front of his enemies — and his supposed friends. He was always showing me off, using me to make sure everyone was envious of him — and afraid. I was his unstoppable hammer, and he wanted me to both infatuate and intimidate everyone.”

“I don’t like the sound of that…” I said. 

“That was your father. He was not a good man. But we can do things differently. But you need to know what you are walking into. To understand what I was when working for your father. How the people back on Pernakis view me.” 

I felt vaguely ill as I imagined the things my old, decrepit and probably icky father had done with her. To her. The things he had her do for him.

I shook my head. “Why don’t we start off just being friends, Miki. That’s about all I can get my head around right now.”

“Bad idea,” she said, her blonde hair flying. “We first and foremost have to establish a professional relationship, by contract. You have to understand that my protecting you overrides all other considerations and priorities. You need to fully comprehend what that means both to you and to others, because I will stop at nothing to ensure your safety.” 

“You talked about Galens a moment ago,” I struggled to ask, my mouth so dry now. “Who or what are they?”

She dropped softly to the floor as her muscular definition softened further. Whatever was going on, she seemed to regard this as completely normal. 

”The Galen are a long story, Win. But very briefly, they are gods of a sort — and the source of most of your human mythology. Some of us believe they provided the ancient spark that allowed apes to become men.” 

Her words flowed over me like spoken jewels, bright and clear, despite her speaking with a strange accent. I was so lost now in the magic of her beauty and profound physicality and the lovely sound of her voice that I couldn’t think straight. I was reduced to just watching her floating around in that multicolored cloud of pale gold, her little red skirt the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, her boobs so perfect and large and amazing and proud. So flawless it would be a shame to ever cover such works of art. 

Lost in that golden fog of awe, I was suddenly startled when she snapped her fingers so loudly that they sounded like a gunshot. I was instantly brought back to the here and now to find her smiling strangely at me, her head tilted . 

“Sorry… got lost there for a moment,” I apologized. “You said something about gods, Miki. Mythology. Does that make you an actual goddess?”

She shook her head as she laughed, the sound like tinkling bells. 

“While many Terrans think so, I disagree. I’m not smarter or wiser than you, just more powerful and experienced and with a better memory. And indestructible. But the Galens’ technology is purely biological and not magical or god-like despite the way I might look. Despite what I can do. We Velorians are merely chimeras they engineered to be their biological tools. Which is to say, we’re artificial hybrids of human and Galen DNA. Synthetics in the eyes of many people, monsters to some, although Terran scientists have been kind enough to classify us as Homo Sapiens Supremis, a human subspecies. But then, most Terran women think we’re just whores and exhibitionists given the way we dress, act and the way their men are drawn to us.”

I sagged backwards on the couch, blown away by all that I was hearing and seeing, trying to imagine all the things written between the lines of what she was saying. How could Miki ever be the lesser of anything? She was superhuman. 

Most amazing of all, given the dispassionate way she described herself, she talked almost like an Engineer. I couldn’t help but grin at that thought. I’d never known a woman who studied Engineering other than my ex-girlfriend. Ostremity was a very paternalistic society. 

“Well, if you’re the Galen’s idea of good engineering, Miki, then they must truly be Gods. Do your incredible good looks come from them too?”

She turned to settle onto the couch next to me, snuggling close, her golden skin radiating an intoxicating warmth. She lifted my right arm to drape it over her strong, bare shoulder, my hand dangling with my fingertips teasing her taut nipple. Her muscle tone continued to relax, leaving her looking smoother and closer to her original slender form.

“The power surge when my Orgone metabolism fired back up and all these Galen muscles started working again is kind of shocking at first, I know. But as far as my overall looks go, they don’t come from the Galen. We’re from Old Earth, just like you.The Galen explorers to Earth were impressed with the way my people originally looked and our unusual fertility, and they didn’t want to change our basic template. They thought we were uniquely beautiful creatures. Which makes sense given the Galens themselves look much like us.”

“Where are they now? The Galen?”

She shrugged, her shoulder briefing turning back to sculpted steel beneath my arm. “Who knows? Some argue they weren’t from our galaxy in the first place. That they went home. Others say they are hidden away in another dimension, unconcerned with us beyond using us as Procreators when required.”

“But either way, they left you behind?”

“Apparently. We now consider ourselves human given we originally came from Earth, albeit an isolated, xenophobic and inbred village in the sub-Arctic, a place the Vikings called the Village of Queens. No outsiders were ever allowed into our hidden valley except the King’s messengers. They sometimes left with our young women who became their King’s consorts and sometimes even their Queens, given we were more beautiful, athletic and fertile than any others.”

“Well, the first couple of those things I can attest are still true,” I said. “But Viking queens…? That was over a thousand years ago.” 

“Try twelve-hundred. But the Galen ruined that. They were so impressed with my ancestors that they abducted my entire village. Every person, every animal. Took us deep into space.” She sighed. “But that’s a very long story. Suffice it to say for the moment that we can not only levitate, but that we’re very difficult to injure and as I’ve described, physically stronger than you can easily conceptualize, being that you are Terran.”

I smiled. “Don’t be so sure. I’m known for my fertile imagination.” 

She smiled beautifully. “Well, we’ll see about the limits of your imagination, your Majesty.”

I exhaled sharply. “Ha. I’m not an emperor, or a king.”

“Not yet. But if we get off this planet in one piece, you soon will be. And as I told you earlier, I wanted to surprise you, given you didn’t know anything about Velorians. Hope I didn’t freak you out too much.”

“Oh, you did, for sure, but in all the best ways. Never been so impressed by anything.” 

She snuggled closer, which allowed my hand to fall further over her boob, which felt deliciously soft despite all those steely muscles. 

“But right now, Win, it’s most important that we get to know each other. Sharing our thoughts and feelings and memories and attitudes in a very Velorian way. I need to know what kind of man I’m dealing with.” 

She took my hand and lowered it to place it on her bare thigh, slipping it under the hem of her skirt. Her message was clear enough as my fingers instinctively closed around her powerful quads, thrilling to how soft and warm her skin was. Slipping further between her legs, I traced her wildly developed quads. I know a lot about athletically toned muscles given my girlfriend had been a champion sprinter, but Miki was in an entirely different league. 

I slowly ran my hand over her thigh, marveling at her dense quads, so thick and rounded. Other than for a tiny bit of give from the softness of her skin, they felt like warm steel. Their raw power left me breathless, assuming she was as strong as she claimed. She truly was some kind of goddess. 

I slowly came to realize why her skin looked so smooth, almost oiled — there were none of the tiny bumps from hair follicles. A universal part of every Terran’s skin was simply missing. Engineered out as undesirable? Except obviously on her scalp, where they seemed to be doubled up. 

“I’m truly a girl of steel when I’m empowered like this, Win, which I’m glad you can appreciate and not fear. But being this strong creates some serious practical problems. Ones that I hope don’t scare you away.”

Scared was NOT what I was feeling as her hand fell into my lap now. I reminded myself that while she looked too young for me, she was actually much older than me. That both twisted my brain… and excited me.

She reached out to hand me her gold choker. I took it, feeling its warmth and unusual weight in my hand. 

“l will allow you to fasten this on me whenever you wish, Win. It’s one of the contractual requirements of being a Companion. But only you.”

“I don’t understand… why?”

“Early on, the Scalantrans were terrified of our great strength, given that in the beginning we accidentally broke some of their starships. But neither the Scalantrans nor the girls on those first ships had any clue of our true power. Or that we could fly. But after they’d punched a few human-sized holes in their ships, plus lots of collapsed walls and broken bits of furniture during play, the Scalantrans demanded we wear this gold at all times while on their ships. 

“Also, the earliest Patrons were both aroused and terrified by what they now had, and they needed a contracted method of control. The slightly radioactive gold from my home planet is in this choker, and when wrapped around the thyroid gland in my neck, it suppresses Orgone metabolism. Given that my muscles are a mix of Galen and human strands — with the Galen strands powered only by Orgone — shutting down my Orgone energy drops my strength closer to human. Which is good, given that invulnerability and steel-bending strength, especially when combined with the fireworks of a super-orgasm, creates a big problem. Nice if you’re with a Galen or another Velorian, but absolutely lethal when I’m intertwined with a Terran.”

“And you have that kind of power… now?” I asked in wonder, still struggling to get my head around her.

“I do. Which is why we have to be very careful.”

She gathered her long hair from her neck as she rose to sit straight up while turning her back to me, inviting me to fasten the choker again. 

“But this is the solution,” she whispered. “Fasten it now.”

My hands were trembling from excitement as I gently placed the gleaming choker back around her strong neck, then closed it and touched those two sensors again. The clasp instantly closed with a soft snap. 

My hands were still resting on her shoulders when a shudder ran through her body. She sighed deeply, turning her head toward mine, and leaned back to softly melt into my arms, her steel-hard muscle tone fading into smoother, softer curves. She now looked and felt like an extremely fit girl. Which is not a mere thing at all, at least in my world.

Her lips brushed my ear as she leaned further back to whisper: “All my Galen powers are shut down now. I’m human again.”

Her transformation with and without the gold was shocking.

“Given you don’t know anything about Velorians, I need to warn you that we have a special tradition when it comes to greetings. One that makes us completely disreputable in the eyes of most Terran women.” She snuggled closer, leaving me gasping as her fingers lightly traced the tight outline of my rising desire. 

“Would you like me to show you the secret handshake, Win? It’s kind of a mind-reading thing. Another of our gifts from the Galen.”

I had no idea about mind-reading but I loved where this seemed to be going, and it was time for me to do more than just gawk. Slipping from her gentle embrace, I knelt in front of her as she sat further back on the couch. Gently opening and lifting her long, slender legs to rest them on my shoulders. I shouldn’t have been surprised at this point by her lack of pubic hair nor her tight, inwardly folded labia, but I was fascinated by the way even her sex looked — both feminine and powerful at the same time. But then, she was a supergirl. 

Opening her legs wider yet, I began kissing my way upwards along them, tracing the inner curves of those long, shapely muscles, starting with her ankles and then up her calves and over her knees and between her thighs as she began to squirm in anticipation. 

She might be bulletproof, but that apparently didn’t take anything away from her sensitivity. She rested her heels on my back with her knees widely spread as I took my time, luxuriating in all that silky soft skin, stretched as it was over such firm flesh. Her heels gently encouraged me upward whenever I paused too long, and I finally reached the apex of those long legs to run my tongue gently from the bottom to the top of her sex, opening her as she gasped and squirmed passionately.

She tasted like sweet, warm honey and wildflower with just the tiniest hint of musk. As I tried to tease her wider, an amazingly large clitoris rose to poke its head out from beneath its little hood, quivering with desire. I took it between my lips as she stiffened to cry out sharply in pleasure, her thighs closing almost too tightly around my head. Feeling that I was in my element now, I went to work as she lifted her hips from the couch to push herself urgently against my face. Knowing I couldn’t hurt her, but not sure if I could please her either, I tried closing my teeth around that super-sensitive bit of clitoral flesh while flicking my tongue over the end of it, slowly gripping her tighter and tighter. 

She went totally crazy on me, trapping me between those still powerful thighs as she squirmed and cried out, louder and louder. Then, just when I feared she was going to crush my skull if this continued, she released her legs and began bucking herself into my face, wanting more. I bit down harder and harder while scraping my teeth over her clit, something no Terran woman could have endured. But Miki was twisting and turning so wildly on the couch now that we wound up tumbling off it, her thighs briefly squeezing my head painfully as I tried to keep going, holding her as tightly as I could. She might not be super now, but she was still a lot stronger than me. 

She pulled herself from the grip of my teeth to lift and toss me back up onto the couch, where she gave me a hungry smile and a flash of her blue eyes as she leaped up to straddle me, her red skirt spreading over my lap. Tearing my pants open, she painfully took some pubic hair with her, the sharp pain evaporating instantly when she wrapped her hand warmly around me, taking me out, expertly guiding me to herself. With a toss of her long, blonde hair over my face, she enveloped me in a golden light, her hair fragrant with the scent of wildflower.

“I really need to fuck you,” she whispered sexily in my ear. “May I?”

I just grinned. This was turning into one hell of a Hello! 

She took her time to throughly wet me, spreading her slippery wetness over me as her hand continued to grip me very tightly, challenging me. I’d never felt as wonderfully hard as I did now as she used me to open herself. I thrust my hips upward to try to take her, but too quickly, finding she was still too tight. Weirdly, I was rewarded with a strange rush of raw power that raced up my dick. Power that surged through my body with such intensity that I thought it was going to blow my head off. 

Meanwhile, she continued to give off little squeaks and cries of pleasure as I worked to enter the tightest vagina I’d ever known. I almost bent several times before she finally relaxed enough for me to take her. Plunging deeply, we struggled at first to find a shared rhythm, uncoordinated as new lovers can be, what with my being overly eager to speed things up while she remained remarkably, deliciously tight — almost too much so. Her long hair covered me in a curtain of gold as she slowly, surely took me to my root before beginning to gently rock back and forth in my lap, whispering in my ear that I couldn’t ever hurt her. 

Most women find me uncomfortably large, but I think she wanted even more. Which was a new thing for me.

We soared upward together, unfettered now, singing the same song as we raced towards ecstasy, which in my case was coming way faster than I wanted. I tried to slow down, but she just went faster yet, quickly taking me to the very edge of that wonderful moment of pleasure/pain, my release upon me. Then, just as I was starting to lose it, she tightened herself so much that I couldn’t move at all, holding me so tightly I couldn’t come. 

Lost in the blinding pleasure/pain of desperate release, her very strong Kegels froze me in place as waves of contractions slowly surged up and down her vagina. It felt as if my brain was orgasming instead of my body. A mind-boggling sensation I’d never imagined was even possible. 

Dozens of sexy, vivid images from my life exploded to fill my mind, some recent, some old, many of them about my time with my Marissa. Memories of happiness and despair, pleasure and pain, violent and peaceful moments, kind and unkind ones too. All my memorable encounters with women over the years were vividly recalled as my thoughts bounced from one corner of my skull to the other, recalling everything good and bad that had ever happened in my life, my successes and my failures. Held there by her incredible rippling inner strength, my emotions surged with happy and painful memories, all tangled up with the wild pleasure of fucking her.

I swore I’d lost my mind amidst the desperate, aching need for release, which she was denying me. I truly felt as if my brain was going to explode when it was my dick that needed to. And then, right in the middle of all that confusion and pleasure/pain, I had this profound sensation of a very different kind of pleasure — an odd sense of delicious fullness and warmth combined with an intense tingling wave almost the same as I was feeling, except magnified. 

It took me a moment to realize I was feeling some of what she was feeling! 

And then, before I could grasp how that was even possible, she relaxed herself slightly and went crazy on me, washing away all other thoughts as we began fucking so violently that we again fell off the couch onto the floor. I felt like some kind of superman as I rolled her over on her back to take her hard and fast as I literally drove her across the floor with my powerful thrusts, smashing her head into the outer wall, where I continued rutting wildly with every ounce of strength in my body. I knew I couldn’t hurt her, but maybe, just maybe, I could please her.

Instead of my usual brief moment of release and then my ‘little death’, we kept going on and on, both of us seemingly trapped at the peak of ecstasy, my berserker strength becoming insane now, seeking release at any cost, pain/pleasure intermingled with impossible need. Beneath me, she lifted me with her powerful hips, challenging me to keep up with her. Her astounding display of climactic fireworks kept growing more and more intense until she finally exploded in a wild flurry of shotgun orgasms that finally sent me over the edge, once, and then as our wild fucking continued, a second time, and then a third, each one harder than the first. Now I was the superman, going on forever.

I don’t know how long we fucked, all I remember is that eventually I was too exhausted to do more than gasp for air. She effortlessly lifted my weight up and off herself, and we collapsed together on the couch, cuddling, limbs entwined, kissing softly in slowly fading ecstasy.

“So, just so you know,” she finally said with a beautiful smile, “that was a Velorian Hello, the Companion version.”

“Then to hell with handshakes! I like your customs WAY better.”

She giggled. “Hope I didn’t scare you, being so forward and all. Some men are taken aback by my aggressiveness. Some even get injured.”

“Overwhelmed, yes, but in the best imaginable most wonderful Viking warrior woman kind of way. You can read my mind that way anytime!”

She giggled as she snuggled closer yet, her personality and enthusiasm seemingly matching her innocent young face now.

“You are going to be the best Patron ever. Do you know that you were drawing power from me? That you are also the first Terran who was man enough for me?”

I looked at the damage in the wall of the Suite, which had torn open to reveal a bent steel girder. 

“Yeah, I kind of got that, but I think we just broke the train. How’s your head feel?”

“The girl’s bulletproof, Win. I loved the way you went into beast-mode, channeling my strength back to me. Few men are virile enough to respond that well to my pheromones. To become that strong and athletic without their hearts exploding. You were actually channelling my Orgone, despite it being shutdown with the gold. It was magical.”

“Magical, for sure. I don’t even know how to describe what we just did, Miki. I felt like a superman, going on and on that way. Feeling stronger, more and more as we went on.”

“We’ve just teased the very edge of Supersex, don’t you know? There is far more to come. We Velorians are universally regarded as the best lovers in the universe given we can make our lovers briefly super too. But never as dramatically as with you.”

I laughed. “The best lovers in the ‘verse, huh? And obviously the most modest too.”

“Hey, it’s not bragging if it’s all true. Or do I need to prove it to you again?”

I felt myself rising again as I inhaled the wondrous perfume that surrounded her. That should have been impossible for me, given what we’d just done, but everything seemed possible with Miki.

“I… well, you know, I’ve been told many times that I’m sometimes a slow learner…”

Miki laughed, and then proved that some things only get better with practice. 

---

I awoke sometime later to find her floating in the middle of the suite, still wearing just her skirt. The Holos showed snowy countryside flashing by at incredible speed, with some very tall mountains rising in the far distance. 

Based on her eye movements I was pretty sure she was looking through all that. 

Her extreme muscle tone, not to mention her levitation, made it clear she’d taken her gold off again, hidden as her neck was beneath all that hair. I felt sorry I’d missed her second surge of empowerment. Watching that kind of extreme muscular transformation will never get old. 

“So, he actually survives…” she smiled my way, seemingly filling the cabin with sunshine. 

I’d never imagined anyone could smile so cutely, those deep dimples in those rounded cheeks, her eyes so sparkly and bright and blue.

“That… that was… amazing, Miki. My girlfriends have always been athletes, but that was over the top. Totally!”

“Just a special Hello for the man I’m bound to. Normally, my Hellos are much more casual. Just long enough to learn their surface thoughts.”

“Casual mind-reading? Or casual sex?”

She shrugged. “There are many kinds of sex, but none so special as the time spent with my Patron.”

“Ah, yeah, about that, Miki. Those ‘bound’ and ‘Patron’ and ‘Contract’ words. I mean, I’m flattered, incredibly so, but these are modern times. People don’t inherit other people. Own them or anything. I’m very uncomfortable with you being contracted to work for me and only me. For another seventy plus years?”

“That isn’t how I think about it, Win. This could become a mutually beneficial relationship. But before we dive too far into all that, we need to get off this train to protect the others.”

I glanced at the overhead display. “Ah… you do know that we’re doing 1002 kph — that’s like 80% the speed of sound on Ostremity? How do you plan on doing that? And why?” 

“A small starship trailed mine as I flew here from Pernakis. Likely a contract assassin, probably some rogue Arions hoping to get to you before I can return you to Pernakis to be crowned. They never came close enough for my scanners to get an actual image, just an electronic signature at maximum range. But for pirates to chase me this far, through three wormholes, somebody must have put a VERY large price on your head.”

“For what… why?”

“For being born. For being your father’s son. To prevent you from arriving on Pernakis to claim your destiny. Word must have gotten out about your existence, so they tracked me, knowing I was obligated to find you — if you existed. Surely they saw me board the train with you. I can’t properly protect you and the others if they attack you here.”

“Attack me…why?”

“To kill you, obviously. As far as the place, there’s a long tunnel coming up under those mountains up ahead. That’s where I’d make a move if I was them. Arion pirates care little about human lives as long as they get paid. Setting off a small nuke in that tunnel would do the job nicely. Likely they are placing it as we speak. Given that I’m with you, they won’t risk a direct confrontation.”

I blanched. “A fucking nuke?! Pirates actually fly around with those things? And targeted just on me! With all these innocents on board? So… what do we do? How are we supposed to get off the train before then? Is that even possible?”

“Getting off will be the easy part, but right now I have to make sure this train doesn’t go into that tunnel.”

“These trains don’t have drivers, you know. They’re all AI controlled MagLevs. There is no way to stop the train from here.”

“There is a way to do anything if you have these…” She flexed her bicep again, which blossomed just as massively as before.

As utterly impressed as I was once again, my thoughts were now racing in other directions too. A nuke! And I was the target? Shit… I wasn’t prepared for any of this. I was completely out of my depth.

And yet here was Miki at my side. Oozing confidence and power from every pore. A beautiful girl who could solve any problem that could be fixed with raw power. Which covered a hell of a lot of ground.

She smiled crookedly at me, seeing me lost in thought again. 

“Best not to question or wonder too much about things you can’t control, Win. Not now, anyway. Now is the time for action. We have lives to save, starting with our own.”

She relaxed her arm, which again mostly returned to her usual lean smoothness.

“Was that to impress me again?”

“It was to get your attention. Also to remind you of what I am. Men have a habit of treating me the way I look — cute, too young, female and very fuckable — rather than by my actual abilities or experience. You must never do this.”

I just stared blankly, wondering where she was going.

“You need to understand that I’m among the most powerful beings in the galaxy, Win. I can punch out an Army tank with a single blow. I can burn just about anything to ash with an angry stare, or carry some asshole up into orbit and throw them into the sun to be rid of them forever. No human can stop me, no matter how well armed. That makes me one of the most dangerous beings to have ever lived. Even if I was dropped onto Raptor Prime — that nightmare planet that’s crawling with dinosaurs and monster bugs — I could punch out a Tyrannosaurus, or let some elephant-sized bug break its jaws on me. I’m far more dangerous than you can possibly imagine.”

I swallowed hard, staring at her bared chest, all smooth rounded curves, my eyes wide as I tried to comprehend. But I was still lost in post-coital coziness and was falling in love with the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. I most certainly wasn’t seeing her as an unstoppable supreme warrior who could likely devastate an entire planet. Those conflicting personas were so far apart that they might as well be from parallel universes. How could they be simultaneously present in the girl beside me? Who looked so very young, but wasn’t. 

But slowly, realization began to sink in.

“Ah, Ok, Miki. Maybe I’m starting to get your drift,” I said. “It’s about you not ever being what you appear to be.”

She nodded. “And you haven’t seen much of the empowered side of me yet. That’s about to change as things get interesting.” 

“Define interesting…” 

“You not being vaporized?”

With that hanging in the air, she walked to the door and opened it, pausing there to toss her long hair to the side as she looked back at me. “Safer for you to stay here for the moment, Win. Things might get a little crazy if the train buckles or derails or something worse.”

Before I could say anything, she was gone. 

My thoughts raced. 

Buckles? 

Derails? 

Something Worse? 

What the hell was she going to do? Stop the fucking train?

To be continued in Part Two…