Among Bright Stars... (25 page)

“
Yes.” Nadia smiled, sultry. “I haven't
hurt you yet. I'm a precisely calibrated machine, and do not lose
control of my physical systems or emotional impulses, ever!” Her
blue eyes glimmered. “Otherwise it’s a cliché.”

“
Yet you feel pain.”

“
Naturally, or I'd damage myself.”

“
There are pictures of you as a little
girl --”

“
Like you, I had a childhood.” She
outlined. “In order to create one of us, you need to layout its
lifespan. From embryo, to full maturity.” Nadia told him. “I
probably won't age much more than I have already.” Only at this
moment did Nadia recognize the possibility of her own immortality.
“You get to be with an everlasting hottie.”

Sharr cleared his throat. “But I'll grow
old... “

Nadia touched his cheek. Felt tears begin to
spring up at the edge of her eyes. She couldn't imagine a life
without this man. “Let me take care of that. I shall do my best to
make Falcanians akin to Morningstars. Doing so could even make
their creation easier.”

“
Children. I can't say I entirely
understand what you are. You called yourself a robot, I'm guessing
we can't procreate together.”

“
Papa's optimistic.” Nadia assured. Though
she held a more realistic view of the problem. Rather simply, she
wasn't human. “I have ovum like any female. Eve of a new species
don't you know?” Reproduction with another Morningstar, very
doable. “Of course, these egg cells contain my structural program,
which probably is not compatible with your hominid inheritance...”
Wonderful, Nadia thought. Not only had she insinuated that he was
nothing more but a bag of decrepit meat, she'd just about called
him an unevolved primate with that hominid remark. Nadia bit her
lower lip, nervous. Concluded that reproduction might be a deal
breaker. Why not? Sharr wanted to inaugurate a Falcanian dynasty.
And so she promised. “I'll see that you have children.”

“
I love you.” Sharr somnolently
whispered.

Sleep began to take him. Intoxicated by
Nadia's mocha and sweet almond fragrance. His mind reeled, needed
to work through these new revelations.

Once he began to snore, Nadia scooted out of
the bed, snatched up her mauve-taupe panties from where they lay in
a tangled clump on the floor, and stepped into them. Over on the
table a pile of candy sat, mostly chocolate, which they'd purchased
in the casino. Hershey bars, Peanut Butter Cups, and three boxes of
Godiva truffles. Nadia opened a golden box, popped a special
edition, white chocolate lemon-curry confection into her mouth,
almost experienced another orgasm.

When Sharr slept, he tended to cocoon
himself, it Nadia understood was part of his neurological
condition. That peculiar brain wiring which made him who he was,
able to conceptualize of the Phoenix Project while also accepting
her without reproach as an advanced gynoid. Gods, she loved him.
“You'll have heirs my love. As many that will please your fractured
heart.”

Efficient blue eyes adjusted to the
darkness.

Beside her lay her mate, and entangled
around him, naked but for a few jewels Shalimar, who beamed in her
sleep, pleased at last to be welcomed once more back into the
Shotar’s nest. Next to the Kajra Re rested Sharr’s chief concubine,
Kitana. Nadia brought her best friend into Sharr Khan's sex life,
and provided him the harem in order to ensure he would have
offspring. That silent, long ago promise never once regretted. The
stateroom brimmed over with a sexual aroma, and Sharr Khan, not
surprisingly remained lost to a deep coma thanks to his sexual
toils.

Nadia bit her lower lip. Acutely wide-awake,
could sense... Inexorable change. This peace conference ripe with
it. The Oracle's warning for her husband's life plagued Nadia. A
disaster which she could not yet grasp felt close. Though there was
not much to be done for it, because she did not know its shape.
Security had been redoubled given all the visiting heads of state.
That would have to do. The Queen rested her head on Sharr's chest,
listened to his steady heartbeat. Miraculously the defect in her
husband's heart repaired, going on three years now, right around
the time Frederika arrived on their island. Nadia suspected
Shiertar to be somehow involved, though she lacked evidence to
support the notion. She put her hand atop the figure eight
birthmark that branded Sharr’s chest. Nadia felt his heart pound,
reassured by its vitality and life.

“So, you have fun?”

Arshira stood outside the hatch to a small
private lounge located on the yacht’s port side. She smiled
dreamily, barely dressed, fresh from out of Sharr Khan's nest.
“Always.” Intoxicated from her pleasure, Sharr’s scent lingered on
her body. “You should have been there.”

“I don’t do sexual Olympics!” Aria informed,
slightly off put. “When Sharr married me, I made him promise that
when we had sex, it would just be him and I. No concubines, or
other wives. No offense.” The clone added. “What Nadia lets him do
is none of my concern.” She said, a glint of humor in her hazel
eyes. “Besides,” she added slightly bitchy. “I think the nest might
have been just a bit too crowded this evening.”

“Great party Aria.” Arshira shifted gears,
not wishing to get involved in Aria and Shalimar's hatefest. “You
did fantastic setting all this up.”

“Thanks Frederika,” Aria sighed. “I just hope
everything turns out okay. How are the diplomats?”

“Tucked into their staterooms, this” Arshira
said and threw up her hands. “This is a security nightmare, made
more perilous by the fact we’re stuck in a tin-can, filled with a
number of hostile bodyguards who want nothing more to have at old
grudges.”

“I thought you had all weapons checked?”

“They are. Only the Drakorian Guard remain
armed, but you can guess how that’s going over.”

“Not good.”

“Not at all, I’ve argued with a dozen
different security chiefs this evening.” The Valküri-General
sounded exhausted, more from her sexual exertions with the Shotar,
then from any of her battles with the various diplomatic
specialists. “We got to raid Nadia’s shoe collection.” Arshira
pointed out, noticed that Aria had not yet changed out of her party
dress, and that she clutched a pair of black shoes. “Which I
suppose makes all the trouble worth it.”

“She’s got like nine-hundred. I’ve never seen
so many shoes in my life” Giggled the reboot.

“One of her vices.” Arshira agreed.

“Looks like we both had a nightcap in mind.”
Aria smiled.

The Valküri opened the hatch to the lounge,
surprised to find Talik at rest in a leather chair looking rather
introspective. He stared out the oval porthole, a drink cradled in
his hands, Sheela Khanvilker reclined licentiously on the chairs
arm. Talik Kreis glanced up, grinned. “Girls, so good to see you!”
He had become a jolly red color.

Arshira could tell he’d been drinking for
some while, being Falcanian would be all that kept him from having
fallen into a total drunken stupor, though there would still be a
point where alcohol could have an effect, and it looked like Kreis
wasn't that far from finding it.

“My girls” Talik stood, gently helped by
Sheela.

Arshira glanced away, felt a bit embarrassed.
Oberon very rarely got drunk. She wondered what had brought it
on.

Kreis affectionately patted Aria on her
cheek. “I am very proud of you, how you have helped my brother.” He
fatherly told the reboot. Aria could only blush at his affection.
“Und you!” Kreis’s Germanic accent thickened. “You Frederika. What
a long way we've come, eh?”

“I would not be who I am, or what I am
without you Oberon.” To her dismay Arshira felt moisture fill her
emerald eyes, brushed it aside with the back of her hand.

“You’d be surprised.” Kreis said. “I knew the
man whose DNA the Korelia’s used as your primary genetic template.”
Talik cleared his throat, bleary eye gazed at the Morningstar girl.
Oh yes, that's right she was a robot. He still didn't understand
it. The Korelias defined Morningstars as robots. It maddened him.
“Magnus – He could be a proud man, a deep schemer.” Kreis laughed
at whatever fond thing he recalled. Oddly, it happened to be the
moment he lost his eye... “Magnus Gotha, dangerous... Much like
myself. You're the perfect picture, Frederika, of that stuck up
wife of his, Gisela. Did you know that?” At the moment he’d
forgotten her Falcanian name. “Duke und Duchess Gotha came to the
Korelias quite independent of GenKon's agenda.” Wryly. “They wanted
for themselves an ideal heiress. For a small fortune Dr. Turhan
Korelia proved more than ready to oblige in creating you. Magnus
tried to replicate what you are... We – We put a swift end to it.”
He laughed to himself, remembered this to be a topic he wasn't to
share with the girl. Frederika was not to know about how or why
GenKon Inc. subverted and annexed Saxe-Coburg for themselves.
“Magnus however possessed a fatal flaw. Hubris, it cost him his
life.” Tired, Talik sank back down into his leather chair.

Arshira ebullient, thought:
I wasn't
created to be a weapon.
Yet, why couldn't she remember Magnus,
or his wife? Nadia recalled every moment of her existence, so did
other Morningstars whom she talked to. Frederika's memory blurred
when she attempted to call on those infant remembrances. Only a
faint angelic shape came into focus... Fleetingly.

“Oberon,” in a small, almost little girl like
voice Aria queried nervous. “May I ask about your family?”

The word family, it seemed to strike him,
forced Talik back to the moment. “I told you, my father died.
Brilliant, if a bit mad, he had so many dreams. Truth be told,
Sharr favors him in mood, und likeness, they’ve both the look of a
hunting bird.”

“About your mother...” This time Arshira
asked. It dawned upon her, she had never once inquired her
caretaker about his own family life. Oberon Kreis had spent most of
his time testing, and training her. Such personal issues had always
been off limits. “What was her name?”

“Eva Herschi.” The one-eyed man spoke with
rapturous reverence.

“And what became of her?” Wondered the
reboot.

“To be honest,” Talik trailed off. “I don’t
know... ”

As he often did in the aftermath of a night
of sexual gratification, Sharr Khan went roving the passageways of
his yacht to seek out food. More foie gras, specifically. When he
awoke, Arshira hadn’t been in the stateroom, he wondered where his
gorgeous blonde wife got herself? Sharr Khan at last made it to the
main galley, where he bumped into one of the visiting dignitaries,
one of the Morningstars in point of fact. “Good evening
Natalia.”

The Russian Morningstar, flirtatious
grinned. By the lustful look on her face, she appeared eager to
pick-up where she'd been cut off by the Shotar’s wives during the
party. In a form fitting cherry nightgown, and nothing much else,
all the young woman’s ample charms were more than visible for Sharr
to drool over. Which he promptly did. Her attire would have been
most inappropriate under more normal circumstances, but then Sharr
Khan also walked his yacht dressed in nothing but silk pajama
pants, completely bare-chested.

“My Lord,” Natalia gave a slight dip, and
ran her fingers down the slit in her nightgown to deliberately
expose a snow white thigh. She watched the Falcanian ruler follow
her with his eyes. “I thought to find some tea…” Glanced almost too
innocently at him.

This seemed all too familiar to Sharr. Three
years ago, another Child of Morningstar, Frederika attempted to
seduce him. Little doubt that’s exactly what went on in this
Russian minx’s mind. To be sure, the Korelia’s fashioned fine
specimens for GenKon Inc. Sharr agreeably thought while he glanced
down into the girl’s generous cleavage. Unlike Frederika, Natalia
was a bit shorter, her face however had the same heart shape, sleek
black hair instead of blonde poured down her back. Ravishing, all
complemented by those big lovely blue eyes. Natalia, Sharr Khan
concluded, to be a fairly lovely example of the female figure.
“Tea, might do us both some good.” Sharr managed, and realized that
he easily had been turned on by this little minx, and that it had
become rather obvious, given the prominent bulge between his legs.
A half-step forward, Sharr collided with the Tsarina, his hand
clutched her thigh. She exhaled into his oval ear. “Do not think
that your pheromones will have an effect. I've had a lot of
exposure.” He whispered close to her, smelled the lemony-coriander
sent of Krasnaya Moskva on her body. “Your sister Morningstar
attempted to seduce me in such a manner. Now she's devoted to me.”
Sharr smiled dangerously, almost feral. “I assure you, sex with a
Falcanian will cost you your freedom.”

Natalia blushed, attempted to muster a fury,
but it fell short before it could even rise. His hand still held
her thigh, she leaned in closer, as her own keen senses picked up
sex fresh on his body. This made her want him more. Dmitri would be
angry if she did let herself make love to this man.
More the
reason to do it,
she thought!

For a fleeting moment, in the back of his
mind, Sharr Khan knew that giving into his desire with this woman
could cause a diplomatic disaster, that didn’t stop him however
from pushing the Tsarina into an empty conference room, where he
had his way with her on the oak table at its center. It was good to
be Shotar…

Fafnir T’Skarin watched Kheira sleep. Her
dreams were filled with terror if one were to judge by her writhing
about in the stateroom’s ovular nest. Often she found herself
plagued by portents of the future. Outside the door, two
D'Har-Ziral clerics silently pondered at what their mistress
witnessed in her fervent restless dreaming.