(Penthouse Suite, Riverside Gem Hotel, Yokosaki, Nuevo Edo)
Fukuya Talia groaned slightly as she felt the first signs of a hangover. The forty-five year old premier did her best to keep her mind off the pain, as she silently promised never to drink again, even knowing that was probably a lie. Opening her eyes, she blinked, seeing an unfamiliar ceiling. And then she felt movement next to her.
“Ah, up already, I see?”
Talia suddenly became very aware of the fact that she wasn’t alone in bed, and the fact that she was very naked under the sheets. With a bit of trepidation, she turned, and saw the young owner of the Black Star Company smiling at her, while Hikari lay on top of him, the two also naked. And her childhood friend looked to be still asleep, so had they…
And then she remembered. The official announcement when the Black Star Navy had returned to Nuevo Edo, that the ‘Demons’ were no longer a threat. The party they’d had in the capitol. The many, many drinks. And then he brought them to the hotel.
She squeaked slightly as the arm under her curled up, rolling her body that was pleasantly loose (unlike her aching head) up so that she was lying atop of him as well, her face barely a centimeter from Hikari’s. She blushed furiously as the movement caused her friend to awaken, and the blush intensified as she felt the man’s hand moving down to her rear.
When they had left earth, the Japanese and Hispanic cultures both had religious and social taboos against… pairings between those of the same sex, and about groups doing souch things. While some of those taboos had been challenged during the long flight from Earth, and had been all but destroyed with the steadily declining male population during the Demon Wars, Talia had never once thought of her friend Hikari like that, and now, here they were, sharing a bed with the man who had changed everything for their world, and, as the memories came back to her, she blushed as she remembered how Hikari had tasted when Mollen-san… no, Mirikon guided her head between Hikari’s legs, getting her to clean up her friend’s freshly filled womb with her tongue, as he entered her in turn.
What kind of technology did they have in Known Space, that they could produce such a man? She had been to the Pleasure Halls, as had most women, but she had never known one of the men there to be as large as Mirikon was, or have his staying power. How had he managed to recover so quickly, again and again?
Her thoughts were interrupted by Hikari opening her eyes. The general who was the same age as Talia looked like a young maiden the way she blushed, but then she leaned forward and kissed Talia on the lips. The premier did not refuse her friend, and then she moaned as she felt the man underneath her press a finger into her rear entrance. From the way Hikari shuddered in pleasure, he was no doubt doing the same for her.
“Good girls. Perhaps we should continue with where we left off last night, hmm? Would you both enjoy another creamy filling before we get up and go about our day?”
Talia’s answer was to push her friend off the man’s chest as she got fully on top of him. “In the interests of diplomacy, of course.”
The man smiled as he adjusted, and then slid his length into Talia. “Of course.”
(Nania Gateway, Nania System)
Much as the Alpha Centauri system was important primarily because of it being the closest Gateway to Earth, the Nania System’s primary claim to fame was being the closest Gateway to Dimiya. Well, it also was the site of the Knelfi’s first colony back when they had just started exploring the stars. That meant the Nania Gateway was one of the busier ones in Confederation space.
So when the Gateway had an unscheduled arrival, that turned a few heads. When the computers announced that the address it was coming from was unknown, that REALLY got people’s attention. When the black forms of Shinokage and First Group of the Black Star Navy slid out of the Gateway, well, all eyes were on the infamous stealth ships that had been gone from Known Space for eight months. Moreover, they had three new ships with them.
The new ships were clearly Black Star designs: two Raven-class freighters and one Assassin. But unlike ships used by Black Star themselves, these were painted a brilliant white, and the Assassin had a strange flag painted near the bow, a field with Yellow, Blue, and Red stripes, with red being at the bottom. In the middle of the field was a red circle. Under the flag was written NEN Santiago.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
When challenged by Confederate Navy ships guarding the Gateway, a reply was sent in the clear to all ships in the system from the Shinokage: “The Black Star Navy has been commissioned to escort a diplomatic mission to Dimiya, and will be proceeding there forthwith. Attempts to violate the diplomatic immunity of the vessels will be responded to in kind.”
Faster than light itself, it took mere hours for all of Known Space to understand that the Black Star Company had indeed found a new Gate Address, and there were people living there.
(Amazon Gateway, Amazon System)
It had been half a day since the delegation had gone through the Gateway, heading for Dimiya and the center of the Confederation. Unfortunately, the realities of travelling between the stars meant that news of their existence spread fast, before they could actually get to Dimiya to begin official dialogue. Also, the nature of the Gates meant that everyone who was able to get a clean reading of the address knew where they were now, and they’d spread that news far and wide.
The Gateway opened again, and six pirate ships flew through, weapons and shields up. The Civil War had been good for the Dead Rover clan, and they’d feasted on all the poor little merchants who flew around like lost sheep when they logistics of the Empire were torn apart by the Black Star Navy. Now those ships had apparently found a virgin hunting ground, and the Dead Rovers were going to stake their claim.
Captain Cailean Caoidheach was in charge of Dead Rovers, mainly because he’d killed the last leader, as well as the two that’d challenged him over the last couple years. His Black Flag was an armed freighter, extensively modified over the years. She was tougher than any modern merchantman, and could pack one hell of a punch, but she couldn’t hold a candle to any real military ship that weighed the same as her in a fair fight. Good thing Cailean cheated.
He looked over to his second, who was reading the sensors. “Well, what do we have, Fionn?”
The tall, wiry man who was looking over to the barrel-chested captain, and chuckled. “The fools didn’t even leave a guard behind to keep disreputable types from talking with their new ‘friends’ while they were away. We were lucky to hear about this before any of the major clans got the gate address.”
Cailean nodded as he considered the crazy-eyed Nomad they’d ‘rescued’ off Earth a month ago. He’d bought his freedom and a provisional place on the crew with the knowledge that he was a Nomad, and could get into their information networks. “Aye, that we were. Be makin’ sure that Gemroth feller is promoted to full crew, and let the men know it is because he came through with good intel. Might get some of them to think with their heads instead of their sacks if they see good things happening to a new hire who did good for the Clan.”
Shaking his head, he looked back at Fionn, and said, “So, what do we have in the system? How many targets?”
“There was definitely a battle here, Captain. Debris all over the place. I see one habitable world, but it looks like any cities have been bombed to the stone age. There must have been one hell of a fight, which might explain why the other Black Star ships aren’t here.”
Cailean nodded. This score was sounding bigger and bigger by the minute! “Playing like they’re bigger than they are, to keep people from knowing how badly they got mauled when it was a straight fight instead of sneak attacks. Guess it just sucks for them that we were ready to sneak through a gate once we knew where to head. OK, find where the most people are, and we’ll see what is worth ‘trading’ for.”
“Coordinates locked in, Captain.”
“Take the ships down, have the boys ready for raiding! There’s virgin raid territory down there, just waiting to be plucked clean like a preacher’s daughter! Last man ashore gets the last pick of loot!” That brought cheers from all the men as the Black Flag and her companions angled down to enter the atmosphere of the planet and see what trouble that they could get in to.
Suddenly, when they were just under thirty kilometers above the largest population center, alarms began blaring all throughout the Black Flag. To say that Cailean Caoidheach was pissed about the alarms in his moment of glory would be to severely understate things. “What the hell is that blasted racket?”
The helmsman called back, “Response from the starboard engine’s getting bad, Captain. Don’t know what is wrong with it, but we’re losing power, fast. Starboard is at 50% and falling, Port is at… 87, no 85% and falling.”
“Fuck! Get us on the ground then, and remind me to smack the hell out of that damned engineer for lying about the ship being good to fly. I’ll kill him after he fixes it.” More alarms went off.
“We have a hull breach on the Cargo Bay doors. Shutting off environmental control.”
Screams came over the com lines, apparently ones of pain. “Goddamn it, turn that shit off! Who the bloody hell was screaming into my channel?”
“It came from the cargo bay, Captain. It sounded like Gallach. Don’t know what the big lummox was up to, but he’s looking pretty bad, if you go checking the field nearest cameras to the training room… Fuck the cameras are gone now, too!”
“Get us on the ground NOW helmsman!” Captain Caoidheach gripped the seat of his chair as he saw, with some satisfaction, that the crew was well motivated, and were taking what time they could get to put the ship down, crashing into the Jungle rather than waiting for the ship to fall on a civvie population.
It would suck to kill off the potential slaves before they could get the ship fixed and back to civilization.
And that is when he saw the bulkhead literally melt in front of him, as nanites began hunting and destroying all post-industrial works, which included pretty much the entire ship except the hull.
“Oh feck me!”
(Thelorious Starport, Dimiya)
As the center of the Confederacy, Dimiya was used to having VIPs show up. The shuttle from Shinokage was joined by one from Santiago and by a four-bird flight of Crimson Blade squadron’s Thunderbolts flying escort as they landed in perfect precision on the pad that had been prepared for them.
Meeting them on the platform was a full honor guard for a visiting dignitary, with several diplomats who were eager to be the first ‘official’ group to talk to these mysterious Nuevo Edoans. The Knelfi Governor of Dimiya stood there with a member of the Assembly’s foreign relations committee and other such important people.
Mirikon’s people spread out as he joined the procession, with his people clearly augmenting the security detail for Premier Fukuya and General Akagi., some of them disappearing into the crowd so they could form an outer circle of protection around the VIPs. Anyone who was watching would see that the Black Stars were carrying out their task.
No one on the street noticed when a knelfi man managed to insert himself into the group near Mirikon. His guards noticed it all right, but allowed the meeting in plain sight to happen because Mirikon simply nodded to let them know he was to be allowed to come talk.
With a mock sigh, Alok Paxisys said, “You really do like stirring things up, don’t you, Commodore?”