Visit to Yrinna

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Malcolm Smith

Below on this page is part 11 of "The Alastor Network", a science fiction story that is not about space battles, although the Whelm mission to rescue Twycky Jeghtop from Yrinna became known as the Battle of Yrinna. Twycky has interesting telepathic abilities that brought her to the attention of Lord Gensifer on the planet Yrinna. For the past month, Twycky has been held captive on Yrinna.

Preparations for the rescue of Twycky were described in part 10 of "The Alastor Network". Now Captain Lanting must use her secret starmenter knowledge to slip the the pirate spaceship Nykark past the planetary defenses of Yrinna. The events in part 11 (below) come immediately after those of part 10.

 ⎯ The Alastor Network ؄

Part 11. Rupert Gensifer. (read part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6) (part 7) (part 8) (part 9) (part 10)

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Earle Bergey

When Collynn and Acyreff launched into a technical discussion of the mini-Jo, Lanting had departed from the hierion generator control room and went to her command station. She looked around the room, trying to remember the names of her new crew, all members of the Whelm. Private Veameck was standing in the corner of the control room with a blaster pointed at the Captain. Lanting smiled grimly at the soldier and said, "You still don't trust me, Private?"

 

Private Veameck replied. "I have orders to blast you if you show any sign of double crossing the Whelm."

 

Lanting laughed and thought about the speed with which she had shifted her loyalties from Lord Gensifer to the Whelm. Growing up on Yrinna as a little girl, Sally had always thought of Lord Gensifer as Uncle Doby, a kind man who had always supported her interest in space travel and who had shown great interest in her quirky telepathic abilities.

 

Now Sally began thinking about Grean and the possibility that the alien creature had seen into the future and knew exactly how this rescue mission would turn out. She thought through the details of the mission, the uncertainty over Twycky's current location and she even imagined capturing Jamile Gensifer. Lanting pictured the surprised look that would be on his face were she able to arrest him for the crime of holding Twycky prisoner. At the scheduled time, she activated the intersplit drive, dropping Nykark out of the hadron domain. A moment later, the Nykark's new navigator, Jenking, switched off the interplit.

R. Gohrlay

Lanting asked, "What are you doing, Jenking?"

 

Jenking replied, "We have to wait here. Connatic's orders."

 

"What are you talking about? Our arrival on Yrinna is timed to the hour, if not the minute."

 

Just then, the Isirjin Ziaspraide arrived, falling out of intersplit. Jenking immediately set course to intercept the Isirjin Ziaspraide. The voice of Ryl Shermatz came through the Nykark's comsystem, "ETA for docking, 74 seconds."

Jenking told Shermatz. "The docking aperture is ready."

Lanting watched the navdisplay as the hulls of Nykark and Isirjin Ziaspraide were quickly and efficiently brought together and merged. Sally saw that Isirjin Ziaspraide was transmitting the commercial navigation code of the Starling. She'd been told that there was an extra hole in Nykark's hull that had been made in anticipation of there being one additional Shadow Drone available to take to Yrinna, but now the Isirjin Ziaspraide had slipped its bow into that gapping hole. Ryl's voice was heard once more, "Okay, our Jarnell drives are synchronized. Let's go."

Jenking flipped a switch and the two spaceships went into intersplit, bound for Yrinna.

The comlink to Shermatz was still open and Captain Lanting asked, "Why wasn't I told about this?"

Inspector Schermatz replied, "This was the Connatic's idea... a last minute change of plans. The Connatic thinks that you will appreciate having the fire power of Isirjin Ziaspraide on Yrinna."

Lanting complained, "Isirjin Ziaspraide is huge. Nykark wont be able to quietly approach Jamile's house with the bulk of Isirjin Ziaspraide looming over us."

Ryl agreed, "True, but the original plan was flawed; even a quiet approach to a residential area of Yrinna will attract attention. You need to report capture of the Starling to Lord Gensifer and then land at the spaceport, just as you always have in the past." Ryl asked Jenking, "The landing party is ready?"

Jenking replied, "Yes, Sir. Reprogrammed according to your specifications. No problem there."

Lanting suggested, "Maybe you should brief the rest of the crew... inform us of exactly what the new plan is."

Shermatz had broken his comlink to Nykark. Jenking told Lanting, "In the Whelm we work on the principle that subordinates are told what they need to know. You are not entirely trusted, Captain. Just do your part. Get us to the surface of Yrinna. We'll do the rest."

 

Lanting shrugged. She was being distracted by a growing sense of a telepathic presense on board Nykark, something new and powerful that seemed to flow through the ship and her nerves like a high-voltage field. As they neared Yrinna, Lanting used the starmenter communications system and sent ahead word that she was approaching Yrinna: "Requesting permission to land at Gensifer City. Alert Lord Gensifer of the impending delivery of Dr. Kasya Jeghtop. Also, I have the captured passenger ship Starling and have it in tow."

 

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by John Pederson
Norman Saunders and Frank Freas

Lanting turned to Veameck and asked, "How is Tithixa's arm."

 

"Healing just fine. I thought you two had a telepathic link."

 

Lanting was just trying to make conversation and kill time. She thought about her telepathic connection to her sister which was rather weak even under the best of conditions. Now separated by many billions of kilometers from Private Puthonh, there was no detectable telepathic link between them. Tithixa was such a powerful telepathic transmitter that she was going to be kept in the rear of the fleet movements, on a hospital ship at the assembly area. Lanting asked Veameck, "How did you two meet?"

"We met our first day at the academy. I could tell there was something special about her. I knew that our lives would be linked from that day on."

 

Lanting suggested, "You must have some telepathic sensitivity."

 

Veameck hesitated then said, "I suppose so. In fact, during the past half hour I've felt something odd. Almost like an electric current flowing through my body."

Lanting had noticed the same thing and had tried to dismiss the odd sensation as nervousness. "Can you tell where this telepathic signal is coming from?"

Veameck disobeyed orders and took her eyes off of Captain Lanting so that she could slowly turn her body through 360 degrees. She tipped her head side to side and back and forward. She asked, "Does the name Joques... or Joqueline mean anything to you?"

Lanting immediately thought of Josef and QB5. She spoke into the Whelm comring that she was trying to get used to using: "Commander Shermatz? Lanting here. Pick up. Emergency!"

After a delay, Acyreff opened the connection to Lanting and asked, "How much longer to Yrinna?"

Lanting checked the navboard. "We'll exit intersplit in about ten minutes. Tell me, is Josef only a telepathy detector or can that system also transmit?"

Acyreff replied evasively, "You're not supposed to know about Josef."

"Commander, I've been inside your mind. Do you really think I have not learned some of your secrets?"

Acyreff sighed. "And I've seen into your mind, so I know I can trust you." Acyreff tried to imagine what Lanting wanted to know. "Josef was designed to detect signals being exchanged by the Phari interstellar telepathy network. However, all bets are off... I think there is some kind of... merger, some melding of minds taking place between Josef and QB5."

Lanting asked, "Exactly what is that qubie?"

"Good question. What do you know about embroids?"

Sally replied, "Embroids are synthetic organisms made in a lab."

Thinking out loud, Acyreff suggested, "And what if they don't have a zeptite endosymbiont suppressing their cognitive processes? Maybe an embroid like QB5 can think circles around us." Acyreff demanded, "What are you up to, Lanting?"

Sally explained, "I believe Private Veameck is in telepathic contact with Josef and QB5. I wonder what would happen if I gave the Private an orgasm and the two of us slipped into an orgasm trance."

"Orgasms!" Acyreff laughed. "It is the gift that keeps on giving. I don't want you distracting Veameck from her work."

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Rodney Matthews
and Ed Emshwiller

Lanting asked, "How can you trust me and keep me under an armed guard at the same time?"

Acyreff explained, "The first thing they teach officers in the Whelm is not to take anything or anyone for granted." Acyreff reached a decision. "As soon as you transmit the landing code down to Gensifer City spaceport, turn over command of Nykark to your second officer... Commander Jenking, I believe. Let me know when you get started playing with Private Veameck... I'll join in the fun. Use the synchron ring." Acyreff ended the communications call with Lanting.

Lanting told Private Veameck, "This is your lucky day, Veameck... you get to have sex while on duty again."

 

Veameck rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure I can do this without Tithixa."

 

Original cover art by
James Settles and
Stephen Fabian.

"Don't worry, soldier. All you have to do is keep your mind focused on Joques or Joqueline or what ever this new telepathic signal source is." Lanting was running her eyes over the Private's strong shapely body. "I'll make sure you have an orgasm." A few minutes later, Nykark popped out of intersplit and began making a fast approach to Yrinna. Lanting transmitted the secret starmenter landing clearance code and told Commander Jenking, "Take command of Nykark. I'll be back ASAP." She grabbed Veameck's arm and led the Private into the Captain's ready room. They went through the office and on into the bathroom and through another doorway that led to the spa room. Lanting had already pulled off her clothing and immediately jumped into the spa, sinking into the deep water. "Hurry up, Veameck."

 

Feeling Sally's eyes on her, Veameck pealed off her bra and panties and entered the spa. She was surprised at how deep the water was and there was barely enough room for the two of them, face to face. Lanting turned on the tub's powerful massage jets and said, "Just relax. Tune into that Joqueline signal. Go ahead and close your eyes if you like." An image of Acyreff appeared on the video screen behind Veameck. Lanting told Acyreff, "We're just getting started here."

 

This spa was designed to accomodate two lovers and was equipped with a set of clever sex play accessories. Lanting pulled out two pre-lubricated vibrators and inserted them into Veameck then quickly did the same for herself. Lanting reached down and began massaging the Private's privates and took one of the soldier's protruding nipples between her lips. Veameck reciprocated the hand and mouth sex-play tricks being deployed by Lanting while trying to focus her attention on the strange mind that she could feel pressing against her cognitive apparatus just as relentlessly as Lanting's finger tips were pressing against her clitoris. 

 

Comfortable in the privacy of her own room and having switched on her own set of vibrating sex toys, Acyreff looked at the video coming from Lanting's spa room and asked Sally, "How is it going ladies?" She looked over her shoulder, sensing that Grean was nearby.

Lanting glanced at her synchron ring and saw that Acyreff was already close to achieving an orgasm. She said, "Veameck is distracted by the telepathic signal we're chasing. Give us a minute or two to catch up with you."

Acyreff spoke into her comring and called Kasya. "Do you have a tracking signal on Twycky?"

On a quickly improvised bed of foam pads inside a storage closet that opened off of Nykark's shield control room, Kasya lay wrapped in Mando's embrace. Kasya had her portable hierion field generator activated and strapped to her head, held in place by the tied-together arms of her blouse. She was in direct telepathic contact with both Twycky and QB5. Kasya was also monitoring the video feed from the mini-Jo which showed a high resolution map and the location of a telepathic signal in Jamile Gensifer's house that was presumably coming from Twycky. However, there was uncertainty since several dozen other telepathic sources existed inside the mansion, one quite close to the signal source that was probably Twycky. "QB5 is locked on to the target telepathic signal and is piloting a drone towards Twycky's location." That drone from Nykark was transmitting a Yrinna commercial vehicle's identification code. A moment later she added, "We're approaching the spaceport."

Acyreff felt the firm pressure of Grean taking control of her mind. The synchron signal from Lanting advanced to the final setting and almost at once Acyreff tumbled into the disorienting cognitive environment of a shared orgasm trance. Who else was there? Acyreff was floating in a sea of pleasure and a vast ocean of thoughts and memories. Grean's "voice" provided Acyreff with a warning: don't sink yourself into Josef. Ride the wave.

 

_______________

 

Dropping rapidly towards Gensifer City, an excited transmission came to Nykark from the spaceport's control tower, "We have energency crews on standby. Are there casualties? There's also a security team waiting... they want to know why you violated standard protocol and are bringing a passenger ship to Yrinna. This could really aggravate the Whelm."

Lanting explained, "Both Nykark and Starling have serious hull structural damage. Starling deployed a new model Shadow Drone and had armed guards on board... I'll provide the details when we land. Get a structural engineering crew and emergency medical into Starling as soon as we are on the ground. I reccommend sending the available security personel into Starling... do a sweep of all decks... there may be more armed guards hidden among the passengers and crew."

in the Ekcolir Reality

Commander Jenking let the autopilot put Nykark down on the landing field at the space port. The tarmac was crowded with emergency vehicles. Immediately upon landing, the two robots, Vez and Coz, dressed and disguised so as to pass for Captain Lanting and Kasya, exited from Nykark and walked out onto the tarmac where a cool evening light played across the expanse of the landing field. Down from the sky came Lord Gensifer's aircar. 

 

The emergency medical teams and security personel rushed through the open portals of the Isirjin Ziaspraide. While advancing towards the looming bulk of Isirjin Ziaspraide (which her terse orders had identified as the Starling) one experienced spaceport security officer gazed upon the elaborately decorated hull of Isirjin Ziaspraide and muttered to her companion, "This passenger ship looks like the Isirjin Ziaspraide."

 

Upon landing beside Nykark, the door of Lord Gensifer's aircar opened and Doby called out, "Good work Lanting!"

Vez could see that inside the aircar with Lord Gensifer was a middle aged woman. Coz grabbed Lord Gensifer and quickly bound his hands together behind his back. Vez grabbed the woman and soon had her subdued. Vez put the woman over one shoulder and quickly returned to Nykark with Coz following along, carrying Lord Gensifer. As soon as the entry port clanged shut, Commander Jenking pulled away from the hull of Isirjin Ziaspraide and took Nykark up and away from the spaceport and off towards Jamile Gensifer's house, hugging the ground and skimming just over the roofs of buildings. Jenking wondered: how long until an alarm would be raised?

Almost immediately a voice came through to Nykark from the spaceport control center. "What are you doing, Nykark?"

 

Commander Jenking did not reply, but sent a signal to Ryl Shermatz and the entire Whelm fleet and also launched all the other Shadow Drones. 

 

Up in orbit, a small satellite began broadcasting a prerecorded warning message to the entire planet: "A Whelm police action is in progress. Offer no resistance. We are liberating a kidnapping victim who was brought to Yrinna against her will. Shut down all automated defenses or risk having them destroyed." The message repeated continually.

Inside the Isirjin Ziaspraide, the Whelm crew members who had hidden behind closed segmental bulkheads now closed the ship's portals and came out from hiding. The medical personnel who had boarded Isirjin Ziaspraide were quickly placed in protective custody by the large complement of Whelm soldiers on board Isirjin Ziaspraide. After some brief exchanges of blaster fire, the Gensifer City security personnel surrendered, having recognized that they were trapped on board a military spaceship, not a captured passenger ship.

Just then, someone -or possible an automated cannon system- that was part of the Yrinna defense forces noticed the lead drone that was now very close to Jamile Gensifer's house. A blast cannon opened fire and nearly split the drone in two.

Less than a minute after Nykark departed from the spaceport, Isirjin Ziaspraide sprang up, rising high above Gensifer City, offering herself as a target. The hidden blaster cannon that guarded the spaceport fired upon Isirjin Ziaspraide. At the same time, A hierion field generator tried to inactivate the Jarnell engines of Isirjin Ziaspraide. The blaster fire burned a hole all the way through Isirjin Ziaspraide, but that blaster cannon emplacement was immediately obliterated by return fire from Isirjin Ziaspraide.

The four remaining drones from Nykark were projecting their own hierion fields outwards, trying to disrupt the function of any unseen automated defense systems. The drones were leading Nykark towards Twycky's suspected position. Nykark lifted up to an altitude of a thousand meters and fired at the location of the concealed emplacement of the blast cannon that had destroyed the first drone. Two other defensive blasters cannons opened fire and hit two of the remaining drones. Nykark instantly returned fire.

Now only two of Nykark's drones remained. One took a position hovering high over Jamile Gensifer's house and the other descended to the roof of the house and hovered there, just a few feet above the high chimneys. Nykark landed in a grassy field beside the house just as two starmenter spaceships arrived on the scene and blasted the last two drones. Blasted debris from one drone fell on the roof of Jamile Gensifer's mansion and tombled into the back garden. Debris from the other ruined drone fell onto Jamile's private golf course. Nykark returned fire at one of the starmenter ships, but the other was approaching from the far side of the big five story high mansion that was Jamile's residence. However, the Whelm fleet was now in orbit and volleys of blaster fire from above vaporized the second starmenter ship.

Just then, Vez and Coz stepped out of Nykark onto the lawn and ran towards the house. Up on the third floor, a side window of the mansion opened and Twycky's robot, Sol, climbed out of the open window and in a series of leaping bounds jumped to the ground while pulling an improvised meltrax fiber slide behind. A moment later, Twycky passed through the window and then went down the slide. A startled gardener looked up from his work then stood holding his hedge trimmer and watched Twycky slide down into Sol's waiting arms.

A minute later Vez, Coz, Twycky and Sol were all safely on board Nykark. High above, a dozen battleships of the Whelm circled, but there was no further resistance.

Back in space, with the Nykark's Jarnell engines again active, Kasya emerged from an orgasm trance and pulled herself away from Mando. Not pausing to pull on her skirt, she rushed out of the closet and was soon busy trying to determine if QB5 was dead. She pulled her portable hierion field generator off of her head, set it on the workbench and reflected on what had just happened. At the start of the rescue operation, QB5 had gone silent. Then, after Lord and Lady Gensifer had been captured, Kasya had felt QB5's mind briefly return and make telepathic contact, transmitting a message: Lady Gensifer in innocent and had nothing to do with your sister's abduction. At least, Kasya had sensed the telepathic presence of something that felt similar to QB5's unusual mind. Since then, the QB unit seemed strangely inactive.

 Mando emerged from the closet, having been unable to close his pants over his stiff penis. Kasya rested a hand on his hot, wet erection and pushed it between her legs. Mando handed Kas her skirt and asked, "What are you doing?" They hugged each other and Mando looked over his wife's shoulder at the QB device.

Kasya reluctantly pulled herself away from her husband's pretty penis and pulled on her skirt. "There's something wrong with QB5."

Mando bent over the metal box that held the telepathic embroid. "You no longer have a telepathic link to this thing?"

Sol, Twycky, Acyreff and Captain Lanting now came into the hierion shield control room. Twycky ran across the room and the Jeghtop twins shared a long hug and then Twycky said, "I knew you'd come for me." Kasya hastily pulled on her blouse and covered up her breasts. 

Mando stepped back into the storage room and waited for his erection to fade.

Time Portal

Lanting chuckled with a giddy sense of relief and said, "It was a close thing. We lost every one of our Shadow Drones."

"The drones did their job." Acyreff added, "Nykark suffered no human casualties, but I'm worried about the fate of the Isirjin Ziaspraide."

"We may have one casually." Kasya pointed at QB5 and asked, "Is QB5 dead?"

Now noticing some flashing red indicator lights across the room, Acyreff went to examine the control panel that was attached to mini-Jo.

Twycky was buoyant with relief at having been rescued. She said, "Your telepath Joqueline did everything perfectly and let me know your exact time of arrival and your precise angle of approach. What I want to know is how Joqueline incapacitated Jamile. That was a thing of beauty! One moment he was calling for help and mobilizing the starmenter defense forces and then he simply froze with a strange look on his face."

Just then, Private Veameck charged into the room and pointed her blaster at Captain Lanting. Still wet from the spa, Veameck had pulled on her panties, but was otherwise unclothed. Acyreff said, "Private, you're out of uniform."

"Sorry Commander. I disobeyed your orders and... I lost track of Lanting." The Private was trying to reassemble her memories of what had been experienced during her recently completed orgasm trance. "Joqueline told me that I'd find Lanting down here..."

"And so you came a running without first getting dressed." Acyreff giggled and enjoyed the sight of Veameck's ample breasts and erect nipples. "Well, I excuse you. For some reason, Joqueline held you in that orgasm trance far longer than the rest of us." Acyreff took off her jacket and put it around the Private's shoulders.

Kasya asked, "Orgasm trance? What is it with you, Acy? Having sex in the middle of a military operation?" She did not bother mentioning that she had been having sex with Mando as part of her method to telepathically communicate with her sister during the rescue.

Lanting explained, "That was my idea. When I found out that Veameck was in telepathic contact with... Joqueline, I decided to investigate."

image credits

Kasya demanded, "Who is Joqueline?"

Acyreff turned away from mini-Jo and now approached QB5 and noticed that the smell of ghark was intense on that side of the room. Now that the rescue mission was completed, Grean's infites inside Acyreff's brain allowed her to remember some of what she had previously seen inside Grean's memories from the future. "Joqueline is... Josef and QB5... I think they had their own sort of orgasm trance... and merged minds."

Veameck added, "When they let go of my mind, they said 'see you soon' and they slipped away... I don't think they are here anymore."

"Where could they have gone?"

Acyreff suggested, "I think they are inside a new mind space, maybe in the Hierion Domain, and apparently quite happy to remain there."

Veameck explained. "During the raid, I could see them -Joqueline- playing with Jamile's mind. They may have gone too far. Jamile might not recover."

Twycky seemed pleased to hear that Jamile was not well. She was quite resentful of Jamile and his relentless efforts to impregnate her. With hopefulness in her voice, she asked, "He's going to die?"

"No, but I think Joqueline robbed Jamile of his sanity." Veameck struggled to describe what she had 'seen' during the orgasm trance. "Jamile's mind was... harvested. Sucked into the Joqueline mind-space."

Kasya said, "That's absurd. Minds are not like the cream filling in the center of a pastry."

Acyreff giggled. "I'm not so sure. We have a lot to learn. We've been working to make better telepaths, and now I think we see what a truly powerful telepathic mind can do."

Lady and Lord Gensifer

Nykark dropped out of intersplit at the position of planned rendezvous with the hospital ships. Isirjin Ziaspraide was already there. Inspector Ryl Shermatz called and asked, "Any casualties, Nykark?"

Acyreff replied, "The human crew is fine as are all our guests. We captured both Lord and Lady Gensifer." She knew that the Connatic's plan had been to put Lord Gensifer on trial for abducting Twycky and holding her prisoner on Yrinna. "Were any Whelm ships lost at Yrinna?"

"No maned craft were lost." Ryl added, "Resistance from starmenters was surprisingly light. Only those two starmenter defense drones got themselves vaporized along with Nykark's Shadow Drones. We suffered some damage here on Isirjin Ziaspraide, but so far we have not found any corpses." Ryl knew that some people may have died in the vaporized blast hole that ran through Isirjin Ziaspraide, but the hole was narrow and had ripped mostly through the empty recreation deck and crew quarters; he was hoping for the best.

Commander Jenking cut into the comcircuit, "Ship security just captured an intruder, he was found wandering on the lower deck of Nykark."

Captain Lanting activated a display screen on the wall. A young man was shown on the display screen, seated and being questioned by two Whelm officers. Twycky exclaimed, "That's Rupert Gensifer!"

Kasya asked, "How did he get on board?"

Just then, Grean materialized in the hierion generator control room. She paused to button up the jacket that Acyreff had placed on Veameck's shoulders and then took the blaster rifle out of the soldier's hands. Leaning against the rifle like it was a cane, she turned towards Kasya and replied to her question, "That man is actually Rupert's teleportation duplicate. I brought him on board."

Twycky asked, "Why capture Rupert?"

"Two reasons." Grean explained, "First, poor Rupert has never been very happy on Yrinna... he deserves a better life. And second, I've had a chance to carefully analyze your baby's genome, Twycky." Of course, Grean had seen that baby grown up and living in the future as an adult with powerful telepathic abilities. However, Grean did not like to brag to humans about her travels through time. "There is going to be demand for more of Rupert's and your children."

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Ed Emshwiller
and see this

Twycky said, "I don't see how Rupert could have impregnated me. We never had sex."

Sol the robot told Twycky, "You can blame me for that." The robot explained, "Two weeks ago at the party where you were introduced to Rupert, I got my hands on his penis and collected some of his sperm. Later, I implanted those cells inside your oviduct, close to the egg you had recently ovulated."

Twycky demanded, "What! Are you crazy?" She could not believe that her seemingly obedient and reliable sexbot would do such a thing.

Grean put an arm around Twycky and sent a swarm of infites into her body. "Calm my dear, calm. I used Sol as my tool. Mixing your genes with Rupert's was my idea. The results look rather spectacular. I'm tempted to thank R. Nyrtia for engineering your abduction."

source

Twycky gazed into Grean's large alien eyes and began processing the infites she was receiving from Grean. She muttered, "But how could Sol insert Rupert's sperm into my Fallopian tube?"

Grean explained, "Sol is equipped with a blastipositor. In this case, he used it to deposit Rupert's sperm close to your egg and achieved a fertilization."

Acyreff put a finger on the metal cube that held the QB5 embroid. "Is this your doing, too? The appearance... the creation of the Joqueline... hybrid?" She was at a loss for words to describe QB5's fate.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Gerard Quinn
Harold McCauley  and Malcolm Smith

Grean said, "Due to temporal paradoxes, I'm not able to say too much. However, after QB5 merged into Josef, they slipped in Time. They'll be back... some day."

"They merged? What does that even...?" Kasya was sputtering and could not contain her ire. "Slipped in Time? What the hell does that mean?" She yanked the blaster rifle out of Grean's hand, pointed it at the alien and shouted, "What's going on? You are going to force Twycky to make babies with Rupert?"

Grean shrugged. "Time travel, orgasms and pregnancies are some of the dangers humans face when working with hierions. Hierions are the basis of human telepathy and also what makes time travel possible. Given the opportunity, Joqueline could not resist going into the future. Call it a post-graduate research project. When Joqueline is fully trained up and returns to this primitive era, things should get very interesting." 

Kac'hin Syndrome

Grean stepped close to Kasya, pushed away the blaster and placed a hand on Kasya's lower abdomen, close to her crotch. "For you, things will get interesting much sooner." She smiled enigmatically and disintegrated into her constituent nanites.

Next: part 12 of "The Alastor Network"

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