Orbital Academy XIV

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by MaddiroseX

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"Jackson, why'd you bring us to Pivot? What about Orbital
Academy?" Preston reached across Missy and flicked the cruiser's
autopilot off, beginning to manually pilot their cruiser in line
with the other squadmates'.
"Rookie Preston, please cut the comm chatter, we wouldn't want to
crowd Orbital Pivot's comm channels," Jackson's voice crackled
into the small space. The message was clear; *We're being
listened to. I can either trust Jackson or come up with my own
plan.* Preston and Missy exchanged looks, and she nodded, her
brown ringlets bouncing with the motion. Preston shrugged. He
probably would've trusted Jackson on his own, but he trusted
Missy at his core. Pulling up the fine-navigation controls, he
prepared to land the craft.


It was odd to move the cruiser into an unfamiliar hangar bay.
Orbital Pivot's hangar was much larger that Orbital Academy's,
containing expanded bays to allow Pivot to supply ships to every
Orbital in the orbit. Although it was easier for Preston to move
the ship in, the smooth and practiced action was unsettling. *It
feels wrong somehow.* The ship settled down behind Alex's heavy
cruiser, and Preston did his checks of the gauges without
thinking about it. It wasn't until  the canopy swung upward that
Preston realized how many people crowded the large hangar bay.
The normal scrub teams were moving in to hook up fueling lines
and coolant cells, but there were more small groups scattered
throughout the hangar. Jackson was already climbing down from his
cruiser at the front of the line of ships, and the largest of the
groups were waiting for him. Preston helped Missy down and they
walked forward to join their squadmate, just as the man in front
of the group spoke.


"Good evening Rookies. I'm General Hunter, and I'm in charge of
this orbital. I checked over the flight logs before I came down,
and I wasn't informed of any ships scheduled to dock today." The
General was tall and muscled, with salt-and-pepper hair in a
short buzzcut. Despite his slightly suspicious tone, his stare
seemed focused and attentive rather than aggressive. *He's a
military type,* Preston decided, hoping Jackson had also picked
up on the vibe,  *strict protocol, law and order type.*
"We're unscheduled sir," Jackson answered for the group as Li,
Aimee, Marcus and Alex joined them, "we've just returned from the
surface. From a rescue mission, in fact, to retrieve our
squaddies that were left behind on a planetary. We managed to
save all but two." The General raised an eyebrow, while behind
him two of his men immediately began typing into their screens.
"I haven't ever heard of a rescue mission being undertaken, much
less successfully," he commented, holding out a hand, "nor was I
aware Academy was sending rookies down to the surface these
days." One of the men behind him placed his screen into the
General's waiting hand, which he glanced at briefly before
returning it, "I see the Planetary authorized, but not the rescue
mission."
"It was...unauthorized," Jackson admitted, "but we have reason to
believe there are members of Academy who didn't want us to live
through the Planetary. That's also why we landed on Pivot rather
than Academy"


The General looked back and forth between the faces of the
squadmates, his face neutral. The silence stretched, and Preston
noticed suddenly how many of the people around the General were
carrying heavy assault rifles and non-lethal riot pistols. His
view on the scene suddenly shifted. *Fuck...we aren't a group of
rookies facing a slap on the wrist here... we could be in as much
trouble here as on the planetary.* He took another, more specific
headcount now, noting the composition of the group in front of
them. Flanking General Hunter were his two henchmen with the
screens, but the four men and women surrounding them were heavily
armed and armored. Preston hadn't ever been in a situation where
someone might view him as an adult threat, not just a mischievous
child. His hands were at his sides, and he moved his thumb subtly
to make sure the pistol Missy had given him was still stuck in
the waistband of his loose pants.
"Why don't you keep your hand away from that weapon, son," the
General said quietly, without turning his head, "it'll make this
conversation a little easier I think." The guards with weapons
shifted at his words, raising weapons carefully but quickly, and
Preston put his hands up slowly.
"General," the man on Hunter's left handed him the screen, "it's
General Auspus from Orbital Academy for you sir." Preston's
stomach clenched.
"Yes," General Hunder murmured, "I thought he might want to talk
to me."


"General Auspus," Hunter held the screen in front of his face
with his left hand. Missy's fingers dug into Preston's arm as
their General's calm voice came from the screen.
"Hello General Hunter. I understand some of my rookies landed in
your hangar bay a few minutes ago."
"They certainly did Auspus, we have them in the brig right now,"
General Hunter fixed them with a stare as if challenging any of
them to say a word, "anything I should know about them?"
"I'm glad you took that action. Keeping them isolated is
certainly the best option to keep Orbital Pivot safe.They're
quite a dangerous bunch."
"Are they now?" General Hunter's expression didn't change, but
Preston noted with concern that his right hand moved casually to
the butt of his pistol.
"We aren't quite sure what their end goal is, but we suspect they
intend to form a rebellion against the Orbit." Preston ground his
teeth at the smooth calm with which Auspus mangled the truth,
"they dipped into the fog after they left, and we tracked their
progress to Pivot, so whatever their story, it will involve the
deception that they visited the planet."
"But that's a lie, of course?" General Hunter moved as he asked,
his eyes sweeping across the group of rookies as he stepped in
among them, "they came straight from Academy to Pivot?"
"Of course," Auspus' voice contained just the right amount of
annoyance to sell the story. Out of the corner of his eye Preston
saw Missy open her mouth, and he grabbed her hand and squeezed.
She stayed silent, with a look of barely concealed rage on her
face, as the General stopped directly in front of Preston.
"Hmm." General Hunter said noncommittally, and Preston had to
force himself not to move as the aged man reached out and grabbed
him by the arm. "You've given me a lot to think about General
Auspus," General Hunter mused aloud, rubbing the material of
Preston's shirt between calloused fingers.


*The Terrans' prison clothes!* Preston realized with a start,
looking down at the rough and coarse clothes he was wearing, *the
Orbitals don't have material like this, and Auspus doesn't know
the Terrans captured us!*
Although General Hunter's expression never changed, his hand
moved off of his sidearm as he made his way back to the front of
the rookies, speaking into the screen.
"Aren't your rookie squads usually made up of nine rookies and a
Captain? There are only four rookies here."
Preston glanced at his squadmates. *Missy and I, Jackson, Alex,
Marcus, Li, Aimee...* he counted before the realization hit him,
*it's a test. He's only counting the ones in Academy
flightsuits...the ones Auspus knows made it.*
"Yes General Hunter, that's correct," Auspus didn't hesitate for
a moment, "their Captain wasn't involved in their little
rebellion, thankfully, and we were able to safely capture the
remaining five of their group before they took off. They're
safely detained here in Academy."
"I'm glad to hear it," a hint of expression had finally appeared
on General Hunter's face as he surveyed the seven squaddies, an
unforgiving hardness. Preston found it encouraging.
"When will you be able to ship them back to the Academy for
processing?" Auspus' question was casual.
"I'll have to square things away here first," General Hunter
answered noncommittally, "but I'll get back to you." He closed
the screen and passed it back to his henchman.
"So..." the General seemed to be mulling things over in his head,
"I'm assuming when you said "someone in power, you were referring
to your captain and your general?"
"Just the General, sir," Jackson replied, "I'm pretty sure the
Captain wasn't involved."
"Well now, isn't this problematic?" The General ran a hand
through the stubble on his head and blew out a breath. "If I'm
following the letter of the Orbit's law I'd ship you all back in
a containment cell before the end of the day." Preston felt the
urge to reach for his gun again, but he restrained himself.
*Shooting people won't help our case.*


"On the other hand, it's clear that there's more going on here
than it seems," General Hunter growled, "your story might be a
lie, might now, but it's clear that General Auspus' certainly
is." Hunter stroked his chin for a few more moments.
"I'm not throwing you back to Auspus before I've had the chance
to think about this," he said finally, "But I'm not about to give
you full run of the orbital either. I'm confining you to cells,
and then I'm going to give a long hard think, then I'll talk to a
few of you. Does that seem fair?"
"Very fair, sir," Jackson said respectfully. Preston let the
guards remove the gun from his waistband before he spoke.
"General, some of us have been separated from loved ones for
quite some time. If you would be so kind, if we could be locked
in cells together..."
"I don't like the idea of you all in the same place, able to plot
and scheme," the General shook his head, "three of you to a cell,
max." He made a motion, and Preston found himself being escorted
down the long hangarbay. Missy clung to his arm, and he put a
hand around her waist protectively, even though he knew the
guards wouldn't be rough. He had grown up on Orbital Pivot;
roughness wasn't their way.


It was good to be back on Pivot. It felt like a lifetime ago
since he had last walked the long hallways, and the tiny luxuries
he had grown up with seemed so much more vivid now that he was
back. The guards and squaddies' footfalls were muffled by
carpeting, and the walls were rich colors instead of the bare
metal of the Academy. Where the cold was an ever-constant
hardship on Orbital Academy, here the air was warm and pleasant.
Preston may have been worried about his future and the fate of
his squadmates, but in the meantime it didn't hurt to enjoy the
little things he had left behind.
"First cell," one of the guards thumbed a keypad to open the door
and stood to one side, "you heard the General, three max."
"Will you two be alright on your own?" Jackson asked quietly.
Preston nodded,
"Orbital Pivot treats their prisoners alright," he said, "we'll
all be fine until the General makes a decision. And even then,
General Hunter isn't the type to surprise you. We'll know what
will happen to us as soon as he comes to a decision."
Preston and Missy stepped inside of the dark cell, and the door
closed behind them, hissing as the room was hermetically sealed.


"Now all we have to do is wait," Preston let go of Missy and
leaned against the door, "hopefully we won't have to wait for
more than a day or two, the General probably has a lot that he
needs to take care of- what's wrong?" For the first time he
noticed the dumbfounded expression on Missy's face, as the soft
lights in the room slowly rose.
"THIS is Pivot's *prison*?" she asked. Preston glanced around the
room. It was about the size of the entire Academy barracks that
housed his nine-man squad, although there was only one bed in the
corner. *Queen-sized,* Preston noted, *although the cells are
probably only set up for one prisoner, so that's not intended as
a hardship.* A fire crackled in the fireplace on one wall, and on
another a huge window gave a picturesque view of the moon that
lazily followed the Orbital's progress around the planet. His
eyes moved from the high ceiling to the plush carpet on the
floor, and he finally shrugged,
"Well, yea I suppose it's a little comfy compared to the
Academy-"
"A *little* comfy?" Missy hesitantly stepped into the room, as if
she would break something simply by moving, "this is the most
luxurious room I've ever been in. Ever. In my entire life. how is
this…what?" She spluttered.
"Okay, sure it's alright," Preston was starting to grow
uncomfortable, "but we've been on Orbital Academy for five months
Missy, anything would seem luxurious to us..." he trailed off at
the look Missy was giving him.


"Just how comfortable was your life before coming to the Academy
Preston? If this," she made a sweeping motion around her, "is
Pivot's definition of the barest necessities."
"It was...fine. It was okay," Preston mumbled. He didn't like the
direction this conversation was going, "I mean it was better than
this but..." Defensiveness gave his words more of an edge than he
meant them to have, "why is it such a big deal? We're all
squaddies no matter where we came from, aren't we? And you and I,
we're partners who love each other, aren't we? Who cares about
what our childhood was like? What does it matter?"
"It matters when I find out my boyfriend was a spoiled rich kid,"
Missy muttered, looking around her. Preston reddened, but he
didn't respond. *We don't need to be arguing right now,
especially not about something as trivial as this.* Instead he
turned to the wide window and stared at the moon that drifted in
the distance. After a few moments Missy joined him, wrapping
slender arms around his waist.
"I'm sorry," she said, "you're right, it doesn't change anything
about you. Or us."
"Look at it this way," Preston said dryly, "whatever comforts I
might've had as a child, they make it that much harder to adjust
to life at the Academy."
"Oh you poor thing!" Missy gasped, and Preston grinned at her
tone. He couldn't see her face, but he could tell she was about
to tease him. "You mean you're forced to sleep in a bed with only
*one pillow*?"
"Now that's not fair-" Preston began, but Missy turned his head
to look at the prison bed in the corner. There were four plump
pillows on the heavy coverlet. Preston scowled as Missy burst
into peals of laughter.


"Well at the very least we'll be able to enjoy ourselves while
the General is thinking about what to do with us," Preston
stepped over to the bed and threw himself backward on it. The
coverlet enveloped him as he stared at the ceiling. Missy settled
next to him and laying her head on his chest.
"Do you think he'll believe us?" Missy asked. Preston played with
her brown curls as he considered the question.
"I've always heard Hunter was cool and levelheaded," he said
finally, "and Auspus dug himself a pretty big hole with his lies.
We've got the crystal, so if he believes us in the slightest we
can have his help in deciphering what he's trying to hide."
"I hate him." Missy spoke quietly, but her voice was venomous.
"We weren't hurting anyone, we weren't doing anything, and he
tried to break us apart, tried to kill you." The anger in her
voice was unlike her, and Preston frowned to hear it. He tried
his standard tactic of switching her attention; telling a dirty
joke.
"Well, I wasn't hurting anything, but I was definitely doing
someone," he said, giving a lock of her hair an affectionate tug.
He expected a gentle smack on the stomach, but instead Missy just
sighed and ran her hand up and down his leg.
"You know..." Missy said, "...I do owe you for back in the
cruiser." Preston bit back a response. He had come far enough to
know that he *shouldn't* agree, that he shouldn't think of sex as
owing each other. He hoped someday he wouldn't think it, but in
the meantime he could at least avoid saying it.
"If you like," he shrugged, "it's not like you have to."
"Preston," Missy turned, her face inches away from his, "I
thought you were dead. I thought I'd never see you again. You
told me you loved me an hour ago. You gave me an amazing...a lot
of fun in the cruiser."


"You still can't talk about sex without blushing unless we are in
the middle of having sex," Preston chuckled. Missy was indeed
blushing, her whole face red, but she looked resolute. When she
didn't move for a few moments, Preston cocked his head to one
side. It was somehow different this time, as if Missy were
processing emotions she didn't normally have to deal with. When
she spoke she was quiet, but there was an unsettling steel to it
that Preston hadn't heard before.
"Fine," she said, and when she looked straight into Preston's
eyes with a steady gaze, her blush was gone. *What just happened?
Did I go too far?*
"Listen, Missy, I didn't mean-"
"Shut up. You want to hear me talk straight, fine. I thought you
were dead," she listed on her fingers, still holding his gaze, "I
thought I'd never see you again. You told me you loved me. And on
top of all of that, I haven't been fucked in a week. You made me
cum, hard, in that cruiser, when I really needed to cum. Now I'm
going to return the favor." She grabbed the front of his shirt
and leaned in closer, dropping her voice to a whisper, "and I'm
not going to stop at just one. I'm going to fuck you, Preston,
until you are physically incapable of having another orgasm, and
then I'm going to fuck you one more time."
"I...um" Preston stammered. This was like their first time all
over again, she was acting completely out of character from the
petite innocent Missy that he was used to, and he was both
confused and incredibly turned on.


"No stammering," Missy leaned back, "the first time we're going
to do it like this. You're the big confident rich kid, and I'm
just a naive little rookie from Orbital Academy." The innocence
was back, exaggerated in all the right ways. Missy looked up
through her lashes at him with the smallest of pouts, leaning
back far enough that the stomach of her flightsuit made a
pleasant arch up to her breasts. "So what exactly are you going
to do to me, big bad rich boy?" She asked. Preston leaned
forward, grabbing a handful of her curls in one hand as he
fumbled for the sealing tab on her flightsuit with the other. "Oh
Preston, what are you doing?" Missy said in a shocked voice, the
effect somewhat ruined by the grin on her face. Preston slid the
sealing tab down with a single quick motion, planting a kiss
between her breasts before answering.
"I'm going to fuck you senseless you silly girl," he grinned
right back, yanking her suit off of her shoulders. Smiling at the
way she gasped, Preston looked his girlfriend over. On the
Academy the constant cold would make her nipples harden right
away, but Orbital Pivot was kept warm enough that he was deprived
of that sight. Even so, he couldn't help but admire Missy's body
as she shrugged her arms out of the sleeves of the flightsuit,
letting it slip down to her hips.
"But Preston, how will you do that with your flightsuit on?"
Missy asked putting a finger to her lips. Preston rolled his eyes
at the overblown innocent act, but even knowing it was
exaggerated, his cock hardened against the restrictive
flightsuit.


He used the firm grip on her hair to pull Missy down next to him
on the bed, standing and unsealing his flightsuit. She watched
him with heavily lidded eyes, taking in his every motion as he
stripped the scaled fabric off.
"You are entirely overdressed," Preston said huskily, and Missy
obligingly lifted her rear and shifted her legs out of the
flightsuit, kicking it onto the bed. She sprawled on the
bedcovers in front of him, pale skin against white coverlet, her
pink nipples and the dark patch of hair between her legs the only
contrast.
Preston grabbed her ankles and yanked her towards the edge of the
bed until her butt hung half-off of it. Missy squeaked, but
Preston held her legs behind the knees as he knelt between them.
She was so wet that he could see the juices on her pink pussy,
and he enjoyed the sight for a moment before he gently licked it
clean.
"Oooh Preston," Missy moaned, all sign of acting gone. Preston
smiled and kept on licking, lapping up her juices and reveling in
the tangy taste and scent. "This is supposed to be about you,
s-stop it," Missy breathed, and Preston chuckled again.


He rose, barely pausing to nip at her breast on his way up. Missy
had already reached down to grab his member, stroking it and
sliding his head between her lips, and he thrust into her with a
powerful, hard motion. Missy threw her head back, her mouth open
in a wordless moan. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and
suddenly her slit was trembling around his length. Preston
would've been proud of giving her an orgasm with a single thrust,
but her wet, warm cunt gripping his shaft felt so good he knew he
wasn't going to last long himself. He thrust a few more times,
enjoying the wet sounds of sex and her shuddering breaths almost
as much as the feeling of her tight sex. When he came he felt
explosive, and he slammed into Missy's body so hard and so deep
that it left them both in a heap on the bed, panting and gasping.


Preston stroked Missy's hair as he tried to catch his breath,
unwilling to slide out of her again. For her own part, Missy was
looking up at him with mingled lust and love, and Preston decided
he quite liked the look.
"Mmm that was far too fast," she smiled, "we'll have to do that
again."
"Um...I'm going to need a few minutes before we do that again,"
Preston laughed.
"I don't like that answer," Missy said, and before Preston could
ask what she meant, she had pushed him off and onto his back,
holding his arms down.
"What are you-" he protested, but quickly silenced when she began
planting gentle kissing along his stomach. Her mouth traveled
downward, slightly glancing against his abs until she reached the
base of his limp cock.
"So you'll need a few minutes?" Missy purred looking up at him
through a curtain of brown ringlets.
"I...think so?" Preston didn't mean for it to come out as a
question. He wanted to take control, but the young woman staring
up at him with those brown eyes could do anything she liked as
far as he was concerned.
"Well then, I'll have to take that time to clean this up then,"
she said. Very slowly and deliberately, Missy slid the tip of her
small tongue from the base of Preston's shaft up his entire
length. Preston grabbed at the sheets and gasped. His member was
still sensitive from his orgasm, and her tongue felt at the same
time soothing and electric.


She kept up her slow assault, carefully lapping every drop of his
semen and her juices off of his cock. Preston moaned at the
ceiling, unable to look away from his girlfriend's skillful
manipulation of his body. Her tongue never slid over his
sensitive head for too long, moving back to his shaft, his balls,
occasionally even flicking over his thighs or abs before
returning to her work. Patient and attentive, Missy kept licking
for long minutes, grinning as he very slowly began to grow hard
again. He was surprised it took the few minutes that it did for
the orgasm to build in him again, but when it did it hit him so
hard that he let out a yell. His seed spurted from his tip,
falling in strands across Missy's face and hair and hands, but
she didn't hesitate or stop her licking, until finally his orgasm
subsided. She gave his softening member a few more gentle licks,
and then leaned back, a smug look on a face covered in his cum.
"I'm going to shower now, because you've made quite a mess," she
said lightly, standing and stretching. Even in his post-orgasmic
state, Preston's cock twitched at the sight of her body when she
stretched, brown curls falling over her taut breasts. "Come and
join me when you're ready."
He watched her walk across the large room to the bathroom door,
admiring the way her proud strut made her butt look.
"Oh, and by the way," she said over her shoulder, "by 'when
you're ready', I mean 'when you're hard again', because I expect
you to be able to fuck me hard in the shower."


Preston grinned and leaned back against the coverlet as he
listened to the shower stream cut on.
"Holy shit, there are four showerheads in here! With sonics *and*
water!" Missy's voice came from the bathroom, and Preston
chuckled.  The light in the room was soft and the blanket beneath
him warm, except for the small damp spot where Missy had been
laying when he ate her out. *I should do that again, for longer
next time,* he thought idly, *maybe use my fingers at the same
time-* A small alarm pinged through the room, interrupting his
thoughts.
"Prisoners, are you decent?" A firm but not unfriendly voice
asked over the comm.
"Um..no, not at all, hold on," Preston scrambled for the small
dresser by the bed, yanking a drawer open and pulling out the
white suit that was provided for the prisoners.
"Someone at the door?" Missy emerged from the bathroom with a
towel wrapped around her, and Preston had to wrest his attention
from a particularly intriguing droplet of water that was slowly
sliding from her damp hair down her neck.
"We're covered up now...more or less," he called distractedly,
and the door slid open. The guard stepped to one side and Aimee
stepped in, the door immediately shutting behind her.


"Preston, oh it's so good to see you guys together again," Aimee
wrapped Preston in a hug, and then did the same for Missy.
"Aren't you sharing a cell with Li?" Missy asked, returning the
hug with one arm while holding her towel around her.
"We are, but they'll only let three of us together max and I
thought we had better investigate *this* while we had some time
alone." Aimee drew the blue crystal from a pouch in her
flightsuit, and Preston and Missy instantly sobered. The crystal
was almost exactly like the one they had seen General Auspus
using weeks before, different only in the shape of the finer
edges and in its color, a deep blue instead of the purple.
"So what is it? And what does the General do with it?" Aimee
asked. Preston sat on the edge of the bed, trying to wrap his
mind around the memory.
"He just set it in front of him, and it started sparking."
"Well then, let's try it," Aimee set the crystal down on the
floor and sat down in front of it. Missy joined her, sitting
crosslegged so that the towel covered her chest and legs.


"Now what?" Preston asked. The crystal sat between them, dull and
lifeless.
"Now we talk about what to do." Aimee answered. "We got this from
the Terrans, and the General has one of these, and he knows how
to use it. Is it possible he's a Terran?"
"Not likely," Missy shook her head, "people have known him since
he was a Pilot-level, and it's not as if anyone can just show up
somewhere without birth records from Orbital Basura."
"Is this something the military captured from the Terrans then?"
Aimee ventured, "maybe it's not as sinister as we've been
thinking, it could be some military secret."
"That he would threaten me and Preston over? That he would lie to
General Hunter about? No," The hard edge had returned to Missy's
voice again, "whatever the crystal means to him, he doesn't want
anyone to find out about it. He's terrified that we'll tell
someone about it. Terrified enough to kill eight innocent
squaddies to shut the mouths of the two who know."
"Speaking of innocent squaddies...Captain Appet will be safe,
won't she?" Preston's brow furrowed at Aimee's question. The
thought hadn't occurred to him, and now that he finally did think
it, he was ashamed that he hadn't thought of her until now.


"I don't think he'll hurt her," Missy said confidently, "Rookies
dying on a planetary run, that's one thing. A Captain dying? On
an Orbital? There's no way that will happen without inquiries."
The three remained silent, each pensive.
"So what's his move?" Preston spoke quietly, "if General Hunter
sends us back, that's the end for us. But if he doesn't...what's
Auspus' next move?"
"I hate him." Preston glanced away from the bitterness in Missy's
face. The differences in her character when she was horny were
fun and exciting, the differences when she filled with hate for
the General were disturbing. "I wish there was some way..." she
started, and then stopped. When she spoke again it was so quiet
he almost didn't hear her, "...I wish there was some way to hurt
him as bad as he tried to hurt us."


The crystal was bright, and Preston wasn't quite sure when it had
lit up. He had the uncomfortable feeling that it had been glowing
for a while and that he was only now noticing it. It gave off an
almost imperceptible hiss, like a single droplet of water being
dropped on a hot cruiser engine, at the same time kicking a
single blue spark into the air. Preston's eye stayed locked on
the spark as it arced lazily toward Missy, who shrieked and threw
herself backward. As if it had read the future and chosen its arc
accordingly, the blue spark landed on Missy's throat just as she
sprawled, settling into the hollow between her collarbones and
then vanishing into her skin. Preston lept from the bed, kicking
the crystal across the floor and rushing to where Missy lay naked
on the floor. There was nothing he could do; the spark was
already gone. Missy swatted and rubbed at the spot like a burn.
"Missy! Missy are you alright? Damnit tell me you're okay?"
"I-I'm fine, I'm okay," Missy reassured him, but her hands shook,
"I was just startled, that's all."
"What the fuck was that? What just happened?" Preston looked
around the room, at the crystal laying dull on the floor, at
Aimee, and back to Missy, willing someone to give him the
answers.
"You know what that was Preston," Missy grabbed him by the
shoulders, "calm down. Preston!" She shouted, and it was enough
to regain Preston's focus. He took a deep breath as she
continued, "whatever the sparks do, it didn't kill the General.
He wouldn't do something detrimental to himself, so whatever it
is, it's a good thing."

"Right," Preston shook himself. There were a million reasons she
might be wrong, of course. There could be some other component
that Auspus protected himself with, or it might be one half of a
delicate chemical formula. However, there was nothing they could
do about it if that were the case, so he could only hope for the
best. When he turned, Aimee's expression made him pause. "Horror"
was too strong a word, but Aimee was disturbed, and a large part
of Preston didn't want to turn around to see what had happened.
He forced himself to, moving slowly and bracing himself for what
he might find. His girlfriend lay on the floor on top of her
rumpled towel, looking up at them with a questioning look on her
face. Her naked skin was pale, contrasting against the brown
ringlets with a single streak of cobalt blue that fell across her
face.