Nova Wars

Legion sank into the kiss, the feeling of her lips against his, the warmth of her palms on either side of his face, the smell of her, the feel of her pressing against him.

He knew she wasn't his Sacajawea, not his Wee.

But a larger part of him didn't care.

The kiss burned his lips, set him on fire, was a cold drink of water on a hot day.

It was everything he had forgotten he had ever wanted.

And more.

One hand moved his drink from his hand to the small table next to the couch before going back to pressing against the side of his face. Her lips moved against his, so familiar, but just unfamiliar enough to make it all the more exciting. He could feel her moving, feel her hands move to press one hand against the chest while the other one squirmed at her own chest.

Another smell intruded.

Hot iron.

"Please, Luke, let's go somewhere," she whispered against his mouth. Her tongue pushed into his mouth, twisting and squirming against his own. Her hand on his chest shifted to undo the buttons, almost tearing open his shirt.

Sulfur.

"Just you and me. Far away from here," she whispered, pulling his shirt open.

Her breasts were hot against his skin.

Seared blood.

"Let's just go," she whispered, kissing him again, pulling his hands up to cup her breasts.

Burnt flesh.

"Me and you. Just the two of us. You know you want to," she murmured softly into his mouth, her eyes closed, her breath heaving.

Cigarette smoke.

"Just the two of... AWK!" She screeched as she was suddenly yanked away. Legion's eyes opened.

Dee stood there, holding Sacajawea up in the air by her hair. Dee's severe face was coldly furious, her gun-metal gray eyes smoldering liquid iron. Her dress was dark, Navy Blue, almost black. She had her American flag pin on one lapel and a splash of crimson from a folded handkerchief at her pocket. Her choker was unadorned, her hair pulled into a tight bun, and her white gloves immaculate. She held a half-finished cigarette between her bared teeth.

"How typically... male... of you," Dee sneered as Sacajawea screamed and twisted, reaching back, clawing at Dee's wool cloth coated forearm.

Dee yanked Sacajawea forward, then shoved her back. There was a ripple in mid-air, a bounce to reality, and a split formed in midair. Screams and cries of agony seeped through the rip as Dee shoved Sacajawea through it. Legion saw a grid pattern appear over Sacajawea as she went through the rip, then Dee was holding Sacajawea by something inside of the younger woman's torso.

The rip closed around Dee's wrist, pulsing in midair.

"I show up to help you and you're letting this stupid little cunt writhe all over you like a Swastika Saloon Girl," Dee snarled. "I should rip out both your spines."

Legion shook his head, clearing it. "I need her."

"I'll buy you a fleshlight," Dee sneered.

"No, I need what she can do," Legion tried to clarify.

"I'll get you a crate of them," Dee's voice dripped with disdain.

"I need her gift of prophecy," Legion said.

Dee snapped her fingers and an imp appeared. She kicked it in the ass and a burning rune appeared on its forehead for a split second.

"There. Now Wha'abli'iba'alz can do predictive analysis," Dee said.

The imp's eyes opened up and it looked around wild-eyed. "Oh, shit!" it said. It snapped its fingers but nothing happened. "Oh, no no no," it whined, snapping its fingers.

"Shut up. Do what Legion says or I'll shove your head in your ass and kick you into the Lake of Fire," Dee snarled.

The imp whimpered and lowered its head, scurrying under the coffee table.

"It's more than predictive analysis. I need her, she's one of the..." Legion started.

"I know what the little twat is," Dee snarled. She grimaced, her face full of fury, and yanked Sacajawea back through the tear with one convulsive yank, throwing the younger girl to the floor.

Sacajawea's face was pale, she was bleeding from her nose and ears. She lay sprawled on the floor, staring at the ceiling, bloody tears starting to ooze from her unseeing eyes.

"There," Dee snapped. She reached down, picked Sacajawea up and threw her into Legion's lap.

Hard.

Legion caught her, holding her, keeping her from falling over or backwards.

"I thought maybe you needed me for something important. If you just wanted a piece of ass, you could have just brought in one of your clones and then fucked yourself," Dee snarled. "You didn't have to put out an emergency call for me."

Legion carefully set Sacajawea on the couch, standing up.

"Put it away before I burn it off," Dee snarled.

Legion buttoned up.

"I need your help," Legion said.

Dee sneered. "Roll the little slut ass up then. You don't need me," she snarled.

"What got into you?" Legion asked. He noted that her nostrils were glimmering slightly.

Dee stomped across the room to the nutriforge, angrily punching the buttons.

"Ever since that little brat got released into the system I've been flooded with tens of billions of souls," Dee snapped. "All of them because of her. The last billion are completely fucked," she grabbed the beer out of the nutriforge and pulled a long drink off of it. She faced Legion and he could see a single drop of pinkish fluid starting to ooze from her nostril.

"Do you know how badly a SUDS template is fucked up after the person gets eaten by a Mar-gite? Much less eaten by a Mar-gite four or five times?" she snarled.

"Isn't that a job for your digital self?" Legion asked.

"Integration when I jumped through the Ogre," Dee snapped. She took out her handkerchief and wiped under her nose. "Now I have a headache and I had to walk in on you and that half-wit writhing around on the couch like a pair of greased up fuck-weasels."

"You're in a mood," Legion said, moving over and getting a beer of his own.

Dee guzzled the rest of her beer and threw it against the wall, the ship's auto-reclaimation system gathering up the broken glass in seconds. She grabbed Legion's beer and guzzled half of it.

"Reintegration makes me crazy," Dee said.

"Crazier," Legion corrected, putting emphasis on the last syllable.

Dee grimaced and stomped over to one of the stools against the kitchen counter that separated the main room from the kitchen.

Legion glance at Sacajawea, who was still staring, unseeing, at the ceiling and shivering slightly.

He wanted to help her, but he knew Dee was on razor thin margins as it was.

Legion stood there, quietly, while she finished her cigarette, then her beer, then started a third beer and lit another cigarette.

After she put away the lighter she sighed. "I knew you'd need my help," she said. She took a drag and exhaled smoke. Legion noticed that the tip of the filter was stained pinkish.

Cerebral fluid.

"Better?" Legion asked. He dialed up a new Old Wavy Grain and sipped at it.

"No. But I don't feel like seeing just how many of you I can bury up to your necks in boiling sulfur," Dee snarled. She wiped her nose again and put away the handkerchief. "Don't bother telling me what you want."

Legion frowned. "Why not?"

"Because I know what you want," Dee said. She turned to face the counter, moving the ashtray to in front of her. "Don't ask how I know, you won't like the answers."

"You have done much and traveled far while ones such as I slept," Legion said solemnly. "I thought since I made it possible for you to sleep you would pass the eons slumbering often."

Dee shook her head. "I had too much to learn. Too much to catch up on. It took me nearly twenty thousand years to learn everything that Lanaktallan, the Mantid, the Treana'ad knew, everything TerraSol dropped in the Avenge Me Doc. Then ten thousand years of work," she wiped her nose again. "Then work on my magnum opus."

Legion just nodded.

"I knew it was close when The Foundling arrived," she said softly. She closed her eyes. "Okies ate her dog."

Legion just nodded, knowing that she wasn't rambling.

"I made plans, I took steps," Dee said softly. She wiped her nose then folded the handkerchief and went to wipe under her ears.

Her hand was trembling.

"Let me," Legion said, taking the cloth from her gently. He dipped the corner in his drink and started cleaning the skin below her ears.

"I can't be exposed. Not right now," Dee said. She shuddered for a moment.

Legion knew a petit-mal seizure when he saw one. He wiped up the thick drop oozing from her ear.

"But I crafted assets for you. I'll deliver them, some of my boys, and my daughter," Dee said. She sneezed, barely getting her hand up in time.

Legion took her hand in his and carefully wiped the pinkish fluid off of it.

"Whatever unlocked her released all of her people's SUDS records. My digital self is having to handle it and its terrible," Dee said.

Her voice had dropped to a whisper.

She leaned over, resting against Legion's chest. "Dammit," she said.

"I know," Legion said, putting his arms around her.

"You better not fuck my corpse, pervert," Dee whispered.

Legion just held her for a moment.

She trembled and went limp.

Legion stepped out of himself, staring at himself holding Dee, then stepped out of himself to help Sacajawea.

The Legion holding Dee looked down at her, using her handkerchief to clean her face.

He admired, as he had dozens of times before, the severe beauty in her face.

The one caring for Sacajawea lifted her up, carrying her to the bedroom before dissolving away.

The other one just stared at himself holding Dee.

"I'll destroy the body," the one holding her said.

"I know," the one watching said.

The pair vanished.

Legion moved up and sat back down at the counter, wiping it off. The ship's systems reclaimed the bottle and he got another out, not opening it, just sitting it there.

He suddenly smelled brimstone, seared blood, burning flesh, and cigarette smoke.

"That was humiliating," Dee's voice said.

"It happens," Legion said.

"Lost my temper," Dee said, sitting on the stool next to Legion.

"Naw, I've seen you lose your temper," Legion smiled. "The ship isn't drifting dead in space."

Dee nodded. "There are times, few and far between mind you, but there are times, that I wonder if mortals such as you and I were meant to be burdened by such power."

Legion shrugged. "I don't worry about it. What it is, it is."

"I did what I did."

"And I'd do it again," Legion finished. He sat in silence. "About Dax..."

"Peacefully with his children, I've told you before," Dee said.

"I just... just need to hear it again sometimes," Legion said. He took a long drink off of his glass. "Despite everything, I loved him."

"I know," Dee said.

They sat in silence for a while.

"She really pissed you off," Legion said.

"That's my baggage," Dee said. She tapped the ring on the ring finger of her left hand against the bottle a few times. "Just something about her, though."

Legion nodded. "You should have met the other Sacajawea," he said.

"She's not in the system. I looked," Dee said.

Legion frowned and looked at her. "Really?"

Dee shook her head. "Nope. But then, I haven't had a carrier signal from her ship since a few years after they left."

Legion sighed.

"I've got you some help. You need other viewpoints, these guys have alternate viewpoints," Dee said. "They come as a package deal. Six of them," Dee tapped her ring again. "Two military, three scientists, a miner who could probably get a geology degree pretty easily."

Legion nodded.

"I ran them through their paces. They'll hold up even with how ugly this is going to be," Dee said. She gave a cruel grin. "They'll probably be screaming when they come through."

Legion frowned. "Why?"

"They're afraid of me for some reason," Dee smiled.

Legion shook his head. "Yeah, no shit. Everyone with half a brain is afraid of you."

Dee just smiled. She finished her beer and got off the stool, moving to the center of the room.

"Let me get them for you," she said.

"Wait," Legion said.

"What?" Dee asked.

"Just a quick question," Legion said.

"Fine. Ask."

"The wedding ring," Legion started.

Dee's face went cold. "I don't know you well enough," she said, her voice venomous.

Legion just nodded.

Dee snapped her fingers and vanished.

In her place stood six other beings.

Legion gave them credit, they didn't start screaming.

One, who looked to Legion to be some kind of rodent, stood up on his tiptoes, lifting his arms to the ceiling.

"SCIENCE!"