Full Moon Fever Part 1




    Lara Night awoke to a gentle poke in the arm.  She opened her eyes slowly, anticipating that it was just one of the Lair Legion waking her up from the nap she decided to take.  She learned from her experiences back home to always nap before a major battle.  There was no telling when the next sleep would come.


    She was surprised that it wasn’t any of the Lair Legion; it was, in fact, an alien named Jai Yoon, who she met briefly before.  This alien was the first officer of Captian Shen Rae’s high-tech space ship.


    That first officer had an unusual appearance.  She was tanned, blue eyed, her hair a mixture of colors, including white, like Shen Rae’s, only dominated more by darker colors like purple and blue, unlike Shen Rae’s lighter ones.  She wore a crisp blue form-fitting yet comfortable uniform that had a stylized bird pin just below the neck, a silver belt, and boots that appeared to be part of the uniform.  Unusually, she also wore two silver earrings that looked like miniature cymbals.
    
    The blonde sat up suddenly to see what Jai Yoon wanted, and to ask why she came instead of Shen Rae.  


    â€œI am here to pick you up,”  Jai Yoon said in perfect but accented English.


    Lara looked around the room.  There was nothing in there that was unusual aside from Jai Yoon herself, something heavy she brought with her that looked like an old metal stove plate with rings carved into it.


    â€œPick me up for what?”  she asked.


    Jai Yoon smiled.  “You will see.”


    The blonde nodded, smiled, and then stood.  “Okay.  What will I see?”


    Jai Yoon dropped the stove plate on the carpeted floor, and it landed with a heavy thud.  The plate began to hum, and the center rings disappeared into a hole.


    â€œStep in,”  Jai Yoon urged her.


    Lara knew that Shen Rae’s first officer wouldn’t come all this way just to kill her, so she did as Jai Yoon asked.  She stepped beside the plate carefully, and then, one foot at a time, stood over the hole.  It felt like she was floating over nothing, yet still standing on the plate.


    â€œIs something supposed to…?”  Lara began to say, and then she fell.  Right through the plate, through the floor, and into blackness.  


    It all only took a split second, and she was suddenly standing on a glass surface, a blue glow coming from beneath her.  The rest of the room was smooth and white, like being inside a cheese wheel shaped plastic toy, except for the part she was standing on, which had a silver metallic ring separating it from the pure shiny white floor.  There seemed to be the slightest gap between the floor and the walls, so that the room was lit warmly from beneath.


    Without a sound, Jai Yoon appeared behind her on the same glass platform, and then she stepped off onto the white floor, urging Lara to follow.  Lara wasn’t sure how, since the room appeared to be sealed.  That was, until Jai Yoon approached the wall, and a seam appeared out of nowhere.  The seamed shape displaced, and there was now a door.


    That placed the two of them into an equally white and low-lit hallway, though it was mostly a more conventional rectangular shape, aside from the fact that all the corners were rounded.  It would have been completely featureless as well, except a stripe ran down both sides at waist height with two colored stripes, green and yellow.


    Jai Yoon noticed her admiring the stripes, and explained them.  “That is how you can tell where you are in the ship, so you don’t get lost.  The upper stripe is the deck, the lower is the section.”


    â€œOh.  Clever.”  Lara commented.  


    She then followed Jai Yoon through another door into a rather large elevator car.  It was just as rounded and featureless as the hallway, and also had two stripes.  As the car moved, the upper stripe started changing color, but the lower one stayed the same.


    When the door opened again, they were facing a room that reminded Lara of a semi-circular shaped movie theater.  It was dimly lit overall, and had three levels.  She spotted Shen Rae on the middle level, and then there were control stations on the level above her and below her.  But none of those stations were occupied.


    On the wall beside her was a logo that was some sort of stylized bird, and it was lit brightly from below.  The ceiling had no lighting - the only ambient light in the room came from a groove between the wall and floor, as in the first room Lara entered.  The rest of it was from spotlights above each station, and the computer screens.


    Shen Rae wore the same uniform as Jai Yoon, except her belt was gold instead of silver.  It was most likely an expression of rank.  Shen Rae also had fairer skin, and her hair, just as multicolored as Jai Yoon’s, was dominated lighter pink, red, and blue.  And she wore no earrings.


    â€œWelcome, Lara,”  Shen Rae greeted her.  She walked quickly to the blonde, and gave her a brief hug.


    â€œWhat’s with the sudden invitation?”  Lara asked.


    Shen Rae explained quickly as Jai Yoon took her station just next to the Captian.  “Yuki Shiro contacted me through Al B Harper.  She asked me to keep you out of harm’s way until she needs you.”


    â€œOh,”  Lara replied sadly.  “I thought that might be a possibility.  It would have been nice if she asked me, though.”


    â€œIf she asked you, she said, psychics on the other team would know where you are.  She said it had to be done quickly, and the topic closed.”


    Jai Yoon interrupted, “I told her that we have battles of our own to deal with.”


    Shen Rae nodded.  “Most of us do.  This is the newest ship in the fleet, and my father asked me to keep it away from battle as long as I can.  It makes sense to me to take in someone else who must avoid the battle.  And if things go badly, you can help protect us.”


    â€œNew ship, eh?”  Lara asked.  “I thought it looked different.”


    â€œThe biggest feature is the wormhole plates that got you here,”  Jai Yoon announced proudly.


    The Captain nodded.  “Teleport technology proved to be really unreliable and unsafe, that’s why we never really used it for people.  This is new.  It will deliver a person across the galaxy in an instant with zero corruption, and it always works.  It’s a miniaturized version of what we used to move ships long distances.”


    Jai Yoon added, “We teleport the plate, because it can tolerate a little corruption.  Then we use it to move people.”


    â€œYou two invented it, didn’t you?”  Lara guessed, from how proud they were of it.


    Jai Yoon smiled, and nodded quickly.  “It was inspired by the way you travel.”


    Shen Rae tapped a control in front of her, and the smooth white wall ahead of them lost its white color and became a window.  It showed that the ship they were in was hovering just above a blue-skied ocean planet, and water rushed below them, falling down a tall cliff.


    â€œPretty,”  Lara observed.  “Why here, though?”


    â€œWe’re at the literal edge of the galaxy,”  Shen Rae told her.  “Just this one planet, and its one star out here.  Your planet is closer to the center.  The insane Celestian Space Robot is far away from us here, and its signal is weak.  And the star here is a pulsar…it sends out a powerful signal of its own.”


    Lara saddened as she watched the waterfall, thinking to herself that in a few hours she could be the last one.  The last of the Lair Legion.  And then those who beat the rest of the Legion could be hunting for her.


    â€œSo we just sit here and wait till it all blows over?”  Lara asked.


    â€œNot quite,”  Shen Rae answered.  “There’s a reason only we’re here…just the three of us.  The portable wormhole generator is secret.  This place is secret, and what it contains?  It’s the biggest secret in the universe.”


    Lara looked at Jai Yoon, who was smiling, and then back to Shen Rae.  “What is it?”


    â€œUnder this ocean, this planet is a labyrinth.  In that labyrinth, directly below us…is a device called the Celestian Programming Interface.”


    â€œWe’re not sure what it’s for.”  Jai Yoon added, in answer to what she anticipated would be Lara’s first question, “It can either reprogram the Celestain Space Robots, or…”


    â€œOr?”  Lara urged her to move beyond the pause.


    â€œOr it can reprogram the entire universe,”  Jai Yoon continued in a quiet voice.


    â€œHence the need for secrecy,”  Shen Rae pointed out.  “Not even my company knows about it.  Not even my father.  Just us two.  And you.”


    â€œHow did you find it?”  Lara asked.  “How did you keep it secret?”


    â€œThe two of us went exploring,”  Shen Rae replied.  “We found it, figured out what it was, but then we couldn’t retrieve it safely.  We could have asked for help, but then we thought it better to leave it here, and keep it secret.  Until we had the tools, which we do now, and desperate times forced us to retrieve it.”


    Jai Yoon nodded once, and saddened as she said, “These are those desperate times.”


    â€œYeah.  No kidding.”  Lara echoed that sentiment sadly.  “So…let’s go get it.”


    Shen Rae nodded, and glanced at Jai Yoon.  “We’ll need three environmental suits.  I’ll get those, you prepare a set of wormhole devices.”


    With that, Jai Yoon ran off back to the elevator, and Shen Rae followed slowly.


    And Lara was left on the bridge of the galaxy’s most advanced starship, wondering if she was doing the right thing.






—-






    Earlier that evening, Lara sat calmly in her room, on the small couch by the window, reading a book.  She was interrupted by Hatman, who quietly knocked on her unlocked door, then entered, and stood nearby patiently until she read far enough to bookmark her place.


    â€œWhat’s up?”  she asked him.


    He plopped down on the couch beside her, so she had to pick up her legs, and then she slid beside him and folded her legs beneath her.  She was a little surprised when he leaned back and began massaging her neck and shoulders.


    â€œWhat’s this for?”  she asked suspiciously.  But then she felt a little bad about being suspicious about it.  “It’s awesome, I’m just curious.”


    â€œBecause I know why you’re hiding in here,”  he said.  “You’re stressed out and afraid.”


    â€œYeah,”  she agreed emphatically.  “Aren’t you?”


    He sighed deeply, and stopped rubbing her shoulders for a moment.  “I don’t want to tell any of the others, but I’m afraid I’m going to make it back from the Resolution War.”


    Lara turned and gave him a sympathetic look.  “We’re all scared, Hatty…”


    â€œI have a big target painted on my head,”  he pointed out.  “Killing me early on would be a huge morale boost to the other team.”


    â€œSo stay back,”  Lara advised.


    â€œI can’t.”  he said with a slow shake of the head.  “I can’t send everyone else out if I’m not willing to go myself.  It wouldn’t be me.”


    â€œThen I’ll go with you.  I’ll protect you.”


    He sighed again.  “You know Yuki emphatically insists you have to stay out of the battle as long as possible.”


    â€œI know, I know.”  Lara sighed too.  “I just…wish I could.”
    
    â€œI’m sorry I was so angry and jealous about you with Dream,”  he said suddenly.  “In case I don’t get another chance to say it.”


    â€œI know.  You don’t have to say it anymore.”  she replied.


    She leaned into the massage, and sighed loudly when he really dug into her shoulders.  “Are you this good as a lover or am I getting the better deal with the massage?”


    Lara smiled quietly when she heard him laughing.  She meant to cheer him up.


    â€œI don’t know,”  he replied finally, “It’s tough to compete with Dream.”


    â€œYeah,”  she agreed.  “He is tough to compete with.  It was like he had a psychic link, and could tell what feels good to me.  I haven’t had anything like that happen to me before or since.”


    Then she laughed again, and added, “I just shared too much, didn’t I?”


    He shook his head.  “I’m glad you’re so open and honest with me.  It’s reassuring, makes me feel less scared.  Massaging you gives me something to concentrate on and distract myself.”


    â€œOh.  I’m totally okay with that,”  she said, settling into the massage again.  “Much better than doing something we could regret if we do survive this.”


    â€œI thought about doing that, too,”  he admitted.  “I guess I decided I didn’t want it to be the last thing I do.”


    â€œYou probably would have been better off having that last stand with someone like Yuki,”  she asked.  “More experience, bigger boobs, more fun.”


    He laughed.  “No, I think it would have been better with someone I’m comfortable with.”


    That playful conversation came to an abrupt end, though.  Since she was facing the door, Lara was the first to see Yuki stick her head into the room.  The massage stopped suddenly as Hatman saw her, too.


    â€œWe’re going to get an early jump on things,”  Yuki told Hatman.


    â€œRight,”  Hatman agreed, and he stood.


    Lara gripped his hand and squeezed hard.  “You have to come back,”  she insisted.  “You owe me the rest of the massage.”


    He briefly flashed a smile before fear and worry overcame it, and he headed to the door.


    â€œI have a plan for you, too,”  Yuki told Lara.  “Promise me you’ll stay here.”


    The blonde nodded.  She understood why Yuki couldn’t say much more - in case psychics on the other side were locked on to any one of the trio, none of them would have the entire plan.  Lara only knew her part, to wait there.  Hatman and Yuki knew the initial attack plan.  And Yuki most likely delegated what to do with Lara to someone else, so she wouldn’t know.


    When the door to her room closed, Lara felt sad.  She lost all interest in the book she was reading.  The only thing left to do was nap to pass the time, so she wouldn’t sit around feeling upset and worried, and she would be rested for whatever came next.  She crawled onto the couch, and curled up to sleep.


    The strange part was she didn’t have bad dreams, as she would have expected.  Instead she had an elaborate and confusing dream involving another massage from Hatman that was somehow part massage, and part sex.  It was relaxing, exciting, and also really confusing.






——






    As she stood on the bridge of that starship, looking at the waterfall beneath the floating spacecraft, she remembered that dream she had before she left home.  How confusing it was, and how it left her feeling…sad.  She wondered why it made her feel that way since she awakened, but never really had the time to think about it until now.  That’s when she came to the conclusion that it was her own guilt.  


    She felt like even though it was just a dream, she betrayed her friend by allowing him to do something he’d regret so badly.  She realized then that her guilt must run very deep, and that’s why she always kept him at arm’s length.  She couldn’t live with the consequences any other way.


    â€œAre you ready?”  Shen Rae announced as she reappeared on the bridge.


    Lara turned to face her, and nodded.  She was ready for anything that would keep her distracted.


    â€œGood.  Follow me.”


    Shen Rae led the way into the elevator again, and when the doors reopened this time, they were in a cargo bay with a shiny black floor that reminded Lara of a parking garage back home, because of the dim lighting and open space.  There were no posts, though, and it was empty down the center, in line with a giant set of closed double doors at the far end.  


    To one side were sixteen small winged aircraft about the size of military drones back on Earth.  Lara remembered that those were automated fighters, each just about big enough to fit exactly one person and no cargo; but most of the time, they flew unmanned.


    The opposite side had two craft that looked like angled birds of prey with lowered heads, except the wings were folded upward so they could fit beside each other in the space provided.  One of them had its side door open, and Jai Yoon had just stepped out of it.


    â€œOh.  Hi, Lara,”  Jai Yoon said, surprised that the blonde was there and not just Shen Rae.  She then turned to the Captain.  “All three environmental suits are in there.  We’ll have four wormhole plates if we need them.”


    Shen Rae nodded.  She took something out of a box in the wall beside the door, and then closed the box.  Turning around, she slapped the item onto Lara’s wrist.  It looked like a blue metallic watch with a dark blue display, only it said nothing on it.


    Lara remembered seeing Shen Rae use it as a weapon before, but she guessed it was also a communications and tracking device as well.


    â€œI thought we were teleporting down?”  Lara asked.


    â€œThe consistency levels are very low,”  Jai Yoon replied.  “The distances are much larger than we thought, walking on foot would take days.  So we’re going to wormhole the entire shuttle.”


    â€œIs that safe?”  Lara asked.


    â€œOnly one way to find out!”  Jai Yoon announced, and she invited her captain and Lara aboard with a wave, then taking her place in the center pilot’s seat.


    Shen Rae was laughing as she boarded, unaware of Lara’s worried look.  She slipped into one of the four rear seats, directly behind Jai Yoon, and Lara slipped into the opposite seat.


    Lara watched quietly as the double doors at the end of the bay opened, only there was no explosive decompression.  She guessed that the ship made very good use of forcefields.  The shuttle then rose, and zipped through the doorway.  Just like that, they were skimming along just above the top of the waterfall.


    The shuttle launched a small object that, for lack of a better description, made the air in front of it look blurry.  The shuttle cruised through the blurry area…and suddenly they were in a completely dark space.  


    Lights switched on all over the shuttle.  They were inside what looked like a giant bore hole - a cylindrical space hundreds of yards tall, and the bottom wasn’t visible.  The walls were a large enough distance apart that Jai Yoon was able to stop the forward momentum of the shuttle before it came near.  The bright lights against the wall revealed it was made from some kind of orange stone, and it had been leaking - there were thin water streaks running down.  There were runes on the walls, too, but Lara couldn’t catch enough of them as they went by to see what they meant.


    The shuttle began descending, and as it did, a three-dimensional hologram of the cave system started assembling above a console in front of Jai Yoon.  The tall tube they were in had dozens of smaller tubes branching off from it.


    â€œThis looks Celestian,”  Lara whispered.


    â€œYou noticed that, too?”  Shen Rae asked.  “I suppose you’ve seen stuff like this under the Lair Mansion.”


    The blonde nodded once.  She wondered where Shen Rae had seen it before.  “Are we tracking anything, or just checking one cave after another?”


    Jai Yoon didn’t reply, because she spotted something on the hologram which more or less answered Lara’s question anyway.  She poked her finger into the light form.  “Right there.”


    The shuttle continued descending quite a distance, but still didn’t reach bottom.  It never did - because they veered off into one of the tubes punched through the wall in front of them.  The smoothness of the tube eventually gave way to more chiseled and craggy rock that was becoming increasingly hard to fit the shuttle through, so Jai Yoon started carefully cutting pieces of rock off to make room.


    Eventually, though, the space became too narrow to cut through and maintain the stability of the rock, so Jai Yoon extended the landing legs, and set the shuttle down.  “I don’t know if we need the environmental suits,”  she said.  “It looks like there’s a good air mixture here.”


    â€œWe should use them anyway,”  Shen Rae pointed out.  “The Celestians were bio-engineers.  They could have designed bacteria that will off the entire universe, starting with us.”


    The environmental suits Shen Rae mentioned were an absolute wonder to Lara.  The other two had seen them before, but it was her first time.  They were made of metal, hung inside a cabinet, and they appeared to be impregnable.  But, following instructions, she found all she had to do was lean back against it, and she fell into it.  The metal enveloped her body and clothing, and it became a somewhat form-fitting metal shell.


    She panicked a little when the head part of the shell was also sealed metal, but just as with the wall on the starship bridge, it became transparent all around once she was wearing it.


    The door of the shuttle opened, but as was part of the same quarantine procedure as the suits, it had a forcefield active.  The environmental suits alone were allowed to penetrate it, though as Lara stepped through, it made an uncomfortable hiss sound, like it was steaming hot, though it wasn’t.  She looked down at her arm, and noticed that the bracelet was visible through the armor - it was clear in that area, just like around her face.


    â€œThis is really cool!”  Lara exclaimed.


    Jai Yoon ignored her, because she was looking at her own bracelet and walking off in one direction.  Lara noticed that the armor had lights that switched on automatically as Jai Yoon went into the darkness.  So she followed, directly behind Shen Rae.


    The spaces in the cave kept getting tighter, and more narrow.  Before long, Lara started worrying about scraping the armor on the rocks, but it didn’t seem to harm it at all.  Finally, they emerged in a clearing with a huge pool of water in the center.  The water made the lights from the armor dance around the room wildly.


    Jai Yoon looked disappointed as she stood at the edge of the water pool.  Finally, she sighed.  “It’s at the bottom of this pool.”


    â€œSo what?”  Shen Rae asked.  “The suits have propellant.”


    â€œScatters light, though.  Makes it hard to see.”


    â€œI can bring it up here,”  Lara spoke up.  “I have to know exactly where it is, though.  I don’t want to bring up the wrong thing, and have it try to kill us.”


    Jai Yoon tapped on her bracelet a bit, and then held her arm out over the water.  A hologram appeared in mid-air above the water’s surface, showing the object that was at the bottom.  Presumably, the hologram hovered over where it was located.


    â€œAwesome,”  Lara commented.  But then she paused, and hesitated for a moment.


    â€œWhat’s wrong?”  Shen Rae asked.


    â€œShould we be doing this?”  Lara asked.  “What if this Celestian Programming Interface was hidden here for a reason?  If we take it out of here, we could be putting the entire universe in danger.”


    â€œWe could be, honestly.”  Jai Yoon replied confidently.  “But we can’t guarantee that we’re the only ones in the entire universe who are hunting for it.”


    Shen Rae chimed in, “We brought you because after this is all over, we want you to take it home with you.”


    â€œTo the Lair Mansion?”  Lara asked.


    â€œNo.  To your real home,”  Jai Yoon explained.  “Where no one else can reach it.”


    â€œI…don’t know if that’s allowed,”  Lara replied.  “It might end up left behind and vulnerable.”


    Jai Yoon and Shen Rae looked at each other.  Neither one of them considered that possibility.


    â€œI could start out with it at the Lair Mansion,”  Lara corrected.  “If I can leave with it, great.  If not, Faite or Chiaki will know what to do with it.”


    The first officer nodded.  “It would still be safer than it is in here.”


    Lara nodded once, and closed her eyes.  She reached out an energy field like a dozen tiny fingers to the bottom of the water pool.  Those fingers found something, and wrapped around it, and then pulled it violently to the surface, catching it before gravity got ahold of it again.


    It was a small box, about the size of a drink cooler on earth, and made of a metal that none of them recognized.  That metal had no seams, and was completely sealed.


    â€œInteresting setback,”  Jai Yoon commented.  She shined her armor lights at the box, and noted the Celestian runes in a row all around it.  “I guess we have to figure out how to open it.”


    Lara wasn’t paying attention to Jai Yoon’s commentary.  She felt something wrong just then.  Even though nothing was wrong visibly, she could feel that the dimensions had just shifted somehow.


    â€œWe have to get out of here,”  Lara warned them.


    Without a single comment, Jai Yoon grabbed the box, which turned to be incredibly heavy for its size, and turned back toward the cave.  Shen Rae stood with her arm straight out, a pulse weapon visible on the armor.


    The cave lit up very brightly, and a portal appeared in midair.  What looked like Hatman, only with long hair, and much more scarred, stepped through the bright portal, and robots started to crowd in after him.  Lara didn’t bother to take inventory, she recognized the Machine Shop.


    She sent a powerful burst of energy that pushed the entire water pool into the cave as a giant tidal wave, knocking down the new arrivals, and then she pushed Shen Rae and Jai Yoon back through the crevice they arrived from.  Shen Rae turned briefly to blast the rock with a white pulse, collapsing it closed.


    â€œThat won’t hold them for long,”  Shen Rae observed.  “Move.”


    Jai Yoon was panting by the time they made it into the opening where the shuttle was parked.  They could hear blades very close by - the Machine Shop was cutting its way through the rock much faster than they expected.


    The first officer threw the box to the floor inside the shuttle, and climbed into the pilot’s seat.


    â€œAuto defense mode,”  Shen Rae said to no one in particular.


    The shuttle obeyed her command, and began firing rapid pulses at the collapsed crevice, collapsing it further.  The ceiling started to come down on top of the shuttle, large chunks bouncing noisily off of the hull.


    Jai Yoon proved just then that she was a scary good pilot.  She spun the shuttle around violently, and went full speed - the kind of speed normally reserved for escaping the atmosphere of a planet - through the tube leading to the large cylinder, and then straight vertical, so she had the room to launch a wormhole disk, and slip through it.


    And then they were above the water again.  The starship appeared to be gone, but then it revealed itself as they approached - it had gone into stealth mode automatically while they were gone.  Even then, Jai Yoon didn’t slow down until they were almost into the cargo bay doors.  The three of them collectively breathed a sigh of relief once the cargo doors shut.


    â€œWill this ship be safe from them?”  Lara asked.


    â€œNo,”  Shen Rae replied.  “But they don’t know where we went.  It’s going to take them a while to work that out.”


    â€œHow did they find us before?”  the blonde asked.


    â€œThey picked up the signal from that.”  Jai Yoon looked back at the box.  “They can’t pick it up through our shield, so they won’t know where we went.”


    â€œThat was too close,”  Lara whispered.  “They’re still too close.”


    â€œI agree,”  Jai Yoon replied.  “We should leave this planet, and head to the second site.”


    â€œSecond site?”  Lara asked, as she followed the two of them rapidly back to the bridge.


    â€œJust beyond the edge of the galaxy,”  Shen Rae explained.  “It’s a Dark Station.  We don’t know who built it, but we took possession of it, upgraded it.  It can’t be detected.  Fully shielded, no stars close enough to give it light or radiation signatures.”


    â€œMost important, only this ship, and you, are capable of penetrating the barrier to get there.”  She looked directly at Lara.


    â€œOh.  Cool.”  Lara smiled, and settled back into one of the chairs on the bridge.


    â€œThat’s where we’ll hole up until we can figure out how to open the box,”  Shen Rae decided.


    Jai Yoon obeyed immediately, firing a wormhole disk that she piloted the starship through.  In an instant, they went from sunny ocean world to blackness of space so deep that stars seemed distant and lonely.


    â€œLet me show you to a room,”  Shen Rae told Lara.  “Our exit point was a few hours’ journey from the station in case anyone hunting for us can trace the wormholes.”


    Lara nodded, stood, and followed Shen Rae into the elevator, then down another hallway.  She touched a point of light on the wall of the hallway, and a door seam appeared.  It opened up to what was a pretty cozy personal room.


    The room had a window through the hull to see outside, with a pad next to it that was presumably to reduce or eliminate the transparency for darkness.  The lighting, like the hallways, came from near the floor all around the room.  The floor itself had a plush carpeting feel to it, but the softness was more like a mattress - it had no fibers.  


    There was a large, deep chair beside the window, and a bed that was ingenious, because it was cupped so someone could sleep in any pose and still be comfortable.  There was also a bathroom and shower that would have looked at home on Earth, but somehow also very different.  


    â€œGet some rest,”  Shen Rae said.  “I know you didn’t do much yet today, but I hear you’ll have a long way to go if the Lair Legion needs you.”


    â€œThank you,”  Lara told her.  She watched Shen Rae shut the door, and then she plopped onto the small couch to watch the stars go by.








    TO BE CONTINUED?






-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2017 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.