"Queen of the Heavens" (closed)

[CarlyConners]

"Queen of the Heavens"

(closed)​

"Excuse me, my queen."

Isa turned to look to the door of her chambers where she found one of her officers with his head bowed and gaze on the floor. She waved away the dozen female servants tending to her dressing and feeding, asking, "Status?"

"Final approach, my queen," he said, his gaze still on the deck. "The braking procedure using the satellite's--"

She waved off his explanation, uninterested in hearing the details of how her ship was being slowed from nearly the speed of light to the significantly lower speed necessary to achieve a synchronous orbit over their destination. The ship had used the gravitational pull of two of this system's planets to slow significantly, then repeated the procedure in orbit of their destination's own moon. From here to the destination, with the ship essentially flying backward, the engine's would fire for two days, slowing it significantly further. And finally, in the pull of their destination's gravity, the flight would come to an end with Isa looking down upon her final destination ... upon yet another of her territories ... upon the planet they called Gaia.

Despite his gaze still being on the floor before him, the officer had seen his queen's gesture in his peripheral vision. He went silent. As she approached him slowly, the point on the floor at which his gaze was set moved closer to his feet until he was literally looking at the tips of his shoes. It was forbidden for a male -- whether of their own race or of that of the planet that would soon be below them -- to look directly at the queen while she was in her private quarters. Men had had body parts cut from them one by one and fed to them over very lengthy periods of time for such a violation. And this officer was very fond of his ears, fingers, toes, and ... well, particularly that.

"Come to me when we are in stationary orbit," she ordered in her typically soft voice and slow cadence. "You are dismissed."

He bowed his head even further, backed a couple of steps, turned, and departed, raising his gaze to find his path but leaving his head down until he knew he was safely out of her view. He didn't do this because he was afraid of his queen. He did it out of respect. As he hurried off toward the ship's bridge, he recalled the staff meeting they'd had about how the people of Gaia would have to be once again reminded as to how they interacted with their queen. It would be brutal initially. But ... they'd learn. Learn or die anyway.

Back in her quarters, Isa returned to her cryobed to rest. Her attendants set the controls to slow her metabolism: the affect would be that she would feel virtually no passage of time between now and achievement of orbit. It wasn't the same as being in stasis, as she had been for almost 500 of Gaia's years. No, this was the stasis version of taking a nap. It would take yet another twenty-two days for the ship to slow to a geosynchronous orbit over the planet. It would enter Earth's upper atmosphere and literally burn through the sky for a hundred or more orbits opposite of that of the sun and moon beyond it, slowing and slowing until finally it could be lifted back up into the very extremes of the atmosphere where it would be stationary in the sky until time to once again return to the heavens.

 

[EroticLiteracy]

“What have you done to yourself now?!”

The man with skin as dark as the sun above looked at his sister. There was a cut on the top of his head staining his shaved head with the color of dark dried blood. The clothes he was wearing a simple piece of chest armor that left his bronze abs exposed was cracked in several places. His simple brown pants were ripped and he was barefoot and covered in dirt. Even so his eyes a startling green color regarded his sister with warmth and humor.

“The arena was particularly rough today” He said struggling to rise to his feet as his sister moved to help him “I won but to many close calls for my liking”
“This is insane Isantope!” His sister hissed as he helped him into her hut “You were once-“

“A lot of things” Isantope snapped his eyes flickering to the windows “Do not say more sister. Not unless you wish to get me killed!”

She sighed and nodded helping him over to the wooden chair in the center of the room. He sighed and leaned back stretching his back until it cracked. He rolled his powerful shoulders in a circle sighing as relief flooded through them. He heard a small noise outside and he froze his hands dropping to the curved knife hidden on his leg. After a few minutes he relaxed shifting in his seat as his sister reappeared with medical supplies.

“I cannot keep patching you up” His sister warned placing a bowl of water on the table.

“I know that” He said softly as she dipped a rag into the cool water “It’s not like there are many other options for a man like me”

His sister sighed her eyes softening at his words.

“I know that” She admitted pressing the damp rag against the cut on his head and soaking up the blood. He sighed at the cool relief and closed his eyes to enjoy it properly.

“It’s just….” She said pausing before leaning in “You were once a Medjay! Surely someone has need of a warrior of your prowess”

“They would if it were not for our pharaoh banishing us all” Isantope murmured as his sister cleaned the dried blood from his head “Remember if I am found in Egypt they will kill me”

“They would have to get through me first” His sister murmured shaking her head as she continued to clean the dried blood “Why don’t you just settle down become a farmer like father”

“Do I seem a man who would run a farm sister?” He asked snorting “That is not me. I am a fighter without a home to fight for. These pits are the only option for a man like me”

“You will die!” His sister called throwing the rag into the bowl hard enough for water to splash out “I will not stand by and watch it!”

“Isadora” He called watching as she stomped away and left the room. He sighed and decided not to go after her instead cleaning his wounds and using the healing ointment she brought to clean his wounds. Once they were clean he flipped his beaked hood up pausing to leave some coin on her table before stepping outside and into the night.