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Trade Winds (Extended)	By : freddo66 Category: +S through Z > Star Blazers Views: 1271 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not either own Star Blazers, nor any of the characters from it, and I am not making any money from this work.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
TRADE WINDS (EXTENDED)
Chapter Three: The Delight Continues
By freddo66
I. BUTTERFLIES
Earth Federal Preserve
Sunrise Island-Dominica
December 30, 2201
1529 Hours: Local Time

Over the cries of exotic birds, a young brow was currently furrowed as its owner faced an interesting little problem.
"Hmm...Derek...how can I get your camera to point up there for a good shot?" whispered Nova as she aimed Derek's camera up into a tree.
"To begin with, stop squirming?" whispered Wildstar upon whose T-shirt-clad shoulders Nova was standing on top of!
"I am not squirming!" whispered Nova fiercely.
"No, you're just digging your toes into my shoulders," he chuckled.
"Sorry."
"It's all right. It could be worse. You could've climbed up onto my shoulders with your heaviest jungle boots on for this shot, Nova."
"I don't have ANY shoes on," whispered Nova. "My sandals are off in the bushes someplace. Shh. There he is."
Nova was currently helping Derek stalk down and photograph a now-rare butterfly. The colorful creature was sitting in the foliage of a small tree, just a little out of the camera's range as it was currently encased in a small plastic case to protect it from tropical humidity and enable it to be used underwater on dives, and hence was unable to accept a zoom lens in its current state.
Nova and Derek were in the jungle a few kilometers away from their bungalow on the island. It was even warmer than usual here in the interior of the jungle, and their light garments were quite thoroughly soaked with sweat. As they had been on the beach earlier in the day they were lightly dressed. Nova wore a light, short white cotton sundress with short sleeves, while Wildstar wore a dark blue pair of swim trunks and a light blue Space Fighters' Training School T-shirt that Nova had sent him as a birthday present last July while he had been out in space with the Argo on his one-year tour.
They felt safe enough here in their light state of dress. Unlike some of the other tropical islands on Earth, preliminary exploration had ascertained that pre-Gamilon-War snakes, insects, and poisonous plant life weren't much in evidence here on Sunrise, as the tropical environment was still recovering from the Gamilon War. Fortunately, the same went for the pre-War crocodiles that had once been common on this island.
The reason they were in this slightly crazy position was due to a mutual hobby of theirs, combined with an unwritten imperative they shared to just investigate any forms of life they found in the redeveloping ecology of the island.
Namely, BOTH Derek and Nova Wildstar happened to like biological field trips...particularly when they included a chance to photograph insects or other local examples of flora or fauna.
Wildstar grabbed Nova's bare ankles again to steady her as she stood up on tiptoe to extend her camera just a little more...
"Well?" he whispered.
"Almost..." whispered Nova. "I've GOT him in the viewfinder..."
Wildstar looked up, in just enough time to see Nova releasing the shutter release on the camera.
Then, chaos reigned as she stepped back just a little too far.
"Whoa...whoa...WHOA!" yelled Wildstar as the two of them bobbed around like a teetering tower. Nova's weight shifted back, and Derek grabbed hard at her ankles...
Then, they both fell back with a scream. Derek fell hard enough for the wind to be knocked out of him as he toppled backwards with Nova's feet still on his shoulders for a moment.
The ground came up in a big green blur and hit Wildstar with a hard body-slam that made him feel as if he had been kicked by a loco mule. He hit the ground and blacked out for a second. Finally, he regained his breath, noticing that he had fallen onto his butt into a thicket of some green plants just a few meters behind the tree.
He looked up, and then remembered Nova with a start. "Hey!" he yelled as an adrenaline rush went through him and Nova was nowhere to be found. "Where are you! NOVA?"
"Oh, God!" he cried, looking around. For a moment, nasty images of a maimed, paralyzed, or even dead Nova ran through his mind, until he was relieved by the sight of the top of a head of hair bleached a very light honey-blonde by several days of tropical sunshine popping up above a thicket that was very thick.
"Derek?" cried a little voice.
Wildstar jumped into the thicket, finding Nova lying there with a few little nicks on her bare arms and legs but apparently no worse for wear.
"Are you all right?" he yelled.
"Uh-huh...I think so," said Nova querulously.
"Nova? You're sure?"
"I'm fine! Look," said Nova as she raised her hands. "I've still got the camera, too. I had the neck strap on, and it just fell against my body when I went down. OUCH! And...the picture's inside the enclosure."
Wildstar immediately ran over to their gear bag (groaning a little at HIS scratches), and took the camera and the picture from Nova. "Wow," he said. "What a nice shot!"
"Thanks. Isn't he BEAUTIFUL?"
"Yeah. I'll bet he got away safely," said Wildstar. "He must be the only one of us who didn't get any scratches."
"He didn't," said Nova. "Look, there he goes!"
They both looked up at the tree and smiled as they watched the butterfly flying off to do whatever butterflies did here in the tropics.
"A Monarch," said Wildstar, as he looked at the picture. "Isn't it a little unusual for such a creature to be here? Aren't they usually indigenous to more temperate climates?"
"And...what would such a butterfly be doing here THIS time of year?" mused Nova as she rubbed a bleeding scratch on her leg. "I know it's a tropical climate here, but shouldn't butterflies of this type normally be in their larval stage as caterpillars now?"
"Yeah...it is weird," mused Derek. "Is your leg all right?"
"Just got a nasty nick here, that's all," she said. "That's it! Next time we go in this stuff, we're digging out our uniforms and wearing them," said Nova as she pulled her brown sports sandals out of the thicket and began to put them on. "With these, of course...unless we know we're going really deep in the thickets."
"Shouldn't you put something on that, Nova?"
"Why do you think I'm looking for my pouch?" she laughed, looking on the ground until she found a little macramé' pouch she had made for herself a few months ago; she had been wearing it around her waist on a pink belt when she fell. She opened the pouch and pulled out a tube of antiseptic, putting some on her scratches. When she was done, she tossed the tube to Derek, who was in the middle of buckling on his hiking sandals, which were similar to Nova's.
"That butterfly's beautiful," said Wildstar, looking at the picture again. But, y'know, there's gotta be a reason for it to be here. I just can't put my finger on it."
"Maybe...it's a mutation?" Nova said as she wiped her hand across her brow. "Whew, it's hot. I'm sweating like a sieve!"
"Remember, we almost broke our necks about ten minutes ago," said Wildstar, whose suntanned brow was also quite sweaty. He brushed some of his hair (which was turning a lighter shade of brown than was usual for him) out of his eyes. Nova undid her canteen of water and began to drink while adjusting her dress a little, exposing more of a usually creamy-skinned neckline that was showing just a little bit of tan, which was a little unusual with her fair complexion. Derek had never seen her looking like this until now, and he was fascinated by the way she looked.
"How did you do that again?" asked Derek as he undid his canteen and drank.
"Do what?" gasped Nova as she caught her breath.
"Get your skin like that without getting a sunburn?"
"It's like I said the other day. I've been putting on a slightly lighter SPF sunscreen level each day, and getting myself used to it. I'm surprised you haven't noticed by now," she said, extending one of her bare legs for a minute after checking the Velcro strap on her shoe. "Especially considering well...what I've been wearing much of the time when we go swimming...and...you know..."
"I know," he said, kissing her on the brow.
"You look better like that, Derek. You should get out in the sun a little more often and spend a little less time in the cockpit of that Super Starfighter of yours," said Nova. "When did your hair last look like that?"
"I think when I was eight or ten, maybe twelve..." grinned Derek. "Back when I used to go out in the hills around our house on the outskirts of Yokosuka on Great Island to work on my insect collection." He paused, looking rather thoughtful. "Of course, that was a long time ago. It was in the wonderful days I told you about when we were on our way to Iscandar...back before the Gamilons bombed the Great Island of Japan...back before that planet bomb landed on the Miura Peninsula in the early summer of 2190 and killed my parents. It was right after Alex graduated from the SFTS and got his first squadron assignment...it was a terrible time."
At that, Derek paused with a sigh. He was looking far off beyond Nova, beyond the jungle growth, back into the past.
"What were your parents like, Derek?"
"Well, they were...both nice. There was my father. He was a heavyset man with a mustache and sort of a mildly receding hairline. I don't think I have any pictures of him left. He was named Theodore. He was a very serious sort of man. Kind, at least when he bothered to speak to me. I remember he was always fighting with Alex."
"Why?"
"Well... he didn't think much of Alex's joining the Earth Defense Forces. He said that he was too valuable to the family to 'throw his damn life away in the military.'" Derek sighed, looking up into the sky. "He wanted Alex to carry on the family business, but Alex didn't want to be 'chained behind an office chair', as he put it. So, Alex and my dad were always at odds with each other. Alex wanted to do his part for Earth...at least he did, as far back as I remember, while Dad wanted him to take over the family import-export business. Of course, when they fought, Mom always took his part, and she always looked after him. I always thought that she cared more about Alex than me. I told her that to her face once, and..."
"...And what?"
"And...I never really got to take it back," said Derek regretfully. "The bombings really picked up a few weeks later, and after my mother held me and told me she loved me, while I was holding my insect collection, we never talked about it again. We never had time to."
"What was your mother like?"
"She was named Angelica...and, well, she looked a little like an older version of you, with those wide dark eyes and all, but she had dark hair, and she always wore it up in a tight bun. She was very kind. I mean, she was very kind. She was patient, always there for Alex and I...up until the end, when she spent much of the last few weeks of her life volunteering to help victims of the bombings in our town, where they turned part of the high school into an emergency hospital in early July of that year. When I last saw her, she was on her way to the hospital, to help more people out, and I was on my way back from visiting Alex at one of the United Nations Space Defense Force bases in the area. Needless to say, I never saw her again, or Dad. I might have a very old picture of her in my personal effects at home. You know...I don't have much left...from my childhood. I wish I did."
"Derek..." whispered Nova, stroking his arm gently.
"Thanks for understanding..."
"I try. It's a little hard to understand exactly what a loss like yours is like when your parents are both still alive."
"But you've suffered, too, Nova."
She just nodded. "I used to collect insects, too. Or I did...until the Boulder, Colorado that I knew slowly disappeared. There's nothing left of it now. My old house from before the bombings is gone...along with my old room and...my insect collection."
Derek just kissed Nova on the forehead to try to comfort her. She appreciated the affectionate gesture and cuddled back into his lap for a minute. Then, they exchanged a gentle, searching kiss.
"I like what the sun's done to your hair, Nova," remarked Derek after a moment of playing with the stray locks that seemed to always fall across her forehead. "When was the last time it's really looked this blonde?"
"All the time," huffed Nova. "I AM a natural blonde."
"No...I mean...that light," he said. "It looks like new honey."
"I think about eight," said Nova. "And..." she said as Derek came close. She stopped when he saw how he was looking at her. She smiled softly and allowed Derek to affectionately stroke her chin for a bit. Before long, they were edging towards a kiss, which came a second later. When they were done, Nova released her right arm from around Derek's shoulder. "Derek...I think we can think of better places to do that sort of thing."
"Hmm?"
"Too hot here...too many mosquitoes," she whispered dreamily as she fought an urge to just lay down in the foliage and take a nap. "Are you tired?" she asked.
Derek replied with a yawn.
"Oh, heck," she grinned, plopping down into the foliage.
As an afterthought, she dragged Derek down on top of her.
As they lay there, Nova affectionately pulled up his t-shirt and ran her finger down his chest for a minute. A certain urge was going through her, but her eyes were just getting droopy.
"Look at us," yawned Derek. "We're supposed to be having a wild honeymoon, and what are we doing? Taking a damn siesta!"
"Derek, don't you know taking a nap together can be just as interesting and romantic as other things...even with our clothes on?"
"Why's'zat?" he slurred.
"Silly...it's with you."
"Yeah," nodded a sleepy Derek with his eyes closed. "And face it...we can't just crash out like this together anywhere on the Argo."
"Uh-huh. So that's what makes it special," whispered Nova after a long yawn.
"Derek?"
He didn't answer. Worried for a second, Nova then placed her head on his chest and was reassured by its steady, regular rise and fall.
"And to think you had THAT on your mind while you were this sleepy," she whispered affectionately. "Well..." she yawned. "Recharge your power cells, my darling. I think I've got a few ideas for later..."
Then, Nova laid her head on his chest, snuggled up to him, and joined her husband in dreamland for a while right there in the middle of the bush. Her last thought was a hope that the mosquitoes wouldn't torment them too much in their sleep because, after all, neither of them had very much on....

When Derek Wildstar finally woke up, he found that Nova was already awake, stretching and opening her canteen again. They shared some water, and then Derek got up.
"You packed up already?" he asked as he looked at their knapsacks.
"Uh-huh. Complete with our picture and the camera," she said as she patted her pack. "Let's break camp."
"What camp?"
"I'm teasing you," she said.
Wildstar took his knapsack and pushed off through the bush beside Nova. Before long, they were back on the sandy path that led towards the bungalow.
The walk was long, but it wasn't by any means quiet. After a while, Wildstar began to whistle, and Nova joined in. They went along like that, while Derek mused that Nova would sure be a great companion to have along on a long training hike. Even though he was still tired, something about her brisk little walk had a way of picking one's spirits up.
"You know?" she said.
"Yeah?"
"This'd be even more fun on horseback," she said.
"Horseback," he asked. "But I don't know how to ride a horse."
"Well, I'll have to teach you sometime," said Nova. "It's fun, and it's a great way to keep in shape."
"When you last go galloping off into the sunset?" asked Derek.
"Last year, when you were in space," said Nova. "I was very blue one day, and my friend Natalie dragged me off to a riding stable around Jamaica Bay in Queens when we were visiting New York, and she forced me onto a mare, and took us off down some trails along the shore down to where the old Kennedy Airport was.”
"Forced you? I thought you just said it was fun? Why would you need to be forced to do something that's fun?"
"Derek, I was just a little...rusty," said Nova. "After all, I hadn't been on a horse since before the bombings."
"Oh."
"Well, I got used to it again, and then one day, just about a year ago, right after Christmas, I got to go riding again. It was right before I was sent off to the Fiji Islands on a survey mission on an odd day when we actually saw snow in the city when I did another TDY in New York. Natalie and I went out east onto Long Island, where there was just a bit more snow. We took my friend Ronnie Davis with us. We had a great time, and gave her a good laugh when Natalie and I got into one of our famous snowball fights. Then, to top the day off, after we turned in the horses, we stopped at a bar on the way home for some burgers and beer, and some drunk tried to hit on all three of us in succession! Now that was funny!"
"You'd better be careful about stopping in bars for burgers and beer like that, Nova. You don't know where it could lead you."
"Oh, we took care of ourselves," giggled Nova. "Boy, did we ever." She stopped abruptly and grabbed Derek by the arm. "THIS way."
"That's not the way back home!" he said.
"I know that!" whispered Nova with a wink. "C'mon."
The walk took them down into a hollow, filled with foliage of all kinds that Wildstar didn't recognize. They went a bit more, and descended down into a deep valley; the path leading out went uphill and it was a little bit rough.
They got out of the dell, and Derek noticed the growth changing.
He looked down, and noticed that they were now on a reed-lined path. He also heard a familiar roar in the distance.
After a few hundred meters more, Nova stopped and abruptly sat down on the side of the path. She dropped off her knapsack and tossed Derek a granola bar and a packet of beef jerky, following it up with her own.
As they began to munch out for a second, Derek noticed Nova undoing her shoes again.
"Hmmh?" he asked.
"You didn't come here before?" she asked quizzically as she pulled her shoes off.
"Nope."
"Well...you'll find out why in a bit," she said as she kicked her sandals off. "Get rid of yours, too...c'mon."
"Okay," he said as he took off his footgear and crammed it in the pack in the same manner as Nova had. While she stood there playfully kicking up some of the warm sand with her toes, Derek did admit that Nova seemed to have a good idea after all, because the soft, sandy path seemed to feel a quite a bit better in bare feet. A minute later, they were off again, plowing through the sand up a hill.
Then, Derek recognized where they were when he noticed a long line of palm trees up ahead, in conjunction with some beach grass in the distance.
"We're going home THAT way?" he asked with deliberate denseness.
"Yes, after a detour," said Nova as they went up the path
"What kind of detour?" he asked.
"A nice, wet kind," she smiled as they reached the top of the ridge and went through a gap in the tall grass.
Stretching out before them was a nice, wide, beautiful sandy beach that looked untouched by human hands.
"Ooooh," he said. "I think I see what...Nova?"
"Just getting comfortable," she said as she shrugged her knapsack off her shoulders again. She grabbed a small bottle out of it and then merrily kicked it aside into the grass.
Nova turned around on her toes and affectionately stroked the tip of her husband's nose as he dropped his pack. "Ready?" she said.
"Ready for what?" he asked with a grin.
"Oh, nothing," said Nova nonchalantly as she took a few deliberately slow steps forward...while devilishly undoing her belt and then reaching behind her back. Then, she turned to him and said, "Derek?"
"Yeah?"
"Last one in's a rotten space turtle!" she cried as she tore off, dropping her belt and dress in a quick motion as she ran off in only the sky-blue bikini she was wearing under her clothes.
"NOVA!" he cried. "That's a dirty trick!"
She didn't look back. She was giggling as she ran, taking a deliberate zig and zag through the sand to try to "lose" her husband. Along the way, she dropped her bikini one piece at a time.
Looking back to see if Derek was gaining on her (he was) and to see if HE was following suit (he was down to his swim briefs, a VERY good sign), Nova ran across the wet sand, leaving a nice little trail of footprints as she tore into the lagoon like an impish child to enjoy her cooling swim in the nude. Derek followed her, also bare.
"Oh, YEAAAHHH!" yelled Derek as he followed Nova into the clear blue tropical waters. "Surf's UP!" he whooped as he splashed down underwater in a dive. When he surfaced, he found he was treading water right near Nova. "Whoa, that felt good!"
"Well, Derek," she cried over the pounding surf. "How'd you like THAT?"
"FUN!" he responded. With a big grin on his face for a second, he got back onto his stomach and swam along a bit further, with each stroke and each warm wave knocking sleepiness out of him as the sheer adrenaline of a nice, vigorous swim began to run through him. Then, just as they had the other day, when they had gone swimming with the dolphin, they enjoyed a long swim, spending a long, playful time splashing each other, showing off with backstrokes, dives, and treading water while sneaking kisses, cuddles, and gropes right in the warm water. Since they were naked again, the groping was easy. It was a lot of, literally, good, clean fun (or was it dirty fun?) in the warm ocean. The only thing that disappointed them a little was that no dolphins showed up, even though, in one of their dives, they thought they could see some fish, but they weren't sure, because even though the water was clear, their view was blurred because they had no face masks on.
Finally, Derek and Nova hugged in the water for a second, and then Nova said, "Let's swim back, Derek. I'm getting a little tired out here..."
"Okay," said Wildstar. When they reached the shore, Wildstar sat on the sand while Nova went to their packs to get a beach towel for them to lie on. When she came back and spread it out, Derek soon had sunscreen going on his back after he and Nova dried off with another towel.
"When should we get dressed?" asked Wildstar after a long moment.
"Let's wait a while," said Nova with a smile and a wink. "Okay?"
"Okay," said Derek. "Hmm...," he said. "Hey! Look over there!"
"Where?" cried Nova, who looked around, only to find, a second later, that Derek was snuggling up to her, making funny beeping noises.
"Derek? Hey. Why are you doing that?"
"My energy level's at thirty percent," he intoned. "And, my safety lock's off. And I’m getting ready to fire…!"
"Uh-oh," said Nova. "Uh-hmm..." she said. "What's the target going...to...be...?"
"Guess," whispered Wildstar as he began to lick her womanhood. Nova gasped and squirmed. When he paused for breath, he made more beeping noises. "Target scope open!" he said.
"Oh, YOU!" chuckled Nova as they went on, forgetting all about wave motion guns about a minute later as the surf rolled on behind them and they got into the right position to pleasure each other with their mouths…. This time, they didn't get wet, but they had a wonderful time anyhow as the warm, gentle afternoon crept on and their bodies joined yet again on the beach.
Then, they went naked into the jungle.
In the jungle, they found a nice lagoon to swim in. After taking another dip, they found themselves bare in the thick foliage, where they began making love all over again.
Nova remembered how cool the growth felt under her naked body as Derek kissed her, loved her, and pleasured her. Soon, he found the center of her, and she hugged him hard and gasped happily as he made love to her, with his hands, then his mouth.
Then, he bent over her. Nova kissed him, teased him, and then she helped him take her willingly and passionately right there in the jungle.
Nova sighed, smiled, and gasped, putting up her legs and curling her toes with pleasure as their dance sped up…and they went faster and faster, going wild for each other in the cool jungle growth, and the lazy, humid afternoon air.
“Yes…yes…yes!” Nova cried as Derek brought her to climax as he also came to a shivering, sexy climax and then lay on top of her, kissing her, tickling her, and playing with her hair.
“Nova…I love you so much,” Derek said.
“I know,” Nova said softly as she kissed him back.
They lay there cuddling for quite a while, and then they feel asleep again, this time naked in each other’s arms.
_______________________
II. CONFESSIONS OF THE PAST (II. Nova)
Earth: Dominica/Sunrise Island
December 31, 2201
1740 Hours. Local Time
_________________________________________________________
Derek and Nova finally arrived back at the bungalow after a slow, romantic walk home, during which they carried their packs on their shoulders with one hand and held hands with the other. They had dressed again, but in only their swimsuits. When they arrived home, they took the shower they had meant to take and dried off. Wildstar then changed into a pair of white swim briefs decorated with a red arrow similar to that on his Star Force uniform and a t-shirt.
Nova put also put on a white swimsuit, but hers was a one-piece tank suit. However, it was trimmed in black with a stripe extending from the bodice to the neckline as the upper part of an arrow exactly like that on her Star Force uniform, with the motif continued down around her legs just as it was on her uniform.
"Who designed that?" he said when she finished pulling it on in front of him in the bedroom while he put on a white tank top.
"I don't know," shrugged Nova. "But I think it's adorable. Don't you?"
"I sure do."
"I like that arrow on your briefs, too, Derek. But...we don't need either of these arrows."
"Yeah. We KNOW where to look!"
Both of them laughed.
"I'm hungry," commented Derek.
"I think I am, too," said Nova. "Since I don't think we'll be swimming any more today, like to have some dinner?"
"Okay," he said.
"Good. You get the plates while I grab up some food. I've got to check my e-mail!"
"Now?"
"Haven't checked my box for days, Derek," said Nova as she went for her laptop. "Want to see what kind of spam hit my box?"
"Okay," said Derek. Nova had been letting hi look at her inbox on and off for the past two weeks. Some of it was amusing, some annoying, some downright creepy because weirdoes sometimes got hold of her e-mail address and occasionally sent her threats, which she forwarded to Earth Federation law enforcement.
Nova turned on her computer, established the satellite uplink connection, and then opened her e-mail reader. With a tiny chime noise, her Inbox opened. This was a sample of what came up of out of about a hundred messages...
Inbox                                       Nova Wildstar
Mistha@confort.grp                           Make Better Coffee From the Privacy of Your Own Home!
SJosiah@bouldnet.grp                      Having a Good Honeymoon?
Markensthal@electrol.grp                Enlarge Your Penis!
Xytghqera@money$$.grp                 have You saved $$$
Misty@pornhaus.grp                         Hi, I'm Misty. I'm Horney!
Courtney30@crudster.grp                Do Women Like to Fuck?
Mortvale@money$$.grp                    Your Mortgage Application is Pre-Approved!
Arianne@ernnet.grp                          Like To Do iT wiTH HorSeS?
Markesthal1@electrolb.grp             Enlarge HIS penis!
TForrester@newgrp.grp                    Nova, Honey, Are You Okay Out There? Not Too Cold?
MVenture@EDFcent.grp                   Hey, is he treating you good?
Ergonut@Centramail.grp                 Hey, babe, show me your feet? Bet Their Cute.
Mustpha@Nigerongov.grp               I am Mustapha With Needing Help From Nigerian Govt.
Loon@Centramail2.grp                    Hey bItCh Send me your picture Naked or ELSE!
Tammefae@newchurch.grp              Your Soul Needs Saving NOW! Say this prayer!
Cardserva@cosmochg.grp                Nova Forrester Did You Forget Your Bill?
"Coffee,": grunted Nova. :Must be a coincidence, or they read my book about the first mission. Next one's from Sam, mark it to write him back..."Enlarge your penis?"" she giggled. "Derek, does 'Nova' sound like a man's name?"
"No."
"I just got an e-mail telling how to enlarge my penis," giggled Nova. "I know it's spam, but it's funny! Okay. Spam, spam, Do women like to f--? I do," said Nova brightly. Both of them giggled at that. "We have a house, we don't need a mortgage. Horses? No, I do not make out with horses," giggled Nova.
"You said I was hung like one," said Derek.
His wife playfully kicked him. "Enlarge his penis? I know how already, thank you." Both of them laughed again. "Mom. Need to write her, no, Mom, I'm not cold, I'm hot...Venture. How'd he get this address?"
Derek shrugged.
"If you gave it to him, you might need a new set of teeth," giggled Nova. "Show me your feet? Oh, some weirdo with a foot fetish, turn him over to law enforcement..."
"I have a foot fetish. For your feet, of course…" said Derek. He grabbed her feet and tickled one of them….(she made an easy target because she had either worn only sandals or swim fins or gone barefoot all the time since they had landed on this island) and Nova kicked and laughed as she struggled free.
"I'll dump water on you if you don't shut up," sang Nova. "I am Mustapha...another Nigerian 401 scam...forward that to law enforcement, Hey...bitch? No, I do not send out our honeymoon pictures, send that one to law enforcement..."
"Nova, how many of these threats do you get?"
"Too many," she sighed. "One time, some sicko said he was waiting for me outside EDF HQ one night. That's the night I called you to come get me."
"Oh, crap. If I had know..."
"You would've beaten him up. That's why I didn't tell you, Derek. Your Soul needs saving now? No...on my way to the right place already...Nova Forrester Did You forget your bill...no, I paid it by mail before we left Boulder. I went out in my bathrobe the morning of the wedding to mail my bills before I put on my gown."
"Do we need food?" said Derek.
"Yes. Go for the plates, please."
Wildstar went for the reusable plastic plates that were the standard there while Nova began to cut up some roast beef from another one of the roasts she had taken out of the freezer and cooked the previous day. When combined with some tomatoes, lettuce, Swiss cheese, and mustard, the beef made some good sandwiches, accompanied by some macaroni salad, which had been Derek's contribution to their feast yesterday.
They ate outside in a contented manner on the deck, exchanging some rather nice small talk about things they were going to add to their house when they got back. Derek smiled at this, noting to himself that Nova, like many a young wife in these postwar days, was clearly in a nest-building mood.
After their dinner, and after they cleaned up the wreckage, they made their way down to another part of the beach, where Derek had spent some time putting up their volleyball net.
Nova made the first serve, and the two of them spent a good hour chasing the volleyball around, making last-minute saves to keep it in play (quite a few of which involved falls in the sand) and they had a great time.
When the volleyball game petered out, Nova spread out the beach towel she had brought with them, taking a can of beer from the cooler Derek had hauled down as she awaited him. He was standing nearby, shaking the sand out of his shirt after having stripped it off for a moment.
"Damnit, it's getting so hot again!" yelled Wildstar.
"I know..." he said as Nova gave him a mildly "annoyed" look. "I've been saying that all day."
"Derek, grab a can of beer from the cooler, lie down and let me get some sunscreen oil on your back, because you're not putting that shirt back on yet."
Wildstar got his brew and replied, "I remember you sort of took your time about this when we were about two kilometers down the beach earlier."
"We were distracted. VERY distracted." she smiled as she rubbed more lotion into his back. "Good thing we got a lot of this stuff," she said while reaching for their portable cassette player. She found it, and flicked on a tape. A guitar and piano-based rendition of "Scarlet Scarf" began to play in the background.
"Nova, look at you," said Derek. "I think you should get this on first."
"But I've got more on than you do."
"Ah...but your skin's lighter. Even with that tan, you might still get a burn."
"Okay, Derek, I give up," sighed Nova as she capped the glass bottle and left it in the sand near one corner of the towel. She laid down on her stomach, baring much of her back to the sun in the process, since her suit had a rather low-scooped back.
Wildstar began at Nova's back as she hummed away to the song. When he approached her bottom, he ran his fingers down her legs, enjoying the peaceful look on her face as she looked up at him.
Then, the song changed. Wildstar had made up the tape one day when Nova hadn't been home, and he had put selections on it that he thought she would enjoy. The tape changed to the first notes of Beethoven's familiar "Fur Eloise". Wildstar looked gently at Nova with a quizzical look to see how she'd like it.
Her reaction surprised him. She abruptly sat up, reached over to the tape player, and flicked it off rather clumsily, hitting the fast-forward button as she pushed it aside and said, "Excuse me, Derek...please."
Then, at that, she left, tearing off down the beach as fast as she could go, disappearing over the dunes.
"Nova?" he asked. "NOVA?"
Wondering what had happened, Wildstar flicked off the tape player and took off after her. He couldn't see her at first, but the trail of her bare feet in the sand wasn't too hard to pick up.
Soon, he had her in sight. Nova was running down the wet part of the sand again, holding one hand against her eyes. When he got closer, he could see she seemed to be crying as she ran.
"Nova!" he called. "Nova?"
She didn't answer. All she did was cried and ran faster.
"NOVA!" he yelled. "What...what did I do?"
At that, she stopped. She didn't turn to face him. "Nothing," she said brokenly. "Nothing...Derek. It's my fault. That's all. Please...leave me alone for a while. You...don't want to deal with a crying, crazy woman on our honeymoon. Go back...and...let me join you after I compose myself."
"Nova...you said there weren't to be any secrets between us. What happened? Was it something I did? Something I said?"
"Damnit, I said NO!" she yelled. "It's not you! It's something that happened in...happened in the past, that's all."
"Well, what?" he asked with concern in his eyes.
"I...well...I don't like Beethoven. At least...not that particular piece. You know how it bothered you when I played that one Beatles song? Because of what Diane Henson did to you?"
"Yeah..."
"Well...because of an old scar ...I don't like Beethoven's "Fur Eloise" very much."
"A...SCAR?" he asked. "Where? I...I've seen every square centimeter of you by now, and I've never seen a scar on you..."
"You can't see it. It's in here," said Nova as she turned around to face him, with her hands on her chest. "Right in my heart...on the inside. "Fur Eloise" was playing while it happened."
"Was it an old boyfriend you had?" he asked. "If it was...he'd better not ever run into me. I'll..."
"No, Derek. It's not from a boyfriend. You were the first serious boyfriend I've ever had, as a matter of fact. It was from a member of my family. I...well...It's just...one of those things. And?"
"If you'd rather not talk about it, I'll understand."
Nova took a deep, shivering breath and sat down in the sand, not caring that there was no beach towel, not caring about the fact that the surf had taken some of the sunscreen off her legs all over again as she had ran, not caring about anything at all for a moment as she paused to collect her thoughts. She almost wanted to cry again before she gritted her teeth, beating her fists angrily into the sand for a moment in a gesture that frightened Wildstar because it was so uncharacteristic of his usually gentle wife.
"Nova...if you want...we can make an exception to our rule about no secrets between ourselves. We can just go back, and---"
"NO, Derek!" said Nova with some heat in her voice. "I...I think we'd BETTER talk about it. NOW!!"
"But why?"
"Because... sometimes... I still have nightmares about this, okay?" she said. "Derek, I decided that you'd better know what I'm yelling about if I ever wake up from one of those dreams screaming...like you do when you dream about the planet bombs. The only other person who knows about this is Ronnie."
"Why? Natalie Fisher's your best friend...didn't you ever?"
"Derek, there are some things that I know you don't tell Mark about. The same goes for myself and Natalie. Ronnie Davis only knows about this...because, when we lived together, I awakened her at 0300, screaming out the name of THAT WOMAN in my sleep."
"Who?"
"Listen. You'll learn. Just listen...okay?"
"Well...okay. But...did you have an accident in training?"
"No. It happened to me when I was a child. It was done QUITE deliberately, too," said Nova with downcast eyes, as if recalling an old and very bitter memory.
"Who would DO something like that?"
"It's a long story, Derek...but I guess I'd better tell you...even though...I don't like to talk about it. "
"...any more than I like talking about Diane Henson."
"Right. But...you'd better know. Especially because some day...you might MEET the woman who put this mark in my psyche."
"Who did it?" hissed Wildstar with fire in his eyes.
"The person is a member of my family, Derek...it's not a nice story." Nova shut her eyes before going on.

"Derek , as you know," said Nova, "I was born in Boulder, Colorado, and I spent my childhood there in the Rockies until the great planet bombing attack of 2190 that ruined Earth; the same raid your parents died in. However, we also traveled a bit every now and then to visit other family members."
"My mother," continued Nova, "...had four sisters and a brother.
My mother was only the third-eldest girl of her family. Her two oldest sisters, and my two oldest aunts, are named Louise...and...Yvona. You didn't get to meet my Aunt Louise, who's the oldest of the two, at the wedding because she was ill, but my mother did say she wanted to come. You didn't get to meet my Aunt Yvona...for other reasons."
"This whole thing was the result of a visit to Aunt Yvona's place in Pennsylvania when I was ten years old..."
"Pennsylvania?" asked Wildstar. "Your aunt lived on the East Coast of the United States?"
"Actually, both Louise and Yvona lived there. Now, only Louise lives there...all alone. Her husband died from radiation sickness in 2196."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Yeah," sighed Nova. "My Uncle George was a nice old fellow."
"So were my aunts and uncles," said Derek. "I...I don't think any of them survived the Gamilons."
"Derek," whispered Nova as she gave him a reassuring hug. "Are you sure you really want to hear the rest of this?"
"Nova...you listened to me spilling my guts about something that bothered me the other day, even though I could see it was making you a little upset..."
"...it's because of what Diane and Parmon and Stovall put you through, Derek. No one deserves to have suffered like that."
"well...if you listened to me," said Derek. "I can certainly be patient and listen to you. Go on."
"All right," said Nova hesitantly. "Louise and George...lived in a part of Pennsylvania known as Montgomery County. It was one of the suburbs of the old city of Philadelphia, in a town called King of Prussia. Yvona and her husband Hiram, on the other hand, lived a bit further north, in the Lehigh Valley region, in a medium-sized city called Allensburg."
"Where was that?" asked Wildstar.
"You can't find it on a map anymore, because the Gamilons thoroughly flattened the place," said Nova. "It's near the border with New Jersey, along the Lehigh River, in a little mountainous valley. I once read that it used to be called something else to do with the name "Allen", but the place was renamed quite a few times during the Unification Wars."
"Yeah..." said Wildstar sympathetically, trying to understand, and wishing that he didn't feel so awkward around Nova right now. This was one of the moments in their relationship where he knew...he might have a hard time dealing with what she would have to say...and he wasn't sure how he could comfort her. "What were you doing in Pennsylvania then?"
"Well, in the year 2189 my cousin David, who was Louise and George's oldest son, was getting married. We had to attend the wedding, of course, and my father also took some vacation time. We arrived from Boulder on a Thursday, I went to the wedding with my parents during the weekend, and then, we stayed in Allensburg for a while...in my Aunt Yvona and Uncle Hiram's house. At that time...Uncle..."
"Was that your Uncle... Hiram Josiah?"
"Right. Josiah. My uncle was a fighter pilot then, but he eventually became a Captain, as you know. It's a miracle he survived the battle with the Cometines, you know."
"Nova...this Yvona...your aunt, said Derek awkwardly "I mean...I've heard...is she supposed to be?"
"You've heard the stories, too?" sighed Nova. "Yes. Most of them are true, unfortunately. My Aunt Yvona was, and still is, quite a religious fanatic."
Nova paused again. "As a matter of fact," she said. "It was her fanaticism...that caused all this."
"As you know, we were at Yvona and Hiram's in Allensburg. Before the war devastated the place, parts of it were fairly nice...but other parts of the city...would prove to be fascinating only to a child...even though they were creepy. For some reason... I thought the city...just didn't feel right. I can't describe it. It feels as if...something awakened there. Something...that should have died a long, long time ago. Funny...none of the other towns in the area, like Bethlehem, Easton, and Phillipsburg were quite like that. Just...Allensburg. Maybe it was because a lot of the industry had left long ago, and, then again, maybe it was just something else."
Nova paused again, looking out at the lagoon, away from Derek. "I remember the day well. Yvona and Hiram weren't home, and Mom and Dad had gone off to a museum in town. I didn't want to go with them, because I had become fast friends with my cousin Samuel, Hiram and Yvona's boy, who was just a year older than me.
"It was a late-summer day, " said Nova, "...and we had taken off on an excursion on Samuel's bicycle. We had no trouble sitting together on it: it was one of those kid's bikes with a big "banana" seat and somewhat garish colors. I'm sure you remember those, Derek."
"Yeah. I had one," he said with a smile. "Did you have one?"
"Yes...but it was a pink girl's bike, of course. And it was off in Boulder at the time in the garage," smiled Nova. "I almost wish it hadn't been...because things would've gone a little bit differently that day if I had been riding Sunset."
"Sunset?" asked Derek quizzically.
"That's what I named my bike then. I had this silly obsession with naming things. Now, the only things I'd name would be an animal or a ship; certainly not a bicycle. So, that day, Samuel and I were riding on his bike, heading through the business district of Allensburg and past the courthouse to an older part of town. I remember I didn't like the looks of it..."
"SAM?" I asked as I clung to my cousin on the back of his bike.
"Where are you taking us?"
"It's this really neat place I found, Nova! You'll like it."
"Well, what is it?"
"Long ago, it used to be a railroad station, and then, they made it into a restaurant, then a train museum, and then a little station for a steam tourist railroad that they rebuilt along the highway where the real railroad used to be, or so my dad says. Now, it's just an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere. But it's still neat."
"Why would you like to go to some abandoned building?" I asked.
"To get away."
"To get away from what?"
"Mom. Haven't you noticed? Mom's...kinda crazy," said Samuel as the bike skipped over a crack in the pavement. "Drive over a crack...break your mother's back," he sang as the bike flew over some patched spots in the street.
"Sam? Why are you singing that? That's not nice!"
"What's not nice?"
"Singing about your mother like that!"
"Nova...you don't know what I go through. Didn't you say, when you first met her, that she seemed...?"
"Yes, I said she seemed creepy," I replied. "Why does she wear mostly black?" I asked.
"It's this thing she has."
"And...why does she have all those religious medallions around? She has pictures of saints I've never HEARD of. Like Saint Simon...Saint Cyril...Saint Methodius...and Saint Kularu. Who's he?"
"She's creepy," said Sam, weaving his way around Nova's question. "And she scares me. And she yells all the time. And she drinks too much. And I hate being around her by myself because when Dad's away on missions at the fighter base or an alert comes up, she gets weird and makes me pray weird prayers with her. Prayers about destroying her enemies and prayers that God will make her enemies burn in Hell. And if I don't pray just right...BAM! She hits me. Does your mom ever hit you, Nova?"
"Not much...not since I was little, anyway."
"My mom used to hit me all the time when I was three, I think," said Sam. "No, I take that back."
"Why?"
"Because."
"Because WHAT?" I asked.
"Just because," snapped Sam.
Then, we stopped at the train station. It was in an old part of town, and you had to go over a bridge to get to it. I still remember it to this day. It was an old orange-brown brick building with a big, high clock tower, a big slate roof, and these curved windows, and someone had put up what surely had to be a reproduction of an old sign that had once been on the building. It was a red sign that read "PASSENGER STATION" and it had the crests of the old, long-gone Jersey Central Lines and Reading Lines on it in white. They were a little hard to see, though...because the sign was filthy.
We walked around to the side where the old, abandoned steam railroad tracks were, sort of running up alongside this boulevard. There was just one track left, and I still remember how my little brown Docksides crunched over the cinders beside the old roadbed as I walked on it behind Sam..."
"ROADBED?" asked Derek quizzically. "Nova, aren't maglev tracks usually built on a concrete foundation?"
"Derek, this was the remains of an old-style steam railroad track, like the sort you see in the history books," explained Nova. "Have you ever seen an old railroad track?"
"No...they didn't have any left in my part of Great Island."
"Okay," said Nova helpfully as she stood up. "This track," she said as she drew a line in the wet sand with her big toe, "had an iron or steel rail on one side, like this, on a wooden crosstie, with another one," explained Nova as she paced out about a meter and a half and drew a parallel line in the sand at that point, "...about this far away. The trains ran on steel wheels on these rails, and there was a roadbed made of crushed rock or cinders holding it all together."
"You seem to know a lot about this. Did you ever see a working excursion line?"
"Yes, in Colorado, when I was small. It was a little narrow-gauge line that was part of the old Rio Grande railroad. They ran it for the tourists. Samuel told me at that time that they used to run this line in Allensburg along the route of the ancient railroad for the same reason. I remember that I had no socks on with my Docksides, and the stones hurt my feet a little through the thin shoes. Anyway, I wondered how Sam was faring walking on that stony roadbed, since all he had on his feet were flip-flops. He had on shorts and a t-shirt, and I had on a little skirt with a sailor top."
"I can just picture it," said Derek with a smile. "You were the cute, well-dressed, neat little one, while he was the grungy-looking one, right?"
"Well, he wasn't quite grungy, but he looked a little less neat than I did, Derek. But he still looked cute."
"So, there we were," continued Nova, "walking up and down this roadbed, looking at these old rusty rails, when Sam said, "Nova, hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"It's...someone's around..."
I remember crouching down behind a bush while a set of footsteps crunched their way down the path. Then, I heard a dog barking. Two bigger kids showed up. One was a REALLY-grungy looking kid of about fourteen or fifteen while the other was a younger fellow of about thirteen. They just looked filthy and ugly.
They had a dirty-looking brown dog with them, sort of a mutt.
"Hey, lookit this!" said the older boy. "Ya see this?"
"Do I see what, craphead?" asked the other kid.
"Ya see these damn tire tracks in the dirt? I think there's some little crapheads that rode a bike down here! I"
"Nova?"
"I...don't feel right telling this part of it. As you can guess, those boys were using TERRIBLE language."
"Nova, all you said was "Damn", and "Craphead."
"Neither of which are nice. Would you lightly wish damnation on anyone, Derek? I don't."
Derek nodded, not wanting to remind Nova that she had snapped "DAMNIT" before when she had been angry at him. He had never heard her talk like that before, so it had seemed unusual. What she was saying now made sense as she continued with, " I don't think you would...especially because I know your native religion also believes in a Hell of a sort...and now, you also believe in the Biblical Hell."
"Yeah...some of those Buddhist Hells I've heard about sound pretty gruesome. Almost as bad as Dante's version of Hell."
"Let me go on," said Nova. "Even though I may have to gargle my mouth after I'm done. What those boys said...well...if I'm going to be a honest storyteller...I guess I'll have to report it. But I don't like it. Going on..."
"Whatdaya mean, Denny?" I remember the other boy saying.
"Lenny," I heard him saying as my ears burned. "... you got..." and Nova paused again, clearing her throat before continuing with, "he said, "you got...friggin' rocks in your head? YOUR people are the ones that are dumb!"
"There's two kids around here! And they've got a bike!"
"Yeah...if we steal it..."
"Yo, KIDS!" yelled the one named Denny. "Let us have your bike. Then maybe we won't kick your butts!"
And, at that, a rock flew out of the place where Sam was hiding.
It hit Denny square in the forehead.
"YAAAAA!" he yelled...just as Sam showed up to reclaim his bike.
Before Lenny could get his hands on it, Sam had it. At the same time, of course, he was yelling, "NOVA! Follow me! RUN!"
I followed him, running between my bush and the old station building to try to get away from Lenny, who started chasing me.
But, Denny was the smarter one. Even though he was stunned, he had enough brains to call his dog. "YO! NORTON! Get 'em!" he yelled.
A minute later, I screamed, since I had a nasty dog barking, growling, and snapping right in front of me. I was scared...but I didn't lose it.
I noticed that one of the doors to the abandoned railroad station was open, so I ran right inside. Norton caught my scent a minute later, and he was right on my heels. But I ran, tearing my way through that old building towards something that looked like a doorway on the far side, which I later found out faced west.
I got through there and found Sam outside, trying to hold onto his bike. Lenny was pulling on it with one hand, and Sam was pulling on it with the other hand. Then, Lenny slapped Sam with a free hand, and I slapped Lenny right back.
"Hey? What's this?" he said. "Little GIRLS ain't supposed to fight big boys!"
"Well, big boys aren't supposed to pick on LITTLE kids, either!" I screamed back. Then, I said. "And where did you learn to TALK like that? You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

"Weren't you scared?" asked Wildstar.
"Terrified, actually," answered Nova. "I think they had me crying by then. But I didn't give up. I just said, "And if you know what's right...you'd better stop this now! Someone's bound to come along and see you!"
"Ha, ha, HA!" sneered Lenny. "Hey! Look! Norton's comin' for ya! Wanna be stinkin' dog food, little girl?"
Well, I got so mad that I screamed. Then, I kicked Lenny in the shin as hard as I could...."
"Then, what happened?" asked Wildstar.
"Then, Derek, I lost one of my shoes, Norton came out and snapped at me, and Denny threw a rock at us. But, Sam and I were free. Sam threw another rock at the kids, and then he just grabbed me, pulled me on the bike, and sped off."
"By then," continued Nova, "we were both filthy...just as filthy as the other kids, as a matter of fact, and Sam had lost both of his flip-flops.
We sped away to the nearest street, with Norton tearing after us. The street was one that also ran uphill, but it at least curved, so Sam could pedal the bike up it...even though we were swerving up and down that sidewalk like crazy to avoid Norton.
At one point, the dog sunk his teeth into my skirt, which was flying back in the wind. I screeched, and slapped him pretty good, getting nipped in the process...and losing a bit of my skirt. Luckily, Sam swerved at that moment, cutting off into the street. Norton ran over a sewer grating and got a paw caught in it as he ran. It only slowed him down a little but that was the last we saw of him for a bit
The kids were behind us, coming with sticks. We reached the top of the hill a minute later, and Sam yelled, "Nova, hold on! I'm not STOPPING THIS BIKE!"
So, we just tore on downhill, flying like the wind was after us. I still don't know why we didn't fall off that bike and split our heads open on the pavement..."

"Sounds like some of the scrapes Alex and I were through," said Derek.
"Yes, but did you have to get home to someone like Aunt Yvona?"
"I had my parents...especially my Dad, who was terror on you if you were bad."
"But you never had Yvona to contend with, and SHE'S the real point of this story, Derek."
"When we got home," continued Nova, "Sam put his little card-key in the lock beside the old, wooden door, and listened to it buzz before we stepped into my Aunt Yvona's living room".
"Yvona's parlor was a creepy-looking place. It was dark, with a dark red Persian-style rug, and a lot of overstuffed furniture in dark green and red velvet. A big grandfather clock ticked in there all the time, and there were a lot of mirrors around, surrounded by all of those pictures of those saints."
"Yvona," said Nova after a pause, "was one of those women who was already beginning to look old at a young age. She was about the age my mother is now, but she had her hair pulled in a bun even tighter than the one my mother wears, and she already had a few streaks of gray in it. Also, her hands were already covered with liver spots, and they were wrinkled, and her face looked very thin and drawn, but she was getting a paunch under her dress. Very unusual for our family. She was wearing a little pair of glasses, and she was knitting something when we came in. And, Beethoven was playing on the stereo. She was playing "Fur Eloise," like I said. She really liked that piece for some reason..."
"Sam and I both huffing, puffing, and trying to keep from crying our heads off."
"WHAT do you two think you're doing?" she hissed as we came in.
"Mom, a DOG was after us!" said Sam as she threw down her knitting.
"A dog was after you," repeated Yvona mockingly. "Is that any reason to come tearing in here like a little barbarian, Samuel? HUH?"
"No...and.."
"Auntie, I can explain everything," I said. "We..."
Then, she turned her eyes on me. They were dark, and they looked a lot like my mother's, but meaner. She said, "My dear, DEAR niece. You're the older one! Your parents say you're so good, so let's hear YOUR story first!" she said as she got up and turned her Beethoven up even louder.
"All right," I said. "Sam and I were down by the old train station. We went down there to look around at stuff...when these older kids showed up with a dog! They wanted to steal Sam's bike and beat us up, but Sam protected both of us by throwing rocks at these punks, and we got away. While we were running, Sam lost his shoes, and I lost one shoe and the dog bit my skirt," I said, holding out the ripped part of my skirt and my dirty bare foot as proof, "but we got home okay."
"Does he still have his bicycle?" snapped Yvona.
"Yes, and it's out on the porch, Mom," said Sam.
"Shut up! I wasn't talking to you! Whose idea was this?"
"I went down there, Mom, I'm..."
"That's not good enough. Get over here!"
"What?" said Samuel.
"Get over here NOW!" yelled Yvona as she picked up a bedroom slipper of hers from under the skirt of her chair. Sam came up to the chair, and Yvona just pulled him over like a madwoman. He struggled, but she forced him onto her lap. Then, she twisted him around, forced his...behind up in the air...and began flailing away with that bedroom slipper of hers.
I just stood there in shock and watched. She had her hand over his mouth, and she was just...beating him. I never saw anything like that before, and I wanted to just get out of that house! I prayed, "Please God, make mama and papa show up...now...just make them come...make them come and make her stop this..."
Finally, I said, "Auntie...why...?"
"SHUT UP, brat!" she screamed at me as she slapped Samuel while he screamed. I wondered what she was doing to him to make him scream like that, and I wondered if I could call the police or something, when she stopped, slapped him across the mouth, and threw him off onto the floor.
"Get out of here, boy, and go off and ask God to forgive you," hissed Yvona...right as she grabbed me.
She held me back while she went over to her stereo, ran the tape back, and then began playing "Fur Eloise" again, even louder than before while she cracked her knuckles. Oh, what an awful sound she made!
"Auntie!" I cried. "What are you doing?"
"Nova, dearie; does your mother believe in "spare the rod and spoil the child?"
"No...I almost never even get hit."
"Well...she SHOULD hit you, and more often!" screamed Yvona. "Get over here! NOW!"
I was...terrified, but still used to listening to adults. I don't know...maybe I was too good. Maybe, in some ways...I still am...but...well, I came over towards Yvona. Then, she hugged me hard around the waist with her right hand and threw herself down in the chair.
Before I knew it, she had me over her knee. I struggled...not wanting to get hit with that slipper. She just slapped me across the face and snorted, "REBEL! Stay down! Now, we shall begin..."
"DON'T!" I screamed as I realized what she was about to do with that slipper. Then, she threw up my skirt, and, worst of all, pulled off my underpants as I struggled.
Before she replied, the slipper slapped my bare ass... with a terrible force. It was a hard-soled slipper, and it HURT when it hit you there," said Nova. "She just went on and on as she reached back to turn Ludwig Von up even louder...and...soon...I found out why Sam was screaming. The slipper, you see, had a nail head sticking out of the heel...just a little bit. Whenever that nail hit your...rear end...it hit it almost hard enough to draw blood.
Soon, I felt a very, very sharp pain, and I felt some blood running down...down me...between my legs. That was when I was punctured. She...she cut my bottom with it...right here," said Nova as she turned in the sand to lie on her stomach. "It didn't leave a mark...at least...not permanently," said Nova as she patted her posterior and then gave herself a wedgie on purpose to expose her firm, lightly tanned buttocks to Derek for emphasis. "And...Derek, that's when she stopped."
"She must have stopped when she realized she was leaving marks on a kid who wasn't hers," said Derek. "Right?"
"Right, I guess. She just stopped at that point, and threw me off her lap like I was poison. Before I could react, she pulled me up, and said, "Child, don't you bleed on my rug, you accursed little hypocrite! I never let Samuel bleed on my rug, and you shouldn't do it either. Clean yourself UP, child! Children never appreciate their elders! God knows I had enough trouble having him, and he never appreciated me! NEVER! Six times I tried, six times I lost the issue...and HE came on the seventh try and never appreciated me! Being pregnant isn't FUN, dear! Do YOU want to get pregnant?"
"I...I'm not sure what that is," I said. Remember...I was just ten...and Mother hadn't told me very much about that sort of thing yet, you know, and I hadn't learned much in school at that age, either.
"Well, you'd better learn, or you'll be pregnant before you're fourteen...little whore!" she screamed. "Little trollop! Your mother got lucky! Wham-bam, and out you came! First try, too! I'll bet she had a LOT of fun making you, the little whore! I'll bet she made you to BEETHOVEN, you little worm! How dare she abuse the Master's music like that? You little smarty-pants; think you're so good? Think again!"
"You think again, Auntie! Wait until I tell my mother what you DID!" I screamed back. Then, she slapped me again. Right across the mouth, too.
"You won't tell anyone, Nova!" she barked back. "If you tell, I'll find you, hunt you down, and KILL you. Then, I'll leave your body totally undressed in a ditch by the river for the stray dogs to eat! Then, will you think that's FUN?"

At that, the adult Nova stopped abruptly. She was crying again.
"Nova, that's HORRIBLE!" said Wildstar in amazement. "You never told your mother?" he asked very gently.
"No, I never did!" sobbed Nova. "You're only the second person in the world I've ever had the...courage...to tell this, remember? Ronnie was the only other one...and she had to know, because her crazy roommate woke her up one night screaming, okay?"
"Did your mother ever find out...I mean...from the signs?"
"No. I did a good job at keeping my body hidden from my mother during the rest of the trip, not that she would've looked there, much, anyway...and I managed to treat the little wounds all by myself. I...I also helped Samuel tend to himself when no other adults were around. Also, of course, I changed all my clothes and kept that skirt and underwear hidden from Mother in my little suitcase. When she finally saw it a few days later when we got home, I told her that a dog in Boulder attacked me on my way back from the library. Then, when she popped in on me after I got out of the tub, and she saw...the mark on my rear end...she asked if I got THAT from the dog, too. I lied...I said I did, and it was off to the doctor for shots. God, did they HURT!" sobbed Nova. "Mother never found out that it was really her sister...but I think she suspected something. The two times we went back to the East Coast before the bombings came in earnest, we stayed at Aunt Louise's. We never went back to Yvona's again, and when I saw her again when I was twelve at my Uncle Nathan's place in Texas, she just smirked at me...and I got real quiet. We...we...BOTH knew why."
"That sounds..."
"Derek...sometimes...well...I told you I still DREAM about that woman! She's horrible! I...well...I'm still scared of her...and..."
"Nova...don't worry about it...don't worry about her...you'll be all right. You'll be fine..."
"Derek...just..."
Nova then fell into his arms and began to cry her heart out.
Wildstar simply held her as close as he could...and stroked her hair as he continued to soothe her and whisper reassurance.
They were like that for quite a while.
Some time during that moment, Wildstar felt so much compassion for her that he thought, Nova...if anyone...ANYONE...ever lays an unwanted hand on you again...so help me...they're...they're going to regret it...
It took quite a while for Derek to finally calm his young bride down. But, he understood. As Nova knew, he, too, knew what it was like to suffer unexpected pain at the hands of a cruel, uncaring world, and just as she had comforted him, so also did he finally succeed in comforting her.
And, in that comforting, the bond between them grew even closer. And, in telling those stories to each other, they became even closer than the run-of-the-mill lovers of that time.
They became, more than ever, their very closest friends. In each other, they knew they had found someone that one could share your darkest, deepest secrets with without any fear of rejection or reprisal.
They knew, then, even more than ever, that if they needed a friend, a comforter, they'd always, always be there for each other...in the good times... and in the bad times.

Finally, later that evening, they were back in the bungalow. The storm had passed, and Wildstar had long since wiped the tears away from Nova's cheeks and listened to the last sob. They had come back inside in a close embrace, and couldn't help making love again in the shower as they began to wash the sand off along with the dark memories of their conversation. They emerged cleansed on the inside as well as the outside and then they dressed, with Wildstar putting on denim shorts and a navy blue T-shirt, and Nova dressing in a white pullover top, black shorts, and her low white sandals. When Wildstar saw Nova putting on her shoes, he added brown Docksides to his apparel and then they both sat in the living room, listening to some music that came up on the short-wave from the Megalopolis.
While they listened, they were reminiscing about everything they had done on their honeymoon trip so far; their explorations of the island, their diving sessions (during which they had captured some BEAUTIFUL underwater photographs), their little excursions on their jet-skis, their moonlight swims, the times they had cuddled on the beach, their little picnics and volleyball games, and all the hours they had just spent talking to each other and snuggling like two teenagers.
"You know, there's one thing we haven't done yet..." said Derek.
"What is it? I can't think of ANYTHING we haven't done..." replied Nova.
"We...haven't opened Commodore Hoshiyama gift box yet," said Wildstar.
Both of them paused. The dark wood box sat across the room on a shelf, untouched, and, as of yet, unopened.
"Well, we have a while to recover from any ill effects," said Nova with a wink, "So...let's try the sake now. After all...there's no time like the present...and it IS New Years' Eve."
"Nova, are you SURE?" asked Wildstar as she ran over to the shelf and grabbed the box.
"I think Commodore Hoshiyama would be very insulted if we didn't use his gift at least once," said Nova innocently as she opened it.
Nova sat deliberating for a moment, and then she poured it into a glass. "Derek?"
"Yes, for the sake of Commodore Hoshiyama, a bang-up honeymoon, and a great New Years' Eye, let's drink!"
"Good idea," said Nova. They clinked glasses, whispering, "Cheers," at each other.
Then, Nova took her first sip of the unheated sake.
The first taste of the liquid burned her taste buds and the roof of her mouth. Then, it burned its way down her throat. For a second, Nova almost retched the vile liquid right up, but her notions of propriety (one of which was that it just wasn't LADYLIKE to barf in front of your husband) kicked in, and she allowed her stomach to accept the dubious gift.
Immediately, her head began to spin as a warming sensation ran its way straight down to her toes like a wave. Her vision seemed a little bit blurry, and she wondered why, until she looked up at Derek and saw that the commander of the Star Force was sitting there with a very zonked-out look on his face and tears forming in his eyes. He looked rather like he had just been hit by an airbus.
"Whhoooaaa," he said, shaking his head back and forth. "I forgot that this stuff hit you like THIS! Nova...?" he moaned. "You okay?"
Nova was, in the meantime, picking up her glass and sipping at it. She didn't look particularly unhappy. As a matter of fact, she looked rather amused. When she finished her glass, she was wearing a slightly cockeyed smile, and she muttered, "I don't believe this!"
"What?" moaned Wildstar.
"My mouth doesn't hurt anymore! I'm feeling GREAT!" she said in a very slow voice, with her country-girl Colorado accent being VERY prominent at this moment, even MORE prominent than usual. She grabbed Derek's glass (rather shakily) and poured him some more of the stuff. Then, she poured some more for herself, and whispered, "Kampai," before breaking out in giggles.
A few minutes later, Nova was laughing as she ran over to the small piano that was in one corner of the bungalow. She was normally a fairly good pianist, but now, she banged out "Auld Lang Syne" in a terrible, off-key fashion as she giggled, "Happy New Year!"
This is fun, thought Wildstar through a mind that began to feel like cotton candy as Nova tried to play on She's never gotten this giggly before on just one drink!
Nova was sipping at her stuff with a big, wide smile on her face, and she stood up, shaking a little in her sandals. She sat down again and sort of kicked them off, and then got up, finding that navigation was much easier in bare feet. "What time isit?" she asked as she stood by the piano again, banging away off-key before giving up.
"I don't know," moaned Derek. "Is thish shtill New Yearz Eve?"
"Does it matter?"
"Nope."
"You know...I wish Pop had given us this stuff right after we got home? We could've really used it then, Derek...really," said Nova as she struggled over to the short-wave and began to spin the dial around, looking for another station. All she got was noise and static.
"Oh...there's nothing GOOD on the radio!" she said.
"Who needs the radio?" moaned Wildstar as he took a third drink; this time straight up. He was now at the point where he felt no more pain, so it didn't matter.
"Right...let's get a movie on...a New Year's movie!" said Nova as she fished around for a videotape, dropping far more of them than she got. Soon, she forgot about her mission, and bumped her way over to the couch, where she fell into Derek's lap and poured herself her third glass of the vile brew, also straight.
Around the time she was drinking her third glass of sake, her memory began to slide away into some nether state. Wildstar's fell into the same state around that time.
Afterwards, the two of them had no conscious memory of what they did for the rest of that night...except that it can be said they didn't end up in their bedroom...and it took them two full days to recover... in a manner, however, that was not at all inconsistent with their honeymoon objectives!
It was a very good thing that they were all alone on an island and on leave during this period of time.
Otherwise, (in the real world) almost ANYTHING could have happened...
END.
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Trade Winds (Extended)