The Confederation, a group of independent worlds bonded together for mutual trade and defence, have a dirty little secret in how they make their trading ships - hijacking the souls of dead transgendered. Please follow one subject's rebirth into the Confederation.

Epilogue to follow.

---

I started to do a number of things simultaneously.

On board, I tried to cast the bag out myself, but a complex set of wards prevented me. I could however pick it up telekinetically, so I started to lift it into the air and into an open area away from the walls.

On the ground, I went to tackle Hok, trying to prevent him doing whatever he was doing to the PDA.

Hok saw me coming and twisted so I couldn't reach the PDA, but I knocked into his side and sent him sprawling. His face took on a look of triumphant victory as he made one last press on the PDA.

Presumably some kind of radio signal had been sent. I had the speed of light on my side, and had just under a tenth of a second to figure out what to do. I had a very bad feeling about Hok wanting to be out of the line of sight of the volcano, and therefore the Kutnarhaa inside the volcano.

I did the inverse of my casting trick, I spun two thousand kilometres away, but excluded the bag from the spin. The nuke went up six hundredths of a second later.

On my bridge, everyone heard the pop and the lower air pressure as I had excluded everything for a metre around the bag, including air, from the spin.

From the ground, there were two massive sunbursts, one just over the horizon and one a fraction of a second later lit up the sky above us. From space, the burst underneath me obscured everything else.

Since I was in contact with him, I tried to teleport Hok back to the ship, but a similar set of wards prevented it from working.

"What have you done!" I yelled at him.

His triumphant look turned to one of worry.

"You ... you're dead!" he said. Right, he knew exactly what he was doing and that it was a nuke, and expected my brain to be in little pieces right now. Out goes one theory.

"You're assuming I didn't know what you were up to, and Tag wasn't ready to toss your warded bag out an airlock as soon as we left?" I bluffed, not wanting him to know how close it was. I was also relaying this to Tag.

"How much do you know?" he asked, looking very coldly at me.

Some long standing questions of my mysterious origin all fell into place for me.

"That your cross-spinning technology was crap, and you needed to merge your silver dragon magic with demonic magic, but your home dimension had no way to do that?" I asked, and by the ashen look on his face I knew I'd struck gold.

"That you planned to blow up the vast majority of my body up there, leaving you to plunder my intact human body down here for combined dragon and demon DNA, while the diplomatic teams has been rendered unable to report back?" I guessed again, because that was the only thing that made sense.

He still seemed to be struck dumb.

"By the way, if the best you can come up with is a lame excuse like needing to cut wool, you should at least have something sharp on you."

I had intended that to be the final insult to him, but unfortunately it seemed to do the opposite. He laughed.

"So, I made one mistake at the end. I bet you figured the rest out just now?"

<<Bugger, tipped my hand.>> I thought at Tag.

<<How's he planning on getting out of this?>>

<<I bet you somehow he leaked the repeatable calculation to the Faithful, and they'll turn up very soon to rescue him.>> I realised as I thought it at Tag.

I didn't answer Hok's question, but that in itself was probably an answer.

"One thing is bothering me, though, why not just steal a sample from me?"

"You're still a babe in the woods when it comes to magic. You know, I tried to make sure that the silver dragon DNA ended up with someone from a no-magic world, to make tricking you so much easier."

<<Careful honey, if he's baiting you like that, he still thinks he can salvage something from this.>> Tag commented.

Tag was right, and I had no idea what Hok was planning and no time to figure it out. I needed to put him on ice, but how do you capture a mage? The only answer I was traditionally aware of was by knocking them out, but I suspected these hither-to unknown wards might provide an answer as well. The wards were presumably something the Faithful had stumbled across that we didn't know about.

So while he was busy gloating, I punched Hok, as hard as I could, right in the chest. Not as hard as a human would, not even as hard as my enhanced musculature and skeleton would allow. I punched as hard as I could with a massive telekinetic force behind it, so my hand actually went through his heart and shattered his spine. With my right arm embedded in his chest cavity, my left reached for the necklace under his clothes he'd never worn before and I ripped it off, before spinning to one of my medical bays.

<<In medical two, I've shattered his heart and spine.>> I thought to Tag.

<<I'd join you, but the Faithful could turn up any second.>>

"Ship, get us into firing position on the calculated spin-point."

"Aye, sir."

"Tactical, get me some options against the Faithful's ships."

Now, if this happened three days ago I'd have no idea what to do and Hok would be dead, but I only did this thanks to my recent lessons from Kart on using magic for medical uses. Understanding the problem with Jan, Kart had showed me a technique to use magic to place a body suffering trauma into a kind of suspended animation, so that no matter what the injury I could get someone to where a specialist could deal with the problem. It took a lot of power to start, the kind only ships, groups of mages, or mages over a thousand years old have access too, but once going only extremely slight top-ups are required to keep it active.

I had to extract my hand from his chest first, and a few bits came back out that I'd rather not think about. The pain and shock had caused him to pass out, so there was no problem placing him on a gurney and into suspended animation. By not causing trauma directly to the head, hopefully someone could work medical miracles on him later and we could interrogate him.

<<Be there soon, I need to wash.>>

I cast myself directly into the shower, and stripped off while starting the water. I had a bit of a cry at the betrayal, Rix's death by nuclear blast, and the personal violence I had been forced to perform.

<<You OK?>> Tag asked, concerned, clearly feeling some of my metal trauma through our link.

<<As good as can be expected under the circumstances.>> I thought.

I finished my quick shower, got dressed quickly and headed out to the bridge, taking my customary seat next to Tag.

While in the shower, tactical had suggested given their almost purely technological ships and fearsome nanites, that if a ship did turn up we should take advantage of their surprise in the fraction of a second after arrival to hit them with their own weapon, an X-ray laser to punch two holes through the hull, then form a magically enhanced electrical circuit through the holes, essentially electrocuting it from the inside. After some time of that, multiple pinpoint X-ray lasers to punch through to their fusion generator and disrupt it. Tag had ordered me to do this without delay should one of their ships arrive.

<<Tag, should I try calling mentally for help?>>

<<Who can we trust?>>

<<I was thinking of Pif and Dirk, they're still stuck on guard duty on Vechog, and can get a marine platoon on-board pretty quick.>>

<<Good idea, but word might leak from them to someone else. Don't contact unless a Faithful ship actually turns up.>>

<<OK, Tag.>>

It was another three and a bit hours before one of the boxy metallic ships spun in exactly on my calculated point.

"Firing!" I shouted, but by the time I had finished the shout the twin holes had been punched in it's hull and electricity was lancing through it. It was tough controlling that much positive charge down one path and that much negative charge down another without the two crossing before hitting the ship. After wrestling with the charges for just over three seconds, the last of the fluctuations that indicated things were shorting out faded, so I dropped the electricity and fired X-ray lasers from all five emitters as tightly focussed as I could.

The five holes punched through the hull were just over a millimetre in diameter, and all converged on where the fusion generator was located, now unregulated from the shorted out computer. It just shy of a second to get there, and if the ship wasn't already dead in space it just wouldn't have worked due to movement. Containment was lost and plasma vented through the parts of the ship closest to the fusion generator.

"Faithful ship disabled!"

<<Pif, can you get me?>>

<<Yes, but it's like there's cotton wool in the part of my mind talking with you.>> I understood what she meant of getting her reply, the intent of the mental communication was oddly muffled.

<<I'm in another dimension, Mage Hok was in league with the Faithful and tried to trigger a nuke inside me, and I've just disabled a Faithful ship. Any chance of some backup?>>

<<Wow, you don't do thing by halves, talking to Dirk now.>>

"Ship, did you get through to the Retrack?"

"Yes, co-ordinating now, sir."

"Tactical, any signs of danger?"

"Still scanning, isolated weak life signs from the left and right rear areas, sir."

<<OK, how do we get there?>>

<<Get to this location ... >> and I relayed the co-ordinates of the calculated cross-spin point << ... and let me know, we'll pop across and transmit the calculations to you.>>

<<OK, we'll grab some marines and get there. Twenty minutes to planet-fall, five to load marines, and then the best I can do is three spins. First one should be under a minute to calculate, next two will be around 10 minutes each.>>

Normally ships got a good feel for their current location by calculating various spins away to keep our minds busy, so it was usually fairly quick to spin away from somewhere you'd been for a while as you could use bits of other calculations done. Once somewhere new, you had to work up a complete set of calculations. My gift as a silver was to do this much faster than anyone else, for Pif to do it in ten minutes was a testament to our basic ship design, training from me, and her willingness to do slightly rough spins that could make people a bit sick.

<<Thanks, I'll relay.>>

I brought up my report light.

"Ship?"

"Retrack reports estimated arrival time with marines of fifty minutes, sir."

"Thank you, ship, I think we're all going to be a little nervous until then. Tactical?"

"The ship seems mostly dead, there are a few life signs from the the rear sections on the sides which escaped the electrical shocks, sir."

"Thank you tactical. Environmental?"

"The air ionised through most of the ship, and I think most died from a combination of electrical shock and fried lungs. Life support is out, but there are still a few who avoided the ionised air in the rear areas and are now in space suits, sir."

"Thank you environmental. Tactical, any sign of nanite activity?"

"None I can pick up since the fusion generator vented, but all reports are these guys are very good at this, sir."

"Conjecture, tactical?"

"It looks safe, but I wouldn't want to go over there, sir."

I think that's pretty much how we all felt.

"Thank you, tactical. We wait."

A few minutes later I heard from Jet.

<<What are you up too now?>> she asked.

<<Pif up to something?>>

<<Where are you? You're oddly muffled.>>

<<Another dimension. Sorry, I think it's classified.>>

<<Dirk's asked a platoon of marines to be ready for some unscheduled training. I asked Pif privately what was going on and she told me to ask you.>>

<<Tell Fix but no-one else, but a Faithful agent high within ConFed just nuked one of our diplomatic ships and the people they were negotiation with, and almost got away with nuking me as well.>>

<<It's an internal job?>>

<<Don't tell anyone this just yet, not even Fix, OK?>>

<<Err ... OK.>> I could sense her hesitancy.

<<Mage Hok brought on his overnight bag with a nuke inside. I confronted him and he admitted he was a Faithful agent.>>

<<Holy mother of cow!>>

<<Yes, exactly. We don't know who else was in on it, and we don't know what is bugged, so please don't go repeating it.>>

<<I copied your trick with Tag and took some of Fix's muscle fibres, I presume it's OK with him if I tell him mentally?>>

<<Fine with me.>> I thought, somewhat surprised that she'd allow that level of mental intimacy. I had time on my hands, I may as well chat for a bit. <<How's the link going for you?>>

<<I only use it when I have to. Neither of us are really comfortable with sharing thoughts. Sharing bodily fluids and a bed is fine, but we need some privacy!>>

<<Be that way, then.>> I said it with teasing humour. <<I'm happy with Tag, our link is open at least at the emotional level almost all the time.>>

<<Eww!>> She thought back at me. <<I can't bring myself to do anything but language. You sappy lovebirds!>>

Half an hour later, tactical raised a report.

"Tactical?"

"One of the space-suited individuals has moved to an airlock, I think they are manually blowing it, sir."

"Conjecture, tactical?"

"Probably decided after this time that staying there and doing nothing is a death sentence. My guess is getting out to see if any of their escape capsules is functioning, sir."

"Any chance of that, tactical?"

"There's no signs of even standby power in them, so if they are repairable it'll take enough time for us to respond, sir."

"Thank you tactical. Ship, fire on any escape pods launched in our direction."

"Aye, sir."

We were in the opposite direction to the planet, since the cross-spin solution was optimised for a ship facing the planet, and I'd stationed us behind, from the belief that primary sensor sweeps would be in front of them towards the planet to see where we were, given that both ships should be in at best molecule sized pieces.

The person inside did make it out, and went to inspect the escape capsules on that side of their craft. Apparently writing them all off, the space-suited individual went to the other side, and used a maintenance hatch to enter the rearmost escape pod on that side of the ship. The inspection had taken them around ten minutes, Pif was due in roughly ten.

Five minutes later I got the call from Pif.

<<We're here, but some of my passengers aren't happy about it.>>

<<Relaying.>> I responded, raising a report light.

"Ship?"

"The Retrack has arrived and is in our position for us to relay cross-spin co-ordinates, sir."

"Thank you ship. Tactical, what chances of that escape pod launching?"

"Only just got low power up, I think from the suit to try and kick-start the on-board electrical system. At least a minute, I think, sir."

"Thank you tactical. Environmental, do you concur?"

"Yes sir."

"Ship, cross spin, send calculation, cross-spin back, on my mark. Mark!"

Didn't give me a lot of time, but I was expecting it. I even threw in my scans of the ship so their marines could plan their attack. Back where we were three seconds later.

<<You didn't hang around, things tense over there?>> Pif asked.

<<We have a survivor trying to get an escape pod working.>>

<<Thanks, relaying. Working out the variables for your calculation, hopefully be with you in less than twenty seconds.>>

<<Thanks Pif, you're a real life saver.>>

<<Tag, Retrack here in less than twenty seconds.>>

Then they were here. After about five seconds, I felt Pif casting marines into various places on the doomed ship.

<<That was fast.>> I sent to her.

<<We had been planning assault plans based on the previous ship layouts well before you even called.>>

<<I should have realised.>> I thought back at her.

"Retrack has marines boarding the Faithful ship." Tactical called out.

I raised my report light.

"Ship?"

"Requesting permission to board the Faithful ship after it has been secured by the marines, sir."

"After a sample from their mage's spin rig, ship?"

"Yes sir."

"Permission granted."

"Aye, sir." I went to put on my space suit with the video rig embedded in the helmet.

<<Pif, I need to get onto that ship when it's secure, I have good reason to believe there's something up with their mage's spin-rig.>>

<<Do tell.>>

<<I'm pretty sure DNA matching my silver dragon DNA donor is going to turn up somewhere in it.>>

<<Oh, this is going to be good. Spill the beans.>>

<<I guessed what Hok and the Faithful were up to, and he didn't deny it. Their spin technology enhanced by this silver dragon has pluses and minuses compared to ours based on demonic magic. I was an experiment to merge the two and gain the benefits of both.>>

<<Right, so they needed our techniques of merging demon and dragon DNA to pull this off, and then when he was attempting to nuke your brain he arranged to have your human body out of range.>>

<<Yes, why is that?>>

<<Because your soul is bonded to both parts of you. If your ship body is destroyed, the soul re-centres on your human body, and since the soul provides the gateway to magic...>>

I jumped in, figuring out where this was going, disappointed with myself I hadn't figured this out myself. <<... they get a magically active vegetable they can mine for essence to power their spin drives, a regenerator who will survive forever.>>

<<Yes. Glad I'm not you, they'll probably try again. However, it makes you wonder what happened to that original silver dragon that tried to help them.>>

I shivered to think, it was probably kept brain-dead or in a coma somewhere, before realising something didn't make sense.

<<Then why did they try to get me to blow up along with everyone else when we first contacted them?>> I asked.

<<Maybe they didn't.>> Pif was obviously being smug I hadn't figured this out. <<Hok was on the base with us when we were designing ourselves.>>

<<You think he got access to the designs and figured out we wouldn't self-destruct?>>

<<Yes, but he probably thought we'd be rendered helpless by doing so.>>

<<That's an awfully big risk to take.>> I thought. <<So he faked learning about the threat to get himself put into the project, so he could deliver the silver dragon DNA and be involved in the project, biding his time until he could get me safely.>>

<<Seems the most likely sequence of events.>>

I sent the concept of swearing, without actually picking individual words.

<<Well, that's one way of avoiding being labelled unladylike for swearing, I can't repeat that to anyone!>> Pif thought, now with humour. <<Hang on.>> she then thought.

<<OK, you're clear, we've got people in the rig room expecting you.>>

<<Thanks, Pif. If you get fined for skylarking like this, I'll do my best to pay it for you.>>

<<I'll hold you to that!>>

I cast myself to the room with the rig, and saluted the marine lieutenant, who was awfully familiar as we'd trained together before.

"Ma'am." he said.

"Lieutenant, my intention is to cut the rig away and remove it to my cargo bay for later analysis, however this is your show." I said, showing deference to the person trained for this situation. "Any dangers I should be aware of?"

"No, ma'am." he said. "I take it you're responsible for disabling the nanites?"

"Yes, lieutenant, I electrified the whole ship, ionising the atmosphere, and then took out the fusion generator."

"Thanks, ma'am, no losses to those nanites this time."

"Excellent news, Lieutenant." I beamed at him. "How'd it go otherwise?" I started work on using telekinesis to detach all the bolts and connectors holding the rig in place.

"We've captured three survivors, including one trying to bring an escape pod back to life. Not even a scratch on our team. We've got one of their escape pods in case we decide to return them like before."

"I'm not sure what the brass are going to do this time, Lieutenant."

"When do we ever?" he smiled at me.

"Not wrong there." I agreed, continuing to work.

"By the way, we have someone working on getting a dump from their computer core."

Soon the rig was cut free.

"Thank you, lieutenant. I'll be spinning back to my ship with this rig."

We saluted, and then I spun back to my cargo bay with the rig. This whole sequence had been relayed back to my bridge via video.

"Ship, anything else?"

"No, sir." I responded from speakers on the bridge, while spinning my human form from the cargo bay to my stateroom to take off the suit. I did switch off the video feed before starting to disrobe.

"Ship, get me the Retrack on screen."

"Aye, sir."

"Tag!" Dirk said.

"Hi Dirk, we've got everything we need, what do you think we do from here?"

"Well, this is your mess, but I think once we've got their computer downloaded we scuttle their ship and skedaddle back to base."

"Sounds like a plan, if you can give us a copy of the computer core we'll go back to Rigel and face the music, while you get back to Vechog."

"Sounds good to me, hopefully we don't get too much stick from Fix."

"Does he know what you're doing?"

"We told him we were doing unscheduled training."

I butted in. "Jet asked me what we were up to, and I had to give her the executive summary version to stop Fix from kicking up a stink."

"I thought it was too easy." Dirk said.

"Your next supply ship two days away?" Tag asked, assuming the schedule hadn't changed. Dirk nodded. "I'd suggest keeping all info private on Vechog at least until then, or until you get direction from the Admiralty, after we get into trouble back in Rigel."

"Better you than us." he paused, looking at something off-screen. "Marines bugging out now."

[[Data transfer follows.]] Pif sent over ship-to-ship, with the dump of the computer core taking around thirty seconds after that.

<<Thanks, Pif!>> I sent back mentally with the thought of a cheery wave.

"OK, Pif tells me you have a copy of their computer core, we are out of here." Dirk said.

"Good luck and good speed, Retrack." Tag fare-welled his old friend.

"You too, Harpagornis." Dirk replied.

They spun and were gone. Now, while this was going on I'd got into my normal uniform, and had cast down to the place I'd punched Hok. I looked around for the warding necklace, and checked that without being worn it had become inert. I carefully picked it up and spun back to my stateroom, before exiting onto the bridge.

"Ship, get us out of here."

"Aye, sir."

We spun back to our dimension, unsurprisingly to find the Retrack there.

"Back to Rigel, ship."

"Aye, sir. Calculating now."

[[Here you go, Pif.]] I said, calculating her jump for her.

<<Nice and smooth! Can you do the next one as well?>>

<<Not from here, sorry, and Tag wants to get back to Rigel with all speed.>>

<<Well, you've saved me half an hour, I don't want to worry the plebs with more rough transits. Thanks!>>

<<Always, Pif.>>

Pif spun out a fraction of a second before we did.

Well, when we got back to Rigel we went to Rigel Three to visit the Admiralty. Tag had invoked a procedure that had apparently been shared with him for dealing with the suspected traitors in the Confederation. Basically it involved everyone from the rank of Vice-Admiral up being triple-checked by security and then locked in a room with a giant table shaped like the circumference of a circle, with Tag in the middle.

Tag relayed everything that had happened, then I was invited in, along with a data link to a display, to show logs of what had happened. We didn't have Hok's confession, but we did have logs of the nukes going off, including the fact one of the nukes was in Hok's bag and the strange conversation with him on the bridge. That a Faithful ship showed up also made it fairly clear Hok was in league with them.

The only "Admiral of the Fleet" present asked me for my conclusions.

"Well, sir, it seems from what I got out of Hok on the ground was that this was a plot by the Faithful to use our techniques to merge the silver dragon essence they had with demonic essence. I suspect he was the one to obtain the self-destruct codes, and he was one of two who knew our naming choices before we left for Vechog. While in mage training he certainly had access to touch all of us to obtain DNA samples. It seems likely the first attack was an effort to destroy the other ships and immobilise those of us with the new cut-outs in place, but he didn't anticipate our burning out of the chips involved. The second plan was to destroy my ship body, and use my non-sentient human body, with soul completely fled to it, to extract what they needed for their next generation of mage spin rigs, sir."

"Do you have any suggestions for follow up, Lieutenant-Commander?"

"Yes, sir. We should verify his story and see if there is something in the captured mage rig that has DNA matching mine. It does explain why I have silver dragon DNA when we have no record of any, but I don't trust anything from him now without independent verification. Speaking of which, I have Hok's body in suspended animation, it may be possible to revive him and interrogate him, sir."

"Thank you, Lieutenant-Commander. I think that will be all?" he looked around and no-one seemed to have any other ideas.

"Right, Lieutenant-Commander, you are dismissed. Captain, I have a few more questions for you." I saluted and spun out.

A few minutes later I got a thought from Tag.

<<You had to do that, didn't you?>> he mentally groaned at me. <<They're off on the security implications of your casting ability to non-memorised locations.>>

Over the next three hours until he escaped, I could feel Tag's frustration level rising. He wanted to do something, not just talk about it.

Eventually he escaped, and some marines accompanied us to get Hok's body. I needed to keep my human form with the body once out of my ship self to maintain the suspended animation field. It was late at night by now, so Tag begged off and went to bed, after wheedling out of me a promise to come wake him up. On entering surgery, I had to scrub in.

"What happened to him, log to the chest?" the surgeon asked.

"Actually I punched him." I replied. His face said further explanation was required.

"Sorry, TK-assisted punch. He'd just set off two nukes, I had to take him out quickly."

"Crap, magical TK?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Well, that makes typical trauma magic harder. You've kept him in this suspended state since then?"

"Yes, it's been nine hours."

"How many years magical medical study?"

"None, sir." By his look I was made to feel guilty. "I've been informally trained in a very limited range of medical fields via psionics."

"Right, well, can you bring just his chest cavity out of suspension a tiny bit, so we can get an artificial heart/lung machine set up while we repair the damage?"

The next two hours were an amazing learning experience for me, seeing these skilled surgeons use magic to rebuild him and scalpels to remove what they didn't want - and tongs to hold some of the rib fragments in place while they re-set them, and then re-knit the flesh around them. I was never going to look at a set of tongs holding ribs at a barbecue the same way ever again.

Eventually he left for recovery, with the drip holding a very powerful pain killer that made it difficulty for mages to concentrate enough to do pretty much any magic, especially teleportations.

"Good job for an amateur, Kim." the surgeon, Kog, said as we left surgery.

"Thank you, sir." i said, taking off my scrubs and revealing the red uniform underneath.

"Ah, a ship, I hadn't realised, although that does explain the raw power with lack of fine control." he said. "Haven't been with us long?"

"No sir, nine months, sir."

"Well, you seem to have a knack for it. Did you know we run remote learning courses for ships?"

"No sir, I'll be sure to look into it. It would make sense given my design."

"Your design, Kim?"

"One of my design goals was troop transport, sir. I thought medical support would be useful, and I took the standard barracks unit they wanted me to install and increased sensor points and added a number of low-power magical emitters, one set each for each bunk, so the barracks could become an emergency field hospital."

"Interesting, any other design additions?"

"Yes, sir, there are a number of independent barracks, each with normally open airlocks for entry, and local life support system to each barracks, so any air-borne diseases could be isolated from the general ship's community."

"Hmm, that could be useful. Do you know anything about this casting ability I've heard mentioned around recently?"

"Yes, sir." I said, not wanting to give too much away, "I was one of the first with the capability."

"Interesting. I'm about to get off-shift, how about I buy you dinner and we can talk about the potential field-hospital uses?"

"Wouldn't that be breakfast, sir?"

"All depends on your point of view, Kim. My house is actually around the other side of the planet, I just work here. Means I get the pay for the night shift while working what my family considers days."

"Very clever, sir."

"Just Kog, thanks Kim."

By the time we got to breakfast I had already paid the exorbitant fee to get access to their downloadable ship training programme. I was working through the massive amounts of information, although I realised a lot of it would be unusable without a large amount of practice.

Kog and I were talking about the issues with dedicated medical ships, namely that although exceptionally useful, the requirements for them are infrequent enough that such a ship would probably never pay itself off. Recalling the hospital ships of Earth, I was wondering if it might be possible to come up with a model where local governments paid for "hospital ships" to visit areas and deal with background demand, fixing long-term problems that could wait, so they could focus resources on acute care. He'd said it had been proposed before, but the margins were too low, combined with the un-proven model, made it too risky for anyone to want to commit a dedicated ship to it. I counter-suggested that they should try and make the medical modifications to barracks-style accommodation a standard option, then they might be able to get ships years later once out of debt to give the model a try. I also suggested maybe combining with sponsorships might make the model more attractive.

Then he got a page to come back to the hospital regarding Hok, and he invited me to come back as well. We walked in on another doctor looking at a holo overview of what appeared to be scans of a chest.

"Zul, what is it?" Kog asked.

"I was comparing a post-operative scan with the standard yearly scan to see if we missed anything." he said. "Last years scan wasn't on file, but the previous years was. Look at this rib here." he said, highlighting a rib at the lower front.

"But the timestamps..." Kog said.

"Exactly."

I was looking at it trying to figure out what it was that had them so interested, then I checked the timestamps of the two images, and it was obvious.

"So the calcification around this rib indicates previous breakage in the two year old scan, but it's not there now?" I asked. "Could it be some recent healing magic?"

"No, trauma healing magic works by forcing the body to go back to it's last healthy template, although the template can be temporarily disrupted if the damage was caused by magic, like with your punch." He looked at me, and I gave him an apologetic look, that must have been why the surgery took so long. "This was a years old injury, and would have settled into his template. Without extensive cosmetic bone work, and I see no evidence of that in his file, nor need to do it, it should still be there."

"So we're likely looking at an impostor?" I asked.

"Yes." Zul said.

"Give him a full body scan." Kog said.

"I already initiated that, it should be here soon."

When the full body scan turned up, it showed slight discontinuities in the wrist area.

"Well, that proves it." Kog said.

"Hand transplant?" I asked, almost incredulous.

"Yes, fools the scanner that does fingerprint and DNA scans. To do the DNA test it takes a single dead skin cell, which will have the DNA of the donor hand."

"So the real Hok got killed and dismembered sometime between two years ago and now?"

"Well, his last check-up was due in May last year," it was January now, "but I can't find any records from that, I suspect he dodged it somehow." said Zul.

"Right," I said, "well that explains why he didn't accompany us in mid-April when it would have made sense for him to follow me, he wouldn't have been able to avoid the check-up where we were." I was deliberately vague about where that was.

"Why would he have been following you?" Kog asked curiously.

"Sorry, I think that's classified." I thought for a moment. "You need to report these findings to the Admiralty."

"I'll write up a report ASAP." Zul said.

"Can you give me your report number so I can reference it in mine?" I asked.

"Sure, if you'll do the same for me."

"Can do, but you probably won't be able to read it."

"That's OK, it just saves time if someone with enough clearance to read both comes across my report first."

"Fair enough."

So we both filed our reports, Zul's with the raw data, and mine with my conclusions from their discoveries. Not having much else to do until someone got back to us, and with both of them now off-shift, we all made our excuses. Kog teleported home just before I did.

I stripped, had a quick shower with a shower cap, dried off and climbed into bed with Tag, who didn't wake up so much as surface just enough to put his arm around me. I snuggled into him, sharing our love at a subconscious level.

Of course I wasn't idle, I was still working my way through the medical course work. I may be able to download the raw information to my computer parts almost instantly, but that was very different from understanding, I still needed to read it all and think about it to properly comprehend the information. It was good to have a change of pace in my mental stimulation, and good that the more I learnt, the more effective I would be using my medical resources in an emergency.

I was also considering Hok's public querying of what happened to the previous ships. At one level it could have been an attempt to have another Faithful ship, should we encounter one, kept around so he could activate something on it or get access to some tech he had decided he needed, but it felt like it was more than that. I did a bit of digging, and found he'd actually published a video of it. I reviewed the video to try and get a better handle on his angle, when I noted that the quality was about one to two percent worse than I would normally expect. I did some digging, and found that the low-order bits of the colour coding looked completely random, even in areas like walls where it didn't look like they should be varying. My guess was that he had somehow coded my spin calculations and hidden it in the low-order bits of the video. If true, it meant there was another Faithful agent around somewhere, who had accessed the video, retrieved my spin calculations, and then got it to that ship that followed my spin path. I wrote up this conjecture and fired it off to the Admiralty. Since tracking down Faithful agents was explicitly part of Dad's brief and I had standing orders to tell him anything relevant that no-one had countermanded, I fired off an encrypted message to him with what had happened so far and my suspicions.

Tag started shifting around a bit, as he does shortly before he wakes. At the time I was actually wrapped in his arms, and the arm underneath me started rubbing my breast, while the upper arm started teasing the skin near my mound. Clearly he was awake, even if his eyes were still closed.

"Honey?" I asked.

"Mrfm." he mumbled back.

"If you keep that up, you're going to have to follow through."

"Mrfm." he mumbled again. Much to my satisfaction he did follow through, and it was very good.

While we were having fun cleaning each other in the shower, I filled him in on last night's events. While this happened, I got a video call from Kess.

When I answered it, it virtual mode because I didn't want Kess seeing exactly what I was cleaning at the time, it was actually Dad.

"Dad! You're back! Sorry, we're on Rigel Three, so this call is going to be slow." I said, trying to say as much as possible in one go so the round trip time didn't make the conversation painfully slow. "I hope you've read my message, it explains a lot."

"Chasing those two cargo systems contractors down was a bust, it doesn't look like they had anything to do with it. I know you've sent me a message, in fact that's why I called, but I can't open it here. I take it you've found something out?"

"That's the understatement of the week. Get somewhere you can decrypt that message now and read it, as soon as possible. It is very important."

"I haven't had breakfast yet, can I teleport to your lift in quarter of an hour?"

"Teleport to me and I'll get you breakfast." I paused, going slightly red. "Umm, that is once Tag and I are out of the shower."

<<Your dad is joining us for breakfast.>> I thought at Tag as I quickly rinsed the last of the soap off me and stepped out of the shower.

<<What about me?>> he asked, with little Tag at full attention.

<<If you're good, I'll have you for lunch.>> I grinned at him, then turned the water in the shower down until it was quite cold. Tag yelped, but it did have the desired effect of cooling his ardour.

"OK, I'll be right there." Dad said with a grin and cut the connection, as the round trip time finally caught up.

Not having much time, I used magic to dry off, and grabbed a nighty and robe so I looked at least halfway decent. He popped into the lift and I told him to come to the bridge. I was running a brush through my hair with one hand, as drying it with magic quickly always leaves it in a bit of a mess, while stepping into the kitchen and popping some toast on. As my hot taps were actually boiling when I wanted them to be, I had three steaming mugs of tea ready by the time Dad made it to the bridge.

"Through here!" I yelled from the kitchen in our apartment that was directly in front of the bridge, after opening the door of course.

He stepped into the room into the living area, with the kitchen at the other end from the door, and I closed the door behind him. He looked around a bit.

"This doesn't seem regulation." he said. "Nice, though."

"Most ships just take a standard stateroom and double size it, I modelled mine off a three bedroom apartment."

"With a proper kitchen?" he asked, as I brought his mug of tea over to him.

"Sure, I can just conjure passable food out of thin air, but I like to do it properly, even if it takes longer."

"Still trying to be normal?" he said, an I caught the serious expression on his face.

"Yes dad, I don't want the unusual to become normal for me." I said, giving him a peck on the cheek as I handed him his mug.

"What, not coffee?" he asked, looking at the mug I'd just handed him.

"I've never seen you take anything else."

"Kess can't stand the smell, so she doesn't have any at her place."

"Then come over here and I'll get you some coffee." I said. Meanwhile I quickly went on-line and purchased a license to use a conjuring template for coffee beans. I grabbed a coffee grinder from a cupboard and ground the beans while dad was watching, them stuck them in a coffee plunger and added boiling water. While waiting for the coffee to percolate I started on some bacon and eggs. Around when the toast popped up I relented and pushed the plunger down for the coffee, and served dad a coffee just as Tag walked in, all dressed in uniform.

"Oh yuck, he's got you making coffee now?" he said, wrinkling his nose.

"You only mentioned Kess didn't like the smell." I said in an accusatory tone to dad.

"He doesn't mind it, he's just winding me up." Dad said.

"Oh well, it was worth a try." Tag said. "Can I get some too?"

"Sure, do either of you want milk or sugar?"

"Both, thanks." Tag said first.

"Then make yourself useful and get some!" I said with a smile, as I shifted to buttering the toast.

"So what is so super-secret?" Dad asked, now nursing his coffee.

"Let's see, Hok was abducted sometime between May two years ago and now, probably murdered, had his hands removed and attached to an impostor working for the Faithful, who used silver dragon DNA they used to power their mage spin-rigs as the source to create my DNA, as they wanted more powerful spin-rigs and needed to merge demon and dragon DNA, which we can do but they couldn't."

I was saying this while standing over the stove, and paused to breathe and stir the scrambled eggs.

"Anyway, we think he leaked the codes to the Faithful, who staged the first attack expecting me to engage the interlocks leaving me defenceless so they could get my merged magical capabilities. We lucked out when we fried the chips, allowing us to fight back. So his second plan was to get my human body away from my ship body, set off a nuke inside my ship body, have my soul reside in my self-reliant but now vegetable human body, and mine me for whatever essence they wanted forever. We survived, but the entire diplomatic mission got done in by a second nuke meant to make sure no-one reported back before the Faithful ship arrived. With the help of Pif, Dirk, and a marine platoon, we disabled the Faithful ship when it turned up, captured three crew, stole their mage spin-rig for analysis, made it back here, got quizzed by the Admiralty all day yesterday, and then I was involved in surgery half the night to bring our fake-Hok back to the land of the living, and he is now dosed up in hospital an under guard."

I drew in another deep breath.

"Did I miss anything, honey?" I asked Tag.

"The bit where the false Hok hid your spin calculations in the low-order bits of the video he distributed, so the unknown Faithful agent could pass it to their ships?" he replied.

"Well, we think that's what happened, but we haven't proved that bit yet. How much cheese do you want in your scrambled eggs?"

"The usual, thanks. Dad will probably have the same."

"Umm - that's a lot to take in." Dad said,

"She did say it was urgent." Tag said. "You did, didn't you honey?" he asked me in mock concern, clearly teasing his dad.

"Well, that is why we wanted to fill you in straight away." I said, deliberately avoiding Tags question.

"OK, I need to know your evidence." Dad said, so over breakfast we laid it all out for him.

"Well, you need to start pulling apart that mage rig." Dad said to me.

"No fear! The propeller-heads back in the base can do that, I don't want to contaminate it if my donor DNA really is in there somewhere."

"Organise to do a run to the lab to drop it off. I'll pre-warn them of your suspicions, and get them to do the comparison tests. Then get back here as I suspect they're going to want you nearby when they are questioning Hok."

Since we were docked we'd let off our temporarily assigned bridge officers, and there was no need to pick any up for this short trip. I had contacted Registration and Licensing and told them of my availability, and due to the large number of high ranking ships here I'd actually done quite a fair bit of teaching through the night. Another day like that and I would actually have paid for the ship medical training programme.

We received the required clearance and went back to the base we'd been working from on Rigel Four. We had quite a productive morning with the egg-heads there. Recovering some deleted files from Hok's computer allowed us to confirm the spin calculations were encoded in the video as we had suspected.

Deep inside the rig in the area that acted as the interface to a mage they found a single neurone suspended in spinal fluid, the fluid being a match for my dragon DNA donor.

I also showed the mages the anti-spin ward, and determined how to extrapolate that to protect an area from unwanted inbound spins. I talked about what had happened with the nuke, and we reviewed my bridge logs, showing Hok was near the bag during all spins. We suspected he either had some way of temporarily disabling the ward in the bag, or didn't activate it until after our final spin.

While all this was going on we were officially informed Dad was taking over as the mage with the highest clearance already on the project.

Dad popped into the usual place.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Hok just died, he never fully regained consciousness." he replied, and I relayed to Tag.

"What happened?" I asked.

"His brain turned to goo, we think his nanites were set to disassemble his brain if he didn't perform some action every so often."

<<Yuck.>> Tag responded, as I had relayed that comment to him as well.

<<Yes, but I can turn yours to goo temporarily by touching a certain area.>> I mentally expressed sexual playfulness with that one.

<<Two can play at that.>>

<<Yes please, but your father is on board.>>

<<Party pooper.>>

"So what's the schedule now?"

"I need to meet with the various task heads and tell them it's situation as normal but to report to me."

"Most of them are in mage lab three on the base right now, where we're looking at the anti-spin wards." That's where my human body was. "A few of the scientific kinds are in conference room two discussing the mage spin-rig, Tag's sitting in on that one."

"Can you cast me to the lab?" he asked, and he was there straight away.

A series of meetings later, it had been determined that the original project aims of research into casting and cross-spinning were now resolved, although a new project should be initiated to further explore and map other dimensions. This project was now re-tasked with further investigating the rig to determine its limits, and also investigating the wards for potential development angles within the Confederation.

Afterwards Tag, myself, and Dad met up on my bridge to discuss things further.

"In all honesty," Dad started, "the main reason this group is being held together at this time is it's one of the few groups the Admiralty is fairly sure doesn't have a traitor." At our quizzical looks he continued. "Hok getting the spin calculation out the way he did indicates he probably didn't have someone else to pass it off to within the group, and he was being too closely watched to leave to deliver himself. The holo was viewed by far too many people, and it also went in a coded section of the info-burst updates for similar researchers, so we have no idea who the other spy is - but we know there is one, and in all likelihood not in this team."

"So where do we fit in?" Tag asked.

"Well, given Kim's ability to calculate cross-spins quickly, likely you'll eventually end up in the mapping project. I'd like to keep you around in the short term as I think Kim needs to be able to teach ships how to prevent inbound casts when she teaches them to cast, or we may end up in a situation where the Faithful find a way to teleport bombs inside our ships. We haven't seen any evidence of their ability to cast, but Hok has probably reported this ability back to them if they didn't know about it already, and given it's based on silver dragon abilities they can probably figure it out if they haven't already."

"Then back to Kess's for dinner?" Tag asked hopefully.

"We have a stop I'd like to make first, if you don't mind." Dad said. "I need to visit your mother, and would like both of you to accompany me."

I gulped, but nodded.

"How is she?" Tag asked.

"Under sedation but awake, they're doing it to dampen her emotional responses." Dad responded.

"So what do they want us for?"

"Well, given that you were the triggers of the ... umm ... event, they think they've made progress and want to see her reaction to the two of you." He paused before asking more gently "Are you OK with this?"

I'd moved closed to Tag, and taken his hand in mine. He squeezed it gently on hearing the last bit.

"We've got to do something." Tag said, looking at me as I nodded.

"Right, well then, Kim, can you cast us to the public foyer of the hospital?"

"Do you mind if I change out of uniform first?" I asked, and getting a nod I quickly went and changed into a pastel blue blouse with a black skirt that was tight around the waist, but flared to a loose flowing skirt around the thighs that was the current fashion here. I let my hair down and brushed it out, and then added a bit of casual makeup.

"Stunning, as always." Tag smiled when I emerged.

"Ready?" I asked, getting nods from both.

I had already looked up the hospital's co-ordinates and cast the three of us to an alcove of the entrance foyer. Dad led us from there to a small office and knocked on the open door.

"Ray! These are the two in question?" the man seated at the desk asked.

"Yes, Bar. This is my son, Tag, and his fiancé Kim." We all shook hands as he motioned for us to sit.

"Jan is in a delicate state at the moment, if we let her come too far off the drugs she gets alternates between rage and depression, but we also want her responsive. As she is prone to falls with the drugs, we have her in a wheelchair at present. The scenario we envisage is to be taking her to one of the many small gardens here, when Ray and Tag come up in front of her. The orderly pushing the wheelchair will stop as you greet her, giving Kim the opportunity to replace him. I want small talk only, nothing about her treatment or her problems. Once at the garden, Ray and Tag are to sit on a bench with Jan facing you, Kim to lock the wheels on the wheelchair and then join you two. If she becomes overly agitated, I want all three of you to leave together, as we don't want to reward the behaviour by letting her see either of you without Kim. Does that sound fair?"

"What happens after that?" Dad asked.

"I'll be nearby with the orderly. If we see you start to leave without her, the two of us will come in, and if necessary I will administer a sedative. I'll position myself where you three can see me from the bench. If I wave, start moving her together back to her room. I have a microphone on the wheelchair so I'll know what is going on. I want to keep it short, so expect the signal after five minutes at most."

He looked at us and we all nodded.

"Any other questions?" he asked.

"No." said Tag, while dad and I shook our heads.

"Just as a warning, we've made progress but this isn't likely to be smooth." Bar said, then picked up the phone, pressed some buttons, and said "Tan, could you please get Jan Geltone as discussed?" There was a pause before he said "Thanks." and hung up the phone.

"Right, we're on."

The hand-off went kind of smooth.

"Ray! Tag!" Jan called, seeing them in front of her.

"Hi sweetums!" Dad called back, going up to her and giving her a hug and a quick peck on the cheek, thereby causing the orderly to stop and allowing me to take over pushing duties from behind.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"Just came to see how you were going." Dad replied.

I couldn't see her face, but I detected a slightly stiffening of the shoulders at this.

"Can we talk in the garden?" Dad asked, motioning us forward. He and Tag took up on either side of the wheelchair, but Dad took her hand in his.

"At least you didn't bring that harlot." Jan let slip just loud enough to not be under her breath. I could see the sides of Tag and Dad's faces, and I saw the pained look on Dad's face before he dropped his wife's hand. I wasn't happy, it was clear this leopard hadn't changed her spots.

"Jan, you know we talked about this." Dad said reproachfully, then clearly trying to change the topic, "Have you been keeping up with Yik and Nev?" That was a popular cooking show Jan apparently liked to watch.

Jan paused, still tense, and I wondered if she was going to allow herself to be redirected. It was at this point we reached the garden, and Tag waved at the door to open it and we all went through.

Jan sighed, letting out a lot of tension before saying "Yes, but it's not enough to fill the day in. I spend a lot of time napping and talking with the staff, but there's just not enough to do here."

"Can I get you any books or anything?" Tag asked, trying to be the conciliatory son. Dad had previously warned us she wasn't allowed anything electronic other than her room's holo control to avoid any further incidents.

"Yes, can you get me the book I left on my bedside table at Kess's?" she asked.

"Love, I brought that in yesterday." Dad cut in.

"Oh yes, so you did."

We were now in front of the bench, so Dad and Tag sat at opposite ends of the three-person bench while I locked the wheels. This was not going to be fun. I steeled myself and put on a happy face as I breezed around the chair and sat between the men, smoothing my skirt as I sat down.

"Oh Tag, is this your new girlfriend?" Jan asked, surprisingly happy. I glanced at Tag who looked surprised as well.

"Yes mum, but Kim's my fiancé now, remember?"

A dark look came over her face.

"No, no, you're not that thing!" she burst out. "Tag's dumped it and found a new girlfriend! I know he has, he's a good boy." She was starting to cry, and I glanced up at the doctor and was surprised to see he wasn't waving his arm yet.

"Jan, Kim is a very nice girl" I mentally thanked him for referring to me as female after Jan's use of neuter terms, "and she and Tag love each other very much."

Tag and I reflexively glanced at each other and took each other's hands.

"No, no, Tag, you can't! You can't do this to me! You can't leave me too!" Jan moaned.

I caught Dad looking in the doctor's direction as well.

"Jan, the only way Tag is leaving you is if you force him away." Dad stated.

She looked at me with venom in her eyes.

"Get out of here, slut! Leave me alone!"

Now Bar finally started waving his arm, and the three of us stood up to leave.

"No, no! Not you too! Just it!" Jan seemed frantic now.

We walked out of her line of sight in silence. She was crying inconsolably. I glanced at Dad, and saw just how much willpower it was taking for him not to run back to her. The doctor came to talk to us as the orderly started moving Jan back to her room, but thankfully the doctor guided us round the corner so there wasn't another confrontation.

"Shouldn't you be with her?" Dad asked.

"No, she needs to realise by herself that it was her actions.that forced all three of you away. Your wife has a strong will," I took that to mean stubborn, "and if I tell her something she will resist it. She needs to figure it out by herself to be capable of accepting it."

"Is that why you didn't sedate her?" Tag asked, and he nodded.

"So where from here?" Dad asked.

"We'll try again when we think she's ready, I'm afraid I can't tell you when that might be."

There was a pause while thoughts raced through all our heads.

"Right, well, if you don't need me I have other patients to attend to." Bar said, then quietly excused himself and walked off.

"Kess's place?" I asked. Dad nodded and vanished, so I grabbed Tag in one of our standard deep kisses and cast us back to my ship self and then on to Kess's house.

Ret was in the hall when we arrived, and took one look at our faces.

"Wow, rough day, huh?"

"We just saw Jan." I volunteered.

"Oh, right." he said, somewhat downcast, before yelling "Kess! The usual rabble!"

"Then get your behinds in here!" she called back joyfully from the kitchen.

Dinner was subdued, but friendly, and it certainly lifted my spirits even if I knew Kess and Ret were being a bit over cheerful.

As Kess and I were cleaning up without the men, I said "Thanks Kess, I really appreciate you making me feel welcome."

She put down the dish she was scraping food off and gave me a big hug. "You're welcome, sis." Her unconditional acceptance of me as her sister got me a bit weepy.

"So what's really bugging you?" She asked as I collected myself.

"It wasn't the 'harlot' or 'slut' lines, I was expecting that. The hatred, too. It was that she never referred to me in the feminine, always as 'it' or 'thing'."

She looked at me, and I could tell from the look in her eyes that she wanted me to be happy.

"You know what always makes me feel all girlish?" she asked, and I shook my head.

"Get your man to give you a good shagging." she smiled wickedly, grabbing my hand. "C'mon."

She led us to the entertainment room, where the men were watching the news, and she cleared her throat.

"Kim and I are going to our respective rooms, and would appreciate male company." she pronounced quite regally. I blushed quite solidly, giving anyone who was in any doubt as to what Kess meant exact information. She led me from the room, and we were giggling like a pair of schoolgirls as we were going up the stairs. I was feeling better already.

I entered our room and closed the door, and quickly stripped down and climbed into bed. Tag was in the room just as i was getting in, I would have flashed anyone else in the corridor.

"What's up?" he asked tenderly.

"Come here." I asked, patting the bed, and he came and lay down next to me, unfortunately clothed and on top of the bed. At least he put his arm around me.

"What's up, babe?" he asked again.

"Your mother called me a 'thing' and 'it'. I need to reclaim my femininity, and Kess's suggestion ... well, you know."

"But is this what you want?" he asked, stressing the "you" and in that moment I loved him all the more.

"Yes, Tag." I smiled at him, and the clothes fairly flew off. He was already quite hard, and I was already moist enough.

"Now Tag, I'm ready."

He looked askance at me.

"Please, Tag." I asked, and he slipped inside me, although a bit awkwardly. He was fantastic, however we were soon done.

"Again?" I pleaded.

"Kim, you near drained me this morning."

"How about in my butt then?" I asked. We didn't do it that often because it hurt a bit, even if it regenerated instantly. I knew I was much tighter back there and Tag really got off on it, but he didn't like the thought of hurting me.

"You sure?"

"As I could be."

"You may have to help me get it up."

"I'm sure I can." I said, reaching down to caress his manhood as I started kissing him again. Soon he had increased to half-flaccid, and I dove down under the bed to start sucking on him. While I was down there I managed to get a finger in my butt and move it in and out a bit to start the rear lubrication. Once we were both ready, I pulled my finger out and cleaned it off magically.

"Now, please." I said and rolled face down, legs spread.

"Like this, really?"

"Yes, please." I said. "You're not going to make me beg?"

"No, a lady should never beg." he said as he got up behind me. He used his hands to separate my rear cheeks further, and nestled his cock head against my quite wet rear entrance.

"Please." I moaned, pushing back against him. He applied some pressure as well, and the head slipped just into my tight rear entrance, flaring in a delicious combination of eroticism and pain. He pushed some more, and as he got further inside the lubrication made it easier for him. The stretching was still painful, but I was doing it for my captain. My other entrance was now so wet I was afraid I was going to stain the mattress.

Finally he was pressed hard up against me.

"Please lower yourself, I want to feel you against me." I requested.

I was crushed to the bed in a quite pleasant way. He brought his elbows down onto the bed to support him, and his hands brushed the sides of my breasts, causing me to squirm back into him.

"Play with them." I demanded, and he slipped his hands between my breasts and the sheet to start fiddling with my nipples. The lack of room meant it was a bit uncomfortable, so again I got that delicious mix of eroticism with pain.

"Oh, yes." I moaned. This was good. tag started moving inside me, back and forth, his shear girth stretching me. As he pulled out my regeneration kicked in, so he had some resistance when shoving himself back in. I fell into orgasm, this was fantastic.

I was lost in one continuous orgasm for ages. I found myself wishing that his cock was longer so it could ravage me better, that his hands had claws to maul my breasts better, but even as is I was proud my lord could dominate me so well. I glanced around a few times at his face, but it was difficult since I was jammed down into the bed. The rippling muscles I saw, and the indescribable look on his face, enhanced the still ongoing orgasm I was feeling. Finally, after quite some time given how I had depleted him so far that day, I felt a weak splash in my bowels. His lovely tool shrank and could not stay in my overly tight wetness, and he slipped out.

"Keep playing." I gasped out, and he flipped me over and gave me a long kiss while lying on one side of me, with one hand massaging my breasts and the other working on my ignored but literally dripping vagina and clitoris. I lovingly looked up at my lord and basked in his wonderful dominance of me as my orgasm subsided.

Without verbal or mental communication, we shifted to the other side of the bed and he spooned into my back, holding my firmly and I loved it. It wasn't until an hour later, long after he was asleep, that I realised the implications of my mental processes during our last round of sex.

Tag had been to good to me, he'd treated me all along as a lady. Sometimes he was in the dominant position during sex, sometimes I was, and sometimes we were in positions that didn't really have a dominant position. As a woman I loved this, and loved him for it, but my succubus half wasn't getting the domination it craved. This session had satisfied my lusts, but not my need for love, it had been raw sex without room for love making, and didn't fill my needs as a woman to share our love in an equal fashion.

I could see the dangers of proceeding like this. If it became normal, Tag might start treating me like that unconsciously outside the bedroom without thinking about it. I would either accept a role in what would essentially be an abusive relationship, or I would grow to resent him. I couldn't accept either of those options.

Dad's suggestion of role-playing now made a lot more sense. I could be normal most of the time, but sometimes in a distinctly different setting I could be the submissive slut my succubus half wanted to be, so as to work it out of my system. Because the event would have its own context it wasn't in danger of becoming normal. I would have to have a long chat with Tag when he got up, but also reinforce just how much I did love what he did, both then and normally. I worried I was falling into his mother's accusation of me being a slut and a harlot, but committed to myself that I was a strong woman and could beat it.

Now I just had to worry about who the Faithful were, and what they were going to try next. Not only that, but the question no-one had asked yet, who the Foe really were and what would we do if we encountered them?