The Preacher's Daughter

She turned to Basel. "How about a quarter of the puddle? Be sure to get a good sample of the black diamonds."

"Right..." It turned out the puddle of frozen blood was about 1 cm thick. Basel carefully cracked it and then lifted a rough quarter-circle with a good sample of the black diamonds into the storage bay. "Eli, I'm estimating about eight liters of blood total. This could easily have come from one bled hippo..." He tucked the arms back into the CAT. "Remotes are secure."

Eliana nodded and sighed. "Anything else to do here?"

"Maybe. Should we incinerate what we don't take?"

"Ah, that's an interesting question." She thought for a moment. "I'd rather not reveal the CAT's claws if we don't have to. Why don't we collect everything and incinerate the extra at the station?"

Basel nodded and began to extend the remotes again. "Sensing any watching eyes?" he asked as he guided the CAT's arms.

Eliana was quiet for a moment, then let out a slow breath and shook her head no. The return trip home was quiet and uneventful. They placed their sample in a sealed observation chamber, keeping them at the same temperature at which they were found.

Two hours later...

"Well, if you had to guess Basel, alive or not alive?"

"Now? This stuff can't possibly be alive. Look at the chemical spectrums. If these specimens weren't contained, the stench would be vile, maybe even dangerous."

"But you think it once was alive?"

"Well..." Basel thought for a long moment. "I'd have to say yes, it's organic. Nothing like an Earth based life-form though. The closest I could extrapolate would be to call these things the decayed leaves of an alcohol-based plant."

"Plant leaves?"

"Well, no," Basel whined. "Not a plant, not in the Earth based sense of the word. It doesn't even have DNA, and least not based on the same amino acids we use. I think this might be an alcohol-based life-form, rather than a water-based life-form. It's so badly decayed, it's difficult to tell. The leaves have a vague celluloid structure, but... Oh heck Eli, they can't be leaves."

"Why not?"

"The decay is so bad I can barely make this out, but there doesn't seem to be anything to suggest a stem direction. It's all self-contained..." Basel frowned at the black sample and looked as if he were going to continue, but then stopped and just frowned instead. "It's so incredibly decayed, right down to the core. How could any life survive like this?"

"What do you mean? The leaves are dead, aren't they?"

"Yeah, most definitely... I'm not sure what I mean... It's almost as if, well, imagine if you died, someone could still sample your DNA. I don't think that's possible here. The decay is that deep."

Eliana stared at their sample. "Excrement is a very disorganized material. Could this be the creature's shit?"

Basel smiled. "Two dimensional shit from a two-dimensional creature?"

"Sure, why not? And maybe alcohol-based shit decomposes at very low temperatures. We know the creature is active and the infrareds are picking up absolutely nothing. Its body temperature seems to be as cold as the environment."

Basel looked skeptical. "I don't know Eli. The creature is alive and active outside, yet these black flaps have broken down in the same temperatures. It doesn't make any sense." He gestured at the black diamond-shaped flaps. "These can't be leaves! You think they're shit? But the celluloid structures are so global, one complex mask over the entire diamond. They seem more like..." The words just wouldn't come.

Eliana said after a while, "Do you think the creature eats blood?"

A long pause. "The idea seems absurd at first, doesn't it? We're such different life-forms."

Eliana sighed. "And yet, a fungus is a very different life-form than us, and we can eat mushrooms, and fungi can thrive on our decomposing bodies."

Basel nodded and shuddered. "Somehow I got a vague impression of the puddle as a feeding pool. I don't know why." He frowned. Somehow a feeding puddle sounded close to but not quite the right explanation.

"Yes. Why else do it?" Eliana turned to Basel and they stared at each other in silence. The issue was bothering both of them, but neither could verbalize their uneasiness.

They returned to their analysis and spent several more hours running diagnostics without finding new insights. Around 9 AM they lowered and sealed everything in a frozen vault on Level-C and went back to the main station for a lunch break.

They decided to dine in the Observation dome and enjoy the last of the day's sunlight. At 9:40 AM, the sun was at azimuth 230 on the horizon and just a moment from setting when Eliana choked on her drink and almost vomited. She put her glass down and coughed.

"Eli, you okay?!"

She coughed again but nodded yes. "We're being watched, right now. The sensation just hit me, very strong." She gave a final cough. "Try to act casual."

"Okay. How about we take a leisurely stroll around the promenade?"

Eliana looked at him and blinked her eyes. "Oh! Yes, very good idea." They held hands and slowly walked the perimeter of the circular dome, admiring the twilight view and chatting with each other as they slowly made the circuit. The light started to fade rapidly as the gusty winds rolled in thick bands of dark clouds, blanketing the waxing half moon in the southeastern sky.

Eliana sighed as she and Basel stared out through the clear walls of the dome. "I'm not sure, but I think it was from the southeast. The light is fading and I'm losing my visual cues. I think the creature might have moved off."

"To the southeast again?"

She nodded. "Yes, somehow I think you're right, to the southeast."

"Well, that's the direction it took when we hit it with the scanner two days ago."

Eliana nodded thoughtfully.

Basel wrapped his arm around her waist and continued. "Which I think makes it even more important we continue our scanning to the north as soon as possible."

Eliana turned to him with a bright smile on her face. She gave him a quick kiss. "My clever husband! You're thinking the same thing I'm thinking, aren't you?"

"Decoys!" answered Basel. "Targets! All our sightings have been to the southeast. The creature badly overplayed its hand today, leaving us the... well, that blood puddle in the center of a bare-ice lake. I can't imagine a more conspicuous spot."

Eliana nodded and stared at the dark clouds of the local evening. "It looks as if another bit of nasty weather is moving in. Our first good day to scan though, I think we're going to find the impact crater in the upper third of our grid." She gestured with her eyebrows playfully. "Pity we didn't start the search there and work our way south."

Basel nodded. A moment later they turned the Observation dome opaque and headed back to Level-B.

The next day...

Time: February 17, 9570 3:50 PM UCT

"Game and match," laughed Basel. "Wow, I haven't played backgammon since I was a teenager. I had forgotten how much fun the game is."

"Neither have I," said Eliana. "And I agree, and interesting and unusual game. And the old saying rings true, good rolling beats good strategy."

Basel pretended mock offense. "What do you mean?! My play was masterful!"

"Oh yes Basel! You accept a marginal double, and then four rolls of high doubles on the run-off! The world's best players would be in awe of your skill!"

"It's all in the wrist motion as you roll. Someday I'll show you my secret."

"Uh huh." They both burst out laughing. Eliana got up and stretched and then gestured to her bedroom with her head, batting her eyes playfully and with a hint of a question.

Basel heart felt it skipped a beat. They had been sleeping in his room ever since the night after finding the slaughtered hippo. This was the first time Eliana had asked him to sleep in her room. He nodded his head as he gazed at her, a hopeful smile on his face.

Once in her room, Eliana stripped herself naked before climbing under the covers. Basel followed her immediately. As she cuddled with him, she rested her head on a clean pillow. "Ah," she sighed. "I knew you made my bed a few days ago. I didn't know you cleaned my sheets." She kissed him. "Thank you."

Basel kissed her back. "Beautiful Eliana, I'm so happy I've found you."

They kissed for a while, Basel caressing her breasts and ribs until Eliana giggled.

"What? Did I tickle you?"

"No." She held his hand and kissed the inside of his wrist, running the tip of her tongue along the arteries. "I was thinking of our backgammon game. All in the wrist, huh?"

Basel smiled. "It's a gift."

"Uh huh..." More kisses. "Did you know the game was lost for more than eight thousand years?"

"No. Really?"

Eliana nodded. "The game didn't survive the Wild Times. But there was a crude program for playing it buried in the Karbalan crystal data. The game became popular again in the late 8200's."

"Ah..." Basel's hand came up and he started caressing Eliana's hair. They lost themselves in their kissing.

"Take me as your wife Basel," she whispered. Basel just gazed back at her, and it was a gaze filled with pure love. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I love you, and I want you so badly, and all to myself too. I'll never want to share you with another woman."

They held each other tightly, the sides of the heads pressed together. Basel kissed Eliana's ear, and then she felt him nod his head. His tears were wetting her temple. Another kiss on her ear, and then a whisper, "I was hoping for this so much Eli, keeping myself clean in the evening and hoping. Sweet Eli, take me as your husband." One last kiss, and then he turned and sighed and lay prone, flat on his stomach on the bed.

Eliana sat up and began the traditional caresses and preparations, her hands and feet and lips all over his body. She stretched out the mating ritual for a long time, feeling Basel's muscular body slowly soften and melt under her attention. Her fingers were everywhere, navel, ears, between his toes, lots of probes into his sac to fondle his testes, lots of caresses down the crack of his ass to play with his anus. After an hour of loving attention, Eliana slipped a finger up inside him so gently he only dimly realized he had been penetrated. He wiggled his rump in appreciation.

"My love," he mumbled.

"My love," Eliana responded in a whisper. She slipped her finger out and sniffed it. "My, you are clean. I can't smell anything. You've been douching?"

"Um hmm," Basel nodded sleepily.

"My sweet love..." Her playful tongue began to explore between his ass cheeks a moment later.

Basel drifted in the sexual stimulation. His rear door felt warm and moist and open, and he wiggled affectionately at the pleasure Eliana was giving him. Eventually he felt the momentary absence of her body, and then heard a couple of soft clicking sounds. Knowing what Eliana had strapped herself to, he spread his legs wide across the bed and arched his hips to lift and expose his anus high into the air.

He felt both of Eliana's hands on his butt. "Just relax husband," she whispered. "You don't have to lift yourself up like this. I'll find you." Basel sighed and relaxed his arch. He felt both of Eliana's hands on his rump, firm grips on both his ass cheeks. With her fingers and palms lifting and separating him, her two thumbs began to push into his anus, one after another. Basel felt something extremely wet and slippery being added to his opening, and then both thumbs popped in easily. "Hmmm, that feels so sexy..." he mumbled.

"Oh yeah," Eliana growled. Basel felt her shaking with sexual desire. She moved into position, kneeling high up between his out-stretched legs, holding him open with her knees against his inner thighs. She then laid her body on top of him. Basel felt her breasts pressing into his back. She started kissing and licking the back of his neck. A super slippery thumb was sliding along his rectal wall just inside his anus, and he could feel her fingers guide something rubbery and rounded up along the back of his scrotum and up towards the waiting thumb.

Basel was floating on a bed of love. As the thumb slid out of his rectum, he sighed and bore down and pushed, trying to open himself to what he knew was coming. He felt a large smooth pressure on his rear door. Eliana moved her hands to grip both sides of his hips firmly to lock his position underneath her. Basel heard her panting with her desire.

"My dear, sweet husband," she whispered. "I love you."

She bore down with her hips. Basel felt something large and smooth and super slippery sliding up inside him, much fatter than Eli's thumb felt. He sighed and accepted the pressure, felt Eliana shifting her weight on top of him to align herself with the natural direction of his rectum. She pushed down some more. Basel let out a long, slow gasp as Eliana seated herself within him.

"My love, my love," she was crying, kissing the back of his neck and mouthing it with her lips. Basel was experiencing both an arousal and a peace he never knew before. He felt washed by the woman's love above him, drifting in the total vulnerability of her mount but feeling infinitely secure and safe.

Eliana gasped and then bent down and gripped the back of Basel's neck with her teeth. She pulled back and then sprung forwards with her powerful hip muscles, driving her dildo home and slapping her pubis against the bottom of her mate's butt. "Mine!" she growled as she released his neck from her teeth.

The impact into his rectum shocked Basel out of his drifting dream. His eyes popped wide open, and he felt utterly helpless and dominated and he never wanted the moment to end. "Yours," he called in reply.

Eliana pulled back and then snapped forward again, a full-bodied slap against his rump. "You are mine!" she growled again, rising up on her arms like a female lioness defending her claim against all challengers.

"I am yours," replied Basel, continuing the marriage ritual. "Now and forever."

A re-cock and then a third swift thrust. "I own you!"

"You own me," agreed Basel. "All that I have and am, I give to you."

Eliana started to cry. Basel felt the pressure slip from his rectum and then felt his anus close. Between her cries, he heard the faint clicking sounds as Eliana freed herself from her pelvic harness. Then her hands returned to his butt, gripping and separating him. He felt a hot breath on his anus and sac, and then soft lips and a velvety tongue began to kiss and caress him. The loving affection continued for quite a while, and then Eliana lay on her back and waited for Basel to mount her.

He lay on his side and petted her, lots of kisses and caresses, all over her body. Her pubis was a swamp, and she whimpered as she lay and shook her body to encourage Basel to mount her. He lay on top of her, their mouths locked, his erect cock butting against her vulva and anus. Eliana groaned and reached to the side of the bed, and then placed a tube of lubricant within easy reach of Basel. She then lifted her legs high and rotated her hips to bring her anus into position.

Basel shook his head and lay down on top of her, his mouth finding hers and his cock continuing to probe her vulva. He continued to wiggle until he felt himself catch and notch into her vaginal entrance. He lowered his hips for more power and started to push in.

Eliana gulped and broke the kiss. "Basel?"

"My love, my most precious love..."

"Basel, don't you want to take me in my butt? It's your right."

Basel blinked himself out of his passion and shook his head no, glancing at Eliana's harness lying nearby. "Eli, I'm almost twice the size of what you used, and your rump is smaller than mine. Don't be ridiculous."

Eliana nodded her grateful understanding and then reached up with her mouth to lock her kiss with Basel again. Basel pushed and let-up, pushed and let-up against the hymen blocking him until Eliana groaned her impatience to be penetrated. He then pushed firmly and broke her, sliding up deep within her.

Eliana gasped at the shock of being torn.

"Eli, you okay?"

"Yes," she lied. "The pleasure just overwhelmed me. My love!" And then suddenly the lie was no longer a lie. The pain disappeared and all her thoughts began to swirl around this most wonderful and beautiful pole of eager maleness buried within her womanhood. She turned her legs and locked Basel into her, her heels kicking his butt in encouragement.

He reared back and gave a powerful thrust. Eliana felt her uterus tent from the impact.

"Mine!" he roared.

Eliana gasped. Basel was repeating the female part of the ritual. "Yours!" she cried in reply.

Another swift thrust. Eliana gasped at the slap on her pubis.

"You are mine!"

"I am yours Basel, now and forever!"

A third thrust, the most powerful yet. "I own you!"

Eliana cried out in surrender. "You own me! All that I have and am, I give to you. My body, my life, my love! My soul belongs to The Holy, all else I give to you!" They both started crying as Basel started a gentle sliding rhythm, gradually increasing the tempo as the passion took them both.

Eliana was the first to orgasm, waves of orgasmic pleasure that were almost too much to bear. Basel followed shortly, changing the sliding in-and-outs to a deep push in and then a slow wiggle of his hips while fully seated in her vagina.

"I can feel it!" gasped Eliana, as pulse after pulse of semen splashed against her cervix. She reached up and held his sweaty body against hers. They both quickly crashed from their emotional frenzy, drifting off to sleep both feeling for the first time in their lives that they were married.

Chapter 18. Playing Tag

Six days later...

Time: February 25, 9570 11:22 AM UCT

"The Holy!" whispered Eliana in awe. "Basel, I think we've found it!"

It was an hour after sunset, and the two were in the Level-2 control center, reviewing the vast arrays of processed scanning data from the day's run. They were focusing on a spot slightly more than 11 km north and slightly less than 4 km west of the station, at the northern tip of a highly elevated lake.

"I'm reading the distance from here at 11.8 kilometers," said Basel. "And the impact site is buried under more than ten meters of snow. No wonder it's not visible."

"Look at the terrain," said Eliana. "That peak 800 meters to the north and west is 1400 meters above sea-level. That means we have a drop of 470 meters over the 800 meter run. The impact must have started an avalanche, a big one. It buried everything."

"Yeah... 11.8 kilometers," said Basel again. They had completed their initial 400 sq km search grid several days ago and had found nothing. It was only today's effort in their expanded search area that had at last found the meteor site. "Sorry I wasn't more accurate with my original estimate. The meteor must have surfed the air more than I expected."

Eliana looked at him in puzzlement. "Basel, you quoted me a 70% chance of being within 10 kilometers of the station, and the real number was 11.8 kilometers. I think your estimate was fine."

"Thanks... Take a look at this!"

Eliana studied the display. "More echoes of the creature..."

"Yeah. This is the turnaround between tracks 1 and 2, and then again between tracks 3 and 4."

Eliana nodded. "Track 4 is where we discover the impact site. More decoys Basel. It was trying to distract us."

"Yeah. It didn't realize that we have a delay in processing the scanning data. It wasn't helping its cause at all. Say Eli, did you sense anything at the time?"

"From 1120 meters up?! Basel, I know my ability seems a little spooky to you, but there's no magic involved. I'm not a witch!"

Basel leaned over and gave her a playful kiss. "Sure you are! You've bewitched me with your feminine charms." His hand patted her rump.

Eliana kissed him back. "Hah! Back to reality Basel! Any recordings of the creature's speed?"