Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 29

Wedding Day

The guys awoke the next morning at their usual times and did the chores. Now that Atlantis had a pretty decent population Joe and Kat had taken on boarding horses, riding lessons and, of course, trail rides. Their ranch business had taken off quicker than they had expected, but because of Atlantis' climate and lack of dangerous wildlife, pretty much all boarding was in group or private pastures rather than in a barn. So they did have chores to do.

After the chores were finished, they fixed themselves some bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast.

For most of the morning, they discussed the ranch businesses. Joe and Kat had gone back to help out with a couple of trail rides, and they had decided to try and draw people to the Atlantis ranch by demonstrating the camping kit, which was a smash hit and got them some media attention when Elisha did a story on them. However it had been decided that they would keep the camping kit at the new ranch for this year and next season they would have another kit for the Alberta ranch. Hopefully by then there would be enough interest and Jason could hire some more help.

The Alberta ranch had been doing OK though. Jason, with Jorge, Maria and Sofia's help had the barn filled with boarders and they had been doing short trail rides and the odd day ride, but they only did a couple of multi-day rides, which Joe and Kat flew back for, bringing their horses and the camping kit on the Pegasus.

After lunch, everyone just hung around and talked for a bit, before calling for a lift to take them to Acropolis.

Bentiri, Adam and Kaleb were waiting at the amphitheatre when they arrived just before 14:00. Joe and Jason were whisked away almost immediately, since they weren't part of the wedding party.

The 5 men were ready in plenty of time, thanks to the clothing synth always making clothes that fit perfectly, so they sat down, talked and had a drink or two, until an alarm went off at 14:45 telling them to head out onto the stage.

When they got on stage, the amphitheatre was packed to capacity and the entire media row along the back was also solid with camera crews to broadcast the event. Despite being at the hottest time of the day, the amphitheatre appeared to be open to the sky above, but it almost felt like there was air conditioning or something keeping the place at a normal room temperature.

That 15 minutes seemed like forever, however at about the 10 minute mark Senator Rigat made his appearance as he was doing the officiating.

He came up and shook Mark's hand, "I am blessed to be a part of this momentous occasion. Thank you, my King! How have things been going? I do read the news and you have definitely been busy, you have adapted well to the pressures and responsibilities of leadership."

"I'm glad to have you here to officiate. Thank you for coming," Mark then looked at Angela, who was seated beside Rayven's dad and a few of the other senate heads in the front row. Then speaking just loud enough for Angela to hear, "Everything has been going well, but your replacement has been quite a pain in the butt to deal with!"

Mark and Senator Rigat looked at Angela and chuckled, as Angela just crossed her arms, raised her eyebrow, smiled and shook her head.

A few minutes later, the music started and everyone in the amphitheatre stood up and turned toward the back, so Mark and his men stood with Senator Rigat at the altar also looking toward the back.

Annabelle then rose up from one of the elevators at the back of the amphitheatre, with her maid of honour and bridesmaids around her. She looked absolutely stunning, as did all her girls. They were wearing blue dresses with silver and white contrasts and Annabelle was wearing a very elegant, yet conservative white wedding dress, with blue and silver contrasts.

Entering the amphitheatre from the back, as they did, Mark was wondering how they were going to manage all of the stairs from the top all the way down to the flat area in front of the stage.

His worry was all for naught as she and her bridesmaids seemed to float down the stairs to the flat area and then just had to go up the few stairs to the stage, with T'Soona flying in front and spreading flower petals.

As she approached the altar, her maid of honour and bridesmaids mirrored the formation of Mark's men, with the best man and maid of honour on the first step down and then the bridesmaids and groomsmen down the remaining 3 stairs.

Senator Rigat began the ceremony, which didn't last that long at all. It was more or less a slightly expanded version of Mark's coronation vows mixed in with vows to love, honour, cherish and respect one another, through hardships, challenges and victories until the day of their death.

Senator Rigat then asked Mark to present the crown, which Gyges handed to him on a pillow, from seemingly out of nowhere. It was an elegant crown of gold, silver and copper that looked much like a smaller version of Mark's.

Mark placed it on her head and had to recite some vows. Annabelle then presented Mark his trident, which he held in his right hand, and recited some vows. As she finished her vows, Senator Rigat declared them united in the eyes of the Atlantean Federation and instructed them to seal it with a kiss.

They both had tears in their eyes as they kissed each other passionately. Senator Rigat then asked them to face the crowd and introduced them as the King and Queen of the Atlantean Federation, as everyone rose from their seats and cheered.

Senator Rigat then announced that the King and Queen would be making a trip down the golden path and to please give them space.

The wedding party exited the amphitheatre through the backstage exit, where they saw an actual white chariot with gold, silver and copper designs, hitched to a white centaur with a blue Atlantean blanket covering his body.

The horse introduced himself as Troy, he was from Olympia, one of the planets Mark hadn't been to yet.

Inside the chariot were foot holds, like snowboard bindings, to place their feet into as they got secured into the chariot by a harness of sorts. There was also a port on the floor that his trident could lock into. They were told to lean back into the harness with their knees bent and their feet in the bindings and keep one hand on the trident as it would keep them stable, since there were no reins.

Troy started walking down the golden path as Mark and Annabelle shook hands with the people closest to the chariot. They could also see there were floating displays all the way down the path, so everyone along the path was able to watch the ceremony.

It took nearly half an hour to reach the end of the path, where some people met Troy and removed the blanket, which was covering his wings. Mark then clued in that he was from Olympia, which is likely where all those legends came from. Troy was a pegasus!

Troy spread his wings, told them to hold tight, took a few steps, jumped into the air and flew, with the chariot right behind him.

Obviously, there must have been AGCs on the chariot to allow it to fly, it was scary yet exhilarating. As they flew down the side of the golden path, circled the palace and went back down the other side of the path, then circled back again to land at the base of the palace.

They exited the chariot and both thanked Troy for the ride as Annabelle gave him a kiss on the cheek. They waved as he flew away.

They then went up the elevator to their bedroom to await the next part, which was the meal. They kissed passionately until Annabelle felt Mark starting to get hard. Then she lifted her dress exposing that she was wearing nothing underneath. Annabelle gave him one of her 'fuck me' looks, climbed on the bed on all fours and pointed her ass towards Mark.

Mark quickly pulled his cock out, got on his knees behind her, slid the head of his cock through her wetness then pushed deep inside her welcoming slit. Annabelle told him they had to be quick, so they fucked like bunnies for a couple of minutes until they both came at the same time.

Just as they were mid-orgasm, Rayven came into the room and shut the door behind her.

She watched them come down from their orgasmic highs and then pushed Annabelle onto her back, licked Mark's cock clean and then proceeded to lick the cum out of Annabelle's pussy. Then she helped Annabelle straighten her dress, while Mark pulled his pants back up.

They donned their crowns and proceeded out to the meal pavilion, where everyone was awaiting their arrival.

Supper was like all other communal meals in the Federation, it was a buffet and you could pick what you wanted. The meal was delicious, of course, and unlike other Earth weddings there was no clinking glasses to prompt kissing or anything dumb like that.

Due to the amount of people in the city centre wanting to eat, there was a multitude of food vendors scattered all down the east path and around the city centre. Many chose to just go through the pavilion, get their food and find a patch of grass or a bench in one of the nearby parks to sit and eat. It was like a huge picnic.

The only speech given was by Senator Marsbe stating how the Federation was much stronger and more cohesive than it has been in centuries. Then with the strong leadership shown by their King and new Queen, the Federation was in good hands for the next couple of centuries. She then made a point to introduce each of the Federated planets there.

As each planet was introduced, the senators representing that planet all stood up and waved.

Mark and Annabelle then gave a short speech thanking everyone who made today possible for all they had done.

After the meal, everyone convened near the base of the palace for the dance, which was being done outside. The dance was open to everyone and speakers were setup all the way down the golden path, as well as anyone tuning into RA1138 anywhere in the Federation could listen in.

There was a lot of socializing and greeting in between dances. Many of the senators congratulated them as did some of the other world leaders that were in attendance. However many of the Earth leaders expressed concern that an event of this magnitude was being held outdoors, where the general public could approach them and security would be difficult. As if to push that point home, a little boy and girl came up and asked Mark and Annabelle to dance, both kids couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 years old, but they were both obliged to dance with them.

After the dance Mark and Annabelle both gave their partners a kiss on the cheek and told them 'Thank You' and then the other Earth leaders, resumed their complaints about it being so public.

Mark just told them, "I may not be a perfect leader for everyone in the Federation, but we have a security force that does what it's supposed to and I trust it implicitly and you don't even know they're there. Besides, a good leader should be readily accessible to their citizens, talking to the general masses and relating to them. Not relying on staged events, publicity departments and social media to do it for them."

That quieted them down, as he and Annabelle went and found some refreshments from one of the many street vendors scattered down the golden path.

With their drinks in hand, they made their way through the crowd towards the palace, where they found Samira interviewing anybody that wanted to stop and talk and it was all being recorded and broadcast around the Federation.

Samira got her impromptu interview and the first question she asked was, "What was it like to fly in the chariot?" After explaining how scared they initially were, Troy kept the flight smooth and then it was just exhilarating.

Near the base of the palace, they were constantly being greeted by senators and other dignitaries.

Around midnight, there was still quite the party happening in the streets, but most of the senators were starting to head back to their rooms to rest after the long busy day.

As they returned to the palace residence for the night, Gyges met them in the common area, with a female and a smaller male of his species. Gyges introduced the female as Athena and the smaller male as Gaderius... his son.

Everyone gasped in astonishment because Gyges was always so quiet and rarely spoke much, he had never mentioned he had a family.

Athena then took over the explanation, "I was actually one of Gyges instructors when he was going through security training. There's not many of our kind and we kind of clicked, in fact we clicked a little too well and Gaderius here is the result of that. Gad has just recently graduated and is a full security officer now, so Gyges invited us to come for a visit. Plus now that we have a Queen, she needs to be protected and Gyges was hoping you would consider Gaderius here."

Mark then understood what Gyges meeting was about the other day, "We'll gladly add Gaderius for security or were you wanting to come onboard as well? As you have no doubt heard, I'm trying to make it so families get more together time. As far as I'm concerned, if you were an instructor, you'd be an excellent addition as well."

Athena said, "We're not married, so we're not really a family."

Mark said, "Married or not, if you both are involved with raising a child, you're a family."

With big smile, Athena said, "Well then, I gladly accept the position."

They each took a room on the main level, as everyone introduced themselves and then started heading to bed.

Mark woke up with the sun and extracted himself from between Rayven and Annabelle. Then went to his office to get his morning coffee and look through all the daily reports Cricket compiled for him.

The daily reports included a report from each planet showing all space traffic to and from, any primary law violations, and whether there were any local disasters happening on the planet. Unless there was an origin unknown ship or a disaster, it really was just information he didn't bother looking too deep into. He concentrated on the more detailed reports, that were Federation wide, covering the monetary system, a report from each of the government departments, such as medical, security, transportation, construction, education, etc, and then various other news that Cricket deemed worthwhile.

Mark actually looked forward to reading his daily reports as it kept him abreast of every major thing in the Federation. When combined with his remarkable memory, it always impressed people when they asked a question about something and he could recall what the latest report said, off the top of his head. If he couldn't recall it immediately, Cricket was always there to help him out.

After perusing the reports, he went to the balcony to watch the city waking up.

Surprisingly with the huge party that went on last night, with the half million or so people that were in attendance along the gold path, he was amazed that there wasn't more of a mess, but there was some.

He saw quite a few people raking up streamers and other junk that was just thrown on the ground rather than being recycled. So he went down to one of the parks near the palace and asked if he could help.

Without looking one man said, "Yeah, thanks! Could you grab one of those bags and hold it open for me?"

Mark grabbed one of the bags as the guy scooped up the trash and then turned around to dump it, only then realizing who was holding the bag. Still holding the garbage he started apologizing.

Mark just smiled and said, "Are you going to dump your garbage or not?"

He dumped it and then continued apologizing, but Mark told him to relax and said, "We'll get this park cleaned up faster, if you would stop apologizing."

After that pile was cleaned up, he started raking together another pile. Mark saw an extra rake so he began raking a pile also, carrying on casual conversations with the other people cleaning the park.

Mark had no idea that Samira and Elisha were sitting on a bench in the park and drinking their coffee. They saw the interaction and laughed, plus they caught it all on video.

Some of the other senators were soon out walking around with their morning drinks watching the clean up.

Senator Marshall was standing near Samira and Elisha, when he said out loud, "He definitely isn't like any king I've ever seen!"

Samira recognized him and asked him to sit down with them for an impromptu interview.

Since Samira knew about Athos, Elisha just went along for the ride with Samira in the lead. Samira asked about how Athos came to join the Federation and why, then asked him about his interactions with the king.

Senator Marshall said, "Our space program had just developed faster than light travel and on either our first or second flight we encountered the Empire. They were only in a small exploration ship, and seemed very nice and cordial and said they were also explorers and would welcome trade technology and commerce. So we led them back to Athos.

They met with our leaders and we even signed a trade and technology sharing agreement. There was a big media event and everything. They left and we were elated that we had found new friends. They returned about a month later with one of their big warships and demanded we surrender our planet. When we refused, they sent landing parties to the surface and started orbital bombardments. We eventually fought them off the ground, but lost close to 20 million people in that first attack. Fortunately, we did have some spacefaring warships and we were able to inflict enough damage that they retreated.

After that first attack, all of the governments got together, since they had all been attacked, and decided that we needed to work together if we were to defend ourselves against a technologically superior enemy from another planet. Thus the Alliance was formed.

We ramped up our space defence programs and built Raptors as fast as we could. Then every few months the Empire would show up with one or two of those big warships, send a few planetary missiles at the planet while our Raptors fought them in space, then leave when they've sustained enough damage. This went on for about 150 years, we'd have a fight, they would go away, we would lick our wounds and repair our ships and then do it all over again in a few months. In all those years we had never managed to destroy one of their warships.

On their last attack they had 3 of those big warships and we only had 10 Raptors. We again managed to inflict enough damage that they retreated, but with those numbers, we didn't think we'd be able to stave them off for much longer. So, in desperation, we tried to attack the Federation to get technology to fight the Empire. Our attack obviously was laughable by the Federation, with 10,000 to 6 odds in their favour.

Our 'Hail Mary', as Mark called it, actually turned out better than we could have hoped when the Federation captured our men and ships and escorted them back to Athos, just as the Empire showed up with 5 ships to attack us. The Federation gave them plenty of opportunity to sit down and talk peacefully, but when they opened fire, the Federation ships protected our ships with their shields. Just as one of the Federation ships was about to lose their shields, Mark allowed them to return fire, they only fired a single shot, which obliterated one of their warships and sent the rest of them running.

Then while we were going through the process of joining the Federation, the Empire returned with 50 warships surrounding our planet. The King talked to them and tried to get them to turn around, literally telling them they had no chance at success.

Once the King had figured out which ship their leader was in, he said the leader's ship would remain unharmed, so there was someone to go back and explain the loss of all their ships and men, and he gave them a countdown to turn around or it would be considered a declaration of war against the Federation. Some of the ships turned around, but more than half of them sped up to close the distance for the attack, and just as the countdown was about to expire, every ship fired every missile they had at the planet, there was thousands of them. Mark just shook his head and closed his eyes and suddenly every missile and every ship, except for the one their leader was in, exploded at the same time. It was like a global fireworks display.