Planetrise and Moonfall Ch. 02-03

It was almost two weeks before I was sufficiently released from duties, imposed by the imminent Rebel threat, to revisit Genene's apartment. This time I went completely sober and with a gift of flowers, the fabulous Teeheye Bride Rose, boasted by florists to be the most fragrant rose in the galaxy. I had called her ahead of time, the Flag Commandant having quietly passed me her contact number along with his suggestion of the roses, and I booked her for the whole night, to include collecting her in person and escorting her to a night's stay at the 'Landing Station', a hotel near the space port, which had exclusive luxury suites available, and boasted a restaurant whose chef was a celebrity known throughout the Lottis Sector, where the Imperial Naval Academy was based.

If I thought we could spend a platonic evening with me thanking her suitably for her kindness, and her accepting a pleasant evening without her seducing me into surrendering my precious virginity to her, I was very wrong. I attribute my easy surrender purely to my naivety and unworldly upbringing in a family-orientated environment whose parents were devoted entirely to one another, other than the three years apparently, I was now privy to, that my father spent in the arms of a much younger Genene.

Yes, I was seduced and fell easily under her power. I felt that I was in love with her and I indeed felt dearly loved during our time together. The expensive hotel suite in which I lost my virginity became our home for more than two years. The hotel management were amenable to a deal which ensured the suite was occupied at a rate which was acceptable to both sides of the arrangement. Although I was the son of a Duke and not yet fully inherited of my family's worth, I was wealthy enough in my own right, through my parents' allowances and gifts from my birth guardians and grand parents which had long been invested in businesses which supplied more than enough dividends for me to keep a kept woman without dinting on my homeworld household, other expenses and, in her fading years, set Genene up in modest but independent living, which I hoped would last her for life. I suppose I did this in jealousy of her finding a younger replacement from the following cadet cohort, who would fill her heart more than I had or that she had held in mine. We both knew I had to give her up and she seemed to accept this with a few tears and a final night of lovemaking that could easily come close to carrying both of us off to the grave.

My thoughts over the past twenty and more years often wondered how she had fared after our sweet parting. It had to be a clean break. I think our separation broke her heart, and I was certain that it broke mine.

I didn't go home at all during the recess at the end of my second year either, because by now all Imperial Navy hands, including officer cadets, were desperately thrown into the battle against the rising tide of the rebel rising and we were only able to put down that particular phase of the rebellion by extreme sacrifice of the cream of the Imperial Navy, distinguishing myself in combat in the process. But I know it damaged the Empire irreparably and we all knew, or should have realised that the next uprising would be the last of a continuous series which had combusted every few years over the previous 65 years, after several millennia of relative peace.

***

Imperial date 7935 E (or Minus 6 R, 26 years ago)

With the civil war at least for the moment at an end, I was offered graduation from officer school as a buck lieutenant and put out to grass on the reserve list for five terranyears, or I could step up and enlist as a career officer with a fast track to Post Captain in five terranyears and Rear Admiral in fifteen. But I was sick of the war and so I took the Naval Reserve offer and was shipped home in a troop ship with a broken ankle from a projectile round and arm in a sling from several blade cuts sustained in the deciding battle that finally destroyed the latest version of the Rebel Resistance.

I returned to Como Prime for the first time in three years and was dreading meeting my wife again after such a time and bearing the burden of disloyalty to her in my heart and mind. There was no question of trying to hide this from my wife, if we were to remain married, we had to be completely honest with each other.

Of course we had conversed regularly through Pynom and Pynom II, a clone zulon of Pynom who Velda constantly referred to as 'Pippa', so we were not strangers. In fact, my platonic love for this beautiful, intelligent and utterly charming young woman had grown over the three years into something approaching a deep and yearning affection, with the potential and wish to turn it into an enduring love.

I had always been open about my growing love for Velda to Genene and she witnessed its slow and steady emergence from the quiet background of many of my conversations with my distant bride. Genene encouraged me to give my lover up with a clean break, my eventual financial settlement being a joyous surprise to her, something that she said my father had neglected to consider at their moment of separation many years earlier. She applauded my maturity, she said.

I was under orders not to,disclose to Genene that my father and I also conversed regularly, when Genene was not present, and that I had soon made him aware of our mutual relationship with this singularly beautiful and deserving woman and the final settlement included more assets than I could possibly have had access to without his complete, in fact insistent, connivance, along with his insistence of not including Genene in the knowledge of his generosity.

On graduation from the Cadet School, having left Genene forever on that final dawning together, I was collected in a small double-hulled craft that Velda was comfortable flying, this journey being the longest she had embarked on since learning how to be a pilot on my home world, largely conducted in secret except for my father and a few trusted technicians. I was shocked in how stunningly beautiful a woman Velda had transformed into, our communications up to now completely inadequate to convey her beauty. She was shy at first, but her bubbly sass and cheek, that she had hinted at during our first few terranmonths together, soon came to the surface and, during our flight home, eased us both into a comfortable relationship, although each of us was unable to broach the subject of our impeding nuptials that were inevitable but as yet unscheduled.

I knew that I had to be completely honest with Velda about my behaviour over the past three years, not only at a physical level, but my involvement emotionally with Genene, too. So, before we reached Como Prime, I asked her to redirect the craft to a small but beautiful moon that we had once happy memories of visiting when we had spent our first few months together three years earlier. I was impressed by her flying. She made the difficult landing look easy, as this was a jaggedly mountainous moon, that gave spectacular views of the gas giant below and its magnificent ever-changing cloud patterns. The difficulty of the terrain was one reason why it was seldom visited by small craft, while larger cruisers would find it difficult to find a suitable and safe landing point. We settled and sat for a moment, admiring the view before I spoke.

'Velda, I must speak to you and make confession of my behaviour over the past three years.' I opened with, as I took both her hands off the steering yoke and held them gently in mine.

'I know, my husband,' she replied looking deeply into my eyes with those huge blue orbs of hers, like twin water planets. 'You have been what you believe is unfaithful to me during your time away from me and feel some guilt for doing so, especially after swearing loyalty to me before you left.'

'Yes, Velda, you have guessed correctly, but it is worse than that, I actually gave my heart to another woman for much of that time and it has been a wrench to separate from her. It has been difficult for me to give her up, heartbreaking to do so, but I have sacrificed her and my feelings for her because, if you will only agree to take me back, I wholeheartedly hope for your forgiveness as I desire to spend the rest of my days as your loving and forever faithful husband.'

I gripped her hands, hoping she would respond positively and I was pleased that she squeezed me back in reply.

'There was very little guesswork on my part, Ivan. I have become a doting daughter to your loving mother and father and a devoted sister to your own dear sister during your long absence in the service of the Empire, so I am as much a part of your family now as you have always been. Although your father did not admit anything directly to me, he has confessed to his time at the Academy with the Lady Genene and has been forgiven those trespasses by our mother Jeneve, as I in my turn forgive you all of your transgressions.'

I must have sat there open-mouthed at her unexpected response, and was still stunned as she kissed me lightly on the lips and continued to speak.

'I have spoken to the Lady Genene this morning, timed, as I arranged, between the time you left her side for the last time and the time you had to report for graduation muster at the Academy. We spoke for at least a terranhour about you and her and you and me, and what we both planned for our future together. Genene has given up on you completely, my love, though it pains her deeply to do so, her love for you running so deep. Although it may be that her pain is so fresh, but she really believes she loves you more than any man she has met. Even your generosity, as well as your father's, although she is unaware of his financial contribution to the pot that you managed to package for her. But in addition, Duke Jolyon has bought her a title and a stake in a small, but potentially rich world close to merchant and passenger routes, which could prove to make her a good marriage should she wish to take that option in the near future. She is still a beautiful woman and even I found myself warming to her during our short conversation. She loves you deeply, more than she could ever admit to you and promises that in forgiveness and honesty, we have a wonderful future ahead of us, if the politics of imperialism or republican upheaval allows.'

I was still struck dumb. My rehearsed confession lying undelivered and in tatters, with nothing to follow up in this twisting of our conversation, so she felt further encouraged by my silence to continue once more.

'I have loved you since our first chaste wedding night together, Ivan my love, quiet though it was. I am full of admiration that a man, already in full potential of his sexual prime, would resist a new wife's offer of surrender on her wedding night. I know few of the young and older men, who my father surrounded himself with, who would resist such an offer, otherwise denied them from forcibly taking from me without the threat of retribution from a father who wanted to keep me pure to maximize his investment in me to an influential and generous partner. Someone of your standing in the ranks of nobility was probably beyond his wildest dreams for me, and he continually tells me in our regular one-sided conversations how much my birth world still benefits from your family's interest and investments. I know I was but a child when we wed, my dear. I know from the customs of the world I now call my own, and recognize and appreciate the benefit of allowing a child to enjoy her childhood without being forced into womanhood before her time. And when I was just fifteen, and such an undeveloped being in both body and mind at that time, I am grateful for your forbearance and restraint. How else can I respect you but to consider that until now our marriage has merely been a promise of a future happiness that would have to wait until we were both mature enough to take the next step in the process of our marriage, in which we can make love as lovers now and regularly for the rest of our happy lives.'

I finally found my voice but decided that I needed to kiss my bride before ruining everything by opening my mouth and talking. I pulled her into my arms and pressed our lips together, softly at first, before our joint ardour made our embrace one of desperate longing for fulfilment, as our tongues entwined and our hands and fingers wandered about our bodies.

I remembered how soft and shapeless her body was when we cuddled as newly-weds. When she was a child, our cuddles were like those of comfort to a child afraid of the dark or of being alone, when she was in fact torn from the bosom of the only other family she'd experience of. Even though it wasn't what I would call a loving family, it was all she had known.

But now Velda was sculptured, toned though exercise, yoga, or sports activity, I knew not which. Her body was firm, shapely and sexually responsive under the excited stroking of my hands. And she was sexually inspiring to me. My lips moved from caressing hers to taking in her throat, her neck and shoulders, before she pushed me away with a delightful giggle and stood next to her pilot's seat to swipe her finger slowly and seductively down the zapzip of her silver radsmock. A simple shrug and the silken robe fell off her shoulders and pooled on the deck, leaving her wearing nothing but a sweet and enticing smile.

'You're beautiful!' I gasped, hardly recognizing the child I once knew.

'Thank you my darling, you are the most handsome and lovable man I know and I want to make you only my own.'

'You do own me.'

'I mean to earn that ownership, my sweet. This two-seater space craft has been custom fitted with a double sleep pod, my husband. I think we should retire there, both for reasons of our comfort and the possibilities of necessary clean up that might be required when considering that one of the partners to this new relationship is still a Virgin. I have studied the art of love in theory, my husband and I intend not to disappoint in the practice.'

'Rather than leave our condition uncertain, my love, in light of your wishes that we start with a clean slate,' I said, 'I would like to proclaim my love for you, Velda, my one and only wife, which has grown through our delightful conversations into a desire I can barely contain. Further, I ask that you accept my sincere apologies for being unfaithful during all of the time of our parting and that you forgive me for my broken word. Lastly, please accept my promise of loving you until our life's end.'

'Indeed, I forgive you my husband, as I consider these last three years during which I grew up in the final period of childhood. Before we consummate our marriage as a woman. I accept your promise of eternal love and return my love as fully as any woman can, and I promise that I too, will love you completely until the very last breath is squeezed from my body.'

She hooked her finger inviting me to join her, physically and in nakedness. I too, ran my finger down the more complicated trouser-suited radsuit, parting the zapzip. I had to peel the tight-fitting suit off my broad shoulders and roll the clinging veggie-cloth from my torso and, rather more clumsily than I would have hoped, had to pull the suit off both legs before I too, appeared in my birth suit before her, ignoring the giggles that applauded my latter disrobing efforts, in no comparison to her classy and sexy disrobing.

As if in mitigation for her unbridled laughter, she did give me a little understanding, 'You did hold out in your promise of fealty for a whole terranyear, my husband, for which your father, by admittance to your mother, gave you much credit for your resolve, Ivan.'

'Oh dear, even knowing that my mother and father are intimate with my own intimate history, fills me with more embarrassment than I imagined I could ever bear.'

'Don't worry, my love. The tally of dismerits between us is zeroed at this point. There is no judgement of your behaviour, no guilt to answer for and is thus wiped clean from our history as if it hadn't existed, except ...'

'Except what?'

'Well, Genene extolled the virtue of your tongue and promised me that I should forgive your former lover too, if only for that gift alone. And I forgive her now in advance of pleasures to come.'

We kissed, our lips pressed firmly together, her arms wrapped around my neck and mine around her upper torso, stroking and caressing each other, adding fuel to the fire, stoking up ready for us both to explode in heat and passion for each other's loving.

'Come, my love,' she cooed as our kiss ended and we both drew breath, 'make me a complete grown up woman at long last, give me your child, the grandson of a Duke, the son of a Duke to be and, who knows in these troubled times, maybe one day an Emperor.'

'I would be content with a son or a daughter who were just as beautiful as you.'

'I hope we will have an Army from which you can choose your favourites.'

'When it comes to your children, my sweet, they will all be my favourites as I would never be able to single any one out to be any less than any other.'

I fell in love with my bride Velda, all over again that day. We consummate our love tenderly, taking her gently through her first time as my lover. As she reclined and spread her legs, her sex as wet and welcoming as a hot tub, I slowly and carefully eased into her, watching her eyeball to eyeball, gauging and respecting each other's responses, our agonies and ecstasies. Even in pain, she urged me on, telling me how exquisite was the pain, and how it turned in an instant to more pleasure than she felt any right of. The resistance of her hymen was a surprise to us both and she winced as I pressed against her, without following through as hurting her dear sweet body.

'Don't worry my love,' she pleaded, 'every woman in order to become a woman must have endured this moment of pain, the small sacrifice of blood, the discomfort of recovery in time. It is a price I pay gladly, my sweet and gentle lover, but we will find in our own time of lovemaking, when there is a time to be gentle and a time to be forceful. Now you must dig in your heels and and scrape the nest with your toes and become the charging bull, and I must be the willing cow who needs your milk to feed my waiting calf. Do it now my husband and break the bonds of childhood and make me a woman, make me your woman as I in my devotion make you my man.'

I thrust hard and ripped through her barrier and buried my hot poker deeper in my wife than I ever had with Genene, and held myself still, deep in her vagina, pausing as she accustomed herself to my invasion, feeling her hot breath on my face and we continued to look in each other's eyes. Other than that fleeting moment of open-eyed surprise, I could not see pain and I know that, other than concern, my face had to be brimming with pleasure at this moment of initial consummation with a woman so beautiful that she hurt my admiring eyes. The emotion I felt, losing one love and gaining another in the same day affected me more than I felt I could commit ordinary everyday words for; I needed a new language of love in which to express myself.

But all I said was, 'I love you Velda. You are the answer to my dreams and more than a humble man like me has any expectation to enjoy the fruits of our joining now and for many years to come.'

'You press heavy on me husband, so let us enjoy the motion, that I might breathe between thrust and release and may we have many breaths before we grow short of breath and your seed completes the circle of life. Only here we make our babies, Ivan, but we also renew and refresh our love, so we must practice often and excite our blood and grow our love strong and true. But promise me this husband, that if I am no more to you, then please take another wife or a lover, I do not ever want you to despair in loneliness.'