Tonstar Rising Ch. 02

The boy's eyes shot open as he arched his back and pulled with renewed strength at the leather straps which held his arms down. There were only two colors, the black irises matched the black pupils, and all of that was surrounded by blood red where white would normally be. The eyes fixated on Thadius and a bellow of rage burst forth as one of the straps broke. A now greenish hand shot forth and latched onto Thadius' throat as the beast boy turned on his side to try and grapple Thadius. As Thadius instinctively pulled at the hand trying to crush his windpipe, he had time to be amazed at how calmly he took the realization he was about to die. The sounds around him dimmed out as his vision narrowed with blackness closing in until a soft 'pop pop pop' tried to make itself heard over a scream. Blackness claimed him.

Thadius woke from his nightmare with a start, reaching for the hand clamped around his throat as the screams from his dream followed him into wakefulness. The hand he expected to be latched onto his raw and bruised throat wasn't there, and thankfully, the screams were emanating from behind a wall to his left. He slowly relaxed and noticed he had an IV drip in his right arm. Looking around his sparse room, he noticed it wasn't a room as much as a closed-off space in the corner of a larger room. A few years ago, he would have woken to the gentle beep of the heart and oxygen monitor as it kept a watchful eye, but those days were gone. A curtain posing as a doorway moved to the side, and Kami stepped in, looking for a chair to pull next to Thadius' bed before deciding to notice he was awake. "Holy shit, Tad!" was all she got out as she leaned over to hug Thadius, dropping the glass of water she was holding in her excitement. "I thought we lost you."

Thadius held her to him fiercely as more screams punctuated the moment. "What the fuck happened," was all he managed to croak out. His throat was on fire. "I need water."

Kami released him and sat down, waving at the ground. She joked to alleviate the tension. "Well, I was bringing you some in case you woke, but I guess the ground needed it more. What happened was another one changed, that's what they are calling it now, 'changing.' This one was an orc, or what they are calling orcs. You ever see that remake they did for Lord of the Rings about 90 or so years ago? Didn't really look like one of them, but I was assured the original description from the books matches. Anyways, orcs are nasty business. Strong as an ox, thicker skin, claws and teeth meant for battle. Not all orcs are bad, but more than enough are."

"I've seen the reports on the orcs in the eastern hills," Thadius answered with a sigh. "At least they die easily enough."

"Yeah, like from the clip I emptied into that poor sorry fool that tried to kill you. Made a mess of him, I'm afraid."

Dr. Carter popped her head into his 'room' then. "Thought I heard voices." She moved next to Thadius' bed and began doing doctor things like taking his pulse and checking his eyes. "I apologize for the excitement. Was not expecting anyone to change that quickly on us, and you happened to be here for the nastiest change of the day."

"Tell me about it, doctor. We came because we were asked, and my guess is this changing business is what we were meant to see. Give me what information you can."

A drawn-out scream that slowly dwindled as whoever was in pain lost either strength or consciousness answered him before the doctor could. "That one there is an elf thankfully. All of the elves are peaceful and helpful when they wake up. Here's what we know so far. Starting roughly two tendays ago, on the 12th of Mantaen to be exact, every single human that hit their tenth name day has fallen into a slumber we cannot rouse them from. Roughly four out of every ten wake up something other than human. Of those that change, we have been forced to euthanize about half. A majority, a vast majority, of those changed are also male."

Thadius' head was still a bit groggy, but what he just heard managed to shake the cobwebs out of his head. "So what you are saying is that every day, for everyone who is about to turn twenty on their tenth name day, twenty percent are likely to lose their humanity and twenty percent are likely to die? We don't have the population to handle something like that. How many generations until humanity is gone when only sixty percent of them stand a chance?"

"Tad," the worry in Kami's voice snapped his head around to look at her, forgetting what conversation he was having, "when's your name day?"

The question was more out of left field than it should have been, and Thadius had to think about it. "5th of Antean. Shit... Fuck." With the weight of everything on his shoulders now, he had forgotten his own age. He was doing the work of someone ten years his senior. As it registered in his brain, another thought slid into place. "Oh fuck! Kami! Fuck fuck fuck.." Her response was the tears she had been holding back. Kami's name day was a month after his own.

-- Mars, USNA Naval Base, Fort Denning --

-- September 10th, 2384 A.D. Third Tenday of Mantaen, 5 AGR --

Undersecretary Lester "Weasel" Thurmond lived up to every definition of the slur "prick" that Thadius could think of. Thurmond was the embodiment of pricks everywhere; somewhere vast numbers of posters with his face were being printed at the annual Prick Association. Thadius had fought and killed to reinstate the civilian government and Thurmond was enough to make Thadius regret it all and begin plotting a coup.

"General Tonstar, I don't see how any of this falls under this administration's area of responsibility. These 'Changes' as they are being called are clearly a security issue and that falls under the military's jurisdiction according to the constitution, which you helped shape I might add. If you are asking for further funds to help I'm afraid you will need to wait for the next appropriations committee meeting to discuss getting any additional funding on the docket. You know how these rules work."

"I didn't ask you about any of that, Lester. What I asked you was, where is the General Secretary?"

"I am well aware of what you are trying to do, General, and I can guarantee that the outcome will be the same. This way your empty complaints can stay here and not disturb the very busy General Secretary as she handles more important business."

Thadius couldn't hold his voice down as his anger and frustration broke forth. "If I wanted the opinion of an asshole, I would have asked you for it! The only thing I want to hear from that sorry pie hole in your face is the current location of the General Secretary, do I make myself clear?"

"I know it may be hard for your barbarian, 'shoot it before it moves' brain to comprehend but there is no reason to act uncivilized! I answered your question and the topic is over!"

"Where the fuck is Sally, Lester?!"

"Remove your loutish person from my office, at once! Security!"

"I put you into power, you fucking little pissant, and I can remove you just as easily!"

"Security!"

"What in the nine hells is going on in here?" a new voice cut into the escalating disagreement.

"Thank the heavens! Secretary General, this, this brute! Barged in here, demanding changes that have to go through committee and when I refused he threatened me! I demand his resignation!"

"Undersecretary Thurmond, I can say with no small amount of certainty, that the entire upper floors heard the exchange between the two of you. And while his threat may have been without bite, am I correct in that General Tonstar?" Thadius just gave a small shrug. "His threat has quite a lot of merit to it, which you should reflect on. Now, General, if you would follow me."

They left Thurmond's office together and walked another forty feet to a double set of doors leading into the General Secretary's corner office, overlooking the river flowing past the banks below. The General Secretary sat with a sigh in her large plush leather rolling chair. "Take a seat, Tad."

Thadius sat with his own heavy sigh. "Sal, this shit is getting serious and if I have to put up with Lester's bullshit much more we are going to find out how far he can fly from a fifth story window,"

"Talk to me. It's been a minute since I have seen you this worked up over something. Is it the reports from the foothills?"

"No, but those are bad enough. The goblins are multiplying something fierce and we've had no word of what happened to Colonel Brusset and his people when they headed that way. No, this is about what everyone is calling the 'Change'. Have you read Dr. Carter's reports?"

"They were flagged but I'm not understanding something there. It must be a serious issue for you to be here bringing it up but I thought it was just another security concern like the other thousand we have." She waved her hand to take in the view from the window making Thadius snort in amusement. The entire fucking world, even the fish and plants, were now a security concern.

"Normally I would say yes but this has population concerns tied to it." Thadius relayed everything they knew about the Change and the impact on the population which made the General Secretary utter a few curses of her own. "But it gets worse, Sally. Much worse. We did a further study on what our population curve might look like based on the new data. Have you seen the birth records lately?"

That drew Sally up short. "No, in fact I had not. We get a monthly summary in the roll ups but no one had noticed anything worth highlighting. What have you seen?"

"Births are becoming regular. Like this Change thing. There's a pattern emerging. Most days the birth record shows a multiple of ten are being recorded, and we are figuring the non decimal days are from other humans not being accounted for, like Brusset's people. If we extrapolate that we govern 73% of the remaining population of humans the numbers tie out."

Sally blew out a breath. "That's... a lot to take in Tad. We're certain of these numbers?"

"I've spent a couple tendays going over everything with people a lot smarter than me. Everyone is in agreement. At current rates, the population of humanity will drop below sustainable levels in approximately seventy three Martian years."

"That is depressing. I don't know which is worse, the ramifications on future population curves or the fact we govern three quarters of the remaining humans. That puts the world population at just under three hundred thousand. Suggestions? I'm hoping you spent some time coming up with something rather than just unloading another Rending on my lap. 'Gee Sally, hate to break it to you but humanity is a goner.'"

Thadius chuckled a little. "It really is about like that. Everything about these biological changes scream that there is an environmental factor we are not seeing at work. With what power units we have left failing, there's no lab work or computational power left for modeling either. I think we need to draft policies to cope with it. Move off the terran year and make the Martian year the new standard. It's not like any of us are returning to Earth anyways. The common person can more easily comprehend the time frame involved with these changes rather than trying to convert in their head. We never converted to metric like we should have so let's not make the same mistakes here. Abolish birthdays and replace them with name days, that sort of thing. We have to stop clinging to the past."

"You sure this isn't just another ploy to change the government's name?" As far as Thadius was concerned the Federation of Equatorial Mars was the absolute worst name on the list that was proposed. Who wants to be a member of the FEM? It rankled his nerves and he had campaigned several times to change it.

"No, as much as I would love that there's changes coming we cannot control and word will soon get out. How do you propose hiding the fact that 40% of our children are not going to stay human? We legislate changes to combat the shock of those changes by rolling it all up together as a government effort. Out with the old in with the new sort of thing."

"For someone who hates and constantly says how bad they are at politics, you have a flair for it."

"No, Sally, absolutely not. I am not running for any office. I know you had that provision allowing serving military to run for office just to spite me and I am not going to take the bait. The answer is no"

"So you are saying you will reconsider, that's a start." She ignored his answering growl. "Out with the old in with the new, right? You are our most popular military leader, heaven knows why because I surely don't. The people could really use you."

"Well, the discussion is moot regardless."

Sally raised an eyebrow, "And why pray tell is that?"

"My tenth nameday is next month."

The ramifications of his statement did not take long for her to comprehend. "Fuck."

-- Mars, USNA Naval Base, Fort Denning --

-- First Tenday of Antaen, 5 AGR --

It was a few days after the newly minted Planting Day. Originally the day would have marked when the tractors would begin sewing the fields with the first crop of the year. Now it was a festival for the field hands, to give them a celebration and day of rest before the backbreaking work of tilling and planting fields began. This year's Planting Day was also marked by the passage of the legislation that formalized the new calendar, along with replacing AD with AGR as a new era was recognized.

Thadius made his way down to the 'Cave of Change' as it was being called, retracing his steps to the tunnel in the cliffside where the medical facility handling the Change was located. He greeted Dr. Carter again and made his way to one of the 'Changing rooms' as they were now being called. There was an uncomfortable amount of new terms flying about. It was a secure cubicle large enough for the bed and small furniture it allowed, constructed of reinforced bulkheads that were anchored into the rock walls surrounding them. He noticed his room had several large fist-shaped imprints embedded on the one wall. Kami joined him for the evening, her intention to stay until he dropped into the deep, unwakeable slumber that everyone had grown used to.

They talked for a while, just small talk about everything except why they were there. "Have I ever told you how much I love you, Kami?"

Kami laughed a little. "You've said the words enough but I don't recall you quantifying it."

Thadius held up a hand and nearly touched his thumb and forefinger together. "I know it is more than this much."

Kami promptly punched him in the arm.

He spread the distance out between his fingers. "Definitely more than this much."

She smiled and punched him again. "Slightly better."

He held his two hands apart, about the width of his shoulders. He moved them side to side slightly as if measuring. "Had the feel of it for just a second, but nope, more than this."

Her nostrils flared for a heartbeat as her hand slipped into his defenses in a lightning strike and pinched one of his nipples. "Aaaaggh" She found his cry of pain satisfactory.

"Damn woman, that hurt. Fine, I love you thiiiiiissss much" He held his arms out as far as they could and then scooped around her to pull her in for a kiss. A very long kiss.

When they broke apart he looked into her eyes. "Kami, if this goes ok.." She punched him on the thigh to stop him.

"No ifs, there is no room for doubt in here, not tonight." A tear leaked out to slowly fall down one cheek.

He moved to capture her tear on his thumb then raised it to his mouth to give it a small kiss. "If this goes ok, we need to give more thought to our future."

"We spend it together, I thought that was the plan!" a look of concern matched her exclamation.

"Yes, but how do you want to spend it together? As my second in command? Or maybe as something more?"

"Thadius Tonstar, are you asking me to marry you? Where's the ring?"

"Hey now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. There's a lot to consider, but yes. It's just what would that look like? I am not ready to transfer you off to another unit, I like having you with me all the time."

"Change the rules."

"Huh?"

"Change the rules, Tad. You have been doing it ever since things went to shit. Most of those changes you pushed through have helped more than hurt, which is shocking since they were your ideas, but just do one for yourself, ourselves, this time. Change the rules. We can be married sidekicks in charge." She gave him one of her kisses of encouragement that really translated to 'you know I am right just go with it'.

"Well, I admit I was considering Sally's suggestion of running for office and making you my trophy wife, but your plan has merits too."

"That's because I am the best wife material you will find. Now seal the deal and make love to me Thaidus Tonstar."

She pushed him off her so he fell onto his back and began disrobing. They were a military couple, used to expediency and no wasted effort so they found themselves naked before most people would have been able to take off their socks. Kami sat on top of him and leaned over to begin nursing his stiffening cock while she adjusted herself to straddle his face.

Thadius was a no frills kind of guy. He did not have any real kinks that he knew of. He had no erogenous zones he was aware of outside his crotch and even then his balls were super sensitive and manhandling them tended to end an evening quickly. He had heard of others that liked their nipples played with or even licked and pinched but the idea of someone licking his nipples gave him the shivers and anything else would just be painful. He wasn't into any of the odd things he heard bantered about in the locker room. He used to field questions about it, blandly relating some things he heard others say in hopes the questions would go away, but they never did until it became clear he was attached to Kami. Anyone who could keep someone like her satisfied shouldn't be questioned.

Kami on the other hand was just as easy and at the same time so much harder to figure out. She straddled over him on her knees, not letting her full weight lie against him because he knew she didn't like that feeling. When he was over her he made sure to bear as much weight on his arms as he could to not smother her. They normally fucked on their sides or doggy-style or some variant that left her weight free. Her breast hung down and he knew he could fondle them and squeeze them in a certain way she liked, but fingers on the nipples were a no-go just as pinching would end up in him getting slapped somewhere unpleasant, such as his testicles right by her hands. However, kissing, licking, and gentle sucking on her nipples would really get her going. Her neck was a good spot as well, along with her earlobes. She once stuck her tongue in his ear and he had bolted at the discomfort, he nearly shuddered at the memory.

He happily dug his tongue into her pussy, licking between her folds starting at right before her clit and ending with burying his tongue as deep as he could into her hole. He learned she didn't like too much playing with her clit, no sucking on it, no nibbling, and he had to be careful with too much rubbing. It had taken him a while to figure out how to get her off using just his hands. Nothing matched up to what the now gone porn vids portrayed. His tongue worked better than his hands though, just as her mouth did wonders for him that her hands never could. Kami grabbed one of his hands off a tit and moved it back towards his head. It was one of 'those' sessions, he thought to himself. He dutifully took his now free hand and inserted two fingers deep within her pussy, slightly curled to apply the pressure he knew she liked and it proved to be enough. She came, her hips bucking faster to match her needs.