Nucleus 1: The Dust of Moon [Mature Sci-fi Romance]

Dilinur inched closer to the source of the sounds, her heart pounding in her chest as she peered through a small opening. There, in a dimly lit chamber, she saw Jabari and Astrid entwined in a passionate embrace. Astrid lay on what appeared to be a bed of soft fur, her monstrous lower half coiling up with several transculent blue oral arms to steady Jabari by his legs as he thrust himself into her with abandon.

Astrid's human-like breasts jiggled with each powerful thrust, while her upper body was wrapped around Jabari's torso, their hands entwined in a tight grip.

"Deeper, my love…deeper—!" She implored as her oral arms tensed, crawling up Jabari's strong back, like intimate shackles holding him prisoner.

Jabari deepened his thrusts into Astrid. Even at this distance, Dilinur could see how the Maridian's lips found the Jokull woman's, and how he kissed her passionately, how their tongues entwined in a sensual dance.

As she observed, Dilinur's thoughts drifted to her own life. She had never experienced such intimacy with anyone—neither human nor Radi-Mon. The closest thing to affection she had ever known was the cruel exploitation of Zu-Shao Qin, or the fleeting touches of Joon-Seok Pak as he too had taken advantage of Dilinur.

The realization that she had never been kissed—truly kissed—by someone who cared for her, hit her like a ton of bricks.

At the same time, however, Dilinur couldn't help but feel a twinge of disgust at the sight before her. How could Jabari—a supposedly upstanding Directorate agent—be so easily seduced by a Radi-Mon? Hadn't he just been close with Ume, the android that the Directorate had only recently liberated?

Dilinur couldn't tear her eyes away—repulsed by the display yet envious of the intimacy Jabari and Astrid shared. It was like watching a loving couple lost in their passionate union. The room below reeked of musk and sweat, and Dilinur could almost taste the tangy scent of arousal in the air.

Jabari's ebony face contorted with pleasure as he grunted and moaned, his hips moving frantically against the Radi-Mon woman beneath him—an Ísmarr as indicated by Dinu's Quantum Watch—arched her back, her eyes half-lidded in ecstasy as she suckled on Jabari's neck. The sight of their bodies colliding—masculine healthy brown and feminine snow white, human and Radi-Mon—was both fascinating and revolting to Dilinur, who felt a twinge of jealousy she didn't want to admit to herself.

As she watched them consummate their twisted love affair, Dilinur knew this was the opportunity to strike—when they were at their most vulnerable. But a part of her couldn't help but hesitate just a moment longer, transfixed by the primal act before her...

Dilinur's patience snapped as Jabari's climax shuddered through him, his seed spilling into Astrid the Ísmarr, whose ecstatic moan crescendoed as her snowy form rose in the fur bed to give the Maridian a sensual hug.

Now.

She dropped from her perch, red Eclipse energy already gathering around her silver Psi Fan as she descended. "Māṇikya Yātanā!"

The spell struck Astrid squarely in the back, crimson energy crawling across her pale skin like burning wire. The Ísmarr shrieked, her oral arms spasming and releasing Jabari, who tumbled sideways onto the furs.

"What—who dares—" Astrid twisted to face her attacker, but her movements were clumsy, uncoordinated. Her glacial blue eyes, still glazed with pleasure, struggled to focus. "Who are you!?"

"A whore like you need not understand!" Dilinur declared, Psi Fan snapped open. Her eyes darted around for an instant, noting a small crystalline bottle with a suspicious white fluid inside on a lab table on the other side. This Astrid woman must have collected Jabari's semen between their intimate sessions—but for whatever purpose, Dilinur cared little.

"Don't call her that!" Jabari struggled to his feet, swaying slightly. His eyes had a glazed quality, pupils dilated. "Astrid, I'll protect—"

"Dauð-Möt!" Astrid's spell was sloppy, unfocused.

Dilinur countered easily, her fan snapping open to deflect Astrid's hasty counterattack. The pale green energy of the Void spell fizzled halfway through its formation, sparking uselessly against the cavern wall.

Jabari moved to shield Astrid with his body, but his movements were uncoordinated, almost drunk. "Stop this! She's... we're together now. We bonded. She showed me..."

"She showed you her insides while you showed her yours! Fascinating." Dilinur sidestepped another of Astrid's attacks. "Come with me, or die a lovesick fool!"

"I won't leave her!" But even as he said it, Jabari blinked hard, some clarity returning to his eyes. The pheromones and endorphins from their coupling were starting to fade, reality seeping back in. "I... wait. Where am I?"

Astrid rose on her tentacles, trying to look imposing despite the way she swayed. "He's MINE! We mated! Three times!"

Dilinur glanced at the opening between the Ísmarr's oral arms. Thick white liquid trickled from the cavity like a stream flowing down a hill. HOW MUCH COULD JABARI CUM? Dilinur felt her cheeks flush, curious to know more.

But her mind snapped back to reality as Jabari scrambled for his clothes, his face cycling through shock, embarrassment, and dawning horror. "Dilinur!? What are you doing here—"

"Something practical." Dilinur sidestepped another of Astrid's attacks, this one a jet of frozen mist that somehow curved upward and crystallized on the ceiling. "Get dressed, fool. Unless you prefer fighting naked?"

Astrid gestured dramatically before uttering another spell. "Ugyldiggjøring—!"

The incantation finished, sloppy, unfocused, igniting a pile of furs instead of its intended effect.

"I see you've really spent your Aether," Dilinur taunted, using her fan to create a barrier of Eclipse energy between them. The sophistication of the shield surprised even her—layers of reality-warping power that made Astrid's attacks simply...slide away.

"I'll show you!" Astrid's oral arms whipped forward, but in her addled state, she misjudged the distance. One oral arm smacked into a stalactite, sending her spinning. "Ow! Fucking—stop moving!"

Jabari had managed to pull on his pants and was reaching for his Vibro-Spear when the entire cavern shook. Deep below, something massive stirred, its movement sending tremors through the rock.

"The Glacierwurm," Astrid gasped, her attacks ceasing as real fear crept into her voice. "You idiots! The noise—it's coming up!"

Another tremor, stronger this time. Rocks fell from the ceiling, and that rumbling from before grew into a sound like a mountain grinding its teeth.

"Time to go," Dilinur decided, grabbing Jabari's arm. "NOW!"

"No!" He pulled against her grip, but his strength was returning slowly. "Astrid needs—"

The entire cavern shook violently. Deep below, something massive stirred.

"Jabari, please!" Astrid reached for him with her human hands. "Don't leave me! Remember what we shared, the Aether inside us—"

The man wavered, torn between the two women. "I... Astrid..."

The rumbling grew deafening. The cavern walls groaned, ice cascading from the ceiling in sheets. Then the floor behind Astrid exploded upward.

The Glacierwurm rose like a titan of crystalline ice. Its segmented body stretched high, each section armored in frozen plates that caught and refracted the bioluminescent light. Icicles hung from its maw like fangs, and when it exhaled, the temperature plummeted as frost spread across every surface.

But it didn't attack. Instead, the massive creature curved protectively around Astrid, its eyeless head lowering until it hovered just behind her shoulder like a monstrous pet.

"You think I'm helpless?" Astrid's voice had gone cold, all traces of post-coital softness vanishing. One pale hand rose to caress the Glacierwurm's frozen hide. "This is my domain, Jabari. My kin—the Jokull—answer to me."

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"But I thought…they answer to Skarn…whoever's higher up."

"This. Is my cavern." Astrid pointed to the frozen ground with her human finger.

Dilinur's grip on Jabari tightened, but she didn't retreat as she sized up the Glacierwurm. "Impressive behemoth. Can it fit through the tunnels to chase us?"

"It doesn't need to." Astrid's glacial eyes fixed on Jabari. "One word from me, and it will breathe. And you'll shatter like glass." Her gaze softened slightly. "But I don't want to hurt you, my love. Just her. Just the one trying to steal you away."

"Hey. Nobody's stealing me," Jabari protested, but his voice shook. The Glacierwurm's presence filled the cavern.

"No?" Astrid's laugh was bitter. "Then why are you running? Or is it because of that pathetic machine you travel with? That Ume?"

Jabari flinched. "Don't—"

"Oh, I know all about your little android. You whispered her name earlier, you know. While you were inside me." Astrid's smile was sharp as winter. "Does she even feel anything when you touch her? No, just circuits pretending at emotion!"

"She's as real as whatever this is!" The words burst out before Jabari could stop them.

For a moment, genuine hurt flashed across Astrid's snowy features. The Glacierwurm shifted, ice cracking ominously.

"This is embarrassing to watch, you understand…" Dilinur interjected. "A Radi-Mon playing at love while her pet worm looms. Very romantic."

"Silence, Imperial witch!" Astrid snarled. The Glacierwurm's maw opened wider, revealing a gullet that seemed to descend forever. "I'll feed you to him slowly. Let Jabari watch as you're digested over days."

"But you won't." Dilinur's voice remained steady despite the threat. "Because if you hurt me, you'll prove to be the monster you'd hate to be."

The Glacierwurm shifted forward, its massive head lowering until its frozen breath washed over them. Dilinur raised her Psi Fan, Eclipse energy crackling, but deep down, she knew she couldn't match something that size if it put up a real fight.

"Last chance," Astrid said softly. "Send her away, and we can pretend this never happened. We can go back to my chambers, and I'll make you forget all about that mechanical doll. I'll make you forget everything but my name."

Jabari looked between them.

"I'm sorry, Astrid." he said to Astrid. "But I choose to leave."

"Then you choose wrong!"

The Glacierwurm lurched forward, but Jabari was already moving. His hand found Dilinur's and together they sprinted for the tunnel entrance. Behind them, Astrid's scream of rage mingled with the creature's earth-shaking roar.

"JABARI! You're mine! You fucking swore it when you came inside me! Come back!"

But they were already gone, fleeing through a passage too narrow for the Glacierwurm to follow.

They sprinted through the bioluminescent passages, Astrid's curses echoing behind them along with the crash of breaking stone. The rumbling grew louder, closer, until Dilinur could feel it in her bones.

The Ormheimr portal loomed before them, its organic surface pulsing with sickly light. Dilinur skidded to a stop, mind racing. The portal was keyed to specific Aether—but Jabari had just been intimate with Astrid. Three times, as she'd so helpfully announced.

"Give me your hand," she commanded.

"What? Why—"

"No time!" She grabbed his wrist, noting the way his skin still carried Astrid's scent, one that resembled fresh seaweed, her Aether clinging to him like perfume. Perfect.

The rumbling was deafening now. Behind them, tunnel walls began to buckle.

Dilinur pressed their joined hands against the Ormheimr's surface. The organic matter writhed at the touch, tendrils emerging to caress their skin with disturbing thoroughness. She felt it sampling, tasting, comparing Aether signatures.

For a moment, nothing. Then the portal's surface rippled with recognition. To its primitive consciousness, the mix of Aethers—Astrid's clinging to Jabari, Dilinur's Eclipse energy masking her own signature—registered as authorized.

But the destination was still Mars, still Fenris territory. Unacceptable.

"Kanta Kajavala," Dilinur whispered, weaving Eclipse energy through the portal's matrix. The offensive spell now repurposed itself for a more delicate work, reprograming the portal's destination while maintaining the authentication.

"Lady Astrid?" The Radi-Mon portal intoned in a rough deep voice, its teeth grinding as Dilinur pulled Jabari's hand, releasing him from her grip. "Do you seek passage to the Red Planet?"

"Ormheimr! Heed my call!" She raised her voice, addressing the portal with theatrical fervor. "We require passage to Osram the Moon! Any Emerald Directorate city will do—we must spread chaos in Primarch Skarn's name!"

"Theatrical today, are you?" The organic portal responded.

"Shut up! There's no time to waste!" Dilinur pointed a finger at the Ormheimr. "Obey or suffer. Death to the enemies of the Fenris Horde!"

"Obedience." The Radi-Mon portal rumbled before relenting, its black innards shifting.

"What are you doing?" Jabari demanded.

"Lying to a damn Radi-Mon door."

Jabari stared at her. "That's…a real cheap move."

"Does it matter? It's working." The portal's color shifted, coordinates realigning. The organic matter pulsed with what might have been approval.

A massive shape burst through the tunnel behind them—the Glacierwurm's head, all teeth and frozen breath.

"JABARI!" Astrid's voice, distant but desperate. "Come back to me!"

He hesitated for one crucial second, looking back.

Dilinur made the choice for him, yanking him through the portal as it opened. The last thing she heard was Astrid's scream of rage as reality folded around them, carrying them away from Yosemite's ice and toward the familiar desolation of the Moon.

They tumbled out onto gray regolith, the sudden shift in gravity making Dilinur stumble. Earth hung massive in the sky above, blue and white and impossibly distant. Her breath came in short gasps—not from exertion, but from the reality of where they were. The Moon. She'd actually done it.

In the distance, lights glowed against the stark lunar horizon. Not the harsh white of Alliance installations or the blood-red of Imperial outposts, but something warmer. Golden towers rose from the regolith like massive mushrooms and baobab trees, their illuminated crowns spreading against the black sky. The architecture was unlike anything in her military career—organic curves, as if someone had grown a city rather than built it.

"Those structures..." she began, trying to place them.

"Ndovu Zenith." Jabari's voice carried a mix of relief and pride. "The Elephant's Crown. Capital of the Directorate's lunar territories." He stood slowly, favoring his left leg. "Never thought I'd be so happy to see those towers."

The name meant nothing to her, but the way he said it reminded her why she'd pulled him from that cave. Not out of altruism. But because she'd seen an opportunity.

Jabari rolled to his feet, Vibro-Spear finally in hand, chest heaving. "But you...you hurt Astrid." His voice was clearer now, the Moon's harsh reality burning away the last of the enchantment. "She was... we were..."

"Fucking. Yes, I noticed." Dilinur brushed lunar dust from her robes, checking her depleted supplies. "Rather enthusiastically."

"It wasn't just—" He stopped, shaking his head. "Thousand Gods, what was I thinking? I barely know her, and she's…she's Jokull Horde."

"The mind often takes a holiday when other parts are in charge." Dilinur studied the distant lights of Ndovu Zenith. "We should move. I'd like to…ask you something."

They walked in silence across the regolith, Jabari occasionally glancing back at where the portal had been. Finally, he asked, "Why save me? Last time we met, you were trying to kill me for that Moondust shard."

Dilinur's voice was carefully neutral. "The Imperium and I have...parted ways."

"Parted ways?" He studied her more closely, noting the exhaustion in her posture, the too-light pack. "You're running. They kicked you out?"

"I prefer to think of it as a mutual dissolution of contract." She stumbled slightly, catching herself. When had she eaten last? The protein bar seemed like hours ago.

Jabari steadied her automatically, then seemed surprised by his own action. "You're in bad shape."

"Seven days in Yosemite with three days of supplies will do that." She pulled away from his support, but not before he'd felt how she trembled. "But I'm still standing."

"Barely." He looked toward Ndovu Zenith, then back at her. "They'll shoot an Imperial operative on sight. You know that, right?"

"Former Imperial operative." Dilinur stopped walking, turning to face him fully. The Earth hung between them in the sky, beautiful and unreachable. "Who just saved a Kimaris Warband member from what I assume was an intelligence honeypot. That has to be worth something."

"You want asylum." It wasn't a question.

"I want a chance." The words came out rawer than she'd intended. "I can't go back to the Imperium. The Alliance would execute me for my service record. The Covenant would burn me as a heretic. That leaves..."

"The Directorate." Jabari was quiet for a moment. Then: "Can you…can you pilot a Scarab? Anioma? Ugh—" He stopped himself, one hand reaching to his forehead. "Anansi's arse, what I am saying…both of those would take years to learn."

"I can learn."

"What about your...that prince. Joon-Seok. Won't he come after you?"

Something flickered across her face. "He gave me three days to disappear. I've exceeded expectations."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting." She swayed again, this time unable to hide it. "So, Lieutenant Adomako. Do I walk into Ndovu Zenith as a prisoner, or as someone who just saved your life?"

He sighed, shouldering his spear. "Okay. How about this. You walk in as my... unlikely comrade. Someone I called for help in Jokull territory after my unfortunate capture." He gave her a measured look. "Sounds more boring that way but, can you stick to that story?"

"I've been sticking to stories my whole life." The relief in her voice was subtle but present. "What's one more?"