Author’s Note: It’s *almost* non-erotic, but I didn’t concentrate on the sex in this chapter, so it’s not really something someone can get off on – ergo – the non-erotic category.


Elaine, Marla and Annalisa watched joyously as the inner doors to the gigantic vacuum chamber swung open to admit the very first spaceship ever to come from Earth. They had flown straight up for several miles in order to view this momentous first entry. It had been an easy flight in the null gravity above Northern Depot. Although the enormous space doors opened quite rapidly, the winged girls were so far away that the entrance seemed to be opening inch by laborious inch, creeping wider and wider.

As soon as the heaviest vapor had rushed into the opening, they darted forward on their fragile wings to see this sleek, magnificent teardrop of a ship that was bringing their sister Béla and her earth family home.

Elaine actually touched down on the wide, rounded nose of the craft as it slowly moved into the depths of the hollow moon.

“Wow! I can see inside! HELLO! Can you see me?”

“Yes, darling sister! I can see you!”

“Where’s the door? I want to come in!”

“There is none. You have to teleport!”

“No problem!” Elaine said as she suddenly stood next to her favorite sister in the whole, wide universe!

Then they were hugging and crying and laughing all at the same time, as the rest of the bridge crew (both of them) tried to act like everything was normal.

“Oh!” Béla said, laughing as she disengaged from her gorgeous, sweet-smelling blond sister. “Let me introduce you! This is Amber – Commander Cutberg. She’s the bridge officer and this is Tony – he’s in security.”

“This,” Béla proudly indicated her blond sister, “is my sister, the Goddess Elaine.”

Amber smiled and held out her hand. Elaine reached out and hugged her.

‘You must be very trusted for my sister to permit you this honored station.’

Amber blinked, recognizing the respect that Elaine gave her by speaking mind to mind.

‘Thank you, Goddess,’ she replied in her mind, remembering the lessons in protocol that Béla had taught her, like, yesterday. (It really was just yesterday when Béla had taught her that!)

Annalisa and Marla appeared on the bridge. They were as naked as Elaine. The watch officer was beginning to get flustered.

“This is Annalisa and this is Marla,” Elaine introduced them to the others, knowing that Béla already knew who they were. “They are my current sparring partners.”

“I thought Dawn was one of your partners,” Béla mentioned.

“She got pregnant,” Elaine said, then laughed. “She had twins.”

“I’ll want to meet them!” Béla replied excitedly.

“And there’s someone I want to meet, too,” Elaine said, more solemnly now, knowing Béla would know who she meant.

“There’s a celebration going on in the Grotto,” Béla told all of her sisters. “We can join her there.”

‘Grotto?’

Béla laughed, ‘I’ll explain later,’ and teleported the group down to Lisa’s Grotto.

There were only a few humans, there – entire families celebrating their last day aboard the Phoenix III. Most were in the cargo bay queued up to transport down to the surface. Elaine gazed around, her mind easily seeing every intention behind everything she saw – the lake, the waterfall, the wormholes that fed life-giving air, water and sunlight into the ship, the trees and the open, park-like appearance of the entire space.

“What’s that?” Elaine asked as she noticed the six refrigerator cars sitting on railroad tracks that ran around one side of the park.

“That’s our fruit storage,” Béla said brightly. “There’s enough left for us to have a really great celebration when we get back to the manor.”

“There’s plenty of fruit at the manor,” Elaine replied. “Didn’t I tell you about the greenhouse I had built for you?”

“Oh!” Béla replied, embarrassed that she hadn’t remembered. “You did. I remember.”

“So where is…”

“Elisabeth,” Béla said, supplying the name. “She calls herself ‘Lisa’, now, rather than ‘Beth’. She has a new body, as well, which is why she prefers her new name.”

“Yes, I remember,” Elaine replied, trying to ignore the decades that now separated them. “She’s become your daughter. I’m glad she survived. It must have been a rough journey for her.”

“I recommend that you not mention that,” Béla warned, “unless you wish to incur her eternal wrath.”

“Has she changed that much?” Elaine needed to know.

“Yes, and more,” Béla replied, quietly, perhaps with some sadness. “She doesn’t trust. Anyone. And her powers are beyond comprehension. She provided the mind power to build this ship, and the energy that propels it. It was her mind that punched those wormholes through to the earth. If she did not wish to be controlled, no one would be able to control her.”

“But she hasn’t destroyed everything,” Elaine mentioned, still looking around with wonder, “so she’s basically civilized.”

“No, not really,” Béla admitted, “but sometimes I think that her fear of being alone is all that keeps her in line.