Author’s note: For those poor squeamish souls whose stomachs reacted so badly to Jolene and Béla’s little bloodletting, skip these next chapters until you find a chapter entitled ‘2082 a.d. – Final Approach’, somewhere around chapter 18 of part 4.

What do you mean, ‘That’s a lot of chapers’? It’s a long trip, and they’re gonna need a snack… (Whoops! Wrong story… Sorry about that!)

It’s a long trip and the two vampire girls have to keep each other entertained, after all…

So, for my six sick fans – Enjoy the story as my two favorite vampire girls get to know each other really well over the next few chapters…

~~~~~

Béla decided to go directly to the Bridge as soon as she dropped by her quarters for something to wear. She could greet her father and check things out with him later. As she entered her quarters, she found her blue sarong laid out on the bed table waiting for her.

‘Where in the world have you been?’ she asked, totally surprised to see it here. ‘I thought I lost you years ago!’ She happily slid it over her head and left.

As she stepped onto the Bridge, the great ship was passing through the inner gate. The interior of New Eden still surrounded them, visible on every viewscreen. The darkness of the exit chamber increased in size on the front view screen, eventually swallowing everything else. Then the side screens went dark.

As the giant chamber closed behind them, the rear viewscreens were slowly blacked out and the ship waited in total darkness while the air in the exit chamber was pumped back into the hollow shell of the world they had just left.

After a time, the outside doors began to open. Béla expected to see a sky full of stars. She was really looking forward to seeing real stars, again. What assaulted her vision was a sky full of the massive gas giant they orbited. Jupiter, brightly lit by the distant yellow sun, filled the sky outside.

The Bridge Officer, feeling the princess’ upset, took time to explain, sending her an image of what was occurring.

‘The great ship will drop rapidly into the gravity well of the gas giant before them, picking up incredible speed. Using its fresh orbital velocity, the ship would break away after a close, three-quarter orbit around the planet. With the free ride from the bounce into the huge gravity well, the journey home to Deimos would take one-third the time it took to make the journey out.’

For the next few hours, the view from the Bridge was going to be pretty dramatic. The crescent moon of New Eden shrank rapidly in the rear viewscreen as the mass of Jupiter slowly increased, becoming even more frighteningly huge. Béla could feel the mass of the gas giant in her mind. It was almost alive with energy.

‘It is alive, after a fashion,’ Béla felt her father say to her.

She looked around. Sibilius, since his daughter had not gone to greet him, had come to the bridge to greet her. Béla hugged him tightly, stretching herself up to kiss his cheek. She radiated her loneliness and welcome to him, along with the fact that she hated feeling sorry for herself, but she remembered that long, lonely journey before Elaine had been born into her new body.

‘Jupiter doesn’t actually think, but it has a nervous system of sorts, and may actually be self-aware,’ Sibilius informed her. ‘And I realize how stressful this journey may be to you, but I am with joy to have you once again with me, my child.’

He embraced her in return, bending down to receive her kiss, taking a moment to luxuriate in her radiant warmth. As they were leaving the Bridge together, the gunner on duty caught Béla’s attention.

“You may want to see this, Princess,” he suggested. “There’s a small asteroid about to collide with, um, New Eden.”

“Oh, this should be interesting!” her father insisted.

They all watched the rear viewscreen as the gunner increased the magnification. A red dot marked where the asteroid was.

There was a sudden flash, almost too quick to see, and then the red dot vanished. A small puff of debris was barely visible in the reflected light of Jupiter.

“What happened?” Béla asked, confused by what she thought she saw.

There hadn’t been a weapons system designed into the plans of New Eden she had studied.

“That’s the Asteroid Defense Project,” her father informed her. “We installed six laser cannons around Southern’s perimeter last winter. Six more are being built at Deimos Station. When we return in eight years or so, they will be installed around the perimeter of Northern.

“There’s enough fuel to make three more trips to the inner worlds,” he continued, smiling down at her. “We’re planning only one more after this, to close all of your projects on Earth. We will be returning to pick you and your lifemate up in about twenty years, so don’t get lost.”

‘The Carte Blanche will be easy to find,’ the Praetor spoke into all their minds, ‘for I shall accompany her to the surface of her world.’

“What?” Béla demanded. “I didn’t ask for your company! What will I tell people? ‘Hi, I’m Béla! I’m a Vampire. My companion here is a metal mind reader! We’re guests on the Boris Karloff Show!’ You are most certainly not coming with me!”

‘It has been commanded,’ the Praetor informed them. ‘You are not in a position to counter the order, even as Carte Blanche.’

“Who gave this command, Praetor,” Sibilius demanded. “I’m in charge here, and I certainly did not give any order of that nature!”

‘You are in charge ‘now’,’ the Praetor suggested. ‘It is a standing order to accompany the Carte Blanche when the Carte Blanche is away from the ship. The Carte Blanche herself and the Seeker Eliannai gave the order. It stands until this project is complete.’

Béla shook her head, denying the charge. “I didn’t,” she cried, sounding confused and helpless.

She knew she was the ‘Carte Blanche’, but she had no idea who this ‘Eliannai’ character might be.

“Am I to understand,” said Sibilius, astounded, “that you received this order from Captain Alana and her Seeker?”

‘Who?’ Béla asked her father, projecting the question into his mind. ‘I thought I knew everybody on board. There’s a Captain? What’s a ‘Seeker’?’

She felt her father brush her question away. She could see he was extremely upset about something and she couldn’t see what it was in his suddenly shielded mind.

‘That is correct,’ the Praetor verified, responding to Sibilius’ question.

“How did this come about?” Sibilius wanted to know. “How long has this order been in effect? They have both been dead for over forty-five hundred years!”

‘That is not correct,’ the Praetor declared, answering his questions in reverse order. ‘A life energy unit cannot be destroyed. The order has been in effect for fourteen months. At that time, the Seeker Eliannai reached through time to contact me in order to appraise the Captain of your current situation. Together, the Captain and the Seeker determined that I was to accompany the Carte Blanche wherever she goes until the completion of the New Eden Project.’

“How do you know it was her?” Sibilius asked, knowing this tale was too fanciful to be true, but the Praetor was certain of its facts, and he could feel that in his mind.

‘How do you know which of your daughters it is when one walks through your mind?’ the Praetor responded cryptically.