Fiction:

The Queen's neurons were pollen, and they ran in a vast invisible network among the stars. Her body covered entire solar systems, but was almost completely unrecognizable. Only her brain, nestled in its planet-skull, would seriously tweak a biosensor. But even then, no scientist could have suspected her of sentience. They should have.

A spacecraft drifted into her net of nerves, but the Queen did nothing. The key to this stage of game was playing harmless. Robot scoops extended from the craft, gathering samples of her cells for analysis. She allowed herself to be scanned and sliced, heated and frozen, burned by chemicals and bombarded with radiation. To her, the discomfort was less than a flea bite, and she learned more about the aliens than they did about her. At last the humans (for so they called themselves) were satisfied. They pronounced her cells to be pollen, of a particularly inert variety. And they moved deeper into her body.

The Queen had arranged her trap ages before. The only habitable planet within her bounds was her skull, and that was particularly lush. The prey landed, as she had known they would, and set up a temporary base. At first they stayed locked in their metal shell, but the Queen expected no less of a race clever enough to sail through space. And she had all the time in the world. She watched patiently as the ship extruded first sensors, then robots, to test the environment.

Next came the humans themselves, bundled tight in shiny spacesuits. But still the Queen lay quiet, listening to their radio transmissions (she'd picked up their language by now) and laughing at their blindness. They mulled endlessly over her nerve endings, which spread across the planet like a blanket, but never guessed their true purpose. They took samples of her brain and marveled at its complexity, but never guessed they'd found the tip of an iceberg. And all the while they compared her to her harmless earthly cousins: pollens that did nothing but make them sneeze, fungi that covered a few acres and lacked even the wit to defend themselves.

Several weeks later they pronounced her safe. Then the prey emerged from its shell.

rustle

"How's Big Bertha today?" Cassidy Evans slid onto the counter and swung her legs, trying hard to look innocent. Being an engineer, she didn't have much excuse to visit the biolab - at least, no excuse but friendship. And she really did consider Livy Gardner a friend. But there was always an undercurrent to their relationship, a leftover of the night they'd been something more. For Gardner it had been just an experiment, but Evans had had a crush on teammate since the first day of their mission. It galled her to be lumped in the same category as all the men Livy had abandoned. So she kept returning to the biolab, for chatting and flirtation, and subjected herself to the same casual friendliness Gardner gave her other discards. One of these days, she thought, there'd be something more.

"Same as always." The botanist looked up from her microscope, her lips set in their perpetual wry quirk. "Eating, growing, spewing more pollen into the atmosphere. Thank goodness we're not allergic to it; we can't keep it out of anything."

"Yeah, I know." Evans ran a finger along the countertop, picking up a layer of yellow-green dust. "Disgusting, isn't it?"

"And you're sitting in it." Gardner raised an eyebrow and stared pointedly at Evans' white shorts.

Cassidy jumped off the counter, doing her best to look embarrassed. "Oh, shit! Is it all over me?" She craned her head back to look at her bottom and swiped ineffectually at the stain.

Gardner rolled her eyes. "Here," she sighed, "let me help you."

Evans blushed as the other woman dusted her ass. Livy was a good sport, but she knew Cassidy had sat there on purpose. Still, she seemed to enjoy the flirtation almost as much as Evans did. The engineer molded herself into Gardner's hands and clenched her cheeks with pleasure.

Livy snorted, then smacked her ass and withdrew. "Bad girl!" she laughed. "You know I never eat in the same place twice."

Evans reached up to caress Livy's cheek, then spread her fingers through the lush black hair. "Who says it has to be the same? We could make it different this time, different every time."

Livy's brown eyes flickered, but it was impossible to say what she was thinking. She closed her hand around Cassidy's and lifted it away. "It was a lovely evening," she said. "Let's not spoil it with melodrama." Evans froze, then reluctantly dropped her hand.

After a moment's embarrassment, she found the courage to speak again. "So," she managed, striving for lightness, "what's the latest on Bertha?"

Gardner's face lit up (Wish she'd look at me like that, thought Cassidy). "It's amazing, Cass! Remember when I told you we'd found Bertha on every single land mass on Gaia, and that we thought she extended several miles into the topsoil? Well, we were wrong. She's under the oceans, too, and her roots go all the way through the planet's crust, right down to the base. We think that's where her most complex functions take place, down where we can't even monitor them."

"Creepy," frowned Evans. "So she could actually be a lot smarter than we think?"

Livy laughed. "Maybe, if you think an oak tree is smarter than a mushroom."

"But she has taken over a whole planet."

"Over the course of a few millions of years. Don't worry, Cass. Big Bertha is no more intelligent than Fred here." She flicked the leaf of a potted plant, raising a cloud of yellow-green dust.

rustle

Gardner sat up and rubbed her face. She'd been at the microscope too long; her eyes felt practically sandblasted. And judging by the light beyond her windows, it was late afternoon, but she hadn't left the lab since breakfast. She glanced at the remains of her bag lunch, already dusted with yellow-green. Funny, it seemed a bit more green than usual. She wondered for a moment whether this was a new kind of pollen, but quickly pushed the thought aside. She was too tired think right now, and anyway, there was only one kind of pollen on this planet. Big Bertha had invaded this world's flora so thoroughly that everything scanned the same.

Livy stood up to stretch, then staggered under a wave of dizziness. She really had been at the microscope too long. She looked out the window again to steady herself, but the bars of sunlight seemed to be slanting in the wrong direction. Oh, wait: it was Livy. Her eyelids sagged and she drifted to the floor.

Then the pollen - which really was a kind Livy hadn't seen before - began its work. Starting with the plants on Gardner's work bench, it tickled open buds and drove itself deep inside their pistils, fertilizing them in a way nature had never intended. Rustling filled the lab as leaves spread, vines crept, and roots deepened. Then came a succession of cracks as the flower pots started to explode.

Shrapnel pierced Livy's skin, but she was too far gone to move. Flinching, she watched through heavy lids as vines crawled up the walls, over the ceiling and floor - and over her. For a few moments she managed to writhe in their grip, but that was all she could do; then the delirium took her. At the same time, smooth, cool creepers closed around her limbs; slipped beneath her clothes; fastened themselves moray-like to her skin. They almost tickled. Then the first tiny feeler invaded her ear. Soft as a lover's kiss it crept in, swirled around, withdrew. A second vine slipped into her other ear, then a third into her mouth. She twined her tongue around it and felt the thing respond.

Now hair-fine tendrils invaded her clitoris, massaging gently. Livy thrashed, but purely from pleasure now. She barely knew her own name any more, much less where she was or what had her in its grip. Green fingers brushed against her labia, plunged inward and upward. Then the thing began to pump, shoving her so hard that her clothes tore from friction. Livy came with a scream, her juices sliming the vines and mixing muddily with the pollen. Yellow-green patterns splotched the floor, erased and remade themselves as she writhed.

Now the plants moved in deeper. The creepers in her mouth pushed into her throat, and those in her vagina thrust on through her cervix. And tiny new tendrils invaded her eyes, her nose, the cuts on her body. But the pollen still sang in her head, and all Livy could think was that this was the best sex she'd ever had.

rustle

The Queen knew how often Gardner forgot about dinner, and she knew how often Evans stopped in to check on her. It was one of the reasons she'd chosen these two for the game. Yes, there came the engineer now, right on cue.

"Hey, Liv," Cassidy called, rapping on the closed lab door, "Are you in there? I brought you some dinner."

The Queen freed Gardner's mouth and forced her vocal cords into motion. "Come in!" she called.

"Ugh, you sound terrible." Evans balanced the tray in one hand and pushed open the door with the other. The lab was pitch dark, filled with a slippery whispering. Cassidy had a moment to consider how strange this was, for even with the overheads off, the windows gave plenty of light. But her eyes hadn't adjusted yet, and she couldn't see the writhing mat that covered the glass. She fumbled one-handed for the light switch.

Then she screamed. The room was filled with pulsing vines, and flashes of skin showed through the woman-sized hump in the center of the floor. Shreds of Livy's clothes churned above it.

"Cassidy Evans," croaked a voice very much like Livy's, "Welcome. Watch." There was a sound like a whip crack, and hundreds of vines flung themselves around Evan's body. Again she tried to scream, but the creepers were already in her mouth, tighter than any gag. She felt herself pulled further into the room. Then the door slammed behind her, and she heard the snick of a lock being drawn. Cassidy whimpered.

rustle

Somewhere deep inside herself, Livy opened her eyes. Her body ran with sap and pollen, but her head was clear again - for the moment, anyway. And she knew exactly where she was: suspended in a mind the size of a planet. A mind that had plans for her.

Strictly speaking, the Queen had no needs except for sustenance. But she was a sentient creature, not to mention an ancient one, and what she craved above all else was experience. She could have cracked the spaceship like a nut and sucked out the meat within, but she hadn't. She could have dissolved Gardner's brain and replaced it with her own spores, and she still might. But there was a third option, one that could prove sweeter for them all in the long run.

The Queen had been watching Gardner for weeks. She'd seen how the woman toyed with her shipmates, Evans in particular. And though humans were a new species for her, she'd conquered other races with similar patterns of behavior. That was another reason she'd picked Gardner; she knew how the woman would respond.

The Queen's will towered over Livy like a tidal wave, impossible to resist. But it didn't fall ... yet. In the midst of the rushing and roaring Livy sensed a command: choose. Not submit, for she had no choice about that at all. But choosing how to submit, that the Queen would allow her. She could fight back for the space of a few heartbeats, and her mind would be compost for the invading vines. Or she could give in willingly, and retain enough of herself to enjoy her slavery - and the slavery of others. Honor or pleasure: the choice was hers.

Despite her horror, Livy felt a tingle of excitement. She'd always been a dominatrix in search of the perfect slave, and now she could have a whole planet of them. The fact that she'd be dominated herself was a drawback, but at least it beat the alternative. Besides, the Queen would make sure she enjoyed it. Whatever pleased the Avatar, pleased her Mistress. No one will ever know I gave in willingly, Livy told herself.

The tidal wave crashed down, scattering her thoughts like driftwood. And the Queen scooped them up and reorganized them according to her whims.

Then She started on Her body.

rustle

Cassidy ceased struggling and stared. Something was happening among the vines. Where once they'd been green and writhing, now they were brown and withered. Even as she watched, they dropped away and crumbled to dust.

The first part of Livy to emerge was her thigh, naked and pale as cream, with just a hint of green. Like a magnolia leaf, the engineer thought sickly. The creepers fell away further, and Evans saw the downy fluff at Livy's crotch. It was the color of new grass. Then her breasts appeared, ripe as rose hips with deep green nipples. Her arms and legs were hairless, smooth as flower stems, with nails like spring leaves.

At last her face appeared, eyes closed, lips wet as though with dew. The hair on her head was as soft as that at her pubis, woven with tiny white flowers. As Cassidy watched, she sighed and shifted in her bonds. Then the last of the vines fell away and, eyes still closed, she sat up.

Evans' own restraints were still in place, but she felt them slip away from her mouth. "L-Livy?" she stammered.

"Mmmm," said the green woman. She licked her lips with a green, pointed tongue, then thrust a hand between her legs and caressed herself. A fresh cloud of pollen billowed around Evans, and she swayed in her bonds.

"Mmmm," Cassidy agreed, but pulled herself up short. That damn pollen was doing something to her mind. Breathe shallowly, she commanded herself, and shook her head as best she could. "Livy?" she tried again, voice quavering, "what's happened to you?"

The green woman tipped her head back, exposing a long, pale expanse of throat. She swung her hair out behind her, back and forth like a hypnotist's pendulum, then raised her head again. "I've happened," she said, and opened her eyes.

They were all pupil, green-black and bottomless. Cassidy stared into them and like a fly teetering on the lip of a pitcher plant. It would be so easy to fall in, she knew. Part of her even wanted to. After all, she'd been in love with Livy from the moment they met. And even now, transformed and possessed by an alien life form, Livy was the most entrancing woman she'd ever met.

The Avatar pursed her lips and cocked her head, as though sensing Evans' thought. Her lashes fluttered like willow fronds over the pools of her eyes. "I want you, Cass," she said. Her voice was rich as velvet. "Isn't that what you've always longed to hear? I want to feel myself inside you, and you inside me. And I know you want the same. Don't deny it."

How could she? Cassidy could already feel the wetness at her crotch. Her bonds writhed against it, sending out tiny fingers to rend the cloth and explore her sex. They slithered across her flesh, smearing Cassidy's thighs with her own rich fluids. She moaned, and couldn't tell whether it was from fear or arousal. Then one of the creepers found her clit, coiling around the organ and tugging gently. She shuddered, rattling the leaves around her and sending up fresh billows of pollen.

"There, isn't that lovely, Cass?" Livy rose to her feet, graceful as an opening bud. "Isn't that just what you wanted?"

"Just what I wanted," Cassidy moaned, lost for a moment in sex- and pollen-induced delirium. "Just - no." She forced herself to cough, and bought a few moments of clarity. "No, Livy. Don't do this to me."

"Livy?" The green woman cocked her head. "Yes, part of me is Livy, or was. But I'm so much more than that now, Cass. I'm the Queen of a galaxy, and I've chosen you to be my consort."

Despite herself, Evans felt her belly warm. Livy had chosen her! No, wait. Dammit, the pollen was getting to her again. It wasn't Livy ... but she'd chosen her! Ohhh, at last she'd chosen her! Delirium swelled inside her, higher than ever.

Slowly, deliberately, the Avatar started toward her. Her hips swayed like petals in a breeze, and the creepers lapped gently at her ankles and withdrew. Cassidy took a deep breath, forgetting, and almost toppled backwards into her restraints. Why did Livy have to be so beautiful?

"Don't be afraid, my love," whispered the Avatar. She raised a hand to Cassidy's face, caressing her cheek, then slipped her fingers into the captive's blouse. The fabric parted at her touch, and Evan's breasts tumbled loose into her hands. "That's right, my love, my Cassy. There's no need to struggle. Just relax and enjoy." And she bent forward.

Cassidy stared in shock at the green head bobbing on her chest. The hairs on Livy's head - or maybe they were vines - twined upward and caressed her face. And something was tickling her crotch again, something much gentler than creepers. She felt the warm second lips press to hers; felt the living down twine with her own dark thatch; felt the green threads slip inside her. Then Livy looked up again, and this time Cassidy was too close to the pitcher plant to escape. She tumbled into the green-black eyes and drowned like the fly she was.

rustle

Livy - and the Queen through her - gloated to see Evans' eyes glaze over. So malleable, these little humans. Like puppets just waiting to have their strings plucked.

The Avatar fastened Her lips on the prey's and parted them with Her tongue. Cassidy responded weakly, and for a moment the Queen amused Herself with the kiss. But not for long. She had other, better games in mind.

Evans lolled in her bonds now, held upright only by the strength of the vines. The Avatar drove Her tongue in deeper, arching it upward until it rested against Cassidy's soft palate. Then she extended a tiny barb, piercing the captive's flesh and driving upward into her brain. Evans was too far gone to notice. The barb pulsed, extruded a seed, and withdrew.

Now Livy stepped back, letting Evans' head droop forward against her chest. One tiny drop of blood stained her lip. Good slave, thought the Avatar. Sleep now. The vines lowered Cassidy to the floor and Livy sank down beside her, cradling her in smooth green arms. She was glad to have chosen this one as Her consort; there was something very...comforting...about her. Livy stroked the twitching limbs and lightly kissed them.

Meanwhile, the seed in Cassidy's skull had begun to sprout. Hair-fine feelers crept out from the husk, tracing their way through the dark, warm folds of her mind. Soon her brain was bound in a pale green net. her twitching ceased. "There," cooed the Avatar, nibbling gently on Evans' nipple, "that wasn't so bad, was it?"

cassidy's eyes fluttered, opened. My Queen, she thought, and reached up to touch her lover's face. Am I yours now?

The consort's mind was as open to her Mistress as the Avatar's was to her Mistress. Almost, she answered, and felt the words reverberate in evans' head. She took the woman's hand in Hers and licked spirals on her palm. Come closer. cassidy obeyed, and the vines closed over them both.

rustle

When cassidy woke again, it was to the sound of rattling leaves. Patches of light and dark flickered across her eyelids, and slick cool creepers skittled back from her skin. Just like they did with Her, she thought. For a moment she wondered if she'd become like Livy, a creamy green flower woman with eyes as deep as worlds. But no, there could only be one like her Mistress. she opened her eyes and looked down at herself, only mildly disappointed to see her body unchanged. Well, at least it looked unchanged. But the more she woke up, the more she remembered. There was a very good reason for her appearance. It was camouflage.

she sat up, withered brown stems crunching beneath her, and was unsurprised to find herself alone. cassidy knew where her Mistress was, and that she'd be with Her again soon. But first...

she slipped from the lab, still naked, her footfalls dropping light as petals on the floor. The sky overhead was dark and spangled with stars. Probably past midnight, she thought. But peering across the courtyard she saw a light in the lounge window opposite. Someone must be watching TV. She padded across the lawn, raising pollen at every step.

There was still enough of the old Cassidy left to marvel at what she was doing...but not enough to regret it. In fact, she'd never been so happy in all her life. Her mind lay snug in its nest of vines, protected both from harm and independent thought. She felt positively fulfilled.

cassidy flung the lounge door open and stared down at the couple on the sofa, who were definitely not watching the TV. A black head rose from a tangle of sticky limbs. "Evans!" shrieked Chanda Washington. "What the fuck are you doing?" Mark Lucas sat up beside her, and the two of them gaped at the naked woman.

Mark and Chanda were a cute couple; Cassidy had always liked them. she beamed at the two, then threw back her head, spread her arms, and drew a deep breath, enjoying the way her breasts rode up her chest. Nipples hardening, she exhaled.

The pollen the Queen had used on Evans was relatively crude, spun from a mix of Gaian and terran plants. Now She had access to human DNA, and She could create much more efficient biocontrols. Microscopic particles swirled from cassidy's mouth, lodged in the humans' sinuses, and arrowed straight into their brains.

It took only a moment. chanda's hand, which had lain on top of the sofa, fell back to her lap. Her mouth sagged and her eyes glazed over. mark blinked a few times, then sighed almost happily. His face, though, showed no emotion. "Get up," said cassidy, and the new slaves climbed to their feet. "You know where your Mistress is?" they nodded mutely. "Undress and go to Her." they obeyed without a word.

cassidy prowled the darkened compound, spreading her Mistress's essence as she went. The pollen in her twitched like iron filings, drawn to a very special kind of magnet. Livy was out there, and every step cassidy took away from her was agony. But she had a mission. In fact, she was as uniquely fitted to it as Livy was to hers. The Avatar brought the Queen to Her subjects, and the consort brought Her subjects to their Queen.

she worked for most of the night, slipping into one prefab building after another. her Queen would destroy them soon enough, for She had no use for anything She couldn't control. It pleased cassidy to think of the structures torn apart, crumbling to dust, becoming one with the soil. That was as it should be.

Most of her teammates were asleep now, and she took them easily, creeping into their rooms and blowing softly across their faces. The few who were awake proved no more troublesome than Mark and Chanda. One by one they slipped out into the dark, shedding their clothes as they went.

The whole thing took less than an hour. Then cassidy followed the last inductee out of the compound, smiling as the creepers drew aside to let her pass. The pollen in her sang more loudly by the minute, and now she could pick up faint whispers of her teammates' minds, reflected back to her from her Mistress. she was getting close now.

Up ahead was a clearing the botanists had deemed unremarkable before now. And perhaps it had been. But something had sprouted in the night, a dark and bulky around which the humans clustered, silently. Moonlight glittered in their glassy blank eyes.

cassidy climbed a low hill and paused, admiring the beauty of the scene. The flight crew stood just to her right, well away from the other slaves, and she joined them. they would have no part in the ceremony, for their mission was bound intimately to hers. they had much to do before they could join their Mistress, but in the end, even cassidy herself would be one with Her. It was a comforting thought.

The consort breathed deeply, binding herself and her teammates even more fully in thralldom. Slowly her thoughts ground down, and she stood in rapture while the stars wheeled overhead.

rustle

Morning broke, and the dew which had gathered on the watchers steamed in the heat. At last they stirred, fixing their gazes on the shape at the center of the clearing and murmuring with excitement. All could see it clearly now: a plump, flesh-colored bud as tall as a man. Its petals swirled gently around their axis, caressing one another, whispering sweet nothings in their ears. Then a collective sigh rose from the crowd: it was opening!

One by one the petals fell back, curling gracefully over the green-yellow grass. Inside, they were laced with scarlet veins, as was the pistil at their heart. And at base of the pistil lay Livy, curled in a beautiful fetal ball, hair mingling with the stamens around her. As the last petal opened She sat up and stretched, and the whole crowd moaned in response. This was their Avatar, their love.

Livy opened Her eyes and smiled, a flirtatious quirk of the lips that Cassidy knew quite well. Then She turned back to the pistil. Its veins were throbbing gently now; and as she ran her fingers along them, a deep, soft thrum filled the clearing. It buzzed against the slaves' toes and worked its way into their bloodstreams, riding the waves of pollen up into their brains and setting their sense on fire. Soon they were swaying to the beat, moaning and fingering their crotches.

Livy rose to her knees, still caressing the pistil, and licked it once from base to tip. Cries of pleasure rose from the crowd. Then She climbed to Her feet, rose on Her toes, and straddled the giant organ. Grinding back and forth for a moment, She teased Her watchers almost to the breaking point. Then She bore down, and to a person they fell, clawing and shrieking along the grass for any flesh other than their own.

The ground became a sea of heaving pinks and browns, daubed with slickened pollen. The clearing echoed with sounds of orgasm, none of which quite drowned out the thump, thump, thump of the Queen's own pleasure. But while they'd already reached their peaks of arousal, She had just begun. Livy ground down again and again, and now the stamens at Her feet began to swell, spilling over the petals and advancing on the crowd. Meanwhile, the roots of the giant flower began to bulge, forcing their way up through the earth and sprouting fine white feelers. The humans neither noticed nor cared.

The Avatar was in a better position to observe the proceedings. Her Livy-body was almost senseless with pleasure, but the part of Her which was Queen (and which was, after all, most of Her), held Itself slightly aloof. It liked to watch. And so Her eyes stayed wide even as Her body ground furiously on the pistil. She saw the stamens spill out, the roots spring up, and She grinned with Her stolen mouth. Then She extended Her other senses, riding the stamens and rootlets into their human hosts. She felt the slaves twitch and quiver as She invaded them, heard their groans, smelled and tasted their animal arousal. She drank it all in, along with every thought, feeling, and memory of their discarded lives. A brew this rich would last Her for centuries. And there were whole planetfuls of these creatures!

The thing which had been Livy squirmed on Its stalk. She knew where they lived now, every last planet of them. And thanks to Her consort, She'd have them all in the end. The Avatar looked fondly across the clearing at cassidy. she was rutting with the flight crew, all eight of them in a single writhing mass. But no white feelers approached this bunch; they were needed elsewhere. The Avatar sent a spark of pleasure across the mental link: good slave. cassidy shrieked in response.

Now She turned Her attention back to the others. They twisted in her nets like fish, hooked through mouths and eyes and minds and sex. The feelers were thickening now, changing first to yellow and then to green. The Queen drew some mating couples apart, pressed others into groups, stood some on their feet and lay some on their faces. She liked to play with her food. At Her command, breasts swelled like fruit, scrotums wrinkled like nuts, and fingers spread skyward and sprouted leaves.

Slowly, so slowly that the sun was past its zenith before they finished, the prey stopped moving. The clearing was almost silent now, just here and there a sigh of pleasure. Bodies hunched under clinging vines, their skin rough as bark, their eyes gleaming dull as berries. their fleshy roots plunged deep into the soil, shunting their tattered dreams to their Mistress. And yes, they still dreamed. The Queen wouldn't have it any other way. Eventually the sap in their veins would slow, the leaves on their extremities crumble; but they'd keep for quite some time. Centuries, if She used them wisely.

The Avatar detached herself from the pistil and stepped down, relishing the stiffness in Her muscles. It was such a pleasure to wear flesh again. She gestured, and cassidy rose from a tangle of limbs and started toward Her. Livy met her in the midst of the frozen forms. You've done well, love, She said, taking the consort's breast in her hand.

Thank you, Mistress. cassidy shuddered as her Mistress thumbed her nipple. Then she dropped her head to kiss the outstretched arm. May I pleasure you now?

Livy raised Her hand, slipping Her fingers into the open mouth. Dear, eager little pet. How can you please Me, when you haven't completed your tribute? Bring Me the rest, and then you may enjoy my pleasure.

She withdrew Her fingers, and cassidy humbly bowed. As you will, Mistress. The thought of leaving broke her heart, but the thought of refusing never crossed her mind. How could it? she bent to kiss Livy's feet, then rose and turned to the flight crew. "Prepare the ship," she called, and they bowed.

rustle

cassidy stared glumly out the window as the ship took flight. she knew she could conquer a planet in weeks, but there were so many of them, and so much empty space between. Then there was the matter of logistics. she'd be in charge of organizing flights to Gaia; the Queen could digest just so much food at once. The consort's body would last for centuries, and in all that time she'd be lucky to spend a year in Livy's presence. she was honored to have been chosen for this critical task, but part of her still envied her teammates. they were with the Queen already, locked in an ecstasy that would last the rest of their lives. she, on the other hand...

cassidy looked down again, at the rapidly receding clearing. There'd be nothing left but trees when she returned. Just like all the other clearings on Gaia. There were millions of them.