Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 (Mg(13), no-sex, rom, sci-fi)
   The following is a non sex story based on the stunningly beautiful young
teen model based in Russia.  The story contains adventure and
romance-taking place more than two hundred years in the future.
   In the twelth millenium of man, the invention of cold fusion as a cheap
and affordable fuel source solved most of the problems of mankind.  The
further adaptation of cold fusion as an energy source for space travel
created a debate as to what to explore for first in space.  When more
intelligent minds prevailed, and the first earth space ship traveled to the
Alpha Centauri system, relatives of mankind were found.
   When the sharing of technology with the Centauris created a new desire
for further deep space exploration, more relatives of mankind were found,
however, so were new enemies of mankind.  The new enemies, the Crebans,
felt that all of space was sacred and should not be traveled through. 
Because the Crebans had already anticipated the need for space weapons, the
alliance of mankind found itself behind the learning curve.
   The first decade of the war didn't go well for the humans, but then the
technology began to catch up in the fight with the Crebans.  Fifteen years
into the conflict, the human alliance created the battleports.  The
battleports were gigantic craft capable of projecting power.  The
battleports stored strike aircraft, pilots, support personnel, and were
self supporting ships capable of creating it's own food, energy, and
replenishing it's weapons and machinery.  For the first time, the humans
were able to carry battle to the Crebans and stay in the battle area for
prolonged periods.  Because so little was known about the location of their
homeworld and settlements, a prolonged extermination of the Crebans became
necessary.
   My name is Joe.  I am a pilot.  I pilot one of the strike aircraft on
Battleport Yorktown.  My co-pilot is a Centauri.  Her name is Lia.  She is
as lovely a thirteen year old as anyone has ever laid eyes on.  To the
uninformed, one might question how I came to have a thirteen year old
co-pilot on a combat craft.  Lia is one of the results of the cultural
clash between Earth and Centauri.
   On Centauri, it is felt that by the time one reaches the age of twelve,
they are destined for higher education, trade school, or lower skilled
work. Lia showed promise by age eight, so she was allowed to take
accelerated classes.  She graduated a year early and immediately took pilot
classes.  Because Earth Defense Force officials complained, Lia's pilot
school was three months longer than everyone else's.  Cetauri officials
took advantage of the opportunity, listing her scores, not in her original
class, but in her second class-at the top of the class.  Because she
graduated at the top of her class, she got her pick of assignment.  She
immediately chose battleport duty.  EDF officials weren't done yet.
   Technically, Lia is a Bombadier/Navigator (BN)-not a pilot.  We fly a
"Blade".  A Blade is a two seater named as such because of it's resemblance
to a knife blade.  The thin end of the blade houses the two pulse cannons
and navigation gear.  Lia and I sit at the broad end of the blade, between
the twin engines.  I've let Lia fly the Blade, and she's a pretty good
pilot.  In the eight months she's been my BN, we've been on 16 combat
missions.  She keeps her head in combat and I don't entertain romantic
ideas of her (although I am tempted to) because I don't want her
distracted. My life is frequently in her hands and it's best that her head
stay in the game.  That hasn't stopped us from pursuing a friend's
relationship.
   Our favorite past time is playing in a simulation (sim) chamber.  In a
sim chamber, one can create digital holographic representations of people
and places.  Every week, every person onboard gets fifteen minutes of sim
time.  Because all of us are far from home, most use the sim chamber to
talk to a holographic projection of someone who sent a letter from home. 
Lia and I are both music fans, so we use the sim chamber to create fun
music situations.  For the past two weeks, we've saved up our time and
scrounged through scrap to create a giant drum set.
   We modeled our sim after an old Earth music group called RUSH.  We've
built a 110 piece drum set including acoustic and electronic drums, chimes,
cowbells, and tubular bells.  I'm going to be on drums.  Lia is going to be
helping on vocals, and we've monkeyed with the sim to add Norah Jones on
keyboards and Randy Rhodes on lead guitar, freeing Geddy Lee to stay on
bass guitar and pushing Alex Lifeson to harmony guitar.  By having six
musicians in the band as opposed to RUSH's usual of three musicians, we
hope to have a much fuller sound.
   We had to build the drum set on a mobile turntable to ease moving the
drums in and out of the sim chamber.  We only have sixty minutes in the sim
chamber, and time starts from the time we open the door, not when we start
the simulation.  We've rehearsed moving the set so that it will be just
under a minute moving it in, and the same exiting the chamber.  Everything
else we've needed, we've programmed into the simulation.
   We pre positioned the drum set near the sim chamber door to speed going
in and out.  Lia showed up for the sim wearing a very short aluminum
colored dress with like colored knee high boots.  Damn she looks hot.  She
turned more than a dozen heads on the way to the sim chamber.
   We looked up above the sim chamber door.  The lit blue light above the
door meant someone was inside.  Suddenly, the light went out.  Seconds
later, the door opened.  A young crewman got a surprising eyeful as Lia and
I zipped past him, pushing the drum set into the room.  We took a few extra
seconds to postion the drum set directly in the middle of the room.  Eye to
eye, wordlessly, we decided we had the right spot.  Lia took a spot seven
feet away, to my right.
   "Computer", I called out, "run simulation Rush, zero one."
   The room went dark and multi colored lights appeared above us. 
Keyboards, along with Geddy, Alex, Randy, and Norah suddenly materialized.
Alex and Randy suddenly began a familiar chord on the guitar.  I jumped in
on the drums as Geddy and Norah joined in.  As we combined our efforts to
play "Spirit of Radio", Lia joined in on vocals:
   "Begin the day with a friendly voice, a companion unobtrusive.  Plays
that song that's so elusive and the magic music makes your morning mood."
   Lia looked back and winked as we went on with the song, working our way
through, then on to Marathon, Passage to Bangkok, Red Barchetta, then on to
Mission, which we had arranged as a solo for Lia.  Lia became emotional as
she told a simulated audience that the song reminded her of her homeworld,
In a quavering voice she sang:
   "Hold your fire, keep it burning bright.  Hold the flame till the dream
ignites.  A spirit, with a vision, is a dream, with a mission.
   I hear the passionate music hear the words that touch my heart.  I gaze
at the feverish pictures the secrets that set them apart.  When I feel the
powerful visions their fire's made alive.  I wish I had that instinct.  I
wish I had that drive.
   Spirits fly on dangerous missions, imaginations on fire.  Focused high
on soaring ambitions, consumed in a single desire.  In the grip of a
nameless possession, slave to a driving obsession.  A spirit with a vision,
is a dream, with a mission.
   It's cold comfort to the ones without it.  To know how they struggled,
how they suffered about it.  If their lives were exotic and strange they
would likely have exchanged them for something a little more sane, maybe
something a little more plain.  We each pay a fabulous price for our
visions of paradise, but a spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission."
   She concluded the song with watery eyes, wiping them with her tiny hands
as a simulated audience cheer went up.  Knowing ahead of time that we would
need to go uptempo after the song, I programmed in that Red Sector A would
be our next song.  Bathed in red light, we began the very dramatic
apocolyptic song.  We were on the first line of the song when the
simulation suddenly ended.  Normal white light returned to the chamber as
we heard a klaxon.  Exchanging startled looks we realized it was a
scramble. We were under attack.
   Battleport crew were running in every direction as we exited the sim
chamber.  Luckily, we were close to our hangar bay.  Lia and I ran down a
short hallway, downstairs, then down a long hallway to our hangar bay.
   Although every person on flight duty keeps a flight suit in their
quarters, by regulation, another flight suit is kept in the hangar bay. 
With the hangar bay a lot closer to the sim chamber, we headed directly for
the hangar.  Once there, we started to change into our flight suits.  This
was more difficult for Lia than it was for me.  Unzipping her boots, and
kicking them off, she also slipped out of her dress, leaving her only in
black underwear.  Expediency overcame modesty as she noticed I had seen her
as I had never before.  She pretended not to notice as she struggled into
her flight suit.
   Short moments later we were in our Blade.  I activated the console with
my palm.  The blade roared to life with a low hum.  I started the verbal
flight checklist:
   "Life support system diagnostics check clear." "Check", Lia confirmed.
"Propulsion systems online." "Check", again she confirmed.
   This time it was her turn:
   "Navigation systems online." "Check", I confirmed.  "Weapons systems
online." "Check"
   I looked out our visor and spotted the catapault deck officer (CDO)
waiting for us.  He extended an index finger above him and made a circular
motion.  I pulled back on the throttles.  The Blade strained against it's
catapault restraint.  The CDO saluted.  I returned the salute.  The CDO
went into a crouching position.  Extending his right arm and index finger,
he touched the deck.  Then suddenly he raised his finger so that his arm
was perpendicular to the deck.  The Blade shot forward.  Three seconds
later, at half the speed of light, we shot into the darkness and vaccum of
space.  Instantly, a voice taunted us over the comm channel.  It was the
squadron leader's BN:
   "Blue five, you were last out." "Screw you Rusty" Lia shot back.  "Cut
the chatter" command ordered, "attention units, we are tracking two hundred
inbound unknowns, vector one five three, mark one.  All units, respond."
   As one, in a practiced routine, all the strike craft turned to the half
right to face the direction of the incoming unknown threat.  The comm
channel was quiet as pilots and BN's focused on the imminent threat.  We
took our place in an echelon formation, all of us nervous and quietly
anticipating the chaos of battle.
   The stillness was broken by purple three:
   "Command, I'm picking up that the inbounds are missiles, repeat,
missiles." "Standby, confirming", command acknowledged.
   A moment later, command called the squadron leader, verifying that the
inbounds were missiles after reading the signals sent by purple three's
targeting computer.
   "Attention all units", the squadron leader called over the comm, "purple
three, blue five, red three, yellow two, green four, take point, all other
units drop back in echelon for backup."
   The squadron leader had called out the Blades with the five best BN's in
the squadron.  As per squadron policy, we took the position on the left. 
Lia switched on her targeting computer.  A bluish haze developed in front
of her.
   "Coming into range", she announced to no one in particular, "charging
weapons."
   Lia pressed a switch in front of her, then placed her hands on the
console near the firing buttons.
   "Left five degrees, up one" she advised, then, "steady.....  steady" as
I made the adjustment.  "Firing" she said as she pressed the firing
buttons.
   Two streams of red light shot out of the pulse cannons, then disappeared
into the blackness.
   "Come right three degrees, up two."
   I made the adjustment.
   "Firing", she said as she fired the pulse cannons again.
   For the next twenty minutes, the five BN's picked apart not only the
missiles, but also large fragments, which might have been deliberate cased
boobytraps.  As we finished the mopping up operations the squadron leader
called again with further instructions.  The missiles had been tracked as
coming from a local system.  As there was only five planets in the system,
we were to recon and find the launching point.
   Lia looked up the system, then found our planet.  It was a small
lifeless world, similar to Earth's moon.  The computer only had cursory
information on the planetoid.  We were going to have to take a very close
look to find any launching point.
   Forty five minutes later we arrived at the planetoid.  It reminded me of
Earth's moon in size, and because of it's grey dusty lifeless appearance.
Lia had long since shut down her targeting computer, but she did
reintialize it as we began our scan.  We slowed to one twentieth light
speed and began a tedious search of the planetoid.
   Two hours later, we were ready to call it quits when I got an idea to
try something diferent.  We had been going in a series of orbits-in the
same direction.  I decided to reverse direction.  Ten minutes later, we hit
paydirt.  Near the bottom of a canyon, in shadow, there was a large
metallic door.  Lia and I looked at each other, sharing the "How could we
be so stupid?" look.  We called back to the battleport and told them we had
found someting suspicious and we were going to investigate.  The squadron
commander, no dummy, notified the nearby units and told them to take up
station nearby in case they were needed.
   We turned and slowed above the canyon wall.  Lia continued her scan and
found several concealed trap doors built into the living rock of the
planetoid.  The doors were so well concealed that they wouldn't have been
found without a very deliberate search.  We quickly debated a place to
touch down and decided on a spot a short distance from the most distant
door.
   Not knowing if we had set off any alarms, we decided to go by the book
on this type of search.  After setting down, we ran a check, making sure
our flight suits were interfaced with the Blade so that we could comm hook
up and be tracked by our onboard computers.  This type of search was
actually rare in the fleet.  Our flight suits were actually built for the
type of foray were about to take, even though they were rarely used that
way.
   We checked the life support systems in each other's flight suits, then
depressurized the Blade.  Lia opened the Blade's side door, then paused
before stepping out onto the planetoid surface.  Drawing her sidearm, she
led the way out, taking several steps, then pausing to look carefully
around.  She waited for me to come up next to her.
   "Is it true that Earth's moon is a major make out spot?" Lia asked.  "Oh
yeah", I confirmed, "as soon as teens get their orbital licence, poof-out
they go.  They like the view, and the privacy." "It's real private?" "Not
one hundred percent.  The orbital area around Earth is patrolled by EDF. 
Smugglers have been caught doing business around the moon.  From time to
time teens get caught in the crossfire between rival smugglers, or
smugglers and the EDF.  A few teens get killed, but most just end up with
an interesting tale to tell." "As you know, my planet has two moons. 
Tradition has it that they are sacred places.  After our first space
flights, when the carved icons were found on the moons......it just made us
wonder.  So, the moons were declared off limits and sacred areas.  No one
went there after that." "So, where are the make out spots?" "In our
parent's homes." "In your parent's homes?" "On Centauri, when you take a
mate, you celebrate the union.  When you decide to make the relationship
intimate, you tell your parents, and they set it up so that you can be
intimate." "How do they do that?" "They prepare a special dinner, then give
you privacy after dinner." "So, have you...." "Me?", she asked, her voice
rising.  "Uh-oh, you have." "Don't you dare tell anyone." "I won't, but you
need to spill." I heard her swallow, then she began:"Bobby was my neighbor,
and my special friend.  We did everything together.  We fell in love, so I
thought, when we were six.  When we were eight, we told our parents we were
mates, so we had a night of intimacy.  We made our vows to each other. 
Right after that, he stopped talking to me." "What happened?" "I don't
know, but right after that he took another mate.  So I dove into the books
and went after the pilot program.  You know the rest." "I'm sorry." "Why
haven't you taken a mate?" "Like you, I had someone special when I was
young, but they moved away when I was thirteen.  I did some dating.  When I
was twenty, I met a Centauri girl your age.  We really liked each other. 
She talked to me about an intimacy ceremony.  I didn't know what that was.
She said we had to talk to our parents.  I tried to talk to my parents
about her.  My mother told her pastor.  Next thing I know, I'm talking to
the Police.  The Centauri girl went back to her planet.  Shortly after
that, I got battleport duty." "Your planet has stupid traditions." "Tell me
about it."
   It took some doing, but we found a non alarmed door close to the main
large door we had found.  It was some kind of service door with just a
manual latch.  The type of wiring we found inside indicated that it might
have been set up as an emergency door with the compartment set up as a
workspace in case power failed in the facility.  We were able to figure out
the wiring for the access door that led from the compartment to the rest of
the facility.  Neutralizing the alarm, we decided to explore.
   A hallway led from the compartment, but a short adjacent hallway led to
a huge spacious hangar, which was behind the large door we first found.  In
the hangar we found two huge rectangular craft, which was some kind of
transport, but the two smaller craft in the hangar we recognized
immediately-pirates.
   The Sentori were a nomadic group often blamed in the hijacking of
unguarded transports and small distant outposts.  The Sentori weren't known
to have any homeworld.  In the only known confrontation between a fleet
vessel and Sentori ship, the Sentori ship suddenly exploded into a billion
bits, leaving nothing to salvage or investigate.  We quickly debated
bringing in the rest of the fleet, then resolved that since we were so far
undetected we had a golden opportunity to learn much.
   We continued on, finding the type of support rooms and supplies for a
remote outpost.  The lack of guard personnel, or miscellaneous personnel
milling about, concerned us.  We didn't know if we were walking into an
ambush, or was there a busy area we hadn't found yet.  Suddenly we saw an
autonomous transport robot shuffling down a hallway.  We followed, and
solved the mystery.
   The robot had entered a large loud room.  We carefully went up to the
doorway and peeked.  There was a factory operation going on, complete with
long assembly lines.  The circular pieces moving about by crane told us
where the missiles were coming from.  Disheveled looking workers on the
assembly lines, attended by large robed armed guards, revealed this was
clearly a slave operation.  When several child workers, in chains, shuffled
past, Lia growled.  A horn sounded and work suddenly stopped.  The workers
and guards made their way to an area to our right.
   It took another hour of skulking around, during which we briefly checked
in with base, found the detainment area for the workers.  We also found the
guards sitting down to eat.  We had gone into the dining room with the
intention of taking the twenty guards prisoner, but when one had thrown a
knife and several others dove for the floor, our course was clear.  There
was several seconds of chaotic shooting as the guards opened fire
haphazardly and we returned fire.  Thirty seconds later, it was all over.
The guards lay dead, and we had somehow survived.
   We checked the guards to make sure they were indeed dead, then saw to
the prisoners.  They were secured behind a pair of metal doors.  We shot
the electronic lock off the doors, then pulled them open.  We motioned to
the prisoners to follow us, but none budged.  We shouted for them to follow
us, but still they remained unmoved.  When Lia overheard two of the
prisoners chatting, it provided us the break we needed.
   English wasn't just the pre-eminent language on Earth, but had become
the main language in the cosmos after the Centauri/Earth alliance.  The
prisoners spoke in a language close to Lia's native tongue.  When Lia heard
them talking, she asked them a question in her language.  They answered,
then a pair of children ran up and started chatting a mile a minute.  Lia
chatted with them and the children started shouting to the prisoners.  As
one, the prisoners got up and followed us.
   We were improvising.  We had no idea what we were going to do next.  We
contacted our base.  We told them about the prisoners and the craft in the
hangar bay.  They recommended trying to load the prisoners in one of the
transports.  We were moving in that direction when all hell broke loose.
   There were guards in the facility that we didn't know about.  Seeing us
free the prisoners set them off.  Fire was coming in from several
directions.  We returned fire as best we could.  Several prisoners were
killed in the crossfire.  The two children that had talked to Lia became
the leaders, leading the prisoners to the hangar bay.  We called for
backup, but at best it was ten to fifteen minutes away.
   We held off the Sentori long enough to get the prisoners out of the
factory room.  We were exchanging fire with the Sentori when there was a
huge explosion in the corner of the room.  We took advantage of the moment
to head for the hangar bay.
   In the bay we found the prisoners milling around confused.  Lia ran up
to a transport and started working the buttons next to an access door.  The
door opened, and we ushered the prisoners inside.  Explosions continued
from inside the facility.  We contacted base and told them what was going
on and that we needed someone to get our Blade.
   After we got the prisoners in the transport, Lia and I headed for the
craft's control console.  There was buttons above the pilot and co-pilot
seats in a language neither of us were familiar with.  While we gazed in
wonder at the panel, the two children ran up and starting pointing at the
panel while talking a mile a minute.  Lia understanding them preseed a
couple of buttons.  We felt the engines fire up.
   "It's a variant on an A-3 console" Lia pointed out.
   I looked at the console and figured it out.  We preseed buttons that
intiated not only propulsion, but also opened the hangar doors.  We eased
the transport out of the bay, then into the canyon.  Looking up, we saw a
dozen blades.  Despite our best efforts, we couldn't work the transport's
comm system.  Using our own belt mounted system, we talked to our
squadron-which provided a painstakingly slow escort back to the battleport.
   Intelligence gained from the prisoners and the planetoid factory helped
speed an end to the war.  Knowledge of the Sentori and a link between them
and the Crebbans led to an understanding of the way of life these two races
lived and operated.  The prisoners were Venans, who had been victimized by
both Sentori and Crebbans for generations.  Once the Venan system was
freed, the Sentori and Crebbans died on the vine.
   After the war, Lia and I went into deep space exploration on a new class
of ships called Explorers.  It was a new era of peace for the galaxy.  Lia
and I ended up on a command crew for an Explorer called Intrepid.  That
duty allowed us to deepen our relationship and marry, but that's another
story for another day.  
  
Lia's Great Space Adventure-Part One-War