Muchel watched the breakers rolling onto the beach while the young men and women ran in and out of them. It was such a peaceful scene that he dozed now and again, waking at times to the sounds of laughter as they played in the surf. Tomorrow he must meet the Dragon Legion at the wharf across the bay at first light, and he was satisfied that all preparations had gone well. The uniforms with the built-in armor had been tested to withstand a direct shot from a blaster, as had the helmets, and the chain and leather harness and armor plates for the lizards was ready, complete with spiked studs that would tear a man’s arm off if the beast ran past him too close. He couldn’t think of anything that was missing, and when the troop rode through Atlantis tomorrow they would be the most impressive thing the people had ever seen. Axil would indeed become famous for his role in the birth of the Legion, receiving a Medal of 0f Honor tomorrow from Sonja herself.

The sand was warm, and the breeze through the palms smelled of flowers and tropical fruit, and the blanket that he laid on felt like the softest of clouds. The girl’s fingers were very soft too, as they kneaded the muscles of his shoulders. Again he dozed. “Hey, Muck!” He woke with a start, the surprise of hearing his name spoken like that by the winged child, who had been calling him Uncle Muchel, opening his eyes wide. “Hey, Meela! Where’s your mommy? You didn’t come down to the beach by yourself, did you?” The little angel said, “No, silly! She’s up there, flying!” Muck looked up at the fantastic blue sky and saw her then. “Well, what are my two favorite ladies up to? Did you come all this way just to disturb my nap, or is there something going on that I should know about?” MeeMee sat in the sand next to him and began making funny faces, and smiled winningly at him. “We just wanted to disturb you!” The child laughed at her own use of the unfamiliar word, and so did Muck. “Well, you certainly have! I haven’t suffered through such a disturbance in years!” They were both laughing and having great fun when Sonja drifted to a spot near them, kicking up sand as her feet touched down and she ran a few steps. “Hello, Elder! How do you fare on this wonderful day?”  “I am enjoying this day perhaps more than any other that I remember. And you?” Sonja dropped to the sand and leaned back on her elbows and wings, “Me too! Aren’t we MeeMee?”  “Yes, mommy! Uncle Muck’s glad we disturbed him.”

“Tell me again what you felt at sight of Clemus dressed and mounted on his terrible dragon,” Sonja asked Muck, and he went into a description that grew more colorful with each telling. “The hair on my head stood on end as the eagle screamed, and then, before I could get my bearings, the huge monster roared in an earth-shaking blast and the beast-man belted out a tremendous battle cry! The monster roared again as the eagle settled on the beast-man’s arm, and the troops went crazy, whooping and dancing around the feet of the dragon, I was numb with what I had seen! If they could inspire such feelings in me, what terror must they inflict on the alien horde!” “Wow. I can’t wait until they enter the city! Will you take us to meet them today? They have arrived at the wharf ahead of schedule, I have been informed. That is why we came to the beach to ‘disturb’ you!” He jumped to his feet, “Why didn’t you  say so!”

Dorian was standing by at the starship. He too was anxious to see the Legion, and as one of the cargo ships carrying their new uniforms and harness lifted off and headed for the wharf across the bay, he stood tapping his foot impatiently. Ah, here they come, he thought, and let the lower ramp of the starship down for them. They clambered aboard, and once they were buckled in he lifted the starship from the ground and shot across the deep indigo waters of the bay. The coiled rattlesnake on the volcano belched a plume of smoke in their wake as the ship came down on the far side and landed. Dorian helped his ladies from the starship and, waiting for Muck to make the introductions, they stood at the rail of the corral and stared in awe at the dinosaurs. The ground shook as the monsters moved from place to place nervously, and raised a noise like thunder in their passing, kicking up clouds of dust into the cerulean sky. Some brave spirit was attempting to buckle the new metal and leather spiked harness on the biggest one in the corral, and the spooked beast hopped around trying to avoid it for many minutes, until the man laid the harness on the ground in disgust and walked off. Big Jaw, once Clem had gone, sniffed at the strange skin his man had tried to apply to him, moving it about on the ground, and when he decided the thing was harmless, went to his handler and dragged the seven foot long tongue across his back. “Damn, I hate that,” the man said, and went over and picked up the harness and again tried his luck. Big Jaw stood docile as a dog being groomed, and the other lizards watched in interest as their leader gained his new skin. Several of them glanced back and forth in silent communication, and went to stand near their Humans, ready for their fierce looking harness to be applied as well.

Dorian  and his passengers were fascinated by the operation, As one of the beasts were harnessed successfully, it’s rider disappeared into his or her cabin and emerged as a uniformed Dragonmaster, as fearsome in appearance as the dragon itself. Eventually the task was over, and the new Legion stood at the heads of their beasts waiting for the command to mount. They would practice riding in formation as they had on the trail, but this time as a complete unit ready for battle or parade. Even the demon lizards were proud and held their heads high, prancing in step with their counterpart. Sonja felt a chill run up her spine at the awesome sight before her, and the child moved closer to her and took her hand. Shoulder blasters bristled from the hands of the riders, and the bright sun threw glints of slashing light from their swords and the spikes of the beasts.

They left the corral and ran their beasts up to a fast pace, still in perfect step, and made several turns about the area, coming to a halt at attention before their king and queen. At a touch from their riders the great lizards all bowed their heads to her, and Sonja, overwhelmed, could not stop the tears. “So wonderfully terrible! Just the sight of you coming at them will stampede the aliens and put fear in their cold hearts such as they have never known! I am so proud of you all! After you enter Atlantis tomorrow like conquerors, there will be such a celebration and feast that it will take a week to shake off the aftereffects! Welcome, my friends. Welcome to Atlantis!” She held the child up for them to see, and every one of the ferocious warriors removed their helmets and saluted her, the little goddess from Mars, who smiled lovingly at them and waved her little arms and wings.

Muck was shaken. The thrill he had experienced today was so much more intense than the other, when it was just Clem and Big Jaw with no harness, that he knew the citizens, if they were not forewarned, may quite possibly stampede just as the aliens were bound to. He told Dorian and Sonja of his thoughts and they too thought it best to get back to Atlantis and make a few more preparations. Xlacchan and the priests were rounded up, and after telling them what was needed of them, the priests sent runners to summon the people. They would tell them of the fantastic vision they would see the next day, and let them know there was nothing to fear for the Dragon Legion was their own, and the riders nothing more than their brothers and sisters from the Northlands.

When the sun was high the next morning the crowds gathering at the wharfs were sent back to the main plaza near the Pyramid, away from the docks, so the nervous beasts would not be frightened. Offloading them was a chore, for they had never been on boats before. They had been fed early, and would not be sidetracked by hunger during the parade, which was a good thing for the thousands of cheering people they were about to encounter, and were as docile as something of their kind could ever be. The beasts were actually enjoying the excitement of the crowd and pranced as they were led to where the parade would begin. Many troops of regulars were standing at the ready, and a band consisting of drums and many horned instruments was warming up. Axil made an appearance and led the Dragon Legion to the front of all of this, and had Clem back the dinosaurs into position at the head of the parade.

Sonja raised her hand, from where she sat on her throne on the first platform of the great pyramid, and quiet descended over the multitude. Amil and the dignitaries from Fella and Kasil were seated at her side, as well as the officials of Atlantis and the cities on the continent. Dorian rose from his throne and went to the podium, and knocked his knuckle against the communicator several times. The sound echoed through the city. “Hello friends,” he began, and his voice rumbled across the plaza. “This is an important day in our lives. We have built a fine armed force, both here and across the world, and have a capable starship armada, thanks to the wonderful things left behind by our ancestors. Our old gods are real and have come back to us.” Sonja stood, with the child in her arms, then sat again as he spoke. The crowd cheered mightily. “But today, we welcome an addition to our armies that has never existed before, on any world across the stars. I present to you the Dragon Legion!” The band erupted with a roll of drums and the horns broke in and the parade began. The crowd roared with their approval and admiration as the prancing lizards and their riders passed. Never had they seen such fear-inspiring creatures, and the men and women upon them! Dragons, and Dragon Masters! The Dragon Legion! Loud yells and whistles greeted them all along the way, and thrills from the chills they inspired shook the people, and gave voice to the loudest cheers the world had ever heard. The parade passed the platform of the queen, and as each pair of Dragons and men passed the riders saluted her, and the mighty beasts bowed their heads, causing such wild abandon among the spectators that many of the weaker of them fainted and were in danger of being trampled by the throngs.

Four thousand men and women in uniform passed the platform and circled around the central plaza, and the parade ended with the Dragon Legion standing at attention at the head of their beasts in front of the queen, having completed a circuit of the pyramid itself. She stood and commended them for their split second timing and the noble way the beasts had behaved, and then said, “Throughout time Man has never had such a fighting force as this! With the troop transports and cargo ships you will be deployed at a moment’s notice, to any and all trouble spots, whether they be on this world or another, wherever the alien horde is seen, and freeze the blood in their veins when you confront them! Until they arrive, you will have the honor of being my personal guardians and protectors, and the welfare of this precious child I place in your hands.” The Legion cheered. They had never expected such  an honor! To be the personal army of the gods! When she was satisfied with their reception, the queen dismissed them and they went to the quarters that Axil had requisitioned for them, near the pyramid, yet with clear access to the spaceport and runway.

It had been a tiring and high-strung day for everyone, and the beach beckoned. The sands were full of sun worshippers and nubile young women taking their ease, when Clem and Sherri walked down the wet sand and found their friend Muck. “It was great! Thanks a lot, Muck, for what you have done for us all.”  The embarrassed fellow said, “Just doing my job,” and turned over to let the girl rub oil on the front of him, now that his back had been done. He quickly rolled back on his stomach to hide the effect of the back rubbing from his new visitors, and grew even more embarrassed. Sherri laughed at his plight and said, “Muck, we’re going to leave you in peace. She can rub your belly all she wants now!” They walked on down the beach, and Clem said, “He has more female servants than the queen does!”

 Muck’s technicians had followed his diagrams precisely, and the reflector shield had been successfully installed on a growing number of starships, with his personal saucer as the original host. It worked better than he had anticipated, and the surprised aliens would be battered and burned by their own weapons. He had led them into the inventing of a number of new appliances. Duplicating the power of the crystal and incorporating it into storage units had been a real challenge, but once he discovered that it could be channeled into any jewel with the same number of facets, they were home free. Now each starship carried those jewels, and had been fitted with lap-sized computing devices that were capable of plotting flight paths and star trajectories. It was no longer guesswork when one wished to visit another galaxy, or have the autopilot take one’s ship to the other side of the planet. He had always known the power of the sun could cook food such as eggs on a hot day, and during his long stay in the lands of ice he  had found the secret of that too, and had a team constructing small ovens for the people, again powered by the small jewels, that would cook a small roast or loaves of bread in minutes.

As Elder of Atlantis he felt it was his duty to ease the path of the people in any way he could, and what better chance would he have to build the hundreds of devices that he had conceived of during those long centuries when he could not die? Machines that would wash  and dry their clothing, machines that would wash the utensils they ate from, and vacuum machines that sucked the dust from their homes, were all being tested. There were many more in the works, but his team needed reinforcements, and factories would have to be built for the manufacture of all that he had in mind. There had been many wonderful devices in use when the aliens had destroyed Mars, most of which had been abandoned and lost, and then, when Earth had been their home for several hundred years, the people had again grown into the usage of them. Now, many thousand years later, they would yet again find that the helpful machines would be in every home. Muchel had always wanted to reconstruct the armies of robots that had been on Mars, that had done household chores and laborious duties throughout Eden, but there had been no plans and diagrams brought to Earth, and none of the robots themselves. After the thirteen thousand years of thought, he could build one now in his sleep.

He was working in secret on a model that, if it was successful, would revolutionize warfare. A robot that was nearly indistinguishable from a Human in form, fully flexible and well balanced, that incorporated the lap-size computing device built into the chest cavity. Among it’s many attribute were a variety of weapons, blades, and blasters, that were part of the design itself. Modeled after the pilot of his personal flying saucer, she was the only one who knew of it to date, and had been helping him in the testing of it. It was capable of following instructions, and a monotone voice machine had been developed, working on the principals of the communicator, and installed into the computing device. When called into service, it would come to life and immediately reply, ‘wwhhaatt iiss yyoouurr ccoommmmaanndd’, and Muck thought it was ready to go into production. He would build others that were not war machines, that would be servants in many other areas. That afternoon he looked for and found Dorian.

Dorian called his captains together for the prototype’s unveiling, and the following day it was put through it’s paces by the smiling pilot it was modeled from. She pulled the cover from it when they were all seated, and said, “Sandi, wake up!” The robot’s eyes lit and it’s head moved until the receptors in the eyes found the source, and it said ‘wwhhaatt iiss yyoouurr ccoommmmaanndd’ and the pilot said, “Exercise one.” The robot walked with a hip-swaying grace to the captain sitting closest and said ‘hheelllloo sswweeeettiiee’ and took the man’s hand and started leading him off. The embarrassed girl quickly said, “Exercise two!” The robot dropped the hand and again walked with that same grace to it’s appointed place, and went through the weapons test. It was superbly accurate with the blasters that erupted from it’s breasts, and the tiny blades flew from it to their target in a blur of speed from it’s fingertips. It grabbed the sword from the sheath at it’s waist and attacked the straw target in front of it, destroying it with three back and forth strokes and a thrust in the blink of an eye. “Sandi, sleep,” the pilot said, and the light went out of the robot’s eyes and it stood silent.

The captains applauded profusely, and Muck said, “It is my desire that each starship be equipped with one of these, programmed to obey the voice of the pilot. If we want, we can let them have generic control which would allow their operation by everyone, but that is for domestic use. At times of war it is deemed best not to confuse the machine.” Dorian, admiring the talents of the Elder, congratulated him on his success with the Sandi, and gave him the go-ahead. “How long before the starships can have their new girls?” “We should be able to turn out a hundred of them a week once the components are mass produced. The factories we have already constructed can be retooled in a matter of days. Of course, this prototype will have to be disassembled to make the patterns, but she’ll be put back together, and be a companion for her model, the real Sandi.”

The natives that had followed the dragon-men south, fourteen hundred of them, had been brought across to Atlantis the same day as the dinosaurs, and were being trained as foot soldiers that would accompany the Dragon Legion. They worshipped the huge beasts, and would fight fiercely in their defense. The armies trained daily with the lizards and the weeks flew by. The first of the Sandi’s were coming off the line and being programmed, and each pilot was given one as they were finished and tested. Dressed in the uniform that was made for them, with the flight helmet, it was hard to distinguish them from a real person, until one looked directly at it’s face. The lap-size computing devices in them were capable of learning and the Sandi’s, as time went by, became nearly an intelligent entity, simple thought processes taking place independently of the pilot’s commands, circling around what had been programmed into them. An almost flesh-like tissue had been invented and covered the metal of their construction, and they were soft to the touch, with near-human coloring. Before long there were thousands of them being used in the armed forces around the world.

Gradually exposed to the tropical sun, the child, who had been on Earth for three years now, had become a little bronzed goddess from the ghostly white she had been, and her eyes, still larger than the norm, had lost their ability to see in the dark, and gained the full spectrum of Earthly eyes, though she sometimes squinted in the full glare of the sun. Muck made a pair of dark glasses for her that shaded the bright blue orbs, and she spent even more time outside, learning to fly with Sonja now that her wings had grown strong enough.

Across the trail of stars in the dark skies above Atlantis, on a world where the air was thin and cool and allowed a better view of the vast universes, a lonely alien girl sat on a rock and watched the constellations as her world slowly turned. She often thought of her friend, the goddess she had met on Mars, and tonight was one of those times. They had just returned recently from their second journey through the cosmos, and had graduated with honors and were now a certified part of the Starfleet. Arrella wanted a man. Filem had been sniffing after her, but, she wanted a real man, a Human. They were so much more handsome than the aliens, though Filem was pretty in an alien way. There was no way she would ever have one though. She would probably never see another one, though the elders had declared that the invasion would take place, as they had suspected, when the report had been made. The signal from Earth’s moon had still not arrived, but Baen had been forced to divulge the information they had picked up on Mars about the survival of the Human species. Baen had been assigned the position of fleet commander-in-training upon her graduation, and Arrella her second in command. The girl was dejected as she thought of her position. If there was war with the Humans, she would be forced to help in their annihilation, and she sat looking at the stars through tears that would not stop.

Baen was sad too, that she had been the one who had put the Humans in peril. There was nothing else she could have done. One of the squadron would have leaked the secret, and they all would have died if she had kept silent. She was torn between duty and her love of Sonja, and tormented by the fact that she was being groomed for the leadership of the invasion force. She had never cried as a young girl, had, in fact, never knew what crying was, until the day her and her team had parted with the Humans on Mars. She was becoming used to the tears now. She and Arrella talked about the Humans every time they were alone together, wishing things could be different, and once when Arrella jokingly suggested they steal a starship and run away to Earth, Baen semi-seriously thought about it, and they talked about what they would need to survive on their own, hunted for desertion and marked for death as traitors.

The thought was there, and intruded on her now and then. Arrella, she knew, would run with her if she really wanted to go. Could we live on Earth? Our ancestors left that planet alone after the invasion, because of the poisonous atmosphere. How do we get around that? Would we have to live in a bubble, never coming out? What kind of life would that be?

Arrella was almost ready to take the leap. “I am not happy anymore,” she said to the night sky, and got up from the rock and made her way back to the barracks. She came into the light to where Baen was working on the books, and Baen glanced at her as she came into her range of vision and saw the tear-stained face. She laid down the scribe and stood, taking Arrella’s hand, and said, “Come, let’s walk for a while,” and they went back out of the building. Baen didn’t want anyone to hear what she was certain the other girl was about to say. “I get so lonesome I just start crying. Filem wants me, but I don’t want him. I want a Man,” Arrella said as they wandered back up the hill she had just come down. “Remember how handsome Xlacchan and Dorian were? All men might look like them! Big, strong arms that would feel so good! I want to be held in strong arms like that, and feel the tenderness I saw in Man’s eyes for their woman. Our people aren’t like that. There is no love! I don’t want to stay here anymore, Baen. If you don’t wish to come with me, I am going alone. Tonight!” Baen caught her breath. “But Arrella, we may not be able to survive on Earth!” “I don’t care! If I cannot be loved, I don’t want to be alive anyhow! If I must die to find happiness, so be it. Are you coming?” Baen said, “You know I have been tortured by the position I’m in. I have been thinking about it. There is a small two man cruiser that would get us there parked just across the lot. When everyone is asleep, I’ll meet you there. Other than the supplies already stocked in it, we can take nothing, or it will arouse suspicion. You know this may be the beginning of the end of our lives.” Arrella said, “I know that. I’ll see you at the ship.”

Amil visited Kasil at least once a week to keep track of the receipts and ferry the proceeds from the tourism trade back to his vault under the palace. There was on average a weekly turnover of ten thousand tourists, and his hotels and restaurants were thriving, the trinket shops raking in the gold. A paved road had been graded through the burned sands, winding through the lonesome oasis’s, and the camels, though favored by many, were slowly being replace by wheeled vehicles drawn by teams of horses, with several seats, allowing for many passengers. Those vehicles rolled down the road at all hours of the day, their canopies protecting the riders from overexposure to the sun, carrying their own water supply for the horses. Business was booming for the king, and he was a happy man.

The museum had become a shrine, as he had suspected it may, and the dead king and queen were known now from one end of the country to another, and across the waters of the inland seas. Muck had known them in a former time, and came to visit them one day with his pilot Sandi, and their robot. “They look much as I remember them,” he told Amil. “Shrunken, somewhat, but I expected that. Dorian told me he thought he heard the dead king speak to him at the consecration. I wanted to see if I would experience something similar, for they were my friends. Do you mind if I sit with them by myself?” Amil said, “Why, no. And if they do speak, perhaps you will relay their message to me? I have had no communication with them, and would like to know if they are happy with what I have tried to do for them.” “Certainly. If they do.” Amil left him then, taking Sandi and her counterpart, which he admired tremendously, along with him. “Do you suppose that I might get one of these units for myself?” She said, “We have brought one for you, and Muck will set it up for you when he has finished with his visit.” “Ah! That’s wonderful. The pilots each have one, and I have been desirous of one since the first sight of them.” She smiled and said, “Why?”

Clem was tired. It had been a long day, and he was reclining on the beach with Sherri, watching the action of the waves. How much time did they have? It had been a year since their arrival in Atlantis, and the unit was as tuned as a well-oiled machine, the foot soldiers as fine a force as any that Atlantis commanded, and the dinosaur had become a loved beast by all, and were in danger of being spoiled. Huge herds of wild long-horned cattle had been rounded up and brought east by the army for the dinosaurs, and the cattle pens, on the mainland, were the source of the people’s food supply as well, along with the thousands of wild hogs that were domesticated. The smell of the holding pens was a burden, but a necessary evil, for the people on the Island were in danger of surpassing the population that had lived here before the world ended. Smoke from the factories mixed with the smoldering fumes from the volcano, and hung in the air like a curtain over much of the island city. It was a progressive society they lived in, unlike anything they had known, and an exciting place in which to abide, but Clem had been a farmer in his previous life, and liked the open spaces.

They took the lizards to the mainland every few days for field exercises and that gave him some freedom from city life, but he was beginning to wish for a call to action. What good was an army that never fought? Perhaps he could talk the elite into a field trip to one of the other planets, maybe Mars itself, for training in rapid response. He would see.

Baen had met Arrella in the deep pool of darkness beneath the starship, and they climbed aboard, scared but determined, and the silent operation went off without a hitch. They were nervous that the quiet hum of the ship would awaken some light sleeper but their concern was baseless and they left the planet with none the wiser. When they had gotten free of the thin atmosphere, Baen burned it up to full power and turned the starship loose. “Well, Arrella, we are thieves and deserters. Are you happy now? They will hunt for us when they find us gone, and suspect our destination. Our report did say that we left the Humans on friendly terms.” “Let them suspect! It will be several years before the armada is ready, and they will never catch us, unless a special patrol is dispatched. I don’t believe we rate that.”

After four solid hours at full power the ship was nearly at the edges of their universe, and Baen readied it for the jump to the next. They put their helmets on, in case of accident, as the regulations required, and she punched the star-drive into life. They were thrown back into the deep padding  and after a breathless moment the gravity left them and they shot through the nebula. Ahead of them they could see the separation of the universes, a wide expanse of darkness, with the brilliant pinpoints of the stars they were approaching beckoning in the vast distance. The closer they came the bigger they grew, and they could see the different galaxies and the many kinds of wild shapes of them. There were fantastic gas clouds of the most unbelievable colors that wound their way among the stars, and exploding stars that left the imprint of that explosion for eternity, and pinwheel galaxies, and galaxies that stood on end billions of light years long. The stars were endless, and the worlds that gravitated to them nearly as many, and the girls came to a galaxy that had never been in the memory banks of their brethren. “We’ll see if there is a world here somewhere, where we can lie low for a while,” Baen said, and Arrella turned on the scanners.

“This is the greatest adventure of our lives, Baen. Aren’t you glad we escaped?” Baen smiled at her friend, “Yes, I am. Ever since we met the Humans I too have been dissatisfied. Even if we can’t live on Earth with our friends, we can visit from time to time, using Mars for our base. There are many old structures there still that we can use, and whatever we need can be brought in from Earth. We will survive, my friend.” She jockeyed the starship through the rarified atmosphere of the world they had found in the vastness, and they dropped down through the clouds to see small islands dotting the broad expanse of water beneath them. “There. Let’s try that one. It’s bigger than the others, and may be suitable for us.”

They landed, and after testing the air, climbed from the ship to stand on the orange sand of the beach. The island was fairly large, and had small mountains peeking from the lush greenery, and they could hear obnoxious screams from some sort of animals or birds on the soft breeze. “I like it,” Arrella said, and began a tour of inspection, blaster in hand, with Baen heading off in the other direction. She too carried her blaster, and it was a good thing she did, for suddenly a strange beast leaped from the trees and landed on her back. She shook it off and when it was on the ground in front of her, she fried it, the coarse hair sending a horrible stench into the fresh smelling ocean air.

It was about four foot tall, squat body and short legs supporting a torso with four arms and the ugliest head she had ever seen, full of long sharp fangs. Just for luck, she gave it another burst. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, and just then Arrella arrived. “Maybe we had better stick together,” she suggested, and Baen readily agreed. “I hope there aren’t too many more of them, or we will have to spend most of our time in the starship.” They continued down the beach, and came upon a small hut. “That creature that you slew never built that,” Arrella said, “Whatever did must have had at least some intelligence. Look, it is tied together with some very complicated knots, showing tremendous dexterity.” They found a sleeping bench inside, that was neatly made up, with blankets that were stamped with a strange design, and containers of food and water. Behind them the doorway was suddenly darkened by a shape moving into it, and the girls turned quickly to face a Man!

“How ya doin’?” Baen shook her fabulous red hair from her face, and looked at the vision before her. He was dressed in a rag hung  around his slim hips and nothing else, and the bronzed giant’s muscles, massive and well defined, rippled with life as he stood there smiling at them, admiring the alien girls beauty, comparing them to one another, with a hungry look in his eye. “He looks like he wants to eat us!” Arrella said. Baen had him covered with the blaster and the man was well aware of the fact. He had watched from the trees as the beast attacked her, and saw how fast she had protected herself, and was taking no chances. “I mean you no harm, ladies. It’s just that I haven’t seen anyone in several years, other than the ugly brutes on this island. Where did you come in from?” Baen didn’t answer him, instead fielding her own questions. “I’m the one with the blaster. Start talking! How did you come to be here?” The man said, “Well, if we’re gonna have a chat, let’s go outside and sit down in the shade.”

Once they were seated, the man said, “I’ve never seen girls like the two of you on Mars. Where are you from?” Arrella said, “What do you mean, ‘on Mars’? There is nothing alive on Mars.” He said, “Well, that’s about the most ridiculous statement I’ve ever heard! Mars has the oldest civilization in that part of the universe, with the grandest cities found anywhere in the galaxies!” Baen looked deep into his sincere eyes, and knew the righteous indignation was real. A feeling came over her that she had somehow dropped from the present into a different place in time, but that was impossible. Arrella too was looking strangely at the man. “You don’t know where we are from? You mean to say that you don’t recognize us for who we are?” The man said, “Sorry, girls. I’ve never seen one of your race in my life, and I thought I knew them all.” “How did you get here, to this world?” Baen was feeling a little ill, and very uncomfortable in his presence. “My ship crashed over there, on the other side of the island.” “When?” she asked, a chill moving up and down her spine. “Oh, probably been about three years, I suppose. I was on a routine patrol with my partner, poor dead bastard, and we were hit my a meteorite shower as we approached the planet. Tore hell out of the ship, and cut his head clean off. I was hit here.” He lifted his arm and showed them the ragged scar. “I didn’t wake up for a couple days, and when I did, there were about a dozen of the ugly bastards you fried trying to get in at the spoiled meat. My partner was beginning to rot in the heat, and I didn’t smell none too great either.”

They let him take his time, his soft voice slowly relaxing them, and he continued, “Once I managed to get my blaster out and had killed four of them, the others ran off into the trees. They climb extremely well, and were gone when I managed to crawl from the wreckage. I salvaged what I could, and then set the wreck on fire, to send my friend home.” He had a faraway look in his eye, and turned his head from them for a moment. “We were partners for a long time.” Arrella was close to crying for the big man. Baen was spooked by him. “Three years, huh? Well, my friend, I have bad news for you. Our race and yours became deadly enemies twenty thousand years ago, and our ancestors destroyed Mars and all who did not flee to Earth. Then, several hundred years later, when we found the civilization they had created there, that also was destroyed. And you know nothing of this?” The man had jumped to his feet. “What? We had no enemies! The universe was in harmony! How can you tell me such outrageous lies?” He looked from side to side as if seeking a way to escape what she had said, then, after a moment, sank back to his seat. “You wouldn’t tell me such terrible things if they were not the truth.” “No, I would not. I have no wish to hurt you with tales of such a tragedy, but you must know.” He let a tear slide down his ruggedly handsome face. “I wanted desperately to go home, and see my friends and family, and now I find they have been dead and gone for an eternity.” His head slumped to his chest and his shoulders heaved in sudden grief.

Arrella couldn’t help herself. She went and sat beside him and put her soft alien arms around him, and comforted him as best she could. He was a strong man, a star pilot, and he soon shook it off, and came to realize she was near him, and her arm was still around him. He looked at her up close, with his sad eyes. “You don’t look murderous to me,” he whispered, “and neither does she,” he nodded his head in Baen’s direction. Arrella said, looking deep into his green eyes, “We ran away. We are not like the others of our race. There are a few more who feel as we do, but we did not try to locate them. We left in a hurry, fearing for our lives. If we are caught we will die.” She was whispering too, so close to him she did not feel the need to speak louder, and Baen had no trouble hearing every word they said. Her friend was perhaps telling their story much better than she would have herself, so she kept quiet. Arrella told of their first journey across the stars, when they had gone to the dead planet Mars to wander in the ruins, and the meeting with the Humans and becoming their friends. Then, when she spoke of the miraculous transformation of Sonja and the killing of the gloat and the many thousand ghosts who appeared and called her name, and then disappeared, the man took her shoulders and exclaimed, “Sonja! She came back? She has been gone for thousands of years! Her statue was all that remained of her memory!” “She is real, and beautiful, and a dear friend.” He was stunned. “What is happening? Forty thousand years have passed since her passing, and you tell me twenty thousand have passed since mine, but I am not dead! I live, and have no awareness of more than three years gone by me. Do I look dead to you?” Arrella put her arm around the distraught man again and held him close to her alien heart, and felt his own heart beating, and the heat of him, and she said, “No. You are not dead, and have never been. Somehow you have crossed time, and it has been our great fortune to find you, here in the emptiness. The only reason we are here is because this system is not on the charts, and we thought to hide here and rest, where we couldn’t be found. Somehow the gods have sent us to you, perhaps Sonja herself.” Baen said, “I think you must be right, Arrella. The chances of us landing here were remote, for we had many other places to choose from. It was our destiny.” The man stood, gently removing Arrella’s arms, and said, “Perhaps. If we are children of Destiny, maybe that destiny is to serve the people of Earth in their time of need, if we can. You have left your own people in your regard for them, and I no longer have a people, other than them. Sonja has always been one of the gods of Mars, and I will serve her again.” They stood face to face, all of them feeling the import of his words, and placed their hands together, sealing their fate.

 Arrella’s fate had been sealed the first time she got lost in his eyes, there on the seat when she had tried to comfort him, and he had whispered, “You don’t look murderous to me.” That was a strange statement to fall in love with someone over, but she knew she had. That had been yesterday, and now, walking on the beach with him toward the starship, she couldn’t help glancing at his handsome profile time and again. His presence thrilled her. She wanted to feel those powerful arms squeezing her ribs, and she wanted…”Arrella!” She looked over at Baen, standing on the ramp of the ship, and the other girl was laughing. “What?” Baen said, “There will be time. We have got to figure out where in space we are, and how to get out of here. We still don’t know if we may have been the ones who got lost in time, or if it really was Jedan. Maybe all of us were, and we can never escape.” That put the skids to her romantic thoughts. “How will we know?” Jedan said, “We must get back in space and try to find our bearings. I remember passing through a brilliant band of gaseous clouds as I was trying to avoid the meteorites. Perhaps that is the key. If we can find that and jump through it, we may be all right. Then again, it may place us somewhere else in time where we don’t wish to be. I don’t pretend to know. It is a gamble I am willing to take, if the two of you are.”  Baen looked at her friend and she nodded. “Let’s  do it. We are not going anywhere standing here.” They climbed aboard and Baen lifted the starship from the island and pointed its nose for the stars.

It was cramped in the starship, having been built for two, and the big Jedan took up a lot of space. There was no choice. Arrella had to sit on his lap, but that was fine with her! The closer she could get to him, the better she liked it, and Baen was well aware of how she felt. It looked to Baen like Arrella’s wish was coming true, for Jedan was infatuated with the sensuous alien girl, and liked being that close to her as well. His strong arms were indeed wrapped around her, and Jedan didn’t try to control himself when the urge came and leaned over her shoulder and kissed her on the side of her pretty face, She leaned into him and turned her head into the kiss and their lips met, there in the vast emptiness, and Baen felt a touch of jealousy. She thought, It looks like I’ll have to find one for myself!

They found the brilliant gas cloud he had spoken of just after leaving the system, and as the world where they had found Jedan and it’s sun disappeared Baen maneuvered the Starship in it’s direction, and told the other pair that they had better stop kissing and hang on. Then she shot the ship into the cloud.

It only took seconds to pass through, and when she looked back it was gone. “Something happened, but I don’t know what. We’re in a whole different area of space! I only hope we’re not in a whole different place in time!” They shot through the void four times faster than the lightspeed and then Jedan said, “There! I know that galaxy! Head for it and we can configure our path from there to Mars. Once on the Red Planet, Earth is a hop away. If we have arrived in the right time.” A week later the three of them were standing in the great arena, and it had been empty for a long time. There were no ghosts, and only the fifty foot statue of the goddess was there to greet them. Jedan, heart ripping from the agony of his dead world, walked off to stand at it’s feet for a time, and then, when he had regained control, came back and said, “Girls, Let’s go to Earth and find out the truth. Either time is on our side, or we are too late.”

Two days after lifting off from Mars they saw the moon that circled the New World and felt much better, and closed in on their destination. “Where in the world do we begin our search? We don’t know where Sonja has gone! The priest Xlacchan told stories of a place called Atlantis, but we don’t know where it is located. We will have to find people, and ask directions.” Baen agreed with Arrella’s statement, and they circled the planet looking for lights or any other indication of habitation. Smoke hung in a purple haze over parts of the planet, from volcanoes and possible Human activity, and they zeroed in on those areas during that first day, but found nothing that excited them. They stopped on one of the bigger islands the smoke was coming from, in the midst of an inland sea, and found nothing but ancient ruins of a primitive nature, and a few natives that ran and hid at sight of the starship. “There is no fabulous pyramid on this island anyway. Let’s keep looking,” Baen said, and they once again rose and rode the winds. On a whim, she turned the craft south, and they began to cross a wide expanse of sandy wastes, and every once in a while from their high altitude they saw what could only be remnants of old cities peeking from the sand. Then, when they were about ready to give up, Jedan spoke. “I think I see a caravan of desert animals following some sort of road off there to the right.” Arrella squirmed around on his lap, causing him to lose his train of thought, and looked out of the canopy. “Yes! People! Baen, see if you can land near them, without scaring everyone. They should know where we are!”

She again squirmed back to her original position, then turned her head and whispered, “What’s the matter, Jedan? Am I making you nervous?” She wiggled her bottom on his lap, and grinned at him. “Well, am I?” “Yeah, uh, just a little bit,” he groaned.

Baen landed the ship far enough ahead of the caravan so that they could get used to seeing them, and since nobody ran she thought things would turn out all right. They got out and stood in the shade of the starship, and soon one of the men came over leading his camel. Jedan had been elected spokesman, since he was the only Human, and he said to the newcomer, “Hello! Perhaps you could help us. We seem to be lost. We are looking for some people named Dorian and Sonja, and a city named Atlantis.” The man said, “Sonja? She is our princess and she and her mate are the king and queen of Atlantis! Why do you seek them?” There was suspicion in his eyes, and his hand was on his sword. “They are our friends. We met them on Mars several years ago, and dearly wish to see them,” Baen told him. He looked closer at them. “You girls are aliens! You had better come with me,” he said, the sword point against Jedan’s chest. The big warrior from Mars could have snapped the man in half, and the weapons the girls were wearing would have made cinders of the whole caravan, but they did not. “Where will you take us?” was all Jedan said, and the skinny little man scratched his balding head. “Well, we’re taking a load of tools and equipment to Kasil, and the king is going to be there. Sonja’s father. He’ll know what to do with the three of you!” “Sonja’s father?” Arrella asked, and Weez Krotchner replied, “That’s what I said, lady! He has been waiting for a couple days for this stuff, so get on one of the damn camels!” Jedan nodded to the girls, and they mounted, with the help of Weez and two other men. “Baen, this dry desert air des not seem to be affecting me. I feel no different than when we were in the starship.” Baen slid across the hump she was being pushed into position on, one of the men fondling her as he lifted, and she gasped, looking over her shoulder at the grinning Weez. She scowled at him, and answered Arrella, “Nor I. Maybe it was the air near the oceans and water that was harmful to our ancestors. How wonderful if we could live here!”

Jedan looked like a giant once he was on the camel’s back, and Arrella seldom took her eyes from him, and then only to compare him with the men of Earth. He was magnificent! He looked like a god up there, with the smaller men walking along, or riding the other camels and horses. He’s mine, she thought, and smiled across at him. He smiled back, wishing she was still on his lap. He missed her, though she was right there next to him. “Arrella.” “What is it?” “Oh, nothing. I guess I spoke your name without thinking.” Her smile grew. “I wish I were still sitting with you.” “Me too!” They looked longingly at one another for some time, and were surprised when the Weez said, “There she is.”

Kasil, in the large sand bowl that it had been dug from, had been turned into a garden in the arid wastelands, and sparkled like a jewel with the new white paint that had been liberally applied to the newly reconditioned buildings. The flowered terraces were in bloom, and shade trees were growing everywhere one chose to look, and there were thousands of people walking the cool streets, going in and out of the many quaint shops, carrying their purchases in small bags imprinted with the name of the shop where they had found the keepsake. Musicians strolled among them, and troops of acrobats and magicians, and there, standing impatiently at the entrance to the palace of the dead king and queen, was Amil.

The Weez told the three of them to get down and kneel to the king. Jedan looked at him like he had just about had enough, and was about to strangle the balding man, then thought the better of it. “Come on girls, let’s do it. It is the king, after all.” They went before him and kneeled, the girls causing some little excitement when they bent over and bowed, and Amil said, “Hey! Are you the girls my kids met on Mars? Get up and let me look at you!”  “This is Arrella, and I am Baen. Jedan is our friend.” “Holy jumping crap! Sonja will leap for joy when she finds out you are here! Welcome to Earth!” He took them into the cool recesses of the old palace and Krotchner, following the lot of them, was sent for cool drinks and a snack tray. Amil was as excited as when Dorian had showed him the first of the treasures given up by the Lost City. “I have heard so much about you girls, but I never thought I would be lucky enough to meet you. You are two of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen! Please, enjoy your stay here in Kasil, the oldest city on the planet. I’ll have Krotchner give you a guided tour later, but I want to show you to your rooms myself! I don’t have much time to visit right now, though. I suppose the Weez didn’t tell you, but I’ve been waiting for that equipment for days, and my patience is wearing thin. I’ve got to see that it is loaded on the transports and sent around the world to the factories. Ah, here we are! The Guest Suites. You will find it nice and cool here, and the baths are sumptuous! Look at this bed! They are all just as soft, and you can have your choice of any of the four rooms. Take a leisurely soak, have a good lunch and a nap, and I’ll see you in the morning when I return!” He hugged each of them, shook hands with Jedan, and left the building.

Jedan watched the door close behind him. “Wow. I don’t believe I have ever been in the presence of such a force! What a king he must be!” They looked around at the palatial setting, admiring the long drapes and tapestries, and the girls especially liked the soft beds with the netting of lace that covered them. Each room was as exquisite as the last, and it was hard to make a choice. Baen settled it by flopping onto the feather mattress of the nearest and saying, “Good night!” Arrella took Jedan’s hand and led him out of Baen’s room and said, “Well, which one do you want?” He took hold of her shoulders and looked softly into her eyes. “I want the one you are in.” “You want to sleep with me?”  He kissed her gently on her sweet alien cheek. “More than anything I ever wanted before.” Then he took her in those strong loving arms, picked her up in them like a child, and carried her to the room farthest from Baen and placed her on the bed. She laid there looking up at him with wide eyes and parted lips, and was having a hard time catching her breath. He said, “Shall I go?” She replied, “No! Stay.”

Amil returned next day with visitors for the girls. He had gone directly to the palace in Atlantis after delivering the load of diamonds, and let Sonja know of the trio’s arrival. She got even more excited than her father had, and quickly went about packing clothes for her and the child, and her husband. “We’ll make a vacation of it! If they are not having difficulty breathing in Kasil, then I believe it would be best to keep them there, for they told me that the air of Earth was poison to them. Maybe just the humid air of the tropics is harmful. Whatever, I love them dearly and must stay with them for a while. Meela, you will love them too!” Wherever the goddesses went the Dragon Legion went also, and the army of foot soldiers, and Muck, having heard such chatter about the alien girls, would go too. An armada carrying several thousand people and dinosaurs lifted from the field in Atlantis, and several hours later arrived at Kasil.

The girls hugged and cried and hugged even more, so happy to see one another again. Jedan dropped to his knees in front of the goddess Sonja, whom he had last seen as a bronze statue, and was overwhelmed with devotion for her. The child Meela made him cry. He kissed her tiny feet and promised his life for her, and when Arrella told Sonja his story, she hugged him close and said, “Your family is not dead and gone. We are here with you, and you are home.” He was easily the biggest man she had ever seen on Earth, and memories of another time came back to her, forty thousand years dropping away, and she saw many like him, the ancient warriors of Mars. They had been big, and strong, and masters of the universe. Here was the last of them. “Mars was a paradise when I left on my mission, and a dead wasteland when I returned. I still don’t understand how I traveled twenty thousand years through time, and never will, but to find you and the little goddess, and the girls who rescued me, seems to have been destined to happen, and I thank the gods for that. I am your servant, but I must tell you, my heart belongs to Arrella.”

Muck was impressed mightily by the fabulous Baen. Such hair, and eyes! Her body was exotic in it’s form, and wildly erotic thoughts took control of him. She liked the Elder too, this man who could not die. He was tall and handsome, and she could tell by the way he looked at her that something was happening between them. She had never wanted a Man, though what she had heard take place between Arrella and Jedan last night made her ache for something she did not know of. Now this Elder, Muchel, was causing a stir deep inside her. She didn’t know what to do, and Muck saw she was having troubles and said, “Dear lady. Please, come walk with me.” He took her suddenly weak arm and led her from the noisy crowd in the palace, to a quiet place under the stars. “Baen.” “Yes?” She looked up into his face, at his lips that were so near, and then into his eyes. “I have waited for you for a long time.” The handsome man kissed her then, and she was lost. She spent the night with him in his flying saucer, making love many times, and would stay with him forever come hell or heaven.

The following day Dorian said, “Well, the air of Atlantis is humid and heavy, and loaded with the smoke from the volcano and the factories, but if the three of you would like, we can fly over the city so you can at least see the pyramid and the beautiful beaches. It looks wonderful from the sky.” They thought he was right about the air. These deserts had been caused by the bombs and weapons of their ancestors, the alien horde, and were so dry and the air so light that they felt fine, but they were afraid of any other area. “We don’t have to leave the starship?” Arrella asked. “No, no, we’ll just fly around the island a few times, and point out our homes and such, and the palace, and then we’ll come right back here,” Dorian assured the girl. They thought that might be fun, and Sonja wanted them to go, so they agreed and climbed aboard Dorian’s starship.

They all saw the smoke and ash plume from miles away, and arrived just in time to see the volcano blow, and Atlantis sink beneath the deep blue sea.