The Twin Moons of Jupiter

FLIGHT

                                                                            E  L L E A 

The next day what was left of the castle was in a frenzy. Ellea watched as trunks of her most precious items were loaded onto the once-functional carbo bay. Just a year prior it had been filled to the brim with ships and vessels carrying supplies and exporting Jupiteran goods to the rest of the solar system. She stood in the corner, back rim-rod straight, dressed in her favorite gown and watching her betrothed as he spent the morning chatting with a man she had yet been introduced to.

He came to her room with such bravado Ellea thought it had to have been a prank. A loveless union? She was curious as to what woman could have married and put up with such a brute. Ellea had resigned herself to doing whatever it was that needed to be down for the crown. It just was the role she was born to play, but a man so arrogant and ignorant? How could Zoraxis subject her to this? Hadn’t she been a faithful servant of the Goddess?

The man was very tall, with black skin and lines of thick gold tattoos that wrapped around his arms. They were stark against his skin. Arms that were large and thick, and once upon a time she was sure she could have enjoyed those arms against her body. He had ruined any chances of that ever happening.

How naive a man  he was to not realize he had purchased her. He did not care enough to understand her side of things so she would not care for him.

She scoffed in her frustration.

“Have you reconsidered my preposition, sister?” Lyra asked.

Ellea glanced next to her.

She had not heard him approach.

“Hush now, my darling,” Ellea said in a quiet voice. “Have care for the public,” she smiled at a soldier who carried a basket of flowers and fruit.

“Did you meet yours?” Lyra asked. He tipped his head towards Benton.

“Unfortunately,” she said tightly.

“Is he not handsome?”

“Is yours?”

“Unfortunately,” Lyra replied.

As if he was summoned by their conversation Emperor Caliban sauntered into the cargo bay with Quen Novak at his heels.

“Certainly, certainly. We will send the first word,” Caliban said to Novak.

Novak nodded and they shook hands.

“Lyra Hightower,” Caliban said. He nodded at her brother before turning and walking towards the ship. No fancy words, or flowers, or falsities.

Ellea thought the way the man said her brother’s name was akin to s*x. Smooth and sultry, simply by the way his mouth formed over the syllables. She knew then her brother was wanted in the same way she was not.

She glanced at her twin. A spray of red formed across his cheeks. He was blushing.

“Moonbeams,” Novak said.

His eyes were red and his hair was messy. She knew he had been crying all morning.

“I love you. I love you,” he kissed both of their heads. “I love you. I am very sorry you must go out and live your new adult lives without me, but once this war ends I will call on you. “We will drink tea and walk the streets of Terra. We will rebuild our cities and name every building after whatever you want, alright?”

Ellea swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Of course, Quen,” she managed to say.

Lyra allowed the tears to flow freely and she watched as he and Novak embraced.

Ellea cleared her throat.

“Father sends his regards. He’s tied up in an attack on the southern estates. I will join him shortly,” Novak said.

“Will you tell--will you send him our love?” Lyra asked.

Novak kissed his children another time.

“Of course. He already knows it, but I’ll tell him again.”

Ellea nodded.

“Go. Go. Go before I spend the morning in tears,” Novak said.

Lyra looked like he wanted to stay. His face was pinched and his eyes were wet.

She knew her brother well.

“We will go,” she said to fill the space the silence was leaving. “We’ll make you proud.”

                                                                    B E N T O N 

“Bee, you want a brew?” Benton asked his friend. The ship jolted with a loud bang. He knew they were leaving Jupiteran airspace.

Benton disliked a lot of things. He was particular. Lived his life with many boxes checked off and organized, and felt unmoored when situations became messy. Flight and space travel were some of those things.

His stomach burned. He dropped a stabilizing pill into the beer. The plopping sound and subsequent fizz took away some of his nerves. He knew things would be okay if he could just make it through the flight.

“Yeah, let me get an alien one,” Beam said. “Where’s the vamp?”

If Beam had been trying to hide his disgust he wasn’t doing the best job of it.

Relations between species had certainly gotten better over the years but it wasn’t a secret that werewolves and vampires weren’t the best of friends.

“In his coffin? Maybe?” Benton said as he handed Beam the beverage.

“I don’t think they use those, dude,” Beam said.

“How would you even know?” Benton replied.

“You hear s**t in the barracks or at bars or between thighs.”

“You kinky fucker.”

Beam laughed.

“Your girl is pretty hot,” Beam said around a mouthful of Jupiteran ale.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Benton laughed as he tipped his beer back. “She might could hear you now.”

“She might could? There’s that Georgia boy! California didn’t beat it out of you yet?”

“Those waves certainly tried.”

Benton smiled at his long-time friend. They met at a drag-race in San Diego. Beam was fresh off two interplanetary war tours. His time as a US Marine and then a Space Force Commander was short-lived, They were young broken men with chips on their backs. It was instant friendship. Benton would have gotten along with Beam had the blonde-haired man not been a werewolf but the fact that he was made the relationship all the sweeter.

It was an easy decision to choose his beta. The easiest one Benton ever made.

“I still think it’s weird you surf,” Beam said.

“What? I can’t surf?” Benton said around a playful smirk.

“Oh! That's not what I said you--” Beam was interrupted as the doors to their private rooms opened.

“Sir, we approach Terran airspace in minutes,” the member of the crew said before exiting the chamber.

“You talk to your Nana yet?” Beam said.

Benton groaned.

He had not.