The Oort Federation: To the Stars

Earth-Los Angeles

EARTH—LOS ANGELESTogether, Daphne and Kimberly stepped into their Los Angeles apartment through their Ogden portal from the Kuiper Belt. Within two minutes, they had shed their clothing and headed for the open shower in their loft. Kimberly’s day had been hard as she assumed Daphne’s was, and streams of warm rain drenched them with penetrating relaxation. Moments later, Dale joined them. He took in Kimberly’s blue eyes and dripping golden tresses splayed across her breasts, and glanced up at Daphne’s green eyes and red hair, brushed across her breasts. He was shorter than both of them, especially Daphne. Kimberly grinned to herself. Just like a kid brother, except… She ruffled his short hair.

“Hi, girls…miss me?” he asked as they kissed him and commenced rubbing him down with fragrant lather.

A half-hour later, the three were scrubbed, dried, robed, and ready for some food. Max popped through their portal and joined them as Daphne and Dale sat at a small table while Kimberly prepared a light salmon fillet plank dinner with cucumber salad and artichoke leaves. Next to their table, a window extended up to the top of the loft, looking out over downtown Los Angeles, illuminated by the setting sun.

Kimberly brought three salmon-covered planks to the table and added a bowl of salad and three artichokes with cups of melted butter.

“Can you believe how beautiful it is?” she asked, crinkling her nose as she placed a dish of salmon on the floor for Max.

Skyscrapers forming the core of downtown Los Angeles pushed to the sky with every geometric shape imaginable—cylinders, columns, twisted spires, cones, even abstract shapes that defied description. All displayed a random pattern of lighted windows, and several showed active light displays that communicated information or advertised products.

As they finished with coffee brewed from beans freshly roasted in the coffee shop on the bottom floor, a voice filled the air around them.

“May I join you?”

“Of course,” Daphne said, shaking her red hair as Thorpe’s holoimage appeared, sitting in a chair near their table. Moments later, eMax’s holoimage joined them as he tried to touch noses with Max.

“What brings you to our nest?” Kimberly asked, silently wondering where Braxton was.

“A lot has happened,” Thorpe said, “not all of it good. I wanted to get the original gang together to ensure we all are on the same path.” He looked at the three of them in turn. “Can you meet us in Denver tomorrow at ten?”