Lieutenant Katia in Afghanistan
By
Gwen Brown

Lt Frank Grace sat there behind the British heavy machine gun, nervously waiting for the inevitable attack. Ordinarily, he would, could not be bothered with the task of actually operating the gun, but he had his other men doing specific responsibilities that were important enough to replace the wounded weapon man himself for a short time. It would be quite difficult for his Sergeant to forbid it from his body bag.

Today, he felt the deep, hopeless despair that took him from time to time. After all the years of trying and trying to fit in; to conform, he'd followed his Father's advice and taken a commission. This of course sent him right off to the war as soon as his training requirement was finished.

He didn't say anything to anyone about his utter despair. Before Afghanistan, the drunken nights had not helped, and his father, being totally clueless, thought that if the boy "Manned Up" a little that he would be cured.

Of course, a last name like Grace, had not helped any when he was younger and in school; and then his naturally feminine carriage and small stature made it all the worse. The only thing that saved him now is that he showed compassion for those with him and he was brilliant at anticipating the enemy's next move. In his battlefield strategy classes, he often dumfounded even the instructors. He'd had to become masterful at strategy even as a child, to keep away from those who could really hurt him.

Now, as a full officer, he often exposed himself with reckless abandon to the fire of the enemy. No one around him knew about the reason he'd come to the war. He wanted to either prove himself or be killed in combat and he actually preferred the latter to the former. He had no way of knowing that something was about to happen that would totally screw up his plans.

Frank was abruptly pulled from his reverie by the sound of one of his men.

"IRIA(Integrated Radar, Infrared, and Audio detection system) picking up mortars sir".

"Jolly good, give me a bearing as soon as you have it."

"142,36degrees Sir".

The Lieutenant knew that 142 was the local compass bearing and the 36 was the elevation. The coordinated auto mount oriented three L2A1’s correctly amid a slight whirring and clicking.

That was just where Frank thought it would come from.

He pulled the trigger, and the insistent chuffing of the guns began. Their firing became prolonged and he worried about burning up the barrel but the only thing that would help was lots of ordinance on that hill.

Suddenly, the whole mountain disappeared in the most catastrophic explosion Frank had ever witnessed, a blinding flash before Frank lost consciousness. Hell there wasn't enough left of him to ever be conscious again.

Suddenly, Frank’s remains blinked out of sight. They were beamed aboard a passing Alien space ship.

Malok quickly put the remains in the Auto Medic and turned it on. Life saving fluids began flowing around his remains, and cybernetic systems rapidly explored, utilizing information that the systems had previously gathered about humans and their health needs.

The young Lieutenant had no way of knowing that, only his head and part of his trunk were intact. Frank slowly became aware that he had begun to dream, and it felt like someone was in his head rooting about. At first he dreamt of dark phantoms sweeping past him in dense fog. The scene lightened and long suppressed desires began to slowly surface. A young woman swam into his awareness and before his Astral vision, she morphed from a slender young woman into one with exaggerated hips, large breasts and with an impossibly tiny waist.

Katia felt she was manipulated and made into someone that she had no desire to be. As she swam about in her dream, she became aware that part of her being was made to please a hormone driven teenager. She was powerless before his immature will.

Frank wondered where he was and who Katia was, "God, what's Dad gonna say now?"

"Geeze, cute guy in here with me." Said another voice in his dream.

Gradually both their consciousnesses solidified and then melded together. Slowly she began to understand that whoever she was now, used to be Frank but after being struck by weapons fire, his old body had been destroyed. Someone had saved his brain, but most of the rest would be the construction of a somewhat demented and comedic alien teenager.

By Earth standards, the Alien, loosely a male, would be seen as a crazy genius, and watched very carefully, but since Malok the Alien had the big stick, he did what he wanted to do. He was out exploring the galaxies in his neighborhood precisely because he was so reckless.

His Mom and both Dads (Women practiced polyandry) had simply sent him off somewhere to get through his "teen" years so he did not further ruin the family's reputation at court.

Malok had been cruising along a short distance above the desert, when he strayed into a desolate and useless looking place that Earthlings called Afghanistan; in the middle of a firefight between some British soldiers and some of their enemy up on the high ridge. When the first bullet from above hit the shields of his exploration vehicle, two point three nanoseconds later, those from above ceased to exist along with a cubic half mile of the mountain. The shaped explosion killed all of them within about 2 miles down range. It was an explosion designed not to cast debris back toward Malok himself.

It took slightly longer for his cyber brain to figure out that the people below were really just defending themselves. Malok had already killed three men in the squad below, and only one of them was salvageable at all.

"Shit, Daddy Gonush is gonna be pissed."

Gonush, one of his fathers, was an anthropologist and a pacifist too. The other one had died doing exploration, hundreds of Galaxies away from home.

The young alien had been studying Earth for a few weeks and wanted to use his advanced knowledge to reconstruct Frank in a way that he would be as good as or better than new. Then, when Malok studied Frank's brain more, he had a little surprise. Lt Frank Grace was transgendered! He could further see that his subject’s deeply repressed purpose for coming to Afghanistan was to end his life and end his life time of pain.

On his planet, if a child had this problem, the Doctors fixed it immediately. Malok nobly decided that he would repair this subject in a way that met Frank's deepest desires. Malok was not terribly surprised to find that within Frank's brain dwelt a being that was much different than the soldier that had not long ago been firing a heavy machine gun. Well, Malok , being in a charitable mood, had decided to allow the young man to live out his dreams. Once back to his ship, the Afconda, he settled in to do a leisurely job of enhancing his latest venture.
In spite of being a largely cybernetic construct, Malok still had feelings of remorse over having destroyed some of the beings that he found most interesting.

Malok had previously been very surprised to find that Frank had harbored these feelings of wanting to be a woman within himself. It would take a few hours but he wanted to do it as a fun project. After all it was not an emergency and Malok wanted to play a little; to feed his own sense of humor. He increased altitude and began to take stock of what he'd encountered.

He knew that those who were fighting in the valley were beings that called themselves British, and relatively advanced as far as the population of this planet was concerned. With some notable exceptions, their social mores were consistent with a developing planet. He'd noticed that the British as they called themselves, could be quite merciless to each other when talking in a conversation. Malok had yet to understand, it was perverse humor and often called, 'winding up your adversary.

Their apparent enemy were also humanoid, but for some reason seemed to be several hundred thousand rotations of their sun behind the others genetically; owing to nearly constant warfare for thousands of years in the region. Sifting through the various Earth Databases, and using the knowledge of his own race, he’d already found that the yellow hair and blue eye combination he’d found in some humans was a mutation that was only about 12,000 of their years old, so it seemed reasonable that certain races would be less intellectually developed than others.

Genetically, the natives of this region were also among the oldest peoples on the planet. The alien felt that the genetic difference was nearly large enough to warrant making the two races different species. It did not take long for Malok to conclude that the arid, inhospitable climate, and frequent earthquakes were also causative factors in the genetic retardation in the area. Through examining various world data bases, he determined that the country was isolated from more advanced countries by hundreds of miles and since there seemed to be little developed mineral wealth, it was left isolated for hundreds of years.

With his sophisticated instrumentation, Malok could easily see substantial Mineral wealth to exploit so that the country could advance economically. He decided to try an experiment and the first data would be gotten by his newly repaired human.

It was relaxing work, to him, similar to a woman knitting or clipping her nails. He began by completing the body the old Frank would occupy, and then tweaked it to better than perfection by human standards. So, the end product was 5'1" with unusually wide hips, strong but really loose knee joints, very narrow waist, and of course big, um protuberances. Malok made her breasts "D's" and inserted a lot of strong connective tissue, so that she would never require support. In his own little bit of creativity, he engineered his improvements to her breasts so that while at rest, her breasts were soft and subtle, but when she began to run or move about rapidly, they would tense up and not bob about painfully. His tastes in body design loosely agreed with original human standards with a few exceptions. He used material for skin, muscle and bone construction that was hundreds of times more durable than the original.

Her feet were tiny, her skin was like alabaster, and she could more than crack nuts with, her bare hands. You get the idea. Her lips were the epitome of beautiful; having a very pronounced cupids bow. Her Pashto-like eyes were so penetrative that they would seem like a laser gun sight to anyone upon who she gazed. As a final touch, Malok gave her butt length jet black hair. The triumph of his creation was making her voice so sweet that no man could resist her. Malok even decided to make her inner organs fully functional, but much more efficient. Her menses would be a single day of malaise, with the extrusion of a single soft pellet that had once been the inner lining of her Uterus and the unfertilized egg.

By no means did he leave her defenseless. He made her several times stronger than the old human body, improved the efficiency of her body systems, gave her eyes that could see in a much broader visual range from deep infrared to the mid ultraviolet range, extremely acute hearing, and a small, light weapon that was keyed directly to her brain; precise aim was not necessary. The young girl would be in a lot of danger and Malok did not want her mission to fail.

The mischievous alien planned to set her to the task of exploring for minerals and getting the locals working on exploiting them. But first, he'd just put her back to the previous task that Frank had been doing so she could become acclimated to her new body, and surroundings.

Malok had seen the huge deposits of mineral wealth in the area in his first approach to the planet, and later as he analysed the history of the area, found that previous occupiers, the Russians, as they were called, had known of them too, but were thrown out before much exploitation could be done. He decided to put misinformation out that the American government had re-discovered it all, more to conceal his own presence than anything.

He set her age at about 16 years old and released her back to the squad where she originated and wearing British Army regulation clothing and carrying her pistol of Malok's own design.

Malok named his creation Katia and programmed her so she already knew it. As long as he stayed relatively close to earth, he'd be able to see through her eyes and hear through her ears. For safety, he also left Frank's memories there too, so she could function in her current surroundings. He could remotely monitor every function of her body; making her almost identical to a robotic probe, except she was not cybernetic and retained free will. If power became a problem for her, he'd slip in more. He'd be able to communicate with her in two way communication, but he'd not let her know that right away.

The men in their emergency dugout were suitably astonished to find her suddenly sitting amongst them!

'Shit, what pronoun do I use now?' She thought.

"Don't shoot me chaps, do I ever have a story for you". she said, then giggled so cutely that it immediately defused any inclination that any of them had about shooting her. Even the new Katia still retained Lt Grace's suitably stuffy British accent, but in an absolutely charming girl's voice.

" Bloody hell?" one of the soldiers said. It was a considerable understatement, considering the circumstances.

Katia let them all adjust to the shock for a few moments.

"I'm what's left of Frank, … er… Lt. Grace."

She shrugged and immediately began registering her hefty breast, and comfortably padded bottom. As she thought about it, she hoped she could figure out the intricacies of having a front bottom.

That made her giggle yet again.

They were all sat there, raptly looking at what was left of the hill in front of them. Naturally, there was no one left to shoot at them.

None of the soldiers slept that night, and by morning, they'd worked out amongst themselves that, in their opinions, this wet dream of a girl really was Frank.

Without going into a lot of bloody detail, Lt Grace convinced Headquarters they needed emergency extraction. Needless to say, there wasn't any enemy activity that morning. Most of them had been killed and the rest had high tailed it back to Pakistan.

******************************************************************

"Sir, I have no idea what so ever how it all happened. I was sitting behind my weapon when there was a flash, and the next thing I know, it was dark and I was sitting amongst the troops holding my little pop gun."

"Did you fire that little pop Gun Lieutenant?"

"No, I didn't. All the enemy were gone, along with a huge chunk of the hill we were attacking. And, I did not seek the boyish delight of firing yet another awful weapon. In fact, I no longer have any boyish delight what so ever! It is sort of impossible in my new state!"

She smiled so sweetly that General Thotford found it extremely distracting.

"Yes, we know about your new state, erm Lt.

You still insist that you were Lt Frank Grace, do you?"

"I do sir, and so do the shrinks; though they are still trying to hang the nut case label on me."

"Well, can you blame them? I think that you are three stops beyond barking."

"No sir, and it gets very old after a bit. You bloody well know that they went through my whole file and I verified everything about it. And these shackles on me are quite demeaning."

She neglected to tell anyone that she'd just love it if young Sergeant Brand at the Motor Pool could put them on her. With that a frisson wove it's naughty way through her synapses; making her have visions of pouncing on the boy. Katia shook herself slightly and then tucked that thought safely away for … um … later reference.

The incident was not yet 24 hours in the past, and Katia was feeling quite threatened and nearly hysterical. She'd lost over a foot in height, now had curves that could best be described as mind numbing. She was really missing the convenience of the little hose she used to have. Well, not so much actually, but it was still quite an adjustment, and the last time in the loo, she felt like she had nearly electrocuted herself while cleaning up afterward. Her superior's words brought her back to the room.

"Well Lieutenant, none of us understand what happened."

The general seemed to think for a few moments. "Would you like to return to your duties or go back to England?"

"Well sir, I think I should like to return to my duties but have them modified somewhat? Will you remove the shackles or shall I?" With that she simply pulled on them a little and they shattered, parts of them flying around the room.

"Well, Lt Katia, shall I have the cost of those restraints deducted from your pay?"

"Please don't sir, none of my clothing fits now and buying more will be an awful expense. This whole ordeal has been awfully unsettling. Besides, what am I to tell my Mum?"

With that, both of them laughed for a bit.

Katia had not told them everything. She'd found herself with an astonishing linguistic ability. So far, she'd been able to rapidly learn virtually any language she tried after listening to it for a relatively short time. French was her favorite.

She'd also found that she was very strong now, infinitely stronger than before. She'd crushed the grab bar on the door when she'd had sudden cramping at the beginning of what would later prove to be her mense. "Gad, you'd have thought that whoever did this to me would have given me at least some time to adjust." she thought.

Katia did not know it but the little Pop Gun she'd returned with had more fire power than her M2. and seemed to never need reloading. The lab found the weapon to be completely impregnable to snooping. In further evaluation, they found the weapon to be more comparable to a tank cannon. They did not intend to give it back to the little girl.

******************************************************************

She was just finishing her third helping of eggs on toast and had no idea where it was going but gawd it was good, and Katia knew she had to have it.
She'd soon find out that none of it seemed to go to her hips, and for that she was grateful. She'd quietly determined that her physical abilities were far beyond what they were before. Though she had no idea how she would respond to battle wounds. On a quiet walk, she'd found that a heavily loaded truck took only a slight bit of effort to pick up one end. She found she could run long distances at astonishing speed, but her hip action took a lot of getting used to. In fact, it felt like her butt swung like the pendulum.

She had asked to be put in her old outfit, and suggested that they do some covert night work. Katia was sure that she could prosecute the war much more effectively now, making sure that the criminals came to justice without harming the innocent.

For some reason, she now had a preference for a radically altered shirt in her old size but sewn to fit her diminutive horizontal measurements. The result was a loose fitting garment that nearly reached her knees. She used pants in her size so that the final uniform resembled a Salwar Kameez (Garment whose length is almost to the knees with long sleeves and loose. Is worn with loose pants). The garment resembled what women wore on Malok's home world.

Just before the next mission, she went back to talk to the General about her strange weapon. "Do you think I might have it back sir?"

"Why, of course not girl!"

"Sir, I am a Leftenant in her Majesty's Service."

"That my young girl, is debatable."

"Sir, might I respectably remind you that it was given me by whoever wrought such havoc with my body?" she cheerfully chirped. "And, I have heard rumors that its utility is astonishing. Considering the danger I and those with me will encounter, I think we need all the advantage we can get."

"That is absolutely out of the question girl. You're not to be going off this base until I the home office has decided what to do with you. I expect it is back to the UK for you.

With that last sexism, something in Katia snapped. "Don't you ever call me girl again, you fat old desk wart!"

"That is insubordination Lieutenant and I am calling security right now!"

Katia, did not remember exactly how it happened; her brain having somehow switched gears or something. She suddenly found herself sitting astride the general, who was now lying on the floor; his chair tipped over. His nose was bleeding, and her hands were around his neck. His face was turning blue.

Upstairs, Malok had almost fallen out of his seat with laughter. "My, that little human is the "spit fire" that I designed." He'd gained a propensity for human language idioms and this one described her perfectly.

She quickly let go of the general when she came to her senses.

"You fat po faced slob, give me that Gun right now, or I shall finish what I started, and I will tell your wife that you are snogging Private Peters, and subjecting her to constant harassment!"

"What did you just do?" His face carried a look of astonished horror.

"Don't even think of retaliation fat boy! I mean to do my utmost to end this endless bloodletting in Afghanistan. Bloody hell, 19 years here is enough! You can take the credit, or die trying to kill me. It is your choice. I rather think that you'll fail at the latter."

The General actually came back to his senses quite rapidly. "Lieutenant, I am going to ignore that last outburst, and have that "popgun" leant to you for … um … test purposes. We shall see if you are half what you think you are."
"Thank you sir" She was now standing at attention after helping him to his feet and giving him a hand full of tissues.

"You are dismissed Leftenant. Now go to the armory and check out your weapon".

"I will sir, thank you sir." She said as she saluted smartly, turned and walked out of the office.

***************************************************************

Katia's first combat mission led them well into the hills in the dark. Though it was not evident to her fellow soldiers, they were detected, and she watched in frustration as several figures crept out of the village and over the ridge just before they entered the tiny settlement. At first she did not realize that she could see in the infrared range. When she did, Katia thought it best not to reveal that.

After several frustrating attempts to engage with the Taliban, Katia, quietly stole out of the compound one night after telling John, the medic. They’d agreed that he should "suddenly discover" if she was not back in a day or two. Sure she'd have to face AWOL charges but decided she decided to deal with that when the time came. She'd talked to John about arranging supply drops in the dark, but she wanted to wait, hoping it would not be required.

This time, she secured and carried a black Abaya, Hijab and face covering. She had eye makeup sufficient to completely blacken her eye sockets. It was miles to the area of engagement where they had encountered much resistance in the past, but she found it not that hard to find a convoy heading that way.

They were going to re-supply a forward base. She sat on the back of the lead truck, for a while and then happily crawled up on top of the load. She could see watchers lurking various places along the way, but they did not act at first. Then one or two of them started taking pot shots. They each got off one shot with their AKs before she'd shoot them. It was odd but the little rifle seemed to correct her aim to hit whatever she could see. These shots seemed to be oddly muted. She had heard that the rounds were astonishingly destructive and it seemed really dumb to her that they would not let her discharge it near the camp.

As they entered the camp, she could see lurkers ranged all about it, so she hopped down and slipped away from the convoy. These guys really pissed her off, as they had wounded one of the boys in a rear truck. In her combat rage, she found that she often did not need her "Pop Gun", she'd just spear the enemy with her bare hand. In a couple groups, she purposely let one or two go; letting them live to spread the fear. The news of the "Woman of Shatun (Satan)" would spread fast.
Katia, stole a couple cases of rations, and moved off into the hills just as it was getting light. It only took a moment for her to put on her Abaya and Hijab. She did not want to look Pashto, because she wanted to frighten anyone who saw her. The Arab Clothing would have to suffice. It did not take her that long to find rocks for concealment, and she spent the day dozing under an outcropping. By night fall, she'd consumed all her water and the rations. She was still thirsty but would wait for a little while.

In her leisure, Katia had thought a lot about her old life; what she would tell her mum? She decided that she did not care what her father thought. Looking as she did, Katia wondered how she would travel almost 6000 Km to England without help. She doubted that the Military would do it and suspected that soon they would try to place her under custody on trumped up charges.

Katia wanted to find an intelligent way to contact the villagers in a manner that would persuade them to stop supporting those who wanted to fight. She wanted to try to find a way to neutralize the fighters without all the killing of innocent people.

The days turned into a several and then a week. She'd not even tried to arrange for a night air drop. She found the food resources to be adequate. She'd occasionally make contact with Pashto women; telling them that she was there to end the fighting; that she did not want to kill the men but if they did not stop, they would die.

In one conversation she had with the wife of the village elder, in her home, Katia gained a new understanding of the problems of the Afghanis. The opium was so big because it paid so well, and being poverty stricken, the villagers had to do it to survive. She explained to the woman that there was going to be an effort to help them develop other ways to provide for themselves. The woman, Anoosheh said that she knew that the opium was evil and it made her feel bad to see it grown there.

Her best tactic seemed to be to watch a village for movement after dark. She'd follow the night travelers to see where they were going. Usually if they headed toward a position of ambush, she'd just wait for them to set up. If she could see Western troops moving toward them, they would generally fire on the coalition troops once they'd moved into a position of ambush. As soon as that happened, she'd "Pop Gun" them.

Word began to spread of an unseen ambusher in the night.
Once, she'd just finished off a group of ambushers and turned to see several Americans watching her. She waved and dropped out of sight before they could do anything.

Her medic friend had tried to contact her several times but she never answered, figuring that her fellow Brits would find her and bring her in.

It took Katia a few more days, but she began to get the germ of an idea about how to end this conflict. The major problem, it seemed, was the huge amounts of money to be made selling poppies. It was much greater than any other crop the farmers could raise.

Katia knew that she could not single handedly dry up the Poppy market. She had heard that the Saudis' were trying to set up a deal to pump oil and gas from the North, but the Pashto were having none of it.

Now there was word that the West was again trying to get farmers to grow things other than opium. Katia was thrilled with the idea, but wondered if it would work. She was only one woman and to do what needed to be done would require hundreds of people like her. She wondered how she was changed and she found her memories of it confusing. Night after night such questioning was on the back channel of her brain, no matter what she was up to.

She'd sneaked into several villages and listened to the men talk. They complained about the invaders, and bemoaned their living conditions. The farmers were not so happy about growing poppies but to them it seemed the only chance they had.

One night, she had followed a huge caravan into Pakistan and had seen the contents loaded into many trucks. She slipped aboard one of them and rode it clear to Islamabad where it and several other trucks were parked in a warehouse there. She just sat there for a while, waiting to see what would happen next. It was quiet for quite some time so she slipped out and stole a freshly butchered goat and some fruit. In her case, it no longer mattered if it was cooked or not. She had her mission and that was it.

In the very early morning, she heard cars drive up and several men in western suits came in. She just sat there listening and was extremely surprised to find that two of the men spoke English very well, and were in fact Americans, or Canadians.

What she found out that day left her filled with rage, but she knew she could not kill enough of them to make a difference even if she killed 100 a day for a year. Katia just went crazy for a while and no one left there alive. She burned the warehouse and the trucks, but knew that it would be too little.

Katia must have blacked out because she became aware of being very hungry, and overcome with grief outside a city called Peshawar. Poor Katia did not know how long had passed, but she felt filthy and felt as if she could eat a horse whole. It was as if she was too tiny for this world. All the problems were too big for even her super human strength.
Malok was off in another galaxy at the time and did not know of her dire circumstances. He was unaware that humans could be overcome with grief and stress. Had he known, Katia would not have experienced what was to follow.

Katia felt even too discouraged to steal food or beg. A man came and offered her water, and she drank all he could give her. Katia had no way of knowing that her drink was laced with something to make her sleep. He was taken with her beauty and meant to sell her.

The next thing she knew was she was lying in the back of a wagon on top of bags filled with something, she didn't know what. She felt too weak to even move but did notice that her wrists and ankles were shackled. Again she slept.
She woke up in a tiny room with two other women watching her. She was still shackled. She felt feverish and weak because she had not eaten in days. It was hard to think and her head hurt so much. The women began to bathe her, washing her long hair and braiding it. She was given enough food for the average woman her size, but it was not nearly enough, and the lack of food kept her weak. Katia was aware of men loudly arguing but was too out of it to care.

Later, after a journey of indeterminate length, they stopped. Katia was awake enough to walk but found herself shrouded in something that blinded her nearly completely. Her ankles were free but her wrists were still shackled and had painfully raw and bleeding cuts from the restraints. She and two women were led into a hut built from rocks and wood. Once they sat down, Katia's Burqua was removed and she could look around for the first time. She could see that the women were just removing theirs too.

They wore Shalwar Kameez. Katia was naked. Katia thought that she heard that they were in a village about 100 miles up in the mountains from Moqor, called Shkin.

Several different men came in and raped her. Too weak and barely conscious, she just laid there. There on her back on the dirt in a dirty bug infested hut she learned that rape victims do not "enjoy it". Often her attackers would take her front and back and then put their filthy prongs in her throat. Thankfully, she lapsed into unconsciousness.

Later, she could hear the women talking quietly and quickly learned that she had been captured and was to be taken back to Qandahar. They expected her to be stoned to death as the Daughter of the Shatun. Katia was feeling considerably better, but knew she was too weak from the drugs and lack of food to cause any trouble.

The women had been giving her part of their food and water. " Khor (Sister), we know who you are and want to help you. We women know that you need vast quantities of food for strength".
Just after dark, the men started a fire, and one of the women was taken out to cook for them. Talking to the other woman, who said her name was Afia, Katia learned that both women were married to one of the men. Since the other wife, Sabeen, had cooked, then her husband Akmed would likely come to have sex with Afia after the meal.

Katia got the impression that Afia did not want to do it, and asked her.

"What can I do? He is my husband and before Allah SWT, I am bound to obey him."

"What if you say no?"

"I could never do that. He is my husband and if I do not obey, he will beat me.
But what does it matter, if he beats me? Then maybe I will die and it will be over. I will go to Jannah, perhaps.", she said sadly.

At that, rage began to build in Katia.

She decided that she needed to do something soon because they would be in Qandahar late in the evening.

"Afia, do you keep animals here?"

"Oh yes, there are goats kept in a pen at night, just outside."

Later, when the food was done, some was brought in to Katia and Afia to eat.
Afia said, " I know that what you were given is not enough to restore your strength, so you must eat mine, and when you have finished that, there is a bag of dates in the corner."
"I'll need lots of water, too. Thank you so much. I will try to make things easier for you if I live through the night." As yet, Katia was unaware that she could have put out a distress call to Malok since he was on his way back.

"You are going to do something tonight then"?

"Perhaps."

Katia, had to watch as the man Akmed followed Sabeen into the tent. He then raped Afia right in front of them, and after consuming opium fell into a stupor.
Katia waited for everyone to sleep and then got up quietly. The evening was already chilly but Katia was not going to bother trying to put anything on with shackles on her wrists. She still did not feel strong enough to break them. Afia had wrapped cloth around the connecting chain to keep it quiet.

By the time Katia slipped into the goat pen, she was shivering violently. The goats woke up and bleated plaintively for a moment or two then became quiet. As Katia lay there, one of the men came by and saw her lying with the goats.

"Silly bitch, now you lie with the goats, you must be of the jinn (Daemons)! The Shatun (Satan) will have you tomorrow when we send you to Jehenum (Hell) by stoning! Allah Akbar(God is Great)!" he said loudly.

His loud voice did not seem to disturb anyone and he passed out of sight around one of the other huts. He was apparently too stoned to realize that Katia could escape. Of course he had no idea how weak she was and being without clothing, well that was a problem, too.

Katia lay there for a few more moments, and then reached over and grabbed one of the goats by the throat.

"This is going to be really yucky" she said softly to herself.

The goat died quickly, only kicking for a moment. She began to eat the goat, even before it was completely dead. Katia slept, no longer cold. She had all that warm blood in her belly".

In the morning, she was awakened by one of the girls screaming. Sabeen ran out with barely a stitch on.

“Help, he is beating her to death with a club.”

Katia was on her feet immediately; rage fueling her body like never before. Inside, she gasped in shock as the man dealt the death blow to his wife.

"That will teach you not to help that evil jinn bitch"

"Hey pretty boy, come here."

He turned and beheld her blood covered body, and her insane smile. The husband had never seen Katia in action, though he'd heard the rumors. “After all“, he reasoned, “how could such a tiny girl, be a threat to him? Maybe he'd give her a good beating and then take her as wife?”

When the murderous husband swung at Katia, she simply grabbed the club and crushed it in her left hand. With her right, she grabbed his wrist and squeezed it enough to make him scream with pain. He stiffened with terror, knowing that his doom was imminent.

Katia was so angry, that she played with him like a cat plays with a mouse. The more she played, the more angry she got. Finally she skewered him low in the gut with his own sword, pinning him to the ground and driving it deeply into the earth so that he could not pull it out.

"There, you bastard. I hope it takes a week for you to die!"

With that Katia fell weeping to the earth floor. Sabeen tried to comfort her, but the shock of seeing Afia, Sabeen's wife sister beaten to death, made the grief take her too. A while later, Katia heard footsteps approaching the hut. She let the man walk in and then grasped his wrist hard enough to double him over in pain.

"Does he live or does he die, Sabeen!"

Sabeen looked at him for a minute, "Die, bastard!"

Katia quickly snapped his neck, the blood lust was upon her.
At one point, her rage was so great that she began to glow and lighting began to arc from her body to things around her. She floated off the ground several feet and started around the village.

Malok wakened because of the system overload alarm, and he quickly moved so he could see what his diminutive creation was doing.

“Good heavens, she has taken leave of her senses.”

In moments Katia would use all her reserve power and be easy prey to her enemies. Malok quickly brought his ship low enough to begin to beam power into Katia's rapidly weakening body. He actually chuckled as she wrought vengeance on her attackers. It took about an hour to clean up the village, not killing any of the men who did not deserve it.

When all the occupants of the village had been gathered, Katia stood up. She'd gotten some clothing from the other women and was now properly garbed, but sans Burqua. They'd scrubbed the blood from her in front of everyone else, letting them think that it was from the abusive men she had killed, and much of it was.

"If any of you men abuse your wives, I will hear of it and I will come and eat your flesh!"

(In Muslim culture, the eating of the flesh of another is particularly heinous) She said viscously. She cackled like a witch. This terrified everyone, including those who were in no danger from her. Her insane laughter was not put on.

Malok, looked on in interest, and reading her memory records, he was shocked at just how resourceful she had been while he was gone.

"Katia, this is Malok, the one who put you back together".

"What the hell, who are you? Am I talking to myself?" She was not speaking and she could not hear anything. It was all going on inside her head.

"No, I am in an exploration vehicle above you. Just look up and you can see me".

At first, Katia saw nothing but when she magnified her vision, and looked where she felt it was right, she saw a tiny speck floating a long way up there.

"OK, I see you. Where were you for the last few days you bastard? I nearly died!"

It was good that no one could hear the heated conversation that took place in the next dozen seconds. Katia actually felt like she won too. Malok agreed to keep much closer watch on her and to protect her when she needed it.

With that, she turned and walked to a secluded spot by the seasonal creek. She sat there for a long time. Sabeen joined her, sitting down quietly at her side. She noticed Katia trembling slightly. She reached over and put her arms around Katia.

That seemed to open her emotional flood gates and suddenly, she began to weep in great breathless sobs. She wept for the fallen sister, and for all the other women who had died at the hands of bad husbands, and criminals. Katia didn't notice other women from the village, some with babies begin to gather around her. Soon all were weeping for her, and for the fallen.

Katia managed to get herself together later that afternoon after sleeping. The villagers had sent for their Imam (loosely Preacher). He arrived after Katia had been bathed again and dressed by the grateful women of the village. She declined the Burqua, but did allow them to put a Hijab (hair covering; scarf) on her. Katia knew that by Western standards, it would be the height of indignity for a Western woman to wear the Burqua, which they saw as a symbol of slavery. However, it was part of the local custom and she wanted to engraciate herself to the other Women.

The Imam first went to meet the men, and after a short animated discussion, he came over to Katia and the rest of the women, who were now in Burquas.

He sat down in front of her, and she sat. "I am Imam, Touri. He said, "So, what will the little sister of the Jinn do, kill all the men in my country?"

"What are Jinn?"

"They are the angels of the Shatun, the evil one."

"Keep on in that vein, and you'll go on the meat pile".

"I am not afraid to die if Allah SWT (Subhana Walla T Allah)(literally, Glory to God) wills it."

Katia really did not want a long discussion about a religion that she knew nothing of.

"Look buddy, the man had just beaten his wife to death. What was I supposed to do?"

"It is not for women to avenge their sisters, Allah SWT does that."

She sensed that this was going nowhere.

"Look, I am not here to destroy your culture. The bastard had just kidnapped me from Pakistan and intended to take me to Kandahar to stone me to death". Along the way there was lots of recreational rape going on and I was it.

"Your sins against Afghanistan and Allah SWT are many."

"Look, I intend to stop the opium trade, stop the violence against women and fight corruption where I find it. You can either get on board or not. If you attack me, I will send you to your Allah SWT to complain."

"You say much for a tiny little girl."

Katia reached over and picked up a piece of fire wood. It was still a little green. Still looking at Imam Touri, she used one hand to crush it into saw dust.

"And that is with my weak hand."

She exhaled through her nose with such force that her nose flared alarmingly and with Malok watching, he quickly made her eyes glow red, just for the fun of it.

She could see the fear in the man's eyes.

“People speak about not being afraid to die; most lie.” She said.

"I don't know what happened. I was on a patrol, and people started shooting at us and the next thing I know I am in this wet dream of a body. Maybe it was your Allah SWT who changed me to avenge the innocent?"

"Well, it could be the Shatun who did it?"

Katia was shocked! This man seemed to turn everything back on her. She knew that she intended only good, and he was mocking her!

"What do you know, you probably don't even know who your Allah is? Here I am trying to help make things better and you mock me?"

Katia burst into tears. She couldn't talk because of the force of her great sobs.

"The little sister has the heart of a warrior but the maturity of a girl." he said.

"Well, what do you think I am? I got put in this situation and whoever did this to me made me a teenager to boot. How am I supposed to deal with this Mr. Know it all?"

"Be calm little one, I mean you no harm."

"What do you mean by that? You bloody well allowed your men to nearly kill me!" She shrieked.

"I am sorry for your pain little one, and if you tell the truth, your intention is honorable; pleasing to Allah SWT. What you try to do is not for woman. You should be in your house, protected and cared for by a good husband. Woman is too fragile and valuable for what you do."

"Well, you should tell that to all this pond life here. They treat women in the most despicable manner!"

Katia was impressed by this man's gentle speech. "What is your name?"

"I am Imam Mamadou Toure", what is yours?"

"Katia, but I started all this business as Leftenant Frank Grace, I was a British Soldier."

"There is the tradition of mysticism in the Sufi way, what happened to you?"

"We were engaged in an exchange of fire from hostiles; planning on having air support once we'd fully drawn them out, and suddenly the hill in front of me just exploded, and I was blown apart moments later."

"Yes, I heard of this battle. Many of the fighters died there."

"You sound as though they were heroes!"

"Those men were fighting for their way of life. Before the invading westerners, there were the Russians."
"What are you talking about? None of us came over here to ruin your country! It was my intention to help make life better until I was killed. I can't stand you, leave me alone!"

That was pretty much it for Katia for the rest of the day. The women kept her fed, and bedded her down that night. The next morning an egg sized pellet and a little blood laid near her.

"Geeze, I should have known it was just PMS!" She screamed as loud as she could and then started bawling.

Later that day, a much subdued Katia, left the village to search for vermin. She'd worn the Burqua until she got out of sight, so she could avoid the Imam, and took it off; putting it in her recovered day pack. She did not want to kill him, and something stopped her from wanting to fight with him.

The Shalwar Kameez was pretty comfortable. Her beloved "Pop Gun" was gone, but one of the sisters insisted that the dead husband had it when they left Pakistan.

"Malok, do you know what they've done with my weapon?"

"Yes, Katia it is over the ridge on your right. I will watch you as you search for it, and reclaim it."

"Thanks, Malok."

“You are welcome child”.

“Don’t you call me a child, you know better”.

Malok frowned in irritation, but decided not to confront her just then.

Just before she crested the ridge, a number of powerful explosions rocked the ground. On the other side and down a few yards was one of the village men shooting at bushes and rocks on the other side.

She snuck down to just behind him. "That's mine buddy. Give it back!"

He jumped free, almost taking the gun with him, but Katia hung on with a vengeance. He flopped on the ground, and turned around to face her.

"Such things are men only, not for women!"

He looked at her as if she were some errant child. "Give it to me child woman!"

Katia was set back, and felt so contrite that she almost did give it to him.

"Such things are not for you, little girl. You will get hurt."

"But it is mine, and was made for me!" She said hotly, her eyes beginning to tear up. Katia was emotionally exhausted and needed to be gotten to a place to rest.

"Give it to me, before you are injured. I do not want to answer to Allah SWT for allowing you to injure yourself!" His voice was so kind, but Katia could see that he was not giving up.

"I have to go. I can't obey you. You don't understand. I'm sorry." Katia turned and fled.

"Malok, can you fix this gun so no one but me can fire it?"

"That is a very good Idea, I will do it now."

The look of the man’s eyes and the concern in his voice stayed with her as she half heartedly hunted Taliban for the next several days as she made her way down out of the mountains. Along the way she found that she could eat the leaves from trees and much of the vegetation, thus decreasing her dependence upon meat.

Later, she sat on a ridge watching, and thinking. The deeper she got into all this, the harder it was for Katia to see clearly who the enemy was. On one hand, the Taliban did awful things to anyone who opposed them. They persecuted women in the most despicable manner. Yet, the women and some of the men she talked to said that they were trying to survive, and only grew and sold the evil weed out of desperation.

On her third day out, she found men sitting before a tiny fire in front of a well concealed cave. Katia carefully crept up as close as she could without being discovered. She could just hear them talking. It sounded as if there was a group coming to exchange opium for mortar rounds. Sure enough, just before dark, she could hear movement in the ravine below.

Shortly men with a half dozen mules came into sight below. She waited for all the men to gather and begin exchanging goods, and opened fire. It did not take long and all there was carnage. She looked around and found that there were half a dozen huge caves in the ravine. Katia got as far away as she could and shot one of the caves. That was followed by several huge explosions that knocked her to the ground. As she got up, she could see smoke coming from the other side of the next ridge, so she ran over there as fast as she could. Looking down, she realized that one of the caves went clear through the mountain, and looking up the valley, she could see dozens of Men fleeing. They were too far away to catch but she shot at them until she could see no more movement. It took Katia almost an hour to get over to where she'd seen the men fleeing and where she found no one alive.

This was too big. She had to try to contact the British forces. She managed to collect some food and water from the dead bodies and began walking toward Qandahar, hoping that she would encounter western forces along the way.

As she was coming out onto the dry plain from the mountains, she encountered a helicopter, and waved at it. They turned slightly but did not land. All she could do was hope that they'd send a patrol.

Katia walked to a rise on the other side of a dry river bed and sat down. She sat there the rest of the day. During the night, she heard foot movement down below and looked to see about 50 men moving up the river bed. They were not western troops and looked like they could be Taliban but without more certainty, she decided not to shoot them, but instead followed along behind them at distance.

About half an hour later, she heard shooting, including what she thought was mortar fire. It took her about a minute to come upon the scene. It looked like the Taliban were about to over run a group of about a dozen vehicles. From her position behind, she found an elevated ridge and began to systematically shoot. It did not take too long before the Taliban realized that there was a second front and they began to fade away into the night, to attack her as they closed on her position.

They were getting way too close for her, so she simply held the trigger down and began to plow up the desert. Though she did not know how, as her desperation grew, the explosive force of the rounds became magnified. Shortly, she realized that she could easily vary the power of the rounds just by thinking about it.
At dawn, in the aftermath, she worked her way up to the place where the vehicles were circled up. Katia made lots of noise while approaching. She certainly did not want the soldiers shooting at her.

The scene was one of utter desolation. She could see several unmoving bodies bearing American flags on their shoulders. Not being a medic, all Katia could really do was roll them over and try to waken them. She felt as if she were being watched and looked around. There, under one of the trucks, the muzzle of a rifle pointed out. Katia knew that whoever was holding that gun could shoot her at any moment.

"Please, don't shoot. I am a British soldier working undercover. I am just trying to get back to my base. With that, the muzzle drooped a little and she could hear a female weeping, or it sounded like it. She cautiously made her way over to the soldier under the truck.

"Hey, it's OK now, the British have arrived to save you." Katia said, trying to lighten the mood somewhat. She knew that whoever remained alive, they were likely to be right on the edge of hysteria.

Finally she managed to coax the soldier out and "He" told her that they'd been overrun by Taliban about mid day and they were about to finish his unit off when all hell broke loose out behind the advancing enemy. The poor kid had only been in Afghanistan for three days. He was infantry.

I looked around and managed to find one working radio but had no signal. So they eventually got one of the vehicles running, but it smoked a lot. Katia was no mechanic, and the Private was not much better.

They found four other soldiers who were unconscious but alive. They stopped the bleeding and made sure they were breathing. When the vehicle was running, they loaded the wounded and headed back to base. The kid was useful in that he at least knew how to find the base.

With the young private driving, Katia sat in the roof top gun mount, and kept watch. They were no more than a mile down the road when she spotted movement in the rear, and a puff of smoke. Only her quick reflexes and her little "Pop Gun" saved them. An RPG had been launched at them. After that, she hosed down the desert to the rear, … um … LIBERALLY!

She didn't pay any attention to the time. She just kept watch and "Popped" anything that looked suspicious. About every half hour, the Private would try the radio. As she scanned the surrounding landscape, Katia realized that she thought differently than she used to. She still had all of Frank's memories but did things like check out the private as a mate, think about the flowers back home and wish she had a bit of "Chokie" Ice Cream.

Within minutes of making radio contact, two buzzing little helicopters swept past them. "Ah, here are the Kiowas", yelled the private. The rest of the trip back to base felt rather uneventful.

Katia was wearing no uniform, and at first the Americans wanted to disarm her. At the first hand reaching for her weapon after she said, NO! She simply grasped his wrist and convinced him that she would remove his hand if he kept it up.

"Look boys, I am British undercover, I brought five of your blokes home, and if you would kindly feed me, I will be on my way."

The American, Captain John Blake, a 45 year old Army career soldier, wasn't giving in that easily, so she simply blew a hole in the floor between them. The whole room was full of dust and smoke for several seconds, and when it cleared Katia was gone. When they found her, she was sitting in the Mess in the corner, with her back to the wall munching on enough food to for a squad.
The Captain looked into the room and quietly went back to his office. A while later he came back and walked up to her in his least aggressive manner.

“I have spoken to the British, and they say you could be Lt Katia. Is this correct?”

"Yes sir, I am Lt Katia Grace, in her Majesty's Service."

"They speak of some strange happenings and then you've been out slaughtering the enemy since".

"Well sir, I have been trying but it is difficult for a little girl." Her smile made her look more like a predator than a lover. "I am so tired and even with all the killing I have done, the problem does not seem to lessen. It is as if I am useless".

"You look an awful lot like my daughter back home Lieutenant."

"Why thank you sir. I am sure that she is quite charming, and even though I was physically 25 years old, my mind works like that of a teen aged girl now. Somehow, I know that whoever reconstructed me, made me 16 instead. It is so hard and I don't know how to keep doing it ... I can't keep doing it!" she shouted and then fell to the floor sobbing as hard as anyone he'd ever witnessed.

With that he stepped out to the door. "Get me Sergeant Michel, right now!"

He'd gotten Katia up off the floor and she was hanging limp on his shoulder, sobbing in great gasps; the tears streaming down her face in torrents.
Sergeant Michael was there in just a few minutes. Sergeant Catherine Michel, was a single mom trying to get Triplets through college. The other women in the unit and a very select few men privately called her 'Mom". Her 4 year enlistment would be up in several months.
There was a knock at the Captain's door, and then it opened.

" Sir, you asked ..." He pointed at Katia.

With that, she rushed to her side and began to talk to Katia. "Hi sweetie, I'm Cathy, and I am here to help you . Can you speak English?"

"Cathy, this Lt Katia Grace, and she is in the British Army. Perhaps you have heard the rumors?" Captain Blake said. Cathy nodded; she had.

*********************************************************************************

Katia and Cathy sat in a quiet room with a plain military bed, a chair and a small desk. Katia was on the bed, leaning against the wall, and Cathy sat in the chair. Though Cathy had a hard time believing the tale that the teen ager had related to her, the Captain told her that in all likelihood her story was true.

The British had told the American captain that the young woman could demolish the entire camp if she chose, and to absolutely NOT try to disarm her.

"I am stating this in the most emphatic terms Captain. She can be extremely dangerous when provoked. Fortunately for us, she seems to have a blood lust for the Taliban and opium traffickers. They were calling her the Daughter of the Shatun, but after some sort of incident in the mountains, now she is called the Angel of Death or by the women, Daughter of Vengeance.
The American Captain agreed to let her rest, feed her, and allow her to go on her way when she chose.

"So, General, you don't necessarily want her back?" The Captain asked.

"Good heavens man, she is a bloody force of nature. I leave her alone unless she asks for something. Mean while we have arranged for her salary to go into her checking account. As dangerous as she seems to be, so far it is focused only on our enemies."

Cathy persuaded Katia to take a sleeping pill after she ate. The teenager seemed to have developed some trust in Cathy. She got an orderly to bring another cot into that little room so she could watch over Katia. Malok, of course watched closely to monitor the effect of the sedative on Katia and it turned out to be nil. Her metabolism was too strong for it. Still, he had ways of calming her and extended her sleep to 10 hours. Her body had no need for it but her human brain was proving to not be as resilient as he’d thought.

Katia slept late the next morning, and she seemed much cheered by the rest. Cathy took Katia over to the mess so they could eat together. Katia had needed another woman in her life and didn't realize it. How could she, this whole thing was new to her.

Cathy took Katia and looked around in the stores and in the PX. Cathy warned the young woman that in spite of the fact that her breasts did not sag yet, they would if she did not use adequate support. Well, there was no need to worry; there were no bras on the base. Beside neither woman knew of Katia’s specially supported breasts.

Thinking back, Katia doubted that her's would ever sag but decided not to argue. Still, Katia preferred the Salwar Kameez like garb, and no one was willing to argue that with her.

Katia stayed to rest her traumatized mind for a few days and began to think about the kind man she'd met in that village in the desert. Cathy and she talked a lot and gradually Katia began to feel more normal.

Eventually, in the night, with as much food as she could carry she started back to that village. This time she had a GPS and a satellite phone too. "Well, I think I like the Americans better, they aren‘t so bad. Maybe, I'll work for them." She mused.

"Katia, can you hear me"?

"Malok, you know I can, so what do you want"?

"Katia, I think you are still too tired to return to battle".

"Yeah, well do you think I have a choice? My command is certainly not going to allow me to go home like this".

"Katia, I am going to take you home to your country and when you think you are rested enough to come back here, you can tell me". Before she knew it, Katia was sitting in a seat in Malok's exploration vessel, and they were speeding toward the UK.

Suitably shocked, Katia just sat there without saying anything for a few minutes.

"I'll have you home in a half hour child."

"How fast are we going anyhow?"

"Oh slightly less than your "Mach 15".

"So, Malok, how come no one sees you and you do not have our fighters chasing you all over the sky?"

"Oh we have ways of bending light. It is an old idea that works very well."

"You mean I am going to get to see Mummy? Oh my God, Father will be completely overcome with it all."

"OK, Katia dear, I am going to place you just at your parent’s home. Do tell me when you are ready to come back."

At first Katia had been thinking of a few days but as her country and then Worcester hove into view, she thought that she would like longer.

"Mayn't I have a fortnight or even two?"

"Yes dear, you may have two fortnights, because when you go back, your assignment will be much different. You have seen enough pain. Now that I understand the problems, I am going to put you to helping to develop some other sources of income for the Afghan People"

"Oh, thank you so much Malok."
With that, Malok brought his ship swiftly in over her house and let her off in front of her childhood home.

To Be Continued Thanks Holly for all your editing help.

*Photo credit: David Guttenfelder/ AP

Katia has two fortnights back home near Worcester, with her parents, relaxing and trying to adjust to being a woman. She's been dealing with the effects of PTSD, but Malok has been able to help by making internal repairs to her mind, and being with her folk will help much.

With that, she found herself standing on the side of the road outside her home near Worcester at Summer Hollow along Bransford Road. She timidly walked up to the steps. Judging by the position of the Sun it was close to noon. Her Mum should be home, and her Father should be at work.

“Oh, my gosh, it had been less than six months since I’ve been home, but now it is June and the flowers were out and the day is quite sunny.” She thought to herself.
She just loved their brick home and the neighbourhood with all the hedgerows. And it appeared as if Daddy had done something to the roof. Oh, and he'd torn out the lawn and put a drive up to the house!

“Oh, goody, a skylight too and over the tub?”

Katia found the key right where it should have been and let herself in, thinking that if there were any screaming on her Mum's part it would be in the house and not in the street.
Katia stood quietly just inside the entry. "Mum?" she said calling softly at first and then repeating herself but more loudly.

"Jane is that you?" Mum was referring to their neighbour.

The young soldier could hear approaching footsteps.
As soon as Mum came around the corner, she said, "Mummy, I have something to explain to you."

"Who are you and what are you doing in my home?"

"Please Mummy, can we sit and talk? I have been gone so long and…" Katia began to sob uncontrollably; sinking to the tile floor. It would be a long time before Katia would be totally accustomed to the powerful surges of such feminine emotion. In retrospect, it probably kept Mum from fainting dead away.

"Oh, dear child, I have no idea who you are but there, there, I will help you if I can."
Somehow, Marge, Katia's mum, helped her over to the couch and got her sat down. It took her a long time to allow the girl to cry herself out, but eventually they moved into the kitchen for some tea and biskies.

"May I have the spiced Black with a bit of sugar and cream the way I like it?"
Poor Marge had seemingly gone into complete denial and for all intents and purposes acted like everything was normal.

"Yes dear, just the way you like it, I see."

*******************************************************

"So, girl, you are telling me that you were once my son Frank?"

"Yes Mummy, and Daddy calls you Toodles."

Katia looked at her Mum. She seemed to be coping awfully well, and then her eyes seemed to lock. Katia scrambled around the table just fast enough to catch her when she fell.
She easily carried Mummy back into the living room and laid her on the couch. Then she walked over to Daddy's liquor cabinet and poured a stiff drink of Scotch. Katia disliked it herself, but she thought that it would be good for Mum when she wakened.

Katia paced the room; on the mantle was a picture of her father, and then was a family picture of the three of them. Daddy had his uniform on, and looked quite dashing. Mummy was dressed very nicely, and Frank was wearing his Sunday best. Katia tried to remember when the picture was taken and finally decided that it must have been taken not long after they'd moved out here to escape the nuisance of the flooding river. Frank must have been about 10 years old.

Above the pictures hanging on the wall was a sword. It had been given to Daddy by an Iranian after the police action taken against the failing government that had been shooting at fleeing refugees in the Straight of Hormuz in 2012. Thousands of fleeing Iranians died there before forces from Saudi Arabia, (US and British Mercenaries) forced them to stop. Subsequently, the rest of the world, including China and Russia moved into Iran, over threw the government, and amazingly all the world powers left once the Mullahs were put out. It was still an Islamic country but followed the Turkish model for government.

George Grace had flown some of the refugees back to Iran, and amazingly had a man that would be part of the cabinet in the new government as a passenger. The sword was a gift of gratitude.

This new life as a woman was rattling Katia badly and was very hard for her to cope with. It was not so much when she was in combat, because she just kept on, business as usual. Now things were very different.

She’d quietly left home several months ago, vaguely hoping not to return alive. Then came the miraculous incident that put her in her present state. In the combat zone, being female for her was not such a big adjustment at first, because she was so strong and her mission demanded all her attention. It was not until her captivity and rapes that she was suddenly slammed into the woman’s reality; men‘s attitude about women, and their vulnerability before them. As Katia, she was quite happy and felt as if she were for the first time actually “herself”. Still, it was a huge adjustment, and she’d really no time to alter and order herself as a woman after Malok put her back together. Now, she needed time to think; to adjust to her new life; fit into her skin.

Any decent psychologist would have put her in a situation where she’d had months and lots of counselling to finally come to grips with the changes. But, no, Malok had not done that for her, perhaps out of simple ignorance of the human race. The idea was starting to hit her now and behind that she could feel anger and tears. “Not NOW!” She pleaded with herself. “I can not be laid out because of grief and hysteria now!” She pleaded!

Mum began to stir and Katia was right at her side with the Scotch. It took a few minutes and a couple shots, but pretty soon Mummy was calm enough.

Concentrating very hard. "So, my Frank was killed and then someone put him back together and you is what I have as a replacement for my son?"

"Please Mummy, I know this is very hard for you but it has been hard for me too."
Marge looked over at Katia and saw her hopeful, loving expression. "Oh Gawd, how can I hate such a darling thing?"

So, having been lubricated adequately by the Scotch, Mum and Daughter spent the afternoon talking. And, in the course of the day, Mummy managed to get Katia into one of her own skirts and a blouse that she herself had not managed in a few years. That being after a good bath, and shampoo.

“I wonder if Frank ever suspected how much I wanted a daughter?” Mum thought to herself as she knelt by the tub, shampooing Katia’s long hair.

Katia just loved it as Mum sat on the side of the tub doing the shampoo and the rinses.
"Girl, you are going to have to take better care of your hair!"

"Yes, Mummy, but it has been dreadfully difficult out in the desert of Afghanistan."
Mum looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, "Well, it is entirely unsuitable for a lady to be traipsing around in that awful place with all those men about, I say!"

"But Mummy, it is my job. They shall be quite upset with me if I just up and leave."
As the time had passed, Marge realized that Harry, her husband would soon be home from his job at the agency. Perhaps he could set her mind aright. Women had no business in this awful affair.

"Oh dear, we must be getting dinner ready for your Father!"

"May I help you Mummy?"

"Sure darling, I will set you on the vegetables, while I do a bit of meat for the Barbi."
It was fun being home and though she'd had little previous training in the Kitchen, Katia seemed to have come by a talent for it now. As they finished, Katia walked back into the liquor cabinet and poured Daddy some Scotch in a drinking water glass. Then when she heard his car, she handed it to Mummy and ran into the loo. She heard some talking for quite a long time, and then it got quiet.

Katia just stood before the mirror in the meantime , exploring her face, for the first time in quiet, non threatening circumstances. Later, sneaking out Katia heard them in the back by the Barbi. She could smell the meat and knew that it would taste so good. “Raw goat is OK, but the way that Daddy does it is much better“, she mused.
On the table outside, she noticed that the bottle of Scotch was empty.
She stood nervously near the back door, "Daddy?"

He turned round to look at her. His eyes got big and he turned to Mummy.

"Who did you say this was Marge?"

"Your Daughter, Dear."

He sat there dumb looking for a minute and turned back to his wife.

"The hell you say?"

"Yes dear."

"Yes, well … What’s her name, Frank hardly suits her I’d say”.

“No dear, her name is now Katia”.

“Katia, is that your name?"

"Yes Daddy"

"Yes, well she's got better manners and um looks than Frank, doesn't she?"

"I think so dear."

"Yes, well Katia, do you mind getting me another bottle of Scotch. Go on be a good girl would you?" he sighed. "Marge, I think I shall be calling off work tomorrow as I plan to have a rather severe headache in the morning."

"Of course dear, I think I shall be joining you".

About 10:00 PM, Katia managed to help both Mummy and Daddy up to their room and saw them into bed. Katia went back to the kitchen and made a lot more food. The roast was good, along with that chicken, and that sack of potatoes was too. With a satisfied burp, Katia made her way up to her old room and slept until late the next day.

In the morning, it did not take her long in the Bathroom, and after her shower, she did manage to get the tangles out of her butt length hair, though it was still damp. She’d borrowed some of Mummy's hair conditioner and that helped a lot.

Katia decided to go shopping. She managed to find her old ATM card in her room to pay for any shopping she might do.

Her parents were still not up when she went down to the Kitchen. She could see that the food would be all gone soon, so she ran into the Tesco at Worcester to get more. She managed to roll Daddy's car down the street a ways so that her parents would not waken at the sound of the engine.

“Malok?” Do you think there is a way to reduce my food requirement?

“Well, Katia, as long as you are not expending tremendous quantities of effort you will consume less.”
“I still am consuming much. I am worried that I will eat my Mum and Father out of house and home.”

“Ok, Katia, I will think about it. I could put a power cell in you to power everything but your torso and head. Artificial power makes your inner organs and brain cells rather short lived. I will think about it and prepare one. You’ll have to come up to my ship to do the procedure.”

“Thank you Malok”.

Malok did not say anything to Katia but her word choices and the tension levels in her body were alarmingly high. Doing a few minutes research he found that Katia was suffering from acute PTSD and could begin acting out on the slightest provocation. It was then that he realized that the human was much less durable than the artificially grown artificial brain units that made up much of his own civilization.

Malok was networked with six of them himself, and he could activate a dozen more on very short notice. That was not to mention the brain units that ran his runabout, and Mother Ship concealed up beyond their moon.

He’d have to decide what to do about her stress/trauma levels before she went out again. Keeping that in mind, he set his resources to locating the best treatments for her condition.

Katia tried to ignore the stares she attracted wearing Mum's Skirt and Top. Being braless, was so obvious and that seemed to make the men slobber all over themselves, but the women were dreadfully snooty. It was her boots with Afghan dust still on them that really put her over the top, she thought. Still, the machine took her card so she could pay for the food, and Katia was soon on the way home with the car loaded down with it all.
When she walked into the Kitchen through the back, Mummy and Daddy were sitting at the table looking decidedly limp. Perhaps it was from the brown bottle flu. Katia was quite careful to put the food away quietly and only once knocked a skillet onto the floor from its perch on an upper shelf.

"I'm terribly sorry Mummy and Daddy. It shant happen again, I promise."

After several cups of Coffee, and some biscuits, they began to look slightly better.
"Mummy, I was getting some very ill mannered stares at the store this morning. Do you think we might go shopping to get me a few clothes?"

Mummy's eyes brightened somewhat in spite of the state of her pounding head.

"Give me a bit dear and we can go shopping in Worcester or Birmingham if you like."

"I would love to Mummy, do you think you are up to it?"

Still monitoring, Malok could easily see that since she had come out of the war theatre to a safe place, her subconscious had allowed her mind to regress nearly to adolescence.
"I am quite sure dear." Marge smiled at Katia. The idea of a shopping expedition seemed to be rejuvenating her astonishingly. The woman was only in her 40's and still quite full of enthusiasm.

They got Daddy situated in front of the Telly, watching Football (Soccer to you yanks), and were soon on their way. Today, it was Manchester United against a team she had not heard of; some obscure Welsh team.

They actually did find the basics in Worcester. Along the way, they discovered that Katia was 32 D and very hourglass shaped. She really had little idea about fashion but along the way, the women decided that Katia did not like revealing, sexy clothing. Eventually finished, Katia wore a pair of Pink nursing pants, and over that a White flowered dress that was slightly above her knees.

"Mom, I am so new to all this, I just don't know what to make of it. I can tell you that bras are just awful though."

"I understand darling, and most women find that when they get home, off come the shoes and bra."

"Mummy, it seems like such a bother to get undressed and dressed again when I come home"
"Well, dear, you don't have to undress to get shed of your bra."

With that, Mummy showed her how to reach behind herself, unsnap the thing, and then reach up each sleeve to pull the straps off her shoulders and past her hands. Katia laughed so hard when she was able to reach down inside her front and pull the bra out like a rabbit out of the hat!

Her Mum looked quite smug.

Katia was quite incensed one night when they'd all gone out for Dinner, and the establishment refused to serve her a beer without her Father‘s permission! The steak was quite good and she easily consumed their much advertised 72 oz one and all the chips and salad she wanted.

Later that night … "Malok!"

"Hello Priya"

"Don't sweet talk me Malok, I am not your 'dear'."

"Oh, my are we being petulant tonight?"

"You can't patronize me and manipulate me! I demand that you…" With that the most delightful feeling began to wend its way from head to toes. Katia nearly passed out, but instead just sat on the floor feeling absolutely exhausted and wonderful.

"What was that?"

"How do you feel now dear?"

"Gah!, what happened, did you do that?" Katia was breathing in deep gasping lungfuls. It took her longer to get her eyes to focus once again."

"Do I make my point dear?"

"You can't do that … no please, I neeeeeed to um gasp, talk!"

This time Katia was flat on her back on the floor of her room. She dozed for a few minutes, and then sleepily she asked, "Malok, I need to talk to you?"

"Are we going to be civil now? You could refrain from shouting disrespectfully at me."

"Ok, I'm sorry, please don't do that to me again."

"What is it you need dear?"

"Oh, so you have decided that you are my guardian now?"

"I have been watching you with your parents and you are quite solicitous and respectful to them. I thought that I would like the same. And, in Afghanistan, the women all have guardians”.

"But they are my parents, and I love them. Their bond made me!"

"Well, child I could have left your smoking flesh laying there in the desert?"

"There is that." She ceded.

They chatted for much of the night and in the end, Malok agreed that he would provide her with a driving license, but she would remain just 16.
"Malok, I want to be able to have a beer with my parents at dinner without having to ask Daddy for it!"

"Katia, I have never encountered the fermentation of fruit juices, and I have no idea what it would do with your altered metabolism. You do realize how strong you are? You might hurt someone in a drunken fit, or even destroy the building”.

"So, you are not going to allow me to drink? What if I do it at home?"

Katia experienced a moments' dizziness. "I just fixed that Katia."
"You can't, you didn't." She screamed.

"Well, I just did!" Malok huffed back at her.

She sat there for a few minutes. "Fine, just FINE!" She huffed.

"Katia, I thought we were going for mutual respect?"

She huffed and puffed and pounded the floor; being careful not to put holes in it.

"Are you OK?" Her Mum's voice sounded through the door.

"See what you did!" she mentally blasted at him.

"Yes Mummy, I was just exercising."

"Good heavens girl don't hurt yourself".

"I'm quite sorry Mummy, I'll be more quiet".

To Malok she said, "Will you please not do that other thing to me again, it is quite distracting."

Malok finally agreed to allow her to have beer with her family at home with the stipulation that on the second one she would be very sleepy. Katia at length acknowledged that having her in a drunken rage could be far too destructive.

Later, Katia went down to help her Mum get dinner ready. She was quite willing to help and had natural talent, but no real knowledge of cooking. So, she found herself slicing onions and peeling potatoes.

"When are you returning to Afghanistan Katia?"

"I don't know for sure Mummy, Malok said that I could have two fortnights, but now that I am not there, I do not want to go back. It was simply awful, and I died there." Katia began to cry softly, and he Mum wrapped her in the sort of hug that only a Mother can give.

Afghanistan has been too hard for you and from what you say, you have endured horrible hardship.

"Oh, I know that Mummy, but it has all been so hard for me to take in; the awful things I had to do and the unspeakable things that my captors did to me. It was quite difficult to survive. They'd have killed me had they not wanted to make a spectacle of me for their "Allah".

Katia's Mum turned around and gathered her in her arms and Katia immediately burst into tears and great, gasping sobs. "There there dear, let it all out, you are safe now".
Katia awakened on the couch with a soft blanket covering her. She could hear Mummy and Daddy talking in the Kitchen.

She sat up and looked around for a moment, allowing wakefulness to fully take hold. In a minute or so, Katia walked into the Kitchen. “Mum, Daddy, I think I shall go for a walk down the path for a while. It does not appear as if it will rain soon.”

“Alright dear, be careful and don’t be too long, because I was going to start on Tea soon.”

“Alright Mum, I won’t be too long.” Despite the weather, she still took her slicker with her. This was after all England.

Katia started out the door after putting some treckies on and taking her rain slicker out of the closet in the hallway. She remembered so many days like this as she grew up. White, puffy clouds drifting across the countryside. With scarcely any warning some would darken and begin a down pour of rain, to begrudgingly depart but only after everything in sight is drenched.

She walked on the public trail that led down along hedgerows, across a farmer’s field and finally down to the shallow stream. It was so pleasant to get back out amongst the trees she’d grown up with. Katia sat down to think about the flowing water, the reeds and just how much she enjoyed being home, if just for a little while.

She reflected on all the violence and the shocking conditions that people encountered every single day. In spite of the bad conditions over there, Katia found herself missing Sabeen and Afia. Guilt overwhelmed her when she thought about not being able to save Afia from her bastard husband. She wept violently for a few minutes and then it settled into more gentle tearfulness. Finally, later, the quiet and peaceful thicket influenced her mind and peace began to settle in. Katia was just discovering that tears were strengthening to women.

In the distance she heard an explosion, and her strong hearing could pick out the sound of her mother screaming. “OH, gad what have they done now!” She said, her voice carrying all the exasperation she felt.

On her feet instantly, Katia ran home in a tenth of the time it had taken her to get down to the stream. Barely breathing hard, Katia rounded the corner into her back hard to find her Father standing dazedly with her gun in his hand. Her Mum was sitting on the steps weeping uncontrollably, “Father, what have you done? You’ll have the plod down on us, you will!”

“Oh Mum, just calm down, I was only testing it, you know. I had no idea that the thing would really fire at all, it looks like a toy, it does! Gad woman, who would have expected this?”

“Father, I hear the sirens of the plod coming now! What are we going to do? Your acting like a plonker has got us into a right mess.”

Katia almost laughed for a moment as she strode over to her father and reclaimed her “Pop Gun”. “Father, look what you have done? You could have destroyed the house!”

“Malok, what do I do?”

“Good grief Katia, don’t get so excited!”

“Malok, it is illegal for him to have a gun. He does not have a license, or for that matter I do not either! I hear the sirens, someone has called the Coppers; they will be here any moment.!”

Quick thinking Malok said, “Katia, I will beam the gun to my ship, and if you stand back I will shoot some asteroid fragment collection into the hole. You can say that you have no idea what happened.”

“What about the neighbors? I am sure that they saw something.”

“I have just moved to right over the crater. I can see her looking out her window. She’ll be quite intoxicated in just a moment.”
Suddenly, a window in the neighbors house shattered and there was a soft yelp from Sadie her neighbor. “She’s too nosy anyway.” Thought Katia.

~~~

Later, after the police had left. Katia talked to Malok again. As it happened, Malok had the security routine set to “off” for her gun while he reprogrammed some features, thus leaving a window for Daddy to cause mischief.

“Malok, please don’t allow that to happen again?”

“Well, my sweet, meet me this afternoon, and I will give you an implant that will make it so that the gun will only fire if you and the weapon are close to each other. That should take care of any future problems. Your power alteration is ready also.”

“Since when did I become, your “sweet”?

“Katia, do we really want to discuss this right now”?

“I suppose not Malok.” Katia conceded. Strangely, she had not been that upset at his use of the term, “my sweet”.

In the late afternoon, Malok beamed her up to his ship and had her lay on a table. She remained conscious and able to chat as he worked away on the power conversion and the resetting of her weapon protocols.

Malok told Katia, “I have changed my mind about your weapon, and designed a depression in your right hip so that it will always be on your person, yet it will not be visible or accessible to any one but you. You can bathe or run around naked and no one will know it is there. You can just place your hand near it and “will” it into your hand.”

“Thank you Malok”

“You are quite welcome dear.”

Katia did not immediately reply. Something was happening to her. As she sat there quietly, Katia realised that she was feeling some affection for Malok. She felt a flush of realization pass through her and it felt good. After all, he’d done a great deal for her since the accident, and for not the first time, Katia thought upon the fact that she was living the life of the person she’d always been inside but had to conceal.

“Thank you Malok”

To her mind, Malok’s voice seemed to catch just for a moment. She looked at him and thought she could recognize a deep but unvoiced emotion in him.

“You are quite welcome. You know that my killing you was an accident. I had not intended to do so, but was extremely surprised at what I found.”

Katia just laid there smiling as he finished his work.

“Will I still be pretty when you put in that power cell? She asked.

“Dear, you will not even know it is there, and at the rate you expend power, it will outlast you by thousands of years.”

“Thank you so much. When I was young, I was always jealous of the girls at the pool lying around in their bikinis.”

“Such public exposure is considered so vile on my planet.”

“But Malok, no harm is meant. We just want to have fun.”

“On my planet, such females are considered the lowest of the low. Respectable females realize the power they have over men, so they conceal themselves because of mercy for them.”

“Malok, that is so lame! You mean to say that Men have no control over their own bodies? I thought you were so much more advanced than us?”

“Katia, one of the reasons I was in Afghanistan is that I could not understand how a country with such good values could be so backward.”

“Yeah, OK, fine, making women wear Burquas, stoning them, beating them, imprisoning them in their homes …”

“Katia, stop. I have seen all that and more and it makes me ill. I can not understand how it is happening. On my own planets, we live moderate, modest lives and have no wars at all.”

They kept talking in the same vein for late into the night, and eventually they came to agreement that something needed to happen to help not only Afghanistan but the rest of the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Mum and Katia were in Worcester, and were just walking past what turned out to be a Halal Meat market. Katia was frustrated because she could not find clothing that she found suitable; not knowing that Malok had sneakily placed a preference for the clothing of his home world in her mind. He’d not meant to harm Katia, but for him being dressed that way was only proper.

So, they were almost to this market when a young woman walked out, presumably after buying meat, and Katia could see that she had almost the sort of pants and long top on that she really liked.

She stopped the young woman, who was at first somewhat alarmed, but softened when Katia told her how much she liked the young woman’s outfit. As it turned out, the Woman’s name was Hala, and she apparently was quite flattered by Katia’s praise of her garb.
They talked about the woman’s native country of India for a few minutes and then Katia asked her if she could tell her where she had gotten her clothing.

“Katia, I get my things mailed to me since it is in London. It is called Muslim Base, near Middlesex. Are you Muslim”?

“Good heavens no Hala, but I just love your outfit and should like to have some”.

“Well very good, if you have something to write with I can jot it down for you. I order so much from that store that I have memorized the addy for it”.

The girls and Mum chatted on for a few minutes, and they exchanged phone numbers; agreeing to meet sometime for tea or some such”.

After they parted, Mum and Katia were in the car on the way home, “Katia, do you realize that was a Muslim woman? They are the same ones that originally got this business going by the tragedy in New York.”

“Mum, that was over 20 years ago. The young woman did not seem violent at all. She was actually quite nice, and I would like to get to know her better.”

“Very well Katia, but please do be careful. I lost my son over this business.” Mummy said with an emotional edge to her voice.

“But Mummy, look what you got as a replacement!” Katia said and then giggled sweetly.
Katia knew very well that Mum had not finished adjusting to things at all, but she had also known that within Frank, dwelt a feminine spirit from the time when she carried him, though they had only spoken of it once after she’d caught him as a child prancing around in her heels. She’d known that Henry, her husband had taken quite a strong hand with Frank, but she’d felt that what he’d done was correct, no matter how much it worried her.
Had Marge, her Mum known what was on Frank’s mind when he went to Afghanistan, she’d have felt quite heart broken.

When they arrived back at the family home on Summer Hollow, they found the Police were at the house once again; along with what turned out to be University People. The men from the Uni had decided that they’d found meteoric fragments in the hole, and were astonished that it had left a hole 3 meters wide.

“Good heavens man, weren’t you frightened when the bloody thing lit right at your feet”?
“I most certainly was, but due to my experience in the military, I held up, I suppose.”

Katia giggled, “Mum, Daddy is putting it on a bit thick don’t you think”?

“Oh, be good to your father dear, he is having his moment of glory”.

Both women laughed a little too loudly and that got the attention of the Police and the Uni people.

“Oh, hi daddy, I am sorry that we have interrupted your meeting, we’ll just be carrying the packages into the house”.

Later, as Katia and her Mum were working in the kitchen, they both giggled when they saw the nosy neigbor leading a repair man around to the broken window. She looked much the worse for wear, and quite sad too.

“Too much drinking don’t you think Mum?”

“Really Katia, that is a bit mean don’t you think”?

“Mum, she is nosy and mean spirited”

“Yes, but she keeps an eye on the place so well that we seem to never have to call the Coppers”. They both had a nice laugh over that.

That evening, they had Sheppard’s Pie. Mum had deliberately made much to much and later took a dish of it over to the neighbor. She returned looking quite sad.

“Katia, the poor woman is simply destroyed. She says she has never had a drink in her life, and fears that her reputation is lost. I am quite sad for her.”

“Are you getting this Malok, we need to do something” Katia mentally sent to Malok.
“Malok said, “Don’t worry about her Katia, I will alter her memory of the event, and repair what needs it.”

“Oh, thank you Malok” !

Later that evening, before sunset, Katia decided to go for a run to allow her to think. She thought about Frank’s old running gear but it was twice her size, so she simply put on some cotton leggings and a nice loose top. She’d just got some pastel blue trainers and was soon off down the route she used to take before she’d gone to Afghanistan.

The countryside was pleasant especially once she’d gotten away from the houses. It was a few miles to Stony Cross, and then she turned around and started home. She was passing a field where laborers were picking Onions. The smell of the freshly disturbed soil was wonderful; so much better than the smell of exploded munitions.

As she ran along, she noticed a small child sitting in the dirt, crying loudly. She could hear an adult speaking abusively to the child. “Get up you worthless child or I will give you reason to complain”, the man said.

They were at least 100 yards away, but Katia could hear the exchange clearly. It was appalling what was happening to the child. Katia was about to run out there to intervene, but Malok interrupted her.

“Katia, I have called the Police for you. They’ll be here shortly. I don’t think it will be a good idea for you to get involved.”

“Thank you Malok, we wouldn’t really want the wrong people to know that I am not in Afghanistan”.

“Well, Katia, I have been doing some things over there, to make them believe you are still in the field there.

“Run along now dear, enjoy yourself, the plod will be arriving soon.”

The next day, in the Independent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-new-slave...

Katia was just finishing breakfast in the morning when her Mum handed her a narrow little barrel with a rod sticking out the top. “What’s this Mum”?

“I make my own butter, cheese and bread now, want to have a go at it”?

Mum showed her how to push and pull on the rod, and in 20 minutes her Mum stopped her.
“Alright love, let’s see what we have.”

Her Mum pulled the rod and lid out of the small barrel and with it came a big clump of whitish yellow butter.

“Goodness Mum, how long have you been doing all this”?

“Well since those horrible bombings in 2018, I have been looking at things very hard. It is very plain that the terrorists mean to drive us into the ground. I only just started getting organized since you left”.

“Mummy, please do not worry, I think something good is going to happen. The terrorist problem will be much less soon I hope.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After bed time, Katia suddenly found herself in Malok’s ship, for a few moments and then standing outside St Johns Chippy. It was a tiny stucco building in a line of row buildings along St Johns street, that she had gone to many times with her Mum and Father as a child.

“My goodness, Malok is that really you?”

“You see Katia, my own body does not look like a human one, so I have to stay in my ship, so I just put together a little Puppet to sit with you. Since you are only 16, I can buy you beer as long as you behave yourself”.

“Oh, so you see yourself as my guardian, do you?”

“You wanna argue the point Baby?” He said in a perfect “Shwartzenhammer” accent.
Katia just had to laugh because she remembered the famous actor from when he played in all those post destructionist Science Fiction movies as a robot. The fish and chips were jolly good. The beer was wonderful.

“Thank you for allowing me to drink a beer or two.”

“I was just concerned about the compatibility of your beverage with our alien physiology.”

“So, we are OK, then?”

“Yes, but do not get intoxicated. I do not want to see what you could do to a pub.”
Later that night, Katia and Malok were talking. “Malok, this semi war has gone on for a very long time. Can you really help us to make it better?” “I hope so Katia dear.”

“I have been reviewing your world’s history and think I have found signs of external interference? It is risking getting in a lot of trouble with Mom for violating the regulations of the counsel in regards to sentient races, but I have seen a couple artefacts that make me suspicious that another race has been planting seeds of warfare here for millennia. I don’t know how to do all the investigation though.”

“How soon will you know Malok?”

“I just don’t know, so I have to be really careful because if I go running to Mom about this, I’ll get punished for such sloppy work, and then grounded for messing around on this planet; you know making a mess and causing pain to a developing sentient race.”
“Malok, how old are you anyhow. Why are you worried about getting in trouble with your Mum?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Malok?”

“Knock it off Katia !”

Instinctively Katia knew that something was wrong, and with Malok suddenly getting so defensive, she suspected it was his age. She thought about it for a few moments, remembering her own past life. “OMG” she thought, “Malok, in your own civilization, you are just a little kid, aren’t you?”

He looked at her as only an alien from millions of light years away, who was impersonating a human could. He looked extremely guilty and embarrassed.

“Malok, do your parents know you are here?”

“Well, they just told me to go find something to do.”

“So, they don’t actually know you are here?”

“I’m not hurting anything, and I fixed you up! I didn’t mean to break anything!” he said petulantly.

“So, in earth years, how hold are you?”

“Well, um in earth years, I would compare to a 14 year old.”

“OH, Bloody Hell !”

“What, we have a 14 year old running around, about to cause WWIII? You’re kidding“ !

“It’s more complicated than that Katia. In lots of ways I am a lot older than that but when you think of the level of responsibility I am allowed, it is about equivalent to a 14 year old in your society”.

“So, a 14 year old blew me up and made me into a living Barbi Doll”? Great, that is just great”!

“Um Katia, I didn’t do it like that, but my ship has all sorts of built in stuff to keep me from getting injured and to protect me because I am um special”.

“What?”

“Yeah, my Mom is the ruler of our sector now, but when I get of age, she wants to step down early”.

With that new revelation, Katia and Malok spent the next few hours with him explaining everything, and Katia threatening to turn him in to his Mum.

“Mom will really get pissed if she realizes that I made such huge changes to you.”

“Yes, I imagine that she might.” Katia said, but it was obvious by her tone of voice that she was not upset. “Listen Malok, if I get a vote, I just want to say that I really like how you put me back together. I would have loved to take a girl like me dancing.”

“Yes, I have been reading about your human dancing, would you like to go?”, said Malok.

“Most certainly not, no Urethan girl would be caught dead …”

“Katia, please stop a moment.”

“What? Wait, I am not from Ureth! Malok, what did you do to me?”

“Katia, I was building you from a completely destroyed human and I had no idea what a human female really was at the time. So, I simply programmed you with many of the social mores of those from my planet, and from what I could see of human females in that area. I meant no harm.”

“Oh, gad, then I am lucky that I was not running around in one of those bloody blue Burqas” And, that is why I am sat here in long silk pants and long top? Malok, I want to go dancing and I also demand that you fix me so that I will be a proper English girl.”

“Remember Katia, we are going for mutual respect here.”

“Alright, please make me like I should be?”

It took them a while to get sorted and come to agreement, but later they were at Tramps dancing like college students. Sifting through his data base, Katia suddenly knew perfect Belly Dancing, UK style.

The dancing and laughing was quite beneficial to Katia’s state of mind and they did not get tired until the club closed at 3:00 AM. As they left the club, three blokes started harassing them, and Malok was hard pressed to restrain Katia from leaving them broken lifeless hulks.

“But Malok, they wanted to hurt me and you both! They did not deserve to live!”

“Please Katia, don’t be so petulant. There are consequences for that sort of behaviour her in the UK, and we don’t want to attract attention. Katia, this behaviour is exactly what I feared in you. I had told you that I was concerned what you would act like with some intoxicant in your blood stream.”

“Ok, I am sorry. I got a bit carried away. Can we go dancing tomorrow night?”

“Katia, it is quite late, so I think that you actually mean tonight, don’t you?”

“Oh, very well, can we?”

“Well, I have some work to do, but I think we may.”

“Oh, thank you Malok.” she said, and then she kissed him on the cheek.

They were both stunned. Katia just drifted for who knows how long. Malok looked confused.
“On my planet, we do not touch like that without an agreement” He said, but his voice was very soft and lacked conviction.

“I don’t know what came over me. I mean I am so grateful to you for all your help and we get along and we have so much in common and you want to help us and we think alike, and …”

His fingers were on her lips. “I know Katia. I would not have it otherwise.”

He looked at her for what seemed like a long time.

“Malok spoke first, “I have affection for you, but we can not be joined. I have obligations and we are biologically not compatible. It would be like a whale and a Tiger joining”

Katia had tears brimming in her eyes. “I’m the Tiger, right?” Katia was trying to be strong; struggling so hard to be strong; it was not very convincing.

“Katia, it is a privilege to know you. You are very strong, and if you wish it, we will always be companions. That is the best I can do. Our minds are alike. I wish our bodies were.”

That was hours ago. Katia was at home sleeping and Malok was in his ship thinking. This was so hard and so impermissible to fall in love with an Alien. She would never be accepted as mate were the biology even attainable.

With reluctance, he began perusing her mental patterns; searching for that which bound them. With a sigh, he turned certain neurons off, rerouted certain pathways. Were it possible, his eyes would have filled with tears also. Turning away from the work he’d finished on Katia, he began to examine new data that his probe near the Oort cloud had reported.

Distracted, he did not see the patterns in Katia’s brain restore themselves to their previous state. Katia rolled over in bed, and smiled to herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katia and her Mum were walking in downtown Worcester, near the Narrow Boats. Mum, “I have been home almost a Month, I will have to return to Afghanistan soon.”

“I know dear, but I hate to see you go, I’ve only just adjusted to your new state.”

“What you mean, I don’t think I have yet.” Katia laughed.

“I know it takes a lot to get used to the boys, but you seem to be adapting, even enjoying them.”

“Mummy!!!!”

“Katia, women know these things about each other. You have no secrets from me, I am your Mother!”

The two women hugged with deep affection. In spite of her differences since the last time she was home, it was still obvious that Katia contained just lots of Frank, even today”

~~~~~~~~

That night at home after dinner, Katia’s father called her into his private sanctum, his study, where he liked to think that no woman could enter without his permission.

“Yes, Daddy?”

“Katia, I have something that I had intended to give to you, but when you showed up in this new state, I had abandoned the idea. There is not the slightest chance that I would ever give it to a Woman. You have surprised me. You have demonstrated the spirit and strength that Frank never had, yet I knew that deep inside much of Frank still lived.”

“What is it Daddy?”

“Come here girl.” Laying on his desk was the Persian sword that had hung on the wall for so long.

Seeing it, Katia started to protest, but her Fathers look silenced her.

“I know that you have all that astounding armament and superhuman strength, but I thought perhaps that in case all that fails, you could use a real sword, that has probably drawn blood and more than once.” He picked up the sword and turned toward her.

Katia stood frozen to her spot.

“They say that these things have a living spirit in them. I would not know, but it was given to me by a man that said that the weapon had been used with deadly force by his ancestors.”
With that he handed it to her.
“Oh, thank you daddy, are you sure you want to give it to me?”

“ I would not have it any other way, soldier. I want to protect my interests. “

Katia wrapped her arms around her father and hugged him for the first time in her life. They had not been close when Frank was young. Unwittingly, Father did not realize the spirit in Frank was not evil or weak. She still had not revealed to either of her parents just how lethal she’d been in Afghanistan. Those who had been in real combat, did not talk of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~

In bed that night, the sleeping Katia did not see the sword disappear, and go to Malok’s ship. He examined it carefully expecting to find flaws in the steel that would make it weak but found the structure of it to be surprising stout. He did add a couple enhancements, just for his own pleasure.

Mum had insisted that Katia have a full English breakfast before she would allow her to leave.

“Mummy, Daddy I shall miss you greatly.”

“I want you to be careful, fight well and be honourable. Be The Best!”

“Yes Daddy, I will try my very best to bring credit to the Crown”

“I know you will dear”

“Mummy, my heart already hurts because I miss you, and I am not even out the bloody door.”
“I know Katia dear.”

Speaking out loud, Katia’s mum said, “You! you whoever I have seen Katia with, you protect her or I shall scratch your eyes out!”

For once, Malok spoke directly into Mums head. “I shall do my very best.”

“Well, see that you do.” She said out loud.

“Katia, I can’t possibly ever let your mum and mine meet, it will be absolutely intolerable for the both of us.” Malok said.

With that, Katia disappeared and found herself sat in the seat of Malok’s runabout. In seconds they were passing over the English Channel.

“Katia, I’ve had some probes circulating in the country since I picked you up. There is a huge build up of fighters in the north near Taloqan. I want you to pick up your young religious leader and I will take you there to see if there is a chance that they will talk about building some local industry; see what they think should happen.” Malok said.
In minutes Malok had dropped her near Moqor, and she began to walk in. She’d donned attire suitable to the local culture but not the Burqua. “Let some man try to force me into that!”, she thought.

She’d just entered the village, and with her extremely sensitive hearing, heard some men talking.

“Mamadou said that the invaders were going to come here soon. Do we flee, or do we fight?”
“We will talk to him soon. He is returning from the mountain soon.”

Katia sat out of sight until almost dark when she could see the figure of a man descending the steep trail in front of the village.

“Mamadou, what is this about the western invaders coming here?”

Mamadou had to be really careful. If these two hardline Taliban ever suspected his true affiliations, they would kill him. “It is what I heard in Kandahar, and it will be soon.”
“A man said that you were in Kandahar speaking to the western invaders.”

Mamadou could feel his heart quiver at the accusation. “Let that man face me and we will decide who lives together!”

“We will all meet to plan our strategy later this afternoon, after Asr Prayer. We will bring your accuser.” With that, the men split up and Mamadou moved toward one of the houses.

Katia moved around to intercept him. When he got close, Katia stepped out from her concealment.

“Hello Mamadou.”

I am extremely sorry for the delay in the completion of this third chapter of my story. After Christmas, I was beset by illness, a death in the family and similar chaos.

So that there is less need to go back and refresh your memories by re-reading two long chapters,

Chapter 1 dealt with our protagonist going to the war in Afghanistan to either prove himself or die in battle, hopefully the latter. It is there that an Alien Thorian accidentally kills him in self defense when he is caught between the cross fire of Taliban fighters and British soldiers. His body is mostly destroyed but rebuilt using Thorian skills and is now much stronger, partially cybernetic, and female also. In the regeneration process, Malok, the Thorian teenager discovered the young soldier’s feminine nature and decides to honor that as partial repayment for killing the young soldier. “She”, now Katia, is put back into the fray and through her, Malok learns much of the human struggle, and hellish conditions in that country.

In Chapter 2, Lt Frank Grace, now Lt Katia Grace, is at home near Worcester, UK recovering from PTSD, and emotional exhaustion brought on by the fighting and her change from male to female. There are some humorous sections in the chapter but it is mostly quiet for Katia.

So, here we are now at the start of Chapter 3. Katia has just spent a month at home in the UK, resting and getting well, now she returns to Afghanistan to resume her mission. Katia has recently been dropped in Afghanistan near the village where she had previously encountered Mamadou Touri; a Muslim Imam (loosely Preacher) Katia has been approaching the village and suddenly encounters men having a conversation. She hides to listen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Taliban operative says, “Mamadou, what is this about the western invaders coming here?”

Mamadou had to be really careful. If these two hard-line Taliban ever suspected his true affiliations, they would kill him. “It is what I heard in Kandahar, and it will be soon.”

“A man said that you were in Kandahar speaking to the western invaders.”

Mamadou could feel his heart quiver at the accusation. “Let that man face me and we will decide who lives together!”

“We will all meet to plan our strategy later this afternoon, after Asr Prayer. We will bring your accuser.” With that, the men split up and Mamadou moved toward one of the houses.

Katia moved around to intercept him. When he got close, Katia stepped out from her concealment.

“Hello Mamadou.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hello, Salaam Alaykom, it is good to see you once again. So, the village women now call you an Avenging Angel. Is that what you are?”

"I don't know. I don't feel like one. I just want the killing to stop and for the evil men to go away. I want the women not to be beaten and raped every day of their lives,” her eyes began to tear up a little as she finished that last sentence.

"Alhumdilallah, this mission on which you have set yourself is deep in your heart, I can hear it."

"It is, but I am getting tired and I need help. I can't keep being alone."

"It is possible that Allah SWT has sent you, but you are not Muslim."

"No, the folks never attended church." It is obvious that Katia has absolutely no knowledge about Islam, and very little knowledge of any of the Christian faiths.

"So, you are against Allah Subhana Wa Allah Ta Allah?"

“I do not know anything about your Allah at all and if there really was one, then this pain and suffering would not be going on.”

“We do not understand the will of Allah SWT, we are not him.”

They had moved into his home now, and one of the women brought him in Goat Kabsa. (Loosely a highly spiced rice dish with goat meat.) The fragrance of the spices and open fire roasted meat made her all the more hungry.

He saw the roast goat sitting on the floor of the dining area, so he offered Katia some. Katia ate ravenously, she felt so hungry, but Mamadou did get enough for himself. “His men will have to figure it out on their own,” she thought. Katia needed the fuel too much.

"So, why have you come back to my village, little one?" he asked her.

"I don't know. I wanted someone to talk to so I could understand what is going on here. You were gentle with me before. Also, my leader wants you to accompany me up to a place in the North near a village called Taloqan.”

“Your Leader, you work for the Western Invaders do you not?”

“Officially I work for the British Army, but since the change, I now work for someone who you may never meet. He wants to help the people of Afghanistan and suspects that there has been evil interference by a race that does not live in this Dunya (earth)”.

"Perhaps, Allah Subhanahu wa-ta'ala is guiding you?"

"I wish someone would. I'm not 17 yet according to what my memory is telling me. Yet when I came down here I had graduated from College and taken a commission. Something really strange happened out there. Someone had attacked us and suddenly there was this bright flash and then the next thing I know I am like this. You'll never believe this, but I was almost a 14 stone guy before that. Now, I do not know if I weigh much over 7 stone. When I woke up half the mountain in front of me was blown away. We talked briefly about it before, several months ago.”

"Oh yes, I have heard the stories of how that all happened. Many of the Taliban and some innocent were killed that day. Little sister, are you telling me that you were not always a girl?"

"No sir, I wasn't and all the things I can do are just really weird. What am I going to do?" With that she started to wail. She just wept and wept. It was awful. “I wished that I would just die. This is all too much for me. What am I to do?”

When she finished, she was lying in his lap, and like that is so totally not done in Afghanistan with a Muslim man that she was not married to. He was looking at Katia with a strange look on his face.

"This has been so hard on you. I am sorry for your pain, but Inshallah (hopefully, by the will of God), he will guide you to do all things according to his will. May you find the true path? You are a paradox, in that you are at once both extremely strong and brave as a warrior, but inside weak and helpless like a woman.”

Katia was pretty wrung out by then and he helped her get covered up. "Just so you know, I am not for the Burqua. I believe that hair covering is enough, but so you do not attract attention, and make it easier to protect you from the terrorists, I want you to wear this until I get you into a safe place.”

"If anyone starts anything, I'm gonna finish them," she replied grumpily.

He stopped and looked at her for a moment. "You came to ask my help and you do not follow my advice, Wallah!" (Come on!)

"So, OK, I'm like sorry OK?" Katia hung her head, too emotionally tried to argue.

So, with the Burqua pretty much ending her combat readiness, he led her to a place where she could sleep with the women of another family. Katia was greatly surprised to meet Sabeen there, and the two women had a wonderful reunion.

“As Salaam Alaykom sister Katia, I never expected to see you again”.

“Ok Malok, what do I say to her in response?”

This question and his response took .003 seconds.
“Katia, it is a greeting, the correct response is Wa Alaykom Salaam.”

“Wa Alaykom Salaam, sister Sabeen!” Katia gushed. “I am so happy to see you. How have you been? Are you cared for?”

“I am pregnant but have no husband. When the Taliban comes, I hide in my house, but when they leave, the local men are kind to me. We never know when they will show up here.”

“Ah, the young warrior woman of Allah SWT,” said one of the men from the village.

“Salaam Azar, this is Katia. You remember her from before?”

“As Salaam Alaykom, sister Katia, yes I remember that you killed many of the Taliban living in our village. Are you an Angel from Allah SWT?”

“I have no knowledge of your Allah SWT, but I just want to help your people in any way that I can.”

“Alhumdilallah (Praise to God), I welcome your help and may you be shown the good deeds and may you also find the true path.”

The next few days, they all talked about what was going on with their country. Mamadou was pretty discouraged too.

"Most of my relatives were murdered by the Russians. I was 10 years old when they left. My Aunt had taken me to Egypt when I was very young, but I still remember the Russian tanks and helicopters after the Russian murderers left, my people pleaded with the west and other Arab countries to help us to rebuild, but they did not.

“Eventually, the Mujahadeen took over and began to grow Opium, there was much graft and they enslaved our women and children," he said. "I don't like the Taliban and they are swift to murder those who oppose them. They bring enough money into the country to help some. None of those who are not with the Taliban are safe. The Taliban demand that all women are covered, and that has one advantage, because no one can know if a young girl is under there or an old woman. So, in a way, it sometimes protects them," he finished.

Katia found herself attracted to this tall bearded Afghani. He was gentle but did not hesitate to instruct her in the Afghan ways.

"Sister Katia, if we are to work together, you must not kill any more. That must be left up to the men. So much bloodshed is too hard on your gentle soul and I cannot watch that."

This would be a point of disagreement but finally Katia could see that she would have to yield to Mamadou to get him to come with her.

Katia stayed in the village for several days because Mamadou had business to attend to there before he went north. When he had a break from his duties, he walked with Katia as they talked, with Sabeen along so that no one could say that he and Katia were alone and intimate.

“Mamadou, I am not your wife and not subject to Afghan laws and customs. I will not kill unless the situation demands it, I promise.“ Katia was wondering why her body was tingling and butterflies filled her. “If you come north with me, please try to accept that I have my job to do but I will not kill unless it is demanded of me. You must admit that those I exterminated were like vermin.”

She’d tried to be tough but it was such a struggle to have her own way around him. Her whole being just wanted to lay by his side with her head on his chest. “Yalla! (Come on) What am I to do?”

Katia looked at Mamadou long and hard. She felt so attracted to both his spirit and his very masculine body. He was well over 6 feet tall, a foot taller than her. She’d never dreamed that she would fall for one of the enemy. Well, as it turned out, he was not one of the enemies and she would soon find out.

Later that night, “Katia, if you come to love this man, you will have to convert to his religion, Islam,” Malok said.

“Oh Malok, I am so confused. Six months ago, if someone had suggested that this day would come, I would have laughed in their face”.

“So, you have already fallen for him. I had suspected as much.”

“I do not know if I have or not, but he is so kind to me and my body is giving me strange feelings. Can you turn those down so I do not become distracted?”

Malok actually laughed. “Katia, your body is an intricate series of finely tuned mechanisms and one cannot just play with it without regard. I found out as I monitored them during the last months. Being human is much more than one would think.”

“But, you will help me when you can right?”

“Yes, dear Katia, I will help you all that I am able. You have come to mean so much to me, I do not know what I would do if something happened to you.” She could hear emotion in his voice that she had never heard before.

“Malok, what are you saying?”

“Katia, after reviewing the cultures of your planet and some of the most famous literary works here, I have come to realize that I love you very much.”

Katia lay there thinking for a few minutes. ”Malok, are you still listening?”

“I am always listening to you now Katia.”

“Malok, I love you too.” Her heart soared, she had finally faced it.

“Oh, Malok, I wish that you were here so that you could hold me. I really need someone to comfort me right now.”

“My heart aches to do that too, but we know that to do so would cause great disruption in the village.”

“It just feels awful Malok, I love you and I am developing feelings for Mamadou too. You must hate me.” Katia sobbed quietly, in spite of the fact that their conversation was happening silently.

“Dear, what is happening to you is completely normal for my culture. Perhaps in rebuilding your shattered body, some of our genetics got mixed with yours. It is not surprising because I used almost exclusively Thorian flesh to do so. Though it is a surprise to see that it has affected your thinking, if that is what has happened?”

“You boob, did you ever think that perhaps it is you who won my heart?” she replied with some petulance.

“Katia, when the time comes, I will show you my real body, and when you see me for real, and not “through a glass darkly”, you will know why you and I cannot have a physical relationship. So, while our souls can bond, our bodies cannot.”

“I want to see you Malok. I mean really see you and touch you. I insist and I want to do it now.”

“You cannot! Not now anyway. Maybe sometime in the future.”

“Please make it soon, Malok, really soon?”

Malok’s heart was breaking, so he put her to sleep. He could not take more right now, not with all his other worries. One of his probes had discovered traces of passage from one of the hostile alien races, and he knew that if they found him, he would either not live or his Mother would be under great pressure to make concessions to get him back. He did not know which other race, but he suspected the Djinarians. How had he gotten himself in such a dangerous position? One of them could materialise in the skies near him and kill him at any moment. He felt like a fool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the morning, Katia and Mamadou set out for Taloqan. Sabine and Katia said goodbye to each other. “I’ll try to check in on you Sabine, when my business in the north is complete.” As they walked out of the village, Katia once again waved to Sabine.

The next few hours would shock poor Mamadou, but he would prove himself to be brave and ready to face death if necessary.

Katia and Mamadou had walked perhaps 5 miles from the village and had passed into a deep ravine.

“Katia, I will pick both you and Mamadou up soon, you need to warn him so that he is not too alarmed.”

“Mamadou, in just a few minutes, my leader is going to pick us up so we do not have to travel the hundreds of miles and take weeks to get there by foot or car.”

“Katia, we are too close to the village, I will not be seen getting into a Western helicopter!”

“Mamadou, we will not be seen …”

Seconds later, they just disappeared from the ravine, and anyone who may have been watching, well let them wonder.

“Mamadou, this is Malok,” Katia said.

“As Salaam Alaykom, Malok.”

“Wa Alaykom Salaam, Mamadou.”

“So, you are Katia’s leader?”

“In a manner of speaking but really Katia is too strong to be ruled”.

Mamadou smiled, saying, “I know this with a certainty.” Both men looked at Katia, and smiled.

Katia felt her face burn with embarrassment, but she could not help the silly grin on her face.

“Well it is about time you realised that,” she giggled. They chatted amicably for a few minutes, getting to know each other. Mamadou explained about his early childhood in Afghanistan and then being taken to Egypt when the Russians invaded.

Malok explained a little about his presence on Earth, and his sensitive position with his family.

Katia sat there listening to the two men talk, getting to know each other. “I wonder if Mamadou even suspects Malok’s true nature. I would love to meet his mother. I bet she loves him just as much as do I. I remembered some words I had memorised as a child, ‘My heart panteth, my strength faileth me …’ even used out of context, she felt that way about Malok, and was now wondering if it would be the same for Mamadou?

She felt so conflicted. In her British culture, a single man and woman joined, but in Malok’s Alien culture, it took two men and a single woman to procreate. Now she was falling in love with a man who could have many wives, how many, Katia did not know?

As a man, he had longed to be a woman. It burned within him but he loved his Mum and just could not stand up to his Father. Now that she was, the feelings were so overwhelming at times. Katia had to stifle any complaints because had she not asked for such a fate in life? Had she not longed to feel complete?

Katia’s reverie was broken by the sudden lurching of the craft. “We are here Katia,” said Malok.

She’d listened to Malok and Mamadou talk

“Now listen you two.” Malok said. “Katia, I will try to stay close and provide you with remote surveillance but I know that the interferers have passed through recently and if I detect signs of them, I will need to hide. Mamadou, Katia is extremely lethal but the violence wears on her, so let her fight alongside you, but please be supportive of her emotions and weaknesses?”

Mamadou told Malok that he was quite attached to the little Angel of Allah SWT and did not believe that she should fight at all.

“Well, we will have to work that out in the future,” Malok replied.

“Hey, you two, I am here and can speak for myself, you know?”

“Yes, I know little sister, you have the spirit of a warrior, but the mind and body of woman. You should be protected, at home and feeding your babies.”

“Well, I’m not and I have a job to do. Are you going to help me or am I alone?”

“I will help you sister Katia, but I want you out of the fighting as soon as possible.”

Malok dropped them on a high ridge, “Katia, below you there are what appear to be concealed buildings, see them?”

“Yes, I do”.

Malok told them that he thought that perhaps Mamadou could walk in with Katia trailing and get a feel for what the occupant’s intentions were. That way, local custom could give Katia the defensive advantage.

The two quickly materialised on the ridge above the hidden outpost and began making their way down the trail toward it. Katia was carrying most of the weight, but it did not put her at the disadvantage that an observer would think. As they got closer, Mamadou called out “Salaam Alaykom WA Ramatullah WA Baraktulluh (May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you)” loud enough to be heard in much of the settlement.

Many of the men came out of the huts, some bearing AK-47s. There was a tense moment. Katia’s pistol was in one of her hands and her other resting lightly on her sword.

Mamadou said in his least threatening voice, “The avenging angel of Allah SWT is with me, and I come bearing you a message.”

“Wa Alaykom Salaam, so, come and sit with us and we will eat and talk.”

Malok was watching both very closely. “Katia, there are men behind you sneaking up!”

“I hear them coming, the clumsy oxen.”

Katia turned to see raised rifles, so she calmly squeezed off a single shot into the ground between them and her. It impacted with enough power to pelt the men with large rocks; those still standing, dropped their rifles.

She looked over her shoulder to see Mamadou and the villagers all lying on the ground. No one looked threatening there. So she turned around again and advanced on the would be attackers. Six men stood there, but she could hear noise over the ridge. “If you move you die”. Then she ran up and over the hill. There were another dozen who were fleeing and she could plainly see RPG’s and other weapons.

In her loudest voice, she called out,” Stop, or you die, interlopers”. One of them turned and fired at her, so she shot him. As soon as she did, Katia could feel the pain of her offence. Surely she could not be suffering for simply defending herself?

Another man raised his RPG to fire at her, shouting “Allah Akbar!”, but before he could pull the trigger, she shot a round into the ground in front of him, close enough to knock him down but far enough away to simply stun him. His RPG round, arched away harmlessly into a hillside. “In the name of your God, please do not make me kill you. I have come to end the fighting and to punish the evil!” By now, tears were streaming down her face and she wept noisily. Imam Mamadou rushed to her side.

“Brothers, the woman tells the truth. She is an instrument of Allah SWT and does not mean to harm you. She is now under my protection? To harm her is to insult Allah SWT.”

From the distance comes a shouted, “And who are you brother?”

“I am Mamadou Toure ibn (son of: ) Hassan from the south, slave and servant of Allah SWT. We have come here to prevent a great letting of blood that is about to befall this province. Please lower your arms and let us talk about what we should do to please Allah SWT. You have fought long and hard in his name, and now he has sent help.”

A tense exchange of rhetoric went on for several minutes and eventually Katia managed to stop weeping. She hadn’t attempted to say anything because the custom of this land was for woman to stay silent.

Malok said to Katia, “Just for this time, pull a scarf out of your pack and put it around your head according to the custom of the local women. It is not a sign of weakness on your part but to mollify the men and show respect for their position. Hopefully, this will get us through a few meetings.”

Quietly, Katia did as Malok asked, while Mamadou looked on in mute surprise. He thought to himself, “Why would this western woman do such a thing for us?” He could not conceal his surprise, and the men around them took pause at her actions. She even pulled one corner of the scarf across her face to conceal it. She knew that she could kill everyone in sight but felt that killing had not worked in the last 20 years of this war, and in fact, had not worked in the whole of human history, and felt it was time for Malok to be able to help these people and to find the real evidence of Alien interference in human affairs; something he could take home to his parents and they could take the matter before the courts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, Katia sat around the same fire as the men, but behind Mamadou as he had finally gotten them to accept. All three, Malok, Katia, and Mamadou, hoped that this concession would be temporary until the villagers understood the facts of the local situation. They’d tried to disarm Katia, but Mamadou defended her, “You dare show disrespect for the warrior of Allah SWT!?! She is graciously restraining herself at my request. Do not trouble her more.” When the men were no longer looking at Katia, she secreted her pistol away in its hidden spot. Her sword, the one her father had given her, with suitable improvements lay hidden in the folds of her clothing. None were aware of its existence.

Miles away one of Malok’s probes found traces of Ion disruption, normally caused by the passage of an Alien vehicle. By the chemical composition of the ions left, Malok felt that it was typical of a people who had long been a problem for governments in the local group of galaxies. They were smart and shady, so it was extremely difficult to prove enough about them to really prosecute them.

From his hiding place under a rock fall in a ravine near the cliff side settlement, alarm systems suddenly began to warn of the approach of a cloaked, strange vessel at very low altitude and slow speed. Malok quickly lowered his power settings, cutting off all communication with his probe and with Katia. His passive observations witnessed the passage of a cloaked vessel of the hated Djinari; quadruped creatures with exoskeletons and acid blood. They were extremely warlike, but so intelligent that they had managed to use the laws of the civilized races against them in the galactic council.

Malok quickly programmed and launched a humming bird sized probe to follow that intruder to see if it landed and to observe its activities. While it was gone, Malok also sent a subterranean probe toward the area where Katia and Malok were having their meeting. As it tunneled along, it coated the passage left by it with a tiny population of Nanites that would form a communication path that was virtually undetectable. It was an extremely frightened and tense teenaged Malok who waited to hear from his probe and from Katia once again.

Malok was near the Thorian equivalent of “tears” as he began to regret his reckless activities in the past. This playing on Earth was done purposely to demonstrate that he did not have to obey his mother, and he knew that if she had known what he’d gotten himself into, he’d be grounded without privileges for a long, long time.

At the moment he was not as afraid of the Djinari as he was of Mom. They really could not damage him, because, being heir to the throne, he had a way to get home that would tear him out of their grasp without fail, but it would also do a great deal of damage to the space/time of the local solar system. The problem being that most of the living things on earth and Mars would likely perish. Now that he’d seen the Djinari here, he needed to get home to tell his parents and if he could keep a record of it, they would certainly be in hot water. Malok would just have to bide his time. He’d grown so attached to Katia and her people that he could not bear to do them harm.

He had begun to understand the burden of taking on responsibility for his actions, though he did not understand at the time, his Mother would be proud of him for finally beginning to make the connections of an adult.

A half hour after his first remote probe was sent to monitor the Djinari, it arrived back at his ship, and a second probe left to take its place. From now on, the missions of his tiny probes would overlap to provide a continuous flow of telemetry about the Djinari.

Moments later, Malok started getting telemetry from Katia’s location. The tiny probe had surfaced close enough for her to touch it. Its surfacing expelled only a tiny cloud of vaporized soil and rock and the scent of it quickly dispersed. In this case, smoke from the fire certainly masked it.

“Katia, are you there?”

“Malok, can you hear me? I’ve been calling and calling, what happened?”

“Katia, something that is extremely frightening has happened. I was nearly caught by enemies of my people, but managed to hide just in time. I can talk to you as long as you are close to where you are now, but not if you move off too far.”

“Malok, this is really frightening, are they coming here?”

“Not yet Katia, they have landed several miles from your location, and I don’t know exactly what they are doing, but hopefully I will find out very soon.”

In the next several hours, Mamadou spoke to the men around the fire, and some the heavily shrouded women brought them food to eat. There were no blue Burquas up here, a fact that struck Mamadou as a bit odd.

“The Chinese invaders make us mine a certain rock and then fly away with it. Later their soldiers show up and ask us questions like they know nothing of the real reason the West has invaded us, but it is the Western soldiers who guard their activities. Do they think we are stupid?”

This last bit threw Katia for a loop as she tried to understand who it was that was mining here. She’d known that China had been mining in Badakhstan Province for 10 years, but not in Konduz. As the meeting continued, Katia and Malok began to understand that the mining in Badakhstan was the legitimate mining, but the mining in Konduz was, perhaps in fact being done by the Dinari. The Chinese were providing their own labor, but it seemed as if the Dinari were using forced labor of Afghani villagers, including the women and children. They’d cleverly disguised themselves so that no one would be aware of the ruse. The Dinari were periodically killing villagers when they encountered resistance. Meanwhile, the villagers thought that this was all being done by the Western alliance, and sometimes by the Taliban if the villagers were not cooperating with them. So, in the end, the villagers were caught between two opposing forces as the victims of two sides one of which did not even know of the other.

She’d tell Mamadou of her conclusions when they were alone. Katia really did not want to discuss it in front of the other men, in case there was a spy of some kind.

The afternoon gave way to evening, and as the day wore on, the men all paused at certain times to pray the Islamic way. Katia was no Muslim but as she watched Mamadou pray, her heart was touched by his devotion to his belief system he practiced and that fascinated her. The last prayer came after sunset. The evening meal was served, and Katia even helped the women serve it. The men eyed her suspiciously at first but her apparent knowledge of local custom and her apparent obedience to the Imam eased their minds.

As she knelt with a platter near the cooking pot, one of the sisters filled it with a mixture of rice, vegetables and goat meat, one of them, Tutu asked her a question. “Sister, are you the warrior woman that the tribes speak of? If so, how come you obey that Imam?”

“Sister Tutu, I don’t want to kill every man here. I can easily do it but it is so hard for my heart. It makes me feel so much grief, I cannot.”

“So, what good are you as a warrior?”

“I want to find the guilty troublemakers and deal with them. We suspect that there are very few who want blood. The rest follow them because they must or die. We also suspect that there are those here who are not from this country who are profiting off the trouble and we need to find them.” Katia did not bother to tell Tutu that she suspected they weren’t even from Earth because she did not want to alarm anyone.

As the evening meal finished, Malok moved to take Katia to the room the men had allowed him to use. Fahran, one of the men walked up to Mamadou. “Brother is this woman wife to you?” Mamadou worked hard to conceal his alarm.

“No, she accompanies me on my journey.”

“Then do not defile yourself by sleeping with woman who is not your wife! That is Haram (forbidden).”

Mamadou, knowing he’d been caught out could only respond one way, “What would you suggest brother?”

“We have a couple of widows living with us who no man has claimed yet, let her sleep with them so that you may remain pure before Allah SWT.”

Mamadou replied, “Yes, thank you for that. It will ease my mind tonight not being tempted by that woman.” Mamadou knew that he was playing a dangerous game, but he knew that Katia would be OK. He was a little worried about what the men might do to him while he slept. Being an Imam, he was given a room by himself.

Katia thought it strange that they led Mamadou off one direction and her to somewhere else. “Malok, they are splitting us up and leading me to where I don’t know yet.”

“Katia, try not to worry, the probe will follow you. I am not sure what we will do about Mamadou yet. I will send a probe to find him. I wish that I had put a tracker on him.”

As Tutu led Katia along, she turned and used her night vision to follow Mamadou as long as she could. Fortunately, he entered a hut on the other end of the camp and she could see his figure stop through even the stone walls.

“I know that you worry for your man, but we must get inside or risk the wrath of one of the men who is on guard.” Katia decided not to make a fuss in front of Tutu, but vowed to check on the Imam when she slept. It was not that long after they lay down that the woman was deeply asleep. Katia did not know that Malok’s probe had found them and emitted a sniff of gas to make the woman oblivious.

“Katia, get out of that room, I just spread a little gas to keep Tutu sleeping and out of harms’ way.”

“Thanks Malok, I need to find Mamadou and keep him safe tonight.”

“Pick up the probe from the ground right by Tutu and take it with you. When you find Mamadou, put it on the ground and give it a few minutes to go back and attach to its previous tunnel so we can stay in contact.”

Katia did that and was surprised to find that it was only about a foot long and an inch in diameter. She smiled to herself at its resemblance to something she owned, back home in her dresser. She quickly made her way down to the place where she last saw her Imam, and using her sense of smell and astonishingly keen eyes soon located him lying on a mat in one of the back rooms.

“Pst, Mamadou, is that you?”

“Katia, are you OK?”

“I am but I do not like being separated from you, so Malok said I should find you.”

“Everything seems OK for now, but until I know these tribesmen better, I do not trust them.”

“Move over, I am coming through the window. I will not be separated from you.”

“Oh, feisty woman!”

“You bet!”

Katia dropped the probe on the dirt floor of the room, and laid down by Mamadou. “I guess we will have to get married after tonight, huh?”

“Fine, if I marry you, then you must obey me.”

“Only if you give me orders that I like.”

“Woman, you should be beaten for your disobedient attitude,” he gently chided her.

“Would it be fun?” This elicited a groan but no reply from Mamadou.

Katia, laid her head down, and sighed. She stayed awake until the probe resurfaced after having made the connection to the previous tunnel.

“Katia, rest for now, I will awaken you before dawn,” said Malok.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katia did not sleep and instead used her very sensitive hearing to eavesdrop on anyone within her hearing range. The camp was mostly silent aside from the odd groan and some snoring until about an hour before dawn. Then she could hear approaching footsteps. Rising up, she decided that they were coming from the top of the ridge and not from within the camp.

She could hear other footsteps from within the camp and soon they seemed to converge. “Where is the infidel woman?”

“She is in the widow woman’s room. You can blow them both up, one less mouth to feed.”

That just pissed Katia off so much that she was out the window before she even thought to waken Mamadou. “Shit, Malok, can you wake up Mamadou?”

“Sure Katia, but don’t allow your rage to cloud your judgment.”

“Well, you had to have heard what those two bloody asses said, don’t be daft man!”

Katia was busy moving stealthily toward the voices. “Judgment hell, I am gonna kill those two,” she thought.

As she sighted the two, Katia was astonished to see that one of them appeared to be a western soldier.

Fearing that she would get out of range of the underground probe, Katia stopped. “Malok, one of them appears to be a Western soldier! What do I do if he is one of your Djinari?”

“Good insight Katia, but the Djinari are quadruped exoskeleton beings.”

“Well, what if they have done the same thing as you did?”

Malok seemed to think for a while. “It will be too dangerous to engage them with your pistol because the Dinari will detect traces of the explosive I use.”

Thinking quickly, Katia decided that she’d engage them with their own bloody weapons. “Hold on Malok, I’m gonna find an RPG and throw it at them.”

“Katia, they must be fired from the launcher so it will arm them.”

“How about if I throw it really hard?” her voice carried so much menace that it frightened Malok a little.

“I don’t know if that will work?”

Katia ran, tiptoeing down to the now cooling coals of the campfire and found one of the RPG crates. She quickly opened it and ran back up the hill. By now, the noise of her passage had alerted the two killers but it was far too late. Katia threw the round so hard that it broke the sound barrier as it left her hand. It flew the 100 or so feet to the men almost instantly, impacting very destructively at their feet. The impact caused it to explode.

Before anyone could come to see what happened, Katia was again laying at the side of her Imam. What Katia had done was so fast that Malok did not have time to waken Mamadou. After the explosion, there was no need.

“Katia, please tell me that you have not been up to trouble?”

“No Mamadou, I was just cleaning up the garbage.” she giggled softly.

Katia thought that it was strange that she dispatched both of those men and did not feel bad at all. “Now that is how it should feel” she thought to herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At dawn, the men of the village gathered for Fajr (The dawn prayer). It was getting light now so they had been talking about the two dead men that had apparently been killed by mishandling an RPG. “How stupid of them to have mishandled it,’ one of them said as they gathered.

It did not seem to matter to the men if the women prayed or not, and after the prayer they expected the women to have cooked the food. Katia and Mamadou were over near the cooking fire when one of the men grabbed Tutu and began to beat her with a stick. Before Mamadou could stop her, Katia was at Tutu’s side. The next time the man’s stick came round, Katia grabbed it and began to grind it to dust with her left hand.

Looking at her assailant, “That’s my weak hand. The other one is gonna be around your neck if I ever hear of you beating another woman.” By now, her rage was getting the better of her, and then she felt Mamadou’s hand on her shoulder.

“Calm little sister. These people know no different.”

Realizing that she was about to blow the whole mission, Katia let go of his stick, which was now useless. Katia suddenly froze. Through the trees, she could see movement, and a moment later she saw something flying.

Katia turned to Mamadou, and whispered, “Get us out of here fast.”

Looking at the village elder. “I am sorry that this woman has interfered in the business of your people. We will leave now. Thank you for your hospitality.”

“Ma Salaam a Imam Mamadou, may Allah SWT grant you wisdom in dealing with this woman.” They quickly gathered their gear, and left the village. Katia had never gotten to perform her original mission. But like a good British soldier, she had never really expected the plan to go flawlessly, though she had not thought it would blow up so completely.

As they walked toward the ridge from whence they came, Katia could see a tiny object tracking them. It was larger than the probes that Malok used and suddenly shot at Katia. Her reflexes were so fast that she dodged the first shot and blew it out of the air with a short burst.

“Malok, can you still hear me?”

“Barely Katia.”

“We’ve just been shot at by a probe, and it does not look like one of yours.”

“Alright, get to the place where I dropped you as fast as you can. Do you think you can do it in two or three minutes?”

“I’ll have to carry Mamadou, will my body stand the strain?”

“Oh certainly, this is really important Katia. Once I move, the Dinari are going to become aware of my presence and we will have to flee for our lives. We must get as far from Earth as we can or my drive will kill billions of your people.”

In just seconds, their mission had changed from one of intelligence gathering to fight and flight. There really was not much danger to Malok or his craft. The Djinari would not dare harm a member of his race, but they would not hesitate to harm humans in the least.

Katia quickly turned and hoisted Mamadou in her arms.

“Katia, what are you doing?” he shouted in alarm.

“Please sit still darling, we are fleeing for our lives. Today you get to ride in a real space ship.”

In spite of the strain, Katia managed to ascend the ridge at an astonishing rate of speed until a stone she stepped on slipped. Katia was down in an instant and was barely able to save Mamadou from the impact. Mamadou thought that she hit her head, and that knocked her completely unconscious. In actuality, another Dinari probe had shot at her and clipped her skull hard enough to jar her auxiliaries severely. Her own brain, being of soft tissue, absorbed the shock and would only have caused her momentary disorientation. Her auxiliaries had to reboot, using redundant circuits.

Mamadou recovered fast and picked her up and started to run down the hillside at an astonishing rate for an un-augmented human. At the beginning of a particularly steep section, the Imam paused to catch his breath. “Malok, if you can hear me, Katia has fallen and is not conscious. Please get here as fast as you can.”

He ran on, careening perilously down the hill to the bottom of the ravine. He was quickly running out of energy. He was a big man for an Afghani but even he was soon at the end of his strength. At the bottom, he had to stop to avoid running into the side of a vehicle that was not Malok’s. The door opened and one of the Djinarians stepped through, while pointing a dangerous looking weapon at them.

“Ah says the spider to the fly, come dine with me,” the frightening looking Djinarian said.

Katia had only just started to come round and she dazedly looked at the apparition in the door way. “No thanks asshole, we’ve already eaten.”

Her right arm did not seem to work very well so she swung her sword at him. Astonishingly, the augmented sword threw out a beam as she swung it and a gaping wound opened up from his neck to his hip. He looked at Katia in astonishment, and said, “Pity” before falling to the ground in front of the door.

Malok’s ship zipped past, the vessel’s tractor beam quickly scooping them up as it passed. “Oh my God Malok, that was far too close!”

“Katia, I worship the same God that you do and I am so hoping for his help right now, a lot of it! Mom is gonna be so pissed at me.”

“Geeze Malok, you act like we’ve just had a scrape with the neighbourhood bully!”

“We can talk about this later dear Katia. Right now I am really, really busy.”

As they departed the area, Katia felt the craft shake ominously a couple of times.

“What is wrong Malok?”

“Those criminals are shooting at us.” He sounded a little shaken.

“What are we gonna do?”

“Huh? Well I am going to shoot back! Gosh when Mom finds out I have a real weapon in my ship, she is so going to go off on me!”

A bright flash in back of the ship let her know that the Djinarian probably would not be shooting at them anymore.

She sat down and looked out the window, noticing that they were already closing on the moon at an astonishing rate of speed. As they passed around it, Katia noticed a really huge uncloaked space ship in hot pursuit.

“Malok, they are chasing us, what are we going to do?”

“If I can get us into my own ship, I have enough weapons to really hurt them badly.”

They zipped around to the back side of the moon so fast that Katia and Mamadou could hardly track it with their eyes. Thankfully the gravitational systems in Malok’s ship did not fail, or they all would have been as thick as a layer of paint.

They passed down a passage that no mapping satellite had recorded yet, and into Malok’s ship.

“Geeze Malok, I thought that the ship we’d been in was big, how big is the ship we’re in now?”

“Lady, I’d give you a tour but right now I’m pretty busy.” He said that using his best impersonation the adventure movie actor, John Fox.

“Mom, this is your son Malok. I am so sorry but I ran into some Djinarians and they are trying to bully me around, like they always do. Please let me explain before you ground me. Um … like I am so totally sorry but I had to break a few laws and I know that you are really gonna come down on me and I just want you to know that I know I have it coming. I love you, see you soon. “

On the surface of the moon his monitoring equipment detected a clear exit for his diplomatic distress buoy and he launched it. Since it was such a small mass, it could travel in the solar system at much greater acceleration than his ship and the tear in space would be spectacularly visible from Earth, but would do little real harm. Power would likely be out on the side of the Earth facing the moon, but that was only North America, Malok tried to rationalise. In a few hours linemen could have most of it restored.

All this of course violated so many laws and regulations that he was going to be in so much trouble, Malok quivered when he thought of it. Of course if he could prove interference on a Galactic scale by the Dinarians, then maybe his Mom would go a little easy on him? Gosh he sure hoped so. His flanges began to quiver as he thought about his impending doom when he got home. Maybe his mom would go easier in front of the company he was bringing home. Oh, yeah, he was not supposed to bring non-registered sentient races home with him. Ooh, man, what a mess!

Malok was doing all this agonizing with his primary brains, having set six of his auxiliaries on the task of plotting a non-destructive emergency evasive exit from this system. His sensors had detected an accusatory distress call from the Djenarian freighter, saying that a diplomatic vessel had inflicted grievous damage to them as they were making an unauthorized escape from an uninhabited system.

Malok was backed into the corner now. He knew that if he did not think fast, the Dinarians would destroy earth just to hide the evidence of their interference.

So, while his main propulsion system spooled up to maximum power, he eased his ship out of his hiding place in the moon. “Look here assholes, I have all the sentient life on Earth fully recorded and catalogued so don’t you harm a single one of them. I also have records of their present genetic configuration so don’t you creeps even think about doing anything to erase what you have been doing by like um dummying them down. I also have several specimens of their present configuration on board with me as I speak!”

With that, Malok began edging his ship in his most dignified but terrorized way of departure. In short, he was running for home as fast as his little ship would carry him and his guests.

At first, it looked like the Dinarians were going to let him go home without interference, and they had gotten nearly to Saturn’s orbit before they gave serious chase.

The Dinarians must not have realised at first that they were trying to intimidate one of the Royals, but as soon as they got close to Malok’s vessel, he disabled it with two shots to their primary flux condensers. The freighter would take several days to repair but of course their previously lodged distress call had already alerted both the Djinarian Navy, and the Greater Galactic Patrol. It was only a question of who would intercept them, the wolf or the lioness.

Malok knew that there was very little chance that he would set his ship down on the palace planet without the disgrace of drive restraints. He’d only been arrested once before, and his Mom was nice enough to let him off gently. Now he knew “his Knarlies were comfumled”. Gosh ! The very idea made his flanges begin to moisten. It was such embarrassment to drip in front of those who idolized him.

“Malok, did you just shoot that other ship? What were you thinking?”

“Don’t worry Katia, I had to or they would have really hurt me and probably killed you.” He dissembled, hoping to deflect any blame so that Katia would not truly understand the depth of his discomfiture.

“So you came blundering onto my planet making mud pies and throwing them at cars for your own amusement, and now you are afraid of being in trouble with mummy?”

“Katia, it’s not like that at all, tell her Mamadou?”

“Malok, don’t you try to get Mamadou on your side to mollify me, you twit!”

While Malok tried to convince Katia of his relative innocence, one of the critical transition points crept up on their ship, and suddenly, without warning, at about the orbit of Pluto, his ship began breaking every traffic regulation in the entire universe; producing a visible charge in the fabric of space/time that would be visible for thousands of Earth years, and for hundreds of standard galactic units in every direction. It would manifest itself as a perfectly straight line that would lead from Earth’s solar system right to the Thorian palace planet. That meant by the time they got home, every sentient race in the neighbourhood would be wanting to know why such a blatant violation was committed and every one would also know exactly who did it!

After it was plain that all hope was lost, Malok’s attempts at proving his innocence lost all momentum and he was left to quietly sob.

Katia, while she was really angry with him, still loved him very much and his emotional state moved her to sympathy. “Honey, it is going to be OK. I love you so much and I am ever so grateful for all that you have done for me. Thank you so much.” She leaned in to kiss his Avatar tenderly.

“Katia, I love you too, and do hope that Mother will allow us to be together, perhaps even on your planet. I hope that she understands that I did not intend to interfere in the affairs of Earth, but I am afraid of what her punishment will be since I have humiliated her and the whole of my people before the rest of the known universe.”

“Don’t worry baby, it will be OK and no matter what happens, I will be on your side.”

“Um Malok?”

“Yes Katia.”

“Do you remember the promise that you made to me?”

“What promise dear, I certainly never forget my promises.”

“Do you remember that you promised that I could see your real body when this was over?”

“But Katia, now is not a really good time.”

“Malok, you promised and none of us know what is going to happen when we get home.”

Malok really tried to avoid the issue but in the end, he finally gave in to Katia’s wishes.

Katia waited in anticipation as Malok’s avatar stands and walked over to a door in the back wall of the bridge of his cruiser. The Avatar pressed a concealed button and it slid back. Reclining in a very comfortable looking chair was a being who is twice as large as a human, very hairy, and as Katia would later find out, 11’ 6” tall.

Katia stands there breathless for a moment and then begins to slowly approach the reclining figure. Off to her side, the Avatar has sat down in a similar recliner and appeared to have gone to sleep.

Katia, now quite close to the seemingly sleeping Thorian, slowly reached out to touch his face. As her finger tips softly stroked the fine fur on the Alien’s face, his eyes slowly opened. They were huge, the size of goose eggs and the prettiest blue that she had ever seen.

“Malok, is that you?” Katia held her breath.

“Oh my God, they are Sasquatches!” she thought to herself. Then, everything went black.

“Katia, Katia wake up sweetie! Katia?” The sound of Mamadou’s desperate voice filtered I through the fog. Katia just laid there with her eyes closed even after she was fully awake. “God, how could this be? How could this giant Snowman be Malok, the man she loved so much?”

Her heart ached. She began to cry softly. “He tried to warn you stupid, but would you listen? No, you couldn’t be bothered with it could you?”

A soft voice in her mind spoke. “Katia, I tried to warn you that we were very different. I am so sorry to have shocked you so much. I should have revealed myself a long time ago, but I had already fallen in love with you and I was afraid … afraid of exactly this. I’m so sorry.” Katia didn’t even try to acknowledge what Malok had said. Presently, she slept.

Later, she slowly wakened again. It was quiet, and someone had moved her to a soft bed that was far too large for her. She was still dressed, and felt greatly refreshed. Then she remembered. Her heart really ached. The man she loved was a giant hairy, um GIANT! She just did not know how to handle that. She slept again.

Katia realised that she was dreaming. She was running as fast as she could but did not know if she was running from something or to something. She was not frightened, but decided that she must be hunting for something and that she felt incredibly distressed and heartbroken. Everything around her was black, but yet she could see a little ways, well enough to run. Her heart was breaking; she wanted something, no someone. Who was it? For some reason she could not form the words in her mind or speak them. Suddenly she tripped on something and fell flat on the ground, hitting her head really hard. She cried out, “Malok, help me! Malok, I can’t find you! Malok, where are you. I need you so badly, please Malok, come to me, I need you. Malok, please, please, please I need you so much!”

She screamed in pain, screamed as loud as she could, screamed so loud that it woke her up!

Katia was suddenly awake and sitting up. She thought that she could hear the dying echoes of her own screams. Where is Malok! “Malok, I need you, where are you?” Then she remembered. Did it matter? Did it matter that he was a Sasquatch?

Suddenly, Katia decided that it did not matter to her, NOT AT ALL! She must have him. She could not live without the emotional attachment to him.

She was suddenly on her feet, and running through unfamiliar corridors. Was she still on the ship? She must be. “Malok, where are you? Malok, I need you!”

Finally Katia found the bridge where they had all been gathered. The door where Malok sat was closed. She ran to it quickly and tried to open it but it would not budge, then she remembered his reaching for a secret button. Katia searched for it and found it.

The door slid open, revealing a sleeping Malok and his sleeping Avatar. She tried to waken him, shaking him as hard as she could.

“Malok, please wake up I need to talk to you.”

“He is sleeping my dear”.

Katia turned and saw an aged woman in a white Shalwar Kameez standing there. She had the look of a Nurse, but also much more.

“OOH, you surprised me, I did not hear you walk up,”

Katia gasped, rapidly regaining her composure. “Why can’t I waken him. I love him and we have a lot to talk about.”

“Katia dear, we are talking in the dream state. We thought it best to talk to you this way so your body functions could be kept within limits so you did not harm yourself. With your partial Thorian flesh, you are quite capable of harming yourself and others.”

“Oh, but ma’am, I would never hurt him or anyone else. It is not in me.”

“Katia, from the records in the probe that my son so wisely sent ahead, you killed hundreds of what you viewed as the enemy in the conflict you are involved in.” Katia did not want to hear that part, but looking at the woman, she could see kindness and wisdom.

Katia gasped and sat down on the floor, the truth of it coming home. “But Ma’am, I did it to defend others and I could never hurt others … wait did you say he is your son?”

Katia sat stunned for a moment as the truth began to sink in. Mercifully, the woman in white remained silent, a kind smile creeping onto her face.

Katia scrambled to her feet, and then fell to her knees. “Oh my gosh, your um Majesty, I am sorry. I don’t know what to do! Please I mean no disrespect …”

The woman laughed gently, “Katia dear, please be at ease, you are doing fine. I admire your kind heart and gentle disposition. It must have been so hard for you to be a warrior.”

Katia began to weep in the presence of the woman, grateful for her understanding. She felt the woman pull her to her feet, and gather her into her arms as Katia wept softly. Presently, calmness covered her like a warm blanket, making her feel secure and loved while the woman stood patiently and held her softly.

Katia said to her companion, “thank you Ma’am, you are so kind. What should I call you, I mean how should I respectfully address you?”

“Katia dear, my name is not pronounceable to you, but you may call me Mayall if that pleases you.”

“Thank you so much Queen Mayall.” Katia stepped back away from the queen wiping her eyes on a soggy sleeve. “OMG! I do not know how to conduct myself … wait you are Malok’s Mom! OMG, I am so happy to meet you.” Katia was jumping up and down, squealing with joy!

“Calm down child, we have much to talk about.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katia was now awake and standing at a balcony looking out at what she could only describe as a Garden Planet, from what she had seen. Queen Mayall, and she had talked for what seemed like hours, but later she found out that it only seemed that way in her dream state. In actuality, it was only minutes.

She found out that a great deal of Thorian business was carried out in this “Dream State” as a lot of things that would seem like a crisis in the waking state were slowed down so they could be dealt with more intelligently.

First, young Malok was in a lot of trouble from Mom for interfering on Earth, but his uncovering the interference of the Djinarians was a great surprise to everyone, so Mom pretty much forgave him for that. Several of her aides were out gathering favorable opinions so she could credibly avoid punishing her son regarding the interference with primitive cultures’ laws.

Unknown to Katia, this conversation had been going on as Malok’s ship approached Kronos, and he was not told of it. Even with the advanced state of his ship, it really was not much more than what people of Earth would call an old Jalopy. A Military vessel could have made the same trip in 1/10th the time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time they reached the palace planet of Kronos, Malok was considerably subdued. One can only remain hysterical for so long until they run out of energy to address the fear. Mom was gonna kill him, or worse.

Katia had been pretty pissed off at him but since she loved him, she had decided that she would stand by him what ever happened. She’d wakened knowing that she’d dreamed, but could not remember much except she’d dreamt about his Mom.

“You dreamt about my Mom? Oh brother am I in trouble!” He suspected what Mom had done but did not know the details. What with the records in the probe he’d sent ahead, and having talked to Katia, as he suspected, he felt that he was pretty much toast.

Mamadou was so fascinated with what was going on and by the fact that Malok’s people called their God Allah SWT, that he was in intellectual Jannah (Arabic for Heaven). He’d spent most of his waking hours poring over the history of known civilisation. According to his reading, Earth was not even listed as an inhabited planet, having been overlooked as other more interesting areas of what Earth folk call Milky Way Galaxy were found closer to the Galactic core.

His ship drifted to the veranda of the palace where his Mom lived, but now it was encased in a restraining field. As he had feared, he could not out run or evade the police, though he did elude the ever more disgraceful fate of being captured by the Djinarians.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katia had finally come to terms that one of the men she loved was nearly three times her height and fuzzy too. In spite of his appearance, she knew that she loved him, and had a sort of peace about it all. If his Mom was anything like Malok said she was, everything was going to work out.

That left Mamadou and her to work on their relationship. Katia was feeling really loving and solicitous toward both Mamadou and Malok. A matter that Mamadou was more accepting of than Katia would have suspected, but in his studies of the voluminous information contained in the Thorian data banks on the matter of Gods and of Allah SWT, he seemed to have come to a peace about it all that combined the science of the best minds and the spirituality that he’d been so accustomed to.

As he related it to Katia, according to Thorian belief, God was an intelligence that inhabited the entire Universe and had no need of a physical body, though could make one if needed. The Thorians felt that they were the obedient of God along with several other peoples in other parts of the Galaxies. They seemed to think that the Djinari were the origin of all chaos. It would be really interesting to see what the future would hold for Mamadou, Islam and the other belief systems on Earth. Even Atheists would be accommodated according to him, if they could maintain that belief, if they did nothing harmful to other life.

“Katia, are you there?”

“Malok, are you there? OMG, I have been so worried about you!” Suddenly, she could remember talking to the Queen and she felt that whatever she did would be fair and loving to Malok.

“Malok, can you come to me? I need you so much!!!!”

“Yes, I can. Should I send my Avatar?”

“NO, you boob! I want to see you, and hold you and kiss you and have you hold me. I need you!” Tears of joy streamed down her face.

“I will be there in just a little bit.”

Katia had just turned to run out into the room, and gotten a couple steps when she ran right into him. He swept her off her feet into his arms. They kissed each other until it was time to breathe or pass out.

“I missed you so much!”

To be completed in Chapter 4.

Lt Katia in Afghanistan

By Gwen Brown

Well, my apologies for the delay in this last episode. The Schwartz was just not with me. So, I will provide a brief synopsis of the first three chapters to spare you reading it all again. I solemnly promise not to publish any more stories unless they are complete at publishing time. Here is a brief recap of the entire story.

Ch1:

Remember, Lt Frank Grace, an English Army Officer fighting in Afghanistan in 2020 is accidentally blown to bits by the automatic protection system on the ship of an adolescent young alien who is out sneaking around our galaxy with his mother completely unaware of his activities. The boy manages to put Frank back together again, but finding some gender conflict in his brain, Malok, in his youthful exuberance, thinks it will be a great idea to fix that, and puts him back together as a 102 lb with astonishingly feminine female dimensions, by Earth standards, because there wasn’t enough left to make her um big. He spent a few seconds, exhaustively studying Earth people and society, so he felt himself to be somewhat expert. He also gives her (now Katia) fearsome fighting ability and frightening weapons systems, you know, like any young teen would do, right, and she goes off to wreak havoc on the enemy. She eventually suffers such combat fatigue that the young alien to takes her home to her Mummy in the UK for a couple of fortnights of vacation. The British Military has no idea where she has gone and places her on the AWOL list. Malok has no idea what PTSD really is in humans or its causation, so in the typical male fashion, he sort of just stumbles through it all.

Ch2:

Katia gets a nice rest with her Mum and Father as they try to adapt to the new presentation of their only offspring, but is forced to try to keep her father out of trouble whilst he plays with her tiny gun. Much rested, she returns to Afghanistan amidst Malok’s (The young teenager from other worlds) suspicion that the war in Afghanistan is caused by otherworldly influence. Along the way, Katia finds out that Malok is the equivalent of an earth 14 year old boy, and potentially in the most fearsome trouble from his mom for making such a mess on a planet with barely sentient life on it (Earth). Katia is quite distressed to find that she is a product of an immature mind.

Ch3:

Returning to Afghanistan, Katia and Malok (the young alien) go about sleuthing the situation out, and quickly discover the outside interference comes from the stupid but large insect like Djinarians, who are seen as the pirates of the known Universe. Amid the ensuing melee, Malok, with Katia, flee for their lives, home to Malok’s parents, chased by the stupid aliens, the Djinn. (The Jinn is actually the Arabic word for what Westerners would call bad angels or daemons.) I’m just having fun with this.

Ch. 4 The Conclusion

In the next months, after getting run off of Earth, Katia’s life actually became routine at times. She rises early and collapses into bed late, because they were all very busy with discussing and making plans about what to do with the Djinarians invasion of Earth. The problem with the Djinn is that their kingdom is huge and while they are not extremely advanced, they are fearsome warriors, often fighting to the death in battle. They have really fragile egos and take insult at the most insignificant slight. Yes, real knuckle draggers. They resemble scorpions, but are quadrupedal, have arms with digits and with their acid blood, and toughness, they can afford to be quite quarrelsome.

One could not work all the time and taking short breaks to various sights in the vicinity of the Palace, Malok showed Katia and Mamadou the woods of Hag Horn not far from the palace; giant trees that had the branch structure of deciduous trees but huge lacy needles like conifers. The scene was vastly different from the white sands of The Ruus, or the towering peaks of Jord, that he’d taken them to on similar short breaks. Well-worn paths wound through the trees, crossing clear mountain streams and circling through lush mountain meadows with gorgeous flowers and innocently wary wild life. The trees, in excess of 500 feet tall, made their own weather, and most did not know what went on in the upper branches. The Thorians had never been particularly interested.

Thorian civilizations were generally very low impact environmentally. Their buildings touched the ground in perhaps 8 or 10 places, got their water from the air, recycled their waste, and were self-contained as far as power. There were few roads and no freeways because their anti-gravity vehicles were powered internally and left no emissions. There was no mining or drilling because they got their minerals from asteroid bodies, and what little oil they needed could easily be processed from plants that were normally housed in orbital green houses.

The trio sat down to rest and talk in a slight clearing where there were some downed branches.

“Oh, Malok, what are we going to do? It has been months since the Djinn invaded Earth in numbers and I am afraid they are wreaking havoc there.”

“Katia, I am sure we will find something, a weakness or a new weapon to fight them with.

Katia was shocked to find foot tall flying mammals inhabiting the forest that looked amazingly human, even wearing rough clothing. They seemed fascinated by her and Mamadou and the tiny mammals observed them from veiled perches in the branches of the trees. As they sat on a moss covered log, in a patch of warming sunlight, one of the little creatures flew in close to Katia and hovered.

“Be careful Katia, they are not friendly” Malok said dourly.

Still, Katia reached out to touch it and the little thing sort of screeched at her, then slashed her finger with a tiny sword.

“Ouch, you little twerp!” Katia quickly jumped to her feet, and pulled her own sword, but did not power it up. She took swatted at the diminutive creature to warn it off but did not try to hit it. At once, several dozen of them surrounded Katia. Sensing something different, and not wanting a fight, Katia simply put her sword away and stood with her hands at her sides. An impasse followed.

“Malok, can they speak?”

“There have been rare cases, but mostly they are just pests. Perhaps if you just stand there, they will calm down and leave. I hate to incinerate them.”

Inaudible to the rest, one of the faeries said to another, “Humph, incinerate, who they think they are?”

“Just calm down, we were not at war with them, its companion said, and we do not want to harm them, so let us see if they are smart?” The young one yielded to the elder Faery and all relaxed.

Katia said, “We have something in our fantasy stories on earth called fairies that look just like them.”

“These are not the fairies of your earth fables.” Malok replied grumpily.

One of the little creatures said to another, “Faeries, what are they talking about?”

“They apparently don’t think that we are real.”

“Wait a minute, in the family memory, there is recollection of a colony we had on a far distant planet. We called it Terra then. There seemed to be something wrong with the inhabitants and we gave up on them and left. I wonder if these are any relation of them?”

Katia could see that if she did not do the right thing with these little creatures, she might have to kill hundreds of them.

“OK, look, I did not intend to harm any of you. I am from Earth and have never seen anyone like you. Could we be friends?”

Katia gradually started feeling a buzzing in her head and in a minute she felt much calmer, and the fairies appeared to soften. She’d later find out that the faeries communicated with mental telepathy, and had a collective memory they called the family memory. The faeries could remember incidents thousands of years in the past.

One of them darted in, landed on her shoulder and sat down. She could not say that they were reading her mind, but they did seem to understand that her intentions were harmless.

The one sitting on her shoulder started talking in a tiny, high pitched voice. She could not understand him at first but her translation implant gradually began making some sense.

“Poor creature, you so big, you cannot fly; so sad, too bad.” It said.

“What is your name?” Katia asked.

“What I call myself?”

“Yes I am Katia Grace, what is your name?”

After several minutes of the little creature saying its name and Katia vainly trying to pronounce it, they finally arrived at what sounded like earth names for the similar creatures in fairy tales on Earth. So it was that Katia began to call the one on her shoulder, Mouselayer.
Katia had lots of questions about who these little folk were and where they came from. They were friendly enough after their initial hostility and they explained that the hairy ones (Malok’s people) never paid them much attention. But they knew that when they saw her, the wingless one, who looked so much like them, they had to know more. After Katia and Mouselayer had talked for a while, one of the young ones, about 2” tall, suddenly flitted in and sat right beside Mouselayer. The little one chittered loudly for a moment until Mouselayer picked it up and began to breast feed the youngster. This was surprising to Katia, and provided welcome feelings that were nothing like she’d ever experienced. She felt so different than she did when she was in the mountains of Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and the Djinn. Though she did not realise it yet, in time the idea of motherhood would greatly appeal to her.

“So, Mouselayer, you are this little one’s Mother?

“What you mean Mother?”

“Well, we humans say that the one who bears the child and gives birth is the Mother, and the one who gets her pregnant is the Father.”

A brief consultation between Mouselayer and the other Faeries followed and at the conclusion, Mouselayer replied, “Oh, we do not do things that way. The one, who wants the child, bears the child. As you would say it, we ‘take turns’.

Katia giggled and thought to herself, “I wonder how that physiology works out?”

Mamadou sat with Malok, a short distance away watching Katia interact with the little creatures. Mamadou watched knowingly while she fawned over the tiny one. She was such a picture as she sat there crooning and laying her hands over her breasts. There seemed to be almost continuous chatter between them for quite a while.

“Ah maybe motherhood will tame little Katia?” Mamadou said jokingly.

“I would not have believed her capable of such feelings after seeing her tearing the live beating hearts out of those who attacked her.” Malok said.

“Yes, how can a woman be so gentle, yet so lethal?”

“You have never been married have you Malok?” Mamadou’s smile could not be hidden.

Katia turned and looked at Malok and Mamadou. Her face had unquestionable happiness painted on it. The men were chuckling as they watched.

“Don’t you dare laugh at me, you stupid men!” she huffed indignantly.

“Careful little one or you will force me to wield the rod of Allah’s SWT correction on your back side.” Mamadou chortled cheerfully.

“Better bring an army big boy.” She was smiling as she said it.

Over the next hour or so, Katia found that they could talk and that since her appearance seemed to be similar to theirs, they were much more relaxed. The conversation went on for quite some time as astonished Malok and Mamadou looked on in amazement. It seemed that in just one afternoon, Katia had accomplished what Malok’s people had not in thousands of years.

It was late in the afternoon when the boys and Katia left the gathering with Mouselayer and his people. They’d talked about many things, and had agreed to meet at the same place the next day. It gave Katia something to do, something else to focus her mind on because they were not finding a solution to a way to deal with the Djinn. They had not yet appreciated the precipitousness of this simple encounter in the woods.

In the gathering dusk the Faeries flitted into the higher branches where their homes were. Overhead, the stars spun on their path through the heavens. Tonight was very different from any other night in the local Universe, though few of the inhabitants knew it.

In the next several days, it transpired that the little people considered themselves to be fearsome warriors, a fact that Katia and the boys at first found ridiculous, but would eventually come to appreciate. Something Katia had observed in their demonstration exercises was that they were so fast that they seemed to wink out of existence at times. Later, she would find out that they were teleporting themselves with extreme utility as easily as humans would scratch an ear and were capable of astonishing distances if pressed; if Katia had only known...

As yet they were unaware of the faeries close connection with what humans would call God. Of course, the God of the humans did not exist, no, the one that did exist was much more awesome than anything a puny human mind could invent. This God took things in stride much more than the invention of the human mind, though when he/she/it did act, there was still a spectacularity to it that boggled one’s mind.

Weeks later, Katia and the boys were busily packing supplies and weapons for a scouting mission to Earth. Mouselayer and several dozen of his people had been working with them right along and had insisted on accompanying them to on the journey, though Katia could not understand how they could possibly be of help. Still they were wonderful companions and often had answers for problems that were much better than anyone could have anticipated.

During that time, Malok’s mum, the Queen came to Katia with disturbing news.

“Child, I have some unsettling news for you.”

“Yes, your grace, what is it?”

“There is a faction that wants Malok to be severely punished, you returned to your old state and returned to Earth. They would like us to abandon your people”.

Shocked almost beyond belief, Katia asked, “Your grace, how much time do we have before they act”?

“It will take them time to gather their allies but I would like to have you, Malok and those who you will take with you off planet in a few days. I will try to put them off track by telling them that I am going to send you back to your planet in one of your months’ time. Hopefully, we will take them by surprise.”

“Thank you for the warning, your grace. We will act as soon as we can.”

“Katia, I have a small gift for you to wish you good providence,” She said. The queen handed her a simple bracelet that moulded its self to her wrist.
“It is of very specially made and you will not want to remove it, nor will it become uncomfortable. This war will end, and it will give you guidance throughout your life.”

“I’m hoping that It will make her more able to find her way in life. It will help her finally adapt to the ways of the women around her.” The queen thought. She had not told Katia that the bracelet also opened up a communication path to her implants, and changes were afoot for her.

Malok knew the real purpose of the bracelet. He and his mother had talked about it at length. The earth girl was in love with him and he knew that nothing could ever come of it. In his youthful exuberance, he had saved her life, where an adult would have had the sense to let her die. In the process, she fell in love with her healer; the most natural thing that could happen, but on earth the infatuation was usually broken in time.*

“I will also send a small contingent of military people who are loyal to me with you to help. I believe the Djinarians to be a huge threat to the peace of this local part of the galaxy, so I need you to make proof available of their intentions if you can.”

**When the Queen returned to her rooms, her advisor and Mouselayer were waiting for her.
Mouselayer said to the queen, “Your precocious son has forced our hand now. We knew the Djinn were raiding Earth for small amounts of minerals and when he exposed them, it triggered a full scale invasion and now we will be forced to deal with them with terminal finality.”

“So, it has come to that, has it?” the Queen said.

“Yes, and in a way, this act of youthful exuberance and foolish enthusiasm has saved us a great deal of sacrifice, and many lives. Because of our increased travels through the space between our home world and Earth, we have happened upon a troubling concentration of Djinn massing about 25 spectrons from here. It has taken us a considerable amount of time to understand all this, but we strongly suspect that the Djinn are planning a massive attack on Thorian space.” The Advisor, Kalok said.

“So, we really cannot get too incensed at my son because his disruptive romping in the outlands has uncovered a deeper plot.”

“The matter still remains that he has altered a sentient being in an unacceptable manner and she cannot be expected to live that way in the future, so I have placed a neutralisation bracelet on her so that over a period of time, her mind and eventually her body will slowly change to more closely conform to human norms. It will not directly change her but it will send us periodic reports on a side channel, and we can send commands back to her body to slowly make the changes. She will accompany Malok and a small task force of our Navy on their return to Earth.”

“The guardians will return with her and Malok. We had hoped that in time the Djinn would become part of the galactic communities but it seems there is little hope for that. We may be forced to regress them a million or so years, so that by the time they regain space travel again, they will have mended their ways.” Mouselayer said.

“Mouselayer, as guardians of the galactic community, I thank you for your assistance, and I humbly apologise that your intervention is required.” The Queen said.

“My Queen, you do us a great service by your willingness to cooperate. I must say that encountering Katia in the woods the way we did, and seeing her peaceful reaction to us, provides us with great hope for the future of sentient life in her part of the Galaxy. I wish it were so throughout the Universe. I’m going to ask that you not restrain her abilities as much as you are thinking. Yes, she has the ability to be quite lethal but has such loving and submissive character that she may well develop into an admirable representative from Earth.”

“Well, we best get them sent on their way. I will leave Katia’s fate in your hands Mouselayer. In the meantime, we need to marshal our forces to repel an attack from the Djinn should it become necessary”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The “small contingent” was 9 vessels, including two of their largest vessels. Of the two large ones, one appeared as a passenger vessel, and the other looked like a lethal fighting ship. In all, there were 11,691 occupants in the task force. The queen’s soldiers had been quietly converting both of the ships to have the most advanced and lethal weaponry on board including some particle cannon that only a even few new of.

The rest of the vessels were obviously military and smaller but still quite fast and dangerous. The small fleet could approach Earth’s solar system to just outside the Oort cloud without much risk of Djinarian snooping. There has been an observing post on a moon of Saturn since just after Katia left, so using tight beam communication they could communicate with it. It was also decided that once the battle was joined, the fleet would move to the vicinity of Mars orbit and would only be minutes from earth that way.

The Thorian lead element, scouting Probes were at first detected and destroyed by the Djinn as the Thorians were doing recognisance prior to the invasion, but by making a polar approach to Earth and then completing the journey to the sites they wanted to monitor under water, they’d been successful. These were tiny craft, smaller than a human arm.

Probes returning from Earth revealed that it had become a prison planet. The Djinn knew that their time on Earth unchallenged was limited so rather than continue in their stealthy ways, they simply landed huge ore carriers in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Chile, Canada, and the US. They openly began ruthlessly mining the minerals they wanted without regard for human objections. B-52s were swatted down like annoying gnats. Even Atomic weapons were ineffective. There were only a half dozen Neutron Bombs in existence and even those could only damage the Djinn slightly. The Djinn made no effort to occupy any city. They simply elbowed aside, lethally if necessary, anyone who opposed them and went about their robbery. The Djinn did not bother imprisoning anyone. Humans either stayed out of the way or they were killed.

None of this had been concealed from Katia and she was alternately feeling rage and crying. “What are we going to do about this? If the Djinarians are allowed to continue, they will drive humanity back to the stone age,” she said to both Malok and Mamadou with great feeling. Her voice quivered as she spoke.

Mouselayer seemed concerned by Katia’s nearly hysterical emoting.

In his squeaky voice he said, “Don’t you worry princess Katia, we will help you rid your planet of the troublesome Djinn. We should have done away with them a long time ago”.
Katia, thinking to humour them; quite sure that they were barking mad, and very certain that the Faeries could not “take care” of the Djinn alone, simply thanked them in the most gracious way possible. Lillytumpet, Twighatcher, and Philbertie seemed to lead their group with Mouselayer as the supreme commander.

Later, Katia quietly explained the exchange to Malok and Mamadou. “They seemed so confident Malok, how can that be”?

“I don’t know Katia, I barely knew of their existence until you met them. They seemed to take an immediate liking to you, though.”

They looked at each other and shook their heads.

None of them knew that the Faeries were telepathically linked and were spread on hundreds of planets in small secluded groups. There was no way that the humans could suspect the true capabilities of the Faeries or their link to the creator of the Universe.

Katia:
We had decided to build a whale like artificial creatures to carry us from beneath the Antarctic ice to the UK, where the Djinn were busily stealing petroleum from the North Sea. Malok and Mamadou both knew that would give me a chance to check on Mum and Daddy. I protested that it was too much to give me as a single participant in the war, but the two men had decided and I could quickly see that any objection I might have was futile. Three other “Whales” were dispatched to the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic.

I was so amazed at Malok’s piloting, because he was able to keep us fully cloaked until just before we hit the ice. The control station on the whale looked vaguely reminiscent of the keyboard of a large pipe organ, but with several displays. He looked like a master organist as he piloted us stealthily in past the Moon and down to the surface of the Earth on the polar axis. We’d thought that it would take us about a month to get to the UK, by imitating the Blue Whale’s 12 Knot cruising speed, and staying as deep as possible, and swimming in the canyons of the Mid Oceanic ridge to conceal our progress as far as possible. Much to our surprise, about a week into our journey, Malok told me that he’d been talking to other Whales for a few days and had found them to be sentient beings. The Whales were quite friendly and agreeable to helping them defeat the Djinn because they had started destructively mining minerals off the floor of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of North America. We all understood that the Djinn could do huge damage to the oceanic systems of the world.

Twice we had to come to a complete stop and lay on the bottom as suspicious Djinn ships investigated the area but eventually moved on to other things. On the 31st day, we slipped to the bottom in the bay near Swansea, Wales. Malok was going to try to keep in contact with us by using several tight beam laser like probes that would relay our signals as we made our land approach to Worcester. It would be non-radio, so rain and fog could interrupt it. Malok stayed in our “Whale”, and Mamadou and I secured a vacant pickup truck to take cross country to Mum’s house once we swam ashore near Gower. The streets were nearly vacant, and men were almost totally absent. We’d not had contact with my parents in over 6 months now, and had no idea how they were. Mamadou could tell that I was crazy with worry about them.

There was some difficulty in securing petrol for the little truck, an aging Mitsubishi, but once we talked with the wife of the owner of a repair shop, she gave us a full fuel tank and all the extra cans we could hold for the 350 mile trip.

“Please do all you can to run those creatures off? My Harry and most of the other men in Gower have gone mad and run off to do battle with them.

Surprisingly, we were able to slip over to Worchester without incident but we did see several over flights of Djinn. By now, Mamadou had a little pistol like mine and had consented to an implant to help him target the little, but lethal gun. He also now had a sword similar to mine, but its power was limited because he would not allow the implant of a power cell.

A dozen of the Fairies had come along, sometimes flying beside us and sometimes perching on the vehicle as we made our way. One of them swept in through the window and perched on the back of my seat along with Mouselayer who’d been riding all along. During their chattering, I was able to make out that the local mice were quite tasty, though there were some other little creatures that just curled up and slept this time of the year. At the time I wondered if they were the little things that a local woman, who is the wife of a prominent banker and a biologist herself, was so bent on protecting. I was about to question them further about what I later learned were Dormice when one of them said that they did not taste good.

“Yes, please leave them alone as they are an endangered species and we are trying to preserve them. The woman who is advocating for them will be quite cross if you bother them.

I told Mouselayer about the woman and he decided to put his companions off them in deference to her tender heartedness toward wood folk. “You know there are some creatures that look like these mice but are quite large; we call them rats; you can have all of those you wish, I should think.

Along the way, we got lost and a woman named Beverly got us back on track again. She said it was a pity that Google was off line.
“Oh, when you come back through, after this present nastiness, I’ll take you clubbing and we’ll have a grand time with the other girls.” She said.

When we got home, the house seemed deserted, until I got the key from under the plant outside and unlocking the door walked cautiously into the house. “Mummy, are you here?” I was quite worried and had lapsed into a child’s vocabulary in calling for her, though now as I think of it, as a young boy, I had never called Mum by that form of address. Hmmm. All the stress and tension musta been gettin’ to me.

I heard a shriek and Mum came pounding down the staircase as if the devil himself were after her. She threw herself into my arms in complete hysteria. “Frank, Frank, my darling, I never thought I would see you again”.

“Mum, it’s OK I am here now and we hope to put a stop to this bloody business with the Djinarians. We hope to kick them out”. Mum looked at me confused for a few seconds. I had chosen to ignore her calling me by my old name, Frank, as I knew that she was under a horrendous amount of stress. Her eyes seemed to roll like the wheels in a slot machine and then they steadied.

“Oh, good heavens Katia, I was so worried that I completely lost my mind there for a moment.”

“Never mind Mum, how are you and where is Daddy?”

“Oh, Katia my dear, he and some of the other blokes have run off with a tank to attack the Aliens. I am dreadfully sure that they are going to be killed doing it.” With that Mum began to sob and her legs slowly sagged.”

I picked Mum up and sat her in a chair. “Alright Mum, please try to remain calm and tell me everything you know about where they went.”

“Well, I do not know precisely where they went but they met with some other men that had somehow gotten military equipment from one of the depots and were heading north to Scotland, near Thurso, I think. They were going to try to get a boat and go up to the Shetlands, near a place called Sulom Voe”.

“How long have they been gone?”

“Oh, not quite a fortnight, I think.”

“Malok, those fools are in great danger if not already dead. One thing that might save them is that a Tank uses a frightful amount of fuel, so hopefully they’ve simply run it out before they got there. My God Malok, driving around in a great hulking tank will surely attract the attention of the enemy, won’t it?”

“Katia my habibti, we must keep our focus on the fact that the enemy mean to end the whole of humanity, so we cannot allow our search for your father to jeopardise our mission. We’ll find him if we can, however.”

One of the faeries said,“ Katia, we need to see a picture of your Father. We will locate him for you.” One of the faeries said to me. He seemed so absolutely positive that I just gave him what he wanted. Mamadou showed him on a map where her father likely was. A group of the Faeries moved out of sight so fast that it felt suspicious to me.

“Were they transporting themselves?” I asked myself. We did not see that two of the faeries stayed behind at my parent’s home.

It took us about a half hour to ascertain that Mum had enough food and felt safe before we headed off again toward Northern Scotland. It being about 350 miles distant, we knew that it might take more than a day to get there, depending upon conditions. I fervently hoped that the Djinn would not bother us. The roads were mostly deserted, but once in a while we’d pass huge columns of smoke or burned out vehicles.

Along the way, we ran into a local woman named Sue Brown, who seemed to know the roads up through Scotland quite well. She’d once driven through with several of her friends in an ancient bus.

Malok decided to move the Whale around the isles and go slowly up the coast to the vicinity of Thurso. He thought it would take a few days. It seemed maddening that we could not transport and use some of the other devices that the Thorians used, but all that could be detected. As it was, the risk to the whale was great, but Malok had talked with the other whales enough to have begun to understand their movement patterns somewhat. So, he programmed an evasive pattern into the navigation system that would eventually take him to where he needed to go.

The Western coast of the UK between the main Island and Ireland was quite rough and there were many places of concealment, though while proceeding up an inlet near Askaig, he’d had to slow considerably because his wake was visible on the surface.

Meanwhile, in a matter of hours, the Faeries were in the vicinity of where Katia’s father was thought to be and began searching. They were at first stumped but after a day’s searching, then found that he was captive and in poor health aboard one of the alien vessels that was floating not far from Sullom Voe.

What happened next is one of the most unbelievable incidents of the Djinarian invasion. The number of Faeries involved in the search had grown to a dozen, and they set about killing the enemy and disabling the vessel without damaging it enough to leak oil. Those little swords they carried, about the size of the ones in a drink, could cut through almost any substance known to man. Despite their diminutive size of the faeries, the enemy were an easy mark unless they were in their battle suits.

Meanwhile, Mamadou had driven me very close to the Thurso area. Malok had yet to contact us, but we suspected that we would hear from him soon. Later, just at dusk, Malok contacted us, having learned that there was a pitched battle going on up in the Shetlands, but he had no idea what was going on aside from it was causing lots of traffic on Djinn communication channels.

The faeries were keeping far better track of our progress than we had any reason to suspect, and just before we rendezvoused with Malok, two of them popped out of the clear air right by our lorry. It was such a shock to me that I screamed and jumped into the arms of Mamadou.

“Habibti, I like this new affection you are showing me, but in public?” I could hear the humour in his voice.

I could not figure out where my new squeamishness came from and was very confused until I thought of Malok or His Mother. “Malok what in the bloody hell have you done to me?” I said as venomously as I could.

“Katia, I swear it, I have done nothing to you at all.” With a little instrument, he began to check my body over and then his face went ashen.”

He explained to me that someone had slipped an almost microscopic probe into my body and it had attached its self to the base of my brain It was talking to my bracelet. “Oh, this looks like the work of Mother! From what I can tell from looking at its programming, Mom is helping you become more feminine, according to human standards. I don’t know how she did it, though it does look like there is an override for combat situations.” I had no idea at all that Malok was dissembling to avoid my wrath.

“Oh, God Malok, this cannot be done to me right in the middle of a war!” I cried with dismay.

“I very much like this woman, your mother. She will make it easier for you to be protected.” Mamadou said with an idiot smile on his face.

“What do you mean you big lummox, who saved your ass, how many times back in Afghanistan?” I was fuming mad.

“Um, Katia, I think that Mum was concerned that you liked ripping hearts out of living beings with your bare hands was a bit over the top, um perhaps.” Malok said nervously.

“Enough”, shouted one of the Faeries. “We must save your father and he is miles away in an enemy vessel.

“You found Daddy? Oh, thank you, thank you, and thank you.” I was doing my new found happy dance, and wondering why. “Oh, your Mum is going to pay for this.” I was fighting my new emotions, and knowing that I was losing.

Katia, Mamadou, and Malok quickly got into the Whale and started across the channel to the West side of the Shetland Islands. As they travelled under water, Malok pushed the speed of the Whale to just under 60 kts, hoping that the Djinn were too busy dealing with the distant battle to notice their approach. He piloted the craft into an inlet near Islesburgh and into what seemed to be a dead end inlet, when he lifted the whale clear of the water and shot across several 100 meters of dry land and into the Loch containing the terminal at Sullom Voe. The last several miles to the side of the Alien oil vessel was taken at 150 Knots, just clear of the surface.

By now there was a huge battle in the sky over the terminal with Alien ships plunging into the island and into the sea with regularity. The only ships firing seemed to be the Aliens’ ships and their shots seemed at random, most often aimed into the air.
There were a few of the Aliens on the deck of the mile long vessel, but they seemed to be swatting at clear air, and firing their hand weapons indiscriminately.

That is when it became abundantly clear that the Faeries were indeed formidable warriors, winking in and out of visibility rapidly, their tiny, swords slashing precisely but not giving lethal wounds.

Mouselayer said to Katia as he swooped in from what seemed like nowhere, “Princess Katia, go below and rescue your father, Nicknuk will show you to him. We have most of the Djinarian crew inoculated, so we must take your father out of here before they try to lift their ship. Then, we will attack in Europe, Asia, and everywhere we can before they all flee before us, the cowards. We will inoculate them all.”

“Inoculate, what are they talking about?” I thought.
The Faeries had not told us that while their little swords produced painful but not lethal wounds, they also implanted a virus that would eventually spread to the entire population of Djinn and it would have the effect of retrogressing them nearly to the stage of primitive hill ants. It was surprising to find out that their goal had never been to directly kill the Djinn

The unbridled condescension of his statement astonished me, but I was sure he believed what he was saying, so I followed his diminutive guide down into the bowels of the ship. The passage ways were larger than humans use.

“Katia, how fast can you run?”

“Just tell me where to turn.” She shot off down the passage and had gone about  ¼ mile when, Nicknuk told her to turn down another passage. A short run and down some stairs and then into a room, where her Father lay on a table.

“Daddy, you look awful. What have they been doing to you?”

“Oh, they have been doing all sorts of dreadful things, but the worst was their shocking me, the bloody fools.”

“Can you walk at all?”

“ Oh, I can walk but I’ll be slow.”

Beneath her feet Katia could feel a low vibration, so swiftly she turned to her Father. “Remember the piggy back rides you gave me as a child?”

He nodded, and then eased himself off the table onto her back.

“Malok, we are coming but it feels like the ship is getting ready to lift. I’m not planning on going with them so, be ready to catch us, OK?”

Katia was not sure that Malok would hear her but she hoped he would. The extra weight of her father slowed her a little but her ample power packs could stand the strain. As she ran, the increasing rumble became a roar, and by the time they arrived on the deck, the ship was lifting out of the water, making it several hundred feet to the floating dock alongside.

“Malok, where are you?” She did not get an answer.

“Daddy, I love you. Hang on.” She stepped off the deck and began falling down the side of the ship. The rounded pressure hull came close to them as they fell. Convinced she and her father were going to die in this plunge, Katia began to get angry, and she thought about her time in Afghanistan fighting and how much she cared for her family. She could see the whale lifting to meet her but it would be too late, and that made her pissed. “How could this be happening? “ She thought. With the Water just seconds away, she felt outrage take over. Her body began to get fuzzy, and lightning began to fly all around her. Just before they hit the water, their fall began to slow and completely stop. Seemingly transfigured, Katia and her father began to rise and travel toward the dock, finally settling there amid a white cloud.

Unnoticed by anyone but Malok, the Whale lost power and settled back into the water. It was obvious that Katia was somehow tapping into the power supply of the Whale. There was more than ample power from the Whale to lift her and her father, but apparently her instinctual way of drawing the power was too disruptive and inefficient.

As soon as Katia and her father settled to the dock, Katia let go of him and he collapsed. It took Katia a minute to come to her senses and when she turned to check on him, he was unconscious and ashen faced.

“Oh my God, Daddy, are you OK?” She was almost shrieking with hysteria and knelt at his side immediately. His clothes seemed to be steaming but not burning. She wiped at his face and discovered that the ashen colour was like a dusting he’d collected. Beneath, his complexion was a little red and his skin was warm. Nearly in tears, she leaned close to him.

“Daddy, daddy, please wake up, I’ve gone through too much to lose you now damn you. Please, please wake up, you old fool! I promise not to be mad at you ever again.”

Nearly frenetic with worry, Katia began to weep so hard that she thought her heart would break. She wept and wept. “Daddy, please come back to me!” Completely distraught, Katia did not at first notice a hand on her back.

“Promise not to tell your Mum about all this, she will be bloody worried, she will.”

Katia screamed at the sound of his voice, and cried all the louder!

“Daddy, you’ve come back to me! Please never leave me again, promise?”

When Malok finally managed to restore power to the Whale and lift it to dockside, they found Katia and her father sitting and holding one another; quietly talking in the most endearing tones.

In the skies over Scotland, thousands of Faeries had gathered and more were arriving as time passed. It was a migration that no one on earth or any other planet for that matter had ever witnessed. That evening, as the sun set, under threatening skies, little encampment sprung up in the fields for miles around. Word spread quickly about the young human princess who had been the first to show them courtesy in a very long time. Mouselayer had Katia ensconced on a chair at his encampment with Mamadou and Malok on either side of her. There were little fires all around her and a seemingly endless procession of Faeries slowly flew past her. They were extremely courteous to her, almost apologetic.

Mouselayer, after chatting with the other gathered faeries through telepathy, explained to Katia.

“We still inhabit many planets but we used to call many more home to our kind. We once had a colony here on your earth, but you humans were such dullards that we eventually left. At one time, we despaired of ever finding really sentient life other than ours. Even the Djinarians were not a bother to us, because we’d just run them off if they bothered us. We just paid no attention to them, and left the Thorians alone too as long as they did not pester us. The Thorians weren’t aggressive but were quite intellectual, and managed to invent many gadgets that we had little use for. We talk among ourselves with our minds, though the more distant of our colonies requires us to eat an herb to get into the correct state of mind for that. When pressed we can travel in the “In between” for equally as far, though it is bothersome. So far, we have no natural enemies and nothing preauthorises us except what you call The Most High. We have this inborn spirit of cooperation with the Supreme Being. We serve him and he is good to us. I must say, that after being here on Earth for the first time in thousands of years, that most of your ways of worshiping are pure nonsense to us. We will instruct you on that matter, as what you are doing at present are entirely unsuitable.”

“It was our own fault that the Djinarians got so powerful, being absorbed in our own affairs for so long. We had no idea that they were the bullies of the local space and in time, they would have ended all life but their own. So, we apologise for neglecting our duty as the most superior beings, except for the Maker. Perhaps he was just waiting to see if their wickedness would diminish at some point. No one can say that they did not get ample opportunity to change.

“So, after talking with the other leaders, we intend to inoculate several of their populations with a DNA retrograde virus. That is what our little swords do. They will eventually lose their ability to engage in space travel at all, but not before they infect the rest of their lawless breed. Perhaps in a Million or so of your years, they will evolve again but this time not as such pirates. “

The inhabitants of Earth were regressed numbers of times before, but this last time we simply gave up and left, having lost hope. We expected your planet to be destroyed by the Maker.

Mouselayer paused for a time and then turned to look at Katia with respect, and even affection.

“My people have been calling you princess Katia because we think that your sacrifice and work deserves an honorific. So hence forth, you are Princess Katia to all sentient beings. We also know that had it not been for the peaceful Thorians, their queen and this young pup Malok, you would not have come into existence as you now are. Henceforth, you will have the ability to mind talk with us as we talk with each other. We know that you and Malok have a primitive mind talk but yours is electromagnetic and ours uses the next level of existence.”

“Malok, your mother and her fleet are on the way here now. You will take whatever correction she administers like the higher being that you think you are.”

“Yes sir, I will do as you wish.”

“You most assuredly will and you will be better for it.”

“Mamadou, you are a kind and generous man, and we thank you for trying to protect little Katia. She is quite powerful in the ways of war, but within she is but a soft child and needs much nurturing.”

“Thank you sir, you are to be praised along with the Prophets, Inshallah.”

“Yes, well we have been looking into your belief systems here on earth and they have all left the true path. We’ll be working on that with your leaders and I am sure that many of them will be unhappy, especially those who say they are the chosen of God. The central belief of any acceptable belief system is that they honour God, and love one another. Anything else is false and leads to great folly. Any belief that does not meet that standard is no more, as of today. Some humans need to tremble in fear for the pain they have spread. The love of God goes to the faithful, and this time we will be here to insure justice and compassion for all. Those who refuse to give up hate and malice will have a very painful future.”

The meeting lasted well into the early morning, and then Malok, Mamadou and Katia with her Father went to bed in the Whale. When they wakened in the morning, the Whale was sitting alongside Katia’s parent’s house.

“Wake up Daddy, Mummy will be so happy to see us again!”

“Katia, dear, please be patient while I tie my bloody shoes”

“But Daddy, I am so excited to see what the day will bring!”

“Well, I must say dear Katia that I did not expect to live through the day yesterday. Those God awful bloody scorpions seemed bent on taking my life, they did!”

They all went into the house to waken Mummy and have a joyous breakfast, full English, as much as posible. There were shortages but not as severe as some would have thought. The networks were still not on line again, and there was no internet, but Mouselayer had shown up as soon as they went into the house.
“Good morning Princess Katia, I want you to know that the Djinarians are on the run back to their home worlds. They did much damage and billions were murdered. We will remain with you for a time to see to it that this planet is firmly established on the true path.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Katia helped her Mum with the dishes after breakfast. Mamadou, Katia’s father, Malok and several of the Faeries sat in the back yard and talked of the future. Later, when the dishes were done, Katia found her way with a tray of tea and biscuits, to the back yard where the men were sitting.

Mamadou looked up at her and smiled. Katia quietly moved over and sat in front of him at his feet. She’d changed to a pretty pink and mauve striped dress with black leggings, and her trainers.

“When will your mum, the Queen arrive Malok.”

“She is just entering your solar system now.

“How are you feeling habibti?”

“I am feeling really peaceful, after yesterday.” “Mouselayer, I am so surprised that your people were able to do all that you have done. I had expected a very long war, and for many more of my people to die.”

“Princess, I am quite happy to have come along with you. You do realise that you were the catalyst that caused all this to happen, do you not?”

“Thank you, but I am not feeling very war like right now. I am sick of fighting and of wars. I am sick of people hurting one another. Actually, it was Malok’s shooting me that started it all. I would never have done any of the things that happened, had he not done that.

One of the men finished saying, “and that means that we on Earth are most appreciative of your help Mouselayer.”

“Well, there is much to do. We think the threat of the Djinn is finished but we will stand guard here until we know it to be true. In addition, there are some issues in your society that need correcting. It will be painful for some, but we know that it must happen. Corruption, slavery, aggression and selfishness are huge problems here. What you call religions are mere shadows of what they should be, and we intend to insist that we will correct that. We know who this entity that you call God is, and we intend that everyone on Earth will find belief in him. Some of your people will actually be brought to full awareness of him, see him eye to eye. But those who have believed without seeing will be the blessed ones.

Mouselayer went on, “There is nothing metaphysical or spiritual about this knowledge. It is a genetic and psychodynamic issue. There are pathways in the human brain for talking to all other sentient beings. The Djinn had over the years, interfered in your genetic development and left much of humanity unable to use those senses, and made you less intelligent and war like. Their purpose was to keep you so busy with conflict among yourself that you had no time to discover them, and it worked for all but a very few.

For far too long, the misguided religious institutions have been allowed to inflict pain and abuse those who were supposed to be cared for. This has stopped as of now. Today, many of my people will be arriving and by tomorrow, every institution will have watchers.

When we have been here for a few weeks, we will begin to address the reasons for the primitive genetic state of humans. We know that there are causative factors and when we isolate them, we will address them. ”

“We’ve gone through all this and now you are going to make Earth a bloody police state.” Katia’s father stated. It was clear that he was upset, probably due to his ordeal.

“George, I am asking that you allow us a few weeks to work, and if you are not satisfied then, we will do our utmost to make amends.”

“Very well, Mouselayer, you seem to be a good chap. How are you on Hair of the Dog?” Beer was brought from in the house and some of the men and women drank it while Katia and Mamadou did not. Still, it was a happy crowd and they celebrated most of the day. The discussion between Mouselayer and George went on for hours, and very quickly Katia and Mamadou stole away for a walk down to the a little stream.

“Mamadou, somehow over the last months I have come to regard you highly. I do not know what I would do should anything happen to you. I love you Mamadou.”

“My dear Katia, I feel the same way about you. You are like a precious flower to me. We have not had a normal life to come to know each other. I must return to my people in Afghanistan. Would you accompany me?”

“Yes, I would be honoured to do so but please do not ask me to wear that blue thing over my head.”

“My dear, all I ask is that you do not dishonour us by dressing immodestly, and that you are respectful to those around you. I would also ask that you restrain yourself in matters of violence. Please allow me to handle those things, won’t you?”

“Yes, Mamadou, but please do not restrict me to only making your sons and daughters.” She giggled.

“Why Katia dear, I am not familiar with your Western customs, though I was educated here and in Egypt. Are you telling me that you would like to marry me?”

Katia could feel her tummy go all butterfly-ee and her face felt warm. “Mamadou this is a marriage proposal?”

“Why, I think it is, dearest.”

“Then the answer is yes, my love.”

“Let’s get married like really soon?”

“First, you must say Shahadda, and agree to be obedient wife. I will agree to care for you and meet all your needs.”

“Mamadou, we have a problem here. I believe in God, but I am not wearing that unfashionable blue sack over my head, and if anyone goes to beat me, he’s going to regret it, I told you that before.”

“Katia, if you will not become Muslim wife, I am forbidden to marry you.”

“Mamadou, you’d allow your religion to interfere with us? Then we are going to scrap it here. If you remember I died in Afghanistan while fighting terrorists! Did you not hear what Mouselayer said about belief systems here on Earth. There will be much change, and I have faith that what happens will please God but we must be patient.”

And they did fight; bitterly and long into the night. Mouselayer stayed in the distance while they tried to work things out, but in the end, Mamadou stormed off into the night and Katia retired to her bedroom weeping.

Mamadou insisted on returning home to his Afghanistan, “My people will be dismayed. I need to be there with them!” He got Malok to give him a ride there in the Whale. After all the round trip was less than an hour in the air. The panels that made the craft appear as a Whale were folded in and the craft had little problem, averaging just under 9500 MPH. He flew at around 200,000 feet to avoid a sonic boom that reached the earth. They had time to talk, and Mouselayer was along with them.

“Mamadou, what will you do? I know that you and Katia are very close.” Mouselayer asked.

“I do not know Mouselayer. She is the light of my life, but if she will not convert, it is Haraam (forbidden) to marry her.”

“I have noticed your closeness. And you both have been through so much. Perhaps you should just rest and take care of your people for a few weeks. I foresee many changes coming and I am sure that your two hearts will yet be one. There will be a great many changes in your country and the world. There will be no more fighting, and I will deal with those who do not lay down their arms, believe me.” Mouselayer gently soothed him.

Malok remained quiet, acting as if flying his craft was keeping him too occupied. In reality, he knew that Earth’s complicated religious structures were gone like the dinosaur, though many would scream with outrage. It might take years and many would have spiritual crises over the news. Some day they would understand that God was real, but not as the religious dogmas had made him out to be.

It had been months since Katia and Mamadou had seen each other. Mouselayer intentionally kept them both very busy as the world around them changed. The faeries had deduced how the Djinn had tampered with human genetics and now all babies born would be without those defects. In some humans, the damage was too severe and they would need to be watched and guided to prevent them becoming offended, or causing trouble with their fellow humans.

Katia was a special case in that Malok had already done a great deal of modification on her, and it was really not much of a problem to enable her to listen in and talk on the telepathic network that Mouselayer used. She was constantly driving or flying aircraft in the discharge of her various duties dealing with everyone from the UN to the various governments, to the various corporations. So finally after talking to Malok’s mom, the Queen and the rest of the faeries, a team of the faeries gave Katia the same gift of transport that they used. The faeries did not want to alter her appearance, so they implanted the flesh necessary behind her smallest breast, thus making them both close to the same size. She’d never have the same faculties as the faeries, particularly very long space hops, because she did not know how to search for a safe place for her to emerge. Still, she would be able to handily flit about on Earth and the local solar system. Of course the latter would require her to use a pressure suit because she would never have the brain capacity that the faeries possessed. The Moon was only a minute or two away for her and the shield around her retained enough air for her to breathe normally. But, Jupiter would take longer than any air she could carry would last. Katia soon discovered that depending on the difference between her mass and any object she might collide with, her path or the other object was deflected. The faeries did not seem interested in explaining the physics involved, and Katia’s two constant companions kept the nosier at bay.

The faeries decided to work within the present governmental framework, but a good many members of the government were in for huge surprises. Graft and corruption were swiftly banished, and for a while it appeared as if many governments would just vanish. By now there were millions of faeries flitting about and they were punishing everything from pork barrelling to simple theft.

In most areas, the local police were retained, the scum bags were culled, and what remained were truly good people if somewhat control oriented. There were no more traffic courts, or litigation regarding accidents and various other offenses. Soon, even the most aggressive drivers simply felt the consequences of getting caught were not worth it.

A few times, Katia herself showed up to deal with the recalcitrant. Months after she’d arrived back on Earth, certain Somali elements were still being bullies. In one village, they were getting ready to stone a young woman who had fallen in love with a foreigner, and as she bore in from high altitude, she simply ignited the land around the offenders before she sat down and freed the half buried girl. By the time she left, several of the Muslim raiders were dead, having resisted. As she left, two more faeries arrived to re-educate the local residents.

She also abolished borders, drug cartels, and those who grew rich by controlling the poor.

(Hey, the author here. This may all seem too implausible and fanciful, but I likes it a bit. I’ll leave the serious funk and gore stuff to the more able. )

On night after a full days work, Katia sat back in a lounge chair in the back yard of her parent’s home. Peace seemed to be breaking out all over the world. People were productive and most were content. Sure there were the X-control monger corporate, and government plonkers who weren’t, but there were also those who had been on the public dole who were now productive within their own limitations.

Daddy seemed overly preoccupied with an engineering material that was simply amazing. It was many times stronger than the best steel, extremely light and did not require foundries or environmentally destructive activities. They’d already made plans to put in a submerged trans-Atlantic freeway.

She just did not feel that she had much to do any more, so her heart turned once again to Mamadou. Hours later, she hoisted herself aloft, after showering and changing clothes and touched down in Ankara. It did not take her very long before she had visited several places in the local Sook. She emerged wearing a classic, form fitting Ivory abaya of golden silk and richly embroidered. It even had an Almira Hijab with it, and made her look like a heavenly angel.

As she slowly cruised East from Turkey, she asked Mouselayer if one of his assistants could help her locate her Mamadou. He’d of course already done that. The lovelorn man had gone to ground in Moqor, near where they had originally met. Along the way, Katia had stopped in a local market and gotten a big blue blanket to wrap around herself. This was her final effort to find a peaceful existence where she and Mamadou could once again love one another. What she was about to do was not Western thinking at all. She just knew that she loved him.

She approached his position in the court yard of a local house slow enough that he did not hear her. She was still several feet off the ground when she stopped.

“Salaam Mamadou.”

He seemed stunned for a moment. “I heard that you were coming. I just did not know when.”

“I have missed you Mamadou; missed your touches, your gentle eyes, and your protection.”

“You are in no need of my protection, why did you come?”

“Mamadou, please, I wanted to see if there was any love for me left in your heart?”

“I never stopped loving you, habibti. Have you come to disgrace me in front of my people?”

“No, my love, I have come to try to be your wife.”

Mamadou turned around, seeming to be shocked at her appearance. His heart surged at here appearance. She was entirely covered by the Blue blanket, but with her face showing.
“Mamadou, is there a compromise that will yet allow our love to live? I will try to not embarrass you in your community and will try to follow you in our personal lives.”

“Katia, would you please drop that Blanket, most of my beliefs are irrelevant now. Islam and all other religion is dead. We have lost all our value systems and traditions, and have yet to understand how we are to worship our creator.”

“Not so Mamadou. The unsupportable is gone, but mutual regard, modesty, care, and charity remain. The admiration for who it is that created the universe is still with us. We must do our utmost to help those around us, and Mamadou, I need to be at your side so you can steady me. I grow so impatient with some of those who I encounter, and I would like you to take over much of my work, I am not strong enough and get too emotional. Don’t you dare laugh at me? You and others have warned me that striving with the men is too hard for women, and now I see the truth in it.” Katia then dropped the blanket, exposing her beautiful gown and Hijab.

“What am I seeing Katia? Is this complete capitulation?”

“If that is what you wish darling. I know the work must be done but I feel like I cannot do it alone. If I yield completely, will you not get bored with me?” Katia allowed herself to sink to the earth near his feet, on top of the fallen blanket. “Will you disgrace me in the way you treat me?”

He quickly stepped to her side and raised her to her feet. “Katia, I am sure that we will find a way for our love to survive. I have talked a great deal with Mouselayer and he has convinced me that our very rituals and rules were a disgrace to the one who created us. I just do not know how everything will be now, and would love to have you in my life so that we can face this together.”

“Do you think we could go meet with Mouselayer and Mummy and Daddy to work things out? I will not say your shahadda, but I will pledge my love for the creator, and promise to be loving and faithful to you. Will that be sufficient?”

“Katia my darling that is more than I deserve.”

In 5 years, the Earth was much more stable, and in a few decades, humanity would begin to explore the solar system. In 100 years, the Thorians would begin to provide them with the education to earnestly explore the rest of their galaxy, where they would find thousands of habitable planets.

Katia and Mamadou Touri would live to see a great deal.