Earth.  Probably not the one you call home.  Very similar to it, in many ways, but also . . . different.  This Earth is in a different dimension, one dimension among several in which super powered races called Velorians and Arions have fought each other to destroy or protect the beings on less developed planets.  The *Rules* in this titanic struggle required the Velorians and Arions to keep a very low profile lest they bring down the wrath and punishment of an older, mysterious race called the Ancient Ones.

The Velorians fought their battles with bio-genetically engineered weapons - young blond women equipped with amazing powers and called Planetary Protectors.  The Arions fought using men and women and other allies who were not as powerful as the Protectors but were extremely ruthless in their methods.

The Ancient Ones in this dimension decided that the Velorians were too visible in their efforts to protect planets and battle Arions.  All the Protectors were pulled back to Velor and the planet of super beings withdrew from the rest of this universe.

The Arions and their allies were free to conquer the universe in their own time, IF they kept a low profile.  On this Earth, they chose to conquer by letting its inhabitants do the work for them.  The Arions secretly joined the German *military-industrial complex* in the early 1930s and by the time World War II began in 1939, the Germans had *discovered* technologies and military doctrines unlike any other country in the world - tanks with ceramic tile armor, high-energy rail guns, smart missiles, computers, and other devices too numerous to mention.

They won the war.  More importantly, the Germans were convinced that the war was one by their *Aryan (racial) superiority*.  No one knew about the Arions and THEIR superiority.  After the Nazis and the Italian Fascisti and the Japanese military carved up the northern hemisphere into puppet states, the Arions began to secretly replace Germans and Italians in key positions with Arions.

In the German-controlled city of New Danzig (called New York on most other Earths), the chief administrator, the head of the city police and head thug of the secret police (Gestapo), plus a score of other leaders (male AND female) in key positions of power were Arions.  Some were Betas, Arions maybe a hundred times as powerful as normal Terrans.  A handful, including Karl Messner, the Gauleitier or chief administrator, were Arion Primes.  Primes had powers and abilities almost as amazing as those of the Velorian Protectors (lacking only the Protectors' flying ability).

Then *SHE* arrived.  Cai Trin, roughly sixteen (Terran) years old, born, bred and trained to be a Planetary Protector, was sent to *Earth* to complete her training under the guidance of a skilled veteran Protector.  A fluke accident sent Cai's space ship skipping sideways into another dimension, into this dimension and this Earth, where there WAS no veteran Protector, where the Arions virtually ruled the planet, where SHE had become the hunted, instead of being the hunter as on most other Earths.

Cai Trin and her two *friends*, Kevin and Moira Conroy, had robbed the Reichsbank of New Danzig the day before to get enough money to buy the fake papers and IDs they would need to leave New Danzig and travel to another city, Bad Kreuzin (Philadelphia, elsewhere).  The Conroys got several sacks of money from the bank and fled just as an Arion Prime and two Betas entered the bank.

Cai, her nascent super powers and energy somewhat depleted while robbing the bank, was quickly subdued by the three Arions.  Only great luck gave her the energy and opportunity to flee them.  She made her way to the Conroys' apartment, hoping to find them and escape New Danzig, but they never returned.  Cai had one other idea - meet the Conroys at the train station.

They weren't here when she arrived, nor did they show up during the night.

Cai had arrived on the planet with two sets of clothing.  One consisted of a short white skirt, a narrow white bandeau to cover her large breasts, and white canvas-like shoes.  Her other outfit was her *Protector* costume - a red, yellow and blue affair with a skin-tight blue leotard, a short red skirt, red cape, and red boots.  A large red and yellow "S" on her cape and over her breast identified her as a Supremis.  Neither outfit was suited to hiding from the Arions so Cai changed into some of the Conroys' clothes, keeping her Supremis costume on underneath and stashing the white outfit in a pouch in her red skirt.  She now wore a gray workman's cap, an old ankle-length print skirt, and a plaid work shirt that was too long, too loose in the waist, and too tight across her breasts.  Ugly and ill-fitting but she DID look more like a New Danziger.

And in her frantic state of mind, she decided that the best way to survive on this bizarre planet WAS to blend into the populace.  She didn't know exactly where she was, but although the people called it Earth, it certainly wasn't the Earth to which she had been assigned.  So her long-term goal must be to somehow find a way back to that Earth and complete her training as a Protector.

Obviously, Protectors were not welcome on this Earth in this time and space.  She didn't know who to trust or who to talk with.  Everyone she approached, except for Moira and Kevin, had been afraid to spend much time talking with her.  She didn't fit in when wearing either of her own outfits.  Apparently, drawing attention to oneself was not a good idea in New Danzig, either.  So Cai went to the train station, a few steps ahead of the Gestapo and Arions, wearing her impromptu disguise and hoping desperately to blend in with the natives while linking with her friends.

During the night, while awaiting the Conroys, other men, men in black leather trenchcoats and slouch hats DID arrive at the station, then walked around the lobby, asking people awaiting trains to show their *papers*.  Whenever Cai saw one enter the lobby, she instinctively fled to a restroom or out to the platform or even, once, to a janitor's closet, so she wouldn't have to present papers she didn't have.  Eventually, the security man would leave the lobby for another part of the station and Cai would return to her seat.  Until the next one arrived.

Cai has just returned to the lobby when the first train of the day arrives and disgorges its load of passengers.  Cai watches the men, woman and children cross the station lobby and begin climbing the broad marble staircase to the streets of New Danzig.  She immediately realizes that she can join this crowd and get out of the lobby!  Evidently the Conroys are not going to come to this station, so she has to look elsewhere for them.  The young Velorian girl quickly crosses the lobby and joins the mob trudging up the wide staircase toward the city streets.

Suddenly the doors at the top of the steps are flung open and a half dozen men in black, accompanied by maybe twenty gray-clad Wehrmacht or German Army troops enter, form a thin line across and block the top of the stairs.  teely eyed men hold their rifles and machine pistols across their chests, ready to swing them forward to fire on anyone who fails to follow orders.  Scanning the soldiers and security men, Cai's super vision allows her to quickly spot the densely-packed cell structure in the bodies of two men, marking them as Arion Betas.  She notes that these Betas carry Arion power weapons in secret pockets of their leather coats and stay near the rear of the troop.  The Terran Gestapo agents and soldiers spread across the top of the steps in a thin line, blocking the exit from the station into the streets beyond.

None of the civilians around Cai react to this show of force.  They quickly pull wadded-up papers from their pockets and prepare to show their travel documents so they can leave the station and go about their business in New Danzig.  And as the civilians trudge toward the landing at the top of the staircase, Cai is suddenly shocked when she sees another half-dozen security men, the ones who'd entered the station during the night, slowly enter the lobby and move to stand at the foot of the staircase to watch the people climbing the steps.

"Great," Cai says to herself silently, "I can't get through the line at the top of the stairs without papers!"  Looking around furtively, the young Velorian Protector weighes her chances and decides to go back to the lobby and find another exit.  She turns and begins to descend the steps, ignoring the curses and elbows of the men and women trying to go up to the street level.  Like a salmon swimming upstream to spawn, Cai gently pushes her way back down the steps through the Terrans headed the other way.  Her sudden move disrupts the smoothly flowing crowd of people and does not go unnoticed.

"Hey!  You there!  In the cap!  What are you doing?" one of the Terran Gestapo men at the top of the steps shouts.  The busty youngster bucking the crowd of men, women and children to go down the steps fits one of the Gestapo's *profiles* - like a deer in headlights, her eyes are wide, she's looking around as if seeking another exit, and she's acting strangely for the normal traffic - abruptly turning to go DOWN the steps and away from the checkpoint.  According to the Gestapo's profile of likely criminals, she's acting like someone who's hiding something and doesn't want to have to deal with the authorities.

"Halt!  HALT OR WE SHOOT!" the agent shouts.  The other Gestapo agents and some of the soldiers strain to see the person he's trying to stop.  On the steps, the civilians DO react now, wise in the ways of Nazi crowd control methods.  Looking for anyone in a cap, anyone who might become a target for the authorities, the crowd slows and the people begin to move apart.  When anyone sees the youngster pushing her way down the steps, the person scrambles to put some distance between themselves and this walking piece of Gestapo-bait.

As the people move away from her, Cai picks up speed going down the steps, but finally realizes that the crowd is parting before her because she's made herself the object of the Gestapo's attention.  She could fly out of here but she still has hopes of blending in with the locals and flying won't help her achieve that aim.

Suddenly one of the young soldiers at the top of the steps, finally spotting the fleeing woman, listening to his superiors yell for the woman to stop, lowers his Schmeiser MP-60 machine pistol and snaps off a short burst.  The 9 mm shells form a wide pattern around Cai hitting people on either side of her and below her on the steps, and hitting the Velorian too.  Cai is shocked to see a businessman's head explode from one round; a woman on Cai's other side suddenly drops to one knee, releasing her baby carriage.  As the carriage starts to roll backward down the steps, the baby inside crying loudly, Cai reaches out and manages to grab the bouncing baby buggy and halt its descent.  People on the steps drop to the ground, covering their heads, screaming "DON'T SHOOT!!"

"I-I better stop this before anyone else gets hurt!" Cai says to herself, concerned at the terror she sees in the eyes of the Terrans around her, terror which SHE caused.  She turns the buggy sideways so it won't roll again, then Cai raises one hand toward the ceiling and turns to face the security people at the top of the staircase.  "Don't shoot," she says, raising her other hand, "I . . . I won't run!"

"At least," she thinks to herself, "until I'm far enough from from these people so they won't get hurt."

The young Protector slowly walks up the staircase through a clear space made by the others on the staircase, others who hope to blend into the steps to avoid any more firing by the authorities.  The little Protector climbs the steps until she reaches the top landing.  Troops and Gestapo agents surround Cai and ram their weapons against her body, trying to intimidate her as they have done to so many others.  One man brusquely grabs her wrists and handcuffs them together behind her back.  As several of the agents take turns manhandling the girl, patting her down for weapons (carefully searching her breasts and crotch for concealed weapons), the men observe silently that this mere slip of a girl has a body as hard as steel.  What IS she concealing?  As the men paw her, Kevin's old shirt gets torn in several places, as does Moira's skirt.  The cap is knocked off her head and her honey-blond hair cascades out, falling down to her shoulders.  More than one young soldier feels a throbbing between his legs when he sees this girl's face and busty figure.

The two Betas, Cai observes as she suffers the indignities and stares of the Terrans, remain a few yards away, 120 degrees apart, hands inside their coats and on their weapons, so they can provide a crossfire, if necessary.  Cai thinks about escaping but there are too many men around her, the ceiling and door too confining.  "I can wait," she decides, staring defiantly at the security forces.  One of the Betas barks an order and the Velorian prisoner is marched out of the station by three of the Gestapo agents and the Beta; the rest move back toward the top of the staircase and ominously draw their weapons.

As Cai and her escorts leave the station and walk across the broad entrance porch toward a waiting sedan, she scans the area with her super vision.  "No Primes!" she notes happily as she and her escorts move toward waiting cars.  When she hears one of the Terrans ask the Beta, "Sir, should I get the gold chains now?"  Cai gasps, then is shocked further when the Beta slaps the Terran on the side of his head, hitting the human so hard that the man's head snaps off and flies down the street.

"GOLD!  NOOOO!" Cai screams, breaking the silence on the curb, her eyes suddenly wide in shock.  She knows that gold has a powerful affect on Velorians (and Arions).  The dense metal leeches energy from a Velorian, reducing her strength.  Especially when gold is in direct contact with a Velorian's skin, the energy drain can reduce a Velorian' powers and invulnerability to nearly those of a Terran.  But more importantly, she would be helpless among the Arions infesting this world.

The Velorian acts immediately, snapping her arms upward and breaking the chain holding her wrists together.  The Beta reaches for the Arion weapon concealed in his coat but Cai spins and punches him, knocking him back through the doors of the train station.  She immediately turns and leaps into the air, flexing her powerful leg muscles to once more launch her into the skies above this sad city.

The troops below her begin firing their rifles and automatic weapons at the escaping woman but only succeed in further shredding her clothes. Even the most powerful bullets available to the Nazis can't break the skin of a Velorian (or Arion Prime).  Cai soon soars past the tops of nearby buildings and beyond the range of the weapons of her captors.

"Well, the place looks empty enough," the young Protector says to herself.  She's flown back to the Conroys' neighborhood and is on a nearby roof, on her knees, looking down onto West 112th Street in front of their apartment.  She has discarded her disguise - the clothes were too shredded to be of any use.  Also, in her Protector costume she feels more powerful, ready and able to crush the Arions oppressing this poor planet.

Despite her feeling of invincibility, though, Cai's 36C breasts betray the fact that she's not back to her full power yet.  Her breasts, like those of all Protectors, act as batteries and store energy for her.  But now she needs to absorb several powerful jolts of energy to bring her breasts back to their normal 38D size.

Her super vision has allowed her to scan their apartment, the entire building, and the streets nearby.  Only a few people are visible and they seem to be huddled inside their flats.  There are no cars or cops or Arions to be seen, she notes.  "But there's a small . . . box in the apartment above their home," Cai muses.  "Wonder why I can't see inside it?  It must be some kind of lead-lined box.  I can't see through lead.  Oh well, it's too small to hide an Arion, so why worry!"

The Protector leaps into the air and flies at eye-blurring speed into the passageway that leads to the Conroys' flat.  "This time, no one will see me coming in here!" she thinks triumphantly.  "I'll get some more clothes and maybe a hint as to where Kevin and Moira went."

Cai gradually applies pressure to the doorknob, eventually enough pressure to pop the lock open.  Checking the passageway and street once more with her super vision, seeing no one nearby and approaching, the young woman opens the door and steps inside the flat, taking care to close the door behind her.  If she has seen the little red light shining a pencil-thin beam across the threshhold she shows no indication of it or what it might mean.  When a small camera nestled among bric-a-brac on one shelf turns on, its nearly silent motor also does not attract her attention.  Across the city, a soldier presses a button on the panel before him and tries to adjust the focus on the image before him.

"I better find some clothes in case I have to leave in a hurry," Cai decides, and walks back to the Conroys' bedroom to rummage through their closet.  After about ten minutes, she has another ill-matched shirt and skirt, plus a large rag to use as a bandana to cover her hair.  Stepping into the small kitchen, Cai finds and stuffs the clothes into a small sack.  She returns to the living room to look for anything the Conroys might have left for her and to await their return.  "This time, I'll keep my super vision active, keep an eye out for anyone who might try to come here!" she decides and again looks through the walls to scan the streets outside.  No Nazis, no Arions!

Suddenly, the teenager sees a folded slip of paper on a bookshelf by the front door, with the words "READ ME" printed boldly on one side of the paper.  "Moira and Kevin must have left that for me!" she says happily, and rushes over to pick up the note, her cape and honey-blond hair swishing behind her as she races across the living room.

As she stands before the bookshelf and opens the note, the man observing her through the camera presses a second switch on the panel before him.  A panel in the ceiling above the girl snaps open as the girl unfolds the note.  "LOOK UP!" the note says and Cai turns her head upward just as a thick goop pours out of a lead-lined box in the ceiling above her head.  The goop, a mixture of gold flakes and a sticky gel, plops down onto the girl, covering her face, hair and upper body in a thick gelatinous mass.

Cai gasps and moans as the gold comes into contact with her skin and starts to suck her energy away.  Overbalanced, she falls backward and lands on her butt on the floor, then falls further, onto her back.  The powerful Protector writhes helplessly on the floor as massive spasms rip through her young body, spasms that draw off her Velorian energy and pump it into the thin layer of golden goop on her upper body and costume.  She shudders and moans when the gold on her body sparkles and glows, stealing her strength and her focus.

When Cai crossed the threshhold of the flat, an electric eye alerted Gestapo headquarters that the suspected hideout had been entered.  "Criminals always return to the scene of the crime, especially young or foolish ones," the Gestapo chief had told his subordinates.  Following his orders, they went to the flat and rigged up the camera and the trap.  When the Protector entered the flat, security forces were alerted and twenty Gestapo men, all Terran, began rushing to the flat to capture this *enemy of the state*.

As the young Velorian lies on the floor, twisting and squirming in a vain attempt to relieve the pain of the golden shower, several car turn the corner onto West 112th Street and squeal to a stop near the passageway leading to the apartment, disgorging men who rush toward the flat.

"Gods," Cai cries weakly, dragging one arm across her forehead, trying to rub off the goop but merely adding more to her sleeve.  "M-must g-get out nnnnnhhh out of here!  Pain, t-too much pain.  Can't . . . can't take this."  The gold on her skins crackles and glows as her amazing body gives up its energy.  Her skin burns fiercely and leaves red welts, causing great pain to the otherwise invincible heroine, wherever energy leaps from her body to the gold.

Cai rolls to one side, accidentally brushing one of her breasts with her hand.  Gold has another insidious affect on Velorians - it heightens their sexuality.  This simple touch sends an electric shock straight to the girl's libido.  "MMmnnnnhh!" she moans and falls back onto her back, panting, trying to understand this pleasure amid pain.  One of her hands moves to caress her breast, the other slides down between her legs to massage an irresistible itch.  She begins to knead and squeeze her breast with one hand as the other moves in and out of her crotch, stroking her clitoris.  "mmmnnnNNNOOOHHH . . . YYYYEEESSssss!!" the girl moans as the gold enhances the pleasure her hands give her and eases the pain caused by the same gold.

Velorians are not ashamed of their sensuality, nor do they suffer archaic prohibitions about who or what can be a sexual partner.  Protectors, though, have been given more than super powers, they were also given super sensuality. And contact with gold or *orgone* energy, a deadly energy developed by the Arions, multiplies a Protectors' sensuality a thousand-fold.  The slightest touch of gold or this energy, in the right place, can send a Protector into a multi-orgasmic frenzy.

Cai, too young and inexperienced with her body to control it fully is rapidly approaching this frenzied state.  Her rational mind wants to escape this now-obvious trap but rubbing her body just feels SSSSOOOOOOOO goooood!  She rises up on her shoulder blades and heels, arching her belly toward the ceiling and her eyes close as a moan escapes from her lips when the first of several orgasms washes through her brain.

The first of the Gestapo agents bursts into the flat and skids to a halt, shocked at the scene inside the dingy hovel.  As the others pour into the living room, they join their dumbstruck mate looking at the girl on the floor.  They were told back at headquarters that they would be capturing a powerful enemy of the state who had been caught in a trap.  What they see, though, is a busty young girl in a strange-looking outfit, covered in gold and diddling herself into a frenzy.  "Himmel!" one of the hardened agents says softly, momentarily seeing his daughter Gretel before his eyes.  "Just a child!"

"Shut up, Muller!" the leader says.  "Take her out to the staff car."

Several men reach down and manage to slip manacles of solid gold on the golden girl's wrists.  Manacles from Herr Messner's private collection, no less!   Messner often used these cuffs when he *entertained* female Arion Betas, a fact which the Gauleiter tactfully avoided telling the Gestapo agents.  The young woman moans audibly when her hands are diverted from their pleasure-giving tasks, then again when the golden cuffs touch her bare wrists. Three men work strenuously to pry her hands away from her erogenous zones.

When the men get close to the young girl's body, they suddenly develop extremely powerful erections!  Something about the woman, or maybe her helplessness . . . something is acting as a powerful turn-on for these cold-hearted men.  What they don't know is that an aroused Velorian female emits pheromones that sexually arouse anyone or anything that smells them.  When a Protector is aroused, the pheromones hit libidos like a club, making anyone, of almost any race or species, sexually aroused.  Just like these security men.

The woman is finally cuffed and ready to travel back to headquarters.  The nearly unconscious Protector is lifted by four men who struggle down the narrow passageway and cross the sidewalk toward a large six-wheeled command car.

Just after the girl is shoved into one of the back seats of the big car, a dozen guns open fire on the security men from windows across the street.  Rifles, pistols and one machine pistol rain lead down on the Gestapo men, cutting them down.  At the sound of gunfire, the remaining agents rush out of the apartment and as they leave the passageway, they too are shot like dogs or pinned down inside the passageway.

Suddenly four men rush from a street-level apartment two doors away from the staff car and approach the vehicle.  One enters the drivers' seat, the others climb into the rear and the vehicle roars off down the street, the Velorian Protector bouncing and moaning in the back seat.  Each bump and turn causes her to brush against something and the rough pressure against her body continues to cause her body to spasm with pleasure.

Two blocks away, the car turns into an alley and screeches to a stop.  The men lift the delirious girl out of the car and duck into a sewer.  The command car bursts into flame as a grenade, left by one of the raiders, explodes near the fuel tanks.  Back outside the Conroys' apartment, in ones and twos, the snipers drop their weapons, abandon their perches and leave the area as fast as possible.  Most of the people who used to live in this neighborhood had cleared out earlier in the day as these members of the American Republican Army began to set up their ambush.

Throughout Westland, the eastern half of the old United States, many people look forward to Harvey Paulson's noon-time radio broadcast when he would comment on news stories, telling people about recent events around the world.
 

"Page Two.  The Information Ministry reports today that the underground terrorists have begun a vicious new campaign against the people of New Danzig!  The campaign began some time ago when these thugs stole several new technologies from one of the Reich's research labs and twisted the new labor-saving ideas into terror weaons.  Terror weapons!  Can you believe it?  BELIEVE IT!

Well sir, the underground tested their stolen weapons yesterday when they robbed the Reichsbank of several thousand New Reichs Marks - money in accounts owned by ordinary people like you and me, my friends!  In a bold daylight raid, the terrorist goons not only took our money.  They also killed 45 customers and staff inside the bank.  THEN they killed 30 young soldiers and police men who tried to stop them.  And finally <choke> these ANIMALS killed nearly 200 innocent citizens outside the bank ... people just minding their own business, mind you, who ... just ... got in the way during the criminals' escape!

Apparently . . . and this is an eye-opener my friends, apparently the leader is a short blond woman in a colorful blue and red costume.  She may look like an attractive young girl, friends, but believe me when I tell you that she's a deadly and ruthless killer!  She has a stolen ray-projecting weapon - originally designed to help bore through dirt to mine for new energy sources - that she uses to vaporize people where they stand!  She also has a, a *FLYING belt* that was supposed to revolutionize personal transportation but, well, with the only working model gone . . .

Friends, the authorities have asked me to stress that this woman and her associates are EXTREMELY dangerous.  Why, they'd kill you as soon as look at you.  PLEASE!  Do NOT try to stop them, do not try to even TALK to them!  Call the nearest public safety office and run away!

Now, don't lose hope, my friends!  Our friends in the German government have agreed to help us fight these terrorist thugs. Mayor Rudy Giuletti said in a press conference this morning that the Reich is sending over several special agents to help hunt down this woman and her companions.  Now, if you are one of the lucky few people asked to help the Gestapo or these special agents, please use this opportunity to provide any help you can!  Remember, not just your life, but also the lives of your family and friends are in jeopardy as long as these terrorists roam our streets!.

. . . Page Three.  In related news, we just learned that a notorious smuggler was apprehended in the Westland Banhoff Stazion.  She was smuggling a restricted drug into the city when Gestapo agents spotted her.  She was quickly taken captive, but not before she managed to use a hidden pistol.  What is it with these women?  This one shot up people on the station steps, killing several businessmen and women, including <gasp> including a mother and her infant child!  Two security agents died but the woman was captured and taken to Gestapo headquarters. Sadly, her wounds were too great and she died on the trip to the hospital, so we won't see her in a trial.  But at least her smuggling has been stopped and we can all sleep peacefully, secure with the knowledge that the police kept her deadly drugs from circulating among us!

Finally, agents of the American Republican Army were ambushed in their headquarters on West 112th Street early this morning.  A few soldiers were also injured, but some thirty terrorists were killed.  Unfortunately, the thugs also used their weapons and explosives to level a four square-block section of a predominantly Irish neighborhood.  Survivors have been relocated to new homes in villages out in the country.

Now, let me tell you about the latest efforts to eliminate some of the overcrowding in the city, how the city government and the Reich are relocating many lucky people to open farm lands in the Russian territories. . ."

Cai drifts in and out of consciousness.  She still is incredibly weak.  The gold must still be on her body, she decides at one lucid moment, but drifts away before she can do anything.

". . . a *Protector*?  What's she supposed to protect us from, Kevin, the Kindergarten Korps of the Hitler Youth?  How can you . . ."

". . . tried to get that stuff off her Moira but we just smear it around.  We tried to cut off her costume but it won't cut.  Maybe if we use a strong detergent . . ."

And some time later, feeling a little stronger, she opens her eyes and sees Moira and another man standing at her side.  "How are yah doin, darlin'?" Moira asks, concern evident on her face.

"Nnnhh," Cai moans, "w-weak.  Hurts!  M-must get rid - rid of this gold. Please!" she begs.

"The gold hurts you?  Naturally we tried to get it off but only a bit came off your face, lass.  We thought the gel was what was keeping you unconscious," the man says.  "I'm Dr. Fitzgerald, miss.  Let's sit you up.  We'll take off your clothes, if we may."

"Y-yes, please do," Cai said, struggling to keep her eyes open.  As the Terrans struggle to remove her costume, Cai's head sags forward and her eyes close.  First her cape is removed and as it is moved away from her body, suddenly an arc of energy leaps the gap between the Protector and her cape, crackling and spitting, filling the air with acrid smoke.  The sudden flash of light and heat causes Fitzgerald and Moira to step backward and drop the cape onto the floor.

The energy surge fades moments later and the two Terrans look at the cape, then at each other in awe.  "Did she . . ." the doctor begins.

"Say anything about something like this?  No," Moira replies, shocked at the bizarre sight.

Moira pulls off Cai's skirt and boots, handling the costume gingerly, but there are no flashes of energy.  The amounts of gold on her skirt and boots, though, are minimal.  After lifting the Velorian to a seated position on the edge of the bed, the pair tries to lower her leotard by pulling the collar away from her neck to clear her shoulders and then remove it the rest of the way.  However, try as they might, they can only move the fabric a few centimeters away from her skin before an energy surge *bites* their finger tips.  After a few tries, they have to quit, their fingers burned from the experience.

"Cai, honey," Moira says, shaking the Velorian and trying to awaken her, "we can't get your top off.  There . . . there's energy . . . come on, now, wake up, lass," she says.

After a minute or two, Cai manages to regain consciousness for a few moments, lifting her head up and looking at the woman through unfocused eyes.  "T-try to get the gold off, nnngghhh," she says, "try to get it off my skin.  Muh-maybe I can mmmmnnn get strong again.  Get it off, please."

"Darlin'," Moira says, saddened by her feeling of helplessness, "we tried to get the gold and the sticky goo off, but we can't."

"I-I'm invul . . . invulnerable," Cai manages to say, "use fire, acid, whatever you have."

"WHAT?" the doctor says, "are you crazy?"

"No," the young girl says, "please . . . hurry . . . it HURTS!"

Several hours later, most of the gold has been burned or seared off the girl's skin and hair.  Near the end, Cai was strong enough to remain awake long enough to help the pair pull the leotard off her body.  Her thin fingers grasped the collar of her leotard and pulled it away from her skin, and the area between the fabric and her skin burning brightly as energy flew from her body to the gold.

With tremendous effort, the heroic young girl manages to stretch the alien fabric far enough to clear her shoulders.  From there, the Terrans manage to work with her and lower the leotard down over her breasts, down past her taut abs, down to her golden bush.  Cai is lifted to her feet and Moira holds the girl as the doctor pulls the leotard off her legs, grunting and gasping as numerous sparks leap from the gold-encrusted leotard to the Protector's tanned skin.  Finally finished, he collects the rest of her costume and takes it away from the Velorian.  Moira helps the girl sit back on the edge of the bed.

"Th-thanks," Cai, with half-closed eyes says, looking up at the older woman.  "You . . . you don't know what . . . gold does nnnhh does to me."  She notices that her breasts have again deflated from 38D to, at most, 34B, but is too exhausted to say anything to Moira.

"Well, Cai," Moira says, trying to brush some golden strands of hair away from the girl's eyes, "we still have to get some more of this stuff out of your hair and off your body.  We found a strong bleach that releases the goo from your skin, darlin'.  What d'yer say, Cai, can I give yah a sink bath and wash yer hair now?"  The teen nods *yes*.

Moira leaves for a moment and returns with a small bucket and some rags.  One is placed over the Velorian's muscular shoulders, partially covering her breasts.  Another is laid across her lap, covering her love mound and legs.  Then, as Cai leans over the bucket, Moira begins kneading her fingers into the girl's scalp, working the bleach and soap solution into her hair.

As the woman's fingers begin working on Cai's scalp, the sensuous movements cause the girl to moan softly from the sudden rush of pleasure.  Her head moves back and forth in synch with the older woman's motions and Cai drifts off into a new kind of pleasure, the kind that comes with feeling wanted and safe - the first time she's felt like that since leaving her creche on Velor.  As Moira hums softly in time with her massaging actions, Cai slowly raises one hand up to her breast.  Unconsciously, the young Protector begins to run the tip of her finger around her aureolae, teasing her nipple, enhancing her arousal.

As Cai's hand stimulates her body, she begins generating pheromones again and suddenly Moira gasps as the Velorian's love scent fills her nostrils.  Suddenly Moira notices a wetness between HER legs, notices that she's getting aroused washing this young woman's hair.  Despite the strong smell of the bleach, Moira can't help herself - she leans forward and runs the tip of her tongue around the edge of Cai's ear, pausing to nibble the Velorian's ear lobe.

Moira's tongue and nibbling causes Cai to gasp and moan with pleasure.  With one hand working her breast, Cai's other hand reaches out to gently slip between Moira's legs and stroke the inside of her thigh.  Through her threadbare slacks, Moira feels Cai's strong fingers and a small moan escapes HER lips, too.

As the two women stroke each other's body, less and less gold gets washed out of Cai's hair.  The remaining gold, of course, still affects Cai's libido and state of arousal, unconsciously she still pumps pheromones into the air.  Inexperienced as she is, she doesn't think about the gold and what she's doing, only about the incredible rush of warmth and love in her body, the amazing way her powerful fingers send electrical bursts through her body, and how much she loves the feel of Moira's hands and lips and tongue.

Dr. Fitzgerald returns to the room to help Moira and as he enters the room, the pheromone-rich air hits him like a hammer, causing him to stagger in the doorway and reach for the jamb for support.  Even at 65 years of age, the Velorian's pheromones are having a profound affect on him.  He sees the two women, their hands rubbing each other's body, each moaning and panting from her aroused state.  "Sweet Jaysus!" he gasps, "what are you two doin'?"

Both women look up dully at Fitzgerald through a pheromone-induced haze. "Uh, I'm ah cleaning her hair," Moira manages to slur, running one hand on the side of Cai's neck and caressing the teen's breast with her other hand.  Cai leans into Moira's hands and closes her eyes, lost in a golden reverie.

"Come on, woman!" Fitzgerald snaps, and rushes into the room to grab Moira's hand and pull it off the girl's tit.  The old man pulls Moira to her feet and leads her out of the room, convinced that something unnatural caused the normally clear-headed woman to lose control.  As Cai watches the two leave the room, her hands slip down and she again begins to stroke her body.

Over the next few hours, several people, working in shifts, manage to get the last of the gold out of Cai's hair and off her skin.  Even with a soapy rag across their noses and mouths, each can only spend ten or fifteen minutes with the Velorian before her pheromones begin to arouse the washer.  Dr. Fitzgerald, watching from outside of the room rushes in and removes the person when his or her eyes, hands and attention drift away from washing the Velorian's head and shoulders.

After the last person, Kevin Conroy, leaves the room with the bucket of golden-saturated water, Dr. Fitzgerald enters and has Cai lay on the bed. He covers the Protector with an old comforter, tucking her in as he used to treat his grandchildren.  In memory of those lost lambs, he leans forward and plants a dry kiss on the Protector's forehead.  As the young Velorian begins to fall asleep, exhausted, spent and still very weak, she smiles up at the doctor, hoping this will somehow repay the kindness and comfort she has received from him and the others.