And the Third Brought Fire

Nix whetted her lips and took a step backwards from Enterprise. The spirit was beginning to stand, and...good god, she was lovely. Nix had noticed it from the moment the burlap and chains had come off, but seeing her gray and red painted form standing in a circle of discarded broken gear charms, her feet resting steadily on the ground - bare and gently arched, with the nimble articulation of ankle joint and knee belying the power that lurked in those muscular, polished metal thighs. The dainty, rubbery folds of her cunt, nestled beneath a flat belly that could launch a full wing of planes that were now legends in their own rights: Marauders, Mustangs, Avengers, Doolittles. And she had...almost too impressive a chest.

Often, tits on a warship's spirit could reflect armor belting, or main guns, or a mixture of both. The actual spiritual classifications was...murky and relied more on gut, intuition, and knacks passed from father to son. Or, unwitting father to eavesdropping daughter in this case. But something in Nix's gut said that while Enterprise had a gorgeous bust, it was also...

subtly wrong

. She shook her head slightly as Enterprise lifted one hand, flexing her fingers, then curling them into a fist. "How long was I in the dark?" the spirit asked.

"It is the year of our lord 2141," Nix said, automatically. Honesty, she thought, was the best choice for a spirit that had radar. That thing had powers that modern technicians didn't quite remember how to handle - it had been newfangled when the War of Ascension had been young, and long left to molder and rot because of...well...

Humans liked their spirits to be

understood

. Steam? You could grasp steam and valves and clockwork and copper wire. You could relate to a train, or to a telephone. Radar? Calculating machines? They had a way of making people nervous in the way that they could

do

things that their creators never intended. And those were just the start. The War, after all, had been named such for a reason. It was the coming of the Lady Trinity...

And after that?

Nothing was the same.

Enterprise snorted. "Yeah, sure, fuckin' pull the other one," she said, her voice somehow combining utter arrogance with drawling Colonial tones that Nix had never heard say a non-servile thing in her life. "Two fucking hundred years?" She walked away from her, to the window, looking out at the skyline. "Where's the fuckin' flying cars then?"

"It has been two centuries since the War of Ascension," Nix said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"The fucking what?" Enterprise asked. "That sure ain't the name for it I got. World War Two? We had to whip the Nazis, you even heard of em? Why the fuck you calling it the War of...whatever." She waved her hand. "Don't tell me they made FDR king or some stupid bullshit."

"Who?" Nix asked.

"Who?" Enterprise's turbines revved and she put her hands on her hair - which did...really quite amazing things to her breasts. Nix was finding her normal Technician

savoir faire

hard to keep...down around this spirit. It wasn't just that she was gorgeous. Nix had been around gorgeous spirits ever since she had pinned gear to collar. No. It was...it was everything about her. The history. The Yankee accent. The

arrogance

. Like she was as good as an English spirit. Nix shook her head a bit and tried to focus on Enterprise, frowning a bit. "You don't...he was fucking Franklin Delano goddamn Roosevelt, we only elected him

four times

."

"Listen, Yankee-"

"I ain't no Yankee!" Enterprise snapped. "My keel was laid in Newport News, Virginia."

Nix frowned, then took a slow breath. She breathed out. "My

apologies

, Enterprise," she said, inclining her head. "It's been two hundred years and a lot has changed."

Enterprise frowned. "Whose President now?" She asked. "Truman?"

Nix flinched, then held up her hand, shaking her head. "D-Don't. Don't mention Truman around other people. They won't understand." She sighed. "B-But...I suppose I must...cut to the chase..." She hesitated. She was thinking, too much, of how strong a gas burning power plant was. She put it out of her mind. An aircraft carrier was still...almost within the realm of human understanding. It wasn't like she was one of the Ladies, eh? So, Nix continued, her voice gentling. "The Ascension War, what you call the Second World War, was ended when...the Lady Trinity turned her wrath upon America. I'm sorry. The United States is gone."

Enterprise blinked slowly. "Who the fuck is Trinity? S...She some...Jap weapon or-" She sounded frightened. Shocked.

"No," Nix said. "The Lady Trinity was a spirit built by the Thirteen Apostles and the Prophet Oppenheimer. She...she was a spirit more powerful than anything ever built before, powerful enough to scorch the world. She brought fire to the Japanese, then as the War continued on into Korea, she was almost bridled by...President Truman. He sought, in his jealousy, to keep her wrath from Korea and China, and so she turned her fury upon America. In the aftermath, the Empire returned to her colonies to restore order and, for the past two hundred years, have ruled here and abroad under the Lady Colossus."

Enterprise blinked again, her lips parting, then closing, then opening again. "I..." she said, then slowly, she sat down on the ground, thumping down with such shocking suddenness that the floor jarred and her knees pressed to her chest. "Jesus Christ..."

Nix stepped over, then knelt down beside her. The cheap carpeting didn't provide enough cushioning for her knees, but she ignored it. Her arm slid around Enterprise's shoulder, squeezing. "I know it's hard, Enterprise," she whispered. "But the Empire isn't so bad - we've kept the colonies running, and kept the wastelanders off the east coast and-"

Enterprise put her hands over her face. She breathed in, then breathed out. "Shut up."

Nix went quiet.

Enterprise drew her hands away, her eyes haunted. "What the fuck do I...do?" She looked at Nix. "I-I'm a warship. Right? Enterprise is...my body's sunk beneath the goddamn ocean, how the fuck am I supposed to do anything? What good am I?"

"Ships have been re-floated after centuries," Nix said, hurriedly. "There are quite a few sailing ships-"

"Sailing ship spirits are as slow as a hunting hound that got dropped on its head when it was a puppy!" Enterprise snapped. "They're too stupid to know they should

sink

."

Nix, remembering some childhood hours spent on her father's little windjammer, winced. Harsh, but...not entirely unfair. She shook her head. "Here's what you can do, Enterprise. You can help me. My niece is being held at gunpoint by some very awful gentlemen, and they want you for some...reason. If I don't deliver you to them, then my niece dies. We can at least get to the bottom of their schemes and make sure my Jessie is safe, then, after, we can find something for you to do. I promise." She slid her hand around, taking Enterprise's, squeezing.

Cold gray fingers, slipping between her own. The joint seams caught momentarily against her skin. Enterprise didn't fold her fingers, not at first. Instead, she muttered. "Your sister's a limey too, huh?"

"She did marry a Colonial," Nix said, smiling a bit wryly.

Enterprise sighed. She closed her hand, then squeezed - too firmly. Nix hissed and winced, her voice soft. "C-Careful, careful."

"Hmm? Oh, sorry," Enterprise said. She released Nix's hand, which throbbed gently. Nix shook her hand out then smiled at her. "So, do they let dames be technicians these days?"

"H-Heh, uh, I actually am a man," Nix said, grinning a little bit. She had to start building up her disguise - even if it felt increasingly threadbare, like a blanket held between a man and a rising mushroom cloud.

Enterprise looked at her and arched an eyebrow. "You're most certainty not a man."

Nix flushed, slightly. "Hell," she whispered, looking away.

Enterprise smirked, then shifted around, drawing one foot under herself, waggling a long finger at Nix. "Ohhhh, I know what your deal is, limey. You're one of them broads who dresses up as a man and pretends they've got a stick and berries so they can do a man's job! There were two of 'em in the fleet, I remember them now! You're a

woman

Technician!"

"Y-Yes, fine!" Nix snapped. "I'm a woman Technician."

"That's not allowed," Enterprise said, grinning.

"Hence my disguise," Nix said. "Most spirits don't notice the difference."

Enterprise snorted. "What, do you just fuck boilers and coal chugging trains?"

"Yes," Nix said, frowning. "They haven't made gas burning ships like you for almost a hundred and ninety years."

Enterprise blinked slightly. "Huh," she said. "So, wait, you're saying, not only am I two hundred years outta time, but I'm not even fucking obsolete?"

"I never said

that

," Nix said, firmly.

Enterprise grinned, then reached up, cupping Nix's cheek. "You wanna save your fuckin' kid niece?" She leaned in. "Then I want you to do something for me after. I want you to take me to my body, and I want you to help me raise her. No questions asked. Otherwise-"

"I'll do it," Nix said, simply.

Enterprise blinked, her cocky grin faltering slightly. "Just like that?"

Nix chuckled. "You're not obsolete, exactly. But the Empire has a fleet of atomic airships and her Lady Trinity. I don't think a single aircraft carrier is going to make a repeat of the 18

th

century."

Enterprise snorted. "Ye of little fuckin' faith," she said.

The two of them were quite close, Nix noticed. Enterprise's nose almost touched hers, and her camera-lens eyes glittered as she looked into Nix's. Nix had never had a spirit be quite so...on top as Enterprise was, and the idea excited her as much as it confused her. She opened her mouth, to speak...found no words, closed her lips, then shifted - but if it was to draw away or push in, she didn't know which. Before the decision could crystallize, before the track lever could be thrown and a trolley plunge down one rout or the other, the door burst open and Sister Vengeance Zimmerman entered, carrying a small bag of brown paper stuffed with fragrant scents. She hesitated, her robes clinking, as her goggled eyes peered down the beak nose of her ornate mask.

"Well!" she said, her voice amused. "It seems the votive candles weren't required after all?"

Enterprise was on her feet in a flash, floating in the air between Nix and Zimmerman, her arms held up and her fists clenched.

"Who the fuck are you?" she snapped.

"I am a Sister of-" Zimmerman started.

"She's a friend," Nix said, unsure if that was actually the case. "Her name's Zimmerman. Vengeance Zimmerman."

Enterprise cocked her head, then frowned. "You're...something's fucking wrong with you,

Sister

."

Zimmerman chuckled. "Naught is wrong with me, my child-spirit," she said. "The fire of Trinity burns within me, and that invigoration is more than enough." She tossed the bag onto the bed, her hands reaching up to take the hat from her head. "Now, Spirit, I had a discussion I wished to hold with Technician Nixon."

"Nixon, huh?" Enterprise glanced back at Nix.

"Marion Nixon," Nix said. "You can call me Nix."

Enterprise nodded.

"I believe we have a holy prayer to say together, Miss Nixon and I," Zimmerman said.

Enterprise narrowed her eyes. "...you wanna munch her carpet is what you fucking mean," she said, bluntly. "God, I get unwrapped for one day, and I'm still fuckin' surrounded by queers." She snorted, slightly. "They were good sailors. But none of em pretended to be some fucked up nun."

Zimmerman was silent for some time. "Astute, for a spirit."

"It's the radar," Nix said, blushing hard. "Enterprise, you mustn't say such things so..." She paused. "Bluntly. And to a nun." She paused, then muttered. "Even if she is a bloody lunatic."

Enterprise snorted. "Listen, I don't give a shit who you fuck, Zims," she said, causing the big, burly woman to tense slightly. "I just don't want you to fuck up my Tech here." She gestured back to Nix. "She's all the chance I got at getting what I want."

Zimmerman chuckled. "I promise to you. I wish only to pray with the child."

Enterprise frowned, then nodded. "She means it," she said, quietly.

Nix had a sinking, uncertain feeling in her belly - and an excited flutter of butterflies to go with it. She knew that Zimmerman was the exact kind of woman who could feel with utter fervor and certainty in her heart that she would not sin, oh yes, right until she was alone in a room with a girl. Then her fingers would be inside her and her hands all over her body. And Nix hated how part of her

wanted

that. She hadn't been touched by another human woman in...ever...and the idea was as intoxicating as if she had found an oasis in the desert. Just why did it have to be

this

woman in particular? Even if her shoulders were so broad and her fervor was almost infectious and- no. She wouldn't think along that line anymore.

Enterprise looked back at Zimmerman, clearly unsure about Nix's silence. "I'm Enterprise, by the way."

Zimmerman's breathing stopped. Very quietly, she said: "Ah. How...providential." She said, quietly. "I must pray, long and hard, to Christ for seeing fit to bless us with this glory..."

Nix wasn't a girl to dither.

She was going to tell Zimmerman to go take a cold shower.

She just needed to...

To...

The memory of those warm hands. The feeling of an actual human's skin on her. The scent of her sweat.

Fuck

.

"...we can pray," she said, quietly.

Damn it, damn it, damn it, this was a mistake.

Enterprise flushed. "Fine. I'll go..." She looked around the room, then spotted the adjoining bathroom. "I'll wait in there. And try and remember more about myself."

"See that you do, spirit, walk in the name of Christ and her Lady Trinity," Zimmerman said, gesturing a little quick cruciform gear shape with her right hand. Enterprise looked faintly baffled, then stepped into the bathroom. The door closed as Nix flushed, then whispered quietly.

"Do you know what it means that she's-"

Zimmerman placed her finger on her lip.

"Shhh. The Lord God is just and kind to his Children," she murmured. "His wisdom is self evident. Now, we must give thanks." She gestured. "Kneel."

Nix knelt down, her knees complaining slightly. Zimmerman breathed slowly in, placing her gloved finger onto Nix's forehead - then quietly, she whispered. "In the name of Christ..." She slid her finger along Nix's brow, down to her nose, down to her lips. "...you are a tempting apple." She shivered under her robes and pushed her finger into Nix's lips. Nix wanted to think something sarcastic and cutting -

that didn't take long -

but her only thought was how warm the leather felt against her tongue. She looked up into those goggled eyes, her head swimming. Spirits and humans were different. That's why this felt so very wrong, and oh so very right, all at the same time.

She closed her teeth down and held on fast as Zimmerman drew her hand out. The glove went limp and those strong, calloused fingers pressed into Nix's scalp, sliding through her hair. Her palm covered Nix's nose and Nix let out a soft whimper as she breathed in the heavy sweat of her. The warmth of that covered implant mounted on Zimmerman's wrist shone against her face, making her lips feel almost chapped with it. Zimmerman whispered something that might have been Latin - Nix couldn't quite make it out underneath the mask. Her other hand, though, was lifting her robes up and Nix watched as she saw muscular thighs, the tight underclothes, the broad, slightly chubby belly of the Radwalker nun.

Zimmerman crooned. "Sinner's reward, my little Nix." She dragged her forward, underneath the robes, and in the warmth and the darkness, Nix made a terrible mistake. She breathed in - and her head swam with the

scent

of the other woman. Zimmerman carried so much weight in metal, it was why her body was seamed with thick slabs of muscle. It meant she

sweated

and that stink coated the inside of Nix's nose like a drug. Her tongue licked along bared skin and then found leather thong. She nuzzled at it, her hands reaching up. Under the weighty press of leaded robes, under those darkness, she pulled down and felt the warm rasp of Zimmerman, of Vengeance's, pubic hair against her nose and her lips. Her tongue lapped and she tasted her juices, tangy and rich.

"Mmmm," Vengeance crooned. "Those without Sin can walk in the flames of Cherenkov without burning - oh my lady Trinity, show us your blessings..." She flexed muscles all over her body and the tiny

clicks

and

clacks

of her implants unfolding rang loud in Nix's ears. Suddenly, the interior of her robes were bathed in an eerie bluish light, warm and hazy, and Nix's eyes filled with a faint smeary blur as her brain buzzed with the warmth and heat of a killing haze of radiation. Her body tingled and she groaned out a desperate prayer, fear and lust burning inside of her as hot as the rads.

"O-Oh my Lady Trini-mmpph!" She moaned as Vengeance pushed forward with hand and hips, burying Nix's needy face against her cunt. Nix licked desperately - and the blessing of Trinity sang in her veins. She was ministering to her daughter, after all? Was that how this worked? Nix didn't know - the sin and the sacrament were mixing and she was so far beyond the pale of normal Technical work...she was entirely at sea. But what she knew was the taste, and the bucking of hips, and the soft groan of the huge woman above her. Those strong, callosed fingers clenched tightly and Nix tilted her head back, craning her neck so she could drive her tongue in deep. Her hands went to the muscular ass of the other woman, squeezing her greedily.

"Ah, blessed be," Vengeance groaned hungrily. Her panting was coming heavily now. "The fires burn in your veins, do they not? Ah, you may be an Englishwoman, but you have the old time religion in you, the proper spirit, moving you! To! Deeds!" She groaned deeper still and pushed herself even harder against Nix. The warm flood of her juices soaked Nix's tongue - and Nix drank and drank and drank, her eyes fluttering shut. Then the

snick

of closing implants and the sudden end of the warmth left her mewling.

The robes were cast aside with a rustling flare and Nix found herself falling backwards as Vengeance let herself down, her bulk pressing Nix onto her back as she sat upon Nix's face. Nix, a more slender and slight woman by comparison, kicked her legs, struggled. She couldn't quite breathe, and the weight of the other woman was overpowering. But Vengeance didn't seem to care. Her hands planted above Nix's head as she leaned forward, bucking her hips slowly against Nix's face. "Ah yes, lick, lick you little English whore," she growled. "Soak up the sin and afterwards, we shall be purified in pain and fire and blood together."

Nix trembled, then found the other woman's clit. She sucked on her, almost desperately - she didn't want to get crushed. Her hand slid up and under, and she thrust two fingers into the soft folds of her sex. She crooked them, like she was ministering on a spirit. From the hungry moan, muffled only by that thick mask, Nix had a feeling that she had gotten the right target. One of Vengeance's hands grabbed onto her hair, holding her tightly as she bucked again, and again, she came. Nix drank from her, then pushed with one hand, drawing her head back at the same time. Vengeance was slow to respond - but she did lift one knee and let Nix sit up gasping.

"Are you insane?" she asked. "You could have suffocated me!"

"Ah, you are too skinny," Vengeance rumbled. She grabbed onto Nix's arms, hauling her up. Nix squirmed, struggled, but her top came off, revealing her breasts to the worlds. Those breasts were immediately cupped from behind. She choked back her own moan as Vengeance played with her. The long beak-nose of her mask rubbed against Nix's cheek as she leaned over her shoulder. "I like it."