Shooting Stars

"Nafli!! Wake up!!" Small hands shook her roughly. Groaning, Nafli fought her way out of heavy sleep, and blinked in the glare of the small desk lamp Nala had switched on.

"What? What is it?! Another injury?" Nala pulled her upright, and Nafli realized her sister was not excited in a bad way, but in a good one.

"No, something wonderful!! They survived!!" Nafli could see that her sister was grinning. It looked so out of place, she felt a rising surge of panic. Had she gone mad from the heat?

"Who survived?" she asked cautiously.

"The ark-builders! They survived!!"

Nafli shook her head. "That's impossible. The flare-"

"It didn't hit them!! They've had the ship in the deepest part of Earth's shadow, the umbra, since construction began! Everyone assumed they were destroyed because the satellites all were! They sent a signal to New Washington an hour ago, and word has spread through the radio nets and just reached us a few minutes ago! Everyone's celebrating!! Get up you silly girl!! Get up and dance with me!!" Nala kissed her on the forehead, and turned to pick up the sari Nafli had tossed on her dresser. She turned and started draging Nafli out of bed while simultaneously trying to dress her.

"All right, all right, I'm coming! But not in that! It's filthy! Go on and I'll follow."

Nala stuck her tongue out at her, and both shared a laugh. Nala turned to the door, and over her shoulder said: "You know Roger is sure to be there. Do you want to borrow some jewelry, and clothes?"

She rolled her eyes, "Out, you!!" 'And yet...' "Wait, maybe..."

Grinning, Nala paused, her left hand on the doorframe, and a satisfied smile on her face. She had been throwing Roger, the dapper American engineer-turned-hydroponics-genius who led the effort to feed the community, at her sister for two months now without apparent success. She'd been puzzled at Nafli's reluctance, but this hesitation brought the suspicion home. Like so many others, her little sister had seen no point to living for a future that wouldn't exist. Satisfied that she'd been right all along, she waited for a question she already knew every word of. "Maybe the locket?", she slyly suggested. Nafli nodded, eagerly. "Does that mean you want to raid my closet for something properly slutty to expose it lying between your boobs in?" Nala flinched, expecting a pillow.

Nafli grinned, almost fiercely. No pillow came forth. "Yes. Yes I think I will." And she laughed at the expression on her sister's face. "Don't look so surprised, eldest sister. Do you really think the rest of us learned nothing from your conquest? The Purinji sisters are not going to end up spinsters visiting the sperm banks to do our 'reproductive duty to the race'. What few men are around are going to us first, the rest can have what we leave them. And Roger is...a very good choice."

Nala blushed, but only a little. Of the 750-odd residents of New Kal Kuta, over 500 were women of childbearing age. That had made for some savage competition concerning the available marriagable men. Nala had set her sights on Baram Djimittisva, easily the best-looking, richest, most well-educated (an honest-to-goodness surgeon, no less), and well-regarded young man in the settlement. And she'd pulled up every stop to do it. He'd gone native, adopting Western dress, so she had too, with a vengeance. Plenty of Western clothing had been salvaged from stores, homes, and the like, and much of it sat unwanted in the storage buildings by people more interested in protection from the sun than fashion sense. So she'd gone 'shopping', and amassed what amounted to the best 'ho' wardrobe anyone could imagine.

The talking had started immediately, but when Baram noticed her, all bets were off. They'd had a whirlwind courtship, only four months (Baram hadn't gone THAT native!) and had wedded three weeks ago. A lot of other girls had gone 'shopping' since then, but Nala had made it known to her sisters that she may have been a little 'overzealous' in her collection, and acquired items better sized to them than her. Three of the four sisters old enough to date had found ways to thank her, as man after man fell to the huntresses of the Purinji 'tribe'... all but Nafli. But now, thanks to the likely mostly dead geniuses at NASA picking a shady spot to build the 'ark', perhaps Nafli too would 'take down a buck'. She smirked at the idiom. The local video store's contents had been mostly intact, and apparently the former residents of Baffin Island had strongly favored rustic themed movies. The whole community of mostly Indian and Bangladeshi expatriates was rapidly becoming full-on rednecks, much to the amusement of the few orginial inhabitants who remained.

Nafli got up, shrugged out of her nightshirt, and into a robe. Nala mentally congratulated herself on finding the push-up bras. Everyone was getting thinner on the short rations, and such an advantage as these silly things conferred was a welcome one. She stepped aside for Nafli, and walked to her own room, now shared with Baram until the digging of their new home was finished. She loved her family, but couldn't wait for the move, it would be the official stamp of womanhood. She chuckled, 'Maybe I haven't gone that native!', she thought. She strode to the now-infamous closet, and swung the doors open. Being the eldest sister had definitely had its perks, especially when her father was head of the building crews. The walk-in closet he had had made for her in exchange for various favors to the workers who'd done it was a magnificent birthday present in a world where cramped lack of prviacy had become the norm.

And she had stuffed it with an arsenal of 'Western femininity': tight-fitting bluejeans, low-cut, midriff-baring blouses, shoes beyond number (though a few more wouldn't hurt, she noted, frowning slightly as she always did when inspecting her shoe supply), and of course, the 'silks'. They weren't really silk, not most of them, but they felt just as good, and when she considered the effect they had on men, she knew they were far more valuable.

The closet alone marked her as a wealthy woman. What was in it made her wealth obscene. 'Nafli was right, the other women would get what was left behind by the Purinji sisters. Men were so easy to control, just push the right buttons, and they do whatever you want them to. Baram had been a self-styled playboy, using his own assets to keep many women interested. He'd never stood a chance.'

"Good thing too. I'd hate to have seen some other guy get you. Was I really that easy to get?"

Nala jumped and shrieked softly. A warm hand touched her left shoulder in time with the words. She turned to see Bar-bar standing there, grinning.

"Was I doing it again?!" she put her hands over her treacherous mouth. Sometimes she thought she must have the damned Tourette's Syndrome. Her thoughts would just spill out of her mouth unbidden. Thankfully it was mostly when she was alone, and someone would walk in on it and only get a little. "How much did you hear?" She blushed, furiously this time.

"Yes, my love, you were. I heard only enough to make me certain that we are absolutely perfect for each other." He leaned in conspiratorially, "To be honest, you've pretty much always done it, at least always around me. Maybe I push the right buttons on you? Like this one, maybe?" He pushed a button.

"Mmm-aybeee. Aah, stop it you wicked man!! My sister will be here-"

"In about fifteen minutes, if she's really your sister, and really headed for the showers. Plenty of time for a short celebration of our own. If we get lucky enough, we can name the baby Nafli or Roger to celebrate. It is Roger, isn't it?" Bar hadn't stopped what he'd been doing, and appeared to be done talking, because he'd begun kissing her, and damned if he wasn't good at that too.

Nala nodded, gasping slightly. The next few minutes passed very pleasantly indeed... and then they both went to the shower room together to share a stall. She told Nafli to go help herself when they met in the anteroom, and realised that the giggle she'd stifled must've been inspired by her salacious husband when she winked (apparently back) at him.

"Don't fool around too much in the shower or you'll miss the party!", Nafli chided, expertly ducking the towel Nala lobbed at her. "See you soon!", she called over her shoulder.

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