Create a new tank to contain it

"Tiana's idea is a good one." her gaze remained connected with that of the ship's pilot.

Instantly Elizabeth looked away with a hint of a blush on her face.

"But Captain..." the curly-haired one tried to answer.

"Natasha we traveled a long way, came a long way and consumed much of our lives to come back empty handed. Whatever that thing is I'm willing to take the risk. It may have life, but that doesn't mean we can't use it for the benefit of humanity."

The curly-haired one angrily walked away from the group.

"All right. You two. Build the tank. I'll assist you. The rest of you see about setting up a small stand out here, this may take longer than we'd like."

The hours passed and the group set about their tasks, accomplishing almost all of them. The one that obviously took the longest was the creation of the new container for the rock.

Equally this allowed Elizabeth to be able to probe further into Valentina's dream to get a broader view of what they were up against.

"Do you have any idea what the rock might be?" she asked the blonde as the latter was tweaking various components.

"I don't have anything concrete, but it may be the contents of the fountain we saw in our dream that, for reasons unknown to me, took on that shape and consistency. I also have a suspicion that it may be some sort of symbiote."

"A symbiote?"

"According to the dream their kingdom was in chaos and with the help of those things they were able to fix everything. All in exchange for building a kingdom full of sex. To me the whole situation fits perfectly with the definition of symbiotes. Organisms that have a helping relationship with another organism."

"And what do these symbionts benefit from by creating a kingdom with that pillar?"

"Perhaps their nourishment is chemical compounds secreted in sexual intercourse."

Her superior looked thoughtful.

"Hey... Do you think Natasha's right?"

"I wouldn't take that girl's words too seriously, Cap. We all know she's got a few screws loose."

"That doesn't answer my question." she looked at her seriously.

"Look, I think this stone is going to do more good than anything else. And, if by some such quirk of fate, our planet ends up being conquered by the black slime.... Maybe it won't be a bad thing."

That confession left Elizabeth dumbfounded.

"Don't give me that look, I know how crazy it sounds... but you didn't see what I did. It was wonderful. Everyone looked happy, healthy and full of energy. Now, as a scientist, that this exists means it could be the end of a lot of bad things like untreatable diseases. And all that in exchange for what? A slightly unpleasant appearance and having sex twenty-four hours a day every day of the week? Excuse me, but that's a more than reasonable price."

After that they both went to work in silence. Valentina because she had nothing to say and because Elizabeth didn't want to say anything. Her mind was full of doubts and questions that she could not solve.

"And what was yours?" the blonde suddenly pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Mine?" she looked at her in confusion.

"Yes, your dream. You know mine and now I want to know yours."

The woman looked away. She wasn't quite ready to reveal her experience with gas.

"I... it's complicated to explain."

"Why?"

"I think it's a product of everything that happened to me in life and..."

Suddenly she felt her hand being taken.

"Trust me, I'm not going to say anything at all." she gave her a look of reassurance.

She sighed wearily. If she didn't do it with her now she might not be able to do it with anyone ever, and that was only going to torment her more.

"All my life people expected something from me. They expected greatness. And that conditioned me to always have to be the best. There was a day in my life when I couldn't take it anymore and I snapped. I walked away from everything with the intention of never coming back. That day I met Christen. Although she doesn't know it she, along with her annoying and cocky attitude, brought me peace and a perspective to things unique."

Valentina smiled, her face showing some tenderness as she understood where her story was going.

"So you dreamed about her?"

She nodded looking down at the floor with some embarrassment.

"I was in my room cuddled up to my pillow crying. I felt as pressured as I did back then, I didn't want to fail the mission. Suddenly she came into my room. She sat down next to me and began to comfort me. And from consolation, we moved on to love. Her full lips kissed every corner of my body and my body could only shudder. I didn't notice when the whole room was filled with darkness. The black slime began to climb on top of us, but we didn't care, we were just there, making love and showing each other how much we loved each other. Every inch that covered me I could hear more and more voices in my head, but they were all Christen's cheering me on, telling me that we were going to be together forever and that everything was going to be okay."

"And then? What happened when you finished covering them?" she asked with some intrigue as one hand caressed her crotch without Elizabeth noticing.

"After... nothing, I don't remember anything else."

That answer slightly disappointed the blonde who immediately went back to work.

"You should tell her."

"Tell her what?"

"That you love her."

"No." she said forcefully "She's very important to me. I don't know what I would do if I lost her."

"In this dream... she had a good time?"

"Yes." she smiled foolishly "From her mouth kept coming out screams of pleasure, her green eyes kept looking at me as if they were penetrating my soul and her body kept clinging to mine... at one point I didn't know where my white skin ended and her brown skin began."

Valentina focused as much as possible on her task to lower the heat in her body that that story had just provoked.

"So she accepts you."

"But it was a dream."

"Helen and I had a shared dream. Why didn't you?" Elizabeth's heart stopped just thinking about it "What's more, you should thank the symbiote. If it weren't for him you might never have been able to see past your friendship." the blonde looked up to see her captain on the verge of a nervous breakdown "Cap, listen, there's nothing wrong with wanting to take it up a notch. Besides, the two of you would look great together. You're blonde, she's black-haired. You're white, she's brunette. Your body is small, hers is bigger. They're yin and yang. That makes them perfect."

Those words brought a certain degree of comfort to the captain.

"Thanks Doc. I'll analyze it well and see when the time is right to tell her the whole truth."

"That's the spirit! Oh, and I've got everything ready!" she said then rushed off to notify her teammates.

Elizabeth stared into nothingness. Her mind was in the memory of that dream. What she never revealed to Valentina was that her dream had an ending. It had her as the queen of the symbiotes and by her side, as her faithful wife, Christen. Both watching as the world around them was made up of creatures having relations.

A couple more hours passed and, after finishing all the preparations, the whole group began to work on their main objective. The plan was simple. While three of them held the old tank with the rock with the gravitational devices, the other three were in charge of installing the new one.

The ones in charge of holding the rock were Christen, Natasha and Elizabeth.

The whole process was handled with masterful excellence. You could see the superior capabilities of each of them. They were unwittingly demonstrating why they had been selected for that mission.

"This is the most delicate part. We have to move the rock to the new container," said the captain.

The trio that had finished installing the new tank went to hold the old one while the other trio was in charge of removing the rock.

Natasha watched the rock for a few moments. This could be her golden opportunity. Perhaps by dropping it it would crack and no longer be of any value.

"My gauntlet." she declared as she pretended it wasn't working for her.

The pair began to resist as much as they could to maintain the stability of the object. To everyone's misfortune they could not succeed and it began its uncontrollable descent in Christen's direction.

"Watch out!" shouted Elizabeth.