Petroleum Effect
Interlude - Return of the Eviloids
Planet Delos-3, Delos System, Athena Cluster, 2153
Matriarch Olaessia T'Sayk looked down at one of the most beautiful planets she had ever seen. With its blue-green continents and purplish oceans, wrapped in fluffy white clouds, it looked like a paradise.
She could not believe that it had been missed on previous exploration, but multiple survey expeditions had recorded this world as barren. It was no such thing. The world was beautiful. Truly gorgeous, uncolonised and best of all, inside Asari space.
The large colony transport made a swift, smooth descent through the atmosphere into the brightness of a glorious summer morning. The ship set down on the rich, thick grass at the edge of a lush forest with a soft bump. The ramp descended and Olaessius was first off the ship, flanked by two of her bodyguards.
The world was … amazing …
As Olaessius took in the warm, fresh, fragrant air she saw movement ahead. It was Helys, her daughter, accompanied by a small, furry creature. The small being next to Helys looked a little like a small Asaroid child only pudgier and covered in reddish fur. On its front belly was a white patch with a symmetrical red shape in the centre.
Helys rushed up and hugged her mother emphatically, "Isn't it amazing?"
Helys looked well - her skin if anything a slightly deeper shade of azure than the last time Olaessius had seen her. Olaessius wondered where Halith was - another of her many daughters who had come to explore the planet. Well, she thought, there would be time to ask about that later.
"Indeed it is", returned Olaessius, warmly, "and this is your … new friend?"
"Hello!" came a small, sweet voice, like an Asari child, as the creature introduced itself.
"My name is Tenderheart Bear and I want to be your friend", said the bear. The sentiment was charmingly naive but Olaessius felt a surprisingly strong, warm emotional response. She actually … wanted … to befriend the small creature.
"That would be delightful. I would love to be your friend", replied Olaessius.
"Are you coming to live here?" asked Tenderheart Bear, "Please do. We would love it if you and your friends came to live here!"
Olaessius almost felt bad. She and her followers did indeed intend to found a colony. She intended to use this stroke of good fortune to establish a power base away from those who did not recognise her worth. At least she could say the natives agreed. She smiled and nodded.
"That's wonderful!" cried Tenderheart joyfully, "Welcome to Care-a-Lot! Gold Star told my people, the Care Bears, to befriend and care for all people as part of our sacred mission! Will you join us for the Candy Feast?"
In light of the warm welcome, every Asari on the ship came to enjoy the feast in the Care Bear village. Olaessius had been afraid they might put too much pressure on the simple community by asking it to feed so many, but Tenderheart reassured her they had plenty.
The, 'Candy Feast' was just that. Rude wooden tables and benches had been set up in the midst of a circular group of small huts. Piled high on wooden plates were nuts, roots, piles of what looked like fish with a small amount of redder meat. Most of all, there was plate after heaped plate of the pink, woolly substance that grew on the local trees. Olaessius was genuinely appetised.
Around the tables were Care Bears of all colours. Blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, indigo, red, grey, black, and purest white. Each had a white patch and mark in the centre of its tummy. Some of the marks almost looked drawn.
Something else drew the Matriarch's eye. There were some larger blue creatures nearby. Not quite as tall as Olaessia, but then she was tall for an Asari. They looked like furry Asari meld-dreams. Soft, short, blue fur covered curvaceous Asaroid bodies with large breasts, thin waists and wide hips. There were no head crests, just longer, darker blue fur. The face was Asaroid but somewhat pointed, with very sharp cheekbones, shining pale blue eyes and two large pointed ears. The lips were a dreaming deep shade of azure. The feet had elegant ivory spurs on the heel - producing an effect much like wearing high heeled footwear - meaning almost every pose the creatures made was provocative. A thin, blue, furry tail writhed sensuously in the air behind each creature.
Olaessia suddenly realised she was attracted to the creatures. She wanted to meld with them. She felt like a maiden. She wanted to embrace eternity with one of the creatures RIGHT NOW.
Olaessia breathed deeply to get a grip on herself. She was not some meld-crazy maiden, she was a matriarch! She could talk to one of the blue creatures later.
"... and now, we want to share with you all Gold Star's blessing of light!"
The Care Bears were lining up. Whilst Olaessia had been gazing raptly at the blue creatures, one of them had been talking.
"Care Bears, prepare to stare. On 3! 3, 2, 1!"
Rainbow light burst from the symbols on the bears' tummies and Olaessia's world was drowned in bliss and glory.
Planet Care-a-Lot, Delos System, Athena Cluster, 2173
The beautiful Asari Temple of the Golden Star had grown surprisingly quickly. Everyone who had visited had been enraptured by the Care Bears and soon come to understand that helping with their sacred mission was important. In fact, the most important thing. Everyone who had met the Care Bears had been willing to donate - in many cases, all their wealth!
In only twenty years, an elegant colony had grown up on the planet, clusters of sleek, curved, Asari buildings clustered around the large marble temple. The colony was still growing. No one who came wanted to leave. The colony had achieved registration with surprising ease, after the Matriarch took two of the Daughters to her meetings with the necessary officials. The planet Delos-3 was now officially named Care-a-Lot and was owned fully by Matriarch Olaessia's colony company. The Matriarch had also changed her name to reflect her increase in status - she was now Matriarch Olaessia T'Star.
Olaessia had never been happier. Her days were filled with expanding her beautiful colony and investing the wealth of the ever-increasing number of donors. Her nights ... well her nights were filled by one or more of the Daughters. She melded herself senseless.
The blue creatures the Matriarch had encountered were a result of the special blessings of the incredible Care Bear people. Asari could meld with any species and their offspring would be Asari, but often with traits present in the father emphasised. Care Bears had similar gifts. They could meld, and that was fine - but they could also mate with Asari. If a male Care Bear released their genetic material inside an Asari's birth canal, then a true hybrid would result.
The gift of the Care Bears to Asari was the origin of the Daughters. The blue beings whose beauty had struck Olaessia so hard during her first day on the planet. Asari were attractive to many other sentient races but in the Daughters the effect was increased a hundred-fold. Members of other species, males especially, would do anything to mate with the Daughters. Anything at all. It was like they lost their minds. Whilst the resulting obsession could be annoying, it was useful to the cause. They would soon be admitting significant Turian and Salarian contingents to the faithful of the Temple of the Golden Star.
Olaessia herself would have liked to give birth to Daughters, but the Care Bears would not allow her to receive the gift from their males, saying she was too important and had to live.
Once an Asari had mated with a male Care Bear and received their genetic material, they lived in constant pleasure and bliss - almost as strong as if they were permanently in meld - and never stopped reproducing. No sooner had one Daughter been born than another would begin to grow inside her. Each birth also produced intense pleasure. Eventually, the process would wear out even the strongest Asari body untimely. Olaessia's daughter Halith had given birth to twelve Daughters before the final birth nearly twenty years ago proved too much for her. It was a joyous thing though - she had only lived to 122 but the last three years of her life had been, she said, the happiest she had ever felt.
Many of the Asari colonists wanted to experience the blessing of giving birth to Daughters but the Care Bears permitted it only sparingly. Their friends the colonists, they said earnestly, were too important to the sacred cause. Olaessia was allowed to meld with the Daughters, but not mate with Care Bear males. The melding with the Daughters produced pleasure beyond anything she had experienced before, but no children, Asari or otherwise.
Planet Care-a-Lot, Delos System, Athena Cluster, 2178
Trant Gilax had left the Turian Hierarchy. Now he was an acolyte in the Temple of the Golden Star.
The temple was made of polished white marble threaded with purple. The interior was decorated with beautiful paintings made by the faithful directly onto the walls, many scenes depicting Gold Star in his aspect as a source of light and life, shining on people from many of the known galactic races. The background, deep blue, almost purple, broken by the glorious yellows of tiny stars and the golds of Gold Star in his crystalline aspect. In some parts of the paintings, real gold had been used.
The temple had other symbols. Above the door and the altar was the five-pointed seal, rendered in solid gold. The seal was almost a pentagram, a five-pointed star, with a single point up, save that the five points were all curved, conveying a biological impression like grass waving or questing tendrils.
Trant's gaze was fixed on Glory Bear, who was busy explaining the sacred mission to new converts. The bear seemed small, even standing on a podium, flanked as he was by the coldly beautiful, silent Daughters of the Golden Star.
It was hard for Trant to tear his gaze from the Daughters. Since he had first looked upon one of them he had been lost to the temple. He hungered for their embrace. When he had served well, sometimes a Daughter would visit him and spend the night. He lived for those nights.
Even so, the sacred mission was more compelling. He listened raptly to Glory Bear's high pitched voice -
"So you see, Gold Star was very sad and worried about this galaxy. There is something wrong with the stars here. The stars are wrong. We need to find out what it is and make them right."
"Planets are like branches on the candy floss tea. Each person is like a strand, a unique soul we care for very much. By themselves, one strand is hard to notice, but together they make something delicious. And when we have lots of branches with lots of strands, the candy floss tree is ripe!"
"But in this galaxy something keeps pulling down the strands and the branches and the candy floss tree never gets ripe! We need people - lots of people. Without enough people, the stars are always wrong, and we need to change that!"
"That's why we are going to send out missionaries to spread Gold Star's word! Everyone will need to help! We'll need each mission to have Asari and Turians and Daughters and Care Bears! If we work together and share we can do anything! We can find out what is wrong with the stars here."
"Then, in time, the stars will be right."