TALES OF THE RELIANT

THE RISSIANS

John Yager, who commanded the starship The Reliant, was ordered by Admiral Richard Flagg to go to the planet Xanu. Yager and Flagg did not like one another. In fact, they despised one another. Flagg blamed Yager for The Alliance making peace with the Karnins whom Flagg hated for killing his wife and son after they attacked an Alliance outpost which led to the Karnin war. After a peace agreement was reached with the Karnin empire, Flagg did everything in his power to try to derail Yager's career, which led to Yager being stripped of his command of the starship the Proterius. The only thing stopped Flagg From destroying Yager's career completely was John's friend Admiral Jason Renjay. In fact, Renjay was instrumental in Yager getting another command after three years after the Karnin war. Now he was the captain of The Reliant, a K class starship that was on the verge of being decommissioned. It was a far cry from the A class starships he was used to commanding like the Pretorius. But it was a command, his first since Flagg attempted to derail his career. To pay his friend back for the opportunity to command a starship again, John agreed to allow Richard's troubled son, who was in constant trouble with the authorities on various planets but was an ace pilot, Zack to be the ship's pilot.

The mission, according to Admiral Flagg, was to go to Xanu and take care of some troubles they were having there on the planet. Yager believed Flagg was deliberately giving them the bad jobs to further try to humiliate him. But he would play along and do the bad jobs he was assigned ro so by Flagg or anyone else.

For now.

Captain Yager gathered his crew in the conference room to discuss the mission. He explained their new mission to them on the planet Xanu. Xanu was the only sex world in The Alliance. It was used primarily as a vacation resort for other members of The Alliance. There were other sex worlds that weren't members of The Allaince because they engaged in practices that were forbidden by The Alliance such as sex slavery which was outlawed by The Alliance.

"Our mission," explained Captain Yager to his crew, "is to go to planet Xanu and help them with some trouble they're having there."

"Xanu?" exclaimed First Officer Commander Lisa Steiner, her eyes wife. "You mean the sex world?"

"Yes, Commander Steiner," replied the Captain, letting out a sigh. "I mean the sex world."

"What are we supposed to do there?" Commander Steiner pressed him.

"Apparently they're having some trouble with a group who call themselves The Rissians."

"The Rissians?" queried Lisa.

Captain Yager looked over at Roger who was the ship's android. "Roger?"

"Checking, Captain." Roger scanned his extensive inner library while the rest of the crew waited with bated breath. "The Rissians are a strict religious sect that began on old Earth. They believe that sex is a holy act that should only be confined to marriage."

"Really," Lisa sneered.

"Yes, Commander," Roger replied, nodding at the Commander.

Lisa wasn't sure what to make of Roger and similar androids. Every ship was now required to have an android as part of their crew. Lisa didn't really have an issue with this if only they didn't look so damn human. Roger had short black hair and a slim build. She would have considered him handsome had he been an actual human and not so damn robot. Lisa had to stifle a laugh when Captain Yager refereed to him as Roger the robot and he replied in his non-emotional way, "We prefer to be called artificial life forms."

"So there's an anti-sex cult living on a sex world." John let out another sigh. "I guess we know now what the problem is."

"Roger," asked the ship's tactical officer Tamala, "do The Rissians worship any type of god?"