The Time Jon Dreamed Out Loud

Gertrude led Jon to a seat near the back of the room. She smiled at him as she asked, "I bet you are wondering what kind of club this is?"

Jon looked at his new silver pin and shrugged, "I assume that since this is a grey club, we'll see some sexualized adult content, maybe dancing girls?" He looked closer and said, "The smiling face and the sad face, I think it must be a theater of some kind?"

Gertrude giggled and said, "It's the kind of place where a man's dreams can come true."

Jon chuckled and said, "I can dream pretty big. I doubt this place could ever match my dreams."

Gertrude traced her finger around the edge of her crystal wine glass, "Mm, I wonder."

Jon shook his head and then asked, "I had no idea you were into this kind of thing, Duchess." He chuckled.

Gertrude frowned at him and said, "Just keep calling me Duchess, see if you aren't sleeping on the couch again."

Jon held up his hands in surrender, "I'm sorry, Gertrude, I won't tease you anymore."

Gertrude smiled and said, "I enjoy watching, I am not really all that excited about participating. You need to be an exhibitionist for that."

Jon snorted, "I know a woman who is into that kind of thing. She would never come to a club like this, she's too important."

The Devil walked out on stage as the lights dimmed, a single bright light lit the stage as the ambient lighting in the rest of the room dimmed to almost nothing. His voice boomed, "Brothers, sisters, the little swan, and the little fox have agreed to a show, those in the know will stare down below while those in the rear will stare up here!" He pointed at his chest and then pulled his cape around himself as he disappeared in a flash of smoke replaced by a naked woman at a piano and another naked woman holding two ostrich feathers.

The piano started to play a wonderful Eurmentian Dance tune as the woman with the feathers danced around the stage, the feathers always managing to spoil the view of her perfect body.

Jon stared at the two of them like a hawk looking at a mouse from up high as Gertrude leaned close and whispered, "I had no idea you were into this kind of thing, Jon."

Jon whispered back, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was looking at our Empresses on the stage."

Gertrude chuckled moving right up next to him and softly murmuring in his ear, "They can be anyone you think they are, that's why we all wear masks." She gave his thigh a squeeze.

Jon watched the dance carefully studying the woman carefully, Teslaimia had teased him for months so he was very clear about what she looked like and it started to bother him that the woman dancing on stage reminded him so much of her, so moved his gaze to the woman on the piano and tried to put a face to the naked back in front of him and that's when he noticed a small birthmark on her shoulder. Isn't that exactly the spot Emily had one? Jon leaned to Gertrude and asked softly, "The girl playing piano, isn't that the Empress?"

Gertrude chuckled and shook her head at Jon's sharp eyes. He thought she was saying no so he took a deep breath watching them both eventually the song came to an end and the pair of them stood up and walked side by side to the middle of the stage. The woman with the feathers managed to just cover both of their naughty places with her feathers as they gave a bow. Gertrude whispered in his ear, "Would you have liked to have seen the Empresses on that stage?"

Jon felt a little sweat on his upper lip and his back, "I don't know the man who would say no to that question."

Gertrude giggled and then said, "If that's the case then it was them. That's the fun of dreams, right?"

As the night went on an array of different people came up to the stage and put on a variety of performances. Jon couldn't help notice all the excited people in the crowd actively enjoying the show he leaned to Gertrude and asked, "Are we allowed to do that here?"

Gertrude nodded and huskily spoke in his ear, "All that is required of you is to wear your mask. Anything else goes in here."

Jon licked his lips as he looked around the crowd. That's when he saw the two of them, the women from the stage show sitting in the front row with kissing each other passionately as a woman with red hair danced on the stage. Jon glanced at her and thought she had a very nice body but his eyes were glued to the women in the front row, for some reason he was incredibly turned on as he watched them.

Gertrude whispered in his ear, "People with gold pins get to have a better choice of seating. The only way a silver pin like you can sit closer is if you come inside the room naked. Naked people have the first choice." That's when he noticed, the women sitting in that booth weren't wearing any clothing.

Jon's eyes were burning a hole through the pair of them as stared. Looking for any signs it was the two women he thought he was seeing that's when he felt Gertrude's hand on his member.

*****

Amelia's shift came to an end and unlike the other members of her repair crew, she didn't seem like she was anxious to go anywhere. One of the men stopped as he was about to leave, "Nice work today, rookie, do you have a place to stay for the night?"

Amelia thought for a moment and then said, "No, I don't think I do. I thought I would sleep on my airship."

The man shook his head, "No can do, rookie, ever since the accident no one is allowed to stay in the hydrogen area when bags are being filled."

Amelia looked panicked, "I can't afford to rent a room!"

The man asked, "Do you have any friends in the city?"

Amelia thought about it and shook her head and then changed her mind, "I do know one place."

He said, "Well come on then, the cabs will all be gone if we don't get down there before the office folks get off work."

Amelia went out with the rest of the crew and asked the cab driver to bring her to Emily's old building. She didn't even notice when no one asked her why she wanted to go up to the tenth floor. As she got off the lift, a tall blonde man was ready to get on, he tipped his top hat to her as they passed by each other. Amelia thought he was the tallest most handsome man she had ever seen.

She stood outside the door building up her courage before she knocked. The door opened and the most beautiful woman in the world stood there staring at her only wearing lingerie. Amelia swallowed looking her up and down before asking, "I'm sorry, I am looking for Emily Connaissance, did I knock on the wrong door?"

The red-haired woman broke out into a friendly smile and said in very badly broken Langlish, "Oh you are ze friend of Emily? I am her friend Katarina. She doesn't live here anymore she has rented it to me now." She thought for a moment, "Vould you like to come in?"

Amelia nodded as the woman brought her inside. "I'm sorry, I needed a place to sleep tonight, Emily offered me the spare room to use until my job paid me but I guess some things have changed since I was away."

Katarina sat down on the couch and said with a smile on her face, "Oh? Vell zen feel free to stay here until you get paid zen. It's just me and my servant zat live here. You can stay in zat room." She pointed at the same room that Emily had offered before.

Katarina noticed Amelia staring and said, "Do you like it? Zese cloze are made by Tesa Lame Nia, Emily's lover." Katarina got up and did a little pirouette. She grinned and said, "I have so many of zese clothes now, zey make me feel so sexy!"

Amelia blinked her eyes slowly and then said, "I think I should warn you, I like women. Some women get offended if I don't say it upfront. Unless you are alright dressing that way in front of a man, you shouldn't do that in front of me either."

Katarina laughed and said, "Zen we are ze same." She smiled.

Amelia swallowed hard and said, "You are so beautiful, how can you be alone?"

Katarina shrugged and then said, "I zink it is, because I am, how you say, stupid?"

*****

Emily and Teslaimia sat in Emily's office and Teslaimia chuckled, "I can't believe you managed to play the piano so well without your clothes on. You played the piece perfectly."

Emily shrugged and said, "My piano teacher used to say when you sit down at the piano to play your recital, imagine that you have no clothes on, that way the mistakes you play are the least of your worries."

Teslaimia laughed, "Your piano teacher was a pervert!"

Emily laughed, "Probably just a little. She was a nice lady though. Also, I just didn't have another talent I could demonstrate. My dancing isn't up to your level at all and I still need to use my cane to walk at times. I wouldn't want to try and do a sexy dance and fall flat on my face."

Teslaimia chuckled and said, "I enjoyed performing with you." She took Emily's hand and gave it a squeeze. Gertrude walked and handed Emily the daily report.

Gertrude smiled and said, "Jon called me your name in bed that night." She snickered.

Teslaimia opened her eyes wide, "Mine?"

Gertrude laughed, "Both of you. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was really you two. I just let him think it was a couple of women that looked like you both."

Teslaimia shook her head and then looked at Emily, "I change my mind, you should kill her."

Emily shook her head, "Mi~a, don't joke about things like that when she is the room, she's liable to think you are serious."

Gertrude's eyes got large and then she quietly stood a little further away than normal.

Emily read through the documents and asked, "Were we able to get confirmation from our people that the Kreussians are flight-capable?"

Gertrude nodded and said, "It has been confirmed. It seems Amelia was captured there and her airship was dismantled and copied. We aren't sure how she escaped, but she has returned in a different airship that is much improved over her original ship. Mr. Hudsucker said the new design is close to the level of quality of our first-generation Zealous class. If the Kreussians build a large ship it will most likely be at that level."

Emily nodded and said, "I had Norville construct a second dreadnaught along with the third destroyer. I want at least one dreadnaught at a time on patrol over the northern border. The two destroyers will patrol our southern border."

Gertrude nodded and asked, "What did the sock and buskin have for you?"

Emily sighed and said, "He gave me another riddle. This time he said, 'An old man dies, a young man flies, the little fox is in for a big surprise! Two armies will fight in the true enemy's sight.' I tried to get more out of him but all he would say is, 'to get in the know, you must put on a show.' Which I wasn't prepared to do last night."

Gertrude nodded and said, "Well, the little fox is Your Majesty. I know that much. I wonder if he meant that the old Tzar has died and his son is the new Tzar."

Teslaimia nodded and said, "Mhm, that's what we believe as well. What we are worried about is the last line. The true enemy's sight. It can't mean anyone to the south, no one there is our match. We could only guess it's someone in the extreme northeast."

Emily nodded and said, "All we can do is push ahead with our modernization plans. Build more ships and get our armies trained. If we can beat the Kreussians quickly enough, this true enemy will be more easily handled."