"Have you ever seen Juno? I bet you haven't. She's elusive. That's ninety percent of her appeal.

"She's tall. Enormous. At least a head taller than me. Her body is ripe like the plumpest fruit. That day, when she first stood from her throne, I would have pledged to die for her right there. Her garments were completely sheer. You could see her thick, curved body right through the gauzy material that rested on her luscious frame like moon-dust falling over shadowed planets. I couldn't pull my eyes away from her full, round breasts with areolae as dark as deep space. Her waist curved in and her hips shot out like the birth of twin nebulas. Those hips, oh Cosmos, those lines that mimicked bursting stars were made for my hands. Her arms were naked except for the gold she had embedded in them. I always loved those swirled contours that gather at her shoulders and spread across her arms and fingers. Those gold bands were my favorite part of her to caress. Besides other parts. Actually, there were no favorite parts, it was all my favorite.

"She stood before me and spoke again. 'You have been saved from the Universal Slave Markets by Juno's generosity and power. You are a free man again.'

"She paused, expecting something of me. I didn't know what to say, so I looked down at my naked feet and tenting garb.

"She continued, 'Earthen, Juno has freed you and now she offers you a choice: You may either depart the Olympi at the next planet to begin your journey alone in the wild, cruel universe, or you may stay within the safety of Juno's ship and earn your keep. You will work to assist Juno in her mission to save the other Earthen stolen from the Mother Planet.'

"I easily succumbed to the smile from the powerful, mostly naked woman. Her face was stunning. It was round and soft with large lips that pouted out lusciously, allowing bright white teeth to peek through rouge-painted lips. I wanted to slide my finger across those lips, I remember that so distinctly. Her hair was fire red and twisted in strands that sat up on her head as noble as any crown. Golden fillets crossed over and held the bright pieces in place.

"She looked down at me and spoke again, 'You have your options, Earthen. What do you choose?'

"I didn't know what to say to her, so I stayed silent.

"She gave me one final chance, one more warning before her voice lowered and she stared at me with dark eyes and deepest irritation.

"I didn't want to stay there, but I sure as hell didn't want to wander the universe alone either. I said the first thing that came to mind even though it wasn't true. 'I want to go home.'"

"She looked away, receding back into her golden chair. 'That is impossible. There is no voyage back to Earth. That is one option you do not have.'

"I shrugged my shoulders, 'I know how to get home.'

"Confused, she turned back to face me. 'How?'

"I told her that my mother taught me to watch the stars as her mother taught her and her father taught her. I could find my way back.

"'Prove it.'

"With one of the Gilded Legion at my back poking me forward, I followed her. My eyes never left the rhythmic sway of her hips and her full, round ass. Oh, whatever Universal Ruler and God you hail, my friend, thank It for creating sights like that. One day you might see her and know what I mean. Back then, I was too afraid to reach out. I wished I was bolder. I wished I could've walked up next to her, pressed my body against hers, run my hands over the swell of her hips through that soft fabric that hardly existed and just not have been such a spineless germ about it.

"She led me to the control deck where her pilot stood watching the open space ahead.

"'Show Juno,' she demanded, 'and she will take you home.'

"I was cocky. I knew I could do this. I crossed my arms over my chest and turned to observe the stars as I'd done a million times before.

"As I squinted into the distance, I had a sudden and sinking realization: I could recognize nothing in the mess of lights. I had no horizon to gain my bearings. I had nothing to anchor me to our location.

"I started to panic.

"I scanned the stars, I tried to find the shapes, the patterns that I'd pointed to every single night for the past twenty years. I knew the lines in the sky better than I knew the history of my own country. The stars were my job, my life, my family's oldest tradition.

"Juno cleared her throat.

"I couldn't recognize a thing. I'd failed. I wondered briefly what Juno did to failures.

"I was just about to concede when I saw the faintest resemblance of a single cluster. But I couldn't be sure.

"Moving to that side of the window, I turned my head, kept turning and, listen to this, I don't joke about this, I stood on the control panel and, pushing off the machinery, I raised my feet above my head, and propped them up against the window. Upside down, I realized that they were inverted. Thrilled, the constellations began spilling out. I pointed to the other formations that had suddenly come into perspective.

"Hopping down off the controls, I gave her the directions to find Earth.

"She regarded me silently for a moment and spoke with resolute finality, 'You will stay with Juno on the ship. Teach Juno your navigation. Teach Juno to understand the stars and she will take you back to Earth. Juno swears to it.'

"Fuck no. Go lick the surface of the stars, you conniving bint hog. Stuff your air-trap with the excrement of every person you fucked over until you explode, you corrupt corpse-monger — that's what I should have said to her."

Teeno peered over the rim of his cup, a single eyebrow raised. "What did you actually say?"

"What did I say? I didn't say anything. I was too afraid. I just nodded my head and stared at my fucking feet again.

"I swear, though, if I could go back to any moment in time, it would be that one. It's one second that changed my life: a single movement that made a simple gesture that sealed my fate. One hardly perceivable motion that normally means almost nothing out of context signed me to all the torture and the darkness and the agony of these..." Moon trailed off as he held his gloved hands in front of his face. Clenching his jaw, he ran the gloved hands through his thick, long hair as he turned back to his drink. "Well there's no use in looking back and hoping to change the past, am I right? We keep looking forward. Looking forward to finally using her head as a hood-ornament.

"So I agreed. I joined her on her ship.

"From that day forward, she kept me close to her. I became her plaything and at that point, I loved it.

"She dressed me in her finest silks and sheltered me next to her succulent body, keeping me in her own personal quarters where we shared a bed.

"I know what you're thinking and I wish I could tell you things were different. We slept together innocently. We were never lovers despite my innumerable attempts. Night after night, I'd drape my arm around her. I'd press my front into her luscious backside, slide myself between the warm junction where cheek meets thigh. I've touched her skin over a million times, felt her breasts in my hands, her thighs between mine. We'd lie with our legs entangled as we slept naked over the cool silk of her sheets. But she would never allow us to go forward. It was torture. She'd wake me, caressing my chest, tracing my jaw, cupping my balls in her hand and I would reciprocate with nuzzling her neck, brushing my thumb against her beautiful...

"Ah, I digress. In exchange for body heat, I cut myself open and released all my secrets abou-"

"But how were you able to understand each other? From what I know, Juno speaks Latin," Teeno interrupted.

Moon leaned forward. "This is where the true downward spiral into madness begins, my friend.

"I marveled that this woman, a total stranger to Korea, understood every word I said. I told her this. She smiled gently and said, 'Oh little Moon, it is these wonderful jewels Juno put in her neck. See them here?' She turned around and pointed to two luminescent dots on the back of her long, graceful neck embedded deep in her flesh. They appeared like two stars in an otherwise empty sky. I asked her if those two jewels gave her magical powers. She nodded. 'It is simple. Juno will have Grandel perform and then you can speak freely too. You will never have to worry about barriers of tongues. Juno does not like, barriers, Moon.' She took two long fingers and swiped them down the gold on her arm.

"We waited mere blips before that goon, Grandel, appeared. Her surgeon, the slimy tentacle-fingered, twisted villain. I can't despise him as much as I despise her, but it's close.

"Towering over me like the monsters of old legends, each hand comprised of six tentacles made of blood-red tissue, Grandel held the device and barely gave me a chance to prepare myself before massaging the base of my skull and pinching the insertion point. It was calming at first, being in his care, but like the strike of lighting, the pain was hot and furious. I thought my head had been sliced right off my neck. The little device was implanted and the shocks were finding their way through my spine and into my nerves. I shuddered, breaking down from the pain, crumbling to my knees. The convulsions were the first thing to recede, but the liquid-hot currents that shot through my brain felt infinite.

"She tried to hold me, but I was in agony. I stayed in a corner of her quarters and wept like a child as the pulses ravaged the left side of my head.

"But the pain did pass and here I am before you, my friend, speaking a language I once had no comprehension of. Let's drink to Juno for at least one good deed."

They clinked cups together and downed the last of their drinks before the drink-keep came back, eyeing them hesitantly. She poured another glass for Teeno and smiled, giving a flirty glimmer from the silver specks around her eyes. Teeno winked back at her.

As she turned to pour another bit for Moon, she caught his gaze and quickly averted her eyes. She left the bottle on the counter and walked away.