[Part 17] Lisa Galaxia – The Temple (partial nudity, public, sci-fi, choose your own adventure).

[Lisa Galaxia Story Hub](https://www.reddit.com/user/Butterflies-n-cream/comments/qp1l5y/lisa_galaxia_story_hub_a_scifi_choose_your_own/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) – Previous chapters and a story summary for those who’d like to get caught up!

Previously our crew arrived at the planet Nova intent on finding information about the long lost race that lived there and what secrets the Black Claw Pirates were after.

————

“So where do we start?” Lisa asked Rachel who was still taking in the sights from the copilot’s seat next to her as they descended to Nova’s surface.

“We could start in a temple south of town,” Rachel suggested. She pulled out a tablet and started leafing through information. “I know it sounds like a weird place to start, but Novian religion was highly intertwined with many other parts of society. If we can press farther into this Solium Temple than other expeditions have, well there’s a good chance there’s more artifacts inside made from the same material Black Claw is researching.”

“You really think so? Wouldn’t it be better to start at the mines maybe?” Clark called over the radio from The Sparrow.

“Anything there would be unrefined,” Rachel explained. “Wouldn’t look any different than other rocks to us.”

“Alright, Solium Temple it is then.” Lisa concluded, and veered the Rose Rocket south away from the abandoned metropolis which was looming larger on the horizon.

“Here I’ll transfer over the coordinates,” Rachel offered, and hit a few buttons on her tablet to transfer data.

The trip south only took a few minutes, and the adventurers were soon greeted with the sight of a white tower with golden trim rising from the jungle floor. The temple grounds were surrounded by a white wall with several archways in it. Stairs ascended to the main tower from what looked like a main gate. The temple grounds themselves looked remarkably well kept for ruins, but outside the walls a dense jungle thrived.

“My professor came here once about 20 years ago,” Rachel said excitedly. “I always wanted to see it.” She stared out the window in awe taking in the sights again. Rachel looked as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Rachel spoke up again, “Land in the forest along the western side. There’s a small side entrance there we’ll want to use.”

“A side entrance?” Lisa asked out of curiosity.

“Yup,” Rachel answered with pepped up excitement, “The main temple entrance was well-explored years ago, at least as far as anyone could get inside. There’s not much to learn there anymore.”

“Umm… as far as they could get?” Lisa asked nervously.

“Ya, it’s protected too after a certain point. There’s guards, shields, weapons, all kinds of things which are still functional.” Rachel offered. “But I do have a plan to get us in!”

Lisa glanced nervously over at Rachel.

“What?” Rachel laughed, “Don’t worry. Remember learning about this planet was my whole life for like eight years!”

“Black Claw Frigate on my scanner!” Clark warned over the comm suddenly. Lisa turned from the conversation and took on a serious demeanor. “Wait, they’re here?” She asked Clark over the comm.

“On the ground there look!” Rachel shouted pointing out the cockpit window. Outside on the ground by the entrance was one of their unmistakable black crescent shaped ships. It didn’t appear to be responding to their presence though. On closer inspection it appeared there were scorch marks and wreckage around the ship. Some of it appeared to still be smoldering.

“What happened?” Lisa asked in surprise, “Looks like there was a firefight!”

“They probably didn’t know temple etiquette,” Rachel scoffed.

“Really? Um but you do though… right?” Lisa asked hopefully.

“Enough I hope,” Rachel laughed. “They probably refused to disarm when asked. Big oops.”

Lisa swallowed nervously, “Clark I’m going to put us down in that other clearing behind their frigate. Let us know if that ship springs to life suddenly.”

“No worries Captain, I’ve already got a lock on them. If they move they’re getting lit up” Clark called.

Lisa eased the Rose Rocket into the small clearing while Clark and the Sparrow hovered watchfully overhead. Once the ladies were safely on the ground Clark followed and touched down beside them.

Once all were safely on the ground the four adventurers gathered some supplies and departed their craft. Rachel was eager to get inside the temple and leafed through her tablet, which was loaded up with old college notes, as they began the short trek through the jungle to the location where the Black Claw ship touched down. As they reached the jungle edge they were able to fully take in the scene outside the pirate vessel. Small Golden humanoid robots appeared to be coming and going from the ship now. There was no sign of pirates at all. A few wrecked robots were around, but there was no sign of the pirates, alive or dead.

“Those are temple guards,” Rachel explained. “We’ll probably want to leave our weapons here so we don’t make them nervous.”

“Are you sure about this?” Lisa asked.

“Yup, absolutely. It’s just they’re probably super skittish right now.” Rachel explained. “Let’s not risk anything.”

Lisa nodded and turned to Clark, “Take our weapons and stay with our ships.” Lisa instructed Clark, “We’ll try and stay in touch if we can. Let us know the minute anyone else shows up.”

“Will you three be okay without me?” Clark replied with a hint of worry. “Anity, are you sure about this?”

“I trust Rachel,” came Anity’s confident response, “besides if these pirates are up to something I want to put a stop to it.”

Clark reluctantly agreed and gathered blasters from the three ladies before hiking back towards the ship. The three women just crouched at the edge of the jungle a while longer watching the robots mingle around the pirate vessel while Rachel looked up notes on her pad.

“So what exactly are we going to do?” Anity finally asked, “do we just walk up and say hi?

Rachel nodded slowly and looked up from her tablet, “Actually, yes I think so.”

“We’ll just follow your lead then.” Lisa reassured Rachel, “Just let us know if we need to do anything.”

Rachel took a deep breath and stood up, “okay time to see what all that school I paid for was worth.”

With that the three women made their way across the clearing past the pirate frigate. The robots going back and forth to the pirate vessel gave an occasional glance, but said nothing and seemed to pay little attention to the group as they walked up to the glistening white entrance arch where a humanoid robot in a tattered red cape stood. Seeing the women approach it turned toward them and began to make a series of noises that sounded like a squawking bird followed by a series of clicks.

“Oh!” Rachel exclaimed, “Right I remember this.” She stopped and stood there a moment looking at her tablet while the robot waited patiently.

“Common? Basic? Language?” She spoke to the robot.

The robot began vocalizing again. It said a series of foreign or nonsensical words pausing after each one. After a bit it said one that sounded familiar “Hello.”

“Hello,” Rachel replied with an excited giggle.

“Hello, thou purpose is” The robot replied.

“We’re off-world travellers here to pray,” Rachel offered as an explanation.

“Become pray is survival best in thou reward. Are young no more to pass?”

“What the what?” Anity whispered in amusement.

“It’s hard to follow ya?” Rachel whispered back, “Like talking to an auto-translator.”

“We would want to pray, yes.” Rachel tried as a response.

“Strong become reward not pray, not enclosures for time all one with thou.” The robot spoke again. “ young no more to pass? Child no?”

“No we’re not children,” Rachel replied. “We adults.”

A green light flashed from the robot’s eyes and quickly scanned the women’s arms.

“Mark no, present trail assumed pray. Select love, build, war, smart, present, give, travel, rose, lift, rule, tax, other.

“Wait… what?” Rachel exclaimed in confusion.

“Acknowledge war, yes follow trial soon adult path.” The robot turned and began to walk into the temple.

“What? No, not war, I said wait! Sorry I didn’t understand!” Rachel replied, sounding a bit worried now.

“Now follow, later trial, new adult become.” The robot repeated in a firm tone. “Follow now dress trial.”

A couple of other robots closed ranks behind the women, and seemed to be ushering them inside.

“Damn it!” Rachel shouted in frustration.

“What was that about? What’s going on?” Anity asked.

“We need to follow it before it gets upset,” Rachel said and she jogged a bit to catch up with the robot. The other women hurried after.

“What’s happening? What did you tell it?” Lisa asked, a bit worried herself.

“Okay, I should have realized this, but we don’t have tattooed arms right?” Rachel started.

“Um no… should we have them?” Lisa asked as they hurried along.

“Well maybe,” Rachel started. “Novians would get a small tattoo on their forearm after passing their trial of adulthood. I guess that was done here by this entrance, and the robot realized we don’t have them.”

“So… what does that mean?” Anity asked.

“I think it means that robot believes we’re here to take the trials for our chosen profession.” Rachel resoned. “It also likely thinks we’re trying to serve in the military. Or at least that’s probably what it means by war trial.”

“Wait, so what do we have to do? What’s this trial?” Lisa asked digging for more information.

“Um, I’m not sure, really.” Rachel admitted. “We know very little about these trials. Only that they were a big deal in their culture, and those that failed often never left the temple. Or at least that’s what was translated from inscriptions.”

“What?! We might be trapped here?” Anity sounded a bit shocked.

“Shh!” Rachel cautioned, “We should play along. Did you see the carnage at that pirate ship outside? We don’t want to upset them! The trials usually weren’t too difficult for those who had trained hard in their profession anyway. Most passed the trials without problem from what we could decipher.”

“Um… ok but we haven’t exactly been training to join the military.” Lisa reminded Rachel.

“I know, I know!” Rachel shot back in frustration, “I’m sorry I think that bot mistranslated what I said!”

“What are we going to do?” Anity asked nervously as the women were led into a small room by the robot.

Lisa offered a calm voice of reason, “Just play along for now. We’re not in immediate danger. Let’s wait for an opportunity to resolve this.”

Anity and Rachel both nodded in agreement, as the robot led them into what looked like a locker room. As they walked in the door to the outer part of the temple shut. “Thou arm weapons door enter trial door new awakening.” The robot that had been guiding them left, as three others wheeled in. They brought what looked like well aged ceremonial armor and a couple of weapons. A small plasma pistol and a dagger.

“I guess we’re supposed to wear this?” Lisa asked.

“I think so,” Rachel replied as she examined the armor. It doesn’t exactly leave much to the imagination.”

The armor really didn’t. There was just a thin ivory colored helmet, a golden metallic bikini bottom, and a pair of gold and white bracers with buttons and a display screen on them.

“Well we suit up I guess?” Anity asked.

“I guess,” Lisa replied, feeling apprehensive. She turned to Anity “You should call Clark on the comm and let him know what’s happening before we have to leave it here.”

Anity pulled out her comm and fiddled with it a moment. “No good,” she said. “Either it’s dead or we’re being jammed by someone.”

“Probably something from the temple,” Rachel replied as she unhooked her bra clasp. She was never one to be deterred by modesty Lisa had noticed, and was already undressed. “Other expeditions have had the same problems when exploring Novian structures. Sometimes communication is lost for reasons we don’t understand.”

Rachel quickly shimmied into the metallic bikini bottom. It fit surprisingly comfortably for a garment that was likely millennia old at this point. She snapped the gauntlets onto her wrists and started playing with the controls, which appeared to work as if new.

“It’s so fascinating when you think of all those ancient people who wore this armor. I wonder what they were thinking, how they felt about their trials.” Rachel pondered aloud. “This is so cool, like we’re really going to get a small glimpse into part of an ancient coming of age ritual! No one has ever done this before!”

“It is kind of cool,” Lisa admitted, “I’m just hoping whatever it involves isn’t too dangerous. I’d like to see the outside of this temple again.”

The women finished changing into the ceremonial armor while Rachel fiddled with the gauntlets. A lot of the buttons didn’t make sense, but she managed to find a way to communicate with Lisa and Anity through a comm. The women strapped the weapons given to them through hooks on the metal bikini bottoms and then reluctantly stepped out into an open arena like space. The door to the locker room slid closed behind them when they left, and the women found themselves trapped in an open room.

They were in a pit of sorts, with stadium seating around the edges, maybe space for 100 or so people to sit. There was what looked like an important seat that rose above the others a little that lined the edge of the arena like a throne. On that throne rested a helmet shaped like a Ram’s head. There were 4 doors on the opposite of the arena beyond closed gates. The women quickly realized they weren’t alone in this arena. There were several other individuals dressed in similar garments milling about looking a bit distressed. Lisa immediately clasped her arms around her exposed chest in embarrassment.

“Hello,” Rachel called out to the other group of about a dozen other individuals. “What are you doing here?”

The group looked at her curiously before one of the men wearing rather revealing thong armor responded, “Those damn robots captured us and forced us in here. They boarded our ship and took us as prisoners! Who are you?”

“Were you in that Black Claw ship that’s outside?” Rachel asked. “We just landed here. We’re archeologists.” She offered as a cover story.

The group seemed to pause a second to discuss amongst themselves. One of the women eventually spoke up in response, “Yes that’s us.” She admitted. “Do you know anything about what’s going on? What are they going to do with us?”

Rachel replied, “I’m not completely sure. I believe this is kind of like a ceremoni…”

“Greet not child become!” A loud voice interrupted Rachel as she tried to explain their predicament. The voice then seemed to repeat the greeting in other languages. “Door trial give begin pray not child become. Door choice left right: vine, rope, teeth, arm.” The announcement then continued in the other languages as the doors at the far end of the arena swung open.

“I think we’re supposed to choose a door,” Rachel observed.

“I agree,” Anity said, “but which one?”

The two of them turned to Lisa who looked just as befuddled as they did.

————

Option A: Door “Vine”

Option B: Door “Rope”

Option C: Door “Teeth”

Option D: Door “Arm”

————-

Hello everyone!

Well quite a predicament, and a rather cryptic choice as the women try to sort out what they got themselves into. Also will these captured pirates be friend or foe? Let me know your choice in the comments below!

(P.S. This choice will affect what happens next, but it’s not a major plot pivot, so please don’t worry too much! I’m not planning to do a major plot twist with so little information! 😉)

Rejected stories from last time would have involved getting into a dogfight with the pirates over the city for investigating the ruckus in the industrial area. Choosing to land on the south side of the city would have led to an interaction with a lost archeologist. Choosing the mines would have led to a run in with native creatures living in the abandoned mineshafts.

Hope you have a fun and sexy day! 😊

Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/sgf4ap/part_17_lisa_galaxia_the_temple_partial_nudity