I asked her aboutthe key and her response was you will find out later. We were about toleave when Margaret insisted on paying."Let me pay, I don't wan... any macho posturing about the man needing topay."Margaret winked at me, given what she had gone through I decided not tochallenge her but just said thank you. She smiled radiantly and I thinkperhaps I'd passed some sort of test. We went back to the house for ourdessert. Before we went in Margaret went to her car and brought back anicely. Slowly she stepped in.The king was already half-undressed, only wearing his crown and royal gown, sitting on a chair by the window. As she stepped in, he got up. “Ah,” he said. “My faithful friend, have you come to please me, once again?”The queen paused for a moment, then said, her voice hoarse and as deep as she could from underneath her helmet: “My fellow guard was struck ill, so I will stand in his stead today.”The king stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “Very well then. Do you know. I think so. It gives me something to think about anyway. Thanks. Now, what say we go 'supervise' dinner?"Our timing was good, as the ladies were just starting to put dinner on the table. We had a nice meal with good conversation. Mary told some cute stories about the Washington D.C. area.After dinner, our packages were delivered, checked out and we were shown to the guest room. Since we were pretty tired, we showered and went to bed. We thought about making love, but were so tired that we fell. The void strips the abandoned galaxy of matter over the space of a decade, all the while sending probing attacks to the next galaxy in the chain. When all matter has been consumed, their Voidships leave for the next target, and the cycle begins anew.Our tech far surpasses theirs, a single one of our ships can decimate hundreds of Voidships, but all ships eventually need to resupply. On the ground the Voidlings are unstoppable, living tides of claws, chitin, and teeth. They cut our supply lines,.