Chapter 25

Intrepid - 3754 C.E.

Captain Kerensky had good reason to feel satisfied. The Interplanetary Space Ship Intrepid was safe and secure. Every surviving crusader and jihadist of the Holy Coalition had been apprehended, interrogated and processed. The Intrepid was continuing on its voyage to the furthest reaches of the Solar System as originally scheduled. The space ship had taken a battering, but there had been an almost total recovery. The Holy Coalition space pods attached like acne boils to the ship's surface had been assimilated into the main system and were now helping to replenish the essential raw materials needed to repair the Intrepid's damaged hull. Although the captain would much rather that she'd never had to deal with an incident of this kind she was gratified that everything had been resolved satisfactorily.

Nadezhda monitored the space ship's several levels from the office adjacent to her quarters. The only travellers on the Space Ship Intrepid not in a mood to celebrate the recent victory were the soldiers of the Holy Coalition. They were understandably despondent and depressed. They were also very quarrelsome. The differences in doctrine and religious worship that had been set aside when the fractious coalition was working towards a common cause had once again become ascendant. The ill-will was further exacerbated by resentment and mutual recrimination with regards to the mission's failure. There had been several suicides and also several instances of murder as was inevitable between fanatics of opposing persuasions. Captain Kerensky was quite content to allow the prisoners inflict whatever harm they wished on each other without interference. Although she wasn't an anarchist, she believed that differences should be resolved in whatever way the antagonists might prefer. In any case, every prisoner had been individually offered the opportunity to remain in safe confinement well away from the interdenominational violence.

Nadezhda was about to relax on her bed when she was made aware that a visitor was about to call. She glanced at the holographic image by the side of her bed that displayed a figure standing in the corridor outside her apartment.

It was Beatrice.

Nadezhda jumped off her bed with delight. It was several days since she'd last seen her lover. And Beatrice was the person Nadezhda most wanted to see. She'd been so immersed in the affairs of the ship since the abortive invasion that she'd neglected her sexual needs but now the crisis was over there was no company more welcome than her Venusian lover. Indeed, it was something for which she now had an urgent need.

"Come in! Come in!" she commanded breathlessly. She rushed from her bed towards the door where her lover was waiting. And as Nadezhda had already observed from her holographic image she was standing there already totally naked. Beatrice was evidently determined to make her intentions abundantly clear.

The two women locked their mouths together while Beatrice hurriedly tugged off Nadezhda's clothes. This wasn't easy given the tightness of her uniform, the closeness of their bodies and her evident desire. The two women sidled backwards, shedding Nadezhda's underwear as they did so, until they fell onto the bed awaiting them. Moments before it was to have been Nadezhda's retreat from physical exertion, and now it would be the scene for making passionate love.

Words weren't exchanged and didn't need to be. Nadezhda knew exactly what her lover desired as did Beatrice the captain's needs. They were entangled in writhing, perspiring carnal unity. Nadezhda's crotch burned with a craving that Beatrice's tongue, fingers and lips didn't so much quench but rather enflamed further. Despite the urgency of their shared passion, Nadezhda was aware of how unusually urgent Beatrice's lovemaking was. It burned with intensity but was somehow also tinged with regret. Nadezhda speculated on whether the stress of the last week or so might have taken a toll on her lover.

"What's troubling you?" Nadezhda asked when the two women paused and she could at last gather her breath.

"Do you think I'm troubled?" Beatrice asked calmly. She had an enviable ability to regain her composure however intense her orgasms.

"Yes," said Nadezhda as she stroked her lover's glorious thick mane of hair. "That's what I sense."

"It may be," said Beatrice sadly as she continued to pepper the captain's lips and cheeks with affectionate kisses, "that I worry that this might be the last time we should make love in this way."

Nadezhda was alarmed. "Why would that be? Has your husband discovered our affair and..."

"No, it's nothing to do with Paul. He remains as wondrously innocent as ever. No, it's because I believe that you may soon no longer want me to make love to you."

"And why would that be, sweetheart?" asked Nadezhda who began to speculate about the dark guilty secrets her lover might reveal and which she could then dismiss. She would happily declare that her lover's such paltry concerns were as nothing to the overwhelming love Nadezhda felt. Perhaps her lover would confess that she'd made a living as a prostitute on Ecstasy which was what Nadezhda already suspected. Perhaps she was guilt-ridden by her infidelity towards the man she had only recently married.

"It's because I am not quite the person you or anyone else on this ship think I am," said Beatrice.

She eased Nadezhda off her bosom and slid off the bed. She stood upright while the captain swung her legs over the edge of the mattress.

"What could you be?" asked Nadezhda with a sympathetic smile. "You're not a criminal, are you? You're not a secret member of the Holy Coalition? If you were then you've committed the sins of adultery and lust far too often to ever have a hope of salvation. What kind of a woman can you be?"

"I'm not a woman at all," said Beatrice with a face that was nothing but serious. "In fact, I'm not even human."

And in case words were not enough, Beatrice then demonstrated the truth of her assertion.

Nadezhda had seen many strange sights in her voyages across the Solar System. Until now the most peculiar with which she had close intimacy was Colonel Vashti's remarkable body. However, as Beatrice's skin became steadily more translucent she now witnessed something she'd never imagined possible. Beatrice's flesh became totally transparent and revealed a complex mix of plastic and organic materials beneath her skin that resembled computer circuitry. Then when Nadezhda's eyes had adjusted to this strange vision, Beatrice's skin slowly regained its flesh-coloured hue.

"Are you an alien?" the captain asked.

Nadezhda stood up. Although she was still naked she was no longer sure she wanted to display her body so openly. She looked about the room and saw that her clothes were too far scattered for her to grab them easily and get dressed.

"In a sense, I am," Beatrice said with a frank smile. "But more than that, I am an android. At least, that's the nearest word in your vocabulary for what I am."

Nadezhda had met androids before. In fact, she'd even made love to one in Earth orbit on the pleasure colony of Manumission. But androids only had a limited and very selective artificial intelligence. None were as manifestly sentient as Beatrice. Indeed, Nadezhda wasn't aware that any machine existed with anything remotely like Beatrice's degree of sentience.

"Where were you manufactured?" Captain Kerensky wondered. "I didn't know Ecstasy had the capability to build androids as advanced as you."

"As I said," Beatrice replied, "I am an alien. I come from the Proxima Centauri system. My home is one of many thousands of space colonies that orbit the red dwarf star."

"How can that be?" asked the captain who tried to stayed focused on this bizarre conversation. Countless panicked thoughts in Nadezhda's mind competed with one another for prominence. All those weeks of sexual passion. All those secrets divulged under the satin sheets. The passion that she'd been sharing only a few moments earlier. "There are thousands of probes circling the neighbouring star systems and not one of them has provided evidence of alien life."

"It's a simple matter to intercept the transmissions sent back by Interplanetary Union space probes and ensure that all you ever see is what we wish you to see," said Beatrice. "And just as we can take control of all the transmissions sent from your probes and telescopes and thereby hide ourselves from sight, it is a simple matter for us to take control of the Space Ship Intrepid." She glanced meaningfully at the captain's stealthy approach across the bedroom. "I'm afraid, captain, that you won't be able to request help or assistance. We won't permit it. The ship's computer is no longer under your control or indeed that of the Interplanetary Union. It is wholly and utterly under our control."