Chapter 8

“Why didn’t you tell me you had sperm cryopreserved, Charles? That was extremely inconsiderate. I could have been impregnated with heirs to the thrones without you having to stick that vile thing in my precious body. Mina, my darling girl, grab that vile thing and bring it over here. I don’t think I’m done with it yet.” Clarise laughed, Georgia giggled and moaned, hearing the humor while Lina was lapping at her nethers, and I just followed as the little blonde cherub pulled me over to her mistress, who then stuck the wet sticky ‘vile’ thing in her mouth and sucked it clean. “Vile. Absolutely vile. I love you, Charles. Reecy, I love you. Thank you for sharing.”

“You’re welcome, Gwyn. How he keeps up with all of us, I don’t know, but it’s evident that the more he does, the more he can do.”

We were on the way back to Concordia, having quite a good time while still working. Working? Yes, we had work to do while we were traveling.

I was Chancelloring, Clarise was Ambassadoring, Gwyneth was Princessing, Lina and Mina were taking care of all of us by helping with scheduling, meals, snacks, clothing requirements, running laundry back and forth, and making us smile as they did their chores. They were precious.

Georgia was shuttle piloting and securing our safety, and Willaw was watching. That came to a screeching halt when Georgia realized what a resource she had at the tips of her fingers, not to mention the tip of her tongue. She gave Willaw a couple of tests to find out her level of competence in spacecraft flight, both with the utilization of an onboard AI, and without. She was a smart cookie. The decision was made to make her a member of the “security team” protecting the princess and Clarise, as well as me, after she went to the range with us and fired every weapon she would have available, and did it extremely well. That included the exothermic projectile weapons such as my noisy pistol and the carbine Clarise enjoys shooting so much. She was a natural as a marksman.

In that capacity, she was offered a provisional commission to captain, just a couple of steps above a newly minted officer, a second lieutenant, since she was versed and already trained in some flight fields. Georgia put her through her paces, then requested me to assign the sixth female in my pen to be Georgia’s permanent copilot.

After a short discussion, the request was granted, Space Command Personnel Division was notified, and she was told to report to their headquarters, about five minutes travel away from our home, to be sworn in and commissioned. As Chancellor, I would have been able to declare her a Cojourn citizen, but she requested we keep with the provisional status until we knew she could be trusted, was capable of earning it, and had been deserving of the honor. I granted her request. That night, she wore me out thanking me.

Once we were back home on Concord, Georgia took her into their headquarters, and got everything taken care of. Lady Clarise, Commodore Allison, swore her in, pinned the railroad tracks on an otherwise unadorned officer’s utility uniform, and that was the beginning of a new career for my latest wife.

The conversation about cryopreserving my semen, for whatever reason I did it, was very timely indeed. A couple of months after we returned home, Gwyneth started having punctuation problems. It seemed that everything was fine, save she was missing periods. Terrible joke, I know, but we had heirs on the way, and the doctor said our first litter, as she jokingly said, would be triplets. Two identical boys, and a girl. An oddity in any civilization, but extremely rare for humans.

What it meant for us, though, was that within just one birthing, we would be providing heirs to both the Cojourn and Thordast worlds, as well as providing them both with a sister to help with their chores. Naturally, they would all three be citizens of both worlds, but as I had informed Jaren, and gotten his complete approval, the first boy out of the gate would be the Leader of the Cojourn, and presumptive Regency Chancellor, and the second would be the Crown Prince of the Thordast Kingdom, in its entirety. The girl would carry titles as both Prime Matriarch of the Cojourn, and First Princess of Thordast.

Now that the deed was done, Jaren had a grandson, and I a son, both on the way, Clarise made her desires known as well. “Charlie, now that the heirs apparent are enroute to our home, I’d like to discuss the possible future president of Magnus Major and his or her conception.”

“Oh, Lordy! Two pregnant women in the same house?”

She nodded emphatically. “The twins will help keep our home on an even keel, my lord. Now, what do you think of the idea.”

“The thought of rubbing lotion on two beautiful bellies full of my children makes me want to smile a lot. I’m all for it. Have you spoken to your parents about it? I know it’s your own decision, but...”

“Yes, I have, and like Jaren, my father wants a grandchild to spoil.”

“I’m in. I’d love to help you with your request, my dear. Can we start now?” I grabbed her, threw her over my shoulder and ran through the family room from the den where we’d been talking, causing the rest of our family to laugh and point and wonder what the hell was going on.

Her timing was pretty much spot on, since she’d had her birth control removed just in time for me to jump her beautiful bones a few times a day for a few days and lo and behold, she caught. I was going to be a father again. It took a few weeks of anticipation and nervousness, but we found out soon enough we were going to have a healthy little girl. OK, two sisters to help the heirs to their respective thrones out a little.

While the two women were in the process of growing more beautiful by the day, the universe called.

I kissed them goodbye, told the younger ones to keep a close eye on my expectant mothers, which they promised to do, then had Georgia and Willaw take me to the Regency Valor where we met with Admiral Stanton and his staff. A visitor to Magnus Major wanted to seek revenge for an incursion into their space by a Magnus exploration spacecraft.

In an incident occurring just months ago, a crew exploring a little-known stretch of stars beyond Outer Solon happened upon a hostile civilization. They were almost humanoid. A little short and a little blue, according to the emergency report we received when they were abducted, but pretty much just like humans. Although not as advanced, they outnumbered the Magnus space vehicle and crew so badly, there was no chance for a fight, nor for flight. The locals absconded with the craft, imprisoned the Magnus crew, and kept both at their home planet to help in later extracting compensation for the fateful incursion. Now they had arrived and were demanding payment in resources and human treasure in order to right the wrong.

Approaching Magnus space, the troublemakers, identifying themselves as Niloshians, from the system Niloc, used a written, then digitized, transmission which, once received, had to be translated for the authorities on Magnus Major. They demanded to speak to the leader of the Magnus worlds and demanded that leader provide them with hundreds of thousands of units of gold, silver, platinum, tungsten, and lead, thousands of beautiful fertile females, and one virile male. If they did not receive the bounty, and an apology, within one planetary revolution, the bodies of the crew of the scout vehicle, and massive destruction, the likes of which had never been seen, would rain down on the planet from above. They were certainly a dramatic race. In any case, since this was a threat to a Regency member world, it was in our wheelhouse to intervene.

Clarise’s mother opened a channel to us as we were enroute and apprised us of the situation. The president of their worlds, Jason Tilbert, was with her, as were several others, all looking nervous. It appeared they were calling from a command center of some type, which I was later told was a bunker under the capitol where they could be protected from most threats.

The senator turned to a highly decorated admiral of their navy, their space force, and nodded toward him, indicating he should fill me in. “Chancellor, there are about twenty of their capital ships, each with its own support fleet, all surrounding Magnus Major. There could easily be two hundred ships out there. We have, maybe, fifty ships on patrol, all returning home and due here anywhere from six hours to a week from now. We have five that launched and are among the invading force but keeping calm and quiet. Each of them has acquired at least two capital ships as targets. In the first seconds of a fray, they will lose half of the pride of their fleet. Our main force is away performing cleanup missions in Plassen, as it was our rotation to do so. I have notified all of our allies, and you, of course, in hopes we can even the odds. While these people do not seem any more advanced than we are, quite the opposite, their sheer numbers are going to cause serious issues.”

I looked across the bridge at Admiral Stanton, who, along with his command staff, was riding with us on the Valor. I sternly said, “Admiral, I think it’s time to enact the Regency Defense Protocol Two.”

“Yes, sir, I think that would be prudent at this point. Communications, open a channel to Task Force Three and Fleet Headquarters and another to the Regency Command Post. Notify them of our position, our destination, and the Chancellor’s intentions. Give the order, RDP Two, and mark the time as of now. Advise the task force to converge with us at the absolute earliest moment possible.” The admiral turned to me, smiling, and continued. “If we can hold them off for two days, or at least until Tango Fox Three arrives in thirty-six hours or so, we’ll be golden. The thirty ships in the task force are well equipped and well trained for this type of operation, not to mention seasoned from the combat in the Plassen system. In addition, the protocol will show them we aren’t kidding. Two to three thousand ships from twelve or so worlds coming in from every direction will certainly get their attention. Whether our friends can get here in time to fight won’t be the question. These little blue people are going to have long range scanner overload issues in about an hour. Then their trip to Magnus Major will start to feel like a suicide mission.”

All I could do was pray that no one did anything stupid as long as the prisoners were on the Niloshian spacecraft. We would do everything we could to free them before we settled the problem. I asked Senator Allison to communicate that a leader was on the way and would be able to talk with them in just under two days’ time.

Faro spoke to her weapons officer making sure all weapons were armed and ready to fire. They had a full rotation to wait, but she was sure they would have to punish the interlopers and take the payment for their sins by brute force. She just had a feeling this wouldn’t be a cakewalk.

“Communications,” she said, “find out if these people have video capability. We need to make sure they understand our instructions. They also need to understand our capabilities.”

It was about two hours before the answer came back. Due to having to route the signals to the ground and then back out to space for some reason, it took that long to find out and establish a good signal link with an educated person.

“They do, First Officer. I have someone on the screen now. He calls himself ‘The Chancellor’ and after our translation devices link up, you should be able to converse with him.”

Faro, as second in command of the ship, was getting everything ready for when Garn awoke from his rest cycle so they could attack on his command, if needed. She wanted everything perfectly in place.

“This is The Chancellor of the Regency. To whom am I speaking?” Charles saw a vision of cuteness fill his screen. She was perfectly built as female humans went, although looked a bit anemic, being light blue, the color coming from under her skin, he was sure, and her hair ... Her hair was snow white. She had a dusting of hair on her arms, and a little on her mons, but otherwise, save her head, was hairless. The head of long hair she sported was thick, full, wavy, long, and beautiful.

‘Hair on her mons?’ he thought. ‘Damn, they’re nude. Except for the necklace, she’s naked. Interesting.’

“I am Faro, First Officer of Fire of Niloc, the finest ship in the universe and the flagship of the Niloshian Kingdom.”

“It is very nice to meet you, First Officer Faro. As I said, I am Charles, Charles Chase, The Chancellor of the Regency, the entirety of which surrounds you and your people here today. We are made up of many peoples, many worlds, and many star systems, all working together to maintain peace and prosperity. May I say, hopefully not offending you, that you are a beautiful creature and I hope our discussions can be fruitful.”

“You may not speak of another in that manner. It is not our way. I also will not say you are not ugly, as it is not our way.” A small smirk emerged from her cute little face. “What news do you have of meeting our demands?”

“Well, Faro, please let me apologize for offending you. I truly am sorry I have done so. I will be there in about a revolution and a half, what we call days, so we can talk. Can you hold off on blowing anything up or killing anyone until I get there?”

“Chancellor Charles, are you the leader? Is it you that makes the decisions as to who dies and who lives?”

“In this case, Faro, I’m pretty sure that’s going to be me. I do not want to further antagonize you, but please be assured, if you start shooting before my arrival, it’s going to get ugly for your fleet. I’m sure your shields will not outlast our fight, and retreat will be impossible.”

“Shields? What are shields?”

“What do you have that stops someone from hitting your ship with small missiles?”

“My skill in maneuvering, Chancellor. That and our gunners removing the threats to our spacecraft before they strike our vessel. And let’s be clear Chancellor Charles, there will be no retreat, however, when our holds are full of your precious metals and your beautiful women, we will be going home, but it will be in victory, not in defeat and retreat and shame.”

“Faro, please listen. You do not want to start a fight before I get there. Although you may feel you are prepared, your ships are not ready for the forces you face. I am telling you this to save lives, not to boast. We have technology to prevent many of your weapons from affecting our craft, enabling us to return fire as you shoot at us. I am sure we can work on a peaceful outcome. No one needs to die. Please, in the name of the Gods and Goddesses, don’t start a fight until we talk.”

“I will discuss your words with Garn, our commander, when he returns. For now, you have nine tenths of one revolution until you must provide our compensation, or the Fire of Niloc and her sister ships will wreak havoc on your world. Communications, terminate transmission.” She was gone, just like that.

“Well, Clara, I mean Senator Allison, I guess you heard that. Do you have any scanners in the vicinity that can help us understand what these people may have for weapons?”

Both she and President Tilbert looked behind her at the Admiral again. “We have. From what we can tell by their design, they most probably have laser cannons, particle weapons, both cannons and missiles, most probably high explosives, exothermic or thermobaric, or both, and their largest ships look to have rail guns. Some look to have four rails and some two, all rather large, capable of taking out pretty much anything we have IF they had time to aim and fire AND IF our missile defenses failed. Those are big IFs, since we don’t know their rail propulsion systems capabilities. If it’s FTL, it’s beyond our own capabilities, naturally, but I don’t think anyone has that, if we don’t, Chancellor.”

“Good call, Admiral. If they don’t have shields, and I think that’s what the little blue beauty said, I’m pretty sure they are using magnetic drives. They won’t hit FAL within a million lengths, let alone FTL. Magnetic drives won’t get their projectiles up to Fast As Light speeds within our projected battle zone. There may be some ridiculous collateral damage as their projectiles soar out into open space, but there isn’t much we can do about that, now, is there.”

“No, sir. I should also note we do not detect any nuclear devices at all, save what appears to be their atmospheric propulsion systems. Another thing I would like to say here, and please don’t think I’m kissing your heinie in front of your girlfriend’s mother, or her uncle, but I’m glad we have a leader with knowledge of both science and battle, not to mention people. Some of our foes are led by idiots who think with their trigger fingers and their di ... Penises sir, and I just wanted to tell you, as the spokesman for our military, we thank you.”