Chapter 39: Deployment

“I am a soldier; I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.” – General George S. Patton.

York, Great Britain. December 1075

As usual, Luke was ready before the women for the Christmas Ball. Due to her pregnancy, Marion wouldn’t be wearing her usual dress, but to Luke, she was still beautiful. When Kukka came out, she took his breath away. Her cobalt blue dress fit her like a second skin and showed enough cleavage to be tasteful. The back of the dress was just as good; it was backless, only covering her from the small of her back down. Once the dress was past her hips, it flared out but had a slit on the left side that only stopped at mid-thigh.

“Holy fucking shit!” Luke managed to get out. Marion giggled; she thought his eyes might pop out of his skull. Kukka managed to look embarrassed and pleased at the same time. “I don’t think I’m going to get much dancing done tonight; I’m going to be too busy fighting to keep the other guys off my mistress.”

“What about us gals who like gals?” Gabriella asked with mischief in her eyes.

“Shit! I forgot about you, you minx.”

Gabby smiled and giggled as she put on her uniform coat. To tease Luke even more, Gabby went to Kukka and pulled her in for a kiss that left her moaning. All the gals had their hair done up, and it was an exercise in self-control for Luke not to start nibbling on necks and collarbones. When they finally left, Gabriella and Marion held hands in front while Luke followed, holding Alice and Kukka’s hands.

“Luke,” Alice whispered. “Do you think your first redhead doctor would approve?” Luke sighed, remembering his Rebecca.

“I think she would want me to be happy, and Alice, I am delighted to love you, Marion, Kukka, and Gabby. I thank whatever god, gods, or cosmic catastrophe every day for bringing me here.”

Alice stepped closer and rubbed against him like a cat and purred. All the women had been more affectionate toward Luke over the past week because he would be going to war the day after Christmas.

The ball was a success, although Luke and Marion didn’t get to dance as much. Her feet had been killing her, so she spent most of the evening sitting down. As Luke predicted, Kukka was a smash hit, and he enjoyed watching her disappoint one man after another. Luke was also amused to watch the men track her through the room. It was even more amusing when those men were caught by their wives or mistresses.

After the ball, though, the ladies changed from the confident women the people saw to typical spouses of soldiers going to war. Luke made sure to give all the ladies attention, and by the time he was done, all the women had some of Luke between their legs. As much as it pained Luke, he knew the women’s menstruation schedules, and if the time until he deployed were the same as the night of the ball, Gabby, Alice, and Kukka had an excellent chance to become expectant mothers, and he might be dead. He was going to need the comparative peace of a battlefield to relax.

The day following the ball, Luke was up early and out of the chambers before anyone else woke up. He had mountains of work to do before the invasion force could sail and only a week to finish. Luke was glad they had established trade routes with East Africa for days like this. Being a Marine, he functioned much better with coffee.

As Luke made his morning coffee, he created a list of everything he wanted to accomplish for the day. There were thousands of annoying details, and any one of them could derail the invasion. An example of one of those details was there weren’t enough tan uniforms for the army. There were enough for the regular army but not the Grenadiers or Marines, and thanks to recent production delays, their uniforms wouldn’t be ready for a month.

Eventually, Luke decided to move the 3^rd division to the last force transported. That would allow them to receive their uniforms and more space for ammunition and other supplies in the first wave. Reassigning the desert camouflage to the assault troops gave them the tools to do their jobs.

While Luke was working out the details on the land part of the invasion, Admiral Ewing worked on the naval portion. She had to work out refueling for all her ships at sea. Unlike their last North African expedition, the navy would need to stay off the coast of Africa for months. Admiral Ewing would have been much happier if Marion hadn’t launched the invasion until late spring. Now, British supply ships would have to brave Atlantic storms.

Admiral Ewing did have an advantage over earlier shipping. British ships were more robust, faster, and, most importantly, independently powered. They could power through storms that would have floundered other ships. What Admiral Ewing didn’t have was accurate weather information. Although all ships carried a small weather station onboard, it didn’t prevent a ship from being caught in a surprise storm.

Luke and Admiral Ewing worked straight through Christmas Day, taking short naps in their respective offices. Leaves had been canceled the week before Christmas, and high-priority trains had been ordered. The trains would move the kit for over 50,000 soldiers to the ports where it could be loaded onto transports.

Every person in Britain knew something huge was happening, but nobody knew what. Even the division and ship commanders were kept in the dark about their destination. All anyone knew was they were about to deploy. None of the regular soldiers had been to North Africa; however, the assault troops guessed they would be headed to Africa, just not where. Scuttlebutt had hundreds of answers, and every one of them was wrong.

The night of Christmas, Luke headed back to his family’s chambers. He wanted to sleep with his wives for one more night and see his children again. To say Luke was mugged when he stepped in the door was an understatement.

Makayla was the first to spot Daddy and cried out, “DADDY!!” That brought a tidal wave of children, all wanting Daddy’s attention. Luke spent fifteen minutes hugging, kissing, and picking up the children. From the door to the rest of the chambers, Marion, Alice, Kukka, and Gabriella waited anxiously for their turn.

Finally, it was the mother’s turns. Marion, as senior wife and queen, was first. She walked up to Luke, wrapped her arms around his neck, hopped up, and wrapped her powerful legs around his waist. Marion lifted herself to look directly into Luke’s eyes. The kiss she delivered was hot enough that if something flammable had been nearby, it could have caught fire. Marion held her position for a moment before letting go.

The scene repeated itself with Alice, Kukka, and then Gabriella. Before Luke could recover, there was a knock at the door. When Gabriella opened it, she found Pollyanna with her children. As part of Marion’s inner circle, Pollyanna knew what was happening. Still, she wouldn’t be going with Luke, thanks to her performance in Iceland and the many projects she oversaw. Luke saw Osbeorn behind Pollyanna, so he knew it would be okay to kiss; she did desire a kiss and tried to remove Luke’s tonsils with her tongue.

“Damn Polly!” exclaimed Marion. “Don’t break him! We need him tonight.” Pollyanna leaned back, looked at Marion, and stuck her tongue out before going back to kissing Luke. Osbeorn stood at the door and laughed. He knew about Pollyanna’s history with Luke and her feelings about him. In some ways, she loved Luke more than Osbeorn, but in the way that counts, she loved Osbeorn more.

When Pollyanna finished inspecting the inside of Luke’s mouth, she leaned against Osbeorn and chatted with the group. It had been too long since the group had gotten together for idle chatter. Hanging over them was the knowledge that Luke would go to war soon and might not return.

When the children went to bed, Luke read Beowulf until they fell asleep. The story was different than the one Luke remembered from his childhood. That was because the version he read to his children was much closer to when it was first written and without the numerous translations that muddied the story.

Once the children were asleep, Luke retired to his bed, where four women were waiting. They wanted to store up memories for the long dry spell ahead when they didn’t have a man to play with. Luke was also anxious; he wanted to show his love for the bed partners in every way possible. The five made love most of the night, only falling asleep at about 0300. Luke was the last to fall asleep and fell asleep with a wide smile.

The time for Luke to rise came too soon for everyone in bed. They had only gotten three hours of sleep, but Luke had a train to catch. Luke dressed after staggering into the bathroom and washing the sleep from his eyes. However, unlike his normal BDUs, which were green with some black, his new DCUs were multiple shades of tan.

Marion watched Luke dress with moist eyes. She had ordered him into combat again, and if anything happened to him, she would never forgive herself. Once Luke was dressed, he leaned over the bed and gave Marion a heart-stopping kiss. He had to stop by the army base before leaving.

Luke stood on the train platform two hours later, saying goodbye to his family. Around him, other soldiers were doing the same thing as the fleet would set sail at noon. Finally, it was time, and the train conductor called, “ALL ABOARD!”

“Please come back safely, Luke. We love you.” Marion whispered in his ear as she hugged him. Luke pulled back and gave her one last kiss before turning to board the train. Once Luke was on the train, Marion pulled the red, white, and blue ribbon from her hair and replaced it with a yellow ribbon. When Luke’s head popped out a window to say his final goodbye, Marion raced up and gave him the ribbon she had just pulled from her hair. They were able to hold hands until the train pulled away from the station. Marion had walked beside the train until she reached the platform’s edge; from there, she watched until the train disappeared around a bend.

Gabriella walked up behind her, “Come on, Your Majesty. It’s time to go home.”

“Why does everyone insist on fighting with us?”

“We are humans, Your Majesty. That is what we do: we fight. If you do not oppose those who threaten your people, who will?”

Marion looked over her shoulder at Gabriella momentarily before sighing and turning around. Together, they walked back to the palace. Marion might not have wanted to go to her office, but the work never ended, and it waited for no one.

Luke watched Marion until she disappeared from view, and then he gripped her ribbon tightly. He held it up to his nose and took a deep breath. Her scent filled his nose and calmed his nerves. It wasn’t long before the guards asked him questions, so he tucked Marion’s ribbon into his shirt pocket to avoid losing it. Luke then turned his attention to his guards.

“At this time, I cannot inform you of our mission. When the time is right, you will be told.”

It eased his nerves that even his guards didn’t know where they were headed. The last thing he wanted was word of what was happening to get out. Marion would be vulnerable to foreign invasion while they were gone, and if word reached Egypt that the British were on the way, their reception would be much warmer than Luke wanted.

An hour later, Luke climbed out of the train car and approached the dock where the HMS York was docked; she would be his transport to Egypt. The smile that crossed Luke’s lips was involuntary when he saw Admiral Ewing waiting near the gangplank for him.

“Ah, hello, General. I trust you had a pleasant journey.”

“I did, thank you. Permission to come aboard?”

“Granted.”

Like the other soldiers, Luke walked up the gangplank with his backpack and rifle on his back and a duffel bag in his hand; the general traveled light. When Luke cleared the deck, he was met with a Marine honor guard who snapped their heads right to greet him with their rifles being held before them and the muzzles pointing straight up. As Luke slowly walked past, each Marine snapped their head to look straight ahead. When Luke reached the end, he turned to Admiral Ewing.

“Very impressive, Admiral.”

“Thank you, General. If you will follow me, I will show you to your quarters.”

Luke followed behind the admiral and smiled at the thought of some of the stuck-up admirals from his old universe doing the same thing. Admiral Ewing showed Luke to a stateroom that was two down from her own.

“Here you go, general. I plan to cast off at noon.”

“Thank you, Admiral.”

Luke threw his bag on the bed and began to put things away. It would take them about a week and a half to reach Egypt, and he didn’t want to live out of his bag. Once everything was put away, Luke sat and poured two fingers of whiskey. He sipped it as he thought about Marion, Alice, Kukka, and his children.

At quarter till noon, Luke heard the ship come alive as they prepared to leave. He levered himself up and grabbed his boonie hat before entering the passageway. Outside his door, he found two guards who snapped to attention. Luke saluted before heading to the bridge.

Luke reached the bridge and saluted before stepping next to Admiral Ewing. She had just given the orders to cast off and get underway. Around them, civilian ships blew their horns, and the church bells on shore rang. Under Luke’s feet, the deck trembled as the screws dug in to back the ship away from the dock.

The other ships in the task force were doing the same thing. Aboard were the Grenadiers and 1st Division, while the 2^nd Division, Marines, and most of the warships would join later. For now, they only had a destroyer and a cruiser for escort. It took the task force a few hours to maneuver out of the Hull Estuary and reach the open sea. Eventually, everything settled down, and Luke returned to his quarters, having barely said anything.

At one bell on the first watch, Luke heard a knock at his door and found Admiral Ewing waiting to enter. She pulled up one of the chairs while Luke took the other; he was curious about what the admiral wanted.

“When do you want to inform everyone of our mission?”

“Let’s wait until all the ships are together. The 2^nd division is loading in London and the Marines in Portsmouth, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Let’s wait until all the ships are gathered; then, we can break the news to all the commanders at once.”

“I can live with that.” Luke noticed she looked to have something else to say.

“Is there anything else, Admiral?”

“Well, yes. Why are we going on this mission? It’s not like trade in the eastern Mediterranean is vital for Britain, and if there was some essential trade, why not just send a convoy under naval guard?”

“Our ship was taken while in port, Admiral. What was the queen to do? Should she have abandoned her people?”

“That’s not what I was suggesting. I don’t see the need to send almost the entire army and navy to Egypt.”

“Admiral Ewing,” Luke sighed. “We have taken the queen’s shilling, and we will fight the queen’s battles. Understand?” Admiral Ewing came to attention.

“Yes, sir.”

“Is there anything else?”