Chapter 4A

Brad worked rather late that evening and returned to his room rather late to find Eleanor snoozing on his rack (bed). She awakened at his entering and smiled, as she sat up. “Mom really liked you,; she thinks I should just let dad fuss and fume and go ahead to the movies with you” she had a stupid grin on her face. Brad sat down and looked at her “the movies? I had something else in mind actually.” Eleanor giggled “I am sure, Mom said that often happens after the movies. She thinks we should go for it.” Brad shook his head “So are we talking a quick roll in the hay or getting married?” Eleanor’s face stayed smiling “ Well one comes with the other Brad, so we need to do both, but getting married this evening is going to be really hard, so I guess we’ll just settle for a roll in the bed ... hay get’sgets in all sorts of places you don’t want it, I’m told. Besides, the bed is right here and I’m not sure there is any hay on the ship at all.” She stood and pulled the zipper on her ship suit down to near her belly button; “but you’ll have to be a bit slow and gentle, as you are my first and hopefully last man.” Brad looked slightly dumbfounded ... she was a 24 year old24-year-old virgin. Brad bent over and undid his boots, stepping out of them, then stood and unzipped his flight suit and stepped out of it. Eleanor watched, blushed and bent over to remove her boots as well, and had the girls all but fall out of her flight suit. Then she stood and unzipped it all the way down and pushed it off stepping out of it, unlike Brad, she had nothing on under it.

Brad didn’t get a lot of sleep, nor did Eleanor, but Eleanor discovered there was a huge difference between her plastic joy stick and having a man make love to her. Brad was going to be a very busy man in the future.

They arranged to get married aboard ship with a few friends in attendance the next weekend, not that work wasn’t 24/7. Genevieve stood or for Brads Brad while Eleanor’s boss stood for her. They were given a married couples cabin that was more than twice as big as either of theirs. Brad was busy bringbringing Eleanor up to date on all she had missed about intercourse and other sexual things. She quickly adapted to doggie, cowgirl and various other things. Brad had to insist on sleep several times. Married life settled down some after two weeks and they both found it was rewarding in many ways. The ship continued on with it’sits missions of course and they attacked three different alien colonies. Eleanor was wringing her hand every time Brad went out with his squadron, but he always came back, as did his crew mates. His squadron was becoming known for not losing anyone in even the toughest fights although several fighters came back seriously damaged and two pilots were injured and had to be replaced. Brad had a diligent training program worked out for his squadron and Captain Merriweather requested he share it, which he did, although the other squadron commanders weren’t as interested and had to be ordered to learn and use it. It did seem to reduce casualties though and relied ofon a lot of maneuvering between shots. After seven months the ship had to return to Fleet world World for maintenance and updates. LikewiseLikewise, the fighters were all inspected and assessed with quite a few replaced. The newer fighters all had the large blue laser but still required 30 secondseconds of uninterrupted charging time between uses. They also had provision provisions or for carrying two anti-ship missiles. All of this affected maneuverability as theythe same thrusters had to move more weight now. Working with the maintenance crews Brad managed to up increase the thrusters’ out put some, but it did not make up for all that had been lost.

Brad was further surprised when Captain Merriweather was relivedrelieved of command and then disappeared with only a very brief acknowledgement from her. He later learned that she was also the Empress of a distant system and had been called back to lead it. Commander Edith Sorenson was promoted to captain and became the shipsship’s captain over all sorts of fuss by people in higher places, but she was confirmed to be in command. The fighter wing commander became the new XO, which moved his XO into the command position of Fighter Wing Commanderwing commander and with a promotion to full commander. Brad was called to the Bridge bridge and Captain Sorensen informed him he was to be the new Fighter Wing XO. Her steely glare told him he had best not whine about losing his squadron, but she agreed with his recommendation of Genevieve du Chaumond as the new squadron commander. Brad cleared out his gear and took it up to Wing HQ where they had him store it “You won’t be lying flying fighters here sir, it’s all paperwork.” Brad grimaced, “Yeah, I know, but someday maybe I can fly again.” Being the Wing XO made being a squadron XO look easy. Two week later he was summoned to the Bridgebridge, “what now” h he murmured and headed that way to find the Wing wing Commandercommander, the Captain captain and XO and his wife all waiting on him. “Attention to orders, Lieutenant Bradley Mufflen is hereby promoted to Lt Cdr “ was he the gist of it. He thanked everybodyeverybody, hugged and smooched his wife and ended up going back to work while Eleanor saw to getting his uniforms in order with his new rank. The ship’s suit was simply, just change the epaulettes, but the dress uniform and undress uniform took a lot more fixing for a surprising amount of money, not that he couldn’t afford it. He was very busy as the HORNET NEST got ready to deploy and then he also had to help Genevieve get a good grip on the squadron. She didn’t have much trouble, but one new young pilot wanted to know why a woman was the commander of both his squadron and of the carrier itself. Brad Was able to grab the young man by the stacking swivel and put him in him place “They are in command because they have performed admirably in lessor lesser positions and filled in as commanders when needed to. They have demonstrated knowledge, skills and ability to keep your dumb ass alive long enough to learn a few things and become a useful fighter pilot. Don’t listen to them and you will go home in a body bag.”

The ensign thought he was obnoxious and ignorant of reality until a fellow pilot stopped him “You saw the black patch? You know what it means?” Yeah, yeah, he’s been to space and been shot at.” The pilot laughed at him “No stupid it means he has fought and destroyed enemy ships in space ... the little number 28 tells you how many enemy ships he has killed ... and he is a fighter pilot, so he personally has killed 28 enemy ships. Big ship give gives a plus to everyone on the ship when they get a kill, but in fighters there is no one else. He is an ace five times over. He has gone from Ensign to Lt Cdr in just over five years! He is the epitome of a fighter pilotpilot, and he personally chose your squadron commander. You serve with the best on this carrier and likely many other carriers too. Ditch the attitude and count yourself blessed. Then do as you are told and try to deserve the spot you have been given if you don’t want to be sent back to fleet as a misplaced shuttle pilot.”