Chapter 13: Crew? What Crew?

The next morning, I ran through three more of the simulated missions available to me. It was very easy to see that the men or women who programmed the simulations had only a limited understanding of the stress of combat. They worked hard to create missions that were complex, but at the same time the most complex interactions involving the crew were missing. It had me worried about my crew’s performance once we entered combat.

I did finally manage to stumble on some data regarding casualties. The Navy had managed only a few victories with most battles ending in near disastrous defeats. All the evidence showed that individually the Confederacy ships were superior, but the Sa’arm ships were much larger and they traveled in large battle groups whenever possible. It was not uncommon for a single Confederacy scout ship to end up having to fight four or more larger ships.

I exited the simulation room shaking my head. Jade rushed over to me. “Mistress?” she asked.

“The simulations are interesting, but I don’t have a feel for how a crew will work. It’s not real and I can tell its not real,” I said.

“Why not meet with the people being trained to be crew and see if you can coordinate the simulations. It will still be people, but it won’t just be you,” Bryn said. “And I know if they work with you, they’ll come to believe in you just as much as I do.”

“AI?” I asked the ceiling. “Is that possible? Can I meet with the people who are supposed to be part of my crew?”

“A meeting can be arranged. Would you like one to occur later today?” the AI responded.

“Can I have an officer only one for about three hours from now? Why not have it here. I’ll have Jade and Bryn clean up the main room and set up some lounge chairs. I don’t think this needs to be formal,” I said.

“Invitations will go out to the nine people who are officer candidates. Some may have already planned simulation or sleep training. They will be told this is not a mandatory meeting,” the AI responded.

“Certainly, and allow them to call me if they have questions. I think that this meeting should only be to introduce the idea. Formal training can occur in the future. How many weeks more do we have?” I asked.

“The Princess Victoria is making a stop at Kelor in three more weeks. At that time about three hundred of the one thousand citizens will be transferred to the new station there. Two weeks after that we’ll arrive in Borneo,” the AI said.

“And the total number of officers on my ship is eight, or eleven? The numbering isn’t very clear,” I asked.

“Eight total officers. Five for the ship, and three gunner officers. You are correct that the system makes it sound like eleven officers. The crew numbers have also changed. You’ll have forty gunners total, including the officers, but the ship only needs thirty total crew, not fifty-seven,” the AI informed me.

“Cutting my crew because you need more ships,” I muttered.

“The reasoning behind the cuts has not been entered into this system,” the AI replied stiffly.

“Aaarrrgh!” I roared in frustration. “Nevermind. Just let me know who will attend once you know. And if there is anyone you are sure I need to talk to, provide a list.”

“Command acknowledged,” the AI responded.

I turned to head to the small alcove with the food replicator when Jade stumbled out of the bedroom. My friend’s hair showed signs of having been pulled on during the night and she was stepping a bit gingerly. “Mistress?” she asked.

“Nothing to concern you,” I replied. “I’m finding that the AI can be singularly uncooperative when it wants to be.”

“Is it really intelligent?” Jade asked.

“I’m not a tech geek. But my understanding is that while it can learn quite a bit, the responses are never as dynamic as a flesh and blood mind can have. It processes information faster than we can, but in the end the final decisions it makes have to be binary,” I replied.

“Binary?” I heard Bryn ask.

“The computer basically works by asking a series of yes and no questions. Even if you give it multiple ways to respond, its done on that basis,” I said. “That’s because computers work in a system where they use the numbers zero and one exclusively at the ultimate level. You can tell it to look at a series of numbers together, but they are all either zero or one. But that’s the extent of my knowledge. Some tech geeks swore that you could make the decision trees complex enough to seem to be real intelligence, but I never heard of any computer powerful enough to do that in all things. At best they can be taught to play games extremely well since they won’t miss or have bad timing when performing a move.”

“Yuck, that would make playing against them seem very...” Jade blushed. “I can’t say it.”

Bryn was nodding. “I can it would feel mechanical. I remember one boy at school who hated playing anything solo because the game was too predictable when you used the formulas.”

I just nodded. “Anyways, I’m inviting the officer candidates for my new ship to visit with me in about three hours. You are permitted to look sexy and alluring, but you must be wearing thong panties.”

“Awww, I can’t give you a few peeks at the honey pot?” Jade asked playfully.

“You know how well that might go over with some people,” I said. “Anyways, dress nice, but remember that I’m trying to evaluate these people as officers. Please avoid trouble.”

Jade laughed. “I thought I was trouble. Should I be avoiding myself?”

A chime rang out. “Captain Tanya, an Estefani Avila has asked to speak with you. May I put her call through.”

“Este?” I asked. “Go ahead. Not sure why she asked to speak with me.”

“Well, I just got a message saying that you’re hosting a meeting in a few hours. I wanted to ask if you minded if I arrived early,” Este said.

“Come early, cum often,” Jade sang out.

I glanced over at my concubine. “I’m not sure you heard that,” I said carefully.

Este laughed. “The AI never allows the shouts of our concubines to be heard unless we previously said they were to be heard. So, I heard nothing. I’m guessing one of your concubines said something they shouldn’t have.”

“Don’t they always,” I said. “I’ll punish her later. But I welcome you coming early. It would be nice to chat with someone I’m pretty sure I can work with.”

“You know, I was happy to hear you’re the captain we’re supposed to work for. I know you won’t have experience, but I asked the AI to give me the records of the class of ship we’re bound for. Its new and none of the captains have seen much combat,” Este said.

“Its worse for the smaller ships. I think I once heard a saying that fit although the one time I heard it was about pilots, not ship captains, but I can use it here,” I said.

“Oh?” Este said. “Do tell.”

“There are old ship captains. There are bold ship captains. But there are very few old, bold ship captains,” I said.

“Ouch,” Este said. “Do you plan on doing a lot of running away?”

“Hell no,” I said sternly. “But I’m going to know what my crew can do and then push them to their limits. We’ll be the best because we know what we can do and we’ll never fail to push ourselves.”

“That sounds like you will be bold,” Este said with a giggle.

“There is calculated and then there is foolish. I want to be one of those calculated commanders. One who has officers she can trust to train their people right and to do their jobs in combat,” I said firmly.

Este laughed. “Look, this will be far easier in person. Let me come over.”

“Come over, bring your concubines, but no sex in my home today. This is a business meeting. Your concubines will just chat with mine. Maybe they could serve tea, although I’m pretty sure my two don’t know how to do that.”

“Mine sure don’t. You’ve met Paula. And my man ... I didn’t choose him for his brains,” Este said.

“Oh, in that case, bring him and have him talk to Jade,” I said.

“Why?” Este asked.

“Oh, there won’t be sex. Jade was a professional for a long time. She knows a lot about how to become more than just a sex object. It sounds like your man will need that or you might grow bored with him,” I said.

“Damn,” Este said. “You know, I never considered that. You’re right, I already am thinking that he’s worthless out of bed. We’ll be over in a few minutes. I have to get my idiot concubine to wear some shorts or something.”

“There is no having to,” I replied. “Remember he belongs to you. Treat him like your personal Ken doll and put the clothes on him you want to see him in. That will help drive home the fact that you’re in control and that he has to shape up.”

Este giggled. “Point to you. I guess you aren’t going to have problems like I am. It seems you are confident in taking charge.”

“I have to be,” I replied. “I’ll see you soon. I want to make sure my two concubines are properly indecent.”

Este’s laugh resounded in the room as the call ended. Jade walked over to me, her eyes on the ceiling where the sound had come from. “Properly indecent?” my long-time friend asked.

“AI, can you replicate an oriental style tunic dress for each of my concubines, but have the bottom be just below their pussy. It should cover everything when they are standing, but should they bend over or sit down reveal everything. Make Jade’s in a deep green and Bryn’s in a pastel blue if possible,” I said pretending to ignore Jade.