Chapter 14: Building Connections

“You seem confident,” Patrick said as he looked at Estefani.

I was thinking the same thing, but Estefani simply stood up and posed. “Why not?” she asked. “I was the captain of my high school basketball team for all four years I attended. We won multiple tournaments thanks to my leadership. I also helped form a samba dance team. We were provincial champions for the last two years. The position of officer over the gunners is a tricky one. You have to be as good if not better than the majority of the gunners, but you also have to be able to see the big picture at all times. I can do that. Can you?”

Patrick looked surprised. “Um ... So just being the shot-caller for my friends when we played our favorite MOBA doesn’t count?”

“It might,” I replied. “It depends on if you can translate the skills you have to a much different environment. It sounds like Estefani already has that experience. Now she just needs to learn the delicacy and poise required to gain the respect of others.”

“Delicacy?” Patrick asked.

Tilly giggled. “Not like food. Tanya is talking about how you handle a situation. It’s a phrase used more often in diplomacy. They’ll talk about having to approach negotiations with delicacy and care because charging in will make it impossible to generate a positive result.”

“Not that all diplomacy can end in positive results. One famous diplomat from history noted that the ambassador’s job was done when all sides felt that the treaty was equally bad. Or something to that effect,” I added playfully.

Patrick had a perplexed look on his face. Estefani looked over at me. “Tanya, it seems to pushed him into reset. Do you mind if we claim one of your couches for a short talk. I think I can help him see what we need.”

“Go ahead,” I replied as I glanced over at my open door. “There should be more people showing up and I want to at least greet everyone who takes the time to attend.”

Tilly nodded towards the open door. “Let’s walk over near the door. Patrick probably doesn’t need to think we’re eavesdropping.”

I nodded. We stepped near the door. Tilly looked a bit nervous as she looked up at me. “I’m sorry,” she began.

When the pause in her speech seemed to extend I frowned. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I understand that not everyone can step forward confidently at all times.”

Tilly shook her head. “Its not that. I came here thinking that I’d be telling off someone who was being a bully to everyone. I mean we’ve been on this ship for less than three days and you announced that you’ll be commanding a ship. And not a little patrol craft, but one of the larger ships currently available to the Navy.”

“It does seem strange, but from what little training I’ve taken and the studying I’m trying to fit in, space combat is different enough from anything practiced back on Earth that many experienced Navy captains struggle to handle the differences,” I said.

“How could it be that different?” Tilly asked.

“I was wondering the same thing,” a man said from the doorway. I turned to see a lean, muscular man with long blond hair standing in the doorway and posing.

“My concubines are napping at the moment,” I observed. “And while I can say you definitely wouldn’t be out of place in a beefcake calendar shoot or on a porn set, I’m not in the mood at the moment.”

Tilly gasped as the man turned to look at me. “Who are you?”

I shook my head. “Well, as I’m the owner of this pod and the one who called for all prospective crew of Freya to attend, I believe I would be Tanya Walker, provisional captain of the new Goddess class battlecruiser that will commission in Borneo district once we arrive. I’m guessing you are supposed to be part of the ship crew and not a gunner.”

“What?” the man asked.

Tilly giggled this time. “Are you always this quick?” she asked me.

I shrugged. “Is it really that hard to figure out that the captain who called the meeting might be standing near the door?”

“Savannah!” I heard Jade shout from across the room. “They don’t know you yet. You don’t want to practice your answer questions with questions game. Not until they understand how you think.”

I looked over to see that my concubine was standing just outside the room to the main bedroom. She had changed into a maid’s outfit that had dark green highlights.

“I can do what I want,” I called back. “And if you’re going to serve drinks and hors d’oeuvres you can. Just make sure that our guests only look.”

“Yeah, yeah, hold to the rules of the Pink Poodle,” Jade said. “Bryn will be out shortly. She was adjusting her heels.”

I nodded as I turned back to the new man. “Sorry, we were saying?”

The man looked over at Jade and then back at me. “She called you Savannah?”

“My name when I worked at the Pink Poodle. You know that few women want to use their real names in such a place. Now who are you?” I asked.

“You were a stripper?” Tilly asked.

“Star athlete and top student in high school. Moved to California when I graduated saying I was looking to break into movies, but I was more looking for modelling gigs. Worked a couple of clubs while trying to get noticed and ended up finding a wealthy investor willing to marry me so he could pretend to be respectable. Got a few modelling opportunities thanks to that,” I said. “But again, we still haven’t heard the name of the hunk standing in my doorway.”

The man was openly gawking at me. He slowly closed his mouth and shook his head. “Sorry, sorry. Just not ready for all that. To much information I think. I’m Todd Rutherford. And you’re right, the AI informed me that I would be receiving training in the maintaining of the gunballs.”

“Damage control and engineering,” I said. “Most of the crew that isn’t in the gunballs will be working there. It’s an important job.”

“Its mostly watching over the remotes and robots as they do the actual work,” Todd said. “But they do need a human watching over them. If I understand the training the plan is two techs doing the maintenance work for every five gunballs. But we also will be cross training in keeping the engines running.”

“Please, please, please also look into training on the repair of the antennae,” Tilly said.

“Why?” Todd asked. He was looking over my shoulder, and I glanced to see that Bryn had emerged from my bedroom. The little Icelandic blonde was wearing her own maid’s outfit with light blue highlights. She looked adorable as she tried to strut towards us.

Tilly sighed. “It was something that the training has covered in both of my sessions. The way the Goddess class is contructed puts the communications antennae and arrays outside the armor, and just under the grid that powers the gunballs. It’s been reported that the ships lose all communications ability after most battles.”

“What?” A new voice called out from the doorway behind Todd.

The voice sounded rather feminine. I reach out to move Todd deeper into the room. “Come join us,” I called out. “It will be easier to explain if were all looking at each other and not shouting through the doorway.”

Todd and Tilly both nodded. They walked over to one corner of the room where there was an L-shaped couch set up. Tilly took one end while Todd flopped into the corner.

The woman who entered the room was athletic. She had short brown hair in a very butch cut. I guessed that she was a couple of inches shorter than me.

“Am I in the right place?” she asked me. “I mean, it was supposed to be a social for crew of a Goddess class ship, but it doesn’t seem like many people are here.”

“I get a feeling that the majority of the people on this ship are still enjoying the idea of endless sex from their concubines,” Todd said. I looked over at him in surprise.

“Not you?” I asked him.

He scowled for a moment before nodding. “I know that I look like I should be one of those male predators always seeking weak-willed and stupid women to seduce and throw away. I never understood that idea. You know that my concubines are my wife and her best friend.”

“You took her best friend away,” Tilly said.

Todd shook his head. “Tracy was single by choice. She’s a sweet women, but her teenage years were not pleasant and a lot of it was due to her uncle. I was dating Martha for three years before I learned about Tracy. She had been home-schooled from her sophomore year of high school on to protect her. The poor woman couldn’t bear to be touched by a man.”