Chapter 8: Complex Feelings

We arrived back at our home pod without any major incidents. Bryn’s skirt had somehow ended up on the deck of one of the hallways, and rather than pull it back up she picked it up and carried it in her arms as we finished the walk. Of course, Jade proceeded to spend the rest of the walk trying to get her fingers into Bryn’s cunt. The two ran around the hallway, using me to hide behind as we made our way home.

Once we walked through the door to our home, I called out. “AI, I need you to make some clothing items, but we need to do something special. I’m going to enter the training room. While I’m in there, Jade will be showing Bryn some of the tricks of walking in heels. So, I need you to listen to Jade and create thong panties and high heels she requests, but only those two types of clothing until I say otherwise.”

“Confirmed,” the AI replied.

“Only thongs or heels?” Jade growled. “That’s no fun.”

“Bryn needs the maximum practice. And I expect you to hang up your business outfits. She’ll need to learn to move first. Once she knows how to move, we will drape clothing on her body,” I said.

“Do I get to be a cheerleader?” Bryn asked. “I noticed that many men like the idea of seeing a cheerleader stripping.”

“You need to be able to walk with five-inch heels on first,” I said. “Jade will probably start you on three-inch today. It will probably be two or three weeks before you are comfortable on five-inch ones, even if you put in hours of practice.”

“Which you won’t,” Jade said. “Because at first you won’t be able to wear heels for hours. You’ll be using new muscles.”

Bryn giggled and grabbed Jade. “Let’s go then. I want to start practicing.”

The duo dashed to the bedroom. I shook my head once and then headed to the training room. The door was closed when I arrived. “AI, I’d like to go in and practice,” I said.

“There are no more organized practices for today. You have received the only lesson set up for your first day,” the AI responded.

“There must be some programs that are used to help keep the gunners sharp,” I replied. “I just want an hour of practice.”

There was a long pause before the door opened. “There is a program. However, its considerably more difficult than the practice session you were participating in.”

I walked through the doorway and made my way to the chair for the gunnery officer. “Define more difficult if you can,” I ordered.

“Simulation scenario is of a corvette on scout duty in a Sa’arm controlled system. Sa’arm scouts spot the corvette and chase it into an asteroid field. To win, you must destroy five Sa’arm scouts in the allotted time without taking critical damage,” the AI said. “I should note that normally this simulation would be performed with a full bridge crew.”

“I’m sure there are standard behaviors you can simulate,” I said. “Any other information that I’ll need.”

“These targets will be shooting back,” the AI said needlessly. “You will need to be prepared to return control to the helmsman when evasive maneuvers are required.”

I slipped into the chair and reached out to activate the controls. “Understood,” I said. “When you are ready.”

The lights in the room dimmed for a moment. I glanced at my tracking screen and could now see information scrolling across.

“Weapons, report!” a harsh male voice called out.

I checked the status reports. “Magazines are full. Both rail guns respond to signals and indicate that they are loaded and ready to fire. Missile launchers one, three and four are loaded. Missile two has suffered a system fault on loading. Repairs should take less than ten minutes.”

“Tracking shows five scouts have followed us into the asteroid cluster. They have spread out and appear to be conducting a search,” a very young voice called out.

“Put us on a course that will allow us to cut in front of the one to the far right,” I said. “From there I can shoot at that one and two of the others should have no angle to fire at us.”

“Don’t give me orders on what tactics to use,” the harsh voice called out. “Helm, maneuver so we pass between Sa’arm scouts two and three.”

I held off from cursing as the tracking display showed the ship turning to head towards the five scouts. Wandering asteroids shielded three of the Sa’arm ships from any direct fire, but they could definitely see me and they started to spread out, taking away any opportunity to try a snap shot from one of the rail guns.

I switched the targeting computer to missiles. The two closest Sa’arm ships were maneuvering too abruptly for me to get a good targeting lock, but I quickly managed to lock on the last one to the right. I told the system to select launcher three and fired. Then I told number four to fire, staggering the launch.

The Sa’arm ships reacted immediately. All five initiated evasive maneuvers as the unit I targeted launched some kind of missile killer. I had no time to see what the effect of the shot was. I claimed full control from the helmsman and spun the ship around, looking to line up one of the rapidly dodging scouts.

I had guessed that at least one of the Sa’arm ships would turn and rise above the ecliptic in an attempt to get a clearer tracking picture. Unfortunately, I had guessed wrong as to which one would rise. Starting from the right, I had counted up from one to five. My expectation was that scout four would be the one to rise up, but it was five that was cresting above the plane of asteroids. I had to spin the corvette a bit more than I planned before I activated the rail guns.

The instant the rail guns showed they were reloading I released control back to the helmsman. The ship turned and dove down, trying to drop below the asteroids.

“Weapons, I need you to target units two and three, not the outside ones,” the harsh voice commanded.

“If I try, we’ll get shot up. I’ll take shots as I get them,” I snapped back. “Right now, the scouts are scattering. If we come back around, I should be able to catch Two as it comes out from behind one of the larger asteroids.”

The voices playing the other bridge officers ignored my comment. My displays showed the corvette quickly returning to its original vector, heading directly between two of the Sa’arm ships.

I tried to find a clear line to either of the two Sa’arm ships we were rapidly approaching. The AI helmsman had managed to lay in a path that kept asteroids between us and the Sa’arm as we approached. Unfortunately, this meant that I had little opportunity to get a shot off. I switched back to missiles and tried to line up Number Three, as it was the closest and looked like it was going to have a great opportunity to shoot at our port bow when we cleared the asteroids.

The asteroids made targeting the Sa’arm scout extremely difficult. Twice I thought I had a good shooting solution only to have a wandering asteroid disrupt the tracking and force me to start over. The harsh voice that was supposedly the corvette’s captain kept screaming for me to aim at Number Two, but it had ducked behind a large asteroid leaving me unable to see it.

Finally, the system said I had a good solution on scout three. I ordered all of the missile tubes to fire. Once they were on their way, I turned my attention to scout number two, but I found that my prediction about the problems with the route taken by the ship were accurate. Before I could start attempting to target scout two, scouts three and four both fired.

Scout three died a moment later as the missiles I had used ripped it to shreds, but the weapons from scout four hit on our port side. My display immediately signaled that I lost both launchers on that side. I could hear the harsh voice demanding that we evade a follow up salvo, but scout two popped up from behind the asteroid that had shielded it. I tried to get off a snap shot with the rail guns, but the ship refused to turn quickly and my screens turned to static as the light in the simulation room turned red.

“The corvette has been destroyed,” the AI said.

“No shit!” I growled out. “What the fuck was with the way this ship was commanded. We couldn’t have done worse if I allowed a five-year-old to decide which Sa’arm to fight first. They could localize our location and work in a group to line up their shots.”

“That’s been the choice made by most trainees the first time they attempt the simulation,” the AI reported. “What would you have done differently?”

“To start with we should have swung wide and gone after either one or five. The spinal mounts on the Patrician mean that we have to fire as we bear and can’t really dodge while trying to line up a shot. We needed to use one swarm ship to block the others from shooting at us. It’s slower, but allows us to turn that into five individual fights. Those we can win. If we try to fight all five at once, it’s a guaranteed loss,” I snapped.

“Interesting,” the AI reported. “Your analysis matches the patterns we have seen. The few trainees who attempt your suggested method succeed four times out of five. There have been no successes for trainees that charge straight in.”

“I haven’t read up the full specs, but I can’t see that a corvette has enough armor to stand up and fight against other ships. They are scouts and raiders,” I stated.

“Processing,” the AI said.

There was a long moment of silence. I stood up and began to pace up and down the aisle that ran between the various command stations. “What is there to process?” I snapped. “From what you said, my performance was no worse than what you’ve seen in the past.”

“Commander Tanya Walker, your training track has been changed. You will be moving to command track for Goddess Class Battlecruisers,” the AI informed me.

“What? How did I go from weapons officer for a corvette to a battle cruiser commander after two training sessions? That makes no sense,” I responded.

“Initial training decisions are based on CAP scores,” the AI said. “Once a pickup occurs, the AI units can monitor performance in training. If the destination has published a list of unfilled positions, training can be adjusted once the outbound journey has begun. The Borneo military district is about to receive a new Goddess Class Battlecruiser and current personnel notes show no officers ready to take command of the ship. Of all the new soldiers being transported to Borneo in this ship, you are the most qualified.”

“So, what do I do now then?” I asked.

“This room will be reconfigured to be a Goddess Class Battlecruiser’s Bridge. However, most of your initial study will be sleep trainer and reading. There also will be more social events, so you can meet other officers and start to work out who you’d like to have on your command staff,” the AI informed me.