Part 15

Chapter 58

Six years later

I was actually proud of myself. The ladies knew me well enough to know that I’d eventually become restless. I guess the biggest hint was when I started doodling with a design for a new iteration of Shark. I’d made it all the way to the week after our fourth anniversary before I began doodling with schematics for a new ship. When my doodles were discovered, the ladies didn’t become upset, but rather, embraced my sense of adventure--and basically took over the design of the ship. I began wondering what color curtains it would have.

I promised Crystal, Kit, Aella, Daisy, and Melete that they could go. Agatha, Beverly, Aurora, and Dawn extracted the same promise.

My wives dictated that between three and five of them would go with me. Restrictions included no pregnant wives, wives with a child under a year old, and no active Senate members. Senate members would have to temporarily transfer their seat if they went.

And so Shark II took shape. My specifications to the five AIs who did the majority of the design were reasonably open-ended. The ship had to be big enough to comfortably house fifteen humans (including stasis couches) for an extended period. In addition, there had to be room for one thousand armed bots, two tanks, six fighters, one corvette, and sundry shuttles for landing said troops and weaponry, as well as for exploration.

Oh, yeah, it had to be faster than Shark. I threw that in just to make it a challenge for them.

There would even be a special hold to carry two gates. After my pissing match with the Navy, (even though Grandfather Louis sided with me and resigned from the Navy again, this time for good) I built a factory to make my own gates. All I had originally asked for were a handful of proprietary gates in and beyond the Wastes to allow rapid and safe transit to the growing number of populated worlds and fac planets Houses Demarest and Shark owned in the former raider territory.

I had offered to pay a fair price and had promised unrestricted free access for Navy vessels. I also promised to charge only the standard fee to those cargo ships visiting our planets that chose to use our gates rather than spend days dodging rocks as they transited the Wastes. What I charge now is even less.

Nevertheless, the Navy had a bug up their ass and refused to sell me a gate at any price. They had been interested in installing a series of gates. However, since Houses Demarest and Shark had legal claim to nearly all the new territory that had just been added to the Empire, we both had to agree to let them place the gates when and where they wanted. Father finally agreed to allow the installation, but I refused.

Father and I “talked” frequently and at great length about my intransigence as he tried to persuade me to see reason. I saw reason. My wives actually concurred with me although they also agreed with Father about possible retaliation from the Navy. For what it would have cost me to purchase six gates from the Navy, assuming they had agreed, I built a factory capable of building my own gates. Those gates would only cost half as much and would be considerably superior to the Navy’s gates since the design and technology would be the newest available. They could operate in conjunction with or independently of the rest of the gates in the system--just in case the Navy decided to be even pissier than me.

Father just shook his head pretending to be upset when I took him through my first gate but the pride in his eyes was unmistakable. He quickly installed my gates near each of his most important planets. We did promise the Emperor that, in case of an emergency, the Navy would be allowed unrestricted free use of our gates for the duration of the emergency.

Grandfather Louis extracted a promise from me to take him on the maiden voyage of Shark II, “to see what all the hullaballoo over being a Scout is about.”

It was easy to see that he missed being aboard a ship and I made him promise in return to bring along a couple of his command staff who hadn’t yet been assigned to active duty aboard one of my ships.

The design took two months to complete and ended up with about the same displacement as Orca, but the plans looked nothing like the destroyer. Having seen the writing on the wall early on over the upcoming difficulties with the Navy, I had stockpiled or contracted for thirty-seven Super Dreadnaught engines and purchased a large quantity of heavy shipboard weapons while I was still mostly in the good graces of the Navy. In the meantime, our bots, led by a group of five AIs, had reworked those engines that were already complete. The engines were now a third stronger and required seventeen percent less energy to operate. The Navy still used the older version since they didn’t even know about our designs.

The new ship had four internal engines and two outriggers to the sides of and slightly behind the body of the ship, each with a nacelle of four high-performance super dreadnaught engines. The AIs had even included a previously unheard of force field that sped the ship up even more. The idea for the field was counter-intuitive since it drew energy away from the engines. At warp speeds, however, it became supra-ionic. The supra-ionic energy helped to funnel more power to the engines. The engines used that energy much more efficiently, increasing the overall output even more, all while reducing the amount of fuel needed.

While the ship was definitely armed enough to hold our own against almost anything, we were not a weapons platform. We were a Scout ship, albeit a large and powerful one. The AIs had even included dual rail guns capable of launching anything from energy warheads to chunks of rock so we had a heavy atmospheric weapon available--in addition to the normal rockets, cannons, and heavy machine guns.

The rumor mills had been abuzz for months about a new “super ship” being built although nobody spreading the rumors knew any details. All anybody outside of the immediate family and handful of “need to know” individuals knew was that a ship was, indeed, being built in the cloaked and heavily guarded Demarest section of the St. Louis shipyards and that lots and lots of material was going into the shipyard. Some even surmised that we were building our own Navy.

Just to put his mind at ease, I personally took Emperor Quintin (yeah, okay, fine ... Dad) to see the ship and to let him know it was a new scout ship for me. After my first adventure, I wanted to begin with slightly more than what I had the first time. He actually believed that. In actuality, my wives had insisted that I be much better armed from now on.

Like me, he didn’t fully understand the intricacies of the design, and I purposely didn’t tell him about some. He did understand that I expected the ship to top out at over warp 40 cloaked and probably warp fifty uncloaked. He did extract a promise to take him for a ride.

While he was able to calm the Senate (I let him tell them I was merely building a new, modern, highly advanced Scout Ship to replace Shark), his assurances didn’t stop the rumor mongers. Even Cherry assured her fans that she had not only seen the ship but had been involved in designing it, along with all of my other wives.

We’d had to coax Clarence out of retirement for one last ship, and when he saw the design, he was coaxed. It took us nearly an hour to finally get his mouth shut and another hour for the bots to clean up the drool. “Holy Fuck,” was about all he said right before nodding his agreement to oversee the construction.

Having a construction crew consisting entirely of our class IV bots was a wet dream for him. The Class IV bots were an improvement over what Beverly and Agatha initially had been upgraded to. We now sold the class III bots commercially. Bev and Agatha were now class V and we had no plans to release any of them outside of Shark interests. Demarest interests used the class IV bot. We had no plans to let the public have access to those, either.

With a huge crew of highly efficient bots working around-the-clock, the ship was finished in just over twenty months--a remarkable feat considering its size and that much of the new technology was built on the fly and not available off the shelf.

As construction wound down, I gave my wives a final task. I intended to christen every console and couch on the bridge as well as the shower and several other strategic spots aboard the ship. To make the event more special I asked my wives to invite several of our favorite tribute guests. Of all the tributes left at the estates and hurled at us on our procession to Tower Quintin, more than seventy percent of the women we invited had accepted the invitations issued over a four-year period, letting them act on their offer. Many were already undergoing rigorous training under the tutelage of the Demarest/Shark military instructors.

Now, starting with our favorite dozen tributes, they were asked if they had a sister, cousin, or friend who was still a virgin and interested in losing her virginity to me in a very special two-day orgy that would include a number of other male dignitaries as well as my wives and many other women. It took an entire day for the ladies to find a dozen of my favorite tributes with eager, virgin female relatives or friends, and another day to explain to all the girls involved and to their parents the gist of what we planned. They wouldn’t tell them where the orgy would be but promised that the girls would be completely safe and would proudly remember the event for the rest of their lives.

The day before the official shakedown cruise, we boarded Shark for the final test run. It was our tenth, each previous run having been uneventful. We reached the airlock into Shark, and entered the bridge together. I tossed a data chip to Crystal. “Please review this, Crystal. Please prepare for departure.”

The additional AIs had been installed covertly by Agatha and Bev and their avatars appeared as Class V bots.

I continued, “Please perform pre-launch checklist.” They knew we were to be fully cloaked since we were not advertising our departure.

Beverly, Agatha, Dawn, and Aurora were each at a console. I was sitting in my comfortable “Captain’s Chair” with a giddy, naked Wistria in my lap while I observed the action around me and tracked data on my view screens.

Crystal laid in a course and speed to take us safely away from the yard to a place where we could perform our final test run. I asked for final checklist items to be called out verbally as completed.

The ladies called out and verified each final item. Finally, each was ready.

Beverly announced, “My board is all green, Captain.”

Agatha announced, “My board is all green, Captain.”

Dawn announced, “My board is all green, Captain.”

Aurora announced, “My board is all green, Captain.”

Crystal announced, “Checklists are all completed and my board is all green, Captain.”

I said, “Please extinguish Shark‘s external lighting and set all sensors to passive.”

Crystal confirmed, “All external lighting is off. All sensors are passive.”

I said, “Please sound the last alarm and stand Shark away from the airlock.”

A quiet gonging sounded accompanied the internal lights dimming. The ship moved slowly away from the lock.

There was another chorus from my five crew members on the bridge. “Boards are still all green, Captain.”

I said, “Impulse power. Please choose course and speed that will take us safely to the coordinates I gave you.”

Shark turned slightly and began to move.

“We are at .6 warp speed... 7... 8... 9. Shark is at .95 warp speed, engaging warp drive,” Crystal announced.

“Shark is at warp 4... 7... 11... 19... 25... 33... 38... 40... 41... 42. Shark is at maximum cloaked speed of warp 42.517,” Crystal announced twenty minutes later.

“Waaaaaahoooooooo,” I shouted excitedly.

“Switch to active sensors,” I ordered.

“All sensors active ... scanning ... no ships in scanning range, Captain,” Crystal announced.

“Very good, Crystal, uncloak and continue speed test,” I ordered.

“Shark is uncloaked, speed run continuing. Shark is at warp 45... 47... 49... 50... 51... 52... 53. Shark is at maximum uncloaked speed of warp 53.319,” Crystal announced.

“Hot damn!” I exclaimed excitedly.

The lady-bots all grinned knowingly at my excitement. Wistria watched my reaction.

“Crystal, please set in ten short jumps to known locations and begin when you’re ready.”

She concentrated for several seconds. “Course set in and jumps calculated. Beginning jump series in 3... 2... 1 ... jump ... jump ... jump ... jump ... jump ... jump ... jump ... jump ... jump ... jump. Series complete,” Crystal announced.

“Report, Crystal.”

“All systems normal, Captain. There is one thing, though,” she added thoughtfully.

“Yes, Crystal?”

“During each jump the ship seemed ... light ... is the best way to describe it. I think we should extend our short jumps,” she explained.

“Very well, Crystal, pick a new set of coordinates and make a jump 1.1 times as far.”

“Coordinates locked ... jump in 3... 2... 1 ... jump. Jump complete. Ship still feels light,” Crystal reported.

“One more time at 1.2 times the original jumps, Crystal.”

“Coordinates locked ... jump in 3... 2... 1 ... jump. Jump complete. Ship still feels light at 1.2 times original distance,” Crystal reported.

“Coordinates locked ... jump in 3... 2... 1 ... jump. Jump complete. Ship feels normal at 1.8 times original jump distance,” Crystal reported six attempts later.

On the way back, I explained to Wistria about everything that had happened and what it meant. As adept as she was at Court Politics and business, she was equally uninformed in the basics of space flight. I could live with that. She had to deal with the opposite problem with me.

I’d promised myself not to christen the consoles or seats until the party but that didn’t stop us from falling to the floor where Wistria pulled me on top of her and guided me into her sex. I came quickly, before she did, so I went down on her and licked her to an orgasm.

Sated, we fell asleep right there on the floor of the bridge until Agatha woke us. “Captain, we will be landing on Athens in ten minutes,” she snickered.

The next morning dawned clear--a beautiful day for an orgy. By mid-morning, our important guests had arrived and were mingling in the formal dining room of Estate Shark. First to arrive were Father and Ben, along with Ben’s wife Adinia and his minor wife Gwen, who entered arm-in-arm giggling probably about what they planned to do to me. Adinia didn’t hide from Ben how she felt about me since I’d saved her--twice. Ben was her love and husband, but she had deep feelings for me which she eagerly showed me every time our families were together to play. Gwen, too, took every opportunity repeatedly to thank me--both for saving her and for introducing her to Ben.

Grandfather William arrived from Scorpio only minutes before Gran arrived from Caddis. Today, four generations of Scouts would fly together.

Grandfather Louis arrived with his father Victor, as well as Mother and Lisette. He even brought along three of his command staff who were already eyeing me hungrily.

Everyone bowed slightly when Emperor Quintin entered. We uncloaked and took the time to go outside of the house to take a good look at Shark II. Imagine a destroyer-sized scout ship in your back yard. There were gasps from the men and the ladies who knew something about ships. The gasps turned to absolute silence when I told them how fast the ship could go and how long our short jumps were.

As everyone toured the ship, I noticed that the ladies had finally decorated the walls of my stateroom. My parchment letters from the Demarest and Carteris families and my letter of Marque and Reprisal, as well as the family crest for all ten houses represented by my wives adorned the wall. In addition, my Order of the Lion medal and the accompanying proclamation were displayed.

An adjoining wall had been decorated with pictures of my wives--some in groups, as well as single ones of each wife and me on our wedding day. In addition, there were family group pictures of me with each wife and our children. Definitely not a wall to strike fear into the hearts of an enemy, but intended to remind me of the hearts of my loved ones.