Chapter 13

Month 91—July on Anouilh

“ALL RIGHT, BITCHES, listen up. We don’t often have a company-wide meeting, so let’s not get bogged down. Some of you need to get naked on camera more often. You’re getting lazy. You’ve got sunshine and beaches and food and drink. But you weren’t brought here for a vacation. If you’re not working, you’re leaving.” Dakota had all 276 residents of Anouilh in the resort’s big banquet room. Even though I’d told her it was her problem, I’d stayed right with her and consulted on every decision. Now it was time to get the bitches organized.

“Does anyone here not believe the Swarm is coming to devour our planet, including us? You may be too stupid to live and should gather your belongings for immediate transport to the mainland.” No one moved. “Now, in case you haven’t figured it out, the game we play and film scenes for isn’t just a game. Your players are your soldiers. When the Swarm lands, the game will provide real-time updates on troop movements, and the weapons we’ve been selling will become live-fire weapons. You are training people to fight the Sa’arm.”

“Whoever thought a bunch of porn starlets would be training people to fight?” snarked one of the girls.

“Guys get really motivated when they see your pussy ready for action,” Dakota continued. “There are whole Confederacy Marine companies that have your pictures on their walls. I heard some have even re-shaped their concubines to look like you. Gross as that is.” The room was filled with sounds of disgust and a few cheers, depending on where a girl’s head was.

“Everything has been training and working on your own and filming sexy scenes for the game. We started coming to Anouilh over a year ago. We’ve had twelve months to settle in. Now it’s time to get organized. It’s time for you to take your fighting lessons seriously. We’re starting a new branch of the game. This isn’t just an upgrade version, but a whole new look and feel and game objective. Our motto since the beginning was ‘We won’t leave Earth.’ This next phase will modify that slightly. ‘We won’t leave Earth behind.’ We will, however, defend it from space as well as the ground.”

“I’m not getting on any spaceship!” one of the girls yelled. There was a mumble of general agreement but it didn’t get loud.

“We’re not going to ask anyone who doesn’t want to do space battles to play. I said it’s a branch. This part of the game is going to be very tricky. We’ll start with volunteers but there’s no guarantee every volunteer will fly a fighter or go up to our spaceship.”

“That would be me,” Ubie said over the speaker system. “It’s not ready yet, but I’m working with the engineers here on Anouilh to build our ship in space. The core has been completed and I now have a remote node of my intelligence directing the construction.”

“Ubie, you’re cool,” Miss Molly said. She sat on the stage with Dakota, Tatts, and me. “Are all the Confederacy AIs like you?”

“I am not a Confederacy AI. I am an independent non-corporeal being devoted to saving Earth in partnership with you.” There were cheers from the women.

“All right. So that jumped us ahead of our presentation a little. Yes, there will be a spaceship. Yes, we will have fighters we expect to engage directly with the Sa’arm when they enter our system. Yes, we are looking for volunteers. Miss Molly will be the groundside commander of our force. That means a little discipline will start being enforced. You know Miss Molly.”

There was finally some laughter in the room and Molly snapped her riding crop against one of her thigh-high boots. “Don’t miss your training sessions! And don’t slack off your camera time. We need more people playing the game or we won’t be ready. I will maintain overall command and will be directly responsible for the space deployment. The Boss says I get to name the ship and I’ve decided to call her the St. Jeanne d’Arc. We will battle and defeat the invaders!”

Cheers erupted around the room.

“Now, is everyone getting enough dick? I know for a fact that not every inch of what we have available is being used. We’ve got engineers who are building this entire complex for us and we’ve got the film tourists we’ve begun bringing in for ‘vacations.’ I know the escorts have been getting plenty from them. Anybody want to join them part time? How many dicks do we need, anyway?”

The meeting continued as the girls discussed mundane issues like getting laid. It ended with Dakota instructing the girls to run the sneak peek preview of the new game branch. Some of the engineers disappeared with several girls. I was glad they were getting laid regularly. Productivity was up and we were ahead of schedule on development for the first time since we arrived on Anouilh nearly two years ago.

Month 94—October on Anouilh

“THIS IS FREAKIN’ COOL!” shouted Rainbow when the new class of pilot trainees were led in to see the simulator. “Zoom! Zoom!” she said as she leaned from side to side, pretending she was flying the ship.

“Are you really nineteen or are you just twelve?” Misty asked. “Get a grip, girl.”

“I just can’t believe we’re the first class of pilot trainees to see the real thing. Dakota, thank you for accepting our applications,” Babycakes said.

“That’s Captain here, Babycakes. This is where the training starts.” Dakota looked at the twenty-four girls in the first group approved for training. “Let’s just learn everything we can and become the best pilots we can,” she said. In front of them was what looked like the cockpit of a small jet plane. Dials and screens were illuminated and they could see scanning radar blips. The room lights dimmed so they lost the sense of anything but the simulator.

“Are you going to be a pilot, too, Captain?” Rainbow asked.

“I have to learn how to command the whole ship,” Dakota answered. “That includes the Hawks. Every member of the bridge crew will learn how to fly. Now let’s get started with the intro.”

“Good morning. Welcome to the Hawk simulator,” a soft female voice said. They looked around.

“Who are you?” Misty asked.

“I am Joan. I am the remote intelligence that will run the ship and help you fly the Hawks.”

“So, you aren’t Ubie?” Rainbow asked.

“No, I am Ubie, just a different facet of him.”

“Rad!”

“In this introductory lesson, you will learn the basic controls of the Hawk Strafer B-1. You will be able to review this lesson on your computers and with the control helmets you will use in training. When you sit at the controls, you will feel the behavior of the Hawk and it will obey your commands. This is done through the hand controls and your communications helmet. Much of the Hawk is self-guiding—meaning I will control its direction and speed, responding to your commands and suggesting courses. The critical thing you will control is the weapons system. I will assist with targeting. Please gather around the simulator and we’ll begin the first lesson.”

Without ever having been at the controls, the first lesson left all twenty-four new pilots exhausted. They went to bed that night and dreamed all night of flying the small spacecraft.

“Are you sure this will work, Ubie?” I asked after viewing the training session remotely.

“There is a 92% probability that this method will work based on compiled human factors and equipment specifications.”

“92% is pretty good. Can you run me through a sample in the simulator?” I made my way to the training room where two more simulators had appeared. I sat in the pilot’s seat. “Gee, this thing is tight!”