Chapter 15

Month 98—February on Anouilh

“WE CAN’T SELL this module to the Confederacy,” I said firmly.

“That wasn’t our agreement,” Andrea Jackson, Confederacy trade negotiator said just as firmly. “You agreed to give us rights to any Earth-based weaponry you develop.”

“Well, there’s where we have a problem.” I was feeling pretty cocky. It was amazing what getting laid on a regular basis could do for a man. Once that bridge had been crossed, my other enhancements had been sped up. I’d dropped more weight and gained more muscle. And once that started happening, other starlets decided to approach my door at night. KC was actively recruiting bedmates for me—and sometimes her—and often joined me in welcoming them to my bed. Yeah. I was confident. “You see, this module is not Earth-based. It is strictly out of the atmosphere.”

“Your ship?” Thom asked. “We could help speed up the building process, you know. It’s a win-win.”

“Here’s the problem, Major. We believe this tech could confuse or damage Confederacy personnel.”

“What? You promised not to use your tech against the Confederacy!” Andrea yelled.

“Exactly what I’m trying to say, Andrea. We don’t want to give this to Confederacy personnel because it could damage them.” I walked the two over to the bar for drinks and then we found a table where we had a clear view of the naked beauties around the pool. I tried to figure out a way to explain and still not give away all our secrets.

“Our AI is basically incompatible with Confederacy AIs. The interface we use to communicate with the Confederacy AIs is a restricted bud from Ubie so he remains insulated from contact and contamination. When you connect from your transporter to ours, you go through a major phase shift in transit as the transport is handed off from one system to the other. You’ve commented on feeling queasy when you step through our transporter. That’s the reason.”

“I suspected there was a different operating system in use. That was the only explanation,” Thom said. “But it’s safe, right?”

“Transport is okay because we don’t really touch you. It’s more like a bend in the wormhole but you just follow the path. But it illustrates the problem. If we shared the fighter plans with you, we’d risk contaminating Marine or Navy personnel with Anouilh nanites. Ours could work counter to Confederacy nanites already embedded. It’s hard to know how that might affect your people.”

“Sorry to break this to you, Teddy, but pretty much everyone on Earth has Confederacy nanites in them. We’ve released general health nanites everywhere. You even had nanites injected during your testing to prevent memories of the test from surfacing afterward,” Thom said.

“Yeah. About that. When someone immigrates to Anouilh, they get a ride in a med tube. The first thing our med tube does is flush all Confederacy tech from the system. Then our own nanites are injected. Ours work more gradually than what you are used to. People don’t lie down in a med tube and wake up with a different body. This tube was custom designed specifically for human physiology. We couldn’t put a Darjee in it—or even a dog. Our bodies evolve more naturally, giving them time to adjust and accept.”

“So, that’s why you are more buff than you were when we met two years ago. Each time we meet, you are a little stronger and in condition. But your overall body looks the same,” Andrea said.

“It’s a hell of a workout schedule. Really burns the fat,” I laughed.

“So, can you at least give us something that says what you’ve developed and why it is not compatible with our systems?” Thom asked. “We’ve had a good working relationship up until now. All I want to do is preserve that.”

“Okay. Let me see if I can put this in the right words.” I put my drink to my lips but didn’t actually sip as I considered how much to give away. “The St. Jeanne d’Arc is not a battleship. It’s a station. It will hold a stationary position, periodically boosting so it can stay over the pole. That’s not an orbit position. It doesn’t revolve around the planet and it doesn’t move with the planet. From its position, we’ll have sight of the entire northern hemisphere. If we’re really successful out there, we’ll build a second and position it over the south pole. For now, our resources are at maximum capacity to get St. Jeanne operational—hopefully in the next twelve to fourteen months.”

“That sounds like an observation position.”

“Exactly. Or to be more accurate, a command position. It will look pretty passive to most sensors, including the Swarm, I hope. But it is the control room for our own swarm of fighters. The difference we have from the Darjee AIs is that they would bud off a separate AI for each of the fighters, specialized for use on that ship. Ultimately, we might not have an advantage, but we are trying to mimic what has been observed among the Sa’arm. Our Hawks are run by a single mind that coordinates all of them as easily as we coordinate two hands. It’s fundamentally incompatible with the way Darjee AIs work,” I said.

“You have a multi-nodal distributed intelligence? How can you pilot such a thing? Can we see a demonstration?” Thom asked. Andrea had zoned out a little as soon as she figured out it wasn’t for sale but she perked up at the idea of a demo.

“I can show you the simulator, just not put you in the driver’s seat. But it’s a hell of a good show to watch. Ubie? Please ask the Captain to put her best team in the simulators for a show.”

“Captain says they’ll be ready in ten minutes, Boss.”

“Great. I want a good representation of what we can fight. Don’t go overboard with impossible odds at this time.” I turned to my guests. “Refresh your drinks before we go?”

“This is the bridge of your fighters? They’re so compact!” Major said. “Why are they facing each other?”

“The arrangement of the three trainers was to get the pilots used to depending on what is on their VR display and not get distracted by the other pilots. You have them in visual on your display but not in physical line of sight. We’re mostly two-dimensional beings,” I explained. “We walk around on a generally flat surface with forward, back, and lateral movement but very restricted vertical. Even when we fly, we level off. I’m sure your pilots have had the same experience of learning to maneuver in the n dimensions of space. It’s different when there is no gravity.”

“That’s true. It’s why we use artificial gravity and gravitational cues on most of the ships.” A klaxon rang and three naked girls ran into the simulator room, slamming their helmets onto their heads.

“Take a seat behind one of the girls and watch the show,” I said. When they’d moved, I took up position behind Rainbow. I knew I’d get a good show. The launch sequence started and the girls ‘took off’ from the mother ship. I watched as they reached for the controls as if they were one person. It looked like a choreographed ballet. In reality, it was more like martial arts katas that allowed the moves to come together in full combat.

They streaked toward the first target from three directions, accelerating as they went. Feedback showed the enemy ship spinning up weapons. Three hands triggered weapons at once and then both projectiles and ships blinked. That’s all you could call it. They blinked. In the next instant a different bogey was in the sights of the three Hawks and just as we saw hands triggering weapons again, an explosion lit one corner of their screen. They blinked again.

The staged battle went on for fifteen minutes and the three Hawks spit out four barrages, obliterating four enemy ships. The fourth ship got a shot away but the missile was still some distance away when the Hawks blinked out again. They came out way above the ecliptic plane, slowed and re-oriented. Ubie sounded the all-clear and the girls stretched luxuriously, pulling off their helmets. They spun in their chairs, showing off their breasts and flashing their pussies at the visitors.

“Fighting the dickheads always makes me so horny,” Rainbow said as she stroked through her glistening pussy. Each of the girls was putting on a similar show, facing three different directions. On their simulator screen, now behind them, their images appeared. Cameras swept down their bodies getting good closeups of their goodies. “Wouldn’t you love to slip your big hard dick in my little cunny? It’s a swamp, it’s so wet. Slip it in, Commander.” Rainbow pulled a dildo from a pocket in the seat and began pressing it into her sloppy pussy. “You’re gonna do it. You’re gonna make me ... come!” And she did. I’d seen it enough times to know the orgasms the girls got right after a battle were real. Enough so that I was stretching out my shorts as I watched. “Anybody want to come with me for some private time? One on one. Five thousand tokens. I see you, Peterbilt.” Musical chimes rang as the tokens were deposited. “Let’s go to my bunk and make like bunnies.”