Chapter 9

The second Lady Strife entered the Legacy, I comm’ed Hope Control on Channel 999. “This Captain Volkstag, I am activating a priority release under code 78M5-5KT7-E57Z. Destination classified, but in system.”

I had ordered the ladies to remain in their cabins during docking until I gave the word. We were getting an irate guest and I assured them that they didn’t want to be anywhere near us when the fallout exploded.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing, Captain Volkstag?” Lady Strife demanded with crisp, icy words, the second she stepped foot on the bridge.

“I’ve been ordered to bring you and the Legacy to Earth,” I replied from my Captain’s chair.

“Ordered by whom?” she demanded frostily.

“Catherine Larkin, Ma’am,” I replied, intentionally leaving the ‘Lady’ off.

“I order you to take me back.”

“I am not allowed to follow that order, Ma’am. Only off ship, are you, Sydney Thomas, and Catherine Larkin, allowed to give me orders. While onboard, you can only request.”

That was one of the odd clauses of my contract. Just then I suspected that Sydney added that clause just for this situation.

“And if I fire you?”

“I’ll spend the next forty years lying on a beach, admiring pretty girls in bikinis, Ma’am.”

She stared at me. A truly intimidating stare and I almost gave in.

“We have six days of footage, would you like me to put it on the screens, Ma’am?”

“Do. Now tell me how my ship fared.”

To a foreground of extreme and beautiful scenery, Lady Strife/Moria O’Shannan, my passenger, listened — with her back to me — to my list of bugs and the subsequent fixes for the ones I and the onboard bots were able to repair, for the next four hours.

That was the short version too.

The girls snuck out of their living quarters and sought me out. I paused my narration and ruefully informed them that we are in transit to Earth and have seven more days of travel. With shooing motions.

Which they didn’t need. Lady Strife wasn’t in a good mood. And no one was that brave. Or foolhardy.

What about ‘those’ three?” Lady Strife asked after my shortened report was finished. The long one was days in writing. She’d ask for clarifications later.

“Irina was close for a few days early, but she normalized as soon as Maria brought her to my attention. The cuff’s readings,” which they all wore, and recorded stress, moods, heartbeats, Bp and O levels among other things, “showed no warning signs. I reviewed them countless of times and saw nothing, but both Maria and I noted that Irina started slipping into a detached state.

“Neither Maria nor Tikvah ever showed any signs of anything abnormal during the whole voyage.”

“And you?” she asked/demanded.

“I’m ready for the next circuits lesson,” or I hoped I was. “My familiarity with the Legacy has also improved.”

She turned and observed me with a mind that I would never place her second, in any category, to anyone, and frowned even more.

“If I could kill you and bottle your stability, I would.” That wasn’t a threat nor a promise, it was a fact. “I’ll see that your circuits education progresses.”

“Thank you,” for both not killing me and for my education.

She stepped up, unscrewed my mug from my desk and made herself a mug of coffee from the dispenser to the left of my desk, all the while watching the video replay of the Wolf-359 System.

“Ma’am, I unlocked all of the stations for your enjoyment. If you need anything, just ask.”

Keeping her thoughts to herself, she waved me off and stood there with her arms crossed, watching the four largest monitors dead center along the far wall.

...

“We have seven days with her, just treat her as a distinguished guest and everything should be fine,” I hoped.

“What about Famke?” Maria asked.

“We are heading to Earth. Sydney Thomas will take her from there.”

Oh boy would she...

...

All throughout the day, I received calls from Earth, Mars, Grenadier Station and Hope Station, asking about my destination. Even if it was clear to anyone with a half a brain and a protractor that we were headed toward Earth.

We weren’t known to be armed and just over fifty percent longer than the ISS. Why everyone was raising a ruckus as if Earth was about to be invaded was beyond me.

Lady Strife acted and behaved as if she didn’t care. She most likely didn’t.

But she did personally escort the four of us to the stasis pods.

“See that woman, that could have just as easily been any of you. Are you willing to chance insanity or worse to remain with that man?” she pointed at me. “That man will in the future enter even more dangerous Stellar Systems and possibly encounter Alien civilizations.

“Consider yourselves fortunate. You lived, loved, and learned. Do any of you want a repeat?”

A cold bucket of reality was thrown in their faces. Lady Strife turned and entered engineering alone.

“She’s right, where I go next probably will get increasingly more dangerous from here on out.” I followed my boss, hoping to glean what knowledge I could.

If both Tikvah and Maria remained with me, I think I would like that. But not if they were ignorant of the consequences.

Irina wouldn’t remain; we had fun, but she wasn’t even close to being serious. I wasn’t sure about Tikvah. Maria on the other hand, I felt she was leaning more than a little to the ‘staying’ side.

Neither woman responded to Lady Strife’s question that day or the next. Irina quietly let me know that she would remain earthbound. The sad parting kiss said many things, but ‘I love you’ wasn’t one of them.

Since we were quickly approaching Earth, we could speak directly to whomever we wanted with an ever-decreasing delay. Only Catherine Larkin had access to the linked quantum molecules which allowed her facility and the Legacy to communicate without time lag, and she didn’t. Neither did Lady Strife attempt to hail Miss Larkin in return which I felt very odd about.

...

On day four, Maria and Tikvah came hand-in-hand to see me. In private.

Oddly, for when they were together, Tikvah normally did most of the initial speaking with Maria blending in after the conversation was underway, yet Maria spoke first. “We care for you, Geoff. But we need to spend time on Earth and together to see if we are compatible before we can even think about you and the stars.”

“Makes sense.”

“Don’t interrupt.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Lady Strife downplayed it, didn’t she? You will meet aliens, won’t you?”

I shrugged at Maria’s question. One I wasn’t allowed to answer. A decision I agreed with.

“Tikki isn’t sure if she can deal with aliens,” Tikki? That was a first. “I’m not sure if I can either. Without you, both of us would be like Famke, locked in a cell, hoping that someone could cure us. We know this and it’s a huge decision. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, I believe that you are doing the right thing, both you and Tikki, “ I grinned. She who teased me all voyage long deserved some of her own. “Irina already said no. I expected that.” They did too. “And Strife wasn’t lying. You have to be absolutely positively sure before you step aboard this ship again that I am right for you. Both of you.”

“We aren’t saying no, Geoff. Ria and I plan on taking a few months off and see if we are right together.” Ria and Tikki. I didn’t roll my eyes or smirk.

“Either way, we want you to be part of our lives.” She kissed me and so too did ‘Ria’. More than kissed. I spent the rest of the night in their room.

...

“Houston Command, this is the Spaceship Legacy, requesting clearance to dock with the International Space Station with the purpose of delivering food, water, entertainment, oxygen, and a furlough. I am offering three days R&R aboard the Legacy with fresh coffee, fresh broccoli, garlic, lettuce, and tomatoes, and a bathtub large enough for two. Three if they are close friends.”

Pandemonium occurred at NASA.

“Any Astronaut who chooses will also be given a personal tour of the Legacy.” And NASA went silent.

“This is chief flight director Ridings, to whom am I speaking?”

“This is Captain Geoffrey Volkstag of Legacy IV, chief flight director.” Who else did you think I was?

“Does the Legacy have the proper airlock connections to meet up with the ISS, Captain Volkstag?”

“We do, I can send you down the specs now if you need. Remember, both Hope and Grenadier Stations have facilities which accept standard international agreed upon connections.”

“Please send the prints to this address.” I typed the encoded email address and sent them off. Meanwhile Lady Strife, Irina, Maria and Tikvah were all standing around my station, listening in.

And watching my every move. When I asked Lady Strife for permission for this, she left it entirely up to me.

“Confirm when received,” I asked.

“Received. Please standby.”

Twenty minutes later, which I felt was fast, director Ridings comm’ed me. “Captain Volkstag, Permission granted for a seventy-two-hour connection. Their vectors are ... Any assistance you can give our men and women in the ISS is appreciated.”

“Will do, Ma’am. Legacy out.”

All of NASA and most of the world held their breaths while the two crafts slowly drifted together. With a clank, on their part, we met. I in my Power Armor and Colonel Anderson in his NASA standard EVA suit met half way and shook hands.

I escorted him inside the station and, after clearing both airlocks and removing his helmet, he trudged his way to the bridge and swore upon seeing Lady Strife sitting at a station, drinking coffee.

“Colonel, would you like to Comm Houston Command?”

He agreed and somehow ‘slipped’ that Strife was on board while at it. Not that she cared.

NASA Command decided that the six astronauts could only come over in pairs.

I countered that I was only giving one tour of engineering.

Four were now coming for the tour, with the excuse that two were needed to remain behind in case of emergencies.

That was up to them, I let their reluctance to trust wash over me.

Their vessel might have been one hundred and seventy meters long, but the living area was tiny in comparison, where the Legacy’s was nearly thirty percent of the ship’s volume. And we had 0.9 g throughout it where they had none. Intentionally. Supposedly inertial dampeners and artificial gravity modules had been offered and rejected.

The following morning while my guests were resting, a sleek candy-apple-red supercar, an anti-gravity flying one with a metallic black racing stripe, docked with my ship at the forward airlock.

And no one was the wiser.

Rose, followed by Boris, stepped inside the airlock, without a spacesuit, like Sydney Thomas on Mars, and stepped forward to give me a hug, which I gladly returned.

“Greetings, Captain Volkstag. I request permission to come aboard.”

I smiled, “Granted, Boris. Are you Rose’s new protector?”

“Affirmative, Captain Volkstag. Mother asked me to keep her from harm during her stay on Earth and protect her from its influence.”

Oh boy.

“Is Moth-” Rose halted in mid gaff.

“FUCK ME. Pretend you did not hear that. I’m so dead.”

“I know nothing, I heard nothing,” I said, fearful of the consequences myself.

“But I did, young lady.” We both winced at the reprimand which was going to be forthcoming. I thought I even saw Boris wince.

“Greetings, Friend of Mother.” Boris offered. Which didn’t lessen the icy atmosphere in the slightest.

“Hello, Boris. You two can run and play. Rose and I have a few things to discuss, like whether or not she will ever see her seventeenth birthday.”

“Affirmative, Friend of Mother.”

I headed to the coffee pot in the galley. Hoping that this one was broken too so that I had a good excuse to stay far away from the mother-daughter pair.

...

Boris, Lady Strife, and Lady Strife’s DAUGHTER disembarked shortly after in Rose’s new Car. A Car which had been confiscated for the duration of Strife’s visit.

The glance of DEATH and DISMEMBERMENT stated quite clearly that I heard nothing and I was to never repeat any speculation or the words which had come from her daughter’s cavernous mouth.

“Glad to have you aboard, Ma’am, hope you enjoyed your trip, Ma’am.” I saluted. Reminding myself that she wasn’t kidding.

In the slightest.

On the second day in orbit, Lady Strife seemingly vanished from the orbiting Legacy only to be seen hours later walking in the front door of Strife Headquarters with her youngest Disciple, Rose, no last name known, following behind.

Once my seventy-two hours were up and the ISS topped off with fresh fruits and veggies, and an eight-pound glazed ham, we separated and I steered her into a higher and unobstructed orbit around our Homeworld.

The girls fretted, wondering when they would get to go home. They didn’t even ask how Lady Strife got off of the ship.

I was thinking the same when Sydney’s red and white flying motorhome requested docking clearance.

Three hours later I was alone was aboard the Legacy, even poor Famke in her stasis pod had been carted off. I knew and understood that Helen, Sydney Thomas’s chief gofer, was a superhuman, but seeing Helen lift and carry out a three-ton three meter tall one-hundred-twenty-five cm diameter life support and stasis pod with little-to-no effort shocked me. And she didn’t use a cart.

After fifty days of having women constantly underfoot and near continual sexual tensions, the place felt empty.

I fixed a few things, including the coffee maker in the galley, which was broken. Again. Enjoyed a long peaceful bath, called up a good fantasy novel that I hadn’t read in years, one which was an old standby when I wanted to turn off my brain and unwind, and chilled.

Half-way through Small Gods, I received a call from Earth.

I hunted down my Comm, which was on the sink by my clothes which I removed before taking that bath which was nice...

I looked evilly at the phone, wondering if it could wait.

Catherine Larkin — missed call.

Oh, well...

“Hello, Mrs. Larkin, this is Geoffrey Volkstag.”

“Geoff, do you want to come down or return to Hope?” she asked.

“Can I leave the Legacy unattended somewhere that isn’t a space dock?”

“You said you had a few computer glitches, I’ll have Jeff come up and fix those, you can borrow his shuttle until he’s done.”

Who is ‘Jeff’?

“Jeff is Syd’s brother Disciple,” she answered as if reading my mind.

These women...

“I’d appreciate a few days on the beach, Ma’am,” I admitted.

“He’ll be up tomorrow at seven. Oh, and Geoffrey?”

“Yes, Ma’am?”

“Rose, Boris, Marissa, and Jeff, are on the Proscribed list. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good. Enjoy your vacation.”

Click.

Jeff docked in a Lamborghini-looking green sports car, said ‘hi’ passively to me and then he and his fembot! walked past me and headed towards engineering. I hoped to get out of there fast. Not wanting to see a man and a robot, even a feminized version of one, do whatever.

But that wasn’t to be.

“Permission to come aboard, sir,” the tall, slightly balding programmer with a deep tan asked while visually inspecting the insides of the airlock.

“Granted. I take it, you are one of the Masters who built the Legacy?” I asked, curious about what exactly his part of the ship he oversaw.

He stepped forward and shook my hand, yet wasn’t looking at me while doing so, he was more interested in what was around him than me.

“Aunt Cat says you have a list.” Which came across as very odd. This man looked to be my age, and him referring to Catherine Larkin, who looked twenty at best, as his aunt, felt off.