Chapter 22

"Ok, show me what she'll do?" I asked, standing right behind the cockpit chairs.

Candy and Tasha exchanged glances then their hands moved over the console. We were two days out from the Sol system with a lot of empty space between us and Star Base One. The engine note deepened as our speed increased.

"Warp three," announced Candy. "Warp four."

The ship was really accelerating now.

"Warp five," Candy said looking up and smiling at me.

"Warp six," cut in Tasha.

"Six five," said Candy

"Six six," said Tasha.

"Six seven," said Candy but her voice had taken on an edge.

"Six eight," said Tasha.

"Captain," said Candy, half turning to look up at me. "There's a bit of slack left but I'm not willing to push my engines to their limit."

"Fair enough," I said. "Pull back until you're comfortable, we can sustain that speed without damage."

The howl of the engine died to a roar.

"Six five," announced Tasha.

"Are you both happy with that speed?" I asked.

Two beautiful and smiling faced looked up at me and they both nodded.

"Ok, mark that as 'flank speed'," I said. "Well done, girls."

"Thanks, Captain," said Candy.

"Now, we need to run through checking fuel flows," I said.

"We are on it, captain," said Tasha. "It's going to take a few hours though."

"In that case, I'm off to bed," I said. "Coming Erin?"

It was going to take more than a few hours, for each speed needed to be checked against its fuel flow to find the best speed to fly at. The engines died as the girls started off the procedure at warp one, then moving at point one intervals while the computer took readings.

I wasn't really interested in anything but sleep, but having Erin's plump body in my hands changed my mind.

"When am I going through the teleport system?" she asked.

She was fed up with her low calorie diet and wanted a slimmer body by teleport.

"Just as soon as we get one fitted in here," I said.

I'm not sure I wanted her any slimmer for she had a nice plump but shapely figure in contrast to Candy's slim one. As for Tasha well that pleasure, I hoped was still to come.

"Oh, my god, yes," she groaned as I slipped into her.

She was coming along nicely, now. When she first became part of my crew she was very shy about sex but, now, she really was getting into it.

"Harder please, Captain," she grunted.

I tried my best and put everything in to it.

"Best thing I ever did was shooting my husband," she grunted.

"Just as long as you don't shoot me," I said breathlessly.

"Stop now and I will," she said.

I didn't and she didn't. I rolled off her sweaty body and stared up at the metal ceiling.

"How was that?" I asked.

"You're safe for now," she said with a sigh and then she started to snore.

I awoke many hours later and I slipped out of bed and found a hot cup of coffee before slipping into the co-pilot's chair.

"How's it going?" I asked Trash.

"Nearly there," she said. "We're in the warp six band."

A few minutes I listened to the increasingly loud noise of the engines but I knew she wanted to ask me something so I just waited.

"Captain?" she said at last.

"Yes," sipping my coffee only to find it had gone cold.

"This mating thing?" she asked. "Is it part of the crew duties? Because, where I come from, you can only mate when the government finds you a suitable partner. Outside that, it's illegal."

"So, you can only mate when someone in power tells you you can?" I asked.

"Yes," she agreed. "To produce offspring."

"Well, your government has deserted you, made you a traitor," I pointed out, "and now I hold the power over you as your captain."

"Oh," she said. "So you can order me to do it with you."

"Not just with me," I said with a smile. "But seriously, I'm not going to order you but you have my permission to do it if you want."

"So, you're saying I can do it if I want but I don't have to?" she asked.

"Something like that," I agreed.

We were shouting a bit now for the engines were howling, pushing us at six point five warp. Then there was silence as the engines cut.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Had we over cooked them and we were now without power?

"The cycle has finished and the engines have reset to warp one," she said calmly.

"Oh," I said, and my heart beat slowed.

"Well, we have a pretty straight line with just a few flattened areas," she said staring at the screen. "Here, at two point two, again at three nine and, lastly, at five eight."

"Ok, mark those at slow, medium and full speed," I said. "We already have flank speed marked and anything above that can be called emergency speed."

"Captain, we have an emergency call," announced Erin. "A Liner, the SS Sunshine is been attacked."

"How far off?" I asked.

"Not far, about an hour at full speed," she said.

"Ok, set an interception course, go to flank speed and put long range sensors on line," I ordered.

"But they'll see us coming," she said, but her fingers were already moving to obey my commands.

"Yes, but it may save a few lives," I explained, thinking hard. "We want to catch the pirates, sure, but we also are here to protect as well."

"I have them on the scanner," announced Erin. "Ten minutes away."

"Girls," I shouted over the roar of the engines, "Man your weapons."

I suppose it should be 'women your weapons' but that didn't sound right. Tasha slipped into the pilot's seat while Erin and Candy hurried off to their turrets.

"Candy, " I shouted after her naked back. "Put some clothes on, first."

"Pull back to medium speed," I shouted. "Can't here myself think over that roar."

"Call them up," I ordered. "No, I better do it."

"S.S. Sunshine," I called. "This is Federation Battle Cruiser Starlight calling. Responding to your Mayday, are you ok?"

"Battle Cruiser," Tasha mouthed at me.

"Don't forget, the pirates will be tuned in as well," I said off air.

There was only static coming back.

"Sunshine, this is Battle Cruiser Starlight calling," I said again.

I called for a third time then.

"They're breaking away," shouted Tasha excitedly.

"Starlight, it's good to hear from you," came the reply. "This is captain Copper, We were wondering why they took off so fast. We have a few casualties but we have excellent medical faculties here."

"So you won't mind if we go after them?" I asked.

"Go kill the buggers," came the crude reply.

They were nearly off our scanners but we also had the warp trail as backup.

"Captain," said Tasha, her head deep inside her scanner hood. "One of our pirates is running with a hot engine."

"Perfect," I said.

We were overtaking at a good speed, doing warp five to their warp four.

"They've split up, no," shouted Tasha. "One's blown it but the other's still running."

"Go for the running one," I ordered. "We can come back for the other later. Erin take the shot as soon as it presents itself."

The minutes felt like hours then, at last, the lights dimmed as our weapons fired.

"Solid hit," shouted Erin. "He's done for."

"Right, let's about and find the other one," I ordered.

He was where we left him drifting without power.

"Take the shot," I ordered.

The ship exploded with a bright flash and it was gone.

The trip back was subdued, seeing men die was never a good thing.

"There's one thing I don't understand," asked Tasha as we were nearing the crippled Space Liner.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Why did you say we were a Battle Cruiser?" she asked.

"Ahh yes," I said. "I wanted them off the Liner and running. Battle cruisers are old and slow so they thought they could out-run us but not out-fight us."