Chapter 230

Arlene stood, pulled the side of Jeff's coat open, then sat again, wrapping part of her husband's coat around her. Sitting on the planter the way she was, sharing his coat, helped, but his body heat seemed to help more as she snuggled to him.

Jeff put an arm around his daughter, pulling her tightly against him.

"This friggin' planter is cold," she whined. "Can't you do this inside, or maybe on the Ship?"

But Jeff was shaking his head. "I can't possibly practice inside, well, at least with what I have in mind. Oh, I suppose the Ship could make something for me, but an idea struck me that I want to try out."

The young Queen giggled. "Well, that's clear as mud. So, making snowballs with your mind isn't why you're out here?"

Jeff paused, then let out a sigh. "I know this is ridiculous; it even sounds ridiculous, but I'm trying to learn how I kept the Escalade on the road. It's obvious there was ... Hell, I don't know; for lack of a better term, a wide force that kept the SUV on the road. Applying the force I've been using to push a steel ball downrange, or paper balls in the living room, isn't what I did, and it's frustrating the crap out of me."

"So, you're planning to drive down the mountain at a hundred miles an hour, again," she teased.

"No," he laughed, "and it wasn't that fast, but darnit, it's bugging me that I can't conjure up the force that I did it with."

She reached up to kiss him on the cheek. "You're avoiding answering me. Why are you out here?"

The Prime frowned. "I thought I would plow out the parking area," he said, deadpan.

"But that's my job..." she started, then after realizing what Jeff meant, she quietly said, "Oh."

"I tried to cause a wide area of the snow to move, but all I managed to do was dig tiny holes in the snow, and... produce the granddaddy of all headaches," he grumped.

"You did make a couple of snowballs," Arlene offered.

The Prime glanced at the two, poorly-formed snowballs beside him. "Yeah, I guess, but a four-year-old could make better ones."

Arlene, still shivering, put an arm around him under his coat, snuggling closer. "So, where's your snow blade?"

A frown creased the Prime's brow. "Snow blade?"

"Yeah, like the one on the pickup. Instead of just pushing at the snow with the energy, why not imagine a snow blade pushing the snow, instead?"

"But..."

"You have an excellent memory, and that's probably an understatement. When's the last time you wrote a phone number down, hmmm?" Then answering her own question, "Never, right?"

"Baby, it's not the same..."

But Arlene wasn't giving up. "Why not think about a big, bright red snowplow made out of the energy you're trying to control. Then imagine it pushing the snow toward the pile."

Jeff barely managed to stifle a sigh of frustration. But not wanting to hurt her feelings by telling her she didn't understand, he, almost lackadaisically, thought about the snowplow that attached to his pickup. Suddenly a little more encouraged and with the image of the plow firmly in his mind, he concentrated on it sitting on the pavement in front of him, then slowly pushed it in his mind's eye toward the big pile of snow out by the range.

Beside them, a six foot wide column of snow moved across the parking lot, the heap growing as it slid toward the big mound of snow in the distance.

Arlene jumped to her feet, momentarily forgetting about the cold. "Way to go, Husband," she cheered while clapping her hands.

With a sigh, Jeff released the image in his mind. Leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, he held his aching head.

"Come on, Husband. I think you've had enough practice for one night," his young Queen ordered. "You can play with this tomorrow. It scares me to see you with a headache. We're not supposed to have anything wrong with us."

"It's just..." he began.

Arlene grabbed a hand and pulled as Jeff staggered to his feet.

The Prime squinched his eyes at the pain. "Little One says some atrophied abilities are 'coming online.' Whatever the hell that means, but she won't try to help with my headache."

The Prime turned back to look at the somewhat-cleared path through the snow. "Shitty plowing job, but at least I moved a wide section. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to do something with this ... this ... Oh, hell. Whatever it is."

"TK," Arlene said as she tugged on his hand to get him started toward the building.

"TK? What the crap is that?"

But just as it dawned on him what his daughter was saying, she elaborated, "TK. Telekinesis. TK for short. That's what science fiction writers call it."

With one hand pressed against the side of his head, still grimacing, but trying to laugh about it as they hurried toward the door, "Well, my TK trials hurt like hell. I feel like I've had a dentist extracting something from my brain instead of my mouth."

Inside, Jeff started to go to the living room, but Arlene wanted him to take a nap in their bedroom. At the intersection in the hallway, she grabbed his hand. "You need to relax, maybe take a nap."

But he was shaking his head. "Unh uh, the headache is easing off. All I need is to relax a bit."

As Arlene and Jeff stood arguing, Nat, Nicki and Whitney walked up. Hearing the short debate, Nicki grabbed Jeff's neck to pull his face downward where she could kiss her husband, while Nat and Whitney fondled his cock and balls through his jeans.

"We're horny," the three said in unison.

"But..." Jeff started.

"Are you going to turn your wives down?" Arlene teasingly asked.

"Well..." But by then they had him headed toward the Matthews' suite.

"Don't let him up until the headache is gone," the young Queen called out.

"Yes, my Queen," Nat responded, then giggling, "Your wish is our command."

A laughing Arlene was nearing the living room as Fred, Brenda and Angel came out. "There you are," Fred said.

"Yep, it's me," Arlene answered with a giggle.

The four chatted for a moment, then, "Uh, Arlene, we've mentioned the Ship to Angel, and well, she..."

" ... wants to see it," Arlene guessed.

"If you don't mind, and it wouldn't be too much trouble."

Arlene grabbed Angel's hand. "Let's go this way. We'll need to pick up coats. I've been sitting out back with my Dad and darn near froze my butt off even with a coat on."

"I don't mean to put you to a lot of trouble," Angel worriedly said. "If you guys say there's a starship out there I'll believe..."

Arlene took a coat that looked as if it would fit Angel and handed it to her as Fred and Brenda put theirs on. Arlene smiled at Angel. "I need to talk with the Ship, anyway, so this isn't any trouble at all. Besides, no one expects you to believe in an invisible starship without seeing her," she said, chuckling at the incongruity of her comment.

A few minutes later as they walked across the range toward the woods and neared the end of a path in the snow, Angel wondering if they had all lost their minds, a ramp popped into existence. "Oh, shit," Angel whispered.

Arlene grabbed her hand. "Come on. She won't hurt you."

Inside, a moment later, Angel looked around at the strange corridor as they followed Arlene. When Angel turned back, Arlene, between one step and the next, was suddenly wearing a striking uniform. Angel stopped so suddenly that Fred bumped into her.

"She just..." the young woman said as words failed her.

"Kinda neat, huh?" Arlene commented. "Surely doesn't take long to change."

Reaching over, Arlene took Angel's hand again. "Come on. I'll show you the bridge. The Ship tells me that Selina is at her station, studying."

"Selina is here in this ... this ... Ship all by herself?"

"Ship says the Prime gave Selina permission, and Ship would never let anything hurt our little genius or let her get into anything that would hurt her. In addition to that, Selina knows to behave and curb her curiosity while she's in here studying."

"I ... didn't hear anything," Angel wondered aloud. "How did you..."

"Ship is a telepath, and I can converse with her as long as I'm inside her."

"Oh," Angel said, wondering, half-believing.

A few minutes later, they stepped onto the bridge. Selina glanced around, and seeing Arlene in uniform, almost rocketed to her feet, coming to rigid attention.

"She is in uniform and you are in uniform. She should show respect, by coming to attention, unless she is otherwise occupied with critical duties," the Ship said in Arlene's mind.

"Feels odd. I'm just..."

"You are the superior officer on board, and you are in uniform. Her response is correct."

"As you were," Arlene managed, hoping that was the right response.

Selina sat back at her console.

"She's..." Angel started.

" ... training to be Ship's navigator, or astrogator, as the case may be," Arlene finished for her. "The Ship is sentient and can easily go anywhere she wants without human intervention, but we're told that even a sentient starship fights better with a crew. The race that ... built the Ship's brain found that an AI would often surmise what another AI would do in battle, but it was much harder to anticipate future actions when an AI was commanded by her founders. Ship thinks that humans will do even better as far as being unpredictable is concerned. One day, we will have a full crew. So far there is only our Prime, Selina and myself."

"And you are..."

"She's second in command," Fred quickly provided, "She's Number One, and perhaps, Commander?" he questioned Arlene.

"Let's just stick with Arlene," she said as her face flushed, "I'm new to this."

"What are those?" Angel said as she pointed to the two command couches.

"The one on the right is mine. The left one is the Captain's. They allow us a fuller merge with the Ship's brain. It's as if we ... become one with her. While merged we can... feel and see everything she is doing. Neither of those words do more than approximate what I'm trying to describe, though."

At a thought from Arlene, the Ship transformed the dome ceiling of the bridge into a hologram of space above the Earth, the bridge going dark except for the myriad colored lights of the consoles. Angel hissed in a breath and grabbed for a console to steady herself as she looked into infinity that appeared so real she felt she could fall into it.

"Sorry," Arlene said, "I should have warned you."

"It's beautiful," Angel whispered.

Arlene stood straighter. "Dad says we'll go see what's out there one of these days."

Just before bedtime, Jeff, Diana, Matt, Courtney, Fred, Brenda and Angel were in the living room chatting. Billy had come wandering in, and after a moment, jumped into Jeff's lap. Angel had asked to be told about the trip to the moon, and she had repeatedly remarked on how she had felt to have realized that there really was an invisible starship sitting out back.