Chapter 276

Jeff met with Kei, Edi and Alesha on the updated design that they were working on for the new ski lodge, then stopped off in the living room to watch the late news before eventually winding up in his suite. After a shower where he "played" with Jennie and Melissa, he walked into a strangely quiet bedroom. Looking around, he began to wonder. "What?" he asked, then suddenly it hit him, "Where's Ann?"

Arlene caught his eye. "We've looked for her, and she's not anywhere in the Retreat. She may have gone to the Ship for another simulation, but she always asks me if I want to go with her, and she didn't this time."

Jeff tried to ask the Ship, but a sudden flood of worry that inundated his mind kept him from concentrating sufficiently to make contact. Frustrated, he yanked his pants and shirt back on, slipped his feet into his shoes, sans socks, and hurried out the door, Arlene right behind him.

"Shit, I hope she didn't do what I think she might have," he said as they jogged down the hallway. Making the first turn, he increased his pace to what he considered to be a fast jog as his worry escalated. Arlene stretched her steps to keep up with him, thankful that she had been running with him in the mornings. He managed to keep his pace to a speed she could maintain. Impatiently, he waited for her to snatch on a coat at the end of the hallway by the inside garage. Outside a moment later, he couldn't hold back any longer and sprinted toward the Ship. Even so, Arlene, breathing heavily, was only a few seconds behind him as they went through the hatch.

"Where is she?" a distraught Prime asked the Ship verbally, not taking time to concentrate to communicate mentally. "I'm almost certain she's gone on a search for the ripple you detected."

"Yes, My Prime, she left in her scout twenty-seven minutes ago to search for the source of the anomaly.

"And you didn't stop her?"

"Why should I stop her, My Prime? She has been diligently training to be Arlene's second. She is capable of carrying out the mission. You were fully aware of her training and put no limits on it. Have I erred somehow?"

Jeff's face was turning red. Arlene didn't know whether it was from embarrassment or anger. "Come on, Daddy. Let's go to the bridge," she said, tugging on his arm.

As they sat on the command couches, Jeff continued their conversation mentally. "You can contact the scout's AI, right?"

"If the scout is within range, but her ship has gone to warp. There is no way to communicate at present. Nor will I be able to after her ship has re-entered real space if she adheres to her flight plans. We determined that the most probable distance for the anomaly was between four and eight light years distance and over an area two light years in width and depth. Accordingly, she is laying a sensor net within those parameters. She will periodically sweep through the area to retrieve any data the sensors have accumulated, while continuing her search as well. If this is, indeed, a ship, there is a reasonable chance that she could detect other types of emissions generated by its normal activities while it is not in warp."

"But," Jeff snarled out, before he caught himself and changed back to mental communication, "She is my wife."

"Yes, she is," the Ship responded. "Therefore, I made certain that her craft was one hundred percent space worthy. It is well armed for a vessel of its size, has the absolute best sensor and stealth suites that I can produce, and is the fastest scout ever created with both its inertialess drive as well as its warp drive. Although the scout's AI is not self-aware, it is very intelligent and is fully capable of this mission, with its primary objective of bringing Lieutenant Kinsley back safely. She promised that she would not engage in any 'risky undertaking.' She is fully aware that her mission is to observe only."

After a slight hesitation, Ship continued. "From my monitoring of your body, it is obvious that you are angry. Where have I erred? Lieutenant Kinsley has been extensively trained for missions exactly like this, and 'survived' her final training mission even though her scout's abilities were purposely weakened to make the mission more difficult. She volunteered for this mission, and was very enthusiastic when she did so."

"Ah shit," Jeff said aloud.

"Daddy, I didn't know about this," Arlene hastily inserted.

"Yeah, I know. Hell, I should have expected it. But if I take the Ship and go after her..."

"You will leave Earth vulnerable should that be an aggressive ship out there," Ship responded aloud.

"I could go after her in another scout," Arlene began.

"And if her stealth suite is working properly, you would have little chance of finding her, and going to the general area and trying to communicate with her ship via the thought transmitter might very well alert any possible aggressors that she and you were in the area. Not no, but hell no," Jeff ground out.

Arlene sat up fully and turned to her father. "This is my fault. Ann wanted to be my backup pilot and I was all for it. I didn't think it through. I guess I was all caught up in the simulator training and the Academy, since it seemed so real. I just didn't think it through," she repeated, tears sparkling her eyes.

Jeff reached over and squeezed her hand. "I set up the training. I envisioned my family as crew. I didn't, and still don't, want to give that much power to anyone other than my extended family. This Ship could take over Earth in a very short period of time. There is no weapon on the planet that could even mark her. I will never trust anyone outside my family to have the slightest control over her, her weapons and maybe not even her auxiliary craft, either."

The Prime sat thinking as he stared blankly at the forward viewscreen as if there were an answer there. Finally, he sat straighter. "The Ship is right, and as much as I hate to say it, so is Ann. I know better than to sit and wait for something to happen. If a member of my team had been trained the way you and Ann have," he said as he glanced at his daughter/wife, "I wouldn't have hesitated to send one of them out to scout out what was happening out there, and I would have done it long before now.

"From what we've seen on our missions through the portal, there are more aggressive races out there than there are peaceful ones. Thank goodness that most of the aggressive races that we've met don't have space travel, but there are certainly those who do. Whatever this anomaly is, I don't believe it's a natural phenomenon. We need to find out what's going on and act accordingly. I guess I should have risked training someone outside the family, and sent them out, but I didn't want to do that. Oh, hell, here I go with circular reasoning again."

Arlene got up and sat in her father's lap. Putting her arms around his neck, she kissed him deeply. After breaking the long kiss, she kissed his cheek and pulled back to look him in the eye. "Daddy, this needs to be done. Ann's a very sharp girl and she's a lot tougher than you give her credit for being. I love her just as much as you do, but the Ship would never let me go." (She felt his body jerk at the thought.) "Nor will she let you go without her going with you, which would leave Earth vulnerable to whatever is out there. Ann's going to be fine. But ... we need to let the others know what's going on."

"Laura is going to be pissed," he quietly said. "I let her daughter go into danger."

Arlene kissed him on the nose, and with a little giggle, said, "Yeah, I suppose your pussy is going to be cut way back until Ann returns, but I'll sneak you a little to tide you over until the rest of your wives get over being mad at you."

"If Laura ever does," he glumly responded.

"Oh, when Ann comes back and tells her story, they'll all try to screw you to death to apologize for cutting you off."

"Like I said, we need to go tell them, and that's one thing I'm darn sure not looking forward to."

"It is not necessary for you to return to the Retreat," the Ship said aloud. "Your wives are waiting for you in the lounge."

"Oh, shit," Jeff said barely above a whisper as he put Arlene on her feet and stood.

Arlene smiled at her worried father. "To misquote Shakespeare and possibly risk Helen's ire in doing so, 'Lead on Macduff.' But you won't mind if I stand back a little while you tell them, huh?"

"Very funny," he muttered as he grabbed her hand to make sure she stayed with him.

As the two walked into the lounge, it was all Jeff could do not to falter. Twelve of his wives, plus Selina, were sitting at the other end of the big room at a giant round table the Ship had obviously provided just for them. There were also two vary obviously vacant seats.

From the look on Diana's face, Jeff had the distinct impression that she already knew as much as he did, and upon reflection, realized that she could have been conversing with the Ship even as he and Arlene were doing the same thing. The AI that was Ship could carry on many conversations at the same time without even beginning to tax her mental abilities.

Jeff, ever the gentleman, in other words, stalling, took time to assist Arlene with her seat before he took the other one. Susan, sitting to Arlene's left, motioned, and Arlene slid their coffee cups over to be filled. After putting her father's coffee in front of him, she busied herself with creamer and sweetener, quietly stirring for much longer than was necessary.

"Where is my daughter?" Laura quietly asked, her voice brittle.

Jeff hesitated.

"Well?" from Diana, her voice quiet and devoid of any emotion.

Jeff cleared his throat and began, his voice flat. "Ann has embarked on a mission of discovery using one of the scouts that the Ship is equipped with." He shifted his gaze from Diana to Laura. "As we all know, she has been training on the Ship, actually for this exact type of mission. But ... I should have known that she would volunteer to do this."

Laura broke in with, "Call her back."

Jeff was hard put not to flinch, but went on with, "While her ship's warp drive is active, there is no way to contact her, and ... once she comes out of warp, she will be out of range for even the thought transmitters. Radio, of course, would take years for the signal to reach her, and more years for her signal to return to us."

"So, we can know nothing until she comes back?" Diana quietly asked.

"Yeah. That's about it. Oh, I could take another scout and go looking for her, but with her ship in full stealth mode, I would stand little chance of finding her. Nor do I want to take Ship away from Earth with whatever this is out there."

"Could the Ship find her?" Jennie asked.

Jeff sighed. "Not likely. Space is big, to understate, and a stealthed scout in a volume of space that size, well, it would be worse than looking for that proverbial needle in a haystack. We could possibly track her with the pulse her ship emits when she drops out of or goes to warp, but that is diminished in her ship. Even without her warp signature being partially concealed, we would still have to be within a light minute to detect the warp pulse. With her craft operating under stealth conditions, we would have to be much closer, indeed."

He could see tears leaking from Laura's eyes. He got up, picked his wife up and sat with her in his lap, kissing her forehead and hugging her to him.

Diana reached over and touched Laura's shoulder, then looked her husband in the eye. "So we..."

" ... wait," Jeff finished for her. Everyone sat quietly for a moment, then, "We might just as well go on back to our suite..."