Chapter 323

"NUMEROUS INDIVIDUALS ARE APPROACHING THE BASEMENT DOOR, AND THEY HAVE BEEN APPROVED FOR ENTRY BY THE PRIME," the Retreat's AI announced.

Arlene jumped up to run and open the door to greet them. "I knew it had to be you guys," she said with a laugh as she grabbed Sergeant Higgins, the training Sergeant, then Sergeant Gomez, Jeff's team Sergeant, and finally, Lieutenant Richardson, the team's Lieutenant, before going down the line hugging every member of the team, men and women.

"You guys didn't have to do this," she said.

"Hah," Higgins replied with a laugh. "Every member of the Security team volunteered, too. You will have an entirely different crew to help tomorrow. We like kids as much as you guys do. Just show us what you need and we'll get to it."

Within moments, the women on the team were helping locate and wrap presents while the men added their expertise to the assembly area.

Arlene went over to her mother. "You're a genius," she said, grabbing her mother's arm. "How did you know they were coming?"

"I didn't..." Diana began before hesitating.

Arlene frowned. "Then why did you insist we make all those doughnuts and freeze them this morning?"

The Clan Queen hesitated before saying, "Well, I didn't want us to have to make more during the holidays, so I just thought ... Oh, crap. I don't know why. I just wanted to do it."

With a smile, Arlene hugged her mother. "Thought so. You always know what to do at just the right time." Then turning, she called out, "Alice, Terri, would you come help me, please?"

"What are we doing?" they asked in unison as they hurried over, then looked at each other and laughed when they realized what they had done.

"Come on, I'll tell you on the way," the young Queen said over her shoulder as she jogged toward the stairs with the girls hurrying to catch up.

When they reached the first floor hallway and could easily walk beside each other, Arlene continued. "First, we'll get the doughnuts out that we put in the freezer this morning. After we warm them, we'll take a couple of coolers of drinks down to the basement, plus several big carafes of coffee. Mom is a genius. None of us even thought about all these people coming to help, but she insisted we make those extra doughnuts."

A couple moments later as Arlene held the kitchen door open for her assistants, she continued, "When we've finished with the snacks, we'll start lunch preparations."

"But it isn't that far from lunch. Should we be giving them doughnuts this close to lunchtime?" Terri wondered.

Arlene let out a giggle as the three hurried down the long kitchen toward the walk-in freezer. "These guys and gals exercise – practically for a living. If they aren't on a mission, they're training. True, some of that training is classwork, but they physically train almost every day. You can bet they've already run many miles over rugged terrain this morning while carrying a full pack and their weapons. Probably spent time on the range as well. They burn up a lot of calories and stay hungry just like our Alphas do. And ... we don't have nearly enough food ready to go on the bar to make sandwiches for all of us and them too, so we need to begin correcting that.

"Oh, they could go back to Security headquarters and eat there, but Mom would have a stroke if someone even suggested it. We'll feed them, and we'll do it properly. I told Mom we would get things prepared so that everyone can make sandwiches. You can bet that most of them will choose steak sandwiches if they have a choice, 'cause they know how good our steaks are. You two, please, get out more steaks and get them ready to cook while I take care of the doughnuts. Okay? We also need to get out more lunch meats, cheeses and condiments, and make sure there's plenty of bread, too. And let's not forget the fruit."

A few minutes later, Selina teleported into the kitchen. "We should prepare more..." she began just as she realized there were multiple steaks cooking and several microwaves were warming doughnuts.

"Oh, good. You're here to help. We need drinks in a cooler with ice," Arlene said as she headed for the walk-in freezer for more steaks. We'll also need several loaves of bread sliced for the sandwiches.

"Coffee is on," Alice said, proudly as she finished the task.

Fifteen minutes later, the elevator – seldom used to go to the basement, because it was all the way at the front of the building – opened in the basement with Alice and Terri each proudly pushing a serving cart. The bottom shelf on each cart had a cooler of iced drinks while the top shelves had several insulated carafes of coffee, tubes of Styrofoam cups, and large platters of doughnuts.

Diana turned to smile proudly at her daughter and her charges, then cupping her hands about her mouth, she called out, "Break time. Coffee and homemade doughnuts, everyone. Come and get them while they're hot."

"But we've barely gotten started," Sergeant Gomez said from his knees in the assembly area.

"And how many miles have you run this morning before you came in here?" the Queen asked. Without waiting for an answer, "Get your butts over here and replace that energy you people have expended earlier today. Don't forget, all us women got a slight dose of what you guys do all the time. That little bit was enough to make us remember that training for the rest of our lives, not to mention worrying about our scheduled re-ups every two weeks. Now come get your doughnuts. They should hold you until lunch. Then, steak sandwiches. The best steak you will ever put in your mouth, and it's from our dear friends' organic farm. There will also be bread that's baked fresh every day."

Diana came by to hug the girls, but as she turned to Arlene, the young Queen quickly said, "We've got to hurry, Mom. We left Selina with steaks frying, and we have to run back and help her."

"You sure you don't need some of us to give you a hand?"

Arlene winked at her mother. "We've got it, Mom." Then very quietly, "They're proud as can be, and they're working like beavers. If I see we can't get it done in time, I'll call, but let's let them do it if at all possible."

The Clan Queen smiled back, proud of her daughter, then returned to locating and wrapping presents.

"Who are all these people?" Eileen quietly asked Jill and Kathy. "Oh, I know Diana said they were Jeff's team, but what team?"

Kathy opened her mouth to answer, then rethought what she was going to say. "Uh, I guess this sounds almost as far out as the invisible starship out back, but Jeff leads a team of – I think the General calls them something like combat specialists and explorers. I don't know much about them other than I've heard Jeff talk about rescue missions, and discoveries on new planets. I've heard the General say that they were the 'absolute best of the best.' But I've also heard Jeff gripe that the General won't allow him to go on missions any longer because he's the only one that Ship will allow to command her, and the General won't risk losing Jeff because of that. Ship chose Arlene to be his second, and Jeff finally allowed it.

"And before you ask, the General's people use the 'portal' to visit these other places – these planets in other star systems, other dimensions, even. It's fascinating to sit and listen to Jeff tell about some of those places. Sergeant Gomez there," she said, nodding her head in the direction of the man as he slid a box toward the assembly area, "saved Jeff's life on a mission when Jeff was shot by a sniper. He was minutes, at most, from death when the Sergeant came up with the idea of putting Jeff into one of Ship's machine-like things that looks something like a coffin. It turned out to be one of her healing chambers. During the time Jeff was in the chamber being healed, he and Ship got to know each other and she realized he was a Prime."

"'She?'" Eileen wondered aloud.

"Yeah, Ship is a she."

"Oh," Eileen returned, vaguely, obviously not understanding, or else not believing.

"Ship had been waiting a very long time for her Prime to arrive and take command, but he never did come. Even though Jeff was from a different race, he was a Prime, so she decided to accept him as her commander. The decision is locked into her programming and can't be reversed, even if a Prime from the race that built Ship's brain should arrive at some point in the future, which, considering the time involved, seems not at all likely.

"That race had left her brain and equipment in a vast labyrinth of mountain caverns with orders for her to build the ultimate fighting starship while she waited for her Prime and crew to come join her. She knew from her data banks that her master's race was at war for its own survival, and consequently, had hidden her on a backward world in a dimension far from its own. Her builders purposely did not include even the slightest hint of the race's home dimension or the star system in that dimension that the race called home.

"Most races in Ship's home dimension are telepathic, and she had little or no experience, recorded or otherwise, in communicating with non-telepaths before Jeff and his team came into her cavern.

"But she and Jeff managed to communicate enough for her to eventually find our dimension, galaxy, and after a further search, Earth. The General took over Ship with Jeff's permission, and tried several pilots, but most went nuts when they tried to mentally mesh with her. Eventually, she's learned to better communicate with Jeff, Arlene and some others without driving them crazy, and has learned to use speech to communicate with the rest of us."

Eileen just stared at first one, then the other of Bill's wives. "You do know how ridiculous all this sounds? Look, I'm a pilot ... Uh, just like you, Kathy, and well, I have an excellent education. I was third in my class. I'm reasonably familiar with current technology, so I'm certain we don't have spaceships. Well, other than a couple of landers that we put on Mars after drifting for no telling how long in space. And dimensions are mathematical concepts – only. You people have been super nice to me, and true, I'm falling in love with Bill, and I feel extremely close to the two of you. You are like sisters to me, already, so I certainly don't want to do or say anything that will screw up any of that, but ladies – respectfully – I think the two of you are full of shit."

Startling her, both Kathy and Jill hugged her before Jill said, "Careful how much crow you are heaping onto your plate, because you're going to have to eat it when we have time to walk up Ship's ramp with you," she commented, motioning vaguely toward the back of the building and the supposed starship sitting out there. "When that ramp becomes visible and you step through Ship's hatch, you'll know you're in alien territory. And if that doesn't do it, then a few minutes on her bridge will. Oh, we've all been just as skeptical as you are, but remember the teleporting kitten and puppies."

Turning toward where the three were playing in a pile of empty boxes that the presents had been shipped in, Jill called out, "Billy."

"Mmeeow," he responded, sticking his head out of a small box that was part of the pile fifty feet or so from them.

"Come here, Billy," she said, patting her legs.

And he was suddenly on her shoulder, purring. "You didn't say hello to Eileen when you were here a little while ago. So, say hello to her," Jill instructed, pointing to Eileen.

As if understanding, Billy turned to Eileen. "Mmeeeeoooww," he articulated, drawing out the sound as he tilted his head a little to the side.

Eileen, having been looking directly at the kitten when he teleported to Jill's shoulder, had difficulty finding her voice. She had been there when the kitten, puppies and Selina teleported in earlier, but was not looking directly at them when it happened, and having seen too many magic shows in Las Vegas, she was having a hard time believing that it actually happened. This time, she was looking directly at Billy when he answered from the box. The kitten just disappeared and instantly appeared on Jill's shoulder. Eileen couldn't think of any possible way that could have been faked. Now, in addition to teleporting, the kitten had responded to Jill in a very intelligent manner.

"He ... seems so smart," Eileen managed. "But how can he do that? Teleport, I mean. He was over there, and suddenly he's on your shoulder. I mean ... it just can't be done. I once had a physics class where one of the students commented that he thought that someday people would learn to teleport and even commute to work that way. The instructor had been very negative about it and had proven mathematically that it could never happen – something to do with conservation of energy, if I remember correctly. His math had been beyond me and the rest of the class, for that matter, so I wasn't sure if his proof was indeed a proof after all, but he certainly believed it."