Chapter 329

The Retreat

Midafternoon, Diana knocked on Selina's door. "My Queen," the little genius said, throwing the door open. "Please enter."

Selina, as an adult would, seated Diana and asked if she would like something to drink. When the woman declined, the child sat waiting in a seat directly across from the Queen, Selina's back straight, obviously expectant.

When Diana noticed the erect posture, she smiled and chuckled. "You look like you're waiting on a firing squad." Then after a second, "Oh, come here you precious baby." Diana was the only one who could get away with making a comment like that to Selina.

When Selina had seated herself beside Diana, the Queen put an arm around her and pulled the child close. Looking down, she smiled as she said, "I haven't come to scold, but rather to apologize."

Selina sat up straight again. "My Queen. You have certainly done nothing to warrant apologizing, and I suppose my, perhaps, overreaction to your surprise visit was due to the phone call I had just received from my parents. My Christmas call. As you are doubtlessly aware, they recently sent me several very expensive presents. The possibility exists that I might even use one of them," she said as she barely suppressed a giggle. "Their appeased consciences come to mind as I peruse the situation. I have again informed them that I am extremely pleased to be residing with the Matthews family, however, they persist..." Leaving the sentence hanging, she looked up at Diana.

The Queen smiled back at Selina. "Both Jeff and I talk to them regularly. Like you said, it's probably just guilty consciences, even though we have assured them that you are part of our family. Should they make an attempt to take you from us – if you still want to stay with us, of course – there will be a court battle that they will not win. You are never leaving us unless you want to go. But, for now, anyway, I think it's best to continue to assure them that you are fine with where you are."

"They actually do not want me," Selina said as her eyes sparkled with tears. "They think I am a freak. They behave as if they are frightened of me. I am almost certain that they know I am aware of their ... uh..."

"Sexual habits," Diana offered.

"What they can not seem to realize, or perhaps understand would be more appropriate, is that I do not care. I just want to be allowed to continue living here, to continue my education, to eventually reach my majority and..."

"Marry Jeff," Diana offered, hugging Selina to her. Diana turned so she could look Selina directly in the eye. "I realize how intelligent you truly are and how frustrating it must be to have people treat you like an average six-year-old, but remember, we do not." Even as Diana said that, the reason she was in Selina's living room vied with her logic.

"Well," Diana said as she came to her feet, "I just stopped by to check on you to make sure you are enjoying your Christmas. I'll be..."

"The purpose of your visit was to apologize for the remarks made in the living room about the planned use of the rug tonight," Selina stated, rather than asked. As Diana opened her mouth to respond, Selina went on, "But you have realized that you might hurt me by treating me as a child," she finished, a grin beginning to touch the corners of her mouth.

"And I stuck my foot firmly into my mouth, yet again," the Queen responded, "and from your research, you can probably tell me several properties of sperm that I've never even heard of."

Selina, giggling, bounced to her feet and put her arms around the Queen's midsection. "One day I shall be an adult and you and the other women will openly discuss sex in my presence. I just hope I will have something to contribute to the discussions then."

As Diana turned to leave, "My Queen, there is one thing..."

Diana turned back to the six-year-old. "You know that if it's possible, I'll gladly do it for you."

Selina took a breath, then her face took on a familiar look of determination. (Remember her shooting.) "Each time I have mentioned my desire, I have been given various reasons to delay, but ... it is time. I wish to attend Ship's academy, and I do not wish to be postponed again."

Eileen, sitting in the alcove just down from the living room, watched as Bill approached. The closer he got, the more intense her blush became. In the short time it took him to reach her, many things flashed through her mind. I'm a woman, not some virginal teenager. Stop blushing you idiot. What did they tell him? Does he know that Arlene went to the Ship to have it, uh, her ... prepare a suite for us? I don't even know what that means. How could it "prepare" a suite for us? They keep talking about this starship as if it is human – if there is even something out there. I'm a pilot. Naturally I want to see it – if it exists – but they put my visit off because of the need to get the kids' Christmas ready. Now, it seems as if there really is one out there and ... I'm getting cold feet, both about the starship and ... Bill.

Logically, I barely even know him, but damn, he's handsome, and ... sexy. The man exudes sex appeal, even though he acts as if he isn't even aware of it. Jill and Kathy seem to think he can walk on water, and either they're the best liars in the world, or they are both really excited about me becoming a third wife to him. I've been with a very few men, and even then, I had to know a man for months before I went to bed with him. But Bill excited me more just sitting and talking to me in that airport than having sex with any of those men ever did. If Kathy hadn't intervened, I think I would have had an orgasm just sitting there. Now, supposedly, we're going to see a starship together, and he knows that Arlene is getting a suite prepared for us ... for us to make love.

"Ready to go see Jeff's invisible starship?" Bill asked as he walked up and reached out a hand to help her up.

As she came to her feet, she turned to hug him, then looked up into his face. "Please tell me this isn't some kind of elaborate joke. I've stared out the back windows repeatedly, and there isn't anything out there other than that building, and it certainly isn't big enough to house a ship the size you guys keep talking about. And other than a plowed-out path to the building, the snow is untouched all over the area where everyone says the starship is supposed to be. It simply can't be out there."

Bill lifted her chin slightly and softly touched his lips to hers. "I wouldn't do something like that to you. None of us would. Ship is there and I'll introduce you to her shortly."

Eileen looked at him for a minute, sighed and turned to walk arm in arm with him as they headed for the garage while Bill continued, "Jeff had Ship put the illusion of the building out there when the rock digging crew came in to work on our fortress, otherwise they would notice vehicles and people going out to that big open area, and the people disappearing as they walked up Ship's ramp. This way, we seem to go into a building that has the same architecture as the Retreat. The illusion must have worked, because we haven't heard any of the crew say anything about the situation."

"That building is an illusion? But ... I never even considered ... I mean how..."

"I have no idea. Ship's technology has eluded even the General's best scientists. The only things they have learned from her are things that she willingly gave them, and those at Jeff's discretion. Jeff has told me that she's a dimensional ship – whatever the hell that means. But she's ... bigger on the inside than the outside. She takes Jeff to a firing range inside her that seems to be a planet devoid of life, except for plant life."

Eileen turned to stare up at him as they stopped to don coats in the hallway near the garage door. "You mean like the holodeck on Star Trek? She can actually do that?"

But Bill was shaking his head. "No, this isn't some type of simulation. This is real. With Jeff's TK pushing one of his steel balls at a fair percentage of the speed of light, it would blow the walls out, or the concussion of the ball hitting the walls behind the illusion would kill everyone in the room. This is real. I don't know whether she transports him – us, somewhere, or does something else. I've been on her 'range' too. Maybe she does it by manipulating the dimensions somehow. I've racked my brain about it every time I've been on her ... firing range, but all I get is a headache. I have a fairly good technical education, but if her technology has stymied Earth's best scientists, I certainly don't have a chance of understanding it – not that that makes me feel any better. All I know is that there is a ... sort of tingle as you go through the last doorway onto her range."

Eileen stared at him for a second before he shrugged and opened the door to the garage. The bay doors to the outside were already open and an Escalade was sitting in the garage running. Bill took her hand as they started down the stairs. "Looks like we don't even have to go out in the cold."

When he opened the Escalade's door for her, she slid into the seat, thinking, Almost like a date, only he's not taking me out to eat at a nice restaurant. He's supposedly taking me to meet a starship. How do you meet a starship? Just before she giggled aloud with her nervousness, she clamped down on her emotions. This is surreal. What have I gotten myself into?

Just as Bill put the Escalade into reverse, he saw the look on Eileen's face. Leaning over, he kissed her hard for several seconds. "We're going to visit a friend who is as nice as anyone you have ever met. She just happens to be a starship. We'll tour the Ship, have a cup of coffee in her lounge and come back to the Retreat. If anything else happens other than that, it will be because both of us want it to happen. Okay? And yeah, I know what my wives have set up. They and I certainly want you to become one of us, but only when and if you want to. We go at your pace, not theirs or mine. Okay?" he asked again, squeezing her hand.

"Uh huh," Eileen managed, but she could feel her face warm again. Then thought, I must have blushed more in the last couple of days than I have in the last couple of years. Relax, idiot, you want him so badly you can hardly think of anything else.

As Bill turned farther and looked over his shoulder to back up, Eileen touched his arm. "I'll stop acting like a baby. There's a starship out there. You told me there is. And I came out here to this beautiful mountain and this fabulous ... home, because of the attraction I felt for you back in St. Louis. So, introduce me to this ... to her."

A couple of minutes later, Bill stopped the SUV just outside the building next to another Escalade. Eileen could see that there was a glass door on the front of the building with a couple of pieces of furniture visible and maybe a hint of a hallway, but that was all she could make out. Quickly opening her door before Bill could get out and come open it, she met him in front of the vehicle. "The building still looks real to me," she commented as he took her hand.

Inside the vestibule of the building, everything changed as soon as the door closed behind them, and they were suddenly standing at the bottom of a ramp that went up a short distance and ... stopped.

Before she could comment, Bill hurried her up the ramp and through ... something. She felt a faint sensation and stepped into another environment entirely. She had thought she had been ready. She had tried to believe, but even the ramp to nothing hadn't totally convinced her there was something like this at the top of it. Maybe if her education had been less, she would not have been as shocked, but she knew what was generally possible scientifically, and what was not. It was ingrained in her by her education and her training. Those foundations were being shaken by everything she had seen since she stepped into that illusion of a vestibule of a building. Now this.

On what passed for a wall on her left was a huge screen, she supposed, that showed the Retreat and grounds as if through an open window. The only reason she didn't think it was just an opening in the wall was because she didn't feel the cold from outside. The floor and walls seemed to somehow blend into each other without any definite transition from one to the other. Before her mind took in anything else, Bill spoke up, "Ship, I would like to introduce you to Eileen. She's very special to me and has come to live with us."

Just then, Eileen realized that neither she nor Bill were wearing their coats any longer, but before she could dwell on that, "Welcome, Eileen," a melodious alto voice that made Eileen think of Diana's, spoke from what seemed all around her. "And of course, welcome to you too, Bill." Then back to Eileen, "Eileen, I assume that you would enjoy a short tour before refreshments?"

Eileen hesitated, wanting to look around for the source of the voice, but restrained herself at the last second. "Uh, I ... I would love that, if you have time..." her voice faltered and she felt foolish.

Ship's voice chuckled. "Time is something I have in abundance. This way, please," she finished as a pulsing strip on the floor appeared ahead of them.

It was farther to the bridge than Eileen would have imagined, reminding her of what Bill said about the Ship being larger inside than out. As they stepped into the ... room, Eileen came to a sudden halt as she stared around. Oh, shit. This thing is for real. It looks like a bridge, I suppose, but it ... feels alien.