Chapter 420

Deep Space, the Alien Ship

The First Officer sat on the bridge watching the big screen that he had programmed to show the tenders’ progression as they searched. He had reasoned that a combination of both ordered and random search patterns should work better against a cloaked vessel – if that’s what it was. The first search vessel launched from the ship in a clockwise direction, the second followed in a counterclockwise pattern. The third vessel randomly spot-checked behind the other two in case the hidden vessel moved during the search. He intended to continue the search out to at least two light minutes, but if the engines remained down long enough, the search would continue all the way back to the asteroid belt.

As he moved, his hand bumped the cup of stim that the steward had placed on the arm of the command seat. With his phenomenal reflexes, he grabbed the cup before it spilled and casually took a sip. His Second tossed his race’s equivalent of a grin and said, “If I had reflexes like that, we would now have a new Captain...”

“ ... And we would be a rogue ship looking for a home,” the First Officer continued the sentence.

The Second Officer grinned again, “Perhaps, but perhaps not,” he finished mysteriously, but before their conversation could proceed, another officer warned them that the Captain was approaching the bridge.

“What is this?” he growled as he entered and noticed the main screen. The First Officer reluctantly stood to relinquish the command seat. “As you know, Sir, we are waiting for the Chief Engineer to complete his repairs. While waiting, I initiated the search that I mentioned to you earlier...”

The Captain didn’t sit, but interrupted by snapping out, “ ... And I told you then it was a waste of energy and personnel time.”

“We are going to continue the search,” the First Officer responded in a neutral voice.

“You defy me?” the Captain snarled.

The First Officer’s hand hovered near his sidearm, although his voice did not change. “Logic and standard procedure both dictate that I protect this ship. I have ordered the search patterns to continue until completion, and they shall continue as standard procedure each time we stop.” The last was uttered in a brittle voice that brooked no concessions, and even the Captain knew he would have to kill the First Officer to get those orders changed.

Again, the Captain’s hand itched to do just that, but drawing his weapon – or attempting to draw it – would be suicide. Damn you, he thought. But, sooner or later you will let your guard down and I will have a new First Officer. But as he glanced around the bridge at the frowning faces, he knew his selection would not come from anyone on the bridge. So be it, he thought. There are others who would love to be First Officer.

To show that he was still Captain, he swaggered from one station to another, chastising most of the bridge crew about some trivial thing before turning to try to casually walk out the hatch. He didn’t quite make the nonchalance come off.

As soon as the hatch closed, the Second Officer turned to the First with the aliens’ equivalent of a snarl, “Fuck the bastard. Just kill him and get it over with. How long will it be before he shoots you in the back? So we go rogue? So what? We have females and there are numerous planets where we could survive. We can find one and live out our lives there. Anything is better than waiting for this bastard to kill us. You know he’s going to try to shoot you in the back. He might even convince one of the crew to do it for him. Then we will have to kill him, anyway, and we would be right back to being rogue. Just do it and we will start looking for a planet.”

“But we have sworn to...” the First began.

“ ... And we have already violated that oath to obey our Captain. But he is insane. He was the one that first invalidated the oath by indiscriminately killing as the mood struck him. Sir, all of us bridge officers have agreed, if it looks as though he is going to kill one of us, we will all respond. He will be dead. Will you then try us for killing him?”

The First Officer chuckled to relieve some of the tension. “You know the answer to that. Certainly not. I have already told him that I would kill him myself if he killed anyone else on this mission.”

“Sir, you know he will report that as well as everything else that has happened as soon as we get back. You – and all of us on the bridge – will be executed, anyway. Why not just kill him now and go rogue? At least that way we will have a chance for some kind of life.”

“Shit,” the First mumbled mostly to himself as he sat to sip his cold stim. I wanted all that land and a harem of beautiful females when we returned after conquering a technologically advanced planet, but because of this idiot, all that seems more and more unlikely. Unlikely, hell. It is fast becoming a wild dream.

Deep Space, the Scout Ship

As the First Officer and his bridge crew watched the pattern of the search develop on the big screen, Bill, Kathy and their AI did the same.

“Crap,” Bill grumped. “Those guys aren’t stupid. Their search pattern damn sure makes that obvious.”

As the two humans discussed the situation, the AI remained unusually quiet, but after a few minutes, it finally spoke. “True, it would be difficult to avoid those vessels, especially with the two searching counter to each other, but the random vessel is not entirely random. I am uncertain whether there is an AI directing that vessel or not, but I have managed to predict the last four of its seemingly random search destinations. Depending upon the sensitivity of the aliens’ search instruments, I am becoming more and more confident that they would have to be very near our vessel before they could detect us. But, I do not have sufficient data on that sensitivity – only conjecture from their methods of search. And ... it might well be that the search coordinator is just being very careful, indeed.”

“Well,” Bill said, “we continue with our plan. If they don’t break off the search before they reach the asteroid belt, we’ll ease farther away while we’re certain they are still too far away to detect us. Jeff was adamant that we remain undetected. But ... it seems obvious that they suspect something, and logically, that would have to be tied to the incident when Arlene and Ann’s AI had to power out of the way of that rogue asteroid. Why else would they so suddenly begin a very thorough search of the area behind their flight path? Dammit, if they do approach Earth, we want these guys to do it fat, dumb and happy, and certainly not suspicious of our capabilities.”

Kathy thought for a while, then looked over at her husband. “Something has changed.” As Bill raised an eyebrow, “I mean, something on that vessel. Why didn’t they conduct a thorough search before if they suspected something? Why wait until now to do it? I mean, it seems like they have gotten highly suspicious all at once. Why not before?”

“Just what I’ve been thinking,” Bill returned.

The AI spoke up. “I have developed several postulates. Of those, only three seem viable. Number one: The aliens had an equipment malfunction concerning their search that they no longer have. Number two: The being in charge of the search has somehow become suspicious of being observed. Number three: Their command structure has changed.”

“Well,” Bill responded, thinking out loud, “didn’t Ann and Arlene report that the aliens sent out those small mining vessels to search before?”

“Affirmative,” the AI responded.

“So that doesn’t seem to have changed, at least superficially.”

“Seems that way,” Kathy agreed, except that they broke off the search before it was completed. “That was very good for Ann and Arlene, but why did the aliens call off the search so soon?”

“Point,” Bill responded, “And ... there’s no way to decide about your other two postulates, either,” he told the AI.

There was silence for a while before Bill let out a sigh. “We’re right back where we started from.”

“Maybe it’s because they are aliens. They just think differently than we do.”

With a chuckle, Bill responded, “We’re now up to postulate number four, and we don’t know any more than we did five minutes ago.”

The Retreat

With supper over, the women cleaned up after running the men out of the dining room. As they were finishing up in the kitchen, Diana came over to hug Ada and Charlotte. “You both did well tonight. The guys teased you, but you gave them as good as they sent.”

“Maybe so,” Ada returned, “but I hope it isn’t that intense all the time.”

The Clan Queen chuckled. “It won’t be; it’s more of a ... rite of passage, I suppose you could say. The two of you are part of the Prime’s women now – harem, wives, or however you care to label us. And yeah, all of the people here tend to tease each other, but never to the point of hurt feelings. You’re part of us now, and they know that Jeff has screwed the both of you unconscious. If that embarrasses you, then you just need to get used to it.

“Jeff says that the men don’t talk as much about their women and sex as we women do. I guess he’s right, because there aren’t many things that are taboo in a girl-girl conversation around here, and I’m not talking about between just us wives, but rather all the women here in the Retreat. We’re all very close, but we refer to an Alpha’s wives as sister-wives. And we’re as close as any sisters you could ever imagine. Heck, we make love to our man every night. It’s kinda hard to not know everything about your sister-wife when you see her get her brains fucked out on a regular basis.”

“Oh, my,” Ada said as she slumped into a kitchen chair. “I was embarrassed to make love with Charlotte lying right beside me, but I’m not sure I can do it with fourteen other women there, too.”

Charlotte, having heard the conversation, sat next to her mother. Hugging the older woman, with her own face flushed pink, she sighed out, “Mom, I’m just as scared as you are, but think how all our ... uh, sister-wives have made us feel tonight, and all day for that matter. We’re part of them now, and scared or not, that isn’t going to change. Jeff told us that he loves us, remember? Do you think he was lying?”