Chapter 573

The Retreat

Back home, Diana received a phone call from the dress shop owner saying the wedding dresses were on the way. A little over an hour and a half later, she hung the bridal gowns in her closet, each clad in its clear plastic storage bag with the name attached.

When she came back out of her dressing area, she stopped to look at her husband as he sat near their bed reading from an engineering journal. I almost lost him because of my stupidity, but thanks mainly to my daughter, he didn’t leave, and now we’re closer than we’ve ever been – at least he is to me, and I hope I am to him.

After plopping down in his lap, she leaned to kiss him with the journal jammed between them. With a chuckle, he dropped it on the carpet.

“I’ve talked to all the Alphas’ wives...”

“To the bosses, you mean,” he returned while gently squeezing a nipple through her thin top.

“Since when have I been the boss of this marriage?”

“Since I said ‘I do,’” he instantly returned.

“Well, you do get your dick sucked regularly.”

“There is that,” he agreed with a chuckle. “So, what did the women have to say about the wedding?”

“Day after tomorrow will work for everyone, unless Matt has to work, of course. But since he’s the SAC of the Denver office and the wedding is going to be on a Saturday, he’ll be off. If anything comes up, he has told his assistant to handle it.”

“Do you need to go back to 2214 to tell them?”

“No. We agreed on the time, and if there were conflicts, I was to get word to them. We’ll go early to get everything set up, of course, and if you don’t mind, you can come back to fetch everyone else in time for them to be there a couple of hours before the wedding at 2:00 P.M. 2214 time. I checked with Jasmine while we were there, and our times will almost coincide come Saturday.”

“So Morales is finally going to get some Ashley and Christine pussy again, huh?”

While they had been talking, he had continued teasing first one, then the other of Diana’s nipples. “Is that all you think about?” she pretended to grouse.

“Well...” he drew out the word as if he were deep in thought, “sometimes I think about having my dick sucked. Want to make that come true for me?”

“Ummm,” she said with a smile, “I could probably be talked into it.” She suddenly sat up straighter, “I’m not trying to change the subject, but while I think of it, several of my sister wives and I are finally going to begin learning about Ship’s weapon systems – at least the ones that she believes that we can operate. Didn’t you say that the scout team’s latest estimate for the aliens’ arrival in our system was roughly two months? And by the way, what happened to the four-month estimate?”

“I suppose that they must have finally gotten their warp drive operating properly – or at least much better than it was, according to the second message torp the scout team sent. The Alien ship is still extremely slow when compared to Ship or her scouts. Unfortunately, their increase in speed cuts a couple of months off the total number of weapon platforms that Ship will be able to manufacture before the aliens get here.”

“Baby,” the Clan Queen whispered, “I’m beginning to be worried. Even at the distance the scout has to remain in order to watch without being seen, that alien ship looks ... aggressive, and those videos that the first scout team took of those Paladins practicing, well, I hate to even think about my daughter and my sister-wife going up against them, not to mention the other crews. Baby, what will we do if they are...”

“They won’t be. Don’t even think about that. Our interceptor crews are good – excellent actually – and with the interceptors’ inertialess drives, they are going to be nearly impossible to hit.”

“Nearly? But those Paladins are much bigger and virtually bristling with guns. My daughter and Ann are going to be in front of those terrible weapons. Jeff, I don’t know...” she faltered. “Hon, didn’t Ship estimate the alien ship to be...”

“It could be bigger than Ship and one of the reasons that I worry there might be females or even young aboard that thing.”

“Why would any race bring kids in their warships?”

“Ship’s instructions were to design the most powerful warship imaginable, and we’re going to have families on board her. Families will eventually mean children too. Besides, we aren’t positive that the alien ship has females aboard, but Ship thinks that might well be the case.

“If those females are warriors, I will fire on them if need be, but I don’t want to even think about firing on a ship that has children, or females that are non-combatants. Another thing, once the alien ship gets closer, we can’t visit 2214, or if we do, we can only stay a few minutes. Dammit, if I knew the aliens’ intentions were hostile, I could challenge them far from Earth. If. If. If,” he finished exasperatedly. Pulling his Clan Queen to him, he hugged and eventually kissed her. After a glance at her watch, she decided they had time.

Diana had doubts that some of her sister-wives would do well as gunners on a starship, but she knew that the ones she chose for the first team to train would not hesitate. Nevertheless, she led a quiet group of women up the ramp to stop just inside the hatch. Tosha had asked and received permission to join them. Kayla wanted to be part of the group, but her orders were to be the last line of defense for her Prime. She would, therefore, be on the bridge with Jeff. Susan, Helen, Laura, Jennie, Melissa, Joyce, Caitlin and Tosha stood nervously waiting with the Clan Queen.

“Greetings, Ladies. Might I assume that you came to begin your training?” Ship asked.

Diana spoke up. “We have three hours or so, if now is a good time for you?”

“Excellent. The training area awaits,” Ship responded with apparent enthusiasm.

“Lead the way,” Diana prompted.

“No use wasting time,” Ship replied as she transported them to the training area.

Jeff’s wives had all been moved by Ship’s internal transporter before, and Tosha knew about it, so no one said anything, although Tosha looked a bit amazed. “Choose a couch and relax,” Ship told them.

Seconds later, they were immersed in the training scenario as they, in full uniform, walked up the steps of the space academy with new cadets coming to attention to salute the officers.

Unlike their first day in what seemed like years ago, they stepped into the building to be met by a young ensign who respectfully asked them to follow her. Tosha, familiar with military etiquette, followed with no problem.

In the classroom, they met Space Navy, Lieutenant Marvin Edwards who would be in charge of their overall training on Ship’s supplementary weapons. Thus, they spent the rest of the day learning about Ship’s primary and supplementary weaponry. They were told that they would each learn to operate all the different types of supplementary weapons, but Ship’s primary weapons would be controlled by Ship and her bridge personnel only.

Ship, of course, could fire all her weapons, but with the profusion of supplementary weapons, even her vast brain would be taxed to do so efficiently while in combat, especially if she were to engage multiple opponents with comparable weaponry. An advantage was a separate AI for each weapon that would allow one operator to simultaneously fire several weapons from various relatively near positions about the ship. If the operator wanted multiple weapons under his/her control to fire on a single target, the supplementary AI would adjust for angles and anticipated positions in a fast-moving target-rich environment relative to Ship.

Many of those fast-moving targets could very well be incoming missiles designed to break apart into smaller, more elusive, missiles in an effort to overload Ship’s point defenses while concentrating on a critical area. It would be the gunner’s job to prevent this from happening while Ship used her big guns to engage the alien ship(s).

The Lieutenant warned the women that they might never even pick up the alien ship on their boards. However, their job was still essential because once Ship’s shields were weakened or down in an area, the incoming missiles and energy weapons would concentrate on that point, which could lead to disaster.

“But I thought that Ship’s shields were impossible to breach,” Diana blurted before she could stop herself.

“As far as she understands, but I’m sure that you must have heard at least one of the variations of the adage that generally states that no military plan lasts past the first engagement with the enemy. Or no plan lasts past the first round fired. On and on. Enemies tend to carry out the unexpected, and you – meaning all of you – must expect the unexpected... and adapt. Thus the expression, improvise, adapt and overcome. Make it your personal motto,” he emphasized. “It may very well save your life.”

Hours later.

That’s all for today. You already have your assignments, but to reiterate, you will be responsible for everything we covered today, plus everything in your pads through section five. I strongly suggest that you spend some time studying before bedtime, for you will use that knowledge to survive tomorrow in your mock combat scenario. We will spend the morning with hands-on familiarization of your ballistic weapons – mainly the rail gun and the ball cloud weapon. The next stage will cover energy weapons, including lasers and particle beams. We’ll meet at 0700 hours in the simulator building. Come prepared to have your ass handed to you on a platter. And remember, pain is a great stimulator, and we use it.”

After bringing them to attention, “Dismissed.”

With that, he spun on his heel and exited the classroom.

“All right. Let’s eat and get to it. At least we’ve been assigned to the same dorm so we can study together,” the Clan Queen said.

The next morning.

“I, for one, am thankful that we don’t have to do a hundred push-ups and a like number of sit-ups before chow,” Arlene said while fighting back a yawn.

“I need about a gallon of stim,” Melissa grumbled as she fought back her own yawn.

“Crap, why do we have to know how many Joules of power that’s needed to push a one-kilogram mass at one quarter light speed? The gun either fires or it doesn’t,” Jennie groused as they made their way through the chow line.

“Well, Melissa said, “we know that the ball gun will only fire one pulse of balls every two minutes.”

“Yeah,” Jennie returned, “but it takes almost that long to reload and for the balls to reach a quarter light speed as they build up speed while circling inside the acceleration chamber of the gun. Also, that pulse contains a thousand, one half inch steel balls all fired within a quarter second, and they’re coated to make the cloud of them very difficult to detect. If nothing else, it will keep the aliens honest, forcing them to change course frequently or risk running into a storm of the balls. One screwup and their shields are going to use up a lot of energy, or maybe even have a whole area of the alien ship vaporized if their shields have been weakened enough. At least the way things are set up, a gunner can alternate between two of the ball guns, which means we can release a cloud of balls once each minute.

“Besides, that’s the only gun we’ll use that might actually engage the enemy’s destroyers or cruisers. All the rest of the supplementary weaponry will engage incoming missiles or fighters. Most of the time, we won’t even know what’s going on other than what our screens show is coming toward our part of the ship.”

After chow, and on time, they walked into what they thought was the training building they had used when they had all gone through the space academy, but things must have changed. A Sergeant ordered the trainees aboard a ground vehicle that sped through the giant building and on out onto the vast expanse of the spaceport itself.

Seconds later, they watched a combat shuttle come in for a hot landing both, figurative and literally. They could feel the blistering heat of the live nacelle on the stubby port wing as they double-timed aboard. The crew chief yelled for them to strap in as the large hatch closed. He barely slammed into his seat next to the door before the shuttle lifted and headed for space like the hounds of hell were on its tail. Everyone was pinned to their seats as the acceleration exceeded what the dampers could handle.

Seemingly only seconds later, the roar of engines on overload died to a whisper of sound now conducted through the metal of the combat shuttle as it entered near space. Clear of atmosphere, it continued to accelerate to reach their objective in high orbit.

Abruptly, the drive either cut off or the acceleration was reduced enough that the dampers were able to handle it. As Diana and her people were musing about what was going on, the Crew Chief grabbed a stanchion and pulled himself into an upright position.

“Listen up,” he bellowed.

Diana, her group, and perhaps thirty more troops instantly quieted.

“This is your first combat mission for many of you, but I see a few old heads aboard. To those, take a nap or something while I inform the rest about what’s going on.

“For you newbies, we plan to attack one of the spiders’ major nest facilities. Our scout division has informed us that not only is this a nest planet, but the system has a full shipyard, which includes not just a repair facility, but also a full ship building complex. In that installation is their newest monster battleship, which we have tagged as dreadnought size, and from observation, it is almost ready to launch on its maiden voyage. This is the largest ship the bugs – or us, for that matter – have ever created. It’s over 2000 meters long, and as we speak, it is receiving ship-load after ship-load of ordnance. From our information, much of its crew is already aboard. Once this thing launches ... well, it’s doubtful that our forces could ever be able to take it down.

“Now is the time to attack, but we don’t have a large enough force available at this point in time. If we wait, though, that monster will soon gather its support craft and launch. Of course, it’s heavily guarded. Our information tells us that upon launch, it will have a heavy cruiser squadron for support, which includes a full-sized carrier group. As of the last update, the carrier squadron hasn’t arrived, but hopefully, the monster won’t launch before we can engage and destroy it while still in dock.

“If we could manage to warp in without their pickets detecting us, we might have a chance of destroying the dreadnought before it can get clear of the skeleton structure that surrounds it. The Admiral plans a high relative speed, non-ecliptical entrance into the system.

“To some of you, your training has just begun, but ... we are the only ship in our group that isn’t fully manned. Our primary assignment is to protect the heavy cruiser, Atlas. Command has decided to put every ship that can mount a weapon on this mission to destroy the dreadnought, and if possible the spiders’ repair and shipbuilding facility.