Chapter 682

The Retreat

At breakfast, Morales and his wives had managed to sit near Jeff. With their meal underway, Morales looked over at the Prime. “We’ve covered the basics with our pulse rifles and have learned to field strip and reassemble them in an acceptable time, but I have a question before we go to class this morning.”

“And you didn’t want to ask the Sergeant for fear he would think you should already know the answer,” Jeff said with a grin.

“Something like that. He probably did tell us, but it’s been several days since we’ve been in class, and I need a refresher on a couple of points.”

“And...”

“We were taught there was no drop with a pulse rifle, and I can understand that with the part of the beam that’s a laser. Speed of light, but there is mass with the beam. Isn’t that what the Sergeant meant when he said that part of the beam is a particle beam? It isn’t just a badass laser, is it?”

“First, I think the Sergeant probably said something to the effect of ‘for all practical purposes,’ there is no drop of the particle beam at that distance.”

Jeff took a sip of coffee while knowing that all Morales’ women were also listening intently. “You have to consider bullet drop when firing your 30.06 rifles, right?”

“If you want to eat fresh buffalo that night,” Jasmine replied with a grin.

“So, you compensate a known amount by using the reticle built into your scope, right?”

Jasmine hesitantly agreed, worried that she was missing something obvious.

“So, let’s take the projectile speed of a 30.06 rifle. Roughly 3,000 feet per second, give or take, depending on the bullet weight, powder charge, barrel length, and to some degree, other things, right?”

Morales had taught his women well, so they all nodded.

“I would have to ask one of the engineers who designed the pulse rifle to be more specific, but let’s suppose the pulse rifle fires a particle beam at a quarter the speed of light along with the laser pulse, which, of course, is the speed of light. How much drop would the particle beam experience in, say, two hundred yards while traveling at a fourth the speed of light, which would be roughly 46,500 miles per second, if I did the mental arithmetic correctly?”

Morales looked embarrassed. “Ah, crap. The drop would be an unbelievably small amount. I feel like an idiot. When you said it had mass, I was thinking something like the weight of a bullet. But it isn’t nearly that, is it?”

“No,” Jeff agreed, but that tiny amount of mass that’s riding along with the laser beam at a quarter the speed of light packs a tremendous wallop. For all practical purposes, they get to a target even a half-mile away at relatively the same time, as far as our senses are concerned. Technically, there is drop involved with the particle beam, but it is minuscule for any practical firing distance with the pulse rifle. With the proper equipment, we could measure the time difference, but the laser pulse stays on for a finite length of time, so a particle beam and the laser are there during the same basic time interval as far as human senses are concerned.

“Though the mass of the particle beam is minuscule, its immense velocity makes up the difference — in spades. There is, of course, an effective range to the weapon. Atmosphere over distance absorbs and disburses both the laser and the particle beam. In space, there is no absorption, relatively speaking, but dispersal still eventually diminishes the beam.”

The two engineers, Ashley and Christine, glanced at each other, but neither said anything. Jeff assumed they would soon show Morales the math to prove what Jeff had just tried to put into practical terms.

“As I’ve said before, since you won’t be going after tanks and heavily armored vehicles, your weapons’ power settings have been locked to something less than what the teams have. But, never think that your weapons aren’t powerful enough for combat. They certainly are — in spades. The Sergeant will let you shoot at some concrete blocks — and have you clean up afterward,” he added dryly. “You have enough power in your canister to chew through most any wall you might incur in a firefight.”

After they had finished their run and returned to the Retreat, Diana told everyone to take a break.

Jeff motioned for Jennie and Melissa to come over. “You two come see me in my office after the break, please.”

“Okay,” they said as one.

After picking up a couple of sweet rolls, he filled his favorite mug before going on to his office.

He barely had time to sit behind his desk before the two young wives walked in with their snacks and coffee. “You could have stayed with the others and chatted. There isn’t any rush.”

The two passed a glance and smiled before Melissa said, “You know how curious we are, so waiting wasn’t an option...”

“ ... As you well know,” Jennie finished for them as she took a bite of her cinnamon roll before sitting on the couch with her sister-wife.

“Who baked these?” Jeff asked. “They’re damn good.”

“It was Nat, Nicki, and Whitney’s turn,” Melissa said as she paused for a second. “Diana makes sure that we all know how to prepare every dish on our overall menu.”

“And trust me, as soon as she comes up with a new recipe, all of us have to learn,” Jennie added. “Although there are sometimes specialty dishes that are better prepared by one or another of us. I don’t know where she has time to find new dishes, but she does.”

“Ah, a perfect lead-in to this meeting,” he said but paused to take a sip of coffee while he gathered his thoughts.

“This could be a delicate subject once instigated, but it needs doing,” he said almost absently as ideas flashed through his brain. “What you just alluded to about Diana not having time is the basis of our meeting. Our Clan Queen is overworked, yet I need her to expand what she does even more.”

Both girls frowned, and he could see the beginning of comprehension on their faces.

“Jeff, nobody can do what Diana does,” Melissa tried.

“No way,” Jennie agreed.

“Yet you two just told me that she has trained all of you to cook almost every dish that’s served, right?”

“Yeah,” Melissa returned, “but she talks to all our suppliers, sets up menus a week in advance, schedules who is in charge of cooking each day, and who will assist. She schedules who is in charge of cleaning our suite and the common area, as well as who will assist with that, who will dispose of the trash, oversees birthday parties and weddings, on and on.”

“She keeps track of our expenses and talks to the accountant frequently, but I don’t know what they talk about specifically,” Jennie added.

“She’s always open to settle disputes between us...” Melissa began.

“I didn’t know there were any disputes between my wives...” Jeff said.

“There are soon to be twenty of us when you get around to marrying Aiko and Adrienné. And maybe there aren’t any actual disputes among us, as such, but there are disagreements that sometimes require a decision. I suppose that would be a better way of putting it.”

“Who do you think ordered the bed expansion you talked about?” Jennie asked.

“Well, I...”

“We help her when we can,” Jennie continued, “but she seldom asks. Melissa and I have taken over the food inventory in the walk-in freezer, refrigerators and pantry. Believe me, even with the AI’s help, it’s a hassle to keep the food rotated so nothing gets buried and becomes too old. Arlene and Ann used to help a lot, but with them running the wing and training, there isn’t much time left for them to assist our Clan Queen now.”

Jeff finished his roll and leaned back in his seat. “It seems that my instinct is dead on. You two are already working in the direction I need — or more correctly, Diana needs.”

“Jeff, I...” both young women said as one, but Jeff waved for them to wait while he searched mentally for the best way to proceed.

“I, at first, hinted that Di needed an assistant, but I got no response. Then later, I told her that she needed an assistant. No matter what I did, she didn’t appoint anyone. Finally, it dawned on me why.”

Both young women just looked at him.

“I think she felt there would be suspicions of favoritism if she appointed someone.”

Both just sat there almost stone-faced as the seconds slowly ticked away.

“Dammit, do I have to spell it out? I want the two of you to be her assistants. And not just someone who does something if she asks. I want each of you to take over major aspects of our Clan Queen’s work — which to a certain degree will also have a measure of authority to go with it. Ah, that’s not the right word, but I don’t want to say work, but perhaps duty would fit the subject better. Bottom line: would you two take over some of the Clan Queen’s duties so I can assign her to be in charge of the family’s training?”

“But the Sergeant...” Melissa began.

“ ... Has things to do of his own,” Jeff inserted. “And we aren’t going to sit on our asses the whole time we’re gone, either. Designing classes and scheduling training takes up time — a lot of it, but Diana is perfect for the job. I’m not expecting her to take over all the training for our people, but rather the overall coordination of designing classes and appointing teachers for everything. And yes, we don’t have instructors for everything, but she can appoint people to learn and teach. A lot of this is going to be a ‘work in progress,’ as people say. Someone will have to be in charge of communicating with the alien races we meet in our travels. That might wind up involving two or three people, even. Diana will be in overall charge of several major categories of our training, so someone or several people need to pick up the work she will no longer have time to do.”

“Oh,” both said as one.

After a moment, Melissa began, “Jeff, practically speaking, Di has always been your wife, has always run the household. We’re only eighteen. Nobody will accept either of us as their boss. I think — we think,” she continued after locking eyes with her sister-wife for an instant, “that Diana kinda worked into the job. As things grew, she took over more and more duties, and one of those duties was supervising everyone at the Retreat, not just your wives.”

Jeff wasn’t deterred. On the contrary, after hearing what the two had said, he was more enthusiastic about his decision. “Good point. Then she can tell everyone that you two will be in charge of various things and will speak with her voice...”

“ ... And we’ll get thrown out on our asses before the day is out,” Jennie said with absolute seriousness. “Jeff, there aren’t any wimps living in the Retreat. Everyone respects Diana, and that comes in part from her knowing how to do everything, including being able to kick just about everybody’s ass should she want to. Granted, our sister-wives love us, and to a degree, so does everyone at the Retreat. And we love them, but we don’t demand that kind of respect by just being us, the way Diana does, and we never will.”

Jeff sat back and put his feet on his desk, thinking while the two young wives whispered among themselves.

“Jeff,” Melissa finally said, “part of the problem is our age. Two eighteen-year-olds giving orders, even if we couch them as suggestions, might run into problems, while someone like Helen, Laura, Susan or any of the other mature wives would probably receive an entirely different response. Everyone will look at us as girls, while the others will be considered women and due comparative respect.

“Arlene and Ann run a wing of trained aviators who respect them despite their youth,” Jeff said, but knew he had screwed up before the last word was even out of his mouth.