Chapter 711

Ship

Jeff had considered jumping back to Earth. They had a firm set of coordinates which included Earth’s movements as well as the solar system’s, all recorded out to many decimal places, and it wasn’t as if he didn’t trust his Miadax Navigator, for he certainly did. However, there was trust, and then there was absolute trust, he supposed. With calculations, there was Selina, who was in a category all to herself and at least equal to Helen or would be given time. He had also considered breaking the trip down into several jumps, but did he want to jump back to where they had the battle with the pirates? Again, Selina hadn’t been there to take the coordinates to the accuracy that it seemed only she could do — well, other than Ship and possibly Helen. However, the latter was involved with the warp drives and didn’t have the intense interest in navigation that Selina had. Besides, it was fun to see the First Officer sweat.

If Ship were confident that she could maneuver well enough at warp 7 to keep them safe, it wouldn’t take long to get back to Earth — not long at all.

Watching the stars go by was almost hypnotic. Well, going by wasn’t entirely accurate, he supposed. They could only see a bright ball of light as if down a long tunnel with equally bright streaks of multicolored light streaming past them on all sides. Behind was only blackness. This was true when they were under warp drive, but if they jumped, as they often did when visiting 2214, since they had the exact coordinates, there was just a swirling “nothingness” all around them until they broke out at the planet.

Jeff noted the First Officer’s supposed relaxed parade rest stance as he stood by the rail in front of the big screen while staring into it. Although he projected confidence to those who did not know him well, Jeff could see the telltale tightening of the young alien’s jaw as the stars slid past at an almost blinding speed.

A glance at the Pilot revealed another tightness as he sat, his hands on his console — useless — as Ship piloted for him. The Navigator appeared to be busy with calculations, but Jeff knew there were none required at present. Maybe the Navigator was delving into the mechanics of celestial navigation to get his mind off what was going on. Helen seemed to be intently conversing with someone on her com, and Jeff would bet it was the Chief Engineer.

Kayla met his gaze and winked at him.

“How long can you continue this pace?” he asked Ship.

The huge battleship hesitated. “Practically forever, I suppose. My diversion fields are at maximum as well as both my screens. Should the first two fail, theoretically, the last screen will channel the energy — no matter how much — to another dimension, but I would not want that to happen. Better that we continue to swerve aside as we are doing now, rather than the possible destruction of a star and her system.”

“Destruction of a star,” Jeff didn’t know whether Ship was serious or not. After a moment, he said, “First Officer, I think that Ship has proven herself to everyone’s satisfaction. Drop us back to Warp 6.”

“Pilot, reduce our speed to Warp 6,” the First Officer tried to say casually.

The Pilot repeated the command and quickly complied.

“Human beings aren’t made to travel that fast,” Jeff told Ship, half in jest.

“Should we leave our galaxy for another, we will need that speed, maybe even all the way to Warp 10,” Ship returned.

“A hundred thousand million stars in our galaxy, according to scientists’ guesses, should be enough to keep us busy for a while without venturing to another galaxy no telling how many million light years away,” he commented.

“So, what about your new candidate?” Ship asked, totally changing the subject.

“What candidate?” he asked, playing dumb.

I am inside your mind now, instead of projecting to it, so you cannot lie or misdirect me, she teased, her mental voice still light. In addition, as long as you are inside me, I can monitor everything about your body — even far beyond what the General’s lie detector can do. So, I repeat, what about your new candidate? She’s pretty, by the way.

So why do you care? And I already have enough wives. By the way, he teased, using her phrase, I love you more every day.

I’ll make sure she’ll know as soon as we get back, he said with sincerity. Now, as much as I love you, please get out of my mind. It makes me horny having such a sexy female inside my head.

“It isn’t nearly as much fun this way,” Ship said a moment later as she projected to him mentally.

Jeff and General Whitworth sat in the Captain’s Ready Room, but both had soft drinks in front of them this time.

“You should have a commendation too, but who gives the boss a commendation?” Jeff said with a grin.

“Oh, bullshit. Don’t get started with that crap,” the General said as he glowered over the top of his drink.

“If you hadn’t shoved the Doctor behind the runabout and taken the blast meant for her, she would be dead — and she knows it.”

“That’s just part of combat. Hell, you’ve saved your people, and they have saved you — not to mention how many times you saved my ass over the years. Your office would be papered with commendations if you got one every time you saved someone, and by the way, the last time I checked your office at the base, you had hidden your commendations again.”

“What are you going to do when we get back?” Jeff asked, ignoring the comment about the commendations.

“You mean after I greet my wives?”

“Naturally.”

“Check on where we stand on the portal rebuild. I’ve wanted to install the new power source for a while now, but I didn’t want to lose all the time it would entail. Since we were going to be down anyway, I told them to go ahead with it. Hopefully, they’ll be nearing the end of the installation when we get back. Oh, and I would appreciate it if you would sort of forget to mention my injury when we’re back to Earth. Did you know that Ship asked if I wanted her to leave a scar for bragging rights?”

Jeff just grinned at him and said, “I won’t say anything, but you’re not going to stop Kayla and Helen from telling your wives.”

“How about asking them to...?” Whitworth began but stopped when Jeff belly-laughed, and after a moment, returned the General’s own words from previous conversations. “Giving orders to wives is much like giving orders to troops. You should never give an order that you know won’t be obeyed,” Jeff finished with a grin. “I suggest that you give them a few orgasms and while they’re out of it, tell them...”

“ ... that I got a scratch,” Whitworth said with a grimace. “Tried that long ago. The results weren’t pretty. Then I got punished, not only for my getting hurt but for lying to them.”

“Then it looks like you might as well tell them the truth and let them pamper you for a while,” Jeff finished while trying — not very hard — to hide a grin.

“So, what are you going to do when we get back? And ... what have you decided about the Miadax males — other than the First Officer, that is?”

“Well, Helen is keeping them busy — she and Ship — studying the warp engines.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. You’re going to have to make a decision sooner or later.”

Jeff sighed. “I suppose that you’re referring to my forced separation of the sexes, other than the First Officer who was already treating his women as wives. But ... things aren’t straightforward. These aren’t Earth women who have grown up in a more or less free society, able to say no. They were bred for beauty, and their sole purpose in life was to provide the men with ‘relief.’ They weren’t allowed to say no. They weren’t even allowed to think it.

“I’ve have allowed the males to meet with the females in the lounge on the pocket planet, but they can never be alone with each other — at least not yet. The men would say something like, ‘Lie down,’ or ‘assume the position,’ and the women would instantly comply. They would be right back where they were. They want to be able to choose — at least that’s what they have told Diana — but if I back off from my rules, how long will it be before the males will be ordering them to lie down? Years of submitting will take over, and we’ll be right back to the beginning. They have done this their whole adult lives. Back to the thing I mentioned before about giving orders.

“I’m hoping that by giving them some freedom to meet with the opposite sex — supervised — love will step in and they could pair up and solve the problem for me.”

“Sounds like spearfishing in muddy water. You just keep stabbing around in the hopes of hitting something. But you have to be careful you don’t stab your own foot.”

“Yeah,” Jeff acknowledged. “I can already feel my foot beginning to ache.”

The Navigator’s coordinates were near-perfect, and with one small additional jump, Ship was now in orbit above the Retreat.

“Take us home,” Jeff told the First Officer.

“Pilot set us down at Ship’s normal mooring point.”

“Returning home,” the Pilot said with something in his voice that Jeff couldn’t quite decipher.

Ship’s inertialess drive moved through the atmosphere without any interaction at all. In seconds, they were home, and Ship was hovering at her usual resting place not far from the Retreat.

Whitworth had already asked Jeff if the Science Team could be debriefed at the Retreat before going back to Headquarters. Jeff, of course, agreed, and the General asked Ship to announce it.

The Miadax, other than Adrienné, went back to their quarters on the pocket planet, while Jeff, the General, Kayla, Helen and Adrienné escorted the Science Team toward the hatch.

“Oh, and by the way,” Ship said aloud to Jeff as they neared the lock, “your wives are waiting just past the building.”

“Since it only took seconds to come from orbit, your wives would have had to have known you were almost home to be waiting for you,” Emma said with a frown.

“Maybe that just answered your question about how far their ‘Jeff sense’ works,” the Prime said with a smile.

When they were past the fake building and could see how far away the Retreat was, Emma had a frown on her face. It would have taken them at least a couple of minutes to exit that beautiful building and walk up here, probably nearer five unless they were standing at the back door. That seems to prove they can sense him from orbit, at least. I suppose he was telling the truth after all. I was there, and he didn’t call down with a radio. I just don’t understand how they can know.

Diana stepped forward. “Jeff, I assume this is the Science Team you went to resupply. Since you have obviously brought them back with you, there must be a story, but in the meantime,” she said while turning to the others. “Welcome to our home. We have just finished our evening meal, but it will only take a few minutes to prepare food for all of you. I’m Diana, by the way, the family’s Clan Queen. If you don’t mind, let’s wait to get the introductions out of the way while we eat. In the meantime, come on down to the Retreat and we’ll show you to suites where you can freshen up before supper. Oh, yeah. We’re from the south, so supper is our last meal of the day.”