Chapter 406

The Retreat

His mind in turmoil, Jeff strode aimlessly down the hallway toward the pool, the thought of swimming not even entering his consciousness. Now what in the hell am I going to do? Dammit, Diana knows I’m not going to let her go, let alone Selina. It’s ridiculous to even think about any of my family fighting those aliens, but you can bet that Arlene and Ann have their hearts set on it, and come to think of it, probably Dave and Evie as well. Then there’s Bill. Hell, he’s a logical choice because he’s a retired Tomcat pilot, and judging from the comments he’s made during meals, he’s raring to recapture the thrill of being a combat fighter jock, and with Little One’s enhancement, he’s probably better now than he ever was.

Ship says that Bill and Kathy are exceptional and almost as good as Arlene and Ann, and Dave and Evie are a close third. But shit, how in the hell can I risk my family? Ship says that none of the others are exceptional. They have all worked hard, and they’ve done well, but she won’t send anyone that isn’t exceptional. On that, she won’t budge. Then again, do I have a choice about sending family? Sure the General and Lieutenant Mayfield will come up with some pilots to train, but will Ship deem them good enough? Arlene and Ann have so many hours training in the interceptors that no one else will ever catch up, at least in the time we have left – assuming, of course, that the aliens are ready to start toward Earth. In addition, those two are going to spend another full day today, our time, training. That might even be a year academy time. Shit, I know just how rough that is. It kicked my ass on the way back while Ship was trying to find Earth.

Hmmm. Since the aliens had problems with their drive, I wonder how long it will take them to get here after their repairs. For all I know, their ship was much slower than Ship’s scouts before they had their engine problems. Well, I certainly don’t know that, but something in me thinks that Ship is the standard by which every other ship will have to be measured, and I’d be amazed if that behemoth of the aliens isn’t slow as hell. After all the time she spent designing and building that fabulous warship, it would astonish me if another race ever matched Ship for anything.

In the pool room, he stood before the glass wall staring at the snow-covered mountains in the distance. Even though the pumps and filtering system were concealed and silent in the pool area, at least to normal human hearing, the Prime could easily hear the water as it was forced into the pool, and the sound attracted his attention. Turning to look at the crystal clear water in the elegant pool, it crossed his mind that a swim might ease his troubled mind. There were swimsuits available nearby, but the only person he was really concerned with seeing him nude was Selina, and he doubted she would be in here in the next few minutes, or anyone else for that matter.

Near the closest end, he stripped down to leave his clothes in a pile, took a couple of running steps and knifed into the water. His mind locked on his problems, he swam underwater to the end of the long pool, looped over, kicked off and swam back to the other end, reversed and swam back again before surfacing. There might have been a handful of swimmers in the world that could have done what he just did, in the time he did it, but they would have been stressing their lungs and bodies to do it. His mind focused on his troubles, he wasn’t even paying attention to his swimming. Surfacing, he turned onto his back and lazily swam back and forth while his mind continued to seek a better solution that would not risk his family.

Diana came in followed by Selina, the Queen quickly putting her hand across Selina’s eyes as she turned the six year-old around and shooed her, protesting, toward the door.

“I am well aware of the male anatomy from my studies of the human body and various videos on the internet. Granted, I am a six-year-old physically, but you are well aware that my mind...”

Diana pushed her on out the door, anyway. After making sure Selina wasn’t going to try to come back in, the Clan Queen walked over to stand watching her husband for a moment. Her eyes were focused mostly on his flaccid cock as it shifted with his movement and the water flowing past it as he slowly swam with his eyes closed. He unconsciously smiled, but said nothing. She knew he was aware of her, though – after all, this was Jeff. Nothing or no one ever approached him without his knowing, much to the disgruntlement of several of his younger wives when they tried to play pranks on him. When they occasionally succeeded, Diana knew he had allowed them to.

Kicking off her shoes, she said, “I really want to go,” so quietly that a normal person would never have heard as she sat on the edge of the pool to dangle her feet in the water.

There was a soft chuckle from the Prime. “Me, too. And you have no idea just how much.” Then after a long pause with the only sound the slow, rhythmic swish of his swimming, he went on. “But if you think about it, we both know that isn’t possible. Ship won’t let me fly an interceptor, at least in combat, and I’m not going to let you risk your life, but my wishes about this are immaterial because Ship won’t let either of you go. Before you say anything, she says you’re too important to the clan; you’re the Clan Queen, and Selina’s mind is too important to risk, not even mentioning that she’s still a child. You’re both too important to the family.”

“But I’m not...” she began, before he cut her off.

“Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter. Ship won’t budge. Believe me; I’ve tried for myself, and she shut me down just as firmly when I mentioned you and Selina.”

“Shit,” Diana quietly mumbled.

There was a prolonged near silence, the only sound that of his quiet swimming before the Clan Queen finally continued, barely audibly, “but it’s not fair.” Even as she said it, she remembered Selina saying the same thing.

“I strongly suspect those aliens are very damn good in those Paladins. Hell, that’s their job. No telling how long they have been flying those things, and truth be told, I really don’t know just how our two person interceptors will stack up against them. We have inertialess drives, but the aliens seem to withstand 10 g’s routinely. If they can do it routinely, chances are they can stand a lot more for a few seconds.” Before she could respond, he went quickly on, “What you do, you do extremely well. No one can touch you in running our family, and that’s too important to risk. And for the record, I agree with Ship. I’m not going to risk your life for any reason.

“But our inertialess drives should...”

He interrupted to snarl out, his voice echoing in the big room, “Should!” then in a more normal tone, “But those things are fairly bristling with weapons, and, as I’m sure you noticed from the vid I left you, their weapons are potent. Whether the interceptors’ shields will hold up against that firepower is something we’re going to have to learn the hard way. And I will not have you in harm’s way while we’re finding out.”

“But you’re going to allow Arlene and Ann to fight...”

Again, he hesitated. “Maybe not. Depends on what the General and the Lieutenant come up with, but I’m worried their pilots will never be in Arlene’s class. I think that if Ship would admit it, even she is amazed, and from what she tells me, Ann is almost as good. Chances are that no other crew that Whitworth or Mayfield will ever dig up will be nearly as proficient. They’re too accustomed to momentum whether they’re in a helicopter or a fighter.”

After a pause, he went on, “Oh, yeah. The General let me see Bill’s record. As we both know, he’s modest, but that modesty tends to drastically downplay one hell of a record. He wasn’t just one of the best – he was the best. He’s done many things that he’s failed to mention when I finally got him to talk a little about his career that night that I told you about.”

Diana shifted in her seat. “Baby, I really want to go...”

“You’re starting to repeat yourself. It ain’t gonna happen, Babe. I’m sorry. And, Hon...”

There was another silence as Diana finally looked back at him again before nodding. “No matter how much you want to go, multiply that by ten and you’ll know how I feel, but dammit, Ship says she will not risk her Prime. I’ve bitched, whined and threatened. Nothing. She just shuts down and won’t talk to me. Sound familiar?” he asked with a grin.

Knowing she did that sometimes, Di tried to ignore his words, but they struck home, anyway. There was a long silence while the Prime swam to the other end of the pool and back. As he drew nearer again, Diana stood. “Then come fuck me instead of teasing me with that thing.”

Selina knew that Diana would have kept an eye on the main doors, expecting Selina to peek, but the six-year-old had gone to the second floor before creeping out onto the balcony overlooking the pool. She knew how sensitive Jeff’s hearing was, and consequently moved as silently as she possibly could, stopping to peek over the edge while straining to listen and watch, managing to hear most of what the two had talked about. But when Jeff started to climb out of the pool, she decided that she had better find other things to do other than watch the two make love. Besides, she was well aware of the Prime’s ability to sense things, and wasn’t certain he was unaware of her presence now, no matter how quiet she had been. Her Prime allowed her a lot of leeway, but she had learned the hard way that he seemed to always know when she was spying on him.

After easing back from the balcony, grumbling to herself, she, nevertheless, went about her own business.

As she left, Jeff glanced toward the balcony, grinned, then turned his full attention to his wife.

The Ship

Arlene and Ann stepped out of the bathroom in the Matthews’ suite aboard Ship. With a glance at each other, they both silently asked and answered the same question. “Are you ready?” The two young women, bosom buddies during childhood, had only become closer as sister-wives, strengthening the special bond between them.

Moments after having Ship’s simulator couches snuggled around their bodies, they seemed to climb the steps to the belly hatch of their ready interceptor. Now a real interceptor team with many hours of training behind them, they acted almost as if their bodies shared a single mind. As they settled into their seats, their AI sent a ready signal to the Crew Chief who snapped off a salute. The interceptor flashed its lights in response and, although the Chief could not see it, the two pilots returned the salute just as smartly.

Over the last few months of academy time, there had been an underlying current of worry among all the cadets. Even though neither Arlene nor Ann had verbally acknowledged the matter, each knew that the other was aware of the change. There was more of an air of desperation as interceptors, some damaged severely, were hastily readied for the next missions. At first, there were only training missions, but as the war progressed over the recent months, more and more cadets were sent out on real missions, at first just observation, but recently, real combat missions – and some of the crews did not return or came back in badly damaged ships. The war was obviously not going well, and the defending forces were now compelled to even use cadets to fight an enemy whose numbers seemed to be inexhaustible.

In the beginning, the academy, though extremely difficult, was exciting to talk about after Arlene and Ann returned to reality. They discussed missions with Bill and Kathy, Dave and Evie as well as the others. Now, however, they didn’t win every time – even in the simulated training. No matter how hard they struggled, they sometimes experienced their interceptors being hit by heavy incoming fire, their systems degrading, their shields failing, and sometimes their interceptors dying around them, becoming a fireball as enemy fire touched the drive’s core. Reality and simulation within a simulation tended to blend – to merge – in their minds.

The simulations were so real and the pain stimulus added to that realism. Oh, they knew it had been a simulation – afterward. At the academy and after they woke up on Ship. But during the mission, the anticipation, the exhilaration ... the terror, and everything between, was indistinguishable from the real thing. Waking up alive after their craft had exploded around them was jarring, to say the least. But they were learning – at least, they hoped they were.

Still, Ship increased the difficulty of each mission, and when they failed, as they did more often now, they got to do it over again until they got it right.

While they had watched the real aliens in the scout, they had gone over interceptor missions, particularly the failed ones, developing strategies they hoped would work in the future. Always, there was pain when their interceptor was hit and radiation overloaded their shields – the pain and nausea letting them know that they had received an overdose that would kill them in real life. Pain under the right conditions produces superb strategists and makes the missions so realistic that it sometimes took several minutes for the two young women, as well as the others, to realize they were lying on Ship’s couches, safe and healthy, instead of dying in their interceptor. But many times, they and their interceptor lived unscathed – against what seemed to be overwhelming odds. Their battle reflexes became attuned to conditions, and more and more their minds linked as they entered combat.