Chapter 24

"Admiral, a package came for you," Ensign Powell said setting a box down in front of James. There was nothing to indicate that it was official business.

Perking up, James asked, "A package? For me?"

"Yes, sir," Ensign Powell said with a sigh. He hated it when the admiral went on and on about something as simple as getting a package.

"I just love packages, don't you?"

"Yes, sir," Ensign Powell answered. His mother sent him a box of homemade cookies every week. It made him a very popular fellow with the other ensigns.

"It is about time that it arrived," James said rubbing his hands together excitedly.

"Do you know what it is?" Ensign Powell asked. The box was unmarked other than a simple label that identified that it was for James.

"Of course, I ordered it," James said. He had been afraid that it would arrive too late. His eyes flashed as he said, "It is for Ann."

"Do you want me to give it to your wife?" Ensign Powell asked.

"No! That would ruin the surprise," James said. He couldn't wait to spring this little one on her. She'd love it.

"This is a present for your wife?" Ensign Powell asked thinking it was considerate of James to think of his wife like that. She was due to give birth any day now.

"This is a surprise for her," James said with a big grin.

"I don't think she likes surprises, sir," Ensign Powell said getting a bad feeling about this.

"She'll love this one," James said. He could just imagine the expression on her face when she saw it.

Ensign Powell looked at the box trying to imagine what was inside it. He decided that he didn't really want to know. He said, "If you'll excuse me, I have some important paperwork to do."

"Okay," James said.

Ensign Powell returned to his desk outside of James' office. He looked over at Starchild and asked, "Did you hear?"

"Yes," Starchild answered curious as to what was in the package. He wondered if his father knew what was in it.

"What should I do?"

"Tell his wife. She won't appreciate a surprise," Starchild answered.

"Maybe it is something nice," Ensign Powell said.

Looking up at his pet, Starchild said, "We are talking about Admiral Kamp."

"That's true," Ensign Powell said realizing that a surprise from Admiral Kamp was more like a nightmare come true than something pleasant.

"Call her," the Quatyl said.

Ensign Powell picked up the telephone and called Ann. When she answered, he said, "This is Ensign Powell."

"Hello, Ernie," Ann said, "James isn't here."

Ensign Powell shifted in his chair uncomfortably and looked over at the door to James' office. He said, "I know. He's in his office at the moment."

"Oh, why are you calling?" Ann asked brightly.

"I wanted to let you know that James received a package," Ensign Powell answered wondering how to break the news to her.

"A package?" Ann said. The arrival of any package addressed to James was cause to worry. Ann asked, "What kind of package?"

"He said it was a surprise for you," Ensign Powell said. There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Wondering if they had been disconnected somehow, he asked, "Are you still there?"

"Oh, I'm here," Ann said. She would have been on her way to his office except she was having a difficult time getting out of the chair. She growled and said, "I'll be there as soon as I can get out of this chair."

"Don't let him know that I warned you," Ensign Powell said. There was a possibility that he was ruining a surprise that Ann would enjoy, but he felt it was a very slim chance. He had worked with Admiral Kamp for too long.

"Hide it," Ann said realizing that she needed to go potty before heading to James' office. She really couldn't wait for her pregnancy to come to an end.

"Yes, ma'am," Ensign Powell said.

An hour later, James returned to his office from a meeting accompanied by Ensign Powell. He looked at his desk and asked, "Hey, where's that package that was on my desk?"

"I don't know," Ensign Powell answered truthfully. He didn't know since it had disappeared while they were out of the office. He assumed that Ann had picked it up, but he had no idea where she had taken it.

"I need you to help me find it," James said looking all over his office.

"Yes, sir," Ensign Powell said with a frown. There weren't many places that it could be hidden in the office.

"She's going to give birth any time now," James said getting a little frantic in his search.

"You can always give it to her later," Ensign Powell said.

Shaking his head, James said, "That won't do at all."

"Yes, sir," Ensign Powell said.

"We've got to find it now," James said. He stuck his head out of the office and looked over Ensign Powell's desk.

"What is in the package?"

"It's a surprise," James said. Convinced that it had been stolen, he said, "I want security to search the entire ship until it is found."

"Yes, sir," Ensign Powell said thinking that he was really going to get into trouble over this. He didn't think it would be all that easy to convince James that he had his best interests at heart. He looked over at the Quatyl wondering what kind of trouble his pet had gotten him into.

James looked out the porthole at the fleet of ships floating above the orbital plane of the sun. There were a lot of ships just floating out there. He asked, "Is that all of it?"

"No sir. We have a similar fleet parked at the Dromat home world, one at the Margot home world, and one at the Andicor home world," Whip answered.

"How many people have we got trained?" James asked thinking it was hard to wrap his head around the sheer number of space ships just floating there.

"We're training eight million people for service on these ships," Ken answered with a smile.

"How many do we need?" James asked.

"Eight million," Ken answered.

"Wow," James said. He knew that there were close to a hundred thousand ships in the Earth fleet. Those little Engel were productive little critters once they got directions.

Looking at one of the battle ships, James said, "I like how they are wedge shaped. It kind of reminds me of a wedge of cheese."

"Your Uncle designed it," Ken said. Arthur had learned a lot about designing space ships from working with the other races. The ships had quarters for the crew that were extremely luxurious. Advanced light-weight sound-proofed materials lightened the ship so that weight was a much less significant design constraint. There were only a few heavy metal structures and they were there only because they provided the overall support for the ship.

"Why wedge shaped?" James asked.

"He said it gave the ship more room to carry fighters. They can carry fifty fighters. The big back side is open for fighters to ingress and egress. The way it is protected, the shields to the landing bays can be down even when the ship is being attacked from the front," Ken answered. He pointed to a feature of the leading edges and said, "One thousand lasers are arranged across the four sides for stopping the missiles."

"That could be useful," James said nodding his head.

Ken pointed to one of the ships and said, "That boxy looking one over there has our nukes. We'll pull up for a broadside and start to spin the ship. We can fire fifty nukes from each face and reload during the rest of the spin."

"How many nukes does it carry?" James asked.

"A thousand," Ken answered.

"Wow," James replied.

Ken pointed above the space fleet and said, "You can't see it from here, but we've got a hundred thousand umbrellas floating over there. They are each outfitted so that they hold fifteen missiles."

"I'm impressed," James said.

"We expect some of their planet killers to show up. We've got the 50MM cannon prepared for them. Each cannon can fire five shots. We've got enough cannons that we can cover an entire battlefield," Ken said.

"You don't think this is overkill," James asked.

"Not really," Ken answered. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "You should see the fleet that the Dactites have put together."

"Really?" James asked.

"It is very impressive," Ken said. He had read the reports on what had been parked there.

James smiled and said, "I'm going to be visiting them soon."

"What?" Ken asked with a frown. This was the first that he had heard about this.

James smiled and said, "It was decided that I'd take a little galactic tour and visit the home worlds of all of our allies."

"You are visiting the home worlds of our allies?" Ken asked.

Nodding his head, James answered, "Yes. Can you imagine that I was asked not to do anything too weird?"

"I can," Ken said thinking that poor Ensign Powell was going to have a stroke.

"It is a real puzzle to me what they mean by weird. Anyway, I'll be visiting the Dactites, the Omagrons, and the Dromats before the next engagement with the Chitiniodians. Can you imagine that it is going to take almost three and a half years to visit those three planets?"

"Whose idea was this?" Ken asked.

"Fleet Admiral Murphy came up with it," James said.

"When did this idea come to her?" Ken asked.

"Right after the dinner party we had with her. She really enjoyed the practical joke with the exploding ice cube. We laughed about it the whole evening," James said. It was so nice to find someone who really appreciated a good joke.

"President Dim Sum of the United Nations didn't find it funny," Ken said recalling the disastrous evening.

"How was I supposed to know that he'd take her chair at the dinner table?" James asked. He looked out the porthole and pointed to one of the ships. He said, "I'll take that battle ship for my tour."

"Is that why we're out here?" Ken asked.

"Yes," James said.

"You know that as the first captain you'll get to name it," Ken said.

"Really?" James asked.

"That's right. Selecting a name for a ship is serious business," Ken answered.

James looked at the ship for a minute and then said, "I think I'll call the ship, Cheddar."

"No," Ken said with a groan. He said, "You know they'll call you the Big Cheese on the Flagship Cheddar."

"That's a bad thing?" James asked with a smile.

"Yes," Ken said.

James said, "Okay, I'll go with something a little more subtle. We'll call it the Brie."

"How about the 'Defender'?"

"Boring," James said giving a theatrical yawn.

"How about the 'Intrepid'?"

"That's even more boring," James said. He suggested, "How about Cheesecake? It looks like a slice of cheesecake."

"No," Ken said.