Chapter 21: Recovering and Healing

Yvette and most of the other sponsors were waiting at the tunnel head. Yvette had a slight frown and waved me over. Terrence offered to take the weapons which Brad and I had and get them back to the armory so we surrendered our weapons to him and he headed off as we approached Yvette.

"Timothy looked bad when he went by," she said. "I alerted Bren and Michael in the medical bay, and his concubines will meet him there."

I groaned, suddenly realizing that my battle jacket had been hit at least once, and I was bruised underneath. "I just hope he survives. We just didn't get the first shots off fast enough. The two we missed in the first volley got Eric and Timothy. The marine reflex upgrade makes them snake-quick."

Yvette giggled. "You were just as fast, maybe faster. That last guy you took out was waiting for someone to roll out and you still put him down before he could aim."

Brad realized that I was hurting and pushed me down against the wall. "God, how bad are you hit James?" he shouted as he tore at the straps holding my jacket on.

"Bad bruises," I said. "At least I don't seem to be leaking, but I hurt."

Yvette turned back to the screen, but I waved my hand. "No medical bay yet. We need to get the rest of the clean up done and reassure everyone. Besides, I bet Manuel calls soon to complain."

Yvette just shook her head. "Sorry, but you are too important. We're going to get a gurney and get you to the medical bay for at least a scan." She turned back towards the screens to quickly glance at them. "AI, call to medical bay, get another gurney to the crossing, STAT!"

I leaned against the wall as Brad finally got my armor off. He turned it around while examining it and there were three clear dents across the upper torso. I did not want to look down, but the gasps from the sponsors nearby made it clear that my body showed signs of the impact. Brad looked down and his jaw dropped. "Man, you have to be tough. Your whole chest is one big bruise."

"Thanks, I felt so good not knowing that!" I quipped. "Well, Yvette, we have a new problem too."

"What? Oh god! Eric's concubines, what do we do?" she said.

"And his pod, I don't know the rules on pods if the sponsor dies." I replied.

The AI joined in. "If a sponsor dies, his concubines are usually turned over to the civil service until they find a new sponsor. The standard practice is to lock the pod down until it can be reassigned."

I coughed, and saw a bit of blood. "Damn, guess I'm hurt a bit worse than I thought," I whispered. "Well, AI we have no civil service so how about this. Can the pod that belonged to Eric become a barracks for unassigned concubines for now, and the two ladies who belonged to him remain there."

"It can be done, but its an inefficient use of space," the AI replied.

I tried to sigh as David came back with the gurney and I climbed onto it with help from Brad and Xavier who had remained at the entrance. Once I was on it Yvette said she would accompany me to the medical bay and Xavier surprised us by saying he'd check into the command post.

"I never imagined that the fight would come to us. We should include some screens in the command post to match the trio here, and allow the command post to watch the corridor since any response comes from there," he suggested.

"Do it," I gasped. I tried to stay awake, but my vision was slowly blurring as I felt David begin pushing the gurney towards the medical bay. I wanted to say more, but the pain finally overwhelmed me and I passed out.

I awoke some time later and slowly sat up in a medical pod. Reggie's concubine Bren was smiling as I sat up and walked over to help me out of the pod.

"The hits you took ripped up several blood vessels in your chest and the bleeding needed to be stopped, but you'll be fine. Just took forty minutes in the pod," she told me.

Timothy?" I asked.

She frowned. "It's bad. The shot appears to have been a ricochet off the floor. It entered the front of his shoulder, but was traveling at a low angle and ripped down the left side of his torso. His lung, liver and kidney all were damaged, and the medical pod is still finding more problems. He will survive, but it's going to take at least twelve hours before we can awaken him safely."

"At least he'll survive," I said. "Meanwhile I need to see everyone. Where are they?"

Bren laughed. "Yvette and your concubines kept them in the recreation hall. Everyone except for Michael and I here watching Timothy's pod, and Xavier who is watching the command post, are there."

I stood up. "I'll see about finding someone to relieve you. It's unfair that you can't be there," I said.

Bren laughed. "Oh you don't have to do that. It's nice to be useful, and the pride in Reggie's eyes when I showed I could use all this stuff was heavenly. Just make sure that Gina and Reggie can visit later and we'll be fine."

I nodded and, after a moment for getting my balance back, managed to leave the medical bay and walk the short distance over to the recreation hall. From the noise and music it was clear the party had continued, so I took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The room immediately grew a lot quieter and I found a pair of human missiles, one with black hair, and one red charging forward to wrap me up in hugs. My older concubines followed quickly with huge smiles on their faces.

Janice spoke for all of them. "Scaring us is not proper, master. We are supposed to be able to brag that you are indestructible."

The others laughed as I accepted hugs and kisses from all of them. Meiko and Brittany refused to be completely dislodged and eventually I had to get them to shift enough that I could walk into the room and find an empty table to sit at. They shifted grudgingly, but accepted it and walked me to a table where Bethany brought me a drink.

"You are so going to get a hero's reward later tonight," she whispered in my ear.

I tried to smile as Yvette came over and sat next to me. "Xavier is struggling a bit with the communications system in the command center, but he's still there. I think he feels more than a bit guilty about his earlier resistance."

"That's good," I said. "I feel a bit bad for Timothy. He was another of the resisters and now he's going to be in the medical bay for quite a while. The damage was extensive."

Yvette nodded. "I've talked to his concubines, Ulla and Veronica. He definitely wants to protect them, but like the neutrals in the other zone, he thought he could just stay away from the fight. I think the fact that even with your multiple doors the fight came to us changed his mind. We'll know more when he is out."

"What about the others?" I asked.

Shawna walked up. "Tasha and Jay aren't here, although Tasha was at the crossing when the fight started. Not sure why though, although her pod is near there. Jack complained quite a bit about the reception Tyson and Louis received when they returned, and had managed to anger just about every female here, including his own concubines. The man is slime."

"Well, it appears that we got three out of the six problems to join in then," I mused. Then I had a thought. "AI, you said converting Eric's pod to the barracks was unnecessary. Let me ask, the hydroponics pod is going to have some extra space for now. Can we have a small barracks in there until a new one can be formed, like the sports court is planned?"

"Yes, provisions can be made to allow up to eight unattached concubines to stay there and help service any plants you have," the AI said.

"Why?" asked Shawna as Yvette gasped.

"You're freeing up the pod for any refugees!" she observed.

I nodded. "We know that some of the outsiders want in, and if they do arrive, we need homes for them. Having a pod free will help."

Shawna appeared thoughtful as her concubine David walked up. He smiled and I offered my hand to shake. "Thanks, David." I told him. "You came through with the gurneys and helped save Timothy."

David blushed as he accepted my handshake. "I just ran where I was told to run and let everyone else do the thinking. But thank you for the compliment. I finally felt like I belonged, rather than just being some cheap stud for my lovely mistress."

Shawna blushed red as everyone around laughed. She seemed happy though and smiled even brighter when David knelt and kissed her feet.

"Oh, he's so well trained," Yvette, said with a giggle.

The talk turned back to the party and we watched the kids who were having a blast in the bowling alley as Marie and Janice showed them how to bowl. The happy screams and squeals of the children relaxed everyone. We were talking about the command post scheduling when the AI interrupted.

"Sorry sir," the AI said. "Manuel Matos is attempting to contact you. He sounds rather upset."

Terrence muttered. "Just upset?"

I looked around the room and sighed at the thought of responding to Manuel. "Put him through," I replied.

"Who is this? And you better be ready to explain what you did to my men!" thundered in the air immediately after I finished speaking.

The area around me grew quiet. "Well, the who really doesn't matter," I replied. "You are on the other side of the door and I don't think we'll be meeting for tea and crumpets anytime soon. As for our explaining what we did to your men, well, they came over and blew up one of our protective doors. We gave them a warm and sharp welcome and now four of them are not part of the living. Is that good enough for you?"

The voice grew higher pitched. "I needed those men! This is war out here with that lesbian ape and her cavemen friends. You think I have enough soldiers to be able to replace the four I lost? You better give me new ones!"

"Why?" I asked reasonably. "We have no interest in your fight."

"I rule this colony!" Manuel shouted. "It's mine! I earned the right by being the strongest! You will obey and give me the men I need to crush Ruth! I expect to see them within a week!"

"Save your breath," I said. "Nothing you or Ruth can say or do interests anyone on this side of the door, and we have the weaponry to stop any attempt to force an entry. Go back to your petty battles and we'll make sure the Confederacy doesn't decide to just bomb us into oblivion as an eyesore and a discredit to all humanity."

There was some incomprehensible sputtering coming from Manuel as the AI ended the connection. Yvette just giggled. "He was angry!"

"You think?" the twins said in unison.

The party became louder and even merrier after the call ended. Manuel's ineffective bluster had finally convinced many of the concubines that safety within our walls existed, and the knowledge that their families were protected lifted much of the fear from their minds. Everyone relaxed and got back to the serious business of partying and play. Soon I joined in as I was dragged off to the bowling lanes to demonstrate to my concubines my complete lack of prowess at knocking pins over.

The next week in the colony was extremely quiet. Manuel and Ruth had pulled their forces back and a staring match appeared to have ensued. Thanks to the reduction in hostilities the AI was able to get a more accurate count. Ruth was down to twenty-two loyalists, with another six supporters who were obviously reluctant participants. Manuel had twenty-three loyalists, but no reluctant fighters, although there was evidence that he had four female neutral sponsors under his control as sex toys. The nine remaining neutral sponsors were becoming increasingly frantic and panicked, but the conditions in the tunnels made it impossibly dangerous to attempt any kind of breakout rescue, so other than offering comfort and hope we could do little for them. Donna, Tiffany and Gina continued to contact them when they served their shifts in the command post, but there really was little opportunity to help.

The command post duties were proving to be boring, but also important. Once a Sa'arm scout ship stumbled through the system, and it was only a quick reaction by Louis that shut down the emissions from the resupply base in time to avoid detection. The scout did notice our colony on the planet, but two missiles from the ship both failed to reach the surface through the corrosive atmosphere and the ship then left, returning in the direction it came from.

Fortunately, Gina had immediately called an alert. Terrence, Yvette, Louis and I were gathered in less than an hour and reviewing the records.

"There is no question that they know now that we are here," Louis said. "I'm still figuring out all the sensor readings, but both missile strikes were aimed directly at us, only the atmosphere protected the colony."

"Why fire at all?" Terrence asked. "From what I've seen, usually the Sa'arm like to visit a planet and take everything for themselves."

I groaned. "The atmosphere. The Confederacy military was wrong. The Sa'arm have some idea of what the atmosphere is like. They had reason to believe they couldn't land and attack normally, so they tried to bomb us out. That's the only explanation that makes sense."

"They'll probably be back soon with a larger ship. Something that they believe can get through the atmosphere," Louis observed. "Are the cannons ready?"

I sighed. "They are, but gunners are in short supply. AI, schedule armor fittings for myself, Xavier, Brad and Fred and put a priority on forming our battle armor. Inform the other three of the schedule immediately and the reasons why. Yvette, we better get a drill organized for the lasers. Make sure that concubines help out. Getting armored up and strapped in takes time, and we might not have much, so extra hands will speed the process."

"Can do," Yvette said. "I'll also see if we can talk Linus to join on the ground crew side. We'll need someone ready to help remove that armor when the mounts return from the surface, and he does have the technical degree."

Terrence nodded. "We'll be ready."

The meeting was breaking up when the AI announced. "James if you want, your fitting can commence now."

I looked at the others. "I think that works. Anything else I should be informed of though."

"The other sections of the colony are quiet," the AI replied. "The hydroponics pod will be ready in one hour, including the dorm for unattached concubines. The multi-use room and school are perhaps six hours from completion. At that time creation of the basketball court can begin."

"Wow!" Yvette said. "Everything is moving fast."

We had exited the small briefing room and I could see Gina and Brad discussing the recent visit. "Great job Gina, and thanks for the fast call. Brad, thanks for coming to cover while Louis briefed us. Things are going to be a bit crazy soon, but we can pull through. Gina, see if you can alert the Navy that we had a Sa'arm scout visit, they might have a carrier that can stop by. Louis, we know the base has some long-range sensor probes. Can we send out a five probe sweep and see if we can find the nearest Sa'arm planet, perhaps we can give the Navy a target to attack."