Chapter 23: A Call from the Navy

The next morning found me waking up surrounded by my ladies as usual. The joyful cries of Tina and Janice when we left the hot tub the previous evening had inspired Brittany and Meiko to have a contest to see which of them could have the hardest orgasm while having sex with me. The others merrily performed as judges, eventually ruling that there was no victor since both ladies enjoyed the contest far too much.

I had just finished my morning shower and was getting dressed when the AI chimed. "Sir, you have a call from the command center. We have a fold-space communication from Commander Sykes of the Navy."

"Damn!" I shouted. "See if he can give me five minutes. And alert Yvette, Terrence, Louis and the twins. They might want to hear this first hand. Who's in the command center?"

"Linus and Fred are serving at this time," the AI reported.

Meiko had woken up and appeared in the doorway to the bedroom as I finished throwing my shirt on. She looked at me, but seeing my hurry paused. "Sorry, little one," I gasped out. "The Navy just called and I have to run to the command post. Let the others know and then you can join me if you want."

Meiko smiled and turned back to the room as I dashed out the door, running through the tunnels. Fortunately the hallways were clear and I rattled into the command post a few moments later to find Linus and Fred reviewing the sensor logs from the Sa'arm visit.

"No sir," Fred said. "I was not on duty when the Sa'arm visited, so I cannot answer that. I've given you the information that I understand. I'm afraid that I'm not experienced at this, none of us are. Linus and I are only on our fourth shift."

"That's not good enough," a gruff male voice said. "We need to know what's going on. Did the Sa'arm see the base, and why did their ship leave?"

Fred seemed about to speak, but I put a hand on his shoulder. He paused to look at me as I nodded.

"Sir," I replied. "Sorry about this, but this post has only been up for just over a week and we really only have two members who are advanced enough to answer certain parts of your question. Fortunately one was on duty at that time, and I've already asked him to come for a meeting."

"Who is this?" the voice said.

"Sorry, I'm James Rabb," I replied. "I guess you could say that I'm in charge down here. We try to work as a group though."

The voice spoke out again. "This is Commander David Sykes. I'm on the corvette Hampton Roads. The Navy received your first alert, sent by a 'Gina', but it was only the basics that a small Sa'arm ship had visited and fired on the colony. We know that they don't leave until a site is destroyed! What's going on?"

I sighed as Yvette and Louis both dashed into the command area. I pointed to the briefing room and turned back to Fred. "One moment Commander, the man who was on duty during the visit just arrived, so if you'll indulge me I'm going to have this communication routed to the briefing room and we can go over what happened."

"Do so," Commander Sykes said tersely.

I nodded to Fred who started the process of routing the call. While it went through I stepped into the briefing room. "The Navy wants a more complete report," I warned Louis. "I'll try to take the lead, but be ready for questions."

He nodded as Fred shouted. "It's routing now."

I could hear the speakers power up and spoke. "Commander Sykes, I now have with me Yvette, who helps keep all the schedules for everyone, and Louis who was in the command post and running the sensor net during the Sa'arm visit. The basics are as you heard. A small Sa'arm ship entered the system. Louis detected it in time to signal the resupply base to shut down its emissions, but the ship did detect the colony. It approached the planet, but did not enter the atmosphere, instead launching a pair of missiles. Terraforming has begun here, but the atmosphere currently is extremely corrosive, and neither missile reached the ground nor detonated. The ship then returned in the direction it came."

"You're on a Death World?" the Commander asked.

"Yes," Yvette said. "I guess you hadn't heard, but this is basically a throwaway colony. The marines didn't know what to do with us and dropped us here, thinking we'd be out of the way."

Commander Sykes sighed. "I guess that explains the recent memo about your system becoming a stopping place for resupply when we make long raids. Well let's get to basics - what kind of Sa'arm ship was it."

Louis perked up. "Our ground-based sensors suffer a lot of degradation due to the atmospheric interference. And I shut the space-based ones down a bit too quickly. The data we did collect indicates that it was about as small as Sa'arm ships come. The estimate is that the maximum crew was fifty."

"Tiny," was the reply. "And you are positive they missed the resupply base?"

"No," Louis said. "But if they did detect it, they felt the planetary colony was more important. They came straight in towards the planet once they crossed the detection threshold. Although they broke off their approach before they were inside the orbits of our moons. I'd say they knew our atmosphere was corrosive."

"So you expect them back?" the Commander asked.

"I do," I replied. "And most likely they will come in with something that they expect can enter the atmosphere and survive long enough to get a close-in missile shot. The missile tracks show that they penetrated more than halfway through the atmosphere. If they can launch from within the atmosphere, they might be able to hit the colony with an intact missile."

The commander coughed. "They haven't shown that much initiative in the past."

"True, but our colony opens up a new flank, and we are currently on a planet that they can't visit, which makes us uniquely dangerous. I expect them to try at least once to dislodge us," I said.

"Wait," Commander Sykes said. "What direction was the ship going in, and where did it come from."

Louis looked worried. "That's what I worry about. Our briefing said we'd be outside the Sa'arm incursion cone, but it appears they have branched out. If the original briefing was correct, the Sa'arm incursion zone should run from ten degrees spinward to about one hundred forty degrees spinward. This ship came in from seventy degrees upspin, nearly a full ninety degrees off the known line of their advance. We aren't quite surrounded, but they now have appeared along a two hundred and ten degree arc."

The Commander laughed. "Well, I'll pass that on, but the memo said your base wasn't going to be up for another three months. So you need to figure out a way to hold out for ninety days, and keep the base up."

The connection died just as Terrence and the twins came through the door. Yvette looked upset. "Three months? Can we last that long?"

Terrence seemed confused. "What happened?"

Louis was thoughtful, and I suddenly got an idea. "Louis, you seem to be the most knowledgeable about the resupply base. Is there a way to disperse the base sections for now? Make it so that the Sa'arm could attack a dummy base, but the portions required to perform service on visiting ships will remain intact?"

Louis stood silently. "We could, but while the pieces are moving they will be vulnerable. We need to get some kind of orbital-based defenses."

"We'll work on it," Yvette promised. "Get the pieces moving now though. See where you can hide them."

Louis left as Terrence and the twins took a seat. They waited silently as I looked over the data Louis had revealed. Finally I sighed.

"We knew the Sa'arm would likely visit, and yesterday they did, but now the news gets bad," I began. "We just heard from the navy and were told we had to hold out for ninety Earth days. I expect they'll shorten that, but depending on how far in toward us the Sa'arm are, we'll probably get a visit from them before then. As you heard, we are going to disperse the resupply base. Hopefully we can find a way to reduce its emissions and detectability. If we give the Sa'arm the planet as a target, we might be able to protect the supplies. We do need some kind of orbital defenses. Something that can fire automatically when triggered."

Terrence shook his head. "I studied the Confederacy policy on automatic weapons. The AI's programming forbids them from operating any weaponry. It took a lot of programming to get them to accept recycling of concubines and that is only because they are recognized as property and not people."

I nodded. "Yes, but I'm thinking dumb weapons. Some kind of missile mines that launch when signaled from the planet or automatic guns that fire on anything entering their interdiction zone. It will mean we have to warn the Navy about forbidden zones in the system, but with a bit of planning that could work."

The twins smiled. "Yes," one of them said. "I was talking to Gina and she said that we can develop a communications link to just about anything. If we can develop the weapons she can get the AI to allow the network for signaling."

Terrence just nodded. "Timothy has some engineering skill. It's more electronic than military, but he could help, and he needs time to rehabilitate the shoulder. Even with the healing technology his mind expects the shoulder to hurt and it's slowing him down."

Yvette laughed. "Perfect and it will allow his concubines to keep fawning over him. He needs the support right now."

I laughed. "Terrence, I know you are rediscovering love with your concubines Diana and Ingrid, but if I remember right you said they worked in your office back on earth. Can I ask that they help out these teams by serving as secretaries? We are going to need to keep track of records and ideas."

Terrence smiled. "They would love to, but they'll want a gift."

The twins giggled knowingly as I looked at Terrence. "A gift?" I asked cautiously.

"Yes," Terrence said with a smile. "We've been busy and I haven't sent them to the medical bay yet. They want to be transformed into a pair of college coeds. Can I do that before they have to start working?" He gave me a pleading look as the twins burst out laughing.

"Go ahead and set that up," I said. "Meanwhile we have one last problem. I've had Xavier, Fred, Brad and myself get fitted for battle armor and we should see the suits ready in three or four days. After that we are going to need to start drills in the laser bays. Speed will be important. We also need someone designated to handle armor removal, as it's going to be damaged by the atmosphere and probably dangerous to touch when we first descend."

Yvette just smiled. "It's already being planned. Linus has agreed to be ground staff on one side. Tyson will work the other for now, although he wants the training to operate the lasers when there is time. We can start walkthroughs anytime."

I nodded. "Good. Let's get a general meeting for everyone in four hours or so. Tamara, Tiffany, you should organize that, and work the command post during it. You can listen in through the AI."

"Awww, but we wanted to be there," the twins said in unison before smiling. One of them continued the thought by observing. "It makes sense though. Louis and I are the best on the sensors and he should be at the meeting."

I smiled and we stood up when Linus shouted from just outside the room. "What the fuck!"

We dashed out and he pointed over at the three screens showing our doors. A naked young girl was cowering in a corner of the space that stood between our first and second doors. We could not see much due to the dim lighting we kept there, but her back appeared to be one large bruise and her right arm dangled limply.

"My god!" Yvette said. "To think she had the strength to get there."

I nodded just as Mieko and Janice appeared at the command post door. "We need to go to her," I said. "She looks too hurt to crawl any farther. AI, get me Ed."

A moment later a voice called out. "Ed here, what do you need James."

"Ed, we have a small emergency," I replied. "Get to the medical bay and get a pod ready for an emergency guest, also grab a couple of concubines and have them run to the crossing with a gurney. We have a refugee at our door and she looks badly beaten."

"God! How badly?" Ed asked.

"I'm not sure, but the video shows her right arm hanging limply and her back is one large bruise. She's cowering in a corner." I said as I grabbed one of the flechette guns. Terrence nodded and grabbed a pair of rifles, throwing one to Yvette.

"We'll cover you," he said as I used the strap to secure the gun. I grabbed one of our few over-ear com-unit setups before heading to the door.

"Meiko, Janice I need you with me," I said. "This girl is going to need support and probably not from a man."

I dashed out and they followed me. The run to the crossing took several minutes during which I could hear Yvette calling out orders and organizing others over the small speaker of the com-unit. We arrived at the door to find Tyson waiting for us.

"Is it bad?" he asked.

"She didn't look too good," I replied pointing to the video screen. The girl was still cowering in the corner of the room. "We're going to move to get her inside. If someone shows up outside warn me."

The door opened and Meiko and Janice led me down the dimly lit corridor. This section was long, but the thought of the girl at the far end needing help spurred me on. We had just reached the middle door and I was about to call for it to open when I heard Yvette speak. "Damn! It's Dennis. He's at the outer door and angry. Fortunately he's armed and the door remained closed. But that must be Dennis' concubine!"

I gave a command for the door to open just as a resounding boom echoed through the corridors. I could hear a cry of fear from the cowering girl as Yvette observed. "He's pounding the door."

"Yeah, the echo here gave me just a slight clue," I replied as Meiko and Janice darted forward to look at the girl. The girl flinched back with a cry, but upon realizing that it was a young woman looking at her threw her left arm around Meiko and started wailing.

Janice looked at me. "I'm no medic, but she won't be able to walk. It looks like her left ankle has been broken and her right shoulder is just as bad. I'm surprised she made it this far."

I cursed, and tossed my gun to Janice. "We can't stay here, that pounding will just make her panic more." I carefully bent down and gathered the girl up. She gave a cry of terror, but Meiko's gentle touch on her left arm silenced the cry and other than several sobs of pain she quieted down and closed her eyes.