Chapter 30: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

I could see Bethany looking a bit worried as we gathered around the table for a quick bite before rushing to the party. "Are you upset?" she asked me.

I shrugged. "You mean about how my concubines seem to be forming regular pairs. Tina usually with Janice, Meiko preferring to put her lips to your pussy, or how Brittany was so quick to volunteer today? Is that what you think I'd be upset about?"

Bethany gasped. "You noticed?"

I laughed which caused all my concubines to look at me fearfully for a moment. Meiko actually jumped as I slowly scanned their faces. "Bethany, how could I not notice? And why should I be upset? I try hard to be there for all of you, but there is only one of me. I've offered to make a strap-on for you all to use. And are any of you going to tell me that you don't want me?"

All six girls chorused, "No!"

Tina immediately followed that. 'Oh god, I need your cock so badly. You're so right. We do pair off, but its only because we are trying so hard to share you."

Janice was nodding. "We just sometimes worry that you won't understand. After all, we are your sex slaves."

I laughed more. "And yet, what do I concentrate on when I take you to bed?"

Meiko gasped. "You always try to make sure we cum again and again."

I smiled. "Exactly. As long as you all want me first, and then share with all, I understand your having preferred partners for when I can't get to you all."

My ladies all blushed and then stood up in unison to walk over and claim hugs. I held them in a large group hug for a moment and then stood up myself. "Time to get to the party," I said. "Afterwards, I'll show you all just how much I love my family."

There was a cheer from my concubines. Kitty and Brittany started dragging me towards the door as Bethany quickly cleared the table. We walked out as a group. Each lady had a hand on my arms and happily giggled as we strode to the recreation room.

In the room we found the party already started and Fred holding court around a table with the other sponsors. "Oh god! It was terrible," he said. "I know the only thing James said was that visibility was zero, but it was so much worse than that. The acidic vapor is so thick that the air is this sickly green. Most of my concentration was on the faint images in the heads-up display of the helmet and on Tyson's guidance, but there was this constant evil hiss as the acid ate away at my armor."

He looked and waved me over. I came and sat down as Brad smiled. "We insisted he tell us about his experience on the laser. He makes it sound terrifying."

I nodded as Bethany headed over to the food replicators to get drinks. "It was. The AI said the armor would last five minutes, but you get up there and you think it's going to only be seconds. It gets worse when you consider that you know you have at most four shots and have to rely on your instruments, which are being adjusted by another person. Linus did a great job telling me where to aim, and he kept up with the degradations, but you're still wondering how much time you have, and if you hit the target."

Fred laughed. "I only knew I was getting hits when the shock wave slammed me into the seat. You realize that it's now bent back about ten degrees?"

I shook my head. "I'm afraid that I haven't taken the time to check laser two. After the right arm of my armor fell apart just after I returned the laser to the bunker, I wasn't too interested in seeing the damages. It gets a bit personal when your armor is a blackened mess."

"Anyone know which hit was the one that counted?" Terrence asked as he walked up.

Linus and Tyson looked at each other. They seemed to be deciding and finally Tyson answered. "We aren't sure. Either James opened a path for the acid in his two hits, or Fred's first shot cut something critical. All three hits were low on the Sa'arm ship and the explosion started in that region. Fred's last two hits were middle and then high right. The explosion definitely did not start in those areas."

"Awww," Fred said. "So it wasn't my three hits?"

Linus shrugged. "We really have no idea. Its pretty clear that the explosion was not directly caused by a hit, but it's likely that the hits did let the acid in, and considering how much damage the acid did to the lasers in just two minutes, its not hard to imagine that the Sa'arm ship suffered serious damage."

"It's that bad then?" Cleo asked as she brought a beer over to Tyson. He took a sip and scowled.

"We need to find a way to brew better beer. The AI can replicate lots of stuff, but this stuff needs to be poured back into the horse," he scowled. "As for the acid, I've looked at the laser Fred rode. The acid pretty much melted the laser barrels as well as trashing every seal on the unit. And that was the seals that held."

"That held?" Brad asked.

Linus nodded. "Yes. Laser one had two seal failures. The first was on the barrel rotation plate. That's what killed the barrel rotation. The bars that connect the motor with the plate snapped. The acid also got through the seal on the right foot pedal. The bolt holding the pedal in place snapped."

"I remembered that one," I groaned. "I got thrown forward when it snapped."

Fred smiled. "Well, there were no casualties on our side, which is a good thing."

Barbara had been watching some bowling but wandered over. "What is this talk about?" she asked.

I shook my head. "How about introductions first. Everyone, this is Barbara, a refugee sponsor and soon to be a command post trainee. Barbara, we have here Fred, who was on the other laser earlier today. I'd like you to meet Linus and Tyson, who serve as ground crew on the lasers and had the hard job of keeping Fred and me on target. Brad is another of our gunners. Cleo you met earlier."

Barbara looked at Cleo who pirouetted. She was wearing a gold miniskirt and halter-top, which looked particularly sexy. Barbara still paused. "Wait, weren't you... ?"

Cleo laughed. "Yes, earlier today I was in the black lace bra and thong panties. Tyson loves that look, but the parties tend to be formal by our standards, which translates into skirts or dresses for the ladies."

Barbara looked confused, but Heather must have been over by the dance floor because an upbeat tune started playing and most of the conversations stopped. I looked over to the small dance area and watched Heather tug Ed out onto the floor. "Dance his legs off!" someone shouted.

Barbara stepped over to look and I looked back. "The only question is how we can reduce the reaction time, or improve the warning time. And we have to keep the armor from going bad. Right now Brad's armor is good, but Xavier's needs the air exchanger fixed, mine is trash and Fred's..."

Fred sighed. "Two days. All of the outer plating needs to be replaced and the helmet is useless. One thing we learned is that violent wire removal will ruin Confederacy electronics."

There was a general nervous laugh and then the voice of Kate, one of Xavier's concubines came over the speaker. "Umm ... I'm not sure what to do here. James we have calls."

"Calls?" I asked.

"And a visitor," Kelly, his other concubine said. "There is a Naval Corvette in-system. It just jumped in and is now just outside the orbit of Kali."

"Kali?" I heard Yvette ask. She was sitting at a neighboring table trying to get others interested in a bridge match.

Tamara shouted from near the dance floor. "The fifth planet is Kali. We named the fourth Isis. We decided on goddesses."

Yvette sighed. "And yet the two inner planets are named after characters from a movie."

I waved for silence. "Hold the chatter. You said calls, Kate?"

"Yes," she replied. "Commander O'Brien from the Corvette Nassau, and Manuel from the other side of the colony. Their calls both came in moments apart."

I groaned. "Yvette, can you move over a couple tables and take Manuel's call. If you have to, stall him and I'll join in later, but I think I should find out what the navy wants."

Yvette nodded. "Got it. Kate, put the commander through now. I'll whisper when I have a spot to route Manuel through."

Kate spoke a moment later. "Sorry for the delay, commander. I've routed your signal."

"About time," the gruff voice replied. "Tell me that you can do something."

"Depends on what something is," I replied. "We don't have a lot of people, and its not like we can leave the planet right now. This is a death world with a very acidic atmosphere."

"What!" the voice replied. "But I received word that damaged raiders could repair and resupply here?"

"Get me Louis," I whispered to Meiko who has been sitting next to me. "We do have a resupply base. We dispersed it after a Sa'arm scout visited us three weeks ago. The repair dock is still operational."

"What about crew? I've lost more than half my crew," the commander replied.

I looked around. "We have eighteen citizens right now, and all are technically marines. I can't help you there."

"Eighteen?" said an incredulous voice. "What kind of colony are you?"

"A tiny resupply and listening post. Actually I believe there are eighty-two citizens down here, but the other sixty-three are in an area that is no longer loyal to the Confederacy. I don't think you'd have much luck recruiting from there," I replied.

"Damn. What were the marines thinking?" the voice asked.

"They wanted to get rid of volunteers they thought were useless," I answered. "We ended up with four factions upon landing. Three are outside of the enclave that contains the command post you called. I don't try to do too much with them."

"Why not?" the voice asked.

Just then Yvette shouted. "No fucking way will we give you any help! You and Ruth can continue your little war without our participation."

"What's the problem?" I called out to Yvette.

"The fucker has figured out we must have a working armory and is demanding we send him two people wearing battle armor," Yvette called back. "He's threatening to use his grenade launchers on our doors if we don't."

"My god!" the commander said. "Is it really that bad?"

"It was worse on the trip here," I replied. "The crew of the ship finally just told everyone to stay in their pods until landing, and then somehow cut the travel time to here in half. Here, in this group, we have three heavy pressure doors protecting us. Meanwhile, you said you need repairs?"

"Dear god, yes," the Commander replied. "We were part of a strike team trying to cut off a Sa'arm hive ship and its escorts. We lost most of the task force. I think the Carrier William Pitt made it out, but we lost three corvettes and two battle cruisers. I didn't see the last corvette, but she was on the far side of the formation."

"Any chance of us seeing the carrier?" I asked.

"No," came the curt reply. "They managed to turn for home. We got cut off by one of the Sa'arm gun ships and turned this way praying that the post was up early."

Louis had been dragged over by Meiko and held a hand up. I nodded and he spoke. "Commander, this is Louis. I'm responsible for the repair platforms right now. What class is your ship and what's the damage?"

"The Nassau is a Patrician class corvette. Normal crew is twenty-eight including officers. We're down to eight and might lose three of them if they don't receive medical attention soon. We've lost just about all our armor and the engines are starting to fail. I only have one engineering rating left and he's one of the wounded."

I could feel the tension rise again. "Does your corvette have teleport technology?"

"No," was the curt reply. "Why?"

I was about to curse when Louis gasped. "The platform I have on Astarte does have a teleporter. And it can reach ours."

"Can the Nassau dock there?" I asked.

Louis nodded. "Yes, but if his engines go down we'll have a problem. We don't have any tugs right now. And that will be a tricky piece of navigation."

"We can do it," the commander promised. "I just need a guide. Right now I'm guessing I aim for the third planet since that's where your signal is coming from, but that's it."

"Astarte is the outer moon, but you have the right idea for now," Louis said. "I better get to the command post and get the repair station up."

I nodded and stood up and called to the people present: "Everyone! I hate to break up the party, but we have another crisis. Tiffany, Gina, get to the command post, get communications going to command. See if Borneo has any response to the ping. Tamara, get tracking up, we need to know of any Sa'arm ships followed the Nassau; we have no defenses right now. Louis, start guiding in the Nassau, see if you can prepare any of the repairs. Tyson, Linus, get to the lasers, can we get one of them up fast? Check laser one, it had less damage and we might be able to get it ready for one shot. Brad, armor up."