A Planet Is Sworn
Copyright© 2009 by Scotland-the-Brave
Chapter 10
Science Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 10 - Book 3 in the series of the twins and how they grew into adults and how they deal with the trials life throws at them. How will Ben turn out in the end? How will his magic metals help or hinder the people of New Woden? Read books 1 & 2 first.
Caution: This Science Fiction Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa mt/ft Ma/ft mt/Fa Incest Brother Sister
"The man's a fool! No, he's worse than that — he's a fucking idiot! His crew is nowhere near ready to fight the Zytol. His ship is at least better prepared, but with Marlon at the helm I fear for the lives of all aboard," growled Ben. "They won't last a minute!"
"Tell me again what happened, you must be missing something," said Sarah.
Ben re-told the story of his encounter with the Scout and all that had happened.
"I don't understand. From what you're saying, it should be you that's mad at him, not the other way around. He fired live weapons at your ship," said a confused Sarah.
"It's pride, pure and simple. That's three times now I've got the better of him — once with the missile when they first arrived, then during the Rebecca's trials and now this. Foolish pride! He feels he's been made to look inadequate in front of his crew and he can't take that. The entire crew are going to pay with their lives for one man's puffed up idea of his own importance. It's criminal!" said Ben.
"He obviously is inadequate, why do his crew continue to follow his orders?" asked Sarah.
Ben's face took on a funny look and he didn't respond to Sarah's question, instead she 'heard' him communicate with Elise.
"Elise, did you say that all of the Wodenites were tele-ported back onto the Scout?"
"Yes, Commander, all of them," she replied.
"Even Simeone?" Ben asked.
"Affirmative."
"Elise, bring us back onboard right now!" ordered Ben.
In an instant both Ben and Sarah were standing on the bridge of the Rebecca and Ben crossed to take the pilot's chair.
"Find them and take us after them, Elise. Simeone would not have left on the Scout of his own free will and we need to get him back!" said Ben.
The AI took the Rebecca out of orbit and worked the engines up to their maximum speed in an effort to overhaul the Wodenite ship.
"Elise, forget about using the engines, use the power of the metals to transport us, we don't have time for this."
On his return to Aetherkraal, Ben had explained all of the things that Elise could do, but Sarah was still surprised when the Rebecca's screens suddenly showed the WS Scout dead ahead of them.
"Wow, she can really do it — that was incredible," said Sarah.
Ben ignored her comment and focused on rescuing his father. Before he could order Elise to take any further action, Marlon's voice blared over the comms.
"NWS Rebecca I am regarding you as hostile and will take all necessary measures if you approach any closer to my ship."
"Captain, I suggest you end this foolishness now before I make you look like an idiot all over again. You've kidnapped my father and I want him returned immediately," said Ben.
Ben's words clearly served to inflame Marlon's anger once more and they could hear him spluttering over the comms link.
"Pilot Simeone is a Wodenite and he has been arrested on charges of treason, I will not be handing him over to you or anyone else for that matter!" snarled the Captain.
"I've had just about enough of this buffoon!" said Ben, as he cut the link between the two ships. "Elise, find Simeone please and transport him aboard."
Almost instantaneously Simeone appeared on the bridge beside Sarah. The look of relief on his face was clear to see and he slumped down into one of the officer's chairs.
"Thank goodness! I swear that the man has gone mad. He had me locked up on charges of treason — he ranted on at me for daring to train 'savages' and for turning my back on Woden. Mad, absolutely mad!"
Simeone paused and looked round the bridge, a puzzled expression appearing on his face.
"I'm certainly grateful, but doesn't Marlon's ship have a security feature that stops people tele-porting on and off without clearance? How did you manage to whisk me away?" he asked.
"Our technology is much better than his," Ben lied, to cover up Elise's capabilities. He re-opened the comms link and made one final attempt to talk some sense into Marlon.
"Captain, I urge you to reconsider what you're doing. Your men are not yet ready to fight the Zytol and you're taking them to their doom. Can't you see that you're signing their death warrants?"
The only reply was the hiss of static.
Ben slammed his hand down on the armrest of his chair in frustration.
"Damn the man! And pity his crew."
Sarah communicated silently with her twin so that Simeone wouldn't hear.
"Why don't you just take control of Marlon and order the Scout to turn back?" she asked.
"No, I'm not doing that again if I can help it. Elise has explained how she feels about taking control of someone and I'm ashamed that it took a computer to teach me the difference between right and wrong."
Ben reverted to speaking normally at that point, a sad look on his features.
"Elise take us home please, I can't bear to be this close to Captain Marlon any longer."
With the departure of the Wodenites there had to be some adjustments on the planet. All of the original twins and Simeone met to discuss what they were going to do and all agreed that they had sworn to try to liberate Woden and nothing had changed that.
"I for one didn't swear to help Woden because the WS Scout was in orbit around our planet, I swore because liberty is precious and something worth fighting for," said Ben.
"It would be a terrible stain on our honour to back out of what we swore to do. God meant us to be free and no one has the right to take that freedom away. I agree, we should carry on with our plans," said David.
Thomas was less vocal, but nonetheless agreed that they had made a pledge and they should stick to it, Sarah and Elizabeth made the decision unanimous. Simeone felt a lump in his throat, as he watched his first born children showing just what kind of stuff they were made of — no father could ever feel as proud as he did at that moment.
David and Beckie now had four officers — the previous Benite leaders of the four companies of the New Woden Legion, whose troopers had virtually all now departed. Kirsty, Simon, Ben Jr. and Jenny took over some of the duties at the training camp and plans were drawn up to begin to train more of the Stellarites.
Thomas was left as the sole engineer and he badly missed his Wodenite colleagues. That didn't stop him from focusing his attention on the second ship that was being built however, and strangely for him, he actually began to work harder.
"We need to speed up production," Ben told him. "Elise reckons that it will take Marlon four months to reach Woden, but we can get there much quicker than that. If at all possible I'd like to be able to arrive in time to try to save his crew. The only problem is that I think we need at least four ships. Can you finish this one and give me two more inside of two months?"
"That might be pushing it, but I'll try my best Commander," Thomas replied.
The first Stellarite volunteers were already part way through their training and Simon was appointed to lead them. The original plan was that this group would be used to accelerate the numbers of Wodenites that could be trained at one time, but that was no longer an issue. Instead, the plan was that they would now join the crew of the Rebecca once they had completed their training.
One of the trainees in particular couldn't believe his luck when news of their posting was announced.
"It couldn't get any better than this. I'm being trained in how to be a natural killer by one fuck-up and they're putting me exactly where I need to be to kill the other. Life is sweet!" he thought to himself.
The Celestialites would be able to furnish enough troopers to crew one other ship, so a further sixty four Stellarite volunteers were required if two more ships were going to be built.
David had enough squad leaders to start two more groups without any delay, so the second batch of Stellarite volunteers entered their training at once.
Ben ordered more drones to be produced and he set them to work carrying out the necessary repairs to the WS Reaper, the forgotten harvesting ship. The already overworked Thomas promised to oversee an upgrade to the ship's systems when he could get round to it.
"Why are you bothering with the harvest ship?" Sarah asked Ben.
"I'm trying to think ahead. Think about it, if by some chance we're successful in liberating Woden, there's bound to be a shortage of resources. The Reaper is packed full to the gunnels with everything the people on Woden will need to rebuild."
"Are you going to try to install an AI similar to Elise in that ship too?" asked Sarah. "It seems awfully big to be making the kind of jumps around space that the Rebecca manages."
"The repairs won't be ready in time for it to join us in the fight, let alone the upgrades that Thomas is going to carry out. No, the Reaper is just going to have to use normal engines to get to Woden. In any event, it would be too big a target for the Zytol to miss, so it's better that it arrives after the fighting is over. With any luck we'll have things under control before it gets to Woden. If we don't - if we lose - then it doesn't really matter, does it?"
With work carrying on apace on building ships and training men, there was little else for Ben to do on the planet. There was something else he needed to check out however, but that required him to be on the Rebecca. Something told him to retrieve the ingot of metal he had hidden in his room before taking a step forward and transporting himself to the cabin he shared with Sarah on the ship. The ingot was easily stashed away and then he made his way to the bridge.
With the time fast approaching when they would need to set off for Woden, Ben felt that it was pointless keeping Elise's secrets hidden from his officers any longer — they were going to find out sooner or later.
On the bridge were Nathan, his Navigator, Leona, the Communications officer and Sarah, his twin who was acting as the Science Officer. Ben gathered then together for a few words.
"We need to find out exactly how long it will take us to reach Woden so we can maximise the time our people down on the planet have to prepare.
"The AI has calculated that it will take Captain Marlon three or four months to get to Woden, but we'll be able to do it in a much shorter time than that.
"Over the next few days you're going to be surprised by some of the things this ship can do — she has some special features that we haven't told you about as yet. I'm warning you in advance so that you don't think I've lost my marbles.
"Elise, take us out of orbit please and prepare to make one of your jumps."
Ben purposefully let the officers gain the impression that a 'jump' was powered by some kind of new technology rather than the power of the metals. While the crew returned to their duties, he closed his eyes and asked Elise to summon up her 'galaxy-view'.
"How far do you think it's safe to 'jump' in one go?" he asked Elise.
"I can see most of this galaxy, so it's probably safe to jump to its outer edge, but no further. A note of caution Commander, we should be more careful from here on in. The ship is possibly at its most vulnerable just after a jump, as we won't know what's just beyond the range of my sight. I would suggest smaller jumps and more time taken in searching ahead of us for possible trouble."
Ben could see the sense in what Elise was suggesting. According to his inherited memories, Woden was more than six hundred galaxies away from where they were.
"Why don't we make the jumps only half a galaxy at a time and then spend as long as it takes scouring the area ahead of us for threats before making the next one? It means that it might take us two or three weeks to reach Woden, but at least we'll get there in one piece hopefully."
Elise agreed and Ben prepared himself to act for the benefit of the officers. He opened his eyes and spoke to the AI as normal.
"Make your jump in your own time, AI. Nathan, be prepared for some surprising readings on your scanners," he warned the navigator.
"Jump completed, Commander," Elise informed him.
Ben could see the sudden stiffening of Nathan's shoulders as he hunched over his instruments.
"That's impossible, Commander. My instruments are telling me that we've just travelled fifty thousand light years in the blink of an eye!" Nathan spluttered.
"Take your time and verify our position, Nathan," Ben smiled. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Sarah was hiding a smile too.
"Our position is verified, Commander," said a still stunned Nathan.
"You'd better get used to that, Nathan. We're going to have to do almost a hundred of these jumps a day to reach Woden as quickly as I want us to. No one should worry, there's no danger involved," said Ben soothingly.
Ben kept up the pretence for the crew.
"AI, continue to make jumps in your own time, but alert me when we're one jump away from Woden."
"Commander, it's going to take me a little time to finish searching ahead for possible dangers. My calculations suggest approximately fifteen minutes for each search, so your guess of a hundred jumps a day wasn't far wrong."
"Keep your eye out for any signs of the metals of power, Elise. We've got three other ships that are going to need to be coated before we take on the Zytol."
"I was already doing that, Commander. I'll let you know if I find any and obviously I'll record their location."
Ben could sense the trace of a rebuke in Elise's voice, as if she was insulted that he had thought she would forget something so important. He smiled at her developing personality and wondered why she appeared so like a woman.
Ben's estimate of the time to reach Woden was out by a few days. It actually took them twelve days before Elise announced that they were one jump away from the planet of their ancestors. By now the officers had adjusted and the idea of jumping fifty thousand light years every fifteen minutes was nothing to them.
Elise's announcement did serve to remind them that they were now very close to danger and that helped sharpen their focus.
"Shall I make the final jump, Commander?" Elise asked.
"Let's spend some time gathering intelligence first, shall we? Nathan, what are your scanners telling you?" Ben asked.
"Nothing, Sir. We're still too far away from Woden to pick anything up."
"Sarah, have you got anything for me?" Ben asked.
"Nothing, Commander, sorry."
"Oh well, I guess we'll have to use one of our other capabilities then. Elise, use your 'far-view' scanners and put images of Woden up on the main screen please?"
Elise interpreted what Ben was asking for and she actually slipped into her 'galaxy-view' before feeding the images onto the screen. The crew could see the image zoom until a single planet became visible.
"Is that really Woden?" asked Leona.
"Yes, not very pretty, is it?" Ben observed.
There was something sickly looking about the planet. Unlike their own New Woden, this planet had a pall covering parts of the surface and Ben realised what damage losing the ozone layer must have done. Of course, being the subject of an invasion wouldn't have helped either.
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