Chapter 48

" ... and no, I am not going to take you back into the Service; you are far too valuable as you are and I don't mean money-wise" Sir Thomas Cassimatis informed the Sundowners as Sir Laurence Hernandes nodded in agreement.

Clare had returned to "Sundowner" in a lot better mood than she had departed. She spread the news "Sundowner" would not be expelled from the Kingdom and to "carry on". With her feet up in the quarters lounge, tranquilising her taste buds with a better brew, she reviewed the situation. She commed the schools' senior tutors and arranged a conference at four afternoon in the E gym (after realising there were no common rooms for teachers).

The meeting discussed "Sundowner's" reaction if another event occurred during a stopover. The attitude of the government might not be as sanguine as Mountserrat's — officially they were furious, but ... In another place, under a different regime, a shooting war might have ensued with local police who might or might not be in collusion with the baddies. Waiting for the locals to respond would allow a hostage situation to develop and these did not usually play out well for the hostage. Several students in the gym sat quietly listening to this conversation as the tutors expressed their views. Despite the general respect for the law, the opinion was that 'our' response was so much quicker and the students were quickly protected. Clare was slightly taken aback by that opinion as she knew TJ had waited and the Colony had made the move. It appeared that the tutors had been astonished at how 'well' the victims had handled the situation. During the debrief by the Nurse, one of the victims had said that firstly, because of the locaters, help would be on its way and secondly in that room before she had a chance to get terrified let alone comfortable, a com in her head told her they were protected and would be rescued so she stopped worrying and settled the others.

The consensus was go in fast and sort out the diplomats later.

"Yyaaahhh!" came a student's voice "that's right on with the House motto"

Enquiries of the speaker produced the information that Mr Windsor had been asked what was the House's (meaning the House of Tulip) motto and he had informed the questioner who had chattered it onwards

"'WARE MY FRIENDS".

That is, Beware My Friends. Or that was how the student had heard it and the students didn't make the fine distinctions of the TO&Es involved the way the Sundowners did.

Clare decided very quickly not to go any further at that time and wound up the conference.

Morg was enjoying himself in the House draping a holo (of a recently naked female, now robed, watching as Morg created a design for her) when Clare tracked him down. Not wishing to disrupt the proceedings, Clare watched Morg at his best. The holo's mammary representations showed the early deleterious effects of gravity and Clare surmised this was not only a problem in design creation but also for the owner's control of such masses. Discreet observation of the shape of the robe and the mobility of the masses as the client moved to observe and comment confirmed the likelihood.

"I have to declare a vested interest." Clare interrupted the proceedings "Your breasts make design just a bit difficult. Now if they were able to be held constant..." and removed her uniform jacket and undervest to reveal high positioned and pointed orbs of a somewhat smaller volume to that on the holo. Clare pirouetted to demonstrate the stability of her attributes. The robed one expressed interest and questioned Clare's interest — the researchers on "Sundowner" had developed the anti grav pads and the previous visits had not been sufficiently long enough to allow discreet publicity of the product (full on advertising of the product would have attracted the wowsers in any community).

The robed one conceded the point and excused herself to bring her friend to the measuring room to see Clare — the high points actually. By the time the friends returned 'Nita had been drawn in. Morg was (temporarily) ignored as the pros and cons of the breast reduction versus the pads were thrashed out with a consensus being of 'keep what you've got as a man attractor and use the support'.

Cedric and Orville were not truly dragooned back to the pad production line — they needed something to do while in harbour once the routine maintenance (and emergencies) was dealt with.

Clare had almost forgotten about the motto but that evening the thought resurfaced and she followed it up. Clare's almost hysterical reaction attracted her crew and the explanation was eventually forthcoming. What Morg had said was

"Wear, my friends!"

"Two old friends and I want to touch base again." Sally was comming TJ "Could we come up for coffee eight morning tomorrow?"

TJ was puzzled at the "two" friends but agreed as it was Sally making the request and they were to enter the ship via port boat bay force field.

TJ puzzled on it for a while; Wilberforce was probably still in Fourth but the only other mutual contact in the Kingdom was the Paymaster and last heard of was on Scapa. Sally knew Joe Higgins but TJ was not aware of that. TJ put it aside as he would find out soon enough; he informed the Sundowners, most of whom had not met Sally but knew who she was, and went back to his FTL contacts and planning the south west. The 'loss' of Eduardo on Bhute whom TJ had not been able to replace in the time available to him left a major hole in the net and because of the man, made suspect the information he had provided. TJ had issued an appropriate advisory covering the situation but constantly worried at the loss — berating himself as he did so because there was nowt he could do to correct the situation. To divert himself, he had accepted Clare's plan to begin instructing student pilots — with Cedric as an assistant — he undertook some shuttle training.

(Clare was constantly aware of "idle hands" and the need to keep brains occupied or they had a tendency to develop wacky ideas which were difficult to squash.)

The personal flivver eased through the force field into the boat bay as TJ stood by the inner airlock. The craft settled and as the power plant whined down the canopy was raised, TJ recognised the male occupants removing headsets and exiting — hardly 'friends'. The Kingdom of Mountserrat's First and Second Space Lords had come calling. Under their gaze, TJ spoke into the intercom,

"Heads up, people! The friends are the First and Second Space Lords." And spoke to the trio

"Hello, Sally. Admiral. Admiral" in flat tones accompanied by nods of acknowledgement. TJ cycled them through the airlock and showed them to the mess where most of the Tulips gathered.

Dorothy (I'd tear the illegitimates new arseholes) and 'Nita (I'd scratch their eyeballs out using nail polish) remained in the Club supervising the students' preparations.

The atmosphere was one of subdued hostility mixed with awe and deference.

The Lords had done their home work; Sally and the Lords shook hands with everybody present identifying each by name. Responding to Sir Thomas's'

"These ladies must be the Windsor sisters; I'm afraid I don't know your names." Clare introduced them. After the introductions were complete, Dell invited the visitors to seat themselves while the Daughters 'poured' for them and Clare — the others fended for themselves.

"We pulled rank on Sally" Sir Laurence began "to arrange this visit. Whilst Sir Thomas and I have no difficulty with most of what we are about to say becoming public, there are certain aspects which we want kept secret and there must be others that you would prefer not to be known.

With Her Majesty's knowledge and full approval, we are here to unreservedly apologise for the shameful manner in which you individually and collectively were treated.

Your Service records have all been amended to remove any taint upon your Service and the amendments have been signed by both Sir Thomas and myself at the direction of the Queen.

The actual wording, particularly for the lower decks, is a work of art(smile).

The down side of this is that is all we are going to do about it. Tom?"

The First Space Lord grimaced and started,

"I am not going to rehash old events other than to say that those events left a very sour taste in my mouth and that I am a servant of a Constitutional Monarchy."

He paused as if to gather his thoughts,

" ... and, no, I am not going to take you back into the Service; you are far too valuable as you are and I don't mean money wise. Even the lower deck; usually you are very small cogs in a very big machine but being here in support makes you very big cogs in a quite small but extremely important machine. Personally speaking I wish we had more control over you but I recognise that it is your independence which allows you to do the work which makes you valuable. Another similar group we had, came back under our control through force of circumstances and we have lost them as an R&D unit.

Your recent effort developing the concept of individual locations has my Marine Commandant positively salivating — he was Special Force in his more adventurous days. He has already adapted your breast uplift pads ... you didn't know? One of the problems of putting antigrav on ground pounders was that the load was still being carried — our antigrav worked on the bigger things — now the marine's packs are effectively weightless and the Commandant says — let's see if I've got this right — he can put stuff on the Marine who then controls where it is going rather than hanging a Marine off the side of the stuff trying to control it. Anyway he's 'rapt'.

On the other hand, Joe Higgins is not in love with LUST (laugh). Been wanting to use that one for years but couldn't because I'd have to explain who LUST is. LUST acting for SHOW Incorporated and Sundowner Incorporated are delighting in obtaining the best prices for their products — Joe wasn't as polite in his description, starts at gouging and goes downhill from there; and now that Sorensen is out...

I admit my petty side comes out when I have discussions with Treasury about the budgeting and costs of your equipment and I sit back reminding them we did get it at cost before Parliament stuck their beaks in.

Be that as it may, you continue to develop weapon systems which the RMN needs; you often give us an idea of the tactics to be used with the weapon system. My hope is that you will continue to improve our capabilities until the day arrives that this foul war has ended in our favour. Beyond that I can make no predictions but until that day, we, Mountserrat, need you.

There! That's the end of the unofficial official visit..."

And turned to Clare,

"Captain Gillard, what did happen at Bhute? Our people got some of it and not receiving an afteraction report, we can't fill the holes..."

Sally had collected TJ and Morg and were sitting at the corner of the table reminiscing about "Tangerine" (the 737 version). TJ however had kept an ear on the conversations of the Lords

'The canny sods! That is one of the reasons for the visit; they want what is basically an after action report of the shoot-out. I'll put a spike in the spoke... '

"Colin, what did we do with the cylinder magazines?"

Colin knew TJ was aware of their fate but played along,

"Sold 'em back to Colt Python as part of the deal for them to make the clusters for the USN under licence from us ahhh Sundowner Inc that is (both Lords went po-faced at that titbit). I think they put 'em on display with the vid reports from Bhute. They didn't actually state they were the ones actually used but ... Colt were also looking at the box and belt feeds, too, but the USN hadn't worked out what class ship to put that into. Old Abraham said he got a good deal out of it — Aunt Gabrielle has been sending him some pointers"

TJ inwardly creamed himself as Colin laid it on,

{You are not a nice person}

'Payback does bring some pleasure',

""Fireman" was a new build but old technology — she was an old style commerce raider with energy weapons and a few missiles. I have heard a whisper {yesterday} the Peoples' Republic have given them to the new security squadrons being incorporated into their regular Navy."

Both Lords went eyes wide at that little gem and Second, oh so offhandedly, remarked

"That one hasn't surfaced here yet; where did you get it from?"

{Lie mode, aren't you!}

'Yep' and gave voice

"Before we left Old Earth, I ran into an old friend, had been attaché in New Liege, and he mentioned it."

{Ran into? Bill Hitchin is a thousand parsecs away on Walton's Star last you heard}

'What's a few klicks between friends. The 'gen' is right.'

With a nod from Sir Thomas, the visitors rose

"Well, we'd best get back to the Admiralty to make sure Parliament hasn't closed us down. Might I have a word, Captain, as we go?"

Clare accompanied the Lords to the boat bay and Morg took the opportunity to repeat the invitation to come to the House of Tulip.

"Ivy and I are coming up tomorrow" Sally informed him as she scurried after her Lord and boss.

Clare returned looking thoughtful.

Mary Fogg had been spending far too much time in Cedric's company,

"Well? What did he want? We got no secrets among us."

Clare contemplated Mary's worried face for a second or two

"My service pack has been amended to show I satisfied the Crushers and a promotion to three striper before separation."

"You gonna leave us?"

"No; and it's got nothing to do with him (gesturing at the boat bay). "Tulip" herself is long gone, but after a weeding out, the Tulips remain. I'm among friends here. My only fear is that you people are frozen in place and you might get frustrated at not being able to improve yourselves."

"Nevah happen, boss lady" Mary laughed "where else could a Stoker 2nd be wiping down a drive shaft one watch and be the Chief o' t' Boat the next in the left seat? Nah! I think we are all happy here. But, sometimes, I do niggle that unsympathetic beast of mine about sticking together when we eventually go dirtside and raise families but that's a long way off."