Chapter 21: Pickup Preparations

The next morning found a different group of marines touring the underground facility with Margret and Nancy. Margret was taking notes as those who had been in Sa'arm tunnels pointed out details that could be improved upon for a more accurate facility.

Master Gunnery Sergeant Raymond Budzinski, Corporal Cynthia Miller, Corporal Walter Fitzgerald, and Lance Corporal James Thiele of Second Platoon and Sergeant Ronald Carson, who had been in Second Platoon before taking over Third Platoon, were breaking for lunch during their review of the interior structure plans. Carson, Fitzgerald, and Thiele had probably seen more of the interior than any of the other survivors.

Margret continued taking notes and asking questions of the three as Nancy broke out the chow box and began distributing the goodies. She barely interrupted the four as she handed them their lunches. Miller and Budzinski didn't pay much attention to her, either.

Miller pouted as she complained to Budzinski, "I've been granted pregnancy leave, but can't get anyone to make a baby in me. I'm feeling very rejected."

"I'm shipping back out in two days," Budzinski countered.

"How long do you think it takes to knock someone up?" Miller giggled. "I'm holding off ovulation in the hope that I can get laid in the next week. Can I count on seeing you tonight? I can stop by med bay and get an egg or two rolling. I won't take up much of your time, I promise." Miller rolled her bottom lip out in a little-girl pout. "You can bring Lieutenant Clark to break us up, or that cute blonde you snatched from the nursing home in Texas." Miller batted her eyes as she continued pouting.

"Damn," Budzinski muttered, "I warned Clark, but I guess I'm not smart enough to take my own advice. Okay, but I get a say in the little bastard's future."

"You can come up and see us any time you like," Miller vamped with a Mae West gesture and tone as the rest of the group wrapped up their discussions and laughed at the pair's antics.

Budzinski made one last attempt to evade. "Say, why don't you come with? We'll be heading to Earth for a really big braintrust pickup. The whole platoon will be taking Asimov back to Demeter to rendezvous with Zephyrus. It'll be fun! Even Lieutenant Clark and Captain McGregor will be tagging along. Come on! If you're really good — belay that! — If you really behave yourself, then I'm all yours during the return trip after the geeks get through their orientation briefings and upgrades."

"What! Cancel my leave?" Miller feigned shock at such a suggestion.

"Not cancel," Budzinski pleaded, "Just delay it for three months."

Budzinski could tell that Miller was sold on the idea of participating in the pickup, but was scheming something as they continued the site survey with their lovely escorts.

Commander Kehoe joined Ensign Clark in the colony CIC shortly after breakfast to see how the pod deployments were progressing and to wangle a dinner invitation from Ensign McKinsey for Colonel Bryant and himself.

"Neither Tuan nor I are very good urban planners," Constance pled her case for not being better prepared to receive the marine training staff and their families on the planet. "It would be good to have someone around with those skills, but the general purpose replicators in each residence make most consumer commerce and their associated traffic patterns obsolete. It would take someone who can create an urban plan that matches the new rules, not something replicated from the past."

"Whoever it is, we need them sooner rather than later!" Tuan added.

Clark was a bit hesitant to make an offer. "My concubine, Sasha, was studying urban development and traffic management. I don't know that she can help, but she has little else to do while I'm off on pickup duty."

"Sounds like the right person at the right time to me," McKinsey said with relief. "Thank you."

Tuan looked up from reading a message on his display. "It looks like we can expect Will-o-Wisp to arrive any day with ninety-eight experienced shipwrights and their families. They're being relocated from Frikat."

"Is that going to be a problem?" Kehoe asked with some concern in his voice.

"Not really," Tuan replied. "I think we're about to get the needs of arriving transport ships identified. What can we do for you today, Commander?"

Kehoe took advantage of the opening. "I was hoping you could suggest an appropriate location for Colonel Bryant's pod."

"I've been working on that," Nguyen spoke up as he directed everyone's attention to the holographic display of Barcino. "We're adding conference and brainstorming rooms as antechambers to the Communications and Information Center. We have a number of parallel projects being developed that require the coordination of resources. Each design and construction team needs space to work on their individual tasks and access to the other teams to coordinate shared resources."

McKinsey added, "Key decision-makers need to be available. Communicating through the AI is enough for most cases, but some require information than cannot be adequately conveyed to private quarters. Quarters for those in command positions need to be near the CIC or at least near a transporter nexus."

Kehoe was a bit puzzled. "Wouldn't defensive operations need to be on the station and at Camp Timmons?"

"Not necessarily," Nguyen replied. "There's a lot more going on than combat command and control, Captain. The situations we're presently experiencing involve allocating industrial resources and transportation for arriving immigrants, be they from Earth or from other colonies." The wording of Kehoe's question finally penetrated Nguyen's concentration, "Camp Timmons?"

"It's the name we're giving to what you've been referring to as the anthill," Kehoe responded with a friendly smile. Nguyen nodded and filed the information away for later reference.

"Military operations in the vicinity will likely require interaction between marine and naval units," Clark volunteered. "It could be advantageous if their combat information centers were convenient to each other."

"Perhaps we can get insight from Colonel Bryant, and Captains Collins and Cooper later today?" McKinsey ask somewhat rhetorically.

McKinsey looked at Nguyen who shook his head and said, "We're going to be occupied with getting the pods down from Asimov and preparing for the 98 more arriving on Will-o-Wisp. By the way, what kind of ship carries 98 pods? Could that be a typo?"

"How about I ask Phaninath to prepare a Luau buffet in my quarters this evening?" McKinsey suggested. She smiled when she added, "We could discuss neighborhood planning over drinks with little umbrellas."

Nguyen was clearly confused, "He can do that?"

McKinsey laughed. "Phaninath has many skills. He's a versatile international chef. Aswani does most of the traditional Indian cooking, but with Phaninath we can choose from a wide variety of cuisines. Perhaps we can get our botanists and the captains of the two ships to join us as well. Shall we say 1900 hours?"

Both Budzinski and Miller's pods were to be dropped that afternoon. Second Platoon had priority due to their being sent back to Demeter on Asimov to rendezvous with ships scheduled for Earth extractions. Clark and Wallace insisted that Budzinski and Miller bring their families down for lunch.

Nguyen overheard the discussions and offered, "How about I get Bea to make us a big picnic basket loaded with fried chicken, baked ham, potato salad, boiled corn, and a fresh garden salad? We can take over one of the pavilions in the park."

Wallace sheepishly offered, "As long as we double the guard on the kids, I'm in."

Nguyen and Clark laughed. Miller smiled as she recalled the ruckus at the picnic shortly after her arrival on Azahar. Budzinski was clearly puzzled by the response, but didn't inquire. Nguyen caught his expression and explained, "My thirteen-year-old daughter almost impaled herself on Wallace's thirteen-year-old son. Three other thirteen-year-old girls were holding him down expecting their turn on the E-ride."

"The one sitting on his face was more than enough to keep him pinned," Wallace offered; then asked, "E-ride?"

"Anaheim, California," was all Nguyen said in explanation. "Look it up."

Budzinski started to laugh, but sobered quickly. "Holy shit! You would've been held responsible if they'd engaged in vaginal sex! My conks are pregnant and my daughter, Melody, just turned fourteen. I guess I would have heard about it if Denise hadn't kept her under control. That could've been a disaster, and I wasn't even aware it could happen."

"How can such a fearless warrior be such a dowdy old woman when it comes to sex?" Miller wondered aloud. She beat a hasty retreat when Budzinski glared at her and shook his fist.

Everyone's laughter was withheld until they were certain that the threatened violence was all in jest.

"Actually," Clark volunteered, "I was a bit worried when Julie Ann and Becca told me about Sheila and Shelly's near miss with Bobby. The Code references sex between adults and thirteen-year-olds. Kids will be kids and if something happens between a couple of curious thirteen-year-olds I don't think the Court would involve itself unless the activity was being supervised or instigated by an adult."

There were several thoughtful faces but no one disputed Clark's observation. It was clear that everyone hoped that he was right. Even if they employed chastity belts and shock collars there would eventually be an enterprising pair of thirteen-year-olds who got it on.

"Okay, we all meet at the pavilion in the park at noon," Nguyen remarked as the impromptu gathering began breaking up to deal with the morning's tasks at hand.

Nancy, Judith, and Celeste spent a busy morning transferring occupied pods from Asimov to the marine neighborhood in northwest Barcino. The excavations were giving the pods a head start, but it was still going to take a day or two before most of them were connected to the Barcino tunnels.

The lighter crews were planning to keep working through lunch thinking that they could get three more pods down, but Tuan convinced them to take a break and have lunch in the park. It was the right thing to do for safety if for no other reason.

When everyone had arrived at the pavilion, Budzinski introduced Elizabeth, who was not yet far enough along for her belly to show that she was pregnant, Denise and her kids, including the fourteen-year-old Melody, Melanie and her kids, and finally his newest concubine Teri whom he had acquired during his leave after the Sa'Triste mission and before the pickup at Starbucks that had netted Ensign Clark.

Melody had not been tested on her birthday because Budzinski had asked her to wait. He hadn't come to grips with the possibility that he might be called upon to pop the cherry of a fourteen-year-old girl. Melody, on the other hand, was about ready to ride a broom handle.

There were no children in Miller's household, just the bodybuilding twins Rhonda and Roy who were solid and muscular. "Most people think I had the medical tubes shape these two," Miller remarked. "The truth is that they still look very much like they did the day I picked them up."

Melody gravitated to Jason and Angela even though they looked much older than the year that separated her from the pair. Budzinski watched Melody like a hawk, and Clark's attention was divided between Jason and his two thirteen-year-olds, Sheila and Shelly.

The inseparable Roni and Kim slipped off with Bobby, but an alert Mark Wallace flushed them back into the open before they could even get completely naked. He was backed up by a very relieved Ensign Nguyen who was very clear that Kim could engage in oral and manual exercises, but only with adult supervision to insure that her hormones didn't engage her biological autopilot and cause her to violate the restrictions against penetration. Kim wasn't ready to perform in public, so the trio returned to the pavilion to eat their lunches instead of each other.