Chapter 22: Refugees from the Front

Commander Kehoe called Corporal Miller into his office at company headquarters shortly after approving her request to delay her pregnancy leave for three months. Miller was surprised to see Lieutenant Clark in the office with Kehoe and began to worry that she had pushed the young ensign just a bit too far and was about to get an ass-chewing.

"Miller," Kehoe spoke in a very professional, down-to-business tone. "I see that you've put in a request to accompany Second Platoon's cruise to Earth. We can't have you going to Earth in that uniform. Ensign, if you will do the honors."

"You're out of uniform Sergeant. The paperwork I have here says you should be wearing these." Clark smiled as he handed Miller sleeve patches with sergeant's chevrons. "Congratulations for surviving long enough to get these. From what I've read of your record they should have been awarded some time ago, posthumously."

"I've been away on business, sir." Miller smiled as she accepted the patches.

"You have indeed, Sergeant," Commander Kehoe agreed. "That's why these orders are retroactive for three months, which is as far back as I'm allowed to go. You've been out of uniform for some time, but I take responsibility for that. I, too, have been occupied with business. Congratulations on a well deserved promotion," Kehoe added as he handed her a copy of the official paperwork for her records.

"Thanks you, sirs. Thank you very much." Miller acknowledged.

"I understand that we'll be picking up three of Sergeant Carson's squads at Demeter along with Commander McGregor. I'll see you aboard Asimov tomorrow, Sergeant." Clark added, "You have less than 24 hours to pack for a 90-day deployment. I suggest you get yourself organized!"

With her dismissal, Miller smartly left Kehoe's office in a very professional manner, but a loud "Yahoo!" could be heard as she exited the outer office eliciting chuckles from the two officers.

"Forgive me, Commander," Clark said as he checked his PDA. "I promised Lieutenant Wallace that I'd attend young Bobby's birthday party and I have just enough time to get there. I think having the party before Bobby is CAP tested is a bit pessimistic, but there would be little to celebrate if he doesn't get a score of six-point-five."

"Of course," Kehoe said as he returned the salute and allowed Clark to retreat.

Marvin stopped by his pod to collect Rebecca and the kids who had been invited to the birthday party. He was waiting for his crew to get together and catch up with him when Tuan and Kim walked by.

Tuan teased Kim as they made their way past Marvin, "Would you like to give Bobby a nice blowjob for his birthday?"

"Sure, Pop!" she answered with a caveat, "If we can go upstairs to his room ... alone!" She added the last when she caught the sparkle in her dad's eyes and knew what his counteroffer would be.

Marvin followed Tuan into Wallace's pod. After greeting everyone in the family room, Tuan remarked to Marvin, "I understand that you'll be leaving for Earth to get our governor. What do you think she'll change when she gets here?"

Marvin Clark was puzzled, "She? I don't know who the governor is. Who was saying that the governor is a woman?"

"Oh, really," Tuan didn't think much got past Ensign Clark, but this clearly had him puzzled. Before the two men returned their attention to the party in progress Tuan remarked, "Captain Cooper used the pronoun 'she' when referring to the governor. It may be her way to use the feminine form, but I assumed that you'd know and didn't interrupt her."

"I truly don't know," Marvin assured Tuan. "It couldn't be Lesa. She doesn't have a qualifying CAP score, which is bogus in itself. It might be Janet. She has an eight something CAP, but I think she's too much of a nerd to be a good governor. It might be one of the Boston bunch. I didn't have much contact with any of them. I'm truly stumped."

"Maybe we can corner Captain Cooper a bit later," Tuan suggested before he and Marvin turned their attention to their host and the birthday boy.

Bobby was a bit hesitant as the cake was being cut. "Thank you all for celebrating with me before I head to medical for my CAP test. I would like things to remain as much like they are as possible until Kim and Roni have also been evaluated. I don't plan to volunteer until then even if I can."

Mark looked at his concubine's son in a new light. It was uncharacteristic of any young man his to put his life on hold. "If you want to learn how Kim and Roni score before making a life-changing decision, then you certainly have my support and blessing."

The celebrants that didn't have duty continued to party and waited for his return when Bobby left for his appointment. The celebration really picked up when he walked in sporting a CAP ID emblazoned with a 6.9 average score. Kim and Roni almost choked him to death as they congratulated him with hugs and kisses. Kim almost consented to a public blowjob.

Wallace's pregnant concubine, Janet, was showing more the just a little, but she had taken a shine to Bobby. Wallace allowed her to relieve the young man of his virginity that evening. Annita was both relieved and a bit jealous that Janet was going to spend the night with her son. The jealousy she felt both surprised and disturbed the young mother.

Bobby was not the least bit put off by Janet's belly. He was pleased and honored that she was to be his first. He smiled at his mother before he ushered Janet up to his room. He was a little ashamed of himself for wishing that he was following his mother instead of Janet. Even though the term 'motherfucker' was never a compliment, wasn't it the dream of many a young man?

The platoon barely had time to get their families settled in before returning to Asimov for the trip to Earth via Demeter. Captain Cooper asked that four new pods be moved to her ship and configured as barracks to keep from crowding the platoon into the sparse Marine quarters on her colony transport. The marine quarters of an Aurora-class were not intended for much more than a squad.

Captain Cooper didn't envy the crew of the strange looking assault ship in the newly completed repair bay. They would be delivering pods to a planet deep inside Sa'arm-controlled space. She didn't expect to get back in time to see Bronson, Wallace, and their concubines before they left on such a perilous mission. Wallace wouldn't be coming back even if all went well. She smiled as she remembered the send-off she had gotten from them last night.

The crew had Asimov powered up, and Captain Cooper eased away from the bustling activity of the station before all of her passengers were loaded. There was plenty of time for the marines to transport aboard as the ship boosted out of orbit and made its way to the outbound jump zone for the Poseidon system.

A very large crowd had assembled in the central tunnel junction. The concubines and dependents of Second Platoon accounted for the bulk of the crowd, but the Wallace, Clark, Nguyen, and McKinsey families were also represented as the platoon prepared to board Asimov.

"I didn't get a chance to speak with Captain Cooper about the governor before she disappeared," Marvin told Tuan. "I'll send you a note when I find out."

Tuan acknowledged the remark with a nod of his head.

Commander Kehoe and Colonel Bryant arrived just as Clark was assembling the platoon for boarding.

"This should be a milk run, Lieutenant," Bryant remarked. "This pickup has been in the works for three months and appears to be well organized."

Clark smiled, "Sir, a group of very resourceful people have been planning this pickup for at least nine months. I'm very pleased that the Confederacy is finally catching up with them."

"Ensign Clark was one of their key organizers on Earth before stumbling into a pickup," Kehoe informed Bryant who shrugged off the correction. "He's being allowed to participate in the extraction of his co-conspirators because of his familiarity with the individuals involved and their plans. We're expecting him to retrieve over two hundred leading developers of advanced weapons."

Clark's eyebrows made it halfway to his hairline before he spoke, "Lesa and her misfits must've been very busy while I've been playing soldier. I'm amazed that they could maintain security with such a large crowd participating in the pickup. Now I understand why the entire platoon is being sent."

Marvin Clark smiled like a mischievous boy as he said goodbye and kissed Millie and his three pregnant concubines. Rebecca had only been pregnant for a week. Marvin knew it was his, but had left Rebecca to wonder who the father really was. It could well be her son's. She was ashamed of herself for becoming such a willing slut. Between Marvin and Sasha, she could be manipulated into initiating some very outrageous sex. By her old standard of behavior what she did was sick, but now she wasn't so sure it was even deviant, much less depraved.

Clark lined up the platoon in the corridor opposite the transporter and did an impromptu review as they crossed to the narrower tunnel that gave access to the transporter room. Both Bryant and Kehoe returned Clark's salute as they crossed the center of the large intersection chamber. At the far side the platoon broke into single file as they entered the short passage that led to the transporter room.

Clark accompanied First and Second Squad to the forward transporter room. Budzinski and Miller went aft with Third and Fourth Squad. Sergeant Budzinski called Clark to verify that everyone was aboard and secured for FTL. Clark, Budzinski and the four squad leaders were to occupy the marine quarters in the bridge area of the ship during the short two-week jump to Demeter.

Asimov had hardly been in hyperspace for six hours when a voice broke the stillness in the Barcino CIC that followed the alarm announcing a ship exiting hyperspace. "Good day, Azahar Control. This is Will-o-Wisp requesting approach vectors and orbit clearance."

The young lieutenant manning the CIC released the breath that he hadn't realized he was holding as he silenced the alarm. He found his voice and replied, "Will-o-Wisp, you are cleared for a standard approach and orbit a kilometer outside the orbit of our station. It's several hours after supper here, by the way."

"It'll take us a few hours to get into orbit. We'll get down to business after breakfast, then. I don't see Asimov and was hoping to catch up with her. How far behind her are we?"

"She left about six hours ago. I'll notify Commander McKinsey of your arrival. We should be able to begin offloading your passengers shortly after breakfast and have you on your way about a day behind Asimov."

"Thank you, Azahar." the captain of Will-o-Wisp replied; then added, "It's not critical that we catch up. Some of my crew would like to meet with Captain Cooper. It sounds like we'll get to Demeter just before she leaves."

Both Nguyen and McKinsey were notified of Will-o-Wisp's arrival. After a quick pajama-clad conference call to Nguyen, McKinsey sent an invitation to Major David Stoner and Commander Roger Milford aboard the arriving ship to join Nguyen and her in her quarters for breakfast in order to expedite the pod transfer from Will-o-Wisp and get the ship on her way to Demeter as soon as possible.

"Actually, there are ten empty pod mounts on Will-o-Wisp," Stoner replied in answer to Nguyen's question during breakfast of how they managed to have 98 pods. "The 'Wisp is a unique configuration that's primarily used to transfer up to 108 pods between colonies."

"Interesting," McKinsey remarked before testing the command issues she expected with this bunch. The new arrivals were Fleet Auxiliary personnel who specialized in the construction, modification, and repair of Faster-Than-Light spacecraft. "I understand you're being transferred to Azahar to help us improve our shipyard facilities. Since there are 98 Fleet Auxiliary officers and ratings on the roster we received, and you have ten empty pod mounts on a ship that can accommodate 108 pods, I believe I'm safe in assuming that you haven't brought any tools or materials with you. What resources do you require from us, Major?"

Stoner blinked in confusion, "We're here to help you build ships. What kind of ships are you building?"

"Nothing at the moment," a surprised Nguyen supplied. "But, we do need something that can collect methane from the local gas giant and return the loaded pods to Azahar. Do you have replicator patterns for something that simple? Our AI isn't very creative or flexible about design changes."

Milford laughed and remarked, "I have yet to meet an AI that was either flexible or creative. We've been totally occupied with producing weapons and repairing battle damage for almost a year, but we do remember how to build spaceships. Our templates are for FTL spacecraft, but it shouldn't be a challenge to remove the FTL drive."

"It will be nice for a change to only clean up a little blood from where an electrician nicked himself with a cutter," Stoner replied with a harsh undertone in his voice; then he returned to the present and asked, "Are you sure you wouldn't want the FTL to shorten the trip when the two planets are on opposite sides of the sun?"

Nguyen shrugged, "Not if it adds a significant amount of time to building the ship. We need to start building our fuel reserves faster than the facilities located on the surface of Azahar can manage."

"What size containers did you have in mind?" Stoner asked.

"We're using standard pods to store the methane, but they weigh too much for any ship's pod mounts. Pods loaded with liquid methane have a gross mass in excess of 800 metric tons. That's about 16 times the typical weight of a pod. Most ships can accommodate a hundred ton pod or two, but not ones with a mass of 800 tons," Nguyen advised. "If we reduce the diameter to around three meters, then it would only hold about 75 tons and could be framed to fit a standard pod mount."