Part 13

Chapter 22

MONDAY May 19

4:04 am was flashing on the ceiling this morning. I could just make out the look of contentment still on Jenna's face as she slept. Nadhu woke up when I slipped out of bed and followed me to the bathroom. Running my hands over her voluptuous body while I was soaping her up and washing her had my cock so hard it was aching. When she returned the favor, Nadhu teased me unmercifully by not touching my cock at all. She surprised me by leaning back against the shower wall, and setting one foot on the edge of the tub, completely exposing her sex and then playing with herself in front of me. As she motioned me forward by crooking her finger at me, she told me that Greg had approved her resuming her sex life starting this morning. She moaned appreciatively as I sheathed myself in her tight sex. She was aggressive, leaving no doubt she wanted it hard and fast, and that's what I gave her, spewing deep inside of that voluptuous body while in her ecstasy, she raked my back with her fingernails. She snuggled against me, purring, as the water poured over us. "Definitely worth waiting for," she sighed.

"I don't think you'll have to wait anymore," I teased. "Guys will be falling all over themselves to get a date with you. You can have the pick of the litter."

"Where were all of these guys a week ago?" she asked. While there was no malice in her voice, her point was made.

We actually managed to sneak out without waking anyone else, Nadhu exiting to rejoin her unit for the pre-raid briefings that should be starting later today. I tried sneaking through the kitchen but they were ready for me today--grinning--and had a breakfast ready for me that I could eat on the run.

Greg had instructed the construction androids to install a group of the portable housing units near the hospital. Four were combined into one large housing unit and installed directly against the free wall, installing a door directly into the hospital from the double-sized unit. He ended up with a double unit two stories high. The nearby group of units was housing for the borrowed doctors. Greg and Sharon had claimed the one against the wall as their own, spending less and less time at their suite in the estate, and more and more time with their work. I had noticed a slowly growing collection of women sharing the house--and the bedroom with them. Four of the women worked with Sharon, and two worked at the hospital with Greg. All eight of them seemed happy, which was what was important, and from the looks of it, with four of the women visibly pregnant, I was probably going to have some adopted siblings at some point.

The hospital was fairly empty at this hour. There were women there for the treatments to remove their scarring. That wing, as well as labor and delivery worked nonstop 24 hours a day. I asked one of the medi-docs to let Greg know when he woke up that I suggested that he get more of the equipment he needed to keep up with the demand to have scars removed. The labor and delivery floor seemed pretty busy. The 'scoreboard' showed 31 babies had been born in the last day. Seventeen had an 'A' in front of the name, indicating that the mother had chosen to put the child up for adoption. I had just seen notices posted last night on the base information site that one of the former captives had been licensed by the UN to perform adoptions. Renee had given her five legal assistants to help with the paperwork, and would provide however many more she needed as the agency grew. The worldwide online news this morning had announced the new agency indicating that they could provide newborns, infants, toddlers, and children through age eight. There would be no cost to the adopting family, but there would be a thorough background investigation, and frequent, unannounced follow-up visits. The contact number and address was through an office in the UN.

Dr. Sun saw me and cornered me, voicing a concern that we were creating a climate here that would make the rescued women want to stay long-term or permanently, and not return to their old lives. She didn't really have any ideas what we could do to change it, considering that most of them needed the medical treatment, physical therapy and training, extra food, and psychological therapy they were receiving. I suggested getting them into jobs outside the base when they were ready, and possibly setting up smaller satellite estates like this one around the world so that the girls could go home, but could still get any treatments they needed nearby--sort of a half-way house. I was also expecting--or at least hoping--that many of them would attend outside schools. Those who were college age could be urged to attend outside colleges where they would meet and interact with others their own age.

She also offered to bring in a lot more shrinks. She was nearing retirement, and had joined a worldwide group of retired therapists that often volunteered their time to work with families that needed more help than the government would provide. I told her it was a great idea, and offered the use of freighters and androids to help move any of them that wanted to move into one of the nearby towns while they were here.

I stopped by my lab and reviewed several requests that had been made. The one suggesting that we build several playgrounds, more sports fields, and several pools for the children we already had and the large influx we expected from the raids tonight was approved. I sent an e-mail to Vonna suggesting that she set up a program to take groups of 50 to 100 kids at a time shopping for toys. Also approved was the request for pets for the kids to play with and to learn to be responsible for. The request for field trips for the classes was approved, beginning in fourteen days. I hoped that the world would be a much safer place by then. I also suggested including 'fun' field trips--the beach, amusement parks, sledding, skiing, and camping--as well as educational ones. These kids would need to learn how to be kids and to have fun as much as they needed to learn the usual stuff one got at school.

Next, I tackled the stack of applications for the law council that had been collected so far. Most of the applicants met my criteria, and I was surprised by a couple from young teens that seemed to have a good understanding of what I was looking for. A quick count showed that 83 applications had already been turned in before noon.

Finally, I spent some time contacting the head offices of the sixteen different churches that had been requested so far. Each time I explained that I had several thousand women here being treated for medical and emotional issues, and they had specifically requested a church of their denomination here. I promised to pay--in advance--the salary or salaries and all costs involved for any clergy they sent, and would provide suitable transportation, housing, food, and all other expenses while they were here. I asked that anyone agreeing to come had to stay for at least one year, and they could not discuss anything about where they were with anyone. Most had been skeptical, but agreed to meet with us to see that our request was legitimate. Gratefully, they all eventually agreed, and by the following Sunday, we had nineteen churches available on base. There had been three additional requests Tuesday that I had taken care of, too.

Serena let me know that the last 22 pirate raids had been completed about two a.m. They had captured 1533 pirates and 149 ships, rescued 2147 captives, 1114 portable housing units, and 103 cargo containers. The barracks at Holloman had been opened yesterday anticipating a possible overflow of rescued captives. Work was underway to set them up just like the ones here, with dining rooms, beauty shops, hot spas, and massage parlors.

The estate raids were tentatively scheduled to begin this evening. Iceland and South America were first since the east coast would be dark first, then the raids would follow the setting sun westward across North and South America. After a five-hour break, the raids on China and SE Asia would be conducted simultaneously, following the night as it crept around the world. Africa, the Mid-east, and Europe would also be done simultaneously, following the cover of darkness. Empty cargo containers would be dropped at each base to hold our detainees until all of the raids were completed. Freighters had been set up with padded floors to transport the rescued captives back to Holloman. Our fleet of hospital ships would follow the action, going where they were needed, transporting patients back to the base hospital in ten passenger shuttles set up with five soft, reclining chairs like Kateryna was using once they were stable. I asked to have the baby factories and baby farms raided as early as possible, and to have lots of transportation nearby to carry the children and women to the base immediately.

The work in Russia proceeded throughout the night. There was already an underground organization with two contacts in every city and large town, and many smaller towns. The contacts knew each other, and knew the contacts in the cities or towns nearest them. When Derevenko's troops were in the area, a warning went out to nearby cities and towns so that women could be warned to hide. Gennady met his contacts in the five cities and towns nearest him, meeting each in the middle of the night and passing on the news. First, though, each contact was exposed to an inhaled gas that a shielding android released. When Gennady was satisfied that his contacts were legitimate, and weren't reporting to Derevenko, they were given their own shielding android and four-passenger shuttle to visit his or her contacts. Right now, contact had been made and loyalty verified in 272 cities and towns. By late this afternoon, over half of the cities and towns would know. By tonight, every city and town would know. Tomorrow, weapons, Special Forces, and shielding androids would be sent to Russia to help train the new Russian Army, and help plan the battle and defense strategy for each city.

Jeff had requested some of the fireflies be changed to allow them to access computers and to record data, either computer data or visual and auditory data. The changes had been made, and the new 'dragonflies' were about twice the size of their cousins, but had better camouflaging. The amount of KMG they carried was less than half of the fireflies, though. They were being produced manually, reconfiguring some of the fireflies until the production line was finally completed about an hour from now.

Gwen paged me and asked if I was available to address the Special Forces troops at the soccer field. Sven was on his way over already. I caught up with Sven on the walk over and warned him about what I was going to do with the groups reviewing the laws for starting new colonies. I didn't want him worrying that I was trying to push a political agenda when this was over.

The 1000 UN Special Forces troops were dressed and ready for combat, assembled, and waiting when we arrived. Even though bleacher seats had been provided, they all stood at attention and saluted as Sven entered, wearing his 'official' UN commander-in-chief uniform. Once he got to the podium, he returned their salute and had them sit while we addressed them.

They cheered loudly when he announced that the last pirate base had been captured last night. They were shocked to find learn there were over 600 estates that trafficked in sex slaves, and cheered when told those estates would all be out of commission by this time tomorrow.

"And now, gentlemen, we come to the reason for your assignment here. Twenty-one hours ago, the first group of troops from Task Force PITA entered Russia with the intent of helping the Russian people take back their country from Vladimir Derevenko and his minions." For several seconds, there was stunned silence, broken abruptly by the loudest whoops and cheering so far.

When it quieted down, Sven continued. "You are being temporarily assigned as members of the PITA forces. General Gwen Ruiz is the commander of their offensive forces, and Lt. Commander Garrett Pulver is commander of the defensive forces at this base. His father, General Jeffrey Pulver will be your immediate superior in Russia. He is in command of all PITA forces in Russia. I want to remind each of you that the people of Russia are not our enemy. They are fed up with centuries of abuse, and are now taking an active part in their own liberation. Your enemy is Derevenko and his troops. In spite of that, I must admonish each of you to keep in mind how you are expected to behave with enemy prisoners. The PITA forces have captured all 127 known pirate bases in existence, taking nearly 10,000 pirates captive, and freeing nearly 15,000 prisoners that were being held in the process, including the 90 surviving members of the crew of the Kashmir.

Every single raid has been reviewed thoroughly by Judges from the World Court, watching for any hint of prisoners being abused. Every raid today will also be reviewed, as will many, if not all, of the battles in Russia. As Head Judge Knutsson admonished the troops here, your job is to defeat the enemy, not punish them. Punishment will be assigned by the courts if, after each case is heard, they judge it to be warranted. So far, every case that has been heard has resulted in a death penalty for the pirates involved. The base commander here is allowing the former captives the option of personally applying that sentence to their former captors if they wish."

That also got a round of cheers. "And now, I would like to introduce you to the man in charge of this base, and of everything that happens here, the mysterious and much whispered about Commander Omega, Dr. Mike Miller," Sven announced excitedly. When the cheers died down, he stepped back up to the podium. "I just want to warn you that if you hear about him being charged with smuggling into Russia, he was there as my personal envoy, and I was there with him. We purposely did that to try to direct speculation about who Commander Omega is away from him."

When my turn came, I explained briefly about our weaponry and shields, having a couple of androids demonstrate not only the portable shield, but that they could move just like a regular person. I also gave them a synopsis of how I hoped the battle in Russia would go. They were amazed that there would only be one battle, carried out in simultaneous attacks across the continent. The fact that so few troops would be needed, and that I hoped the battle would be over in an hour or two astounded them, as did my warning that the hardest thing they would have to do when the battle commenced was to keep the rest of the Russian population from trying to join in the fight against Derevenko.

James' voice came over my com unit as a shuttle hovered overhead. "Ladies, gentlemen, I have just been informed that this morning, the Free Russian Army decided on their flag," I announced as overhead, a Russian flag unfurled below the hovering shuttle. It was mostly the customary tri-color Russian flag with the gold canton. However, the double-headed eagle inside the canton had been encircled by the symbol Omega, and the Cyrillic letters signifying the Free Russian Army. When Sven and I left, Gwen began explaining our weaponry and armament in more detail, as well as suggesting general battle plans. Of course, she had to wait for the laughter to die down after Sven explained what PITA stood for. They would be leaving for Russia as soon as they had been briefed and their uniforms had been exchanged for PITA uniforms.

I went to find Kateryna's operation and had to stop and scratch my head when I found that they weren't there anymore. The entire office was now Air Traffic Control. Her office was moved several doors down, and laid out almost exactly like Air Traffic Control--complete with 50 consoles, most of which were currently manned--or more accurately, womanned. The wall-sized display at the front of the room currently listed 144 Bumblebees. Kateryna was obviously feeling better as she got up and hugged me. "Thank you," she whispered emotionally, giving me a kiss suggesting that she was definitely much stronger now than a few days ago.

Seeing me looking at all of the large number of women in the room she explained that they were training to help with the estate attacks. Each trainee was working with a trainee pilot in a simulation, and both were being supervised by an experienced Bumblebee pilot as well as an experienced Bumblebee Command staffer. The already trained women were each watching a group of trainees and making suggestions and corrections. A large clock on the wall read 04:04:31 and was counting down. "Troop assembly for tonight's raids," Kateryna explained. "The raids start two hours later, at 4:00 our time which is nine p.m. in eastern South America. Greg says I can have gentle sex in another week," she whispered suggestively before I left.

I went by the courtrooms and saw that all fifteen were in full swing so I went by the cells and visited with Keiko, whom I hadn't seen in days. She had turned the bunker closest to the cells into her own living quarters, complete with her own torture chamber. "I teach the women how to use the canes and other instruments here," she answered when she saw me looking the setup over.

"That's all?" I teased.

"Well, I've had to play with a few of the prisoners since you won't come down here and do me properly," she admitted. I pulled her to me and kissed her, then reminded her that she would need to invite me if she had something specific in mind. I didn't just show up looking for sex.

"Like this?" she asked, grabbing the front of my pants and stroking me. Keiko was definitely an aggressive lover and seemed to enjoy what I did for her as much as I enjoyed making love to her slender, small-breasted body. Her long, black hair cascaded around us, creating a private tunnel of sorts around her face and mine. The visual stimulation of the nearly predatory gleam in her eyes and the delicious sway of her small, pert breasts as she rode me to climax hastened my own climax and I spewed my seed deep inside of her.

From beneath Keiko, I heard the muffled noise and jumped quickly, practically throwing her off me when I saw several women advancing on us with canes in hand. "Stop," Keiko hollered at them. "This is Mike, the man responsible for saving all of you." Embarrassed and chastised, the women began apologizing. I stopped them, telling them I was proud of them for standing up for Keiko.

"Sorry, I forgot I had company coming over," Keiko explained--to all of us. While I got dressed, I told her not to worry about it, and then kissed her goodbye, stopping and giving her six would-be defenders a quick kiss, too.

I caught Johann as he was breaking for lunch and asked if I could pester him for a few minutes. "Hypothetically?" he laughed.

As we walked to the Judge's dining room, I explained that I wanted to review, amend, and append the UN laws as apply to colonizing the Alpha Centauri solar system. I explained my plan to have eight groups of women review the laws and make their suggestions, and then have representatives from the eight groups come up with a final proposal. I would like him to review their suggestions and their concerns and let me know what he thought.

"Why not just start from scratch?" he asked.

"That might send a message that I'm at odds with the UN, not simply a few of the laws I don't feel are appropriate for a colonization program," I explained. "It's even possible that the UN might adopt these laws for any future colonizing," I suggested.

"So, what's your target date for all of this?" Johann asked, actually sounding interested. I told him that I put out notices last night for people to do a job, but didn't explain exactly what it was. I didn't want to announce my intentions to the world yet and set off a race to the stars. I estimated about a year before I thought we'd be ready to leave with the first group of colonists--if our surveys agreed with those of the two previous survey teams--one that had visited Alpha Centauri A and one visited Alpha Centauri B. Between them, they found three planets they felt might support life as we knew it. All three had oceans and land masses. Plants and animals had been detected, although no signs of intelligent life had been noted. Three additional planets might support life under terraforming shields. Unmanned cold fusion probes had been sent to the surface, sending their findings daily to an orbiting satellite that saved the data for retrieval at a future date. The satellite was capable of collecting data for 100 years before the data banks were full. The probes would change location once a planetary year for the planet they were on. Since the two survey teams had returned four years ago with their findings (from three year missions) there should be five years worth of data available when we got there.

"That's not right," Johann corrected. "You would have six years worth of data by the time you got there."

I grinned. "I guess I forgot to tell you that I have a ship that can do warp 150," I bragged.

"A hundred and fifty?" he gasped. I gave him the Reader's Digest version of what the engines could do, and told him about the five colony ships Derevenko had. I hoped that we could capture them intact, or at least find his plans for them. I was hoping to send survey teams out to all three planets in a couple of weeks after everything here was somewhat settled.

"Just how many different things do you have planned?" he asked.

"I want to free Russia, help the people there get a government set up and functioning, survey the Alpha Centauri system and colonize it if there is a planet that will support human life, and then I want to explore as many other star systems as possible. There are at least a dozen star systems we know of that could theoretically have earth-like planets that could support human life. I want to explore those solar systems, and colonize them too, if we can find a suitable planet. Then I want to explore as much of the rest of the universe as possible and see what interesting things we can learn out there."

"At least your goals are realistic," he laughed, then said that he'd be honored to review the laws suggested for colonization.

I found Gwen, Stan, and Garrett huddled over a table and going over maps and charts. Their final plan was to start with North America and South America as darkness fell, having experienced Bumblebee pilots provide backup for the new pilots to let the new pilots gain the experience. There were only 88 estates left in the western hemisphere, and by kickoff, we'd have 150 Bumblebees. When they reached 150 Bumblebees, they would start converting the freighters for use as transports to ferry freed captives back to the base, and then would convert some of the ships to carry our prisoners. When the raids got to China and SE Asia, we had enough Bumblebees to have two at some of the estates that had originally been reluctantly scheduled for only one, but for which a two would be safer. Better safe than sorry.

Janine was looking over a valley when I got there. She had a large hologram of the base in front of her with towns, rivers, and the bases and facilities blacked out. Everything else was either already producing agricultural land, land currently being prepared for agriculture, or land planned to be prepared for agriculture. They had just passed two million acres under cultivation, or almost a third of the available area. Adding the coffee plantations had increased the area suitable for agriculture by quite a bit. The lower slopes of the mountains were being planted in orchards, and the tops had been scraped off, leaving a flat area for coffee once the Colombian topsoil was put down. The sides of the mountains were being terraced for coffee, rice, and other crops that would grow at the higher altitudes, although terraforming shields increased the number of possibilities.

The dairy was in full production, operating 24 hours a day. Janine used terraforming shields for the dairy cattle, too. One shield surrounded the milking facility for half a mile, maintaining it in constant light. Low altitude helium-Navon lights were used there when necessary and would be used for any crops needing more light than nature provided during the winter months here. The other six shields went out for miles from the milking facility in 60-degree arcs. The dairy cattle had been brought in from around the world, and the terraforming shields were adjusted to create six different time zones, each four hours apart. That gave them a four-hour window to milk the cattle from one time zone and clean up before the next group came in.

Janine also purchased a smaller dairy and relocated it nearby. Evidently, there was a growing demand for goat milk and cheese and other products made from goat milk. The goats were only split into three different time zones. The original processing plant for the milk had been converted to cow milk only. Another plant had been built for processing cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, goat milk, and goat milk-based cheese.

She was also building a huge, refrigerated warehouse in one of the rocky areas. They had actually blasted down into the rock (they let Jeff test his new high-explosive tank shells in the area) and built two levels underground and three above ground. Each level would be at a different temperature. The lowest level was a freezer; the next was the milk cooler, then a meat cooler, a vegetable cooler, and a slightly warmer fruit cooler on the top level. The upper levels would have freighter-type doors on alternating sides so deliveries on grav sleds could be made directly into the warehouse. Shielding would keep the cold in when the doors were open. A freighter would simply hover on the open side and the grav sleds would make the trip across the open space between the ship and the warehouse. She got that idea from her husband. He'd seen it done at his work, but on a much more limited basis. She would be able to unload three ships on each side of the warehouse at the same time. I also noticed some monstrous silos scattered around the dairy for feed, and scattered around the areas used for growing grains.

She estimated that all available areas of the base would be changed to agricultural soil within two weeks. She had enough towns wanting to expand to replace everything we needed, and left several more towns disappointed that we couldn't use more. "There's lots of room in Russia," I reminded her. "Maybe we could find some desolate area there and convert it to agriculture. They have lots of water, but only seven percent of their land is suitable for agriculture without terraforming shields." I could tell by the look on her face that she would be doing some serious thinking about the prospect.

I dropped in on Stacey at the Venom Lab. The place was hopping--and huge. They had cages of varying sizes from drawer-size to 20 feet square. Some had one snake; some had several. There were 50 androids moving around the lab, which was separated, into several sections. Each section was closed off from all of the other sections and all of the walls and doors were transparent. She was concentrating on Northern Hemisphere and equatorial snakes for now, and as soon as she had a good supply available, would gradually shift from Northern Hemisphere snakes to Southern Hemisphere snakes as the weather here cooled and the weather there warmed up. She was already selling two-thirds of what they produced, and was making enough that she was planning on a special addition to house sea snakes in various sized aquariums. She was giddy about the way things were going.

When I got back to the base, I found Natasha and Valya busy with their studies. Natasha purred when I brushed her hair aside and began kissing the back of her neck. "What do you want?" she asked in a voice way too sultry for a fourteen-year-old.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm thinking about you and I'm happy to find both of you studying," I told them. I went over and gave Valya a kiss, too, not wanting her to feel left out. She giggled when I spun her chair around and kissed her on the tummy, then cupped my hands together against her skin like a megaphone and said "Hello in there."

The teasing and giggling turned to tickling, and quickly all three of us were naked. Valya took advantage of her position and quickly straddled me, lowering herself on my cock. Natasha had to settle for my tongue, but had the first--and second orgasm as Valya teased her nipples.

We took a break for lunch, meeting my wives on the way over. I could tell from the grins that something was up. "What?" I asked defensively.

"All of the kids have already been to the toy store. We raided stores in Dallas, Beijing, Rio, Bangkok, Calcutta, Tehran, Berlin, and Addis Ababa. We got enough for the kids we're expecting tonight, too," Vonna announced proudly. I hugged her, thanking her for thinking ahead.

Gwen commed as we were finishing lunch, reminding me that troop assembly was in a few minutes. I kissed all of my wives and Li, shooing Li off back to school, and Natasha and Valya back to their studies. The troops were all assembled on the tarmac near their ships. Someone had adjusted the shielding to block out more of the sun so they weren't standing in the hot afternoon sun for too long. One of the 1X cargo sleds was waiting for all of the speakers, ready to elevate us enough that everyone could see us.