Chapter 19: Hot Times

"Casualties? Polar Bears first," Lieutenant Kawamori demanded of the AI. She and the recruit company were standing in the main assembly room of the martello, helmets in hand.

"Lieutenant Kawamori, all Marine recruits were notionally killed, forty-seven by cannon fire from the caravels, twenty-three by triggering mines and the remainder by machine gun fire from Martello Two-Nine-Three-Seven's trenches."

"And the 'Opfor'?"

"Lieutenant Kawamori, Opposition Forces sustained notional casualties of twenty-nine caravels plus complete crews. No other notional casualties. Some of the caravel crews might have survived, but probability is high that they would have been unable to continue the battle due to wounds."

"Congratulations, Cadet Sergeant-Major Bachelor," the Lieutenant offered. "I believe it's customary for the losers in a war game to buy the winners a drink."

"We'll need to get special permission," Daniel responded. "None of the men who defeated the training company are old enough to drink."

With that, the thirty who had manned the trenches walked in, battlesuited and helmets in hand. The walls lit up to show video of those members of the Thule Corps of Cadets who had operated the Ford Pintos. Of those who had defeated the grown-ups, none were men. From the pigtails on one cute little red-coated charmer in the de Gaulle simulator room, the recruits could tell that not all of them were even male.

It was a humbling lesson.

It was another hot night in the Beauty Saloon. The recruits who had just been bested were dressed in their Full Dress uniforms, the cadets in their red coats. At Samantha's suggestion, the celebrants substituted mocktails for the more usual cocktails for the cadets.

General Michael Deschenes showed up for the party, bringing with him his former wife and now straw boss Penny, one other youthful and quite pregnant concubine of his named Rachelle, and his daughter Diana. All three of the females he was escorting were nude aside from sandals. As soon as Diana arrived, she scurried over to Daniel's side and gave him an impressive kiss.

While Diana dragged a thoroughly willing Daniel onto the dance floor, Michael stopped to have a brief word with Judy Kawamori. The lieutenant was sitting, Manhattan in hand, at the same table as Samantha.

"Buy you a drink, Sir," offered Samantha as Michael and Penny settled into chairs.

"Bronx for me. Penny and Rachelle need something nonalcoholic."

"I'm drinking a Baby Belle - orange juice, pineapple juice, a little grenadine and some lemon-lime soda." Samantha held up her drink, garnished with a spear of pineapple.

"Looks elegant," Penny said admiringly. She turned to Rachelle. "Interested?"

Rachelle nodded happily.

As they waited for their drinks order to arrive, Michael quizzed Samantha. "The 123^rd is returning from Hesperus tomorrow. Do we have any party for them set up?"

"Yes, Sir. Being as we're into December, it'll have a Christmas theme. The unassigned concubines will be dressed up as this." A thirty-centimetre-high hologram of a female wearing bell-festooned antlers appeared on the tabletop. The figure wore a green ultra mini miniskirt that barely covered her pudenda, and a leather sleeveless jacket with lamb's-wool trim around the collar. It left the breasts bare.

"The kids will wear this." She called up a second hologram. 'This' proved to be an elf outfit with pointy ears, pointy soft-soled elf shoes and a pointy green elf hat with red trim. It screamed 'cute'. The nanites coloured the child's skin a hue of Lincoln green below the neck. There were no trousers or jacket with the ensemble - Samantha and her entertainment committee were not into cladding kids when it really wasn't necessary.

"As for the schedule, the troops will be released just before lunch. After a welcome-back meal here with their straw bosses, which I expect will end up in a delightfully enthusiastic orgy, I'll give them a chance to relax with a concert. I have no idea what my darling Mickey and her music club have planned, so that'll be a surprise. Then the party itself, where fresh appetizers should fill us up. Unless you'd like to fill me up with something else..." She batted her eyes at him as seductively as possible.

"You could talk me into it," Michael admitted. "Back to the meal, what have you laid on?"

"Typical Christmas fare. Roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, cole slaw, giblet gravy, and for dessert, a choice of mincemeat, pumpkin and apple pie. Oh, and as a special request from some British among us, Christmas pudding. Y'know, I've never had Christmas pudding before."

"Neither have I," Penny confessed. "I'll have to try that."

"I'm told that there's a lucky penny in there somewhere. Don't know what you get for that."

"Laid?" Rachelle guessed. It was the first word she'd uttered since arriving at the Beauty Saloon.

"And if the lucky finder is under 14?" challenged Judy Kawamori.

"Um ... a raincheck?" ventured Rachelle. Everyone else at the table snickered at the thought.

Around them, the typical party atmosphere prevailed as the Polar Bears one by one slipped away for a few minutes only to return with one or more of their concubines.

Hesperus hung like a jewel in the sky outside Commodore Swanson's office view port. The swirling sand made fascinating colourful bands that looked not unlike Saturn or Jupiter, the solid matter behaving not unlike the gases of those giant planets.

The Commodore turned to the black-clad OOD's image that appeared on a convenient stretch of wall near the viewport. "Sir," the lieutenant advised, "we've received a communications drone from the Bluegill. A Swarm task force is on its way."

Swanson felt his stomach give a lurch. "Do we have an ETA?"

"Twelve to fourteen hours. The area in which they'll likely emerge is a fairly narrow cone."

"I'm on my way. Alert every ship present at Hesperus, alert the Brigade. All ships and stations go to Condition Red. Prepare to send a message drone to Thule - I want it to proceed as soon as I give the order, not a second before."

"Aye, aye, Sir."

Swanson grabbed his black kepi and raced for Orbital Control.

Orbital Control functioned during battle as a super Combat Information Centre. There was a second CIC room two decks above this one, functioning as the control for Battle Station Ralph Alpher's defence systems. These two compartments sandwiched the AI compartment and a large fusion reactor. Girdling the Alpher Station CIC was an emergency transporter nexus room and the Medical Inspection Room with a dozen med tubes. This entire core of the battle station was armoured and shielded, and capable of limited functionality in the event that the systems through the rest of the station should fail.

As Swanson hustled into Orbital Control, he heard the voice of Colonel Harben, the Station Commander, who was already in the station CIC two decks above. "Launch interceptors?"

Swanson's aide, Lieutenant Cielsowski, shook her head. "Not recommended," she advised the Commodore. "They'll be too low on fuel when the get there, and besides they could be needed here in orbit. Recommend launching interceptors from outposts Foxtrot Zero Seven, Zero Eight and Zero Nine in six hours."

So far, they'd had twelve outposts built, evenly scattered in a common orbit between that of the farthest planet and the Hesperusat astrosphere. Eventually there were supposed to be another forty-eight, but these twelve were all that was available. Like the battle stations around Hesperus, each had missile batteries, a wing of Starfighters and another wing of Star Arrows. Another twelve outposts were in an advanced stage of construction, but still didn't have an AI or fusion reactor. The outposts F07, F08 and F09 covered the arcing cone where the Sa'arm was likely to emerge from hyperspace.

Swanson saw the logic immediately. "Make it so. Take those fleet units currently scouting the system's rim, and line them along this corridor. I want to start hitting the ships as soon as they appear on our sensors."

As Cielsowski began ordering the fleet units into position, Swanson called up the message from the drone to see if there was anything else useful.

There was. The enemy fleet consisted of fourteen ships: one Voluptas hive sphere, one Vesta battleship, two Vervactor cruisers, six Venti destroyers, one Volturnus cargo ship and a trio of Vacuna scouts. Impressive, but not invulnerable.

Just time for one personal item. "Connie," he subvocalized.

The AI connected him to his concubine. "Yes, hon?"

"Do me a favour and get your cute little butt into the sickbay, before we send all your fellow concubines there. Hold their hands, tell them they're safe."

"And how safe will we be in Sickbay?" Connie challenged nervously.

"As safe as I'll be."

Connie paused long enough to bite her lip. "And how safe will you be?" Not waiting for a reply, she started to do her master's bidding, urging the concubines of Battle Station Ralph Alpher to their designated shelter.