Chapter 65: A Pleasant Waking

The next thing I knew I was lying down on something soft. At first my mind seemed filled with fog, but in the distance I could hear a baby babbling. This reminded me of my own daughter and I thrust my hands down, planning on sitting up.

Hands reached out and grabbed my shoulders, holding me down. "Slow down, Little One," Bethany told me. "You took quite a hit."

"But Madoka," I cried as I squirmed in Bethany's grip.

"She is fine," Bethany told me. "You do have five sister concubines. We made sure that Madoka was fed and changed. We even allowed her to sleep on your chest for a while. You both slept better while she was in here."

I raised my head and looked around. We appeared to be back home, but I did not see Madoka or a crib in the room. "She's not here," I muttered.

"She woke up a while ago," Bethany said. "You needed more sleep. Do you realize that in the last two days you spent almost forty-five hours running the teleport system? And the last twelve or so was after you had a concussion from hitting your head."

"It had to be done," I said.

"It did, and from what we can tell you saved a lot of lives. The concubines on the carrier would have died if they were still on the ship when the structure failed," Bethany told me. "Or at least that's what I'm being told."

"We won though," I said.

Bethany laughed. "We did, and in many ways it wasn't close. We only lost three ships. Well the Confederacy did, all three were visiting from whatever cesspool spawned the orders Colonel Johanes was given. The missile cruiser got caught by one of the battleships. They tried to close the range so their missiles could evade the counter-measures. It didn't work."

I nodded sadly. "I heard that much while on the teleport unit. I heard a ship called Odessa also died."

"Yes, one of the Asia class destroyers. Her sister ship Vladivostok also didn't make it. Captain Evans thinks they were trying to match Freya's performance," Bethany said with a laugh.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked.

"Captain Evans doesn't know how Freya does it," Tina said as she slipped into the room and sat on the cushion I lay on. "Most Goddess class ships don't divide the gunners, or if they do, they use two teams of twenty. Freya has four groups and still had the most coordinated fire of any ship fighting. You realize they took out a Sa'arm battleship solo?"

"I'm not sure I was awake when that happened," I replied. "I lost everything just after Sergeant Watkins came back from the carrier. But wasn't it destroyed?"

"No," Tina said. "Although Louis and Timothy say it will take a week to repair. The carrier and the corvette River Oaks were both heavily damaged."

Bethany giggled. "Don't forget Cancun, which is once again a wreck. It seems that Captain Gates doesn't understand that the object is to avoid being hit entirely."

Tina giggled. "But somehow her ship had no casualties."

"How many did we lose?" I asked nervously.

Bethany hugged me. "No one. We lost no one. Yvette is still on a pod, as is Deb, but everyone else has been released from medical."

"James?" I asked.

"I'm surprised you didn't ask about him first," Tina said. "He was released about an hour ago. We're supposed to bring you to him. But you need to stand up slowly. Lindsay and Donna are both upset that they didn't realize how badly you were hurt."

"I hit my chin when the shockwave from the crashed Sa'arm ship went through. That was all," I said.

"You hit your head," Tina corrected me. "Gina's Michael said that he thinks you had a major concussion. We had to load you in a medical tube after you collapsed."

"It must not have been too bad," I replied as I swung my feet off of the bed. The room was spinning just a little, but I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This slowed the spinning, so I was able to gradually push myself to my feet.

"Bad enough," Bethany replied. "And we didn't have the luxury of allowing the medical pod to fully heal you. Donna set it up to make it so you could sleep and recover naturally once you were out of the pod."

I nodded. "Like she did for James after that idiot colonel demanded to see him. What happened to him?"

"The sergeant who came over with a few marines put him under arrest when they first scrambled back to Sir Paridell when the fighting started," Tina said. "He had no real authority to do it, but the captain of Sir Paridell agreed. He's been locked up on the transport pretty much since he was forced from Ishtar."

"Good," I said with a nod of my head. The world spun around and I stumbled. Tina held me up and then slowly turned my chin until I could look into her eyes.

"I think little Meiko here needs a bit more rest," she said. "Either that or she's hungry."

Bethany laughed. "I'll grab her something she can snack on. We need to get her to James."

"Where is James?" I asked as I took a step forward. My balance felt off, but Tina slipped her right shoulder under my left arm and held me upright. She guided me slowly from the room as Bethany ran ahead.

"He and the ship captains gathered in the visitor's lounge. They need to contact Borneo for a debrief, but James wanted to see if anyone knew what Admiral Timmons was up to first," Tina told me.

We reached the door to our bedroom. It opened silently, allowing us to step into the common room we used so often. The room was silent as Tina turned me to face the door to the tunnels. "Where's..." I started to say.

"The babies are mostly still in the nursery," Tina said. "We aren't sure if another attack might appear. It's unlikely, but until we figure out where the hive sphere came from, James is being cautious."

"Can we do that?" I asked. Tina was assisting me as we walked to the door. I twisted in her grasp to look back towards the replicator we used to produce food. Bethany was there picking up a tray.

"Louis thinks he's identified the planet already. It's not one we've ever visited because it's been infested for over a century. He thinks that what we saw probably took all of their remaining resources," Tina said. "Terrence is using a repair remote to investigate some of the wreckage to see if they can confirm that."

I nodded again, only to find all strength in my knees vanishing. Bile climbed my throat for a moment. Bethany came over and held out a glass filled with an orange liquid. "Drink," she commanded.

I reached out a shaking hand and carefully gripped the glass. Tina steadied me as I brought it to my lips and then slowly tilted my head back to drink. Smooth, cold orange juice poured past my taste buds as I drank.

The drink seemed to revitalize me. I kept drinking until the glass was empty and then tilted my head back to vertical. Bethany had her hand out and claimed the glass as I lowered it from my mouth.

"Better?" Tina asked me.

"Is that all?" I asked.

Bethany laughed and handed me a slice of buttered toast. "No," she told me. "But it's only finger foods until we get you to James. Now do we carry you?"

"No," I replied as I took a bite from the toast. "I can walk."

With Tina's continued support, we resumed our walk. I kept nibbling on the toast as we exited our home pod and entered the tunnels.

We made our way through the tunnels. As we walked, I noticed large cracks in the walls and ceiling. No one else appeared concerned, but after we passed by one crack that ran from the floor to the ceiling and then along the joint for the wall and ceiling for at least ten yards, I turned to Bethany.

"What about all the cracks?" I asked.

Bethany shook her head. "Caused by the same earthquake that you got hurt in. James already asked the AI about it. Any that might have resulted in a leak have already been repaired. But additional repairs will be slow as we have prioritized ship repairs over repairing the tunnels."

"That makes sense," I said as I took the last bite from the toast I was holding. Bethany noticed and immediately put a chocolate covered donut into my hands. "Why the toast first?" I asked as I looked at the donut.

"To make sure your stomach was settled," Bethany said. "But you appear to be getting stronger as we walk."

"I'm just hungry now," I muttered before taking a bite from the donut. I looked up as I chewed. "Are we not going by the command post?"

"The hallway just outside the command post is a bit messed up," Tina replied. "The door was blown out during the earthquake. This is a bit safer for the moment."

I gasped. "Oh Tina, your beautiful tapestry."

"Survived intact," Tina replied. "So many people were going in and out that the AI had slid it aside. A couple pieces of wall material were thrown into it, but they did no damage. All the tapestries came through well."

I wanted to say more, but Tina and Bethany sped up our walk. I found that I could walk and eat, but not continue the conversation as we walked the remaining distance to arrive at our entrance to the visitor's lounge. Bethany had rushed ahead and passed through the airlock before Tina and I arrived.

"She could have waited," I observed as we waited for the airlock to open.

"The airlock only holds two," Tina reminded me.

"Oh," I said as we entered the airlock. I licked my fingers to remove a few chocolate crumbs as we waited for the inner door to open and allow us access to the lounge. It took a moment, but the door opened. Tina gently got behind me and pushed me through the opening.

I stumbled forward and found myself wrapped up in a tight embrace. My face was pressed against a man's chest. I fought to turn my head so I could breathe. It took a moment, but I was able to gasp in some air before the arms relaxed. However, they did not completely release me. The right arm remained wrapped around my waist and the left reached behind my thighs to lift me from the floor. I shrieked in surprise.

"Now, is that any way to reward your master?" James said with an amused chuckle. "I was just going to give you a ride to the table."

"James!" I screamed. I threw my arms around him and pulled my body up until I could plant my lips against his. My tongue tried to part his lips, but while he kissed me back, he thwarted my attempts to French him until he finally turned his head and broke the kiss.

"Later," he said, panting just a little.

He turned and starting walking through the lounge. I could hear several people laugh as we made our way to one table. Suddenly embarrassed, I buried my face in his chest. James appeared to ignore the catcalls and laughter, as he walked purposefully through the room.

He came to a stop. The lack of motion puzzled me, so I raised my head. We were in front of a large circular table. I was looking to James' left and watched as Bethany pulled out a chair next to us. My master said nothing, but moved to sit down in the chair, still holding me in his arms.

I tried to turn around, but James kept me against his chest. A hand absently stroked my hair as people greeted James. I realized that I was not going to be allowed to run off and settled down to pay attention to the conversation.

"Isn't that the girl who was running the teleporter?" I heard the crusty voice of Sergeant Watkins. "That isn't a uniform."

I could hear Bethany giggle as James hugged me with the arm that was around my waist. "Meiko is my concubine," he said softly. "But she's also a very intelligent woman. The citizens we have who know how to run the teleport system were busy elsewhere."

"And Meiko happens to be the best on Ishtar at running the teleporters," Yvette said. "Just like our hydroponics expert happens to be a concubine. We don't have enough citizens to do everything we need to, so our concubines help."