Chapter 66: Natural Calm

The rest of that day was spent celebrating the survival of the colony. For James and my sister concubines, it was a time to reaffirm our bond and to relax together. For the first time in ages, James was not worried about anything. He lavished attention on each of us as we enjoyed our first break in a long time.

That evening, the first repaired ships left the docks and headed off. Freya and Cardiff were the first to leave, but once they had left it seemed that a ship was departing every six hours or so. Sir Paridell was undamaged, but stayed an extra day so that Sergeant Watkins could compose a complete report on what had gone on. He wanted to prevent any fallout that might jeopardize the careers of the enlisted men in the unit. From what little I heard, most had been picked up recently.

Martin Van Buren was the last ship to be repaired. When it pulled out of the repair docks a week after the battle, Captain Burros thanked us for a job well done. Ravenna and a repaired but undercrewed River Oaks quickly formed up on the carrier as it boosted away from Ishtar. It seemed that everyone wanted to watch as they opened the jump point, so Tiffany used a screen in the colony's recreation room to follow their progress through the system. By the time they jumped, everyone had gathered.

Once it was clear they had jumped away, everyone gave a final cheer. Another party began and lasted until late in the night.

After that, the colony returned to normal. The ships out of Borneo continued to press their advantage in the Wolf system. Progress was slow, but it was clear that the Sa'arm were struggling to feed the colony. A full assault on the planet was being planned as the navy hammered the transports going to and from the system.

For my sister concubines and me, not much changed. We continued to work on new songs and skits for our play, which after a long discussion did end up being called Ice Igloo Ishtar.

I knew that James and Yvette had made a couple of additional formal protests about what had happened. They even asked that a Stagecoach ship come and take the artifacts away after having the replicators build a heavy container to hold everything. I understand that it had five different layers, all designed to hold in the radiation coming off the various pieces.

It turned out that a Stagecoach ship was already on its way. About three weeks after Martin Van Buren had left the system, Stagecoach showed up. Ensign Mary Celeste was still in command of the transport and was happy to tell us that her bunny was thriving. "He's the perfect companion for me," she cooed as her ship maneuvered into orbit.

Mary had some reservations about her cargo, but after hearing a brief description of what had happened on Ishtar, agreed that removing the artifacts should eliminate the possibility that we would have another "scientist" assigned to our colony.

We did see three more message drones arrive, all seeking to deliver a message to the acting governor. The messages in these later drones were a bit more vague, but it was clear that the sender had expected to sweep up all of the citizens on the planet for some reason. His motive was never clear, but the malice in his messages was underscored by how vague the instructions were.

It was about six weeks after Martin Van Buren had left the system that James and Yvette were called to the briefing room. I tried to follow, but James had Brad stand in front of the door. Then when Tamara tried to link in via the command post systems, Yvette quietly told her that this was a private communication and cut the signal. I found myself standing in the command post hugging Janice as we wondered what required such secrecy.

James and Yvette were not in the briefing room long, but it seemed like an eternity. Janice and I were the only members of the household waiting in the command post, but our sister concubines all peeked in while we waited. Just about everyone else in the colony stopped by or sent someone, asking what might be happening.

We had no feeling of dread, just of great curiosity. James and Yvette had been very relaxed since Martin Van Buren departed. They had also changed the probes they sent to nearby systems. Now the probes no longer tried to obtain artifacts, but performed searches for signs of Sa'arm activity.

Janice and I were comforting each other with gentle teasing kisses when the door finally opened. Yvette stepped out first and immediately looked at Tiffany. "Tiffany," she commanded, "I need an open channel to the whole colony. And then you need to put the system on automatic for the next hour."

"We can't"

"Just leave"

"The station."

"It would"

"Violate"

"All the rules," The twins said, switching from one to the other as they spoke. Yvette just shook her head.

"It's nothing bad," she said. "And Admiral Himmel has already agreed that we can put the system on automatic for the next three hours. He knows what is going on."

The twins looked at James, but he had come over to gather Janice and me in a hug. "You'll want to get your daughters," he whispered to us. "And tell your sisters that they want their children as well. We'll be gathering in our recreation room."

His comment was reinforced as Yvette's voice rang out throughout the tunnels. "Everyone, we have a big announcement. Could we get everyone, including all the children, to gather in the recreation room?"

Janice and I looked at each other. She gave the slightest of nods and then we turned and ran from the command post. "Where are our babies?" Janice asked as we burst through the doorway."

"Bethany took them to the nursery," I gasped out.

Janice quickly pulled ahead of me. I would have preferred to run by her side, but the hallway was filled with citizens and concubines rushing around. I was forced to move behind Janice to avoid collisions. I managed to stay right on her heels until I ran into her as she stopped suddenly.

I grunted in surprise. Janice stumbled forward, but caught herself as she ran into someone. "Sorry," she gasped out.

"Sorry," I said as well as I steadied my friend. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

The response was a giggle. "Oh, you've wanted to jump me for a year now," Brittany replied.

"Brit!" I called out.

"I beat you to the door," she said. "But there's a bit of a crowd trying to get into the nursery. That's why I had stopped."

"Sorry," I repeated.

Brittany reached around Janice and grabbed me. She pulled me into her arms for a hug. "It's fine. We just need to wait for the doorway to be clear. Now let's get our babies."

Janice giggled and dodged around Brittany to enter the nursery first. Brit gasped out a curse and then released me and sprinted to follow Janice. I watched the duo hurry into the room and then walked into the room behind them.

It was chaos inside the nursery. Concubines rushed around, grabbing strollers and dragging them over to a number of play areas where babies sat and babbled to each other. Janice and Brittany stood just inside the doorway, gazing around in confusion.

I looked around for Bethany. My senior sister appeared from a doorway that led deeper into the nursery. As soon as I saw her, I moved around my still stunned friends to greet Bethany.

"Meiko!" she cried out as I walked up to her. "I have all of the babies in here. Kitty and I were changing them when the announcement was made."

"So all we need to do is put them in strollers?" I asked.

"Got it in one," Bethany said with a laugh. "Shall we go and start buckling our daughters in?"

"Certainly," I replied. "I'll follow you."

Bethany giggled and grabbed my arm before turning around and leading me into the room she had emerged from. I found Kitty had already placed her twins in a triple stroller and was adding a third child. She waved a hand as we entered the room.

"I have Kristi, Jerome and I'm going to put Tolwin in this stroller. The boys need to stick together or they'll get picked on," she said.

"James will never allow that," I said as I picked up Madoka. "He's going to be a great father and role model."

"A role model of a dirty old man," Kitty said with a giggle. "I mean how many men back on Earth knock up six women at the same time?"

"James is just special," I said. My face felt warm and flushed as I looked around for a stroller.

Bethany had anticipated me, because she was pushing two double strollers. She released one next to me. "Put Astrid and Madoka together," she suggested.

"Can do," I said as I reached down and slid Madoka into the right side seat of the stroller. My daughter squirmed only a little as I secured her into the stroller.

By the time I was sure that Madoka was comfortable, Bethany had returned and was buckling Astrid in on the other side. I looked behind me and saw that Brittany and Janice were handling the other stroller, so I stood up. Bethany took only a moment more before she stood up and grabbed the handles of the stroller.

"Shall we stroll over to the recreation room?" she asked in a faux upper-class accent. "I just enjoy a quiet walk along the pier."

Kitty giggled. "We have no pier, but I do want to hear the announcement. Let's hurry."

"Hey!" Brittany called out. "Foul! Wait for us."

Bethany, Kitty and I giggled as we pushed the two strollers to the doorway. We turned and watched as Janice and Brittany finished getting their two babies into the stroller. When they finally finished and took the handles, Bethany nodded. "Fine, we waited. Now can we go to the recreation room?"

"Yes!" four voices cried as one. This caused all of us to burst into giggles. Still giggling, we pushed the strollers out of the room, joining an exodus out of the nursery.

"It's a parade of lemmings," Bethany said with a giggle. Everyone in the colony was walking towards the recreation room. I noticed that Alexis had her arms around Monique as they joined the river of humanity.

When we reached the recreation room, it seemed everyone was in silent agreement to immediately find a table because no one paused in the doorway. When we reached the doorway I was a bit confused, but Bethany led us through. "Tina should be saving us a table," she said quietly.

"But shouldn't we sit next to James?" Brittany asked.

"He might not be here yet," Janice said. "But I see Tina, she's over by the dance floor."

We headed towards the dance floor. Tina stood up and waved. She had claimed a circular table that had six chairs surrounding it. I walked past the table, pushing the stroller onto the edge of the dance floor. Then I turned it around before setting the brake. Kitty and Janice followed me, parking the rest of James' babies next to Madoka and Astrid. We then joined Tina at the table.

"There's no space for James," Brittany complained.

"He's going to be making an announcement," Tina said. "If we stay here after that, we'll get him to come here and you can sit on his lap."

"That's nice," I said. I could feel my face grow warm and I looked down at the table.

My sister concubines giggled. Bethany was sitting to my left. She put her arms around me and whispered in my ear. "Don't worry, we'll kidnap James and hold him hostage all night. We won't even give those hussies a touch while they have to listen to our orgasmic screams."