Chapter 46

Third Mission, inbound in system RKO-289 aboard the FUP Deep Space Exploration vessel Glenndeavor, 2401 CE

We’d had combat rations for lunch in the TSB-2 armory. If the Marine Corps, as any army is said to do, moves on its stomach, I’m sure the sky warriors can get to the sound of the guns in time by just eating those combat rations. I thought the food in my ration package tasted good. However, the best part of lunch was that I had time to get out of my vac suit to use the head. That done, we soon returned to the simulation compartment for the rest of the scheduled scenarios for the day.

Now sitting at a circular table in the Enlisted Mess, I was very happy with the tastes and textures of the wonderfully fresh vegetables as well as the meaty soy steak with brown gravy I’d also picked out for my supper. I had what was left of a big biscuit in my left hand mopping up the remaining gravy. And there was a piece of what looked and smelled like real apple pie on the tray in front of me. I was saving that for last and I’d already decided to get a cup of fresh coffee before I started on my dessert.

The Enlisted Mess didn’t appear to be as full as it was when I was here eating breakfast with my household and Melvina. Now I was seated at a table with three other crew members; each of us around the table concentrated on our meals. The complete lack of conversation, among other things, made me certain we were all strangers.

Both of the women across the table from me were young-looking G2s with crossed key-and-quill blazes on their left sleeves. They were Ship’s Servicemen, meaning they might work in the Officers or the Enlisted Lounge when those facilities were opened again. The women might cut hair, or help tailor uniforms, repair boots, or fulfill some other service job on the Glenndeavor. Both of them looked young; not young like Anika appeared to be, but young nonetheless.

While they sat side-by-side across the table from me, I knew they hadn’t arrived together. One asked to sit with us before the second one even showed up, and the women hadn’t said a word to each other since. I’d developed the growing impression as I ate that they were new-faces. They might be regretting winning deployment on the Glenndeavor now that the Ship faced, what must seem to them to be, continuing armed threats from within.

The woman on the right had buzz-cut, mousy brown-colored hair, while the young G2 on the left had surprisingly long and luxurious strawberry-blonde hair that grew in heavy-looking, glossy waves down to her shoulders. I wondered if she might work in Glenndeavor’s barber and beauty shop; and that reminded my inner geek that I really needed to get my hair trimmed. My last hair cut was after the Ship had left Hapner L-Four and the day before we’d entered warp. I’d certainly not seen her there working when my hair was cut, but that didn’t mean anything.

The G4 two seats away on my right wore a Musician blaze as well as a Religious Programs Specialist blaze. On the table to the left of his tray, he’d placed a large tablet. I could easily see a song score displayed there, which he studied while somehow managing to take bites of food. I don’t think he was aware he was humming to himself in a flat monotone whenever he wasn’t swallowing. That might have been the reason none of the rest of us had introduced ourselves. Also, the G4 seemed to project a self-satisfied, pomposity that I knew I didn’t want to fully awaken by interrupting his concentration. And that was because I was afraid of what his conversation skills might focus on if I called attention to myself by saying something to him.

I cleaned the last of the gravy from my tray and started chewing the final bite of the biscuit I’d used as my sop. Looking up, I realized that the buzz-cut, mousy-looking woman was stealing glances at my Kilo helmet. It was on the table to the left of my tray. Then I caught her looking at the tiny bit of my shotgun barrel protruding above the edge of the tabletop and pointing up at the overhead. I knew there wasn’t a round in the chamber, and I’d clicked the selector button to Safe before the SPI agent just this side of the hatchway threshold scanned me.

Once again, I had the weapon leaning against the inside of my left leg just behind my knee pad with the butt resting on the deck between my boots. Wearing my matte-black ballistic and beam vest as well as my slice-and-dice elbow armor and the rest of my gear, I guessed I might be considered intimidating by some of the crew.

At least, I knew I didn’t stink. My gym bag rested on the empty chair to my left. My household had gone through the brisk PT session earlier, and to my surprise our redheaded neighbor had accompanied us. We had followed that workout with the first opened-hand mat session I’d had in a while under the watchful training of Gunny Moanauer and a Corporal I didn’t know—Lieutenant Shellbee and Gunny Krychenkov were not in attendance.

I was impressed with Melvina’s skills; she was quite a bit more advanced than Bea or Juliette. However, I heard Gunny Moanauer point out to her that if she ever needed to defend herself, she’d have to commit to doing harm to her opponent. Putting them on the deck and then backing off would not do. She’d have to start following up her advantage and show she was in the position to deal an incapacitating or lethal blow.

Once our mat time was over, we’d all taken emitter showers before getting dressed and coming here to eat.

“Husband! How soon before you’re done eating?“ Juliet’s almost giggling voice came into my right ear through my bud. “Bea tells me we have twenty-five minutes to get down to the Firing Range; thirty minutes before they bump us for the next trigger-happy folks ready to tickle back on some cold ‘gets—her words not mine. I want to go home and get my AUG.

“Bea also says, “ my first wife told me before I had a chance to answer, and in an aggrieved-sounding tone of voice, “that movement control has given us another free pass. Now ... I don’t believe I’m superstitious, but I’m starting to get the feeling that someone thinks the rest of the members of my household are vacuum magnets or something worse. And collate this; Melvina called me moments ago from her table and said if she doesn’t get to shoot at something soon, she’s going to give someone eating with her a third eye! Can you believe it? I think the weight of that backpack of hers is making her irritable. But the rest of us are ready to go, now, so how soon?“

I heard myself snort in response. And while I didn’t even try to picture what might be going on with Melvina, I heard the suggestion in my first wife’s voice.

“I’ll meet the rest of you in three minutes or so by the aft hatch,” I told Juliet, seeing startled looks on the two women’s faces across the table from me as they thought I was talking to them. “Sitwell out,” I said in a louder voice and pointed to the right side of my helmet and my ear so the two G2s would know I was talking to someone else. The mousy-looking one blushed. I saw the hint of a grin in the green eyes of the strawberry blonde that just creased the right side of her wide mouth as she slowly pulled her spoon out from between her full lips.

I pushed the fingers of my right hand under the wide end of my apple pie wedge, and raising it to my opening maw, wondering how fast I could eat it. Taking a big, mouthwatering bite while feeling bits of flaky crust and sticky filling fall against my chin before dropping on my tray, I enjoyed the juices; rich, buttery, flakey crust; and tart yet sweet flavors flooding my mouth as I chewed.

With a suppressed groan of pleasure, I swallowed before taking another big bite, leaving a smaller mouthful in my palm. I started to stand up, careful of my shotgun and knowing I’d have to forego a fresh cup of coffee. From the big eyes on the young women sitting across the table from me as I straightened up to my full height, I figured I might be offending both of them with my manners.

Above the surrounding hubbub of the Enlisted Mess, I could hear the flat, monotone humming still coming from the guy sitting to my right. Then he started gently tapping the rim of his tray with the edge of his fork in time with the noise he was making.

“Ladies,” I said with a grin and a nod of my head, “please excuse my manners, but I have to go shoot some stuff and this pie is too good to waste.” I pushed the final mouthful of wonderful pie into my mouth and reached down for my napkin as I started to chew. I held the barrel of my shotgun with my left hand and my inner geek wished I had another arm so I could scratch my crotch to see if I could get one of the young women’s mouths to drop open. As I wiped my chin and mouth with the paper napkin, my inner geek then wondered if our PAEMU suits and support equipment had been delivered to the Royal Yacht yet.

Surprisingly, my PAW wasn’t interested in offending young women or the increase in our SHTF gear; which got my attention as I tossed the crumpled napkin on my empty tray. Then my paranoid ass-wipe informed me that perhaps the music geek to our right was using his humming and fork tapping to send messages to other agents of chaos sitting nearby!

Molly wop him with the butt of your shotgun and call for security, my ass-wipe suggested, his growing irritation at the almost continuous humming clearly evident in my PAW’s voice.

I slung my Betzoule over my head and left shoulder and then reached for my Kilo. As an SPI agent, I am security, I heard myself thinking, swallowing the last of the excellent pie as I lifted my Kilo helmet off the table. We can’t target a guy for just being a stupid prick, or I’d have to find a way to get rid of YOU! I told my PAW as I settled the supremely comfortable Kilo on my noggin. Bringing my arms down, I could feel my chub stiffening up inside my boxers and grinned. I retrieved my gym bag with my left hand.

Reaching down for my tray I was aware I was looking forward to shooting at cold ‘gets myself. After that, I decided, my women were going to be in for a long evening.

With a nod toward the two young G2s on the other side of the table; I didn’t think Juliet, Anika, or Beatrice would complain about my plans.

I felt very good about the groups I’d placed in the targets with my pseudo-Glock so far. I’d gone through my first 40 range rounds at seven, 15, and 25 meters and now I was on my second tray of ammunition. For this tray, I’d requested the standard FUP Marine Corps Pistol Qualification Course and I’d fired eight rounds of the 15 shots I’d take aiming at the 25 meter target. There was a Marine Corporal here on the lower level of firing stations acting as range master.

The Corporal was standing behind me, and I was aware he had the electric eyes on his POT helmet down. After I finished my last shot at the 25 meter target, I figured the Corporal was either looking up my previous scores along with any comments my latest instructors added to the data, or he might be using the built-in helmet optics to enlarge the target to study my groupings.

“Very good shooting, Mister Sitwell,” he told me in a gruff-sounding voice. “Keep this up during the next three sections and you can break three-forty-five. I’m glad you’re applying the skills Gunny Krychenkov and Gunny Moanaur have been drillin’ into your brain housing. Carry on.”

Looking back down the firing lane as I brought up my pistol to a 45 degree angle below horizontal, I saw the new target had reached the seven-meter mark and my timing light went from yellow to green.

I raised my weapon until I had the sight picture steady on the ten ring. Slowly exhaling, I eased back the trigger.

I finished with a 344 of a possible 400 after shooting 40 rounds over three distances and performing four tasks, two of them at the same seven meter mark. I was happy and certain I’d break 345 the next time I went through the course. As I walked back to the cleaning stations I was happy to see that Juliet was the only other person there. I put my empty pistol down at the station beside hers. She was just starting to arrange her cleaning gear beside her pistol on the mat of her station; there was a six-inch applicator with its cleaning tip, bore patches, gun lubricant, and the rest.

“I’m really starting to enjoy firing weapons,” my first wife told me as she made sure she’d taken the magazine out of the pistol before pulling back the slide to visually check that there was no brass in the chamber. “I hit what I aim at and I’ve been making good choices during my combat decision sets. But, Jaym, we need to see if we can arrange time in one of the Tactical Simulations Bays. I don’t want to develop any bad habits that will be a liability if I ever get into a real gunfight. Corporal Milner told me they have a whole range of tactical pistol and automatic weapons scenarios taken from real situations on file down here.”

“I’ll put Bea on it,” I told Juliet. I pulled back the slide and checked the chamber of my pistol before squeezing the trigger, hearing a reassuring click. “When she’s in her effective military mode, I can’t believe what she’s capable of accomplishing.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Mindy said nodding her Kilo helmet. She had her slide stop in place and pulled the slide group of her pistol from the trigger housing. “In another life, she could have been Calamity Jane.

“Ah, Jane,” Juliet said, “was a famous frontierswoman and back on Earth during the later half of the eighteen hundreds in what was then considered the Wild West of the United States of America.”

“I know. I’ve got at least one old-time Earth movie about her,” I told Juliet with a chuckle. I saw Juliet wasn’t going to disassemble the frame assembly of her pistol and was reaching for her cleaning tip and bottle of lubricant. “Calamity Jane is in other movies about the old west that I have in my collection as well, just not as the main protagonist. If you hadn’t spent so much time ah ... researching my porn files ... you might have watched one of the movies that portrayed her by now.”

Juliet just sighed as she started cleaning her pistol using the applicator tip. I tried to imagine how many trees the Marines aboard would use up over the course of our mission if they still used old-fashioned cotton-tips on the end of a thin wooden stick instead of the recyclable applicator I had in my hand.

“Have you ever wondered,” Juliet asked me, as she deployed her electric eyes to use its magnification abilities to help her check for carbon buildup or any other dirt on the frame assembly she was cleaning. “I mean, wondered what it might have been like to live in some other time—like Beatrice as Calamity Jane? I know my Mother would love to live back during the Greek Golden Age in Athens on Earth. She was so lucky after following her passion through college to actually get her position at U of S back on Proxima Secunda. And now she’s tenured—gosh, you know ... she might even be head of the department by now.”

“I guess I’ve thought about it,” I told her as I removed the recoil spring by pulling it out of the slide assembly of my pistol. “If I wasn’t alive and in love right now, my vote would be old Earth. But not as far back as your Mom. It would be interesting growing up as a teenager in the late 1960s and early 1970s in San Francisco, California, USA. What about you—when would you liked to have lived for a thrill?”

“Gosh, I’d never have met you if I’d have been born in some other time,” she said, putting down her applicator and the frame assembly, now clean. “I certainly would not want to have been born at the beginning of interstellar flight. What, risk this beautiful mind and body in one of those first stasis chambers; maybe suffer stasis psychosis from sleeping in one of those bad designs developed in the Russian Client States? I’m just glad the West and Asia had so many organizations certifying the testing of those kinds of things. If they hadn’t then at least a third of the member worlds in the Federation would have raving schizos making up large portions of their populations by now.”

“Just listen to your divisive talk, young lady,” I teased her as I started pushing a bore punch with a patch down through the barrel I’d removed from the slide housing of my pseudo-Glock. “I thought Neo-Catholics were supposed to punish their children for using divisive language like that.”

Since we were still the only people at the cleaning stations I added, “I think you need a spanking when we get back. Yes, and I have other nasty plans for that beautiful mind and body you referred to earlier as well—wife.

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that here, husband,” she retorted, she now had her slide in three pieces; the barrel, the recoil spring, and the rest of the slide group. “You’re going to make my panties wet and I’ll have to drag you into one of the empty classroom compartments out there and fuck you cross-eyed on a table.”

“I hope you’re addressing Mister Sitwell, G4,” we both heard a male voice ask Juliet from behind us. It was the Corporal who was our range master. I felt a smile come to my face as I looked over and saw the blush on the bottom part of Juliet’s face below her deployed electric eyes.

“I’m on duty right now,” he said, stepping up behind us, “and won’t have my break for another hour. So if you’re talking to me, G4, you’re going to have to suffer for that long. But other than that, I wanted to know if both or either of you are going back to your shooting stations—perhaps to fire those fine AUGs in the rifle cozies along with the two trays of five-point-fifty-six range rounds? I’ve been hearing about those rifles, and I’ve seen Mister Sitwell using his to such good effect in the vids from Colony Stasis Bay Three.

“Because, if that’s not your ah, immediate plan, there are other people who can use the extra time to improve their skills,” the Corporal told us. “And thanks for showing some of the riff-raff down here in the Block that it’s not only Marines who are willing to lay their bodies down to protect someone else, Mister Sitwell-Mindenhall,” he said to Juliet. “I was impressed by the situational awareness you displayed during the latest attack—being faced by a confirmed shooter and some unknown gas as well, your first thought was to protect your major communications asset.”

“Thank you, Corporal,” Juliet replied, the deepening blush on the lower part of her face visible under her data visor, “and I was talking to my incorrigible husband, and we are planning on using our AUGs—just as soon as we finish here. If you’d like, you could send a few rounds downrange with my rifle. However, that’s the only offer I’ll be making you.”

Juliet and Anika were naked, sweaty, and prone looking down from the foot of the big bunk in C001, the covers tossed over the footlocker. Bea and I were in a lazy, slick embrace on the deck with two of the three pillows from the bunk under our heads. Our entwined calves and feet were up on the tangle of bedding covering the foot locker. My knees felt as if I was suffering from carpet burn, but I felt glorious and satiated and I didn’t care. I’d find something to daub on my love abrasions later.

“I am telling you, naughty husband,” Anika sighed as she grinned at Bea and me, her right shoulder against Juliet’s left and their hair sweaty and tangled over their faces, “you are being beast when engorged and full of naughty cravings and ideas. I am thinking Melvina would be here now if you are being more charming or forceful while we are returning from Firing Range—” She held up the palm of her left hand at me. “—yes, yes, I am knowing you are trying... zahaczyc ... mmm, to hook sexy redhead living next door, so she is thinking it is being her idea to be joining us.”

Is that what you’re trying to do? my paranoid ass-wipe asked. I thought you were just tryin’ to work it so your bellybutton can play slap-tag with the neighbor’s bellybutton again.

“I bet,” Bea giggled against my right side, her magnificent nipple-tipped boobs jiggling against my skin, “if Juliet would have told Melvina she was going to tell us all the good stuff she knows about the make-up of this star system—stuff she didn’t talk about in TSB-Two—that Mel wouldah come over. That way, we could have started undressing, nonchalant an’ all, like we were gonna get, you know, out of our work uniforms to be more comfortable... ‘Cause you all saw it, Miss Hoity-Toity had no compunction gettin’ naked in the locker room an’ hoppin’ in the emitter stall with everybody after PT. And ooohh—I’ve never seen anybody that pink! It couldn’t be from her opened-hand workout either. Dang, did you see those nipples! They were so hard looking, I betcha they hurt!”

I could feel Bea’s respiration increasing as she continued talking about our neighbor. Then I heard and felt her sigh.

“I’m sure if Mel thought,” Beatrice told us as she slowly rubbed the palm of her right hand over my bellybutton and I cupped her right shoulder with my hand, “she’d get to hear something about this system she might not know from an Away Team member, she’d be all ears while we got undressed. And all the time, Juliet couldah been dazzling her with which planet has the most moons. Or reveal what her Away Team was scheduled to do on which E-Norm first. Then Mindy could, you know, compare and contrast what she expected to find on the first E-Norm with stuff she’s run into on, like, the last mission.”

Now Bea moved her hand down to my gooey, semi-limp dick, wrapping her fingers around me.

“The whole time Ani and I would be actin’ like it’s not big news,” our honey-blonde mistress said, weaving her imagined seduction scene as she started trying to stroke me hard again, “while gettin’ Jaym naked. Then I’d start sucking his cock and sharing with Ani; both of us on our knees. And Bimini wouldn’t want to watch us while Juliet was talking about this system bein’ another example of what some people would claim was evidence of the Seeders’ hand at dispersing Earth-type flora and fauna throughout the galaxy. But good ol’ Mel wouldn’t be able to help herself, rememberin’ all the grand comes Jameson gave her with that prick me and Ani were worshiping with our mouths... on the videos WE HAVEN’T SEEN YET!”

It was as if the gravity in the compartment suddenly reversed! Bea let go of my slowly responding penis. Juliet and Anika flew up off the messed-up bunk as Beatrice seemed to levitate up from my side, coming loose from my embrace.

Turning my head and looking back over my right shoulder, I watched all three of my naked, jiggling women, looking somewhat upside down to me as they bounced to the shelves to the right of the front hatch. To my happy delight, they all bent over to pull the case that contained my video gear from the shelf!

“The vids are in here,” Juliet demanded as she and Bea carried the case to the destroyed bunk and plopped it down on the exposed mattress while standing on the side near the walk-through, “aren’t they!“

I elevated my torso on my elbows, which thankfully weren’t suffering carpet burn. Juliet flipped open the locks and opened the big suitcase-like container, turning the top back on the mattress.

“We are going to be watching this promised video of seduction of Melvina Bimini, my naughty husband,” Anika told me as she marched over beside Bea. Pointing down into the opened container, my Polka Fireball focused on me with her excited, dark-blue eyes as she brushed her damp, copper-colored curls away from her face with her left hand. “You will be setting up files to show at foot of bed. Bea-Bea, Mindy, let us be putting on clean bedding while our love does as instructed.”

“Ani!” Bea said with a laugh, “the bunk’s gonna get all messy with wet spots again before the vid’s even half way through. Why go to the trouble of fixin’ it up?”

“No,” Juliet said, putting her left hand on Bea’s naked right shoulder. “That is a good idea. I’m going to pass out if I have another big come, and I’d rather do it on somewhat clean sheets. His goo is starting to drip down the tops of my thighs as it is.”

“If you are passing out,” Anika giggled, “Beatrice and I will be seeing to it you are clean as a whistle—even if you are not conscious of our loving labors.”

“That’s slick as a whistle,” our honey-blonde vixen told Anika with another laugh that made Bea’s fantastic nipples bounce up and down on her voluptuous tits.

“I am already slick as whistle! You are being horny woman,” Ani laughed and smacked Bea’s left butt cheek. “Should I be getting out my triplet JJs and be helping our naughty man to be putting out your burning snatches?”

“It takes a snatch to know a snatch,” Bea giggled, taking Anika in her arms and kissing her on the forehead, “burning or not!”

So that was what was done. I got my copy of the files out of the case, which were on one of my thumb-drives. I closed the case and put the video equipment on the deck against the bulkhead near the hatch to the head. The women started stripping the bed so it could be remade with fresh sheets and blankets. I put the drive into the desk comp and launched a copy of my AV software. Then I set the controls to port the files from all three camera angles side-by-side up in the holographic field. Finally, I enabled the system to respond to my voice commands.

By that time the bed was made, all three pillows with new cases were plumped up against the cushioned headboard. Anika had gone into C003 and returned with a big bottle of opened red wine in her hands.

“Comp oh-one—lights to thirty-five percent,” Juliet said and the illumination dimmed as she walked around to sit on the far side of the bunk. She added, “Comp oh-three—lights off.”

The pass-through arch behind Anika went dark as the Fireball raised the bottle up to her grinning mouth and she took a healthy slug of wine.

Bea giggled and got on the near side of the bunk, leaving room for me in the middle as she reached up for the wine. I figured our Fireball would get between my legs and rest her head back on my chest. I’d have my head and shoulders back on the pillow and the headboard; that was our normal movie watching arrangement when it was just the four of us.

“Comp zero-one—holographic field on,” I spoke up as I crawled over Bea’s gleaming body and got in the middle of the bunk to take my usual place, “movie mode, footlocker.” As I settled in the meter deep by meter-and-a-half high and two-and-a-half meter wide field filled with light-blue starting hip-high off the deck across the compartment and a stride back from the far edge of the footlocker just beyond our feet.

Up against the headboard and pillow to my left, Beatrice handed me the heavy, cool wine bottle. Using both hands, I took a long, slow, baking-spice tasting drink. Handing the bottle to Juliet on my right as I swallowed, I discovered the slightly sweet aftertaste had hints of oak and vanilla. I liked the wine so much I lifted my pinky finger on my right hand as I watched my first, bombshell wife carefully lifting the bottle to her luscious lips with both hands. Mindy knocked back a big slug and then took a second large swallow as well.

Anika put her hands down on the foot of the bunk clear of our feet and then put her bare knees on the edge. She caught my eyes with her own. Arching her naked stomach downward while grinning like crazy, she wiggled her sexy rump before she stalked her way over my feet and up between my legs like the hunting predator she was. In spite of having fucked all three women until they’d pushed me off just thirty minutes ago; my penis started to swell with heating blood.

“Enough of that, Princess,” I told her, taking back the wine bottle from Juliet and giving it to Bea who snuggled nicely against my left side, “get comfortable against my chest and don’t squash the family jewels.”

Then to get her to hurry up I added, “Comp zero-one, on my mark project all files in folder Bimini’s First simultaneously following SEMPTE time lock; volume setting twenty-five; wide stereophonic field. Mark.”

Juliet’s prediction was correct. She passed out.

But that was later, and not before she filled us in on some of the things she did know about system RKO-289 and hadn’t shared down in the Tactical Simulations Bay. My first wife was quite talkative during the first twenty or twenty-five minutes of our entertainment. At first, Bea kept interrupting Juliet, saying she wanted popcorn, but our lusty farm-world girl settled for being the keeper of the wine bottle. Also, she kept trying to get her right hand on my hard cock behind the small of Anika’s bare back while the wine made its rounds.

The four of us talked as we watched me work up Melvina Bimini from three different camera angles in glorious full-color high-definition up in the air beyond our feet while recorded moans and bed talk filled the compartment. Our first wife let us know that because of its size, the fourth planet, which her team was scheduled to land on, exerted a force of 1.12 Gs, so we’d be 12 percent heavier if we made it to the surface for some reason. All the normal gravity fields in any FUP chartered vessel was set at the accepted 1 G of mother Earth.