Chapter 5: On the Bridge after the Order of the Strap

I went to the bridge and ordered Mother to dock with the next passenger compartment. Sally had followed me to the bridge and noticed a couple of things needing attention. It was all she could do to keep her hands off the controls. Finally after noticing my amused look and realizing I knew what was going on, she asked if she could handle the problems. I said, "Sure, but if there are any serious problems tell me immediately". They were normal maintenance items that could have waited, but I wanted to see how she did. I was going to need help over the next several months.

The communications console was beeping at me and sure enough the message from the star base was in. They asked a bunch of questions, said no rescue ship was available and that I'd need to hold up on some habitable planet until a rescue ship could arrive in the area in five to seven months. They said that we should contact the passenger liner company and see if they could send a ship sooner. I muttered under my breath that 5 months was way to long. I didn't understand what the problem was. I could charter a ship to here by FTL radio in less than three months.

I said to Sally, "Look at this will you, what am I missing?" She came over and looked.

She read the communication and said, "Well sir, the Reverend and local space officials have had a lot of problems over the years. The Beverly's crew has been a constant source of trouble for the Reverend and the local starbase. There have been many incidents. There was an incident about 9 years ago on the trip home. Several of the men of the crew sexually assaulted some of the Sisters. This is a capital offense our home planet. The Reverend, not wanting to have the men executed when he returned home, decided to drop them at the local star base and let the laws of the FoM prevail. The star base commander took custody of the men but then the base prosecutors refused to charge the men, on the grounds that women could not testify that the sex had been forced. The men had told the women that the Reverend said it was ok. The women had cooperated completely without question. The Reverend was outraged. There were words exchanged. As I understand it the Reverend told the female base commander that she was worse than the men. She had the Reverend thrown in the brig with the men involved to teach him a lesson in manners. Eventually cooler heads prevailed, and the Reverend was released.

"The Reverend complained to the FoM high command. The starbase commander and the prosecutors received reprimands in their files for their actions, mostly because the men were released rather than returned to the custody of the Reverend. The base commander's superiors were outraged by her conduct with the Reverend, but being that the decision fell within her prerogatives as commander they could not take any action. Her judgment though is in question and she has not been promoted or transferred since. She blames the whole problem on the Reverend for not knowing the FoM BRHC.

"In any case FoM help is not usually easy to get for us now, especially from the local starbase".

What she did not say was that she was one of the sisters sexually assaulted. If I had known at this point that Sally had been one of the ladies who could not testify I would have been stunned at how unemotionally she discussed this, even if it was nine years later.

"I know how to fix that", I thought. It is amazing what Uncle Jonathan can do. He's got his finger into everything, including a major piece of the FoM military. His companies build, maintain and supply all of their ships. One word from him and the FoM military would take a dim view on the message just I received.

I could also get some of my FoM friends to help, because over the years I had a lot of favors that I had done to call in. I help the FoM military in any way I can if asked or if I hear of a need I could help with. There was always cargo and people to transfer. Mostly this required me to make a small detour or two on the return leg of a trip. These I did accepting no fee, as I concerned FoM citizen.

The Zeus is a well armed ship, the match for almost any group of pirate vessels. It has the shields and firepower of a FoM battle cruiser, only not the speed. The Zeus' weapons are well concealed since I don't want it to frighten customers when I enter orbit to make a delivery. I acquired the armament while helping the FoM military to stop piracy in a major sector. Since then at the request of several starbase commanders I have used the Zeus to stop several pirate raiders that the FoM could not catch.

I also let the Zeus be used as a target for rescue operation training. It is difficult for the FoM to get huge freighter to allow training of personnel. Because I do long range hauls, a little diversion or delay while several FoM destroyers practice rescue operations does not affect my profits.

I have a lot of favors I could cash in. I just did not want to use my favors this way. Uncle Jonathan was a much better way to go.

Sally then totally stunned me, "The Reverend's second ship is much smaller. It could be here in 3 or 4 weeks. It is extremely fast. It does not have a large passenger compartment, but it can easily supply our ship with consumables for the rest of the trip home with a couple of trips".

Sally is about 4 foot 10 inches tall and about 85 lbs. of blue eyed, blond haired beauty. Her hair was long and straight, and came down to a sweet looking very cute spankable butt. She looks like a blond haired bimbo but she is incredibly smart, how smart I was just beginning to figuring out. I had not told anyone on the ship about the plan to go to a habitable planet, yet she knew that was what I was planning. She also knew that I did not have enough supplies to get them home. She had thought of a workable alternative. I had only one problem with that.

Because Sally was short, every time she reached forward to do something on a bridge console she stood up bent forward in a position that said to every warm blooded human male "Please spank me!" It was all I could do not to do it ever time she did it. This time though, I had a reason. I came up behind her and gave her fanny a firm swat. "Owww. Thank you, Sir. If I may ask, what have I done wrong?"

I replied, "I don't know how you figured out I don't have enough consumables but you knew there was a problem with consumables. You had a much more workable solution, yet you didn't tell me".