Chapter 21: Harry, Medical, and Gayle

It was time for "Harry Day". Elaine and Kim had encouraged Charlie Owens, Bob's son, who was fascinated with photography, to organize the other interested children. Kim opened it, "Fellow Sa'arm fighters, there are some damned useful and obscure skills that I hope you can learn. Harry was there for the creation of the development of imagery intelligence. His insights on the history and their use in the broader intelligence context, are going to be jewels."

Elaine took over; the two had agreed to be gently flirtatious with Harry. Both touched him frequently and made sure that he got good looks at them. "Harry, I know you are on the analytical side, but could you put together some prototyping teams for imagery collection? I see the needs as short-range Marine tactical, a survivable platform for post-strike recon, and both atmospheric and orbital advanced collectors. The latter would include multispectral as well as IR and visual.

"I'm figuring that current Earth gear will meet most of the first and some of the first requirements. For the latter two, maybe start with a DB-110 or MS-177 recon pod, then a full U-2 SYERS III payload and such into a UAV we provide? Eventually, we'll want systems in an orbiting pod." She wiggled a bit, making sure he got a good look at her dual forward sensor housings, with complex curved support structure for the active nipples.

As they had hoped, he immediately started musing about the specific tasks. "The DB-110 and MS-177 are easy." He directed his comments to the kids.

"Both of these are designed to fit inside a standard aircraft external fuel tank. Stay with the MS-177; it's more powerful than the DB-110 unless you really want wide-angle viewing. They have a 13.5" maximum diameter when in a pod, so it shouldn't be impossible to graft the back end of a propulsion and guidance system to it. You'll probably want GPS/INS for non-precision surveillance, but go man-in-the loop..." He turned to Elaine and Kim. "Figurative man in the loop, I should say."

Kim raised an elegant eyebrow. "What's wrong with women in the loop, if you're into bondage? For that matter, why not bond a few men? " She giggled. "Eventually, the truth will come out about James Bond."

Blushingly, Harry resumed. "Anyway, use the real-time imagery to see what it's seeing, and give it precision commands. Let me give everybody a general concept in packaging things: form factor. We try to build systems either to a standard size, as with the fuel pods I just mentioned, or to fit in a particular place, like the nose or main fuselage bay of a U-2 aircraft.

"OK. One of the code words for U-2 sensors was SENIOR YEAR, for those not familiar with it. SYERS is an acronym that builds on SENIOR YEAR, and, to be honest, I don't know what the ERS precisely stands for. It's a more powerful set of cameras, including going into multispectral scans, than the MS-177. The current SYERS II fits into a U-2 nose nose bay vary in exact size, but they probably will be under 36" in diameter. A bigger and more capable SYERS III goes into the belly bay of the ircraft. I understand that your medium launchers handle 32" diameter. I'd ask the AIs to see if they could reduce the system to fit into 32". If not, maybe you could go up to a 36" size."

"For the larger systems, including the KH-11 satellite, they tend to hold their main mirror or array size to 2.4 meters, which cannot be reduced. While they have very large antennas, those fold out. I've heard that your heavy launcher is 2.2-meter diameter, but you may seriously consider making a 2.5-meter available. Alternatively, for the large payloads, you aren't going to be firing them one after the other. You could go with 3 meter, either as a simple bomb rack style with two, or a curving magazine that uses a conveyor to move additional loads from a secondary magazine. The bottom of such a magazine could even be a loading hatch."

"Unfortunately, I don't always have the diameters memorized, because by the time it got to me, the decision had been made that something had to fit in a U-2 nose bay. The payload engineers kept track of the exact size."

While Harry didn't realize it, both Elaine and Kim would have happily leaped into bed with Harry, if for nothing but cuddling. They liked and respected him immensely and, perhaps with Kim after being supported by her new family, saw absolutely nothing wrong with extending that to the physical. Kim did make a point of letting her skirt climb higher.

Harry was getting more and more animated. "Remember the difference between geospatial and imagery intelligence, although geospatial covers more than imagery. When you add geospatial, you always have position references on the surface that you're scanning. I don't care if it's a photograph or if it's direction finding of an electronic emitter. You have to know how to put it on the map. Kim is your goddess at that sort of thing." Kim gave him a cheerful smile, and then the sultriest look at her command. She wished she had taken Advanced Slut from Dolores, but realized she didn't know Harry's heart health and whether he'd survive.

They broke for coffee and snacks, and Elaine and Kim were careful to stand next to Harry. That pleased them, because, while he was fully focused on everything they said to him, Harry was still a man and noticed them physically.

Charlie was torn whether to look at Harry, who was saying fascinating things, and at Kim, whose skirt was sliding higher. Dolores noticed, and moved next to him, whispering, "she does have fantastic legs, and I absolutely understand you wanting to look at them." She put his hand on her thigh. "In the meantime, will mine do? Both of us will be very happy to let you play with our legs and more, so just treat me as a first course while you focus on Harry."

Elaine drove Harry home. When he started to kiss her on the cheek, she turned, hugged him, and pulled his lips to her, her tongue dancing. To his surprise, his mouth responded, unbidden. It surprised him even more when she fell to her knees and started crying.

"Harry, I don't want to lose you, and dammit, I don't have to! Your mind isn't old, just your body. Even if you won't go into space with us, will you please, please accept medtube rejuvenation? Think of it professionally rather than personally. There's too much in your head to write down.

"Personally, you could have children if you wanted, or just be part of a clan. Trust me that Kim and I aren't the only women that think so much of your personality that we want your body just to make things more complete."

"Thank you, my dear. I guess I think of myself as gently handing over things, as I draw life to a close. I don't want to take that rejuvenation from someone that needs it. Besides, it bothers me that it wouldn't be available to women my age."

Elaine glared at Harry. "Your continued expertise could save more lives than the resources your rejuvenation will take. There's no way, though, you can brain dump all you know. We need you guiding, mentoring, and still coming up with your original ideas."

"You won't just feel better after rejuvenation; you'll have incentives. She cupped her breasts with her hands. "I'm guessing, but thinking about fashions when you're young, boobs like this -- yes, I said it -- probably attract you. I have big boobs on an otherwise slender frame. Would you like me to be curvier like Marilyn Monroe? Say the word and I'll get that done in the damn medtube!" He hugged her, and she felt tears on her cheek.

Hoarsely, he said, "I can't decide yet. Thank you so much."

"Harry, the old rules about sex in the workplace don't apply here. May I give you pleasure? If you have kinks in mind, there's absolutely nothing that I would deny you. Well, if you want a group, which is fine with me, just give me time to get some eager friends.

"You realize, don't you, that your mind is sexy as hell?"

They held one another for a long time. She could feel him thinking.

Before this point, Terry and Moe's families had been bonding, and working on plans. The time was coming, however, in which they had to start preparing for space.

The lead intelligence sensor specialists, Catherine, Elaine, and Kim, had presented detailed concepts for the spacecraft. Before going further into sensors, Moe and Terry started to insist that weapons were the next priority, along with ship integrations systems.

Terry worried, though, "I'm scared that we aren't anticipating the first kinds of combat we will have with the Sa'arm. Initially, I don't expect to seek out combat, but we don't know when and if it will happen while we do clandestine intelligence collection. It is fair to say we are most likely to fight in space, because that's where we will start. There can be cases where we have reconnaissance parties on the ground, which will need to fight their way out.

"We really have little information, from the AIs, about how the Sa'arm act against even unresisting beings. There are records showing that they will try to englobe and board spacecraft, some of which has been seen from spaceships that were not attacked, and others as final imagery from some that were overtaken. To respond to that, we need short-range weaponry, and onboard Marine detachments. The latter is Beatrice's area of responsibility.

"The AIs have said that the Sa'arm usually do not have orbital patrols around a planet they occupy. While they will have scouts, they are usually exploring the local system. Moe and I are not willing, however, to accept 'usually', and our doctrine will be to approach clandestinely and search for anything in near-orbit space.

"We have very little information on what they do on the ground, other than land large ships, and use what appears to be light infantry to kill everything and reduce it to food. One or two sequences in the AI-provided videos did show them apparently popping out of the ground, and we want to understand what that meant. Again, that's purely AI imagery – there's no data on anyone fighting back. Perhaps no one has done so.

"Beatrice, would you tell us how you plan to bring the Marines into the organization, and, as much as possible, to link your branch of the Marine clan with the Pirate clan?"

Beatrice stood and explained the interim organization. "While we don't have anywhere near the number of people in a battalion, I plan an understrength battalion organization, with a company headquarters aboard each Minuit and a rear services organization on the Blue Knight. Typically, each ship company will have one or two infantry platoons, a scout detachment, and a mortar detachment.

"Each platoon will have at least one unattached concubine with medical training. My initial candidates are talented 14- and 15-year-olds who might, with maturity, reach sponsor level, but, at the moment, are hypersexual and quite interested in keeping Marines happy."

"The first Marine mission will be defense against Sa'arm boarding. Second, they will supplement the ship crew, especially in scenarios where boarding is unlikely. They will crew the atmosphere-capable small craft. Right now, small craft is a ship division, but I expect it to become the start of a Marine "air" element, continuing to have naval personnel responsible for launch, recovery, traffic control, and intermediate maintenance.

"Next, Marines will qualify for clandestine landing operations, starting with small teams from the scout detachment, and building up to company-sized units that can escort technical specialists. The latter units will have the combat capability, in coordination with air, to defend evacuations. Conceivably, they might raid small and isolated Sa'arm sites.

"I'm still working with Earth to see if we can develop a primarily atmospheric, but space-launch-capable version of the F-35B. Yes, I know. Lots of people think the whole F-35 program, and especially the B model, are disasters. But the limits on the B come from its having to use ducted fans for short and vertical takeoff. If we can replace with a repulsor-attractor unit, and, ideally, the main engine with a reactionless drive. The oxygen system obviously can't depend on concentrators. I have agreements from the Netherlands, US, UK, Italy, and Spain to lend us crews, especially those stuck waiting for F-35B's. The tentative F-35D might very well replace the B model in Earth service.