Chapter 26

After a shakedown mission to Mars and a pre-colonization survey of their new home, McMasterat, the Pirates planned two surveys that would be more clandestine. These would be to known Sa'arm occupied systems, Silvat and Brerat. These surveys would launch from the Aurora-class ship Blue Light, headquarters of the District and Vice Admiral James Hawkins, in Earth orbit. Both were for direct information gathering and refining their techniques against a live enemy.

When Harry Sinatra agreed to become Terry's deputy for intelligence analysis, the Pirate organization, while still austere, took on new confidence. In like manner, while the Marine unit was provisional until the planetary brigade was formed and an expeditionary unit reassigned to the Pirates, LTC Beatrice Oonk ran it well.

Terry's principal deputies, Dolores and Mary were able to take off some of their multiple hats, which, at least with Dolores, made more opportunities for her to takeoff her clothes -- or at least rearrange them for interesting access. Dolores remained Terry's executive officer and social lubricant, but took on a more active role in logistics and support. Mary headed biomedical operations but also managed large projects, still eagerly awaiting a project management professional.

Terry, Dolores, Harry, and Mary met privately, facilitated by Father Dan, the official Devil's Advocate. They wanted to sort out their individual skills and styles, and then have Moe and Beatrice join them to discuss how best to work with the combat units. Catherine, Kim, and Elaine would also join to discuss the technical aspects. Once these ideas were worked out, the Sanity Team of Karen, Gayle, Bob, Athena, and Siobhan would give further reality checks.

Terry began. "I probably have the best big-picture sense, a strong grasp of how intelligence complements operations, and I'm a very good analyst in my specialty area. I think Harry, while equally strong in his specialty, is a better intelligence manager and coordinator of estimates than I am.

"Dolores, you have the best people skills of any of us, at least with people that can take your irreverence. Behind the flamboyance, you also have a superb sense of detail for making sure everyone has what they need, and improvising when they don't. Mary complements you in having better formal management skills, but also, from her disaster command background, very, very strong real-time decision making. She takes a complementary approach there than do our pure military people."

Dan concurred. "Harry is the person you want taking a second look at everything -- I do that as well, at least from a medical and philosophical basis. I agree about Mary and Dolores. Dolores has proven one of the few civilians who can manipulate Jesuits so well they don't know they're being manipulated. Stop giggling to hide it, Dolores. I know you have ancestry in most of the Renaissance movers and shakers; I just can't prove it."

"I know a couple of Jesuits who use dance as part of spiritual exploration."

Dolores started to giggle. "Dancing Jesuits?"

"Quiet, my wench daughter. Yes, the ones that got the idea were in South Asia and took up some of their mind-body disciplines. Sexual Tantra isn't the only one. When they published the idea, some of the Irish priests looked at traditional Celtic dance. OK, you do get a shot at laughing at nuns doing their equivalent of Lord of the Dance. Michael Flatley was not involved. And before you go there, Dolores, I also saw Sister Act and I wish we could recruit Whoopi Goldberg."

"Seriously, Dan, do you dance?"

"Yes, Catherine, but I had to stop doing the more athletic step dances when my weight put too much stress on my knees and ankles. Thank you so much for reminding me that I could explore that again -- maybe I need to lose some weight and maybe my body is strong enough as is. I also fiddle a bit." Norwegian mentioned that Karen majored in music, is concert quality on the piano, and can conduct."

"I wonder if we might have others steeped in lore and art, but not knowing it. Perhaps some of our Navy and Marine people from the UK?

"Norwegian, tell us if there are people anywhere in our organization, including Marines and ship crew, who are interested in Celtic performance art."

"Gunnery sergeant Michael Sullivan, the marine Scout Section leader, is a folk dancer of some reputation. Staff sergeant Lynn O'Fallon, a communications technician, is a fiddler. Lieutenant Colin McDonald, first platoon leader, dances. Also in first platoon, GSG Albert McGonagall is a piper.

While Connie is Spanish, she loves Celtic music as well. "Ah, yes. Some day, I hope to command the Sancho Panza -- if not the Dulcinea, or, as I regard proper, the Doña Quixote."

Norwegian surprised by initiating a suggestion that dealt with human interactions. "May I suggest you not limit yourself to Celtic tradition alone? Starting with Kim, we have some very strong dancers. Remember that we found, when checking if we could substitute for Aimee's girls, that Elaine and Rona did stage dancing. All of Aimee's women, however, are artistic as well as erotic dancers. Joni does know step dance."

Catherine brightened. "Yes, Norwegian! Not only to one culture, but also to different forms. There are many aspects of music to sample, and, of course, Karen is our most trained guide." She looked at Siobhan. "I'm personally interested in music, especially drumming, in the exploring of personality. For an engineer, I am fascinated by transpersonal psychology. Who knows if that could give us insights into the Sa'arm?"

As the birth of Gayle's twins grew close, with Terry the father and Karen being Gayle's female partner, the family approached a new milestone. They also began to explore more parenthood, the roles of female Sponsors, and introducing children -- especially the 14 and over -- into the sexual space.

While Terry was the biological father of Gayle's children, taking on a role that had always terrified him, Karen was as much a "close" parent. The family as a whole, however, supported them.

Between voyages, Terry, Gayle, and Karen spent off-hours together in Gayle's enlarged quarters, to which a birthing room was attached. Gayle joked, correctly, that she had more physicians than fetuses, but the medical team was part of the larger clan. The medical staff also bonded with the three who would be the parents of the children born to Gayle. Dolores had talked about this with Terry. "Dear, I'm eager to expose the priests and nuns, Vatican dispensation or not, both to sex and to family life. It's not going to be easy for them. Rona, as both a disciplined doctor and as a rather sensual person, probably can help."

Martha was the prenatal obstetrics expert. Rona dealt with the psychological stresses. Meredith and Anne would do the actual delivery, and Larry, the neonatologist, would take charge of the children, assisted by Mary and John Faulkner, the pediatric psychiatrist who was still a pediatrician As the leader of the medical team, Martha told Terry "Is it clear to you, Colonel that you are not in command of this campaign? You and Karen are, at best, deputies to Gayle." They enjoyed a laugh, as Terry said he was just fine about having one less thing to run.

The three parents, already close, grew closer. Terry had had relationships with both women, which had not matured, on Earth, into a primary. Many factors went into that, but one consideration, for different reasons, is that neither Gayle nor Karen was comfortable in gratifying him with their mouths. Karen needed substantial dental work before it was comfortable. The two women, feeling liberated and loving, found they loved giving, as well as receiving, oral attention. Even when Gayle found it awkward to move, she delighted in encouraging Karen to suck Terry, and the three bounced emotional pleasure and amplified it.

Terry did point out that while he loved getting sucked, he also loved to lick -- and adored watching Gayle and Karen show off their slim, gorgeous legs. When they intertwined their legs and rubbed, he grew rock hard. Dolores had told them that Terry had a high-heel as well as a leg fetish, and, while neither Gayle nor Karen often wore heels, they kept extreme ones at hand in the bedroom, or anywhere they would pose if not walk. Gayle always had liked knee boots, and Terry appreciated that look, especially when Gayle combined them with stockings. They learned, as they had not quite understood when dating, that it could be fun to excite him. When dating, however, both women had self-image problems such that exhibitionism was rather alien to them.

When Martha explained that she recommended perineal massage, as it had a small but statistically significant role in reducing the need for episiotomies, Terry and Karen had but one question. "Fingers only, or can tongues help?" They saw no reason why birth preparation couldn't be fun. Of course, they were quite serious about breathing exercises, and practicing how to give emotional support.

Martha evaluated Gayle's pregnancy as quite healthy, with twins. One night -- it seemed, to the obstetricians, it was always at night, -- Gayle awakened Karen and Terry. "Ummm ... you may notice that you're in a wet spot. My water just broke." Terry subvocalized a broadcast: <<It's Gayle's time. Would the birth team please go to their stations, everybody think good thoughts, and, damn it, Martha, take command!>>

The labor bed was as homelike as possible. Recliners for Karen and Terry flanked it, so they could hold Gayle when she wanted it; touch her more lightly at other times, and, as needed, be the object of her complaints. Meredith and Anne were at the delivery end, with Martha watching the room and comforting Karen. Larry and Mary prepared the incubators.

Meredith used a small handheld ultrasound unit to verify the fetal positions were normal. Gayle was dilating smoothly, and Meredith remembered that the nanites would ensure that no episiotomy would be needed. Still, it hurt. The co-parents encouraged Gayle to relax and breathe, as she worked through the first stage of labor.

Strong contractions signaled the second phase--Gayle's gasp, and then scream, told all of those contractions. The seemingly ordinary bed actually had gravity lifts and an access panel through which they could access her back, for an epidural if needed. Meredith asked, "Do you want help for the pain?"

"It's not that bad. I don't need an epidural, but could you keep the nitrous oxide mask close?" Gayle found that occasional inhalations made it manageable. Fully dilated, she delivered her son Jack, and, after only a slight pause, her daughter, Jill. Karen cut Jack's cord and Terry did Jill's. Larry pronounced the twins in fine health, and not in need of the incubators. It was a time for the parents to bond and cuddle.

Elaine had every expectation of becoming pregnant by Harry, but, after much soul-searching, she deferred to her other responsibilities. Marietta, however, had no such restrictions.

In his quarters, Harry shook his head with pleasant disbelief, as he admired four very different women that wanted him -- as well as his genes. Wanda, perhaps, came closest to the fantasies of his young adulthood, with a sluttier Marilyn Monroe look, enjoying dark roots, heavier makeup, and quite likely a bigger chest. He looked at her and laughed, to which she glanced a question.

"Don't mind me, Wanda. I just realized I thought of you as especially earthy, and then realized that you could easily present a class on the mechanical properties of soil, while we did a duet on their hyperspectral reflection. May I redeem my male lust by caressing your breasts?" She laughed and pushed out her chest, triggering Elaine, a much slimmer woman, to thrust hers in response. Elaine's breasts were more upright than Wanda's were, and even more dramatic on her more slender frame.

"Well, bless my heart," giggled Marietta. "Might this Suth'rn belle suck you, Harry, while you squeeze those no-doubt bigger boobs?" Ostentatiously, she crossed her legs, letting her skirt rise to the hip. "I'm the athletic sort, I suppose."

"Oh?" Inquired Elaine, who was quite a skilled martial artist and mistress of police back room brawling. Rona pointed out that she did quite well at the brunette version of a Monroesque figure, although was considering slimming somewhat to make dance easier. Nevertheless, "I am here primarily as a medical expert. Would someone be so good as to fist me so that I can calibrate my PC muscles as strength evaluators?"

Elaine cheerfully tripped Harry onto the bed, and the female undressers descended upon his not-unwilling body. Rona and Wanda looked at one another, nodded agreement that Marietta and Elaine had staked claims, and began to rub their breasts against Harry. After a few minutes, they paused to bare their chests.

His cock slid in and out of her mouth, as her tongue swirled around the head. With a giggle, she swiveled and straddled Harry, pumping away. His eyes grew larger as she squeezed him with her PC muscles.

After a vigorous time in bed, Wanda grew serious. "I want your advice. As you know -- she grinned -- as youthful as I look, I do have two 14-year olds, Tanya and Thomas. They aren't the only ones, and their hormones are as active as yours were at the time. Given what work I did, I suspect they are more aware than many.

"Even though we don't any longer have an incest taboo, I have one. Elaine, do you think you could start talking to my kids and finding out what they want to do, and to get ideas on how they can flourish in this Brave New World? Given the number of sexy women in our clan, and in professional roles, maybe there are emerging role models for Tanya. Thomas is more of a challenge, with some very good men, but not a lot of men available for role models.

"I think we need to suggest to Terry that we have to get some of the Navy and Marine men involved in the family, so they can provide those models. Oh! I just thought of something: Thomas loves baseball. That gives him a connection to Moe."

"Sure, Wanda," said Elaine. "I think many of us would be glad to talk to either or both. Do they know any of your colleagues from Aimee's place who are now with us? Joni, for example, is an immensely strong person as well as being an incredibly sexy woman." Rona nodded her agreement.

Wanda was thoughtful. "Rona, apologies that I hadn't thought of you. Thomas, I think, is interested in medicine, including veterinary medicine. I heard that you plan to get a staff veterinarian anyway, but that's an area where Thomas could help.

"Let me add that as their mother, I'd be completely comfortable in any of you talking sex with them, and even initiating them. I'm not sure, but I think they have experimented with one another.

"In school and in her own reading, Tanya shows an interest in history and culture. While I'm not sure how that relates to the Diaspora, maybe Joni's urban archeology would relate. Siobhan obviously has a broad social science background, and also has kids of their age."

"We have," observed Dolores, "some existing mentoring relationships, mostly with technical things. Brigid and Brendan, even before their mother, Siobhan, joined us, already were being mentored by Marines on Earth."

Traditional niceties still were useful. Wanda invited Joni, Dan, and Siobhan with Brendan and Brigit, Moe, Athena, Rona, and Rona's husband, John Faulkner, to dinner with her children. It was a bit amusing to Wanda that Joni, the consummate stripper, wore a revealing but still professional skirted suit, while Rona, the physician, wore more of a club gown. Dan wore tweeds and looked like a model in an ad for 75-year-old cognac.

Moe wore his uniform, and initially a stern look, until he reached in a pocket, withdrew a baseball, and threw it to Thomas. Thomas was surprised, but his reflexes were fast enough to catch it. Chuckling, Moe observed "People with the reflexes and spatial sense to do what you just did often can make it as pilots, and sometimes navigators. Have you thought about that? Of course, we always need good medics as well."

That broke the ice. "Consider, sir, that not only does it suggest piloting ability, I have also been known to snag a cat in mid-leap. If I continue to work on veterinary medicine that will be a most useful skill." The group laughed, and decided that Thomas needed to be talking to Mary.

After dinner, with Wanda's children meeting with interim mentors, Rona decided it was safe to tell Terry about some things she had been doing, technically outside the rules. She and Beatrice asked Terry, Dolores, and Dan to meet with them. "I probably have broken most of the ethical rules around, and Beatrice hit a few that I missed. Nevertheless, I think I did the right thing. In my practice, and the pediatric psychiatric practice of my husband, we somehow acquired several young women with some common characteristics. At the time, with the pre-Diaspora ages of consent, they were being hospitalized indefinitely, for what some called hypersexual acting-out.

"As we got to know them, they actually were very nice people, who did have extreme sexual drives. With the lowering of the age of consent to 14, they were no longer juvenile sexual offenders, and we sneaked them into what we considered much better places. While the first two, Greta Chapman and Arlene Clementine, would happily have continuous sex when they aren't eating or sleeping, they can be responsible.

"It is my opinion that when they get older, assuming they feel part of a community and they give and receive loyalty, that they will make Sponsor grade. With having to sneak them out of juvenile detention, I wasn't going to risk CAP testing. They just might hit 6.5 now; I just don't know what their trauma would do to scores in the short term.

"They have the more-or-less standard sexual nanites. I'm not sure they really needed to have the oral and anal enhancements—well, maybe the anal automatic cleaning and lubrication. A few medical problems were cleared up, but nothing much in the way of cosmetics. First, they both are damned attractive as-is. Second, they are still growing. Third, we don't know who their final sponsors will be. I did go ahead and give Arlene some help on the bodybuilding she already does – tiny waist and hourglass figure.

"Both are very bisexual. I think they'd be happy with a sponsor who celebrates a lifestyle with many partners, perhaps only those approved by the Sponsor. I've been asking myself if very experienced 15 and 16 year olds could help initiate -- my inclination is that their sexuality is too early and intense, but I'm not sure.

"I'm open to sponsoring them if there's no one else more appropriate."

Rona brought the two young women into the room. "Arlene and Greta, my dears, I think you'll get some good advice here, as well as enjoyment and some meaningful option. You've met Dolores, but I don't think you know her very well. Might I observe that while she's one of our more senior officers, she's dressed about as provocatively as you two ever do? This is not a command occasion!"

Dolores told them, "From what I've heard from Rona, and my own experience, I suspect we have some things in common. For your information, I am much, much older than I look. Still, I remember being a kid. Child abuse is never a good thing. Even in our more flexible society, we still have strong boundaries.

"Sometimes, the way that people survive abuse is to take on, early in their lives, some aspect of the power and sexuality that were used on them. I'm one of those. I was about eight when an outlaw biker gang started using me, but I felt a sense of power that kept me whole -- if somewhat strange. It made me hypersexual, but I've managed to build a life in which I could be hypersexual. Joni has similar background. I'm guessing, Greta and Arlene, that you had something similar happen to you."

They nodded.

"In that case," said Siobhan, I'm going to assign them to the Marine detachment on the Jervis Bay as medics and available sex partners. After all, they are exhibitionists who love group sex, generally the kinkier the better. This assumes that we either can't get you CAP tested in the short term, or you don't make Sponsor at first. I'd suggest that both of you take advantage of education and other opportunities if you make the magic score.

"For general quarters, they'll each go to a platoon, but I want to keep them together for now. That certainly meets some Marine needs until the concubine policy for them is formed. Girls, with the leadership of our particular Marines, and their customs, I don't think they'll regard you as slaves if you can help the mission. At least in our command, we want everyone to progress as far as they can.