Chapter 38

Sarah’s Clan, which now included Maeve and Aoife, left the ship’s clinic and wandered around the ship, showing Maeve the different areas. They spent a long time on the observation deck, looking at the stars and the planets. With the small telescope, they were able to have a closer look at Earth and its moon. A good part of the time was spent talking, and getting to know the crew members and their guests. Many of their guests made it a point to stop them and express their thanks for being rescued.

When they neared the bridge, Maureen and Siobhan joined them. Being the first time for Siobhan, Maureen, Aoife and Maeve’s to access the bridge, they were surprised to see the doors automatically open as they approached. On the bridge they proceeded to the pillar which was bathed in a column of coherent blue light, giving the bridge an eery blue cast. As before, they formed a circle around the pillar with one arm around the person next to them and gripped the pillar’s ring with the other hand.

Aoife, Maeve, Maureen, and Siobhan were excited. Within moments of gripping the ring, they gasped, as they felt a warm hazy mist surround them. Without moving, they were now standing on a path that disappeared into the mist. Forming a loose circle, around Rusty they moved down the path with the women shifting their positions around him. They moved with a sense of purpose, unperturbed by the fog surrounding around them. As they progressed, the fog parted in front of them as it closed behind them. On reaching a circular platform, they stepped on it forming a circle, then clasped arms with each other behind their backs. This drew them tightly together with their arms and bodies interleaved. Although they faced each other, their collective vision included their surroundings. They watched as the mist moved closer, then enveloped them with its warmth caressing their bodies. The depth of their mind-link grew, as they stood together quietly. The warm misty cloud felt comforting and reassuring. They could feel Him there with them, even though no words had yet been spoken, nor thoughts shared.

New links formed between them as their mind-link grew to encompass the larger group. These new links opened an extended level of intimacy. The growing depth of their bond was shocking to the four making their first visit here. Again, Aoife and Maeve were nearly overwhelmed by how quickly they were drawn in and the depth of those sensations. Even so they thought it was fantastic and felt a closeness they had never dreamed of experiencing. Everyone felt very comfortable in their relationship with each other, as they melded toward becoming a single entity. As a single entity, they knew that they could control the strength of each facet. Their group entity grew, until their individual facets were hardly discernible. They were pleased to see their interrelationship grow, drawing them closer. Maureen and Siobhan fit with them slightly differently than their clan’s spouses, but here they were completely immersed as a part of the Command Staff aspect of this entity. Maeve and Aoife fit with them as tightly as if they had always been a part of their family. Still, they knew that their inclusion was not yet complete.

On the bridge, the Command Staff’s physical forms remained standing, gripping the ring, linked with each other. While they stood together in their group entity to review the events of the last several weeks. This collective view of recent events appeared to be different from what they each remembered seeing first-hand. Now they could see different perspectives of the events as they unfolded. In a very short time, they had a complete understanding of the events from each person’s point of view. This provided them with an effective means to evaluate what the effect a different sequence of actions could have yielded. Using this, they went through the events of the last two days, evaluating possible alternatives to the path they had followed. They quickly found that their choice of responses still gave them the best result, which in turn gave them a sense of satisfaction.

Together they said, “Thank you.”

“You are welcome, but I contributed very little this time. Your natural inclination, intuition, and willingness to listen to the views of others benefited you in the solutions you chose. So I can say, well done.” They felt the warm glow of accomplishment, both from realizing the impact of their analysis and His comment.

“The group behind the ‘flesh peddlers’ is probably going to be very difficult to expose. This is especially true when we adhere to our fundamental tenet. Looking at the data Donna and Star collected, your conclusion that it looks more like two separate groups is a reasonable one. One group apparently provides people as gifts in return for favors to protect both groups. The second group acquires, trains and then either uses them or sells them. This second group probably gives a sizable percentage of their new stock to the first group. In return, the second group gains the ability to operate with little concern of exposure, because of the first group’s political connections.

“You might want to consider following two general courses of action. As all of you know, our survival is totally dependent on this ship. First, consider moving the repairs along as quickly as possible so it can operate reliably within this solar system. Once you’ve reached that point, establishing a settlement on Mars would aid your growth. You may want to consider the back side of Earth’s moon, although those on Earth may feel threatened once they learn of our presence there. Some will even feel threatened by our presence as well as a settlement on Mars.

“If a Moon settlement is the choice then build it so that it is difficult to see. Placing most or all of it below the surface with carefully placed entrances would minimize its visibility. This would be less of an issue on Mars. There should be enough equipment on the ship to build a settlement. The library has construction information, so you shouldn’t have any difficultly in building another ship and a settlement. Material surveys show that the needed raw materials are available on Mars, the Moon and in the asteroid belt. One settlement and another ship are essential for our future although more than one more ship would improve the odds.

“With respect to the flesh peddlers, a possible way to get them to expose themselves would be to infect them with a transformation virus. There are several in storage. The ship’s medical staff knows of the samples but not their capability. Along with these samples are some other remodeling virus strains. All have an unusual label. Several have wondered why they are there, as they don’t appear in any treatment protocol. One way of initiating the spread of the virus is by infecting those still on the freighter.

“By infecting the flesh peddlers on the freighter, they will act as carriers to spread it to the two groups. With what has already started, those remaining on the freighter will be seen as salable items when they arrive in port. The remodeling viruses are spread through intense intimate sexual contact.

“The change for a man generally takes a couple of months before the final stages are reached. The last stages take place over a 36 hour period while they sleep. After that they will have the features of the last woman they had intimate contact with. Those infected will become submissive sex addicts. After a short time they will begin to age very rapidly. This rapid aging will be painful, but will only start after they have infected a number of people. The response of those infected would depend on how similar their biological profile is to those on the freighter. As a submissive, they will live and suffer in the system they created or supported while continuing to spread the virus. Based on the information with the virus, the transformation will not be very comfortable.

“As it stands now, the hormones and drugs they are receiving will have the former males looking like she-males by the time they arrive in port. The females will have very desirable attributes and an intense sex drive.

“There is more information on these viruses in a special section of the library and is only available to your group. You will need to be in this level of mind-link to enter and review the information. In it, you will find more detailed information to support the suggestions just made. There is also additional information you will need regarding establishing settlements and constructing additional ships.

“For the new crew members, it will benefit them to have a genetic treatment, similar to that received by Amy’s Clan. The changes will give them strength and mental abilities that are at least equivalent to those of the original crew. This will improve their effectiveness and safety.”

His presence lessened a bit. “Are You still here?” they asked.

“Yes, in reality, I am always with you. For now, it is only when you are here that you can easily hear me. Sometimes, under the right circumstances, it is possible for me to visit you, like I did Maeve earlier today. Even though your abilities have grown, they need to increase some more before we can easily communicate when you are not here. Some aspects of this are also necessary before you can safely command the ship in flight.”

“How long?”

“I am not sure, as they are developing much faster than others I previously had contact with in the past. It will most likely be some time after your babies are born. The simulations you have been doing on the bridge have significantly improved the performance of the ship’s systems. This has also contributed to your growth as Command Staff.”

“You have mentioned how much stronger we are than others you have known, but at the same time you say we need to grow more before we can operate the ship. It doesn’t seem consistent.”

“Yes. I can see your point of view. The attributes you need in order to operate the ship while in motion have not fully developed, however from what I sense, they soon will. Our current weakness would be responding to an emergency, in part due to lack of experience. However, based on your response to previous surprises, I think you could handle it and do well. The attributes for managing the ship’s flight are a subset of the abilities you are developing. Others in your crew will also gain the abilities to manage a space ship’s flight.

“Although the courses of action I just suggested may have sounded like directives, they are not. I am an adviser. Any action taken should by agreement among you and include the crew when appropriate.”

It was quiet as they looked through the library. There, they found answers to the questions they had about the viruses he mentioned. It answered their concern regarding spill-over effect as these would the virus only infect those exposed through intense intimate contact. In addition to this, the group of suggested viruses required multiple receptors in order to become active. With the right combination of receptors, it multiplied until it was present throughout the body of the host. When it reached critical mass, it triggered a necessity for the host to sleep undisturbed for at least 36 hours while the changes manifested themselves. Where they had been used before, they were 95% effective. Those infected became carriers. No one outside the target group was infected. They agreed to inoculate the slavers still on the freighter, but decided to refine the logistics before implementing it.

With a path chosen for the slavers, they decided to survey the other information available to them in this segment of the library. Individually they scanned different segments of the information, with plans to share it between themselves later. Their review gave them a firmer understanding of the technology they now had access to and related issues. All of them realized that they had much more to learn before they thought they would be effective.

While they were mind-linked so tightly, they decided to exercise their capabilities as an ethereal entity. First, they thought about Comrie, which brought them a vision of it as if they were there. As they studied it, they found they could see it from several angles at once. Maureen, Siobhan, Maeve and Aoife were surprised at being able to see through each other’s eyes. They looked around Comrie and soon found Tara’s and Erin’s babies.

Maureen immediately knew that these were Erin’s and Tara’s babies. The babies were being fed by the nannies. They stopped suckling and turned their heads toward them while keeping the nipple in their mouth. As their presence moved around them, the babies lay very still, following their movement with their eyes. They pushed each baby a kiss, while sending them their love. Several babies reached up, as if to touch their cheek when they were kissed. They all felt the emotion through their ethereal contact. After the kiss, the babies went back to suckling, but continued to follow their parents with their eyes. The clan was pleased to see the babies had grown considerably since last seeing them.

Not sensing any energy issues the Command Staff continued their ethereal traveling and shifted their focus from Comrie to the freighter. As they approached it, they could tell where everyone was. All but two of the flesh peddlers were secured in the cages. Each had a short chain between their wrists and collar. Another chain connected their ankles. The men were secured to the T shaped bench with a food and water dispenser close to their mouth. Two women were in the compartments set aside for entertaining the freighter’s crew. In one of these compartments, a crew member had a woman hanging by her wrists and was preparing to use her as a punching bag. When the man drew back his fist to hit her, he swore as he felt his arm pulled further back, spinning him around. His eyes bulged on seeing another woman standing in the now open compartment door. Bot61 kicked the side of his knee, stopping his attempt to regain his balance. Crumpling to the deck, he screamed as he tried again to grab her. She dropped on him with both knees then yanked his head back to shove a large ball into his mouth. His arms were twisted behind his back and fastened together, then his ankles were tied together. Bot51 let the woman down and carried her out of the compartment. Bot61 grabbed the man’s ankles then dragged him out the door to the foredeck. Seeing the bots had resolved the issue, the group went to check on the doctor and assistants.

The Command Staff then shifted their focus toward the resort. On their way, they saw the three zodiac boats from the freighter bobbing in the water. They were stopped near where they were supposed to meet the freighter. There seemed to be a lot of turmoil among those on the boats. This was based on the gesticulation and apparent hollering going on. Hovering nearby was a cloaked shuttle with a security team. Checking with those on the shuttle, they learned that the team was waiting for dark. At that point, they planned to move the flesh peddlers to the cages on the freighter. They complimented those on the shuttle for their solution.

When they reached the resort, an army jeep and two trucks were coming down the road and had almost reached the administration building. In front of the recreation center, there were three stake trucks with large trunks on them and nearby on the ground. Closer to the building, a group, presumably raiders were lying on the ground with their ankles and arms bound. A group of soldiers surrounded them. The soldiers’ expressions were hard. By the way they held their weapons, it was clear they wanted an excuse to shoot. Several were injured. Nearby was a stack of weapons. While the Command Staff surveyed the situation, a limo came into view on the road and moved slowly down it before stopping some distance away. As the limo was approaching three women and a two men were pushed out of an army truck in front of the administration building. Two soldiers then forced the five to walk toward the group on the ground. An officer followed with a soldier carrying several packages.

The officer saluted another. They talked for several minutes before the senior officer turned toward the parked limo. After taking a deep breath, he walked over. As he approached the limo, the Command Staff was surprised to see a bot step out and wondered what was going on. Their next surprise was hearing the conversation. It was then they realized they were hearing through the bot with a significant time delay.

The officer said, “Miss, I am sorry to say we didn’t find any guests when we arrived.”

“So they came to kidnap the guests?”

“Yes.”

“If that gets out it will destroy this island’s economy for a long time.”

“Yes. It will. I am puzzled by the guests’ disappearance. Those vermin swear they didn’t do anything except gas the buildings. The only things we found in the rooms were a few personal possessions, nothing else. A search of their base yielded five more people, a bunch of drugs and preparation instructions. We are in a delicate situation.”

“Yes. I believe I can arrange for the vermin to disappear, but it has to be after dark. Can your people administer the treatments using the instructions and clean up the place?”

“Yes. But some will talk.”

“All of these soldiers are local, right?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“They are smart, if you tell them the consequences of saying too much they will understand. Once they’ve stripped and treated all the vermin, you should let your soldiers play with them. That will give them something safe to talk about. The play should not leave any significant injuries as it could complicate things. Now, if the bulls were neutered then so much the better.”

“That could work.”

“After it is dark, bind their wrists to their ankles and leave the trash on the beach next to the water line.”

“What about the tide?”

“Not our problem, is it?” she responded with a smile. “It won’t hurt them to get a little wet. They probably won’t drown but it will give them more to worry about. Are you okay with this?”

“Yes. It solves a number of problems, as long as what happens stays here.”

“I will tell my Mistress that you and your men have been very helpful. I am sure she will be very grateful. This is especially true since more guests are arriving in a week. Now they will have a place to stay and spend their money. Have a good day.” With that the bot, returned to the limo.

The officer shook his head as he watched the limo head back toward town. The junior officer walked up to him. The Command Staff watched them talk for a few moments then call over a couple of soldiers who were apparently NCOs.

It wasn’t long after that they saw the soldiers clip the ankle ties on a few, then force them to walk into the recreation building. The Command Staff watched as a few more were moved inside and then pulled back.

With a fresh understanding of the situation, the Command Staff thought back over their actions. He entered their link with them, “From this society’s viewpoint, your actions are appropriate and conservative in severity. It is a good policy to review your actions, but be careful of judging them by what you learn after an event.”

“Are the events at Leann’s home, the lodge and freighter related?” Tara wondered.

In response to Tara’s curiosity, they began to sift through the information their systems had collected. They learned that the event at the lodge had been placed under the US District Attorney for that jurisdiction. Their progress was being closely followed by several investigative reporters. A team of attorneys in the DA’s office was working with a special team of investigators, looking at the lodge incident and tracking down leads. Communications from the freighter’s slavers, the leader of the raid on Leann’s, and from the lodge used many of the same IP addresses.

At Leann’s, the investigators found charred human remains in the basement. The leader of the raid on Leann’s had left his slaves locked in cages with only a small amount of food. All of them were under the influence of a submissive drug similar to that used on both Leann’s group and the captives on the freighter.

The District Attorney’s office and the team of investigators appeared to be uncompromisable. This was based on their activities in investigating the lodge incident and other investigations. The Command Staff also felt that the investigative reporters were being honest in their coverage of the story. When they found information they thought was helpful, they would share it with the DA’s office.

As they completed the analysis, a plan formed. They sent instructions to the bots watching over the slaves at the raider’s home. When the time was right the bots would give the slaves an antidote to the drugs then make sure they had sufficient food for a couple of days. The next step was to make sure the DNA analysis of the remains at Leann’s identified the man who led the raid. Ideally they wanted the DNA discovery to coincide with a call about those held in the man’s home.

Over the next several weeks, they would arrange for letters to be sent to the investigative reporters from college students. These would tell of being shocked by what happened at the lodge as they had been offered a weekend there for winning a drawing. Some letters would mention that some of their friends had gone there but didn’t come back to school the next semester. The letters would include the names of those they couldn’t find as well as those who went to the lodge. Those rescued from the freighter would be asked if they would write a letter. This would frustrate the reporters since many of the writers had vanished as well. A few letters would also go to the DA’s office.

To attempt to ensure their safety, the DA, several key investigators and the reporters would be given implants. These would make it possible to quickly locate them. Drones were assigned to monitor each one.

Together, they reviewed the actions they had initiated. They thought they had provided enough pieces at this point to ensure the investigation would continue. Consideration was given to sending bots to work with each group, but they decided to wait before taking that step.

“Oh wait, we are overlooking the obvious. Backup tapes. Every network has tape backups, if the reporters could get access to them, it might add ammunition to the stories.”

“How?”

“Let’s have a journalism student, in the form of a bot, offer to assist the reporters. We could also put a bot paralegal in the DA’s office.”

“Let’s do it. The bot for the DA’s office will need a thorough background on the legal process.”

With that, they set in motion the system commands to start the process. Both Star and Donna would begin receiving the data, once the units were functioning.

They pulled back, to be more aware of their surroundings, but the extensive mental bond continued. They heard Him say, “Very good response to the information you had on the slavers. The approach you have chosen was not apparent to me. To me this shows the advantage you having an understanding some of that society’s intricacies that are not apparent to an outsider. This is the main reason why our society’s prime directive is to not meddle in other civilizations unless asked or threatened by them.”

“We were nearly their victims,” said Tara, Alison, and Erin, “as were many of us. The temptation to track them down, and deliver a full measure of justice personally, is very strong every time we see their activities.”

Together they said, “We are now members of this society. We pledge that the wellbeing of our society and breed must be our primary focus. We pledge to protect the weak from the strong. We will assist others in doing that, when requested and it is just.” Upon completing the statement, they felt their focus become clearer.

“How do you fit with us?” asked Siobhan.

“Ah, that is a difficult question to answer,” he said. “It is probably best to just think of me as the spirit of the ship or perhaps a mentor. Some would think of me as a god, but I am definitely not. I can only function through all of you as a group, although I can communicate with you individually at times...”

“So, you are a part of our bonding, ” said Erin.

“In a way, our association makes both your clan and Command Staff bond stronger. It also increases your individual capabilities.”

“So, when we bring our mental bond or mind-link to the level we just experienced, is it because of your participation?” asked Aoife.

“In a way, my participation makes it easier for you to achieve the depth and capability you just experienced at your current level of capability. However, your psionic ability is still growing, as I indicated before, and will likely continue for some time. Many in the society we came from that held positions similar to yours would never be able to do what you just did.”

“Wow.”

“You seem to be struggling with a way to express our relationship,” said Siobhan. “This is the first time we have touched, I think, but it seems to me our relationship is like one between very, very close friends that have a significant gap in age. I suspect it will be defined as we grow to meet our capabilities. You already have our capabilities but in your form they are not usable.”

“Yes, that’s a good expression of our situation. Yes, this is the first time for us to touch even though I was aware of you before.”

“We should return to the bridge,” they said, “as we have much to do. It was good to meet with you again.”

“You are easy to work with. Please be aware of the energy you consume when you use the ethereal form. When you use it here, you are able to draw directly from the ship. When you use it at another location, one of you should focus on monitoring your energy reserves as you would not want them to collapse at the wrong time.”

“Thank you.”

They moved toward the path, grouped in four rows of four. Rusty was again in the middle, as they proceeded down the path back to the bridge. After slipping back into their bodies, they turned to look around the bridge just as Star entered.

“Erin and Alison, you’re here,” said a startled Star. “I thought, I saw you piloting the shuttle down to the freighter.”

Alison laughed, “No, it’s me here and an image there. We thought it would upset quite a few if eight bots just ran off with a shuttle.”

“Yes it would. Oh, I see now what you did, although I don’t understand all of it.”

“Simply, the bots are taking some special treatments for the vermin on the freighter. The impact of these will likely cause quite a commotion among their associates. By morning, many of the others in the attempt to capture us will find themselves on the freighter. Several of this group of bots will stay until we pull the doctor and nurses off, and some of those who we left there will return with the shuttle. We need to actively monitor the freighter’s voyage in case its destination changes.”

“Are the Intelligence-AI and Security-AI aware of this?”

“We believe so, but there is no harm in checking.”

“Okay,” said Sarah. “Let’s move to our consoles and check status.”

Star placed a hologram in the center of the room, so that the activities on the freighter and at the resort could be observed. The group spent the next several hours working at their consoles and occasionally stopping to see how the operation was going on the freighter.

Star said, “The freighter will enter the Mediterranean in 6 days.”

“How much longer to Marseille?”

“Roughly a day.”

“That agrees with the maps we saw on the bridge,” said Jill. “I think we should continue monitoring and pull the doctor, the two women and the bots off just before dawn the day they dock. Okay?”

“Yes,” they replied.

Star said, “This activity is tying up resources.”

“Yes,” replied Sally, “but after dark at the resort we should pull out everything. We can do this as we pick up those going to the freighter.”

“The satellites may see the people being moved off the beach,” said the Security-AI.

“Not if a shuttle hovers to block the view.”

“That works, but not as well as them going out with the tide.”

“These satellites aren’t taking videos. They take stills at set intervals. If a few of the bodies disappeared over a couple of intervals, someone might conclude they were swept out to sea. Let the security teams use their creativity.”

“I don’t see a need to put any extra effort into this,” added Terry. “Just pick up the stuff and leave.”

“So,” said Sarah, “we’ve decided to pull everything from the resort as soon as it is dark.”

“Yes,” replied the Command Staff then added, “Security-AI, we would like you to give the bots the objectives and provide support, but let them run it. This will give them some badly needed experience. Have a backup team nearby just in case. When it is all done, do a full debriefing on the operation.”

“I am not sure I understand the intent.”

“In this case, a full debriefing is a review of the operation from beginning to end. For this operation, the review will start with our departure from the resort and end when they are back here. You want to go through it, step by step, the decisions made, what went right as well as what went wrong. In doing this, you want to hear from everybody so you know their perspective while it is fresh in their mind.”