Chapter 62

Hey Brother!

Humm. Ensign Signifer? Or should you just combine them into Ensignifer? That might be less of a mouthful. Of course at the rate you get promoted one day you'll be a Major Tribune. But does that mean there is a Lessor Tribune? Of course if you make it before you are twenty-one you'd still be a minor. That would make you a Minor Major Tribune. *giggles And does that mean you get a Major Tribute? Of course considering how much work you write about doing I'm betting that your concubines want the tribute to be that you are tied down on a bed, naked and spread-eagled so they can spend the following twenty-four hours using you and worshipping you.

sighs Erica and I both got that from our concubines. Well, not the tied down part, but the twenty-four hours of pleasure. We turned it into a bit of a game and its now a reward any of our concubines can earn. I can't begin to describe how well it strengthened the bonds of everyone in the household. Even the kids helped. Not with anything sexual, but by bringing in bowls of finger food, sitting in laps while we relax and even singing some silly songs. It's just delightful to hear children laughing and at play.

Of course, I should mention that John is now thoroughly tanned. You would have trouble recognizing him. His hair has been sun-bleached to near white as well. He's one of the leaders among the children, but also watches out for them. Phoebe is the oldest and can be extremely caring, but she just can't form bonds easily. It's clear that the fact that her parents basically abandoned her has left huge scars. Erica and I are already preparing to add her to the harem in a few months when she tests. It's the only way to preserve what little confidence she has.

I'ts good to hear that your planet is trying to be more self-sufficient. I don't think any planet will manage that completely, but it's understandable to try, especially if you worry about the Confederacy AI units. As I said, the people on Wadi don't really think about that much. Admittedly other than the fact that the fish in this ocean will try to eat you, the planet is a bit of a paradise. And on many of the islands there would be a limit to what you can set op. We do have rather extensive gardens, and have even ended up giving away some seeds as we had more than we knew (Mei was carrying fifte pounds, not the twenty she told Erica and I she had. At least that means we have been able to plant more. Of course, most of these plants need months more to grow enough to harvest, especially since our plan is to replant as much as we can. We might do that for a couple growing seasons before we are ready to harvest for eating, since we'd like to expand the gardens quite a bit. We can't really farm near our home, we don't have space.

Your brother has done one other thing that impressed everyone. I told you he has a shack for chemistry. Well he took some scales and bones from the fish Erica and I caught and analyzed them in his shack. I wasn't aware he was doing it, but he managed to process the bones and develop a powerful fertilizer. We don't use much, but the plants we'd treated with it are thriving. We put some in a replicator to scan, but the Ai told us that there was too much bacteria to create a pattern. The bacteria is not dangerous to humans, but I guess it really helps the plant pull nutrients from the sandy soil.

I did see your technical drawings. Erica is still giggling a little. The largest open space you labeled as a potential magazine happens to be our emergency escape hatch. While I love the fact that you believe we are the best, we aren't willing to sacrifice that exit for anything. Heck two days ago Jase, Lieutenant Blackthorn, and the rest of his crew ended up using that exit after their tank had it's left tread blown off. Erica and I gave them a lift to the pickup point while his two wing-tanks towed the cripple back. He was lucky it happened near the end of the fight so we could recover the tank. Right now First Company is still down two tanks. Replacements seem to take two weeks to replicate. But repairs never take more than one day. Everyone figures that command does that to remind the crews to be careful since a lost tank takes you out of your tank and usually gets you send to work with an infantry squad until your replacement tank is ready. Erica and I are still debating what "forfeit" to demand from Jase. We're thinking of just trying to claim another spot on the fishing boat. That was fun and we could use another fish for John to try out more chemistry on.

Oh, the Sa'arm numbers dropped a ton a short time ago. I think I mentioned that they had stripped most of the land near their base of anything organic. Our forces had managed to really bottle them up in that cleared area. They obviously don't want to destroy the jungle (its food to them), but if they leave it up we use it as cover and slaughter their foraging parties. Well, one thing they started doing was building some huge ark. It wasn't metal or stone, but it was a giant ship, clearly designed to cross the ocean. They were probably hoping to find a better place to build one of their underground hives. One of First Company's tanks was mounted with a ultrasonic system designed for scanning the ground and looking for tunnels. They tried to use it on the base and the surrounding rock. It's hard to be sure as the tank had to move to avoid getting hit (they had to be within four miles of the base to use the bloody thing), but what they did see suggests that the Sa'arm haven't been able to tunnel much. The tunnels we did see that were below sea level were filling with water.