Ghost Fleet

by Isaac Stone

  “It was alright,” he replied. “Took her a bit to get used to being alone with me, but she calmed down after a shower. I didn’t think she was going to let me touch her, but she finally did after I let her have her own space for a bit. Then she made the first move and I took the initiative. Other than her insisting to be on top, it was good. She slept like a baby afterwards, so whatever you did made a difference.” He seemed relaxed to talk about the experience, which was a good sign.

  I was about to ask him another question when the klaxon began to sound.

  “Incoming ghost ship!” the speaker over us began to squawk. “All packmates to your post. Make sure the children are secure!”

  Minutes later, we were in our FAS, waiting for the command to leave. I brought up the screen in front of me to see about the situation outside.

  I watched as the Thunder Horse confronted a ghost ship that appeared without warning. Someone had tracked our passage across the Insubstantia barrier and located where we emerged near the Spear Cluster. I watched from several different angles as Dredge brought it into play against the ship that was in front of us.

  “Captain says to make ready,” the voice of Candi spoke over the audio. She was one of the trainees who pledged into the pack the same time as the pirates. She was only eighteen standard years, but took her job communicating with me seriously. I’d meant to ask Captain how the former trainees were adjusting to the roster but didn’t have the opportunity.

  I watched the screen as the Thunder Horse opened with several lasers the moment it had the ghost ship in range. The ghost ship didn’t seem to have any emotional reaction when engaged. I assumed the spirits who flew them did not make emotional mistakes.

  A few minutes later and the ghost ship was reduced to shrapnel, though not before slamming Thunder Horse with a few broadsides. Dredge and her crew scored one direct hit after another as they opened with the laser weapons. I could even feel the glee as it radiated from the Thunder Horse in spite of the damage.

  We never even left the hanger.

  I felt the disappointment in my crew when the all-clear sounded and we left the FAS. I could sense the same reactions from Tank’s crew as they exited their ship. He nodded at me then shook his head.

  “Looks like we’ll be working for Dredge at this rate,” he called to me from across the hanger.

  No one laughed.

  It was still too early to go on evening shift, but we could remove the armor and get back into our work clothes. As per the schedule before the alert, we brought out the tools needed to do some maintenance on the FAS. Tanks crew went their separate ways, each scheduled to some task in the ship.

  “That was a quick victory,” Medoro mentioned to me as we loaded up the toolboxes. “Doesn’t Captain give us a special request when we come back with a win?”

  “She does,” I replied. “I can’t image what those pirate women want. Guess Dredge gets apple pie tonight.” At least I got a laugh out of him.

  I surmised that Captain let them keep their ship as part of our group since they knew how to fly it best. Also, it wasn’t likely that any of them would ever be able to produce children. Too much damage to their reproductive systems over the years. I’d known from the deep probes all of them wanted children, which didn’t surprise me. But I’d seen the medical reports. Only Dredge and one or two others were in good enough health to make babies. Perhaps Captain would bring them back into a shipside role later, but I didn’t know for sure. Our pack was never meant to crew two ships, and though Dredge served the Captain, two warships and two commanders was not a sustainable situation.

  “Change in schedule,” a voice spoke to my right. I turned with Medoro to face a floating screen with Candi’s face on it. “Check the new roster. Captain told Dredge she won a prize with that quick strike. She gave it to Kane who wants to see Orlando again tonight. Corwin, Captain wants you this evening.” The screen went blank and floated back to the wall.

  Orlando, who was about to drive a tool truck back the FAS stopped. He turned to look at me in confusion.

  “Didn’t think I was that good last night,” he spoke. “Hell, she did most of the work.”

  It was an unwritten rule of Captain that no one slept two nights in a row with the same person. As of late, this was overlooked because of or messed up man to woman ratio. It was one policy Captain tried hard to maintain. She wanted no special relationships among the pack, other than parents of the same child. I noted that Precious had a problem with this one, but eventually would come around.

  Which lead to another issue, as Precious was whom I’d been scheduled with for the evening. I sighed and hoped Captain would see fit to put us together the next night. I’d missed my little psychopath. Working with women who had worse issues exhausted me over the previous few days, even if it was for the good of the pack. Despite what we were supposed to think, Precious was special to me.

  We finished our shift and had he FAS ready to be launched should the need arise. All of us knew it would be soon. Both the Hard Rain and Thunder Horse were about to enter some dangerous territory very soon. The two UDF warships sent to hold this part of the cluster had been destroyed by the relentless onslaught of the ghost ships before we arrived, and it was only the solar flares blocking the further advances of the enemy fleet that allowed us to stand down for even a moment.

  Captain joined me in the shower the moment I entered the one in her room. This was a surprise, as she didn’t do this very often. Most of time she would be in her gown or robe at the desk and waited for me to get ready. After the food was delivered, we ate, then, if she didn’t have to take a call or answer a message, we retire to her bed. Whatever position we used was predetermined by her.

  Nevertheless, tonight, was very different than she’d been before. Even with the therapeutic work we’d done with Precious and Dredge, she was still in charge. She seemed vulnerable in the shower and pulled me on top of her the moment we’d toweled off. For some reason it was hard to hold back, but she made sure I did.

  “Do you notice anything different?” she asked me later. We were laying her bed as she stroked my back.

  “Did you lose mass?” I asked her. “It worries me when you do.”

  “Look at me, Corwin,” she said and put her face directly in from of mine. “What do you see?”

  I looked again. The lines I knew so well in her face were gone. As were the tautness of her body. She’d changed. For the better, but I didn’t know how.

  “I'm younger,” she announced. “I've de-aged. All the signs of maturity have faded. Stars and stones, the other day I had minstrel cramps! Haven’t had those in years!”

  “How does this happen?” I gasped.

  “No record of it every happening. It’s not supposed to happen. But there are plenty of strange things taking place. Those ghost ships flown by sprits. The visions I’ve had. Do you know the Hard Rain took a hit when you went after that first ghost ship before we made the jump? Not from the missile, your crew took out, but from another round much smaller. It still did some damage, but I never reported it because the ship repaired itself.”

  “What? That’s not possible.”

  “It is now. Jalilah and I went over the damage report. The Hard Rain fixed itself? I don't know what to make of it.”

  “Doesn't make sense.”

  “As my sex drive. I’m ready to have kids. Thank the stars for the blocking agents. Now get over here, we’ve got plenty of time tonight and I want to do some things I haven’t done in years.”

  She kept me busy most of the night. A few times, I needed enhancement just to keep up with her. That night Captain was as happy as an eighteen-year-old. I’d never been with her so energetic in bed. Most of the time making love with her was instructional and a way to bond. Until the recent campaigns, she hadn’t put herself on the roster that often. When Captain put herself on the roster, the man she wanted for the evening found out first, so he had time to get ready. And you never found out more than one day in adv
ance. I will say she always made sure you saw the woman you were scheduled to see when she pulled rank because Captain didn’t want anyone disappointed.

  Up until tonight, sex with her was warm, but not hot. There wasn’t a woman on that ship with more experience in the art of pleasure than Captain. She’d taught most of those women on board herself how to please men. Likewise, it was from her training that the men knew the needs of the all the women on the ship. She was mother and lover to the entire ship. She could call in the fire on a smuggler one day and be in bed with the man who pulled the trigger on it that night.

  As she began to kiss down my chest, I lay back and felt something knew in my level of sensations. It was outside me, but so close at the same time. This was different from the probes I’d done and the distant intelligence that tried to overpower me.

  I drifted out and above the room and watched as Captain pleasured me on her bed. My conscious drifted to the other rooms and I felt the sighs of contentment everywhere. Not everyone was in the act of love, but many were. I drifted over Tank and observed him take his time with Candi. She was scared, and he needed to give her some time to adjust. We’d taught the trainees best as possible about what it meant to be with a new person every night until you completed the rotation, but some didn’t get it. Candi did, but there was one thing about learning about the arts of love in a class and another while Tank moved over her demure form.

  “Is this going to hurt?” I heard Candy thing as she worked her way down him. “I don’t want it to hurt.”

  “You have to let me know if it does,” Tank thought back to her. “I don’t want your first few times to hurt. Did it hurt the last time?”

  “No, it didn't,” I thought to them. “But that was with Rin and she had Captain there to guide her oh shit.”

  We heard each other’s thoughts. We knew each other’s memories and desires. The entire ship was open to each other. For a few brief seconds, our minds merged into one mode of thinking and all of use experienced what it was like to be the other. In any other circumstance, this would be fatal, but the pack mentality made it possible.

  But not always preferable.

  For every “I knew you liked me with those earrings”, there was an equal, “Why didn’t you tell me that you liked it when I went down there?”

  Not to mention the way I saw myself through the eyes of others. And Captain knew about the little conference my crew had when we went off line. She was not happy about that one, but it was softened by the love they felt for her. This was more intense than I’d imagined.

  Everyone loved her; I knew that. I suspected she did as well. Sometimes it was as a mother’s love, such as with the women on the ship, but also with the men. The Order picked well when it assigned her the Hard Rain, she was an exceptional leader, but not one who ruled by fear.

  I’d suspected several of the men she’d had visit her in the past few years was to resolve an issue in bed. I knew she’d brought two men at a time up there, but I never inquired why. Now I knew, and I was very impressed. Even before she’d started to de-age, Captain knew how to keep two men at once busy. It was a way she had of bonding them together. Sharing a woman at the same time could smooth over many issues and she knew it.

  I watched Kane and Orlando as she embraced him. Orlando didn’t know what to make of this woman. This was the second night and she still wanted more. From Kane’s point of view, she still couldn’t understand why she had to share Orlando with anyone else. She’d bonded hard to Orlando and had no desire to sleep with anyone else. I needed to make her understand she could love everyone the way she loved Orlando.

  “But I don't want anyone but him,” she thought. “Why can’t we just leave the ship?”

  “Can't you make her see reason?” Orlando thought to me between gasps. “I love her too, but I have a lot of love to share around.”

  “This isn't fair,” I felt the thoughts from Ely as she watched Cyril, one of the new trainees who’d also been pledged in at that ceremony with Imani. “She’s had more time with him than I was allowed.” Because of the rotation problem, there were still a few men forced to please more than one woman at a time. I tried to reach out to her and explain that everyone was different and what she didn’t get this time would be made up later.

  “They won't remember any of this, will they?” I thought to Captain. She looked up to me and thought back.

  “Probably not,” her face told me. “I will. You will. I think we’re evolving, just as I’m de-aging. Maybe these evenings will become common in the future and we’ll all know what the other thinks. By the way, I think at least two of those pirate women might be better off with the Amazons Order, don’t you agree?”

  We drifted off again and I slept soundly with Captain in my arms. My dreams were undisturbed. I seem to recall that Tank and Candi found a way to resolve some issues that pleased both at the same time. The others barely knew we’d all merged.

  Mess hall that morning was a bit different. There were the usual knowing glances, but some of them seemed to have more knowledge than the others. I overheard Shaunice tell Rod that she was sorry if the wrong thing was said to him years ago and she’d make it up to him in a few nights when they were assigned. He felt better, I noticed, when he left. The entire crew had a lower level of tension that day. I noticed several people taking breaks in the respite area and emerging with smiles later. Some of the residuals from last night improved strained relations.

  Orlando came up to me later in the corridor and wanted to know what I’d do to put Kane in a less needy mood. “I woke up this morning to her purring next to me,” I was informed. “I thought, oh, stars and stones, she’s going to press for another night, be she was all excited to see one of those new guys on her next assignment. Boy was I relieved. I’m with Cherish tonight and I haven’t had her assigned in weeks.”

  It was later in the week that our next challenge made an appearance. The solar flare storm abated.

  At first, the bridge picked it up as a commercial freighter inside our patrol zone, though not from within the cluster itself. Captain almost let it go, but I reached out with my mind and felt something wrong about the ship. I happened to be on the bridge at the time and told her.

  “You might want to run a check on its identification,” I told Captain, as I handed her a small cup of water. I was scheduled to run errands for the master control room that day and ended up doing small tasks for the women who oversaw the mothership.

  Captain nodded and brought up the information on it on a small screen that materialized next to her. Just as I suspected, its information was bogus. The official identification of it was quite different from what came up on the register.

  This time she sent Tank’s FAS out to have a look at it. The Thunder Horse was undergoing maintenance to repair the damage from the earlier combat encounter. I scrambled my crew, but we remained in the hanger and watched the action, ready to take part in it if needed. I never did like staying in the reserve, but our time would come.

  Tank flew a standard pattern with all his weapons armed. We’d seen enough insanity over the past few weeks to assume anything. He sent the images of the commercial ship back to the Hard Rain for analysis.

  “I've got it," Talia called out over the audio as we watched the outline of the ship appear on the screen. “Freighter from the Centurion system. It disappeared on a run from one scrap yard to another four years ago. The Udies thought it was pirates. It look familiar to you, Dredge?”

  “Never saw it before,” our new packmate informed her. I didn’t detect any attempt to conceal anything.

  All the former pirate women were on the Thunder Horse, ready to fly into battle if needed. I did feel the mutual attraction between Deborah and Maenad that Captain pointed out when our minds merged earlier. I’d yet to be with either of them. I did hear some talk that they didn’t seem to be enthusiastic about sleeping with the men. Good and fine, if they’d be happier and better off with the Amazons, I’m sure Captain could
make the arrangements and release them from their oaths.

  As Corwin’s FAS swung under the freighter, I saw the tale-tell flash of a rocket launch from its undercarriage. The missile didn’t have a chance as Tank had Rin take it out three seconds after it was fired.

  Tank’s FAS shot up and over the freighter and raked it with the chain cannon. I watched as several sections of the freighter were blown off it. He wanted to let them know that we mere serious and any attempt at aggression would be meant with the same by our side.

  Then I saw the freighter begin to repair itself. I watched the screen as panels grew out of the sections that remained after the cannon fire and merge into place. It was a quick process. The new sections grew out of the ship with amazing speed and completely replaced the sections blown off by the shells from the FAS chain cannon.

  It then turned direction and began to move back out of the zone and into the direction of the cluster.

  “They wanted us to see that,” Medoro observed as we watched our separate screens. “They wanted us to know that their side can make repairs faster than we can create damage.”

  I wanted to say something about the Hard Rain doing the same but decided not to bring it up. We’d talk about it later, no reason to create panic right now.

  “Do you see this?” Tank asked me over the audio. “The ship is growing repairs to the damage it sustained. How can this happen?”

  “I had the same question,” Orlando sent to me over the audio. “What the hell is going on it this place? Boss, I had a dream last night that I was inside your head, does that make sense to you?”

  More than you can imagine, I thought. I kept my thoughts close to myself because I wasn’t sure how far they would travel.

  I reviewed the video and watched again as entire sections blown out by the action of the chain cannon merged together. The ship multiplied the metal parts that it needed to make rapid repairs. This was no longer a freighter, but an alien machine possessed by whatever emerged from that Spear Cluster. Something took over every bit of human creation and used against us. This was no longer a mere location for a ship of the Starwing Order to protect, but the last stand of humanity. I played back the images of the freighter again as it made the repairs. Whatever was inside that cluster wanted us to know it could do what it wanted, and we were powerless.