by D. R. Rosier
Jill looked at the targets on all four lanes.
“Okay, that was an effective demonstration, I’ll request an override for that safety lockout, and append this demonstration as why you want it. It may take time to get approved.”
I smiled, “I understand, thanks Jill.”
The grin on my face couldn’t be helped, as I held out my hand, palm outward, and sent plasma balls into all four targets. I didn’t even have to move my arm, the weapon hit the targets where I intended, by changing the fields and launch angle to match where the reticule was. Maybe it made me a geek, but it had to be my favorite weapon ever, even if it would be garbage for a subtle assassination.
I took a few minutes to make sure the rifle worked as well, but the range was too short to really test long range accuracy.
“I’ll see you in the morning? And for dinner in four nights?”
Jill smiled, “Wouldn’t miss it. I’m sure the captain told you, but I’ll be a little more military and less cheerful on the bridge.”
I nodded, “All is recorded, got it.”
She grinned, “Sleep well Lori, I’m glad you’re here.”
Me too.
“Night Jill, the pleasure was mine.”
I wasn’t sure what to think, as I walked back to my cabin. I assumed Jillintara was off to the bridge, she was probably always on duty, not that she needed to be on the actual bridge. I was also considering how it might feel to be with another woman, unless I was crazy, she had clearly been suggesting that possibility.
I’d been daydreaming about Vik, or maybe Telidur. Rilok was just as sexy as the other two, but so far he was too much of a dick to even consider the possibility. Still, I’d been daydreaming about getting close to one of them, both intimately and perhaps for the first time, emotionally. But… suddenly I was looking at the possibility at sleeping with three out of four of them, and that not being taboo.
I was hardly a normal earth girl, with a normal upbringing. I’d always considered myself free of the sex hang ups that plagued most of humanity because of how they were raised. I wasn’t raised with any of that, just educated, taught to kill, and sent out into the world with rules. One night stands had never really bothered me, even if I wanted more, I never saw anything wrong with scratching my itch.
But… more than one person, I’d never considered it before, I’d also never considered the idea of sleeping with another woman. I didn’t dislike the idea, and Jillintara was gorgeous, I’d just never thought about it before. It wasn’t exactly a moral question I had, I just wondered if my heart would get attached, or if more than one bedmate would be too much for me to handle. Not physically, emotionally. I was inexperienced in matters of the heart, much less trying to date three people at once, or four if Rilok purchased a personality transplant.
As I got back to my cabin, put up my plasma pistol and rifle, and laid down on my bed, I was considering both for the first time. I honestly didn’t know how I felt about those ideas. It sounded intriguing, filled with possibilities and pleasure, but quite possibly entirely too much. I’d just play it by ear, my dinner with Vik was first, tomorrow night. Maybe I was reading too much into it, maybe the only one that wanted me on this ship would be Jillintara.
I frowned, as I tried to fall asleep.
“Ann, wake me up thirty minutes before shift.”
That should give me enough time for a fast sonic shower, and to take care of other things. I’d already noticed I no longer grew hair where I didn’t want any, and my nails were trimmed and perfect. My long brown hair was silky smooth, no split ends, and easy to brush out in the mornings. The nanites took that perfect shape thing pretty seriously. I’d also have time to grab a bite to eat, yesterday had been my first real breakfast, so much better than those damned bars. Still, it was a two-meal cycle now, breakfast and dinner.
Ann replied, “I’ll take care of it, and thank you.”
“For what?”
Ann said, “For not replacing me.”
“You’re welcome.”
Was Ann afraid to die? Maybe she was more human than I’d thought too, though nowhere near as lifelike as Jillintara, perhaps that was partially because of protocols?
My mind never did calm down, but I did finally find sleep. My last thought, was wondering what it would feel like to kiss Jillintara’s slightly pouty lips.
Chapter Twelve
The bridge was a spacious circular room, with six workstations. The captain’s chair and first officers were right next to each other in the center. Rilok didn’t sit there though, he was at the navigation and operations console which was at a right angle from the captain about ten feet away, and facing toward the center of the bridge. Telidur was at the pilot’s console, which was on a ten feet left diagonal from the captain, and the console faced the captain.
There were two more consoles in the back of the bridge, the one on the right was the engineering console where Jillintara sat, and faced the captain’s chair. Mine was similarly placed to a left angle, and was the weapons console.
The bridge was also filled with holographic emitters, which made the round circular wall whatever we wanted it to be, a wall, a waterfall, or what it was now, which was the space around us in a three sixty circle. There were also holograms on the bridge of our position to the moon around the gas giant, other vessels, mining facilities, and all other assets in the system. I was also using my overlay to display weapons status and availability.
Rilok said, “We’re loaded and buttoned up captain, we’ve also been cleared to leave the area.”
Jillintara said, “All systems are online captain.”
Vik said, “Set a course to Vehiri, and engage. Move us out at a hundred gravities.”
Rilok said, “Course set.”
Telidur said, “Engaging.”
It was slower than the maximum acceleration, by half, but would take much less power than two hundred gravities would. We also only needed to go two A.U. to reach the point we could safely enter subspace. The gas giant was pretty far out from the sun already, over three A.U.s. At that acceleration, it would be a little less than ten hours to cover that remaining distance to five A.U.s, which was the safe distance we needed from the sun. It would be even faster if we didn’t have to flip ship halfway, but entering subspace while at a good portion of light speed would be a fatal error.
Vik turned to me, “I want you to review our mission logs, take a look at what we’ve done so far, and give some thought to suggestions. I don’t necessarily need them today, we have a couple of days to drop off our shipment before we need to point the ship somewhere. Once you’re caught up on the mission, I want you to run a simulation or two.”
“Yes captain.”
I brought up the logs and started to read.
They’d been working on this for a few months already, and a quick glance at the dates on the other mission logs told me that was unusual. Which meant their usual tactics to figuring out what the Stolavii were up to weren’t working.
So far, they’d managed to take one pirate unaware, and have acted as bait three times. The last time, the ship was almost destroyed, and they’d barely won the battle against a cruiser and two destroyers, which was why the ship had been in refit. In all cases the Stolavii crews they questioned had no idea what was happening to all the humans. It seemed like a simplistic approach, but clearly it was a successful one in the past. This time though, the Stolavii involved weren’t spreading tales, and good operational security made our current approach unworkable.
I’d already been told trying to get access to their data wouldn’t work. Intelligent computers were the gatekeepers, and a simple code vulnerability wouldn’t work like it would on Earth. Most likely whatever reason they were stealing humans, was only accessible to those on that mission anyway.
Going to their home world was out, the mission was to find the truth and only stop their plans if it was a threat to the empire. We couldn’t even sneak in, the Stolavii only let their own on the plan
et. Even the slaves didn’t step foot on their world. Point was, the heart of the mission was to avert a war if possible, not start one.
Simply searching about six thousand star systems would take forever. Not quite that long, but at least two years, and that’s if we could afford to not stop our search, which we couldn’t. The wear and tear on the ship, power usage, resource usage, and food requirements, meant we’d have to stop too often to play merchant, which would add at least another year. It wasn’t a viable option.
Which really, left random chance that we’d bait the right ship. There had to be a better way to do it, but I wasn’t sure how. What if the Stolavii on that mission to abduct all those extra humans are under strict orders not to attack targets of opportunity? Then we’d really be screwed. I wasn’t sure how likely that was, but they were mercenaries, not just pirates. If they were paid enough compensation to ignore other opportunities I’d imagine they’d do as they were told.
An obvious alternate approach would be to lie in wait in the Sol system, and then take the next ship that pinched humans off the surface. Problem was, they’d see us, and abort. Plus, we’d still need an element of luck on our side, because other ships were still going there simply to take a few humans to supplement their slave crew due to attrition through death. I supposed I might have even been lucky to get picked up by one of those, who knew what was happening to the rest of the humans taken?
I’d have to let it stew in my mind for a while, and learn exactly what this ship was capable of. I was surprised that she had managed to best one of her class, as well as two destroyer escorts, even if barely. Most of the credit for that goes to Vik’s plan and having Jillintara I’d imagine. The one thing I did know for sure is this ship had the same weapon systems as all the other cruisers, it’d been in the download. It had been a tactical victory against greater odds, not a technological one.
Well, if it was an easy problem to solve, Vik would’ve had it all figured out by now.
Caught up in the problem, if not a workable solution, I decided to put it on the back burner and let my sub-conscious take a crack at it, and focused on the simulations the captain had waiting for me. There were quite a bunch of them, and any illusions I’d had of fast space battles immediately died.
The first one had us intercepting four enemy destroyers, which would take two hours. Real battles could take days in a star system. In fact, the simulation itself had started with a briefing and already four hours into the engagement. I learned the missiles had a much better reach than the plasma weapons. The latter were almost worthless if the enemy ship was further than a light second away.
Missiles were another matter, but they were slower, and despite their four hundred gravity acceleration to chase down ships, their powered range was limited to about two light minutes, or a quarter A.U. After that they’d be ballistic, at a decent percentage of light speed, but still a dumb projectile. An enemy ship could easily evade it at that point by slightly changing course.
I wondered why they didn’t have a two-stage system to save some of the acceleration for later, but decided it was probably a money issue.
I spent the rest of the day working the console, trying hard to concentrate and not think about my dinner with Vik tonight, and speculate on what might happen. What my body wanted was quite clear, but my mind was still unsure. Humans didn’t really mix sex and work, or at least when they did it often led to disaster, but clearly the Isythians were different.
I was a confident young woman when it came to killing, fighting, and assassinations. Fearless even, but I’d been avoiding entanglements my whole life in the fear that my handlers would either take me out, or the person I befriended or loved. Now that I was free, and able to pursue others, it was rather daunting. It didn’t help, that those others were all aliens, hot aliens yes, but alien.
Another part of me wondered how the hell I ended up here, a weapons officer on an experimental ship with just four other aliens, one of those an artificial intelligence. There was still a surreal quality to it all as well, my mind hadn’t really accepted it yet. It’d been less than a week since I’d been taken, and I kept waiting for my mind to catch up, and for me to lose it. Maybe I wouldn’t, I wasn’t sure.
Regardless, sexual relief sounded like a good plan, I just worried I’d regret it. This wasn’t a one-night stand, where I could sneak out after he fell asleep, and never see him again. He was my captain, and we would form a link of some kind, and I’d see him every day for the next year at least, and probably longer than that.
Right, I needed to focus on the simulation, and not my sex life and possibly the first ever real relationships I’d ever have in this life. Easier said than done. I shook my head, and pushed it all down. I could worry about it all later.
I suppressed a snort, brilliant plan Lori, worry about it after your dinner date and you fuck his brains out. Still, I did manage to get back to the simulation. Which comprised of swapping missile fire for almost an hour, and then finishing up with plasma at close range.
I did very well where fast reflexes were required, assigning point defense, and responding to simulated orders, but there was a lot of room for improvement in the places I needed to fill in the blanks. There was an art to spoofing and countermeasures that I needed to get a handle on, and most of my enhancements were worthless in a space battle. Sure, I wouldn’t miss the button I intended to press, even if I wasn’t looking, and my reaction speed and lack of hesitation were slightly better than most, but that only went so far.
My intuition was also completely worthless, at least in a simulation. I wondered if real combat would be any different, or if those ships would just be too far away for my sixth sense to lock onto. Regardless, I was sure I’d be running simulations for the foreseeable future, I had all the knowledge I needed from the download, but information wasn’t the same as experience.
The simulations were long, between that and catching up on the mission logs, I’d only managed to get two of them done before our bridge shift was up. We all left, including Jillintara. I didn’t think too hard about that, she was both off shift, and controlling the ship, the idea of it gave me a headache. Since she had a real body, did she need sleep? If she did, how did she control the ship at the same time? I guess I had a lot of questions for our date three nights from now.
Vik said, “Take a moment, and then meet me at my quarters for dinner?”
Clearly, it wasn’t an order, which was good.
“I’ll be there soon.”
I headed to my quarters, to take a sonic shower, just in case things went how I thought they would, I wanted to be fresh, and to clear my mind of the day’s work…
Chapter Thirteen
I felt excitedly nervous, both butterflies in my stomach, and a tingling a little lower as I requested entry to his quarters. I’d decided unless he did something stupid, I wouldn’t let my fears rule me, and I’d sleep with him. I needed the relief, and if I was honest with myself, I longed for a true connection. That the first time for that would be with an alien was almost beside the point, that was the least of my worries. Attraction obviously wasn’t an issue. I wondered if I was as exotic and attractive to him as he was to me.
Of course, if this turned out to be nothing more than in informal interview to get to know me better, I’d feel like an idiot. Still, I was pretty sure that wasn’t the case, especially considering the talk I’d had with Jillintara last night.
The door whooshed open, and Vik smiled down at me. I returned his smile, and hoped it wasn’t obvious how off balance I felt. I was usually far more confident, but I was also usually in control. In this situation, it was far more equal.
“Come on in. Dinner’s ready.”
The captain’s quarters were much nicer than what I rated. It was more a suite. The first room held a small table, side board, and a desk and chair with a workstation in the corner. There were two other doors in the room, both open. One led to a bathroom, instead of just an alcove. The other room clearl
y had a bed in it. The table itself was set for two, and the food smelled delicious, even if I couldn’t identify it. Some type of meat, along with vegetables and spices that were unfamiliar. So far, I’d liked the real food just fine, so I wasn’t worried.
“Dinner smells good,” I offered, and we walked over and took our seats.
Vik asked, “So, how was your first day? Any thoughts on the mission?”
Then he started to fill his plate, and I did the same.
“Good, I’m going to need more simulator practice. Not sure on the mission, I have a solid understanding of the problems, but no thoughts on a solution yet. It might also help if I had a better grasp on the other systems and ship’s capabilities.”
Vik asked, “What do you mean?”
I shrugged, “Sensors for example. Can we track ships through subspace, can we see them from normal space? What’s the range of the sensors, what kind of sensors. Any kind of plan would require at least a basic knowledge of the general capabilities of the ship’s systems. Otherwise anything I might come up with will be unworkable, or I might overlook something because I didn’t think something that was possible, was possible. Perhaps I can use part of my shift tomorrow to do some of that familiarization?”
Vik nodded, “I want you to do two simulations a day at the very least, the rest of the time you can read up on the capabilities of the systems, or maybe just ask Jillintara to put together a download with that information. It wouldn’t be enough that you could do all the jobs, but it would familiarize you with at least the capabilities, if not how to use them.”
Anna asked, ‘Would you like me to request that on your behalf?”
I nodded slightly, and Anna said she would. I wasn’t sure if it was rude to talk to my assistant in this situation. So much to learn, not just about technology, but about their society. All I really knew about them was they had sex with all their friends before they got married. I could get on board with that one, maybe. Point was, I should probably do research into that as well, not just science and technology.