by Mark Wandrey
“Veelox,” he said, getting up to take Mindy. Minu watched her husband lovingly tuck the sleeping baby into the crib, putting a gentle kiss on her head and he leaned over to snug the blanket around her. Minu smiled as she thought about how much she loved that man. He was going to be an incredible dad.
“Veelox also represent the Traaga, if I recall correctly.”
“Yes,” he said, turning to notice she was still sitting there and hadn’t dressed. “You need to be back in the CIC soon?”
“I suspect she can handle flying the ship without mother watching,” Minu said and looked him up and down.
Years of marriage meant he could read subtle cues and body language. He rather liked this cue. “Oh?” he said and came closer. She winked and grabbed the zipper on his jumpsuit and pulled it down to the waist. It parted and revealed his ripped chest and stomach.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “I was originally a little wierded out that nursing Mindy turned me on,” she admitted, “but I checked the human network and apparently that’s normal.”
“What else turns you on?” he asked, taking a breast much bigger than he remembered in his hand and gently rubbing the areola, knowing the nipple was sore.
“Oh,” she said, running both hands up the muscles of his stomach to his chest and around his neck. She interlocked the fingers and pulled herself up. He was only five centimeter taller than her, more than enough as her lips went to his. She could feel him getting hard between them and reached down inside the already mostly unzipped uniform to give him a squeeze. “Things,” she said between kisses.
“Things, huh?” he asked. She pushed his jumpsuit over his hips to fall to the floor leaving him there naked in all his glory.
“Sure,” she said and pushed him back to trip over the bed. He easily caught himself and reclined, his erection standing up tall and hard. She undid her own outfit and let it fall. She looked down and marveled at just how big her breasts were, then noticed her still flabby belly. Need to do something about that.
She sidled towards him, hips swaying seductively. His eyes sparkled as he watched, taking in every movement. “What if Mindy wakes up?” he asked.
“This won’t take long,” she said as she took him in her hand and stroked him.
“Better not waste that,” he warned, “I was on that Squeen ship a long time!”
“I bet you’ll do fine,” she said and took him in her mouth.
“Oh, oh crap,” he said as her hair fell down around her head. She reached up and moved it aside so he could watch her mouth work. “Oh, Minu, oh… Minu… don’t!”
“Shhhh,” she said and kept up. A moment later he exploded in her mouth.
“Ugh, damn it!” he said and gasped for breath. “I wanted more than that!”
“And you’ll get it,” she said after swallowing. It wasn’t her favorite thing to do with it, but she was practical to a T. Plus, she considered it rude to just let it fly everywhere, even if the ship did clean itself. The idea of little blue bots covered in semen almost made her giggle.
As she knew he would, he stayed hard and she climbed up to straddle him. Already wet with her spit, he slid into her in one long scrumptious stroke. “Oooooh,” she shuddered as he bottomed out inside her. It was a tiny bit sore, but the pleasure easily overwhelmed that as she started stroking. This wasn’t going to take long.
Minu bent down and kissed him, her hands caressing the strange manliness of the new beard. Her fingers curled through the hair. It was a surprisingly hot. In less than a minute she was grinding against him and crying out in release. He followed again a moment later. Mindy never even twitched.
Lying next to him a little bit later, both kissing and enjoying their bodies pressed together. Minu kept touching the beard and giggling. Then she spoke up. “So what did you do on that Squeen ship all those weeks? You jerk off?”
“Minu!”
“Well, a girl just wants to know.”
“No, nothing.”
“Really? Wow, I don’t know if I could go that long.”
“Girls could get away with more without being obvious. Last thing I wanted was a video of me spanking it showing up in their network, or ours.”
“Good point,” she agreed.
“Got time for more?” he asked, a mischievous grin on his face.
“We’re approaching the ghost fleet,” Lilith’s voice announced over the PA system.
“There’s your answer,” she said and kissed him passionately. “We’ll have time here, I’m sure.”
“Sex between the stars,” he winked.
“How we started,” she added.
“I remember that.” Aaron smiled at her. “I’ll always remember that first time.”
“Me too, dear. Would you be a love and get the baby sitter set up?”
“Papa on the job!” he said and saluted seriously. The babysitter was a blue crystalline bot from the Kaatan, specially designed by Lilith; its only purpose was to watch over and protect Mindy. Should the ship experience combat, it would protect the baby with a forcefield and evacuate her as ordered. Lilith assured them that it would take the ship’s destruction to harm the little girl.
She gave him another quick kiss and jumped in the little shower for a super quick wash off. Five minutes later she was dressing as Aaron took over the shower. The babysitter was clinging to a wall over Mindy’s crib. The ship had already fabricated new uniforms for her, and they fit perfectly.
Minu pulled on the sealed boots and ran a finger down the magnetic seals just as Aaron was getting out of the shower. “See you in the CIC,” she said. He waved, slipped on the equipment belt that held the uniform’s helmet, and she was off.
The door was open to the command center and Minu made the transition from gravity to null gravity naturally now. Hidden gravity controls moved her over next to Lilith where a control station appeared for Minu’s benefit.
“Any sign of trouble?” she asked her daughter.
“None, mom.” The young woman glanced at her mother for a moment where she floated, temporary displays all around her and doing her usual graceful ballet that controlled the craft. “Using the others ships’ sensors I’ve swept to the limits of our detection range. To the best of our ability no starships have passed through this region for at least a year. Beyond that would be impossible to tell.”
“Are the ships there?”
“We are beginning a slow passive sensor sweep. As they are dead, there will be no infrared or other energy emissions. Very difficult to identify.”
“Thus the reason they’d be here a thousand eons later,’ Minu agreed. “Still good to know.”
“Yet I’m still concerned, what with the battle rider out there and the T’Chillen becoming more stealthy and sneaky. I plan to have the Eseel take stations as far out as practical. They’ll be powered down except for sensors. That should buy us a considerable amount of warning if necessary.”
“Excellent idea,” Minu beamed and reached out to give her daughter’s arm a squeeze. She turned and returned the smile. Ever since Mindy was born and her epiphany about love, the girl was really coming out of her shell. Her husband returned to her, a new baby, and this? Minu felt like her heart was going to explode.
“I have the first sensor pings,” Lilith announced and the data started to appear on Minu’s console just as Aaron flew in. He gave Minu a thumbs up so she would know Mindy was taken care of. She looked at him and winked, the two exchanging smiles.
“Hello father,” Lilith said. Aaron flew close and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Did you and mother enjoy having sex?”
“Lilith!” Minu gasped. “Are you spying on us?”
“No,” she said, unabashed. “I can tell that father is less tense and you appear quite relaxed and happy. The MI states that human females should resume normal sexual behavior two to four weeks after birthing. It was not a difficult conclusion to reach.”
“Well,” Aaron said with a shrug, “I guess there’s no need for the old h
owlers and the bees discussion.”
“Guess not,” Minu agreed. “But Lilith, try to keep in mind that even adult children usually don’t have such open and frank discussions about sex with their parents.”
“Why not?”
Minu opened her mouth, then closed it. She glanced at her husband for help but his cheeks were red, even through the beard, and he was in raped attention about something on Minu’s console. A flashing light, anything.
“I guess tradition,” Minu said finally. “Maybe a remnant of the parent/child relationship. We build a separation to avoid uncomfortable subjects being brought up in polite company.”
Lilith considered for a moment as another part of her mind examined the growing data stream. “Seems rather prudish. Is that the right word?”
“Yes,” Minu agreed. “Our society was rather prudish about such things. I found it surprising considering that for many generations it was acceptable for women to have children with as many unrelated men as possible.”
“Is that a tradition you’re interested in?” Aaron asked her.
“Drop it,” Minu growled and he went back to examining the display. Lilith watched them carefully, noting that twinkle in both their eyes and recognizing some of their customary banter. They were indeed interesting people. She was glad she loved them.
“Maybe we can look at the ghost ships instead of talking about my sex life?” Aaron asked.
“I’m just completing my passive sensor sweeps,” Lilith told them, carefully observing the nervous interplay between her parents and filing it away for later contemplation. “I have twenty-two distinct signatures.”
On the tactical display the Fiisk trailing in their wake angled away to widen their sensor sampling. Another display appeared with data of their target location. Twenty-two little blue points appeared in a rough cluster. The center of the sphere shrank and the area around it expanded exponentially.
“Perimeter scan underway with the assistance of the Eseel gunboats,” Lilith told them. The sphere continued to expand until the little cluster of blue markers merged together to become a single tiny, almost invisible point of light. “No other contacts within sensor range.”
“What do you and the Fiisk CI think is the best course of action?” Minu asked.
Lilith just stared for a moment, Minu aware that she was consulting with the CI before she replied. “Considering the increase in subterfuge we’ve seen, I believe we should send in the Eseel as scouts while orbiting at least a light hour distant.”
They waited in the CIC while Lilith’s plan was carried out. Kal’at floated in, eager to begin the operation as well. He took in the monitors with his independently moving eyes and snapped his jaws several times, a sure sign of excitement. “I sent the message you requested,” he told Minu.
“And was Var’at amenable to the idea?”
“He said absolutely.”
Minu nodded and went back to watching the developing operation. Less than an hour later they had a definitive answer as the two Eseel soared into the middle of the ancient debris field left behind by the fleeing remnants of the People’s war fleet.
“Confirmed twenty-two individual returns,” Lilith told them. “As the CI informed, there are six intact ships and large remnants of sixteen other ships.”
“Okay,” Minu said and smiled. “Let’s go in!”
Chapter 18
March 10th, 535 AE
Deep Space, Ghost Fleet #2, The Frontier
Minu floated in the void, encased in a full scale EVA suit instead of the light Chosen version, and with a brace of blue crystalline bots on her limbs. The expanse of a Fiisk hull spread away in all directions, slowly curving into the ball of its central hull. Another week of EVA activity had made using the bots almost second nature to her now.
Immediately after arrival Lilith had sent a bunch in with an Eseel to investigate a promising section of a ship. It looked like a nearly intact Ibeen cargo ball. A dozen of the blue bots floated over and breached the first airlock they found. And the lock exploded, turning the bots into sparkling blue shrapnel that bounced harmlessly off the gunboat’s armored hull. Booby-trapped.
Since that loss of invaluable crystalline bots, all the salvage work had been hands on only. Slow and cautious. As tough as the bots were, they weren’t sophonts. They didn’t improvise or have hunches. And just then Minu was fighting a hunch.
“What’s the hold up?” Aaron asked from the shuttle floating a kilometer away.
Minu hovered a perfect five meters from the hull and considered. In addition to the four bots on her limbs, another six were clustered together in a starfish shape just to her side, ready as backup and replacements should the need arise. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
The other Fiisk had been boarded three days ago by a similar team consisting of Kal’at and Lilith. They all stayed within a few minutes flight of either the operational Fiisk or the Kaatan. Just in case.
The boarding of the first Fiisk went perfectly. A trap was found and disarmed. Analysis found it to be identical to the one that had destroyed the bots. Minu had been about to breach, expecting the same setup, when something made her stop. Call it woman’s intuition.
“So call it off,” Aaron said from the gunboat.
“No,” she said, “I just need to think this through.
“Take your time,” he replied, “I’m not going anywhere. But Mindy is going to be hungry soon, we’ve been out here for almost four hours.”
“Noted,” she said. It had taken a while to get used to the idea of leaving her baby alone on the Kaatan, with only a bot to watch her. But the machine was the ultimate baby monitor.
Minu considered the hull and the airlock once more. “I’m just being paranoid,” she mumbled into the dark and was halfway through gesturing the bots forward when her arm stopped yet again. It was almost as if a hidden power was holding her back. “Okay, paranoid and possessed.”
She considered the wall one more time and sighed. Glancing at the little holographic display on her arm, it was fed data from her own suit which was an adaption of the People’s design, and the bots at her command. The crystalline machines were powerful but had very limited power reserves that she’d learned to conserve whenever possible.
Finally making a decision, she motioned them forward. Though not to the lock; to a place several meters towards the bow. Utilizing the computer link with the operational Fiisk, she called up the schematic of the ship, located her position, and found an open section between hull structures and instructed the bots to cut through.
The energy beams from the bots were nearly invisible to the naked eye. Minu only saw where they were cutting by the flashing of dualloy as it was vaporized by the intense energies.
The little bots on her bodies didn’t seem to extrude projectors or move in the slightest as two cuts started and chased each other counter-clockwise, turning and moving precisely to avoid some internal structures.
The ending point of each cut reached the starting point of the other and stopped. Minu gestured at the cut hull section, made a fist and slowly pulled her hand away. Again the bots did her bidding, including using gravity projectors to push against the hull as they pulled the cut section away.
The otherworldly blueish light cast by the bots showed the interior structure of the Fiisk. Struts, tubing, conduits, and part of a storage chamber were all revealed. The arc of the airlock she’d been about to penetrate was just to one side.
“I’m in,” she announced to Aaron.
“I see,” he replied. “You’re running through the crystal bots’ power pretty quickly.”
“I know,” she mumbled in reply, and then louder that she was going in. The bots on her legs detached and moved into the structure, laser lines racing out to examine the structures around them. As they examined the airlock the pair suddenly froze and both directed their scans at the same place. A warning appeared on her helmet display.
“Women’s intuition pays off,” she said.
“What do you have? Same as the others?”
“No,” Minu replied, “this is worse.” She beamed over the data that displayed what the bots had found. The lock didn’t have any explosives like the other ships. This one had sensors rigged to the locks, all leading to the Fiisk’s full missile magazines.
“Not good,” Aaron agreed. “Maybe we should back off.”
As he was talking one of the bots opened an access panel and pushed in a newly extruded arm. A moment later the warning disappeared from her display.
“No, we’re good.” She switched channels. “Was that you, daughter?”
“Yes Mom,” Lilith replied from elsewhere in the debris field. “Once the trap was identified I could disarm it within the cruiser’s control cluster. The People who set the trap intended for it to be disarmed by others of their kind. It is a field expedient booby-trap, as you call it, straight from the fleet manual.”
“Thanks. Still, if this is any indication the traps are getting more elaborate.” She glanced over and above where the first of the carriers floated. A dozen Eseel gunboats were moored to its superstructure. Reminiscent of the Fiisk, with five central spires running its length, the carrier had a control ball at the front and another at the rear, but the center had three large open framework structures full of modules. “I’m worried about what they did to protect the carriers.”
“I’m sure it is more elaborate at the least,” Lilith agreed.
Minu used gestures to move inside the ship, the two remaining. “I’m going to send the other bots to sweep the ship,” she told her husband.
“Sounds like a good plan.”
“Not the best, if they set off any of the booby-traps. But we need to save some time.”
The cluster of bots that had been waiting outside came to live and darted into the ship where they split up and went in all direction. Minu hovered in the center of the hallway as the scanning from the bots continued to map the ship. As she suspected, each of the ship’s numerous airlocks were rigged just like the one she was near. And the landing bays as well.