"Yes, Captain."
Janet returned from her meal. "Did I miss anything?"
"Yes," Alberta said. "Fiona may have found the Lorkiiz starship hiding."
"Really?" Janet looked at her data screens. "Huh."
"Energy spike," Fiona announced. "They just fired off thrusters. Probes are scanning it. Yup! That's the Lorkiiz starship, Captain."
"Return all probes, except three and four to Guinevere's flight deck 1," Alberta ordered.
"Yes, Captain. They're picking up speed. Clock it at 1.14 kps squared, and climbing." Fiona's eyes moved from one of her several screens to another screen. "Missile launch! I have missile launch."
"Damn." Alberta glanced at Janet. "They're going to take out another one of our probes."
"Should we bring probe three back immediately?" Janet wondered.
"Just as well," Alberta said. "We've done this before."
Janet nodded. Janet told Fiona to bring probe three back inside as the missile hunted down probe four until it was destroyed.
"Tripoli system." Alberta said. "We'll go there."
"Yes, Captain" Janet ordered Donna Williams to bring Guinevere out of the Chumley's gravity well. "We're further inside the system than we were the last times we jumped to escape, Captain."
"I know, Janet," Alberta said. "Tiffany, ready four missiles. One a nuke. I want them to be thinking of something other than us so we have a chance to escape."
"Yes, Captain," Tiffany said. "Only four?"
"That's what I just said, Tiffany!"
"Yes, Captain."
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Disappointed Janet.
"Can we speak in your office, Captain?" Janet whispered to Alberta. They had just jumped out of Chumley system and were running out of places to go. Alberta nodded and led the way off the bridge to the captain's office. Janet waited for the door to shut before shouting. Alberta didn't even have a chance to sit down first. "Why are you being so Goddess damn pigheaded?"
Alberta flopped into her chair in front of the desk. "What?"
"Erica's idea makes perfect since." Janet walked back and forth in front of Alberta waving her fists. "You've already admitted they tortured you, and you lost consciousness more than once. Of course they put something in you. You have to be an idiot not to see that."
"I believe we have other things to deal with right now." Alberta rubbed her forehead. "The jump engines will overheat and possibly fry circuits and cooling valves. I don't have time for this."
"That is exactly why we need to try this." Janet sat in a chair. "Are you so pigheaded you don't want to admit you daughter might be right about this?"
"That's ridiculous."
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Another operation.
Alberta lay on the operating table with Piper holding her hand. Second shift's Doctor Amy Menendez and a couple of nurses were double-checking their instruments.
"You ready for this, Captain?" Amy asked. "The CAT scan showed nothing, and now I'm going to send in a swarm of special medical nanobots. They will hunt it down wherever it is and hopefully kill it. But it's going to feel like a swarm of bumble bees are running through you."
"I understand, Doctor." Alberta squeezed Piper's hand. "Just get it down."
Nurse Tilly Zhou put Alberta to sleep. Alberta's vision slowly faded.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Complications.
"I have good news and bad news, Captain," Doctor Amy Merendez told Alberta after she woke up.
"Don't mince words, Doc. Tell me."
"Okay, Captain." Amy brought a screen around for Alberta to see. Alberta was still lying on the operating table. "We found the alien transponder lodged in your brain." Amy pointed with her finger and used her finger to enlarge the area so Alberta could see. "Right here."
"Can you remove it?"
"Yes, but there's a high chance you will die or suffer brain damage," Amy admitted.
"I don't care," Alberta said. "I want that damn thing out of my head and destroyed. We need to get away from the Lorkiiz starship."
"I assumed you would say that, Alberta," Amy said. "Piper is waiting to see you. And so is Erica."
Alberta nodded. "Send them in."
Amy gave a cold smile and left to get them.
Piper and Erica entered the operating room. Piper kissed Alberta several times on the lips and cheeks. Erica hung back behind her mother, waiting and watching.
"How do you feel?" Piper patted Alberta's hair and then her arm. Piper's eyes were wet and puffy as she had been crying.
"Like a bunch of crazed nanobots had been running around inside my body." Alberta chuckled.
"I know the feeling," Erica said.
"Yes, you do." Alberta looked at Erica. Has she been crying too? Idiot, of course she's been crying. We're family. "And..."
"What?" Piper said.
Alberta sighed. "I guess. I mean, you were right, Erica."
"I was?"
"Amy found the Goddess damn thing the aliens put in my head." Alberta threw it out. "I was wrong."
"Oh Goddess, help us!" Piper laughed. "She was wrong."
"Oh hush, wife." Alberta smiled.
"Hush yourself, wife." Piper squeezed Alberta's hand.
"I am actually sorry, Erica."
"Thank you, Captain," Erica said. "Mother." Erica leaned over and gave Alberta a peck on the forehead.
"All is right." Alberta looked at Piper. "Tell Amy I'm ready for her."
Piper nodded and wiped her eyes.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Waiting.
Erica watched her mother Piper pace back and forth in the sickbay's waiting room. Tilly Zhou was assisting Doctor Amy Merendez with the operation. There was another doctor and nurse helping. Along with a medical-bot, which was doing the actual cutting and maneuvering within her mother Alberta's brain. Everyone Erica knew and others on the Guinevere had come in to give them their sympathies and love from time to time.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Post operation.
Alberta wakens, and screams.
"Easy. Easy, Captain."
Alberta heard the calming voice of Doctor Amy Merendez. She swallowed more screams and wondering what had happened. Was she okay?
Alberta slowly opened her eyes to see the medical people looking down at her. She was on the operating table. She was being moved out of the operating room.
"Was it successful?"
"Yes?"
"Why?"
"Why did you scream?" Doctor Merendez said. "Pain. I told you there would be pain. I turned off your pain, but it will be back later. You’re not going to like this, but I tried to warn you."
"How bad is it?"
"Could have been worse, Captain." Merendez said. "But I'm not letting you take command of the ship for several days, maybe weeks."
"What?" Alberta snapped as the nurses moved him to another bed.
"Sorry. Doctor's orders."
"Dammit."
"Your wife and daughter can see you now for a bit." Merendez left the room as Alberta mumbled.
Piper and Erica walked in. "How do you feel? They said it worked," Piper said.
"Horrible," Alberta complained. "I'm bedridden by the damn doctors. They won't let me out of here. I'm fine, just a little pain. Which I think I can deal with on the bridge, but doctors... Damn her."
"Well, sounds like you’re going to be fine after a while, dear." Piper smiled and kissed Alberta on the lips.
"Oh," Alberta said.
" Janet said they just jumped out of hyperspace," Piper said. "She thinks they can wait there a little bit now that they can't track us. It seems to be a dwarf star with nothing but a gas giant planet orbiting it. Not even moons around the planet. I forget what she called the star."
"I know. It doesn't matter," Alberta said. "I have a plan to jump to Collard system. There's an alien race that lives on the inhabitable planet with a small human presence in system. Miners mostly."
"I'll t
ell her, Alberta," Piper said. "You rest."
"Okay."
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Looking at space.
Erica looked at a screen in the security monitoring room where she was working. This screen she had changed to the view outside of Guinevere. It was the Collard system. We’ve been contacted by human miners in the farthest asteroid belt. They seemed interested in trading with us. Hopefully we could get something out of that. At least we have a moment of rest before the damn Lorkiiz show up again.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Barhoping.
Erica Williams watched as her cousin Lynna Williams swallowed another shot of whiskey.
"You should try some, Erica."
"No thank you, Lynna." Erica saluted her cousin with her cup of hot tea.
"Can I try some?" Gwen Williams said. She was the youngest of Erica's five cousins present in the bar and grill.
"No, Gwen," Lynna said. "You're not eighteen and too young to drink alcohol."
"Oh."
"She's right, Gwen," Tilly Zhou had a fork full of lasagna. "We don't know the rules here, especially the unwritten rules."
"And as a long respected member of security I cannot allow it," Keiko Williams said with a stick of Cimmerian black root between her teeth.
Erica pushed back a stray brown hair and looked down at her fettuccine alfredo.
"Do you want to dance with me?"
Erica turned in her chair to see beautiful woman with long blonde hair with her hands on her wide hips.
"Sure she does," Lynna encouraged. "Go on, Erica."
"Yes." Erica smiled and stood nervously. "I would love to. My name is Erica."
"Hi, Erica. I'm Martha." She held out her hand to Erica. Her hand had three rings with shiny rubies on them. "Let's dance."
Martha pulled Erica away from her friends to the dance floor.
Later Erica and her friends were talked into going to a different bar. There was no food served in this bar, just alcohol and recreational drugs. It was full of exotic smells, but all Erica could mostly smell was the cute woman she was with. Her scent was exciting and arousing. Erica watched Martha, the other non-Yin woman, swing her hips. Her blonde hair flew in every direction. It was much longer than Erica's hair, and she was conscious of how erotic that difference was. How long ago was I bald? Did I ever have hair that long before I became a Buddhist nun? Erica pushed the thought away to focus on her dancing to the techno-rock bursting out of the floor's speakers. Erica could actually feel the music vibrating through her toes.
"Dick?" Martha laughed.
"What?"
"Do you have a dick?" Martha said. "That's right, isn't it? Some of you Yin women have dicks and some don't. Yes?"
"Yes, I do have a dick." Erica giggled and felt her skin flush. "We have two types of females. T-females and O-females. T refers to testicles and yes, dicks, while O refers to Ovaries."
"And pussies?" Martha teased.
"Uh." Erica coughed. "Yes."
"Which do you prefer?" Martha rested her hands on Erica's shoulders as she swayed her hips to the music.
"O," Erica mumbled. "O-females."
"Pussy?"
"Yes," Erica said.
Martha kissed Erica on the mouth and held the kiss longer than Erica could stand. It was sweet and salty. I feel so hard. Suddenly Erica realized Martha was dancing, or rubbing, up against her body. Oh, Goddess. This is happening so fast. What should I do? Don't freak out, Erica. We can do this. How? Oh Goddess, she is hot!
"You’re kind of sweet, Erica," Martha said. "I'm actually kind of sorry."
"Sorry?"
Several men and women ran into the bar carrying big guns. Military style guns. Everyone screamed and ducked under tables, or tried to run outside. The people with guns ignored them and walked straight up to where Erica and Martha was. Erica and all of her friends were threatened. Their stun guns were taken and all were handcuffed. Martha was not treated like that.
"Sorry, Erica," Martha said. "Me and my friends are here to kidnap you and your friends. It's nothing personal. We just really need the money."
Erica didn't respond.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Oceans of problems.
Alberta Williams slowly kicked out with her feet to get closer to the five-foot shark, which had just bitten into the bait they had put out to lure it. She gripped the spear gun's handle with her index finger curled. The shark swerved to the left as Alberta pulled the trigger. A miss! The shark swam downwards. She reached for another spear to reload the gun. Hilde floated nearby with her shock stick just in case.
The shark, with the speed of a predator, slammed into Alberta and bit into her shark proof swimsuit. Hilde sent volts of electricity into the shark with her stick. The shark dashed off and was out of sight.
"Are you okay, Captain?"
Alberta shivered and held tightly to her gun. Where had the spear gone? Did I drop it?
"Captain?"
"I'm fine, Hilde." Alberta tried to relax her grip on the empty gun. She didn't want to say how bad her ribs hurt. "Just surprised. I don't think it bit through."
"I don't see any punctures." Hilde hovered around her shoulder and back where the shark had struck so swiftly. "I think we should go back."
Alberta looked around at the beautiful ocean all around them. Our little private ocean. The ocean that encircled most of the starship Guinevere was the ship's water supply, and it kept deadly radiation from the crew in combination with the outer hull and electro-magnetic shielding. Most spaceships and starships used this strategy. The artificial ocean was also not salty, but fresh water. All the fish in it were fresh water fish or had been engineered to be fresh water fish, like the sharks.
"I would like to have another go at that damn shark." Alberta said.
"I—" Hilde didn't care for the idea. She was supposed to make sure her captain didn't die out here for nothing. Alberta was sure the idea was top on the other woman's list of priorities and not catching a shark.
Alberta glanced at her oxygen supply. It was falling quickly. "Goddess, damn shark! I'm losing oxygen."
"Must have damaged the tank."
They swam back to the 'beach'. The beach was a halfway tube between the large 'ocean' deck surrounding the ship and the dry decks within the ship.
Shit. Alberta saw her oxygen falling to dangerous levels. Alberta didn't tell Hilde. I can make it. Just a little in the red. Just a little further. Alberta felt her eyelids were heavy and bit her lip to stay awake. Why am I sleepy? Alberta heard someone shouting at her. Hilde? What's wrong? I'm fine. Once a woman swims out of the ocean into the halfway tubes you swim through the tubes to a waiting chamber. There the water and pressure slowly goes out of the chamber. If you do it too quickly like in an emergency a woman could the bends just like surfacing to quickly in a real ocean or coming out of space in a spacesuit too quickly. Same problem. Not fun.
Alberta felt herself being pushed and pulled into the chamber. The water disappeared faster than it should have done from Alberta's point of view. The room was blurry and someone yanked off her scuba mask.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" Amy shouted at Alberta as she waved a scanner over Alberta's body. Doctor Amy Menendez was Alberta's sister and the chief surgeon of Guinevere's second shift crew. Amy was married to a man, a non-Yin citizen from the Victorian Star Kingdom.
"I almost made it," Alberta said.
"You should have told Hilde that you were losing oxygen so fast."
"I suppose you told my wife," Alberta said.
"Of course," Amy said. "She'll cuss you out later, just like you deserve."
"I'm sure she will."
Amy had a robot carry Alberta to sickbay for a full examination. Alberta turned out to be fine, which didn't seem to improve Piper Williams’ mood when she arrived in the sickbay. After a good stormy explosion of cuss words Piper kissed Alberta on the mouth.
"Are you okay now, dear?" Alberta said.
"I should
kick you in the balls, woman," Piper said. "But I'll let it go this time."
Alberta got a call on her tablet. She answered it.
Alberta arrived in the meeting room where first shift crew's department heads were waiting. Following Alberta were Piper and Amy from second shift crew.
"Who's been kidnapped?" Alberta asked as she came in and dropped into a chair.
"I'm sorry, Alberta and Piper, but Erica was one of them," Senior Captain Audrey Williams said. Audrey was Alberta and Amy's mother. Alberta dropped into a chair between Piper and Amy.
Janet dashed into the meeting room. She was Alberta's other sister and her XO (executive officer). "What is going on?"
"Sit down, Janet," Audrey said calmly. The old woman sighed before she continued. "We've learned from the police spokeswoman—I mean spokesman that at 22:01 T-hours, a group of local terrorists entered the bar Hammer and kidnapped the following members of Guinevere: Erica Williams, Keiko Williams, Tilly Zhou, Mindy Bettencourt, Lynna Williams, and Gwen Williams. The police are doing what they can and send the victim's families and friends their sympathy. We also received similar sympathies from the spacestation's governor office."
"Should we assume they are doing nothing?" Piper snapped.
"I was think the same thing." This from Juanita Williams, first shift crew's security chief. Juanita was seated beside Audrey's XO.
"Strangers like us are probably not their highest priority," Senior Captain Audrey said. "Still, if this is a standard kidnapping, then we wait until the kidnappers call demanding money."
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Captured.
Erica heard the name Lorkiiz as she was forced inside the room with her friends by their kidnappers.
"Are you sure it was Lorkiiz?" Keiko said. "If they are working for the aliens, then the Lorkiiz may know we're here."
"I may be mistaken," Erica whispered. "But if I'm not, one of us needs to warn the Guinevere."
The Star Traders: The Star Traders Series Volume One Page 9