Enryn had to force Fae to sit still on being humiliated, as the girl sobbed into her soup.
General Jones changed the subject rapidly. "Gunny, I thought you'd like to know I'm recommending the WA are to be considered full Marines, and giving Enryn and Ceri battlefield promotions so they can keep their cadet ranks. God knows, they've earned them. Yes I know I'm only Army, but I sure I can swing this. Congratulations Sergeant Enryn Macintyre."
"Does that mean I'm getting paid?" she gasped in surprise.
"Something over two thousand dollars a month, you'll have to check that with your pay clerk. There might be circumstances I'm not aware of, like Imminent Hazard and relocation bonuses."
"And I'm still being docked for her necessities," Ace gasped. "Enryn should be paying for mine."
The soup was cleared away and the fish course came next. Doctor Parsnus had his served in a bucket still wriggling, Enryn watched in fascination as the trembling tail disappeared down his gullet.
"You like not my table manors youngling?"
"I've eaten raw food before, but never still wriggling."
"At least I know my fish is fresh," the doctor laughed.
A few days later they met a man in the corridor cursing two teenage sisters who still wore the dancer costumes, they were connected by a stout chain between their collars; he was trying to free the chain with a small tool and was really annoyed.
"Problems?" Ace asked.
"I only needed one girl, but the bitches jammed the lock."
Enryn looked closely to see they were twins of about fourteen, quite human looking and terrified of being parted, they hugged each other in desperation. "Who are they?"
"Don't know, don't care. They can't talk so it doesn't matter. I found them in the hold with the other slaves."
"Can't you free them?" Ace asked.
"Not without killing them, they really jammed the lock. The only way to free them now is taking of one of their heads."
"May I suggest that you return to the hold and pick a slave who wants to serve you?" Ace said with meaning, glaring at the man with a face that had been known to give Generals nightmares.
"That would be easier," he admitted, turning white, and rushed off down the corridor.
"Two more?" Enryn gasped.
"Until we make it back to the Iowa, Fae we can squeeze in, but not these kids."
Enryn looked at them closely, seeing short red hair, green eyes and freckles, and the fear that was eating them alive. "We can use them for now. I'm certainly not letting them go on this ship."
The kids were taken back to their stateroom where Fae bathed and fed them, then let them sleep in the same bed. Ace checked up on the alloy the collars and chain were made of, to find out it indeed could not be cut through without the radiation killing them both. So they would forever be connected by three feet of chain.
Enryn asked Doctor Parsnus to check on them in the morning, to find out they were both in deep post traumatic stress, which explained why they could not talk.
"This one is surprised at your compassion for strangers. With any others I would suspect you intended to use them."
"They are children," Ace gasped.
"Forever they will not be."
"Back on the Iowa we will pass them on to those who will care for them," Enryn insisted. "We have not the space or resources to help them."
"Our joint quarters are about the size of this bedroom," Ace admitted. "It'll be cramped with us and Fae."
Doctor Parsnus saw Fae curled up naked, sleeping in a chair. "That one will make a good pet, but will you want her nails re-growing? Warn you I must, she may scratch."
"She's the right to be her true self," Enryn gasped. "If you can treat her, then do it please."
"Fae's true self is living wild and free, sleeping in the warm day and hunting small animals at night. She has been bred well, but let you not be confused, she is an animal."
"Fix her nails," Ace sighed.
"I shall. Has she ever complained about being on a leash?"
"I think she likes it," Enryn sighed.
"Then warn you again must I, her sexual drive is very strong. Don't keep her frustrated for long."
"I don't get you," Ace gasped. "One second you're saying she's an animal and the next a sex slave."
"Earth this is not humans. Try looking through the window now and then."
The girls they named Aea and Bea, and got used to them tidying the stateroom and helping Fae to cook and serve meals. They were always in the background, just another part of the furniture.
Fae slept at the foot of their bed, smiling in her sleep, stretching and purring in the dream world of a long lost planet she had never heard of. She still thought she was, if not human, at least sentient. One pill from Doctor Parsnus had started her fingers and toes re-growing, it would take months to replace the digits sliced off years ago, and caused maddening itching, but she was looking forward to seeing her claws again.
When they took a walk around the Paulum, Fae usually fastened her own leash, waiting at the door for her masters. If Enryn told her to dress she would do so happily, if not it didn't bother her.
Sal retuned to duty, still weak but recovering under Ceri's loving care, and Doctor Parsnus' good humoured bedside manor. It was obvious to all that Sal and Ceri were now lovers, and no-one batted an eyelid, they were too glad seeing her looking like a Marine again.
The ships fled across space, homing in on the Iowa, but receiving no response to their hails.
The pushed the long range scan far beyond the maximum, picking up a single fuzzy picture of the Iowa, to see a twisted hulk floating in space. All her turrets were gone, and the ship looked dead.
Ace shut the view screen down in horror. "She's gone," he gasped. "After all that."
"Then where do we go?" Doctor Parsnus gasped. "No place now is safe."
"Receiving a signal," the sensor operator called out. "Human origin I would guess."
Ace rushed to the console to pick up a call in English, "Shiloh, to all turrets, come in please. Repeating, Shiloh of the Iowa, to all turrets, come in please."
"One of the Navy strike ships," Ace gasped. "Gunny Macintyre to Shiloh, I'm listening, over."
"Gunny, Gyor here, praise the Lady you're all right. Situation? Over."
"All accounted for. I've four turrets and a passenger ship. Over.
"I've been tracking you for weeks. Over."
"We have data on a new threat, one that can beat all of our defences. Over."
"We've met. And they kicked our butt. Over."
"What's your ETA Gyor? Over."
"Two days Gunny. Over and out."
The Shiloh docked with the Paulum, revealing half the Percival family who looked shocked as they limped from the ship, arm in arm. Gyor was first off with En-eta. Then John and Isralla, Eileen and Ison, Jack and Lorza. Jina walked last.
"So what happened?" Ace gasped.
"Have you ever tried telling the Brass to stop shooting?" Gyor gasped sadly. "The damn fools just ignored the damage to the Iowa and kept on blasting away."
"We scored a minor victory," Ace sighed, "but only face to face. Enryn even killed one of the Lords. But we've no idea how to beat their ships."
"I brought you the body Ison," Enryn stated. "I was sure you'd like to have a look."
"That might help, with a decent autopsy," he sighed.
"We've a good man in Doctor Parsnus, if you don't mind his eating habits," Ace chuckled. "We also brought a few bits of their technology. Personal force screens and flying discs."
"You what?" Eileen gasped. "You have that and didn't tell me!"
"We just did," Enryn laughed. "They can be killed through their screens, if you go slowly. A lance or even a blow."
"Think I'll use a sword," Eileen said with certainty, patting a Kattana like weapon on her left hip.
Ace and Enryn escorted them to a suite near the Marines, and Isralla saw the stripes sewn onto her service uniform sleeves. "You g
ot promoted Enryn?"
"Think so, but with the Iowa out of the picture I'm not sure."
Isralla chuckled, "With the Iowa out of the picture there's no-one who can say no. The military had their shot and missed by a mile, so now we're in charge."
"I got most of them away," Gyor insisted. "Had to cheat like hell but I opened a portal to Aeden, so they'll be okay. I won't, my bosses will moan for a month. They'll want to put them all in stasis, just to keep Aeden looking neat, but I've a large estate there I hardly use, so my former lovers and their families will be okay."
"So how is the Iowa?" Ace asked. "We got a long range scan and it looked bad."
"It is bad, but we still have a crew on board and the bots are fixing the damage, so in a few months we should be able to return."
"So what do we do in the mean time?"
"Gunny old boy," John laughed, "how would you like to beat the pirates?"
"What with?" he sighed. "Four turrets and the Shiloh?"
Eileen gloated, "The Texas, and in a month or two the Florida."
"Never heard of them," Ace gasped.
"Because that's the first time I've spoken the names out loud," she stated. "I started the Texas before the Iowa, then got so many comities telling me what they wanted to put in a Dreadnaught I didn't tell them I already had a Super Dreadnaught."
"We built them on the Moon," John explained. "They are quite large and a bit powerful."
"How large?" Enryn gasped.
"This ship, the Paulum, will fit in the small craft bay," Isralla laughed.
Ison started the autopsy with Doctor Parsnus, slicing the Lord into bits, as Eileen was dissembling the personal force screens.
Gyor asked Ace and Enryn to show her around the Paulum. "She's quite nice," Gyor said politely to Captain Simme.
"The Paulum is the best my world has ever built," he stated proudly.
"For a lifeboat I mean," Gyor corrected herself. She saw Fae with delight. "And I thought this might get boring," she sighed.
"The feline," Simme dismissed the girl. "Just an animal."
"Animal?" Gyor laughed. "If you only knew! She belongs to you Gunny and Enryn? You are most fortunate."
"Then what is she?" Enryn asked. "Even Fae doesn't know what she is."
"One who likes to be pampered," Gyor laughed. "Her kind doesn't allow themselves to be domesticated through ignorance, they could well be brighter than we are, but because they enjoy being loved. Do you?"
"Yes lady Gyor," Enryn laughed, "we do love her."
"And the children?" she gestured to where Aea and Bea were tidying the stateroom.
"We had to take them," Ace explained. "Some damn fool only wanted one of them, and scared them so badly they jammed their collars so they can't be taken off."
"And they are too terrified to speak," Enryn sighed. "What else could we do?"
"You two are coming along nicely," Gyor purred. She walked over and chatted with the kids, and when she came back their collars and the chain were now light and comfortable. "If you want to remove the chains you can, but they wanted to feel safely together. In a few years they will be fine."
"You can talk to them?" Ace gasped.
"I can talk to anything. All you have to do is listen."
Fae cooked lunch and served it with the kids, and they all sat to eat together. As the meal progressed Aea and Bea started to smile and talk shyly. They were a long way from getting over their ordeal, but now they could at least see a way beyond the thorny trees and into the sunlight.
"You might want to find them something to wear a bit more modest," Gyor insisted. "Something to boost their self-esteem."
"I'll take them to the tailor's this afternoon," Enryn agreed. "To be honest, we never intended to keep them, we expected to hand them over on the Iowa."
Isralla chuckled, "That's no longer an option, so they belong to you now."
"Just love them," Gyor laughed, "that's all they want, someone to love. And soon they'll be chatting away."
Enryn took the kids into the bedroom, stripping off the old dancer costumes, and dressed them in oversized white T-shirts that almost reached their knees, she had to pull the garments up their bodies because of the chain, stretching the necks so that they would always hang off one shoulder. When they re-entered the dining room to were a long way to looking like real children. They sat together to eat their ice-cream, still connected by three feet of chain, but were now laughing openly.
"Perfect," Isralla laughed, "they're lovely."
"Their parents were killed," Gyor sighed, "so there is no-one in the universe who cares if they live or die."
"We care," Enryn insisted. "The same happed to me, so we will care for them. I'm certainly not going to let them grow us as I did."
"By the way, how did you find us?" Ace asked.
"Enryn's dress, I see you still have it. Well, I made it, so I've been tracking it across half the Galaxy."
"You bugged my dress!" Enryn gasped in outrage.
"I've been impressed by you both from the start; so I wanted to keep an eye on you."
"After I tell you what Enryn had to do to save us, you'll be even more impressed," Ace gasped in pride.
"I saw most of it, the dress allowed me to eavesdrop," Gyor laughed. "But it was when she led twelve men on a hunt that I really took notice. I just had to broadcast that around the ship live."
"Then you saw all I did," Enryn gasped in horror.
"We saw more than that, we saw why you did it. Gunny, you are one lucky man."
"I know it," he gasped.
"When you are ready, I hope you will allow me to bless your union."
"You're talking marriage, right?" he gasped.
"There's no need for cold feet," Enryn laughed, "we've been as good as married ever since you signed my papers."
"You may bless us lady Gyor, but we will marry back on Earth."
"Notice how he didn't ask me?" Enryn gasped. "We will marry..."
"Ha, but he's only a man," Gyor laughed.
With Fae, Aea and Bea sitting around the table with them, and En-eta standing proudly by her side, the Lady Gyor blessed the union in the name of The Lady Ellberath of Yag-Urth. It was not a formal wedding but a declaration of a love that would never die. Gyor would see to that.
She had so few friends among the mortals she was always looking for fresh talent worthy of taking into eternity. So far Enryn and Ace had surprised her at every turn.
A month later the Texas and Florida emerged from the depths of space; while both were almost entirely automated, the Texas was the command ship with a small city in her heart.
The Paulus flew around the Texas, looking at the vast array of weapons that would leave the Iowa looking like a child's toy.
While the Iowa had but fourteen Cruiser sized turrets, both Super Dreadnaughts had a hundred. And their primary weapons were even more impressive.
If only they could hit their foes.
The city of the Texas was empty at first, for no man had ever set foot on ether ship. Then the Paulus pulled into a landing cradle, and was pulled through an air lock and through a mile of solid armour, to rest in a landing field outside a small city of graceful buildings and open parks. A holographic sky and artificial sun shone warmly down on the refugees as they disembarked from the Paulus.
"What is this?" Ace gasped in shock.
"About five percent of the Texas," Eileen assured him. "That makes the Florida five percent more powerful. But I thought like: What the heck?"
"It would get very lonely in here with but a single pilot," John laughed.
All of the passengers, crew and the hundreds of rescued slaves were now standing looking up at the city in sheer disbelief. The holographic sky extended to cover the walls leaving a view of an imaginary panorama beyond the city of living trees and snow capped mountains. Many thought they were on a planet.
The four turrets were brought on board, and their crews soon joined everyone in shock. General Jones tried to ta
ke command, until Eileen quite plainly told him that the military had destroyed the Iowa, and that both Super Dreadnaughts belonged to the Percival family.
Ace started to wonder what Eileen had ordered growing to replace the Texas and Florida.
What was beyond a Super Dreadnought?
It took a week to settle in to their new accommodation, the Marine quarters was a low five star hotel surrounding an Olympic sized swimming pool. A full sized rifle range, assault course, gymnasium and drill field were there to make sure no one got fat.
The hundred and nine men from the other three turrets soon joined with Ace's double Rifle Platoon. So Ace soon found himself commanding a combined force of nearly two hundred troops.
He took the parade and explained quite simply that they were now a Combined Rifle Company under Marine control and discipline.
When they saw the difference between their own barren lives and the love shared by the Platoon and the WA, many gave thoughts to finding a girl of their own. And at least on the Texas there was enough room.
Ace and Enryn were soon drilling their friends around the new base, and running the assault course.
Only now the gloves were off, and Gyor gave them all the help she could to enhance their strength and stamina. The potion she had given to the girls months ago had helped save their lives, the next one was far more powerful.
Ace and Enryn were soon racing around the assault course in half the time it should have taken them, with the double platoon only seconds behind them. Fae usually ran with them, laughing in glee as her new claws bit into the obstacles and propelled her half way to the next one.
They were only slightly disappointed when the Percivals lapped them, the whole family, including Gyor.
The city was still almost empty, and with the coming war it was likely to stay that way for quite some time. The Texas had been built as a mobile administrative centre for the future empire of Earth. And not to battle pirates. So the civilian sectors were still shut down.
Doctor Parsnus had set up office with Ison, using the Texas's advanced labs to find a way to fight the Lords, with a dozen volunteers from the rescued slaves . Eileen was furious that she hadn't built a ram on the ship, it was the only weapon she hadn't included and the only one with a slight chance of working. If she went back to Earth she could grow one in about a year.
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