Every single one of the women attacked the statue with a ferocity she had never witnessed before. Kamala had to call in Dharma for help when she was forced to pull them off the wasp statue. In thirty seconds, nothing remained of it.
“I see we have the motivation part down,” she commented.
Dharma was in Seth’s room again. After his recovery, Seth was given an unused room in the corvette. He tended to stay there, as he wanted little to do with the women who ran the ship. In his room, he felt at peace. Most of the time.
It wasn’t his fault they continued to visit him at all hours of the night. It wasn’t his fault he was twice hauled into the command center of the Widowmaker during combat. He tried to stay out of their way, but, as the only male on the ship, he was the source of attention.
Once he was a simple farmer on a planet with a lot of good soil. He was a father and a husband and didn’t want much else. His life wasn’t complicated and he liked it that way.
Everything was right in the universe and the emperor was on the throne, as the elders used to say. No use worrying about things he couldn’t control. It seemed like a good way to live.
Then the wasps came.
He rolled over in his bed and heard Dharma next to him. She came to him last night while he tried to get some sleep after Kamala left. They seemed to know when he was available and when he was with one of the other women. It was one of the many strange things he didn’t understand on this ship. Dharma was needy; she would hang on tight to him long after she was finished and wouldn’t let him leave the bed. What else could he do but allow her some cuddle time? The medics were all over both ships this week and asked him if he wanted to leave.
Of course, he wanted to get away from these demanding women. Life as the pet of violent women might be a fantasy for some men, but the reality of what he had to do to keep them comforted was far from a fantasy. Kamala scared Seth one night when she woke him and wanted to rock him to sleep. Dharma he needed to be careful not to wake, the last time he was punched hard. Chimata was the least problematic one, but she kept talking about how she wanted to live a normal life after the mission was over and was sure she could take him with her. Bravi and Durga had come in together one night and had their way with him. Only the commander, the woman called Shakti, hadn’t paid him an unannounced visit.
He tried to get out of bed and felt Dharma’s hand on his wrist. “I didn’t say you could leave,” her tiny voice said to him.
“I need to use the bathroom,” he pleaded.
“You come right back,” she told him. “I’ve got you for another six hours.”
Two more days, he told himself. The medics were leaving in two more days and he could get out of this madhouse.
They located the imperial nephew four days after the wasp ship was taken.
Kamala and Shakti were inside another storage area in their tireless effort to make sure there were no more wasps in the ship. They didn’t think it was possible any of the soldier wasps survived this long, but they had to be sure. Both women were taking inventory of some crates when they heard a movement behind them. Shakti slid the sword of its scabbard and Kamala grabbed the halberd she’d left propped up on the door jam.
With the ax head of the halberd, Kamala moved a few crates out of the way and stared behind them. She found it difficult to see behind and shined her flashlight into the space. They found someone who had lived in a cubbyhole for nearly a month.
The man was unshaved and filthy. He wore the cap of a member of the emperor’s inner court. He staggered out and fell to his knees in front of them.
“Thank the gods you are human!” he cried out to them. The fine robes he’d worn at one time were in tatters, the results of trying to survive in them for a long time.
His name was Prince Robert and he was of the emperor’s inner circle. When the wasps had taken a planet where he was stationed as imperial governor, the prince was taken captive instead of killed. Everyone assumed he was dead. The warbrides never received word there was a member of the royal family missing.
From what they could tell, he’d been captured by mistake and the wasps never had the opportunity to discover he was male. If they had, he would be dead. The wasps were practical if nothing else. He managed to escape the holding cell where the prisoners were kept and found a place to hide in the storage room. Kept terrified he would be discovered, the prince managed to survive on what food he could find until found by Shakti and Durga.
The medics took him in right away and he received first class treatment. The autodocs were finished with the last women who survived their capture and wasted no time giving him a complete workover. They found no traces of infection and place him on the first ship that folded space back to the frontier.
One standard day after they’d found the prince, Shakti received a transmission from a prefect tied to the imperial court. The emperor was pleased to have his nephew back, but he was not pleased they were the ones to find him.
His Imperial Majesty suffered the embarrassment of a relative who was supposed to defend the planet under his supervision. The governor was supposed to be the last man to retreat. Word came to him his nephew fled in panic dressed as a chambermaid when the wasps landed. This was the sort of rumor which might spread across the empire and undermine his reign. Nor was he pleased to hear his warbrides were acting in a manner beneath their station with the settler rescued from the pirates. The settler was to leave the corvette Widowmaker immediately. The warbrides had other assignments by their Imperial Husband and he made it clear they were supposed to carry them out as representatives of the court.
“Not one word about Lashmi,” Shakti said as she read the message in the command center. “Not one word about her.”
She realized the emperor played with a different set of rules for his subjects than he did for his inner court. He cared more about appearances. His nephew had run off when he was supposed to set an example. He cared more about his publicity than their ability to destroy the wasps before they became a threat to any planet. Once again, Shakti questioned why she accepted this offer. At the time, it seemed good and, over the battles, she felt the glory her co-wives carried out would redeem them in the eyes of the empire.
“What’s wrong?” Durga asked her when she was Shakti staring at the screen.
“Seth is to leave with the next medical ship out,” she told her. “And we’re still a bunch of whores.”
Durga drifted over and looked at the screen. “He wasn’t pleased,” she commented. “We’ve lost how many and he’s not pleased.”
“How are the trainees?” she asked Durga in an attempt to change the subject. “Can they fight with those weapons we gave them?”
“Well enough,” Durga said. “They scare me sometimes. None of them lack motivation, but I worry they’ll all die on the initial charge. After what happened to them, all they want to do now is kill wasps.”
“Incentive is half of what they need. They’ll need to learn how to pilot the wasp ship as well. We’ll also need to teach them how to stay alive.”
“You think they are ready to put into battle?”
“No one is ever ready. You can teach them all you want to and see they have the right training, but it all depends on their spirit when they go up against the enemy.”
“I’m going to go ahead and put them into the wasp ship. From what we can tell, the wasps built their ships to run on automatic with minimal interference. Ten women should have no problems once they understand the pheromone system it uses to communicate with the crew. We can install a navigational computer to work as an interface between it and the crew. The next thing we should do is send it back in the direction from where it came. The wasp ship travels at sub-relativistic speeds and won’t be able to fold space. However, I’ve checked the flight patterns and the nearest system can be reached in two months if they use the hydrogen scoop the wasps built into it. I don’t know what is in that system, but I’m betting more wasps. One wasp ship with ten wom
en berserkers will do a lot of damage.”
Durga looked at her for a while. “That’s a suicide mission, Shakti,” she said.
“And ours is any different?”
“We had some idea what we were getting into before we left Terra. We also had years of surviving on the streets to use as a guide. Most of those women were farmers and technologists. You’ll be throwing green troops at the wasps.”
“I would like to remind you those green recruits came from the inner circle of hell,” Shakti pointed out. “We’ll be sending hell’s victims back at the demons who tortured them. I would bet on the angels from hell.”
“Just as long as they know what they’re liable to encounter,” Durga said. “Make sure they all know what their mission entails.”
She did. Shakti didn’t have one woman turn down a chance to pay the wasps back for what they did to them.
Three weeks later the medical ships left and the warbrides waited for the next mission from the war college. Seth had departed with the medics, much to the disappointment of the women on the ship. There was plenty of activity the last night he stayed on the Widowmaker, but Shakti choose to ignore what went on that night. He seemed quite tired when he left. She had to pry Dharma off him before he left.
Most of the women rescued from the wasp brood ship left with the medics. Shakti and the other warbrides helped them leave and made sure they were in good health before the fleet of medical ships folded space back to the nearest imperial base. The warbrides took part in the ceremony as they boarded the medical ships and loaded the portable autodocs back for the return trip. The medics accomplished a lot with the women, but Shakti worried they would never recover from what they’d endured.
Just as the last medical ship was about to leave, Shakti received a transmission from its pilot. “We’re short ten women,” the pilot, a man in his fifties, said to her. “Why are we coming up with less than we are supposed to have?”
“They’re staying with us,” Shakti told him from the command center.
“I wasn’t told anything about you recruiting these women,” he said to her. “My orders were to pick up all survivors.”
“You have new instructions. The women who stay with us will form a new combat unit against the wasps. Who else would have better motivation?”
“Why didn’t I receive these new orders before I made preparations to leave?” the pilot asked him. “I have to get out now so we can take advantage of the charge in the Schrodinger generator.”
“Just leave, you can tell the war college what happened when you arrive. They will be aware of the ten who stayed.”
The pilot sighed and cut the transmission. Shakti watched the glow of the final medical ship as it folded space and vanished to its destination. The void of space was empty around them except for the stars and the recommissioned wasp ship.
“What will happen when they arrive and find out there is no message from you to the war college explaining why the ten stayed?” Durga asked her.
“The message will arrive before they do,” Shakti explained as she tapped on the screen in front of her. “I’m writing it now.” A few minutes later, she sent it through the continuum as it folded on its self and shot across the galaxy.
They spent another week showing the new recruits the basics on how to fly the wasp ship. The decision was made to change it as little as they could. When the wasp ship reached the system from where it came, the new recruits would proceed to the nearest location of any inhabited planet. From their vantage, they would find out if there was any wasp activity.
The warbrides watched the captured wasp ship move toward its destination days later. They had no idea how long it would take to get there. Moving at speeds close to relativity, time would occur at a much different rate on the inside of the ship.
Two days afterward, they received word the wasps were in another system, this time much closer to the heart of the empire.
“You are needed in the Kephra System,” the prefect let them know when his image appeared in holographic form. “It went down fast and no one was prepared. As for the wasp ship which you captured, the war college wants it sent to Trazalk for examination.”
“We’d love to do that,” Shakti told him, “but it’s no longer here.”
“What?” the projected head said to her. “Does this have anything to do with those ten women who didn’t return with the ones you rescued?”
“Yes it does,” she told him. “Now excuse me, I have the coordinates for the Kephra System and we have an appointment.”
“What did you do with those women and that ship?” The head screamed.
“Don’t worry, we have the interests of the empire in mind,” Shakti said as she entered the coordinates in for the Kephra system and made a few adjustments on the panel. He couldn’t see the smile on her face.
The Widowmaker folded space around itself as the head continued to yell.
Chapter 13
The Widowmaker went to the outer rim of the Kephra system. The only information Shakti had on the system, other than basic navigational details, concerned its relationship to the dominion of the wasps. They were deep inside the hive empire. There would be no recourse from the war college should something go wrong; here they would rely on their own instincts and information. It didn’t matter much. The wasps were not half as angry as the war college.
Shakti was surprised the women they’d trained to fight and pilot the wasp ship were so eager to embark on a suicide mission. However, the warbrides understood they too had little chance of surviving any of their missions. It was miraculous they’d survived so many engagements.
While the emperor’s war college fumed over the ship that they wanted for a trophy room, the warbrides’ exploits made them legends. They were considered godlike women who’d destroyed wasp ships beyond number. Their fame spread through the Realm of Humanity.
On the streets, preachers called them the Divine Hand of God. Stories sprang up everywhere as to how they’d flown into a thousand battles against the aliens wasps and won every time. Hymns were sung to them in temples and prayers offered up with incense. Street peddlers sold their figurines from carts and roadside shrines popped up across the known worlds. They were called the “Angels of Eternity”: the women who would bring about a thousand years of peace and harmony.
All of this was noted by the emperor’s governors and prefects who reported it to the palace on Terra. At first, the emperor was pleased his warbrides were so popular. The war college already had decided to launch another division of them until the emperor realized his outer wives were more popular among his subjects than he was. This was a development he could not tolerate and the warbride program was discontinued.
None of this was known to the warbrides as they parked the Widowmaker into a stable orbit beyond the outer planets of Kephra. They needed to come up with a plan to strike deep into the heart of the wasp colonies and let them know what kind of terror the empire possessed.
While the corvette drifted in orbit, Shakti called her co-wives together in the sauna to discuss the next step. As they lay on the benches with the heat and steam soaking into their pores, she led the meeting.
“The war college wasn’t happy when I told them ten of the women we rescued took the wasp ship,” she explained. “I think they were pissed to learn it’s on its way to the nearest wasp colony. They have to know it’s piloted with ten women who were tortured by the wasps.”
“Why?” Durga asked. “Don’t they want the wasps brought under control? They have something against their victims getting the first shot?”
“They wanted the wasp ship,” she told them. “They wanted to plan the first attack using the women we trained. Now it’s out of their hands, so they are not happy.”
“We can worry about it later,” Kamala opinioned. “What’s the story behind this place? Why did they send us here?”
“We are deep inside wasp territory,” Shakti explained. “Our mission it to do as much damage as po
ssible and get out. This will be a raid. We have the Widowmaker and the Schrodinger generator to help us out right now. But we don’t know what the wasps have in this system. It was inhabited by miners and terraformers before they arrived. No one knows what happened to the human inhabitants.”
“I think we should plan out a slow campaign and be sure of our targets,” Durga spoke as she reclined on a towel. “If we let them know we’re here, the wasps will vaporize us. If we’re lucky.” She took up one entire end of a bench with her large frame.
“I disagree,” Kamala interjected. “We need to hit fast and get out. We still have enough nuclear torpedoes to do some real damage to any planet. I say we find some kind of military base or production facility and slap it hard with the nukes. It will let them know they can never sleep peacefully.”
“I don’t think wasps sleep,” Durga turned to her and said. “At least not the way we do.”
“It will give them something to think about,” Kamala responded. “You like that better?”
“I vote for taking one of the shuttles out to the end of its range,” Chimata said. Her hair was wet in the steam. “Find out what we can before any kind of commitment. This way we only loose one shuttle and pilot if the wasps discover us.”
“Not a bad idea,” it was Shakti. “The shuttles have limited range, but I can see their usefulness as scouts. Bravi, did you find out anything about the planets in this system?”
“Three planets of average size,” she told her while sitting up, her nipple rings dangling. “All three appear to be controlled by the wasps. I don’t know what happened to the humans who were here when they arrived, but the war college lost contact with them two weeks afterwards.”
Shakti turned to Dharma who starred off into space. It was obvious she missed Seth. Actually, all of her co-wives missed him. She was forced to look the other way every time they found a reason to be in his quarters. He did seem exhausted when they transferred him to the medical ship.
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