My fears were real.
It was Rockmonster.
Claymore waved something under her nose, and she came awake abruptly, sitting up and retching.
I started breathing again.
Hands helped her up, and she limped out of the cam view I was watching. I presumed she’d be in a care unit for a while as soon as they got her to the medical bay.
Score another one for the suits. They’d told me these new ones didn’t let as much damage through as the previous ones, but since she was limping, I guessed the hits had been hard enough to overwhelm whatever the suits did to stop the pilot getting hurt.
Limping was much better than dead though.
When the area was clear of people, the cargo droids began to separate the two birds, and clear the whole mess away. When I checked, the flight deck was already clear of debris, and the remainder of the Excaliburs were in the landing pattern again.
The repair droids were going to be flat out fixing all the damage in time for our next fight, but it might be better if we simply moved the broken ones to Unassailable when she arrived, and transferred over brand new birds. The battleship was still an hour or so away, and I wasn’t going to stop the repair droids doing what they could. But I did need to check with Claymore on where the line was between being worth fixing here, moving to the battleship, or being scrapped. I had a pretty good inclination Rockmonster’s bird was a total write off.
The destroyers had been docking in order of most damage, but the corvettes held off, waiting for the badly damaged one to be retrieved. The pilot of the destroyer was having trouble lining up to get a grav sled on the tumbling ship, but finally seemed to give up and let the AI do it. The destroyer did some rapid course changes, and suddenly the sled poking out from the rear slapped down on the front end of the corvette, and it stopped dead.
I flinched. Even though there’s no noise in space, I could have sworn I’d heard the creaking of metal as the arm holding the sled took the strain.
With the destroyer on its way back, I started watching Monty. Jane had launched straight up to avoid the other ships, and was tracking in on the nearer battleship.
“Do you want prisoners?” her voice asked.
“Can we handle them?”
“Sure. The brig can take a good few.”
“There’s a brig on this ship?”
“There’s a brig on every big ship.”
“Fine. If they surrender, take them. If not, sweep and clear, and don’t forget to look for booby traps.”
“My boobies are trapped just fine. Thank you for checking.”
I couldn’t help laughing. It sounded rough even to me, and I stopped. Serious mode back on.
“No risks Jane.”
“Aye. SIR.”
An unsubtle reminder she outranked me.
Twenty
Jane didn’t take any risks.
I sent off a report to the Imperator, an ‘I’m not dead, are you?’ message to Grace, and not being needed on the bridge anymore, monitored her progress through the first battleship from the pilot’s mess. There was a celebration in progress, and the only pilot not there was Rockmonster, which was understandable. Watershed looked a bit subdued for once, which was also understandable. He knew exactly how close he’d come to buying the farm. And I saw on more than a few faces there would never be any question about wearing either the suits or the armbands again.
The plants fought.
By the time Unassailable and Blossom arrived, Jane was well into the second battleship, and most of the pilots had gone off to bed. The damaged Excaliburs were taken over to Unassailable by salvage droids, where the AI’s took over a brand new ship, and flew them back. Both Rockmonster and Watershed’s birds were declared write offs, and Watershed’s AI transferred to a security droid, going over on one of the sleds. The AI’s of the destroyed birds respawned from the primaries on the AI homeworld, in one of the new birds. They all flew back themselves.
I could tell Claymore was dying to tell what respawned meant in this context, but I resisted the impulse to ask her, and she didn’t volunteer it.
The rest of the bent birds would be worked on as a priority overnight, but the repair droids were being spread thin across all the ships, with the highest priority being the worst hit corvette. We needed more repair droids.
The last of the plants succumbed to the combat droids. Jane left one on each ship, and brought the remaining ones back with Monty. She’d lost sixty seven in hard fighting, with the plants not appearing to care if they broke their own ship more than it already was. We needed new combat droids.
The fabricators were flat out making parts for ships, with even making more fabricators put on hold. For all we knew the next plant fleet was within hours of us, and we needed to be combat ready again. Of course, we could run if need be, but that was the realm of lead balloons. We needed more fabricators to make more fabricators.
With Monty docking again, I headed for the medical bay to find out how Rockmonster was, and found her no longer there. I continued on to my quarters, and stopped suddenly in the doorway to my bedroom.
I could hear water running.
Puzzled, I continued in, making my way to the bathroom, and again stopped suddenly as soon as I could see in.
There was a naked female bum pointed in my direction.
Water was flowing into the spa bath, and the bent over figure was testing the temperature with one hand. The bend was enough to show me more than I really wanted to, and I could feel a blush beginning.
I must have made a noise, as the figure suddenly straightened and twisted around to see who was there, left arm going across her breasts as the right hand went between her legs, in the classic cover up pose.
It was Rockmonster.
I had a glimpse of the sights before as much as she could hide was hidden, and her face went a deep purple colour. The two of us stood there for a good ten seconds, neither knowing what to say, while I checked out her quite substantial bruises, covering a lot of her body from top to toes. She apparently figured out what to say first.
“I’m sorry. I thought you’d be longer in the pilot’s mess. I desperately need to soak myself, and I wasn’t going to use the big spa in the communal bathroom.”
“You could have asked.”
“I did. I thought you agreed.”
I remembered her joking about it, but not agreeing she could.
“I meant pinged me when you came out of the care unit.”
She hung her head a little.
“I forgot. But I thought you wouldn’t be back for a while yet, and even if you did turn up, I’d be safely under soap bubbles.”
“Good plan. Badly executed.”
“Obviously.”
We stood there in silence again. I sent the spa tap a command to turn it off, before water started overflowing.
“Are you going to leave so I can get in the spa?”
“I’ve already seen the back side of you. It’s not going to show me anything new if you turn and get in now, is it?”
“Point.”
She stood there looking uncomfortable, seemed to come to a decision, and quickly turned and stepped into the spa, keeping her front bits covered up. She was a slim petite girl, and her arse was perfect. With most of her under the water now, and me still in the doorway, I could no longer see anything but her face.
“I think you forgot something,” I grinned at her.
“What?”
“You could have covered up by shifting your suit.”
“Shit. Bastard. You could have told me.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” I grinned, resulting in her glaring at me.
Her remaining armbands were on the vanity unit, and her lacey underwear was on the floor. She saw me looking.
“I’m never going to live this down, am I?”
I frowned.
“Live what down?”
“Being caught naked in a strange man’s bathroom.”
“Who ar
e you calling strange?”
Ok, I was, but I wasn’t going to let her get away with saying it. It did make her smile.
“Sorry. Not strange. But your eyes are weird.”
“I’ll grant you that.”
“You won’t tell anyone will you?”
“Of course not. But Jane or Claymore might.”
“What? How would they know if you don’t tell them?”
“I gather Jane watches everything.”
Her eyes went wide.
“You mean she’s seen me naked?”
I laughed.
“Of all the people who might have seen you naked, Jane is the one I’d expect you to be least worried about.”
“I’ve never been naked in front of anyone before.”
Which explained the still purple hue to her face, and the shocked look.
“Seriously? Never?”
“Sheltered life, remember? Strict parents cramp your style. Or so I was told by friends. I never really developed a style.”
“Time you did.”
“I guess.”
“And now you have been seen naked, next time won’t be so much of a shock. Believe me you get used to it quite quickly.”
“I’ll take your word for that. And I guess Jane doesn’t count.”
“Do I?”
Her eyes went wide again.
“Well you saw my backside, so I guess you do.”
I debated telling her I’d seen the whole show, but it must have shown on my face, because she looked shocked again.
“How much did you see?” she asked in a quiet voice, as if she was dreading the answer.
“Everything. But only a glimpse.”
“Oh.”
The word hung there.
“Nice bruises,” I ventured.
“Thanks. I was actually surprised to have survived the crash.”
“What happened?”
“At the last moment before the elevator, I lost control.”
“You were on manual?”
“Yes. I lost my AI late in the battle.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
She looked pained now.
“No. I was too busy keeping the bird together.”
“You can expect Vulture to take a piece out of you when he finds out.”
“Why?”
“You should have told him as soon as it happened. And instead of trying to land, you should have bailed out and been collected by an SR droid, while the bird was towed in by a salvage droid. You cost us two birds.”
“Add it to my bill.”
“It went on the kill board.”
“Oh.”
I waited.
“I’ll know better next time.”
“I hope there isn’t a next time.”
“You and me both.”
We went silent again. I let her break it again.
“Why do I get the impression I’m not getting out of here without you seeing me naked again?”
“Would that be a bad thing?”
She thought about it. I could see equal parts fear and excitement cross her face.
“Maybe. Or maybe not.”
“Okay, how about this. You stand up right now, and I’ll shift my suit to a belt and join you in there. It has been a long day. I could use a soak as well.”
“You mean you’ll get naked too?”
Fear and excitement were crossing her face like they were chasing each other.
“I take it you’ve never seen a man naked before?”
Her blush changed colour.
“Actually yes. In that damned communal bathroom, and I bolted out as soon as I saw.”
“How much did you see?”
“More than I wanted to.”
“You probably owe a few people a look at you then.”
She closed her eyes and her face looked pained. She opened them again, and fixed me with a steely gaze.
“It wasn’t my choice, and I had no warning. So no. Not owing anyone.”
Her face lost its intensity, and I let her think some more.
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“To strip if you stand up?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a risk everyone has to take at some point.”
“I guess so.”
I suddenly realized just how inappropriate this was. The tightness in my crotch area was getting worse, and this was heading somewhere I was pretty sure we’d both regret. Maybe not regret, but if Grace found out, it could spoil a good thing. Reluctantly, but wisely, I hunted in the PC menu for the override which made me feel a lot more comfortable.
Which was when she stood up.
Her left arm fell away from her breasts, and right hand came away from between her legs, and she stood there with her arms off to the sides, palms towards me, in the classic gesture of look at me. Her breasts were firm and nicely formed, the nipples more than a little excited. She had no public hair, and I saw the front side of what I’d seen the rear part of before. I wondered why she was bald down there, when she wasn’t sexually active. But there was no way I was going to ask.
I wanted to say nice, but thought it might be the wrong thing to say, so said nothing, and instead, shifted to a belt.
Her eyes went down my body, and fixed at the groin level. Before it became uncomfortable, I started walking towards her.
“Move over so I can get in.”
She moved to the other side of the spa, and stood there as I stepped in and sat. She looked down at me, and finally sat herself.
“Oh,” she said again.
“Oh what?”
“Chaos is going to kill me.”
“Why would she?”
“I’m naked in a spa with her man.”
“Actually no. We’ve made no commitment to each other yet, although I don’t want to spoil wherever we’re going. At the moment you and I are two team members soaking muscles after a hard day. Nothing sexual about it. Just sharing a soak. As long as we keep our hands to ourselves, there’s nothing wrong with it. Teams do it all the time, and I know Grace has.”
She frowned, her eyes looking along my length under the water.
“You don’t find me attractive?”
“Of course I do. But there’s an override in the PC to keep me un-attracted, and it’s turned on. There’s a female version of it I understand, if you care to look.”
Her eyes glazed for a moment as she did so, and her nipples returned to normal.
“Useful to know.”
“And something the makers of the PC don’t seem to advertise.”
She giggled.
Twenty One
When I woke just before training time, I was alone.
Dianne had seemed to relax the longer we spent in the water, and when I’d risen to dry off ready for bed, she’d also risen as well, this time apparently not embarrassed to be seen. I didn’t think she was ready for the communal shower yet, but she was on her way. I remembered back to my cadet days, where on day one we’d been run into the shower area double time, and told we had five minutes to shower and be back out again, fully dressed with wet hair, or there would be hell to pay. Most of us made it out in time, looking very red in the face, but several didn’t. The punishment was much worse than a rapid losing of modesty.
I’d tossed her a towel, dried myself off quickly, and padded into the bedroom, where I slipped under the sheet, and turned over.
“Goodnight,” she said demurely as she left, and I turned out the lights, shifted mask to glasses, removed them, and placed them on the bedside table.
Black. Sleep. Bliss.
Claymore was at the next jump point, with nothing showing on the other side. Unassailable and Blossom, each with a Trixone battleship in tow, were still an hour away, having taken much of the night to clean up the battle area. Blossom was dwarfed by her tow, which was almost three times her size. Unassailable’s tow on the other hand was only fifty percent bigger. Damage reports told me both captures had functional
engines now, but neither could go as fast as the ships towing them. Repairs were continuing to both.
I honestly didn’t know what we were going to do with them, since they looked like trees, and thus had nothing at all in common with any of our ships. Still, for now, it wasn’t something I needed to make a decision about. If the Imperator sent us one of his rift thingies, we could send them to him, and his shipyard could figure out what to do with them. For now, the repair droids were trying to get some guns working again.
There was nothing from the Imperator, and still nothing from Grace. I resisted the urge to see what she was doing. It could be something as simple as she’d been told not to contact me, or didn’t want to jog my elbow, knowing I was in harm’s way without any backup. I put her out of my mind.
I started on the running track. I quickly passed Rockmonster, and not long after, Watershed as well. Dianne was walking, so me passing her was no big deal. And given the colour of part of her face, and what I remembered of her bruises from the night before, the fact she was even walking on the running track showed more grit than I’d thought she had. No-one would have begrudged her a few days on her back.
Watershed was only jogging, and his gait was very lopsided. The second time I came up to him, I slowed down to stay with him.
“Commander?”
“On the track you call me Chris. And I’m sorry, for the life of me, I don’t remember your name.”
“No-one has had any time for learning names Commander, err, Chris. I’m Harmon Rabb.”
“Why do they call you Watershed? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I was on the Yorktown during the Midgard War. We were hit really hard at one point waiting for the call to go through a jump point, and the Midgard fleet came through instead. We were on the down jump lane, and only a last second warning from the Imperator on the other side got us enough out of the way to survive. As it was, after the partial collisions, the ship was a disaster for a while, and my bird was one of those badly damaged. They had to cut me out of the cockpit, and after, the flight surgeons washed me out for flying because my left knee doesn’t work properly anymore.”
“Ouch. I know the feeling.”
“So I heard. Anyway, they fixed up Yorktown, and so I could stay aboard, I took a job as a deck officer, controlling the launches out the tubes. Someone called me Watershed for having been washed out, and it stuck.”
Legend of Dreamwalker (The Hunter Imperium Book 5) Page 10