Chapter 31 - Musical Ships

I returned to our home hallways in time to catch James coming out of the command post. With Diana and Ingrid's help I cornered him in the hallway and ordered him to throw me over his shoulder and take me back to our home to ravish me. He did after telling the AI to order Bethany home.

James did not really ravish me though. He jumped into the shower while Bethany and I fed our daughters and then pulled us into the hot tub for an hour of playful fun. Bethany held onto him at the end of that hour, kissing his neck and smiling.

We agreed that we wanted to have more stolen mornings like this one, but Captain Narvaza was loudly demanding that James come to the visitor's lounge, so James got out of the tub and dried off after ordering Bethany and me to cuddle and comfort each other.

Tina showed up some time later. She was hungry so we joined her for lunch and then left to continue our work on various projects.

I did have time to ask James about trading rabbits based on promises of seeds being delivered in the future. He explained that if we did that, everyone would make the same promise.

The idea of inviting Brigit to come and see the rabbits was mentioned, but Captain Narvaza demanded that a pod be set up to run simulations. He dragged his crew into that pod and kept them in there for hours. Yvette suggested that he back off a bit and give his people some rest, but her comments were scornfully ignored.

The arrival of the crew of Cabo San Lucas only added to the confusion and instability. They had lost their two most senior officers. Captain Narvaza tried to issue orders to them, only for Lieutenant Dawn, the most senior officer left on Cabo, to call James and demand that Admiral Himmel be informed. James sat down with both officers to try to calm the situation down, but it soon became clear that they would never get along.

And both ships were going to require three days to repair. With tensions high, Yvette had ordered all concubines to remain within the enclave. So two days after the arrival of Cabo I was in the briefing room sitting on James' lap when Ulla called out. "Admiral Himmel for you James."

"Put him through," James replied.

"James, how are things out on Ishtar?" Admiral Himmel replied. He sounded extremely happy.

"Slow," James replied. "The crews of Sahara and Cabo don't really get along, so we've had to work to keep them separated. Its been a bit of a trial."

"Any real problems?" the Admiral asked. "I did mention to Captain Narvaza that I expected him to cooperate with you."

"Not really. Captain Narvaza keeps his people too busy to cause problems, and Lieutenant Dawn is trying to patch together a crew. They lost a lot of people. We are retesting one concubine from Cabo."

"You are?" the Admiral asked.

"Yes," James replied. "He belonged to Captain Custer. Roderick Payne is his name. It was his ability on the helm that brought Cabo to Ishtar."

"Sounds like a good man. Will you keep him on Ishtar?" the Admiral asked.

"Hell no," James replied. "We are finding that even adding people temporarily is a great way to disrupt life here, and that stupid scientist is due in another month. Besides, he's said that if he scores high enough he'd like to be able to claim Captain Custer's pod and concubines. I get a feeling that he was comfortable living with them."

"We'll see. When will you know his score?" the Admiral asked.

"A few hours. He's testing right now."

"Well, that leaves open part two of my question. Can you gather Captain Narvaza, Lieutenant Dawn and Lieutenant Cassidy," the Admiral asked.

"Why is it that we call female officers by their rank and first name, but male ones by their rank and last name?" Yvette asked with a giggle.

"Just get them and call me back," the Admiral gruffed.

"Ulla!" James called out.

"Already on it, meet in the lounge?" she called back.

James looked over at Yvette. She nodded. "It's for the best. We should probably have a briefing area set up there."

"Tell them to arrive in the next fifteen minutes," James called back. "Yvette and I are on our way."

"Should I go as well?" I asked James.

He kissed my forehead briefly. Then as he lifted me from his lap and stood up he put his arms around me and kissed my lips hard. I put my arms around him and held him tight until he backed away from the embrace. "No," he told me with a smile. "This should probably be citizens only."

He walked out of our briefing room. Yvette gave me her own hug. "Sorry. He doesn't like not being with you, but Sahara's crew is a bit rough around the edges. It's best if we don't dangle any bait."

I heard James snort as Yvette ran to catch up with him. I wandered out of the briefing room and sighed.

"Want to know what they are saying?" Ulla asked.

"How?" I asked.

Ulla pointed to the chair next to her. "We know they will be talking to Admiral Himmel. We'll just have the speaker in here working as well. The microphone will be off though. You can listen in and hear what's said."

"Should we be spying on James like that?" I asked.

"We won't be causing any harm," Veronica said.

I slid into the chair. Ulla giggled and reached out to pat me on the shoulder. "Don't worry too much. The twins were the ones that showed us how to do this. We use it when the briefing room door is closed."

I looked over at Ulla. She was concentrating on the screens in front of her. After a few moments she glanced my way and then shook her head. "Oh, don't be so surprised. The best way to be able to anticipate the needs of our master is to listen in when he's in meetings and such. You don't have to because you have so many sisters to help spread the work."

"I just try to make sure James is happy. I don't want to upset him," I whispered as I squirmed in the chair.

"This won't upset him," Veronica said. "There is no way he isn't aware that people listen in at times. If he knew it was private, he'd tell us to keep the conversation private."

I sat in the chair feeling increasingly uncomfortable. Ulla was listening to something coming in through a small ear bug she was wearing. I had started to climb out of the chair to leave when she grabbed my arm.

"Where are you going?" she asked

"Home. Madoka will need to be fed soon," I whispered.

Ulla used her other hand to flick a switch and then turned to look at me. "I know you fed Madoka just before you came here with James, so she can't be very hungry. "

The speaker burst into life. "Ulla should have sent the signal to Admiral Himmel to join in. He wanted all of you gathered," James said.

"Why am I here with these two?" Captain Narvaza growled. "Lieutenant Cassidy I can understand since she's my navigation officer, but that other one isn't even assigned to my ship."

"Please stay calm," Yvette said. "There is no reason for insults."

I could hear a fist hitting a table. "It's not an insult! I have a crew to train. You have a ship to repair. My ship! Why are we having a meeting?" Captain Narvaza screamed.

"Because I asked James to hold one," Admiral Himmel's voice growled out. "I thought we might try to resolve some personnel issues."

"What issues?" Captain Narvaza shouted. "From what I hear Ishtar doesn't have any spare crew just waiting to join a ship's company."

The Admiral sighed audibly. "Captain, please remain calm. You're right that there are no spare crew on Ishtar unless the one concubine from Cabo improves his score and becomes a citizen. The reason I called you is that I want to do some reassignments."

There was a snort and then several grunts. Finally James spoke. "Go ahead Admiral. Yvette and I will keep the captain from interrupting."

"Do I need to plead for leniency for him?" the Admiral asked cheekily. "No, don't answer that. Lieutenant Cassidy, are you there."

"Yes, Admiral," I heard her reply."

"Captain Dawn, are you there?" the Admiral asked.

"Who? Oh wait, you mean me?" I heard a female voice reply. "But I'm not a captain."

"You were the senior surviving officer on Cabo San Lucas. You have a solid performance record since arriving in the district nine months ago. And, you have training in Patrician class corvettes. Congratulations on your promotion," the Admiral said. "Now, you need more officers. If I remember you are trained in weapons and tactics. Lieutenant Cassidy is a navigation officer. You need a navigation officer, and Sahara has a Sergeant Dobson, who has taken time to train in navigation. So Lieutenant Cassidy is going to be transferred to Cabo as your new navigation officer, and new Ensign Dobson will become the navigation officer on Sahara."

"Sir!" Captain Narvaza squealed out. "But I already have lost a few crew. How is this fair?"

"You lost fewer crew than Cabo. Also neither ship can head out without a navigation officer. Based on your report, I thought you would be more comfortable with a new officer you can train up to your own standards."

"Or lack of standards," Veronica hissed. "Timothy watched the bridge recorder tapes for the battle where Sahara got damaged. Captain Narvaza ignored any reports from navigation to concentrate on the battle."

"Is that all?" Captain Narvaza whined.

"Sir," I heard Lieutenant Cassidy call out. "Thank you for your confidence. Could I suggest one more transfer?"

"Who do you want now?" Captain Narvaza whined.

"Brigit," Lieutenant Cassidy said. "This is her first term on Sahara. She's good on weapons and has engineering training. I also know she is having trouble meshing with the rest of the crew."

"Who?" Captain Narvaza cried. There was a moment of silence. "Oh wait! Are you talking the blond dyke with the tomboy haircut?"

"Captain Narvaza!" Admiral Himmel called out. "I hope I am not hearing that you are prejudiced against one of your crew."

"Hell no," the Captain replied. "Lieutenant Cassidy is right, the girl works hard and knows her stuff. But I allow my crew to speak freely and the conversation over the comm. System often gets rather racy. Brigit complained about it a few times, so that's how I remember her."

"So you have no problem with transferring her as well?" Admiral Himmel asked.

"I guess not," Captain Narvaza said. "But what about replacements for my people?"

"When you return to Borneo, replacements will be available," Admiral Himmel replied.

"Good, James how close is my ship to being ready to launch?" the Captain replied.

"Ulla, who's monitoring the repairs?" James called out.

Ulla held a hand up. She flipped the switch controlling the speaker in the room. "The twins were working here this morning. They said that Sahara was done except for a couple of final tests that require that the crew board. Cabo will be ready in two hours,"

Ulla flipped the switch back. "Wake Terrence and have him get to the teleporter so we can start sending the crew of Sahara back to their ship, and announce that they are boarding."

Ulla flipped the switch again. "On it." She hit several more switches and called out. "Terrence, James needs you to report to the teleport room. Sahara is ready to start boarding and we need someone to run the teleporter."

She did not wait for a reply, but continued to hit switches. "Crew of Sahara. Your ship is now repaired. Please report to the teleport room and we'll return you to your ship."

As soon as she finished the second announcement she hit the switches back to their original position. Veronica giggled. "Nice and professional sounding. You'd think you had some experience doing this."

Ulla turned to glare at her sister concubine. Meanwhile the conversation must have continued in the visitors lounge. "So that's where we stand," James said. "Roderick will be done with his test in about an hour. We'll know then if he becomes a citizen. You'll still be down six crew, but you'll have enough to jump. I wouldn't try to drive too deep into any of the Sa'arm controlled systems though."

"We'll still try a raid," the newly christened Captain Dawn replied. "I'd hate to make a run and do nothing. The Sa'arm repair the damage we do incredibly fast. The more we do the longer we keep them from jumping forward again."

"Can we visit Borneo?" Lieutenant Cassidy asked. "I'll need to move my household to Kelor since Cabo is based there."

"We can," was the reply. "They probably also have replacement crew for the ship. And this way we can hit the Wolf system."

"We should gather the crew and let them know," Lieutenant Cassidy replied. "Oh, will your engineering lieutenant be your executive officer?"

"He doesn't want to move from engineering," Captain Dawn replied. "He's feeling a bit overwhelmed by the responsibility. For engineering he's perfect, but he isn't ready to step up and take command. So it will have to be you. We'll announce that as well."

The conversation ended. Ulla waited for a moment and then flipped a switch to stop the eavesdropping we were doing.

"So nothing bad," she told me. "Just a few transfers between the ships and the fact that the ships will be leaving shortly."

"Yes," I said quietly. "And perhaps James can relax for a few more days."

"I hope so too," Veronica responded. "The wait for this Chief Scientist to arrive is only adding to the tension."