Chapter 39 - Peace Through Providence

The statement from Governor Johanes lowered the temperature in the room even as James shifted his weight. My master seemed ready to lunge forward across the table and I held him tighter, trying to keep him from getting in trouble. It seemed he was not going to calm down and I was starting to lose my grip.

"Excuse me, James?" a feminine voice said. I had my eyes closed as I strained to keep James in his chair and had not seen anyone approach. James tensed one more time and then seemed to relax back into the chair. Seizing the moment, I jumped into his lap and put my arms around his neck before turning to look at the voice.

While I had been fighting to calm James down, four people had entered the room. The closest was Bernadette Werfel. She looked much like she did the last time she had visited. Her brown hair was tied up in a bun and, although I knew her eyesight was perfect, she wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses. Her outfit appeared to be an immaculate version of a naval uniform with a white knee-length skirt and long sleeved jacket. Around her neck, the medal she had been awarded hung, shining in the light of the lab.

To her left was another naval officer. This woman was also wearing a naval officer's uniform, but I did not recognize her. She had short blond hair that was cut in a style that reminded me of a hairstyle I had seen on some pixies a friend of mine liked to draw. She was tall and athletic looking, standing with an almost casual confidence.

Behind them stood two concubines. Bernadette had been followed by a young man wearing a loincloth. He looked like one of those boys you find singing in a teenage band. The man's black hair was short, but stood up in an untold number of small spikes and he had a bored expression as he stood waiting.

The woman behind the other officer was a truly spectacular blond. If her look was natural, she probably matched Lindsay for beauty. Her hair was in a ponytail that fell down to touch the top of the thong panties she was wearing. The rest of her outfit looked like a black football uniform jersey with the sleeves cut off and the number sixty-nine in pink on the front. The woman scanned the table and winked at me just as I finished looking over the group.

Governor Johanes broke the silence. "Who are you?" he snapped.

I was looking toward the newcomers, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Kilroy reach out to touch the governor's shoulder. "Stay calm," the young scientist said. "The one captain is wearing the Confederacy Cross. We can't afford an incident involving her."

James merely nodded at the two ladies while he put his arms around me. "Captain Werfel, Captain Johnston. What brings you here?"

"You know these two?" the Governor asked James.

"I know Captain Werfel," James said. "She's been here twice before. In fact her medal presentation occurred while she was visiting. I'm guessing that her companion is Captain Johnston."

The blond haired woman smiled. "I heard you were a perceptive man. I also was told that we need to talk to you about shore leaves and recreation for our crew while repairs continue."

James pointed at Governor Johanes. "I have been rather pointedly reminded that the wise heads of Central Command have decreed that while he is performing some scientific investigations, Colonel Clint Johanes is acting as governor. You'll have to obtain his approval for the shore leaves."

Captain Werfel turned to look at the scientist. "Oh? I wasn't aware that Central Command could override a local district commander and appoint a governor. Welcome to Borneo District, Colonel."

"Central Command wanted me to examine some artifacts found in a nearby system," Colonel Johanes said. "They felt that I'd receive more cooperation if I was also governor over the planet while I was here. I have to say, I am finding Private Rabb and the other citizens to be difficult to work with."

"I never found them so," Captain Werfel replied. "Not even when they had to basically walk me through guiding Andrew Jackson towards Inanna after the debacle at Wolf."

"You were there?" Captain Johnston said. "I was on leave when that happened, but some of my crew still have nightmares about the battle."

Captain Werfel nodded. "I was an ensign on Andrew Jackson. And by the time we arrived at Ishtar, we only had three officers on the entire ship. Worse, both the bridge and auxiliary control had been hit by the Sa'arm sliver weapons. I ended up having to try to guide the ship in from the weapons station in auxiliary control. I'm just glad that Tiffany was able to guide me."

Captain Johnston nodded. "I had heard stories. Is that where you earned your medal?"

"Yes," Captain Werfel replied.

"Enough!" Governor Johanes roared. "I am busy and do not have time to waste listening to the two of you reminisce about a battle we lost. Now explain this idea of shore leaves to me. I thought you would be staying on your ships."

Captain Johnston laughed. "You must have been based on a planet. Governor, we are on combat ships. These ships are designed for combat, not comfort. The officers get small staterooms that are not much bigger than a closet. The crew usually share bunking spaces and have no privacy. So if we are visiting a friendly planet, a chance to get off the ship is welcomed by the crew. My understanding is that Ishtar has always welcomed visiting crew and even has some facilities for them."

Esther nodded. "We've actually done some remodeling and expanded what we have. There is now a full bar, complete with entertainment screens and dart boards. Next to that we have an ice rink, although it hasn't seen much use. We also have a gym setup that offers a full size basketball court. There are even bleachers so that concubines can sit and watch."

I looked at James. His jaw was still clenched, but the fire in his eyes had started to fade. "We also took some of the abandoned home pods and converted them. Now they have several individual bedrooms so that visitors will have a private place to sleep." I glanced over at Governor Johanes. "I believe you are living in one of the pods we set up for visiting ship commanders. I haven't seen those, but I understand that they are quite luxurious."

"You haven't seen the pods?" Kilroy asked.

Esther giggled. "It wasn't one of her assignments. Most of the work was performed by the children of the colony. Reggie thought it would help them grow and learn responsibility."

"Reggie?" Governor Johanes asked.

"Reggie Bustos," James replied. "He worked in education before he was picked up. One of the things we decided to do was have a school for all of our underage children. Reggie has trained to work in the command post, but most of the time he acts as the principal of our school."

"Why waste his time?" the Governor asked. "There should be something a bit more important to do."

"Other than train and educate the children who will be the next generation?" Yvette asked. "I'm not sure I agree with that thought. And for a long time, the only duty on the planet was the two people who needed to be serving in the command post. We had eighteen citizens who were willing to work there, so with a normal rotation most of us might serve there once every three days."

"Whatever," The governor said. "It's not important right now."

He seemed about to say more when one of the scientists in the room started jumping up and down. "It moved! I have a positive reaction! Clint, come quickly, you have to look at this!"

The governor had a foul look on his face. He turned away from us to look at the excited scientist. The screen the man was looking at faced away from the table, so it was impossible to see what the man was looking at.

James gave me a gentle pat on the back. "This is probably important," he said toward Governor Johanes. "Perhaps we should allow you to pursue your research. If you want, I'll check with Louis on the status of our other probes."

"Other probes?" the governor asked absently.

"Well, once we found these artifacts, we had one of the replicators based on Inanna build us three more probes. These had more storage space for artifacts they might find. One was sent to the system where the first artifacts were found and programed to conduct a long survey. The artifacts were found on one of the moons of the fourth planet in the system. The survey was to cover the fourth planet and then check the three moons until it runs out of storage. The other two probes were sent to the next nearest systems. We wanted to see if the alien race had discovered interstellar travel and established any colonies."

"Yes, that is a perfectly reasonable plan," the governor said. He was still staring at the scientist who had called for him. "Why don't you go and do that."

"And the shore leaves?" Captain Johnston asked.

"Just keep your crew out of the way of my marines and scientists," Governor Johanes said as he stood up and started to walk to the viewscreen.

Kilroy jumped to follow the governor. As he did, Esther reached out to collect the two trays we had brought. She stacked the trays and then gathered all of the cups onto the top tray. James waited a moment longer and then nodded to Yvette.

"Let's get out of here," he said.

I jumped from my master's lap and then reached out to pull him to his feet. Once he was on his feet, we all rushed to the exit of the room. I expected that we would turn left and head towards the pressure doors, but we turned right. As a group, we stopped by the replicators so that Esther could put the two trays into a recycler.

Once that was done; James appeared to relax a little. "Sorry," he said to the captains. "This new governor just arrived and he's been less than friendly. I'm afraid I can't promise our usual hospitality."

Captain Werfel shrugged. "I've met his kind before. Hopefully, he'll be replaced or recalled soon."

"You could call Admiral Himmel and try to arrange that," Captain Johnston said.

"James," the AI said. "Colonel Johanes is requesting that he be informed of all communications with Borneo and that the calls be recorded so he can review them. Shall I honor this request?"

"Well, that eliminates calling Borneo. If we block our good Colonel from hearing what's being communicated he will definitely flip. Our best move is to let him do his spying but make sure there is nothing to hear," James said with a bark of laughter. "AI, go ahead and honor that request."

"Command accepted," the AI intoned. "Please note that a message drone has just left from Sir Paridell. Based on its trajectory, it's heading to the scientific outpost at Tulakat."

"Which is where our wonderful new governor hails from," Yvette observed. "James, we seem to have become a pawn in some game."

Bernadette Werfel giggled. "It seems like something I remember studying back at the university. We were in a physics class and the professor was explaining the laws of thermodynamics.'

"Oh?" Esther asked.

"You can't win the game. You can't break even. You can't get out of the game," Bernadette said. "Although here it's more that you don't know what the game is, or what the rules are, and you aren't being offered a way to get out of the game."

"Sadly, I get a feeling you are right," James replied. "I just wish I had a better idea what the man's game is."

"Well, if you can't use your communication systems to talk to Admiral Himmel, we could carry messages. I'm sure most of the ship commanders would be willing to do that."

"Just let him know what is going on for now," Yvette said. "If we move too quickly, we might have a problem. Right now we are outnumbered by his marines and have no idea what the goal is. We need to try to find out what his angle is."

"We can do that," Bernadette said. We had resumed walking, but had turned down a side passage. "Now where are we going?"

"I thought I'd show you the skating rink," James said. "I expect it will be quiet for now."

"Which means we can speak a bit more freely there," Yvette said.

We walked a short distance. To our left, the door to the skating rink opened up. We stepped inside. I was the last to enter and the door closed behind us. To my surprise, once the door closed, I noticed that it was much quieter.

"Quiet," Esther said, voicing my thoughts.

"We don't have a full count, but Terrence thinks that Major Bonham brought more than sixty marines. Yesterday when I was in the command post, I heard Governor Johanes order that the marines be stationed all over the colony. We could hear them chatting," Yvette said.

"What did we walk into there?" Captain Werfel asked. "I don't think I have ever seen you so angry, James. Not even when you had to throw that worm Conrad from the planet the last time I visited."

"Governor Johanes tried to force James to loan out his concubines," Esther said.

"Ouch," Captain Johnston said. "Isn't that a completely illegal order?"

"To the best of my knowledge it is," James said. "But the Governor was willing to claim that just by being governor he had the right to give me that order."

Bernadette gave James a hug. "We'll let Admiral Himmel know this. I know I asked about shore leaves, but if you can expedite repairs, we'll go straight back to Borneo to communicate to Admiral Himmel."

Captain Johnson shook her head. "I'd do the same to support your point, but right now Sif is needed on the front line. Admiral Himmel has ordered a shift in tactics. We want to see if we can take out enough of the ships bringing food to Wolf three-six-seven to weaken their defenses. It's a valuable planet, and the faster we can get the Sa'arm off, the better."

"Too bad we can't have General Montgomery take command of the marines that our wonderful new governor brought and use them in that battle. Perhaps as the spearhead of some desperate attack on a fortified position," I said.

"I'll suggest that," Captain Johnston said. "It's a perfectly good idea."

I blushed, but James just gave me a hug. He was laughing. "As always, my concubines can bring light to the darkest of times," he said. "And now, I should actually go home. Two of my concubines gave birth last night and I haven't had a chance to hold my babies."

Captain Johnston sighed. "I had to leave my firstborn behind. She's only a month old. At least I know my concubines will take good care of both her and Nadia's baby. Oh, please just call me Theresa. I don't mind being the captain when I'm on the ship, but right now we are just among friends. And I guess I should introduce Nadia too you." She pointed to the blond concubine wearing the football jersey. Nadia just nodded and then stepped back out of the way.

"Sounds like you have something to return to," James said. "That must be the most important thing."

"It is," Theresa replied. "My man did a wonderful job keeping me from falling apart after Traci died."

"Traci?" Yvette asked.

"My first concubine," Theresa said. "We were lovers in college before I was picked up. She died on Park Avenue when we lost the battle at Ursus Twelve."

Nadia threw her arms around Theresa. "Don't feel so sad. Traci left you a wonderful little girl before she died. And I seem to remember David convincing you to name your daughter after the woman who meant so much to you."

Theresa laughed at that. "Fine, don't let me feel sad for a day. I'll just get you back when we get home. I'll forbid you from seeing Pru."

Nadia giggled. "David will just have Monica and Maxine convince you to allow me to try another blind taste test."

Bernadette giggled at that. "Oh, those are so much fun, right Petey?"

"They do keep me up at night mum," her young male concubine said. He sounded so formal that I looked over at him in shock. Bernadette just shook her head and dropped to her knees in front of him. With the rest of us watching she pulled her concubine's loincloth off and took his cock into her mouth. The boy groaned in surprise and slumped to his knees.

Bernadette kept her mouth over the boy's cock for several minutes and then slowly pulled her head back. She finished by kissing the head and then standing back up. "Oh, I think you've been rewarded a few times for participating," she said with a smile.

"Foul!" the boy moaned. "I wasn't ready."

James just shook his head and put his arms around me. "Well, like I said, we do welcome your citizens, but it's probably best to leave concubines on your ships."

"How should Nadia and Pete get home?" Theresa asked. "Your transporter room now has one of Major Bonham's marines manning it. Or at least, that's what it seemed. I have crew who were on Athena and Morrigan when those ships visited and they said they didn't recognize many of the men. They also said that none of your people wear rank insignia and the man who welcomed us to Ishtar this morning was clearly a marine sergeant."

"I can help with that," I said. "Our old transporter room still works."

I could see both captains look at me. "So you'll take our concubines to the room?" Bernadette said.

"I'll even operate the transporter," I said with a nod and a smile.

Nadia giggled and gave me a hug. "My hero, a concubine who can run the transporters."

I nodded again and hugged Nadia back. "We needed a few more people who knew how to operate the consoles. I volunteered."

"The AI allowed it?" Captain Werfel asked. "I've never heard of a concubine being allowed to operate that device."

Yvette smiled at James. "Until our new friend showed up, we were rather free-spirited when it came to dividing up the job duties. Since the start, we have had concubines in our command center watching the sensors or manning communications. I guess as long as the concubines are supervised, the AI did not see a problem with allowing them to work."

"But for now, we are going to be restricted to just the male citizens working," James said. "I refuse to risk our concubines by allowing our new governor or his minions to get close to them."

"I saw Meiko holding you down," Yvette said. "Are you sure you'll be able to keep your temper around that scumbag?"

"I'm going to try to avoid him," James responded with a shrug. "I think the damaged lasers need several days of intensive repair. Yes, we'll have all the ladies working in there seeing what we can do to clean up the damage."

Yvette laughed. "And today, we avoided a confrontation thanks to these two ladies who arrived in time to distract our wonderful new potentate."

"I think Governor Johanes wanted the confrontation," Esther said. "He was far too relaxed when he told James that he could give that illegal order. And if James had done or said more, he would have had an excuse to arrest him."

"Which is something to avoid," James admitted. "I do owe you two ladies my thanks. I can think of one thing we can give to Theresa. Meiko, why don't you handle that before you send Nadia back."

Bernadette giggled. "I was going to ask if I can send Pete with Meiko. Bethany told me that your concubines found a mate for Franz, and that they will even allow me to have some of the babies once they are born."

James nodded. "That sounds fair. But why don't we start walking. I'm sure some of the marines noticed us entering this room. I expect some will be following us shortly."

"Do we have to cross the ice?" Nadia asked.

"Of course not," I said. I spun out of the group and headed to the passage that circled the rink. "This passage will take us to the citizen's locker room. From there we can enter the original tunnels where we all still live."

I took off at a quick jog. Behind me, I heard a man shout in surprise. I ignored this and kept moving, entering the passage first.

Nadia quickly caught up to me and matched my pace. Her long ponytail whipped back and forth as she kept up with me. We soon entered the locker room area. I paused to wait for James and Yvette to catch up. Nadia looked around the locker room.

"This is nice," she said as she looked at the padded benches and labeled lockers.

"We wanted it to be a place we like to visit," Yvette said. "We even have planned a league for three person hockey, so that each citizen can form a team with their concubines. But it looks like the league will be on hold for now."

"We'll survive," James said. "We'll just have to keep up the indoor soccer and bowling leagues for now."

"Aw, but I was hoping we'd start up a bridge league soon," Esther said.

James led us to the airlock doorway leading to our home tunnels. He nodded to Yvette when we arrived and the first of the two doors opened. "We'll have to go through two at a time," he said. "When we put in these doors, we established a procedure to keep outsiders from using them. AI, please disable the intruder protocols while we use the door."

"Confirmed," the AI intoned.

Nadia grabbed my arm and led me through the doorway. "What is this about Theresa getting something? I never heard of a colony giving gifts or anything. Well, I have heard about how some marines will share concubines and such. Was James offering you to Theresa?"

The door we had passed through closed. Immediately the door guarding our home tunnels opened up. I stepped through with a smile on my face. "No. James never shares us."

Nadia giggled. "So what is this surprise?"

I looked up to see Kitty and Brittany waiting for us as we emerged. Brittany ran up to throw her arms around me. I gathered her in my arms as the door closed behind us.

"Let's make sure of James' plans, and then I'll show you," I said to Nadia as I held my sister concubine in my arms.