Chapter 65 - A Pleasant Waking

The next thing I knew I was lying down on something soft. At first my mind seemed filled with fog, but in the distance I could hear a baby babbling. This reminded me of my own daughter and I thrust my hands down, planning on sitting up.

Hands reached out and grabbed my shoulders, holding me down. "Slow down, Little One," Bethany told me. "You took quite a hit."

"But Madoka," I cried as I squirmed in Bethany's grip.

"She is fine," Bethany told me. "You do have five sister concubines. We made sure that Madoka was fed and changed. We even allowed her to sleep on your chest for a while. You both slept better while she was in here."

I raised my head and looked around. We appeared to be back home, but I did not see Madoka or a crib in the room. "She's not here," I muttered.

"She woke up a while ago," Bethany said. "You needed more sleep. Do you realize that in the last two days you spent almost forty-five hours running the teleport system? And the last twelve or so was after you had a concussion from hitting your head."

"It had to be done," I said.

"It did, and from what we can tell you saved a lot of lives. The concubines on the carrier would have died if they were still on the ship when the structure failed," Bethany told me. "Or at least that's what I'm being told."

"We won though," I said.

Bethany laughed. "We did, and in many ways it wasn't close. We only lost three ships. Well the Confederacy did, all three were visiting from whatever cesspool spawned the orders Colonel Johanes was given. The missile cruiser got caught by one of the battleships. They tried to close the range so their missiles could evade the counter-measures. It didn't work."

I nodded sadly. "I heard that much while on the teleport unit. I heard a ship called Odessa also died."

"Yes, one of the Asia class destroyers. Her sister ship Vladivostok also didn't make it. Captain Evans thinks they were trying to match Freya's performance," Bethany said with a laugh.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked.

"Captain Evans doesn't know how Freya does it," Tina said as she slipped into the room and sat on the cushion I lay on. "Most Goddess class ships don't divide the gunners, or if they do, they use two teams of twenty. Freya has four groups and still had the most coordinated fire of any ship fighting. You realize they took out a Sa'arm battleship solo?"

"I'm not sure I was awake when that happened," I replied. "I lost everything just after Sergeant Watkins came back from the carrier. But wasn't it destroyed?"

"No," Tina said. "Although Louis and Timothy say it will take a week to repair. The carrier and the corvette River Oaks were both heavily damaged."

Bethany giggled. "Don't forget Cancun, which is once again a wreck. It seems that Captain Gates doesn't understand that the object is to avoid being hit entirely."

Tina giggled. "But somehow her ship had no casualties."

"How many did we lose?" I asked nervously.

Bethany hugged me. "No one. We lost no one. Yvette is still on a pod, as is Deb, but everyone else has been released from medical."

"James?" I asked.

"I'm surprised you didn't ask about him first," Tina said. "He was released about an hour ago. We're supposed to bring you to him. But you need to stand up slowly. Lindsay and Donna are both upset that they didn't realize how badly you were hurt."

"I hit my chin when the shockwave from the crashed Sa'arm ship went through. That was all," I said.

"You hit your head," Tina corrected me. "Gina's Michael said that he thinks you had a major concussion. We had to load you in a medical tube after you collapsed."

"It must not have been too bad," I replied as I swung my feet off of the bed. The room was spinning just a little, but I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This slowed the spinning, so I was able to gradually push myself to my feet.

"Bad enough," Bethany replied. "And we didn't have the luxury of allowing the medical pod to fully heal you. Donna set it up to make it so you could sleep and recover naturally once you were out of the pod."

I nodded. "Like she did for James after that idiot colonel demanded to see him. What happened to him?"

"The sergeant who came over with a few marines put him under arrest when they first scrambled back to Sir Paridell when the fighting started," Tina said. "He had no real authority to do it, but the captain of Sir Paridell agreed. He's been locked up on the transport pretty much since he was forced from Ishtar."

"Good," I said with a nod of my head. The world spun around and I stumbled. Tina held me up and then slowly turned my chin until I could look into her eyes.

"I think little Meiko here needs a bit more rest," she said. "Either that or she's hungry."

Bethany laughed. "I'll grab her something she can snack on. We need to get her to James."

"Where is James?" I asked as I took a step forward. My balance felt off, but Tina slipped her right shoulder under my left arm and held me upright. She guided me slowly from the room as Bethany ran ahead.

"He and the ship captains gathered in the visitor's lounge. They need to contact Borneo for a debrief, but James wanted to see if anyone knew what Admiral Timmons was up to first," Tina told me.

We reached the door to our bedroom. It opened silently, allowing us to step into the common room we used so often. The room was silent as Tina turned me to face the door to the tunnels. "Where's..." I started to say.

"The babies are mostly still in the nursery," Tina said. "We aren't sure if another attack might appear. It's unlikely, but until we figure out where the hive sphere came from, James is being cautious."

"Can we do that?" I asked. Tina was assisting me as we walked to the door. I twisted in her grasp to look back towards the replicator we used to produce food. Bethany was there picking up a tray.

"Louis thinks he's identified the planet already. It's not one we've ever visited because it's been infested for over a century. He thinks that what we saw probably took all of their remaining resources," Tina said. "Terrence is using a repair remote to investigate some of the wreckage to see if they can confirm that."

I nodded again, only to find all strength in my knees vanishing. Bile climbed my throat for a moment. Bethany came over and held out a glass filled with an orange liquid. "Drink," she commanded.

I reached out a shaking hand and carefully gripped the glass. Tina steadied me as I brought it to my lips and then slowly tilted my head back to drink. Smooth, cold orange juice poured past my taste buds as I drank.

The drink seemed to revitalize me. I kept drinking until the glass was empty and then tilted my head back to vertical. Bethany had her hand out and claimed the glass as I lowered it from my mouth.

"Better?" Tina asked me.

"Is that all?" I asked.

Bethany laughed and handed me a slice of buttered toast. "No," she told me. "But it's only finger foods until we get you to James. Now do we carry you?"

"No," I replied as I took a bite from the toast. "I can walk."

With Tina's continued support, we resumed our walk. I kept nibbling on the toast as we exited our home pod and entered the tunnels.

We made our way through the tunnels. As we walked, I noticed large cracks in the walls and ceiling. No one else appeared concerned, but after we passed by one crack that ran from the floor to the ceiling and then along the joint for the wall and ceiling for at least ten yards, I turned to Bethany.

"What about all the cracks?" I asked.

Bethany shook her head. "Caused by the same earthquake that you got hurt in. James already asked the AI about it. Any that might have resulted in a leak have already been repaired. But additional repairs will be slow as we have prioritized ship repairs over repairing the tunnels."

"That makes sense," I said as I took the last bite from the toast I was holding. Bethany noticed and immediately put a chocolate covered donut into my hands. "Why the toast first?" I asked as I looked at the donut.

"To make sure your stomach was settled," Bethany said. "But you appear to be getting stronger as we walk."

"I'm just hungry now," I muttered before taking a bite from the donut. I looked up as I chewed. "Are we not going by the command post?"

"The hallway just outside the command post is a bit messed up," Tina replied. "The door was blown out during the earthquake. This is a bit safer for the moment."

I gasped. "Oh Tina, your beautiful tapestry."

"Survived intact," Tina replied. "So many people were going in and out that the AI had slid it aside. A couple pieces of wall material were thrown into it, but they did no damage. All the tapestries came through well."

I wanted to say more, but Tina and Bethany sped up our walk. I found that I could walk and eat, but not continue the conversation as we walked the remaining distance to arrive at our entrance to the visitor's lounge. Bethany had rushed ahead and passed through the airlock before Tina and I arrived.

"She could have waited," I observed as we waited for the airlock to open.

"The airlock only holds two," Tina reminded me.

"Oh," I said as we entered the airlock. I licked my fingers to remove a few chocolate crumbs as we waited for the inner door to open and allow us access to the lounge. It took a moment, but the door opened. Tina gently got behind me and pushed me through the opening.

I stumbled forward and found myself wrapped up in a tight embrace. My face was pressed against a man's chest. I fought to turn my head so I could breathe. It took a moment, but I was able to gasp in some air before the arms relaxed. However, they did not completely release me. The right arm remained wrapped around my waist and the left reached behind my thighs to lift me from the floor. I shrieked in surprise.

"Now, is that any way to reward your master?" James said with an amused chuckle. "I was just going to give you a ride to the table."

"James!" I screamed. I threw my arms around him and pulled my body up until I could plant my lips against his. My tongue tried to part his lips, but while he kissed me back, he thwarted my attempts to French him until he finally turned his head and broke the kiss.

"Later," he said, panting just a little.

He turned and starting walking through the lounge. I could hear several people laugh as we made our way to one table. Suddenly embarrassed, I buried my face in his chest. James appeared to ignore the catcalls and laughter, as he walked purposefully through the room.

He came to a stop. The lack of motion puzzled me, so I raised my head. We were in front of a large circular table. I was looking to James' left and watched as Bethany pulled out a chair next to us. My master said nothing, but moved to sit down in the chair, still holding me in his arms.

I tried to turn around, but James kept me against his chest. A hand absently stroked my hair as people greeted James. I realized that I was not going to be allowed to run off and settled down to pay attention to the conversation.

"Isn't that the girl who was running the teleporter?" I heard the crusty voice of Sergeant Watkins. "That isn't a uniform."

I could hear Bethany giggle as James hugged me with the arm that was around my waist. "Meiko is my concubine," he said softly. "But she's also a very intelligent woman. The citizens we have who know how to run the teleport system were busy elsewhere."

"And Meiko happens to be the best on Ishtar at running the teleporters," Yvette said. "Just like our hydroponics expert happens to be a concubine. We don't have enough citizens to do everything we need to, so our concubines help."

"Well, I hear concubines help on ships," the sergeant replied. "I never saw it myself. The way you're holding her explains a bit though. I think she's the one the idiot was talking about. Was she with you when you first had a meeting with Colonel Johanes?"

I shivered. "Yes," James said as he gave me another one armed hug. "That was a very unwelcome situation. What was he thinking?"

"He had another set of orders," Sergeant Watkins said sharply. "Or at least that's what he claimed when Captain Chalmers and I locked him into one of the rooms on Sir Paridell. I didn't ask what it was, but it had to do with a nephew to General Holdsclaw and an undeserved demotion to the explorer corps. Or at least that's what I gathered from the man's rants."

"James," the voice of Janet called out. "We have an incoming call from Admiral Himmel."

"Put it through," James shouted. "Everyone, please keep your conversations quiet so we can brief the admiral."

Everyone immediately stopped talking. I lifted my head from James' chest long enough to look around and noticed that everyone was staring in the direction of James. He ignored the attention and looked up at the ceiling.

"James," Admiral Himmel called out. "I haven't heard from you in weeks, and I seem to be missing a few ships. Do you know anything about that?"

"Missing?" James asked. "I don't know about missing ships. We do have a number of ships here in the repair docks. I'm afraid they got damaged defending Ishtar."

"Defending Ishtar? What happened?" Admiral Himmel asked.

"Colonel Johanes for one," Yvette called out. "It appears some bigwigs back in Central Command had arranged for him to have warrants for the arrest of any of Ishtar's citizens. We had eight ships show up, with an admiral who was told to cooperate with the rightfully appointed governor."

"Dear god!" Admiral Himmel said. "I had heard that the colonel was giving all of you a hard time, but had no idea the rot was that deep. What happened with him?"

"He's under arrest," James said. "The AI here didn't support the appointment and after an attempt to force his way into our homes resulted in the death of nine marines, the remaining marines he brought put him under arrest. He's on the transport that brought them all here."

"It sounds like there was no ship battle there," Admiral Himmel noted.

"No, but a hive sphere showed up while we were still trying to work out things with Admiral Timmons. He was a rather unimaginative man and didn't want to just drop everything."

"I need to talk with him," Admiral Himmel growled.

"You'll need a medium," Yvette said. "He was on the carrier Martin Van Buren. The ship got hit with some kind of deep penetration missile. The only two survivors on the flag bridge were a pair of scanner techs."

"So who is in charge over there?" Admiral Himmel asked.

"Captain Evans from Morrigan has been acting as the commodore for all the ships," James said. "The visiting ships other than the carrier still here are Cardiff, a Europa class cruiser, Sapporo, an Asia class destroyer, and two Patricians, Ravenna and River Oaks. The captain of Cardiff has been organizing them."

"Why not the captain from Martin Van Buren?" Admiral Himmel asked.

"His ship is the most heavily damaged of the surviving ships," James said. "Right now he's concentrating on assisting in the repairs for his ship. We also still need to retrieve three of his fighters.�

"Are the pilots dead?" Admiral Himmel asked.

"No," Yvette replied. "We have people talking to them right now. The problem is that Martin Van Buren's recovery bay collapsed before these three fighters made it back. We'd use a drydock, but none of them is configured for a safe landing. The pilots have had to use the emergency rations while we try to patch the recovery bay."

"That's got to be hard on the pilots," Admiral Himmel noted.

"It is," a new voice called out. "But they understand. At least we have a carrier to return to. I've seen other carriers destroyed and recovering the pilots can be impossible."

"Who was that?" Admiral Himmel asked.

"Major Vincent Beckman," the voice called out again. "I command the fighters on Martin Van Buren. And I have to thank your people here. They did as good a job as I've ever seen."

"How bad is the damage?" Admiral Himmel asked.

"A missile cruiser and two Asia class destroyers were lost. We did save a few people from one of the destroyers. They managed to get to escape pods before it blew up. Martin Van Buren is a wreck and will require several days to repair. The patrician class corvette River Oaks lost three quarters of their crew and will take a week to repair," Louis called out. "And then we have Cancun."

"Cancun? What's up with that corvette?" Admiral Himmel asked.

"We need four days to repair her," Louis said. "She lost all of her armor."

"Casualties on her?" the admiral asked.

James laughed. "Would you believe that the only injuries were a few scratches?"

"How?" the admiral asked.

"I have a great helmsman," Captain Gates called out. "And if I'm really nice, he might decide to talk to me again. He's a bit upset about everything at the moment. His concubine was one of our wounded. A fragment of one of the missiles that hit us cut her face."

"Any other ships being repaired?" Admiral Himmel asked. "I'd expect a few if you were facing a hive sphere."

"And escorts," Yvette said. "Thankfully we got to see what a Hero class battlecruiser can do if it is well covered. Beowulf killed two Vesta class battleships and the hive sphere. Freya took out a third battleship."

James glanced over my shoulder. I tried to twist in his arms to see where he was looking, but he held me close. Behind me, I could hear Terrence speak.

"We have almost a dozen ships requiring various levels of repair. You know about Martin Van Buren and Cancun. Beowulf had most of their point defense stations damaged. Freya has some light armor damage and lost all her communications antennae. Sif and Morrigan both lost about a dozen gunballs. Athena has twelve operating gunballs, but four of those have no communications at the moment. Siberia, Mongolia and Sapporo all have turrets which need repair. Cardiff lost turrets and their starboard engine housing is badly damaged. River Oaks is a wreck. Aspen and Ravenna have armor damage and both need their rail guns repaired before they return to service,� Terrence reported.

"Dear god, that's a lot of damage," Admiral Himmel said. "How long will it take you?"

"Not as long as you might think," Terrence replied. "We expect that we will be able to release Freya and Mongolia from the repair docks in a couple of hours. Athena's damage is mostly to her gunballs. We will have her ready to sail in about twelve hours. She's taken the most gunner casualties though and will need to return to Borneo for replacements. Aspen is in a specialty dock we made to speed repairs on Patrician class corvettes. She'll be out in twelve hours and then we'll have Ravenna go into the dock. The rest will trickle out over the next two to three days."

"I don't know how you can make the repairs so quickly," Admiral Himmel said. "You need to document what you are doing. Never quit doing it."

Only if we have another problem with someone like Colonel Johanes," James replied. "He disrupted everything here with his antics. And he did almost no research."

"Damn," Admiral Himmel spat. "This district is already on the end of the supply lines. We can't afford to have your repair docks down because of some political bullshit."

"James," Edith called out. "A message drone just entered the system. The signal from it was for the acting governor. The AI sent some code and then said we needed to listen to the message."

"Play it," James said sharply.

"It might be private," Edith said worriedly.

"Play it," James said. "I'd like to hear what game is being played with our lives. We can't risk allowing this to continue."

"Playing," Edith said.

There was a short delay and then a voice I can only describe as oily began to speak. "Governor, I hope your mission is going smoothly. By now, you should have Admiral Timmons in orbit as support. He's not all that bright, but he is as tenacious as a bulldog when it comes to following orders and his orders will support you finally using the warrants, if you haven't already managed to generate a confrontation. Just remember that we need video evidence if the court martial is to hold up. I don't have much influence there."

"Shit!" James hissed. "It's the confirmation that this wasn't about research. We need to make a formal protest about this."

"Can we even do that?" Yvette asked. "It's pretty clear that whoever was involved was rather confident that their plan would work."

"I'll deal with it," Admiral Himmel growled. "I'm not going to allow this to stand. I had already complained a couple of times, but I hadn't pushed it. This time I will."

"Thank you," James said. "Now, we'"e had two very long days here, so unless there is more business?"

"No," Admiral Himmel said with a chuckle. "I'm sure everyone there needs time to relax. Just turn the ships as quickly as you can."

"Oh, one thing before you sign off," Yvette called out.

"What?" Admiral Himmel said.

"I just wanted to say you should be proud of your daughter," Yvette said. I could hear James chuckle.

"You told me that before," Admiral Himmel noted. "But I don't think Dixie is visiting at the moment."

"True, but I wasn't talking about Dixie. It turns out that your daughter Dara is the captain of Cardiff. She's here and did a wonderful job commanding her ship during the battle," Yvette said.

In the distance I could hear, "Don't tell him that!"

"Why not?" James called back. "He deserves to know that his daughter is doing well."

We could hear laughter over the speakers. "Oh, I've always been proud of her," Admiral Himmel said. "Her mother is even prouder. Dara, you don't have to serve near me, but if you could drop by for a visit, your mother would be happy. And your children do miss you."

"I miss them too," Dara said quietly. "I'll stop by once the repairs are done."

"We'll have a party," Admiral Himmel replied. "I didn't know you were going to be nearby or I would have tried to contact you earlier."

"I didn't know we were this close to Borneo," Dara replied. "My orders were extremely vague. I was told to visit a planet where the citizens were supposedly in a state of insurrection and assist the properly appointed system commander in ending the crisis."

James laughed. "Strangely enough, I think you did. The AI affirmed that I am the governor of Ishtar and you assisted me in ending the situation."

Yvette giggled. "The arrival of the Sa'arm helped complete that. It's hard to keep an internal fight going when you are fighting for your lives."

"But enough about the party. Let's feast and celebrate another victory over the Sa'arm," James called out.

Cheers rang out in the lounge. I could hear several people calling for dance music to be played. I tried to stand up, but James put both arms around me and kissed my forehead. "Not yet," he whispered. "Let me just hold you for a while."