Chapter 31 - Visitors

The admiral huffed. "Well, do that. And get me a full report when you can." The speakers burst into static and then cut out.

"Sorry, Sir!" Gina said. "He cut the connection."

I was turning to Louis to check and see what he might need when Yvette's voice came over the speaker. "Damn! How does it go? When it rains, it pours? James we have a problem at the doors."

"What kind?" I asked as Tamara and Gina gasped.

"They're kids!" Tamara said. "They have to all be sixteen to eighteen. What are they doing there?"

"What?" I called out.

"Refugees it looks like," Yvette said. "If we go by looks it's a young man, two female concubines and two children maybe two or three years old. The man and his concubines don't look to be eighteen."

I sighed and stood up to see what was happening. I had just stepped into the command post section when Gina sighed. "James, I have a man claiming to be Marine Commandant General Montgomery calling. He specifically asked for you."

I stopped and looked over the repeater screens, which showed the young man and his companions as Yvette described, but Gina was looking at me expectantly. "AI, can you unlock Tasha's pod? Yvette, get Barbara to help you with this business at the door, she may know them. AI, connect me to Bethany." There was a ping and I continued. "Bethany, we have another refugee party at the door and I'm not going to get out of the command post for a while. Could you go meet Yvette and Barbara at the crossing and escort this group to Tasha's pod and talk to them there for a while? I'll try to join in, but everything appears to be happening at once. Ladies, admit them but don't trust them yet."

I heard a faint acknowledgement and watched the repeater screen as the middle door open as Yvette, Barbara, and Timothy stepped forward. Gina was watching as well, but called out. "Putting the call through."

I sighed. "Good evening General Montgomery, how might our little colony help you?"

"You can start by giving me a status report," an angry voice growled. "I've got two reports that just crossed my desk. One says that your system was visited by some kind of Sa'arm courier or scout three weeks ago. Then I get one that says you had a Sa'arm ship attack only to be destroyed. I need to know what happened, and what weapons you used. And I need to know who the fucking hell I'm talking to!"

"Sir, I am James Rabb, citizen of Ishtar, currently I'm working with some other citizens to bring in the damaged corvette Nassau so we can conduct repairs. Ishtar is a resupply and listening post on the far side of the Sa'arm incursion sphere," I replied.

"If that's all, why does every report coming from your planet have the addendum that you are the primary contact?" the General growled.

I looked over at Gina who shook her head. "I wouldn't know," I replied. "I know that I try to keep things running down here, but officially we all are just citizens and marines."

"And how many are you?" the general growled.

I sighed. "Eighteen sponsors I trust work on our side of the colony. We have one inside our walls who is useless, and currently there are approximately sixty-two colonists currently engaged in a fight for control outside our walls."

"What?" the General squawked.

"This is a dumping ground planet, sir. The marines dumped one hundred colonists who they decided not to train up. The landing groups split into four factions. I just happen to be part of the faction that remained active in supporting the Confederacy," I answered.

"Something tells me I need to check our pickup protocols," the general hissed. "Very well, what about this report of an attack earlier?"

I shook my head. "I'm beginning to think I should have the AI record this. Tamara, send the general the backup details. Basically sir, we are on a death world, with an extremely acidic atmosphere. Before we landed I requested that a spare pod be converted into a ground based laser battery. When the most recent Sa'arm ship visiting us entered the atmosphere we took the two lasers in that battery up to the surface and fired on the ship. One of the hits must have opened some critical components to the atmosphere because the ship exploded before it could reach firing range for any missile considering the corrosion it would incur in flight."

The general huffed. "Interesting. Meanwhile, what's your plan for now?"

I felt myself smile. "Well, we just had one of the colonists who was outside our area seek refugee in our enclave and I need to go meet them. Then, once the Nassau docks, I want to meet the survivors and organize what best we can until their ship is operational. And we need to get some space-based defenses before the next Sa'arm visit."

"Go do it," the general said. "I'll call back when you aren't busy."

Gina giggled. "James is always busy general, that's why we follow him." She killed the connection as I sighed.

"Yvette, Bethany? Can you tell me a bit about our refugees and do you think I can meet them quickly?"

Bethany responded. "They are nice kids, but very scared. The boy is the sponsor as you expected. The surprise is the children, they don't belong to him or his concubines. One of the other neutrals decided to try to talk to Manuel and gave this sponsor the kids, to protect them. She never returned, and her concubines are missing."

"Damn," I said. "Louis, how much time to I have?"

Louis looked up. "We should have another ten minutes until braking starts, but I've shifted their vector some. It should save us some time because we can do the braking a bit slower and catch Astarte on a tangent vector. It will be tight, but the math adds up."

"Bethany, can you bring some of the newcomers to the briefing room. It looks like I don't have time to wander around," I asked.

She giggled. "Not me, I'm showing Meiko how to change diapers. But Janice and Tina can, they relate best to this group anyways."

"Go ahead," I said as I shook my head. "This is just too complex," I grumbled.

I walked back to the briefing room and looked over the information that Tiffany and Louis were putting together. It was clear that the Nassau was heavily damaged and the limited telemetry was very limiting in what preparations we could make. When Louis sighed I looked up.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He looked up mournfully. "I just wish this hadn't happened when it did. I love dancing with Heather and we don't get to do it often enough. How can I convince her that I love her if I don't get to spend time with her?"

We heard a giggle from the briefing room door and turned. There was Heather and Maggie, standing in the short black cocktail dresses they had worn to the party. Heather smiled and strutted over to Louis and gave him a kiss. "You think I don't know you love me?" she growled. "If what you show me every night isn't love, then love doesn't exist."

Louis looked surprised but put his arms around his ex-wife as she sat on the arm to his chair. I could hear Commander O'Brien ask. "Um... is there a problem?"

Tiffany burst out laughing as Maggie walked over and added her own kiss to Heather's. "No," Tiffany said. "Louis is just receiving a reminder that his concubines love and adore him."

I could Maggie giggle. "You forgot to say that we need him. Louis is entirely too gentle with me."

Louis started sputtering. "But, you are too young, and Heather and me... I mean..."

Heather burst out laughing and held Louis close. "You lug. I want you to want her. She's like the younger sister I never had, and the gentle lesbian lover I've always wanted. But she wants your cock. She and I have talked about this, and were going to tell you when the party broke up, but instead we'll do it now. Starting tonight, Maggie sleeps with us and you have no excuse not to fuck her until she can't walk."

Maggie was blushing as Tiffany and I shook our heads. Tiffany smiled at me. "The Tradition works again!"

Louis was sitting there gaping like a fish out of water as Heather and Maggie continued to kiss and caress him. I looked over at Tiffany. "Can you guide Commander O'Brien in? I get a feeling that Louis needs a few minutes to..."

Tiffany laughed. "There is a mattress in the morgue. He just needs to go there. I can help the Nassau the rest of the way."

Maggie looked at us and gave a cry of joy before she and Heather pulled Louis to his feet and dragged him off toward the morgue as I shook my head. The door to the morgue had just closed when Tina and Janice walked in leading two figures.

The lead figure was a young man. He looked about sixteen and seemed extremely nervous. The thick glasses and extra weight surprised me and he looked like he had spent far too much time studying. He had his left hand holding the right hand of a young lady of about the same age, who shared the thick glasses with him. She had long thick hair and a slender build, but the general impression was not one of glamour, but of a young and budding librarian.

"Hello," I said as I held my hand out to greet the newcomers. "I'm James, master to Tina and Janice whom I see you have met."

The boy looked a bit surprised, but then held his hand out. "Michael," he replied. The lady he was escorting held out her hand and he said. "This is Michelle. We left Micky back with Bethany and the babies."

Gina, Tamara and Tiffany all jumped out quickly to offer greetings, but then got back in their chairs and continued their work. Communications were mostly silent, but Tamara and Tiffany were working closely together to bring the Nassau in safely.

"Sorry about all this," I said, waving my hand at the rest of the staff. "A Confederacy Corvette appeared in the system shortly before you came to our door, and we are trying to get them to a repair dock. The ship is badly damaged."

Michael seemed surprised. "I thought the colony wasn't operational. What is this?" he asked.

Tamara did not turn but replied. "Welcome to the heart of Ishtar. This is the real command post. The one out in the colony center will only go online if we can't man this one, which would mean that everyone in this enclave is dead. We take pride in keeping this operation up."

Michael was looking around as Tina came up and kissed me. "It's so unfair," she said cheekily.

"What is?" I asked. I could see a spark in her eyes and expected the next answer, but I was still a bit shocked when she pulled me near Tamara and whispered.

"That you let Bethany taste this nubile pussy near me and didn't give me a lick," Tina said, turning to kiss Tamara on the cheek.

I shook my head and grabbed Tina to pull her against my chest. "Bad Tina," I whispered. "Not in front of company." I could see Tamara looking at me questioningly and gave her the faintest of nods, mouthing "later" before turning back to Michael.

"Sorry about all this," I told him. "Based on your arrival at our door, I'm guessing you've had enough of the fighting outside."

Michael nodded as Michelle groaned and spoke. "It's so stupid. Manuel and his goons stare at Ruth and her goons who stare back. Neither side wants to give up, but other than complaining about your door, they did nothing for weeks. We got lucky and during the initial fighting tonight we managed to sneak out and follow a back way to the colony center."

Michael shrugged. He seemed a bit less confident but added. "We really didn't do much. I knew from things Manuel had said that your passage existed and that he wanted to kill you all. He loved to get the AI to open communications and brag about it."

Gina sighed. "But you kept refusing our communications."

Michael frowned. "All of us do. Manuel threatens to kill us if we talk, and Bernard was positive you had nothing for us here. That's why I'm puzzled by the command post. How did you get this?"

I shrugged. "Something had to be done with the empty pods the Wisp was carrying. All seven now form special rooms on this side of our door."

Yvette spoke up. "Speaking of the door, I don't think we are getting any more visitors tonight. And if the Nassau is going to need a week of repairs we need to get some down time for our people. I suggest sending everyone except the command post and medical staff home for now. We can just have an additional person in the command post watch the monitors."

"Agreed," I said. "Can we ask Zenita to do it? I know she needs something to do."

Yvette laughed. "I'll find her and send her."

Michelle looked over at the monitors and gasped. "So that's how you knew..."

Janice giggled. "You didn't think we'd leave that entrance unguarded did you? It's well defended."

Michael seemed puzzled. "But can't someone just walk through the doors?"

"No," Tamara said. "The first door works because you came unarmed. The other two doors open only to two people in our colony."

"Yes," I said as Michael looked at me. "Meanwhile, I only have a few minutes before the Nassau docks and things will get busy, so I'm afraid I just want the edited version. Can you tell me at least a little about yourself?"

Michael shrugged. "Not much to tell. I have a six point five CAP and was picked up out of Seattle at a library. Michelle and Micky were my regular study partners once they found out I had volunteered and I brought them along."

I looked over at Tina and Janice. "So we have to teach this man some tradition?" I asked.

"Tradition?" Michelle responded as Janice walked over and gave me a hug.

I just smiled as Michael continued. "Well, we must have been one of the last pickups because we were rushed to our pod and the Wisp broke orbit without us receiving a briefing or anything. The trip was terrible as Manuel and his friends stormed up and down the rings. We resorted to hiding in the pod and hoping for the best. Once on the ground we managed to meet with a couple of the others, but Manuel started to assert his dominance and once again we locked ourselves in. It was somewhat bad because Kathy stopped by with her concubines and the two babies one day. Things were bad and she was going to try to find help so she left her babies with us when she left. She never returned."

"AI?" I asked.

"Kathy is currently held prisoner in the pod of Felix Santos, one of Manuel's lieutenants. Her concubines escaped and are possibly hiding in one of the pods formerly occupied by Manuel's men," the AI responded.

"But Manuel has never lost a man," Michael said.

Tamara giggled. "Then the four corpses we left naked outside our door that one day were a figment of my imagination."

I shrugged as Tiffany called out. "Nassau has reached orbit and the tractors have gotten a lock. It will be five minutes to pull them in and dock the ship."

"Damn!" I cried. "There's never enough time!" I looked around the room trying to think of who to send when the morgue door opened and Louis exited followed by an extremely content looking Maggie and a smiling Heather.

Heather was whispering to Louis who was blushing, but smiling to himself as I sighed. "Louis, I hate to do this to you, but can I borrow Maggie to escort Michael here back to his pod for sleep. The Nassau is about to dock and I need Tina and Janice for concubine greetings."

He smiled. "Certainly, only..."

I held up a hand. "What can Heather do? I was going to ask that she help set up the multi-use room as a dorm for the crew and concubines of the Nassau. Heather and Bethany are our best hostesses and Bethany is currently part of the team welcoming Michael."

Heather laughed. "But you are so rudely sending Michael home."

Michael looked confused. "Are you a citizen?"

Heather looked at him and then turned to wrap her arms around Louis. "No, I'm this man's loving slave. He has done so much for me."

"Yvette?" I called out. "I know you are busy, but can you spare Philippe and Nathan to help set up a dorm in the multi-use room?"

The initial reply was a faint moan. There was a moment of silence and then a long sigh. "Give them a few minutes..."

"Oops," I said as the twins and Gina giggled.

"Three more minutes," Tiffany said. "The docking collar is in position and the air lock has been identified."

"AI, connect me to medical. Medical bay, we're a bit early, but the Nassau is about to dock. Can we get the gurneys on their way?"

"On it," I heard Ed respond.

Maggie walked over to Michael. "Don't worry, it gets like this. But you must have passed the initial meetings as you are still here. Come and I'll take you back to your new pod for now."

Michael turned to leave and stepped out with Michelle following. Immediately David burst into the room pushing one gurney and pulling another behind. "Jacques has two more, but he'll be a minute. Shawna just got back and they held a gurney to check pod status."

I nodded as Tamara called out. "All clear on scanners."

Gina added. "Communications green at this time."

Tiffany had Louis working with her again as they counted out the last few feet and Louis made sure the repair dock's docking tube attached itself properly to the ship.

"We have a good seal," he said.

"Tina, Janice let's go," I said as we entered the transport room and jumped onto pads. Louis followed and gave us a quick thumbs-up as the system activated.

Ishtar_31