Chapter 33 - Moments of Rest

Surprisingly, everything dropped back down in intensity after I left the recreation room. Ensign Prescott quickly ascended to heights of disdain among the concubines that only Jack had achieved previously, but Mike and Barbara both started to settle in and their concubines loved The Tradition, as it was now formally called.

Kitty and Brittany were spending hours every day with Claire. Over time we realized that the poor teenage girl had been little more than Kirk's prisoner. Her terror was that she would end up in a similar situation in the future. The only hopeful sign was when she bonded with Paula and Jillian one night during a party. I immediately called the twins over and offered them the choice of who would become Claire's new owner. They tried to protest, but the AI backed me up and after that evening Claire moved in with the twins and slowly became as cheerful and happy as the rest of our concubines.

Commander O'Brien asked for tours of our enclave and often sat at the side of his men still in the pods. Lieutenant Toms had a full recovery much to his concubine's delight. Schmidt, Rogers and Jackson were healing more slowly, but Shawna and Ed were hopeful that all would have full recoveries.

Commander O'Brien did spend time in the command post briefing room talking to headquarters and giving them the status on their repairs. The Commander was completely scandalized the first time he came to the command post to place a call and he found Candi and Randi sitting in the chairs and operating the equipment, but over time he admitted that the concubines were as efficient as any ensign he had commanded and seemed unusually happy to assist him when he had questions. "I know I scoffed at your 'Tradition' when I first heard you talk about it, but I've also never seen concubines who worked so hard, and then claimed they were just having fun."

The slow week did give us time to affect repairs to the battle armor that Fred and I wore, as well as getting Xavier's air exchanger replaced. Tyson even managed to get laser one back online although laser two was discovered to have some previously hidden damage that added several additional days to the repair.

The only distressing news came from outside the enclave. The war between Manuel and Ruth continued. After the initial opening of hostilities they had left our door alone, but both sides had staged multiple attempts to claim the armory and the AI soon reported additional casualties. The numbers continued to be unclear, but it sounded like both sides had lost at least three more fighters. We were saddened though when the AI reported that Kathy, the sponsor who had left the two babies in Mike's care, had died of a beating one evening after Manuel's forces had been forced to abandon the armory shortly after they had gained access to it. The only hopeful news was the fact that Kathy's concubines were still missing.

As time dragged on the remaining crewmen were released from the medical pods. Each would have scarring that our pods were unable to repair, but all three were healthy again. Schmidt was unsteady on his feet, and suffered from vertigo entirely too often, but his concubine Iris supported him when he did have to travel the tunnels and his memory and skills soon returned. I heard him thank the commander for putting him back on duty and expressing the hope that someday he would be as good an officer as Commander O'Brien was.

It proved to be a great week, but finally Louis announced that the Nassau was as ready as our repair dock could get her. Commander O'Brien told his crew and their concubines that it was time to reboard the Nassau and gave everyone one final hour of shore leave. He included the four remaining unattached concubines. I would have allowed them to stay, but our small population left little need for extra concubines at the time.

I did insist that Commander O'Brien, Ensign Adams and Ensign Colmes along with their concubines come to my pod. The group did so reluctantly; they were clearly ready to head home. I could hear Ensign Adams worrying a bit about his concubine back home and their growing children as Bethany greeted them at the door and guided the men to prepared chairs.

The concubines looked puzzled as Janice lined them up in the room and then told them to cup their hands in front of them and close their eyes. Once she was sure they were not peeking she waved to Tina who signaled to Meiko, Brittany and Kitty who were standing in the rabbit pod.

I watched the two ensigns look confused as my younger concubines walked into the room, with their hands held to conceal what they were holding. Meiko also had a small bag, which was not part of her usual outfit around her shoulder. Before the ensigns recovered from their surprise to speak each girl carefully placed her hands over the cupped hands of one of the concubines and then stepped back, watching carefully.

Bethany had walked over to stand next to me and coughed to cover her laugh as the three girls opened their eyes to look down and find a young rabbit nestling in their hands. Mary squealed in delight when she realized that it was a living creature and dashed over to Ensign Adams, her master. "It's so cute! Where did it come from?"

Commander O'Brien was looking at me as Meiko walked up and pulled the bag from her shoulder to set it on his lap. As she did it tipped over and a fourth rabbit crawled out to look around. I could hear a cry of shock from Ensign Colmes.

"Rabbits? Where did you get rabbits? I thought the AI only allowed humans to be picked up," he cried as Irene showed him the rabbit she held in her hands.

I smiled. "We have a small breeding population that our AI allowed us to bring with us. We thought we'd leave you with a small memento of your visit. The rabbit in the bag is for the Nassau as a ship, the others are for you personally, but if you're like me, your concubines will do most of the work with them, so we put them in their hands."

Commander O'Brien looked puzzled. "But won't this cause you to run out? And what are the rules about them?"

"These four are all from recent litters. They are about six earth-weeks old and each has a brother and a sister who are still growing and staying with us. As for the rules regarding them, there are no official ones. The AI has agreed to allow me to trade them for items, and supposedly the fact that we have them was going to be broadcast, but I've noticed that they never get mentioned in communications, so consider these ones our promotional units."

Tina giggled as the commander received a careful hug from Kelly who cradled a rabbit in her arm. "Oh, say you'll keep them," she cried.

The Commander tried one final time to refuse. 'What about cages and food?"

Bethany smiled. "You'll find that the Nassau has four cages aboard, ready for your new pets, and that the replicators can produce food that the rabbits enjoy. Just request 'pet food'."

The ensigns and Commander O'Brien looked at each other and then at the pleading faces of their concubines. Finally, Commander O'Brien laughed. "Remind me not to play poker with you," he said with a groan. "We'll take them and thank you for them. It will be nice to have a pet again."

The ensigns looked over in shock as Commander O'Brien got the rabbit on his lap to return to the bag. He carefully slung the bag over his shoulder and then stood up, holding his hand out for me to shake. I smiled as I reached out to him. "It was a pleasure having most of you. I'm afraid I can't include your Ensign Prescott though."

Commander O'Brien laughed. "It's been a huge eye opener to be here, and I think I'm going to miss this place. If you ever grow large enough to allow immigrants I just might see about moving my concubines here and calling it home."

There was laughter in the pod after that and then I guided the group to the command post and watched as one by one they entered the teleporter and vanished. There was a long silence as they crossed over to the Nassau and got it closed up, but finally an hour later we heard Ensign Jackson's voice. "This is the Nassau requesting docking release."

Ingrid was on communications duty and responded professionally. "This is Ishtar control, docking release commencing." She watched as Diana counted down the seconds on her fingers and reported them promptly. "Detach in seven...six...five...four...three...two...one..."

Diana jumped in at this point. "Docking cables and umbilical detached. Withdrawing to standby positions. Nassau shows good on the grid."

The Nassau fired up its docking thrusters and backed out of the cradle and into free space. There was a moment as the ship oriented itself in relation to the rest of the galaxy and then we could see the main thrusters light off as the Nassau started for home. They were accelerating past our sun when we received a final communication. "Thank you again Ishtar, We'll drink a toast to you at Borneo."

The successful repair and release of the Nassau caused a general cheer throughout the tunnels. One that was repeated about an hour later as the ship was seen to activate its jump drive and it vanished from our primary sensors. It was Yvette who spoke for all of us when she said. "That's going to help raise our standing back home."

Terrence laughed. "Actually, be it ever so dank, dark and mysterious, Ishtar is home."

His observation received more general approval as each sponsor and concubine admitted that after just six weeks Ishtar felt more like home than Earth had. I just shook my head and gathered up my concubines for a long night of fun and bonding.