Ghost Fleet

by Isaac Stone

  “And one other thing,” she concluded that day. “I’ve been informed by the Ministry of Allocation that wartime rationing for Order ships is finished. It didn’t affect us much since we grew a lot of our own food. Appears the harvest looks outstanding this year, in spite of all the ghost ship attacks. For some reason, every crop shows huge yields. Hope the trend continues.”

  As the days went by, we learned the food production was greater than it had ever been before. Although the ghost ships destroyed plenty of planetary governments and settlements, there were no threats of famine and starvation, which followed most other wars. The planets, which did have agriculture, reported record yields to make up for the losses. It was unexpected and without precedent in human history. It was one of the many unexplained after effects of the Ghost Ship Wars.

  It was difficult to keep the pack together, but the loss of our family was something no one wanted to consider. There was too much rebuilding in the aftermath of the war to warrant a new Hard Rain. I was scheduled, with Talia and a few others for retirement in a few years anyway, so it didn’t bother us much. There were several generations of former packmates who lived in the Starwing settlements. Precious, I, Tank, and several other packmates would seek out the oldest of the retirees who remembered Captain when she was young so we could hear stories about her. It was a good way to spend the spare time.

  “I knew she would accomplish great things,” one older man told us while we sat around a campfire one night. "Saw a lot in her when she was little. Guess we’ll never here from her again.” He sighed and looked at the fire.

  “Maybe we will,” I replied. I’d told the story of my vision to several packmates who spread it around. No one knew what to make of it.

  Over the next few months, we began to probe each other’s minds. It was a slow process, as I lost the ability during the transit thorough the jump point in the FAS. People would look at each other during mess hall and have conversations without moving their lips. I found out later the Goat Squad Office dissolved because the exact same thing happened all over the galaxy.

  “Can everyone read me?” Talia sent out one morning during assembly. Just about everyone nodded, although she hadn’t said a word. Tank sat next to me with Cherish. I noted the two of them saw a lot more of each other than Captain would’ve approved, but without a ship, it wasn’t so much of an issue.

  “Do I complain of all the time you spend with Precious?” Tank transmitted to me. Precious sat next to me and turned to look at him.

  Neither of us shielded our thoughts that day. It was possible to have a private monologue with yourself, but it took effort. It was another thing we’d learn to accept in the coming years.

  “There's been some discussion about stopping the roster,” Talia sent out to us all. “Now everyone don’t start thinking too much, it’s just an idea. We’re not in space any longer and I have no idea if we ever will be. Some of us are too old to go back. I’d planned to retire down here anyway. Corwin is close to the age as well. But I don’t think we should stop the roster. It bound us together in space and it will continue to do it down here. We might need to make some adjustments, but there’s no reason we need to quit sleeping with each other.”

  I saw a number of heads nod and felt thoughts of approval. At least the matter was settled for now. We’d take it up again in the future. As much as I loved Precious, it would pain me not to have warm nights with my other wives.

  Precious and I spent most of our nights together. One of the changes Talia made allowed couples and other configurations to spend more than the standard one night. You still had to do your duty and sleep with a different packmate most of the time, but special arrangements were allowed, so long as it didn’t interfere with the functioning of the pack. It made for interesting nights as people tended to drop their mental shields in the physical act of love.

  It was another month later than I felt another presence in Precious’s quarters with us one night. I didn’t see anyone there and thought someone might’ve wandered into the room by accident. It wasn’t until the next morning that I confirmed what was suspected.

  Precious was pregnant with our child. She was thrilled to send me the information after she’s seen Cherish and had it confirmed.

  Another side effect of our new mental powers was that the women no longer needed medication to control their ovulation cycles. This made for a much better way to plan families. We still didn’t know what to do about the children when they’d reach the age of eighteen. Marry them off to one of the functioning Order ships? There was plenty of time to decide.

  I casually mentioned Precious’s pregnancy to Talia the next day. This time I used to sound to let her know. Sometimes you like to do things the traditional way.

  “I'm not surprised,” Talia told me. "Every other woman is pregnant too.”

  I was stunned. “Every woman?” spoke.

  “All of them,” she confirmed. "Going to make an interesting nine months. I’m not even sure all of them wanted to get pregnant, funny thing. Everyone is thrilled about it. Including me.”

  “You're pregnant too?”

  “Of course. I checked on the father too. It was Tank. I need to go let him know.”

  I stood there and watched her walk away as she thought happy thoughts. At least there would be no shortage of children in the future.

  I looked up to the twin suns and said a silent prayer for our pack, and then began preparing for the next storm.