Chronicles of Jake 2: The Invasion Begins

by Peter Lewis Atkinson

  “Pick one Alenna,” I said to her. They were in a shiny silver livery but differed slightly in that two had red lining and one had blue.

  “Oh I like the one with blue lining,’’ cried Alenna

  Jenner said in Zeln to the sales Relnorian, “Can we see this one please.’’

  We were taken inside and again we were shown around. There had been some additions. For example the twelve cabins now not only had a port hole but a window. Not a real window but a three dimension image screen with full depth, you could programme it for a number of worlds. The one for Alkarr was a garden, a real recorded view over a year is played back, so every day the weather was different and plants grew and flowered along with wildlife paying a visit.

  “That’s just amazing!’’ proclaimed Minty.

  “Yes it very popular,’’ stated the sales Relnorian.

  We were shown over the ship this time. It was huge, with many rooms for various services that were required for the ship to function, the fusion reactor rooms were locked of course as you would not want to go them anyway, due to radiation. Only Relnorians hold the keys. It would have taken all day to show us the whole ship, but we had viewed enough, though I was eager to see one last thing, our new shuttle. This was also slightly different. Now the time had come to make the purchase and Alenna was shaking as she authorised the payment. It was done; the ship was now ours. All was needed now was to load the containers from the old ship and see Hera and her other mothers off. They would then take our old ship back to Alkarr for us. All the family boarded the cargo freighter and the children went to find their new bedrooms.

  “Girls, Alenna will be sorting out who has what rooms,” shouted Minty to them as they disappeared down the corridor to the living quarters.

  Jenna and I made our way to the bridge. First we had to do a full check on all systems. As all the gas and water tanks were already full we didn’t have to fill them. About an hour after we took possession we were ready to leave, I fired up the second reactor and spun up the pods; there were twenty on this ship. I thought they were not working at first as I could not feel any vibration, though the displays showed that they were performing one hundred percent. I put my head against the bulkhead, yes they were spinning, it’s just that they were so new, so smooth running and very quiet. I was a little uneasy at first. This ship is twice the size of the Alkarren Princess. The direct view from the bridge were much improved though and also incorporated extra cameras here and there which are much appreciated. I gingerly lifted the ship off the ground and made for orbit. It seemed so little difference to fly this new ship than our old one, which was a little surprising but then after all the controls were just the same as our old one. The family spent the rest of the day unpacking the containers and stocking the storage rooms. The children had been promised by me that I would set up the hologram room if they helped as well. This hologram room was large about forty by sixty feet. The floor could be altered and provide a gentle slope. The reason for this became evident when I programmed the room for an Alkarren beach scene. The level floor produced a sandy beach, whereas the gentle slope was the area where the sea appeared. I touched it and it felt wet but when I removed my hand it was dry, very strange I thought. The sand was also similar. I could feel it and move it about. I tried something. I stuck my head under the water and found I could breathe. Well that was good, we didn’t have to worry about the children drowning. You could not swim in it though, just paddle. Whichever way you looked the beach seemed to stretch into the distance and had palm trees all along it. Looking out to sea and towards the horizon, ships could be seen. The sky had the old fluffy cloud and the sun shone down onto the sea making it glimmer. It was totally amazing! Just like being there. When the children came in they just stood there, almost still as they took in what they could survey. I had never known them to be so quiet and still for so long, but it did not last and excitedly they started jumping about and in a noisy sort of way. The little ones thought it was real and found they could make sand castles. They spent all the evening in there and had to be forced to go to bed, though they had all got up early and returned there the very next morning. I could foresee only one problem.

  I told everyone, “Whatever you do don’t try and run along the beach or you will end up crashing into a wall. Just walk about everywhere. The wall will appear if you are within two feet of it so you can avoid bashing into it and hurting yourself.”

  The other two entertainment rooms didn’t get a look-in at first. It looked as if the hologram room was without doubt the best thing that could be ever be fitted to a cargo ship for its crew’s entertainment. I had to do a stint on the bridge with Perri as my chaperon. I could see Alenna arriving in the galley with her two sisters, Jenna and Minty on a monitor.

  I said to Perri, “Look we can eavesdrop on them,” as I turned up the sound.

  They were talking about how much they enjoyed the hologram room. Alenna then said something that threw me back somewhat, “This ship is too big for us to manage with just nine adults. It was fine for the old ship but for this one we really need twelve. It would have helped if Lara could have joined us but she can’t. There is only one answer Jake will have to accept three more wives.” Both Minty and Jenna nodding with agreement.

  I looked at Perri in a very shocked way saying to her, “No way!!!”

  “What are you going to do about it?” asked Perri who had also heard everything that Alenna said.

  I replied to her, “I don’t know but I am not taking this lying down.’’

  Perri was bound to tell Alenna that I had eavesdropped on the three of them, so I had to come up with a plan to avoid having any more wives. After a while I had an idea that could help but I needed to speak to my sister alone, not very possible due to Sabrina being on board but I would try.

  Saying to Perri, “I need to have a word with my sister in private, are you willing to stay with Sabrina for five minutes while I do?”

  “I am not sure about that,” she replied.

  I pleaded with Perri, “Look it’s only for five minutes and it will help regarding extra wives I can assure you, please Perri,’’

  “Ok, you can talk with her on the bridge while I stand in the corridor with Sabrina,” replied Perri.

  I said with a smile, “Thanks Perri you won’t regret it.

  I asked Rachael and Sabrina to come to the bridge and then we waited for the pair to arrive.

  “Rachael,” I said with a smile, “I have proposition to put to you and I need to speak with you alone.’’ After Perri and Sabrina had left to stand in the corridor I said to her, “I have notice that at times you have seemed a little miserable going on long trips, I guess it was because you were missing Sabrina?’’

  “Yes I do miss her a lot,” She replied with a sad expression.

  I now said “What if I married Sabrina?” I was about to give Rachael the reason when she came back in a very annoyed way.

  “No!!! You would not, no she would not,” she now looked so sad and was about to cry.

  I quickly said, “Please hear me out first. The marriage would only be a front, and I would not be having any sort of intimate relationship with her. Marrying Sabrina would mean she would be able to join our family and live with you,” I nodded towards her and confirmed, “Yes you on our cargo ship. Officially she would be a wife so as not to shame her or our house but in reality I would see her as my second adopted sister. Please think about it and have a talk with Sabrina. It would be beneficial for all of us.”

  Rachael’s mood had now changed as she thought more on the proposal saying, “I will talk it over with Sabrina, as it could work.” Then she followed with, “You would do this for me?’’

  “Of course I would sis,” I replied in a positive way, “I want you to
be happy and would do anything to make you happy and as I said it will be beneficial to everyone.’’

  Perri returned to the bridge as Rachael left with Sabrina. Perri saying to me “What’s up with Rachael. She has a large grin on her face.’’

  I replied, “You may find out soon but for now we are keeping tight lipped.’’

  Marrying Sabrina would help save me by one wife, well sort of. I would be married to her but not in a way that would cause me any grief, and I may still end up with two more wives yet. Sabrina was already liked by all on board so that would not be an issue, but what would happen if Alenna would not go with this idea? I needed to persuade her and whatever way I looked at it I was going to find it impossible to refuse two more wives at some time. What if Alenna sprang them on me in some way? It would not be difficult for her. She could smuggle them on board and as I wander into a room by myself the girl could be hiding there, she would then jump out shut the door then that would be it, remember she did it with Luka. I must get her to agree. It may delay the selection of two more wives.

  My daughters were all very eager to each have a stint on the new bridge. They did not have to do anything just watch out in case of a problem or if an alarm sounds. It was the turn of Jessica, so after she had arrived I could leave the bridge with Perri. I wanted to have a word with Minty. We checked the monitor before we left to locate her. She was on the beach, so both of us made our way there.

  I said, “Hi Minty I would like to discuss our new ship’s name with you, if you’re not too busy.’’

  “I like the old name, can’t we use that?’’ she asked.

  Shaking my head I said, “No you just can’t transfer the name from one ship to another, it’s just not done, anyway it would be unlucky to do so. But we can use our motto though. I have come up with a similar theme. How about… The Albion Princess?”

  Minty replied, “Our house name… I like it!!”

  I now informed her of what I would like to see “We could have a another princess with the sword and dagger, along with our motto, ‘Defend the Honour,’ painted on the side below the bridge as before, but the princess would be dressed a little more like you, in a modern tunic. But I do like the diamond head band so perhaps we should use that idea as well”

  Minty said, “Fine I will come up with the sketches before we show the others.”

  “Can we have her painted with a tail peeping out from behind her as well?” I asked.

  Minty replied alarmingly, “What!! I don’t think that is appropriate, it is far too intimate for an Alkarren to show her tail.”

  I had to go with Minty and said, “Ok, I accept that we can’t show a tail. I would not want to embarrass you. But it would have looked good when viewed from a human’s point of view. They like I do not see a tail as intimate.”

  Most the family were on the beach and I caught the eye of my sister who waved me over to her. Sabrina was sitting alongside her. I was now being watched by some of my wives, though they were not too concerned as I was not alone. The wives were also far enough away that I could whisper to Rachael without being overheard by them.

  Rachael whispered to me, “I discussed it with Sabrina, this idea of marriage seems so strange to both of us. We have tried to come up with a better suggestion but have failed to think of anything better that will enable us both to live together. So we have decided to go for it,’’ Sabrina nodded in agreement.

  Now came the difficult part, I said to both of them, “I will now need to talk to Alenna about it. The best time will be early this evening after our evening meal in the galley.’’

  By a strange coincidence Jenna came up to me and said to me, “Alenna would like to have a talk with you this evening, please make yourself available.’’ Is this to discuss extra wives I thought, it will be better to get it over with sooner rather than later. I went to leave the hologram room and the lovely beach scene where most the family were enjoying themselves and as I did Perri shouted at me to wait. This was the problem I had to put up with, I always need to be chaperoned when an unmarried girl on board. You know, I was looking forward to this marriage of convenience, because it would be very convent not to be chaperoned with Sabrina is on board.

  I now started looking for a suitable room for a man cave, I took with me the manual for the ship which also included a floor plan. There was an observation room just below the bridge slightly bigger than my previous man cave. What I liked about this room was that it had two viewing windows from which you could look directly down below the ship as well as forward and it had a code lock on the door. Perfect, that room will do fine. I just hoped Alenna had not discovered the room or thought of any use for it yet if she had.

  “Perri” I said, “This room is now commandeered as it will be my new man cave.”

  I looked through the manual on how to change the code on the door. All the locks were at present set for a default code of six zero’s. There was a warning, ‘Do not forget the number if you change this default code,’ in large letters. I was not likely to do that as I was going to use the same number as I have always used.

  The evening came and Alenna was ready to have that talk with me. She said. “Jake you must understand that we have no choice but to select at least three additional wives to join us. It’s of your own making, and you wanted us to have this huge cargo freighter. Now you have to face the consequences. The cleaning alone would take up a lot of time even with the older children helping, and don’t forget Lumi is unable to help at the moment and Lara won’t of course be joining us. So I will try and help you out by giving you some choice on the wives but this may not prove possible.” Alenna then went on to say, “I heard that you ear wigged on my conversation with Jenna and Minty, so what have you got to say for yourself?’’

  I wasn’t in the mood for apologies and replied to her, “I was testing out the cameras and just overheard you conversation by accident and as for additional wives I can perhaps help out there with one extra pair of hands. Sabrina, I could marry her and not treat her as a wife this would just be a marriage of convenience, a front. So as not to dishonour her of our house, my intention would be just to treat her as a sister. I want to do this so that Sabrina and my sister can be together. What do you think Alenna?’’

  Alenna replied, “You are such a romantic, I did not consider Sabrina joining our family. At least we know about her and she is willing to help, so ok. That is if Sabrina and Rachael will agree with the idea.’’

  I now said, “They both do, as I already ran it past them. They are quite excited at the prospect. So if you don’t have any further questions I will proceed with my part.

  Alenna just replied, “Go for it.’’

  I now went to see Rachael and Sabrina without a chaperon. They were on the beach as most of family were. At that moment my thought changed for moment. I wondered if they would all ever get fed up with being in the hologram room, probably not.

  I went up to the pair and said, “As you can see I do not have a chaperon shadowing me now. Alenna has given the go ahead so if you are ready we will find a room. I can then spend a few moments alone with Sabrina to make the marriage official.” From this moment I was going to treat Sabrina as a sister so I took both Sabrina and Rachael by the hand and proceeded to find an empty room. The smaller entertainment room was empty so after leaving Rachael outside the door I lead Sabrina in and closed the door behind us.

  “Sabrina,’’ I said, “welcome to our family. I am not sure how long we are supposed to be alone for but just counting to ten should be sufficient.’’ We both counted together and at ten I opened the door for Rachael to enter. “It’s done,’’ I said to Rachael, “I will now leave both of you alone in here so you can come to terms with your new life together dear sisters.” Kissing each on the cheek in turn before
I left the room. I now made my way back to Alenna to inform her that she now could now have the marriage registered on our return to Alkarr.

  Alenna now called all the adults to a meeting, while the older daughters were instructed to look after the younger ones. I had to announced my marriage to Sabrina but then informed them all about the details in that it was just to be seen as a front and that she was to be treated as a sister no different than the way they treat Rachael though she did have to wear sapphire stud earrings so those outside our house could see that she was married. All the family were quite pleased and gave Sabrina a very warm welcome to the family and at once Alenna said we would have to have a party at our residence on our return. Sabrina still had to go through the motion of informing her mother and the rest of her house on our return. As I could now roam the ship alone I was determined to have a look in every room.

  So the next morning I went walkabout, first visiting the waste recycling room, it was not at all unpleasant as everything was spanking new and not a leak in sight. I then went to the power generation room. Four drive shafts came though the wall, two from each of the fusion rooms. As I couldn’t go into the fusion room I assumed these were connected to plasma gas turbines within these rooms. These shafts were then coupled to the four generators. A consistent hum was heard from them, along with a loud buzz from power couplers-conclusion a rather noisy room. I now went to the hold. Its size is unbelievable; it would take most of the family all day to load and unload, for an example a full load of rice containers. There were many other rooms including those that had gas storage tanks. I felt that I had been on an expedition by the time I had finished visiting each and every room. As this new ship was more efficient we had arrived back at Alkarr around ten hours ahead of what we had been use to and when we went to Earth next time the result would be that we had knocked a whole day of our journey time, quite an unbelievable improvement. I certainly drew a lot of attention as I landed the ship. The other cargo ships on their pads looked so small next to ours.