by Jay Toney
"I'm impressed. Even Governor Rutherford is under political pressure from the council to surrender. He is already in the process of negotiating a treaty with the Alliance.
Every treaty signed by the system governors has one thing in common. The Alliance wants you captured and executed. They have placed a bounty on your head that will have every bounty hunter looking for you. I'd consider claiming the bounty myself, but you are married to my sister. She would never forgive me."
"Nathaniel, I will be seeing to your repairs and resupplying your ammunition. While I am repairing and resupplying your ship, I will be smuggling people aboard disguised as repairmen. I have five more Marauders and two more transport shuttles ready for you. We will have to sneak them aboard during the third shift rotation when fewer people are around who might notice the activity."
"I hope you have some pilots. I only have three people capable of flying the Marauders and three more in training."
"Most of my men are certified to fly transport and cargo shuttles. I used to fly with Red, and I still spend some time running combat simulations to keep my skills up. I can still fly Marauders if needed. We can train my shuttle pilots when we have more time."
"I have a simulation set up for Marauder training in one of the holographic simulation rooms. After everyone is situated and there is time, the shuttle pilots can start Marauder basics."
"I'll start assessing your damage and assigning repair crews. If it's alright, I would like to move into my cabin tonight."
"Jewels cabin will be ready in a few hours."
"Thank you, Nathaniel."
"Natasha, do you have a location for your avatar?"
"She and Tanya are currently in their cabin."
Amber and Jewel began moving Jewel's possessions into our cabin. It shouldn't take them long, most of her clothes were already in our cabin. I pressed the door chime at Tanya's quarters. No one answered. I opened the door and entered her cabin. Tanya and Natasha were both in bed, asleep. Synths didn't sleep, but it sure looked like Natasha was sleeping.
After being on the wrong end of a couple of left hooks and right uppercuts, I learned that there was only one safe way to wake Tanya. I peeled back the blanket at the foot of her bed and tickled her feet.
"Damn you, Nathaniel! You know my feet are ticklish." It got more fun every time I did that to her.
"I am afraid I have some unexpected work for you and Natasha. We are taking on more crewmen and women. I need you and Natty to rearrange cabin assignments, doubling up in most of the cabins."
"How many people?"
"I don't know. We will have to shuffle cabin assignments as we go, maybe several times until everyone is situated and has their work and shift assignments. Speaking of that, we will also have to redo the entire shift schedule, so the crewmen feel as little impact from this as possible."
"I will get to work on it."
"Chief Mike and his wife have already been promised Jewel's cabin. They will be moving in tonight. He can help with sorting the job skills and identifying any personal problems. He should be able to give you some idea how many people will be joining our crew."
"We still have a few unassigned cabins, and some of the crew have already doubled up with partners of their choice. Natty and I will figure it out."
"Thank you, Tanya."
My comm chimed for my attention. "Captain, you and Amber have a visitor. She is waiting in the conference room."
Amber stopped helping Jewel move into our cabin, and the two of us hurried to the conference room. "Sally!" Amber shouted, hugging the gorgeous looking blond woman waiting for us. "Nathaniel, stop staring. It isn't polite.
Sally, this is my husband, Nathaniel.
Nathaniel, this is my friend Sally. She helped me design the Lucy and taught me how to manage the business."
"Sally, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"It's a pleasure to meet you too. I understand that you are in need of adult entertainment?"
"Yes we are, how many ladies can you spare?"
"The whole lot. I have 18 ladies and two men. They are all professionals and know not to talk. In all the time I have been managing them I haven't had any complaints."
"Do I pay by the hour, or by the day? I am going to need the service they provide for at least two or three weeks, maybe longer."
"Neither. I'm retiring. The Alliance is moving in, so it is best that I get out of the business so that they don't notice me. I have a secluded place where I won't be bothered and forced to provide free service to their soldiers with my girls. What I am offering is the sale of their contracts. Amber is a good madam and will treat the ladies and men properly. She has been a good friend, despite our competition. So I am giving her the first chance at buying my business."
"I wasn't looking for a permanent solution."
"There isn't anyone else I trust, Nathaniel. I'll buy your business. How much do you want?"
"I am asking 500,000 credits for the lot."
"There may be complications if I transfer the credits to your account. Will an assortment of gemstones do?"
"I prefer credits if you have them. There will be fewer questions asked, and credits don't talk."
"Will 100 credit chips do?"
"That would be perfect."
"I'll have to get them from the purser's office. I will be back soon."
****
"Drop your pants and let me take a look at you."
"Why?" Usually, I wouldn't hesitate by asking. I would just enjoy myself with such a beautiful woman, but Sally caught me by surprise. I wasn't expecting her to make a move on me only seconds after Amber left us.
"Amber must see something special in you, but I don't see it. She and her friend Jewel used to go through men as often as I changed my socks, sometimes more often. A few years ago, Amber found one she couldn't let go of and fell in love with him. She married him. He treated her alright, but he didn't love her. He was in love with her inheritance. Did you know that she is wealthy? I wouldn't advise trying to get your hands on any of her credits. Her brother will kill you with his bare hands if you do. Stan couldn't face Red, he was a coward and knew Red was going to kill him. He cheated Amber's brother by hanging himself before the duel. I'm surprised Amber remarried. She loved Stan. She couldn't let him go, even after his death."
"I didn't know she was wealthy until after we were married. I don't care about her wealth. I have more than a few credits of my own. Red and I get along good. In fact, he married us."
"That still leaves the question of what it is about you that she likes enough to take another chance on marriage."
"We are good for each other, and in some ways, we are a lot alike. It didn't take long for us to fall in love with each other. Amber is the first woman I ever had any feelings for?"
"The first woman, not the only one?"
"Yes, I fell in love with her friend Jewel too, but Amber is okay with it. I don't keep any secrets from her, and she doesn't hide anything from me either."
"Do you believe I have a fairy godmother that grants my every wish?"
"No, of course not."
"I don't believe you either. Now hurry up and drop your pants. Amber is being kind enough to give me enough private time to decide if you are good enough for her. She should have had me do it before marrying you. There are ways to fix that if need be."
I left Sally and Amber together so that she and Amber could talk together privately and headed to my cabin. On the way, I contacted Tanya with my comm to give her the news. "The first group of people, are entertainment staff for the crew. There are twenty of them, 18 women, and two men. I
need them housed together in a separate group of cabins. They will be here tonight."
****
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Sally. I had to get a bag large enough to hold the credits from storage and then get the credits out of the purser's office. They are all here," Amber handed the bag to her friend.
Sally opened the bag. She reached in and selected a random chip from the middle of the bag. She examined it, then scanned it to verify it was authentic. "I'll have the ladies and men packed up and moved in tonight."
"Did Nathaniel pass the test?"
"He is experienced and knows how to please a woman. I'll give him credit for that, and he is not after your wealth. He's handsome enough; I just don't see anything special enough about him to make him a keeper."
"He and I are alike in a lot of different ways and we are good for each other. He gives me peace of mind, and I do the same for him."
"That is what he said. Nathaniel worries me a lot more than your last husband. At least I knew what he was after. Nathaniel doesn't seem to want anything from you, but you. All men are after something. He isn't any different, except for what he wants. All I can read on him is his desire for your heart. I wish you luck with him. You are going to need it, and a leash. His appetite for women is equal to your appetite for men."
Making Room
"Natty, this is just the break we were waiting for. The people Nathaniel are bringing aboard are just what we need for our next business opportunity."
"What are we doing now?"
"We are going into the gambling business. We are going to set up a casino in one of the holographic simulation rooms."
"The crew can visit any casino they want in their free time, why would they visit ours?"
"With our casino, they get to keep their winnings. They will be playing with real credits, for real credits. We are going to be rich."
"We already are rich with our share of the loot from our last heist."
"Not rich enough. When I retire, I want to be able to retire in luxury. Until then I want to have fun."
"If the crew can keep their winnings, how are we going to get rich?"
"How is it that with all of the geopbytes of data that you have access to, you can't figure it out? Don't bother trying to research all of the casinos in our library files. I'll explain it to you. The odds of winning are in the casino's favor. We will program our simulation to slant those odds an additional 25% more in our favor. We need to have some winners, or the gamblers won't come back.
We will also need to stock up on a lot of liquor because we will be serving the real thing. That is where the entertainers come in. I don't think we will have any problem getting volunteers to work for us, in their off time. We will use them to serve free drinks to the gamblers; just enough to keep them drunk enough to make poor decisions. The rest of the people who are standing around and watching will have to pay for their drinks. The girls will earn a daily salary plus a commission on their sales. They will sell a lot of alcohol that way. The girls, we hire, will also have the opportunity to earn extra credits by celebrating with the winners, less our percentage for providing them with customers."
"Won't Nathaniel get mad?"
"No, there is nothing illegal about it. If anything he will be jealous. We thought of it first.
Assign cabins 11-20 to the entertainers, most of them are already empty. Assign the crewmen and women that are in those cabins to the first ten. We will start doubling up the crew with them. Send a detail to help them move."
"Those cabins are reserved for the senior crewmen. The first twenty cabins are larger than the other cabins."
"That makes them perfect for VIP guests. They will owe us for that."
"What about changing from using two shifts to a three shift rotation? We can increase our customers have to spend in our casino."
"Great thinking, let's do it."
"Don't we need Nathaniel's approval first?"
"He assigned us to rework the duty schedule. He didn't say how, so it is up to us. I don't think he will even notice. If he does, we will just tell him that we have enough people to work shorter shifts now. He will agree to it that way."
****
"Getting you moved into our cabin wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, except for all of the laundry we have to do."
"Not all of my clothes need cleaning," Jewel picked up a black dress, put it close to her nose, and took a whiff. "This one is okay." She selected another outfit and stopped before it reached her face. This one needs cleaning. I can smell it from here." She handed the outfit to Amber.
"I have a better idea. Let's just wash all of it. After everything is clean, our cleaning service can take care of keeping up with our laundry." Amber gathered a pile and hung the clothes inside of the recycler. She closed the recycler that was used to clean their clothing, dishes, and anything else that would fit inside. She waited the 25 seconds that it took for the machine to complete the cleaning cycle. Jewel's clothes came out of the recycler clean, dry, and odor-free. Amber and Jewel collected the clean clothes and took them into the bedroom to hang in their closet.
"How do you get so much laundry so fast?"
"Not all of my clothes need cleaning. They are just kind of mixed up."
"How many times a day do you change clothes?"
"I don't know. I start the day with my work clothes. When I am through for the day I change into my comfy clothes, then my dinner outfit. If we are going out, I put on evening wear or party clothes. When I am ready to go to bed, I have lingerie for fun and my bed clothes. I guess I change clothes five or six times a day, sometimes more often."
"You don't need to change for dinner unless we are having guests or we are eating out. That will cut down on some of our laundry. I am going to need to find someone to clean up after us daily, or we are going to run out of clothes fast. I don't like doing laundry any more than you do," Amber gathered up another pile of clothes and hung them in the recycler.
****
Doc was angry. He had to give up space in his ward for eleven additional autodoc units and the specialized equipment used for making nanites. Nanites for medical use or hazardous waste clean up were available on nearly every space station and inhabited world in the Collation. He didn't see any need to manufacture our own; we could buy them almost everywhere. The incubators used for growing the nanites and the equipment for programming them took up the space needed for two of the beds inside of the infirmary.
The new autodocs took even more space, occupying the space used for eleven of his beds. Unless they were needed for critically injured patients, they could double as beds in his ward. It was the cost of the autodocs that had me worried. Someone had to pay for them and that someone would be me. They weren't cheap. A good autodoc started at fifty million credits, and these were the best, used privately by very wealthy people who could afford them.
Mike told me not to worry about paying for them. They were already paid for. A mix up in the shipping instructions had them delivered to us instead of their owners. By the time they figured it out, we would be gone and we wouldn't be coming back.
Every member of Mikes maintenance team was hurrying to repair our battle damage, salvaging needed parts from other starships in the repair docks. Some of his crew were outside patching our hull and replacing damaged armor; most were inside where anyone watching their movements wouldn't see them. Not everyone wearing maintenance coveralls were mechanics. At least half of the people, disguised as mechanics, were mercenaries reassigned to be part of my crew. Mike sent them and his mechanics, individually, or in pairs, to see Tanya for cabin assignments and to be added to the duty roster.
I expected that we were going to
be here for at least a few weeks for repairs and servicing. At the rate Mike was working his dock workers we would be out of here in a little over a week. The longer we were here, the higher our chances of being discovered here was.
****
"I hear tale that you are getting back into the business?"
"Not me. Jewel is the morale officer. It will be her job to make sure the workers are following the rules, and the customers are happy with the service they are paying for. Other than that, the business will pretty much run itself."
"Where are the ladies and men going to work? We don't have enough spare room to set up a bordello or spare room that they can use unless you are planning on using the launch tubes."
"Nathaniel and I are working on implementing an appointment system. The crew will schedule an appointment for the next available woman or man. The ladies or men will meet with their clients at their quarters, at the scheduled time.
There are still a few details that need to be worked for the entertainer's new contracts. Nathaniel will be back any minute to help me with their new arrangements. I'll talk to you later."
"Did you hear that, Natty? We can make this work to our advantage."
"How?"
"By providing a friendly environment and place for the ladies and men to work in our casino. We will need to add luxury suites to the simulation. Ten should be enough. We can add a second floor, so the suites don't take away any room used for our gambling tables."
****
Today was one of those days that I wished I had just stayed in bed. It was full of minor and a few more serious conflicts that needed to be taken care of. It started with Doc having his sickbay rearranged with new equipment that he didn't want or order. I could foresee a day when he would be grateful for having the new autodoc units. Then there were the clashes between Jane and Mike over how Mike was prioritizing the repairs. Jane was a fantastic engineer, but she wasn't a dock worker. Mike not only had the knowledge and experience needed to manage the repairs, but he also designed and built this ship plus he had exclusive knowledge of how it was put together.
