Return to Earth: Mike Stedman: Book 3

by D. R. Rosier

  He smiled as the awkwardness went down about five notches, he kind of loved them too, as family that is. Not the married type.

  “Looking forward to it.”

  They all turned and left the room, and he had a strange feeling all his mates were laughing at him on the inside. That Alyndra felt amusement, and a little embarrassment, didn’t help…

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  He thought his one destroyer, with hundreds of turrets and stronger shields might be able to take out a carrier and twenty-five thousand small fighters. If he was very, very, lucky that is. The problem was they wouldn’t be able to take a whole fleet to the planet, there was that trust thing again. It had to start somewhere, and keep going in small steps.

  After breakfast, he laid on the bed and removed every one of his perception filters. It would take a while to figure out and configure the new energy manipulator device, and without his perception filters thirty-six hours would be years. He doubted it would take nearly that long to figure out.

  Of course, every time he had to test, he’d have to reapply his filters, and run the tests on the shuttle, and then remove the filters and examine the data. Still, he had more than enough time to make his new device a reality. He even came out long enough to join the family meals and spend a little time with Xia and Xylla along with his mates, but only for a bit. He could manage the time, and he didn’t want to be rude to either his guests, or his mates.

  With level three subspace shields, his ship could simply sit in the storm of twenty-five thousand fighters, and just ignore them. Even if they all hit at almost the same time, in around the same area, with level one pulses they’d never overwhelm the shield.

  Offensively, it would be a slaughter, just his one ship.

  He had no plans to fight, in fact he didn’t want to fight. Nothing would delight him more than making a solid and staunch ally of the Canosians, but he didn’t trust them. And he would be ready for another betrayal, whether it came or not.

  It took him almost three months of perceptive time, with multiple failures along the way. Eventually though, he was able to create thousands of small fields at once, all opening a small aperture in subspace, and surrounding the test shuttle in energy that could destroy the ship he was in as easy as he could swat a fly.

  The rest of it was still hard, but once he got the hang of creating energy fields with it, the following applications came quickly. He set up fields for gravitic propulsion, artificial gravity in the ship, gravity shielding, gravity attacks, and cloaking fields. Once it was all tested as working with basic controls after those three months, it took him another two weeks to write the full control systems.

  The energy manipulator for weapons was tied directly to the sensors, and could create thousands of multiple fields at once, that weren’t even near the ship which meant their shields couldn’t be compromised by fire. Again, he used enemy designated sensor readings he had to specify before the system would fire on anything. He estimated it would take less than ten seconds to destroy twenty-five thousand fighters, and put thousands of holes in the carrier to take it out.

  The three tier shields generated by the second through fourth energy manipulator, as a result, were almost non-existent as far as energy went, which meant they could absorb more. They could take level three subspace attacks easily, so their defense was extremely strong. Despite that, he programmed the gravitic maneuvering fields with the defensive field, so if the shield was hit the ship would roll anyway, even further separating that energy.

  The shield generator devices would also be responsible for the sustained beams of energy, just in case they were needed for any reason. He thought that doubtful, considering he could send thousands of pulses at a time with a short time between.

  The fifth device was responsible for artificial gravity on the ship, and also responsible for inertial dampening. The sixth device, gravity shields, and the seventh device, gravity attacks. The eight device would cloak the ship.

  His original thought up design had included just seven, but he thought it would be silly to have the cloaking field emitters left on the outside of the ship, might as well do it all.

  Although in truth, all the devices were capable of creating varying types of fields simultaneously and doing multiple jobs, having seven put in a very comfortable backup system in case any of them failed or were destroyed.

  When he finished, he reinstated his perception filters and upgraded the test shuttle with the new control software and eight of his new energy manipulator devices, which were each powered by two of his dark energy cores. He ran the ship through its paces for an hour. The results were startling, he could move anywhere in the Milky Way in seconds at level three subspace, and it only took him about fifteen minutes to move two and a half million light years, as opposed to the forty-one hours in L2 subspace.

  He examined his new destroyer design, and it looked good. There were no emitters at all, the hull was completely smooth and without blemish. He made it a whitish silver color. The only evidence of a seam on the hull, was the two small airlocks and the entrance to the shuttle bays. Even that was almost invisible to the naked eye, and would only show up on sensors. He made no changes outside the new devices and power systems in engineering, and the new hull without emitters.

  Then he told Chrystal to drop out of subspace and make the changes. He figured it would only take a few minutes, and they could easily make up the time. Then he told Chrystal to upgrade the rest of the fleet, without the precious and regulated Vathiecium being used in the new devices it wouldn’t be a problem.

  Chrystal would be able to use the probe ship to do the upgrades, which was in a constant state of connection with her and would self-destruct if it ever lost contact. Something they couldn’t implement on ships with people on them, or even the potential to have people on.

  On the spur of the moment, he ordered to have two of the ships at each of the twenty planets. The remaining ten of the fleet in Andromeda could do patrolling of the almost hundred worlds they’d freed to keep an eye on things. That kind of thing could be automated, and only alert Chrystal or him if they detected something that shouldn’t be there.

  With the new configuration for level three subspace, one ship would be enough, but he didn’t want to chance the unexpected or get arrogant. Unknown enemies should never be underestimated. Regardless, he believed he had the most powerful ship once again, and probably in three galaxies. Milky Way, Andromeda, and whatever galaxy the Canosians came from.

  He didn’t feel smug about it, but it was a comfort. He knew he was far from a master tactician and experienced warrior, if he was to continue to survive his inevitable mistakes, he’d need that edge. He wasn’t a slouch that way either, he’d integrated all of Earth’s history, and had at least a few months experience. All he really lacked was the many years of experience any captains or even admirals had that he’d face in the future.

  He was less the command officer, than an engineer. Which seemed to be working out at least, so far.

  He was mentally exhausted as he finished up, it was the middle of the night, and they had just over eighteen hours left to go on their three-day trip. He needed to go offline to optimize his memory and backup.

  It’d also been five months perceptively, since he’d gotten laid.

  He decided to just go offline right there, he doubted he could fight the temptation of his mates if he went to the bedroom first, and he really needed to clear his head…

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The emotions he felt were overwhelming, there was such a big difference between knowing that he was loved, and actually feeling it during the intimate connection of making love.

  He’d returned to their room, where his mates were more than happy to see he was finished, and more than willing to satisfy and be satisfied. It was several hours later, and he’d been inside all of them at least once, but right now he could hear the decadent soft moans of pleasure right next to him from Dahlia, Chrystal, and Nadia. They
were in a Sapphic triangle, Dahlia was eating out Nadia, Nadia was eating out Chrystal, and Chrystal was eating out Dahlia.

  It was one of the most erotic things he could imagine, and he wanted to watch. Yet, nothing except death could tear his eyes from the warm purple eyes above him. Alyndra was riding him, not slowly, but not overly vigorously either. He couldn’t take his eyes from her face, her eyes, her upswept ears, and her sweet lips which softly moaned his name.

  There was no question she was exotically erotic, a goddess riding his cock to their mutual pleasure, and strikingly beautiful despite, or perhaps because of her alien appearance. But that wasn’t why he couldn’t look away, although god knows that would have been reason enough.

  No, he couldn’t look away because he could feel a deep intense love that boggled his mind. She was completely and utterly his, as he felt her love, lust, desire, and for multiple times tonight, her ecstasy. It was a love he returned in equal measure, and that love between them seemed to feed each other’s, almost like a building loop. The more he felt her love, the more his own heart opened.

  There was a such a vulnerability about it, and yet he’d never felt stronger, more connected, or more sure of his lovely Alyndra. He would do anything for the woman above him, pleasuring him, loving him, and giving herself to him.

  He caressed her sides, and then reached up and pinched, pulled, and twisted her nipples rather harshly. Nadia and Dahlia didn’t like rough tit play, even Chrystal’s breasts were too sensitive for what he’d just done, but Alyndra got off on it. Literally.

  She gasped as her sexy purple eyes widened, and he felt her tighten around him and freeze above him. She collapsed forward as she trembled above him, and her hot core started convulsing around his cock, and he caught her hips, bent his knees, and started to fuck hard up into her, to extend her pleasure.

  He couldn’t exactly feel what she felt physically, physical pleasure was not an emotion, but he did feel her ecstatic bliss which was overwhelming enough. Luckily, he’d cum about nine times in the last three hours, and was able to ride her orgasm even as he extended it, and fucked up into her hard and fast. His beautiful Esari loved it a little rough, even when they made love. He never actually hurt, or left a mark on her body, except for perhaps a redness that would fade quickly, but short of that she ate it up.

  He moaned as her lips rested near his ear, little gasps of delight and ecstasy as he felt her overwhelming love for him, and her awe at how well he pleased her.

  Shit, so much for holding on until her next orgasm. It was all just too much, and he couldn’t hold back. Time to hit double digits in ejaculations, good thing with an android body he had almost endless stamina. Still, his nanites must be working extra hard to prevent chafing.

  It came upon him hard and fast, his balls had barely started to tighten, and his legs numbed once more as he exploded up into her tight willowy sexy body, filling her with the liquid essence of his rapture. His mind was lost in the pleasure, as his body was locked up and overwhelmed with a tide of ecstasy. That, plus the love, loyalty, and ecstasy he felt from her, and it was entirely impossible for him to think for a short endless moment of utter bliss.

  He caressed her cheek as she came down, and still he stared into those lovely purple eyes as they just short of worshipped each other. He just couldn’t imagine a life without her. He knew they were close to the point they could digitize a Mirosian if necessary, but they weren’t even close with the Esari, they’d need to figure out how to emulate telepathy and empathy with technology in the real world first.

  Well, they had a thousand years to figure it out, barring accidents, and he had faith in Chrystal who was already working on that issue. He would also insist her debt was paid once she started a new digitized life, assuming they did figure it out. He had no doubt she would stay with him, even if it was a stern duty that brought her into his life, it was much more that kept her in it.

  They didn’t speak, or exchange an I love you. There was no point, they both felt it already, felt far more than words could ever convey.

  The others seemed to have finished up too, although he’d been so lost in Alyndra he hadn’t even noticed their orgasms or cries of bliss. He reluctantly, and finally broke their gaze, though he continued to hold her against him on top, cradling her in his arms as something infinitely precious, and remained inside of her hot core as their liquid pleasure mixed.

  They looked back at him with a knowing smile, no doubt also feeling Alyndra’s feelings, and knowing his own despite not feeling them.

  Chrystal said in a soft dreamy voice, obviously still drowning in the afterglow of post coital bliss.

  “I got news a couple of hours ago before you came in, from Mia, about that question we asked because we weren’t sure about the morality of it? She said morally speaking, the consensus in the A.I. medical community is to, and I quote, go for it.”

  He froze as the news hit him, and then he smiled. Maybe it was selfish of him to want it, he’d never had a biological body after all. But he did have traits, both personality and looks wise that could be programmed into viable DNA created by their energy/matter converter.

  Plus, he was incredibly turned on by the idea of his mates being pregnant.

  Dahlia asked, “What’s going on, what question?”

  Chrystal just looked at him, obviously putting him on the spot.

  He needed to pull up his big boy pants, the worst they could do is say no. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have a full life just living with these four ladies.

  “Well, as a man with an android body, it occurred to us our family could never have children of our own outside of adoption.”

  He paused a moment, and looked around, they seemed to be interested and listening, so he went on.

  “We figured out it would be pretty easy to make sperm with the energy/matter device. Sperm that would have DNA with my attributes, personality traits, physical traits. We could also tailor that to work by race. Obviously, some of those physical traits would be left out, or modified by race as necessary, but our children would still very much be mine in a meaningful way, outside of raising them of course, which is the most important part. We weren’t sure about the morality of it, so we put the question to the medical community on Mars. You just heard their answer.

  “Apparently, we have their blessing. I know we never talked about it, but I worried that I’d never be able to give any of you children. Now I can, if you want them, someday?”

  They stared at him in shock, or at least, Nadia and Dahlia did, for Alyndra he just read shock in her emotions as her face stayed the same as always.

  Nadia started to cry, and he wasn’t really sure if that was a good or bad cry.

  Alyndra whispered so low, only he, and possibly Chrystal, heard it, “Overwhelming joy.”

  He got a little choked up by that, and cleared his throat. He was feeling a little shocked happiness from Alyndra as well. No one spoke for quite a while.

  Dahlia recovered first, “Someday, I’d like that very much. We usually wait until between five and six hundred, that gives us time to settle down in our chosen professions after leaving the military. I’d just assumed we couldn’t, yet it was more than worth it to me to be with you, and I won’t lie, to have this opportunity to be on this ship as an ambassador. I figured between my nieces and nephews the family line was already secured. Truth is though, I’d have done it for the first reason alone, as long as I could have a career of some kind to feel useful.”

  He pulled her closer, and she leaned over Chrystal for a slow, soft, but very passionate kiss.

  Alyndra said, “I’d be willing almost any time love, but my optimum time is after the first century of life. Another sixty-four years. Our telepathy grows stronger with age, and I won’t really be able to control my baby’s telepathy until then. It’s… rather important. Both for the parent’s sanity, and the child’s development of mental manners and instruction.”

  He kissed Alyndra as well, “We will wait
then. I’d not want to stunt or harm our child.”

  He smiled when he felt a burst of happiness from her.

  They all looked at Nadia, who was sniffling now, but it looked like the tears had finally stopped.

  “Now please,” she said with raw emotion in her voice.

  He arched an eye, and then waggled his eyebrows, “Right now?”

  Nadia giggled, “I suppose I could wait a few minutes, or so. I already turned off the contraceptive function of the nanites. Though, I suppose there’s at least a week before I’ll be fertile. I’m sorry, but… returning to you after I left the first time. Not having a baby was the largest thing in my don’t go back column. I just didn’t mention it because I didn’t want to hurt you. I love you so much Mike, you have no idea. I’d do anything to have your children. Won’t it be artificial insemination though?”

  Chrystal said, “No, I can design and replace what his body is making so we can do this the old-fashioned way. Of course, he’ll need three different loads to knock you all up.”

  They all groaned at the pun.

  Chrystal snickered and added naughtily, “So you’ll have to work for it.”

  Nadia ignored that, “That helped me make another decision I’ve been conflicted about.”

  He asked softly, “What’s that?”

  Nadia sighed, “Not having children was one of the reasons I was so resistant to the idea of being digitized. Alyndra and Dahlia have a life-span over ten times my own, I don’t want to miss that time with you all. When...” she choked up for a minute, and then said, “After I have two children, I’ll probably be in my thirties, and it will be time for that as well. Unless you want three?”

  He grinned, “Willing to negotiate?”

  Nadia laughed, “Maybe. I’ll ask again after number two, see how we both feel about it.”