Volume II

by Ronnie Coleinger

  Jill walked to where Fred was sitting and put her hands on his face. She kissed him, and when her tears began to flow down her cheeks, she did not attempt to stop them. Fred pulled her close to him and said, “I did not mean to make you cry.” Jill said, “I have once again forgotten that this wedding is very important to you and you may have different ideas about where it should be performed and by whom. Should we go to my room and discuss this in private.” Fred looked Jill in the eyes as said, “Jill, I would be proud to marry you under the apple trees in the growing gardens, but you have not answered my question. May I select the minister?” Jill kissed Fred on the cheek and said, “We are past that question, that decision was made the moment you asked the question the first time my love. Fred, I would be proud to marry you under the apples trees in the growing garden by the man who married you and Rihanna, performed her funeral, and baptized Naomi.” Fred said, “I will talk to him right now.” He took two steps towards the ready room, stopped, turned around to face Jill and asked, “How did you know who baptized Naomi?” Fred saw Naomi blush and then she said, “I spoke to Jill when you told her the minister had married you and mother, and also buried Mother. I am sorry Father, but I sometimes forget to keep my mind out of you and Jill’s discussions.” Fred smiled, turned and walked to the ready room to call the minister.

  Trish walked into the ready room just as Fred was completing his call to the minister. Fred said, “The minister is very excited about this wedding. I hope he can remember the words to the ceremony. He has never left planet Earth and has never teleported. He is also over eighty years old and getting feeble. I hope he will be okay with all this.” Trish told Fred not to worry. They would create him very comfortable quarters and would insure he was not stressed or overworked while here on The Empress. Fred said, “Thanks Trish. Thanks for everything.”

  Jill finished her shower and then whispered to Trish that she was leaving The Empress for about four hours and that no one else but she and the computer were to know her destination. Trish checked her travel watch and Jill’s travel itinerary was marked, private. Jill said, “I have to tell you of my destination today because I do not wish to keep secrets from you, and I am so excited I am about to explode. Trish, I may require you to lie for me over the course of the next two days before the wedding if Fred questions you. I have told Fred that I have an infection and need to visit my doctor; but in fact, I am very healthy. You see, I am having one of my frozen eggs implanted by my doctor on Quantum. I wish to get pregnant immediately after I am married to Fred. We have discussed children so I know he will not be angry over my deceitfulness.” As Jill talked, Trish began to cry and by the time Jill was done talking Trish had tears dripping off her chin that had begun wetting the front of her dark blue flight suit. Jill moved Trish into the security room and helped dry her tears. Trish said, “Sorry about the tears, but I am now the one that is too excited to control their emotions.” Trish wrapped her arms around Jill’s neck and wished her well with the pregnancy. Trish said, “You will need to allow me to help you during your pregnancy and take a little bit of your workload from you until you deliver. I don’t want you having a miscarriage from overwork. I had to learn to ask for help while I was pregnant with James, and you will need to remember to ask for help when you require it. I love you Jill, God’s speed.” Jill said, “I am off now, see you in a few hours and we will talk again.”

  When Fred and Naomi came into the kitchen for a late lunch, Fred asked Trish if she knew where Jill had disappeared. Trish looked down at the food on her plate and said, “She had a doctor’s appointment on Quantum, she will return shortly.” Trish could feel Fred looking at her but she did not dare look into his eyes or he would certainly question her more and make her lie to him. So far, her words were true; Jill had indeed gone to see her doctor. When Fred had left the room, Trish took a deep breath and Naomi looked into Trish’s eyes searching for the truth that she knew Trish had not told her father. Naomi was unable to read Trish’s mind and soon returned her attentions to James and the book they were reading.

  When Trish had finished her lunch, she got up from the table when James held out his arms to her. Trish picked him up and asked if he would like to help water trees and give Naomi some time for herself. As Trish carried James past where Naomi was sitting, he leaned down and kissed Naomi’s cheek, then allowed his mother to carry him to the cargo bay. When the trees and newly sprouting seeds in the garden were watered, Trish walked with James to her room. She and James took a warm bath and then lay down on the bed together. Within five minutes, James was asleep. Trish quietly got up and stepped into the hallway. She asked the computer to call her when James woke.

  She walked out into the cargo bay and found Naomi sitting in a reclining chair watching the fruit trees grow. When Trish sat down in the second recliner, Naomi said, “Have you ever just sat and watched the robotic bugs pollinate the flowers? They are tiny but they make me laugh at how real they act while performing their tasks.” Then Naomi, said, “Things are just being pollinated all over this vessel.” Trish looked at Naomi and said, “Do you have something to ask me, or something to say? Your words are those of someone who is not certain how to begin a conversation.” Naomi looked at Trish and said, “I only got just a tiny flash of Jill’s thoughts this morning, she can hide her mind from me very well, but I now have one question for you Trish. Is Jill pregnant with my father’s baby?” Trish laughed and said, “Naomi, I can promise you, better yet, I swear to you that Jill is not currently pregnant. Jill cannot get pregnant until her doctor implants her with one of her frozen eggs, and that has not happened yet; I tell you true. Naomi, I believe that you being from Earth understand the medical procedure for an Earth born female to become pregnant.” Naomi said, “Yes I understand, but Jill was not Earth born, she was Quantum born.” Trish smiled at Naomi and said, “You are very well informed young lady. However, the facts are like this. Jill’s parents took their newborn child to the planet Earth and the doctors performed the same procedure on Jill that they do for any newborn female child. The only thing you may not know is that Jill’s Father stole her and her mother’s frozen eggs from Earth and brought them to The Empress. He later took Angela’s frozen eggs to her doctor at the hospital on the planet of Quantum; Jill’s eggs are here aboard The Empress.”

  Naomi asked Trish if her father knew that Jill was unable to become pregnant without the medical procedure. Trish looked at Naomi and said, “I am not certain if Jill has explained that to Fred or not, but its only Jill’s place to tell him, not yours or mine.” Naomi said, “Yes, I need to remain out of my fathers and Jill’s affairs. I have looked after him, and he me for so long I feel responsible for every detail of his life, and I need to learn to step back.” Trish told Naomi that the things talked about here on The Empress were private, never to be repeated to anyone. Trish went on, “Naomi, I will answer every question you ask of me, but do not repeat anything I tell you, and please give your father and Jill the same courtesy. I will always do the same for you. What you tell me is private between us unless you say otherwise. We are all going to be living in very close proximity to each other and hurt feelings can happen easily. What goes unsaid cannot damage our personal relationships or our working relationships. Be especially careful of your father. The females in this vessel may step on his male ego often, so we will have to find a way to allow him to run this household as a man will do, but not let him become controlling. Does that make sense to you, Naomi?” Naomi said, “This is the way Father and I got along all these years together. He thinks he runs things, I straighten out the messes, and life goes on just fine.” Trish began to laugh and found she could not stop. Trish realized that Naomi may be a teenager, but she was very wise to the ways of the world. The girls heard the door from the living quarters to the cargo bay open, and when they looked; James was toddling along beside Fred. As James walked he began laughing, I seemed that his mothers laughter was contagious. James laughed with Trish until he got the hiccups. N
aomi went to the kitchen and got some water to help with James hiccups, but when she returned James was rolling around and laughing again. Trish’s eyes were now red from tears of laughter. Naomi watched James interact with his mother, and saw the love in the relationship between Mother and Son.

  Trish and Jill began working on the guest list for the wedding and reception. Jill told Fred that she would put a tablet on the kitchen counter and as he remembered people whom he wished to invite, he should write down their names and their electronic address. Jill said she would begin calling everyone tomorrow after lunch. This only gave their guests one day to prepare and Jill hoped Fred and Naomi’s friends would still be free to attend. Jill spoke to both Fred and Naomi over supper and told them to feel free to contact their friends yet today if they wanted. Naomi wrote down four names of her friends, three female and one male. Naomi messaged them and then wrote their names and electronic addresses on the note pad along with a note saying she had invited these friends, and they had accepted the invitation.

  The following morning the IFTT service vehicle arrived to repair the damaged security area and two engineer’s teleported into the cargo bay. They met with Jill and looked at the now empty secure room and security rooms. The engineer said they could repair the damaged room with little problem, but all occupants of The Empress would have to teleport to the IFTT vehicle while the repairs were underway in case of an accidental depressurization of the membrane. One hour later, the repairs were complete and the new secure room was ready for operation. The engineers had performed the repairs with The Empress’s own travel computer. The only thing that was required was for the IFTT engineers to input the correct electronic signatures of the hardware used in the original construction of the rooms. Once they had input the signatures, the travel computer quickly configured the room to match the original design created by Ronnie Yutaka. The IFTT had also reconfigured the cash slot in the bulletproof glass and designed a sturdier door between the secure and the security rooms.

  When the crew of The Empress returned, Jill met with the engineer and they allowed Jill to perform the eject function of the secure room using a bag of sand to simulate an unwanted visitor. Jill and Trish were both very pleased with the new security areas. When the engineer had teleported back to his vessel, Jill contacted the IFTT, thanked them for their assistance and praised the engineers who she had dealt with today for their professional attitudes. Jill said, “I would marry the older gentleman if he was not already spoken for.” The IFTT person Jill was speaking to said, “Sorry Jill, but I have a scheduled wedding date with that man, and I do not share my men.” Jill giggled and said she was sorry for the comments and would try to keep her thoughts to herself in the future. The lady just giggled back at Jill and said she understood. “My man does have a really cute ass, does he not,” the lady asked Jill. Jill giggled as she explained that she had not noticed.

  Chapter 11 – A Wedding on the Empress

  When Jill finished working with the IFTT, she began messaging the people on the guest list to see who was available. Within two hours, every guest on the list had sent their RSVP and would be attending the services. Jill had given each guest a teleport time and had sent instructions for the procedure. Every guest except for the minister was familiar with the teleportation process. Jill told the minister’s assistant that Fred would teleport to the church and help the minister with the teleportation process. The minister’s assistant sent a message back to Jill, said she would make sure the minister was prepared to officiate the service, and that she would meet Fred at the church to insure the minister was prepared to teleport. Jill messaged back, sent the secretary a formal invitation to the service, and personally requested her presence to assist the minister. Jill realized that having her nearby would help keep the minister calm and rested. She accepted the invitation and thanked Jill for allowing her to attend. Fred stepped into the control room and said, “Jill you have done in a couple hours what I feared would be a two day process. I applaud your efforts, my love.”

  Fred and Jill had scheduled the wedding for four o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday. It was now Friday evening and everything except for the cargo bay was ready. The computer had been working to reconfigure an area under the main hallway for the storage of water for the growing gardens instead of the huge tank sitting in the cargo bay taking up valuable space. When the computer had finished creating the storage pocket under the floor, it asked Trish to connect the air actuated pump so it could begin pumping water from the floor compartment out to the growing gardens. The original tank that sat on timbers had used a simple siphon system to move the water to the plants. The girls loved this modification for water storage. The huge tank in the cargo bay was unstable. One of the huge tubs from the Open Market had once bumped the supporting timbers and had almost tipped the tank over. Having the water tank under the floor opened up the cargo bay for the chairs and tables that they would need for the wedding services. Jill realized that they needed all the open area they could get in the cargo bay.

  Trish had serviced the food processor, Fred had ordered and had the extra food items they needed teleported to the cargo bay, and Naomi was working on creating six guest rooms. The computer suddenly asked Trish if she would come to the ready room. Trish acknowledged the request and stepped into the ready room. The computer said, “Would you please explain to this young genius that I cannot put pink wallpaper on the walls of all the bathrooms. Some of the rooms are for gentlemen and they would not appreciate Naomi’s sense of humor nearly as much as I. Naomi and I have had a great ten minutes together, but this lovely visit is about to come to an abrupt end.” Trish looked at the designs and said, “Oh I agree with you computer, the shade of that pink is atrocious, try this color.” Naomi giggled as Trish stepped up to the monitor and keyboard and painted the walls of the bathrooms with a very light pinkish lavender color. The computer was not impressed and requested Jill to please report to the ready room. When Jill stepped inside, she listened to the same speech from the computer as Trish and said, “Computer, accept program override code Alpha 99, color scheme accepted.”

  Jill turned and left the ready room, stood in the hallway as the computer created the rooms, then opened the door and stepped inside. Jill stopped walking and Naomi walked into her back. Jill said, “What a beautiful color you girls have selected. The minister will be pleased with his pink/lavender bathroom.” Then Jill said, “Trish would you go to the ready room and retrieve that long handled screwdriver in the top left hand drawer? I suddenly have the urge to drive that screwdriver blade into the computers voice modulator so I do not have to listen to its testy whining ass comments any longer.”

  Jill turned to return to the kitchen and winked at Naomi as she passed her. Naomi stepped into the hallway, put her thumbs into her ears, waved her fingers in the air, and then blew air across her lips in a sign of defiance at the computers dislike of her color choices. Trish looked at Naomi and said loud enough for Jill and Fred to hear her words, “Naomi, you really should learn to play better with others. The computer could teleport your cute ass to the North Pole in the dead of winter with only your pretty pink panties to keep you warm.” Trish and Naomi both heard the giggles from the mouths of Fred and Jill who were sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee.

  Suddenly, every monitor on The Empress began showing an igloo, sitting in an open snowy ice field, somewhere where it was very cold. An image of a young girl wearing only pink panties with her hands covering her breasts would periodically run out of the igloo, squat down in the snow, urinate and cause the snow under her to turn yellow. Then the image would run back into the igloo with her bare butt giggling in the cold arctic air.

  Fred began laughing hysterically over the image of his daughter, and finally choked and began to turn very red in the face. He heard Naomi scream down the hallway, “Very funny, you silly box of wires and silicon chips.” Jill spoke to Fred and said, “Fred, have I told you how wonderfully Naomi plays with others.” Fred rolled
his eyes. Jill continued and said, “She seems to be lacking in the social skills of how to gracefully win and lose a disagreement, but she may have come by that naturally.” Fred chuckled and said, “I am afraid I taught her to never accept defeat at anything she does, and her quick temper when things do not go her way is from Rihanna’s side of the family. I remember well that if you pissed Rihanna off, you had better be well versed in how to duck flying objects.” Jill said, “That must always win attitude is okay here on The Empress. Naomi needs to learn to always fight back hard, and always win. She will learn to turn the tables on the computer in time. Naomi is very gifted, but her young age sometimes allows her anger to rule over good common sense.”

  Trish stepped into the kitchen, poured herself a cup of coffee and said, “I think I will knock on Naomi’s door and see if she has cooled off. She won the battle with the computer, but lost her cool when the computer took revenge upon her.” Jill said, “I probably should change the override code or Naomi will be teleporting the travel computer into that Igloo on the North Pole the next time the computer questions her decisions.” Trish said, “I think that may be a wise decision, Skipper.” Trish walked to Naomi’s door and knocked twice. Naomi said, “Come in Trish.” Fred looked at Jill and said, “How did Naomi know that Trish was at the door instead of you or me?” Jill said, “She simply looked for the location of my mind, then saw you in my eyes.” Fred said, “This telepathic shit is scary.”

  **************

  When Jill had met Fred at the edge of the garden, they turned towards the minister, and the computer turned on two of the growing lights over them. The lights made Jill’s flowing white wedding dress and her hair, sparkle. The gardens were beautiful under the soft lights, and Naomi mind spoke to the computer, “Nice touch my friend.” “Thank you little genius,” the computer responded to Naomi. Jill heard the exchange of words spoken between Naomi and the computer and realized the two were once again a functional team. As the minister recited the words of the marriage rites, Jill and Fred looked deep into each other’s eyes for comfort. Jill was afraid she would forget her vows, Fred was afraid he might pass out in front of his friends. Their fears went unfounded, and nothing horrible happened; the computer watched out over The Empress and insured the flow of air over the guests was the correct temperature. When Fred felt much to warm and began to sweat, the computer turned the fan onto him to keep him from fainting, when Jill stumbled with the words in her vows, the computer spoke the words into her mind to get her back on track. When one of the guests began crying and had no tissues, the computer sent an usher to her with tissues to wipe her tears. The Empress turned out to be a very nice setting for this very special wedding.