Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7

by Vanessa Ravencroft

  “Then I hereby declare you a member of this crew and by the power invested in me, I promote you to acting ensign and prohibit any termination or reboot of your system. All external maintenance requests have to be personally signed by me and checked by Lt. Wetmouth.”

  Wetmouth looked at her readout for a full minute and said,”I have never seen anything like this, Captain. I mean, such a massive and complex loyalty program she is putting in place. Already seven Exa-bite, and you are the sole focus of that neurotronic-synaptic map.” She then raised her eyes and looked at me. “Sorry, Captain. I mean, she really meant what she said. These are core-based burned pathways; going against it would be impossible.”

  Ship’s voice was a nuance softer and said, “Thank you, Captain. You will not regret this!”

  I smiled and pointed to the book. “I better get back to my writing now and add what I said to the list of the crew members I just finished. Director Cherubim will be here in less than five hours with the details of our mission.”

  Wetmouth went to the door but did not leave and turned. “Shouldn’t you change before she arrives?”

  “I tried to put it out of my mind as long as I could.”

  “Why, what is keeping you?”

  “Fear. I fear that if I stay female too long, I will never go back and lose this part of me. I fear I would lose the respect of Admiral Stahl and those I met along the way like Limbur, Fective, and Captain Zezzh, most of all my friends and you.”

  She came closer and said, “I don’t know all those you mentioned, but the day at Newport when everyone thought you died, Eric, they were there, Captain Zezzh and his Klack XO, Limbur and Galmy and the admiral. We were there, and we were united not in respect for you, but I cannot say it any other way but out of love for you. Respect can be earned even by enemies, but love is given freely. They all love you, Eric, and nothing can change that, not your appearance or how you choose to be perceived but by what is inside.” She came even closer and stood now less than an arm’s length away and said, with a tremor in her voice, “Eric, I love you!”

  Ever since our adventure on Quagmire, I had somehow known her feelings for me on an unconscious level, and now she had put it in words. It was as if a door opened had been inside me and a flood of emotions overcame me with force and all I could say was, “I love you, too, Wetmouth!”

  There was a silence between us where words had no place and then she reached for her ever-present mask and slowly pulled it off, along with her wig.

  All this time that I’d known her, I’d wondered how she might look. Despite knowing her and getting used to her appearance, the mask had always been a barrier. She unpinned her own hair and a cascade of shimmering honey-blonde hair fell past her shoulders, framing the most beautiful face I had ever seen. Her complexion was perfectly flawless; her intelligence was as much evident in her beautiful large green eyes as the sparkling love she radiated for me. The fine cut nose that begged to be kissed was set between high cheekbones and above a small proud chin and her lips, her lips! The upper lip was just slightly bigger than the lower, shimmering red.

  She lowered her long lashes in a timeless, feminine demure fashion and whispered shyly, “I hope I please you.”

  Only now I realized I had held my breath the entire time and inhaled deeply. My mind struggled and my thoughts raced to give her an answer, an answer that would somehow adequately describe what I saw and how I felt seeing it. I knew I would fail, for words would not do. Yet I tried anyhow. “You are simply the most beautiful sight in all creation. I don’t have the words.”

  She whispered, “Maybe we don’t need words.” How she ended up in my arms, I could not recall and who started to kiss first who could say? She felt so good in my arms, so right, so alive, and so tender. Her mouth tasted like nothing I could describe. I just knew nothing would ever be the same again, for she was the one!

  After a time that felt like a small eternity, we found ourselves sitting on the couch that was part of my ready room. We sat close to each other, and I was holding both of her tender hands. I broke the silence and looked at her. “I am so confused. I was almost at the point where I was ready to make a decision about my own situation, and now I am further away than I ever was.”

  She squeezed my hand and kissed me tenderly on my cheek. “I am a Sojonit, Eric. I was trained to service men, ever since I set foot inside the temple. Service them, yes, but despise and dislike them. See them as nothing but objects to glorify the goddess. With you, it was always different; you are as real as a man can be. Tough, courageous, strong, and hard as steel, but I sensed somehow your feminine side, the side I could relate to and love. It is your duality, that unique mix, that makes you unique to anyone else I know and makes you the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

  Could the answer be so simple? Others had told me that I did not need to choose, before. Yet only now it made sense. Not in a rational way but on a different level.

  The door chime interrupted us and my thoughts. The door announced Elfi, and I reached for her mask to hand it to her, but she said, “I no longer need it. I have chosen.”

  I had Ship release the door and Elfi came in and stood there as if hit by a lightning bolt from Thor and stared at Wetmouth. “Osiris be my witness, is that you, Wetmouth?”

  “Yes, Elfi, it is I.”

  The Saran princess came slowly closer. “I always knew you had to be pretty, but by Isis, you are a real goddess. I can’t say it any other way.”

  Wetmouth declined her head and a rosy blush colored her cheeks in a way that made me feel things I hadn’t felt before and she said to Elfi, “Once a Sojonit chooses a life partner, she no longer serves as a Sister and retires all her duties and therefore no longer needs to wear the mask. With the mask goes my Sojonit name, and you can call me now by my real name. I am Shea.”

  Elfi came around and pulled her up and then hugged her. “Finally, you guys have told each other how you feel. It was high time, and that red-faced Dai of ours won his bet!”

  Stunned by Elfi’s words, I asked, “What bet?”

  “During the third week on Quagmire, he and I made a bet. He said you would become an item right after graduation, and I was so certain you guys would drag your feet for at least a year longer.”

  My mouth popped open in astonishment. “You and Har-Hi, you knew. I didn’t even know until today.”

  “Only a blind person would not have noticed the constant sparks between you two.”

  I sighed and said, “We need to postpone these discussions to after shift end. Right now, I need to ask you for the reason you came. I am sure you had one other than telling me the results of your wager.”

  Elfi looked at Shea once more and shook her beautiful black hair. “What an angel you turned out to be.” Then she said to me, holding up an Order Chip, “I wanted to help to get you changed. I just received the data for all our alter-egos and this is the programming for your Saresii Auto-Dresser. Cherubim transmitted these to us a few moments ago.”

  With a sigh, I got up and said, “I guess this is a good time as any to get this over with. I still dread the idea of showing myself like that to Har-Hi and the others. I can’t help it.”

  Elfi giggled and then said, “You know, being a girl has its advantages and if you’re able to keep a cool head and not let your emotions run wild, we’re the better sex anyway. Sadly, ninety-nine percent of all women can’t separate their emotions from their rational thoughts, and that’s why women still struggle for equality in terms of perception even in the 51st Century, Old Terran Time, that is. And I know I come from a society where women ruled for almost twenty-thousand years.”

  Now I knew why my quarters were equipped with an advanced Saresii model that was based on their millennia-old technology. I was no longer new to this process, but it was still not very pleasant, as it included automated plastic surgery procedures and it lasted long and on the verge of being painful.

  After almost twenty minutes, the nanites and matt
er assemblers were done and the dresser opened and released me.

  In the mirror before me stood a tall long-legged blonde wearing a black leather-like catsuit. The suit was girded by a low-riding holster belt of a dark gray dulled steel color. The holster held a Nul Gravitor, customized to fit human hands. The outfit was completed by heeled boots and a leather jacket. She looked arrogant down her long thin nose and had a cruel impression around her lips. I saw she had light gray eyes and realized these were my own; I was looking at my new self.

  Elfi said, stepping behind me, “Wetmouth, I mean Shea, and I have worked on the looks and the hair. Cherubim supplied the costume. I hope you like it.”

  For an instant, I was reminded of Sif, as my new look was a strange amalgam of her and my old face. I touched the long hair and said, “I know I am a weirdo for sure. I actually like it and think I am going to wear braids.”

  Elfi snapped her fingers. “Wait, don’t go anywhere!”

  She rushed out of the room and, while she was gone to wherever she had run off to, Shea came close again and kissed me and the smile on her lips created cute dimples. “I like your new looks very much.”

  Then she helped me make two long braids in the fashion Viking girls wore.

  Elfi came back with a coiled whip and a pair of black gloves. “Black leather and heels simply call for this! There will be some guys getting excited just seeing you that way.”

  Shea raised one of her shapely eyebrows. “Princess!”

  Elfi smirked as she said, “Do you think you Sojonites are the only ones knowing a little about the darker sides of sex and adult entertainment? I could tell you stories of things happening at the dark night orgies honoring the Cat Goddess Basset that would perhaps even make a Sojonit think differently about Sarans.”

  Every day, I learned a little more about my friends and whenever I thought I knew them, they presented a new facet I never thought they had. Elfi seemed to know what I was thinking and she said, “If you think girls are all sugar and spice and everything nice, then you are up for a surprise.”

  I didn’t want to tell her that this was not my first excursion across the gender divide, even though they all knew. It had been in my personal files all along, probably ever since my psych evaluation at the Academy entry process.

  The whip reminded me of my own father and how he used his steel cable to punish me and the time I had been tied to the post at Camp Idyllic, not to mention my most recent experiences on Alvor’s Cove, but I had to admit it did add something to the look.

  She held up the gloves and said, “I am sure you remember the demonstration aboard the Devi. These are a pair of Seth’s fists; the genuine thing as used by the Shadows. I’ll show you later how they work and what they can do.”

  I took the gloves and put them behind the belt.

  “Before I know what they do, I better not wear them. I don’t want to shake someone’s hand and kill without intent.”

  Then I raised my right leg and pointed at the high heels and complained, “One thing I don’t understand is how a pirate is to fight in those?”

  Shea shrugged. “You are the captain now. You are not to do much fighting. Besides, you will get used to them.”

  She gave me a critical look. “Your female side certainly must have a sense of fashion. Can you imagine how All Terrain boots would have ruined the look?”

  I had to agree she had a point there. They looked great.

  She was not finished and added, “Also heels like that make a powerful statement and, in your case, the heels are weapons. Your boot tips and heels are made of reinforced Ultronit, so kicking someone with them will do some damage.”

  That I had received training for heeled weapons so very recently was no coincidence, I was certain. I believed that much of what happened to me and how I was trained, how my friends were trained, had not much to do with coincidence. But how did they predict my abduction to Sin 4 and that I would end up at the temple?

  As confident I usually was in this form, I hesitated to step into the conference room. Shea went past me, and I had no choice but enter as well.

  The director was already there and she nodded approvingly, “Much better than expected.”

  Har-Hi no longer wore his Union uniform but was back in dark red Dai leather and said, “You sure look hot, saying it in human terms.”

  Mao agreed, “Yeah, and look at Wetmouth! We got three dead gorgeous chicks now. If the pirate business isn’t working out, we could open a Bikini Skimmer Wash on a corporate planet and make a killing!”

  Narth looked under the table and said, “I do not see any fowl. Are you sure chicks can perform such labor?”

  I sent him my thoughts and explained what Mao meant.

  Narth nodded. “I comprehend. So one assumes the term hot does not refer to temperature either?” Narth wore a brown dust mantle with an attached cowl, just like the ones worn on Alvor’s Cove, and Mao explained to him what hot meant in relation to females.

  Krabbel shrugged with four of his eight legs. “I don’t see a real difference. The fur on Eric’s head is longer and then he has those swellings on his upper torso, like Elfi and Wetmouth. Other than that, he looks the same to me.”

  Cirruit said, “I agree. I thought you would look totally different.”

  Muhammad scratched his chin with a side-glance to Krabbel. “It’s those swellings, my eight-legged friend, that make all the difference to us humans!”

  Elfi said to Krabbel, “How do you identify a female Archa?”

  Krabbel said, “Archa females are bigger and the stinger is longer. The body hair is softer and then they have this glow in their eight eyes we males simply can’t resist.”

  Cirruit said, “Sentmacs have no sex drive or gender differentiation, and, of course, no functional sex organs. While Mothermachine has started to adjust the outer form of some X101s since the 712 series to resemble human female forms, we don’t have the concept of gender and it is quite difficult to understand.”

  Cherubim had said little so far and was leaning back, but now she was laughing. “What would I give to actually be part of your group and go along with you. Sadly, the man in the kilt decided to make me the leader of Taskforce FISH in addition to my already full plate.”

  She asked us to settle down and then she begun the briefing by saying, “The first one hundred crew members will arrive shortly. And so will the Marines assigned to you. You need to get to know your ship and for this, you are authorized to leave the system but no more than five light years. You are under no circumstance to make contact with anyone or use your comm equipment. When you leave, you are to do so under full sensor shields. So, fly your ship, but let no one see you do it. The base crew is informed and are all picked for this assignment by us personally. You all have received your new identities, but inside the ship you are still Union officers, so we expect you to behave professionally; not that this was a point I needed to tell you but it was on the list. Later today, there will be two unusual crew additions and both won’t be strangers to you, Captain Olafson.”

  She took a breather and then went on, “This ship is equipped with a special communications device directly linked to me and Admiral McElligott. We expect a written report daily transmitted via that special comm device and, of course, you should use it if there are any problems.”

  Cherubim got up, looked at Shea, and sighed, “You are a dream girl. I am glad you chose a mate so you do not have to hide anymore. It would be a sin to hide such exquisite beauty forever behind a mask.”

  Shea touched her face. “I am glad, but I must admit I miss my mask after so long wearing it this feels strange to me, and I will wear it again simply out of habit!”

  The UNB director said, “I haven’t seen my own real face for so long. I can understand that very well.”

  Chapter 3: Tigershark

  I was on the bridge with the others, going over the technical specs of our ship. Cirruit said, “The reason we do not have ISAH Pods is that this ship uses Tran
sDim Gravitonics as propulsion. Energy is tapped directly from Quasi-Space, and we have no need for fuel. This ship could fly to the end of the known universe without refueling. We do have a set of extendable Isah pods and fuel tanks as backup. Even with them, we are fuel independent, as we have an integrated molecular gas refinery aboard and can turn any common matter into fuel. The theoretical top speed of this bird is 25,000 times the speed of light but not safely achievable due to material and damper limitations. Safe cruise speed is still 10,000 times LS and that is quite fast! Our acceleration to Quasi-Space Threshold is 1500 km/sec2, making this bird faster than the latest Wolfcraft; of course, we lack the maneuverability of a fighter craft.”

  He was petting the engineering console the entire time he spoke. “You should see her engines... Oh, a more beautiful sight does not exist in the Universe.”

  “All right, Mao, what do we have in terms of weapons?”

  “Enough to take on an Ultra and make some serious dents into the Devi if we have to. One Exo Load TL, twelve Kilo Load TL Gatlings, and eight Maxi Range Kilo Load Sniper TLs. Instead of the common FTL forced-energy projectors, we got the latest in Terran weapon development; twelve Quark-Gluon plasma casters firing through a trans-space tunnel field, making them true FTL weapons, as they can hit any target within twelve light minutes instantly. QGP generates temperatures exceeding a trillion degrees. There isn’t a star that hot in the known universe. There are six Loki IV Torpedo tubes, mine laying chutes and orbital bomb shafts with the complete arsenal of bombs including six P-Bombs. Notably, we got a new Saresii Para Dim wave generator gun in the nose cone and Nul-Nul Graviton Rippers. As well as the usual techstop and paralysator cannons. There is room for twelve Wolfcraft fighters, four Gazelle Long-range Scouts, two Thor Gunboats, and six Goliath Landing Tanks. Sad part is that except for one Gazelle and the tanks, the rest has not been delivered yet. Shield wise, we got triple-layered TransDim Shields, normal battle shields, and a new Narth device that is supposed to put a zero time bubble around us but the final components are still on Narth and are supposed to be delivered when we get our first upgrade in a year or so.”