by James Warner
“Commandant, I think I am going to have to exercise my leave option also, so I can plan what to do with the system option.”
“I understand Caryn. I had expected as much. Any star system is a big place. We are expecting two Scoutships in tomorrow and they will need a couple First Mates. If Meph is in agreement, we could give you your next year to get your new affairs and responsibilities in order, while he gets valuable ship
time under another Captain.”
I nodded my head in agreement.
“Who is the Captain, Commandant? I am not opposed to such a transfer and I think Captain McDowell will need all the time she can get.” Meph and I exchanged glances. “So I was just wondering which one.”
“Ah Mephistopheles. You will probably have Captain Fred Boyington, newly assigned to his first command. I am actually proud of him, as he is the first Academy graduate from Last Chance. He has spent the last few years planet time as First Mate in a Scoutship, which has been planned for him to take over. His Captain gave him excellent marks and his service record is exemplary.”
“Then I am to train a new Captain, is that it Commandant?” Meph asked with a twinkle in his eye, glancing surreptitiously at me.
“I guess you could say that. You’ve had the best tutoring anyone could ask for this last few years, or year for you and I want to make sure Caryn’s wisdom is passed on.”
They both looked at me and I blushed. Well what was I supposed to do, toast myself? I’ve never been one to brag to anyone but my own mirror.
The Commandant mistook my discomfort. “Oh don’t worry, Captain. This is only temporary, and Meph’s equipment will remain on the Hornet for when he rejoins you after your leave.
“Hmm, Commandant did you say Fred Boyington? Was that the one I recommended to the Academy during my last mission?” I asked to change the subject. Big mistake.
“Oh, so you are the one who recommended him. I was wondering about that. Why?”
“Oh I don’t know exactly,” I hesitated, getting redder in the face with each passing moment. “I guess I just saw promise in him and...” this was getting worse and worse. Luckily the Commandant suddenly caught on to what was happening and politely dropped his napkin on the floor and bent over to pick it up. I studied the remains of my desert. Meph looked at me curiously, not quite getting what had happened. Then suddenly he smiled and turned away. Was I that red?
“Excuse me, sir. I need to go to the head,” I said, getting up hurriedly.
Later in my port quarters, I thought about Fred. Fred, who had been only a kid when I left, now out of the Academy and scheduled to be a Scoutship Captain. I had chosen well; at least for him. But I wondered what he was like now. He might have a girlfriend, or wife. And had he found out that I had sponsored him? It could be an embarrassing moment tomorrow when Meph took the assignment and I met my protégé. And I was really horny. So I changed clothes into something red and frothy and went out on the town to see what mischief I could stir up.
I lost track of Meph that evening. Or he lost me. Or whatever. I was having a great time. I went bar hopping for a while to see what the local fauna looked like. Some of the same bartenders were still there from my last shore leave! They were really glad to see me, because I was still well known around town as a big spender and a sucker for interesting stories. I kept my alcohol consumption low. I had on a sexy, frilly high hemmed strapless red cocktail dress and well-fitting matching heels.
More than once I got pigeonholed by curious landlubbers, or horny old men, or maybe I should be charitable and call them space story lovers. Anyway, I enjoyed relating some of my adventures, old and recent, to these guys. And I loved the attention and free food and drinks they tried to ply me with.
.
Along toward midnight, I was dancing in an uptown ballroom – glass chandeliers, live band, real wood floor and everything, when I saw him: the man of my dreams. He was with several ladies, or maybe not ladies, but apparently he was bored with the conversation, as he kept looking past them at the rest of the room.
I happened to be dancing a slow one with a guy who was nice enough, except he kept lifting the hem of my short dress and putting his hand on my rear and I just wasn’t interested in him. The instant after I saw him, he noticed me. Our eyes locked. We knew that somehow or other, we were going to have to get together, preferably in the next minute. I can’t tell you how all this happened, maybe it was subliminal, but I knew that this guy and I were going to make beautiful music together before the dawn’s light.
As I slowly turned around the dance floor, I watched him excuse himself from the girls surrounding him and head for the men’s room. I broke away from my fondling friend and excused myself as well. It was all I could do to keep a cool exterior. My pulse was pounding and I could feel the flush of the chase beginning in my ears.
He hesitated near the doors to the restrooms and I walked, maybe not too shakily, up to him. I couldn’t talk. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it again, and then began afresh. I could see that I affected him the same way he was affecting me. We both grabbed the handrail by the stairs for support at the same time, hands touching.
“Good evening, Captain,” he said in a smooth deep baritone. It sent shivers down my back. But how did he know?
“Good evening __” I left open for him to fill in. It was all I could say, anyway.
“Uh, my name is Fred. Fred Boyington. Of course you couldn’t recognize me after all this time.”
I felt like a shit. This was my prospective Captainmate and I hadn’t even recognized him!
“Oh Fred, I’m so sorry. I should have recognized you. But I was, I mean, I felt...let’s go somewhere we can be comfortable.” I finally managed to blurt out.
“A splendid idea. May I call you Caryn, Captain?”
“Of course, Captain.” I was really getting goofy. But we left that place without a thought for any of our ex-partners. I’m sure the clinging debutants were furious. I didn’t care. Next time he saw them they’d be married with a family. And who knew where I would be. I wanted him NOW!
We took a taxi to his apartment. He had maintained it here while away at the Academy and it was spacious. I felt like the first time when I was sixteen and had successfully seduced one of my school instructors into taking me to his apartment. I was triumphant, nervous, horny, shy, well ... I was a girl, so what do you expect?
After we disentangled ourselves and left the elevator, he keyed open the door and I walked into his 15th floor apartment, appraising it appreciatively. It had a view of the spaceport and the moonshine reflecting off the Changas Range in the distance. The harbor glittered with ship lights and an occasional aircraft took off from the airport. It was very romantic. The furniture was wood and leather and the deep blue carpet went well with the moonlight flowing in the window. He hadn’t turned on the lights yet, but I could see in the moonlight a large well-padded leather looking sofa next to the entrance and a doorway to what had to be the bath and bedroom wing. There was a nightlight on in the spotless kitchenette.
As I turned to remark my admiration, he closed the door and turned to me. We were an inch apart. My nipples, covered with the soft red shimmer of my cocktail dress, were just grazing his chest. I was glad he was taller than my six feet. I liked big tall men.
We stared at each other, not saying a word for a long time. Neither of us blinked. We began to merge slowly. I found myself placing my arms around his neck, pulling him to me. He responded by engulfing me with his large strong embrace. Our eyes were wide open, drinking in every nuance of shared thought in the soft silver moonlight glow.
“Fred, I…”
“Caryn.”
Everything was crystal clear to me as we gently swayed together, kissing a long deep kiss that didn’t have to end, as far as I was concerned. We slowly fell together on the sofa, clothing falling all over the floor. As we began I realized that I was exterior, viewing it all from a few feet behind and above my head. The feelings were so
clear and intense, I knew what was to follow would be as close to heaven as I was ever likely to be.
Auburn! His hair was auburn! I hadn’t noticed before.
Chapter 11.
I lay languidly naked in the warm, dark room. I felt his hand slowly and softly move up my leg from my ankle. He was just barely caressing the small blonde hairs on my leg, a whisper touch known in one of the Earth languages that I spoke as chemin-de-fer. My body was breaking out in a rash of goose bumps from barely restrained excitement. As he reached my thigh I squirmed in ecstasy, longing for the rough male-ness of an embrace. As his hand moved to my inner thigh and I opened my legs in a spasm of joy; I could hear his soft voice whispering love words:
“Captain, we have reached your claim. You requested I wake you when we arrived.”
Shit! It was that dream again. I was alone a million miles from heaven, hours from the ecstatic love I had briefly known and duty called. Damn!
That night, a few ship hours ago, had been the worst case of coitus interruptus I had ever experienced. I got him to the sofa and we had just finished the first time and were finally doing it again on the bed; the Hornet had called on the alert frequency in the receiver implanted by my ear.
“Excuse me, Caryn, I’m sorry to interrupt you. But there are fifteen soldiers trying to break into my airlock.” “Fuck!” I exclaimed, ruining the mood and causing Fred to start and stare at me. His arousal slowly left him as he realized something was drastically wrong.
“What is it, lover?”
“Someone’s trying to break into my ship.”
I had expected it, but not quite at that particular delicate moment.
“I am also picking up a group of six military police entering the apartment building where you are with Fred. I suspect these two events are intimately related,” she said. Her humor about my situation and choice of words was not lost on me.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I exclaimed, extricating myself from Fred’s amorous embrace.
“Caryn! What’s going on?”
“Sassy, send the pod at once.” I turned to Fred, who was not yet realizing our situation.
“Lover, I’m sorry. Someone is storming our love nest. There are military police coming up here to your apartment right this instant, probably to detain me while they break into Sassy. I should have thought about this.”
I threw on my dress, ignoring my panties and shoes, which I couldn’t find anyway in the dark.
“The pod is outside your window. The men are in the elevator and they are armed. You have to go Captain.”
“I have to go. Give me a kiss my love. We’ll do this right sometime soon.” I said, reaching for him from next to the window. He strode to me and we kissed, maybe a little too long. If they had traced me there, I had to leave to save the military reputation of my man. So in the time it had taken me to disentangle myself and grab my clothes, the pod had appeared outside of our 15th floor window.
As the door blasted open and the police began cautiously moving in with night vision helmets, guns drawn, the whole nine yards, I pushed him away toward them and vaulted through the window across the two feet of air and into the pod where I rolled and sat up, blowing him another kiss as the pod dematerialized.
I thought about taking him with, but I was too conscientious about the career I had helped begin. If this was to be my man, he had to keep his nose clean until we could meet again and re-do that scene properly. I left him standing naked by the window. As the pod left I monitored his apartment. The armed men hadn’t bothered to knock, just forced the door open and surrounded him in the room. Fred looked very puzzled.
I figured I had had about four more hours before the Hornet would be impounded “for the good of science” by the super-secret morons who assigned her to me. That was a problem I was not ready to face just yet. I needed time and friends. And I realized I also needed wealth, which so far I had been squandering in my annual leaves. And the greatest love of my short life was still back in port, answering indelicate questions and hopefully morning my sudden departure as much as I was missing him. Well it couldn’t be helped. You learned to make necessary compromises when dealing with bureaucracy.
I guess the authorities were too embarrassed about what they had tried to do to make much of a fuss, since I hadn’t heard anything since leaving so abruptly.
“Thank you Sassy,” I answered, a bit testily I’m afraid. “Begin standard scan pattern on planet one while I get cleaned up.”
“Yes, Caryn,” she replied. I think she actually sounded sympathetic. Was my starship really sentient? Maybe I should take that up with her. Would she know if she was or not? It would change many things. A fleeting thought flew through my mind – how do I know that I’m sentient?
The shower helped me get my mind back on business. I wasn’t required to take another crewmember on this mapping “vacation”. And I suppose until the Admiralty knew all about my claim, they would be a bit tight with funds. And, this was the first time Sassy and I had ever gone to space alone, not counting the dead Mates I had occasionally brought back. But the ship was capable of handling anything I needed without a First Mate. It was just bio-system redundancy, a theory that had proved out many years ago, which required a second life form on Scoutship missions. But if the Hornet were sentient, how did that change the equation? This problem got me off what would have otherwise been a blue funk and got my keen mind on present matters of interest.
In order for my claim to be validated, I had to submit detailed scan maps of each planetary body in the system, including discovered mineral, flora, fauna and archaeological items. Also, the orbits, sizes of the planets and moons and spectral signature of the star(s) had to be included. Most of the latter had been done automatically by Sassy when I announced my claim. But there still remained the mapping of each planet.
The reasons for these requirements were valid. The principal reason was so the claimant would have to familiarize him/herself with the claim, thus ensuring there was someone with a thorough knowledge of what was there. Also, the reports had to be recorded in the Galactic Database at the Galactic Central University; thereby ensuring a permanent record of the system was preserved.
All of this had to be done within one year of the initial option claim, or it would all revert to public domain. And therein lay the reason for a probable attempt to impound the Hornet and me. It wasn’t that I was paranoid. I couldn’t be. But it was not uncommon for some overenthusiastic government employee to peek into confidential records.
Now, however, Sassy and I were very busy. Each planet we mapped revealed new and exciting discoveries. They were an excellent basis for the creation of an entire civilization. Perhaps one that wouldn’t blow itself up. If only I could get into the Repair Station and discover what was stored there. I decided to stop at Caryna 4 and check out the history record for the late civilization in this system’s Library and find out just what had happened here.
“Sassy, please assume system guard orbit around this star system. I’ll take the pod to do my exploring. I don’t want to be surprised by Pirates,” I told her.
“Oh Heaven forbid, Captain.”
Then I went down to the cavern Meph and I had spotted earlier, entered the record-keeping room, which was furnished exactly like the last one I visited and let myself be plugged in.
In a matter of moments the neural probes put my mind in sync with the computer and I was being fed a fascinating history. It seemed that two civilizations had been fertilized, one on each of the two most likely planets. They had developed independently of each other, totally unaware of the other’s existence. That is, until their technologies reached space exploration stage.
The civilization on Planet 4, which they called Tarn, had evolved with a very philosophical nature, perhaps because of the harsh environment in many parts of that hot world. They had developed some form of mental control of matter, using an interesting technology of electronic amplification of their spiritual commands. I hadn’t seen any
thing like that before, except in fanciful theorizations about some of Earth’s ancient cultures such as “Atlantis”.
The Tarnians hadn’t developed a need for large amounts of metal in their structures, as they had been able to use rocks. I’ve always thought rock was the ideal building material, especially large blocks such as the ancient civilizations on Earth used. These people agreed. They had a going science, a fine sense of art and what we would consider generally a high culture. While they didn’t discover a star drive, they did develop interplanetary travel using the electromagnetic lines of force generated between the planets and their star. And, of course, this got them into trouble with the people on Planet 5.
Planet 5, or Almat as they called it, was a very nice world, very much like Earth, although their continuous ice age made it slightly colder. They had developed a civilization based on metals, just like we did on Earth. They had various wars and in all respects their history was very much like my history, with one notable exception: they never developed the balance between Eastern and Western cultures that we did on Earth. Apparently they were all interested in the “strike a quick blow” philosophy. So their wars were more frequent and occasionally more devastating. When they discovered atomics, they came close to wiping out their own planet, but instead they found the civilization on Tarn and decided to exploit what they perceived as a slow moving, uncultured, primitive people.
