A New Beginning Ch. 08

It still got to her that she shared a name with Samantha Delacroix, almost like fate had decided to twist the knife in her heart just a little bit harder.

"I'll go check on our prisoners." She said to cover her thoughts.

Wilks let her go and ignored the fact she was meant to salute him before leaving... They were all on a new path.

*****************

Four Ships blinked out of sight as they jumped to FTL and started what would be nearly six weeks of travel. That was just to the first jump point.

On board. The people went about their lives almost exactly as they had before. Teams worked to repair the rest of the internal damage and as they worked formed new bonds and friendships. The reorganised crews learning to become one.

Rawlings and the other Captains maintained Fleet rules and regulations for the most part, some rules regarding relationships were allowed to slide a little and they watched as people moved bunk positions or changed deck levels.

Jessica could have moved in with Hank, but it wouldn't have been practical as she still required the extra sex she took with her chosen few. Ramirez, 'Willy' Williams, Harris and 'Tom, Tom' Smith. Gibbons was now a Lieutenant and had his own quarters so while she occasionally visited him, he wasn't a regular in her bed.

For Hank and Jessica is became a balancing act. One that Jessica found slightly stressful as more and more she wished she could make things exclusive between her and Hank. All while still maintaining a professional working relationship between them.

The more intelligent PG's on board the 'Jean-Paul' took Jessica's lead and found similar small groups that they bedded to fulfil the twin needs of sex and social interaction on an intimate level. A lucky few like Penny managed to find a group of men and women who were willing to share their lives. Penny and strangely Suzi found the beginnings of a loving relationship within their small exclusive groups.

All the PG's started to look to Penny and Jessica for leadership, both within the Corps and in their personal lives. Now that they actually had some semblance of a personal live.

Jessica soon found herself having to put aside part of her day to deal with various issues amongst the girls as they changed and developed. Relationship issues were only a small part of it, the question of how to be human came up more often. How to deal with emotions, the new and strange feelings that grew as they were given a respect they had never had before and a level of freedom they had never expected.

Over the next six weeks Jessica had to alter her thinking several times as she too adapted to her new role as leader of a group that had once been nothing more than sex slaves.

Naturally, it wasn't just the PG's that had problems with the way things were rapidly changing on board the 'Jean-Paul'. The crew were only human and had to alter their own preconceived notions regarding Girls they had only seen as sub-human.

Fortunately, the crew of the 'Jean-Paul' had already seen how Hank and his Marines interacted with the Girls and it gave them a starting point. Something that wasn't happening on Walker's ship.

As they prepared to drop out of FTL and have twenty two hours in normal space flight. Rawlings called Jessica to his ready room.

***

Jessica saluted smartly and stood at attention while Rawlings sat behind his desk.

"At ease Sgt Davis." He said with a smile and indicated she take a seat.

"Thank you Sir." She replied as she sat down and crossed her long shapely legs. Her standard issue Marine jumpsuit clinging to her body and showing off her shape despite the integrated lightweight fabric armour that covered her arms, chest and thighs.

"We will be dropping out of FTL in an hour... " he paused and then slid a sheet of paper towards her.

"As you can see, I have a request from Walker for PG's." he continued as she quickly read the printed request form.

Jessica placed the paper back on his desk and waited. She knew that she wouldn't have been called into his ready room if he intended to simply hand over the girls.

Rawlings steepled his fingers and let out a sigh.

"You have made quite an impact, changed things... Things I can't undo and if I'm honest... don't wish to." He told her.

"We are more than what we were made for Sir." She replied.

"I see that.. oh yes, I definitely see that... My problem is that others don't... any suggestions?" Rawlings asked sincerely.

She shook her head, off the 'Jean-Paul' she doubted any of her girls would be treated the same and it would dismay them to have to go backwards. Back to being treated as nothing more than fuck toys. Even the dimmest of them understood they were far better off.

Everyone knew it was standard practice for Marine PG's to also service the rest of a ships crew if asked. The 'Jean-Paul' had been different right from the start as Rawlings had never prescribed to the idea of using Marine property to satisfy the needs of his crew.

"I'm sorry Sir... no. We... we can't go back to the way we were and you know what would happen to those you give to Walker." She replied stiffly. Her mind turning to the way she had been treated as a PG when traveling to join the recon platoon on the 'Jean-Paul', day and night had blended into one long orgy of being passed around the troop transports crew.

"I understand... What I suggest is that you represent the PG's when we convene our inter-ship exchange... All the Captains will conference on board the 'Lilith' to exchange needed supplies and crews." He told her.

"Sir?" she asked in confusion. She was just a Marine Sgt as far as everyone else was concerned. To most of the other Captains she was a planetary recruit who had quickly risen in rank.

"It's time to throw away the lie... become the leader of your people, represent them at the council meeting and explain why Jack Walker can't have PG's unless he is willing to treat them as they deserve." He explained.

Jessica's eyes fluttered rapidly for less than a second.

"Thank you Sir." She replied with feeling.

"Might want to call yourselves something other than 'Pleasure girls'... come up with a new way to identify yourselves... Dismissed." He said with a smile.

Jessica Davis stood and saluted smartly before leaving. Her mind rapidly processing the new data as she went to find Penny and Hank. She needed their input.

Rawlings watched the pretty girl leave and then opened up his note book. Inside it he found the page he wanted and reread it. His mindset had changed when his former PG had told him everything under the influence of truth serum and a very nasty time being tortured.

Karen's confession and revelations had stunned him at first, but he had analysed his own feelings and attitudes as a result. Finding that he actually understood why she had been so easily converted by Abigale Niles.

One positive was that with Karen's information they had quickly found the remaining informants that Niles had managed to coerce or bribe.

Spacing Karen next to the rest of Niles' people had been a hard decision, in his own way he had loved her. Looking at Jessica and the other girls with new eyes, Rawlings was determined not to make the same mistake in underestimating the women who he had once hardly spared a thought for.

Leaving the Holy Company behind was something he needed to do now. He looked back at himself and disliked what he saw.

"I was a fool Karen... I'm sorry." He said to an empty room in as sad whisper.

*********

Stars winked into existence, the pure blackness of FTL disappeared to be replaced by normal space and time, hundreds of thousands of light years now lay between the point where they had left the battered Dreadnought.

It was a vast vista of stars they dropped into. Six weeks closer to Kellos. Two more jumps and they would be at the outer rim. It was just a name given to where the furthest space station was or where the deep space miners set up a temporary sight. Kellos was far beyond most places. The Reachers had found it and built a colony as far from Holy Company space as they could find, but within a few years the Company had built a station close by.

Commander Holly Reed's suggestion of a Reacher style ships conflab to exchange vital personnel and equipment had been readily agreed to.

Once they had scanned the area and taken routine precautions, launched Hornets and set a defensive perimeter. Shuttles made their way towards the 'Lilith'. Carrying the three Captains and a few others to the meeting.

Holly had a Marine detachment of forty men and women, bulked out by twelve PG's that were former PI. Those PG's on board the 'Lilith' were also being treated well but had not yet seen the fuller freedoms that the thirty eight girls of the 'Jean-Paul' were experiencing.

Ten of her Marines formed an honour guard for each arriving shuttle, a whistle blew loudly as each Captain stepped down from his shuttle. Briefly drowning out the hum of 'Lilith's' engines.

Rawlings observed the ritual carefully. Marines could be a prickly bunch and he wanted to show his respect and appreciation of their efforts.

Delacroix did the same as Jerry Rawlings, her shuttle arriving next to his she followed his lead and patiently went through the salutes and honorifics.

Together, Rawlings and Delacroix left the hanger bay with their own escort, made up of her Security Chief and a Sec-Corp guard. Hank Choi and Jessica followed Rawlings.

Jessica wore the dress that Hank had bought her, it's long hem almost brushing the floor, her high heeled ankle boots clicking briskly as she walked.

It had been Rawlings suggestion she attend as a person rather than a Marine. A subtle statement to show she was more than either PG or Marine.

Jack Walker went through the motions as quickly as he could, more interested in seeing Delacroix again.

Holly stood as they all entered her ready room, greeting Rawlings warmly before they took a seat around an oval table.

Displaying their new status as deserters, Jack pulled Delacroix onto his lap with a laugh, she rolled her eyes but allowed it.

"Behave Jack." She scolded him but remained sitting in his lap with a smile.

Holly waited until things settled down and then kicked off the meeting despite the fact she was of a lower rank.

"Okay.. so while our ships cool down their FTL's we have a bit of time to reorganise.. our departure and loss of personnel was fairly quick so we all need to share what we have before we reach Kellos." She stated a bit needlessly but wanting to set the parameters of this meeting.

"Holly and I need engineers, Holly needs a chief and six more engine crew... I could use any engine crew or people with that training." Rawlings started the ball rolling.

Samantha Delacroix nodded.

"I have a good second that might serve as a chief for you Holly.. and I can spare two of my engine crew for you Jerry." She told them as she quickly checked her manifest. "I could use an extra Tactical officer... I only have two and they are exhausted." She added.

Jack Walker looked over his manifest too.

"I need a gunnery crew, what I have is stretched thin...and a few more PG's to keep my boys happy.. but I do have six spare Mech's that would help make up your engine crews." Walker said with pursed lips as he looked at Rawlings. Rawlings had more PG's than any of them.

Rawlings grimaced as he had hoped to avoid the whole Pleasure Girl question until later.

"I can ask for volunteer gunners.. shouldn't be a problem, Delany is a good Tactical officer too, I'm sure she would be fine with transferring to your ship Samantha... as to the PG's... I don't have any. I do have genetically enhanced women who serve as part of my crew." He replied.

"What the fuck are you talking about Jerry?" Walker laughed out.

Delacroix laid a hand on her lovers chest. She had half expected this after seeing the way Rawlings and his crew were treating the PG's.

"Shut up Jack." She warned as she eyed Rawlings and waited for the shit to hit the fan.

Walker ignored her warning.

"Just give me the PG's... what the fuck?... my men's balls are fucking throbbing." He said angrily.

Holly interjected before things got out of hand.

"Come on Jack... thirty five percent of your crew is female... it's not THAT bad." She quoted the figures with a sigh.

"Yeah.. of which most are in a relationship or gay... leaving me with over a hundred horny men." He snorted back.

Delacroix untangled herself and stood up. Angry with her lover as he displayed the base desires of a male.

"I don't have a single PG... my crew are FINE." She said hotly as she moved to a seat. Part of her reaction was fake. She wanted and needed Rawlings to believe she had never had any PG's on board her ship. Samantha Delacroix wasn't ready yet to admit her security chief had spaced the girls.

Rawlings held up his hands placatingly.

"Jack, we are all friends here... just let me explain." He pleaded.

They had been friends a long time, Walker respected Rawlings a great deal and nodded for his friend to continue.

"True, I used to have PG's but myself and my crew see them as Gen Enhanced People now... Those women served as Marines and helped take the 'Lilith'... Then pretty much saved us ALL when they joined the boarding crews to attack Nile's ships, many of them dying in the process." Jack reminded everyone.

"What you don't know is that they had a choice, they had already freed themselves from my brig and could have run... but they didn't, they volunteered to make that attack." He added quickly as Walker opened his mouth to say the girls were Marines and couldn't be given credit for doing a job they had to.

Walker grunted but waited to hear more before asking the obvious question as to how the PG's had escaped a secure Brig.

"The girls have shown a remarkable ability to adapt and change, they have integrated themselves as part of my crew and I can not treat them as less than human.. in short.. I no longer have any Pleasure girls... I have a whole crew." He finished and then gestured to Jessica.

"Jessica Davis is here to represent the Gen Enhanced people." He said by way of introduction and every eye turned to stare at her.

Walker looked her over with a smile, he saw a pretty girl that appeared to be in her late teens or early twenties, light auburn hair held up with a peach coloured ribbon, pale yet flawless skin and large blue eyes. All dressed as a young lady should be. Demure and chaste.

His smile said he wasn't taking her seriously, in his experience all Pleasure Girls were fairly unintelligent and he guessed she was a PG despite her nice dress.

Delacroix saw much the same but noted the shine of intelligence in Jessica's eyes, a quick glace at her lover and fellow captain told her he hadn't noticed. Delacroix gave an inward sigh.

Before Jack could make a mess of things she spoke up and made sure he understood what he was dealing with.

"Fuck me Jerry." She said with a nod of appreciation to Rawlings and then shot Walker a serious 'SHUT THE FUCK UP' look.

"Problem?" Rawlings asked in an innocent voice.

"No, no problem other than side stepping us and bringing an envoy... never thought of you as a Politian Jerry, but this is one smooth move." Delacroix said with a glint in her eye.

Rawlings shrugged.

Delacroix looked meaningfully at Walker and then continued.

"I guess we HAVE to take this seriously... now that we can't discuss the issue amongst ourselves." She added and nodded towards Jessica.

Jessica nodded back, a small one of acknowledgement.

Jack Walker rubbed his chin in thought. The word Envoy reminded him that this 'girl' was an official representative of a group. That made her something to consider very differently.

Jessica steeled herself, she felt nervous but hid it well. That Hank was sitting next to her helped a lot as she looked around the table to see thinly veiled and wary hostility from Walker and what looked like curiosity from Delacroix, Holly smiled at her encouragingly. The Commander of the 'Lilith' partially held her command because Jessica had taken the 'Lilith'.

"So... I still need PG's." Walker said directly to Jessica. "Whatever you want to call yourselves, you are still pleasure girls and I want ten to help out the ones I have." He growled out.

His tone annoyed her, his dismissal of her as a person was worse and the idea of giving into him made her blood boil.

Before Jessica could reply, Delacroix snarled at her lover.

"Outside NOW." And the startled Jack Walker followed after a glance around the table to see Hank Choi grinning at him with a look of amusement. Rawlings shaking his head as if to say 'you asked for it' and Holly leaning towards Jessica to whisper something.

"Delacroix is a good person.. she'll calm him down and put him straight Jessica." Holly whispered to the woman she had come to like from the few times they had interacted.

Jessica nodded at Holly in a distracted manner, it was a nice thing to say but Jessica was worried because she wasn't in a strong position. She knew that most of her and her girls freedoms were only there because of Rawlings and Choi. It could all be ripped away by these people if they decided that was what they wanted.

Hank squeezed her hand under the table, reassuring her. He would fight and so would his Marines. His gentle smile told her to remain calm.

***

They all waited as they heard the muffled sounds of an argument coming from outside the door.

Eventually the sounds died down to be replaced by a steady lecturing tone and it was in the feminine pitch of Delacroix's voice. Giving Jessica a little hope. She didn't know the female captain well but had noticed she wasn't fully opposed to the idea of Pleasure Girls being more than just that.

The door hissed open and Jack Walker stepped back inside to reluctantly take his seat with a huff. The tall lanky frame of Cpt Samantha Delacroix followed and she smiled at the assembly as she took her seat.

"Miss Davis.. or do you prefer Sgt Davis?" Delacroix spoke directly to Jessica.

"I'm a Marine first... Sgt is fine, thankyou Captain." Jessica replied with a nod of respect.

Delacroix smiled warmly.

"Jack.. that is... Captain Walker and I agree that you should have your say, we also want to hear your terms for some of your people to join Captain Walkers crew." She said to Jessica, all in a reasonable and clam tone.

Jessica's eyes fluttered briefly as she quickly adjusted to the politeness and she ran the scenario through her highly intelligent mind.

Turning to face Walker she addressed him respectfully. He was the danger in the room and she thought that once he accepted what she intended to try, the rest of those assembled would be fine.

"Sir, we would first require the PG's on your ship to be transferred to the 'Jean-Paul' for training... I doubt they even have the ZT-360 chip and will need to be bought up to full Marine status." She held up a hand before he could object.

"Naturally, we will replace those with some of my own people and a few extra as per your request... as long as we can come to an agreement as to their status." She quickly added. Bringing a nod from Walker for her to continue.

"Next would be that ALL Genetically Enhanced humans be recognised as having the right to refuse sex, to be treated respectfully as fellow crew members and have one day a week when no one can ask them for sexual favours... they also stay in the Marine quarters as full Marines." She said. Her voice firm while she trembled inside. It was a big ask and would be a dramatic shift for Walkers crew.

Jack Walker grunted and then leaned back in his chair as he thought about it. He was surprised at how quickly Jessica had taken control and even more astounded by her intelligent thought process. She had cleverly asked for the girls to stay in the marine quarters because they all knew Marines protected what was theirs, even pleasure girls.