G-Pol Ch. 09

Karl smiled viciously at Dumerk's mistake. "Oh yes, your arrest attempt. You drew a class two military grade particle beam weapon on a man attempting to enter the bombing sight with intent to aid those in need. A man properly certified in search and rescue, carrying some of the best medical equipment money can buy, and the necessary drugs to help fight and defeat the biological agent in question. Then you not only try to arrest me, but actually fired your weapon in a public venue, with the very real chance my force shield could've caused a deadly ricochet. If I hadn't long ago made modifications to my power armor to safeguard the public in just such an event, it could very well have happened. Instead, you damaged my armor with your irresponsible actions, which forced my hand in dealing with you. If anyone deserves to be arrested, it's you, for reckless public endangerment and misuse of a military grade firearm in an illegal personal assault. There are probably a lot more that should be added, like incompetence."

With that, Dumerk surged out of his chair and tried to lunge across his desk, fists clenched. Before Karl even rose out of his seat though, Colonel Giovani had already risen, reached across the desk between them, and shoved Dumerk back into his. "That will be enough out of you Captain. Lieutenant Steiner is right, you are incompetent. The people I've already interviewed since arriving make that perfectly clear, and it will show up in my report. If you'd like to make it worse for yourself, please carry on." When Dumerk settled back into his chair, the Colonel nodded. "Yes Lieutenant, I saw the surveillance vids and the arrest was not warranted. No charges will be forthcoming, and Captain Dumerk's report on the matter will be expunged." He turned to Dumerk. "Accept that for the gift it is. Your report would make your incompetence public knowledge, and that would embarrass G-Pol more than we could afford at the moment. Try not to make yourself a target. It won't do your career any good. This man has already proven himself a hero in these events. He personally saved more than thirty lives yesterday with his quick thinking and actions. Indirectly, there's probably no way of knowing how many he saved, including Lieutenants Nazarova and Bona. Both of whom are very important and promising officers, that I expect will be extremely valuable assets to G-Pol in the future. If I were you, I'd expect the cost of the repairs to his personal power armor to be taken out of your pay Captain, and you should consider that to be getting off lightly. There will of course, be an investigation to determine your fitness for the position you now hold. That too of course can not be avoided after an incident like this."

The skin around Dumerk's eyes went pale with rage, and he looked as if he might come out of his seat again. Karl almost felt sorry for him, almost. It took a few moments for Dumerk to get himself back under control, but he finally managed it. "Yes sir, I understand." He grated out in an attempt at civility, "I will of course cooperate fully."

The colonel nodded his acceptance and his visage gentled somewhat. "Excellent Captain. I think perhaps this assignment was too much for any one man. The situation out here isn't exactly stable at the moment. This area is poorly policed, has a larger than usual traffic in wealthy individuals, as I said, minimal military or security forces, and a lot of wide open space with a broad and surprisingly dense asteroid belt. All of which make it a perfect hunting ground for pirates. WE should have at least three times the number of officers here with more and better equipment. I'd say at least a half dozen combat patrol craft, and a command team, rather than a single individual. This is something that should've been addressed years ago, better yet, seen to by the people who set this all up."

Dumerk nodded silent agreement, but his face showed he thought he'd done his job. Natasha had to wonder if the man could really be that oblivious. It was possible she supposed. How such a man got into this position in the first place though, she couldn't begin to imagine. Maybe somebody owed him some sort of political favor. This was what many would consider an ideal assignment, a tropical paradise with low population, next to no crime, other than the piracy that was, lots of wealthy influential people, and of course, plenty of growth potential. That was the only thing that made sense.

Now Giovani turned his attention back to Karl. "As I was saying before our conversation was interrupted, Your CAF commission has been reactivated. They've sent along your kit, including a suit of CAF spatial power armor, personal body armor and weapons, along with appropriate uniforms and equipment. We've taken the liberty of painting the power and body armors in G-pol uniform colors and scheme."

He turned to the others. "Lieutenant Nazarova, Lieutenant Bona, at our request, Wolfpack Command has also forwarded suits of Wolfpack spatial power armor and an instructor to familiarize you with its operation. Corporal Miller, Miss Vargas, We are issuing each of you a suit of enhanced space combat armor and appropriate weapons, uniforms and equipment. Weapons and equipment lockers, maintenance and repair tools and training equipment are also being issued. This is all being delivered to Czarina's dock as we speak."

He cleared his throat. "I am also to inform you that the bounty offer for Mallory is now one million credits dead or alive, and has been extended to law enforcement officers as well. And the reward for information leading to his capture has been increased to ten thousand. The brass has decided Mallory is too dangerous to have running loose. We know it will probably make your jobs harder, with other officers, bounty hunters and civilian glory hounds potentially getting in the way or worse, but we also hope we'll get the information we need to catch him. All the information we have, and any leads will be categorized and sent directly to you as the lead investigative team. You are being issued a computer with direct connection to the G-Pol subspace net, and appropriate programming to process and store the data. Any questions?"

Lisa spoke up. Colonel Giovani? We're upgrading Czarina's defenses, and we need a targeting computer for an antimissile laser system. I could build one with what's available on the station, but getting the right software is another matter. According to Lieutenant Steiner's information, Mallory's got access through his contacts to some pretty serious firepower..."

"Say no more." The Colonel agreed without hesitation, "You'll have it the moment my tech's can copy the software off my own ship's combat computers. We should also have a backup targeting computer unit on board as well. I'll have my men help you make any changes you might need to make everything work. Good enough?"

Lisa nodded happily, "Yes Sir! Thank you sir."

Giovani nodded agreeably. "Any other questions, requests? No? Excellent, thank you all for your time and good luck."

They arrived back at Czarina to find a notice telling them their equipment was ready and waiting to be transferred on board. Natasha made the call, and in short order everything was aboard and secured in its new homes. The power armor instructor arrived an hour later, leading the tech team with the targeting and G-Pol computers. Lisa immediately took charge of the techs and led them off to begin work. Karl elected to join Natasha and Bona's power armor training in his new suit.

The new suit was larger and had heavier armor than his personal unit. Its sensors were good, but not as good as his modified systems. The armor protection and weapons package definitely made up for the difference in his opinion though. He could easily retrofit his own sensor and communications packages into the new suit, Since the com had been designed for a CAF command unit, and the sensors for a scout suit. Fortunately, like most modern military forces, the CAF liked to keep their issue equipment as modular as possible, making maintenance and repairs as simple as possible. His force shield's reprogramming would be a simple matter, since he'd long ago learned how to do it. Reversing those processes before he had to give the suit back would be easy, and noone would even be able to tell he'd done anything.

There were a few other modifications he also wanted to make, but that would have to wait until he was in a place he could find the parts he would need. He doubted they would be available on this station. He'd been lucky to find what he had for the girls here, and now they didn't need it. "Well," he thought, "Easy come, easy go. It will probably still come in handy. That kind of stuff always does."

As he'd expected, the new suit took some getting used to. The controls, while similar in layout, were slightly different as he'd long ago altered his to suit his own needs. He'd originally been trained in aerial power armor, and had modified his spatial suit to match, then taught himself what he needed to know for space combat. Thus, he too learned a lot from the instructor.

They spent most of two days training as Lisa and the tech team finished Czarina's modifications. Karl, and to a lesser extent Natasha, reviewed what they'd done in their little spare time. They wanted to be sure they knew what had been done in case they ever needed to make emergency repairs.

As it turned out, Mallory had been on the yacht that had blasted its way out of the station. He'd obviously not been trying to kill the liner as they'd originally feared. Instead, he'd been leaving a graffiti calling card. Burned into the liner's hull just below the Bridge ports was the tag, "Sean Mallory was here!" Of course, he hadn't cared if he had burned through the ship's unarmored hull. In fact, he probably would've been pleased, with his penchant for collateral damage. Fortunately, the actual damage wasn't serious, and nobody was hurt. He'd certainly scared a lot of people though, and that had probably been his real point.

Now the waiting game began. Mallory had apparently fled the system, his yacht having been observed disappearing into transit space. So far, nobody had reliably reported his presence. Meanwhile, the search for what he'd been doing on Aphrodite went on and leads were beginning to emerge.

With the news of the bombing on the station, people on several parts of the planet and all over the station were reporting their own sightings and encounters. Most were the same, unimportant and containing little usable information. What leads did come up they investigated, especially anyone who could be identified to have met with the man. Over the next two weeks, several arrests were made, but far fewer than they'd hoped for. Most of Mallory's contacts seemed to have moved on.

All her modifications finally complete, the Czarina undocked from the station with the five crew members and three guests for her first post op test flight. Natasha had invited Mike and Janice to come along on the trip to continue the martial arts classes, and as a thank you for their help in refitting Czarina's gym. Rachael too had been invited, to get her away from the station where she'd been having trouble readjusting after the bombing. She'd been seriously considering a move to the surface, but wanted to get off the station to clear her head before she made any permanent changes in her life. She'd been staying with them in a kind of protective custody in case Mallory had left behind any agents that might try to kill her after the fact. They weren't certain Mallory had targeted the club in particular to get her, but as Karl said, it was better safe than sorry.

In what little spare time there was during the refit and training, Natasha Karl and Lisa had been teaching Vixi the basics of piloting the ship. Once they were out of the traffic control system, Natasha handed the controls over to their student for her first real world piloting experience. They were headed out to the system's surprisingly dense asteroid belt for the real test, the new antimissile system. The plan was to start with small asteroids as they flew past at high speeds. If that worked as planned, Karl Natasha and bona would use their power armor suits to place a half dozen portable self loading six tube missile launchers which would fire unarmed practice missiles for the final test. They had a hundred-eighty of these on the garage deck, enough to fire the launchers five times.

As they headed out, they had Vixi perform a variety of maneuvers to familiarize her with the ship's handling characteristics. As she improved, the maneuvers they asked her to perform became more and more difficult. She did well, and before long was improvising on her own.

Natasha herself spent a fair amount of time at the controls, also getting accustomed to the new performance envelope. She was pleasantly surprised. The Czarina now felt like a newer, smaller and nimbler ship.

The journey to the belt was uneventful. They took their time giving Vixi every opportunity they could to learn, and there was plenty of time for it. The distance they had to travel was greater than that to Sol system's belt by half again. When they weren't working on Vixi's piloting, they were practicing other essential skills with Natasha Bona and Karl providing weapons and tactical training, and with Mike's help, hand to hand combat training as well. Janice did her part, maintaining and streamlining their cardiovascular and strength training regimens. Vixi of course got additional attention from Karl and Bona to improve her medical knowledge and skills. The entire group was busy most of every day.

Of course, with all the passengers and crew being young attractive and highly sexually active, it didn't take long for that activity to spread beyond the bedrooms. Fortunately, the rising sexual tension wasn't unpleasant for anyone. In fact, Janice and Rachael in particular thrived on it, and even Mike wasn't uncomfortable since he knew everyone there. Mealtimes were especially interesting, with lewd comments, innuendos, teasing and sexual taunts being the order of the day. By the end of the first day, Janice had completely foregone all clothing, and was soon joined in this by Rachael, proving she was a real redhead, showing a thik thatch of flame red curls defining her neatly trimmed bikini line.

Bona found it all highly amusing, and had no problem joining in the ribald conversations and joking. The other's soon found she had a wry sense of humor. When she saw what Janice and Rachael were doing, she began a campaign encouraging, cajoling and even taunting the rest to follow suit. Vixi of course took no effort at all to convince, and she soon had Lisa doing the same. Mike of course had joined in at Janice's insistence. Natasha laughingly joined in when she realized she was outnumbered, and Karl finally gave in as well.

At first, Natasha felt pangs of jealousy, as she saw Karl checking out the beautiful young women parading around the ship in nothing but their skins. Then she realized his eyes were on her more than on any of them. He was comparing them to her, and his surface thoughts told her they were coming up short! Even Lisa with her beautiful DD tits! Then her embarrassment almost got the better of her, but she managed to stamp it into a tiny corner of her mind. She was surprised to find herself looking forward to his comparisons; they did a lot for her self esteem.

Interestingly, she felt absolutely no jealousy as she repeatedly caught Rachael staring hungrily after Karl when he wasn't looking. When the girl caught Karl checking her out, she invariably struck the most seductive pose she could manage in a blatant attempt to keep his eyes on her. Natasha could clearly feel the other woman's desire for her man, her envy whenever she saw him with her, their obvious love and devotion. The girl wanted that as well, but didn't know what to do with her feelings. She'd made it clear on severl occasions that she wasn't interested in sharing, and her feelings didn't contradict her words.

Natasha pitied the woman, but she wasn't about to give her future husband up out of pity. She didn't know Rachael well enough to even say if Karl was the right man for her anyway. She suspected not though. It was a purely instinctive surmise, and she knew it was possessiveness, in part at least, but she believed it none the less. So, the problem remained. What to do with Rachael.

Demeitri of course loved having all the extra people on board. It meant he got plenty of extra attention, and he was loving every stroke. He seemed to be the one Rachael turned to for comfort when her emotions got the better of her. Bona noticed it too and they both kept an eye on her. They knew she was deeply disturbed by what had happened, and her deeply buried feelings were riddled with survivor's guilt and feelings of responsibility. The little animal, feeling her emotional upheaval, instinctively soothed and tried to comfort without passing any kind of judgment, and that seemed to be exactly what she needed. It was something very few humans could manage, just because of what they were.

Natasha and Karl came down to the gym deck early the morning of the third day to find an exhausted Vixi sleeping naked on the mats, her tousled head resting in the crook where Rachael's thigh met her hip. Rachael watched avidly as Lisa, hunched on her knees and elbows between Janice's thighs worried the other woman's tenderest parts while she thrashed and quivered in ecstasy. Meanwhile, Mike was behind her, his penis buried deep and thrusting for all he was worth as he leaned forward cupping and massaging her large round pendulous DD breasts. From the looks of things, the threesome had been at it for quite some time, probably all night. Both halves of the Lesbian couple had hickies scattered across their bodies, Lisa from what they could see on her neck and shoulders, Vixi her neck, chest, shoulders hips and thighs. A closer look also showed small bite marks. Probably from Janice then as Natasha had never seen any sign of the others biting or even leaving hickies on one another. Mike had his fair share as well, some older and mostly healed.

Janice's skin looked as if she were afflicted with a chill. She was pebbled nearly from head to toe, but she was sweating from her exertions. Something wasn't right here. She was too far away to tell for certain, but Natasha thought the pebbling might have another source altogether. Not goosebumps at all...

The music was playing loudly enough none of the participants had heard their entrance. Rachael though caught a hint of their movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to smile in their direction. The air was rank with the smells of hot water and sex. As Natasha came over, she saw Rachael was lovingly stroking Vixi's hair with one hand while she made no effort to hide what she was doing with the other. She was leaning with her back on a weighted soft exercise ball resting against one wall. Her left hand held one end of a large bright pink dildo as she slid it noisily in and out, every now and then adding an extra twist. The slurping squishing sound could be heard over the music from where Natasha was standing.

Rachael's smile was lazy and contented for the moment. "I couldn't help myself. I came down here because I couldn't sleep, you know? Anyway, I was just wandering around the ship and I walked in on this. Well, vixi was awake then. Anyway, they invited me to join in, but I was too chicken... or whatever, but I couldn't make myself stop watching either. So I snuck back up to my room and grabbed my trusty big pink dong and came back to enjoy the show. Vixi crawled over here and passed out probably half an hour ago. They've been going at it off and on all night. I... oh shit, oh god yes! Oh yes! Aaahhh..." she let the semi rigid soft silicone phallus slip out of her and thump lightly to the mat as she came. Natasha was surprised at how large it actually was, about twenty centimeters long without the handle, and probably six or seven thick! Thicker at least than either Karl or Mike. "I really wanted to..." Rachel nearly sobbd, " But I can't do other girls. I've tried but I just get grossed out. It's even worse when a girl goes down on me! A guy could do it all day long, and I'd be in absolute heaven! But just the thought of another woman's mouth on me down there and I get sick to my stomach. I mean barfing sick. So, here I am, just a spectator."