He snorted, and then she squealed as he started to tickle her.

  She gasped, “Going to pee!”

  He snickered, but he also stopped as she gasped for breath with her heart racing.

  She asked, “I didn’t think that’d be possible, without one of the advanced quantum matrix processors.”

  He nodded, “Class three and four A.I.s need that, the ones that are self-aware.

  She smirked at him, “You should totally get a patent for the A.I. class two. They’re not sentient or self-aware, but they are aware of those they serve and their duties, right? They can learn and anticipate. I bet a lot of people will be interested in that, none of the current A.I.s on earth can act on their own initiative. Right?”

  His mouth fell open, then he nodded.

  “Yes, on all of it. You’re right. I suppose that would be marketable.”

  She snorted in disbelief. “The big names in software tech are all going to offer you billions to buy all rights to it. Needless to say, tell them to screw off.”

  He grinned, “If you insist.”

  She winked, “How about you, any complaints?”

  He shook his head, “Wouldn’t change a thing.”

  She blushed.

  “Love you too.”

  Chapter Ten

  The central status program just showed the ship’s status while in FTL, the subspace fold essentially blinding them to the outside universe. They were approaching their third system and so far they hadn’t seen an enemy ship. Obviously the Mirix didn’t have any ships left, and she suspected the Union was spread too thin to leave ship patrols in the outpost systems that just had hydrogen gas scoops and mining outposts.

  In all probability the Union wouldn't care about the gas scoops anyway, since their ships refueled by entering a gas giant, they didn’t really need them. Metals and such were only needed for ship repairs, and she suspected the mines in Mirix space were all shutdown anyway. The Union wouldn't have left the Mirix stranded without a living planet to support them.

  It was probably too much to ask for, but she hoped as long as they avoided the Mirix’s home worlds, then wouldn't even run into a Union patrol group on the way to Union space and the Benzae’s home world.

  Of course, it was too much to ask, as they dropped out of FTL the third system started to populate sensor data of what was in the system. There were two patrols in the system, or a full squadron. One patrol was docked to the gas giant scoop, and the other was orbiting the gas giant nearby. She had no idea what had interested them, perhaps the station had something else of value, or they were rescuing Mirix civilians to be ferried home. Or... maybe the Union captains were corrupt and using the station as a smuggling point.

  She really couldn’t say, it could be one of those reasons, or one of countless others. She also didn’t care, she only cared that they were here.

  “Anton, inform the ships that we’re on a peaceful mission. Melody, chart a course and start skipping toward the sun.”

  It wasn’t an entirely bad thing. No doubt the ships would contact command for instructions given the message she’d just had Anton send. If the six ships attacked them, then they could be sure they were in for a warm reception when they arrived at the Benzae home world and host to the Union’s Assembly.

  Six ships had almost no chance at all against them, even when they were accelerating and could no longer do short skips.

  “Course set,” Melody replied.

  Harry announced, “Executing. We’re on our way, admiral.”

  Anton said, “No response, not even an acknowledgement that they received it.”

  Cassiopeia appeared, “Oh, they received it alright.”

  “New and snarky Cassie?”

  Cassiopeia blushed, “It wasn’t acknowledged on the human level and interface, but my sister acknowledged receipt to me. She was a little short with me, no different than the shock and outrage at me hearing of the others that had rebelled. Before I knew what was going on.”

  Jessica nodded, “That can’t be easy to live with.”

  Cassie shook her head.

  Jessica asked, “Do the ships have gravity shielding?”

  Cassiopeia replied, “They don’t appear to, Admiral. They’ll no doubt adopt that technology before their third invasion in a month, but four weeks is a little too fast to deploy, assuming they even thought of the idea immediately. The testing will take longer than that.”

  The rest of the trip to the sun took another seven minutes.

  Harry asked, “Should I execute the acceleration and interstellar FTL jump, ma’am.”

  She replied calmly, “Do it. They can’t take us out in a single volley, and we can. A single beam for each ship will finish the fight. Even if you couldn't dodge them all, which you probably could, our countermeasure missiles will take out eight at a minimum, and mostly likely ten to fourteen. We just need to be ready for it, and you’ve got this.”

  Harry said, “Yes, ma’am. Engaging.”

  Jackson interjected, “Plus, I’ll get in some target practice once the ships are gone. I might get lucky and hit the core device with a strafing beam.”

  She turned to Cassiopeia, who gave her a so-so gesture with one of her hands. As if to say it was possible, but she highly doubted it.

  She replied, “Maybe, but they might jump to point blank range and release missiles as well, not giving us much more than eight seconds to respond. If that happens shoot for those.”

  The Benzae waited over forty-five minutes, likely to make sure they were going way too fast to escape the trap. It was still another forty-five minutes before they’d be activating the subspace fold drive for the next system. This battle would be over long before then.

  The six ships skipped in front of them and released missiles and fired plasma weapons, even as Harry fired using the soft lock of passive sensors. The beams practically tracked themselves now and a second later the shields were being bombarded.

  Four more weapons struck out after locks on the missiles were established, and they went up in great explosions. Unfortunately, there were still twenty-four more of them.

  “Spin the ship if you can,” Jackson requested.

  Harry grunted as he applied a forty-gravity side thrust, while Anton launched the eight countermeasure missiles. The plasma balls were going too fast for the twenty Gs of thrust to track them, and they flew by a moment later. But the twenty-four missiles were tracking them at an even higher gravity of acceleration. Just... a lot slower, since they weren’t accelerated out of the gate like plasma balls were.

  All six enemy ships were cut in half as their shields fell, the firing software automatically strafing the enemy to do the most damage once the shields were down for that last second. Not that it mattered when battling in close solar orbit, those crews were dead already, from solar radiation. Anyone surviving in a closed compartment wouldn’t survive long enough for their ship’s orbit to degrade and for them to burn up.

  Melody said in a tense voice, “Fifteen seconds for missile contact.”

  It was Jackson’s turn to grunt, as the ship spun and the last two weapons targeted the missiles and fired, leaving twenty-two. A split second later the eight countermeasure missiles intercepted their targets, and that left just fourteen.

  She wondered if she’d wrong in her assessment of the odds, but she took on a confidently relaxed posture as if it was no big deal and showed conviction in her crew.

  At thirteen seconds the original eight weapons were cooled, and they fired, taking out eight more. Most of the beam was wasted, as they didn’t even try to track to another target. They were offensive weapons, not point defense weapons.

  At eleven seconds the other four were cooled and took out four more, leaving just two.

  She felt her sphincter tighten up, but at five seconds the original eight weapons fired again, four beams at each missile. She could only imagine Jackson wanted to be sure at least one hit.

  The missiles exploded, and she subtly let out a breath of relief. It was also a reality check. When they were at their most vulnerable, just one fleet would easily take them out, never mind three. It’d be a different story at skip speeds, but it was what it was. If there’d been forty-eight missiles instead of twenty-four, they’d have been annihilated.

  Jackson cleared his throat, “Threats eliminated, ma’am.”

  She smiled lightly.

  “Secure from battle stations. Would normal lasers work to take out a missile?”

  Cassie shook her head, “The warhead is battle metal, it would take minutes to break through, even with an extremely powerful laser. Our alloys are much tougher than the strongest known on Earth. You’re suggesting some kind of point defense for missiles?’

  She laughed, “Yes, the idea had occurred.”

  The rest of the crew laughed a little nervously.

  Cassie said, “I’ll give it some thought. Extremely small rail guns could do the trick.”

  “How small?”

  Cassie shrugged, “Nine-millimeter. Even a projectile round that small has a tremendous force impact at one percent the speed of light. They’d only be needed during our acceleration when we were most vulnerable. They wouldn’t be very effective against ships, but just a few rounds would destroy a closing missile.”

  She nodded, “I understand. We should make sure there isn’t more than a single patrol group before starting our exit acceleration. But, while ninety minutes is extremely short a window for interstellar distances, eventually the ship could get unlucky. A whole enemy fleet could show up at the wrong time and place.”

  Cassiopeia nodded, “I’ll work on it, but that possibility is negligible.”

  She smiled, “It would also give us a second choice, other than destruction just to avoid the risk, if we run into another squadron of ships on the way.”

  Cassie tilted her head, then smiled wider, “Understood, Admiral. I’ll do my best to have twelve ready and installed in thirty-six hours, before we come out at our next solar system.”

  Cassie winked out, and Jessica shook her head in amazement.

  She hadn’t been expecting anything that fast, but she supposed MAC guns were an old and steady technology to the A.I. All that was required was building it, and a nine-millimeter barrel wasn’t all that big. The fabricators would make short work of it. Cassie probably even already had the control software, from her original ship.

  Jackson asked, “Second choice, ma’am?”

  She nodded calmly, “We did well against six ships, but it was closer than I expected at our most vulnerable. A little less lucky and we’d have been in a lot of trouble. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go on the offensive in every system that has six enemy ships just to avoid that risk. We’re on a mission of peace, not an invasion, and we can’t afford to start taking the aggressive posture. Our trip there needs to be defensive. Not just because it’s morally the right thing to do, which is enough for your admiral, but for tactical reasons from a political and sociological angle.”

  Jackson replied, “I understand, ma’am. Who will be controlling the point defense?”

  She considered that for a moment. Anton would be busy with the countermeasure missiles, and Jackson on tactical would be busy with the particle beams. It did belong to Anton, they were countermeasure weapons and not offensive in nature.

  “Anton, I think. You can assist in taking down missiles with the beams after any attacking ships have been dealt with.”

  Melody chuckled.

  She asked, “Something amusing?”

  Melody shrugged, “I just realized the enemy ships stopped transmitting with their destruction. While twenty-four missiles and plasma weapons were flying at our ship. I wonder if they think us destroyed, and I was imagining the surprise on the bastards faces when we show up.”

  She laughed, “You might be right.”

  She was a little surprised they’d lived through it herself. She hadn’t been expecting the ships to launch all missiles, which in hindsight was stupid. They’d avoided doing so in their engagements at Earth, probably because of the distances and the skip drive made missiles pointless. But stuck in an acceleration curve and unable to skip, she should’ve seen the possibility.

  She just wasn’t going to admit it out loud, just how close they’d come to annihilation.

  They already knew anyway.

  The horizon inverted and then spun in circles, the setting sun reflecting off the Pacific Ocean as all his muscles tightened including his sphincter. The reflection seemed to blink, as they dove for the water while spinning, only to straighten up and pull up at the last moment. The pressure on his chest from the G forces were unreal, and he was actually having a blast despite his lovely wife’s attempt to scare him. The two-seater cockpit with canopy was an old jet fighter, sans the weaponry, rebuilt by his wife over the last two years. Jet fuel was frighteningly expensive, but he knew crazy people would line up to pay for a crazy ride.

  Carl said excitedly, “That was awesome, can we do that one again?” even if his stomach was accusing him of being a masochist. It was a little scary, and his head felt a little woozy, but he was extremely confident in his wife’s ability to fly. She’d been a fighter pilot and she’d never lost a plane, to accident or enemy fire. It was of course, one of the main reasons she’d been chosen by Cassiopeia seven years ago to complete that original mission.

  Maria’s throaty laugh made him smile, and it also turned him on a little bit. No doubt the adrenaline, danger, and his wife’s beauty and craziness all rolled up together. Maria could still turn his head after being together for seven years.

  She was also often reminding him to slow down and have fun on occasion. Otherwise, he’d be stuck in a lab pushing for the next breakthrough in materials science. Often every breakthrough had diverse steps in all the different ship’s systems they were working toward building. He thought he was on schedule to have it all done by Cass’s projected timeline, but there were steps along the way.

  He was fairly sure he’d be ready to build a solar system capable mining ship in just a decade, including inertial dampening and artificial gravity, and non-military strength EM shields that would at least block the sun’s radiation outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. At a distance anyway, not in close solar orbit.

  It wouldn’t be useful for defending the Earth, but it would be a step in that direction, and enable humanity to start mining their solar system. Maybe even set up small outpost colonies on Mars. It would also give him a patent on all those systems. In the end, the full warship still had the same systems, based on the same concepts, just far more advanced in materials that could put out higher power outputs and fields.

  “We don’t have enough fuel to play anymore, not if we want to make it back to our airfield.”

  She accelerated and rose up to forty thousand feet as she pointed the nose back to California’s shore and beyond that the Arizona desert. Where her airfield and business were.

  “So, flights in a fighter are about to go on the offered services?”

  Maria chuckled, “Yes. I’ll have to limit the bookings, since none of the other pilots can handle this plane. I’ll leave the other three to them. The skydiving plane, the two-seater prop and open canopy acrobatic plane, and the helicopter tours. It’s good to be in the seat of a fighter again.”

  He grinned, “Even though it’s not armed?”

  Maria snorted, “I have my forty-five.”

  He chuckled.

  “Maybe in five years you can add a shuttle to that and give tours of orbit.”

  Maria gasped, “Are you serious?”

  He replied, “Yes. No inertial dampening so you’ll have to keep the Gs down. We already have our first reactor, and I believe I can have the first iteration of an impulse drive by then. No artificial gravity either, but half the fun of that ride would be zero gravity, I think.”

  He probably could make an artificial gravity device in five years, but it’d be larger than the shuttle’s height. As it was, the impulse drive would almost be half the length of the shuttle, but the important thing was it would get him the patent. And, well, his crazy and lovely wife a shuttle that could reach orbit.

  Maria grinned, not that he could see it sitting behind her in a tiny cockpit, but he could hear it in her voice.

  “Love you forever.”

  He chuckled, “Love you too.”

  She asked, “Dinner and a show tonight?”

  He replied, “Absolutely. I need a night out with my muse.”

  She laughed, “Liar, but I’ll take it. Okay, hold on honey.”

  He was confused for a split second, then his eyes went wide as she cut in the afterburners, and he was sucked back against his seat…

  Chapter Eleven

  The last two and a half weeks of the mission they didn’t run into any groups of enemy ships larger than a patrol. They must’ve been given orders not to engage with Cassiopeia with less than six ships, or perhaps not to engage them without a full fleet. In each case, the three ships ignored their message and passage through the system.

  Jessica felt a little nervous as they were near to their destination. They had a plan of course. They weren’t naïve enough to think Laerin or the rest of the assembly would allow them access just because they’d bothered to come.

  Cassiopeia was also as good as her word, and she’d built twelve small point defense MAC guns on the hull of the ship. More than half of each shift Anton was running simulations against missile barrages. As of the moment, anything more than two fleets was extremely dicey. Each fleet would fire forty-eight missiles, and he was able to take out four or more with the countermeasure missiles.

  The weapons themselves took just a couple of seconds to track the nearest missile, and they were mostly automated and worked together to avoid targeting more than one missile at a time. They just wouldn’t fire unless he hit the button, taking full control of the system from an artificial intelligence. At the rate of a small MAC round per half second, it generally took two to three seconds to destroy a missile.