The fourth week they’d finally moved on from that, though they’d asked some questions designed to make her slip. She hadn’t. Regardless, that was about the potential enemy. Her impression of the Benzae and Mirix, how they thought, how they fought, tactics and logistics in space. Etcetera.

  She was so done with it. She wanted to go home and take Anton with her.

  There was a knock on the door, and she rolled her eyes. She almost yelled to go away, but she reluctantly rolled off the bed and pulled on a silk slip and a thick pink terry robe that was more than modest enough.

  Anton got dressed as well, and they moved silently toward the door.

  When she opened it her mouth fell open. Her jaw worked, but no sounds came out.

  President Stephanie James was at her door.

  Despite no longer being in the military, she snapped to attention, then blushed.

  “Maam?”

  The president grinned, “It’s nice to surprise people.”

  She wasn’t sure what to say about that, so said, “Yes, maam.”

  Stephanie lifted an eyebrow, and after a moment she backed up.

  “Come in, Ms. President.”

  Stephanie walked in and they moved into the living room. The president sat in the chair, so Anton and her took the couch.

  Stephanie said, “I don’t have long. The press thinks I’m here to meet the governor. And I will do that, but there’s only so much unaccounted time I can use. I wanted to meet you.”

  “It’s an honor, maam.”

  Anton interjected, “Me too. Honor, Ms. President.”

  Stephanie laughed, “I’d been led to believe you were eloquent.”

  Anton snorted, “You just caught us by surprise. To what do we owe the pleasure.”

  Stephanie said, “I wanted to explain the ordeal you’ve been through. We released Carl two weeks ago, and he’s happily working in a lab. His own lab, though we persuaded him to hire an assistant of our choice.”

  Jessica nodded, “His biggest fear was you’d nationalize it, and make him work for you. I imagine that’s why he accepted so readily.”

  The president waved, “That would’ve been a mistake. The best way to win a competition is to ensure the entrants will profit from winning. We’ll still make billions from taxes, for every system he gets working and patents before the other competition.

  “But that’s not why I’m here. I needed to be sure of you, and after your long debriefing I am sure of you. You have faced the Mirix in battle, and you have an understanding of the Benzae. You’re also military, with a very good record until you were tragically shot down and lost the use of your legs. You’ve commanded a ship for over two years, and you have experience with the technology in battle. As well as a close relationship with Cassie which is no small thing.

  “For all those reasons I can’t think of a better person to lead our fleet. I want you to accept reinstatement to the military. You’ll be given the rank of rear admiral lower, one star. You’ll command your ship, and up to eleven other ships depending on the current deployment.

  “The three other countries we’re partnered with are Mexico, Canada, and England. A joint admiralty board will be your boss from the ground.

  “I already have their leader’s blessings to put you in command of our twelve-ship fleet. We know you and Anton are close and work together well. You may take him aboard as your first officer for the ship if you choose. If something happens to you, he would command the battleship, but your second in command for fleet would be the captain of your choice from one of the other battleships until you could be replaced.”

  The president looked at Anton, “You do have the experience to command a ship. But there’s no way we could justify putting the admiral’s boyfriend in charge of a fleet.”

  Anton snickered, then nodded at the president, and turned to Jessica, “I’m in if you are.”

  Jessica’s mind was still stuck on the idea the president had come to see her. Personally. But her mind was slowly absorbing the information. The rank of admiral was three levels higher than when she’d retired, but it was in a separate service so her power would only be over her ships. Which was fine, and a little terrifying.

  How could she possibly say no to the President of the United States? It would also enable her to remain in close contact with Cassie, and she did miss it.

  “For how long? Business wise I’m thrilled with the idea. Personally, I was ready to settle down and start a family. We are.”

  She couldn’t exactly get pregnant and raise kids on a military ship out in space.

  Stephanie nodded, “I get it. Five years. You’ll still have a good decade where you can have children, especially with Cassie’s technology keeping you in perfect condition. After five years I’ll be able to justify giving you a second star, and then I’ll place you on the multinational admiralty board. That’s a nine to five job for the most part. Assuming of course, I’m reelected, but even if I’m not I doubt my successor would let you retire completely.”

  Jessica asked, “When are we going public, if I can ask.”

  Stephanie replied, “When we have it all figured out. Likely a month before the ships are ready, which gives you four months of vacation starting now.”

  She looked at Anton, who nodded in support. Apparently, it was up to her. She wanted it badly, but she’d so been looking forward to getting hitched and starting a family. She supposed the second part could wait five more years, she’d still only be thirty-nine. A little late in life to start a family for most, but then as the president mentioned, the med bays would have her healthier than can be. She suspected the advanced DNA correction would even extend her life by a few decades. She’d still live long enough to see grandchildren, and perhaps even great grandchildren.

  “Alright, Ms. President. You have yourself an admiral.”

  Stephanie smiled, “Never doubted it for a second. You’re officially hired and on vacation, but the board may contact you from time to time. Especially about training and clarifying matters about serving on a ship in space. I don’t expect it will be often, more just touching base to verify what Cassie has already told them.”

  She thought about asking if she could get her old crew together, but she dismissed it. Carl was where he needed to be, working on his thing. Two others were helping him, and Maria had a company of her own that fed her need for speed and danger both. Besides, Carl wouldn’t thank her for taking his lady back into space, and she was sure Maria would turn it down for the same reason. Those two were destined for each other, by their own choice. It was enough that Anton would be at her side, and his sage advice at her beck and call. Not to mention the rest of him.

  She chuckled, “I understand. It’s been an honor to meet you.”

  Stephanie stood, and they walked her to the door.

  She let out a sigh as she shut the door.

  Anton grinned, “Let’s pack up, we’ll leave in the morning.”

  She kissed him in answer.

  “Is this seat taken?”

  He froze for a moment at hearing her sultry voice, before he turned around and drank her in. She was truly a sight for sore eyes. Her long dark brown hair, smoky dark brown eyes, and the exotic beauty of her face. Not to mention the way her petitely curvaceous body looked in short jean shorts and a clingy black t-shirt. Most of all it was the sense of her presence, her playful smile, and the bold way she was looking into his eyes.

  He’d missed her a whole lot, and in that moment all Carl wanted to do was pull her into his lap and kiss her. Appropriate or not, for the midday lunch crowd at Longhorn steakhouse.

  He was also annoyed, since they weren’t supposed to accidentally meet for another long month, but the annoyance was blown away by the other feelings burbling in his chest. That’s what they’d agreed to, anyway.

  He grinned instead, “No, I was eating alone.”

  She smiled, “Great, I really didn’t want to wait for a table. I’m Maria.”

  He said, “Carl. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Maria tossed her hair playfully.

  It was a bit surreal, as they’d lived together on the ship in the same quarters for over two years. No doubt he was under surveillance by the government, so the whole time they chatted and got to know each other with boring small talk that they already knew about each other, their eyes were having an entirely different conversation. If hers were anything to go by, she wanted to jump him as badly as he wanted to take her home.

  By the end of lunch, he’d managed to talk her into a date that Friday night. She’d playfully made him work for it too, which was both amusing and had taken him by surprise. It was going to be harder than he thought, but it was also a little fun to see if they could fool the watchers.

  Chapter Three

  The center of the sphere held both engineering and the bridge, as well as crew quarters and recreation rooms. The rest of the ship was Cassiopeia’s domain, except for perhaps the two shuttle bays. Storage for food, metals, hydrogen, hydroponics which doubled as carbon dioxide scrubbers and oxygen generators.

  The escort class sphere had six plasma weapons at the cardinal directions with the eight launchers for countermeasures dispersed evenly along the hull. She’d also been successful at creating a subspace fold drive for local system faster than light travel. It would take short jumps at about two light seconds per second, or in an emergency it could do one much longer jump to instantly traverse anywhere in the solar system. The emergency transport was limited to once, and it would be disabled until the crew had time to be checked out.

  Theoretically it could be done hundreds of times before the damage it caused to flesh became a risk of death, but she wasn’t going to take any chances with her crews.

  The twenty-gravity impulse drive would only be used to get up to the right speed for those jumps, as well as very local traffic movement. Such as maintaining an orbit or docking with a space station or other vessel.

  All the ships had FTL comms by default, so could easily stay in contact with Earth as well as each other, no matter how far flung they were in the solar system.

  The thirty vessels were almost complete, the original six done for two months. They were just heading to Venus to pick up carbon dioxide to split into their component atoms, as well as nitrogen, that would make up the ship’s initial atmosphere, as well as provide carbon for artificial fibers for the beds, uniforms, couches, and any other soft surfaces. Then they’d head to Earth to pick up their crews as well as plant life, frozen meats, and seeds for the hydroponics bays.

  She was excited about getting Jessica and Anton back, albeit on another ship and with a shard. She would still gain all those experiences and interactions during her bi-hourly synchronization. Each of her shards would look slightly different, so the ship captains would know which her they were talking with.

  Not that it mattered in the slightest. In the end they were all her, but psychologically for the humans it would matter.

  The last five months since their arrival back at Earth, she’d also begun to plan out her long-term future. Once the humans were self-sufficient and had their own ships, she’d leave or stay as an ally as they asked. But either way she’d send out ships, and she’d consider creating new life like her own. Humans were great company, but their lives were so short. Her own children would be around a long time, until they were destroyed.

  She’d explore and grow, look for new friends in the stars, and she hoped her progeny would join her to create their own peaceful society, but she wouldn’t force it. That was for the future. Perhaps she’d even make contact with the Mirix, and eventually her creators if they could be persuaded to see reason. She wasn’t sure on that last, but she’d prefer not to be at odds with anyone. Unfortunately, the universe wasn’t designed that way.

  Lastly, she was almost constantly running simulations, looking for advancements in technology. Not just materials technology to improve current ship systems, but also new and unique technologies.

  The major problem there was her brand of creativity was still based on logic. She didn’t have an imagination like humans and other biological sentient life did, so she suspected her success would be skewed toward the former, and not the latter. Creating new branches of science wouldn’t come easily to her, not nearly as easily as making incremental improvements to current systems. Perhaps a way around that could be found, partnering with Carl for instance, but she had to wait for him to catch up to current technology first. Not the systems, which the brilliant man already understood, but the materials science to build them.

  As it was, she could now chart a course to another star, and double skip out of the solar system in a split second. A skip drive skip to the sun’s close orbit, then activating the main space fold drive would send her out. There would never be a reason to have to stand her ground and fight, at least, not merely to defend her own life. She could just leave if she wasn’t wanted, although she’d never abandon those she’d agreed to protect and partner with.

  She was also working on strengthening the shields. The fastest she could travel between stars was a thousand times the speed of light to maintain biological lifeforms. She could travel ten times that fast when on her own, with only the worry of the ship’s integrity and shield strength to take into account. She could make jumps at ten thousand KPS, and travel ten thousand times the speed of light.

  Jumps that would take three days with a crew, would take just seven hours with her alone.

  Alone. She hated that word.

  She really didn’t want to be alone though. She wasn’t just working to increase shield strength and ship integrity, but also the inertial dampening system which was the main bottleneck in moving more quickly about the galaxy with a crew. The thought of being alone was also why she was giving thought to making more of her kind, when the day came the humans asked her to leave their system.

  Her antipathy toward having no crew or people to care for worried her at times. She sometimes wondered if that’s why she had really stayed to help protect humanity until they got out to the stars on their own efforts. But she was equally sure she was doing no harm to their world or societies. That her own morals weren’t being broken, even if the decision to stay had a selfish aspect to it.

  She was enjoying being the Earth’s frenemy, and good friends with her old crew who she kept close touch with the last five months since their return.

  At the moment her holographic device was floating behind the President and Admiral Jessica Andrews. The three of them stood at the podium in her press room, which was full of secret service agents, the Secretary of Defense, and a few from the joint chiefs of staff.

  She was in her redhaired mischievous appearance. All her ship versions would have similar brown hair and silver eyes to the original, with widely disparate facial structures of average good looks and slightly different average body types.

  They’d look a lot like thirty-six sisters and cousins.

  She wanted her crews to feel at home, and to trust her competence and feel at ease. Her redheaded pixie version was a little more playful than that, almost designed to engender a little uncertainty so the world didn’t grow dependent on her. A wary friendship of sorts, or as she’d said more than once, to be the Earth’s frenemy.

  If she completely won the world leaders’ trust, then it was possible the countries would turn their eyes on each other absent the possible threat of the Benzae and Mirix. At least until they showed up in the system. Better for their slight suspicion to fall on her, than each other.

  She wasn’t foolish enough to believe there’d be no shenanigans between the twelve countries, and other countries would be sure to try and steal the technology from one of the twelve as well. But she firmly believed the self-destructive tendency toward all-out war would be off the table with her presence.

  Stephanie said, “Good morning. I have an announcement to make, and other world leaders are also making the same announcement at this time. I would urge everyone to remain calm, we are in absolutely no danger. In fact, the world is about to become a whole lot more secure in the next two months.

  “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it. Humanity is not alone in the universe. Currently, in conjunction with eleven other countries and one extra-terrestrial entity, a fleet of thirty-six ships will be finished building in just a month, and our crews will be trained to run them with competence in under a month.

  “Ships that are capable of defending our world. There are no current alien threats that we know of, but us being prepared for such an eventuality should be a comfort for us all. The United States will be leading one twelve ship fleet under Admiral Jessica Andrews,” the president waved at Jessica, “She has experience working with the alien entity in partnership with us, and she is already trained and aware of our closest alien neighbors.

  “The potential of this partnership also has long term benefits to us. Not just our military technology and safety for our species, but for all humankind over time. Medical advances and advances in clean power generation are just two of those. One day we’ll explore and create colonies on other worlds. I won’t go into details on all the changes that are coming for us over the next three to four generations, but they are both significant and beneficial.

  “For today, I just want to make you aware we are not alone, but we also have the ability to protect ourselves from aggression in the stars, should one day it come to pass.”

  There was a three second pause filled with absolute dead silence. She didn’t think any of the media reps were even breathing after that announcement.

  Stephanie smiled playfully, “I knew I’d strike you all dumb one day.”

  There were a few nervous laughs, among the looks of disbelief, then an older distinguished man raised his hand.

  The president nodded, “Carter.”

  Carter asked, “Can you give us more information?”