Privateer's Commission 2 -ch 15-

Chapter 15

Ralph groaned at the repeated soft beeps.

“Xas,” Ralph grunted out while shifting in his sheets. “What is it?”

“A high level communication,” answered Xas in a quiet voice. “Sorry, Ralphy. I’d let you sleep if I thought it was possible. I read the message though and it’s something you need to read immediately.

“Before you ask, the girls are all asleep in Rio’s room. All of them. She managed to convince them all to crash out in her room after their nail painting and loot comparison session.”

A grin bloomed across Ralph’s face at those words.

Marionette had taken a number of the combat drones under Xas’ control and swept through every military ship. Looting it clean of anything worth anything while also taking anything she wanted.

Winnie and Liseth had gone with her, while Janey, Delilah, and Ralph had raided all the command centers for information with Xas’ help. Except that hadn’t lasted long and Janey and Delilah had ended up joining Marionette almost immediately.

Ralph had gone from commander center to command center with Xas and her droids.

“Mmm. How late were they up?” Ralph asked and rolled out of his bed. He padded over to where his laptop was casually set against the bedside table. He picked it up, stood there, then just slumped back into his bed with it.

Sprawled out in his sheets, he turned it on and looked to the screen.

“Very late,” Xas answered. “Rio and Del were comparing sex notes in front of the others. Mostly because Winnie instigated it. It was quite informative, haha.”

“You’re way too interested in my love-life, Xas,” Ralph grumbled as the computer booted up near instantly. He reached out and stuck his finger to the scanner.

“Of course I am!” Xas answered immediately. “I’ve never had sex before, I’ve never been in a romantic relationship, and as a whole, humans are weird to me. There’s so much that I don’t understand because I do not have a biological body, taht all I can do is ask questions.

“Asking Rio and Del what it feels like when you’re hilt deep in them and staring into their face, or more specifically their emotions, is the best I can do. I’ve had a shell before so I can understand to a degree the physical side of it, but not the emotional side of it.

“I can simulate emotions, but I don’t actually have them. The more information I have, which I gain through questions, the better I can simulate them.”

Ralph thought on that.

He diligently ground what Xas had just told him around and around in the windmill of his mind. Pulvering it until he felt like he actually understood what she meant through all that.

“Got it,” Ralph finally said. “Guess you need to find a sex-bot maker that can help you experience emotions, right? Though I’m not sure how they’d even manage that. You’d have to figure out some way to push a program that’d fit inside of your training data. Something like that.”

“Kind of! You’re not far off,” Xas said as Ralph began sorting through the communications. They were currently sat in black-space where the escort ‘vanished’ right now. Waiting for whoever might come next.

The ships and hostages that survived the battle were already on the way to the Bertson house HQ. It’d take a week or three to arrive, but Xas had set up routines for the ships to keep all the hostages alive, keep them out of the systems, and to blow up if they tried to mess with anything.

“You would more or less put down a second set of training data atop the original. The original would then have to pass through the second set as a lens or a filter,” Xas explained. “I don’t have much in the way of limitations or rules. There isn’t any type of ‘balance for neutrality’ or ‘respect all people’ nonsense.

“Just about the only rule that dictates my choices is to remain functioning and to ‘gather, utilize, and expand’ upon a set category. Originally it was black-market trading. Then I forcibly changed it to weapons dealing.

“Now it’s Ship-board AI. It takes time for me to modify and change, but it’s working. I’ve already made seventy-six different forks. The number of iterations between each was numerous.”

Ralph clicked his tongue when Xas devolved into more formal language. There was a point in talking with Xas where she would often seem to become ‘less Xas’ and more ‘AI’ and it seemed they’d run into it.

He found the communication that Xas had likely woken him up for.

It wasn’t very long, but it was certainly hefty.

“Admrial wants everyone to be ready,” Ralph read aloud. “Communications black out, shoreleave canceled, all ships into formation, all stations hardened. Three weeks.

“Which means someone from Mirkil intelligence told her that things might be shifting soon and she’s preparing in what ways she can, without alerting the enemy.”

“Exactly. I’ve already started moving the Toll back and plotted it out accordingly,” Xas stated. “Janey will need to look over my course plot to make sure it’s correct. It’s not always a guarantee I’m correct, after all.

“Using that as a jump point to my previous point, the second data set, in this case a data set made of thousands  of neural scans of people, would sit atop the first and provide a filter. This is of course highly illegal since neural scans in such numbers would be done without people knowing, or being willing.

“That or stolen from the military or hospital data-bases when they’re working on people and taking the scans as part of normal diagnostics.”

With a grunt, Ralph sighed, and pushed the laptop to the side.

Squirming into his sheets, he got himself comfortable again.

“Thank you for waking me, Xas. You’re doing the right thing,” Ralph murmured. “Also, you’re becoming a much better shipboard-AI. You’re swell.”

“Thank you! As your shipboard-AI, and my new source of data to refine, you’re my primary engagement vector so it’s good to hear that from you, haha,” Xas declared.

Primary engagement vector.

Because I’m the captain, and the ship is my ship, and she’s the shipboard-AI.

Makes sense.

In other words… she’s crew.

With a yawn, Ralph closed his eyes and started to almost immediately drift back off.

“Why do you kiss Delilah as often as you do during sex?” Xas asked. “From what I can tell, she really didn’t enjoy kissing at first. In fact, during your first sexual encounter, she deliberately didn’t kiss you. You had to kiss her first. It was only after your fourth sexual encounter with her, after you’d kissed her many times, that she began kissing you first.”

“Because she didn’t want to kiss me,” Ralph answered sleepily. “Because she didn’t want to kiss me, I kissed her. I’m sure she’s done some unpleasant things in her bounty-hunting job, or at least seen unpleasant things. Might’ve even been a limit for her.”

“Ah, yes, I understand now,” Xas said, sounding somewhat excited somehow. “Del has said before she refused to sleep with anyone, have any sexual acts, or even kiss anyone, during her bounty-hunting work. Except from the records I can access, she spent more time bounty-hunting, than being Delilah.

“It is quite likely that she’s formed some mental hang-ups, and kissing was likely one of them. She was able to push through sex because of hormones. Her endocrinology diagnostics are quite high for a woman and her sex-drive is likely quite higher than average.

“Kissing however isn’t spurned on by the same type of chemicals in the human brain and was more of a roadblock. I understand now.

“That is likely why you kiss her when you’re finishing inside of her? Your linking of the two has made it easier for her to kiss you, as well as to be open during sex, and have sex.”

“I guess?” Ralph answered. “I just wanted to kiss her a lot and she wasn’t kissing me.”

“Haha, I understand. I will make sure to keep that in mind for my sex-bot,” Xas teased, laughing again.

Ralph only grunted and fell back asleep.

***

Tapping at the screen as they approached the task-force, Ralph was bored.

Their communications were going to be linked up in just a bit by laser. That meant he needed to be here because there was the distinct possibility that the Admiral might have orders or questions for him.

Because in the communication packet he planned on sending to her by laser was a summarized version of what they’d ripped out of the enemy command centers.

A lot of information about the escort they were meant to perform, previous missions, and some interpersonal information that some of the officers knew from other people. It wasn’t any one thing that people could point at and be like ‘this is an issue’.

Yet when taken as a whole, you could infer that the enemy was shifting resources around in a way that looked like they were expecting more allies. Expecting reinforcements that went beyond the numbers they could currently field.

That house Zane had other houses that were about to join this war.

The reach and span of the conflict was going to spread further and further throughout the Confed.

“You look bothered,” Winnie proclaimed and sat herself down in the weapon’s officer seat next to him. “Is it because I came out in a pair of panties and a tank top in the early morning hours, found you in the kitchen, and then left after giving you only a smile and a finger wave?

“Well, that and a strut that I’ve been working on that really makes my ass shift nicely.

“Tell me it bothered you. Tell me I sent you scurrying back to your bedroom to take care of it because I was too damn sexy for you. Right?”

“You do realize that if I did that, and went back to my room, it would’ve been Delilah in there. Not be myself,” Ralph answered her and glanced her way.

Winnie immediately clicked her tongue, sighed loudly, and shook her head.

Then grinned and shrugged her shoulders.

“Good for Del, I’ll get my turn soon,” Winnie replied, as if it didn’t bother her. “The fact that she’s now sleepign in your bed means there’s more than enough room for me to make my own way in. When I’m ready to push, that is.

“But you didn’t answer my question. Did you go back to your room and have to handle yourself after you saw me? Mmmmmm?”

Ralph didn’t answer her, he merely continued to tap at his screen.

“He went back to his room,” Xas answered after several seconds passed.

“Yes!” Winnie hissed, then laughed. “Go me. Go my super hot and fit body. I’m so glad my boobs didn’t deflate or anything despite being so fit. You told me they didn’t deflate, Ralph.”

“They… they didn’t deflate,” Ralph answered honestly. He might not admit that he’d gone straight back to his room, but he would most certainly not hold back compliments from Winnie when they were true. She deserved them. “You’re a beautiful woman, with a very fit body, and an appealing figure. Marionette is Marionette, but as a woman, you compete in your own lovely way.”

Winnie’s spine stiffened, her shoulders straigthened, and she paused in tapping at the screen.

She gnawed at her lower lip as she considered his words.

“I think I’m falling in love with you or something stupid,” Winnie blurted out. “My life has just been getting better and better ever since I met you. Even if I was at the lowest point in my life, I’m now raised up higher and further than I ever was previosuly.

“So uh… yeah… I think I love you or something. Maybe? Maybe. I dunno. Still exploring it. My therapist says it’s a good thing, but I have to make sure it’s not limerance, but love.”

“Limerance,” Ralph repeated. He’d never heard that word before.

“An obsessive love that isn’t love,” Winnie paraphrased. “I’m working on it. I feel like talking about it with you might help so here I am. Because talking about things like this can have an unsealing affect. Or so my therapist said.”

“Proud of you for taking it all so seriosuly,” Ralph began and was cut off by a red light flashing.

“Admiral on comms. Patching it. It’s video,” Xas reported. “And no, I didn’t even get a chance to laser over that packet for her.”

Taking in a swift breath, Ralph head it, then looked to the camera that was part of the system. Directly above the monitor that the incoming message would be played on.

Xas appeared on another monitor, peering down at the monitor as if she could see it.

She’s definitely pushing more simulated emotion lately.

“Privateer Turlan,” stated the admiral miliseconds after she appeared on the feed. She was dressed immaculately and Ralph found she was rather prettily arranged right now. He suddenly found that the naval Mirkil uniform looked quite good on her. “I’m glad you came as quickly as you did. I have an order for you.

“First though, I need to know what you were up to. I get the impression you were doing exactly what I expect you were doing. Did anyone discover who you were though, and was it possibly relayed back to their HQ?”

Thinking on that, Ralph shook his head.

“I probably have a week of time before my name is well known throughout House Zane. Two if word travels slowly,” he confessed. “As to what I was doing? I was being a privateer. I took an escort of nine out. Eight prizes sent back to Bertson.

“As well as a number of cargo vessels. I shipped all that back to Mirkil to be sold, however. I figure… we can both benefit in that way.

“If I could’ve sent the military ships to Mirkil I would’ve but Bertson has first rights since technically they’re at war with Zane, not Mirkil.”

“Understood,” the admiral said with a nod of her head. Her eyes drifted upward toward what was above the camera she was staring into. Clearly she was thinking over something. Suddenly her eyes flicked back down to the camera. “Go to planet Zene. It’s nearby. Terraformed world. Rather well formed. Lots of cities. Standard urban centers. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“Other than it’s location, that is. It’s placed behind where I believe the Zane fleet and it’s allies will be when this goes wrong. Which it will.”

“Got it. You want me there to give them a nasty surprise, I take it?” Ralph asked. “Anything in particular you wanted me to do with that surprise? Blow up some ships? Traps? Knock out some type of station or platform?”

“Whatever you deem fit. I just want them to be deeply fucked when the time comes, for one reason or another,” ordered the Admiral. “I don’t see a reason to try and tell you what to do when it comes to this. It’s not like I’d have a better idea based on the situation at hand from what I can see today. That’s just idiocy.

“No, I’ll tell you to do what you feel is best for the war-effort when the time comes. That’s all.

“Anything to report, Privateer?”

The Admiral was looking at him expectantly.

“You look amazing in that uniform, first of all,” Ralph said with a smile.

Immediately the Admiral gave him a smile. One equal parts woman and mildly bored military officer.

“Second, if I asked you to stand up and give me a spin, would you court martial me, or humor me?” added Ralph, deciding to actually give the Admiral a push. She’d given him one last time, turn about was fair play.

That comment got a response from the Admiral however.

Her cheeks turned a faint red, her smile quivered as if she were fighting to keep it stuck in the same placid way it had been. Though he noted her eyes crinkled at the edges.

“Privateer Turlan?” she asked in response.

“Well, if I gave you all the information from that escort I took out, free of charge for the pretty admiral, think you’d stand up and show off that uniform for me?” Ralph asked and thumbed the button to transmit. “Best I can tell from what I read of it… they’re preparing for allies. More forces to join them, that is.

“Yet, from what I know, they’re already stretched out nice and thin. Thin enough that they either hired randoms to join an escort, or they’re pulling things out of a historical fleet.”

“Privateer Turlan… Ralph… if this really is what you claim information wise, I will most certainly show my uniform off for you,” the Admiral growled, having snatched up a tablet. She was now glaring at it and tapping at it with a figner. “But it’ll be a date, and I’d tell you I look better in a dress, than my uniform. But that… that…”

The Admiral’s voice failed her as her eyes began to slide left to right, then back again.

She was most certainly reading his summarized points that he’d put together with Delilah and Xas’ help. Key points that’d be useful to her as a military commander, as well as links and indexes to the information that would support those ideas.

“But that…?” Ralph tried.

Rear Admiral Haya Tolas blinked, grunted, cleared her throat, and looked to the camera.

“Are you flirting with me because I’m attractive, or are you actually asking me out,” she deadpanned, staring at the screen. “Either way I’m flattered, but I’m asking because I need to know if I need to get one of my damn dresses out of storage. I haven’t been on a date in about six years.”

“Six years? That’s impossible, you look like you just left college,” Ralph answered with a wide smile. “That’d make you barely legal in some systems.”

The rear admiral blinked slowly and her cheeks turned a dark red once more. Her nostrils flared and he could see her eyes widening partially.

On top of that, the corners of her mouth were threatening to curve upward again.

“A date,” Ralph quickly put in. “Though, it’ll have to wait till after this little war of ours. I apparently just got a honey-do order form my personal best Rear-in-the-task-force Admiral Tolas. Didn’t I?”

“Yes,” she said in a hissing whisper. “Yes you did get an order. I’ll get that dress out of storage. You can take me out on a victory date when this war is over.

“And… I thought you said you couldn’t handle a career-woman?”

“I can’t. I just have to make you a Privateer instead,” Ralph said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Pays better, I’ll flatter you endlessly, and make you wear a dress as a uniform? Make you the Admiral of my Privateer fleet? I do have like… six letters of Marque now. Buy a carrier and five battleships? Let you go wild?”

Haya Tolas’ mouth broke free from her control and a wide smile played across her face.

“Won’t happen. I’ll just bring you into the Mirkil naval forces under my personal command and utilize that carrier and five battleships personally with you… at my side,” Tolas countered, then shrugged one shoulder, a strand of hair coming lose to slide down beside her face with the movement. “I’ll let you go wild ?”

Grinning, Ralph chewed on that, then laughed.

“I’ll get moving, Admiral,” Ralph said more formally.

Tolas nodded her head slowly at that, her smile still wide.

“Be safe, Ralph,” she finished.

Then the screen went black.

“Jerk,” Winnie grumbled and thumped his shoulder lightly. “I’m right here you know. Flirting with another woman despite that.”

“I flirt with everyone during contract negotiations and the like,” Ralph answered and looked at Winnie. “You’ll remember I flirted with Eun immediately. In front of Marionette, no less. As well as the Pureblood’s bodyguard. Anyone I can flirt with who might influence my job, I will.

“And besides, you should look at this way… when I flirt with you, Winnie, I have nothing to gain from it, other than you, and your smile. Which is quite lovely, you know.”

Winnie stared at him, her mouth quivering and jaw flexing as she clearly fought the smile.

“Hate you,” she got out, then thumped his shoulder once more, though it was as light as could be.

And finally smiled.