“I approve of this,” Madalena chuckled.
“You can go first,” Sivaha said as she nodded to the brunette warrior woman.
“Thank you,” Madalena said as she returned her nod. “I am eager to cook for my husband again. I think I’ll try a--”
“Fuck that,” Zea growled. “Okay. Fine. Aasne, Elana, Paula, Kasta, Eve, and me. Done? Done.”
Elana opened her mouth to object, but then she looked at Sivaha and closed her lips.
“Ahhh,” Sivaha laughed. “Too bad. My master plan failed.”
The rest of the women laughed along with Sivaha.
“My king, tonight?”
“Yeah, that should be okay,” I answered. “I’m not sure how quickly we can get a ship. It might take a few days, but I’ll make sure we hold off until after we have dinner tonight. Also, I think eating all these nice dinners is going to make me fat.”
As if on cue, my stomach rumbled almost as loud as one of my tiger growls, and I realized that I hadn’t eaten in at least eighty hours.
“It sounds as if you will be very hungry,” Aasne said, and her intense green eyes spoke of more than just enjoying the meal she intended to cook me.
“Yeah, and I doubt you’ll get fat,” Kasta purred. “I can think of a few physical activities we can do to burn some calories afterward.”
Chapter 6
Shortly after we entered warpdrive, Aasne excused herself to prepare our dinner, and the rest of my wives and I spent the time reviewing what had happened in Eve’s and my dream. We also talked about what Yu had said, and the conversation turned into a discussion about what the meaning of his story was.
“He’s just fucking with us,” Zea spat as she reached her hands up to cup the back of her head. “He’s gonna milk us for every single drop of information that he has. He probably never intended to stop the SAVO. He just wanted the mercenary band of weretigers to steal shit.”
“That could be a possibility,” I said, but before anyone else could add their comments, Nikki raised her hand to signal that she needed my attention.
“We are coming out of warpdrive in five minutes, Adam.”
“Make the announcement. Everyone to their battle stations.”
“Yes, Adam,” Nikki said, and she quickly repeated my instructions across Persephone’s transponder system.
Then we waited for the count down in silence.
“Five,” Nikki began, “four, three, two, one. Leaving warpdrive.”
Persephone’s front screen instantly shifted to bright stars. Queen’s Hat was centered on the screen, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the station was in one piece. A dozen ships looked to be in the process of docking with the hat shaped station, and we waited for a minute before their traffic controller requested communication.
“Persephone, this is Queen’s Hat. Welcome back.” It was a male’s voice, and the tone was the typical nasal variety that all traffic controllers and news reporters seemed to possess.
“Happy to be back,” Zea said. “Where can we dock?”
“Hold a moment,” the man said, and then we waited for about half a minute. Then there was a clicking noise across the speakers, and I heard a familiar voice.
“Why, hello, hello, hello,” Juliette said.
“Hey, Juliette,” I replied.
“Hey handsome,” she purred. “I thought you’d forgotten all about me.”
“Not a chance,” I replied. “I’m here to talk with you, actually. Everything okay at the station?”
“Yep,” she replied. “I’m looking forward to seeing you. Take uhhhh, Take dock B3 again. I’m still at my station. Do you want me to send an escort?”
“Do you still have the rules about the weapons?” I asked.
“Yes,” Juliette replied, “but if you let me send an escort, it won’t be a problem for you to carry.”
“Then send us the escort,” I answered. “Everytime we walk around your station without our guns, something bad happens.”
“I get it,” she replied. “I’ve cleared my schedule for the rest of the day. Blondie with you?”
“I’m here,” Zea said.
“Good. Eve too? How about the twins? I missed you all.”
“We missed you too,” I said. “See you soon.”
“See you soon,” she replied, and then we heard the speaker beep.
“Who is this woman?” Sivaha demanded.
“A friend of mine,” I said. “She’s the security chief of the station.”
“Is she pretty?” Sivaha asked as she raised an eyebrow.
“Not as pretty as you,” Paula said.
“Oh, you are a dear,” the silver-haired woman laughed as she smiled at the engineer, but then she looked at me. “I was asking our husband though.”
“Uh, oh,” Kasta said. “Someone is having some feelings of inadequacy.”
“The bridge only has space for so many more seats,” Sivaha said as she gestured to the new chairs. “I have no doubt that I will continue to bring my husband pleasure, but others might be worried that he will only have a limited amount of time in the day.”
“Ehhh,” Kasta said with a shrug. “As long as I get to ride his cock a few times a week, I’ll be happy.”
“Sis,” Paula sighed.
“Oh, fine,” the android hissed. “His penis in my vagina until I have a mind numbing orgasm. At least more than one time a week. There? That less vulgar?”
“A bit, yes,” Sivaha laughed.
“You mind if I take her in?” Zea asked Nikki as she gestured to the controls.
“That is fine with me.” Nikki nodded at the hacker, and Zea bit her bottom lip as she reached her fingers out to take control of Persephone.
A few minutes later we had docked at harbor B3. There hadn’t been any sudden jerks or movement when Persephone attached to the station, and Nikki gave Zea a nod of respect.
“Good job, Zea,” I said as soon as she cued us to take off our harnesses.
“Thanks! I’ve been practicing with Nikki in the simulator.”
“It shows,” I said as I stood and looked to my wives. “I’m guessing that Aasne will want to stay here and prep for dinner. Anyone else who wants to stay here?”
None of my wives nodded, so I looked to Nikki. “You have command.”
“Yes, Adam,” the blonde pilot replied, and then my wives and I walked past the gunners stations and into the elevator.
We swung by the armory on our way out. I already wore my massive revolvers on my hips, but I grabbed the multi-magazine pump shotgun that Juliette had given me from her armory many months ago while the rest of my wives armed themselves.
Madalena picked her usual plasma rifle and pistol. Eve took one of the more conventional centerfire rifles that we had looted from Cynthia Jayhee’s personal guard many months ago. Zea grabbed one of the pulse pistols, as did Kasta and Paula, but I noticed that Paula had her bulky drone wrist control on her arm, and I figured that both her and her twin would have eyes in the air just in case we needed them.
Elana glanced around at the weapons we all carried and then reached for the massive sniper rifle that I had taken from the Elaka Nota grunt when we had last fought them on Queen’s Hat. The weapon carried bullets larger than my fingers, but I shook my head, and she paused her reach.
“It’s a little too heavy duty,” I said. “We aren’t supposed to have any weapons. Keep it rifle or shotgun.”
“Understood,” she said, and then she reached for one of Nordar pulse rifles.
Sivaha was wearing one of her usual low-cut dresses that showed off her perfect cleavage, and she slung one of the submachine guns over her shoulder. I half expected her to spread her legs and holster one of the small pistols to her inner thigh like she normally did, but she had either already put one there when I wasn’t looking, or she didn’t feel the need.
“Guess we don’t really need to wear armor anymore with the aegis,” I said as I looked at my wives. Madalena and Elana wore their figure fitting Vaish uniforms with pants and a jacket. Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta still wore their skin tight Persephone flight suits. My eyes settled on Kasta, but she spoke before I could ask her my question.
“The aegis works for me!” She chuckled and then pointed at the amulet on her neck.
“Of course, it does,” Sivaha said. “Why wouldn’t it?”