Pussy Pirates
Chapter 17
Month 118—October on Anouilh
“HOW CERTAIN ARE WE that no one knows?” Space Cadet asked. The two of us were sitting in the control room on the top floor of the resort. No one actually even knew this floor existed. The circular shaped resort was perfect for the advanced simulator. As far as anyone had been told, the pilots would be flying out of St. Jeanne d’Arc. The Captain and her bridge crew would also be in a simulator, thinking they were actually aboard the ship. The simulators would do everything the ships could do except move.
It was risky. It all depended on how good their approximation of the ship was. Ubie had built the modules to exactly match the ship being built in the asteroid belt. I shook my head and walked into the briefing room. If one or more of these beauties hadn’t figured out we were going into a more advanced simulation, I’d guarantee they would soon. But the thing was, they were trained to consider everything a game. They’d willingly suspend their disbelief as soon as they strapped into their modules. The twenty-one pilots and the bridge crew stood until Space Cadet and I were seated and Captain motioned them to sit down.
“This is going to be our first time on the ship and flying from the ship. Even though it isn’t finished,” Captain said. “That gives me the willies. Ubie, you’re sure it’s safe?”
“Captain, the areas you will be allowed to go are completely safe and operational. Unfortunately, you will be unable to explore the whole ship as parts are still open to space.” Tatts was sitting in a separate room reassuring Ubie that it was a training game and within the game he wasn’t lying.
“Then, Boss, I’ll turn the briefing over to you.” Captain sat down.
“I can’t begin to tell you all, each and every one of you, how proud I am of you. You came here to play a sci fi game and discovered you were being trained to do battle with the dickheads. And that you were training hundreds of others. Most of those others will be fighting here on the ground. The select few that have joined you will one day have remote craft they will operate from the ground, just as you operate them in space. I can’t even begin to tell you how fuckin’ awesome that is.” I turned to Space Cadet.
“We’re going to have a two-hour training session today,” he said. “Bridge crew will be tasked with familiarizing themselves with their duty stations and clearing the Hawks for release. Understand that your number one responsibility is to act as Joan’s eyes on the bridge. You will have control for engines and altitude maintenance, except the engines are not online yet. We’ve pulled the replicators back away from the ship for this exercise. This is why we can’t work on the ship every day. We need to get you up there, get you some time weightless, learn what differences there are between the production Hawks and the simulators you’ve been using. Pilots will take a test flight and figure out your controls.” I returned to the presentation.
“Space and I are going to be in the control tower on the flight deck. We’ll be monitoring all systems and making sure everyone gets out and back. Remember, your birds aren’t armed. You can’t shoot at anything. This is a navigation only test. You won’t have the FTL engines online yet. Everything is impulse power. Find out how well your baby handles. We’ll send the bridge crew first. That way they’ll be able to monitor the action and go through the steps for launch. Space will head to the tower, and I’ll stay here until each of you has transported and arrived on the flight deck.
“Remember to move off the pad so the next person can come through. Your birds are ordered in your triads. Remember, you have a team. Don’t run away from them. Right now, we’re seven triads. With luck, by the time the next class graduates, we’ll have three times that number ready to fly.
“Don your helmets. They are your link to the ship AI and the ship AI is your link to life. Go directly to your bird. The hatch will open and you’ll mount up. I’ll transport to the control tower and we’ll run all the system checks for the flight deck and the bridge. Remember, St. Jeanne doesn’t open the pod bay doors until we’re sure everyone is operational.
“Approximately thirty minutes into the exercise, your canopy will close and you will be in your airtight cocoon. We’ll run another series of checks, including your link to the bridge. When we are certain everything is a go, we’ll depressurize the flight deck. The bay doors will open and you’ll be given your startup sequence.
“We will launch you one triad at a time. You will proceed to your designated coordinates and turn to face St. Jeanne. You’re going to see how little of her is finished. But I’m assured the central core is complete and now we’re just building out the decks. Then you will, as instructed, return to deck and park. Once all crews are in the hangar, we’ll seal up the doors and repressurize the deck. When we’ve verified that we have atmosphere, your canopies will open. Then we’ll all transport back here for debriefing and let the replicators get back to work.”
Everyone looked worried. They were about to go into space for the first time. One hand was raised. I nodded to Captain.
“Pixie? You have a question?” Dakota asked.
“Yes ma’am. Can we use the bathroom before we go? I suddenly really need to pee!”
Dakota heaved a sigh of relief.
“Okay, ladies. The Hawks have a urine filtration system that will suck anything you release into its recycler. But there’s no sense testing that first thing. Hit the head. Then get back here in triad ranks. Let’s move!” The girls ran out of the conference room and down the hall to the restroom.
“Sort of makes sense,” I said. “If I let go up there, I have to wait for nanites to clean my suit. I’m going, too.”
The girls filed off the transport pad into the sudden feeling of two-thirds g. It was nothing like the weightlessness of the moon’s sixteen percent g, but it would put a significant spring in their step. Four other engineers had been detailed to the transport pad to steady the girls as they landed. Two more were on the bridge for the same purpose. The guys had been carefully trained to maintain the fiction of actually being in space.
Each pilot went to her bird and the four engineers walked down the line making sure they were secure and that the canopy was sealed when it lowered. Space and I checked in with each pilot to make sure she was comfortable and secure. We calmly talked to those who were stressing and Ubie shot extra oxygen into the capsules to help calm them.
“All pilots secure,” I announced when the last canopy had closed.
“Clear the flight deck,” Dakota instructed from the bridge.
“Flight deck secure,” I said when the engineers had moved into their secure room.
“Depressurizing flight deck.”
“Flight deck depressurized.”
“Initiate power in all Hawks.”
“Power initiated. Hawks are alive.”
“Open the bay doors.”
“Bay doors opening.”
KC was nervous. She’d been measured, molded, and prodded to get a seat in her cockpit that was the right size so she could easily reach all the controls and not run into her knees. At six-two, she was the tallest pilot by several inches. But as she settled into her cockpit, the seat molded around her as comfortably as her helmet. The Hawk was truly a second skin.
When the canopy closed, the inside was lit only by a dim glow. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and when the power was initiated, everything gradually brightened until she could see her controls and—more importantly to her—see outside. In front of her, she could see the bay doors open and the emptiness of space beyond them. She knew it was all on her display, but it felt like she was looking right out the front of her craft.
“Alpha flight, you are cleared for departure at docking speed.” She saw the first three craft—Misty, Pixie, and Babycakes—move out of the bay and disappear. It was that quick. Without the contrasting light of the bay, the sleek Hawks looked like they just disappeared when they moved out of the light.
“Alpha flight launched. Proceeding to coordinates. APP-001 moving out. Shit, this is unreal!”
“Alpha flight, we confirm you are on trajectory to stage point one. Beta flight, you are cleared for departure at docking speed.” The three craft to KC’s left lifted from the deck and moved smoothly into the dark.
“Beta flight launched. Proceeding to coordinates. APP-004 moving out. Unreal? Shit! This is better than sex!”
“Beta flight, we confirm you are on trajectory to stage point two. Gamma flight, you are cleared for departure at docking speed.” KC’s fingers moved automatically on the control panel and she eased her Hawk up and out of the bay, quickly tapping in the designated coordinates. She’d practiced every day for the past two years. She was one of the hottest simulator pilots in the crew. She’d gained a following of over a hundred gamers and had sold VR controllers so they could play with her. If she wanted to just can all this and go back to California, she’d be rich. But she didn’t want to go back. She wanted to fly.
“Gamma flight launched. Proceeding to coordinates. APP-007, Bond, James Bond, moving out. Hey! They moved the dorsal pivot control! What else is different?”
“Gamma flight, we confirm you are on trajectory to stage point three. Keep investigating Cutie. We thought everything was the same as in the simulators. Everybody, run full control checks as you reach your pivot point. Delta flight, you are cleared for departure at docking speed.”
KC was paying more attention to her controls than to the visuals. She was peripherally aware of a light marking one of the replicators and took up her station with her wingmen.
“APP-008, confirm ready state and control functions,” KC said.
“This is Peanut. APP-008 confirms ready state and control functions optimal. Can we turn and face the ship now?”
“Give us a minute Peanut,” KC said. “APP-009, confirm ready state and control functions.”
“Ow! I mean this is Skitty. APP-009 confirms ready state and control functions optimal. I hit myself in the face. This no gravity stuff is bitchin’.”
“Okay,” KC said. “Gamma flight, execute Red Rover pivot. Mark.” There was no discernable motion, but the view in their cockpits rotated until they were facing the ship. They were in time to watch the last group, Eta flight, lift from the flight deck and move out toward them. For a minute the last three birds remained silhouetted against the open bay.
“Holy shit. Would you look at that fucker?” Peanut said. “We’re going to live on that! I can’t wait till it’s finished!”
“Yeah. I wonder what it’s like to fuck in low-g?” Skitty said. “If it’s anything like controlling my hands, it’s going to be messy.”
“I wonder if I can get Boss to try it out with me,” KC said. “I’m wet as hell!”
“Pilots of the Anouilh Pussy Pirates First Squad! Congratulations! You have made your first weightless flight into the big black. Bridge crew, congratulations! You tracked and directed your first maneuvers. And we’re all back on Earth!” I said to the girls in the briefing room. Docking after the exercise had gone as smoothly as departure. I had to laugh at that. Why wouldn’t it?
“We need some kind of celebratory ritual that marks first flights,” Captain said.
“Shots!”
“Fucks!”
“A new dildo!”
“All right,” Dakota said. “Shots it is. Fucks and dildos if you can get them.” The door to the briefing room opened and one of the bartenders rolled in a portable bar and began pouring shots of tequila. The girls grabbed their libations and when they all had their lime and salt, they stood in a circle around the room. Space Cadet, the six engineers who had helped on board, and I joined them. “Here is to a tough bunch of sex bunnies,” Dakota said. “We’ll be doing some fine-tuning and getting our speed up, but this was the day the Pussy Pirates went live! This is the day we joined in the defense of Earth!”
“To Earth!”
“You did good, Boss,” Tatts said. “And so did you, Ubie.”
“I felt a little guilty about lying to them but you said it was just a part of the training game, not really a lie, right?”
“That’s right, sweetie. In virtual reality we have to maintain the fiction. And we don’t talk about it otherwise.”
“I hear you, buddy,” I said. “I felt guilty about it, too. Especially that whole ritual for first trip into space when they really haven’t been past the top floor of the hotel. But the simulation was incredible. I even believed I was up there. It might not have been completely honest, but we did a good thing, bro.”
“You’re right, guys,” Tatts said. “The ship is still too far from complete to make them wait until everything is finished. They’d lose their edge. They’d lose their enthusiasm. And they’d lose their game teams. They’re in their chatrooms now, talking to their fans about their first flight up and how different it was than the simulators. They’ve got dozens of guys in each chatroom drooling over their wet pussies. Every one of those girls was near or over an orgasm by the time she got back. Gypsy came as soon as her Hawk lifted off and again when she turned around to look at the St. Jeanne. There’s no way any of those girls would ever believe that was a simulation. Believe me. I’m your shrink. You did good.”
“How about the strain on your systems, Ubie? Any problems? Any loss of performance?” I asked.
“Negative, Boss. The sensory connections through the helmets made it like I had hands in every unit. The training has been important so they know deep inside what they are doing. I only need to give them a nudge and they turn the ship exactly like I want it. As we become more and more integrated, it’s going to become instantaneous across the neurological network. I feel… more alive than ever.”
“Ubie baby, that’s so good to hear you say,” Tatts said. “Remember honey, it’s not just a feeling. You feel alive because you are alive. The rest of us, the pilots, the crew, even the engineers, are all in a symbiotic relationship with you. We exist together, not just apart. I’m so proud of how you’re growing up, Ubie.”
“Gosh, thank you, Rachel. I’d um… maybe we could go someplace private for a while.”
“Maybe we could, lover. See you later, Teddy. Don’t bother us for a while.”
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