A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 56

"My finger's holding down the button, Doona," Troxi replied, "If they're even seeing us at all, they're looking at seventeen ghosts spread out over the whole range and we're not the one in the middle, either."

"Arshan," Doona said, "Do it."

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There was no one in the command bunkers as they streaked in, but there were cameras.

Their optics wound in and out as the operators sent commands to try for a visual. But nothing came, not even the telltale blur which their own craft would have left. Their method was to try to catch and combine signals from different arrays to make up a workable target picture for the weapons aiming to lock onto, but it wasn't working. The Merren equipment hadn't been purchased from any Merren supplier. It had come as part of a defense deal with the Xer several cycles ago. It was outdated to what the Xer were using even then, or it wouldn't have been offered for sale.

Now it was even older, since it was used for training both attackers and defenders. Compared to what it faced in the systems on board the Xer attack craft, it was as effective as swinging a shovel at a swarm of hornets.

The Xer craft was coming in on mostly the inertia from its high-speed dash into the area, so there was little to track in terms of particle trail and there was no telltale smoke from hydrocarbon combustion. All that there was here was an eerie hiss which the audio sensors could pick up a little of but not track. And even that faded away when Doona pulled back on the power.

There were multiple threat alarms in the next instant as the systems detected the launch and direction of the inbound missiles.

The officers in the Merren range control offices were fit to pull their horns out.

Missiles from out of nowhere and with no data recorded ...

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The sensor arrays on the ground noted the release of multiple inbound threats, but even as the guns swung to seek them, the missiles were inside of the circle of defense and of twenty-four missiles, twenty-three found their targets. The last one slammed into a sensor array, destroying it anyway. Arshan retracted the racks and as they flew on, Doona switched comms to the flight's channel.

"Mud flight from Six. You're in," she said, and four more cloaked craft shot onto the range, the second-pilot in each one selecting sensor arrays to engage. They all knew of the single surviving gun and it received a little of everyone's considerable attention.

They began to call in as each one left the range to head for the rendezvous point and find a space to join the rest of the flock.

Doona twitched around to a different heading and they shot ahead, hustling across the plain, nothing clearly visible this low and fast but the straight ahead view. At the perfect moment, her visor display flashed an icon and Doona pulled back.

The craft vaulted higher, climbing suddenly while Ronkahh and Jerrthi felt the sudden lift against their backsides like a kick there.

"Anything, Trox?"

"Nothing, Boss. I think we got it all, but I'm still checking."

"Jerrthi, Ronkahh, at the end of this, I'm going to pull up a little hard, so you might want to clench your cheeks a little beforehand and I hope that you're not too prone to hemorrhoids. I'm going to loft my training bombs and you'll feel it as little upward kicks as we get lighter, but we'll be upside down then.

Oh, and you might pass out."

She was too busy to look back, but she grinned to herself anyway, adding, "Don't worry, it'll only be for a moment or two until the suits can equalize."

They climbed a bit more, and then the world turned over from Jerrthi's view as they rolled upside down and Donna pulled the power off abruptly.

The almost-silence was so strange as they coasted.

As she saw the marker that she'd set on her panels light up, Doona hit a series of switches and her bombing racks swiveled forward and down with a whine. Her speed began to drop due to the increased drag, but that was alright, she thought. That was what her on-board systems were there for -- to figure stuff out for her. She armed her automatic release and pulled up just a little.

Jerrthi heard the little thumps and clacks as the bombs left and then the racks whined up and disappeared as Doona pulled hard and Jerrthi saw only the valley floor then.

They were pointed straight down and she heard and felt the change as Doona poured on the power once more.

"Here it comes,"Arshan said in a grunt as they flattened out just meters above the plain and rocketed away in the opposite direction. Several seconds later, Doona's practice bombs landed, each one throwing up a little cloud of soil.

Thrown high as they'd been as they'd been released, they'd arced over in a long curve to impact in the middle of the depression that Xhan had marked as their target, but there was no longer any Merren infrastructure there to record the event.

Jerrthi looked over at Ronkahh and she could almost smell her excitement.

"Fuck, "the party girl said, "This is so ... I almost want to play, uh, I mean, ... well the suit and the stupid straps won't let me, you know?"

The pilot grinned at that, but said nothing for a few more seconds as she checked her fuel cell state. "Rear camera, Troxi," she said, and the specialist acknowledged.

"Can't tell from the angle, but it looks to me like they landed right in there."

"You mean, in the little hole,..." Doona grinned.

"Right in the little hole," Troxi laughed.

"Got an overhead, Troxi? I'd at least like to see my score, you know."

They heard quiet laughter from the rear for a moment and then it was quiet back there, but Jerrthi spoke then.

"Don't do it Troxi, "she said, "Somebody will think of checking the satellite access records. The Xer ID for this craft will be recorded and they'll know which craft accessed it and they'll know it was this craft."

Troxi pulled her hand away from the communications console, "You know that, Jerrthi? I mean, for sure?"

"Yes, Jerrthi said, "A Watcher will find that if they ask for it. I used to be one."

"Thanks, Jerrthi," the pilot said, "I'll be in deep enough for this as it is."

She bounced them around a little to be on the safe side so as not to present an easily tracked target to any sensors located on the ridge which now loomed larger in the windscreen.

The craft shot upward and then coasted over the ridge in a slow longitudinal roll. Jerrthi's head sagged down with the inertia and she felt the quiet gurgle in her throat as her chin tried to meet her chest for a moment.

And there was an odd sound in the cockpit as well.

"ooooooooOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo," they heard.

"What was that?" Troxi's voice came over the internal.

"That was Ronkahh," Jerrthi smiled.

"That was ... "

Ronkahh was at a loss for words, something which Jerrthi could testify happened less often than double-sun days, she was sure of it.

"I mean, I ... oh, I .... Ahhh, I can't even say it."

"You were just about there, weren't you?" Doona chuckled, "It was the same for me my first time. It's a thrill huh?"

"A thrill?" Ronkahh gasped a little, "I think I wet myself."

Doona laughed then, really laughed for a few seconds, "Ronkahh honey," she said shaking her head, "I think I'm in love."

Jerrthi's eyes opened wide at that and then it hit her. She hadn't really gotten a look at the pilot's face before the helmet was on and the visor hid her eyes.

This was the other girl who'd been dancing with Ronkahh the other night, she was sure of it now.

They were home free on the other side of the low mountain which served as the backdrop for the range. As they slid lower, Doona eased her throttles forward and they were flying again, staying in the shadow of the mountain.

"Any threats, Troxi? Any searches, anything?"

"Not even a sniff, Boss."

"Good. It's too bad about the overhead, though. I doubt the Merren range shits are gonna validate my score, but -- "

"If Troxi will help me a little later on," Jerrthi said, "and if Xhan will give his permission, I can access that from his command craft from the base. The ID won't do a Watcher any good, since it couldn't have been Xhan's craft which did the damage. All we have to do is convince him."

"Are you joking?" the pilot groaned, "He's going to skin me for this. I doubt he'll even listen long enough for me to ask."

"I'll ask for you," Jerrthi smiled, "I don't know if he'd do it, but I don't think he can be mad at me."

"I'll get it saved if we get a chance," Troxi crowed, "I'm gonna hang it over the bar, but not tonight, ' kay?"

"Good girl, Trox, you're the best, as I've always said."

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There was a huge three-way dust storm made of the incident with the base commander becoming involved as well. Xhan was instructed by his command chain to remain where he was. It took several weeks to iron things out, but it came to pass that the officer who had been sent to represent Xhan at his original inquiry was back officially with instructions to help him through the unpleasantness of this and act as an informed witness whenever he had to speak to any Merren officer about any matter whatsoever.

The range officers as well as the gunners were replaced within a week and after that, relations began to improve again as Merren workmen undertook the repair to the facilities.

But before that, on the day of the training flight, not long after the Merren military had lost almost all of the facilities which had been at the range and what was visible there now lay twisted and destroyed, Jerrthi walked into the maintenance hangar where the repairs of the damaged assault craft were being undertaken.

She looked around and wondered why there were so many Merren people there and asked Doona, who looked to be standing in a little shock.

"Oh them," she smiled, "I don't know how it works, but wrench-twisters everywhere seem to be like this. They find commonality with their opposite numbers right away and want to help. While they get it done and party like crazy afterward, our biggest issue then becomes espionage, since they're in here and crawling all over our stuff."

"Why do you look so ... I'm not sure what that expression is that I see on you," Jerrthi said.

"I went to see Xhan," the pilot said, "I expected him to tear my ears off over what we did to that range, but he hugged me instead!"

"Hugged you?"

Doona nodded, "Not in a perv kind of way. We're all like families, kind of concentric families, like a pebble thrown into water. That's why we're all so tight among us. Anyway I got there and stood in front of him to tell him that I was sorry if it caused him any trouble, but he started laughing and then he hugged me.

He said that he was prepared to remind higher—higher in the Xer command chain that the Merren had a history of that sort of "sudden accidental engagement" by their facility gunners at this base, but they mentioned it first and commended him for our actions, saying that what we did was right out of the unit's mission statement.

'That's what we do,' he told me, and that it's published publicly in any of ten thousand different places anywhere we've been. So he hugged me again and said that he was commended and he passed that right on down to me and all of the crews.

'The forty-third doesn't take shit from anybody,' he said, 'least of all Merren ground-huggers', and then he asked me if I knew anything about the right way to uh, ... "

She looked at her boots for a moment," Well, let's just say um, romance a certain kind of Merren girl."

Jerrthi stared for a second then then she laughed, "What did you tell him?"

"Xantham, do you really want to hear that?" Doona asked and Jerrthi nodded, "What do you think?"

"Well," she smirked, "I told him I didn't know and that he might want to look that kind of thing up someplace first before he puts his foot into anything. I told him that I just know about the regular kind, like Ronkahh and that to romance them is easier than farting when you sneeze."

"Why did Xhan, um,..."

"Why did he ask me if I knew?" Doona grinned, "Well I have bedded a few, they say, if you listen to the rumor mill around here, though I can't say that I've been successful with your friend yet, but hey, in a few hours, it won't matter and it's as good as done anyway while we're standing here."

Jerrthi was confused and her face showed it.

"I heard that she didn't remember Arshan keeping her out of trouble at the party the other night," Doona smiled, "She didn't remember kissing him, so she told him to just ask her if he wanted any while she was paying attention, I guess."

"I remember her saying something like that to him this morning, that all he had to do was ask her," Jerrthi said.

"Uh-huh, see her around anywhere? Arshan asked her like an hour ago, so I'm guessing that she's pretty pleased with him now. He's my wingman, you might say.

He and I are tighter than anything and Mud Six crew plays together. I'm thinking I'll get my chance."

There was a triumphant laugh through the open door then as Troxi came running in waving a piece of paper, of all things.

She jumped up on the bar and waved it around.

"It's a satellite shot of the range," she yelled.

"Right smack in the middle is the little hole -- the famous little hole -- and this shot proves that Mud Six nailed it! We fucking suppositoried the little hole! Nobody's EVER done it before!

Xhan's pleased and he sent it on to higher. Doona won't get credit from the Merren, but Forty-Third HQ sends its regards and will record the perfect score into the unit records for the way that we smoked them right in there- right in their fucking little hole -- or little fucking hole or however you want to say it."

There were yells and cheers then as Doona wandered over along with Jerrthi and now stood in a little pleased shock.

Troxi saw Doona and jumped off the bar into her arms, "You're the fucking greatest, Boss," she grinned.

"I dunno," Doona smiled, "it wasn't all that tough after you jammed them into the ground. We didn't have one threat after that."

Troxi kissed Doona in her joy and slid off the pilot. She turned and thanked Jerrthi before she ran off to go and look for Ronkahh, "I gotta find a hammer and a nail, ot a tack or something," she grinned, almost hopping as she ran off.

"Did you have anything to do with that picture?" Donna asked and Jerrthi nodded, "I just asked Xhan and told him that I didn't really understand the why of it, but that it seemed important that I get the shot for Troxi. He gave his permission and I pulled it off the satellite memory from the command craft, once they got me in front of the screen and keyboard for that. It seemed to impress Troxi some," she shrugged, "and I was happy to help."

"It wasn't exactly all that tough because it was a Merren range and they're pretty dumb, but I guess you can shine up your helmet stickers now," Doona winked, "You were there when the First killed something."

Jerrthi walked away as the other crews walked over to see the photo. She headed over to the next building, which was used to house the Xer command while it was there. Wandering around for a while, she came to Xhan's office, the place where he ruled this wild and unlikely bunch of extroverts and she found the door open. He wasn't at his desk, but after peeking around a little, she found the office bathroom and heard the shower running.

She'd spent enough time with him over the past few days to be able to recognize that one silhouette that she saw in the shower glass out of a crowd, she smirked to herself. Xer never wear very much unless they're in a hostile atmosphere, she thought.

Well some hot water in a closed-in place was about as friendly a place as there could be to a Grotto Dweller like her. She'd just want it a little darker, that was all.

Xhan wasn't thinking about anything much as he washed the sweat of the day off his frame. He was puzzling over how to approach what he saw as a delicate problem.

He knew and understood what it was that Jerrthi was carrying, but he'd found over the past little while that he had difficulty in getting her out of his thoughts. He didn't care anymore, but at one time, he'd have never had the sort of thoughts that he was having these days. Back then, it was all about finding only one kind of bitch for himself, and that was the furry kind.

He smirked to himself. It showed him just what kind of idiot that he was. He was now having difficulty in thinking of her as anything other than the lovely female that he saw her as. Even in the most polite Xer manner, she wasn't a bitch to his mind. He wasn't even sure yet how her kind mated -- well, besides the obvious. He felt a little lost, not knowing the finer points of what might be expected of him if he ever got a chance at that heart.

Other than the long hair on her lovely head, Jerrthi didn't have a single hair on her body. He'd suspected as much, but the bit of research that he'd been able to undertake had confirmed it, though he'd felt like a bit of a deviant as he'd looked it up.

All that he knew was that she felt so good in his arms. She wasn't big at all, but he was beginning to see that he wanted to be the one to keep that little naked body warm and it came to him that it wasn't only that she was somewhat exotic to him. He just cared that much.

He looked up as the lights went out. All that he had was the almost complete darkness and a little light from the little window through the thick curtain that he'd never moved. He was about to shut off the water when the glass door slid aside and Jerrthi stepped in.

"May I join you, Section Officer?" she smiled.

Xhan had to draw a breath and think for a second before he said anything stupid. "You're heart-stopping in your beauty to me at any time," he smiled, "But I think that I had better warn you, Jerrthi. As much as I want you here, Xer can see very well in the dark."

"I was counting on that," she nodded, "I wanted to be with you and so I came looking. I know it's after-hours now and I had a hope that your staff might have gone for the day. Now, I can't believe my luck, Xhan.

Here you are, just where I wanted to be. After a day zipped up in a flightsuit, well, it's not normal for someone like me to wear as much as that even in a place like an office. To spend a day sweating in a mobile tent just wilts me. I had thought of using the shower in the empty barracks where Ronkahh and I are quartered, but it's filthy. I'd have cleaned it out myself if I didn't need to get clean this badly."

She stepped over to him and put her arms around him, pulling him backward gently so that she was under the stream of hot water. He looked down as she tilted her head back under the shower with her eyes closed.

She let go of him to run her fingers through her hair for a moment and then she brought her head forward again. As she did, she looked for something and she saw it just before he shifted his gaze to look into her eyes again. He'd been staring at her little breasts.

She turned around and raised her arms. Xhan looked at her back and couldn't imagine anything nicer in a female shape as his eyes drifted down over her body.

He suddenly realized that she was speaking to him.

"Are you still in here, Xhan?"

"Yes," he said a little awkwardly, "I'm sorry, I missed what you said. Could you repeat it for me?"

Jerrthi chuckled a little, "I was asking where the soap was. I don't see it. You must have been using something, you smell so nice."

"Thank you," he almost stammered as he looked around for it, "Uh, here."

It was still in his hand.

She took it from him to soap her underarms without turning around, "Please don't leave,Xhan. I want to talk to you, if this isn't too awkward a place for you, that is."