A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 57

She stepped a little closer then, "If you can't be bothered to learn a little about the place where you are employed by contract, that's fine, Cerrith, but don't make the mistake of thinking that I am one of them.

There are three Watchers currently looking at this vessel and they are wondering why it is that they cannot get in past a certain point. All that they see at the moment are hydraulic pressures from a screen that I accessed in the Engineering section. But it will not stop them forever. Their chances improve with each moment that you blink at me.

Please disconnect and stop lying to me as well.

You're not half as good as you think, and by the way, I've read the erotic story that you have open behind everything there. The ending is a disappointment."

Cerrith spun around from the grip of Ter'l's hand on her upper arm. "Disconnect as requested please and now."

As Cerrith complied, he growled at her, "Who made you the spy? The correspondent asked for a courtesy from you. She had my clearance for what she requested. Just do as she asks. If you hadn't been tagging her attempt, I wouldn't have gotten my ear blown off by our own HQ just now.

Your wanting to ride along from here enabled the Merren to at least look at our data. Not wise, Cerrith.

Do you think they were successful, Jerrthi?"

She shrugged, "If many rows of hydraulic pressure indications were of value to them, but I doubt that it would mean much to them, which is why I chose that screen. If the link is closed now, there is no risk."

He nodded and strode away, wondering how he was going to explain this to Xhan.

"Sorry, but I did nothing wrong," she said to Cerrith, "You should not have --"

Cerrith smirked bitterly, "Tagged on? Gotten out of my rack today? Accepted the tasking to the First, or ever been born? Take your pick. I'll be amazingly fortunate if this doesn't end up in my file."

She fell silent as she closed out of everything, the open page of the erotic story being left there for a moment. Cerrith was going to shut down and recycle just as a precaution. She looked over, "This doesn't end well?"

"No,' Jerrthi smirked, "after such a long and promising build-up and the hot scenes in the middle, one of the girls dies. I hated it."

"You like to read girl-girl stories?" Cerrith asked, a little surprised as she powered down and then back up.

"Sure. A love story is a love story sometimes, and some of those ones are really good; to me, anyway. Look, I'm sorry."

"It's alright; I should have known that you'd have been able to see what I was doing. I wanted to know how to do what you were doing."

"You could have asked me and I'd have done it for you as well -- if you hadn't been so hard to my friend."

Cerrith looked down, "I'm a little embarrassed over what I did at the party. I didn't mind having a male for a little while, and like that, it was easy not to have to see who it was, but I really wasn't there for that. I was there to watch Troxi dance. She's really fine to me and I was sure that she smiled at me a couple of times for an instant. I kind of had a little fantasy then, since I've never been with another girl, but I guess I've ruined that."

Jerrthi leaned down so that their helmets touched on Cerrith's left side, "You haven't ruined anything yet that can't be fixed. Troxi really likes you. Why not give her a chance and at least talk to her? You seemed to like what she was doing for you -- even before she started using her fingers. I was there, remember?"

Cerrith's eyes flew open at that. "That -- that was her? All I knew was that some bitch was holding me down and I couldn't look. The next thing I knew, she was gone and there was another male in me. I left as soon as he was done."

"She said something to you, I think," Jerrthi said quietly.

Cerrith nodded, "I only remember barely being able to hear somebody say that I was beautiful."

She groaned, "I had her interested enough to ... "

She shook her head angrily at herself, "I always wreck everything. It's such a gift that I have."

Her systems back up, Cerrith began to take part in the flow of messages again. Jerrthi thought she looked a little grim so she stood in Cerrith's view until she had a few moments of silence.

Cerrith looked up, "I'm very sorry for what I said --"

Jerrthi smiled and shook her head, "Listen, We're going to go get in our seats, but afterwards, if you like, I'll bring Troxi back if I can. You need me to set you up on the sats, right?"

Cerrith nodded with a slightly sad smile then, "Please."

But it didn't quite work out just that way at all. Ter'l stepped over to where Troxi sat and looked down.

"I was informed of your request. I may be able to do something with it, but, ... do you really want that? I could shuffle the crews. Xhan thinks that it might be a good idea, but I have something else in mind. Want to hear about it?"

Jerrthi wandered over and then she realized that she might be intruding when she really hadn't thought of it the second before, "Sorry, Ter'l," she said and began to back away as Ter'l explained to Troxi.

No harm done, Jerrthi," he smiled, "At least from my side of it. You may stay if you like, but ... actually, please stay where you are. Would you mind being in here when we go to battle stations? This terminal station has the restraints required. I just need to convince our friend here to stay and show me something."

He turned back, "You want a challenge? Think you can handle a real test?"

He bent down a little and smiled a little wickedly, "I want to see you handle a slightly different game, that's all. Think you've got it?"

Troxi blinked up at him, "You mean, like here? Make this go away? Sure, I can. I just don't know if I'll be able to stay awake for the whole thing. It's not like there'll be any of Doona's gyrations in here, is it?

I mean, somebody's liable to lose a writing implement or false eyelash or something. If it's the right person, we'd have to call off the whole exercise while everybody in here crawls around looking for -- "

"Can you do it under these conditions or not?"

"Sure, Ter'l," Troxi said, "Sorry for the impertinence. I'll need some tie-ins though. A line to the flight deck and one to Engineering and -- "

Ter'l pointed, "Cerrith's station is the last one in Comms section. The one next to it is the first one in Countermeasures. Sit there please and strap in. Cerrith will supply any comm tie-ins that you require. How many Countermeasures personnel will you want to assist?"

"I was gonna say none, but I'm not familiar with the panel layouts, so maybe one to point stuff out for me if I can't find it," Troxi said, "You really want to try me on this run?"

"I've got a measure of faith, Troxi. We hadn't planned on anything like this, but I saw an opportunity and Xhan concurs, so we'll do this faded today. Jerrthi, please strap in here and set your helmet to acquire the station if you want to listen in."

He indicated the station across the aisle with his hand, "Troxi?"

Troxi stood up and walked over. She sat down at the station which had been provided for her use and frowned. "I can't sit sideways to the travel of the bird. I dunno how they can do it like this."

She pulled her display out on its cantilever mount so that it was in front of her as she swiveled the seat to the left. She clamped it in place. "'Kay, this is better."

She looked over her shoulder to the nervous-looking young male there, "Are you gonna help me on this run?"

He nodded, "Uh, yes, but I don't know what you'll need."

"I'm Troxi," she said, "I guess that I'd like you to turn sideways so that you're behind me, ok? That way, if I can't find something, I can ask you."

She looked up at Cerrith, "Hey, could you please give me a tie-in to uh, who are you, friend?"

"B -- Benrad," the male stuttered momentarily, "Are you the countermeasures spec for Mud Six? The one that wrecked the range yesterday?"

"Yeah, but I didn't do that," Troxi replied without looking, her eyes moving over her display to familiarize herself with the layout. "Where are the jammers? I don't see any."

"No, but you're the one who got them in so they could do that," Benrad said in a little awe. "That's a victory for the specs in this business." he leaned over Troxi's shoulder and pointed out what she'd asked for and she nodded.

"I s'pose," Troxi nodded in a distracted way, "And thanks. Looking at you, well I'm thinking I gotta spend more time with command."

She looked up at Cerrith then, "Um, Could you please provide a tie-in to the flight deck for me and I'll need a direct to you, I think. I'd like it in one ear only, either one would be fine. Oh, and one to Engineering and I'll need to be able to access the Assault craft fight channel if you don't mind."

"Sure," Cerrith said in a bit of wonder, "But what is all of this for? Or can I even ask that?"

Ter'l smiled, "The countermeasures on this craft is normally handled by three specialists as you know. We want to see if it can be done comfortably by Troxi alone."

The gray Xer nodded, "I'm used to running the whole rig. For that, I absolutely need good comms and a feel for the bird if I'm gonna fade it effectively."

There was speech in her ear then, someone in Engineering acknowledging contact with Troxi and asking what was needed.

"I don't have direct control of your wing baffles, the heat decoy on the belly and the nav strobes. Gonna need that, or I'll need you to stand by in case I ask for it. It would be better if you can just give me access so I can do it myself, thanks."

"Why do you need that?" the voice asked.

"See, that's why I want direct access," Troxi replied, "Somebody like you is too important to be standing around down there waiting to hear what my little old desire might be next. And hey, I'm a girl and I'm liable to change my mind. It happens."

"Provide access," Ter'l grumbled onto the line, "She won't have time to explain things to you in a moment."

"Yes sir," the voice said and Troxi thanked him when she saw the previously inactive toggles light up on her display. She asked for the functions from left to right and the Engineering dweeb recited them and she threw a paper notepad down on her desktop and made a note.

Ter'l watched as Troxi used her new satellite access account to find an overhead view of the exercise area. He smiled, but made no comment.

"Is all the noise leaving the craft necessary?" Troxi asked Ter'l.

"Something this big and making this much electronic racket is easily traceable. I'm looking at our emissive profile and there are people using the Comm net on this thing to talk about what they had for dinner last night.

I don't care, but everything needs to be short and tight. You go to battle stations, and I'd like this thing a lot quieter if you want this to work. I want to hide us. Everybody else seems to want to hang out of the window and yell."

Terl got on the line again and called for communications silence from everyone. "I want no active links to even 43rd now. Any communications noise detected will need to be explained to me afterward. Once the shuttles are in the air, I want only tight encrypted traffic, and I'd better not hear any life stories either. Make your request or report and that's it."

"Any active elements out on the ground?" Troxi asked Ter'l and he grinned, "It's Merren, Troxi. What do you think?"

She nodded, "I'm gonna assume that they're out there then."

"That's probably wise," he smiled as he reached past Cerrith and activated the signal that the exercise was on and the craft was now in a state of battle readiness. The overhead lights went out and were replaced with dull red lighting.

"I'll never get why you guys like to make it look like a cave in here," Troxi muttered to herself. Cerrith was looking at her own display, but she smiled at the comment.

"You don't like caves?" the dark Xer asked, "I prefer to think of them as dens."

"I didn't say I didn't like them, "Troxi chuckled, "Just not for this, that's all."

"Ter'l," Jerrthi asked quietly, "this craft has situational cameras, doesn't it? Would there be a way to get me feeds?"

He nodded, "I'm a little busy, but maybe ask Cerrith."

The dark Xer had caught the question anyway since Jerrthi's microphone has been active at the time. In a moment, Jerrthi saw an array of thumbnail images along the top of her screen and she thanked Cerrith as she set her helmet cam to acquire the display so that she could catch what was going on in front of her without having to rely on a camera shot of a screen. This way, whatever image she chose, the camera would get a feed directly.

"Pilot," Troxi said, "this is Countermeasures. Are you on this wire?"

"Pilot, "a voice acknowledged, "Which countermeasures, defense or ..."

"All of it," Troxi said, "I'm ghosting us now," she said, "and my name is Troxi."

She looked at her Sat overhead and asked Ter'l for permission to re-access for only a moment at a time to monitor her effectiveness and he nodded.

"Not bad, but I can still see some jiggles. This looks like it's never been tuned at all."

"Benrad," she said over her shoulder, "here's how you do it."

She found the controls which would allow her some finer control and in another moment, she was satisfied.

"Pilot, are we gonna float all day and ask to get slapped or can this thing go any faster? My daddy's crop sprayer can fly faster than this and it's seven decades old."

"This is the planned-for speed," the voice on the flight deck said in a dry and barely-interested voice, "How fast should I go to please an assault craft ghoster? This is not - "

Ter'l almost barked then, "Second-pilot, acknowledge."

A female voice answered and he nodded to no one, "You have the craft.

First officer, sit away from the controls and assume the second-pilot's duties for the duration of this flight. I've got no use for a Xer pilot who can manage to sound and act amazingly like a Merren.

Countermeasures, what speed would you suggest?" He asked Troxi.

"This isn't an attack craft," Troxi said, "but I'd want at least three times our current speed. Drop the shuttles when you want and let them go to their desired speed to suit themselves once they're clear, but if this crawler gets hit hard because it's flying slow and fancy, then everybody walks. I'd like to prevent that."

Troxi looked at the area map again. "Ter'l? You didn't tell me the objective points."

He leaned over and pointed to three places and she nodded, "Where's the shuttle drop point?"

When she saw where he pointed, Troxi asked Cerrith for a tie-in to the assault craft crews.

"This is Countermeasures, " she said, and she told them their current speed, "There is now no one behind us. When you leave, look for the heat beacon if you need a reference to this craft, but it won't be visible on your heat display in other than short bursts once you've called in and are on the way back up for recovery."

When they reached the drop point a little later, the shuttles dropped away and were on their own. Shortly after that, they began to hear complaints that the pilots had no visual on the command craft.

Cerrith turned around and looked at Troxi in surprise.

Troxi winked at her as she spoke, "Well I thought that was the idea. You only need to see a reference on the way back up.

Pilot, if the shuttles are well below us, then come right one-quarter. I want us to be elsewhere now. What was the plan for a station pattern?"

"Coming right," the voice said, "We decided on a racetrack left to right at four."

Troxi shook her head, "That leaves Defense only able to provide covering fire in the middle stretches. Fly a triangle centered over the drop point behind our present position with the forward apex just behind and overwatching the nearest shuttle.

And the rear gunners need to actually be awake and sharp for this."

She looked at Cerrith again, "I'll need feeds like what Jerrthi has over there, please.

Pilot, if we had the attack craft along on this ride, we could do the racetrack. As it is, we need to be able to provide effective suppression fire all alone.

Go left back toward your original objective point and begin the pattern. I've got search signals from the ground, but only on the shuttles. I'm jamming, but it would be better if they hadn't been detected in the first place."

She turned to look up at Ter'l,"We need to be able to fade the shuttles."

"We can work on that with the Maintenance section later today. Go with what you're doing. Treat the searches as threats, but do not prosecute them as you normally would. I am certain that we have incurred enough hard feelings over the Merran gunnery range incident. How would you handle this in theory, Troxi? I'd like your thoughts."

Troxi looked up and answered after a moment, "For that, I'd need whoever's working the offensive and defensive weapons suites in my ear," she began and outlined what she'd likely do under the current circumstances.

Jerrthi sat in absolute amazement at a couple of things that she was watching. Troxi was usually such an effervescent personality that most people certainly wouldn't have thought her to exactly be a deep thinker. Well she was all of that and more, quite obviously, working to adapt techniques which she knew were effective in hiding an assault craft to the rather daunting task of concealing the command ship -- and that was obviously working better than hoped, judging by what she saw on the faces around her.

One thing that absolutely pleased Jerrthi to see was the way that Cerrith now seemed to be taking her Xer friend seriously. She didn't know what the attraction was from Troxi's side, well, besides Cerrith's looks, she guessed. She was still on the fence over what Ter'l had said to her and leaning toward the possibility that there had been something to what he'd said, though she did find herself leaning away from that view just a little slightly.

As well, she thought, ... there was something about Ter'l himself.

She thought about that as she watched him while he facilitated this ... whatever it was for Troxi. He was larger than Xhan, not quite as fetching, perhaps and he wore a little gray in his dark brown mane, but there was something attractive about that male in a general sense and she tried to think of what it might be.

As far as she was concerned, given where she was and where she lived and all of that, Jerrthi rather doubted that she'd ever even catch sight of the rare Grotto male every once in a while. The randomness of anyone's life and situation factored into that, and she knew that just about everyone that she would ever see -- while there still were any -- would be either too old or taken anyway.

She lived relatively well and worked in expensive offices whereas most Grottos lived in near-poverty. Her best chance of finding one might be to go to her ancestral home, but even there, well, any who weren't stuck in the bottle or brain-dead from drugs due to the poverty and lack of work ...

She wondered a little about the attraction that she seemed to be developing to the Xer people in general and one male in particular.

More to the point, she wondered, why was that seeming to overshadow the Xer male that she had begun a relationship with?

That was something that maybe Ronkahh might do.

She'd never had an interest in any of the other kinds of Merren males. There was too much baggage in her mind over the teasing and bullying that she'd faced at school and later on, it was the derisive sneers that she faced almost every day. Compared to a Xer...

Well, there was no comparison. All that she knew was that she didn't want this assignment to end anytime soon. The scenery alone was worth it.

It hit Jerrthi then from out of nowhere. There had been no conscious thought to it. The pieces just fell into place. Ter'l's knowledge of her speech, and of the old ways brought everything back to her from one night long ago.