A New Encounter

The air car settled on to the parking pad and the First Mistress and her maid were helped from the air car by the Captain of her security detail. The other two members of her detail started to unload the luggage. The Captain led Kladnira and Teagin to the boarding ramp. The cutter was the size of an earth jumbo jet but far more luxurious. The aerodynamics were the same, but the propulsion system was very different. The launch system was an antigravity plate type, this would raise the ship silently and without the plume of fire and smoke that an Earth type shuttle needed. The main engines were gravimetric; they used a planet's gravity against itself to achieve high speed orbital maneuvers.

"Captain, would you make sure that the detail loads all of the luggage." Teagin asked. "I will make sure the First Mistress remains aboard in safety." The Captain looked at Kladnira and then bowed and moved to assist the other member of the security team.

"Pilot, would you make sure that the team loads the luggage properly for balance. We wouldn't want anything to shift in flight." Klandira asked. Both were dressed in their skin tight space suits, ready for travel. Kladnira's was completely black with a crown on each collar in gold. Teagin's was the same but her crown as silver.

"Yes First Mistress, my copilot is completing the preflight list and we will be ready in ten vestos (minutes)." The pilot informed them, bowed and left the shuttle. Teagin turned on the vid-screen showing the cargo bay being loaded.

"The next one to bow to me I will rip apart with my bare hands," Kladnira growled.

"Yes First Mistress," Teagin said bowing. Kladnira stuck out her tongue and moved to the rear of the shuttle. The attendant was sorting through the supplies in the galley. She squeaked in surprise as Kladnira appeared behind her.

"First Mistress," she stammered.

"I thought I ordered that the galley have parapace fruit on hand for this flight."

"I'm sorry First Mistress, I was not informed." The attendant said looking scared. "I don't have any at all, but the market is only a few minutes away, I could order some in."

"Do so at once, and meet the delivery at the foot of the ramp, I won't allow this ship take off without those fruits."

"Yes Mistress," the attendant said as she scurried out of the cutter reaching for her com as she went. Kladnira moved back out to the passenger area of the cutter and nodded at Teagin as the attendant hurried past. Teagin nodded back and turned off the screen and stepped into the cockpit.

"Pilot," she said with an edge of panic in her voice. "The Captain is signaling for you to join him immediately in the cargo bay. There has been an incident with the luggage and the hull; I think she has been injured."

The copilot rushed out of the cockpit dropping the checklist she was working through. As she cleared the door Kladnira watched her and waved Teagin over to watch as she headed to the cockpit and strapped into the pilot's seat. She had obtained her pilots license at the earliest possible age, she had loved the freedom it had given her, and an escape from Government House.

Teagin waited until the copilot reached the cargo bay. The cargo door was in the process of being sealed and the pilot and the captain of the guard looked on in surprise as the copilot reached them. The attendant stood to the side of the boarding ramp as Teagin pushed it away and sealed the hatch.

"Hatch sealing, good seal flight." Teagin announced formally and moved to the copilot seat.

"Engine start, antigrav plates charged, lifting off." Kladnira said. "Tower this is Cutter One taking off for orbital insertion." As the First Mistress' shuttle all traffic was halted for one deco (hour) each side of her departure window, so the pattern was empty and Kladnira had plenty of room to work.

"Cutter One, you are cleared for launch, obtain altitude of one thousand leps (meters), course three four three prior to engaging gravimetric engines. Cleared for orbital insertion directly, acknowledge." The tower voice said.

"Tower, confirm cleared for launch, obtain altitude of one thousand leps, course three four three prior to engaging gravimetric engines. Cleared for orbital insertion directly," Kladnira said crisply as she raised the cutter and pivoted to the course ordered. As soon as she had the cutter on the correct bearing she pushed the throttle forward and the cutter leapt from the port at over six hundred kilometers per hour. The cutter climbed to its assigned altitude and Kladnira kicked in the gravimetric engines and pushed the throttle to the wall. Teagin signaled the orbital station and had the yacht cast off.

"Cutter One, please respond, your flight crew is not on board." The tower ordered sharply. Return to pad immediately to retreve flight crew, repeat return to pad at once."

"Opps," Kladnira said looking at Teagin, both had been completely ignoring their com implants. "Sorry tower, we are not receiving you clearly, possible comm. malfunction. If you are receiving this we will get it checked at the orbital station."

"Mistress, please return, you cannot go off by yourself." The captain of her guard said over the comm. "You are not fooling anyone."

Kladnira reached out and flicked the comm. over to the orbital station's channel. "Orbital Station One Five, this is Cutter One acknowledge?" She had to get the intercept vectors from the station before the tower informed them that she was under orders to return.

"Orbital Station One Five receiving you Cutter One, be advised, yacht Zero One has departed from this station and appears to be heading out-system."

"Cutter One understood Orbital Station One Five, provide vector for intercept please."

"Orbital Station One Five to Cutter One, upon attaining orbit change vector to one three seven by zero four one, intercept in two zero vestos, confirm."

Teagin set up the plot on the navigation screen as Kladnira maintained her pilot's duties.

"Cutter One to Orbital Station One Five, vector and intercept confirmed. Entering orbit now and adjusting course. Will contract Yacht Zero One on approach. Thank you for your assistance One Five."

"Have a safe flight Cutter One...stand by Cutter One, we are receiving emergency traffic from launch centre regarding your flight crew please advise."

"Cutter One changing frequencies for rendezvous with Yacht Zero One." Kladnira said as she flipped the com over the encrypted channel the Royal Family used. "Yacht Zero One, this is Cutter One on approach acknowledge over."

"Cutter One this is Yacht Zero One, read you five by five." Came the calm voice of the yacht's captain. "You two pull it off?"

"Good to go," Kladnira said with a grin. "Maintain course and speed, ignore all communications from station or ground side until further notice. Log that as my instructions as this is a pleasure cruise on my authority."

"Better they pull your license than mine. We will see you in fifteen vestos. Hope you can still dock that thing while we are underway."

"You won't even feel it." Kladnira said with an evil grin. The laugh that came over the comm was just short of insubordinate.

"Well see you soon."

Fifteen minutes later the cutter docked with the departing yacht and the captain of the security detail was on the screen explaining to Kladnira that she couldn't possibly do this, in terms that one did not usually hear being addressed to a higher rank.

"Honestly Captain," Kladnira was saying with a calm voice and a straight face. "What do you think will happen when we are on a simple jaunt to Arcadia. I am sure that our Ambassador there will be able to supply any security that I require. We will see you when we return." And she cut the circuit. The ship's captain turned to her.

"Mistress, I was not informed that our destination was Arcadia." The captain said diffidently.

"It isn't, but make your jump for Arcadia on schedule." Teagin said confidently. "Then drop out of FTL on schedule for the next jump but instead you will proceed to Dalness sector all possible speed. I want us there in five turns."

"Five turns," the captain sounded dubious.

"Five turns, from now." Kladnira confirmed.

"Mistress, we have not pushed the ship like that for a very long time, and we are running with a minimal as you ordered."

"Captain, I will stand watch as will Teagin, we are both qualified to do so, this will free up officers to assist in engineering."

"Yes Mistress." The Captain said not pleased but following orders. "Helm all ahead flank."

"All ahead flank Aye Captain." Came the smart reply from the helm officer.

"I will be down in engineering, trying to keep our engineer from exploding." The captain said as she made for the hatch. "Mistress you have the conn."

"Time to jump point?" Kladnira asked sharply, waving at the Captain to wait.

"Six decos Mistress."

"XO you have the conn." Kladnira said sharply and the captain paused at the hatch. "XO, please have the chief engineer meet me in my office immediately for a conference."

"I have the conn First Mistress." The Executive Officer replied crisply, moving to the captain's chair at the centre of the bridge and touching the ship's intercom. "Chief Engineer report to the First Mistress' office at your earliest convenience." Kladnira looked at the XO and she winked back. If the First Mistress wanted to see you at your earliest convenience, you were already late. The Captain turned in the hatch and gave Kladnira a very telling look.

The Chief engineer was waiting outside the office hatch when they arrived at Kladnira's office panting.

"You need to work out a little more often Chiefie." Kladnira said with a cheeky grin.

"That will be enough out of you, you young taclo." The Chief said, straightening up and shooting her a dirty look, then she smiled and opened her arms and Kladnira walked into the embrace. "Good to see you little one."

"You too Chief, I have missed you." The hatch opened and the four walked in, Kladnira and the Chief still arm in arm.

"How is your mother?"

"The healers are not hopeful at this point, but I have not given up." Kladnira said softly.

"She will be fine; your mother is too feisty to die so young." The Chief responded, but there was little hope in her voice. Kladnira nodded but said no more.

"Let's get down to business." Kladnira said waving them to chairs and waiting until they were all seated. "The reason for this little unscheduled jaunt into nowhere is the fact that we have had a breakthrough and I need to resolve this before the council makes a bigger mess of it."

Kladnira and Teagin both explained the situation with the fleet and the council and the plans to invade the planet of the only species that could help them survive. She even explained what her mother had ordered and the remarks made by the Ambassador of this new race. The Captain and Chief said nothing for a long time after they were finished. The Captain stood and began to pace, her favourite thinking posture and the Chief merely went to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a drink. She sipped in only lightly, mostly she swirled the ice and watched the liquid in thought.

"So you think by signing a peace treaty with these aliens you can get the council to hold off the invasion?" The Captain asked.

"That is my hope," Kladnira said forlornly.

"Won't happen," the Chief said. "While they are in war mode it would take more than that to stop them." As a former member of the fleet, she was the person to know. The captain nodded in agreement.

"Like what?" Teagin asked.

"If your mother only authorized the military option, could we not use the fact that she had medical problems, possibly undiagnosed when she gave that order?" The Chief asked. "That might give us the loop hole we need to get out of this."

"Doesn't matter," The Captain responded as Kladnira looked hopeful. "By the time we could prove that, it would be too late to matter."

"What we need to do is get you presented to the people before the shooting starts and then you would be in a position to hold off on the invasion."

"But how could I be presented when there is no higher authority to do so." Kladnira asked solemnly.

The Captain punched a code into the desktop and the complete copy of the scrolls that they lived by appeared. "We have a lot of reading to do." She said with a tired smile.

***

The ship settled into orbit of the uninhabited planet that Mina and her crew had selected and the crew switched from their underway uniforms to the short skirts that Kevin had encountered the first time he had boarded the ship and he and the other men welcomed the change back to civilian clothes. They were still getting used to the skin tight body suits but they were necessary.

The planet itself was a beautiful blue green world with the same swirling white cloud weather patterns that Earth had, but none of the pollution that mankind had created. It had two moons. The landmasses were quite different and oceans looked a little deeper blue. Mina's crew displayed the scientific findings of the planet; no life beyond plant based was shown. No microbes in the air, none of the chemical markers that sentient life needed were present. There not even insects or animals, only green plants and trees. The oxygen content was a little higher than Earth, but not so that they would notice.

Mina immediately launched her survey party to a small chain of islands near the equator. The largest was only about six acres square and the rest of the chain could be reached by walking through the waist deep water. The teleportal needed to be anchored between two supports. If it wasn't anchored, it had a tendency to drift slightly with each use and eventually, the individual using it found themselves in the wrong place, like a body of water. In the case of Earth, there was always a convenient wall somewhere they needed to be, but here, they had to rely on nature. Two stout trees, very similar to palm trees served their purposes well.

The survey team deployed from the teleportal chamber and had their base camp set it inside of two hours and they immediately started taking samples, water, sand, trees, grass, etc. To Kevin when he and Mina arrived several hours later, it looked more like they were simply playing in the water. The senior scientists were engaged in a splashing fight, while their juniors looked like they were having a chicken fight in the waist deep water. All were gloriously naked and Kevin paused as soon as he stepped out of the teleportal.

"Now that is the way to collect specimens." He commented drily.

Mina looked horrified at her crew and started to speak to them when Kevin distracted her by pointing out a whale. Mina spun looking devastated that there was life on the planet when Kevin led her away to show it to her and the survey crew scrambled out of the water and back into uniform.

She spun back to her crew only find them fully dressed and professional, if soaking wet. The lead officer started her report.

"Captain, as our earlier scans indicated, there is no indigenous sentient life, only plant life. The oxygen content is slightly higher than standard, twenty two percent, and the salt content is also slightly higher, about 38%. This may account for the lack of life. There are no microbes or dangerous bacteria that we need to worry about. There is a surprising lack of heavy metals in the planet's makeup, but the asteroid belt would provide all the fissionable material that anyone would require. The planet is perfectly capable of supporting life, just not creating it."

"Fresh water," Mina asked.

"Also checked, there is a waterfall about seven hundred meters into the island and it also scanned completely clean."

"Excellent, you can send your report up the ship and then continue with your shore leave." Mina said darkly and her crew blushed. Mina dismissed them and turned to Kevin when he tapped her.

"You are sure that there is no indigenous sentient life anywhere in the system?" Kevin asked.

"Quite certain Mr. Ambassador," Mina said formally, she was still angry. "That is the reason we picked this system."

"Excellent," Kevin said with a smile.

Mina shot him a look and Kevin smiled back serenely. She led Kevin away down the beach. He was up to something, but she couldn't tell what.

"What are you up to?' She asked heatedly.

"They were having fun, let them be." Kevin replied, deliberately misunderstanding her question. "You said yourself that they had already sent their samples to the ship, so let them enjoy the fresh air and taste the sunshine for a while." Kevin told her as he pulled her close for a kiss.

"But it is so unprofessional." Mina said looking at her crew as they stripped again and headed for the water.

"Relax Captain." Kevin told her and he handed her a small bag. "Get changed and let's go for a stroll around the island."

"What is this?" She questioned.

"Just the appropriate attire for the setting," Kevin said smiling. He was dressed in a tank top, board shorts and sandals.

"You are up to something." She accused.

"Trust me." Kevin said with a straight face. He had played enough poker at the station to learn to keep a straight face under almost any circumstances, and now it paid off.

Mina took the bag with a suspicious glance but followed his instructions and he led her to some bushes to change. Mina looked in the bag from behind the bushes and smiled to herself. So that was his game, well she would play it and play it better than he did. She stripped out of her uniform and tossed it over the bush to lie on the leaves and struggled into the bikini that Kevin had provided her. It was exceptionally small, two triangles that barely covered her nipples and a thin string to hold them on. The bottom started a good three inches below her belly button and seemed to only cover her slit which had become moist at the thought of what this would look like to Kevin. She did not have to worry about her tail as the thong stopped well short of that. The black material looked shiny and complemented her blond hair. She stepped out from behind the bush and struck a pose that she had seen on Earth, hip cocked, one leg slightly in front of the other, and her arms behind her back, which pushed her breasts out at him.

"How do I look?" She asked meekly.

Kevin only stood in awe, his mouth hanging open. She looked magnificent and it took him a few seconds to reconnect his brain to his mouth.

"I can honestly say that I have never seen a more beautiful woman in my life." Kevin finally got out.

"You don't think it' a little too long in the sleeves?" Mina questioned as she turned in place.

"Definitely not," Kevin said as he stepped forward and took her into his arms and kissed her gently. "You look perfect. And if you don't believe me, look at your crew."

Mina turned and saw that the survey crew was standing stock still staring at her in admiration. Before she could do anything they came charging out of the water and demanded to know where she had gotten such an exciting garment. Kevin answered them and told them where he had saved the file in the ship's computer along with several other styles of swim wear. As one the turned and bolted to the teleportal. Mina turned on him.

"Now see what you have done." She demanded.

"They will look spectacular." Kevin said with grin.

"YOU PERVERT." Mina screamed at him as soon as they were alone, her eyes flashing. "You just want to see my crew running around in bikini's like your own private hareem."

"If I wanted to be a pervert, I would have left them naked." Was Kevin's haughty reply. Mina hit him with an elbow to the stomach. Kevin took Mina's hand and led her down the beach for a while before they decided to swim. The salt water was a little stronger and neither had to do anything but hold hands to keep from being separated as the natural buoyancy kept them afloat. Kevin drifted them back to shore with the gently wave action and then led Mina to the waterfall.