章 55: Ashley – My story

I'll follow Marjorie's example. I was the second youngest of the girls that Lance and Serina had rescued 'that' night. You know that horrible night where I almost violently lost my virginity, and two of us girls did? Somehow that situation and its aftermath, especially seeing the earth from space in a real spaceship, profoundly affected all of us. We pulled together as sisters, teammates, fellow warriors, friends, —pick one that you like.

Once I found out what had happened to Lance and Serina and that I could help a pair of space aliens go home, wild horses could not have dragged me away. I already was besties with Barb as we had grown up together and might as well be sisters. We had sleepovers whenever our parents would let us.

Marjorie was the librarian, and I was almost as tight with her, as we both loved science fiction, as I was with Barb. If aliens had visited us, both of us would have hitched a ride no matter what.

Bridget and Caitlín, our twin redheads, did violently lose their virginity that night. I had never met them although I had heard of them through the school's grapevine. Two years of age difference is meaningless —unless you are still in school. In that case, two years might as well be twenty years. What I had heard was good, and they were hurting that night. Barb, Marjorie and I did not hesitate to comfort them as best as we could. In the process, we bonded with them. They instantly became just as close of friends as Barb and I were, sisters against the world.

Serina was the first bug-eyed monster any of us had ever met, and she had more empathy in her little finger than anyone else had in their entire body. She let us know that she cared for us and loved us. I instantly bonded with her as my sister. Lance got in because he was married to Serina. Although that changed as time progressed. Boy did that change. At the time I would never have guessed just how important to me he would become.

It turned out that after Barb and I graduated at Cornell in business, we went to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania to get our M.B.A.'s Lance was a stickler when it came to education. He spared not a penny to make sure we had the best training he could find. Bit also tutored us. Both of us had equal education, but I was the one who was the C.E.O. of our investment firm, or as the rest of us girls called it, the family business.

Bridget and Caitlín were the geniuses in finance and accounting. Both had graduated with a masters in finance, with minors in accounting. But they could not face the other C.E.O's that we had to face down. You may not realize it without growing up in the middle of it. But women in that time were second class citizens. A women C.E.O was a rare creature. Short little me could scrap with the best of them. Plus, our information gathering capability, thanks to all the people that the team had helped over the years, gave me an inside edge when it came to negotiations.

Living together with seven women, eventually, eight of us, and one man was almost like living in the circus. Well, it felt like a circus at times. There is that classic story of Lance ripping the towel off of Marjorie when he slipped in the bathroom, leaving Marjorie starkers. Or the even better one of Lance trying to regain his balance and his hand falling perfectly on Erin's chest. Then rebounding and knocking Betty to the floor only to find that his hands had lit where they found the softest places on Betty's chest.

You see back in the day when a lot of these incidents happened there was only one bathroom. This is very standard of homes in those days. I'm not sure that Serina was aware of this incident, but I was hurrying to get ready for work one morning, and Lance had a breakfast meeting to push some technology idea along. Well, it was my big feet this time. Lance was leaving the bathroom with a towel around his hips. Now I can't say for sure but looking at his massive chest might have caused me to not see where my feet were. Anyway, I tripped and took his towel with me. I took Lance with me also. His face ended up where my soft curls are at the top of my legs. And in the process, he pretty much stripped my big loose tee-shirt nightie off of my shoulder, the way that I lit my nightie had been pushed up around my waist, so yes his face was actually in my curls. The sensations he created before he could get off of me left me blushing bright red. Then as he raised up and I saw his eyes widen when he looked at my exposed chest… And then when Lance got up on his knees, the sight that I saw created a burning need inside of me that I somehow hid.

Until that moment I had not thought much of Lance as other than a brother. The husband of my adored older sister. From that moment on I could not look at Lance without feeling a warmth deep in my belly. I respected Serina too much to do anything, and I loved my new family too much to leave them. I was stuck between heaven and down under—I could not leave, but I could not stay.

I will state that when Serina solved the problem that was killing all of us even though it cost her, my love for her went through the roof. When I had my wedding night with Lance, although it momentarily hurt, it was heaven, it was worth waiting for him.

Virtual reality, what a perfect name. All of the good and none of the bad—like dying. I know that we are on a small ship, relatively small compared to what I'm told about Imperial battleships. But in comparison to the physical vessel, the virtual world is vast.

Although regarding power we are massively bigger than the Imperial ships biggest warship—massive raw energy to create the ship fields and the fields that both gather hydrogen and at the same time shunt aside or destroy anything more solid that could hurt the ship. At near to light speed, that means we have to start shunting aside particles the size of sand massively far ahead of us.

Plus the raw power to propel us to the point where the atoms in the vacuum of space are encountered often enough that vacuum approaches the density of earth's high-altitude atmosphere. Consider the immortal Blackbird or SR71 airplane from my time. It flies so high that ground missiles could not even get close to it for most of its life. (it can go to over 85,000 feet, which is its public design spec. That is an old measurement term, look it up in the infonet if you want it in meters….) Yet it could move so fast in the upper atmosphere that the wings would turn red with heat from the friction of going through the air. (At over Mach 3.2 its skin temperature could reach over 427 Degrees, that is Fahrenheit, again look it up if you want Celsius. I've still not become comfortable with Imperial measurements….)

Then there is firepower to attack with, we might be bigger. Or at least Lance says that we will be more powerful shortly after we arrive at 'Endor.'

I've been fighting almost since I first met Lance and Serina. The more that I train, the stronger I get. There is something very satisfying with being able to spar with Lance or Serina and take them. Now if I could take out the people that tried to destroy them that would be even more satisfying. So, of course, I signed up for Imperial Marine battle training. I had to have something to do for the next one hundred years. If could learn how to handle a trillion dollar company then I could learn to handle heavy armor. Besides the kids all respect me, so I think I'll be a good officer and Serina agrees.

I'm way shorter than most marines, but with virtual reality that is not an issue. Still, we are not going to find armor for me when we arrive, so Bit has been using our 3D printers and his self-repair capabilities to create a set of armor that fits my short busty frame.

The day I first put on Armor, now that was an experience. Serina made it feel so simple, just grab the overhead bar and lower yourself into the legs. Bit had run me through the technical training, but he 'forgot' to tell me about the catheter. I had no more than settled into the suit than I felt something strange in my nether regions. When that catheter sank home, I almost lifted myself out of the suit by sheer will power. Lance was the one assisting us that day, and when I told him what I had felt, he just burst out laughing. Lance laughed so hard that he slid down the wall. Eventually, Lance explained what was going on. Lance did not know that it was my turn to sleep with him that night, and I knew just what to do to make him beg for my forgiveness.

I planned to train every day. Yes, I could put on the suit and run faster than the wind, plus leap over tall buildings in a single bound, all without additional training. But the suit was capable of much more than that. I was going to know everything it could do down to the smallest most insignificant detail, and I had almost a hundred years to figure it all out.