Give Anastasia A Kiss

“Ladies. Welcome home.” I smiled.

“Thank you my lord.” Anastasia stepped forward. As she went to to bow I put a hand to her neck and pulled her in to give her a long deep kiss catching her a little off guard. We kissed for several seconds before I let her go.

“Miss me?” She smiled.

“A little.” I nodded and brushed a hair from face

“It is good to be home my lord.” She smiled stepping back.

“So how was your time there Harper?” I glanced over.

“Very pleasant my lord.” Harper bowed her head slightly. I didn't expect a kiss from her as well but one could hope.

“Anastasia, can you give us a minute. Your family is here if you wish to see them?” I smiled.

“Really?” She looked at me.

“Yes.” I nodded. I didn't expect them to want to stay in the palace on a permanent basis but now that the shipping guild was out of the picture they could visit whenever they liked.

“Last I saw them your sister was going to help the chef make pastries and your mother was taking a tour of the palace with Mistress Elizabeth. Your father is resting comfortably in the room across from yours.” Belle added. “I will walk with you.”

“Thank you my lord.” Anastasia smiled and then gave me a kiss another quick kiss before heading off.

“I see you had some upgrades Samantha.” I looked her over. Her breast and ass had gotten bigger or her uniform had shrunk in the wash since she was gone.

“Just a few my Lord.” She smiled as she looked at me.

“So what did you find out?” I made a motion with my hand for her to walk with me.

“They are very protective of their information. Their encryption is military grade if not better though I was able to get through it. It took me longer then I would have liked my lord so I was only able to get a small amount of their information. I did however manage to encode a leech routine that will upload all data in the system to the satellite they use. It will be slow and won't be activate for another week so if it is found it will be hard to trace it back to us. Though the slow download speed shouldn't raise any suspicions. After it has downloaded all the data to the satellite the leech will fragment then delete itself. Nova should be able to decipher it with the data key.”

“Good work.” I smiled. From then on we could just intercept their communications. “I am happy you could get through it at all. You manage to make heads or tail of what you got.”

“A little. Nothing incoming at all from out of system but several incoming data burst from within the system itself. Data is buried within the background of regular communications so it look like just a video message. All outbound data is sent directly to earth.” Well at least it wasn't the alliance they where sharing with. If I had to guess they could be sharing their information with the emperor or strategic command.

“So whoever they are messaging to isn't talking back.” I smiled. It worked similar to the way spec ops teams worked when deployed. One group only knew what their assignment was and nothing about what others were doing. Any information sharing was directly with command.

“So it would seem my lord not through typical means at least.” She said and unbuttoned a few buttons of uniform to show off her cleavage which was pushed together. She took off a small necklace she wore with a small pendent. “Everything I could find is here my lord. Some of it is about you.” She said handing it over.

“How much do they know about me?”

“Very little about your military record though some information on your off duty life during shore leave and your time on earth before joining the service. Foster homes, orphanages, arrest records. Makes for an interesting read.” She smiled. I had done a lot of stupid shit in my teenage days that thankfully the military had been happy to overlook with the war and all.

“I bet. Anything recent?”

“A little but nothing that couldn't be found out through normal channels. Other then training Anastasia as asked they have had no direct contact with the shipping guild that I saw. Belle has had a few communications with the guild but no hidden messages that I could find. If they have anything on you it isn't in there database.” Least I didn't have to worry about them trying to stab me in the back when I wasn't looking. I would like however to get a look at the data they had collected. The expression keep your friends close came to mind.

“Good work Lieutenant.” I smiled.

“Thank you Baron.” She smiled and nodded as she put her hands behind her back.

“So did you get any concubine training?”

“Depends on why you are asking my lord.” She grinned.

“Just wonder the psychology effects.”

“I don't have an over whelming urge to tear your clothes off but it's like you suspected. I do have feelings I didn't have before toward you. Their is diffidently some kind of mental programming involved but well within legal limits. I also have been having dreams of a very...intimate nature so there is some neural bleed through from donor to host.” She shrugged. Neural bleed through was experiencing memories of others in dreams or flashes as if you where their living it. It could be dangerous in the military given the nature of the dreams could cause post traumatic stress disorder. Having dreams of someone's sexual encounters however didn't sound as bad. I wondered if nymphomania could be a side effect if a concubine had to much bleed through.

“We can remove them if you like.” I said. Both her and Anastasia had receive a small dose of a radioactive isotope that would bind itself to any new memories. They could be isolated and destroyed though neither would remember the last few weeks since getting the shot as it couldn't distinguish from natural and synthetic memories.

“I would rather keep them my lord and remain at my current posting if that is okay.” She nodded.

“Of course but I want you to undergo psychological reassessment.” I frowned. Every officer had to undergo one once a year. It was basically a lie detector with a cat scan. Should an officer be captured by the enemy and later liberated they would have to undergo psychological reassessment before returning to duty. Harper had received one only a few months before leaving the service. A comparison of the two would easily tell if she was compromised in any way. Truthfully no one tried brainwashing enemy officers any more because of how effective the technology was.

“Of course my lord. I also find I...Um.” She paused and blushed as she looked at me and chewed her lip.. “...My libido is a lot higher. Especially right now.”

“Because I am near you?”

“So it would seem my lord.” She nodded.

“Makes sense I suppose. You should give the doc some blood to see if it is genetically engineered just to be sure. Do you think they did the same with Anastasia?”

“Yes, they did. More so then me.” Harper nodded

“How can you tell?” I smiled.

“She mentions you in her sleep.” Harper shrugged. I knew the two of them bunked together in the same room at the harem as Miranda likes to refer to it.

“That doesn't mean anything.” I shook my head.

“While she...” Harper paused. “She masturbates.”

“In her sleep?”

“Yes my lord.” Harper nodded. Yeah, I would have to agree with her on that one being unusual. I imagine Harper was looking forward to getting some sleep in her own room tonight.

“Thank you Harper.” I nodded. She excused herself and went off to catch up with Anastasia. Me, Anastasia and her family had dinner together that night along with Miranda and Harper. Sure they where on duty but I wasn't the type of person to have them just stand in a corner and watch us eat. I would feel Anastasia leg brush up against mine under the table from time to time as she would give me a knowing look. I saw what Harper meant.

“I can't eat another bite. This is so good.” Anastasia's father said rubbing his belly.

“Glad you liked it. I have to admit finding shrimp was hard but well worth it.” I smiled. The one thing I did like about earth was the sea food. Fish was fairly common dish you could get but finding a place that grew stuff like crab, lobster, shrimp and were a little harder and more expensive.

“Mistress Elizabeth tells me you want to make an ocean so you can grow stuff like this.” Anastasia's mom smiled as she wiped her face on a napkin.

“I don't know about an ocean but a large sea maybe. On the way back for the last trip I want the freighters to carry water from earth back here before the window closes” I laughed. Their where other priorities that came first such as mining equipment for low gravity and the like but earth had more water then they needed. Financially hauling water out of a system wasn't cost effective but if even one ship was coming back with an empty belly loading her with water couldn't hurt. This world may never look like the heavily terraformed mars where both me and Miranda went through basic training, least not in my life time, but I would like to have a large body of water I could see from the palace and where people could go to have fun.

“Go ahead.” Miranda said touching the pad behind her ear then stood up. “Sir. You need to go to the war room now.”

“Excuse us.” I wiped my mouth and stood up following behind her.

“What is it?” I asked once we were out of the room and down the hall.

“One of the watch towers detected three jumps at the edge of the system. Jenkins says they got eyes of on one of the ships. Alliance destroyer. Running dark.”

“Fuck. Someone tipped them off.” I shook my head. Half of our ships were off in another system. They had planned the moment of attack perfectly. They didn't seem to know about the watchtowers. Eight unmanned craft hidden in the ice belt at the outer edge of the system. The watchtower had been dug out of the carriers storage. They were older models but still worked so we had put them to use.

“So it would seem.” Miranda said as we went into the war room.

“Jenkins.” I said looking at the holo.

“Sir. Five minutes ago watch tower five reported three jumps. We could only get eyes on one but the other ships are looking for the other two.” Five was close meaning the jump came from an unsettled system.

“Destination of the known ship?”

“Right at us. Heading straight for the moon.” He shook his head. I was afraid he would say that.

“They mean to cripple the mining operation.” I sighed. The three ships were still outnumbered but they weren't here to win a fight. They were here to make sure the Uranium never got to earth or at the very least delay as much as possible from reaching earth before the Sirius window closed.

“So it would seem sir.” Jenkins nodded.

“If you can see them they probably know where you are as well are knew already before they jumped given there course. Don't make a move yet until you go into the dark of the planet then cut for icfyre but keep in her shadow as long as you can. It looks like they are going to use the asteroid belt for cover to make there approach.” I said. It was moving insanely fast having not decelerated completely from the jump. It was almost suicidal. They would be in range in only a few hours unless we got lucky and they hit an asteroid or something. “Have the other ships calculate a flight path for the second target, the ship yards.” I said thinking what I would hit if I was in command. I paced as I waited watching the holo display.

“Sir. The Interpreted has found the second one. Just like you said. The Interpreted and Defiance are standing by.” He said and the second ship came up on the holo.

“Hold. Don't give away our position yet but if they fire we fire. They are going full Sherman on our asses. Scorch and burn tactics. They want to cripple as much as they can so they will get as close as they can before firing up their engines. Have the ships manual target her with their guns. No Instruments. If she is running dark that means she is running thrusters only so they might be able to hit her even at long range.” I wouldn't count on it but I would take odds on it since two ships had her targeted.

“Roger sir. Standing by. Nova is calculating a long range targeting vector for the bird of prey heading for us.” Jenkins said. The second we destroyed one the other two would turn this cat and mouse game into a real fight. One they couldn't make it out of alive. Not split up like they were. Most likely a skeleton crew to reduce the lost of life. Not fully loaded for increased maneuverability and momentum which was the only thing propelling them.

“Still no sight of the third?” I asked wondering what I was missing.

“No sir.”Jenkins shook his head.

“They would need a target. Something of important...” What was I missing. Then it hit me. “Fuck. Miranda. Evacuate the palace.”

“Sir?” She looked at me.

“Me. I am the third target.” I felt a chill run down my spine just saying the words.

“All personal. Evacuate the palace immediately.” Miranda said as she touched the pad behind her ear. The palace fire alarm activated to tell everyone to exit.

“Sir do you want us to help? We can send some gun ships to assist.” Jenkins asked.