Solfleet: The Call of Duty (37 page)

Karen
watched her go, then stepped into the shower.

Liz tried to
wrap the towel around her as approached her dresser, only to discover that it
barely reached around her chest and only hung halfway to her waist. She
laughed. She’d grabbed a hand towel instead of her bath towel. No doubt Karen
would have found that hysterical. She dropped it onto her stool instead and
then sat down to apply her makeup. Because she spent so much of her time in uniform,
she never really wore much makeup, but a little bit, when properly applied,
could go a long way to bring out a woman’s natural beauty. That was what she’d
always gone for.

She didn’t
want to leave Karen behind any more than Karen wanted to be left behind. She
loved her so much and loved to spend as much time with her as she could.
Turning her down had been hard. If only she
could
take her along. Given
the option, she would without hesitation, but that was an option the admiral
would never give her.

They’d been
lovers since high school, totally committed to one another, and had married in
the summer after Karen finished college. In all they’d been together almost
twenty-two years. Who would ever have thought, way back at the very beginning
when they first met, that things would ever turn out to be so good between
them?

It had all
begun with a party early in Liz’s junior year of high school. Her overbearing
parents, who’d raised her and her brother in a strict religious home, had
finally caved in and given her their permission to start dating, and she’d
wasted no time in making her classmates aware of her sudden availability. A
senior boy named Chris, whom she’d known had had his eye on her ever since
grade school, had eagerly asked her out to a Halloween party that one of his friends
was throwing. That friend had rented the clubhouse at the condos where he
lived, which he’d claimed had a heated indoor pool, a large hot tub, and if
they could break into it, a very well stocked liquor bar. She’d happily accepted
Chris’s invitation and had promptly told her parents that the party would be
chaperoned, which was of course a lie. After all, if it really had been
chaperoned, no one would have wanted to go.

Both the
clubhouse and the party had turned out to be everything Chris’s friend had
claimed they would be, and more. The pool was Olympic-sized, lit from several
feet below the surface of the crystal water by a row of bright, built-in amber
lights. Except for the recessed safety light in the ceiling above the front
door, their host had turned all the other lights in the pool house off to
enhance the Halloween mood. Costumes were discarded early in favor of swim
trunks and bikinis, but it wasn’t long after someone finally managed to break
into the liquor cabinet behind the bar that a few of the more uninhibited girls
discarded their bikini tops as well.

As the
evening wore on and what had started as a generous supply of liquor dwindled,
more and more of the increasingly intoxicated partiers abandoned their inhibitions
and stripped off their swimsuits. Now and then couples disappeared into the
sauna or to some other secluded place for a time, and then return to the
festivities with renewed enthusiasm. But for the naïve, sixteen year old
Elizabeth Royer, it was the hot tub that marked her passage into that new stage
of her life.

Like most
everyone else, she and Chris had traded Halloween costumes for swimsuits fairly
early. Hers was a navy blue two-piece with bright yellow highlights, but was of
a more conservative cut than the skimpy string bikinis that a lot of the other
girls were wearing. They’d been swimming and diving for most of the evening and
were starting to get tired, so at a few minutes past 10:00, about an hour
before Liz was going to have to ask Chris to take her home, they decided to go
out and relax in the hot tub for a while.

The tub was actually
located outside, but was enclosed within a semicircular extension of the
building’s walls, tall enough so that no one not attending the party could see
it. Several other guests were already enjoying it when Chris and Liz got there,
but it was big enough to seat over a dozen people around its circumference, so the
tired couple went ahead and joined them.

At first,
the dark jet-churned water was a bit too hot for comfort and Liz had to sit
there, body tense and eyes closed, willing herself not to jump right back out.
But after a few minutes she began to find its heat and its gentle massaging
action quite soothing and luxurious, not to mention a little stimulating,
sexually.

About five
minutes into it, Chris leaned in close and quietly suggested that she take off
her top. At first she refused outright, but then he pointed out to her that all
the other girls in the hot tub were already topless. As a matter of fact, the
one straddled across her boyfriend’s lap kissing him was having sex with the
guy at that very moment, or so he claimed. But a ripple of bright color below
the water’s surface told Liz that the girl still had her bikini bottom on, so
she didn’t believe him...until the girl clutched her boyfriend’s face to her breasts
and started rocking back and forth.

Liz
reconsidered Chris’s suggestion and finally decided that becoming known to her
friends as the only girl at the party who wouldn’t go topless would be a lot
worse than actually going topless, especially when some of them, guys and girls
alike, were already running around stark naked without a care. After all, a tag
like that might adversely affect her fledgling social life. So, much to the
delight of everyone else in the hot tub who happened to be paying attention,
her top came off, and they showed their appreciation of her generous attributes
by breaking into a short round of applause.

She couldn’t
help but feel self-conscious at first, but the next few minutes of conversation
with Chris helped her to relax. She was really beginning to like him. Soon the
talking turned into kissing. Petting and fondling followed as the booze she’d
imbibed began to affect her judgment, and her ingrained inhibitions slowly fell
away like so many layers of clothing on a hot summer day. Before too much
longer she was as naked as the day she was born, perched on the edge of the
underwater bench and lying back against the angled seat back with her legs
wrapped tightly around Chris’s waist as he deflowered her for all he was worth.

As it turned
out, all he was worth wasn’t as much as she’d hoped for, once she’d decided to
give herself to him, but that certainly wasn’t due to any shortcomings on his
part. On the contrary, he knew exactly what to do and how to do it, and he had
the equipment to do it very well. And she was thoroughly enjoying it, too—at least
it was a lot more fun than all those years of masturbation had been—but it just
wasn’t totlly...fulfilling.

She opened
her eyes for a moment and happened to notice that the couple locked together in
a deep, passionate kiss directly across from her were both very pretty girls
with long dark hair. All but ignoring Chris’s efforts, she watched intently as
they kissed and caressed one another, and she wondered why she hadn’t noticed
them sooner.

The one on
the right stood up. She wasn’t just topless, she was completely naked. She
stepped up onto the bench, then turned around and sat on the hot tub’s narrow
rim and opened her legs. An almost bestial lust filled Liz’s heart as she
looked between them, surprising her as much as it would have anyone else, and
when the second girl stood up—she was naked, too—and turned her back, then
knelt before her friend and leaned in to taste her soft pink flesh, Liz’s
entire body suddenly quivered and erupted with the first non-self-induced and
most explosive orgasm she’d ever experienced.

Poor Chris
would probably live out the remainder of his days thinking he was responsible
for her awakening.

Finally, at
that moment, it had all made sense. As far back as grade school, Liz had had
the same superficial feelings of puppy love for boys that all of her friends
had. But as she passed into her teens, that attraction had begun to diminish,
replaced by what she’d always thought was nothing more than innocent curiosity
and the simple platonic appreciation of a young woman’s beauty. She’d never
even considered the possibility, until that very moment, that she might like
girls in that way more than she did boys.

She didn’t
want to be mean, so she let Chris finish what he’d started, but when those two
girls climbed out of the hot tub a few minutes later and started to dry off,
she excused herself to go talk to them while she had the chance.

Leaving her
suit behind—they were naked, too, so why bother putting it back on?—she climbed
out and joined them. She introduced herself, and the taller of the two
responded in kind. Her name was Karen DiAngelo, and her lover’s name was Julie
Covelli. Both were fourteen year old freshmen new to the school district.

After a
brief conversation, during which Julie left to use the bathroom, Liz asked
Karen out for the following weekend. But Karen turned her down, explaining that
she and Julie had been friends since early elementary school and had secretly
been lovers for the past two years, since long before their parents’ recent
marriage had made them stepsisters. Since that marriage had resulted in their
living together, they had a great thing going that neither one of them wanted
to complicate.

Over the
ensuing weeks, Liz tried a few more times to get one or the other of them, or
even both of them if they were interested in trying that sort of thing, to go
out with her, but they turned her down every time. Finally, she accepted their
kindly offered platonic friendship and started dating the few other girls in
school she occasionally found who were willing to go out with her and
participate in her sexual experimentation. It was during that period in her life
that she realized she preferred girls exclusively, but opportunities for that
sort of relationship came few and far between in such a small town, and no
matter how hard she tried to ignore it, her unwavering desire for the stepsisters
lingered.

Then, during
spring break of that same year, Julie met a boy from the neighboring school
district. Liaisons with her stepsister grew more and more infrequent as she
grew closer to him, and before long she was spending nearly all of her free
time with the guy, leaving Karen alone to fend for herself. That rejection, unintentional
though it might have been, hurt Karen deeply and plunged her into a pit of
depression.

Liz was
there for her friend, and made sure she knew it. She spent nearly every evening
after school by her side, helping her to cope with the pain that she didn’t
dare share with her parents. She made no advances toward her—that would have seemed
wrong somehow—but somewhere along the line something happened. Karen chose to
give herself over one night and asked Liz to make love to her, and that was
that. Karen fell in love with her that very night, and they’d been together
ever since.

Focusing on
her reflection as her mind returned to the present, Liz suddenly realized as
she lifted her mascara applicator to her eyelash that she’d already finished
putting her makeup on. Funny. She could barely remember starting.

The mini
comm-panel in the wall beside the bed chirped to life. “
Commander Royer?
”
it called in the admiral’s voice.

She set the
applicator aside and got up, went over to the comm-panel, and tapped the
respond pad. “Go ahead, sir.”

“
Good. I’m
glad I caught you. Go silent and secure.
”

“Stand by.”
The mini panel was an older model that didn’t have the S&S feature, so she
had to go into the living room, to the main terminal. She activated the unit,
double-checked to be sure it was set on audio only—she still hadn’t put any
clothes on—then flipped it to S&S and put on the headset. “All right,
Admiral. Go ahead.”

“
We’ve
got a major problem, Commander,
” he began. “
I received an Intel report a
short time ago that confirms the Sulaini have brought the Veshtonn back into
the Caldanra system as an ally. No doubt they’re hoping to enlist their help to
overrun Cirra and finally claim the whole system for themselves, once and for
all. What prompted them to trust the Veshtonn all of the sudden is still anyone’s
guess at this point, but I think we can both guess what the Veshtonn plans for
that system are.
”

“Yes, sir,”
she agreed. “Has fighting broken out yet?”

“
Not yet,
but I don’t think it’ll be quiet for much longer. As a matter of fact, it looks
like the Sulaini have already struck right at the heart of the Cirran government.
The Crown Prince of the Cirran Republics and his first bound concubine have
been abducted.
”

“The Sulaini
admit responsibility for that?” she asked doubtfully.

“
Of
course they don’t. They’re blaming the Caldanran Unity Front and are offering
to assist the Cirran government in any rescue attempt they might want to mount.
Naturally, the Cirran government has declined their kind offer.
”

“I should
hope so.”

“
Listen,
Liz. I called you because I wanted to let you know what you were getting into
on this trip, and to tell you that I’ve already discussed a plan of action with
the president and issued the appropriate orders to initiate it. We’re sending
in our Rangers.
”

No doubt
that meant... “Sergeant Graves’ unit?”

“
Exactly.
”

“Is that
wise, sir? I mean...shouldn’t we keep him out of harm’s way at this point?”

“
Believe
me, Commander, I’d like to. But we can’t. Not now. Not without drawing a lot of
unwanted attention to ourselves.
”

“I can think
of any number of ways to...”

“
Negative,
Commander. We can’t risk delaying this operation. That system’s a powder keg,
and it’s about ready to blow. With that in mind, you might want to put your
travel plans on hold for now, until we know for sure that Graves will still be
there for you to talk to.
”