Fantasy Making of a Starship Captain

Survey Service Marines lying in ambush with IR goggles caught two intruders dressed in black, who were attempting to sneak onto the European Union's Concession in the dead of night.

No interrogation was really needed; the minute one of them opened their mouths they were by their accents revealed to be-

"Russians," said Sophie, holding one of the canisters the Russians had been toting. "You were right, Captain. It was the Russians. How did you know?"

Taylor gave her a mysterious smile.

"Don't tell me you screaned it," said Sophie.

"All right," said Taylor, still grinning. "I won't tell you."

"If you can screan things, then can you tell me what's in these canisters?" said Sophie, holding one up.

"Sorry, my ability doesn't work that way."

Sophie leaned close so she was face to face with Taylor. "It never does."

A bacteria.

The canisters contained a certain kind of bioengineered bacteria.

"It's very high tech," said Sophie, two days later. "It was artificially created. Its purpose is to absorb nutrients in the soil, and then it vanishes, without a trace."

"What do our Russian friends say?" Taylor asked.

"Not very much," said Sophie.

"Perhaps Natasha could shed some light on this," said Sophie.

"If we threw her in an airlock and cycled it halfway through, I'm sure she could give off enough light for a blazing sun," said Sophie.

"Sophie, have you ever heard of something called due process?" Taylor asked.

"Yes," said Sophie. "Have you ever heard of something called naiveté?"

"I think your breast implants have made you cynical," said Taylor.

"While simultaneously making you near sighted," said Sophie.

"Igor and Boris did vhat?" Natasha was completely horrified. "No, of courrrrse I knew nothing about this! These men, they are low level workers at the mine. They should not have been doing such a ting!"

"So you had no knowledge of what they were up to?" Taylor asked.

"Mike!" Natasha seemed offended by the mere suggestion. "Of course not!"

"Then can you think of any reason why two Russian nationals would be trying to sabotage the European Union's Concession?" Sophie asked. "After all, if the EU was knocked out of the running, the Russian Federation would have a much better chance of winning the competition on Sheppard's Planet, wouldn't it?"

"Mike, I do not tink I like vhat dis vimmen is saying," said Natasha, glaring at Sophie.

"I am only asking questions. Questions which you will not answer," said Sophie.

"You have to admit, Natasha, that it looks pretty bad. It looks like the Russian Federation is trying to eliminate its opponents."

"No, no, no," said Natasha. "This is a plot to embarrass the Russian Federation! Perhaps someone wanted to knock out the EU Concession, yes, but maybe they wanted to knock us out as vell, by implicating us in this leetle scheme? These men, Boris and Igor, have only been here for a few weeks. Perhaps they were hired by foreign powers to embarrass us."

"What foreign powers? Do you mean the Manophobes? The Australians?"

"Don't let big cheeks Aussie gurlfriend blind you, Mike," said Natasha. "I see herrrr vith you, Mike. She bats eyelashes and leads you around by your ting. The kangaroo pepils may seem nice and smiley, but inside they arrrre ruthless! And the Chinese, what about the Chinese? A little burd tells me that you recently booted our two good friends from the past, Ping and Pong, for doing some not so good tings, yes?"

"That's true," said Taylor. "You make good points. All we're saying is that in future, we're going to be keeping a closer eye on you."

Natasha spread her arms. "Look, Mike. Look as often as you vant to, as close as you vant to." She looked him in the eyes. "Vould you like to look at me over dinner, tonight? You can interrogate me to your heart's content."

Taylor felt Sophie's gaze trained on him. "I'm sorry, I have other plans."

Natasha gave him a hard glare. "Yes, I expect you do. Give Farby Doll my regarrrrds."

Actually, Natasha was not wrong. Taylor did have other plans, and they did involve Andrea Farber.

They had met a few hours earlier.

"I don't think we're justified in shutting down the entire Russian Concession over this," said Andrea. "We can't prove that Natasha was involved."

"No, we can't," said Taylor. "But there's something more going on with their mine."

"What do you mean?"

"They have an elaborate infrastructure. They drilled a half mile down. And yet they are hardly removing any ore from the ground."

"Well, Tiberian is valuable, Mike, even in small quantities," said Andrea.

"Not that small," said Taylor. "I sense there's something more going on. I'm going to take a look tonight, when the mine is not in operation."

"That could be dangerous, Mike," said Andrea. "You shouldn't go alone."

Taylor looked at her beautiful face, and tried not to let it affect him. "I never intended to."

Of course, whether it was day or night didn't matter in the mine, as it was a half mile underground. But still, with the mine empty, and the lights turned off, it felt a little... isolated. Andrea walked closely next to Taylor. Both of them had light torches and compression pistols, as did the two red vested marine guards behind them.

"I really enjoy working with you, Mike," said Andrea. "One thing about the Survey Service, we're always spread thin. I think I can count on one hand the number of times that I've actually gotten to work with other Captains, much less the most distinguished Captain in the entire Service."

Taylor smiled at her in the dim light, and that was enough for her.

"Mike, I heard some rumors, and I have to know... are they true?"

"What rumors?" Taylor asked, as they walked.

"Did you... really save the galaxy from being destroyed?" Andrea asked. "When the Black Box appeared, and disappeared... I heard some wild stories. Did you really go to the year one billion?"

"Yes," said Taylor.

"And did you really stop aliens from erasing the galaxy?"

"Sort of," said Taylor.

"Sort of?" Andrea asked. "Mike, I'm not asking if you like Italian bread, or nuclear golf. I'm asking if you saved the entire human race! 'Sort of' doesn't really cover it."

"I played a role in it," said Taylor. And then he talked about Pam, the other Pam, and how he had connected her with her humanity, and how he persuaded her to persuade the others of her kind not to erase the galaxy from existence.

"So... she was your lover, and... you lost her not once, but twice?" Andrea shook her head as they walked. "I can't conceive of such a thing." She considered what he had said. "Your heart must be broken. You lost Cherry, and then Pam, twice. What do you do to feel alive?"

Taylor turned and gently touched her arms. "Whatever I can," he said.

Andrea felt powerfully attracted to him; and if the marines hadn't been present, she surely would have kissed him.

But then the moment passed, and they went on. They arrived at the forking of the tunnel, and went down the right branch. Irina had warned Taylor of dangerous rockfalls, but Taylor's screaning ability had discounted that.

But Taylor was puzzled when, a few minutes later, they came to the end of the tunnel. A dead-end. He looked at the walls of the tunnel. What was he looking for?

He opened his scanner, and started probing the walls. Andrea did the same, and she found it first.

"Oh my God, Mike," she said, aiming at the rock wall to her left.

"What is it?" said Taylor, swiveling around.

"It's... Oppracite."

"Oppracite?" said Taylor. Somehow, that was vaguely familiar to him.

"That's what they use to make Virtue," said Andrea.

"I thought Virtue was a plant based narcotic," said Taylor.

"It is," said Andrea. "But you can get almost the same buzz from Oppracite. A single gram of Oppracite could convince an entire classroom of kids that it's great to be white and male." She scanned the rock wall. "The Oppracite in this wall alone is probably worth millions of credits."

"And that's what the Russians are really doing here," said Taylor. "The Tiberian mining operation is just a cover for the Oppracite."

"And that also explains why they're trying to drive the EU Concession out of business. They want Sheppard's Planet for themselves," said Andrea. "I think we'd better get back and gather the troopies, Mike."

"I think you're right," said Taylor.

They marched back at a hurried pace.

They got to the lift and stood silently as it went up and up. When it got to the top, they exited, but had barely walked to the cave entrance when men in black appeared, all holding blaster rifles.

"That's farrr enough," said Natasha, who wielded a blaster pistol.

Each side pointed their weapons at the other. No one spoke for a long moment. Then Taylor said, "So you're mining Virtue? Really?"

"Really, darling," said Natasha.

"Natasha, have you ever seen a fifteen year old boy strung out on Virtue?" Taylor asked. "I have. It's like his mind is in the clouds. All he can do is talk about how great it is to be white, to be male, to be a white, heterosexual man, over and over, how white men are oppressed, how white men need social justice, how everything that happens in the world has to be viewed through the prism of race, gender, and sexual orientation."

"But Mike, it is very profitable," said Natasha. "What's in that mine will earn billions of credits for the Russian Federation. Ve will use it to build our own space fleet which will rival yourrrr puny Survey Service."

"So everyone was right," said Taylor. "You really were a Russian spy. Tell me one thing. If you were a spy, why did you wash out of the Academy so quickly?"

Natasha looked embarrassed. "Mike... they didn't teach Shipboard Mechanics and Galactic Physics in spy school."

"Chappie was right!" said Taylor. He turned to Andrea. "Sergeant Chappie was right! I heard him one day, pushing Natasha for her RFD. He pushed her, and do you know what he yelled over and over again?"

Andrea looked questioningly at him.

"That all Russian spies know how to do is to poison and fuck, posion and fuck," said Taylor. And then he shouted, "Now!" and they all opened fire.

Two of the Russians went down, but there were still more Russians than the four of them, Andrea and Taylor and their two Marine guards. One of their red vested Marines went down, and a few moments later so did the second one. But while the Russians were concentrating their fire on the marines, Andrea outflanked them, coming around and behind them, and she quickly and efficiently gunned the Russians down with her compression pistol. She was not the marksman that Taylor was, but at a range of twenty feet she could fire six shots and hit six targets, and she did.

But then suddenly she cried out as she was grabbed from behind, and she felt a blaster pistol pressing into her waist.

"Drop it, dearrrr," Natasha purred. "Drop it!'

Andrea felt helpless as she dropped her compression gun.

Taylor stood up calmly, and aimed at Natasha.

"You're good, Mike, but you'll never hit me without hitting her," said Natasha.

"What do you propose?" Taylor asked, not budging an inch.

"Drop your weapons, I will tie you both up, and once I am safely off-planet, I will let your people know where to find you."

"Don't believe her, Mike," said Andrea. "She's going to kill both of us so they can keep mining here. There's too much money at stake!"

"Mike, believe me. I have never lied to you," said Natasha.

"You have never lied to me?" said Taylor incredulously.

"Not any more than I had to," said Natasha. "I have real feelings for you. I really do. I would cut off my own hand before harming you."

"Taylor, she's lying! Shoot her!"

"And shoot your leetle gurlfriend?" said Natasha. "How many times have you had her since you've come to Sheppard's Planet? Two, three, fourrr times? I'm avare of the very private meals you have had aboarrrd the Scunathorpe. She loves you, Mike, it's vritten all over her face. And you love herrrr. If it hadn't been for that leetle Cherry gurl I have no doubt the two of you vould have gotten together. You can't shoot her, Mike. You know you can't." She smiled as she saw the realization on Taylor's face. He started to lower his gun.

"That's right, Mike, drop the gun. Because you know you can't shoot herrr, can you?"

"You're right Natasha, I can't shoot Andrea," he said, lowering his gun further. His arms slumped in defeat.

Natasha laughed. "Now drop your veapon, Mikey and-"

Her voice was suddenly cut off as Taylor raised his compression pistol and shot her through the eye. Natasha was dead before she hit the ground.

Andrea screamed and ran into his arms. "Mike!" she cried. "How did you do that?"

He was back at the Academy. He had just shot a moving target, without warning, which had suddenly popped up on the range, lifting his compression rifle and firing without any pause.

Major Shalikashvili came up to him with a hard smile. "Good work, Taylor. Son, do you know the difference between a good shot and a marksman?"

"No sir," said Taylor.

The Major put an arm around him, and they started walking. "A good shot is someone who can take the time to aim at a target carefully, pull the trigger, and hit it on the first shot. A lot of people can be good shots. It isn't very difficult." Then he stopped and looked Taylor in the eye. "But a true marksman is something else. He can aim and fire in a fraction of a second. That's you, Mike. You have a unique gift most other people will never have. Use it wisely, and use it rarely."

And Taylor always remembered those words.

They were back on the Scunathorpe, in Andrea's cabin. Andrea no longer cared what her crew thought or whispered behind her back. As soon as the cabin door closed behind them, she was in Mike's arms. She trembled as she kissed him. He kissed her back.

"Thank you, oh thank you, oh thank you," she kept saying, in between kisses. "Mike, you saved my life. She was going to kill me. She was going to kill both of us. If anyone else had been there, I would have been dead."

Taylor kissed her back. Her soft lips were incredible. He loved the feeling of her body pressed against his. A certain part of him started to get very excited.

Andrea suddenly pulled back, and caressed his cheeks. "Do you want this body, Mike?"

Do you want this body? Where had he heard that before?

"I will let you have it," said Andrea. "I will let you have me," she added, in case there was any doubt. She looked into his eyes, but wasn't sure what she saw there. She pulled her day shirt over her head, and pulled down her pants, standing before him in her Survey Service bra and panties. Andrea's large breasts were rich and full, soft and luscious looking.

"Take me, Mike. Use me. I... I will be yours," she said, bowing her head.

Taylor put a finger under her chin and raised her head. "You will let me fuck you blind, Andrea?"

"Yes," she said softly. Her eyes looked so incredibly soft and needy!

"You'll let me use you every way a man can use a woman?" Taylor asked.

"Yes," said Andrea, in a little girl's voice, looking extremely vulnerable.

"You'll let me finish inside of you, and fill you with my... my essence?" Taylor asked. His own words were getting him excited. He felt his male sex organ getting rigid in his Survey Service trousers.

Andrea, biting her lips, nodded unhappily.

Taylor thought for a moment. Andrea looked so incredibly fuckable. He had dreamed about a moment like this for years. But now that she stood before him like this, he found his desire diminishing.

He nodded. "Andrea, I appreciate it, but it's not necessary."

"Not necessary?" said Andrea, not believing her ears. Her eyebrows shot up, and she looked like she had just been slapped in the face. "Mike, I'm offering to let you fuck me! Don't you find me attractive?"

Taylor took her by the arms. "More than you can ever know." He sighed. "Andrea, I want to tell you something. Something I've never told another woman. Will you keep a secret for me?"

Andrea nodded.

"Andrea, I've fucked all kinds of women. When I was a God, I fucked women by the dozens. All kinds of girls. Girls who were virgins. Girls who were married. Every kind of girl you can think of. And I developed so many mental calluses that I didn't even care if they really wanted it or not. All I cared was that they were willing... like you are, right now."

He looked down at Andrea's sexy, trembling body. "But you're different, Andrea. You're my friend. I've had a crush on you every since the Academy days."

She gasped.

"Yes. If I had been bolder and braver then, things might have been different. I care for you, really I do," he said, caressing her cheek. "And because I care for you, so very deeply, I'm not going to fuck you. Not like this."

He leaned forward, but instead of kissing her on the lips, he kissed her on the forehead.

"Mike," she said, in a half strangled voice, as he turned towards the door.

Taylor took one last look at Andrea, standing there in her bra and panties, with her pants a jumble around her feet. The way she stood there, the way she was crying, the way she looked so vulnerable, so helpless, so willing to be fucked, to be used in any way a man would want to use her... it gave him such an incredible, throbbing erection. It was a scene that would be burned into his brain for the rest of his life, a scene that would help him relax and fall asleep on more than one tense occasion, and he found himself tremendously glad for the memory.

And then he turned and left.

"What the fuck just happened here?" Taylor's Lust demanded.

They didn't like to be called Manophobes.

There were followers of Aura, and then there were other followers of Aura. Some were more radicalized than others. Some viewed men with more hostility than others.

There were some males, a few, who were dedicated followers of the She-Goddess, but no one had ever heard of a male priest of Aura; there were only priestesses, and priestesses were not allowed to marry men, only women, so the She-Goddess decreed. That religious commandment led to the raft of Headophilia scandals which had wracked the church for many years, as closeted heterosexual priestesses vented their sex drives in inappropriate avenues.

The She-Goddess had two basic beliefs:

1) That men were misguided (at best) and that women should be in charge.

2) That mankind was raping the environment, simply by existing.

Followers of the She-Goddess were wracked with tremendous guilt simply for being alive, and eating or drinking or going to the bathroom. They felt they were destroying the fragile Earth.

And so naturally, followers of the She-Goddess objected every time the World Government or the Survey Service opened up a planet for colonization. Every breathable, habitable planet should remain exactly how it was, untouched, down to a single flower. Even the airless Moon, which had not a single life on it, was deemed too "pristine" to mine for valuable minerals.

And so it was exceedingly odd for followers of Aura to participate in the competition for Sheppard's Planet.

Taylor went to meet with the leaders of the "Aura Concession", as it came to be known, or "those fucking Manophobes", as they were also called (somewhat less diplomatically) by others.

Aisha Goldenrod and Megan Manowar were all smiles when Taylor showed up at the door to their church.

"Captain Taylor, so good to meet you," said Aisha, immediately taking his hands and gently pulling him into their church. As they entered, Taylor saw the light streaming from a giant stained glass window, showing the She-Goddess, with her brilliant red hair, showering the huddled masses with cherries and dandelions.

"Would you like a drink, Captain?" Megan Manowar asked. "We have some genuine non-imitation lemonade, freshly squeezed."

"No thank you," said Taylor. "I'm sorry to take your time-"

"Oh, it's no trouble at all!" said Aisha, smiling broadly at him. "In fact, we wished you had visited us sooner! We love visitors, especially the Survey Service."

"You do?" said Taylor, his eyes narrowing.

"Yes! You're such brave explorers. Tell us about your adventures, Captain Taylor. Tell us all about them," said Aisha, and if it were possible, her smile somehow got even broader.

"I, uh...." Taylor paused, and decided to be direct. "I thought you didn't believe in the colonization of other planets. I thought Aura called it "galactic Ra*e"."

"She does," said Megan Manowar. "But... there are followers of Aura, and followers of Aura, if you know what I mean, Captain. We are realists. We realize that Sheppard's Planet is going to be colonized by someone. And so, if it is to be colonized, we want it done in the least intrusive way as possible."

"What exactly is your demonstration project?" Taylor asked. "I see your church around us, but... little else. I don't even see any residences for your followers."

"That is correct, Captain," said Aisha Goldenrod. "We believe in using as little of Aura's sacred earth as possible, using the smallest possible footprint. There are small family sized plots around us, each with a gardening shed. Each family lives out of its shed."

"You all live in... sheds?"

"As Aura intended," said Megan, looking supremely pleased.

"And these plots... how much food are they intended to produce?"

"Only as much as are needed for a family's consumption," said Aisha. "Any more would be wasteful."

"So your project, basically speaking, is subsistence farming?"

"We prefer to call it living in harmony with the Earth," said Aisha.

Taylor nodded. He looked around. "I noticed you built a nice big church here. It's even bigger than the one we have at home." He suddenly realized he had said more than he intended.

"At home? Captain Taylor, is it possible that you are a follower of Aura?" Aisha's lower lip was quivering.

"I attended a Church of Aura in my childhood years," said Taylor.

"Really? Did you find it stimulating?" Megan asked.

"Yes, very much so," said Taylor, remembering the tingling he had felt while he wore the silvery helmet with Sister Audra.

"Did it change your whole perspective on life?" Aisha asked.

"Oh, you can be sure of that," said Taylor, remembering for many years how he had suffered through the taint of Audra, how all the kids had laughed at and bullied him about it. His hand clenched without his even realizing it.

"And yet, here you are, in the Survey Service," said Aisha, looking puzzled.

"I, ah, actually left the church as I grew older," said Taylor.

"May I ask why?" said Aisha.

Taylor remembered Sister Audra, her head hung low, being dragged into a World Government police car wearing electrocuffs.

"The music," he said. "I couldn't stand the organ music."

"A shame," said Audra, touching his hand. "Well, we have no organ here. Perhaps we can rekindle your interest."

"Perhaps," said Taylor, giving a weak smile.

They gave him the grand tour. One plot of land looked much like the next and the next after that. Taylor saw people on their hands and knees digging in the dirt. He realized that one roboplanter could do the work of all these people in a fraction of the time. They had really gone back to 17th century agriculture. And then he noticed something else. Most of the people he saw were women.

"Don't you have any men?" Taylor asked.

"Of course we do," said Megan Manowar sweetly. "Why, there's Dawdren! Dawdren, come over here and say hello!"

A short, thin bald man nervously padded over to them like an obedient puppy. He bowed his head. "My name is Dawdren. I am pleased to meet you."

"Dawdren is one of our emancipated men," said Megan, putting her arms around him. "We're so happy to have him here, aren't we?"

Taylor looked down at the thin man, who looked like he had been psychologically beaten to a pulp. Dawdren reminded him a little of himself, after he had spent a few weeks on the Charleston.

Aisha gave him a slap on his ass to send him scurrying on his way.

"Just think, Captain, if you gave up the Survey Service, you could have a life rich and fulfilling like Dawdren!"

"A tempting offer," said Taylor.

"Think of a life without electricity, without material possessions."

"Sounds great," said Taylor.

"A diet purely of plants and vegetables grown in your own garden."

"No meat?" said Taylor.

"None, Captain," said Aisha. "Aura says that eating meat destroys the planet."

"Of course," said Taylor.

"Yes, I think you'd fit in quite well here," said Aisha. "The only commandment you might have a little trouble with is no sex."

"No sex?" said Taylor.

"Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration," said Aisha. "Men are not permitted to have sex unless their woman allows it. Everything is under female control here, Captain."

"What a relief," said Taylor

"So, are you ready to join us?" Megan asked.

Taylor paused. "Not today, I think."