Chapter 29. Consequence.

Carl found Charles on the command deck one evening and noted that he was looking at the image of Earth as the ship orbited it.

"What's up?" he said before sitting down next to him.

"I was wondering if it would be possible to live on Earth even in its present condition."

"We would need to construct biogenetic energy units there in order to keep us healthy, and that would entail constructing fusion power equipment."

Charles sighed. "Yeah, that would be a big deal."

"I could see us going down there for short visits, sort of like vacations."

"I'm more concerned about the problems of dealing with children."

Carl smiled. "I'm sure the genius women will take care of that."

Charles chuckled but he realized that it was going to be a new experience for all of them.

After a long silence, Carl looked at Charles with a more serious expression. "I wonder what going on with our robot buddy."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening. Maybe they've eliminated all their enemies."

Carl looked away. "Yeah, there couldn't be all that many robot aliens running around the galaxy. They only come from advanced alien civilizations."

"That's true. Maybe we're done with that."

"Hopefully."

Dave, Robert and Ted entered the command deck.

"Why are you up here this late?" Dave asked.

"We're bored," Carl replied. "Other than the engineering deck, it's a good place to avoid the women."

As if it were a stage play que, Alice, Vicky, Hilary, Judy, Beverly, Mary, Janice, Jill, Felicia, Betty, Gorgia, and Sally entered the command deck and went over to where the men were gathered.

"Is something wrong?" Alice asked.

Charles turned to her. "No. I was just musing over whether we're done with the robot wars."

"God, I hope so. We don't need that nonsense now."

"We're bored," Vicky said. "We want you guys to entertain us."

"It's a bit late for that," Carl argued.

"It's not that late," Vicky retorted. "We don't need all that much sleep now that we've been physically altered."

"How about entertaining us," Carl suggested, biting his lip to avoid showing any amusement.

The women exchanged glances before Alice smiled. "I'm surprised that you would ask us to entertain you guys."

Carl shrugged. "We don't want to disrespect you or offend you in any way."

They laughed derisively.

"You would never offend us," Alice said while still giggling. "We'd love to entertain you guys."

"You don't have to," Charles said with an appropriate serious expression.

Alice gestured as if she were rounding up a group of workers. "Get your butts up. We owe you a show."

The guys reluctantly stood up and followed the women out of the command deck. The four guys went with Alice, Vicky, Hilary, Judy, and Beverly in the elevator together.

They remained silent while it dropped to the quarters deck. The other women rode the elevator down and joined them in the corridor before entering Charles's quarters and going to the pool chamber.

"You guys can get comfortable while we undress," Alice told them.

The men took seats near the pool while the women went to the shower room. Four cats entered the pool chamber and perched on seats near the men.

"I wonder if the cats are orchestrating this," Dave asked.

"Could be," Charles replied. "They seem to have control of us through the robotics."

"I'm not sure this is good idea," Robert said. "Are the women doing this to tease us?"

"I think they're just bored," Ted said. "They probably want to see if they can arouse us."

"They don't need to strip to do that?" Carl said.

"That's for sure," Dave said.

They laughed, but they're attentions collectively turned to the women as they strutted out of the shower and began to run around the pool, their rippling flesh glistening in the pool's glaring light to blatantly display their feminine charms in a more kinetic manner.

After the initial visible shock, the men began to relax and enjoy the show.

"Never imagined anything like this," Dave commented with a subtle smile.

"I don't understand why they're all so voluptuous," Ted said, licking his lips.

"I can see why the commander chose them," Carl said, as he wiped his brow.

"Yeah, they are certainly well endowed," Robert said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

The women stopped running and dove into the water to begin floating around in the freezing water face up with occasional paddle kicks and arm swings.

After watching the women float around for several minutes, Carl smiled, making Charles curious as to what he was about to reveal. "I found somethings that we weren't aware of."

Charles looked at him and blinked. "Now what?"

"This vessel already has weapons."

"No kidding! What are they, lasers?"

"They're fusion torpedoes. All you do is point to the target and the system launches the torpedo and maneuvers it to the target."

"We probably should test it," Charles suggested.

"I checked out the systems and it appears to be functional. Testing it would require a moving target."

Charles shook his head. "Yeah, we don't want our robot buddy to get alarmed."

"What else did you find?" Dave asked.

Carl's face exhibited disgust, "There's another hibernation chamber."

Charles' eyebrows shot up. "You're kidding!"

"I wish I were. It's full of more women."

Charles shook his head. "This has to be a bad dream!"

"That doesn't make sense," Dave said. "Why would they include so many women on a dangerous mission?"

"Evidently, they believed that young healthy females were needed to establish a new human race," Charles said. "Are they still alive?"

"Yes. I checked. They're in a chamber off your quarters."

Before Charles could reply, the women climbed out of the water and ascended the ladder to the high dive. They took tuns doing competition dives after checking to see if the men were watching.

"How many are we talking about?" Charles asked while watching Alice spring off the diving board and rotate her body before slicing through the water with a minimum splash.

"Eight," Carl replied while his eyes were glued to Beverly's body as it sprang off the diving board and then spun a few times before it disappeared under the water.

Charles sighed, "God, I hope none of them are pregnant. It's bad enough that we're faced with two children."

"We'll just have to deal with it," Carl replied, his eyes following Judy's body rotating two times before piercing the water with minimum splashing.

"How'd you discover this?" Charles asked while he watched Alice do a tuck before straightening to pierce the water.

"I found it in an engineering list of power uses," Carl replied as he watched Hilary do a pike before her entrance into the water.

"This is nuts!" Charles replied as he watched Vicky do a fancy roll before she disappeared under the water.

The men were too mesmerized to bother conversing anymore. They followed each dive as if they were watching a professional sporting contest.

Eventually the women descended the high dive and assembled into a line that faced the men.

"Did you guys enjoy the show?" Alice asked, her face beaming with amusement.

"Yes, we certainly did," Charles replied with an appropriate smile. "Thank you for suffering the freezing temperatures to amuse us."

"We were hoping that it made you hot and bothered," she said with teasing grin.

"This pool chamber is too cold to get hot, but it certainly bothered us."

"Good," she replied with a more serious expression.

The men watched the women turn in unison and stroll out of the pool chamber before continuing their discussion.

Charles gestured to the departing women. "Are they aware of your discovery?"

"No," Carl replied. "I just discovered a few hours ago." He pointed to a door that was near the entrance to the pool chamber. "They're in there. Come, I'll show you."

They followed Carl to the chamber that the door led to, and what they saw was incredible. Eight hibernation chambers contained living females.

"This is beyond crazy," Charles declared, "Why in the hell did they hide them in here?"

"Maybe Westen wanted to keep them out of view of the other officers," Carl offered. "Maybe he wanted them for his personal pleasure."

"That doesn't make sense.," Dave complained. "How could he hide such an elaborate plan from the tech gurus?"

"Evidently he had the power to accomplish it," Carl said.

"If that was his plan, it certainly didn't go the way he wanted," Charles said while he was examining the hibernation modules. "Now, it's our problem." His eyebrows shot up. "Hey, wait a second! These two are males!"

Carl came over to where he was. "Yeah, you're right. My bad."

"This makes it a bit more complicated," Charles said. "I'm not sure why the commander did this."

"Should we revive them?" Dave asked.

"We must," Charles replied. "We can't ignore them just because they're a big problem."

Carl began to switch the module controls over to activate. It would require several hours before they would be revived and at least a few more hours to go through the robotic welcome process."

"I can't wait to see how the women adjust to this," Carl said with an ornery grin.

The men were not sure how they would take being one upped, but there was nothing they could do now. At least they are getting two more men.