"So do you want to tell me again how you somehow talked them into having an orgy with the granddaughters of the council?" asked Luke with a sarcastic tone.

It was almost all Jack could do not to double over with laughter. While the events had proceeded a little differently than Luke's retelling, the man had an incredible ability to reduce any story to the finer points.

"Not exactly. They wanted us to partake in their Moon Festival. It's how their people get pregnant. Lishkerran men and women can't breed together so they need humans. Being that Greg and I were the only humans there, well . . ." Jack intentionally left the ending open-ended.

"How do you always end up getting the lucky assignments," said Luke with a heavy shake of his head. He crossed to the other side of Jack's headquarters on the Destiny and looked out the port window. Immediately within his sight was the main city of Lishkerra, dominated by its massive palace in the center of the city.

The docks of the harbor were situated just outside the main wall of the city where all three vessels of Task Force 21 remained anchored, taking in crucial supplies from their new friends in the Vector.

Friends. Although Jack would've loved for that word to be allies to coincide with their mission, the elder council had made it clear that being a friend of Lishkerra was the highest honor they could bestow. It did afford a lot of privileges similar to an alliance, and that was the reason they were able to dock here to resupply before heading further into the Vector.

Luke turned away from the window and looked at Jack expectedly. It was then that he remembered he'd never responded to Luke's last question.

"You mean how were we lucky enough to get captured?" Jack asked with a grin. "We're just lucky we didn't end up getting speared."

"From the sounds of it, you're the one who did the spearing," said Luke with a heavy laugh. He made a lewd gesture with his hands which was enough to earn a laugh from his commander.

Jack got up from his desk and patted his friend on the back. "Some days, I don't know how Kim puts up with you."

"She likes a good laugh, just like you. Face it—I'm too fun to be around," answered Luke while raising his chin. The Kim that Jack referred to was of course their head of operations division on the Valiant, Kim Cross. It wasn't well broadcasted among the crew, but Jack knew they'd been sleeping together for some time.

"Anyway, I'm sure you'll see your share of action soon. How's the arm feeling by the way?" asked Jack while pointing to the man's arm which was still secured in a sling.

"Ready for it to be fully healed," growled Luke as he cast a glare down to his sling. "I could have killed that traitor sailor who shot me during the Tiger takeover."

"If he hadn't tried to kill you first," said Jack with a chuckle.

"It's just too bad someone managed to kill him before I did. Anyway, it's just the little things that bug me with it now," said Luke while tapping the sling gently. "I need help getting dressed. Wiping is problematic as a righty too."

"Too much information. Didn't need to know that," said Jack while shaking his head and holding up his hands.

Luke laughed. "Hey, you need to know the struggle. But in all honesty, I just want to be able to have full mobility. I hate having the crew see me like this. It's almost like . . . like . . ."

"What?"

Luke grimaced. "I feel like less of a man wearing it."

Jack patted his friend's back once more. "You're not the only man who's ever had to wear a sling, Luke. It's just temporary. We have plenty more ahead of us now and trust me, you'll see your share of action."

Luke began to nod a moment later. "I'd better. And the next time we land ourselves in an orgy, I want first dibs."

Jack started to laugh. "You're lucky Kim isn't here or else she might smack you."

"I take enough grief from her as is," said Luke with a roll of the eyes. "But enough about me. I kind of figured this wouldn't be a social call. What did you want to see me about?"

Jack shrugged and then sat down at his desk. "Honestly, I'm thinking of calling a meeting with all the commanders."

Luke looked toward the door and then back to Jack. "So where are the rest of them?"

"Well, that's the thing. I'm thinking of inviting the elder council to the meeting as well. I wanted to plot our next course, and I'm thinking we could use their knowledge of the local area with where to go next."

Luke grimaced. "Is that entirely wise? They aren't exactly our allies. Just our 'friends.' Whatever that means."

Jack stood up and approached the port window as well. The way the sun gleamed off the palace walls produced quite a sensational glare. "I know. I struggled with it myself but the long and short of it is that we are foreigners here. We've been sailing blind, and I don't want to if I don't have to. The Lishkerrans must know about their neighbors here. They'll be able to guide us on our next best stop."

"Or send us directly into shithole or a war if we're unlucky," grunted Luke.

Jack found himself chuckling. "We've been pretty lucky so far and I don't think they would betray us like that. Not after the festival and what we've done for them."

"What we've done for them," repeated Luke with a heavy chuckle. "Screwing them senseless?"

Jack continued to laugh. "You know what I mean. For once, let's have some foreknowledge of where we're going. Landing here in Lishkerra has worked out well for us but it very easily could've gone badly."

"No, you're right. That's fine by me. I can't really speak for Vicky, but I'd imagine she wouldn't have a problem with it either. However, I have no idea what Abigail might say about it."

"I think she'll be all right but you never know. That woman never ceases to surprise me," said Jack with a shudder.

"It's got to be nice spending most of your days by her side. The body on that woman," said Luke with a low whistle. "Have you . . . you know?"

"Come on, you know better than to ask me that," said Jack with a rueful smile.

"I know that look! You did, didn't you?" asked Luke with the biggest grin.

"Luke!" warned Jack while trying to act serious but still failing to contain his smile.

"How was she? Was it good? Can it be my turn next?" pestered the commander of the Valiant.

"Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"Get the hell out of my quarters," said Jack with a joking laugh.

"I always miss all the action," said Luke with fake pity. "Just promise me you'll tell me one day?"

"Not on your life," answered Jack.

Luke threw his arms up playfully. "You think you know a guy . . ." The lieutenant commander was still shaking his head as he left Jack's headquarters to go back to his ship.

Jack continued to chuckle as the latch was shut to his quarters. Returning to his desk, he grabbed a report from the engine room that had landed on his desk from Twitch thirty minutes earlier and briefly scanned it. Finding everything satisfactory, he set it down with relief. There were few things on the ship that could make him sweat like problems coming from the engine room. If anything was wrong with the reactors, they could be in serious trouble.

It was funny to him how much they relied on the relatively new technology. He remembered when the Polonium reactors were installed on the first ships and how skeptical everyone had been of their value. Prior to that, the only reliable fuel source was coal and that was far from satisfactory. It was dirty, it took up too much space on the ships, and it required more frequent port stops. Ever since Javan scientists had created a way to use the abundant resource of Polonium as a source of fuel, it eliminated all three of those problems.

To start, it burned much cleaner and whereas all the old warships used to be easily identifiable by their distinctive, dark exhaust clouds coming from their smokestacks, Polonium burned much more clear. Now it was possible to move without a visible cloud indicating your position to anyone that could look at the horizon.

Secondly, Polonium released an incredible amount of energy relative to its size. A sample size of two tons of Polonium could keep them at sea for months. Once fed into the reactor, it provided enough energy to easily feed the boilers and turn the propellers. And it took up far less space than coal. Overall, Jack was relieved to see the two reactors on the Destiny were operating at full capacity.

There was a knock on his door that captured Jack's attention from the report in front of him. After giving his greeting, lustrous, dark hair appeared just beyond the door.

"Just me. Can I come in?" asked Abigail as her head popped through the frame.

"For you, that answer is always yes," said Jack with a playful grin.

"Charmer," said Abigail as she came forward to sit on the portion of his desk directly in front of him. "I saw Luke on the way down here. Any idea why he was looking so amused?"

Jack pursed his lips as he remembered the last bit of that conversation but managed to shake his head. "Just Luke being Luke, I'm assuming."

"Boys will be boys," said Abigail with an eye roll. "Anyway what did you need?"

Jack hazarded a glance down to her body as she sat exposed right in front of him. "That's a loaded question," he answered with a chuckle.

She snapped shut her legs and then raised an eyebrow. "Behave yourself or I'll tell Anna what you've been up to."

Jack opened his mouth to argue but found himself closing it just as quickly. While Abigail knew all about his extracurricular activities with her sister, Anna couldn't exactly say the same. Jack preferred to keep it that way, seeing as how the younger sister seemed to be a bit more possessive than her sibling.

"I need to call a meeting with all the commanders," started Jack with a serious look.

Abigail frowned. "That's it? You could have passed a message through Lt. Buckner for that."

"Not exactly. I want to invite the Lishkerran council as well."

Abigail began to nod. "Ah, I see now. That complicates things a bit."

"Do you have any objections to them being on the ship?"

Abigail raised her hand and began to tick off her fingers. "Well for starters, they didn't agree to the alliance. We barely know them, and lastly we aren't supposed to have non-Javans on the ship. You know the Admiralty's rules so why are you breaking them?"

"I think they can really help us with plotting our next course," said Jack, launching into the same discussion he had with Luke. He explained his thoughts to her and went over the few advantages that having their help could bring.

"Well, you sold me on it, but it's your ass if word gets back to the Admiralty. Then I guess we'll see just how much Admiral Bancroft likes you," said Abigail with a demure smile.

"Let me handle Bancroft. I'm sure I can make him see the reason behind my actions," answered Jack.

"Oh, I'll let you have him fully," said Abigail with a giggle. "So tell me, did you need anything else besides my permission to have foreigners on my ship?"

Jack let slip a little smirk. "You're awfully cute when you get mouthy, do you know that?"

She leaned forward and placed her mouth close to his ear. "You don't know the half of it, Commander," she whispered, sending a shiver down his spine. She then pulled back and looked at him again. "Don't worry, I'll send a sailor to the council and have them invited. When do you want to hold this meeting?"

"Tomorrow morning. Work for you?"

She lowered her head and batted her eyelashes. "I'll see if I can fit you into my busy schedule."

Jack chuckled again. "Okay, trouble, now get out of here."

"You know, you're pretty cute yourself when you take charge like that," she said with a giggle and a wink. She sashayed over to the door and left in a quick hurry. Jack took a deep breath and relaxed as soon as she was gone. She always left him on edge. Even the lingering scent of her perfume he found completely intoxicating.

Now that she was gone, Jack turned his attention back to his desk. Quickly drafting an order to assemble at nine o'clock in the morning, he had Twitch radio out the instructions to all the commanders, as well as the division head officers of all three ships. Satisfied with the results, he picked up the next report that had landed on his desk, which concerned maintenance on the Tiger, and got back to work.

*****

The next morning at fifteen minutes before nine, Jack stood just inside his headquarters and awaited his officers for their appointed meeting. Thankfully, Abigail had returned with promising news from the council, and the head councilor of Lishkerra herself, Numa, would be attending as well as Vigo, the councilor who had initially captured Jack and Greg last week. He was thankful to have the two councilors he trusted the most in this meeting for it was of utmost importance where they sailed to next.

Turning to look at the wall behind him, he stared at the map of the Fourth Vector that he had secured from the Lishkerrans. Of course, this version of the map was replicated by his own team and was large enough to cover half the wall. From Jack's standpoint, there was only one real direction to head from Lishkerra and that was due north.

However, by heading north, there were three options of where to go. Three different islands of which he knew nothing about and for that he wanted the Lishkerrans' advice.

"There you are, handsome. It's been too long since I had an invitation to your headquarters," came a voice from behind him.

Jack turned to see the smiling face of Vicky Carter, commander of the Tiger. "I figured it was time I stopped dragging my feet and get it over with," said Jack with a subtle wink. Vicky giggled and embraced him in a warm hug. Behind her, the officers of the Tiger filtered in. Lt. Brian Xavier, head of operations division, filed in next. Behind him strolled Lt. Beth Pollock of engineering division and Lt. Lance Harris of weapons division.

"Brian, Beth, and Lance, good to see you all again," greeted Jack watching the three officers salute and then relax their postures.

"Is that you, Jack? We never see you anymore so we forgot what you look like," cracked Lance, earning a round of quiet chuckles from the rest of the group.

"Like you haven't seen enough of me lately," said Jack with a laugh. "I spend more time on the Tiger than I do on the Destiny."

"I don't know how you do it," said Beth, looking around the quarters. "If my room looked like this, I wouldn't be so eager to come over to the cramped Tiger!"

Brian scoffed. "Bah. All this luxury makes an officer soft. Better watch out for that, Jack." Brian elbowed him in the ribs.

Before Jack could offer a retort, the group from the Valiant appeared at the entrance to his quarters.

"Luke, you're late," quipped Vicky playfully as the officers began to greet each other.

"What are you talking about?" asked Luke in a confused manner. "I'm early!"

"Lovable Luke, I'm just teasing you," said Vicky with a giggle as they embraced in a hug.

"I don't know how you put up with this one, Jack," said Luke with a playful eye roll.

"That's easy! It's because I'm not hard on the eyes, right Jack?"

"Yep, we're going to go with that," said Jack with a laugh. "Now Luke, get in here so I can see the rest of the crew."

Luke left the doorframe and entered the quarters which allowed the rest of the officers of the Valiant to enter the room. First was Kim Cross, following in Luke's shadow. She gave Jack a warm hug while the rest of the officers entered. Next was Cory Renner, who offered a very crisp salute to Jack, one that he returned with equal amounts of pride.

"Good morning, sir," chirped Cory brightly.

"Morning, Cory. And please, will you call me Jack when it's just us officers? You don't have to be so formal in here," said Jack with a grin.

"Sorry, sir. I mean, Jack," stammered Cory who quickly went red in the face.

"Where's Norman? Did he come over too?" asked Jack.

"I'm right here, Jack. Sorry, you just didn't see me because Cory was too busy trying to perfect his salute," said Bill Norman while walking into the room. The laughs from the rest of the officers were enough to keep Cory permanently red-faced.

The next group to arrive were the division officers of the Destiny. Anna led the group, greeting her fellow officers with warm hellos and hugs. Her gaze temporarily fixed on Jack, offering him a smoldering look that Jack recognized instantly as meaning she was horny. She took a seat not far from him and continued to try to catch his attention.

Lt. Kyle Abrams of weapons division filed in next, sitting next to Bill Norman, having quickly bonded over their shared responsibilities for the two ships.

Next to last in was the short-haired pixie, Stephanie, who came right up to Jack before taking her seat. "Incoming. The council is right behind me. Nice to see you, Jack," she said with a grin.

"Thanks, Steph," whispered Jack before approaching the door.

Sure enough, soon at the entrance were three people. Abigail was easily the tallest, being flanked on either side by the diminutive rulers of Lishkerran council, Numa and Vigo.

"It's wonderful to see you again, Jack," said Numa with a beaming smile.

"It's great to see you both too. And thank you for coming aboard the ship with such short notice. We really appreciate your presence," said Jack.

Vigo shook his hand and then gently elbowed his side. "Good to see you, Jack. My granddaughter won't stop talking about you, you know? Kassia keeps rattling on about how she's going to give birth to blonde-haired Lishkerrans because of you." Vigo then laughed heartily. "Could you imagine such a sight? A blonde Lishkerran?" The elder shook his head at such an imagined absurdity.

It was Jack's turn to go red in the face, having well remembered his time with the feisty Lishkerran. "I'm sure that would be something to see," he said reservedly, somewhat unsure of what else to say to the elder about having sex with his granddaughter.

Numa looked at the assembled officers and then frowned. "I thought your soldier friend, Greg, would be here. Is he unwell?"

"Nope, just late as usual," came a voice from behind them as Greg appeared at the door out of breath. "Sorry, Jack, I got tied up mediating a fight with the boys."

Jack chuckled. "No harm, Greg. I imagine the marines are a little stir-crazy from all this time on the ship."

"You don't know the half of it," said Greg with an eye roll. "Are we ready to start?"

Jack nodded. "Looks like it. Numa and Vigo, will you take the seats of honor in front?"

"Thank you, Jack," said Numa as they moved to take their seats right in front of the map. Jack approached the front of the room and gestured to the wall in front of them.

"Thank you all for coming today, especially our honored guests and friends," said Jack while pointing to the Lishkerrans. "As you know, our mission is going to continue to take us further into the Vector. As of now, we've been largely sailing blind only knowing the general direction of the Vector and hoping for the best. But thanks to our new friends, we now have a map of the local area of the Vector, and we have a decision between three places to go."

Jack then used a pencil to point to the map while the rest of the room focused on it. They had three general options on where to go, all of them north. If they went northwest, they would go to a smaller, triangular-shaped island. If they went due north, they would go to a much larger circular island. If they went northeast, they would go to a much smaller circular island around the same size as Lishkerra.

"This is the reason why I wanted to ask our new friends where to go," said Jack while smiling at the Lishkerrans. "Since we are foreigners to this area of the world, your wisdom and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Where are we most likely to find the alliance that we seek?"

Most of the room turned to watch the two Lishkerrans in the front row. For his part, Vigo looked over at Numa with a hopeful expression, as if seeking permission to answer Jack's question. Numa gently nodded her head without a word and having received his permission, Vigo got out of his chair and approached the map.

"While we Lishkerrans generally do not involve ourselves with peoples outside of our island, this map is all that we have for the local area. We also have knowledge of what you can find on each island."

Vigo then pointed to the island on the northeast side, the smaller circular one. "This one you do not want to go to. Even though it is small in size, the most wicked of creatures live here. Those that breathe fire when they take to the skies."

A low murmur erupted from the officers as they digested the elder's words. More than once, Jack heard the word dragons being muttered by the assembled ranks.

Vigo's finger then pointed to the island exactly due north. "This largest island belongs to the world of men but it is the island we've also had the most trouble with since we've moved to our current home. This is an island of slavers, a nasty people, and should be avoided at all costs."

Finally, Vigo settled on the island to the northwest. "This is the island we've had the most contact with. It is called Sorella and more recently it has been divided into two parts. A West Sorella and an East Sorella. They are the same peoples although they have chosen two different leaders politically. We have generally found the Sorellans to be good people."

Jack studied the last island in particular, noting its geography and how they could approach it. "Do these Sorellans have any cities? Where would be a good place for us to land?"

Vigo took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "To that question, we don't have a good answer. All that we know of the Sorellans is that of which we have been told. Almost a year ago, a trader was the one that gave us the news about the island dividing politically, but we've heard of nothing since then. No Lishkerran has stepped foot on their island. I'm sorry, Jack, but we cannot answer that question."

Jack nodded slowly. "How about their leaders? Do you know of their names? What are they like?"

"We know of one of their leaders," answered Numa who started to stand. "A new one at that. His name is Daimanos but as to his personality, we cannot attest to that."

"Well, at least we know of someone we can start with. What about their level of technology?"

Numa gave him a perplexed look. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean how advanced are these Sorellans? Are they like us? Do they have great metal ships? Handheld radios?" Jack showed the one clipped to his waist to the Lishkerran elder.

"Oh, I see what you mean now. There wasn't much to see on our last encounter with them. At the time, they operated great ships made out of the trunks of trees. On their decks were attached great squares of cloth although for what purpose that was for, we do not know."

Luke was the one to interrupt. "Those must be sails. They must not be past sailing technology."

"What about guns?" asked Greg. "Do they have anything like our rifles?"

Numa nodded. "They have the same type of bang sticks as you do. However theirs are louder and somewhat smokier when released."

Jack thought about her answer for a moment before responding. "It sounds like they are rather behind us in technology. To be only on wooden sailing ships and what sounds like muskets. Although, I'm surprised we found that level of technology in the Vector."

"Especially with what we've heard about it back home," agreed Abigail.

"Unfortunately, that is all we know about the lands to the north," said Vigo with a morose smile. "If you'll allow it, we'll take our leave back to the city now."

Jack bowed his head slightly. "We greatly appreciate your input. We're all thankful to have the friendship of the Lishkerran people."

Both Numa and Vigo returned the bow and after a small wave to the rest of the officers, the Lishkerran councilors took their leave of the ship, closing the door to Jack's headquarters behind them.

Jack then turned to face the rest of the officers. "So, what do you all think?"

Surprisingly, it was Cory that spoke up first. "It really doesn't leave us much choice, does it?" When the rest of the officers turned to look at him, he continued speaking. "I mean, unless we want to be roasted alive by dragons or become slaves, I'd say we go to this Sorella island and try our luck there."

Jack nodded before speaking again. "Anybody else? What do you think about this?"

"I'm a little concerned by their technology," said Vicky. "All we've ever heard is that the Vector is filled with stone-throwing savages. To hear that one of these people have mastered gunpowder and rigged sailing is a little disheartening."

"What if we don't have a warm reception either?" asked Anna. "The Lishkerrans were able to hurt us even though their weapons are primitive. What if they aren't as well-meaning to us as they were to them?"

Jack quickly shook his head. "There's no other way for us to find that out besides going there. We can raise doubts about it all day long but we won't know for sure until we encounter these Sorellans and their leader Daimanos."

"Consider me in, Jack," said Greg, piping up from the corner. "With all of our options, they sound like the best bet."

"Aye, same here, Jack," said Bill Norman.

Eventually the entire room came to the same consensus, nodding their agreement with their comrades.

"So that settles it then. We're heading to Sorella," said Jack finally, tapping the island on the map.

"I guess there's only one question left," said Abigail while getting up from her chair. "When do we leave?"

"We can leave tomorrow," said Jack. "Our stores of supplies are just about replenished thanks to the Lishkerrans. They should be finished loading them tonight, and we can take off in the morning."

"What about the Tiger, Jack?" asked Vicky. "She still has the flooded out room that's only being sealed by the watertight bulkheads."

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that right now," answered Jack. "The Lishkerrans just don't have the capacity or the technology to help us fix that. What we need is a dry dock big enough to fit the ship and enough steel to cover the gap. We have neither of those available to us right now. Not unless we lose a few weeks to sail back to Quiller's Cove. That's just not an option right now so we'll sail without it."

The rest of the meeting was filled with talk of logistics as the assembled officers planned their approach to Sorella. Based upon the maps provided, it was thought it would take just about three days to reach the island. Jack hoped that once they got there and hopefully signed an alliance, they could find out more about the Vector. War was still on the horizon, and they would need all the allies they could find. At that very moment on his desk, there was a report about recent raiding by Occitanians of Javan merchant shipping. It wouldn't be long now until the official start of hostilities.

Once the meeting was over, Jack saw the rest of the officers back to their ships and their posts. Assembling a quick message intended for Admiral Bancroft, Jack let him know about his recent exploits with Lishkerra (minus a few of the more intimate parts) as well as their intended course toward Sorella. In turn, he asked to be kept up to speed with events closer to home. Although Jack thought it to be a remote possibility, he knew that most of his crew would jump at the chance to sail home and fight a conventional war against a more familiar enemy.

Finishing his work late in the evening, Jack watched as the last pallet of supplies were loaded onto the Destiny from the dock outside. Now that they were fully loaded, all the crew needed was a good night's rest before they were able to set sail. Turning toward the north, Jack looked out at the darkened horizon and felt an eager anticipation to get moving. Their next adventure was just a short distance away.

Sorella was calling.

*****

The next morning, Jack awoke to the feeling of a subtle stirring next to him. Cracking open one eye, he took in the still sleeping form of Anna nestled into his side. Her wild, dark hair was half tucked under her head and half brushing across the side of his face and neck. Beneath the covers, her nude form pressed intimately against his side and her leg draped possessively over his own.

It wasn't often that Anna spent the entire night in his cabin. Most nights, she had her own watch to do on the bridge, and Jack often found her sneaking out in the middle of the night to attend her shift. It was rare when she got out of the duty, or managed to send her deputy in her place, but last night was one of those nights. Crawling into his bed at just after ten, she had quickly stripped off her uniform and invited him between her legs with a sultry come-hither gesture.

Now though, Jack was just content to enjoy the sight of her peaceful sleeping after a night of vigorous activity. Even though Anna could be a little unpredictable, he still enjoyed these rare quiet moments with her.

Anna stirred beside him and slowly opened her eyes. "Morning," she whispered.

"Good morning," said Jack while rubbing his hand along her back.

"Any idea what time it is?"

Jack leaned up and looked at his watch on the bedside table. "Just a little after six."

A small smile pierced her lips as she closed her eyes and snuggled in closer. "I never get to sleep in. This is so nice."

"Mm-hmm," muttered Jack, enjoying the feeling of her bodily warmth.

Anna stirred one more time and placed her hand against his chest. Setting her chin between her fingers, her dark-brown eyes searched his own. "What are you thinking about, Jack?"

His fingers slid through her hair as he returned the gaze. "Two things really. How nice it is to share this time with you in the morning. And how we have to finally set sail today."

Anna smiled. "You know, you could take me permanently off watch duty and we could share a whole night together more often."

Jack chuckled. "And that wouldn't get the whole officer corps talking about us, would it?"

She giggled and flicked her hair back. "I suppose you're right! I still like the idea of doing this more often."

Jack nodded and kissed her forehead. "Me too. But I can't be showing favoritism. I don't need the rest of the officers hating me."

Anna let out a playful sigh as her hand drifted across his stomach. "Maybe I can convince you another way?" Her fingers danced around his cock.

"Anna," said Jack in a clear warning before shaking his head in a playful manner.

It was her turn to pout. "A girl never gets to have any fun."

He nearly snorted. "Oh, really? What do you call last night then?" Scenes of their passionate embrace filled his mind.

Anna blinked and smiled. "Well, it was fun and that's why I want more of it!"

"My insatiable Anna," he joked.

When she didn't respond, Jack turned to look at her and saw that she was clearly mulling something over internally. Watching her wheels turn, Jack finally spoke up. "What's on your mind?"

Anna cocked her head to one side. "How much longer do you think this mission will go on? I mean, do you think we'll get a chance to go home soon? Maybe get some R&R time soon?"

Jack shrugged. "Hard to say. We've only really just begun the mission so I don't see us being up for any R&R any time soon."

She pursed her lips and went back to her deep thinking.

"Why do you ask?"

Anna looked off toward the ceiling. "No reason, really. I just . . . if we go home soon, I kind of want you to come with me. Our family home isn't far from the naval base of Aberdeen. Maybe you could come and have dinner with us. You know, meet my family?"

Jack watched her expression carefully as she glided over her last words. While sleeping together was one thing, meeting all of the Wainwright family would be something entirely different. Something that Jack had always consigned to a more serious relationship.

Relationship. Was that what he had with Anna? She hadn't made her intentions clear and in fairness, neither had he. Until then, they'd both seemed to be content to sleep with each other with no other strings attached. He did see, however, that she carried a certain possessiveness about her, no doubt encouraged by earlier competitions with her sister. But was it a relationship?

A knot began to form in Jack's stomach as he couldn't answer that question. While he was very fond of the girl, he couldn't call it love. Circumstances had thrown them together into the same bed but for him, it had just been about the sex. He thought she was in the same frame of mind as he was. Even Abigail had made that clear from their first time.

Abigail. There was that unanswered question as well. He hardly doubted that their father would take kindly to a man who had slept with both of his daughters. And that's not to mention how their two brothers would take it either.

"Hello, Jack, are you still there?" Anna asked playfully, poking him in the side.

Jack quickly shook his head. "Sorry, just thinking. Is that what you really want?"

Anna began to pull back immediately. "Sorry, Jack, was that a stupid idea? I shouldn't have even said anything. It's too soon, and I don't know why I even brought it up."

Jack nodded but began to feel an awkward tension developing between them. "It's not stupid. I just . . . wasn't aware you felt that strongly about it."

Anna looked up at him. "Don't you though?"

The honest answer would have crushed her. She looked at him so expectantly, with her big, dark eyes and only wanting to hear one particular answer. Jack responded the best way he could.

"I'll say this—let's wait until we figure out when that next R&R actually is. If we feel like we're in a good place, then we can talk about it more. Is that fair?"

She mulled the idea over in her mind for a few moments before eagerly nodding her head. "That sounds wonderful, Jack!" Anna leaned in to kiss him next, her tongue thirstily seeking his own. "It'll be so much fun, I promise!"

Jack chuckled and remained silent. There was no clearer indication of their difference in age than right now. Her naivety about the nature of their relationship was going to end up costing them both a lot of pain. Jack fought off a grimace, the idea of hurting her too painful to contemplate.

Thankfully, she didn't remain pressed into his side very long. Getting an answer that satisfied her, Anna began to slip her body over his, extending her leg on the other side of the bed, and sliding out from between the sheet. Her gloriously nude body stretched as she stood beside the bed and after letting out a small yawn, she began to rummage through her clothing for her underwear.

"I should probably get going and start the morning report," said Anna as she slipped her bra on. "You'd never know it but my boss is a real slave driver," she said with a wink.

"Is that right? I feel so bad for you for having to put up with him," answered Jack with a grin, glad to be back to a more playful mood with her.

"Yeah, it's really just terrible. Thank god there's other aspects about him that make up for it." Her fingers worked the buttons on her top, removing the sight of delicate, exposed flesh from his view. Once she was fully dressed, she leaned over to give him one, last kiss.

"See you on the bridge soon, handsome," she whispered. The kiss lingered a long time before she slipped back into her stern, exterior face. The face of an officer. With that, Anna exited his headquarters, leaving Jack still in bed.

He sighed as soon as she was gone. His relationship with her had taken a very real turn this morning. Now there was a certain choice in front of him which had not been present before. The choice was whether or not to let their relationship turn into something more serious than it was right now. What made that choice so much harder was that he already knew her answer. Unfortunately, the only fair way to decline that choice would be to stop sleeping with her as well. There was no way he could continue to hurt her if he decided he didn't want to pursue a relationship with her.

Jack mulled the idea over in his head like he had several times before. While he greatly enjoyed Anna's company and found her to be playful, intelligent, and incredibly sexy, something about becoming more serious with her just didn't feel right. It wasn't something he could easily put his finger on but Jack trusted his gut. If his gut said no then he had to listen to it. He just hoped that Anna wouldn't take the breakup too badly.

What a great way to start the morning, he thought sourly.

Getting out of bed, Jack quickly dressed for the day and started to catch up on the small pile of reports that had filtered in through the night. While usually the morning was the busiest time for reports, there were always several that made their way in during the overnight hours, usually problems that would need his input.

Jack was glad to see all was well with the Tiger overnight, but perplexed over the continued leak on the Valiant that had been plaguing the ship since their journey from Quiller's Cove. Even though Luke had claimed it was under control, the leak had resumed once more, frustrating the efforts of the engineers on its source. Jack made a mental note to speak with Luke about it, only imagining the look on the face of his still-wounded colleague.

Thinking of Luke's wound reminded Jack of something he'd been meaning to do. He wrote up a short note to Greg and had Twitch send it down to the major's quarters. With all that was happening lately, this was something he wanted to get up to speed on immediately. Satisfied with the request, Jack finished the last of the paperwork and prepared to depart from Lishkerra.

*****

"You better not shoot any holes in that boat, Jack. Or the commander of this ship will have my ass," said Greg with considerable cheek.

Jack looked up from his rifle and laughed. “Greg, if I shoot any holes in my own damn boat, none of my crew would be able to let me live it down!”

The Marine just chuckled as Jack lowered his head to the scope once more. It had only been two days since they'd left Lishkerra, and the only thing that could be seen in any direction was open water. Jack remained in the prone position against the deck as he once again sighted the target about a hundred yards away.

The target was merely a large square of wood, fitted with a human resemblance to pass off as a target, and set upright onto one of the small launch boats of the Destiny. While crude in nature to some of the gun ranges back in Java, it was the only effective way to have gun training on a ship, where any stray bullet might pierce the inside of the hull or ricochet off the bulkhead and kill someone.

“Not bad shooting,” said Greg with a nod. “But my boys would lick you easily in any fight. Try to cluster a few more around the head.”

Jack raised the rifle slightly and fired several more bursts. Ever since he'd asked Greg about more rifle training the morning they left Lishkerra, he'd been aching to get in front of a few targets. The recent events with the Tiger takeover and the initial Lishkerran assault had shown him that his shooting wasn't as good as it could've been. Several well-placed shots might have been the difference in their fortunes, and Jack was determined to bring his skill with a rifle back up to par.

“You’re only going to kill this guy if he’s got a big ass head,” said Greg with a grin. “Concentrate and steady your hands. You have to do better.”

Jack looked up at the Marine. “It’s a little hard with that boat bouncing in the waves like it’s been doing all morning.”

“Only losers make excuses. Good shooters find a way to adjust to hit the target,” said Greg with a stern look. “Which one are you?”

Jack grumbled under his breath and tried to concentrate harder. The rocking of the waves always seemed to send the small boat upward and he found himself having to wait until the target drifted lower in the sights before firing off a short burst. However, a few times he found himself firing way off because he didn’t compensate for an incoming wave.

“You always have to pay attention to your surroundings, Jack. What is near the target that could fuck you?”

Jack dialed the scope back a bit to watch the general vicinity for a few moments. Since the boat followed the wake of the ship, the waves were a bit more unpredictable than the steady, unending procession that made its way to the coast. Yet after a while, he was able to pick up a small pattern with the waves and began to predict when the boat would go soaring upwards.

It became more of a game at that point. Jack would fix his sights just above the head and wait for the wave to hit. Once it did, he would follow the target with his eyes until the center of the head just pierced the bullseye and fire off a burst. Once he began to get the timing down, he consistently started to pepper the same area of the target.

“Now that’s good shooting,” said Greg with a smile as he put his binoculars down. “A few more rounds of practice like that, and you’ll be about equal with the worst guy on my team.”

Jack scoffed and fixed his friend with a friendly grin. “Fuck off,” he said playfully.

The marine let loose a large belly laugh and then held out his hand. “Hand over that rifle. Let me show you how a major shoots.”

Jack raised from the deck and quickly handed over the NT-12 rifle to Greg. Grabbing the man’s binoculars, Jack watched as the marine set himself prone and adjusted the sights. For several moments, Jack waited for him to begin firing and soon became impatient.

“What are you waiting for? Not as easy as it looks is it—”

At that moment, Greg let slip a steady burst of ammunition. Jack settled on the target and was surprised to find a cluster of holes neatly packed around the nose of the target which had clearly not been there when he was firing.

Greg looked up and gave him a cheeky look. “Any questions?”

Jack grinned. “Fuck you,” he repeated with a heavy chuckle.

Greg settled back on the sights again. “We should do this more often. I forget how fun it is to get some practice shooting in.”

“I’m with you on that one,” said Jack. “I want to be better prepared the next time we find ourselves in a bad situation. You never know when good shooting will come in handy.”

“If you want, we can make this a daily thing as long as we're out to sea. We can’t go nuts with our current constraint on ammunition but as long as we get regular resupplies of bullets, we’ll be fine,” offered Greg.

"Let's do it," agreed Jack. "This kind of training will only pay off in the long run."

Greg nodded his head and then pointed over to the starboard side of the ship. "It looks like you weren't the only one who wanted to have a little shooting practice today."

Jack looked over in that direction and watched as a launch boat made its way over from the Valiant. Inside the boat was Luke holding his own rifle off his back. A lip-piercing grin filled his face as the small boat drifted closer to the Destiny. What was even more apparent was that the sling was now off of his arm.

"Didn't feel like missing all the fun?" Jack called out as Luke made his way up the small ladder from the boat.

"Not if you guys are doing target practice! I haven't fired my weapon since the day we took the Tiger back," said Luke excitedly.

"That's way too long," said Greg with a chuckle. "But it sounds like with where we're going now, we won't need these rifles."

"Damn straight," said Jack. "Our mission is to make allies, not enemies. We have enough of those at home."

"Spoilsport," muttered Luke.

Jack watched as Luke began to pull his rifle off of his back. He used his one hand carefully to rotate the gun on the strap, taking extra precaution as he did it. At one point, Luke's mouth opened and his face grimaced as his arm contorted into an unusual position.

"Who said you could take the sling off?" asked Jack, wondering if Luke had been cleared by the Valiant's resident doctor. "Was it Dr. Whitman?"

Luke quickly nodded his head. "Sure did. Clean bill of health and ready to roll." Luke kneeled down to get into position and gave a small yelp of pain as more pressure went into his arm.

"You sure about that? It looks to still be bothering you," said Jack with a chuckle.

"Yup, don't worry about me. I'm all set. The muscles just need warmed up is all," said Luke reassuringly as he worked to position his older NT-11. The commander of the Valiant quickly lined up the target in the waters below and fired off several quick bursts of fire.

Greg pulled the binoculars back up to his face. "Here I thought Jack was a bad shot. Looks like you need some practice."

Luke looked up only mildly insulted. "Hey, I'm on the paper at least."

"Yeah, but you missed the outline of the bad guy entirely. You would have shot the air around him in combat," argued Greg.

"It's a little tougher when it's getting hit by waves all the time," grumbled Luke before looking back into the sights. His next burst of fire was a lot closer to the mark.

"Now that's better," said Jack with a grin. "At least you lightly wounded that one."

"Glad I could come out here to entertain you both," said Luke with a huff.

Both of the other men started to chuckle and for the next half hour, they swapped turns peppering the targets and generally practicing their shot. It had been a great day, and Jack was thankful for the time spent working on his skills. One could never tell just when the skill might come in handy.