An Endless Voyage, Chapter 58: Once more unto the breech

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Barely an hour after Captain Poloniev and Princess Mayali had returned, Admiral Karen issued the recall order, letting everyone know shore leave was officially finished.

Captain Patterson thanked Karen for 'getting the fleet back together', and once everyone returned to their ships, it was time to get underway.

the first order of buisness was to escort the human world leaders back to Earth, but once that was done, the fleet would set out in search of new battles, and tying up loose ends like Xenia and Jerry as well.

...........

09:00 Fleet Time, Excalibur bridge...

Admiral Karen had just finished reading various status reports, while sipping her morning whiskey, when Erika informed, "Comms, Admiral, its from the Suvorov."

"Onscreen." Karen replied.

Erika opened the channel, and they were treated to a view of captain Dimitri Poloniev in his command chair, with Princess Mayali at his side. They were drinking vodka from ornate crystal glasses.

"Good morning Admeral." Dimitri said. "Is nice to see you like starting day with a stiff drink, comrade." He paused briefly to kiss Mayali, then, "Reason I called so early is you have not seen the Suvorov. Vassilev was good ship, but Suvrov is much better. You should see for yourself.."

"Agreed." Karen said. "I need to know the Titan-Class capabilities anyway to better plan for the battles to come."

"You can beam over now if you like." Dimitri said. "We can talk about the specs over breakfast, then I will give you full tour. You seemed to enjoy Russian food the last time, Admeral."

"Very well, give me ten minutes and I will beam over." Karen said.

"Thank you Admeral, Suvorov out." Dimitri replied, a moment later the comm fell silent and the image on screen was replaced by the swirling neon of hyperspace once more.

"Maintain current course and speed." Karen said, getting up from her command chair. "Molly has the bridge." and with that she turned and left.

There was a restroom a short distance down the corridor from the Bridge, which was Karen's first goal. She needed to pee and freshen up a bit, before finally taking a nearby utility cart down to the main transporter room.

Most of the time, Karen spent brushing her fur, applying tailhole, fortune cookie, and nipple gloss, and ensuring her Admiral's uniform was in perfect order.

Maya had left some pretty big shoes to fill afterall, and now here she was, "Big girl in charge of everything'' herself, ironic as it was given her size. At any rate, she wanted to make a good impression on the fleet, and the Suvorov was as good a place as any to start.

When Karen rematerialized on the Suvorov, she was standing in the middle of the main hangar deck. Captain Poloniev had assembled the crew for inspection. Molly's UT software took care of the language barrier, and Karen's natural charisma and leadership ability did the rest.

Dimitri introduced all the new crewmembers that were necessary on such a large ship, and then he took a step back, and stood with Mayali, while Karen went down the lines, carefully looking each over, sniffing them, and commenting on things where appropriate. All in all however she only found one thing out of place.

"Shoulder that weapon properly Kaminski." Karen said. "The Kalashnikov is reliable, but carrying it with the barrel toward the ground is just asking for trouble."

Dismissed, all of you back to work." Dimitri said when Karen finished, then added, "Not you Kaminski. The Admeral is right you need to show pride in your work. Ten laps around the flight deck, start running, soldier."

with that done, Dimitri led Admiral Karen and his wife Princess Mayali, to his private "Captain's Mess" dining area for breakfast.

" So what is new in the fleet, Admeral? Dimitri asked as they sat down to await their trays.

"Nothing much captain, unless you count Doc Natalie removing my heat stained panties from Chloe Landry's wolfdog by colonoscopy, but we finally got a lead on a planet, a collie girl that supposedly knows where Xenia and Jerry are hiding. Its something at least."

"Food should not be long, Admeral, Ships cook Vladimir is no fighter ace like Yuri, but he is very good in the Galley." Dimitri said.

Good, I'm starving." Karen said. "I just hope we find that girl before Jerry does, and that if her information is right, I pray the Suvorov's firepower will bring the fleet just what we need to finally take Destroyer down."

"Yes, Is unfortunate Confederacy did not send their new Titan class ship too." Dimitri said.

"Politics." Karen said. "Landry's keeping it in geosyncronous orbit to reassure people somethink like the Xian attack will never happen again."

"I can't wait to see Earth." Mayali said. "Dimitri tells me St Petersburg is a beautiful city."

"It is." Karen said, and my husband's hometown in Louisiana is beautiful too, if you ever get the chance to visit Dixieland.

"You been there?" Mayali asked.

"Yes, after the war I visited the houses of everyone all over earth that lost someone to the war, personally delivering handwritten letters." Karen said.

"You got my letter about Maya." Karen said. "What we told Persis wasn't entirely true."

"Yes, was unfortunate transporter accident not intentional removal from command." Dimitri said. "But you wear those pips well, Admeral."

"Thank you, Captain." Karen said, as a tall chubby Russian with the pips of a bridge officer brought them an expensive looking bottle of vodka, and 3 rather large ornate glasses. Karen knew him at once, Lt. Comm Mikhail Belyayev. Night shift Helmsman.

"Thank you Mikhail." Dimitri said, opening the bottle to fill their glasses as the man left.

"You will love this, Admeral." Dimitri said, handing Karen and Mayali their glasses. "Finest vodka money can buy."

"It is strong too," Mayali said. "Let us drink to the mission."

Which is precisely what they did, and Karen remarked the drink was very smooth, and bolder than she expected too.

It wasnt long after that, Vladimir, a slender older Russian man with a grey neatly trimmed short beard came in pushing a food cart with three trays absolutely loaded with various foods. Karen was expecting a just a bowl of borscht, and maybe some kasha, but there was also okroshka, pierozhki , and Paskha for dessert. a full on 5 course meal.

"I rarely eat this well, for breakfast, but this meal is for you, Admeral, let us celebrate your promotion. Dimitri said. "and you will get full. what is it you call it."

"Ticked." Mayali said. So called because after a good hearty meal one's belly resembles a bloated tick."

"This one is for you, Mayali." Vladimir said handing the princess a tray with a little extra bowl of something as well that looked cold. "It is morozhenoe, you should eat that before it melts."

"And drink plenty of vodka to cleanse your palate after each dish." Karen said, pleasing Dimitri in her knowledge of Russian dining ettiquite.

Karen and Dimitri didn't have the extra bowl that was morozhenoe and so after thanking Vladimir for preparing such a feast, they started with the borscht, and Mayali was already hungrily sucking down her morozhenoe.

Unlike Maya who would have thought nothing of burying her muzzle in the bowl and lapping up the soup like a feral, Karen used the provided utensils leaning over the bowl just enough the bowl caught any drips as she licked the soup from her spoon.. Mayali did the same once she'd finished her morozhenoe.

"Is very pleasing to see you do not make a mess of table like Maya, Admeral." Dimitri said between bites."

"I'm not Maya, I have good table manners." Karen said, but Thank you, captain. Although with all this food and such a big ship to tour, I cant say I'll be so kind to the plumbing. Nothing that wont go down though, just probably end up dropping a ton of 'ordinance' for my size. Anyway, about those ship specs/"

"Yes Admeral." Dimitri said, handing Karen a datapad. "I had Petrovich in Engineering prepare Datapad for you."

"I thought Alexei was a bridge officer." Karen said taking the datapad.

"Yes Admeral, but his sister Natasha is chief Engineer." Dimitri said.

"Thank you." Karen said.

Karen took her time looking over the data as they ate, and there was a ton of it. Ships schematics, engine designs, weapons loadouts, even the water pressure for the toilets and showers, anything one could ever want to know about a Titan class ship, it was all there. And Karen being how she was with machines, it was like porn to her. she even got wet and had to adjust her position slightly so her short little tail made it impossible for anyone to see her quivering canine anus through her tightly stretched Admiral's fatigues.

Mayali's heat wasn't helping either, smelling that, only intensified Karen's own.

Meanwhile back on Excalibur, Molly had everything well in hand. Until everyone went down to the mess hall for a Proper Canine breakfast, that is. Everyone got their trays and sat down to eat fine, but when it was time to put their trays up, Tom bent Molly over one of the big mess tables, pulled her pants down, and buried his bone up her butt with only a bit of grease from his tray as lube.

"Ow, Hey, not so rough." the little badger complained, but Tom was relentless.

"Sorry princess, The Admiral is out socializing with the Russians, and Maya's still a toddler, so you'll have to do."

"Gods you could at least have let me use the latrine first, you're going to make a mess when you finish." Molly persisted.

Tom said nothing more, and just played with Molly's tiny teats as he caressed her sleek little body lovingly, and just kept humping.

"Oh come on princess, you know he likes it dirty." Kayla remarked.

"Natural lube." Hank said. "Not really my thing, but at least when its not hard and dry like Maya, it helps with staying lubed good."

"You love it too princess." Tom told Molly, "You love that thick Rebel cock in your tight little dirty ass. Mmm so nice. Gonna make butt babies. I'm gonna give such a sweet little princess a huge cum enema and then I'm gonna make that spoiled fancypance poodle Shelley clean it all up.and suck me off."

"I was going to go for a colionic and spa treatment today anyway, this just saves me the trouble." Molly finally relented, and started humping back, grinding her rump against Tom as he rode her with pure carnal passion."

"Ah could use one of those mahself." Vice Admiral Ashley remarked. "Dont got the problem lahk Maya does, but the good doc says gettin cleaned out now an' then's good fer the body."

"Please stop talkin about butt stuff." May said. "Its bad enough Ah have ta stick suppositories up Maya's butt since Karen aint here t' do it, and me an' Maya both gotta get colonoscopies tonight. and the worst part is, she enjoys it, giggles and makes that silly poopy face, and lets loose like a volcano."

Meanwhile on the Suvorov...

Once they had finished eating, Karen took the datapad, and followed Dimitri as he led Karen on the start of the tour, starting with the bridge, meanwhile Mayali went to engineering.

"A very impressive bridge, captain." Karen said. " "Is that..."

The big chair yes, go ahead Admeral, try it out." Dimitri said.

Karen took her seat, and proceeded to do just that, then to test, she said, Kisselev, steady as she goes, Petrovich, status report."

"Da, Admeral," the soldiers replied, then Petrovich added, "Still well into the green on everything, Admeral, and nothing on sensors aside from the fleet."

"Thank you Petrovich. Karen said, getting up from the seat.

"Commander Sokolov has the bridge." Dimitri said, leading them back out to the corridors, and to a utility cart Captain Poloniev insisted on driving.

Karen was glad Mayali rode up front with Dimitri, as that helped with the estrus scent a bit. But it only slightly helped her own. Mayali was goddess-hot like herself, and to make matters worse, Dimitri was a really handsome man as well.

The first stop was of course the Armory, where Karen got to see how all those big guns worked. She also impressed the armory crew with how quickly she could field strip, clean, oil, and reassemble an AK47. In return, Dimitri personally helped her load a shell into one of the biggest guns, and Mayali took their picture standing by it before the armory officer closed the breech, so the pic showed just how big the shell was in relation to people.

"Very impressive Captain, With these big guns, and Excalibur's, we just might stand a fighting chance."

"Thank you Admeral, but where did you learn to handle an earth rifle like that." Dimitri said.

"I study everything." Karen said. "And the Kalasnikov rifle has always been one of my favorite earth weapons,. Its simple to make, yet a very reliable weapon. We have a small stock of them on Excalibur, for when conditions on a planet are muddy or sandy and make our own weapons unreliable."

"Good to hear that, Admeral, Perhaps I will have armory officer build you a special one for your birthday this year." Dimitri said.

"I'd like that." Karen said, smiling.

After taking time to look over the sidearms, grenades, and other munitions, and all the variety of shells for the new guns, Dimitri showed Karen the new Titan class had four of those plasma beam weapons that the Lee Class retrofit barely had one of, and the perfected design could cycle much faster, cool quicker, and store up more than one charge, for up to 3 shots per cannon in rapid succession.

"Can't wait to see these big guns wipe that smug grin off Xenia's face." Karen said.

"Yes comrade, we will send her back to hell." Dimitri said.

"Here, have another drink." Mayali said as they got back in the cart. "You need more vodka in you for all the food and whiskey the Confederate ships will undoubtedly offer you as you tour the rest of the fleet."

"Thank you Mayali but its not the Confederate ships' food I worry about." Karen said. " Its Nigel Patterson and Meilin Cheng. Chinese food is weird but some of it is good, and the Englishman... they are polite but they have so many complicated ways of doing things."

Demanding job being an admiral." Mayali said. "I'm happy just being a captain's wife."

"Da, but you are a soldier now my princess." Dimitri told his love. "The time will come when you do have to pick up a rifle and fight like the rest of us."

"Anything for you, my love." Mayali said.

The next stop was the interstellar cartography lab, where star mapping was done, and things discovered were studied to bring back to earth. The Suvorov was purely a warship, unlike the lee class retrofits, but still a warship's sensors were very detailed, so they collected a lot of data to bring back.

That wasnt the really interesting thing though, what knocked Karen on her butt, was when she saw Yuri Ivanov, the pilot who'd flown her Raven to X and back, standing there talking to a curly haired Russian girl Karen didn't recognize.

Yuri recognized Karen immediately, and grabbed her up in a brotherly bearhug. "It is pleasing to see you here, Admeral, and congratulations on your promotion." he said when he finally let the spaniel go.

"Likewise Yuri." Karen said. "I look forward to flying with you again." Karen said.

"We have dozens of Ravens now." Yuri said. "Entire stealth squadron to accompany our regular fighter wings." he paused then, "where are my manners, Admeral, this is Inessa Katya, she's a stellar cartographer and very fascinated with the Expanse and our time in it."

"Pleased to meet you, Inessa." Karen said, shaking the woman's hand.

"Da, Admeral." was all the woman said.

"She does not talk much." Yuri said. "But I will accompany you to fighter bay. I need to be there and do not want to find another cart."

"Good but our next stop is the closest bathroom." Mayali said. "Im in heat and about to pee my pants."

"I still not know how you Canid girls walk around with those things." Yuri said, getting into the back of the cart beside Karen. Dimitri fired up the deuterium turbine engine, and soon they were on their way once more.

"I could say the same about testicles." Karen said. "Just something each person is naturally born to know."

"You should find girlfriend on Excalibur." Dimitri told Yuri. I was skeptical at first, but after that first night with Mayali, a big fat spade, and a perfect rear entrance are pure heaven."

Shortly after that, Dimitri pulled the cart over at the first restroom he saw, and they all went in to take a leak.

Karen also used the time to empty her colon, and though she found the human toilets odd, her small size made it easy to get comfortable.

As ladylike as she was, Karen flushed twice. and then went to wash her hands. Thats where she bumped into the chief engineer, Natasha Petrovich.

"You the new girl in charge of the fleet?" the chubby middle aged woman asked.

"Yes, Admiral Karen Leddoux." Karen said.

"Commander Natasha Petrovich, Chief engineer. Good to see you, Admeral." the woman said.

"We'll be touring your department shortly." Karen said. "Captain Poloniev is giving me the grand tour."

"Da." Natasha said. "And you need not worry Admeral, when the time comes, Engineering will be ready."

"As long as the Chinese, the UK, and the Confederacy dont drop the ball, another woman Karen couldn't see remarked from her stall.

"Forget politics." Karen said. "Nomatter where we're from, we're all soldiers, out here to do a job." Maya said it in the Expanse, and its still true today."

She finished washing her hands and joined the others in the cart. soon they were well on their way to the fighter bay.

"So what is big secret Tom mentioned last CAP?" Yuri asked Karen next.

"As I already told Dimitri, We got a discrete comm from a very pretty Collie girl who said she can help us find Xenia and Jerry." Karen said. "We're going to pick her up as soon as we deliver Earth's leaders to the new Confederate Titan class C.S. S. Buckner that will meet us en route.and take them all home to Earth."

Meanwhile on Excalibur...

All Tartarus was breaking loose. Vice Admiral Ashley struggled to maintain order, but the new Dalmatian girl they'd saved from the Xians wasnt making it easy. She was in heat, and kept using it to get all the boys and a lot of girls after her, only to deny them their prize.

Ashley was getting fed up, and eventually called the girl into her temporary office, to issue a reprimand.

"You're not Karen, why the fuck am I here." Lori demanded.at once.

"Because you are in season and keep driving people crazy dropping yer pants." Ashley said. "Fer now, lay down." she held up a diaper. "Yer gonna wear this until ya kin learn t' behave yerself, 'er until Karen says otherwise."

She forced laci to strip, and after applying a bit of puppy oil to her puffy spade, and tight little canine anus, Ashley proceeded to fasten the diaper on the Dalmatian as one would a newborn pup, and then firmly secure it with tamper-proof super strong tape. "It wont come off no matter how hard ya try, an' tamperin with it 'll get ya a swirley." Ashley told the girl.

"Fuck" Laci said. "Why dont you stick your fingers up my butt and tonguefuck me silly."

"Yer not mah type." Ashley said. "Now get back ta' yer duties 'er Ah'll have ya scrubbin latrines till Karen comes home."

Laci could do nothing but salute and obey of course.

On the Suvorov...

The tour finally reached the main Hangar deck, and to say Karen was impressed was an understatement. She was like a fat pup in a raw meat store, and Yuri was all too happy to help his captain Dimitri show her all the new stuff.

"Love it, Gods, I'd take any one of these birds into combat myself." Karen said, smiling.

"The Phoenix MK 7 is much like the old Mk 5, but with swept wings like the old atmospheric Mig 31 jet." Dimitri said, and the Raven II's are your design with a bit of extra engine stealthing borrowed from an old Yakolev bomber."

"How do they handle?" Karen asked.

"The stealthships are digital like the original and so is the MK 7 but the mk 7 has the option to switch to analog control in the event of electronics malfunction." Dimitri said.

"Either one can flip end over end in under a tenth of a second and accelerate fast enough to peel the skin off your eyes." Yuri said.

"So about like my new Phoenix Mk 8 then." Karen said, smiling. "What kind of armaments do they carry."

"I would have to be seeing the specs on that ship but most likely yes, Admeral." Dimitri said.

"You'll have them." Karen said. " You and the other captians should visit Excalibur sometime to see my upgrades. We all need to know what our ships can do to pull this off."

"I do love Canine food." Dimitri said. "Your Admeral's Mess 1300 hours tomorro?"

"Sounds good to me." Karen said. "Just have to work in captain Patterson, Captain Cheng, and the Confederate captains too and we should be golden."

"I want to see that fighter now." Yuri said.

"Easy enough." Karen held up the datapad she'd been reading, then hit her collar comms. "Belle, she addressed the rough collie engineer who was Tina's second, "establish a datalink with the Suvorov's datapad Im holding, and download all data on the Phoenix Mk 8 fighter."

"Yes Admiral." The collie girl replied.

an instant later data flew across the 10 inch screen at lightning speed, blueprints, scematics, weapons loadouts, everything. when it said download complete, Karen handed the datapad to Yuri.

After looking over it for a minute Yuri handed it to Dimitri. "This is amazing, captain, She solved our cooling problem of those big afterburning aerospace turbine engines on long full afterburner runs, and made it use half as much fuel without any loss in carrying capacity."

"Yeah but still even the Mk 7 is far superior to the Mk 6 currently employed by the Canid empire." Mayali said.

Dimitri insisted Karen climb into one of the jets, and see what she thought of the controls. He even had her run-up the engines, and taxi into position for launch to really get a feel for it.

Fortunately, Karen's UT also projected a hud that translated the Russian guages into Canid, so she knew exactly what she was doing.

Unfortunately when she'd finished and was climbing down, the rear of her admiral's fatigues split out, and several fighter bay techs burst out laughing at seeing the Admiral's bare bottom, and big puffy spade (for her size) like that.

Karen wasn't wearing any underwear, as she didn't think that would be a problem, and being in heat would only have soiled them anyway.

Dimitri was more professional about it. "Yuri, grab a flightsuit for the Admeral to cover herself." he said. "We still have a lot to see, and the only butt I want to see is Mayali's."

"Da, Captain." Yuri said.

"Thank you." Karen said. "I thought I had our tailor fix that, but my bottom is just so big for my size it happens a lot."

"Mayali has same problem, but she is such big girl only pregnant women clothes barely fit, after cutting a tail slit." Dimitri said. "You wanted to know about weapon loadouts."

"Yes." Karen said, getting changed as Yuri had returned with the flightsuit.

The flghtsuits were unisex of course, and despite being a little long for her short stature, actually fit Karen pretty well.

"Well just look at the plane you were in." Dimitri said. "6 air to air, and 4 air to ground missiles, 1 14.7mm chaingun, and a pair of 50mm cannons. and the air to ground missiles can be traded for smartbombs, conventional or nuclear, and drop tanks for extra fuel as needed. The refueling probe on the nose has been designed to fit Canid tankers, for fleet ops, and the engines use standard enriched deuterium fighter fuel, but can run on any oxygenated fuel in an emergency."

Karen listened to every word as captain poloniev talked about all the different weapons loadouts, and soon after that, they were on their way to main engineeering.

Along the way, Dimitri talked about his theories as to where Xenia might be hiding, and Mayali flexed her jealousy when he asked if Karen tought the informant would be pretty.

Karen simply professionally said, "I'm sure she is, all collies are aesthetically pleasing, one would have to really go out of their way to intentionally not want to be pretty."

Just like you spaniels." Mayali said. "We kuvaszok actually have to work at it to look pretty."

"Girls, please. be nice, we are almost there." Dimitri said, letting off the throttle and downshifting as he spoke.

As soon as they arrived, Natasha who Karen had met in the bathroom earlier greeted them warmly, gave Dimitri and Karen a Russian salute, and then handed out radiation tags.

"THe core is stable and has extra shielding, Admeral, but is better to be safe she explained to Karen.

"No worries Natasha, I built a nuclear bomb for a science project, I know about radiation." Karen assured.

"Da, but this not being bomb is the whole point." Natasha said, "We use nuclear reactor to atomize oxygen enriched deuterium and compress it before injecting into aerospace turbines. Our sub-light speed is better than yours. but you run circles around us in hyperdrive . engines get too hot."

"You forgot to carry the 2 in divisional of the heat to power ratio." Karen said. "May I?"

"Da." Dimitri said.

"Karen strode over to the engineering main computer and typed in a few lines of code. Moments later, the others were all amazed at how cool the engines ran, in stead of struggling to keep pace with the fleet.

"Thank you, Admeral, I could not figure that out for nothing." Natasha said.

"Your design was perfect, it was just a math error in fuel mix ratios." Karen said humbly.

"It feels good to hear that from renowned engineer like you, admeral." Natasha said. "I designed these engines myself, using canid / confederate blueprints and shared knowledge from my predecessor on the vassilev in the Expanse.

Several hours and another bathroom break later, Dimitri took Karen to the transporter room, and before beaming home, she told him; "You have a fine ship here captain, I'd be proud to take her into battle myself.

"Even with all your fancy tech?" he asked.

"Its not the tech, its the soldier who wields it, and you and your people have proven themselves in battle time and again." Karen said. She bid captain Poloniev farewell, and beamed home a moment later.

There was a bit of an awkward moment as Karen had to explain to the transporter officer why she was wearing a Russian flightsuit, but after that, Karen went to get changed, and then flew a fighter over to the lee-class british starship the Queen Elisabeth to meet with Captain Patterson. The Englishman was always nice, but still when she thought of lunch, English cuisine wasnt exactly her first choice. she did love their gin though.

"Queen Elizabeth Actual, this is Admiral Karen, I' mo approach, checkers green." she called out.

"Wilco Admiral we have you on approach, you have the ball." Nigel replied.

"Thank you, actual." Karen said, mentally running over her checklist. Speed 250, tailhook down, here we go."

It was something she'd done so many times you never forget. she could do it drunk and blindfolded,... and thanks to Dimitri's vodka she was a little buzzed. but nonetheless she parked her Phoenix Mk 8 in the Queen Elizabeth's hangar without so much as squalling the landing gear tires, and climbed out a moment later.

"Bloody hell mate you gave us a scare a fighter bay tech she only knew by his first name preston remarked. You came in hot but I swear you set that bird down likle a feather. Come Captain Patterson is expecting you.

Preston was a tall dark skinned british man, of London descent, and his accent showed it. He was The Queen Elizabeth's fighter bay technician, and handled arrivals and departures like that.

Fortunately the Queen Elizabeth was a Lee-class ship, and thus small enough to walk. Nigel patterson met them in the corridor, and after greeting Karen and leading her away to his captain's mess, Preston saluted and returned to the fighter bay.

Karen knew the Queen Elizabeth well, so a tour was unneccessary, though Captain Patterson did insist on showing her they'd made her improvements to the main cannon a standard feature, and after that they sat down to a lunc meal of bangers and mash, with a side of welsh cawl, and a nip of London dry gin to make it all go down smooth.

As they ate Captain Patterson talked about all that had happened since the War, and Karen filled him in about Maya's transporter accident, and her plan to take out Xenia just as she had for captain Poloniev.

Captain patterson was understandably skeptical if the girl they were to meet was telling the truth, but he certainly loved Karen's table manners. Often before he'd held his nose in fleet meeting because Maya would often break wind, or belch. but Karen even wiped her muzzle with a napkin and everything.

While they ate he had his men give Karen's fighter a wash and a wax, and Karen shared the specs of the titan class design.

"Bloody hell I wish I had a ship like that, Mate." He said in response. "Maybe that will be my promotion. "I know the UK is building them too."

"We pull this off and I'll buy all of you lee-class captains a Titan class ship myself." Karen said.

"Once more Unto the breech then." Nigel agreed.

"Queen and Country" Nigel said giving the British salute, when it was time for Karen to depart.

"For all people who love life and live free>" Karen returned the salute as she started the engines.

"Admiral of the fleet, departing." captain patterson told everyone, and all who had come to watch cleared the flight deck as Karen taxied around and alligned her fighter for takeoff.

"Tsun Tsu, Actual, this is Admiral Karen, departing the Queen Elizabeth, on tour of the fleet. I should be on your doorstep in about two minutes, over." Karen said.

"Copy Admiral, we are ready to recieve you, and I look forward to a meal without all that noise." captain cheng sad. "Do you like rice wine?"

"V1" caren thought to herself accelerating for takeoff. speed 120, rotate... v2.. ease the stick back... Quen Elizabeth Actual, I am free and flying" she announced."

"Copy Admiral." captain patterson said.

"Tsun Tsu Actual I copy, and yes I love rice wine." Karen said. "I'm gonna need some go-go juice though. silly Holly didnt' gas my bird up all the way before I left home."

"Understood Admiral, and I think you will like our meal." Meilin said. "Bazoi and char siu, with a side of jaizoi, and aged rice wine dating back a hundred years."

"Sounds perfect, just gas up my bird as soon as I put wheels down." Karen said. "I'm sucking fumes out here.

"Will do, Admiral. Actual out." Meilin said.

As luck would have it, or maybe by the grace of the gods, Karen watched as both engines spun down to zero, and flame-out alarms sounded just as her landing gear made contact with the tsun Tsu's flight deck. she immediately killed power to the avionics and opened the cockpit for air, so as not to drain the battery. and true to her word, as Karen climbed down, she saw an old wizened chinese man lugging a fuel hose to top off her tanks.

Karen flashed the man a canine smile, and strode off to meet Meilin who was standing in the main corridor just outside the flight deck.

"Admiral Karen, welcome aboard." Meilin said, though she spoke chinese, the UT translated perfect.

"Thank you, Lets eat." Karen said. "I got a lot to talk about, our neww findings, and still need to visit a lot of ships. And with all the crawfish pie and fried alligator the Rebs will be shoving down me, I'll probably spend all day tomoprro on the pot."

Probably" meilin said with an almost musical asian laugh. She led the Admiral to her captains mess, where they sat down to dinner, and soon proceeded to discuss what Karen knew about the lead they had on stopping the Xians.

Again Karen shared the MK 8 specs and titan class specs, only to have Meilin say her country was building their own Titan class ship but it wasnt ready yet.

Karen said, we all need to know what our ships can do to plan this. If we don't stop Xenia now she will certainly attack Earth again... and maybe next time it wont be dixie cities burning. she might atttack Hong Kong, Or London, or Moscow.. Nowhere is safe so long as Xenia and Jerry live. "I Plan to stop her. Dimitri, Mike, and Nigel Patterson are already onboard with it."

"He will trimumph who knows when to fight and when not to fight, as Tsun Tsu says." Meilin said. "Count me in, Admiral. Time to save the world... again..."