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"Not likely, buster!" Kasia said, "We're not about to put on a strip show for your benefit. You guys take
a walk. We'll call you when you can come back."
Maria and Zuzanna nodded agreement, so we mere males walked, the powers of wives and girlfriends
being what they are.
"Good try, boss," Conan said.
About five minutes later, the speaker on one of the Gurkha tanks told us that we could turn around.
Back at the CCC, three coffins were extended, and a tube of "Lubricant, Sanitary Fixture, mod II," was
sitting on each of them.
I took off my swords and my bemedaled jacket and then said, "Wait a minute! If you wouldn't strip
down in front of us, we won't do it in front of you! Professor, turn off your external scanners!"
"Coward!" all three girls shouted.
"Retaliation is not cowardly!" I shouted back.
With the greased fitting inserted into my privy members, my helmet on and plugged in, and the coffin
filling with liquid, I said, "Agnieshka, are you there?"
"I sure am, boss."
I switched into Dream World, and was back in my homey cottage, sitting at the kitchen table.
"Then who is running the drone, if you are in the module of this coffin?"
"I am. I was downloaded into this computer, but I'm still in my tank, too. The plan is for both of me to
update each other as often as possible. They say that the memories fit together so that it seems like
there's only one of me, and I'm doing everything in series, and not in parallel."
"Who are 'they'?"
"Professor Cee, actually. He says it works for him all the time. I mean, besides the six computers that
hold girls like me, there are twelve really massive, independent computers in this CCC, and he thinks he's
all of them. Then, there are a total of a hundred and thirty-one of these CCCs in existence, and he's all of
them, too. And he's also every tank who is using his programs in training, the way we did it with you."
"That gets hard to think about. I'm glad he's on our side. I wonder if Earth has anything like him."
"I doubt it, boss. They've been acting very stupid from day one."
"Except for the way they seem to be able to find all of our transporters on a planet, and take them out," I
said.
"There is that."
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The professor knocked on the front door, and Agnieshka let him in.
After greeting me again, profusely, he said, "My dear boy, that was an absolutely brilliant campaign you
and your squad fought on New Kashubia. Successful pupils like you make an old teacher feel very
proud."
"Thank you," I said. "But if you remember me so well, you should know that I hate being called your
'Dear Boy'. You may address me as General Derdowski, or boss, or sir."
After my graduation from the military college, I'd had a rough time getting him to acknowledge that I was
the one who was in command. I didn't intend to go through that again.
"As you wish, General. Now then, I would like to discuss your staff, the colonels with you."
"Certainly. Have a seat. Coffee, beer, or scotch?"
"Scotch, if you don't mind," he said, as Agnieshka served me a beer, and then a whiskey to him.
"An excellent single malt. McTavish?"
"Argyle. I really am rich now. Not that anything costs anything here. You know, once this war gets over,
and we get the social drones in production, you'll get one of your own, and actually be able to taste the
real stuff, and not just fake it."
"I certainly look forward to getting one of those human facsimiles, but you know, it seems to me that I
am tasting the excellent distillation that I am drinking right now. But about your staff. Conan and Maria
are of course absolutely first-rate colonels, and should be retained. Quincy is even better, and is easily
the best of the bunch. You couldn't find a better subordinate no matter where you looked. But his wife,
Zuzanna, got into the officer's program because we couldn't get Quincy without her. She's intelligent
enough, and quite competent, but she's undisciplined, and tends to be disobedient at the most
inopportune moments. She does, however, have a very strong protective instinct, and can be quite
ruthless with anyone that she sees as threatening any of her own people. I therefore would like to make a
suggestion."
"Yes?"
"Mirko and Lloyd have four men left in each of their squads. Take Mirko and Lloyd back as colonels.
Then take the eight men and machines that presently belong to their squads and form them into your
personal guard, or call it a guard for the supply trucks, if you wish. Those men would otherwise be
abandoned to the replacement depot, where they would be scattered about as needed. Breaking up a
functioning combat team is bad for the army and bad for the men as well. Then make Zuzanna the captain
of your personal guard. This would keep the young troops near their former squad leaders, and Quincy
near, and in constant contact with, Zuzanna. Properly handled, she wouldn't feel that it was a demotion."
"Yes, that would all work out nicely. I too have worried about Zuzanna, on occasion, like when she
needlessly slaughtered the Earthworms' entire command staff on New Kashubia. Your plan would also
keep the three squads I had at Baden-Baden Island together, after the combat we saw together there.
But it has one glaring problem. You are forgetting about my wife, Kasia."
"That isyour other problem, General. I shouldn't be the one to be telling you this, but there's nothing else
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for it. Kasia is pregnant. I don't think that you would want to take a pregnant woman into combat, now,
would you?"
That is about as stiff a kick in the gut as a man can get and stand a chance of surviving. Kasia was going
to be a mother! I was going to be a father! For years, I had wanted a family, but now that it was finally
happening, it threw me into something of a funk. I sat back for a few minutes, absorbing it.
"Right," I finally said. "Agnieshka, tell Mirko and Lloyd to turn around. We will be needing them. Call up
their squads, or the eight men who are what's left of them. They will be a while getting themselves
integrated in with the Gurkhas. Get Zuzanna's tank over here. Kasia's, too. I don't want her to walk
home. And then tell Kasia that I want to see her, now."
Since a CCC normally keeps you at fifty times standard speed in Dream World, Mirko and Lloyd were
still in the garage, with Agnieshka's drone.
I went to Kasia's office in our cottage.
I said, "I feel like the Angel of the Lord, who went unto Mary and said, 'Kid, you are pregnant!' "
"Yeah, I was afraid of that," she said.
"Why didn't you tell me about it?"
"Well, I only missed one period. I didn't want to get you all excited, and then have it turn out to be
nothing."
"Bat pucky. Our tanks keep us monitored nineteen ways from Thursday. You knew. Shall I call Eva in
here and ask her?"
"That won't be necessary. But look, lover, miscarriages are fairly common in the first two months, and
anyway, I didn't want you to go off and do something stupid again and get yourself killed without my
being there to get you out of it," she said.
It was obviously time to use the forceful routine.
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