"We start off here."He pointed on his star chart."And move in towards their home system," he said moving his finger over the chart. "There've worked o...t that a 1000 torpedoes in each system will do the trick." Those Phobos bastards aren't going to sit still and let us sow these things, you know," I said. "Word will get out and then they'll come for us, all guns blazing." Yes, I know," nodded the Captain, "that's why we have to sow them in sequence, then we can retreat into the systems we've. "I meant, what are we now?" she asked. "We're not just friends." Shelooked genuinely concerned, almost scared."No, we're not JUST friends," Billie said, trying to sound reassuring."I hate the term 'fuck friends'," she said."That wasn't fucking," Billie said plainly, definitively. April turnedher head a little quizzingly. "That was passion, intimacy, was loving.That, April, was 'making love'."April's eyes started to tear up, and she pulled herself closer to Billie.She tried to say something but. "As they parted, one of the women said, "I'm glad to have you. We have no young people and I'm sure we can benefit from your perspective."Sheila shook her hand and said, "Thank you very much. I look forward to making a contribution if I can."As Sheila drove Madeline home, she asked, "How did it go?" Much better than I had any hopes of. You have a calming presence for a young person and I think they like you. I felt it when you came to my hospital room. Many young folks would have felt. She immediately forwarded the information to Avalareddy and Brown asking them to recommend where each of the eight pods should be delivered.The three colony transports were outbound with new pods the next afternoon with Second Platoon still distributed among the three ships. Commander McGregor was the only Marine to have disembarked with the new arrivals. His family would join him soon if all went well with the Home Guard Militia at Demopolis.Governor Grayson had opted for the Home Guard.