"It probably helps them a lot to know that the other is there when they need them."Mrs. Anderson casts another worried glance toward the dining room, ...nd finally gives a prim, little nod."Very well, dear. Excuse me, now." You can stop holding it in now, Matt," Val whispers."Oh, God," I sigh. "Nerves? I'll say it's nerves." Shut up," Val answers in a hiss, "or we'll both be on the floor laughing in a minute."I pull myself upright and we rejoin the others for dessert. After dinner, we adjourn,. "Good teacher." Her hand brushed over my hair, patting me like an adored pet. "Don’t stop. Undress for me." Oh my god! I can’t," I mumbled, barely comprehensible with the toe in my mouth, "someone might come in!" Nobody’s going to come in," she cooed. "Everybody’s already left for the weekend, the other classes ended an hour earlier so your colleagues are away too, and the janitor won’t start cleaning for at least an hour."She was right. There was always some risk that someone unexpected might. After that the ship was able to take care of the rest.The troop transports were the easiest to take. They had mainly captured Tandra and other booty. The new Tandra crews of these six ships were very angry and hoping to get into the battle. I had to pull rank on them to obey the AI. This was a colony that had done much better in preparing than Earth. There were many times more people and very few had spent many years outside of stasis.There were no battle suits to be had or I would let them. "Wouldn't want it to get stolen..."***15:34 29 Jan "Ellen?" Oh, God, she looked awful. The worst part was, they hadher arms strapped to the rails, in casts. When she looked up at us, Ialmost cried myself. Debbie saved me the trouble. "Tucker?" Ellen whispered. "Debbie? Oh, no.... go away...please..."***16:22 29 Jan "So?" Brian was a leech. I dropped another ten into his hotsweaty little hand. "Didn't know you were home," he said casually as hemade the ten-spot.