Daughters of Demeter

Once again there wasn't much for me to do apart from wait and worry, while my two girlfriends were off-ship buying the android and everything else on Jenny's list. They didn't waste any time though, and it was only about an hour before Jenny let me know Rebecca and Sarah were on their way back.

We were all down in the main hold to greet them when the grav-sled arrived, with the tall redhead piloting and our engineer in the passenger seat. Sitting behind them in the second row was a blue-eyed blonde android sexbot, that at first glance didn't look anything like our captain.

"Jenny are you sure this is going to work?" I asked. "Or did they buy the wrong android?"

Our AI replied, "It appears to be the correct model. It's a Synthetic Companion model SX-420."

"I know it doesn't look like Rebecca yet," she added, "But it will. Hair and eye colour are easy to change, and more importantly its underlying facial structure is not too dissimilar from that of our captain."

Sarah agreed as she climbed out of her seat, "After a little cosmetic surgery Beckybot here will look a lot more like the genuine article. She's not going to look like Rebecca's twin sister, but she'll be close enough to fool someone looking at her through an e-suit visor."

"You're calling it Beckybot?" I asked as my eyebrows crept up. Then I looked to my other girlfriend and asked, "Are you ok with that?"

Rebecca grimaced as she climbed out of the sled, "I couldn't think of anything better, so I guess it'll do."

"Anyways we don't have time to waste here," Sarah stated, "So I'm taking Beckybot straight to the workshop. Jenna would you mind assisting me? Anyone else who doesn't want to see robot surgery should probably stay clear until we're done."

Jenna nodded as she reached into the back of the sled to pick up a box containing the rest of the new purchases, "I'll help however I can."

"Thanks," our engineer smiled. Then she instructed the new android to follow, and we all watched as our newest sexbot sashayed its way aft out of the hold with Sarah and Jenna.

Rebecca shook her head then said, "Let's get the grav-sled stowed. Sarah and I were talking while we were out, and we came up with some more ideas for how we're going to do this."

"I can take care of the sled," Cammie volunteered.

"I'll see if I can help Sarah and my sister," Jenny added. "Otherwise I'll be working on updating the um, Beckybot's programming."

The boss smiled, "Thanks Cam, Jenny. In that case, Amanda why don't you and I head up to the main deck? We can discuss the next part of the plan there."

"All right," I nodded as I followed her up the ladderway to the starboard airlock

From there Rebecca got us both a drink, then we sat down together on the sofa again in the ship's lounge. I had a sip of my drink, but before I could ask her what new plans she and Sarah came up with our AI joined us.

"Sarah appears to have everything under control in the workshop," she explained as her HPD moved to take a seat by the round table off to our right. "So if you don't mind I thought I'd listen in on your planning discussion."

The boss nodded, "That's fine Jenny. What about the reprogramming though?"

Our AI replied, "I can do that in the background while I'm here with you two."

"Ah of course," Rebecca said.

At that point we agreed to wait a few more minutes so Cammie could join us as well. After the catgirl came up from the main hold she got herself a drink then sat down next to Jenny at the little table.

"So what did you and Sarah come up with?" I finally asked my girlfriend. "How are we going to get around the fact that I'll be out there alone and unarmed, half a world away from you and the Demeter. You know he's going to be armed, so is his ship."

Rebecca explained, "You won't have to go unarmed. We still have those military-grade smart weapons we found on the Kaden Merit. That stuff's not going to show up on a standard weapons scan, it's all advanced ceramics and composite materials. We'll swap out the carbines we have in the shuttle for a couple smart rifles, so they're ready just inside the hatch if you need them."

I thought about that for a few moments then finally responded, "I'm not sure how useful that'll be if they're inside the shuttle while I'm outside making the trade, but it's better than nothing. I'll still be on my own though, and I know we won't be able to arm the Beckybot. It's going to have the same restrictions Jenna's chassis started out with."

"Yeah good point," the tall redhead frowned. "That's another part of the puzzle we'll have to try and solve before we run out of time."

Cammie pointed out, "You don't have to go all by yourself Amanda. The bounty hunter said I could come too. I'm not sure yet what I could do to help, but there must be something?"

The boss shook her head, "I'm not sending you Cam, sorry. Honestly I'd rather accompany Amanda myself, if there was some way to manage that."

"You're the one person who can't go," I stated with a frown. "For one thing the whole point of the android is to keep you out of the bounty hunter's hands. But if he somehow scans us and finds two of you he's going to know something's up. And he specifically threatened to kill my sister if he saw anyone other than you, me, and Cammie on the shuttle."

Jenny had been silent for the last few minutes but she spoke up at that point.

"What if we could outfit our captain with a perfect disguise?" the AI asked. "And by perfect I mean it would defeat any scanning or detection method Mr. Jamison has at his disposal."

She added quickly, "I should mention though that what I have in mind does come with a few caveats. First, we'll need approximately nine hours to prepare the disguise up front. And it will take that long to reverse it afterwards. Second, both Rebecca and I will be unavailable during that time. And finally, the process would reset our captain's age to eighteen once again."

My girlfriend and I exchanged a glance. Then Rebecca said, "You're talking about using your Re/Gen pod to change my appearance."

"That's correct," our AI nodded. "I wouldn't normally do this, but I could process you with Cammie's body file. Physically the two of you would be clones, identical right down to the genetic level. Or simply put, you would become Cam's identical twin sister."

The tall amazonian redhead and the petite blonde catgirl looked at each other, and it was honestly hard to tell which was more unnerved at the prospect.

After a moment my girlfriend asked, "Would that be ok with you, Cam? It would only be for as long as it took to rescue Amanda's sister. Probably a day, two at most?"

Cammie nodded, "Yes ma'am, it's alright. It'll be mighty strange having a twin for a while, but I know it'd only be temporary. And I don't reckon any of our girlfriends would get us confused, no matter how similar we look."

"Agreed," Rebecca smiled. That faded a moment later as she looked to me and nodded, "I'll do it."

Finally she addressed our AI again, "Thanks for suggesting that Jenny, it's a perfect solution. And it's another piece of the puzzle solved. So Amanda won't be going in alone, I'll be there to back her up. And we'll both have weapons available that aren't going to show up on any scans."

"Thank you," I half-whispered as I leaned in and gave Rebecca a kiss.

She returned the kiss along with a hug. Then after taking another gulp of her drink she commented, "Now all we need is some sort of distraction. I know we can't arm the android, but maybe there's something else we can do, some other way we can get it to surprise Jamison. And his assistant too, we can assume he's going to have back-up there with him."

Cammie looked to her girlfriend and asked, "Maybe y'all could work some sort of surprise into the android's new programming? Or is there some kind of trick you could activate remotely, through the comm gear Sarah and Jenna are installing right now?"

Jenny frowned slightly as she seemed to stare off into the distance for a second or two. Then she apologized, "I asked my sister if she had any suggestions, now she's discussing the matter with Sarah."

"And yes, they do have an idea," the AI added a moment later. "However, what they are proposing is likely going to result in the new android sustaining some damage. And the e-suit it will be wearing will be destroyed."

Rebecca raised an eyebrow, "Now I'm curious. What's the idea?"

"It seems as though that weapons shipment we salvaged from the Kaden Merit is the gift that keeps on giving," Jenny replied with another slight grimace.

I frowned, "You're not thinking about blowing up the android are you? That would certainly be a very effective distraction, but it would also be incredibly dangerous to all of us nearby. Rebecca and I would both be at risk of being hit by any random fragments. Nyssa too, assuming the cryo tube will be nearby for the trade."

Jenny shook her head, "That's not quite what we have in mind. Although there will definitely be some explosives involved."

It didn't take long for her to explain the idea the three of them had come up with. It wasn't perfect and there were definitely some risks, but considering what restrictions and limitations the bounty hunter put on us and the fact that he was holding my sister hostage, it seemed like the best we were going to come up with in the very limited time we had left.

As the discussion unfolded both Cammie and Rebecca added some suggestions of their own, and the plan evolved a little more before we settled on something we all agreed should work. Then while Sarah and Jenna continued their work on the Beckybot Cammie went to grab her toolkit and that military comm unit we recovered after those spies attacked the power station back at Ganvis.

Finally the catgirl disappeared into the Demeter's shuttle, to install the military transceiver alongside the existing comm gear. The additional comm gear would act like a remote relay for Jenny, so she'd have better access to the Beckybot when we were halfway around the world.

That just left Jenny Rebecca and myself with nothing to do. Or rather, my girlfriend and I had nothing to do. Our AI was busy creating new programming for the Beckybot while she was also relaxing with us in the ship's lounge.

"Everyone else is busy now," I sighed. "I feel like I need to be doing something too. I hate just sitting around doing nothing while my sister's trapped in that guy's clutches."

Rebecca pulled me into another hug as she replied, "I know Amanda. There's just a few more details we need to iron out, then we're going down to the secondary hold and I'm going to teach you how those smart rifles work."

I frowned, "What other details are left? I thought we had everything figured out?"

"Basically just the timing," she replied. "Working backwards, we know when we need to be at the rendezvous coordinates on Regulon-4. So the Demeter needs to be in a hangar at the mining colony six hours before that, so you and I can get in the shuttle and go. Allow four hours for transit, including launch landing and dealing with traffic control on both ends."

"I know. We've already talked about that," I sighed.

My girlfriend continued, "I'm not finished. We know I'm going to need nine hours of downtime with Jenny. Call it ten, since I expect I'll need a bit of time to get used to a very different body. And while I'm processing in the Re/Gen pod, I want you to be in bed getting some sleep."

I tried to protest but she shook her head, "I'll make that an order if I have to Amanda. From the time we lift-off here until you and I are at the rendezvous point that's ten hours. Then who knows how long Jamison will keep us waiting before he shows up. After that will probably be a few minutes of chaos, then it's going to be another six hour shuttle ride back to the ship. I'll have an enforced rest in the pod, but you need to sleep as well."

"And if you think you'll have trouble sleeping give yourself a sedative or something," she added. "I'm telling you this as your captain as well as your girlfriend. Do it for me, and do it for Nyssa."

As much as I wanted to protest I knew she was right. And if the situation was reversed I'd be telling her the same thing, right down to offering to administer a sedative if she needed it.

I sighed as my shoulders slumped, "All right Rebecca. You're right. We should both be rested, and we can eat while the ship's in jump en route to Regulon-4."

"Was there anything else?" I asked a moment later.

She nodded, "I need to go meet with Helen and Tamsin. I have to pay them for the fuel and port fees and the inspection they did. I'm not going to say anything about our plan, I'll just let them know we expect to be here a little while longer."

"Then I think we need to play this like you've incapacitated me somehow," she continued. "You'll be in the pilot's seat when it comes time to get moving. No word on where I am or what's happened to me. If anyone asks say I'm having downtime or something. Make it sound suspicious. Same thing at Regulon-4."

Jenny asked, "Do you think Jamison is somehow monitoring us here?"

The tall redhead shrugged, "Possibly? It's unlikely, but not impossible. Call it a precautionary measure, but from the moment I get into your Re/Gen capsule the Beckybot will be Rebecca. And she'll be incapacitated so Amanda can turn her over to the bounty hunter."

With all that out of the way, the captain and I finally headed down to the hold together so she could give me a crash course on how to operate the smart weapons we recovered from the Kaden Merit.