Bridges

Sitting on the ground, hands bound with rope to his ankles, and a rolled-up bandana in his mouth, Aidan sits beside New Jersey, a piece of paper taped to his forehead with the phrase;

Tico, no touchy.

Down the boat ramp, he can see the approach of four women, a tall blond, a tanned blond, a woman with blue hair, and a woman with white hair. Their ship parts vanish as their feet touch the ramp. The tall blond stepped out in front of the group, her white uniform jacket and white pencil skirt looking extremal professional, she adjusted the black gloves over her hands and spoke, "New Jersey."

"North Carolina, how are you?" Asked New Jersey in a warm tone of voice.

"I'd be better if I knew why ya came to my port and stole my human." North Carolina says in a tone of voice that is almost too sweet.

New Jersey moves to stand behind Aidan as she says, "Well, I didn't know you were in charge there at the time."

North Carolina walks to just about arm's length from Aidan as she asks, "Well, I am, so can I have my human back?"

New Jersey leans forward, resting her bust on the top of Aidan's head while she slides her hands over his shoulders and locks them just under his neck as she says, "He's kind of my human now."

The woman with blue hair visibly bristles behind North Carolina at hearing that, her lips compressing tightly as she folds her arms under her large bust. North Carolina runs a hand through her long blond hair as she looks at Aidan, then back at New Jersey as she says, "Perhaps we can come to some kind of arrangement? Maybe ask the Admiral what he thinks?"

New Jersey slides her hands up and down his chest before asking, "What were you thinking, Carol?"

North Carolina puts her hands on her hips closes her blue eyes and asks, "What were you thinking, NJ?"

New Jersey stands upright, folding her arms under her bust as she shrugs and says, "Well, we want to keep him safe, he's an Eagle Union admiral after all."

"Aidan," St. Louis starts to ask and North Carolina holds up a hand stopping her before she asks, "And you think we can't?"

"Well, you are such an older design." New Jersey says with a playful tone of voice.

"Sweetie, I was smashing Sirens before you even slipped from the slipway." North Carolina winks, but her tone of voice goes back to being almost too sweet.

"And who has the higher body count, Carol?" New Jersey asks.

Sighing North Carolina admits, "Fair. But there hasn't been anything around to be a threat in decades, NJ."

"That we know of, Carol." New Jersey points out.

North Carolina looks around before asking, "Well, we could always pool our resources, how many girls do you have in your port?"

"Why?" New Jersey asks.

"Well, I got plenty of dock space in Pearl." North Carolina says as she starts to count the ships in the harbor.

"San Diego is a large port, though." New Jersey says, gesturing around.

"It is, but how is the support system?" North Carolina asks softly before adding, "We're at capacity for Meowfficers and Manjuu."

New Jersey puts her hands on her hips, then rubs the back of her head, looking around, and sighs, "Are you sure you got room? There are twelve of us here."

North Carolina nods as she says, "I am, now can I have my human back?"

"Our human." New Jersey says before bending over to rest her bust on Aidan's head again while she undoes the bandana. She then leans a little move forward to bury his face in her bust as she slowly slides her hands down him and down between his legs to undo the ropes around his wrists. New Jersey smiles and winks at St. Louis who's lips pressed so hard together they seemed devoid of any color.

"Fine, our human." North Carolina sighs, "But, he has the right to choose who he wants to spend time with, NJ."

"Agreed." New Jersey says as she steps back before saying, "Let me talk to my girls and get ourselves packed up, then we can all set sail together for Pearl Harbor."

Nodding North Carolina says, "I'll come with you, they'll have questions no doubt."

Getting his ankles undone, and putting the note off of his forehead, St. Louis bends at her hips, smiling at Aidan as she says, "Hey you."

Smiling at St. Louis Aidan responds, "Hey you. Did you miss me?"

St. Louis' eyes start to water and she blinks them closed as she nods and says as she wraps her arms around his neck and hugs him tightly, "Yeah."

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Jutting her bust out, a throaty moan escaping her lips before she falls forward against Aidan, her whole body exhausted, St. Louis kisses his chest as she asks, "You're okay, right?"

Sliding his hands up and down her bare thighs and hips, Aidan catches his breath, "Y…yeah. They just kept me in a cage, before taking me to a bunker to check something out."

St. Louis rocks her hips back and forth against him as she asks, "What was in the bunker?"

Dragging his right index finger up and down her spine, Aidan says, "More questions than answers, I found out that in theory, I'm not the last human on earth, as far as the systems are aware there are isolated pockets of humans within North America at least. But the real question I have is, what is going down at Midway."

Kissing his chest and pushing herself up a little before lacing her fingers through his, St. Louis smiles at him and says, "Well, nothing we can do about that right now, are you recovered enough for more?"

With a chuckle, Aidan says, "As much as I'd like to go for another round, I'm a little spent at the moment."

St. Louis smiles and leans back down to rest her head on his chest as she sighs, "Fine."

Wrapping his arms around her, resting his hands on her stern, Aidan kisses the top of her head and closes his eyes whispering, "I really missed you."

St. Louis smiles, closing her reddish-purple eyes, and whispers, "I missed you too."

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Walking down the ramp from the hull of the St. Louis, Aidan stretches up, takes a deep breath of the air, and lets it out slowly, smiling at the port as he says, "So nice to be home."

Walking along the concrete dock, he jumps a little as he feels someone slap and squeeze his rear just as she says, "So, what is there to do here?"

Looking to his left he sees Ticonderoga wink a blue eye at him before making a kissing motion, clearing his throat, Aidan looks around and shrugs as he says, "A lot of the girls here tend to explore the ruins, hang out on the beach, and I don't really know."

She frowns a little before letting go of him as she puts her hands behind her head and starts to walk away but looking over her shoulder to wink at him, "Not what I meant, but maybe you'll get it."

Aidan stops walking, looks up, and sighs, "Sure, in my time, I didn't have women throwing themselves at me, but here? God damn, it's like I'm a piece of meat and they're starving."

Turning to look back out over the water her puts his hands on his hips as he muses, "It doesn't make sense, why have them look like human women? Why give them something that mimics all the biological functions of human women? I mean it just extends the logistical needs of them. Hell touching them feels like touching a woman, they're warm, maybe a little warmer than a typical human, and maybe a little heavier too, but why the effort to make them passable as women?"

Reaching up and rubbing the back of his head he laughs, "Well, that list is now seventeen-billion and sixty-six things to check out now."

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Standing in the supply container, Aidan opens up the container marked kansen supplies only, lifting out one of the few remaining boxes inside of it, and takes it outside to a covered area before opening up the box and dumping out the contents. The last thing to come out is a typed list of the contents:

Ten times tampons

Thirty-one times combined dienogest and estradiol tablets

Three times soap hand bars

One time antiperspirant

One times toothbrush

One times oral cleansing paste

Sitting back and looking at the contents, he tilts his head to the side as he says, "Seems like a pretty basic kit, still, I just don't understand why give them tampons and make them have a cycle, to begin with?"

Collecting up the contents and dumping them back into the box before tossing them into the back of the container.

XXXX

Back in his flight gear, he taps his remote interface display and smiles at the message.

Welcome back, Admiral Webb.

"Miss me?" Aidan grins at it.

Maybe.

With a hearty chuckle, Aidan asks, "I'll take it, hey are you up for a hop?"

Always, where would you like to go?

"I want to check out Midway Atoll, something is going on there, something I don't have clearance for." Aidan says as he starts to board the Hellcat three.

We gave you TS/SCI level clearance that is as high as it goes.

"And I was told I had insufficient clearance." Aidan says as he starts to do up the straps.

I would recommend flying with stealth systems active.

"Agreed, there is something, that doesn't sit well with me right now." Aidan states as he applies power to the engines to leave the hanger and get onto the apron.

Should I let St. Louis know where we are going? I am sure she would like to be kept informed.

"Not a bad idea, actually, when did you meet Lou?" Aidan asks the craft while running preflight checks.

After you were taken from me, she found my remote interface.

"Ah, well, yeah, go ahead and tell her where we're going. Everything good to go?" Aidan asks, changing the subject.

Control surfaces are operating within optimal parameters.

"Let's do this." Aidan grins, sliding the throttle to maximum power, letting them thunder down the runway and into the air.

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Looking down at the bottom display, Aidan frowns as he says, "We're too high, I can't see anything."

Putting the Hellcat into a dive, Aidan starts to feel blood rushing to his head, his vision turning slightly red as he dumps altitude, gaining more and more speed.

Warning, high risk of stroke detected, reduced angle of attack.

"Just a little more." Aidan grunts during their descent.

Warning, extreme risk to the health of the pilot detected, overriding manual controls, reducing the angle of attack.

The Hellcat begins to level out before going into an easy turn to dump speed and loop around the island and Aidan shouts, "I had it."

If by it, you mean death, then yes. According to my sensors, you were approximately fifteen seconds from having a stroke in my cockpit. I have told you, I do not want to be alone again, Admiral Webb.

"I could level out." Aidan pouts as he looks out the cockpit at the island and sighs, "We need to get closer."

Do not dive at such an extreme angle again.

Rolling his grey eyes Aidan sighs, "Yeah, yeah."

Getting low, just above the stall speed, they start to pass over the larger of the two islands that are overgrown with vegetation save for a strip of black and Aidan asks, "Is that a runway?"

It would appear to be large enough for us to put down on it.

Rolling away from the runway to bank back around and get into the glide path, Aidan says, "Well, looks like we're going on a field trip."

Just as he lowers his landing gear, a buzzing sound starts to play in his ear, just as the display changes:

ALERT Missile launch detected, missile lock detected, take evasive action!

"Shit fuck!" Aidan shouts as he starts to retract the landing gear, pulling back hard on the stick, and opening the throttle wide open.

Deploying countermeasures.

Twisting his head around, fighting the increased weight from gravity, he sees the trail of the missile in the sky, following hard.

Impact in fifteen seconds.

Pushing the stick all the way forward, feeling his stomach go from his feet to his mouth, Aidan starts to add a tight roll into his dive, and yanks back hard, snapping the nose around again.

You have increased the closing distance, impact in seven seconds.

Pushing the rudder for the port side, while rolling starboard and pushing the stick down, the metal body of the missile passed just past the cockpit, before passing between the tails of the Hellcat three, grunting hard, Aidan levels back out, his chest heaving in and out as he says, "Not today it seems, I think we're going to need a transport craft."

Excellent work, Admiral Webb, I doubt Lieutenant Lewis could have done that. Not bad for someone that should be in an old folks home.

Leaning back in the seat, Aidan starts to laugh, "Thanks, can you handle the return trip?"

Of course, Admiral.

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