Part 2 Chapter 2
Monday

'OK, that's a leg. Why is a leg on my chest? And another one under my right arm. So there should be a pussy right about.... Yup. And someone else is lying on either side. The girl with the legs seems to be working on the girl on my right. Janet and Gillian were both with Robert celebrating their new bodies. I started with Caitlin, her mother Jan, Mei Ling and Karen. The leg is too pale for Mei Ling, and that's not her moaning. That must be Karen making the noise, so that leaves Caitlin or Jan. That's Jan on top. She has the honey blonde hair. So where is Caitlin? Ahh, here she comes now.'

"Morning Fred, sorry, I had to pee and brush my teeth." The sixteen year old had not been podded for any upgrades yet. There was very little need and they were still in checkup and emergencies only mode, anyway. "Are you taking off first thing again?" She slid in on the left and started caressing Mei Ling's lovely breast.

The moaning from Karen was reaching a crescendo.

"No. I have an hour this morning. I thought I would get in some quality cuddling time."

Caitlin laughed and crawled up towards his face. She pressed her breast onto Mei Ling's face and her pussy into Fred's mouth. "Cuddling is just not going to cut it this morning, stud."

He heard an energetic agreement from both Caitlin's mother on top and Mei Ling on the side.

"General, those two Marines with 'bright ideas' are outside," Sergeant Major Rodriguez reported

"Send them in, Tony."

The two Marines entered the small conference room that Fred and Tony were using as their office. "Sir, Lance Corporals Hancock and Taylor reporting as ordered." Taylor and Hancock looked as much alike in height and build as they looked different in facial features. General Winthrop had not gotten used to that yet. It was a much more pronounced similarity than that of an army training base with everyone in buzz cuts and BDUs.

"At Ease. Sit. What ideas do you have for me? Hancock?"

"Sir, I come from a logging town on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State. Population was about six hundred. No high school, we went to a nearby, bigger town. I was in Seattle for the State Basketball Tournament. We had the whole team at a hotel, where they also had some ladies' sales convention going on. When they picked us up, most of the team was mobbed by the middle-aged volunteer ladies looking for a young stud or two. Very scary, Sir, much worse than the Swarm. Sorry Sir, off topic. Anyway, I have been in contact with friends and family in my hometown by E-mail. The town's adult mix is about 60% women now. Some of our truckers got collected while they were out of town. A few others, especially the young ones, went to the bigger towns hoping for pickups, but when they cut back on them in the States, more girls than guys seemed to drift back home. The guys stayed away, looking for work. The people there are hard working, resourceful types. From what I have seen on other planets, Sir, we'll need some people supervising robot drones in the fields and forests as they harvest biomass. I know for a fact of at least thirty people still in the town's vicinity who are volunteer status. I figure you can get about a third of the adult population at once. It's June; that's fire season. They have this big alarm for forest fires. Set it off and everyone comes to the town center first."

"That sounds do-able," the General said approvingly. "Give the town info to the Sergeant Major as you two leave and we will see what we can work out. How about you Taylor?"

"Similar thing, sir, except bigger. Maybe you will need to wait on a later ship, an empty one. My cousin lives in a small South Kansas town. It's over two thousand population with a lot more outside of the city limits. The town was an early supporter of the Confederacy and the pickups. They have pretty near a zero tolerance for the Earth First types. My cousin and a couple of others made this proposal to the city council and it passed in open session. Most of the town was there for the debate and it was a very popular idea. What they did was make this program, just a simple database thing, really, but every person in town that was interested was listed with their status as a Volunteer, Concubine, Kid or Stay-at-Home. The Stay-at-Homes have paperwork that lets them take over some property and the animals of the people leaving in exchange for feeding all the animals, making sure the places don't burn down, and so on.

"If the town's tornado siren goes off in a certain pattern, everyone heads to town. As they check in at either the city hall, or at the three schools, they are listed on the other linked systems. So Ricky comes in and he knows that Lucy, Fred and Ethel have all checked in. If they get picked up, they don't even have to be in the same building. He has the option at that time to change his mind, of course, but a bunch of pre-packs are locked up already. The few people that weren't interested have just stayed away, but some have moved out of town. They hold about six drills a year. The school bus drivers go through the neighborhoods collecting the people without transportation. The police check on people that have not checked in. It takes about four hours all told to finish the drill.

"Jennifer, that's my cousin, she said that at the last drill, they had over two hundred volunteers with almost eight hundred Harem members. Plus kids of course. There are about four hundred registered Stay-at-Homes, mostly some older people, but a few are just plain greedy and staying to get the land and farm animals. The thing is, two nearby towns are putting the same plan in effect. About five hundred population in one town and thirteen hundred in the other."

"That's a real interesting concept. We should encourage preparedness, mainly by collecting them. How hard would it be to get them started headed in early?"

"Mayor decides when to call a drill, Sir. Just give the word and the sirens go off."

"Give that info to the Sergeant Major as well. Thank you, men." General Winthrop dismissed the men graciously.

Jason was thinking about things he could no longer do anything about. 'Man, I hope Junie has no problems driving that big rented van.' Jason was lead Security officer for the four-man contingent escorting the 'package' to the Baltimore convention facilities. He knew the other two men and one woman quite well and he approved of their choice. Especially if they were included in what he thought was happening. The 'package' was twenty analysts and tech geeks. The two drivers would take the vans back to Fort Meade as soon as they were unloaded. The actual mission was very strange and if he had not been alerted, he would have thought that something was very wrong. And so, he had taken the General's comment to heart; on Thursday he had requested a minute with the Director to verify. He had gotten his minute almost at once, which almost answered his question right then and there.

"Come in Jason. You are here to ask me about Monday, the escort mission and General Winthrop, correct?"

"Yes, Sir. And I believe that you have just answered my questions about this being OK."

"Yes, but you needed to ask. It's your job to be professionally paranoid." The Director stood and shook Jason's hand. "Good luck, Jason. I enjoyed having you as my driver last year. I hope you and your family will all do well. Please give my best to General Winthrop."

The package members were talking among themselves a bit. They had had no notice before Friday of this 'special seminar' and they all thought it very strange. Jason had a briefcase full of 'Secret level' briefing documents in sealed envelopes for them.

The group walked around a pink Escalade in the entry drive as they headed into the hotel lobby. Jason turned and quietly addressed them. "OK, we're here. Please stay together as we enter the facility and get to our little conference room. I have been assured that this is an important event and that you will not want to miss it." That was actually overstating things a bit, since no one at the NSA seemed to even know what it was about, but he figured it was worth it to keep these guys and gals in line for just a bit longer. It did get him a few glances from the other Security guys though. Hmmm, according to the reader board in the lobby, several different events were going on in here, some mother-daughter bonding thing, a couples-only parenting seminar and the last day of a sales convention for some cosmetics products. Also, a.... Wait a minute. Lots of women, just a few guys, mainly married ones, several dozen teenage girls. Well, well, well! This was going to be the first real public extraction that he knew of in this area in almost a year. And there was a big cluster of people, including a half dozen with green scarves, near his conference room door. Jason grinned as he winked and walked past his smiling wife. Their room was between the mother-daughter event and the married couples.

Jason opened his envelope and noticed the other three each opening an envelope that they had pulled from their suit jackets. Hmmm, at 10:00 AM, by the wall clock, he was to call his wife on the cell phone and she would bring the family inside. As he looked at the clock, one minute left, he noticed the other three looking up also. They all spotted that and grinned at each other. Then the clock clicked to 10 AM. "OK, Please hang on a minute more. It looks like we have to make some confirming calls." He used his speed dial. "Junie, bring them all in." All of their people from the lobby came in. There were seventeen adults and eight kids. Well, that was dependent on the actual ages of some of the younger teenagers. "You new ladies and gentlemen, if you will all take a seat in the back, please. Please remain quiet for now, as we figure out what is happening next. OK, the rest of you, we are right on schedule. If you would all take the envelope with your name on it, but don't open it yet, I have some preliminary instructions here for you." He handed out the briefing envelopes.

Jason glanced up to ensure he had everyone's attention, and then started reading from his briefing page. "OK, if you Agency people will break the seal and open your packet, you will find a device that looks like this." He held up something that looked like a rectangular magnifying glass. "It's a special reader that extracts info from the data chips embedded in CAP Cards and displays it on the screen. If you experiment with your own card, you can see that the sub-score breakdowns have little pop-up labels that explain what they mean as you touch them on the screen. Next, you will see that you have a sheet of paper with a number in large type at the top and a list of people that you know. These people are family and friends of yours.

"You are being asked to pick people in advance for your personal Harem in the event of an extraction or pick up. You may select or reject each of them. If you select them, it means that, in the event of an extraction, someone will approach them for pickup as your concubine. They do not actually have to be in the same location as you to get collected and will be brought to you. If they have children aged thirteen or less, those children will automatically come with them. You can also list them as alternates to be used if someone turns you down. If the person has the word MOTHER next to them, it means she qualifies as a mother figure in the eyes of the Confederacy. The number at the top of your list is the number you can take for your Harem. If one or more of the people whom you choose is a qualified Mother, then you get ONE extra.

"Now, you are not required to take any or all of your people on your list, but the only people who will be approached outside of your presence are the ones on your list. You are also not required to take any or all of your available choices from this list. Just check Yes, No or Alternate next to the names on your list. Now, at this point I will ask for questions, but please make your selections as we go. We have limited time for this segment." Still three minutes to stall.

"Ah, Mr. Wilson, is this an extraction?" That was one of the two women, a mousy thing with bright intelligent eyes.

"Not at this time. You are being offered the chance to prepare for a possible extraction. I am not working for the Confederacy. There are no Confederacy personnel in this room. I am not even a qualified volunteer. This is a special service due to your unique skills and current position."

"What if I want someone not on this list? Why would they not be on it?" One of the few handsome, confident looking guys, he probably was thinking about a woman he had been flirting with.

"My briefing notes don't say. If they aren't on the list, well... As to why, I'm just guessing, but I can think of a couple of reasons. You can see the scores for your people from the papers you have just as you could from their cards. Therefore, I would imagine that some people were pre-screened and were found seriously lacking. Or, alternatively, they may be volunteers in their own right. Also, it's possible that those people were not locatable, or at least not believed to be locatable in a short notice situation. Lastly, it is possible that if it is someone that you have not been in contact with in quite a while, that the extent of your relationship was not known."

"What if we have say, four choices, but we have ten good people on our list. I can't take them all, but I would like to help get them out of danger." A worrier. Jason had met him before.

"Good question. I don't know. However, if they have good scores, then by knowing you they have come to the attention of whoever set this up, so maybe..." Jason didn't want to commit to the possible all happy ending, so he just suggested and then let it drop.

"OK, what ...?" The sounds of the retraction of the movable wall that separated Conference Room C from Conference Room D cut this one off.

Hmmm, mother-daughter work day. The appearance of General Winthrop and two obvious Marines, one male and one female, in the doorway was all of a final clue that they needed. "OK, NOW it's an extraction. Class, would you all please pass your homework to the front?"

"Jason. All settled in? Any family problems?"

"No, Sir. Hmm, last night was a bit...interesting, Sir. My daughter, well, she has basically decided that her Harem is part of our Family. So, the wife and I have, well, free access to them. She wants me to help with pregnancies. Also, she asked if I minded if Junie and her sister helped the one other older lady in her Harem to train her stud. That's what she called him. 'My stud.' Of course, then she giggles, which kind of ruins the effect. Anyway, I couldn't be a hypocrite enough to have sex with all of the women and not allow Junie to have fun as well; so last night was basically a big orgy. I almost overslept for our extraction."

"That would have been embarrassing. By the way, these are yours." Gen Winthrop handed Jason a PDA and a small device that looked to be a cross between a set of brass knuckles and those old fist concealable squirt guns. "That's a stinger. Kind of a taser device, I understand. Don't adjust the settings until you take the familiarization. You're my back up on pickups this week."

"Yes, Sir. Incidentally, Sir, I approve of the other three security types you recruited. I know them all and they all are top-notch people."

"I would have liked to have taken a few more at that level, but I can't just grab everyone. I got Will Knox. His wife is a volunteer. He has her sister in his Harem, same as you. He also got his niece. His wife only brought four Harem people of her own, but she snapped up a mother-daughter team at the hotel. Thirty-four and thirteen-years-old and two younger kids are being collected."

"Speaking of which, Sir, one of our analysts asked about the non-picked friends and family on their lists."

"We had the people on those lists invited to one or more special free events, all one hundred twenty one of them. Seventy-eight were selected by your analysts. The people watching those events went in and notified those people, then discretely approached the rest and just asked them if they wanted to be extracted. Sixteen did not agree or were no-shows to the events. Twenty-seven were transported up, with any available kids. Various Marines have already tentatively selected twenty of them. I expect the rest to go quickly as the Marines cycle in and out from other pickups. Here is the current list, you might pass by the tech and analyst teams and let them know." He manipulated his PDA and the file appeared on Jason's PDA

"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir. You know, Sir, I was just thinking. Can't you just see the confusion? I mean when the parking valets are trying to figure out what to do with fifty abandoned pink Cadillacs?"

{General Winthrop, The Commander of the 7th Independent Company is back at his ship and is available to talk to you now.}

"Put him on my desk unit and contact CSM Rodriguez. Have him monitor the conversation and remain available. Put it through."

{Acknowledged.}

"This is Commander Waring, 7th Independent Marine Company. How can I help you, General?"

"You have been assigned to my command, Commander. You have been notified, I believe."

"Yes, Sir. Generally, we've just been transported to our new assignment and then briefed upon arrival. An earlier briefing will be refreshing. Let's us cut down on the scuttlebutt."

"Actually, this is not a short term assignment. It's a permanent change of station. You've been permanently assigned to my command, Commander. You will be transferring to the new colony on Vulcan for integration into a new regiment. I just need to get you assigned to a ship and get your Harems transferred there as well. The AI is apparently unable to tell me where they are. Can you enlighten me?"

"Sir, we are currently assigned to and kept aboard the Sir Robin."

"Sorry, did you say...?"

"Yes, Sir, the Sir Robin. Someone, somewhere, has a very sick sense of humor. But, Sir, we don't really have Harems and all twenty-six of our women are on board with us."

"Twenty-six? You should have about four hundred fifty and about twice that many children by now. What's the story here?"

"Sir, that's a real sore point with the troops and, frankly Sir, with me as well. Permission to speak freely, Sir?"

"Granted!"

"Sir, we were assigned before the current rules were developed. We were asked to volunteer before anyone else even knew about the Swarm. We were not given concubines. No one had them then. We are not now authorized concubines, as we have never been tested for CAP scores. We were told when we signed up that in exchange for our service, we would be reunited with our families in a safe place at a later date, but no one can tell us when. We have not been allowed to communicate with our families at home. We do have seven men, assigned to the unit as casualty replacements, who are sharing their women, plus we picked up a few from various Navy ships that took pity on us and gave us their rejects and we, uhhm, found, a few when we helped clean up that mess on P'Yong colony."

"DAMN IT! Sergeant Major, get on the line! Commander, get your First Sergeant on line. AI, I want you in this conversation as well."

{All present, General.}

"First. AI, is what the Commander has told me correct?"

{Yes, Sir. His statements are essentially correct in all elements}

"Why has this situation been allowed to exist?"

{The new agreement superseded the old agreement. The Independent Company Marines were recruited before CAP testing was fully underway and well before Harems were announced to the public. They are not authorized Concubines as they have no CAP scores. They will be tested for CAP scores when they are assigned to a colony. Their families will be reunited with them when they are assigned to a colony. They can only be assigned to a colony by their commander, or by the Confederacy council. Other commands have declined to accept them as permanent additions due to their restive nature and the fact that, as they have no CAP scores, they do not meet Confederacy Citizen status. The Confederacy council has not acted to change that status quo.}

"Wait! Are you saying that ALL of the Independent Companies are in this Catch-22?"

{Catch-22? Ah, a literary reference. Yes, General. All of the current Independent Company Marines are in this status. Some units that took heavy casualties have been normalized.}

"First Sergeant, I need a 'No BS' evaluation. What is the morale of your men, both in a combat situation and out of one?"

"Sir, in combat, we are confident and in control. No problems. We have only had seventeen KIA casualties in our company in over four years and most of those happened early on. Ten were before the CAP testing began, seven afterwards. Out of combat is.... It's getting bad, Sir. They.... We don't trust the Confeds or higher command. No one has gone to bat for us or even brought us messages from home."

"Commander Waring, do you agree?"

"Yes, Sir. And I have talked to a couple of the other independent commanders. They all have the same read on their units."

"OK, First. I want your AI to squirt your unit records to my AI. Top, I want you to get with every man and go over his personal data. I want to know what he considers his own core family to be, who and where are they. Send that in a later transmission to the Sergeant Major here. I will see what we can do. Also, I want that same info for your previous casualties as much as you can figure it out. Understood?"

"Aye Aye, Sir."

"AI, why have the other commanders not done as I am doing? I can't believe they don't want these units in their commands."

{It is not commanders, but commands that have declined the units.}

"What's the difference? Who made the decision?"

{The AI assigned to each command has made the decision.}

"Do you mean the individual Confederacy AI's have declined them and then just not told the Human Commanders what they had done?"

{Yes.}

"So, one hundred fifty four Marines per company. Six Companies, so that totals nine hundred twenty four Marines. Figure an average of three concubines per Marine and three maybe even four babies per concubine in almost six years. This decision has cost the Confederacy over SIX THOUSAND children and possible future warriors so far, plus any children already in those families. Correct?"

{Yes. That is statistically reasonable, assuming that all of the Marines have a sufficient CAP score to be assigned a Harem.}

"Well, I am assigning the rest of the Independent Companies to Vulcan. Is that understood?"

{That is not in your authority.}

"Then all of these Marines are Citizens of the Confederacy on their own and constitute six separate colonies?"

{No. They do not have CAP scores, so they cannot be assigned to a colony.}

"Ok, then they are free agents, and may travel as they please. Maybe they could visit one of the Darjee worlds."

{No, they must be restricted in their movement as they are not Citizens.}

"Very well! They cannot be assigned to a colony, so they must belong back on Earth! It's too bad that the resultant terrible publicity about your breach of contract with our troops will make future pickups even more difficult, if not make Earth pull out of the agreement completely. Earth First will just love hearing about this."

{A moment for consultation, please.}

Gen. Winthrop was a bit surprised by that request. He had never even heard of it happening before. The moment only lasted about twenty seconds however.

{Very, well. The six remaining Independent Companies will all be assigned to your colony. Current military assignments will be completed before transfer.}

"That will be fine. After this conversation is over, I want an unedited copy of it sent to each of the six Independent Company commanders, along with their orders permanently assigning them and their ships to Vulcan Colony and to the Vulcan regiment. I also want a copy of this conversation sent, unedited, to every General and Admiral in the Confederation human forces. Is that understood?"

{Yes.}

"Now, we need to get that personal data for each member of each of those units including previous KIA casualties. Also, I will make arrangements for at least some of the necessary concubines to be collected and placed aboard a ship to Vulcan. Where is the Sir Robin currently headed?"

{To Vulcan. It will start in approximately six hours and will arrive shortly before your advance party}

"OK. Commander Waring, when you get to Vulcan orbit you will meet my sister Elizabeth and her husband Franklin O'Neil. They are in charge of initial placement of the main township, Regimental HQ, First Battalion's dependent's quarters and a battalion sized training base. They will have a partial squad of current Marines to advise them and a bunch of retread recruits that are all prior service US Army trainers. Feel free to advise. We will try to get some pods shipped out there for you before our big ships get there a week or two later. Dang. Six companies, that's umm, nine hundred twenty four more pods needed."

"Yes, Sir."

"Top, tell me true. Do I send the standard pick-up for your first concubines? Soccer moms, sixteen-year-olds collected at a mall, etc? Or should I send someone a bit more toughened? Like hookers and such."

"Hookers, Sir. One each. Let them get it out of their system, then send in the hothouse flowers."

"That's what I figured. Commander, Top, are there any other problems? Any questions?"

"Yes, Sir. I hate to bring this up, but, promotions?" The First Sergeant looked as if he was worried that he was going to get bitten if he petted the so far friendly, but very big, stray dog.

"Uhmm, go on. What about promotions?"

"Same story, Sir. Separate unit. No authorization. No open slots in the TO&E. No promotions. It's been over five years, Sir. The pay in the confederacy doesn't really change, but the recognition..."

"First Sergeant, I can guarantee promotions will be available for a number of your people. I am specifically bringing in experienced Cadre personnel for this Regiment, but I am also getting a whole bunch of trainees. If I mix in six, no I'm wrong, it'll be seven companies of trained Marines with about the same number of trainees, I should be able to put a solid Regiment in place in a few short months and make a good start on the second one."

"Commander, I need you to get with your people and do a real, 'Absolutely No BS', evaluation on each and every Marine in your unit. Also, I will have the AI on your ship start doing CAP interviews. Tell your people not to worry, I will grandfather them in somehow if they don't pull a 6.5. For that matter, I authorize you to let them listen in to a copy of this entire conversation. Now, any more interesting problems you got for me?" The wry grimace told the Marines that they were not in trouble for bringing their situation to the General.

"No, Sir. We're good. Thank you, General." The Commander glanced at his First Sergeant in a way that said "Shaddup."

"OK. AI, we're clear." The link closed down.

Fred looked over at Tony. "What a FUBAR!" the NCO said.

"Tony, I want you to monitor this situation. Make contact with each of those companies as soon as they become available. Let them hear the unedited record of that conversation. Find out their status. Get their personnel info. How long to Vulcan, what transport do they have, etc. Hmmm, six Lancelot class ships will be nice for training and such. And lots of nicely experienced troops."

"Yes Sir. Where are we going to put them, Sir? The troops, that is."

"Well, for a week or so, they can sit in orbit, I guess. They've been doing that a lot already. Hmm. Damn it! I want a thousand Pods in orbit next week. AI. What options do you have for me?"

{A Kilo class ship will be diverted to Vulcan with a load of empty pods. However, it cannot wait long enough for the 'Swooping Crane' to arrive and plan your township. That would add a week plus the time to unload and position the pods. The ship has four tenders per ring for thirty-two total. The number of necessary trips is thirty-two per tender at three hours per trip, totaling ninety-six hours. That is four days. They could not start to be hooked up to the Town structure until the construction units have arrived and spent about two days in initial work. The small freighter with the power plant, AI and construction remotes will arrive one day before the 'Swooping Crane'. The diverted pod transporter will arrive one day later.}

"Too bad we can't just unload them in orbit and leave them until we need them, Sir."

"Yeah. Hey wait. I think we can. AI, Pods are able to survive in space for a while, correct? I saw a report of them reentering under their own power on Neptune."

{Yes. They would have limited duration, but unoccupied, in standby mode, in orbit, that is measured in weeks.}

"OK, we divert that ship. The construction freighter and the 'Swooping Crane' arrive and the township gets started. The Pod ship arrives. Unload the pods into orbit. Tie them together with tractors. Then the ship leaves. The first pods down can be from the orbiting pods and that will let the people spread out a bit as they come down. The factory pods can also be from that batch, giving us eighteen more for people transport on the 'Swooping Crane'. And I can get Liz and Franklin to use one apiece during the trip instead of the two they are authorized. So that's twenty more. Cram eight hookers into each pod and send one hundred sixty of them in twenty pods. There should be forty pods for Cadre and Marines. Let's get the Commander to detail a partial squad of nine men to ride herd on the girls. Put them in three pods, three for each pod plus their new Harems of one each. That leaves thirty-seven for Training Cadre. Leave Major Spencer's wife and the other dependent volunteers here, unless they want to cram into one pod with hubby. What am I missing?"

{Tenders.}

"Hmm?"

{The 'Swooping Crane' will have only two tenders. With eleven hundred twenty pods to land, they would need sixteen hundred eighty hours to land them after they start. The Swooping Crane cannot wait that long. They will remain in orbit for a maximum of one week.}

"Hmm, put those on our list of build-able items. Can the Colony AI run a tender?"

{Yes, but the Swooping Crane will not give their tenders up and the Colony AI will not be fully online until it has been landed and connected to the power grid. However, the Swooping Crane and the Sir Robin's AI can operate the tenders until that time.}

"How about the big liner that is being diverted?"

{One tender can be left in orbit and assigned to your colony. They will replace it when they get another load of pods. It will take the thirty-two tenders aboard sixteen hours to unload the pods into orbit. On another matter, you asked to be notified if a ship has been located for your colony's use. A ship, of sorts, has been procured for your colony's use on a permanent basis. Several K'treel Class Explorer ships are available and you may choose one of these. It may take a while to bring it to this system or to Vulcan and to assign a crew. Here is the list of ships available, with their statistics.} A list of names and stats scrolled on the display.

Stop. We'll take the Marco Polo. An Italian explorer seems fitting for a planet named after a Roman god. Hmmm, this says 'can carry nine containers which have the same mounts as the habitat pods'. Pod mount connections? Can it carry Pods? Or a tender?"

{It can carry nine cargo or habitat pods. The habitat pods are actually the crew's long-term quarters. Two pods are needed for a minimum crew at civilian staffing levels. More habitat pods add crew space, cargo or supplies.}

"OK, can we get tenders for it? That would speed everything up. And how long would it take to crew it up."

{One tender might be made available. No more are excess in that system at this time. However, it will not directly mate up to the K'treel class. You would need to do some refit work for that. You will also need to contact the Naval establishment in that system to acquire a crew. Twelve personnel minimum will be required for civilian levels of operation.}

"OK, I'll talk to Admiral Hargreaves later. Sergeant Major, it looks like we are going to have six Lancelot class and a wimpy freighter scout. Seems we need that naval base sooner than later. Oh, Drat! Six Lancelot class ship crews and their concubines and the twelve crew and concubines for the Marco Polo will need space. And we need to find out when our current Marine company gets their harems delivered. Cargo pods. AI, how big are these things? As big as the hangar areas that we are planning on building?"

{Not that big. They are about the same size as a habitat pod in travel mode. The same tenders are able to move them. Other than extendable landing jacks, they are not re-configurable like the habitat pods, but they are very easily made and can disassemble into modular portions that can be used for items like your hangers and warehouse areas. They are normally detached from ships. A tender is required to land. They are loaded or unloaded, and then brought back to the ship. Or they are just used as long term external holds. It would be easier to wait to add the capacity to your manufacturing facilities than to acquire these, then disassemble them and later acquire replacements.}

"Here is what we will load on Marco Polo. We will take all of the seed stocks and such that Liz is collecting and load that into cargo pods. That should be a more efficient way to carry it and we should have more cargo room in a dedicated cargo pod than in a modified habitat Pod. We won't need that stuff immediately anyway. That will free up two more pods on the Swooping Crane, also. That leaves five more cargo pods. Tony, any ideas?"

"Lessee. Can a Panther or Leopard fit in one of those?"

{No, but a Panther or other assault shuttle can fit in place of a pod. On the K'treel class, each would cover three pod locations due to the wing size.}

"Any Panthers available?"

{Not currently. They are in short supply and will not be allocated to a unit not currently certified as combat ready or even in training.}

"OK, How about nanite construction units? We will need to get our Pods planted fast and ahead of schedule. Will more nanites help there?"

{The William Penn class freighter delivering the initial materials, drones, AI and fusion plant will leave more construction nanites. These will only take up a few cubic meters of storage space, but will be sufficient to keep up even with the accelerated schedule. The main delay will be the lack of larger remotes that make the connections and remove or move large portions of rock and soil.}

"Can we get a cargo pod of those? And will that be enough?"

{That would be sufficient. Those remotes are being manufactured here at Earthat. They are readily available. Also, they can clear and flatten temporary locations, allowing the pods to stage to the surface and be permanently placed when the foundation is ready. There are also other mining and farming remotes that would have been shipped later. Some can be added at this time in small numbers to fill one additional cargo pod if that is wished.}

"Yes, that will leave five pods on the Marco Polo, which we can set aside for crew for now. Thanks, Tony. AI, are the construction nanites made on any of the other colonies? I don't remember seeing nanites on the lists of available materials that I was looking at earlier."

{They are currently made in small numbers here on Earth, at the three larger colonies and of course in the Confederacy. None of the other colonies have currently been authorized to set up anything more than minimal medical nanite production facilities.}

"Hmmm, What does it take to make these and who authorizes those facilities? The Council?"

{The facility may be set up from the standard pod configurations. It will require a four-unit 'clean room' environment. Anything beyond certain standard designs needs to be authorized by the Darjee Trader Clans, or a representative of the Council.}

"Trader Clans? Well! That's new info. Make sure Franklin gets this conversation brought to his attention."

{Acknowledged. However, you seem to be misunderstanding one thing. The Marco Polo is not in this system, currently. The unused ships of the K'treel class are all in Darjee space.}

"Well, phooey. AI, I need an ASAP appointment with Earthat Command."

(Author's note: Independent Companies continues under that name)

"Excuse me, Doctor Rinehart. I am afraid that I will be interrupting your class, permanently." Liz stepped inside with two large Marines. Three more men and women, each of whom were more normal sized, followed them into the room. "If everyone will remain calm, we will be able to leave in just a few minutes." The Marines were setting up the transporter terminus.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are here because you are all very smart people. Therefore, we will assume that you all know why we are here. Obviously, this is a highly modified pickup. You have knowledge and skills that we need. First. NO ONE will be taken if you do not want to go. Is there anyone that is not interested in going? No one? OK, good! Doctor, this is a special projects level class for Xeno-biology students. We need xeno-biologists on a new colony world called Vulcan. An entire new planet full of lifeforms to study and you get to be the experts. Is there anyone here that is deadwood and should be left behind? Conversely, is there anyone else that we really need to locate? Please, just make notes on this notepad here. Oh, and we WILL also be collecting your husband and his class shortly. We need meteorologists as well. If you actually don't want to be with him, just let us know now and we will make two separate groups, but you will both be on the same colony.

"OK. Everyone here is going. There are only twelve of you students, but there are four Volunteer level people in this room. Would you three join the professor, please? We already have here lists of people that we assume that you might want to bring, spouses, etc. You are being asked to pick people for your Harem for pick up. The number at the top of your list is the number you can take. If one or more of the people that you choose is a qualified Mother, then you get ONE extra above that base number. Please, look these lists over and make your choices. You can select them or reject them. If you select them, it means that someone will approach them for extraction as your concubine. If the person has the word MOTHER next to them, it means that she qualifies as a bonus Mother in the eyes of the Confederacy. If you have available picks after you are done, you may approach other members of this class. We will also be collecting various people from other locations, male, female, young to middle aged, say fourteen to fifty, including some that qualify as Mothers with their kids. These people will be in a pool of available concubines. We are also doing five more of these class pickups at other colleges and universities. We want you to be a happy, solid research team. So, we want you to be happy in your choices and in your home life. We want you Concubines to be happy also as we will be expecting you to do some important science jobs.

"OK, next. There are three of you who meet a secondary cut off score for specialists only. Jerry Steves, Rich Hopkins, Amy Fellows, you three are going to be allowed to pick two Harem members. No bonus Mother but feel free to take a Mother type as one of your picks. We even encourage it. I have the same type of lists here for your family and friends. You will not be Confederacy Citizens and you probably will not leave the colony once on it, unless you finish out a certain tour of duty, which we have not yet determined the length of, but it will be years at least, probably decades. We may transport you to another colony for temporary work assignments in a few years. Those of you non-volunteers who are NOT chosen right now will be picked up and placed in the available pool if you wish it. We intend to tell the volunteers from some other pickups that there are some special status college students available for their choice. We will make an extra effort to ensure that you are all placed in a relatively healthy environment. In other words we won't be placing you with any sadomasochists unless you specifically ask for it, etc. Again, we want happy researchers. OK, please make your choices."

'Sheesh!' Liz thought as she swatted down a bra before it hit her face. 'I swear some of these potential concubines WANT to have to make the test drives.'

"General? The Admiral will see you now."

"General Winthrop, sit down. Coffee?"

"Thank you, Sir. And thank you for seeing me so late and on such short notice. I hadn't realized that your base was running on Greenwich Mean Time."

"No problem, I was intrigued by the way you managed to hijack two Star Class liners and then that report I got yesterday about that problem with the Independent Companies. Glad you took that on to clean up. If something like that gets to fester for too long and word gets out.... So, how can I be of assistance to you?"

"Well, Sir. I think I need a Naval Base. Just a small one."

"A small Naval Base, hmm? Just like that?"

"Well, I am just starting a brand new Colony, Vulcan. It is currently totally uninhabited. I have acquired seven companies of troops, six 'Sir Lancelot' class transports with crews. All are currently in different systems. Also, I have a K'treel class explorer, in another system, without a crew. I would like to set up a minimal base in orbit or on the moon, Caeculus. It's about one half the diameter of Luna, so it's only a bit less than a tenth of a G of gravity. I can supply some pods and we'll be manufacturing more of them later as well as the easier ship repair and replenishment parts. We are setting up to manufacture pretty much anything we can, other than ships. Both the planet and the moon are mineral rich so we don't have to import much. I am thinking of a re-supply and refueling base. There is a medium-sized gas giant the next orbit out.

"Most of my people at first will be Ex-Army or Marines. I am actually pre-selecting for them before pickup, but I am getting some prior service fighter pilots and naval types, just from random chance. It has been prearranged that the troops will all be assigned to my colony as their base. So, I could use instructors, a naval boot camp and something for them to do once they are trained. I need a crew for the Marco Polo. Oh, that's the K'treel. And I could probably use a couple of Naval officers of more seniority to watch over the seven ships under my colony's command. We also don't have any system defenses. We are quite a ways out on the right flank, but it would be nice to have at least a corvette or something. We currently have two Patrician classes that will be escorting the transports, but nothing is assigned to us permanently.

"As to what you can get out of it. We are in position to be a slightly out of the direct line waypoint between two of your current bases. As I said, we will be setting up refueling, minimal spare parts, ammo and really minimal repair facilities. With a planet below we plan to have some limited green house foodstuffs for fresh veggies re-supply, a brothel with some spare concubines for use or exchange and we are importing some scientists and specialists on various subjects. Maybe you would like to send some of your officers for college level seminars in a couple, three years. As to other benefits, well. I admit it, I'm Army trained, Admiral. West Point. I admit to not knowing what else you might need."

Hargreaves' eyebrows went up a bit. "Do you have any idea how much work is involved in setting up an orbital platform, or moon based facilities?"

"No, Sir. Do you think you could loan us someone who can teach me? Look at the maps, Sir. The Sa'arm are heading down the Orion Arm of the galaxy. Our Arm. They are already between the Orion constellation and Earth. Borneo Sector is getting heavily pressured. The Sa'arm are going right down the middle of the Arm, hugging the inside of the curve a bit. Unfortunately that's where Sol is, about one third of the way from the inner edge of the arm to the outer edge. The Sa'arm don't seem to deviate in their course. If they hit a wall, they just throw more troops at the wall until it cracks. Now, several of our bigger colonies are just safely inside the inner edge of their early path. But we don't seem to have a lot of people on the outer edge of the path. Some bases, but not any bigger colonies. Vulcan is going to be behind the front edge of that Swarm spearhead when they hit Earth. We should be far enough off the main path to avoid problems for a long while.

"However, the Navy will be split down the middle, with most of the populace on the other side. You need a BIG colony in that area or none at all. This is your right flank staging area for behind the front lines raids and such. In five years or so, you won't be able to get to Earth easily enough for large extractions. Maybe you won't be able to extract as early as three years from now. Humanity needs a population base in that area and Vulcan is currently your best bet for finding one.

"I am Military Governor of the entire planet and the satellite. I think that I have the AI on the defensive, negotiations wise, because of a couple of things that I am working on, like that Independent Companies thing. I can maximize this population growth and get a division of troops in the area in a short time because I will treat the whole thing as a military operation, from pickup to babies. I will requisition, buy, scrounge, steal, make or fake whatever I have to, in order to get the job done. I don't want command of your Fleet in the system. I just want you to give us some support. I like to think that we'll be able to give you some support, as well."

"Hmm, I admit that I hadn't been thinking of the strategic position in that particular manner. What is that, about one hundred light years out?"

"Ninety-eight, Admiral, almost a straight line from Earth, out past Aldebaran. And most of the Confederacy is either behind us, deeper up the Arm, or a couple of thousand light years away over in Sagittarius arm, inside the curve, if you will."

"OK, we could use another repair and resupply base in that area in a couple of years. And, I tell you true, some of the colonies leave much to be desired as a military support system. Some are just in the hands of whoever took over on the planet or whoever decided to try to run things when no one else did, and generally they have little military experience. Here's what I can do. I will send you a team, under a Commodore, or maybe just a Colonel, maybe twenty to thirty officers and petty officers. We can design and build a base, but only with your support. It will be a resupply and light repair base with a small training component. We may need to transfer people in deeper to Sector HQ to advance train them and then send them back to you. I can set up a transport run. Just a Lancelot class ship, every couple of weeks or so. My people can give you the list of parts and ammo we will need you to start working on. They will be living at your colony for a while and you will need to start making a different type of Pod for the moon, smaller and designed for vacuum. I will have a man or two on the De Halve Maen next week and the rest later. Very suitable name for a colony ship."

"I'm afraid I never looked it up, I just accepted it as available. That sounds what, German?"

"Dutch, General Winthrop. Dutch. The ship name translates to The Half Moon. It's a historical reference to a Dutch East Indies freighter. Henry Hudson was the captain and he named the Hudson River, Manhattan, etc. in 1609. Sorry, I've been nuts about old ships since I was a kid." The Admiral didn't really look apologetic. "Anyway. My guys will have the specs for the parts and ammo. We might be able to start making corvettes and such there in six months to a year if you can move at the speed that you say you want to. In that case, I should be able to get your colony on the regular pick up runs list as well. One ship. Not right away, but soon. Also, we need to get your colony set up with commo. That will actually save us a week's worth of travel time for messages from that area. Smaller ships that don't carry the long-range comm suites can drop in and get the word out. That will have to do it."

"It's a bit more than I asked for. I guess I will just have to settle for that, then." Fred had a big grin on his face. A quick flash across his face signaled a new thought as he stood to leave. "Hmm. Naval History. I just had a thought, Admiral. 'The SeaBees.' It's a bit late to think of them now though. If you had them already, re-genned to twenty-year-olds, trained up on new tech, you could dump them onto your team."

"Dang, that's a nice concept! We have just been building ad hoc teams for setting up bases and such using available manpower. General? Give me a sec with the AI here." Admiral Hargreaves did not have the tilt to his head, that most people seemed to use, but he let his eyes half lid over and unfocused his gaze for a couple of minutes. "Heck, let's go for it. OK, change of plans. I have just authorized a new unit. I'm trying to come up with a funky name for them, but it will be the Space version of the Sea Bees, which was actually the Naval Construction Battalions."

"We can put the training base on Vulcan. While they are in training, they can work on any projects that you need. For advanced training, they can go up to the moon for Base expansions and later, over to that gas giant for an orbital fuel depot. They can also set up system defenses. We'll keep the training unit small to start with. Let's say a company at a time. And with the Confederacy training techniques, we can fully train them in about six months, even faster if they have significant skills in construction already. With experienced veterans, used to military discipline and concepts, the AI figures it will take three to four months. They will need a ship and a dedicated AI. They will have too much heavy gear for a transport. They'll need one of the freighters. And that means a medium sized one. Say two hundred pods or so. That's per company. One of those little ninety-six pod ones would do in a pinch for a partial deployment. Also, some hab pods, some cargo, tenders. You will need to be making more gear. Dang. Now I really need to find the right someone to command this mess. General, you will definitely be getting more support. I will update you as soon as my plans have fleshed out. That should be before you leave Earth. Thanks a lot for adding to my workload." The smile belied the words as he stood up to indicate the interview was over.

General Winthrop set down his half finished coffee and stood as well. "Thank you, Sir. Glad to be of service. Oh, by the way. The Space Construction Battalions? How about the Space Bats?"

"Space Bats. I like it! Chief! Get in here!"

(Author's note: This story line will continue in "The Space Bats".)

"Liz, how are you doing?" Franklin and Liz had been transporting from town to town all day with no time to talk. Individual Marines or more often, Cadre personnel, were transporting to testing stations, getting in pre-rented vehicles with a collapsed transporter portal, driving to near the desired pick up location and setting up the portal in a private spot. The team would then transport in, walk or drive to the collection site, make the pick up and leave through their own portal. The original Marine would just fold up the first portal and leave. No one had been noticed yet. If that happened, the Cadre member was prepared to jump into the portal and it would then be shut down from the ship and collected by drone. All of this allowed one team to make pickups in multiple locations approximately an hour apart.

"We got every one of mine, although I still have eight guys in the pool that need ladies to stud for. We'll have to grab some of those Fitness Center broads tomorrow. I got two extra Volunteers as well. One visiting sixty-year-old, Professor of Biochemistry was observing a colleague's Advanced Topics class. He was a widower and he had his hottie assistant with him, so we didn't even have to go grab his spouse or anything. He just asked a couple of cute twenty-five-year-olds to join him and the assistant. He has one more pick, two with a mother, but he wanted at least a couple that he could talk to about work. And we got a totally random 6.8 guy, while picking up someone else's wife. I ended up with twenty-one full pods, about one third of which are filled with special volunteers and I'll leave the random guy on the Araby. Oh, and Fred said we have two more pods available for some reason. How did you do?"

"I got all but one that I really need. I found out that he was in a nasty car crash a couple of days ago. He and half of his family are in serious or critical condition. I don't think they are coherent enough to answer as to whether they want to be picked up and we can't take them if they don't agree, even if they would probably answer yes. Any ideas?"

"Hmm, AI? Can we collect people for the purpose of putting them through medical and then, when they are coherent, ask them at that time if they want to come, and if they do not, we can release them back to the hospital or home? This person is a specific specialist whom we want to recruit along with his family."

{This could only be done with the joint permission of the Colony Governor and the Captain of the CSS Araby.}

"OK, let's go talk to Fred."

General Winthrop was wrapping up his little presentation to the ship's Captain. "So that's the situation, Captain Moran. I have given my permission, but we still need yours. Can you help us out?"

"Sure! AI, I give my permission and further I authorize Governor Winthrop to use the medical stations in any way he needs for getting his colony underway. This is subject only to a shipboard emergency, which would have priority. Please pass this permission notification on to Elizabeth and Franklin O' Neil. Acknowledge!"

{Acknowledged.}

"Thank you, Captain. That may help a bit in the future. Hmm, Captain Moran. Something is scratching at my memory. Todd Moran, 'Araby'. Why does that ring a bell?"

"Hehe. My dad had a fondness for some boy's adventure novels from the 40's. Howard Pease's 'Todd Moran' series. He was on the Araby, a tramp freighter. When I was installed as the Plank Owner Captain for this ship, they gave me the chance to name it."

"That's it. I read some of them, decades ago. Captain, as long as I am here, can I pick your brain for a few minutes? I have your ship and one other Star Class for the next six months and I want to get the optimum usage out of you both. Any ideas?

"Well, I saw your proposed schedule and I do have a couple of thoughts. Have you ever thought of...?"