Chapter 2

Lucinda had decided to take thirty of her one hundred seventeen rabbits to this show. Kate had predictably gotten bored and was playing tag with some other children of the same age in the unused Exhibition Hall D, while she and her fellow competitors, some ten in all, were in Exhibition Hall E fussing with their bunnies prior to judging.

It was a small city show, not a regional one, and nobody expected much excitement. It was pleasant for her to meet her fellow breeders, all of whom she knew well from other shows and breeders' club meetings. She wondered idly as to how many at this show had high enough CAP scores to be sponsors.

The three judges were all unknown to her, which for a small unofficial show like this one was a surprise in and of itself: she knew most of the judges in not just this state but in all the surrounding ones. They were all tall, the two men handsome and the lady beautiful, built but not as sturdily as the marines she'd seen escorting James when he'd picked up her cull rabbits eight months' before. Still, there was something ... martial ... about this trio. There was none of the expertise in handling rabbits that she would have expected of experienced judges. Additionally, they weren't wearing aprons over the suits they wore rather uncomfortably - rabbits when handled by strangers, even if those strangers were experienced at handling the nervous creatures, tended to kick and a heavy cotton apron would protect your clothes from the damage from sharp nails. For another, they were unfamiliar with the nomenclature surrounding rabbits. The head of her town's breeders' club was hovering protectively and answering questions, some of which sounded insanely basic for experienced judges. Finally, every so often one or the other of them would get this faraway look, a look that rang a bell with Lucinda, she'd read about it somewhere. And then one of the male judges looked straight at her ... and looked visibly relieved.

In her head, alarm bells began to ring.

"Lacey..." she started, not taking her eyes off the "judges".

"Yes, Mom?" Lacey could see where her mother's attention was fixed.

"Get your sisters. Now! And all three of you, stick to me like glue." To mask her nervousness, she went back to fussing over Horton's cottontail, one eye still cocked on the strangers.

Victor found he was not alone in the meeting - Tri-County General Hospital Administrator Dr. Harvey Proctor had moved the proceedings over to the boardroom next door to his office. Two senior specialists, one a trauma surgeon (and hence, Victor's boss) and the other an OB/GYN, and two nurses from the maternity ward, were present. Victor's secretary June and a tall man that Victor hadn't met before rounded out the room.

Harvey opened the proceedings. "Ladies and gentlemen, before we can proceed with this meeting, our guest needs confirmation as to your identities. Please present your CAP cards."

All did. Victor was proud to hold a 7.2, none of the others around the table, except for June, held anything lower than a six point eight. June managed a six point two, insufficient to garner her volunteer status but still respectable.

"This gentleman here," Harvey began somewhat pompously - but then all his speeches tended toward pomposity - is Tribune William Whitefeather, of the Confederacy Civil Service. He has a most interesting offer for us."

"We have found ourselves with a painful need." Tribune Whitefeather began. "Simply put, our standard extraction process, of going into a large area and extracting any volunteer present and having him or her choose between the available pool of potential concubines present, provides us with plenty of warriors and breeding concubines. But people holding certain required skills or knowledge are not necessarily picked up in enough numbers, or sent to the colonies that most urgently require those skill sets. We try to cure that after extraction, but it's not easy, and indeed is not always possible." He shrugged. "In addition, those skills are not easily acquired through sleep training. In order to rectify that, I've been granted a small fleet of some of the Confederacy's smaller ships and ordered to acquire those skills by whatever means necessary."

Everyone around the table raised their eyebrows at that. What means would this man find 'necessary'?

"We are offering volunteers with medical training additional concubines as supernumeraries. If you bring on board at least two concubines with medical training, be those concubines nurses, doctors or EMT's, you will qualify for an additional head count to the total indicated by your CAP score. If your CAP score were in the sevens, you would therefore get a fifth concubine. In addition, if at least one of your concubines has what we call the 'nurturing magic number', you can add on yet an additional concubine."

"Excuse me," interrupted Harvey, "What's this 'nurturing magic number' thing?"

"A concubine, male or female, with a nurturing magic number of at least sixteen has at least an 8.0 subscore for nurturing, plus the number of children, plus their combined ages. For example, let's look at LPN Jacquie Mondale of your own pediatrics ward." A hologram suddenly appeared showing the lady in question. Victor knew her, and had lusted for her since coming to County General. "She has a maternal subscore of 8.4, plus four children aged 8, 10, 12 and 14. The fourteen-year-old would have to go on her own merits, but still is part of Jacquie's magic number. That totals to 8.4 plus the number of kids at four, plus the ages of the children of 8, 10, 12 and 14 years old, or a total of 42.4. She's still 38 years old, so she's still quite fertile and capable of having her years rolled back. Plus, her medical profession means she gives you a double count toward both supernumerary allowances."

Victor made a note to talk to Mrs. Jacquie Mondale, LPN, at her earliest possible convenience... or inconvenience, for that matter.

"We have a summary of all the medical staff here and at the other area hospitals, so use your time carefully, assuming you agree to join the Confederacy as senior medical staff and go where we send you. Does anybody here NOT want to go?"

Nobody, it turned out, wanted to stay and be Swarm Stew.

"As you can appreciate," Tribune Whitefeather added, "secrecy is paramount, lest all present here tonight become targets of Earth First.

"Very well, there's just one last thing. You'll need a way to communicate with us. Please take one of these PDA devices."

Within seconds of each taking a PDA, a little pinprick injected nanites into their system and a hypnosis program ordered them to keep silent about the special extraction program, lest they grow quite nauseous.

"Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, you have all volunteered for the Confederate Navy's Medical Services. June, I believe you had already consented to be Dr. Proctor's concubine?"

"Yes, Tribune."

"And Dr. Proctor? Do you accept June as your concubine?"

"Yes, Tribune, I do. Are we ready, then?" Harvey grimly turned to his staff. "Happy hunting, everyone."

Sid Cheevers sat in his office with the woman who had asked to speak in private. "Lieutenant, ah, Valentine? What can our humble little garden centre do for you?"

Clarisse Valentine put her cheeriest face on. No need to terrify this man. "Mr. Cheevers, I understand you have a CAP score of 6.8, correct?"

He confirmed the number by taking out his CAP card and showing it to her.

"And you have a 13-year-old granddaughter, and are her legal guardian?"

He nodded, mystified.

"And your son and daughter-in-law are deceased, in a car crash some seven years ago, and your wife died some years ago as well."

He continued to nod.

"We have a special offer for you. And it is partially due to your granddaughter." Clarisse beamed happily at him.

"Yes?" he responded cautiously.

"We are prepared to offer you a special volunteer position in the Confederacy. "

"Don't you usually drop an interdiction field and take all the volunteers? Why are we having this conversation?"

"There are certain, ah, special skill sets that we need on various colony worlds. Just scooping up a random selection of volunteers and concubines will not guarantee we get those individuals we need, so we are scouting them out and doing special pickups. In you and your very knowledgeable daughter's case, it's horticulture. We have a colony that when the terraforming is done is going to be left a ball of rock, and we'd like to provide some greenery to liven things up. Are you interested?"

"And get my granddaughter off this planet before the Sa'arm get her? Of course I'm interested - do I have 'foolish' printed across my forehead?" He gulped. "What do I have to do?"

The Lieutenant relaxed. It was as good as over. "You are entitled to get two concubines. Might I suggest your two staff? You can talk to them tonight, after the store closes."

"OK." He started. "Who will I get to run this place after my extraction?"

"Don't worry about that. We plan to take the entire store."

Sid blinked uncomprehendingly. "Say what? Take... the whole store?"

"All the fertilizer, all the plants, pots, tools, anything that isn't nailed down."

"Ah...." Sid was stunned by the temerity of the proposal. His whole store? "When..." he gripped his desk tightly to keep something balanced and secure. His whole store? "When will this extraction take place?"

"As soon as you've chosen your two concubines. If your clerks agree tonight to go with you, then we start extraction as soon as you close. It'll draw less attention if we do this after normal business hours."