Chapter 4

"Fred," Lucinda acknowledged. "Marcie." She'd known the Williamses for years. Her parents and theirs had helped found the Tri-County Rabbit Breeders' Society some forty years ago. Fred and Marcie were a touch older than her, and had three kids in their early teens. The eldest, Chuck, was fourteen and going out with his own household - frantically calling his girlfriend to prepare for pickup. She was at home, looking after her parents' bunnies. The parents and little sister were here and as her father had a CAP score of 6.8 they too would be heading out to spread the number of bunnies in space.

Over in the corner, one of the bunny breeders was busy breeding with a prospective concubine, as his naked wife held the hand of their fascinated six-year-old daughter. In the middle of the rabbit cages, another sponsor, flanked by the naked forms of his former wife (and now concubine) and a second young lady, were busy loading cages onto one of the exhibition hall's dollies. All around the room, nudity among those with a CAP score of less than 6.5 had suddenly become the outfit of the day. Lucinda felt overdressed, and fixed her eyes on those of Fred.

"Mom, can we strip too?" Lacey demanded.

She tore her eyes away long enough to advise her daughter, "No, at least... not yet."

Fred began, "We, that is to say Marcie and I, had settled on a prepack already. The other lady in our prepack - I have a 6.8 - isn't here, so we have a slot open, and we'd like to offer it to you."

"You still have that slot open," a voice advised them. All three adults whipped their heads around to look at the tall Marine, wearing full body armour. "This one's a 'special', so you can add her and still have your prepack. We can pick your potential concubine up. You have any contact information on her?"

Fred gulped. "She's our babysitter, she has our kids over at her place. She has four kids of her own." He grabbed Marcie. "This would be great!"

"Do you want a test drive?" Lucinda asked, nervously.

Fred actually thought about it for a fraction of a second. "No, we've known each other for years, I think that sex shouldn't be a problem. As long as you haven't got a problem with me having sex with both you and your daughters, assuming they don't score higher than 6.4 on their fourteenth birthdays."

She smiled reassuringly at them. "I have more of a problem with my daughters becoming Swarm snacks. It will be a while before Lacey turns 14, which gives me time to get used to the idea of any of them being sexual."

It had been a late day for Tribune William Whitefeather, as he reviewed the requests from a dozen desperate planetary governors for people with special skills, some needed more urgently than others. Some were more of a priority than others. Anything from Demeter, for example, got pushed to the top of the pile.

The AI interrupted his analysis of a request for a musician skilled in acoustic guitar, for which he was quite grateful. He was failing to see how such a skill could not be acquired through a combination of sleep training and good old-fashioned practise, aside from the fact he'd found a number of musicians already members of the ranks of the Confederacy. "You have a request for contact from Sub-Decurion Chan," the emotionless voice informed him.

"Put him through," ordered William, turning to the replicator for a cup of tea.

"Sir, we have a situation with regards to the medical extraction."

Situations were never good, reflected Whitefeather, wincing. They had an unfortunate tendency to evolve rather rapidly into full-blown crises. "What is the nature of the situation?"

"About two weeks ago, we had an extraction in Atlanta go bad, a couple of Happy Meals at McDonald's objected to not being extracted, and decided to argue their point with firearms. We lost some volunteers and potential concubines."

He remembered the incident. The officer in charge was a newbie on his first mission. As the engineering officer for the Zephyr described him, "The guy was so dumb he didn't know whether his arsehole was punched or bored." Instead of doing an advance surreptitious survey for weapons followed by sending in a mixed team to neutralize any potential threat before announcing the start of the extraction, he'd ignored the advice of his NCO and just leaped in cold. Fortunately, he was one of the first casualties and wouldn't make that mistake again. Unfortunately, they'd have to replace the lieutenant. Whitefeather sincerely hoped they'd make a better selection next time.

"Four children, offspring of two of the killed volunteers, were in the restaurant at the time and wounded. They're currently in the pediatrics ward of Tri-County General Hospital and have come to the attention of volunteer Dr. Victor Walden. All of them were orphaned in the McDonald's incident, and he'd like to extract them if possible, adopting them if necessary. He'd like to know if there's any way the Confederacy can expedite this."

"AI, please provide me with the files on these four. Thank you, Mr. Chan, I'll handle it." He broke the connection.

Holograms of the documentation replaced the insane special skills requests he'd been intending to deny. It turned out that all four were under the care of Tri-County Family Services. Two of the children were left with literally nobody in the world that could be found going back to the grandparents' generation, and the other pair had a cousin on the father's side back up in Canada whose name rang an immediate bell with both Whitefeather and the AI. He took a closer look at the name, and sat back. "Well, well, well. Small world."

The next call was to Dr. Walden. "Two of the kids you've got in that pediatrics ward, the Johnson kids, are orphans and up for grabs, we may be able to do something about the other two. I'll have to get the night judge for your area and the duty caseworker from the local Family Services, but yes we have a procedure to cover ourselves in this eventuality. Just say, for the AI to record it officially, that you, Doctor Victor Walden, wish to adopt the children of Volunteers Alice and Michael Johnson."

"I, Doctor Victor Walden, wish to adopt the children of Volunteers Alice and Michael Johnson."

"Done, Doctor, and thanks. The other two have an extractable member of the family, a distant relative but close enough. We'll check on the potential adoptive parent before we commit ourselves, and then expect some interesting developments. In the meantime, call the hospital Administrator, he needs to smooth the paperwork on this."

"Thank you, sir." Victor's voice was full of gratitude and relief.

"No, thank you. They are all biological offspring of both mothers and fathers with CAP scores of over 6.4, and therefore are far more likely than the average child to grow up to have a CAP score of over 6.4 themselves. We need to get those sorts of children off-planet as much as possible."

Sid Cheevers picked up the phone to discover a Tribune William Whitefeather on the line. "Yes, Tribune, what can I do for you?"

"You had a cousin named Henry Cheevers CAP score 7.2, married to an Elisabeth Cheevers CAP score 6.9, daughers Amanda and Sarah? Lived in Atlanta, Georgia?"

Had? "I have a cousin by that name, yes. And that's the right name for his wife. I've never met their daughters." Had??

Sid could not catch the subvocal communications between Lieutenant Valentine and Tribune Whitefeather where she assured him that yes, Sid was seated.

"I regret to inform you that in an incident at a McDonald's restaurant last week, Earth First terrorists killed both your cousin and his wife. The children, although injured, are alive. You and your granddaughter are apparently their closest living relatives."

"Oh, my. That is bad news. Especially as we're about to head off-planet. I don't suppose there's any way we can take the girls with us?"

"Only if Georgia's Division of Children and Family Services agrees, but they're pretty good about this sort of thing. Let's do the official recording of your offer of adoption, and then I'll deal with the legalities at their end. You should expect them to be either waiting for you in space, or arriving shortly after you do."

As Sid put the phone down, his granddaughter Vickie walked in. "Well," he told the astonished girl, "you now have another two sisters."