Chapter 3: The Time Has Come

One evening, during the children's bath time, Scud stepped up his grooming. While washing a giggling youngster, he played with his little penis, then stuck a finger first-knuckle-deep into his pucker, eliciting a squeal. "Gotta be sure you're clean," he explained.

When there was no reaction from the AI, he tested by vigorously 'washing' the pussy lips of another child, and then dipped a digit past the lips of her vagina until he encountered and pressed her hymen. Again, he got a squeal, but there was no comment from the AI, and Scud assumed he had deceived the AI into thinking his sex-play was just washing.

Feeling he had made enough progress for that night, Scud -- for the first time -- summoned all three of his concubines to his bed, and envisioning his future grade-school conquests, he screwed their pussies raw.

When he finally slept, Katie nudged the others awake, then gathered them in the other 'adult' bedroom and held them close. "Tomorrow," she whispered, "stay clear of me."

She kissed each one passionately; she then left to consult with the AI on the lesson plan for the next day.

The AI, fascinated by the prior creativity of the students, listened eagerly to Katie's proposal based on reading Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit And The Pendulum. "They read the story," she started, "and the challenge is to design and build a full-sized weapon capable of killing a Sa'arm unit."

They spent over an hour discussing what materials to provide, keeping the children safe, and how to determine effective killing power. The AI agreed that to prove concept, the 'weapon' needed to be full sized. For the purposes of the challenge, it was decided that halving a melon in one pass would be sufficient. Under modified Destination Imagination rules, the children would research and plan, the AI would replicate parts, and the older children on each team would assemble the contraption. The AI was beside itself with anticipation and asked for a rule modification to allow it to use a replicated repair-robot to assist in assembly if that should prove necessary.

The day was a rousing success. Divided into two teams, the children researched known details on the Sa'arm and designed two very different machines. Both used very sharp blades. Melons were split, juice was splattered, squeals were loud, happiness was expressed, and baths were taken.

For the first time ever, Scud missed the baths!

In a celebratory mood and anticipating the true start of what he deemed his sexual journey, Scud overindulged. Katie fostered this by handing him his favorite alcohol combination as soon as he returned from his training exercises. He chugged it gratefully and accepted another. As he drank, Katie increased the alcohol proportion with each glass. Scud was soon more than tipsy -- more even than Katie would have expected given her recent experiments.

Overly warm from drinking, Scud took off his shirt, got through the evening meal, and then dozed off. Katie and her sisters, together with Sandy and the preteens, hurried the youngest kids through their baths and into bed. Then she told her assistants to stay with the youngsters -- but did not explain why. Having shielded her children and friends as best she could, Katie moved to look once more at the projects designed by the children and built with the AI's assistance. There was some Rube Goldberg in them, but they were surprisingly simple -- AND they both worked!

Katie positioned the first instrument at the entrance to the children's work and playroom. She considered this one to be her best hope. She moved the other to inside the entrance to the bath-shower room. When she was ready, she thanked her lucky stars that Scud still slept, snoring away. She took a deep breath, and began executing the next stage of her plan.

She fetched Sandy, led her first to the shower and then to the playroom, showed her the positioned contraptions, and whispered, "You know how they work. I hate involving you, but I must. I love you more than I can say," and she hugged the puzzled girl.

Then comprehension dawned, and Sandy set the triggers, then following Katie's pointing finger and earlier instructions, she returned to Betty and the youngsters.

Katie went to Scud, still asleep in this chair. Using bright red fingernail polish replicated for the little girls with Scud's enthusiastic approval, Katie painted the sleeping man's forehead with the words CHILD RAPIST and his bare chest with PREDATOR PEDOPHILE.

She waited an eternity for the polish to dry. When she thought the time was right, Katie stood at his side, took a deep breath, and screamed into his ear, "You bastard! You are planning to rape my children. You are a stinking piece of shit."

Scud snorted awake, confused and disoriented, and heard Katie scream again, "You flaming asshole! You stay out of the children's playroom, you raping monster!" Then softer, "It's rigged and dangerous." Then screaming as if panicked, "The kids, my kids, stay away from them! Stay away from Sandy in the playroom!"

Drunk, confused, and mad at the screaming concubine, he leapt from his chair, yelling, "They're mine. You are all mine. I'll screw whichever of you I want to! That bitch has been teasing me -- she's first." With a roundhouse swing, Scud knocked Katie unconscious, sprawling on the floor. Shaking his buzzing head, Scud lumbered for the playroom.

So far, Katie's plan was going well.

As he entered the playroom doorway, Scud triggered the kids' Sa'arm killer, and a razor-sharp blade swept across his throat, nearly decapitating him. Blood spouted, Katie's email 'Master is HURT' exited on its way as addressed, and the AI sounded a medical emergency.

A med-tube technician had once bragged that if he placed a severed head into his tube within three minutes, he could save and repair the individual. It turned out that he was right.

The marines and corpsman, summoned by the AI, found Katie lying unconscious next to Scud's lounge chair and Scud's body across the room, half through the doorway into the kid's playroom. The spouting blood seemed to have covered the room. They puzzled for a few seconds at the words on his forehead and chest, then a marine slung him over a massive shoulder and ran for the nearest med-bay, Scud's head flapping on its strip of flesh, and his body leaving a wet, red trail. They were just in time.

While a medic was bending over the still unconscious Katie, Betty emerged, motioning to Tabbi to stay. She looked over at Katie's body, but still under Scud's prohibition, could not inquire how she was.

The prohibition and privacy block proved highly frustrating to everyone, the AI included. Scud's concubines and dependents were prevented from speaking to anyone else, and the AI could not reveal anything occurring in their quarters up until the time it had summoned help.

On the surface, Betty and Tabbi were innocent of wrongdoing, but there was no corroboration. Likewise, the distance of Katie's senseless body from Scud's created a puzzle of if and how she could have done the deed.

The words on Scud's body created another puzzle.

Scud's commander was beside himself, and the marines? A CONK had nearly killed one of their own. They wanted her dead. Recycled. Obliterated. All in all, they were so desperate that Scud was pulled from the med-tube before his healing was fully complete. Katie, being a highly suspect conk, received minimal medical attention.

A grim collection stood in the large upper level airlock. The place was chosen so a quick execution could proceed once Katie was determined to be the killer.

When Scud was brought in, he screamed. It hurt him to even whisper, but he screamed, "The bitch killed me. I renounce her. Recycle her!"

Into the airlock strode a man and two women, all three clad in Civil Service Gray. No rank insignia were visible. "Concubine Katie Wyoming Knott, you have been released into the concubine pool. Do you consent to become my concubine?" asked the man clearly.

Katie nodded her assent, then, her voice released, promptly followed, "Why not?! I do."

"Acknowledged," came the unmistakable announcement from an AI. "Katie Wyoming Knott is now a concubine belonging to Michael James."

"Oh shit, here we go again!" that from another gray-clad man, just entering accompanied by a similarly gray-clad Aztec warrior.

"Okay, Concubine Katie, tell us about it," ordered Michael.

Katie blurted in a rush to get it out lest she be blocked again. "He is a pedophile and sexual predator. He was grooming the children to rape them, and he penetrated two of the children. Everyone in his family is blocked from speaking to anyone outside his family as long as they are his concubines or dependents. His pod is under a perpetual privacy protocol. Everything I've done is covered under our contract and also the permissions given when we first entered our quarters." She gasped for breath, relieved that she was finally able to speak.

"As the owner of this accused concubine, I order a full investigation of the circumstances surrounding the accusations against her," Michael declared. "Further, I order all privacy seals be released and audio and visual records be reviewed."

"You can't do that!" yelled her almost foaming accuser.

"Actually, under the provisions of his unique contract with the Confederacy, he can," interjected the new arrival, Centurion Sam Matthews. "I wish I could say I regret that day I became his boss, but I don't. Not a bit."

"AI, play the recordings of the contractual agreement at Katie's extraction and then the later permission she cited," Michael ordered.

The scene from the dairy bar was projected on the airlock wall. When it reached the portion where Katie stated her conditions, they heard, " ... only if all the kids are allowed to come with me and Betty, and they are mine and Betty's responsibility -- care, education, discipline, whatever a parent should do -- as long as they are minors ..." followed by Scud's, "Agreed!"

"Play that one more time!" demanded Michael. "Okay, now the other one."

And again a scene played out, reaching the point where Scud, speaking to the AI, said, "My concubines have permission to use whatever they need to care for the children -- food, clothing, entertainment, education -- whatever."

Michael had that section played again, then spoke to the Darjee AI, "AI, doesn't defending children from rape and sexual predators fall within 'whatever a parent should do' and 'whatever they need to care for the children?'"

"That is true. If the actions she took were indeed to protect and provide for the dependent children, she was acting within her contract and permissions," came the same AI voice. "Further, as part of their education projects, the children designed, built, and set the trigger on the instrument that injured her sponsor. I replicated parts for them and my repair-robot provided heavy lifting when necessary."

"Holy shit, why would you do that?" came the question from a marine in the guard detail. "How did she sucker you?"

"I was not suckered, as you put it," answered the AI. "Provisional Private Nehemiah Joseph Scudder molested his dependents while under a privacy block. Once penetration occurred, it was certain his actions violated the Confederacy's Military Justice Code, but I could not report him, and I could not take direct action.

"Concubines' actions are severely restricted, legally and physically -- even when defending their dependents," the AI continued, "but there is no prohibition preventing dependents from defending themselves from sponsors," and the AI projected the scene where Sandy set the triggers and another of Scud yelling out his threat against Sandy.

Stunned silence.

"Apparently, the concubine Katie Wyoming Knott and I were unknowingly working along the same lines to the same goal -- protecting the underage dependents," the AI explained. "The children did the research, the design, and most of the assembly. Because I was to do the replications and heavy lifting, I was able to ask leading questions, and voilà. Then an underage dependent set the triggers. I'm quite proud of us all." The voice was clearly smug.

"Michael," announced the sexy voice of a different AI, "my review shows that your concubine Katie was defending her underage children from a sexual predator and pedophile when she initiated actions that caused him to be injured. Further, she had warned him that entering the playroom was dangerous, and he ignored her."

Dora continued, "There is unanimous agreement that your contract provides that you alone stand in judgment of her and have accountability for your concubine's behavior and punishment. You need to review the recordings and make that determination. Your family will want to watch -- they will be most interested."

The hardened voice of Centurion Sam Matthews announced, "I agree with the conclusions of Michael James' family AI." He identified the new AI voice. "Provisional Private Nehemiah Joseph Scudder is remanded to his commanding officer to stand before a court-martial related to his actions since volunteering. He is no longer entitled to concubines, and his current concubines and dependents are released to the charge of Civil Service."

"You bitch!" screamed Scud as he leapt toward the defenseless concubine. "I'll ... " was cut off as both of Michael's sister-wives fired stingers at pointblank range.

"Gentlemen and ladies, I'll leave garbage disposal to you. I need to take my concubine to retrieve my new dependents and then home for counseling," said Michael as he took Katie's arm and led her away with his other ladies.

"Is that what we are calling it now?" muttered Rachel, sotto voce.

"Oh, hell yes!" returned Cathleen, as she and Rachel exited the gathering behind them arm-in-arm, "When are we going to marry her?"

Four adults entered soon-to-be-former Provisional Private Nehemiah Joseph Scudder's quarters to find two anxious concubines, a very concerned thirteen-year-old, and a gaggle of confused and bewildered children. Katie hugged her sister-lovers, then knelt and gathered in her squirming half-pint family. "All is well, my loves, all is well. We are all moving to new family quarters under the protection of the Civil Service, and I expect, soon will be joining a new family." She turned, looked expectantly at her new sponsors, and prevaricated for the youngsters' benefit, "Scud is going to a new assignment and will not be moving with us."

Rachel stepped forward and asked, "Tabitha Denise Roth -- Elizabeth Princess Sperling, do you consent to become concubines of the clan commonly known as THE Harem?" Now that was a new one!

Behind Rachel, Katie nodded vigorously. "I do," came two immediate responses.

"Acceptance acknowledged!"

This parade into the family's quarters was far larger than any that had entered before. Eminence and Baby threaded in and out of little legs, performing their welcoming duties and enchanting the children. The gaggle of new children was quickly gathered in by the family's teachers and similarly aged kids, much to the pleased surprise of the older preteens, Max and Ellie, who now had others of their own age for companions.

Finding a quiet moment, Katie and Betty met with Carole to inform her of potential issues with the children, caused by Scud's deviant behavior. Carole used Dora's links to alert Yasmin and Lizzy, and then scheduled a meeting with all the family's teachers and appropriate providers. Knowing the welcome and orientation the young teen and preteens would receive from their age group that night, she urged that priority be given to Sandy, Max, and Ellie.