Chapter 28

It was almost as painful to watch as it probably was for Vera. We set up in the improved area of the basement, which was somewhat soundproofed. Oliver and I and Tara (I found THAT interesting; she not only volunteered, but appeared knowledgeable) rigged up a set of ropes from the top and bottom of a pair of lolly columns and spread-eagled Vera in a set of makeshift wrist and ankle cuffs made of Velcro straps over cloth toweling wrapped in vet wrap. Vera assisted with this almost cheerfully. Tara made her something out of a washrag to bite down on and muffle the screams. Frieda seemed to be restraining herself from assisting while keeping an eye on Beth -- and Oliver and Vera's other two daughters in the process. The whole thing probably took a half-hour to orchestrate.

Fortunately, the kids were asleep. Abe had left me and gone upstairs to struggle through the implications of our conversation and was exhausted thereby -- and the girls were totally off-cycle and had been burning a lot of energy dashing around during the afternoon. All three had crashed a bit before Beth, Frieda and I got home and they were still asleep. While they had missed a few things, Vera made it clear to Tara and Keisha upstairs that she was asking for this, so they were up on that piece, at least.

Tara handled maintenance of the gag -- to include covering Vera's mouth when she spit it out to scream. That happened several times...

Oliver was clinical -- and he didn't limit himself to Vera's ass. He took his time and picked his targets, but didn't telegraph or tease Vera. Once he committed to a strike, he followed through. He circled her, doing her breasts, her back, her belly, her thighs, as well as her ass. On two occasions, he actually struck up, between her legs, at her vulva -- something that brought protests from several of the other females present. I handled Beth with a quirt -- a small braided whip I'd picked up at the feed store along with the riding crop -- when she got vocal; it didn't take but a stroke or two. After that, Beth would just come to me and hide her face when it got too hard to watch. Tara spent her time wiping Vera's tear-stained face and cooing to her -- and glaring at her girls for being too chicken to assist. Keisha just stood there, more or less bug-eyed, she would shift her gaze to me and I would look back, poker-faced.

I know Vera got a shock from the very first stroke; I imagine that Oliver had held himself back on previous occasions. For this, though, he did as the AI suggested, and let Vera have it, full force. The first three or four strokes, Vera just gasped and appeared stupefied by the agony -- Oliver was timing them for three or four seconds in between -- but after that, the muffled screams and wails began.

It went on for what seemed like centuries. Oliver went for a while at a fairly brisk pace for the way he was timing things, but after a while, he wound down, visibly. Well, that was what we were after; if he was sickened by what he'd done, he was likely to dismiss further recriminations. Vera didn't get off easy in any particular -- she was striped like a zebra by the time he was done. I lost count at fifty strokes. Finally, he stopped, eyed Vera for a moment from behind, then went and placed the riding crop on a nearby table and announced, "I believe we're done." The girls rushed forward, basically getting in our way as we worked to get her untied and the bindings removed. Then Oliver stepped up and took her face in his hands and she crumpled against him wailing brokenly, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so..." Oliver tucked her head into his shoulder and tried to comfort her without touching anything else.

After a bit it became apparent that the crowd of women weren't accomplishing anything, so I told mine, "Go upstairs and check on the children and get dinner moving!" They scattered like rabbits, their minds clearly full of the object lesson. Oliver and I helped Vera up the stairs; we couldn't carry her and any attempt would have no doubt been painful. They settled on the couch, Vera curled up with her head in Oliver's lap -- at which point, he angrily waved his remaining daughters away. I followed them to the kitchen.

Maureen complained, "I don't understand! Why is she cuddling up to Dad after that?"

I eyed her. "You still don't get it, do you? Their relationship was poisoned -- on her end by guilt, and his by anger and betrayal. The poison has been released, squeezed out of both of them -- and now the healing begins. It isn't over -- they have to build new bridges and deal with new roles and build up trust again -- but they are at least past making payments on what they owed one another."

"I think she got a lot more than she wanted," Judith opined.

"I think she got more than she expected," I argued, "but what she WANTED was to suffer terribly for her crimes -- and she did. And what to you might seem excess may not to her -- even though she suffered it and you merely witnessed it. She's purged -- and so is he; she will get some satisfaction from that. You need to support them -- BOTH of them."

"How?" Judith asked.

"Simple," I answered, smiling. "By never bringing it up again. The incident is closed; for you to offer Vera your sympathy or Oliver your anger is to pick at the scabs of their pain and keep the scars from healing. Make supper. When we sit down to dinner, treat her residual pain as an illness or affliction that you can do nothing about except attempt to make her more comfortable and avoid sympathetic commentary or blame."

"You're kidding, right?" Judith flared.

Maureen grabbed her by the forearm. "No, he's making sense. Leave it alone. Momma did wrong -- and a lot of it! Daddy punished her. End of story. You might look at the effects on you -- and Dan..."

Judith's eyes popped. "What are you implying?"

"What have you been giving Dan? What Momma gave Daddy? Clearly, that was a lot less than she was capable of. She had the excuse that she was hiding something from him -- do you have an excuse?"

"Dan's a womanizer, among his other faults. I was a fool not to see it," Judith muttered.

"Is that because he's not getting something at home?" Maureen prodded. "I like sex -- a lot. And I think I understand what happened to Momma."

"I like sex," Beth announced from where she was stirring boiling potatoes on the stove. "I'll do... just about anything, I think. But I prefer to do it with Jack."

"I..." Judith paused. "Blowjobs? Anal?" Her sisters nodded as one. "Ewwww!"

"Don't knock it until you've tried it, Sis," Maureen replied.

To have something to do with her hands, Judith started trimming some asparagus. "Well..." Then she turned to Beth. "What was that about you and Daddy? And incest?"

"I gave Daddy a blowjob last night," Beth husked, not turning her head. "It was... under instruction, but we both enjoyed it -- a lot."

Both her sisters turned to me. "Under instruction?" Maureen demanded. "You instructed my sister to give her father a blowjob?"

"I did," I admitted. "We were breaking down barriers. Not being on a ship in orbit or on a colony world, there are limits to what we can bring to bear to teach a concubine obedience. You're all still on this world, operating within the limitations of this world's environment, rather than being in a new place where everything is different and there is no turning back. As it happens -- and your mother alluded to it -- there is no incest taboo in the colonies; many families make the choice at extraction to accept a loved one as a concubine and commit what would be a sin here to do it, rather than abandoning them. Confederacy medicine ameliorates what is already an overblown issue."

"Overblown?' Maureen erupted. "Genetic defects are overblown?"

"You need repeated incidents of intergenerational incest before you run any serious risk of defects -- animal breeders are well aware of this, since they regularly tune a genome by breeding an animal back to the parent or grandparent. If your great-grandmother is your sister, you might have a problem -- but if your mother is, you probably won't. The incest taboo came from direct observation BEFORE the scientific method..." I turned to Beth, "Haven't I preached this multiple times?"

"Yes, Master!" Beth found it in her to grin.

I turned back to Beth's sisters. "In any case, a blowjob does not result in offspring, to my knowledge." Judith was prepared to be angry, but she was watching Maureen for cues -- and Maureen was looking thoughtful.

"You enjoyed it?" Maureen asked Beth.

"It's still pretty kinky..."

"Yeah..." Maureen pursed her lips, eyeing me, then asked, "How much longer for the salmon?"

"It's just started," Tara replied. "Better get some water on for the asparagus, though."

Maureen hesitated a millisecond or two at the source of the reply, then said, "Right. The pot is in there..." I left to go sit in the living room. Britney was on her knees before the couch, helping Oliver comfort Vera. In a moment, I noticed Keisha heading for the stairs; at my inquiry, she said, "Got to get the kids up and their faces and hands washed." I nodded; things were well in hand.

Dinner was... interesting. Out of concern for Abe's adaptability, mainly, everyone wore something -- but my concubines didn't wear much. Vera wore even less, limiting herself to the virtually transparent chemise with nothing under it, due to her recent whipping. She sat on a pillow and didn't lean back at all.

Britney turned out to have packed a little red number that matched Vera's black one fairly closely while providing a bit more coverage in the underlayer. My girls -- the ones who had them -- wore matching bustiers -- which apparently came with nipple covers that I hadn't seen. Keisha wore a halter-top and panties.

To say that Abe noticed would be understatement; I don't think he ate anything for the first ten minutes and I thought one of his eyeballs was going to pop out from trying to focus on Vera's breasts while eyeing them sidelong. The chemise did mask the stripes somewhat, but not her nipples or areolas. The girls were too young to care. Finally, I called him on it. "Abe, just look and get it over with."

Abe ducked his head. "Sorry!"

I didn't let it go. "Son, when a woman wears something that puts her on display, they expect you to look and enjoy the view -- or at least they do in MY house!"

"They do in mine, also," Oliver interjected.

Abe slowly turned his head and terrain mapped Vera's big tits with his eyeballs. "Fun, isn't it?" I chuckled.

"Yeah."

"I had the girls put something on so you wouldn't be embarrassed," I told him, "but when we get home, there are gonna be tits on display, because I like looking at them."

Abe's return look said 'Are you serious?' as clearly as if it had come out of his mouth.

"I'm not kidding," I insisted. "Your sisters are too young to care if people are naked; the only reason your mother and Keisha and Beth and Frieda are wearing anything is to keep you from going off the deep end over it."

Abe's eyes drifted over the women at the table. "It's okay..."

I thought Frieda was going to squirt potatoes through her nose! "Apparently you needn't have been concerned, Master!" she tittered.

I eyed her. "Would you like to be the test case?"

"Would I?!" Frieda bounded up out of her chair and circled around to Abe. "This thing zips up the back -- let me out, willya?"

While young Abe fought the zipper, Judith erupted, "Don't you think he's too young..."

"There is NOTHING wrong with the human body, in my humble opinion," I interrupted her. "Abe has been raised in a restrictive culture whose mores indicate that the display of the human body is 'nasty'. Personally, I would prefer that he got away from that thought process soon; it leads to all kinds of perverse behavior. Have you ever been to a nude beach? Eh, never mind..." I waved it off.

Meanwhile, Frieda shrugged out of her bustier, then stepped out of her panties. Kissing Abe on the cheek, she said, "Thank you, Abe!" and flounced back to her seat, her little titties jiggling.

I addressed Abe while waving at Frieda. "You can look to your heart's content. A little gentle exploration is okay, as long as you get permission and aren't a pain about it. Stuff that borders on being grownup stuff needs to wait until you're thirteen or so -- you'll know when."

"Okay." Abe proceeded to nearly miss his mouth ogling Frieda's tits.

I chuckled. "Don't poke yourself with a fork -- they'll be there all night -- and all day tomorrow, for that matter. And the day after that, and the day after that..."

"Really?"

"Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die."

Abe nodded, thinking about it. He took a bite, snapped a glance at Frieda, and returned his attention to his plate. Frieda looked like she was going to do something salacious, so I raised a finger in warning. "He's not going to be able to appreciate it all properly for several years yet."

"Yes, Master." Frieda subsided.

I turned to Abe. "So. Girls look nice. You okay with that?"

Abe snapped a look at Frieda and a look at Vera. "Yes." He forked in a piece of asparagus and chewed reflectively.

"Eat your fish, Baby," Tara pressed.

"Yes, Mama." After dutifully locking eyes with his mother, Abe pointedly dropped them to her chest.

I pursed my lips. "Ooookaaaayyy... Open season, I guess. Do as you like, girls." Abe flicked another glance at his mother, then looked away.

Tara sat for a moment, grimacing. "Oh, all right!" Turning to Beth, who was seated on her left, she asked, "Unzip me?"

Beth did the honors, then turned her back to Tara, "I can't sit here like this if you two are going to be out." Tara unzipped her. Keisha looked around and grabbed her halter and threw it over her head, initiating an impressive bounce. Britney flicked a glance at Oliver, who muttered, "Limit yourself." Britney nodded and wormed out of the undergarment she was wearing.

I chuckled. "You're a wild man, Abe." He grinned from ear to ear, then shoved a forkful of fish in his mouth and perused the melons while chewing.

"I'm not taking MY top off!" Judith blustered.

"Why should you?" I replied. "You're a free woman. No one has even asked. On the other hand, it might be good practice; I doubt that Abe is a serial rapist at his age."

That was the end of THAT -- but I found it odd that the next little interruption was initiated by Judith. "I've never given a blowjob to anyone, let alone Daddy!" she suddenly blurted, looking at Beth.

"Really?" I replied. "That could put you at a distinct disadvantage tomorrow..."

"Really?" Judith said faintly. "Maybe Dan will..." her voice petered out.

"Should your husband put in an appearance, he'll have his own problems," I noted. "He has considerably less chance of finding a sponsor, even if he does give blowjobs!" That got a titter -- and a blush from Judith. "Seriously, he has maybe a quarter of the chance you do of finding sponsorship -- and if he does, the chances that it will come from the same sponsor you get are quite small."

"So..."

"Even if he shows up, your marriage is at an end," I amplified.

"Oh."

"Are things good between you, then?" I asked. "I got the impression somewhere that they are not."

"No, you're right -- they aren't." Judith speared Beth with a glance.

Oliver interjected, "Your mother delivers superb fellatio when she sets her mind to it."

Maureen and Judith both flinched -- and I didn't blame them; if ever there was a case of too much information...

But Vera smiled at her plate and said, "From here on out, I'll ALWAYS set my mind to it." She looked up at Judith, "If you'd like..."

"Would you?" Judith asked. Then she looked around, embarrassed.

"I'll need a teaching aid -- and so will you," Vera murmured. "We could share, but..."

"Oh I'm sure..." Judith began and shot a look at me.

I wasn't feeling any too charitable, so I said, "If you go trolling for volunteers, I'm sure you'll find a few before you even get to the end of the block."

Judith was taken aback. "I thought..."

I cocked my head. "That I might volunteer? It doesn't take much in the way of powers of observation to see that I have my hands full. I have one concubine that I have yet to have sex with! Actually, your father is in the same position, I believe..." I sat back to enjoy Judith's discomfiture.

Vera showed her how it should be done; turning to Oliver, she asked, "Master, may I demonstrate my technique using you as a subject?"

Oliver nodded. "Certainly. I've no idea where on the spectrum Britney sits, so we should look into that, too."

Judith just sat there, blinking, so after a moment Beth leaned over and hissed, "Ask! Ask NICELY!"

Judith looked at her in surprise. "I have to ASK to suck his...?"

"You betcha!" I growled. "And right now, I'm not looking on the whole thing too favorably, so you may have to beg!"

"It's bad enough I have to watch..." Judith waved at her mother and father.

"Then don't," I replied. "They're ONLY trying to HELP you!"

Vera rubbed her face. "It's times like this when I get my nose rubbed in the fact that your stubbornness and stupidity come from MY side of the family. I did this..."

"Momma!" Judith turned cherry red.

Oliver opened his mouth, but Vera raised her hand and said, "Master, please -- I did this -- let me try to fix it."

Oliver shrugged. "Very well..."

"Judith," Vera said pedantically, "Tomorrow, your fortunes are going to rise or fall on the basis of what you are willing and able to do sexually with a man. Since you've already indicated that you've never given anyone oral sex, I have little hope for you. I know this is my fault -- but I believe that your older sisters both had better sense than to listen to me..." Vera got a nod from Maureen. Beth muttered, "No opportunities, but..."

"Momma, you can't be..." Judith began.

"I'm deadly serious, Dear! Looks will NOT get you past the gate tomorrow! Oh, they MIGHT -- but if you can't deliver, you'll wish you had stayed home!" Vera shook her head. "The rules have changed, Dear -- and you were issued the wrong rule book in the first place! That's my fault, but at this moment in time, all we can do is TRY to fix it! Now, you can learn what you need to learn and go to the pickup tomorrow with the proper attitude -- or maybe you should stay home! I would love to have the family together on the same world, because I doubt seriously that there is a lot of travel going on -- but I don't want to have to see what happens to you when your sponsor discovers that you're all show and no go!"

Judith, flustered, got up from the table, pointing. "Momma, you were right over there telling us all about how you did all of those horrible things when you were younger -- and then Daddy took you downstairs and..." She stopped and blinked and eyed Abe and Elise and Shawna, who were all at the table.

Vera sighed. "And you missed the point, TOTALLY! Judith, the problem wasn't that fact that I DID those things -- it was the fact that I LIED about it! I lied to EVERYBODY! And I hurt people in the process!" She shook her head. "Frankly, the stuff I did as a teenager is an asset to me, now that I'm a concubine! I have all the tools I need to do my job -- which is to keep your father happier than he was while we were married!"

I cleared my throat. "We may want to continue this after dinner; while I firmly believe in open and frank discussion of sexual matters -- even in front of the children -- things might be getting out of hand." I eyed Abe significantly.

Abe, realizing that he was the center of attention, looked back. After a moment, he swallowed his mouthful of potatoes and asked, "What's a blowjob?"

There were several gasps and snorts -- and at least one snicker. I replied gravely, "Grownup stuff. From what you told me, you probably have seen one. What were Mama and Jock doing that time?"

"Well, Mama was on her knees and Jock had his..." Abe looked at his lap.

"Yeah, that's a blowjob," I confirmed. "It's grownup stuff."

"And fell... fell...?"

"Fellatio is a technical term for a blowjob," I confirmed. "Sometimes we use big words so little ears can't make the connections."

"You shouldn't be telling him these things!" Judith huffed.

"And YOU shouldn't be telling ME how to raise children!" I retorted. "Besides, YOU opened this subject at the table! I live in the hopes that Abe will learn enough that when he is your age, he won't be so stupid about the subject!" I turned to Abe. "For now, this comes under the heading of 'grownup stuff' -- it wouldn't be fun for you."

Abe cocked his head. "Mama didn't look like she was having fun."

I took that in the spirit in which it was given. "She may not have -- or she may have been playing pretend. Sometimes, it isn't obvious, but she might have gotten a kick out of it even though it was uncomfortable. But I guarantee you Jock enjoyed it."

"Oh." Abe thought about it and nodded. "May I be 'scused?"

"Certainly. Mama or Keisha will bring you dessert upstairs," I told him. "I'm sure you've heard enough for tonight."

"Yeah." Abe's look accused Judith. "She yells a lot."

I didn't see any reason to comment.

As Abe hit the stairwell, Judith said, "What about them?" -- eyeing Elise and Shawna.

"They lack the vocabulary to have any idea what the subject is," I replied, amazed at her foolishness. "Histrionics, however, tends to upset them. Can we discuss this calmly?"

"I..." Judith gathered herself, visibly. "Yes." She turned to Tara, "What do YOU think of this?" She waved at the kids.

"I think he's right," Tara replied. "Either one of 'em could watch you doin' it and not know the difference. They got NO idea what we're talking about -- and it wouldn't mean anything to them if they did!" She shook her head. "Honey, you are WAY too uptight!"

"Fine..." Judith rolled her eyes. She turned her attention to her mother...

But Vera beat her to the punch! "Dear, I've had my say. You need help. Your father and I have offered to help you, and I feel responsible, because you got most of the foolishness you're spouting from me. But you're a perfect product of your upbringing -- you won't listen to anything or anybody... As much as it pains me, I think you should go home to Dan, tomorrow. Maybe, at some point in the future..."

"Momma!" Judith burst out. "You act like being unable to suck some guy off is a death sentence!"

I leaned up. "May I?" Vera nodded. "Judith, that lack will put you low on the totem pole, at the very least. Sponsors at a pickup are looking for women who are willing and able to perform basically any sex act they can think up on short notice. It's a selection criterion for MOST sponsors, because once you're extracted, they have the right to expect you to do anything they can think of, period! Given that situation, fellatio is a basic skill; if you were into anal sex, that might be a trump card -- and it might not. A concubine has two primary functions -- keep her sponsor sexually satisfied, and make babies. If you're not willing to go out of your way to fulfill that first requirement, most sponsors won't even ask what you think of the second!" I eyed her. "Surely you KNOW this -- have you ever seen a pickup?"

"They're on the news all the time," Judith said dismissively.

"They censor them," Frieda interjected. "Usually, you get to see the containment field. Maybe you see a flash of someone stepping into a transporter. Even then, they're usually the last Marine out, not the people who got picked up."

"Oh." I admit that I was somewhat surprised. "That's too bad -- a picture is worth a thousand words."

<This censorship exists in the United States,> the AI informed me, <due to the concerns of some elements over the sex acts. There are restricted channels that periodically display actual footage but the general public is unlikely to find these clips. Similarly, there is some footage on the Internet, but it is generally treated as pornography. The issue is muddied by several pornographic videos that purport to be re-enactments.>

"You should see one," I told Judith. "At mine, a guy set three women on each other in a cat fight to see who got to get poked in the ass -- and he butt-fucked the winner, then didn't take her because some chick that wasn't even in the fight struck his fancy by deep-throating him while he watched the fight."

"You're joking!" Judith scoffed.

"I wish I was," I replied. "Sponsors tend to have one big chance to pick the right concubine -- at their pickup. And they generally blow it. The first way to blow it is to pick a hot LOOKING babe instead of a hot babe. But the second mistake is more prevalent -- they concentrate on sex and forget child-rearing. You see, that's the problem; once you're extracted, you're stuck with what you collected -- or somebody else's castoffs. For a concubine, if she isn't what her sponsor thought he was getting, she has a couple of options -- get with the program, or get beaten bloody until she does, or get dropped off at the civil service brothel to get broken in, or get traded to another sponsor -- or maybe get shoved out an airlock in deep space without a suit. Your folks would no doubt like for you to avoid all that..."

Judith looked stubborn; I knew I was wasting my breath. Then the AI said, <Extraction teams routinely video pickups; the information is available. Provision can be made to stream it from a restricted website. Doctor Hopkins' television is attached to an Internet-capable game console...>

'How soon?' I subvocalized.

<Momentarily.>

"You're in denial," I opened up on Judith. "What if I told you I could produce video of a pickup?"

"How can you do that?"

"I have access. I'm ALREADY a Confederacy officer, remember." I turned to Oliver, "Doctor, my AI says you have a TV with a game console attached."

Oliver nodded. "That's correct."

"May I use it?"

"I would be in your debt if you can get through to my youngest daughter on this subject!" Oliver declared.

"Very well..." I rose from the table. "The kids shouldn't see this, even if they DON'T understand it. As for the rest of you..."

"The women should see it," Oliver opined. "ALL of them. Even Maureen."

"Okay, we'll come back to the table for dessert," I replied. "Tara, you'll probably need to stay in here; arrange the kids against the wall just inside the door so you can see around it."

It took only a couple of minutes to get everything organized. Judith, Vera, and Maureen occupied the couch, in that order. Oliver pulled up a straight chair from the dining room. Beth took an armchair and Frieda sat on the arm; Britney sat on the floor in front of Oliver. I got on the net and entered the web address and settled into a chair next to the TV as the feed began.

I won't go deep into detail; it was the usual thing. The viewpoint rode the shoulder of each of three Marines; it split-screened so you could see each or you could click to see them all. The fourth feed showed a diagram of the pickup site and the locations, color-coded, of the Marines and the sponsors. It was a coffee shop; there were four sponsors and nineteen women present. One of the Marines delivered the canned briefing -- being deliberately gauche, to get everyone's attention -- and the sponsors started rotating and the women started peeling.

I watched Judith more than the video; I could tell when it hit a good part by the way her eyes bulged. One time I got the cue and turned around to see some woman crawl up and stick her tongue in the ass of a sponsor who was already getting a blowjob. It lit him off and he grabbed the head of the chick blowing him and turned the blowjob into instant deep-throat, blowing his nut down her neck while she choked on him. The good news? I think he took both of them. There was one little chubby thing crying her eyes out, going from sponsor to sponsor and getting spurned. She tried everything she could think of, too -- including eating other girls, licking assholes, offering her ass up for a dick... The Marine in charge got tired of ordering her off, but instead of stinging her he told three guys who weren't going anywhere to hold her down and give her a 'consolation prize.' She was still pulling a train when the last Marine closed things out... "See what I mean?" I said as the video stopped, "Someone should have taken that one..." Vera gave a groan and covered her face -- it hit a little too close to home, apparently.