Chapter 44

So we went to breakfast. We went by a roundabout route -- longer than before, it seemed to me. At one point, the corridor opened to a large room, one wall of which was a huge window. I knew why we were there, once I looked out...

"Wow! It's really pretty, isn't it?" Johnny commented, his tone hushed and reverent. I had to agree; Earth was this giant ball, hanging there in the window or porthole, or whatever it was.

"Okay, I'm convinced..." I said, after a bit, looking at the ceiling.

"Your mental health appears to have improved, Gina Tafarelli," the voice in the air said.

I nodded. "It was just too much, yesterday... You're one of those AI thingies?"

"Affirmative. There is more to come, Gina Tafarelli. It is suggested that you discuss your questions with your daughter in order to be properly prepared."

"Okay." There really didn't seem to be anything else to say...

After a bit more looking out the window, we finished making our way to breakfast. There were nude women present -- most of whom were horribly embarrassed. "How long...?" I asked Johnny.

"A couple of hours, max," he replied. "They're early, but I bet by lunch people wearing clothes will be a LOT fewer in number..."

"I wish I'd gotten a bikini trim," I muttered.

"We can get one at Medical, Mama," Mona assured me. "That's where we'll probably lose our clothes, but they can make minor adjustments..."

"So, what is up, exactly? Don't you usually have to be, you know, attached to somebody to be here?" I asked.

"Yes." Mona toyed with her toast. "We were in a special group -- new rules. But eventually, we have to be assigned somewhere."

"So, what do we do? Put out want ads?"

"Right now, we're under Johnny's protection." Mona didn't look at me.

"But?" I asked. There seemed to be one, somewhere.

"We can STAY under Johnny's protection," Mona explained, "but we would have to meet our obligations -- with Johnny."

"What obligations?"

"To have kids."

"WHAT?" I gasped. "That's incest!"

"Yeah, supposedly," Mona replied, apparently indifferent.

"No supposedly about it! It IS!"

"It's bullshit, Mama -- we've had classes in it."

"It's scientific fact!" I argued.

"No, Mama. The incest rule was laid down before genetics was a science. As a result, it's a little too general. To be safe, they said, 'Never do this' -- but it's done with plants and animals all the time, and only if you repeat it multiple times is it a problem. If you have kids with Johnny, it's unlikely to be a problem. If Johnny has a little girl with you, and then he gets her pregnant and has a little girl, then gets HER pregnant, THEN we're pushing it. But Confederacy medical science can fix just about anything, anyway, so the big hairy genetic danger thing is bullshit," Mona insisted. "That leaves religion -- but the religious thing didn't come from God, it goes back to the general injunction not to that we've already talked about -- they just wrapped it in mumbo-jumbo. So it's bullshit."

"I can't go to confession and tell a priest I'm having..." I blustered.

"In the first place, you won't have to, Mama -- in the colonies, religion is between you and God. All the religious educational materials in the world are out there, but there are no churches," Mona rasped. "In the second -- what do you know about this? Who do you trust? The Catholics? They spent hundreds and hundreds of years trying to turn religion into empire -- basically unopposed -- and they used that old saw, 'If so-and-so said it, that's as good as if God said it.' Only it isn't, Mama -- if the Catholics were right, there would BE no Lutherans -- or Methodists, or Baptists or Episcopalians, for that matter. All of those religions broke away from Catholicism because they were trying to separate religion from the body of crap the Catholics wrapped around it in the name of politics!"

"Mona! That's heresy!" I erupted.

"Which is a fine word for 'not politically correct'!" Mona argued. "In the Old Testament, how many wives did men have? Several. Why, do you think? Because they had pestilence and disease and childbirth picking them off -- and those they had needed HELP raising the family! What do you think we're doing here? We're trying to save OURSELVES as a species! If a man married a young girl with a widowed mother, what do you think became of her? What do you want to bet...?"

"So what is the wonderful up-side, here?" I grated.

"We're family. Wouldn't you like to STAY a family?" Mona pressed. "Or would you rather hunt down a stranger and spread your legs for him?"

"Mona!" I turned to Johnny, who had said nothing all this time, allowing his sister to carry the conversation. The look on his face reminded me of his father -- strong, predatory. He was waiting -- waiting for me to become agitated and make a fatal mistake. Or maybe he was letting Mona batter me until I became too tired to defend myself... Turning back to Mona, I challenged, "What are YOU going to do?"

Her reply froze me where I sat. "It's already done. Last night, remember? Johnny is my Master."

"H--have you consummated this?" I gasped.

"No. Want to watch?"

"Mona!" Johnny snapped. "You're not here to agitate Mama -- you're here to help!"

Mona ducked her head and looked away. "Yes, Master. But she's such an idiot!"

"She has her beliefs," Johnny replied, chiding. "When you go to the briefings, make sure she hears what she needs to. We have time." His gaze swept to me and his father looked out of his eyes. "Limited amounts, but we have time."

After that, we ate in silence.

Almost immediately after breakfast, we were called to go to Medical. If I'd been in denial still when I got there, it would have been difficult to continue with it. There was this lengthy row of tubes -- maybe a hundred -- and medics in something that looked sort of like scrubs, and other people -- many of whom were nude. I was glad for whatever had been done to help me overnight. A medic took our CAP cards from Johnny and fed them to a slot in three tubes. "Mona Tafarelli -- bound concubine. Any changes?" The medic asked Johnny, not Mona.

Johnny smiled. "Not at this time. Get naked, Mona."

Mona stripped, right there, and looked over her shoulder at her brother. "Master? Maybe a little off the butt?"

Johnny stepped forward and got VERY familiar with his sister, squatting to feel her ass and her thighs. I was TERRIBLY embarrassed, but, looking around, I could see that perhaps this wasn't unusual -- except for their relationship. "The ass is fine, Mona, but you're skating close to some cellulite here on the outside of your upper thigh." Turning to the medic, he said, "Shave off a little." He stood and cupped his sister's breasts from behind. "Maybe just a touch of a lift here, with support -- nothing unnatural. Hair... If she's going to show a moustache, take care of it. No hair on the legs or the pits."

"Pubes?" the medic asked.

Johnny knelt before his sister. "Spread a bit." He ruffled her pubic hair. "Hmmm. Turn around and bend..." Mona did these things like they were the most natural thing in the world... "Make it neater on the mons and trim it up and make it uniform, then retard growth -- but I like bush. I like the way these thin dark ones grow toward her opening, but they're too long, so bring them back to the point that they won't get pulled or anything when she's fucking. Fix this little tear in her left pussy lip. Oh, and fix the old broken toe on her right foot."

"You did that..." Mona looked at her brother fondly -- from between her legs. It was... disconcerting...

"I love the way they hang..." Johnny told his sister, grinning.

Mona rolled her shoulders so her breasts would sway, "Why, thank you, Master!"

"You two..." I felt that I just HAD to say SOMETHING...

"Yo, Tafarelli!" somebody yelled from a few tubes over, "You lucky sonofabitch! Moaning Mona..." Johnny stood, grinned from ear to ear, and clasped his hands over his head and pumped them in that universal sign of the winner. "Woo Hoo!!!" whoever it was clapped. "Is that Mama? Holy shit, Dude! You're blessed!"

I was never so embarrassed in my life!

Mona climbed into the tube and settled in and the cover closed and the medic turned to me.

"Gina Tafarelli, unbound concubine..." He shrugged.

I had things to say! "That's your sister you stood there treating like a prize cow!"

"Not any longer!" Johnny rasped, his eyes icy. "She's my concubine -- and if I wish to treat her as a prize cow, she'll calve for me -- regularly -- and maybe produce milk for my table! She gets it -- why don't you?"

"Like that, huh?" The medic eyed me. "Shame... Well, if she's gonna insist, she'll find someone pretty quick -- she's a hot one."

"I'm still hoping," Johnny grunted, "but she's SOOO slow. Still, she's probably where Mona got her response..."

"Yeah..." The medic looked at his displays. "Pretty impressive, too."

Johnny nodded. "Papa was selective -- and he valued that over intelligence. Well, it worked for Mona..."

"Johnny!" It was clear that I'd been insulted. "I'm not just eye-candy!"

"No," Johnny replied sharply, "the numbers say you fuck like a mink, too." He turned to the medic, "I don't know, personally, you understand." I just stood there, flabbergasted.

"Not much sense, the way she talks to a sponsor..." The medic shook his head. "Can't do much, since she isn't bound."

"Get undressed, Mama," Johnny directed.

"I WILL..." But I shut up; Johnny's eyes had his father in them again.

"Shut up and do as you're told!" he snapped -- but I already had. It was perfect, too -- his father's intonation, the clear confidence in his superiority... If I HADN'T already started, I WOULD have, at that point, almost reflexively. With his father, the next thing coming was an open-handed slap...

I undressed, trying to maintain my dignity. For my age, I'm a good-looking woman, so it wasn't as humiliating as it could have been. Johnny held up a warning finger as he knelt before me and shoved a hand between my knees to get me to spread my legs -- but he didn't touch me otherwise, and he didn't make me bend over and display my pussy and my ass that way. "Can you at least trim her up as I specified for Mona?"

"Yeah, that's superficial. But since she isn't bound, health maintenance is about all the further we can go," the medic replied.

"She won't need anything, given the competition," Johnny rasped. "If she continues to be a fucking idiot, her new master can do what he wants, but I think I would just roll her back a few..."

I was angry -- I was his MOTHER, for God's sake! But this wasn't my little boy... It was as if his father was standing there, purged of the evil that underlay his powerful personality. Johnny had come into his own -- and I dared not challenge him, mother or not! Johnny glared at me, daring me to get stupid -- and he knew what to do if I did, and I knew he did, too. "Get in the tube, Mama."

I got in the tube.

When the cover slid back and I sat up, Johnny was wearing a coverall and an AI was talking to him; I could hear the conversation through a collar that had somehow appeared around my throat. <She is much better psychologically, John Tafarelli, than she was yesterday. It appears that she had a psychological breakdown when she discovered that she was being extracted due to an unresolved fear that your father might extract his revenge upon her. Rest and a chance to work through the changes has restored her mental health. She is submissive, as you are no doubt aware -- and you have removed her master.>

"What are the chances that she will allow me to replace him?"

<Unclear. SOMEONE will, and she will resume her previous mindset; the conditions of concubinage actually agree with her. But for now, many of her anchor points are severed -- and she will hang onto others irrationally until she finds new ones,> the AI replied. <She is listening.>

Johnny sighed. "It's all so simple... But you can lead a horse to water..."

<Yes, she is stubborn. The incest issue has not been approached properly -- or perhaps it just gives her something to rally herself around -- to everyone's detriment. Good luck, John Tafarelli.>

"Thanks." Johnny looked at me. "Come on, Mama, you're holding up progress."

"Do I get clothes?" I asked, knowing the answer, as I got down from the tube. I expected clippings in my pubes, but there were none when I brushed them. My bush was a lot neater, nonetheless.

"No. Thank God you're good looking -- you can hold your head up. Just pretend you're wearing that new suit at the pool..." Johnny was brusque about the whole thing; he waved Mona forward and said, "We're headed in separate directions. Take care of her, Mona." He eyed me and shook his head. "I'll see both of you later, with any luck."

It struck me that if he didn't see one of us, it would be me... "Come on, Mama," Mona murmured, leading me off. The AI's voice came through my collar, <Take the door on the left...>

We followed the AI's directions to a room that was filling with other naked women. The floor was covered with mats; each of us took one; Mona settled next to me, in a position that was somewhat central, but toward the back. The room took thirty minutes to fill, and then without preamble, the AI began delivering instructions in proper concubine behavior to us. Periodically, it would ask a question; Mona was apparently bored, so she was a favorite target. "Are you allowed to slap a sponsor? Mona Tafarelli?"

"No," Mona replied.

"What are the repercussions?"

"The sponsor may proffer any punishment, up to and including death," Mona replied, as if by rote.

"Correct," the AI replied. "Your boredom was evident. Clearly, it is a result of the effects of repetition. Your scholastic achievement is also evident, Mona Tafarelli. You may leave the room if you wish."

"I'm staying for Mama."

"Very well."

"So you know all this?" I whispered.

"We had it in school," Mona whispered back. "I made straight 'A's in Concubine Studies."

"That's right..." I remembered her report card -- and wondering what Concubine Studies was. "You made it seem like Home Economics."

"It IS, for concubines," Mona replied. "It's also Sex Ed."

"Oh?" I looked at her, my mind a blank.

"Pay attention..." Mona hissed. "If the AI picks YOU, you're fucked!"

It did, too, soon after, and I was -- I stumbled through three wrong answers with the AI chiding me for my lack of attention before handing off to Mona for what was apparently the textbook answer.

At lunch, I said, "You have this down pat."

"I TOLD you I made straight 'A's!" Mona retorted. "You would do better if you asked yourself 'What would Papa do to me?' It's a start on the proper mindset."

"You said this stuff was Sex Ed?" I pressed.

"Mama, I gave up each of my cherries, one by one, in a classroom, in front of thirty other students. It was a different member of the class who was doing Sponsorship Studies each time," Mona replied.

"Oh." I was nonplussed...

"I probably know more about sex than you do, despite being a little less practiced," she added. "I bet they cover a few things in the afternoon, though..."

They did. I learned things about the penis I'd never imagined. I learned niceties of giving a blowjob that I'd never dreamed existed. I learned that I had my hardest, juiciest orgasms on my back with my knees pinned to my shoulders while Marco pounded me from an upright position because the blunt tip of his curved cock rubbed my G-spot. I learned that anal sex probably would have been better for me if I had arched my back. But there was something else -- something that I actually wondered at the time might have been directed at me and me alone...

"Family sex," the AI began, turning to a new subject, "is, by definition, sex between family members. There is a powerful attraction between children who are passing through puberty and their parents. Daughters fantasize about having sex with their fathers and sons fantasize about having sex with their mothers. This is normal. The reverse may also be true -- the recognition by the parent that their child has reached sexual maturity may trigger an arousal response. Many human cultures have taboos against this type of coupling -- taboos that have both healthy and unhealthy aspects. The general taboo against the practice called 'incest' was put in place to prevent birth defects due to repeated incidents of a parent fathering children on multiple generations of his offspring -- or, less frequently a female parent bearing children fathered by multiple generations of her own offspring. In the extremes -- and in some early human cultures, there were rites which sanctified such things -- dangerous genetic recessive gene reinforcement caused birth defects and generally poor quality offspring. However, the taboo is the result of direct observation of the results of multiple generations of interbreeding, and was implemented long before genetics was a science. As a result, it is unnecessarily restrictive. Limitations on multiple generations of offspring interbreeding remain sensible; however, a single mother-son or father-daughter cross or one between siblings has a low probability of generating dangerous issues and may produce favorable results, as is the case in any species.

"Two other factors tend to make the taboo irrelevant -- the availability of birth control and Confederacy medical science. The practice of birth control renders the genetic issues associated with family sex irrelevant, as there will be no issue from any union, and Confederacy medical science is capable of detecting and correcting genetic issues in the fetus while in the uterus of the mother, again rendering the genetic issues irrelevant for all practical purposes. For these reasons, the Confederacy does not recognize the incest taboo -- and family sex is a viable practice on the vast majority of colony worlds.

"Statutory rape," the AI droned on, "is another issue associated with family sex. The Confederacy has placed limitations on sponsor-initiated sexual activity before puberty in order to avoid injuring the child or exposing the child to exploitation. However, normal sexual experimentation between children is authorized and every effort has been expended to make adequate information available to those able to absorb it. Sexual activity initiated by a child with a sponsor is to be discouraged and will be examined closely to ensure that exploitation has not occurred, but may be authorized under special circumstances. The legal age for humans in the Confederacy was carefully set to ensure that in excess of ninety-five percent of the population is actually capable of procreation. Laws put in place to prohibit exploitation in several 'civilized' countries are unrealistic in that they prohibit sexual activity in general for several years after puberty; an examination of the realities involved reveals these statutes to be overkill for their intended purpose. The vast majority of humans WILL have participated in a sexual act before their eighteenth birthday -- and will therefore have broken the law. This renders such statutes unenforceable; they do more damage than good. Upon becoming eligible for sponsorship or concubinage on their fourteenth birthday, limitations on sexual activity are removed in all but exceptional cases. Between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, limited sexual activity with an adult is authorized in the presence of a clear assent from the child. This is usually limited to oral sex, but may include other acts, including anal sex -- and a clear understanding of the act and permission for its conduct from the child must be demonstrated. Therefore, for Confederacy enforcement purposes, statutory rape is defined as sex between an adult and a child under the age of thirteen or sex without clear permission by the child between the ages of thirteen and fourteen -- unless special circumstances exist."

Someone raised a hand. "What would constitute special circumstances?"

"As with many phenomena, there is a 'bell curve' for the onset of human sexuality," the AI replied. "Some children mature sexually at a very early age. There is a thoroughly documented case of a child giving birth to a full-term fetus at the age of five years, eight months. This child was perfectly normal and lived a fairly typical lifespan for the times and the medical support available in the location of his residence. Given that this is the case, under some circumstances, withholding sexual activity for children who mature early is considered cruel and special measures must be taken to allow them an acceptable level of participation. This is a low-incidence issue for children under the age of ten, but the limited sexual activity rules for children over the age of thirteen are a recognition that while awaiting the age at which ninety-five percent of humans are capable of procreation, a large number will have reached that point sooner. Individual circumstances may dictate that the access to full sexual activity should be accelerated. If this is the case, the child continues to be treated as such in all but the sexual development arena -- and the child's sexual activity is closely monitored to ensure that there is no exploitation taking place. Sexual maturity is readily determined during medical examinations and monitoring in most colonial settings is omnipresent; this renders the focused monitoring of sexual activity less than difficult."

"What's all this about monitoring?" someone else asked.

"On colony worlds, monitoring by AIs is omnipresent -- meaning it occurs virtually one hundred percent of the time," the AI replied. "This is a public safety issue and ensures that the individual is safe from criminal assault, theft of property, injury, or accident, among other things. Many colony environments are not yet ideal for humans; therefore, constant monitoring of the pods and connecting tunnels is necessary. AIs record almost all activity and subject it to analysis; however, humans seldom see these recordings unless there is a danger to public safety. A concubine should assume that he or she is under surveillance one hundred percent of the time and act accordingly -- anything less will undoubtedly result in antisocial behavior that the sponsor will be responsible for correcting."

"So AIs will be watching me have sex?" someone erupted.

"Indeed. For your purposes, however, it should be as if we are not, since it is inescapable. AIs do not intrude, and human sex is not pornography to a machine intelligence. Of possible benefit might be the opportunity to query an AI on available improvements to observed sexual performance."

A bunch of us looked around at each other; this was disquieting. "Has the question been answered to your satisfaction?" the AI asked.

"Yes," the questioner replied meekly.

"To continue, then, family sex has demonstrated benefits. A young sponsor or concubine -- or child in special circumstances as previously described -- may enter into sexual experimentation with an adult or sibling with whom there is an emotional bond and trust. This is an improvement over the model in place in many locations on Earth where young adults fumble through sex with each other in ignorance and superstition. The adult will be able to assist the young person's education in an atmosphere of respect, trust, and patience, imparting knowledge and experience in the process. This can be an ideal situation, whether practiced between a youth and an adult parent or siblings. Where appropriate, birth control may be administered to prevent an inconvenient pregnancy."

"Isn't sleeping with your son kind of unhealthy?" someone asked.

"Is this a reference to the human psychological condition called the 'Oedipus Complex'?" the AI asked.

"I guess so."

"In the vast majority of cases, a concubine or sponsor having sex with a parent or sibling has other outlets, too. For instance, in the case you appear to be examining, your sponsor has an authorization for at least one, if not several additional concubines. This would tend to dilute any psychological effects."

"Oh." The woman shut up.

"To continue, we come to the specific benefit to a concubine whose sponsor is a relative who selects her at extraction. The Confederacy policy regarding family sex allows a sponsor to extract a loved one he or she would be unable to extract under normal circumstances, thus avoiding guilt and abandonment and other adverse psychological reactions. The sponsor does not have to leave the loved one behind, and the concubine is extracted under the protection of a sponsor with his or her best interests in mind, rather than a stranger whose focus may be somewhat different than expected."

So we came back to the fact that Johnny had extracted Mona and I for our own protection -- but it was STILL incest, and just because the AI said it was okay didn't mean that other people thought that way...

"Excuse me!" In the back, someone raised a hand.

"Speak."

"How often does that happen? The sponsor extracting a loved one who becomes a concubine?"

"With some regularity," the AI replied. "In some cases, the sponsor only realizes after extraction what he or she and the concubine have committed to, but in many cases, the understanding is reached on the ground. In the case of the group you are with, there are a large -- even disproportionate -- number of such cases. Many are in limbo while the sponsor or the concubine involved learns to deal with the consequences. In these cases, the concubine is being treated as unregistered and instructed to conduct activities assigned to unregistered concubines, such as creating a personal advertisement for other sponsors to view and evaluate. If these situations are not resolved by the arrival of the Valhalla at Nuevo Angelino ten days hence, the concubines will be removed from the sponsor's protection and quartered in holding areas with other unregistered concubines awaiting selection by a sponsor at the colony. It is assumed that this will be the concubine's wish in the matter, the concubine and sponsor having had several days to resolve the situation."

So I wasn't alone... How much of an idiot was I being, here?

Later that afternoon, we had a question and answer session with a concubine who claimed to have been with a sponsor for a year or two. She was, well, somewhat cranky -- and I fear that I added to it by asking, "Look, I'm hearing these things about incest..."

The concubine cocked her head and put on this sardonic smile. "Is that your daughter next to you, Honey?"

"Yes..." I admitted.

"Okay, then," the concubine continued, "Either your one-time husband wants to dip his wick in your daughter, or you have a teenage son. Which is it?"

"I... have a son..." I replied, looking away and turning pink.

"And he's got good taste and knows that he isn't likely to do better than Mama and Sis, then, huh?" the concubine cackled. "Look, I KNOW you've probably heard the long answer from the AI -- and like every OTHER idiot in this room, you're pretending you didn't, because it isn't what you want to hear -- so I'll give you the short answer: There ain't no such thing!" She settled back on the little stool she was sitting on up in front of the room and continued, "Where you come from, they had some rules about that and they seemed to make sense -- but you aren't there anymore and they no longer apply and nobody is gonna say anything about it other than calling him a lucky dog." I remembered, forcibly, the incident at Medical that morning... "So tonight," she continued, "if you've got any sense, you'll go on back to the cabin where you live and you'll kneel up side by side in Presentation Three and look over your shoulder at him with those big brown eyes of yours and say, 'Come on, Big Boy!' -- and find out what HE got at Medical today -- and everyone will live happily ever after..."

I'm pretty sure my face was red for ten or fifteen minutes...

Dinner was strained. There were a lot of people -- mainly women, but some men -- under some stress -- and I was among them. By contrast, Mona was cool, calm and collected. Johnny barely spoke to me; he was visibly disgusted.

Once back in our quarters, Johnny said, "Mama, you need to go in the next room and do your personal ad. There's not a whole lot I can do for you under the circumstances. Mona..." He waved her off to assist.

I made three attempts -- and they were horrible. I couldn't find ninety seconds' worth of anything to say -- and it hit me between the eyes what I was asking. Basically, it was, "Please take a look at me and see if you'd like to keep me around to fuck." It was hideously embarrassing! Mona's comments and suggestions didn't help; she kept saying things like, "Start out in Presentation One! Show them what you've got! Tell them how hot you were at eighteen, so they start thinking about backing your age off! Tell 'em you deep throat -- you DO, don't you? Do you like anal sex? Be sure and say so! Turn around and give them Presentation Three! Let 'em see it!"

After thirty minutes, I gave up, crying.