Chapter 49

I woke up in a bed -- with a woman -- but NOT Donna. This woman was black -- and I was draped over her like a blanket. I struggled up and she pulled me back down and said, "Shhh, Baby! Rest! You had a rough day yesterday."

I wasn't likely to argue THAT! I reached back to feel my asshole and make sure it wasn't permanently open -- but it wasn't. My throat didn't hurt, either. "Your booty is fine, Baby," the woman murmured. "They stuck you in a tube after that show. That Donna, too -- ain't SHE a piece of work?"

I grunted noncommittally. I'd done everything I was supposed to do -- but things were busted, forever. "Where are my kids?"

"Sleeping. In the next room. It's four a.m. Get some sleep, Baby."

"Where's Donna?" Probably sleeping with my new master's cock in her, I figured.

"Still at Medical. She's under sedation -- flipped out pretty bad. Hell, it's a wonder YOU didn't, Baby! You poor thing!" She caressed my back and I lay there, wondering what my master expected me to do with her... Nothing, probably -- or maybe lick her pussy or something. Maybe if I fucked her, he would kill me; it was a plan... Not tonight, though. The woman had serious nipples; I latched onto one and gave suck -- and got milk! "Yeah, I like that, Baby -- and you sure earned it! Take all you want..." I went to sleep sucking.

"How you doin' Ed?" My Master's voice. I rolled over -- I was alone in bed -- and forced myself to look at him.

"Okay, I guess. I've got a plan for if things get worse."

Master cocked his head. "What's that?"

"I figure you'll kill me if you catch me fucking that black woman."

Master chuckled. "Guess again. Belle! Ed wants some pussy!"

The woman stuck her head through the door. "After they used that nasty thing on you? You must have balls the size of walnuts, Baby! Where do you want me?" Belle was HOT for a black woman -- and a little bit pregnant, I figured, from the belly bulge.

"Uh, my eyes are bigger than my balls, I guess," I muttered. "Maybe tomorrow."

Master grimaced a bit. "Get up and wash up and come on into the main room. We need to talk."

"Yes, Master."

"Call me Manny."

Yeah, well, whatever... I did as I was told, then slunk out to the main room. Teddy and Anita -- my eleven year old boy and eight year old girl -- were eating cereal at the counter. "Hi, Daddy!" Teddy said cheerfully. "Belle is watching us. How's Momma?"

"I don't know, Son. I'll let you know when I find out."

Manny came in and waved at a chair. "Take the load off." Then he settled in a chair facing mine and got serious. "Look, about yesterday..."

"I did everything I could..." I croaked.

"You went above and beyond, Ed. Ain't nobody around here that doesn't realize you love your kids. Look, that whole deal wasn't as simple as it seemed..."

"That was simple?" I whined.

"Yeah, exactly. Look, Ed. We needed an object lesson to bring home to the guys how serious things are. It needed to be... out there. You weren't there by accident -- and neither was Donna. Neither was I, for that matter, or LaRue, or Coop. That whole deal was a setup from the ground up."

"I don't think I understand." Well, I HOPED I didn't...

"Ed we have your CAP scores -- did you think we REALLY didn't know that black guys intimidate you?" Manny said gently. "Do you REALLY think we didn't know that Donna had the Mandingo thing going?"

"I didn't..." I muttered. "What else did you know?"

"Your CAP score tells more about you than you know yourself," Manny replied. "We were looking for a couple with a certain mix of traits to use in a demonstration -- and you and Donna popped out when the AIs put it together. Part of what made it good was the fact that you hadn't talked to each other about the whole thing. We had a couple of other candidates, but you two were just about perfect. We wanted to drive home to male concubines that they were giving up just about everything for their ticket to be with their kids -- and you took it to the wall. The only other possible teaching point would have been if you'd flipped out -- and ended up dead!"

"You didn't tell ME it was a demonstration!" I accused.

"No, it was real for you -- and real for Donna. It had to be," Manny replied. "It was real for me -- at the time. But me and LaRue and Coop -- we'd all been specially prepared. For instance, I had an inch and a half added to my dick at Medical. LaRue had a bit added to the Anaconda, although it was already out there, if you know what I mean. Coop had that thing of his plumped up some. All of us had a fantasy of doing up a white chick and having her go ga-ga over black dick -- and we all had the underpinnings for your piece -- but we had never done anything like that. But we all got hypnotic preparation going in to let out the dark side..."

"I can't hear any more of this right now," I grunted. "Where is Donna?"

"Medical." Manny looked unhappy. "Look, the psychological issues are the tough ones. That's why very little that goes on with a CAP score related to your physical makeup. Physical changes are easy -- but the mental piece is what makes you what you are..."

"So what are you saying?" I was getting angry -- which was a stupid idea on the face of it. Manny could probably tear me limb from limb -- and he WAS taking care of my kids...

"I'm saying that they were focused on the demo -- and not on the effects on you and Donna," Manny replied. "Donna is there, Ed. She had her fantasy and lived it -- and liked it. And she saw you cuckolded -- and enjoyed THAT, too." He looked away. "We don't think we can fix it." After a second, he blew out a sigh. "And then there's you..."

"What about me?" I asked hollowly. Who was I kidding? Not Manny, obviously.

"Ed, do you think you're ever gonna defy me on anything of any importance?" Manny sat back and crossed his arms and a certain expression flickered across his face.

"No." I hung my head.

"I'm not gonna be any help," Manny muttered. "Just knowing I can do it poisons me. See how easy it was? And you got a fantasy or two, too, didn't you, Ed? You're open for business..."

Manny was right; I would never be able to hold my own against a black man again. I didn't even want to... What I WOULD do -- what I was going to even WANT to do -- went unsaid...

"I think we shouldn't rub the kids' noses in things," Manny said equably. "The problem is gonna be Donna. She gets a kick out of watching you... perform... and will probably look for excuses to make it happen. How hung are you on Donna?"

"Well, I love her, but..."

"You're busted," Manny finished. "Donna's not gonna have any respect for you -- and that's gonna be hard to take in anything more than small doses. Life isn't gonna be the same." He scratched his head. "I want to keep you and the kids -- I owe you. Despite yesterday, I'm not a real bisexual -- but yesterday wasn't about sex, anyway -- it was about dominance." He settled back. "I plan to have that extra taken back off -- it makes Belle uncomfortable. I'm thinking you're owed a bit so you can get back some self-respect, so I had you sized up at Medical. You surprised us all after the milking..." He paused.

"Uh, thanks..." Of course, my subsequent erections had been the source of more embarrassment and humiliation...

"I'm thinking that Donna ought to go to Coop and LaRue -- at least temporarily. They're going back to their old sizes, too, and after a couple of workouts we're kinda hoping Donna just decides that the whole thing was kind of overinflated in her head. Coop and LaRue ARE bisexual -- and they owe you a ride -- preferably in sight of Donna, if we can get it to work, since it will help her some."

I knew what he meant; sizing me up wasn't going to bring me mentally to the point of being able to stick my dick in a black guy...

"Belle is pregnant -- but her next kid is yours," Manny told me. "And we'll be bringing in another piece of ass to replace Donna and you get to pick the color. You'll always stand at the top of the pecking order -- and there will always be pussy. All right?"

I nodded. "Okay."

"If we can't fix Donna..." Manny shrugged. "Maybe she needs to be elsewhere. She's not as tied to the kids as you are." He sat for a moment, looking uneasy. "That's how it is -- you okay with it?"

"I guess." I was changed. Donna was changed. There was no going back, so we would go forward. "There's not much choice, is there?"

"Not really. I owe you. WE owe you. You're not gonna have to crawl around on your knees in my house..." He grinned, "Even if you want to."

The sick thing about it was that I wanted to -- and we both knew it.

For Manny to tell me that some greater good was served when he broke me was nice -- but it didn't change the fact that I'd BEEN broken. I couldn't stand up and look free men in the eye -- especially free black men. That was over, just like a lot of other things. I didn't see how I was going to get the ability back -- or even if I wanted to. They'd justified their position with me -- any attempt by me to change that was me kidding myself, whether Manny felt like being generous or not. Well, time would tell... Maybe he ought to just bring Donna back and let her humiliate me -- but then, she would need cooperation, and that would apparently be lacking...

Manny went to work and left me in Belle's tender care -- and it was tender, all right! She was embarrassed for Manny, having seen the video. "He just isn't like that, Baby!" she insisted. Well, he was when it counted...

The kids wanted to see Donna; I asked Belle, and she asked Manny, and we discovered that she'd been released from Medical to LaRue. Manny recommended that I not go along; they arranged for the meeting to be in a suite, rather than LaRue's quarters -- and I didn't go. We claimed I had work to do and Belle took them. I watched from Manny's.

Donna was... distant. The kids were ecstatic to start, but Donna wasn't reflecting it and things wound down fairly quickly. I was surprised. After a while, Belle gathered up the kids and started back. I made the comment to the AI, "She didn't seem any too excited."

The AI opened the question with Donna without my asking. "You did not seem to be particularly interested in seeing your offspring."

Donna sat back in her chair. "They're the past. They're Ed's kids. I'm doing other things, now. I'll be having other babies."

I was nonplussed. The AI said, "You are no longer interested in your children by your former spouse?"

Donna said, "I can't go back to Ed. It's... a respect thing. I have men in my life I respect -- but Ed..."

"Ed subordinated himself for the benefit of you and the children," the AI pointed out.

"I hope the children benefit," Donna replied. "I... didn't need it. Now... it's embarrassing. Where he put himself... I can't see me being able to be nice to him. I'd want to watch him do it again. I'd be asking my men to do it to him again so I could."

"What are your plans?" the AI asked

Donna shrugged. "Do what my men want. Have sex with them -- and whoever they want me to. Have their babies. Isn't that what I'm SUPPOSED to do?"

"It has been explained to you that the incident yesterday was orchestrated..." the AI pointed out.

"That makes it less real?" Donna responded. "I don't think so. Maybe Crewmen LaRue and Cooper aren't what I thought they are. Maybe they're good enough, though. If they aren't, maybe they'll help me find someone who is. I was kind of surprised when Crewman Harris begged off... He's keeping Ed and the kids?"

"Affirmative." The AI replied.

"I guess Ed's booty must have been pretty good..." Donna muttered, grinning.

I sat rubbing my forehead. "That's that, I guess."

"There are suggested activities that would raise you in Donna's estimation," the AI pointed out to me. "Crewman Harris mentioned some of them. An increase in the size of your erection and the reduction of those of Crewmen Harris, LaRue, and Cooper to their normal size is one agenda item, in any case. Having you deliver anal or receive oral sex from one or more of the crewmen in Donna's presence would be of assistance."

"I don't know if I can do that," I replied.

"Hypnotic preparation is available and would help."

"I really don't see it as worth it," I sighed. "Donna has made up her mind. Even I realize that my position is... damaged... with her. It's damaged with ME!"

"In planning," the AI replied, "concubines are thought of as a resource, rather than sentient beings. This is a general case. As a result, implications to you and the female were not analyzed in any depth." I suspected that this was as close to an apology as I was going to get from an AI.

Donna had expressed concerns that maybe LaRue and Coop couldn't handle her needs. That left me wondering -- what if Manny couldn't handle mine?

Monday afternoon was for gatherings; small groups in the common areas, waiting for an answer to an ad or trying to relax while sponsors of all ages, shapes, sizes and colors wandered in and out. Things were slowly thinning; more sponsors had an entourage with them at meals and fewer groups of huddled naked bodies wandered here and there -- but not everyone was taken by any means! Probably the cream of the crop was situated -- and that was more or less it. There were a lot of families out and about; single women were simple and not a serious problem, I guess.

Women around me in classes complained about the training -- how humiliating and unfair it was. I kept my responses to myself, but I enjoyed it; I had a reason to be naked and a reason to show off parts that, well, I just never had... Getting used to taking orders from a man wasn't something I was going to have trouble with -- I'd been doing it FOREVER! My father brooked nothing in the way of resistance, and Arthur didn't care for any distraction from his self-absorption. He'd been a toad and I'd been a fool to marry him, but I'd been desperate and in my senior year at college, aware that once I left school, things would not be easy, and he'd been interested and an intern at a good hospital... To be fair, he'd been a good provider, too, but there at the school on Saturday, when that man had put his hand on my ass -- that was the most excitement I'd had in years! Here, I was a sex object -- a new role for me. If I could just get a little lucky, I would find a new man -- someone who I could enjoy serving...

I'm thirty-three, and it shows, I guess. Reggie didn't leave my figure the way it was before I started carrying him -- but then, few women return to their pre-motherhood shape and I had no real reason to bother. That said, I'm merely well-padded -- not even plump -- and I'm five feet ten inches tall. A swimsuit model I'm not -- but I'm nowhere near as big around as I am tall. I could stand to lose maybe twenty pounds -- or move them to my bust -- but aside from a bit of cellulite here and there I had it over most women my age. There were a lot of big asses and saggy busts in the common room -- but my ass wasn't in the competition and if my breasts sagged some, it wasn't anything horrible.

Above the neck I'd never gathered a crowd. I'm not ugly or anything, but my nose may be a bit too long and a bit too thin. I have mildly wavy brown hair -- that same grayish brown that masses and masses of women have. In short, I'm average. That's undoubtedly not a huge surprise.

Reggie was playing with some other kids and people were wandering around -- and I knelt at 'Attention' and read a list of various rules for concubine conduct under varying circumstances. A sponsor could want -- well, anything, actually -- you just had to be flexible. A woman came around and said, "You don't have to do that, Honey -- there ain't nobody here but us chickens" -- but the fact was that a sponsor wandered in every few minutes. I was getting used to the position, so it came naturally to me.

Kneeling there, I saw him come in. He was in his mid-twenties, I figured -- with a hard body and a hard face and eyes like a predator. Some people ignored him; others -- like me -- watched him, knowing that he was a possible source of trouble, if nothing else. I saw something I couldn't put my finger on that made him... interesting... I knelt there, watching him like a hawk. He came on in and swept the room with his eyes, evaluating everybody -- and frowning. His eyes swept over me and he stopped for a minute and grimaced, and I thought 'Oh, well...' as he moved on covering the room, circling counterclockwise. Eventually, he was back to me. He stood over me, frowning, like he was looking at something besides just my naked body, cocking his head left and right as if he was considering me for something -- but what wasn't clear...

I was out trolling, trying out an augmentation I'd been fitted with. I would look at a person and his or her CAP scores would appear in my visual field, like a HUD. Not everyone's did -- sponsors didn't -- but every concubine was there.

I'd had a long talk with the AI, too. Tony had taken up with that chunky cunt he did Friday night -- and that left me without a playbook. Well, it might have, except that I was on this spaceship FULL of pussy, a lot of which was looking HARD for a man...

Problem was, I was supposed to take one on more or less permanently. Permanently has not historically been my thing; two nights in a row hasn't been my thing. I'm picky and I'm demanding and yeah, I'm a little bit of an asshole; chicks generally just don't make the cut. Chicks only go so far and then they want to know why you aren't giving them any respect or whatever. They want attention and validation and other stuff. The game Tony and I used to play was pleasant because at the end of the game, the cunt we were playing didn't have shit left -- and knew it. So she gave it up and she crossed lines she'd never crossed before and she didn't give you any shit while she did it.

The AI's take on things was that there were chicks out there that would do things the way I wanted them done -- and since I didn't have to play by the old rules any more, I could have my cake and eat it too. So it gave me a list of optimum numbers for a chick who would consider doing what I told her to be more important than whatever else was running through her empty head.

It wasn't that easy -- yeah, duh! But I started picking out trends. An older chick was more likely to be philosophical about taking it up the ass on command than a young one still full of piss and vinegar and women's lib -- something about having been around a while. They were more likely to think about the consequences of fucking up, too. But I was also looking for a chick who got some sense of accomplishment out of doing shit -- maybe difficult or painful shit -- just because I wanted it that way.

I'd gone through probably fourteen of these little clusters, looking -- and generally not finding shit. The closest I'd come were some really broken-down old nags who'd apparently lived through more shit by accident than I'd ever want to inflict on them on purpose. Usually, it was some kid's grandmother or something. There were a couple of seriously trailer-trash women that had been picked up at a grocery store, too -- but they would only be limited fun; the Jerry Springer set usually didn't have the sense to realize that they were being fucked with.

I'm not known for my patience; I stuck my head in the next cluster promising myself that I'd go up to Mess and let the parade pass me instead of hunting all over. I looked around and notice a woman kneeling at 'Attention' and I started looking for her owner because I couldn't imagine anyone being in that position for fun -- later, maybe, after indoctrination, but two days in? I didn't see anyone so I started a sweep. As usual, nothing much surfaced, so I circled around to my left, looking at everyone -- and end up in front of the kneeling chick.

This time, I looked at the numbers -- and they were in zone! I cocked my head, examining her. Thirty-something. Kind of plain. The AI kicks out a dossier. She's not stupid, but she's somewhat dependent. One of the ankle-biters tearing around the place was probably her nine-year-old. She's good-sized, but not a real porker -- not bad for the over thirty set. "What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Practicing."

"Nobody else is practicing," I noted. She shrugged -- which made her breasts a distraction. "Practice Presentation One," I directed.

She did it -- complete with a tentative smile. Oooookay... "Let's see Presentation Three." She spun to her left and went down on her elbows, -- and looked back at me over her shoulder, per the specification. No frown, no bitching, no bad vibes -- she just did as I asked. She had a cute pussy, too -- it looked sixteen and new, rather than thirty-something and well-used. I stood there, thinking, 'Do I want to fuck that?' I'd had worse... She wiggled her ass a little and I looked up at her face; it had this wary look, like, 'Did I overdo it?' I put my hand on her ass, deliberately, to see what she would do. The answer? Not a lot, one way or another -- certainly nothing negative. "So tell me your sad tale," I growled.

"Not sad," she said quietly, "It would probably just bore you to death. I was married until Saturday, to a doctor -- a guy I met in college. He chose between me and his medical practice on Saturday. I have a nine year old son. That's it."

"Sounds like the old man was an asshole," I offered.

"He was a self-important, self-absorbed toad -- but he was a good provider. He wasn't my ideal mate, but I was, I don't know, kind of desperate..." she related.

"I do the self-important, self-absorbed thing," I grunted. "You might not enjoy it."

She smiled ruefully, "I bet you're not a toad. I... really don't mind being told what to do... It's a return thing. He didn't pay much attention to me -- one way or the other."

"I'm a mean bastard," I declared. "I'm demanding and when I want something, I expect to get it. If you give me shit, you'll pay for it and it's a sliding scale at about ten to one. I deal out humiliation -- but I'll slap you around if I think you deserve it. I like to fuck in public -- and if I pick out three random guys for you to give blowjobs while I'm plowing your ass, you'll swallow their loads while remembering who gets first call on your attention, or I'll beat your ass..." I paused, awaiting a response. After about five seconds, I growled, "Well?"

"Okay."

"Okay?" I blinked, surprised. "That's it? Just, 'Okay?' Did you, like, understand what I just said?"

She smiled, ruefully. "It's attention. It sounds like a lot of attention."

This was one weird chick! "Do you think I'm kidding?"

"No."

All right. If she wanted to play games, I could play games... "Which kid is yours?"

"That one." She pointed. "Reggie!"

A chubby, open-faced, smiling kid trotted up. "Momma?" He cocked his head, taking in her position.

"This man wants to talk to you," the concubine related.

Reggie looked up at me owlishly. Okay, was I gonna traumatize the kid? Well, he needed to learn... "I'm gonna fuck your momma, kid. You understand? You got a problem with that?" Did I understand fucking at nine? I couldn't remember.

"I... think..." The kid looked a little dazed. "Here?"

"Yeah. Right here. It's a test, kinda," I told him.

"Momma?" Reggie shifted his attention to his mother -- one Eleanor Epstein, per the AI. We hadn't really done introductions.

"It's okay, Reggie." Eleanor was a little pink, but calm.

"Okay. Should I stay?" Reggie asked.

"No, that's okay. You did your job, kid," I told him.

Reggie turned his attention to his mother, who dismissed him with a wave. He headed off, glancing over his shoulder now and then. I returned my attention to his mother. "You've been doing this how long?"

"Since Saturday?"

This kind of thing is nothing without follow-through. "Are you wet?" I asked.

"Some."

"It'll have to do." I unlimbered my cock and started rubbing it along her slot. The lips popped open and got pink and puffy pretty quickly. I nosed my dick into her opening and punched in, not farting around; she went , "Uuuhh!" but didn't flinch away. "How big was the old man's dick?" I asked.

"Not that big," she puffed.

"So I'm into virgin territory?" I chuckled.

"Uh huh."

"And?"

"Let's not stop..."

"What if I want to?"

"You're in charge..."

I was watching her eyes the whole time -- and my cock was like stone and buried to the hilt. Her whole attitude was like cunts Tony and I used to fuck over acted at the end of the night; she had nothing to lose and no resistance in her. I could take what I wanted -- and I got the impression that she was already getting her payoff... "What if I decided to put rings in your nipples?"

"Do you like them?"

"Shut up and fuck, slut."

I poured it on -- and she took it. She whined and grunted, but she was watching me the whole time, and her eyes said she wasn't hurting; they held a glaze of pleasure. I watched her turn pink and her nostrils distend as she panted and then her eyes closed and her ass -- which hadn't been dead, by any means -- started seriously dancing and she shook like a leaf. When her eyes opened, they looked like those of a heroin addict, awash with pleasure. I almost got a nut just looking at them, but I slowed down and her cunt loosened up in the aftermath and I managed to hold out. After I got control, I swatted her ass and she tightened back up -- and didn't say a thing about the big red handprint I left on her ass. She didn't take long to get back to her peak, either -- and I learned that my control wasn't always good enough; her pussy started to ripple and it threw the switch and I blasted a big load into her, grunting like a fucking pig. Well, she was supposed to be seeing me at my worst... After her pussy had milked the last pulses out of me, I backed off and swatted her other ass cheek. "Clean me up, slut." Somebody applauded; she was real pleased with herself as she took my cock in her mouth, even though she didn't seem to have a whole lot of experience at blowjobs.

She was impressive. She was SERIOUSLY fucking impressive. But you never let them know that... "Okay, that wasn't too bad. I'm gonna need to stew on it for a couple of days while I look over the other candidates. Got a number?"

"Two one four one four," she replied. There was disappointment in her eyes -- and acceptance. Shit. It would have been easier to walk away if she'd whined or given me crap about taking free samples...

The AI was on my case, too. <The female meets parameters.>

'Yeah, but she's over thirty.'

<Physically? This is correctable,> the AI chided me. The subtext was clear, too, being 'You know that...'

'She has a kid,' I thought back.

<That is her function. The child Reginald is expected to be sponsor-class.>

'Look,' I groused. 'You know what I'm looking for -- and you know how I am. I can't just roll over on something like that, even if it IS perfect. She has to stew in her own juices for a couple of days so she'll be properly grateful. You never GIVE them anything...'

<Ah,> the AI replied -- and shut up. I made sure I went to Mess that night halfway across the ship -- no need of her seeing me somewhere and getting ideas...