Chapter 9 - Learning from a new friend

The girl knelt limply at my feet and offered no resistance when I lifted her into my arms to step back into the room. She had her eyes closed as I stepped in and set her on the bed. Sarah smiled as I set the girl on the mattress. "Hey Fate," my concubine said.

Fate gave a cry that was a combination of joy and panic before opening her eyes and noticing Sarah sitting next to her. She burst from her position and hurled her body at Sarah, almost knocking her down with a hug, as her loud and anguish-filled wails filled the chamber. I gave Sarah a quick nod and then retreated to the back where I found Linda nibbling on a salad.

"That woman is unbelievable," Linda said as I sat down.

I nodded. "I had heard that Miles, the man who is the current head of DECO was a bit of a CAP elitist, but I had never met someone with that attitude."

Linda shook her head. "It's worse than you realize. I guess Miles has been pushing an agenda where only those with CAP above eight are considered worthy. The man just wants to pull all the high CAP people off the planet and leave the others to rot. And the man has a pathological hatred of the military. Jennifer doesn't hate the military, but she was happy to proselytize about the glories of a high CAP."

I laughed. "And you told her about your CAP score I'm sure."

Linda joined me in laughter. "No, I didn't want to hear her reaction to that. The problem is that I can see her joining in a conspiracy against low CAP volunteers, and from what you've said only three of the Ishtar bound citizens had scores above six five."

I nodded again. "Sarah found a commodore who definitely wasn't the most supportive either. Unfortunately she doesn't have a name, only that the man is a recent pickup and definitely worked at Fort Benning before pickup."

Linda sighed. "Are there any nice people on board this ship? Its like the worst part of being in high school combined with real power. I feel slimy after spending time with that witch."

Sarah must have heard the comment because she shouted from the other room. "I've met a few, but remember that this is one of the command ships. All of the high ambition people want to be here to direct policy and there is a lot of infighting going on."

I could see Linda look at me mournfully and I reached out to give her a reassuring pat on the shoulder while nodding sadly. "She's right. I won't deny that most investigations take me into the underside of our communities, but this place has a higher percentage of the aggressive personality types that make things frustrating."

Linda nodded, but then gave me a questioning look. "How did that concubine get here? I mean this is a military ship, so I don't think she lives here."

It was my turn to smile. "There is a Kilo class pod carrier in orbit nearby, the Townhouse. The pods it carries are the homes for people stationed on the Success. Everyone here just commutes back and forth via the teleport."

Linda nodded. "I understand, I commute back on Borneo. I might ask for my pod to be transferred though."

"Why?"

Linda smiled. "Well, I wasn't picked up at the same time as Brian. He was picked up about eight months before me. We were very shocked to find out that chance had resulted in us being home-based on the same planet, although he serves on ships and my original assignment was on the planetary command staff. We've tried to have our pods near each other, but I don't like some of my neighbors. Its like you said, some of them are abusive to their concubines, and now that I think about it, I don't need that near me if Jill is to blossom."

Sarah giggled and once again called out from the other room. "Try for Bewu if you do that. It's the best of the specialized townships."

"Concubine," I growled dangerously. "You are supposed to be cute and naked and not offering advice."

Moments later Sarah burst around the corner in the stateroom. She was gloriously naked and leapt over the table to fall into my arms. As I gathered her in she gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Ok, I'm naked," she said.

Linda was giggling, but I gently guided Sarah to sit next to me. She fought me more than a little and I finally got her settled by running the fingers of my right hand over her pussy lips as I looked at my trainee.

"Sorry. She's being troublesome. However, her advice is good. Bewu has a great reputation on Borneo, and since you are a female citizen, you can move there," I said.

Linda nodded. "But weren't we talking about the investigation?"

Just then a timid voice called out. "What investigation?"

Linda and I looked over at the entrance. The girl, Fate, had obviously followed Sarah and was now standing in the entryway to the room. The fact that she was standing finally gave me an opportunity to look at the woman I had ended up acquiring.

Fate appeared to be the eighteen years Sarah said was her real age. Unlike most concubines she was not girlishly slender, and actually had more than a little extra fat around her middle, although some of that was probably the fact that she was visibly pregnant. Her breasts however appeared flat against her frame. Looking up at her face, she had the vestiges of her baby fat on her cheeks, giving her a childish appearance. Her hair was unremarkable. It was a basic brown and the shoulder length cut had no style or bounce. She noticed me appraising her and smiled.

"Jennifer refused to do cosmetic work on her concubines," she said. "Her rules were that if one of her concubines truly was worth breeding and saving she'd be able to get a man hard no matter what." The girl smiled faintly. "I managed that, the one time she set me up."

It was Sarah's turn to be surprised. "Wait. Are you saying that she doesn't have sex with her concubines or allow you to have sex?"

Fate scowled. "Why would she? To her we are projects. Her goal is for her concubines to be parents for the next generation of high CAP citizens, so we are shared out to the high CAP men working in DECO. Once a girl is pregnant she has us go into intensive classes designed to increase our CAP scores and has us retest on our birthdays. So far five girls have left her service, all with CAP scores of seven seven or higher."

Linda looked even more surprised. "I knew she was a bit of an elitist about CAP. I noticed that in my conversation, but to do that makes no sense."

Fate shrugged. "It made no sense to her concubines either, but most of the execs in DECO are part of it. I think only Traci is refusing to participate. She says that the others have visions of utopia."

I sighed. "How many of her graduates stayed in DECO?"

Fate giggled. "None. Jennifer sends them messages and they all respond, but I know Ally, Kathy and Char want nothing to do with her anymore. I'm not sure about Zelda and Dawn, but I know Jennifer was bitching about them not answering some questions she asked in her last set of questions."

Linda looked at me. "Should we be concerned?"

"No," I responded. "The retests are allowed by standard policy, and if she wants to work to raise the CAP of concubines, no one is going to complain. The only thing I've noticed is that Jennifer completely discounts anyone with a CAP between six five and seven five. If her underlings feel the same, we have a possible link."

"Link? To what?" Fate asked.

The rest of us looked at her silently. Finally Sarah sighed and sat up, pushing my hand away for a moment. "Fate, your new owner has a job to investigate when someone might have done something to intentionally harm other citizens. Well, not just that, but that's the primary goal. He is telling people that he's here to train Lieutenant Linda, which is true, but obviously there's more, but I can't tell you more than I have."

Linda and I nodded as Fate looked down. All of us were thinking deeply, until finally Sarah groaned. "Norm," she whined. "Enough teasing. I need you in me."

My concubine stood up and grabbed my hands to drag me to my feet. Once she had me moving she led me back to the bed where she showed me once again how much being my concubine meant to her.

About two hours later I wandered back into the room where I had left Linda and Fate. I found the two ladies sitting there talking.

I coughed to get their attention and Fate looked up. To my surprise she offered me a huge smile and stood up. I was still looking at her when she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. "Thank you," she whispered.

I patted her back and looked at Linda. "Do we have any plans for the afternoon?" I asked.

"No," she said. "I was going to wander some more and see if I can stumble on some people in Personnel. I think you might want to look up Traci. She might have the information we need."

"If she'll talk to me," I quipped. I gave Fate a final squeeze. "And as for you, my newest concubine. You are to sit in with Sarah while she teaches you all you need to know about being my concubine."

There was a giggle and Sarah called out. "Why don't you do that Norman, it won't take you very long."

"No, you should do it Sarah. It won't take you any longer," I called back.

Linda burst out laughing and I could feel Fate trying to stifle her own giggles as she kept her arms around me. Extracting myself from her hug took a moment. I would have just turned and walked away, but Fate pulled me down for a kiss, probing along my lips with her tongue. She was smiling as I finally stepped away and headed for the door to the stateroom.