Chapter 39

"So you got a lot of rough usage over the past few days -- and it HELPED you raise your CAP score?" Dave Chambers asked, bemused. We were on a break in the afternoon orientation session.

"I was hiding from myself as much as I was hiding from Ollie," I explained. "Being made to face my sexuality fixed some things that were broken about me. I'm just not your average woman -- and I was treating it as a bad thing."

"What do you mean by that?" Dave asked.

"I like a lot of sex," I replied. "Like several guys' worth."

"Oh!" Dave looked shocked.

"Yeah..." I muttered. "It was a problem. When I was younger, I went through a phase where I got what I wanted -- but I had a poor self-image and being treated as a pariah in public and as a pig in private didn't help. So I lied to Ollie about sex and pretended I didn't like it and basically made sure Ollie didn't get any opportunities to see the real me. I'd been living a lie for, oh, I dunno -- twenty-five years? And because I had it all under wraps, I couldn't move forward. This week I wasn't allowed to avoid sex -- and when things hit a certain point, I couldn't hide it any more." I sighed. "After that, all I could do was ask forgiveness. Even then, I couldn't escape -- but I got acceptance and approval instead of derision. I was doing what everyone wanted, and doing it well, and no one was pointing the finger and calling me names. Apparently, I wasn't the awful person I thought I was. When I realized all that, things just... changed..."

"An amazing tale," Dave mused. "So now what?"

I laughed. "So now I get to be a whorehouse madam! Actually, I get to try to teach women who are having a hard time with it that enjoying sex is okay and they need to learn to embrace their sexuality and get on with their job..."

"Sounds like a worthy cause..." Dave mused.

"I think it is -- and I'm not alone," I murmured.

We got beyond concubines and into discussions of basic Confederacy rules and customs and specifics about Nuevo Angelino and how the Civil Service role had expanded there -- and the risks and benefits that went with the flood of colonists we hadn't met yet from the big school pickup. We spent a lot of time learning, 'This is how things USUALLY happen, but THIS is how we're doing it THIS time...'; it seemed like you really needed to know the traditional rules so you could understand how we were breaking them -- and why. I, of course, was now an exception to the rule in that seventy-five percent or better of all sponsors were male. Doctor Mortensen was there, of course, but frankly, we had little in common; I got the feeling that sex wasn't high on her list of priorities. When evening came, I was more than happy to go back to our shared quarters and collect the girls to take to dinner.

The girls were agog with the afternoon concubine training session -- and Judith was scornfully dismissive of a number of women who 'had to hear things six times -- and STILL didn't get it!' I found this amusing, and so did Ollie. But a bit later, Judith came to me in an aside and said, "Momma, I don't understand..."

"About me?" I asked. She nodded. Thanks to Dave Chambers, I had a ready answer: "Do you remember when Jack told you that you would go through a period where you thought, 'Oh, God! I'm a slut!' before you came around to 'Thank God! I'm a slut!'? Well, that period took me twenty-five years, because I was locked in a loop. Just last night I made the change -- and I'm happy about it and at peace with myself for the first time in forever. It made all the difference; I couldn't live up to my potential until I crawled out of that box I was hiding from everyone in. It was a chrysalis, though -- I entered it as a worm and emerged as a butterfly!"

"That's... sweet, Momma..." Judith said -- and I knew she didn't understand, and there wasn't a whole lot I could do to help her.

We left the Mess that Sunday morning and went straight to Medical -- and I got instant priority, so everyone was tucked in tubes in no time. "Alterations?" the medic on duty asked me.

"You've got my spec," I told him. "What am I looking at for fit?"

"The big black girl is virgin, as you are no doubt aware -- everywhere. But she has the capacity orally and anally, and will grow to handle you vaginally. The older black woman we could tighten just a touch here and there and firm up her internal muscles -- kids, you know. External changes?"

"None. Well, maybe a bit off there above the hips."

He raised his eyebrows, but went on, "The smaller white woman is behind on her development -- but she IS developing, as of recently. The AI indicated that there were signs of psychological trauma affecting her physical development -- but she seems to have gotten over it. She was used, early -- orally, anally, and even vaginally -- but she isn't sloppy, although she needs some repairs to her colon and anus."

"Do that," I instructed, "and we'll see where she is in six months to a year, I guess."

"The last one?" The medic cocked an eyebrow. "She needs a little throat work; otherwise, she's almost exactly to spec. What about externals?"

"Show me a hologram," I sighed. He did so. "Fix the teeth and the jaw." The projection displayed the adjustment to fix her overbite. "She lisps -- is it curable?"

"Maybe, but you'd have to teach her to talk again," the medic opined.

"Fuck that," I waved it off, "It's cute, anyway." The medic raised an eyebrow, but left it alone. "Okay, shrink the butt a little -- say, fifteen percent." The medic, who had reduced the size by more like fifty percent, blinked and backed it off. "Jack up the breasts a bit, and get rid of the stretch marks on the upper slope and inflate them a bit..."

"They'll swell on their own," the medic noted. "She's pregnant."

"She is?" I broke out in a grin. "GREAT!" I got a bit of control over myself. "Okay, well they're very soft, now -- I'd like for them to stay that way -- except maybe when she's actively breast feeding. I'd like to see them raised a bit -- not too much! -- and fleshed out a bit, so they don't look under-inflated."

"Not bigger?" the medic asked. "Not smaller?"

I shook my head. "Some improvement in shape and tone and keep them from being total udders -- but she's an Earth Mother -- and I want her to stay that way. Have you ever seen a fertility goddess?"

"Ummm, yes... Kind of pear shaped. Breasts are more functional..." The medic went into communion with the AI and a few very subtle changes got made. Her feet got a touch wider and so did her pelvis, while her belly shrank just a touch -- not enough that it didn't bulge a bit. A bit of excess above the hips got pared away -- but again, nothing amazing, just enough to smooth the flow. Beth's image looked a bit less like her mother and more like Judith -- without going nearly that far. Judith actually had a sweet, rounded body -- but it wasn't Beth's template and I didn't want it to be.

"That's good," I declared.

"Okay, then," the medic replied. "We'll add things in slowly and let her think some of the changes come from pregnancy."

"Good idea," I agreed. "And the kids?"

"All in fine shape," the medic replied. "The male is showing some signs of sponsor-level intelligence. There was an underlying problem with distrust and abandonment, but he seems to be responding well and isn't completely traumatized."

"Okay, fine. Hold them in tubes until someone else comes out to handle them." I went back to sit on a chair nearby and take status reports over my comm link. There was a problem with Group Eighty-Six...

Keisha and the kids were out quickly, and Frieda and Tara didn't take long, either. Beth was last. Tara and Frieda each took a child from Keisha as they came out, so no one was unduly burdened. When Beth came out, she said, "I don't see much..."

"There wasn't a lot required, for any of you," I replied. "I let them set things ups so they took more time, especially in your case -- because you're pregnant!"

"I am?" You'd have thought the lights were out in the room and someone had turned them -- her -- on! "OMIGAWD!" She was all over me then -- which was more than mildly pleasant. After a moment or two of wallowing in her embrace and endearments, I gently extricated myself. "Come on, let's go back to quarters..."

They all wanted something. Beth wanted to crawl into my lap and stay there for the day. Frieda wanted to give me a blowjob. Tara wanted to kneel in front of me and wait on me hand and foot -- and Keisha -- well, Keisha wanted me to follow through on some promises I'd made. What I finally decided to do was send Tara and Frieda off to concubine training and hold Beth and Keisha back with the kids. They all COULD have gone to training and TAKEN the kids (many concubines in the main group had no choice in the matter) but training wasn't urgent and they were ahead of the curve, anyway. Tara and Frieda were instructed to pay careful attention and condense anything important for relay to Beth and Keisha. Then I reluctantly headed off to work.

Group Eighty-Six was fourth graders and their families; objectively, there should have been no more trouble from them than anyone else, but a couple of things had cropped up. The first phase of things appeared to be acrimonious exchanges between members of a couple -- both concubines -- with two kids. The deeper I dug, the uglier it got. It seemed on the surface that the (ex) husband was angry with the (ex) wife for having sex with two other concubine males. She claimed it was rape -- but he claimed it was conspiracy and she'd enjoyed it. The other two guys agreed with the husband (of course -- their necks were on the line). Even the surveillance video wasn't cut and dried; the woman had led the other two on, certainly, even if it had gone further than planned. I rounded on one of the alleged rapists, "You struggled with Mack, here -- why shouldn't I space you for assault?"

The guy went white, but replied, "They aren't married any more. Who she wants to fuck is her business. He was interfering. He's the one that's wrong." This was actually a reasoned response; I had to give the guy credit.

Eventually, I had to sequester the four of them and have the AIs interrogate them. The woman rolled over pretty quickly; when the AI indicated it had broken her down I went in to see her. "Okay, so what happened."

The woman, whose name was Victoria something ('Call me Vicky') sighed. "I got carried away. Those two were kind of hot, so I let them start something. We got to flirting and stuff and it made Mack mad -- and I kind of enjoyed that; Mack isn't much in the sack..."

"You've cheated on him before..." I guessed.

"Yeah..."

<Genetic analysis indicates that the younger child is not the offspring of Martin 'Mack' Taylor,> the AI supplied helpfully.

"So what were you up to?" I asked.

"I think he's always known... but I wanted to see his face, you know? I know, it's ugly -- but I just wanted to rub his nose in it."

"And the rape?"

She had the grace to look embarrassed. "Well, it was and it wasn't. I didn't plan for it to get that far, but I got carried away. I said no -- and I meant it -- but when they didn't stop, I was glad -- and I got to enjoy Mack's reaction even more..."

"So I probably shouldn't space anyone."

"No."

I thought about it. "I'm splitting you two up. Mack gets the older kid and you get the younger one. Do you know who the father is?"

"It doesn't matter, does it? He's not here... How did you know?" Even I knew that she didn't.

"I've got radar," I grunted. "You're a piece of work, Honey. I hope you find a sponsor that spends half his time with his dick in your ass and the other half with it down your throat -- preferably without cleaning it up, first. But you might enjoy that, huh?"

She looked away, which told me everything I needed to know.

I had the AI set up a reassignment and went to get the kid in question, who was with her presumptive father. "She's out of here," I related, "and she's taking this one with her. She isn't yours, anyway..."

Mack looked a little sick. "I'd wondered..."

"That one is -- solid paternity results -- so you get to keep him. I'm leaving you in this group, I think. I figure there's going to be collateral damage; you might get a chance to get even with one of the pair she fucked. You know she did it just to see the look on your face, right?" I asked.

"I wondered. It seemed like that was what she was up to."

"I'm guessing you two had long-term problems," I opined.

"Yeah."

"Are you interested in this one?" I hefted the girl.

I watched him struggle with himself. There was a bond there, even if it wasn't blood. Finally, he said, "Not at this time."

"I'll have the AI make a note that you can have visitation. Assume that there is a restraining order between you and her mother, though. You arrange visitation through an AI. If we catch either of you actively messing with the other, I'll space the perp -- or recycle them, or whatever else comes to mind. If it's you, you'll be dead."

"I understand."

I took the girl to her mother. "You aren't to see Mack. Assume there is a restraining order. If either of you fucks up, it's summary execution. Mack has visitation, if and when he wants it -- to be arranged by AIs and without you present. Do you want similar?"

"I guess I should hold my options open," she muttered.

"Okay, we're going to move you -- but I want to give you a little something first. Wait here."

I had the AI call the wives of my two 'rapists' and sequestered them. Entering the first room, I asked, "So, your ex-husband is supposedly involved in a rape. It isn't that simple, but he didn't take long to wander off and plant a garden elsewhere, did he? I'm thinking you might want to be done with him..."

The woman thought about it. "I don't know what makes sense... I'm embarrassed, I'm hurt, and I'm angry -- but the rules have changed, haven't they? He's not mine anymore..."

"That's all well and good," I agreed, "but that being the case, why should you hurt your and your children's chances of being settled in with a nice sponsor by hauling his feckless ass along? If he's not yours, you're not his -- and if he's got no loyalty, why should you have any? Your package is better off without him."

"Yeah..." she started to gather in some anger. "That makes sense."

"Okay, I'm doing for you what I did for the original couple. He's restrained from seeing you, until further notice; if we catch him and you don't give him a get out of jail free card, he's dead. He gets visitation under AI supervision -- and you will not be present. Trust me, the AI can handle this. Oh, and one other thing -- if you decide you want to make a video of you having prolonged, satisfying sex with the woman's husband -- who is a decent sort, apparently -- I'll be happy to make sure he sits through it."

She got a little feral then, but limited herself to "Thank you."

The other one was worse; she was virtually foaming at the mouth. Mack was going to have a very rewarding sex life in the near term...

Next, I gathered together my two 'perps.' "Okay, you've been cleared, after a fashion -- but you're changing addresses. As you so properly pointed out," I told the one who had done so, "none of the three of you is married any more. On the other hand, you ALL have kids by your former spouses, women who had the right to expect some loyalty from you. Neither of your ex-spouses is any too thrilled, and both of them have decided that they're better off on their own. Therefore -- and listen up, because it is important -- you are restrained from any direct contact with your former spouses, until and unless one of them goes soft in the head and specifically authorizes it. You have visitation rights to your children -- arranged through and supervised by an AI -- your former spouse won't be present, but the AI sees all, hears all and knows all. If we catch you trying to break the restraining order, you're dead -- no trial, no hearing, nothing. Someone will just drag you out of traffic somewhere and kill you and stuff you in a recycler. You'll not be surprised to hear that the three primary victims in this case feel that they owe you, so at some point in the future, you may be required to sit through a video displaying your former spouse making gentle love to the guy you cuckolded in loving detail -- several times. Oh, do I have to mention the fact that he is not to be contacted in any way at all, with the same penalties for non-compliance?"

The pair of them looked a little green; both were apparently aware that having been kicked loose from their former spouses, their chances of getting a concubine slot from a sponsor went south dramatically.

"Last, but not least, follow me..." We went up the corridor to the room where Vicky was housed. "Wait here." I went inside and said, "Give me the girl for a bit; I brought a surprise." I took her three-year-old and came out, holding her on my hip. "Okay, guys, it's like this: That little bitch in the next room has ruined more lives than I can count on my fingers, just because she wanted to see the look on her old man's face while she fucked around. Since your lives are high on the list, I think you should get a little something. That being the case, I'm going to give you two instructions: Number One -- tell the AI when you're done and it will let you out and direct you to your new homes. Number Two -- and listen closely and make certain you understand ALL of the implications -- don't leave her dead. Do you understand?" I got two wary nods. Opening the door, I said, "Have fun."

<That would seem to be an invitation to violence,> the AI murmured.

'I see you're on the ball today,' I agreed.

<They could do the female serious damage.>

'The medics haven't had anything serious to patch up in a while. As long as they follow instructions, we can fix it,' I replied.

<True. What is the purpose of this, then?>

'Rapid psychological adjustment,' I replied.

<For all concerned?>

'I expect the female to learn her lesson and the males to be a little sick and disgusted with themselves after.'

<This is within the parameters of the possible outcomes.>

'If I create a monster, I'll have him put down and live with it on my conscience, I guess.'

<Has it occurred to you that the female might harbor masochistic tendencies?>

'Stupid me -- I didn't look at her CAP card.' From behind the door there came a muffled scream.

<There is a low-level latency. This may surface it. At this point, however, there is very little physical damage; the males are limiting themselves.>

'Fine.' Kid on my hip, I went back to see Mack. "Keep the girl for a bit -- I'm sure she's safe with you no matter whose she is." I handed her off.

"Thanks." Mack looked a little embarrassed.

"Her mother is getting what is coming to her for her part in this little drama. When she's done, someone will come for the little girl."

"Okay." Mack was dying to know...

"Are you sure you want to know? She'll survive..." I assured him.

"That's okay, I guess."

"Tell you what," I offered. "Tomorrow, if you want to see it, I'll instruct the AI to display the video on demand. Not today, though -- you have other priorities."

"Thanks."

"The ladies who had your two visitors as husbands may come to see you -- and be very generous with their affections," I told him. "It'll be payback, but you never know -- one of them might take you on... Cooperate, if they ask -- they'll be making videos of the pair of you getting even for their former spouses to enjoy -- as more or less mandatory viewing. It should be a fun time..."

"This is all pretty weird..."

"We don't use the same legal system as the one you're used to," I replied. "In the first place, we have more resources with which to discover the truth. In the second, you're not people, technically -- you're property -- so we don't need courts. Third, I like to see the punishment fit the crime." I looked around. "Word will get out. And there will be fewer problems as a result." He nodded and I got out of there.

We separated out sponsors and concubines globally and started moving sponsors into their own quarters as both groups got their orientation briefings. What we tried to do was gather both sponsors and concubines in groups of a hundred or so, brief them, and provide someone to do questions and answers after the briefings. We used concubines along for the cruise with their sponsors -- all of whom were seasoned -- for concubine briefings, and crewmen for the sponsor briefings. A point of emphasis was the requirement for sponsors not to go hog wild; nobody was ready for it on either side of the fence. I noticed that a lot of supposedly committed families and pre-packs including student sponsors were ending up NOT committed; the concubines were back in the pool and the sponsors were moving into their quarters without family. The incest taboo was a major issue with concubine parents, if no one else, and they were busy informing their sponsor-class offspring that they were prepared to take their chances left and right. Since we didn't REALLY register sign-ups on the ground (deliberately, knowing we would have time to do things right in transit), they weren't under contract and were still free to do this -- but it was breaking up families. I had the AIs emphasize the fact that the whole thing was a dead issue, but such things are tough to reverse.

Medical was running full bore -- and just doing basic health maintenance for the bulk of the concubines, as they were unassigned, so turnaround was fairly quick. Still, I had to provide security details to handle the complainers who really didn't want to be naked in public. The good news was that the security team could sting a loudmouth and then drop him or her into a tube and have them back to 'duty' in ten minutes -- with a nasty memory of the consequences of disobedience embedded firmly behind the eyeballs.

Things started to bog down about fourteen hundred, as those few who needed a lot of medical repair work multiplied to the point that they started taking more tubes than the short-timers. We ended up planning for them to be called back after the flood -- after dinner was generally open, since the big job most of them had for the evening was preparing their personal ad.

The 'personal ads' were the method we planned to vend the flood of concubines to any and all sponsors who wanted one. They would run from tonight until probably sometime after we arrived home on Nuevo Angelino, probably being updated as the concubines got smarter or learned new tricks or became more desperate. Basically, they got ninety seconds or so to pique interest -- if the sponsor wanted to dig in, he or she got a longer, five-minute version of the ad. The concubines could say or do anything they thought would get them selected; early on, we didn't expect much, but I figured that at some point ads would begin to look like the Porn Channel as concubines got more desperate. I anticipated eyeballing the first few and then giving a scathing critique in the morning, after which everyone could get on with second efforts.

We'd done about all of the talking we were going to be able to; it was time for everybody to get down to business. Next on the agenda for concubines was to record their messages -- both short and long versions -- and for sponsors to start examining the ads looking seriously for concubines. The next step for concubines who passed the five-minute interview would be an in person session -- that would probably include a test drive if the sponsor had any sense. We had suites for this purpose localized in clusters here and there, readily accessible to both sponsors and concubines. Concubine couples could bring their children and leave them at nearby day care centers when it got to be time to get down to business.

One big concern was for how that 'business' was going to be transacted in a couples format. If the female went alone, or the male waited outside or in an adjoining room, that might not be so bad -- but I foresaw complications depending upon just how far a potential sponsor wanted to push things to determine the male concubine's trigger point. As a result, the meeting suites would be intensively monitored and automated stinger installations were present in the suites in order to suppress possible hostilities.

Sponsors were being asked to tread lightly in this area -- or avoid couples if they didn't think they could. But you could only ask so much and there was considerable concern that green male concubines would cause issues.

On the inbound leg of the trip, we had examined the situation thoroughly and decided that we needed to provide a couple of serious object lessons or there would be blood all over the place. Recycling one out of every four male concubines was an option, but it wasn't one anyone wanted to entertain. American males, in particular, had certain role models and reactions to stimuli that could cause them trouble -- there were other places where things were worse, but they tended toward barbarism in the first place and nobody was making pickups from those places in the second. In America, though, there continued to float a stubborn layer of two-faced morality that large portions of the population either subscribed to or at the very least paid lip service to. Casual nudity hadn't made it to television, for instance, like it had managed to do in Europe despite the fact that it hadn't resulted in the destruction of civilization due to this influence there. Another issue was the whole ingrained racial male protection reflex. Human males tend to protect females in general and their mates in particular -- and one thing they protect them from is other human males... Add a little jealousy into the mix and if violence hasn't already sprung up, it will...

When you look at the whole thing objectively, concubine males should expect to get similar treatment to that handed out to concubine females -- but the male is generally made of sterner (or maybe just more brittle) stuff, and what will bend a female may just piss a male off or cause him to do something stupid in order to get a handle on the situation. But fair is fair, so that was our approach -- expect to get treated more or less the way a female gets treated, with very few concessions to differences in sexual makeup. I argued this a bit, knowing, for instance, the cultural stigma assigned to homosexual activity in the male, but I lost. Last but not least, since the shoe was on the other foot, female sponsors were asked to develop the curriculum -- another possible mistake in my humble opinion -- women work well on the bottom, but can be NASTY on top...

But they put the whole thing together and handed it out and the AIs said it might work -- and it LOOKED fair. I'd seen Basic Training hijinks that were worse and less fair, perhaps -- aside from the potentially explosive sexual aspects...

So we decided to test it on Day Two...