Part 17

Chapter 26

FRIDAY May 23

Helga and Karin were bracketing me when I woke up. Jocelyn was lying on top of my legs, her head resting right below my crotch. All three women woke when I started squirming my way out of bed, choosing to join me in the shower where we triple-teamed Jocelyn. Afterwards she lay, sighing and quivering, on top of me on the shower floor.

The dining room was now the majority of the original first floor. After a quick breakfast (I didn't have to sneak anymore--they served 24 hours a day and started breakfast at four a.m. for us early birds), I headed for my lab and the stack of applications for the law council. I sent messages to everyone that had applied, asking all of them who were still interested to meet on soccer field one at ten a.m. The 400 plus applications I received was way more than I had anticipated, and I wanted to get an idea how many were still interested. Evidently, not many had changed their minds. As I walked to the podium at 10:00, I estimated that there were over 400 of them here.

"Good morning, ladies. When I first put out the notice about this, we were a long ways from where we stand today. The pirates are defeated, the estates have been captured, and Russia has been freed. Now, none of that is a problem. What I have planned will no longer be secret in a day or two.

"As you have obviously seen, we have many things here that are much more advanced that the rest of the world. One of the capabilities we have is to travel through space in large ships almost ten times faster than any other ships on Earth can. That means we can travel to neighboring star systems in weeks, not months or years. I intend to launch exploratory teams to the 21 nearest star systems starting in a month. Sometime after that, once we have reviewed all of the data, I plan to launch a colony ship to the nearest planet deemed habitable for the obvious purpose of colonizing the planet.

"What I am asking any of you ladies who remain interested to do is create a code of laws for this and future colonizing efforts. Many of our current laws are based on religious and cultural bias. Many are antiquated, no longer applicable to life as we know it today. Many of our laws are just plain wrong. I offer the slavery laws as an example. If this isn't something you are interested in, I'll give you a few seconds to leave. I realize that you had no idea what this was about before you came here, and I promise that leaving won't bother me in the least."

I waited several seconds, and nobody got up to leave, so I turned around asking them to let me know after everyone that wanted to leave was gone. "You can turn around," someone called out several seconds later. Nobody left.

I talked as I began walking, with one of the androids amplifying my voice. "What I want you to do is form into sixteen groups of about 25. I'm not sure exactly how many of you there are, but I estimate about 400. Feel free to join the same group as a close friend or lover if you want." While I had been talking, I walked to the closest of several soccer balls spaced around the field I had set out a few minutes ago while everyone watched me, curious about what I was doing. "There are sixteen balls out there. If everyone would please choose one and form a group there we can proceed."

They did as I asked, rather quickly, too. "Each of you now belongs to the group number on the soccer ball you are gathered around. This afternoon, we'll meet back here at 3:00. Judge Von Reinhart will address you on the subject of laws and will answer general questions afterward. Every group will have special legal androids that are thoroughly versed in the laws of the UN and the laws of every country around the world. I will get any help you need in order for your group to come up with a set of laws they feel is necessary and just. The only stipulation is that you don't talk to anyone outside of your group about what you discuss. I don't care if they know that you're helping write a set of laws for new star colonies, but I don't want the specifics of what you discuss inside your groups discussed outside of your group. This isn't a competition. There is no reward for having the best set of laws. No punishment for the worst. Only the knowledge that your effort helped fashion the laws for future generations on other planets to live by justly.

"Once all sixteen groups have created what they feel is a complete set of laws, I will ask each group to elect three people from their group to represent them. Those 48 women will then compare all sixteen sets of laws, deciding which laws to keep, which to modify, and which to leave out. I will have several judges and several attorneys review those laws to insure that the laws cover everything necessary. Of course, you may also ask for judges and attorneys to help while you are writing your set of laws. They or the legal androids can help you phrase the laws in legal terms so that there is no ambiguity as to what you mean." I asked for questions--big mistake. It took nearly an hour to answer all of them.

The main question was on how long it would take. "It will take as long as it takes," I told them. Pushed further, I told them that the American Constitution had been written in just under four months, and that there had been much bickering over economic issues and the issue of state's rights and equal representation for smaller states. Since none of them had a constituency to represent, I felt that the proceedings would go faster than that. "However," I admonished, "I will not be disappointed if it takes longer but I will be disappointed if the work is shoddy, trying to get it done quickly." When we wrapped up and left for lunch they were walking a lot taller than when they came in.

Poor Johann got twice as many questions as I did, and dinner was well underway when we finally got there. Johann was impressed with the questions and the types of questions, suggesting to me later that many of them might make good attorneys if provided with the proper education, something I decided to keep in mind.

My harem was uncharacteristically subdued at dinner, enough that I knew something was up. The seating arrangement when we got back to the suite was interesting, too, with Chaquanda on one side and Vonna on the other. "Okay, what's up?" I asked, trying to get to the bottom of it. The quick, guilty looks were aimed mainly at Chaquanda and Vonna. "I take it you two get to tell me. Should I spank one or both of you?" I asked. At least that got them to smile.

Chaquanda handed a small data cube to Vonna who hooked it to a computer and started it playing. I didn't recognize the tune or the voice that started singing, but quickly guessed that since Chaquanda had the recording, and since Jocelyn was visibly absent, that Jocelyn was the woman singing.

The first verse was about being afraid, and how I held her in my arms and made her feel safe and protected while she trembled. The next verse was about our making love, and how, afterwards, she trembled in my arms from excitement. The third verse was about trembling in my arms later when she realized just how deep her feelings for me went, and the song finished talking about how she trembled in my arms each time we were together now, afraid it might be her last time in my arms. I looked around the room through teary eyes at each of my wives. "Comments?" I asked to no one in particular.

"What do you want to do?" Jenna asked.

I thought about it before answering. "I obviously have no intentions of kicking her out, but hardly feel we know each other well enough for anything else. I guess that if she wants to join us like Natasha, and see if she feels the same way in a year, we could discuss the future at that point. What?" I asked, seeing them all grinning at me like I had just been the butt of a joke.

"That's what we figured you'd say," Renee replied.

"Another notch in your heart," Helga sighed.

"Hey, that sounds like another song," Jenna kidded.

I brought the talking and joking to a screeching halt. "We need to talk," I said in a serious enough tone that everyone knew there was a problem. "I'm about to add a fifth wife, one I love as dearly as my other four," I said, smiling and blowing a kiss to Karin. "On top of that, there are more than a dozen women with us regularly that have the potential of ending up as wives or lifetime partners. I already feel that I don't have enough time to properly maintain those important relationships. I already don't spend enough time with each of you. This has to stop somewhere. I think that we need to limit any more new additions to the group, and hope for the best with everyone that's already a part. The last thing I want is for any of you to ever get hurt or to have our relationship fall apart because I can't pay enough attention to you or spend enough time with you."

"Mike, that's nonsense. We all understand that you have a lot going on right now and we're all very happy about what you've done. We're not concerned that we haven't been able to spend a lot of time with you. We've been busy, too, and things should settle down shortly," Vonna argued.

"I think that it will be at least two years before anything settles down. I'm sure it will take at least a year to rebuild the government in Russia to a point where they can govern themselves without a major military presence to keep order. By then, I'll be knee deep in directing the exploration and colonization of other solar systems. Plus, I get the distinct impression that a large number of the 35,000 or so women that I'm responsible for will be staying here longer than a month or two. I realize that many of you and a lot of other people here are helping with all of these responsibilities, and I appreciate it more than I've told each of you. For me to give you and them these responsibilities, though, and not check with you frequently to see if you have everything you need would be an abdication of my responsibilities--both to you and to the people I'm responsible for.

"Even if I could accept that I only had limited time with each of you, it wouldn't alter the fact that we would grow apart from each other," I added.

"We love you too much for that to happen," Jenna countered.

"Have you changed in the last four weeks?" I asked her, but included everyone with a sweep of my hand around the room. My question caught them all off guard.

"I have. Four weeks ago, I was a simple, single scientist, inventor, and student. Today, I have several wives and command the mightiest military on the planet. I just led the biggest armada in history into battle, and ordered 60,000 troops into a battle that defeated an enemy force five times that size. Fully a third of the forces I led had only two to four days of training. Shortly I will be sending research teams to 21 different stars looking for suitable planets to colonize, and within a year, I intend to send the first group of people to colonize a planet outside of our solar system. Four weeks ago, my biggest concerns were keeping my girlfriend happy, deciding what class to take next, and finishing up some paperwork at work to get final approval of my latest invention. Today my concerns are making sure that my wives and girlfriends are happy, forming a stable central government in Russia, keeping the nearly 80 million people there fed and safe until they can do it on their own, seeing to the happiness and welfare of the 40,000 or so people on base here, putting together the research teams for the star systems I want to explore, and preparing the colony ships so that the people that want to try to colonize another planet have everything they need to be safe.

"Looking around this room, I know that each of you has had a huge change in your life as well. All of these changes cause each of us grow. If we don't spend enough time together, we will each grow in different directions. Three years from now, one of you may realize that even though we love each other, we've changed so much that we aren't the same people that fell in love three years earlier. So many couples end up divorced just for that reason. It wasn't that they made a mistake getting married to each other; the mistake was in not growing together after they got married. They were each so busy with their own lives that they didn't pay enough attention to the life of the person they loved. When was the last time I saw Bree before the other night? For weeks now, the only time I talked to her was to ask for something, and Katie, and Penny, and Danielle, and so many more. Sure they understand, but do they wonder in the back of their mind if I've forgotten about them, or if I don't care anymore?

"I also don't want all of this to sound like I want to reduce the number of women in my life--I don't. Each and every one of you has a place in my heart. I just don't want to divide my heart up any more than necessary in the future so that each of you has enough of my heart, my time, and my attention to do you justice." The collective sigh of relief at that statement made me glad that I'd realized that I'd sounded like I wanted to reduce the number of women in my life.

After that, I was basically dragged to the bedroom where each of my women made sure to get enough time with me to let me show her that I loved her. Unfortunately, it was early morning before the last one was satisfied. We still hadn't decided about Jocelyn, but I was pretty sure they were leaving that decision to me.

Chapter 27

SATURDAY May 24

Renee's whispering woke me, and even with my eyes closed, I knew it was later than I usually woke up. I could see the light through my eyelids. Natasha and Jenna giggled as the soft, hot mouth continued to suck on my cock. "Someone's been practicing," I thought to myself. None of the women I went to sleep with last night sucked cock that well except maybe Natasha, and she was next to me still giggling.

It definitely wasn't one of the women I went to sleep with last night, and when her scent told me who it was, I started to panic for a second. Then I remembered Dr. Sun's advice, and took a couple of deep breaths to relax before I reached out, eyes still shut, and stroked Li's tiny cheek. "Good morning little one," I said, grinning. She didn't answer, but her tempo increased and her tongue went crazy swirling around my cockhead as it slid in and out of her tiny mouth. Unsure if I really wanted to watch, I opened my eyes and saw the biggest cock-filled grin I'd ever seen looking back at me. The love and happiness on her face at that moment melted my heart and chased away the lingering doubts I'd had about letting Li join in our sex play. "Keep that up and I'm going to cum," I warned her. It was like throwing fuel on a fire. She redoubled her efforts, her little head bobbing up and down so fast I thought it might fall off. One hand stroked my cock in time with her lips; the other began lightly stroking my balls. "Cumming," I grunted a warning about a minute later. "Shiiiiiiiiiit," I almost shouted when her tiny finger invaded my backside and began to massage my prostate.

Her cheeks were still bulging when I managed to re-open my eyes, Grinning lewdly she leaned over Vonna and let some of my spend dribble into her mouth. She repeated this action with every one of the women there before showing me that she still had a little left. Raising her chin high in the air, she swallowed, the movement in her throat as she did plain as day.

And then the woman part of my woman child disappeared and the child bounced up onto my chest, more excited than I'd ever seen her. "Thank you, daddy, thank you, thank you, thank you," she squealed excitedly. She snuggled her tiny, naked body against mine, resting her head on my shoulder like all of my other lovers would do and sighed a deep, contented sigh. I gazed up at the faces of my other lovers. There wasn't a dry eye in the room, mine included.

I reached for Chaquanda's hand and asked if she could bring Jocelyn, explaining that I had intended to get up this morning and go talk to her, but got pre-empted.

"I'll be back in a few minutes--don't you dare get out of bed," she warned. She flew out of the room, pulling on the briefest thong I'd ever seen as she ran--although it was still more than many women wore around the base.

Grinning, Helga handed me an EB and a bottle of ACCO-L. "You may need these," she teased. While Li continued to pin me to the mattress, the rest of the women showered and went about getting ready for their day.

Even before they were done, an anxious Jocelyn was almost pushed into the bedroom. She sat nervously next to me when I motioned her over. "I missed you last night," I said. She smiled a little, but that wasn't all that she wanted to hear. "You are welcome in my bed, in my arms, and in my life for as long as you choose." Her grin got bigger. "I think we should take a year to get to know each other better. If you can stand being around me that long, we'll discuss the future then, okay?" She nodded as she commandeered the side Li left unguarded, resting her head on the free shoulder.

Chaquanda snuggled behind Jocelyn, and soon her hands were busy under Jocelyn's clothes and Jocelyn was squirming under her ministrations. Li joined Chaquanda in removing Jocelyn's clothes, and Jocelyn pulled me over on top of her, quickly pushing the head of my cock between the slick lips of her sex and raising her hips to impale herself. When we finished, Chaquanda and Li shared the chore of cleaning her and making sure the mess I'd left had all been properly licked up.

The rest of my lovers dressed as we recuperated from our exertions. Renee came back into the room a couple of seconds after exiting, telling me that Marco's brothers were waiting in the main room and wanted to talk to me when I was done. The girls shooed me out of bed telling me that the world was waiting for me. Li snuck in one last kiss.

It wasn't just Marco's brothers waiting for me. Their two wives and about 50 other women, many pregnant, were there also. It took me several minutes to greet each one of them before sitting down across from the brothers. They looked nervously back and forth at each other, obviously trying to convince the other to begin. Finally, Dina, Vladimir's wife, tired of waiting for them and explained why they were here. "Mike, we appreciate everything you did for us more than we can ever tell you. We would like to ask two huge favors if we could."

"Ask away," I replied.

Vladimir finally found his nerve. "Mike, we know that we still have time to serve on our sentences, but we wondered if there was any way possible to finish them while doing something for you in Russia. We'd really like to move back home."

"I think that's an excellent idea. If you have some type of work already lined up there, that's fine. If not, I'm sure your brother can use your help. He's trying to set up a distribution system for everything we need to send there to help. Since that would still be working for me and helping the UN, it will still count as triple. Let me know where you want to live, and we'll either buy you a place to live or set up one of the temporary houses for each of you."

"We can't expect you to do that," Vasily protested.

"Sure you can. Your wives live here on the base which qualifies them as my women so I'm allowed to spoil them any way I want," I reminded them, smirking.

"There's more," Vasily said nervously. Seeing how nervous the rest of the women in the room got, I was pretty sure it had something to do with them. "These are some of the women from the bases we lived at. Each has either had my children or Vasily's," Vladimir explained. Taking a deep breath, he continued. "Since you own our contracts, we have to get your permission to get married. We each want to marry all of the women that have had our children and they want to marry us. Greg has found many of their children with his DNA matching database, and we'd like to take all of them with us to raise in Russia."

"On one condition," I said solemnly. They all perked up at that. "I pay for the wedding and build brand new houses for both families, something worthy of representatives of this base." Almost before the words were out of my mouth, I was being mauled by several of the women--at least the ones that weren't still sitting, frozen with shock.

When the ladies finally let me up, Vladimir and Vasily gave me their own Russian bear hugs. "Deal," they both answered excitedly while I checked for broken ribs.

I commed James and asked if we had a couple of small freighters that could be turned into passenger shuttles. When he assured me that we did, I asked to have them done as soon as they could be without interfering with any critical projects. I wanted them to have the FRA emblem, the PITA emblem, and the Omega emblem on them. As an afterthought, I asked him to make about two thirds of the seats children's seats. "For family outings," I told the stunned group. "Consider it a pre-wedding present."

When they finally calmed down I gave Dina the com number for the JP I used for our weddings. "You ladies start planning your weddings. I'll put these two oafs to work to keep them out of your hair," I told the roomful of giggling women as I pushed the two burly guys out the door--not that I could have pushed either of them anywhere if they'd protested.

The brothers wanted to move back to Bratsk, and showed me the area of town they hoped to move to. I suggested they get with their wives tonight, and with one of the construction android supervisors and get plans worked up so I could get them busy building the two houses.

Thirty minutes later, even though it was late night there, I was in Bratsk, talking to the mayor. That area of town was mostly dilapidated apartment buildings. Flying over it I found the specific area they wanted, and then the place I thought would work. It was right next to a park and a school. The mayor gave me a strange look when I asked who owned the rundown apartment buildings. "You do, now," he explained, adding that over half were empty, and the rest were mostly empty. Between the gradual four-century decline in the population of Russia and people leaving to get father away from Derevenko's pillaging troops, the population here was far below 20,000, much less than a quarter of what it had been at one point.

I thanked him for his help, promising to make some positive changes soon. On the way home, I scanned the area. The apartments I was interested in demolishing only had a total of 203 families living in them, something I could easily deal with. Having walked through one of the apartments, I knew that even the temporary housing units we had would be a vast improvement. On the flight back, I sent James a map of the area and instructions. I wanted two of the empty, dilapidated buildings razed, and a new five-story tower for 500 families built with the temporary units we had. The park would eventually be expanded to eight times its current size, including soccer and baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts, an enclosed, heated pool, and a large, shielded picnic area. A four block area adjacent to the park, the school, and the new apartment tower would be the homes for Vladimir and Vasily. A large part of the area would be a tarmac for their new converted freighters, and the four and ten passenger shuttles I planned to provide so that all of the women had transportation. The houses would need to be on the large side to accommodate families with 22 and 29 adults and sundry children. Actually, it would need to be huge. Vladimir had 27 of the former 'breeders' from his base, and had found 66 of their children--48 of which were his. Vasily had 20 women from his base, and had found 47 of their children--33 of which were his. The thought of that many children and that many wives scared the shit out of me. I hoped to keep the number of my wives to a more manageable level, but was afraid that the number of children would be significantly more than both brothers combined. At least Li would be happy.

Their excited fiancees found me at lunch. The date was set for next Saturday. I promised them enough shuttles to carry all of their family members that wanted to attend, and then showed them what I'd been doing all morning. There were protests about the planned size of the two homes until I asked them how many bedrooms each family would need. Having made my point, the protests turned to happy tears. I reminded them that they needed to come up with a design quickly if we were going to have the houses ready by next weekend. I asked James to send one of the construction foremen over if there was one free. By the time I managed to extricate myself from all of the hugs and kisses, he had arrived and the house planning convention headed elsewhere to reconvene.

I made the rounds of the sixteen law groups that were starting their own conventions today. All had already elected a chairwoman, and had established a basic framework to work in. I was impressed with how much they had accomplished in one morning. I was watching their progress carefully to have something to compare the upcoming Russian attempt to write a new constitution.

Karin and I went and talked to her parents. At first, they were much less than enthusiastic about her even seeing me again, much less marrying me. When she finally told them about her earlier reticence to tell me what had been upsetting her the first time we dated, and then how Vonna and I had the same issue except that Vonna had been honest with me about it, they finally changed their tune. The wedding was set for the following Saturday, right after those of Vasily and Vladimir, and our honeymoon beach was reserved. Actually, I bought it outright from the guy who owned the island. Evidently, aside from us, he usually managed to rent it out only seven or eight days a year and was happy to be rid of it.

I kidnapped each of my wives for a couple of hours during the rest of the day and we walked along our new beach, playing in the water and talking. They caught me up on what they had been doing for the last couple of weeks, and each wanted to know what I felt my limit on wives would be. My explanations were all the same--I didn't know. I would not exclude any of my current 'harem.' Neither would I encourage them. They had to let me know it was what they wanted. I would also consider--on a case-by-case basis--any new additions my wives proposed. Their follow-up question was answered similarly. Children would be limited to the women that were currently in or close to our group. I wouldn't force the issue, but hoped that any woman having one of my children would live with us or at least nearby in the rebuilt Alamogordo. I would not limit the number of children any one woman could have, nor would I limit the total number of children.

Renee was my last victim of the day, and had to suffer through my Russia updates. Jeff reported that there had been attempts at looting in almost a hundred cities--attempts that were universally unsuccessful. The Gennady-controlled broadcast media made a point of showing the quick response of the temporarily enhanced police force, and pictures of all of the would-be looters sitting in prison awaiting trial by the temporary judicial system. He felt we had consolidated our position there well enough to make the announcement to the world.

Marco's mom, Valentina, reported all of the delegates to the constitutional convention had been selected, and would meet at eight a.m. Monday in the new capital of St. Petersburg. Moscow, the traditional capital, had been rejected. Four hundred years of iron-fisted and corrupt rule from that city had given it a bad reputation. Then she surprised me, telling me that the one question all of the delegates had was how much of the country I would claim for my own. Evidently, I now 'owned' the country, having inherited it from Derevenko. That explained the mayor's comment this morning that I owned the apartments. "If I ask for anything it will probably be some empty land in Siberia that I can shield and use for agriculture. I don't want the mines, factories, cities, or people. Those belong to the people of Russia, not me. I'll leave it up to you and the delegates to decide what to do with everything once the new government is up and functioning."

Marco greeted me warmly when I commed him, telling me I should bring a medi-doc Saturday to his brothers' wedding because the hug he would give me might break a rib or two. I warned him that my wives would look on that unfavorably since I was getting married to Karin right after his brothers got married, and they wouldn't be happy about missing the honeymoon. He was still laughing when he clicked off.

I made a quick call to Sven and told him that he could make the announcements tomorrow, but that I had to be in Russia by nine pm tomorrow night. He thanked me and asked that everyone he'd singled out be at the UN building tomorrow morning before ten o'clock New York time. One last call went to Johann to let him know that the Russian delegates would be starting Monday morning and I expected that he should plan on spending Tuesday addressing them. He thanked me for the heads up, and I turned my attention back to my patient wife.

Renee and I simply lay on the beach after that and watched stars. She asked me to point out which ones I intended to try to colonize and I pointed out the four that were visible from where we were. "Are you still okay with me becoming a judge?" she asked. She squealed when I rolled her over and gave her a light swat.