Chapter 3: Growing Up

As she walked back to the pod beside her brother, Rachel was silent; she was so distracted that she didn't even notice her own nakedness. She'd made a complete spectacle of herself in front of everyone, and not for the first time.

Thinking it best to leave her to her thoughts, David kept quiet also. He remembered his earlier puzzlement, so he took the opportunity to query the AI subvocally, «Is the Fleet Auxiliary about replacing Navy people on colony ships, and getting them onto warships?»

«Affirmative, sir. The Fleet Auxiliary will be used for non-combatant missions, such as crewing colony ships, inter-system supply delivery and personnel transfer. This will release trained naval personnel.»

«There is nothing about the Fleet Auxiliary on Earth.»

«It is felt that if information were readily available, then there would be too many volunteers for the non-combatant options, and not enough for the combat branches. There is a small amount of information released to Earth, but it is only shown on request, and even then only to those people whose CAP scores indicate that their usefulness in the combat branches would be limited.»

Walking alongside David, Rachel was lost in her thoughts. Nothing she did ever turned out right. She felt a complete failure. Dad was right, she was just a useless girl. She couldn't even succeed at being a concubine, Sylvia was much better at it than she was. Life was just ghastly.

Once they were back in the pod, David just sat with Rachel on the sofa and put his arm round her shoulder. He wasn't sure what to say to her, in case he made things worse. Eventually she solved his problem for him, "I messed things up again, didn't I?"

"You're not the only one, Rache," he tried to reassure her. "Didn't you hear Kenisha talking about the sweepstake? It must happen every trip. And there was another concubine who was sick, as well as you."

She didn't seem to hear him. "I'm always messing up. I left my CAP card behind. I couldn't handle being naked. You and Sylvia have to look after me all the time. I'm no good with her kids. I threw up in the dining hall. Sylvia's a much better concubine than I am. I'm useless." She threw her arms around David and wailed onto his shoulder in despair, "I want to go home!"

David just held her tight and made reassuring noises, hoping she would be better in a bit. Thinking about why she had thrown up, he had another silent conversation with the AI, «How old was that concubine induction video of the woman being recycled?»

«Eight weeks old, sir.»

«Was it taken on this ship?»

«No, sir.»

He decided to confirm his suspicion, «I presume that recycled corpses do get reprocessed into food as well as other things.»

«Correct, sir. We need to make the most efficient use of the resources available on board ship.»

«Has anyone been recycled on this ship since it arrived in Earth orbit?»

«No, sir.»

«Please notify me silently if anyone has to be recycled during our journey.» David wanted to be able to warn Rachel before she ate, rather than having her find out after the event.

«Affirmative, sir.»

As he looked around he noticed that the AI had set up Sylvia's new colour scheme in the pod. It was certainly better than the grey it had been before. Anything to distract him from worrying about Rachel.

When Sylvia returned with Pat and Mary, she took in the situation at a glance. She retrieved Mister Bozo from Mary and shooed both children upstairs. Rachel unwrapped an arm to grab her teddy bear, and Sylvia disappeared after the children. David just sat and waited until his sister had cried herself out.

"Your uniform is all wet." Rachel was more-or-less back in control of herself.

"I can always get another one. What about you?" David asked anxiously.

"I feel a bit better. Can I just lie down again? It seemed to help before."

"Of course, Rache. Don't be too hard on yourself. You're getting a lot of new stuff thrown at you in a short time." He was trying to be reassuring.

Rachel smiled faintly and nodded. She knew David was trying to help, but things were very difficult for her at the moment. She did indeed have an awful lot of new stuff to take on board. If only father hadn't kept her so sheltered, she might have been able to handle it better.

Once Rachel was settled in her small bedroom, hugging Mister Bozo tightly, David returned to the main room and got to thinking about his sister's CAP scores. He'd known that he was going to take her, whatever her scores were, so he hadn't even bothered to check her CAP card at the airport. Turning towards a blank wall, he got the AI to display her CAP results for him.

The numbers showed that she was timid and unsure of herself, with a slightly low self-image. Her potential motherhood score was good, though it was mostly potential. Her experience helping their mother with young Abel, had helped change some of her potential into actual. The sex score was good, rather better than David had expected. Obviously she had been repressing that side of herself while living with Dad. Perhaps that part of her duties as a concubine wouldn't be too bad for her. Once she got used to it, she should enjoy it. He wondered how much the rest of her CAP score had been distorted by having to live with their father. It might be interesting to see how well she did when she retested on her fifteenth birthday.

David got up, ditched his old uniform into the recycler and retrieved a new one from the replicator. "AI, what's with the rank badge? Why the letter 'A'?" He had a single gold bar with a letter 'A' embossed on it. He knew that the gold bar was for a Sub-Lieutenant but the 'A' was new to him.

"Lieutenant Legere ordered them, sir. You are an Officer Cadet which is also known as an Aspirant in the Canadian armed forces. The 'A' stands for 'Aspirant' and differentiates the bar from that of a Sub-Lieutenant." David nodded, and called up a Marine training vid to pass the time.

Sylvia interrupted him, coming down with the children in tow. "How's Rachel doing?"

"She's calmer and resting in her room with Mister B. And by the way, a nice job with the colour scheme."

"Why thank you very much, young master." She smiled and gave him a mock curtsey.

David grinned, and muttered about insubordinate concubines.

Sylvia laughed, and went on, "The AI fixed the kids' bedroom as well, so Mary should be happier." She smiled at her younger child.

"Yes, Mam," Mary told her, "I like it now. I didn't like it on my own. It was scary."

Sylvia turned back to David. "I have to take these two off to medical, for their initial checks."

David smiled, and nodded for her to take the children.

Soon after Sylvia and the children left, Rachel re-emerged, interrupting David's video for a second time. She had tidied herself up, and was wearing a new smock. "Can we talk, David?"

"Of course, Sis." He shut off the vid, and patted the seat next to him for her to sit.

She sat down and took hold of his hand. At first she didn't look at him, just staring downwards, talking to her knees. "I was thinking about Dad. I still love him, but ... Well, he took me out of school just before my thirteenth birthday. I think he wanted to keep me at twelve years old, keep me sheltered, and keep me away from stuff about the Swarm. What you said yesterday about 'English, Maths and the Bible' was right."

"So you were taking some of it in?"

"It was strange," Rachel explained. "I was sort of frozen, watching myself in a film of what was going on. I could see it, and hear it, but I couldn't do anything in it. Anyway, Dad wanted to keep me at twelve years old. But I'm not twelve, I'm fourteen. Typical Dad. If things weren't the way he wanted them to be, then he'd ignore the bits he didn't like and pretended they didn't exist." She paused, collecting her thoughts, and turned towards her brother. "I think that a lot of the problems I've been having, since the airport, are me trying to grow up two years in the space of two days." David started to reply, but she stopped him with a gesture, putting her finger to his lips. "Being away from Dad has given me the chance to grow up. I don't think I've finished it all yet, but I hope I'm over the worst of it. Thank you for taking me away David." She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. He was even more surprised when he felt a little tentative tongue added in. She pulled back and giggled. "The look on your face!" She kissed him again, briefly, but no tongue this time. "I'm fourteen, not twelve, so I need to catch up on a lot of stuff. Kissing and boys and babies sort of stuff."

"You're certainly not twelve any more, Rache." He thought of something, «AI, have the nanites started affecting her libido yet?»

«No, sir. They are not due to activate until tomorrow afternoon.»

So, David realised, the kissing was all Rachel and not the nanites. "I think it should be fun learning stuff together," he told her. "Especially the kissing and babies stuff."

Rachel smiled, "I thought you might like that part. I think I will too."

They were sitting on the sofa, still holding hands, and talking when the AI interrupted. "Officer Cadet Harlow, you are due for an exercise session in the gym in fifteen minutes. You should change into your fatigues for this duty. They are in the closet in your bedroom."

"Rache, will you be OK on your own 'til Sylvia gets back?"

"Yes, I'll be fine," she reassured him. "I've calmed down a lot now. I can watch some concubine training videos while I wait."

David's exercise session was run by Sergeant Quinn. "You're all having the standard Marine body enhancements, so you're all going to need to get used to your new larger bodies. There are two ways to do this: dancing and martial arts. No prizes for guessing which one we will be doing." David managed a rueful grin at the sergeant's joke. This session probably wasn't going to be easy. "To start with you won't be sparring," he told them. "The reason for this is that we don't want you injuring each other by accident. When you pull a blow one inch short of putting your opponent's eye out, and your arm is two inches longer than you expected, things can get very very messy. And 'messy' isn't allowed in the Marines. Until you are properly used to your new size, we will be using inanimate targets: makiwara, punch-bags and similar, so we don't overload medical. You'll be sparring with each other by the end of this voyage, so listen and learn well now."

Back in the pod, the two women were watching the children play. Rachel asked, "I suppose it's easier with two, because they can play together. Abel could be a handful when he wanted to play, and wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Yes," Sylvia agreed. "When it was just Pat, he only had me to play with, so he took up a lot of my time. Very insistent he was. Once Mary was old enough to be able to play with him, it got a lot easier. That will help us later, once we start popping out more babies in a few months time."

"Sylvia, can I ask you some questions?"

"That sounds serious, Rachel."

Rachel blushed. "Well, sort of. My Dad didn't let me know anything about sex. Mum helped a bit, but back then I didn't know much about what to ask. I saw some of what went on during the pickup at the airport, and there were a lot of things they showed at the concubine briefing as well. I wanted to ask about them. I'm embarrassed to ask David, so I thought I could ask you."

"Ask away," Sylvia smiled, "I'll do my best." She was pleased that Rachel felt able to ask her such questions. It showed the teenager trusted her.

"Well, when they showed that woman putting his thing in her mouth. How was she able to take so much of it? She had her nose in his hair."

"I really don't know the answer to that," Sylvia replied. "I tried to go deep with Des, but I couldn't get him anywhere near that far down my throat. I did notice that the concubine in that bit of the video looked as if she'd been enhanced by her sponsor. It may be something they can do to us in medical. I think we get a second visit where they make us look like porn stars." She held up her hands, indicating a large imaginary bust.

Rachel giggled in response. "I wish mine would grow more. I've got all tall, but my boobs are still tiny."

"Give them time," Sylvia advised, "and if that doesn't work, then ask David to make them bigger."

"I might do that if they don't get a move on. I'm sure David wouldn't object. Don't all men like big ones?" They both fell to giggling again. Rachel returned to her questions about blowjobs, "It must be really strange, to be able to suck one all the way in. If I tried it, I'm sure I'd gag and throw up again."

"Me too," agreed Sylvia. "I knew Des would have liked it, but there was no way I could get him down my throat. I could take his first few inches fine, but no more. When he reached the back of my mouth I had to stop him."

"Do you miss Des, Sylvia?" Rachel asked.

"Yes, of course I do," Sylvia replied, seriously. "There's a big hole in my life where he was. I expected it to be red raw, but it's actually more numb than raw. That makes it a bit easier to bear. Your brother is very nice, and he's doing his best, so that helps. Having the kids with me is good as well. I'm sure Des is missing all three of us. It's not as bad as I imagined it would be, but that might be part of what they did to us in medical. I know they can do a lot of things, and that's an obvious one. A lot of us have had to leave people behind."

"Yes, I do miss Mum and Dad. Mum more than Dad, but like you say it's more numb than raw. Maybe you're right and it's something the nanites do to us." Rachel paused, "I have another question about sex. Some people were doing it in the wrong hole. In their behinds. 'Anal sex' I think they called it in the film. Did you ever do that?"

Sylvia blushed slightly in embarrassment. Still, she had promised to answer Rachel's questions, and didn't want to disappoint the teenager. "Yes we did. After we were married we tried a few different things. I didn't like it as much as the normal way, so Des didn't insist. After they announced that the Swarm was coming, we started doing it again. We'd heard about what went on at extractions, so we did anal about once a week to let me get used to it. I might have had to do that at a pickup to get myself a sponsor. I even carried a small tube of lube in my handbag, just in case. As it turned out I didn't need it at all. It's not too bad if the man is gentle and takes his time, but I prefer it in the usual place."

"Do you think David will want to do that with us?" Rachel asked the older woman.

"Well, he hasn't asked me yet, but he'll likely want to try it sometime. It isn't as if we can say no to him. When he does decide to do it, I'm sure he won't be rough about it. He doesn't want to deliberately hurt either of us. It's not that bad as long as you can relax, use plenty of lubrication and he takes it slowly."

"You're right," Rachel said, "I don't think David wants to be nasty to us." She paused for a moment, "Do you really think he'll want to do that anal thing? Doesn't it get all ... well, dirty?"

"I think he'll probably want to try it at least once. As to the dirty bit, you have to clean yourself out first. That way it's not too bad. It does mean planning in advance though, so it can't really be spontaneous."

"Mam, look at my drawing!" Pat interrupted. Once Sylvia had praised his doodle, and sent him off to colour it in, she asked Rachel, "What about you, going to have sex with your own brother! I had two brothers, and I couldn't imagine doing it with either of them."

"It's weird," Rachel explained. "I know I shouldn't want to, but David was the only boy I could actually talk to. Dad only allowed me to meet girls; boys were definitely off-limits. The Church youth group was very strict about making sure girls my age weren't talking to boys. David was all I had really. It'll be strange enough with it being my first time and all. It's almost as if the incest part doesn't matter so much. I know it should matter more, but somehow it doesn't. I do love David and I know he loves me. I didn't have any boyfriends, so it was always David or nothing."

"You poor thing," Sylvia replied sympathetically. "I had plenty of local boys to pick from, so there was always an alternative to my bratty brothers."

"Bratty brothers?" David interrupted and made them both jump. He had just arrived back from his gym session, and had caught the tail end of their conversation.

"My two brothers," Sylvia quickly explained. "They're both younger than me, and were both bratty. Always trying to get peeks at me in the shower."

"Talking of showers," David said, "I need one after my torture session with Sergeant Quinn. One of you can come and help me wash my back." He smiled at them both, and headed for the big bedroom, unfastening his fatigues.

The two women looked at each other and laughed. "Looks like you're going to get to peek at your brother in the shower then," Sylvia said with a grin.

"Oh no! I couldn't," Rachel protested, embarrassed.

"Yes you can. Go and help him while I keep an eye on the kids. You said you had a lot to learn, so you can get started now."