Chapter 3: Bụi đời

A flotilla of four ships entered the Earthat system above the ecliptic, identified itself to what remained of orbital control, and announced the intent of three ships to assume a stationary orbit over Southeast Asia and the fourth over the southern Caribbean. Following her usual practice, Helva downloaded the data from the collection beacon she’d planted long ago. Then Cheval Jaune, Helva, and the Bunte Kuh proceeded to hover over Vietnam. Pink Panther conveyed Norma Bates to visit her ‘family’ on Anouilh in the Caribbean.

Nguyễn Chí Minh, Vietnam’s prime minister, and Pham Phú Huệ, Vietnam’s president, were sequestered with two guests in a small, opulent hotel room at the center of Hanoi.

“Gentlemen, we’d like to assist you.” Helva’s avatar offered the two Vietnamese leaders, “and help ourselves by doing so.”

Helva’s beautiful image motioned to the woman standing beside her. “My captain, Vivie, and I brought you a great treasure – a pod full of Confederacy med-tubes capable of repairing most injuries sustained in your fight against the invading Sa’arm. A volunteer Tu’ull AI accompanies the pods to oversee their use and train personnel to assist in their operation. Its name is S’lpstk and has taken the human name Libby.”

Minh and Huệ were astounded. Huệ, the first to respond, asked, “How would this help you, and why us and not the Chinese who would seem to have much more to offer you? And above all, why?”

With Helva translating, Vivie answered, “The Chinese had their chance to colonize and blew it. The Confederacy gave them a whole colony planet, and they mismanaged it so badly it failed.” She paused, and then continued, “We don’t trust their government, nor many elements of their culture. Frankly, we aren’t so sure we can trust you, but our colony’s governor once visited your country. He came away with a good impression of your people, and he thinks humans are not well served if the Confederacy only aids westerners and only westerners are extracted to represent humanity.”

The two men smiled, but Vivie held up her hand and told them, “I don’t intend an insult, but Governor Michael also found many of your people don’t think much of their government. But needs must,” she nodded at their frowns and continued, “and we’d like to offer an opportunity for some of your people to be extracted.”

Huệ was startled and objected, “I thought there was a test that must be passed. I wish my wives and children to escape, but not as slaves! I will not force them.”

“Children are not extracted as slaves nor as sex toys. They are valued as potential citizens. Your wives must volunteer, and yes, there is a test. They might score high enough to become citizens, or they might become concubines of a citizen. However, they would know which and could decide before accepting any offer.”

“So,” she summarized, “I offer you med-tubes to heal your wounded and ill, and the opportunity to save your wives and children. In return, we will fill our two small ships Helva and the Bunte Kuh with children and those wounded who wish to be extracted.”

Trang Trưng Trắc should have loved her name, but she found it a mockery. She didn’t perceive herself as elegant, which her surname implied, and her naming after her country’s first queen and female hero did not match her circumstances and likely future. Nevertheless, Trắc was a beauty, even if she couldn’t see it.

On a practical basis, the Vietnamese were fighting two wars. As with other Southeast Asian countries, they reluctantly supplied military units to help the Chinese fight against the Sa’arm incursions, but all who could, prudently maintained units at home to prevent the hated, opportunistic, Tàu Khựa (Chinese) from resuming their ages-old invasions and occupation.

With the coming of the Sa’arm, the Vietnamese Central Committee viewed rapid population growth as absolutely necessary for survival, and had imitated the Confederacy by establishing breeder tổ ong (hives). Trắc had been designated a ‘breeder’ fated to spend her reproductive years enduring a succession of sexual liaisons until pregnancy took hold and so producing and rearing warrior child after warrior child. While Trắc understood this need on an intellectual level, emotionally she resented her relegation to a subservient role she considered as little more value than a chicken laying eggs.

At fourteen, the medics determined that Trắc was developed enough to bear children, and she had been assigned to her tổ ong located in Lào Cai on Vietnam’s border with China. There, with twenty similarly aged girls supervised by a tổ ong nữ hoàng (hive queen), she endured sex with as many as five young soldiers every night until she missed her period and was confirmed as pregnant. The breeders spent their ‘free time’ studying military strategy and tactics, and their exercise consisted of a variety of martial arts and weapons training – all deemed necessary for when their reproductive usefulness ended.

Three months after the birth of their latest child, the young mothers were obligated to resume procreative sex. For many, this was a hardship, but most of the soldiers ‘visiting’ were respectful even if not particularly skilled or gentle. Occasionally, one or more Tàu Khựa would sneak across the border to demand sex. It was not always possible to turn them away, and rape resulted.

Shortly after turning sixteen, Trắc was ‘trying’ to become pregnant with her third child. Seated in the hive’s dining hall, she was feeding her sons, Tuan and Chinh, when two uniformed Chinese burst in waving their QBZ-95 bullpup assault rifles. They marched towards the front of the hall motioning the frightened women to stand and strip.