Be Prepared
Copyright© 2025 by Han Jansz. van Meegeren
Chapter 1
Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory.
Miguel de Cervantes
“Hi Sharon, please come in.”
“Thank you, Joyce.” A couple of years ago, I started calling my friend’s mother by her first name. She had insisted so many times, I finally gave in. Drew Giraut was the best male friend I had. My best girlfriend was his mother. I was child at home in their house and spent more time at their house than mine. My mother had been at the right time and the right place when one of the Confederacy ships picked up volunteers to fight with them. Her looks made her an obvious target for some stranger and she went as his concubine to a new life. I was sixteen at the time, and she took my twelve-year-old brother with her. My father went to pieces after that. What he considered betrayal was too much for him to bear. He had a CAP-score of 6.9 and could have taken her with him if he had been at the fundraising party. Mother had invited him to go with her, but he had gone to work instead. My dad was not a party man. After my mother left, he hit the bottle badly and was home less often. His sleeping with other people was his way of getting back at my mother for her betrayal.
“I was at the lab to bring Drew some lunch and told him to come home for dinner, no matter what happened.” I said.
“How did he react to that?”
“I had to make sure he understood I was serious. This is the third day he did not come home and has stayed working in the lab. Even a genius needs a decent night of sleep, and I told him we needed to talk.”
“I’m sure that made him nervous.” Joyce smiled.
“It did. He dropped a test tube. But I need to talk to you first. What is your CAP-score?” I asked bluntly. Most people didn’t reveal their CAP-score, in fact, it was considered extremely rude to ask for it.
“We haven’t taken the test yet. I know for sure I will not qualify as a sponsor, and if Drew has even noticed that the world had changed after the first evacuations of humans by the Confederacy, he might have panicked. You have seen how he’s busy in the University’s lab for days on end, untouched by the surrounding chaos, working on yet another invention. In his lab he is happy, and the thick walls of the University keep all distractions out of sight, out of mind. How about you, Sharon?”
“We all went together when my father was tested. My score was 8.1.”
“That’s wonderful, Sharon. That makes you a sponsor, and how many concubines can you take with you? Eight?”
“No, six. But I won’t be leaving Earth as a sponsor, but as a concubine. Drew’s concubine.”
“Sharon, you shouldn’t. I have heard stories about concubines that made my skin crawl. A sponsor can do anything he wants with them. They have to rights at all, and if the sponsor tires of them, he can dump them or trade them in for a better model. They are nothing more
than —
“A sex slave,” I added. “Yes, you are right. Let me ask you another question. If Drew got a sponsor score, who would you think he wants to take with him?”
Silence.
“Just you and me.” She didn’t look thrilled with that answer.
“Exactly. You know very well that Drew will score higher than six and a half. So he can take four or six, or even more concubines with him. And you know as well as I do that his autism will not allow him to make a good choice at the extraction site. He’s a man, so he will pick the prettiest of the girls and willn’t care less if they will be compatible with him.”
“He’s not a man; he’s just a boy.”
“Any fourteen-year-old boy with a decent CAP-score is a man in the eyes of the Confederacy. So you’d better get used to the new normal. Especially if you are going to be his sex slave soon. He won’t be your son any longer; he will be your master and responsible for all your actions in the future. It’s your duty to give him as many children as possible, just as that is my calling.”
“I will not be his sex slave, and I will certainly not have sex with him.” Joyce got up, not being able to stay calmly seated any longer.