I am Robert Harmon, a fifty-eight year old white divorced male and this is my story. I scored 9.4 on my CAP test.

It was almost a year after the President's announcement and I decided to go to the food court in a mall near-by for lunch. If nothing else maybe an hour of people watching, with the new female fashions of the day, would improve my mood. I'd never been to that mall before. The food court was in an unusual place in the mall as far as I was concerned. It was on the third floor away from windows. It did have skylights.

Yes, I know, it is a Swarm story after all, this is much too predictable but it is what happened. There was an announcement and the extraction began. People not interested in going to the stars were told to move to the first floor and wait until the extraction was done. Those wanting to go to the stars were to go to the food court on the third floor.

It turned out that, besides myself, there were forty-three sponsors in the crowd with about thirty from a local think tank symposium, which was the main target of the extraction. I just happened to be the surprise in the Crackerjack box.

A Marine sergeant walked up to me and said, "Sir, may I see your CAP card." I handed it to him and he said, "Wow, 9.4. Sir, please follow me."

The sergeant introduced me to the lieutenant in charge and I was placed in the sponsor area. There were several hundred women in another area who were cleared as concubine candidates. Another group was formed with about fifteen men who were also concubine candidates. The children were all taken to the second floor.

The lieutenant in charge started the proceedings with a brief outline of the Confederacy policy concerning sponsors, concubines and dependents. I had heard everything before but this time I paid close attention. I needed to be sure how many concubines I was going to get. I was glad I did because the lieutenant explained that every sponsor in the group could get two additional concubines if one was what he called a mother figure and another had medical training.

The female concubines were then broken into smaller groups, mother figures, medical personnel and normal. The male concubine candidates where asked but none qualified --or at least admitted to it-- as a mother figure. Two were medical persons.

The lieutenant then moved on to the concubine selection process pretty much stating the sponsor could have anything from the concubine he wished. He then began to give X-rated examples. He told all the concubine candidates to strip. They knew it was coming, but there was a lot blushing and hesitation.

Of the forty-three sponsors only three were women. Thirty-five of the sponsors were 6.5 to 6.9. Each could select two-four concubines, depending on who they selected. All three of the women sponsors were below 7.0. There were six men with 7.0 to 7.9s and there were two 8.0 to 8.9s. I was the only one with a 9.0 or better, which was not all that surprising. I was entitled to eight concubine plus the two extras to make ten.

The lieutenant then asked me, "Do you want first choice of the concubines?"

"I would like first choice of the medical male concubines. As far as the women go though, test driving ten women at my age is going to be difficult at best. I have a plan on choosing them and it will work best if I choose a little after the 'lookers' are taken. I'll choose from the remainder."

"Well just remember this is a limited time affair. If you wait too long, you'll have to choose quickly."

"I understand."

I went to one of the medical male concubine candidates. It turned out that he was a gynecologist. I asked if he had any problems with me controlling my harem and dependents with corporal punishment. He said he had no problem with that and that he was raised in a corporal punishment environment. He didn't practice it in his family, mostly because it was not politically correct. He said, "In the environment that we are moving into corporal punishment is going to be a must. It will work if you apply it correctly, measured and consistently."

I found out his name was Bill Cooper. I told him, "I am not into male on male sex. I will require that you follow my orders and all the Confederacy rules. I will be ordering you to have sex with all my concubines and most likely with other women. You will be treated well and your top priority will be to ensure that my concubines and dependents are always in good health. You will be expected to follow the orders of any concubine I put over you. Will you be my male concubine?"

"Yes, I will."

I told the sergeant and he brought the man to the side to wait for the rest of my selections.

I watched the other men selecting their concubines for a while, it was everything that people said it was. Men and women were having sex openly and competing for the positions. The women who were not immediately selected for test drives were mesmerized by the proceedings. I was counting on that. I walked behind the mother figure group of women and looked at the women in the rear of the group. These were the least aggressive and exactly what I wanted. I looked at one who obviously had two c-section scars on her. I asked her for her name and if I could see her CAP score. While she was not aggressive, the card was in my hand in a flash The scores were all good. I asked her how many children she had. She replied ten. I asked how many were under fourteen. She said all of them were between three and thirteen years old. I asked how that was possible. She said, she had one baby, then two sets of twins and then quintuplets. They were Catholic and did not believe in birth control.

I asked, "Is your husband here?"

She said, "No, he died in a car accident, about a year after the quintuplets were born."

I asked, "So, do you still want to have more babies?"

"Yes sir, especially if I have help with them."

I continued, "Rose, were you spanked as a child?"

She stammered for a second, then said, "Yes sir, I was."

"Do you spank your children?"

She blushed now and was looking around, she was concerned about being overheard. Then she quietly answered, "Yes sir, when I deem it appropriate. I have to retain control of my family. Spanking them is the only way I have been successful." I could see this could easily be true considering she was a single mother.

"Where you spanked by your husband?"

That had her really nervous, but she answered, "Yes sir, in sexual role play, foreplay and occasionally when I was out of line. He never hurt me seriously though."

I smiled at her then and asked, "No promises yet, but would you like to be my concubine?"

"Will you take my children with you?"

"Yes, I will."

"Then, yes I will be your concubine, as long as you promise to treat my children fairly when it comes to punishment."

I replied, "I will try to do that, but I am not perfect. Sometimes I will make mistakes. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes it is, I will be your concubine."

I said, "What the heck, I accept you as a concubine.

"Are your children here?"

"The quintuplets are at home with my mother babysitting. My other children are in the mall, somewhere."

"Please go stand with the sergeant and tell him where to find your children."

By this time, all the prettier concubine candidates were gone. It really did not matter, with the Confederacy's technology allowing me to change my concubines to look like carbon copies of Marilyn Monroe, if that was what I wanted. The male candidates were pretty much alone. That was just fine with me.

I asked the remaining mother figures how many had five or more children under fourteen. There were ten women with their hands up and I had them come forward. I asked how many of those wanted more babies. Still ten. I asked if any had husbands in the crowd. None, though I would not have held it against them it they did. I asked them if any of them had a problem with corporal punishment being used to control their children. No change. I asked them if any of them had a problem with corporal punishment being used to control them. That brought the number down to four. None of them was going to make the cover of playboy, even if you took off about twenty years and forty pounds. It was exactly what I wanted.

I asked each of the ladies for their CAP cards and examined their sexual drive, nurturing, loyalty, family rearing, self confidence, leadership and aggressiveness scores. As I expected, their sexual drive, nurturing, loyalty, family rearing and leaderships scores were high and their self confidence and aggressiveness were low. Again, exactly what I wanted. I called them all over and asked them if they wanted to be my concubines. All four said yes.

I went to the medical group and asked how many had four children. There were about thirteen. I got it down to four using the same questions. I checked their cards, asked and they said yes.

The sergeant went over the rules again and asked, "Do you accept X/Y as your concubine, do you accept Richard Harmon as your sponsor," questions for the record. Then they were asked if any of their dependents were at the mall. Bill said, "Yes my two daughters were shopping with me. I had not even considered that Bill might have a family. It turned out he had twin daughters age thirteen and four more daughters five, seven, nine and eleven. He said, "You will take them, won't you?"

I said, "Absolutely."

I was teleported to a ship in orbit minutes later with my concubines and their dependents from the mall in tow. We were then brought to a briefing area. We were reminded that I was responsible for my concubines and anything they did. The sexual rules were gone over. No sex with dependents. Thirteen year-olds were a special case, but we would be briefed on that later. I was told that I should gather the names and locations of the dependents of my concubines' dependents on Earth so that they could be gathered. I should also determine if any of the concubines or dependents had medical conditions or needed medications. I was provided with a clipboard and paper to record this. We were told we would then be shown to our assigned quarters. We were told that we would have our first medical screening after our dependents were picked up, unless there was a compelling reason for our scans to be done immediately.

It was at this time we had our first little problem. Soon all the other sponsors had left the room, I was still gathering information. The officer in charge became a little impatient and asked what the hold up was. I explained to him that I had a lot of dependents and concubines and many had medical conditions. The AI informed him that I was correct and since the rules of extraction required me to gather all the information to drive home my responsibility there, was little to be done about it.

He then asked, "How many dependents are we talking about?

The AI said, "So far, in excess of forty and he is only to the sixth member of his family."

The officer then said, "Oops. That is going to be a problem." He then looked up at the ceiling, which I had noticed by now meant that the Marine was communicating with the AI.

He then said, "Problem solved. I'll explain when you are done."

It took another twenty minutes to get all the information and hand it over to the officer, who then went over it with the concubines to make sure it was correct and nothing was left out. That took another hour, at which point my dependents were getting hungry.

We were led to our quarters. On the way, the officer said that I had be assigned four pods due to the number of concubines and dependents I had. I had apparently done something no one else had ever done, which was go for lots of children and older concubines. He instructed the AI to explain to me everything I needed to know about the initial medical screening. He said that the four pods would eventually be internally connected, but for now I would need to go to each one and let my ladies in. Our first meal would be in an hour, at the ships mess hall. We would all be required to attend.

He told me that my concubines' dependents would be picked up after that and that I should expect a steady stream of dependents being picked up for about two hours. "Your concubines will be required to accompany my men for the dependent pickups. It works better that way. Less problems with the care givers. Less problems with the dependents." It turned out that five different groups of Marines were picking up my dependents. A couple of my concubines mentioned that the caregivers might not be fans of the Confederacy so the Marines needed to be careful.

We were all scheduled for our initial medical screenings. I was up right after lunch as were five of my concubines. The other five would be getting their dependents. When I was done, I was going to need to go to a sponsor briefing while my other five concubines and their dependents were screened. The dependents of the first group of concubines would be screened as time permitted that evening. I was told that after dinner there would be a joint sponsor/concubine briefing and then we would be on our own the rest of the night.

Once that was all said, we arrived at our quarters and, as explained, we found the doors locked. I ordered the AI to open the doors and all ten of my concubines and about twenty dependents followed. We sat down in the room. My concubines were still naked. I asked the AI if clothes were available for the concubines.

The AI said, "Standard concubine shifts are available from the replicators." I told my concubines to get them. I was a little surprised at how poorly they fit. They actually covered very little, but the women weren't arguing.

I gathered all my concubines together and said, "We are going to be together for a great deal of time. I know I did this a little different than most and we all have had no sexual contact. We will talk about it tonight. I need you to focus first on getting your children up here and on the briefings you will receive today.

"Let me go over a few things first though. The Confederacy has rules, rules you must follow. Please follow them. One of the most important is to never physically attack or strike a sponsor, even in self defense. It is a capital crime. If something happens, no matter-what it is, go with the flow and cooperate. Tell me as soon as you can and I will deal with it. The AI is omnipresent on the ship, ask it for help if you get into trouble."

"AI, I grant all my concubines entry access privileges to our quarters and all standard privileges to every-thing in our quarters. They may leave our quarters to attend meetings, meals and whatever their training schedules might require. They may travel freely between our pods. Please answer any questions and help them in any way you can."

The AI replied, "Acknowledged. Sponsor Harmon, it is time for your medical screening."

The AI led me to the med center. I was told to strip and get into a black metal cylinder. I don't remember anything after the door shut.

Nine hours later...

I woke up and a nurse named Maria helped me from the tube. She was a real looker. I looked at the clock in the room as the nurse handed me a uniform. I looked at the clock... "I've been in here nine hours?"

Maria, who was obviously a concubine from her dress, said, "Yes, the doctor will be here to explain things in a minute. We had a sudden emergency."

I knew she knew more, but was probably ordered to let the doctor explain things to me. The doctor came in and started trying to explain things to me.

"You had two heart conditions, one of which was life threatening. They have been corrected. While you were undergoing treatment, we started your enhancements so be careful as you stand up. You have already lost some weight. We gave you the standard Navy enhancements to your senses and physical conditioning. You will be able to modify them to your desire over the next few days.

"You also had a prostate gland problem that I believe you know about which has been corrected. Liver, bladder and kidney problems that were due to your vasculitis condition that was stopped by chemotherapy almost thirty years ago have also been corrected. Your diabetes has also been corrected, as has your hypertension.

"You were not a healthy person, but now you are 100% healthy and will find your stamina greatly increased. You will also find your drive and ability to perform increased to a point of that of when you were fourteen.

"The AI suggests that, when you return to you quarters, you use those abilities on your female concubines as they are now beyond ready for it."

I then left the room. The AI said, ''Sponsor Harmon. While you were out, all of your dependent pickups were completed. Your concubines performed well. Several Marines have sent their complements on you concubines.''

''You have missed the sponsor and concubine briefing because of your conditions. That briefing will be given to you tomorrow morning, before your regularly scheduled briefings. Fortunately none of your concubines have made any mistakes and your fellow sponsors are not that interested in them yet.''

''Your concubines have all been through the preliminary screenings. Many minor and some major conditions exist. The major ones that posed an immediate health threat have been fixed.''

''You and all of your concubines need to be scheduled for your cosmetic enhancements. All other health issues will be fixed permanently then along with all cosmetic changes that you request for your concubines. I suggest that you do it quickly, as there will be empty slots early because most of the sponsors will be distracted, attempting to produce new dependents.''

''Do you have any questions?''

'No. Not right now.'

I was at the doors to my quarters then, which opened as I approached.

The mood in the pod was subdued to say the least. The women were nervous. They had all been to briefings I had not been to. I don't think they knew what to do next.

''They are concerned. You were gone a long time. All the other sponsors were at the briefing. The briefing was ... eye opening.''

'' They also are concerned about sex tonight, I am sure.''

I had the concubines gather around me. I told them that we had all been through a lot today.

I told them that while I wanted sex with every one of them (except Bill), I thought that it would probably be best if we got what sleep we could and waited until tomorrow. I could see that they all relaxed after that. I was sure at that point I made the right decision. I had not had sex for months. I could wait another day.

We hugged and cuddled together for the rest of the night.

To this day, I think putting sex off that night did more to make us a happy family than anything I have done since.

I spent the first hour of the morning after breakfast working out my enhancements with the AI. I was rolling back my age to twenty-eight. I thought I looked pretty good at that age. With the standard naval enhancement package I looked even better. I made sure my equipment, strength, stamina and recovery time were the best they could be. I wanted to be able to handle the trip to our new home. I had a feeling that there would be a large amount of sexual exploration involved. The probability of all day and night orgies could not be ignored.

At the 8:00 hour, I gathered my concubines together.