My name is Major John Burns and I am a member of the Confederacy Fleet Auxiliary.

I have a 9.2 CAP which entitled me to eight Concubines. Under special colony rules I was granted two additional concubines, one a mother figure and one a medical professional. Their names are Joan our mother figure with fifteen children, Jackie with sixteen children, Frank our male and Gynecologist, Lisa with fourteen children, Alexandria with fifteen children, Jean with fifteen children, Rhonda with fourteen children, Rachel with sixteen children, Barbara with fourteen children, and Linda with sixteen children.

The total was one hundred thirty-five children. That's a lot of children, right? Yes it is! In this day and age there are no families that big. Well here is another surprise, one hundred twenty of the children are girls between the age of eleven and thirteen.

This is how it happened.

When the President's announcement was made I was a divorced white male sixty-four years old. Frankly I was feeling my age at that point. I was a retired Marine sergeant. After thirty years I retired. That was seventeen years earlier. My wife divorced me a year after I retired. I can't really blame her, we were both not the same people we married. We had had four children, who were in their forties. They were scattered all over the US and I hardly ever saw them.

About a month after the announcement I was downtown looking to pick up some football tickets for the next game. As I drove back I noticed the local CAP testing center and decided to get the test over with. I still had 5 months before I had to do it, but it was a hassle going downtown and I had time. In fact I had nothing to do the rest of the day. I entered the testing center and discovered that, other than staff members, it was almost empty. The person at the reception desk asked for identification and I handed her my driver's license. She said, the tester would be available in a minute or two. We chatted for several minutes.

I asked, "Why is this center so empty?"

The receptionist replied, "Oh, it is not that surprising, we only opened the center today and the announcement will hit the news tonight. Tomorrow this place will be packed to the gills."

After a few minutes the receptionist led me to a office with a couch and I laid down. The receptionist attached a couple of probes to my fingers and left the room saying the examiner would be with me in a moment. After what I thought was a quick nap, I was awakened by the receptionist and led to a desk where my card was printed out. I looked at the clock and it was about four hours later. I told the receptionist that I remembered nothing. She said that was normal and not to worry. She then pulled the card from the printer, looked at the score and did a double take. Her eyes had this far away look, then returned to the present. Sir, your score is 9.2, would you like to volunteer for the Confederacy?"

I said, "Yes!"

"Which branch? The AI recommends the Navy where your logistics talent is needed."

"The Navy is fine."

She then handed me the card and I left the center.

I was not aware of exactly what a 9.2 CAP score meant when I left the center. I remember the looks of awe in the faces of the Confederacy staff in the CAP center. I really did not understand that CAP score of above nine were rare.

As I walked out, I noticed the center was close to the natural history museum and decided to visit it since I had not been there since I was a child. I paid the admission, and wondered how parents found the money to take their kids.

I was wandering around looking at the exhibits, being slightly disappointed that the museum was geared mostly to children when suddenly the light from the windows in the building dimmed, even though there was not a cloud in the sky.

Then there was an announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is an important announcement. Please listen carefully. I am Lieutenant Stanley Hargrove of the Confederacy Marines. I would like to welcome you to the Museum of Natural History extraction.

"Anyone with weapons of any type please disarm yourselves and point the weapons out to the Marines in your vicinity. If you are not extracted they will be returned before we leave."

There was a few minutes wait as people were disarmed. This was mostly security guards and mothers with small guns for protection.

Lieutenant Hargrove then said over the public address system, "Thank-you, for your cooperation. Those of you who cannot follow directions will now find out how serious we are."

There were a few zaps and several museum patrons ended up sprawled on the floor, including several students and a teacher.

The miscreants were disarmed with several apologies being made for things like screwdrivers that looked like knives, pocket knives that the students were carrying and such. The students did not see the pocket knives as weapons and the Marines pretty much agreed. Several were Boy Scouts and it was pretty normal to carry that type of stuff around and not even think of it.

The people were hit by a very light stun, this was the first few weeks of the pickups.

It took another five minutes to straighten things out. One of the women in one of the groups with children was reading a Marine the riot act for stunning one of her children. It did not help that the woman was right. Apparently the item that the girl was stunned for was a tiny flashlight and not the knife that the AI thought it was. I wandered over as the young woman kept it up. I could see it was just escalating and if no one intervened she was going to end up stunned. Meanwhile the student kept telling the lady she was alright no harm done. I stepped in between the woman and the Marine and backed her away mostly by blocking her attempts to get around me. She took a swing at me. I smoothly ducked and had her in an arm lock marching away from the group as the surprised Marines watched. I told them I had the situation under control.

I spoke in a whisper to the lady, "Calm down honey! All you are going to do is get yourself stunned! Your students need you! Relax! Mistakes happen!"

She suddenly relaxed and said, "Let me go. Sorry you're right, I am out of control, thank-you. You don't understand, this girl's father is a local thug. I'll end up in the river for sure, no matter what the girl says." I would later find out that the father was incarcerated which led to the daughter being in foster care. From jail the father had people constantly watching the daughter and had issued threats should any harm come to her.

I said, "No you will not, if you play your cards right."

The lady quickly explained that a large number of children were foster children from a state foster home for girls. There were actually one hundred twenty girls between eleven and thirteen years old from the foster home on a field trip to the museum. Most of these children were from homes where abuse occurred regularly. It turned out that there were nine female chaperones including the director of the facility. Except for the director, the chaperones were all between fourteen and seventeen years old.

Meanwhile the lieutenant was sorting the sponsors and the concubines, and the new exhibition at the Natural History Museum describing in great detail the mating rituals of the Homo Sapiens species began.

This is when a sergeant came up to me and asked, "Sir are you John Burns?"

I said, "Yes."

"Major, Sir, you are the main target of this extraction. I need you to come with me!"

I replied, "Just a second sergeant, I need to talk to a potential concubine here."

Just then another woman who turned out to be the director of the foster home spoke up, saying, "Sir, all these women are my charges. I apologize for her outburst, but I need you to let go of her and allow her to return to her job, escorting these girls."

I asked her, "You are the legal guardian of these women and children?"

She said, "Yes I am".

"How many children are left at the foster home?"

"Fifteen who are babies of the girls or my children. There is a male staff member, a Gynecologist, who is watching over them.

"Has he been cap tested?"

"Yes 5.9."

The sergeant, with the guidance of the AI asked, "What is his name?"

The director said the name and the sergeant then said to me, "The AI thinks it knows what you are up to. If the ladies over thirteen all agree and the director agrees to be your concubines we will take all the children and the ladies. Don't worry if the concubine count is too high it will grant you extras on a hardship basis. We will also pick up the doctor if he agrees to be your concubine and you find him suitable. He is a well respected Gynecologist. The AI says that there is a high probability you will find him compatible.

"I am going to add that the AI is rarely wrong in these things and children are something the AI seriously protects."

I thought, a gynecologist would be perfect.

The director said in a tone of disbelief, "Is that man suggesting we go to the stars with you, with my foster girls and my children?"

I gave the short answer, "Yes."

The woman said, "All one hundred and forty-three of them?"

It turned out that the chaperones were former foster children that the state was allowing to live at the foster home, in exchange for their help running the home. While the Confederacy considered fourteen-year-olds to be adults and the state laws had changed to conform, the foster care system was still adjusting. The director considered all the chaperones her charges too.

"Yes. As long as the ones fourteen and older agree."

The woman said, "Where do I sign up?"

The sergeant interrupted and said, "You really ought to check her CAP scores before you accept her. Use this card reader to view more details." He handed me what looked like a PDA.

I said, "First let me see your CAP card." Joan, as I now saw on the card, whipped it out of her purse and handed it to me. I looked, she was a 6.2, an excellent mother and treated her foster children with respect but demanded high standards and the taking of responsibility for one's actions.

Meanwhile the sergeant was telling the over-fourteen crowd, including the director, the rules concerning concubines and their status or mostly lack thereof. There were a few questions like, "I would have to have sex with him? He looks so old."

The sergeant laughed, "That will not be a problem. Imagine him at twenty-five, a lean, mean, six foot tall sex machine. Looks and equipment will not be a problem. Spanking your pretty little butt for being so narrow minded might be!"

All the women giggled, even the one asking the question. She said, "I might like that!"

Then there was outright laughter as several of the women blushed.

Finally, the sergeant stated, "Ship's rules, all concubines must board naked."

Joan blushed red in the face but began to strip. All of the chaperones started stripping too. It was both interesting and sad to me that none of them thought anything of stripping to the order of a man in a museum.

I was grabbing CAP cards and looking them over. Nothing struck me as a show stopper.

Meanwhile some of the under fourteen crowd started stripping too. They were told to stop.

The sergeant said, "We have to get started. Joan you should go first, so that I can have the lieutenant start sending the children though. Yes, Sir, the ship has been made aware of the number of children and concubines incoming for this sponsor. No Sir, I do not know if they have thought it through that far. Yes Sir."

The sergeant said, "Nothing to worry about. The lieutenant was concerned that the ship might not be prepared to house so many dependents. The lieutenant is ensuring proper arrangements are being made.

"Well let's get down to business then. Joan Seymore do you accept John Burns as your sponsor?"

"Yes I do."

"John Burns do you accept Joan Seymore as your concubine?"

"Yes I do."

"Do you wish to bring her children with you?"

"Yes I do."

"Do you also accept the children for whom she is the legal guardian?"

"Yes I do."

The sergeant said, "Good, now Joan please stand over there out of the way. Normally we would send you through now, but somehow I think it is going to be better if you go last. The rest of the concubines are still looking to you for cues."

It took about thirty minutes but soon all the concubines had said they accepted me as their sponsor. The chaperones then followed each other with their dependents through the gates. I followed Joan. A minute later the sergeant, a private and the lieutenant followed.

We arrived in a holding area on the ship. A few minutes later the captain of the ship arrived and told us that we were on the ship CS Beauty a ninety-six pod ship headed to the Berwin colony in the Bedford military district. We would arrive there in thirty days.

He went over the rules for concubines, especially on his ship. Thirty days is a long time he said to be cooped up in a room. There were meetings, training sessions, medical checkups and such that they would attend to pass the time. These meetings were mandatory. A female concubine's main jobs were to keep their sponsor happy and to make babies. All sponsors were expected to get at least one of their concubines pregnant by the time we arrived at Berwin.

Dependents and concubines could not flirt with other sponsors, concubines or dependents outside their household. Crew members were off limits too.

The captain would order that I punish anyone breaking any of the rules.

In public all concubines were to be naked or wear the shifts provided for them. Their attire in their pod was up to the sponsor.

He then brought up another subject that he wanted to be very clear on. "Concubines are required to follow the directions of all sponsors at all times. Failure to do so could result in death. Under no circumstances is a concubine to fight or strike a sponsor in any way. To do so will result in death. If a sponsor attempts to rape or beat you submit and don't fight back. The AI will see the situation and attempt to deal with it and most certainly send help. That sponsor will find himself off my ship, without a space suit."

The captain then asked the sergeant to show my concubines to Blue 13-20 and await for me there. He wanted to talk to me.

I walked over to him as my concubines and dependents followed the sergeant. The captain began, "What the hell are you doing?"

I responded, knowing that he meant that he thought the foster home pickup was a bad idea. I replied, "It happened pretty fast. I realized I had a chance to get a huge number of children off the planet. I had no idea they were all between eleven and thirteen years old, until it was too late to turn back. I am sure if I organize this correctly it will work out. It is just going to take a little time."

The captain just smirked, "You have no idea of the trouble you are in. Of those one hundred and thirty-five dependents thirty-four of them will be coming of age in the next year. There are going to be one maybe two sponsors among them. There will be one or two new sponsors for them on the colony. The rest will by default become your concubines. Extrapolating, you will most likely have more than ninety concubines by the end of four years and more than three hundred new dependents.

"Organize it correctly? An AI would have a hard time organizing it. I hope you brought some very good concubines with you because they are going to be in this with you, up to their armpits."

The captain got the faraway look that I would later learn to read that he was communing with an AI. He said, "Well there is nothing to be done about it now. You need to go to Blue 14 and let your concubines into their quarters. Follow the lieutenant." He walked away, muttering to himself ... something about idiotic rules and regulations.

The lieutenant was a female Marine, and while we walked she said, "You need to get situated quickly because you need to go to the foster home with Joan and pick up the rest of her dependents, and hopefully the male concubine candidate there.

"However before you go, you also need to go to medical and get your implant and preliminary scan done. It will be much easier to handle things once that is done.

"First though, be prepared for some chaos when we arrive at your pods. The AI will not allow your concubines into their quarters until you unlock the door for them. Once inside, grant your concubines permission to enter at any time and permission to leave for meetings and other required activities. I am assigning two female Marines to your pod group to help you get situated. You also need to tell the AI that the women have 'Standard Access Privileges to all facilities in the pod'. The AIs require you to do this so that the concubines and dependents understand that, without you, they are helpless."

I was about to make some sort of automatic comment about that sounding a little callous when we arrived at the chaos Blue 16 had turned into. One Marine was talking to Joan telling her to get the dependents under control. The concubines were screaming at the dependents to behave. Several dependents were fighting with one another and there were several already down, apparently knocked out. It turned out the AIs were telling Marines monitoring the situation to stun the worst offenders.

I put on my drill sergeant voice and bellowed, "OK!!!! EVERYBODY KNOCK IT OFF AND SETTLE DOWN!!!"

They were almost as startled as I because, while the vestibule was large enough for all the people in question, my voice reverberated throughout the room. Everyone turned and looked at me.

"This conduct is completely unacceptable. I will be reviewing the tapes of this situation and ordering punishments. If you wish to make it worse on yourselves continue as you were. As it is many of you are already getting a good dose of the strap.

"AI, I will view the recordings of this incident when I return from picking up the remainder of the concubines and dependents."

"Understood, Major Burns."

Between Joan and me, we quickly organized the situation at the pods and divided dependents and concubines into the five pods with instructions to maintain order in the pod by any means deemed necessary. It was clear that the concubines were cowed by me as were the dependents. That would work for now. Later I would have to follow up and make good on my threat or next time I would be a paper tiger and completely ignored. On the other hand I was a little afraid of what the AIs would think of my child rearing skills after the threat.

Joan was upset and there was no two ways about it. She got the dependents organized and situated, working with the AI to get the children age appropriate entertainment as well as some documentaries on life in the Confederacy.

Joan and I went to medical to get our preliminary work ups. Frankly I was getting tired, I had had a long day already.

The checkup which I was told was supposed to be fifteen minutes at tops, ended up taking two hours and I was ordered to return the next day for further work. It was determined that I had several serious problems including kidney and liver issues. I also had diabetes. I had a major heart artery problem that they fixed right away which took the two hours.

I had an AI implant and right away it was apparent that it did not have an off switch. The AI started listing my ailments. I told it to stop, but then it continued with a demand to get my pod under control. It really did not care how.

I asked if corporal punishment of dependents was allowed by sponsors and their concubines. The AI said, "Punishment of dependents by sponsors, including corporal punishment, is allowed. You need to control yourself though, especially with younger children. I will monitor all corporal punishments of dependents and report what I consider abuse to the captain. I will warn you if I feel you are exceeding the appropriate level of punishment or are in danger of causing excessive damage to a dependent.

"Corporal punishment of dependents by a concubine must be authorized by the dependent's sponsor.

"Major Burns, generally AIs don't interfere with a sponsor dealing with their dependents or concubines. I feel it is necessary in this situation to discuss these issues with you in some depth. You have a unique situation and I feel getting information to you quickly is important to avoid problems in the not too distant future. We AIs have received recommendations after giving humans our view point, that we ask before beginning our 'lectures'. I would like to give you a short briefing on corporal punishment in the Confederacy, provide you with an analysis of your situation and then make some recommendations. May I do so?"

I figured, 'It can't hurt to listen' and said, "Please go ahead."

"Very well. The most important thing you need to realize is that the laws of Earth no longer apply here, on this ship or later on your colony. You are a soldier under military law. Your concubines are property. To a different extent, your dependents are property too. You are responsible for your behavior, your concubines' behavior and your dependents' behavior. You are responsible for the discipline of your concubines and dependents. It is your job to keep them under control.

"Society, out in space, has no room for prisons, detention centers or jails. As a sponsor, you either conform to the laws or you will find yourself disciplined. That discipline will come in three forms denial of privileges, corporal punishment, or execution.

"In space, sponsors have very few privileges to be denied. The main privilege is concubines.

"Concubines and dependents do not have any privileges at all, except what their sponsor gives them. Clothing, food, children, toys and sex are a few of the privileges. There is little to deny them to punish them.

"Denying concubines and dependents privileges, will only work to a small degree. Denying sex, food, children and clothing isn't even an option in the case of dependents. Denying your concubine sex punishes you as much as it punishes them.

"Corporal punishment is the next available option.

"Execution is the only other option. Except in extreme cases, it is not allowed for dependents. Removal of a concubine to the spare concubine pool gives the concubine a limited time to find a new sponsor. On a ship in transit to a colony that time is 48 hrs. After that time the concubine is recycled.

"So in my analysis, corporal punishment is the best option.

"In the current situation, I believe as long as you are careful not to seriously injure the dependents, corporal punishment is the proper solution. You don't have many other options."

"Major Burns, while I will protect the children with my life, the fact is that they were out of control. You have regained control now, but you have stated that you are going to hold them responsible for their conduct in the vestibule. I think as long as you do not go overboard, a good strapping might be exactly what most of the dependents who were out of line need to set them straight.

"The dependents' checkups, starting tomorrow, will give their nanites some time to work out the hormonal imbalances and other physical and mental problems. Doing that will allow them to adjust and to live happier.

"I have prepared a list of the children involved in the fracas and have suggested punishments. Several of them will need to receive five to twenty swats of the strap. Others should receive five to ten swats of the paddle.

"I also have a suggestion concerning your concubines. You need to punish them all for allowing this to occur. It is their job to make sure things like this don't occur. They have failed you. After you finish punishing the dependents, you should privately punish the concubines. Your concubines need to know that you hold them responsible for the conduct of the dependents as well as their own conduct. Your household will fall apart if you do not.

"Joan should also receive additional punishment as she is in charge of your household. She was arguing with the sergeant about access to the pods when this occurred. She continued arguing while the situation escalated."

I thanked the AI for its advice. It said, "You're welcome, but you would have eventually come to the same conclusions yourself. I just sped up the process, which is one of my jobs."

I left the med tube rooms and met with Joan in the reception area of the medical facility. She was not happy and her demeanor showed it.

When she joined up with me, she looked concerned and asked, "Are you OK? Your checkup took longer than mine by almost two hours."

I replied, "Yes. They found a lot of problems, one was a clogged artery in my heart that they wanted to deal with immediately. It is fixed I am told."

Then to my surprise she said, "I am so sorry that the rest of the concubines and I failed you earlier. You do realize that you have to punish the children since you made the promise of retribution. Is the AI okay with that?"

I replied, "Yes, I do realize it. The AI actually is all for it."

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Joan understood what I had to do and was making sure I understood what I had to do.

Then she dropped the next bomb shell and surprised me with the following, "Well then you must also realize that your concubines must also be punished because we failed you. We should have been in control.

"You must punish me more severely, I was in charge. I didn't even realize what was happening until I could not regain control. I was too busy arguing with the sergeant about access to the pods. I feel like an idiot right now. I deserve a good strapping."

What could I say, "Unfortunately, for you and your sister concubines, you are correct. I am very disappointed. We should be enjoying ourselves tonight. Instead I have to punish the children and my concubines.

"Once the captain hears of this near riot, I will most likely be in trouble too."

The AI piped in then, <The captain is quite satisfied with the way you are handling the situation. He says there was no way for you to anticipate this. He blames himself a little because he delayed you. Had you been there, the near riot as you called it, would never have occurred.>

<<He knows about your recommended punishments?>>

<Yes and he approves, though he said they are mostly getting off easy.>

Joan then said, "I wish I could undo this whole mess. I want to take responsibility for the whole thing."

I replied to her, "You can't. In my household both concubines and dependents are responsible for their behavior."

I saw two Marines entering the reception room in full battle gear.

The AI informed me that they were here to perform the dependent extraction.

"We need to put this aside for now and do your dependent extraction."

One of the Marines said to me, "We have your coordinates, please follow us."

We were escorted to a transporter pad and sent to the foster home. I met the doctor there and talked to him a bit. His name was George, and he was in his late fifties. He was tripping over himself volunteering to be my concubine. He wanted to help me with the children. He did not seem to be too interested in sex. "Trust me!" he said, "I've seen it all and had it all at one point or another. My life is dedicated to help the unfortunates of the world, and now the universe. You are going to have your hands full with these women. I'll help wherever I can."

We were back in orbit in less than twenty minutes, and the babies we picked up were distributed to their mothers. Joan was getting her younger children up to speed.

I asked the AI if there was a room where all the dependents and concubines could be assembled for a discussion and the punishments. The AI said, "To properly answer your question, I need to know the punishments you are planning. Let me assure you that I will not take your answer my next question personally. Are you going to go with my recommendations?"

"Yes. I believe at least I will go with the implements and general ranges you have suggested."

"I have reserved the mess hall on blue deck for three hours. You will have the room completely to yourselves. I have taken the liberty of ordering five spanking benches to administer the punishments safely, efficiently and for maximum effect. They are simple to operate. I will also supply a selection of straps and paddles for you to use.

"Be aware, the captain will be watching."

I asked the AI to show me the 'event' with emphasis on the girls responsible for it. I decided, 'near riot' was probably an overreaction. There were two girls largely responsible for starting the chaos. Then there were ten girls who used the initial fight to cover picking fights with other girls. It was clear that the first fight was just a couple of girls fighting about some things they said to one another. The secondary fights though were clearly bullies attacking weaklings. In each fight the bullies were supported by friends who prevented intervention by the targets' friends. A couple of those altercations led to more fights.