Chapter 18: The Contract

As we began to finish our refueling, a tall, smoothly muscled man wearing gray Confederacy coveralls entered the room. A pair of similarly dressed, young looking, slender, Asian women stopped just inside the doors watching everything. A third woman entered, looked around and headed toward our servers.

He approached the table where I was sitting with my ladies and introduced himself as Centurion Sam Matthews.

"We've heard some interesting things about you," I said around my last bite of bagel. "Have a seat."

As he settled onto his seat, I realized that like me, he had a pistol holstered on the left side of his chest. A bulky looking Kriss Vector carbine dangled under his right arm from its single point tactical sling. It made my M-14 look like the piece of ancient history it was.

"That's the other guy, he's out of the Solar System right now. For my sins I'm covering the Office of Targeted Extractions now. About half my clan is currently on the moon covering my butt - including two of my co-sponsors, the ninja twins over there and my Aztec warrior, medic, and mother of our children, who is fetching my coffee.

"But listen," he said, "I have a proposition."

"Really?" I responded. "I learned in the Army to never volunteer. Are we being 'voluntold?'"

"Not at all," he replied. "I've been monitoring your progress. If I understand you at all, this should be right up your alley. As it happens, none of you specified a service branch when you got your CAPs. Our combat arms would drool to get you with your scores and on-the-ground experience. BUT, I want you all in Civil Service assigned to me in the Office of Targeted Extractions."

"What does that mean?" Rachel asked, leaning forward.

"Practically? After your adventure, I expect CAP scores will increase for each of you, but the number of individually authorized concubines probably won't matter much. As Civil Service officers, you will acquire and place far more. Again, if I understand you, your commitment to each other means your acquiring additional family isn't a priority. Saving others is."

"That's no longer entirely true," interjected Hannah. "We've acquired an entourage to whom we have made significant commitments. We plan to honor them to the letter and the intent."

Matthews waved his hand and continued. "I want to use you in a way that will directly benefit the Earth while serving Confederacy needs as well. I intend to assign you as a team for the foreseeable future - maybe forever." My ladies and I exchanged looks and asked him to explain.

His third escort walked next to him. She too was in the gray Civil Service uniform with a blue Star of Life patch on her left shoulder. She wore an electric blue collar around her neck and held a large travel mug in one hand. "Perdóname, Mi dueño. (Pardon me, my owner.) Here is your coffee, hawt, strong, blonde, and sweet, the way you like it.

"Gracias, Chica," He murmured with a smile as he accepted the mug. Chica stayed next to his chair.

"Once you've gone through medical screening, any modifications you want, and needed enhancements, I plan to drop you as an extraction team near, and maybe in, Swarm infested territory. Maybe in a few other special areas. Some of the extractions will be for the Confederacy, some will be rescues like you just accomplished. So, you will also continue on in a dual role as deputy US marshals-at-large. That's it in brief. So what do you think?" he grinned.

I looked at him hard and replied, "I learned some other lessons while in the army - like 'get it in writing' and 'watch out for loopholes.' I heard that the Confederacy and the Darjee are real sticklers on contract enforcement, and the AIs are the enforcers, right?"

He nodded and kept a poker face.

"So my ladies and I have a partnership and a contract that is binding on us, and we want them binding on the Confederacy. In essence, we are bound to go together and must refuse to go if one cannot go. My experience with implied promises and my natural skepticism prompts me to require that we must be assigned together. Anyone associated with us, especially concubines but including future sponsors who affiliate with us, must also be assigned with us as a unit.

"If you really want us, the Confederacy must supply needed resources to facilitate this, and its members or representatives may not use threats, coercion, or any pressure - directly or through omission - to force us to separate. Understand, we'll accept dangerous assignments, but we will NOT be bullied.

"Should we choose to accept temporary or permanent assignments with one or more of us apart, that will not in any way mitigate the Confederacy's obligation to restore us together as soon as possible. Interpretation of what is threat, coercion, pressure, or possible rests solely with me and my partners."