Chapter 2: Dawning Awareness

Katie and Betty, having had college classes on sexual abuse, predators, pedophiles, grooming, and the like, began to have concerns. When Scud openly sported a woody while helping bathe the children, their fears were confirmed. He seldom touched his concubines sexually, which heretofore had relieved Katie. Now, she was horrified at the implications.

Watching Scud interact with the children became like watching a how-to video on grooming children to accept sex. He held them on his lap while reading or watching movies. He played one against the other, calling favorable attention to one sitting on his lap while he stroked her, or if she kissed him more aggressively than the others. During baths, his hands roamed ever more freely. Even without training, Sandy began to feel something was seriously amiss and whispered her concerns to Katie.

Katie, mindful of the lessons from her orientations, felt trapped, but she had to try - whatever her limitations. She had her goals, now she had to develop a strategy.

She waited until Scud was absent from their quarters, then gathered Betty, Tabbi, and Sandy for a quick talk. She looked them all directly in the eyes, then said, “We four know something is wrong, but I’m not going to detail it.” She glanced at the ceiling significantly, and continued, “I have a plan. Your part is to stay out of it and completely uninvolved. If I die, you need to be a witness so any deviant behavior is revealed. Tabbi, stay close to Sandy and help keep her out of it. She might be a target, but I doubt it.”

Katie’s first step was to determine the limits her status placed upon her. Unsure what or how an AI might report to her master, the limits were approached obliquely. She started, “AI, my master charged Betty and me with educating the children when we agreed to become his concubines. Am I correct?”

<While not stated exactly in that manner, your interpretation is correct, > replied the AI through her collar.

“If you have access to curricula from various schools on Earth, what resources are available to us to achieve the education those curricula could provide?” Katie asked.

<We have access to libraries of textbooks, source materials, video and sound recordings, and virtual field trips. I can replicate most tools and materials up through high school, and even some college-level courses, > the AI said almost smugly.

“While most of the children are in the lower grades, we will need studies for the older kids. I’m thinking of including Tabbi as well, so she will know how to develop her own children when they come. Maybe we can model classes like the old one-room schools, with older children helping the younger and scaling up lessons according to level,” she continued enthusiastically, searching for signs of resistance or limitations, and finding none until she broached field trips outside their quarters.

<Provisional Private Nehemiah Joseph Scudder expressly forbids activities outside your quarters. While you are his concubines or dependents, you may speak to each other only while in your quarters and only to him or me outside these quarters, > explained the AI.

This did not surprise Katie, nor was she surprised that this latter limit had not been communicated directly. Isolation was a favorite tool of an abuser.

After conferring further with the AI, Katie found no discernible limits to educational activities within their quarters, and she smiled grimly to herself. Much could be accomplished under the umbrella called ‘education.’

That afternoon, while the youngest were napping, she enlisted Tabbi and Sandy to keep the older kids engaged and occupied. She sat with Betty and, subtly communicating that she now had a plan, roped the AI into assisting them with ‘designing a curriculum.’

“I think that we should use as much of the Destination Imagination model* as we can,” she began. “We’ll organize the kids into teams, set an objective, provide specific resources, and turn them loose to design and construct to achieve that objective.”

Betty nodded in support, both because she agreed with the method, and to show the AI that (whatever Katie’s plan turned out to be) it was a good plan. And for all of Katie’s objectives, it was a good plan.

All of the children needed constructive outlets to release their energy and to stretch their minds. For the first few ‘projects,’ the teens and preteens were designated as ‘resources’ and were asked to read instructions and associated literature to the teams.

The two teachers began the kids on their initial project to design and build a catapult using soda straws, a ball of string, paperclips, paper napkins, and three marbles. The winning project would be a catapult that could propel a marble through a napkin suspended at the longest distance.

When that project was completed, Katie added complexity by introducing their charges to Rube Goldberg, and Betty started them out researching Rube Goldberg and his cartoons. The children were fascinated; the cartoons easily capturing the attention of even the youngest child. The kids discovered the myriad YouTube videos of Goldbergesque contraptions, and they were hooked. Even the AI became fascinated, scarcely able to contain itself from participating by giving hints or even directions.