Chapter 9: Ding Dong The Bitch Is...

Finally, it was time for the cruise. Though unannounced, it was in fact, the Summer’s last cruise planned for the southern Caribbean Islands. Even with beefed up armament and security personnel, pirates and otherwise desperate people made the cruises ever increasingly dangerous throughout the Caribbean.

AND, there were indications that the Sa’arm might be tunneling towards the islands - an almost surety once they had consolidated the mainland. The US had started a preemptive detonation of nuclear mines on an east-west line north of Trinidad and Tobago to protect the Caribbean Islands, but with the Trinidadians angered and feeling abandoned, those southern-most islands were no longer welcoming.

During the cruise following the harem’s initial contact with Jonathan Hoag, the Summer’s security staff had sunk two armed fishing boats that approached firing bow and stern mounted machine guns. They did not stop to pick up survivors. On two other occasions, Hoag stopped and picked up passengers and crews of overloaded and obviously foundering boats. Conflicted on how to handle the situations, he deposited the rescued refugees at his next scheduled port.

Twice his security team needed to use force to keep small but armed groups from boarding the Summer while she was in port. He informed local authorities that the Summer would not be returning.

Early on, Dora used various means to send at least one drone to every potential port-of-call the Summer might visit. Once they arrived, she found isolated spots and used the drones’ transporter pads to drop enough additional drones to thoroughly scope out the islands. She was taking no chances with her family, and she had an ulterior motive.

By-and-large, the Caribbean had been ignored by Confederacy extractions, and the harem felt that judicious pickups would likely yield some needed cultural diversity. CAP testing stations were sent to islands, yielding interesting results. General extractions were scheduled for islands not on the Summer’s final itinerary on her last Caribbean cruise. Others were planned for after her departure from her ports of call. The harem had first dibs...

Timing could not have been better. The Summer’s first stop was San Juan. The ship’s ‘usual passengers’ headed ashore for tours that included a ‘Caribbean concert’ arranged by Carole and her assistants. Michael and his adult family left the ship and headed for the Ritz Carlton, Dorado Beach, where the Society of Women Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers were holding a joint annual convention. Normally held in the fall, the previous year’s Swarm’s arrival had preempted both SHPE’s and SWE’s timing and location, and this year’s convention was target rich!

Attendance for both had doubled, for obvious reasons, and local manufacturing operations were well represented by a variety of engineers and scientists. The real bonus was the increased attendance from the island’s three highly respected engineering schools, fostered by SWE’s announcement of a drawing for twenty-five full-ride scholarships for members present at the convention. Winners had to be present for the drawing, and the turnout from the Mayaguez campus and the Polytechnic University were spectacular. The drawing was to be held that evening between a free buffet dinner and an into-the-late-night dance.

In another hall was a gathering of engineers and scientists invited ‘at SWE/SHPE’s expense’ to conduct seminars and lectures.

Both events were anonymously sponsored and totally underwritten by the Confederacy using various well-known company names.

Just after the dinner was winding down and while the band was warming up at the far end of the large conference room’s floor, an interdiction field came down. Actually three interdictions came down - one around the buffet/dance ballroom, another around the lecturer’s dining room, and the third over the entire hotel and conference rooms. The harem was running the extractions from the first two rooms, and a marine detachment was handling the larger area.

Because of the pre-selection, there were no Earth First yahoos among the lecturers, and only a few mixed in with the student contingent in the ballroom. These latter were spotted by Dora’s drones and zapped by Marines monitoring remotely.

From the experienced group, the new colony gained a city planner, two architects, several civil and sanitary engineers, a married pair of environmental engineers, and an assortment of other specialties needed to plan, build, and grow the infrastructure of a greenfield colony. Offered the chance to emigrate, no one declined - including the two servers who happened to be present.

In the larger room, Michael stopped the band and announced a pickup. Once the initial hubbub and stunning of yahoos was done, he offered all present - stunned jackasses excepted - the opportunity to be extracted. As he had after the school rescue, Michael turned to Carole to explain the process.

Carole smiled over her audience and set forth almost exactly the spiel she had used for the school pickup. “Here is the short version. Any of you who wish to be extracted, will be. This is not a usual extraction in that test drives and match ups will take place after you have been extracted.” She paused as discarded garments were retrieved and donned.

“Any of your children and minor dependents you wish to bring will be picked up. Within reason, if you are a volunteer with a prepack, or are a member of a sponsor’s prepack, we will endeavor to extract that prepack. Again within reason, we will endeavor to pick up your children or siblings over the age of fourteen if they wish to be extracted.”

Carole was forced to pause because of the rising babble, and then went on, “If you have a special consideration, we can look at it, but we will NOT pick up an extended family of fifty or your entire Sunday school class. There are limits, and we can and will say ‘no’ if the limits are surpassed or the request is not practical. One of the things that makes this feasible is that many of you are from widely separated areas, and we will not be picking up noticeable numbers from any one location. The exception might be here in Puerto Rico, and we will need to see how that works.”

“Understand, that concubines will continue to be possessions of their sponsor. Sex and childbearing WILL be required. Let me state -- anyone under fourteen -- will be dependents and not concubines, and vaginal penetration is forbidden until they reach fourteen -- period! Some of you may think that all this is a form of slavery, and you would be correct that this is pretty much reality. We hope to ameliorate this somewhat -- listen on.”

The audience was quiet, and Carole waited for effect. “Sponsor and concubine candidates, if you wish to match up with one or more of those present, feel free, but it isn’t necessary as you will have ample opportunity to match up later. We also have a number of available men and women from earlier pickups.”

“Non sponsors! We are well aware that there are some among you who do not wish to be extracted. You may move to the end of the room away from the band and you will not be bothered. We hope that you will reconsider after you hear the rest of our presentation.”

At Carole’s signal, Dora appeared beside her in all her naked glory. “This is the avatar of our team’s AI. We named her ‘Dora.’ For both sponsors and concubine candidates, Dora can help you understand CAP scores to improve the chances of a good match -- in both directions. This is not a typical pickup, so we have some time to do that.”

Dora took over, and her honeyed tones issued from the speaker system. “Hello. I am indeed what is known as an artificial intelligence, ‘AI’ for short. I will do my best to help you, so let me tell you your options. First, as you likely have heard, except for post menopause, Confederacy technology can cure most medical conditions. We will start that process right after you are extracted.”

Another buzz started, and Dora raised her hand for quiet, “And, yes, that same technology can modify -- even drastically change -- appearance. We will mostly not be doing that at this time. You may request removal of scars, blemishes, and the like, and you older folks may start age regression, but a concubine’s ultimate appearance will be totally up to your new owner.”

Michael stepped up and began again, “Those of you who wish to proceed, move to one of the six areas where someone is holding up a sign. You will step through a transporter and move aside so as not to block the next person. There you will be met and guided to your next step.

The movement toward the indicated transporters was about as orderly as might be expected. On the other side of the process, no one noticed that Dora had siphoned off almost two hundred prime candidates to a separate orientation area designated for their colony.

Aboard the Summer, the following day was a ‘sea day’ allowing for a certain amount of recuperation and time for members of the harem to rotate back to the moon to assist with orienting and assimilating the newly extracted.

The family’s younger children were entertained by normally provided shipboard activities, giving their adult family minders a break. Some crew and passengers were surprised - a few even shocked - by the uninhibited behaviors of the family’s preteen and under fourteen contingent. Handholding, soul kisses, boob groping, groin stroking, and the like were normal for this group. Stated boundaries were never crossed, and none of the family’s adults saw reason to call a halt.

The next two islands saw passengers display pretty much typical tourist behaviors with some tours, a little shopping, and general exploration. Unobtrusively armed adults closely watched the children - everyone was packing and aware of surroundings. Both islands had an arranged musical event featuring local talent, and the Summer’s newly acquired calypso band happily participated.

After another “sea day’ the next island was pretty much the same, excepting that Dora had identified three extended families fitting the criteria desired by the colony, and they were individually contacted and extracted.

Then in another piece of astute timing, the Summer docked at St. Lucia’s Castries Harbor early on the second morning of the island’s annual Jazz and Arts Festival. It was Michael’s and Valerie’s birthdays, so his ladies had arranged a private catamaran tour for them that sailed around the beautiful island. The two spent most of the day on the large catamaran, lazing and cuddling, but took two hours to snorkel in a lovely bay and picnic on the quiet beach.

As they sailed close to the Pitons, Valerie snuggled under Michael’s arm, turned, and kissed him lightly. “I’m so glad we’ve had this day alone,” she began, “because I want to talk with you about the future before I know my CAP score. You’ve encouraged us to plan and talk about consequences before we make a decision, and now I want to do that with you.”

She looked up and smiled, “First, I love you and want to stay with you as your concubine or your partner-wife - whatever the test decrees.” She looked in his eyes and continued, “You know, most of your co-sponsors and companions were those you rescued from a violent or untenable situation. Gingerbread ‘n’ Linda and now me are the only women that weren’t. I know for a fact that they all love you - they would each die for you -- but there’s no competition; you’d think there would be wouldn’t you? Then I think, ‘Love happened so fast,’ and then I think ‘well, maybe not so fast.’”

Michael looked at her, but when he started to speak, she stopped him. “I’ve done a lot of reading on this, trying to figure out what it is that I feel and why I feel it. I think Rachel and Cathleen and Hannah deeply love you - and each other. From my view, it started as a bonding with a large component of lust after shared violence, but over time it has grown as rock solid as any love could. Other than them, Naomi is the only one who is deeply in love with you. Don’t take me wrong, the others truly love and respect you, but those four - those four would suffer horribly, long and hard, if they were to lose you.”

Valerie sighed, “Then we have our lezzy acquisition. Katie loves you deeply as a friend or a brother - but then the lust kicks in when your wives are involved. Have you noticed that she really wants sex with you only when Rachel, Cathleen, and maybe Hannah are involved? I think that’s the why of her ‘only you’ declaration. You shouldn’t feel less for that. She wouldn’t bed any other man, only you. And there is no question she would die for you, too.”

Valerie lifted up and placed the tip of her nose on his. “Now we come to the heart of the matter - literally. I told you that there were four who would suffer horribly if you were gone. That isn’t strictly true. There are five! I won’t talk about how it grew, but it’s for real.” She drew back so she could watch his face. “Soooo, tonight I want you to take me - to use me for your gratification. You’ve already made me very happy in bed, and your taking my virginity would be what makes me happy tonight. I want to be yours. I want to be taken! Are you hearing me?!”

Michael nodded, bumping his forehead lightly on her nose. “I hear. I obey!” and he kissed her deeply.

During the two hours sailing back to the Summer, they cuddled some more, drank rum punch, and listened to the steel drum calypso tunes playing on the catamaran’s sound system. They were very glad to be the only passengers.

As the catamaran pulled to the dock, the couple could hear the happy music from the festival. It was almost dinnertime, so they boarded the Summer, showered together in one of their suites, dressed, and joined the family in the dining room. As they entered, he heard the start of In The Mood, Rude, the Soca version of Glenn Miller’s In The Mood. He stood astonished. When his family stood and yelled “Happy Birthday!” the band segued into the birthday song, and then one of his all-time favorites Haunted By Your Melody. “No! It can’t be! They haven’t played together for years.”

“Oh yes it is!” declared Valerie, “and they’re coming with us. Carole bribed them big time.”

“You mean they’re on the ship to Barbados? That’s great! That’s where they come from.”