Chapter 1: Shepherd's Pie

Only a few fast weeks ago, Michael told Victor and Richard that they would have to take the ‘daddy’ roles for the family, because he didn’t feel that he was really ‘daddy’ material. They had stepped up admirably, and the family’s youngsters loved them.

On the other hand, Michael had been right and wrong about himself. The kids loved him, too - he wasn’t the ‘playmate daddy, ‘ he was the ‘fixer daddy.’ It pretty much started when Vicky and Abigail approached him with the ‘problem’ of Abigail’s friend, still on Earth, being abused and forced into marriage by her own father. Ayesha’s rescue set the stage. Though the three were actually over fourteen and concubines, awareness of Michael’s gentle and considerate handling of their transitions into the family filtered through the entire younger set.

The family watched the evenings in which Abigail and Ayesha were plastered to Michael’s sides as he listened to them describe their hurts and terrors. He had long discussions with them and calmed their fears and concerns that they were ‘damaged goods.’ He was gentle and required neither of them to leap into sex or pregnancy as he could have done.

From the rescue and his follow-up, the younger children and pre-adults learned that they could take their own serious concerns to him for resolution. For minor boo-boos and spat resolution, they went to a mommy or one of the other daddies. For play, same thing. But if they had something they considered serious - Michael was their go-to. If they took anything to him, everyone knew they considered it serious.

The Owen twins wanted to discuss their approaching adulthood. Would they be allowed to stay in the family? Could they go with their brother Jackson if they wanted? (They didn’t - but needed to ask.) What about sex with a brother? What about incest? When their younger brother, Micah, turned thirteen could they play oral sex games with him? (They definitely wanted to!) While he was listening to and reassuring them, Michael found an avid audience in the other twelve and thirteen years-olds. At first, he was surprised at the openness between the members of this age group. Upon reflection, he decided that if these pre-adults could masturbate together and safely sleep in their own puppy pile, they could probably talk together about most anything. He let them set any privacy limits.

Harkening back to the phrasing during the acquisition of Scud’s former concubines, it became clear that his growing family - acquisitions and pregnancies - the ‘harem-plus’ was indeed a close knit clan more than a multiple-spoused, nuclear family. Michael wanted to prevent size from becoming a barrier, so he consulted with Katie, Gingerbread, and Carole for ways to ensure that the ‘children’ knew they had easy access to him.

He set aside one meal per day that he would spend with one child. Children were given a token with a number that represented their turn. They could swap turns; invite one other child - whatever - their meal was their time that they could talk with Michael. In addition, they were given a red token that said “I need Michael now!” to use if they felt their need was urgent. As with Carole’s fornication schedule for Michael’s wives and companions, it worked. Actually, it worked very well.

Then Michael instituted the practice of ‘story time’ in the evenings just before bedtime for the youngest. Using his store of plots from extensive reading, he regaled his youngsters with adventures involving evil foiled, heroines and heroes rescued (often by their own efforts, ) justice served, and dilemmas resolved. The ‘good guys’ were usually named after the children or the mommies or daddies. His intent was to entertain, to build togetherness, and very important, help shape each child’s moral compass. And a child’s punishment never involved missing one of the story times.

Not only the children were enthralled, and Michael’s daily time investment was only around an hour and fifteen minutes.

The Harem sat around a largish lounge area. You couldn’t exactly call it a war council, but they were definitely at war with what they determined to be stupidity. The subject du jour was the revision of CAP scores as they related to the new colony they were to establish -- Michael as the newly appointed governor.

New member, Katie, had reviewed their work so far and began tying together her thoughts, frequently echoing those of other members, but definitely organized in a useful way.

“Dora, Jubal,” Katie began, “I see two major flaws in the current CAP system. Everything seems to follow from these two. First, the CAP was either intended to be or was quickly used as a one-size-fits-all to identify fighting troops. It is linear and seems to undervalue factors that would make a human a good, capable citizen even if not a good soldier. Second, the feedback loop seems virtually non-existent or mostly ineffective. Time after time we find individuals who score as sponsors, but fail miserably. Then, we have individuals who fail to score a 6.5 whose prior or future actions show they really should have scored high enough to be a sponsor.”

Katie continued, “I was researching, and I found a concubine named Marcy* who was horribly burned when she returned to a burning car to save her child. Yet her CAP failed to give sufficient weight for the courage and determination necessary to nearly burn to death effecting the rescue ... Then, concubine Marcy risked her life when she attacked a sponsor to defend her own master.”

“Contrast that to my own experience with my former master, Scud, who theoretically ran into a fire, scored higher on the same scale, and then tried to rape children.” She was exasperated. “We need a way to find more Marcys and fewer Scuds. If we fail to protect our own, how can the AIs trust us to protect their charges?”

*(Author’s note: Pickup Or Delivery http://storiesonline.net/s/67342/pickup-or-delivery)

“First, I think that any sponsor needs a strong moral compass, and we need to know where the needle points.” She continued, “The Darjee AIs can do what they want, but we should retest all extractees forty-eight hours after extraction, and we should take into consideration their actions once extracted. CAP looks at potential, but the reality after extraction is more telling.”

“Okay, expound on that thought,” demanded Carole.

“Well,” started Katie, “Somewhere in my past I read a story involving the concept of a ‘Caligula Syndrome.’ In the story, individuals had absolute authority but weren’t accountable to anybody, resulting in destructive cruelty to the powerless. We need to look for early signs of an abuser -- a Caligula.”

She elaborated, “For example, if a sponsor completely ignores a concubine’s wishes in body modification, actually abuses his or her concubine or dependent, or attempts to dominate a concubine that doesn’t belong to him or her, then that sponsor’s moral compass doesn’t match ours. We would release that sponsor back into the general pool.”

Dora injected, “We have enough history of those behaviors, that I should be able to find a pattern that will let me exclude most of those types before we extract them. What else?”

Carole mused out loud, “Michael and our family can give our concubines more leeway because we were lucky with the first batch, including me, and with Dora’s help, we are using what amounts to an enhanced CAP score to select additions. So far, we’ve had adequate time to pick -- not at all possible at a typical extraction. You can’t allow our kind of freedom to be granted to randomly available concubines at the typical pickup.”

“Well, if we are going to be a breeder colony on top of the Merchant Academy,” Katie said thoughtfully, “we need to look at individual CAPs like we would ingredients to a good shepherd’s pie. The ingredients don’t have to be exactly the same every time, but the overall results depend on how they work together. Dora, look at CAPs for sponsors and concubines that have successfully reared more sponsors. When you do, look at sponsor-concubine-family combinations as well as individual CAP scores. If there are identifiable contributing sub scores, they should be weighted more towards the overall CAP.”

“Then,” Dora interposed, “I could point out desirable matches during pickups and encourage them by awarding supernumeraries.”

“Sounds like a good start,” Michael injected. “But,” he added, “we need to ensure we don’t select for and establish a homogenized society. That would be a sure disaster. Different opinions and different approaches are highly desirable - necessary - just not individually or societally destructive behaviors. Likewise, we don’t need a de facto eugenics program. For the general population, think in terms of selecting out destructive patterns. I’m not sure how the two criteria will mesh - we need to think and work on it.”

Late into the evening they ended the long, thoughtful day of discussing potential modifications/ exceptions to CAP scoring as they could be applied to sponsors and companions for their new assignment.

It was well that Carole, Ginger, and now Katie complemented each other and integrated so well. Extractions - pickups - almost inevitably chancy from the start, were becoming more so. There were general extractions, targeted extractions, and extractions born of desperation. And that was only the beginning.

With the Swarm’s arrival, transport ships might or might not be on schedule. Once extracted, the processing organization could be overwhelmed - even with AIs. Sponsors who were extracted to fill a specific need might or might not make it onto the correct ship going to the correct destination - or correct transfer point - and the general pool might be transported immediately to a departing ship or held in one of the moon bases for a seeming eternity.

A case in point was Katie’s first sponsor and his unit. They had been targeted for a new battalion, but had somehow been overlooked and left behind. His officers had started the necessary training, but the unit was still waiting for the right ship going in the right direction.