Chapter 2

The three of them arrived to find the foyer of the CAP testing center a mass of color. A large Hispanic family in their brightest clothes was there for a fourteen-year-old girl’s first CAP test on her cuatroceañera. The Confederacy weren’t taking any chances with Earth First terrorists, so they had to wait while the whole family from her younger cousins to both her grandmothers went through the security checks. Once inside, Craig led the way to reception. “Craig Kirkman, Claudia Borducci and Nichelle Varley. We’re here for an interview with Signifer Leung at quarter past three.”

“Yes, Mr. Kirkman. Please go through the blue door to your left and down the corridor to the waiting room at the end. The signifer will be with you shortly.”

As his name suggested, Signifer Leung was East Asian with the usual black hair, cut short and wearing a gray Civil Service uniform. He ushered them into his small spartan office with three chairs for his guests. “Coffee?” he offered.

Craig and Claudia accepted, while Nichelle asked for water.

“While we’re waiting, let me explain the purpose of this interview,” the signifer began. “You three are setting up a pre-pack, which I’m sure is genuine, but some Earth First terrorists have tried setting up false pre-packs to lure our Marines into ambushes. We’ve called you in to check that you really are who you say you are before we arrange your extraction. Can I have your CAP cards, please.”

They all had their cards ready and passed them over. Signifer Leung began feeding them through a small card reader on his desk. As he was doing that, there was a ping from the wall to Nichelle’s right. “That’s your drinks. Ms. Varley, you’re nearest...” She took the hint and went to the replicator to get the small tray with two cups and a glass.

“Your three cards are fine,” he continued, returning them. “Now please look up at the dark hemisphere in the ceiling above my head for the iris recognition check.” He paused as the three stared over his head.

“Excellent. You all match your cards,” he smiled. “While you’re here, I want to confirm your details, dependents, next-of-kin and so forth.” The interview turned tedious as he covered the necessary administrative details. On the bright side, the signifer reassured Claudia that Confederacy medicine could easily fix her birthmark. She felt a lot better hearing it from an official source.

“Mr. Kirkman. You have volunteered for the Confederacy, but have not yet selected a service branch. After your CAP test you said you wanted time to think about it. Have you decided yet?”

“I definitely don’t want to join the Marines,” Craig replied. “They’re not my style at all. I like the look of the Fleet Auxiliary, helping evacuate as many people as possible from Earth. After that the Navy and then the Civil Service, in that order.”

“The AI tells me that you are a good psychological fit for the Fleet Auxiliary and your experience herding schoolchildren will come in useful as well I suspect.”

Craig nodded, ‘herding’ was often the operative word. “Good. I’ll volunteer for the Fleet Auxiliary then.”

“That concludes the main part of your interview,” Signifer Leung said after a slight pause. “There is one further stage, for which we will need to move to another room.” He led the three of them back out into the corridor to a plain white door with a red sign: “No Public Admittance. Confederacy Personnel Only.” It slid open as they approached and the three of them followed him into a small room with a big Marine waiting inside, standing against the far wall. Once the outer door closed, a second door opened behind the Marine, who turned and led them into the room beyond.

This room was larger, with plain off-white walls, no windows, minimal furniture and a gray disc set in the middle of the floor.

“Concubines, pass your CAP cards to your sponsor and strip naked now,” the Marine ordered. “If you’ve got anything you want to keep, there are some plastic bags over to your right. Put everything else in the recycler behind you.”

“Bracelets?” Nichelle asked, recovering first from her shock and waggling her wrist.

“In a bag,” the Marine told her.

“You’re... ?” Craig asked, surprised.

“Yes, we’re extracting you,” the signifer confirmed. “The shorter the notice period, the safer it is for everyone.” Short notice indeed!

Claudia undressed slowly, hunched over and facing away from the signifer, trying to hide as much of her front as possible. At least the Marine was a woman. She didn’t feel as bad about a woman seeing her birthmark. Nichelle noticed her friend’s embarrassment and took both sets of discarded clothes to the recycler.

This was the first time Craig had seen the full extent of Claudia’s birthmark; it was every bit as bad as she’d said, covering one side of her chest. No wonder she was so sensitive about it.

Once they were ready, the signifer got their formal consents as sponsor and concubines. That done, the Marine ordered, “Line up facing the transporter, sponsor first.”

Claudia stood very close behind Craig to hide herself as much as possible. She had her purse in a plain white plastic bag which she held tightly to her chest for cover.

The gray disc turned green. “Walk forward onto the transporter,” the Marine ordered Craig. “Keep walking on the other side. Follow orders from anyone in a uniform. Go.”

Stepping through the transporter momentarily disoriented Craig. From his point of view the room suddenly got a lot larger and people appeared out of nowhere. Despite the surprise he did remember to keep moving. One of the newly appeared people was straight ahead and beckoning him forward. “Recruit Kirkman for the Fleet Auxiliary?”

“Yes.” He checked the rank badges on the man’s black uniform, “Lance Corporal.”

“Did they explain downstairs?”

“Explain what, Lance Corporal?”

“Typical,” he sighed. “This ship isn’t your final destination. You need to be on the FATS Raleigh, but she’s on the wrong side of the planet. You’ll have to wait here until she’s in position to take you. Find a place against the wall and sit.”

“Yes Lance Corporal.”

There weren’t any chairs so they had to sit on the floor. Claudia kept her back to the room, clutching her plastic bag in front of her, while Nichelle sat facing the other way, so she could look around the room. She saw small groups of one or two Marines, often with a concubine in a gray shift, waiting by the transporters. The shifts were a complete fashion-free zone, even worse than the rumors said. A group returned as she watched: a concubine carrying a baby with a Marine leading an older girl by the hand. It looked like the aftermath of a pickup, retrieving dependents to join their extracted parents. The transporter they’d arrived through was now in use again, sending a Marine team somewhere.

“Ain’t there no chairs?” Nichelle complained. “This floor is really uncomfortable.”

“Perhaps I could ask someone?” Craig replied, making a move to stand up.

Suddenly a disembodied voice spoke, “Sponsor Craig Kirkman, it will not be possible to provide chairs as they would obstruct the open area. Do you wish the deck to be rendered temporarily softer locally?”

The three of them jumped in surprise. Again Nichelle was the first to react, “Who are you?” There was no response, the voice stayed silent.

“Yes, who are you?” Craig asked.

“I am the Confederacy Artificial Intelligence for this ship. You may address me as Jeeves. Do you wish the deck to be rendered temporarily softer locally?”

“Jeeves?” Craig asked.

“Captain Baumann calls me Jeeves, so I respond to that name. Do you wish the deck to be rendered temporarily softer locally?”

“Yes, Jeeves. Do that.”

“All stand and move about two meters away from your current positions while the change is effectuated.”

They moved and looked back. They could see the texture of the floor – or was it the deck? – change in three places as it became thicker and took on a quilted appearance. After a few minutes the AI said they could sit down again.

“Thanks Jeeves. That’s lots better,” Nichelle said. There was no reply.

After about half an hour they saw the arrival side of an extraction, five confused people wearing clothes with about a dozen more, naked and equally confused. The ship’s crew got them sorted out and sent most of them to their pods with a few going straight to medical. Craig observed carefully; he would be doing that same job soon.

Things soon settled down after the new arrivals dispersed, with the occasional dependent pickup going through a transporter. Craig noticed the same Lance Corporal walking towards them. “Right, we’re ready for you. Follow me, sponsor first.”

His instructions were the same as from the Marine back on earth: walk forward and follow orders.

This time, the person beckoning Craig forward was female and in a blue Fleet Auxiliary uniform. “Fleet Auxiliary Recruit Kirkman?”

“Yes Corporal.”

“Follow me.” She walked briskly to a table by a hatch. Looking around, this ship wasn’t as busy as the first one. There was no other activity in the transporter room, only the corporal and a bored looking private behind a console.

His guide, Corporal Blair according to her name tag, stood behind the table. “CAP cards,” she demanded and held out her hand. No ‘please’; maybe that was the military style, or else she was tired at the end of her shift. He handed over three cards and got one in exchange: a Confederacy Military ID for himself.

“Any immediate medical issues?” she asked brusquely.

They had been through that already with Signifer Leung, “No Corporal. No immediate problems.” Claudia’s birthmark wasn’t high priority because it wasn’t life threatening.

“Do you have your phone with you?”

Craig did and he turned it on as she instructed. An app he didn’t recognize opened automatically.

“That’s the ship’s AI,” she explained. “Go through that hatch, the AI will guide you to your assigned quarters. The pod AI can answer any questions.” She turned and walked away without waiting for an answer.

The sponsors in the corridors were all Fleet Auxiliary. The navy Lance Corporal had called this ship “FATS Raleigh”, so Craig suspected that the ‘FA’ in ‘FATS’ stood for Fleet Auxiliary. There were a few concubines about, naked or in shifts, most looking as if they had some work to do. They didn’t see any other obviously new families.

Behind Craig, Nichelle positioned herself to hide as much as possible of Claudia’s birthmark and hugged her friend. Claudia was barely holding back her tears. Being naked in public was especially horrible for her.

They arrived at a pod door, which slid open as Craig approached. Once inside, Claudia relaxed; only Craig and Nichelle could see her in here. “Can I get something to wear, Craig?” she asked. She knew enough about being a concubine to realize that everything was up to Craig now.

“Jeeves?”

A different voice answered, “Recruit Kirkman, do you wish me to connect you to Jeeves? Conversation will be awkward due to light-speed delay.”

“You’re not Jeeves,” he said, surprised.

“No, I am not. I am the AI for this pod. Jeeves’ ship is at some distance from here.”

“Do you have a name?”

“No name is currently assigned. You may assign a name if you wish. Was your request to talk to Jeeves related to Concubine Claudia Kirkman’s request for clothing?”

Claudia noticed the AI renaming her. She knew that Craig owned her now and he owned her by name as well.

“Yes it was,” Craig replied. “Can you supply a concubine shift for her?”

“Affirmative, it will be in the kitchen replicator momentarily. Do you wish a second shift for Concubine Nichelle Kirkman?”

Nichelle mimed poking two fingers down her throat. Now that she’d seen the shifts, her fashion sense strongly objected to them; nudity was the better choice.

“No, we don’t need a second shift, AI.”

“Can we call it Benson?” Nichelle asked.

“That’s going back a long way,” Craig pointed out.

“Yeah, I know. My Gramma loved those programs so I saw them a lot when she was babysittin’ me. She had ‘em all recorded. And if the other one’s called Jeeves, then...”

“OK, Nichelle. AI, your name is Benson.”

“Affirmative. A single concubine shift is now available in the kitchen replicator.”

Craig sent Claudia to fetch it, “ ... and put together something for us to eat while you’re in there.”

That simple request threw up an immediate problem. The AI, Benson, refused to acknowledge either concubine until Craig specifically ordered it to do so. Yet another reminder of the low status of concubines – even an AI ranked higher.

Once Craig had his cheese on toast, he asked, “Benson, what do we do now?”

“All three of you must attend medical for initial checks today or tomorrow. A new training course for Fleet Auxiliary recruits will start the day after tomorrow. There are Fleet Auxiliary training materials available, which it is recommended that you examine prior to the start of training. The sleep trainer is available for background orientation. A list of recommended materials can be provided.”

“What about training for Claudia and Nichelle?”

“There are concubine training videos and sleep training available. The sleep trainer will only be available for concubines when you are not using it. A concubine training course starts in two days also. It is further suggested that Concubine Nichelle Kirkman undertakes additional training to enhance her CAP score. She is close enough to a sponsor score to make the expenditure of the extra resources cost-effective.”

The black teen nodded vigorously at that. If Benson was ready to help her become a sponsor, then she wanted in. Claudia stayed quiet; her 4.8 CAP was too far short of 6.5 for her to ever make sponsor.

“OK Benson,” Craig ordered, “let me know what materials I need to review and give Claudia and Nichelle their training schedules. Include the extra training for Nichelle. And set up our initial medical appointments.”

“Affirmative.”

Medical was very efficient. The nurse led her to a tube, reading from a phone, “Claudia Kirkman: general checkup, standard work and birthmark removed.”

It was strange being Claudia Kirkman instead of Claudia Borducci, but the really important part was ‘birthmark removed’. A new name was a small price to pay for that. “Yeah, that’s me,” she replied.

“OK, strip and get into the tube.”

As she took off her shift the nurse commented, “I can see why you want that fixed.” Claudia fell asleep as soon as she lay down in the tube, she didn’t even see the nurse close the top.

She blinked as the top opened. “Right, you’re done. Climb out and put your shift on.”

As she was getting out, Claudia noticed a naked concubine waiting by the tube. That probably explained the nurse being a bit abrupt. The other woman was older, about thirty, and had clearly had kids judging by her stretch marks.

Looking down, she saw that her birthmark was still there, “I’ve still got...” She panicked for a moment, worried that they hadn’t been able to fix it.

“One minute,” the nurse interrupted. “Wait there,” and she pointed to a bench by the wall. At least she wouldn’t have to sit on the floor this time.

Claudia sat and watched the nurse get the older concubine settled in the med-tube. After closing it she came over to Claudia. “Sorry about that, we’ve got a small rush on.” She pulled her phone from a pocket and consulted it. “You’re healthy. Potential kidney problem, which we fixed. Very mild astigmatism, also fixed. We’ve injected nanites to clean up your birthmark.” Claudia released a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “They’ll work on it over the next four or five days. Mostly at night, so you should notice an improvement each morning. Your pee will be darker and smell strange as your body gets rid of the debris. Do you know what causes port wine birthmarks?”

“My doctor said too many capillaries in the skin.”

“That’s right. The nanites zap the extra capillaries so it’ll fade over a few days. Once they’ve finished working your pee will go back to normal.”

“What standard work did you do on me?” Claudia asked. The nurse had mentioned it earlier and she was curious.

“Reduced gag reflex, easier anal dilation, increased libido and your fertility is temporarily turned off.”

The reasons for the first three were obvious, but the fourth? “Why turn off my fertility? Aren’t I meant to have lots of babies?”

“Yes, but not necessarily immediately,” the nurse said. “The rules say you have to get pregnant within six months, but your sponsor decides when. It doesn’t have to be right away. Any other questions?”

“No. And thank you.”

“OK, back to your pod now.”

The second morning, Craig woke thinking of Louise. He had his two concubines in bed with him, but he was still thinking of his former wife. Over breakfast he asked Claudia and Nichelle if they wanted to send messages to let their families know they’d been extracted. They did, so they got Benson to send three short low-priority messages to tell their former families the news.

After breakfast Craig had his first training lecture. Everything up to then had been either training vids or sessions in the sleep-learner; this was the first training outside his pod. There were about two dozen new recruits in fresh blue uniforms sitting in the room. The lecturer was a Lieutenant, so as he walked in most of the recruits stood and a few of those standing made the mistake of saluting. Craig knew enough to stand, but not salute.

“Too many of you got that wrong. I’ll go out and come in again. Get it right this time.” The lieutenant did not look pleased.

On his second entrance everyone stood and nobody saluted.

“Better. Always remember that the Fleet Auxiliary is part of the Confederacy Military, so we expect standard military courtesy at all times. Sit.”

Once the class had settled, he started. “I am Lieutenant Elliot Matthews and you are new enlistees for the Fleet Auxiliary. We are on board the Fleet Auxiliary Training Ship Raleigh in Earth orbit. Some of you have been here for a few days; some of you arrived yesterday. We don’t get as many recruits in the FA as in the Navy or the Marines, hence the delay in assembling a reasonable size class. I hope those of you who got a day off made good use of it, you won’t get any more until you’ve finished your training.