Chapter 2: On Their Way

The AI interrupted Frank’s reading, “Signifer! Two concubines in pod Blue Six are fighting!” One wall showed a real-time video of two women rolling around on the floor, hitting and slapping each other, with a ring of children and the other two concubines looking on.

Annoyed, he ordered the AI, “Set the stinger to put them both out for an hour.” A red button appeared on the table in front of him. As soon as he hit it the two combatants collapsed where they were, not moving. Seeing the shocked looks on the faces of some of the audience, Frank told the AI to let the group know that the two women were simply stunned, not dead.

He called for Masika and called Corporal Lawrence. He would be removing those two from their pod for a time. He wanted to let the two remaining concubines have some help for however long it would take to resolve this; they still had twenty-eight children to look after. The corporal would send one of his Marines to escort Haiba to Blue Six.

When Frank and Masika got there, they found everyone huddled together, looking a bit shocked, with some of the smaller children sniffling. The two unconscious women were lying where they had fallen. “Who’s in charge of this pod?” he abruptly asked the older of the two remaining concubines. He was still angry at being interrupted, but he kept his anger under control as much as he could. This woman wasn’t the cause of the problem.

“Nuru is,” and she pointed at one of the two on the floor.

Just what he needed, another complication. “Right, for now you’re replacing Nuru as the lead concubine for this pod. OK?”

“Yes, sir,” she replied. She looked uncertain at her sudden elevation, but could tell that he was in no mood to argue.

“Since there are only two of you here,” Frank told her, “I’ll loan you two temporary replacements. Masika here is one and the other will be here shortly. Once I’ve sorted things out you may get one or both of those two on the floor back again.”

“Yes, sir,” she acknowledged.

“Masika, you stay here and help...” he paused looking at the older concubine.

“Johari, sir.”

Turning back to his teenage concubine, Frank told her to follow Johari’s orders and to help look after the children. Masika immediately went over to the huddle of youngsters and started comforting the worst affected. Her hugs, kisses and quiet, reassuring words had a good effect on them and they began to calm down. A few even began smiling. He could see that she definitely had the makings of a good mother.

Frank bent down and began to strip the two unconscious women of their shifts. Having taken the full Marine enhancement he could easily handle the dead weight of the unconscious concubines. He’d almost finished stripping the second of the pair when a Marine arrived with Haiba in tow.

Seeing Frank, the Marine, an Afro-American, snapped to attention, saluted and said, “Reporting as ordered, serg ... sir.”

Frank smiled slightly at PFC Oliver’s momentary slip. Tyrone had been with him before his recent temporary promotion, back when he was a Sergeant.

“Haiba,” Frank told the new concubine, “you’ll be helping Johari for the moment.” He pointed her towards the group of children and concubines.

“Yes, mister,” she replied and went over to join Masika with the children.

Finishing stripping that last of the unconscious pair, he ordered Tyrone, “Private, you carry one of these two. I’ll take the other.”

Once back in Frank’s pod, they put the women into two of the cells on the upper level. The cells had been left in Darjee grey and were very plain. They had a thin mattress, a hole in the floor for a toilet, a tiny washbasin and a small replicator with a very limited menu. They left the women in their separate cells to recover while Frank went down to check the recording of how the incident had started.

By the time he had finished reviewing the video of the fight and the two women’s previous records from Earth, they had both woken up. The video surveillance showed Nuru sitting quietly in her cell, waiting. The other woman, Pasua, had started by banging on the cell door, demanding she be let out. He left her to simmer and went to get Nuru first. He’d already ordered Afiya to stay in her room.

Taking Nuru down to the main room, Frank questioned her, “So, tell me what happened.”

She huddled in her chair, using her hands to try to hide as much of her nakedness as she could. He had the AI checking her responses in real-time, so he could be sure that she stayed truthful. Nuru told him how the other woman, Pasua, had arrived in the Kindertransport camp with her own two children. She was competent at looking after them; the problems started when the camp assigned her five more kids to bring her up to the usual complement of seven. She did the absolute minimum, or less, for the extra children. She tried to treat her fellow concubines as servants, expecting them to look after her five extra children as well as their own seven. Naturally, that hadn’t gone down well. As the lead concubine in her hut it had fallen to Nuru to correct Pasua. They had got into a few shouting matches before extraction, though they hadn’t come to blows. This confirmed what Frank had seen in the records from Earth; Pasua was already on his list of potential troublemakers.

Nuru continued, “Back in the camp we weren’t locked in, so we could get out of the hut whenever we wanted. If we got too angry with each other one of us could go outside and walk around for a bit until things calmed down. Here on the ship we’re locked in together for a lot of the time. When she got really annoyed at me telling her to do her own work we couldn’t get away from each other. She started hitting me, so I hit her back. Then it all went black and I woke up in your small room here. It really hurts when you wake up you know?”

Frank nodded, “We hit you with a stinger. It hurts when you wake up so you won’t want to get hit with one again.”

Nuru nodded, “That’s right. I don’t want to go through that again. Sir.”

Frank didn’t think Nuru needed much more of a lesson. She’d been doing her job and had reacted when attacked. She could have thought things through more carefully, but she wasn’t really the one to blame. The recordings clearly showed that Pasua hit Nuru first. “In future, don’t get into a fight, even if she hits you. Just use your collar to call the AI for help. That way she gets stung and you don’t.”

“Yes, sir.”

Frank paused for a silent consultation with the AI, «Would either Johari or the fourth woman make a good lead concubine for pod Blue Six?» He was considering demoting Nuru.

«No, sir. Nuru is definitely the best qualified of the four to take the lead. Replacing her would be likely to cause further problems.»

So that option was out, he would have to make the best of it he could. Frank told her, “I haven’t talked to Pasua yet, so I don’t know what I’m going to do with her, or how long it will take. For the moment I’ll put you back in your pod. I don’t know when, or if, Pasua will be back. You’ll have a temporary replacement concubine to help you. She’s young, so you’ll need to make sure she keeps up with her lessons while she’s with you. I will leave you in charge, as you were before, but you’ll be on probation.”

Nuru nodded, “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. I’ll do better sir.” She obviously didn’t want to repeat the experience. A good sign; she should be able to learn from her mistake.

Frank ordered her to follow him back to Blue Six. As he stood up she asked, “Sir, don’t I get a shift?”

“No you don’t. You can have a shift when you get to your pod. Think of it as part of your punishment.”

As Frank had expected, the passageway was busy. Being locked in their pods meant that everyone took full advantage whenever the AI opened their hatch. Nuru made the short walk from Blue One to Blue Six bent over and trying to cover herself with her hands. As soon as they got to her pod, she rushed for the nearest replicator.

Frank told Johari to get Masika and Haiba. When Nuru returned in a new shift, he had her wait until the other three arrived. He told the four of them that he would take Masika back to his pod and leave Haiba to temporarily replace Pasua.

“I’d prefer to keep Masika,” Johari said.

“She’s mine and I want her back.” That got him a smile from Masika. She was more relaxed around him now than she’d been on the first day. “Haiba,” Frank told the new concubine, “you’ll stay here to help until Pasua gets back. Nuru is in charge now, so you do what she tells you. If you want to talk to your friends in your old pod, just ask the AI.”

“Thank you, mister.”

“And don’t forget to keep up with your lessons either.”

“No, I won’t forget,” she assured him.

Frank left them to it and went back to his pod to deal with Pasua.

Once there, Frank sat in his office planning what to do. She would probably be a lot more difficult than Nuru had been. Nuru recognised that she hadn’t handled things well and had accepted her punishment. From what he’d learned of her so far, Pasua was in denial about being a concubine and wanted to carry on with her life as before. She likely needed a sharp lesson that emphasised her new status. He planned a few options he could use, depending on how she responded. He also decided to have two instant responses prepared. “AI,” he ordered, “I want two presets for Pasua. ‘Pain’ will make her collar hurt her, but not stun her. ‘Knockout’ will leave her unconscious for about half an hour. Activate them if I tell you.”

“Recovery times cannot be set exactly, sir. Unconsciousness may last for between twenty and forty minutes,” the AI informed him.

“That’s close enough. I don’t want to have to hang around for an hour or two if I need to stun her.”

Pasua’s attitude was everything Frank had feared it would be. Her husband was an important man. She was an important woman. How dare Nuru expect her to look after other mothers’ children! She wasn’t a servant! The other women weren’t important like she was, they could look after the extra children. She got so angry that she forgot her nakedness and was waving her hands around to emphasise her points. Frank stopped her stream of complaints when she started on about the way she’d been dumped in the cell and its lack of the facilities due someone from her station in life. “I tried to get the replicator to give me some clothes and it wouldn’t. Not even one of those grey things you make us wear.”

“Be quiet Pasua,” Frank told her. She ignored him and carried on complaining. He used his best parade ground voice and forcefully told her, “BE QUIET!” while silently telling the AI, «Pain.»

That certainly got Pasua’s attention. Shocked, she abruptly went quiet. Her hands moved to cover her breasts and crotch as she suddenly remembered she was naked.

“So, Pasua,” Frank told her, “you need to learn a lot of things quickly. First, you aren’t married any more. As soon as you boarded this ship you got an instant divorce.”

“But...” she interrupted.

«Pain, » Frank told the AI. Pasua flinched and shut her mouth. “Don’t interrupt me when I’m talking,” he warned her. She nodded, silently.

Frank continued with her education, “Not only are you not married, you’re not important either. You’re a concubine and you’re not even the lead concubine in your pod. Nuru is more important than you and I’m a lot more important than Nuru. Do you understand?” She nodded again, but he was sure that her nod was simply to avoid more punishment. She hadn’t yet fully understood the situation she was in.

“You’re a concubine, which means that you need to find yourself a sponsor. If you carry on behaving the way you are, then no sponsor will want you. If no sponsor wants you then you’ll be assigned to a brothel.”

Pasua protested at that and got punished again for interrupting.

“Yes we do have brothels and yes we can assign you there. You are that unimportant to us. Just a whore. Do you understand?”

“I’m not a whore!” Pasua shouted. “You can’t do that to me!”

By this point, Frank had begun to lose patience. Talking was obviously having no real effect. Even the pain was only making her conform, rather than understand. Conforming was good, but understanding would be better. Perhaps something more physical might be more effective?

“You’re a whore if I say you are. Now come here and suck my cock, whore.” He started to undo the fly on his uniform.

“You try to stick that filthy thing in my mouth and I’ll bite it off!” she shouted angrily at him.

Frank lost patience with her. «Knockout, » he ordered the AI and she collapsed in a heap on the floor.

He took a couple of minutes to consider. Was she even worth saving? Her two kids could easily be found a foster-mother – he had almost four hundred potential foster-mothers available. However, she was a live womb, which made her worth something. Given the motivation she could be a good mother, her care for her own two children showed that. He decided to go with one of the more extreme options he’d formulated earlier. This wouldn’t be easy for her – probably kill or cure. More of a chance for her than immediate recycling, but she probably wouldn’t see it that way at first.

He contacted Nuru and explained that she was going to have to do without Pasua for two or three days at least. She could keep Haiba as a temporary replacement. Nuru assured him that Haiba was shaping up well. The young concubine was still inexperienced, but much more willing and helpful than Pasua had ever been.

He carried the unconscious woman back up to her cell. Once there he used the cell’s replicator; it allowed him many more options than for a prisoner of course. A prisoner could only get water and a limited amount of plain food. Pasua would find out what he had used it for when she woke up.

Frank walked into her cell, naked. Pasua was awake and glared at him from where she crouched on the mattress, also naked. He looked calmly back at her. “You will have noticed that I’ve handcuffed your hands behind you, whore. You also have a ring-gag in your mouth. That stops you biting me and has a conveniently placed hole in it for my cock.”

Pasua continued glaring. She couldn’t talk coherently with the ring-gag in place, so she stayed silent. At least she had learned one of her lessons.

He stroked his prick so it stood stiff, ready for her. Then he repeated his command from earlier, “Come here and suck my cock, whore.” When Pasua didn’t move, he followed it up with, «Pain.» He saw her flinch.

“Come here and suck my cock, whore,” he repeated.

This time Pasua reluctantly moved to kneel in front of him. He grabbed her head with one hand and guided his erection through the hole in her gag with the other. Using both hands he moved her head as he wished. She was obviously not used to deepthroat and started choking. He pulled back to let her recover, and then briefly went deep again. Gradually she began to get used to having his cock in her throat.

“You’re a whore,” he told her, “and whores have to do deepthroat.”

Frank continued alternating shallow and deep until he felt himself ready to come. He misjudged it and buried his cock in her throat too long. He just managed to pull out in time, spraying her face and tits with his last two blasts.

As he pulled back she threw up over herself and the floor. She was crying, gasping for breath while kneeling in her own vomit. He went round behind her to release the handcuffs. Warning her to stay quiet, he also removed her gag. While she remained kneeling, he ordered, “AI, let this whore have some materials from the replicator to clean her cell.” Turning to his prisoner he told her, “Since you made the mess, you can clean it up, whore.”

He left her and went straight to the shower to clean himself off where some of her vomit had landed on him. As he was doing so, he thought over his actions. He hadn’t much enjoyed forcibly face-fucking her like that, but doing his duty came ahead of enjoyment. His shower was for more than simply physical cleaning.

Pasua was potentially salvageable. With the Swarm established on Earth, the ready supply of concubines, particularly of experienced mothers, was going to dry up in a few years. That made her more valuable than she would have been in the early years of the Diaspora. Back then he’d have recycled her almost automatically for threatening to bite him.

After his shower he put his uniform on and went back to his office. Afiya and Masika both knew not to interrupt him there, unless he called for them. He told the AI to connect him through to Sergeant Briscoe.

“Sergeant, I’m going to set up a brothel with one girl working in it. I need some customers. Do you think your guys would be interested?”

“Sounds like it could be fun for the troops, sir. I assume she’s being taught a lesson.”

“She is. She thinks she’s special and is a cut above the other concubines. She needs to learn that she isn’t exceptional and has to do what she’s told, like all the others. She’s a reasonably good mother when she wants to put in the effort. I think it’s worth trying to salvage her, instead of simply recycling her.”

“How hard do you want us to make her lesson, sir?” Kate asked.

Frank paused to think about his answer. How to express what he wanted? “Hmm ... I want it tough for her, but I don’t want her broken. She needs to come out of this still functioning, but definitely wanting not to go back. Something like, they can slap her, but not punch her. The girls can only use their second largest dildo and they have to grease it first. If someone’s into watersports they can piss on her tits or her pussy, but not in her mouth. Does that sound about right?”

“We can do that, sir,” Kate agreed. “How long will we have her for?”

“I was thinking around two or three days. I don’t want any of your team to feel left out because they were on duty while she was open for business.”

“Right, sir. That will give me enough time to let them all have a turn or two, if they want. Have you thought of asking Captain Williams? Some of her crew might want a piece as well.”

“I’d planned to do that as soon as I finished talking to you,” Frank told Kate. “Send someone over to collect her in an hour. That should give enough time for the AI to set up a room for her. The concubine’s name is Pasua, but for the moment I’m calling her ‘whore’. Best to keep doing that until you’ve finished with her.”

“Yes, sir.”

When he asked her, the captain declined his offer. She and her crew were Fleet Auxiliary, so had their own concubines with them on board. She didn’t want them to get into the habit of abusing concubines as that would make her own job more difficult in future. Frank fully understood her point of view; Marines shipped without concubines so their treatment was not a problem for Marine commanders.

Frank spent the next fifty minutes wandering between the ship’s two messes, one forward and one aft. He wanted to take his mind off Pasua. He hadn’t realised that being in the Civil Service would bring decisions like this. If he’d made the wrong choice, then he would be wasting a good Confederacy resource, capable of having many children in future. Perhaps the Civil Service wasn’t the sinecure he had assumed it was.

He got back to his pod in time to see Pasua, or ‘whore’ as she now was, escorted off to her new work. She was still glaring at him, but had at least learned to stay silent. Perhaps there was some hope for her.

Frank felt tense. “Afiya,” he called, “can you give a massage?”

“I can try, Frank,” she answered. “I haven’t had a lot of practice. Mostly I used to rub the guy’s back for a minute or two, turn him over and jump on his dick.”

“That I can well believe,” Frank laughed. “Just rub my back for now and don’t turn me over.”

She wasn’t too bad at it, despite her lack of practice. He was able to relax and she was sensible enough to realise that he didn’t want to take things any further than a simple back rub. He had kept both her and Masika out of the main room while he talked to Pasua, but she’d heard enough of what was happening to realise that he was in no mood for sex at the moment. He simply wanted to relax.

In bed that night, he managed to satisfy Afiya with two fucks. Their longer session the previous night had taken the edge off her earlier frustration. She would have preferred more, but she could tell that Frank wasn’t really in the mood for as much as she would have liked. She was intelligent enough to realise that she and Frank were going to have to get along for their time together on board ship. She knew it would be stupid to annoy him on their second night by demanding too much.

After they’d finished, Frank thought of Masika. “AI, is Masika awake?”

“Yes, sir. She appears to find it difficult to get to sleep on her own.”

He’d suspected as much from what the fourteen-year-old had told him earlier. “Tell her to come in here and sleep with us.”