Chapter 2

“Unattached Concubine Wendy Howard go to room 42133 immediately.”

Stupid AI, Wendy thought. She was the only one wearing her concubine collar and there was nobody else near enough to hear it. She got up out of her chair – orders were orders after all – and made her way out into the corridor.

“Turn right,” the AI directed.

As she walked she wondered what this would be about. She’d been here in Tycho Moonbase for almost a month and no sponsor had picked her yet, not even a single offer. She was in her forties and chubby. She looked like a mother, but she wasn’t. Most sponsors were either looking for older mothers or younger women and she didn’t match either template. Being mixed race likely didn’t help either.

Whatever was waiting for her in room 42133 probably wasn’t going to be good. She hoped she wouldn’t be sent back to Earth. That happened to men who weren’t selected, but she’d never heard of it happening to a woman, a fertile woman anyway.

As she arrived as the door it slid open. A small office with a dark-haired white man in a gray Civil Service Sub-Decurion’s uniform.

“Hello, Wendy. I’m Sub-Decurion Nagy. Take a seat.”

She sat and asked, “What’s this about? You’re not going to send me back to Earth are you?” She definitely didn’t want that. She was lucky enough to be in one extraction; two would be pressing her luck too far.

“Yes and no. We have a temporary job for you on Earth. It’s temporary, so you’ll come back here to the Moon afterwards.” Wendy sighed with relief at that, she wasn’t being rejected and sent back permanently.

The Sub-Decurion continued, “You were a teacher weren’t you?”

“Yes,” Wendy answered. “If you’ve got a teaching job for me, couldn’t it be here in the Moon?”

“Your pupil is on Earth, so you need to be there to teach her.”

“Just the one pupil?” Wendy asked.

“Yes. You’ll be teaching her part time. She has a job, so she’ll be working for the rest of the time. So will you; we’ll find something for you to do.”

“I’ll need some time for lesson preparation as well as teaching,” Wendy pointed out.

“We can easily arrange that,” the Sub-Decurion confirmed. “You’ll have the use of a sleep-learning tube for your pupil as well.”

“What work does she do?”

“She’s a prostitute, working in one of our brothels.”

“Will I have to work there too?” Wendy thought she might like to try it once or twice, she’d been a month without sex here and six weeks before that on Earth. Best to wait a bit and see what the customers were like first though.

“I’m sure they’ll take you on if you volunteer,” he smiled. “Eventually you’ll need to get pregnant, so if you’re still there in five months time we might order you to carry some high-CAP man’s DNA off Earth.”

“Why not just extract the man himself?”

“Sometimes we can’t. Not if he’s in the military or if he doesn’t want to volunteer. The brothel is near a big military base. We use it to harvest DNA from high-CAP men we can’t extract for whatever reason.”

“Yes, I can see the point of that,” Wendy agreed.

Fifteen minutes and one transporter journey later Wendy was on Earth talking to Signifer Dee Hazel in her office at the Hellfire club. They’d given her a concubine shift in exchange for her concubine collar before she’d left the moon. She wasn’t sure if it was an improvement on her previous nudity or not. If this place was a brothel then she certainly wasn’t going to attract any men dressed in this shapeless gray monstrosity.

Dee Hazel was tall, black and her face was average looking. Presumably she hadn’t wanted to change her appearance too much. From what Wendy could see under her uniform she had a slim figure to suit her tall build.

“I assume you were told that you’ll only have one pupil?”

“Yes, just the one they said,” Wendy replied.

“Her education was very patchy. Brianna’s intelligent, but her knowledge is more gaps than anything else. We have some assessment of what she needs to be taught from her CAP test; there will be a copy available in your room once you get settled. That will let you start planning her lessons. The AI suggests that you start off with extending her vocabulary, there are a lot of words she doesn’t understand.

“We’ve set up a small classroom for you. The club AI is building a sleep-learner there, but that won’t be ready until tomorrow midday. We think you’ve got most of what you need; if we’ve missed something then let Angie know. She’s the Madame here.”

“I’ve never worked with a sleep-learner before,” Wendy pointed out.

“Basically it dumps a load of information into your brain. It arrives unorganized, so it needs sorting out in your head before you can make much use of it. I’ll tell the AI to let you have access to any Civil Service materials on how to integrate one into your lessons.”

“OK, thanks,” Wendy said. “That should help some.”

Wendy surveyed her tiny room; just as well she didn’t have to share it. There was no way two people could live in this space, it was barely big enough for one. Brianna said that the other girls were two to a room, but their rooms were bigger.

The room next door had been converted into a classroom for her and Brianna. Because the sleep-learner tube had to fit in there as well, the extra space had been taken from Wendy’s room.

That afternoon Brianna was on reception. Things weren’t very busy yet, that would come later towards evening. Only one bouncer on, Andem. He was big, black and smiled for the customers; yes, Marines could smile. He looked good in his smart suit.

Her work was easy: smile and greet, scan their CAP card, take their payment and wave them through. The worst thing was the stupid costume she had to wear. This was the Hellfire Club, so she was a red demon: red teddy, red fishnet stockings, red fuck-me shoes and small red horns. Waitresses and pole dancers had a small red tail as well, but that wasn’t needed on reception. The worst part was the shoes, Brianna had never worn high heels before – always sneakers – so she’d had to practice walking in them. She’d never even had a Prom, that had been during one of the times she wasn’t in school

Most of the customers were fine, and the bouncers helped by just standing there, looking big. Everyone behaved and got in. If they turned up obviously drunk then she didn’t let them in. Guns had to be left in a secure locker, which could cause trouble – this was Texas after all. The AI scanned for concealed guns, which surprised some people, but if they wanted to keep the gun they weren’t let in. There was a sign saying “Management reserve the right to refuse admission for any reason” which she pointed out to them.

The worst problem in her first few days on the door was some guy who’d been banned a month before – apparently he’d given Tamara a black eye and broken her nose. He turned up with a fake CAP card. As soon as he scanned it her screen lit up in red, “FAKE CARD!” quickly followed by, “Facial scan indicates Benedict K. Hunter has been permanently banned from the club.” The asshole started shouting at her when she refused him entry, but Ulric, the bouncer that shift, moved over quickly and soon had him out of the door.

There were a lot of guys coming from the big base at Fort Hood nearby. The Army was ramping up training with the Swarm already in Africa, so there were plenty of customers for the club. The younger soldiers had CAP cards because they’d got tested when they turned fourteen and joined up later. Something she hadn’t expected was that the older Army guys often didn’t have CAP cards as they had enlisted before the Confederacy announced itself. Since the Confederacy wasn’t going to extract serving soldiers, they didn’t bother getting a card, they used Army IDs or driving licenses instead. Card or no card, the AI was able to track everyone.

That same evening, Brianna was relaxing in the common room. She was on call, ready for work if a John picked her video from the selection offered. The clients didn’t see the girls at first, just videos that the AI showed them. That way the AI controlled which girls’ videos the customer saw. He only met the girl herself later, after he’d paid.

“Brianna, I’ve got a special for you,” Angie’s voice came over the PA. “Schoolgirl costume.”

“OK, Angie. Have I been naughty and deserve a spanking or do I really want an A?” The PA here worked both ways, more like Alexa.

“You want that A. He’ll be in the Classroom.”

The replicator pinged, her costume was ready. Angie must have ordered it before calling her.

“Right. I’m gettin’ changed now.”

Her white negligee and thong went into the recycler and she put on the porno-schoolgirl costume: white blouse tied over her breasts, short skirt, plain white panties, white ankle socks and black Mary-Janes. There wasn’t a bra so she didn’t wear one.

While she was changing, Brianna wondered what this guy would be like. At least he wasn’t a spanker, that could get painful sometimes. If the guy was an asshole she’d be able to have a comfort cuddle with Kenisha after. It was nice knowing that her friend was there for her if she needed a hug.

The Classroom was set up as a sort-of schoolroom with three small pupils’ desks, a teacher’s desk and a bed along one side. From her own experience, and what the other girls said, most of the Johns didn’t bother with the bed but used the teacher’s desk or his chair instead. It wasn’t the real classroom that she and Wendy used, that only had one pupil’s desk and a big sleep-learner in place of the bed.

She tweaked her nipples so they showed through the blouse and knocked on the Classroom door. A male voice said, “Come in.” She pasted on a smile, opened the door and entered...

“How come you know so much stuff, Wendy?” Brianna asked at the end of the lesson. We just did a load of Chinese history, way more than you would have gotten back in High School.”

Wendy laughed. “I get it the same way you do,” pointing to the sleep-learner along the side of the room. “I take a few days to let it all settle down, and the AI gives me a load of stuff to read as well. Once I’ve got it organized in my head, I’m ready to teach it. You’re right, I’d hardly done any Chinese history before. Back then I did American History. Now it’s Earth History, and there’s a lot of new things to cover.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Brianna paused, then asked, “Does it feel weird to you too? All that new stuff popping up that wasn’t there before? Getting all that extra vocabulary right at the start was well strange. Suddenly I knew what ‘rapscallion’ means, though I’d never used the word. Never heard anyone else use it either.”

“I’m getting more used to it, though it can still be unsettling. And you’re right, ‘rapscallion’ is obsolete. You may see it in some old novels perhaps.”

Turning serious, Brianna asked, “How am I doing? My next test is in August. Will I be ready?”

“You’ve definitely improved since you arrived here and you’re likely to continue improving for a few years yet. It would be best if you could hit 6.5 this August. Then you’ll be a sponsor and able to control your own education. You won’t have to work here any more either.”

“Yeah. That would be good, as long as I can get some advice to help me.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to find help,” Wendy reassured her. “Every colony has an education system. Just talk to the Civil Service education chief wherever you’re posted.”

Brianna hugged Kenisha, crying on her shoulder. They’d spent most of the night saying goodbye to each other. They weren’t in love, but they were good friends, and now they would never see each other again. They’d been working here together for four months, so Kenisha was going to the concubine pool in the moon to find a sponsor before shipping out to a colony world. Back in prison, Brianna had the shorter sentence so she had expected to be the one leaving. Here, Kenisha had done her time and was moving on first while Brianna stayed behind to catch up on her education.

Angie came in with one of the Marines, Duane. The two friends gave each other one last hug and Kenisha left, taking a final glance at Brianna over her shoulder as she followed Duane out into the corridor.

Brianna managed not to cry. The way she’d had to live growing up, knowing when not to cry was important. You saved it for later if you needed.

“Sit down,” Angie said. Once Brianna was settled she asked her, “Are you ready for a new roommate yet?”

“Could it wait a bit?”

“A bit, but not too long. There’s a group of new girls arriving in four days, so three days is the most I can give you.”

“I’ll be OK by then,” Brianna assured her.

“I want to split Dolly and Ammaria, they don’t get on sharing a room. I can move either one of those two in with you, or else you can take pot luck with one of the new girls.”

“Dolly’s fine. Ammaria is too fidgety – always off doing something or other. Dolly will be a whole lot easier to live with.”

“Good. I’ll move Dolly in with you and one of the new girls can share with Ammaria,” Angie confirmed.

“What about this afternoon?” Brianna asked.

“Are you up to doing your shift?”

“I probably could, but I won’t be at my best.”

“I can give you a rest today,” Angie told her, “but you’d have to work Thursday to make up the time.”

“That would be OK.”

In bed that night, alone in her room, Brianna cried. Not for long, but she cried, quietly. The AI heard her, but she didn’t care about that. She’d lost a lot of friends in her life. Mom moved them regularly to get away from trouble. When mom was inside she was shunted between children’s homes and foster parents. Sometimes her brother was with her, sometimes not. Some of the homes were OK, some not. Some of the foster parents were OK, some not. She had moved away from them all eventually. Yeah, she got to meet new people, but she was used to losing friends. Her life up to now hadn’t been settled enough for long friendships. She’d spent longer with Kenisha than with many other people she knew.