Chapter 10: The New Home

It was late by the time Calix and his family made it back to their quarters. Amelia and Dylan were both already sleeping. They’d slept in the med-tubes, of course, but upon exiting they’d only remained awake long enough to find someone to carry them to comfortable beds. Amelia simply held out her tired arms to Calix and Dylan had practically climbed up Heather.

As Calix was carrying Amelia to the personal lift, he felt someone tugging on his shirtsleeve. He turned to find one of Yolanda’s girls smiling up at him.

“Give her to me, I’ll take her up and tuck her in,” the young girl said. Calix looked over to see the other twin taking Dylan from Heather. Carefully, he handed his cousin over to the girl.

“Kayleigh? Siobhan?” Calix called. The two girls had been heading towards the kitchen but stopped and turned. “After you get something to eat, would you mind heading off to bed, please? I think we need to have a family meeting.”

“We’re not part of the family?” Siobhan asked, obviously hurt.

Calix chuckled.

“Of course, you are,” he replied carefully. “You’re just not part of the – uh – adult part of the family.”

He grimaced. “Okay, that didn’t come out quite right.”

He paused, pursing his lips in thought. “Uh ... there’s no way to say this and make it sound good ... but I need to have a discussion with my concubines.”

“Sounded okay to me,” Kayleigh laughed. “We’ll grab a bite and head upstairs.”

He was turning back to the older women when he heard one of Yolanda’s twins calling him. “Um, Mr. – uh – Gebel?”

Calix turned back and found the light-skinned twins holding Amelia and Dylan at the closed doors of the personal lift. He quickly matched the girl’s voice to his memory. “Just call me Calix, Okay? Now, what’s the matter, Serena?”

Both girls’ eyes grew wide as they glanced at each other.

“How could you tell I’m Serena?” The young girl carrying Amelia asked.

Calix chuckled. “It’s a secret,” he smiled. “Think of it as a warning: I can tell you two apart. Now, what’s the problem?”

Serena was quiet for a moment, a serious frown on her face. “The doors won’t open.”

Calix walked over and the doors immediately opened. He stood for a moment, looking around for a sensor or camera which might be controlling the door, but he found nothing.

Finally, he called out to the AI “Hermes, why won’t the doors open for the girls?”

“As a point of fact, I am the AI for Artemis Station,” the AI’s voice said. To Calix’s untrained ear, it sounded like the AI was a bit peeved, but he figured he must be imagining it. “Concubines only have the freedom that their owners give them. You have not given them permission to use the lift nor open doors.”

“The – um – replicator thingy won’t work either,” Kayleigh called, walking in from the kitchen. “Or at least the AI won’t explain how to use it.”

“Nor do they have privileges to the replicator nor to me,” the AI continued.

“So, I have to give them specific permissions or something?” Calix asked. “Are the permissions layered or separated into roles or anything?”

“Verbal acquiescence is all that is required,” the AI replied. “Just tell me what permissions you wish your concubines, individually or collectively, to have.”

Calix took a deep breath and pursed his lips. “Let them use all of the doors, the lift and the replicator. Oh, and let them use the bedrooms, kitchen facilities, bathroom facilities – basically, let them use anything in the apartment however they’d like. I’d also appreciate it if you’d answer whatever questions they ask of you – at least within the confines of your security protocols.”

“Noted,” the AI intoned. “Your concubines now have access to the full use of this apartment and full access to me, subject to normal security restrictions placed on concubines.”

“Thanks,” Calix replied, turning back towards the living room with a sigh. It was just one more indication that these women were no longer free – they were now his concubines. He’d have to make sure to let any AI with which he came into contact in the future give them full freedom of access and so on. Then, his eyes lit on Alicia’s sullen face.

‘Except maybe her,’ he thought to himself. For a moment, he considered revoking her permissions but thought better of it. Maybe the demonstration of trust would make things easier for her.

He snorted under his breath. Like that would happen.

The women all looked at him curiously but didn’t say a word as they found seats for themselves on the couches or on the floor against a wall. Well, all the women except Alicia. She just looked at Calix with hatred and disdain before leaning against a wall, her arms crossed defiantly.

Calix sighed and shook his head. Her behavior was going to come to a head real soon. He wasn’t sure how, but he was going to have to get her to understand she wasn’t in charge. He waited until Kayleigh and Siobhan had headed upstairs before speaking.

“I know we’re all tired, but we’ve got some things to sort out before we get to bed,” he started, a soft smile on his face. “We should probably start with the most difficult thing. I know some of you may have heard but...”

Calix licked his lips. He couldn’t think of a politic way of breaching the subject, so he decided to just blurt his way through it. “They expect me to have at least half of you pregnant before we reach our destination colony. Now, we have a break there because Alicia and Heather are already pregnant but, unfortunately, that means we need at least two more to volunteer for – uh – pregnancy duty.”

“Why unfortunately?” Brianna spoke up, her brows knit together. “You don’t want to have kids with us?”

“No,” Calix said hurriedly. “I mean yes. I mean...”

He paused, blushing, and rubbed his hands down his face as he thought his words over very carefully. “It isn’t that I don’t want to have children with any of you. I’m just not sure any of you are really interested in having children with me. I mean, I know Whiskey and Tamara are pretty young...”

“‘Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed’,” Whiskey spoke up, her face stony. “At least, I think that’s what my dad said. I’ve been having monthlies for over two years now. I think I’m old enough to have kids.”

She shuddered a little. “I’m not sure I’m ready, though. Not for-for-for how you get pregnant.”

“What she said,” Tamara piped up. It wasn’t lost on her when her sister glared at her balefully. She just decided she didn’t care. Alicia had nearly messed things up pretty badly. Calix was thoughtful, considerate, sweet – and he thought she was a beautiful woman. She’d never really thought of him as a father to her children before – okay, she had but she hadn’t really considered pursuing it before – but she decided she was right where she wanted to be. “Only I’m ready. Very ready.”

Calix swallowed, looking around the group. Except for Alicia, each woman met his eyes with a frank stare that said they were more than ready and willing to fulfill their part of the bargain. Only Julia and Yolanda’s eyes had any uncertainty to them. Alicia just fixed him with a hateful sneer.

“Okay,” he said finally, blushing to his roots. “Then we’ll need to figure out some way to pick which two women need to get knocked up.”

“Why not all of us?” Sophia said with a shrug. “They said at least half – we could just all get pregnant and get it over with.”

“That’s probably not a good idea,” Yolanda spoke up. “Think of all the complications if we all had babies at the same time. The crying. The whining. The feeding. The diapers. It could be a madhouse. I think having half pregnant at any one time is more than enough.”

“Besides,” Brianna spoke up, “I don’t think we can ‘get it over with’. From what I’ve read, you can’t get it over with. They expect us to continue getting pregnant for as long as we can.”

Sophia frowned but finally nodded. She looked over at Calix and shrugged.

“Don’t worry about it, hon,” she said with a soft smile. “We’ll figure out which of us is to be the lucky girls.”

“Oh,” Calix said, surprised. He’d figured this was going to take much longer and he’d have to intervene to try to convince at least one woman to ‘take one for the team’. He had certainly not expected all of them – with the obvious and eternal exception of Alicia – to be okay with having his children. Nor for them to handle the logistics amongst themselves. “Okay.”

His children. The sound of it gave him goosebumps. He’d never realized how much he wanted kids before. Sure, he had some vague thoughts in his mind over the years but never a concerted plan to make a woman pregnant. Heck, he’d gone to a lot of trouble at times to make sure the woman didn’t conceive.

Of course, he had children already. Amelia and Dylan, obviously, but also Siobhan, Kayleigh, Serena and Madeline. The last four wouldn’t likely be his children for very long. Kayleigh turned 14 in two weeks and Serena and Madeline a month later. He made a mental note to have a party for each of their birthdays.

Also, he was going to need to make a calendar or something to keep track of everyone’s birthday. He’d used the calendar app on his phone previously – he made another mental note to ask the AI if there was something equivalent in the Confederacy tech.

“Which brings us to enhancements,” Calix said quietly. “Personally, I think all of you are stunningly beautiful exactly as you are. I can’t think of a single thing I’d change about any of you but there are a couple of things that Octavia suggested I thought I’d run by you.”

Calix looked around the room slowly. All of the women were paying attention to him now, even Alicia. Calix took a deep sigh, blushing deeply.

“First has to do with tightening the group of muscles along the vaginal canal. She said there’d be no visible changes, but it will help with childbirth as well as getting back into shape after childbirth.”

The room erupted into a slow hum as the women began talking to each other. He gave them a few minutes and then began talking over them.

“She also indicated if any of you had problems of a – er – sexual nature those could be resolved as well.”

Calix’s face turned red once more, but it was a pale shadow of the color he’d turned when Octavia was talking about this stuff with him. “For example, if you’d like more nerve endings in your – er – clitoris or your – er – vagina or even – even – uh – your anus – uh – that could be done, too.”

Calix’s voice petered out at the end, but he wouldn’t have been able to be heard anyway. The women were buzzing amongst themselves once again.

He waited patiently, trying to gauge the over-all mood of the women. As the general roar of their voices devolved to more of a murmur, he jumped back in.

“You don’t have to make any decisions now but I – well, while we were finishing up our medical exams, I made appointments for the day after tomorrow, so you’ll have to give it some thought.”

“Some of us are a little scared, Cal,” Sophia said softly, looking around at the women. “Plus – well, we’re not sure what we want or what we should ask for. Would it maybe be possible to speak to someone who has gone through it already? Maybe someone who could give us advice?”

Calix raised his eyebrows. It was something that hadn’t occurred to him – and it should have. He had to start becoming more comfortable asking for help on things he knew little about. Octavia was right, he needed to start learning he wasn’t on his own anymore. He was part of a team.

Of course, as soon as he thought of Octavia he realized she would be perfect for this – well, her and her concubine. The two had probably already gone through this at least once so they would be perfect to allay the women’s fears and offer advice. He would have to call her tomorrow...

He sighed and grit his teeth together. It turns out he actually could learn, recent history to the contrary.

“AI, may I please speak with Lieutenant Capstan, if she’s still awake?”

“What’s up, Cal?” Octavia’s voice came to his ears. “Miss me already?”

“Something like that,” Calix chuckled. “We were just discussing enhancements and the women had some questions about the process – plus, they were kind of looking for some advice on what to request and stuff. I was wondering if you would mind talking to them – and maybe bringing Avery, too, so they could get another concubine’s opinion?”

“Sure,” Octavia replied immediately. “But, uh, can it wait for morning?”

Calix laughed. “Of course. I didn’t mean right now. Our appointment isn’t for two days.”

Calix was getting undressed when the doors opened. It’d been a long day and he’d left the women in the living room area talking about the pick-up, the transport, enhancements, sleeping arrangements and all the mysterious ‘other things’ women talk about. He figured they needed their time to come to grips with everything that had happened to them. They needed to come to grips with everything that was still happening to them.

He turned to the door and smiled at Sophia as she led Brianna into the room. “Get everything sorted out?”

He was taken aback by Brianna’s wide, surprised eyes. “What’s the matter, Bree?”

“I-I-I’ve never – uh – seen you – you know – without a shirt,” Brianna stuttered.

She couldn’t help but unconsciously lick her lips. She’d known Calix wore clothing that was big and baggy, and she’d felt how hard his body was through the clothing when she hugged him, but she had absolutely no idea what was really underneath all those clothes. She couldn’t believe the hard, sculpted muscles stretching across his massive chest nor the muscles bulging around his arms. She couldn’t believe the six-pack abs or the hard, rounded shoulders.

“I-I ... never without – without armor or – or something, I mean. Good God! Why have you been – been hiding... that?”

“Our man’s a hunk, isn’t he?” Sophia laughed. “Wait’ll you see the dangling bits. Those’re even better.”

Calix flushed in embarrassment. He wasn’t used to attention like this. Sure, he’d listened to Sophia and Maria and Inez talk about his hard muscles and his handsome face – but he’d assumed it was all pillow talk. He’d just assumed it was something women said to the man they were with to make him feel special. It wasn’t a lack of confidence – he’d honed his body as much as possible to be faster and stronger than anyone around him. It was just something to which he’d never paid much attention.

“So, did you guys come to any decisions?” Calix tried again, hoping to change the conversation. The hungry look that had come over Brianna’s face was making him uncomfortable.

“Some,” Sophia smiled.

She knew what Calix was doing. She knew he was uncomfortable. Her man was like that, though. He deflected compliments. It wasn’t he lacked confidence to accept them, it was more he didn’t care for them. He knew who and what he was, so pointing it out didn’t serve much purpose. It was something he was going to have to work at because she was pretty sure he’d be hearing compliments for the rest of his life.

“We decided Tamara and I are going to have your children but we’re deferring on the whole ‘being changed’ thing until we know more about it. Some of us have some ideas about what we’d like but we just want to be more comfortable with the process.”

“I want to be taller,” Brianna blurted. “I’m sick and tired of being short.”

Calix was still reeling about the news Tamara was going to carry his child – he’d just assumed she’d follow Alicia’s lead though he probably should have known better. Tamara seemed to be very different from Alicia.

Still, he’d just assumed he was a ‘ride to the stars’ for the young girl. He hoped no one had forced Tamara into it.

Quelling his thoughts, Calix nodded but couldn’t help the look of disappointment that came over his face at the thought of Brianna being taller.

“Well, if that’s what you want, I’m sure they can do something so simple,” he shrugged.

Brianna frowned. “But you’re not happy about it.”

It was a statement, not a question.

Calix sighed. “It isn’t that I’m unhappy about it,” he extemporized. “It’s just – it’s so much a part of you. I actually kind of like it that you’re so short. It means I can pick you up and carry you and...”

He shrugged, unable to explain it further. “I’m sure I’ll love whatever you want. The most important thing is you’re happy with who you are. Like I said earlier, I already think you’re perfect just the way you are.”

Brianna’s frown deepened. She hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. She hated being short – but would she really like being tall? Could this be one of those times where ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’? Plus, everything around her was new and different. Maybe being short wouldn’t be such a handicap here. She’d dreamed of being tall – but maybe she should just wait to see how well she fit in up here. Besides, if Calix really did prefer her short...

“Maybe,” she said softly, her face clearing just a bit. “Maybe I should wait to see if being short is such a bad thing up here. As long as I can change later – if I want to.”

Calix looked at her, a frown forming on his own face.

“Don’t change just for me,” he said earnestly. “I’m going to love you no matter what you look like.”

He blushed, realizing what he’d just said. “I mean, I didn’t – uh – crap – you’re very beautiful but – I like the woman inside. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah,” Brianna smiled brightly. “Yeah, it does. I love you, too, Cal.”

“Great,” Sophia jumped in, slowly moving towards the young man. “I’m glad all that is cleared up. Now, can we make with the ‘Cal gets naked and fucks our brains out’ please? You’ve kept me waiting for weeks. You said we had to wait until we were picked up – well, here we are.”

Brianna just giggled. “You shouldn’t have made her wait like that. She’s been complaining about being horny for weeks now.”

“I thought it wouldn’t be fair to you and Whiskey,” Calix started in protest.

“Cal, there’s no such thing as fair when you’re dealing with women,” Brianna said patiently, using her ‘listen carefully, you dumb boy’ voice. “We’re each different so you have to treat us each in our own unique way. I mean, really ... making the poor woman wait so long. You really need to make it up to her.”

Brianna’s face brightened. “And me, too. I mean – fair is fair.”

Calix started to protest but by then Sophia had closed the gap and pulled his head down for a kiss. As he bent down to kiss her, he could feel Brianna coming up from behind, her fingers tracing along his back. His hands were holding Sophia’s face lightly, his thumbs caressing her jawline but Sophia’s were much busier. While their kiss went on, she undid his belt and unbuttoned his slacks. Calix felt his legs cool as his pants fell to the floor.

He pulled back slightly and looked at the auburn-haired beauty in front of him.

“I love you,” he said softly, trying to put all of the love and sincerity he felt into the expression of his eyes.

Sophia’s smile blossomed, her face turning almost radiant.

“I know,” she whispered back, her arms encircling her lover’s waist. “I love you, too.”

Sophia closed her eyes and turned to accept Calix’s lips on her own. Her arms moved around him, grabbing at Brianna’s wrists. She pulled the younger girl’s hands down to the waist of Calix’s boxer-briefs, hooking the girl’s fingers under the hem. Brianna got the hint and slowly tried to pull the boxer briefs down, only to find they were hooked on something in the front.

Brianna knelt, moving around to the side, noticing the huge bulge pushing the front of the briefs out. Her eyes wide, she reached up for the waistband and pulled it out and down, carefully pulling it over the bulge. Stretched to its maximum, she slowly pulled the briefs down her sponsor’s legs. As they fell away, Sophia moved closer, though not close enough to completely obscure Calix’s cock from Brianna’s gaze.

Brianna’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t believe the size of the staff protruding from Calix’s groin, now pointing up as it was pinned against Sophia’s stomach. She certainly wasn’t a virgin, though her sexual exploits weren’t exactly memorable, but she’d never seen a staff of this size before. Her previous lovers had been far smaller.

She’d gone a bit off the deep end sexually when her parents had been taken. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe she was looking for the love and support and stability her parents had provided for her. She’d never found it, though - just some boys who were willing to use her. None of them had managed to get in her head or her heart, just her pants. At least, until now.

Her two parents had been replaced – with Calix, Sophia and Whiskey. She had hopes for Heather, Julia and Yolanda as well. She even had hopes for Tamara. She doubted she’d ever be able to get along with Alicia, though. That girl just seemed bat-shit crazy.

Of course, it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t nearly the same. However, the love she’d felt for her parents had been replaced by a more romantic love for Calix and the rest. The support she’d been given from her parents had been replaced by the support from all of the others. Losing her parents had caused her to grow up a little faster than normal but at least now she had a network of people to catch her when she fell and stand beside her when she needed them.

It had changed all of her family, she realized. She’d had to grow up – but Kayleigh and Siobhan had changed as well. Before, they’d been content to talk about growing up, being different. After her parents had been taken, the girls had been clingier. They had been more afraid to let go. It was after their parents left when they’d come up with their plan to be taken together. At first, they’d hoped Kayleigh might test high enough to take her sisters – or maybe Siobhan. As they’d studied up on the CAP and read more on what was speculated the CAP scores revered, they had lost hope. None of them wanted to be anything more than mothers – housewives. They didn’t mind working, but it was less important than having children and being married.

As their thoughts moved beyond getting a high enough score, they’d come up with the plan to be concubines together – to find someone who would take all three. Someone who would share all three, so they’d never be apart. They’d often considered it a pipe dream, but they’d always held out hope.

It was one of the myriad reasons Calix was so perfect. Brianna had half fallen in love with him as her lab partner, but Kayleigh and Siobhan had fallen for him almost as soon as they saw him. He was the one man all three could see as the father of their children.

And still she was mesmerized by Calix’s dick. It was big – much bigger than she’d expected. Bigger than any she’d ever seen – at least, in person. She’d heard the penis described in terms of anger – an ‘angry, red head’, a ‘throbbing’ piece of meat. When she looked at Calix’s large pole, however, she found it anything but angry. When she squeezed her hand between the two people standing before her and grasped the giant member, it felt warm and inviting instead of cruel and hard. It was large and stiff, yes, but also soft to the touch. It throbbed, certainly – she could feel the pulse of her soon-to-be lover when she wrapped her small fingers around the staff – but it was a gentle throbbing. It was a fast, yet peaceful pulse. It was both the same and yet so much more than any other dick she’d ever seen.

She released the large pole from her grip and gently let her fingers wander up. She felt the soft, smooth flesh under her fingertips and the silky feel of Sophia’s skin on the back of her hand. There was a ridge at the top of the staff where the soft skin, with the hard, winding veins underneath, exploded into the big, bulbous head. She felt a heat flow through her, a sense of power and lust, when she heard Calix gasp lightly as she touched him there.

Unfortunately, Sophia and Calix were standing far too close to do what she wanted. She tried to burrow her head between the two, tried to pull and bring the staff to her mouth for tasting, but Sophia wasn’t relinquishing her lover. She looked up, about to speak, but their kiss stopped her and made her smile. She just needed to be patient – Sophia had promised she’d get her turn.