Chapter 33: Homecoming

“Papi!” Sophia called, running to the door as Calix entered. She leapt into his arms, her own arms circling his neck as she buried her face into his shoulder. Most of his women had decided to wear one of the thin, see-through shifts the Confederacy recommended. Sophia and Tamara, however, had decided to remain naked. So there was nothing between Calix and Sophia except for his own clothing.

Calix’s hand naturally slipped down to cup Sophia’s ass. He didn’t actually intend to molest her, but it was the best point for leverage. Plus, it was a pleasant handful.

Sophia wiggled her butt a little bit, glancing up at his eyes with a little smile.

Then, with wide eyes, she straightened her body and jumped down, sliding out of his hands and falling flat onto her butt. “Your neck! Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

Calix chuckled, squatting down and offering his hand to the woman. “I’m fine, Soph. Fixed up as good as new. I don’t even hurt anymore.”

It was a lie. He still could feel his neck breaking. If he thought too hard on it, he still could feel pain in every single appendage.

She didn’t need to know it, though. She didn’t need to know he was still shaky. She didn’t need to know he was having nightmares in his daydreams.

Besides, phantom pain didn’t count. Artemis had given him a clean bill of health. What he was feeling was psychological, not physical.

“We were worried,” Sophia said, grabbing his hand and pulling herself up.

“I was worried about you,” Calix said softly. “What were you guys thinking, taking on a fully enhanced Marine?”

“He snapped your neck,” Sophia replied hotly. “We thought he’d killed you. If you were dead, we were going to make sure he followed you. We would have, too, if those other Marines hadn’t intervened.”

Calix smiled as he stood. “I appreciate it. Just don’t do it again. If I die, it will be in vain if the rest of you follow me. Do you understand?”

“Yes, papi,” Soph responded. “If you’re dead, though, you no longer have any hold on us. If we lose you, we will avenge you – or die trying.”

Calix covered his face with both hands and rubbed. When had Sophia gotten so willful?

Then, he answered his own question. She was submissive. She would follow his lead. She would always do what was best for him, even after his death.

He sighed in resignation. She definitely had a point. If he was dead, all his orders went out the window. There was no way he could command her beyond his death.

“Just ... think, okay?” Calix asked. “If I’m dead, I really want all of you to live. It’s my whole purpose here, Soph. My whole reason for doing any of this is to protect my family. My family. That begins with you. With them. It begins with you and through you the entire human race.”

He pulled her to him. “You are my family, Sophia. I love you. I will do everything – I will give my life – for you. For them. Always. Do you understand? So, if I die, I need you to live. It’s everything to me.”

“Now you realize something, papi,” Sophia responded. “You are my family. You are their family. We will give our lives – for you. And if you die, I don’t want to live. I don’t think any of them would want to live, either.”

She considered Alicia, Heather, Julia and Yolanda. The one hated him. The others didn’t know him. Maybe not all of them would sacrifice their lives for him.

“Well, most of them wouldn’t want to live,” she acknowledged.

“What she said,” Julia said softly, putting the lie to Sophia’s thoughts and words. The former cop had an angry, serious look on her face.

“You barely know me,” Calix protested. As he thought about it, though, he wouldn’t put it past the older woman. He couldn’t quite understand it – or rely on it – but he got a sense of loyalty from the former police officer.

“How does that old saying go?” Julia smiled, her eyes still flashing in anger. “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family?”

“This?” she continued, waving around the room. “This is my family. It became my family when I made my choice to come with you. I will do whatever I can to protect it – and you.”

Calix chuckled. “How the hell can you not have a 6.5 or better?”

“You’re just lucky, I guess,” Julia laughed.

His right arm still around Sophia, he pulled Julia into his left. It felt good to have her join the hug. There still wasn’t love between Julia and himself, but he trusted her. She was steadily moving into his inner circle.

“Ensign Gebel.”

For a brief moment, Calix wanted to do bad things to the AI Then, he realized Sophia and Julia would wait for him and he smiled.

“What is it Artemis?” he asked out loud. Sophia and Julia looked at him, curious.

“Lieutenant Capstan is requesting entrance,” Artemis supplied.

“She has to ask?” Calix asked in confusion. “I was under the impression she could come and go as she pleased. I can think of a few times she’s just walked right in.”

“As your superior, she can demand access if she’s on official business,” Artemis explained.

“Which means she’s not on official business,” Calix interpreted.

He shrugged. “Let her in.”

“Calix,” Octavia greeted him with a smile. The smile widened as she took in the auburn temptress in his arms. “Sophia. I’m glad you’re both together. You have some decisions to make.”

She turned to Julia. “Julia, right? I’m getting better with your names.”

She looked around at the rest of Calix’s harem. “Actually, this is good. It kind of involves all of your family, though the final decision has to be Calix’s.”

Calix tensed. “What is it? What’s up?”

Octavia saw Calix’s stance change, and she lifted both her hands in submission. “Nothing bad – well, not bad per se...”

“Which means it’s bad,” Calix sighed in exasperation. “Just spill it.”

“No, it isn’t,” Octavia reiterated.

She bit her lip, looking around the room. “As expected, Mister Gunter failed his re-test. It was nothing but a formality, anyway, since his crimes were grave enough to warrant termination. However, since he failed his test and is scheduled for termination tomorrow morning, we have a bit of a quandary.”

She bit her lip again as Calix looked at her expectantly. Finally, she sighed. “He has two dependents – a ten-year-old girl and a four- almost five-year-old boy. We need to place them somewhere – and the Civil Service isn’t really equipped for dependents as traumatized as they seem to be.”

“We can take them,” Sophia blurted without even looking at Calix.

“Soph?” Calix turned incredulously to the head of his household. He wasn’t necessarily vetoing the idea, but his household was pretty large already.

Sophia looked at him with her eyebrows raised. “What? We can. We have plenty of room – and plenty of people to take care of them.”

Calix turned, wide-eyed back to Octavia. The older woman noted a wild, scared look in the young man’s eyes.

“Surely their mother can take them?” he asked hopefully.

Octavia’s face turned grave. “No, she really can’t.”

“She – she didn’t take the loss of her children well,” Octavia explained with a loud sigh. “Evidently, she got really drunk – and took a large number of sleeping pills. Her body wasn’t found until several days later.”

Calix closed his eyes, visions of Bristol stuck in his head. For a brief, irrational moment, he just wanted to go back to Earth and take his chances. The Confederacy claimed their goal was to save the Earth from the Sa’arm and seed humanity through the stars, but it seemed they were sacrificing the Earth before the Sa’arm even made it this far.

So much collateral damage...

“Grandparents?” Calix begged.

“I’ve looked into Gunter’s father,” Octavia spat. “I wouldn’t entrust impressionable children to him even if the alternative meant consigning them to hell. Think Gunter – only older and much worse.”

“As for the Mother’s parents,” Octavia continued, “they want nothing to do with the kids. They said they want no reminder Leopold Gunter was ever in their daughter’s life.”

“They’d turn away their only grandchildren?” Calix asked incredulously.

“They have others,” Octavia explained. “From other daughters and a son. They wouldn’t even consider it. They declined almost before we could finish asking them. Evidently, they’d more or less cut off Ellen. She was living off of an inheritance from her own grandparents.”

“We can take them,” Sophia insisted, her face stony.

“Sophia,” Calix warned. He wanted to save humanity, but not one or two at a time. He wasn’t responsible for this. It wasn’t his duty to take Gunter’s offspring.

Even as he had those thoughts, he started feeling guilty. No, they weren’t his responsibility ... but who would take them if he didn’t? Could he, in good conscience, consign them to an uncertain fate?

“Well, we can,” Sophia replied, looking directly into Calix’s eyes with her eyebrows raised.

She turned back to Octavia, assuming it was a done deal. “What about his concubines?”

“You want them, too?” Octavia asked in surprise. She’d been hopeful about the children. She’d not even really considered the concubines.

“The more the merrier,” Sophia shrugged. “Besides, it’s not their fault they got such a lousy sponsor. What happens to concubines when their sponsor dies?”

“It depends,” Octavia hedged. “If there’s a will, they can be inherited like any other piece of property.”

“And?” Sophia waited. Calix remained silent, wondering about the fate of Gunter’s concubines himself. It was relevant, and might give him some ideas about the fate of his own women if he should die.

“And Gunter didn’t make a will,” Octavia sighed. “I doubt he even thought dying was a possibility. In cases where the sponsor dies in combat, his concubines can be picked up by anyone in the colony or base. This is a different case, though. Gunter was convicted of a crime, was retested as less than sponsor level, and will be killed as a concubine.”

Her voice trailed off and she shook her head. “Many, maybe even most, sponsors are superstitious. They’ll likely look at Gunter’s two concubines as damaged goods. The Civil Service will hold them for a while but...”

Her voice trailed off as she took a deep breath. Her voice was stronger with a tone of pleading when she continued. “If sponsors can’t be found, the current mandate is to ... well ... place them in a colony’s bordello. Or, ship them out as mail order brides. We call them ‘filles du roi’...”

Sophia looked at Calix, her eyebrows raised. He closed his eyes and shook his head. His voice turned into a warning. “Sophia.”

Sophia’s face firmed and she turned back to Octavia determinedly. “We’ll take them.”

Calix sighed deeply, shook his head and walked away. Julia followed him into his bedroom.

“So, are you the new Alicia?” Octavia asked, her voice and face completely neutral.

Sophia’s face turned angry. “What are you talking about?”

“Alicia tried to neuter Calix and set herself up as the head of the family,” Octavia explained, staying completely neutral. “Now, it looks like you’ve taken her place.”

Sophia was so angry, she actually growled. “Calix made me the head of his household!”

“I know,” Octavia responded. “I’m just wondering if he didn’t trade one Alicia for another. You jumped in and overrode him awfully quickly.”

“Fuck you!” Sophia retorted angrily. “Do you know why I took that asshole’s kids and concubines? Do you? It wasn’t because I wanted them. Despite my jokes of burying Calix in women, I’m quite content with the current makeup of our family.”

“No,” she continued. “I took them because it is my job to look out for Calix. To take care of him.”

“How does taking dependents and concubines he obviously doesn’t want, take care of him?”

“You don’t know Calix as well as you think you do,” Sophia said with a frown. “Did he override me? Do you honestly think if he absolutely didn’t want them, he wouldn’t have pulled the plug? Yes, he’s against it – but he doesn’t feel strong enough about it to give an absolute no.”

“I know my man,” Sophia went on. “I took the dependents and concubines because if I didn’t, he would spend the next number of untold weeks worrying himself senseless about how they were doing. He’d tell no one, talk to no one, but he’d investigate it – daily, if not more often. Or he would have told Artemis to track them.”

“I signed on to be the head of Calix’s household and to run it as he would want it to be run,” Sophia hissed. “To take care of anything he missed, which includes taking care of him.”

Octavia smiled. “Good. I just had to be sure.”

Sophia waved her off. “I know you care about him, too. You need not worry about me. I will work my ass off to make sure he is always taken care of.”

Calix took that moment to walk out of his bedroom. Julia followed him. He’d changed into formfitting, gray sweatpants and a tight, black tee. Now that he no longer had to hide his physique, he tended to wear tighter clothing.

“Where’s Alicia, Soph?” he asked a few moments later, when he and Julia reached them. He glanced at Octavia and winked.

“That one!” Sophia spit, her anger quickly returning. “She’s confined to her room. I’ve had Yolanda taking meals to her. Her voice is still turned off.”

Calix nodded and raised his voice slightly. He wanted to make sure all the women on the first level heard him. “Artemis.”

“Yes, Ensign Gebel.”

“Unless you’ve taken to adjusting it again, which I would consider unlikely and largely unwanted, my CAP score is only an 8.8,” Calix began. “I already have my complete allotment of concubines, plus two supernumeraries. If I accept two more concubines, will I need to get rid of two others?”

“No,” Artemis intoned. “The CAP score has limited usefulness in the Confederacy. It is primarily a limiting factor since it is considered impossible to evacuate all Earth-at before the Sa’arm arrive. It can also serve as a disciplinary tool but, assuming the extra concubines are already evacuated from Earth-at, there is no limit to the amount of property a Sponsor can accumulate.”

Calix nodded. “I thought it might be something like that.”

He looked at Octavia with a wry smile. “I guess we’re going to take Gunter’s dependents and concubines.”

“Are you really okay with it?” Octavia asked in concern. Sophia glanced between Octavia and Calix, her face blank.

Calix took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah. We’ll make it work. I’m concerned the family is growing too quickly, but we’ll make it work. As usual, Sophia is right. It’s far better than the alternative.”

Octavia nodded. “Okay. I’ll let Decurion Suarez know. Decurion Almatters, too.”

“Is this likely to cause me problems with my sisters?”

Octavia thought a moment. “I don’t know.”

She weighed things in her head. “I don’t think so. If anything, it might make your case stronger. If you can take care of Gunter’s children and concubines, it might prove to the higher-ups your family is stable enough to take your sisters and Constance Mathers’ daughters.”

Calix nodded. “I want to help, but not at the cost of my sisters.”

Octavia nodded with a frown. “I understand. Let me go see Almatters. I’ll let you know.”

Calix watched her leave, then turned. He put one arm around Julia and his other arm around Sophia, dragging them along with him. The three made their way to the couch where Yolanda and Whiskey were seated.

“I want you all to keep Alicia as isolated as possible for now,” he instructed.

He turned to Sophia. “You can restore her voice or keep her mute – it’s up to you. I’ll probably be at the Naval Academy when she has her baby. Make sure she visits Corporal Stolls for a full week within three days after giving birth. If she gives you any problems, let Octavia know. I’ve filled her in, and she’ll make sure Alicia fulfills her obligation.”

“Do you really have to go tomorrow?” Heather asked. She was in the kitchen area and Calix hadn’t seen her.

“I’m afraid so,” Calix replied dourly. “1400 hours, station time.”

“They can’t put it off for a week?” the gravid twenty-three-year-old asked. “I mean, you almost died.”

“I’m not even positive dying would have stopped them from shipping me off,” Calix laughed. He shrugged. “It’s the military and orders are orders. There’s a time for everything and orders for everyone, I’m sure.”

“Damn it,” Heather moued.

“She’s upset because it was her night last night,” Sophia explained. “Now, she’s not going to get a night.”

“What about tonight?” Calix asked.

“Tonight is MY night,” Yolanda spoke up from his right. “And I ain’t sharing. The Navy can have whatever I leave them because tonight, you’re mine.”

The older woman – who looked like a teen – slowly and sensuously rose from the couch. The look on her face was one of ravenous hunger and her eyes flashed as they took him in. She caught her lower lip in her teeth, the edges of her lips turning up in a sexy smile.

“Come on, white boy,” she husked, gliding forward and taking his arm. “Let mama show you what sex is really all about.”

She pulled him towards his bedroom, winking at Sophia as she separated the young man from the head of his household. There was more than a little shake in her ass as she walked. She was preening, a sultry look on her face as they passed Tamara, who’d just come down the elevator from the second floor.

“What’s going on?” she asked, looking askance at Calix and Yolanda.