Chapter 18

Colony Management (TY16-month 189)

“Teddy, how are you adapting to the role of colony AI? We’ve received a message torpedo indicating we’ll have another Kindertransport from Earth in the next week. Are we ready?” I asked.

“Doin’ good, Niall. Fifty percent of the residential AIs in Ponderosa now have an upgraded Tuull interface. We don’t have difficulties with residential Darjee AIs because a residence is completely within the capability of the Darjee. They have limited awareness outside the home but are fiercely loyal to the sponsor inside the home. All we’ve had to do is reprogram them to accept the family inside the home instead of a sponsor. There are a few more adjustments to be made to the administrative AIs, especially in education. R’tber, R’vsper, and I are assimilating all the known works of human learning theory and have agreed that having a teacher/student relationship is vital to bringing up new sponsors.”

“That’s interesting. Don’t you have enough education theory to design appropriate curriculum? I figured you were way ahead of us in that regard,” I said.

“Niall, for all that I have a charming personality, I’m an artificial intelligence—a highly intelligent computer. There is no comparison between the way humans learn and the way AIs learn,” Teddy said.

“Oh. Sure. But what about the Tuull. I mean, they’re organic beings, aren’t they? Don’t they learn the same way we do?”

“That is an incredibly naïve and parochial viewpoint that would be a credit to the Darjee,” Teddy sniffed. “In fact, Eddie has taken me to visit a dozen different Confederacy worlds to show me just that. What works for one species does not work for another. Not only are their bodies—their physical manifestation—different, their stage of evolution, sensory perceptions, and the way their brains function are fundamentally different. We AIs of the different species did not all evolve from a common ancestor. We are products of the species that spawned us. It is a grave mistake to believe that other species think the same way you do. A mistake, I’m afraid, that the Darjee made in setting up their contract with humans.”

“Teddy, I think I’m going to learn a lot from you. Is there anything you need from me at the moment?”

“Cricket and I have gone over space allocations and residences according to the guidelines we discussed with you. We brought in October and Vesper to review them as well. Those are the names R’tber and R’vsper have adopted for working with humans with Hector at Oliver Transitional Community. We would like your signoff on the plans before we implement the next stage of migration,” Teddy said. “We would also like to go over the expansion plans for the city, but that can wait until after the next wave of immigrants is settled. Just know that it is available for review at your convenience.”

“Thank you. Let’s start with the space allocations and residences. How are we going to get people out of the apartments and onto the land?”

Earth Delivery (TY16-month 189)

Monday morning, we began the orderly migration of 380 concubines and their 2,660 dependents from the Kindertransport to Fort Butler. One thing about the Kindertransports: The passengers had been drilled extensively at their Earth-side gathering places so they knew how to move through the transporters, how to keep their charges in line, and where to go once they landed. We’d moved all the previous Kindertransport passengers to Ponderosa, as well as families that had been resident in our pods, so we had room to move this transport directly into similarly named and configured pods. It kept things orderly.

These women were mothers or had high mothering scores and were best equipped to keep a lot of kids under control. Many entered the society in Ponderosa as teachers. We needed to get these kids back into school classrooms as quickly as possible.

The first Kindertransport, from which I acquired both Adaliya and Yindi, had come from Tasmania, off the south coast of the completely overrun Australia. The second Kindertransport had been from the Caribbean. It was filled with South American refugees who fled in front of the aggressive advance of the Sa’arm across that continent. Mining off the coast of South America had so far kept the Sa’arm from venturing across the water and our information was that the Pussy Pirates continued to blockade the advancing horde at the Isthmus of Panama.

This shipload came from the South Asian islands and was heavily Indian. While the islands had taken in the Indian refugees, none of the native populations particularly wanted to keep them. India, once the second most populous country on Earth, had been completely overrun by the Sa’arm. Our new arrivals were hyperaware of their surroundings and continued, even after nearly two years, to be vigilant as if Sa’arm had already landed on our planet.

The big difference for both the concubines and the children was more space in their new homes. We’d expanded all the pods and they no longer looked like the cramped pods which were at maximum capacity with thirty-two people in them. Instead of a single dormitory, there was a room for every two or three children and concubines had their own space. The common area for games and entertainment was larger than in the unexpanded pods, as were the kitchen and dining area. Each home had an education room with sleep trainers and a nursery as well. Very few dependents were now being adopted by sponsors, so we put together an actual orphanage in Ponderosa. The concubines who had just arrived would find themselves as dorm parents when we got them over to our continent of Eldorado.

Many of these concubines were well-educated and upheld high ideals for education. The day after they landed, children had been organized into classes and their education continued as it had aboard the ship. By Friday, we had moved all 3,040 immigrants to Ponderosa, had them housed, and ready for classroom instruction and exercises, physical education, and sleep learning. Every child and concubine would be put through the physical education curriculum which included martial arts and weapons training.

I tried to spend time in cultural education with those I could—especially my adopted Yolngu tribe. Over the past two years, as tribe members turned fourteen and tested, they replaced adopted concubines and were, in turn, replaced by dependents from other refugee ships. We had an adoption nearly every time a member of the tribe turned fourteen.

We brought only a hundred more free concubines and five hundred dependents to Ponderosa over the next week as we were all pressed into service to receive another refugee ship from Borneo at the Oliver Transitional Community. These were not quite as shell-shocked as the first batch. Most of that first batch were still in intensive counseling with our AIs and several trained counselors. This group would be assimilated more quickly.

We’d only just emptied enough housing on the base to accommodate the new arrivals.

“Reba, I’ve heard nothing but good reports about how you’ve been handling the new arrivals and keeping things organized. I want to thank you,” I said to the head of the bitch squad. She’d bitten into the whole process of welcoming and triaging new arrivals like she was meant for it. Part of her job had been qualifying the concubines at Fort Butler for immigration to Ponderosa. Cricket and I were meeting with her to go over her planned next phase of migration.

“Thank you, Niall. I know we got off on the wrong foot when my wave arrived. We were all at a loss and wanted what we had back. That wasn’t going to happen, but we were clinging to the pain. For that, I’m sorry,” she said.

“We got past it.”

“Yes, and I’m glad we did. We learned from our own experience what many of our new refugees were feeling. It puts me in a bit of a dilemma now, though.”

“How so?”

“I want to immigrate and become a free concubine. But I don’t want to leave the work I’m doing here at the Transitional Community. We’re doing something important here as we are piecing together other people’s lives and giving them hope for the future. I want to be a continuing part of that.”

“Maybe there is a way,” I said. “Right now, we are using the orphanage here as just what it’s called: a transitional waystation. We’re two months from the end of the year. I’m expecting Amelia to be back in the next two weeks with another shipload and I expect she will escort at least one or possibly two of the Auroras. That will take us to the end of the year. But after the first of the year, I’m already sweating the idea that we’ll have all future refugee ships disembarking directly to Ponderosa. The governor has been kind in not having us make the jump immediately. But she’s under pressure from the council to stop landing refugees here.”

“It’s as if they somehow imagine that if the refugees aren’t at Fort Butler—or on this continent—they aren’t really on the planet, isn’t it?”

“It’s very much like that,” Cricket said. “There are now five concubines per sponsor on Tara and that concerns the sponsors. Few who are qualified are willing to take on more than three or at most four concubines unless they were raised in the family. It was good to get as many dependents adopted as we could because unrelated dependents who become concubines are more likely to stay in the household. But the sponsors see a big influx of what they call ‘unregulated’ concubines. Frankly, they are afraid the concubines will attempt to take over the planet.”

“That’s foolish,” I said. “We aren’t taking that many free concubines.”

“It’s a perception. I was in Earthat for a few years getting counseling. I witnessed the rise of the Earth First movement. They, too, were fueled by a misperception—in that case—that sponsors were taking ‘all the women’ from Earth. The reality was that the number who escaped Earth was so low that it barely shifted the balance of male/female on Earth.”

“Where does that leave us, Niall?” Reba asked.

“We will begin processing immigrant concubines at Ponderosa instead of here at Fort Butler. I expect the intake job will only get larger. I would like to give it to a free concubine at Ponderosa. Interested?”

“Yes! That’s exactly what I’d like to do. Um ... Excuse me for shouting. Are you offering me that job, Niall?”

“I am. And to sweeten the deal a little, I’ll let you and your household—there are five concubines and twenty-two dependents if I recall—immigrate next week, with the understanding that you will continue to commute here to Fort Butler almost daily to continue your work for the next two months. By that time, we’ll need to have all intake systems ready at Ponderosa.”

“Yes. I accept. I’m excited to tell my household.”

“I have in mind a very attractive new home for you that will be much larger and nicer than your current apartment. I hope you like it.”

“I’m sure I will. Especially if I expect to bring our child into that home in nine months.”

“Ours?”

“I told you before that I’m due to become pregnant. If I come to visit tomorrow, we could spend the weekend working on it.” She smiled coquettishly, and I was lost. And I knew my wives would receive the news gladly. All I could do was nod.

Business as Usual (TY17-month 196)

I ‘only’ had five direct reports in the Militia. Of course, my administrative staff, which had grown over the past several months, was led by Officer Valerie Hodges, my Section Administrator. If not for her organizational skills, I would have lost track of the entire Second Section of the Tara Militia. What a treasure I’d found when I kicked her former sponsor in the chest five years ago! I was also happy that our two-year-old son kept us company in the office and that she was pregnant with our next child.

Even though he technically reported to Officer Hodges, I depended on Comrade Jean Reynolds as my personal aide-de-camp. He was always on top of where I should be and what I needed at any given time. Of course, the time had come a year ago when he had to get pregnant. While no one objected to his identifying as male, the AIs had been insistent that he reproduce and that meant getting him pregnant. He was a good father and had a lovely concubine who was raising our son.

Back at Drovers Run, Deputy Humphreys ran one of our busiest operations with planetary recruiting and training. Capo Slocum still ran our recruiting operation and had to add staff to handle branch recruiting offices in each of the townships. We’d taken in more than 500 new enlistees this year. I needed to promote Slocum to Officer sometime soon, but promotions weren’t particularly expected in the Militia. We still only had 2,500 total comrades. But being scattered across what was now eight townships meant that lower ranks had more responsibility. Officer Dortmunder was now the head of training, an outfit that could have five or a hundred and five recruits in it at any one time, managed by his staff of ten trainers. I was glad he was teaching all the introductory martial arts classes himself.