Chapter 10

I looked up as Virgil and Riley walked in and flopped down on the couches. Kate told us they’d been pulled aside by the R&D group as they’d been leaving the production facility and they’d been gone for over four hours now.

“Rough day?”

“It’s ready,” Riley sighed. “Finally. We just need a couple more weeks to finish filling the last tank, and we’re ready for the large-scale field test.”

“Ah, so they finally approved your deployment method?”

“As if she gave them a choice,” Virgil laughed, reaching over to run his fingers through Riley’s hair. “I think the weapons development boys will be happy they don’t have to deal with Riley again anytime soon. This little girl is fierce.”

“It’s not my fault they’re all idiots,” Riley snorted. “They spent two hours trying to explain to me how we had to use missiles or conventional bombs to deploy the formula. I kept having to ask how the formula was supposed to move down the tunnels if they collapsed the tunnels by dropping a bomb on them. Then they tried to debunk my idea claiming the AI couldn’t fire a weapon and had the AI confirm it. I asked the AI how using a transport locus to move the formula was any different from using one to transport a marine in full battle gear. Everyone shut up when the AI agreed it could link the transport locus but there would have to be a physical button to initiate the transport.”

She sighed and shook her head. “The quiet lasted about a minute before they started in on how we couldn’t use a transport because we would need a locus in the lair and we couldn’t let the Sa’arm get their hands on a transport locus. I gave them a look that all but asked if they were morons before explaining a remote control drone could drop the locus right before deployment, and the Sa’arm close to it would all be dead after, so we could collect it or just blow the damn thing up right after we deployed the formula.”

“So what did you spend the rest of the four hours doing?”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Listening to the long list of reasons we need to move our chemical production facility to another system with a more established manufacturing base so they can increase production on the tactical weapons. I told them they have the schematics and were more than welcome to build a second facility, or even move the current facility, but they want me to move with it. Of course, they can’t come up with a viable reason to convince the AI that the facility needs to move, so they’re trying to convince me to do it voluntarily.”

“That’s one advantage of being a Civil Service officer,” I chuckled. “There aren’t enough of us to go around so the colony governor would scream bloody murder if they tried to move us. They’d be stuck dealing with the unallocated concubines until a new CSO could be assigned, and some colonies are running for a couple of years before they get their first one.”

He shrugged as a very horny kitten crawled into his lap and started kissing his neck. “I’m just glad the AI keeps shutting down the attempts as an ‘unnecessary reallocation of resources’. We’re shipping the tactical grade stuff out as fast as we can fill the tankers, so it’s not like moving the facility would increase production. The real bottleneck is they can’t seem to produce a viable mixing station even with the schematics and video instructions.”

“When did you make video instructions?”

Virgil snorted. “The AIs record everything. I had it take the recording of me crafting the first station, added instructions, and send it out to the weapons development group thinking it would help them build a second factory. They’ve got four teams trying to make parts and they just can’t get it right. I did tell them I would pay a visit to their proposed facility and see if I can figure out what they’re doing wrong, but not until after I finish the station I’m working on now.”

I thought for a second and shook my head. “That’s only two weeks from now. How long were you going to be gone?”

“First, it’s three weeks, I was delayed setting up everything for the test,” he said. “Second, I need to arrange for a courier, so I wouldn’t be leaving for at least a month. As for the trip itself, three to four weeks at most. The colony they’re trying to set up at is just over three days away by courier ship. I can go over everything they’ve got in a week and figure out what they’re doing wrong. They’ve got eight stations worth of parts, and I’m guessing one or two parts per station they’ve done wrong but they can’t figure out which parts to change out. I should be able to salvage four to six of the units and show them what to look for to get them back on track in a week or two.”

He caught my glare and shook his head. “I’ve made it clear I have my own work to do, so they get three weeks of my time. If it will take longer, they will be picking their two best engineers to come here, so I can teach them to craft the stations, piece by piece. And before you ask, yes, you can send a few of the girls to take care of me. I’m using a courier for speed, so it will only be running bare. Its built in pod isn’t designed to hold a family, but you can decide who, other than my kitten, gets to go with me.”

I thought about who I could send with him. “Can it handle you and three concubines? I want to send Sakara, Lisa, and Amy with you. You’ll need all three of them. Amy to help keep your work organized, Lisa to take care of you, and Sakara, well, she’ll keep you sane.”

There were a few chuckles, but everyone knew I was right. I couldn’t go with him, but she could calm him down almost as well as I could, mostly because she’d learned not to let his moods bother her. However bad his mood was, she just crawled into his lap and held him until the tension melted away.

“It’s more of a working vacation than a deployment, so that should be fine. Think of it as a three-week engineering workshop with me as the presenter, since that’s probably the closest thing to what it’s going to be.”

“So you’re going to go dazzle them with your brilliance by fixing their mistakes,” I asked. “Just do me a favor and don’t embarrass the family when you’re out there.”

Virgil looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Let’s see, twenty-one days of meeting with engineers to go over their mistakes and correct them. Sounds like I’m going to be working, so not much potential to embarrass the family.”

“That’s the problem, you’re going to be working. When we left Earth and joined the Confederacy, we left behind the economic system we were familiar with, but we’re still being compensated for our work. The AIs and replicators provide for our regular needs, but our concubines, our property, are part of that compensation as well,” I reminded him. “Remember how Jasmine paid you for the favor of using our private med-tube to get her augmentations done when we were on the Glowworm? That was an exceptional case, as we had to transfer ownership, but having your concubine pay for a favor from another sponsor is a common practice.”

“I know,” he sighed. “There’s a reason I always put in my material requests through the AI or have Riley deliver them personally instead of sending one of the girls to do it.”

“So you do understand to an extent. I’ve tried to avoid the practice as much as possible, but I have had to ask Luna and Janet to run the occasional message to the colony governor when I needed a favor that isn’t covered by the standard protocols.”

“We don’t mind,” Janet interjected. “He’s a nice guy, and if he wants to bend us over his desk for a little illicit fun before approving a request to let an unallocated concubine use the transport nexus to get to the brothel region, well, it’s just sex. Sure, she could go make the request officially, but she might spend the whole day waiting to get a meeting with him. If she sends one of us, we’re bent over his desk ten minutes after the AI lets him know we’re there and we’re walking out less than an hour later with the approval we needed.”

“Believe me, I know. I don’t have to like it, but I know.”

“That’s part of the problem, and why I’m worried you’ll embarrass us,” I explained. “Most sponsors use their concubines’ bodies as currency to pay for a favor, and you’re doing them a favor by fixing their work. Those engineers will probably have a schedule for whose concubine is being sent to your room every night to thank you for your assistance. Turning down a request to swap is one thing, but this would be more like refusing a gift someone is trying to give you. Sending the girl home without cumming in her would be about as rude as you could get.”

“Crap,” he sighed. “What have I gotten myself into?”

“Casual sex with a different woman every night you’re there,” I teased. “If you need to practice, you could always swing by the brothel and take one of the girls for a test drive.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “I’m pretty sure I have a handle on that part, and as I said, I know how it works. My exasperation was more at your perceived numbers. I was thinking one or two people might decide to, shall we say, offer a gift of thanks for my assistance? It doesn’t seem like a big deal from my perspective, but I suppose it probably will be for them. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure any gifts I receive can report to their owners that they were very appreciated.”

“Sorry, I guess I was stuck on how you would have reacted to something like this back on Earth. We really don’t talk about it much.”

“I’ve learned a lot since then. We all must live within the roles we’ve been assigned.” Okay, that was an odd way to phrase it, but the way he said it didn’t sound like he was going to explain. “Speaking of roles, how did Greg do on his test? Nobody’s mentioned it and I figured he would be done by now.”

I shook my head and sighed. “He’s still testing. There was a minor issue at the testing center. A sponsor wanted to keep his teenage daughter as his concubine but was afraid she’d score too high. While she was testing at their pod, he went and smashed the communications array at the center thinking it would invalidate her test if it was interrupted.”

“Idiot,” Virgil snorted. “How could he not know the pod AI was administering the test and the link to the center is just for verification? Or that if he had managed to interrupt the test, they would have just brought her into the center to retake it? Do I want to know what happened to him?”

“He was on his way home to break in his new concubine when he was picked up for damaging colony property. His marine buddies didn’t appreciate him trying to resist, so he’s in a med-tube getting his broken bones repaired and being retested. If he scores high enough to remain a sponsor, the marines will deal with him. If not, he’ll be recycled. Unfortunately, we had to wait for the communications array to be repaired before Greg could start his test.”

“So our bedroom is occupied, but I have a very needy kitten in my lap,” he chuckled. “I guess we don’t need to worry as the kids are all in bed though. Would you like to stay in my lap in a slightly more intimate position?”

Sakara started purring against his neck as she began peeling his ship suit off. The damn things were skin-tight and a pain to get off, but they managed it in fifteen seconds flat. Everyone just smiled as she straddled his hips and slowly impaled herself on his thick shaft with a deep moan of pleasure because we all could understand why she’d been so needy. Virgil didn’t want the girls using the med-tube after delivery unless there was an emergency, and a week without sex was rough.

She wasn’t in any hurry now though. Her hips just moved in little circles as she savored the feeling of having him inside her again. Conversations picked up around them, like people having sex in the living room was normal. In a way it was, but it was rarely more than someone’s hand between their partner’s legs as they cuddled on the couch.

“You know, this is actually kind of nice.”

I glanced over at Riley as she cuddled with Beth and watched Sakara slowly ride Virgil. “What’s that?”

“Them not having to run off to the bedroom to do that,” she explained. “I was just thinking we don’t really play openly like this. We all make love to each other, but we always break off into small groups and find a bedroom. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a room where we could all just play together?”

“So you want an orgy room?”

Riley blushed and shook her head. “No. I mean, I suppose it could be used for that too, but I was thinking more like an adult living room. Someplace we could play openly like this without worrying that one of the kids might find a toy that got left out or sit in a puddle. We can even use it during the day if we need someplace quiet to get some work done. I love them to death, but they get loud sometimes. We could block off that corner there and still have like two thousand square feet here as a family room while giving the adults a quiet zone.”

“That’s a good idea,” Virgil added. “We did tell the girls we would have full harem orgies, and the only one we had was before we landed. I think we’re past due for another one.”

My mates were watching me and I smiled faintly. I had to admit the idea had merit. There had been quite a few times where the only thing that kept me from pulling one of the girl’s heads between my thighs or slipping my fingers inside them was the sound of the kids doing their classes behind us. I also knew the girls would love the idea of us having orgies more often.

“I’ll look over the pod design and get it laid out. We could have something like sectional couches around the outside to relax on and an open padded floor in the middle for everyone to play and sleep together. I’m thinking I can expand the master bathroom and add a door so we can use it without having to pass through the main living area as well. We wouldn’t want to spend all day in there, but it could be a designated adult area for when they’re in classes and a place for us to play after they go to bed.”

The girls were all grinning at the idea, so I accessed the pod schematics through my implant and started laying out the changes. I was just about finished when AI alerted me that Greg was finishing up his CAP test. After adding the bathroom door, I saved the plans figuring I could finish up later.

Everyone turned as the bedroom door opened and Greg walked out. He flushed a bit when he saw Sakara riding Virgil, then sighed and shook his head as he walked over to me.

“This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but I didn’t pass,” he said, holding out his card and a collar. “The AI told me to bring this to you.”

I took the card first and skimmed his scores. “Seventy-five percent of the population doesn’t score high enough to be a sponsor, so a 5.9 is nothing to be ashamed of. These numbers tell me you’ll be a good father and a considerate lover.”

“Hopefully a decent sponsor agrees with you,” he sighed. “I’ve heard you talk about how hard it is for a male concubine to find a sponsor in the brothel.”

“That’s still up in the air,” I said, taking the collar and placing it around his neck. “Virgil and I discussed this months ago, and Riley agreed with us when she became our partner. We didn’t mention it because we promised the girls they would get a voice in if we kept you as one of our concubines. Ladies, do we have any objections?”

Greg’s face fell as Beth stood up.

“I was nominated to give you your final birthday present in lieu of our answer.” She went behind the couch, pulled out a medium-sized box, and handed it to him. “Open it, our answer should be clear enough.”

Everyone watched with smiles on their faces as he unwrapped the box and opened it. He looked confused as he pulled out the metal statue of a tree with twenty-one colored berries on it. His eyes went wide with surprise as he read the inscription on the base and saw each berry had one of the other concubines’ names on it. He pulled the one with his sister’s name off the tree and gave her a confused look.

“Do you want Virgil, Helen, and Riley to be your sponsors?” The confused look didn’t go away as he nodded. “They’re my sponsors too. Virgil is our Master. Helen and Riley are our mistresses. They don’t use the word, but we’re their slaves. Any of them could tell us to have sex on the floor right here, and we would have to do it.”

She reached out and took the berry from his hand then stuck it back on the tree. “This is my way of telling you that I have no objections if they do. Every female concubine in the house talked and agreed to give you a special present. That’s one night from each of us where we’ll be your sex slave. It might be a little awkward at first, but I love you and I’m willing to accept you as one of my lovers.”

“I’m ... not sure what to say.”

“How about I love you too and thank you? I’m not saying you have to have sex with me, but I’m not going to turn you down if you ask.” She looked down at his erection and grinned. “One part of you seems to like the idea, but I’m not going to pressure you. If and when you’re ready, you can let me know.”