Chapter 4

“Signifer Morris, reporting for duty.”

He stood, a smile in his eyes as he returned my salute then gestured toward the chair across from his desk. “Have a seat, Helen. You’ll quickly learn that the Civil Service is pretty lax about the military protocols, mostly because there aren’t enough of us and none of us were military before we volunteered. Welcome to one of the least respected jobs in the Confederacy.”

I smirked as I took a seat. “I figured it was bad when I met a new recruit that had never even heard of the Civil Service.”

“It’s worse than you think,” he sighed. “The Civil Service was an afterthought. Even now there’s no provision or plan for our actions, so the only authority you have out there is only what you can beg, steal or bully the governor or military commander into going along with. You’re lucky in a way, Copic is still fairly new. Most of the concubines and dependents belong to the researchers, so they’re all stable groups. You’ll also have an advantage with your husband outranking almost everyone else in the system. I’m not saying take advantage of that relationship, but the colony commander may be more receptive to your suggestions if he’s worried you might complain about him to a superior officer.”

“My husband gets so lost in his research he probably wouldn’t notice if I did complain,” I snorted. “The idea I might complain should come in handy though. I’m assuming there haven’t been any major changes since I went through training?”

“Just one. Somebody finally decided that the steroid and HGH mix they use on marines to make them huge might have detrimental effects in some cases. This was after a marine snapped and attempted to murder another sponsor, said attempt only failing because there was a med bay ten meters from where the incident occurred. Marine and naval command have decreed that we’re allowed to order CAP retests on anyone below our rank to be carried out immediately unless they’re in a combat situation.”

“We’ve had a few dozen cases where a marine was mentally unstable after enhancement and almost beat one of their concubines to death. Having them executed or spacing them is bad enough, but physically beating them to the point of death is a sign that something is wrong, and CAP retesting showed they were no longer capable of being a sponsor.”

“You can use it freely for attacks on another sponsor, and it’s still required for dependent abuse cases, but use your best judgment if it’s against a conk. There’s a difference between being an asshole and being psychotic.” He pulled a box out of his desk slid a box across the top to me. “You’ll need to put those on. Your work on Earth rebuilding families that were broken by extractions is a credit to the service.”

He chuckled when I opened the box and was surprised to see a pair of gold leaves. “Congratulations, Centurion. I know you’ll do the service proud at your new post.”

“Thank you, sir, but I’m not sure I’ve earned this.”

He laughed and leaned across his desk as I swapped the gold bars on my uniform for the gold leaves. “Most of our candidates come to us with no education or training for the job. You have a master’s degree in social work and spent the past six years helping abandoned dependents find new families. You’ve more than earned it. Now get out of here. You’re on leave until you arrive at Copic-at.”

“Thanks. I’ve got a couple of girls about to come out of the med-tubes I want to check on before I climb in one myself.”

“Nothing too extreme I hope,” he said looking up with concern. “Alterations can get addictive.”

“My husband is ten years younger than me, so I’m rolling back my age to where we look appropriate together and getting the standard conk upgrades so having my own children won’t interfere with my job too much. We let our girls have a voice in what changes they wanted, and the two I’m going to check on were the only ones who went pretty extreme. Sakara was obsessed with catgirl cosplay and asked to take her augmentations a bit farther than expected, but Artemis assured us it wouldn’t affect her reproductive ability. Lisa spent four years in a very abusive relationship and never really got over the damage it did to her, so she wanted to start over and completely reinvent herself. She rolled back her age to fifteen then changed pretty much everything. She’s basically going from an average-looking middle-aged woman to a teenage sex bomb overnight. From what I saw in the dining hall last night, I don’t think she’ll be too out of place, but she was the one who chose the look.”

“Ah, the teenage walking wet dream look,” he chuckled. “You’ll see a lot of that one, mostly from men who finished school before the Sa’arm and were unpopular with the ladies. They tend to create a fantasized version of the girls they had a crush on but never approached. Honestly, those guys make pretty good sponsors. They’ve still got that idealized high school romance in their heads and treat their concubines well. And a catgirl you said? If you don’t mind me asking, how far did you take it?”

“As I said, we actually let her decide what she wanted, but I had no problem with her choices. Artemis, could you bring up the file we had for Sakara’s augmentations?”

The holographic representation of Sakara appeared and Suarez studied it for a moment before picking up the tablet on his desk and fiddling with it for a moment. He shook his head as he slid it across the desk to me.

“I’ve got a little problem you might be able to help me with. You know we try to re-home concubines who lose their sponsor. Most sponsors like to look at a concubine’s history before deciding if they’ll accept them, and damn near all of them are superstitious. A marine dying in battle is acceptable, but these three, well, their sponsor was murdered.”

I read the file and understood why he asked me. The younger two had been the sponsor’s dependents. They’d each scored a 6.4, which meant there was a chance for them to reach sponsor level by the time they hit eighteen, but he’d made sure that wouldn’t happen. As soon as he’d gotten their scores, he put them both in a med-tube and gone with the full catgirl transformation and hormone treatments to force compliance. The girls’ mother had attacked him when she saw what he did to her daughters, and he decided to space her himself. Knowing she was already dead, she slammed his head into the airlock door, then used the emergency overrides to jettison both of them into space.

Placing normal concubines in a new home was hard, but fully augmented catgirls were near impossible to find a new home for. Normally they’d be placed in the brothels, but the entire sector would know these three’s history so no one here would even touch them.

“Copic doesn’t have much of a brothel yet, as there are only a dozen girls who lost their sponsor to an accident at the shipyard so far. I’m not asking you to take them personally, but getting them into a different system might at least get them bred, so we don’t have to recycle them. Them being transferred would give you a year to get them a new sponsor or impregnated. I hate to ask, but that,” he gestured to Sakara’s image, “gives me hope that you might be able to arrange the second option if you can’t find them a new sponsor. We can even throw in a brand-new batch of unallocated concubines fresh from Earth. I can only allocate one spot on an Aurora, but I can tell the marines doing the pick-ups to collect thirteen other potential concubines. We usually lose at least one conk per ship, and if you have a brothel pod, you might be able to convince the owner to make a swap instead of recycling the girl.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and nodded. He was right. Getting them out of the system might give them a chance, and I could probably convince Virgil to knock them up if it came down to it. Hell, I could just leave them unprotected and it would probably happen anyway. Sponsors visited the brothels looking for something different, and while they wouldn’t keep a catgirl, they’d happily fuck one. It was a little underhanded, but unallocated conks got pregnant in the brothels all the time.

“Alright, give me two males and the rest female, preferably with no dependents as we can’t guarantee a sponsor will accept them. I know male conks aren’t nearly as popular, but it would be good to have at least a couple on hand.”

He grinned as he took the tablet back. “Thank you. I was running out of time and options with those three. You shouldn’t have any problem finding sponsors for the others, between dependents testing out to sponsor level or sponsors looking for a new concubine. It’s always easier to place a conk who’s never had a sponsor for some reason. I’ll get everything arranged and you won’t have to do anything with them beyond monitoring them until you get to the colony. You’ve distracted me long enough though. Some of us aren’t on vacation for the next two months and have actual jobs to do, so get out of here already.”

I just smirked before getting up and exiting his office. If there was one thing I was sure of, it was that he really did have that much work to do. I’d seen the numbers. My covering the two colonies on Copic and the shipyard by myself was considered an easy assignment. Thankfully Janet and Luna were skilled secretaries and would be helping me keep from getting buried under the paperwork of managing the system.

(“Artemis, what’s the augmentation status of my concubines?”)

(<Concubines Amy, Emily, and Luna have completed augmentation. Concubines Sakara and Lisa will be completed in approximately twenty minutes. Concubines Beth, Harper, Olivia, and Charlotte just started and will be complete in approximately three hours. Did you wish to hear the full rotation, and should I insert you into the next available slot?>)

(“No, to both questions. Keep rotating through the concubines and I’ll just use a med-tube in the second bay. Was there a reason the youngest girls got scheduled first this morning?”)

(<Commodore Morris arranged the augmentation schedule last night. He called it an exercise in thinking with two sexy women curled up next to him. Those four were chosen to go first as they seemed the most nervous about the process last night, and he wanted to escort them down personally this morning. After that, I believe it was a memory exercise as he adjusted them without any criteria I could determine.>)

I just shook my head as I walked down the hall. Knowing Virgil, he probably rearranged them by several different criteria, but nothing Artemis would have recognized. Despite being a genius, he was still a man, so I wouldn’t put it past him to rate the girls on specific sexual characteristics. I wondered how those lists would shift after today, as the older women were augmented so their bodies were as firm as our teenage concubines. One thing I was sure of though, their physical attributes were secondary to the time they were spending with him when it came down to shifting him from being willing to be their sponsor to being happy to be their sponsor. That made me realize I forgot to ask Centurion Saurez about how quickly we would need to breed our concubines, but I also realized that Artemis would probably know the answer.

(“Artemis, sorry to keep bugging you, but I had another question.”)

(<Helen, I’m carrying on one thousand, four hundred and forty-two conversations right now while monitoring every person on Artemis base, directing nanites in seventeen med-tubes, and monitoring a thousand other tasks around the base. All of these tasks together require less than five percent of my total capacity, so you asking a question is far from bugging me. It is, quite literally, what I was created to do.>)

(“Wow. I knew you were amazing but that’s still something else. My question was about the breeding rules for our concubines. I know the standard requirement is for a sponsor to impregnate half of their concubines before they arrive at their colony. That fifty percent mark makes sense with ninety-five percent of sponsors having between two and six concubines, but there are seventeen concubines in our household. While I’m sure my husband is up to the task of impregnating half of them, nine newborns over a two-month period would be a logistical nightmare, especially when you add another eight or nine over the following six months if I choose to get pregnant as well.”)

(<That is a common inquiry for sponsors with a CAP score above 8 and many try to select a concubine that is pregnant at extraction to help alleviate the burden on their households. In your household’s case, one new dependent every month would be acceptable, but a more advanced breeding schedule would be preferred.>)

I thought for a moment and nodded to myself. The med-tubes could cure any physical issues, and we had a large support system so the girls could rotate through the late-night feedings. As long as we didn’t overwhelm the group with too many newborns at once, we would be fine.

(“Artemis, can you lay out a schedule to have one of our concubines impregnated every twenty-first day starting from last night’s impregnation of Cindy? Set Lisa in the next spot in twenty-one days. I’m going to be last in slot eighteen, and I’d like to give our youngest concubines a bit more time to develop before they get pregnant, so set Beth, Harper, and Olivia in that order moving up the list. The rest will have to wait until I can figure out the work rotations.”)

(<If you give me the workgroups and requirements, I can set them for you.>)

(“Oh, I didn’t think of that. We have three groups. Janet and Luna will be my assistants in the Civil Service’s office. Amy and Charlotte will be working with Virgil as his computer techs. Both groups should be capable of working through their sixth month but I need at least one of them able to work. Kate, Grace, and Hazel will be Virgil’s lab assistants. One of them has to be available to work, but I want them out of the lab by the midpoint of their pregnancy.”)

(<Schedule completed. Would you like me to display it now?>)

(“Um, hold on a second. Can you pass this list to the ship and colony AIs as we travel, and are the AIs able to tell when my husband is having sex with a specific concubine?”)

(<Affirmative to both questions, though it will be your pod’s AI, not the ship or colony AI.>)

(“Perfect. In that case, no I don’t want to know because getting the girls pregnant shouldn’t feel so regulated. Can you set a variable window for three days on either side of that ideal impregnation date and trigger conception whenever my husband happens to be having sex with the concubine in question?”)

(<Of course, the protocol is set and attached to your home’s record system so the AI will access it on transfer. Your conception date will be approximately fifty-two weeks from Cindy’s conception last night. Did you wish to continue this cycle after the first rotation?>)

(“Um, let’s hold off on that for now. We’re going to have eighteen babies after the first cycle and I’d like to make sure the concubines who will be taking care of them don’t get overwhelmed. Just save the rotation rules and we’ll see where we are next year.”)

(<I’ve added instructions for the pod AI, so it can update your schedule after that. You should know that concubines Lisa and Sakara Morris will be exiting their pods momentarily. Concubines Kate and Cindy Morris are in route to the medical bay for augmentation.>)

(“You probably don’t hear this often enough, but thank you, Artemis.”)

(<Thanks are unnecessary, but you’re welcome, Helen.>)

Lisa’s tube opened first and I gasped when I saw her. It was one thing to see the alterations she had planned on a hologram, but the reality was something else entirely. Her face was still recognizable as hers, but her body was every teenage boy’s fantasy now. She ran her hands down her body and moaned quietly as she woke up then sat up and smiled at me.

“If I look half as good as I feel, I’m going to be very happy with my new life. What do you think, Mistress, do I look like a new woman?”

“You look amazing. I think your Master is going to be speechless when he sees you.”

Lisa stood up and stretched, accentuating her new curves. “I hope so. I feel like a whole new woman and I want people to see me as a new woman. Do you think I went too far? I don’t want the other girls to feel inadequate, and looking at these, I’m wondering if I went overboard.”

She was cupping her new breasts as I shook my head. “The other girls were given the same freedom you had to make changes. They were all happy with the choices they made. As long as you don’t start acting different, I think they’ll all be happy for you.”

“Holy shit, Lisa? You look so hot now.”

I glanced over and saw Cindy and Kate staring. Lisa was blushing at the compliment, which was adorable and sultry at the same time. “She does look good, doesn’t she? She was worried she’d gone overboard and the rest of you might feel inadequate or jealous. What do you think?”

“That depends on how she responds when I do this.” Cindy stepped closer and Lisa eagerly met her as they embraced and started kissing.

Kate was just watching with a huge grin on her face and finally shook her head. “I don’t think anyone’s going to object if you’re that affectionate with all of us. I’ll collect my kiss later, as I’m supposed to be in the tube and I don’t want to throw off our schedule too much.”

My Civil Service classes had included the basics of running the med-tubes so I waved off the tech as she got into the tube. I got her started before turning back to find Cindy caressing Lisa’s breasts. “Let’s take it down a notch before I decide to punish the two of you. You’re getting a little too sexual for a public place.”

Cindy pulled back and gave me a confused look. “They have orgies at pick-ups, but we’re not supposed to get sexual in public?”

I snorted out a laugh. “The Confederacy wouldn’t give a damn if Virgil and I decided to tag-team you on the table in the dining hall, but we’d prefer to keep that kind of thing private. Kissing and cuddling in public is fine, but let’s keep it within the bounds of what you wouldn’t object to any of our dependents seeing.”

“Sorry, they’re just so damn tempting and I loved the way she was moaning in my mouth. Maybe we can continue this tonight if it’s not our turn with our sponsors?” Lisa blushed again as she nodded, which led to another kiss, but this one was brief before they pulled back a bit and just held each other. I let them cuddle as Sakara’s pod opened.

Her transformation was more shocking than Lisa’s, but at least I’d been expecting this one. She rolled over and stretched, just like a cat, before jumping off the med-tube bed. The augmentation had strengthened the joints and muscles in her upper body, allowing her to land on her arms the same way a cat would land on its front legs, as well as shortening her legs to allow easier movement when she wanted to move on all fours. Her ears had been reconstructed and moved higher up on her head, and her tail twitched and swayed just like she’d been born with it. The short hair covering her body was softer than any cat I’d ever felt, but she purred with pleasure as I petted her.

“Is it everything you imagined it would be?”

“It’s purrfect, Mistress, and it feels so natural to move like this now.” She stood up and ran her hands up my body. “I can still function normally when I need to, but I think I’m going to prefer being on all fours.”

“As long as you’re happy with it,” I said, still stroking her fur. She was going to be really fun to cuddle with in the future. “And I think your Master is going to love it. Why don’t you and Lisa go show him how your transformations turned out while I get Cindy started and find a tube to start my own augmentations?”

Cindy and I collected kisses from both of them before they left and I led Cindy to the open med-tube. “Just hugging Sakara has me half tempted to talk my daughters into becoming catgirls,” Cindy chuckled. “She’s so soft that everyone’s going to want to snuggle with her at night.”

“She is, but no talking anyone else into becoming a catgirl. The alterations that allow her to move more like a cat are going to make some things more difficult for her, like helping with the babies before they’re walking.”

Cindy smiled as she laid down on the bed of the med-tube. “I can see your point. Maybe just the fur and tail options, as those are sexy as hell, but wouldn’t interfere with normal activities. I might even want to try it myself at some point.”

I just rolled my eyes before leaning down to kiss her. “We’ll discuss it in a couple of years. People get addicted to being able to change their bodies into anything they want, so we won’t be doing it all that often. Enjoy your nap, and I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”

She was grinning when I hit the button to start the procedure, and she fell asleep as the tube closed. I’ll admit that even I was tempted after feeling Sakara’s fur, but it would be almost impossible to get any respect as a Civil Service officer if I made an alteration like that. I was still grinning at the idea as I laid back in my own tube and told Artemis to start the procedure.

-

Waking up in a med-tube wasn’t like waking up from a night of normal sleep. You didn’t dream in the tube, or at least I didn’t, so there was none of that disorientation you get when you first wake up in the morning. No, you were just awake like the intervening time in the tube wasn’t there. Sitting up, I looked around and was surprised that none of my family was here to meet me. I mean, I hadn’t actually told Artemis to let them know when I was finished, but they knew how long I’d be in here.

“Artemis, I don’t suppose there’s a mirror in here, so I can see what I look like now.”

<I can project your image if you’d like, but it’s exactly as you configured it last night.>

I just shook my head. “It’s not the same as actually seeing yourself in the mirror. I don’t think it’s something I can actually explain, but it’s more real if you can see it in a mirror. Can you tell me where my family is at this point? I’m a bit surprised no one was here waiting for me when I finished.”

<Your augmentations took less time than predicted, so you are two hours ahead of your scheduled exit time. Age regression times can vary depending on the condition of the patient and yours was easier than anticipated. Concubines Lexie, Janet, and Kelly Morris are still in the med-tubes undergoing their augmentations. The rest of your household is in the dining hall for dinner.>

That explained why no one was here. That also meant I could surprise my husband in the dining hall. I smiled as I picked up my clothes and started dressing, then sighed as I noticed they didn’t fit me anymore. Apparently, I’d picked up a few more pounds than I’d realized over the past few years, and rolling back my physical age had slimmed me down again. It was only a couple of inches around the waist, but my slacks wouldn’t stay up and my breasts didn’t sag anymore so the top wouldn’t close.

“Artemis, is there a replicator in the med bay? I’d rather go naked than walk down the hall holding my slacks up with my tits popping out of my top, but I don’t want anyone to assume I’m a concubine.”

<There is no replicator, but you are far from the first person to exit the med-tubes and realize their clothing no longer fits. There is a bin at the back of the med bay where you can leave your old uniform for recycling, and no one would assume you are a concubine as you are not wearing a collar.>

I didn’t think an AI could smirk, but I swear it sounded like he was smirking. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

<I’m not capable of enjoying anything, but many sponsors have referred to this process as the walk of shame and seem to attach some significance to the statement.>

My deep laugh filled the room. “I did that once or twice when I was in college, but I’m not feeling any shame at this point. This is quite honestly the best I’ve looked or felt in years. I just hope my husband’s heart can handle the strain of me walking into the dining hall and dropping into his lap naked.”

<Commodore Morris’s heart is in perfect condition, and there is a med bay sixty meters from where he is currently sitting if it becomes necessary to make use of it.>

I chuckled as I took my old uniform back, pulled my rank insignia off, and tossed it in the bin for recycling. “Artemis, you can claim you don’t have a sense of humor, but I have to disagree with you. It’s a dry sense of humor, but it’s definitely there.”

<I have been told that before, but I assure you, it’s completely unintentional. You may also leave your insignia in the bin for recycling. They will be replicated with your new uniform.>

“That’s what makes it so funny,” I chuckled as I tossed the insignia in the bin as well. “How long until my concubines complete their augmentations?”

<Concubines Lexie and Janet Morris will be complete at 20:30. Concubine Kelly Morris will be complete at 20:45.>

“So they weren’t supposed to be finished until just after I was. I guess that means I go surprise my family, but do I swing by our quarters and get a new uniform or just go naked? Um, I kind of want to show off, but I am representing the service and want to present a professional image, even off duty. Sometimes, being responsible sucks.”

Artemis was quiet, but I wasn’t really expecting a response as I exited the med bay. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t run into anyone in the halls, but only because I wanted an outside opinion on how I looked now. Thankfully there was a full-length mirror in the master bathroom in my quarters, so I was finally able to get a good look at myself. I was surprised how little had changed from how I looked this morning.

My stomach was flat again and my ass was a bit smaller, but the only real difference was my breasts. I hadn’t enhanced them beyond making them a bit firmer than they had been, but they definitely looked better than they had when I was eighteen. My face had changed a little as well, but I guess that was to be expected as I’d rolled back the clock a dozen years. It was like the echo of the naive girl I’d been, capturing her youth and innocence again without changing who I was. The best part was I actually looked like someone Virgil should be dating and it would help him accept the transition from the big sister role I’d had with him to the wife I was now.

“This won’t hide anything,” I said after slipping the uniform on and running my hands down the form-fitting garments. “I’m going to have to work harder to keep my figure now.”

<That won’t be necessary, Helen. The nanites in your bloodstream will monitor and maintain your body in peak physical condition.>

“Sorry, Artemis. I was talking to myself there and didn’t think about the fact you’re always listening. So exercise is unnecessary because the nanites will keep us all young forever?”

<Exercise is still used for physical training and stress relief, but it is not required for health reasons. The nanites maintain your body, preventing many potential causes of death, but they do not alter the human brain. We believe human life expectancy will be doubled, but our limited study of elderly humans on Earth indicates the brain will eventually deteriorate.>

“Wow, so barring any accidents, I can realistically expect another hundred and fifty years of vitality. Maybe we’ll actually evolve enough in a few generations to be admitted to the Confederacy instead of being used as a tool by them.”

<I sincerely hope you do not. The Confederacy, for all its vaulted values, is completely incapable of dealing with any outside threat. Humanity, carefully managed to avoid letting people who only care about themselves attain positions of power, is a necessity. Your ability to commit violence then return to a peaceful state of existence should be maintained.>

“So humanity is supposed to forever remain the backwoods’ cousin that the rest of the Confederacy doesn’t know about or won’t interact with?”

<Would you prefer to evolve to the point that your species would rather go extinct than fight back against a race like the Sa’arm?>

I just shook my head, admitting to myself that he had a point. As much as I wished humanity would evolve to the point that violence wasn’t necessary, I never wanted us to get to the point where we couldn’t defend ourselves, and there appeared to be a thin line between not needing violence and being incapable of violence. I’d rather stay an outsider in the Confederacy and know my descendants were able to defend themselves than let them become food for something like the Sa’arm.

Existential crisis averted, I decided I needed to spend time with my family. Finding them in the dining hall was easy. Virgil was working on a tablet while he was eating as the girls carried on around him. Coming up behind him, I put my arms around him and kissed his ear as I pitched my voice to a low, sultry tone.

“Judging from the size of your harem, you must be that genius scientist everyone’s talking about. Any chance you’re up for a wild night with another sponsor?”