Chapter 25

They managed to get through seven groups on the first day.

Seven down, thirty-eight groups that were still in the stasis containers to go. At this rate, they would be done in six days. Catia said they should do two more days and then take a break to analyse what they had. Then do the rest.

Everyone agreed. The kitchen staff and monitors had been working hard, and they would need a break after two more days of the same. So that was what they did, but they increased the groups to eight for the next two days.

Boyd didn’t have Catia or Hadi with him every session since they did have other duties. The other High Mages took turns, so he always had at least one of them as a backup should he need them. It also gave the other mages an insight into the people they had brought here.

The monitors and kitchen staff had gotten into good routines. They were now able to shift the people in and out of the canteen within forty-five minutes.

Being able to use magic to clean up sure helped a lot too.

Boyd had changed his magic tricks to include the watch.

He did the women first. He made the bands slimmer, and the watch face a little smaller to accommodate their narrower wrists. He used the material he had leftover to make the men’s watches wider and the faces bigger.

He knew that all of them played with the new watch. While they could move it on their wrists and even stretch the band a little, they couldn’t get them to move over their hand and take them off.

He surmised that this fact would remind them that they were brought here as slaves, but he hoped the stigma would fade a bit once they had time to adjust. He did jokingly tell them that they were completely waterproof, shatterproof and would keep excellent time.

He also hoped that the watch automatically adjusting to the new time each time they came out of stasis wasn’t too disconcerting for them. It would bring home to them that time had passed on his side of the door even if they felt they had been put away and pulled out again a few minutes later.

Boyd read through the reports each night, and on the day of rest for the staff, he read through them all again. He even started sorting them into groups. He had claimed the desk opposite Hadi’s and the one behind him to spread them out.

He was getting a good idea of who could do what. Who would cooperate, and who wouldn’t? He was quite pleased that, for the most part, the greater majority of them would cooperate to some degree.

As he suspected, placing the women was going to be the hardest part of the exercise. For at least ninety-five percent of them, monogamy in a relationship was the rule. Even if they hadn’t always been true to their partner, as thirty percent had indicated they had had an extramarital affair or two.

However, ninety percent of them had professed to have multiple relations during their lives. At least four or five partners before settling on their first husbands, and some fifty percent had been married at least twice and some three times. One had been married six times.

Boyd was amused by those who had no idea, as he did have a few ex-prostitutes in the group, but not many. Most of those with more than twenty lovers were just promiscuous women.

As he had suspected, most of the men had few qualms about sampling the indigenous women. He did have a few gay men and even a priest, but less than he thought he would have.

He didn’t know if that was because of who these people selected or simply because the male population started dying off sooner than the women did. Also, back in his youth, socially transmitted diseases were more prevalent, and there had been several wars during that period.

He sighed as he really wasn’t sure what would work. He did know that of the two thousand three hundred people so far queried, all opposed the idea of being made slaves, even for a short time.

The men were more tolerant of the idea of indentured servitude as long as it had a short time frame. Most considered one to two years as reasonable.

They didn’t seem to want a quota on how many women they got pregnant. They were more inclined to leave it to chance. He only had a small percentage that demanded they be sent back to Earth, as they were, of course. None wanted to be sent back as an old man.

The women were a mixed bag. While about two-thirds had accepted to some degree that there was no going back. The rest just refused to believe it. Their responses to the other questions were all over the place. They were all unanimous about their opinions of being kept here as a slave for any amount of time.

Some agreed that indentured servitude was reasonable payment for the gift of life as long as it was short. Others believed the world owed them a living. Why should they pay in any way for being saved from ending their life in a Care Facility and having death knocking on their door?

Ninety-five percent refused point-blank to be forced to have kids for another race even if it meant they died out. In saying that, they hadn’t all ruled out finding partners amongst the local population if there were insufficient men from Earth for them to choose from.

Most weren’t sure they could handle their lover changing between male and female at will or that any children they have would be able to do this too. These questions had caused a lot of discussion amongst the females.

Most of the men were more relieved that the natural form of the Therians was female.

“Women are the strangest creatures,” Boyd mumbled.

Hadi laughed when she heard him and replied, “You should try having a body that has the vagaries of both sexes in it.”

“No thanks,” Boyd replied and then looked up at Hadi.

“No disrespect intended, but I really don’t want to know what it is like to be a female. It is confusing enough having to deal with them. My logical brain would fry if I tried.”

Hadi shrugged, “Well, we are what we are. You have been brought up to believe you should be a heterosexual male. Since I can be either gender, I know life is never as simple as one rule fits all.”