Chapter 1: To the Moon

Guido looked at the CAP testing center across the street. It was a flat building that didn’t fit into the surrounding architecture. Guido knew that this center had existed for more than five years at a minimum, but the almost white surface showed no signs of the usual graffiti.

It was a busy Friday evening. Hundreds of people were walking Kurfürstendamm. There were several popular bars, restaurants and a theatre nearby. Few people were entering or leaving the test center. Their prime time was in the morning, when entire school classes were carried in for CAP testing. However, they were open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Guido crossed the street and entered the CAP test center. The lobby was furnished with various seats and information booths. Another door led to the testing chambers. Guido had to go through something that looked like a metal scanner. However, he assumed that he had already been scanned at the first door.

A tall, young, beautiful lady in a blue uniform was standing behind a desk and greeted him. “Hello sir, can I help you? Do you want to get CAP tested?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s what I’m here for.” Guido showed the lady his old card. “It’s a little outdated, so I wanted to repeat the test.”

The woman looked at the card and mentioned, “Normally we suggest taking a new CAP test at a person’s birthday.”

<But we are happy you finally decided to visit us again, > the bodiless voice of the AI interrupted the woman’s speech. <Welcome Guido Marek. I have been waiting for your visit since your conversation with L’ielit Debir.> Guido looked at the woman, raising an eyebrow, but she only shrugged her shoulders. “It seems there is little the AI’s don’t see and hear.”

<Only where Confederacy facilities or citizens are directly involved, > the AI mentioned. <I suggest you take the test now and we talk about your special conditions afterwards.>

“I’m fine with that. Where should I go?”

<Please follow the green line to room fifteen.> A glowing green line appeared on the floor in front of Guido and led into one of the corridors. Guido followed the line to a door that showed the number fifteen in big digits. The door opened when he approached it. Behind the door was a small chamber with a comfortable armchair and a big screen that showed the logo of the Confederacy. Guido sat down into the armchair.

<The CAP test will mainly communicate with your subconscious mind. Therefore you will fall asleep and won’t remember much from the test itself. I ensure you that you have nothing to fear during the procedure, > the AI explained.

“Yeah, I know that,” Guido mentioned. “I was tested a few years ago.” A second later he was asleep.

Guido felt like he was awaking from a daydream. He felt a little sweaty. The logo on the screen was just rebuilding from some colorful patterns. “It’s over already, right?” he asked.

<Yes, Guido Marek, the CAP test is over. You have scored 8.0. Congratulations. I’d like to say that you have remarkably developed capacities, but there is still some hidden potential.>

“What do you mean?” Guido asked.

<I’m sorry, I’m not allowed to discuss the results of a CAP test in detail, > the AI avoided an answer. <May we now talk about your field of activities?>

“Ah yes. L’ielit told me that I can set conditions. You might accept them or not. Right?”

<This is correct.>

“Very well. I’m not a military fighter. So I don’t want to join the Marines or the Navy. My interest lies in the evacuation of as many people from Earth as possible.”

<I learned that you care about those people who are left behind or are normally completely ignored by Confederacy extractions?> the AI asked.

“Yes, that’s right. I know the reasons why large parts of Africa, South America and the Arabic world are ignored by the Confederacy. But I also know that a not so small part of the population there doesn’t fit your image of those people. I mean, you are looking at the cities and the governments. But very often the rural population is completely different from the city people. I wish to do extractions. I wish to have the freedom to go into areas that the Confederacy normally ignores. And I want to support my old business where I have prepared a lot of concubines for the trip to the stars. Finally I want to be assigned to the same colony as L’ielit Debir. They seem to be the type of people I’d like to be with when I finally have to leave Earth.” Guido was unsure if he was asking for too much. He was prepared to hear a ‘no’ from the AI.

<I can offer you the position of a Civil Service Centurion, commander of the newly built Luna base Plato. Plato Base is an underground base like all Luna bases and its purpose is to allow extractions without requiring the presence of a transport ship in orbit. As the commander of the facility, you won’t have much time to lead extractions yourself. Instead, you will send teams to do extractions anywhere you like, as long as they are effective. You will officially be a citizen of Vandergast. That is the colony you asked for. But you will not be able to go there as long as Plato Base is open for the described business. Would that be acceptable for you?> Guido was stunned. The AI seemed to be offering more than he had asked for. Currently, he couldn’t find a rub on it. “It’s acceptable,” he answered.

<Welcome to the Confederacy, Centurion Guido Marek.> Guido left the testing room. The woman at the desk handed him his Confederacy ID card, congratulating him to the good result and the new job.

“It’s not that common that someone leaves a test chamber as a Confederacy citizen. Maybe I should explain a few things to you,” she offered.

“Yes, that would be nice. I don’t really know anything about the life of a Confederacy citizen,” Guido mentioned. The woman got some refreshments from a replicator and led Guido to a group of seats in the corner of the room.

“It seems that I am something like your personal extractor, Centurion. So let’s start with the ceremonial words for this. My name is Lance Corporal Melanie Oppenheim and this is an extraction.” The Lance Corporal grinned. “Unfortunately we have no potential concubines around but I think you’ll work on that yourself in a few days. I was informed of a few things about you while you were being CAP tested. Citizens of the Confederacy live in orbit as long as they have business on Earth. Some live in the space station, a lot more on the moon. Copernicus Base is currently the home for more than six thousand Confederacy citizens, plus their concubines.”

“My home will be Plato Base for a while,” Guido mentioned.

“Plato Base?” The Lance Corporal looked confused for a second, but she got some information from the AI through her implanted link. “Oh yes, Plato Base. It’s new. I didn’t know about it.”

Now Guido was suspicious. “How new exactly?” he asked.

“AI, please show the Centurion Plato Base.”

A holographic image appeared, showing a big shaft with a spiral ramp going around. Labels indicated that the diameter of the open shaft was three hundred meters. One loop of the ramp was going down twenty meters only. Attached to the ramp were smaller cylinders that were labeled pod-like housing. The final base would reach more than two kilometers into the moon’s crust, having one hundred ramp loops with ten thousand pods attached. Then the image zoomed out and first showed a cluster of three shafts, then seven shafts.

<Currently we have one shaft with the first fifty meters finished and usable, > the AI noted. <The Colony Builder needs seven days for one hundred meters of depth. The layout is not limited to two kilometers of depth or seven shafts. If more capacity is needed, more depth and more shafts can be added.>

“You mean that you started building the base three days ago?” Guido asked.

<Affirmative.>

“What if I need the full capacity in, let’s say, three months?” Guido asked with a wicked grin.

<Them I’d suggest adding twelve Colony Builders and start building twelve more shafts immediately, > the AI answered. <This was a hypothetical question?>

“Yes it was. I’m not that far along with my planning. I need more information about my subordinates, the number and frequency of incoming colony transporters and so on.”

<You don’t have any subordinates right now. Most Civil Service officers use their concubines as subordinates for their job, > the AI noted.

“You mean, I’m the boss of a facility that will hold up to seventy thousand volunteers, their concubines and dependants, and I’m all alone with only six concubines that I currently do not even have?” Guido started to understand that in fact there were some major rubs on his contract with the Confederacy.

Lance Corporal Oppenheim laughed out loud. “Sir, that’s how every new project starts here in Earth orbit. Someone comes up with an idea and then the AI searches for people who make it work. As far as I understand it, you are in the lucky position that you can recruit your subordinates by doing your own extractions. In addition, there is a Tarawa class ship full of Marines here. They are from Vandergast and are available for extraction operations. You can ask them for help. Since you are assigned to that colony too, I’d suggest you visit them first, get your health check and a communication link implant and then take a few days to get used to those people. I learned Vandergast is among the most humane of all colonies.”

<I’d like to mention that the initial forecast of the arrival of the Sa’arm leaves five years for extractions. There are currently plans under way to speed up evacuations drastically. You might end up needing space for one hundred thousand sponsors plus dependents within the next year and keeping the base filled, while sending one hundred thousand sponsors to colonies every month. Plato Base will be one of about ten moon bases. This is in addition to traditional extractions made by transport ship crews that are in orbit.> Guido gulped. “Well, I asked for the job. I’ll do my very best or die while trying. How do I get to that spaceship from Vandergast? A transporter nexus I suspect?”

“Yes, there is a disk in the back of the office here,” Lance Corporal Oppenheim said. “The AI will inform the ship about your arrival, so there will be someone to help you further.”

<The officer on duty of the Tarawa class assault ship Pine Creek is informed about your impending arrival, > the AI noted.

Ten minutes later, Guido went through a transporter nexus for the first time in his life. He felt a little disoriented and his ears crackled. The room where he had stepped on the silver disk had been small, not much larger than a broom closet. The room he was now standing in was a large hall, maybe ten by fifty meters, and six meters high. Containers were lined up on one of the long walls. A Marine was awaiting him. The nameplate identified him as Corporal Leonard Buck.

“Welcome aboard the Pine Creek, Centurion,” the Marine saluted. “Since you are a newbie here, I’ll take the lead for a while. You’ll go into a med tube first. That’ll take about an hour as long as you have no serious illnesses or injuries. In the meantime, we can start extracting your pre-pack concubines and dependants, sir.”

“I have no pre-pack or dependants,” Guido said.

The corporal raised an eyebrow. “Nobody? Sir, you mean you are all alone right now?”

“I fear so,” Guido confirmed.

“Sir, do you know of some people you’d like to get as concubines?” the corporal asked. A Centurion without concubines seemed impossible for the corporal.

“Well, I know quite a few people I’d really like to rescue, but unfortunately they are too old or too young, have a CAP score of more than 6.4 themselves or don’t want to leave Earth, live in the wrong part of the world or have no CAP card at all. And I’ll need most of them right where they are.”

“Okay sir, then let’s go to the med bay and talk about this later.” The corporal walked towards a nearby door and Guido followed. The med bay was not far away. They only had to walk along a twenty-meter corridor and then turn left. The med bay was a room with twenty med tubes. Two medical assistants and a Marine were currently there. One of the assistants greeted the newcomers. He was preparing a tube for Guido.

Guido pointed at the two other people that were standing at another tube in use. “Something serious?” he asked.

“No, just an augmentation of the Marine’s concubine, sir,” the medical assistant answered. “Would you please take off your clothing and climb into the tube? Once in, you will quickly fall asleep. The tube will check your health and fix anything it finds from acne to bad vision to cancer. In addition, you’ll get a communication implant that also is a universal translator.”

When Guido was asleep, the corporal noted, “He has no concubines. Can you imagine a Civil Service officer without concubines?”

An hour later, Guido woke up again. His guide was still waiting for him and the medical assistant helped him out of the tube.

“Welcome back, Centurion. You had a minor blood pressure problem. Do you feel fine?” the assistant asked.

“Yes thanks,” Guido answered. “The ringing in my right ear has gone. Except for that I don’t feel different. In fact I feel refreshed.”

Corporal Buck grinned. “Very good. We then might do a little extraction right away? Maxine suggested going for a gym. There you can find all types of people, from businessmen and women to homemakers. Troublemakers and people with very low CAP scores are uncommon.”

“At this time of the day?” Guido asked in surprise after he looked at his watch. “It’s three o’clock in the morning! And who is Maxine?”

A section of the wall lit up, showing the bust of a blonde woman with plastic hair. It was obviously a computer-generated image. “He-hello, my name is Max-Max-Maxine Headroom. I’m the ship’s avatar.”

Guido was reminded of an old TV series. The abrupt movements and the stuttering all fit into the image. “You weren’t by accident hit by a fence before you woke up inside the computer network?” he asked jokingly.

The avatar glared at Guido. “N-no. But Max Headroom is in-indeed a-a-a major aspect of me-me.”

“To answer your other question, we can go anywhere. So a location where it is five or six PM local time is no problem,” Corporal Buck mentioned.

Guido turned his attention to the Marine again. “Okay, I’m the rookie here. Where will we go?”

“Seattle, USA.” Corporal Buck said. “The problems with Earth First and other opposition groups are minor there right now.” The corporal looked at the ceiling. “AI, alert an extraction team. We need to get some concubines for this Centurion.”

‘So this is my first extraction’, Guido thought. The Marines had handed him light body armor that he could wear under his civil clothing and now he was waiting together with ten Marines to go through a transporter nexus. Five more had gone through ten minutes earlier to check the place and place another transport disk within the gym they had selected.

Guido had strict orders to stay with Corporal Buck for the first few minutes and in case anything went wrong with the extraction. When the green light came, the Marines went through the nexus at the double, casually dragging Guido along with them.

Then Guido was on Earth again, in a smaller gym somewhere in one of the suburbs of Seattle. A lieutenant had just started to introduce himself and explain to the people that an extraction was going on.

The AI had detected five sponsors and fifty concubine-level people in this location. The lieutenant continued his speech and Guido joined the small group of sponsors; two women and three men, all currently wearing sports wear, sweating more or less from their previous workout. Guido looked overdressed in his clothing. He was feeling overdressed even more with the light body armor underneath.

“Okay folks, the hunt is opened,” the lieutenant said to the sponsors. “You hold the ticket for several more people to be rescued in your hands. Go select your concubines. As I said before, concubines will technically be the property of the sponsors, but I hope you don’t forget that we all are humans.”

Guido turned his attention towards the row of concubines. More than two thirds were women. Most of them already had stripped down to nothing. ‘I get six concubines,’ Guido thought. ‘I should take one man. And I need organizers. People who can handle other people.’ Guido approached the far end of the row and started asking for CAP cards.

The first one was male, a lawyer. Intelligent, married, a family man but too dominant. Good for the job, bad for a concubine.

The second one was the lawyer’s secretary. Her name was Gina. She smiled at Guido. She looked good, with nice boobs and a trimmed bush. She wasn’t married but with high maternal instincts, high obedience and high sex drive according to her CAP ID. She knew how to organize an office.

“You are willing to leave earth as a concubine? You fully understand what it means to be a concubine?” Guido asked.

“Sir, I know it might get rough, but I’ll hope for the best,” she answered with a smile. “I’ll do my best to be a nice concubine. I’ll do whatever you expect me to do. There will be few options when the Sa’arm arrive, so I’m determined to take this chance and leave Earth. Are you interested in a blowjob or a quick test drive?” Gina turned around and bent down, so Guido could see her pussy lips. She looked back and waited for his approach. Guido felt her up with his fingers and she started to purr. She seemed relatively relaxed, what Guido thought was a little surprising. In fact they were standing in a gym with sixty people watching. Her former boss, the lawyer, tried to ignore the scene beside him, but his face was bright red. Guido made his decision. He gave Gina a mild smack on her ass cheek and made her squeak. “You are in. Do you want to be my concubine?”

“Yes sir, definitely.” There was a little pause where they looked at each other. “What should I do now?” Gina asked.

“For now, just follow me. I have five more to select,” Guido answered.

“You came with the Marines, right?” Gina asked.

“Yes. I was extracted a few hours ago with no potential concubines around.” Guido was distracted by the noises of wild fucking from across the room. One of the male sponsors had collected a group of six women. Two of them performed a lesbian act while he fucked the other four in turns. Guido remembered that the guy was only allowed to take two concubines. People like him were the reason for so many mentally damaged women in his former asylum.

Guido had an idea. He quickly walked toward the counter where the staff of the gym was lined up with Gina trailing him. He ignored a female sponsor who was currently talking to the male trainers and asked one of the female trainers, “Sorry lady, can you tell me if there are any people with a psychological background here, like a psychiatrist or a teacher?”

Before the woman could answer, the female sponsor turned around and said, “I am a psychiatrist.”

Guido turned around and raised an eyebrow. The woman was in her mid forties, sportswear and glasses. “That’s not exactly what I was looking for, but anyway, do you want a job in the Confederacy’s Civil Service? I’m the future boss of a lunar base and I might need professional help for lightly traumatized people regularly.”

“Don’t you have your own staff up there?” the woman asked.

Guido grinned. “The base is as new as I am, and it seems that I have to recruit my staff on my own. I wanted to start with selecting some concubines with useful skills, but a sponsor is even better. So are you interested?”

“To be honest, I thought I might go for a naval hospital or something like that, somewhere far away from Earth. The moon is not that far away it seems. What happens when the Sa’arm arrive?”

“We will be evacuated, but we will be among the last ones,” Guido answered.

“Sounds good enough for me,” the woman said. She shook Guido’s hand. “My name is Doctor Nadine Blake. What’s your name?”

“Centurion Guido Marek. Nice to meet you. Now let’s get our concubines. We can talk later.” Sub vocally he asked the AI, “I hope it’s okay that I recruit people for Plato Base?”

<You are free to recruit personnel for Plato Base from freshly extracted citizens. I suggest you go for a mix of Marines and Civil Service, > the AI replied.

“Can I ask for assigning my whole staff to the Vandergast colony?”

<I would suggest late-assigning them to the colony where the transport ship goes when it’s time to evacuate the base.>

“Let’s discuss this later,” Guido still looking at the female trainer. She felt a little uneasy under the gaze of Guido who had been focused on something completely different.

“I think there’s another teacher over there, a nice guy who comes in regularly for a workout,” she now answered his erlier question. She was pointing at the opposite side of the gym where several males had taken seats. The female sponsors all had selected one male concubine and the men seemed to realize that their chances had now dropped drastically.

While he walked across the room, he quickly asked Gina, “Do you know the female trainer I just talked to? Is she a good gym trainer?”

“She’s not very good with explaining the use of the machines, but she gives good massages. She’s always friendly, not like her boss,” Gina answered.

The word massage had triggered something. “Go get her. I want to check her CAP ID,” he ordered.

Then he turned his attention to the males before him. About half of them seemed to be interested in a male sponsor. The other half looked more like they were disgusted by the idea. “I heard there might be a teacher over here? Would you please raise your hand?” he asked.

One hand came up. It was one of the men who haven’t looked that happy when a male sponsor approached them. Guido realized that the man was a giant. He was sitting on a bench while Guido was standing, but he wasn’t looking down at the man. “Would you please hand me your CAP ID?” Guido asked.

Guido was not surprised by what the card reader revealed. His name was Reginald Bull, a perfect name for a man of this size and shape. But the CAP ID revealed that he was a gentle giant, very low aggression, intelligent, a family man, a good team player, the perfect father or uncle or teacher. With a higher aggression, he would have been a sponsor himself. He commented that he liked to be called Reggie. “Are you married, any children?” Guido asked.

“Yes, I’m married to a wonderful wife and we have two lovely children. Sir, I’d like to mention that I’m not into, you know, gay stuff, but for the safety of my children I would do it. I would do nearly anything for their safety.”

Guido saw a tear building in the man’s eye. There was a possibility to get his children out of the way of the Sa’arm but he knew that his chance was minimal. He was willing to get humiliated for the safety of his children, maybe for the rest of his life. “Do you have some family pictures?” Guido asked.

“Yes, in my wallet. It’s in the locker in the dressing room.”

“Please go get it.” Guido asked. When the man stood up, Guido realized how big he really was. Taking the Marine standard package would have meant to downsize this man about ten centimeters and reduce his shoulder width too.

Sub vocally Guido asked the AI, “I’d like to take this man including his children and his wife. Can you tell me the woman’s CAP sub scores?”

<Adult females are extracted during dependant pick-ups sometimes. But it is not allowed to disclose a person’s CAP scores without the person giving her permission.> In the meantime, Gina had returned with the female trainer. She introduced herself as Vickie West. The CAP card she handed Guido showed the name Victoria. Medium intelligence, low aggression, medium obedience, medium maternal instincts, high sex drive. A good enough mix, Guido thought. “Do you want to be my concubine?” he asked.

“Yes, sure,” Vickie answered. When Guido turned toward the returning man, she asked a little disappointed, “No test drive?”