Chapter 26: SM03-Eta, Day 5

Steve woke easily that morning, somewhat pinned down by the pile of puppies that filled his bed. He was flat on his back (his sinus problems had vanished with his old life) with Mary lying face down on his chest and right arm, while Yoshi mirrored her on his left. Each woman had an arm across the other's back. Danielle and Li were nowhere to be seen; they'd been disappearing for hours at a time the last two days, and Steve suspected that Danielle had 'gotten to know' Li a lot faster than she'd anticipated when she was reading him the riot act for trying to throw them together. They'd certainly grown to be close friends in 'public' and it wouldn't be at all odd for them to be even closer in private.

Steve was truly indifferent to the question of whether they were 'getting it on', as long as they were both happy. He certainly was; he had six women trying to keep him happy and sexually satisfied, two so in love with each other they brightened the room whenever he saw them, and two more lovely women that were clearly in love with him. Moesha was still holding out against her lust, but Steve suspected she'd be in his bed pretty soon, even if she did avoid him when she was fertile.

Abema was the only open issue facing him. She'd accepted that he was going to seriously consider taking her as his fifth wife, but that it depended on him becoming convinced that she was more like the nineteen-year-old she appeared to be than the twelve-year-old she claimed to have been in their old life. As Steve looked back on the last three days, he realized that he not only couldn't come up with a single incident that made Abema look childish, but that he himself hadn't met that standard. He'd been a bit petulant at one point, over a trivial matter, and even though it passed in a moment, it was still the kind of strike he'd have held against Abema.

Steve decided that he'd give her the good news after breakfast. He'd gather everyone together, and tell her that she was adult in his eyes, and that if she still considered him worthy despite how he'd doubted her, he'd be honored to take her as a wife.

That settled, and his bladder starting to proclaim the need for him to get out of bed, he looked around for help in getting out of bed. As he shifted his head to look for Nytoya or Ko, he noticed that Mary was awake and smiling at him. A glance to the other side showed Yoshi was still asleep, so he whispered, "Good morning, wife. How to you feel this morning?" They'd gotten a bit intense last night, and he'd given her a pretty rough ride, first in front, then in the rear.

"No pain at all, and only a little tender in my bum," came the answer, to his relief. "I'm surprised myself; I'd have expected a bit more discomfort. I think I'm getting used to that club you wave around."

"I'm glad to hear it," he said. "I need to pee. Help me get out without waking Yoshi?"

"Of course," she told him. "Once you've finished, let me do the same, and we can shower together."

Steve took care of his business, and Mary hers, and they enjoyed a friendly shower together, with only the minimum of extracurricular activity. Once they were clean, they left the bathroom, to find Yoshi still dead to the world. They shrugged at each other, and went off to breakfast.

When they reached the dining room, they found Li and Danielle eating Steve's favorite breakfast, with great relish. Nytoya and Ko knelt at their feet, and were being fed bits of breakfast in turn by each woman. When Danielle saw Steve approach, she said to the slaves, "Your Master is here. You may begin his breakfast."

Nytoya and Ko jumped to their feet and moved quickly to a doorway that Steve hadn't seen before. He followed them, and found that it led to a small room that had been set up as a kitchen. He remembered saying something their first day about starting to cook meals from scratch, but it hadn't happened, since it was so simple to just have the replicator prepare the food. They had started sampling each other's cuisine, to great success, they'd just skipped the part about learning how to cook it.

While Nytoya fried two platefuls of scrambled eggs, Ko was frying some bacon, and toasting some English muffins (which Mary noted weren't actually English, or muffins.) Steve smiled at the sight, because both slaves were wearing aprons against flying grease, but nothing else. He returned to the dining area, and Mary set a cup of coffee in front of him. He smiled at Danielle and Li, nodded at the kitchen, and asked, "Your idea? Or theirs?"

Danielle answered, "Ko's, actually. Nytoya was telling her about that first 'morning, ' when she brought you your favorite breakfast, and Ko suggested that they follow up on your comments the first day about cooking our own meals, and the rest is history. That kitchen wasn't there yesterday; they suggested to the room that they needed one, and it appeared overnight. There's a sort of pantry on the other side that they get the ingredients from; it seems to be one huge replicator, or there's some other mechanism involved, because whenever they take something off of a shelf, the remaining items move forward, and there's always more behind whatever they take out."

Steve shook his head. E. E. "Doc" Smith's wildest stuff had nothing on what he was living every day. Of course, "Doc" had been writing when sex had to be completely off the page, even between married couples. "Amazing," he said, "I'm starting to wonder why these guys bother with star ships. If they can do all this, why travel?"

Steve's question wasn't answered, but since Nytoya and Ko arrived at that point with his and Mary's breakfast, he didn't much care. He dug in eagerly, and didn't have to shade the truth a single bit when he complemented Nytoya and Ko on their cooking, and Ko on her clever thinking. He was sitting back, relaxed and full, when his plans for the day were blown into smithereens.

The room voice spoke to Steve. "I have a message from the ones you call 'the aliens', to be delivered once you had completed your morning meal. They beg you to contact them, as there is a problem with some of your fellow humans, and they desperately wish you to advise them on the proper solution."

Steve noted the use of terms like 'beg' and 'desperately' and wondered exactly what he could extort out of the aliens that he didn't already have. Deciding to worry about that question later, he looked at his wives, looking for a sign that any of them wanted to comment. Seeing nothing, he spoke to the voice, asking, "Who is the message from?"

The voice replied, "The alien names are not translatable into your language; the first human to speak to him assigned the term 'Zookeeper' as an identification tag. That human strongly recommended restricting yourself to voice contact; he reported that the sight of the aliens was disturbing."

Steve shrugged, and said, "Whatever, we'll do it your way. Voice connection to 'Zookeeper', please."

The flat emotionless voice that had narrated the video showing the destruction of the Earth spoke next.

"Thank you for speaking to us," said Zookeeper. "We have a problem and we need the advice of a human to determine a solution. We are prevented by privacy constraints and the instructions of the authorities from performing anything but the most superficial review of the conditions your people live under. We have been receiving statistical summaries from the room monitors on the general stress levels and reproductive success rates among the groups you have been assigned to, and have noted generally positive results.

"There have been a number of individual exceptions to the general rule, however. Several individuals have displayed skyrocketing stress indications over the last two of your sleep/wake cycles. Of those individuals, a sizable percentage have terminated their own existence within a day of reaching a certain stress level.

"Until yesterday, all of the affected individuals were female. Such loses, while tragic, did not endanger the survival of your species. Yesterday, however, a male chose to terminate himself, and several other males are now showing signs of equivalent stress levels. One of those males is in your meta-group, and we need someone to contact him and determine if there is any way we can reduce or eliminate the source of his stress. One of the females in his group is also highly stressed, and we offer the same assistance in relieving her."

Steve was stunned. "Suicides? How many? What do you mean by 'meta-group'? And why did you pick me?"

The voice answered his questions in order, "Suicide is the term you use, yes. They deliberately took actions they knew would end their lives. We are not permitted to prevent such acts, but we can attempt to remove the sources of the stress that drive the individuals to such acts, if they can be identified in time. There have been 132 suicides among the females, and one among the males. There are signs that between 16 and 19 other males may be approaching fatal stress levels. One of the latter group is the male of a group that is part of your meta-group.