Chapter 53: SM03-Eta, Day 8

Steve kissed Mary, Danielle, Yoshi, and Li goodbye, and left their quarters. He entered the transport chamber, and asked to be transported to SM03-Tau, as instructed by his invitation. There was no detectable difference from his previous transports, but he was much more nervous this time. The prospect of meeting 'himself' was quite unsettling, but he knew he needed to go. The possibility of getting more information about their situation was enough to make the trip worthwhile, no matter how weird it got.

He arrived at his destination, and entered the quarters belonging to his... Brother? Clone? What? "Brother," he decided. He'd see if the others agreed. Would one week's difference in experience make a significant difference in outlook and opinions? Or would the shared 45 years of memories dominate?

His speculations ended as he stepped into the room, and was greeted by a lovely, dusky-skinned woman who introduced herself as Priya Miller. She welcomed him warmly, but she seemed oddly distracted. Given Steve's thoughts as he approached the meeting, it wasn't hard to understand why.

"You're having even more trouble with this than I am, aren't you?" Steve asked. "Here I stand, a total stranger, but I look exactly like the man you love. And I expect my reactions to be a lot like his, too, which will only make it harder. Try thinking of me as his identical twin brother, which happens to be true, in a sense, and see if that helps."

Priya swallowed, and shook herself, before saying, "I think it will, once I get over the shock. My Steve anticipated my reaction, and tried to warn us, but the reality is much more than we imagined. You are the first to arrive, so I have not had a chance to 'get used' to the feeling; I hope it diminishes over time, as I anticipate there will be many more such meetings in the future.

"On a related note," she continued, "we have devised a strategy to help keep you all straight that does not depend on the colors of your garments; please select the badge with your residence code and affix it to your shirt. We tried to select the proper balance between readability at a conversational distance and an object so large as to be ridiculous."

Steve looked over the badges, and selected 'SM03-Eta', noting that there were three other badges, and therefore most likely four other Steves he'd be meeting, including his host. He'd no sooner thought of his host, than he heard an unfamiliar voice greet him.

"Welcome to our home, brother," said the man who Steve saw in the mirror when he brushed his teeth. This one parted his hair the way Steve did, unlike the toothbrush guy, but he was otherwise the same. The voice startled him, until he remembered the way he sounded when he played back recorded dictation.

Steve pulled it together long enough to reply, "Thank you. I'm still getting used to this; I guess from the way you only look half-confused that you've known about me a lot longer than I've known about you?"

His twin nodded. "I heard about it the first day, but we'll get into that when the others get here. It didn't prepare me for the feeling I got when I saw you talking to Priya, though. I thought this might be hard for them too, but it's obvious I underestimated the impact."

Steve nodded in return. "We may have to consider changing hair styles and facial hair, or something similar. With twenty of us, though, it will be hard to get enough visually distinct looks to solve the problem completely."

As Steve finished talking, he heard more male voices approaching behind him. He turned as two more of his 'brothers' entered the room. Two more women, who'd been standing back while Steve had been talking to his brother and his brother's wife, stepped forward, each one greeting a newcomer, and asking him to select a badge to identify himself.

Anna Miller, a blonde of apparently German descent was greeting a man who picked up the 'Gamma' badge, while Lorraine Miller, a raven-haired beauty who, aside from her hair color, looked like a grown-up Heidi welcomed a man who selected the 'Pi' badge.

'Gamma' had a somewhat hardened look about him, that contrasted with Steve's own feelings, and the general demeanor of 'Pi' and their host 'Tau'. Something told Steve that 'Gamma' hadn't had nearly the smooth ride that he'd had, which reminded Steve (who tried to start thinking of himself as 'Eta') that he'd never quite figured out how he'd ended up with so many compatible women.

'Gamma' caught Steve looking at him, and said, "It feels stupid, but I think the only way this will work is if we call each other by the Greek letter our homes are tagged with. I think I can learn to respond to 'Gamma' as well as 'Steve'. Not responding when one of his wives says 'Steve' is going to be the hard part."

Both 'Tau' and 'Pi' nodded, while Steve replied, "That's how I was thinking about you all, so it's not a stretch to talk that way as well. You're right that it sounds like we're all members of the evil organization in a bad James Bond movie, but I don't see a better way either."

Changing the subject, their host offered them refreshments. Interestingly, there was a divergence. Steve and Pi declined, but Gamma turned to his 'hostess' and said, "A coffee would be nice, if you don't mind. I'm still taking it the way we always did in the old days, so unless he's changed lately, just get one the way your husband likes it."

Anna apparently didn't mind serving as his hostess; she turned and went to fetch his coffee. Tau gestured to a nearby group of chairs and said, "Shall we have a seat while we wait for Epsilon? I expect him shortly, of course."

They'd no sooner settled in, with Gamma getting the first sip of his coffee out of the way, when another of those guys from the mirror showed up at the front door. This time, he was met by two women. The first one introduced herself as Sarah Miller; she was led to the doorway and their guest by another woman who introduced herself only by her first name, Alexandra.

Sarah moved oddly; she allowed Alexandra to lead her, as if she was blind, but she obviously recognized the obstructions they moved around without help. On the one hand, she faced only roughly in the direction of her guest, moving to face him directly only once he started to speak. On the other, once she'd 'locked in' on him, she tracked his face even as he started to walk over to the table to pick up his 'badge'.

Tau noticed Steve's observation of Sarah, and informed him and the rest of his guests that she'd been blind from nearly birth in their old life, and awakened with normal eyes but a brain unused to their input. She was slowly gaining sight, but in odd steps, with what seemed to be great progress on an unconscious level, and limited results from a conscious perspective.

Once Epsilon had been offered refreshment, and had accepted a glass of ice water (another divergence), Tau opened the proceedings by offering his proposed agenda. They would begin by recounting their experiences to date with their new families, omitting the intimate details unless they were critical to the 'plot', and including any and all details they'd gotten from the aliens or the room monitors about their 'rescue' and their current living conditions, and the services and information available to them.

Once they'd caught up on their histories, they'd review any questions or unsolved mysteries that each member had, and try to get answers from the room monitor or the aliens for any they couldn't solve themselves. Finally, Tau proposed to ask his questions about the matter of the care and training of submissives.

As their host, Tau went first, and recounted his tale of being awoken the first day by a high-pitched voice, screaming in pain. Anna's and Lorraine's eyes both got a bit misty as Tau recounted their tale, describing his verbal assault on the aliens, the information they gave him, and the happy results as Anna's baby was restored. He glossed over the submission of Priya and Erica, and completely omitted the details of Alexandra's and Theresa's approaches to him. He merely reported that Sarah and Priya had also desired to be his wives, and that he had welcomed them in that role, while the other women had bound themselves to him in a somewhat different manner.

Tau went on to recount the message from the aliens appointing him Leader of Humanity, and how he'd responded to Ed's call for help, and ended up with additional sexual partners, some of whom were also new roommates. He finished by saying that one of the new neighbors had provoked an argument with one of his submissive sexual partners, which had led to him calling the meeting they were now having.

Gamma took the next turn, but his tale was quite brief, recounting his awaking to discover that the women in his life were gay, and uninterested in him except as an inadequate substitute for a turkey baster full of anonymous sperm.

Gamma was a bit more explicit than Tau about his acquisition of slaves, and mentioned that it was a bad idea to accept slaves when one was angry with them, since he now had a submissive who liked a bit of pain, and he was expected to provide it, because he'd done so the first time they had sex. In the course of his recap, he casually mentioned that his pain-loving slut was named Suri. Pi's eyes widened slightly at that, but he didn't comment.

Once Gamma was finished with his account, Epsilon took up his tale, explaining how he'd initially had a bunch of 'house-mates with benefits' but had gradually come to realize that what he really had was ten wives. He described Rachel's initial reluctance to accept the situation, and her emotional collapse when Susan pointed out the number of impossibilities they couldn't deny. He mentioned his Sarah's comments about her reduced body hair, leaving the area of the reduction somewhat vague, and his own slightly-better-trimmed status.