Chapter 2

Meanwhile, Rick started attempting to settle the remainder of the group in, but got bogged down providing answers to general housing questions like "Will there be food?" Not wanting to get bogged down in general questions that would need to be answered again in a few minutes, Rick re- opened the port shutters and made himself available for specific questions. There were several...

"When will we start picking up children?" Mitch asked, while Mickey hovered in the background.

"We need a half-hour of general briefings on where to go and what to do to get everyone settled, then that comes next," Rick replied. "A couple of hours, worst case. Is that a problem?"

"I have one in day care until noon ... after that, things could get ugly," Mickey replied. Rick looked at his watch, which was set to the zone local to the pickup site. "Eleven-twenty. We'll be pushing it. I can probably get you to a phone -- well, it'll be a patch..."

"That might be a good idea," Mickey replied. "If they can't find me by a quarter after twelve, they'll call Brett..."

"Your husband?" Rick clarified. Mickey nodded. "How big a problem is that?"

"I ... don't know," Mickey frowned. "We haven't been doing all that well..."

"We have rules about these things," Rick said gently. "You're stuck."

Mickey nodded. "It's for the best."

"Hey, uh, Jolene!" Rick waved at the black woman.

Jolene wandered over, eyes dancing. "You like rings?" she asked. Rick had been tracking the rings in her big but saggy breasts as they bounced and jiggled.

"They're an attention-getter, but that's not why I called you over," Rick replied, getting himself in order. Ogling some woman's tits didn't mean he had any serious interest -- just that he was male... "Do you have any kids that need picking up urgently?"

"Tyrone is in second grade -- they get out at two-thirty," Jolene replied. "The other two are with their grandma. She's gonna want to know where the fuck I've been, but..."

"We'll clear that up," Rick assured her. "Husbands?"

"Nope." Jolene grimaced and shook her head. "Hey, about this guy who picked me up..."

"You're stuck with him," Rick replied bluntly. "If he's not interested in YOU, that's another matter, but you're out of options."

"Well, what about my kids?"

"What about 'em?" Rick replied. "Has he agreed to take them on?"

"Uhhh, no. Doesn't he have to?"

"Well, no, he doesn't," Rick amplified, "but once he does, he's stuck with them -- even if he does away with you!"

"Uhh, run that by me again?" Jolene looked distinctly nervous.

"Were you listening earlier?" Rick asked. "Your sponsor has the right to trade you away, or even kill you -- but he has no such rights to your kids. Oh, he can ship them off with you to someone else as a package deal, but if he takes you out or sends you off to the Civil Service pool, he has to keep the kids."

"I'm having a real hard time with this killing me thing..." Jolene muttered.

"Well, that's probably not a big surprise. It really OUGHT to be a last-ditch thing -- but YOU need to know that it's a viable option, so we stress it some," Rick told her. "You are totally dependent on the guy who picked you up -- TOTALLY! I can't stress that enough! You need to plan to do absolutely everything in your power to keep him happy, because if you make a pain in the ass of yourself, YOU are the one who will lose by it!"

Kiran, who was more or less indulging Kellie out of a morbid desire to toy with her, had brought his harem in close so that she could ask questions. Kellie contributed to his amusement by bursting out, "How can you allow that?"

Rick eyed her. "Did you every watch old westerns? You know how there wasn't much law? If the sheriff or the marshal happened along, maybe he fixed things -- but in general, things were a little reliant on everybody doing what they were supposed to? Well, individual colony worlds have their own governments -- or they don't, in some cases. It's a frontier. Nobody tells them what to do -- except for the fact that just about everyone is in the armed forces. So we have military law, but it really doesn't extend to concubines, who are property. Remember the westerns? Well, it's probably best if you think of yourself as a c--..." Rick eyed Kiran and his Indian women; maybe they were Hindu -- in which case, cows were sacred. "Ummm, a horse. Stealing a horse was a crime and people got hung as horse thieves -- but shooting a horse was okay, as long as it was yours and not someone else's..."

Kellie looked kind of green. "I'm a horse?"

"Figuratively." Rick nodded.

"Oooohhhh..." Kellie could barely look at Kiran. "And if he shoots me?"

Rick shrugged. "Then he loses some breeding stock."

"Omigod." Kellie rubbed her face. "I'm dead..."

"Not yet," Kiran observed phlegmatically, "but the results thus far have not been impressive."

"I will ... What can I do?"

"Stop questioning and obey!" Kiran retorted.

"Yes, Sir!" Kellie bleated. "Um, is it Master?"

Kiran thought about it. "For now."

"Master, what must I do now?"

Kiran sighed. "Kneel at my feet, I guess." He eyed his other three concubines, obviously considering his options. Sharmila blanched and went to her knees, and the other two followed suit. Kiran returned his attention to Kellie, "Do you remember your name?"

Kellie blinked back tears. "I am called Slut, Master."

"Yes, you are," Kiran reached out to tousle her blonde locks. "Yes, you are."

Jolene watched the scene play itself out, working hard at denial -- and failing. It wasn't like there was anything wrong with this Mike character -- it was just the fact that she was not in control of the relationship. Each of her kids' fathers had been hot stuff at the outset -- but after a while, they'd gotten to be a pain in the ass, one way or another, and she'd put them on the street. Now, they were telling her that with this guy that wasn't an option -- that he held ALL the cards! Given her history, could she put up with that? And then there was that silly white cow he'd saddled them with ... Man, she was just fucking DUMB! Jolene had gone with the game on the ground, but now ... Now she was in deep shit, and there wasn't even a rope! "So, it's, like, possible to talk a guy into giving you to someone else... ?"

Rick grunted. "Sometimes. You have three kids, right? That's not going to make things simpler." He eyed her for a moment. "I know -- you like to run things. Well, if I were you, I'd settle for running Linda -- who can probably use it -- and making yourself look good with Mike by handling the small shit -- being head bitch. Right now isn't the time to try jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire!"

Jolene nodded, frowning. "Maybe."

"Trust me," Rick advised, "you want to know what's up before you even THINK about jumping -- those who don't are generally NOT happy with the results!"

Jolene's nod admitted the wisdom of this counsel, but Rick continued, anyway, "In the first place, he's offering to take on your kids -- which we encourage, but he's NOT obligated! You really need to see what you've got before you decide the grass is greener..."

Jolene grimaced. "I'm kinda hard to keep a handle on, sometimes..."

"Maybe you'll need someone with a little patience," Rick advised, "as opposed to someone without..." He swept his eyes to Kiran, who was no longer paying him any attention.

"Yeah..." Jolene sighed. "I'm just afraid he won't be able to hold his own..."

"Honey, you just have to remember that no matter what happens, you'll NEVER be boss!" Rick advised.

Jolene shrugged. "That might help."

"About the time," Mickey muttered.

"Yeah." Rick glanced around. "Come with me."

Eventually, Mickey found herself fitted with a headset and a microphone; Rick had to get the communications techs to hunt down the headset, apparently. "Mrs. McPherson?"

There was a good one second delay. "Yes?"

"This is Michelle Rawlins -- Lisa's mother. I might be a bit late..."

Again the pause. "You know we don't tolerate that, Mrs. Rawlins. Where are you?" Mrs. McPherson sounded long-suffering.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Mickey replied.

"I suppose you're stuck in traffic..." Mrs. McPherson huffed.

"No, not really ... Not much traffic up here..."

"Are you drunk? Why are you so slow?" McPherson asked suspiciously.

"Why IS everything delayed?" Mickey asked Rick.

"It takes light a while to cover the distance from geosynchronous orbit," Rick replied. "It's making the trip twice..."

Mickey started composing a reply, but Mrs. McPherson beat her to the draw, "Geosynchronous orbit?"

Mickey changed up. "I'll be withdrawing Lisa from the school, Mrs. McPherson."

"Because..."

"Yes. I've been ... picked up."

"I ... see. We'll be waiting. I'll try to put together a few things for her."

"That's very kind of you, Mrs. McPherson. Please don't tell a lot of people -- we don't want any trouble or to endanger anyone."

"No, no -- of course not!"

"We'll be along as quickly as we can," Mickey assured her. "Goodbye!"

Rick rolled his eyes. "It'll be all over the school -- at least the faculty. We'll both have to go -- and have backup on call."

"Sorry!"

"Not really your fault." Rick sighed. "The other one is in grade school?"

"Yes."

"We'll drop in unannounced."

"Okay."

"This boy..." Rick eyed her.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Mickey asked.

Rick pursed his lips. "We're more or less committed. As long as your sponsor doesn't change his mind, we'll run with it."

"Thank you."

"At this point, I'm just doing my job." Rick looked up. "There come the stragglers -- let's go back."

Pete wasn't happy. "Couldn't you tuck some of them in?"

"They were asking questions in the standard briefing. It was run it down two or three times or do it right once. I did manage to scare a couple of the possible troublemakers and start working on the Rawlins woman's kids."

"Problem?"

"Day care lets out in twenty minutes."

Pete puffed out a sigh. "I guess it could be worse." He strode to a locker and popped it open to reveal some PDAs with GPS functions -- keyed to the ship, not the planet below. "All RIGHT! Listen up! He triggered a hologram displaying a chunk of the ship's interior in 3-D, then started a briefing that was all but canned, "We are here..." He pointed with a finger to a flashing dot. "Mess Area C is here ... Pay attention if you want to eat!" He related the basics of pod location and what could be expected to be found in one, where meals would come from, both inside and outside of the pods, the schedule for the next day or so, clothing ... Reaching into the locker, he pulled out a grey hunk of cloth. "This is the standard issue shift. I won't tell you that in the long run it's this or nothing, but it DEFINITELY is in the SHORT run! Everybody wander up and get one from my partner here ... Not sponsors, obviously. Ummm, Brad? Sorry about that..." There were giggles. "Sponsors, you're NOT required to have your concubines wear anything -- mine is gonna continue to be naked in fact -- but it is this or nothing for the next few weeks -- that's how we tell the players without a program. Concubines, get naked and leave your stuff in a pile with your sponsor, so you can sort out keepsakes, later..."

Some of the less appetizing concubines had managed not to be revealed -- Elliott Bradley's pair of dumpy secretaries, for instance. Now, the playing field got leveled as everything came out -- at least momentarily. Pete kind of got a kick out of the logic behind who got to get into a shift and who didn't; basically, if a concubine's sponsor told her to dress, she could take it to the bank that she was less than appetizing when nude. Elliott put his women back in shifts, but true to form, Elias put Sue, Beth, and Penny in shifts and left Alicia, Denise, and Shelley Nakahara (the Japanese-American girl) nude. Mike spent some time thinking about it, but went with nudity for both Linda and Jolene. Sanket dressed Inez only -- probably as much because she had an obvious nudity taboo as because her age and build left her needing work. Kiran moved everyone to nudity, to the surprise of Sharmila and Amita. Mitch looked around, then told Tamara and Mickey, "You know, it's more or less an insult if I put you in clothes..." They went nude; the younger pair already were.

"Hey, can I play?" Leah asked.

Tamara spun to rebuke her, but Mitch got there first, "This is a grown-up game, I'm afraid, Honey. You can run around frog naked in our pod if you want to, but not here, okay?"

"Cool!" Leah was thrilled -- but Latoya obviously couldn't understand the reason for the excitement.

Nadine just raised an eyebrow -- but Jason read it correctly. Another woman might have been angling for clothing, but Nadine wasn't. Allison went nude, too, and ended up holding Nadine's shift as well as her own while Nadine calmly braided her grey-shot black hair into pigtails. The picture was just too much of a stereotype; Jason couldn't help himself. "You aren't... ?"

"Yep, full-blood. You own a squaw, Honey." Nadine grinned.

There was never any question for Wayne's brood, but Sandrine spent some time obviously weighing things before she decided that BOTH Brad and Barbara would go without. "I think this is better than a shift, don't you?" she asked Brad. "Besides, I'd be proud of that..." Bradley had a nice- looking cut cock of a decent length -- fully erect under the vast amount of visual stimulation available.

"I'll get used to it," Brad said tightly. Actually, Sandrine was right; his position as the only male concubine made him unique, anyway, and a little mental flexibility let him put any embarrassment away fairly quickly.

"Moving right along..." Pete put things back on track, rapidly dispensing some more tidbits of information that were of immediate use, then handing out the PDAs to sponsors. "These are keyed to your pods and will guide you to them. If one of your concubines has kids to pick up, settle your brood and get back here with her, ASAP! Let's move! I want to see those with pickups back here in twenty minutes, tops!" Heads down, sponsors gathered their harems and moved them off down the maze of corridors toward their new homes.

Mickey Rawlins' broadcast sense of urgency pushed Mitch's group rapidly along despite the fact that there were a half-dozen others in the party, some of them children. Tamara and Mitch understood, Leah and Latoya wanted to dash around a bit, and Nikki and Vickie had no trouble keeping up. Getting past Elias' herd presented the only real obstacle -- and they weren't actively attempting to bar anyone. Elias took notice, but Mitch explained briefly, "We've got a pickup..."

"All right, Ladies -- quit acting like a herd of cattle and put your butts against the wall -- these guys have got kids to pick up!" There was a scramble, and women hit both sides, but the center of the hallway allowed passage.

"Thanks!" Mitch puffed; Mickey was all but running at that point.

"Better get a leash on that one before she outruns you!" Elias laughed. Other groups, having heard the byplay, made holes.