Chapter 7

Friday 5 AM
P-Day

Hmmm, I am definitely getting used to this. Ok, to review, we have Karen, Jo, Coral, Carrie, Miranda, Sarah, Susan, Jackie, Mike and Don someplace in the house. No, that’s wrong. Don and Jackie went over to Mindy’s. And Mike is in his room I think. With Sarah, Coral and Carrie. So I could have Susan, Jo ... Sarah was sure right about her. I thought we were going to have her for the main course right there in the dining room. Lessee, there’s Karen. It took her a bit to get in the swing of things, but then it was ‘Katie, bar the door’. There’s Miranda, she’s always a crowd pleaser, I think Karen is in love. Ok, so that’s four choices. That’s Miranda on my right. Distinctive hips. That’s short hair over there, so that’s Jo or Karen. Susan’s is longer. So that must be Susan there. Jo has those hooters from hell. So that’s her, over there. So that means that the lovely thing wrapped around me since last night has to be Karen. And since I am waking completely up, she will probably be waking up in a bit. A little motion and there she goes!

“Ummm. What? Ohh.”

“Karen? Honey? I don’t have time for a long one, Hon. You need to help.”

“Ok. Oww! Our hairs are stuck together.”

“Maybe I will make you shave if you intend to sleep like this a lot. Ohh. That feels nice.”

“Uhmm. I lost track. You ... ohhh ... ohhh ... you own Mom and me. Right?

“Technically, I will after tonight. A little faster now, that’s it. But I hate that term or ‘slavery’ or even ‘chattel goods’. You are a member of my Harem and my Family.”

“Ok, I was just trying to get it straight. And Miranda belon ... is in Sarah’s Harem?”

“Hehe. Yes dear, but you two can play all you want and besides, you have not met Mei Ling yet, or Maggie and Janet, for that matter. Trust me. Now get moving!”

Friday Evening
P-Day
Frank and Paulo’s

The sound of a spoon striking a wine glass rang out and got everyone’s attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen! May I have your attention please? Frank, Paulo, would you please bring all of your staff and guests in from the small dining room? Children and all please.”

Twenty-plus adults and over a dozen children came out into the main room and were directed to sit at the few open tables. Most of them had no idea of why they were being moved. This was a sad night for them. The restaurant was closing for good. Frank and Paulo had done well for two years and they had been operating a bit in the black overall. However, the civil unrest had taken its toll. Apparently some of the lunatic fringe had decided that since restaurants were good targets for pick-ups, then all restaurants were ‘of the devil’. Several times their windows had been smashed. Once they had been firebombed. Graffiti was a constant. There was intimidation of people who were trying to enter or trying to leave. Business was down and insurance premiums were up. Wednesday had been their last regular night. Tonight was a private party from some loyal customers, who had asked for the business’s family and staff to attend as well. Only Paulo, Frank and Angela knew any different.

“Thank you for joining us. For those who don’t know me by name, I am General Fred Winthrop. As you know, tonight marks a sad ending to a great effort. My family and I have always appreciated the quality of food and especially the quality of the service that we have received here, on every occasion. Consequently when an opportunity to return the favor, at the same time as we took on a new challenge ourselves, came my way, I consulted with my family and we came up with a plan.”

Most of the people present did not notice when John Winthrop got up, stepped to the back, and then opened up a side door. Four Marines slipped inside. They stepped into the side room just vacated and started setting up a transporter.

“Now I would like everyone to please remain seated as I announce this, but some Confederacy Marines are here to make a pick up. This is NOT the normal pickup you have heard vilified in news reports and street corner rants. We are doing this in a logical, organized and civilized way. Now, everyone in my family party here has already been sorted out. We know who is going with whom. Frank? Will you, Paulo and Angela, join me up here? Ok folks, one change here is that each Volunteer gets one additional person for his or her personal Harem, as long as that person is a Mother. There are some stipulations to that, but most of the unselected mothers here qualify. So, Frank and Paulo can pick five each and Angela can take three. I should let you others know that there are one hundred fifty four Marines on the ship up in orbit. They are all going to the same colony with us, so that rule covers them as well. All of them can get one extra as long as one of the ones they already have qualifies, or if the new person that they pick qualifies. Apparently eight of them were short one person anyway, so they need one hundred sixty two people, about one-half mothers and the rest, whatever. A few are women looking for a guy. So, please don’t feel that you need to beg someone here to take you. We will take anyone who wants to go and the Marines can talk to you upstairs. I will give everyone a full disclosure briefing before we go aboard. Also, just so you know, we know that all of you are in situations where there is really no one else in your lives. No husbands, or they have abandoned you. Some have died. One or two are pretty worthless and you have tried to leave before. This is all of your close family. We are trying to make families, not break them up. So, which of you three wants to go first?”

Paulo looked over at his wife. She was a good-looking, Italian lady of twenty-eight. “Francesca? Will you collect the kids and come sit over here with me?” She looked relieved and hurried to join him. He nodded to Frank and then leaned over to whisper in her ear. She became suddenly alertly still and seemed to be listening very closely.

Frank then took his turn. “Mama? Paulo, Angela and I have decided that we want you with us. We need you to help with the kids and you’re not too old to have some more. The General tells me that the medical systems on the ship can make you look and feel young again and they can give you another ten years or more of children. Will you join us?”

Isabella stood up. She was not a small woman, but not fat. She was solid, with definite curves and she stood proud and straight as she asked her son a pertinent question. “Who will be the father of my babies, Frank? Your father is dead. I know that marriage is not the same in Outer Space. But you must tell me who.”

Frank, Paulo and even Angela looked nervous. “Mama, we are going to invite one more man to our group. Pablo, who helps Paulo in the kitchen.”

“I am your mother. I know when you are not telling me everything.” Mama seemed to be heating up a bit. Her face was just a bit flushed. Frank could tell that if she got rolling, no one would survive unscathed. She needed to be derailed and only the truth would do.

“Mama. Paulo and I want you to have our children. We will take turns. If you come you will do what we tell you. I know this is shocking. If you cannot bear it, there are the Marines who would take you. But we want you in OUR family. If you are in our family, then you have to follow the same rules as everyone else. Angela has agreed with this. She knows that you are a fine mother and a fine woman.” Frank froze and waited for the lightning bolt to strike.

“That is better. You should never try to hide things from your mother.” With that, Isabella walked over to Frank, gave him, then Paulo passionate, non-motherly kisses and sat down. She was still flushed, but her face looked like the Mona Lisa.

“Urkk, uhhm, Pablo, will you and your wife join us? Oh, and of course, we want you to bring your children. Understand what this means. I will be in charge and have all power over you. Like the old nobles, who could command anyone in the household to do anything at all. At my command, you will sleep with the women of the household to keep them content and pregnant. At my command, your wife will sleep with me to keep me content or to get pregnant. If I invite Paulo over for the evening, I might loan Maria to him for the night, or for the week. I could give either of you away if I wish to. Now, it is my intention to leave you two alone for the most part. I want a happy household, but I will have my way with all of the women and all of the women will have at least one of my children. That is the way that things will be. My Angela here will be sharing her household with me; so, she may have you be with her or with her women. Do you both understand? Do you agree?”

Pablo and Maria Sanchez were in their twenties. They consulted in whispers. “Can we think about this for a few minutes. Maybe in the next room, so we can talk?” Pablo looked worried. Maria looked a bit angry. Surprisingly, she seemed angry with Pablo.

“Yes, but be quick, please. We will continue while you are talking. Serafina and Cara? Will you join us?” Angela’s older sister and mother looked at each other and then at Frank and Angela.

“I assume that the same conditions apply for us as for your mother and Maria?” Serafina Bianchi seemed to be speaking for herself and for her daughter.

“Yes, I knew when I married my Angela that she still would look good as she aged, because I had you as an example. Now though, the shoe is on the other foot. I have seen pictures of you when you were younger. You were as beautiful as her then and you will be again. Cara, you already look much like her. If you looked five or ten years younger, you would just look that much better. We know that you want to get your family out of here. This is your chance. You can come with Angela and me. You know us. You know how we will treat you. If you got picked up in some shopping mall, you wouldn’t know who might choose you. Please come. Both of you.” The mother and daughter looked at each other again and stood as one, collected Cara’s three kids and walked over to Frank. “We may as well make it a new tradition.” Serafina said as she stepped in, hugged and kissed him thoroughly, then handed him off to a blushing Cara who did the same.

A blushing, but obviously happy, Angela spoke up. “Aunt Lucia, would you, the girls and Arturo come here?” Arturo was only fifteen. At thirty-four, his mother, Serafina’s younger sister, was barely older than Angela. “Lucia? Arturo? Same rules. Yes or no?”

“You mean... ?”Art’s voice cracked a bit and he started again. “Do you mean that I would be uhh, having, uhh. I mean...”

“Sex? Yes. With me? Oh, Yes! And with the other girl I am going to ask. And, yes, with your mother and maybe with my mother, or my sister, or with Frank’s mother. Or Maria. Maybe with the next door-neighbor lady. You will get all of the sex you can handle. Will you join me? I love Frank, but I need a back-up (hyphenate) stud.” Her slightly lascivious smile hit him almost as hard as that one last word.

“I can ... uhh, Yes. With you and the rest. But with my Mama?”

Lucia had seen it coming when Frank had verbally surrendered his desires to his mother. And she had been getting more and more restless and hot, as the rest were called. “Hush Honey, you will be fine. You are already a better man than your father ever was. Come, give your cousin a kiss.” She had started out a bit shakily, but in her need to support her son, she had committed herself. She stood up and walked forward with a possessive arm around her son, her younger daughters in her wake.

Pablo and Maria’s discussion was just getting loud enough to be heard. Surprisingly, it was not about either of them having a problem with Maria and Frank, it was Pablo not wanting to be with anyone but his wife. Maria hit him a few low blows about not seeing his children growing up, never sleeping with her again, not having any more children with her and getting eaten by aliens before he finally capitulated. They came back in just as Angela was called her last choice forward. “Sophie? Join us?”