Chapter 4: Meeting the Neighbors

It was Janice commenting from the floor that she was hungry that brought us to our senses. We decided to head down to the mess hall just to spend a moment outside the pod and I got back into my ship uniform although the girls all remained naked. I looked at them in surprise and Tina smiled. "You've seen it all already, and we know you like to look at it."

I shook my head but all of us proceeded to leave the room. Just outside we could see the door to Green five open and a rather slickly dressed lady emerged leading a naked man wearing a leash. I recognized the woman as being in the audience the previous night at the concert hall and nodded.

She was walking toward us and smiled as she approached. "Going to get food?"

I could feel Meiko cowering slightly behind me as the woman approached with her concubine. As he got closer the ball gag was evident and he was wearing some leather and latex contraption that must have been restricting the motion of his cock. I noticed that as his mistress stopped walking his eyes closed. However, the lady deserved an answer so I shrugged. "Yes, we could eat in the pod, but getting out of it for a moment didn't seem like a bad idea."

I turned away to walk to the mess hall and my ladies turned with me. We had just started to walk away when the woman said loudly, "You don't approve, do you?"

I stopped and sighed, turning back to her slowly, although my ladies did not turn. "It's not my place to approve or not. He's your responsibility. I do have to admit that I feel a bit sorry for him."

The woman nodded. "It is a bit cruel, but there is a reason behind it. Please, let me go to lunch with you and I'll explain it."

I glanced over at my ladies to see Tina and Bethany both give almost imperceptible shrugs. Janice had her eyes closed and Meiko was now cowering into my chest, obviously distressed by the situation. I ended up spending a moment listening to the silence in the hall before answering. "If you insist we can, but if it distresses my ladies I might ask you to leave."

The woman merely nodded and resumed her walk to the mess hall. I looked over at my ladies who all appeared bored and then we followed to the mess hall to find a table.

Once inside, Tina and Bethany said they would get trays for Meiko and myself and told me to find a table. The room was mostly empty, with only a few people eating, all clustered in the far side of the room, so it was rather easy to find a table and take a seat. Meiko immediately dropped into my lap and hugged me, still cowering. I was worrying about this meeting and wondering if I should call it off when the lady sat down across from me and her concubine knelt just behind her.

She looked up and I could see her shake her head. "Sorry to scare your concubine. Honestly, I'm doing this for Philippe's own good."

Meiko did not release me, but she seemed to relax just a bit. I looked over at the man and noticed that he was staring straight ahead, but attentive. "I don't see how it's for his own good," I replied.

The woman laughed. "Well, my ex-husband forgot that he's merely my concubine now. I could treat him like Ruth did her man last night, but I do love this man. I just need him to understand that I can't have him believing he's not a concubine."

As she finished my other three ladies arrived and Janice spoke. "Why not? James has proved that we are far more than mere concubines to him."

The woman laughed. "But you aren't going to argue with him in public, or try to undermine him in the household, are you? Philippe here tried to rearrange all of my careful organization last night, and nearly traumatized poor Marie."

I was a bit confused by this and held up a hand. "Let's start this conversation over, and do introductions. I'm James Rabb. My companions here are Tina, Bethany, Janice and Meiko." I pointed to each lady as I said her name.

The woman laughed. "Where are my manners?" she said with a giggle. She then held her hand out. "I'm Yvette Mimeux, we were picked up together at that country music concert last night. Behind me is my ex-husband and now slave, Philippe. I have three more concubines back in the pod; I'm allowing them to enjoy a meal without me."

I nodded and looked over at Philippe whose eyes now glistened with unshed tears. "Are you unhappy about your choices then?"

Yvette smiled and shook her head. "I'm not as happy as you are, but I'm not sure anyone on this ship is as happy as you are about their selection."

"How do you know that?" Tina snapped.

Yvette just smiled at Tina. "It's easy to see. You ladies are all confident and smiling despite the uncertainty. Look at Meiko there. She's obviously more frightened than ever before, but did she run off? No. She is huddling in the arms of the one man she trusts more than anything. If the five of you are this close now, after only a day, it's something special."

I was nodding and watched as Tina chewed on a piece of her hair and considered what she was just told. Finally she shrugged. "I just know that if love was scored one to ten my love for James would be about a twenty."

Janice and Bethany both burst out laughing and Meiko nodded into my chest. I watched as Yvette covered her mouth with her hand as laughter entered her eyes.

It took a moment for everyone to regain their composure and then Yvette looked a bit more serious. "I guess in a way I'm not entirely happy. Philippe and I married fifteen years ago, and I do love him very much, but he has no imagination and little initiative. If he'd been on that show Average Joes in the episode where the lady lost a dog in a burning building, I know he would never have entered to try and save it."

She continued. "The problem is that I scored a seven point one in the CAP, and was going to get four concubines. There was never a question that I'd take Philippe with me, and I even let him help me in selecting the others, but last night he thought he'd act as man of the house, and refused to back down when I reminded him of the new rules. I finally had to have Nathan hold him while I used a stinger to knock him out, and I've decided to take a bit more aggressive approach to making sure he learns the rules. Especially after the incident in the mess hall earlier."

"What incident?" I asked. "The one where the one male concubine was repudiated and terminated?"

"No," Yvette said with a frown. "It happened after that. Hector, one of the other men from the concert decided that he'd taken a shine to this fourteen-year-old concubine of Martha's. There was a big argument and the marines ended up having to use stingers on several concubines and even a few sponsors. Part of the problem was when one of Martha's male concubines tried to defend the girl. Hector smashed him to the ground and the marines did nothing. I realized that Philippe needs to remember that Confed law labels him property and not a person, so he does not make the same mistake."

"You expect more problems?" I asked.

Yvette just stared for a moment and sighed. "Yes. Ruth and Hector worked at the same company I do. That trip to the concert was a ploy by our boss to try to get himself selected, as he knew both Ruth and Hector has scored six point five, they had bragged about it so often. He tried to disguise it by making it a team-building event, with a company dinner first, but somehow he was sitting between them once we took our seats for the music. I know those two and while they are intelligent and can do a lot when they try, they are lazy, venal and selfish. Frankly, if they put as much effort into the CAP as they do into their play, they could have scored above nine, but they rarely try that hard. I expect both to become petty little chieftains and abuse any concubine whom they encounter alone."

Meiko stiffened again upon hearing this and I put my arms around her, holding her close. "That will be a problem," I muttered. "I won't have them touching my ladies."

Yvette nodded. "Fortunately Ruth is in the black ring and Hector in the white, so except in the mess hall or during meetings we should rarely see them. Your little one there definitely should be careful though. Ruth loved to terrorize the secretaries whenever the bosses were out of the office, and I'm sure she'd love add your girl to her list of victims."

"And that monster scored enough to volunteer," I said in amazement. "Well, I guess the situation does make sense now. Although, I still feel a bit sorry for Philippe."

Yvette laughed. "Don't feel too bad. I'll make it up to him later, once I'm sure he understands that he needs to obey me from now on." Philippe was looking straight ahead during this conversation, although I could see a faint glistening in his eyes, suggesting unshed tears.

We all turned to our food, and Meiko released me to taste the food Bethany had obtained. The replicators in the mess hall were able to make lots of different foods and I was surprised to find that the ladies had all chosen a teriyaki combination.

Bethany smiled, as I tasted the first piece. "We thought it might help calm Meiko down. She told us that she used to eat Japanese cuisine often while growing up."

I smiled. "Hey, I like it too, but next time, we should do sushi, if the mess hall can do a decent sushi that is."

"The replicators can reproduce fifty different types of sushi," the AI chimed in, to our group alone.

Yvette burst out laughing at that. "God, I never know when the AI is going to respond or not. I am impressed by how much they can do."

Bethany frowned. "They ignore concubines unless they are told to respond by the sponsor. That's all I know."

I reached out to tickle her. "You are just mad 'cause it ignored you earlier."

Bethany nodded at that, and we all resumed eating quietly. Few others were about and for a few moments the only sound was that of everyone eating. Finally, Yvette finished and reached over to take Philippe's gag off.

"Take my tray to the disposal and get yourself some food," she said lovingly. "And please don't get too mad. I know it's going to be hard, but if you want to stay with me, you'll have to respect me."

"Yes dear," Philippe said back lovingly. "I understand and I'm sorry. I just have to fight how I was raised a lot harder." He turned to walk away and then paused to look at me. "Hey, what's the rule on the rabbits?"

I looked over at Yvette, but she just shrugged at the question. "Finish your job and if your sponsor asks when you return, I'll answer," I replied to Philippe with a wave.

Janice watched him walk away and then asked. "How come you never acted like that with us?"

Yvette answered immediately. "Because he doesn't have to. You already treat him with more respect than Philippe will ever give me. And with far more love too." She sighed a little as we watched Philippe review the choices at the replicator. "I could hear a couple of the marines near me questioning the procedure James used to find you. They have seen so many pickups that they are jaded about it and actually encourage men to take women for test drives to insure that there won't be a problem later."

Tina giggled. "I offered; James wanted to wait."

"And I can see it was worth it," Yvette said. "You have a connection built on more than sex and the rules. I'd bet you'd refuse to leave if you were set free. Philippe would leave in an instant if he could."

"That's sad," Meiko whispered. "He doesn't understand how special a family can be."

Yvette shook her head and Philippe returned and sat down next to her. He was actually a rather handsome man of about thirty-six but still seemed a little unhappy about the situation. Yvette waited until he was sitting and turned to me. "Actually, I did want to know about the rabbits myself."

I laughed. "It was a wild idea and I'm happy the AI went along, although I'm very surprised. I suggested that pets might help stave off boredom for the concubines, especially since there really isn't going to be a lot to do. Confed technology takes away most of the manual labor of keeping a house going. My idea was that a pet would be a good way to add an element of relaxation, and also give children something to care for that wasn't a human baby. The AI accepted my argument."

Yvette laughed. "And you just knew where to find rabbits."

"I used to breed them for rabbit shows," I admitted. "Now I'll breed them for pets I guess."

Philippe gently touched Yvette and whispered something in her ear. She smiled and turned to give him an extremely gentle kiss. "That is how you have to be, love, and that was perfect." She turned to me and continued. "Can we get a rabbit for our children?"

I smiled. "I want to check with Brenda about what all we have. She's probably thought out a breeding plan already and I wouldn't want to hand out a rabbit she's about to breed, but they definitely can visit with the rabbits on the trip while we get organized, and as soon as I have any to spare, we'll get them one permanently."