Chapter 11: Divided We Stand

"Sara, are you awake yet?" Val asked. The young girl snuggled into Val's shoulder as they lay entwined in the big bed in Val's quarters. They had spent almost four hours in the 'getting to know you' process with Tonto. "Sweetheart, I now know why Jason took to you instantly and why Doctor Sandra had such a special interest in you too," Val said. "You are special, you are tougher than nails, and you are so filled with love. You are a beautiful addition to our family and my only regret is that you will be here with Jason, no doubt pregnant with his children, while I am off on Behemoth Bounty. I don't want to just touch your mind, I want to hold you in my arms."

"Mmmm, that sounds so good," Sara muttered, wrapping her arms ever tighter around the older woman. "Can we stay here a bit longer like this?"

"Fraid not, Love. Come on, let's go! This is going to be so interesting."

Katie spoke for the group, "I have to know what's going on. Mom is grinning so wide she looks silly but won't say a word. What is the status of Sara after her examination? We love her and will always keep her close but did we learn something new? If we did, can we use that information to assure that we are building healthy and wise families with outstanding moral values?"

"Yes, Katie, we learned much," Tonto replied. "Remembering that I cannot read minds and only have access to information that the human puts into language or images. Our conversation started out awkwardly with Val holding Sara but acting only as an observer. Sara, like all humans, has private thoughts that she wants to keep solely to herself. Of course, to protect them her natural tendency was to think about them so she knew what to stash. But as soon as she identified her secrets in mental language I knew all about them. We had a quick sub-vocal conversation about that and when she realized there was nothing left to hide and I had made no judgments, it became much easier.

"Together we devised a rapid fire tour of Sara. Her thoughts passed in a stream-of-consciousness arrangement where one thought leads to another, complete with the images evoked. I sorted the data so it didn't matter if she followed a thought of a school situation in the second grade with a romantic fantasy from high school to an image of her first love interest and then a photograph of her mother in her Senior Prom dress or even a very pretty field of flowers. Very few of the individual incidents were important by themselves but the total picture painted was a very accurate image of who and what Sara Miller-Tufts has become.

"Here lies the key," Tonto continued. "Sara thinks of herself as part of a family. While she has very real needs and desires of her own, the needs of the family come first in her mind. People who have low or no moral compass always think of themselves first and will sacrifice the good of the group for their own desires. The worst of humanity has no concern for anything other than their own urges of the moment. They will rob, maim, rape and even kill on the slightest whim. Sara, on the other hand, will sacrifice herself before she will allow evil to befall those she loves. She fits in well. We should find as many like her as possible and welcome them into the family."

The interviews were complete and the decisions had been made. The original Tonto family would be comprised of Rob, Katie, Ellie, Jason, Sara, Horace, Sandra Hamilton-Tufts, Jason's two newly pregnant concubines, Amy and Bethann. Horace also had two new concubines from that volunteer group, Consuela Rodman and Sissy Markham. Carla Pemberton was a sponsor who was pregnant with Jason's twins and would be part of the family too. It was a total of 12 with lots of babies on the way. For all it would be a lesson in learning how to live and love in such a huge and diverse family.

The new Tonto family would move to become the crew of the Behemoth Bounty in four and a half months when they stopped over at Demeter to let the current human crew off to resume their military duties. The family would be headed by Grandma Val, Grandpa Dan, and his sister Maria as the core of the group. They would be joined by the three volunteers who became pregnant before departing Earth when that had appeared to be the fastest way to combine with the Tonto family. Although Rob was the father of all three women's babies one had agreed to unite with Dan, that was Nancy Harrison.

Junie and Janie Strumson, the 16-year-old identical twins had become fascinated with Medical Technician Charlie Blackmun and were always clinging to him, hanging on his big black arms and enticing him with their bodies and personalities. Charlie was thrilled with the arrangement and readily agreed. Charlie had also agreed to attempt to be the swing member, trying to move back and forth between the group. The count was exactly seven and they needed to add another so that when Charlie shifted they would not fall below the magic number.

Ben Stoddard and Charlotte Wright-Stoddard agreed to fill that role and offer an extra for security. Charlotte was pregnant with Jason's triplets but Ben was the true love of her life and her sponsor. He had agreed to marry her and even hold her in his arms as Jason planted the seeds of life. While they were not deluding themselves they both loved those two fraternal little boys and one girl as if they were the natural parents. With a full team of nine there was room to experiment.