Chapter 24

Jack:

Friday morning, we were up early -- starting with little Shawna, who woke up disoriented and awoke several of us with her cries. Tara and Keisha handled the situation and Beth padded downstairs, nude, to start breakfast.

While I was sampling the product of the coffee pot, Vera and Oliver put in an appearance. Vera was at her most compliant to date, but Oliver was angry. When I asked him what was wrong, he complained, "That little bitch! She lied to me and cheated me and robbed me -- the peak of my virility was spent catering to her whims..."

"Oliver," I said, raising a hand to stop the tirade, "Next week you'll realize that the peak of your virility is still before you and you're merely older and wiser. Remember what she went through and what she was trying to accomplish. Who taught you sex, anyway?"

"Well, she did -- but it was the Reader's Digest Condensed version."

"And so you had who, exactly, before she came along?" I prompted.

"Yes, yes -- I see your point. But I'm STILL angry!"

"That won't hurt either of you any, since it will keep you in the right frame of mind," I assured him. "Just don't go overboard."

Olive puffed out a sigh. "Fine. I don't think it will help either of us if I forgive her at this point."

"Keep her under the thumb," I advised, "but remember moderation." Oliver growled and waved me off.

Beth approached then, her eyes pools of worry, "Daddy..."

"Shhh."

Oliver then turned and barked, "Vera! Go lay out something for me to wear!"

"Yes, Master!" Vera was off like a shot.

"Come here, Princess." Oliver pushed back his chair from the table and turned it so Beth could sit on his lap -- which, frankly, was smaller than her ass. "Imagine if you will that you woke up one morning and discovered that the person you've been catering to for a long, long time and you thought you knew everything about has lied to you and misled you consistently throughout your entire relationship -- and that person had done things with not one but maybe sixty or seventy guys -- in groups -- that she told you she was too prudish to even think about! I committed myself to her -- and she withheld herself from me and lied to me!"

Beth looked troubled. "I know she did, Daddy, but..."

"I know, there were extenuating circumstances. I am aware of them. But she didn't trust me -- THAT's what hurts! Whether you like it or not, she owes me for that. And she owes me everything she ever gave to another."

"She owes you that last, anyway," I pointed out.

"I won't be able to stay angry at her," Oliver told his daughter, "Not the way I am right now. But while I AM this angry, I can teach her some new habits."

"Well, all right, Daddy," Beth agreed.

"Go take care of your man," Oliver told her, patting her on the ass. "We all have a big day ahead of us." Beth got up and headed for the stove and began discussing what to feed the children with Tara and Keisha, and Oliver looked at me and said, "I grow long fangs when she sits in my lap naked. Why is that?"

"She's naked and female?" I guessed.

"There seems to be more to it than that."

I shrugged. "There is a compulsion to do something naughty in all of us. You've been conditioned to think it is naughty and you know it would be pleasurable, so..."

"What do I do about it?"

I shrugged. "It will go away, or it won't. You're a healthy male and you love her -- either one is enough to spark a little lust. The situation has changed; the only real controlling factor is the fact that she belongs to me -- and I'm aware of the situation. Permission -- or forgiveness, if it occurs spontaneously -- is a given. You may get over it because it isn't naughty enough anymore -- or you may not..." Changing the subject, I said, "Vera seems subdued..."

"I was rough on her after you left," Oliver related. "And the rougher I got, the better she got. And that made me angry, because it made it so clear how much she'd been holding out on me. She owes Major Howard a REAL blowjob."

"Oh?"

Oliver actually snarled! "The little bitch deep throats -- and swallows."

I nodded. "Okay. I begin to see why you would be pissed." This wasn't going to be fixed in a day -- or even two. The good news was that Vera was going to find her place redefined to somewhere within the norms of her new environment -- and had reason to learn to deal with it. She was in the doghouse and she'd gotten there all by herself...

It occurred to me that we probably didn't want to run Oliver and Vera's daughters off right away, so I had a word with Tara and Keisha, confirming that they were happy with their lot and instructing them to go back to their homes and collect a limited wardrobe and come on back. Then I copped feels of all of my on-site women and got in the van and headed for the school. Beth and Frieda and I had made some plans for a dramatic exit from the grocery and a similarly dramatic entrance at home, but Tara and Keisha would be on-site all day, and might have to look decent (well, be clothed) at some point.

At the school, we were in countdown mode. There was a little cleanup with students who had been genuinely out sick and we were putting in several transport pads in different locations to handle the flood while doing the usual 'family day' preparation as cover. The Marine support team and two AIs were monitoring communications for any indications that we were going to have Earth First troubles; the Marines would pull out and leave it to the AIs at fourteen hundred to begin final prep for the Brinkman Foundation extraction. Not that it was absolutely necessary, I tested transport from all pads to the eight transport rooms on the Valhalla, then hung out there to drill the crew -- all Fleet Auxiliary people -- on how things were going to be -- as if I knew ... This was going to be HUGE and we were going to have to do most of the sorting out aboard the Valhalla, rather than on the surface; about the only question that would be asked on the ground would be, "Do you want to go?"

We would be screening for weapons at the school entrances -- with a lot more sophisticated equipment than usually got used -- but people did weird shit in big crowds and killing someone with bare hands could be easy. There were 48 'holding rooms' on the single deck of the Valhalla we were putting to use, each overwatched by the AI and a crew member who had access to automated stingers. The AI couldn't shoot anyone -- but it could alert the crewman and provide automatic targeting; all the crewman had to do was press the 'Fire' button on the console.

What we WANTED to do -- what we HOPED we could do -- was apportion out concubines to sponsors in more or less family groups. What we EXPECTED to have to do was accept a large number of males who were not of sponsor grade directly under the control of the Support Directorate -- which meant that rather than having an owner, they would be responsible to someone in the Civil Service hierarchy. We hoped to provide growth and promotion opportunities and perhaps a type of limited citizenship -- but the whole thing could turn into a penal colony without the proper focus and we knew it. And of course the general intent was for all female concubines to be actively apportioned to sponsors, as leaving large quantities of them with non-sponsor-grade males meant more non-sponsor-grade offspring and ultimately a population group that could cause us major headaches.

There were all kinds of issues to be addressed, such as stresses and proper support and ensuring that the needs of these males, in particular, were fulfilled so they didn't turn into a disaffected thorn in our sides -- an obvious one of which was feminine companionship and sexual release. The initial plan for this involved concubines already in the Civil Service pool for being 'undesirable' in one manner or another -- usually an issue with handling authority or a mismatch with the sponsor who picked them up, but sometimes as punishment for anything from being cantankerous up through some actual crimes. A tour with the 'bad boys' -- which would NOT end if they ended up pregnant, because they would be on contraception -- seemed a sensible punishment for problem females and it would provide these permanently unattached males with an outlet.

Homosexual activity was looked at, with concerns stemming from how it sprang up in penal systems -- and how much of it was coercive. Homosexuals among the sponsor community, male and female, tended not to be a serious issue, even on the subject of procreation. Most could bring themselves to suffer through heterosexual sex on isolated occasions, purely for the purpose of fulfilling the requirement for offspring, and Confederacy medicine helped them minimize this by ensuring that the female was more than adequately prepared for conception by enhancing the ovulation to ensure that the egg was almost ready to fertilize itself. The Confederacy allowed this, but didn't go much further; you would think that they would have advanced stuff like uterine replicators or something, but apparently the consensus was that that way led directly to the door marked 'Eugenics Project' and they'd passed laws forbidding it. Offspring were to be gestated the 'old fashioned way, ' whatever that meant to the individual species involved. I'd read about Darjee sexuality during an idle moment; their particular outlook led them to understand the concept of 'host mother, ' for instance, as one of their sexes basically carried the offspring to term then handed it off to the 'mother'. We had to explain the complications involved in the fact that in humans those roles were combined, and it led to there being two 'mothers' in competition for the right to nurture the child...

But I digress. Lesbians could prepare themselves for an isolated sex act with a male, as a rule -- particularly if their desire for pregnancy was ramped up enough. Homosexual males could do the same thing; in the extreme, either sex might need to be hypnotically prepared, but it was possible. Most might consider it distasteful -- but possible. Therefore, we generally had few problems with sponsors who were homosexual.

But in an environment where there was a dearth of females, homosexual activity tended to spring up in males -- not because they WERE homosexual, but because they had no other outlets. Monitoring in colony settings is omnipresent, which would tend to prevent rape, but again, human monitoring was required because human intervention was required -- AIs having limitations on the employment of weaponry -- and unfortunately you have to watch the guardians, too, in some institutional settings. Prison rape occurs because the guards are either inattentive, look the other way or actively encourage it and take part. We didn't so much care if it happened, we just wanted it consensual...

That was probably the worst of the issues we had identified in accepting large quantities of people who couldn't be citizens but had no support structure. Fortunately, on Nuevo Angelino, the Support Directorate had been in place for some time and was well integrated into the colony support structure, so even though they didn't have 'families', we could put these people to work and handle some of their basic needs.

Maybe the big takeaway you should get from this is that we had plans -- but we didn't know how well they were going to work. This was all new; the approved formula had most of the bugs shaken out of it, but just collecting EVERYBODY was a new wrinkle. Using Fleet Auxiliary personnel was also a new wrinkle; as I reminded them in briefings, "We're relying on history, here. People expect Marines at pickups. They expect you to be bigger, stronger and faster than they are, and they expect you to put down trouble before it starts. You're all stronger and faster, if not bigger, and you CAN put down trouble -- but we're planning on those expectations assisting you in your efforts."

Oliver:

I still wasn't feeling particularly charitable Friday morning, despite the fact that Vera was absolutely clingy in bed. Both Jack and Beth made shift to remind me that Vera had her reasons for her behavior; I was well aware of this, but continued to be stung by the implications. Did that mean I was going to dispense with Vera? No. Did it mean that I was going to punish her for her duplicity? Absolutely! Eventually -- probably in relatively short order -- my anger would dissipate -- but our relationship would never be the same. Since it wasn't going to be in any case, both Jack and I saw this as an opportunity to adjust Vera's behavior while I was prepared to be vigilant and exacting in the control of it -- something I really hadn't been prepared for before. The total erosion of her confidence would help with this, too -- she was now well aware that she was on thin ice.

Before leaving, I went over preparations with Vera again, standing over her naked, kneeling form holding the riding crop and gently tapping her on the shoulder with it to keep her ever-mindful of the threat. Jack's newest concubines would assist in preparations, as Beth and Frieda had been instructed to go to work more or less as usual; while there was plenty to do, there was also more than adequate support on hand. Neither of my daughters was expected before my return, but one never knew, so we discussed scenarios involving an early arrival of Maureen, early arrival of Judith -- with or without her spouse -- or both. It would have amused me to have Vera greet them at the door nude -- but if Jack and I were not present, it would present a security issue, so I instructed Vera to throw something on when answering the door. Jack's efforts were not to be compromised; he had bent over backwards for my family and I would not endanger him or his mission selfishly!

Taking my leave of the women, I made my way to the Brinkman Foundation for the final time -- in its current form, at least. I couldn't work; I ended up collecting some packing boxes and surreptitiously packing the contents of my desk and my files for transport. There was one other issue, though...

I waited until after lunch, but honor would not allow me to trick Britney into anything. I actually called Jack -- it took several attempts, and later I determined that the reason for this was the fact that at the time he was in orbit, but I managed to put the problem to him and get his permission to deal with it as I saw fit, which released me from my implanted inhibitions. A bit after one o'clock, then, I hunted her down... "Miss Shelton, could I speak to you privately? In my office?"

Britney frowned a bit and took off her glasses. "Certainly, Doctor." She followed me to my office under the eyes of several others.

Once inside, I didn't seat myself, but rather merely turned before my desk and said "Close the door, please."

She did so. The partition was partly glass; I had the option of closing the blinds -- which would start a whispering campaign -- or hoping that none of the witnesses was an accomplished lip reader. "Is something wrong?"