Chapter 29

Judith:

It was like entering the Twilight Zone -- this was my family, but it wasn't. Things were almost normal for the first hour or two, then my sister Beth and her girlfriend Frieda came through to door naked wearing dog collars and being led on leashes by a man I quickly learned was Beth's new master!

Not sponsor, mind you, but master; nobody was dealing in euphemisms. The entrance of the three of them seemed to trigger this weird metamorphosis; Daddy was large and in charge and Momma knelt on the floor, naked! Then Daddy introduced this girl about my age from his office as someone interviewing for his second concubine slot.

Somewhere in there they let it out that everyone had been gathered because there was to be a big pickup the next day; Maureen only needed to wave her CAP card, of course, but I was screwed ... Then Momma made this confession about how she'd been some kind of super-slut in her high school days and how she didn't deserve to go so Daddy should take ME! Oh, and did I mention that we were to have SEX and I was to get PREGNANT!? With DADDY!?

Then this Jack guy told Momma and Daddy that her big sacrifice wasn't necessary -- he could keep Momma AND me...

Somehow, Momma decided that she needed the holy crap beaten out of her for her ancient sins -- and Daddy agreed with her and they strung her up in the basement and proceeded to make me absolutely nauseous, beating her with a whip...

And somewhere in there a couple of black women showed up from somewhere -- with kids -- and everybody seemed to understand THAT but me...

This Jack guy seemed to have an answer for everything -- and he kept cramming my foot in my mouth!

Everything was just eerie! We were in the kitchen and Beth and Maureen are all about forgiving Momma for supposedly being a slut -- and Beth admits to giving DADDY a BLOWJOB the night before ... I mean, really ... I HAD to be dreaming or on some kind of hallucinogenic drugs ... Jack comes out with this diatribe on how the whole incest taboo is 'overblown.' Yeah, right!

Then we went to dinner and there we sat pretending everything was normal -- except Maureen and I are the only women decently dressed -- and that includes the black women, who appeared to belong to Jack, too. And there were three little black kids at the table and Jack said that the only reason the other women are dressed at all are to keep the little black boy from freaking -- but the kid said he was fine, and the next thing you know all of the women were climbing out of their clothes!

Things were so weird that I wasn't thinking straight and I made some comment about blowjobs ... Daddy popped up with this announcement; if there is anything in the world stranger than hearing your father describe your mother's capability for oral sex, I'm not sure what it is! When I made it clear that I'd never done such a thing, I got treated as if I was retarded or something! Momma offered to show me how -- on Daddy! I got a little freaked -- no, make that a LOT freaked -- and everyone acted like I didn't have the sense to come in out of the rain! This Jack insisted that blowjobs were a 'basic skill' that I needed to be a concubine -- and everyone agreed with him! Then he painted this godawful picture of how a Confederacy pickup was the next thing to an orgy combined with a slave auction -- I didn't believe him, of course -- but then he offered to show a video...

The thing was maybe twenty minutes long -- and I saw things I'd never even imagined! It was ... unbelievable! Women getting naked and being fondled and felt up like farm animals and committing deviant sex acts as though everyone in the room had been injected with some kind of aphrodisiac ... There was some girl there who looked a lot like Beth -- and they held her down and eight or ten guys had sex with her -- and she didn't even get to go!

When it was over, all I could do was say, "It was staged..." I HAD to pretend, even though I knew better...

Jack snorted and called my bluff, "Want to see another?" And in seconds, five totally different Marines were organizing things in a diner ... When the women started stripping, it was time to stop kidding everybody; I croaked, "Enough!" and Jack shut off the TV. I covered my face, muttering, "Okay, what should I do?"

I think it was then that I realized that Jack wasn't being unkind. "You've got choices," he said. "You can go home to your husband and practice a few new things -- which might or might not put the two of you back together. If you prefer to ship with your family, you can take your mother and father up on their offer; having sex with your father will be a shock for the first few times, but believe me, you needn't even hide it where we're going -- the taboo is irrelevant. Or you can try to solo. To do that successfully, though, you'll need both experience and the proper attitude, or you won't succeed." He paused for a moment. "I'll be honest with you -- this is a different kind of pickup. You WILL get picked up, no matter what -- but in your case, it will be what happens AFTER pickup that will be an issue. You see, normally, sponsors get what you saw there on video -- maybe twenty hurried minutes to pick several concubines. We're going to sort things out in space, though, and that will mean that potential sponsors will have days to select concubines. That means they will look closer -- which might make it more difficult for you to be selected."

"Why?" I asked, puzzled.

"Because in a normal pickup, you might nerve yourself to do what is necessary -- and even paste a smile on your face -- and thereby fool some guy long enough to make orbit," Jack explained. "But at this pickup, you'll be part of a large pool that will be subjected to a more thorough analysis -- and if you go 'Ewwww!' the first time someone asks you for a blowjob, everyone is going to know it. If you're dead in bed, everyone is going to know it. If you approach things as if you're going before a firing squad, no one will be interested -- and it will be a lot easier for you to drop the mask due to the lack of urgency." He frowned. "Can I see your CAP card?"

I was reluctant, but I knew better. I collected my purse from the stand by the door, dug it out and brought it to him. He made no comment about my general score -- which is pretty embarrassing -- but said, "Well, if someone is looking hard and wants to take on a project, you have something to work with; I see your mother's sexuality is lurking under all that repression, and you have good nurturing scores." I was surprised; that was probably the nicest thing anyone ever said about my CAP score. He handed it back. "If you break your current mindset, your general score will go up; your mother pretty much ruined you in some areas." He glanced at Momma, "Sorry, Vera." Momma just sighed and looked sad. "If you think you have the time, I would go home and learn to enjoy sex, if I were you. Then retest and you'll have a better foundation. Unfortunately, that would separate you from your family."

"What will happen to women who aren't selected?" I asked.

Jack frowned. "You'll go into the Civil Service pool. We'll undoubtedly be collecting a large number of males who are not suitable sponsors, just because we're not being picky about who is extracted. You'll end up learning sex from them. And since they are not eligible to make babies without sponsorship, you won't be doing that, either. Basically, you'll be a very unhappy but well-used whore -- one of a large number, I imagine. And you'll be hanging out with REAL troublemakers and women with bad attitudes and angry lesbians and who knows what." He sighed. "Things go downhill from there. Women DO come out of the Civil Service pool, but it takes them some time to regain any sense of self-worth if they've been there for a while or for the wrong reasons."

I blinked. "What are the right reasons?"

"Death of their sponsor in combat," Jack replied. "No stigma is going to be attached to a concubine who is a widow -- especially with children -- who got there through no fault of her own. They're going to be the cream of the crop. You would be somewhere below that on the totem pole." He sighed. "Eventually, it might even be decided that it is best for all concerned if you were disposed of -- and by that time, you might not even care. In fact, that might be a factor in the decision -- euthanasia, more or less."

"I'd be killed?" I asked, surprised.

"On Nuevo Angelino -- the colony we're going to -- concubines aren't generally killed out of hand. But if you're psychologically not fit to live, it might be a blessing," Jack replied. "Suicide is always a specter in the Civil Service pool. That's why we try to give the women day jobs, when we can."

"So..."

"You can go home. That's risky in the long run, because the Sa'arm ARE coming." Jack ticked off a finger. "You can ship with your parents -- which is more or less a gimme, for as long as your father wants to put up with you. But you're going to have his kids -- which will likely take some getting used to." He ticked off a second finger. "Or you can put yourself on the market. That's risky in the short term, because of your attitude and skill set."

I puzzled this out. "If I went with Daddy..."

"If I was Oliver, I would go to some effort to put you in your place immediately, for your own good," Jack replied, his smile showing fangs. "You would be one of four concubines -- period -- no special privileges for being Daddy's Little Girl. I'd tilt you up and poke you regularly and paddle your ass every time you were less than perfect," he flicked a glance at Momma, "just like your momma. I'd probably ride you hard and put you up wet until I saw the proper attitude."

"And if I 'put myself on the market' as you put it..."

"Risky -- especially given what I've seen this evening. You're not ready; you need training."

"I need to learn fellatio."

"You need to learn to LIKE fellatio -- and maybe anal sex, and regular sex in various positions and cunnilingus -- both to and from another woman -- and being fondled and patted and played with and treated like the family dog. You need to be prepared to accept the fact that you'll be property -- and prepared to deal with the fact that you're not out there to be catered to -- it all goes the other way." Jack pursed his lips and shook his head. "That's a lot." Jack looked at his watch. "And it's after nine p.m. on the night before you have to demonstrate this sea change, and we have limited assets..."

"Will you train me?" I burst out.

"Me? You don't like me. Besides, I'd be putting four other women on hold."

"Master, PLEEEASE!" Beth cajoled. "She's my sister!"

"My condolences," Jack muttered -- but I suddenly realized that he was trying to get my goat. Maybe he had been, off and on, all evening! On the other hand, I had no doubt that he was being honest in his description of the situation and his assessment of me. The two were related; part of him getting his assessment had been poking me with a sharp stick to see if I would bite...

"There's no time..." Jack muttered.

"Vera has made considerable progress," Daddy pointed out.

"And we abused the shit out of her to get her there," Jack retorted. "We would have to go for several hours delivering repeated shocks to her system -- and it might backfire, and it might not take -- and we might not break through! Then what?"

"Then part of my work will have been done for me," Daddy replied. I don't think I'd ever seen that particular expression on his face before.

Jack's glare raked me. "Even that's not a good thing. If she knows she has you to fall back on..."

Daddy sat thinking about it. "If she's utterly worthless, I won't take her. I have Vera to contend with, after all..." He nodded. "If we determine that she isn't going to make it, I won't take her. It's better that she go prepared."

Jack shook his head. "The incest taboo is a powerful tool -- otherwise, she would just go over and kneel up to you. Given the limitations, I don't see how we can avoid deploying it. When we're done, though, she might as well go with you..." He grimaced. "We have too little time and too few assets. She'd have been better off at Ray's last night. Even better would have been using those two little pricks I had to stuff in a box the other night..."

Momma sat forward and said, "I have nothing, so I have nothing to offer you -- but I'm begging, anyway! Please -- do what you can..."

Daddy eyed Jack and said, "I'm sure we can work something out..."

Jack looked back and said, "Beyond a quid pro quo?" Then he waved it off and turned to me. "Everybody is asking for a miracle here. I'm going to describe the plan -- and it's going to be a challenge. If you don't cooperate, it won't work -- period. When I'm done telling you what we're going to do -- you're going to ask me -- pretty please -- if I'll do all this shit to you -- and you'll commit to doing the whole thing. Do you understand?"

If he was trying to scare me, it was working! "Yes."

"Okay. I will -- I have to -- press you to the wall. I'm going to do every wild and crazy thing I can think of to familiarize you with various sex acts -- and I'll be pulling every dirty trick I can think of to try to get you to break down and enjoy it. Given what I understand your current orientation to be, at some point you may feel as though you would have to reach up and stretch to scratch the belly scales on a snake. Your CAP card says there exists inside you the capacity to enjoy sex..."