Chapter 33

Jack:

Saturday morning -- my last day on Earth, version two point oh. I hate alarm clocks; I nearly killed two of my concubines trying to find and silence the damned thing before Beth wrestled it from my hands and shut it off. "Coffee!" I croaked.

"Yes, Master!" she smiled and leaned in to kiss me and morning breath and all the day improved right there. I gave her broad ass a playful swat and she rocked it salaciously out the door. I was instantly horny, but we had no time for such things -- not today!

"Up and at 'em!" I wielded a pillow to get the attention of the rest of my harem, "We're outta here!" Tara, in particular, looked rough this morning -- last night may have been a dream come true, but it was hard on her. "Frieda, get everyone else but the children up. Tara, hit the shower and see if that helps you any. Keisha..." I knee-walked over to the thick black girl.

"Yeah..." She eyed me nervously.

"Tonight," I told her. "If all goes well, we'll handle our unfinished business tonight."

"You mean you'll... ?"

"Yeah," I clarified, "Take your cherry."

"Gawd, I hope so!" she swore. "If I hafta just watch again, I'll go nuts!"

"Go get the kids going," I directed. "Breakfast for them will be in orbit, I think."

"Okay." Keisha clearly didn't understand the implications -- and she knew it -- but she also knew that her job was simple and familiar -- get the kids up and ready to go out. She threw on her nightgown -- we'd all gone to bed nude -- and headed off to handle it. I wondered vaguely why she bothered, but didn't bother calling her back. I threw on some undershorts and headed for the kitchen, stopping at the bathroom on the way. Tara was in the shower and looked surprised when I wandered in; well, she would get used to THAT, too.

Beth was making sure I had a cup in my hand when Oliver came through the door, trailed by Britney and Vera. "I see you survived the night."

Oliver chuckled. "I amazed myself."

"Me, too!" It was a chorus. Britney looked at Vera and they both broke into giggles as Vera headed to the cupboard to get Oliver a cup.

Oliver settled into a chair and dragged Britney onto his lap. "How did the outing go?"

Judith, looking haggard, answered the question herself as she came through the door, "Apparently, I'm my mother's daughter. I even did anal -- and enjoyed it."

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" Oliver queried.

"So everyone keeps telling me," Judith muttered, hanging her head. "Everyone at our little party seemed to think so. But I haven't actually seen much of that version of Momma..."

"Don't feel bad, Dear," Ollie replied. "I got my formal introduction to that version of your mother only last night." Vera turned around and eyed Oliver anxiously from behind, so she didn't see the feral look on his face -- but she did hear him say, "I think I'm going to have a bit more fun with this version than I had with the one who raised you."

Vera looked relieved; Judith, thunderstruck! "Um, yeah..." she muttered, looking around. "Should I be nude?"

I shrugged. "No one here owns you."

"The way things are going, maybe I SHOULD apply..." she mumbled.

I cut it off. "We may be pressed for time. How many bathrooms do you have, Oliver?"

"Two," he supplied. "One in the master suite and the one you have no doubt been using." He frowned, divining my point. "Given the unholy number of females we have on site..."

"Exactly," I nodded. "Transport by nine a.m. doesn't appear to be feasible. I'm going to jump the line and get some of them quartered in orbit, then pop out to the site. Can you get everyone corralled and ready here?"

"I should think so," Oliver agreed.

"Very good. Judith and Maureen should probably have priority, since they are unassigned. I'll settle Keisha and Tara and the kids aboard the Valhalla and then return for them. We'll do everything by transporter, I should think, to avoid travel delays."

Oliver eyed Judith. "Alert your sister." Judith nodded and headed out.

"She did fine," I noted, "but she isn't happy about it."

"That will take time," Oliver murmured. "Vera still has her issues, although she's given up method acting." Changing subjects, he added, "Use the master bath."

I nodded. Beth bustled past me, muttering, "I'll show you where everything is." I followed, wondering if she really knew. Apparently, she did, because I got everything I needed. I kissed her a couple of times and played with her titties while she washed my hair, but I didn't let her slow me down significantly -- besides, she DID wash my back ... When I was out and dressed, I checked on Keisha and the kids. Tara was helping get her brood together; from what I could tell, they were about ready. I stepped outside and collected the transport pad the AI had delivered by drone and brought it inside and set it up in the living room. Going back upstairs, I collected the five of them. "Okay, uniform of the day is nude, as in naked. Keisha, get that thing off and pop it into a suitcase if you really don't think it has outlived its usefulness."

Keisha took off the threadbare garment, eyed it, eyed Abe -- who grinned at her -- and dropped it on the floor. "Okay."

"Let's go, then." I led them downstairs. The transport pad began to glow. "Tara and Elise first, then Abe, then Keisha and Shawna. I'm right behind you." I threw a jaunty wave at the crowd gathered to watch and pointed, "Go!"

Tara stepped forward, Elise on her hip -- and disappeared. Abe stopped, nervous, but Keisha chivvied him forward, "Go on!" He disappeared, and I watched Keisha take a breath before making her own move, but she did it -- and she and Shawna disappeared, too. I counted a second or two and followed...

... And stepped out into Transport Room Fifty-Two. "That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" I asked the milling group.

"Wow! You're a heifer!" the transport crewman exclaimed, eyeing Keisha.

Keisha looked mildly disgusted. "Is that good or bad?"

The crewman sucked his teeth. "Depends, I guess." He threw a look at me.

I shrugged. "My daddy always said, 'Heat in the winter, shade in the summer, and a soft place to lie down year 'round'!"

The crewman cracked up. "That'd be good, then. I may have to put a few pounds on one of mine!" Keisha rolled her eyes. I knew she probably wasn't thrilled, but, hey...

"I got tired of swimsuit models," I related. "Besides, she's got 'Mama' written all over her!"

"Yeah, that's important." The crewman got serious, which surprised both of my women, I think. "Kids, too. Very cool!"

"Thanks. Okay, we're out of here!" I announced, "Next stop, breakfast!" I had the AI re-route the exit corridor to the corridor between Holding Areas 52C and 52D and led my little family to Passenger Mess 73. The mess was a self-serve replicator system; detecting children, the AI shifted the menus to pictures. "What meal?"

"Breakfast," I declared.

"Please select food items." Pictures of various types of eggs, breakfast meats, breads, pancakes and waffles, and so on appeared on three screens, one of which dropped to eye level for Abe.

"Watch me," I said, "and don't get into the fun of it to the point that you order more than you can eat." I poked the picture of scrambled eggs and a pop up asked how many -- by displaying various numbers of eggs. I chose two, then another pop-up asked about cheese; I passed. Moving on, I ordered four slices of bacon and dry raisin toast. "Got it?" I asked the women -- and Abe. I got nods. "Approached correctly it can deliver bottles of formula, baby foods -- you name it.

"Delivery in thirty seconds at Port Four," the AI declaimed over the speaker.

"Don't get fancy -- we're in a hurry," I told them. "Quick and simple. I want you in quarters before I leave. In fact..." I turned my attention to the AI, "deliver all orders for this group and this meal to my quarters."

"Delivery to Officer Quarters Cluster Seven Alpha Forty-Three confirmed," the service AI confirmed. "Next order? Please select food items." I helped Abe, who got a big kick out of it, while Tara and Keisha selected food for themselves and the girls.

"Okay, ready? We're out of here!" I whipped out my comm link and got a map of the route to my quarters. I'd been moved -- probably because of my acquired concubines. I'd been in Officer Quarters Cluster Seven (Deck Seven) Uniform (for Unaccompanied) Two-Forty-One. Alpha meant 'accompanied' -- larger suites for officers with concubines in attendance. We were ONLY using Deck Seven of the Valhalla on this pickup -- and it was plenty for our purposes; based upon how things went, the other decks might get reconfigured to accommodate changes we discovered were needed to support the extraction process. The recommended route was lengthy enough that an internal transport pad was recommended to get us outboard to officer country. This was a dedicated point-to-point pad set that only cycled between a few selectable locations. The Valhalla was BIG -- meant to accommodate a quarter of a million passengers and several thousand crew; you could spend forever walking the decks. I didn't HAVE forever, so we used the pad; everyone was a good bit less leery of them the second time.

My quarters were modifiable, but not self-contained, like a pod; the Valhalla wasn't a cargo ship delivering what amounted to travel trailers and mobile homes, it was a passenger liner -- passengers would receive their quarters on arrival. As such, I had a stateroom -- or a small apartment -- the ship's AI modified spaces based upon concubine and child counts and age and sex distributions -- and took requests. Crew quarters differed; there was a one concubine limit, so standard layouts were easily organized; besides, crew quarters tended to be intermixed with the engineering spaces in a cylinder through the center of the ship -- which resembled a big-ass Borg cube more than anything else. I wasn't crew -- I was supercargo, a guest of the Captain, more or less, being the rep from the destination world -- so we were out on the fringes where there was a view ... I got everyone inside and briefed the women quickly, while we extracted the queued up meals from the replicator:

"Okay, it's like this -- the AI won't open the door for you without my say-so. This is for your own protection, since you can get lost around here pretty damned quick. If something comes up, ask the AI to call me -- I know this is a pain in the ass, so I'll respond as soon as I can. Get comfortable -- even I don't know the layout in here. Remember, Beth and Frieda are coming -- they'll be here tonight." I turned my attention to the AI, "Set up a clock for Central Daylight Time -- we will sync with ship's time after the extraction is complete. Query me on this in 48 hours, Earth time." A clock display appeared on the wall -- a projection, rather than a device. Returning my attention to the women, I said, "Phase One of this crap should be over by five or so. I might still be knee deep in alligators, but I'll be aboard." I shifted back to the AI, "Level Two authorizations are granted for my concubines. Requests for meals, entertainment, and other support are to be granted within those limits until further notice."

"Acknowledged."

"Minor floor plan rearrangement to support headcount is also authorized."

"Acknowledged."

"That means that if things just don't look right for handling the kids or sleeping arrangements, the AI can change the layout -- within limits. I don't know what those limits are and don't have time to find out. Recommend that you set up a room that will hold ALL of us, but also set up a ready room where some of you can get away from the crowd. Hook the kids up as seems sensible." I took a swig of coffee. "I've got to go. Ask the AI for things -- just look up and ask the question and it will respond." I gave them both quick kisses and grabbed two slices of bacon and got the Hell out of there!

After a mad dash back to Transport Room 52, I was again at Oliver's. On the way, I had the sense to ask where he was quartered, and after a bit of wheedling and discussion, got authorization to move him into the cluster next to mine. That should simplify things, even though it made me responsible for Oliver and his brood. Well, technically, I was going to be responsible for eighteen thousand people by evening, so...

I realized that I hadn't even asked after the Brinkman contingent -- which was already aboard ... I shook my head; I was going to be multitasking for days, no doubt... "How are we doing?" I asked Oliver.

"Everyone is ready, I believe," he replied. He picked up his laptop. He was dressed, as were Judith and Maureen; no one else was. That wouldn't fly during the early going ... I examined my plans and prejudices...

Maureen and Judith needed to be on the ground and allowed to mingle with the parents and staff and get a first look at everyone with eventual positions in mind. I wanted Beth and Frieda with me as examples (hopefully) of perfect obedience. Frankly, Oliver, Vera and Britney were superfluous -- but the clock was ticking and I had no time to deal with them properly. "Everybody dress!" I erupted. "Standard is as last night -- I want you to be able to be nude rapidly, but we need to keep a low profile, initially."

"Go! Go! Hurry!" Oliver chivvied his women off and mine made a dash for the stairs.

"I'm an idiot," I confessed. "I should have thought of this, but everything has been hurry up and get sidetracked..."

Oliver nodded. "As much as I would like to assist, I just don't know what is going on well enough to be of any REAL assistance."

I thought about it. "Well, there ARE a couple of things..." I fished the keys to the rental car out of my pocket. "I had THAT delivered," I pointed to the transport pad, "but pickup tends to be a more difficult issue -- and it would be convenient if we had the rental car at the school. I can save time if I transport out with your daughters and Frieda and you and Vera and Britney bring the transport pad and the rental car to the school. Can do?"

"Certainly."

"There is a standard power button on the side, there," I pointed it out. "It's not dangerous or anything once deactivated."

"Fine." Oliver nodded.

Frieda came thundering down the stairs, Beth following more slowly while she tied off a wraparound skirt. I looked to Oliver. "Close the place up or walk out and leave the doors open -- it's up to you at this point. If you have questions, this is my cell..." I rattled off the number. No, my comm link ISN'T a cell phone -- but it can replicate one. "Let's go, girls. Keep walking when you pop out so the next person doesn't step on you -- but don't go far; we'll be turning right around once I coordinate with the transport crew." I waved at the pad, and characteristically, Frieda took the first position on the way out, followed by Maureen, Judith, and then Beth. I waved at Oliver and his women, then stepped through myself.