Chapter 3: Killing by the Book

On the ship it was simple to find their grid square, just as in the marquee there were easily visible numbers and coloured flags on the walls. They found red ten and sat on the floor. Mark told Shahana, Julie and Nurbaiti to put their clothes back on. "Safiya you will stay naked as punishment because you were too slow to strip and I had to remind you. You have to learn to obey." For a moment he thought Safiya would protest, but she thought better of it. Hopefully she would learn quickly.

Hala asked, "Has Mummy been naughty?"

"Yes Hala," Mark responded, "Mummy didn't do what she was told."

"Will you make me take my clothes off if I don't do what I am told?" she asked, worried.

He smiled, "No Hala, you aren't old enough for that. Even so, you still have to be good -- now you have got three extra mummies to tell you off."

"Oh, that means I have to be even gooder." That brought a round of needed laughter. Hala thought for a moment, "Are you my new daddy?"

"I am your extra daddy. You are a lucky girl Hala, you now have one extra daddy as well as three extra mummies." Mark didn't want the children to feel that he was trying to replace their absent fathers but was an additional parent; 'as well as' not 'instead of'.

It did not take long for the rest of the people to be transported up and soon one of the ship's officers was delivering a longer version of the Lieutenant's speech about how few rights concubines had and how sponsors were responsible for the behaviour of their concubines. There was some extra stuff about the treatment of children, and how they were off limits for sex until they turned fourteen except for consensual oral sex for thirteen year olds. Breaking those rules could get even sponsors executed. Most of this they already knew, though the refresher was useful.

At the end of the officer's speech he gave a list of people who were going into the medical pods first, which included Shahana. As she got up to go Mark noticed that she was one of the few concubines with clothes on. "Shahana, if anybody asks why you are dressed tell them it was because I ordered it. Refer any problems to me." She nodded and followed the others towards the Medical Bay.

The pods were organised into rings, so the groups from the red tables were led to the red ring and dropped off at their pods. Safiya happened to be in the lead when they reached the door to red ten, but it would not open for her, it would only open when Mark asked it to do so. The inside of the pod was a dull grey, "What a horrible colour. We will have to ... erm ... We should change it if Mark wants to," said Safiya.

"Well caught Safiya," Mark congratulated her. "Yes, we will change it. I think it is horrible too."

A new voice spoke, "The colour and arrangement of the pod can be changed on the instructions of the sponsor."

"Are you the pod AI?" asked Julie. There was no response.

Mark repeated the question. "Yes," came the answer.

"Why didn't you answer me?" Julie asked. After a short silence she answered her own question, "Oh, I suppose I am just a concubine and not the sponsor."

Mark soon established that Julie was right and that the AI would only respond to him, so he told it to answer questions from his concubines. "What about the pod door?" he asked.

"The door will only open for the sponsor, authorised members of the ship's crew and anyone allowed by the sponsor."

"OK, then allow all my concubines and the children to enter the pod at any time. Do not let them out unless specifically allowed by me or to go to planned meetings." He was thinking of Shahana, who was still in medical, and the need to keep a low profile initially until everyone was more settled in. The AI confirmed his orders and he went on, "What accommodation do we have?"

"On this floor there are four small bedrooms, a bathroom, an office, a lounge, a kitchen-diner and a large en-suite bedroom. The upper floor has four small bedrooms, a bathroom and a large unassigned area. These arrangements can be reconfigured if required."

They were standing in a corridor with a larger room at the far end. A quick look showed that the small bedrooms were here. "For the moment that sounds like you women are in the small bedrooms here and the children are upstairs." said Mark. "Nurbaiti, put Shahana's case in one of the small bedrooms and the three of you pick a bedroom each. Kids, come with me to explore." He led the children into what turned out to be the lounge. Beyond was the kitchen area and two doors which turned out to be the large bedroom and the office. Mark went into the large bedroom, still in that awful grey, while the three women came into the lounge and headed into the kitchen to explore the facilities.

"Eeee!" Hala screamed, which got all the adults rushing into the lounge just in time to see Hala disappearing through a hole in the ceiling. Safiya ran towards that corner and started rising herself as soon as she stepped onto a purple circle on the floor below the hole.

"AI, what is that?" Mark asked.

"That is the gravity lift between the levels. Step onto the purple circle to move up. Step into the hole to move down."

Julie called up through the hole, "Safiya, are you and Hala OK?"

"Yes, we are fine. Hala was just surprised by that thing. Will it let us down again?"

"The AI said to just step into the hole." Hala was still a bit scared so she screwed her eyes up tight while Safiya carried her down. Tareq and Fatima spent the next few minutes going up and down with great glee, and Hala was soon able to use it on her own. Upstairs the children picked their own rooms then everyone returned to the lounge.

As they sat around waiting for Shahana, Mark got the three concubines to put on the standard grey concubine smocks. "Outside the pod you can wear clothes, unless I tell you otherwise. Inside the pod I want you to wear these smocks; that will help you remember that you are now concubines." Julie was so tall that her pussy was on display whenever she stood up, she seemed to enjoy flashing Mark. Safiya and Nurbaiti were shorter so they gave him less to look at and were much less willing to give him a free show.

As part of their pre-extraction planning they had brought some halal meat so Safiya and Nurbaiti got busy in the kitchen organising it with the AI and the replicator so they could be sure of halal meat whenever they wanted.

"Decurion, I have a voice connection request from Nurse Kalamulah in medical."

Mark recognised his new Civil Service rank and answered, "Put the call through, AI."

A new voice came over the intercom, "Decurion, I have your concubine Shahana here. She says that you have allowed her to wear clothes. Is that so?"

"Yes, that is correct. I told her to stay dressed. Let her dress before she leaves you to return to this pod."

"That is unusual, we normally expect concubines to be naked or in smocks."

"Nevertheless I want my concubines clothed for the moment."

"Very well sir."

After Mark had finished talking to the MedTech the AI spoke again, "Decurion, may I ask why you are going against normal policy and allowing your concubines to wear more than just the standard smock?"

"There are two reasons, firstly all of my concubines are Moslem and I promised them that unless I had reasons otherwise they could practice their religion. Remaining decently dressed in public is part of Islam and I, mostly, allow them that. Secondly I want to use public nudity as a punishment, as I did after we arrived on board ship; if all my concubines were naked anyway that would not be an option for me."

"Does that explain why you forbade your concubines to use the kitchen replicator for certain foods?"

"Yes, no pork and no alcohol unless I allow."

Mark took the opportunity to get the AI to replicate a Civil Service Decurion's uniform for him, jilbabs for Safiya and Nurbaiti and salwar kameez for Shahana and Julie, all in concubine grey for the four women to wear outside the pod. In grey they would look more like concubines which should reduce confusion. He knew he was still bending the conventions but he could try to minimise the impact.

When Shahana arrived back from medical Tareq just had to show her the lift straight away. Once he was satisfied that his mother fully understood how it worked Mark had her change into a smock like the others. Being shorter than Julie her pussy was playing peek-a-boo with the hem. She was embarrassed, especially in front of Tareq and Fatima, but she determined to ignore it. She knew she had no choice about it anyway. She looked around for something to distract attention from herself, "This grey colour is awful," she said, looking at the walls.

Everyone laughed. "Yes, we had noticed," Mark observed. "Safiya, since you mentioned it first I want you to talk to everyone about a new colour scheme. You know my taste from seeing my flat, all pale and pastel. You can have something brighter for your own rooms if you want. When you are all agreed I can let the AI do the changes."

"Can we pick colours for our own rooms?" Fatima asked.

"I want green!" interrupted Hala only to be shushed by a stern look from Safiya.

"Yes you all can, just let Safiya know what colours you want. AI, can you assist her with plans and such?" The AI confirmed Mark's instruction.

"AI, what is planned for us tomorrow?"

"There will be a briefing for all sponsors and concubines tomorrow at 10:00 ship's time. Concubines will be released after about one hour while sponsors will be kept for further meetings until lunch at 13:00 ship's time. The afternoon will be taken up with more initial medical treatments; Tareq Dutt is assigned a slot at 14:45 ship's time."

Later, once all the children were upstairs in bed, Mark gathered his harem together. "We are here to make babies so I will be getting you all pregnant. I don't want all four of you starting pregnancies at the same time -- morning sickness for four is too much to cope with. So I want to split you two and two; two of you get pregnant in the next few weeks and two in about six months time. I want one of each pair to be an experienced mother so can you both," he indicated Shahana and Safiya, "get together and decide who goes first. I want Julie to be in the first pair so you are going to have to wait for a few months Nurbaiti."

"Why me first?" Julie asked.

"Because I want you to retest and become a sponsor, so I may only have one chance at giving you a baby. You scored 6.4 and I think you can improve that to 6.5 or better. I want you to talk to the AI and arrange a curriculum of study to fill in the weak spots in your CAP score. I will also let you have some books from when I upped my own CAP score to 7.0. You have to wait at least a year from your previous test so you have a few months to work on things." Julie smiled and nodded.

Mark continued, "Safiya you sleep upstairs tonight in case any of the children need something; the AI will alert you if needed. Shahana, you will sleep with me tonight. AI can you wake me at 07:30 in the morning if I am not already up."

"Affirmative."

Two weeks after leaving Earth orbit things were running smoothly in Mark's pod. Shahana was an excellent boss concubine and had things well organised -- sex, cooking and child minding. A few times a week they ate in the ship's canteen to let the children interact with other children and just to see some fresh faces. There was a small prayer room upstairs, facing back towards the rear of the ship. Nurbaiti and Safiya were the most frequent users, Julie the least. Everyone had got over the effects of their physical enhancements and were not aching or bumping into things any more. Mark had increased his height to two metres to match the Marines he was going to have to persuade to help him. He had wound his effective age back to twenty five, but left his face looking about forty with a few lines and some touches of grey hair in his beard and at his temples. He wanted to appear senior, a bit of psychology that might help him. The medical enhancements had increased his sexual capacity so he was now entertaining two of his harem most nights, with some nooners as well. Both Safiya and Julie were pregnant.

He had increased Shahana's height to just over six feet and generally tightened up her figure; pulling in her tummy and lifting her tits slightly. Her vagina had been tightened as well, as had Safiya's. Her hips were perfect as they were so he had left them alone. He had left her face unchanged as her children still needed to recognise her as their mother, despite the changes. As with all his concubines the nanites had boosted her sexual response to help her in bonding with her sponsor.

Nurbaiti and Safiya were both slightly shorter than Shahana at just under six feet. Nurbaiti now had more of a waist to improve her figure though he had decided to keep her small tits. Her sexual problem had been fixed and she was enthusiastically making up for lost time; Mark got the definite impression that it wasn't just the nanites. She was still very adept with her arsehole and mouth. Her oral skills had been helped, like the other three, by suppressing her gag reflex.

Safiya was still the least good fuck of the four, though the nanites had improved her from what she had been. Where she shone was with the children, she had immediately adopted Shahana's two for her own and was looking forward to her and Julie's new arrivals. Fatima and Tareq were delighted with their extra mother and Hala soon got used to sharing once she realised that she had gained two new playmates out of the deal.

Once she had lost her virginity Julie was almost as enthusiastic about sex as Nurbaiti. Mark was not into either pain or blood so he had allowed time for the nanites to weaken Julie's hymen; by the time he popped her cherry she was very, very impatient. He had altered Julie the least of his concubines, merely advancing her to an apparent age of nineteen and widening her hips slightly for her first child; he wanted to leave her free to make her own modifications after she became a sponsor. The extra height of the other concubines had the pleasant side effect of helping Julie get out of her habit of stooping since she was now shorter than both Mark and Shahana.

So far there did not seem to be much for a Civil Service Officer to do on board ship, one concubine had been executed for resisting his sponsor, which had not involved Mark at all, and two concubines had been swapped between sponsors which just involved minimal time telling them what to say to the AI.

There was very little information about what he could expect once he got to the colony but to Mark's mind that was an advantage; there would be few rules to follow so he could make his own rules as he went along. He had had a brief interview with a fellow Decurion while still in Earth orbit but all she could tell him was basically that he was on his own and would have to wing it; "we are an afterthought," as she put it. One of her helpful ideas was that he might have to use his own concubines to help him if he couldn't get any other resources, which was why he had increased their height.