Chapter 4

"Fred," Lucinda acknowledged. "Marcie." She'd known the Williamses for years. Her parents and theirs had helped found the Tri-County Rabbit Breeders' Society some forty years ago. Fred and Marcie were a touch older than her, and had three kids in their early teens. The eldest, Chuck, was fourteen and going out with his own household — frantically calling his girlfriend to prepare for pickup. She was at home, looking after her parents' bunnies. The parents and little sister were here and as her father had a CAP score of 6.8 they too would be heading out to spread the number of bunnies in space.

Over in the corner, one of the bunny breeders was busy breeding with a prospective concubine, as his naked wife held the hand of their fascinated six-year-old daughter. In the middle of the rabbit cages, another sponsor, flanked by the naked forms of his former wife (and now concubine) and a second young lady, were busy loading cages onto one of the exhibition hall's dollies. All around the room, nudity among those with a CAP score of less than 6.5 had suddenly become the outfit of the day. Lucinda felt overdressed, and fixed her eyes on those of Fred.

"Mom, can we strip too?" Lacey demanded.

She tore her eyes away long enough to advise her daughter, "No, at least ... not yet."

Fred began, "We, that is to say Marcie and I, had settled on a prepack already. The other lady in our prepack — I have a 6.8 — isn't here, so we have a slot open, and we'd like to offer it to you."

"You still have that slot open," a voice advised them. All three adults whipped their heads around to look at the tall Marine, wearing full body armour. "This one's a 'special', so you can add her and still have your prepack. We can pick your potential concubine up. You have any contact information on her?"

Fred gulped. "She's our babysitter, she has our kids over at her place. She has four kids of her own." He grabbed Marcie. "This would be great!"

"Do you want a test drive?" Lucinda asked, nervously.

Fred actually thought about it for a fraction of a second. "No, we've known each other for years, I think that sex shouldn't be a problem. As long as you haven't got a problem with me having sex with both you and your daughters, assuming they don't score higher than 6.4 on their fourteenth birthdays."

She smiled reassuringly at them. "I have more of a problem with my daughters becoming Swarm snacks. It will be a while before Lacey turns 14, which gives me time to get used to the idea of any of them being sexual."

It had been a late day for Tribune William Whitefeather, as he reviewed the requests from a dozen desperate planetary governors for people with special skills, some needed more urgently than others. Some were more of a priority than others. Anything from Demeter, for example, got pushed to the top of the pile.

The AI interrupted his analysis of a request for a musician skilled in acoustic guitar, for which he was quite grateful. He was failing to see how such a skill could not be acquired through a combination of sleep training and good old-fashioned practise, aside from the fact he'd found a number of musicians already members of the ranks of the Confederacy. "You have a request for contact from Sub-Decurion Chan," the emotionless voice informed him.

"Put him through," ordered William, turning to the replicator for a cup of tea.

"Sir, we have a situation with regards to the medical extraction."

Situations were never good, reflected Whitefeather, wincing. They had an unfortunate tendency to evolve rather rapidly into full-blown crises. "What is the nature of the situation?"

"About two weeks ago, we had an extraction in Atlanta go bad, a couple of Happy Meals at McDonald's objected to not being extracted, and decided to argue their point with firearms. We lost some volunteers and potential concubines."

He remembered the incident. The officer in charge was a newbie on his first mission. As the engineering officer for the Zephyr described him, "The guy was so dumb he didn't know whether his arsehole was punched or bored." Instead of doing an advance surreptitious survey for weapons followed by sending in a mixed team to neutralize any potential threat before announcing the start of the extraction, he'd ignored the advice of his NCO and just leaped in cold. Fortunately, he was one of the first casualties and wouldn't make that mistake again. Unfortunately, they'd have to replace the lieutenant. Whitefeather sincerely hoped they'd make a better selection next time.