Chapter 28

Next, we flew over the new area southeast of the base. Janine was already busy removing the existing sand and poor soil with soil transporters and lowering or leveling the mountainous and hilly terrain. More ships were installing sections of huge diameter pipe below even the depth that the soil movers were digging. The general direction of the main pipe was towards the Pecos River, with smaller pipes going off every so often at right angles, obviously for irrigation.

Watching other ships bringing the agricultural topsoil in made me wonder how many cities we were making happy by giving them the opportunity to expand. I was betting that by the time we were done in Russia, and especially if we did the same thing in China, every city in the world that could possibly want to expand would be able to. I commed Janine and asked her to check the soil quality in the bigger cities in Russia. If we were going to raze large sections and rebuild them, we might as well switch the topsoil if it was any good.

I also asked her to slow down enough here to let us build several large underground reservoirs to store water. With this much agriculture, a drought would be disastrous, and Jonas’ idea of putting our storage underground was excellent. I commed Natalia and told her what I thought we should do, suggesting a series of underground reservoirs a mile in diameter and a hundred feet deep, the more the merrier. I let her know that I had suggested to Janine that she slow down long enough to let us build them.

We got back to the main base just in time to watch thousands of kids streaming out of the school, looking like so many ants searching for food. From the air, that was just what they looked like. It didn’t look much different from the ground when we landed except that the ants looked bigger. They were, invariably, headed somewhere to get food. Different groups headed for different dining halls, but a large number of them headed for the fast food kiosks spread across the base.

The nutritional staff had approved everything we served, so there was no worry about where they ate. Everything we served was good for them. The nutritionists were obviously doing a good job. Even after a short time, I could see the difference in everyone. Before, many had been gaunt and drawn, obviously undernourished. Within a few short days, it was possible to see how their skin looked better, the dull look in their eyes was replaced with an energetic, almost happy look, and their stomachs were filling out.

I ate a very early dinner and headed for bed at 4:00. I would need to be up again in four short hours.

SATURDAY MAY 30

Technically, it was still Friday when Jenna woke me. She joined me for a shower and a quickie before I had to leave. The five poor boys that the girls were working with were still a bit intimidated when I came out of the bedroom. They were sitting in the main room talking with most of my harem. I kissed all of the women and shook hands with the nervous boys, telling them to make sure every one of the women was properly fucked before they went to sleep tonight.

It would be interesting to see how long it took before the boys weren’t afraid of me anymore. I knew they helped keep my harem happy. I reminded the women that I had reserved the same suites in the same hotel for tomorrow, and reminded Renee that I expected to see her in my suite before the wedding to make sure she was properly attired. Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared at my comment. I felt sorry for the first boy that had to satisfy her tonight. I wasn’t sure he’d survive.

Stopping by the hospital on the way to the Inquisitive I picked up Svetlana. The medi-doc Greg assigned to keep an eye on her helped steer her. She was in one of the comfy reclining grav-chairs Kateryna had used when she returned to work so soon after being shot. Twenty minutes later, we landed near the center of Bratsk, the huge throng moving slightly to make more room for us to land. Svetlana had tears in her eyes when several people in the crowd recognized her and started calling out her name. A near riot erupted when everyone realized that one of Russia’s newest heroes was there. Everyone wanted to shake her hand and thank her personally.

Only the shields the androids quickly erected kept us from being trampled. Everyone finally calmed down when I used the androids to amplify my voice loud enough to be heard, telling everyone that Svetlana was still healing from a very serious wound and while she appreciated the attention, she wasn’t strong enough to survive shaking everyone’s hand. They finally backed away, but the applause and cheering continued for several more minutes until she finally blew them a kiss. She was shocked that there were several young men bold enough to shout to her, asking her to marry them. “I thought you were just trying to make me feel better when you told me they’d do that,” she admitted, blushing.

We finally got enough order restored to deal with the prisoners. When I looked them over, they looked like hell. They were cut, bruised, bleeding, battered, and burned. Several didn’t look like they’d last long enough to be formally executed. They did, barely. There were more than enough volunteers to do the honors, although one gave up his chance to let Svetlana take the first shot. She also took the next several shots, all at the same prisoner. Each of her shots hit right where she aimed it: the crotch, both knees, both thighs, both arms, and the stomach. The final shot was directly between the eyes, quite remarkable since he only managed a brief glance up at her after the gut shot as he wondered when and where the next shot would hit. It was also remarkable considering she was still partially reclined.

While we headed back to the Inquisitive, people were still congratulating her, albeit much more gently. Four of the bolder guys slipped her hastily written notes, and one even kissed her hand after giving her the note.

I managed to get hold of the Chinese agricultural minister when we were leaving Bratsk and he agreed to meet with me. The Inquisitive dropped me off and took Svetlana back to the base while I met with the minister. I explained what I wanted to do, explaining that I could provide new agriculture for their country and re-forest some of the areas currently being used for agriculture. It would be a win-win situation for them. I could grow more food than they could on the same amount of land, which would help alleviate the perpetual shortage of food in their country.

I identified a valley of about 200,000 square miles I wanted to use. It was in an area that was practically uninhabited, and in one of the poorest provinces in China. Once the land was producing, I would, at my own expense, re-forest an equal amount of land that I identified in southern China, managing the forest to provide lumber for China, and to gain their country international status for exceeding the UN standards for reforestation.

By the time I finished my presentation, I felt that it had been a waste of my time. While never actually rude, I had gotten the distinct impression that the minister was not happy with me. I could make a pretty good guess as to why and once I left, asked Kyung-Soon to check him out at her earliest convenience. My guess was that one of the estates we captured belonged to a friend or close relative, or had supplied him with women to play with. I told Kyung-Soon my suspicions, and asked her to see what they could dig up on the agricultural minister, or anyone else in the Chinese government for that matter. As tightly as they controlled everything, I suddenly realized that someone in the government had to have known about the baby factory and baby farms, as well as what was happening to all of the unwanted girl babies.

Then, the sudden insight hit me. China and some of the SE Asian countries didn’t allow birth control rings. If they were as concerned as they pretended to be about slowing the population growth in their countries, the rings would be the ideal solution. That way, there would be no unplanned pregnancies, and the parents could choose the sex of their baby before conception. The extra money their government got in taxes on families with more than one child wasn’t significant enough to be the reason they kept the law. They kept it, knowing that most families would want a boy to carry on the family name, and without the ability to control the sex of the child, half of them would have an unwanted girl that many would give up “for adoption.”

I shuddered as a chill coursed through my body thinking that could possibly be the reason and hoping like hell that I was wrong. Somehow, I knew I wasn’t. I knew I needed to talk to Sven and Johann later today to see if they agreed. I also needed to find out what, if anything, they wanted me to do about it, or if there was even anything I could do about it.

The Inquisitive returned for me just before my meeting finished and whisked me to the hotel in Paris where I caught a couple of hours of fitful sleep before I had to get ready for the wedding. I woke up alone, an unusual occurrence anymore. Three long weeks ago, it had been the norm unless Vonna stayed over. Dark thoughts about Chine and SE Asia were on my mind while I showered and got ready. I knew I had to get over this funk before the weddings. I didn’t want to be a party-pooper so I called all of my wives and asked them to meet me in my room. Renee’s flirty tone of voice disappeared immediately when she heard the way I sounded, and a minute later, all four of them were in my room.

They cuddled me while I told them my suspicions. Renee insisted that I com Sven and Johann immediately and tell them. Sven concurred with my assessment and was irate to think that entire governments or even just a lot of the leaders would be a part of such an atrocity.

Johann was, as usual, a bit more circumspect. He suggested that we make sure of our facts first. If it was just several or even many of the top leaders involved, it would be a simple case of arresting the leaders who were involved, just like we arrested everyone involved with the estates. If, however, it was the government itself that was promoting these policies for the reasons I suggested, I might have another Russia on my hands, except this time there would be literally billions of people involved, as well as the biggest military in the world. So much for cheering me up.

I commed Kyung-Soon again, asking her to begin detailed scanning of every residence, property, or building of any sort owned, rented, or just used by every government official in China, starting with the national leaders. I also wanted every government building, overt and covert, scanned thoroughly looking for anything that could be a hidden prison, hidden cells, or hidden dungeons where they could keep the girls. I wanted every computer in the government system checked for any references to buying or keeping the girls, as well as every personal computer owned or used by all family members and staff of every government official.

If they found anything even remotely suspicious, I authorized any sort of video and audio surveillance they wanted to use to check out their suspicions. We might even conduct a few covert raids ourselves if we found anything that looked like women being kept against their will. That would eliminate any guesswork.

I actually felt better now that we had a plan to deal with this sinister malignancy if it wasn’t just my imagination working overtime. I felt good enough to make sure Renee was appropriately attired, even though we’d have to wait quite some time for Vladimir and Vasily to get through marrying their wives. As we headed for the shuttle, the ladies regaled me with the story of how Renee selfishly wore the poor boys out last night. Renee just grinned about it, not embarrassed at all.

The weddings of the brothers Petrachkov actually went rather quickly. Both were over in less than 30 minutes. I guess when the JP is paid by the ceremony and not by the hour, it speeds things up.

Karin was absolutely radiant when she walked down the aisle on her father’s arm. Her sons stood with Sven, Marco, and Johann as my Groomsmen, and my dad was my best man. Her sister was her maid of honor. The wedding was short and sweet, and we were all grinning like fools the entire time. Several of the base reporters were there covering the wedding. I’d heard that it would be carried live on some of the web sites.

The next wedding was just weird with my now five wives standing as Matrons of Honor, along with Serena’s sister and Kyung-Soon for Serena and Stephanie and Robin for Gwen. My dad, Sven, Marco, and Johann continued to stand with me. Both Serena’s and Gwen’s parents told me afterwards they had been afraid they’d never have any grandchildren since their daughters didn’t show much interest in guys, just each other. In fact, when they’d originally been informed about the wedding, nothing had been mentioned about me.

They were tickled that not only did they end up marrying a guy, too, but a famous one to boot. Gwen being pregnant already was an added bonus. Serena’s parents were bugging me about when she’d have a baby, so I told them they would need to discuss it with her. It was her decision, but I was under the impression that they were planning on only one of them being pregnant at a time, or at least noticeably pregnant.

Dad and I switched places for the next ceremony as he and Mom added Vivian to their marriage. Her family was beside themselves when they found out that I had actually adopted Stan and Beverly as my parents. That made Vivian my stepmother, or something like that, which gave them all kinds of bragging rights now. When all was said and done, we headed for the island for our honeymoons. Vladimir and Vasily were off to Russia to honeymoon in their new homes. Not everything was finished, but the main dwelling was finished, as was the tarmac. The rest, including the landscaping, would be finished in another couple of days. Androids spent the last day furnishing the entire house, patiently moving furnishings from room to room under the watchful eyes of one or more of the women, and then moving the furnishings around in each room to find what the women felt was the best spot for each item.

Both houses had an identical layout. The ground floor housed a kitchen and dining room big enough to feed 300 people, as well as the formal dining area big enough for 300, and the formal living room. The second floor was the adult bedrooms, 30 in each house. Each bedroom had three doors: one to the outside hall, one to their private bathroom, and one to the community bedroom, a bedroom big enough to contain one bed that could hold many of them at once. Needless to say, the master bathroom was equally huge with a shower big enough to hold 20 adults comfortably.

The third floor was bedrooms for the children. The bedrooms were smaller than the ones for the adults but had walls that could be moved to allow one room big enough for two or three children. Each adult bedroom had a grav elevator, as well as the elevators scattered along the main hall outside all of the bedrooms. The fourth floor was a huge playroom, as well as a family room. The top floor was a covered pool with a big enough deck for a party of 300.

The first floor belowground was storage and the laundry facility. The second and third floors below ground were basically empty for now. As the kids got older and wanted their own space, the area could be partitioned into small apartments.

My original wives insisted that Gwen, Serena, and I spend the first two hours together. Our lovemaking was, again, slow and gentle. I was seeing a feminine side of Gwen that I’d rarely seen except for brief glimpses when I’d watched the two women make love to each other. They tried to sneak away to go back to work after we finished, but I told them I’d order the androids on base to lock them in the bedroom if I had to. Instead, they joined me as I joined my other wives and their orgy-in-progress, and we celebrated our new commitments to each other. Stan, Beverly, and Vivian joined us later, and my new stepmother and I got to know each other a lot more intimately.

We watched the sunrise as we shuttled back to the base, arriving just in time for lunch. I knew the look on Gwen and Serena’s faces while we ate. They were trying to figure out a way to go to work without upsetting me. Coverage of the wedding was playing again while we ate. One of the stations that we hadn’t allowed on base had talking heads discussing the weddings today, wondering aloud why I’d allowed two of the men working for me to simply take so many of the women as wives, and wondering aloud how many of the women I would eventually take as wives.

Then they began wondering aloud if all of the men at the base had as many wives. I had the station turned off because several of the other women in the dining room were starting to get upset at the talking heads for being such asses. I reminded them that the station was just trying to get back at us because we shut them out and wouldn’t let any of their reporters onto the base or into Russia. I laughed, thinking that they probably didn’t even find out about the wedding until they saw it on another station. They were the only one of the top ten broadcast stations that didn’t have any access to us. The way they were acting, I doubted that they ever would get access.

When we finished lunch, I announced that I intended to find Li and Michelle and spend the afternoon spoiling them rotten. “That way, if any of my wives feel the need to stop by work, they won’t have to feel bad about it,” I said, grinning and looking back and forth between Serena and Gwen, who were both blushing furiously. I kissed each of my wives before taking Li outside to see what kind of trouble we could get into.

WEDNESDAY JULY 17

7 weeks later

The Russian elections were now well underway. Every candidate for office had been asked, unbeknownst to them, under the influence of our inhaled truth gas, if they had ever assisted Derevenko. 3,643 of the original candidates had failed that test and were now facing criminal charges.

Five weeks of campaigning had gone off without a hitch so far, God help the poor citizens. The airwaves were swamped with campaign ads and debates, and they carefully watched every single one. The major difference in the broadcast ads was that I insisted they all be completely truthful; none of these half-truths that politicians were so good at. Anything derogatory about another candidate had to be proven to me before the commercial could air. Anything a candidate promised to do they would be held to, or they would be removed from office for breach of trust. Since I had inherited all the broadcasting stations, as well as all of the industries and land from Derevenko, it was simple to enforce.

The new Constitution had, indeed, been finished on that Monday. So were the medals. I awarded the first medal to Gennady, and then worked my way through the highest ranking FRA officer at each of the 64 battles that had been fought across their country, then to the 183 wounded veterans, awarding each of them their two medals. At the end of the presentation, Valentina did a presentation of her own.

They had formalized their new flag last Friday, and presented me the first copy, personally signed by every one of the delegates. They reverted to the Imperial Russian flag, the one the Free Russian Army had used except that the double-headed eagle was back in the canton and the Omega symbol was smaller and embedded in the blue stripe instead of the canton. Gennady got the second copy, and everyone I presented medals to received one. Gennady spent the next week traveling across the country, awarding medals to the rest of the FRA troops that had joined in the rebellion.

That Tuesday, after listening to the bullshit and babble in some of the Russian state houses as they debated whether they should ratify the constitution I gave them an ultimatum. They were to accept or reject the constitution in seven days, or I would disband all the state houses and appoint a Czar. The Czar and his descendants would rule Russia in whatever way they saw fit as long as I lived. If they rejected the constitution, we would go back to square one and appoint another Convention to re-write it.

Four days later, Russia had a unanimously approved new constitution, one that recognized the UN as the primary world government. The side trip to the estate by all of the delegates had an interesting and unexpected consequence, too. Breaking completely with tradition, the women included an article allowing marriage between any two consenting individuals over the age of fifteen (the current legal age there) except parent and child or opposite-sex siblings.

I finally chose the tract of land I wanted. It was in the Siberian wilderness. The area I finally ended up with was significantly larger than what I chose, though. It was about one quarter the size of the 48 contiguous states, and still held fewer than 100,000 people. I had explained to the inhabitants of the original area what I intended to do with the land, giving them the option to move at my expense, anywhere else in Russia, if they were uncomfortable with the situation. To a man, they stayed, excited at the prospect of the area becoming an agricultural and industrial powerhouse.

I originally chose the largest and least populated province of Sakha and added the areas east and south of the Lena River. When word got out about what I intended to do with the area, all the uluses (think counties) that straddled or even had a border touching the Lena river wanted to be included, too. I finally consented, except for the one that contained Yakutsk, the capital city of the original province. That one definitely needed to stay part of what remained of Sakha province.

Twenty-four of the thirty-three counties, or about 75% of the original area of the province ended up in my new province. I also ended up with parts of neighboring provinces that wanted to join. I accepted them on the condition that they were not a vital part of the province they were currently part of, and didn’t already have a major source of income. All of them would still technically be part of that province and taxes would be directed to that province’s government, my way of trying to keep feathers unruffled in the affected provinces.

I chose the area I did for three reasons. First, the population in the area was exceedingly low for the size of area. Second, while the area was economically self-sufficient, it was barely so and mainly provided a survival existence. The diamond mines were in the half of the province I left out. I didn’t want it to look like I was taking the best parts for myself. The gold and coal in the area I claimed had played out long ago. Third, the southern part of the province was covered in forest.

I wanted to expand the forested area using terraforming shields, planting new trees along the edges of the already-forested area, even into areas not covered by forest for hundreds of years. As in the rest of the country, we would begin thinning out the existing forest. That would provide wood for both Russia and the world, and would give the remaining trees more room to stretch out and grow. The citizens named the province Omega Province and seemed rather proud that I’d chosen their frozen, snow-covered, god-forsaken section of the country as my own. Heck, it even included a cluster of islands off the northern coast in the usually frozen Arctic Ocean. The biggest of the three big islands was bigger than the state of Massachusetts, and there were several other smaller islands in the group. I had no clue what to do with them, but they were there.

The elections in Omega Province were a little different from any of the other provinces. We had no existing state government, and no veterans to provide leadership. Instead, we promoted several officials from the county governments to act as an interim government, with the elections for all of those positions to be held at the same time as the national elections.

Terraforming domes were already in place in many areas, and parts of the tundra were now being permanently defrosted. The soil was poor, and we needed to bring in topsoil to replace what was there. There were several areas containing unique species of animals or plants that we preserved as is. I had a large lake deepened and enlarged, adding a string of smaller lakes I planned to use to raise fish. Eventually, water from the defrosting areas would be directed to the lakes, continuing on to the Lena River and then to the sea.

For now, I had our soil movers busy 24 hours a day dipping water from the larger lake and transferring it to the Caspian Sea in an effort to help refill the nearly non-existent sea, or Caspian mud puddle as the Russians nicknamed it. James was refitting five more soil movers, bringing our total to 20. I knew we’d need them since the area I planned to plant here was more than 20 times the size of the entire base. Fortunately, Janine had begun contracting with the many cities that wanted to expand but hadn’t been included when we exchanged the soil at the base, and she had access to lots of agricultural soil, as well as orchards, vineyards, cattle, and other livestock.

It was a good thing we had saved the original generators and shielding hardware we’d replaced on the pirate ships. They came in quite handy for terraforming shields here. I planned to convert nearly a third of my province to agriculture, which would more than double the total amount of land in Russia currently cultivated for agriculture and would more than quadruple the total agricultural output of the country.

I planned to have almost 40% of my province in commercial forest, increasing the currently forested area by 25% or more. I even had the soil movers bring in some sand from the new area near the estate where my biodome would be to create beaches at the enlarged lake for the people to use. I doubted if any of them had ever heard of a beach, let alone been to one.

I brought Janine over for a look-see and advice on how to proceed. Soil samples showed that the soil in the northern areas was very poor. She brought over the necessary equipment to begin the planting process in some of the more fertile southern areas. The first thing she planted was alfalfa, followed by wheat, corn, and the ever-popular potato. She bought two complete cattle ranches, and hurriedly installed fencing to keep them in a 100,000-acre pasture for now. She also bought out three dairies and set up a system similar to the one at the estate where the dairy was busy around the clock. The three separate milking barns were combined into one building, and there were plans to triple the size of the three dairy herds. The dairy, processing plant, and storage facility were built to be large enough to handle the projected volume of milk and other products that we’d need. Janine pointed out that we’d need many refrigerated storage facilities similar to the one she’d built at the base to handle all the crops we planned to grow.

Large expanses were planned for orchards of all types, and field crops would be going in shortly, already well into the normally short growing season. I had purposely included mountains in my province, asking the coffee growers at the estate to help set up and run some humungous coffee plantations in those mountains. I had them start hundreds of thousands of new plants of both varieties of coffee to be transplanted here next year after the upper slopes of the mountains had been terraced and were ready to plant. The lower slopes of the southern range were covered with millions of acres of timber.

Martial law was still in effect, albeit a more relaxed martial law. Curfews had been rescinded and travel anywhere inside of Russia was now allowed, provided the trip was no longer than two weeks and the parties traveling returned to their homes. People wishing to move would have to wait until after the elections, except in emergencies. Emergency requests had to be reviewed and approved by their provincial governor.

I left the current provincial lines in the rest of the country alone. The 445 delegates to the Constitutional Convention had done their appointed job. In the end, the decision was between a Swiss-type confederation, with a limited Federal government and autonomous states, or a Jeffersonian democracy with the majority of the power at the provincial and local level, and a severely limited central government. They had definitely listened to Johann’s warnings about strong central governments. In the end, they decided on the Swiss style government, with autonomous provinces.

They modeled their constitution after the American one, but were careful to prohibit any expansion of power or influence by the central government. It was limited to national defense, foreign trade, foreign relations, treaties, and the central military. Each autonomous state was required to keep their own militia as well, and the Federal militia could never exceed the combined strength of all of the Provincial militias, except in times of national emergency and when voted on and agreed upon by a 2/3 majority of the provinces.

Marco seemed to have the Presidential election sewn up even before the campaigning began. The new house in St. Petersburg for the President would be identical to the one I built for Marco in Bratsk, as would the one for the vice-president. There were only two other candidates even running against Marco, but the Vice Presidency was going to be a race with seven serious candidates.