Chapter 11

Harriet pulled her panties on with a sigh of relief. She didn't wear the bunny slippers; the ones that came out of the replicator didn't feel like the ones she'd left at home. She had to try on a few different pair before she found some comfy ones. They would be much better than walking on the hard decks barefoot. The standard shift was so skimpy, barely covering her rear, that she felt undressed even with it on. The panties and slippers made a big difference. Being a concubine was so much more embarrassing than she'd imagined.

Last night, she'd had to be naked in front of all those people, then this morning her brother had nearly caught her and Kitty in a sixty-nine. They'd fallen asleep like that, tangled together on the bed. Kitty had tried to jump her brother's bones right there in the doorway when he came to wake them up, but he wouldn't let her. She'd gone downstairs right after he left. The AI wouldn't let Harriet follow either; she was still trapped upstairs. She'd been able to argue the AI into cleaning their school uniforms, but when she'd finished with her shower, the AI wouldn't give them back. Chrissy's little brother, Paul, had caught her coming out of the shower in just a towel, and had ogled her all the way down the hall.

He'd done the same to Kitty, when she went downstairs the second time, and had hung out in the hallway waiting until she came back. Kitty had gone down naked, and had come back smelling like sex with drops of what must have been sperm running down the insides of her thighs. Kitty hadn't seemed to mind Paul looking at all, and to Harriet's surprise, she didn't mind herself when she came out of her bedroom and he looked to see if she was wearing panties. He was just a kid, not quite thirteen yet, but at least he was nice about it. He didn't say anything crude, or try and touch them. He had a stiff little woodie about four or five inches long showing through his jeans, but the way he looked at them was more curiosity than anything.

She nodded to him and leaned against the wall. She better get used to it, she'd heard that concubines spent a lot of time naked, and the kid was going to get an eyeful anyway. The shift covered a lot more than a bikini, it just felt more revealing.

The AI had told her earlier that they weren't allowed downstairs until sent for. It wouldn't let Paul go down, and when eleven-year-old Wanda tried a bit later, the grav-lift didn't work for her either. When Gina came out of her room, she gave Wanda a hug, messed up her brother's hair and dropped down through the hole in the floor.

Harriet tried to follow, but it was no good, the AI still wouldn't let her go down. Finally, Gina came back up the grav-lift. She had a stinger clenched in one hand, and looked worried. "They want all of you downstairs. It's time to go to breakfast," she said.

While the others hurried down the tube, Harriet moved close to Gina. "What's wrong?"

"My mom's, ah..." Gina hesitated as if unsure of what to say, "having some problems, I have to um ... explain things to her. You just go downstairs."

The older girl waved her away and went into one of the bedrooms, leaving the door open. Harriet started down, but hesitated when she heard raised voices and a sharp yelp like a dog that had been kicked. Instead of entering the grav lift, she moved closer to the open door.

" ... wanna have to do this, Mom, but Chrissy doesn't want to talk to you right now. She's still mad."

"I don't care if she is mad, she's got no right to treat me like this!" the older woman yelled. "Why can't I get out of this room? I can't even get this machine to give me a pair of panties. Why do you get a pair and I don't? I know why, I heard you come in last night. You fucked that nigg..." There was a soft zap and a squeal of pain, then a moment of silence.

"She's probably watching right now, just let me talk okay? Please?" Gina sounded like she was about to cry. "It's time for breakfast. Chrissy says if you want to eat, you have to promise not to say anything the whole time we're gone. If you do, she's going to have me zap you with this every time you talk, and you won't get to eat, you'll just have to sit there and watch. You promise?"

"I promise, but it's not right. I raised her better than this."

"Mom, I ... I think you'd be better off if you could just quit talking, If you go on about things, you're just going to make her madder."

"She has to listen to me, I'm her mother, I know what's best for her."

"Mom! Just be quiet, please! Things aren't the same as they were. Don't you get it? She's in charge, and we have to do what she tells us. Just sit down on the bed. We have to do one thing and then we can get you some food."

"What? Wait, now wait, you don't need to do that, I promised to be quiet."

"I'm sorry Mom, I really am, but I have to do this. She says it will help you remember not to talk."

"Noo..." Zap, zap, zap.

Harriet hurried to the grav-lift and dropped to the lower level. Chrissy wasn't watching what was going on in the room, instead she was sitting on Freddie's lap, staring at the screen of a netbook, and crying. Wanda climbed up on the back of the couch and said, "What's the matter? Who's that?"

Harriet had just enough time to move where she could see too. On the screen was a picture of a couple with two little kids. Chrissy snapped it shut and wiped her eyes as Gina came down the grav-lift followed by their mom. "I'll tell you later, after breakfast. We have to hurry, we're late already."

They filed out into the corridor. Chrissy grabbed her little sister's hand, then Freddie's. Gina took her mom's hand and whispered something to her. Kitty held on to Freddie's other hand, like she was afraid of what might happen next. Harriet looked at Paul, who seemed nervous. "You don't need your hand held do you?" He shook his head, and squared his shoulders, but didn't say anything. She was a little disappointed, but she tried not to let it show. She was nervous too, and it would have been nice to have someone to hold onto.

The dining hall was half full. Most of the people there wore shifts identical to the one she wore, but there were some who were naked. The rest of the adults wore uniforms, either green, black or blue like her brother and Chrissy. The tables were laid out in two sections with a wide path down the middle. About halfway down, she spotted someone she recognized. Kitty's thirteen-year-old sisters, Patricia and Melissa, jumped up and down waving their arms and yelling, "Kitty! Kitty!" The twins still had their school uniforms on. A girl dressed in a dark green t-shirt much too big for her, and knee high socks, stood with them, waving Kitty over.

Freddie let go of Kitty's hand and gave her a little push. "Go see your sisters."

Kitty ran over, and the rest of them followed. The twins looked a lot like her, with black hair and bright blue eyes. Kitty wrapped them both in a big hug, and started crying.

"We thought we'd never see you again." Melissa said.

"How did you get here?" Patty asked.

Kitty was too choked up to answer, so Freddie did. "You can thank Johnny for that. If he hadn't told Chrissy," he smiled down at the short blonde as he spoke, "to pick me, I wouldn't have gotten to retest and I couldn't have picked her up." He stuck out his hand to a young guy in a green marine uniform, who sat next to a little girl, and held a two-year-old boy. "Thanks to you, I was able to pick up my little sister and Chrissy's mom too."

Johnny shifted the little boy so he could stand up and took Freddie's hand. "I didn't do anything, all I said was that you were a nice guy." He was tall, taller than Freddie, but while he had muscles, they were natural, not a full body rebuild like the marines at the briefing.

Chrissy hugged them both, pulling Johnny down to kiss him on the cheek. "He's the best," she said, "just like you told me. Because of you, I didn't have to leave mom behind. Freddie and I are going to build starships together. If we can ever do anything for you, anything at all, just let us know."

Johnny looked embarrassed by the praise. "I really didn't do anything, I just thought you two might get along." The way he stammered it out was kinda cute.

A woman with a horribly scarred arm put a tray of food on the table. Gina made a happy sound and hugged her excitedly. The green t-shirt the woman wore rode up to reveal an ugly red pattern of scars on her legs as well. "Marcy! I'm so glad you got picked up." Another girl, who wasn't much older than Harriet, and had skin almost the same color as her own, helped the little girl with her pancakes. Her face was pockmarked, her hair was dyed blue, and her outfit matched the other two.

"Johnny picked me," she said, then introduced the others. Until the night before, Marcy'd worked with Freddie, Chrissy and Gina. The little boy Johnny held perched on one hip turned out to be Marcy's, as did the six-year-old girl eating pancakes. The two teen-aged girls, Carmen and Lucy, had gone to school with Chrissy, so they already knew each other. "He's so wonderful, he already has my kids calling him Daddy." Marcy's eyes teared up. "He's more than I ever expected, more than I deserve."

Johnny took her hand absently. "They're good kids Honey. They have a great mom. I picked you because you're a good person, and not just because I want your body." Marcy blushed and shook her head.

Lucy, the young black-haired girl, spoke up. No, she couldn't be a young girl. She had to be at least fourteen, or she couldn't be a concubine. "Johnny wasn't going to volunteer. The Army was going to give him a commission and everything, but he came because we asked him to take care of us. He's the best brother ever." She blushed as she said the last, and somehow Harriet knew, just knew, that the two of them had had sex.

Harriet glanced at her own brother, who didn't seem to realize, and wondered if he would. Wondered what he would do about getting her pregnant. Would he want to do it himself? She couldn't stop him, and all she had to do was lay back and let him. She could do that if she had to. The thought didn't excite her though.

Wanda pulled on Chrissy's hand. "I'm hungry."

Freddie took the hint. "We're all going to the same place, we'll have time to talk, and it's good to have people around that we know from before." He led them toward an empty table.

The twins followed, chattering with Kitty, and behind them, Lucy asked her brother. "Can I go eat breakfast with them?" His answer must have been yes, because she followed, wrapping an arm around each of the thirteen-year-old girls' waists.

The food replicators were pretty cool, there were literally millions of choices. Harriet asked for eggs, and a hologram appeared showing them cooked twelve different ways, plus sides and 'cooked with' options. She changed her mind and asked for cereal, and there must have been a hundred or more choices. Asking for toast was the same, two dozen options at least. There were other people waiting, so she told the machine. "Scrambled eggs, wheat toast and orange juice." Holographic options popped up. "Don't ask me for options, just pick one for me that I'll like." The options blanked out, and a tray with her order appeared. Eggs, scrambled in medium chunks, well-cooked, two slices of buttered wheat toast, cut into triangles, and a big cold glass of orange juice without pulp. There was also a small bottle of tabasco sauce. Honestly, who put hot sauce on eggs? The rest of it was fine though.

Harriet took the food back to the table, ignoring a disturbance at the other end of the room. Lucy and the twins were the last ones to the table. " ... so big I had to use both hands." Lucy said to the others. "When he stuck it in, I thought I was going to die."

"It hurt that bad?" Melissa asked.

"No ... well, yeah it hurt a lot, but just at first, and after it felt so good. I felt full, like ... I can't really explain it, but I came and came, then he tied me down and had Marcy use her mouth on me. She was good, but not as good as you two." She broke off her story and backed the twins up to the table. She kissed Patricia on the mouth, with tongue too, then switched over to the other twin. She had one hand up under each of their skirts and was giving Melissa a hickey when an enormous marine stomped up behind her.

"What are you doing with my Kittens?" the huge man demanded.

She turned around, moving between them and him, like she thought she'd be able to protect them. "Petting them, duh, what did you thi... ?"

Her voice cut off as she stared at the girls beside him. One of them had bright red hair and wore only a collection of leather straps. She held a riding crop in one hand and a leash in the other. At the other end of the leash another girl with bright blue hair crawled at her heels. All she wore was a collar. Her nose was squished, she had whiskers and her pointed ears had fur on them. She had light blue fur on the backs of her hands, and tops of her feet, running halfway to her elbows and knees. There was a cat-tail on a dildo shoved up her ass, and she'd left a trail of blood on the deck. Both of the girls looked about fourteen.