Chapter 2

Midday

When they got back to the pod Sam had finished his sleep-training session and was engrossed in a video game. Currently he wanted to be a Navy fighter pilot so he was playing a fighter simulator, battling Swarm ships. The games he played varied depending on his ambition of the moment, though he was usually more inclined to the Navy than the Marines. Jane managed to pry him away from his joystick so he could help her and Viv get the others ready to go out again to eat. She was able to grab a few minutes for a quick shower and to change into a black skirt and top ready for her stint in the restaurant. Once Viv had emerged from her own shower, still topless but in a brown skirt now, they all set off for their lunch out.

This was a longer journey than to the park so they took a twin baby-buggy in case of need. Gireesh spotted it instantly and sat himself down right at the start. Charlie decided he was superior and spurned it, "I'm a big boy. I can walk." Alice ignored the boys' antics. Viv had Helen in her sling of course.

The pods on either side of the walkway looked reassuringly suburban, each sitting comfortably in its own plot. During her first week after landing Jane had thought that they were positioned too far apart but, now that they had expanded to their full size, the arrangement looked a lot better. Almost everybody had made an effort to do something in their front garden, a small patch of grass, some rocks or pebbles from the beach in a nice arrangement or whatever. A few people were emulating Alice and were out watering their grass, essential during the Dry season. They could tell they were getting near the centre of town when they saw the conservatories attached to some of the longer established pods. Even closer into the centre the walkway still had the old shade that had protected against ultra-violet.

The town of Lansdowne was named after a battle in the English Civil War. The planet had been named after General Sir William Waller and the first few towns established were named after his battles. He hadn't fought very many so the newer towns used other names. The initial few shiploads of settlers had been from the UK though later arrivals were from more varied destinations. English, of whatever variety, remained the main language of the colony. Anyone who really couldn't cope well enough could use their collar to help them out until they had completed their sleep-training.

Close by was another colony, called Hopton, which allowed the two colonies to share the passengers on a Cube Ship between them; rather than 250,000 they only got 125,000 new people with each shipload. That helped ease the pressure when each new batch of colonists arrived. Jane remembered the frantic time before the Mount Olympus had first visited, when almost everyone was working overtime to get the first accommodation block ready for the town's share of the new arrivals. Being a Cube Ship it wasn't carrying any pods, so everything had to be ready on the ground before the new colonists transported down.

Construction was made a lot easier by Confederacy technology of course, but there was still a lot that needed human intervention. Building an apartment block was basically a giant jigsaw puzzle. Big replicators turned out the pieces for human teams to roughly tack together into position. Nanites worked overnight to finish off each day's assembly work, ready for the next day's set of new pieces. On each floor the girders went up first, then the heavy prefabricated pieces forming the ceiling, followed by the lighter interior walls, that could be easily moved if needed. Finally the outer walls were fixed in place. Jane's job had been with the plumbing. She just had to slip a sleeve over where the pipes from two of the prefab sections needed to join. No need for solder or anything, the sleeve wasn't a tight fit but the nanites would seal everything properly watertight overnight.

As they got close to the centre of town Jane used her collar to contact Anjali. "Anjali, it's Jane. We're almost at the Square. How soon will you be here?"

"We're just getting ready now Jane. Five or ten minutes," she replied.

"OK then," Jane replied. "We'll be looking at the market and we can meet up there. We'll move to Finches' after you arrive." Jane had never bothered to ask why the restaurant was called that. Jai would probably know if she could ever be bothered to ask.

"That's fi ... Eve! Let Eddie go!" The AI was still transmitting whatever Anjali said. "Sorry Jane. See you at the market." Jane smiled. The twins seemed to spend their time either helping each other or annoying each other. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference.

When they reached the Square, Jane could see the apartment blocks she had worked on standing to the south. Lansdowne was in the southern hemisphere so the large blocks had been placed to the south of the town centre to avoid overshadowing too many older buildings. Near to them another similar block was being built in preparation for the Mount Olympus' next delivery. Work on the latest block was going more smoothly of course with the experience of building the earlier blocks to help with the planning. She was relieved that there were not going to be any long emergency shifts to get things finished off in time as there had been on the first block.

The more new people arrived the more the Marines would grow, Jane thought. That would be good for Keith's promotion prospects. Perhaps he might even get made an officer? They were often pulling experienced people out of older units and promoting them to form cadres for new units. Keith said that while they still had access to Earth it made sense to expand the Navy and Marines as quickly as possible. There would be a reduction in the rate of growth when the Sa'arm reached Earth and cut off that source of supply of new recruits.

The new arrivals tended to have smaller families so they were mostly housed in the apartment blocks. Once their families had grown, they usually wanted to move to a pod with more outside space available for their children to play. New families formed when children were CAP tested normally moved into the blocks as well. When Sam turned fourteen he would probably be given his own apartment, together with his two concubines. He would get his own pod when he had enough children to justify it.

As well as Finches' Restaurant, the town square held the Community Hall, transporter hub, Civil Service office, the brothel and a small market with mostly craft stalls. One of Jane's first jobs, very soon after arrival, had been in the Community Hall to help train new mothers. Back then too many sponsors had gone for eye-candy at extraction rather than picking at least one mother. The experienced mothers had been drafted in to teach the inexperienced concubines the rudiments of looking after a baby. These days, it seemed to Jane, word had gotten around Earth that you needed a mother in your harem so there were fewer families needing the basic motherhood training than there had been. There were also many more experienced mothers available to teach the courses. Having a pod full of kids meant that new concubines got a crash course in motherhood complete with on-the-job training.

That early work had been before the obol system had been set up; nowadays Jane knew she would be well paid for it. Pay and costs in obols had obviously been designed to get sponsors involved and to encourage good practice in raising children. Sending kids to playschool was very cheap because it directly related to bringing up children. The same applied to wages; being directly related to childcare, Anjali's morning shift at the playschool would earn more obols for the family than Jane's afternoon shift in the Restaurant. In the early months the AIs had been adjusting wages and prices almost weekly to get things properly balanced. These days they only changed occasionally.

The brothel however did not hold happy memories for Jane. She had been sentenced to two weeks punishment there for allowing a couple of boys to get into a confrontation leaving school. She had been too slow to react and the argument had escalated from shouting to shoving before she got there. One of them had slipped and broken his wrist and his sponsor had kicked up a big fuss about it. At the brothel she had been in the lowest category so she got the worst clients. Anything was allowed as long as she was conscious and in a somewhat fit state for her next client. The male concubines were the worst; the things they weren't allowed to do in their pods they did to her. Watersports were the least of it. She didn't get many sponsors as they were usually reserved for the girls who were there just to get pregnant. The first week was the worst as she had been the only 'punishment girl' available. Another woman was serving her sentence alongside Jane during the second week so the load was split between the two of them. It was certainly not an experience she wanted to repeat. A very effective deterrent though.

Alice spotted Hilary's jewellery stall in the craft market and dragged Viv over to look, Jane following with the others. Alice started digging through the brightly coloured stuff that Hilary had made for kids. For the children's jewellery Hilary tended to make one and replicate many copies so those pieces didn't cost as much. Items intended for adults cost more because she didn't replicate as many copies so scarcity increased their value. Keith had bought three matching bracelets for his concubines from her stall. That was typical of what she did for adults, she would make one and replicate a small limited set. There were even a few one-offs that she didn't replicate at all but they didn't sell so well, mostly to female sponsors who wanted to wear something that their concubines didn't have. Like all of the craft workers in the market, Hilary had been issued with special nanites that could mark an item as not to be replicated. She kept a careful track of the patterns in her replicator, deleting the masters once she had completed each limited edition set.

"Can I have this one please mama Jane?" Alice asked, holding up a lurid green and yellow plastic bangle.

"No, I'm sorry Alice," Jane said, "If we get you something then we'll have to get Sam, Julie, Bob, Charlie, Dawn and the twins something as well won't we?"

Alice's face fell. "Yes. But..."

"And we have to pay for our meal in Finches'. We can't afford all that today. Maybe next time?"

Alice wasn't happy, but she had to lump it. Viv and Jane both knew that Keith would get very annoyed if they went over budget, and Hilary's stuff wasn't cheap. Normally they would have diverted the kids to Penny and Elly's cake stall to distract them with something sweet, but that wasn't such a good idea just before lunch.

Jane and Viv, with Sam's help, managed to keep the children looking at the other stalls rather than heading for the cakes. There would have been tantrums if cakes had been forbidden. Maybe Viv and Anjali would let them have some after lunch if they were still hungry.

Soon enough Anjali arrived with Julie and the five other children. After the usual round of kissing and greeting they all walked across the square to Finches'. They were eating early today to allow time for Jane to finish before her shift started, so the place was still mostly empty.

"Hello Jane, Viv, Anjali," Claire greeted them. "You're on table six today." That was one of the outside tables. This being the Dry season the inside tables were only used if the place was very busy.

"Thanks Claire, we can make our own way. Just bring the menus please." Claire realised that Jane and Anjali had worked there in the past so they knew where table six was without having to be shown.

As they sat the children down at the shaded table the seating morphed itself to suit each child. AI assistance could be very useful in small things Jane mused. As usual Gireesh was laughing. "Up! Up!" he said as his chair raised itself and the arms spread round to stop him falling out Pretty much anything would get Gireesh laughing, he was a happy child.

From a glance at her menu Jane could tell that the lunchtime chef today was Shu-Ling. The Lunchtime Specials were her Manchu Chicken for main and Red Bean Pancakes for dessert. The other parts of the menu only changed occasionally since they all came from the replicators anyway but the Specials were prepared from the basic ingredients by the chef for that shift. The AIs didn't allow those dishes to be replicated so you either had to eat in Finches' or wangle an invitation to the chef's pod in order to sample them. Jane was glad that Pete wasn't there with his Sticky Toffee Pudding. That guaranteed that the Restaurant would be full to capacity for all of his shift.

The wording on the menu reflected the different origins of the people on Waller. What the English called crisps the Americans called chips, and what the English called chips the Americans called fries. The menu had compromised by avoiding the word 'chips' entirely with only fries or crisps being mentioned. That difference was settled by eliminating the ambiguous word. Other differences were less easy to resolve. Football was definitely the round ball game, the American version being gridiron or sometimes American Football. Strangely the alternative had survived as 'soccer mom' or sometimes 'soccer concubine'. Jane and the others had certainly done their time watching Sam play. The Americans had their revenge though with the numbering of the floors in the new apartment blocks, the floor at ground level was numbered 1 unlike in England where it would have been numbered 0.

"So Julie, did you have a good time helping mummy Anjali at playschool?" Jane asked her daughter.

Julie smiled, "Yes mummy Jane, it was fun. The twins were naughty. They wanted to play with each other's toys all the time."

"Just like they always do," Anjali commented to Jane. "I'm worried about Fran though, she seems to be coming down with something. She wasn't her usual self this morning."

"Better get her into the sleep-trainer for a quick check-up then," Jane suggested. Using the sleep-trainer would allow Jai to get a better reading from Fran's nanites. It could even do a limited amount of nanite reprogramming, though it couldn't introduce any new nanites. For that a visit to a proper med-tube in the medical centre would be needed.

"Yes, I'd planned to do that before she has her afternoon nap," Anjali agreed.

Just then Claire arrived to take their orders. She didn't need to write them down of course, the restaurant AI could keep track of it all for her. Once she had their final confirmation the kitchen staff were starting to assemble the order even as she left the table. Soon she returned with a trolley load of food; she obviously couldn't carry thirteen meals by herself. Only thirteen because Helen wasn't ready for solid food yet. With the large families in the diaspora Finches' used trolleys as an efficient way to deliver the orders to the tables. Jane had tried the Manchu Chicken once, but it was too spicy for her, so today she had pasta and chorizo with salad, though she did try the Red Bean Pancakes for dessert. No alcohol of course because she was pregnant, so she just had sparkling water to drink.

They took the opportunity to chat with other concubines they knew as various families came and went during the meal. Almost everyone had heard that the Third were back so that was the major subject of conversation. A few people knew the names of some of the casualties, but Jane didn't recognise any of them. That did make it easier to bear, but it wasn't a nice thought. One day Keith might be a casualty himself and they would all go to join Stan's family.

Thinking of the Third Company returning reminded Jane of the planned visit to Laura's pod that evening and that Phil, Laura's sponsor, was with the Third. She suggested to Anjali that it would be best to check that the visit was still on, as Laura and Bonnie might well have other things to do thanks to Phil's return.

By now most of the children realised that eating in the Restaurant meant that they had to be on their best behaviour so more of the food ended up in their mouths rather than smeared on their faces. Even the twins were making an effort to be less messy. The free face-wipes at the table were still needed though, at that age mistakes were inevitable.

Early Afternoon

All too soon Jane's collar reminded her that her shift started in five minutes. As she got up to leave Sam asked her, "Mum Jane, can I meet you back here after football practice? It should finish a bit before your shift ends."

"Of course Sam," Jane told him. "That would be nice."

Leaving the others to finish their meals she went into the kitchen to see Sylvia, the restaurant manager. Sylvia had been working full time in an airport coffee bar when there had been an extraction. Because of her previous experience she was assigned as one of the managers of Finches'. She couldn't work full time now of course, like every concubine she had children to look after. She never had more than half each day assigned with someone else tasked to cover the time she wasn't there. The AIs arranged the scheduling so, as far as possible, everything was covered by someone with the right skills.

"Where do you want me Sylvia?" Jane asked.

"I'll put you in the kitchen for the lunch rush while the shifts overlap and then outside later. Does that suit?" Because of the extra workload over lunch, the morning shift overlapped with the afternoon shift to provide additional cover for the busy lunch period.

"That's fine Sylvia." Jane knew that putting her in the kitchen would allow someone from the morning shift to get a turn outside rather than being stuck inside for her entire shift. It was the kind of detail that Sylvia was good at. Some of the other managers missed that sort of thing.

"Can you work on the children's replicators," Sylvia said. "Take over number seven from Yasmin please." Children's meals came out of the replicators already assembled and ready to be served. Adult meals needed more work, there were options available and each option was replicated separately. One order of steak might be rare with fries and broccoli while another might be medium with rice and sauerkraut. There were so many possible combinations that it was easier to have each item replicated separately and assemble them on the plate. That also prevented each variation coming out absolutely identical every time. The children didn't seem to mind, but the adults would probably have noticed.

"Sure Sylvia," Jane agreed. She quickly went to wash her hands, get a mob-cap for her hair and a white coat to cover her own clothes. As soon as she was ready she went over to spell Yasmin at number seven.

As each table ordered the AI routed the order to the kitchens and Jane's collar told her what table the plate from her replicator belonged to. She took it out of the replicator and loaded it onto the appropriate trolley ready for the waitress to take to the table. Children's dishes didn't need any assembling so she did more walking to-and-fro than if she had been on the adult meals. The AI knew where the trolleys were positioned so she never had to walk too far with each plate.

Across the kitchen she could see Shu-Ling working on both her chicken and her pancakes. She had pre-cooked much of it earlier in the day, so it just needed the finishing touch from her before it went out to the customers. She was Chinese, though her family had lived in London for generations, short and very serious. The only time she got angry was when someone dropped a plate of her food. She thought it showed disrespect.