Chapter 1: Moving Up

"Whichever one of you is the concubine will have to strip. We only transport naked concubines," the Marine said as the three of them, two clothed and one naked, approached the transporter pad.

Aghast, Rachel froze. She stared at David in a panic, "You said I didn't have to..."

"I'm sorry, Rache," he told his sister. "I don't think we have a choice here."

The Marine confirmed with a slow shake of her head. "Captain's orders. Concubines travel naked. There's a corner over there where she can strip without blocking the transporter."

David took the hint. "Let's all get out of the way first," and he moved towards the messy heap of discarded clothes where the Marine had pointed. Sylvia, already naked, put her arm round Rachel, her blonde hair contrasting with Rachel's brown, "Come on dearie, we have to move," gently urging her to follow David.

David didn't want to embarrass his sister, but there was obviously no alternative for them here. He turned to his second concubine, "Can you help her, Sylvia. I'll turn my back."

"Yes, David." Sylvia, who still had her arm round Rachel, talked quietly to the fourteen year old girl, "David isn't looking, and the Marine is a woman. Do you think you can get undressed now?"

Rachel was still in shock, unable to move, so Sylvia had to start unbuttoning her blouse for her. Once Sylvia had started, Rachel came out of her bewilderment and was able to continue unaided. It was as if she was separate from herself. One of her was taking off her clothes, while the other was looking on, wondering why she was doing it and not panicking, running away as fast as she could. In a daze she finished undressing, leaving her clothes on the floor.

Once Rachel had finished undressing, Sylvia spoke, "David, we're ready. If Rachel walks close behind you, with me close behind her, then nobody will see much."

"That sounds good," David replied without turning his head. "Don't forget to bring our cabin baggage. Rachel wouldn't want to leave Mister Bozo behind."

That horrible thought did get Rachel to react, "Oh no, I couldn't leave him behind." Momentarily forgetting her nakedness, she retrieved her case and held onto it tightly while Sylvia took David's luggage.

David led the trio back to the transporter, where the Marine smiled sympathetically at Rachel. "You can get something for her to wear once you're up there," she told David. Neither David nor Rachel noticed, but Sylvia picked up on the fact that it was up to David whether his sister, or she herself, got any clothes.

After getting the trio's spoken consents to their new status as sponsor and concubines, the Private turned to David and instructed, "Walk onto the transporter and keep moving forward for a few steps. You need to make room for your two concubines coming through behind you. When you're all through, find a place to sit together and follow orders from anyone in a uniform." David nodded his understanding and led the way onto the transporter pad.

Up in orbit, the ship was an organised chaos. David saw they were in a large room with groups of mostly naked people sitting on the floor, or was it the deck? There were Confederacy Marines standing around watching over things, together with some others, closer to normal size and in dark uniforms, whom he took to be Confederacy Navy -- presumably the ship's crew. Looking around, there appeared to be a bit more vacant floorspace off to his left, so when he heard Sylvia confirm that she and Rachel were behind him he headed that way. He was glad that Sylvia had realised that he didn't want to look behind him, in order not to embarrass Rachel too much. He had hoped to spare his sister the nudity, but that had not been possible. At least he had reduced her shame to a minimum, and the Marine had assured him that he would be able to get clothes for her soon. As he led the way across the room, it was obvious that many of the naked concubines sitting on the deck were just as unhappy as Rachel about their situation; they were keeping their heads down and covering as much of themselves as possible.

As he passed near one of the ship's crew David confirmed that they were to sit and wait. "Once we have this batch on board, we can start processing you all and get everyone settled. For the moment you just have to wait quietly." After thanking the crewman, David found some space and they all sat down.

Rachel silently scrunched herself up as small as possible, staring down at the deck and trying to be inconspicuous. Her father had not told her anything about what would happen at a Confederacy pickup, so she had come into this not knowing what to expect. It was difficult for her to hold things together; too much was happening at once, and being naked in public was almost the last straw. She had not dared look up as they were crossing the room, but she had seen enough to know that she was far from the only naked woman. Many of them seemed just as unhappy about it as she was.

Sylvia arranged their luggage behind Rachel to try to give her a little more protection from strange eyes, and sat down next to her. Worried, she asked the young teenager, "Are you going to be all right, dearie?" Rachel nodded, but her response was automatic. Both Sylvia and David could see that she was barely coping with the situation.

David decided that Rachel needed some distraction, so he started talking, "While we're waiting for things to get started, we might as well introduce ourselves. I'm David Harlow, seventeen years old with a 6.6 CAP. This morning I was a student. Now I'm a volunteer for the Confederacy Marines." Indicating Rachel, he continued, "This is my sister Rachel. She's fourteen, with a CAP of six dead, wasn't it Rache?" She nodded to confirm. "She used to be in school, but our father pulled her out just before she turned thirteen and has home-schooled her since. I suspect he kept you pretty sheltered, Sis?" Again Rachel nodded. "We were at the airport with Mum and Dad. He was the bloke who got up and began shouting when the extraction started, the one the Marines zapped."

"I heard the shouting," Sylvia replied, "but I was in the Coffee Bar so I couldn't see anything. He sounded like a bit of a religious nut..." Sylvia stopped talking, suddenly realising that she might have thoughtlessly offended her new owner. "Sorry, David, I didn't mean anything by that."

David quickly put her mind at rest, "You're right, Sylvia. He is a religious nut. He follows the 'Your neighbour is going to hell' kind of Christianity, rather than the 'Love your neighbour' kind. He was bad enough before, but after the announcement of the Sa'arm coming to Earth he got even worse, and went all apocalyptic. 'The end of the world is coming', and all that stuff. That was when he pulled Rachel out of school. I think the only subjects she learned after that were English, Maths and the Bible." His sister nodded in confirmation. "Like I said, she's been pretty sheltered, so all this must be a big shock."

He turned to Rachel and smiled encouragingly. He didn't want to upset her, so he was careful to keep his eyes on her face and not to look at her body, "You're doing fine, Sis." He could see that she wasn't, but he felt that she needed a bit of encouragement. It was obvious that their father hadn't let her know anything at all about what to expect at a pickup, or afterwards, so she was going to have a whole lot of new things to deal with in a very short time. She would need all the help she could get.

Rachel had calmed down a little. She felt less vulnerable sitting down and, being somewhat hidden behind their luggage, she had some protection from prying eyes. She had wanted to get away from her father, but this was not how she had imagined it. He had certainly not helped by forbidding her access to information about how the Confederacy handled extractions. Having actually been in one she now knew why. Sex was definitely not included in her home-schooling curriculum. She managed a quiet, "Thanks, David," in response to her brother.

"So, what about yourself, Sylvia?" David asked.

"I'm Sylvia O'Byrne, twenty five years old with two kids, Patrick is four and Mary just turned three. You will be taking both of them, won't you, David?"

"Of course I will," David reassured her. "If what I hear is correct, they should be here by this evening."

"Thank you. Where was I ... Yes, two kids and a husband. Well, a former husband I suppose. Coming with you is an instant divorce isn't it?" David confirmed with a nod. "I was working in the Coffee Bar at the airport when the extraction happened. I had agreed with Des, my husband -- my ex-husband now -- that if either of us got the chance to be extracted, then we should go as long as the sponsor would take the children. We both had jobs and we couldn't afford to give one up to let us stay together all the time. Des didn't have a good enough CAP score either, so even if we were together the chances of us both being picked by the same sponsor were pretty small. The important thing was getting Pat and Mary off Earth.

"What else about me? I'm Irish, as you can probably tell from my accent. I grew up in Ireland and we moved to England about ten years ago. I married Des five years ago."

As Sylvia wound down, David asked her about how her children would cope with moving to their new home. He wanted to keep Rachel distracted, so she wouldn't dwell on her situation too much.

"Pat will probably love it," Sylvia replied, "he's into rockets and spaceships, so it will all be a big new adventure for him. By the time the excitement has worn off he will probably have settled here. Mary will likely find it more difficult. She's nervous away from home and too many strangers can frighten her. She'll be..."

"Can you all be quiet please!" a loud amplified voice interrupted Sylvia. All three of them looked up to see a Marine officer standing and waiting for the buzz of many conversations to die down. When the background noise had reduced enough he continued, at a slightly lower volume, "Welcome aboard the Confederacy Colony Ship Sadi Carnot. I am Lieutenant Charles Legere of the Confederacy Marines. Those of you who have volunteered have just learned your first lesson in military life. There is a great deal of just waiting around for something to happen." That got him a smattering of laughter. "We have a lot of people here after the big extraction at the airport, and plenty of things to do. It will help us to get you all settled into your new homes more quickly, if you keep quiet and listen while I am talking. Please don't start doing anything until I actually tell you to begin." He paused to let his words sink in. "Firstly we need to register all of you. Each sponsor will need to collect details for themselves and all their concubines: CAP cards, serious diseases, details of dependent children..."

At the mention of CAP cards, Rachel's eyes went wide and she gasped. She had messed up badly, her CAP card was back at the airport with her clothes. She lost what little composure she had managed to retain and began to cry quietly. David and Sylvia noticed immediately. Sylvia turned to help her, while David kept listening, with half an eye on his two concubines.

The lieutenant was still speaking, " ... have all the details sponsors should bring them up to me, or one of the Marines or Navy crewmen you can see around the room. Please, please remember where your group is sitting, because you're going to have to make your way back to them, and this is a big compartment. Believe you me, I am speaking from experience on this. If you can do all that now, then we can get on to the next stage." The lieutenant turned away and began speaking quietly to one of the ship's crew, his voice no longer amplified.

David turned to Sylvia, "What's the problem?"

"She left her CAP card at the airport with her clothes, and she's worried," Sylvia told him. Rachel was still crying, and had retreated even further into her shell. David decided to leave her alone for the moment, it seemed better to have Sylvia deal with things. He had picked Sylvia for her good motherhood scores, and her mothering instinct seemed to be kicking in with Rachel.

"I'm sure she's not the only one," replied David, "this sort of thing must have happened before. Do you have yours?" Sylvia produced her CAP card from her handbag, which she had kept with her throughout. "I know there are your two children to pick up. Any diseases?"

"Nothing serious enough to interest them. I'm not on anything except the Pill, and I don't think I'll be needing that any more," she said with a smile.

David got up and made his way through the seated groups of naked concubines to the nearest Marine. After telling him about Sylvia's two children, David explained the problem with Rachel's CAP card.

"She isn't the first to have done that," the Marine confirmed, he had 'Shukhov' over his breast pocket. "We'll check her identity in Medical. There will be a record of her DNA from her CAP test. Once the high-priority people have gone through Medical, she'll be scheduled early in the low-priority group. I have to warn you that if she's not who you say she is, then the consequences for both of you could be very serious."

"She's my sister, I've known her all her life," David told him.

"I'm sure you have, but there are some people who try to sneak in ringers claiming a lost CAP card. We have to check, and we have to take action when someone tries it."

"Yes, I can understand that, but you won't have any problem with my sister."

David thanked PFC Shukhov for his explanation, and turned back towards the centre of the room. He could appreciate the lieutenant's warning about remembering where the others were sitting. It was like finding your place on a crowded beach after coming out of the water. He managed to get back to the right general area, and then saw Sylvia waving to him. Sitting down, he spoke softly to Rachel, "The Marine says it's fine, Sis. They just check your DNA in Medical, so they can tell that you're you. He said that this sort of thing happens all the time, so they're used to it."

Rachel was still distraught. All of this was just too much for her, and losing her CAP card had been the icing on the cake. She felt stupid and embarrassed about it. How could she have been such an idiot? Sylvia was helping a lot and David had been reassuring about the lost card, but she was still feeling miserable. She just clung to Sylvia and tried not to think too much about things.

Soon the lieutenant was back on the PA. "OK, all of you. Now what happens next? To start with, I'll give you a short briefing, and then get the high priority people off to Medical while the rest of you get settled into your pods. You all have an Artificial Intelligence, an AI, in your pod, so anything I don't cover now you can ask the pod AI. It has a voice interface, so you can talk to it. Later on today and tomorrow we will call the rest of you for your initial Medical -- your pod AI will let you know your time slot. We will also be collecting dependent children and the AI will let you know when that is happening. By now you should have got the idea that the pod AI can tell you a great deal about most things. If you need to know something, then ask the AI; it's there to help.

"Tomorrow there will be longer briefings for sponsors and concubines, but for the moment you just have to remember two things. First, that your sponsor is absolutely in charge. Whatever he or she tells you to do, you do. No arguing, no talking back. You just do it. And second, that all you concubines are basically sex slaves..."

Rachel heard the words 'sex slaves' and stopped listening. Her father had kept her isolated from the news, but she had managed to get a little information from her mother, from David and from looking at headlines. Her father had censored everything else, or just forbidden her to look at it. She knew that leaving with David involved sex -- having babies made that obvious -- but 'sex slave'. Too much was coming at her too quickly, so she just shut it out. Sex slave. She noticed David nodding, as if he already knew much of what the lieutenant was saying. He could explain it all to her later, when she was ready for it. Sex slave. She'd had some sex-ed back when she was in school, but she was younger then, so it was very short on the details. She'd got absolutely nothing on the subject from her father of course. A few quiet discussions with Mum had helped a little, but she knew just enough to know that there were big gaps in her knowledge. A sex slave. Perhaps she could talk to Sylvia about things? Had she made the most horrible mistake coming with David? A sex slave. It was too late now to turn back, so she just sat there paralysed, sniffling and clinging to Sylvia. She was a sex slave.

The lieutenant finished by reading out a list of the people due in Medical immediately. David listened carefully, but Rachel wasn't called. Marines and ship's crew moved through the crowd, giving out PDAs to sponsors to guide them to their assigned pods. Between the two of them he and Sylvia managed to get Rachel up and moving. David followed the directions displayed on his PDA and led them off to their pod.

Once inside his first thoughts were for Rachel. Remembering that the lieutenant had told them to ask the AI he said, "AI, where are the clothes for my concubines?"

A voice answered, "Recruit Harlow, there are standard issue shifts for concubines in the cupboards in the small bedrooms on this level. It is recommended that all concubines be naked, or in standard issue shifts, while on board ship."

Chapter 2 »