Chapter 10: Preparations

Tina and I made our way to the doorway and headed out. It was clear that the conversation had turned to technical matters regarding the repairs and James would be tied up for some time. He waved as we left but was quickly pulled back to one of the panels to start reviewing the damage and suggested repairs to Tintagel Castle.

In the hallway we found Alexis walking with a couple of the concubines from Tintagel. Both were wearing splints and bandages obviously created by tearing up a shift. She frowned as we approached.

"Is it always like that?" she asked.

Tina smiled. "James once said that our lives would likely be long periods of boredom interrupted by moments of great panic. We've never really found much boredom, but the interruptions are always energetic and exciting."

I nodded as Alexis looked puzzled. "But doesn't that trouble you?"

"Why?" I asked. "James and Yvette work very hard to protect everyone here. And the truth is that we never really feel like we are in danger."

"And even if we were," Tina immediately added, "we have been in danger before. Each time James and the other citizens have protected us. We trust them."

Alexis looked unconvinced, but said nothing more as she escorted the two injured concubines to the medical bay and entered. Once they were inside, Tina and I decided to head to the new concubine's pod. Tina was very interested in putting more work into her tapestry.

We arrived to find Claire and Whitney standing just inside the door. Claire was trying to coax her friend to enter and sit on one of the lounges we had set up in the front room, but Whitney was standing and shaking her head. As Tina and I paused to watch them interact, Janice walked up. Janice's normally blond hair was brown and swept up in a ponytail. I was wondering how she dyed it so quickly.

"Is she from Tintagel?" she asked with a nod towards Whitney.

I followed her gaze. Whitney was slowly turning in place looking at the lounges and couches that filled the entry room. The other doors were closed, but Whitney slowly turned in a circle. Each time she looked directly at a door the turning paused, as if she thought she could look through it. When I turned my gaze back to Janice, I found her rocking back and forth on her heels. Remembering Tina's comment from earlier, I decided to be a bit devilish.

I smoothly slipped in close to Janice and wrapped my arms around her. As her head started to turn to me I slid my right hand up to hold her neck and pulled her down for a long and loving kiss. She struggled, but I slowly managed to force my tongue past her lips. I kept up the kiss until the need to breathe forced me to relax and allow Janice to escape. She was gasping a little as I pulled her in a bit closer and whispered. "No, she came with the ship, but she's special. We should go and introduce ourselves."

Janice seemed a bit bewildered by my actions and held my arms as she looked in my eyes. "Why?"

"Should we talk to our new friend? Perhaps she needs to feel at home here," I replied with a grin.

"No! Why did you?" Janice said.

I hugged Janice again. "Because you are my best friend. Because if I had never met you we would not both be here, with daughters we adore. Because I realized that I forget to tell you how much you mean to me."

Janice sniffled. "I'm just a useless concubine."

I hugged her close. "Useless? I don't think so. Who is the director for our musical? Whose idea was it to create it? Who has managed to convince all the concubines to help out? You did all of that. Janice, I love you. James loves you. Our sisters love you."

I felt Tina's arms join mine in hugging Janice. "She's telling the truth, my lover of the brunette ponytail."

Janice gasped and tried to struggle out of our hug. "Brunette! That's it I'm casting Tina as a trash-collector!"

Tina and I giggled. We tickled Janice until her struggles came to a stop and she was laughing harder than either of us. Tina then silenced her laughs with another kiss. "Well it is brunette right now. Why?"

Janice reached up and pulled on her ponytail, quickly removing what proved to be a brunette wig. She held it up and giggled. "I couldn't be the genie with the light brown hair without coloring or a wig. I went with the wig."

"A genie?" I asked.

"Oh yes! It's a little part we added to help explain how poor David ends up all over the world searching for his drink. Although, the story now has him being a modern man rather than from the twenties. We weren't using many songs from that time," Janice said. "But you said we should meet the new girl."

She pulled off a hair net that was covering her natural hair and after using her fingers to brush it out a little dashed over to the girl. Tina and I looked at each other for a moment.

"She became happy rather quickly," I whispered.

Tina smiled. "Maybe she isn't as down as I thought. But the hugging and tickling was fun. How about we join her?"

With matching giggles we dashed forward. Janice was just about to say something when Whitney turned to Claire. "Is this your owner's pod? I mean your new owner? I thought I heard the AI say you were registered as belonging to Tiffany ... Wait, didn't everyone call the girl who brought you to the command post as Tamara? What is this?"

Claire just smiled. "No, this is not Tiffany's pod. That pod is on the far side of our little colony. It's about a thirty minute walk through the tunnels to get there."

Whitney looked at Janice, Tina and I as we stood nearby. "Does it belong to one of them? Although considering they have newborns and are only wearing skirts I'm guessing they are concubines, so perhaps the owner of one of them? But we entered without asking! What is this place?" She sounded a bit distressed.

Janice smiled. "No, although I guess some might say that our master does have a certain ownership right here. But his pod is close to the one you'll be living in. This pod is a refuge for all the concubines of Ishtar. It's a place for us to engage in projects we want to surprise the citizens with."

Whitney looked unconvinced. "Such as?" she spat.

Tina stepped forward. "How about we show you. Follow me." She then walked over to the door leading to the weaving room. Janice and I followed with smiles as Claire nudged a frowning Whitney to join in.

When we arrived the door opened and Tina stepped inside. She quickly made her way over to the loom where she was working on her tapestry. I noticed that she had made considerable progress in the last week or so. The finished section of the tapestry was being rolled up to keep it out of the way, but the visible section revealed the edge of the pond in the background and the first petals of the planned flower were being woven into the picture.

"Wow!" Janice said. "You've added a lot since I was last here."

Tina giggled. "You're always busy with your project. And it helped that Maggie has some good ideas."

"Ideas?" I asked.

Tina nodded and sat down, hitting a switch on a small panel to the right of the chair. A moment later two purple circles descended from the ceiling. They were placed just beyond the point where all the threads had been woven in. Once they froze in place Tina pulled a small rectangular bar from the side of the panel. She reached for the circle on the right of the loom and let it go. I expected it to fall, but it hovered just in front of the purple circle.

Tina then checked the threads, making sure they were tight. When he looked satisfied she reached over and touched the bar. Immediately it shot through the pattern of threads and was hovering barely an inch from the left circle. Tina then pressed the foot pedal and I could see the threads on the loom move to add another line to the weave.

"So fast!" Janice said with a gasp.

"Yes," Tina giggled. "It is Maggie's inspiration. She realized that the biggest problem we were having was getting the cross thread to move across such a big field of threads. She suggested that the anti-grav technology could be used to move the shuttle quickly and cleanly. We tested the idea on one of the two-foot looms for a couple days and then had the design added to all the looms. It tripled my speed."

Claire looked impressed. "How far along are you?"

"Four feet compete of a tapestry which will be about fourteen feet," Tina said. "I should be done in about four more weeks of work, but I plan on taking a break since I'm participating in Janice's little project too."

Claire giggled. "Almost all of us are. She was very persuasive."

Janice giggled. Whitney looked even more confused and stepped next to the loom. Tina had already made two more passes with the shuttle and was checking some of the threads. I watched as Whitney leaned over to see the section of finished tapestry still visible. "Why?"

Tina shrugged and tapped the shuttle so it made another pass through the room. "We have rather barren walls, but I wanted to produce the art to put on the walls rather than have some simple reproduction. Sure a replicator can produce one of these in seconds and do so without any errors, but it's also relaxing and fun to do it this way. I sit here and work for us, with my son by my side, while James and the others work for the Confederacy."

Whitney glanced over at the other large loom. From the size of the rolled tapestry, Maggie was a bit behind Tina, but her own work was definitely making progress. "And that?" Whitney asked.

Claire giggled. "Maggie is working on that one. It's going to be a field of rabbits when she's done."

Whitney looked even more astonished. "Are the other rooms like this one?" she asked.

Janice giggled. "Not really. Perhaps someday we'll have more arts and crafts, but right now this is our only major craft and it's just tapestries and rug making right now. Want to see the other rooms though?"

Whitney nodded and then put her arms around Claire. "Oh Claire, I can't believe a place like this exists. Your father would never have permitted us to do anything except worship him."

"Your first sponsor really was your father?" I asked Claire as we walked back out to the entry room. Tina remained behind happily adding more inches to her tapestry.

Claire looked frightened, but then smiled. "Wow. I just realized that my current sponsor can't really say much about that. Yes, Kirk was my father back on Earth, but once we were picked up he insisted that I accept the policy that pickups break all family ties and call him either Kirk or Master, and he preferred Master."

I giggled. When Claire turned to glare at me, I felt blood rush to my face. "Sorry, it's just if I try to call James, 'master', he either ignores me, or promises some hideous punishment. He hates being called that."

Whitney looked puzzled again. "I'm sorry. You obviously know Claire, but I never was introduced to anyone. I don't even know who belongs to Tamara, or how old she is or anything. She told me she had to run and handle a problem and asked Claire to calm me down."

Janice nodded. "Sorry, there's only about seventy adults on Ishtar, and we all know each other, so some of our manners definitely need work. I'm Janice." She put an arm around me. "This little one is Meiko. We both belong to James. As does Tina, the young lady we left working on the tapestry."

Whitney still looked puzzled. "Okay, all three of you belong to the same man, but who else is there? And will I meet the others who belong to my mistress?"

We looked at Claire who shrugged. "I know that Paula and Jillian were at the pod at home, as both of their babies were acting a bit colicky this morning. Marilyn was working at the school and probably is there right now. Craig and the other men were talking about taking some time on the ice. I think they want to challenge the male citizens to a hockey match."

Whitney turned again, staring at Claire. "You just named four people? Does my new owner have that many concubines?"

Claire looked confused for a moment. "Um ... you know. I don't know how they are divided up. Janice, Meiko do you know?"