Chapter 11: Short Goodbyes

The next week it seemed I spent much of my time finding excuses to hide in the household pod or the Concubine's refuge. James had locked William in an otherwise unused habitat pod near the original command center, but the crew of Tintagel Castle proved to include nine more men who refused to keep their hands to themselves. Most of the concubines figured that out the first night when these men spent much of the welcome party drunkenly calling for Lindsay, Bonnie and Cleo to perform lap dances. Tyson had walked over and lifted one of the men by the neck only for the others to all protest that they were playing.

James and Yvette ended up having to spend hours documenting the various passes and touches. Lieutenant Krupke did her best to help, but it soon became clear that the men were thinking that they were going to be staying on Ishtar. Finally James called for a general assembly of the crew to occur in our multi-use pod. I was standing against the wall behind James as crew walked in. The men who had been problems ignored me and the other female concubines arrayed against the wall, but I noticed Lieutenant Krupke 's eyes narrowing. She mouthed, "Guns?" Once her mouth was closed she scanned the room, checking each concubine. James noticed and only shook his head before waving for all the concubines to put their hands on the rifles we had been hiding behind our backs.

Lieutenant Krupke had taken a seat, as had about two-thirds of the crew, but the men who had been problems were still joking around and waving at various concubines. I noticed Lieutenant Krupke raising her hand, but James' voice cut through the din.

"It seems a few of you don't care to obey the laws. Now you might think that you are untouchable, but I assure you that you are not," he said.

One of the men glared at James. He was one of the ringleaders and clearly did not respect anyone. "Who the fuck cares what the rules are? We aren't in your chain of command, and you aren't an officer anyways. What will you do? Lock us up like Willie? You are going to pay for that you know."

James stiffened and then raised a hand. On that cue every concubine in the room brought their gun up and pointed it at one of the standing crew. "Chamber rounds," he said icily. "If any of those idiots tries to take a step, shoot him."

The man's, I think his name was Brent, eyes widened. "What the fuck! Who do you think you are? And I know the laws; if the concubines shoot us, you are guilty of murder. You won't give that command."

I could see James' shoulders relax. "Really. Why don't we check that? AI. Would you be so kind as you tell this Darwin Award candidate what title I hold and how the laws affect this situation."

"James Rabb, official governor of Ishtarat system," the AI intoned. "Ishtarat system is nominally part of the Borneo Military District, but as a system governor James has executive and judicial authority within the system. Current situation stands that nine citizens visiting from Borneo as part of the crew of Corvette Tintagel Castle have repeatedly violated Confed law in regards to appropriate contact with concubines they do not own. This has been compounded by the fact that local law and tradition is much stricter regarding such contact."

Brent scowled. "So? He still won't order the concubines to shoot us. That's still a violation."

The AI continued. "The nine citizens still standing are now considered under arrest. Any attempt to move will be regarded as an attempt to escape and or resist arrest and use of deadly force will be condoned."

James was staring right at Brent. "In other words, right now I have a dozen concubines in this room who are just begging for you to take a step so they can open fire. And I have no problem with them doing it."

Brent seemed to deflate. "Fuck! What do you limp dicks want?"

"Besides you off this planet?" Yvette said from the room's entrance. The men did not turn, but I could see several stiffen as they realized that they could no longer freely exit the room.

The men stared at James. He waited for a moment and then spoke. "Actually, I don't have to do anything more at this point. First, your ship is as repaired as we are able to perform here. Once this meeting is over, you'll be marching to the teleport and getting off this planet. However, you were all such constant problems that Yvette and I sent a packet of what I might call your "greatest hits" to Borneo command and then followed it up with a call to Admiral Himmel. I thought you'd like to hear the call."

There was a moment of silence. A couple of Brent's followers looked very uncomfortable. A couple of their still seated crewmates were smiling and nudging each other while staring at Brent.

"James, Yvette," Admiral Himmel's voice called out. "I did receive your packet of evidence. I checked against our records here, and found that none of my nine rejects were involved in the Wolf three-six-seven fight. Most only just arrived in the district, and the few old ones were transferred from the proving yards out at Moreton."

Yvette's voice responded. "We pretty much expected that. The few repeat visitors we have had know how things work on Ishtar and appear to respect our Tradition."

I had been watching Brent and his friends and they stiffened more upon hearing Yvette's final sentence. I saw the eyes of one widen and he glared at Brent.

James' voice was next. "The good news for us is that tomorrow we can load them up on a repaired Tintagel Castle and ship them home to you. I do want you to put all nine on the list of citizens who cannot come to the Ishtarat system unless it's a life or death emergency. And if they do come for that, we'll keep them locked up when they aren't in a medical pod."

The Admiral laughed at this. "Unfortunately, their current visit is based on a life-saving emergency, so you didn't have much choice."

"Oh, I could have locked them in the same pod I have William in. I'm afraid he's not been too happy about his treatment," James replied.

"Private Monroe is going to like his new assignment less. He is going to be transferred out of the district completely. And considering the situation with his nine friends, I think I'm going to give him an escort of slightly experienced privates. Perhaps in a new post where they aren't counting on familial loyalties protecting them they'll shape up," The Admiral said with a laugh.

"We didn't count on no fucking family loyalties," Brent hissed. "We didn't commit any fucking crime. Concubines exist for men like us to fuck them! Who cares about the rest?"

One of his standing companions moaned. "You stupid shit! We just heard that some people do and you are still going off on how concubines are toys? I can't believe that I listened to your pissing and moaning. I have a concubine who is perfectly cuddly and yet I followed you in chasing the ones who now have guns pointed at us. And from their expressions they want to use them."

"Shut up!" Brent shouted. Before anyone could react he dove at his former friend. The others scattered out of the way, quickly dropping to the floor and lying down. I held my fire as Amanda and Debby appeared in the doorway wearing their battle armor. They strode up to the brewing brawl and quickly pulled the two men apart. The one who had been screaming at Brent quickly submitted, but Debby had to shake Brent hard before he slumped in defeat.