Chapter 12: What the Probe Brought Back

Life settled down again once Tintagel Castle left for home. As expected, Brent's retest scored him as a five nine and James quickly ordered him thrown in a recycler. After that, the citizens appeared to be concentrating on the slow expansion of the colony and setting up the new living area for visiting crews.

The musical practice was now all about perfecting the dances and singing. As we could all see it coming together there was a contagious enthusiasm creeping into the concubines. Anytime three or more concubines gathered, there were whispered conversations about the various scenes. Janice was even politicking the AI, trying to convince it that the multi-use room needed to be temporarily remodeled to provide the perfect stage. We all expected her to fail, but one day she was in the pod and asking the AI the question over breakfast and James immediately spoke up. "AI, allow her to request changes to that room. She's supposed to be organizing some bands and I'm guessing this has something to do with that."

Of course, my sister concubine whirled around in shock. She had not realized that James was in the room. I watched her cover her mouth in fear, but James merely shook his head and smiled more. "Don't worry, I still have no idea what the surprise is other than that you want to make changes to the multi-use room for it," James told Janice. "And I'm working hard at not finding out. I get a feeling I'll like the surprise."

Janice just stood there blushing for the next fifteen minutes as James ordered a quick breakfast, ate and then left the room as quietly as he arrived. Once he was out the front door Janice collapsed into a chair.

"Oh god! I nearly spoiled it all," she wailed.

I got up from tending the babies and rushed over to cuddle my sister. "Nearly doesn't matter in this case. Just stay calm, the secret has held. Only two more weeks."

Janice nodded. "I know, but it was sooo close."

I gave her a couple loving kisses in the neck. "Is it all ready?" I asked. After I had stumbled during a couple of dance numbers, everyone agreed that I would be one of the few musicians set up to provide the sound effects and other musical interludes we were not pre-recording. Some of the scenes had slightly variable timing and having a couple of musicians had proved to be a huge help. Unfortunately it meant that I had not seen the whole performance as most of the dance numbers used recorded music. We just did not have enough concubines to stage large ensemble numbers at the same time we had a full orchestra playing.

In truth, James was rather distracted that day, as he had been for the past week. He continued to dote on the family, alternately either offering to take care of the babies or almost smothering one of us with affectionate kisses and caresses. Alexis might have a fear that the men of the planet would try to control her, but if my master was any example, they were enchanted by the babies and saw no reason to exert themselves to dominate anyone.

There was something else distracting James and the others. At first I thought it nothing more than worries about additional ships arriving, but after the visit of Tintagel Castle, the concubines working in the command post reported that the few reports they were receiving indicated that ships attacking the Sa'arm were jumping back to Borneo and Kelor when challenged rather than pursuing their targets into Sa'arm controlled systems. It made little sense to me, but Candi and Randi happily reported that the Sa'arm appeared to be trying to redistribute their forces to protect the goods they were moving between Ursus and other planets deeper inside their territory.

It was a few hours after Janice's scare that we discovered what had James so distracted. He was relaxing in the rabbit pod with one of his favorites. Janice and I had decided to accompany him and, with our babies slumbering peacefully in their cribs at home, had been teasing him as he brushed out the fur of the rabbit. We were bantering back and forth when Ulla's voice interrupted us. "James, we are receiving a signal, but I don't understand it."

"What is it?" James asked as he set the brush down and picked up the rabbit. Before Janice or I could react he had stood up and was walking towards the rabbit's cage.

Ulla replied in a puzzled voice. "I don't know. The voice sounds much like the AI units as it's completely toneless, but it just keeps repeating 'Eureka' again and again."

James just nodded and then placed the rabbit back in the cage. He gave Janice and me absent hugs and left the room without a word, leaving us standing there.

"Should I follow him?" I asked quietly.

Janice shook her head. "No, we can leave him a few mysteries. We can go visit Yvette's pod though. Perhaps one of her concubines knows."

I smiled and gave Janice a hug of my own. Since the talk with Tina, I had tried to remember to hug and kiss her often. We were spending more time together and I noticed that she seemed even happier than before. She returned the hug with a wiggle that made both of my nipples harden in moments and then released the hug to take my hand.

"Or perhaps we can go home and cuddle," Janice said with a sigh.

"I'll do anything for you," I replied. "I love you Janice."

Janice laughed as she led me to the door. "And I love you, but let's try to ambush James tonight. Perhaps I can get him to help me double-team you and return a little of the attention you have been giving me the last couple of weeks."

I blushed and stopped walking. Janice took two more steps before turning and smiling at me. "What?" she said. "You thought I had not noticed that my best friend, the sister of my heart, was paying even more attention to me? You are gentle and quiet, but you give almost as much love as James does, so it was impossible to ignore forever. I just didn't want to say anything."

"You are happy?" I asked in a whisper.

Janice stepped back to me and wrapped her arms around me in a crushing hug. She had bent down to flatten her breasts against my own. I could feel some milk leaking between us as she placed a kiss on my cheek. "I am in love and loved," Janice said. "You have almost as much of my heart as James does. My only regret is that you can't be in the musical."