Chapter 51: Unfriendly Meetings

Once we passed through the airlock, Tyson put his arms around Cleo and pulled her to him. "Run along, girls," he said. "I think it's time I got this lovely lady pregnant again."

Mickey and I giggled and then ran off down the hallway. Behind us, we could hear Cleo's cheerful squeal as she twisted around to kiss Tyson.

"She sounds happy with the idea," Mickey said as we make our way through the passages.

"I think she is truly happy about it," I replied quietly. "Tyson loves his children, so she wants to give him more."

"Anything to keep our masters happy," Mickey said with a nod. "So what are we doing now?"

"James will be at the school," I said. "I'll go there and meet him."

"I'm sure Mike will be there as well. He admires your master. I just wish he had the same presence as James."

I shrugged. At that moment, I could think of no good answer for my friend. Instead, I continued to walk through the hallways.

Our progress was quick. We did have to slow down when I automatically took the most direct route and we encountered an area undergoing repair. The wall panels were coated with a black film and a couple of robotic arms were working to remove the panels. Mickey paused when we first noticed the work, but we were able to slip between the repair units.

As we approached the nursery, we noticed that the door was open and loud, boisterous conversation echoed in the hallways. Mickey gave a glad cry and rushed forward.

Bethany met us at the doorway. "I'm guessing that Tyson took Cleo home?" she asked.

"Took her somewhere," Mickey said. "He didn't tell us what he planned. Now where is Mike?"

"I believe that your sister concubine entered the babies in the impromptu beauty contest they were having inside," Bethany replied. "Your master stuck around to watch."

In the distance, we could hear a baby start to wail. The cry did not seem too distressed, but Mickey dashed past. "Bruce!" she cried in dismay.

I found myself shaking my head. Bethany just sighed. "She'll be fine. Mike is proud of her."

"How is Madoka?" I asked.

"Hungry," Janice said as she walked up to join us. "I fed her a bit, but we figured you'd want to feed her when you arrived." My sister concubine was carrying Madoka in her arms.

I quickly removed the shift I was wearing and held my arms out. Janice handed my daughter too me. There was a brief pause as she scanned my body before she stepped back and allowed me to raise Madoka to my right breast.

"Is that all you wore?" Janice asked as Bethany picked up the discarded shift.

"You didn't notice?" I asked as Madoka started to suckle.

Janice giggled. "You can't really see the audience from the stage during the show."

"Why not?" I asked as I turned to face my sister. "I'll admit that I don't notice, but I'm concentrating on the music. I'd think you'd want to look out at the audience while performing."

Bethany shook her head. "You try to look into a spotlight and see people standing behind it. There is so much light thrown on stage that it's almost impossible to see anything. In fact if you ever take a close look at the stage during a show, you'd see little lines light up to help us know where to stand."

"I can't exactly see the stage from where I sit," I admitted. "I do try to watch when you or my sisters perform, but right now I still have to concentrate on the music."

"You mean you haven't seen our prim and proper teacher do her song and dance?" Janice asked.

Bethany shook her head. "It's not like I do any solo numbers. And we haven't found a song I really want to do yet."

I nodded as James walked out from one of the rooms. He was pushing a stroller that contained three babies as Kitty and Brittany hung from his arms. A smile lit up his face as he noticed me standing with my sister concubines. "Little one! Another wonderful show completed. You, Cleo and Mickey keep getting better too. The AI doesn't have to add as many instruments as it used to."

"We still make too many mistakes," I said as my face warmed. "Someday we need to be able to sit down and really practice."

James nodded. He then looked around at the people in the room. "Is everyone back from the theatre?" he asked.

"Captain Travis had some questions," I said with a sigh. "Alexis was willing to answer and Brad decided to stay with her until she came back to this side of the colony."

"Wait!" James said with a shout. "Brad, the one person that our good colonel might be able to charge with a crime is in an area where he can act?"

Yvette walked over. She was holding a baby in her arms. "Does the colonel know what Brad looks like?" she asked.

"Does that make a difference?" Tina asked.

James nodded and relaxed slightly. "Actually it does. The only marine over there who might be sure would be the one that Brad knocked out. So unless it comes up in the conversation, it's likely that Brad won't be bothered. However, I'm not going to count on that. Meiko, take Tina and Janice and get to a viewscreen somewhere. Watch what's going on with Alexis. I need to know immediately if there is a problem."

Janice grabbed me and started pulling me toward the door. "I know just the place!" she cried. "Marilyn and Philipe suggested we set up a room in the refuge just for this."

"I wondered how the concubines had become so good at anticipating requests," Yvette said with a smile. Janice paused in her pulling, but Yvette merely waved her hand. "Oh, don't worry. We know it's so you can do more to please us. Just remember to keep the microphones off. Especially, when you are watching people who don't live on Ishtar."

"Can do!" Janice called out with a laugh. She started dragging me towards the door again. Madoka punched a small hand against my chest as the pulling caused me to twist. I grunted with surprise and pulled my arm free.

"Can I set Madoka down first?" I asked. "She is still getting her meal."

Bethany reached out to pat my daughter on the head. "She's done. If she wasn't she'd have started crying when you turned. I can take her home for you."

I nodded and gently lifted Madoka up. Once I had her face in front of mine, I smiled. "Auntie Bethy will take you home, my love," I said with a smile. Madoka returned my smile and then burped, spraying me with spit.

I turned my head away as Kitty and Brittany giggled. "She got you good," Brittany gasped out.

"My fault," I answered as Bethany took her from my arms. I reached out as someone thrust a towel into my hands. "I shouldn't have done that before burping my daughter," I said as I scrubbed my face with the towel.

Janice waited only a moment longer and then grabbed at my arm. "We need to hurry. Someone should be watching what's going on right now."

I turned and pulled my arm from Janice's hands. "I'll get there first," I chirped as I took off out of the room in a sprint. As I passed through the doorway, I could hear Kitty and James laughing as Janice cursed in surprise.

I dashed into the hallway, behind me I could hear Janice's footsteps as she began running in an attempt to catch up. Part of me wanted to laugh, but I concentrated on running as quickly as I could.

The hallways were busy, and I had to twist and spin to avoid a number of collisions. I worried that Janice would catch up, but she had even more trouble than I did, and I was about ten feet ahead of her when I reached the door to the refuge.

The door opened at my touch. I bent over for a moment, gasping to catch my breath. Janice caught up and stepped inside before turning to glare at me. "You cheated," she hissed.

"Of course," I replied calmly as I walked past her. "It was my only chance if I wanted to beat you here."

"Does it matter?" Janice asked.

"Nope," I replied with aplomb. "It doesn't mean anything at all." I paused and smiled at her. "But it sure was fun."

Janice started to laugh. She shook for a moment as she stood and then turned to face me. She had a huge smile on her face. "Fine. I'll just get you back later tonight. We'll pull out the racing game and I'll crush you. But for now..."

"Which room?"' I asked. "I wasn't aware that we'd set up a viewing room here."

"Upstairs," Janice said. "Well, up the grav elevator. We don't use it much."

"So, it's been here for a while?' I asked, as we walked over to the purple circle that marked the grav elevator. "I never noticed."

"If it doesn't involve James, Madoka or one of your sister concubines, you don't notice anything immediately," a voice called out. I spun to see Lindsay standing there. She was holding her daughter on her hip and had a huge smile on her face.

"I'm sorry," I gasped. "But right now..."

"Oh, I'll go with you," Lindsay said. "It seems like it just might be interesting."

We all moved to the grav elevator and rode its beam to the upper floor. Once there, Janice led me to a door that stood alone along one wall. She went inside first. "AI, please display the current location of Alexis and Brad and include audio. If they have separated, we'll need to activate two screens."

"They are together and in the visitors lounge," the AI replied as a wall lit up. I could see a single table in the middle of the screen. Several people sat around the table, but I decided to find a place to sit before taking a closer look.

This room was set up with a number of small tables, much like the lounge we were looking at. The difference here was that the tables were much lower and the chairs were heavily padded recliners. I giggled as Janice chose a chair in the middle of the room and pointed at the other two at the same table. "Come sit," she called out.

"This is almost like the theatre," I said in a whisper as I took a closer look at the screen.

Not that I was able to take a closer look. I could see five people sitting around the table. Brad and Alexis sat next to each other. Alexis was at Brad's right, and to her right was Captain Travis. To Brad's left were a couple of marines wearing uniforms I did not recognize. The markings suggested that both men were not officers, but they seemed to show that they had some authority or experience. However, the bigger surprise was that the fabric seemed to be abnormally thick.

"Who are we looking at?" Lindsay asked.

"Brad and Alexis agreed to talk to Captain Travis after the show," I said. "James is a bit worried. I don't recognize the other two marines. They have funny uniforms too."

"Quiet," Janice hissed. "Let's listen, perhaps they will reveal what is going on."

We quieted. For a moment there was silence, but then one of the two male marines leaned back and spoke. "Sorry if we interrupted a private conversation."

Brad shrugged. "We were just answering a few questions for Captain Travis here. I think she got the answers she was looking for."

"Looking for?" Captain Travis said with a shake of her head. "Not hardly. But then again I don't know what I was looking for. The whole concubine system confuses me. But at my last stop at Borneo after I was transferred to the command of Cabo, I heard there was a class about being a concubine. Supposedly it's really helped several households. I was wondering if the people on Ishtar use the same system."

"David's class?" one of the marines asked.

"Who?' Captain Travis asked.

"My Michelle took the class," the marine said. 'At least she did if it's the class you are talking about. Some concubine named David teaches it."

"They let a concubine teach a class?" Alexis asked.

"Let?" the other marine replied. "After Jace here allowed Michelle to go, I tried to sign up one of my concubines. The class has a waiting list now. Tribune Walesca supposedly asked David to teach. He also reportedly begged David's owner to not take him when she's on tours."

"His owner is in the navy then?" Brad asked.

"That's what I hear," Jace said. "Michelle doesn't talk all that much about him or the rest of the household he belongs to; although the hints she does give suggest that it's a very close group. She admits that she was surprised by a lot of the lessons."

Captain Travis sighed. "I just want to fix some mistakes I made. It's funny, it took meeting Jen to realize that I was almost as unapproachable as she was when she owned me."

"Owned you?" a new voice said. Another marine entered the picture. He grabbed the back of a chair at a neighboring table and spun it around before sitting on it backward. "What do you mean, this Jen owned you?"

Captain Travis blushed. "I didn't have a qualifying score when I was picked up. However, there is some rule that allows any concubine to retest on their birthday. Jen put all of her concubines through special training and had us retest. On my first retest I scored a seven six."

"That's impossible," the new marine spat. "There is no way to retest."

Brad held up a hand. "Actually that does make sense. I know that retesting is allowed for criminals. How about we ask the AI?"

"Any concubine can retest on their birthday," the AI intoned. 'It is one of two ways a concubine can be granted a retest. The other would be if a concubine displayed heroic behavior in a crisis."

"I have never heard of this," the new marine spat again. "It's wrong for concubines to retest. They are concubines."

"They are people," Brad said. "They still have feelings, hopes and dreams. They deserve a lot of respect."

"Why?" Jace's friend asked.

Alexis had been quiet, but leaned forward. "It's not that complex Lucas," she said. "It's true that the concubines won't be picking up weapons and charging into a Sa'arm nest to kill them, but they still can do a lot to help us win. That was one of the great lessons of World War Two back on Earth. A huge part of why the war went the way it did was the way the civilian populations of each of the participants reacted. In the US, the civilians threw everything they could into supporting the war effort and that made a huge difference."