Chapter 8

“So, how’s your lunch, babe?” I asked Margret as we ate together yet again, being very pleased at this latest turn of events.

“Are you fucking kidding me, dear? This meatball marinara sub is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and you know it, too! I love a good hoagie!” my sexy boss assured me as she tore into her sub yet again.

“This cheesesteak ain’t half-bad, either. What about you, Stace?” I asked the sassy brunette concubine who had been one of my first lovers among this group.

“God, yes! This club sub ... fucking awesome! What about you, Ollie? Ollie... ?” Stacey noticed that her husband was a bit distracted.

Then we saw it ... the fucking grey shield outside the sub shop. It was a pickup. Shit, I thought! Marian was still at work! How the fuck were we to pick my sweet ebony girl if she was still at the buffet working her shift? I really panicked now. What if we got a stubborn bastard like the one that failed to pick up Ashley! Oh, shit!

“Excuse me, please! I am Sergeant Désirée Auvray of the Confederacy Marines. This is my partner, Corporal Talbot Hirsch. I understand that we have some prepacks here, and I have been sent to extract them. In fact, we have a bonus pair of prepacks, all the more reason to do the pickup in this location. Will George, Steve George, Arlene Harris, Jack Martin, and Zoe Mancuso, please step forward. Now, does everyone have their complete prepack with them?” the statuesque and deceptively strong Frenchwoman informed us all.

“Um ... I’m missing one of my prospective concubines from my own prepack,” I waved my card and introduced myself, “I’m Jack Martin. These are my other concubines from the prepack: Ollie and Stacey Hancock, Julianne Kavanagh, Rosa and Flora Torres. The sixth concubine, Marian Willis, she’s still working her shift at the buffet across the street there, you see.”

“Ah, well, we can’t have that. AI, please locate prospective concubine Marian Willis,” the French sergeant instructed the AI, which began scanning Marian.

“Ms. Willis is actually on transit to this location, having been delayed unexpectedly by a disgruntled patron. I will collapse the field temporarily, but then must recreate it in a hurry. Please have the sponsor notify his concubine of this, so that she can enter in haste. It is especially important in her present condition,” the AI coolly informed us.

“Condition?” I asked now.

“Subject Marian Willis, prospective concubine, is currently less than 24 hours into the fertilization process. Spermatozoa from multiple male subjects have resulted in two simultaneous penetrations of ova in said subject, albeit from two different donors. The DNA contributed by both males appear to be of phenotypes distinct from that of the female subject, but similar to each other’s by comparison. Such a subject is particularly useful, despite her non-qualifying, non-citizen status. She is a prime concubine candidate, and if so already selected by the sponsor Jack Marvin is an especially worthy choice for him, especially as she has demonstrable leadership qualities drawn from her experience in management,” the AI rambled at length, but made its point nonetheless ... Marian was pregnant with twins!

“That settles that, doesn’t it?” Sergeant Auvray commented in her heavily accented English, having temporarily lost control of the situation.

I dialed Marian’s number and quickly got a hold of her, “Marian, babe, they’re going to collapse the field briefly, but then you need to hurry inside, dear. I badly want to take you with me, anyway, and I know that you want to come.”

“That I do,” Marian laughed as she audibly relaxed, no longer having lost her chance to be extracted ... it was clearly a weight off her shoulders.

Just like that, the field was briefly collapsed, and Marian rushed through the door of the sub shop to greet me.

“Sorry I missed lunch, guys,” she told me, “A disgruntled customer held me back until I got her satisfaction.”

“I would not recommend denying the subject here sustenance, especially as she is pregnant and we now have more time for collection. This is the last pickup in this sector until further notice, thanks to growing Earth First activity in this part of town. Future sponsors and concubines would be advised to go elsewhere for an extraction,” Auvray told the AI, taking charge again.

“I concur with your assessment of that particular situation, Sergeant,” the AI answered, “Subject need not have ‘missed lunch,’ to quote the colloquialism used here.”

“Go ahead and eat, but first please confirm whether or not you indeed wish to be registered as a concubine to Mr. Martin, Ms. Willis,” the sergeant urged the newly arrived concubine.

“I do,” Marian said it as if it were her wedding vows instead of registration as private property, which was comforting to me and others in a way ... I would much rather think of them as submissive spouses than as true slaves, especially with the racial and historical context that made the notion of slavery uncomfortable to all of us.

“Confirmed. Marian Willis is now registered as a concubine of Jack Martin,” the AI announced.

“Please confirm the intentions of your other prospects, Mr. Martin,” Sergeant Auvray turned to me.

“So, Stacey, Ollie, Julianne, Flora, and Rosa, do you all wish to be my concubines as well? Please tell them, if so,” I urged my other five candidates.

“Hell, yes!” Stacey shouted.

“Yes!” Ollie was unusually assertive.

“God, yes!” Julianne cursed.

“Si, senor!” Flora answered in Spanish, knowing that the AI could understand and presumably everyone else did in this area.

“Dios mio, si!” Rosa also spoke Spanish in response, if more profanely.

“Confirmed, then. Ollie and Stacey Hancock, Julianne Kavanagh, Rosa and Flora Torres are now all registered as concubines of Jack Martin,” the AI informed us, making all of my concubines very relieved to be mine ... I’d never known any people so eager to become chattel in my life!

Meanwhile, Marian grabbed her some grub, but as soon as I tried to buy it for her, as she was one of my partners now, the clerk told her, “Your money’s no good here. I hope to get picked up, too, if I can piggyback, so I’m going to risk even my job to do so. Worst case, I have to move back in with Mom.”

“Is your mother still of an age to be extracted?” Auvray asked the cashier, whose nametag read, “Amanda.”

“No, I’m afraid not. She’s actually my grandmother by birth, but she adopted me when my birth mother couldn’t raise me. Sad state of affairs, as she’s a great woman, Mom, not my birth mother. Birth mom’s in prison for armed robbery.”

“Very well, then. If we get an opening for a supernumerary, I’ll recommend you first. You’re clearly the right stuff for it,” the sergeant assured her.

“Affirmative. Sergeant. Jack Martin has just been awarded Amanda Lopez as a supernumerary, as per her stated desire to be extracted, provided that she explicitly consent to this, due to his quick thinking and action to protect his concubine, Marian Willis. You and Corporal Hirsch will also be awarded supernumeraries, as will the other sponsors who have yet to confirm their concubines, but only one per sponsor,” the AI stated, much to our pleasant surprise.

“Yes, I’d love to be his concubine!” Amanda cheered, the relief quite obvious on her lovely Filipina face.

“Then it is confirmed. Amanda Lopez is now the seventh concubine of Jack Martin,” the AI informed us.

“Alright then, who next? Zoe Mancuso, collect your two concubines!” Auvray instructed Zoe, who quickly led Larry and Ashley up to her.

“This is my husband, Larry... , “ Zoe was about to say his old name, but Larry chimed in instead.

“Mancuso. We’ve been in a wife-led marriage and she’s saving my hide, so I’m happy to take her name instead of her taking mine,” Larry declared, bringing a wide grin to his wife’s face.

“You’re going to be soooo rewarded for that, mister!” Zoe told her husband, who blushed a little now, “And this is my other concubine, Ashley Vernon, who Jack handpicked for me, but whose selection pleases me very much. She is my former boss’s niece, as it happens. I look forward to watching her get bred by the various men of the group.”

“Do you two wish to become concubines? Bear in mind that, as of this moment, Mr. Mancuso, you’re already divorced from your wife. You can either become her concubine or have no relationship with her at all, in effect. Your call, though I recommend becoming her concubine, as you seem inclined to do. And you, Ms. Vernon? What is your decision? This is an irrevocable choice, either way,” Auvray confronted both of them.

“Completely. I wish to be hers for life and I am utterly devoted to serving her. I have always been a submissive, deep down, so becoming hers for life is the best news that ever happened to me,” Larry smiled as Zoe gave him a very deep kiss.

“I do not know her as well as Larry does, but any sponsor who treats her concubines with such affection can’t be half-bad. I totally commit to this. I am hers now and am willing to take a chance on her. Claim me, please, Zoe. I belong to you now,” Ashley encouraged Zoe, who winked at her and blew her a kiss.

“Confirmed. Larry Mancuso and Ashley Vernon are now registered as concubines of Zoe Mancuso, who is also entitled to a supernumerary, as noted before. In the interests of simplicity and efficiency, she now has the opportunity claim said supernumerary, should she choose,” the AI announced as we finished our meal, quite hungry indeed, knowing that it was our last on Earth.

“Please ... please take me, Ms. Mancuso!” another patron, a mother of six, pleaded with Zoe, while I gave the thumbs-up: a maternal type was exactly what she needed in her absence to help calm and soothe things in Zoe’s household ... plus her desperation should make her nice and compliant.

“What do you think, Jack?” Zoe looked at me, even as the man sitting with the young mom grimaced and scowled at both of us.

“Claim her. Ignore him. He’s clearly not gonna make the grade, but she’s hardly a lost cause. She’s putting the kids first, just as he should be. Hell, he should have found them both a sponsor together, but he’s either too lazy or proud for that. In fact, she’s such an obvious breeder that you should have Larry, me, and Ollie work as a team to breed her all over again,” I noted that Zoe asked me, not her husband (okay, ex-husband) for my counsel, as was right, since I was now her co-sponsor.

“What’s your name and let me see your CAP card,” Zoe insisted, while the man with her grunted a bit.

“I’m ... Evie Douglas. Short for Evelyn, but you get the idea. These are my children, Boaz, Ruth, Naomi, Esther, Deborah, and Caleb. Yes, all Bible names, of course. This is my ... husband, Joseph. He’s probably already contemplating his revenge in case you don’t pick me. It won’t be pretty. Some kind of church discipline, to put it mildly, and worse at home. We’re ... Christians, you see. Independent, fundamentalist Baptists, to be precise. My husband’s a deacon, too, and my father-in-law’s minister of music.

“I no longer care. Even if it damns me, I will save my children. If God really cares about us, he should find a way to save us from the Swarm. If he doesn’t, then he isn’t who I was taught to worship, and I don’t have to worry about him. I’ve had doubts about the Bible ever since the President’s Speech. Aliens don’t mesh well with Scripture, at least not as I was taught to believe in it. Joseph, do your worst. You still won’t get the kids, and yes, I’m getting the divorce that I want. There’s nothing that you can do about it.

“Look on the bright side, though. You get to keep all of the things that you love so much, and no doubt Martha Dunbar will be quick to offer you solace, since you crave her and only don’t touch her for fear, not love or devotion. Now you’ll have Scriptural grounds for divorce, as I will have left you. You can remarry and get the perfect Christian Stepford wife of your dreams, which Martha clearly longs to be. Oh, and go to Hell!” Evie shocked us all, as she showed her CAP card to Zoe.

“5.6, held back by low aggression scores, but it’s clear that one won’t stay down in the future, judging by this. She’s also adversely impacted by a lack of sexual knowledge, but this is offset slightly by a curiosity about such things. She has very high motherhood scores and her loyalty scores are at least decent, higher regarding family than most other people, at least,” Auvray observed, impressed overall with how high it was despite such an unpromising background ... Bible thumpers usually scored much lower than that.

“You bitch!” Joseph tried to grab Evie and forcibly take her back but was stopped by Hirsch, who stunned him instantly with his weapon, causing a hush among the crowd for now ... the message was clear to all: don’t fuck with me.

“You want to be Ms. Mancuso’s concubine, then?” Auvray turned to Evie, who smiled in spite of, or perhaps because of, what happened to her husband.