Chapter 2: Leaving

Me? I'm Carlos, though I ain't Carlos Higuera no more. These days I'm Carlos Rodriguez, and I don't drive a bus no more either.

Sorry, I need to take a short time out here, the dumbass AI is trying to correct my English. Yes, you moron computer, I know "ain't" ain't proper English, but I'm going to say it that way 'cause I want to, OK?

I figured the dumb sat-nav was bad, back when I was driving buses. The AIs here are even dumber. I ignored the sat-nav then and I ignore the AIs now. Worse than my English teachers in high school.

So, back to my story. I guess this is the end of the story, as we're all here on Waller and settled in. Things are good. They ain't perfect, but they ain't bad either. They're sure enough different. Some stuff is better than back on Earth and other stuff isn't (see, you moron computer, I can do it right when I want to). A lot of stuff is just different. It took me a lot of work to get used to things here. I wouldn't have done it without Maria, or Carlita, or Kim, or Lupe. All of them were a big help.

That's the end of my story, so now you don't need to go to the last page to see what happened: "And they all lived happily ever after." Mostly, anyway. This is still real life, not a Disney story.

The beginning? Well...

It was just a short bus trip into California and back to Reno, no overnight in Oregon. We picked everyone up at the high school. Miguel and Pilar looked happy. Dee was sad -- she'd just had to say goodbye to her family. Same for Kim, she didn't look happy either but tried to hide it. She sat next to Dee so they could comfort each other.

Mike was my relief that day, so he was driving when we crossed the state line back into Nevada. Leona did her usual thing getting the passengers through the transporter. She took our two groups last. First Miguel, with Pilar and Dee as concubines and Tomas as his dependent. Then Carlita, with me, Maria, Lupe and Kim as concubines and with Rosamaria and Alvaro as dependents.

Like always, Leona got our consents before she let us through the transporter. "Do you, Carlos Higuera, agree to become the concubine of Carlita Rodriguez?"

I was the last one she asked and I was dreading the question. Up to then I was my own man. OK, I was married to Maria, but that was different. I was selling myself into slavery to save my children. Worth the price? Hell, yes. Was Carlita a good sponsor? Yes. Was I terrified? Sure I was. Who wouldn't be? Everything was gonna be different on the other side of that transporter. I swallowed, took a deep breath and said, "Yes." I was a slave.

Leona smiled and told me, "You'll be fine, Carlos. Just follow orders. I know you can do that."

Easy for her to say, she wasn't a concubine. I stepped forward onto the transporter after the others.

We arrived in a white corridor; very clean, very clinical, with doors down the right hand side. There was an Asian woman in a blue uniform talking to Carlita. I could see Miguel and his family further down the corridor, turning into one of the doors. Carlita led us off, "We're in room nine," she told us. The woman in blue turned back towards the transporter disc, waiting for the next group to arrive from wherever.

Room nine was small with no chairs, so we all had to stand. There was a little slot by a small replicator on the right hand wall and a second door in the far wall. It was all white except for the light gray slot and replicator. Clean and clinical again.

A voice came from somewhere, "You are Sponsor Carlita Rodriguez?"

"Yes, I am," Carlita replied.

"Please insert your CAP card and the CAP cards of your concubines into the slot to your right."

Carlita already had all our cards, Leona had made sure of that on the bus. She fed them into the slot.

"Sponsor Carlita Rodriguez confirmed," the voice said. "Four concubines confirmed. Concubine Carlos Rodriguez, formerly Higuera..."

Shocked, I turned towards Maria. She looked just as bad as I felt.

The unemotional voice carried on, "Concubine Maria Rodriguez, formerly Higuera. Concubine Guadalupe Rodriguez, formerly Higuera. Concubine Kim Rodriguez, formerly Valdez."

Kim took it the worst. Being with Dee had helped her during the bus ride, but Dee wasn't here now. Kim burst into tears and cried on Lupe's shoulder. Lupe's a good girl and she hugged Kim to try to calm her down. I think it helped Lupe get over her shock as well. I held Maria's hand. We weren't married any more, we weren't free any more and we didn't even have our own names any more. Could things get any worse?

The voice ignored our reactions and continued as if nothing had happened, "I detect two dependents present. Please confirm their identities, Sponsor Carlita Rodriguez."

"They are Rosamaria Higuera and Alvaro Higuera," Carlita told the voice. It was a small comfort that she was allowing our kids to keep their own names. I was standing behind Carlita, so I couldn't see her face, but I think she was as shocked as we were.

"Two dependents confirmed. Dependent Rosamaria Higuera, age twelve, assigned to Sponsor Carlita Rodriguez. Dependent Alvaro Higuera, age eleven, assigned to Sponsor Carlita Rodriguez."

I could see that Maria was close to tears. Hearing 'assigned to Sponsor Carlita Rodriguez' had really got to her. She'd lost her freedom, she'd lost her husband, she'd lost her name and now she was losing her children. I copied Lupe and held my wife -- no, my ex-wife -- in my arms. We both needed someone to hold onto.

The voice was talking again, but it was something for Carlita so I didn't bother listening. Right then Maria was far more important. The replicator pinged and Carlita took a couple of things out of it, a new CAP card and a smartphone. Only one CAP card, for her. Us concubines didn't even rate a CAP card any more.

The second door opened and we followed Carlita out. What a pesadilla that was, a real nightmare. I never wanted to see room nine ever again.

Carlita looked at her phone and led us off to the left along a second corridor. Lupe still had her arm around Kim's shoulder while I held Maria's hand. We arrived in another white room, this one with a lot of metal pods down both sides. It looked like something out of a science-fiction movie, which was about right. At least there was a real person here and not that damned voice. He was in white with that snake-around-a-stick logo on his tunic, so he looked like some sort of nurse.

"Welcome to medical," he greeted Carlita. "You are Carlita Rodriguez and family?"

"Yes, that's us."

"The AI reports no special medical conditions."

"Right," she confirmed, "nothing important."

"Good. You'll all get the basic stuff for sponsor, concubine or dependent," he explained. "Enhancements will come later. This is just to make sure nobody drops dead from a heart attack or whatever. Stupid to lose you just after we get you here." He noticed the bags we were carrying. "You all got stuff you want to keep?"

"Yes," Carlita told him.

"OK, put the bags under your tube, but don't put anything you want to keep in the red bins. Clothes go in those and your concubines won't get them back."

I knew we'd lose our clothes soon after we arrived. This was obviously where it happened.

He started with the kids. They stripped and got into their tubes. I saw that Rosamaria was getting embarrassed, so I turned my back until she was in her tube. The kids had green bins, not red ones, under their tubes. My tube had a red bin of course. I wanted to keep my wristwatch because it was a present from Rosamaria for my last birthday. For the rest, I was wearing my driver's uniform so it went into the red bin. I probably wasn't gonna to need it any more, and if I did the Confederacy could easily make me a new one. I was out like a light before the top finished closing.

When I woke up the lid was opening. Everyone except Carlita was already finished.

"You had some slightly clogged arteries, which we're clearing, and mild hypertension," the nurse told me. "Apart from that you're in pretty good shape for your age." He handed me a pair of flip-flops together with a gray shift to put on; not much of a replacement for my old clothes. It was very short. I was gonna have to be careful not to show more than I wanted to show. "You have to wear the shift whenever you're outside your apartment," he told me.

The kids were back in their clothes. Maria was in a shift like mine, barely long enough to keep her covered. It looked as bad as the rumors back on Earth had said it would be. Even I could tell it was a fashion disaster, and I ain't no judge of fashion. She was showing a lot more leg than she usually did. Kim and Lupe were in shifts too, but I was used to seeing Lupe's legs. Some of the shorts she wore to school...

The nurse took me over to a replicator in the wall where he fitted me with a collar. "This lets you talk to the AI, and it to you," he told me. "It will guide you around the place and open doors for you. It will also keep you out of areas you shouldn't go. Take it off for washing or when you're in bed. Otherwise don't remove it without permission, nasty things will happen."

"How nasty?" I asked.

"They range from very painful to terminal. Don't even try."

OK, I got the message: the collar stayed on. I could see that he had a collar as well, so he was a fellow concubine. That meant there were some jobs for us to do outside our families. I wondered if they'd need bus drivers where we were going?

As I walked back to join the others, I paused to pick up my bag and Rosamaria's watch from under the tube.

Alvaro came over to me, "Look Papa, I've got this new cell. I can talk to it."

He held out his wrist with a band on it, very like my new collar.

"That's very nice, Alvaro," I told him. "It looks like my collar."

"Yes, Papa. Mama, Lupe and Kim have collars as well. Rosamaria has another wrist cell like me. I don't like your new clothes. I think your old ones were better."

Thanks for telling me that, Alvaro. It's not like I hadn't noticed. "This is all I have now, so I can't wear anything else," I told him.

He just nodded, "Oh, OK."

Just then Carlita's tube opened and saved me from more of Alvaro's comments. She got a proper uniform, green since she'd volunteered as a Marine. No collar for her of course. Something I couldn't see startled her and she started talking to herself. I didn't understand what was happening, so I waited with the others. I'd moved to the back of our group so none of them were looking at me. I still wasn't comfortable in my new shift. The women seemed to take it better, they were more used to wearing skirts or dresses.

Carlita led us off to our next destination. She didn't have the smartphone with her any more, but she seemed to know the way. We arrived in a theater, though the film hadn't started. No ads, no popcorn and no trailers either. We all sat down in a row with me at one end, next to Alvaro.

"What is this place, Papa?" he asked me.

I didn't get the chance to answer; the thing on his wrist beeped and he held it near his ear. I could just about hear it, "This is Lecture Theater Three. Please sit quietly until the presentation starts, Dependent Alvaro Higuera."

"Sounds like we wait, Alvaro," I told him. He nodded and looked around. I could see Carlita waving to someone sitting nearer the front; it was Miguel. He turned around and waved back to her. He spoke to Pilar, Dee and Tomas and they turned and waved as well. I could see a few other faces that seemed familiar from the bus. There were others who hadn't been on it, not on my bus anyway. This audience was obviously a mix of people from different places. Probably all new arrivals, like us and Miguel.

The lights dimmed and the big screen showed a man in a blue uniform sitting behind a desk. "Hello and welcome all of you to Tycho Base on the moon. We have up to half-a-million people here in Tycho Base, so we need to tell you the rules you must follow. What I have to say will seem blunt and rude, but believe me it is necessary. We must make things very clear to you because we treat disobedience very seriously.

"First, orders. Those of you who are sponsors are now under military discipline and must obey orders. If you are a trainee private, then anybody in a uniform outranks you. If you are a trainee officer, then any other officer outranks you, and we strongly recommend that you follow advice from any experienced enlisted man.

"Concubines, you must do whatever your sponsor says. You should usually do what other sponsors say as well, with very few exceptions. For most purposes you do what any sponsor tells you.

"Second, dress code. This applies to everybody when you are outside your quarters. Sponsors will wear their uniform: green for Marines, black for Navy, blue for Fleet Auxiliary and gray for Civil Service.

"Most of you listening to me now are in pre-packs, so the concubines here are already attached to a sponsor. Attached concubines, of both sexes, will wear the regulation gray shift while in public..."

There was a sound of rustling as people got the message. Some of them had taken off their shifts and were quickly putting them back on. Stupid. They'd warned everybody that us concubines had to do what we were told. If they couldn't even do that then why the hell had they agreed to be concubines?

The talking head on the screen froze; someone had stopped the playback during the distraction. They must have had a lot of canned talks ready to show if there were half-a-million evacuees here. That's a lot of people to talk to.

Once everyone got settled again, the recording continued. "Unattached concubines, of both sexes, must remain naked while in the public areas of the base. This allows sponsors to tell at a glance which concubines are available for selection and which are not. All concubines must wear their collars all the time. Your collar is coded to you personally, so do not try to exchange collars with another concubine. We will punish both of you if you try it.

"Dependents wear their own clothes. Rarely, you may see an adult in civilian clothes with a red armband. That person is neither a sponsor nor a concubine, but will shortly be returned to Earth. They do not have sponsor rights, nor should they be treated as concubines.

"What you wear in your apartments is up to your sponsors, but in public everyone has to conform to the Base dress code.

"Third, selecting concubines. Sponsors of incomplete pre-packs can select from the unattached concubine pool here in the Base. Unattached concubines are kept naked, so you can tell who they are. You can ask the AI for suggestions for a good match. The AI has a lot of data on which combinations would work for you and which wouldn't. Think of it as a very sophisticated computer dating service. We strongly recommend that you make use of it. Facilities for interviews and test drives are available, just ask the AI. Do not take too long to fill your allocation. If you are too slow, then we may assign someone to you. Our choice, not yours.

"Once you have your full complement of concubines, we will give you a little time here for the new people to integrate into your family. Pre-packs that arrived complete will not get the extra time, because you already know one another from Earth. Once integrated, families will ship out to their assigned colonies."

I could see that meant Carlita and the rest of us wouldn't be here on the moon for long. No point in us getting too well settled in.

The talking head was still talking, "Fourth, training. All of you need training. Sponsors need to learn their new role in their chosen service. Concubines need to learn their new duties. Dependents need to continue their schooling. There are sleep-trainers in your apartments as well as lectures and other educational activities. The AIs will assign each of you your personal training schedules. Follow them.

"Fifth, sex. Sponsors can have sex with their own concubines how they want, when they want and in whatever combination they want. Concubines have sex with any adult their sponsor tells them to, or allows them to. Sponsors cannot demand sex from concubines they don't own. If she belongs to someone else, then you must get her sponsor's permission first. If she's unattached, that is she's naked in public, then you can ask her for a test drive. She can say no, and you have to accept what she says. You won't pick her for your harem, but you don't own her so you can't force her into a test drive. Just like in a normal extraction down on Earth, she can refuse.

"Dependents under thirteen don't have sex. At all. Ever. We'll execute you if you do, regardless of whether you're a sponsor or a concubine. Do that and you're dead. Parenting is OK of course, so you can wash the young ones in the bath, but you only get to do what a parent should do. Thirteen-year-olds can do more. Only with their consent and limited to kissing, blow-jobs..."

Alvaro interrupted me, "What's a blow-job, Papa?"

"Later, Alvaro. Listen to the man." I managed to dodge that one this time. Knowing the way the Confederacy treated sex, he'd soon be learning what a blow-job was in sex-ed classes at his new school.

We turned back to the screen, where the video was still running, "Finally, questions. This is a recording, so you will have to direct any questions you have to the AI through your internal link or your collar. Almost every question you can think of has already been asked, so the AI has the answer. Thank you for listening and remember to do what you're told. Good luck all of you in your new lives."

The talking head had warned us that he'd be blunt and he had been. Lots of rules to follow and threats of punishment to back them up. It was what we'd been told to expect back on Earth, but it was still a shock. They were throwing a lot of new stuff at us very quickly and it was a rush to get hold of it all.

The screen went blank and one of those disembodied voices came, "You will all remain seated until told to move." Those voices had to be AIs; somehow they just didn't sound right for a person. I could see the people at the front beginning to file out, so we wouldn't be waiting for long.

I bent down to pick up my bag and noticed my watch. Was I allowed to wear it? Remembering that the AI had answered Alvaro's question about this theater, I asked my collar, "AI, am I allowed to wear my watch?"

"You may wear small personal items, with your sponsor's permission," it replied.

I decided to ask Carlita the first chance I got, then my collar spoke again, "Concubine Carlos Rodriguez, your sponsor has given permission. You may wear your wristwatch."

Startled, I looked towards the other end of our group, where Carlita was sitting. She was looking at me, and smiled. Obviously the AI had talked to her somehow. I smiled back, waved my thanks, put my watch on and sat back until they told us to move.

The row in front of us had cleared, so I was expecting it when my collar said, "Concubine Carlos Rodriguez, stand up and move to the left hand end of the row."