Chapter 125

Dear Marissa,

Ouch, I remember how I got when Erica and I were assigned to Darling Downs. If I had been alone rather than with the sister and spouse of my heart, I would have been climbing the walls with how horny I would have become. It seems like surviving a fight always leaves me needing an orgasm or three, but I would have wanted someone I love to share the moment with me.

Of course, it got worse once Erica was arrested and I had to sail home alone. That month was torture. I had no lover with me, and worse couldn't know if I'd ever see my dearest dear again. If you feel the same about Will the time until he returns will be torture. I've written him and reminded him that he should be putting all of his effort into returning to you.

I guess I can understand a bit about the fear of the AI that you and Will have, but it doesn't work the same for me. Erica and I don't really interact with the AI often. We are warriors and other than having to trust that the directions given to us on where to find the Sa'arm are accurate, there is little direct interaction with the AI for us. The tank design and manufacturing is stable, so the AI isn't involved unless someone is testing a new feature, but Erica and I are never used for a test bed. Colonel Frost says we are too important to missions to give us weapons that might not work.

I was a bit surprised to hear that your concubines are working on a musical. I guess this is something happy concubines do. I've told you about Violet and her work on new songs and several new videos. She's gotten the whole harem involved in those. Erica and I try to avoid watching until they are ready.

However, I think I also told you about what I discovered on Ishtar, where the concubines there apparently perform regularly for visiting ship crews. So that is at least three groups of concubines on three different planets working on or performing music. I get a feeling there are more.

Of course, that fits what I've tried to tell my brother. Sure the concubine system seems a bit unnatural, especially to someone who grew up in America. After all, it seemed like all of the television dramas made for teens were all about finding multiple partners, and never been part of anything lasting. I'm sure that most of the writers believed that "free love" and "no permanent ties" was the ultimate in relationships. However, with the Confederacy we have something quite the opposite.

Think about it, anyone leaving Earth as part of the Confederacy is accepting that they will be part of a permanent multi-partner relationship where one person will clearly have a dominant role. For humanity it really isn't all that unusual. Most of human history has shown that people in positions of power and wealth often had multiple wives and concubines. Sure few of them had the relationships be quite as polyamorous as a Confederacy household tends to be, or at least Erica and I found no reference to that in our studies of history. (We're bored! We're both five months pregnant and have been banished from our tank until we give birth. So we have been reading a lot about human relationships through the ages. It gives us something to do besides tease Violet and Bree.)