Chapter 99

Dear Will,

Your letters are getting depressing. I think you've been away from your ladies too long. That and the fact that you appear to be completely lost can't help much. How you got that lost I'll never figure out. I thought ships had to be facing the direction they were going to go once they left a system. I could understand if you came out from the jump too early or late you might be outside the system, but I can't see how you would be totally off course.

And I have no idea how your letter managed to arrive at Wadi. If you are truly lost how could the drone know where to go. It sounds most likely that your ship just had to leave the jump at the wrong time and once you get repairs completed you'll continue on your way home. At least I can hope that you will be with your family soon, from the letters they send they all love and miss you.

I can't help you any more with that though. What little I know about travel in space is based on my experiences moving to Darling Downs and then returning to Wadi, but while I was always invited to watch from the bridge, I usually would stay in my cabin or sit in the concubines barrack and chat with some of the concubines. They do tell interesting stories. I wrote a bit about the Tradition. I've learned that not all of the citizens follow the Tradition, but many do. The ones that do have happier concubines, and what I'd guess is actually a rather healthy relationship.

Its funny, I think I can say more about your complaints about concubines being "chattel" than I can about your current predicament regarding your current location in space. (Heck, I don't have a TARDIS or know anyone who does – this non sequetor comes thanks to Commander Blackthorn who held a marathon showing of Doctor Who.) But anyways, your complaints about how things work for the concubines isn't accurate. First, everyone who left Earth took a risk and for the citizens who have become warriors, the risk is higher than you might think. Wadi has seen ten percent of its warriors die fighting the Sa'arm. Sure not all of them get thrown into the replicators since we can't always retrieve the bodies, but They end up as meat all the same. Especially the ones who end up harvested by the Sa'arm. We do all we can to prevent that, but sometimes we are forced to retreat so quickly that we cannot gather up all the bodies. It's frustrating when it happens.

As for you comment about the rules changing. It sounds like that even though you have several Civil Service officers on Atlantisat they are struggling to provide a good foundation for the relationships. Louisa pointed it out to me when I was puzzling how to reply to your letter. She said that Erica and I have never changed the rules in the household, and that we had established not only a clear and easy to understand set of rules, but that our rules were designed to make everyone's life a little better. That is supposed to be the core of the concubine system.

Will, it's not about the sex.

It's not about "owning" the concubines.

It's about the fact that the warriors need something to fight for, and family is probably the strongest bond most humans can have. You need to read a bit of history. Specifically anthropology and a study of more primitive human cultures.

I know that might be confusing, but I told you about the fact we have a Sergeant who was a professor of marine biology. We also have a young man who was working on a doctorate degree in anthropology. His final thesis was going to be on the structure of the tribal system in ancient Africa. He's talked quite a bit about how what he learned there fits the situation today. He pointed out that the original community in most societies was a family unit. Even today most of the population on Earth still is more loyal to family and perhaps clan before they were loyal to anything else. In a strange way the aliens of the Confederacy found the best way to insure that humans would be naturally loyal. We are being given an instant family unit which we will naturally want to fight for and be loyal to. That's a huge reason why many concubines will be distressed when their owner dies, even if they weren't treated all that well.

Heck, its why arranged marriages tend to work better than people might expect. Even though the family connections are forced, the cultures tend to also understand that family needs to be the most important part of the marriage. That is what we don't quite have with the concubine system. Too many people, such as yourself, try to find a commonality with modern Western values, but we can't really make that work. The new paradigm needs to look back in time for its inspiration. In many ways the citizens are like the kings of old, they have responsibilities, to their people (concubines) and to the country (the Confederacy), but in exchange they get to have multiple wives (concubines). In fact, I'd say that you need to try to teach that. Not that rules can't change. They need to change over time and they need to be designed to improve the lot of concubines just a bit.