Chapter 15

"Llew, it's my birthday in a few weeks, and by law, as a concubine I can retake my CAP test on my birthday. I wasn't allowed to last year, because you have to have held a CAP for a least a year before you can retake. Please will you allow me to retake it this time?"

It was a week after I had got Imogen pregnant, I'd just got in from work and Huw had collared me in my office.

I looked at him. "Just out of curiosity, if you do pass, what do you intend to do?"

"I want to join the Marines."

"Uh huh. And then what?"

"Exactly? Don't know. But what I do know is that I want to try and stop the dickheads from ever getting to Earth, so I want to go out there and join a combat unit facing them."

I looked at his serious face for a moment, then nodded.

"AI, in your considered opinion, is Concubine Huw Carter ready to retake a CAP test?"

There was a long pause. I guessed it was reviewing anything and everything that Huw had said and done since he had first declared his intentions to retake over a year earlier. "He is not certain to pass. Probability is about point seven."

I looked at Huw. "That's only a seventy percent chance of you passing according to the AI. You sure you're ready?"

"I believe so. Please?"

"You don't have to ask my permission you know. This is the only thing, as far as I am aware of, that you can demand of me."

"Yes, we know, but I'd rather have your permission."

I smiled slightly and nodded. "All right. I'll get Dad to help get you ready."

He nodded. "Dad's been working with me for ages. And I've been studying hard.

I nodded and called Roger into the room and told him what I wanted. Roger smiled and he and Huw left. Huw went into the sleep trainer that I still had in my pod. I still found it incredibly useful now and again, though I often ended up using it after I discovered I had already needed to have used it.

Roger came back a few minutes later. "Okay, Huw's in the trainer. I've given him a basic logic and philosophy course. It might seem quite theoretical, but Huw's always been quite impulsive, and I'm not sure that's always the best way to be. Logic should allow him to control his impulsive nature and philosophy should help to give him insights into what other people might think about a situation."

"Okay. If you say so."

"I do. I'll also give him some psychology as well, help him with leadership and delegation issues; both up and down." I nodded. "Now," continued Roger, "we had put me down to be Branny and Siân's next breeding partners, but in case Huw does go, I think it might be better if he was their next partner. Branny's anyway, Siân won't be ready until after he leaves. If he leaves."

"Okay. And for Janine or Stacy? The AI has reminded me it's time Janine was pregnant again."

He thought about it for a moment. "Leave them as they are. David for Joanne. No, sorry, not Joanne, Janine, Huw for Stacy. I know that means Huw could have three women pregnant, but we'll just have to go with that."

"Agreed. And we'll definitely go with four months between birth and next pregnancy, so Janine not for another twenty five days." Despite what the AI's said, none of us had been happy with getting the women pregnant again too soon after giving birth. We had initially gone with a three month gap, but recently Imogen, Janine and Roger had decided that for most of them even this was too short, so we had extended another month. I had simply rubber stamped their agreement, given it my blessing without worrying about it: first I wasn't the one being pregnant, and second I wasn't having to look after all the new kids. Janine was a brilliant mother to all the youngsters, even those not her own, and wonderful support to a new mother; so if she said a longer rest period was needed, then she, and they, got a longer rest period.

Roger had persuaded David to have body changes that made him look about nineteen again. Joanne had found it funny, and despite their avowals to refrain, had promptly jumped on him and had fucked him again. A month after Joanne had given birth to another baby girl, I allowed her to have the body changes she wanted, and that Melissa had denied her. I toned down her requests somewhat, but she was happy with the end result. After that she and her father, having been promised that they would never have to have sex again if they didn't want to, seemed to get together about once a month or so. That I did find gently amusing. But it was also beautiful and loving and sexy, and most definitely erotic.

Huw failed his test, but did come back with a huge grin on his face. "Six point four. Next year."

He was commiserated by all the women for not quite reaching his target, but congratulated on getting so close.

Some months later, Siân now two months pregnant with her second child, by Huw, asked me for her chance to retest. I gladly gave it. When I asked her what she wanted to do, she told me she wanted to remain here and become my assistant. I laughed. "Sounds good to me, in fact, if I can swing it, I think you should become my assistant anyway."

She just grinned and gave me a huge hug.

Ten days later, on her sixteenth birthday, she came back with a six point nine, and advice to retake it in two years.

"Oh how wonderful, babe," I told her, giving her a huge hug. "And in two years time they reckon you'll get better than seven?"

She nodded. "Dad reckons it's 'cos he spent all his time mentoring Huw that I only got a six nine. He reckons if he'd a been training me, I'd've got a seven five easily."

I laughed. "Almost certainly. You do realise though, that as you are no longer a concubine, this is no longer your home?"

She grinned. "Actually it is. I explicitly asked to have a joint home with you. I get two concubines because I'm in the six range, and you get two concubines, one to replace me, and one as a bonus for turning me into a sponsor."

"Oh god, I do don't I. So I get two more females, and you get one male and one female?"

"I think we have enough males for the moment. I'm just gonna get two females, and as we're all going to be living in a joint pod, we'll just all mix in." She grinned at me. "Better all round that way. If and when Huw or Roger leave, you can add another male then."

I nodded. "Okay my little fuck bunny. If that's what you want."

She nodded, pushed me back onto the bed, and jumped on top of me, scrabbling for my flies. I loved Siân. I'd told her many times she was my favourite sister, and it's true, she is. So I was already hard when she slid her red furry pussy down onto my cock. I wondered, now she was a volunteer, how long it would take her to remove her unwanted pubic hair.

"Oh god babe," I whispered. "You are so lovely. So good to me. So sexy. So special."

She just smiled, and began to rock, taking her pleasure, but giving me lots of pleasure at the same time. Five minutes later I was behind her, thrusting hard into her as she knelt on the bed in front of me, gasping in time to my thrusts. A few minutes after that we were in the traditional missionary with my baby sister's long, slim, legs wrapped firmly around my waist.

Siân's moans suddenly got louder and higher. "Oh. Oh. Oh." Her legs tightened around my waist and her hot pussy suddenly clamped around my cock. "Ohhhhhhhhhh," she squealed as she came.

We made love for another hour, Siân eventually wringing three massive climaxes out of me, but having over half a dozen herself. Eventually we lay, exhausted, side by side. Siân reached out and took hold of my soft cock.

"I know why Dad has done that breeding chart, and in theory I agree with it."

"I did ask him to do it," I told her softly.

"Yeah, fine. But I'm now a volunteer in my own right. I can choose for myself."

"Yes. You can."

"In that case, I want the next one to be yours."

"You don't want Dad's?"

"After that. The first one was yours, this one inside me now is Huw's but the next one is yours. Oh god Llew, I love you. I wasn't 'in love' with you. Not like Branny. Branny's been 'in love' with you for years. But I did love you. Now I think I may be," she didn't finish her sentence, just rolled onto me, keeping hold of my slowly hardening cock, and gave me a firm, hard and long kiss. We slid back together again, and to her delight I filled her one more time before I had to call it a night.

The following morning I went to Major Thornby to request Siân as my assistant. He okayed it without a word, however despite the fact that she was now fourteen weeks pregnant he sent her off Mars for her basic training. It would be many months before I saw her again: her six week old twin sons came back over a month before she did.

A few days after the two baby boys arrived, I got my one and only trip to Earth during the time I was stationed on Mars. I was at my desk when I got passed some papers to process. There was nothing new in this, but though I didn't know it at the time, I would be feeling the repercussions for a great many years.

"Interesting," I muttered as I read through the papers. I jotted down some notes: unlike many others I still preferred using paper and pen to using a computer or PDA to make quick notes. It was only when I started to do the formal précis and filing, that I realised that something was different. At first I just thought that I would need to do a bit more research - but the information just wasn't there. It wasn't that I didn't have access to it, it wasn't there. I would have to go to the source.

I smiled slightly, my heart rate going up a little. "Yay!" I whispered. I put together a formal travel request, my first. I had had a brief trip to Luna a few months earlier, but that had been part of my formal training, and had been organised for me. This was a trip to Earth. To the UK, England. Cambridge University in fact.

As part of a research project, some university students had designed, and built, an interface to the Confederacy replicators. There was no real concern about this, but we did want more information.

I handed the paperwork directly to Major Thornby.

"Sir, I need to visit Earth. Will you sign my travel docket please."

He looked at me startled. "Why didn't you just push it through the system? You didn't need to print it off." He looked at me for a moment, then looked at the front sheet.

"Ah," he smiled slightly. "You are English aren't you?"

"No sir, I'm actually Welsh."

"But," he paused, "all right." He quickly read the summary I had hand written, then passed it back. "Agreed." I didn't need to get it signed or anything, I just needed to scan it into the system. The AI's who were watching and recording everything, would note what had been said, and by whom. I went back to my desk with a spring in my step.

I got to Earth four days later, but instead of going straight to Cambridge, as I had expected, I was diverted to Artemis base for a briefing on the changing circumstances in Britain.

"Commander Carter? Good day, I'm Lieutenant Percy, I've been ordered to give you a situation briefing." The woman who shook my hand was impressive and imposing. She was very slightly shorter than me yet to my slight surprise it looked like she hadn't had the full 'Marine Package'. She had very short, blonde, hair, steel grey eyes, and a tough, almost abrasive, manner. Her confident and forceful manner made her appear larger than she really was. When I got over my surprise, I saw she was also really rather attractive. But she wasn't my type though. I think I would have been too scared of her, there was a sort of coiled up danger, even violence, inside her.

"Sit please Commander, we have a lot to talk about."

"Thank you ma'am," She gave a hint of a smile, and I realised that despite her rank being junior to mine, I had treated her as a more senior officer. It was her manner. And the fact that she was older than me. I was after all, still only just nineteen. Her beautiful, cut glass, almost accent-less voice suggested an education in some really rather expensive British private girls school: Rodean or Wycombe Abbey maybe, perhaps Cheltenham Ladies college. I could, of course, have been totally wrong, but that was the impression I gained from her speaking voice.

I left her office after just ten minutes, probably better briefed than I had even been briefed before. She had been concise, and to the best of my knowledge, complete. It made me worried for my country. Even though I was now a Confederacy citizen, and wouldn't go back for anything, I still looked back in fondness at my previous life, and my old country.

Going to the UK in Confederacy uniform was now risky. Not yet illegal, but potentially rather dangerous. My lack of bulking up to a full Confederacy Marine size was to my advantage, I had been told. Further, I had been advised to conceal my Confederacy status from anyone except those who needed to know. "And no one needs to know," Lieutenant Percy told me. "If your contact doesn't already know, they don't need to."

We shook hands and I left. She puzzled me. She was obviously highly competent, and highly knowledgeable. Yet... "AI," I asked, sotto voce, as soon as I was alone again. "Who is Lieutenant Percy?"

"Lieutenant Priscilla Percy. Age thirty-eight. Confederacy intelligence. Reports directly to Sir Samuel Cassell, Director of Intelligence."

"She's more than just a secretary or something like that. Is she a body-guard?"

"Negative. She is a special operations officer."

"Er, what does that mean?"

"Lieutenant Percy serves as the Head of Security for Testing Centres, as well as the Team Leader for Samuel Cassell's Rapid Response Team."

"Oh." I was surprised. "So what's her background then?"

"She was a member of the British Army's Special Reconnaissance Regiment for seven years before transferring to the Special Air Service to become the first female member of that regiment. She was with them for nearly two years, and went on to become one of the senior instructors before being ordered to volunteer for Confederacy service just before serving members of the military were barred from volunteering."

My jaw almost literally dropped. SAS? That explained the controlled danger I had felt in her.

"Oh shit. What's her CAP?" I expected it to be very high. Scarily high.

"7·9."

That was lower than I expected, and I was surprised. The AI wouldn't give me any more information though. I nodded and left to find some clothes to replace the uniform I was wearing.

I found a bathroom and ordered a new set of clothes from the replicator, putting my uniform in. I could get it replaced on the way back, and this way I didn't have to carry it around with me.

Back in proper civilian clothes for the first time in quite a long time felt good. A transporter could get me from the moon to Earth, and ten minutes after I had left my uniform in the replicator I was exiting a Confederacy office on Bond Street in London. Unlike most Confederacy offices, this one was disguised as a small, slightly seedy solicitors office, above and behind a very expensive jewellery shop.

It was a lovely summer day in London, and as I strode down Bond Street towards the underground station, there were lots of people around. I noticed a lot of Vote Earth First posters around. It was just a year since the palace extraction, nine months since the unexpected general election that had put Neil Conway into number 10, yet they still looked fresh and new, as if it was important that the population was continuously reminded that there was now an Earth First government.

I stopped suddenly, almost causing the woman behind me to crash into me. "Sorry," I muttered to her as she glared at me. I'd just realised I'd come out without any money. "Oh bum," I muttered. I looked around, and to my relief saw a branch of the bank we had used. I was now on Oxford Street, "the longest shopping street in the UK" I'd once been told. It was fully pedestrianised, so I hoofed it across to the bank.

I had almost no identity on me, and the bank staff were just starting to get suspicious of my claims that I'd forgotten it all. The fact that they had my thumb print on file, plus a signature, plus I knew the address of my own branch, plus when I'd last used my account, plus several other bits of information didn't seem to make any difference to them. It was two years since I'd used the account, and that was enough to make them ask questions. I found out I had a total of £487·56, of which they let me take out £250·00. I could have closed the account and taken it all, but that would just have made them even more suspicious. Besides, having a little bit on hand might come in useful in the future.

I walked to Kings Cross station. It saved me nearly a tenner in underground rail fare, and took me forty minutes, but I was young and fit, and it was an interesting, even fascinating, walk. My visits to London a year earlier had kept me in the very centre of the city, plus some fairly run-down looking industrial estates further out. Now I was walking past some very modern looking office buildings which were standing alongside buildings with some wonderful eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture that were probably 200 years old. The effect was both bizarre and strangely beautiful.

The train to Cambridge took just fifty minutes, and almost as I was getting out of the train, I heard my name called on the station tannoy. I found a station porter, who wordlessly pointed me in the direction of my contact.

My contact, Doctor Judd, looked barely older than me.

"Mister Carter? Hello. I'm Ashley Judd." He smiled slightly. "My mum was a fan of the actress of the same name." I must have looked blank because he burst into laughter. "You've never heard of her have you? Don't worry about it," he added as I shook my head.

"Um. Doctor Judd. I've come about a piece of kit you and your team designed." I explained what I wanted.

He frowned and looked around, pulling me to a quieter part of the concourse. "How did you hear about that?"

"A report on it just came across my desk last week. It's something that a lot of people would find extremely useful, so I'm following up on it."

"Your desk?"

I smiled slightly, shrugging, but didn't answer.

"Are you from the Confederacy?" he asked after a long pause.

It was my turn to frown. "The Confederacy is not popular here."

"No. It's not. But you haven't answered my question."

"Why? Is it important?"

"If you're Confederacy, I have a CAP of 7·3 and I want away from here. You want my notes, I want something in return."

I gave a start of surprise as the AI spoke up inside my head. "Ask him what he would expect to do."

"What do you want from the Confederacy?"

"I have PhD's in both Physics and Quantum Engineering. I am part-way through another in Quantum Electronics with Computing. I reckon I would be an asset to your R&D."

"AI?" I asked silently.

"Tell him he has an appointment with his solicitor next Thursday morning, a week today, and give him the address of the Bond Street office," came the reply in my head.

I did as I was asked.

"In that case you need to go to Gillingham, to the University of Kent," Ashley told me. "Ask for Paul Zucher."

"Gillingham? Paul Zucher?"

Ashley nodded. "It's just starting to get too dangerous to be doing stuff with Confederacy Technology in the UK, so we've sent it to Paris University. Zucher is one of my students, his uncle is a physics professor in Paris."

"Uh huh. So if he's one of your students, how come he's at Kent University?"

"I'm a peripatetic lecturer. I lecture there. He's one of my students there."

I nodded my understanding. "And he's still there?"

"He was as of this morning, I was talking to him. I'll drop him a line and tell him you're on your way."

I nodded. "Did he work on it? Paul Zucher?"

"No. I'm only using him because of his contacts."

"Oh okay. So, how close to finished would you think it is?"

"Ninety percent. Ninety-five percent maybe. Very close."

"Thank you Doctor," we shook hands, and I headed back to the platform for trains back to London.

It was already early evening by the time I eventually reached Gillingham, but I went to the address I'd been given.

A young man with a slightly haunted look about him cautiously opened the door of the student flat. "Carter?" he asked softly.

I nodded. "Can I come in?" I asked, equally softly.

He stared at me for a moment, then gave a single abrupt nod, before opening the door wider and beckoning me in. I had never been to university, I hadn't actually finished my sixth form at school before I'd been picked up, but I'd heard all about student digs. These digs were far worse than I'd ever pictured them. Small, cramped, incredibly messy and absolutely filthy. There was a mildly pornographic poster on one wall, in front of which was what appeared to be a very expensive music system. There was an unmade bed, a washing basket full to overflowing with dirty clothes, a single chair and a table. The table and floor were covered in a mix of papers and dirty part-empty take-away food cartons. I could almost feel my skin crawling, feel myself being infected with something horrible as I stood there and looked around. I just hoped my face didn't show my thoughts. I wanted to get out of there, and fast.

Zucher looked around, vaguely. "It's not normally like this," he murmured. "Can I get you a drink?" He gestured absently towards an electric kettle sitting on the window-sill.

I shook my head, trying to hold back from shuddering in disgust. "No thanks, I don't want to be long, I have to get back."

"Doctor Judd said you want to see the data on our new tablet?" His French accent was quite strong, but his English was otherwise flawless.

"That's right. And the prototype if possible. I'm guessing you can't demonstrate it here?" I almost hoped not, as I didn't want to be in this room a moment longer than necessary.

"I don't have it any more. I have given it to my uncle."

I frowned. "Oh? Doctor Judd said you had it on you."

Zucher shook his head. "My uncle was visiting the LSE last week. I gave it to him about six hours ago. I told Doctor Judd I no longer had it, but he said you were on your way." He gave me a frightened look. "Are you Earth First?"

I smiled slightly, and shook my head. "No. If they knew I was here, if they found me in the UK, they might try and arrest me."

It was interesting. His fear didn't diminish, but it did change. "Oh," he said. He looked at me intensely for a few moments, then scooped up some papers. "Here. Take these. Go."

I moved towards the door and then paused. "Where is your uncle now?"

"He, he will be in the air now I would think. Yes. Somewhere in the air. Most likely over France by now I hope. Please. Go."

"Your uncle's name?"

"Name? Oh. Yes. He is Professor Mattias Zucher."

I left, taking the precious paperwork with me. Paul was scared, but I didn't know why. He had initially been scared of me, but when I'd told him I wasn't Earth First, that particular terror had vanished, but his overall fear had remained.

I was walking back towards the railway station, when the AI spoke up in my head. "Attention. To your left is the Woodlands Road Cemetery. You have relatives buried here."

I stopped in surprise. Both my parents and my grandparents had all come from Cornwall in the South West of England. How would I have relatives buried this far east. "Oh? Who?"

"Two of your mother's great great uncles were serving on board the HMS Princess Irene when it exploded in 1915, during the First World War. They were both killed. Matthew Trengrouse was a stoker, his younger brother Mark was an able seaman. Mark's body was recovered and his grave can be found here if you wish to see it." Trengrouse was a very old Cornish surname: I had an idea it was my maternal grandmother's maiden name.

"They weren't direct ancestors?"

"Negative. Their younger brother Luke is your direct ancestor. He also served in the Royal Navy, serving from 1917 to 1935, then again from 1940 until his death in 1943. He was lost in the Atlantic Ocean."

I paused. I still had nearly an hour before I needed to get back to the station, and the train back to London. "Okay." I entered the cemetery, almost immediately finding a memorial to the disaster. Both names were listed. Matthew was nineteen, Mark sixteen. "How old was Luke when he enlisted?" I asked the AI, lightly fingering the two names, almost as if by doing so I would somehow get nearer to them.

There was a pause while it consulted its records. "He enlisted in November 1917 aged sixteen years and twenty one days. He did not see any action during his first period, leaving as a Chief Petty Officer in October of 1935. He voluntarily re-enlisted in May of 1940, at the start of the Battle Of Britain, and served on convoy escorts in old destroyers in the North Atlantic during what became known as The Battle of the Atlantic."

"Were there any other family? I'm guessing neither Matthew nor Mark had children?"

"Correct. There were also three sisters, Faith, Hope and Charity. Charity was born a few months before Matthew and Mark were killed."

"Wow." I was half tempted to look them up, and see what their descendants were doing. Who they were. Where they were. Now wasn't the time though.

"Where's the grave?"

"That information is not in the records I currently have access to. You will need to search for it."

"Oh crumbs." The cemetery was far too big for that. I spent some twenty minutes searching nearby, with no luck, before making my way back to the memorial. I put my hand on the two, adjacent, names again. "I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I wish..." I trailed off, not sure what I wanted. I had a lump in my throat, and could feel myself choking with emotion.

"Are they your relatives?" I heard a soft voice beside me.

I turned to see a couple of young women, also looking at the memorial. I nodded. "Two brothers, my Great Uncles." I smiled slightly. "Actually great great great uncles I think."

They nodded.

"You?" I asked.

"Not on here."

I just nodded.

"Nice to have met you," I said softly, then turned to leave.

I got back to London, quite late, but rather than send me straight up to the moon, I was given a small office, and a bed for the night. Two other men and a woman were also staying there overnight. The solicitors office actually went back quite a long way, and had six tiny bedrooms, all for visiting Confederacy personnel, plus four small offices, each with two antique looking desks and old-fashioned computers.

I would have been quite happy to head back to the moon, but I was told that no, I was to stay there that night.

I was introduced to the others. Drew, who was permanently based there; Piotr, a Pole who was about to set up a similar office in Warsaw and was visiting just to see how Drew ran this office; and Sherman, a tiny Japanese woman who was just visiting but for security reasons, couldn't tell us why.

I shrugged, but relaxed when Drew suggested that we all went out for a meal.

"I can't really afford it," I said.

"Don't worry," I was told, "the Confederacy will pay, even if only we know that." Drew grinned and showed me a very ordinary looking credit card. "You can't tell from this, but in fact it's backed by the Confederacy."

I smiled. "In that case count me in."

We headed down to Leicester Square, and a tiny Italian restaurant. This was pasta like I had never had it before. Authentic Italian recipes cooked by genuine Italian chefs.

I told them about my trip to the cemetery in Gillingham, and we got talking about our ancestors, and just how little people often knew about even quite recent ancestors. Sherman knew more about hers, but that, I think, was far more usual for the Japanese.

The red wine flowed well, and between the four of us we got through five bottles. I persuaded the restaurant to sell me a couple of unopened bottles to take back with me. To my surprise, as we were wandering back, I realised I was still completely stone cold sober.

"That's a bit boring," I laughed. "Getting gently merry is fun. Anything more than that isn't."

The others all laughed. "AI?" asked Piotr. Moments later I was pissed as a fart.

I had to be steered home, all of us now showing rather the worse for wear.

I woke up the following morning expecting to have a hangover, but was mildly surprised, and hugely relieved, to find I was perfectly fine.

"AI?" I asked. "What happened?"

"The alcohol in your blood stream is normally counteracted by nanites, also in your blood stream. However we were asked to switch them off while you walked home. This was necessary for verisimilitude."

"Huh?"

"You had drunk a full bottle of wine. There was a lot of alcohol in your blood. You needed to at least appear to be drunk. Anything else could have caused suspicion had you been stopped."