Chapter 2

"Oh I ache," were the first words I muttered when I became conscious again.

"I told you you wouldn't thank me," came an amused voice.

I opened my eyes to see Medical Technician Sofia Stevens looking down at me with a sardonic smile on her face. I just groaned. "Torturer," I muttered good-humouredly.

She laughed and helped me up.

When I was vertical again, she gave me a glass of something to drink. "Here, drink this. It'll help you."

I stared at the greenish-brown muddy looking fluid, grimacing.

"It will help," she told me.

"Really?" I wasn't enthused.

"Well, you don't really need it, it's mostly a psychological thing. But there are various minerals and vitamins in there, so yes, it does actually help."

"Okay." It actually didn't taste quite as bad as it looked. But only just.

"Now," she said, pushing me towards a chair. "Some things you need to know. Roger will need to stay in bed for the next thirty-six hours. I've got an old fashioned wheel chair I can loan you to get him back to your pod for now. Normally I'd just get the marines to use a transporter to get you back, but something's happening and they're all running around like headless chickens at the moment."

"Why? What's happening?"

She shrugged. "Imogen will also need to rest," she did a sudden double take at the pad she was holding, then looked up at me, her eyes wide. "Imogen is your biological mother, yes?"

I nodded.

"It says here she's had her hymen regrown?"

I nodded again, grinning this time, sure I was also blushing. "Yeah. And my sisters," I told her.

"That's a new one on me. Anyway, I very strongly recommend you all refrain from any sexual activity tonight. For most of you it'll hurt too much." She looked again at her PDA. "I think you'd be about the only one who wouldn't be in too much pain, but I wouldn't guarantee that. Roger and Imogen at least will need to sleep on their own tonight. They'll be in a lot of low-level discomfort, just a general all over ache, and will be tossing and turning too much. I would suggest you all sleep alone if you can."

"There's six of us and five bedrooms."

She shook her head. "If you can't get the pod to produce another by then, I would suggest you and Huw," she tried to pronounce it 'who', just nodding when I corrected her, "sleep in the same bed. You two will probably be the least affected; but you sort that side of it out yourself."

"Okay." I frowned in thought.

"When you get back to your pod, have a light meal," she stressed the word light, "and just relax. Try and be in bed by about ten at the latest, and try not to be up before eight at the earliest tomorrow morning. After that you'll probably all still feel a little odd, uncomfortable, even a little klutzy at times. You are the only one whose height hasn't changed, so you'll have the least problems in that regard. By this time tomorrow you all, excepting Roger I should think, will feel fine. He ought to stay in bed until the following morning."

She looked at me carefully. "How's your eyesight?"

I remembered I'd asked for my eyesight to be improved. "Uh," I started to smile as I looked around the room. "Hey. Great."

"You've got a touch of low light vision, ultra-vision. That means you can see just into the edge of the ultra violet range, as well as being able to ... Well, a full moon in a cloudless sky at midnight would look to you only a bit darker than say a really dull, really heavily overcast, or rainy day would to person with normal eyesight. It's not as much as the front line Marines and Navy get. You've also got a touch of infra-vision, you can see just into the edge of the infra-red range. Again not as much as the front line people. Between the two, you should be able to see quite well even on the darkest of nights. Just as a warning though, you may see an extra 'redness' in things that are warm, and extra blue or violet in things that reflect UV light. So your colour perception will be slightly different to your concubines and to anyone else who doesn't get this enhancement. We've not given you any form of hawk-eye long distance vision, though some of the front line marines do get it. It disorients many people, so we give it out sparingly, and only as necessary."

"Interesting. Who gets that?"

"Snipers and spotters mostly. What about your hearing? How is that?"

I grinned as I realised that I could hear things I'd never heard before. "I thought you did that on the first go through."

She shook her head. "No. That was a single nanite just to offset your faulty hearing. We didn't actually correct anything. We've now corrected, and very slightly enhanced. Once again, not as much as the front line troops. You've got a bit more overall flexibility, and a bit more stamina, and oh yes," she laughed, "enhanced recovery after sex. Mind you, everybody gets that. We haven't given you faster reactions, you're not in a combat role and it was felt your reactions are quite fast enough."

"Oh, okay. Anything else?"

"Um. No. I don't think so. You've got everything else you asked for, as have, I think, all your concubines." She looked down the list on her PDA again. "Oh, we've slightly scaled back Huw's strength. He was already strong, so we haven't added the extra requested. In fact we've slightly scaled back what he had. He doesn't need it. Beyond that, everything is as requested."

"Diolch. Diolch yn fawr."

"Deeolk un vower?" she asked. I saw her puzzled look and realised I spoken in Welsh.

"Uh. Sorry. That meant 'thank you'."

She nodded. "Yeah, I got the translation just as you said it." She frowned. "Actually, I should have got the translation faster than that. I'll have to check later." She grinned and looked at me. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Sure."

"Get dressed. You're making me horny and I'm a concubine so I can't ravish you. Or let you ravish me."

"Oh. Fuck. Sorry. Clothes, where are they?"

"Not as sorry as I am," I heard her mutter. Then she pointed to a replicator. "You can order clothing from there. It's probably worth ordering enough for all of you," She stopped and I saw her jaw drop in surprise, followed by a slight blush.

"What?" I asked puzzled.

She dropped her eyes and shook her head.

I just looked at her, my eyebrows raised in query.

Her blush got stronger. "I've just been reminded by the AI that in fact I could allow you to 'ravish me' if I felt it was medically necessary."

"Is it?" I grinned, teasing her.

"Not for you, no. Pleeeeese get dressed. You're making me... ," she turned to her controls.

I lightly stroked her bottom through the green scrubs she was wearing. It was firm, and very pleasant to the touch. "If I touched you like this, what would happen?"

"I'm somebody else's concubine, so in theory you'd get into trouble, but because almost all males are horny after they come out of the pods, we make allowance for it. Providing that's all you do, there will be no issues."

"But you just said," I started.

"Only if it's medically necessary," she whispered, "and this isn't."

"You need it though, don't you?"

"Fuck yeah, but I can't do it with you. Not without permission."

"That's a shame."

"Isn't it. Now please Leftenant Carter, get dressed. The rest of your concubines are about to be released."

I laughed. "How long have I got?"

"About a minute. Maybe less," she added with a laugh as one of the tubes gave a little chime.

I nodded and turned to the replicator. "AI, can you produce six sets of appropriately sized clothes for myself and the five people currently in the medical tubes. Six pairs of blue jeans, six white tee-shirts, three correctly sized bra's, three pairs of men's briefs, three women's, and six pairs of sandals."

"Confirmed."

"Please also arrange to have a duplicate set waiting for us when we get back to our own pod."

"Confirmed."

I turned to see Huw climbing out of his medical pod. He looked more different than I had expected. Actually, I hadn't looked at myself in a mirror yet, so I wasn't sure what I looked like. I knew what the holo had shown, but reality always has a way of surprising one.

Huw smiled at me briefly, and then began to stretch. "Something feels wrong," he complained.

"You've grown a couple of inches," I told him.

"You'll get used to it," Sofia told him. She passed him the drink. He didn't hesitate and just drank it straight down.

"Ugh," he grunted.

"Oh," Sofia suddenly said. "Don't use the sleep trainer until you've had two good night's rest. Reading's fine though."

I nodded. Behind me the replicator dinged softly. There were six packages of clothing. I was relieved to see that they were packed separately, a piece of something that looked like paper but didn't feel like it was attached to the top of each. On them was a picture of the face of the person each pack was intended for. I picked out Huw's and passed it to him before getting dressed myself, and we waited for the others to be released.

They were released at about one minute intervals. The next released was Branwyn. For a few moments, Huw and I stared at her in awe. She was Branwyn, but she was so different. She smiled painfully at me and like Huw just drank down the mixture she was given.

Siân gave us exactly the same reaction, but when Imogen appeared we all whistled in awe and appreciation, even Siân and Branwyn. She'd gone from an attractive forty-something year-old woman to a beautiful twenty-two year old. The difference was stunning. Roger's new appearance was even better when he was released. He looked younger, but he also had his leg back. I'd never known him with his leg, he'd lost it before I was born, so this was a new person.

He and Imogen hugged, but Roger was in so much pain that he had to push her gently away after a few moments. He sagged down into a chair and Branny and Imogen helped him dress.

After a few minutes, Roger moved himself to the wheel chair that Sofia found for us. "Thanks," I told her.

She smiled, nodded, and turned back to her consoles.

"How come you're a concubine?" I asked. "Surely you should be a sponsor yourself given your responsibilities?"

"This job doesn't need someone all that qualified. I was a twenty-five-year career ER nurse in Philadelphia until I got picked. I was lucky in that it was my husband who picked me. He's now the first officer on this ship. Sadly all our children were over fourteen, and Geoff and I were having a meal in a restaurant when we were collected, so we couldn't send for them and bring them with us." She smiled sadly. "I miss them."

"Oh, I'm sorry. How long?"

"Eight months." She shrugged and smiled. "At least I still see my husband, even if he is no longer legally my husband. You're lucky. You've still got all your family. Even if ours had been with us, Geoff couldn't reasonably have brought them, as we only had boys."