Chapter 11 - Short Goodbyes

The next week it seemed I spent much of my time finding excuses to hide in the household pod or the Concubine's refuge. James had locked William in an otherwise unused habitat pod near the original command center, but the crew of Tintagel Castle proved to include nine more men who refused to keep their hands to themselves. Most of the concubines figured that out the first night when these men spent much of the welcome party drunkenly calling for Lindsay, Bonnie and Cleo to perform lap dances. Tyson had walked over and lifted one of the men by the neck only for the others to all protest that they were playing.

James and Yvette ended up having to spend hours documenting the various passes and touches. Lieutenant Krupke did her best to help, but it soon became clear that the men were thinking that they were going to be staying on Ishtar. Finally James called for a general assembly of the crew to occur in our multi-use pod. I was standing against the wall behind James as crew walked in. The men who had been problems ignored me and the other female concubines arrayed against the wall, but I noticed Lieutenant Krupke 's eyes narrowing. She mouthed, "Guns?" Once her mouth was closed she scanned the room, checking each concubine. James noticed and only shook his head before waving for all the concubines to put their hands on the rifles we had been hiding behind our backs.

Lieutenant Krupke had taken a seat, as had about two-thirds of the crew, but the men who had been problems were still joking around and waving at various concubines. I noticed Lieutenant Krupke raising her hand, but James' voice cut through the din.

"It seems a few of you don't care to obey the laws. Now you might think that you are untouchable, but I assure you that you are not," he said.

One of the men glared at James. He was one of the ringleaders and clearly did not respect anyone. "Who the fuck cares what the rules are? We aren't in your chain of command, and you aren't an officer anyways. What will you do? Lock us up like Willie? You are going to pay for that you know."

James stiffened and then raised a hand. On that cue every concubine in the room brought their gun up and pointed it at one of the standing crew. "Chamber rounds," he said icily. "If any of those idiots tries to take a step, shoot him."

The man's, I think his name was Brent, eyes widened. "What the fuck! Who do you think you are? And I know the laws; if the concubines shoot us, you are guilty of murder. You won't give that command."

I could see James' shoulders relax. "Really. Why don't we check that? AI. Would you be so kind as you tell this Darwin Award candidate what title I hold and how the laws affect this situation."

"James Rabb, official governor of Ishtarat system," the AI intoned. "Ishtarat system is nominally part of the Borneo Military District, but as a system governor James has executive and judicial authority within the system. Current situation stands that nine citizens visiting from Borneo as part of the crew of Corvette Tintagel Castle have repeatedly violated Confed law in regards to appropriate contact with concubines they do not own. This has been compounded by the fact that local law and tradition is much stricter regarding such contact."

Brent scowled. "So? He still won't order the concubines to shoot us. That's still a violation."

The AI continued. "The nine citizens still standing are now considered under arrest. Any attempt to move will be regarded as an attempt to escape and or resist arrest and use of deadly force will be condoned."

James was staring right at Brent. "In other words, right now I have a dozen concubines in this room who are just begging for you to take a step so they can open fire. And I have no problem with them doing it."

Brent seemed to deflate. "Fuck! What do you limp dicks want?"

"Besides you off this planet?" Yvette said from the room's entrance. The men did not turn, but I could see several stiffen as they realized that they could no longer freely exit the room.

The men stared at James. He waited for a moment and then spoke. "Actually, I don't have to do anything more at this point. First, your ship is as repaired as we are able to perform here. Once this meeting is over, you'll be marching to the teleport and getting off this planet. However, you were all such constant problems that Yvette and I sent a packet of what I might call your "greatest hits" to Borneo command and then followed it up with a call to Admiral Himmel. I thought you'd like to hear the call."

There was a moment of silence. A couple of Brent's followers looked very uncomfortable. A couple of their still seated crewmates were smiling and nudging each other while staring at Brent.

"James, Yvette," Admiral Himmel's voice called out. "I did receive your packet of evidence. I checked against our records here, and found that none of my nine rejects were involved in the Wolf three-six-seven fight. Most only just arrived in the district, and the few old ones were transferred from the proving yards out at Moreton."

Yvette's voice responded. "We pretty much expected that. The few repeat visitors we have had know how things work on Ishtar and appear to respect our Tradition."

I had been watching Brent and his friends and they stiffened more upon hearing Yvette's final sentence. I saw the eyes of one widen and he glared at Brent.

James' voice was next. "The good news for us is that tomorrow we can load them up on a repaired Tintagel Castle and ship them home to you. I do want you to put all nine on the list of citizens who cannot come to the Ishtarat system unless it's a life or death emergency. And if they do come for that, we'll keep them locked up when they aren't in a medical pod."

The Admiral laughed at this. "Unfortunately, their current visit is based on a life-saving emergency, so you didn't have much choice."

"Oh, I could have locked them in the same pod I have William in. I'm afraid he's not been too happy about his treatment," James replied.

"Private Monroe is going to like his new assignment less. He is going to be transferred out of the district completely. And considering the situation with his nine friends, I think I'm going to give him an escort of slightly experienced privates. Perhaps in a new post where they aren't counting on familial loyalties protecting them they'll shape up," The Admiral said with a laugh.

"We didn't count on no fucking family loyalties," Brent hissed. "We didn't commit any fucking crime. Concubines exist for men like us to fuck them! Who cares about the rest?"

One of his standing companions moaned. "You stupid shit! We just heard that some people do and you are still going off on how concubines are toys? I can't believe that I listened to your pissing and moaning. I have a concubine who is perfectly cuddly and yet I followed you in chasing the ones who now have guns pointed at us. And from their expressions they want to use them."

"Shut up!" Brent shouted. Before anyone could react he dove at his former friend. The others scattered out of the way, quickly dropping to the floor and lying down. I held my fire as Amanda and Debby appeared in the doorway wearing their battle armor. They strode up to the brewing brawl and quickly pulled the two men apart. The one who had been screaming at Brent quickly submitted, but Debby had to shake Brent hard before he slumped in defeat.

James looked at him and sighed. "Debby, take him to medical. Ed has a pod prepared so that we might retest his CAP score."

"You can do that?" someone called out.

The AI broke in. "Any citizen convicted of a crime can be retested. If their score proves to have dropped below six point five, they lose citizen status immediately."

Brent looked up for a moment, but any fire he might have had was gone. He hung motionless in Debby's grasp as she turned and marched out of the room. The room then became silent.

Yvette's voice broke the silence. "He'll be about three hours in testing. Take that time to gather your concubines and head to the teleport."

The still shocked ship's crew began to stand up and file out. They moved slowly while still in the room, but the fast pounding footsteps in the hall made it clear that once they were free of the room they were moving much more quickly. This continued until only two members remained. One was Lieutenant Krupke who had been stopped at the doorway by Yvette. The other was the one crewman who had denounced Brent and who was now cautiously approaching James.

"James, sir?" the boy began. "Is there any way I can get a reprieve? My concubines love the pod setup we have and I don't want to upset them by having to move."

James was waving me forward. "Take the guns back to the twins," he called out. "I don't think we'll need them while everyone heads out. Amanda, go to the pod where we've stored William and retrieve him. Use force to make him come quietly."

"What if he does come quietly?" Amanda called out.

"Use force anyway," James said. "His father asked us to rough him up and remind him that he's only human. It won't make him change, but it should help keep him quiet during the run back to Borneo."

"Is he under some kind of arrest?"

"Yes," James said. "I would have retested him, but from what Admiral Himmel tells me the snot has already taken two retests. He retested once on Earth on a birthday, he thought he could improve on his six point seven but got the same score. About nine months ago the Admiral ordered a retest after he started a brawl in a pub on Borneo. From what Admiral Himmel tells me, his three scores were all six point seven. Another test is unlikely to change that."

I winced at that image and I noticed that the one crewman in front of James paled. My master just stared at the boy for a while. I was beginning to think the boy was about to say something when James held up a hand.

"I don't decide what happens to you. Admiral Himmel does. You can, if you want, approach him once Tintagel Castle returns to Borneo space. If you want to do that, I recommend that you talk to your commanding officer and ask her to speak of what she has seen and knows. That is all I can say."

The man turned away dejectedly and walked defeated from the room. James watched him go and put an arm around me. "Not what I wanted," he whispered to me.

I gave him a supportive hug. At the doorway I could see Yvette leading Lieutenant Krupke away. I smiled, knowing that the plan was to give her a couple of rabbits, including one to deliver to Admiral Himmel. With the end of the confrontation I was about to suggest that we head to the pod when a figure appeared in the doorway.

I paused trying to recognize the man when I realized it was Herman. He had been the second citizen to survive the final destruction of the rest of the colony, but unlike Alexis who did come out and interact, he spent almost all of this time in the pod given to him. He walked up to James.

"Sir," he said. "Can I leave the planet with Tintagel?"

"What?" James said, stopping in surprise.

Herman was looking down. "I don't fit in here. I was too weak when we were all picked up and allowed Bertrand to convince me that I could get away with doing nothing. Because of that I ended up losing my concubines and my dignity. Ruth and her friends knew how to break a man's will and they worked on me for weeks. I need to rebuild myself, but I can't do it here."

"You can't?" James asked.

"No. I need a new start," Herman said with a sigh. "I need a sky above my head, rather than tunnels. I need to see someone who doesn't know that I did nothing while they created a community. I will not find that here. And I have nothing to keep me."

James paused and then nodded. "AI, can you ring up communications?"

"Ishtar communications control. Randi speaking. How might I be of service?" a voice called.

"Hey Randi, I need to place a very short call to Admiral Himmel. Can you do it?" James asked.

"One moment," Randi replied professionally.

"James," Admiral Himmel's voice rang out. "You have been calling me far too much recently. What's the bad news?"

I could see James smile. "It's good news I think. I've got a new crewman for you."

"What? Someone wants to leave your little paradise?"

"I do sir," Herman stated, and proceeded to identify himself. "I don't feel it's right to take advantage of the hard work James and the others put in while I was nothing more than a prisoner, first in my own pod and later in Ruth's little fiefdom. I couldn't protect my own concubines while James and the others protected everyone. The only way I can redeem myself is to leave."

There was a long silence. "James..." Admiral Himmel finally said slowly. "Send him to me. He'll probably need some training, but I can always use more men. Especially since I probably won't get more than five back for the ten I'm going to be transferring out."

"Sorry to hear that," James said. "I'll see that Herman here boards Tintagel. And we are also sending a rabbit along for you and your concubines. But with some of your crew being a bit unhappy, I can't give you an ironclad delivery guarantee."

Admiral Himmel snorted. "I'm not going to worry too much about that right now. I expect that the prospect of returning to Borneo and being shipped off to a new territory as a private is going to keep most of them rather depressed and inactive."

"What about your son?" James asked.

"He's not that stupid," Admiral Himmel said.

I saw James nod. He then turned to Herman. "You've got your new orders. I don't think you have anything to take, so get to the teleport and good luck."

"I'll make Ishtar proud someday," Herman said.

He walked out. I noticed a slight spring in his step. "Are you sure he can go?" I asked.

James laughed. "He won't heal until he thinks he's redeemed himself. He'll be fine though. He's a smart man, just a bit too timid for the environment we had at the beginning."

He took my hand and started to lead me from the room. "You should go and feed Madoka. I'll be back at the pod when things calm down and Tintagel is headed for Borneo."

I nodded, gave James a final kiss and headed home. The halls were rather empty with a few of the Tintagel crew just wandering around. James' announcement definitely had cowed them and none met my eyes before I reached home and stepped inside.

There I found Janice and Bethany sitting and watching the first video lesson on sign language for mothers and babies. They enthusiastically waved me over and I soon found myself cuddled between them as we watched the lesson.