Prologue

Thanks to an offhand comment by US Marshal Randy Pope, those who knew about Michael's family had taken to calling it THE Harem. It should be noted, that because of the extreme competence of the women of the Harem, Michael's had quickly dropped from the designation. Marshal Pope and Sam Matthews, the team's two supervisors, became family friends and were referred to as Randy and Sam. Sam's co-sponsors, the Ninja Twins, became even closer, and the family frequently used their fond 'Papa Sam' adapted from the Japanese Papa San.

Questions about the family sponsors' CAP scores and ranks, if ever a factor, evaporated as the teammates combined and split as mission roles dictated. As the Sa'arm advanced, missions for the family's team came with more frequency and danger, and with less prep time.

The mixture of sleet and steady rain made the night miserable. Hannah was mission leader, supported by Rachel and Michael in combat roles and Cathleen and Sunny as medical support. Patricia, Carole, and Billie and Birdie -- the two Nerds -- were in standby reserve, briefed, armed, and ready to transport on a second's notice. The remainder of the family was either on home support or -- the more recent additions, not yet up to speed -- were in training.

Cynthia Forrester was a physicist with PhDs in both electrical engineering and plasma physics, and was high on the Office of Targeted Extraction's priority list. Shortly after coming to the attention of the requisitioning research colony, she and her children had disappeared.

Today's mission was to rescue Cynthia and her three young children. For a change, this wasn't about a bunch of Earth Firsters. Four brothers had somehow learned that she was a high CAP woman and could bring along four concubines when she was extracted. They intended to be the four.

The Nerds and the family's AI, Dora, put their research skills together, and learned that Cynthia used an Appalachian mountain cabin as her retreat when she needed to 'get away.' Typically, she took along Lucy, her thirteen-year-old cousin, to help with the children. The cabin wasn't known to her employers, and the owner of record was the trust for her mother's brother.

The drone sent to her cabin reported the presence of the four extras, and the fact that she was a prisoner. The four men had not yet harmed Cynthia or her family, but they were threatening. None of them were particularly bright, not having figured how to keep controlling her during a pick up. The extraction team was designated, equipped, and dispatched within the hour.

Michael took a prone position where he had the door in the sights of his M-14. He was dressed warmer than his two ladies, as they needed lighter, dripping wet clothing as part of their act. If he needed to fire, he didn't want a shiver to make him miss.

Under their coats, both Hannah and Rachel carried a pistol, and each had stingers in their left hands. Hannah had also secreted a pair of her throwing knives.

They walked up the drive, and Hannah knocked, calling, "Aunt Cindy! Its Hannah and Rachel. Our car broke down and we had to walk. Hurry, we're wet and freezing!"

The two were standing to either side of the door, shivering and dripping, when a tall blond man opened the door and demanded, "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"

Hannah spoke in a rush, "I'm Hannah and she's Rachel and we came to deliver Aunt Cindy's groceries but the car broke down. Let us in. We're freezing. Who are you?" and she pushed her way past the started man, Rachel following.

In the front room, Lucy in front of a roaring fireplace was playing Monopoly with the three children. There was no sign of the other three men or Cynthia. Lucy's eyes widened as she saw the two strangers, but Rachel, out of sight of the man, was able to put her finger to her lips. Hannah, loosening her coat, spoke quickly, "Hi Lucy, where's Aunt Cindy?"

Lucy's eyes flicked to a door that research indicated led to the largest bedroom, and she said, "I think she is sleeping."

As the unnamed man turned to follow Hannah's movement, Rachel stung him, and he collapsed silently onto the sofa. Rachel again put her finger to her lips, and Lucy nodded. Hannah quickly crossed to the young woman and whispered, "Are the other three in there with Cynthia?"

Lucy shook her head and whispered back, "Two are, the other one is sleeping in the kids' room over there. They take turns keeping her awake while one watches me and one sleeps. I heard them talking. They think they can brainwash her by keeping her from sleeping. I don't think they hurt her yet, but they are getting awful angry."

"Okay," Hannah responded, "we've got it now. Keep the kids on the floor with the sofa between them and the bedrooms."

With Rachel providing cover, Hannah crossed silently to the indicated door, stinger in her left hand and her Browning Buckmark .22 -- "Bucky" -- in her right. She squatted, then reached up and eased the door open. She fired her stinger at the sleeping figure on the bed.

While Rachel watched the other bedroom door, Hannah pulled out her roll of duct tape and secured the hands and feet of both stunned men, then taped over their mouths.

<Dora, tell Michael we have two down and two are with Cynthia in her bedroom. No damage so far. He can come on in with Cathleen and Sunny, just quietly,> Rachel sub-vocalized to the AI.

In Cynthia's bedroom, things were getting more unpleasant. She did not know how long she had been kept awake and things felt fuzzy. The two men with her began arguing, impatient that keeping her awake and badgering her had not done much to influence her as they intended. It hadn't occurred to either of them that they had no experience with the technique that they were using.

The youngest man was trying to convince his brother that they should step up their efforts physically. He enumerated several options, water boarding to rape. In an effort to up the ante with Cynthia, he stripped, and was waving his cock at her.

Cynthia was tied hands and feet to the bedposts. Periodically, the men untied her from the bed so that, though hobbled, she could use the toilet and then feed herself. Her bladder told her the time must be near.

Cynthia wasn't a high 7 CAP based just on intelligence, she had other attributes and skills. She knew that if she were going to do anything to help herself, she needed to act soon -- before she lost the ability to think coherently. She seized the initiative, saying, "I need to pee, bad," and she let loose a small spurt of urine.

The naked man loosed her feet, then her hands, and began to hobble her feet together.

"No time," she yelled as she swung her feet over, then raised both legs and kicked him solidly under his chin, snapping his neck and propelling him into his brother. Cynthia was on the astonished older man in a flash, her nails reaching for his eyes, her knee solidly in his crotch.

Unable to defend either his eyes or his balls, he screamed, and the door burst open. Cynthia spun, ready to take on the next brother, and froze. Standing in the door was a short blonde with braided hair, a pistol in her right hand and a weird object like brass knuckles in the left.

"So, would you like a little help, or are you not done roughing them up?" Hannah asked with a giggle as she walked over and stung the bleeding, retching man. For good measure, she stung the corpse -- just in case.

She turned, saying, "Cynthia Forrester, I'm Hannah Masters. My team is from the Confederacy's Office of Targeted Extractions, and this is a pickup."

Chapter 1: Setting the Stage

Michael left his family's dojo sore, proud, and a little peeved. He'd just had his ass kicked six ways from Sunday by a slip of a girl-woman. Had it been Cathleen, the process and outcome would have been entirely expected. But no, it was his newest wife, fourteen-year-old Patricia, who had cleaned his clock. Clearly, she had been carefully coached on his habits and weaknesses by her sister-wife, Cathleen, but that took nothing at all away from her achievement.

They weren't really Michael's wives, they were his teammates, co-sponsors, and lovers. From the Confederacy's view, they simply had a shared household, the Confederacy having eliminated marriage upon pickup. Michael and the sister-wives saw it differently. The six partner sponsors considered themselves married.

Now a hybrid team working in a partnership between the US government and the Confederacy, they were both deputy US marshals and members of the Confederacy's Office of Targeted Extraction. The Sa'arm had landed, and their team's mission was to assist and 'collect' trapped individuals as assigned.

This unique relationship placed an unusual pressure on the team's AI, named Dora by Michael. She had split off a bud so that she could provide advice and assistance, with much like an attorney-client privileged relationship. Her old 'self' continued to provide the normal services to the family, but the real Dora, as she came to consider herself, became a member of the family in a very short time. In some respects, the relationship was like a child learning social skills or an immigrant learning a new culture, but if she continued along this path, Dora was going to become another sister-wife, something no one would have ever believed possible.

Typically, the team's role of deputy US marshals had them freeing folks held by Earth Firsters or just plain bad guys. Missions often came back-to-back, many with little opportunity to plan. Sometimes, a team was sent to convince pockets of stubborn individuals that they simply could not defend their homes, farms, hideouts, or whatever from the inevitable advance of the Sa'arm. In many cases, these folks refused to believe that their country's defenders could and would scorch the earth tens and hundreds of miles in front of the advancing invaders.

Other missions were designed to extract endangered high CAP volunteers and/or individuals with skills or talents requisitioned by some area of the Confederacy. Even 'standard' rescues frequently turned up potential Confederacy volunteers and almost always angry men and women eager to join the Earth Defense Force -- EDF.

The team's concubines often accompanied their owners in medical, other specialty, or combat roles. The nature of their work required diligent weapons and martial arts training for the sponsors and for the family's concubines. In some situations, Confederacy weapons like stingers were prohibited, so even those with no prior weapons or unarmed combat training were rapidly becoming proficient in both.

The Confederacy's hierarchy, like every human slave-owning society before it, feared a slave revolt and placed strict prohibitions on concubines 'attacking' sponsors or accessing weapons. Recognizing this fear, Michael had established their household in a virtual compound with its own dojos, firing ranges, classrooms, transporters, and even an armory.

Because the team's charter was in the United States, they kept to Central time, separating themselves in yet another way. A mission team could assemble and arm itself in minutes -- sometimes seconds -- and be on its way through a transporter to do whatever. The right training and the right weapons were vital; TRUST was essential.

Michael reflected back -- in the first days after their extraction, the team's chief of staff, Carole, had interviewed everyone in the family, noting talents, skills, experience, and interests. Her lists were surprisingly long and varied, especially considering the random nature of their coming together. From this inventory, she had tentatively assigned roles and training.

The early days of her schedule were devoted to sleep training, individual and team combat proficiency, body augmentation, and sex. She correctly intuited that loving sex and working hard together would build their family team for their coming missions.

Michael had jokingly told Carole that part of her duties was to establish a fornication schedule, and she took this idea seriously. Carole thought it important that spouses sleep with one another -- with or without sex. Her first criterion was that each sponsor would sleep with at least one other sponsor every night, taking turns, mix and match. Otherwise, cuddling and sex could occur whenever, wherever, and with whomever if the fancy struck two or more consenting adults. As a practical mater, all the family's adults tended to sleep in the same room/bed.

But Carole also wanted to ensure that no one was left out, felt neglected, or worse, failed to bond to the family. So she put together a rotation schedule that added one companion to the "master bed" each night.

After dinner in the communal dining hall, the family gathered for their second evening, and Carole presented her plan. She had Dora project her chart on the great room wall, and was greeted with a stunned silence, then almost uncontrollable laughter.

Jimmy wiped tears from his eyes and choked out, "Michael, when it's laid out," laughter, "like that, it's pretty clear that we need a relief pitcher."

Then, sponsors and companions wanted to get started on body modifications, and there was barely contained excitement.

Michael started, "I know you have all been thinking hard about this, because I have, too. I think it is important to share the thoughts of each of the sponsors before we get too far into this. For my part, I would like each of you to remain individually recognizable. You are in my heart, and I'm not looking for a duplicate of anyone else."

Carol thought for a moment, then added, "You know, we are all probably going back and forth to Earth. We need to look like people -- not giants, not air brushed wet dreams -- people."

She paused, "Look at me. I have a plain face. There was a time when I'd almost kill to be a beauty queen. Now, not so much. There is no question that I'm loved for who I am, and there is a certain comfort that I can remain me, but hold the option to experiment or change anytime I wish."

Michael finished, "So ladies -- you too James -- be judicious in the changes you request. As Carole said, we have a mission, and we can always take things further at just about any time. Let's get as strong and fast as the technology allows -- improve sex stuff, too -- and save cosmetics for later."