Chapter 10

"May I help you?" Amy asked of the girl who walked in the door of the principal's office. Jean looked up and saw Megan.

"Amy, do you know my daughter, Megan?" Jean asked.

"No," blushed Amy, "I'm afraid I don't. I'm pleased to meet you, Megan."

"I'm pleased to meet you too, Amy," answered Megan brightly. "Mom has told me a bit about you. She says you've been elected her right-hand-man, as it were. Not that you leave the least doubt but what you're a beautiful young woman," she giggled.

"You're a beautiful young woman yourself," laughed Amy.

"Enough with the mutual-admiration society," chuckled Jean. "I know you two will get along famously. Let's get to work."

They got themselves comfortably seated around a table and began to lay out the issues. They decided that Megan would work on collecting errant CAP card scans. They worked through the database, isolated individuals with unscanned CAP cards, and tried to organize a somewhat efficient route.

They showed Megan how to use the laptop and the CAP card scanner. They talked about the reactions Megan might encounter, the arguments and excuses she might hear, and what her responses ought to be. It was emphasized to Megan that she should ask one and all whether they expected any grown children or any other family or friends to move back to town, hoping for a ride to the stars. They told Megan that, as unfair as it was, it was less than unlikely that any males with CAP scores below the 6.5 level necessary to volunteer would be able to go. On the other hand, it was virtually certain that any woman who wanted to go would be accommodated. They showed Megan how to add at least the names of those expected to return to town at a later date, and how to connect these people to their families in the files.

Jean handed Megan the keys to the car, which was still at home. Jean made sure Megan had her cell phone, and that it was turned on. Megan promised to return in time for lunch. Finally, when they had finished talking, Megan packed her stuff, made her goodbyes, and left.

At 9:47, Shannon emerged into the pool area, hunched over and trying to cover herself without it being obvious. When Bob turned to her, she visibly steeled herself and stood up straight, her arms at her sides. She was blushing crimson, but she wore a wan smile.

Bob tried his best to put her at ease. As he guided her in a stroll alongside the pool, he explained the twin objectives for the students, who were swimming underwater across the width of the pool. He promised to show her how the kids were practicing their touch hand-offs for the relay when the next session began.

The dozen students climbed out of the pool, approached and greeted her, water running down their slender bodies, oblivious of their nudity. She was plainly a popular teacher. The exchange with the kids was an elixir for her mental state. The kids waved goodbye and headed for the showers.

During the break, Bob and Shannon spent some time getting to know each other a little better. They knew each other of course, but they had had scant opportunity to socialize. Bob learned that Shannon was divorced and had a daughter in seventh grade and a son in fifth. Bob commented on the obvious delight the kids had displayed on seeing her. She blushed a little but allowed that their response had pleased her.

Shannon was surprised to discover that she was quickly becoming more comfortable sans her clothes. She admitted to herself that her body was no longer slim and toned, but she was shyly proud of certain of her features. She blushed when she caught Bob appreciating her nice butt and legs, but smiled and chuckled when he discovered he had been caught in the act. She was even able to thank him out loud for the implicit compliment he had bestowed upon her. She began to feel, as she had heard Heather say, that she wanted to improve her image, and was willing to work to achieve success.

Soon, the second session brought two teams down to the pool. Both teams knew what to do and, after they too expressed delight in seeing Shannon, quickly got themselves down to business practicing their relay handoffs. Bob explained what she was seeing as they stood together beside the pool. She could see that Bob was trying mightily to keep his eyes on her face, but failing dismally. She even found the nerve to accuse him of appreciating her tits. Bob blushed, but confessed the truth of her accusation, and they both laughed.

For his own part, Bob began to feel the pressure that signaled the beginning of his arousal. He excused himself and began swimming laps. He drove himself, hopeful that the exertion would solve his problem. It worked. He slowed his pace but continued doing laps until his body was pleasantly fatigued. He climbed out of the pool and rejoined Shannon.

One of the teams was surrounding Shannon, chattering with her brightly. None of the kids showed the least concern with their nudity. Two of the boys sported erections but no one seemed to pay attention. The students were at least able to keep their eyes above Shannon's shoulders. Bob listened for a moment and then interrupted, reminding the students that they needed to keep working, either here in the pool or elsewhere. Conceding his point, they bid Shannon goodbye and headed for the lockers.

"I'm sorry I chased off your fan club," Bob told her.

"Don't worry," she replied, "you were right. I have to admit that it was difficult to stand there talking to them in the face of two hard dicks. They seemed oblivious."

"It doesn't take long to become accustomed to being nude," Bob answered as they watched a team file out of the pool area. "It is inevitable that I'll sprout an erection, too. I don't mind being nude, but I'm not looking forward to making a scene like that." They both chuckled.

And then Sandy walked in.

Bob and Sandy stood stock-still, gobsmacked, taking in the other's visage. Sandy made no attempt to keep her eyes up on his face. Bob's attempt was utterly futile. Bob had never gone from flaccid to rock-hard in so short a time. Neither moved in the slightest to get away from the other or to cover themselves. Both blushed vividly, and smiled at the other wanly.

Sandy shuddered visibly. She broke into a big smile and approached her dad. "I'll take that as the biggest complement I have ever had," she chuckled as she casually waved her hand at his crotch. Without the least modesty, she wrapped him in a full hug, his erection pressing firmly into her belly. "I love you, Dad. You are even more handsome than I ever imagined."

Bob was flummoxed. He gasped and sputtered, trying valiantly to regain the least modicum of composure. She pulled her face back to look at his. With an evil grin, she whispered, "I want to see it all red with my blood."

Bob was so thunderstruck that his knees nearly gave way. Sensing his distress, Sandy hugged him harder to support him. "Please, Kitten, you've gotta help me!" he whispered, almost frantic. "I've never been so aroused and so mortified in my life!"

She looked up at him, an impish grin on her face. "OK, Daddy," she softly said. "Let's re-take that train trip to Disneyland. That should be safe enough for you. Remember when you teased me with the drinking fountain on the train?"

He smiled. "You mean, when I was holding you, and you leaned down to drink, and as soon as you reached the water, it stopped?"

"Exactly," she giggled. "There was a foot pedal for the fountain, wasn't there? You moved your foot off the pedal every time, didn't you?"

He grinned shyly. "Guilty as charged."

"That was mean!" she laughed. "But that was the most vivid memory I have of the trip."

"Do you remember when we had to cross from one train car to the next how we were outside for a moment until we went into the next car?"

"I do," she giggled. "I remember it was cold out there. And I remember sitting at the table in the dining car, eating pancakes and watching through the window as the world whizzed by. I remember when the porter came and let the beds down from the wall and I climbed up there and looked over the edge. I remember how teensy the bathroom was in the room. I remember that I had the best time ever, Dad."

Her diversion was a tonic to him. As she relaxed, but didn't release, her grip on his chest, his now-flaccid cock dropped back into place. "If I wasn't so very thankful for you coming to my rescue, I'd threaten terrible retribution, you minx!" he chuckled.

"Be nice, Daddy, or I'll paint a word picture of my masturbation fantasies," she smirked.

"You are awful, you know that?" he smiled. "And I love you more than life itself, at least half as much as I love your mother."

"Then I know for certain that my mother is the single luckiest woman on this earth, or anywhere else for that matter! And you, my poor old Dad, are the luckiest, most beloved man in the universe."

They both smiled broadly, peering into each other's eyes. "Enough of this, Scofflaw. You need to get busy!" he told her. They broke their embrace and, with a laugh, Sandy dove into the water.

Shannon had the grace to allow him time to recover at least some of his composure. When he finally approached her, she smiled warmly at him. "I must start with an apology, Bob, because I simply cannot resist: maybe the *second* time that happens to you in public won't be so painful."

"Oh, God, I hope so," he answered. "That was awful."

"And wonderful, Bob, admit it," she said. "Sandy is a beautiful young woman. I know how proud you are of her, and how much you love her. Welcome to a brave new world, Bob. Most people never see their grown children stark naked and glowing with lust and love. Any other reaction from you would have astounded me."

He smiled and nodded. With that, Shannon dove into the pool and began her first lap. Without thought, Bob dove in next to her and began trying to catch up. Shannon was a surprisingly strong and graceful swimmer. When she reached the end, she executed a flawless racing turn and headed back the way she came. Bob had never mastered that turn, and quickly realized that he had found his teacher. Now far behind her, he redoubled his effort to catch up to her.

He finished his lap and found her standing in the shallow end of the pool, water streaming down her chest. She smiled at him. After a breath or two, he asked, "Have you swum competitively? I saw your graceful turn, and couldn't match it."

She laughed gaily, nodding her head. "In high school, I was on the swim team," she told him. "It was a lot of fun. It's still good exercise. I'm going to get as much time in doing laps as I can in the next few months."

"Do you have any pointers for the kids on how they'll achieve their required distance under water?" he asked.

"I might," she allowed. "I have always concentrated on swimming laps when I got a chance in the pool, and when the kids didn't need close supervision. Let's try swimming a width, and see what I can still do."

They emerged from the pool and walked around to a point about two-thirds along the length of the pool. "Here goes nothing," she said as she dove in. Bob quickly followed. He swam with all his might, and was pleased to find that he had just enough in him to reach the other side, still underwater. He held the side of the pool and looked, but didn't see Shannon. Finally, she surfaced, almost three-quarters of the way back. He swam free style back to join her. He found her along the side of the pool.

"You did wonderfully!" he chirped.

"Not too bad for one so far out of practice," she agreed with a smile. "I'm going to keep working on it for myself, and see whether I can transfer what little I know about it to the kids."

"Great," he beamed. "Can I ask a favor of you?" She nodded. "Will you teach me how to do a racing turn?"

"Gladly," she answered. "I owe you much more than that, but it's a start."

"But you don't owe me anything," he protested.

"Oh, but I do: not only have you shown me the grace and poise I needed to become comfortable in my birthday suit, Bob, you have saved my very life, and the lives of my children."

"Not guilty!" he shot back with a grin. "I'm just a poor old guy who helped make this Program happen!"

"You are far, far too modest, Bob," she said as she shook her head disapprovingly. "You know very well that you single-handedly made our dreams come true. Without you, we would have died, every last one of us. You ask anyone in town, anyone, who made this happen. Every last one of them will say it was Bob Minter."

"DON'T!" they heard loudly. They turned and saw a girl fighting off a boy, his erection rampant. They quickly climbed out of the pool and ran down to join the girl, who was still struggling to get away from the six-handed boy who was still pawing at her. When the boy turned to look, Bob landed a solid blow to the boy's solar plexus, doubling him up as he crashed to the deck.

Bob stood over the boy as he recovered, a vicious look on his face. Shannon had wrapped the girl in an embrace. The girl started sobbing uncontrollably. Shannon led the girl away to a bench and sat down, the girl beside her.

"Would you care to explain yourself?" Bob asked the boy ominously.

"I was just having fun," the boy whined. "I didn't mean any harm. You didn't have to hit me, man!"

"Go to the locker room," Bob growled. "Get dressed. Go home." He stood over the boy, watching him collect himself for a retort.

"You got in a sucker punch, old man," the boy hissed. "You can't make me leave." Bob instantly reached down, grabbed a fistful of the boy's hair, and frog-marched him toward the lockers.

"Which locker room is yours?" he asked the boy's teammates over his shoulder.

"The boys'," answered a girl. "We're the orange/white team."

Bob found the lockers marked orange/white. He released the boy with a shove. The boy rounded on Bob, taking a swing meant for Bob's head. Bob blocked the swing and landed his own mighty blow to the boy's jaw. The boy crashed back into the lockers and slumped into a heap. Hearing a sharp intake of breath, Bob turned and found a girl standing behind him, her hand covering her mouth.

"Go get Patti Hanson and Jean Stevens," he barked. When she remained frozen, he shouted, "Do it!" She tore away, as fast as she could go, oblivious to her nudity.

The boy was still slumped against the locker when Patti ran in, first aid kit in hand. Jean was only seconds behind her. "What happened?" said Jean.

By this time, the rest of the orange/white team was standing by in horror. "Tell her," Bob said to them.

"William was going after Brianna, touching her body and stuff. Brianna tried to get away, but he wouldn't let go. Bob and Mrs. Shannon came to the rescue. When William still wouldn't let go, Bob punched him in the gut. Bob told William to get dressed and leave, but he wouldn't. Bob marched William in here. I didn't see the rest."

"I did," the first girl said. "When Bob let William go, William took a swing at Bob. Bob blocked the punch and hit William in the jaw. William just collapsed."

Patti had completed her preliminary evaluation. She extracted an instant ice pack from the first aid kit, activated it, and placed it on the boy's face. She guided his hand onto the ice pack. When she was satisfied that he could hold it in place, she turned her attention to the back of his head. The collision with the locker had opened the boy's scalp. Patti carefully cleaned, and then bandaged the cut. She moved away from the boy. "I'm pretty sure he's all right. We should get him to Ellen just to be sure."

Jean produced a cell phone and began to dial. "Dave," she said into the phone, we have a bit of an emergency. Please come to the boys' locker room, right now. Don't run, but don't delay, either." She listened for a moment. "OK," she said, and closed the phone.

"Where is Brianna?" asked Patti. With the answer, Patti shot down to the pool area.

Jean turned to the kids. "Does anyone have anything to add about what happened? Any objections to what I heard?" The kids all shook their heads. "You realize, don't you," Jean continued, "that William is all done here? That William is out of the Program? That your team is now one member short? Does anyone think William should be pardoned, and allowed to stay in the Program?" The kids uniformly shook their heads 'no'.

Dave Franklin walked in and quickly assessed the situation. "Remind me never to tangle with you, Bob," he said with a grim smile. He turned to Jean. "What do you want me to do?"

"Will you please load William into your car," Jean said, "and take him in to see Ellen? Patti doesn't think he's seriously hurt, but we need to be sure."

Dave simply nodded and began to get William to his feet. "Get dressed, Bud," he said, "and let's go."

William proceeded to get himself dressed, then turned to face Dave. "I'm sorry, Mr. Franklin," was all he said.

"Sorry doesn't cut it," growled Dave. "It's too late for 'I'm sorry' I'm afraid. Let's go." With that, Dave and William left.

"You realize, don't you," said Jean to the kids, "that expulsion from the Program is a death sentence? I mean that, it's a death sentence. William will be Swarm food. He has no other option."

The kids were stricken, appalled, horrified. With eyes like saucers, hands over mouths, they nodded.

"Let's go check on Brianna," said Bob. They all trouped down to the pool. Brianna had seemingly recovered and was no longer wrapped in Shannon's arms. Patti was kneeling in front of Brianna, talking to her.

Bob felt Sandy latch herself onto his side, her arm around his waist. "Are you alright, Dad?" she asked.

Bob inspected the back of his hand, found no blood, and answered, "Sure, Kitten, your old man is tough."

"You got that right about tough," she said. "I saw it all, Dad. I had no idea you could do that."

"Aw, twern't nuttin," he told her, looking down at her face. Fortunately, he was so rattled by the experience, he didn't have to worry about a repeat episode with his cock. 'Damn,' he thought, 'she is breathtakingly beautiful.'

"Nothing? I don't think that was nothing, Daddy," she answered. "You demolished a twelfth grader. I heard what you did to him in the locker room."

"Well," he sighed, "it isn't anything to be proud of, anyway, Baby. A man shouldn't go around fighting."

"Dad," she said in exasperation, "you missed the point entirely. You saved Brianna. You saw what you had to do, and you did it. That's it."

"That's what you think, huh?" he asked.

"That's what everybody thinks, Dad. You gotta stop being a hero for the whole town, or you'll be insufferable. You're hard enough to deal with as it is," she giggled.

He roared with laughter. Everybody turned to look at him. He recovered himself, blushing. "Dang, now everyone will think I don't take this seriously."

"Dad!" she turned and socked him in the arm, hard. "You take *everything* seriously! You especially take your humor seriously."

"Oh, yea, like standing here, buck naked, being pummeled by my irresistibly sexy daughter is serious?" he chuckled.

She got a quizzical look. "You think I'm sexy?" she squeaked.

A look of shock on his face, he answered, "You, Sandy Minter, are almost unbearably sexy. You exude sexy. I'm gonna go get dressed before I have a heart attack."

"Don't you mean a *hard* attack?" she quipped with an impish grin.

He laughed. "Been there, done that. No tee shirts in the pool area." Now they both laughed. He wrapped her in a warm embrace and kissed the top of her head.

Amy had already been working on plans to reformulate the teams as students dropped out. She hadn't expected the first casualty to be so soon. She did expect fully 30% of the students to give up, or get bored, or complacent, and decide to drop out. She expected the number of students at the end to number less than one hundred. She expected to begin to see students drop out beginning next week and every week thereafter.

Thanks to a great deal of work, and more than a little luck, the initial make up of the teams included at least one student from each of the five grades, divided evenly between boys and girls. Today's single casualty would mean only that his team would have to carry on without him. There were no other existing teams short of members, nor any surplus members.

Having only hypothetical changes to deal with and, after a great deal of thought, she felt she had a workable method for re-constituting broken teams. Reconfiguration might result in some teams having more or less than the basic three boys and three girls. Some reconstituted teams might not have the ideal spread of grade levels. In all, though, she was sure she could handle changes as they occurred, even if the total number of dropouts far exceeded her worst fears.

Amy turned her attention to the database, and her duty to make some sense of the information it contained. She was to somehow figure out which of the town adults had a sufficiently high probability of success if they entered the CAP score enhancement program and, of course, if they worked hard.

She had two distinct categories of prospects, those whose present CAP score was below 6.5 and might first become volunteers, and those who already qualified as volunteers who might be able to raise their scores sufficiently to qualify for two more concubines. Amy decided to attempt to tackle the former category first.

She sorted the database, excluding students who were already in the Program; children, who were irrelevant for her task, those whose CAP cards had yet to be scanned, and volunteers. The remaining number of people was daunting. Suddenly, it dawned on her that she might be able to make some sense of the sub-scores if she compared the sub-scores of the volunteers, who had the necessary character makeup, with the rest, who somehow lacked something in their character.

She went back to the database. She created a table containing all of the records with overall CAP scores greater than 6.4. She gazed through the records. These were the solid, upstanding citizens of the town. The sub-scores seemed fairly uniformly to show them to have the character traits she expected.

She went to her own record. Like everyone else, she had never been able to view the sub-scores that resulted in her overall 5.2 score. What she found was no surprise to her at all.

She'd gone to college, and collected her bachelor's degree. But she knew she wasn't really very smart. She'd had to work very hard for the decent grades she'd achieved. And that had been truly hard because, she conceded to herself, she was more than a little lazy. Her dad, especially, had really wanted her to go to college. She couldn't disappoint the folks.

She was glad she didn't have friends come to her home very often. It almost took a snow shovel to clean the place. She let clutter, clothes, everything accumulate on every horizontal surface, especially the floor.

She also knew she was timid. Spiders scared her witless. And she, truth be told, lacked initiative. She'd always let life lead her, rather than her leading herself. But she loved children, and she had begun to look forward to being surrounded by lots of babies, including lots of her own.

When she had first arrived in town to take up her teaching position, Jean had warned her about small town gossip, and urged her to be very circumspect in her intimate relationships, lest she be branded a trollop, or worse. (Fortunately, Jean didn't know that Amy already fit one definition of trollop: she was in fact slovenly and untidy.) Amy had taken Jean's warning to heart. At first, Amy didn't really mind -- she was still sexually active with her boyfriend 'back home'. As her relationship with her boyfriend had faded, she had to rely more and more on her dildo. Batteries were on the grocery list most of the time.

She sighed. She realized that she didn't really want to be a volunteer. She wanted to be loved (as frequently as possible), to have babies, and to raise a family. She had a private joke to herself that she hoped her man would squirt a baby into her and come back often, using his tool to jam the baby back into place.

Looking at her own record was not helpful in her quest to find candidates for CAP score improvement. In a flash of inspiration, she remembered that Bob Minter would be unable to volunteer. She pulled up his record and reviewed it.

She was surprised. The sub-scores did not reflect the man she knew. Bob was the single reason for the Program. Despite his resistance, he was fast becoming a hero in the eyes of most town folk. He worked hard FOR the Program, he worked hard ON the Program.

She couldn't figure out how such a swell guy had fared so poorly on the CAP test. Well, 6.1 wasn't really a poor score, but it wasn't a ticket to the stars. She wondered whether Bob had fallen into complacency at the time of his test, a complacency that since been forcefully driven away. Reviewing his sub-scores, she was certain that a re-test would bring him into the volunteer category.

But, which sub-scores were crucial? Was Bob the key she needed to isolate other high probability prospects?

She set to work on trying to quantify, qualify Bob's weaknesses. His ego was low. He was a hard worker, but he seemed not to expect himself to amount to much. His fairly low generosity may have stemmed from his meager resources -- his business provided for his family, but he was by no means well-to-do. According to the sub-score, he had low-ish initiative but, again, at the time of the test he might have felt little incentive to rock the boat.

According to the sub-scores, he had quite a temper, although she had never seen or heard of it on display. His sub-score said his leadership level was somewhat low. Maybe he was -- used to be -- a mind-your-own-business kind of guy.

All well and good, she thought. How am I going to apply what I see in his scores to the population? She felt very frustrated.

To Amy's enormous relief, Megan walked in wearing a grin. That was all Amy needed to turn away from her frustrating task and engage with Megan. Soon it was time to head to the cafeteria for lunch.

Although he had been in the pool area all morning, it was simply too much fun for Bob to resist breaking in another newbie at the pool. He excused himself from the lunch table, went to the lockers and undressed and took a quick shower, and headed for the pool again.

Mary Osborne made her appearance moments behind him. She, too, was mortified but was also able to square her shoulders and stand up proudly. They spent a few moments in idle chat before the first teams arrived.

By Tuesday afternoon, all of the teams knew their assignments in the pool. The first team began by doing laps. The second team to arrive opted to begin with their hand-touch exercises. Bob explained what they were doing, and the ultimate goal of their work. He also explained the kids' duty to learn to swim a full length of the pool underwater.

Mary wasn't much of a swimmer, and didn't have any ideas as to how she could aid the kids in their duties. It was apparent that she was becoming more comfortable in the altogether. She was even able to hold her eyes in some of the boys' faces despite the raging hard-ons pointing directly at her.

Bob suggested that time passed more quickly while active, and recommended that Mary swim as many laps as she was comfortable with. He told her he wanted to do a few himself and then leave her to proctor the pool area. She decided to join him. They dove in and made a leisurely pass down and back. Bob decided that that was enough for him. He climbed out, followed by Mary. After visiting for a few more minutes, Bob excused himself and left.

Ellen came in the door to the shop and found Kathy at the helm. Ellen knew that Bob was at the high school. She wanted to talk to Kathy in private. "Hello there, Kathy," Ellen said brightly. "How are you doing today?"

"I'm fine, Ellen," answered Kathy with her own smile. "What brings you here on a Tuesday afternoon?"

"I need a bit of your help, Kathy. More than a bit, I guess. Do you have time to talk for a few minutes?"

"Sure I do. I'll even spring for a cup of coffee at the cafe if your talk will last that long."

"The talk might last long enough," said Ellen, "but I'll pass on the coffee if you don't mind."

"That's fine," said Kathy. Come back here and we can sit down."

When they had settled themselves, Ellen started out. "Kathy, Bob and I are both on the Core Group committee. He and I had a chance for a talk on Saturday while we stood guard duty in the wee hours of the night. Last week, Bob mentioned that he doesn't qualify to volunteer. I hope you're planning on escorting Travis and Becky in the extraction?" Kathy nodded sadly. "Good," said Ellen. "They need you." Ellen latched onto Kathy's eyes with her own. "Kathy, I need you, too." Kathy gave her a quizzical look.

"I'm searching for the right 'mother' to be the head of my household. I have special needs. You are my first choice. I'll explain if you're interested. I wanted to ask you before anyone else does. Have you agreed to go with anyone else?" Kathy shook her head.

Ellen sighed. "Kathy, I know I'm a private person. No one in town knows a great deal about me personally. I told Bob my shaggy dog story on Saturday night. I know Bob. He didn't mention what I told him to a soul, not even you." Kathy shook her head sadly. "Kathy, if you agree to come with me, we'll have our whole lives for me to tell you everything there is to know about me. For now, I'll just say�" and she paused, looking down.

She brought her head back up and collected Kathy's eyes with her own. "While I was an undergraduate, I was raped." Kathy's sharp intake of breath was clearly audible. "I was a virgin, Kathy. It was the first and last time I have come in contact with semen." Ellen paused again. Both women were shedding copious tears. Neither paid any attention to them.

"I have a housemate. She is damaged goods. She has been abused nearly her whole life. In a lot of ways, I too am damaged goods. I probably will fill my household with a number of damaged, vulnerable women. There are few secrets in a small town. Being the town doctor, I know most of those few that otherwise remain secret. I know who the abused women in town are. If they don't want to come with me, then I'll choose the youngest, most vulnerable of the high school girls. Happily, your Sandy is lucky enough to be cherished by her mom and dad. A lot of girls aren't nearly so lucky.

"I also am going to need a loving mate for these women, and a loving father for all the children we will have. You don't know a male that might fit that description, do you?" Ellen said with a wry grin.

Ellen watched the expressions on Kathy's face as her words registered. A lot of expressions there were, too, before an expression of utter joy settled onto Kathy's shining face. "I got this fella I'm kinda partial to," she whispered. "He's gettin' a little long in the tooth, but he might do in a pinch."

"That's good," Ellen said. "I think I might know who you mean. He'd be a good choice. Now, Sandy isn't one of those vulnerable girls I was talking about earlier. But do you think she'd fit in with a bunch of damaged goods like me?"

Kathy was radiant. Instead of answering, she knelt in front of Ellen, wrapped her in a huge hug, and began to bawl." Ellen simply held her, stroking her hair.

After a long while, Kathy collected herself, still in Ellen's embrace. She pulled her face back and looked deeply into Ellen's eyes. "Thank you, Ellen. Yes, I will gladly go with you to the stars."

"Bob is working very hard in this program," smiled Ellen. "It is entirely possible that his CAP score will increase enough for him to volunteer. If that happens, you can change your mind about coming with me."

"I'll deal with that when the time comes," said Kathy. "For now, you have guaranteed the safety of my entire family. No matter what else happens, I will never be able to repay you."

"I'm not done yet, Kathy," whispered Ellen. "I have a libido. I just haven't been with a man in all these years. Kathy, I want back that huge part of my life that was stolen from me. I want to be a mother, Kathy. I want to be held by a man, and loved, really loved. I want to finally drive away the pain and suffering I've had to endure for so long. But I'm afraid, Kathy. Will you help me, Kathy, please?" Kathy only nodded, and smiled serenely. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to do it."

They were silent for a time, still gazing deeply into each other's eyes, still embracing. Finally, Kathy whispered, "I'm starting to get a plan in my mind. What about you coming to our home for dinner on Friday night? I'll take the kids to my mother's for the night."

"Will you think about keeping Sandy with us? If Sandy will be part of our family, she needs to know about me. And it's time Sandy became a woman, Kathy. If she's going to share Bob's bed, she may as well start now. If nothing else, she should witness a loving embrace between a man and a woman." Kathy's expression was first of shock, but then acceptance slowly settled on her face. She nodded agreement, still beaming with joy.

"That sounds like a good beginning for a plan," said Ellen. "I may not be able to go through with all of it, but I'll try."

"Oh, I think my plan will help you a lot," giggled Kathy. "I'm thinking of tying Bob to the bed, blindfolded. We won't hurt him. We can torture him with kisses and caresses. He won't know who is who."

"That's nasty," giggled Ellen. "I like it!"

"Settle down!" Jean's voice boomed over the loud buzz from the bleachers. "Unhappily, one of you didn't make it all the way to the end of this second day. I'm sure that, by now, every one of you knows the last detail of the episode. I wish William every bit of luck he can muster, because he won't be back here, and he won't be extracted. If any more of you demonstrate such utter lack of responsibility, the same fate will be yours. Perhaps the worst of that will be that you will let down the rest of your team, who will suffer all the more from your absence.

"Two teams, and you know who you are, owe the Program more time before you leave tonight on account of the tardiness of one of your members. I expect that at least one team will be here all day on a Saturday, perhaps this Saturday, when one of your members utterly fails to show up some morning. Unless the team member tells me -- face to face -- that they have decided to quit the Program, the rest of the team will be here for a full day on Saturday to make up the loss.

"On a happier note, we have made excellent progress in arranging programs of paintball and shooting for you. The programs are not yet ready because the equipment, supplies and facilities are not yet ready. I will tell you that none of you will be allowed to participate until every member of your team can demonstrate a level of proficiency in each and every one of the modules conducted here at the school. That especially means sewing, boxing and the pugil sticks. It is essential that you help your teammates to be successful.

"And I'm pleased to see that almost all of you are making excellent progress. I'm proud to see you working so diligently. Thank you for your physical and mental dedication. Go home and get your rest, so you can be back here in the morning, ready to do it again. Dismissed."

"I'm very proud of you," beamed John at the fourth Core Group meeting on Tuesday evening. "The party on Saturday night was a rousing success. We had the quietest Sunday in this town that I can remember. I think we need to review recent events, the progress we've made, and any problems that have been encountered."

They spent a long time updating each other. John repeated the events of Friday night. Ellen remarked on all of the young women who had taken advantage of her free contraceptives. Jean led a long discussion of the talk spreading like wildfire among the girls about their virginity at a pickup. No elegant solutions were put forward. Jean assured them that she had pushed back, assuring the girls that a solution would be found and pressuring them not to do anything they'd regret in the meantime.

Michael reported that they had identified 1,187 people in or near town. Of those, there were 385 children younger than eighth grade and 144 kids from eighth through twelfth grades. There are 317 adult men and 341 adult women, a total of 658. He didn't know yet how many of the women are above childbearing age. As of Thursday night, there were 438 cards scanned. As of this point, they had 781 cards scanned. Also, 17 women were reportedly returning to town, but only Megan Stevens had actually arrived. Amy added that she and Megan had spent the afternoon calling on townspeople, collecting CAP card scans. She said she thought the two could collect the remaining scans in the next day or so.

Jean used that opportunity to report that she had collected Megan as a concubine, and was considering whom else she wanted for her family. Many of the others agreed that they, too, were beginning to think in those terms. Michael said he'd collected his mother, but didn't mention his sister or Kayla. Ellen held her tongue.

Michael dismally said that he had had scant success trying to find the magic trick of identifying high-probability adult candidates for the Program. Amy chimed in with her own woes in that area. Ellen shared Bob's thought delivered late on Saturday night: let the adult candidates self-select. Any who thought the Program would serve them well could join in. The prospects for the rest weren't bright anyway. The committee thought that a brilliant idea. Michael and Amy were deeply relieved. They discussed how to get the word out inviting adults to enter the program. They tabled selecting proctors for the time being.

Jean reported on the two days' efforts by the students in the Program. She cited the comment at the end that some boy had made about the value of sewing to the war against the Swarm. All agreed that attrition was inevitable. Jean also discussed the incident between Bob and the grabby boy. Bob was roundly praised for his quick, decisive reaction. Dave added a bit about his discussion with the boy enroute to Ellen's office, noting sadly that the boy knew expulsion led certainly to a literally dead end, but didn't much care. Ellen assured all that the boy was generally unhurt.

Bob again raised the subject of shooting and paintball exercises for the students. After a great deal of discussion, the entire committee agreed that those events should be arranged and scheduled. Jim Beatty agreed to carry the ball on getting these going.

They discussed whether it was time for another town meeting. Ellen wanted to emphasize that friends and family, especially females, should be brought to town so they could participate in the evacuation. Jean pointed out that there was at least a remote possibility that the Confederacy would unilaterally cancel the Program and conduct the extraction on short notice. That thought hit home for a lot of the committee members. They decided to table the decision about a town meeting. John suggested that some form of newsletter might be useful. Amy was drafted for the writing. Michael volunteered himself and his friends for distribution.

They turned their attention to evaluations of progress, and CAP testing in general. Firstly, there would be need for a great number of CAP tests in a relatively short time when the Program neared completion. Secondly, it was thought that a CAP test, especially if it showed any improvement at all over the previous score, might aid those participants whose dedication began to flag. Perhaps an increase in the score, no matter how small, might reinvigorate the participant. The nearest CAP testing center was more than an hour's drive away. John agreed to reach out to the Confederacy to see what assistance might be available.

Bob returned home to find both Kathy and Sandy in high spirits. Sandy was effusive about her day. She was clearly proud of her boxing exercise, and reported with glee that she had mastered the front somersault unaided, albeit with the trampoline. She ruefully admitted that she'd taken quite a beating with the pugil sticks, but was at least proud that she was able to pick herself up and get back in there for yet more punishment.

Kathy announced that Ellen would be coming to their home on Friday night for dinner. She was rather evasive as to the reason for the social call, but smiled coyly. That Kathy intended to ship off the two youngest kids to her mother's house for the night only added to the mystery. That there was more to the report than Kathy would share didn't really register with Sandy, who liked Ellen. The visit was good news, and that was enough for Sandy. Bob knew from long experience that it was futile to attempt to pry more from Kathy than she wanted to share.

Bob had become accustomed to intense nightly sexual workouts from his wife. That tonight's bout was almost joyful, rather than mournful, was not lost on Bob, but he had the good grace not to inquire the reason. He knew her enough to know that she'd let him know in good time.