Timeline: Year 2/3

Chapter Two

Joe was out of his med-tube before Alison. It had fixed his eyes so everything looked sharper than before and the nurse, Tammi according to her name-tag, said he wouldn't need his reading glasses any more. He was still thinning on top, but Tammi assured him that work was in progress and his hair would grow back naturally. She was holding Scott in his tube until his mother had finished. Alison was taking longer because she was pregnant.

"There isn't a problem, is there?" Joe asked, worried.

"No, sir. Everything looks fine. We're doing a thorough check because she had a miscarriage about a year ago. There's no sign of any trouble with this one."

While Joe waited, he thought about the situation with Patricia and Wesley. He needed to plan a way for Patricia to return Wesley to Earth, and let her find a replacement concubine. If Wesley was as big a fool as Suki said, then the first part should be easy; Patricia was intelligent enough to realize her mistake. He would need to think harder about the second part.

The AI interrupted his thoughts via his newly installed internal link, «Joe, Suki and Charlie are on their way to medical.»

The two siblings arrived just as the nurse was getting Alison out of her tube. Charlie went into an empty tube, while Suki took the one Alison had vacated. Scott had been in a half-size tube, suitable for young children.

Walking back to their pod, Alison was obviously relieved that her pregnancy was going well. With Confederacy medicine to help, she was confident that this one would be fine.

Leaving Alison to look after Scott, Joe retreated to his office to plan his strategy for the Wesley problem.

Again, the AI interrupted him, "Joe, Suki and Charlie have finished in medical. No problems were detected. Charlie's CAP estimate is 6.3 to 6.7."

Good. Charlie had an excellent chance of making sponsor, if not the first time then on one of his annual retests. As his guardian, it was up to Joe to help Charlie make it over the line.

Soon after Suki and her brother returned, Alison produced some food in the kitchen. Scott proudly told everyone that he'd helped set the table. Joe noticed that Charlie ignored the young boy, and called him on it. "Charlie, say thank you to your younger brother."

The look on Charlie's face was priceless. Suki just about succeeded in not spraying her mouthful of food over the table. "That's right big brother," she managed to get out before collapsing into laughter again.

Joe did a stage whisper into Charlie's ear, "Call her 'mother'."

That set Joe and Alison off at the shocked expressions on the siblings' faces. "You're my concubine, Suki," he told her. "So you're a mother to all my dependents. Just like Alison is a mother to both Scott and Charlie, so are you."

"But only for a few months," Charlie put in.

"Five months, one week and four days, Earthat time," the AI interrupted, surprising Charlie.

"Yeah, then I'll be a sponsor. Maybe Joe will give you to me?" he said to his sister.

Joe shook his head to reassure Suki. "Only if you make sponsor, Charlie. It's not certain."

"I'll make sponsor for sure." Charlie didn't have any doubt.

"AI," Joe asked, "is there any specific training available to help Charlie reach the score for sponsor?"

"Yes, Joe. Special courses are available for those with a CAP estimate near 6.5. Charlie's estimate qualifies him for those courses."

"Oh shi..." Charlie said, moderating his language just in time. "I'm gonna be on extra-credit courses for five months."

"Would you rather spend a year as a concubine?" Joe asked.

Charlie grimaced. He did not want to be a concubine. If he was, then Suki would tease him mercilessly all year. He'd teased her when she'd scored 5.2 and there was no way she'd miss the chance to get him back if she could.

Luckily, Alison had brought some of Scott's favorite toys with her to Ossie's, and she'd found a big stuffed toy Confederacy Marine for him in the replicator menus. That helped reconcile him to leaving behind his other toys. He played with his old and new toys – including the new toys called Joe, Suki and Charlie – before his mother announced it was bedtime.

All of them got a childish kiss before Alison took him off to the bathroom and to bed. Scott was soon asleep, hugging his new toy Marine. The AI, acting as baby monitor, showed a small display of him sleeping for Alison.

Joe enjoyed having Scott around. It reminded him of when his own children were young, and when his marriage was still good. Better to remember the good times than the not-so-good. Even Charlie seemed to enjoy Scott using him as an impromptu climbing frame. A quick check with the AI showed that Charlie's estimated parenting scores were clearly above average. Good, that would be important later on. Joe had calculated the number of children he could expect in his family, and Charlie's family would be the same size. Good parenting skills would be essential.

There was more work to do on the Wesley problem, so Joe retired to his office to discuss his options with the AI. From its point of view, Wesley was worthless – only sponsor-level humans counted for anything. Female concubines had some use for breeding, but male concubines were expendable. The AI assumed that sponsors, not concubines, would father all children. Joe had to rework his arguments away from the effect on Wesley to emphasize the effect on Patricia. The AI understood that killing Wesley would have a bad effect on Patricia, and that could justify the slight expenditure of resources needed to return him to Earth. Even arguing that Wesley would be of military age when the Sa'arm arrived didn't have any real impact. One soldier more or less didn't count for a lot in the AI's view.

It was very clear to Joe that the Confederacy saw humans as no more than a temporarily useful, though unpredictable, tool. If they hadn't been threatened by the Swarm, then the Confederacy would have avoided Earth altogether and kept all those dangerously violent humans in quarantine.

The AI was more helpful with the second part of the problem, finding a new male concubine for Patricia. It came up with some suggestions that Joe could put to her.

Joe decided to take Alison to bed that night. Suki wasn't happy about that, but she'd had Wesley at the pickup, while Alison had only had her pussy licked briefly.

He checked that both Suki and Charlie knew the Confederacy's rules about sex with minors. They had some idea, but Joe told them: no sex with each other. It wasn't a big danger; a, "Ewww," from Suki and a, "Yuck," from Charlie confirmed that the two siblings weren't interested in each other that way. Joe told the AI to monitor them anyway – better to make sure.

Alison and Joe approached sex slowly. They were both experienced and neither felt the need to rush into things. Alison was very protective of her pregnancy – because of her previous miscarriage, Joe assumed – so she didn't want missionary. Joe wanted to see her face, so they started with cowgirl. Bouncing on Joe's rod hurt Alison's enlarged tits. She tried holding them, but that felt too awkward. Eventually they managed with Alison lying at the edge of the bed and Joe kneeling on the floor between her thighs. They both got a surprise when the AI unexpectedly lowered the bed to line the two of them up correctly. It wasn't a wild night of passion, more a confirmation of what their new relationship would be. If Joe wanted passion, then Suki was the better choice.

For Alison, the sex was more about reassurance than anything else. She still had Scott, but she'd had to leave Pete behind. Joe wasn't Pete, not by a long way, but he obviously wanted to make this new situation work for both of them.

For his part, Joe was careful not to ask about Alison's husband. He assumed that the Confederacy would have done something in the med-tube earlier that day to take the edge off her loss. There would be a lot of people: dependents, concubines and sponsors, who had left partners, parents or friends behind. He let the nanites work undisturbed. They could discuss her husband later, if she raised the subject.

Over breakfast the AI announced that they all had training to attend. Alison and Suki had concubine training, while Charlie had school.

"What about Scott?" Alison asked.

"Childcare facilities are provided," the AI informed her.

Joe had an introductory Naval lecture to go to, so he had to put on his new black uniform. Suki didn't like her gray shift one bit, but with Charlie around she kept it on. She knew that if she took it off, she'd like his comments even less.

Joe told them to meet him in the mess for lunch and they all set off for their different destinations.

Looking round the mess, it was obvious that the ship wasn't fully loaded yet. More than half the tables were empty, and those that weren't generally had plenty of space. Joe saw Al Zuckerman, in a green Marine uniform, sitting with the blonde mother from Ossie's, her twins and a second concubine; probably one of the office workers since she looked too old for high school. He could talk to his former colleague later, first he needed to talk to Patricia.

Luckily, Patricia was at a table with enough empty places for Joe's family of five. He sent his two women, with Scott, to collect food from the replicators, while he and Charlie went to Patricia's table.

Patricia had obviously been through the tubes as well, since she wasn't wearing glasses now and her hair looked better than it had in Ossie's. Like Joe, she was in a black Navy uniform.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" he asked.

"No problem." She waved a hand to take in the five empty seats at the table.

Joe sat next to her at the circular table, "You're Patricia, aren't you?"

"I prefer Patty. The other sounds too formal."

"Fine, Patty it is then. I'm Joe."

She nodded. "You picked the Navy as well? I saw you in this morning's lecture."

He hadn't noticed her, so she must have been sitting behind him, Joe thought. "Yes, I don't want to be a two-meter gorilla."

"One of my uncles is Navy, US Navy that is, so I followed him," she explained.

The rest of Joe's family arrived, with Scott dashing ahead. He sat next to Charlie, followed by Alison and lastly Suki. That put Suki next to Wesley, who was sitting furthest from Patty.

Patty looked at Suki and commented, "I see you picked the number two bitch."

"I wanted a number two. She needs to follow orders from myself and Alison. I chose her because she does what she's told."

"Yeah, she was always a follower," Patty confirmed.

Just then Suki interrupted them, shouting, "Get your fucking hands off me, Wesley! I don't belong to you, you stupid asshole!"

As Joe got up to investigate the problem he heard Patty say, "Shit," under her breath. He also saw one of the Marines moving closer to the table, probably anticipating a potential problem.

Wesley suddenly realized he was in deep trouble. Two sponsors and one of those big Marines were converging on him, and the Marine had some sort of weapon in her hand.

The Marine ignored Wesley completely. "Which of you two owns this one?" she asked the two sponsors.

"I do," Patty answered nervously.

"Want me to recycle him, or just sting him?" the Marine asked.

Joe could see that Patty was panicking, unable to decide what to do. "I suggest that you have him stung for the moment, Patty."

She nodded, and the Marine pointed her weapon at Wesley. There was a strange sizzling sound and he slumped unconscious to the floor.

There were a few screams from nearby tables, and Patty looked shocked. "He's not ... ?"

"No, he's not dead," Joe reassured her. "We need to talk about him though."

Patty nodded, "I think I made a mistake there."

As Joe had anticipated, she'd already realized her error with Wesley. That would make things easier. "Eat quickly and we can talk in private," he suggested.

The AI directed them to a small room off the mess. Joe started, "Suki warned me about Wesley, so I took the liberty of exploring some options for you." Patty nodded. "You can return Wesley to Earth if you want to. If you don't, he'll probably do something else stupid and you'll have to kill him."

"Oh no! I don't want to have to execute him. You're probably right though. Sometime soon he's really going to put his foot in it."

"Yes, so best to send him back now, while we're still in Earth orbit. Once we're on our way, killing him is pretty much the only option."

Patti nodded, "At least he'll still be alive. But that leaves me short of a stud."

"You have some options there. AI?"

"Sponsor Patricia Keown, you have two primary options," the AI told her. "Firstly, you can let the Marine Extraction Teams select the best available male concubine for you from multiple concurrent extractions. Secondly, you could join a team and select a candidate yourself from a single extraction."

"I'll want to select him myself, but how do I avoid picking another loser?"

Joe butted into the conversation, "I used the AI to help me at our pickup. I told it what I wanted and it pointed me at the best matches. You could do the same."

"Can you do that, AI?" Patty asked.

"Affirmative. It would be useful to know your requirements in advance, to narrow down the selection. We can discuss options early this afternoon, and you could accompany an extraction team later today or tomorrow morning."

"OK, I'll do that," Patty said. "Send Wesley back to Earth. I'll think about his replacement and talk to you in about thirty minutes."

"Acknowledged," the AI replied.

Joe excused himself and returned to his family in the mess.

Wesley woke up lying on a hard floor. He hurt like hell, and he suspected that things weren't looking good for him.

The big Marine from the mess loomed over him. "You blew it big-time, motherfucker. Your sponsor has dumped you and, luckily for you, she doesn't want you dead. Me, I'd recycle you for basic stupidity, but you got lucky. She's sending you back."

"Wha'?"

"You're going back downstairs with a big red mark on your CAP card: 'Do not let this moron go with a female sponsor'. Better hope you can find some high CAP gay guy who likes your ass, 'cause if you don't you're gonna be Swarm McNuggets."

Picking him up easily, the Marine frogmarched him over to a transporter. "This will take you back to the CAP Testing Center where you got your card. After that you're on your own." She pushed him towards the transporter. "Sayonara, asshole."

Wesley staggered forward and disappeared.

Patty waited in the Transporter Room with Lin, in her gray shift, standing beside her. The Marine extraction teams had gone through, and she was awaiting word from the AI if there were any suitable concubine candidates for her at one of the three pickup sites.

She knew that Wesley had been a big mistake. He had a reputation in school as a good fuck – which he was – but she hadn't picked up on his reputation as a sexist idiot – which he was as well. She'd just listened to what she'd wanted to hear and, being in the geek/sponsor crowd, wasn't plugged into the slut/concubine gossip well enough to correct her misunderstanding. At least she'd realized soon enough to get rid of him while she could still pick a better replacement. Hopefully, the AI could help her avoid repeating the error. Joe's advice had been good, even though it was horribly embarrassing laying out her secret desires in black and white for the AI. It needed to know exactly what she wanted so it could find a good prospect for her.

The AI broke into her thoughts, «Sponsor Patricia Keown. There is a suitable candidate at Team Bravo's pickup. Do you wish to interview him?»

«Yes, I do.»

«Step onto the active transporter. Private Morgan is expecting you.»

One of the transporters glowed green, so she beckoned Lin to follow her and walked forward.

The two of them arrived in a food court, presumably in a Mall, though the gray interdiction field cut off their view of whatever was outside. Patty thought there were at least twice as many people here as there had been at her own extraction. The groups of naked women and test-drives looked familiar. She almost felt like an old hand at this.

The Marine by the transporter introduced himself, "I'm Private Morgan. You're here looking for a stud, are you now?"

"Yes." Patty couldn't place the private's accent. He wasn't American and it didn't sound like a standard British accent either. "The AI says it has someone for me."

"Indeed it does. We've pulled him out of the line, and he's waiting for you over by the cash desks." The private handed Patty a card reader, and pointed to her left.

The guy was already naked, and black of course. She'd made that very clear to the AI. He was older and taller than Wesley, though running more to fat. His half-hard cock looked slightly smaller, though she knew she could change that. One of her mistakes with Wesley had been to go too much on his looks. Looks, and dicks, could be fixed in the med-tubes; plain dumb stupidity couldn't.

"I'm Patty Keown," she told him. "I'm looking for a male concubine. Are you interested?"

"Daniel Fraser, ma'am, an' I surely am." He handed over his CAP card.

Patty quickly saw that his numbers were a lot better than Wesley's. Daniel was well ahead on everything, apart from sexual performance, and that was still good. She'd learned from her mistake in not thoroughly checking Wesley's scores.

"OK, Daniel, or is it Dan?"

"I prefer Daniel, ma'am."

"Good. That saves confusion. One of my other concubines is called Dana, and we sometimes call her Dan." Patty paused to return Daniel's CAP card. "Your CAP scores look good. Talk first, or test drive first?"

"Talk first, please ma'am. I prob'ly won't be able to think so good after the test drive."

"Makes sense," Patty agreed. "I've got three girls, Lin here, and two others up in orbit. I need a stud to keep me and Lin happy."

"What about the other two?"

"Dana and Natashia keep each other happy, and me happy when I'm in the mood for some pussy. Is that a problem?"

"No, ma'am. No problem. I won't go where I'm not wanted," Daniel reassured her.

"What about me being white?" Patty asked. "Dana is white too, though Nat is black."

"I got no problem if you don't. An' if you did, you'd be checkin' out some white dude instead of me." Daniel paused, "How come you're here anyways? Weren't there any guys at your pickup?"

"There were, but I made a mistake and picked a complete loser. He's back on Earth now, so I have an empty slot."

"I ain't no loser."

"I know, Daniel. Your CAP card told me that. How come your parenting experience is so high? You're twenty-two but you have years of experience."

"That's on my card? Wow."

"Just as well for you. I want parenting experience; none of us girls have it and we're going to need it in about nine months."

Daniel smiled at Patty's 'nine months' comment. "Well, mom had me young, while she was still in high school, so she ain't so much older than me. Once I was grown some, she decided she wanted more babies while she still could. I got two brothers an' a sister: seven, five and four. I spend a lotta time helpin' mom with them."

"Is she here today?"

"Yeah. She got herself selected. Man, it was strange seein' that dude testin' my ma."

"That's good," Patty commented. "You won't have to worry about your family being left behind."

Daniel nodded. "It's good they're safe, but I coulda done without the floor-show."

Patty liked Daniel, he had a good attitude and was obviously streets ahead of Wesley. "Do you have any questions, Daniel?"

"Yeah. Do I get to father any babies? Some of the guys say only sponsors get to be fathers."

"I haven't really thought about it. It won't be none, I think you'll deserve some kids of your own. It won't be a lot either. I'll want sponsors for most of the fathers. Is that OK?"

"It's enough," Daniel replied. "I figured it wouldn't be many, but I wouldn'a liked none at all."

"Any other questions?"

"Ahmmm ..." Daniel looked at Lin in her gray concubine shift. "Will I hav'ta wear somethin' like that?"

"No. The girls usually go naked." Daniel looked relieved. "Lin's only wearing it now because I don't want her bothered by other sponsors trying to pick her. The shift lets them know she's not available."

"No more questions, ma'am," Daniel finished.

"OK," Patty said. "Test drive then." She turned to her concubine, who'd been silent so far. "Lin, get up on the table." The Asian teen sat on a nearby table and waited for instructions.

Patty was still shy about sex; she'd had as much as she wanted since she'd got her CAP card – and could have had more – but that had always been in private, never in public. She'd brought Lin along to test candidates, rather than doing it herself.

"Daniel, start by licking Lin."

Daniel smiled at his fellow concubine. As he knelt, she lifted her shift and parted her legs for him.

Patty could tell from Lin's expression that Daniel was doing a good job, a very good job. Already he was up on Wesley, who'd been a good fuck but a lousy pussy licker. She let them continue for long enough that Lin would be ready for him. She could see that he'd been ready almost since he'd started licking; pre-cum was dripping off the end of his stiff cock.

"OK, Daniel, Lin," Patty told them. "Now fuck please."

"Patty, can I take my shift off to use as a pillow?" Lin asked. "Lying back on the table for a fuck will be more comfortable that way. It's too hard without some padding."

"Sure."

Lin quickly stripped off the gray shift, folded it and lay back, resting her head on it. Daniel stepped forward, aiming his stiff cock at her wet pussy. "Tell me if I'm goin' too hard for you," he told Lin.

"I like it hard. Just try to keep it smooth so I don't bump around too much."

"OK, I can do that."

Watching them, Patty could see that Daniel was good. Not as good as Wesley, but still good. He was probably holding back a little since Lin had asked him to be smooth. That was definitely a good sign, he was taking account of his partner's needs as well as his own.

Lin got off first, with Daniel following soon after. Patty had Lin clean Daniel with her mouth. She'd already been licked, so she had to mop up the mess round her pussy with her shift.

"Lin, how was he?"

"Very good. I'd give him an A-minus for eating pussy and a B, maybe a B-plus, for fucking. With some tips from Dan and Nat he could probably make an A for eating pussy." Daniel grinned at her comments.

"How come you're so good at licking pussy, Daniel?" Patty asked.

"It got me more dates an' more pussy, so I worked on doin' it right. I figured that if I did somethin' for the girl, then she'd do somethin' for me. At least a BJ, often more. A lot of them talked to their girlfriends, so I got more dates with their friends as well. They all wanted to try out my tongue, an' most of 'em wanted to try out my dick too."

Patty laughed. "I can believe that. A lot of guys want girls to try out their dicks."

Daniel gave a rueful grin and a shrug. "It worked for me."

"It worked for me too," Lin giggled.

Patty made up her mind. "OK, Daniel. I like you. I think you'll fit in well. Do you like us enough to join us?"

"Yes ma'am, I do."

That had all three of them laughing.

Neither Alison nor Suki was surprised when Joe took the teenager to bed with him that night. As soon as she was in his bedroom, where Charlie couldn't see her, she stripped off her gray shift.

"You'll be the oldest guy I've ever fucked, Joe," she told him. "The oldest up to now was Dave, and he was nineteen, or maybe twenty."

"I'm a lot older than that: fifty-five."

"God! That's ancient!"

"When I was a teen, anyone over twenty-five was ancient," Joe said.

"Yeah. But can't they make you young again up here?"

"They've already started. My eyes are better – no glasses – and my hair will be growing back. Later on, we'll all get a full body makeover."

"What do you want for me?" Suki asked, doing a slow naked twirl.

"Nothing much. You look very nice as you are."

She pointed to a mole in her right eyebrow. "Could you get rid of this mole please Joe? I had the piercing to distract from it but now I can't have the piercing ..."

"Yes, I'm sure they can do that."

"Affirmative," the AI interrupted.

Suki smiled at that.

"Even with the mole, you look good to me," Joe told her.

"Hah! At your age, all us teenage girls look good. I bet you hung around school gates, flashing your CAP card, trying to get into the girls' panties."

Joe grinned, "Now why didn't I think of that while I had the chance?"

"You're just a dirty old man," Suki laughed.

"Hey, I'm not dirty," Joe complained. "I definitely had a shower ... sometime last month."

Suki groaned. "That was awful, Joe," and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Concubine Suki is guilty of an assault on her sponsor," the AI broke in. "How do you wish to punish her, Joe?"

Suki went white. She hadn't been thinking, and the AI had obviously misinterpreted her gesture. Luckily, Joe hadn't.

"AI, do you understand that humans use gestures as well as words to communicate?" Joe asked.

"Yes, this is understood."

"Suki's gesture was a communication, not an assault."

"It appeared to be an assault."

"Have you observed humans slapping each other on the back as a way of congratulating each other? That is a communication, not an assault."

"This has been observed."

"Suki's tap was also a communication. It was not hard enough to be an assault."

"What was being communicated?"

"She was emphasizing the extreme awfulness of my joke." Suki nodded her agreement. Her panic had died down, now that Joe obviously wasn't going to let the AI do anything stupid.

"We will consider this further," the AI said.

Suki hugged him. "Thanks, Joe. That stupid machine had me worried for a bit. Let me kiss it better." She gave him a quick kiss on his shoulder.

"Well, that broke the mood," Joe observed. "All my nefarious plans for the smooth seduction of my not-very-innocent teen victim are ruined."

"Yeah. Want a game of checkers instead?" Suki said with a smile.

"Strip checkers," Joe suggested.

"But I'm not wearing anything," Suki complained.

"Great, then I win," Joe laughed.

"Cheat!"

"Another game?"

"Fucking?" Suki suggested.

"Hmmm ... how do you play that one?"

"Don't worry, I'll show you," Suki promised with a smile. She quickly got onto the bed and lay down on her back. "That," she pointed at the bulge in Joe's crotch, "goes in here," pointing to her pussy.

Joe quickly stripped off his uniform and got on top of her. "Seems simple enough." His finger told him she was ready and he slid himself smoothly into her channel.

Suki was very vocal while being fucked, "Fuck yes, fuck, fuck! ... Fuck me you bastard! ... Harder! ... Fuck, God yes! ... Do me! Yes, fuck, fuck, yes! Cumming! Aaaagggghhhh!"

Joe hadn't come when she did, so he slowed down, keeping his erection inside her. "You're a screamer."

Suki was still distracted from her orgasm, "Unhhh, yeah."

She was obviously in no fit state for a conversation, so Joe picked up the pace again. The second time she came, again noisily, Joe came with her.

Once she'd recovered, he tried talking to her again. "You make a lot of noise when you have sex."

"Yeah. That's why Patty had me sucking that guy's dick – to keep the noise down. I got a reputation as a screamer at school."

"I thought Patty was testing him," Joe said.

"No, he was white. She goes for black guys. She was testing the other three. Ted or Todd ..."

"His name was Todd Kowalski," the AI interrupted. Joe wondered if it was trying to be helpful to make amends for its earlier error.

"How do you know his name?" Suki asked the AI.

"A drone read his CAP card remotely."

"Oh." Suki returned to the subject, "Anyway, Patty had me sucking Todd's dick to keep me quiet."

"Understandable," Joe pointed out, "if she didn't want to distract the other sponsors."

"Yeah. I do get, like, noisy when I'm enjoying myself."

"I'd noticed," Joe grinned. "Maybe I'll use earplugs next time."

"Earplugs! You really know how to make a girl feel wanted, Joe."

"Well I can always get Charlie in here instead. He could ..." Joe teased.

"No!" Suki said quickly. She was reasonably sure that Joe was joking, but she definitely did not want her brother involved. "Earplugs are fine, Joe, really."