2 The Big Tent

Mark looked at the four women in front of him. Shahana had been a great help with the initial cut of the selection, she obviously knew the women in her 'widows' group well and had a reasonable idea of who he would and would not like. Safiya was Somali, born in London, with one child, eight year old Hala, who he had chosen as the second mother, her mothering score was one of the highest he had seen. Nurbaiti and Julie were the two younger women. Nurbaiti was Malaysian while Julie was half Welsh, half Jamaican. Not quite the two Africans he had wanted but one and a half was close enough.

Mark spoke, "After our first meeting you have all agreed to be here, and I am going to 'test drive' you. I won't get you pregnant, yet, and if you are a virgin you will remain so. I do not want to create any more problems for you if our extraction goes wrong. Apart from those restrictions I expect you to do whatever I tell you to. If you cannot obey me now then you will not go with me off Earth. I am not going to take concubines who cannot do what they are told, that is no good for me and could be worse for you. Do you all understand me?" All four women nodded. "Safiya, you first", he beckoned her to the bedroom." He was being deliberately abrupt because he knew that if they did not obey him now they might not last long off Earth. Concubines had to be obedient for their own safety.

Once in the bedroom he ordered Safiya to strip while he took off his own clothes. She was short and slim with the imperious East African face that many Somalis had. Her breasts were smaller than Shahana's with some sag from having suckled her child. "Get on the bed and rub your pussy."

Safiya was surprised at Mark's manner. During the initial meeting he had been polite and a bit distant, nothing like as abrupt as he was being now. However he had warned that he wanted to test obedience as well as sexual compatibility at this second meeting. Perhaps this was his way of checking obedience. She had to do what he said anyway so she got on the bed and spread her legs, using one hand to open her pussy-lips while licking the other and moving it down to start rubbing.

Mark grasped her nearer breast with one hand while his other slowly rubbed his cock. He had three women to test and at his age he only had one shot in him. Of course if the descriptions were to be believed that would change once he got the Confederacy medical enhancements. "Pull on your other nipple." He continued fondling her breast while watching her masturbate.

Once he was stiff enough he reached into the bedside table and got out a condom. "Sit up on the edge of the bed." As Safiya sat up he offered his rubber covered cock at her lips, "Get it nice and wet." She sucked him briefly into her mouth until he pushed her back down flat on the bed with her legs still spread, hanging over the edge. Moving up to her he slid his cock into her wet cunt, trying not to get himself too excited. He ordered her to rub her tits again as he stroked slowly in and out of her a few times. Safiya's pussy was not as tight as Shahana's but that could be remedied after extraction; her being a bit of a dead fuck maybe not. He had picked her for her excellent nurturing/mothering figures rather than her sex score. He pulled out before he came and told her to get up on all fours on the bed. He pulled on a disposable glove and lightly lubricated a couple of fingers, "Relax your arse, I am going to put my fingers up there."

"Will you want to ..."

"I will want to do whatever I want; if you don't like it then you don't have to come with me," Mark interrupted being deliberately harsh. He used one hand to pull an arse-cheek aside and gently slid one finger into her tight rosette. "That is one finger, now relax some more because I am going to add a second." He added a second finger as he continued to slide them in and out of her arsehole.

Safiya stayed silent. She had never done anything like this before, not back there. It was difficult for her but although Mark was using harsh words his actions were uncomfortable rather than painful. The second finger had been awkward at first but it was getting a bit easier now. He did not seem to want to take things much further at the moment. As he had said, he was testing obedience; the sex seemed to her just a peg on which to hang his test. She was not really enjoying this but she endured for Hala's sake. It had been easier earlier when he had fucked her briefly.

Mark eased his fingers out of her. "Sit at the edge of the bed and spread your legs." He quickly disposed of the glove, knelt and leaned in to eat her pussy. This she enjoyed a lot more that his fingers in her arse. Soon she was squirming as her orgasm crept up on her. "Thank you Safiya. You can get dressed and use the bathroom if you wish. When you go back to the others do not tell them anything about what I did, I do not want them to know what to expect."

Safiya nodded in acknowledgement, "Did I ..."

"I will let you know with the others. Please tell Julie to come in."

Mark lay naked on the bed with his cock half-erect as Julie came in. Her African heritage was obvious in her face and hair though her skin showed more of her Welsh side. "Strip," he ordered, watching as the tall girl took off her clothes. "You tend to slouch, you should stop that."

"My mum is always saying that too. I am just so tall and I don't want to stand out. Are you going to fuck me?"

"No, you said that you're a virgin so I won't fuck you until after we are extracted." Mark observed her naked body. At fourteen she was still developing; he could see that she was going to be tall and thin, as she turned slowly as his signal she showed that she already had a nice tight bubble-butt. "Come and suck me."

Julie was expecting this so she quickly climbed onto the bed and bent down to take him in her mouth. She was not completely inexperienced; as her best friend in school had said, "Just keep your teeth out of the way and he will like it." Julie's boyfriend had agreed.

Mark stopped her before he became too excited, he knew that he still had to test drive Nurbaiti this evening. As with Safiya he had Julie get on all fours with two of his fingers in her arse. "Your dad was Jamaican?"

What a time for a conversation she thought, talking about my family while he has two fingers up my bumhole. "Yeah, he left when I was nine."

"And after that?"

"Well Mum picked idiots as boyfriends for a few years, I got a new 'daddy' every few months. Eventually she met Younus, he's Moroccan. I think she became Muslim because she didn't have to make so many decisions. She isn't very good at making decisions. I liked Younus though, he was good fun."

"And he is stuck in the Middle East now."

"Uh huh. Mum really misses him."

Mark extracted his fingers from her arse. "Sit at the edge of the bed and spread your legs."

As he knelt in front of her she stared at him in surprise. "Are you going to lick my pussy? None of my boyfriends ever wanted to do that."

"Then they didn't know what they were missing." He dove in and started working her up to a climax, enjoying the taste of her young juices. He couldn't do as much with his fingers as he usually did because of her hymen so he had to use his tongue more. Julie helped by twiddling her nipples. Soon she was twitching and groaning as she reached her peak and fell back on the bed.

"Ohhh... That was amazing! Really good. Can you test drive me again tomorrow?"

"Down girl," he smiled, "I have a job and you have school. Get your boyfriend to do it, no blowjobs unless he eats you."

"I may just do that. You don't mind me having a boyfriend?"

"Not until we get picked up, I don't own you until then. We also need to keep things looking normal so we don't draw any extra attention to ourselves before getting extracted." He paused, "One private question while we are alone -- I know your mother only recently converted, just how much of a Muslim are you?"

"Not much really. Mum makes me cover up and I can't drink at home. I have to be careful when I'm out so I don't smell of alcohol when I get back. I don't miss pork much, but I did like bacon. Going to the mosque is boring, but so was church when we tried that for a bit. I know that it helps Mum so I go along with her. She really misses Younus, the widows group has been a big help for her."

"Thanks for that," Mark replied, "Probably best if you keep on your Mum's good side for the moment. We can change things if you want to after we are extracted. Get dressed, the bathroom is next door", he pointed, "then send in Nurbaiti."

Walking down the passage towards the bedroom Nurbaiti was terrified. She shouldn't have let Shahana talk her into doing this. Mark was bound to find out about her problem and then all the others would know about it as well. She could not bear the shame if they all knew that she couldn't be a proper wife. She had only come here so she didn't have to explain turning Mark down and now they were all going to find out anyway.

As soon as she entered Mark could see that something was very wrong. She was not just nervous as the others were, there was something much more going on. He quickly covered himself with a sheet, "Sit on the bed and tell me what the problem is."

Nurbaiti was surprised that he had noticed so quickly. "I... I... I can't," she said looking away from him even though he had covered himself.

"You can't tell me?"

"I can't do it."

"You can't do what?"

"I couldn't do it with my husband again after the first time and I can't do it with you either. I wanted to but I couldn't be a wife to him. I am so ashamed about it I don't want the others to know."

"I won't talk to the others about it, but I do need to know. What happened the first time?" he asked gently.

"I was pure. After our wedding... We tried but it hurt bad. Blood, blood, lots of blood. It hurt so much. We waited but he could not do it again. Too tight. We had to do other things." This was so embarrassing for her and in her confusion she was forgetting some of the English she had learned.

"What other things did your husband do instead?" Mark asked.

"My mouth and ... behind," she briefly touched her buttock.

"I will need to take a look. Open your jilbab and take off your jeans."

She did as ordered, taking off her panties with the jeans. He got down in front of her and moved her knees apart. She could feel herself tensing up already. Mark could feel the tension as well as he moved his fingers towards her labia. Her lower lips opened easily enough but behind them the muscles of her vagina were rigidly clenched -- no wonder her husband had not been able to penetrate her. That first time must have been really painful for her. Even his little finger would not fit and she was obviously uncomfortable when he tried gently pushing it at the closed hole.

"See, I can't do it. I am a bad wife. You will not want me and will leave me behind..."

"Not if the Confederacy can fix it," Mark interrupted, "Close your jilbab and go and get my laptop from the table in the corner of the sitting room." When she returned with it he sent an e-mail to the Confederacy describing her problem and asking if it could be fixed. Putting the computer aside he told her, "I will continue the test drive if you want. I won't expect what you can't do but I will expect other things, like you did with your husband. If you pass then I will take you if the Confederacy can fix your problem, which they should be able to do."

"You won't want me to ..."

"You said that you used your mouth and behind. I would expect you to be able to do those." He had not planned to bugger any of the women this first time, but since she could not fuck and was used to it anyway he changed his plans.

She unbuttoned her jilbab again and took off the rest of her clothes. Mark saw her small breasts and chunky figure, short with not much of a waist. She still looked worried but she was not as bad as when she had first come in. He moved her face towards his prick.

Staring at it she said, "You look different."

"I am not circumcised, I suppose that your husband was." He pressed lightly on the back of her head and her lips opened to take him in. She was good with her mouth and he had to stop her quickly before he came. After Safiya and Julie he was not going to be able to last much longer. He skipped eating her pussy and handed her the lube, "Get your arsehole ready for me." While she was fingering the lubricant into her back passage he put on a condom. Taking the lube from her he greased his own pole. "Lie back and pull your knees up to your shoulders." As she obeyed he moved towards her aiming his cock at her rosette, shiny with grease. He slid himself in easily -- as with her mouth she was used to this. As he moved she tightened her ring on every outstroke quickly helping him build towards his too long delayed climax. "Yes! Unghh! Ahhh," he groaned as he finally came deep in her bowels.

He got up off her and sent her back via the bathroom. Quickly he got onto his computer -- the Confederacy were indeed able to fix Nurbaiti's problem. He wrote its name, vaginismus, on a piece of paper for her.

After cleaning himself up in the bathroom and putting on a robe he joined the others in the sitting room. "Those were the individual tests, now comes the group test; I need to know that you all get on together. All of you strip." Quickly they all got naked. He was pleased that Shahana did not have to be specially prompted, she was good at anticipating what he might want. "Shahana, lie down on your back. Julie, kneel over her face looking towards her feet," as they moved into position he could see Safiya looking puzzled. Nurbaiti and Julie seemed to know what was going to happen. He didn't know about Shahana because her face was hidden by Julie's thigh. "Do you know what I want you to do Shahana?"

"I think so, you want me to lick Julie."

"Have you ever done that before with a woman?"

"No, this will be my first time." Shahana was embarrassed, but she was determined not to fail this test. She had to do well, and it helped that she did like Julie.

"I am sure Julie will let you know how well you are doing. Both of you start licking." Julie bent down towards Shahana's groin and began to lick, using her hands to spread Shahana's lower lips. Shahana let out a short yelp of surprise, she had not realised that Julie would be licking her as well as the other way round. She quickly recovered and ran her tongue along Julie's slit. She was new to this, but she knew what she liked to do to herself with her own fingers and she could feel what Julie was doing to her. Perhaps this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Mark watched the two of them briefly. "Nurbaiti, lie down on your back in front of me with your head between my feet." Once she was positioned he got Safiya to kneel over her face ready to suck his cock. Opening his robe he said, "Safiya, let Nurbaiti lick you while you suck me." Safiya felt Nurbaiti reach for her hips and pull her down for a pussy licking. She reached forward and took Mark's cock into her mouth; she could see that he was not a Muslim. He was still limp after the earlier tests so she took things easily. Mark just sat back and enjoyed her lazy ministrations on his dick.

Julie was the first to peak, jerking and moaning as she came on Shahana's tongue. Shahana was pleased that she had done so well on her first attempt. While Julie rested, Mark sent Safiya to finish eating Shahana's pussy. He stood up and sat Nurbaiti on his chair. "I am going to lick you." She nodded and spread her legs. She was still tense at being approached there but managed to relax a little when Mark kept his efforts to just her clit and labia. He made no attempt to penetrate deeper with either fingers or tongue.

"Ohhh... Yesss...", Shahana followed Julie into orgasm.

Mark told Julie to finish off Safiya. The short slim Somali woman came quickly, before Mark had finished his cunnilingus. He pulled back from Nurbaiti's pussy, "Julie, Shahana, Safiya go and clean up in the bathroom. I want to do a bit more here first." He turned back to his work as the other three went out.

As soon as they were alone he looked up at Nurbaiti, "The Confederacy says your problem can be fixed." He handed her the piece of paper, "You have vaginismus, I want you to start getting it properly looked at now before we leave and you can probably find something about it on the internet as well." She took the paper and quickly put it into her bag before the others came back from the bathroom.

Once they were all reassembled he quickly put them out of their misery, "I am happy to tell you that I will take all four of you with ..." Julie jumped up to hug and kiss him before he could finish. The others smiled in relief. "I will take all four of you together with Shahana's Fatima and Tareq as well as Safiya's Hala," he continued. "I have been talking to the Confederacy about being picked up. We will be given a time and a place so you don't have to follow me around everywhere. I do not know how much notice we will get so I want you to have whatever you might need packed and ready to go quickly. Do you all have mobile phones?"

Mark walked up to the hotel reception desk, "We are here for the IMT event."

"Yes sir, if you go on through the foyer, IMT is in the marquee on the grass at the back. You can't miss it." He thanked the receptionist and walked towards the back of the foyer followed by his concubines with their three children.

Outside the marquee a very large man sat at a registration table with two equally large bouncer types behind him. Knowing what he knew they were clearly Confederacy Marines even though they were not in uniform.

"Can I see your invitation please sir?" Mark handed it to him:

"Thank you, sir. Your party is on table red ten."

"Red ten, thank you." Mark led his harem past the table into the marquee. The far wall had four coloured flags on it: green, blue, red and white. To his left the long wall had numbers from one to twelve. He turned to Hala and asked the eight year old, "Can you find table red ten for us Hala?"

She looked round and saw the numbers, "I can see number ten," pointing to it.

"Look on the far wall," hinted a smiling Safiya.

"I see it! I see the red flag!" Hala bounced with excitement and rushed off down the line of red tables. When they caught up with her their table had a small red paper flag with the number ten printed on it set in the middle. Julie congratulated a beaming Hala on doing such a good job of finding their table for them. Shahana's eldest son Mohammed followed them to sit at table red nine with his two concubines.

Inside the marquee the Confederacy Marines were in uniform so it was obvious what they were. Four of them were among the tables, one for each colour, checking CAP cards and ensuring that each group had all its people. When the Marine reached their table he also asked about immediate medical problems: Shahana had pills for diabetes and Tareq needed his asthma inhaler with him. Mark took the opportunity to return his Confederacy card reader. They all settled down, parked their luggage and waited for the empty tables to fill up.

"Barb, have you seen the size of the blokes doing security on the tent?"

"What was that Derek?"

"Have you seen those big guys by the tent, they must be seven feet tall."

Barbara was annoyed at being interrupted on her break, but she put down her book and took a look outside. Derek was right, the security men were huge. As she watched a group of three adults and two children walked from back of the hotel to the tent, wheeling small cases just as if they were at an airport. It clicked immediately -- this was some sort of Confederacy extraction. Those big guys just had to be Confederacy Marines and the group with cases was not what you would expect for a corporate event like this one was supposed to be. Those people were planning on going on a long trip, light years long if she was right. She smiled to herself, satisfied that her planning had paid off. She had arranged with her uncle to get her and her two concubines temporary jobs at the hotel restaurant just in case there was an extraction, and now there was going to be one.

"Derek, go and get Irene and make sure that you both have your CAP cards with you."

"What... why?"

"Don't argue, just do it quickly. Now!" she snapped. Sometimes he could be very slow on the uptake, one of the reasons she was the sponsor and not him. He shrugged and went off in search of his fellow concubine. Barbara and Derek were waiting tables, but Irene had only been able to get a job in the kitchens. That still left Barbara with the problem of how to blag their way into the marquee. If it really was an extraction then those Marines were there to keep people out.

Derek arrived with a puzzled Irene in tow, "OK both of you, we need to get into that tent. Any ideas?"

They both looked blank, then Irene spoke up, "Plates. They always need extra plates at shindigs like that."

"Brilliant idea Irene, plates it is." Irene felt pleased at the praise, she did not often get praise for her ideas.

Marine Kaminski could see the three of them approaching across the grass. They were obviously hotel staff and not part of the planned extraction. He alerted the AI to check them and scan for hidden weapons -- he didn't want to be caught unprepared if there was going to be trouble.

The AI quickly responded, <<There are no hidden weapons. It is 85% probable that these three are a sponsor and two concubines, one of them has volunteered for the Navy and the other two are ineligible to volunteer. None of them have any dependants.>>

Barbara approached the Marine, "If this is what I think it is then we are ready to go."

"Why the plates?"

"To give us an excuse to come over here. Am I right? Can we go?"

"Wait a moment please." He got the AI to connect him through to Lieutenant de Groot. He sub-vocalised, "Lieutenant, I have an extra party of three out here, no dependants. They want to go"

"Yes, the AI told me. Let them in. We allowed for some extra slots and it looks like one or two of the planned volunteers won't make it anyway."

He turned back to Barbara, "OK, you can go in."

"Great," she smiled and walked into the marquee.

The Lieutenant met them just inside, "Barbara Foster?"

"Yes, that's me."

"We don't have a table for you right now so for the moment we will put you in position white thirteen. We think that some of the planned groups won't get here in time so you can take one of the spare tables. Even if they all make it we have allowed for some extra bodies so you will be going anyway." She also had a question, "We are still new at organising these pre-planned extractions. How did you notice what was going on?" Barbara explained about the size of the 'bouncers' on the entrance and the composition of the groups going in -- looking like they were at an airport and ready to go on a journey. The Lieutenant was disappointed, "We were really hoping that nobody would notice."

"You didn't do too badly, the marquee and the Marines are not visible from the road. You have to be at the back of the hotel to see them at all. Same with the luggage; people with luggage going into a hotel isn't unusual, it is just that last bit between the back of the hotel and the marquee where it looks out of place. We only noticed because we work here and the staff lounge overlooks the back. If not for that we would never have seen anything.

"Thanks for that, it was useful. You'll have wait for a bit, there are still more people to arrive."

"OK, we'll wait," and she led the other two to the end of the white row where one of the Marines was waiting to check their CAP cards and medical histories.

Lieutenant de Groot asked the AI how many groups were still to arrive.

<<Forty four planned groups are present with four groups outstanding. Two groups are presently at reception in the hotel foyer and one is in the hotel car park moving towards the foyer doors. I am unable to locate the fourth group which would indicate that they are more than fifteen minutes travel away. There is one extra group present. I suggest that you proceed with the extraction after the three groups already at the hotel have reached their tables.>>

"That sounds good. What table was the fourth missing group assigned to?"

<<Table blue five. Do you wish to assign the extra group to that table.>>

"Yes. Can you pass the order to Marine Horsley to let them know."

<<Affirmative.>>

As soon as all the tables were occupied the Lieutenant told the AI to activate the interdiction field around the marquee. It patched her through the PA to talk to the crowd, "If you can all be quiet please!" She paused while the conversations died down. "We are now ready to extract you all and hope to make it as trouble free as possible. You can help us with this by doing what you are told when you are told to do it. I must remind you that as we are now inside an interdiction field Confederacy law applies and not English law. Before we move you there are some other things we have to do first so please remain seated while I explain them and do not get up until I tell you to. You have all been assigned to tables, such as green seven. Please remember that designation. When you are transported to the ship the deck will be laid out in a similar grid pattern; you should go to the corresponding grid square so table green seven will go to grid square green seven. Please keep within your grid squares and leave the pathways between the squares free so others can move about. Later you will be assigned to residential pods aboard ship which will have the same designation, table green seven will be assigned to pod green seven.

"There are some legal things to do as well. We will need to record acceptance by sponsors for all their concubines and by concubines that they accept sponsorship. Once a concubine says 'yes' they are effectively a slave. All marriages and Civil Partnerships are instantly dissolved. Concubines need to learn their status quickly, so we insist that all concubines be naked before we will transport you." There was an immediate increase in noise as many concubines started stripping. "STOP!" Everyone froze, concubines pausing mid-strip. "Settle down and wait until I have finished. There will be time allowed later for concubines to get naked." She waited briefly before continuing, "As I said, concubines need to learn their status quickly, failure to learn fast enough might be fatal -- the penalties for serious offences include execution. Most colony ships have at least one execution during their journey. We would prefer not to have to do that, but we will if we have to. There will be a longer briefing about this on board ship, but basically concubines are slaves and only have the rights their sponsor wants to give them, if any. If any sponsor wants to reject a concubine at this point then they are free to do so, just say 'no' when asked if you accept them. If any concubine wants to back out then say 'no' when asked if you accept sponsorship and we will leave you behind. Nobody is forced to go if they do not wish to.

"We will be recording acceptances starting from tables numbered one and seven. Concubines on tables numbered one, two, seven and eight please stay dressed until after your acceptances have been recorded, so stripping does not delay recording. Concubines on other tables should strip now." She switched off her microphone and gestured for the Marines to start recording acceptances.

Mark turned to his women, "You heard her. All four of you need to get naked." Shahana had done this before at the airport so she stripped with little hesitation. Julie also had no problems getting naked in public. It was more difficult for Safiya and Nurbaiti who had only stripped for Mark in his flat, never in public. Nurbaiti started slowly, but Mark had to remind Safiya before she began to unbutton her jilbab. He would have to do something about that.

The children: Fatima, Tareq and Hala, were wide eyed at what was happening. They had never seen their mothers do anything like this before. Fatima asked nervously, "Do I have to..."

"No dear," Shahana told her, "you aren't fourteen yet."

Having finished recording the acceptances at Mohammed's table the Marine moved on to Mark's. "Mark Robertson, do you agree to sponsor Shahana Dutt, Safiya Jibrell, Julie Lloyd and Nurbaiti Sulaiman for extraction?"

"Yes."

The Marine turned to the four naked women and recorded their acceptances in turn. Mark was pleased that none of them refused; even though he had not expected any of them to back out this late it pleased him that they were prepared to trust him that much. He now had a frightening amount of power over them.

"Done and recorded," the Marine said, "Remain seated until your table is called." He moved on to the next table.

There was a sudden commotion round one of the green tables at the front, a woman was shouting, "I am not getting undressed in public and that is final! How dare you even ask me! After twenty years marriage you should know better than that!" Two Marines converged on the trouble. One kept an eye on the irate concubine while the other turned to her sponsor, "Do you still want to take her? You can reject her at any time."

"When she agreed be a concubine that was an instant divorce, wasn't it?"

"Yes, your marriage is dissolved. Your ex-wife is now your concubine. If I may offer some advice, it is often a problem for a former wife to get used to her new status -- many of the new concubines we have to execute are ex-spouses who took too long to adjust. This is not a good start for her."

He thought for a few seconds, "I agree.", he turned to his former wife, "Kate, I reject you as my concubine. You will have to stay behind."

She slumped back into her chair, all the fight suddenly gone out of her, "Please..."

"No Kate, I agree with the Marine, I do not think you will be able to adjust quickly enough with me as your sponsor. You will probably live longer staying here than going with me." The Marine nodded in agreement.

Seeing that the excitement had died down and confirming with the AI that all the legal formalities had been completed the Lieutenant spoke again, "Thank you sponsors. We have completed all the acceptances, and one rejection, so we are ready to start transferring you up to the ship. You can see that we have set up two transporter terminals. Tables one to six will go through one terminal and tables seven to twelve through the other. You should walk into the transporter one at a time, though small children can be carried. Please keep walking after you leave the transporter on board the ship as there will be more people coming through behind you. We will call you forward by tables so please stay seated until you are called. Remember that you will need to go to the corresponding grid square on board the ship and wait there. Can we have tables green one and green seven first."

As their table was called Mark led his group forward to the transporter. At last they were getting off Earth.