3 Killing by the Book

On the ship it was simple to find their grid square, just as in the marquee there were easily visible numbers and coloured flags on the walls. They found red ten and sat on the floor. Mark told Shahana, Julie and Nurbaiti to put their clothes back on. "Safiya you will stay naked as punishment because you were too slow to strip and I had to remind you. You have to learn to obey." For a moment he thought Safiya would protest, but she thought better of it. Hopefully she would learn quickly.

Hala asked, "Has Mummy been naughty?"

"Yes Hala," Mark responded, "Mummy didn't do what she was told."

"Will you make me take my clothes off if I don't do what I am told?" she asked, worried.

He smiled, "No Hala, you aren't old enough for that. Even so, you still have to be good -- now you have got three extra mummies to tell you off."

"Oh, that means I have to be even gooder." That brought a round of needed laughter. Hala thought for a moment, "Are you my new daddy?"

"I am your extra daddy. You are a lucky girl Hala, you now have one extra daddy as well as three extra mummies." Mark didn't want the children to feel that he was trying to replace their absent fathers but was an additional parent; 'as well as' not 'instead of'.

It did not take long for the rest of the people to be transported up and soon one of the ship's officers was delivering a longer version of the Lieutenant's speech about how few rights concubines had and how sponsors were responsible for the behaviour of their concubines. There was some extra stuff about the treatment of children, and how they were off limits for sex until they turned fourteen except for consensual oral sex for thirteen year olds. Breaking those rules could get even sponsors executed. Most of this they already knew, though the refresher was useful.

At the end of the officer's speech he gave a list of people who were going into the medical pods first, which included Shahana. As she got up to go Mark noticed that she was one of the few concubines with clothes on. "Shahana, if anybody asks why you are dressed tell them it was because I ordered it. Refer any problems to me." She nodded and followed the others towards the Medical Bay.

The pods were organised into rings, so the groups from the red tables were led to the red ring and dropped off at their pods. Safiya happened to be in the lead when they reached the door to red ten, but it would not open for her, it would only open when Mark asked it to do so. The inside of the pod was a dull grey, "What a horrible colour. We will have to... erm... We should change it if Mark wants to," said Safiya.

"Well caught Safiya," Mark congratulated her. "Yes, we will change it. I think it is horrible too."

A new voice spoke, "The colour and arrangement of the pod can be changed on the instructions of the sponsor."

"Are you the pod AI?" asked Julie. There was no response.

Mark repeated the question. "Yes," came the answer.

"Why didn't you answer me?" Julie asked. After a short silence she answered her own question, "Oh, I suppose I am just a concubine and not the sponsor."

Mark soon established that Julie was right and that the AI would only respond to him, so he told it to answer questions from his concubines. "What about the pod door?" he asked.

"The door will only open for the sponsor, authorised members of the ship's crew and anyone allowed by the sponsor."

"OK, then allow all my concubines and the children to enter the pod at any time. Do not let them out unless specifically allowed by me or to go to planned meetings." He was thinking of Shahana, who was still in medical, and the need to keep a low profile initially until everyone was more settled in. The AI confirmed his orders and he went on, "What accommodation do we have?"

"On this floor there are four small bedrooms, a bathroom, an office, a lounge, a kitchen-diner and a large en-suite bedroom. The upper floor has four small bedrooms, a bathroom and a large unassigned area. These arrangements can be reconfigured if required."

They were standing in a corridor with a larger room at the far end. A quick look showed that the small bedrooms were here. "For the moment that sounds like you women are in the small bedrooms here and the children are upstairs." said Mark. "Nurbaiti, put Shahana's case in one of the small bedrooms and the three of you pick a bedroom each. Kids, come with me to explore." He led the children into what turned out to be the lounge. Beyond was the kitchen area and two doors which turned out to be the large bedroom and the office. Mark went into the large bedroom, still in that awful grey, while the three women came into the lounge and headed into the kitchen to explore the facilities.

"Eeee!" Hala screamed, which got all the adults rushing into the lounge just in time to see Hala disappearing through a hole in the ceiling. Safiya ran towards that corner and started rising herself as soon as she stepped onto a purple circle on the floor below the hole.

"AI, what is that?" Mark asked.

"That is the gravity lift between the levels. Step onto the purple circle to move up. Step into the hole to move down."

Julie called up through the hole, "Safiya, are you and Hala OK?"

"Yes, we are fine. Hala was just surprised by that thing. Will it let us down again?"

"The AI said to just step into the hole." Hala was still a bit scared so she screwed her eyes up tight while Safiya carried her down. Tareq and Fatima spent the next few minutes going up and down with great glee, and Hala was soon able to use it on her own. Upstairs the children picked their own rooms then everyone returned to the lounge.

As they sat around waiting for Shahana, Mark got the three concubines to put on the standard grey concubine smocks. "Outside the pod you can wear clothes, unless I tell you otherwise. Inside the pod I want you to wear these smocks; that will help you remember that you are now concubines." Julie was so tall that her pussy was on display whenever she stood up, she seemed to enjoy flashing Mark. Safiya and Nurbaiti were shorter so they gave him less to look at and were much less willing to give him a free show.

As part of their pre-extraction planning they had brought some halal meat so Safiya and Nurbaiti got busy in the kitchen organising it with the AI and the replicator so they could be sure of halal meat whenever they wanted.

"Decurion, I have a voice connection request from Nurse Kalamulah in medical."

Mark recognised his new Civil Service rank and answered, "Put the call through, AI."

A new voice came over the intercom, "Decurion, I have your concubine Shahana here. She says that you have allowed her to wear clothes. Is that so?"

"Yes, that is correct. I told her to stay dressed. Let her dress before she leaves you to return to this pod."

"That is unusual, we normally expect concubines to be naked or in smocks."

"Nevertheless I want my concubines clothed for the moment."

"Very well sir."

After Mark had finished talking to the MedTech the AI spoke again, "Decurion, may I ask why you are going against normal policy and allowing your concubines to wear more than just the standard smock?"

"There are two reasons, firstly all of my concubines are Moslem and I promised them that unless I had reasons otherwise they could practice their religion. Remaining decently dressed in public is part of Islam and I, mostly, allow them that. Secondly I want to use public nudity as a punishment, as I did after we arrived on board ship; if all my concubines were naked anyway that would not be an option for me."

"Does that explain why you forbade your concubines to use the kitchen replicator for certain foods?"

"Yes, no pork and no alcohol unless I allow."

Mark took the opportunity to get the AI to replicate a Civil Service Decurion's uniform for him, jilbabs for Safiya and Nurbaiti and salwar kameez for Shahana and Julie, all in concubine grey for the four women to wear outside the pod. In grey they would look more like concubines which should reduce confusion. He knew he was still bending the conventions but he could try to minimise the impact.

When Shahana arrived back from medical Tareq just had to show her the lift straight away. Once he was satisfied that his mother fully understood how it worked Mark had her change into a smock like the others. Being shorter than Julie her pussy was playing peek-a-boo with the hem. She was embarrassed, especially in front of Tareq and Fatima, but she determined to ignore it. She knew she had no choice about it anyway. She looked around for something to distract attention from herself, "This grey colour is awful," she said, looking at the walls.

Everyone laughed. "Yes, we had noticed," Mark observed. "Safiya, since you mentioned it first I want you to talk to everyone about a new colour scheme. You know my taste from seeing my flat, all pale and pastel. You can have something brighter for your own rooms if you want. When you are all agreed I can let the AI do the changes."

"Can we pick colours for our own rooms?" Fatima asked.

"I want green!" interrupted Hala only to be shushed by a stern look from Safiya.

"Yes you all can, just let Safiya know what colours you want. AI, can you assist her with plans and such?" The AI confirmed Mark's instruction.

"AI, what is planned for us tomorrow?"

"There will be a briefing for all sponsors and concubines tomorrow at 10:00 ship's time. Concubines will be released after about one hour while sponsors will be kept for further meetings until lunch at 13:00 ship's time. The afternoon will be taken up with more initial medical treatments; Tareq Dutt is assigned a slot at 14:45 ship's time."

Later, once all the children were upstairs in bed, Mark gathered his harem together. "We are here to make babies so I will be getting you all pregnant. I don't want all four of you starting pregnancies at the same time -- morning sickness for four is too much to cope with. So I want to split you two and two; two of you get pregnant in the next few weeks and two in about six months time. I want one of each pair to be an experienced mother so can you both," he indicated Shahana and Safiya, "get together and decide who goes first. I want Julie to be in the first pair so you are going to have to wait for a few months Nurbaiti."

"Why me first?" Julie asked.

"Because I want you to retest and become a sponsor, so I may only have one chance at giving you a baby. You scored 6.4 and I think you can improve that to 6.5 or better. I want you to talk to the AI and arrange a curriculum of study to fill in the weak spots in your CAP score. I will also let you have some books from when I upped my own CAP score to 7.0. You have to wait at least a year from your previous test so you have a few months to work on things." Julie smiled and nodded.

Mark continued, "Safiya you sleep upstairs tonight in case any of the children need something; the AI will alert you if needed. Shahana, you will sleep with me tonight. AI can you wake me at 07:30 in the morning if I am not already up."

"Affirmative."

Two weeks after leaving Earth orbit things were running smoothly in Mark's pod. Shahana was an excellent boss concubine and had things well organised -- sex, cooking and child minding. A few times a week they ate in the ship's canteen to let the children interact with other children and just to see some fresh faces. There was a small prayer room upstairs, facing back towards the rear of the ship. Nurbaiti and Safiya were the most frequent users, Julie the least. Everyone had got over the effects of their physical enhancements and were not aching or bumping into things any more. Mark had increased his height to two metres to match the Marines he was going to have to persuade to help him. He had wound his effective age back to twenty five, but left his face looking about forty with a few lines and some touches of grey hair in his beard and at his temples. He wanted to appear senior, a bit of psychology that might help him. The medical enhancements had increased his sexual capacity so he was now entertaining two of his harem most nights, with some nooners as well. Both Safiya and Julie were pregnant.

He had increased Shahana's height to just over six feet and generally tightened up her figure; pulling in her tummy and lifting her tits slightly. Her vagina had been tightened as well, as had Safiya's. Her hips were perfect as they were so he had left them alone. He had left her face unchanged as her children still needed to recognise her as their mother, despite the changes. As with all his concubines the nanites had boosted her sexual response to help her in bonding with her sponsor.

Nurbaiti and Safiya were both slightly shorter than Shahana at just under six feet. Nurbaiti now had more of a waist to improve her figure though he had decided to keep her small tits. Her sexual problem had been fixed and she was enthusiastically making up for lost time; Mark got the definite impression that it wasn't just the nanites. She was still very adept with her arsehole and mouth. Her oral skills had been helped, like the other three, by suppressing her gag reflex.

Safiya was still the least good fuck of the four, though the nanites had improved her from what she had been. Where she shone was with the children, she had immediately adopted Shahana's two for her own and was looking forward to her and Julie's new arrivals. Fatima and Tareq were delighted with their extra mother and Hala soon got used to sharing once she realised that she had gained two new playmates out of the deal.

Once she had lost her virginity Julie was almost as enthusiastic about sex as Nurbaiti. Mark was not into either pain or blood so he had allowed time for the nanites to weaken Julie's hymen; by the time he popped her cherry she was very, very impatient. He had altered Julie the least of his concubines, merely advancing her to an apparent age of nineteen and widening her hips slightly for her first child; he wanted to leave her free to make her own modifications after she became a sponsor. The extra height of the other concubines had the pleasant side effect of helping Julie get out of her habit of stooping since she was now shorter than both Mark and Shahana.

So far there did not seem to be much for a Civil Service Officer to do on board ship, one concubine had been executed for resisting his sponsor, which had not involved Mark at all, and two concubines had been swapped between sponsors which just involved minimal time telling them what to say to the AI.

There was very little information about what he could expect once he got to the colony but to Mark's mind that was an advantage; there would be few rules to follow so he could make his own rules as he went along. He had had a brief interview with a fellow Decurion while still in Earth orbit but all she could tell him was basically that he was on his own and would have to wing it; "we are an afterthought," as she put it. One of her helpful ideas was that he might have to use his own concubines to help him if he couldn't get any other resources, which was why he had increased their height.

He split his time between helping Julie to increase her score and studying what was available on the way colonies were being run. A few of the early colonies were frightening; object lessons in how not to go about things. He could see why the Civil Service had been needed.

When Mark returned to his pod that day Mohammed was there. This was not unusual as Mohammed visited his mother about twice a week when his Marine training allowed. This time however Mohammed was very angry, "I will kill him! He is a pig! He is no Marine! The dog has no honour!" Shahana joined in, "Some bastard attacked Little Shahana and she is in medical with a broken arm." Little Shahana was Shahana's niece, both cousin and concubine to Mohammed.

Mark was immediately worried for Shahana's niece, "She didn't resist the other sponsor did she?"

"No," answered Mohammed, "the idiot tried to get her clothes off and she just went passive so she is not in any trouble. I had told her not to get naked for other sponsors and he didn't like that so he hit her. He is on a charge for damaging my property. He has done this before with other concubines and he will get off with a few days confined to quarters. That dog is not worthy to be a Marine, I will destroy him!"

Mark was glad that Little Shahana had acted sensibly; concubines could not actively resist sponsors -- doing that could be a one way trip to recycling.

Shahana burst out, "No Mohammed! He needs to die but I don't want you to die as well for killing him." Turning to Mark she pleaded, "Can you find a way to kill him without endangering Mohammed? I do not want to lose my son because of that pig!"

"I will see what I can do about him, though I can't promise anything." He had never seen Shahana this angry before, her niece was family and all her protective instincts were coming to the fore.

Once everyone had calmed down a bit he went to his office to see what his options were. Checking with the AI he soon found that Marine Alois Trenker was obviously a wrong 'un -- he had attacked two other concubines before Little Shahana, the first while still in Earth orbit within 48 hours of his being picked up. There was not a lot more available from the AI as most of the relevant data was closed to him. With Mohammed supplying the name he got through to the prosecuting officer and explained who he was and why he was involved. Lieutenant Bernard made it clear that the Marines would not mind a great deal if Alois were to die, but he was smart enough to stay away from anything that he could be executed for. He would be found guilty and probably confined to the brig or his quarters for the rest of the trip, but that would be all. Mark was disappointed at the likely legal outcome, but it was good that the Marine commanders would not be working against him on this. However that would be of no help if he could not come up with an idea.

He researched the Space Marine legal code anyway in case he could turn something up. Having been a bureaucrat he knew that there could be indirect routes to destinations that could not be reached directly. Looking at the death penalty itself there was no backdoor there -- the lawyers had made sure of that. Was there another way to kill the man without using the death penalty? Nothing obvious sprang to mind, all he found was a lot of very dull legalese; the code definitely had neither pictures nor conversations. That evening Shahana exercised her prerogative as boss concubine and claimed him for the night. She left him in no doubt as to what she wanted; she would be perfectly happy to dance naked if he could provide the head on a platter.

The idea must have popped up overnight and was in his head when he woke the next morning: concubines could be killed easily enough, so was there a way to turn Recruit Trenker into a concubine? Given his behaviour he probably had a borderline CAP score so if he could be forced into taking a retest then there was a reasonable chance that with his actions on board ship taken into account he would be reduced to concubine status. It was not certain but it held out some hope of getting the required result.

After a hurried breakfast he went back to his office. Checking the legal code under the offence came up a blank -- damage to property was not serious enough to warrant the court martial ordering a CAP retest. Then Mark looked in the section about the CAP retest penalty itself. First it told him what he already knew about the more serious offences that allowed that sentence. Then, Bingo! He was almost ready to hug the lawyer who had inserted the paragraph, obviously intended to catch people like Alois who sailed very close to the wind:

"In the case of a persistent minor offender whose offences would not normally be serious enough to incur the penalty of an order for a CAP retest when considered individually and who has not been CAP tested in the twelve months prior to the latest guilty finding then in addition to any other sentence or sentences imposed by the court martial an order for a CAP retest may be made."

Alois was certainly a "persistent minor offender", and was probably going to be found guilty as the AI had full video of the incident. The AI had even told Alois of Mohammed's standing order not to strip before he broke Little Shahana's arm. Everything depended on how long it had been since Alois had been tested and how close his CAP score was to the 6.5 lower limit. The AI would not let Mark know either the score or the date, but Lieutenant Bernard would probably have access.

Over lunch he told Shahana that he had an idea. No details but he did tell her that he had found a possible way to kill the man. Shahana was very grateful indeed, he was only just able to avoid a nooner with her.

After lunch he made an appointment with the Lieutenant. He brought with him a printed copy of the paragraph and handed it over without comment. The Lieutenant read it and smiled. "I like that paragraph, we have a couple of others besides Alois that it might be useful for. I think I would like the lawyer who came up with it."

"I felt the same," said Mark. "What is Alois' CAP score and when was he last tested? The AI won't tell me."

"I know his score is 6.5, AI when was he last tested?" After a pause while the AI replied on his personal link he smiled and told Mark, "Fifteen months ago in Klagenfurt. I think we have him." Mark smiled back at him. The lieutenant continued, "AI, what is your estimate of the CAP score Marine Recruit Trenker would get if he were retested today?" Again he paused, "It estimates 6.1 or 6.2; his Major Polgar will be pleased with that, she has wanted rid of him ever since he attacked that first concubine."

"I will let the President of the court know that I am going to be using this clause when I suggest the sentence; I don't mind surprising the defence with it, but I don't want to surprise the President. The judges may not have registered the impact of this clause even if they have read it. Thanks for finding it."

"This is family so I had a lot of motivation and I don't have a great deal of work to do at the moment so I had the time."

"You will have some work soon, once he is retested you will have three unattached concubines; Alois and the two women he currently has."

"True, I hadn't really registered that yet." said Mark, "All unattached concubines come to the Civil Service don't they."

"Yes. You helped to make this mess and now you get to help clean it up."

"Thanks, just what I needed."

Back in the pod Mark went straight to his office and began rechecking his options for dealing with unassigned concubines. As he had feared, there was good news and bad news. Unless Alois found a sponsor within 48 hours he would be killed and recycled. That would save Mohammed having to kill him. The bad news was that the same would happen to the two women he currently sponsored, they had to find new sponsors within the same time limit or they would share Alois' fate. Killing Alois was now easy; the real problem was to keep both his concubines alive.

A check with the AI showed that two new sponsors had spare slots for a concubine. One was the man who left his wife behind at Mark's pickup while the other was a woman looking for a man to replace the one who had been executed. In fairness he would have to offer her the option of taking Alois but his previous record would be made clear to her. There was one spare concubine slot among the ship's crew which might be a possibility. He noted the sponsors' names, but he would wait until he actually had some concubines to offer before contacting them.

Before the court date he also arranged with Major Polgar, for the use the ship's brig to keep Alois for 48 hours if needed. Civil Service standards said that the male concubine pool should be kept separate from the female pool and with no spare pods available he would use Alois' former pod to keep the two women.

Lieutenant Bernard managed to arrange for Shahana to attend the court martial as she was a blood relation to both Mohammed and Little Shahana who were there as sponsor and witness. The guilty verdict was inevitable and she was further pleased to see the shock on the defence side when the order for a retest was made. They protested but the court had been forewarned and all their objections were overruled; Mark's work had paid off. Her smile was positively feral as the guilty man was led out.

Mark was waiting in the Medical Bay when the party from the court arrived. Mohammed had a big grin, so he knew the verdict and sentence were as expected. Recruit Trenker stripped naked and got into one of the pods for his CAP retest. As well as Mark and Mohammed there was a Sergeant and a second Marine guard who turned out to own one of the other attacked concubines. Not a coincidence Mark suspected.

The Sergeant smiled and picked up the discarded uniform. "The AI tells me he failed the test with a 6.2, he will be in there for a couple more minutes while his sponsor-only nanites are turned off." While he folded the uniform neatly the other three got their stingers ready in case of trouble; Mark had been given a quick introduction earlier that day in how to use it.

As Alois got out of the pod and looked for his uniform the Sergeant bellowed, "Atten'hut!"

As his naked victim stood to attention he continued: "Former Marine Recruit Alois Trenker, following the CAP retest ordered by the court martial you have been determined to have a current CAP score of 6.2 which is insufficient to support your continued service as a Confederacy Space Marine. You are dishonourably discharged from the service and are reduced to the status of concubine."

"What...?"

"You heard, concubine! You are now assigned to the Civil Service pool under the command of Decurion Robertson here." The Sergeant turned his back and marched out.

"Follow me," Mark ordered brusquely. He led the new concubine escorted by his two guards to the brig where a grey smock had been left for its new occupant.

In Alois' pod both his concubines were puzzled that the entertainment channel they had been watching had suddenly cut off and the AI was no longer responding to them. When Mark entered his already low opinion of Alois dropped even lower, he had lumbered both Eva and Gisele with ludicrously large tits. He explained to them both that Alois was no longer their sponsor and they were now in the Civil Service pool of unassigned concubines. They would have no entertainment, very basic food, be confined to the pod and could only wear the grey smocks or less. No luxuries at all were allowed. They were not pleased but at least seemed glad to be away from Alois; Eva had a black eye. Mark did not distress them further by telling them that they might only have forty eight hours to live, there was still a chance he would find new sponsors for them.

Now that the concubines were available he could talk to the three potential sponsors. The woman did not want Alois, she had already heard about him through the concubines' grapevine -- her remaining concubine did not want to share a pod with a man like that and had made sure that her mistress knew all about him. Mark was not disappointed at her decision. The other new sponsor was prepared to take one of the two women and Mark arranged for him to meet them for test drives. The crewman wanted a male concubine so he was not willing to take the second woman. Nor was he willing to take Alois, whose reputation was certainly not doing him any favours.

Saving one of the women was good, but having the other one die disturbed Mark. More so because the AI had confirmed that both were pregnant. The AI also confirmed that he was only allowed four concubines, if he took on a fifth then the AI would randomly assign one to the pool if he did not quickly correct things.

Mark asked the AI what would happen to a spare concubine in a colony. Apparently in a colony the Governor had the ability to set up a permanent pool for unassigned concubines, without the 48 hour limit. Where a Civil Service officer was available they were generally put in charge of the pool. Unfortunately for Mark this only applied planetside, on board ship there was nothing he could do about the 48 hour rule. Even the fact that both Gisele and Eva were pregnant did not change the rules; if they had no new sponsor within 48 hours both they and their babies would die. The most the AI could offer was to suggest an amendment to the regulations to allow a ship's Captain to assign concubines to a permanent pool if there was a Civil Service officer available to run it. That would help things in future but was of no immediate use to Mark. It was obvious from the conversation with the AI that the Civil Service was indeed an afterthought and that it had not yet been fully integrated into the system. With the Civil Service being so new and set up in such a hurry all of these problems were coming to light now rather than having been thought through properly earlier.

In the pod that night Shahana wanted to celebrate the guilty verdict but Mark was not in the mood so he sent her next door to join the celebration in Mohammed's pod where he did not have to see or hear her. He did not mind her wanting to celebrate, but he could not. His mood was still down as he went to bed alone; had he killed an innocent woman and child?