Chapter 2

When they got back to the pod Sam had finished his sleep-training session and was engrossed in a video game. Currently he wanted to be a Navy fighter pilot so he was playing a fighter simulator, battling Swarm ships. The games he played varied depending on his ambition of the moment, though he was usually more inclined to the Navy than the Marines. Jane managed to pry him away from his joystick so he could help her and Viv get the others ready to go out again to eat. She was able to grab a few minutes for a quick shower and to change into a black skirt and top ready for her stint in the restaurant. Once Viv had emerged from her own shower, still topless but in a brown skirt now, they all set off for their lunch out.

This was a longer journey than to the park so they took a twin baby-buggy in case of need. Gireesh spotted it instantly and sat himself down right at the start. Charlie decided he was superior and spurned it, "I'm a big boy. I can walk." Alice ignored the boys' antics. Viv had Helen in her sling of course.

The pods on either side of the walkway looked reassuringly suburban, each sitting comfortably in its own plot. During her first week after landing Jane had thought that they were positioned too far apart but, now that they had expanded to their full size, the arrangement looked a lot better. Almost everybody had made an effort to do something in their front garden, a small patch of grass, some rocks or pebbles from the beach in a nice arrangement or whatever. A few people were emulating Alice and were out watering their grass, essential during the Dry season. They could tell they were getting near the centre of town when they saw the conservatories attached to some of the longer established pods. Even closer into the centre the walkway still had the old shade that had protected against ultra-violet.

The town of Lansdowne was named after a battle in the English Civil War. The planet had been named after General Sir William Waller and the first few towns established were named after his battles. He hadn't fought very many so the newer towns used other names. The initial few shiploads of settlers had been from the UK though later arrivals were from more varied destinations. English, of whatever variety, remained the main language of the colony. Anyone who really couldn't cope well enough could use their collar to help them out until they had completed their sleep-training.

Close by was another colony, called Hopton, which allowed the two colonies to share the passengers on a Cube Ship between them; rather than 250,000 they only got 125,000 new people with each shipload. That helped ease the pressure when each new batch of colonists arrived. Jane remembered the frantic time before the Mount Olympus had first visited, when almost everyone was working overtime to get the first accommodation block ready for the town's share of the new arrivals. Being a Cube Ship it wasn't carrying any pods, so everything had to be ready on the ground before the new colonists transported down.

Construction was made a lot easier by Confederacy technology of course, but there was still a lot that needed human intervention. Building an apartment block was basically a giant jigsaw puzzle. Big replicators turned out the pieces for human teams to roughly tack together into position. Nanites worked overnight to finish off each day's assembly work, ready for the next day's set of new pieces. On each floor the girders went up first, then the heavy prefabricated pieces forming the ceiling, followed by the lighter interior walls, that could be easily moved if needed. Finally the outer walls were fixed in place. Jane's job had been with the plumbing. She just had to slip a sleeve over where the pipes from two of the prefab sections needed to join. No need for solder or anything, the sleeve wasn't a tight fit but the nanites would seal everything properly watertight overnight.

As they got close to the centre of town Jane used her collar to contact Anjali. "Anjali, it's Jane. We're almost at the Square. How soon will you be here?"

"We're just getting ready now Jane. Five or ten minutes," she replied.

"OK then," Jane replied. "We'll be looking at the market and we can meet up there. We'll move to Finches' after you arrive." Jane had never bothered to ask why the restaurant was called that. Jai would probably know if she could ever be bothered to ask.

"That's fi... Eve! Let Eddie go!" The AI was still transmitting whatever Anjali said. "Sorry Jane. See you at the market." Jane smiled. The twins seemed to spend their time either helping each other or annoying each other. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference.

When they reached the Square, Jane could see the apartment blocks she had worked on standing to the south. Lansdowne was in the southern hemisphere so the large blocks had been placed to the south of the town centre to avoid overshadowing too many older buildings. Near to them another similar block was being built in preparation for the Mount Olympus' next delivery. Work on the latest block was going more smoothly of course with the experience of building the earlier blocks to help with the planning. She was relieved that there were not going to be any long emergency shifts to get things finished off in time as there had been on the first block.

The more new people arrived the more the Marines would grow, Jane thought. That would be good for Keith's promotion prospects. Perhaps he might even get made an officer? They were often pulling experienced people out of older units and promoting them to form cadres for new units. Keith said that while they still had access to Earth it made sense to expand the Navy and Marines as quickly as possible. There would be a reduction in the rate of growth when the Sa'arm reached Earth and cut off that source of supply of new recruits.

The new arrivals tended to have smaller families so they were mostly housed in the apartment blocks. Once their families had grown, they usually wanted to move to a pod with more outside space available for their children to play. New families formed when children were CAP tested normally moved into the blocks as well. When Sam turned fourteen he would probably be given his own apartment, together with his two concubines. He would get his own pod when he had enough children to justify it.

As well as Finches' Restaurant, the town square held the Community Hall, transporter hub, Civil Service office, the brothel and a small market with mostly craft stalls. One of Jane's first jobs, very soon after arrival, had been in the Community Hall to help train new mothers. Back then too many sponsors had gone for eye-candy at extraction rather than picking at least one mother. The experienced mothers had been drafted in to teach the inexperienced concubines the rudiments of looking after a baby. These days, it seemed to Jane, word had gotten around Earth that you needed a mother in your harem so there were fewer families needing the basic motherhood training than there had been. There were also many more experienced mothers available to teach the courses. Having a pod full of kids meant that new concubines got a crash course in motherhood complete with on-the-job training.

That early work had been before the obol system had been set up; nowadays Jane knew she would be well paid for it. Pay and costs in obols had obviously been designed to get sponsors involved and to encourage good practice in raising children. Sending kids to playschool was very cheap because it directly related to bringing up children. The same applied to wages; being directly related to childcare, Anjali's morning shift at the playschool would earn more obols for the family than Jane's afternoon shift in the Restaurant. In the early months the AIs had been adjusting wages and prices almost weekly to get things properly balanced. These days they only changed occasionally.

The brothel however did not hold happy memories for Jane. She had been sentenced to two weeks punishment there for allowing a couple of boys to get into a confrontation leaving school. She had been too slow to react and the argument had escalated from shouting to shoving before she got there. One of them had slipped and broken his wrist and his sponsor had kicked up a big fuss about it. At the brothel she had been in the lowest category so she got the worst clients. Anything was allowed as long as she was conscious and in a somewhat fit state for her next client. The male concubines were the worst; the things they weren't allowed to do in their pods they did to her. Watersports were the least of it. She didn't get many sponsors as they were usually reserved for the girls who were there just to get pregnant. The first week was the worst as she had been the only 'punishment girl' available. Another woman was serving her sentence alongside Jane during the second week so the load was split between the two of them. It was certainly not an experience she wanted to repeat. A very effective deterrent though.

Alice spotted Hilary's jewellery stall in the craft market and dragged Viv over to look, Jane following with the others. Alice started digging through the brightly coloured stuff that Hilary had made for kids. For the children's jewellery Hilary tended to make one and replicate many copies so those pieces didn't cost as much. Items intended for adults cost more because she didn't replicate as many copies so scarcity increased their value. Keith had bought three matching bracelets for his concubines from her stall. That was typical of what she did for adults, she would make one and replicate a small limited set. There were even a few one-offs that she didn't replicate at all but they didn't sell so well, mostly to female sponsors who wanted to wear something that their concubines didn't have. Like all of the craft workers in the market, Hilary had been issued with special nanites that could mark an item as not to be replicated. She kept a careful track of the patterns in her replicator, deleting the masters once she had completed each limited edition set.

"Can I have this one please mama Jane?" Alice asked, holding up a lurid green and yellow plastic bangle.

"No, I'm sorry Alice," Jane said, "If we get you something then we'll have to get Sam, Julie, Bob, Charlie, Dawn and the twins something as well won't we?"

Alice's face fell. "Yes. But..."

"And we have to pay for our meal in Finches'. We can't afford all that today. Maybe next time?"

Alice wasn't happy, but she had to lump it. Viv and Jane both knew that Keith would get very annoyed if they went over budget, and Hilary's stuff wasn't cheap. Normally they would have diverted the kids to Penny and Elly's cake stall to distract them with something sweet, but that wasn't such a good idea just before lunch.

Jane and Viv, with Sam's help, managed to keep the children looking at the other stalls rather than heading for the cakes. There would have been tantrums if cakes had been forbidden. Maybe Viv and Anjali would let them have some after lunch if they were still hungry.

Soon enough Anjali arrived with Julie and the five other children. After the usual round of kissing and greeting they all walked across the square to Finches'. They were eating early today to allow time for Jane to finish before her shift started, so the place was still mostly empty.

"Hello Jane, Viv, Anjali," Claire greeted them. "You're on table six today." That was one of the outside tables. This being the Dry season the inside tables were only used if the place was very busy.

"Thanks Claire, we can make our own way. Just bring the menus please." Claire realised that Jane and Anjali had worked there in the past so they knew where table six was without having to be shown.

As they sat the children down at the shaded table the seating morphed itself to suit each child. AI assistance could be very useful in small things Jane mused. As usual Gireesh was laughing. "Up! Up!" he said as his chair raised itself and the arms spread round to stop him falling out Pretty much anything would get Gireesh laughing, he was a happy child.

From a glance at her menu Jane could tell that the lunchtime chef today was Shu-Ling. The Lunchtime Specials were her Manchu Chicken for main and Red Bean Pancakes for dessert. The other parts of the menu only changed occasionally since they all came from the replicators anyway but the Specials were prepared from the basic ingredients by the chef for that shift. The AIs didn't allow those dishes to be replicated so you either had to eat in Finches' or wangle an invitation to the chef's pod in order to sample them. Jane was glad that Pete wasn't there with his Sticky Toffee Pudding. That guaranteed that the Restaurant would be full to capacity for all of his shift.

The wording on the menu reflected the different origins of the people on Waller. What the English called crisps the Americans called chips, and what the English called chips the Americans called fries. The menu had compromised by avoiding the word 'chips' entirely with only fries or crisps being mentioned. That difference was settled by eliminating the ambiguous word. Other differences were less easy to resolve. Football was definitely the round ball game, the American version being gridiron or sometimes American Football. Strangely the alternative had survived as 'soccer mom' or sometimes 'soccer concubine'. Jane and the others had certainly done their time watching Sam play. The Americans had their revenge though with the numbering of the floors in the new apartment blocks, the floor at ground level was numbered 1 unlike in England where it would have been numbered 0.

"So Julie, did you have a good time helping mummy Anjali at playschool?" Jane asked her daughter.

Julie smiled, "Yes mummy Jane, it was fun. The twins were naughty. They wanted to play with each other's toys all the time."

"Just like they always do," Anjali commented to Jane. "I'm worried about Fran though, she seems to be coming down with something. She wasn't her usual self this morning."

"Better get her into the sleep-trainer for a quick check-up then," Jane suggested. Using the sleep-trainer would allow Jai to get a better reading from Fran's nanites. It could even do a limited amount of nanite reprogramming, though it couldn't introduce any new nanites. For that a visit to a proper med-tube in the medical centre would be needed.

"Yes, I'd planned to do that before she has her afternoon nap," Anjali agreed.

Just then Claire arrived to take their orders. She didn't need to write them down of course, the restaurant AI could keep track of it all for her. Once she had their final confirmation the kitchen staff were starting to assemble the order even as she left the table. Soon she returned with a trolley load of food; she obviously couldn't carry thirteen meals by herself. Only thirteen because Helen wasn't ready for solid food yet. With the large families in the diaspora Finches' used trolleys as an efficient way to deliver the orders to the tables. Jane had tried the Manchu Chicken once, but it was too spicy for her, so today she had pasta and chorizo with salad, though she did try the Red Bean Pancakes for dessert. No alcohol of course because she was pregnant, so she just had sparkling water to drink.

They took the opportunity to chat with other concubines they knew as various families came and went during the meal. Almost everyone had heard that the Third were back so that was the major subject of conversation. A few people knew the names of some of the casualties, but Jane didn't recognise any of them. That did make it easier to bear, but it wasn't a nice thought. One day Keith might be a casualty himself and they would all go to join Stan's family.

Thinking of the Third Company returning reminded Jane of the planned visit to Laura's pod that evening and that Phil, Laura's sponsor, was with the Third. She suggested to Anjali that it would be best to check that the visit was still on, as Laura and Bonnie might well have other things to do thanks to Phil's return.

By now most of the children realised that eating in the Restaurant meant that they had to be on their best behaviour so more of the food ended up in their mouths rather than smeared on their faces. Even the twins were making an effort to be less messy. The free face-wipes at the table were still needed though, at that age mistakes were inevitable.

All too soon Jane's collar reminded her that her shift started in five minutes. As she got up to leave Sam asked her, "Mum Jane, can I meet you back here after football practice? It should finish a bit before your shift ends."

"Of course Sam," Jane told him. "That would be nice."

Leaving the others to finish their meals she went into the kitchen to see Sylvia, the restaurant manager. Sylvia had been working full time in an airport coffee bar when there had been an extraction. Because of her previous experience she was assigned as one of the managers of Finches'. She couldn't work full time now of course, like every concubine she had children to look after. She never had more than half each day assigned with someone else tasked to cover the time she wasn't there. The AIs arranged the scheduling so, as far as possible, everything was covered by someone with the right skills.

"Where do you want me Sylvia?" Jane asked.

"I'll put you in the kitchen for the lunch rush while the shifts overlap and then outside later. Does that suit?" Because of the extra workload over lunch, the morning shift overlapped with the afternoon shift to provide additional cover for the busy lunch period.

"That's fine Sylvia." Jane knew that putting her in the kitchen would allow someone from the morning shift to get a turn outside rather than being stuck inside for her entire shift. It was the kind of detail that Sylvia was good at. Some of the other managers missed that sort of thing.

"Can you work on the children's replicators," Sylvia said. "Take over number seven from Yasmin please." Children's meals came out of the replicators already assembled and ready to be served. Adult meals needed more work, there were options available and each option was replicated separately. One order of steak might be rare with fries and broccoli while another might be medium with rice and sauerkraut. There were so many possible combinations that it was easier to have each item replicated separately and assemble them on the plate. That also prevented each variation coming out absolutely identical every time. The children didn't seem to mind, but the adults would probably have noticed.

"Sure Sylvia," Jane agreed. She quickly went to wash her hands, get a mob-cap for her hair and a white coat to cover her own clothes. As soon as she was ready she went over to spell Yasmin at number seven.

As each table ordered the AI routed the order to the kitchens and Jane's collar told her what table the plate from her replicator belonged to. She took it out of the replicator and loaded it onto the appropriate trolley ready for the waitress to take to the table. Children's dishes didn't need any assembling so she did more walking to-and-fro than if she had been on the adult meals. The AI knew where the trolleys were positioned so she never had to walk too far with each plate.

Across the kitchen she could see Shu-Ling working on both her chicken and her pancakes. She had pre-cooked much of it earlier in the day, so it just needed the finishing touch from her before it went out to the customers. She was Chinese, though her family had lived in London for generations, short and very serious. The only time she got angry was when someone dropped a plate of her food. She thought it showed disrespect.

As the restaurant filled up Jane could sense the tempo of her work increasing. Her experience told her that it was busier than usual for a weekday lunchtime. When Claire came in to collect her next order Jane managed to ask her, "What's it like outside Claire. It seems busier than it should be."

"There's definitely more customers than normal," Claire said. "I think it's Third Company returning. I recognise people I know from families that are with the Third and there are some Marines that I haven't seen around town for a bit."

"Ah, that makes sense," Jane replied. Doina had said that Stan had only got back late last night. Today would be their first chance to get restaurant food since their return.

As lunch progressed the work began to tail off. The tables all had their meals and as families left there weren't as many new groups arriving. At the end of the lunch period Sylvia sent the morning shift home and Jane's work increased again. She was now working two replicators, though it was rare for both to be active at the same time. Finches' AI was well used to balancing the load among the available staff.

During one of the lulls she took the opportunity to ask the AI to leave a message for Anjali or Viv to let her know what was up with Fran, if anything.

When Sylvia finished her shift Louisa took over. She was Jamaican and had owned and run a restaurant in Kingston. Having run her own place she was an obvious choice for restaurant manager, and she could cook as well. Jane hadn't dared try Louisa's Jerk Pork –- she knew it would be far too hot -- though judging by her Ackee and Codfish it would be excellent. Louisa also had another string to her bow in that she was a superb storyteller; she could enthral a class of younger kids with her tales of Jamaica and of things she had seen on Earth. She could also have the whole kitchen in stitches with her stories, not all of which were suitable for children even in the diaspora.

Just over half way through Jane's shift Louisa came up to her, "Can you do a stint outside now Jane. We need to get the tables set up for the early bookings this evening." Lunchtimes tended to be large family groups with young children included, so the tables were grouped together. In the evenings the younger children were often left at home, so the parties tended to be smaller and the tables needed to be split apart more. "I'll send Jim in to replace you here. We've run out of the Manchu Chicken, but there are a few of the Red Bean Pancakes left if anybody wants to order them. The AI will let you know when they're all gone."

"OK Louisa, it'll be good to get outside," Jane replied. Like Sylvia, Louisa was aware of who needed rotating between inside and outside work. Sylvia had probably briefed her at the handover, or left a note with the Restaurant AI. She handed over her pair of replicators to Jim when he arrived, changed into a white apron over her black skirt and top and joined the outside crew. The AI told her which tables to rearrange and where necessary she bussed them as well; small children could be very messy eaters. She did take a couple of orders as well, but as usual business was very slow during this part of the day.

Her collar alerted her to a call from Anjali, "Jane, Jai says that Fran is coming down with a mild cold. He has tuned her nanites and is keeping an eye on things. We'll be putting the rest of us through as well once Julie has finished her sleep-training. That way it shouldn't hit anyone too badly."

"Thanks Anjali," Jane replied, "that's a good idea." She remembered what had happened after the Mount Olympus' second visit. A more than usually infectious strain of cold had arrived along with the new colonists. An entire pod of miserable sniffling children was definitely not Jane's idea of heaven. Anjali's prompt action should keep the impact down this time.

Confederacy medicine was very good, but it wasn't perfect. There were still some mild diseases present in the diaspora. Viv said that the biologists thought that might be deliberate, just to give the kids' immune systems something to work on. The more serious infectious diseases had been eliminated of course. They showed up when everyone got their first set of nanites, either on board ship or at one of the moon-bases, and were stopped there and then before the patient reached their colony. The most serious incident on Waller had been when a case of Rubella had got through somehow; definitely something the colony did not want with so many pregnant women around. That had been squelched very early, before it could spread. Viv and the rest of the biologists had helped the medics on that occasion.

There were a few groups still eating. Jane noticed that a Marine Private had one of his concubines under the table fellating him. Probably from Third Company she thought, catching up on lost time. The scene reminded her of a sketch she had seen on the 'Waller Laugh' comedy show on local TV. The sponsor had his concubine naked on the table in a restaurant while he ate her out. The waitress had spoken to him, "I'm sorry sir. You're only allowed to eat the restaurant's food in here." The sketch ended with the waitress lying back naked on the table in front of him as he ate her pussy with his peeved concubine sitting nearby. He lifted his head from between her legs to deliver the punchline, "Great food, great service!" Jane smiled at the memory.

She knew she was on the last lap of her shift when she saw Melina, the chef for the evening, arriving. She needed to arrive early so as to have her specials prepared ready for the evening rush. Jane didn't know what Melina was planning for today, she often did Calves' Liver but sometimes cooked other recipes instead. With replicators she would always have all the ingredients she needed ready to hand.

About fifteen minutes before her shift was due to end, Jane saw Sam arrive back from his football practice. The place wasn't busy so she went over to talk to him, "Hi Sam, did you enjoy practice?"

"Yes mum, we had Lance-Corporal Maddocks today 'cos Third Company are back. He's good, he makes us work hard."

Jane almost corrected him for calling her 'mum', but since she was the only one of his mothers around, he was allowed to. "Isn't he the one that swears at you a lot?"

"Well, we think he's swearing at us," Sam answered. "We're not quite sure."

Puzzled, Jane asked, "How can you not be sure?"

"He shouts at us in Welsh. Probably Welsh anyway. We know he's Welsh and he's definitely not shouting in English. It gets louder and there's more of it when we muck things up so he's probably swearing. It sounds like it should be swearing anyway."

"Can't you ask the AI?" Jane enquired.

"We tried, but it said it wasn't allowed to tell us. He probably told it not to say." Sam looked frustrated at that.

Jane smiled at his disappointment. "I've still got a few minutes to go before I finish my shift," she told him. "Do you want to sit at a spare table? I can get you a drink if you want?"

"Thanks mum, I'll have a Glucose Booster please," Sam replied. He sat down and pulled out his Game-Boy from his sports bag. Jane suspected that he would be carrying on with the fighter pilot sim he'd been playing before lunch. She went to get him his drink.

When her shift finished Jane checked out with Louisa and went back to pick up Sam. He was so deeply engrossed in his game that he had only finished a third of his drink.

"Come on tiger. You can finish saving the Earth when we get back home."

Sam didn't even look up from his game, "Just let me finish this level mum."

Jane smiled and sat at the table to wait for him. It wasn't often that she was alone with one of her children, and she still thought of Sam and Julie especially as 'her' children. Her husband had left shortly after Julie had been born so it had just been the three of them for six years before they were extracted. Mike had paid child maintenance and remembered to send presents for Christmas and birthdays, but he hadn't really involved himself more than that. Looking at Sam concentrating on his game, she felt proud at the way he was turning out, and very likely to make it as a citizen as well. 'You didn't do too badly, old girl,' she thought to herself.

"OK mum." Sam emptied his drink in a single gulp and dropped the game into his bag. "Ready to go?"

"I've been ready for five minutes," she grinned. They got up and started walking back to the pod together.

"So," she asked him, "did you save Earth?"

"Yup, though I still have two more levels to go. There's a really difficult bit on the last level with a big Swarm attack."

"If only it would be that easy in real life," Jane said. "I still have my memories of Earth, but by the time we reconquer it from the Swarm it'll all be smashed up and not like we remember it." She felt sad at that. So much was going to be destroyed, with just memories and photographs left. And in time the people with the memories would die and the old pre-Swarm Earth would be just a piece of history.

"I don't remember a lot really," Sam replied. "Just small stuff. We had a blue front door, and old Mr Hibbs next door. I remember Miss Daymer from school as well. She was nice."

Jane laughed, "Gary Hibbs was only forty-odd when we were extracted. He wasn't that old."

"Oh. Well, all the grown ups looked old to me when I was that age." Sam paused, "I wonder if he'll get extracted or if he's going to stay and fight? We might even see him again when we get Earth back from the Swarm."

"That's if we're still around when we get Earth back," Jane cautioned. "It may take so long that we aren't there to see it."

"Of course we will!" Sam said with blazing adolescent certainty. "We had this Navy officer talking to us in Pathfinders. He said we couldn't lose."

"Why so certain?" she asked.

Sam was in 'explaining the obvious to stupid adults' mode. "Well, Commander Takagawa told us that the Sa'arm eat up planets so they're always having to evacuate old planets that they've used up. That means that they have to find enough new planets to make up for the old ones they're abandoning."

"Yes Sam, I can see that," Jane responded.

"Well," he continued, "all we have to do is to slow them down so that they can't colonise new planets fast enough to make up for the old ones. As we slow them down they'll have fewer and fewer planets until they run out. Meanwhile we're colonising more and more planets. Eventually we're going to be bigger than they are. See mum?"

"It seems to make sense," she agreed. "So, how are we slowing them down?"

"It's the Navy mostly. That's why I want to be in the Navy. As well as building Hive ships, the Sa'arm also have to build escorts for them. They didn't used to have to do that because now the Navy kills unescorted Hive ships. That means they can't build as many Hive ships as before. The Navy also shoots down their scouts so they don't know where to send the Hive ships. They don't know about as many new planets to colonise and it costs them more to settle each one. So all that slows them down a lot. We sometimes kill escorted Hive ships as well which is even better." Sam was getting excited by his reliving of the Commander's lecture. Jane could see that her son had obviously been deeply impressed.

"Even if the Swarm do land on a planet, the Marines will fight them and slow them down so it takes them longer to begin using its resources. And they have to use up even more resources to fight the Marines. The more resources they use fighting us the less resources they have for finding new planets. All that means that they're using up old planets faster than they're finding new ones. We can't lose, mum." Sam paused, smiling.

"Well," Jane replied, "that's good to know, and very reassuring. With you in the Navy we're sure to win." She stopped and gave Sam a quick hug. He didn't seem to mind too much, there weren't any of his friends nearby to see him in such an embarrassing position with one of his mothers.

Despite Sam's obvious confidence, Jane wasn't so sure. That Naval officer was plainly on a recruiting mission with the Pathfinders, so he wasn't going to be giving them any bad news about how difficult things were really going to be.

Not wanting to share those thoughts with Sam she told him, "It's nice with just the two of us. With all the others about we don't get much chance to be alone together during the day, just talking, any more."

"Well," Sam grinned, "there's always helping me with my 'homework'."

Jane laughed, "Trust you to think of that! You have a one track mind Samuel Davidson. I said, 'just talking', remember?" She paused for effect, "And we can't talk with our mouths full."

Sam laughed out loud at that, "Mum! You made a dirty joke." He had plainly not expected quite such an explicit joke from his mother. Sam's laughter attracted some attention from the scattering of passers-by.

Once he had subsided to just a smile Jane replied, "We're not on Earth now Sam. I may be from Earth originally but we all have to change. If I hadn't changed then you wouldn't be getting any blow-jobs from me at all, or eating my pussy, would you?"

"No mum, I s'pose not."

Jane said seriously, "You're my very first baby, Sam, and you'll always be that. I love all of my babies of course, but you're still special."

"And you're my very first mum," Sam pointed out. "I have three mums now, but you were the first. So you're special as well."

That surprised Jane. "Yes Sam, you're right, I'm your first mother. I hadn't thought about it from your point of view before." She had to take some deep breaths to stop herself tearing up. She had already embarrassed Sam enough by hugging him in public. Having one of his mothers crying on his shoulder as well would likely be too much for him to bear. She set off again for their pod, hoping to distract herself from her thoughts. She was Sam's first mother, but in less than a year she was going to lose him to the Navy and to two concubines of his own. She wasn't sure either of them was quite ready for that yet, though Sam probably thought he was. She knew less about the Navy than about the Marines; maybe she could talk to Louisa about it, her sponsor was a Navy man.

As they walked slowly along, Sam asked her, "What do you do for sex mum? You can't actually do it with me yet, and Keith is away a lot on deployment. What do you do when he's not here?"

Jane took a few steps to consider her answer. Sam was almost an adult so it was probably best to treat his question as if from an adult. He has certainly asked it in a reasonably adult way. "Mostly I do without. Helping you with your 'homework' helps, you're getting pretty good," she smiled and ruffled his hair. "Apart from that I don't really do much. I sometimes cuddle with Viv or Anjali but it doesn't go much further than that. I'm not really into other girls."

"I think Viv is more into girls," Sam said, having smoothed his hair back down. "I sometimes see her going to Terri's pod to visit Ulrika. They seem to like each other a lot."

"Yes, both Keith and Terri have allowed that. Viv's sex drive seems higher than mine and I suppose Ulrika's is as well. Remember that Viv was recently pregnant with Helen. Pregnancy can do some weird things to your hormones. Mind you, my sex drive goes into high gear whenever Keith gets back; I think the nanites have something to do with that."

"The nanites make you randy, mum?"

"I'm pretty sure they do. I bet if you asked Doina, she and the others will have been in their sleep trainer over the last day or two. Getting their nanites retuned to boost their sex drives before Stan got back. Got to keep our sponsors happy," she smiled.

Sam nodded at that.

When they reached the pod everyone else was there as the afternoon group had already returned from the playschool. Alice made sure to show Jane the finger painting she had done, which was now stuck on the wall in the kitchen. Each child had their own area of wall on which to display their work.

"Gireesh got really messy when he did his painting mama Jane," Alice explained. "He was all blue!"

Fran was upstairs on her own, resting; Anjali had given her something to make her drowsy. The less she mixed with the other children the less the danger of her passing on her cold. Bob was still in the sleep-trainer having his nanites tuned to help fight off Fran's cold. Once he had finished there were only Sam and Jane left to do, all the others had been treated. They decided to get Sam done as soon as Bob was finished. That way he would be ready for his Pathfinders later. Jane could fit in as convenient after Sam.

Jane joined in to help getting everything ready for the kids' tea. Sam was able to help for a bit, but had to disappear once Bob emerged from the sleep-trainer. That left them slightly short handed but they were able to cope. Tea was one of the simpler meals: sandwiches and cakes came pre-prepared from the kitchen replicator. Anjali took Fran's meal up to her; Viv didn't want to risk passing anything on to Helen and Jane hadn't had her nanites tuned yet. Jane noticed that Anjali had changed from her blue sari into a red and orange one for the afternoon.

The meal itself was pretty much the usual organised chaos. Fran's absence reduced the number of children by one, but with Sam and Anjali doing other things the number of helpers was down by two. Jane and Viv, with Julie's assistance, managed to cope. As ever the twins were sharing their food, but everyone was used to that and to dealing with the resulting debris. Alice just rolled her eyes at their antics, "They're so messy mama Jane!"

Bob was his usual quiet self during the meal. Sometimes Jane worried that he might be too quiet, a certain amount of pushiness seemed to be needed to get a good CAP score. She didn't like to think of one of the boys not making citizen. There weren't many concubine slots for low CAP men so if Keith didn't agree to take him on then his prospects weren't good.

Unattached males were kept in the Civil Service bachelors' barracks and mostly worked outside town at the industrial sites. There was always a group of them working at the algae tanks near the Biology Station whenever Jane was assigned there. The industries were away from town, mostly back in the mountains so as to be close to their raw materials, or in the case of the algae tanks, the sea. When she was serving her sentence in the brothel some of her clients had been from the bachelors' barracks, so she knew that they did have some sexual relief. It didn't seem like a very good life for them overall though. Maybe Bob would turn out to be good in other areas, aggressiveness wasn't the only criterion used to decide a CAP score. Keith had probably been a quiet child as well, and he was Bob's father. Though if Keith did decide to accept Bob as a concubine then there would be a convenient male available to scratch certain itches while Keith was away on deployment.