Chapter 3

They had almost finished clearing away after tea when Sam emerged from the sleep-trainer. He grabbed a sandwich and with a quick, "Thanks. Back soon," rushed off to change into his Pathfinders uniform -- a green jacket representing the Marines and black trousers for the Navy. The Pathfinders were for dependants aged eleven and over who were likely to become sponsors when they tested at fourteen. Sam was a shoo-in with his estimated CAP score of 6.5 to 6.8. He had been promoted to Corporal a few months ago and was very proud of himself. Keith had been home then and had given him some hints to help him deal with the responsibilities of his new position. Again Jane wished that Keith could be home more to help Sam, still, there was a war on and that had to take precedence. Pathfinders were aware of the problem and tried to help as much as they could. A lot of the talks and training for the kids were given by men, like that Navy Commander Sam had been talking about earlier, the one who had impressed him so much.

As soon as she saw Sam in his uniform, Julie rushed off to change into her brown Sutlers uniform. Just as the Pathfinders were for probable sponsors, the Sutlers were for likely concubines. Those on the borderline tended to be placed in the Pathfinders and given special classes in the hope that it would help raise their CAP enough to be a citizen. With concubines not eligible to fight the Swarm it made sense to push as many borderline cases as possible up to the 6.5 CAP limit. Unfortunately Julie's CAP estimate of 4.9 to 5.5 was too far below the minimum, she was going to be a concubine when she reached fourteen.

"So, Sam," Jane asked, "what will you be doing at Pathfinders this evening?"

"We have parade and roll-call first of course," Sam replied, "then we're going to be practising stripping and reassembling an RLI-1 Laser Rifle. Followed by an under-fourteens Korfball match against the Sutlers. After that I hope I can get some time in the fighter simulator, though there's usually a long queue for that. It's very popular. We'll probably have a real tank next week the Major was saying."

"Will Becky be at the Korfball match?" Jane asked. Becky was a Sutler who Sam had a definite eye on to become one of his concubines. She had her eye on him as well.

"She should be there, mum Jane," Sam replied. "I certainly hope so."

Given the imbalance in sexes, with the Pathfinders being mostly male while the Sutlers were mostly female, someone had thought of Korfball as a way for both to be able to field teams in the same sport. It wasn't so much for the game itself as an opportunity for supporters to mix with their opposites of the same age, as with Sam and Becky. When a Pathfinder hit fourteen he was going to be picking concubines from among the Sutlers, and the Korfball matches were one of the ways they were able to get to know each other before making their final choices. Sam wasn't on the team but he would be in the stands supporting, and checking out the Sutler girls.

There were other sports of course, Sam was particularly into football. But, unlike Korfball, most of the other sports teams were single sex so it was more difficult to set up town based matches between the Pathfinders and Sutlers. Those sports were more concentrated on inter-town competitions, so the kids got to meet potential sponsors and concubines from other towns. When Lansdowne was playing Roundway the Pathfinders and Sutlers from both towns would be in the stands cheering for their respective teams.

Jane thought that maybe the situation would get easier when the children born on Waller reached eleven, then there would be a lot more members of both sexes to pick from. Currently both Pathfinders and Sutlers were reliant on children born on Earth and extracted with a parent. The oldest Waller born children were only eight so they still had three years to go before they could join.

Oral sex classes were another way the thirteen year olds got to meet each other. Jane had helped with those classes herself, both at school and during joint Pathfinders and Sutlers evenings. Most of the children had a pretty good idea of what to do by the time they reached thirteen from watching what went on in their pods and in public as well, such as the Marine getting his lunchtime blow-job in the Restaurant. They usually just needed a few pointers on details, the things that were hidden when a tongue was buried in a pussy or a cock down a throat. Like most sponsors, Keith had programmed the nanites to tone down his three concubines' gag reflexes so they could all easily deep throat him. The girls in Sutlers generally couldn't do that yet. With Sam, like the other boys his age, the problem was that he tended to assume everyone could deep throat him as easily as his mothers could. She'd had to explain to him that the three of them had been modified. Unmodified thirteen year old girls had to be treated more gently, he couldn't just thrust himself straight down their throats.

The Pathfinders obviously concentrated heavily on military training since the great majority of them were going to be in the military; neither the Fleet Auxiliary nor the Civil Service were emphasised at all. Hence the availability of a Navy fighter simulator and the upcoming visit from a Marine tank. The Navy and the Marines were in competition for recruits and each wanted to make their service arm look as exciting as possible. They both knew that once the Sa'arm reached Earth in a few years time, their only source of new recruits would be from the colonies through youth organisations like the Pathfinders.

While Julie was still changing, Anjali reappeared from the upper level. "Fran's still dozing," she announced, "I managed to get a little food down her, but she's not really hungry. I did manage to get her to drink plenty though. Jai will let us know if she needs anything." She went through to the kitchen to dump the remains of Fran's meal in the recycler.

Julie soon re-emerged in her brown Sutlers' uniform. She had started just under a year ago when she turned eleven and was still pleased to have her own uniform. Jane asked her in turn what she was going to be doing.

"There's a sex video first, mummy Jane, then something about childcare. I'm not sure what that's going to be. And cookery last. That'll be good, I need some more cookery for my bronze badge. I think we're doing desserts today so I'll bring something back." Julie liked cooking, it was something she hadn't done much of in the pod so it was new for her. Helping look after babies had been part of her life since eight months after her arrival on Waller when Alice had been born.

Just like Scouts and Guides back on Earth, the Sutlers had a system of badges. Julie had achieved bronze in childcare and was working for her silver. She already had her silver for baby-care after all the practice she had with her younger siblings. Now that her brothers and sisters were growing she was getting more experience of childcare with older kids. The only sex badges she could go for at the moment were theoretical of course, she could start practical work in just over a year when she turned thirteen. That reminded Jane that she would need to start thinking about what to do for Julie's twelfth birthday which was coming up shortly.

When Anjali emerged from the kitchen Jane announced, "I'll go and get my nanites done now." With both Viv and Anjali available there was enough adult supervision for her to be away the few minutes needed. The sleep-training tube was in its own room next to Keith's office. When the younger children started reaching school age they would probably need a second one, perhaps on the upper level where the children's bedrooms were. At the moment only Sam and Julie needed to use it regularly.

Being in the tube was more restful for Jane that it usually was. Since this was just a medical tune-up there were no dreams. She was glad of that. The dreams when she took her six-monthly First Aid refreshers were full of blood and broken bones, more like nightmares than dreams.

When she rejoined the others, Bob and Charlie were playing with a cardboard box. At the moment it was a car with the two of them sitting in it. Typically, Charlie had taken charge, despite being the younger. He was in front, driving, with Bob in the back as the passenger. They were obviously copying what they had seen on old stuff from Earth as there weren't any cars on Waller, not around the town anyway. There were Marine tanks and some cross-country vehicles for journeys outside the dome but ordinary cars weren't used at all. You walked, cycled or used a transporter.

Bicycles were becoming more popular as the town grew. New cycle-paths were being added to help separate pedestrians from the cyclists after a few minor accidents. All those extra people arriving on the Mount Olympus were giving Waller a definite population boost, and the policy seemed to be to put newcomers into established towns. New towns were being established as well, but that mostly involved moving people who were already settled on Waller. Jane had lost a few friends that way when their sponsors had been promoted into a newly forming unit and transferred to one of the new towns.

Charlie and Bob decided that their box was now a pod so they laid it on its side and persuaded Dawn to be a concubine. Charlie tried asking Alice as well, but she was having none of it as she wanted to read her picture book. Dawn just used the box to play house with her doll and some crockery borrowed from the kitchen while Charlie and Bob rushed round killing Sa'arm, who seemed to have a nest behind the sofa. Jane thought that Dawn, like Bob, was probably going to become a concubine. She was a follower, not a leader. Alice on the other hand seemed much more sure of herself. She knew what she wanted and stuck with it. She might well become a sponsor when she reached fourteen. Even if she didn't it wouldn't be too much of a problem. There were always places for female concubines; it was the male concubines that didn't have much to look forward to.

Once the two boys had cleaned out the Swarm infestation they went back to the 'pod'. "Where's our food Dawn," Charlie said.

"Here you are," she replied as she laid out plates for the four of them, including her doll of course. "How much would you like?"

"Lots and lots please," Charlie said. "We're really hungry after fighting dickheads."

Dawn was spooning out imaginary stew from a small bowl. "Is that enough?"

"Yes," Charlie said loudly. Bob was quieter, but added a "thank you."

Reminded by Bob, Jane corrected Charlie for his omission. Even in play she wanted him to remember to treat concubines well. If he did become a sponsor she didn't want him making the lives of his future harem a misery. Concubines had to stick together since there wasn't really anyone else to stick up for them. Even the Civil Service was pretty limited in what it could do, though Signifer Deussen did try her best.

Looking round the room to check on the other kids Jane saw that Alice was still reading quietly. The twins were crawling over Viv, giggling all the while. Anjali was showing Gireesh something on her vid-tablet, probably an Indian movie. She wanted him to know Telugu as well as English. Jane had picked up a few words herself as Anjali was teaching Gireesh: vana for rain and yendaga for sunny. She couldn't see Helen at the moment, she was probably sleeping in Viv's room on the upper level with Jai acting as baby monitor. She trusted Viv to be sure that her baby was OK.

Alice put down her book and shifted along next to Jane. She stretched out a hand and rubbed it over the bulge of Jane's pregnancy. "You're going to have a baby aren't you mama Jane? Just like mama Viv got all fat and had Helen."

"That's right Alice," Jane replied. "I'll get big and round as the baby grows inside me. Then it will pop out to play with all its brothers and sisters."

Alice considered that. "Maybe it should wait a bit longer than Helen did. She doesn't seem ready to play yet. She just sucks on mama Viv's boobies and sleeps a lot."

Jane laughed aloud at that. "That's very good advice Alice, but I'm not sure if this one will listen to it. It may want to come out anyway."

Having finished their meal, Charlie and Bob dashed off to deal with a new nest of Sa'arm under the kitchen table. Once they had gone, Alice joined Dawn at the box, diverting on the way to get herself a doll from the toy chest. The two girls were soon engrossed in playing house, or perhaps it was 'playing pod', with their two dolls.

Anjali came over to sit next to Jane, bringing Gireesh with her, "I don't think Gireesh should sleep with Fran tonight," she said. "He might pick up something from her. We could put him in the main bedroom down here so he wouldn't be on his own." Jane nodded. Normally Fran and Gireesh shared a room on the upper level, but it made sense not to risk any infection spreading. "That's a good idea Anjali. Set up a cot for Gireesh. Viv and Helen should probably do the same so I'll sleep upstairs and help Julie with the kids for a couple of nights until Fran is better. You won't mind being woken by Helen?"

"Not too much. It'll only be for a couple of nights and its better if Gireesh doesn't catch whatever Fran's got."

Jane got up and went to where Viv was trying to tickle both of the twins simultaneously. She seized Eve from behind and took over that half of the tickling while Viv concentrated on Eddie. Jane explained Anjali's idea to her.

"That sounds sensible," Viv replied. "We can put Gireesh and Helen to bed down here with me and Anjali. You don't have a problem doing the overnight child-minding do you Jane?"

"No Viv, that's fine." Jane told her between squeals of laughter from the twins. "With you looking after Helen and Julie doing the initial check it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'll probably have to deal with Fran myself, I don't quite trust Julie to deal with a cold on her own yet."

Gireesh decided that he was hungry and toddled over to Viv. "Mik Viv," he said.

"Hello Gireesh," Viv replied. "You want some milk?"

Gireesh smiled and nodded. He immediately started scrambling up onto the sofa next to Viv.

"All right then little Mister Hungry, here you are," Viv said as she lifted her left breast for him. Gireesh quickly latched onto her nipple. Eddie looked at Viv, considering whether to go for her other breast but decided not to. He grabbed Eve's hand and they went over to the toy chest together to find something to play with.

Gireesh finished suckling and said, "Tank Viv." He couldn't talk much yet but he had learned to say, "thank you," almost.

On his return from the kitchen, Charlie persuaded Dawn and Alice that it would be better for them to play house under the kitchen table since it was now cleared of dickheads. He went over to the toy chest to get a felt-tip marker and dragged the box over to Jane.

"Mummy Jane, this is my General's hat. Can you write 'General Charlie' on it please?"

Jane used the opportunity to spell out the word for him as she wrote: "G E N E R A L. What does that spell Charlie?"

"It makes 'General', mummy Jane."

"Very good Charlie. Now, can you write your own name?" She passed him the marker. After much concentration there was a wobbly but readable 'ChARLeI' on the box.

Jane spelt it out for him, "C H A R L I E", carefully correcting his misspelling. "What does that spell?" Jane asked.

"It spells Charlie. That's me. I'm General Charlie. It says so on my hat. Thanks for helping me write my hat mummy Jane." He gave her a childish peck on the lips, put the box on his head and walked round the room. He was trying to look important but that was difficult when he had to use both his hands to hold the box up so he could see from under it. Jane smiled at his antics.

Just then Jai interrupted them, "Fran is awake and asking for assistance."

Glancing round, the three women decided between them that Jane would go up to see to her, all without any actual conversation. Jane got up from where she had been sitting the sofa next to Viv and made her way to the gravlift.

Fran was awake and wanted a drink of water and someone to talk to. Jane got her the water and told her a story as the young girl lay curled up in her bed.

"This is the story of the little girl with the long name. Once upon a time there was a very pretty little girl with a very long name. She was called Frances Jane Vivian Anjali Julie Alice Dawn Evelyn Helen Smith-Turner-Varalakshmi-Davidson. So every time she was asked her name she had to say 'I'm called Frances Jane Vivian Anjali Julie Alice Dawn Evelyn Helen Smith-Turner-Varalakshmi-Davidson'. And that meant that she got a sore throat because every time she said her name she had to say all of Frances Jane Vivian Anjali Julie Alice Dawn Evelyn Helen Smith-Turner-Varalakshmi-Davidson."

Jane paused and stroked Fran's hair. "What a poor little girl with such a big name and such a sore throat. Then clever little Frances Jane Vivian Anjali Julie Alice Dawn Evelyn Helen Smith-Turner-Varalakshmi-Davidson had a really good idea. She thought, what if I shortened my name so I didn't have to say Frances Jane Vivian Anjali Julie Alice Dawn Evelyn Helen Smith-Turner-Varalakshmi-Davidson every time someone asked me what I was called? Then I wouldn't get a sore throat and I would feel better. So young Frances Jane Vivian Anjali Julie Alice Dawn Evelyn Helen Smith-Turner-Varalakshmi-Davidson decided to change her name to Frances Davidson for long and Fran for short. She liked her new names a lot because they were much much easier to say and her throat got much much better and everyone lived happily ever after."

"Funny story," Fran told Jane. "Was it me?"

Jane smiled, "Well, you are a pretty little girl but you never had a long name like Frances Jane Vivian Anjali Julie Alice Dawn Evelyn Helen Smith-Turner-Varalakshmi-Davidson, did you?"

"I'm Frances."

"Yes you are," Jane replied, "and if you don't stop talking your throat will get even sorer. Better drink a bit more water and try to get some more sleep."

"Yes mummy Jane." Fran curled up with her soft toy, currently a giraffe called Boris, and closed her eyes.

Jane sat on the second bed. As she waited for Fran to drop off she began thinking about what to do for Julie's birthday. All the children's birthdays were on the Earth calendar of course, the importance of their fourteenth birthday and the consequent CAP test made that a necessity. Most other things, like the annual Landing Day celebration, were based on the Waller calendar; a year with eleven equal 32 day months together with February which was either 26 days in even numbered years or 27 days in odd years. This was year eight in the Waller calendar so February had been 26 days long. There would be a birthday party for Julie of course complete with a special cake by Penny and Elly, just as Bob had had for his birthday last week, but Jane wanted to do something else as well. She decided she should check what was on at the Community Hall around that date. Alice and Dawn were coming up to their birthdays after Julie. Maybe she could get them some of Hilary's jewellery from the craft market? Alice had liked that green and yellow bangle.

Once she was sure Fran was asleep Jane returned to the others. She had expected that Julie and Sam would have got back by now, but she couldn't see either of them.

Viv explained, "Julie's in the kitchen. She brought back some Rice Pudding she made at Sutlers and Anjali is helping her scan it into the replicator. We're going to be trying it later."

Over the years the family had scanned in many different meals. Scanned meals were sometimes shared with other families, Doina's Romanian sausages were a particular favourite with the older children. In return they had given her one of Anjali's Indian sweet recipes, Mysore Pak.

"Sam's not back yet," Viv continued.

"Perhaps he's playing on the fighter simulator," Jane replied. "He said he wanted to get on it tonight."

"Either that or he's doing some 'homework' with Becky," Viv laughed.

As if on cue, a glum looking Sam chose that moment to return. "We lost," he said sadly. "They beat us 17 to 13. LaTisha was playing really well for them. She's almost impossible to block when she's in top form."

Jane commiserated with him, "Never mind Sam, you usually beat the Sutlers. You need to lose now and then so you don't get complacent. There's no fun in winning 100 to nil every time."

"Yeah," Sam replied, "but I still don't like us losing."

Jane decided to change the subject to something more cheerful. There was no point in letting Sam stay down in the dumps. "Was Becky there?"

Sam immediately brightened. "Yeah, she was. We had a good time. She gave me a blow job at half time and I ate her out after the match." Sam paused, "I took too long doing that so by the time we'd finished there was a big queue for the Flight Simulator. We talked and kissed for a bit and she gave me another blow job. Then I walked her back to Don's pod. That's why I'm a bit late getting in. I would have licked her pussy again but we didn't have time. I promised her I'd do her first next time."

"You could always sixty-nine each other," Jane suggested.

"Nah, not in the sports hall. The benches are too narrow for that," Sam pointed out. "It's much easier if we just take turns."

Becky was a bit older than Sam so there was an awkward two month gap between their fourteenth birthdays. Keith had made an arrangement with Don, who sponsored Becky's mother, that when Becky turned fourteen she would stay in Don's pod as an unattached concubine. She would be there for a couple of months and then join Sam when he took his CAP test. Signifer Deussen had agreed that this would be OK since the AIs only began complaining after a concubine had been unattached for six months or more. Everyone thought that this way was better than letting her stay in Keith's pod; that might be too much temptation for her and Sam to bear. Sam had agreed with Don that Becky's first child would be his own while her second would be Don's as a reward for him helping Sam over the gap between their birthdays.

By this time Charlie had decided that the cardboard box was now a football and had started kicking it around the room. Viv moved in quickly to stop him as he was disturbing the other children. Instead Charlie organised a box squashing party with him and the twins jumping up and down on it until it was flat. Then they rolled all over it, laughing, just to make sure it was totally squished. The noise brought Anjali out of the kitchen where she was starting to prepare dinner. She picked up the remnants off the floor, "Did you like playing with the box Charlie?"

"Yes mummy Anjali. It was lots of things. I had lots of fun. Can I have another box tomorrow please?"

"We'll see Charlie," Anjali replied non-committally. "Maybe, if you're good, I'll replicate another one for you." She folded up the remains and took them into the kitchen to stuff into the recycler.

It was Anjali's turn to prepare dinner this evening so she stayed in the kitchen getting things ready with Julie helping her. Soon enough Julie appeared from the kitchen and announced that dinner would be ready shortly. Viv and Jane organised a round of hand washing for the children and then shepherded them all in to sit round the table. Charlie and Bob made sure that everyone knew that they had personally cleaned up the nest of Sa'arm that had been living under it.

Today Anjali had prepared dosa, stuffed rice pancakes, for everyone. She had a few different recipes for the fillings already in the replicator and occasionally tried a new version on the others to see how they liked it.

Once, Viv had tried to persuade her to volunteer to cook in the Restaurant, but Anjali had demurred, "Oh no, I couldn't possibly do that. All I can do is home cooking, not like good restaurant cooking. Besides, Saina and Nasima are already cooking there and they are both much better cooks than I am." The two chefs she named had both arrived at Waller on the Mount Olympus with Anjali, all three having been picked up from the same call centre in Hyderabad.

For afters there was Julie's rice pudding for all. Jane thought it was a bit dry and rather too sweet, but she praised Julie for it anyway. It was certainly better than some of her earlier efforts back when she had first started cooking. Julie was unquestionably getting better. Jane suspected that this particular dish wouldn't stay long on the replicator's menu. They would probably replace it with whatever Julie brought back next from Sutlers. The young kids shovelled it down anyway, mostly. Jane and the others were kept busy wiping small faces. Sam called it "nice", though Jane suspected that he was just being polite to Julie. At least that was better than the two of them squabbling. They had both been good on that front so far today.

Jane kept Sam and Bob back to help her clear up the kitchen after the meal while the others went back to the main room. Bob couldn't do much, but was happy to dump things in the recycler. "Whoosh! All gone," he said every time something disappeared.

When the three of them emerged from the kitchen, Viv and Anjali were setting up for an evening of videos before bedtime. The younger kids were on one side of the room waiting for their rerun of a Teletubbies episode while Bob went to join Alice, and Charlie for a cartoon. They still showed a lot of old stuff from Earth; there wasn't enough new programming made in the diaspora to entirely replace it yet. Jai could turn any convenient area of wall into a video screen as well as make a soundproof barrier between the two parts of the room. Having all the children together in one room made it easier to keep an eye on them.

"What do you want to do Sam? Watch cartoons?" Jane asked.

"No thanks mum Jane," Sam replied. "I think I'll just go upstairs and read for a bit. I can always get Jai to show something more grown up if I want cartoons." While the younger children shared two to a room, both Sam and Julie had their own rooms. Being older they warranted the extra space and privacy. It also reduced any temptation for them to jump the gun on the 'no sex before thirteen' rule.

"OK Sam," Jane said. "We'll see you later."

As Sam left to go up in the gravlift Jane quietly checked with the AI, "How's Fran doing Jai?"

"She is asleep for the moment. I predict that she will be hungry if she wakes. She has not eaten sufficiently today."

"Let me know if she looks like waking, I can get her something easy to eat."

"I will do that Jane."

Looking around, Jane noticed that Julie wasn't to be seen either. "Jai, is Julie upstairs?"

"Yes Jane, she is in her room on the upper level. She is reviewing the sex education video that was shown at Sutlers this evening."

That got Jane thinking about Julie and sex. With a little more than a year to go before she turned thirteen, she obviously hadn't done anything much so far. Even then she would still be restricted in what she could do before her fourteenth birthday. Julie was evidently beginning to get curious, and her brother was an obvious target for any questions she didn't want to ask the adults. No harm in her asking Sam questions, but there could be serious consequences if it went much beyond that. Jane warned the AI, "Better keep an eye on her and Sam then please Jai. We don't want them getting into trouble for going too far. Warn them and let one of us know if they try anything more than 'you can see mine if I can see yours.'"

"Yes Jane. I would do that anyway," Jai replied.

Seeing that the children were engrossed in their respective videos, Jane turned to Viv, who was giving Helen her evening feed. "How was Helen this afternoon? She seems to have spent most of the evening so far sleeping." In passing Jane noticed that Viv had changed again, she was now in a blue skirt.

"Yes, she has," Viv replied, looking down at Helen as she fed. "She didn't settle at all well after lunch. Her last nappy-full smelled a bit strange, so I think she may have had a slight upset stomach. Hopefully it has cleared now. She's been catching up on her missed sleep."

Leaving Viv to look after Helen, Jane asked the Indian concubine, "Do you have your Cultural Association meeting tomorrow night Anjali, or is it next week?" Many of the different groups on Waller had their own organisations to try to retain some of their traditions from Earth. It made for a very entertaining display in the Landing Day parade. The Indians were usually the most colourful, copying the costumes and a dance routine from some Bollywood movie. The Chinese were almost as colourful though always the noisiest with their firecrackers, percussion, Lion Dancers and Dragon Dancers.

"Not this week Jane," Anjali replied, "Purneema hasn't finished making the template for our costumes yet. We're going to wait until she's finished. It's much more fun practising in the real things."

Most families got involved in the parade somehow; as well as Anjali, Sam would be marching with the Pathfinders and Julie was in the Sutlers' Majorettes. If Keith was home then he would likely be marching with his unit as well. The three of them thought that secretly Keith liked parading round in his full dress uniform. On such occasions he allowed a bit of the little boy inside him to show. The Marines normally managed to find some tanks for the parade and there would be a flypast, with Navy fighters and Marine landers. Jane thought the flypast was always unsatisfyingly brief, they had to do more than one town's parade so it was just one quick low-level pass and then on to the next town.

A big sigh of disappointment from the young ones alerted them to the ending of Teletubbies. "I'll go and do puja with Gireesh now," Anjali said.

Each of the concubines had her own small room on the pod's lower level. It gave them a place of their own where they could get away from things. The children knew that mummy wasn't to be disturbed if she was in her room with the door closed. Anjali had set up a corner of hers as a small shrine with a lot of colourful pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses and a small statue of Durga slaying Mahishasura. She had chosen Durga because she was good at fighting demons so Anjali thought she would be helpful against the Sa'arm. She had even included a picture of an Indian looking Jesus as well, "No harm in having him there as well," she'd said. Once a day she would take Gireesh there to pray for a few minutes. The AI wouldn't let her burn incense indoors so she contented herself with small offerings as well as her prayer. She disappeared into the kitchen to get a little food for her offering and emerged ready to pick up Gireesh. She said something to him in Telugu, Jane was able to pick up a "puja" in the middle of it so she had a pretty good idea of what Anjali had said.

"Do you want to keep an eye on them Viv?" Jane asked once Anjali and Gireesh had disappeared. "I need to get the little ones started on their baths."

"Sure Jane," Viv replied.

Jane clapped her hands briskly, "Eve, Eddie, come on. It's time for your baths." She shepherded the two of them to the gravlift and on to the upper level. Jai had followed standing orders so the bath was already filling itself when the three of them got to the bathroom. Jane stripped the twins, and herself. Anything she wore would be soaked by the time all the kids were finished so it was easier to work naked. She told the AI to alert Julie that she was needed to help with the children's baths.

By the time she had popped the twins into the water along with the bath toys Julie had arrived, also naked. "You take Eddie and I'll do Eve," Jane told her.

"Yes mummy," she replied and the two of them got down to work cleaning the twins. As they were getting started Julie asked, "Mummy, what are we going to do about Fran's bath?"

"Good question Julie," Jane replied as she rubbed shampoo into Eve's hair. "We shouldn't bathe her with Gireesh because she's in isolation. She can either have one on her own or we can give her a bed-bath. Have you done a bed-bath before?"

Julie looked up from washing Eddie's back, "We've practised on each other at Sutlers, but I've never done it for real."

"Well you can do it for real with Fran, if she doesn't want a full bath."

Once the twins were cleaned, dried and hugged, especially hugged –- they liked that a lot –- Jane and Julie took them to their bedroom and got them into their nappies and pyjamas. "Into bed now both of you, and Jai will play you a bedtime story," Jane told them.

Once the twins were both in bed with their soft toys, currently pandas, Jane and Julie gave them their goodnight kisses and left Jai to supervise. He dimmed the lights and they could hear a voice begin, "Once upon a time ..."

Out in the corridor they could hear Jai refilling the bath with fresh water. Jane connected through to her sister concubine, "Viv we're ready for Gireesh and Dawn now."

"Anjali's already bathing Gireesh," Viv replied via the AI. "She decided that since he's sleeping in the main bedroom down here tonight she'd bathe him in the master bathroom. The cartoon has finished so I'll send up Dawn and Alice next."

"Good thinking by Anjali," Jane replied. That reminded her of the changed arrangements for tonight. She told her daughter, "Julie, because Fran has a cold, Viv, Helen and Gireesh will all be sleeping downstairs. I'll be up here to help you for the next couple of days if there are any problems you can't handle."

"Yes mummy," Julie replied.

"I'll have Jai call me first if Fran has any problems, just in case. You can deal with the others."

"OK, I'll leave Fran to you mummy."

"Did you get that Jai?" Jane confirmed.

"Yes Jane. I will call you first if Fran has any problems overnight."

Once Dawn and Alice had been bathed and dried, hugged and kissed to bed Jane left Julie to read them their bedtime story. Each night one pair of children got a real person, rather than a recording, telling them their story and tonight was the girls' turn. On her way to meet Bob and Charlie by the gravlift Jane knocked on Sam's door. "Bathroom duty Sam," she called to him. Even though he was going to be a sponsor Sam still had to help with the young ones. In a few years time the pod was going to be knee deep in children with three concubines having babies regularly. Getting the older ones to help with their younger siblings was essential.

Charlie insisted on undressing himself so by the time he was ready to get into the bath Sam had arrived to help. Bob had let Jane undress him so he was already in the water playing with the bath toys.

The boys' room was a bit of a mess, so Jane had to clear the floor. She didn't want either of them tripping over a discarded toy if they had to go to the bathroom in the night. Jai would bring up the lighting a little, but there was no point in being careless. Charlie was a bit young to be out of night-time nappies, but he insisted he was grown up enough not to wet his bed, "I'm a big boy. I can go bathroom myself."

Julie was waiting by Fran's door with a rubber sheet, towel, bowl and wash-cloths. "Are we going to give Fran her bed-bath now mummy Jane?" she asked.

"Yes we are, if she wants one." Remembering what Jai had said earlier about Fran, Jane asked her son, "Sam, can you go down to the kitchen and get a bowl of stewed apple for Fran. She'll probably be hungry as she hasn't eaten much today."

"Yes mum. I'll bring her up some water as well."

"Thanks Sam, that's a good idea," Jane acknowledged.

Jane felt it was worth waking Fran now, otherwise hunger could wake her during the night. Fran didn't want a full bath, so the two of them gave her a bed-bath and changed her into a new yellow nightie. Jane also took the opportunity to get Julie to help remake Fran's bed with fresh sheets. She was glad of the opportunity to get more practice for her next childcare badge.

Once Sam had arrived with her snack, they managed to get a bit of food into Fran as well. She was still dozy and soon got back to sleep, hugging Boris the giraffe. Jane told Jai not to play her a bedtime story tonight as it would be more likely to keep her awake than to help her sleep. Instead she asked him to play her the sound of Gireesh asleep so her room would sound familiar, even though Gireesh wasn't actually there.