Chapter Two: Leave-taking

Ahmad al-Haytham tried to relax in the crowded pod. The Confederacy was treating them like cattle! They had locked four families into this pod and there were too many children running around making too much noise. Things would be better on the Salah al-Din, the crew there would recognize his importance and give him the necessary respect. These ignorant infidels had no proper idea how to treat someone as important as himself.

His uncle Tareq had helped get him a place on the Salah al-Din, but now he was having to suffer through the indignities the Confederacy was heaping upon him while getting there. He was glad to leave Earth and get away from the Sa'arm, but leaving Noor behind was a disappointment; a disappointment he could feel in his groin. She was his uncle's youngest wife and, with his uncle's health deteriorating, he'd had hopes of marrying her himself after she became a widow. It was not to be. Instead, as a favor, he'd taken on Reema, the fourteen-year-old granddaughter of his uncle's Chief Secretary, together with her young school friend Yamina. He already had two older wives, Hamida and Adala, who could teach the two younger ones what they needed to know. If they didn't learn quickly enough then he would take a hand himself.

This pod the infidels had locked them in didn't even have enough beds for everyone! There were only six beds allocated to each of the four families. His family needed seven beds for himself, his four wives and two children: Omar and Bahiya. Two-year-old Bahiya had to share with her mother Adala. There wasn't any real privacy either. The beds were on the upper level in four bays, each holding six bunk beds, with only a curtain for a door. He expected far better facilities for his family. The Confederacy was treating him with gross disrespect.

As soon as he'd arrived on this ship they'd started ordering him around: "Go to your pod and stay there. You will not be allowed out except in an emergency." It was almost as bad as a prison, except that he had his wives with him. That was another thing; they'd told him he couldn't have sex with Yamina because she was too young. How dare they! She was thirteen and of legal age. He wasn't going to let some infidel computer tell him what he could or couldn't do with his own wives.

Hamida could sense her husband's mood and made sure that she and his other three wives stayed quiet and out of his way. When he was in a mood like this he could lash out and it was better not to be nearby when he did. Adala was playing quietly with Bahiya, making sure that the little girl didn't annoy her father. Omar was playing with two other eight-year-old boys nearby. Having finished his game, Omar returned to his family. Unfortunately, one of the boys had left a toy car on the floor, which caused Omar to trip and bump into his father.

Exploding with anger, Ahmad leapt out of his chair, grabbed Omar by a convenient wrist and slapped him hard in the face. "Behave yourself boy!" he told his son. Since he was already standing, he turned to his youngest wife and ordered her, "Come with me, Yamina." He led her towards the grav-lift to the upper level and the family's bunks.

Behind Ahmad, unnoticed by him, Omar was lying on the floor holding his wrist. "It hurts, mama," he told Hamida when she rushed over to him.

Private Philipson was monitoring the Red ring that shift. The AI highlighted the feed from Ahmad's pod, «There has been an incident in pod Red Twelve. A medical team has been alerted and is on its way.» He could see a boy lying on the floor with a woman, presumably his mother, kneeling by him. Two other women and a young girl were looking on. He switched to the corridor view in time to see the two-man Fleet Auxiliary medical team approaching.

For Ahmad anger and sex were almost the same thing. His rage at the Confederacy and at his clumsy son had focused on his cock, which was now stiff under his robes. He pulled Yamina after him into the family's bay and closed the curtain behind them. "Strip!" he told his young wife.

"I'm only thirteen. That voice said..." she started to say.

He slapped her angrily; "I am not some slave to follow orders from a computer. I will do what I want with my wives. Now strip."

Yamina saw that he would not be dissuaded. Two weeks ago she had been abruptly taken out of school and handed to this man as his wife. He was perpetually angry and had never been gentle with her. The only good things she could see about her situation were escaping the aliens and the company of her fellow wives. She had been friends with Reema at school, so she had a familiar face to talk to. Adala was nice and Hamida, while too old to be a friend, was a lot more reasonable than Ahmad. The four of them tried to work together to divert his rages as much as possible. Here and now though, none of the others could help her, so she complied and started to undress.

Private Phillipson was keeping a general eye on all the pods in his monitoring group, while occasionally checking the two medics in Red Twelve tending to the fallen boy. From the look of things his injury wasn't too serious. He couldn't let the one incident distract him from his other work. Instead it was the AI that distracted him, «Rape imminent! Prepare to stun perpetrator. Marine team dispatched.»

The red stinger button lit on his console as the display showed a naked man climbing onto a bunk with a young-looking woman. The cross-hairs centered on the man's head. "She isn't struggling," he told the AI.

«She is thirteen.»

He hit the button immediately and saw the man fall, stunned, over the young woman.

Yamina screamed as Ahmad collapsed onto her. What had happened to him? She was still trying to shift his unresponsive body off her when two huge soldiers burst through the curtain.

Lena took in the situation at a glance. She turned to her fellow Marine, "Ben, get out and keep anyone else out until she's dressed. I'll bring her down when she's ready. You can drag out lover-boy once she's clear. Better call in the Sub-Decurion as well if he's not already on his way."

As soon as Nick arrived, responding to the Marine's call, he did a swift triage. Ahmad would be held pending review and execution, the injured eight-year-old boy and the attacked wife would go to medical for checks while the others would have to wait until he'd sorted something out for them.

He ordered one of the Marines to remove the unconscious Ahmad. Not wanting to alarm the other families in the pod, he used his AI link to pass detailed instructions, «Don't recycle him yet, Private. We need to review things first. Leave him in the ship's brig for the moment.»

«Yes, sir.»

Nick was glad that Mohammed was with him to help translate. He hardly spoke any Arabic, and he wasn't sure that the AI could convey all the precise nuances. Mohammed's explanation seemed to calm things down enough that they could remove the two casualties. Hamida, Omar's mother, insisted on staying with her injured son, so she followed the female Marine carrying Omar to medical, along with Nick, Mohammed and Yamina. Before he left, Nick told the other husbands in the pod to carry on as normal. Not wanting any more problems, he emphasized that they were to leave Ahmad's other two wives and young daughter alone. He warned them, "We are watching you, just as we were watching Ahmad." They seemed to get the message.

Nick called ahead to tell medical that there were now two patients and an anxious mother on their way. When they arrived, the two Arab women were obviously shocked at the nurse's uniform: a very short white concubine smock with a gold-colored Rod of Asclepius and her name, Ivy, on her right breast. Even Mohammed was a little shaken, though he'd seen more of the West. That was pre-Swarm, and Ivy was very definitely dressed in a post-Swarm style. Arab women in public would never show so much of their arms or legs. He barely noticed her long blonde hair since his eyes went straight to her barely covered crotch. There weren't any concubines in the pod he shared with Nick, so Ivy was the first Confederacy concubine he'd set eyes on. Naturally she'd been enhanced and, judging by the way she filled the upper part of her shift, her owner was a breast man.

Whatever her appearance, Ivy knew her job and quickly had the Marine lay Omar in the tube she'd prepared for him. Her calm, professional manner, together with the AI's translation, reassured Hamida that her son would soon be well. Both the men turned their backs as the blonde nurse helped Yamina undress; the young wife was still in shock after what had happened and neither of them wanted to add to her distress.

Hamida had turned away as well, though that was more to show her disapproval of the way the concubine was dressed, or scandalously undressed. She sat by Omar's pod with her back very definitely turned to the Confederacy nurse, radiating disapproval.

Ivy checked the readouts on Yamina's med-tube. She advised Nick, "Sir, we don't have a CAP estimate for Yamina. She's thirteen, so she should have one. Shall I run one while she's in the tube?"

"How much time will it add?"

"About five minutes extra, sir. We can run it along with her general checkup. Even with that, she'll be out before the boy. She isn't really injured, just shock. He's got a broken radius."

"Do that, Ivy," Nick told the blonde nurse.

"If his father was hitting the boy, sir, then he was probably hitting his other children as well. We should check them to make sure."

"Good idea, Ivy. He has a two-year-old girl as well as Omar. I'll bring her along once things have settled down a bit." The efficient way Ivy handled things impressed Nick. «AI, pass a message to Ivy's sponsor commending her for her work.»

«Yes, sir.»

Leaving Ivy to her work, Nick took Mohammed to meet the Captain. They would need to decide what to do with Ahmad, and Nick expected that Mohammed would want to play his part.

Mohammed felt some relief as they left medical. He'd known that female concubines didn't wear many clothes, but seeing it in the flesh, literally, for the first time was disturbing. He was glad that his wives didn't dress like that. Showing that much bare leg in public would cause a riot back home on Escardis.

The Captain and Sergeant Cole were both waiting in the Captain's office when Nick and Mohammed arrived. Once they were all seated, the Captain explained, "Lieutenant al-Umawi, the three of us are here as ship's Captain, senior Marine and senior Civil Service Officer to review Ahmad's actions and to decide what we do with him. We've invited you as an observer, since you have an interest in this case. You may speak but you will not have any input into the final decision."

"Thank you, Captain." Mohammed had anticipated a trial, but not this quickly. Confederacy justice was obviously faster than on either Earth or Escardis. He settled in his seat and watched proceedings. The evidence was the video footage provided by the AI monitoring Ahmad's pod. The first clip showed his pod getting the general warning about under age wives. The AI had trimmed the other announcements, just leaving the relevant part. The second clip was of Ahmad negligently waving a hand to acknowledge that he had heard the AI give him his own individual orders, specifically naming Yamina. The final, and longest, clip was of Ahmad taking Yamina to the upper level, slapping her in response to her complaint, making her undress and removing his own clothes. It ended as he collapsed after being stung.

"Any comments, Lieutenant?" the Captain asked Mohammed.

"Under your law the man is obviously guilty of attempted child-rape. I cannot see any extenuating circumstances. He was clearly warned, he acknowledged the warning and he had three other wives to choose from. Yamina even reminded him again at the end and he deliberately ignored her. This is your ship, so your law applies."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," the Captain replied. "As you say, he is obviously guilty. I say we execute him." Nick and the Sergeant both agreed.

"AI, please record that as the result of this review."

"Yes, Captain. So recorded."

"One point, Mohammed," Nick asked, "I assume that human flesh is haraam, forbidden."

"Absolutely, yes. Very definitely haraam."

Nick turned to the Captain, "Perhaps we should delay recycling Ahmad's body until after Mohammed and the other passengers have disembarked, sir. It's less than two hours now so we won't have to keep it for long."

"Very well," the Captain agreed. "Sergeant, order whoever you send to execute him not to recycle the body until after we've disembarked our passengers."

"Yes, sir."

Mohammed was silent as he and Nick left the captain's office. He realized that most things on a spaceship would eventually be recycled -- the Salah al-Din certainly did so. He had not realized that the Confederacy recycled things so directly, with a turnaround time of less than two hours. It was as well that Nick had foreseen the potential problem and avoided it.

While Mohammed was thinking, Nick asked the AI, «Where are Hamida, Yamina and Omar now?»

«They are back in pod Red Twelve, sir, having completed treatment in medical. For your further information, sir, Ahmad al-Haytham has now been executed and his body is being held pending the offloading of the passengers before being recycled.»

«Thank you, AI. Notify Lieutenant al-Umawi if you haven't already done so.» The AI obviously hadn't since Nick noticed Mohammed pause slightly in his step.

For Mohammed the surprise was not so much at the execution, but that it had happened so quickly. Confederacy justice moved very fast indeed. Ahmad probably hadn't even recovered consciousness after being stunned. Now he never would.

Nick stopped outside Red Twelve, "Mohammed," he explained, "I don't want to give them the news in public. I'd rather do it in my pod away from everyone else. This place is too crowded."

"Yes, that would be far better. I suppose you'll need me there as well?"

"I'm afraid so. I think I'll need you to help with translation and so on."

The four women were still a little shaken by events, but they followed the two men quietly enough. They were nervous; they knew that things were going on around them, but there was little else they could do besides follow.

Nick had arranged for one of the crew's concubines to babysit the two children. As instructed, Fleur wasn't wearing a smock, but had on a grey overall covering everything from her neck to her wrists and ankles, with a headscarf concealing her hair. He was going to shock these women enough without adding more on top -- the reaction to Ivy in medical had been enough. The four women sat down while Fleur organized coffee. Once they were all served, she took the two children off to another room so the adults could talk. The pause gave Nick time to organise his thoughts.

"Did you all hear the talk we gave you at the start, when you arrived in your pod?" he asked. The four of them nodded. "Did you hear the part about under age wives?" Again they acknowledged. "Was Ahmad specifically told about Yamina?" Four more nods. "Yamina, what do you think has happened to Ahmad?"

She started at his question being directed to her. "Erm... The computer voice said you would execute anyone who tried to do that."

"So what has happened to Ahmad?"

"Oh...." She paused as the implication struck her. "You mean you've executed him?"

Nick could see Yamina's eyes go wide as she realized. "Yes. We executed him a few minutes ago, after we'd reviewed his case."

Nick thought their reaction was completely over the top: loud wailing and moaning. Mohammed didn't seem surprised, so it was obviously expected in Arab culture. Once he got used to the sight, Nick found their different reactions interesting. The two youngest wives, widows now, were doing the correct thing for appearances' sake, but were probably glad at Ahmad's death. Hamida's grief was genuine. She wasn't completely distraught, but was obviously very unhappy about the death of her husband and the father of her child. Adala was much harder to read. Possibly she didn't know herself what to think about the news, or else she was a better actress than the two younger widows. Nick left it to Mohammed when to step in and quieten the women down; he was far better able to judge the cultural nuances of how long to let them continue.

Once they'd settled down, it was Adala who spoke first, "What happens to us now?"

This was an unforeseen situation, so Nick was going to have to play it mostly by ear. It was lucky that between them, Mohammed and the AI could handle any translation problems. This would be more complex than simply, 'Go to your pod and stay there.'

"We have an unusual situation here," Nick started, stating the obvious. "I don't have any precedents to work on, but I do want to get the best outcome for everyone involved: you four women, your two children, Escardis and the Confederacy." He was glad to see Mohammed nodding as well as the four widows. He had deliberately included Escardis in his list of players so Mohammed did not feel that he was ignoring the Arabs' interests.

"So where are we now? When the four of you came on board the AI treated you as concubines, sponsored by your husband. He is dead, so he can no longer sponsor you. Under Confederacy law you are now unattached concubines, owned by the ship's senior Civil Service Officer, myself."

The four women looked worried at that, "Will we have to dress like that harlot in the infirmary?" Hamida asked.

"No, you won't. You will stay dressed as you are now until we have unloaded our passengers onto the Salah al-Din. What happens then is up to you."

Nick's attention was on the women, who were listening attentively. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Mohammed sit up as well.

"As I see it, you have three options. Your first option is to board the Salah al-Din, as you had intended, and travel to Escardis. Obviously you won't have your husband with you, but I'm sure Captain al-Basri can find new husbands for you, or set up some sort of guardianship."

Nick turned to Mohammed for confirmation, but Hamida broke in first. "I'm not an unmarried girl to need a guardian! I'm a widow and I can look after myself."

Nick raised an eyebrow at Mohammed, who shrugged, "Well, there are precedents both ways for widows. I don't see it as an insoluble problem. If they join us on the Salah al-Din, I'm sure we can make the necessary arrangements."

Nick decided to leave that problem for Mohammed and his Captain to resolve. Turning back to the women, he continued. "Your second option is to join the Confederacy. We'll test you for Capacity, Aptitude and Potential, what we call a CAP test, and depending on your score you will become either a concubine or a sponsor."

"Will we have to dress like ... ?" Hamida waved her hand to indicate Ivy, the concubine in medical. The prospect was obviously worrying her.

"If you're a concubine, then you have to dress the way your sponsor tells you," Nick told her, honestly. He didn't want to misrepresent what she might be letting herself in for, and besides, Mohammed was listening. "It could be something like what Fleur is wearing. It could be something like what the nurse in medical is wearing. It could be even less. It is entirely up to your sponsor. Concubines don't get a choice."

That obviously shocked the four of them.

"And if we're not a concubine?" Adala asked.

"If you're a sponsor then you'll wear military uniform when on duty, like myself." Nick indicated his Civil Service grays. "Off duty, sponsors can wear what they want. As an off duty sponsor you could continue to dress in an abaya and headscarf, as you are now."

"How do we know if we would be a concubine or a sponsor?"

"That depends on the result of your CAP test. A score of 6.5 or better makes you a sponsor; less than that and you are a concubine."

Reema spoke up for the first time, "You said three options."

"Your third option is for us to return you to Earth, though I don't recommend that one.

"That makes it two options really, doesn't it?"

"Yes, but we can return you if you really insist." Reema and the other three shook their heads at that.

"What about our children?" Adala enquired.

"The children will go with their mothers, so Omar will stay with Hamida and Bahiya will stay with you, Adala. Yamina, if you join the Confederacy you will be a dependent for a short time, until you turn fourteen. We'll find you a sponsor to act as temporary guardian if you join us. We did a quick CAP estimate for you while you were in medical, so you're expected to score between 6.0 and 6.3."

Nick explained to her that it was a very difficult score. She would almost certainly be a concubine at fourteen and, though she could retest every year, there was no guarantee that she would ever improve enough to make it to 6.5 and become a sponsor.

"Can I get CAP tested?" Adala asked, abruptly.

Hamida erupted at Adala, "You're not thinking of going with these non-Muslims!"

Nick was pretty sure that the word the AI had translated as 'non-Muslims' was a lot stronger than that. It certainly sounded like it from the way the oldest widow had spat out the Arabic.

Mohammed stepped in to calm them down. "Thank you, Mohammed," Nick acknowledged. He rebuked the women, "You can discuss things between yourselves, but you will please do it quietly and politely." Hamida and Adala continued their discussion a lot less vigorously. As far as Nick could tell, Reema and Yamina had already made up their minds; they had whispered briefly to each other and were now waiting quietly. Looking at the two young women, Nick thought that Yamina was the more attractive; Reema's nose was rather too large to suit the rest of her features.

Remembering Adala's question, he silently contacted the AI, «Can the three women be CAP tested in the time available before we reach the Salah al-Din?»

«No sir. A full CAP test takes two hours or more. At most we could do preliminary CAP estimates as was done for Yamina.»

"Adala," Nick interrupted the discussion. "We don't have time to give any of you a full CAP test, but we can do a quick estimate, like Yamina's, which will give you a very good guide to what you can expect to score on the full test."

"Thank you, sir."

Hamida glared at her, but remained silent. Adala ignored the older woman and sat waiting. Seeing that their discussion had come to an end, Nick asked, "Are you all ready to decide?"

Having got four nods he started, "Yamina?" Hamida seemed to want to speak up, but stayed quiet. He had deliberately started with the youngest widow so she wouldn't be influenced by her elders. Mohammed was smiling to himself; he recognized the tactic. In Staff discussions the junior officer present often had to give his ideas first.

Yamina looked at Reema, who nodded slightly. "I'll join the Confed..."

Nick didn't have to quieten Hamida, Mohammed was already doing it for him.

"Thank you, Yamina. Reema?"

"The Confederacy, please. Yamina and I want to stay together."

"Thank you, Reema. Adala?"

"I really want to see my CAP score first, before I decide. Can I do that?"

"Yes," Nick confirmed, "we can do an estimate in medical. Hamida?"

Not unexpectedly she chose to board the Salah al-Din and travel to Escardis with Omar.

Nick hadn't been sure which way the two youngest women would go, but Hamida and Adala had chosen as he'd anticipated. He was ready to deal with the oldest widow immediately, "Hamida, I'm transferring you to Lieutenant al-Umawi here until we can get you both onto the Salah al-Din. For the moment he is your sponsor. You can negotiate your own arrangements after that." Mohammed nodded in acknowledgement.

Adala picked up on the implications of what Nick had said earlier, "Since we all belong to you, you could have made us... do things?"

"I could have, but I didn't," Nick told her. "I didn't think any of you would have wanted that and I also didn't want to put you off choosing the Confederacy. Yes, there are some bad sponsors in the Confederacy, but there are also husbands like Ahmad outside it. I'm afraid there are no guarantees wherever you choose to go." He paused momentarily. "Now we need to get your CAP estimate done, and I want Bahiya checked as well. After what happened to Omar...."

In medical, Adala appeared slightly less shocked that Hamida had been. Presumably the older woman had already given her a graphic description of how little Ivy was wearing, so she'd been forewarned. Bahiya went in first and Ivy assured her mother that she'd keep the little girl asleep in her tube until Adala had completed her CAP estimate. Adala went into a second tube. She didn't have to undress completely for a CAP estimate, just remove her headscarf. Nick was careful to turn away so as not to embarrass her.

Mohammed took Hamida and Omar back to Red Twelve, leaving Yamina and Reema talking to Fleur, the crew concubine. He wasn't Hamida's husband and his tiny rooms were far too small for three people, so it was better for everyone if he didn't keep her with him in Nick's pod. Proper arrangements could be made to accommodate both her and her son on the Salah al-Din until she could be found a new husband.

In pod Blue One, the two young widows were talking to Fleur about life as a concubine in the Confederacy.

"Will we be forced to eat pork?" Yamina asked worriedly.

As she explained about life as a concubine, it struck Fleur how little the two Arab teenagers really knew about the Confederacy. They'd heard a lot of horror stories about what might happen, such as Yamina's fear of being made to eat pork. The two of them were intelligent enough to realise that much of what they'd been told in school was propaganda, but they were very short of correct information. It had been difficult for them to separate the reality from the propaganda.

Some of the horror stories were true. Sponsors could kill concubines, but it was very rare. Having seen what had happened to their husband, they could easily understand that justice in the Confederacy was sometimes harsh. It helped that Ahmad had committed an obvious crime, after being specifically warned. His death was not arbitrary.

Even with the stories they'd been fed, these two had chosen to become concubines. That must have taken a lot of courage Fleur thought. From their description of him, their former husband had been a lot worse than most sponsors. These two young women had been abruptly pulled out of school, given to an angry and violent husband and were now taking a further leap into the unknown. Maybe it was his behavior that gave them the incentive to risk the Confederacy? At least Fleur was able to put many of their fears to rest. There were some good things about the Confederacy to show them as well. The two schoolgirls loved the replicator in Nick's pod, which had a far larger menu than the ones in the passenger pods. Those only allowed a limited range of food and essentials. That showed them just how much would be provided for them by the Confederacy. All they had to do to earn it was to have babies.

Having returned Hamida to her pod, Mohammed joined Nick in medical, waiting for Adala to emerge.

"Any comments, Mohammed?" Nick asked.

"You could have ordered them to join the Confederacy, couldn't you? After Ahmad's execution, all of them belonged to you, either as your dependant or your concubine."

"Yes, I could, but it made sense to ask them. We've already asked our other unattached Moslem concubines if they wanted to volunteer for Escardis -- they were on the first shipload of passengers we sent you. I would have offered three of them that choice anyway. Yamina is technically a dependant, but it made sense to offer her the same choices as the others. I didn't expect them to pick a return to Earth, none of them struck me as stupid. A fertile woman can always find a place in the Confederacy. The Earth option is mostly for men like Ahmad who wouldn't survive in the Confederacy. He would have been better off staying behind and fighting. He'd have had more of a chance against the Swarm than with us. He didn't even last this short trip under our rules."

Mohammed nodded his agreement. He was secretly glad that Ahmad had not reached Escardis; the man would not have been a good neighbour there.

The lid of Adala's tube opened and Ivy started helping her out. Nick looked away and pretended interest in something on the nurse's workstation. «How did she do?» he silently asked the AI.

«Concubine Adala al-Haytham has a CAP estimate of 6.7 to 7.0. It is strongly recommended that you try to persuade her to join the Confederacy, sir.»

«With that score, I don't think she'll need much persuading.»

That proved to be the case. Being effectively guaranteed a role as sponsor made her decision a lot easier. Mohammed was disappointed, but not surprised. As soon as she'd asked for her CAP estimate it had been obvious that, if her score was any good, she would choose the Confederacy over Escardis. Ahmad and his stupidity had a lot to answer for, depriving Escardis of three women and a child as well as himself.

Back in Blue One, Nick thanked Fleur and sent her back to her sponsor. Rather than return them to their old pod he kept the three widows and Bahiya with him for the moment. After unloading the ship there would be plenty of space for Adala to have her own pod. He gave them standard concubine privileges inside his pod, but didn't allow them to go out. Technically Adala was still a concubine since she hadn't yet been CAP tested. That was one of the first things he would deal with after unloading.

The heavy steel doors were slowly closing as the shuttle from the Sadi Carnot settled gently onto the deck of the Salah al-Din's boat bay. Once the air pressure indicators were green, two Confederacy Marines got off to place their transporters while the ship's crew began work setting up a temporary partition. The shuttle pilot just relaxed and waited for the passenger transfer to complete. He planned on getting a good rest.

One transporter, together with its guardian Marine, went on each side of the partition. One for the single women from the aft section of the Confederacy vessel and one for the bow section carrying families and the last few single men. The partition was to maintain the separation between the two groups, at least for the moment. Inspecting the work, Rayyan was aware that he was going to have to organize chaperoned social meetings sometime soon so that husbands could select wives. For the moment it was easier to get everyone on board and into their separate quarters. They had a year to get everything else sorted out before arriving back at Escardis.

At first the two streams came through smoothly, with short gaps between groups. Unfortunately that didn't last. There were problems further into the Salah al-Din and the backlog began to clog up the boat bay. Rayyan had to stop the transfer temporarily while he sorted things out deeper in the ship. On previous visits to Earth the passengers had arrived on shuttles, a few at a time, so each group was clear before the next arrived. With Confederacy transporters, the passengers arrived in two continuous streams, so they needed different handling. This was the third shipment and, though things were better than they'd been with the first shipment -- not something Rayyan wished to remember -- they still weren't perfect. The fundamental problem was that his ship was designed to handle small groups of passengers in batches, not large numbers arriving continuously. Since a major refit was out of the question, everyone would have to put up with the resulting problems.

Mohammed was slightly bored, watching the stream of families enter the forward transporter. After the initial difficulties, things had settled down and people were moving through steadily. Watching a queue of people walk forward was not his idea of excitement.

Suddenly things started happening. The crew stopped the flow of passengers and moved them to one side while two big Marines, in full armour and carrying large rifles, ran onto the transporter and disappeared. Mohammed knew that the Confederacy enhanced its Marines, their size made that obvious. What he hadn't fully grasped was the degree to which their reactions were also enhanced. Running at full speed, as those two men were, they had looked almost inhuman.

He looked at one of the crewmen for enlightenment, but the AI anticipated his question, "Lieutenant al-Umawi. There has been an incident on the women's side of the Salah al-Din. Please prepare to transport across immediately."

He could see one of the crew approach him while another held back the queue of passengers. The crewman saluted, "The pad is ready, sir. It will take you to the women's side of the Salah al-Din where the incident happened."

Mohammed returned the salute and stepped quickly through the transporter. On arrival he did a quick scan of the area. Three marines in body armour were by the pad, two carrying those large rifles with bayonets fixed. Obviously the equivalents of the pair he had seen running through the bow transporter room. A lot of women were milling about, trying to get as far away from the Marines as possible. Someone in an Arab uniform lay on the ground with a group of the Salah al-Din's crewmen clustered round him. A medical team was trying to make its way through the women towards the fallen man.

He turned to the Marine without a rifle, "What happened, Private?"

PFC Alwen Thomas was slightly bored, watching the stream of women emerge from the transporter in the Salah al-Din's boat bay. After the initial problems things had settled down and people were moving through steadily. Guarding a transporter terminus was not her idea of excitement.

She saw some movement among the Salah al-Din's crew. It looked as if they were changing watch, a new watch was arriving as the old one gathered ready to leave. Suddenly she wasn't bored any more. The officer in charge of the new watch looked, or rather, glared at her. If she'd been on Earth doing a pickup she'd immediately have tagged him as an Earthie terrorist; she recognized what that look implied. Up here? Maybe, maybe not, but she wasn't going to take any chances. She silently told the shuttle's AI to watch the officer and warn her if he looked like he was going to try anything. Surreptitiously she readied her small stinger. There were too many women around for her to use the lethal setting, so she set it on stun. If he wanted to start something then she was ready.

He did, the stupid idiot. «Down! Down!» the AI warned her. As she dived quickly to her left she got off a shot with her stinger. The officer crumpled, but not before he'd fired his pistol. He missed of course, her enhanced reflexes were far faster than he'd expected. She kept down; no point in making herself a bigger target than she had to if someone else felt the same way. She stayed down until support arrived; Melinda and Pearl, both in full armor with stun rifles and bayonets fixed, came running through the transporter.

One of the watch crew, probably an NCO, had organised them after losing their officer and was making peaceful signals, holding his hands open. She had just stood back up when that Arab liaison officer came through from the Sadi Carnot.

"What happened, Private?" he asked.

Having heard Alwen's explanation, Mohammed walked towards the prone officer. He wasn't at all surprised to see it was Harun. He was the most boring conversationalist in the Officers Mess; most of the time he talked about killing the Crusaders. Back on Escardis he was merely tedious, here he was a liability. His father had enough influence to get him a place on the Salah al-Din, and somebody had slipped up badly by letting him anywhere near the boat bay while the Confederacy Marines were still on board. He reassured the medics that their patient was just unconscious and would wake up in an hour or two.

The raqib left as senior NCO of the watch had already sent a runner to get a replacement officer and to tell everyone that the incident was over. The last thing anyone needed was a fire-fight in the boat bay.

Sitting reading in the cabin he shared with four other men, Walid heard the noise of some people running in the corridor. Looking out of the half-open door, he was just in time to see the ship's Captain and another officer hurrying past. Something must have happened for them to be in such a rush. He shrugged and returned to his book. If it was important then someone would let him know.

Musa, the replacement officer of the watch, arrived with Rayyan. Mohammed could see that the ship's Captain was fuming. Harun wasn't going to have a very pleasant return voyage, if indeed he survived beyond the inevitable court-martial.

Rayyan confirmed the details of the story and then took Mohammed to translate for him as he apologized to the Marine. Luckily she was uninjured, and accepted that Harun's action had been against orders. Her two comrades just stood silently, keeping an eye on the rest of the crew.

Rayyan left in a cold fury, while Mohammed stayed behind to help restart the passenger transfer. His Bluetooth set still worked, so he could talk to the Sadi Carnot via the shuttle. He was thankful that he wouldn't have to suffer Rayyan's inevitable explosion when he got back to the bridge. This had been a gross abuse of a guest and there was no excuse for it. Harun's actions had shamed the entire ship and, being the ship's Captain, Rayyan would feel it more than any of them. He held the final responsibility.

Mohammed contacted Nick to make sure that Hamida and Omar would be transported across. There was no point in him interrupting the flow of passengers by going back to the Confederacy ship only to return again shortly afterwards. Nick was happy to arrange for a female Marine to make sure that the widow and her boy transferred with the rest of pod Red Twelve.

When he crossed through the partition to the families' side of the boat bay, Mohammed could see the two extra Marines he'd seen before. Currently they were just standing there doing a good job of looking intimidating. He waited and observed the flow. Everything was settling down again, even a bit boring.

Once the last passengers were through, Mohammed thanked Nick and handed his Bluetooth set to a Marine for return. He set off to check on Hamida and Omar. They were, for the moment, his responsibility. A lot of the men the Confederacy had shipped from the Moon needed wives. Perhaps he could persuade one of them that an experienced twenty-eight-year-old widow would be a better choice than a younger woman.

Adala's CAP test took just over two and a half hours for her to score 6.9. The only spare concubine on board was Reema, who'd scored 5.8 fifteen minutes earlier. She jumped at the chance to have a Moslem woman as her sponsor. That laid to rest many of the worries she still had after her talk with Fleur. Adala was happy to take Yamina as a dependant for the moment. She still had one spare slot since there were no more unattached concubines available on board.

While Adala and Reema were in the tubes, the AI had made minor changes to the pods to get them back into the right configuration for the ship's next job as a Kindertransport. Nick put Adala into Blue Two, the pod next to his. The most noticeable difference was that the door to the sleep-learning pods, previously sealed, was now open.

Adala didn't know anywhere near enough about what to expect, and much of what she had heard on Earth was incorrect or biased. Nick assigned her a course of basic background on the role of a sponsor in the Confederacy.

"You will have to decide on a service: Navy, Marines, Civil Service or Fleet Auxiliary," he told her. "I don't think you know enough to decide now, so I can give you time to think about it and to ask me or the AI questions.

"First we'll rejoin the fleet to drop off the current set of Marines and pick up the ship's usual complement. After that we'll wait for our slot in the Kindertransport schedule and then go to the Moon to pick up the next load of passengers. We'll both be dropped off at the Moon. I'll go back to my job, while you'll be given quarters to await transport to a colony. You need to have decided a service by then, so you can start the right training."

"Will there be training for Reema and Yamina as well?" Adala asked.

"Yes, though things will be easier for them. Concubine training is basically, 'Do whatever you're told'. Both of them are young, so they will have ordinary lessons and childcare classes as well. All three of you will get English lessons, unless you want Spanish or Chinese?"

"English I think. We already know a little."

"There is a lot to fit in," Nick explained, "though the sleep trainers help, and there isn't much else for you to do before we reach the Moon. You will be able to select a second concubine from the pool there."

"Will I have to pick a man as a concubine?" Adala asked. "I don't think any of us want a man around at the moment. Not at first, anyway."

"No, you don't have to take on a male concubine." Nick was certain that she was saving her second slot for when Yamina turned fourteen. "There are a number of women-only households in the Diaspora. When you need a man, you can borrow one for a few days. You can ask another sponsor or a male concubine to help out when one of you needs to get pregnant."

Captain al-Basri stood on the bridge of the Salah al-Din and surveyed the view on the scanners. This was what he had hoped he might see. His ship was accelerating away from the Confederacy fleet towards its planned jump-point. Three Confederacy vessels had stationed themselves between him and the Sa'arm fleet. Even as the Salah al-Din left Earth, the Confederacy were keeping to their agreement to protect the ship, its 500 crew and 4,500 passengers.

If things went according to plan, they would even protect his ship for three months beyond Earth. Not wanting to lead the Swarm directly back to Escardis, he had plotted a zig-zag return course. It would add less than two weeks to his journey, but that was time well spent if it kept the Sa'arm away from Escardis. He had let the Confederacy know where the first three of his monthly stops would be. If the Swarm decided to travel ahead and wait for him, then the Confederacy would be waiting for them.

Captain al-Tarhouni had explained it well, "If they are expecting to attack an unarmed ship they will only send a weak force to do it. That gives us a chance to send a stronger force and ambush them at minimal risk to ourselves. Anything to help wear them down."

He could see Earth in the scanners. This would be the last time he, or any of his crew, would see humanity's home planet. Now that the Swarm were here there was no way that it would be safe for the Salah al-Din to return until the aliens were driven from the system. He would never see Earth again. Thinking about it, he realized that his children would probably never see Earth either. Maybe his grandchildren? Yes, there was hope for that. His grandchildren would see Earth again, insha'Allah.