Chapter Two: Family Reunion

The AI interrupted Hugh again, "You have a communication from Tina. Do you wish to accept it?"

Of course he did! The screen switched away from the porn to show Tina, tall, thin and blonde, standing next to Erica, shorter, darker and with more shape to her. "Hi dad. We're both here, and I beat Erica. The voice says we can both come and stay with you."

"Sure ...."

"Great. See you soon." The two of them rushed off before he could say anything more. The porn channel came back on, but he told the AI to kill it. Not the sort of thing to have on when his daughter and her BFF arrived. He thought about the girls. They had been bright and smiling. Too bright and too smiling, maybe putting on a bit of a show for him. They were probably missing their mothers just as he was missing his wife. Erica might be missing her father as well, though he knew she didn't always get on well with him.

The girls arrived and smothered him in hugs. He embraced them back of course, but he could tell that he'd been right. They weren't as happy as they pretended, they were both putting on a bit of a show. Both for him and for each other he suspected.

Their CAP scores didn't surprise either of them, they'd both worked out long ago that they wouldn't be sponsors. They both carefully avoided any real discussion of who would sponsor them. As soon as Hugh began to approach the subject they immediately diverted into fantasy.

"I want Tom to sponsor me," Erica declared.

"No, silly. Chris would be much better," Tina said vehemently. "Tom! How on earth can you prefer Tom?"

Hugh recognised the two names, "So they extracted the Bread Brothers as well?"

"Yeah. We could see some of those big green Marines setting up one of those transporter thingies on stage for them. I think the whole audience could see."

"Then I suspect that you are both at the end of a long long queue," Hugh observed. "AI, how many requests have there been to be a concubine to any of the band members?"

"Six thousand seven hundred and twenty to date," the AI replied. "Not all requests appear to have been wholly serious. More such requests are anticipated." That settled it, Hugh thought. AIs did have a sense of humour, but probably didn't realise it. They were ideal straight-men.

The girls pulled fake long faces, but soon started giggling. "Oh well, it was a nice fantasy while it lasted," Tina sighed.

"AI, do any of the band members actually have any empty concubine slots?" Hugh asked, playing along with the joke.

The AI's answer to his casual question completely astonished the three of them. "All sponsor level band members' slots are filled and all the concubine level members have already been accepted by a sponsor. The band, together with their backing musicians, families, friends, management and road crew formed a large pre-pack. Currently, two of the road crew and one of the management team have four spare concubine slots between them."

"So we were all basically extras for their pre-pack?" Tina asked.

"Correct. During the early stages of planning, extraction was envisaged from a rehearsal, thus giving a good excuse for all parties to assemble. Later, the plan changed to extraction from a live concert. The average age of Bread Brothers fans is close to sixteen years and eight months, so we anticipated that the bulk of the audience would be suitable for extraction. The intention is to keep the group together as a unit to provide entertainment in the Diaspora."

So the three of them had been very small cogs caught up in a very large machine.

The kitchen replicator produced some good burgers, together with orange juice for the girls and some dreadful beer for Hugh. After one sip, he poured it away and switched to orange juice, copying the girls. Maybe the food would release some of their inhibitions about sad subjects, like those they'd had to leave behind? Hugh started safely with the girls' boyfriends. He knew Tina had broken up with Sean a few weeks ago, so he asked Erica, "Will you miss Justin?"

"Not really. The only things he had going for him were lots of money and a big dick. Apart from that he was a bit of an idiot."

Tina nodded her agreement. "Money doesn't matter here. Nor do big dicks, they can make them as big as you want in the med-tubes."

"But if he's got a big dick, all the other girls will be after him, won't they," Erica complained.

"Nah. We make him bald, overweight and with a big hairy pimple on the end of his nose along with the big dick. That way we'll have him all to ourselves."

"We'd have to do him doggy-style all the time, so we didn't have to look at him."

"A small price to pay," Tina said. "Or perhaps we could make him wear a paper bag?"

"If he's wearing a paper bag, then we don't need the big hairy pimple. We can make him look handsome, like Tom, or Chris if you really insist, and no-one else would know."

OK, Hugh thought, they weren't ready for any serious discussion yet. Better to keep it light for a bit longer. "How are you going to get him to agree to being bald? He's going to be the sponsor."

"Oh, that's easy," Tina answered. "We'll just waggle our sexy teenage titties at him and he'll be putty in our hands."

That raised a question. Tina and Erica were still dressed as they had been for the concert, in jeans and T-shirts. There were no teenage titties on display at all. "Why aren't these two dressed as concubines?" Hugh silently asked the AI.

"It has been observed that enforcing the standard concubine dress code generally increases levels of stress in those affected. Given the relatively late hour of this extraction, and the numbers involved, it was decided to defer the enforcement of the dress codes until tomorrow morning. Stress levels should be reduced after a night's rest. You yourself are still wearing your civilian clothes, not your Naval uniform. That will also be enforced tomorrow morning."

The AI talking about a night's rest reminded him that it was getting late. Once they'd finished their meal and cleared the remains away into the recycler, he suggested that they all go to bed.

The girls agreed and headed off towards the small concubine bedrooms after getting two quick goodnight kisses. He was just about to get into the shower, the huge shower, in his en suite bathroom when the AI notified him that Tina wanted to speak to him. The AI provided a bathrobe from a replicator and he went out to see what the problem was.

"Our beds are too small, dad," his daughter told him. We don't want to be alone tonight, after all the stuff that's happened, and we need a bigger bed."

She was right, the beds in the concubines' rooms were too small for the two of them to share comfortably.

"The AI says it can make the bed bigger," Tina explained, "but it needs your permission because this is your apartment."

"You can do this, AI?"

"Yes. The furniture is adaptive within limits."

"Make the bed in this room big enough for the two girls to sleep together."

As if by magic the bed slowly grew until it was about forty centimetres wider. That didn't leave a lot of space round the side, and the duvet was now a bit too small, but there was enough room for the two girls to sleep comfortably. He well understood their need for each other. On their sleepovers, they would often share a bed if one or other of them was feeling down. Sometimes they were both feeling down, like when one of the Bread Brothers got married. He wouldn't have minded someone to hug for himself tonight, but that thought could lead to places Tina might not feel comfortable, so he squashed it.

He kissed them both goodnight again and went back for his shower and to sleep in his big solitary bed.

Hugh woke to a teenage body climbing into bed to his left, followed by a second to his right. "Wha...."

"Don't worry, daddy," came Tina's voice from his left. That immediately worried him; she hadn't called him 'daddy' for a very long time. "We thought you'd be lonely on your own, while we had each other. So we came to join you."

Hugh accepted the inevitable and put an arm round each girl. As if that was a signal, they immediately rolled inwards towards him. They were both naked, with those teenage titties they'd been talking about earlier, each tipped with a hard nipple, pressing into the sides of his chest. Tina put her leg over his, and rubbed herself on his thigh, leaving a snail trail of her juices. "You don't have to ..." he started to say to his daughter.

"We know," she replied. "We're not your concubines, daddy. Not yet. We don't have to fuck you. We want to fuck you."

He was lost; Tina had been right about the power of teenage titties. He could feel Erica's equally aroused pussy hunching into his right leg as his daughter moved in for a kiss. The two of them had this planned out like a military campaign. As Tina kept him distracted with her very un-daughterly kiss, Erica's hand was stroking his rapidly stiffening cock.

Tina kept holding the kiss, her lips pressing on his and her tongue snaking into his mouth. Meanwhile, Erica started moving. She paused briefly to gently tease his nearer nipple with her teeth, and then carried on southwards. He was expecting it, but he still shuddered when her mouth closed over the end of his cock.

Tina broke their kiss. "Do you like that daddy? Do you like Erica sucking your stiffie? She's good at it, all her boyfriends say so."

"Mmmm," Tina was right, he could tell. Erica certainly knew what she was doing.

"She licks pussy good as well," Tina giggled.

Hugh felt Erica's mouth leave his dick. "Hey, Tina. Not fair," she complained. "Anyway, you lick mine too."

As Erica's mouth reconnected with his erection, Tina whispered, "That's what we were doing before, daddy, licking on each other." She kissed him once more, "Now, it's time for you to do some work."

She moved up and soon he was treated to a close-up view of her wet pussy as it descended on his mouth. "Lick me daddy. Your little girl needs her pussy licked some more."

He did what he was told. Once he had his fingers good and wet with her juices, he played with her clit and stuck his little finger a short way into her arse, leaving his tongue to do the rest of the work on her pussy. He wanted to do a good job for her and, judging by the way she was squealing and squirming on his face, he succeeded.

Down below, Erica released him from her mouth and quickly shifted around to kneel with her smooth legs on either side of his hips. Soon he felt her hot, wet, tight teenage pussy descend over his dick, riding it down and taking his full length inside her. She started moving on him, working herself into an energetic cowgirl, riding him quickly. He couldn't see Erica of course, his face was full of his daughter's trimmed blonde pussy, but he could feel that she was as good at fucking as she was at blowjobs.

"Yes daddy! Yes daddy! Yes ... ahhhh ... yes," Tina came noisily, her mound mashing into his face. Shortly after Erica followed her, "Unhhhh ... unhhhh," but more quietly, and slumped forward, holding onto her friend from behind. Hugh managed not to come, just. He knew that he'd have more to do tonight, so he held himself back for the last lap.

The two girls rolled off to either side and all three of them recovered their breath for a few minutes. Hugh turned to his right, "Thank you, Erica. That was wonderful."

She smiled back and whispered, "I enjoyed it too."

Turning back to his left, he saw Tina smiling at him. "You know what comes next, don't you daddy?"

He knew, of course. He just didn't want to think about it too much. What he would be doing was fine, it was who he would be doing it to that was the problem. Don't think about it, just do it. "You're sure?"

She nodded, smiling. "Do me daddy," then she spread her legs to welcome him.

He'd deflated a little after fucking Erica, but the brunette quickly repaired the damage with her mouth. She kept hold of him as he moved on top of Tina, and directed his cock to its target. Slowly he slipped into his daughter, sinking his full length, until he could go no further. He paused for a second.

"Do me hard, daddy. You can do it gentle later. Fuck me hard for our first time."

He grasped her knees and folded them back onto her tits. Letting his weight hold her in position, he pounded into her hard, as she'd asked.

"Yes! Yes daddy! Fuck ... fuck ... fuck ... fuck! Yes!"

She took all that he could give her, and was thrusting her hips back up at him all the time. Her pussy took over control of his cock, gripping and milking it to bring on the explosion that had been building since he'd been in Erica. As soon as he'd finished filling her pussy, Tina came, "Yes ...!" with a great cry of joy.

Hugh collapsed on her shoulder while she and Erica both hugged him. Suddenly Tina noticed that her shoulder was wet.

"Dad! You're crying?"

"Sorry. You looked just like your mother for a minute there. It got to me."

That started the two girls crying as well. They'd all had to leave people behind. More hugs helped, and then they all eventually slept. They were too tired for anything else.

The next morning Hugh woke to see Tina's blue eyes in front of him. "Are you feeling all right now, dad?"

Good, he was 'dad' again, not 'daddy'. "Yes, Tina. A lot better. How about you?"

"I'm fine. The sleep helped a lot. Erica's feeling OK as well."

Just then Erica emerged from the bathroom, naked, and carrying a grey metal collar. "We have to wear these concubine collars now," she told Tina. "Yours is in the bathroom replicator."

Tina went to get her collar, while Erica put hers on.

"Are you all right?" Hugh asked her.

"Much better, thanks. It's strange, I was worse yesterday, when I wasn't due to meet my parents. Today, when they won't be collecting me, I don't miss them so much. It's like the anticipation was worse than the real thing. Weird."

Could a night's rest really make all three of them feel so much more relaxed? Hugh was suspicious, "AI, was something done to us overnight to reduce our stress?"

"That information is currently embargoed."

Which answered his question. It was obvious that the Confederacy would want to do something to calm people down for the first few days after extraction. A lot of people had left family, friends or lovers back on Earth.

No collar for Hugh, instead the AI told him to wear his Naval uniform. More changes were obviously on the way today. He wasn't a civilian any more. He wouldn't ever be a civilian again. Enlistment was 'for the duration', and this was going to be a very long war.

Over his toast and coffee, Hugh faced four nipples: two pink and two brown. Luckily he was still 'dad' for the moment. He suspected that there wasn't time for him to be 'daddy' this morning, not with both girls to deal with.

"Well, dad?" Tina asked, looking serious.

"You're sure? Both of you?"

They both nodded. "We already know you, and you know us as well. You'll take the two of us so we can stay together. And you fuck pretty good too," Tina grinned. Erica just smiled.

"This is serious, life and death serious. I'll own you."

"Yes dad. We know it's serious."

"Erica?"

"Yes, I want to be your concubine."

"Tina?"

"Yes, I want to be your concubine too."

"OK, I accept both of you." Not that he had much choice after last night.

Before the two newly accepted concubines could rush round the table to embrace their new master, the AI broke in, "Erica Bailey is now the registered concubine of Recruit Hugh Pearce. Tina Pearce is now the registered concubine of Recruit Hugh Pearce. You have seventeen minutes before you are due at your first lectures this morning. Two concubine shifts are available in the kitchen replicator."

The AI didn't interrupt the girls' happiness, though their new shifts almost did. "These rags are just awful!" Tina complained.

"Sure, but there isn't anything I can do about them for the moment," Hugh pointed out. "You can take them off as soon as we're back in our apartment this afternoon."

Frank held June's hand. Tightly. "This isn't going to work, June."

June just sat silently and squeezed her father's hand tighter. He'd tried so hard to get selected, but nobody had picked him. All those sponsors were stupid! Daddy was the best, and they should have picked him first.

"There are too many men in the pool and not enough sponsors for all of us. I've got a few more days left, but I don't think that will make any difference. They're going to send me back down."

"That's all right, daddy. We were doing OK before. I'll just go back to school and you can go back to work. It's like we've just had a short holiday here."

"No, June. I'll have to go back, but you don't. I want to find a way that you can stay here, safe from the Swarm."

"No daddy!" June screamed. "I'll never leave you! Never!" She started crying and fell into her father's arms. Frank stroked her hair to help her calm down. He'd expected this reaction from her, but his idea was for the best. She was young, so she had a lot more of her life to live. He'd go back and start training to fight the Sa'arm when they arrived. Somehow he'd see June safe away from Earth.

"Hello, dad. What did you learn in school today?"

"Today we had the naming of parts," Hugh replied as he moved to sit down. "Anyway, I thought I was supposed to ask that question? And can one of you two get me a cup of tea."

"Penis, scrotum, testicles, foreskin, dick, cock, balls .... Like that daddy?" Tina joked as Erica went to the kitchen.

"No. More like barrel, safety, trigger, battery, sling and so on. Not very exciting I'm afraid." Hugh paused for effect, "So, what did you do in school today, Tina?"

"Babies."

"Making them or looking after them?"

"Looking after them. Food goes in one end and yuck comes out of the other. We already know how to make them, though we could probably do with more practice. We could even combine it with naming parts: penis, vagina, dick, pussy, cock, snatch."

"You have a one-track mind, young woman. I'd like to blame your father, but that would be rather silly of me," Hugh joked.

Tina laughed as Erica returned with Hugh's tea. Both his concubines were nude of course, they always shed their shifts as soon as they got back into the apartment. He'd even gotten used to it, no more embarrassing tents in his uniform. That had been a bit of a surprise when it first happened, he was well past his teenage years.

"Baby care will be very useful. A lot of your work in the colony will be looking after babies. We're going to have lots of them."

"Yeah, we know, dad. A pity you didn't score a seven; then we could have an experienced mother to help us."

"You'll just have to learn on the job, I'm afraid. From what I hear there will be playgroups and such in the colony, so you could get jobs in one of those and pick up real experience."

"If you'd scored a seven then you could have picked a stud as well as a mother. We'll need someone to keep us happy when you're away on a deployment."

"You'll just have to take care of each other, or go to the town brothel for stud service I think. I'm probably too old for much of an increase in my CAP score. It's the young guys who seem to get the best increases when they retest."

"We won't be the only ones looking for stud service, will we dad," Tina said.

That surprised Hugh; he didn't know that Tina knew. She saw his reaction and laughed. "Dad, I've known for a couple of years."

"How?"

"It was mum actually. One of her toy-boys was the older brother of a lad at school. Word got round, so I had a long talk with her. She explained it."

"What did she say?"

"That you both needed to let off pressure sometimes. About every two years she'd have a short affair with a toy-boy. About every six months you'd go to a gay club for a night or two to get your pipes cleaned. Both of you knew what the other was doing."

"That's about right. And of course you told Erica everything."

That got him a 'well, duh' look from Tina and a nod from Erica.

"Wasn't it dangerous?" Erica asked. "One of the other people might have split you and her apart."

"Yes, but it would also have been dangerous not to," Hugh explained. "About four years into our marriage we were both feeling the strain. Our relationship was very good, but we both needed things the other couldn't provide. Those outside flings released the pressure so everything didn't explode and destroy what was worth keeping." He looked at Tina, "Would you have preferred it if we'd divorced?"

"God no! I saw what that did to some of the others in school. Just awful." She paused, "Whatever you did, it worked, and I'm glad of that."

Hugh was relaxing after his evening meal. He'd discovered that replicator cider was somewhat palatable, so he had a glass. The AI interrupted silently, "There is a private communication for you. Do you wish to accept it?"

"Who is it from?"

"A Frank Keeling. He says that you do not know him."

Just a name, no rank. That probably meant the guy was a concubine. He had nothing better to do, "OK, I'll take it in my study."

The girls were watching something, and didn't even look up as he moved quietly to his study, closing the door behind him.

"Put it on the wall."

Frank Keeling was indeed a concubine, since he was naked, at least his upper chest was naked. "Hello, Private Pearce and thank you for speaking to me. You don't know me, but my daughter met your daughter at the concert ...."

The five of them met in an Interview Suite. Tina and Erica recognised June, and they could also see that she'd been crying.

After the introductions, Frank explained his idea. "I'm probably going to be sent back down to Earth in a couple of days, there isn't much call for male concubines. I don't want June to have to go back as well. I want her to get away from Earth to the colonies. That means someone else has to take her on as a dependant. She's already met Tina and Erica, and she seemed to like them. I'd like her to join your family please, Hugh."

"What about her mother?" Tina asked.

That brought on a burst of tears from June, so Frank delayed his answer to comfort his daughter. "She died when June was eight. A car crash."

Tina immediately felt her heart go out to the young girl. She looked at Hugh, "Please, dad."

"Erica?" he asked his other concubine.

"Yes."

"You both know you'll have to look after her. I'll be spending a lot of time training and then on deployment."

"Yes, dad. We know," Tina answered for both of them. They couldn't leave June behind for the Swarm if they had a chance to get her away.

Hugh turned to Frank, "You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I've thought about it a lot. It's horrible, but it's for the best."

Hugh agreed with Frank, but there was another person involved here. "June?" he asked.

She just carried on sniffling, ignoring him. Not a good sign, but she was obviously under a lot of stress at the moment. Probably too much for a thirteen-year-old to deal with.

"Answer the man," Frank told her.

She just hugged him tighter. "I don't want to leave you daddy!"

Hugh watched them, thinking. Frank was right, in the long-term his daughter would be far better off in the Diaspora. In the short-term, it was going to be very difficult for her.

"Frank, I think you need to talk to June some more. We'll use the AIs to talk privately later."

Frank nodded and shepherded his weeping daughter out of the room. Hugh hadn't said 'yes', but he hadn't said 'no' either. Maybe he'd made a mistake bringing June to the meeting, but it wouldn't really have been fair to leave her out of things.