The Assassin
Chapter 7
Promotion (TY12-month 140)
“Congratulations, Deputy Cho.” I accepted the new rank badge from Director Kotter and Deputy Kramer shook my hand. I’d scarcely got back to my pod with my new concubine and son when I was summoned to report to the governor’s office at once. I turned and Officer Wilson gave me a salute which I returned. I’d been concerned when Deputy Kramer told me I was to be promoted. Officer Wilson had been with the Militia longer than I had. It turned out, though, that he’d been in only six months longer and wasn’t really interested in advancing through management ranks. Director Kotter was transferring him to become her chief of staff. That meant we’d be promoting three new Officers. Two would report to Deputy Kramer as he split his company among four cities. One would report to me and act as administrator of the recruiting and training base while I put most of my focus on building and staffing the new base at Drylanders. I was promoting Capo Humphreys to that position. We’d worked well together over the past two years. I could see her promoted to Deputy the next time we needed to expand.
Expansion was expected to be critical within three years. Growing the Militia at the rate we were, we would have over a thousand Militiamen in a year or two. We were over seven hundred already.
“Deputy Cho,” Governor O’Hara said when I’d received my rank insignia, “you are hereby commissioned to build a base of operations for our Tara Planetary Militia in Drylanders. As soon as you are established, you will begin development of a deep-water port capable of handling transportation of both livestock and farm produce. While establishing this new base and port, you will maintain command of the recruiting and training base at Drovers Run. Details of your commission will be given to you by Director Kotter.”
“Thank you, Governor. I will do my best on this commission.”
We continued with the promotions. I got to deliver the promotion of Capo Humphreys to Officer and the promotions of three foremen to capo, including my own chief of staff, Capo Valerie Hodges. We would have a lot of work to do this week to assign people to the correct camp for the near future. I’d be taking the bulk of our comrades at Drovers Run with me to Drylanders, but we would be moving over the course of a month or two as our housing units and jobs dictated. That would leave Humphreys with about the same size complement that I had when I took over the recruiting and training base.
I managed to get a tender to move my pod to Drylanders and take my fledgling family there. It seemed I had a ton of things to be done. I finally managed to transport them over to the base and walk into our new home. It was like being the first homeowner in a new development. There wasn’t anything else around except the barracks and a pad for my office to be built. Pretty desolate home sweet home. But Lyle was going crazy, exploring every corner of the little pod.
“Can I have horses on my wall?” Lyle asked.
“Of course you can, Lyle,” Cricket answered.
“What? Why haven’t I been able to decorate the pod?” I demanded.
“You never asked,” Cricket responded smugly. Yes, I could tell when my household AI was being smug.
“Can I at least have fresh sheets on my bed?” I asked.
“Affirmative, Deputy Cho.”
“Now, Rose, let me introduce you to our very basic replicator. I hope you don’t take a look at the menu and decide to go back to Lleifior.”
“Not a chance,” she laughed. “Cricket, did the download of my replicator recipes come through?”
“It has, Concubine Rose. The items are now available on the replicator menu.”
“You had menu items you brought with you?” I asked.
“Yes. Remember, I had five years of serving an agricultural researcher. I made and tested many recipes. There’s no reason to leave something like that behind.” She smiled and gave me a little kiss. “Why don’t we have beef stroganoff on noodles for dinner?” I expected it to take half an hour for the replicator to generate enough food for the three of us and was startled when it dinged in just a few seconds. Rose removed a steaming bowl of stroganoff and noodles from the unit and before she turned around, it had dinged again and our dishes and flatware were ready.
“How about if I just make you the person in charge of the replicator?” I suggested.
“I’d be happy to…”
“Agreement recorded,” Cricket broke in.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut,” I groaned.
“Did you wash your hands, Lyle?”
“Yes, Mommy. See?” He showed his mother both sides of his hands and then held them up to me to inspect. I nodded. “Did you wash your hands, Deputy Cho?”
“Um… I was busy helping Mommy in the kitchen. I’ll go wash them now,” I said. How embarrassing! The rest of the meal was pleasant and delicious. For the first time in years, I felt I was sitting at the table with my family. Amos always required us to be at the table together for evening meals, but he treated them more like staff meetings, reviewing the work of the day and going over our tasks for the next day. Concubines said little and dependents were allowed no words at all. Meals had been family time when we were on Earth with my father. I hoped he was well.
“Now, Lyle, you need to take a bath and get ready for bed. Mommy has unfinished business with Deputy Cho.”
“Just a second. I think we need to have a little less formality in our family,” I said. “Rose, you’ve already been asked to call me Niall. Is there a problem with that?”
“Oh, no! I was just trying to set a good example for Lyle.” I knelt down to be at eye level with Lyle.
“Then Lyle, I have three names you could call me. Which would you like? Niall? Cho? Or Deputy?”
“I can choose?” he asked with wide eyes.
“Absolutely.”
“Daddy Cho?” he asked. I nearly choked. I didn’t anticipate being called that by anyone for a few years yet. But it was sweet and I had to struggle to get words out of my mouth.
“I would like that very much, Lyle. I will try to be a good Daddy Cho for you.” He wrapped his arms around my neck and gave me a hug. I picked him up and headed for the lift to his room upstairs. Once there, he knew everything he needed to do and immediately engaged Cricket in telling him how he liked his bath and the flavor toothpaste he wanted. I turned and found Rose leaning against the wall with her arms folded and smiling at me.
“You know, that is going to result in you getting an incredible loving tonight,” she said. All I could do was grin. I gave her another quick kiss and headed to the lower level while she got Lyle settled for the night.
Rose walked into my bedroom stark naked and stalked across the room to the bed where I was sitting and reading my weekend brief. When I saw her, all thought of reading fled. She immediately went to work removing my uniform as she tried to replicate the kiss we had this morning. This one was much better.
I was lost in exploring her body with my hands as she caressed me. Her breasts were perfect handfuls and I broke our kiss to worship them with my lips. I planned to make sure she’d had an orgasm or two before I tried anything for myself, but she pulled me on top of her and grasped my prick to line it up.
“Come to me, my lover,” she whispered. “I am ready for you.”
Well, I’d get around to exploring lower with my mouth later. Sinking into her hot depths was better than anything I’d experienced up to this point in my life. Yes, I’d had lovers—enthusiastic lovers—but there was something special about knowing that this woman was going to be with me for the rest of my life and that she would one day bear my children. My mind short-circuited a bit as she encouraged me to stroke in and out while she thrust up to meet each stroke. This first time might be… short, but perhaps the most memorable of my life. Like most of the Militia, I’d chosen to enhance my sexual organ, not in size particularly, but in endurance. I could love like this all night.
I didn’t, of course. The experience of having Rose come to her own orgasm was a mental stimulus I couldn’t ignore. Shortly, I was spewing into her depths and hoping I would make her pregnant.
Eventually, after both leisurely lovemaking and gymnastic sex, we slept. I woke in the morning ready to go to work.
Setting Up Shop (TY12-month 140)
I spent a lot of time with Humphreys the next week. We selected the personnel we’d transfer to Drylanders and the personnel she’d need at Drovers Run. I reluctantly agreed that she needed the more experienced senior recruits to train the next class. I would be assigning tasks to comrades and cadres but they wouldn’t be teaching others how to be a comrade. Maybe one day we’d have so many people these cadres could be called upon to train, but they’d have a lot more experience before that day.
We’d promoted four foremen to capo and most would be overtaxed with the number of cadres reporting to them. We just weren’t ready to promote more comrades yet. I was leaving my two most senior capos with Officer Humphreys at Drovers Run and she promoted another for her chief of staff. I kept three capos as direct reports, including Hodges, who I promoted as my chief of staff. Our TOE on the day we finished planning included about fifty people staying at Drovers Run who either weren’t finished training or were on the training and recruiting staff. I’d be moving just over 150 to Drylanders, including myself. By the time we finished the move we could have as many as twenty more new recruits at Drovers Run. We were working as fast as we could just to keep ahead of the recruitment effort.
At Drylanders, we already had a barracks and canteen, and a fenced area that would become our base on the northeast side of the township—not too close to the town proper. The fenced area was the size of about 100 farm and ranch plats at 100,000 hectares or ten kilometers square. Everything on Tara was laid out for expansion, people figuring we were planning for a hundred years or more into the future. Even in the cities with 100,000 or more people—sponsors, concubines, and dependents—the population density was only about 200 per square kilometer.
«We’ll need fifty pods for comrades who have completed their probationary period and are eligible for families, » I said to the AI in charge of our new base.
«I can’t do that,» it responded.
«Please explain. »
«We have no manufacturing facility at Drylanders for pods. The pods in the city and at the farms arrive with the sponsors. The manufacturing facility at Tara Moon Base builds pods to replenish the colony ships. Not more than 100 new colonists are expected this year and the facility is converting over to strictly ship repair, which has been its other main purpose so far.»
«Put in a requisition for fifty pods immediately from Tara Moon Base. Indicate that we will have a continuing need for pods over the coming months and they should not shut down manufacture. »
«Affirmative.»
«We’ll need infrastructure installed according to the plan I sent from Drovers Run, including the building of a headquarters, streets, parade ground, and expanded barracks. Please let me know of any delays in construction. I expect to move at least fifty comrades here next week. »
«Affirmative.»
«I’m going home for lunch.»
«You have a meeting in thirty minutes with the Drylanders mayor and city council. At 1500 hours you are to meet with the harbor committee to go over the planned progress.»
«AI, are you new here?»
«Everything at Fort Butler is new. I was recently budded from the AI at Drovers Run Militia Base.»
«Fort Butler? Is that what our base is to be called?»
«That directive has been received from Governor Scarlett O’Hara.»
«Nice to know I don’t need to think about that. I’d like a little less formality in our conversations, AI. Since we are Fort Butler, I’ll be addressing you as Rhett. Make sure all on base who access you are informed of your name.»
«Affirmative. This AI will henceforth be known as Rhett.»
«It would be helpful if you adopted the accent of a southern gentleman. Please access a recording of Gone with the Wind for examples of this accent. Don’t go overboard. Just enough to give you a personality.»
«Oh, Scarlett, you are so young you wring my heart.»
«And don’t call me Scarlett. Save that for the governor. I would prefer the bulk of our communications to be audible rather than subvocal. If there are no speakers in this room, get them installed. The same goes for the rest of the base.»
«Yes, sir.»
«I need to go meet with the city council.»
I got along reasonably well with the AI at Drovers Run Base and with my household AI, Cricket. I wasn’t sure why the base AI at Drylanders was so snippy. I left the base and headed for the Drylanders council meeting.
“Welcome to Drylanders, Deputy Cho,” the mayor said by way of greeting. We’d met several times over the past year as I was running patrols out of Drylanders on a regular basis, but this was the formal recognition of being a new resident.
“Mayor Lindsey, it is a delight to finally be included as a part of your wonderful community,” I said.
“We’ve had a bit of worry about the impact your Militia base will have on the community, but your patrols have always been extremely well-behaved, so we’re not really expecting any trouble.”
“If my comrades present a problem, please make sure I’m aware of it and it will be dealt with immediately,” I said. I think he was equating the presence of Militia with the sometimes-unruly presence of Marines off duty. That’s why Marines generally didn’t leave Sunnybrook.
“Quite. Quite. Let me introduce you to our council members.” We walked into a conference room with eight chairs already filled. I was introduced and shook hands with each of the members and took my place at one end of the table with the mayor at the other.
“In spite of the irrational fear the mention of ‘cadres in residence’ brings to people, we’ve been looking forward to an enhanced Militia presence in our district,” the mayor began. “The district has grown to more than 100,000 residents now, including concubines and dependents. The city AI does a credible job of passing on warnings if there is a likelihood of unacceptable behavior, but often there is no one to respond to the call or we are too late to be of help.”
“Lance Merriweather,” a woman at the table said. I found physical descriptions to be woefully lacking when it came to determining a person’s age or status. Med tubes turned old hags into movie starlets. Or, in Amos Radcliffe’s case, beautiful young women into farm animals. This woman looked to be in her twenties, was beautiful, and had a cultured, straightforward presence. “I’m still comforting my concubines over that.” I looked to the mayor for an explanation.
“Two weeks ago, the AI informed several of us that a sponsor was abusing a concubine and her life was in danger. No one really has the responsibility to deal with that kind of situation but we got together and went over to his house. Sadly, the concubine was already dead when we arrived. Our only recourse in the situation was to get a judgment that Lance would be retested, resulting in his other concubines being given the option to leave. He was not allowed to replace them until he has shown a change in his attitude and behavior, reflected in annual tests. It didn’t help the concubine.”
“We hope you will be the one we contact for domestic disturbances and civil unrest in the future,” the original woman said. “Our understanding is that your people are our police force.”
“And we have all read of the trial you underwent a year ago that clearly established the Militia as our peacekeepers. That’s good as no one wanted to waste sponsors as a police force,” said a man who looked in his forties but sounded like Amos in his sixties.
“I understand,” I said, bristling a bit. Even though we were considered planetary citizens, sponsors would insist on keeping a class distinction between themselves and mere concubines who were given privileges. “We will have a cadre on duty as a city patrol at all times as we spool up. They will under the management of Capo Torvalds, whom you know from his work on the border patrols. All our Militia is trained in policing activities. Please understand that our charter does include the use of non-lethal force, even against sponsors, if called for in enforcing the community’s and the colony’s laws and safety.”
“Yes. Well, let’s hope that is not necessary,” the mayor said. “We’re told there will be two hundred or more—what do you call them? Comrades?—on the base. That is certainly more than a cadre on patrol at all times. What else will you be doing?”
“As we have been doing since the founding of Drylanders, we will continue the border patrol to keep predators away from livestock and herbivores away from crops,” I said. “We have been reasonably effective in that effort over the past two years. We will continue to harvest the algae from Lake Genoa, which is proving to be a major source of fertilizer for the crops. Our major project for the next two years, however, will be developing the harbor and deep-water channel. We’ll also be on fire-fighting duty should anything start in the young forest just to the north of the district.”
“And how many people will be involved in all that?” asked a man who looked younger than the others.
“Within a month, we expect to bring Fort Butler up to a complement of 150 comrades. I expect we will reach our target numbers in three years at about 350. Since all four of our bases will be nearing that number, we’ll expect to send a full unit to a new district to be established. That district will begin as a frontier outpost much like Drylanders was just three years ago. This time, however, the Militia will arrive and work on taming the land before settlers begin moving in.”
“That is part of our governor’s expansion plan, of which we were made aware at the last mayors’ council meeting,” the mayor said. “Can you shed any light on why that is a target date and what it really means to have a ‘frontier’ town? Drylanders was fully operational the day we began disembarking from our transport ship to occupy it.”
“There are a number of aspects of that expansion. For example, even at the Drylanders Base, we have no housing yet for Comrades and their families. I have requisitioned pods from Tara Moon Base, but part of the directive for expansion is to step down the amount of technology in use. I expect that will mean we’ll have to do onsite building. Tara now has a population of three-quarters of a million. The concubine to sponsor ratio has risen to four-to-one. We had held fairly steady at three-to-one since the founding of the colony until three years ago. Three years from now there will be five concubines per sponsor and the curve will mount rapidly from that point on. I’m sure you realize that we have begun to see an uptick in the number of sponsors coming of age who are volunteering to join the Marines or Navy instead of the Corps of Engineers. Many of those are leaving before they have filled their concubine slots. Others leave with their two concubines but aren’t here to be awarded additional concubines as the population grows.”
“So, we’re going to create an entire township of concubines?” asked the woman I’d spoken to earlier.
“Please understand, I am simply a deputy who carries out the orders of our governor. I’m not privy to all the governor’s plans for our future. I can read statistical projections, however. In ten years, when we have a population of over three million, we can expect a concubine to sponsor ratio of ten-to-one if the current trend continues. In nearly every situation, that has been shown to be an unworkable household unit size. It seems logical to me that the governor would choose an area of the planet where concubines can live under the same mandatory service requirements as either sponsors or Militia.”
“That’s a sobering thought,” the mayor said. “I think it is one we in this council should ponder and also raise our own ideas to the governor as to how to manage this explosion. I know I have all I can handle with five concubines. I can’t even imagine having ten.”
Base Operations (TY12-month 141)
I moved cadres at the rate of one or two a week from Drovers Run to Drylanders. I was thankful when I could finally move my senior capo to help ride herd on them all. Public Safety Capo Torvalds had three of his four cadres at Fort Butler and maintained one at Drovers Run. They were in a non-stop rotation. It took seven teams to effectively patrol the border since we needed to keep two comrades at the outpost on the northeast corner all the time. It had proven to be a frequent breach location and we’d seen various mountain lions, wolves, and even a bear trying to get into the ranchland. Transporting those beasts to a release location we’d set up a hundred kilometers away was a challenge and not always effective.
Patrolling the city of Drylanders was just as exhausting. We kept three two-person teams circulating through the city around the clock. As soon as we could get another patrol cadre trained in Drovers Run, we’d increase the number of people on the rotation. I’d have to talk to Humphreys about taking on a patrol cadre under her direct supervision so Torvalds wasn’t running back and forth. I figured if we were going to provide the same level of patrol service in Drovers Run that we’d promised in Drylanders, we’d need at least two and maybe three more patrol cadres. There was nearly a quarter of the planet’s population in Drovers Run Township
The patrol in Drylanders had been called in for several investigations already. As I reviewed them, I wondered exactly what the citizens thought the patrol was for. Resolving a petty dispute between two citizens should have been done by the city council, in my opinion. But my guys had to listen to each give his grievance and then make a decision on how to resolve it. Of course, they got a lot of help from the AI, but even then, there was a question of whether the citizens would abide by the decision.
A patrol was called in to resolve a fight between two concubines, belonging to different sponsors. I thought sponsors should step in and discipline their own concubines. Instead, they called the patrol. It all centered around something that had been brewing ever since they shipped out from Earth and one concubine’s child had injured the other concubine’s child. From the time they arrived on Tara, it had been a non-stop battle to ‘get even.’ The Foreman of that patrol’s cadre came in to settle it, and I thought she’d done a good job. I marked her for possible promotion. She’d immediately issued a no-contact order between the two and then sent each to a brothel to work for a night. The sponsors were surprised at the judgment but didn’t contest it. They agreed that violations of the no-contact order would result in longer times served in the brothel.
I reviewed the decision and consulted with Rhett as to why a patrol had been called to settle a dispute the sponsors should have resolved.
«I find human logic to be non-existent,» the AI said. «The sponsors did not want their concubines mad at them. By having the patrol resolve the dispute, they could sympathize with their concubines and profess their hands were tied and they couldn’t do anything about the judgment. Both held lavish welcome home parties for their concubines when they had served their time in the brothel. The concubines were feted and pampered long into the night.»
«I’d like the patrols to all cycle through additional sleep training on handling domestic disputes,» I said. «I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more of these. Our patrol cadres need the wisdom of Solomon.»
«I question the tale of Solomon’s famous judgment. Decreeing the child should be cut in half and given in equal portions to the disputing women was inhumane by Earth standards. But reversing the decision must certainly have called Solomon’s authority into question.»
«I’m seventeen. I have no fucking idea how to respond to that.»
«You were recognized as an adult at fourteen. Do mental and physical maturity not progress at the same pace?»
«In AI years, that makes me about three nanoseconds old. Even you took time to understand how to make the base function when you started here.»
Making the base functional was a huge part of Sr. Labor Capo Jeffries’ remit. His comrades weren’t happy with the amount of labor they had to do in expanding the barracks and smoothing the streets. My request for additional pods had gone unanswered. So far, the Militia recruits we had were all born on Earth and to one degree or another, they felt labor that could be done by machines should not be done by people. We wouldn’t start seeing recruits who had been born on Tara for two years yet. We had our own share of disputes arise.
The comrades were considered planetary citizens with increasing levels of privilege over their two-year probationary period. For most, one look at the comrade housing pods I had moved from Drovers Run Base to Fort Butler sent them back to the barracks. The pod was designed for one resident as the comrade was still in probation. As such it was pretty small and quite austere. The pod AIs had no personality and functioned in basic responsibilities of replicating food and cleaning. The pods were already furnished, rather austerely. One of the older comrades said it reminded him of a college dorm room. All it really provided was privacy. Most felt it was more like isolation since overnight guests were restricted. Any kind of permanent liaison between two people was discouraged during probation, though there were a few comrades who were more than fuck buddies.
I noted that comrades were preferring to remain in the barracks but wanted more privacy. I worked with Rhett to turn the expanded eight-pod complex into apartments that would accommodate individual comrades on the lowest levels and new comrade families on the upper floors. Most of the comrades preferred this arrangement to the miniature pods afforded if they moved out of the barracks. Post-probationary comrades who took on concubines could either stay in the barracks apartments or take one of the pods we had available and wait for it to expand to family size. The result was something along the lines of townhomes as opposed to apartments.
I was still having difficulty with the idea of selecting another concubine, though I considered myself lucky to have found Rose. But one of the unspoken purposes of having the Militia was to reduce the number of unhomed concubines. I didn’t attempt to understand how the AIs came up with projections, but the bottom line was that we were getting more concubines than sponsors testing each year and the number was seen as accelerating in the future. I paid attention to the bottom line. The bulk of the sponsors our world graduated qualified for only two concubines and new sponsors were rushed off-planet to enter the service as more Navy and Marines were needed than were currently available. Each comrade completing his or her probationary period and taking two concubines removed three concubines from the unhomed pool.
Part of the charter for the Militia was to provide labor for public works. We would start work on the new harbor soon and Capo Jeffries was using the building of our base as a means of getting his cadres trained with the heavy equipment, working together, and accustomed to hard labor. Heavy equipment and materials to pave our streets and prepare our grounds had been delivered. The front couple of square kilometers of the base was beginning to look respectable. We even had grass on the parade ground. The equipment would be moved to the harbor project soon.
The key element was that comrades did the work. A harvesting machine could have been sent into the lake or the sea to harvest the algae, for example. Instead, humans waded in the shallows scooping the green growth up with nets and depositing it in floating transporters that supplied food and fertilizer replicators across the planet. These tasks were often performed by unhomed concubines ‘owned’ by the Civil Service and supervised by the Militia.
None of the jobs required a college degree. But comrades were expected to continue their education under the guidance of the base AI. Just as it supplied dispute resolution training for the patrol comrades, it provided road-building, harbor-building, and machine operation tutorials for the labor comrades.
Every day started with physical training, including martial arts. Even though we had specialized teams engaged in border patrol and city patrol, other cadres could also be called into action if the situation merited it. And at least once a week, each cadre was drilled in weapons practice, formation, and tactics. Being called on to defend the planet against the Swarm was a remote possibility, but it was a possibility, nonetheless.
I had to get to know my staff better during all this. Of course, Humphreys and I had worked together for two years. But I left her in charge of Drovers Run. I was taking three senior comrades with me to help manage the chaos at Drylanders.
Capo Sam Jeffries was the senior capo in charge of four cohorts and their eighteen cadres that would be involved in construction. He would desperately need at least two and preferably four capos reporting to him soon. We just needed people advanced enough to promote. I’d interviewed him extensively after the AI recommended him. Newly promoted Capo Valerie Hodges was my chief of staff. She’d had a rocky start when she joined the Militia while escaping from that sponsor who beat her nearly to death. But after her period of adjustment, she’d dug in and proven herself a very capable administrator. She might even make officer one day. My staff comrade, the one Valerie and I would be sending on errands and with messages, was none other than Comrade Jean Reynolds, the former sponsor who had rejected his sponsorship and joined the Militia. He’d done well in training but was a bit of a misfit when it came to working in a cadre. I had a feeling he might never advance beyond the basic rank of comrade.
And, of course, Capo Torvalds was already doing a stellar job with the security and patrol cadres at Drylanders.
I tossed my stylus onto my desk and left the new office to join my wife and son for dinner.
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