The Assassin
Chapter 9
Grooming the Family (TY12-month 142)
“I’m sorry,” I said immediately. This was not the way to start a new relationship. I got so tied up at work that I didn’t even think about my concubines and dependent at home. I’d brought Bae home the day before and had dumped them both when I was called by the governor this morning. I hadn’t called to let them know I’d be late. I was a terrible husband. Master. Whatever the right term was.
“Niall, stop,” Rose said. “You must be exhausted. Come and sit down. I will make tea and you can relax.”
“But, Rose, I didn’t call you. I should have at least said goodnight to Lyle.”
“That would have been nice but Comrade Reynolds called and filled us in on the situation. Cricket went to work and found out the details so we’d understand what was going on. He was even kind enough to put your picture in a little corner of our entertainment screen so we could see how busy you were.”
“I had no idea how busy and important you are, Niall,” Bae said. “We tried to be very quiet when we brought your dinner, but Lyle whispered, ‘Nite, Daddy Cho,’ as we were leaving. It was so sweet! Cricket played a recording of you teaching Taekwondo for us so Lyle would know what a good man you are. We all decided we’d learn.”
“It gave Min-Bae and me a chance to learn more about each other. It was fine,” Rose added.
“You brought me dinner? I didn’t notice it arrive. I thought Reynolds had gotten it for me. He’s always a step ahead of what I need. You should have said something.”
“You were in the middle of a very intense conversation with someone in the military. We could tell we shouldn’t disturb you,” Rose said.
“Still, I should have called you when I realized what kind of day this would be. I’m not a very good husband.”
“Mmm. That’s a nice term to hear,” Bae said. “Do you suppose you can be husband to both your concubines? I don’t know how long it will take for me to mature, but I’d like you to think of me as your wife.”
“It will take us a little time to get used to that,” I said. “We’re going to receive a shipload of refugees—3,000 children and concubines. We’re building an orphanage and are being trained to deal with the angst and uncertainty of all those unsponsored people.”
“We’ll help as much as we can—even if that is just making sure you eat and get rest. That’s our responsibility,” Rose affirmed.
“I don’t know how to begin to thank you,” I said. “I just think of all those children coming to a strange world, knowing almost no one, and still grieving for parents or angry at the universe for tearing them away from their lives on Earth. When I arrived here, I was ten years old and hated everything. I hated the Swarm, the Confederacy, Amos, my mother. They were all to blame for how miserable I was. I don’t want those children to feel the same way. I want them to know they are here because we care for them.”
Rose pulled me against her on the sofa and held me as I relived those first days as a dependent of Amos. Bae curled up on my lap and hugged me. She’d only been seven when we were taken. With luck, the children arriving wouldn’t have been exposed to the carnal selection process and auction of human bodies as slaves. They wouldn’t see their mothers augmented so they could handle the heavy work of a farm or the deadly boredom of being a baby factory. I wanted them to have a future, and the only way people had a future in the Confederacy was if they became a sponsor.
“Let’s go to bed, husband. I’ll massage your shoulders and relieve your tension,” Rose said.
“I’m sorry your first day has been so difficult, Bae,” I said.
“It wasn’t difficult for us; it was difficult for you. Remember what Amos always told us God said. ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helpmate for him.’ And that’s why God created concubines,” she giggled. I smiled at her and the three of us shared a kiss. In that simple move, the stress of the day began to melt.
The stress was back the next day. Rhett had machinery working to lay the infrastructure in to connect the orphanage pods to services. The first thing we set my new cohort to working on was grading and paving a roadway from the front gate to the orphanage. They were supplemented with a cadre from Capo Jeffries’s Labor outfit. I noted the comrades in the labor cadres were larger and stronger than either my orphanage cohort or the normal patrol cadres. It made sense.
We allowed body modifications within certain restrictions. Height, for example, could not be changed by more than ten percent. A five-foot-tall comrade could not be modified to be taller than five-six. We also capped height at Marine standard, six-six-and-three-quarters. I couldn’t add seven inches to my six-two frame, because that would exceed the cap. Besides, I didn’t want to be a giant. Laborers, though, frequently beefed up and enhanced their endurance in areas other than just sexual.
No one hesitated in the work. We all had a mission.
Planned Emergency (TY12-month 142)
“Deputy Cho, Centurion Oswald from Oasis is here to see you,” Reynolds said from my doorway. [See Pussy Pirates by aroslav for an introduction of Centurion Oswald.]
“Send him in,” I said, standing behind my desk. The gray-uniformed man who came through my door was obviously retouched. He had a full head of lustrous black hair, bright blue eyes, movie-star teeth, and stood exactly my height at six-two, tanned and toned.
“Deputy Cho, thank you for seeing me. I know your schedule is hectic at the moment.”
“Centurion, the pleasure is mine. We’re in over our heads here and I could use all the help and advice you can give me.”
“I have some information that might help and will entertain any questions you have. You know we don’t have a large Civil Service staff on Tara, so I’m happy you and your unit have stepped up to this challenge.” We sat at my meeting table and after cordial chit chat got straight into the meat of the matter.
“What can you tell me about the group arriving in ten days?” I asked.
“The Sadi Carnot has been doing Kindertransport since the program started about five years ago. The program has been highly successful in getting children off the planet with over 150,000 relocated so far. The early deliveries were focused on supplying planets who were producing lots of sponsors and not many concubines. I’m sorry to say our war losses have shifted that balance. Our sources say that three years ago, during what was termed the third Sa’arm invasion, our fleet stationed to protect Earthat was annihilated. When the fourth invasion arrived the next month, there were only a few damaged ships and that renegade group known as the Pussy Pirates left. They did what they could to stop the landing, but it wasn’t enough. For the next few months, the Pirates held the line by destroying anything that attempted to leave Earth. The 7th Fleet arrived and started mop-up operations. No one understands why it is taking the Swarm so long to invade again, but it may be because the Pirates didn’t let anyone leave to spread the word. But an entire fleet was destroyed. That left the moon bases full of unhomed concubines and dependents.”
“Any word of the progress on Earth?”
“Nearly eighty percent of Earth’s landmass is occupied by the Sa’arm, but in many areas, defenders are beating them back. That includes the pocket in North America where they’ve been contained. I understand you have an interest there. I’m informed your father, Major Seol-woo Cho, is still fighting and leading many successful raids in that battle.”
“I’m happy to hear that.”
“The 7th Fleet cleaned house when they got there. Most of DECO and Central Command was executed for failing to protect Earth. [See Ending This Mess by Zen Master.] Since they had inflated CAP scores to begin with, there were thousands more unhomed concubines and dependents. The Fleet has done what it can to send them to worlds in need of concubines, but they still have thousands and many are too damaged to ever survive in a sponsor’s home again.”
“Damn the Confederacy! We’ve got too many sponsors on Tara who mistreat their concubines. How are we supposed to absorb any more?” I asked.
“That’s your mission, Cho. On this delivery of the Sadi Carnot, we have mostly concubines and dependents rescued from Tasmania, an island district south of Australia. I’m afraid the continent has been completely overrun, but Earth Defense forces have so far been able to contain the dickheads there. The invasion flooded Tasmania with refugees. The people on this Kindertransport are mostly rural people including some Australian Aboriginals. These people are not ignorant, but will have a hard period of adjusting, I’m afraid. I could see potential sponsors coming out of those children, perhaps with a year or two of acclimatization and good education.”
“Do we have enough families on Tara to adopt everyone?”
Oswald dropped his head. “No. I already have over two thousand unhomed concubines working in Civil Service jobs. In other words, mostly in brothels or on your algae harvesting crews. I will be campaigning to create a benefit for qualifying sponsors who accept a supernumerary concubine if they will accept one of these concubines with at least three of her dependents on the Kindertransport. We do have a number of larger families that we are convincing to adopt children. With the addition of the Kindertransport, we will have 100,000 new dependents this year. After we deduct those turning fourteen, we’ll have a total of 700,000 dependents on the planet in a total population of less than a million souls.”
“What else can we do to help?” I hated to ask the question as taking care of an orphanage could cut the number of people Deputy Kramer and I had to assign to public works projects—like my harbor.
“Keep recruiting. One valuable service you are performing is giving surplus male concubines hope and a place they can be useful. It has reduced the number of spare males in my inventory significantly. I’ll also be happy to provide some training for the cadres you have preparing to greet the immigrants. I wouldn’t expect many recruits to the Militia to get off that ship, but the people they interact with on the planet will heavily influence those dependents who come of age in the next few years.”
“Sir, I have to say, I am impressed and pleased with your support of the Militia. I’m afraid many sponsors still consider us uppity concubines who should be disposed of.”
“Ninety-five percent of the work of the Civil Service is dealing with concubines, Deputy. You will be hard-put to find a Civil Service officer who does not respect the formation of your Militia. We are not many, but we are allies.”
I took Centurion Oswald on a tour of the compound and introduced him to our special cohort. We set up a time each day when the cohort would be released for training as an extension of the planet’s Civil Service. It would not always be Centurion Oswald conducting the training. He had two Signifers he had recruited from the new sponsors over the past couple of years and they would help. Some of the training would be delivered by the Centurion’s concubines or by sleep trainer, but there weren’t many lessons on dealing with Kindertransport immigrants.
The roadwork was done and the play areas had been leveled by the second week. Much of the work was now landscaping and building playground equipment as the residential pods were brought in and placed by the tenders from our moon base. I discussed the configuration with Rhett and after reaching a dead end, turned to Cricket to apply pressure on the young AI. Eventually, they agreed to expand the pods slightly so there was more play space and more private space. Otherwise, they would have the same configuration as the pods on the Sadi Carnot, which would make them feel as familiar as possible.
I headed to the work site each morning after I’d reviewed the messages from Drovers Run and checked all the work assignments. I figured the least I could do in this effort was to bend my back and help with the labor.
«Deputy Cho,» Rhett interrupted my breakfast, «Director Kotter requests your presence immediately for a meeting with Deputy Kramer and Governor O’Hara.»
«Immediately? I’m on my way.» “I’m sorry my dear family, but I have to go to Drovers Run immediately for a meeting with the governor. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.” I kissed my two concubines and my son and hurried out the door to get to the transporter nexus in the administration building.
“I’m sorry to have called you so abruptly this morning,” Scarlett said. She had insisted immediately that we use first names in the meeting. Centurion Oswald attended as well and was introduced as Neville. “Neville, tell us about how you’re doing placing the future arrivals.”
“The arrival of the Kindertransport in three days will put us all under a lot of pressure,” he said. “I have had a fair response to adopting dependents but not yet enough. And, surprisingly, very few sponsors have responded to the idea of taking a supernumerary concubine with dependents. The Governor set a rule on Tara that they need to retest to affirm they are capable of handling another concubine. It scares them. At the rate we are progressing, the orphanage could be open for months.”
“Which brings us to a problem. The AI has indicated the orphanage will be acceptable only so long as there is a Civil Service officer present who basically ‘owns’ them. Can you tell us about that?” Scarlett asked.
“The concubines and dependents will arrive with a Civil Service officer, Decurion Renee Gladstone. The trip on a Kindertransport is normally temporary duty for a Civil Service officer. She would then either continue with the crew of the ship back for another load, or be shipped to an understaffed planet. I’ve put in for recognition as an understaffed planet with the intent to hold her here. My other two officers are still very new to the job and have all they can handle with the brothel and restaurant management at Sunnybrook and Cold Comfort.”
“Can ownership of the immigrants be transferred to the base under Deputy Cho?” Kotter asked. I sat back in shock.
“Deputy Cho is not a sponsor,” the Tara AI responded flatly.
“Let’s table that for the moment. Lillian, I asked you for some demographics on the Militia. How are we standing?” Scarlett asked.
“As of this morning, the Militia has 557 active members. Out of 586 recruits to date, we have washed out only five percent. We are running about eighty percent male. 214 comrades have completed their probationary period and are settling in with a permanent assignment and concubines. Congratulations, Niall. I understand you’ve just filled your slots.”
“Thank you, Lillian. It wasn’t exactly how I planned it, but we’re happy.”
“How do CAP scores balance out for the post probationary members?” Scarlett continued.
“Most comrades have a CAP score over 5.0. None have a score below 4.5. Those very few with that low a score who enlist, inevitably wash out. I’m happy to say the Militia attracts high scoring concubines and a third have scores over 6.0. That also presents a problem as we may begin to have comrades retest and become sponsors.”
“That says we have some seventy post-probationary Militia with CAP scores over 6.0,” Scarlett said. “Neville, how would you feel about placing some of the immigrants with Militia comrades?”
“I have no qualms about the Militia training qualified candidates,” he answered.
“I’d like to propose that we offer a supernumerary concubine to any qualified comrade. Qualifications are as follows. The comrade must have completed his or her probationary period and have been approved for concubines and permanent placement. The comrade must have a CAP score of 6.0 or higher. The supernumerary concubine must come from the pool of Kindertransport concubines. The comrade must accept at least three dependents with the supernumerary. Can you think of other qualifications or conditions?” Kotter, Kramer, and I all looked at Oswald. All three of us would be adding a third concubine under this guideline. Kotter and Kramer had been qualified and had concubines for two years. I’d just gotten two and groaned inwardly at the thought of adding yet another to the mix. And three additional dependents? We were going to need to reconfigure the pod.
“It will help,” Neville said. “I’m still going to fall short. I’d like to revisit the idea of turning the concubines and dependents over to Deputy Cho. He has put together and trained an extraordinary cohort to deal with the influx.”
“Deputy Cho is not a sponsor,” repeated the AI.
“True, but there is ample precedence for concubines separated from their sponsors to be placed under the management of another concubine. And as a member of the Tara Planetary Militia, Deputy Cho has all rights and privileges extended any Confederacy sponsor. Therefore, the concubines and dependents should be registered to the Civil Service under my authority and I will assign Deputy Cho the management responsibility.” There was a moment of silence.
“Acknowledged,” the AI said. I got the feeling the AI didn’t like the arrangement but hadn’t found another way to object.
“I’m in way over my head, Director Kotter,” I said when we’d left the governor’s office. We were on our way to the transporter to head to our respective bases.
“We all are, Niall. It might surprise you to know I’m only 26. I came here with Governor O’Hara twelve years ago as a starry-eyed fourteen-year-old with the most wonderful woman I’d ever met. I wanted to be like her. I never quite made it to 6.5 on my annual tests, but by the time we’d been here six years, the governor was already projecting a time when concubines would outnumber sponsors ten to one. That’s when we started talking about a Militia and she told me I’d be the one to lead it. The first day of the eighth year of our residence, I became Militia comrade number one. I’d spent a good bit of the previous year recruiting other concubines—mostly unhomed—to join me. Deputy Kramer here was among the first. He was a spare male concubine in a male-dominated household. The minute he landed on Tara, he joined me.”
“I feel like such a kid.”
“You’ve grown up faster than either of us ever had to,” Deputy Kramer said. “I was twenty-five when I arrived on Tara, confident that I’d improve my score enough to volunteer but never quite making it. I’d been in the Army and was caught in an off-base pickup with my DD-214 in my hand. I was meeting a few buddies for a celebratory drink when the gray veil came down. When my former first sergeant, who retired just two weeks before my discharge, turned to me and said, ‘Do you want to go, Derek?’ I answered affirmative. He was committed to saving some of his best reports and overloaded his household with men he was sure would be a benefit to the Confederacy. That left us short of female concubines with just two for five men. I volunteered with Top’s blessing the day I arrived on Tara, thankful the Militia had just been founded.”
“I didn’t think there were many former military on Tara other than those at Sunnybrook,” I said.
“There aren’t. Top was sent to operate a military police patrol at Sunnybrook so the recovering Navy personnel and Marines wouldn’t feel they were being policed by civilians. He’s now a Marine himself, with permanent duty station on Tara.”
“I still feel like a baby,” I said.
“You came into the Militia with more natural skills than either of us,” Kotter said. “You were identified immediately as a strategic thinker and a martial arts expert. We know martial arts won’t help us a lot in the remote possibility of a Sa’arm landing on Tara. But it was vital that our Militia gain the self-discipline. In two years, you’ve elevated four people high enough that they can conduct classes and you work mostly with the top-level students now. But everyone in the Militia has gained enough training to understand the mental discipline it takes to serve.”
“Don’t worry, Cho,” Kramer said. “We sent you some of the best people we had for this duty and with your leadership, you’ll keep Fort Butler running smoothly, even with the establishment of the orphanage.”
“Thank you, sir. I’ll try to not let you down.”
Preparing for the Refugees (TY12-month 142)
I didn’t go back to work that afternoon. Not at the office. I checked in with Hodges and she had the duty rosters out and people were working hard. I went home to do some study and to talk to my family. I’d sprung Bae on Rose without warning. I needed to let them know another concubine was in the offing.
“Those poor women and children,” Rose moaned. “I wish we could adopt all of them.”
“That’s not so unlikely in a way,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Bae asked.
“There aren’t enough people volunteering to take either the concubines or the dependents yet. Any that aren’t claimed are going to end up under my management here at Fort Butler. That orphanage might not be as short-term a project as we thought,” I said.
“I’ll help!” Bae jumped in. “Lyle’s already got me playing games and having fun. I could help organize games with the kids. School, too.”
“I think you’ve got the right idea, Bae,” Rose said. “If you need someone to work in the school, I’m available. Working for my sponsor isn’t really that difficult.” She grinned at me and I caught her in a hug. After I’d kissed her soundly, I pulled Bae to me, too. She insisted on a kiss as passionate as the one I shared with Rose. It reminded me that it was only her body that hadn’t matured, not her mind.
“Just remember,” I said, “the harder I work, the harder you’ll work.” We almost ended up in bed, but I really needed some time to think in my study. I sat at the desk with a very real-looking hologram of the orphanage at its current state of development. The cadres were moving right along behind the installation of pods, which was almost completed, planting shrubs, and seeding lawns. A sprinkler system had been installed with the power, water, and recycling lines in the infrastructure. “Rhett, nice job with the infrastructure,” I said.
“Thank you, sir. The specifications were not as complete as I would have liked. I hope you don’t mind my consulting with Cricket.”
“Not at all. Please do so at any time. Right, Cricket?”
“Absolutely, Niall. If I can help, I will.”
“Perfect. Since I have you both, I’d like ideas regarding how the orphanage can be converted into more of a village. We’ll need an education center with both sleep learning and classroom instruction. The pods should resemble more of a neighborhood than independent units that are all the same. It appears we may have some of the refugees on a longer-term assignment than originally thought. Suggestions?”
Some people find it difficult to work with an AI. Double the problems for me working with both Rhett and Cricket. They could pass ideas back and forth at several times the speed I could process them. I was pleased that Rhett had adopted Cricket as his mentor. I had a lot more confidence in Cricket than I thought most household AIs merited. There was just something about him.
By Friday, most of the physical labor had been completed at the orphanage. I was told the Sadi Carnot was expected to drop out of hyperspace sometime Sunday afternoon. It would take some time to get into transporter range and we’d delay off-loading her until daylight here on Monday. There was no sense in bringing confused concubines and dependents into a new setting in the dark. I’d studied the diagrams of the Kindertransport camps and our orphanage was set up in much the same way. The difference was that our pods were a little larger and spaced a little farther apart. I also felt our playgrounds and activity fields were much nicer than what they’d experienced on Earth. I sent the Orphanage Cohort home for the weekend with instructions to report at 0600 Monday morning.
«Niall, you mentioned wanting to do something nice for your managers and staff when we were working on the orphanage village design,» Cricket said as I walked home Friday evening. I stopped and reversed my steps.
«I knew there was something I was forgetting,» I said. «I need to go back and set something up.»
«That won’t be necessary. I took the liberty of working with your wives and inviting management and supervisors to your pod on Sunday afternoon for a barbecue.»
«You did that on your own, Cricket?»
«Yes. If you disagree, we can change the plan, of course.»
I reversed my direction again and headed toward home. «The plan is fine, Cricket. Please keep me up-to-date on any additional plans you and my wives make so I don’t run afoul of them.»
«Affirmative. Enjoy your evening with the family. I will attempt to keep interruptions at bay.»
I did, in fact, have a very nice evening with my wives and son. Lyle was over the moon happy about the possibility of getting more brothers and sisters, ‘like Bae.’ We played games and watched an entertaining movie before bedtime.
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