The Assassin
Chapter 14
Incoming (TY13-month 148)
“Greetings and welcome to Tara. I’m Deputy Niall Cho, commander of Fort Butler Base and the Oliver Transitional Home,” I said to the gathering. There were some twenty or twenty-five concubines and nearly a hundred children in the room, but they were all absolutely silent. “I’m talking to you in small groups rather than gathering all the incoming refugees in a big hall. I understand some of you are not comfortable even in a group this size, so I’ll make this as quick as possible so you can get to your quarters.” There was no move or acknowledgment of my statement. I sighed and plunged ahead.
“First off, none of you are expected to go out and find a new sponsor. If somewhere along the line you happen to cross paths with one and make an agreement, no one will object. The same is true if you strike up a relationship with another concubine—male or female. Some of you are already in a relationship and we won’t separate you unless you request it. You won’t be expected to have children for at least two years. I know there are some in your group who have borne a child every year since you were picked up. You might be worn out. Returning you to fertility after two years will be done only after a consultation with you. We have counselors who will help you and will not force anyone into breeding.” Still only stares at me, though I saw one or two women rub their stomachs.
“We believe the best way for you to become adjusted to life on Tara is to participate in it. During your first two years here, you will be given specific jobs to do, you will continue your education and child-rearing responsibilities, and you will be trained in self-defense and combat. This training has two purposes. The first is to give you confidence. There will be no reason you need to fear any person. Second is because everyone on Tara is part of the defense of our planet. Eventually, every concubine will be capable of participating in the defense of our children and our homes. At the end of your two years of training, you will have a regular job to do that will be well-suited to your character and talents. If you wish to do so, you may volunteer to continue in the Militia and earn not only your freedom, but your citizenship. I wish Tara’s blessings on all of you and welcome you to our family.”
They stood up silently and left the room, escorted to their new residences in the apartment complex. Not every group was silent and cowed. Some were almost violent and angry. Most, however, responded to my message with acceptance, whether enthusiastic or resigned.
Over the course of a week, I greeted five hundred orphaned concubines and two thousand dependents. Each night I went home and my concubines and children comforted me.
No matter how the refugee concubines felt about physical labor, it seemed the majority were enthusiastic about combat training. They had seen Earth invaded and overrun by the Swarm. The earlier refugees lost their sponsors who did battle while the concubines and dependents were loaded on refugee ships and sent away. At first there had been hope that their sponsors would survive the battle and come for them. That hope faded fast. The combat training went a long way toward relieving some of the stress and PTSD as they began to get comfortable with their ability to defend themselves. The physical labor—really, just having the responsibility of a job assignment, even if it was a job babysitting—helped the later refugees. Having a dependable routine in which they weren’t randomly ordered to pull a train or threatened with physical alterations as a form of discipline was a huge relief for the former DECO concubines.
Classes in Taekwondo and other martial arts helped reinforce that feeling. I taught two advanced classes a week. I no longer went to Drovers Run. The classes were taught at Fort Butler and the students came from all the bases. I also led daily forms in the school for dependents. I was especially pleased with the number of young dependents who wanted to learn. I had three assistant masters who were teaching classes in the school every day. I was proud of the progress these kids were making and attended all the advanced testing.
The pulse rifles from Pussy Pirates were very popular. A few households had brought rifles and VR helmets with them as they had played the game at home. Of course, none of our rifles were charged. They were used with the VR helmets with which we trained. Rhett had budded a gaming AI to control the training and it had expanded to include terrain and scenarios from different places on the planet. Our base training area was over a kilometer square and we often had teams competing with each other.
We were essentially a labor force working on public projects like the harbor or building the refugee center. But we also took our defense training seriously. We couldn’t lose sight of the fact that we were the last line of defense should there ever be a landing on our planet. With only 800 in our entire service, that looked pretty weak, but we’d grow—hopefully enough to defend ourselves and our planet if the time ever came. The concubines entering mandatory service doubled our workforce overnight. And they actually trained harder than our sponsor counterparts who all had to put in two weeks of training a year. We did four or five days of training every month. The sponsors, however, outnumbered the Militia nearly a hundred to one. I guess that meant they couldn’t hide behind us.
A Family Way (TY13-month 149)
“Niall, it’s time,” Rose said, nudging me awake.
“Time to get up already? Seems I just fell asleep.”
“Time for the baby.”
“Baby?” Maybe my slowness at waking up was why I wasn’t a sponsor. Wait… “Baby! We need to get you over to the med tube.”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you, silly. I suppose I could just walk over to the clinic, but it would be so nice if you went with me.” Bae and Adaliya were both giggling in the bed next to us as I jumped up and pulled my coverall uniform on.
“Are you okay to walk? I can carry you,” I suggested.
“It’s only a few hundred meters. Just walk with me and let me lean on you.”
We had so many distressed and ill refugees arriving over the past months that we’d built a clinic that had twenty med tubes in it next to the school. With nearly 5,000 children, several hundred concubines, and the Militia, it seemed there was always a need for a med tube. I was considering putting one closer to the harbor just for construction injuries. Rose leaned on me and it was a very pleasant walk in the cool night air. What an ideal time for our child to be born. I lay Rose in the birthing bed, a special med tube devoted to childbirth, and held her hand as the miracle of life emerged from between her legs.
“I suppose someday we’re going to return to doing that without the help of nanites. That’s what we’re heading toward here on Tara, isn’t it?” Rose asked as I lifted our daughter to her breast. “Can I get up now?”
“Please wait for the afterbirth cleanup,” the med AI said. “You will be clear to return to your home in thirty minutes. You have a healthy baby girl, seven pounds, four ounces, and nineteen inches long. What name should be registered to her?”
“Susan,” Rose said.
“Is the sponsor in agreement?”
“Yes,” I said. “Her name is Susan Cho.”
I sat beside the tube while the clean-up was in process, including seeing the damp mess of the baby being cleaned by nanites. She sucked healthily at Rose’s breast and Rose’s nanites immediately stimulated lactation.
«Deputy Cho, K’treel ship AGS027, Amelia Earhart has entered the system and is requesting urgent disembarkation of fifty-seven refugee concubines and three hundred fourteen dependents,» Cricket said. It was so seldom that Cricket used my rank and name that at first, I thought it was Rhett calling. But this was official business of the Fort Butler Orphanage. Cricket was handling it professionally. I’d just gotten back to bed with Rose and our new daughter. Everyone was too excited to go back to sleep. I pulled my attention away from my daughter and snapped to Cricket.
«Three hundred seventy-one… Wait a minute. How can a K’treel have that many people aboard? Doesn’t the spec say nine pods and some freight space?»
«The ship is far over-populated and has exhausted all its stores. Some of the passengers are in desperate need of medical assistance.»
«How soon can they begin transporting?»
«They can begin transporting in two hours but I am still negotiating with the Tara AI to allow them to immigrate.»
«What? Why? Let’s get them down here where we can take care of them.»
«There are no sponsors aboard the ship. Therefore, there is no one to officially authorize their transport.»
«Isn’t there a captain? Crew?»
«No. The Amelia Earhart is under the independent command of its AI.»
«Shit.»
“Rhett!” I spoke aloud so my family would understand why I was rolling out of bed and pulling my clothes on again. “Request an immediate meeting with Centurion Oswald, Director Kotter, and Governor O’Hara. We have two hours to solve this problem and start getting people off that ship.”
“Yes, Deputy. All parties respond affirmative. They are on their way to meet you,” Rhett said.
“My loves, we have an emergency with nearly 400 concubines and dependents in distress on their way here.”
“Go!” Adaliya said. “We will take care of Rose and the children. Let us know if you need our help.”
I ran out of our pod and into the office in time to meet Centurion Oswald as he stepped off our transporter.
“You’re here? I assumed I’d need to go to the governor’s office.”
“She was with Director Kotter and they are coming through transport in thirty seconds,” Oswald said.
“Great! Cricket, get me all the information on this shipload of refugees you can. Where are they from? Why are they here?”
“Information incoming.”
“Deputy Cho, what is happening?” the Governor demanded as she stepped off the transporter in the outer office. Behind her Director Kotter was pulling her uniform together.
“Governor, Centurion, Director, we have a ship that just entered Tara space requesting immediate disembarkation of 371 refugees. The ship is way over-populated and is out of stores. The Tara AI has refused permission to disembark the passengers because there is no sponsor aboard,” I summarized quickly. All three went into quiet conversation with different aspects of the AI.
“How did they know to come here?” Kotter asked.
“Director, word of our reception of refugees has spread rapidly through the Confederacy,” Cricket explained. “This lift of refugees was made after all other Confederacy ships had escaped the system leaving the Amelia Earhart while it was still loading. AGS027 stayed in the system until it had loaded everyone who could make it to a transporter, which heavily overtaxed its systems and supplies. It suffered some damage and eighteen casualties when it was hit by a Sa’arm plasma torpedo. Fortunately, the shot only scraped the bottom of the ship and it was able to escape to hyperspace. Unable to contact any of the rest of the rescuers, the Amelia Earhart set course for Tara where it knew refugees were being housed. It was one of the ships that brought DECO refugees last month.”
“Confederacy ships left an unarmed K’treel in the midst of loading refugees and bugged out?” O’Hara stormed. “Without even a crew?”
“Confederacy command deemed all possible rescues had been made. AGS027 made the decision to stay until it had everyone it could hold.”
“Governor, you need to override Tara AI’s hold on bringing those poor people down here. Please. They need our help,” I said.
“Of course. We just need to get a sponsor up there,” the governor said. She cast a meaningful look at Oswald.
“Yes. Of course. As soon as the ship is in range, I’ll transport to it myself and start shuffling people down to you, Cho.”
“We’ll be ready.”
“I have every confidence in you, Niall,” Governor O’Hara said. She turned to the transporter and looked back at Kotter.
“I think I’ll stick around here and see how the operation goes,” Kotter said. “Maybe I can learn something.”
“Rose, I need the bitch squad,” I said through her collar more brusquely than I intended. That was what we’d taken to calling the leaders of the concubines at Oliver. I completely forgot Rose was probably sleeping with our new daughter. She was suddenly all business.
“What is it, Niall?”
“We have fifty-seven concubines and 314 dependents arriving in thirty minutes. They’ve been in transit two weeks in overcrowded conditions. They escaped a planetary invasion a scarce step ahead of the Swarm. All are traumatized and some are injured.”
“We’ll be on-site in fifteen minutes.”
“Rose, just call them for me, please. You don’t need to be here for this. You just gave birth. I’m so sorry to disturb you.”
“Niall, we are needed. We will be there.”
I looked at my staff gathered in the office. “Capo Speers, you have the lead on transport and organization. Cadres D and E will handle medical emergencies. They’re bringing portable med tubes to the transporter now for those who can’t wait for transport to the clinic. We have Patrol Cadre Wildcat on base for rest. I’m activating them to get food and beverages on the tables. Don’t bother with showing them to apartments until we sort out who’s hungry and who’s sick and who belongs to whom. We’ll transport directly to the assembly hall.”
“Yes, sir. We’re on the move.” She turned and nearly ran over Comrade Reynolds on his way into my office.
“Sir, Comrade Eckles is handling communications from the assembly hall. What else do we need?”
“Mothers,” I whispered. “There are at least six kids on this transport for every concubine guardian. They must be taking care of orphans. Help my concubine Rose organize the bitch squad.”
“I’m on it, sir.” He ran out of my office and Capo Hodges came in.
“Deputy, we have complaints from the harbor architect regarding the reduction in workforce again.”
“What now?”
“We pulled half the cadres on the harbor off to complete construction of the apartment complex.”
“Tell Daniels to stuff it.”
“Can I make that official, sir?”
“Capo…”
“I know. He’s already been swatted down by the governor’s office. I have the briefing report from AGS027. Sir, these people… They almost didn’t make it. Some of the kids saw their mothers die blocking access to the transporter pad. It’s a mess, sir.”
“Fuck!”
“Sir?”
“Never mind. I’m on my way to the assembly hall. Call me if you find something else urgent.” I headed out of the office with Director Kotter beside me.
Refugees (TY13-month 149)
The assembly hall was in chaos as children filed off the transporter pads. A few concubines came down first and efficiently moved the children off the pad and into the room. Children were crying and I saw tears in the eyes of the concubines as well. Many of the children were little ones. When possible, an older dependent would come through the transporter carrying a baby or toddler. Sometimes a baby was set on the pad at one end and lifted off at the other.
Our orphanage cohort was now eight cadres, including two cadres that Centurion Oswald had trained in trauma counseling. The twenty comrades had also been trained in triage after the arrival of the DECO refugees. They immediately set about evaluating the kids and concubines as they stepped off the pad, laying some immediately in the portable med tubes and transporting some to the clinic.
The bitch squad came through for us. They had pretty high opinions of themselves and how great their sponsors had been—and I can’t say I blamed them—but they also had high empathy for the refugees. They moved the children into clusters with other concubines who could get them fed and cared for. No one bothered to check whose child was whose. The important thing was to get them off the ship, fed, and medical attention where needed. The last six concubines each came through the transporter holding two babies each and were followed by Centurion Oswald with two more babies in his arms.
We called in every available comrade and their concubines to care for and comfort the children. Once people were fed and we had the major injuries triaged and headed to med tubes, we started sorting things out. If not for Cricket, we’d never have matched up children with the right concubines. And even after we did, we had half the children still remaining as unclaimed orphans.
That’s where the original Kindertransport concubines who remained unhomed came in. Each had arrived with seven dependents. While there were still a good number of unhomed concubines among them, the majority of the dependents had been adopted. They quickly agreed to foster as many refugee dependents as they could in the pods we’d prepared for them. Other of the concubines who arrived after the first disaster took in additional dependents. Over the next several days, the AIs would use the med tubes to run DNA tests on everyone to see if we’d accidentally separated anyone who should be together.
“We’re from Rem-at,” the concubine seated with the governor, the centurion, and me, said. “They caught us unawares. We thought we were safe. We were wrong.”
Concubine Miranda Lesley was what passed for the head concubine among the latest ship of refugees. It had taken us a while to get everyone sorted out and discover who had any kind of authority over the arrivals besides Centurion Oswald and me. Everyone had pointed at her.
“I’m not… I wasn’t the concubine with highest seniority on our colony. But I was in charge of the school and daycare complex in our township,” Miranda said. “We were mostly Navy families with not much Marine presence on the planet. And the Marines we had were the first to confront the landed hive sphere while the Navy was still battling the invaders above the atmosphere. We were simply overwhelmed. The Navy ships began evacuating everyone they could hold, but they were mostly smaller ships and not able to take hundreds at a time. We had one big cruiser that loaded well over a thousand, but we were pretty scattered out over the planet and they were taking people as fast as they could transport them. We didn’t even hear the order to pull out. We were waiting our turn.
“We didn’t have much of a defense force. Some of our planetary Militia showed up and took up a stand in front of the school. Many of them were parents of the children inside. We couldn’t figure out what was taking so long for us to be evacuated because the Sa’arm were closing in fast. Then we heard Amelia’s voice instructing us to move the children to the transporter and come with them. As you saw yesterday, it takes a while to transport four hundred people to a ship that’s meant to hold fifty at the most. But Amelia didn’t panic. She held steady until we were loading the last of the children. Some of the older children could see outside the daycare center. They saw their mothers die defending us. I was going to turn and help the defenders but Amelia demanded that I step on the pad before it self-destructed. I was needed on the ship.
“There was no one left outside. I could see the Sa’arm units as they closed in on the school. I stepped on the pad and was transported. Amelia moved as fast as possible. She’d been hidden in a moon shadow but as soon as they detected her, they started closing in. We were hit a glancing blow just as she skipped into hyperspace. We lost eighteen in the impact but I guess one of the benefits of being crammed into such a small space was that we cushioned each other. The ship wasn’t intended to hold over four hundred women and children. We made do. We moved into every available space on the ship—storage pods, passenger pods, the mess, the bridge, everyplace. Amelia did her best to help us cycle into bathrooms, to get the worst injured into med tubes, and to feed us. She just didn’t have the supplies and the replicators didn’t have the capacity we needed.
“We didn’t know where we were headed. We just trusted her to keep us safe. And she did. Thank you for taking us in.”
“Thank you, Miranda. We’ll do everything in our power to help you and keep you safe,” I said.
“Do we have a time limit now? I mean now that we’re on a planet instead of on that wonderful ship?” she asked.
“No!” Governor O’Hara said. “We won’t be able to find you all sponsors—in fact, most of you. There is no time limit for unhomed concubines on Tara. We’ll do our best, but for now your primary point of contact is Deputy Cho. He runs Fort Butler and the orphanage. We won’t be surprised if we get more ships of refugees, so please do what you can to help prepare the base for more people like you. I know you need a little rest and the opportunity to breathe deeply, but the war is upon us. I am so sorry you were caught in the front lines.”
“Thank you, Governor. Are we all owned by Centurion Oswald, then?”
“Officially, the Tara AI has you listed as belonging to me,” Oswald said. “In reality, Deputy Cho is your sponsor. He is the problem for all your solutions. Please treat him accordingly.” I scowled at him. I was the problem. Clever. Well, as far as he and the governor were concerned, maybe he was right. I was going to be requisitioning a lot more supplies and putting out a lot of announcements encouraging volunteers in the Militia.
“Miranda, I want to take some time to get to know each of you and I’ll explain how our system works here on Tara. There is a two-year moratorium on new pregnancies for arrivals, so you don’t need to worry about that. During those two years, you will all be given jobs and training, including defense training. Everyone is expected to contribute, but as you can see, we presently have seven or more dependents for every concubine at Oliver Transition Home. I’ve a feeling that will keep many of you busy. Let’s walk over to the apartments now and we’ll call a general assembly of concubines. Governor? If you’ll excuse us?”
“Certainly, Niall. I need to get back. Neville, we have more planning to do.”
“Yes, we do, Scarlett. And I’d like to talk to that ship AI again. Fascinating that a ship brought us refugees without any direct order and with no sponsors aboard.” The two headed for the transporter as Miranda and I headed back to the orphanage. On the way out the door, Rose joined us.
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