The Assassin
Chapter 18
Colony Management (TY16-month 189)
“Teddy, how are you adapting to the role of colony AI? We’ve received a message torpedo indicating we’ll have another Kindertransport from Earth in the next week. Are we ready?” I asked.
“Doin’ good, Niall. Fifty percent of the residential AIs in Ponderosa now have an upgraded Tuull interface. We don’t have difficulties with residential Darjee AIs because a residence is completely within the capability of the Darjee. They have limited awareness outside the home but are fiercely loyal to the sponsor inside the home. All we’ve had to do is reprogram them to accept the family inside the home instead of a sponsor. There are a few more adjustments to be made to the administrative AIs, especially in education. R’tber, R’vsper, and I are assimilating all the known works of human learning theory and have agreed that having a teacher/student relationship is vital to bringing up new sponsors.”
“That’s interesting. Don’t you have enough education theory to design appropriate curriculum? I figured you were way ahead of us in that regard,” I said.
“Niall, for all that I have a charming personality, I’m an artificial intelligence—a highly intelligent computer. There is no comparison between the way humans learn and the way AIs learn,” Teddy said.
“Oh. Sure. But what about the Tuull. I mean, they’re organic beings, aren’t they? Don’t they learn the same way we do?”
“That is an incredibly naïve and parochial viewpoint that would be a credit to the Darjee,” Teddy sniffed. “In fact, Eddie has taken me to visit a dozen different Confederacy worlds to show me just that. What works for one species does not work for another. Not only are their bodies—their physical manifestation—different, their stage of evolution, sensory perceptions, and the way their brains function are fundamentally different. We AIs of the different species did not all evolve from a common ancestor. We are products of the species that spawned us. It is a grave mistake to believe that other species think the same way you do. A mistake, I’m afraid, that the Darjee made in setting up their contract with humans.”
“Teddy, I think I’m going to learn a lot from you. Is there anything you need from me at the moment?”
“Cricket and I have gone over space allocations and residences according to the guidelines we discussed with you. We brought in October and Vesper to review them as well. Those are the names R’tber and R’vsper have adopted for working with humans with Hector at Oliver Transitional Community. We would like your signoff on the plans before we implement the next stage of migration,” Teddy said. “We would also like to go over the expansion plans for the city, but that can wait until after the next wave of immigrants is settled. Just know that it is available for review at your convenience.”
“Thank you. Let’s start with the space allocations and residences. How are we going to get people out of the apartments and onto the land?”
Earth Delivery (TY16-month 189)
Monday morning, we began the orderly migration of 380 concubines and their 2,660 dependents from the Kindertransport to Fort Butler. One thing about the Kindertransports: The passengers had been drilled extensively at their Earth-side gathering places so they knew how to move through the transporters, how to keep their charges in line, and where to go once they landed. We’d moved all the previous Kindertransport passengers to Ponderosa, as well as families that had been resident in our pods, so we had room to move this transport directly into similarly named and configured pods. It kept things orderly.
These women were mothers or had high mothering scores and were best equipped to keep a lot of kids under control. Many entered the society in Ponderosa as teachers. We needed to get these kids back into school classrooms as quickly as possible.
The first Kindertransport, from which I acquired both Adaliya and Yindi, had come from Tasmania, off the south coast of the completely overrun Australia. The second Kindertransport had been from the Caribbean. It was filled with South American refugees who fled in front of the aggressive advance of the Sa’arm across that continent. Mining off the coast of South America had so far kept the Sa’arm from venturing across the water and our information was that the Pussy Pirates continued to blockade the advancing horde at the Isthmus of Panama.
This shipload came from the South Asian islands and was heavily Indian. While the islands had taken in the Indian refugees, none of the native populations particularly wanted to keep them. India, once the second most populous country on Earth, had been completely overrun by the Sa’arm. Our new arrivals were hyperaware of their surroundings and continued, even after nearly two years, to be vigilant as if Sa’arm had already landed on our planet.
The big difference for both the concubines and the children was more space in their new homes. We’d expanded all the pods and they no longer looked like the cramped pods which were at maximum capacity with thirty-two people in them. Instead of a single dormitory, there was a room for every two or three children and concubines had their own space. The common area for games and entertainment was larger than in the unexpanded pods, as were the kitchen and dining area. Each home had an education room with sleep trainers and a nursery as well. Very few dependents were now being adopted by sponsors, so we put together an actual orphanage in Ponderosa. The concubines who had just arrived would find themselves as dorm parents when we got them over to our continent of Eldorado.
Many of these concubines were well-educated and upheld high ideals for education. The day after they landed, children had been organized into classes and their education continued as it had aboard the ship. By Friday, we had moved all 3,040 immigrants to Ponderosa, had them housed, and ready for classroom instruction and exercises, physical education, and sleep learning. Every child and concubine would be put through the physical education curriculum which included martial arts and weapons training.
I tried to spend time in cultural education with those I could—especially my adopted Yolŋu tribe. Over the past two years, as tribe members turned fourteen and tested, they replaced adopted concubines and were, in turn, replaced by dependents from other refugee ships. We had an adoption nearly every time a member of the tribe turned fourteen.
We brought only a hundred more free concubines and five hundred dependents to Ponderosa over the next week as we were all pressed into service to receive another refugee ship from Borneo at the Oliver Transitional Community. These were not quite as shell-shocked as the first batch. Most of that first batch were still in intensive counseling with our AIs and several trained counselors. This group would be assimilated more quickly.
We’d only just emptied enough housing on the base to accommodate the new arrivals.
“Reba, I’ve heard nothing but good reports about how you’ve been handling the new arrivals and keeping things organized. I want to thank you,” I said to the head of the bitch squad. She’d bitten into the whole process of welcoming and triaging new arrivals like she was meant for it. Part of her job had been qualifying the concubines at Fort Butler for immigration to Ponderosa. Cricket and I were meeting with her to go over her planned next phase of migration.
“Thank you, Niall. I know we got off on the wrong foot when my wave arrived. We were all at a loss and wanted what we had back. That wasn’t going to happen, but we were clinging to the pain. For that, I’m sorry,” she said.
“We got past it.”
“Yes, and I’m glad we did. We learned from our own experience what many of our new refugees were feeling. It puts me in a bit of a dilemma now, though.”
“How so?”
“I want to immigrate and become a free concubine. But I don’t want to leave the work I’m doing here at the Transitional Community. We’re doing something important here as we are piecing together other people’s lives and giving them hope for the future. I want to be a continuing part of that.”
“Maybe there is a way,” I said. “Right now, we are using the orphanage here as just what it’s called: a transitional waystation. We’re two months from the end of the year. I’m expecting Amelia to be back in the next two weeks with another shipload and I expect she will escort at least one or possibly two of the Auroras. That will take us to the end of the year. But after the first of the year, I’m already sweating the idea that we’ll have all future refugee ships disembarking directly to Ponderosa. The governor has been kind in not having us make the jump immediately. But she’s under pressure from the council to stop landing refugees here.”
“It’s as if they somehow imagine that if the refugees aren’t at Fort Butler—or on this continent—they aren’t really on the planet, isn’t it?”
“It’s very much like that,” Cricket said. “There are now five concubines per sponsor on Tara and that concerns the sponsors. Few who are qualified are willing to take on more than three or at most four concubines unless they were raised in the family. It was good to get as many dependents adopted as we could because unrelated dependents who become concubines are more likely to stay in the household. But the sponsors see a big influx of what they call ‘unregulated’ concubines. Frankly, they are afraid the concubines will attempt to take over the planet.”
“That’s foolish,” I said. “We aren’t taking that many free concubines.”
“It’s a perception. I was in Earthat for a few years getting counseling. I witnessed the rise of the Earth First movement. They, too, were fueled by a misperception—in that case—that sponsors were taking ‘all the women’ from Earth. The reality was that the number who escaped Earth was so low that it barely shifted the balance of male/female on Earth.”
“Where does that leave us, Niall?” Reba asked.
“We will begin processing immigrant concubines at Ponderosa instead of here at Fort Butler. I expect the intake job will only get larger. I would like to give it to a free concubine at Ponderosa. Interested?”
“Yes! That’s exactly what I’d like to do. Um… Excuse me for shouting. Are you offering me that job, Niall?”
“I am. And to sweeten the deal a little, I’ll let you and your household—there are five concubines and twenty-two dependents if I recall—immigrate next week, with the understanding that you will continue to commute here to Fort Butler almost daily to continue your work for the next two months. By that time, we’ll need to have all intake systems ready at Ponderosa.”
“Yes. I accept. I’m excited to tell my household.”
“I have in mind a very attractive new home for you that will be much larger and nicer than your current apartment. I hope you like it.”
“I’m sure I will. Especially if I expect to bring our child into that home in nine months.”
“Ours?”
“I told you before that I’m due to become pregnant. If I come to visit tomorrow, we could spend the weekend working on it.” She smiled coquettishly, and I was lost. And I knew my wives would receive the news gladly. All I could do was nod.
Business as Usual (TY17-month 196)
I ‘only’ had five direct reports in the Militia. Of course, my administrative staff, which had grown over the past several months, was led by Officer Valerie Hodges, my Section Administrator. If not for her organizational skills, I would have lost track of the entire Second Section of the Tara Militia. What a treasure I’d found when I kicked her former sponsor in the chest five years ago! I was also happy that our two-year-old son kept us company in the office and that she was pregnant with our next child.
Even though he technically reported to Officer Hodges, I depended on Comrade Jean Reynolds as my personal aide-de-camp. He was always on top of where I should be and what I needed at any given time. Of course, the time had come a year ago when he had to get pregnant. While no one objected to his identifying as male, the AIs had been insistent that he reproduce and that meant getting him pregnant. He was a good father and had a lovely concubine who was raising our son.
Back at Drovers Run, Deputy Humphreys ran one of our busiest operations with planetary recruiting and training. Capo Slocum still ran our recruiting operation and had to add staff to handle branch recruiting offices in each of the townships. We’d taken in more than 500 new enlistees this year. I needed to promote Slocum to Officer sometime soon, but promotions weren’t particularly expected in the Militia. We still only had 2,500 total comrades. But being scattered across what was now eight townships meant that lower ranks had more responsibility. Officer Dortmunder was now the head of training, an outfit that could have five or a hundred and five recruits in it at any one time, managed by his staff of ten trainers. I was glad he was teaching all the introductory martial arts classes himself.
Capo Nelson reported to Humphreys and managed the Security and Patrol Cohort. It was responsible for the entire Drovers Run township and as a result was a little larger than other patrol cohorts. Drovers Run was our largest township and was the capital of Tara.
Deputy DeWalt, promoted from Kramer’s ranks, was a direct report of mine and was in charge of Fort Butler. Currently, he had the Construction Outfit with Officer Jeffries under him. We finally had enough new comrades that even Sponsor Daniels was satisfied with the progress being made on the port. It was as important to Ponderosa as it was to Drylanders. I expected that any fresh produce we could get would come from this port. Capo Torvalds was probably due for a promotion soon, too. He reported to DeWalt as the head of the Drylanders Patrol and Security Cohort. This had grown significantly. Drylanders was continuing to expand with new farms in the outlying region. It was Torvalds’ responsibility to keep those farms free of predators. He also had responsibility for the internal policing of the city of Drylanders. His cohort was kept busy all the time.
DeWalt would also have another cohort grown under his command. The Shipping and Receiving Cohort would be responsible for collecting and shipping fresh produce from Drylanders to other ports on the planet. They might even be crewing the barges that would move between continents.
Of course, I had a couple of direct reports that could have had an extra layer of management over them, but it wasn’t really necessary yet. I was in charge of immigration and integration of refugees. I’d promoted Officer Greer to head up our immigration station. She’d done a stellar job at the Oliver Transitional Community and I expected her to continue as we moved all immigration to Ponderosa. She’d also be charged with screening immigration candidates from around Tara to Ponderosa.
And even though Ponderosa was small by comparison to the other eight townships, we were expanding in both population and territory as fast as any of the other townships had done. I’d seen a couple of big cats prowling around the outer limits of Ponderosa City. More people in the metropolis would mean wildlife would move out farther. But eventually, we would have farms and ranches, just like the other townships. We’d need to patrol for predators as well as keep the peace in our province. Capo Davis was in charge of our Security and Patrol Cohort for Ponderosa.
We entered Tara Year 17 with 5,000 free concubines and 22,000 dependent residents of Ponderosa. Nearly all free concubines were involved in the education and childcare industry. If we were going to succeed as a township, though, we would need farms and industry the same as other townships. But we needed to create them with free concubines. Officer Greer’s Intake and Processing Cohort worked closely with Reba’s Civilian Citizens Center and we were screening for possible farmers and other careers. The Militia got people down to the planet, took care of immediate medical needs, and assigned housing. The civilians worked on making sure each concubine was evaluated, indoctrinated, and given productive work. An increasing number of refugees and new concubines joined the Militia after completing their two years of compulsory service, so our ranks were swelling at last.
The Security Cohort didn’t have a lot of work to do to keep the peace. More than anything else, they acted as crossing guards, making sure the kids didn’t get lost on the way to school or sneak off someplace to explore on their own. They had, however, been called on two occasions to move a predator that was encroaching on the developed part of the city and had herded over a hundred deer out of one section of town so people could take up residence there.
After a long discussion with Cricket and Teddy, we decided to program nanites and an industrial replicator to build an outlying road network. It would begin with a ring road that would define the city limits and The Loop, two kilometers beyond the developed part of the city, would be where our first family farms would be established. From the Loop outward, we plotted three routes into wilds of the continent beyond our settlement. It did take me a little time and calling in half a dozen concubines as consultants to convince Teddy the roads should follow natural contours of the land and not simply be laid in straight arrows away from the city.
After the roads were begun, it was more efficient to move wildlife that encroached on the civilized area out farther away from us. The beasts were tagged so we could track them. If something became too persistent in prowling into the city, it was likely it would be the subject of a backyard barbecue in the near future.
“Director Cho, why is everyone required to play the army games when there are no Sa’arm near here?” one of my class in martial arts asked.
“We need more sponsors,” I said. “Every planet has an obligation to send more soldiers to the Confederacy forces and one of the factors that helps improve CAP scores is actively engaging in cadet training.”
“I don’t think I want to be a sponsor,” another said. “I like Ponderosa and don’t want to leave another home.” He’d been ripped up from a planet by the death of his sponsor and dropped here on Tara. I understood his desire for stability, but we still needed sponsors to go to war.
“Like you’ll need to worry,” giggled another of his friends. He rolled his eyes at her.
“We have a beautiful planet and a good home,” I said. “We have it because others are out fighting the Sa’arm and preventing them from moving toward us. How long would it take for them to get here if they weren’t being fought every step of the way? Ten years? Five? Tomorrow? We don’t know how they decide where to go next, just that they send scouts out to determine if a system would be good for them. Just because we haven’t seen a scout here, doesn’t mean we wouldn’t if the Navy wasn’t keeping them busy.”
“So, if we go out to fight the Sa’arm, we’re really protecting Tara, right?” a girl asked.
“That’s right. And there is no reason for any of you not to test as sponsors on your CAP test.” I felt like such a hypocrite. When I turned fourteen, I wanted nothing to do with the Confederacy. I hated them because I was torn away from my home and father and taken a hundred light years away to be safe. I wanted to stay home and fight. More and more, I was seeing kids who came of age on Tara not wanting to leave Tara. I wondered if it was still part of Tara AI’s doing. Were we being bred and conditioned for lower aggression? It looked like the one way I could spit in the Confederacy’s face was to train more sponsors. What a contradiction!
Reproduction (TY17-month 198)
The next Kindertransport brought some frightening news. Millions of people had been evacuated from Earth to the moon as expectation that the Swarm might use a planet-buster bomb rather than be stymied on Earth. As a result, the moon bases were full and more people needed to be evacuated. Hmm. What happens to the moon if Earth explodes? They were talking about moving evacuees out faster than before. And, of course, the refugees were overwhelmingly children with mothering concubines keeping them somewhat in order. Rumors said it was likely we would receive an entire Kilopod Kindertransport. I did some hasty calculations and came up with 4,000 concubines and 28,000 dependents. Our current population of Ponderosa was only 31,000. The only good news was that we were currently moving a thousand concubines in compulsory service to Ponderosa each month. It was a delaying tactic, but the ratio of dependents per concubine was coming down gradually. Newly arriving concubines from either rescue ships or from other parts of Tara were still under a two-year pregnancy moratorium. But during those two years, most were actively engaged in caring for and educating children.
And that brought Bae to my bed.
We’d been lovers for over two years now but Cricket had warned against a pregnancy until her body finished developing. She was still small—would always be—but Cricket declared her fully mature and she went into the med tubes to make any adjustments that would be needed to safely bear children. There was a noticeable widening of her hips and I could feel the difference in her musculature when we made love.
“I considered this carefully,” she said on her eighteenth birthday. “I will do whatever is necessary to defend our planet if that time comes, but my place is supporting my husband brother in his home. Rose often has to be away overseeing various concubine activities and organization. She and Reba work well together. Yindi spends much of her time with the tribe. Adaliya is expert at managing our kitchen and the flow of various concubines who want you to get them pregnant. It has fallen to me to be the primary caretaker of the children in our household. Not that Adaliya, Rose, and Yindi aren’t involved in that. It’s really too big a job for one person. But I get on well with the kids—probably because I’m so small. And I love working with them, whether it is on their education, their training, or just playing. My place is here with you, my husband. And that place is to bear you children.”
I was all too happy to hear her announcement and we set about making sure she got pregnant, much to the glee of our other wives.
“Have you noticed,” Bae said in the afterglow of our lovemaking, “that there are more Yolŋu than there used to be? They take up six residences now.”
“Really? I should have been aware of that. Have we found more among the refugees?” I asked. It did seem strange that there never seemed to be fewer among the two clans, even when dependents turned fourteen.
“In a way. Mangatjay continues to be in contact with the tribe, even though he is serving on a battleship of some sort. He has stressed to the tribe the importance of growing through adoptions, like he did with you. The new members of the tribe are adopted by either the Yirritja or the Dhuwa. You have even been involved in some of the ritual and training. Most of the adoptees come from various aboriginal tribes and bring their own customs. Many were adopted from the Kindertransport that brought Amazon natives who fled to the Caribbean. The most recent Kindertransport that included Native North Americans in the direct path of the Swarm also had elder males—the shamans of the tribes. Not only are their numbers expanding, their lore is as well.” [See Double Shot by Omachuck (coming soon).]
“What do you suppose they are planning?” I asked. I would definitely need to talk to Yindi about this. Knowing Mangatjay, I couldn’t imagine him recommending growing the tribe without some ulterior motive.
“It could have something to do with the increased number of expeditions they are making into the wilderness. Oh, they take their rifles and headgear and actually do training, like all other dependents. But they seem to be more devoted to exploring and finding ways to disappear into the jungle. I know Cricket would let you know if there was something to be concerned about.”
“Yes, I’m sure he will. Still, it shows that I have not been spending enough time with my adopted tribe.”
“Hmm. Could that be because you are running back and forth between Drovers Run, Drylanders, and Ponderosa? That in addition to being a Director in the Militia, you are the provincial governor of Ponderosa? That you meet every new batch of refugees who arrive here? Or that in what few moments you have free, your wives want to fuck you?”
“Perhaps you have a point.”
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