Author: Thinking Horndog
Title: Shopping Around
Part: 6 of 6
Universe: The Swarm
Summary: A side jaunt before a pickup nets a Confederacy Marine a hidden jewel

Keywords: MF M+F Mf oral anal noncon reluc exhib ScFi

Chapter 6

	"Me?"  The woman stood there for a moment, then muttered, "No,"
obviously embarrassed, adding, "I don't know why I came up here.  I love my
husband..."

	She started to move off, but Mike grabbed her arm.  "Kids, maybe?"

	She shook her head.  "They're all... over..."  Mike shrugged and let
go of her.

	Mike glanced around, disgusted.  "Okay, in case you haven't heard,
it's down to me -- and I have two open slots.  Those of you who suspected me
of being a child molester should know that I sent the young one over to the
care of my friend over there, because he has two nice older ladies and -- more
important -- her girlfriend."  His eyes swept the small group.  "We're going
to go at this differently, now.  In the first place, if you still object to me
on some grounds, you may as well go sit down."  Three women left the line.
"Now, if you really don't like sex, you should probably excuse yourselves..."
Two more pushed off the counter and walked off.  That left three.

	One of them was a narrow young black woman displaying some serious if
droopy cleavage in a halter top.  Hands on her hips, she asked, "How do I know
that YOU'RE any damned good?"

	Mike eyed her stonily.  "NOW, you ask that question?"

	"I've had a shitload of men walk out on my ass," the woman retorted,
"but ain't none of 'em complained about ME!"

	"And why is that?" Mike asked.

	"Why is what?"

	"Why do men walk out on you?"

	"I dunno."  The woman shrugged.  "I chase 'em down, anyway -- ain't no
way they're gonna stick me with kids and not pay for it!"

	Mike shook his head.  "How many kids do you have?"

	"Three."  She cocked her head.  "If I go with you, they'll still be
payin', right?"

	Pete, who had come forward to observe, laughed.  "No.  On the other
hand, you won't need anything basic, anyway.  Everything will hinge on him."
He nodded at Mike.

	The woman gave Pete the fisheye.  "What do you mean by I won't need
nothin' basic?"

	"Just that," Pete replied, shrugging.  "You're gonna have food and a
roof over your head, a place to sleep..."

	"What if I put his ass out?"

	"You don't."  Pete grinned.  "HE puts YOUR ass out -- and, frankly,
you don't want that to happen.  It limits your options -- severely."

	"What the fuck does THAT mean?" the woman asked.

	"It means it's a man's world again, Honey -- that's what it means!"
Pete replied.  "Are you always this irritating?"

	Mike laughed.  "She's just spirited.  I don't figure shes got reason
to trust anybody.  What's your name?"

	"Jolene."  She eyed them both suspiciously.  "I don't get it -- what
am I gonna do for money?"

	Mike didn't know the answer, so he looked to Pete, who replied,
"Nothing.  YOU don't DO money.  He gets a stipend, but there isn't much you
can do with it anyway.  The basics are provided, just like they're slowly
getting to be here.  If you want something that ISN'T basic, you wheedle him
for it."

	"So I don't need money..."  Jolene looked confused.

	"You don't even GET money," Pete explained.  "He does, but you are
totally dependent on him."

	"So what do I do?" Jolene asked.

	Pete shrugged.  "What he tells you to.  Clean house.  Raise kids.
Fuck.  Whatever makes him happy."

	Jolene frowned.  "Sounds a lot like they used to tell us marriage was
-- but it ain't."

	Pete nodded.  "It's more like it was a couple of hundred years ago.
Without him, you're nothing -- nobody.  Look, I could bullshit you, but we're
short on time, so I'm gonna go with the bald facts.  He will OWN you --
period!  You want it -- it comes from him.  If he's happy, you're golden --
but if he isn't you're in deep shit!  I really don't know how to make it
clearer..."

	Jolene nodded, thoughtful.  "So, I figure the old 'I got a headache'
game don't cut it?"

	Mike knew the answer to this one.  "Not even, Honey!"

	"Is it just you, or do you get to pimp me out?"

	Mike opened his mouth, but Pete beat him to the punch.  "There isn't
any prostitution -- no need.  But if he decides to lend you out, that's his
call, not yours."

	Mike added, "I don't see me doing a lot of that."

	Jolene sighed.  "I know I'm gonna regret this, but what do you want
NOW?"

	Mike pursed his lips.  "Show me your card -- and what's under that
halter."

	Jolene handed over her card, then undid the halter.  The jugs
underneath were substantial -- but they sagged and looked under-inflated.  The
nipples sported a good-sized pair of rings, too.  "Don't those get in the way
of breast feeding?" Mike asked.

	Jolene shrugged.  "Not really.  I probably ought to run a string
through 'em to hold 'em up."

	"We can crank them back up -- easy," Pete informed her.

	"No knives," Jolene insisted, holding up her hand.  "Besides, if I
have another kid, they'll just crash again."

	"No knives," Pete agreed.  "We have other methods.  And after every
childbirth, you can go back to looking like you did at sixteen, if that's how
he wants it."

	"No shit?" Jolene blinked.

	"No shit."

	"I was hot before Tyrone..." she mused.  Looking at Mike, she said,
"You'd like that."

	"Go get in line over there," Mike told her, pointing.

	She swayed up to him, suddenly seductive.  "You make me look like that
again and I'll make you so happy, Baby, that you won't know what to do with
yourself -- promise!"

	"Go on, then," Mike croaked.

	Pete shook his head.  "You never know what's gonna trip one's
trigger..."  He squared his shoulders.  "One to go."

	Mike nodded.  What was left just wasn't impressive...  He cast about;
there was a girl standing by the coffee machines, holding a baby.  "What are
you doing?  Waiting to buy a bagel?"  She was a classic, heavy-set brown-
haired chick.  She had a serious set of hooters locked into an even more
serious-looking brassiere under a blouse that looked vaguely like it was
designed to support nursing.  It ran a bit short, exposing some puffy midriff
flesh over her stretch capris.  The obligatory pair of cheap flip-flops
adorned her feet.  The hair was pulled back in a topknot with wisps escaping
at the neck; her face looked oily and sweaty and tired -- and scared.

	"Mister?" she replied, blinking.

	"I asked why you were here," Mike amplified.

	"Well, lunch...  It's cheap, you know."

	"So you DO want a bagel?"

	"I guess..."  She looked at the floor.  Mike made to turn around, but
she suddenly asked, "So, like, meals are free?"

	Mike and Pete both turned their attention to her.  After a quick
glance, Pete replied.  "Yeah, basically."  He eyed her.  "If you're
interested, why aren't you in line?"

	She shrugged.  "I've got Tommy..." she indicated the baby.  "Nobody's
gonna be interested."

	"Actually, existing children should be a drawing card," Pete said,
with a look at Mike.  "Of course, if you don't want to leave your husband..."

	"I'm not married," she told them.  "Michael and I were saving for the
wedding...  Daddy kicked me out when I got pregnant with Tommy..."

	"Well, I'm sure you love your boyfriend, but..." Pete began.

	"He's gone," she said then, her face changing.  "Last Tuesday some guy
brought me this..."  She started digging in her diaper bag one-handed and came
up with a sheet of paper.  Mike took it and started reading the scrawled note;
Pete read it over his shoulder:

	Hey, Linda,

	I'm shipping out to the colonies.  Some chick named Ingrid likes my
music.

	I put down a couple of weeks rent on the trailer.  Keep the car.

	It was signed, 'Michael.'

	Mike handed it back.  "I think he lied," Linda declared in a choked
voice.  "I think he left because I'm pregnant again..."  Tears started to
roll.

	Mike wasn't sure how it happened, but he was pretty sure he started
it; suddenly, he had a double-armful of sobbing woman with a baby pinned in
there, somewhere.  "It'll be okay," he muttered, staring at the way the wisps
of hair that had escaped her upswept hair filtered the light.

	Pete waded in to pull them apart; if Mike wasn't interested, this was
sad, but a waste of time...  "That's terrible, Honey," he muttered, peeling a
hand away from Mike's back.  "You want a bagel?  Grandma, get her a bagel.
You got a CAP card, Honey?"

	"Yes."  Mike found himself holding little Tommy while she dug for it
in the diaper bag.

	She handed it to Pete, who pointed her at the counter.  "Tell Grandma
what you want -- my treat.  But make it quick -- we're in a hurry, here."
Linda took her baby back and moved to the counter while Pete examined her
card, then flipped it at Mike.  "Your call.  She's seriously dependent, but
has good scores for sex and childbearing.  Four point three."  He grinned.
"She looked cuddly..."

	Mike eyed the card, but it was more to see what he'd gotten himself
into than an input to the decision.  "Well, I've got Jolene to run things."
He looked up at Pete and nodded.

	"Okay, I'm gonna get this herd moving," Pete muttered.  "Make it
fast."  He whirled a finger above his head and Rick, who already had the
transporter terminus deployed, fired it up.

	Linda, who had ordered a couple of toasted bagels and a coffee, turned
to watch as people started to disappear into the shimmering field between the
two wary Marines with a certain wistful air.  Mike came up to the counter and
said, "Give us another coffee cup, will you?" and fished in his pocket for a
ten.  "Keep the change."  The woman surfaced another cup, and Mike said,
"Here, go fill them, will you?  Get lids.  I'll take Tommy."

	Linda, looking bemused, handed her baby over and took the coffee cups
to be filled.  "What flavor?"

	"House blend."

	Linda watched as the short guy herded his menagerie into the
transporter, nearly overfilling a cup.  Quickly, she put the lids on and
filled her pockets with creamers and sugar, then headed back.  "Why are you
still here?" she asked.  "Aren't you going?"

	"Yeah, I'm going."  Mike took the cups and slid them into a carrier
one-handed, then handed her Tommy back.  "I got your stuff to go."  Collecting
the carrier and the paper bag holding the bagels, he led her over to the
rapidly diminishing group of selectees and concubines.

	"About time!" Pete grunted.  "Maureen, get my stuff and get your fanny
over here!"  Things had thinned to the six of them.  "Go!"  He nodded her
through.

	"Well, goodbye, I guess," Linda sighed.

	Pete blinked.  "Honey, you're here to travel, not wave goodbye."
Linda gasped.  "You got a problem with that?"

	"N--no."  Linda shook her head, eyes wide.

	"Get her out of here," Pete told Mike.  "I've got to clean up."

	"Take my hand..."  Mike led her forward into the shimmering field.

	"This one took millennia!" Rick groused, backing toward the terminus.

	"Yeah, no shit!"  Pete agreed.  The wall field generators weren't
safely recoverable, so he triggered the self-destruct as he backed into the
field.  The AI took over, killing the interdiction field and triggering the
terminus' self-destruct from the interdiction drone when Pete had finished
transport, ending another successful pickup.

                         --------------------

	In orbit, aboard the kilopod transport Catch-22, Linda turned to Mike.
"Why am I here?"

	Mike shrugged.  "You're cuddly."  They stepped away from the terminus
of Transport Room Three, waved forward by an anxious crewman.  Recovery of the
extraction team tended to be tense, as they were the last ones out.  But CPL
Evans appeared in the stream, followed by CPL Taylor, so the transport crewman
relaxed and shut the terminus down.  "Welcome back!  This seems to have been a
good one..."  A BIG naked blonde threw herself at CPL Taylor, taking the
crewman by surprise; he caught an arm as she went by, but nearly lost his
footing as he was dragged along, "Here, now!"

	"Relax, Chad," Pete waved him off.  "This one's mine."

	Chad turned to Rick.  "No shit?  Mr. Picky collected a concubine?
Fuck!  I wonder who won the pool?"  Pete and Rick both laughed.

	"You'll never guess where!" Rick chuckled.  Chad waited him out,
shaking his head.  "In a card store!"

	"Jesus Christ..."  Chad shook his head, laughing.  "Get 'em out of my
Transport Room, willya?"

	"Awright, everybody, listen up!" Pete roared, "Go through the hatch
there -- door, to you -- and turn left and go on down to that big room at the
end of the corridor!  We've got a lot of sorting out to do!"  Throwing out his
hands, Pete and Rick started herding the latest load toward their new lives...

			-+- == o 0 O 0 o == -+-

	This story is continued in 'Taking Deliveries.'