Well, by now you'll have been notified long ago, but this message will confirm it: your little girls were picked up a month ago.

Just like you told us to do, we both went to try to get a sponsor. Tiffany's sponsor is some guy with a 7.4 CAP score. She's with her best friend Katie and some couple with two kids about eight and ten. My sponsor is Gerry, a really nice guy with a 6.8 CAP score who is going to be doing Technical Analysis of the Swarm's stuff. My sister concubine is Eleanor, a lady in her early 30's with a couple of kids, five year old Maggie and seven year old Chuck. Both are bundles of energy, and keep the two of us running. Fortunately Eleanor (she likes to be called Elle) has a nice high nurturing CAP score so she keeps up with them well.

It was a month ago now that we were picked up. We'd made it to the supermarket and had started on the grocery list you'd given us when the big front windows turned grey. We both squealed (very embarrassing, we were trying to be smooth and sophisticated but blew that immediately!) and started looking around.

The Marines (there must have been at least five) took us all up to the front of the store, except those idiots who didn't want to go (they were sent to the stockroom to wait out the extraction) and the littler kids who were sent over to the Produce aisle for the 12 and 13-year-olds to babysit.

The head Marine was cute, I guess -- I'm not into girls so I really can't judge -- but big! She must have been at least six and a half feet tall, and full of muscles. She announced there were five volunteers at the store, and that they got to choose twelve concubines. The race was on to find a sponsor. I think the first piece of clothing hit the floor before the Sergeant finished her speech.

You know how you'd been criticizing me for wearing so much? Y'know, a shirt with my shorts or miniskirts? Well it came in handy here -- the other girls' body paint looked like they were still wearing tops when it was obvious I was nude. This may be TMI, but I definitely got a second look from the boys when lots of the other girls didn't.

Gerry had quickly picked the Mom -- highest nurturing CAP score -- and started in on the 'early Teen' line, and stopped at me. He liked my nurturing skills too, even though my experience drove that number down. He figures that having all the kids around, including those I pop out, will raise my CAP score significantly.

Anyway, Gerry quickly found out I still had my cherry, and decided to test me by having me give him a blowjob. It's not something I was very experienced with, but it seemed to be enough for him. At least I knew enough to keep my teeth off the pole!

You know how you can make wholesale changes to your body with the Darjee medical technology? Because I'm still only 15, Gerry didn't do much except get rid of the zits and fix my teeth and eyesight. Other than that, he says he wants me to 'mature' into my role naturally. When I turn 22, he'll lock me into that look.

And so I'm still looking pretty much like I did -- but I won't for long. Both Elle and I are preggers, and the AI says they're both boys! You're gonna be grandparents!! As soon as they're born, I'll ask Gerry to send you guys pictures.

Love, Chrissie

I just got your message. Mom and I both read it, and we're happy for both our daughters. Although we were raised that a 15-year-old was a mite young for a mother, it's a new world and we're happy for you. Yes, please send pictures -- also, please send pictures of the rest of your new family.

We also heard from Tiffany. She's pregnant too, she proudly reports, with twins, a boy and a girl. Granted she's seventeen, but even that would still have been considered 'too young' when we were that age. You are still 'our little girls'.

How is life on the colony? We dearly would love to know.

Around here, we've seen a number of houses emptied by the extractions. The Feldenkampfs across the street vanished yesterday, and the Graysons' granddaughter Amanda got picked up with her three little ones. The Graysons are stuck, though, because Martha's too old for kids anymore and Doug has been complaining about the CAP scores -- he's way too low to be a sponsor, to nobody's surprise but his. Everyone I've talked to in the neighbourhood agrees Amanda's much better off without her grandfather making her life miserable. It might even raise her CAP score!!

We agreed to take in that Fred Buxton boy from two doors down. He's 15 with a sponsor CAP score, but his parents are now headed off to the stars -- they were dining out for their anniversary on the same night that the Confederacy chose to extract from that restaurant. He's looking at putting a pre-pack together, so it looks like we'll have a couple of ladies staying with us as well before too much longer. I've told him what the Public Service Announcements are telling us on TV: 'Go for at least one mother and one organizer'.

There must be about five houses for sale on this block alone because their occupants have gone to the stars, either as sponsors or as concubines. It's had a depressing impact on the value of housing, and on furniture, cars and other goods, as more and more housing comes on to the market.

Speaking of which, I just read that yet another cloth manufacturer has gone out of business. We just aren't buying so many clothes these days, and the clothes we are buying, don't use nearly as much fabric. I shudder to think what will happen to our economy if those Confederacy replicators end up in wide use.

While your mother is still disturbed by the rampant display of flesh, I find myself curiously unaffected. Oh, sure, in the beginning I almost crashed the family car several times, but by now I've become inured to women wearing little more than body paint.

We've had some good news here: we went for our annual retest the week after your extraction, and I'm now a six point seven, which means I can sponsor your mother. She and I are looking around for a second 'spouse' to fill out my pre-pack, preferably with kids of her own. Between my pre-pack and Fred's, we may go from having spare bedrooms with you two extracted to being short on space.

Please send more messages, and we'll keep you up to date on what's happening around here.

Love, Dad

We've been at our new colony for about a month now, and we seem to have settled in. Gerry has finished his Basic Training and is now a Confederacy Navy lieutenant, and looks like he'll be promoted to commander real soon. He's in Intelligence, which means he doesn't go on cruises but stays here.

The colony of Nova Roma is fairly new and we're still terraforming the planet, but we already boast roads and streetlights, and community centres. We've got several townships, each clustered around a set of pods set up by the Civil Service officer (we only have the one for the whole planet, a harassed, overworked woman named Faith Beldane). The little grouping of Civil Service pods is referred to as the 'community centre' and provides us with a transporter nexus, a medical bay, classrooms, a nice large party room with a stage, and an interview room. I talked to Faith and got her to set up playgrounds right beside the community centre, and talked Gerry and Elle into volunteering Elle's time to run a drop-in centre for the inexperienced mothers. They've set up this drop-in centre in the party room of the community centre.

Not everyone's as smart as Gerry! Lots of the sponsors thought with their 'little head'when they were extracted and picked a pair of fourteen-year-olds who were cute but fluffy, if you get my meaning. This means those sponsors have no concubine in their family with any experience in raising kids and need all the help they can get, so the drop-in centre is proving very popular.

Next month, we're hoping to have baseball diamonds and soccer fields set up. One family's sponsor is from Minnesota and she wants hockey arenas set up, but that's going to have to wait until after more settlers arrive. Apparently a hockey arena is a little too big to fit in a standard pod even when it's expanded to maximum size so the building will have to be purpose-built.

So right now, the colony looks like a high-tech trailer park, but without the grass and trees. Some ship arrived recently with a pod full of plants and trees which we concubines have been busily transplanting around the colony, but it still looks like a rocky desert.

Gerry wants both of us to raise our CAP scores, saying we can have a 'shared household' with him if we become volunteers. He had the AI install an additional sleep trainer so that we can trade off between child care and education. He's even got a list of subjects for us to learn, and an order of priority.

I hope you like the pictures. You'll notice I'm not showing yet. It's still too early.

Write back soon. How are my old classmates doing? Has Fred been extracted yet?

Love, Chrissie

Got your last letter. Before I say much else, let me assure you that everything is OK here. No, Fred's still hoping to be extracted. He's got his two girlfriends, one being his high school Math teacher and the other a classmate. The school is looking the other way as long as they keep their concubine/sponsor relationship confined to outside of regular school hours and extra school events. They're both staying with us, along with his teacher's two little kids who are both as cute as buttons.

Well, we had quite the excitement here last night, let me tell you.

We woke up at about three in the morning to gunshots and yells and cursing, and then there were a few explosion-type 'bangs'. I got the family into the basement as quick as I could, and we just stayed in the root cellar for the next hour. Not until we could see police cars' lights flashing through the basement windows did we figure it would be safe to come up.

The excitement was over at Peter Johanson's place. It turns out the lucky so-and-so had managed to score a 9.2 on his last CAP test, and somehow the Earth Firsters had gotten wind of it. They decided to eliminate him along with his whole family before they could be extracted.

They didn't, though, because apparently the Confederacy was watching. Two of the attackers were killed outright and five others injured. The Johansons were shaken but unhurt. The Widow Thomas, who lives next door to the Johansons, was cut by flying glass, but other than disrupted sleep and frazzled nerves that seems to be it for any of the neighbours. I'm going around door-to-door to make sure everyone's OK. I might be being nosey, but I'd rather be accused of being nosey than of leaving a neighbour hurt with nobody to check on them.

We haven't heard exactly who the idiot Earth First crew were, but I have to wonder why they'd try to kill those we need most desperately to stop the Swarm. Are they suicidal?

There was another big extraction earlier this week, which might have set off the Earth Firsters -- the local elementary school had an open house, and the Confederacy took advantage of that. The school's in sad shape now, with half the students gone with at least one of their parents (and apparently in the majority of cases, BOTH parents) and so are two-thirds of the staff. They're scrambling to get replacement teachers and a replacement Vice-Principal. I've agreed to coach the school's extra-curricular sports, as their regular coach was one of the extractees. I'm told it'll be good for my CAP score, and besides your mother likes to go watch the kids.

We've been warned we can expect more extractions: another colony transport is going to be over the area this weekend, and apparently it's one of those new kilopod ships.

You may recognize some of the recent extractees: the local TV station got hit and lost most of their on-air personalities. They've been replaced by a couple of retirees and some sprogs right out of high school. The community college is rotating their Media Arts students through the TV studio.

Sometimes these extractions leave a mass of confusion behind. Fred, two doors down, had his car in at the repair shop. The mechanic who'd worked on his car is now heading to the stars, and the Confederacy had to find another mechanic to confirm that the repairs were done and then collect the repair bill from Fred. It took him an extra day and a half before he could actually get his car back. No extra charge for the loaner.

The local restaurants have taken to posting signs boasting of how many people have been extracted at their locations. I don't know if this will encourage or discourage people from going there: Has the Confederacy used up their safe times going back to this fishing hole for awhile, or will they try again? Do you want to get extracted, or avoid the situation entirely?

Because of the increased rate of extractions, your mother and I are going everywhere together. She's given up her job at the social services agency, and goes into Dakins Engineering with me. They've cut back our hours, so I'm now working on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and off on Thursday and Friday, which we spend at the elementary school.

Write back as soon as you can, and with more pictures if possible. I'm enclosing pictures of Fred and his pre-pack. Maybe that will encourage the Confederacy to extract them!

Love, Dad

Wow! That DOES sound like you had excitement there! Our excitement has been much less lethal, and I for one hope it stays that way.

We had a big celebration for the launching of two new ships: a kilopod transport named Capricorn Princess and a huge new assault carrier, the New Orleans. We couldn't be up there in orbit, but we gathered in the capital township's central square and oohed and ahhed at the appropriate times. The Navy and Marines and Fleet Auxiliary were all dressed to the nines in their dress uniforms with their Sam Browne belts and shiny boots, and the Governor gave this short (not short enough!) and interesting (OK, boring!) speech. They had a nice martial parade and then they marched through a line of transporter nexuses to board their new vessels.

The carrier is off on training to some other colony for awhile, while the transport is heading back to Earthat (did you know that's the new name for our old Solar System?) to extract another thousand volunteers. Apparently the next colony ship will be one of those new cube ships, and then we'll REALLY start to grow!

The next excitement was smaller, just for our township. The nanites have finished creating the soccer and baseball fields, and as soon as they were ready we had a dozen kids lined up fielding fly balls and dribbling soccer balls. The kids were so excited, and wore themselves right out -- my fellow concubines reported their little ones had the best night of sleep since they got here. Elle's two were right in the thick of things.

By the way, they've started to call their own mom 'Mom Elle' and me 'Mom Chrissie'. It makes me feel even more connected to them when they say that. I just love them to pieces. Gerry insists on having us both respond whenever they say, 'Mom?' without a name, which he says encourages them to think of both of us as their mothers. It seems to be working.

More of those big ships, the kilopod transports, have arrived recently and the result is tons more people. Our township is full, and so are two others that started after we got here. Poor Faith, she really needs more help. She's got her own concubines helping her, but she only has five of those. She's starting to get some of the other sponsors' concubines doing various jobs around the colony that free up sponsors for more value-added work. Elle now has another three concubines helping her in this township's childcare drop-in centre, and the four are on call if Faith needs an emergency babysitter. The 'emergency babysitters'� are pre-cleared with their sponsors so all Faith has to do is tell the AI and the concubine is ordered to the community centre, even if the sponsor is on duty up in orbit or on a cruise somewhere. We are also being encouraged to get amateur theatricals and chorus groups going.

I've been given a job too. I'm still taking courses to get my high school diploma, but I'm instructing elementary school kids, just like Daddy. The new superintendent of the school system is apparently on his way, which will make the teachers' job easier. Right now we're kind of feeling our way along. All these concubines and kids here, and only about six professional teachers for a colony now approaching 250,000.

As you can see from the enclosed pictures, I'm starting to show a bit. Gerry had me pose nude because you can't tell under a concubine's shift. Sorry, Mom, you probably didn't want to see me that way! :)

And I heard from Tiffany. Her sponsor's away at the moment, on a cruise. He's a Fleet Auxiliary officer on an Aurora, flying between Earthat and here. Hopefully he'll be back within the month, she really misses him.

I hope the next letter will have to go to your new home in the colonies!

Love, Chrissie

Your Mom and I are doing well. Fred is off to the colonies, though: they had an extraction at his school's football game last night. The Marines actually waited for them to finish playing before they activated the interdiction field.

I've got my second concubine, a widowed mother of two named Jessie Windemere. Her husband was killed in a car crash just a couple of years ago, and she's desperate to save the lives of her two little girls, 10-year-old Janie and 8-year-old Marie. I met her while I was coaching Janie's swim team. They're living with us now, the girls are in your and Tiffany's old rooms. She and your mother seem to get along very well.

The swimming lessons that the school is putting on have been interesting: they decided to get the kids used to the nudity that they'll see when (if) they're extracted, so all swimming lessons are in the nude. It's 'opt-out'�, so unless both parents sign off that they don't want their kid skinny-dipping, the kid doesn't get a swimsuit. If they do opt-out, the kid is one of the few in the pool area with anything on. Even your mother and I don't wear anything around the pool deck.

We do have some interesting news from here. It seems the leader of the Earth First cell who tried to kill the Johansons was none other than Doug Grayson! You see, attacks on Confederate personnel, assets (including concubines) and potential extractees are considered capital offences by the Confederacy, and trials are remarkably short. By the end of the day Doug was dead, his execution being broadcast to the entire planet. He and his fellow Earth First cell members were placed in a clear-glass re-entry vessel with no heat shield, and the Navy folks skipped the vessel across the atmosphere a few times. By the time it landed, there were only ashes to vacuum out of there.

Martha claims she had no knowledge of what her husband was up to, but that hasn't stopped the neighbourhood from basically ostracizing her. She's upset about everything, and now faces life without her husband and without neighbours she's felt close to for nigh on forty years. She's thinking of moving out of town, to try to escape the disgrace. I have tried to have some kind words with the poor woman, but she's terrified and ashamed.

As promised on the TV, last weekend they were doing extractions all over the place: two of the local shopping malls, a big-box clothing store, four restaurants and a little-league baseball tournament. Apparently they're now adding a new wrinkle: if your pre-pack isn't together, they'll hunt the rest down, as long as they're with dependants.

There were news interviews of various pastors on both sides of the religious divide on tonight's news. Some are saying the Sa'arm invasion is a bunch of hooey, don't get CAP tested and if an extraction happens don't go, and resist if they try to force you to go. Others are saying the Sa'arm are real, it's God's judgement on the sinners, and this is how the Rapture is supposed to happen. And still others think both of the first two are full of it, and if an extraction happens, use it to get the heck out of Dodge if you can.

And the biggest news? We think your mother is pregnant again. She's got all the symptoms: sick in the morning and her period is late, which it almost never is. We're off to the doctor's on Monday. I'll send a message just as soon as we get confirmation.

Love, Dad.

Wow -- I'm going to be a sister again!! Let me know as soon as you can what gender my little sibling is going to be.

Gerry had a very big and very pleasant surprise last week. It was his birthday, and first thing in the morning before he reported to the dockyard, he got his CAP rescored. The Governor has everyone, sponsor or concubine, rescored on their birthday. And Gerry celebrated the big 3-0 by scoring a big fat 7.9, an increase of 1.1 points. He now gets two more concubines. The five of us are going out as a family to the Civil Service barracks tonight to select another couple of concubines. Gerry wants a male and a female, with lots more kids.

That means we have to rearrange the pod again. We rearranged it when we first got it on board the transport that brought us here, and again when we arrived. We're ready for the two little ones we've got coming, but now we'll have to rethink everything for the new pair we've got coming in.

My sister concubine Elle has her birthday next month. She scored a 5.2 last time, so she's not expecting to become a sponsor. I'm hoping to raise mine, but it was a 4.8 so I'm sure I'm not going to get a sponsor-class ranking either.

The soccer field is finished, and although we don't have enough kids old enough yet for a soccer team we've got enough concubines for two teams. We are, well, enthusiastic. I can't say much for our skills, though! Maybe we should ask for a coach from Earth!

A lot of concubines, like Elle and her parent-child drop-in centre, work outside the family home to help the colony out. Others are strictly housewives and house-husbands, staying in the townships and raising the kids.

Entertainment here has been strictly either canned stuff from Earth, mostly over five years old, or whatever you can do in-house. But a surprise came last week. Apparently there's a new division of the Civil Service, consisting of two producers with nice high CAP scores, their concubines, and an attached crew from the Fleet Auxiliary. They've got a K'treel explorer ship modified to carry an entertainment troupe. They've got singers and a band, and do a show suitable for the kids in the afternoon, and a raunchier one for the adults in the evening.

They do songs from Earth, but a lot were written for the Diaspora, like 'Daddy's Little Concubine', 'Demeter Dance' and 'Astroglide'. The Marines seem to prefer the 'Sa'arm Shuffle', and always ask for it as an encore. Every show opens with the old Earth tune, 'Spaceship Superstar', and do they ever rock it! 'Daddy's Little Concubine' is a little controversial -- it's about a kid about nine years old who wants to be Daddy's little concubine the day she turns fourteen, and includes deliberately suggestive lines -- but it's popular too, and sung by this really cute little girl.

I heard a buzz that there's supposed to be a new Civil Service officer coming. They've got their eye on some guy with education experience to run their schools here.

The news from the dockyard is interesting, or at least I think it is. The cube ship they're building is about half done. The thing is monstrous, it'll be able to take over 250,000 people at one go. They tell me it's a Valhalla class, and when it's finished it'll be called the Nirvana. They're hoping to make three more of these monsters over the next year.

They're also building lots of other types of ships here, especially kilopods. The Kilopod class is so much smaller than the cube ship -- it can only take 1,000 families at a go -- but because it can be put into action so much more quickly, and because it doesn't need the manpower that a cube ship sops up, it's good enough for mass production. All our kilopod ships are called Princess something, like Princess Margaret or Princess Tabitha, or something Princess. It doesn't matter if it's a real princess, they just need a name -- there are that many being launched every month.

Yes, I'm getting bigger -- but the nannites will be putting me right back into shape again as soon as my son is born. Oh, and as for a name, we were looking at Christopher Gerald, using Daddy's name and Gerry's.

Love, Chrissie

We are all doing well. Your mother's morning sickness is coming to an end, which is a relief for her -- but now Jessie's started to throw up in the morning. Apparently I'm more potent than I realized.

Work has become interesting. We're seeing a lot more pre-packs with prospective concubines and sponsors together at the office, and the company is taking advantage of it by getting them to do light office work: filing, doing letters, answering phones, that sort of thing. They're all wearing abbreviated versions of clothing, which for some will only be a good thing after they have a trip through a medical pod.

Another attack by an Earth First cell last night struck at the local armouries. No weapons were taken -- apparently our friends in the Confederacy were watching, and as the miscreants arrived at the magazine, an interdiction field went up. The bad guys were still in the corridor outside the magazine when the forces of law and order showed up.

And some gangsters tried to bully their way into a pickup by kidnapping a potential sponsor's family, and forcing him to take the gangster instead. The Confederacy extracted him, rescued his family, and spaced the bad guys. Apparently they had been monitoring his communications.

Another Earth First sympathizer had strapped a bomb onto himself just like a Middle East terrorist. He didn't get far, but they allowed him to think his fake 6.8 CAP card had fooled them and that he was going on board the ship. I guess they figured that was safer than trying to stop him any other way. Apparently those nexus things scan the incoming passengers, and if someone has something hazardous that they shouldn't have, it gets removed. In this case, it removed both the explosive vest and the wearer to an orbit somewhere around the Moon. The news reports say the two young ladies he was escorting as his pre-pack didn't know he was really a 2.3 sociopath, and ended up being accepted as concubines to two of the marines on the extraction team.

The news (they're on their ninth pair of news readers, as they rotate through the class) states that there's another kilopod transport overhead. Maybe this will be the week.

At work yesterday we heard the sirens and feared the worst -- but it was not that bad. The Confederacy did an extraction at a courthouse and nabbed a bunch of cops, some witnesses, a few lawyers, judges and other court officials, and left the defendants sitting in the cells. The cops rushing to the courthouse were there to secure the prisoners, or more accurately rescue them as nobody was left to let them out of the cells.

There's an emergency election going on right now for city council. A big extraction a couple of days ago removed two thirds of the councillors and the mayor (who apparently went as a concubine, ha ha!). I've been asked by the people in our neighbourhood to stand for election, but I don't know. If I get caught in a pickup, I'd be gone just like them. I don't think that would be fair to those who voted for me.

The attitude of Earth First is understandable, but most of us seem to be under the 'try to keep things going until we're extracted or eaten'attitude. A lot of people are going through the motions and just keeping this going. It's like your life's on hold until you can get out of here. And getting extracted means that everything suddenly changes: one moment you're on the Earth waiting and hoping and living your life, and the next you're going to the stars. I bet it's quite jarring.

Because of extractions, I've been asked to help out at Carruthers Middle School, and at Dumfries High School. My old work? They had a big extraction there of the owners and some of their high-ranking officials, and we've had to close down. I'm now just playing out as teacher/acting principal at Carruthers and teaching Shop class just after lunch at Dumfries.

Well, here's to hoping that everything is still going well at your end. Our love to you all. We're off to the theatre tonight, the local high school is showing Guys and Dolls.

Love, Dad.

Please advise your concubine Christine LaFrance Swanson that her father, Christopher LaFrance, Decurion, Confederacy Civil Service, and mother, Barbara LaFrance (concubine of Christoper LaFrance), together with Jessie Windemere Lafrance (concubine of Christoper LaFrance) and dependants Janie Windemere LaFrance and Marie Windemere LaFrance have been extracted as of 21:04 local time.

At present communication with Decurion LaFrance is not possible as their transport is en route to their assigned colony of Nova Roma at supraluminal speed.

Yours truly,

Miles Chandler, DECO (Office of)

Well Faith, as you asked I've managed to scare you up a principal, a Christopher LaFrance. Both his daughters are at your colony as well, which if their sponsors allow should be a merry reunion. I've also grabbed about a half-dozen teachers, and the regular extraction teams have gathered lots of volunteers for the Navy, which should please Donald, he's been screaming for experienced officers. They're going to hit more yacht clubs -- that's where they scored so many potential ships' captains.

I've shoved the whole lot on the Aurora-class Dance of Spirits and hustled them on their way. Be nice to the poor widdle Decurion LaFrance, I'm sure he's going to be feeling out of his element when he arrives, which should be in two weeks.

Oh, and I have a nice little surprise for Donald -- lots and lots of coconut seedlings. One of the new Navy commanders had a very nice greenhouse, and when we picked up his kids, the sergeant decided to take the initiative.

Plus, I've thrown in a case of Napoleon brandy for you.

Later!!