Timeline: Year 2/3

Chapter One

Joe enjoyed people-watching; it was something to do while waiting for his coffee to cool. He wasn't here in Ossie's just to watch people, pleasant though that was. He'd planned coming here. Joe was good at planning, he'd been doing it for years. He smiled and nodded as some of his former colleagues came in for their lunch. Former, because he was now happily unemployed, again thanks to planning ahead. He'd anticipated a downturn, and was ready to take redundancy when the chance came.

What he hadn't planned for was the President's announcement of the impending arrival of the alien Sa'arm and the partial evacuation of planet Earth. Not really something he could have anticipated. Naturally he took the CAP test: 6.6. Enough for the Confederacy to pick him up, and his two sex slaves with him. Officially they were called concubines, not sex slaves, but anyone who was paying attention could see what was really on offer. Joe always made sure that he paid attention.

The new situation needed new plans of course. The official line was that the Confederacy were doing random pick-ups. Joe quickly saw that was bullshit. He followed the news reports of extractions. The locations they were hitting weren't random, anything but. He even knew some of the people who'd been picked up and had a good idea of whether they were sponsors or not. Take Twanda from work; she was frighteningly intelligent, an excellent team leader and almost certainly a sponsor. She'd been extracted from a technical conference in Chicago along with a bunch of other delegates. There was no way that was random. The Confederacy was targeting specific places.

How to anticipate them, so he could be in the right place at the right time?

There were a lot of lunch places in town, serving office workers and shoppers. Some concentrated more on one or the other type of customer, but Joe thought that his best bet was to go for places with a well-mixed clientele. He'd eaten in many of them, trying to see them as a Confederacy extraction team would. Were there enough sponsors around? Was there a good mix of concubines for the sponsors to pick from? Could the place be easily sealed off by that gray barrier field the Confederacy used?

Breakfast time wasn't good. The office workers were there, but not the mothers doing their shopping. He planned on taking an experienced mother as one of his two concubines, and there wasn't a big enough choice in the mornings. There were more mothers around in the afternoons, but by then the workers were back in their offices, so the number of potential sponsors had fallen. Everyone knew that it was more difficult for women, mothers included, to reach the score for sponsor. The Confederacy didn't just want concubines, it needed sponsors as well.

Lunchtime. The workers were getting lunch out of the office because they were looking for a chance of a pickup. There were enough mothers taking a break from shopping to give a reasonable choice and there were sufficient concubine workers – easy to tell from the way they weren't dressed – to make up the numbers. Lunchtime.

As far as he could tell, four places in town were easy for the Confederacy to isolate and also attracted sizable lunchtime crowds. One of the four had been hit six weeks ago, which confirmed Joe's hypothesis. Today he'd picked Ossie's: the coffee was good and the torpedo rolls were better. They weren't prepackaged, plastic-wrapped and tasteless. You had to get in line, order what you wanted and they assembled it in front of you as you waited. Joe preferred slow food to fast food. Other people seemed to as well; Ossie's had always done good lunchtime business, even before the President's announcement. It was near his old office, so he could keep in touch with former colleagues and put out feelers for any extra work that was going. One effect of the Swarm coming was that a lot of new money was going into defense, so work in that sector was ramping up. Even if there wasn't an extraction, he might be able to pick up some part-time contracting with his old firm. Two birds, one stone.

He saw that Christina was working the ice cream bar today. Joe smiled across the room at her, and she smiled back between serving customers. Greek, with the typical Mediterranean look, she had a really nice smile which lit up her face. They had a running joke between them that if there was a pickup here, he'd be her fifty-five-year-old boy toy. Joe liked her a lot, and he liked her sense of humor. She was definitely on his list of potential concubines, that is if she wasn't a sponsor herself. He couldn't quite decide. He hadn't asked to see her CAP card, that would have shown his hand too early. She hadn't asked to see his either. Better to keep things low-key and friendly for the moment. All would be revealed soon enough if the Confederacy arrived.

Today there was a bunch of high school kids in for lunch. Some days they ate downtown, probably hoping for a Confederacy pickup, like a lot of the other people here. Other days they ate in school, usually after the Confederacy had hit a school. Of course, 'after' was usually too late. There was a random element to pickups, though they weren't as random as many people assumed.

Looking over the rest of the lunchtime crowd, Joe saw what he'd anticipated, office workers and some mothers taking a break from doing their shopping. The high school kids were something of a bonus, but they looked old enough, so they counted.

Joe started sipping his coffee – it had cooled enough by now. It was an interesting exercise trying to guess who were the probable sponsors and who were concubines. He recognized most of the staff here. Christina might be a sponsor, but the rest seemed likely concubines. The schoolkids were relatively easy: those fully dressed were probably sponsors while the almost undressed were concubines, female concubines anyway. It was more difficult to tell with the boys. The mothers were mostly concubines, though they wore rather more than the schoolgirls. One or two might even be sponsors; there wasn't as much variation as with the kids, so it was more difficult for him to tell. Office dress codes seemed to have gone by the board, so the female concubines were mostly easy to recognize. As with the schoolkids, it was more difficult with the men. Not a big problem since he wouldn't be taking a male concubine.

Looking over the mothers, Joe tried to see which of the probable concubines had lively, alert and well-behaved children. Not all of them had children with them of course, but at least it gave him a head start if the Confederacy did arrive. Two of them looked like good prospects: a pregnant redhead with one boy about five, and a blonde with three-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.

A very large man wearing a horribly bright Hawaiian shirt came through the door, distracting Joe. That was certainly unexpected, he hadn't anticipated such sloppy planning from the Confederacy. The ghastly shirt did nothing to disguise the man's six foot seven frame – though given who he probably was, two meters might be a better description. He could just about have passed for a professional football player, but there wasn't an NFL team around here. Sloppy planning. Very sloppy.

Joe looked across the room at Christina. She'd noticed Mr. Hawaiian Shirt as well, and was watching him closely.

Everybody noticed when the outside went gray and Mr. Shirt announced in a loud voice, "Can I have your attention please! I am Corporal Alfano of the Confederacy Marines and this is an extraction." As he was speaking, four more big Marines in full uniform arrived. After the initial stunned silence, a lot of the women started stripping. The corporal continued, "We have seven sponsors here today. Will Joseph Brooks, Dean Gonzales, Patricia Keown, Christina Panagopoulos, Niall Quinlan, Jayden Wade and Albert Zuckerman please gather by Private Farrier to my left."

One of the other Marines raised her hand, so Joe made his way over. When he got there he grinned at Christina, "You'll have to find yourself another boy toy, I'm afraid."

She gave him her best smile and shrugged, "Oh well, I'll have to settle for second best."

The only other sponsor Joe knew was Al Zuckerman from his former work, and they exchanged nods. There was no time for a conversation because Private Farrier was handing out CAP card readers and they needed to listen to her quick briefing on how to use them. After that it was time to head out and pick their concubines.

Joe made straight for the mothers. On his way he experimented with the card reader, talking to it. "Confederacy AI, can you hear me like this?"

The reader's screen displayed, 'Yes, I can hear you, Sponsor Joseph Brooks.'

Good. Confederacy technology was as advanced as he'd suspected. "I'm interested in two of the mothers here. The pregnant redhead who was wearing a green top with denim shorts and the blonde with two kids who was in the blue and red dress. Which would be the better match for me in the lead concubine role?" The two women were both naked by now, the green top and the dress hurriedly discarded on the floor. They were lining up with the others, hoping for a sponsor to select them.

The screen displayed a picture of the pregnant redhead. 'Both are suitable as concubines. Alison Pedley, Age 29, CAP 5.9, is more probably the better choice as your lead concubine.'

Pregnancy presented Alison well. Her breasts and belly had swelled, so there was less sag to her breasts and her stretch marks weren't so obvious. Her generous areolae were dark pink and the carpet matched the drapes – a natural redhead then. Inevitably, being a redhead, there were freckles. Her makeup covered those on her face, but for the parts that weren't normally visible ....

"Hello, I'm Joe Brooks. Can I see your CAP card please?" he asked, smiling at her. He was old enough to resist being too distracted by her naked breasts. Talking to her tits wouldn't start things off on the right foot. She was nervous enough about being nude in front of a lot of strangers without him making things worse for her. He slid her offered card into the reader. Wow! Her motherhood sub-score was 7.2! Joe wanted a mother, and Alison had that in spades. That was far and away her best score, with leadership coming a distant second. None of the others were bad; all of them were near or above average, and her overall score was 5.9. She even beat Joe on sex, just.

"Tell me about yourself, Alison," Joe asked, looking up from the card reader.

"I'm married, twenty-nine, one five-year-old boy and a girl on the way." She glanced down at her baby-bump. "I do a little part-time work when Scott is in pre-school." Joe smiled and nodded. "I'm ready to leave with you, but you have to take Scott. I won't leave without him."

"If I accept you then I'll certainly take him as well," he assured her.

"Thank you," she smiled in relief. "What about yourself, Joe?"

He returned her CAP card, slid his own into the reader and passed it to her. She quickly picked up how to use its touch-screen interface. Alison wasn't stupid, so she passed the unannounced test Joe had set her. "Joe Brooks, fifty-five, divorced with three grown kids," he told her. "I worked as a Project Manager for various software companies and I'm now effectively retired early."

"Tell me about your divorce," she asked. An obvious question, given the circumstances. A sponsor 'divorcing' a concubine could have very serious consequences for the concubine.

"We married in our early twenties and by the time the kids were grown we'd developed in different directions," he explained. "We separated more-or-less amicably. Neither of us wanted to pay a lot of money to lawyers, so we negotiated everything we could between ourselves. The kids were gone by then, so it was reasonably simple."

Alison blushed very pink, which was interesting with her coloration, "Erm ... do you want to test me?" Around them most of the other sponsors were getting on with their own test drives.

"Just a small test. I have two concubines to pick, and at my age I have to take things steadily. I want you as the mother-in-chief in my new family, so sexual performance is useful but not a priority. I think a blow-job will be enough."

Alison nodded, "I can do that." She started to kneel.

Joe could see that the Marines had sent the children and non-participants to the back of the room, behind Alison. He told her, "Wait." As she looked on, puzzled, he picked up a chair and turned it so it faced away from the children.

As she moved to face the seated Joe, Alison realized why he had stopped her. This man thought things through and was considerate. Both good signs. Turned round this way, Scott and the other young kids wouldn't be able to see what she was doing. Maybe his divorce wasn't so important? He'd stayed with his wife for long enough to raise kids, so he probably wouldn't be changing concubines every five minutes. From what she'd seen on his card, there were no other obvious problems with him.

Joe had Alison kneel in front of him while he extracted his semi-hard cock. She jacked him, and gave a few preliminary licks to harden him up. Once he was ready, she slid most of his six inches into her mouth. She wasn't deep-throating him, but she was certainly willing and she knew how to use her tongue on its head. He'd mostly done without sex in the years since his divorce, so he quickly began to build towards a climax. This was a quality blow-job.

He knew that he still had one more concubine to find, so, unfortunately, he had to stop her before he reached completion. He tapped her shoulder, "Stop there please, Alison."

She looked up at him and pulled back, disappointed. Surely she wasn't that bad?

Joe smiled at her. "That was very good, Alison. Will you become my concubine? I'll take your son as well of course."

Alison felt a massive wave of relief; Scott would be safe! "Yes, yes! I ... we accept," she agreed quickly.

"Thank you, Alison. We need to find a second concubine, so we'll leave Scott with the other children for the moment." She nodded her agreement. "I'm looking for a younger woman, one who'll be ready to follow your lead and to learn childcare from you." Joe didn't plan on picking two mothers, they might argue about the best way to raise children.

Alison nodded. "We could try for one of the younger office workers, or perhaps a schoolgirl?" she suggested.

Joe thought the same, so the two of them made their way towards the line-up of naked candidates.

By this time the other sponsors had already made some of their selections, so there weren't as many prospects left in line. Joe noticed that Christina had one of the counter guys who assembled the rolls licking her pussy, while an older black woman, naked except for a hair net, stood by. She'd obviously gone for two of her fellow employees. That made sense; she'd know them better than she knew the customers.

To the fifty-five-year-old man, almost all the young women and teenage girls in line looked attractive, and Confederacy technology could apparently fix those that didn't. That helped by removing a potential distraction. Joe wasn't going to give appearance too much emphasis in his choice. If they all rated an 'A' for looks, then it was useless in helping him pick. His problem was that these women had already been looked at, and rejected, by the other sponsors – some of them had cum running down their thighs to prove it. After looking at CAP cards, and a few short conversations, Joe could see why most of them were still in line. A couple were possible, but none of them sparked any real interest. Alison wasn't very impressed with any of them either.

Since this wasn't getting him anywhere, Joe decided to bring in some help. He stepped back from the line and asked his card reader, "AI, show me the most suitable childless female concubine candidate younger than twenty-two. She will be subordinate to both myself and Alison."

The card reader came up with an attractive looking blonde, 'Suki Moore,' the caption under her picture read. 'Age 15, CAP 5.2. She is currently being tested by Sponsor Patricia Keown, but has not yet been offered or accepted a position.'

Neither he nor Alison recognized her face; this Suki Moore hadn't been in the line. He solved the problem by finding the second female sponsor, Patricia Keown. She'd been in the school party, and Joe had flagged her as a likely sponsor: white, glasses, mousy brown hair, baggy jeans and a loose long-sleeved top. She certainly hadn't made any effort to attract a sponsor. She had two naked girls standing by her, while four boys were fucking two other girls bent forwards over two tables. One of the two being fucked was blonde, though Joe couldn't see her face since a tall white boy had his cock down her throat, while a black kid was pounding into her from behind. The second girl was also being spit-roasted, but she had long straight black hair.

"Is Suki Moore the blonde bent over the table?" Joe asked the AI.

'She is. Sponsor Patricia Keown is testing sexual response, and has indicated that she will select one further female and one male to fill her allocation of four concubines.'

Four! That gave her a CAP score of at least 7.0. Impressive. Patricia certainly had his 6.6 beat.

Looking at Suki, he could see that her sex score would be fine. She wasn't just putting on an act, hoping to get selected, she was really getting into the sex and enjoying it. That would save some time on testing if the Marines started getting impatient.

Hopefully, Patricia would pick the black-haired girl, but just in case .... "AI, who is the second best fit to my previous criteria?"

This time he did recognize the picture. Elizabeth O'Hare was one of the women he'd already looked at and had noted as a possible. She wasn't ideal, but she was available. If he had to, he would take her.

Alison interrupted his thoughts, "You're very organized."

"I was a Project Manager. I needed to be organized to deal with all the stuff that happened, or that could have happened, on projects."

"Known unknowns and unknown unknowns," Alison quoted.

"Exactly right," Joe agreed. "I don't know if Suki will be available or not, so I have Elizabeth ready as a backup if I need her. One known unknown dealt with."

The double spit-roast was winding down. Patricia waited until the last stud had finished before lining up the four boys. She picked the black guy who'd been in Suki's pussy and the other three boys, two black and one white, slouched away disappointed. They hadn't been chosen, but at least they'd gotten something out of the day's events.

Patricia turned to the two girls. Joe was too far away to hear what she said, but it was obvious that she was going for the Asian girl with the long black hair and rejecting Suki. From their body language it looked something like, "Fuck off you bitch. I'm not taking you." Whatever it actually was, Suki burst into tears and walked away with her face in her hands.

"Alison, see if you can get her a glass of water," he ordered.

As the naked Alison hurried towards the counter, he walked up to Suki, "I know this isn't the best time to bother you, but ..."

She looked at him. Her face was not looking its best and she wasn't in a very trusting mood. "You're not just messing with me? Not like that bitch?"

"No, I'm not messing with you. I'm serious. Can I see your CAP card please?"

She trusted him enough to hand it over, but it was clear that she didn't trust him any further than that at the moment.

Joe liked what he saw, another good suggestion from the AI. Suki was a natural subordinate; she would follow where she was led. As he'd anticipated, her sex sub-score was very good, beating both himself and Alison. Her motherhood score was well short of Alison's, as he'd expected, but still above average. The numbers reflected her inexperience, but she could learn. There was a flag against that section – she had her thirteen-year-old brother registered as a dependent.

As he was looking through her scores, Alison returned with a glass of water. She immediately guessed Joe's thinking and gave it to Suki to get rid of the taste in her mouth. She produced a few wipes from her purse as well so Suki could repair some of the damage to her face, and mop up the mess dribbling down her thighs.

By the time Joe looked up from the card reader, Suki had settled down some, and was looking happier – more like the picture the AI had displayed. Her body looked good as well. Tight teenage curves with smooth unblemished young skin and two pink nipples to match Alison's, set in small areolae. All a very attractive package for the older man.

"Suki, I'm Joe and this is Alison."

"Hello," she replied quietly.

"It looked like there was some history behind what happened back there."

"Well ... yeah. I didn't always treat Patty so good. She wanted to get one back at me I think."

"Let me guess," Alison said, "You're a cheerleader ..."

"Yeah," Suki agreed.

"... and she was the nerdy girl with glasses."

"Yeah, we weren't always nice to her."

"And you followed the others?" Joe asked. Her CAP card had shown him that she was a follower, not a leader.

"They were all doing it, so I, like, joined in."

"And now it has come back to bite you."

"I wasn't really thinking," she admitted. "I just, like, went along with the rest."

Joe thought for a second. "OK, here's my plan. I have one more slot to fill, alongside Alison."

"Are you two married?" Suki asked. She'd noticed Alison's ring.

"No," Alison replied. "We just met today."

Joe continued, "I've seen you fucking and sucking, so I won't put you through that again."

"That part wasn't so bad, it was the, 'get lost bitch,' afterwards I didn't like. I'll do you if you want."

"No, not now. We'll save that for later. I'm more interested in testing your obedience at the moment. Have you ever licked a girl?"

"Some," Suki admitted, "though I prefer giving blowjobs."

Joe smiled, "Later. For now I want you to lick Alison."

Alison turned an interesting shade of pink, found a chair and sat down with her legs spread. Suki knelt, and leaned in to start licking.

"How's she doing?" he asked Alison.

"Not as good as Pete, my husband, but he's had a lot more practice. She'll learn."

Joe tapped Suki's shoulder and signaled for her to stand. "How was that, Suki?"

"S'OK. Not as good as giving a blowjob, but better than being left behind, I s'pose."

"You know what's expected of a concubine then?"

"Yeah. I didn't make a good score, so I just looked at the concubine stuff: sex, babies and do what you're told. Babies are the only part I don't know much about." She glanced briefly at Alison, who smiled back. "Are you sure you don't want to fuck, Joe? I don't mind, really. That's, like, the best part of being a concubine, lots of sex."

"We'll save that for later, Suki. I think the Marines might get impatient soon." Joe had noticed that most of the other sponsors had completed their selections and were starting to line up by the transporter, ready to leave. He saw that Al Zuckerman had the blonde mother with two kids as one of his picks. Joe knew Al was another planner; he'd obviously been thinking about mothers as well.

"One last thing, Suki. I'm a bit old-fashioned so I'll want you to lose the eyebrow piercing. Earrings or a small nose stud are fine, but nothing else. I don't want you carrying enough metal to set off every security scanner you walk through. OK?"

Suki didn't look very pleased with that. "I s'pose so. If that what it takes for you to take me, then I'll do it. Getting off Earth is more important than looks. You can change them after anyway, can't you?"

"Yes, but apart from that I can't see anything major than needs doing."

"What about my belly piercing?" she asked.

It was only a small one, and Joe hadn't noticed it earlier. "Keep it for the moment. If it gets in the way when we fuck then I'll tell you to lose it."

"We could always do doggy. It wouldn't matter then," she replied with a grin.

"We'll see," Joe said, noncommittally. Suki's attitude pleased him, she was ready to follow orders, and she knew what was important and what wasn't. She should fit in well as his second concubine.

He asked his first concubine, "Alison? What do you think?"

"It's up to you Joe, but she's better than any of the others we looked at."

"My thoughts too," he replied. Turning back to the teenager, he asked, "Do you agree to be my concubine, Suki?"

"Could I, like, see your dick first?" she asked.

"Sure," Joe said and unzipped his fly. He was already half hard with all the naked flesh on view. Suki reached in and stroked him to full erection. "Nice," she said.

She looked questioningly at Alison, who nodded.

"Yeah, I accept." Suddenly Suki grinned, "That's one in the eye for Patty."

"Don't push too hard," Joe frowned. "You're my concubine now, so I might have you licking her pussy for an hour or two."

"Sorry, Joe," Suki said, realizing her mistake.

"You didn't mention your brother?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Oh yeah. Like, I signed this piece of paper. He sort of belongs to me as well as to mom. Does he get to come as well? He's in school now, not here."

"Yes," Joe said, "dependents get picked up after the main extraction." Suki pulled a face. "You don't want him along?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do really. But he's, like, really annoying."

"That's what little brothers are for, to annoy their big sisters."

Suki nodded, "Yeah."

"I have an appointment to see Principal Chandler. My name is Luke Todd."

The assistant consulted the big appointments diary open on her desk. "I'm afraid I don't have any appointment for you, Mr. Todd. Are you sure?"

She was right of course, the appointment had only been made ten minutes ago, and the AI hadn't been able to hack into the paper diary.

"I'm sure. Try looking on the computer." He smiled at her to take some of the sting out of what he knew she'd find.

"Oh! You're there after all." He smiled again. "Please take a seat, sir, and I'll let the principal know you're here."

Principal Winnie Chandler was a small, spare African-American woman with mid-length black hair. She had the air of someone who could lay down the law to kids, and to a lot of adults as well.

"So, Mr. Todd, how can I help you?"

Luke took out his Confederacy Navy ID card and handed it to her.

She looked at it carefully, "This isn't just a CAP card, is it? You're actually in the Confederacy Navy?"

"Corporal Todd, ma'am," he acknowledged. "I'm here to collect Charles Moore and send him to join his sister. She's been extracted and her sponsor has agreed to accept him as a dependent."

"You realize I'll need to check this out. I can't let one of the children go with any stranger who turns up."

"Of course."

She opened the intercom to her assistant, "Janice, can you get me the file for Charles Moore, eighth grade, please."

While they were waiting, she asked Luke, "You're not taking anyone else? I have the score."

"Not at the moment. I can let you have an e-mail address to contact once you have your pre-pack together." He took out a business card and handed it over.

"Zuralit Vacations?"

"They guarantee that your holiday will be out of this world," Luke told her, poker faced.

Winnie laughed. "Yes, I suppose they could do that."

When the secretary arrived with the file, she looked through it. "Ah, here we are," pulling out a piece of paper. "Yes, all legal and signed. Now I need to talk to Suki to confirm things."

"Sure," Luke said. He took his tablet from his briefcase and set it on the desk. The AI activated the connection and he turned it to face Winnie.

"Suki? You've been extracted I understand?"

"Yes, Ms. Chandler. I'm up in orbit now," she paused to touch the neck of her gray shift. "The AI says that a man is there to collect Charlie."

"I need to be sure that you're not a recording, Suki. Hold up three fingers of your right hand please." Suki did as she was asked. "Thank you, Suki. Your brother will be with you soon. And good luck."

She passed his tablet back to Luke. "The delay in her replies was because she was in orbit?"

"Yes, ma'am. We can't do anything about the speed of light. Now, about Charlie?"

"Aww, Sis. You ain't naked. Didn't he fuck you yet?"

Suki turned pink as her brother entered the pod. "No he didn't. He's a gentleman. Unlike a certain retard brother."

Joe joined the two siblings from his office. Suki introduced him, "Joe, this is my brother, Charlie."

Joe smiled, "Hello, Charlie."

"Do I call you Dad?"

"Only if you want to. Either Dad or Joe will do fine."

The sound of voices drew Alison and Scott in from Alison's room. That triggered another round of introductions, after which Suki showed Charlie to his room.

"Why didn't he test drive you, Sis?" Charlie asked, once he was alone with Suki. "Did that horrible gray thing you've got on make him puke?"

"You're sex obsessed, you are, Bro."

"Hey, I'm a teenager. All us teenage boys are sex obsessed. And you didn't answer my question, why no test drive?"

"He didn't need to," Suki told her brother. "Patty put me through a test drive. Joe saw my performance and took me on after she rejected me."

"Patty! I thought she hated you? You fucked Patty! That I'd like to see."

"No, stupid. I didn't fuck her. I had to suck some guy, Todd or Ted I think his name was, while Wesley fucked me from behind."

"You let Wesley fuck you!" Charlie exclaimed, surprised. "But you always said he was a real asshole."

"He is, but I had to. Patty told me to fuck him, and it was, like, in a pickup. If I hadn't, she wouldn't have taken me."

"She didn't take you anyway."

"No, but Joe did."

"I wonder if Joe filmed it?" Charlie said. "I'd really like to see that."

The AI broke into their conversation, "Video is available. You will need permission from Sponsor Joseph Brooks to view it."

"Yes!" Charlie shouted and rushed back to the living room to find Joe. Suki swore at the AI and followed her brother to try to limit the damage. She was beginning to regret having signed the piece of paper that made her his guardian.

Joe calmed the two of them down and got the story. Charlie wanted to see the video of Suki at the pickup. Suki wanted it erased without anyone seeing it.

Joe decided to deal with Charlie first. "AI, are there some sex education videos for Charlie?"

"Yes, Sponsor Joseph Brooks, age-appropriate educational videos are available for Dependent Charlie Moore."

"Just use our first names, AI. Provide Charlie with suitable materials, not including any featuring Suki."

"Yes, Joe," the AI replied. "The sequences from your pickup are of insufficient educational value and so will not be included."

Suki smiled at that, while Charlie frowned.

"So, Suki," Joe asked, "Wesley was the black guy behind you at the pickup?"

"Yeah."

"What's so special about him?"

"He's not special, he's an asshole," she told her sponsor.

"So why did Patricia pick him, do you think?"

"He's an asshole who can fuck. Everyone says he's good at that. Some of the girls think Kent is better, but Wesley's still up there at number one or two. The problems start right after." Joe gestured for Suki to continue. "Once he's fucked a girl, he thinks she, like, belongs to him and has to do anything he says; 'you're my ho' and all that macho bullshit."

Joe could anticipate a problem there. "So, once he's slept with Patricia, he's going to try to tell her what to do?"

"Oh shit!" Suki gasped. "That's exactly what the stupid idiot will try. His brain is in his dick, so he won't think about it. Even I know that trying to order your sponsor around is a big no-no. He is so fucked!"

"I'd rather head that off if I can," Joe reassured her. "AI, display Wesley and Patricia's CAP scores."

Joe looked at the numbers. "You're right, Suki. With a female sponsor he's a disaster waiting to happen. And it looks like Patricia will need some help dealing with him. Having to kill her concubine will upset her a lot."

"Can you do something, Joe? Please. He's an asshole, but I don't want him dead. Can't you, like, put him back on Earth or something?"

"Is that possible, AI?" Joe asked.

"The decision is up to Sponsor Patricia Keown. It is anticipated that this ship will be in Earth orbit for the next two days and eleven hours while it completes loading. After departure from orbit, returning a surplus concubine to Earth will not be possible. In addition, yourself, Alison and Scott are due in medical in eighteen minutes for your initial checks. Suki and Charlie will be called later."

"We'll be there," Joe replied. He would have a little time to plan something to help Patricia with Wesley.