CAUTION... CAUTION... CAUTION... CAUTION... CAUTION...
STANDARD WARNING
This story is of an erotic nature.
I wouldn't dream of telling you what you can or can't read but if the law, in your part of the world, says you must not read this sort of fiction then please go read something that they'll let you.
Don't break the laws, change them.
CAUTION... CAUTION... CAUTION... CAUTION... CAUTION...
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Learning The Hard Way
A Story in The Swarm Cycle Universe
by Duke of Ramus
A Piece of my Imagination
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The Swarm Cycle
The Swarm Cycle is a collection of stories manufactured around a concept introduced by the Thinking Horndog positing an alien invasion and Earth's reaction. The intent is for this to be a multi-author universe similar to the wildly popular Naked In School stories. If you're a budding author of erotica or sci-fi and see something here that strikes your fancy, pop over to the Author's Page for more info on what's going on here and how to submit a story for this collection. The rest of you are probably here to read, so...
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Disclaimer
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author�s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
� 2008 Duke of Ramus.
All rights reserved.
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The Swarm Cycle Universe
Copyright � 2007 The Thinking Horndog
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Editor
I'd like to thank Mulligan and Steve T for their assistance in turning this into a better story than my initial effort, any errors remaining are of course mine.
---oOo---
The piercing scream captured the attention of everyone in the hold.
"What d'you think your doing?" called the big woman in the grey uniform as she turned towards the disturbance.
The young man let go of the girl he'd been dragging by the hair and turned to face the new threat. "This bitch," he said waving at the prone girl, "just told me to strip and thinks I'm going to do as she says just because she picked me to come with her." He stared at the woman in uniform and said slowly, spacing the words, "That's not going to happen!"
The big woman stepped forward and looked down at the angry young man. He must have been about five feet ten inches tall and she was a good six inches taller than him, she also outweighed him by a fair amount and none of it looked like fat under the tight grey uniform she wore.
She placed a hand firmly on the young man's shoulder, "Be still," she ordered as he tried to wriggle out of her grasp. As he stilled she turned her attention to the whimpering woman on the floor.
"I take it you're his sponsor?" she asked.
The dark eyed woman looked up and nodded in confirmation.
"Do you still want him?" the woman in uniform asked blandly.
A negative shake of the head was the only response to the question from the tearful woman.
"Right," said the Amazon before she turned her attention back to the young man. "Where were you picked up from?"
"London," he replied, a lot of his anger had fled and he wondered what would happen next.
The Amazon turned her eyes upwards and spoke softly, "Who's running the London pickup?"
The voice of the AI responded in her implant, "Sergeant Green."
"Steve Green?" she asked.
"Correct," replied the AI.
"Patch me through to him," she ordered.
There was a pause and then a hum let her know that she'd been connected.
"Steve, it's Sonia up on the Belle Alliance," she introduced herself. "We've had a bit of a problem up here and need a couple more males to round things out," she reported to the Marine on the ground.
"Do you need any help up there?" Steve Green asked anxiously.
"No, I can manage things up here but can you send me the males up?" she asked.
"Not a problem," replied the voice in her head.
"Give me a minute or so as the transporter is going to be off line while I deal with the problem and then you can send them up," she replied.
"Understood," said the Marine's voice in her head.
Sonia blinked as she shifted channels internally and spoke to the AI again. "Switch transporter nexus to orbit three," she ordered.
"Switched, " came the reply and Sonia dropped her eyes from the ceiling and back to the young man.
"Come with me," she said taking a firmer hold of the young man's shoulder and guiding him back to the transporter terminus he'd come through only minutes before. He looked at the shimmering disk which now had a red tinge to it rather than the familiar silver one and yelled, "I'm not going back to Earth," as he began to suspect that things were not going as he had expected them too.
"No, you're not," declared Sonia Makepeace as she used her enhanced strength to push the man into the transporter field.
Behind her the man's victim, who'd followed the pair when they'd walked off, gasped in shock as the young man that had attacked her disappeared from view.
Sonia turned to face the woman, "What's your name love?" she asked.
"Patsy," said the woman quietly.
"Well Patsy, he's gone," said Sonia simply, "but there will be a couple of more men up here in a minute for you to pick from."
"Where..." began Patsy staring nervously at the shimmering field.
"He's in orbit around Venus," said Sonia before glancing to the ceiling. "Continue extractions from London," she ordered the AI before returning to her duties in the main receiving hold of the Belle Alliance.
Patsy couldn't believe that the woman who walked away could be so indifferent to taking a man's life.
Patsy had a lot to learn.
---oOo---
The flight had finally settled down and the Boeing 747-400 was gliding along calmly ten thousand metres above the Atlantic Ocean doing just under nine hundred kilometres an hour.
The senior stewardess on the flight, Sonia Makepeace nipped into the galley space in the first class compartment to join Jenny Merryweather and Anton Dubeak, two of her fellow cabin crewmembers, for a well-earned coffee.
Anton handed her a china cup with the airlines logo emblazoned on it full of coffee, "Complements of the airline," he said and grinned at the older woman.
"Why thank you, kind Sir," responded Sonia as she dropped into the jump seat nearest the door.
"And for you, fair lady," said Anton turning to Jenny and passing her another coffee.
"We shouldn't be so generous with the company's quality beverages," said Jenny as she took the offered cup.
"Oh pooh," responded Anton as he lowered himself onto a convenient storage box. "The coffee is free to passengers in this compartment and no one keeps check on how much we use. If we didn't drink it this would be the dreg-ends of a pot and I'd have to throw it away anyway."
Sonia raised and eyebrow and Anton looked defensive, "I would," he reiterated.
"I don't care," said Sonia letting him off the hook, "I'd rather drink your dreg-ends than the stuff they give us for our own use."
"It is rough," agreed Jenny taking a sip, "and this isn't," she concluded with a sigh.
Their quiet moment was shattered when the speaker above their heads sprang into life.
"Good afternoon, this is your captain speaking and I just want to give you a short progress report. We've just crossed the coast of Ireland and will spend the next few hours crossing the Atlantic..."
Out of the corner of her eye Sonia spotted two big guys nod to each other and leave their seats. She watched as one of them reached into the luggage rack above their seats and the second man headed for the stewards' cubbyhole.
If this had been five years ago she'd have been thinking terrorists but there hadn't been anything like that on aircraft since the Darjee had announced the coming of the Swarm.
Curiosity got the better of her and she rose and stepped through the curtain that separated the galley from the cabin to meet the approaching man.
"Can I help?" she asked professionally.
The man grinned and held up a piece of plastic, "I'm Sergeant Steven Green, Confederacy Space Marines and we're here to do an extraction of volunteers for service with the Confederacy."
"Oh my God," gasped Sonia as she looked around, "Where? How?"
"We'll be doing it here, Ma'am, just as soon as we've got a few reinforcements," said the Sergeant, leading her by the elbow back into the galley.
Anton started to rise but the big Marine just waved him back into his seat.
"My partner is setting up a transporter terminus across the way," said the Sergeant. "In a couple of minutes we will start transporting men onto this bird to run an extraction. The AI's tell us that there are eighteen volunteers on board so it shouldn't take too long or cause too much in the way of disruption."
He glanced towards the front of the aircraft; "We don't need to tell the flight crew that anything's happening back here," he said, "It would only cause confusion that we don't need."
"Shouldn't they get a chance to go?" asked Jenny.
"There are only two women on this plane with high enough CAP scores to volunteer," said the Marine, "and they'll have over two hundred men to pick from." He turned his attention to Sonia; "Will you want to pick one of the flight deck crew as a concubine?"
That was the first inkling that Jenny and Anton had that Sonia was a volunteer.
Sonia looked the Marine in the eye and shook her head, neither of the men appealed to her. The aircraft captain was nearly fifty and a hard-headed male chauvinist that despised anyone not like him. That made the co-pilot he had to work alongside a bad choice, not that the captain had been given any choice, because said co-pilot was thirty-five years old and publicly gay.
"So if you don't want them do you think we should force them on the other woman?"
Sonia shook her head again.
"Good, that's settled," said the Marine. "In a moment I'm going to get on the public address system and let everyone know what's happening and then we will take it from there."
The second Marine stuck his head through the curtain, "We're ready to roll, Sarge."
He looked at the three cabin crewmembers, "Stay here until I come to get you," he ordered and left without waiting for a response.
"Sonia, you're a volunteer, aren't you?" asked Jenny.
Sonia nodded.
"Why?" asked Jenny, "I thought you believed that the Confederacy should evacuate everyone, not just the chosen few?"
Sonia looked at Jenny and said, "Not me, I just didn't correct you when you made that assumption."
"But everyone should be given the chance," said Jenny.
Sonia looked at the younger woman and took a deep breath, "Jenny, in five minutes there are going to be sixteen men out there looking for a woman or two to take with them when they leave this planet. Most of the women on this flight are executives of some sort and are therefore middle-aged or older. You on the other hand are young, slim and used to flaunting your body to get what you want."
Sonia gave it a moment for her comments to sink in and then asked, "Are you going to stay in here because you believe that everyone should be given a chance to get off the planet? Or are you going to be out there, Jenny, stripped naked and trying to save your butt?"
As Jenny dropped her eyes in shame Sonia spotted the first of the Marines stepping out of the transporter field and into the aircraft.
"They're here," she said as she pushed the curtain wide open and waited to be called forward.
---oOo---
The speakers throughout the aircraft crackled into life as the AI patched the communications channels together and a calm voice enunciated, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain seated and we'll get this over with as quickly as possible and allow you to continue with your journey."
This simple statement froze everyone in the plane before heads started snapping backwards and forwards looking for the source of the announcement. The people quickly spotted the unnaturally large specimens that had taken up key positions throughout the cabins.
The voice continued, "I am Sergeant Steven Green of the Space Marines and I'm here to carry out an extraction of volunteers for service with the Confederacy. Will just those people who have volunteered for service make themselves known to the nearest Marine."
In the first class cabin three men and one woman stood to attract the attention of Sergeant Green and his companion and Sonia in turn stepped out of the galley and stood next to the Sergeant.
The Marine muttered something and the speakers went silent.
"OK people," said the Sergeant, "if you can come here we'll get you logged in and see what you're allowed."
The volunteers in the cabin moved forward and introduced themselves to the Sergeant and Sonia.
Allan Powell was an executive director of an engineering firm with a CAP score of seven point two; William Anson was another executive but in the advertising field and had a score of six point nine. The third man in the first class cabin was Johnny Cowell and he was a pop star with a CAP score of exactly seven; Jessica Fielding was a secretary and had been accompanying her boss on a business trip, her score was six point six.
Sergeant Green glanced around the cabin, "Gentlemen things are possibly going to get a bit tight here as between you, you can take ten concubines and there are only eight here, would one of you like to go back to the economy section were there is a greater selection?"
The three men looked at each other and then looked at the people available to them in the first class cabin, they exchanged glances again and seemed to reach an understanding, Allan Powell nodded once, "Where do I go?" he asked.
"Drop down to the back of the aircraft and see Corporal Jenkins, he'll take it from there," instructed the Sergeant.
As Mr. Powell left the cabin the Marine turned his attention to the two women. "You have no doubt heard the advice that is given out to all female volunteers about picking concubines but I'll just reiterate it. You can only get pregnant by one man at a time so it is better to take at least one woman for every man you take with you." He looked from one woman to the other, "That's the official line, unofficially there are enough men out there to get you pregnant any way you want, and they're all volunteers which means they are considered as better material than any concubine you can pick. If you want to get a good household going you can just take women from here and use them to breed and raise the kids with the guys that are already out there as the fathers."
He shrugged, "It's up to you," he said but his opinion was clear.
He turned his attention back to the people in the cabin and raised his voice, "Would any of you that do NOT wish to be considered as a concubine please move to the back of the cabin and we will try not to disturb you."
There was a little shuffling and four men made their way to the back of the cabin and sat down.
Sergeant Green scanned the cabin and pursed his lips, not a good selection but there was little he could do about it, this pickup had been sanctioned from above with a specific target in mind, the rest of them were just a bonus. The volunteers were faced with twenty people of whom only seven were female from which to make their selections.
"Go on then," said the Sergeant, "take your pick."
The two men immediately headed for the main cluster of women, Bill Anson was calling out for them to strip as he approached and Johnny Cowell was grinning like an idiot.
Sonia turned to Jessica, "Are you taking your boss?" she asked.
"No," said Jessica, "It would be nice to get a bit of my own back but I'm looking forward not back. What about you, are you just taking men?"
Sonia glanced back towards the galley before she answered, "I hope not," she said, "If things work out the way I'm expecting I'll be taking one of each."
"Seems sensible," said Jessica as she scanned the room and spotted a woman sitting on her own who was taking her top off. She grinned at Sonia, "I think I'll start with that old biddy," she said and headed off in that direction.
Sonia watched her go for a moment and then stepped back into the galley area.
"Well?" she asked looking pointedly at Jenny, "Are you staying or are you going to try?"
Anton had already got his shirt open but Jenny was sat wringing her hands.
"Jenny," barked Sonia, "decide."
The woman lifted her tear stained face and stared at the older woman, "It's wrong but I've got to go..."
"Then strip," ordered Sonia, standing there with her hands on her hips.
Jenny started to undo her uniform blouse but her fingers didn't seem to complying with her instructions.
Sonia sighed, "Anton, help her out or we'll be stuck here all day."
Anton dropped his shirt exposing his tanned and toned torso and reached to help the sobbing young woman. He spoke as he worked, "Shouldn't you be out there making your picks?"
When there was no answer he glanced towards Sonia and was greeted by a huge grin and a pointing finger that indicated Jenny and him.
Anton stopped what he was doing in surprise and it wasn't until Sonia lifted her eyebrows at him that he began working again. He peeled off Jenny's blouse to reveal a lacy white bra.
The flight attendant's uniform had changed drastically since the changes bought about by the approach of the Swarm. The skirt had become a simple wrap around thing that just covered the stewardess's ass; the blouse was white and gossamer thin. Underwear was at the discretion of the woman and in most cases had become ultra thin and lacy. Practicality had deemed that some sort of support was necessary unless the woman was very young or on the small side. The male stewards wore tight shorts and a thin white shirt and as Anton had shown when he'd removed his shirt most of them had resorted to the gym to improve their chances in life.
Anton dropped the bra on top of the blouse and helped Jenny to her feet.
"Drop the skirt," he said softly and stepped back as Jenny reached for the clasp holding the skirt shut. After a little fiddling the blue ribbon of material dropped away to reveal a tiny white thong that covered but didn't obscure a cleanly shaved pussy.
"Lose the shorts, Anton," ordered Sonia, as she looked Jenny up and down.
Jenny glanced at Anton as he hopped from one leg to the other as he dropped his shorts and then blushed as his more than average manhood swung around.
"Nice," said Sonia when she spotted the package that Anton possessed.
Anton recovered his balance and stood there naked except for a pair of trainers, next to him was a sniffling Jenny in a thin white thong and a pair of low-heeled shoes.
Sonia looked them both over and grinned. "OK, enough of this messing about," she said, "I've got a CAP score of six point six which means I can take two concubines." She glanced from one face to the other and asked, "Do you want the jobs?"
Anton had seen it coming and agreed immediately, Jenny was a little more circumspect.
"If you intended to ask me, why did I have to strip?" she asked between sniffs.
Sonia looked serious and spoke softly, "Two reasons. The first was to show you who is the boss; the second was more important, it was to show you that despite everything you've said you were prepared to do just about anything to survive."
"Don't you think that's a bit, I don't know, mean?" asked Jenny.
Sonia frowned for a moment and then asked, "Jenny, if I hadn't just asked you to go with me what would you be doing now?"
Jenny stood silently and stared at her sponsor.
"Seriously Jenny, you'd have been out there on your knees blowing some man so that he'd take you as his slave and if that wasn't enough you'd have gone further," declared Sonia, "and if you don't believe that you are seriously mistaken."
Jenny glanced at Anton for support and found him nodding in agreement with Sonia.
"I don't think..." began Jenny but Sonia stopped her.
"Let's put it to the test shall we," said Sonia grinning nastily. "Give Anton a blow job and let him come all over your face. When he's done that you can come outside and join me. If your face is covered in his cum I'll take you with me, if not," Sonia paused, "if not then don't bother coming out."
She spun away from the shocked couple and walked out of the galley and into a veritable orgy.
William Anson had already discarded one woman who was now slumped over in tears being ignored by all around her. Two other women were on their knees either side of him and taking it in turns to suck on his erection as he fondled their naked breasts.
Across the isle Johnny Cowell had dropped one of the chairs into its full reclined position and was successfully joining the mile high club with an older woman who had her legs wrapped around his waist and was encouraging him loudly. On the reclined chair next to him were two more mature women engaged in a good old sixty-nine, he had a hand resting on the bright pink ass of the top woman, his handprints showing in bright pink where he had been encouraging her performance.
What Sonia found surprising in that tableau was the second man, a young looking executive, who was pounding into the woman on the bottom from the far end. He was grinning at Johnny as he carried out his new master's will.
Jessica, the secretary she'd been speaking to earlier was knelt astride the woman she'd approached having her pussy lapped whilst being plugged from behind by a mature gentleman who seemed to be doing a good job of keeping up a nice steady pace.
Sonia jumped when a voice asked, "Shouldn't you be getting involved?"
She turned her head to find the Marine Sergeant stood next to her.
"I am," she replied with a glance back to the galley.
The Marine frowned, "Do you think it's sensible to take work mates with you?"
"We've not been together that long," said Sonia by way of explanation, "and I've always been the senior member. Hopefully I'm curing the possible problems before we leave."
She looked around the cabin once more before adding, "I should know for sure in the next couple of minutes."
"Uhmmm," murmured the Marine.
It was actually five minutes before a naked Anton walked out of the galley, his prick glistening with the saliva that Jenny had provided and still half-hard, Sonia looked at him questioningly as he approached.
"Her face is just how you wanted it," he said, "but whether she's going to come out here I wouldn't like to say."
"If she doesn't," replied Sonia, "we'll be taking her," she said indicating the woman that Bill Anson had rejected with her chin.
Anton shuddered theatrically beside her and grinned when Sonia said, "Don't worry, I'll have her looking like a Barbie doll for you before you have to fuck her."
"Oh good," replied the steward before leaning back against the wall in silence and waiting.
Sonia kept glancing towards the galley and was starting to think that Jenny wasn't going to make it. Alongside her the Sergeant cocked his head to one side listening to that internal voice and then called out, "Two minutes! We need to get things sorted here so you've got two minutes left."
Anton started to move from his position and Sonia stopped him with a gesture, "It's her decision," she informed him.
The two Marines began to get their people lined up and ready to leave; Bill Anson had kept the two women who'd finished his blow job and Johnny Cowell was taking the four people he'd been partying with. Jessica was followed by the two she'd been performing with and only paused to pat her old boss on the head as she walked past him.
Sonia looked sad as she pushed Anton into the line of concubines and turned towards the woman who'd been rejected earlier.
"Sonia!"
The yell from the galley stopped her in her tracks. She turned back and a now naked Jenny scurried across the gap between them; she dropped to her knees and looked up, displaying the white tracks left by Anton's spunk. The only missing bits were where her tears had washed it away.
"Please," she begged from her knees.
Sonia gave a relieved sigh and then smiled, "Get in line, Jenny," she said offering her a hand up. "It's time to start a new life."
---oOo---
Sonia slumped down despondently in the synthetic leather recliner and although her eyes stared out of the window she wasn't taking anything in. Her concubines had seen her return and had made themselves scarce, fearing her temper, which was probably wise of them.
It had been five months since they had all been extracted and about the only thing that had gone right was that Anton had gotten Jenny pregnant.
Yesterday she'd been informed by the AIs that things hadn't gone according to plan for herself, and that she needed to consider her options for the future. No, that wasn't the correct terminology, the fact was that she'd failed and although the termination notice may have mentioned psychological factors and praised her good points, it was still a failure, it was a simple as that.
After three gruelling months of training with the Marine Corps she'd washed out. Physically she could cope with everything the Corps threw at her but she just didn't have the right mental attitude according to the AIs. She'd run, sweated blood and killed targets with every weapon she'd been issued but the lethal instinct just wasn't there and it showed up clearly in the hand to hand training.
Throughout training she hesitated at the crucial moment and invariably gotten at least herself killed and often took a bunch of her squad mates along with her.
No, it was now time to change jobs.
But to what?
Joining the Civil Service and having to look after displaced concubines just didn't appeal to her and she didn't have the brains or the background to go into Research and Development. There was a fledgling entertainment sector but that was about as hit and miss as it was back on Earth and was really aimed at giving the concubines something to do.
The other alternatives were not particularly appealing; working as part of a Primary Team on barely habitable planets may be helping spread humanity across the galaxy but it cost a lot of lives and meant a long time separated from her concubines. Joining the Navy in a support role at least offered the hope of progressing beyond bottle washer but there was still the chance she could end up in combat and the AIs didn't seem to be willing to allow that.
Sighing she keyed her implant, "AI, what job specifications are open to me at this time?"
"Do you have any preferences or exclusions that should be taken into consideration?" replied the voice inside her head.
"Exclude the Civil Service and the Primary Teams," she said and waited as the AI considered her future.
"Allowing for your preferences and prior demonstrated psychological factors the optimum match would be service with the Fleet Auxiliary," came the reply after a nerve-jangling wait.
She frowned, the Fleet Auxiliary was not a job she'd considered, and in fact she knew very little about the service.
"Tell me more about this Fleet Auxiliary?" she instructed.
"The Fleet Auxiliary is the name given to the human organisation that has taken over the running of the colony ships from the Darjee, they also have a few other tasks of minor significance at this time. Currently the Fleet Auxiliary is running ninety-six colony ships in two major classes, the large Star class colony ships and the smaller Aurora class vessels and has a strength of four thousand eight hundred and twenty-three."
Sonia knew she was frowning as she asked, "What jobs are available?"
"The Fleet Auxiliary has four branches, Engineering, Logistics, Astrogation and Sensors. With your current skill set and aptitude the Logistics branch would be the most suitable. The Logistics branch deals with the requirements of the ship and the cargo they carry."
'The cargo they carry,' thought Sonia, 'That's people.'
"What are the career prospects," she asked, suddenly feeling like a high school student planning out her career.
"Members of all four branches of the service can rise to the command of a vessel, training of officers occurs on New Annapolis and commences three times a year. Selection for a commission is based on performance reports and a recommendation from a senior officer."
Sonia looked out of the window and actually saw the rolling fields of Brak bathed in the warm light of Brakat and sighed, "Whom do I have to see to apply?" she asked.
"Your application has been successful. You are to report to Major Schindler, the Fleet Auxiliary liaison officer, at zero eight hundred tomorrow to begin familiarisation training. A modified uniform will be available for you tomorrow morning."
Sonia blinked and slowly a grin replaced the melancholy look on her face.
Jumping to her feet she yelled, "Anton, get your sorry ass in here, I need your body."
---oOo---
Sonia watched in amusement as the new volunteers and their concubines stepped out of the transporter terminus. 'I wonder if I looked that dazed when it was my turn?' she thought as she jostled the first group towards the main hold.
"Come on people, keep moving or you'll get trampled by the group behind you," she called as she led the way in her tight-fitting grey uniform.
This group consisted of seven male volunteers and two females, along with their chosen concubines, a fairly typical pickup for a small location like the diner that the Marines had hit this time.
She was glad that her first extraction wasn't one of the large pickups that had become the ideal. She'd heard the horror stories of having to deal with several thousand people arriving at the same time and was more than happy to have to deal with only thirty odd people in one go.
She got them to the main hold and handed them back over to the Marines before taking up a position against the back wall and watching what was going on.
One guy seemed to be having trouble with one of his women; he must have been a seven because there were three other people sticking close to him. Sonia stepped forward and her towering presence bought the argument to an end.
"Problems?" she asked with raised eyebrows.
"Nothing major," said the sponsor.
The woman was glaring at the sponsor and didn't take her eyes off him when she growled, "I've just told him that I don't do the sort of disgusting things he keeps on about."
Sonia looked at her in surprise. Taking a deep breath she said, "Come over here, love," and stepped back to her place at the wall.
The woman came over slowly, not sure what to expect but certain that she wasn't going to like it.
"You do know that you're only here because he picked you, don't you?"
The woman nodded.
"Part of that agreement is that he's the boss and you have to put out for him," said Sonia. The woman opened her mouth to complain but Sonia kept on talking, "And you don't have any options." She looked the woman up and down and shook her head, "You need to forget how things used to be, this is the here and now and for the foreseeable future he is your owner."
She indicated the four people huddled together, "Go back to them and think about how glad you are to be alive."
The woman didn't say a word as she walked slowly back to her new family.
Sonia had barely relaxed when another argument erupted. She approached the source and watched as her boss, Sergeant Patterson, stepped up to a concubine who was screaming at a man and calmly shot her with a stinger from less than a metre away.
The woman hit the deck like a sack of potatoes and lay there, the stinger having robbed her of all muscular control of her body. Around him the people looked shocked at the Sergeant's callous act and after a whispered conversation with the man he waved them away.
Sonia joined him as another member of the crew scooped up the woman onto a grav-sled and started taking her away.
"Sonia, if you have trouble with concubines you have to stamp down on it immediately," said Sergeant Patterson, "didn't they tell you that in training?"
Sonia nodded as she watched the unconscious concubine being dragged away.
Sergeant Patterson smiled, "But training isn't the real world is it?"
"No," said Sonia switching her eyes to her superior, "No, it isn't."
She glanced back towards the body being moved away, "How often does that happen?" she asked thinking back to the scene she'd dealt with minutes before.
"Just about every pickup," answered the Sergeant. "Mostly it depends on how nasty the Marines have been on the ground. If they've been particularly unpleasant most of the idiots have been weeded out before they get here, if they've been soft, or rushed," he admitted, "then we get something like that or worse."
"What'll happen to her?" asked Sonia.
"She'll go into the pool until we get to Brakat, if no one picks her on exchange then she'll end up with the Civil Service."
"That's not so bad," said Sonia.
"No, but she only ran off at the mouth," said the Sergeant. "If she'd been violent then she'd have ended up in the recycling system or breathing vacuum."
Sonia looked shocked and the Sergeant watched her closely.
Almost gently he added, "It's tough but the rules are known by everyone and if they're not enforced things tend to explode later and that can be messy." He shrugged, "It's down to us or the Marines to enforce the rules, which is what makes this job such a bitch."
"But to just kill them..." began Sonia.
The Sergeant shrugged again, "Experience will show you why we do it. I hope it won't be on this trip but I'm not holding out much hope." He waved towards the crowd that was developing, "This lot seem particularly unruly for some reason and I think we're going to have trouble."
Sonia went back to her place on the wall and watched the crowd growing as the Marines continued transferring people to the ship. She saw numerous explosive confrontations that were dealt with quickly and efficiently by the crew usually leaving a concubine unconscious and everyone around them subdued.
An hour after her first confrontation Sonia found herself dashing across the hold as the screaming started.
She made out one word from the crowd that had quickly formed a ring around the scene, "Fight!"
Using her superior size and strength she bulldozed her way through the ring of spectators and found two women locked in combat with a man stood there grinning smugly. She didn't bother trying to sort things out and pointed the stinger strapped to her wrist at the writhing women and squeezed the trigger.
The buzzing noise that accompanied the discharge of the weapon was the only indication she'd fired until the two bodies slumped to the deck together.
She looked at the man and asked, "Yours?"
He nodded.
"You started the fight?" she asked.
"I suppose so," he responded.
"You suppose so, she said sarcastically, "what exactly did you say?"
"I told them that the strongest was top bitch and they both wanted the position," he said.
Sonia looked at the two women on the floor and scowled, "Do you want to keep them?"
The man glanced at the naked women on the floor and nodded.
Sonia nodded once in return, "Fine, they're yours," she said and turned away.
The rest of the day's pickups went off without any major problem. That was reserved for the following morning.
---oOo---
The woman slid the table knife into the throat of the man before her and flinched backwards as a fountain of blood shot towards her from the artery she'd severed.
Her face was made ugly by the vicious snarl she wore, "Bastard," she hissed into the growing silence; "you'll never lay your filthy hands on me again."
As the blood ran down the plain grey smock she wore the crowd in the mess hall fought to get away from her, their screams breaking the silent tableau that had surrounded the sudden violence.
The man the concubine had stabbed dropped noisily forward onto the table, scattering his tray across its polished surface and soaking two of his seated concubines in coffee. They looked down in shocked surprise as the third of the group, young Benjamin, stood and reached for Karen, the woman with the knife.
Almost without thought she slashed the blunt knife across the young man's throat, the slight serration on the blade doing just enough damage to begin the slow bleed that could cause his death if not treated quickly.
Karen turned her attention to the two remaining women and spoke coldly, "Are you going to allow these animals to use you?"
Neither of the seated women made a sound.
Karen grinned evilly, "Then you deserve to die," she said as she stepped towards them.
Two steps were all she managed before she was hit by a stinger and dropped bonelessly to the floor.
Two Marines approached the bloody scene cautiously, their weapons at the ready. Behind the pair came Sonia already feeling sick at what she'd just witnessed.
It only took a moment to ensure that it was safe to proceed. One of the Marines threw Karen over his shoulder and headed off; the second Marine had dragged the man's body off the table and was checking him out on the floor as Sonia approached the gasping young boy.
His throat was covered in blood and he was gasping as he attempted to drag air into his body. More to distract herself than any need to know she asked the two women who were still sat at the table, "Why?"
"Peter told her she was next," said the blond sitting furthest away.
The brunette added, "He touched her breast when he said it."
"And?" prompted Sonia as she applied pressure to the wound in Benny's neck, sub-vocally calling on the AI for medical assistance.
The blond raised her eyebrows, "You were there yesterday when Karen told Peter that she wasn't going to do that sort of thing."
Sonia glanced at the two women and took a hard look at the young man she was treating; they were people from her group all right.
"Didn't that get sorted out last night?" she asked recalling the incident from the day before. She'd had a quiet word with the woman, telling her to behave or suffer the consequences.
"Peter took us to bed," said the blond indicating the blushing brunette and herself. "Karen was sent to bed alone."
At that moment Sergeant Patterson arrived with the medics and took charge.
It seemed like hours for Sonia as she stood there watching but the medic declared Peter as dead and shipped Benny of to the medical centre.
Sergeant Patterson indicated the body to the remaining Marine, "Toss him in with the stupid bitch. We may as well get some good out of this." He turned to Sonia and looked her up and down; "At least we're not going to lose the boy as well."
Sonia swallowed, "It's all my fault."
"Yes it is," agreed the Sergeant, "but there's nothing we can do about it now." He looked over at the two concubines sat there, "Get these two off to the Civil Service pool and get yourself cleaned up."
He stepped away but stopped and looked back at Sonia and his expression softened, "Sonia," he said and paused until she looked at him, "It's not nice but learn from it. And more importantly, don't let it happen again."
Sonia glanced at the bloodstains all around her and responded quietly, "I won't."
---oOo---
Sonia walked back quietly, little realising or caring that her silence was treated as indifference by the volunteers and concubines around her. She'd been doing extractions for a year now and that was the third person she'd had to kill in that time but it didn't make things any easier.
Patsy would get over the shock of seeing a man she'd picked killed. It would take time and it was fifty-fifty whether she would consider Sonia as her saviour or the villain of the piece. All Sonia knew for certain was that the dead concubine wouldn't be causing any deaths amongst her people on this trip.
She'd been in her usual place resting against the rear wall of the hold when the newly promoted Staff Sergeant Patterson approached her.
"You all right?" he asked in his usual gruff manner.
"I'll survive," Sonia replied.
"True," said the older man as he leant alongside Sonia and turned his attention to new arrivals.
They'd been quietly contemplating the crowd for a couple of minutes before he spoke again.
"You'd have thought that the message would have got through by now wouldn't you?"
"Do any of us really believe things until we're forced to face them ourselves?" she replied.
"I guess not," he responded.
After another couple of minutes he levered himself off the wall, "We're having a bit of a party tonight if you want to come."
"No," she replied, "Tonight I'm going to get drunk and then cry myself to sleep."
He nodded in understanding.
"You take care, Sonia," he said as he began to move away.
"You too, Bill," she said as she returned her attention to her charges.
---oOo---
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