The Swarm Cycle Universe
Copyright© 2007 The Thinking Horndog

Gunnery Sergeant Markham used his trained command voice and had the instant attention of the platoon. “All right, Marines, listen up! We are going over this one last time. This is our first pickup and we are going in strong. Drop is in thirty minutes. I’ll be taking the first and second squads in. Lt Kinsey will be in reserve with third and fourth. The Captain will be at the sensors on overwatch with the rest of the company.

“We are hitting Antonelli’s restaurant. They have seating for a maximum of three hundred sixty five customers and from the bookings; we think it will be pretty busy tonight. Staff is upwards of thirty. Our guesstimate from last week’s recon info is three hundred to three fifty people, about two thirds of whom will have remembered their CAP Cards. Statistically that should give us around twenty-five and up to forty volunteer men with cards and something less than ten women with a decent score.

“We are specifically tracking some electronics design people that the Navy wants, four of them. They made an online reservation. This city has a big military presence, so there might be some ex-army or marine types, as well but we have an agreement to not take any active duty personnel. Remember, no adult can come aboard unless they have that CAP card. We don’t know how many will throw themselves at the volunteers, but make sure that people hear about the card requirement if they don’t have one. Because this is so new, command wants us to play up the PR. Make it sound like a privilege. ‘You can’t go without, blah, blah, blah. It’s a privilege to whitewash that fence.’ Also, most of these 6.5s and up have not volunteered yet. If they took the tests more than a couple of months ago, they weren’t even asked. Ask them as you direct them to the pretty girls. Once they say, ‘yeah’ they’re hooked. The AI is recording everything. Don’t get stupid; you’re being recorded also! Also, remember to actually check those cards. Just because a guy says that he gets to go, it doesn’t mean that he REALLY gets to go. Use the scanners often so the AI knows whom you are talking to.

“Ok, remember that this is a brand new thing for us and for them. We think that if the word gets out on the street that we are doing a pickup, we might get too many people to handle. So, the name of the game is containment. Once we go in, no one leaves the building. Staff Sgt Mikel from first squad has done a little recce. As you look at the display, note these locations. We are dropping two drones with teleporters outside in the dark corners here, for first squad, and here, for second. After you drop in, leave them in place for our reserves and for emergency evacs. It’s summer and it’s hot in the city. This back kitchen door is usually left open for ventilation. First squad. You’ll come in through there and cover all the exits on the North and East sides of the building. Second squad. You take the front doors on the West side and cover the bar entrance as well. There are no exits to the South. I want both squads to have their portables set up inside the restaurants well within one minute of the LT announcing the pickup. Ok, gimme a show of hands. Who is inside on overwatch? Down. Who’s answering questions? Down. Who didn’t put their hands up, yet? Good.

“Mikel, show me your people’s deployments. I want your guys to sing out as you touch the diagram at his post.”

“Kitchen exit.”

“Yo!”

“Loading dock.”

“Mine, Sergeant.”

“Emergency exit, NE corner...”

“Wow! This place is really fancy. Thanks for the present, Dad, Mom, but you shouldn’t have.” The speaker was a bright-eyed fifteen-year-old girl. Her hair was gathered on either side, and then pulled over the center into a black and crystal barrette, which set off her gold hair. With her brand new little black dress and two inch heels, she was appropriately dressed to match her parents and the other diners at Antonelli’s, but her eager looks around showed that she was quite unused to this type of dining.

“Ellie, we told you, this is a combined birthday present and an award for doing so well on your CAP test. You deserve it. At fifteen you got a six point six, which is supposedly great.” Ellie’s mother was beaming. Ellie had always done well in school, and when she played team sports she was on the field or the court more often than on the bench. Joanna knew she had it easy as a mother. Ellie was the great kid who made Joanna’s friends envious.

“Enjoy it, you earned it, Kiddo. I’ll make you take out the garbage tonight if you really need to feel humble.” Mark Wharton was just as proud as his wife. He had a daughter that he could brag to his buddies about for her grades, as well as for soccer, basketball and softball. Now he could add her CAP score to the mix. He didn’t like bragging about himself, so very few of his buddies and co-workers knew about his own 7.2 score; however, they were certainly going to hear more about his Ellie come Monday.

The pretty brunette hostess smiled at the family with their obvious young guest of honor and she made sure that they didn’t have to wait very long for their table. She diverted one small party of adults into the bar to make sure that the Whartons got seated quickly.

As the family was seated, Ellie looked around and spotted very few young people. As far as she could see, there were only two or three people of around her age with their parents, and maybe a dozen older teens. Most of those were eighteen or nineteen and clearly, few were here on dates with another eighteen or nineteen-year-old. It was probably too expensive for teens without their parents. She looked down at her menu and only recognized a few items. There were also no prices. She balked at that. She and her parents sparred for a bit, before she let them help her pick some items that she would like.

“Ellie, now that you have earned a six point six, what are your plans if they invite you to be picked up.” Mark was sipping his wine but Ellie was drinking water. After all, she was only fifteen, and besides, she had sipped her mom’s and wrinkled her nose in distaste.

“Well, they gave me a choice when I got my new card yesterday; Navy, Marines or some Navy auxiliary position on a civilian ship that is hauling colonists. I don’t think I would be a good Marine, even if they say they can make me a lot bigger and tougher. Besides I have good aptitudes in math and physics, and I know more about mechanics and electronics than most kids my age because of the Mad Scientist’s Lab.” Mark was an amateur ham radio operator as well as an electrical engineer, and Ellie had been helping and learning from him for years, but the Lab was a slightly different kettle of fish. Every year, they jointly designed some scenario to grace their front porch and yard for Halloween. Last year was Dr. Frankenstein’s Lab, complete with a body, multiple ‘Jacob’s Ladders’, smoking vats of ‘chemicals’, and various electric eye triggered weirdness. Ellie had assisted him as Igor while her best friend Paula on a discreetly heated, raiseable platform was being alternately ‘electrified’ and arising as ‘The Bride’ to cries of ‘It’s Alive!’ Joanna had to take Ellie’s younger brother Frankie to a local party, but after they came back, she handed out candy to all of the kids brave enough to actually enter the yard. “I figured the auxiliary crew thing was a glorified flight attendant, so I went for the Navy. I’ve got to keep up tradition after all.” She reached over, raised her father’s hand by his ring finger and then lowered it again, gently tapping his Annapolis ring onto the table.

Mark blushed in mixed embarrassment and pride. He had served eight years before leaving the Navy and marrying his wife, but now after serving another seventeen in the Naval reserves, he was a Captain and close to retiring. “Yeah, I had hoped for that actually, but I’m proud to hear you say it; however, I meant the pickup of you and your, uhh, I guess they are calling them harems.” His blush deepened. He had not really meant to get started on this subject in public, but it had just kind of popped out. “From my understanding of things, you will get two choices for companions. You would have to pick from the people around you. Let’s say you had to pick right here and now. Who do you take? Two guys? Two girls? One of each? Old, young, married, single, couples?”

“Wow. That’s a big one. I have to think about that for a minute. And you get four. That would be even tougher.”

“No, I have it easy. I plan to take your mother, find one other good, solid mother, and then two more women, our age or younger, that we can get along with. Your Mom and I have already thrashed this out when the president made his announcement. We would have used one of those spots to temporarily protect you, but now we don’t need to.”

“Umm, can I ask a little favor, Dad? It’s Paula. I know you can’t just ask for someone, but she baby-sits for Frankie a lot, like tonight, and she’s around us a lot. If you ever get the possibility, would you consider her?”

Mark was startled for a moment, but he noticed that his groin was instantly in favor. In fact it had voted almost before he heard all of his daughter’s words. Paula was a lush, playful creature that spent a lot of time in the Wharton’s pool with Ellie; however, at fifteen, she was also only about one third his age. “Uhh, Kiddo, she’s kind of young for me to ask that kind of question of her. And umm, there are other considerations, here.” He looked at his wife for assistance.

“Daddy, she’s four months older than me. And she’s not a virgin.” Ellie had lowered her voice and looked around a bit to see if anyone was listening in. “And uhh, she’s already agreed, in principle. She’s seen you in your swimsuit and she said, uhh, well, never mind what exactly she said, but she told me she would, uhh ... Well, anyway, we watched the Defense Force Special on YouTube. I think just on answers she would have made several of the cuts. It was like, the guy would ask the girl, ‘Are you wet’ and Paula says ‘yeah’ and he would ask if she would do stuff and she would either say ‘yeah’ or ‘done that’. She was getting pretty worked up and then they were stripping down to nothing, and she just turned to me and said. ‘I know it’s a long shot, but you tell your dad that he can take me if he wants me.’ So, I figured since we were on the subject...” Ellie was nearly beet red by the time she finished her speech, but she had finished it, just as she had promised Paula that she would.

Mark had now been given a couple of minutes to recover, even if the conversation did not exactly lend itself to calmness. His wife just smiled at him with that sparkle in her eyes that he knew spelled not only amusement, but also some other more adult emotions. “I will bear it in mind, but you can’t tell her anything. The President suggested that the states lower the age of consent, but that’s still stuck in the legislature for now. Until then, I could get in real trouble even talking about it to her. I probably won’t be anyplace near her, anyway. I doubt if I will even be with Joanne, but I should be able to get her at the same time as they pick up Frankie, or I just wouldn’t go. I haven’t volunteered yet, so...

“You, however, need to get back on track. Since you volunteered when you took the test, you have to go. Hypothetical situation. Who would you want from here?”

“Well, one guy and one woman. You mentioned a mother. That sounds smart. I’ll be on a ship. I could get a married couple, if they look like they will listen to me as the boss. I mean, they are agreeing to be my slaves, right?”

Mark nodded. “Yeah, it sure sounds like that. You might have to make them do something real embarrassing to prove that they will obey or at least try to obey. At least make them get naked.”

“Uh. Yeah.” Ellie made a nervous giggle. “Well, the closest lady near here that looks old enough to be a mother, but not too old and that doesn’t look too snooty or something is that young trophy wife with the old guy and their son. Or maybe he’s only the old guy’s son, not hers. He doesn’t look much like her. The son looks cute too, but that old guy is a real grouch. A few of the other couples look ok, but they’re mostly pretty young. I liked the look of that lady that met us at the door, too. Maybe that other lady over there, but I can’t see her husband well enough. If I was with Paula, I would probably want to take her since we get along so well, but I’d want an older lady that knows kids, and I would probably need some guy too, so...”

Joanne spoke up for the first time since this topic of conversation had started. “I liked that hostess, too. And Paula has very good instincts with the kids. What do you figure are our chances of getting picked up, Mark?” She took another sip of her wine while he thought about her question.

“Well, as I understand it, they were talking about evacuating thirty percent of the world’s population in the eight years that are left before the projected arrival time of these Sa’arm. I think that they are going to have to ramp up operations very quickly to manage that. Also, it seems that lots of places aren’t going to be picked up at all; Russia, much of the Middle East, parts of Africa, etc. That’s going to cause huge problems, politically. So far, it looks like only around one guy in five or so qualifies and only around one gal in every fifteen or even one in twenty. If each one gets an average of three concubines, that adds up to just about sixty percent of the adult population. Thirty percent is half of the qualifying sixty. So, that’s a fifty percent chance of us getting out. But I think that the way they said it, they really meant only thirty percent of the available population. That means thirty percent of the high card scores. So, that looks like an eighteen percent chance for any specific qualifying adult. It’s going to really change the way people and families interact as people catch on to the numbers and other implications. For example, Ellie may have guys and even girls following her around if they think she could take them with her.”

There was a bit of noise from the kitchen and suddenly, all of the cooks and busboys boiled out behind the servers. Another commotion started up near the front doors and the bar. There were several huge men in some kind of unfamiliar uniform herding everyone into the main part of the restaurant. The Marines had landed.

“On the other hand, it looks like our chances have just approached certainty,” mused Mark.

“Ok, please settle down and listen. I am Lieutenant Kinsey of the Confederacy Space Marines.” The Lieutenant had made use of a small raised band stage to give himself another two feet of height advantage. Since he and the other marines were already six feet seven inches tall, he could easily be seen throughout the entire dining room. “This is an official Confederation Volunteer extraction. We would like to collect the appropriate people and get them up to our ship as quickly as possible. I am sorry to disturb your evening. For those of you who have not yet heard the rules for this type of event, I will list the major points. Afterwards, you May ask the Marines that will be moving among you about any minor questions.

“First. The Confederation had authorized us to use lethal force to prevent interruptions of this event and our Status Of Forces Agreement with the US government has validated that.

“Second. No one will be allowed to come with us unless they either have their CAP card with them, or they are the child of someone who is chosen and that child is under fourteen years of age.

“Third. Volunteers, with valid CAP scores of six point five or over, will be allowed to come aboard the ship after picking out their authorized Concubines.

“Fourth. And this is meant as a fair warning. Concubines will be slaves in all but name. If you accept a Volunteer’s invitation, you will be expected to be the sexual slave of the Volunteer and you will do anything that he or she tells you to. He could kill you if he wished to. He can have sex with you in any way that you have or even maybe have not heard of. He can have you physically modified in any way he wants. Women WILL be getting pregnant, repeatedly, with whatever male or males your volunteer designates. He can have you perform private or public sexual acts with anyone or anything that he wishes. If I forgot anything, he can probably do that also. Current marriages will be terminated. According to the treaty rules, anyone picked up, whether volunteer or concubine will be counted as deceased for all paperwork here on Earth. That is for inheritance, taxes, insurance, etc. The Confederacy will reimburse insurance companies and creditors. Dependants left behind will either be financially provided for or they will be collected, depending upon their age and the Volunteer’s wishes.

“Volunteers will be physically regenerated to the same or even better condition as when they were eighteen or twenty years old. Medical problems will be totally dealt with. Their concubines may be given similar treatment at the discretion of the Volunteer.

“Now, will everyone who does not have their CAP Card please move into the smaller dining room? Restaurant staff who have left your cards in your purse or jacket will be escorted to retrieve them. Volunteers and all others with a CAP score of six point five or higher, step over here, please.

“Fine, thank you. Now, would anyone left who does have their card, but who wishes to not be further involved in this procedure, please join the others in the small dining room.”

“Ok, Lora. Stay here and I’ll be right back.” Martin stood to check in with the military.

“Martin, If you go up there, I won’t be here when you come back.” Lora was sitting at the table, tight lipped; with her hands clenched so hard they were white.

“Lora. What’s wrong? You’ve seen the public service announcements. Free room and board. Free medical. Free, umm, stuff. Couches and chairs and stuff. All of our bills paid off. You wanted to be just a housewife, right? You won’t ever need an outside job. You hate the politics. No politicians there. We get to go to a new world.” Mark was looking from his wife to the group of people moving to the officer in charge.

“Free medical, with a baby every year or so. Free stuff, but no new shows, or music or books. Never anyplace to go. No family around. Not able to be anything except a housewife. A pregnant housewife; probably barefoot and trapped in the kitchen. No politics and I never get to vote again. A new world, with nothing in it. We’ll probably have to make our own houses. I will be your slave and sharing you with some slut.” She sat, not looking at him.

“Look, I’ll be right back. I just have to check in. Wait here for me and we can talk.” Martin King trotted over to the Marine, glancing at his wife as he went. After he was out of sight, she stood up. Taking her purse, she went into the small dining room and hid in a corner, crying.

“Larry, I’m not going to leave you.” Larry and his fiancé, Myrna, had talked about this. He did not have the score to take her. She refused to consider going without him. He had not argued too hard to make her leave.

“Sorry, I am too selfish. I am not going to try to convince you any more.” He looked around. “Do you want to go into the small room?”

“Nnnooo. I think ... I think we should stick around here and see if we get lucky. There are a few women that are acting like volunteers. And if you look around, you will see a lot of women taking their clothes off.”

“Ok. Nice view, for some of them at least, but what importance does that have?”

“Larry. Remember the cable special. Sex, Larry. These guys are going to want sex with their new women. I’ve never had sex in public.” She saw two mostly nude women at one table kissing each other. “Yup. This place is going to have an orgy. Ok, stud. Get those pants off. You and me, until some lady comes to talk to us. Then you can dick her to death with that club you carry and if she wants, I’ll lick her clean. If not, I’ll lick you clean.”

Ellie looked at her father as they headed towards the indicated area. “What about Mom?”

“Don’t worry Kiddo, I’m not leaving her. Just concentrate on finding two people that you can live with. Try him out with kissing or something to see if he is willing to treat you right, or will he try to take charge. You can come talk to your Mom and I if you have any problems or questions.” He stopped short and put his hand on her shoulder to stop her for a moment. “Ellie? New rules are in effect as of right now. You are now an adult. In fact, you are now considered to be superior to the average adult person. We are there for you, but you have to make the decisions for yourself from now on. It has to be that way. I’ll be a bit upset if you have a wild orgy with a dozen men and women or something like that, but it’s your call. If you need that, do it. Try to pick nice people that you can like, not just some handsome stud. Ok?”

“Ok, Daddy.” They resumed their trip to join the Marine Lieutenant.

Ellie noticed that one large table of five couples had broken up into four of the guys approaching the Marine Officer, while the other couple and the four women remained at their table. The older man, the trophy wife and that cute, teenaged boy that she had noticed earlier, were still together, arguing. Lots of other people were being diverted into the smaller dining room. Some were upset, and complaining that they had their CAP card, ‘right here, someplace,’ or ‘it’s at home, but your computer has the numbers, right?’ Others, especially some older people and some stuck-up looking, ‘upper class’ people, were ‘happy to be out of this outlandish event’ and two were already threatening the management for ruining their evening. There seemed to be almost twenty-five guys showing up as volunteers, but there were only six women. Ellie was the youngest by far. A big lady sergeant separated the six women off to one side.

“Ladies, I’m Sgt Pearson.” She checked their cards and led the four women that had not yet volunteered through their choices. Only one woman chose the Marines. One other woman talked things over with the sergeant and they agreed that her EMT training would be a good basis to try out as a Navy corpsman. The other two went for other branches in the Navy, while the last one had already volunteered for the Navy, just as Ellie had. Then the sergeant handed them each a reader and showed how the sub scores could be displayed, just as on the Average Joes show. When she had finished with that, she gave them some bits of advice based upon her short time in the Space Marines. She seemed to be concentrating on Ellie as she talked. “Ladies, learn something important, right now. You have to be in charge. You are responsible for your choices. For the people you choose, that is. Anyone you take is your slave. If you are timid or prudish, you WILL lose control. If that happens, someone will likely die. Maybe you, maybe your ex-husband, maybe some teenaged kid. D E A D; Dead. You are going to need to be firm and truly, you are going to need to be slutty! You have the abilities. The CAP Scores you have tell me that you all have those capabilities, even if you may be unaccustomed to using them.

“If you take a girl, she has to be willing to do it with whomever you point to. If you take some guy, he has to be willing to have sex with you and any other women in your group. Men being men, probably that’s not a problem. However, also remember, you need to be willing to have sex with him and on your own terms. And he needs to lose any jealousy. Be firm. Be strong. Think of yourself as standing over him with a whip. Hell, if you want, one the replicators can make you a complete dominatrix outfit.”

One of the other women suddenly straightened up and grinned. “William had damned well better be willing to eat my pussy whenever I want it, now!” The other women broke out laughing, even Ellie.

“That’s the ticket, Carrie,” the sergeant continued. “If you get shy with him, he is probably going to try to walk all over you. He will try to run the house and you will probably have to kill someone to fix it. I have already seen it happen a couple of times, especially with the younger women in the Navy. Us Marine ladies kind of spook them a bit.” She flexed a bicep the size of some women’s thighs. The other women laughed nervously. She looked over at Karen, a middle-aged lady, who had an 8.0 and was allowed six concubines. “If you take more than one guy you might have problems with who has access to whose wife. Lets say you take two couples and two more women. Make the couples swap and do each other’s wives right there unless you intend for them to be left alone. If you want the women to have sex with you, do them right there as well. They need to understand from the start who is in charge and what they will have to do.”

Karen nodded and then she got a bit of a smile on her face. She looked over her shoulder toward her table and when she turned back, she said, “Rob and I have fantasized about Shellie and Jacob before. It looks like I get to ask them if they are interested tonight.”

Sgt Pearson looked directly at Ellie. “Hon, you are the youngest, the smallest and probably the least experienced, both sexually and in most other ways. It’s one thing if you have a wimp of a man willing to stay home and worship you in bed and keep some other strange lady satisfied as well, but if you pick some confident super-stud, expect him to try to be a dominant force in the relationship. A lot of guys are just hardwired that way. Married couples might work out, but they may get defensive about that past relationship. Have the guy do some other woman while the lady does some other guy. If you have to really work to talk them into it, it probably won’t work. If you can handle it, have the woman go down on you. Don’t you worry about getting her off unless you already have a taste for that. You don’t want to seem tentative. Let the guy start pumping away and then tell him to stop. See if he can or will. If you can handle being naked as you talk, fine, if not, make them get naked as soon as you start talking to them. You should probably do that anyway. They need to be naked to get on the ship. Make them do something public and embarrassing.”

She focused her attention back on the group. “One thing you should all know. You will all be enhanced in the next week or so. Even you non-Marines will end up faster and stronger than you are now. With a little training, you should be able to easily slap around the average guy if it becomes necessary. Ok, if you have any questions, I will be right near here. You can wander the room or stick around here or at your old table.”

Carrie headed back to her table where William was waiting. He stood up as she arrived. He had always been so well mannered. “William, please hand me your CAP Card.” Carrie already knew a lot about her husband of five years, but she needed some time to think. She didn’t see anything that stood out on his card. His score in the low 5s seemed to match up with her evaluation of him, average in most ways, higher in intelligence and parenting skills, lower in dominance. He was a low level accountant for a big firm. No real prospects for advancement, but good and steady at his job. She brought in the majority of the household income, but it was a commission-based job that fluctuated from month to month. Her 7.1 score showed a lot more dominance and people skills. It also showed a higher libido. She wondered if he could keep up with three more women. Maybe she needed a couple. “William. I have volunteered for the Fleet Auxiliary. That’s a branch of the Navy that runs the transport ships. I get four people in my Harem. Do you want to come with me?”

“Well, of course I am coming with you. I’m your husband.” William was more surprised by the question, rather than indignant.

“No. It’s not of course, and you are not my husband anymore, as of the moment that I volunteered. You are very much my first choice, but you have to understand the rules. Are you willing to listen?”

“Not married? But... ? Ok, I’ll listen.”

“If you go with me, I’m in charge. I can kick you out of my home on a whim. I can and will make you have sex with other women. I could make you have sex with other men, if I wanted to. I will probably have sex with other men and you will have to watch and not interfere. Not even complain. You will be having sex with me whenever I want it and no ‘Sorry, I had a bad day at the office’ allowed. No office for that matter. You will be a househusband. You will do whatever I want. You and all the rest will live on my sufferance. Do you understand?”