Sam snuck out each evening after lights out to spend a couple hours using the tablet. It took her a few days to figure out how to access this planet's version of the internet. She started each night going over that day's headlines and then would look up information about the planet's history, political groups, and military structure. It took her a few weeks to decode how this planet's history had resulted in the subjugation of its women. Ten generations ago a disease usually seen only in males became more common, drastically reducing the number of men surviving to a reproductive age.

Medical researchers figured out the faulty gene was on the X chromosome and just like humans on Earth the reproductive chromosomes for women on this planet were XX and males were XY. That meant it was women who were the carriers of this fatal disease, called blue disease. Women would only show symptoms if they had two copies, one from their mother and one from their father. Males had the disease if the X chromosome they got from their mother had the faulty gene. Males with the disease had trouble carrying sufficient oxygen, causing their skin to have a blue hue, giving the disease its name. Since said males rarely lived long enough to have children, few women ever had this disease.

Once it was determined that women were the carriers, society turned on mothers whose sons were born ill. These women were barred from having additional children. Their husbands could request a divorce and the women had no legal right to fight against it in court, leaving many of these women destitute and caring for a sick child. Eventually the concept of marriage fell into ruin because so many relationships were ending in divorce and women outnumbered men four to one. Over the last decade, data showed women now outnumbered men ten to one. Fewer male children were being born each generation and miscarriage rates were increasing.

Women who did have healthy sons were pushed to have more and more children, generally with multiple men to increase genetic diversity. Sam read about birthing camps, where women were kept for breeding purposes, but if one of their sons was born with blue disease, they would be sent to a death camp. Female children were sent to girls' schools so they could be raised to be future breeders, in the hopes that they did not carry the faulty gene. Once these girls reached a reproductive age, they were sent to a work camp, where they were to earn their keep while being bred with the men stationed at the camp. Each man was assigned women with whom they were to breed. The higher you were in the organization the more women you were assigned. If the women at the work camps gave birth to a healthy male, they were sent to a birthing camp. If they gave birth to a girl, they were left at the work camp and given another chance to have a son. They were allowed to give birth to two girls before they would be sent to a death camp. Giving birth to a boy with blue disease would get them automatically sent to a death camp. The death camps were not even hidden from society, regularly making the headlines Sam reviewed each evening.

Based on the documents Sam found, the man running Sam's camp would be assigned anywhere from eight to fifteen women he was supposed to impregnate. His assistants would be responsible for six to ten women. Guards, depending on their seniority, were assigned two to four women each. These men were only supposed to copulate with the women they were assigned in an attempt to try and track genetic diversity. It probably also decreased aggression between men fighting over the same woman.

Sam had seen women being led from the field during the day and escorted out after dinner. Sam's unofficial status combined with doing her best to stay under the radar had probably saved her from being included in their breeding program. What surprised Sam even more is that the women in the camp seemed to be fine with this arrangement, even agreeing that women carrying the faulty gene should be killed. They thought it was normal to have your sexual partner picked for you and, if you were lucky enough to have a healthy child, have it taken from you and raised by the state. Sam was disgusted.

Blue disease had brought all the countries on this planet together, in a horrific attempt to increase the male population by abusing and exterminating women. Apparently, there were no longer enough men to risk waging war. A lack of war and gentlemen's handshakes between countries had eventually turned into a unified world government. The military had been turned into guards for the birth, death and work camps. Since everyone on the planet seemed to agree with this absurdity, the guards didn't even have to deal with much resistance.

Terla warned Sam again the night before the women were to be bussed to the health facility. Sam hid in the woods until the women were gone and then emerged wearing her stolen guard uniform. This time she headed straight for the main house, hoping to access the military communication center she now knew was housed on the second floor. She'd gone over the camp blueprints and military communication protocols multiple times to prepare for her chance to send a message to the Hammond, which she hoped was still close enough to intercept a signal. As she rounded the corner of the bunk house, she was dismayed to see the guards working in a buddy system rather than as individuals like they did when guarding the women in the fields. Last time she had approached the main house, the guards had been working individually and they hadn't been stationed at the entrances as they were now. Sam wasn't willing to risk detection by trying to infiltrate the main house.

As Sam slid back along the wall of the guard barracks, she wondered whether her last incursion had been noticed, leading to more security. It made sense that the women wouldn't have been considered suspects in the theft of the tablet, since they were gone the day it happened, but the guards and other main house occupants would have been under suspicion.

Sam heard two men talking so she ducked into the guard barracks as they got close to her. She lucked out and found she was alone. Sam decided to make the best of her busted mission by searching the barracks for anything she could use to her advantage. She went room by room, careful to put everything she touched back in its original place, except for the few things she decided to take with her.

Sam made her way through the rooms as quickly as possible, heading back to the woods as soon as she was done. She spent the afternoon modifying a radio she found during her search. It would allow her to hear signals originating from within the main house as well as two military channels and one government channel. She was disappointed that she hadn't found a way to send a message, but the radio provided her with more up to date information as well as intel that didn't make it into the news.