Chapter 3
Raira, 34 Shiaa, 4400 Orthodox Calendar
Monday, 8 December 2013, Terran Standard Calendar
Raira, 34 Shiaa, year 1326 of the 97th Generation, Karinne Historical Reference Calendar
Foxwood East, Karsa, Karis
Heaven.
Jason was half asleep, and he was surrounded by children. Rann and Kyri were cuddled in on one side of him, and Zachary and Aran were on the other. Sora, his little Sora, was snuggled against his chest, exhausted and asleep, and very, very happy. Jason himself was very tired, since it was the first day since the contract signing where he hadn't been running around like a maniac. He'd spent two days on Draconis, basically in Dahnai's clutches, and she was very reluctant to let him go. After he finally extricated himself from the palace, he went to the border systems to survey them, and to meet with the four Brood Princesses and their advisory staffs.
There were four systems that had been captured, and two of them had arable planets. Two systems also had more than one planet inhabited. Aurigae was the jewel of the four, for it had a large arable planet and had an airless yet mineral-rich planet that was also inhabited, used for mining. Skralla also had two inhabited planets. One was an arid planet not too much unlike Makan IV, arable but not quite as productive as the temperate, wet Aurigae. Skralla V was a tundra planet, where some farming could be done in special domed areas where the temperature was raised using technology. The system of Bellar was only occupied because it had one of the largest terrestrial planets in the entire sector, and had huge deposits of various light and heavy metals. The only problem was the planet was irradiated, due to one of its five moons that seemed to be all but made of radioactive isotopes, which bombarded the planet with radiation with every orbit. The Urumi had set up radiation shield domes to build one city of size on Bellar, a city of about twenty million Urumi. The topography and weather of the planet were the most unusual and unique Jason had ever seen. Exposed heavy metal ore deposits had eroded over the billions of years by the savage windstorms that raged across the planet, and spread the metals over the surface in a film of metal ore dust that helped block the radiation. The first couple of feet of soil of Bellar was so laced with metallic dust that it was almost a metal shell covering the surface, which could actually be mined by sifting the soil to separate the various ore dusts, and that shell both protected the interior, and also blasted the domes of the city with such powerful scouring metal-dust sandstorms that the outer dome of the three-domed structure was almost constantly in a state of repair. The metal coating in the soil partially shielded the interior of the planet from the radiation, so they mined by digging down from the city and then branching out. There were tunnels hundreds of miles long under Bellar's surface, radiation-shielded tunnels that led to the deposits they mined, where miners wearing E-suits labored to mine valuable heavy ores, like the ores that were refined to form Vanadrium, Teratium, Adamantium, and even deposits of Uzerium287 and Allarium317, which were two of the core metals that formed the alloy Neutronium. The fourth system was Immiran, a small red star with a single planet that was so close to the star that it had a year of only 46 days, but that proximity gave the surface enough heat radiation to be temperate… if for the fact that it was barren and airless. The planet had no magnetic field, which allowed the star's radiation to rake the planet, and which had scoured away its atmosphere over billions of years. It was also phase locked in its orbit, which caused it to rotate at exactly the same rate in which it orbited the star. The planet always pointed the same hemisphere to the star, which was effectively an endless day where the red sun took up nearly half the sky. The only reason it was inhabited was because the sun's radiation made the planet a unique place to experiment with forms of non-standard farming; hydroponics and synthetic soil farming, all done under domes that filtered out only those harmful spectra of radiation that would kill the plants, but allowed all others to pass. That abundance of solar radiation actually allowed the planet to produce prodigious amounts of food for its size.
Jason was reminded of one of the ways he was truly different from both humans and Faey while he was there at Immiran. The Generations were part Kimdori, and the Kimdori were utterly immune to radiation. Jason himself wasn't completely immune to radiation, but he was much, much more tolerant of it. The DNA-damaging aspects of radiation didn't affect him, since his DNA could repair itself… and that was why radiation therapy had done nothing to help Jason's father when he was battling cancer. Jason's DNA couldn't be damaged or mutated by radiation, but it was actually much more prone to the self-mutation that caused cancerous tumors, which was why cancer was so prevalent in his family, and Songa screened him for cancer, which she could easily cure, every three months. Jason could withstand doses of radiation that were dangerous to most other living things, but his resistance to radiation ended when it reached the point where the particles started doing actual physical damage to him. Unlike the Kimdori, Jason couldn't just heal those microscopic wounds, so exposure to heavy radiation or excessively long exposure to light doses of certain kinds of radiation were still dangerous to him.
After the tour, he met the four Brood Princesses of the Urumi. They were all about Jason's height, smaller than their mother, and had the same effete, royal attitude. They had all been raised to rule, for every Urumi planet had a Brood Princess there to govern. These four were the same four princesses that had been here before the Imperium invaded, and were simply returning to their duties. Jason actually favored that, since that meant that he was dealing with four Urumi that already knew all about their planets, and already had a governing system in place that the Urumi on the planets would respect. The first thing he made them do was swear fealty to him and to obey the terms of their contract, which was thirty years of dutiful and honest allegiance to the House Karinne, at the end of which they would meet with the Brood Queen to discuss the return of the systems to the Collective. "I'm not here to assimilate you into the Imperium. And I'm not here to try to make you go against your mother," he told the four, speaking the guttural language of Urumi, which Miaari had imparted to him before the meeting. Jason wanted no chance of misunderstandings, so he was speaking their language. "All I ask for is what you agreed to, thirty years of service to Karinne. And I guarantee you, I will work to make your colonies thrive, and try to return them to the Collective better than they were when the Faey invaded you. You'll have access to the Academy and all the science and support it can offer. Just ask, and they'll send teams to your worlds to help you with any problem, and the Makati are only a call away to help you build. I seriously think you should contact the Makati master builders who teach at the Academy, Sk'Xhree," he told the governor of Bellar. "They can probably help you come up with a more efficient dome system that doesn't require so much repair. Probably some kind of energy shield system, I don't know, but the engineers of Makan are definitely the ones you want to see."
"But the cost," she protested.
"You're Karinne planets now, Sk'Xhree, for thirty years," he said bluntly. "And in Karinne, we don't separate costs. The cost to replace the dome comes out of the total budget, not only yours. You'll only have to pay for a portion of it, about one tenth the cost of the project, which I'm sure you can manage. So work it out with the Academy.
"Remember that. In Karinne, we work as one. The needs of one planet are the needs of the whole house, so the house attends the matter. You will not simply be put aside and forgotten, left to fend for yourself. As long as you can pay your share, think about what projects you'd like to undertake for the next thirty years. We'll help you upgrade your infrastructure, build, expand, increase your industry. Sk'Varra, I noticed that Immiran has no orbital base outside of that hundred-year-old hulk that looks half broken down. Have you needed a new one?"
"Yes, your Grace, I've been trying to get an orbital station to replace that rusted hulk we have for five years."
"Then we'll take care of it. I'm sure the master builders of the Academy would love to build one for you, they enjoy a challenge. I want your planets not just to subsist, but to grow and thrive. You have the resources of both House Karinne and the Academy at your disposal. I want the Brood Queen to be impressed with the worlds she gets back when the time comes, not planets that have been milked dry and then cast aside."
That one statement earned him their immediate and honest loyalty, for that was exactly what they were afraid would happen. When they sat down for conference, they saw that he meant it, for he discussed the agreement in place in the Imperium that took a portion of their profits and split it equally with the houses of the Siann, but also ensured that each planet also turned a profit as well, which they could use to expand and improve, and would also earn the Brood Princesses a nice salary; that was how they earned their money, through the prosperity of the planets they governed. The system he described would allow each system to grow, expand, even thrive, at little actual cost to themselves. They had to surrender about half their food yields and were taxed by the Imperium for about half of their profits, but backing them up was House Karinne, offering them services at a fraction of the price it would usually take to get it done. Under the Karinne plan, each system would actually earn more than it had in the Collective, because the Grand Duke wanted to overhaul their entire planets with better infrastructure, more efficient factories, strong defenses, and the ability to do business cheaper and earn more profit at the same time. The Brood Princesses realized quickly that Jason was sincerely concerned about the well being and profitability of their planets, and he would not be a tyrant. "Also don't forget, you're not being isolated from the Collective, either," he told them. "As soon as Empress Dahnai gets her ships out of our space, trade and contact with the Collective will reopen. You're citizens of the Karinnes now, but you're more than welcome to return to the Collective to visit, and have your family from the Collective come to you. Our border with the Collective will be open, because I trust your mother to keep her word and honor our contract. I just want your thirty years to be happy ones, and when it's all said and done, I don't want you to regret being under my flag.
"As far as things go, each of you will have a strong measure of autonomy," he told them. "I want you to run things as you see fit. All I ask is that you meet the quotas, don't try to cheat the Imperium, and take advantage of the services I'm offering you. You'll have authority to make your own budgets, institute your own laws and mores, and even create independent trade agreements beyond the forced trade imposed on you by the contract. So, if some Imperium house approaches you and offers you a lucrative trade agreement for something not covered by the mandatory quotas, take it. I want the Karinnes to be as unobtrusive as possible when you govern your worlds, but be available for you when you need us. I'm sure you can see that this is a system that benefits you far more than me, and I'm aware of it. But what I want from you and your systems isn't money or resources. All I want is peace between the Imperium and the Collective for so long as the Consortium threatens us all, and I'm willing ot pay for it.
"Now, there is one thing that I will ask of you," he said. "Brood Queen Sk'Vrae has given me permission to extend invitations for Urumi to permanently join House Karinne. These volunteers will be inducted into the house, and will stay with Karinne when the time comes for us to part when you fold back into the Collective. I'm going to organize some informational viddy shows and open information centers in your major cities, but I will tell you this right here, right now. House Karinne does not induct those who do not want to be in the house. We do not conscript, we do not kidnap. We are happy to take Urumi into the house, but only those who truly wish to join us. That's what the information centers will be there for, and to let you know, being inducted into the house will be a year-long process where the Urumi are educated about Karinne, and given ample opportunities to withdraw. But, on the other side of that, the house also does not take those who have ulterior motives. After the year-long induction phase, the Urumi has to submit to telepathic verification to ensure he will give his loyalty to the house, and is not just attempting to enter the house to be a spy for someone else. Like I said, we only take those who truly wish to be part of the house."
In all, it had been a very productive and promising meeting. The Brood Princesses would actually do most of the work for him, and all he had to do was help them with those things they couldn't do for themselves. If things worked out as he envisioned, the border systems would thrive, everyone would be happy, and peace would be maintained. It was more than worth the cost of helping build the border systems up.
The others were cleaning up from Sora's passing party. His little cutie had expressed two days ago, and Zora was so proud that she could walk to Kosigi. Maya and Ilia were starting to look a tad bit annoyed, for their children with Jason had yet to express… but they shouldn't be too uptight. Jason figured that all his children had strong telepaths for mothers, so Zachary and Aran would be expressing any time now. Maya and Ilia were just as strong as Zora, so it was just a matter of time before his two other sons were telepathically expressed.
Surin had outdone himself yet again. The party had been done to the theme of The Imperial Rangers, Sora's favorite viddy show, which was actually an educational animated feature that taught Faey children math, science, critical thinking, music, and art appreciation. It surprised him quite a bit that the Faey had such a comprehensive approach to education, considering art and music just as important as math and science. There had been cake, and games, and rides on airsleds pulled by the Dukal guards, and Kyva had even come and given Sora a ride in her Gladiator, carrying her in the Gladiator's hand. There was even a live performance by actors in Imperial Ranger outfits. Every child in the whole area, both in the strip and outside, among the Generations and others living nearby, had attended, and it had been quite a fun party, even for the parents.
Jason was almost dreamily content, with his little blond daughter sleeping on his chest, one of her cute little pointed ears poking up out of her hair. Sora had inherited her mother's ears but had Jason's eyes and skin color, and she was already looking like her mother. She was clutching one of her gifts, an action figure of the Math Ranger from the viddy, who taught both normal math and algebra in a way that made it like a game; in fact, that was how the Math Ranger called it. "Algebra is a game, it's a puzzle where you have to find the hiding number!" he would say in his formula. Jason marveled at his darling little girl, seeing that she was going to be the more beautiful of his two daughters. It wasn't that Kyri wasn't cute, but Sora was going to be a absolute heartbreaker.
He did wonder how long it would be before Aran and Zachary expressed. Aran's hair had darkened to a kind of leaf green, which looked a little strange but was also rather striking and didn't look bad at all, and Zachary's black hair was still black. Now that Jason thought of it, Zachary's hair was the only child of his whose hair hadn't changed color. Rann's hair started orange but was now reddish blond. Kyri's hair started out shocking white, but had darkened to the platinum blond it held now. Aran's hair had started bright, almost neon green, but had darkened to the pleasing summer leaf green it held now. And Sora's hair had been strawberry blond when she was born, but it had lightened to lovely golden blond, a blond not too different from Aura's hair. Zachary's coal black hair was the most unusual of his children, but also made him the most handsome to Faey girls. Among the Faey, the darker the hair, the more rare, and thus the more exotic and attractive. Where human men loved blonds, Faey men and women both went ga-ga over someone raven-haired. And there wasn't a hair anywhere in Zachary's head that wasn't jet black. That black hair was going to make him very popular with the girls. Yana was proud because Kyri had been born expressed, Jyslin was proud that her son was the heir, Maya was proud that her son seemed much smarter than the others, Zora was proud that her daughter could already fly an airbike, and Ilia was proud that her son had black hair.
Damn Faey, having to make a competition out of everything.
Sora stirred and opened her eyes, then shifted and looked at him with her beautiful green eyes. She had already had three days of sending lessons, and Zora said she could already send, that she had learned fast. Jason decided to test that. Well, my little lady is awake, he sent slowly and gently, letting his love for his daughter shine through his thoughts, which made her smile brightly at him. Feeling okay?
I'm happy, she sent, trying to focus it only on him, but not doing very well. She slid up and wrapped her little arms around his neck and kissed him on the nose, then put her forehead against his. Mommy is happy too.
It's very important for us to see our children's talent wake up, he told her seriously. Because yours woke up so early, it means you'll be very strong. That makes your mother and I very, very proud of you, my little lady.
Not as strong as Kyri and Rann, though.
You'll be stronger than Rann because he's a boy. You'll be stronger than me when you grow up, he admitted. Girls are naturally stronger talents than boys.
I won't tell anyone, she sent seriously, which made Jason chuckle.
We'll make it our little secret, he sent lightly in reply. You send very well for only being able to for three days, little love.
Mommy makes me practice from lunch til bedtime since I started hearing it, she told him. She said it was how her mommy taught her.
Well, don't let it make you hate it, he told her. Once you learn how to send, you'll find it to be easy, and even fun. Truth be told, I'd much rather send than speak. It's faster, It's easier, and people can understand me better.
Why do you talk then?
Because I want my children to understand me, he told her. And not everyone can hear me send. When I talk with some of our human friends, I have to talk. When I talk with my Makati and Kizzik friends, I have to talk. I can send in a way that it lets them hear, but that is very hard to do, and never fails to give me a headache. But when I talk with Miss Miaari, I must speak. She can't hear sending, no matter how I try to do it. Her race is completely closed off from sending.
Why is that?
I really couldn't tell you, he answered. But her people have nobody with talent, and we can't touch their minds to send our thoughts to them.
It was close enough for a child. The honest answer was, Jason could send to Miaari, but only if she allowed it. Kimdori had such powerful mental defenses that he couldn't even send to her, his thought couldn't penetrate her defense so she could hear it. And a Kimdori would rather bite off his own leg than lower his mental defenses. They saw telepathic communion as a threat to the secrets they carried, and absolutely would not permit any chance that a telepath would break into those parts of their minds and take what they didn't want to give. A secret unspoken remains a secret was more than just a saying with the Kimdori, it was a way of life.
I like Miss Miaari.
So do I. She's one of my best friends, he agreed. So, did you enjoy your party, dove?
Did I! she sent excitedly, and her excitement made her thought fuzzy and hard to comprehend, almost overwhelmed by her exuberance. Did you see the airsled that Miss Temika bought me?
Yes I did, he answered. You should thank her a whole bunch of times, those aren't cheap, dove. She must really like you to give you a present like that.
It was nice to have Temika home. She was sitting with Mike over at the picnic table, catching up with the girls. Temika was home now, since the fall semester just ended at the Academy, and she only had one more semester to go. But that semester would be done here, on Karis, in Kumi's office. It was her internship, but in reality it was just Temika doing her transition from school to work. Temika had trained in business to help Kumi at her many schemes and business fronts, and now she would be trained in the dirty underside of business, where she'd been trained in the clean veneer business showed to the world. Temika was actually very good at business. She had a nose for it, and had been very successful back among the squatters. She seemed to have a knack for knowing what would be valuable where, and those instincts had proven to translate into the realm of galactic business.
Mike had already graduated from his plasma systems course, and was ready to join Myleena's staff as one of her technicians, but he'd waited for Temika to graduate. He spent that extra year learning the basics of plasma systems engineering working for the Makan Builder's School, the engineering college at the Academy, taught by seven living legends, Makati who had earned the titles of Master Builders. It had been quite a coup when Ayuma had lured those teachers from various engineering schools on Makan, seven of the most respected in various fields of engineering. Those seven collectively could, quite simply, design and build anything, from a house to a capital-class starship. Each one was a master of a different field of engineering, and together, they were comprehensively the best teaching staff anywhere. The students at the school would be the ones doing the building for the border systems, since the Makati would turn each project into an active learning experience for both the engineering academy and the business school. The engineering school would survey the sites, develop the plans, make the blueprints, and execute the instruction, while the business school would have to manage the operation. It wouldn't be the first major project undertaken by the Academy, for they had built a new orbital station for Terra using the same tactic, making it a school project where students drew up the plans, then the business school managed the actual build, which was done by a mixture of Academy students of various schools and Makati construction companies. In that way, the students got actual experience doing the real thing, not working up plans and using simulations.
It was just more reason for various races to send their students to the Academy, which had, in its short tenure, already earned a reputation for outstanding teachers, comprehensive and effective education, and was already considered to be one of the premier centers of learning and research. And when the Consortium technology started to be analyzed next week, then it would be the research center in the whole sector. They were almost ready to begin, getting their research methods and recording systems set up, and all the data loaded into the mainframe supplied to them just for the task. Kiaari had built them a situation room, but was not the one running it, and it was there where both technical information and strategic information would be disseminated out to the participating governments.
Their plan was to divide up the research into six main areas; energy generation and distribution, computer interpretation, weapons systems, propulsion systems, other systems, and metallurgy. Other systems would be the largest section with many sub-sections, where each one focused on a different system the Consortium used, including the very important section that would study the brain devices implanted into the insectoids to puzzle out their exact operation and maybe find some weakness to exploit. Jason knew that by spreading highly advanced plasma power generation, he was weakening Dahnai's advantage, but in the long run he saw that it was for the best. The Urumi had already been provided smaller plasma power plants to power the weapons that the Consortium gave them, as they demanded much more power than the Urumi's ships could provide, so it was just a matter of time for plasma power technology to filter down to the other governments. Most governments already used plasma as a primary power source, but they weren't even half as advanced as the Faey. Most still used hot plasma, and had not yet mastered the techniques of phasing plasma to make it safer and make it more powerful. Parity was absolutely critical to keep the Faey from trying to conquer the rest of the sector, because at the moment, the Faey had a major advantage with their advanced plasma power systems and their fearsome MPAC technology.
Jason had plans that far exceeded the short term threat of the Consortium. His plans would take maybe a century to come to fruition, but in the end, it would be for the best. In a way, he could almost thank the Consortium for coming along and giving him a jump start on executing his plan, for they provided the perfect focus to get the ball rolling. If only they weren't such a terrible threat to Cybi and his house, he would almost be happy they were here. But the simple fact of the matter was, so long as the Consortium was out there, Karis and the Karinnes were in great danger, and he had to focus everything on keeping his house safe and Cybi untouched.
Sora raised up over him enough to look him in the eyes, and he felt his heart melt a little looking up at his beautiful daughter. My little lady, he sent tenderly, disengaging an arm and stroking her hair. It seems like just yesterday you were so small you'd fit in my hands. You're growing up so fast, he added, a touch wistfully. I wonder how much you'll grow in the next year, how much more beautiful you'll be. I love you, my little Sora.
I love you too, Papa, she sent, her affection for him bleeding through her thought as she hugged him around the neck. Want to ride on my sled?
"Papa's too big for your sled, Sora," Aran said sleepily.
Jason started, then laid his head back and laughed so loud that he startled all his kids awake. He sat up and kissed Sora affectionately on the cheek, then picked up his green-haired son and held him up at arm's length. "All my little ones are just growing up too fast!" he said with another laugh.
"Papa?" Sora asked.
What color is your hair, Aran? Jason sent, slowly and gently, and he held Aran out so he couldn't see Jason's mouth not moving.
"Mommy calls it forest green," he answered. Kyri's eyes widened, Rann grinned, and Sora gasped.
"Aran! Daddy was sending!" Rann said exuberantly. "You woke up!"
"I did?" Aran asked in confusion.
"Yes you did, my little man!" Jason beamed. "I'm so proud of you!"
"Aww, that means I'm gonna be last!" Zachary complained. "Now they're gonna tease me!"
"Then you need to wake up too," Kyri said imperiously. "Then we don't have reason to, and I don't have to jabber at you like a baby!"
Maya! Jason boomed, so much so that just about everyone looked in his direction. C'mere quick!
Maya was only a few feet away, so she hurried over with Vell and Yuri, her oldest daughter. "What is it, Jason?"
"Our son expressed!" he announced, holding Aran out to arm's length and swinging him back and forth, making him giggle.
"Really?" she gasped, then she giggled and snatched Aran up. "Oh, my son, I'm so proud of you!" she said with a happy laugh, hugging him tightly.
Vell gave him his own big hug. "Now that's our big boy!" he said with a smile, kissing Aran on the cheek. Jason could not be more grateful to Vell. Vell was unbelievably kind and giving, acting as a father to Aran in the house, but acceding to Jason. Aran had two fathers, and he called both of them Daddy. Vell loved Aran as much as his own daughters, showing just how wonderful and kind Vell was. Jason couldn't have asked for a better stepfather for Aran.
Everyone, Aran has expressed! Maya sent, at maximum power… which meant that Faey 20 miles away probably heard her, since Maya was deceptively powerful in her talent. It made both Sora and Aran flinch, and Rann put his hands over his ears, which made Jason laugh.
A flood of congratulations roared in, which made Sora wince as her undeveloped talent tried to make sense of everything assaulting her, so Jason put his hand on her shoulder and shielded her with his own talent, cutting off the voices. "Better?" he asked.
"Mmm, thank you, Daddy!" she said, hugging him again.
"Don't let Aran take away from your special day, though," Jason told her with a grin. "You're still the most important little lady on the strip today! Aran will get his day when it's his passing party."
It was even more reason to celebrate, and Jason made sure to pay extra attention to Sora so she didn't feel like anything was taken away from her with Aran's expression during her party. Jason saw that Maya had already pulled Surin aside, and was deep in sending with him, no doubt organizing Aran's party. Remember I'll be off planet Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday morning, Jason warned.
Then we'll have it on Wednesday morning, Surin answered calmly. Is that good for your schedule?
Nothing I can't postpone, he answered. My kids are more important than Dukal business.
The amusing part of it all was Zachary. Jason could empathize with him, for now he was the only child of Jason that hadn't expressed, and he looked both annoyed and uncertain. All his brothers and sisters were now in a world still denied him, and it was as if he felt like it was separating him from his siblings. When Kyri and Rann told Sora and Aran all about the lessons they did, Zachary was left out. All he could do was listen and feel like he wasn't part of the group anymore. He looked so mopey that as the party broke up, he took his son aside and sat with him at the picnic table. "Don't let them upset you, son," he told him gently, a hand on his back. "Just be patient. Your mother is just as strong as Maya, so it's just a matter of time before your talent wakes up too."
"It's not fair," he complained. "Why did I have to be last?"
"Why did Kyri have to be first?" he asked simply. "It's just the way things are. Don't ever think that there's something wrong with you, and don't let your brothers and sisters tease you over it. If they do, come tell me. I won't stand for that, it's totally rude."
"But then I'll be a tattle-tale," he said seriously. Zachary was the son of Ilia, and Ilia had very strong views which showed in her son through her teachings. Zachary was a very serious little boy, and already had a very strong sense of right and wrong, and he was definitely the most well-behaved of his children. Ilia didn't tolerate lying or disobedience. She raised Zachary with a firm hand, but it was also a loving one.
"Well then, I'll just have to ask you every day, because I know you won't lie to me if I ask you a direct question," he said simply. "And I'll warn your brothers and sisters that I'm going to, so they can't blame you when they get in trouble if they do it."
"No, I won't, Papa," he agreed, looking quite relieved that he could stop his siblings from teasing him without being accused of ratting them out.
Being politically savvy often had fringe benefits, such as dealing with his competitive and rather sneaky children.
"Now, just be patient, son, and you'll get your turn. And you know what?"
"What?"
"I'll make sure your passing party is much bigger than anyone else's," he said with a conspiratorial smile. "Since you got stuck with being last, it means it'll be the last passing party for a while… so we have to make it a really good one."
Zachary smiled at him and nodded enthusiastically.
"Now go have fun, and I'll see you at dinner."
Zachary ran off and joined Zeri and Jora, the daughters of Sheleese and Min, and the three of them ran down to the beach to fly a kite.
Ilia put her hand on Jason's shoulder and looked down at him. Thanks, babes, I'm glad you did that.
I feel sorry for him, and for you, he replied. He'll feel left out, and that's a terrible feeling for a child. And I'm sure the others are gonna rag you ceaselessly til he expresses, he told her.
She laughed ruefully. You know they will, she agreed. But I don't think it's going to take long. There are some times when I think he's able to hear me send, but not when he actively tries. So I'm sure he's right on the threshold.
I don't doubt it.
A little floating camera drifted up to him, which was Cybi's remote camera that let her watch the party. She was very much interested in his children, because she considered them to be the first children of the 98th Generation. Even though the program was long gone, the fruits of that program were meticulously tracked by Cybi. [How is the camera working, Cybi?] he asked, communing with her.
[Very well, Jason,] she answered. [It makes me wonder when they will be able to commune.]
[I don't think Kyri's very far from it,] he answered. [She has enough experience, she just hasn't quite figured it out yet. I really should see if I can teach her how to do it.]
[Please. I'd love to be able to talk to her.]
[She'll need a real gestalt, and not just the interface she uses now. I'm not sure I want her to have a gestalt quite yet. There's no telling how the computer linked to her mind will affect her development. For one, it would let her cheat like crazy in her lessons, she could just access her gestalt. She wouldn't learn anything.]
[Precisely why we didn't permit gestalts to the young,] she agreed. [But we could design an interface that permits communion, or use the system the Karinnes used before their destruction, a remote commune sensor network. Before, there were enough remote sensors that allowed Generations to commune with the CBIM in command of Karga, Carra, without needing a gestalt. But you haven't installed remote commune transceivers,] she added, a bit tartly.
[Everyone who can commune with you has a gestalt, I didn't see the need. But, I think you proved your point. I'll have Myleena install a remote network through the area so all of us can commune without a gestalt if needed.]
[Thank you, that makes me content.]
[I do have a question to ask you.]
[Yes?]
[Myleena's almost to the point where she believes we can build another CBIM. Would you want this?]
[Jason, that is a silly question. Do you know how vulnerable I feel knowing I am the last of the CBIMs? If I were to go offline, the loss of my data would be a tragedy to the entire universe. I have been pushing Myleena to build another CBIM, both to protect the Karinne secrets and also because CBIMs are needed. You need a CBIM to run Karga, and there should be a CBIM at the Academy.]
[No, there will be no CBIM off Karis,] Jason told her. [If a CBIM were captured, it would be devastating to the Karinnes.]
[Jason, no enemy could possibly capture us. We would self-terminate long before they managed to get anything from us. We will not permit ourselves to be captured. That is what happened to the CBIM of Draena, the southern continent. She survived the initial attack, but self-terminated to prevent the Merranes from capturing her. That's why that large crater is in the center of the continent is there. She triggered an explosion in her singularity power plant, which vaporized everything that the Merranes may have been able to use.]
[God, I hope you never have to come to that,] he told her earnestly.
[I would be unhappy to do it, but I would. The secrets of the house are more important than I. I will take them into oblivion with me before I surrender them to our enemies.]
[I'd rather not dwell on things like that. And you can forget trying to foist off running Karga on some other CBIM. I wouldn't feel happy with anyone other than you.]
[I am not as adept at the task as a CBIM you build specifically for the task will be. My function is emergency response, not operations.]
[Well. I have another question for you.]
[Yes?]
[If we build everything you need, could you transfer yourself to the hardware of another CBIM? I mean, if we move your core memory to new hardware, would you be able to make the move?]
She was silent for a surprisingly long time. [An… intriguing idea,] she noted. [My core isn't designed to be moved out of this facility, but it is designed to be mobile, which is why I can withdraw myself into the mantle. I was the only CBIM built with such a feature, which makes my core more, ah, modular than other CBIM cores were. I believe that it just might be possible, if my entire core module, the part of me I withdraw into the mantle, is moved as one, I have extensive remote transceivers to maintain connection to my non-core systems during the move, and I do not lose power. If that can be done, then yes, I believe I could be moved to Karsa without harm. I'm not sure if such an engineering feat could be accomplished, though.]
[But, if I find a way to do it, would you be amenable to being moved to Karsa and being placed in a more powerful system? I'm serious, Cybi, I won't accept another CBIM. I want you.]
[Your loyalty to me is touching, Jason,] she communed with warmth. [Yes, I would be willing to try, but not until there is another CBIM online. I will take no chances that an accident destroys me while I am the last CBIM in operation.]
[Alright then, we build a CBIM in Kosigi first, then we move you to Karsa. Now, on to the other question, which I believe will make you see how this is possible. What if I said I wanted a CBIM installed in the Aegis? Could it be done?]
She was quiet a moment. [Yes, I see where you're going, Jason, and I'm impressed,] she answered brightly. [Yes, the Aegis would have enough power and is big enough to accommodate a CBIM. You'd have to install another singularity plant just for the CBIM, but a CBIM could definitely be installed in the Aegis. It could be installed in a battleship as well, a battleship would be able to hold one. But anything smaller than a battleship would not.]
[You just answered my next question. So, get in touch with Myleena and distract her away from the Consortium ship long enough to think about that.]
[That will not be easy. She loves that captured ship nearly as much as Sevi adores the Abarax.]
[When she starts having sex with the ship, I'll start to worry.]
Cybi laughed lightly. [She has made much progress. She estimates that they'll begin to dismantle the ship in four days.]
[Good. Where is the interdictor at?]
[Still on schedule. It should be complete in six days. Myleena will want two to three days to test it, then it will be installed on Karis and activated.]
[Good. I still don't sleep well knowing that the Consortium can jump in on us by surprise. Any information from the Kimdori or the Alliance?]
[Nothing yet, Jason. They have found no Consortium bases thus far.]
[Damn. They have to be out there somewhere.]
[Given the great distances the Consortium traveled to get here, I would presume to guess that their bases are very far from here, exploiting their ability to withstand extensive hyperspace exposure. Songa already theorizes that that is one of the functions of the brain implants. A filter, if you will, to reduce the psychological strain of hyperspace travel.]
[That's possible, I suppose, but I don't think so. But I'm no medical specialist. Once we build a duplicate of the power broadcasting system in the destroyer and we can actually turn those things on, we're doing nothing but guessing.]
[Yes, that is Myleena's primary goal right now, to dismantle that broadcasting system and learn how it works. It is the one true advance the Consortium has achieved that we have not, so it is her main focus.]
[That's why she's such a smart girl,] Jason communed with a chuckle. [And I think that's the one thing we won't share through the Academy. I want us to thoroughly analyze it and find a way to counter it, maybe improve it, so what we pass on isn't a threat to us. I don't want some enterprising government to build a slough of attack ships powered by a central command ship and attack us with them without some way to shut them down.]
[Always wise,] Cybi agreed.
As soon as the party was over, Jason attended the matter of remotes. He figured that Myleena would be too busy to bother, and Jason did have experience with such things, so he and Jyslin sat down and designed a remote sensor network that provided full coverage for the entirety of Karsa and all suburbs. It was actually rather easy to design, since it was just a series of remote transceivers placed at set distances apart, all connected to a biogenic controller computer that linked to Cybi, that they'd place in the main communications complex at Karsa. Cybi would be the one to program the controller to her satisfaction, so all they had to do was provide her the hardware to handle it. It took them about six hours to plot the locations of the remote transceivers and set up the controller system which gave them total coverage with a minimum of resources, and when Cybi checked over their work, she found it to be viable. Jason put in the work order for it and put it on priority status, which meant that his Makati building unit would begin work on it the next day. Given the efficiency of the Makati, it would be built within a week.
Mama, Papa! We're ready for our bath! Rann sent through the house, his sending much sharper than it had been just days before. Rann was quickly learning the art of sending, and could now send with clarity and strength. He hadn't quite yet mastered private sending, but he could send clearly, and he was starting to develop speed. He could understand much more than he could before, could comprehend sending at normal speed most of the time. Just as Jason and Jyslin told him, he was learning sending quickly, and all he needed was practice. It would take him months, or even years, to approach the level of mastery of his parents or Kyri, but he would soon be proficient enough to be able to understand and participate in an adult-level telepathic conversation.
Alright, sweetie, we'll be right up, Jyslin answered him. Go ahead and fill the tub, but do not get in it!
Okay, Mommy.
They got up, and Ayama swept in and picked up their glasses as they went upstairs and to the bathroom. Rann and Danelle were in the bathroom. Rann was filling the soaking tub, nude and with his towel around his shoulders, standing on his tiptoes looking inside, and he looked rather cute like that. Danelle had just finished pulling the seat in the shower out from under the water, and she too was nude. Jyslin sat on the bench near the toilet and started undressing, pulling off her shoes. "Okay, kids, go scrub," she told them. Rann put his towel the rack and went to the flat, low-walled washing shower as Danelle turned the water on. Danelle stood in front of the seat and started soaping herself as Rann stood under the shower and wet his hair as his parents undressed. Jyslin finished first, standing up and smiling lightly as Jason looked her up and down with an assessing expression, admiring his wife's lovely body. "Did you enjoy the party, Danelle?" she asked as she stood beside Rann and started soaking herself.
"It was fun!" she said excitedly. "I know how Zach feels, though, cause all his brothers and sisters' talent woke up. I hope it doesn't take me long to wake up. It makes me feel… left out."
"Well, judging by how strong your parents are, dear, it won't take long at all," she said. "Your mother is one of the strongest talents on Karis, and your father's almost as strong as Uncle Jason is."
"I wish my Daddy would come see me," she frowned.
"He's on Terra, dear, doing very important work. He loves you even if he can't come see you as much as he wants."
"I know, but I still wish he'd come see me."
Danelle's father was Kohnn Karinne, who Jason had brought into the house. He was a commoner under the Aralles, and had been one of her Black Ops team, one of three she'd stolen from the Imperium to lure into Karinne. She had chosen Jenn to father her first child because he was a powerful telepath for a male, and had minor telekinetic ability, able to lift about 200 grams. As telekinetics went among non-Karinne Faey, that was about mainstream. Jenn was about 55 years old, just into his middle age and older than Myleena, and was a doctorate in plasma systems engineering. He had been transferred to the Academy to work on the Consortium technology, and would be heading the power systems research team.
"Well, everyone's busy right now. I'm sure he wants to see you too, but it might be a little while before he can come home."
"I know," she sighed, stepping out of the water and accepting the soap bottle from Rann, then soaping herself down. Jason replaced her under the shower, running his hands through his hair to soak it. "Uncle Jason?"
"Yes, pippy?" he asked, using Myleena's favorite pet name for her daughter.
"Why does the Con-Con-Consorum want to fight with us?"
"They're called the Consortium, and I wish I could tell you exactly why," he told her. "But we think they want to take Cybi away from us. And we won't let them. This is Cybi's home, and she doesn't want to go."
"Good. I like Cybi," she said, lathering her hair. "And they must be really mean to try to take Cybi away from her home."
"We agree, Danelle," Jyslin said as she stepped up behind the kids, sat on the stool, and started to lather the skin on her arms.
In the typical manner of a child, her mind changed tracks quickly and mercurially. "I wonder what Aran's party will be like."
"I'm sure Surin will make it fun," Jason chuckled.
Jason? Jason, are you home?
Sure am, Songa. We're taking a bath.
Can I come up and talk to you?
Sure, come on up, he answered as he picked Rann up, who started giggling when put his son's head right under the shower head, soaking him thoroughly.
"Eww, the soap tastes awful!"
"Then why are you eating it, you silly boy?" Jason teased, putting him down. "Rinse up and into the tub with you!"
"It ran into my mouth. Yick!" he said, spitting, then holding his open mouth before the showering water, rinsing his mouth out.
Rann had climbed into the tub by the time Songa got there. She was wearing her lab coat and pants, and had her hair pulled back in a pony tail. "Doc Songa!" Rann said with a grin.
"Hello, Ranny," she smiled at him. "How are you?"
"I'm okay. Did you come to the party?"
"Afraid I had to work, cutie," she said, shaking her head and coming over to sit on the small bench.
"How's Luke and little Jari?" Jyslin asked.
"Luke's already getting ready to return to the Academy," she sighed. "I wish he'd come home and just take the classes by remote, but he's so insistent. He says it's just not as good. After he goes back, I only get to touch him two days a week, which isn't nearly enough."
"When does he graduate?" Jyslin asked.
"Next semester. Jari's just fine. She's about to start school," she said with a proud smile. Jari was the daughter of Luke and Songa, and she was four now. At four, Faey children entered what they called grade 1, which actually lasted about three years. It was preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade all rolled into one, but it taught a hell of a lot more than human schools. Faey kids entered grade 2 with exposure to algebra and the sciences, since the Faey taught math and algebra concurrently rather than introducing kids to math first, and then algebra. To the Faey, math and algebra were one in the same. Rann and the other kids in the strip didn't go to grade 1 because they were taught the basics by Aya and the guards, but they'd start attending public school at age 7, when they entered grade 2. "Anyway, I looked into the problem you asked me about, Jason."
"What problem?"
"Why Symone and everyone else seems strangely devoid of pregnancies," she answered.
"Oh. What did you find out?"
"I found out that there is a connection," she said, putting her elbows on her knees as Jyslin moved back to the shower and started rinsing off, and Danelle joined her. "I studied the records of pregnancies and births and came across a curious trend. It seems that the closer to the ocean, the more the curve drops. Pregnancy rates are much more normal inland, but here by the ocean, they're lower than normal. So, I took samples from several various women and found traces of Ditremazine, then scanned the ocean water and found even fainter traces. It's the compound I'm treating Symone for, the one that's interfering with her ability to conceive. It's something our scanners don't even look for when they scan, so we've been missing it all this time."
"Is it natural?" Jason asked.
She shook her head. "It's a usually harmless compound that's a byproduct of the radiation cleanup Cybi's robots did, which I guess built up in the ocean over the years with precipitation runoff. It's harmless by itself, but in sufficient amounts in a woman who has a potassium deficiency, it makes it more difficult for Faey women to conceive. The more the potassium deficiency, the worse the condition is, and Symone hadn't been eating a healthy diet and getting enough potassium, so the problem was pronounced in her to the point where she couldn't conceive at all. Ditremazine coats the uterus walls and makes it hard for the fertilized egg to attach, and the more there is, the harder it becomes. That might explain why none of the women here on the strip have conceived since their initial pregnancy, because nobody here has been getting enough potassium to overcome the Ditremazine they're exposed to every time they go for a swim in the ocean, which we do almost every day."
"So you know what's wrong!" Jyslin said happily. "So, you can treat us?"
"Easily, but I won't have to do that for long. Ditremazine is broken down by two methods, exposure to ultraviolet radiation and also by potassium, which acts as a catalyst that breaks it down, and there's plenty of potassium salts in the ocean water. My calculations show it should be completely eradicated from the water in another seven years. All we really have to do to fix it is to have all the women take a potassium supplement. Potassium neutralizes Ditremazine in the body."
"That's a relief," Jason sighed as Danelle joined Jyslin in the shower. "I was wondering why nobody seemed to be getting pregnant, and I know a few of the girls were trying."
"I'm a little upset with myself," Songa said with a grunt. "I hadn't noticed the problem, because nobody had really brought it to my attention. But I should have realized that nobody, not even me, was getting pregnant, and started looking into the problem."
"We've all been busy with what seemed were more important things at the time," Jason told her. "And I've seen the birth records. We are reproducing, I guess we're just not reproducing as much around the coast."
She nodded. "There's a thirty-seven percent decrease in births around the coast. I think it affects us here at the strip the most because we're literally on the beach, and we all swim in the ocean much more than others. So it lets the Ditremazine build up in us faster."
"So, Doctor, what do I do to fix it?" Jyslin asked.
"I know you take vitamins, so I'm sure you're getting your daily requirement of potassium already. So for you, take one thousand milligrams of potassium every day for four days to purge the Ditremazine already in your body, then two hundred fifty milligrams a day after that to prevent buildup," she answered. "Just be careful, an overdose of potassium can be harmful, so follow those directions exactly. You can buy the supplement at any pharmacy or major store. The potassium will neutralize the Ditremazine, and you should be purged of it and back to a healthy chance to conceive in about four days."
"That's it?"
"That's it." She leaned back up on the stool. "Mind if I join you?" she asked. "I'm a little overdressed, and I could use a bath myself."
"Please," Jyslin smiled as she padded from the shower to the tub, making Rann giggle as she started tickling him. Danelle joined them soon after, and Jason started washing off the soap. Songa quickly disrobed and joined him under the shower, and it made Jason remember the brief few days that they had been lovers. Songa had needed comforting then, and he had been happy to provide her that comfort, and he'd been just as happy to step aside and allow Luke to take over. Luke and Songa were deeply in love, and helped fill the voids in each other's hearts caused by the deaths of their former spouses. Jason had known both of them, had known Mary and Rann. Mary had died in the attack on Chesapeake, and Rann had died in Scotland when Jason and Songa had been captured by the Imperium. Both of them had died because of him, and he was just glad that neither of them blamed him for it. They had found each other, and he was happy that they were happy. Ayama, Jyslin called.
Yes?
Can you do me a huge favor and run down the Demanne's and buy me a potassium supplement?
I can do that.
Make sure you buy a supplement that comes in pills with two hundred and fifty milligram doses per tablet, Songa warned her as she sat on the stool and started lathering her hair. It should say how much per tablet on the package.
I'll do that, Doctor Songa, she answered. Isn't this what Symone is taking?
Yes, it's the treatment for her pregnancy problem, Songa answered. I tracked down the problem, and it's rather widespread, linked to a trace chemical in seawater. Potassium is the cure.
Really? That's good to know, I've been wondering why I couldn't get pregnant! she said with more animation and emotion than Jason had ever heard out of her. Will this work for me too?
Yes, it should, she answered.
You should release a health bulletin to warn everyone, Ayama told her.
I already did. You just haven't seen it yet, Songa replied. Just make sure you follow the dosage carefully, Ayama, an overdose of potassium can be dangerous.
What's the dosage?
A thousand milligrams a day for four days, then two hundred fifty milligrams a day afterward to protect you from the chemical from then on. Now mind that that dosage is based on a balanced diet where you get all your required nutrients. If you're not getting enough potassium as it is, you might need more. Just drop by my office later, dear, and I'll give you a checkup to see.
Is tomorrow too soon?
That's just fine, it takes all of three minutes to screen you for potassium.
"You know the clinics will be swamped by women looking for a screening when that bulletin gets circulated," Jason noted.
"I don't mind work when it has a good result, and it's a very easy thing to check," she told him, standing up and joining him in the shower again to wash the shampoo from her hair.
Jason joined his family and Danelle in the soaking tub, and Danelle wasted no time climbing into his lap. Most humans would have found the idea of a naked man sitting with a naked child in his lap to be immoral, but they weren't Faey. Since Faey lacked human concepts of modesty, saw nudity as natural and beautiful, they attached no sexual overtones to such things whatsoever so long as the adult and child were related in some way. It was entirely proper for an adult to hold a child when neither were wearing clothes so long as the two were related or close, and Danelle was definitely close. Danelle wasn't their child, but she was as good as, since she spent so much time with them. That was why Jason didn't bat an eye over having Danelle in his lap, since she was virtually his adopted niece, the daughter of a woman he considered as close as a sister. She was also the child Rann saw the most, since Danelle slept over at their house almost half the time.
It was amazing sometimes how thoroughly he'd been assimilated into Faey culture given how much he had resisted it… but Jyslin had made sure to convert him in the years they were married.
Songa sat back down on the seat and started lathering soap in her hands, then started scrubbing her back with a handled louffah. "I guess I'll start seeing a boom of coastal babies in about seven months," she laughed.
"More like eight, since we're coming up on the end of the year," Jyslin amended. "And I certainly hope mine is one of them. I've been trying to get pregnant since Rann was born, and all this time, I thought it was just bad luck."
"Sounds like Jyslin is warning you, Jason," Songa chuckled as she started washing her torso.
"I can handle it," Jason chuckled. "I'll have to stay clear of Symone for the next couple of weeks, so Tim can do his damn job, so that just gives Jyslin all my attention."
"True, true," she nodded. "Stop by my office tomorrow, Jys, I'll screen you so you know when you're fertile."
"I already know. I just had my period last week, so it'll be about two weeks from now."
"What's a period?" Rann asked.
"Something girls have when they're older," Jyslin answered him. "It's when a girl knows she's becoming a woman."
"Yeah, but what does that mean?"
"I could tell you, but it's icky," Jyslin told him, poking him in the belly and making him giggle.
"Really icky?"
"More or less, sweetie."
"It's when girls bleed down where they pee," Danelle told him fearlessly. "Mommy explained it. She said it happens every few weeks when girls get older."
"Does it hurt?" Rann asked in concern, looking at Jyslin.
"No, sweetie, not at all," she assured him.
"Rann, it's what happens when a girl doesn't get pregnant," Songa told him as she lathered her legs. "Her body spends a lot of time getting ready for the chance that she gets pregnant by preparing a little bed of soft tissue for the baby inside her. Well, when it doesn't happen, her body starts over and has to flush away the preparations. The girl's insides, her womb, wants a new bed for the baby, so it has to get rid of the old one. So, her womb takes the bed and breaks it up into tiny little pieces, and then flushes it out of herself. The girl doesn't really bleed, the broken-up unused bed just looks like blood. What she gets rid of has to come out, so it comes out the same place where the baby comes out."
"Why does she start over? Why not use the same bed?"
"For the same reason milk goes bad after a while," she answered. "The bed's only good for a little while, because the bed is like milk that nourishes the baby, and just like milk, it isn't good after so much time passes. So, when the girl's womb knows she's not pregnant, she gets rid of the bed before it spoils, and starts working on a new one. That happens over and over until she gets pregnant, because when she gets pregnant, there's a baby there for the bed to nourish, so the bed doesn't go bad. The baby drinks the milk, so the bed doesn't spoil."
Good explanation, Jason complemented.
I have practice.
"Oh. I guess that makes sense. Kinda."
"It's not exactly what really happens, love, but it's a good description of why it happens." Songa rinsed herself off quickly, then padded over and joined them in the tub. It was big enough for four, so she settled in across from Jyslin, leaning back and putting her arms out on the lip of the tub. "You have such a nice tub," she said, sighing as she settled in.
"I made sure to have them put in a real bathroom," Jyslin said with a wink at Jason. "Jason wanted a Terran bathroom, with just that combination shower and tub that only holds one and you can't really soak."
"I've never been happier to be overruled," Jason laughed.
There was a knock at the door. Jayce? Temika called.
"Come in!" Jason shouted.
Temika entered the bathroom, wearing a tee shirt and a pair of jeans. Temika was still stacked and still built, and having two children had done nothing to ruin her figure. Latoiya had been born on Earth three years ago, in her first year at the Academy, and her son Mike Junior had been born last year. Mike had the kids over at their house, which they had finally come home to reclaim after years at the Academy. It had sat empty, down at the very end of the strip, ever since they left. "Jeezus, Jayce, you already got Symone and Dahnai, you takin' up another woman?"
Jason laughed. "No, Songa's just enjoying a bath."
"Why don't you join us, Temika? We have room for one more."
She laughed. "Ah think you'd know mah answer bah now, Songa."
"That answer is yes. Now join us."
"Ah need to get home an' help Mike get us settled in," she protested. Years at the Academy had managed to dull her accent, at least a little bit. Anymore, the only real stress in her accent was converting -y sounds to -ah sounds. Her mangling of o sounds had improved considerably, since that particular accent made it very hard for people to understand her when she spoke Faey unless they knew her and knew about her bayou accent.
"He can wait a half hour," she said. "We haven't talked since I came to deliver your son, so come on!"
"Ah aint' no Faey, Songa. Ah ain't used to bein' naked in company."
"Oh, and I haven't seen you sunbathing nude on the beach! We've all already seen you naked, silly woman! Stop being a timid little skree and join us!" she teased.
Temika gave Songa a hard look, then sighed and went over to the bench and sat down. "Ah'd better not hear one word of this outside this room," she said seriously as she pulled her shoes off. Jason didn't pay much attention as Temika undressed, but he did survey her when she came up to the tub. She was still muscular, and there was absolutely no sign of her that she'd already had to children. Her stomach was still flat and knotted with muscle, and she was both lean and curvaceous. Temika was stacked, with large breasts and wide hips that gave her a killer figure, and he noticed that she maintained a very narrow strip of tightly trimmed pubic hair contained within her tan lines between her chocolate untanned skin and her darker skin, what human girls called a bikini wax and what Faey women called a noseburner, which was a rather crude term.
"Wanna stop staring at mah goods, Jayce?" she demanded as she sat down across from him in the water, though she made no attempt to cover her breasts, the bases of them lapped by the surface of the water.
"Well, I guess I should stand up and let you return the favor," he winked at her.
"Puh-leeze," she snorted. "As if Ah ain't seen it a hundred times before."
"Then stop bitchin', you weenie," Jason teased.
"Are you home for good, Auntie Mika?" Danelle asked, getting off Jason's lap and climbing up onto hers.
"Yes Ah am, dahlin'," she answered, bouncing the blue-skinned girl on her knee. "Ah go to work with Aunt Kumi next week. You stayin' over with Ranny and Uncle Jayce tonight?"
"Uh-huh," she nodded. "I've been staying for a little while. Mommy's up in Kosigi for a while doing real important stuff, and Uncle Jason's letting me stay over so Nanna can go visit her mommy."
"Well, that's nice of him. Are you gonna help Uncle Jason put up the Christmas tree?"
"Yeah!" she said excitedly. Christmas was one of two human holidays that Jason celebrated and Jyslin rather liked, the other being Easter. In return, Jason celebrated Trelle's Flower Festival and Faey New Year with her. "We're putting it up next week! I wonder what Santa's bringing me this year?"
"Who knows, dahlin'," she smiled. "But if you haven't been good, you know he'll be bringin' you coal!"
"I wonder how he gets from Terra to here, all in one night," Rann said seriously.
"Never underestimate Santa," Jason said with a smile at his son. "He finds a way."
They caught up with Temika, hearing about their move back to Karis two days ago and how they'd worked to get their house back in working order, which wasn't easy with a two year old and a ten month old. "Ah swear, it seemed that Latoiya was buggin' me for somethin' every two minutes. And if it wasn't her, it was Mikey gettin' into freakin' everythin'."
"Children are both a trial and a joy," Songa smiled. "I would be lost without my little Jari."
"Where are Luke an' Jari?"
"Home. I just stopped by to tell Jason some news, and they invited me to share a bath. And I think I'll demand that Luke remodel our bathroom," she said with a contented smile. "Our bathtub is entirely too small."
Luke and Songa also lived within the strip, at the very end on the other side. Luke was at the Academy most of the time, and Songa spent almost every day off there so she and their daughter could visit Luke, to the point where she was on a first name basis with every ship captain that ferried goods between Karis and Earth, since she was endlessly begging rides off ship captains, and they were all more than happy to give her a ride. Because of that, they didn't see Jari very often, but often enough for her to know everyone and be adored by most adults on the strip, for she was absolutely adorable.
"Well, what are you doin' here, woman? You don't get to see Luke often!" Temika told her.
"He and Jari are napping, so what better time to come handle a little business?" she smiled.
"He may have woke up."
"Mika, you know I'll know if he does," she smiled. "I know you keep a touch on Mike. Think I don't do the same with Luke?"
"Ah do it to make sure Mike don't stray," she said with a little smile. "Mah man is too popular with Faey girls, so Ah have to keep him honest."
"Such a silly notion," Songa teased. "Marriage isn't about keeping a man all to yourself, it's about making sure he always comes back to you!"
"Not among humans, it ain't," she answered. "When we marry, that's a commitment."
"Jason's not quite so committed," Songa grinned at him.
Well, Jason's a perv, Temika sent cheekily, looking at him and giving him a wink.
What's a perv? Rann asked.
Temika gaped, then laughed raucously. Ah forgot you can do that, Ranny! she admitted.
Well, what is one?
She's teasing your father, sweetie, calling him something that's not true, Jyslin told him.
Well, what is it? Rann persisted.
Something human women sometimes call men who live a Faey lifestyle, Jyslin sent delicately. The best way to explain it is your father's relationship with Aunt Symone. Among humans, when a man and woman marry, they don't believe in having private time with other people. It's something humans don't really think is proper. It's entirely wrong, but we tolerate their backwards customs.
It's not wrong for us, Temika protested.
Of course it is, Jyslin smiled at her. Because you're absolutely wrong about thinking sex has anything to do with love. Sex is a biological process and a physical sensation. Love is an emotion. Your human religion's roots in your ancient past when people thought the father of the child mattered stigmatizes your whole race about something beautiful and natural and tries to make it dirty and wrong, when it's nothing like that at all. How can sex be wrong when you have it before marriage or have it with another man after you marry, but be right after you marry and only have it with your husband? It just makes no sense!
Let's not start a holy war in the bathtub, Jason warned. So drop it. "I'm committed enough," he said, picking things up so Danelle didn't think they were ignoring her. Given the whole conversation took place in about half the time it would have taken while speaking made the pause brief enough for Danelle not to notice.
"Aunt Temika?" Danelle asked.
"Yeah, sugah?"
"Do boys really like you more than other girls because your boobs are so big?"
Temika gave her a startled look, then flushed even as she laughed nervously. "Whoever told you that, sugah?"
"Mommy. She said boys like girls with big boobs," she said critically. "Since yours are the biggest, I thought that made you the one the boys like the most."
"Well, Ah dunno if they do or not," she told her. "Ah don't pay much attention to boys other than mah husband."
Such a liar, Jyslin teased, sending in a way to preclude Rann, to avoid more questions.
Temika sent an image of herself flipping Jyslin off, which made Jason stifle a laugh.
"I hope my boobs are big when I grow up," she said clinically.
"Well, we'll just have to wait an' see, sugah," Temika told her, a touch carefully, afraid of what she might say next. "Ah think you're a little young to start worryin' about stuff like that."
"Well, I'm a boy, and I like her boobs," Jason said, giving Temika a playful grin.
"Ah think you like any woman's boobs, Jayce," she shot back.
"As long as she's topless, I surely do," he said honestly, which made Jyslin and Songa laugh. "We're going to go see Aura and the Exiled tomorrow, Mika. Wanna come?"
"Sure," she answered. "Have they moved in?"
He nodded. "They're finally all here, and they're still settling in. Aura's been keeping me up to date, but I've been keeping my distance because some of them aren't very happy with me."
"Ah remember you sayin' that we were gonna keep their planet."
"Yeah," he answered. "We have the whole sector there blanketed with hyperspace probes, watching for any sign of the Consortium coming back. They did show up again yesterday, a single scout. It approached the planet, then it jumped out. So I'm sure they know now that all the Exiled are gone. As soon as we get a pair of Stargates and an extra interdictor, we're going to set them up at the planet, and the Exiled can go home. I'm going to make contact with the indigenous race there, the Gruug, and try to convince them to allow us to farm there. I don't want to do to them what the Faey did to us, though. So I'm going to ask them rather than force them."
"What if they say no?"
"I'll allow colonization in areas where they don't live," he answered. "And leave them be. As long as they don't bother us, we won't bother them."
"That won't work forever."
"I know, but I hope it'll last long enough for them to accept us. Eventually, I'm sure we can convince them to join the house and allow them to live as they please with a minimum of interference from us."
"Primitive races are hard to predict, and this race has a history of hostility towards the Exiled," Songa noted.
"Yes, but hopefully we can smooth that over. How did the medical screenings go? I haven't seen the final report yet."
"The Exiled are in excellent health, and they suffer from no diseases they themselves have not managed to cure or control," she answered. "I've opted not to screen out their microbial colonies or sterilize their animals or the transplanted soils, and introduced vaccines to their diseases into the next round of health screenings for all residents. The interior department felt that the introduction of new microbes might help kindle the ecosystem."
"The shots you gave me before I went to Exile?"
She nodded. "The immunology and xenovirology departments refined the vaccines so they're delivered in one shot.
Jason just had to tease Temika when he got out of the tub with Rann and Danelle, sending don't look at my butt! over and over as he got out. Songa and Jyslin laughed, and Temika flipped him off when the children had their backs to her. Jason helped the children dry off, scrubbing them with towels, then swatted Danelle on the rump. "Get your robe on, pippy," he ordered, then started drying off Rann.
"Okay, Uncle Jason," she said as Songa, Jyslin, and Temika climbed out of the tub, coming over and picking up towels. Jason scrubbed Rann dry, and he joined Danelle at the bench. She handed him his robe, and he pulled it on but didn't belt it, leaving it open in front. Songa and Temika dressed, but Jason and Jyslin just pulled on thigh-length robes.
"Mike's lookin' for me, so Ah'd better go," Temika said. "Thanks for the bath."
"Thanks for getting naked for me, up close and personal," Jason teased, giving her a wink. "Step one of my nefarious plan to seduce you is complete."
"Ah'll show you step two, buster," she said, balling her fist, which made Jason laugh.
"God, I'm glad you're home, Mika."
"So am Ah," she answered with a sudden smile. She kissed him on the cheek, gave Songa and Jyslin kisses, then knelt down and hugged both Rann and Danelle. "Be good, you two," she said. "Ah'll see you in the morning', 'kay?"
"Night, Aunt Mika," Rann said.
"Night, Auntie Temika," Danelle mirrored.
"I should get home as well, Luke won't sleep much longer," Songa said, kissing Jyslin on the cheek, hugging Jason, then getting her own hug from the kids. "I won't see you tomorrow, I'm not going to see the Exiled, so I'll see you soon, sweetlings," she told them.
"Night, Doc Songa," Rann parroted.
"Have a good night, Doc Songa," Danelle added.
Jason and Jyslin herded the kids to Rann's room, then snuggled them into bed, Rann in his bed and Danelle in a second bed they'd brought in for her, since she didn't like to sleep alone when she wasn't at home. Jyslin stayed to read them a story, and Jason went downstairs and caught up on the reports. He saw that they moved the interdictor completion date up another 12 hours, and that the heavy cruiser Jefferson was back in service, as was the battleship Trelle's Gift. The Aegis repairs were still on schedule, and they'd have it back by the end of the week. Ayama put a mug of oye juice in front of him, and set down a large plastic bottle. "Her supplement," she noted, for which Jason thanked her and sent her to bed. The first reports from the border systems were good. The Brood Princesses were reassembling the government, and the Brood Queen had given the public decrees that told the Urumi about the deal that they would remain in the Imperium for a period of thirty years, that they would serve to act as a buffer between the Imperium and the Collective and maintain peace between the two empires, and they would serve Jason as they would serve her. Jason was glad to see that, for it made sure that the Urumi knew what was going on. With the Urumi cooperating, they'd get the systems back in order quickly, and soon there would be quite a bit of activity there as Makati engineering companies moved in to start upgrading the infrastructure of the planets.
Jason wasn't kidding when he said he wanted those systems to return to Sk'Vrae better than when he got them. He wanted them to be thriving and prosperous.
The Academy would be beginning their analysis of the Consortium data in two days, according to the missive Kiaari sent to them. She also made note that the Kimdori still hadn't found any Consortium bases.
Jason moved on to some mundane reports from his ministers, but Tim and Symone intruded on him a little bit. They were at home next door, and from the feel of it, they were getting it on big-time. Symone had entered what she considered her fertile phase five days ago, and she and Tim and had been having sex twice a day, and had remained exclusively to themselves, and would remain so all the way up until they left for Draconis on Wednesday, when Symone would have Songa check to see if she'd conceived. Symone wouldn't be coming to have sex with Jason for fear she would conceive by him, which would be a scandal for Tim not to be the father of their first child, and if Tim wanted sex, he'd go to Symone, to better the chance she'd conceive.
Either way, she'd know Wednesday morning. Technically, she was already out of her window of fertility, but she was taking no chances on being early or late. She had devoted eight days to it, and Jason figured that it should be enough.
Jason ignored them to finish going through the reports, signing several permits and applications, then he put his panel aside and went out onto the deck facing the ocean, leaning on the rail and watching the waves by moonlight. It was a nice warm night, and Kosigi was half full. The weather here at Karsa was what many would call perfect, for it rarely got colder than 60 degrees at night, and hotter than 90 degrees during the day, year round, though for a cold-loving Down Easter like Jason, that had been a bit too warm when he first arrived… but he'd acclimated over the years to where he rather enjoyed the climate, since it was never oppressively humid except during the height of summer, and that was what air conditioning was for. Wind patterns and their proximity to the equator kept Karsa in that warm weather pattern all year long, since they were within the planet's axis of tilt that would be "between the tropics" back on Earth, between what one would call the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. But here on Karis, they were the Tropic of Erra to the south and the Tropic of Mera to the north, which literally translated to "south tropic" and "north tropic" in English.
The ancient Karinnes had not been not overly poetic when it came to naming things. They preferred functionality.
Karsa was about two hundred miles below the north tropic, which meant that the sun would shine directly down on them twice a year, about 12 days before and after the summer solstice. The prevailing winds off the ocean kept Karsa cool during the summer, and since they were so close to the equator, the winters here were extremely mild, barely more than a 15 degree drop in average temperature. The result was being able to go outside any time of the day, any time of the year, wearing as little as one pleased. And that was totally true, for he saw Min down on the beach, taking an evening stroll wearing nothing at all, strolling along with her daughter Jora. It's too late to get a tan, silly girl! Jason teased her.
I'm drying off, we just got out of the pool! she answered. Did you read that message from Songa?
She came and told us, he answered. You should get to the pharmacy early tomorrow, there's bound to be a line.
Yeah, she agreed with amusement. But it certainly explains our run of bad luck… it wasn't luck at all!
Yup.
So, you gonna grace the rest of the Marines with a child, Jayce? she asked teasingly
Five was all I agreed to, and that's it, he answered cheekily. That was the deal!
Oh, but you promised five by different mothers, and Rann shouldn't count, since Jyslin's your wife! So you owe us at least one more!
Oh, and you want the honor?
Sure, why not? Could a girl go wrong having your baby, Jayce?
Maybe.
Liar. And I'd certainly enjoy the conception, she sent with a lustful undercurrent.
Girl, there's a whole town full of willing men right on the other side of that fence. Go find one, he ordered.
But they're not you.
If they were, then I wouldn't really be needed, would I?
She laughed through her sending as they walked further away. Damn you and your male logic, she teased.
It keeps you irrational women from blowing up the universe, he answered blandly.
Jyslin came up beside him and leaned on the rail with him, looking down to where Min was. Ah, so that's who you're bantering with. Min! Leave my husband alone!
Why? If I can steal a quickie out of him, I'm gonna! We non-mothers feel cheated, you know. Half the squad has wrapped their legs around him, and we're on the losing side!
Well, since he hasn't laid you yet, clearly you're not trying hard enough, she taunted. That or you're not woman enough for him.
Oh, you are sooo gonna eat those words when I get my legs around your husband, bitch! Min challenged.
Are you trying to start a war, Jys? he complained.
Nah, just giving you a couple of playmates, she winked.
I have enough at home.
Clearly you don't, which is why you've been fixating on your memory of seeing Aura naked, she grinned. She really turns you on.
Well, I guess I can't deny that. She reminds me of Dahnai, and you know I'm really attracted to Dahnai. It's attraction by association.
If she excites you, love, go for it, she told him. You know I don't mind. Experience her, then come home and share the memory with me.
I'm not sure it's a good idea to have a sexual relationship with her, since she's the leader of her people, and her people are a bit honked off at me right now. They might turn against her.
Well, that might be true, but they're also Faey. So you never know. But, either way, you know you have my blessing, because you always come home, she smiled, kissing him just under his ear.
Practicing what you preach, eh?
You know it, she grinned. You could always go chase down Min and give her a turn, she winked.
Such a bad wife, passing me around to all her friends.
What kind of friend would I be if I didn't? she asked impishly.
Well, you could take me upstairs and do it yourself.
I thought you'd never ask, she purred, taking his hand and leading him towards the door.
It was one of the most heated arguments he'd ever had.
Aya was furious with him, but he was not going to budge an inch in the matter. When they took off to go to the Exiled's island, he was not wearing armor, and Aya could not look at him with her teeth clenching, for she was absolutely opposed to it. She saw the Exiled as a potential risk, and as such, she did not want him there without armor, without protection. But Jason felt that his showing up in armor among them on Karis was sending the message that he didn't trust them, so he decided not to wear it. Aya exploded when he told her, and the argument lasted nearly a half an hour. It only ended because Jason gave her a direct order to back off, and then they had another half hour of heated debate over just how many precautions Aya could take. With Jason arriving without armor, Aya wanted to all but round up the entire population of the island of Exile, as they were now calling it, strip them all naked, and then hold them in an open area to ensure that none of them were carrying weapons. They were having the equivalent of a sending shouting match over it, trying to drown out the other's sending with more power, and just about everyone within ten miles of them were privy to almost the entire thing. Jason was a man, but he was about equal in power to Aya with talent, so neither of them could really overpower the other.
After that, nobody near the strip would ever doubt Aya's devotion to her duty.
In the end, Jason had more or less won the argument, and Aya was seething. He wouldn't even allow the guards to move in first to sweep the Exiled and search for any threats, and she was both furious with his disregard for his own safety and his blind trust in people who were not happy with him, and stunned that he was subjecting his family and children to the same danger, for most of the residents of the strip were going, including 12 children. Aya's anger was shared by his entire Dukal guard, and they were all jerky and stone-faced when they boarded a dropship and flew out to Exile.
"Trust me, Aya," Jason told her as they approached the island. "The Exiled won't do anything. If they do, I'll be more than happy to let you spank me."
She gave him a cold look.
"Alright, you can spank me when we get home no matter what," he sighed. "Just don't bruise me, and you can't wear your armor when you do. I don't want to lay on that cold metal."
She glanced at him, and he saw Ryn, Shen, and Dera crack slight smiles.
I use my gauntlet, Aya declared.
"Fine, but no bruising."
I still object to this in the strongest possible terms.
"I know you do, but you have to trust me, Aya," he said. "If I don't show the Exiled trust, they won't show any to me. And if I show up wearing full armor and with my guards prowling all over the place, they'll believe I won't trust them, which will make them not trust me. And if they don't trust me, then I may as well just send them all back to Exile. This is a political matter, and sometimes you have to gamble in politics."
I still hate this.
"I know, you've made that abundantly clear to half of Karsa," he said blandly. "And if you were anyone but who you are, I'd have spanked you for showing me such disrespect. Be glad I trust you with my life, or I'd have beat you like a wayward kree for your impertinence."
You'd do no such thing.
"Probably not, but it always sounds like such a good threat, and I don't get to use it very often," he told her with a straight face.
That finally got her. She laughed voicelessly, then gave him an amused, wry look. Peace?
"For now. I'm sure you'll put me over your knee and spank me when we get home."
You did make the deal, your Grace, Ryn sent impishly.
"And I'm a man of my word," he said grandly as they maneuvered to land near the ocean, on a flat area.
Dera, Aya called, and the blond nodded and started listening for any trouble from the Exiled as they started milling towards the dropship.
Jason, Jyslin, Temika, four Marines, and 12 children disembarked from the large dropship, loosely surrounded by the Dukal guard. There were about 100 Exiled gathering around the dropship, and they looked as he remembered. They wore the same clothes, some not wearing any clothes at all, but now everyone, from the oldest to the children, all wore interfaces. That was a symbol of their transition from Exile to Karis, for here, one couldn't even flush a toilet without an interface, and everyone wore one except for the Kizzik, Parri, and Kimdori. Seeing the Exiled with interfaces over their left ears, extending over their cheeks, was a sign to him that they were already starting to adapt to life on Karis.
Aura hurried down to them, and when she reached them, she bowed fluidly. "Your Grace, welcome, welcome!" she said happily. "Welcome to our island!"
I came to see how you're getting along, he sent, sending so even the children could understand him. Would you like to show me around?
Certainly, your Grace, Aura said, if you wish. Lady Jyslin, she bowed. Duke Rann, she sent with another bow. Might I know your other guests before we begin?
Jason nodded and introduced Aura to his friends, children, and his friends' children, and he saw the Exiled look on with slightly less hostility. His point seemed to sink in; he had come without armor, and he had brought his children to their island, and that was a show of trust if there ever was one. But there were still many dark looks from the Exiled, those who had not appreciated being forcibly removed from their home.
After the introductions, the Dukal guards did their best to stay ahead of the group as they toured the island. Aura seemed to understand that, and went on a wide circular route, around the edges first and then working in as she privately sent to Aya to tell her their intended route, and Aya seem ready to kiss Aura's feet for it. Jason saw the tract-style housing along plascrete streets that made up the housing of the town, and then they toured a couple of the warehouses where their machines had been stored.
As they walked, Jason overheard whispers and sending that amused him a little bit. They had never seen anyone like Temika before, and they were quite taken by her. To the men of Exile, Temika was very attractive, with her exotic skin color, her height, her build, her exceptional telepathic power, and her beauty. Several men approached her when they stopped for Aura to show them something, and she'd gotten quite a few proposals for dates, which she rejected summarily with the response I'm married and my husband doesn't like me to date. It was a diplomatic response, and though it disappointed the men of Exile, they didn't press the matter. Singular interest in a spouse wasn't unheard of among the Faey, and Temika wasn't Faey, so they weren't entirely sure how she saw such things.
They then went into Aura's assigned home, just her, her council, and Jason's family, and he toured a typical house. It was typical in that Aura hadn't demanded a grander house than the others, so she was in a nice three bedroom two story house with all the modern amenities, most of which Aura couldn't use because she had no idea how. Your volunteers have been teaching us how the machines work, she explained. And they don't turn them on in a family's house until the family understands the machines. They didn't do that at first, until a child injured himself playing with the machine that washes dishes. After that, they decided to disable the machines until they were sure that the family understood them enough to avoid harm.
Well, that's not a bad idea, Jason grunted, scratching his shoulder absently. Has the island been acceptable to your people?
So far, yes. The climate is similar to our home, we are by the sea, and little red men helped us replant all our crops and trees, and they seem to have survived the journey intact. How are they called again?
Makati, Jyslin answered. They are called Makati. "Makati," she said aloud.
Thank you, my Lady, she sent with a little bob. My people are a bit unhappy that there are no fish in the water, but they do enjoy the lack of insects. The month of the biting insects was about to start back home. That's never a pleasant time. It's very strange to look up and see a blue sun, but it's not as startling as it was just a few days ago.
Has there been much unrest?
Just some grumbling, she answered. About a tenth of the Exiled didn't want to leave, no matter that you were saving their lives. Some few don't believe they were ever in danger, that it was a lie to force us from our home. Thus far, they are keeping their discontent to themselves. I warned that anyone spreading rumors and discord would be chastised.
Has the food been alright? Jyslin asked.
Oh, yes, my Lady! she sent with a happy smile. They have been bringing dishes from the mainland unlike any we've ever had! Spices and foodstuffs we didn't have at home. Every evening, it is like a banquet at the main dining hall, where those who have not yet learned how the cooking machine works or those who don't want to cook. They bring us many different kinds of foods and let us sample them. I am quite addicted to oye juice!
Yes, that's a staple favorite in the Imperium, Zora nodded. I've never met a Faey that didn't like oye fruit or juice.
I noticed that everyone here is wearing an interface, Maya noted. The machines are interface controlled, or are they both interface and manually controlled?
They are interface controlled, she nodded, touching the interface on her left cheek and ear. It does make operating the machines easier, but it takes a little getting used to. Many of us are quite overwhelmed, since the thought-controlled machines are out of our history. We are living our history, and it is quite a strange feeling.
It's your future as much as your past, Temika told her.
Truly, Aura nodded. Would you like to stay for lunch, your Grace? The volunteers will be serving it at the dining hall soon.
Sure.
The entire town of Exile joined them at the huge dining facility, capable of seating the entire town in two large, auditorium-sized dining rooms filled with long tables. The banquet of food was no exaggeration, for volunteers brought out large numbers of dishes, enough to feed the entire town, and there were dishes of three different races to choose from, Faey dishes, human dishes, and Makati dishes. Has there been any trouble with people coming over from the mainland? he asked.
No. We've seen a few boats come close, but nobody has landed.
Good, because I told them to keep their distance. I don't want them upsetting your people, and they should not approach until you give permission. But once you feel comfortable allowing visitors, I'll lift the ban.
I… would prefer you leave it in place, she answered. There might be some among us that would see any visitors not escorted by guards to be unwelcome, and may show their unhappiness in ways I would prefer not to have happen.
Then they'll stay away, he assured her with a nod. I'll make another announcement making it very clear, and I'll have the KMS watch the strait between here and the mainland from a discrete distance to prevent any unwelcome visitors.
Thank you, your Grace.
Have there been any problems with friction between our volunteers and your people?
No. Your people have been very kind and courteous, so much so that the angry among us cannot find fault with them. Your Meya and Myra are well liked here, and with them acting as the liaisons, it has kept the peace. Will they be back soon?
Tomorrow. They wanted a day off. They're tending to a little… business.
You seem amused.
I am. Remember when we told you about Kumi, and the running war of pranks?
Yes.
That's the business they're tending today. They're… relocating her house.
What?
They contracted a Makati company to pick up her house and move it, he said. The whole thing, including her yard.
Aura gave him a startled look, then laughed brightly. You are serious!
The twins will sink to any depths when it comes to a joke, he sent urbanely. Kumi filled their houses with something that ruined their furniture and most of their possessions, so they're retaliating by stealing her entire house. And they're going to make her beg to get it back.
That is almost being too serious!
Kumi deserves it for what she did, Jason sent with a chuckle. She ruined almost all of the twins' possessions, and they're getting revenge for it.
They stayed another couple of hours. Aya tried to keep them all herded together, but Jason allowed the kids to play at a playground with Exiled children in the town's central square while they went to go survey the farms the Makati had helped replant and the animals that were now on ranches inland from the town. Aya left four guards with the children, and Maya and Ilia stayed with them to keep order. Jason saw that the farm fields had been neatly deposited on Karis so effectively that it was hard to see the border between native Exile soil and Karis soil. Their bitterfruit trees were planted in neat and orderly rows not far from their farmlands, and behind those were the strider ranches, where the birds seemed to have shaken off the trauma of hyperspace travel and were quickly acclimating to Karis. Striders were omnivorous, eating fruits, berries, seeds, nuts, certain tender grasses, and also insects and any small prey that wandered close to them. There were no insects or small game on the island, so they were bringing ground meat for them to eat to supplement their diets with protein. The vets had already proclaimed Karis grass safe and digestible for them to eat, so they were happily milling about the pastures, sampling the tender grass shoots they could find, visiting the water trough, and pecking at the meat in a trough near the barn that had been hastily built for the ones that had eggs, for striders preferred nests in enclosed areas for their eggs. Stalls in a barn seemed to make them very happy. Aura brought them back down to the town as he discussed their needs with her and the council, and found that they were more or less content. The volunteers that were with them were attending to all their needs, and her people were starting to experience the technology that their home planet had to offer. That video device is almost addictive, she sent with a hint of complaint. Once someone learns how it works, they spend hours sampling the many entertainments it offers.
You're not the only ones that are like that, Jyslin sent with an audible chuckle. The Faey who create those entertainment programs try very hard to make them so entertaining that you want to watch them.
Truly. There was some initial displeasure about the programs, though.
Why?
She seemed to flush slightly. The video device shows sexual acts and acts of violence, which are things not often seen by my people in public. Sex is not so much a concern, since we don't hide sex from our children, but we also consider it taboo to engage in sex in a public space, therefore those too young to partake often do not see it performed by any but their parents, if then. The violence is another matter. That distressed several people, who believed that the images they saw on the video device were actually real, and that they had just witnessed someone's death.
There's a way to filter those things out of the program Jyslin told her.
Yes, your volunteers showed us how it was done after they explained that the images were just very elaborate acting using sophisticated props and make-up and machines that trick the eye into seeing what is not there. Despite knowing it isn't real, though, many of us find the images too disturbing, so your people showed us how to remove the images from the programs. Once we were able to remove those things, the programs were quite enjoyable. The program that brings news from all of the Imperium is especially fascinating, the, uh, "INN" program.
That stands for Imperial News Network, Jason explained.
Ah, that makes sense. Many of us truly enjoy that program. So many things to see, so many places, so much to learn! she sent with excitement. And we saw images of the Empress Dahnai! And we saw you, your Grace! You were at court, standing beside her throne!
Ah, that was last week, Jason told her. During an official announcement that I had to attend.
It was a wonderful moment, to see our Grand Duke standing at the side of the Empress, she sent, nearly reverently. I'm sure the Empress was honored to be allowed to sit in your presence while you stood, she added, showing that even the Exiled had loyalty to Karinne first, and the Imperium second.
Yes, she was quite… excited that I was there, he replied dryly. I'm glad you enjoyed it, because I certainly didn't, Jason sent wryly. I hate going to court.
Why?
Court is both boring and dangerous, where if you're not listening to boring speeches, the nobles all plot against each other, and it's where a single misspoken word can lead to vendettas and war, he answered. It's a very stressful place, and I only attend because the Empress forces me to do so.
I didn't know it was like that.
What you see on the video device is the happy face that the nobles want people to see. In reality, court is a cesspool of intrigue, and I hate it.
I'm surprised.
Don't be. The Faey outside Karinne have not changed from the Imperium you studied before the Third Civil War, Aura. They're still the same. Faey houses are still more willing to fight each other than they are an outside enemy. The Imperium is fractured and balancing on a rope strung over an abyss, and it would take one small thing to cause the entire Imperium to disintegrate into civil war. Most of my efforts to protect Karis and the Karinnes, before the Consortium came, were designed to protect us from the Imperium, not anyone outside. What happened with the Collective demonstrates the Faey lack of unity. House Trillane basically committed treason against the Imperium by joining in the plot that allowed the Consortium to attack Karis.
What did the Empress do to them?
Came one whisker from declaring war on them, but she needs Trillane, and she can't afford a war within the Imperium right now. So she punished Trillane severely and made their duplicity public knowledge, which makes them a pariah in the Imperium. It'll be years before the Trillanes come out of the hole they're hiding in. Maeri Trillane was willing to risk plunging the Imperium into war just so her house could break away from the Imperium and become its own empire, but now she sees that she needs the Imperium to prevent her house from being conquered by an outside force. If not for my vows of neutrality and my abhorrence of war, I'd be tempted to go after Trillane myself, but fighting amongst ourselves is the last thing we need right now.
That's very noble of you.
I wish it was, he chuckled. Aya is giving me the look, so I'd better get going. I enjoyed our visit.
Can you come again soon? I enjoy visiting with you.
I'll be busy for the next couple of weeks, and I had to all but wrestle Aya to come today, he told her. But you can always come visit me, if you have time. Aya would be quite willing to bring you to Foxwood rather than me come here. She doesn't trust your people. So just tell the twins you want to come see me, and they'll arrange it.
I will do that, she said with a nod, then she laughed. At least when they come back.
I wonder if they're done, he mused. I'll send you some pictures of the gaping hole where Kumi's house used to be.
She laughed again, then kissed him on the cheek. Let me walk you to your flying device.
Aya looked almost ready to cry in relief when all the kids were gathered up, everyone was assembled, and then put back on the dropship to return home. She brazenly took off her armor right in the cockpit, showing off her muscular frame before slipping on a soft robe… but she left on her right gauntlet as a stern warning of what would come when they got home.
Jason laughed at her demonstration. He wasn't too afraid of it, and the act of submitting to punishment helped deflect Aya's anger and would make the next confrontation less heated. He was showing her that he empathized with her situation even if he was ruling against it.
The other rank amusement came when they got home. There, a few slots down from his house, was a gaping hole. The sewer and water lines had been professionally capped, the power conduit professionally removed at the exchanger. The Makati had scooped the house, the gardens, and the lawn up and left a cubic hole about thirty feet deep, thirty yards wide, and about fifty yards across, the hole neatly covered with plascrete to prevent the sides from collapsing.
"Now that is how you get revenge," Jason chuckled as he circled around and prepared to land on the large communal landing pad in the center of the strip. "When Kumi gets back from Terra, she's gonna be pissed."
I wonder how they did it, Aya mused.
"Forcefields, an artificial gravity inducer, and a tractor beam," he answered. "They drive posts at the four corners, which use force fields to cut the earth on the sides and the bottom. Then they use a gravity inducer inside the prevent anything from moving as a tractor beam pulls it out. After that, they cap the lines and plascrete the walls to prevent the hole from collapsing, and they're done. I've seen them do relocations projects before on Terra, moving historical landmarks to do infrastructure work, and then putting them back when they're done. That way they didn't risk damaging historical buildings and landmarks."
Clever.
"The Makati invented the system, and they do it best," Jason noted.
Aya wasn't about to let him out of his promise. After they got home, she administered the punishment in the living room, attended by the majority of the 45 Dukal Guard, as many as would fit in his living room. He saw the whole thing as a game, and was rather irreverent when Aya sat down and demanded satisfaction. He found out, though, just how much being spanked could sting without leaving any bruises. It was still a game, though, and Jason still approached it in a cheeky manner that actually caused some of the anger the guards had with him fade.
Jason had learned to play the game, even with his own guards. He knew Faey, and he knew how to both stir them up, and calm them down. The guards felt as if their fears had been addressed, and Jason apologized in a manner that allowed them to save face and even laugh a little bit, even at his own expense, and all it cost him was a red bottom and a little wounded pride. But it also helped personalize the issue and remind them that they were protecting a person, not a title, and that Jason cared enough about them to give them a little of his own dignity to atone for wronging them.
After Aya sent him to his room like a wayward child, all he could do was laugh.
There was revenge, and then there was revenge.
It was like the music of a thousand angels in his ears when Kumi got home. Her sending blasted across the strip, a sending without words. It was nothing but outrage, pure, unarticulated outrage. Jason was home from going to the White House and conferring with the ambassadors of the Academy, organizing the summit that was taking place in two weeks, sitting on his deck facing the ocean and working on his panel, drawing up a speech he intended to give during the summit. Miaari and Jyslin were with him, and Rann, Danelle, Kyri, and Aran were sitting at the table eating lunch as Aya and Ryn stood nearby. All of them looked up when Kumi's sending ripped through the strip, and Jyslin snorted to suppress a giggle.
"Kumi's home," she said aloud, giving Miaari a bright smile, then Jyslin and Jason exploded into gales of helpless laughter.
"And she's hopping mad," Jason added, wheezing for breath. "I think she discovered the twins' remodeling."
Miaari gave a toothy grin, then laughed herself. "Maybe now friend Kumi will learn there are lines one does not cross," she said with a surprisingly playful smile. Miaari and Kumi were very close friends, and their friendship had not waned during the years they'd been on Karis. "Especially when battling scoundrels such as the twins."
"She should know better, she's known them a long time," Jason said, recovering his breath.
"I don't get it," Aran said aloud. "I don't hear any words."
"She's not sending words, sweetie, she's sending an emotion," Jyslin told him, still giggling.
Jason glanced at the kids, and he saw the strangest look on Danelle's face. Her rose-colored eyes were wide open, and her mouth was half open. "I… I can hear it," she said haltingly. "I can hear Aunt Kumi!" she said with an excited squeal.
What color are Sora's eyes, Danelle? Jason asked.
"They're green," she answered, then she all but vaulted to her feet and jumped up and down. "I heard you, I heard you, I heard you!" she screamed. "I woke up!"
"We may as well have poor Surin plan a passing party a day," Jason laughed as Danelle vaulted into his arms. "Congratulations, pippy! I'm proud of you!"
Danelle ran and hugged everyone in turns, even Miaari, as Kumi stormed down the walkway and stopped in front of their house. I KNOW YOU LET THEM DO IT! she thundered at him.
Why Kumi, whatever are you talking about?
WHERE IS MY HOUSE, YOU BASTARD?
What? Didn't you say the other day you were looking to remodel? I thought that was your idea for your new design. We dubbed it the inverted look.
YOU! she raged, pointing at him. I am going to kill you, Jayce! If you don't get those despicable twins in front of me by the time I reach you, I'm going to strangle you with my bare hands! She stomped up the walkway to the deck, her eyes blazing, and her fists clenched. When she got there, though, Jason swept her up in his arms and kissed her on the cheek… but it did little good. Tell me where my house is right now, or I'll make sure you never have another child again!
I honestly don't know. The twins had a Makati firm come relocate your house. I guess you'll have to talk to them about it.
You let them do it!
After ruining their houses with crash foam, did you really think they were going to let it go without doing something momentous? he asked simply.
She glared at him, then gave a slightly embarrassed look. I didn't mean to ruin their clothes and furniture, she admitted. I thought the foam would decay cleanly.
Well, they're still honked off about it, so you'd better go be real sorry if you want your house back, he told her. Besides, it was funny, he admitted, laughing in spite of himself.
Maybe a little, she admitted, then she laughed ruefully. I about had a heart attack when I saw my whole house, just gone! Gone, just like that! Do you know what kind of a shock that is? I thought it was some kind of hologram until I nearly fell into the hole trying to get past it!
I can imagine, Jason laughed. I'm not sure where the twins are. You'd better start looking for them, and remember. Mean it.
I'll be contrite until I get my house back, then I'm really gonna get them, she said, fire in her eyes. But I'll make sure nothing gets damaged this time, she added.
Always a good idea, Kumi girl, he chuckled, kissing her on the cheek. If you need me to look the other way on something, just let me know.
She gave him a wolfish smile. We'll talk about that.
She padded off, back towards her dropship, and Jyslin gave him a surprised look. "You're gonna double-deal the twins?" she asked, then she laughed. "Brave, love, brave!"
"Watching them fight with Kumi is fun. Think I'm ready to give over on one of my favorite forms of entertainment?" he asked, which made Jyslin and Miaari erupt into helpless laughter.