Surprisingly the Queen's other two grandsons were just as protective of their cousin as the Queen seemed to be, and after updating them on the progress, Aaron suggested that they move to his officers' mess so they could spread out the base plans that Thomas was holding onto, the two princes had brought with them on their flight over. Letting the two unroll the blueprints, Aaron excused himself for a moment, "If you don't mind while you lads get those blueprints set up and work on your plan to get me to agree, I'm going to hop into the kitchen and get dinner started, all of you of course are invited to dine with us, I expect the rest of the Clan to arrive around four to four thirty and we shall be eating around five. I'll be about twenty minutes."
Glancing at his grandmother first, Edward smiled and nodded his head, "love to...thank you," going back to placing the blueprints around the table and talking quietly with his brother on the best way to present their case.
Searching through the kitchen, Aaron came up with a menu from what was available and quickly started to prepare the kitchen so when the time came he could quickly finish dinner off without leaving his guests for too long, with all the fresh seafood on board, once the prep work was done, it would be a matter of excusing himself briefly every so often until the end. Humming to himself as he moved around the kitchen setting things up, he missed seeing the Queen coming in and watching him from the doorway.
"To tell the truth, I am surprised with how familiar you are in a kitchen, growing up of course we were made familiar with the workings of the kitchen, but only so far as to be able to direct the staff. You look like it relaxes you." Victoria finally spoke up slightly startling Aaron.
Smiling, Aaron glanced over his shoulder, "The Clan eats as a family and we take turns cooking, though I usually end up doing most of the dinners...cooking helps me think, plus it is a way of providing my family with something that shows I care about them...that I care enough that I went the extra step to make sure they had something tasty to eat."
"Normally when I plan small dinner parties, all the prep work is already done the morning and afternoon before, that way, one of us can sneak away for a moment to get the next step started and in the end, there is a ten minute window where we are finishing things and setting the food on the table." Laughing, Aaron noticed the two princes listening in with their heads in the steam table window. "We get a lot of work done when we cook as a Clan...as a family. You can get a lot of planning done while chopping up ingredients or adding them to the pot, half the time in the mornings, schedules for the day are decided in the kitchen and finalized after breakfast, during cleanup."
"It sounds as if you can spend a longer time with each other between duties that way," Victoria considered that, while moving to a stool and sitting down, "Is that why there are chairs in the kitchen itself, I wondered if it interfered, but it makes sense."
Nodding his in agreement, Aaron smiled, "Alright you two come on in, there are plenty of seats, and it will make it easier for you to join in the conversation." Waiting until the two sheepishly entered the kitchen, Aaron pointed to several stools on the other side of the counter from where he was working.
Smiling and sitting down, Andrew looked around while his older brother offered "what can I do to help?"
Pushing a bowl of tomatoes over to the other side of the counter, Aaron pointed, "There's a drawer right under where you're sitting with knives slotted in place, if you would cut the tomatoes in half it would be a help, just be careful as the knives are very sharp."
"What about me..." Andrew piped up; as he watched his brother slowly cut the tomatoes.
"Are you squeamish at all?" Aaron asked, as he pointed to the sink full of squirming shrimp, chuckling when he saw the shocked look on the young royals face.
"What are they?" Andrew's question brought his brother over to look into the sink, "they look like miniature lobsters."
"Close, same family really, their shrimp. What you need to do is separate the tail from the body, the tail goes into the bowl and the body into the pot where they will be used for stock before being recycled," Aaron smiled as Andrew picked one up gingerly and looked at it, making faces as he moved it around, trying to figure it out. "What you need to do is grasp it in the middle and then by where the tail meets the body and give a quick twist either way, and pull."
Following the instructions, the tail separated quickly from the body and Andrew frowned, seeing the shrimp still moving, before dropping each piece into the proper place.
Aaron, reading the surface thoughts form the young prince smiled encouragingly at him, "It might seem cruel, but this is the cycle of life. We raised the shrimp from a tiny microscopic size and fed and nurtured it, giving it the best conditions possible and now it will feed and nurture us. And unlike a lot of developed countries, there will be no waste, the heads and bodies will be placed in water with some herbs and simmered to make stock, afterwards, the stock will be drained and the shells and bodies will be frozen until the Asclepius docks, where they will be taken and added to the processing line to be ground and added into the food that will feed other fish, salt water this time, as these shrimp were the freshwater type."
Watching the young prince, as he portioned out the fish for poaching later, Aaron decided to treat them the same as he did his guys, "Now think about what I just said, can you tell me why it would be important to separate the differing species, if you are going to turn them into food for other fish to eat? To answer the question, you are going to have to recall both your biology and modern history classes."
Both princes screwed up their faces in concentration as Aaron moved on to the next task, after putting the filets in the prep cooler. Pulling out the ingredients to make the mango salsa, Aaron happily started to dice and chop, as both teens tried to figure out the clues.
"I have no clue...if I think about science class and you mentioned the cycle of life, then I can tell you that big fish eat little fish and so on, it's called the food chain," Andrew finally said, as he looked to his older brother Edward for help and getting a nod in return.
"What we are doing is working on your logical reasoning here, now tell me about mad cow disease, I know it affected quite a few people in your country," Aaron patiently prodded, not giving the answer outright, making them work to understand.
This one he knew, "Mad Cow is a disease that is passed to humans from eating infected meats, and you're right, it was a horrible mess that affected farmers all over." Andrew said firmly with conviction as he remembered clearly the uproar.
"And I told you that we separate the carcass of fresh water fish to feed salt water fish and vice versa, now, add in what you assume is unrelated, the mad cow outbreak and..." Aaron prodded as he cleaned up now that everything was pretty much prepped, as the young prince had finished the shrimp and was washing up as well.
"Wait a minute..." Edward said, astonished. "You started the whole conversation talking about the circle of life. The reason we had such a problem with mad cow was that the circle was broken, cattle are herbivores and eat grass and seed, the problem arose when someone fed animal parts to an animal that nature did not design to eat meat."
Waving for them to move back to the other room, Aaron smiled, "Yes, what we really are talking about is cause and effect. The cause of mad cow was feeding animal byproducts back to the animal, the same species of animal, the effect was a horrible condition and suffering that affected thousands and frightened millions and damaged farmer's worldwide, notice I said worldwide." Seeing the looks on the three faces, Aaron became all business. "In that instance, someone trying to take a short cut broke the cycle of nature to make a profit. But the whole point of the conversation was to introduce the concept of critical thinking to both of you."
Tapping the blueprints, Aaron did not look down, instead he looked into each of their faces, "The same critical thinking has to apply here, your grandmother wants to take back the runaway government and bring sanity back to your people, and by doing this, she wants me to create an embassy at Elswick, including a hospital, in return, my government or in this case that being me, will receive letters of marquee, allowing me to do what I would have done on the quiet anyway, and what she feels should be done. Now, we have several things that will be the cause, now it is up to us to determine if the effects we envision are what we truly are after and will they do what we hope, in the long run?"
Andrew and Edward looked at each other, this added a dimension to the proposal they never even considered and now how to go about it, they wondered.
"Are all your kitchen talks like this one, where there is a lesson involved?" Victoria asked as she too had not given much thought about her proposal, at least not like Aaron did.
"Honestly, about half the time, critical thinking is a skill I have noticed is really lacking in being taught to students outside the kingdom. About half the conversations, where we discuss things, are more of a discovery and really thinking things through like what just happened in the kitchen, by making them work for the answer on their own, they truly make it part of them." Aaron smiled at the younger prince who was looking at him funny, "And if I asked you right now about mad cow would your answer be different?"
Nodding his head slowly, Andrew replied, "Yes, I never gave it a thought that the whole thing was caused by something as simple as the cycle of life being ignored, I honestly never gave it a thought beyond knowing that mad cow was caused by eating tainted meat," glancing at his grandmother he added, "There is something truly wrong with our school system, we take all these classes, follow all the guidelines the government tells us we have to know these things, but yet we fail to give the skills to pull it together like this," he waved his hand back towards the kitchen.
Tapping the blueprints once more, Aaron got everyone's attention, "I want this...your grandmother wants this...now you were working from the wrong assumption and were about to lay a presentation down that would not have benefited anyone in the long run, as we would be working from two different premises, you, thinking my hesitation was based on not really wanting to do this, and mine from the side of what affects are really going to happen and I need to think about everything, after all, I could still rescue gay youth on the sly by letting it be known they only have to show up and ask for help. That way, I avoid all the political bull, surrounded with dealing with another government."
"It is time you got a lesson in the most important thing a monarch can ever hope to learn, and it is on my family crest... Gens Stranton Induco Alius Ansisto," Aaron pulled several chairs around the table so they could sit around the blueprints, "Clan Stranton Leads and others follow, we do this by truly leading by doing, not ruling and letting everyone else do what we say." Sitting down, Aaron looked at everyone's face, "As you regroup, let's talk about the base and what it offers me as an embassy and hospital and go outwards from there, shall we?"
Limo pulling over to the side of the road, tires screeching to a halt the lead vehicle was a mile further down the road, before it made it over to the side of the road and made a mad dash in reverse, brakes smoking as it came to a halt in front of the limo as Kevin bailed out of the vehicle standing there scanning the area to see which way the mind was coming from, all he had gotten before was a brief flash of a nude body running through the tall grass and the fear.
Friedrich jumped out of the vehicle and was rapidly scanning the area hand on his gun, looking for the threat not sure why they stopped; he jumped when Kevin yelled out. "OVER HERE, SAFETY IS OVER HERE."
"What the hell is going on, Kevin..." Friedrich ground out, it was his ass on the line if something happened to any one of those guys, and he knew deep down it was not a simple your fired, not with this group.
Seeing a flash of skin change direction, Kevin called over his shoulder, "move back inside guys, once he's in the car, take off, I can port out if needed...Fred make sure they stay inside, and Rod takes off."
"Are you sure, I mean maybe we can..." Fred started to argue along with Kenny and Damien.
"Guys, I can Teleport, you can't yet, so take off, please, otherwise he might get you and I would not be able to leave," Kevin pleaded as the runner, a naked male broke through the brush and headed towards him as he called out, "Hurry over here, get in the car."
As soon as the naked teen got close to the asphalt, Kevin threw him into the car with kinesis, slammed the door closed and smiled, as it left a burnt rubber trail as it took off. Moving over towards Friedrich, so they could get into the hummer, he ducked as a gunshot sounded and the tail light on the limo was shot out. Angry, he growled out as he pointed at the man with the rifle, "I want him alive...seeing Friedrich reaching in his pocket, he added, "and awake..."
The hunter didn't know what hit him, as he was swarmed by guards, after having his rifle shot out of his hands, it didn't bother them in the slightest that they also blew away the hunter's hand in the process, the boss said alive and awake, not unharmed.
Aaron winced and held up his hand, interrupting the conversation between Mark and the youngest prince, flipping his mic down he tapped the side of the communicator, "This is Aaron, what happened?"
Chris came running into the room followed by Joe, "Aaron, the panic button on the guys car was..." he stopped when Aaron held up his hand.
"Fred, you did the right thing, you get back here as fast as possible, run the red lights if you have to, Chris will meet you at the gate to help with the boy you rescued, I'll get a hold of Kevin...relax Fred, he has all the guards with him and he promised you, so you can count on it...I love you too, so take care and I will do more than everything possible to make sure Kevin is alright." Aaron looked Chris's way who nodded before running back out of the room heading for the gate.
Unsnapping the Velcro, Aaron pulled out his PA.D.D. and logged into the communications system, transferring Fred's call to Chris's headset and activated the one for Kevin, though he pathed him first so he did not surprise him, "Kevin...Fred just called me all freaked out, tell me you are alright."
"Yes, it's contained, but hang around in case I lose my nerve, this asshole hunter took a shot at the limo and would have hit one of the guys, if it wasn't armored," Kevin sighed, knowing Aaron was here , at least mentally.
"Ok I'm with the Queen and her two grandsons, they were with me when this happened, so let's switch to the communicator, "Aaron pathed, sending relief and love as he tapped the command to relay the communicator through the room speakers and begin recording.
"Aaron, are you recording?" Kevin's voice came over the speakers along with the screams of pain from the hunter.
"Yes I am, it started the moment the panic button was pushed by Fred," Aaron replied softly, and sent, "I can see what you're thinking love, and do not be ashamed if you cannot go through with it, you can always leave him to me."
"Thank you, but what good is throwing the clan motto in your face, if we only pick and chose when to follow it, though if I falter..." Kevin verbalized, "Give him something for pain, so we can find out what he thinks he was doing."
Friedrich pulled a syringe out of his belt case, and making sure he had the right one popped the cap off and slammed it into the captive's arm, none too gently. The quick acting pain killer brought the man around from screaming in pain to cussing them out for shooting a deputy.
Pulling his passport out and holding it in front of the prisoner's face, Kevin sneered, "Well we all have diplomatic immunity, and you fired on us, so I do believe you are the one in trouble here, not us. Now, please tell me what you were doing chasing a naked boy through the brush and then firing on a clearly marked diplomatic limo?" since the man had been given a pain killer, Kevin dug slightly deeper into his mind as the man tried to come up with an excuse, cautious, after Aaron warned him not to go to deep.
"What's your beef kid, it was only a worthless fag I was chasing," Kevin's deeper scan loosening the man's tongue more than he would otherwise, "Doesn't matter much, good sport is all fags are good for anyways, give them a good head start and it makes it more exciting, not like my brother who likes to shoot them quick like."
Shaking his head, after Kevin pulled back, "What you give me anyway...doesn't matter, it's my word against yours, and I'm a cop, I'll just say the little fucker is a rapist and no one will believe you foreign fuckers anyways." The man would have strutted, if he wasn't being held down.
Friedrich had searched the man's pockets and pulled out his wallet, opening it up, he saw the badge inside and showed it to Kevin, "He's a cop alright, and a dirty one."
Angry, Kevin knew what he had to do and he felt the pathed words from Aaron telling him he could hand it over to him and he would deal with it, no questions or comments, instead he identified himself, "I am Kevin Miller of Clan Stranton of the Kingdom of Altare, let this recording stand as the official record of the investigation of the incident of shots fired at Alteran diplomatic limo Altare Two, by Deputy Albert Case of the San Mateo Sheriff's department, testimony freely given by the prisoner states that he was part of a hunting party using gay teens as the prey, and by his own words, he shows no remorse."
Kevin looked at Friedrich with hard eyes that made him flinch slightly, "It is my duty under Alteran law, and as eldest member of Clan Stranton, to pronounce judgment on the prisoner for his crimes against humanity."
Unbeknownst to Kevin, a state highway patrol Captain came upon them and was listening in to the whole thing. Even if he wanted to interfere, the gun toting guards would have easily taken him out.
Pulling a small crystal out of his pocket along with a small device, he placed them against the man's temple, downloading his memories, or the pertinent ones. Kevin looked the man in the eye after placing the objects back in his pocket, "For you crimes against humanity, I sentence you to death...for your crimes with no remorse, but enjoyment, I sentence you to death of DNA, and your DNA shall be removed from the gene pool."
Back in the officer's mess, there were indrawn breaths from the Clan members listening intensely, the youngest British royal whispered to Tommy, "What, why is everyone was stunned over the second sentence, why."
"Sentence is to be carried out immediately," Kevin nodded to Friedrich, who was standing behind the prisoner, "may whatever God you believe in have mercy on your soul, as I will not."
There was the sound of a muffled shot over the speaker, before Kevin's tired voice resumed, "Telepathic testimony will be attached to this recording within twenty four hours, record prisoner termination at this time and date."
Aaron sighed quietly, one of his loves had to order a life to be taken, it was so much sooner than the other timeline, he would remove or alter the memory from Kevin as soon as he returned, "Recorded at 16:30 hours, July 15th year of 2004 TR. Recording off, get your butt back here love; we need to deal with what you had to do, I'm sorry this burden was yours to bear so early. I love you and you did the right thing, not the easy thing...I am very proud of you right now."
"I'm on my way back," Kevin said tiredly, as he flipped up the mic and walked towards the lead vehicle.
"Removal of the DNA from the gene pool is our harshest penalty, in effect what he did was to order mind examinations of every person related to that deputy and if they were sick like he was they would not wake up," Tommy whispered, glad it was not him that had to make the decision, but proud of Kevin for being able to do it, "Probably because the deputy admitted his brother was involved."
Captain Smith knew he should take the teen into custody, he ordered the execution of a man after all. But the strange thing was, having a gay brother; he could not find it in his heart to do what is duty demanded of him.
Spotting the officer near the hummer, Kevin, stone faced, opened his passport so the officer could see it, putting it away after the officer nodded slowly, Kevin pulled out the one Aaron had made for Friedrich, opened it and held it there for the officer to see the contents of that one also.
"Take your men and go back to your embassy, young man, I know it was a terrible thing to see the horrific hunting accident, but by the time you stopped to help, it was too late, on behalf of good honest law enforcement everywhere, I thank you for doing your civic duty," Captain Smith told him with conviction, before whispering to him as he climbed into the hummer, "my brother was gay..."
The Queen picked up on the words telepathic testimony, arching an eyebrow, "Telepathic testimony..."
Aaron rubbed his face, sighing, "As one monarch to another, I ask you to keep our racial secrets to those in this room."
Nodding her head slowly and regally, the Queen locked eyes with her grandson until they also nodded in agreement.
"Among other things, we are telepaths," staring at the wall for a moment he then looked at the three British royals, "It is impossible to lie mind to mind."
The older one, Prince Edward asked hesitantly "Have you been reading our minds the whole time?"
Kenny and the rest of the guys from the limo walked in, relieved that Kevin was on his way back, and he misinterpreted the question on purpose, "Oh no, Aaron wouldn't do that, it is very painful to go mind to mind with a non telepath."
Tommy smiled, well, more of a grimace, "It leaves you feeling like you want to lay down and throw up your insides as the pain is so intense," noticing the concerned and questioning looks "I was the only one that knew where Mark was and we could not rescue him without having a good picture of where he was, not just verbal, Aaron needed a visual image to go with it, I told him to look in my mind and take it while I concentrated as hard as I could, concentrating on remembering every detail of that farm, even with the painkiller he injected, I wanted to scream and the pain only lasted a few breaths and he only touched my mind for a second."
Damien and Kenny crawled into Aaron's lap for comfort, while Fred embraced him from behind, basking in the feeling of, love of pride Aaron was sending. Aaron wanted to laugh as Kenny told the truth in a new way, so it was not the right direction, "It's not fair I don't get my gifts until I get hair down there, what does puberty have to do with doing the right thing anyway."
Aaron chuckled and swatted Kenny's head, "We have guests, and ladies present it is not polite to talk about your lack of physical equipment in mixed company." Though he did see the amused expression on the Queen's face, glancing around the room to his guys, "Let's get dinner started, if we all help, it will be ready when Kevin gets here and I can pull him aside and we can deal with what happened while you all start to eat."
Pete became nervous, after all, Kevin was one of his best friends, "You're not going to remove his memory are you?"
Sensing the fear behind Pete's question, Aaron looked at him directly and pathed the answer at the same time, "Only if he wants me to, hopefully all that needs to happen is to have it altered so it's not as fresh in his mind...but if he asks me, I will remove it."
Tim, who had ported in earlier with Aaron stood up, "Come on guys, let's get things started I noticed Mango salsa in the kitchen, so that means we're having seafood."
Laughing as everyone bolted for the kitchen when Tim said Mango salsa, eager to get a taste before it hit the table, Aaron stood up to follow, "I think I better get in there before they find the second bowl of salsa, we'll have none for dinner if they do." Stopping at the door, Aaron looked back, "feel free to ask your questions during supper, most of the guys will not hesitate to answer, and I know you are dying to ask them."
Aaron had just placed the last entrée in the steam table as Kevin walked in, looking around; spotting him and feeling his confusion and anger; Aaron placed the pan down in the table and moved over to Kevin quickly. Kissing him gently on the lips, Aaron placed his hands on either side of Kevin's head and leaned his forehead against Kevin's. They stood there eyes closed while Aaron communed with Kevin mind to mind to help him deal with what he had to do.
"Do you guys have to touch each other to read each other's minds?" Edward asked, as he went through the line, sneaking peeks at the two standing not moving.
"Not usually, most of us have varying degrees of strength we get our gifts in, right now, they are so close, so Kevin can soak up the love and comfort Aaron is sending out, not being Alteran, you can't see or feel it, but it is rolling off of him in waves." Mark told him, adding to the mystery of their race and the misdirection.
Opening his eyes, Aaron moved back and remembering they were in mixed company, gently kissed Kevin one more time, on the temple this time, before smiling and pushing him towards the nervously waiting Pete.
Pete, pulling Kevin into a hug, looked up into his face, "Are you really alright?"
Nodding and smiling, Kevin pulled Pete towards the buffet, not about to miss out on salsa, "Yes, I'm fine now, it's like it happened months ago, and I had all that time to deal with it...really I'm fine and I know if I had to do it again, I would be able to, because Aaron would be there when it was over to make it alright."
Pete looked at Kevin for a minute and then tasted the truth of his statement, smiling, he nodded before reaching around the corner and handing Kevin a small bowl, topped full of salsa he had set aside for him.
Softly moaning in pleasure after tasting the Mango salsa with the fish, Edward looked over to Aaron, "Grandmother is giving you a port, I'll' give you an island; you can have Ireland all you have to do is keep me supplied with this salsa." His younger brother giggled as he put another shrimp in his mouth, he never knew shrimp tasted this good before.
Glaring playfully at her grandson, the Queen admonished him, "Now see here young man, you're not king yet, so kindly stop giving away parts of the kingdom."
Smiling, Edward told his grandmother, "I'm allowed to joke in this company," but his surface thoughts betrayed him to Aaron and Pete, who were sitting next to him, he was serious about giving Ireland to the kingdom of Altare; that way they could be dealt with by them, for hurting his baby cousin.
Locking eyes with Pete, he felt the quick thought that he would deal with the prince, and his hatred and paid attention, as the Queen praised his cooking skill. "I must say that this meal would not go amiss in one of the best restaurants in London."
The rest of the meal was eaten as his Clan got to know the two princes better, at the end, Tim finished and seeing Aaron was also and chatting away with the Queen, came over and kissed Aaron on the cheek before taking his dishes, "I'll get those for you tonight,"
The Queen and her two grandsons' eyes were glued to the scene and she commented, "Your family is very affectionate, physically that is...I would have thought being telepaths it would be otherwise, so much for those fanciful stories."
Smiling, Aaron noticed the others cleaning up after themselves, "Touch is a lot easier to convey feelings and emotions than just reading the truth of it mind to mind, and the young ones that haven't reached breakthrough on their gifts, don't have that option to know they are loved unless they feel it."
Pete nudging the prince whispered, "Dude, get your grandmother's dishes for her, so she doesn't have to wash them, and bring your own, leave them to talk."
Shocked, but not about to be shown up, the older prince moved to his grandmother and picked up her dishes with a smile, before hesitating for a moment and leaning over and kissing her lightly on the cheek, he beamed when she turned a surprised and pleased look his way. Aaron was right; it was much easier to feel the love from family that way.
A few minutes later, Kenny, along with Damien walked back into the room and went over to the table where the blueprints were tacked down, looking at them and the layout, along with the photos, Kenny asked, "Is this going to be the new embassy and hospital," he traced his finger along the dock area and leaned over, "the channel's not deep enough."
That comment caused the two princes to move over to the table to discuss what Kenny meant and issues they had not touched on yet.
Listening to the explanation, Kenny Called out, "Kevin, can you and Pete come here a minute," then thinking about it, "Fred, you too please."
"Watch, listen and learn...those guys won't let anything stop them when they put their mind to it," Aaron whispered to the Queen's unspoken question.
Once everyone was around the table, Kenny pointed to the map, "Kevin, the channels aren't deep enough for the Asclepius to sail in, and I don't think the dock is big enough or the right shape."
Damien nodded his head and flipped through the blueprints on the other table, finding the ones for the hospital, he handed them to Fred, "The hospital looks too far away from the docks and it is old and would it even be able to be used, or should it be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up."
"But we were still working on the effects of opening an embassy and hospital here, we haven't got far enough to even think about refits," the younger prince protested.
"Cause and effect," Fred nodded his head, as he took the plans and started to look through them, "That is only a small part of the solution."
Mark came over and looked at the maps of the country around the port, "What you need to remember is that once you have identified the cause and effect, you can influence the effects to be what you want them to be." Touching the map to the countryside outside the port, "this base closed; that is the cause, what is the effect?"
"The loss of jobs in the area and the economy going downhill, so if you take over, the jobs will be back," Edward sounded excited at the revelation.
"Mostly, and only temporally," Tommy spoke up, as he noticed the area around the port was countryside for the most part, "What we need to do is find out what is needed long term for this area to thrive, things like providing food, housing, distractions for the patient's families, and develop them at the same time the construction is ongoing so that when the jobs fall off, they can slide over to fill the need there."
"Don't forget the politicians in other areas are going to be against this, because they will be jealous," Tim moved closer looking at the map of England, "they would only be for it if it fell into their area, so you need to influence them by helping them develop ways to attract our other business's to the area like the computers and power generation."
"You know the cause and effect here, now you need to influence these other areas so they don't fight the effects over here, the ones you want to happen the most, if you give them the means and they fail, it is not your fault, in fact, it would work to your advantage with the people," Pete told them.
Looking at the awed look on the Queen's face, Aaron quietly told her, "That is what happens when the ruling family lives the motto, lead and others will follow. They are just following my example, and already they changed the lives of your grandsons." Standing, Aaron held his hand out for the Queen to use to stand, "let's leave them to work out the solution and go check on your other grandson."
Walking into the treatment pod, Aaron went over to the desk while the Queen went over to her grandson and laid her hand on the cloth covered bio-tube; someone had gotten some sheets and draped them over the lower half of the bio-tubes thus ensuring the patients privacy while the family visited. Doing the checks he needed, not that someone else hadn't checked over the systems already, Aaron excused himself, saying he would meet up later after the Asclepius left port.
Making his way to the crew mess, Aaron thought he should arrive right on time, Theo would have made his speech, and a good portion of the people, he had already met and they got firsthand experience dealing with the technology, so all he needed to do was meet the few people that had yet to show during the day and answer any questions they had. Making sure Theo saw him waiting off to the side, Aaron waited until he was finished and called him up to speak.
Moving to the front of the podium, Aaron logged in and activated the large plasma screens behind him, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Altair Trauma," sliding his hand on the touch screen the view panned out so they could see the whole island," and this is Altair Minor, let me start by showing you the housing and other facilities..."
Smiling as he walked back into the officers mess and saw the controlled chaos, Aaron walked to the table, "Hey guys, we need to get a move on if we are going to get home at a reasonable time, you're not going to solve this in one night and the two princes are going to be around for another two maybe three days, at least."
Tim, noticing the time, "We were wondering...Pete, Fred and I would like to stay, we have nothing in the morning and can log into the tutor from here after we get up tomorrow morning, the rest of the guys have things they need to do yet, and in the morning after they get up."
Aaron stared at them for a moment before nodding his head, "Alright, you can stay in my quarters upstairs, Pete probably knows where they are better than I do, after soaking up the engineering specs," grinning when he noticed the smile and no denials from Pete, he shook his head, "Alrighty, the rest of us need to get going, plus Mark needs to tell me what he ended up buying by getting around my instructions, like Tommy did." Laughing at Mark's expression of 'oh shit', Aaron waved for them to follow him and waited until they said their goodbyes, before steering them into an empty room and porting them back to the Clan Hall.
"I'll be right back, after changing." Mark ran towards his room to change out of his official clothes.
"How was your meeting with Brian," Aaron asked Tommy, as they walked towards the kitchen, before laughing at getting a pathed message from Pete, along with a visual.
"Chris just found out you made salsa and he was not around to get any," Pete's mental giggle accompanied the forlorn beaten puppy dog expression Chris had, as he stared at the steam table.
Tommy looked at Aaron and Kevin with a funny look as they laughed, "Chris just found out he missed Aaron's salsa again," Kevin informed him, as they found a place to sit down.
Nodding his head, Tommy went back to answering Aaron's question, "He is so dead when I get my hands on him...do you know he kept putting me off and talking about everything but whether he was going to join us and take over the farm, so I could take over the sea farms, finally, he broke down laughing," his tone sounded put out before chuckling, "I guess I was a little too enthusiastic and forgot to greet him as a friend, so I guess I deserved it...but only this once."
Snickering, Aaron reached over and pulled him across the table so he could kiss him, eventually turning him over so his back was laying on the table where Kevin had free reign to unbuckle his pants, that is how Mark found them five minutes later, Aaron sitting down kissing Tommy soundly, while Tommy was lying on the table, head under Aaron's face and Kevin leaning over Tommy's naked lower half, sucking up and down for all he was worth.
"Damn..." Mark said, rearranging the growing bulge in his shorts.
Giving Tommy one last tongue wrestle, Aaron let his lips go, "Kevin will just have to finish this all on his own, I need to take Mark up top." Getting a moan of pleasure from Tommy, as a reply, Aaron pulled Mark's arm as he was engrossed in the action until they were body to body and ported them to the vet barn up top.
Glancing down, Aaron noticed the tenting of Mark's shorts, and feeling the rather tight situation in his own pants, moved over towards the chair pulling his shirt off, once he reached the chair, he slipped his deck shoes off and removed the rest of his clothes before slipping back into his shoes and folding his clothes neatly for the trip back to his bedroom. Walking towards Mark, half mast leading the way he wanted to laugh at his predicament, there he was trying to adjust himself as he peaked into the stall checking on his cow.
Moving up behind Mark and embracing him from behind, snuggling up crotch to ass, Aaron played with Mark's bare nipples, thus stopping any chance of him willing his problem to go away on its own, "So, what did you find on your shopping trip beyond the saddles and bridles?"
Hands in his shorts, pushing the waistband away from his hard cock, Mark leaned back into the warm body doing things to him that made it very hard to think, "No fair..."he whispered as he felt his shorts being pushed down past his hips, until gravity hit them and they dropped off to pool by his feet, he was not wearing any underwear...none of them did as they only wore clothes for protection, and then only if they had to.
Now that Mark was naked and he had his hard cock trapped between Marks legs, Aaron stopped teasing him and held him close, "Alright, telepath, remember...every time I mentioned your shopping trip, you got this feeling of guilt and thoughts that you are in trouble. I can assure you if I was angry, this..." Aaron thrust a couple of times between Marks legs, the tip of his cock brushing the backside of Mark's ball sack, "would not be hard and ready for action. So relax, and tell me how your trip went and what you found, and don't be giving into those thoughts of Tommy is different, as he was here first; you all share equal parts of my heart as hard as that is to for you to imagine at times."
Sighing, Mark closed his eyes, if he were honest; he was thinking that even though the guys warned him he would not get into trouble, for doing what he was supposed to be doing, if he was truly taking over the livestock farms. Wiggling his butt and legs to feel that the cock between his legs was in fact very hard; he started his story, but he started from the night before. "We had all gotten together yesterday afternoon and last night, and talked about what we each wanted to do today, what things we each wanted to go shopping for. Tommy had joked that you had told him he couldn't buy out any of the nurseries we passed on our shopping trips, and was play pouting about it. Kevin mentioned it was probably because if he bought the nurseries out, they would get a good bit of cash but in the long run their regular customers would be upset and might go elsewhere therefore hurting business in the long run."
"Tim then smiled and he asked, where do the nurseries get their plants from and what Tommy was looking for, that he wanted to visit garden shops." Mark looked around if they were going to have this conversation, they needed to be sitting, still cuddling...but sitting. Spotting the roll away bed he planned to sleep on, he took the couple of steps forward needed to slip Aaron's cock out from between his legs, hearing the soft slap as Aaron's hard cock hit his belly, Mark grinned and holding onto his arms, pulled him over to the bed so they could sit down.
Getting an idea of what Mark had in mind, even without dipping into his surface thoughts, which he tried not to do unless they were so loud he could not avoid it, he moved around Mark and sat down on the bed first, so Mark could snuggle in front of him. Pulling the bed linens and pillow to one end, Aaron laid down with his back to the wall and gently pulled Mark until he was laying in front of him, spooning into him, reaching around he lifted one of Marks legs so he could gently bend a very stiff cock until it was nestled back in the position it was in before they relocated to the bed, trapped between Marks legs.
Wiggling a little bit to get comfortable and as close as possible, Mark picked up the story, "Tommy told us that besides looking for a couple of new varieties of fruit to try out, he was mainly interested in finding books and stuff for some type of hydroponics and aquaculture merge, though he mentioned he missed taking care of his orchids. I think his small greenhouse was his only refuge, he said it was tucked between a couple of the barn sheds so that it faced south and backed up to the livestock barns, so it was easier to heat in the winter months."
Aaron interrupted, "Did you guys find time to actually go, so he could look for plants for himself or was it all farm related shopping, not something for him?"
Shaking his head no, "We never got around to it, he said he wanted to be on time getting back to the ship, we had spent a bit more time in the college bookstore than we planned, mainly it was Tommy as he couldn't find what he was looking for and I think he felt it was his fault we didn't have time so he would skip stopping until next time." Mark picked back up then, "Well, we came up with the novel idea of doing an internet search and found the wholesale nursery place and a seed wholesaler, I noticed that the company you dealt with before Gene Corp was not too far away, so we planned for a stop there and then looking around, we found a poultry hatchery on the way back that was not out of the way if we circled around, that's why Tommy did not want to stop, we would have had to go back the way we came to find one of the small flower nurseries we passed, the way we were going was mostly highway."
Gently circling his fingers around Mark's nipples, now that he was relaxed, Aaron's smile was hidden, "So you made it to Gene Corp, never have been to it really, what's it like?"
Mark smiled off into the distance, "it's incredible really, not only are they a gene bank for holding embryos and semen tanks with every type of prize bull you can think of stored in them, but they have a large working farm there where they test out their stock's freshness by implanting some and birthing them. They have this incredible mixed herd," Laughing, Mark reached down between his legs and felt the still hard cock there, the whole thing was sexual...but yet not sexual at the same time; they both were fully aroused but not feeling the urge to get off, this is what he always dreamed of in a partner...someone that wanted him and was aroused around him but did not need to jump him.
"You should have seen their faces when the limo pulled up and the guards jumped out and scanned the area before coming back and opening our door, we had already attracted a lot of attention by pulling up like we did and when we got out of the limo and the suits saw our crests they fell all over themselves trying to make sure we were taken care of," Mark giggled remembering the scene when they entered the building, "I think they were torn on whether to offer us champagne or soda."
Sighing, "That reminds me, I need to pay you back for the ten calves that I bought for my breeding program, some of those cows and their bloodlines I could not touch before. Wearing this crest opened doors that my folks and I had been trying to get open for years before they died," Mark sounded wistful and hoped he had not overstepped his boundaries, "They said they had your bank information on file and knew the quarantine requirements and would deliver them with the others I picked out for your herd, I also bought up all the steers they had, for the farm, so we don't have to rely on imports for beef...honestly, I tried to offer my card for my ten but Pete stopped me."
Hugging Mark close, Aaron thrust one or two times so Mark would feel he was still hard, "Good for Pete, I don't think any of you fully realize how extensive the Clan holdings are..." Aaron looked to the rafters above them for a moment to do the rough math in his head, "if each of us spent a million dollars a day for the rest of our lives, we would never be able to touch more than a small portion of the interest our holdings bring in, and we have not even really started to release the really cool things waiting in the wings. Tell me what do you plan to do with the calves that are born that don't meet up to your standards?"
Shrugging as much as he could, lying down, snuggled next to Aaron, Mark thought a moment, "Probably throw them in with the other steers, I can't see much call for 4-h calves out here." Seeing where this was leading, he gave a soft exclamation, "oh, I see what you mean now...or at least I think I do, as long as everyone benefits from my rejects, the Clan is willing to fund my breeding program because we both benefit."
"Something like that," Aaron told him, as he let his hands roam further down from the very hard nipples, still more relaxing in his touch than arousing. "Now what about you poultry hatchery visit?"
"That one was easier," Mark had never had a massage before, but he thought this was probably what one felt like, everywhere Aaron's hands roamed; he caressed and kneaded his muscles until they relaxed. "My goal there was for us to eventually have our own breeding flocks in four months or so...so I only needed to make sure they knew how temporary the increase in production from their facility was, and they assured me they could fill my order without putting themselves at risk, further down the line, when we stopped ordering."
"Tommy had already shown me the incubators for hatching eggs, the other day, so I knew we could handle poult production once we got the hens started," Mark wiggled when Aaron found a ticklish spot. "A little surprised to find that the rooms were full of eggs, so I copied your list and compared notes, you were heavy on egg production and dual breeds, so I stuck to meat birds. In three weeks time and every other week for the next four months, we'll get a thousand ten day old chicks delivered, as they will handle the stress of quarantine better... you know, you might want to consider putting some scanners in the quarantine facility and not let the animals on the island until they've been scanned, probably safer that way."
Feeling the accidental brush of one of Aaron's fingers across his hard cock what was sensual and relaxing turned sexual and needful real quick. Reaching under the bed, Mark found the bottle of lube sitting there, picked it up and placed it in Aaron's hand. "You do things to me I never dreamed of and I always found myself attracted to younger guys, but it is different with you somehow...please..."
"Are you sure? The one other time we did this, the others were around and Fred was your inspiration, or at least I thought he was, as he was certainly an active participant," Aaron wanted to be very clear with what Mark wanted, he whispered before nibbling gently on Marks ear, "I can get Kevin and Tommy up here if you want."
Lifting his leg to free Aaron's trapped cock, Mark craned his neck around so he could better kiss Aaron, "No, you're different...I'm very attracted to you and to Kevin and, truth be told, David and Derrick get me hot and bothered too." Placing a hand on the hard cock laying on his inner thigh, Mark pressed it into his leg as he rubbed the length of the hard shaft, "just the two of us tonight, you...me...and this inside me, is what I really want."
Aaron couldn't say much to that, Mark made it clear he really wanted this, and it was because there was an attraction there, popping the cap of the bottle of lube, Aaron lubed up his fingers and sliding the lubed hand down between his stomach and Marks back, he found the tight rosebud just above the base of his cock and slowly massaged the lube on his finger around the tight hole as it clenched at the touch of his finger.
On his fingers third pass around the tight hole, Mark's body clenched down and relaxed and Aaron's finger slid in all the way to the second knuckle, feeling no resistance, he slowly slid the rest of the way in and flexing his finger a little, started the slow moving in and out to loosen Mark's hole for the second finger.
Scooting back so there was more room between their two bodies, Aaron brought the bottle of lube close and squirted some on his fingers as he moved the one in and out, fully lubed once more, he started to kiss Mark's neck while his hand went around front to tease Mark's hard cock. Moving a second finger forward so that it touched the hole on each thrust inwards, it soon joined the first and Aaron started to search for Mark's prostate, so he could send him deeper into the building passion. Wiggling around as he got ready to insert the third finger, he finally found what he was searching for and Mark arched his back in pleasure and moaned loudly when Aaron circled the spot once more, allowing his third and final finger to enter Mark, to prepare him for replacing his fingers with what was heavily leaking on Mark's thigh.
Letting go of Mark's hard cock, Aaron reached for the bottle of lube again and squirted some along the length of his shaft, squirting extra near the head of his cock, letting it run down both sides and add to the growing pool on Mark's thigh. Pulling back a little more Aaron positioned himself, letting his shaft be coated from the very well lubed hand it was now resting on before he pulled back and replaced his fingers with the tip of his cock and pushed gently until he felt a slight pop of his cock entering past the tight inner ring. Waiting a few moments, he started to rock back and forth slightly and each movement forward he would sink a little deeper into Mark until he was all the way in.
Slowly...ever so slowly, so that for as much time as possible, his hard shaft was placing pressure on Mark's prostate, Aaron moved in and out while letting his hand wander and tease Mark's hardness that was jutting out over the edge of the bed. Feeling a pressure trying to push him out, Aaron grabbed hold of Mark's waist and shortened his strokes so that the head of his cock stimulated the swelling prostate.
Mark was in heaven; all thought rapidly left his head, as waves of pleasure washed over him from what Aaron was doing to his body. All too quickly, he felt the passion rise and the need to cum, until all too soon he was moaning in pant like bursts as he fired volley after volley of sperm across the ground.
Aaron slowed down, now that Mark climaxed for the first time, only moving enough to keep the edge of pleasure going, waiting for Mark's breathing to return to normal. A few minutes later, once that happened, he started to pick up the pace yet again; this time intent on reaching his own climax, after driving Mark to his second of the evening.
Coming down off his high, Mark felt movement deep inside him and reaching down was surprised to feel that he was still very hard, bringing his fingers back to his mouth he sucked off the cum that he had captured form the end of his cock and pleasure started to build within his frame once more, as a hand reached around and started to stroke him, sending new signals to his brain, his moans of pleasure got louder.
Digging his other arm between Mark's body and the mattress, Aaron managed to get under the teen so he could start playing with his tight ball sack while his other hand continued to stroke him in time to his thrusts. Feeling Mark's sack tighten and pull closer to his body, Aaron slowed down on his stroking and picked up thrusting, he wanted them to cum as close together as possible. Feeling his own climax approaching, Aaron picked up the pace until the sound of flesh slapping flesh could be heard very easily across the barn.
Feeling the head of the cock in his hand start to swell, Aaron pushed himself over the edge and started to fire off his seed deep inside Mark, while he unloaded yet another round onto the ground all the while moaning out, "oh...Oh...OH...!"
Spent for the moment, Aaron lay there, still inside Mark, as they both relaxed from the incredible climaxes, listening to Mark's breathing; he smiled when he noticed that Mark was slipping off into dreamland. Pulling mostly out, Aaron kept the tip of his cock inside Mark until his body tightening on its own accord expelled him, thus keeping his precious seed where it belonged. Half hard and smiling down at his lover, Aaron positioned him so he would be a little more comfortable and pulling the blanket out from under him as he scooted down the bed, covered Mark up, and with one last lingering kiss, he moved over to where his clothes were folded so he could port back home for a shower before bed.
Walking into the house, Aaron glanced at the clock as he walked by; he saw it was only a little after eleven. Making his way into his bedroom, he saw Tommy and Kevin on top of the sheets, Kevin spooned into Tommy, smiling at the picture two of his other lovers made, he moved quietly to the bathroom and started the shower.
Rinsing off, he felt a cold draft through the steam and glancing over his shoulder, he saw a grinning Tommy reaching for him, "Kevin prepared me for you and stayed inside me until you came back," he whispered, as he reached around and stroked Aaron to full hardness.
Leaning over and kissing Tommy, Aaron did not have a chance to say anything, as Tommy slid in front of him and after the kiss turned around and backed onto his hard cock he was holding, all he could do was groan, as Tommy slowly slid his length inside of his body with a sigh of pleasure.
Editors section:
RadioRanchers Musings: I really think we have a wonderful story here. The situation is getting very interesting to say the least. I love the addition of The Queen and her grandsons. I can also see the development on the part of the boys, those that have been with Aaron for a while, and the new recruits as well. I wonder what is happening to the boy that the cops were trying to kill.
I want to say a few words here, about my editing style, because I feel a little nervous here, and I want to make something clear. I am extremely happy to have been invited to join the editing team. I am slowly getting used to the way that WolfWalker writes and the way he says things. As I continue to learn the ins and outs of his stories, I am sure It will become second nature to me to follow his lead more closely. I am making progress in that regard. This story and the people in it are becoming part of my life, the same way that those in the other stories with which I am connected. Those of you who have seen my editing of other stories might wonder what happened to my joking around in this story? I am not going to do that here. There are several reasons for that, one of which is that this story doesn't call for that type of thing. The other, and even more important reason, is that I am still very new here, and I don't have the connection to WolfWalker that I have with some of my other Authors. I am getting to know him better with each new chapter, and as I correspond with him, and get to know him better, I will undoubtedly become more comfortable in knowing when and where I can be a little more whimsical. Make no mistake, I will not sacrifice the feel and meaning of a story for the sake of a joke. It simply won't happen. My job here, as I see it, is to add to the enjoyment of reading this wonderfully complex story, and making sure I find and correct any errors. I have not found very many, actually, and even the ones I have found are not the kind that would make me jump up and come to a full stop. There are always going to be a few mistakes. That is the reason to have an editor, or a proofreader, or two. Again, I am very happy working with Wolfwalker. We are becoming closer and closer to seeing things the same way on the story. I will do my best to bring you the chapters in the best possible way. Thank you for reading this, and please let Wolfwalker know how much you like the story. I know he will appreciate hearing from you.
Darryl
AKA The Radio Rancher.
A/N: As previously stated I have a mailing list for those who wish to get the chapters early, they're in word doc format or PDF and include the embedded pictures of the tech toys I describe in my story. Drop me an email if you wish to be placed on the list