Bill gazed around the room one last time before turning to his aide and nodding his head as he pointed to the screen, "Call them." While waiting for the connection to go through, the television screen that normally showed the votes being counted behind him, lit up.
"Aloha Bill, I see you are busy doing what we talked about on the way back from Washington, I thought you should know that we are unanimous and I hope you will put us through to your contact." Kai, the governor of Hawaii smiled from the screen.
Laughing, Bill turned around, "There are going to be a large amount of pissed off politicians come Monday morning then, we also just finished voting and just like you, we are in full agreement, I'm contacting Davies and Associates right now, so stay on the line and we can approach them together."
"Roger Davies here Governor," Roger had been warned by the governor that he might be calling tonight, so he was still at the office waiting for the call.
"Roger, it is vital that we contact his Majesty, the King of Altare within the next half hour, can you do that for us?" Bill asked, as he turned around to face the camera.
Roger sat at the conference room desk and looked at Bill in thought, and wondered what the hell was going on, it must be something pretty big as he noticed behind the governor the television showed what looked like the Hawaiian state house with all members in attendance. Thinking about it a moment or two longer, "Vital.well I can, try, no guarantee's," Roger told them as he lifted a chain from around his neck and moved the keyboard out of the way and inserted it into the hole and turned it, now it was a waiting game to see if he would be answered.
Kevin felt his P.A.D.D. buzz and glanced down at his thigh pouch trying to think why it would be vibrating and slipping the Velcro flap to the side pulled his P.A.D.D. out and looked at the screen. Frowning, he noticed the Core system was sending out a second call signal as the first had gone unanswered, there was an incoming emergency signal from.scrolling down to the bottom Kevin saw the signal originated in the law firm Aaron retained in California. "Hold on a minute guys," getting up from the chair at the kitchen counter where he had been talking with Shoji and Ichiro, he made his way out to the plasma screen at the end of the dining hall and logged into the terminal off to one side and accepted the signal.
When the screen cleared from black to the picture of the conference room Kevin saw a man sitting at the table looking nervous, I wonder what now he thought, "Hello, I take it there is a reason you are contacting us right before supper. What has happened now that will piss Aaron off?"
Roger leaned back at the plain spoken young man that was standing in front of the pickup with a bare chest, with what looked like a formal dining room behind him, "Hopefully, it is nothing bad, I have the governors of California and Hawaii on the video link they say it is vital that they speak to his Majesty."
Kevin thought about it for a moment as he stared at the fidgeting man, "Link them up to this signal please," he would see if it was worth interrupting Aaron, he knew he was in the process of making babies for Andrew and Tyler so unless the world was ending, they would have to settle for him, tracing his fingers he started recording the proceedings so it could be posted on the system later for anyone in the city or Clan to watch.
Roger gulped before using the mouse to click several icons at the bottom of the screen and sat there as the image of the two state houses replaced him, he wondered what was going on and luckily for his curiosity, he would be able to listen in as he monitored the connection.
Bill looked up, as the screen flashed brightly to be replaced by what looked like a naked young man scowling into the room and in the back of his mind he wondered where the lad's clothes were, "Um.yes well, sorry to interrupt your swim time I guess but could you bring his Majesty to the screen it is vital we talk to him."
Kevin tilted his head and glanced over at Pete and Tommy who were busy cuddling near the hibiscus garden, "Is the world ending or are lives in danger?"
Bill was a little taken aback by the words the blond was asking and he was not sure what to say, "No, not that I know of, at least I hope not," he muttered as he wanted to flinch under the blond's stare.
"Aaron is involved in a medical procedure and if he stops there is a life involved, so I guess you are stuck with me," Kevin said slowly, as he noticed the people behind the two men looking at him curiously.
Kai had noticed the teen in question, if he was in fact a teen and not much older as the rumors whispered was very naked and it was obvious that he was trying to be accommodating, "Excuse me if I sound harsh, but could you identify yourself to us, so we know who we are dealing with, it is very possible that you could help us without bothering his Majesty, if not I would ask you to contact him telepathically after explaining what we are calling about."
"If needed, I could do that, though I doubt it comes to that," standing up straighter not knowing his pubes were being picked up in the video feed, "I am Kevin Stranton of Clan Stranton and I speak for the Clan."
Pete and Tommy, hearing Kevin say the ritual phrase, glanced over and saw him standing before the plasma and jumped up, making sure they did not have any incriminating wet marks on them they ported a pair of shorts out of their wardrobes and quickly got dressed.
Fuck, Bill thought, the last person that did that caused the state of New York to be invaded, sweat starting to bead up on his forehead, he cleared his throat as two other young men walked into the picture, at least these two had shorts on, his brain told him in its hysteria, "Yes, well I suppose you can handle it after all, mostly." Rambling he thought, I'm rambling, taking a deep breath he decided to blurt it out and hope for the best, "Yes well, by unanimous vote the three governing branches of the state of California, the legislative, the judicial and the governing have voted for secession from the United States government and herby petition to be a territory of the Alteran kingdom." There, he said it and hoped it did not sound as stupid to them as it did to his ears.
Kai smiled from his statehouse, "Aloha honored Clan representative, the State of Hawaii in a unanimous vote revokes the right of governing of our lands to the United States and hereby declares that it reverts once more to the Hawaiian throne and her Majesty begs the boon of being declared a territory of the Alteran Kingdom."
What the hell Kevin thought, as he glanced over his shoulder to see Pete and Tommy both were clueless, "What do we do now, guys," he asked mentally.
"This is going to break up the country, whether we accept or not," Tommy answered, as he looked at Pete and Kevin.
"Whatever we do you need to put some clothes on Kevin your pubes are probably showing on the pickups," Pete smiled as he pointed out the embarrassing situation to his lover.
Sending a picture to Pete of him blushing down to his toes Kevin glanced back at the monitor and tried to figure out how to get dressed now that it had all of a sudden gone so formal. Mind cataloging his closet he stopped at the over robes, those would do he thought as he held up his hand and ported the robes and caught them before they had a chance to fall and carefully donned them. Once he was suitably clothed, he stepped back several steps and caught out of the corner of his eye, Pete and Tommy following his lead and then the shocked looks on the faces in the plasma, "Together."
Smoothing his robes out, Tommy stepped up next to Kevin, "I am Tommy Stranton and I speak for Clan Stranton in this tribunal."
"Tribunal?" Pete pathed as he settled his robes and stepped up to the other side of Kevin.
"Well it was the only thing I could think of that sounded very official," Tommy sent a mental shrug.
"I am Pete Stranton of Clan Stranton and I speak for Clan Stranton in this tribunal," Pete mentally shrugged back, "Well it looks like they are impressed if the panic on their faces is anything to go by."
"So much for making it up as we go, let's just hope we get it right the first time," Kevin pathed as he tilted his head as he regarded the plasma as the picture of a debate class flashed in his mind and he smiled as he shared the thought. "I Kevin Stranton elder of Clan Stranton, I stand in judgment of this tribunal, the petitioners will be voted on separately."
Smiling at the shocked expression on all the faces Kevin looked thoughtful before speaking to Tommy and Pete, "The petitioner from California shall be examined first."
Pete pathed, "We need more information and the only way to get it is by porting to the side of the Governors and skimming the minds of everyone there, I'll handle California, who wants Hawaii?"
"I'll do it, Kevin chose the role of standing in judgment so LSB's Pete," Tommy smiled as he ported his LSB belt to his hand and touched the buckle to hide that it was a prop and ported out to the side of the Hawaiian governor, shocking him.
Pete following Tommy's lead ported his LSB to his hand then ported to the California state rotunda near the governor causing the man to jump back in fright.
Kevin stood impassive as he watched both of his lovers walk around their prospective state houses examining and skimming thoughts from everyone present, they were linked to his mind and he was getting the information at the same time as his lovers did, at the moment they were three bodies and one mind as they examined the petitioners.
Bill, being an old political hand was not easily intimidated, but having the young man walking around the room stopping every so often and gaze at those assembled, he was very intimidated, finally the young man stopped back at his starting point in the center of the room and gazed up towards the ceiling as if in thought. He was so involved in watching the young man in front of him that he missed when the other young man returned to Kevin's side.
Pete stopped staring at the ceiling, well to be correct he had contacted Security and asked to have two guards ported to his position and when the light show shimmered with their arrival, he turned around to look at the old senator, "Your plea on behalf of your grandson for Asylum is granted, Karl and Bruce will accompany you to the hospital and transport your grandson to Altair Trauma where he will be physically healed and then mentally healed. He then gazed at Karl and Bruce one last time before porting back to Kevin's side.
"The California petitioner has merit, but I argue for caution," Pete looked thoughtful as he sent the thoughts he skimmed from the justices and how they thought what they were doing was fifty / fifty depending on how you interpreted the state constitution.
"Clan Stranton recognizes the validity of the secession of the state of California and pledges our protection, we also order a state wide referendum to be held in on August 14th of the year 2004 TR, all adults over the age of sixteen with 2 valid proofs of identification shall vote on the petition, a positive majority vote will change your status from probationary to full territorial status with all the rights and responsibilities that come with such."
Frances, who was giddy with relief that his grandson would get help frowned, then he stood up and walked down so he could be seen and heard, "Does that mean we are not under Alteran jurisdiction then?"
"He is really broken up and incised over what the cops did to his grandson, we need to let him have some closure or he will self destruct and take a lot of people with him, plus it is the right thing to do," Pete told them mentally, as he stared at Kevin and Tommy.
Kevin looked at Tommy before saying anything and hearing the mental agreement smiled, "Listen very carefully to my words. Clan Stranton recognizes the former state of California has the right of self determination and the right of secession from the United States, as such, the logical conclusion is that California has the right to enact any set of laws for their people and the right to call in our help in enforcing them, as long as they are in line with our own."
Chief justice Alexander saw how confused the Senator was and the governor was not much better, and he quickly made his way down to the rotunda floor, "The independent state of California at this time announces that Alteran Law is the law of the land and requests the help of the Kingdom of Altare in enforcing a fair and just system for all."
Frances was shocked out of his deliberations over trying to find the hidden meaning of the young man's words, as the chief justice went to the heart of the matter, the young man's words had no hidden meaning one just had to listen, "Agreed."
Bill smiled and looked at the camera and smiled, "Agreed."
Kevin nodded with a smile, "So be it, so rules the tribunal on this day of August 8 the year 2004 TR." Looking at the plasma and the Hawaiian governor Kevin turned to Tommy, "We shall deal with the Hawaiian petitioner now."
"Hawaii is in a unique position as they never voted for statehood in the United States, they were not added legally, so by right of secession, they don't have the same hurdles to overcome that the California Petitioner has to overcome," Tommy smiled at the governor. "We have a legal petition from the rightful head of state before us and there is no reason for caution."
Kai was screaming yes in his head as he glanced back to the princess and smiled before returning his attention to the proceedings on the television.
Kevin was holding a mental conversation with Pete and Tommy, "Well what would Aaron do, do you think?"
"Edward." Aaron started to say before he was stopped by Edward's lips kissing him silent.
"I know Aaron, deep in my heart, I know what I have to do, and yes I know that my brother and cousin are already or going to be Clan, but in here," Edward held his hand over his heart, "in here, I feel that Is not good enough, I love you, all of you and you have taught me so much. By the time my son is king, the Crown laws will have been changed and my son can follow his heart and if he is gay, he can marry his love and together they can have a son."
Picking up Aaron's hands, Edward placed them on either side of his head, "I'm not making much sense, there is so much tied up with my feelings.scan me."
"Edward that will hurt you," Aaron moved his hands down and picked up Edward's head so he could look him n the eye and brushed his mind against Edwards, "would it be easier on you if we set you up with a lesbian and you could continue to be our lover after being married?"
"Please, you need to understand, how can I make you understand," Edward had tears in his eyes as he held onto Aaron.
"All I'm getting from you right now is emotions and needs and they are all jumbled up deep inside you, so I know this is important to you and I'm not rejecting you or the offer, but I need to know why," Aaron was as gentle with his words as he could be, as Edward grabbed Aaron's penis and played with it.
Sighing, but secure in the knowledge that Aaron was getting hard by his hand so he still loved him, Edward faced the plasma monitor to see his brother looking at him worriedly, "Andrew, I love you, whatever else, keep that in your heart and hold it close." Pointing up at the monitor, "your son gives you the right to have something I want badly, this is probably the only time I will ever regret being King, even when my first child is born and I have an heir, your son will be able to have something mine will be denied because of who we are and I am jealous."
Andrew did not know what to say so he hugged his brother instead and held him tight.
"I could handle living with the knowledge that I can never have what you will or even what your sons will have by right of being born as Clan, if one of my sons could have what yours does," Edward closed his eyes and held onto his brother as the tears flowed freely down his face.
Aaron glanced around the room in thought as Edward broke down in his brother's arms, he thought there were two separate things going on; one was the need to belong to the Clan, and the other was his upbringing and the damage done by his father; the question was what to do about it. Activating the workstation next to the empty incubator, Aaron went about putting together another collection set and screwed the collection container to the bottom of the tube, for now, he would collect several samples and place them in stasis, then later, he could work through the meltdown with Edward and they could come to a decision they both could live with.
Everything prepped, Aaron went back to Edward who was still hugging his brother, knelt down next to them and cleaned the end of Edward's half hard penis.
Feeling the cold wet touch on the end of his willie, Edward looked down and noticed the equipment in Aaron's hands and the sound of his breath being drawn in, in surprise, was quite loud.
Smiling up at Edward and meeting his eyes, Aaron hoped he was not leading him on, "No promises Edward, but for now and tomorrow, I am going to collect several samples of your sperm, and place them in stasis. We'll discuss everything fully over the next couple of weeks and see if we can't come up with a solution. Right now, all of us are going to make love to you until you fill the collection container, starting with your brother."
Andrew smiled at Aaron, and twisting Edward's lower half to the side, kissed his brother, not like a brother would, but like a lover kisses his lover with the passion and the comfort of long term lovers, causing Edward to rise to the occasion.
Once Edward was hard, Aaron slipped the collection tube over the end of Edward's penis, fastened the strap around his hips and stood up, "I promise, we will figure out something that works, Edward,"
Tim grabbed the lube off the counter and brought it over to the brothers and lubed Andrew up really slick before using his fingers to ready Edward's butt, surprisingly, Edward responded fast by turning around and offering his butt to his brother as he locked lips with Tim.
Edward came before Andrew did and his seed shot against the end of the collection cup as Andrew planted his seed deep inside him from the extra pressure applied to his penis as his brother shot his load.
Aaron smiled and kissed Tyler as he lubed up his hard cock, he would be next and as soon as Andrew stumbled back and slid out, Aaron helped guide Tyler into Edward and kissed Andrew. His mind was still trying to come up with an answer to a problem he was not sure where it came from, but maybe the knowledge of his seed stored in stasis would be enough.
Picking up another device of the workstation, Aaron decided to collect some cells for processing into eggs, that way all bases were covered and they would be safe in stasis for down the road, if they were needed. Moving over so the device was pressing against Edward's abdomen Aaron waited to activate it; he would activate it when Edward was in the middle of a climax just as he did for his brother.
Tim lubed up, as he noticed Tyler getting close, then as he stiffened he thrust hard and fast as he fired his seed deep inside Edward, Tim moved next to Tyler so he could enter Edward with the least amount of sperm leaking out.
Edward felt Tyler fire his load and the hard shots as he filled his ass caused him to plunge over the edge into his own orgasm, he never noticed when Aaron pushed the strange device hard into his abdomen and activated it.
Tyler was panting heavily as he slowly pulled out, trying to stay inside as much as he could as he moved to the side so Tim could replace him, sliding out and moving quickly, he smiled at the rush of hot white fluid leaking out of Edward's butt before Tim plunged his own hard erection into the hole stopping the escape.
While Tim was busy making wild love to Edward, Aaron changed the collection container with a new one and placed the device with the cell samples into the workstation and programmed the system to create X eggs from the collected cells and to process the sperm sample for stasis. Hearing a groaning from behind him, Aaron looked over his shoulder to see Edward stiffening in passion as another orgasm hit and seeing very little fluid in the collection container moved back and knelt long enough to remove the strap and tube thus freeing the angry cock before adding the container to the workstation to be processed.
Finished and the program running on automatic, Aaron went over and knelt down long enough to suck any of the last vestiges of Edward's sweet offering form the end of the hard erection before standing up and kissing the teen who was lost in animal passion. Hands roaming around Edward's aroused body as he kissed him he felt him stiffen again at the same time Tim groaned out, "I'm Cumming."
Glancing down to his hand that he put in front of Edward's erection, it was dry, seemed they had momentarily drained him, Smiling as Edward went limp, and his eyes rolled back as he passed out from sensory overload, "Stay in if you can Tim, let him expel you when you get soft. I think the three of you tired him out."
"What about you," Andrew pointed to Aaron's leaking erection.
"I'm fine, I can wait until tonight, I think Richard really wants to spend the night with me, so I'll save it for later," Aaron told him before kissing him and seeing Tim having problems and sandwiching Edward's limp body between the two of them glanced over at Tyler and Andrew, "I'm going to port Edward and Tim to my room, I'll rejoin you in a few minutes by the dining hall." Leaning around Edward's head, Aaron kissed Tim as he ported them to his room and helped lay Edward down on the bed without Tim slipping out, grabbing a towel from the bathroom he handed it to Tim and kissed him one more time, "I'll catch up with you at supper, love, think over if you want to wait like I said and think about who you want to be the other father."
Feeling pretty horny but knowing he had to wait until later tonight, Aaron let his shields down and heard Kevin ask Pete and Tommy 'What would Aaron do?' "What would I do in what?" he interrupted the conversation and sent his loves a mental kiss.
Walking out into the Clan Hall, Aaron saw the three that he had eavesdropped on standing near the end of the dining hall in formal over robes looking at the plasma, he wondered what happened now.
Seeing Aaron walk out of the house and towards them, Kevin sent a brief memory of what had happened so far, causing Aaron to stop and look at them in surprise, and asked him "Well what should we do about them then?"
"You've already set precedent with California, so go ahead," Aaron started walking again, moving so he would not be picked up by the video pickup, and would end up behind the plasma.
Kevin glanced one more time at Tommy and Pete, before looking at the nervous Politician, "we are in agreement, the free kingdom of Hawaii shall become a territory once they understand and ratify our laws, and acceptance along with tolerance for others will be expected."
"They should get some backup, Hawaii especially," Pete pointed out, moving his hand pointing to the governor of Hawaii while making the mental comment.
"Agreed," Aaron smiled from behind the plasma, "Send the Thor and Odin, Ares will be free tomorrow for patrols, at least I hope so."
Smiling at the cheers from the monitor, Tommy stepped forward, held up a hand and waited for the crowd to notice him and quiet down, at the same time Aaron extended his mic and activated it, "Thor, your Location, please."
Aboard the war cruiser Thor, Captain Sven Stebbins was relaxing in his ward room office going over training schedules allowing the Marines time to take over the sub fighters when he heard the whistle over the speakers from his mid shift bridge crew, "Sir his Majesty has requested our position." Tapping the desk for a moment Sven placed his finger over the touch sensor activating the intercom, "I'm on my way, alert the gestalt team."
Once the cheering stopped Tommy smiled at the pickup, "For your safety, the war cruiser Thor will arrive shortly to ensure that Hawaii remains an independent territory you have asked to be, once Captain Sven Stebbins arrives, have your leaders from the National Guard meet with him so they can get themselves up to speed with our procedures and resources. I understand that the largest U.S. naval base makes its home on your island nation, so we will have to make allowances." Tommy left unspoken that with the largest naval base on Hawaii, there was an awful lot of U.S. troops housed there that could be used to take back the island nation.
Pete looked at Governor Tides, "California also has a large naval contingent housed in your state, as such, the war cruiser Odin will make its way to the Alteran docks and stay there throughout the referendum, and he will ensure no force is used to sway the election process."
Kevin stepped forward, "Please meet with the captain of the appropriate war cruiser at your earliest convenience, the captain will act as your link to the kingdom until your territorial governments are in full control. Kevin Stranton of Clan Stranton ending this tribunal on this date of August 8 of the year 2004 TR," making a motion with his hand, Pete broke the connection and the three of them sagged in relief and started to pull their robes off, then Kevin looked over at Aaron, worried at overstepping their boundaries.
Smiling reassuringly, Aaron moved to the other side of the plasma and fingers tracing commands on the touch screen, he brought up a split screen of the bridges of both the Odin and Thor, looking in the pickup, Aaron smiled at the two captains who he had contacted a moment before, "Sven, Boris, something extraordinary just occurred that will change your patrol routes for now. Both the state of California and Hawaii have voted to secede from the United States government and have requested to join the kingdom of Altare as territories."
Chuckling at the shocked looks on his captains' faces Aaron grew serious, "Sven, your closer to Hawaii, I need you to port the Thor over and take up station keeping duties, Hawaii was never legally annexed as the fiftieth state, so they have been granted full territorial status, I expect the governor and the national guard commander will join you soon after you arrive to hammer out the details about the US Naval base, still on the island, use your Marines to clean up the local government and the local juvenile centers if you would, sometime before Monday."
Smiling at first as he listened to Aaron, Sven frowned as he realized the problems with COMSOPAC that would come into play, "Aaron what do you want me to do about the commander of south pacific fleet, he's based out of pearl harbor and I really don't see him taking this sitting down, so to speak."
Aaron thought for a moment, "Well, I know that they have a tendency to declare martial law and assume control, they did it in world war two, after all," glancing at Pete, "Pete, how long would it take you to replicate four dozen or so weapon drones?"
"Twenty, twenty five minutes, I think," Pete thought about it before looking around, it would require two Clan members unlocking the DNA lock outs to do a production run on weapons, "I'll need someone else with Core clearance to unlock the replicators for the production run." Already thinking about getting with Xon to create the replication command center here in the Clan hall, they needed to do it tonight and tomorrow instead of sometime next week.
Picking up on Pete's train of thought, Aaron smiled, "Grab Tommy here and I'll be by in a few minutes to port the drones to the Thor for you." Glancing back at the pickup as Pete and Tommy walked a little bit away before porting out. "Sven, four dozen weapons drones will be ported over shortly, once you've got them on board, if you need to deploy them to protect the legitimate government, do so."
Paying attention to the half of the screen with Odin's command deck on it, Aaron sighed, "Boris, while California voted to secede from the union, they have to go through a referendum and let the people vote on becoming one of our territories, so make your way to pier ninety and dock thirty three and hang out, your there more for back up, so the U.S. government does not try an end around. Don't take any crap off of anyone, but your position is in more of a gray area because of the upcoming vote, hopefully by your presence alone and maybe some training flights the vote will go off peacefully."
"Gentlemen, the United States is fracturing before our very eyes, and I will remind you of the racial histories; keep those in mind and if the need arises don't be afraid of putting the U.S. military down hard and fast," Aaron gave them their orders and waited for a moment for both to sign off before turning and dealing with the very unhappy lover standing next to him.
"Why the long face and the depressed feeling, Kevin?" Aaron pulled him into a hug and kissed him gently as Kevin laid his head on his shoulder and sighed.
"You're not mad at me for overstepping my bounds, I mean I agreed to take two countries under our wing so to speak, I'm not the king, you are," Kevin was working himself up as he got further upset because Aaron was not screaming at him.
Kissing him gently, Aaron brought Kevin into his mind so that there could not be any misunderstandings, "Love, you've nothing to be afraid of, you did what is right, Hawaii will make a wonderful territory to the kingdom, but California, I fear will never vote for joining us and you masterfully, between the three of you, made sure you left yourselves an out by requiring them to vote on it."
Relaxing, as Aaron's mind was laid open for him to look through, Kevin finally smiled when he found nothing but pride in his achievements so far, "Thanks, I was a little bit more than worried that you would be angry with me."
"Tell me this, everything you did and promised for those two governments, were you totally comfortable at the time you were deciding their fates. Was it only after you were finished that you started to second guess yourself?" Aaron pulled a chair over and sat down before pulling Kevin into his lap while waiting for an answer.
Sighing, Kevin leaned his head against Aaron, "It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, the only thing that would be fair, and Pete and Tommy helped."
Chuckling, Aaron kissed Kevin, "Being an adult sucks, doesn't it, well at times it does." Hugging Kevin one last time, Aaron nudged him to stand up, "Come on you can help me port over the drones to the Thor, then we can go meet up with Andrew and Edward's family for supper, if we hurry, we won't be late."
Pulling Kevin in tight to his body, Aaron kissed him as he brushed his mind against his lover's and ported them to the replication control room and after a moment when Kevin felt confident again, Aaron released him with a smile, made his way over to the gestalt chair and activated the gestalt as he sat down. Spotting the first set of Drones, Aaron pulled up the picture of Thor's hanger bay and sent the command to the core to activate the first dozen drones fusion generator's, upon seeing the activation was a success and the core had control, he ported the first dozen cradles and all to the Thor's hanger deck.
As the core activated the second dozen drones, Aaron felt a hand touch his and looking up, then down, he smiled as Kevin interwove his fingers with his and together they ported out the second group as the third group was finished being created.
Glancing over the top of the console, Pete noticed that the last of the drones were being ported out and started to place the system in hibernation before removing his bridge key, standing up and joining Tommy near Aaron and Kevin, "Have we done the right thing? After all, I don't think you ever planned on having to confront the U.S. so soon."
"I think the moment the timeline shifted like it did, it was inevitable, I'm surprised really, that we've lasted this long without a major military action," Aaron sighed, as the rest huddled close.
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that, not really," Kevin told him as he sat on the arm of the chair after picking Aaron's arm up to put in his lap so he did not sit on it.
Closing his eyes to gather his thoughts, Aaron lowered his shields some, so they could follow along, "Well, we have two new gifts listed that in the first timeline were only theorized about, Empathy and Precognition. Then we have the fact every single schedule and timeline we set up is being broken earlier than expected, hell Elswick was not supposed to be done for another two months, and we can start moving in the bio-tubes and equipment in three weeks."
Letting his fingers dance across the touch screen, Aaron brought up the figures on residents, and they all stared in shock, "Not to mention I don't think any of us ever thought we would reach over one hundred thousand of us for another couple of years. Rescues among gay youth in New York are about fifty thousand right now, what's going to happen when Californian's wake up tomorrow to find out what their government did and all the gay youth that are homeless or in trouble realize all they have to do is place a call or show up at one of the hospitals or police stations after we send our people through them."
Being careful not to dislodge Kevin or Pete from the chair arms, Aaron stood up, "The word is out, how many of the estimated one hundred and twenty million gay people are going to be knocking at our door by year's end? That doesn't even take into account the people that will be knocking on our door for the chance to move to another planet." Turning to face the three, Aaron smiled, "Well I think I should let Sven know the drones are on board and then we can go over to Altair and let Andrew tell his grandmother the good news."
Kevin being closest, pulled the terminal over and brought the connection up of the Thor's bridge and smiled as Sven jumped up in surprise, "Relax Captain, I just wanted you to know the drones are on board your ship and active, all you have to do to deploy them is for you and your second in command log into the system and it will be one of the new options under fire control, once the two of you unlock them they are available just like any of the other weapon systems."
Smiling, Sven saluted the pickup, "Tell Aaron we are preparing to port and will be on station in five minutes, now that the drones are on board, I'll contact you with an update in two hours, sooner if something happens.Thor out."
They all smiled as Sven started issuing orders before the plasma went blank. Getting up off the arm of the chair, Kevin walked over to the railing to stand next to Aaron, followed by Pete and Tommy as they stood silently and listened in as Aaron thought things out, finally glancing across the room to the clock, Aaron sighed before standing up straight, "Well Pete, I think you're going to get your wish, Monday morning Xon, you and I will be taking a trip to retrieve the space station, the only way we can keep ahead of the influx that is about to hit us is to open up the station and several planets. We need to have another Clan meeting tonight when we get back, do me a favor and quietly spread the word while we're eating to the others. We'd better get a move on or we'll be late and that will be taken notice of."
Closing his eyes for a moment, Aaron took a deep breath before opening them and plastering a smile on his face, if it were not for the fact that Aaron was still so open, they would not have even noticed the smile did not match the thoughts of their lover and anchor. Responding to the invitation of Aaron opening his arms, the three of them were pulled in tight and Aaron ported them over to the gardens outside the atrium on Altair.
Slowly raising the shield around his mind, so it would not be abrupt, Aaron smiling, laughed as they walked down the path towards the staff village, stopping a few minutes later in front of the guest house that had been prepared for the royals to use, walking in the open door, Aaron looked around and noticed that it was pretty quiet and as they walked in the living room, he smiled and waved at James. "Where's everyone, I thought we were doing dinner in," glancing over at the clock Aaron tilted his head back around, "five minutes or so."
"So true, and it leaves us barely enough time to get to the beach for the cookout my brother and sons talked us into doing," James smiled he rose from the couch and put his book down, "I was elected to stay and meet with you and to direct everyone to the beach, I say you chaps are the last and I was beginning to wonder."
"Yes, well you'll find out before or after dinner when I inform your mother, let's just leave it at this afternoon was a little more exciting than we wished or wanted it to be, " Aaron chuckled as he nudged his loves back the way they came and out of the house. While walking the path to the closest section of beach, Aaron glanced back at James, "So how has the mini vacation been so far?"
"I never truly realized how stressed mother and I were before today, we sat around most of the day and did nothing except walk around and explore, it was wonderful to be able to walk around and not worry about an aide walking in on you or the telephone ringing or even getting out of sight of your guard contingent," James sounded relaxed, causing Tommy to smile at Pete.
Walking out of the coconut tree line Aaron waved at the Clan as they were playing in the waves waiting for everyone to arrive as the grill was sending out trails of fragrant smoke that smelled faintly of steak.
Alfred placed a hand on his wife's arm and once he had her attention he pointed towards the path with the long meat fork, "I do believe the missing guests have arrived, dear."
Doing a quick head count as he approached the grill, Aaron looked around and spotting Tim called out, "Tim where's Ichiro and Shoji?"
Walking over so he did not have to yell, Tim pointed behind Aaron, "They should be here in a minute, they're bringing the desert from the kitchen," smiling as the two they were talking about walked out of the tree line Tim seeing that they were overloaded rushed over and took a couple of containers from Shoji and peaking inside as he went to the table to lay them out had his hand slapped after he set them down and reached in one of them sneakily, "Hey.what did you do that for?"
"Steaks ready, leave that for now, if you would love," Brain smiled as he pulled Tim away from the table as he winked at Ichiro who was grinning.
Pouting at Brian, Tim tried the puppy eyes which did not work, laughing, Brian told him, "Sorry Tim but I think your puppy expression grew up, you look more like a savage hound dog thinking of eating me."
Tim leered before holding his hands playfully in front of him, "hmmm eating you does sound nice," before chasing Brian towards the grills both of them laughing as they had fun.
Shortly before the meal was totally cleared away, Aaron smiled as Andrew and Tyler nervously approached Victoria and her husband, they were looking at him with hope in their expressions and after skimming their thoughts which was hard not to do as they were concentrating so hard on sending him the message, he broke the news, "Victoria.Alfred, I think your grandson wishes to tell you that you're going to be great grandparents."
Andrew skidded to a stop in horror at hearing Aaron announce so bluntly to his grandparents and his father that he and Tyler were going to have a son, turning red from embarrassment, Andrew glared at Aaron.
Chuckling, Aaron motioned for the two to come over, "Don't be embarrassed Andrew, your grandparents knew what was going to happen today, now they know it was successful." Reaching out to snag Andrew, Aaron pulled him close so he could hug him before releasing him into his grandmother's arms.
"Have the two of you picked out a name yet?" Victoria asked as she laughed at her grandson turning red again.
"We picked out several, but we have time as he is going to go in stasis in eight months or so for a couple of years, and by then we might change our minds about the name," Andrew kept his voice low as he was slightly out of sorts, he did not expect his grandparents or father to be so happy about it, even though he knew they knew he and Tyler were going to conceive a son this weekend, he had expected.well he was not sure what he expected other than the party like happiness they were showing right now.
Aaron laughed after Andrew and Tyler made their escape. "I think they were expecting something quite different with the announcement, though why all of a sudden they became nervous and shy about the whole thing is beyond me."
"I think it has to do with the sex factor, I noticed you lot don't seem to have a problem talking about sex in the slightest, where we, on the other hand, really don't bother talking about it much at all," James leaned forward and not being able to see Aaron's face, stood and moved his chair around so he was facing his parents and Aaron. "I overheard a conversation between your Damien and Kenny about what they were going to do and how.or should I say what positions would work, once they noticed me, instead of being embarrassed, they just said hello and went back to their discussion as if I was not even there."
That sounds like my Kenny, Aaron thought, "Have any of you checked in with home since Friday? I am wondering what if any the rumors and feedback is on what we did to New York."
Victoria got serious switching into work mode, "Frankly, you have several countries in Europe and the Middle East scared shitless."
"MOTHER." James sat back, shocked at his mother's language.
"Really James, just because I don't normally swear, does not mean I don't know how to," Victoria smiled inside as she looked at her first born. "For the most part, several of the stuffy conservatives and those hangers on that are still trying to roll back my rule so they are in control once more, stopped and took notice. As far as the people go, most of them were shocked, and outraged that your students were attacked by the police, there have been calls of having our own constabulary scanned by telepaths from the public. And I suppose I will have to have a position once I return home tomorrow, I was surprised on one level that Sid didn't retaliate at least verbally, for him to make an announcement that was to all intents supporting your invasion sent shockwaves around the world. I expect he has it all planned out to the minute when he will petition the return of New York and how he plans to spin it so it is a positive thing for his administration, I just hope it does not come back on him."
Aaron closed his eyes and sighed as he rubbed them, "It already came back to bite him in the ass a couple of hours ago, I expect it will be worldwide news in the morning when the story breaks." Opening his eyes and staring at Victoria and catching Edward listening in motioned him over, once he was sitting on the ground leaning against his father's legs Aaron told them what happened, "About three hours ago the State of Hawaii and California voted for secession from the union, after the vote they contacted us petitioning to become an Alteran territory."
"Bullock's." James uttered and seeing his mother give him the look, "Yes mother I know but in this case there is no other word as descriptive, now is there? I bet you were thinking along those lines anyway." Looking at Aaron, James noticed Edward was concentrating, deep in thought, "What was your answer to them, then?"
"Kevin, along with Tommy and Pete held a tribunal when the request came in, I was busy creating your grandson," Aaron looked over at Andrew and Tyler playing tag with some of the children from families at the hospital, "After several days of nothing but death or unpleasantness, it was and is wonderful to look forward to the future and new life." Smiling softly he turned back, "The bottom line is that Hawaii was never legally annexed properly, so they were immediately recognized as being independent and given territorial status as soon as they ratify our laws, the war cruiser Thor is now protecting the islands which should cause a stir. California, on the other hand, will have to hold a vote this coming Friday, I don't hold much hope that the people will vote for territorial status, I rather think they will vote to stay independent and ask to ally themselves with us as you did."
"Oh dear, the military on Hawaii is not going to like that, I doubt they wait for word from Washington before reacting," Victoria looked at the ocean as she thought about implications, and remembering her childhood stories told to her by her parents of what the war was like.
"Well, let's hope that they learned the lesson over New York, as the Thor is prepared to take steps, it has a full complement of the WD758's on board and the Thor's Captain will use them at the first sign of trouble, I imagine he already has bugged the base and is listening in right now to conversations searching for clues." Aaron smiled at Shoji as he approached, holding a container, "Hello Shoji I noticed you guarding that container all during supper what have you created then?"
Shoji smiled nervously as he offered the contents of the container to Aaron, "Death by Chocolate in a cookie form with a twist I think."
Taking one of the offered cookies Aaron held it up and looked it over before sniffing it and tasting it, it was nicely soft and chewy just like he liked his cookies, analyzing the texture and flavors he searched his memory for ingredients before laughing as Shoji offered the cookies to everyone else, "you've been walking in the experimental groves I see," taking another bite of the cookie Aaron smiled as he came up with a list of possible ingredients, seeing the expectant look on Shoji's face he smiled at him and pulled him over for a hug and conveniently snatched the container before releasing a grinning Shoji, "I think I'll just keep these for now, and good job, they are quite tasty."
"I agree if these were large and served alongside some ice cream they would be very popular as a desert course in restaurants," Edward smiled as the teen beamed from the praise and tried to snag another cookie only to have his hand slapped by Aaron.
"None of that now, these are mine, if you want more you are going to have to ask Shoji what it will take," Aaron laughed at the pout that crossed Edward's face.
After a promise to talk about the recipe later, Shoji returned to the group smiling and every telepath could feel the pride in his accomplishments he was radiating as they congratulated him, Aaron turned back to the discussion at hand, but had a thought and pathed Xon and Pete, "Can the transporter relay be fined tuned so it only dematerializes inorganic matter when it collects raw matter for the replicator?"
"I think so, at least I don't see why not," Pete pathed the return answer as he stopped what he was doing and moved over to the side out of the way and looked at Xon.
Xon stopped his conversation with several of the adults mid explanation, "Excuse me I have been asked a question I must research the answer to," seeing the confusion he tapped the side of his head, "by the King just now, we are telepaths, one of the residents can further expand on my answer if you ask, I must go now as duty requires me to leave."
Walking towards Pete, Xon entered the mental conversation, "I believe it may be possible, of course the Confederation systems do not have the fine control that Alteran computers have, may I ask the parameters you wish the collectors to observe?"
"I was wondering if we could use the collectors to remove all the militaries equipment without harming the soldiers, if the military on Hawaii would go on full alert and try to retake the islands, I want to know if we could dematerialize all their equipment and just leave the soldiers behind, I think that would solve the invasion problem and give us another less than lethal option in our arsenal," Aaron had his eyes closed now and was ignoring the looks from everyone.
Pete sent an image of a bunch of soldiers running across the field suddenly stopping quite naked looking shocked, laughing out loud he sent to everyone, "Clan meeting in thirty minutes, that way Xon and I can do a little bit of research first."
Aaron smiled at some of the visitors shocked looks as several of the Clan ported out in a shower of sparkles, before standing, "I think we might have come up with a less than lethal way to deal with the American military, I believe we will call it a night and I thank you Alfred for grilling supper for us and I will talk to you right before lunch tomorrow unless something comes up." glancing down at Edward, "Edward do you want to stay here for a while longer and have the watch officer port you back or do you want to come back now, let me warn you there is going to be a Clan meeting right when we get back so you would be on your own for a little bit until we get finished."
"I'll stay for a bit longer I think we all need to talk about dealing with some reactionaries back home anyway, I will plan to port over in about an hour then," Edward smiled as he stood up so they could go back to the house and talk.
Waving good bye, Aaron scanned the crowd to make sure no one was left and then ported back to the Clan Hall and waved at Shoji and Ichiro who were undressing and he picked up that Shoji was very excited from the praise, Ichiro was oddly radiating satisfaction and he wondered what that was all about as he walked towards the entrance to make his way to the common room for the meeting.
Standing at the railing and looking down into the common room, Aaron did a quick head count and was slightly surprised to count seventeen heads, glancing at the faces he noticed that Tyler and Andrew were in attendance so that is why there were several extra he thought after remembering that Richard was now Clan, not that he forgot really. Spotting Kevin, Pete and Xon near the terminal he wondered if they finished up their research, starting down the stairs he noticed them break up and head for the couch, must have come to some conclusion he thought. Almost all the way down the steps, Aaron sat down and leaned back slightly against the rail, "I see we're all here, Xon, I saw that you, Pete and Kevin had your heads together when I came in did you find a way to fine tune the collectors?"
"Indeed we did, the Confederation already has the ability to tune the transporters to certain objects, it was not much of a leap to fine tune the collectors, as they already target inorganics during the collection phase at the landfills. Kevin was able to easily fine tune the programming to filter out and ignore living tissue;" Xon sounded smug, "the programming is in place and incorporated into the standard programming and can only be overridden now from the Core without your DNA to keep the system from being used as a weapon, it was burned into the modules of all stations using the, I tell you three times programming."
Smiling, "Well done then, all of you," Aaron then looked at Pete and Xon for a moment, "I hate to do this to you, but I need both of you to build the replicator suite on the Reliant tomorrow, I need it up and running before Monday morning, the reliant and crew including Xon, Pete, of course and I will be going and maybe a few more of the Clan if they so wish, no more than half of us can be off planet at one time. I expect we will be back by noon.anyway those I named will be joining me as I go retrieve the SO001 from Centauri."
Pete jumped up from the couch and started yelling and jumping in excitement, "Yes.Yes.yes. alright.yahoo."
Laughing Aaron pointed to Pete, "Someone would think he is excited or something." Bracing himself for the teen's leap into his arms, Aaron protected his crotch and Pete's head as he settled him in his lap, "Well, I can see you like the idea," sighing he faced the rest of the group, "Once again fate seems to be conspiring against us, in my original estimates, I had us retrieving the SO001 and colonizing Centauri two years from now, I figured we would have a quarter million Alteran's and be pretty well set, now as of tomorrow we will have a population of close to one hundred thousand and once Hawaii and California come on line that number could double very quickly."
"One of the biggest hurdles we need to overcome in the next couple of weeks is altering all the new recruits, because of the shape some of the rescued are in, the hospital here on Altare and the trauma center are both maxed out, patient wise, and I have a feeling when the news breaks tomorrow in California in the morning, we could end up with another three to four thousand patients by Monday night." Aaron placed his hands under Pete's legs and as he stood up he held Pete close and walked down the stairs as if holding Pete's crotch as an offering to the guys he walked past to get to the couch so he could sit down.
"How are we going to handle all the new patients then, if we are full now and we bring more in, we might have problems making them wait turns to get healed, not only that, but if all we are doing is healing people, we can't make them Alteran's," Brian wondered as he looked around the room to see if anyone had any idea's.
"That is the main reason I am bringing the SO001 over, well, besides the fact that it can house a quarter million people itself, it has a disaster med bay that can handle upwards of twenty thousand patients," Aaron looked lost for a moment as he recounted the true reason of the SO series gestalt stations. "The step off platform was designed for one thing, and one thing only. Bugging out from a hostile Earth, so there are a quarter million bedrooms which for a short trip could be seriously crowded, and the med bay can handle ten thousand bio-tubes and the same amount of bio-beds. I suppose I should name it instead of using its designation all the time, but the station was altered to be used as a gestalt platform so we could port to all the other worlds as we wanted, but deep down, it is nothing more than a planetary escape boat."
"How many could you cram on the life boat then?" Kevin wanted to know as he thought about the city, "What about Altare would that just be abandoned, seems like a waste."
Shivering as he got lost in memories for a moment, Aaron clamped down on his mind and smiled, "Now the kingdom would turn into its own life boat everything inside our shield could be transported into near Earth space and then ported to Centauri. Why dont we leave the depressing thoughts about why some of these vessels and toys were made and get to the less painful things we can use them for," Aaron diverted the conversation though it did not go unnoticed by anyone. "Right, so how long will it take to install a replicator suite in the Reliant?"
"Six point three standard hours," Xon replied as he moved closer to Aaron to comfort him.
"Alrighty, before we break up and I head off to the replicator station with Xon and Pete to fiddle with a few things, does anyone have any other issues to bring up, besides what we talked about here and Hawaii and California or New York," Aaron looked at his lovers, "I hate to say it but the U.S. is fracturing and as much as I don't want to and it's not our job, we might have to think about picking up the pieces."
"Should I cancel the trip to Japan to meet with Toshi and his friends then?" Kevin scooted forward on the couch to see if any of them that were going on the trip would be unhappy at not going.
"I don't see why you can't still go, the only thing that has changed is what I am doing tomorrow along with Xon for a short time, and even then, he can go with you guys if he was planning on it, after all, the team Pete and he were training to run the replicator on the Reliant can install it just as easily as he can," Aaron smiled as Kevin relaxed before telling all of them, "Look guys, just because the Americans had to go and have a crisis does not mean we have to drop everything and respond, after all, it is not a crisis of our making, plus we have people that are more than willing to help out and we don't have to do everything ourselves you know."
"Now there are two things left to do tonight and one of them I can't do but one of the Clan should be there, I need a volunteer to go to the hidden temple and meet the first of the Shaolin and make nice for a bit, and then several people need to be on hand in the part of the city the Shaolin will be moving to," Aaron told them as he stood up and picked Pete up like he did on the walk over, bouncing him up and down several times while holding Pete's thighs he grinned and not whispering, "Well, I think I found a new position to try out, so many possibilities don't you think?"
Laughing as Pete leaned back into his chest and, "Great, now I'm all hard and horny as hell thinking about it."
Kenny stood up and walked over stopping in front of Pete and Aaron, bent over and looked at Pete's butt and then to where Aaron's crotch was, "Perfect height," he giggled before jumping back as Aaron put Pete's legs on the floor so he could stand on his own. "I'll go, I went there before, so they already know me and maybe I can meet some of the apprentices while the others are porting here."
"I'll meet them with Aiden as some of the Shaolin might have questions about how things work here compared to the temple," Fred smiled as he stood up and grabbed Kenny from behind and tickled him.
Mark looked at Brain and Tommy and stood up, "I'll go and keep an eye on Kenny, I wanted to talk to the Shaolin farmers so we can get an idea about what we need to do to harvest what they already have planted and a timeframe."
"Alrighty, I hope we can get this down and all of us back by ten, so we can have time to ourselves, Richard, I know the two of us were supposed to go topside to the hot spring, so if I'm not back by the time you decide to go to bed, snuggle up in my bed and we can either do it first thing in the morning or I can wake you if it's not too late and you'll get your wish tonight. How's that sound to you?" Aaron smiled as he walked towards Richard and leaned down and kissed him as his hand fell into Richard's lap and teased him so he was very hard before he let go of Richard's lips. Glancing down at the very hard cock leaking just a little, Aaron brought his eyes up and saw the glazed look on Richard's face and smirked, his job was done, now to go do what needed to be done, the sooner it was done and over with, the sooner he could finish what he started.
Walking up the stairs side by side with Xon and Pete, Aaron ported the three of them to the replicator command center; as soon as they reached his office, sitting down on the end station, Aaron logged in and brought the plasma to life and got ready to contact Sven on the Thor. "Can we set this up so its automatic, I mean once the collectors are released, can the system automatically design the dense matter bricks and have the lifts or something move them out of the way, or will we have to have someone in here manning the console at all times?"
Xon who had brought up his section of the console had been inputting commands into the system so that the replicator station next to this one would start to build the replicator suite as a single unit that could be ported into the hanger bay aboard the Reliant and secured in place, the possibility had come to him after porting out of the Clan Hall, plus he thought it would be a good test of the concept of the molecular bonder built into the replicator system, if it worked on the small scale test platform, they would be able to build a full size working unit.
Satisfied that the system would build the unit, as he envisioned it, Xon heard the question and gave it thought when Pete did not answer, "It should be possible to automate the system and have it send an alert to us if activated. I installed tractor beam technology on the far side of this units replicator pad so we could more easily move the dense matter bricks into the storage area. I shall set the parameters now, so if the system is activated, all three of us are notified."
Pete finished setting up the production cycle for the collectors, started to replicate them and as each was replicated, he synched it into the system and watched the diagnostics until he had eleven of them synched in and the system reached maximum, "Well, we can only handle eleven at one time, so the question is will that be enough or should we tie another replicator suite into the loop so we can double the collectors, how much area do we have to cover?"
"How about you create another eleven collectors and once we are, if we are alerted we can quickly synch them up if needed, in fact have them stored in the sub assembler replicator suite for now and if we need to activate it we have the large replicator suite ready to go," Aaron smiled as he finished the connection and brought up the bridge of the Thor on the main plasma, "Good evening has Sven gone off duty already?"
Waiting for the answer, Aaron tied into the Thor's net so he could call up the SE110 net and pick placement for the collectors, porting the hovering array's one at a time, he smiled as he waited for Sven to connect as the bridge officer reported the strange Alteran technology being ported into place, "You can designate those nifty new arrays as MCA001, and in a moment your weapons officer should find the option on his station to activate them."
"Aaron you really need to start giving these new inventions to someone else to name," Sven smiled as he walked on the bridge, sitting down in his chair he looked up at the plasma, "What is an MCA001 and what the hell do the numbers mean?"
Laughing, Aaron finished porting the last array and settled back in his chair, "Have you been following along with the replicator information as it's been posted to the system?"
"Yes I have, and I have been wondering when we'll get the system installed on the Thor," Sven sat forward eagerly and added in for good measure, "just in case it was not obvious, that was a heavy hint there guys."
Aaron laughed while Pete giggled, "Maybe soon, if your nice and send lots of chocolate. Now back to your question," Aaron sat up and became all business like, "The MCA001 stands for Mass Collector Array version 001, those arrays will dematerialize matter so our replicators can create new whatever. Xon and Pete tweaked them at my nudging and those arrays you just received can be deployed as your first line of offense if the military decides to try to do a takeover. I'm afraid that the troops will not be too terrifying as they go past their base and all inorganic matter disappears, I think it is hard to be terrifying when your naked ass is bouncing off the ground."
Sven looked at Aaron and his giggling team of mad scientists for a moment, wide eyed before the image he was building in his mind hit him and he laughed, wiping away the tears from laughing so hard, Sven sat up in his command chair, "Your evil you know that don't you, Gods above but the image of the Americans getting road rash on their bare asses as they go skidding through the gates is priceless."
"Captain, fire control has the new option to deploy the collectors."
"Thank you, Dillon," facing Aaron again, Sven looked thoughtful; "I suppose by using this non lethal line of offense first, it will give cooler heads time to reflect before we have to deploy the drones." Shifting in his seat, "I should let you know that it has been pretty quiet so far, though it's only been ten minutes since the government made their announcement, so old iron ass hasn't had much of a chance to respond yet. What surprises me is that he hasn't made mention or a fuss at us being here yet, it could be because we surfaced at the opposite end of the island, we only surfaced long enough for our meeting and then submerged and I had the Thor moved to a point it would be very obvious we were here when we surfaced, the general of the national guard suggested our current location actually."
"Well, if you have to activate the collectors we'll be notified automatically, more so we can make sure any of the dense matter bricks that are created are moved properly, don't want any of that free material going to waste," Aaron laughed, "I'll check back in with you in the morning, unless you need me sooner, hopefully you have an uneventful night." After saying goodbye, Aaron signed off and leaned back in thought as he noticed the command console was slaved into another section and looked at the monitor and smiled at Xon, "I see you found a way to shave time off your estimate."
Smiling shyly and unnoticed by him, Xon stood up, "I decided that a fully functioning unit could be created and ported to the hanger bay with no loss of time, it should be possible to have the install finished in point five hours if we establish the replication suite in the main hanger bay, the advantage of having such a large space to install the new design in was logical." Placing a hand on Pete's face as he walked by, Xon looked at Aaron, "I find that spending my rest day in pursuits other than that of relaxation and mating to be illogical, this way ensures that we may have the time to ourselves as originally planned."
"Sorry to interrupt Mr. President, but there are two situations brewing that need your immediate attention," The secret service agent leaned over the President's shoulder and whispered into his ear.
Editors section:
RadioRanchers Musings: Gee, I wonder what could possibly be happening that might need the president's attention? I also wonder what kind of plans Aaron has to help Edward? Let's face it there are a lot of things going on in this story. I am well and truly hooked!
Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher
A/N:
Yes well I have been nominated as king of the evil foreshadowing, I mean really, they tried to tell me it was cliffhangers. But as everyone knows cliffhangers don't last but a chapter or two.foreshadowing on the other hand