Teep

Smiling as they appeared high above the Earth, Aaron closed his eyes and snuggled into Richard as he let his fingers send the generators to standby and released the link with his lovers.

Kenny, feeling his brother go limp, looked up and noticed all the older guys, those that had done the work teleporting, looked tired, jumping up, he ran for the small bar and the refrigerator full of energy drinks, grabbing a handful of the energy drinks, Kenny rushed back and handed them out as he cracked open the top and put it to his brothers lips, "David, drink this, it will make you feel better."

Richard opened the drink container and nudged Aaron as he sat up with the energy drink, seeing him open his eyes and smile at him, he stopped and looked around, everyone else was frantically trying to get the others to drink and Aaron seemed unaffected, "Um you might need this and then maybe you need to look at everyone else as the guys are going spare over them being so tired."

Sitting up suddenly, Aaron looked around and frowned, what the hell, he thought. Swinging his legs over the side of the recliner he stood up and pulled his scanner out of its pouch and stopping next to Derrick, did a quick scan and not seeing anything physically wrong, tapped Derrick on the leg, rather hard, causing him to sit up in shock, "Sorry about that, must have dozed off, I was wrapped in this feeling of being totally and completely loved I nodded off."

Tousling Pat's hair Aaron smiled, "That's okay, Pat brought you something to drink, have a go at it while I wake the rest of the guys up."

Stopping at Kenny's side next, Aaron sat down and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, hold on Kenny," Aaron comforted him when he felt the worry rolling off of him, "Nothing is wrong, other than your brother fell asleep, like I did with Derrick; you just need to wake him up." Leaning over, Aaron whispered in David's ear. "Love, it's time to wake up," getting a mumble back that sounded like just another minute as David rolled over, Aaron grinned at Kenny and shouted, "DAVID.if you don't get your butt off the recliner and wake up this instant, you will never feel another one of us inside you ever again."

David in a happy dream heard something or someone telling him time to wake up, not really wanting to leave the happy warm place right now, he rolled over. That is until his warm and happy dreamland turned into a nightmare as this voice boomed across the mental dreamscape telling him he would never ever be a bottom if he did not wake up. Jumping up and dislodging Kenny, causing him to tumble to the floor, David looked around in panic, hearing the giggling from his brother and Aaron, "That was not very nice, I felt loved and wanted and did not want it to end. Glancing at his brother, David chuckled at seeing him on his butt on the floor wet from having the drink spill all over him, "Sorry Kenny," giggling madly, he reached down and pulled Kenny to his feet and licked the side of his face, "MMM Cherry."

"Hey." Kenny danced back out of the way, "This was yours, but for scaring me like that I think Aaron needs it more, he can have my Cherry," he grinned impishly as he went over to Aaron and handed him the container in between his fits of laughter.

Kissing Kenny in between chuckles, Aaron took the container and drank it in one go before glancing around; it seemed the other two had been woken by Xon gently, but it looked like Pete had resisted so he got honked hard by Damien who was busy being chased by Pete. Laughing, Aaron glanced up and saw the clock blink out and then come back to life with the local time while the other eleven digital clocks came to life and listed the day and time on them for the other stations as they too came to full activation. "Calm down Pete, anyway it's time to go eat lunch, moving so he could gather Richard up, he motioned Damien over, "Alright you two, I want you to pay close attention as I port us back to the Clan Hall, I'm going to slow it down so you can feel what I'm doing."

Arriving in the Clan Hall, Aaron kissed Damien and Richard soundly before patting their butts, well okay, he groped them a time or two, but hey, they were his lovers. Smiling, Aaron covered the frown as he noticed Ichiro and Shoji, he would have to deal with them after lunch, they acted like hired help or serfs half the time, this was going to be one conversation that was going to be tricky, he thought, then he had to release Edward, that is if Fred hadn't done so already. Seeing Fred smiling at him as he ran across the lawn from the gestalt point, it did not look like he had released him, "Hey Fred, you look happy; how about after lunch helping me release Edward?"

Jumping up into Aaron's arms, Fred laughed before kissing him and hanging on, "Sounds good to me, I practiced all morning learning to intubate and even got to help out and do several of the rescued teens being brought in, so I'm good to go now."

Laughing, Aaron twirled around as he held onto Fred, "Congratulations Love, you're one step closer to kicking me out of my office, now."

Landing on his feet laughing, Fred kissed Aaron one more time as he put an arm around him and they walked together towards the buffet, "By the way, we have a birthday party to go to tonight in the main dining hall, one of the new kids from the Yin Kong," whispering as they got in line, "Actually, it is one of the boys who was straight and asked to be altered Darren Knight is what he changed his name to."

Kevin overhearing the conversation moved closer as he filled his plate, "Actually, we could have a birthday every night this week easily, several on Friday and eight on Saturday. Doug already ordered the gifts from the Clan and I think he has them wrapped, Aiden and I were talking about this the other day." Looking at Aaron, he giggled as he saw he had two plates full to overflowing, one in each hand, "He suggested that those that actually do the rescue be in charge of giving that little extra gift in person and maybe as a clan we could just stop and wish them a happy birthday, that way we don't get overwhelmed, the amount of rescues is going up by a staggering amount."

Setting his plates down, Aaron saw an arm reach over and add a third plate to his pile, turning, he smiled at Shoji who had placed a plate of his favorite mixed vegetable next to his meal he leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, causing him to go all red and blush, "Thank you Shoji, I appreciate what you do for us." Holding back his laughter as the embarrassed teen bowed and moved back before practically running back to the kitchen, Aaron sighed.

"Those two need to be altered, Shoji worships the ground you walk on and Ichiro is so in awe of you it's not funny, I hid behind some trees the other day as he and some of the Shaolin taught some of the youngsters how to paint in the park, he's real good with kids and mostly happy," Fred whispered as he sat down and bugged out his eyes at the three plates full of food in front of Aaron, "Well, we know you're going to be here for a while at least."

Laughing with his eyes Aaron used his chopsticks to pluck a shrimp from Fred's plate and pop it into his mouth to Fred's yell of outrage, "HEY that was MINE!!!"

Laughing, Kevin did not see Fred smirk at him and stab one of the shrimp off of his plate until he was munching on it.

"I'll get with Doug later and make sure I have a list of those birthdays of anyone under the age of.nah maybe I better just get a list of all birthdays, I can spend a moment recording a personal message to all of them and check up on their tutor scores or career plans and maybe nudge them in the right direction, towards a mentor if that is what they want." Smiling as he finished off the first plate, Aaron glanced at Fred's plate and laughed when Fred responded by brandishing his fork over his food. "Aiden sounds like he has everything under control, I think I need to invite him, Drew and Eric to lunch one day this week so they can hear it from my own mind how pleased I am with them."

Kevin noticing several old Shaolin porting in tilted his head and grinned when Ichiro quickly got up and went over and greeted them, steering them to the steam tables and placing empty plates in their hands when they tried to gently dissuade the young man. What was truly surprising was the fact that the Shaolin were almost completely naked with only a bit of cloth and jewelry to identify them.

Not looking behind him, Aaron smiled at Kevin, "Greetings Shaolin, please sit, you will have to excuse me but it is lunch time and I am enjoying the delights created by Shoji and Ichiro."

"How?" Kevin let out as the Shaolin bowed slightly and sat down at the table with them and greeted each of them.

"You honor us, thank you for including us in your meal." The elder Shaolin smiled and bowed his head as he caught the pile of plates in front of Aaron and his eyes widened.

Laughing, Aaron used his chopsticks as a pointer, "If you have the flaw fixed so you can access your gifts, you too will eat more in one sitting than you dreamed you ever could." Seeing their disbelief, Aaron smiled back, "Trust me we expend energy at times, faster than we can take it in, it might not seem like it, but using our gifts burns up a tremendous amount of calories."

One of the younger Shaolin, the healer asked, "Is that why the sickness you call breakthrough was so devastating, we were not feeding the children enough?"

Nodding his head, Aaron swallowed, "The main reason really, as a teen enters the second stage of puberty, and the hormones trigger the unlocking of the gifts, the first sign of oncoming breakthrough is being sore, more so than the day to day activity would warrant."

Smiling as he looked at Damien, "The only thing to do is to push as many calories and nutrients into the patients as possible, have you been informed of the red containers and the energy bars yet?" Aaron switched tracks, causing the Shaolin healer to shift before nodding, "Good, then If you look over to Damien, he's the one at the table to the right, the one with black hair, laughing."

Seeing the Shaolin nod after finding Damien, Aaron continued, "Damien underwent breakthrough last week, at one point, he was eating those energy bars, three and four at a time, that was after eating a full meal, finally, he was hurting too much and sick, so we placed him in a bio-tube to finish the last couple of days of breakthrough without pain, if we hadn't, most likely the next morning he would have looked at food as if it was a curse, in the old days, we would have given him something so he would sleep for the next two or three days and he would have woken up feeling better and with his gifts unlocked. Somewhere in time, you lost that bit of knowledge, the Core has the chronicles ready to be viewed and I'll do that tonight after supper so I'll know for sure what happened, I'll make most of it available to you to view after I've worked through it."

"We thank you, Prime," the Shaolin healer bowed as he sampled the meal in front of him.

"There were several pressing issues we wished to address with you today, so forgive us for intruding, Prime," the elder Shaolin bowed, then looked at Shoji and Ichiro, "This is very good, thank you."

"As a group we wish to move to the station you brought over, we can learn what needs to be learned while serving as support staff and with the help of young Drew we noticed the hospital there is the most immense one in existence, we can spilt up our duties so after several weeks, we can move to the other station and man it while the rest of us live and man the Farm while living on Prime." The Shaolin elder smiled, "If one is old like I am, they can sense what is not spoken, we as a race will be moving there, and the Clan has already made known the plans to move the temples including all the livestock and groves in some strange advanced manner we do not know of yet, but some of us will learn so we may help in the future."

"Our healers wish to start studying with your healers, one hundred and fifty of us are ready to start working side by side in the med bay," the younger Shaolin who had asked about the breakthrough sickness smiled, "I think you will find our skills equal with most of your residents, we only need seasoning with the new equipment and possibly some study on new ideas."

Mostly finished with lunch, Aaron smiled and pulled Ichiro down for a kiss on the cheek as he placed a plate with the six leftover shrimp in front of him, "Thank you Ichiro." Leaving off embarrassing Ichiro further, Aaron laughed as he saw Fred had stabbed two of the shrimp of the plate and was munching on them. "Hey now, I only stole one off of your plate," Aaron chuckled missing Kevin snitching two shrimp also and popping them in his mouth with a grin, looking back at the plate he pouted when he noticed only two shrimp left and stabbed them with his chopstick as he glared playfully at Kevin, "I never stole any of your shrimp."

Finishing the shrimp, Aaron stacked his dishes, "Let's start with your senior healers, we will get them trained, they in turn can train up the rest, they can spend the next couple of days working side by side with my people and we will team the surgeons up with Theo on Altair Minor, we're filling the trauma center on Altair Minor, well actually the rescued teens and boys are taking up over half the beds over there and the sooner we get your healers trained up, the sooner we can move them all up to Sol Station and the med bays up there. I'll meet your teams at the med bay around four if that will work for you," smiling as he watched the young Shaolin nod his head with a smile, Aaron felt his pleasure.

"How long until all the Shaolin are moved from the hidden valley temple?" Aaron thought about what was going on and started to plan things in his mind.

"Tomorrow morning before lunch, prime," the elder smiled at how efficient they had been.

"Tentatively we will do a quantum scan of the temple and surrounds on Wednesday, after that we will remove the temple, and fields soon afterwards that day, if at all possible for relocation to Altare Prime." Aaron closed his eyes for a moment as he planned things out, "Okay, what we will do, over the next week, is to repair the DNA strings of as many Shaolin as we can, starting with the masters and working our way down, once you're comfortable and have mastered your gifts, we will, towards the end of next week, start moving you to Altare Prime and getting you settled in. By then, the temple will have been moved and all the livestock and crops that need looking after will be settled, I think we can have all of you moved in and comfortable with your gifts in a couple of weeks, after that, I intend to start funneling people to Altare Prime after we rescue them and they have gone through alteration, they will need the stability the move will offer them to restart their lives."

Glancing at the rest of the Clan who had gathered around, "No one that has not been altered will ever enter the Centauri system, those we rescue that do not want to join us will be moved to one of the other colony worlds." Aaron pulled out his P.A.D.D. and brought up a list of jobs and descriptions that needed to be covered on board the stations and downloaded them onto a chip before handing it over to the elder, "All the possible jobs on the stations and fleet, along with their descriptions are on this chip, the Shaolin can chose what interests them and get further training." Cocking his head to the side as the elder took it from his hand, "One of the things that is not on that chip and probably should be is teachers, and you might want to keep that in mind, those that can teach self defense or even the arts will be needed to help give those we rescue the self confidence they need."

"We have seen a rapid increase of requests to learn to defend themselves from those that have been rescued over the past week," the Shaolin elder smiled, "we of course will honor such requests, we will also work as you request to install a sense of self worth and the means of defending themselves. Enough masters have volunteered to make sure there will be classes in all places those rescued will dwell."

Aaron glanced over at the med bay as he thought things through, "We need to start running the Shaolin through the med bay for DNA mapping and to get a baseline of each person's health, I think that would be very good practice for your healers," Sighing, Aaron picked up his dishes as he stood up "You, of course are welcome here in the Clan Hall as long as you like," glancing at the young healer, "Or even join me as I release another young man from the bio-tube after being healed."

The elder Shaolin stood up, "We shall not take up any more of your time Prime; the senior healers will meet with you outside the med bay as requested," bowing slightly the Shaolin started to walk away and then he stopped and looked around, "Prime would you deign to point us to the portation area so we may get back to the city," the elder smiled, "I look forward to being able to handle this myself, it is a strange feeling to know I must rely on others for my transportation."

Aaron turned around while in the door to the kitchen at the request and smiled and would have waved is his hands were they not full, as Tim volunteered to port them to the city. Quickly going over to the sink, Aaron washed his dishes and placed them in the draining rack before making his way to the med bay.

Walking into the med bay, Aaron spotted Fred happily checking through the reports for Edward, "Ready for this Fred?" Smiling, Aaron came up behind him and hugged him tight and whispered in his ear, "The first thing you do, before releasing someone, is to make sure all sectors are reporting green, meaning he is healed. After that, you need to finalize the information in the system, in effect you are closing the patients treatment file until needed again, to do this, go to the lower left hand corner and tap options, then you want to chose prep for release." Releasing Fred so he could do as he instructed, Aaron watched on proudly as Fred let his fingers move across the touchpad confidently.

Finished, Fred noticed the screen change and a flashing option appeared on the touchpad, "It's given me the option to activate the release cycle, should I tap it then?"

Moving to the other side of the bio-tube, Aaron glanced inside at Edward, "Go ahead, once the option to release your patient appears, it's only a matter of activating the release cycle and undoing all the equipment, the thing to remember is to always turn off the soma unit last. Well, let me back up a minute," Aaron smiled as Fred was watching him and the bio-tube as it emptied. "The first thing to do, when the bio-tube opens, is to remove the ET Tube, once the breathing tube is released, you wait a moment or three to make sure that the patient is not one of the one in a hundred thousand that has their throat start to swell up from the tubes intrusion. After the breathing tube is removed, you can then remove the waste tube, followed by the IV cuff and then the chest sensor and finally turn the soma unit off and remove the temple sensor, leaving waking the patient up as the last step."

Fred nodded as Aaron listed the steps he needed to go through, stepping to the end of the bio-tube as the lid unsealed and slid back, Fred looked at the tube coming out of Edward's mouth, "Well when I practiced intubating, there was a small device used to inflate the balloon to keep it in place, but what do you use to pop the balloon, I don't remember ever seeing you use something to do that or even scissors?"

"Good catch, that tells me you're thinking things through, instead of parroting the information you've studied," Aaron was very pleased, "I designed these tubes to have a breakaway inflator ring, go ahead and unhook the ventilator and you'll be able to twist the ring at the top and you'll hear a click, and if you had your ear next to the top you would hear a small faint hiss. Once the ring clicks, wait a count of two and then very gently pull the tube out until you see the blue line and then you can finish by pulling it out rather on the fast side so the patient does not gag."

Fred reached over and unhooked the ventilator and put his ear near the tube and listened as Edward's breath sounded funny coming through the tube, glancing at Aaron and seeing him smile, Fred reached for the top ring and twisted it around until he heard the click, not hearing the faint hiss he glanced at Aaron who nodded before standing back up and gently pulling the tube out with two fingers of his other hand on Edward's voice box, he had learned that little trick from Gordon, it let him know the tube was inflated correctly when he felt the balloon move against the voice box when he jiggled the tube. Not feeling anything he continued to pull until he saw the blue line then yanked the tube the rest of the way out of Edward's throat and stepped back a moment when Edward seemed to choke for a second

Eyeing up Edward, Fred looked at Aaron, "Okay, how do you tell if your patient is having trouble breathing or his throat is swelling, nothing sounds odd yet?"

"There are several ways, the residents of course will check the monitor and watch it closely for any sign of the BIOX level dropping or any warning alerts. Those with more experience will count the patient's breaths and make sure they are even and there is no discoloring of the lips, one thing you can watch out for is if the patient is having trouble breathing they will almost always twitch their head slightly as their breathing becomes uneven. Edward has passed through the danger zone just fine," Aaron smiled as Fred glanced first at the monitor and then stared at Edward's chest and mouth, "It will take a little practice, now that you know the trick before you can keep doing other things as you watch from rebound."

Fred nodded once, reached over and twisted the end of the waste tube before gently pulling it out, laying it to the side, he leaned over and listened for a minute to Edward's breathing, ear above his mouth before smiling, "If the patient is going to suffer from rebound, could you hear it, like the tutor states you can, as a whistling?"

Watching Fred remove the IV cuff, Aaron answered as Fred pulled off the chest sensor causing the monitor to go black, "Truthfully, the only time that really works is if there is absolute silence in the room."

Fred filed that away as he looked around and found the cover to the soma unit and flipped the cover up so he could turn the key to the off position, once he had, he reached over and pulled the sensor off of Edward's temple. Looking at Aaron and seeing he was occupied, it looked like he was having a pathed conversation, Fred leaned over and kissed Edward before pinching him hard on the arm.

Edward woke with a start and grabbed his arm as he sat up almost jumping out of the bio-tube, "Hey that hurt what the hell did you do that for?"

Fred glared, "That was for scaring me half to death yesterday. Come on you need to get out of the bio-tube so I can start the cleansing cycle," Fred stepped back and smiled at Edward, "Plus, you need a shower so we can get you home before the rest of your family worries themselves to death."

Pulling his legs up, Edward started to swing around and it hit him and he started to panic slightly "Why was I in the bio-tube, did something happen that I don't remember?"

Finished with his conversation, Aaron smiled as he moved over and sat down next to Edward and hugged him, "Yes it did, after our talk yesterday, you were drained, so while you rested, I thought I would place you on the bio-bed to get your physical out of the way, and a good thing I did too, as we found a small aneurism in your brain, had we not fixed it, well, it would have given you a lot of problems later on in life." Glancing sideways, Aaron watched Edward deal with the news, so many things piling up on top of each other he thought. Seeing Richard followed by the Lee brothers rounding the bend, Aaron hugged him tight one more time, "Tell you what, give me a couple of days to think about what we discussed yesterday, and to see what I can come up with that will work for everyone, don't give up hope yet.okay?"

Smiling up at Richard, "Hey Richard, Edward here needs a shower and to get dressed so I can take him home," winking at him, "Why don't you give him a hand."

Chuckling as Richard dragged his older cousin out of the med bay, Aaron watched them until they were out of sight before turning to look at Shoji and Ichiro, catching movement out of the corner of his eye he pathed, "Fred, come back in a few minutes, these two are going to be altered, or at least I hope so, you can practice some more then."

Sliding down off the top of the bio-tube, Aaron moved away and hit the activation key for the cleansing cycle and motioned for the Lee brothers to follow him over to the desk, sat down on the edge and faced the two of them, examining them, Aaron let his mind brush the outskirts of theirs and skimmed their thoughts, "You've been here a couple of weeks now, how do you like it so far, any problems?"

"I am learning so much and everyone likes my cooking," Shoji beamed as he moved closer as he glanced back at his brother who was looking slightly scared.

Panic gripped Ichiro, he could not move, he was afraid they were going to be sent away, afraid he was going to be sent away, "Have we done something to offend you," whispering in fear, "are you going to send us away, are you going to send me away for not living up to expectations."

Ichiro was trembling in fear, seeing that, Aaron stood up and pulled him close and hugged him tight to his body, sitting down, Aaron held Ichiro in his lap as he watched Shoji look on shocked. Aaron motioned him over and had him sit down, leaning up against him, "No one is getting sent anywhere, I checked your tutor results and you have done well enough to graduate the outsiders high school, which makes me happy." Holding the trembling teen close, Aaron comforted him, "You're a great painter and I hear a very good teacher, very patient with the young ones, making them feel good about their attempts."

Reaching down, Aaron let his hand run through Shoji's hair and felt him practically purr at his touch, "I was wondering why neither of you have said anything about becoming Alterans, I was hoping that you liked being with us enough that you wanted to be part of our race." Holding Ichiro tight, "I thought I would come out and ask, do you wish to be Alteran?"

Smiling, as he felt Shoji nod his head against his leg, Aaron watched and listened to Ichiro and started to get suspicious and tried to think of a way to test his theory, leaning over, he let his hand caress Shoji's face, "Shoji, please stand and face us, I need to see your smile as I ask you this."

Chuckling as Shoji jumped up grinning ear to ear, Aaron smiled as he pulled Ichiro's face into his chest and adjusted the teen's body so he would end up laying on him, "I need you to answer me from the heart Shoji, and I need you to say it, do you want to be Alteran, don't look at your brother as it is not his decision, this is something only you can tell me do you want this?"

Nodding his head Shoji looked at his brother, "Yes, but I."

Aaron cut him off, "That is all I needed to hear Shoji, Ichiro needs to make the same decision and it needs to be from his heart." Smiling, Aaron picked up the thought out of Shoji's surface thoughts that who would take care of his brother's needs if he wasn't around and he was worried, "Relax, Shoji, nothing will change, well you will be able to get around under your own power, you'll still live with us and have a job cooking for us and with me, you belong with us." Whispering in Ichiro's ear, too low for Shoji to hear, "You belong to us.to me."

Feeling a rush of emotions from Ichiro, hope, love, need, an overwhelming need to be owned, Aaron had his suspicions and they were just proven correct, Ichiro was a submissive, spending the last little while skimming his mind, he realized he was more submissive than Derrick, where Derrick was only submissive in the bedroom, Ichiro was the ultimate submissive. Which meant his contacting them for help all those weeks ago was something of an extraordinary cry for help.

"Hey Fred, good timing, can you get Shoji prepped for alteration, while I finish up with Ichiro." Smiling as he held Ichiro close, Fred nodded with a smile and walked over to one of the empty bio-tubes and activated it. "Place him to sleep as soon as possible, and then wait for me, he doesn't need to see his brother like this."

"Hop up here Shoji and swing your legs around so they are inside," patting the empty bio-tube, Fred smiled, 'I'm glad you finally decided to join us, so much of the universe will open up to you now, my friend." Picking up the gel, Fred cleaned Shoji's temple and grinned back at him as he placed it and activated the soma unit, placing Shoji in deep sleep. Turning around, Fred walked over to Aaron and stared at Ichiro a moment, trying to figure out what was going on, "He's out, what's wrong with Ichiro?"

Sighing, Aaron looked at Fred not smiling, "I discovered something about our young artist here, something his brother might not understand and would take the wrong way I think, at least until it is broken to him the right way, and without his brother present." Petting Ichiro's head, Aaron looked away for a moment before nodding, at least for now he thought it would have to be this way. "You see, I discovered Ichiro is a submissive and unlike Derrick, he is a total submissive, aren't you my pet."

Fred stepped back in shock at Aaron's words, "Aaron what the hell?" pathing the demand for an answer as he stared at Aaron.

"He is a total submissive, Fred, total, he needs to be owned to be happy and to thrive and since we are the ones who took him from his old owners after killing them, it is up to us to replace them and love him until we either accept him ourselves, or find him someone who will, and we overlooked this possibility." Aaron closed his eyes as he mentally answered Fred and sent his discomfort over what he had to do, "I hate this, but it has to be done."

"Ichiro," Aaron called his name forcefully as he lifted the teen's face off his chest and made him look at him, "Ichiro, I want you to stand up, face me and get yourself very hard for me."

Ichiro smiled and stood up quickly and his hand flashed down to his soft penis and started to stroke it as Aaron stood up and examined him from all angles, Ichiro felt complete now that he was being ordered around again.

Aaron looked at Fred as he stared on in confusion and sent him his suspicions and then the conformation he had found by dipping in Ichiro's mind, seeing the dawning realization on Fred's face, he finally told him, "skim his mind, love, if nothing else would prove it, read his mind as I do what I have to, to make him stable, we can work later on making him more like Derrick."

Seeing that Ichiro was hard and leaking slightly, Aaron moved close and his hand snapped out and captured his face and gently pulled him around so he was looking in his eyes, "You are mine Ichiro," stepping close so he was inches away, Aaron reached down and gently but firmly grabbed his erection, "this belongs to me, and through me, the Clan."

Tracing a finger, capturing some of the pre-cum gushing out the end of the hard five and a half inches, Aaron used it to lube his finger up and with unshed tears in his eyes, put his finger between Ichiro's butt cheeks and without love or caring, pushed his slick finger deep into Ichiro causing him to moan in pleasure, "This belongs to me and through me the Clan Ichiro, leaning forward, Aaron kissed Ichiro aggressively and felt the release of emotion from the teen, and knew he had it right, Ichiro felt whole and complete and for some strange reason like he truly was loved and understood. "This belongs to me and the Clan, you're ours now Ichiro, you belong to us now."

Turning Ichiro around, Aaron pushed him towards Fred, "Climb in the empty bio-tube, Ichiro, you are going to be altered." Once Ichiro's back was to him, Aaron let the tears flow freely, he felt dirty, to use someone as a thing like that to enslave them to another's will left him sick. Dropping to his knees, he sobbed quietly as he felt the happiness and satisfaction being screamed form Ichiro's mind, when his mind was cut off, Aaron knew Fred had induced sleep.

"I would gladly kill the son of a bitch that called himself Ichiro's father!!! To make someone that dependant on being owned, that submissive is a crime against nature," Aaron sobbed, as the rest of the Clan started to run into the med bay after feeling Aaron's distress.

Being hugged from all sides, Aaron finally got a hold of himself, after several minutes, he wiped his eyes and sighed, "Too bad that fucker is dead, right now I could gladly torture him for what he did, you all need to know what happened and why," he sent the last, right before linking with all of them, giving all of them the memories from the moment Shoji and Ichiro entered the med bay.

Standing up, Aaron slowly and with each step moving faster towards the bio-tube that had Ichiro in it, he stopped behind Ichiro's head, "I'm going to try something here, it all depends on how deep the damage is, Fred, monitor Ichiro's vitals for me, if his brain starts to get unstable, interrupt me. Xon should have the mental discipline to break through to me," Aaron told them, as he stared at Xon until he nodded his head. Placing his hands on either side of Ichiro's head, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and said a short prayer to the universe and the winds for good measure that this would work.

Xon moved forward and placed a hand near Aaron's head and reached out with his mind, "Fascinating, Aaron is attempting to restructure Ichiro's personality profile."

"That sounds dangerous and uncomfortable," Kevin wondered morally if he was okay with it, on the one hand, owning someone would destroy Aaron, on the other, it felt like the lesser of two evils in a way, glancing around, he slumped admitting Tommy's words were true.

"If this was anyone but Aaron doing this, well I would be the first to stop them, but this might be the only way to undo the damage done to Ichiro. Trust Aaron guys, he would NOT do this lightly," Tommy told them, as he looked down at Ichiro.

"His heart rate just jumped," Fred sounded slightly worried, Pete thought as he watched helplessly.

Seeing sweat start to bead up on Aaron's face, Fred pulled his scanner out of its pouch and started to run a scan on their lover, "Holy Shit, he's burning calories at a fantastic rate, what the hell is he doing that needs so much fuel," Fred was in awe and worried.

Hearing voices, Kevin turned around and quickly blocked the entry, Richard and Edward were returning and Richard looked concerned, "Hey guys, hey Edward ready to go home?" seeing Edward all dressed, Kevin gently nudged him back out of the med bay, "Let me get one of the security team to get you back, Edward, Aaron is a little busy doing an emergency medical procedure." Throwing his arm around Edward's shoulder he neatly diverted both teens from the med bay and headed for the security office.

Ten minutes later, Richard and Kevin walked back in the med bay to see Aaron still doing whatever he was doing and the rest of the guys looking more worried than before he left, glancing around and seeing the river of sweat running down Aaron's body, Kevin was about to call a halt to whatever the hell was going on when Aaron gave one final gasp and let go.

"It's done." Aaron swayed as he released his hold and started to collapse.

"Grab him.Xon, get him on the bio-bed," Fred ordered, as he took control, rushing to Aaron's side he squirted the sterilizing gel on Aaron's arm, chest and head and not bothering with gauze he used his hand to rub it in before hooking up the equipment and activating the scan. Hearing mutters and questions he threw his hand up in the air for quiet and studied the readouts, "He'll be fine, well at least from whatever he did, on the other hand, after beating the shit out of him for scaring me to death, it might take a few days to fix," Fred half laughed half sobbed in relief.

Giving the system several commands to push nutrients into Aaron, Fred walked over to the cooler and pulled out an unopened box of energy donuts and handed them to Xon, "He'll probably need to eat all of these when he wakes up in a few minutes." Muttering as he walked back to Shoji to finish prepping him, Kevin smiled as he heard him say something about "He'd better have a damned good explanation".

Sealing the bio-tube Fred was slightly surprised to see he had clearance to activate the resequencing cycle and locked it in, before moving over to Ichiro and he stared down at him for several long moments before picking up what he needed and quickly intubating him. He was just finishing activating the alteration cycle when the nutrients and sugar finally kicked in and Aaron woke up. Walking over to the bio-bed, Fred slammed his hand down on the bed startling Aaron, "What the fuck did you do and why?"

Shoving the second half of the donut in his mouth, Aaron chewed it quickly before swallowing, sighing he felt real fear behind the anger directed at him from Fred, "I'm sorry Fred, for scaring you, I guess you could call what I did micro surgery, I, for lack of words made Ichiro so he was more like Derrick, and erased that little ownership ritual from his mind to boot, when he wakes up, he'll be better, he'll still be a submissive, there was no getting around that, but I was able to fix enough of the damage his father did to him so he won't have this need to be owned.he won't be an ultimate submissive anymore. I don't think I could have lived with myself if I had to own him just to help him."

David gasped in shock, he had been doing a lot of research on submissive's, after all he needed to know exactly how to treat and love Derrick, "Drop it Fred, if he was an ultimate submissive, he would have eventually died, the wrong word would have caused him to kill himself or even to will himself to death," using his eyes to plead with Fred, "I'll give you the studies done on ultimate submissive's, but trust me, if Aaron was able to fix Ichiro so he wasn't one any more, it was worth every drop of sweat and every damn one of those things he is stuffing in his face."

Fred stared at David and nodded finally, David had said that with such conviction and horror that he believed him, "Fine, but no using your gifts until you replace all the weight you just burned off and no porting or telekinesis either." Waggling his finger at Aaron he smirked, "If I find you've not followed my orders, there will be no nookie for you for two weeks!"

Grabbing the fourth donut out of the box, Aaron looked around the room in horror as everyone agreed with Fred, "I've created a monster!" reaching up, Aaron palmed the sensor, removing it before sitting up and looking over his shoulder at the monitor, "Did someone take Edward home?"

"I had Friedrich take Edward home, why are you moving around?" Kevin moved forward and sat on the edge of the bed and glared at Aaron.

"Because I need to do things, and I can't reach the terminal lying like this," Aaron relayed, as he sat up, scooted over so he could reach the terminal and let his fingers move around the touch screen administering nanite's and specialized nutrients and replenishing his fluids. Seeing the glares, he sighed, "Look not a single person in this Kingdom is qualified to do what I am now, I also have a lot of experience self medicating while I lived by myself and I got hurt. As much as it warms my heart that all of you care this much, I need to do this or I could be out of commission for weeks." Not looking at his lovers, Aaron activated another scan and read the results before finally pointing to the screen and the empty GI tract, "All that lovely food gone, look at that and I know for a fact there was no leftovers."

"Fascinating," Xon moved closer as he examining the screen, "If I had not watched you consume the large volume of food one point five hours ago, I would swear you had never eaten anything in your life by seeing this screen."

Laughing, Aaron pulled the chest sensor off and removed the IV cuff, "I tell people we have an incredible metabolism, but I think no one ever believed me, truly believed me." Standing and stretching, Aaron moved over and pulled Fred into a hug, "Thank you, but I will be fine, I agree to take it easy for a couple of days which means all of you are going to need to take turns porting me around." Stomach letting out a loud growl he laughed again, "I'm off to the kitchens and a meal or three. After that, one of you needs to come with me, we need to port over to the palace, I need to meet with the queen and have a private talk with Edward, before he has another meltdown."

Feeling Fred stiffen in his arms, Aaron kissed him, "Fred it has to be done, I am not about to go through what I did with Ichiro and end up doing something similar to Edward because you think I overstretched and did not go to Edward when he needs help." Sighing, Aaron pulled Fred around, "Look Fred, I don't even have to read your mind to know this upsets you, but I have certain duties I HAVE to do, and if spending time with Edward keeps me from having to do something like this again, so be it. I also need to talk over the arrival of Sol Station with the Victoria, the fallout about it and the Reliant arriving, well I need to plan around it so I don't end up having to invade or destroy a country. After that, I have the meeting with the Shaolin which should take about half an hour and then the hug patrol topside and the party tonight. Simply put, I have things to do that can't be easily put off."

Seeing and feeling Fred's disapproval, Aaron sighed, "I truly am sorry Fred, but this is what comes with being King." Kissing him gently as he finally nodded, Aaron smiled, "Tomorrow is another day, I don't think I have anything that can't be moved back except the hug duty and the birthday party we need to stop by for tomorrow after supper so plan on me being around in the Clan Hall all day."

"Promise?" Fred sounded lost and Aaron noticed how a few of the others were upset as well.

"Barring an invasion or a calamity that I would be needed in the hospital to treat patients, I promise," Aaron smiled, trying to cheer Fred up, "Hey, I won't lie to you even to make you feel better, all I can do is say I will do everything in my power to stay here unless lives are on the line.as I would expect you to if the roles were reversed."

Stomach rumbling again, Aaron smiled as he hugged as many of his lovers as he could before making his way towards the kitchen, of course he was not expecting to be left alone which was a good thing as everyone followed him and stared at him as he ate a sandwich or four.

"What do we do with Ichiro now?" Tim looked around the kitchen, meeting the rest of the Clan's eyes as Aaron ate, "I mean we have a responsibility to make sure he is going to be okay, after all, we took him into our home, in a way I am the one responsible for him being cast adrift."

Aaron put his sandwich down and stared at Tim, trying to figure out how in the hell he thought he could be responsible, "Tim." he said slowly until Tim looked at him and he stared at him, "Love, you are not responsible, if anyone is responsible it was the bastard you convicted. We really had no way to know Ichiro was like this, remember, he hid it well for the most part. If I had not been looking for both of their reactions by skimming their minds, even I would not have found out about him, it's not like I routinely scan every person I meet here in our kingdom."

Moving around the counter and pulling Tim into a hug, Aaron smiled at the rest of the Clan, "We found out about Ichiro and we've dealt with it, let's move on, and your right, what do we do with him, after all, you said it, we brought him into our home." Releasing Tim, Aaron waved his hand, "Sure at first it was until we could get him settled and make sure he wouldn't do anything drastic, after while though, we just accepted him, almost like we accept the security detachment that lives at the other end of the Clan compound. If anything we should be upset that we made so light of both Shoji and Ichiro, after all in a sense, they were trapped up here with us and we left them hanging."

"But I told Ichiro he would never be Clan, at least until he changed the way he looked at things. I made a right mess of that, he can never change needing us the way I denied him, so what do we do?" Tim asked, from under Aaron's arm before turning around so he was facing the rest of the guys.

Richard looked around at everyone as they thought things through and stepped forward, "Well.I mean," sighing he looked away as everyone was staring at him intently, "Aaron.you told us that only four people would ever be with the Clan in a sexual way without becoming members, well three of them are going to become members so do we have to count them, I mean yeah Andrew has not become Clan yet, but he is and Tyler will be released from the alteration cycle tonight and I already was altered, so do we have to count the three of us, cant we add Ichiro, like Edward he will never be Clan but yet he can get what he needs from us."

"That is taking a very literal world view from my or our comments though," Aaron thought about it as he cleaned up his dishes and wiped down the counter.

Reaching over and grabbing David's hand Derrick looked seriously at Aaron, "there are others out there that could and would be to Ichiro what the Clan is to me, being a submissive the Clan has shown me that I don't have to be anything but myself. The love and support all of you have given me, has let me deal with being a submissive, realizing that for me at least." Derrick faltered as he tried to put into words what he was feeling. Sighing and gaining strength as David squeezed his hand, "I am submissive only in regards to sex now, and only to those that are my lovers, all of you in the Clan. The safety you have given me has allowed me to find myself and grow as a person into one that is sane and happy."

Pulling Derrick over David kissed him, "In a way we have a lot invested in Ichiro, and I'm not sure that I would be comfortable handing him over to anther dominant, just because he will never be Clan." Shrugging his shoulders as he looked at Aaron, "He's ours, Tim brought him here after rescuing him." smiling at Tim, "As he should have. But we, all of us," he waved his hand around the room, "never sent him down to the city, instead we anchored him and his brother here and made him ours to watch out for," pleading with his eyes David stared at Aaron, "HE'S OURS."

Aaron glanced around the room at everyone's expressions, "Alright let's table this until tomorrow so everyone can really think things through, there are two parts to this as Richard pointed out, if we do this, that means in the future, there is the possibility of letting two others in our beds without joining the Clan." Intending to get dressed so they could leave, Aaron smiled at Kevin and looked at Tim as he walked towards the door, "Before any of you think David could handle another sub with my help, I think you should know, Ichiro already has a fixation on you Tim," cocking his head as he thought about it, "Beside's me, he is also fixated on you Xon for some reason, so if you can't live up to being a dominant, where he is concerned, this whole discussion is moot."

Kissing Kevin and smiling over at Fred and pulling him into a hug with a huge grin on his face, "Well Mr. Healer, Sir, since you grounded me, you'll just have to help Kevin out, porting me around, so hop to it, time to get dressed, guys." Giggling at the look on Fred's face, Aaron walked out of the dining area and crossed the lawn, entering the house.

Ten minutes later, Aaron smiled as he walked out of his bathroom fully dressed and found Fred sitting on his bed already dressed, sitting next to him on the bed as they both watched Kevin dress in the closet, Aaron kept sneaking glances at Fred before finally placing and arm around his lovers shoulder, "What's wrong, Fred?"

Leaning into Aaron, Fred placed his head on Aaron's shoulder, "I was really scared, then I was mad and upset and wanting you to do things my way, a way that would make sure you did not take any chances, but if you did what I wanted, then what about the others out there like me that would never get rescued, that would never be given the chance to dream and belong like I do, like we do now." Looking up at Aaron, Fred looked so sad, "I'm sorry."

"There is nothing to be sorry for, Fred, when someone you love is hurt or you think they need to be protected, instinct tells you to protect them, what you have to do is to remember that you control your instincts, not the other way around," Aaron pulled him into a hug as Kevin hopped on one foot putting his shoes on, placing his head against Fred's he whispered, "I love you Fred," pulling Fred tight again before releasing him as Kevin walked out of the closet ready to go, "I'll try to remember in the future to explain things a little more thoroughly, so you don't worry so much, I have this nasty habit of forgetting, not everyone thinks things through in the manner I do, so they don't know what I'm doing."

Smirking at the thought that popped up in his head as Richard walked in dressed for the trip, "You know, maybe the two of you need to shag Edward silly while I'm talking to his grandmother, Richard and I can keep his family busy long enough for you guys to tire him out, I mean really, these outsiders get tired after a measly four times." Laughing, Aaron stood up and pulled Fred up from the bed as all three of them walked over to Richard, "I mean really, where's this so called staying power of youth that everyone talks about."

Giggling, Fred looked at Kevin and winked, "I'm in for at least three times, how about you?"

Laughing, Kevin shook his head and grabbed Richard who was making moaning and slurping noises in between laughs and messed up his hair, "Do you have any idea what to do about Edward's situation?"

"No clue," Aaron shrugged as they entered his office and Kevin brought the gestalt generator online, "The only thing I can think of is to either find him a lesbian to marry, and they both live closeted lives or building him a cyborg woman to marry, and eventually having her have an accident and using the incubators so he can have kids."

Sitting down in the chair and drawing power to replace his reserves, Aaron thought things through out loud, "The problem is what he really wants more than anything is to be Alteran, but if he goes though the process and is altered, well he is going to be the monarch of another kingdom, not part of ours."

Nudging Aaron's legs apart Richard moved between them so he could sit on one of Aaron's legs and asked, "Is there a law or something that says if a person is altered they have to be part of the kingdom that they have to stay here?"

Searching his memory, "I don't think so," Aaron looked up at the ceiling, "But is it fair to Edward or even us if we alter him and in a sense tell him he can't really be part of us. Or that he can be part of our lives but only like he is now, on the weekends, doesn't he deserve around the clock love and support. I can tell you from experience that waking up alone each morning is not something you can get used to."

"Maybe what we need to do is find Edward a Tyler of his own, except when they have children we give them the offer to become Alteran's," Kevin threw that idea out for discussion.

"I know the way Edward thinks, the only way that will work is if we take his memories away of his love of us, are you really willing to do that, look at what it could do to him." Richard looked at Kevin sadly, "What he found here with the clan is what makes him the leader he is going to be; how can we take that from him, he'd be in misery."

"That is NOT an option," Aaron stood up, offering the gestalt power to Kevin, "This is another issue that will not be decided right now without some thought, and some research in the Core over on Altare Prime, to see if anything like this came up before and what they decided to do." Glancing at the serious faces, "Not that I'm going to rely on what they did, its more that I want to know what issues they considered before making their decision, before I make mine. If I agree to alter Edward, I would want to make sure it would not come back to bite us in the ass down the road and have your family devastated over this, right now, Edward is only asking that we take the samples that I harvested and use them to create a son of the Clan, so he feels he belongs to us. We'll figure something out he can not only live with but embrace, just not this week."

Smiling, Aaron motioned to Kevin, "Alrighty, time to make some security guards change their shorts," laughing, he smirked, "My kind sir, if you would, the front entrance to the palace is looking a little boring right now."

Giggling madly, Kevin smiled as he pulled power into himself as the others reached over and touched him, "Operation startle, in three."

A moment later the four of them disappeared in a shower of shimmering sparkles.

Editors section:

RadioRanchers Musings: My goodness, I certainly hope they find a way to help Edward. I think I might have said that before, of well, so be it. They were my words, so I'm not plagiarizing anything. I am glad that Ichiro will be happier. I wonder how long it will be before the Shaolin will have their DNA repaired so they can come into their gifts?

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher