"Working hard I see," Kevin laughed as he entered the office Aaron had taken over as his, on Sol Station, sitting down on the arm of his lover's Chair, he leaned over and kissed him, before looking up at the monitor while nuzzling Aaron's neck.
Laughing, Aaron playfully swatted Kevin before pulling him onto his lap and kissing him soundly, "Insatiable...just the way I like my lovers." Grinning as he gazed down into Kevin's eyes, "So what brings you up here instead of down in the Core, placing it in hibernation mode?"
Silently cursing the clothes they were both wearing, keeping him from being able to play with Aaron while he curled up in his lap, "Well, that's the thing, I've been checking," Kevin sighed, "we can't place the Core back into hibernation, not if we want to keep running both crèche's and all the hospitals. We need the computing power of a fully awake Core to handle everything we've started."
Thinking it over, trying to see the problem and not finding any, Aaron shrugged, "Okay, well as long as the direct link is up and running to Altare Prime, I guess it doesn't matter, it's not like anyone can gain access to the Core, anyway."
Kenny, along with Brian, walked into Aaron's office, Kenny seeing feet sticking up in the air separate from Aaron screamed out, "Orgy..." before breaking into giggles as Kevin lifted his head and pouted at him.
"Sadly, no orgy," smiling, Kevin looked lay his head back down and looked up into Aaron's face, "maybe when we get home this afternoon though, before supper."
Swiveling his chair around so he was facing the door, Aaron smiled, "Congratulations by the way Brian, you and Tommy both passed your exams, the system sent me an email as soon as you finished your tests this morning...and you," Aaron tickled Kevin in his lap, "When are you going to take your last one, biology, I believe?"
Laughing and squirming in Aaron's lap, Kevin tried to fight off the tickling fingers and sputtered out between giggles, "Thursday...I scheduled it for Thursday."
Wheezing slightly from laughing so hard, Kevin looked up, "All of us are planning to be finished by Thursday, and then we really can buckle down with our specialties or projects."
"I'm proud of all of you, the way you have buckled down and absorbed everything you could, to make up for lost time is amazing. So many of those we have rescued are doing the same thing, taking after all of you," Aaron grinned and looked at the clock; he still had time until he had to meet the royals at Elswick.
"I checked on Pat this morning, but I forgot to ask, still asleep and no nightmares?" Aaron was referring to the link the two had.
"Yep," Kenny smiled as he moved over so he could sit on Aaron's recently vacated lap, "Still asleep and he's so much taller now."
"You know, I think he might end up being one of the tallest of the Clan when he finally hits eighteen," Aaron thought, as he looked up, "not that I've checked his potential or any of yours, for that matter, it's not that important to me, it's what's in here that is important, "Aaron placed his hand on Kenny's chest as he said that, glancing up at Brian as he hugged Kenny, "So what are the two of you up to today?"
"Buying chickens," Kenny leaned back into Aaron's chest after saying that.
Glancing down at Kenny before looking up to Brian, Aaron looked at them quizzically, "Buying chickens, okay, what types of chickens are you buying, and why?"
"Lots of baby fluffy ones, so they'll grow up to be fried chicken," Kenny told him seriously as he rubbed his tummy to offset being serious.
Brian laughed at Aaron's expression before getting out, "Broilers Mark called them, that or heavy breeds. Kenny volunteered us for this, as Mark is busy culling the herds, we'll be fine on beef and pork starting at the end of the week, we are just going to buy a couple of million chicks today." Grinning, Brian held up his P.A.D.D. "Tommy even gave me a list."
Choking back his laugh, Aaron shook his head sadly, "Brian...Brian...Brian, you've been perverted to the dark side."
Giggling, Kenny put his hands over his mouth and talked though them, "Luke I am your father, join me..."
Kevin had chosen that moment to take a drink from Aaron's cup and snorted the juice out through his nose trying to swallow and laugh at the same time, coughing as he wiped his nose he glared at Kenny before laughing, it was too funny.
Laughing, Aaron held onto Kenny tightly as Brian looked shocked before he got the star wars reference and giggled, "Just remember, Young Jedi, the power of the dark side is greater," laughing, Brian made to tickle Kenny who squealed and tried to hide behind Aaron. "Just remember Kenny our protection detail is to protect us from outsiders, not from me."
"How do you plan to get that many chicks to the farm?" Aaron nudged Kenny so he would hop down, getting up; he moved over to his desk and pulled the Clan card out of the drawer and passed it over.
Grinning, Brian went to the terminal, changing the screen to outside Sol Station; a ship half the size of the Ares floated there, "Xon was busy yesterday; he modified this one so it has a huge transporter buffer on board and it only needs a crew of fifteen."
Pulling up the file, Aaron looked at it, reading it out loud, "MR005, medium range scout, crew compliment twelve," raising his eyes at Brian who whispered back "gestalt team," he nodded, "weapons system, portation torpedoes and planet buster missiles." Looking up, "alright, I suppose this thing is built for speed then," he said, as he looked at that section.
"I think Xon wants to do a redesign on it after talking to you about it, in fact he wants to redesign the whole fleet and scrap them to something he is more familiar with and Pete is one hundred percent behind him on it," Brian laughed as Ray and his team walked in, "Yes, well, Pete will just be happy to finally be able to build his space fleet."
Aaron smiled, last night Xon and he had snuck off to the hot spring for some private time to talk, though he decided he liked the way Xon talked, once he had finished planting his offering deep inside his lover, he settled back as Xon sensuously rode up and down on him as he told him his plans for the Kathat command ship, his reasoning for wanting to build it; and then he asked permission. Of course Aaron told him yes; after being told the redesigns Xon had implemented; it would be half the size of the Reliant, yet more powerful than two Reliants put together. Xon had come up with the ultimate weapon system, the MCA's could be ported into an enemy ship even through their shields, and quickly disable or dematerialize the ship from the inside out. Port a couple of the MCA's into the engine room of a ship, and within seconds, the ship would be powerless and without shields, nothing the Confederation had at the time of the data grab could even begin to analyze, let alone defend against such an attack, so he felt pretty comfortable with them as warships.
"You know something," Kevin picked up on his Lover's pleasure and the feeling he was hiding something.
Nodding his head laughing, Aaron glanced at the clock, time to get a move on, in case James or Alfred arrived early, "Xon talked to me last night, I like his persuasion techniques," grinning, Aaron pulled Kevin close, "Want to go down with me, maybe pull Andrew and Edward aside, Andrew might need some help packing, when they come visit on Friday, Andrew will be staying permanently, I plan to start his resequencing Friday night."
"Sure," Kevin grinned as Brian and Kenny walked out ahead of them, "you're not going to tell us are you?"
"Well, if you can keep it from Pete until tomorrow or when he finds out for himself, I see no reason not to let you in on it early," Aaron waited until he got the grinning nods of agreement before smiling, "After Xon finishes building eight more replication centers on the shipyard arms and the enlargement of the bridge, he is going to go to the station shipyards on the other side of Centauri's sun and bring them back to life, after some modifications like he did to the earth shipyard, he will start building the command class vessels the Kathat only speculated about, with all their capabilities merged with ours."
"So not only will they have warp drive, but gestalt stations so we can port wherever we want?" Kevin asked as he grinned, "That is going to freak Pete out when he sees them."
"I know, the other reason he is going to use the station shipyard instead of the hollowed out moon shipyard, is he plans to redesign the moon base as a repair and control facility, there is too much mass between the inside hangers and the old smelters on the surface for the replicators to work," Aaron stopped where the corridor split, are you porting from the ship or with us at the gestalt bay?"
Brian's answer was to extend his mic and activate it, "Leftenant, we will be porting down to California first and work our way east, go ahead and head for a geo orbit, one of us will contact you when it is time to start transporting the first of our purchases up."
"Okay that answers that, but where are you starting your shopping trip? " Aaron asked as they entered the gestalt room. Stepping over to the gestalt generator, Aaron placed his hand on it pulling power up.
"Gene Corp, they should be expecting us," Brian smiled with a twinkle in his eye.
"Um, as far as I know, they don't do poultry, so what are you after?" motioning for Kevin to move close, Aaron tilted his head waiting for the answer.
"Mark's list," Brian grinned before giggling, "Mostly it is AI samples to improve the herds on the farm, a large order in two deliveries, plus we need to seriously start a dairy on the farm, otherwise there will be no milk...or chocolate not to mention no ice cream."
Pulling Kevin close, Aaron fake shuddered in horror, "Permission granted...no chocolate, can't have that, can we?" Laughing, Aaron ported them to Elswick to the laughing the rest of them were doing.
Appearing on the office side of the hostel, the security office to be exact, Aaron smiled, "Good morning, Friedrich, everything ready for the onslaught of the vultures?"
"Of course, Your Majesty, I've even prepared for the eventuality of having several members of the Clan show up, all members of the press will be running their signals back to the brig where my men will vet the signal before it is allowed off grounds." Friedrich grinned evilly, "Several of them are already complaining about censorship, but I just remind myself they are possible students for Pete to explain SEX ED 101 and hold `The Talk' with them."
Aaron and Kevin laughed, "That is truly evil," smiling as he walked to the window and looked out at the grounds and the children playing between the hostel and the hospital, "If that does happen, make sure I get the first copy of the video."
"Can do, your Majesty," Friedrich looked at Kevin and nodded his head at Aaron, asking what was up with him with a gesture.
Kevin was saved having to say anything by Thomas walking in, "Morning chaps, the queen and family should be arriving shortly, in a few minutes actually as they are forty miles out at last report."
"Good," Aaron told them without turning around, "I'm going to rely on all of you to keep the reporters out of the new section of the hospital until I give clearance, in fact, I want everyone kept out of the new section," Aaron turned around and glanced at the surprised looks, "I, along with James, Alfred and the Queen will be on the second floor; no one else is to go upstairs until I say so, and I do mean no one."
Thomas looked at Friedrich to see if he knew what was going on and seeing the clueless look on his face, cleared his throat, "I might have a bit of a problem keeping Edward and Andrew from going up, or even Richard, James's brother."
Cocking his head to the side, "Richard can go up, no wives or girlfriends though," Aaron turned so he was glancing out of the side of the building as he saw the red helicopter fly over and circle around.
"I'll handle Andrew and Edward, after all, Aaron only needs a half hour," Kevin knew what was going to happen, he also had a pretty good idea of what would happen if the DNA maps came back positive, after finding out that the battle crown passed down through Edward's grandfather's side had Alteran gems, gems designed to link the wearer telepathically with equipment, it was not hard to know what Aaron would do.
Tilting his head to the side, Aaron ported out of the room, startling several of the Marines as he appeared on the landing pad.
Smiling as Friedrich and his teams ported out, Kevin offered his arm to Thomas, "Shall we join them at the landing pad."
Hesitating a moment, Thomas gingerly laid his hand on Kevin's arm and blinked in surprise as they appeared facing the royal helicopter with its blades spinning down.
Aaron waited until the group of royals had gotten close before smiling, "Good morning, Victoria," right away he noticed that she was the only woman present; that should make things easier, he thought.
Escorting the group into the hospital, Kevin pulled Edward and Andrew off in one direction while Aaron escorted the rest up stairs to the section that housed bio-beds, entering one of the pods, Aaron smiled and pointed to the bio-beds, "How about we take all of you at once," smiling as Alfred helped his wife settle onto one of the bio-beds before going to the empty one on the other side, Aaron started the scan on Victoria. "Normally a full detailed gene mapping takes two hours, maybe three, it depends on the person, what we are going to do right now is to do a general health scan and then a partial mapping looking for certain gene groups."
"I'm still mostly confused; how does that crown you examined Sunday fit into the puzzle of our being here today, not that I don't agree that full workup is not a bad idea, after all, it did save Edward's life," Victoria asked, as Aaron moved to her husband's side and started tapping things into the terminal there.
"I told you Sunday that the red diamonds in that crown are not native to Earth, well I had time to do some research, well truthfully I had the Core do the research and give me the results, three thousand some plus years of video and data takes a long time to go through." Aaron moved over to James' side and entered his personal information before starting the scan, "The mystery that is that crown starts around two thousand years ago, roughly, that is."
"I've thought long and hard about how much of our racial secrets to share with you, and I still don't have an answer. So let's leave it with the blanks are things no outsider will ever know about and go from there, roughly two thousand years ago, there was the start of a great famine in parts of China, a place twelve of Clan Shaolin had settled to prepare and build an army, an army to be used by the King of Altare in times of great need," Aaron saw the shock on their faces as they realized the Shaolin were Alteran. "During this time, they had to come up with a procedure to lock away our natural born gifts to save their sons' lives, this was the only way they felt they could save their sons and keep with their mission to build an army to be used by the king when the time was right."
"Both groups had lost track of each other, and what was common knowledge faded away, to be discovered by accident not that long ago and we welcomed our own back home," Aaron finished programming the scans sat on the edge of one of the free beds, "to make a long tragic story short, during the time they tried to lock away our gifts without damaging themselves too badly, making it a simple matter for us to repair what they did to themselves, they experimented several times until they got it right. And those seven people that were damaged, eventually made their way out into the world, they volunteered to be experimented on, but still, they felt that instead of staying where they were a constant reminder of what they had fallen to, after the procedure was perfected they left and eventually one would assume, they married and had children your way."
Thinking about it, "I know choppy isn't it, leaving a lot of the story out makes it hard to understand and even harder to wrap your mind around my explanation and you're trying to figure out how this relates to the crown and you being scanned today." Aaron looked at the ceiling, trying to come up with a way they would understand, "let's try this, you should know from biology class that sperm is either X or Y and an egg from a woman is always X. two XX's give you a girl and an XY gives you a boy." Catching their slow nods he smiled, "one of the traits that Alteran's are known for is we only produce Y sperm, never X."
"So finding that crown came from my side of the family, you added the statement that I made, that there has not been girl born from my line, it left you wondering then." Alfred now knew why they were being scanned, but there had to be more to it.
"Yes, and it opens up possibilities and adds problems if it is true and not just a coincidence," Aaron sighed, as he looked at the deep scan reports on the monitor next to Victoria. Seeing she was not in that bad of health for a person her age, he glanced at Alfred's monitor and noticed the red area on the monitor.
Watching Aaron stand and move to her husband's side, Victoria commented, "I can see several benefits at being tied closer, but I don't think you are thinking of the same things."
"Maybe," Aaron looked up at the readouts and the warning of blockage of arteries around Alfred's heart, "A little preventative medicine is needed Alfred, roll your right shirt sleeve up, please," he smiled gently at the man as he pulled the IV cuff out and grabbed the bottle of sterilizing gel. Once the area had been cleaned and the cuff in place, he administered the nanites that would dissolve the blockage before speaking again. Pulling up the gene marker search, his fears were confirmed, there was one of several Alteran markers in Alfred's genome, he was a descendant of one of the genetically butchered Shaolin.
Moving to Victoria's side, Aaron smiled, "You're in surprisingly good heath, a few things we might want to address next time you take a weekend off to visit my kingdom, but nothing to worry about; you may get up anytime." Moving over to James, he looked at the scan before nodding to him, "You can get up whenever, and like your mother, next time you can get free to come for a weekend, we can take care of that ulcer for you, or sneak back here one day after supper and we can take care of it while you sleep." Closing the file, he noticed the same marker as his father, he planned to analyze the data later to compare it to the Shaolin to see how far it drifted off from the original genome.
Chuckling at Richard's face as he looked at his scan results, "Must be clean living, you're good to go with a clean bill of health." Moving back to where Victoria was watching her husband closely, you can sit on the edge of the bed if you wish, Victoria, Alfred will be another fifteen minutes, this is a stop gap measure." Looking at Alfred, Aaron smiled, "I won't sugar coat it for you, you had several major arteries to your heart with significant blockage, what I'm doing is dissolving the blockage, this is a stop gap measure only, I want you to disappear after the meeting on Sol Station this afternoon, you'll be taken to the med bay, and as far as the rest of the world knows, you went home with the others when the rest are ported back home. I expect you can go home some time Friday morning if you're good and cooperate by staying still in the boring bio-bed, you've got some serious vascular blockages that need to be taken care of, so we are going to clean them all out."
"And did you find out what you wanted to know?" Victoria asked, as she held her husband's hand.
"Yes," Aaron sounded troubled, "It explains a lot of what Edward is going through, and creates some problems for him to think about. On the one hand, he has been groomed from birth to be king one day, and then I've reinforced it and expanded on it, as I've been teaching him to be a leader for his people. He is not willing to give that up, nor should he, but one part of him wishes to have our gifts, so much so that he wants to have a child with me that would be Clan, his way of becoming part of us."
Smiling at their indrawn breaths from the shocking news, "Oh dear," Victoria muttered.
"Relax Victoria, I won't do anything to interfere with your line of succession, and yet I do have to take into account Edward's wishes," Aaron smiled as the cycle was done for the moment, removing the IV cuff from Alfred's arm, "Okay, you can get up now, you might find you have a slight increase in your energy, not getting as tired. I expect you will really realize the change after we finish the treatment."
Friedrich glared at the Vultures as Aaron dubbed them, there were more than he wanted around the place, one was too many in his mind, "Listen up, several of you have been to one of these at our embassy before and the rest of you, this is your first time. Keep in mind that you are not on British soil and our laws are in effect, I'm sure you've all heard the rumors at how some of the reporters arrested soon after we took possession of this embassy were convicted along with what could have happened to them if the hospital had been open at the time and a child would have been further injured or sickened from their actions."
Turning around to face the reporters with a glare, "Oh, one more thing, just because you are on what amounts to our soil, does not give you the right to take pictures of any Clan member without his Majesty's approval, keep that in mind please," Friedrich moved off to talk to his men, he was going to have constant low level scanning of the reporters minds going on during this news conference.
Thinking of Kevin, Aaron smiled as he felt him in one of the supply closets with Edward and Andrew; they were straightening their clothes after having a quickie. "To answer your question Victoria, it might be possible; I'm still researching the ramifications of having an Alteran being King of another country. I would want to make sure I've thought through all the ramifications before taking that step, I am waiting for the full Clan charter search to be finished, the only way I think this might work is to create a new Clan for your family and make Edward the Clan Leader, as a clan Leader, he would be allowed to rule another land or world, but still be bound by our laws," Shrugging, as Kevin and the two princes appeared at the end of the corridor, "It's complicated, because I would want to make sure your sovereignty is kept intact."
"Hello you three; are you ready for this zoo," Aaron smiled as he changed subjects stopping outside the room the press conference was set up in.
Pulling his Clan Medallion out from under his shirt, and settling it on top of his black silk Shirt Kevin took a deep breath and nodded as he fell in behind Aaron while they entered the room. He, along with Andrew and Edward, veered off to one side as soon as they entered the room, not wanting to be in the feeding frenzy.
Seeing several familiar faces in the crowd, Aaron smiled at them as he moved to the front of the room, "Welcome, I plan to keep this short, as of this moment, "Aaron tapped a code into his P.A.D.D. which was linked to the central Core system, causing the lights in the treatment pods to flare to life as full power was brought online. The second half of the hospital was now fully functional, "Elswick Trauma is now open for business, the first Alteran hospital built and functioning outside our kingdom."
Smiling and waiting for the applause to die down, "I'm sure everyone is happy to hear that, not only for the fact that a fully Equipped trauma center was built and located in the Elswick area, or for the reason of all the people who will benefit from this facility." Chuckling Aaron looked at the camera's, "or even the jobs being brought to this area, I'm not foolish enough not to realize the income potential this hospital can help generate for the community and country through all the visitors that will travel here to Britain, seeking treatment for their loved ones."
Looking at the assembled reporters, Aaron smiled once more, though he did not mean it, "That ends the short announcement I had to make, since so many of you came to record or report on this event, I will spend a short time listening to questions, I won't promise to answer all of them, but I will answer some, or I'm sure your queen would be willing to answer some."
One of the female reporters, the one who had met with Aaron the other day stood up and smiled, "Thank you, your majesty, if you don't mind, I'll start it off; can you tell me how many patients this facility can handle?"
"Three thousand patients at one time, we have two thousand bio-tubes, those are what take care of the most severe cases, along with one thousand bio-beds. I believe you all were given a tour this morning and told of the capabilities of each. We also have a disaster triage area that holds five hundred bio-tubes allowing patients to be transferred to Sol Station Trauma, or Altair Trauma, thus linking this hospital with one of the others, greatly expanding the number of patients that could be handled," Aaron smiled at the male reporter from Sunday.
"Thank you Sir, I was wondering about something, after talking to several car dealers and several petrol stations for follow up of your announcement on Sunday, what is the cost of the engine going to be for retrofit and will the crown offer any incentives. You see I've been talking to several colleagues in the states, in fact, those covering some of the things you are releasing in your new territories, and I would think the acceptance of the new engines will depend greatly on the cost you see."
Glancing around, Aaron saw that Victoria looked slightly confused and thoughtful, "Ah, the jealously factor, hopefully it does not rear its ugly head too much," leaning forward against the podium, Aaron thought for a moment, "Well...in new vehicles, the cost of the engine is around four hundred pounds to the manufacturer, our engine will be priced at two hundred and ninety pounds to the manufacturer," Laughing, Aaron smirked, "ours is cheaper. So one would hope the savings would be passed onto the consumer, but you're asking about retrofit," Aaron thought about it, "Tell you what, I know the shops and service mechanics need to make a living, so I will offer a ninety pound scrap metal allowance to the shops and keep the engine price the same. Meaning I will pay ninety pounds for the old engine as scrap, I will also offer to help emergency services out with their budgets by offering to retrofit their vehicles free of charge, the other part of the question, I guess Victoria will have to answer."
Stepping up, Victoria smiled, "We of course accept on behalf of all of our emergency service departments your generous gift. There is already a crown incentive in the form of free parking to electric vehicles or hybrids along with lower road tax of over seventy five percent in some districts, after careful consideration, We think that a ninety pound credit on whichever tax one wished to use it on would be fair."
Smiling, the reporter started to sit down, "I think most would agree, Your Highness."
"Can you tell us what other technology you plan to release to the kingdom after the new engine distribution is in full swing?"
Aaron frowned, "No...not at this time." Glancing away from the reporter, the woman was incised and raised her voice.
"And why not, I have a list of all the new technological advances being released to the three territories you've added, what is wrong with our people that you won't do the same for us?"
"Hilde," the man to her right hissed out loud enough to be picked up by the microphones, "You know very well you're being rude and demanding, be quiet now before you ruin it for everyone else. It was explained on Sunday that there were certain things that would not be released to us because the royal family would not marry into his Majesty's family."
"Well, it's not right, so many of the advances could help our people out, not to mention the law officers who would not end up getting killed on the job with the new armor being released," Hilde protested, still upset.
"But is it fair of you to ask one of the princes to marry into my family, sure they would be able to have sons to carry on the name and linage, but is it fair to them? Tell me would you cut yourself off from the opposite sex forever if that was your inclination, just out of duty?" Aaron was curious and was not being heavy handed, after skimming her thoughts and finding out her brother had died in the line of duty.
"Gladly," Hilde spat out, and stood taller, "if it would save another person's brother from being killed in the line of duty, I would do that and more to get you to release the technology to our people." She looked over at Andrew and Edward, "I would consider it my duty to my people and I, for one, would crucify in the national media the first person who argued what they were doing was the morally wrong thing."
Aaron raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Edward, who was looking at his brother Andrew with a stunned expression on his face, "Be as it may, and it gladdens my heart to know there are such tolerant people out in the world, especially dealing with so many less than tolerant bigots as I do, the answer for this day, this moment is the same, it has to be."
Frustrated, Hilde sat down and let her mind go over what was said and latched onto the fact he told her no was only for today and this moment, she vowed to herself to change public opinion to where they would demand one of the princes marry him for their people.
Aaron raised an eyebrow again picking up on her thoughts, that would be interesting to see and the debate that would open up would be intense, he thought.
Seeing that there was silence, the male reporter stood up and asked, "Your Majesty, there are rumors running rampant that you will soon be opening some worlds for colonization, this sounds like something out of the BBC science fiction shows, but with our own eyes, we've seen the huge spaceship and the space station, then Monday a huge craft our experts are calling a dock yard was moved into Orbit." Taking a breath, he smiled, "I guess I have two questions, would it be possible to visit one of those facilities and bring a camera crew to document the visit? And when can the average person expect to be able to apply for immigration to one of those colony worlds?"
Aaron tilted his head and looked at Friedrich who looked horrified and smiled, "The second part of your question, I can't answer until next week. As far as the first part..." glancing around at the eager faces in the audience he grinned, "I might be open to sitting down with you later, if you and your camera crew are willing to undergo telepathic scans over your intentions, then I would be open to allowing it. Of course, I would make sure there was painkiller available and we would not dig any deeper than would be necessary to make sure of your intentions."
Grinning, he started to sit down, "I'll email a list of crew to you in the morning, then."
"One last question then before we have to go get something to eat for lunch, before my next set of meetings start, "Aaron pointed to the small young woman in the back.
Looking surprised at being called on, as she was covering the news conference for the school paper, school starting up next week, they wanted to do something about what was going on in their community as part of the welcome back issue, "Um...well, I wasn't expecting to be called, not really what a school student expected," she smiled slightly. "I suppose I should start with thanking you for the certification you gave all the workers out here on the project, my father is getting offers for employment daily, now that he was certified for welding that new metal. So I guess my question would be, if you are willing to train more of our people in your building trades? And if you would consider training youth at the same time so they have proper jobs to look forward to."
Looking at Edward as he thought about the answer, smirking evilly, which made Edward nervous, Aaron answered, "I will consider it, and of course, working with youth to get them trained will be included." Looking back at Edward, "I was remiss in assigning your homework assignment last week, Edward, so I think I'll give you this one, and I'll even give you two weeks to get it done in." seeing Edward slouch and look like he was about to be shot he laughed, "So Edward, your assignment is to come up with a list of trades and using the terminal, equate them to our trades so we can go over them and determine if training would be possible."
The young girl looked horrified that her innocent question caused one of the royals to get homework, her expression caused a lot of chuckles amongst the rest of the crowd and Victoria laughed as she moved closer to the microphone, "I think my grandson was hoping that you had given him the last two weeks off from your lessons before school started as bonus for good work in his studies."
Laughing, Aaron grinned at Edward and winked, "Heavens no, he had a week off for good grades, that is plenty long enough to rest."
Smiling and waving at those he had met before, Aaron made his way out of the room followed by the rest of the group, making their way out of the hospital, they started across the lawn towards the office part of the hostel, halfway across the entry, they were intercepted by the barkeep McGivens, holding a basket, "There ye be, I was telling me self that you most likely missed tea having to deal with those people, so I put a luncheon together for ya." Grinning as he handed it over he moved closer to Kevin, "There be two servings of pudding for each of ya, I'm sure his majesty will allow you each one serving, seeing he be taking the rest for himself."
Laughing, after thanking the barkeep, Aaron lunged for Kevin who danced out of the way yelling back as he took off for the security office, "Hands off until I get my piece."
Aaron of course, couldn't resist and took off after Kevin who was giggling madly as he ran inside the building.
"Well, that is one way to relieve Aaron's stress," Edward laughed, as the group thanked the barkeep and entered the office section through the security door.
Kenny and Brian appeared in the parking lot of Gene Corp; Kenny, glancing around at the tall glass and chrome building, was not as impressed as most of the clients that actually came to Gene Corp. spotting the rolling fields and white fences surrounding the place, he spotted the horses running through the pasture a moment later and pointed them out to Brian, "I thought this place was only cows and pigs."
"Oh no, Young Sir, we do equine storage and embryo's along with Cattle and hogs as you mentioned," smiling, the CEO of Gene Corp approached them, "We also do a small amount of storage for the local Zoo and for canine fanciers." Waving them to walk ahead of him into the building, they were met by several of the managers in the lobby, "I want to thank you for considering us for the expansion of your dairy." He offered them seats in the lobby, near the large television and the glass wall of the show ring, "I've taken the liberty of having some of our most productive stock brought in for you to look over, do you have a list of bloodlines you wish to improve on?"
Brian looked at Kenny and they giggled together, "I'm sorry, but you see, I think if you want to talk about bloodlines and all that, you really need to talk to Mark, I'm in charge of the non animal agriculture. Mark and Tommy who you met last time someone from the kingdom stopped by, were busy, since the two of us did not having anything special to do this morning, we volunteered to come back to Earth and pick up a couple of million chicks, if possible and got talked into stopping here to inquire about a dairy herd or three." Pulling out an Isolinear chip and placing it on the table, "Well, besides the list that Mark asked us to give to you to improve one of the major herds on the main farm planet, he said something about no new blood in the main herd in fifty years."
Reaching over and picking up the chip, he handed it off to one of his managers to download the information, "I have heard about the colony planets and the possibility of them being opened up for visiting, so you're buying trip today is not for the kingdom, but for one of the colony worlds," the CEO mused as he sat back.
"No..." Brian blinked back as he picked up on the direction of the man's thoughts, "This purchase is for the kingdom, though I suppose I can see how it would be a benefit for you to be a supplier to the colony worlds, I can mention it to Aaron, when we get back."
Giving it careful consideration, he asked, "I see, please do, I think his majesty would agree that our dealings have benefited us both," clapping his hands together, "Now, let's see what we can do for your dairy then, tell me how many head do you currently run and what did you have in mind on ages?"
Kenny stared at the man on the other side of the room before looking over to Brian and thinking real loud, "the man over in the doorway is really creeping me out; something is not right with him."
Wondering why Kenny was being so quiet, Brian glanced his way out of the corner of his eye and saw him staring intently at him, reaching out with his mind to brush against Kenny's he heard the message that Kenny was repeating over and over again, "I hear you Kenny, I'll let Ray know," Brian smiled at him as he casually looked around in the lull of conversation and glanced at the man creeping Kenny out and skimmed his mind.
Sitting back in a jolt, Brian found it disturbing that the man was mentally undressing him and some of the images he wanted to do were a little weird, coming from someone outside of the Clan, "That's just wrong, coming from him...He's imagining me on a kitchen table and licking whip cream off my nipples, now Aaron on the other hand or any of the others," Brian sent back to Kenny who got wide eyed.
Kenny got the first taste of the green monster, jealousy reared its ugly head and he stood up in an overly controlled manor and stalked across the room, standing several feet away, he glared at the man, "You know you're thinking way too loud, not only that, but he's taken and I am not happy with what you are thinking of...LEAVE!"
Huffing slightly in annoyance at being pulled out of his fantasy world, Larry glared down at the half pint pipsqueak that yelled at him, before he could say beat it, several of the men, that now screamed security guard, rushed over and he heard his boss order him to go upstairs.
"Kenny...Kenny, come here Love," Brian smiled as Kenny walked over and he pulled him into a hug, "We can't be upset every time someone thinks things about us, we're not the thought police after all, plus, to those outside the kingdom, well, they've never had to worry about watching what they thought about around others, they've not had to deal with telepaths walking among them."
Placing his hand on Kenny's face with a smile, Brian sent him an image of him lying on the counter covered in whip cream while Kenny and Doug each took a side eating their way down and Aaron walking in on them to get the main prize.
Blushing furiously, Kenny muttered, "Damn," softly, before sitting down next to Brian, the image burned into his mind before grinning in anticipation.
Chuckling, Brian turned back to the CEO and smiled, "Now then, to answer your question, we need all ages I suppose, you see, we don't have a dairy at all and we need to start one. We have the contracts and all, to supply things locally to Altair and the islands, but we need to create our own to supply the Kingdom now that the hospital is going full out and certain somebody's have discovered ice cream," Brian dug his fingers into Kenny's side at that remark, causing him to giggle and glare playfully at him.
"Alright," the CEO sat back thinking, "So is the dairy you are hoping to start...no you probably need all three, don't you? Cheese, milk and cream, when do you need the herds by?"
Brian smiled as he pulled out his P.A.D.D. to check on something else, "Well, Mark said it would be a couple of days before the facilities where finished, you can send him an email or three on what you find, I think he mentioned that he wanted one breed that would be good across the board, he's not partial to Holsteins at all." Standing up and pulling Kenny up off the couch, he smiled, "Right, I think we've taken enough of your time, especially as you need to be talking to Mark about selection and things, if you can do video conferencing the contact information is on the chip."
Slipping his P.A.D.D. back into its pouch, they started for the door, "Oh and if you are truly interested in becoming a site for off world export of livestock, ask Mark to send you the file on the quarantine center and its requirements, I would think you would want a separate facility from your breeding stock," Brian pointed out the window to the horses running past again.
Aaron looked around the conference room, moving over next to Victoria, who was standing with her family at the side wall, which was more like a window than a wall; he smiled as he followed their gaze down to the Earth below.
"I never dreamed I would ever be in space, even as a little girl when the Americans landed on the moon, I never dreamed of one day being here, looking down," Victoria smiled at her grandsons, "I bet the both of you have been up here before and more than likely further out yet."
Aaron laughed and moved back to one of the couches, "Well, let's just say that Andrew and Edward are the first non Alteran's to visit several of our worlds," catching her curious expression, Aaron smiled, "Last weekend, the Clan visited two of our worlds and I took theses two along for the day.
"Speaking of Alterans," Aaron caught their attention, "Tyler and Andrew's son is doing fine, and I have enough material collected from them to create ten more sons for them, and that does not count the second embryo in stasis," settling back as he watched the group move away from the wall and sit down, "I was thinking it might be time to let Andrew be resequenced, future children that are not Alteran are secure, and with him living in my kingdom as he finishes up his schooling, it would be easier for him to get back and forth to the palace if he can do so under his own power."
Victoria sent a look at her husband and then James, Andrew's father, they had been talking about this over the past couple of weeks, and with the revelations this morning, she looked at Edward out of the corner of her eye critically to see if he was jealous and instead he seemed to be happy for his brother, "We of course, have been discussing this development, as our original agreement was to wait until Andrew's son was born," looking at the crestfallen expression on Andrew's face, she smiled, "It does not seem very fair to him and the rest of the Clan, does it." Shifting in her seat, Victoria grinned at Aaron, "So when would you want to do this?"
Looking at Andrew who was beaming in joy, Aaron chuckled, "This weekend, Friday night to be exact, that way he can start school first thing Monday morning," he really started to laugh at the horrified expression on Andrew's face at the thought of going back to school.
Skimming Edward's thoughts, Aaron was glad to find no jealousy there, just a hint of sadness that it was not him, he was pulled back to the conversation as Victoria asked, "So, before the rest of the monarchs show up, can I ask about the clan structure you seem to use and what it entails?"
Blinking, Aaron wasn't sure where she was going, but saw no harm in telling her, "Well, Clans would be like your nobility class, there are a few other rules governing a clan. Hmmm, let's see if I can make this understandable to outsiders," quickly adding with a smile, "Not that I'm being negative against outsiders, let me start by saying marriage is slightly different in my kingdom, we of course have those who find a single partner to spend their life with, like a marriage you are familiar with, then we have those that are in a marriage to three or four people, then you have a clan Marriage."
Leaning back and closing his eyes as he explained things, "A clan is the ultimate form of marriage, not only that, it starts with at least five people, but it also has duties to the kingdom, the nobility part you see. Clan Stranton, which I am head of, leads the kingdom currently; once Andrew officially joins us, my Clan will have eighteen members, and there are very strict rules we are governed by, like no sex outside the clan, except within the charter." Opening his eyes and smiling at Edward, "the Stranton Clan charter allows no more than four people to have provisional member status, allowing them into our beds, it is designed as a way to bring new members into the Clan, those we feel would truly be the best to lead and fit in with us."
Edward was horrified and thrilled and saddened, "You gave up one of those spots to me, knowing I could never be part of the Clan, you still gave it to me," he was choked up and ignored the fact the rest of his family was in the room, what they had given him was to precious, they wasted one of the places for him.
Picking up on Edward's thoughts, Aaron opened his arms, "Come here, Edward," as Edward launched himself and landed in his lap, Aaron held him close as Edward tried to come to grips with what he heard.
Victoria was stunned, Aaron and the Clan had given up something they could not get back, not only that, that one act showed her how they truly felt about her grandson.
Holding Edward tight against his body, Aaron continued, "A clan has to be sanctioned by the crown for services rendered, as an example, Clan Shaolin was reinstated and pledged their lives to the crown, they have probably the most members of any clan, yet their charter is different, as only twelve elders have the right to claim they are clan at one time, and their members are free to marry as they see fit. So while only twelve can claim the title of Clan Shaolin there are many who are Shaolin and represent Clan Shaolin."
Thinking about it, Alfred asked, "What about the children of the Clan, surely after all this time the children alone would cause your clan to be huge?"
Smiling, Aaron felt Edward had calmed down somewhat, "You truly are special, Edward and we do not regret giving that spot to you, you are cherished. Well, to answer your question, children of the clan are not normally bound by the rules of marriage to the Clan, what happens most of the time is the children will grow up and move out and go their own way, leaving the Clan, or in the case of the original Shaolin, breakaway and start a new Clan."
"So you're saying that most of the Clans got their starts from the children of the original clan, yours, but you have in place a system that you can create a new clan for services rendered to the kingdom, not the crown," James said slowly, as he looked at his son, they had been talking about Edward and had come to the conclusion he was not as BI as he claimed. "Does a clan have to live in your kingdom or are there other rules that govern how a clan must act?"
Shaking his head no, and thinking of the possibilities, "No, even with how easy it is for us to travel in the universe, in the time it takes to blink twice, I've considered letting some of the Clans act as planetary governors as long as they have strong ties to the crown, otherwise, the day to day operations of the empire would not leave me much time to do what I want to, if you think I get cranky now, you should see me if I had to do nothing but run the empire from the moment I woke up in the morning until I went to bed, if that happened then I would not be willing to be so accommodating over certain issues, hence you would be dealing with someone modeled on the old King and not forgiving at all."
Giving Edward a nudge to sit up straight, with a smile as he pointed to the clock, "I think we can expect visitors any minute, or when they finally tear themselves away from the view." Laughing, as he pointed at the wall off to the side, Aaron got to his feet as the door opened up allowing the first of the visiting dignitaries into the room.
Aaron had, of course, expected Emperor Morimoto and the Danish King Jens Rosencrans, but the surprise came with the Chinese premier and Russian President that followed Emperor Morimoto into the room. Once everyone had a chance to get comfortable, Aaron glanced at the two extras to the meeting before tracing a pattern on the table top terminal, darkening the window in four places, allowing images to be brought to life, four life bearing systems were now displayed on the monitors for everyone to look at.
"Let me start off by welcoming you all to this discussion of possibilities, one that started some time ago with Jens, as he asked me what it would take to open one of these worlds up for his people to colonize it," Aaron sat back as he gazed questioningly at the two he had not planned on being there, "The first thing that needs to be said before we go any further, I want it to be very clear that those who leave Earth and settle on one of my worlds, even if that world is empty right now, they will fall under Alteran Law, and look to the Alteran Crown for leadership. I understand from early explorations with both Jens and Morimoto that this was more than acceptable, as they felt it would ease overcrowding, yet they would gain the advantage of a sister world in space, a place they felt, over time, would be a great asset to their kingdoms even if it was not under their control."
Eyes never leaving the two newcomers' faces, Aaron tilted his head to the side, "So, I guess my question is what are the intentions of the Peoples republic of China and the Russian government and why are both of you here?"
Chairman Woo bowed his head , "Honored Dragon..." he started, and Aaron picked up from his surface thoughts the fact he had watched the broadcast that went out worldwide Monday and repeated with plenty of speculation, all day yesterday, in fact the man had wet himself in fear over the plans he had scrapped, seeing the video footage.
"Honored Dragon, the People's Republic has long had a history that westerners have viewed harshly, it is our hope, by opening our borders to free immigration to your kingdom alone, and one of these new colony planets that the people that wish to live under a different rule will have the chance while those who are more than satisfied with the present rule will be happier," Chairman Woo bowed his head, knowing his mind was an open book if it was so wished.
Rubbing his temple, Aaron looked at the Russian who smiled at him, "I am in a similar situation, with the breakup of the communist party and the move to democracy, my people are having a very hard time, jobs are scarce and food is even scarcer, it is my hope by allowing those who dream and wish of a better place could move to your kingdom, this open immigration policy that you are contemplating would be a godsend to us. If even a fraction of the people whom I believe wish to move, actually immigrate to your kingdom, my country will be able to recover at a fast pace, jobs will no longer be scarce, neither would food, we will be able to finally move onto solid ground and heal the fractures caused by the breakup." President Gorbivonovich told him as he pointed to Morimoto, "please do not blame the honored emperor, he has a leak in his office, and we found out by the leak in Chairman Woo's office."
"This morning between the three of us, we decided on full discloser of our assets and spy's, after all we knew we would soon be before telepaths, we wanted to come here with no secrets between us and the ability to say the leaks have been closed," Chairman Woo told him.
Aaron thought about what he had just been told, and skimmed the man's thoughts, finding he was telling the truth, he looked at the views of the four colony worlds, "I want it to be clear that I am not running prison planets, as you probably have realized by now, I don't run prisons, we execute our prisoners or modify their minds." Trailing off as he gazed round the room, three of the five permanent Security Council members were in this room. Standing and moving so he could look down on the earth as he thought about what was said and unsaid and how it would affect his plans.
Sighing without turning around, "If I let your people immigrate, they would have to be told up front they would be under our laws, and that they needed to use this as an opportunity to start a new life, build a new home. This would not be a place to shunt your political prisoners or malcontents off to, hoping they disappear, once they become citizens of my kingdom, they would not be able to regroup and plan the overthrow of your government without my sanction." Turning around and leaning up against the wall, Aaron glared at the two, "And my sanction would only come about if you attacked me, or mine."
"Agreed," Chairman Woo hastily told him, after what he saw he never wanted to even think about taking any action against this man or his kingdom, anyone who would even suggest such a thing would be shot.
"I also agree," President Gorbivonovich smiled as he pulled out a chip from his pocket and placed it on the table, "A list of all eligible male children of the ranking leaders of my nation for you to choose from, all have volunteered to marry into your family to cement the opportunity for our country to immigrate to one of your colonies."
Aaron stared at him for a moment before screaming in his mind, "Well Shit, why me!!!" then when Emperor Morimoto pointed to the man to his right, "My brother has agreed and my nephew is being shown around the station, we have brought young Ton with us to cement the deal."
Eyes wider as he looked at the Danish King who smiled, well it was more of a smirk, "I also have a nephew who is more than pleased with the idea, he is currently touring the station with Ton.
Thumping his head against the back wall Aaron closed his eyes as Victoria laughed when Chairman Woo offered up one of his grandsons, if that was what was needed, and he did so eagerly. Opening his eyes and seeing the amusement on the British faces, and the eagerness on the rest of the group, he turned around and glared at the universe, talk about something coming back and biting you in the ass, he thought.
Taking several deep breaths, Aaron turned around and made his way back to the couch and plopped down, "Let's leave that for later, shall we?" sending a glare at Edward who was trying his hardest not to fall down laughing, and at Andrew's retreating back, as he rushed to the fresher he closed his mind off to the offers and switched gears, hoping it would go away. Tracing his fingers on the terminal, he pulled up a list and choosing a likely candidate placed a fifth planet on the screen causing the Chinese and Russian leaders to beam in glee.
"I understand not wanting to lose one's cultural identity, but the first thing those wanting to immigrate have to understand is that we shall use English as a galactic standard language, those that are not telepaths do not have the option of picking up a verbal language like we do, so to make things easier, and knowing it is the most commonly spoken language next to Spanish, we have chosen that as the language of choice." Aaron rubbed his forehead again, ending up with his hand in front of his mouth rubbing his chin before he stopped and picked up where he left off.
"Each of these worlds have passed a rigorous scanning and testing phase, the testing phase lasted over fifty Earth years, testing the planet in question against all forms of earth plant and animal life, and numerous human tissue analogs, before being passed as safe for colonization," Aaron sneaked a glare at the offending chip on the table. "Not that I expect you to pick one of the planets right now, or even stating that each country may only immigrate to the one world. In fact it might be better in the long run to offer open immigration to all worlds at once, and leave the choice of which planet to move to up to the person who is immigrating."
Pulling a small long thin case out of the side of his pouch, Aaron placed it on the table before tracing commands into another part of the terminal, causing a small section of the table to hiss and rise before sliding to the side, pulling four chips out of the case, he placed them into the exposed slots and traced another command. Finished copying the data about the five worlds onto the chips, Aaron pulled them out one at a time and slid them across the table, sealing the table top once more and placing the case back in his pouch, Aaron sat back.
"I plan to announce the open immigration policy to those five worlds one week from today; I planned to make the announcement from Hawaii, if we come to an agreement, I will make room for you to stand next to me at that announcement of those in my three territories being given the chance to explore the stars and I make the colonization announcement," Aaron looked at Victoria for a moment and gave her a look, when she smiled back at him as if she was planning something.
"Immigration will take place in three waves, the first being farmers, to plant the crops, along with medical personal to staff the hospitals, next will be the tradesman and the support staff along with scientists, finally, everyone else. It's all listed out on the chips, as these are totally new worlds and are being started from scratch." Aaron looked at his notes on the terminal touchpad, "There is also a list of items that must be brought with the individual or families immigrating."
Leaning back into the couch, "I'm sure if they study the list of what is available on those planets, including new species that are edible or not harmful to the human race, there will be a lot of innovators looking to develop new products for shipment to the other worlds and Earth, and they need to plan ahead and make sure they have brought along the items needed for their experiments and business ventures, as it is not on the lists." Closing his eyes he finally made the decision he had been thinking on for a while, when he first considered colonization, "One thing that might be a problem for some of those wishing to immigrate from your countries is the deposit needing to be made, a deposit, that after two years, will be returned to the family or individual. It is designed so that those moving there had a savings of capital to fall back on and not be a burden to the community, a way to replace equipment or food, until the crops came in or the new livestock was brought in, because of a disaster."
"If you look at the section, you will see a long list of deferments to the deposit, an example would be a healer who had been certified in the use of our equipment, if he agreed to a minimum of five years service, he would receive a family deferment on the deposit, if one brought adequate supplies to feed themselves and any livestock for a full year, there is a deferment on the amount," Aaron looked around the room, "Frankly, I'm not looking to make money here, as for the most part, my kingdom does not use money, don't get me wrong, we have a monetary system based on gold, but except as a means to buy from the outside, it is useless to us. What I am trying to do is make sure the colonist can survive for eighteen months if something were to happen, I'm planning for the worst, and I don't think a deposit of what amounts to one thousand pounds for an individual is too high, after all, if they planned properly and did everything with a good amount of common sense, they will get that money back after twenty four months."
"I can see that would keep a large amount of my people from being able to immigrate..." President Gorbivonovich told him, sitting back and thinking about it, "Would you accept a government bond in the place of the deposit, my government would guarantee those who immigrate do not starve as they build their new lives." Leaning forward, he looked at Aaron, "It seems that you are more worried about the immigrants starving before they can establish themselves."
"True...the most dangerous part of a new colony getting on their feet is the first couple of years and establishing the ability to feed themselves." Aaron looked around at each of them before agreeing, "Alright, if your government is willing to place an on demand bond for food if needed, then we can do away with the deposits."
Seeing all the grinning faces, Aaron held up a hand, "Just to be sure you are all on the same page, if there is mixed colonization and one of the worlds for some unforeseen reason would falter, that means each of the countries that had former citizens on that world, would have to come up with a percentage of food towards the relief efforts."
After everyone agreed, Aaron sighed, "To tell the truth, I can't ever foresee that happening, as once they become citizens of my kingdom, they are mine to make sure they have what they need, I just want to make sure all of you would be willing to jump in if there was an emergency. Chances are if something happened, we would need to get supplies to the world quickly before trying to figure out who was supposed to pay for what, I just want to cover all the bases so to speak, and make sure if the unthinkable would happen, the people would survive."
Andrew walked in with Brian and Kenny who was looking at Aaron funny, "Aaron, is there something you want to tell us, maybe why we passed two young guys in the hallway when we arrived who looked us over, they told us they were to be offered as marriage prospects, so their country could colonize one of our worlds."
Andrew giggled as he went over to the table and picked up the chip the Russian president had placed there and slotted it home into his P.A.D.D., opening the file, his eyes opened wide as he showed it to Brian and Kenny, each file had pictures of the person attached, and they started out clothed and quickly devolved into naked pictures in several states including fully aroused and with the obligatory cum shot scene.
Aaron dropped his head into his hands mentally groaning as he tried to explain what had happened and he had no idea what to do about it, after his comment to Jens to keep him from trying to marry a daughter to Kevin turned around and bit him in the ass.
Editors' ramblings
RadioRanchers note: I can't begin to tell you the number of times that a smart ass remark that I have made, has done just that, come back to bite me in the ass. So far, thank God, I haven't been forced to marry someone because of an off hand remark I have made. Of course, my not being a King or any other royalty, I don't think the matter will rear its head in my case. I just have to be careful as to which other universes or worlds I drop in on unexpectedly. Lucky for me, I have someone that is quite good at predicting things and can observe multiple universes easily. You can find out about him, and a number of other interesting people in one of my stories, called The Shimmering Ship, which can be found at HTTP://Crackerwriter.us http://crackerwriter.us/ under Radio Rancher, along with several other fine authors' stories. Oh dear, did I just plug one of the fort sites? Yes I think I did.
Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher
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