Teep

Damien moved closer to Fred and Mark now that the show was over, Mark had laughed as hard as Doug did, and they seemed to be happier than when they came back right after lunch, looking across to the other couch across from them, Pat seemed to be not as clingy as he was before. He had an idea, getting up; he walked over and knelt down in front of Aaron and Pat, "Hey Love," Damien caressed Pat's leg, "Why don't we go take a walk over on Middle Earth and take a look around so you can see firsthand where everything is." Getting a grin and nod back, Damien pulled Pat up off the couch and they walked out of the common area hand in hand.

Figuring lunch was over, Aaron stood and stretched before laughing, "I think Pete's right, Kenny well and truly beat his prank," chuckling as he picked up his dishes, he started for the kitchen, "I'm going back to the office for a while, I should be back for supper, Richard, you and Tyler are still picking up Andrew and Edward, right? Are you going to need any help with Andrews's things?"

"I think we should be okay, if not, we can get some help from Sol Station," perking up, Tyler looked back over, "Are you cooking anything interesting for supper, then?"

Laughing, Aaron walked through the door to the kitchen, "Oh yes, some very interesting things, some native to this world I hope you like when you taste them."

A few minutes later, Aaron was walking into his office after stopping by and checking on Rolph's progress, it seemed he was responding to regeneration decently and everything was going well, moving over to his desk, he picked up where he had left off, he had four new hospitals completed and ready to open as soon as he was able to hire staff to help fill in with his people, opening the application folder that Theo had sent him, he started to go through the resume's and send off follow up questions and setting up appointments.

An hour later, Aaron heard a knock at his door, getting up, he wondered who would knock, and why, opening the door he was surprised to see Donny on the other side, smiling, "Hey Donny, come on in," pulling him into a hug, he felt the teen hug him back tightly and after a bit of hesitating, let him go, putting his arm around Donny's shoulders he led him over to the couch he settled down at one end and pulled Donny down next to him so he could curl up by his side if he wanted.

Donny spent a few minutes curled up into Aaron's side, just soaking up the warmth and love; finally he looked up and saw the smile, "I've been talking with Bruce, he got me thinking and gave me several old novels to read by someone he calls the Grande Dame of science fiction. There was one series of books that I really liked and wanted to talk to you about them, maybe bringing them to life."

Thinking back to the author in question, Aaron finally picked up on the series Donny was talking about; at least he thought so, "You're talking about the Beast Master series?"

Donny beamed and hugged Aaron harder because he knew what he was talking about, "Yes...I want to start up a Beast Master Clan. Something like that, Bruce already told me he would help train me and the others in woodcraft and native ways, then we can bond mentally with our animals...And...there is search and rescue we could do, not only that, but forest management and research, along with exploration of new worlds and cultures...And..."

Aaron chuckled as he placed a finger across Donny's lips, grinning at him and his excitement, he leaned over and kissed his forehead, "I agree with you Donny; you don't have to sell me with what you want to do, we just need to plan out how to do it the best way, and all the other things that will have to be planned out." Sensing Donny's confusion, he smiled back down at him and kissed his forehead again, "You have an affinity to canines, or dogs, what do we do with the person who has an affinity with cats, a dog and say a leopard don't mix too well as roommates." Laughing at Donny's sheepish expression, Aaron pathed Bruce, "Bruce, I know you are around here somewhere, would you come to my office please." Waiting for Bruce to show up, Aaron glanced back down and felt how intensely happy Donny was, "Alright, we need a better name in the beginning, as I don't think you are ready for everything that is involved in being a clan, so let's call it the Beast Masters' Guild for now, if after you have done some research, you want to be a Clan, then we will talk again."

Letting his mind expand, Aaron called to the Clan, "Are any of you familiar with the Sci-Fi fantasy series of books involving the Beast Masters?"

To Aaron's shock and delight, Richard answered back, "Are you talking about the series of books by the librarian, the one that they made take a man's name as they would not publish her books under her own?"

"What is a Beast Master?" Damien asked, intrigued by the name and remembering the TV show.

"Very similar to what you just thought of, actually, Damien, at least in one of the books, `The Beastmaster's Son', I believe," Richard told him, before sharing the remembered passages with the second, later series by the same author.

"That is so wicked; it's like what you do with Thunder when you are riding her," Doug added as the scene Richard shared to all of them.

"Yes, and the real reason I am contacting all of you is, I was looking to see if any of you would be interested in being in charge of this project, the new Beast Masters Guild, they would be used in exploration, search and rescue and as rangers. Bruce is going to teach or find teachers I think for part of the training, things like tracking and the like. Donny is with me and would eventually be the leader of the guild, though he used the word Clan and I told him to research Clan structure to make sure he was not saying something that would bite him in the ass later," they all got Aaron's image of the four world leaders telling him about their candidates and sent back their combined laughter.

"I think I want to do this, and if we are I or we need to look into doing some bio-engineering of the companion animals, to make them easier to work with mentally," Damien sent with excitement.

Aaron sent his laughter and hugged Donny as he thanked his lovers, and added, "Damien, Love, can you make your way to my office then, so we can talk about this further."

"Okay Donny, it looks like the Clan likes the idea and it's a go, I even have one of the Clan that wants to sponsor the guild and work with you," Aaron laughed, as a half minute later Damien appeared and wobbled onto the couch as he grabbed onto Aaron and kissed him.

"Whoa, what a rush, porting so fast," Damien giggled, as he found himself on Donny's lap, "Sorry, don't mind me, but his Hotness has lips that were calling out to be kissed and your comfortable," he giggled again as he reached up and pulled Aaron back down so he could kiss him again. Sighing after releasing Aaron, he slid off both their laps and moved over to the other side of Donny and hugged him close. "So, I understand you want to do cool stuff like Aaron does with Thunder, his horse?"

Donny more than slightly aroused, shook his head and looked over at Damien, "What does he do with his horse that is special?"

Bruce walked through the open door and settled down across from the three and was very interested in finding out the answer to that question too.

"Well, he links with Thunder, mind to mind and when he is riding, he ports the two of them wherever he wants, and she takes it in stride. I watched him port to the beach by the sea farm at a gallop and Thunder did not even snort in shock, in fact, she acted like she liked it," Damien grinned before adding, "He can get her to do practically anything, including wink at people by thinking about it."

Aaron shrugged, "It's not that hard, really, but what we need to talk about is," glancing at Bruce trying to remember if he was assigned to a team and not finding any name that came to mind, "Bruce, I am going to have you head up Damien's detail, you're in charge of creating his team."

Seeing the pleased look on his face, Aaron added to his workload, "Damien will be sponsoring the Beast Masters, so besides building up a team to guard Damien, you have to keep in mind that they might want to be open to working with animals, and you might canvas the tribes to see if there are more than a few young bucks willing to join us and the Beast Masters." Thinking on it for a moment as Donny was fidgeting excitedly, "We can use Middle Earth as the first training grounds, there is no wildlife we have to worry about but what we imported there, after that, I expect for tracking and such we could use Earth, and finally as part of the training, we can use Prime as the new wilderness training field."

Smirking as Bruce was busy tacking notes, Aaron turned to Damien who was grinning, "So Damien, dogs or cats, which do you like better?"

"Dogs, definitely dogs," Damien smiled, as he got up and went around to Aaron's desk and pulled open the drawer to get the card, he knew what was coming and grinning, he returned, bouncing slightly as he looked at Donny, "Come on, I think we can find something in your size you can wear for this outing."

Aaron laughed as Damien pulled a shocked and happy Donny out of the room, smirking, he looked at Bruce, "Large breeds please, a puppy each, including you, then get with Mark and do a complete DNA map on the pups, we can study it later and plan out the changes we will want to do to the dogs, to make them slightly improved, once that is done, we will work on finding someone that wants to work on breeding our new breeds."

Popping the chip out of his P.A.D.D. Bruce handed it over, "So far, the outline of the whole Clan setup, and what I plan to teach them."

Taking the offered chip, Aaron flipped it around his fingers, "Let's not talk about calling it a Clan just yet, not until Donny does the research to know what he is asking, until then, we can safely call it a guild, later, before it gets off the ground, we can call it a Clan if that is what Donny wants and agrees to."

Bruce stared at Aaron a moment before making a mental note to look up clans at the first opportunity, "How soon do I need to get this up and rolling?"

"Let's revisit this on Monday, we can all sit down and go over everything, working out a good foundation to build on. So the three of you work on your outline this weekend and I will make notes on the outline you just gave me, sometime Monday, I would want you to go to the nations and do some recruiting, maybe that morning, I would really like the tribes to think about immigration to one of the colony's. And at the same time, I know how hard it is on the two spirits in the modern day, and we would welcome them as Alteran, after being altered." Aaron chuckled at Bruce's words, "Damn, I never even thought about that."

As Bruce was leaving and Aaron was about to go back over to his desk, he caught a glimpse of a head peaking around the corner and popping back out of sight, curious, he quickly ported to the wall beside the door and leaned over ready to peak around the corner at the same time and was rewarded a moment later by a scream.

"AGHHH..." jumping back in fright, Alexi held his chest as he bounced off the other wall he had jumped into when he peaked around the corner to see if the king was by himself and found himself staring into his eyes. Hearing the laughter, he got to his feet and tried to be dignified as he walked into the room.

"Sorry, but it was way too good to pass up, seeing you peak around the corner like that, "Aaron grinned and went back to the couch, patting the empty spot next to him, "Sit and tell me what's on your mind."

Nervous, Alexi sat down and fidgeted before adjusting his squished parts to a more comfortable spot, of course, when he did that, they came to life and he blushed but relaxed when nothing was said about it, "I finished the placement testing early, and wanted to know how soon we would get our results back?"

Aaron blinked and looked at the clock before tracing the pattern on the table top to activate the terminal function, putting Alexi's name in the system, he pulled up the results and looked at them as he picked up that Alexi was bored. "Okay, you passed everything at your secondary level easily and are working at first stage university level in most of your subjects," glancing at the pleased expression on Alexi's face, he wondered, "What field did you eventually want to go into, your results don't show a specific direction?"

Pleased and shocked, Alexi smiled as he thought about it, "I have not given it much thought, I always liked working with animals and assumed I would be guided on my career by my graduation scores, I thought I had at least until stage two university to decide, but I noticed you do not do academics like we do."

"I really want you to think about it, if you decide to stay with us, or work to join the Clan or one of the other Clans, you will need to have a good idea of what you want do with your life, which goes beyond the schooling you will want to do." Aaron tried to think about what he could offer Alexi so he had something to do to pass the time, "Would it help if you could talk with some of the people on station to find out what they do? The job opportunities that are available, there is also the system where you can learn about some of the other worlds in the empire."

Alexi looked out the wall to the shipyard in the distance, "That ship being built out there, is it one of the space ships for exploration?"

Glancing over his shoulder, Aaron was pleased to see the Asclepius was almost finished, sometime tomorrow it looked like, and then it was a matter of him needing an atmosphere and the finishing touches like bio-tubes and bio-beds. Sensing the spark of excitement in Alexi's mind, Aaron grinned as the reliant was in system for another couple of hours, "The Asclepius...that ship is being built to replace the one that self destructed when Iraq tried to steal it, that is our hospital ship, but if you are interested in space travel, I have something that will keep you occupied for several hours, exploring it."

When Alexi turned back to face him with an eager look on his face, Aaron smiled, "The Reliant is in system for another couple of hours, how would you like a tour?"

"Yes...Very much so, would I like a tour, who must I see, "Alexi grinned, something to do and in space yet.

"One moment, I'll send you over myself, I just need to let Joe know you are coming, he'll have someone meet you to give you a tour." Aaron smiled back as he tilted his head to the side, "Joe, I'm going to send one of the Russian lads over, can you have someone give him a look around, just don't leave the system with him onboard, I would hate to explain to Chris why his lover is in little pieces."

Laughing when Joe contacted him back, trying to tease him about him sending over one of the hopeful brides to be, "Keep that up admiral, and I can find enough paperwork that would suddenly need to be done, that you won't see the outside of an office for months," getting back the impression of horror and the promise to be good, Aaron chuckled as he looked at Alexi, "Joe will have someone meet you."

Motioning for him to stand, Aaron warned him, "Porting in three..." before porting him out of his office to the bridge of the Reliant. Standing and stretching, he glared at his desk for a moment and went back to finish up the applications for physicians he needed to wade through.

Xon stared at the ship being built through the bridge window, he had found that the construction shipyard on the other side of Centauri's sun was four times the size of the one in the Earth's lunar orbit; he had tens of thousands of the modified assemblers at his disposal. The fact that each construction arm was four times as long as the one in the Earth system meant he was able to place twelve replication centers on each arm and he had twenty four of those construction arms at his disposal. Gazing at the four ships currently being constructed, he grinned, thinking that in another month they would be ready, turning back to the small 3D holo image he finalized the design after thinking about the color, since he was using Ionosin he could apply the magnetic color scheme and thinking about it briefly, he tapped the commands that would color the skin the standard red he was used to, changing to space black when the magnetic field was turned on.

Sitting back, Xon smirked as that simple trick would give their ships a tactical advantage over all others, satisfied that the construction would continue without his supervision, locking the system on automatic, he ported back to Centauri station so he could make his way to Sol Station. Several minutes later, he was walking into Aaron's office, smiling, he noticed his lover and prime scowling at the plasma, smiling wider as Aaron looked up and smiled at him Xon went around the desk so he could sit on it and leaned over and kissed his lover with a fire burning in his blood.

Welcoming the Kiss, Aaron hit send on the last email, turned his chair slightly so after pushing Xon's leg's apart he could pull him off the desk and into his lap for a nice snog session, the British had such expressive slang he thought as he did his best to explore Xon's mouth while letting his hands roam.

Aaron ignored the sound of knocking the first time he heard it as he was too interested in relaxing in his lover's arms, on the second louder knocking, Aaron let go of Xon's lips and glared as he looked around his lover's body, seeing one of the visiting British Royals blushing, he sighed and leaned back into Xon's chest and muttered rather loudly, "Damn Coitus Interuptus...Again."

"I am really sorry to interrupt, Aaron," James chuckled as he walked in the room and made for the couches, seeing that one of the Clan was quite naked he thought it best to give them time to calm down, as it were.

"Fine, I'll be right back," Aaron told him, before porting both of them to his conference room where he could finish what was started in peace.

James just grinned as he waited for the next fifteen minutes before Aaron walked back into the office from the side door, looking more relaxed than when he left, "Sorry about that, I assumed since the door was open, I would not be interrupting anything."

Sighing as he sat down, "Normally when security brings someone up to Sol Station, they warn me, and I would close my door if I was in a compromising position." Grinning as he looked at James, "I assure you of that, but since I have a feeling you did not come up the normal way, I'm not going to feel bad about it.

"Ah that explains it then, I was at Elswick and had one of your residents send me up," James laughed, getting serious, he looked at Aaron, "Seems Edward came back from his lunch meeting all embarrassed, he was quite vocal too, something about you needing a good thrashing for assigning Kenny to the role of matchmaker, then he left the room very red in the face." Leaning forward James turned stern, "As Edward's father it is my right to embarrass the bloody hell out of my son, so I came up here instead of starting my treatment so I can view the recording I know you have."

Feeling the intense amusement coming from James, as he sat back into the cushions, Aaron laughed, reaching for the table he activated the terminal, darkened the windows and started the playback, "We can't have that, after all this is something that just begs to be seen."

Fifteen minutes later, James was holding his side as he laughed, tears streaming down his face, "Oh my...no wonder he was so put out," dissolving into laughter again he shook his head, "Maybe I should be glad we keep the good stuff under lock and key, I can just imagine the pisser he would go on if he had access after that embarrassment."

"Yes well we all voted, and Kenny's performance topped Pete's, so `THE TALK' has been supplanted with Kenny's rendition of the Nakodo," Aaron smiled as he pulled a chip out of the case and popped it into the slot in the table to copy the file onto it, popping it out ha handed it over, "For posterity of course."

Accepting the chip graciously, James smiled in return, "Of course, one must have ammunition for the future after all." Pulling out a small case of his own, James inserted the chip and closed the cover before pocketing it again, "While I have you to myself at least for a short bit, Mother and I would like to sit down with you on Monday, say after ten, we have a proposal we want to go over with you," seeing Aaron tilt his head and look at him he started to sing one of his favorite operas in his mind loudly.

Really looking at James funny now that he was hearing a rowdy drinking song, "Um not to be rude or anything, but I was not trying to listen in earlier, so umm are there really those type of positions with the opposite sex," Aaron asked, as he thought, Brits were some of the strangest people at times.

Laughing, James shook his head, "Sadly, I have no clue, I've never gotten drunk enough to get the courage to try them out, sorry about that, I shouldn't assume every time you look at me in a funny way you are trying to read me, as it were."

"Yes well just picture a calm lake or some other scene in the countryside and that will work on keeping your mind calm and quiet," Aaron pointed out, "No, I was trying to think if I should breach the subject, as I picked up on what Edward said in the prank, or I should say at the beginning when Toshi was proposing to create an Earth based clan, I assume that is also what you wanted to talk about."

"I think too many people are thinking the same thing, I am surprised that Toshi is suggesting it actually," James let his mind go into overdrive, if one of the other heirs was suggesting it and not knowing anything more than what was said at the meeting, then their plan had hope to see the light of day, "One of the things happening around the country is a public outcry for Edward to wed one of your Clan members. That Hilde from the sun is living up to her word; she has started a campaign that had the bishop of the Church of England stopping around to ask if you were catholic at lunch." Seeing the funny look on Aaron's face, he leaned forward, "Your not are you?"

"Um...No, I can happily say we are not catholic," Aaron ported a pitcher of juice onto the table and several glasses, to give a pause to the conversation as he thought things through, pouring a glass fully he offered and when he saw the nod, he poured James a glass also, "Well, the seeds I planted were mainly for Andrew's benefit, though I don't see why Edward can't benefit I guess. I suppose having a child out of wedlock is a no, no in your church?"

"For royalty, I'm afraid so," James nodded between sips, "This is quite good, by the way."

"Thank you, one of my own blends; they change around to what is in season, feel free to keep your glass full," Aaron refilled his glass and sat back thinking, "To tell you the truth, I had already been thinking of this route for Edward, that was the other reason I had the Core search through all the different clan records. I have been holding off on talking to Edward as I noticed the heavy research being done on his terminal, now that I know it is you and Victoria, I'm still going to hold off, unless he brings it up this weekend, but I don't think we are going to have any discussion Monday unless Edward is agreeable to it before we meet."

"Fair enough, after all, this is Edward's life we are talking about," James refilled his glass before looking out the window, "Is that the new hospital ship out there?"

"Yes," Aaron smiled, "I redesigned him to have almost double the capacity of the old Asclepius."

"This is not the first time I've caught you or the others referring to your vessels as a he instead of a she..." James trailed off and looked sheepish, "Sorry, it just hit me, no women so of course you would consider your vessels as masculine."

"One last thing before I go down to have a few things fixed in the wonderful new hospital of yours," James looked at Aaron, "I have had several calls from the President of the United States, not being privy to the meeting or any of the other major ones, Mother has had me dealing with Sid, He is getting very frustrated, he knows something is going on and he is being kept on the outside."

Aaron considered for several moments his choices, finally he reached over the case he had yet to return to his pouch, pulled another small chip out and placed it in the terminal slot and copied the attempt to contact the president, once copied, he handed it over, "This might explain why he is getting the cold shoulder, not why we were contacting him, but why he is being left out of the loop at the moment, I might also add, he has not tried to contact me at all."

"He's bloody scared shitless of you lot, every time he has had any dealing with any of you, they have gone horribly wrong from what he had envisioned," James took the chip and finished his juice, placing the glass on the table he stood, "I best be going before your residents come up with something far more sinister to treat me with then just lying around."

Once James had left, Xon walked out of the bathroom and snuggled up next to Aaron, dressed the same way he was when he first entered, in nothing. "I had planned to report my progress on the new fleet when I arrived, but for some reason, I find no logic in, I was drawn to needing physical release, is this one of the things that sets our race apart from the others?"

"I think so," Aaron considered the question, "I know as a race, we have a higher sex drive, plus we are a more physically demonstrative race...for the most part, I think you are very correct," he was thinking about how the outsiders in their peak years for sexual function could not keep up with them.

Picking up on Aaron's thoughts, Xon simply said, "Indeed, I too have noticed this and was hesitant to comment on it." pouring himself some juice and sipping it, he looked at Aaron, "My report still needs to be given. The keels have been laid and I foresee the first four of the new class of starship to be ready for trials in one month's time, so far, we have been successful in keeping this a secret from Pete. I have kept him distracted by designing new systems to be integrated into the new class while at the same time keeping him busy retrofitting the moon docks on nine, I do not know, though, how long I can keep the secret from him."

"It's not so much as I want to keep it from Pete, as I am hoping to surprise him. I don't want this turning into a prank, just a nice surprise, that truthfully he can be let in at any time, so he is not hurt by being kept out of the loop, it's not that important really to keep him away from the construction." Aaron thought some more about it, "If he presses for a start date, tell him you already did and take him there, explain that we wanted to get a jump start to surprise him, make sure it does not get out of hand."

"I shall do so, I agree, pranks are supposed to be fun for all involved, and this was never intended to be a prank," Xon finished his juice before taking the empty glasses and pitcher with him towards the door, "I shall wash these and place them back in the cupboards for you, Tyler and Richard should be here shortly to go retrieve Andrew and Edward." Stopping at the doorway he looked back, "Which brings up the point of the prank Kenny played on Edward, does that one not go beyond the fun for everyone guideline?"

"Edward was extremely embarrassed, but I think you will find that it was not a prank, as Kenny is, in fact, Edward's Nakodo and by Omiai customs, he was well within his rights to do exactly everything he did," Aaron smirked, "Consider it in the realm of some of the outsiders' customs of the embarrassing bachelor party."

Fred had gotten the strangest message; porting down to the trauma wing at Altair Minor; he walked towards the security office wondering who wanted to see him. Smiling and greeting those he passed in the halls, it was interesting to see that even with the other hospitals opening up, this one was most requested it seemed. Walking into the security office, he waved at Kyle before walking into his office, "I got your message," Fred told him, as he sat down in the free chair, before asking more than slightly confused, "Someone wants to talk to me?"

"Thanks for coming in Fred, it is strange in a weird way, this youngster came into the office this morning and asked if he could talk to the one who had fixed his arm and leg, it took a little bit, before I understood what he was getting at, he is one of the Israeli kids we rescued, and the only person he described I thought might match would be you," Kyle smiled at Fred, just as confused as Fred was.

Fred thought back to last week, and tried to come up with someone who would still be around that he had worked on, not remembering anyone that stuck out in his mind, "I mostly worked with the kids on the bio-beds, the ones that had broken bones and lacerations, they should have gone back home days ago."

"Unless they had family still in one of the bio-tubes, I think we still have almost one hundred kids from that attack still here having limbs re-grown," Kyle looked over at the plasma wall and the section of the video feeds monitoring the hospital and grounds and pointed, "that's him, going into the Atrium right now."

Fred glanced over his shoulder at the plasma and caught sight of a teen going into the atrium and stood, "Well, time to find out what is going on." Walking towards the door, "Thanks for calling me, Kyle; I'll let you know what he wanted, unless he wants to keep it private that is."

Walking into the atrium, Fred looked around and spotted the teen off to one side near a section with a lot of other Israelis', approaching the teen, he was interrupted by several parents who had seen his shirt crest and stopped him, "A moment please, Young Man."

Backing up a step, the parent of one of the boys in the trauma pod rethought stopping the young man and quickly rephrased his complaint to be more of a question, "Sorry, but I have a question, a small problem we have all noticed as you are doing a wonderful job of saving our sons," he pointed to the large group of parents. "I was wondering why you are re-growing our sons' foreskins, they were removed soon after birth as part of our faith, and it is troubling to us, as if you don't recognize our beliefs."

Staring at the man for a several long moments, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about, "Your faith? I'm afraid I don't understand, not really, all of the youngsters are undergoing regeneration of their bodies, there is not a way to specifically target an area of the skin and tell the system not to re-grow that section, as far as the system knows, the DNA map says there is skin and nerve endings there and not finding what the DNA map states is supposed to be there, regenerates the missing skin." Fred still did not see what the problem was.

"But by re-growing that which was removed during the Brit milah you have broken the covenant."

Fred looked around, trying to find the voice that yelled that out, not finding the person, he shrugged, "I don't understand your faith, and I'm not sure how to answer something I don't understand the question to begin with, not and be able to give you a solid answer," holding up his hand as he sensed some hostility, "I am not making fun of your faith, I don't have any clue on what your faith is or what it means to be part of your faith or even what a Brit milah is or what the covenant you speak of is."

Picking up several thoughts coming from several parents, Fred frowned, before pushing his way over to glare at them, "If you truly feel that by saving your sons' lives and the simple fact of their skin being whole once more that they are no longer your sons then get the hell out of our kingdom." Glaring at the group of parents Fred pulled a chair out and stood on it. "So if you are so closed minded to blame your son for something not even in his control, you don't deserve to have a son, you don't deserve to be a parent. The foreskins are being re-grown as part of the same process that is giving these youngsters a chance to be normal, to be able to run and play, to live happy lives...and you would condemn them and throw them away."

Abrams could have sworn as the young man twisted around he could see the ghost of a dragon getting ready to strike, just for a moment, the anger became a visible thing and it was frightening, while upset that his son's foreskin was being re-grown, he did not place the same significance that some of the other fathers did on it, he would leave the choice up to his son if at age thirteen he had the Brit Shalom performed to satisfy the covenant, in his mind, it had already been satisfied, but he knew how some people were.

After being contacted by Scott from the kitchens, Aaron ported in and saw that Fred was enraged over something, not only that, but he could sense a faint trace of energy that seemed to be feeding off his anger and it had a visible shape to it, he would have to do a lot of research to find out why the dragons were becoming reality, but for now, he had to calm his lover.

Abrams watched as someone moved through the crowd making his way over to the young man's side and gripped his shoulder, he decided that the man must be some type of relative, because as soon as he touched the younger one he saw the outline of a larger dragon curl its wings around the younger one, once again it was just a brief flash, almost as if it was one image ghosting over another.

Siphoning off some of the energy Fred had been building around him, Aaron pulled him off the chair and kissed him, he kissed him hard and fiercely enough to side track his anger, once he felt the energy that was palpable moments ago disappear, he smiled as he released Fred, "Go on Love, go meet with the young one who asked to see you, I'll handle this crowd, take him to the garden."

Keeping the smile on his face as Fred went over to the youngster and walked outside with him, once Fred was gone, he dropped the smile and turned around and pierced the group of parents with a glare that could melt steel, "Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on, and why Fred was almost mad enough to kill with a glance?" skimming the parents' thoughts as he looked around the room, he shook his head as some of the people winced as he dug a little deeper. Rubbing his temple, Aaron thought to himself this was just what he needed, a religious problem.

Hearing someone clear their throat his hand flew up and he glared their way, "I will start, you will listen!" skimming minds again this time looking for specific traditions they felt had been broken, he finally looked at one of the men, "If someone who is older than thirteen converts to Judaism do you shun them for not being circumcised, or do you allow them into your faith?"

Startled he backed up and gulped at the intense stare directed his way, "No they are not shunned, depending on how strict the denomination that they join is, it depends on whether they are left un-circumcised or follow the Brit shalom."

"So, we have established that there is an option for those who are intact, whole and not circumcised in your faith," Aaron turned as he continued to glare and stopped on another victim. "Your holy laws that govern your faith, do they take into account acts outside of a person's control, does your faith seek to punish those that loose limbs or even those who are healed of injuries that would have left them disabled or worse."

The bearded man backed up before shaking his head no, "No."

"So, we have established that there is a way for those that are not of your faith to convert and deal with that little piece of skin," glancing at the group of parents who started this, he finished with, "And we have established that your faith does not punish those for things out of their control...so tell me why are you willing to throw away your sons for something that when they are released from the treatment area can easily be corrected, and allowed by your faith."

Getting no answer from anyone, Aaron sighed, "I am not picking on your faith, but I don't think any of you truly asked or found out what is happening to your sons, each of them when they are fully healed and released will be as new and unmarked as if they were just born, their organs will be as new as if they were just born, so why don't you treat them like newborns and on the eighth day, perform the Brit Milah once more, why do you go against your faith and hold them responsible for something they had no control over?"

Sensing more confusion than anything else, "Why don't you have the Rabbi's come talk to me, to us, and come together with a ruling that would follow your faith." Aaron looked around the room, "I truly am not picking on you or your faith, but it does not seem right to me to cut off your own son, to cast him out of your family and everything he knew because of something not in his control, something even your faith allows to be done to new converts. Think about it, and for those that this is unacceptable and you still want to cast out your sons, they will be welcome in my kingdom...and in my kingdom they will not be cast aside for something not under their control."

Once outside with the young teen, Fred looked over, "I don't know if I remember hearing your name last week, but I do remember you," smiling, Fred pointed towards the path leading into the woods; let's take a walk, shall we. Once they hit the tree line, he continued, "Let's hope I'm not mixing you up with someone else, besides the fractured ribs you had a broken arm and your leg was broken in three places," looking at the teen again he grinned, "You said you wanted to be a doctor someday."

Ephraim smiled as his hero remembered him, "Yes, we were never introduced, I am called Ephraim, I remember that day, it changed my life, and you saved my life that day. I wanted to thank you for what you did for me and my friend Daniel."

"You're Welcome Ephraim," Fred smiled as he steered them towards the left hand branch, that way they would end up near the beach off to one side of the airfield. "Out of curiosity, why haven't you gone home, back to your parents, I thought most of the..." searching for a good word he finally settled on, "most of those not needing intense treatment ended up going home Saturday night, how come you stuck around?"

"The school was my home, my parents were killed in a raid last year, I have no one left but Daniel, he and I share a room, and share dreams that will never be," Ephraim sighed as he tried to think about the best way of broaching the subject, now that the person he wanted to ask was here, it was not as easy as he hoped it would be."

Seeing that Ephraim was troubled and trying to find a way to say something, Fred skimmed his thoughts and steered the conversation around so he would have an easier time asking to stay, "So you and Daniel share a dream," sitting down on one of the sand dunes, Fred looked up as he hugged his legs, "What dream do both of you share?"

It was so beautiful here Ephraim thought, so peaceful even, so different from the war torn land he was raised in, "Our dream is to become doctors, a dream that we will never see come true, though it is nice to dream, isn't it." Sighing, he sat down and stared out into the ocean.

"Why is that, why can't you grab your dream of becoming healers?" Fred nudged the conversation around to what Ephraim wanted to ask.

"We have no parents, we have no one that would sponsor us to university or the means to pay for schooling, and once we finish high school, we will be expected to join the military, all options of further education will be denied to us, without the money to pay for that education and a place to live," Ephraim sighed and glanced over at Fred, "Is it not the same in your country?"

"No," Fred laughed, "We have a unique school system, for one, we are paid for good grades by the kingdom, every grade at a certain level means a certain allowance every grade below a certain level means the allowance is reduced, we advance at our own pace and every person is encouraged to excel, I wanted to be a healer, so I was encouraged to chase my dream, all education in the kingdom is free to our people."

"How..." Ephraim was shocked, "How can you do this?"

Fred shrugged, "We have a different view of the world, we can do what we pretty much want, we have no use for money, not like you all do. I can't remember the last time I had a reason to buy something in the kingdom, now I have used money to buy things when I've been outside the kingdom for gifts or meals. Our technology allows us to create pretty much anything we can imagine, simply and without effort, it allows us to pursue more important things."

Ephraim finally got the courage in his shock to ask, "How...how do...What do we have to do to stay here so we can have our dreams come true?"

"Well, I guess it depends, if you have no other family you could ask for refugee status, and you can move into one of the crèche schools in one of our territories, there you would have the benefit of going to school and following your dreams under our academic system, without worrying about how to pay for it, you could even travel and visit one of the other worlds if you wanted. If you were gay and wanted to join us, then other options would open for you," Fred kept a constant watch on Ephraim's thoughts to see which way he would go.

"Daniel gets released tomorrow with the rest of our schoolmates; may I continue to stay here now that you know I should have been sent home last weekend?" Ephraim sighed; he hoped he could stay at least until he could talk to Daniel and maybe they could come up with an answer together.

"Well, the way I look at it, Daniel is your family, so you have the same right to stay and wait as the rest of the parents in there do, more, in my mind, as you don't seem to be worried over some skin growing back like they are," Fred stood and smiled down at Ephraim, "Come on, I'll walk you back, I'll even go one step farther, I know you want to talk this over with your friend, I'll have Kyle bring you to Sol Station Monday, that will give you the rest of the weekend to really talk to Daniel before you have to decide which way works for you, is that fair?"

Ephraim jumped up grinning and hugged Fred quickly before blushing and jumping back, "Very Fair thank you."

Dinner in the oven with Shoji's promise to watch it in case he ran later than expected, Aaron found himself standing in the Core, looking at the Jeeves program, "Jeeves, please access the archives and correlate any information on the manifestation of Dragons as part of our gifts. Did the previous versions leave any information about this?"

Blinking and shimmering, Jeeves looked at Aaron, "This information is included on Clan Stranton specific traits."

"What the hell is a Clan specific trait?" Aaron looked over at Jeeves wondering if he was more hindrance than help.

"A clan specific trait is a trait hard wired into the DNA of a Clan, like a marker that Clan Stranton uses to recognize each other," Jeeves blinked in and out.

Sitting down on the edge of the recliner, Aaron stared at the hologram for several moments, "Corry, list all Clan Stranton specific traits."

"Clan Stranton has multiple traits only allowed in their genome...Longer life...Accelerated learning and increased cognition...manipulation of energy into specific shapes, coupled with strong emotions through kinetic control...Clan Marker...intuitive transfer of Clan skills telepathically..."

"Stop..." Aaron looked over at Jeeves and tried to accept what he heard, and then he wondered out loud, "How did the Dragon legend get linked with Clan Stranton and Alterans?" Aaron looked up when he noticed the shimmer and blink Jeeves did as he cycled through programmed responses.

"Aaron Stranton Prime of Clan Stranton had a favorite weapon he used in combat, and then later on during times of peace he refined the skill to amuse the children with magical displays of mythical creatures, he used a dragon he formed out of energy to terrorize the troops of God's faithful," Jeeves blinked again before looking at Aaron. "The previous version of yourself learned to kinetically control energy and shape it and to compress it into pure plasma to be used as a weapon, he then linked that control to your genome, to the Clan Marker for the reset version to use...for you to use."

"And the accelerated learning?" Aaron thought back; it was interesting if he thought about it that several months ago, several of his lovers were behind in their studies and now almost all of them had passed high school, Kenny was a perfect example of that.

"Aaron version 1.0 enabled several modifications to the alteration process, one of the primary alterations he enabled was for cognition and speed of learning, his reasoning was that those rescued would be at a disadvantage from their previous lives and he wanted to give them a step up in their new life," Corry replied, causing Aaron to look up towards the ceiling in thought which was short lived when Jeeves entered the conversation by adding, "He also did a further modification to the Clan genome increasing that factor a step further including a type of photographic memory, so the Clan would have an advantage over all others."

Glancing at the clock, he still had some time so he laid back on the recliner and stared at the ceiling in thought, further twist and turns slowly showing themselves it seemed.

Tyler grinned as he and Richard appeared in the family room of the Palace and he caught a glimpse of Edward pacing in and out of his grandmother's office, nudging Richard he whispered, "He can't still be upset, can he?"

Leaning forward to catch sight of Edward, "No, I think this is something else entirely," Grinning evilly, he smirked at Tyler, Let's get both of them back, he can always tire him out in a good way, like making him a bottom until he settles down," Richard sent the end as they walked into the office and smiled at his uncle and grandmother, "Hello everyone."

Glancing around and not seeing him, Tyler asked, "Where's Andrew?"

"Tyler dear, good you're here," Victoria smiled as she looked around her pacing grandson, "Andrew is in his room, trying to organize the packing crates I think, either that or his brother drove him nutters with his pacing and he escaped to the safety of his room, your pick, Dear."

Giggling, Tyler waved and left the room, he could start porting up Andrews's things to Aaron's office; from there they could port it to one of the carriers and back to the compound. Entering Andrew's room, he stopped when he came face to face with a stack of boxes blocking his way. Staring at them for a moment, he started to port them up to the conference room, two minutes later, he stood looking into an empty room wondering where Andrew got off too. Spotting several duffels by the closet, he ported those up and checked in the bathroom and not finding anyone or anything more to port out, went into the hallway and looked both ways before pathing Richard, "I ported all Andrew's stuff up like we planned, but he wasn`t in his room, did I miss him, did he take another way back to you?"

Richard stopped what he was doing and closed his eyes as he held up his hand to stop the discussion, searching with his mind like Aaron had taught them, he was hoping that even though Andrew was not Clan yet, the bond might still be there, "I don't feel him, I don't feel the bond like Aaron does, how about you, it could be because he is not altered yet, I guess."

Tyler tried and he could not find Andrew either and he was starting to get worried, enough so that he ran down the hall and rushed into the office, causing the rest of them to get alarmed."You need to contact palace security, get them started searching for Andrew," staring at Edward who looked worried he turned and faced Richard, "I lost him, I have been able to feel him in the back of my mind, ever since the day we created our son, I don't feel him anymore...we need Aaron!!!"

Richard looked at Tyler for half a second before glancing back at his uncle, "Grab a fire extinguisher just in case pulling power like we are going to do, causes a short," leaning over, Richard grabbed onto Tyler and started to pull power from the lamp, linking with Tyler and sending their minds racing to find Aaron.

Not having come to a conclusion on anything he had learned so far, Aaron sat up and tilted his head as if he was hearing a noise just out of range of being able to be heard and then it came barreling into his mind, along with the panic in Richard and Tyler's minds.

"Whoa, calm down loves, and tell me what happened," Aaron sent soothing thoughts their way.

"We can't find Andrew, he's missing and Tyler can't feel him anymore," Richard sent over, the worry causing Aaron to jump up and try to find him himself.

"We're on our way, institute a lock down on the palace until we get there," Aaron told them as he sent his love and the certainty that they would find him, a moment later, Aaron was in the common area inside the Clan house pathing everyone, "`EMERGENCY, EVERYONE SHOW UP IN THE COMON AREA IN BATTLE GEAR!!!" looking at Doug and Kenny who were sitting staring at him in shock at hearing him in their heads, he told them, "Everyone means you too."

Opening his eyes and glad he was not smelling smoke, Richard walked over to the desk, picked up the phone and dialed four numbers, once it was answered, he looked at his older cousin as he said, "This is Richard...Of Clan Stranton of the Kingdom of Altare, initiate a total lockdown, Andrew is missing...find him."

Aaron finished dressing and looked around as most everyone in the compound had assembled, he had not directed the thought to his lovers only, so security had picked up on it and came running, "Andrew is missing and Tyler has lost the bond link he and Andrew had initiated, even I can't feel him right now, which means he's unconscious." Making sure everyone knew by meeting each of their eyes, he motioned Kenny to come close, "Once we arrive, I want every mind examined, staff and guards, check for secret passageways that he might have gotten hurt in, I want the palace blanketed...port in three...two...port."

A moment later, the last of the security ported out startling the gestalt team on Centauri Station who had tried to get an answer out of someone on what was going on, finally one of them mentioned in passing that Andrew was missing before porting to Sol Station and not taking time to breath grabbed the raw power still cycling down and ported into the palace a moment or two behind Aaron, and unlike Aaron, they ported into the main entrance where the crowd who had been demanding to know what was going on, they had stilled as the Alteran security teams started to move through the crowd, stopping and staring at each person they passed.

Aaron looked around the office after appearing and noticed how pale the royals had gone, seeing them appear dressed for battle.

Victoria trying to wrap her mind around the fact that something horrible had gone wrong, glanced at the clock, and answering the unspoken question, "He left here thirty five minutes ago."

"Alright, we have a time frame now, Friedrich, take William, the security office is your next stop, check the video feeds to the exits." Aaron looked around as most of the Clan had already left, "Xon...Tyler...Richard, you three guard those in this room while I search for Andrew," making sure they nodded to his order, he ported out, this time appearing in the main entrance.

Having checked with the security team sweeping the minds of those present, they had just finished scanning the crowd without a clue being found, he then ported to the kitchen near the back door leading to the garden and noticed one of the maids looking nervous, glancing her way Aaron found she was silently cursing her luck at not being out of here sooner, moving to the door and keeping her in sight, he skimmed the minds of those present in the room and noticed one thing, they wondered what the maid was doing in the kitchen as this was not an area she was normally allowed in.

Pulling out his P.A.D.D. he tied it into the terminal here in the palace and through it the Earth Core and triggered Andrew's panic button and noticed right away a picture of the table leg in this very kitchen, changing the screen he activated the alarm feature and his eyes traveled up to the maid, and before she had a chance to make a run for it, ported behind her and grabbed her by the neck and kinetically froze her.

Hearing back nothing but negatives on the search, Aaron sent back, "I found someone with Andrews's panic button, meet me back at the family room," a moment later, he ported the two of them to the family room leaving behind the stunned and scared kitchen staff.

Staring into the woman's eyes as he waited for the Clan to show up, Aaron noticed out of the corner of his eye, Victoria and family walk in, once he noticed the Clan in the room, he explained, "She is wearing Andrew's panic button, his watch is on her wrist, something he has not taken off since I gave it to him."

"You're wrong, he gave it to me as a gift, this morning, as he wasn't going to need it at the new school he was going to," Amanda tried, before she saw Edward glaring at her with hate.

"She lies, when he left the room forty minutes ago to go to his room to wait, he was wearing it," Edward tried to get to her, hands clenched but the Clan moved around him and stopped him from moving forward.

"We shall see," Aaron gritted through his teeth, as he invaded her mind, peeling back the past hour and a half slowly, watching it unfold and the seeing the young girl be ushered past security he fumed silently as he dug deeper towards the day the plan was conceived. Finding out what he wanted to know, he released her to fall to the floor and for the first time heard her horse screams. Seeing Richard reach into his pocket for the neural imager and crystal, he shook his head no, "Leave her, for now, her crimes are against the line of succession, though if we don't get Andrew back, she will be ours."

Victoria's indrawn breath was extremely loud as she looked down at the maid with hate in her eyes, "What do you mean exactly, by that?

"I mean she was part of a plan to drug and rape Andrew to get her niece pregnant with an heir to the throne, they wanted to get it done before Andrew was out of reach, because they hated the thought of your family marring into mine and thus losing out on the chance of capturing one of your heirs...to be queen," Aaron spit out as he sent his mind searching for the location that the deed was supposed to take place. Looking back at the maid again, she started to scream as he took a visualization of the hotel room and tried again, this time with success. Looking out the window, he realized Andrew was not to be taken very far, he pointed out the window, "That hotel right there is where they planned to take him."

Even before he was able to give a visualization to everyone, half of the security team ported out, Glancing at his lovers he sent them the visualization of the room and hall and told them to port into the hall so there was not all of them trying to port into the room. Feeling Kenny grab onto him again, he ported into the room and glanced around, searching for any sign of Andrew and heard a slap and a scream come from around the corner and rushed over to see Kenny had taken a page out of Fred's book and slapped the young girl who was now on the floor, his eyes traveled to the bed and noticed right away it might have been too late as Andrew was laying there naked and hard, and very wet where he shouldn't be.

Kenny, seeing some female thing riding up and down on Andrew's crotch with a smile on her face, rushed over and hauled back his fist and let go with all his strength, knocking her off of Andrew when she was rising up. Moving around to the side of the bed, Kenny saw her shake her head and glare at him in rage preparing to fight him and he kicked her hard in the temple causing her to crumble to the ground, pulling his leg back to kick her again, he found himself being picked up and pulled into a hug.

"Leave her Kenny, kick her like that again and it might kill her too soon," Aaron told him, as he sat Kenny down on the bed and pulled his scanner out of his arm pouch and scanned Andrew for drugs just as the rest of the Clan came in dragging an adult with them.

Kevin spat out angrily as he threw the man to the ground, "this vile piece of filth is the girl's father, and he was in on it, in fact he carried Andrew over, the maid is his girlfriend."

Fred, seeing Aaron was treating Andrew, pulled his scanner out and moved to the girl's side and started running his scan over the girl's abdomen before placing his hand on her stomach and kinetically bursting the egg descending to the swimming sperm, running the scanner over her abdomen once more, he found a second egg and burst that one just in case, before deciding the safest thing was to kill off all the sperm before it had a chance to fertilize an egg he might miss, watching the screen he kinetically burst the sperm he saw moving on the screen of his scanner, all the while, falling into the same trap he had gotten so mad at Aaron over, using his own stores of energy to perform micro kinesis.

Sighing as he looked over to where the girl was, and seeing her being worked on by Fred, Aaron stood up and strained as he counted heads, "Andrew will be fine once we get him home and flush the drugs out of his system...Friedrich, turn this piece of crap over to Palace security, I want it alive for now, until we decide who he is going to be tried by."

Seeing Tyler gently washing Andrew, Aaron smiled at him, "The rest of you take Andrew home, someone stop by and pick up his stuff from my office, I'll meet you with Edward at the Clan Med bay." Sensing some wobbling from behind him Aaron grabbed Fred before he fell over and scanned him and silently cursed, "Take Fred with you and stuff him with calories, I'll meet you shortly." Grabbing onto the stunned female, Aaron ported out with the prisoner knowing his Lovers would shortly be back home.

Appearing before Victoria as she paced in the family room, he dropped the naked girl on the floor, "Andrew is safe and on his way to the med bay, this thing, on the other hand is going to be in some serious pain, not only from the kick and punch that Kenny administered, but from the micro surgery Fred did on her to make sure she did not conceive, now, or in the future," he told her as he ran the scanner over the girl and saw what Fred had done. "At least not without being treated by our hospitals, that is."

"Unfortunately, I do not foresee that happening anytime soon," Victoria glared at the girl as she took a seat and her husband moved to her side and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Were those two all that was involved?"

"Friedrich is handing over the father to your security forces, which happens to be the maid's boyfriend," Aaron sat down and nodded at Friedrich when he walked into the room with the Captain of the palace security forces, "I hate to say it, Victoria, but right now, your security is compromised."

Bob started to huff up in annoyance and then deflated as he realized he was right, after all, a short while ago, the prince was taken from this very place, and under their very noses.

Closing his eyes as he rubbed his temples, Aaron came upon a solution that would work, "Victoria, how do you feel about spending the next night or two up on Sol Station, while you're there I can have Friedrich and some of my guys beef up the palace security and start handing out some of the new toys I planned to give your people." Thinking of one last thing he invaded the girls mind one more time, causing her to twitch in pain and implanted a lock out, she would not be able to tell anyone about what she had done or what had happened."

"I think we will take you up on your generous offer," Alfred looked at his son and grandson before feeling his wife grasp his hand in gratitude.

"The visiting dignitary quarters are on the deck below my office and there is a small office there you can work from if you need to, video link and all. This WOULD have to happen as we are reassigning security details around, so there was no coverage by my people on Edward and Andrew," Sighing, Aaron smiled even though no one believed it was genuine. "Friedrich and his teams will stay with you and escort you up to Sol Station; I am going to take Edward back home as soon as he picks up his pack," sending a look Edward's way, telling him to take off and grab his things, "I'll flush the drugs out of Andrew's system and link our minds so he can deal with the attack, I had planned to begin resequencing Andrew tonight, but now we'll come back after supper and Andrew has dealt with the attack, so you can see for yourselves he is alright, I'll leave that in your hands for now to deal with," Aaron pointed at the stirring girl who Bob had gone over and handcuffed.

Seeing Edward rushing back in, Aaron stood and pulled Edward over, "Victoria, James, I will see you in several hours, until then." Waiting for their nod Aaron ported out and started the two port hop back to Altare Prime.

Aaron Smiled at Andrew as he woke up, "Hey there, you gave everyone a fright with your disappearance, I've flushed the drugs out of your system so you should be fine now."

Andrew looked up at Aaron and frowned, "I walked past the maid and she was spraying something in the air, I walked through it and that is the last thing I remember...yet, for some reason you have let me know what happened," thinking about it, Andrew sat up and hugged Aaron, "Why don't I feel terrible for what happened, I feel angry but not like I thought people would act after being used without permission," even though he had dealt with it he was hesitant to use the word raped.

Aaron smiled as he hugged Andrew back, "That would be my doing, while you slept and the drugs were being flushed out of your body, I merged with your mind, and together, we dealt with it, you might not have the memory right now of dealing with it, but we did, for the most part, you did not have a lot of baggage to deal with as you did not remember it happening, because you were drugged, it made it a little easier."

Standing at hearing the yips coming from behind him, "I don't think you realize the danger Tyler went through this evening," Aaron grinned at the confused look on Andrew's face, "After all, he endangered life and limb to save you some supper...I fixed lasagna."

Grinning, Andrew jumped off the bio-bed, "Well, we can't have his bravery go without a thank you kiss then, right after I devour my portion." grinning, Andrew heard the yipping again and wondered what else happened as he walked towards the door and saw several puppies on one of the bio-beds, "Bloody Hell, every time I come here, there is another surprise with you lot." Leaning over the side of the pen he smiled as his hand was attacked by eager tongues.

Laughing as he picked up one of the pups for a tummy scratch, "Yes, well after you've been altered and moved in, I expect you will not feel so left behind most of the time," placing the pup back in the pen, Aaron pulled Andrew tight, "You had us worried for a bit, Andrew." Holding on for a moment longer, "Come on, we need to get you fed, and then Tyler and Richard can take you over to Sol Station so your father and grandmother can see that you're alright, then once you're back, you're mine. Laughing again at the eager expression on Andrew's face, he shook his head as they walked down the path, "Not that way, I plan to pop you in the bio-tube and get started on your resequencing, that part will come two days later as `THE NEED' hits, and you work your way through the Clan."

Spotting Damien still in the dining area talking, Aaron called out to get his attention, "Damien, do you know where Donny and Bruce are, the pups are ready to be picked up, their DNA scans are complete."

Damien jumped up and rushed over and hugged Aaron, "Um...we never really talked about what to do when they need to go outside, to the bathroom."

"Well, with puppy's there is a simple rule to follow, if they eat, they need to go to the bathroom, if the drink, they need to go to the bathroom, when they first wake up, they need to go to the bathroom," Aaron grinned, "luckily they soon outgrow that, you need to take them to the same place to do their business every time, when they are small, carrying them works real well if you don't want to clean up accidents all the time. We'll set up an area outside to the right, in the corner, for you to take your pup to do his bathroom duties, once they are a little older, you can mentally reinforce where they are supposed to go."

Picking up on that, Damien was pathing a message as he ran out of the hall Aaron laughed as he sat down next to Edward who came over and hugged his brother, pulling Edward off Andrew so he could eat, he whispered in his ear, "He's fine, Edward, really he is and no lasting mental anguish either."

Editors' ramblings

RadioRanchers note: Well, it is certainly good to know that Andrew is fine and that there was no permanent damage. Of course, WolfWalker and I talked about ending the chapter in a cliffhanger, but we actually had pity on you and decided not to do that. Do we get any brownie points for that? WolfWalker's words that follow were actually written before the last paragraph he sent me so I could include it in the chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

A/N - Well don't blame me for Andrew's unforeseen attack, it's all the evil editor's fault, I had mentioned to Darryl tonight as we were chatting that Andrew was nowhere to be found as Tyler went to gather him and his belongings. Well, he mentioned a few things and the end scene was the result; the question is, is it evil enough, after all he wanted to end it in a cliffie?