Teep

Chapter 62

Interesting he thought as he looked at the data reports, the energy signatures were troubling and led one to believe something that was most illogical, sending the data to the Ruling Council Science Guild member for review he went back to his other duties, they would inform him of the direction they wished him to take, until then he had work to do.

XX

Not having anything to do until later on, Aaron and Thunder spent the morning playing tag with the youngsters on horseback, breakfast came and went and they were still playing with short times out for stuffing breakfast sandwiches that had been ported over into their faces. Linked to Thunder's mind, he could tell she was getting a kick out of playing tag with the other horses , all to soon though, they were all involved in washing their horses down and giving them a good brushing out before letting them go off to play. Herding the youngsters into the showers, Aaron smiled as they all got a good look when the warm water caused him to get half hard, finished and laughing at the stares, Aaron walked over to the drying room and got the blow dry treatment before stopping and checking the terminal for job duties posted, to see how things were progressing.

Feeling an arm wrap around his waist, Aaron leaned over and kissed Mark, "Morning, Love, I see that you have more than enough help running the farms, how are they really going?"

Grinning after the kiss and the whistles it garnered from the youngsters, Mark reached over and brought up some figures, "We have more cattle than we know what to do with, "I've started a slow and careful culling, with the new blood and breeding program we've come up with, I don't think we have anything to worry about for a long time. Hogs, well I ended up having to cull half the herds, and ended up discarding them as unsuitable for food consumption, to old and way past their prime. I ended up keeping those less than two years old as breeders until I get them replaced and the really young stock. I have an order in with Gene Corp, and we created a new incubator facility over on Gondor so we can quickly ramp up piglets."

Mark ended up laughing as he held onto Aaron at seeing his expression, "That will teach you, Love," smirking at Aaron as he sighed, "Any way the poultry end of things is fine for eggs at the moment, meat birds are going to be a problem for another four months; after that we should be good. Our dairy on the other hand is going to be a year before we can stop imports."

Aaron blinked several times in surprise as he took in the information, as Mark started to open his mouth to say something else, he did the only thing he could do in his defense and kissed him soundly sidetracking him, once Mark was wobbly, Aaron smirked and let his lips go, "It sounds like we need to have a meeting, let's find a time Tommy and Brian can meet with us and we can go over this from top to bottom, set aside several hours at least. What is the biggest problem with the expanding the dairy, then?"

"We need the AG bots redesigned so they can do the milking, the current bots we have are no good for what I need them to do, if I had a new design I could really expand, right now our herd is around one hundred and fifty head, not enough really, but to give a glass of milk a day to the youngsters, for the most part," Mark sounded frustrated as he explained the problem.

Thinking for a moment, Aaron looked up at the building's roof, "Pete, Kevin, Xon where are you guys right now and is the project are you working on time critical?"

"All three of us are in the common area working on a design for new carriers to use for colony immigration and Kevin is working on the new Core system designs to place on each planet, we've decided to create the Core cavern under where the new hospitals will be built...why?" Pete looked up as they all received the message and looked at each other wondering what was going on.

"Mark has a problem and needs the AG bots redesigned, it is the only way he can get the dairy up off the ground, I want you to hold off on anything until he gets his new design, food is more important right now than the colonies, after the design is finished and it works, we can use the middle earth replicators to build the things." Aaron smiled at Pete's panicked thoughts about no more ice cream and grinned as he checked to see if there were any youngsters around before going over to the transfer carrier and grinning as he ported the youngsters back to Prime. Doing a quick head count as the youngsters squeezed in an extra hug Aaron laughed as he and Mark appeared back at the compound, walked into the house and took the steps down into the common area recreation pit.

"Thank you, whoever brought my clothes out for me," Aaron smiled as he started to get dressed as Mark started to explain why the current AG bots were not suited to milking and by bringing up the plans, he started to point out what he needed changed. Finished, Aaron gave a wave, "I need to get a move on, but plan on everyone getting together if we can, after the announcement, we need to have another meeting to make sure we are all on the same page, I'll plan on bringing Edward back for that one, we can hold it on Sol station, in my conference room." Giving each of them a kiss to hold them over, Aaron ported out.

Stopping only long enough to chat for a few minutes with the gestalt crew, Aaron said his goodbyes and ported to his office, laughing at finding Doug, Kenny and Pat busy working with the tutor, Aaron kissed them on his way out the door and made the turns needed to end up in the med bay. Stopping at Rolph's bio-tube, he glanced at the recently finished deep scan and found no trace of cancer; smiling in satisfaction he reached over and started the release cycle, he waited for the lid to unseal, once unsealed he quickly removed the tubes and sensors and tapped him gently on the shoulder, "Rolph, time to wake up..."

Rolph opened his eyes and smiled, he felt refreshed and unlike what he had been feeling like lately, he felt full of energy. Looking down he blushed as he realized he was naked and then it came back to him, the cancer and being cured. Grinning as he realized he was cured now, he slid back enough to sit up and tried to ignore the fact he was naked, "Thank you for saving my life," glancing around the med bay he noticed he was the only one in this section and relaxed as he swung his legs around and started to stand, only to start to fall.

"Whoa there, take it easy for the next few minutes," Aaron caught Rolph before he had a chance to fall down, "your muscles need a few minutes to wake up so to speak, we ended up regenerating almost every cell in your body to make sure we got all the cancer cells, so you need to move slowly for the next hour or so, think carefully on what you want to do and do it slowly, your body will remember, quickly catching on again, a few hours from now you will be ready to jog around the football pitch if you want."

Rolph did not feel like it right now, but he did not doubt the words Aaron told him, sitting down on the chair that appeared out of nowhere he blushed again as Aaron started to dress him, he felt embarrassed and ashamed.

Aaron stopped as he slid the shorts up Rolph's legs so he could look into his eyes, "Why...there is no reason to feel ashamed Rolph, if we become lovers, I would do this and more just because it is nice to be shown someone cares enough to do the simple things to help you out." staring into Rolph's eyes, Aaron smiled, "Embarrassed I can understand, but never be ashamed, Rolph, even I from time to time need help, to tell the truth you missed my big speech about how all of us are a bunch of nudists, only wearing clothes for protection or when we are outside the kingdom." Fastening the snap of Rolph's pants as he picked up the teen's shirt without taking his eyes off him or losing the smile, Aaron was rewarded by a shy smile as he rolled up the shirt so he could push it over Rolph's head. "How about we get something to eat and go over what you missed the past few days."

Kevin moved over to one side as he watched Pete and Xon design the new AG bot, he was working on the software side of things, integrating the scanning technology with the milking system, that way the bots could check for disease as they milked, he was designing the default scenario when he looked at Mark's back and asked, "Mark, if the scanner picks up something that needs treatment, I figured on shunting the cow to one of the side lots for someone to come take a closer look at them, but what do you want me to tell the system to do with the milk?"

Glancing back at Kevin and smiling, remembering briefly the morning wake up call, "How precise can you get with the scanning software? Can we fine tune it so if the cow has an illness that carries over into the milk it is destroyed, if it is an illness not involving the milk, maybe an injury or other type of damage that the milk can be used?"

Looking at the database, Mark shrugged, "I can probably do all that and more, I can pull off the scan data to match the disease database in the system and design a drop down menu for each disease telling the bots what to do, or I can do it by disease class, you can change it at will then."

"So I can program the whole thing from one terminal, like I do now?" Mark got a nod back and blew a kiss towards Kevin, "Ok, that will work if the diseases can be grouped with a 'change all' to this button, that way I can change the range all at once, I would appreciate it; it will make things go faster." facing the screen once more, he frowned, "Is there any way to not only warm the bots' arms so they are not as cold, more like say people at ninety eight degrees, but give the bots' arms a flexible covering that is easily washed, yet rubber like, so it is not rough on the cows udders?"

Pete stared at the monitor with the design on it, "Well, I suppose I could come up with something, but why would you need something like that?"

"If something cold or too rough handles the cow's udder, she can tense up and not let her milk out, that's why farmers still mostly do the cleaning and checking for problems by hand, it relaxes and stimulates the cow to release her milk." Mark pointed to the next screen where he had started to play a clip from and old PBS show so they could see the steps taken in milking a cow. "The first part shows you how most of it is done, the second part shows an automation line, problem is they ended up with more work in other areas and less milk."

Pete watched the short program with his eyes narrowed, before looking at the design on the main plasma and started rapidly reworking it, now that he had an idea of what was supposed to happen, he thought he could do better, fingers pausing, he looked over his shoulder, "Do you have to have five fingers or is three good enough?"

Staring up at the monitor at the four armed bot, Mark thought about it, "Could you do it with five fingers, that would be less stressful when you pull a test strip of milk, maybe on just one of the arms, if it is going to be a problem."

Going back to designing the new bot, Pete hummed to himself as he looked back to the video screen and restarted it, so he could watch it through one more time to make sure he had it right. Bot finished, he pulled up the design of the milking parlor and quickly tore the design apart as his mind raced with new ideas from watching the automation section of the documentary. Half an hour later, Pete pointed to the screen, "Why do you have the tubes going into feed bowls? For that matter why do you feed them anything if they spend all day eating in the pastures anyway?"

Mark smiled, Pete was asking very good questions, "The chutes are there so that as each cow comes in, we can drop down custom amounts of feed into the feed pan, along with vitamins and minerals, it is also on the sweet side so it is a treat that they want to come back for more, it's how we train them to come to the milk house."

Pete stared at his design and then over to the video he had looped on the section dealing with automation, "How do you know which cow gets what then? I don't see anything that would let the computer know which cow is which?"

"The automated farms use a RFID tag in the numbered ear tag, the normal farms have a keypad next to each milking stall that you would punch in the tag number," Mark grinned as he watched Xon replicate the bot design.

"We can use the RFID tags in the ear tags Pete," Kevin walked up and pointed to the plasma, "We can place a scanner right here, that way as they enter the milk stall the system will identify them and drop the preprogrammed feed into the pan." Looking at Mark now who was smiling in anticipation, "Is the video real time, I mean how long does it take, on average, to milk out a cow?"

"Well," Mark thought about it, trying to remember what his old neighbor told him, "About five minutes per cow, I think, if you are doing it properly, we are slower at about ten to fifteen minutes right now." He then remembered something, "Old man McCauley was an innovator of sorts; he also milked three times a day, instead of the normal two, he said he had fewer cases of mastitis and illness in the herd, he figured if he could milk four times a day he would not have any problems."

Taking in the new information, Kevin went over and brought up the floor plan to the whole barn, "What if we installed scanners here, where the cows are coming into the chutes, it can divide those out that you are not going to be milked, yet still give them a section they can go in, to get their treats and say a health inspection, it means changing your design and a bigger barn, but at least the milking would go faster, not having stalls taken up with cows you're not milking."

Xon, seeing Mark smile and nod, asked him, "How do you train an animal that is used to being milked twice a day to change to four times a day? After all, if this design works and it increases the animals' health to be milked more often, it will not increase the manpower needed, by using the bots."

"Sound cues," Mark smiled at Xon before laughing at his expression, "We install speakers near the barns and inside where they get their feed, we play the same music over and over while they are eating, they'll quickly associate the music to getting their treats so when they hear it, they will move to the barn." Frowning as he looked at the video loop, "I don't even want to consider what everyone else is changing over to, with confinement barn systems back on Earth, talk about health problems in the herds.

Nodding now that it was explained to him, Xon went back to testing the bot that had been ported into the work pit to see if it would work as theorized.

Fred was happy as he walked into the Sol Station Med bay, even healers much older than he was that had been healers for years respected him, it was a good feeling. Spotting Eric talking to someone on one of the bio-beds, he waved and decided to walk closer to see what Eric had been up to, it had been too long since the last time they had talked, with both of them digging into their studies like they had been, "Hey Eric," glancing down and smiling at the young man on the bed, "hello to you too."

"G'Day mate," Karl told him sadly, as he looked back at Eric, "They sure grow them young here don't they."

Eric chuckled before falling back on the now standard line to anyone that asked that, "We age differently than you do, so don't assume we are as young as we look," looking up at Fred with a twinkle in his eyes, "Some of us are younger ," he added a giggle to his pathed message.

Laughing, Fred nodded his head and sat down on the edge of the young man's bio-bed so he could glance up at the monitor screen and see why he was here, eyes automatically going to the lower left hand corner of the screen first he saw three of eight were green. Smiling "Well I'm sure your regular healer will be by later to release you, it looks like you're about done, so where are you from with the weird accent?"

"I'm from a small sheep station over outside Toowoomba," Karl smiled shyly, before getting sad again and then flashing back to anger. Staring at Fred, he noticed the fancy shirt, like the ones those tall poppies wore when they dropped by to buy stock, "Who does a mate need to talk to, to sign up with your station?"

Eric sighed, "Karl, I hope you are not thinking of giving up your dream because of the anger you are feeling towards your parents, right now."

Karl shook his head, "I overhead some blokes talking, you see, about new planets, well I figure people have to eat, so it is my best chance to have my own station, maybe even mixed herds, sheep and cattle."

"Do you have any problems with gay people," Fred was curios and skimmed the young man's mind as he came up with his answer and was shocked with what he found.

"If that is what it takes I'm willing to turn over right here and you can do me gladly," Karl started to push the sheet down but was stopped by Eric's hand.

"I don't think that is what Fred had in mind, after all, he is married, and the Clan does not have sex with those outside the Clan," Eric grinned at Fred as he confused Karl even more.

Glancing at the screen again, Fred frowned, "Why would you offer yourself like that, you're not even gay?" picking up on the shrug and the thoughts of it did not matter much as long as both mates enjoyed themselves, Fred looked at Eric, "Is he trying to change his whole life because of his parents or does he really feel it does not matter, like his mind says?"

"A little of both," Eric answered out loud and grinned when Fred stared at Karl intensely.

"Karl, if you truly feel it does not matter who you share yourself with as long as both of you are willing, and enjoy it, like your mind is screaming, then I'm willing to go out on a limb for you," Fred smiled as he smirked at Eric, "Eric you can give him the standard pre resequence disclosure, then call me back after he has a day or two to think on it and we'll go from there. Patting Karl on the leg, Fred got up and headed towards the lounge down from Aaron's office he was going to meet the two teens from the Altair Trauma center for their final talk, he just had to decide if they were going to go to New York or California, to one of the crèche's there or Ephraim might luck out and chose to join them.

Karl looked at the retreating back of the strange tall poppy and asked, "Who was that tall poppy and what did he mean?"

Fred smiled as he saw both Daniel and Ephraim staring out of the side wall at the Earth in the distance, he had given them an extra two days to talk and ask questions of the staff that worked and lived on the island after the rest of the parents and children left, luckily the meeting yesterday with the leading Rabbi's went better than expected, they had all agreed that those that underwent treatment and had been restored would be treated as newborns no matter what age, they could have the Brit milah done eight days after being released or use the other option that they used for those joining the faith for the first time. Staring at the two, Fred shook himself out of his memories, "Welcome to Sol Station, I hope the two of you have found most of the answers to your questions, but if not, I'll do my best," Fred told them as he sat down on one of the couches.

Looking back one more time at the earth and the other station thing in the distance, the two teens reluctantly sat down on the couch across from Fred, "Thank you for the two extra days to talk things over, the Prime Minster came to talk to us yesterday, it gave us more things to think about," Daniel smiled at Fred.

Curious about the meeting, "Did the Prime Minister come to talk you out of staying with us?" Fred was not sure he would like that if it was true.

Ephraim smiled, "No, the opposite, he wanted to encourage us to stay, he heard us talking about wanting to be doctors and how the education system was different here."

"He had come along with all the Rabbi's to hold the discussion with the King, he was walking on the beach and walked behind us and overheard our conversation, he sat down next to us and told us if that was truly our dream, then we should do what it took to grab it while we could," Daniel thought back to the conversation, "He told us that now that the country was safe, things would slowly change for the better, but it would be too late if we tried to wait to follow our dreams."

Now he was not sure he liked what the Prime Minister said, even if he was complimenting them, Fred decided it almost sounded like the man had told them to whore themselves out if that was what it took. "So what did you decide then?"

"Well, we had two ways to go after our dream, the one which you offered was to move to one of your schools and study and learn, the other we talked about after having many conversations with those who work on the island," Daniel's eyes bugged out as the Reliant appeared in the window approaching Earth.

Ephraim followed his best friend's gaze when he got quiet and pointed to the Reliant, "If we want to follow our dream, you told us we could claim refugee status and become doctors, but what if our dream has changed, what if our dream is to be doctors on a space ship like that."

Facing Fred again, Daniel sat up straight, "We talked, we truly opened up with each other, while I like both boys and girls equally Ephraim is not sure...But one thing is sure, we both want to be doctors on one of those ships, so we wish to join you, we want you to make us gay if you can, so we can have what we desire."

Fred sat back on the couch, trying to figure out how they found out about them able to change someone's genetics, skimming their minds he picked up both Carl and Gordon had talked to them. Looking at Ephraim out of the corner of his eye he noticed him staring at Daniel in an appraising manor, "Is this something you truly are willing to do, Ephraim, this is not something that can be undone, once we alter your gene structure, you are that way forever, can you see yourself making love with another guy."

Still gazing at Daniel, Ephraim shook his head no, "I cannot see myself right now having sex with another guy...yet I can see and find exciting the thought of doing something with Daniel, when I think about it I find it to be something I really want."

Good enough, Fred decided while watching Daniel beam at Ephraim he nodded, "Alright, I need to hear the words from both of you and we will get started."

Daniel smiled widely, "I wish to become like you, I wish to be Alteran, and I wish to work in space as a doctor."

Smiling at his friend's enthusiasm, Ephraim looked at Fred, "I too wish to be changed, Daniel and I will chase our dreams together."

Skimming their thoughts and finding this was something they wanted and knew what they were getting themselves into, Fred stood, "Alright, follow me," smiling as they jumped up, he started for the med bay, down a different hallway and finally to a pod that had several bio-tubes in use, stopping by the two nearest the door, he brought them out of hibernation and unlocked the DNA locks, allowing him to alter the genetics of a straight person, thus turning them gay and allowing the resequencing, "While I set this up, I need both of you to strip out of all of your clothes and place them on the shelf under the bio-tubes."

Watching them slowly strip, Fred wondered about something, "I know you were both raised Jewish, the procedure will of course return your bodies to the same condition as if you were just born; I guess I want to know how you plan to deal with the whole foreskin thing and cutting it off."

"We talked to several of the Rabbi's yesterday, we will be fine, they gave us an option that will go along with our faith and not end up cutting them back off," Ephraim said slowly as he got the first glimpse of Daniel since he had been released, it looked very different.

Fred smiled at the two of them, they did not seem to be shy or embarrassed over being naked in front of him, patting the bio-tube closest to him, "Daniel hop up here while I get things ready for you, if you would slip your feet inside the bio-tube and you can stay sitting up for a moment longer if you want."

Taking the few minutes to place the sensors on Daniel, Fred looked over at Ephraim who was on the other side of the bio-tube, staring closely, taking in everything he had done, "Do me a favor you two, I want you to kiss each other, and I mean a true kiss with all you have, I need to make sure this is something you want." Watching carefully for their reactions, Fred noticed the pause Ephraim gave before leaning over to kiss Daniel, his best friend on the other hand, started to plump up and reached behind Ephraim's head and really got into the kiss. Glancing into the bio-tube, Fred saw Daniel was well and truly hard so he hit the switch for the soma unit putting Daniel to sleep.

Moving around to the other side of the bio-tube the first thing Fred did was to glance at Ephraim to see if his body had reacted, and it had slightly, he was half hard and had a pensive look on his face as he looked at his best friend, patting the bio-tube Fred quietly interrupted the teen's thoughts, "Hop up here if you want to go through with this, Ephraim, if you want to back out, now is the time to do it."

Ephraim slowly backed up to the bio-tube, his eyes never leaving his friend's body, his hand had gone down and he was stroking himself, and he was surprised it did not take hardly any effort to get very hard, hopping up, he nodded to some unheard of conversation, slid his feet into the bio-tube and laid back, "No I am not changing my mind."

Fred did a mild shrug and started to apply the sensor, about to turn on the soma unit, Fred turned back to listen as Ephraim told him, "I found the whole thing erotic and a slight touch made me harder than I had ever been before, so I was right the first time, with Daniel I would and could do anything...I think I love him."

Finger on the switch, Fred smiled, then leaned over and whispered, "I know he loves you Ephraim, dearly with his whole heart, that kiss made him the happiest he could remember ever being." Seeing the goofy grin on Ephraim's face, Fred pressed the switch and chuckled, quickly going through the rest of the routine to hook them up, he activated the cycle before listening to Eric path him.

"Fred, are you busy, Karl is not changing his mind, and I've done a loose link of our minds and given him a mild painkiller he wants to be altered, he's adamant about it," Eric sent, "There is no way he is going to change his mind."

"I'm in pod 1345 on this deck, bring him over and I'll talk to him," Fred told him as he did a genetic trace for the gene clusters, he needed to know what he had to work with before he was willing to start the alteration process.

Five minutes later when Eric brought Karl into the pod with him, Fred glanced over his shoulder and noticed Karl was naked and carrying his clothes, facing the screen once more, he grinned and hid his laugh, "Hi Karl, I understand you've been let in on the discloser and you have not changed your mind about being altered, and you do not want to wait."

Karl thought carefully, he needed to say this without the usual slang they all used, "Yes, I know what I want and what will happen, and I have not changed my mind, I know I won't change it."

Fred stared at him for several minutes before walking up to him, taking the clothes out of Karl's hands and dropping them to the floor, he would find out one way or the other he thought as he got real close to Karl pulled his head down and kissed him, he put everything he could into the kiss, like Aaron did with the rest of the Clan, after a minute, he let Karl's lips go and looked down and noticed he was very hard and wet looking, smiling, Fred nodded. Moving around Karl, he went over to the bio-tube on the other side of the room and unlocked it by placing his finger over the sensor and glanced back at Karl who was very still, "are you okay?"

So close, Karl thought, so very close he dared not move, and then he heard someone asking if he was okay, "If I move, I'll blow..."

Fred giggled before picking up the towel off the cart, walking around behind Karl and holding it in front of the very hard and erect cock, might as well finish this since he was the cause, he thought, as he placed the end of the towel with enough slack over Karl's hardness and stroked him a couple of times.

"AUGHHH..." Karl screamed, as he came in buckets, or at least his mind what little of it was still working told him. Feeling his legs start to crumple, he was vaguely aware of being held up from behind as he finished firing off his load.

Quickly grabbing the young man, Fred grinned as he kinetically held Karl up and moved him over to the bio-tube, before slipping him inside, as he still was off on the bliss of a hard climax, he was just coming back to life when Fred finished placing the sensors where they needed to go.

"No more cold fish for me, mates only," Karl whispered before Fred touched the soma unit controls and sent him to sleep.

Eric stared at Fred with an incredulous look on his face as the lid of the bio-tube sealed, "Damn, I felt that kiss all the way over here."

Smirking, Fred went back to Ephraim's bio-tube and glanced at the gene clusters in the bottom corner and watched as the last one went from red to green, so he had a total of four clusters while Daniel had six, "If you think that was good you should be in the room when Aaron kisses us like he means it, I swear the people in the next building get hard from the energy he puts out."

"Damn..." Eric whispered before shaking himself out of his daydream, he needed to go find Rolland or Drew to take care of the very horned up state he was in, "Right, I need to take care of something, being around you guys when you kiss someone is almost like experiencing `The NEED' again." walking out of the pod, Fred heard him mutter, "Damn," one more time.

Fred just laughed as he programmed in the changes as Eric walked away.

Aaron appeared at the Honolulu med bay, looking up at the building he smiled, it would do he thought, seems Pete got involved in its design at some point. Maybe he should take a good look around the new layout before it opened for business, giving one more glance to the building, Aaron walked through the emergency doors and glanced around the trauma bay at controlled chaos, moving further into the room, he wondered what the hell was going on and why so many people were here, that is until he saw the blood.

"Aaron the waiting room is full of people that are injured, seems a big bus overturned and hit another one," Friedrich told him, as he walked out of the waiting room disturbing Aaron's thoughts.

"Carl, Gordon, I need both of you to Port to the Honolulu med bay, we have a disaster on our hands and no one thought about informing us before filling up the empty hospital," Aaron almost spat it out as he walked over to the desk and entered a code into the system, his mental tone more annoyed than anything.

"Aaron...what?" Gordon started before getting the visualization sent by Aaron which included the full med bay, "Right, we'll be over right away."

Lights increasing in brightness all over the hospital, and the monitors coming to life behind the bio-beds caused several of the paramedics and EMT's to sigh in relief, they had arrived and found to their horror, that no one was here.

Throwing his robe he had donned because of the press announcement on the desk, Aaron waded into the injured, quickly triaging them, "Everyone that is intubated get them into one of the bio-tubes on the other side of the room, you should find the ventilator hookups which will free up people to the left of where the head rests," he told them as he saw several of the EMT's using AMBU bags to breath for the patients. "Someone want to tell me why all these people showed up here, instead of one of the other hospitals, we don't open until this afternoon."

"The accident happened four miles from here, and you were closest, we didn't know about it not being open until we got here with everyone, and by that time we were stuck, we put out a call for air Evac a few minutes before you arrived."

Catching shimmering out of the corner of his eye, Aaron grinned, "Gordon take the waiting room, you'll need to triage the folks in there, shunt all that you can to the bio-bed wards; I'll get us some more help." Seeing that he had several surgical cases and there would be more soon after they triaged everyone and scanned them, Aaron saw one of the paramedics by the desk, "Do me a favor," he called out, once he had the medic's attention, Aaron jerked his head towards the wall behind the medic, "See that red button behind the plastic shield," getting a nod he smiled, "Good, do me a favor then, lift the shield and press the button, we'll soon get all the help we need."

"DISASTER STATIONS...ALL STAFF REPORT TO DISASTER STATIONS..."

Glancing up after pushing the button and listening to the message, the medic was slightly confused, "Um not that I'm being picky or anything," but the place was empty so what good does that do he thought, "this place was empty of any type of staff?" He listened as the recording went out a second time before looking back at the person in charge.

"Because when no one logs in to acknowledge it, the system will alert the other hospitals and help will be sent over," Aaron grinned, as the message changed right on time.

"HONOLULU MED BAY DECALRING A DISASTER...CODE 1000 NOW IN EFFECT..."

On the second run through, the medic stared in awe as people started to appear in shimmering columns all over the med bay, the newcomers took one glance around the room before rushing off to treat patients. Stepping to one side as one of the people that appeared out of thin air came over to the desk, he watched as his fingers touched the desk as if he was typing on a computer keyboard and the alarm was silenced in mid sentence.

Fred looked around before giggling, "Aaron, this will not get you out of the interview with the press you know." Shaking his head in wonder, Fred looked around, "How the hell did this happen, we aren't even open yet?"

"Sorry about that, all I could think of when the busses crashed was that you were opening today, just not when, and you were closest."

"Okay," Fred looked at the man in a funny way before walking over and collecting Rolph, he was looking a little lost right then, leading Rolph out of the trauma bay towards the waiting room, he stared at several men in suits that were entering the building and looking around, they screamed guards, and the wires in their ears were another give away. "Friedrich, we might have trouble, some suits just walked in..." catching a bulge as one moved past he added, "They have weapons."

"Hold on you three, "Fred called out, startling the men, "Who are you and why are you bringing guns into our hospital?"

"Not now ki..." one of the men started before getting hit by one of the others, "Shut it Stevens."

Ignoring the rest of the team, the one that hit his comrade smiled, "Special agent Collins, secret service, we are part of the President's detail, we just wanted to have a quick look around for possible problems before the President arrives." Remembering the second part of the question he added, "We left the guns in the trunk of our car; we were warned about carrying weapons into any of your facilities."

Fred stared at the man, how stupid did he think they were, skimming their thoughts, he found out they had been ordered to leave their weapons, but the one with the mouth had kept his second one, hiding it, that was the one he had got the glimpse of a bulge as they walked past. "I see, well too bad not all of you followed orders then, if I were you, I would carefully place the extra gun on the floor and step away, well before Friedrich decides to do something about it, or I call in one of the drones, last time I looked the secret service has no jurisdiction in Hawaii."

Picking up the spike of hatred, Fred turned to glare at the man and found Friedrich had moved and had the man on the ground and disarmed.

Collins stared at Stevens and sighed, "That's your last fuck up, Stevens, I wash my hands of you, and the President gave you the order to disarm personally." Looking at the stony expression on the young man's face he sighed, "He's yours; do with him as you want."

Fred stared at Friedrich for a moment, holding a silent conversation and nodding his head, he watched as the two ported out, frowning, he looked back at Collins, "Now, what is this about the President coming here?"

Seeing the agent suddenly standing up straight, Fred turned around and saw the man they were talking about walk in.

"Hello, delighted to be here, though I thought you weren't open yet?" Sid smiled as he walked in and saw the two young men dressed alike near one of his agents, a quick glance caused him to frown as he was one agent short. "I knew of course, that his Majesty would be here today for an announcement of some sort and I hoped to talk to him before then, some misunderstandings need to be set straight."

Fred stared at the man and snorted, "Aaron's performing emergency surgery on one of the accident victims."

Rolph leaned over and a little on the loud side whispered in Fred's ear, "Uncle Jens does not trust this man, he says he is two faced, and he is tired of trying to talk to him and getting the run around, I think they call it."

Sid blanched as he looked at the teen who, now that he really looked at him was of Scandinavian descent, "Yes, well that is one of the things I need to talk to his Majesty about, it should never have happened and I want to apologize."

Sighing as he scanned the man's surface thoughts, Fred secretly smirked when Kenny and some of the younger members of the Clan walked in, they each had a prospective with them and if he wanted to, Kenny could easily deal with the President and it would be glorious he thought before sighing again. Unfortunately it would have to wait until the man did something he could sic Kenny on him for, "Follow me," glancing at the two agents Fred pointed to Collins, "He can come inside if he promises not to get in the way, if he does, we will remove him," and hope he can swim Fred thought evilly about porting him to the bay...near the middle channel marker.

Rolph and Fred led the President into the trauma pod and over to where Aaron was working, leaving him without introducing him, as they had things to do.

Aaron glanced up after getting the message from Fred and saw the President was pale at seeing Aaron working on someone's insides, not bothering to hide the grin that turned into a smirk, "I have to wonder why you chose this moment to finally contact me." Going back to the liver reduction he was working on he finished up and as he was closing the young woman up, he finally heard something from the man who seemed to live to annoy him.

"Incredible..." Sid whispered, as he watched the skin merge back seamlessly as the strange device was used.

Aaron removed the servo gloves, after laying them down on the cart he looked over at the President, "I am more than a little surprised to see you here, not only that, as I said, I have to wonder why today of all days."

Sid watched the young man squirt some gel on his arms and wipe it off with a towel before rolling his sleeves down and walking over to the desk, pick up his robes and settle them around his shoulders. "I heard about the press release you were giving today, from the new hospital here, and knew if I wanted a face to face meeting I could find you here, hopefully early enough so I could apologize and find out what I need to do to set things right between our two countries."

Staring at the President for several minutes, Aaron finally broke the silence with a question, "I have to ask, after hiring telepaths how the hell did you miss that General? Surely you've had complaints by some of the other world leaders not being able to get a hold of you?"

"I always took it as posturing, after all, my advisers were the ones telling me and showing me the logs of incoming calls, proving to me that they were not actually calling like they said they were," Sid sighed, "I have made a lot of enemies that never should have or would have been an enemy." Following Aaron out of the room and down a corridor, "I also relied on others to direct the testing of my staff, and one slipped through and did a lot of damage by removing or marking names as cleared, frankly, I have no idea what to do about it now."

"I truly don't think there is anything you can do at this point," Aaron stopped just before entering the lobby, smiling as he saw the other leaders talking excitedly he picked up on the President's shock. "More of the things you were left out of because your staff kept it away from you, in a few minutes, you will hear what is going on beyond opening up the new hospitals; I think you will truly realize what damage has been done by the shadow government, a group that is starting to fight back it seems as you try to regain your rightful control." Double checking that he was properly dressed, Aaron smiled, "You might want to go out the side door and melt into the crowd, or wait in the lobby; you will be able to hear the announcements easily then...if you will excuse me."

Grinning as he walked out of the hallway into the lobby, Aaron welcomed his guests as the rest of his Clan appeared with the prospects, shaking the Japanese emperor's hand, he whispered that they would talk and he would get some of his questions answered after the announcement, nodding and grinning at Toshi who was talking quietly with his cousin and Edward he moved over to the front doors and looked out, a circus, he thought, defiantly a circus out there.

Victoria smiled as she waved at the cheering crowd on the other side of the doors, a crowd that realized this was not the normal press release they thought, not with five major world leaders here for the announcement, most of the reporters were busily whispering into their phones with their producers back at the station letting them know something big was going down. Leaning forward, she turned away so no one could read her lips, just in case, "I saw Sid sneak in, he is not going to be happy with his people after this."

"I know," Aaron said as he glanced at the clock and nodded towards his lovers, and pathed his love at them as he saw Friedrich and the teams move among the crowds of reporters, after getting the signal from Friedrich he opened the door, "It's Time."

With one final look at his lovers, Aaron walked out the front doors and waved with a smile plastered on his face as the crowds went wild, and the questions started. Ignoring the questions, Aaron stood to one side as the Clan, his lovers, gathered around him, Victoria and her family were in the middle to his immediate right and the other leaders to the far right, the hopefuls were lined up behind and between Victoria and the other leaders.

Stepping forward once everyone was in place, Aaron raised his hand for silence, after a minute or two as the crowd settled down, he smiled and started, "I want to thank you for coming today, I have several announcements, and at least one of them will shock you and your viewers, general questions will only be taken at the very end so please hold off until I finish."

"First off, Honolulu Trauma went live a little earlier than expected when the victims of the two busses involved in the accident showed up on our doorstep early, luckily they were only here for a few short minutes before we started to arrive to make sure the trauma center was ready to be opened , all the patients are in stable condition and will make a full recovery," Aaron gave them a moment to digest that announcement before going on, "The second phase of the planned announcement is that there are four other hospitals that are going live in one hours time, two of these are specifically dedicated to children, or those under twenty. Two are located in the territory of California, while the other two are in the territory of New York, Each of these hospitals are a duplicate of what was built in England, Elswick Trauma."

"Now very briefly before I get to the major announcement you are most likely all wondering about, I will take any questions that cover anything medical related, anything related to the hospitals only, we will cover the rest at the end, so please do me the common courtesy of sticking to this simple subject before we get to the exciting stuff," Aaron grinned as the reporters jockeyed around trying to decide if it was worth asking now or later, most of them had enough experience they knew if they asked something he told them to wait on they would never get called, so stayed quiet.

"Now that you have these hospitals up and running where are the next ones going to be built?"

Shrewd, thought Aaron, they were hoping to get him to open up with a hint of the next announcement, "I can confirm that there are no other of our hospitals under construction right now, that is not to say that I would not be open to discussing the possibilities of one of the other nations wanting to talk to me about building one of our hospitals in their country, if they were willing to let me buy enough land to build it on diplomatic soil that is."

Looking at the crowd that seemed to sense something coming, he waited a moment longer, "Alrighty, so now on to the news all of you are waiting for," Aaron smiled as the crowd stilled. "A small amount of background information, I promise to be brief," he waited for the chuckles to die down. "All of you have heard my titles more than once, King of the kingdom of Altare and leader of the sixty five worlds of the Empire."

"Or to boil it down to something that is not open to different interpretations, "Aaron smiled and pointed up, "I am King of an empire that has sixty five other worlds in its kingdom, you've all seen the space ships and the shipyard and space station by now, so I think it is finally sinking in that there are more worlds out in the universe and I have sixty five of them as part of my kingdom. That, ladies and gentleman, is why, that even if the Iraqi President's plan had succeeded in his attack on my kingdom here on Earth, he would not have done anything more than anger us and destroy every single one of you as his biological weapons were unleashed on the world."

Giving them another moment, Aaron turned to his fellow leaders, "Over the past month, negotiations have been intensifying until we progressed to the point where for the past two weeks, face to face meetings have been happening several times a week with those you see with me today," grinning again, "Now that the background is out of the way, the announcement," Aaron laughed.

"Chairman Woo of the People's Republic of China, President Gorbivonovich of the Russian Federation, King Jens Rosencrans of Denmark, Toshi Yamamoto acting for his father and his father Emperor Yamamoto and Victoria England, Queen of Britain," Aaron paused between identifying each of them to allow them to step forward, "And I have come to an agreement which will allow open immigration from their countries to five of my un-colonized worlds." Seeing the stunned looks on their faces, Aaron really grinned; stunned and quiet vultures were a good thing in his book, "Which means ladies and gentleman of the Earth, the human race shortly will be stepping foot into the universe."

Giving them several moments to register what he told them, Aaron sighed as he heard Kevin giggle, and path loud enough for everyone to hear, "Let the fun begin,"

"At this time, if all of you are calm and orderly, not shouting over each other we will take questions," Aaron glared the last at the reporters before smiling again to the camera's .

Stepping Forward, Betty smiled, "Nice to see you again, your Majesty, I hope you remember me, Betty Wilder, CNBC..."

Smiling, Aaron nodded, "Indeed Miss Wilder, I remember very well how considerate and professional you were, and before someone asks, I will give you first right of refusal to report the story from one of the planets being opened up, what question do you want to start with." Secretly he was laughing as he threw her off balance and he could taste the excitement coming from her and the jealousy from a lot of the other reporters.

"Why...Thank you your majesty, of course I accept," Betty grinned before removing the ear bud, her producer; he was whooping and hollering it up...loudly. "Would it be possible to get information on these worlds, maybe some pictures or eight," she grinned eagerly at the last.

"Have all of you upgraded your computers?" Aaron asked, grinning when Kevin walked down to a small table and placed a tray of Isolinear chips on it, "If so, I think you will find everything you want to know about those five worlds on those chips."

Betty, being closest, calmly grabbed one and smirked, "If the studio doesn't, I do, Thank you."

Aaron caught Ton directing a couple of the prospectives in going down to help hand out the chips to the reporters; he briefly wondered what happened when Toshi and he had their talk the other day.

"Who will be governing the new worlds?" the reporter did not mention that he was wondering why the communists would be included; they did not have the best human rights record.

"Any who immigrate to one of my worlds fall under my Kingdom's laws and will look to our Crown for leadership," Aaron looked at the reporter carefully, before looking to one of the others who asked a question.

"What did each of the nations standing with you offer you to allow them to immigrate to your worlds?"

"I'm not willing to go into that right now, but let's just say that most of them are willing to go above and beyond what they would have to once their people leave their country," Aaron looked for the next question and stopped before moving on, he had noticed Hilde from England and the Elswick press conference.

Sensing some unrest from the crowd as they were being excluded for the moment, the chips being handed out were going to the reporters first, "For those that do not have one of our systems, you can go to our website, and as of five minutes ago all the information that is on those chips can be looked at or downloaded from there, for those of you that still want one of the chips, you can get your chance once the reporters get theirs, it will take but a few more minutes to bring more over once we know how many we need." Smiling when the crowd calmed down, another of the reporters yelled out a question.

"If someone wants to immigrate and they are not from one of those countries represented by the folks up with you, how would they do it?"

"Give them a few days to finalize a plan, but in essence they would need to be sponsored through one of the countries represented here today, I believe after the last discussion there will be a way that is fair to all involved," Aaron told him.

"We've seen several ships in and out of orbit lately, are they the only space ships you have? And what do we need to do to go on one and explore one?"

"The Reliant, the larger of the ships that visits all the time is one of the colony support vessels, along with the scout ships that have stopped by to take on supplies, including new bloodlines for our livestock," Aaron smiled as he saw furious writing going on, "The answer is, they are a small part of our fleet, as far as what you would need to do to explore them...well I never considered it, to tell you the truth, I guess if you gave me a reason on why you wanted to go up and look through the Reliant, and what you hoped to get out of it, I would be open to it. Though there would be restricted areas just like when Betty went aboard the Asclepius."

"Are you going to open up the worlds to tourists?"

"Eventually, I see no reason not to open some of them up, we would have to wait until things like hotels and the like are built, but that is for some enterprising colonist to do, not my government," Aaron thought there would soon be a large number of entrepreneurs emailing him so he modified his answer, "I expect most of them will be like bed and breakfasts or small hostels, not mega hotels and the like, I would want them to blend in to the new environment."

Seeing the group of prospectives going through the crowd now handing out the information chips, Aaron wanted to bring this to a close, "I know I have blindsided a lot of you and you are not prepared for this, so we will do a follow up question and answer conference next Monday, this time in California, outside the Los Angeles Trauma med bay I built, or you could always email questions to us and we can try to answer them, but if you do that, look through the web site first as it might have the answers you want there. I thank you all for coming today, but I have run out of time, this time around."

Giving a wave with the same plastered smile on his face, Aaron made his way back to the med bay lobby, seeing the shocked and pensive President standing in the lobby, he sighed as the rest of the group made their way inside.

"I see that the shadow government has more to answer for than I thought," Sid whispered as he let his gaze travel around the room, "the American people are going to be very angry over this, and I am going to be just as blunt in explaining why we were not included, maybe then we will get some headway in taking control back." Sid tried to smile and nodded his head towards Aaron, "I thank you for your time and honesty, until later."

Saying his own goodbyes, Aaron caught out of the corner of his eye Friedrich turning his limiter back on and frowned at him, "Friedrich?"

Sighing at the pathed question included in his name Friedrich mentally sighed, "Less than a month unless things change again, it was too fuzzy as if three futures were fighting for dominance."

Aaron watched the man leave before looking at the rest of the world leaders, "I'll let you get back to your day, maybe we should touch base Friday afternoon, that gives you several days to see how your people are handling the news." Spotting the reporter from England, Aaron smiled, "If you will excuse me, I have someone to head off, Someone pass the word to Edward to go up to the station with us, take the prospects with you, this is not going to touch on Clan Secrets and I want them to start getting used to being included in our meetings."

Walking outside, Aaron stopped next to the reporter, "Hello Hilde, I'm surprised you did not ask me any questions."

Startled that he knew her name, she remembered back to Charles hissing a little too loudly at the last press meeting, "Yes, well your Majesty, there was nothing for me to comment on in public, not with you lot wanting to keep a low profile. I was wondering if you have heard what is happening in our papers since then."

Leaning back against the window as he looked out at the reporters rushing off while their crews were left managing the equipment, "I have, frankly I'm very surprised, even to the point of having the bishop ask if I was catholic, I'm impressed."

"So there is hope then?" Hilde whispered.

"There is always hope, and if you keep the pressure up without being nasty about it, well no promises, but we are talking about things now, so the ball is in your court, if you can make the country believe this is in their best interest without being offensive you have a good chance of making this happen," Aaron stood up before smiling at the reporter. "I really need to be going now, so until next time," Aaron smiled as he ported up to his office.

"Greetings Emperor Yamamoto, and to you to Toshi," Aaron held out his hand for the emperor to shake and installed the lockout effortlessly, "I understand from Toshi that you wanted to ask some questions. He did not want to fail in the test he was presented with, so the compromise was to bring you here to my office to get your answers. A very good thing really," Aaron smiled with a nod at Toshi who looked surprised that he had gotten it right.

"My son had it right," Morimoto pointed out the window wall, "This view truly changes one, the proof offered that we are indeed in space was also most impressive. I have seen the recordings of the new worlds and am secretly thrilled." Sitting back in the couch he looked at his son, "Toshi has informed me that he has suspicions on what his British counterpart has done to tie your two kingdoms closer together. He believes this knowledge is something I must hear from your lips; please tell me what we must do to tie our families closer to yours beyond the immigration prospect already offered."

"The heir to the British throne will be joining my Clan, his brother Andrew is already part of my Clan, when Edward's son is born, he will be part of a new clan to carry the England linage and the British crown without becoming part of my kingdom, yet answerable to my kingdom as he will be Alteran with all the gifts and responsibilities that entails."Aaron watched the man's face as he skimmed his thoughts.

Very dynastic and practical, Aaron thought, as he picked up on the directions Morimoto's thoughts were going, checking on Toshi's mind he found hope and resignation there, "While you go over that information in your mind, is there anything else you would like to ask?"

Getting a negative shake of the head back Aaron stood, "I have one other meeting to take care of, you are free to stay here and gaze at the Earth as you think about things, I will stop by after I am finished, if you are still here and wish to talk further we can do so, if you find that you wish to return home, please return to the security office and someone will take you back down." Bowing his head ever so slightly Aaron smiled, "Until Friday afternoon if that is the case."

Walking through the bathroom door, Aaron locked it behind him, quickly undressed and placed the clothes on the counter to be taken back home with him, sighing in relief at being out of the confining garments, Aaron laughed as he walked into the conference room and saw everyone else was already naked and relaxing, talking on small groups. Finding an empty spot on the couch, Aaron plopped down and kissed Brian with feeling before releasing him. Laughing at the expressions on the prospective faces and crotch's Aaron smirked, "It's probably past time for one of our update meetings, to make sure we are all on the same page. This time, since we do have the prospectives with us, I thought it would be a good idea to include them so they can get a firsthand look at what we do, so who wants to start?"

"I have something to ask," Mark looked over at Doug and then back to Aaron, "How do you put up with it, I mean the constantly being surrounded by guards and having to wait for the okay to come back before doing what you want, I...well Doug and I only had to put up with it for half a day and it was frustrating."

"I ignore it for the most part, and frankly, I told Friedrich that I lead, if he wants to protect me he has to be on his toes, that and I try not to go down to Earth that much anymore. Remember they're there to protect you, yet they have to realize they have to let you do your jobs as well," Aaron sighed and closed his eyes as he lay back on the couch, head in Brain's lap. "I got used to the idea, knowing the day would come when I would be guarded, I've had a chance to get used to it."

Feeling Kevin start to massage his legs, he smiled before flipping over and propping his head up slightly, "So let's start with you Brian, how goes the fruit and vegetable farms?"

Sighing and wishing that Aaron was facing towards his crotch and erection, Brian let out his breath slowly, "Well, the transfer of the orchards and plants from Altare to Middle Earth went off without a problem, Xon's new invention works wonders. The farms on Middle Earth are providing us with more than we can ever use right now in food, and we have been able to funnel the excess back to Earth and Altare and Altair Minor without any problems, I think about all the exotics and half the rest of the supplies Elswick is using are coming from our farms on Middle Earth. The youngsters are getting a kick out of directing the AG bots around for the harvests. One thing we might want to consider is a processing facility where we can process some of the raw produce, making stuff like condiments that we have to import can be created easily over here."

"Derrick if you will help design the processing facility and get it built...What did the youngsters rename what would be Mexico on Earth?" Aaron asked as Kevin moved to his back.

"That would be Gray Haven, Love," Kevin chuckled as he worked the knots out of Aaron's muscles.

"Since most of the vegetable production is in northern Gray Haven, build the processing center there," Aaron sighed as he opened one eye, "Tommy, what about the Aquaculture facilities?"

"Well, we have really expanded the facilities on Mirkwood," Tommy smirked, to Aaron's one eyed glare as Kevin's hands started Aaron's mid back. "You were right the Cobia had a problem being transported to Middle Earth, luckily we found the breeding ground and ported a lot of juveniles to the tanks for grow out. I plan to start building facilities for some of the cold water species over the next week, I also need Pete to design a responsible fishing fleet so we can start to harvest some of the Tuna and other ocean going species like king crab, If we can find someone who knows what they are doing we have a large...well an extremely large population of sturgeon in the Sea of Ruhn, we could introduce caviar back to Earth and even reintroduce some lost species as fingerlings in the lakes and other waterways." Tommy noticed two of the Russian teens' eyes bug out over the news.

"How...How is this possible; where is this Middle Earth that it has so many riches," Igor looked at Ivan in wonder.

Not bothering to open his eyes, Aaron smiled, "Middle Earth so named after the Lord of The Rings trilogy is one of our planets, it is an exact, and I do mean an exact duplicate of earth with all the sea life that Earth used to have, it has had hundreds of years to be built up as it was readied for us. Mark?"

"Well I already told you as far as beef is concerned we are more than okay, the only thing is the herds are Herefords, I would like to slowly convert at least half the herds to Angus, I already told you I culled over half the hog population on Middle Earth. Actually condemned them as meat and shipped them off to the sun for disposal, I didn't want to take any chances," Mark looked at Aaron's smile as Kevin worked around his neck. "Poultry, we are quickly ramping up numbers, we are resorting to importing all our meat birds right now, but in another four months the first of our home grown birds will be harvested and from there we will be hitting our stride in another five months, to the point we will have excess birds."

"That is only if we do not expand our population at all, which I doubt will happen," Mark smirked, "Now that we have a new Dairy Bot and Pete redesigned the milking parlors and barns with Kevin and Xon's help, I can start really bringing up the herds to proper size in the next couple of weeks." Glancing at his notes, "We are going to have to assign someone to oversee the horse herds and the Beastmaster's animals eventually."

Flipping over so Kevin could work on his front side now, Aaron went on to the next person on his list, "Xon, military and Pete's surprise?"

untitled"The military is shaping up adequately under the joint command of Chris and Joe, we have full crews for each shift that could and do replace the crew on each ship at shift change, they are training up and by the time the new fleet is deployed in a few week's time, we will have more than adequate crews," Xon smiled at Pete's expression, "The first four of the command class vessels will be moved to the repair side of the construction docks to finish the interiors in fifteen day's time, please turn your attention to the plasma to see the finished concept of the merged ship, the technology is far in advance of anything in the universe at the moment to our knowledge."

Glancing over at the plasma, Aaron frowned, remembering the report Xon had given him about the duel nature of the color scheme, "Why blue? I already know you told me you can chameleon the color to pitch black."

Staring at the plasma, Xon shrugged, "I was used to the color in this type of vessel, do you wish it to be changed? It is an easy matter as the outer skin has yet to be affixed."

"Dark mottled gray and black, that way it will take a lower magnetic charge to finish the chameleon change," Aaron suggested, closing his eyes once more after peaking at the prospects who were wide eyed.

Finally about the time Kevin started on his right thigh, Xon finished, "After careful consideration, you are correct, I shall program and lock into place the changes before supper time, that way I have more time for horizontal pursuits of pleasure without having to worry about splitting my attention."

Aaron laughed, "Okay, that is one way of saying you'll get it done so you don't get side tracked by lots of really great sex..." Snorting, Aaron smiled, "Tim, how about Security and the Marines?"

"If what Friedrich picked up on happens in the least time possible, we will still have trouble fielding enough Marines, though a combination of interdiction barriers and weapons drones should do the trick. The New York security forces will be finished training at the end of this week and have settled into their new building," Tim was short and sweet with his report.

"Talk to the Shaolin, this is the day they have been waiting for, another seventy to eighty thousand troops will be helpful," Aaron sighed as Kevin made it to his right foot, "Pete? SCIFI and R&D?"

"You really let him build star ships, with both technologies merged?" Pete whispered as he tore his gaze away from the plasma, "Can I at least build the Star Cruiser's to replace our scouts with?"

"Yes," Aaron laughed, as he opened his eyes and saw Pete dancing around the room, "After all, Xon told me the moon base was finished to his hidden specifications, so you have your own shipyards to build your new scout fleet, same color scheme if you would."

"Derrick, David, if both of you would hold a contest with the youngsters and teens, I would like four or five designs for housing on the new colony worlds, I would like the houses and barns to blend in with the surroundings," Aaron smiled as he looked at Kevin, "Kevin, how goes the core development for the colony worlds?"

"I have the designs finished along with the programming, over the next week, I will get them installed and activated, I want to start building the Core bunkers starting tomorrow, I'll visit each station and set the MRB's to work and go to the next one. I should have the twelve new planets started and done before the hospitals are ready to be built, one thing you might want to consider is a mobile platform like the ones on earth, a replication platform so we can visit each planet in turn and build the infrastructure quickly."

"I have a design I have worked on, it should do what Kevin suggested, it is something that is meant to handle two hundred MCA's simultaneously and has nineteen replication suites on board, I could have it ready to deploy in a week's time, it can be built easily from the Earth shipyard," Pete offered.

"Do it, in fact set the whole shipyard to building it; that will be a fantastic tool as we colonize the new planets," Aaron leaned up and kissed Kevin in thanks for the massage, "Damien, it is probably a little early for a report on the new Beastmaster's."

"I do have one bit of news and one problem to bring up," Damien smiled as Lady jumped into his lap, "Ru helped me get a good start on mapping the genetics of his falcon and hawk, we have an appointment at the national zoo tomorrow right after breakfast to map some more of the birds of prey. The problem is what do we do with our pups, Lady and Fang are going to be barred from so many places as we go about to do what we need to get done."

"No, we need to set precedent right from the start, a Beastmaster's animal team can't be barred from anywhere," Aaron looked thoughtful, "We need a symbol easily recognizable, something like the wing of a eagle with a paw print in the middle with the head of a horse in the center of the paw print, we'll fasten that to all the animals in the team as identification. Any team animal wearing their identification will not be barred without repercussions, including massive fines." Turning his head to see Ichiro sitting on Xon's lap he smiled, "Ichiro did I give you enough information on what I would like drawn up that you can create something for me?"

Nodding shyly from being around so many strangers, Ichiro whispered, "Yes Prime," and smiled at the hug and caress he got from his dominant, he was pleased he could please both of his dominant and the Prime. In his mind he equated Prime as equaling master.

"Before we leave the Beastmaster's and the dogs, which I know we really did not mention," Kevin sat down back against the couch and leaned over to look at Aaron, "What breed of dog did you have in mind for yourself?"

Aaron blinked in surprise before glancing down at the upside down face of his lover, "I did not know I was getting a dog, why do you ask?"

"I wondered if we should have a clan dog or two to help keep track of the children when they are born," Kevin smiled as he remembered meeting Aaron in the incubatory this morning to look at their son.

"Newfoundland's, then you want Newfoundland's, they are the best breed to protect children, even going as far as placing their body between the child and the danger, like water." Aaron smiled, before shaking his head, "Not a bad idea but I almost don't have time to ride Thunder the way she wants, and she refuses to let anyone else ride her. So if you want a couple of Clan dogs they would be your responsibility right now, maybe later when things settle down I might consider training another Newfie, but not until things quiet down for a while."

"Fred, before I forget, I want to start scheduling you for three, four hours shifts in the different trauma bays, all you really are lacking right now is hands on experience, Theo said he would help you out surgically when I'm not around," Aaron smirked at the shocked and panicked look on Fred's face. "You really are working at the same level as Carl and Gordon, before they joined the team, you've absorbed the knowledge now all you need to do is perfect the skill that goes with it. Once you get some experience to go with the knowledge you've been cramming in your head, you'll be set to start taking over one of the med bays little by little."

Looking around for his next victim for an update report, Aaron smiled, "Tyler, I know you've been playing with the numbers, something tells me you like finance an awful lot, so what have you found out?"

Tyler squeaking in surprise looked back at Aaron, before finally giggling at being caught, "You found out my secret then." Tyler thought for a moment, "Well investment wise, the kingdom is taking in a lot more money than we are letting out into the world's economy. Most of the new upgrades you are releasing to the world are bringing in a lot of money, I mean a lot," Tyler looked at Aaron. "The Med Bays are actually making a profit even with the low fixed prices, now that we have replicator technology. They are fully self supporting without the added influx of capitol from the other companies. I really can't tell you much more, as I don't have access to that section; this is what I've come up with from the public knowledge base."

"Well it sounds like you like dealing with the numbers and finance, so I'll give you access, that way you can give me a detailed report, just remember all the money and gold is nothing more than a tool to rescue and give the new kids a better life," Aaron smiled, "Hell, I don't think even one percent of the youngsters or teens we've rescued have actually used any of the money they've earned, if they want something, they go to the nearest replicator and create it."

"David, how are the teens settling in at the New York Crèche?" Aaron glanced around the room having sat up and pulled Kevin up onto the couch.

A hint of anger turned into a frown as David looked out the window, "That Felps guy did some damage in the beginning, but all the kids that have gone there have settled in and are happy." Looking at Aaron, "we are going to have to be very careful, some of those teens are practically ready to drop down and worship us, they're calling us the Dragon Lords. The Shaolin are not much help as they refer to us as Dragon all the time." He sighed before looking back out the window, "I expect I'll have a ton of emails asking about the colonies and visiting, even moving there from those living in the crèche's, what do you want me to tell them?"

Thinking about it, Aaron smiled, "If they graduate the tutors at the high school level, tell them we will set them up on one of the other worlds if that is their dream, and they will have the choice of any of the twelve I am opening up," Aaron laughed at the thought, "I expect, for the most part, they will not chose to immigrate to one of the five being opened up to the rest of Earth. How about rescues, how are the numbers going there? I've not talked to Aiden in the past four or five days."

David had to think for a moment, "I know rescues have slowed drastically, most of Aiden's energies have been going into ramping up the military, especially the Marines. Don't hold me to it, but I think rescued gay youth are about three hundred a day and mostly from the European continent. After today though, I think we will start getting an influx of youth when we start opening up offices in the Asian countries and Russia. Plus we are finally seeing an influx of females being rescued, I think it has finally set in they can go to us for help."

Giving it a thought or two, Aaron was still wondering about certain countries, in a way he had expected the fall off in the US after taking so many of the kids off the street there, thinking about it further, he decided that it would pick up again, more like this was the calm before the storm as the word was out there and now those wanting or needing help were making plans now that they had a place to go. Lost in his thoughts, Aaron ended up staring at Kenny who fidgeted.

"What," Kenny sighed, "okay Pat, Doug and I spend a lot of time with the youngsters in the city, and they are truly happy, they are having fun learning and exploring. Several of the older teens though have been talking, they are wondering if they can move to Middle Earth permanently."

"I don't see why not, have them talk to me and we can get them set up, I'm assuming most of them are involved in the farms in some way," Aaron mused, as Tommy shook his head no.

"I think a lot of the older teens are those that want to study things like the environment and the oceans and the animal life there," Tommy smiled, "These are the guys that want to be biologists and the like."

"Spread the word, or better yet post it to the system, they can come see me at the office at any time about moving and their proposals for study, "Aaron smiled, "Not that they need to have one to move, but if they do have, I might be able to point them in right direction to get answers."

Seeing the time was getting late, "Pat, I saw that you scheduled your last test for Friday morning, I noticed that in the logs, and I see that you've been working hard, so after the test, no tutor for a week." Aaron laughed at Kenny's horrified look, "Now I know what to punish you with Kenny." Still chuckling, he looked over at Richard and Andrew, "I've also noticed both of your logs." Smiling, he shook his head, "Slow down guys, this is not a race to get graduated...No more tutor after one in the afternoon and no more tutor on the weekends, this is not a race to prove yourselves to us."

"Doug, how are the sheep settling in," Aaron saw Doug smile and a hint of excitement in his eyes.

"Real good, I have a team of twelve volunteers so far, as soon as they found out I had brought sheep over they started showing up for chore duty. Pat has been real good about porting all of us over to the Shire every morning," Doug smiled and hugged Pat close.

"It's almost time to break up to go do afternoon chores; does anyone else have anything that needs to be brought up?" Aaron looked around his Lovers who were all smiling but not saying anything, "Alright then, how about all of you, I know you are thinking you are only prospectives and might have been slightly confused over why you were included at one of our meetings. But if you are going to try to join with my Clan, you need to know what we do. Do any of you have anything you would like to ask or comment on?"

Anton looked around to his comrades, and then over to the Chinese candidate and his pup, "Do you need help with the horses, I am more than willing."

Igor and Ivan looked at each other before Igor spoke up, "Ivan and I have both worked in the fisheries, my father worked with the caviar, I might be able to help direct your research."

Aaron smiled, "Anton, get with Mark tomorrow, he'll take you on a tour of the stables over on Altair Minor. Ivan and it's Igor, right," Seeing the teen nod solemnly, Aaron smiled, "Tommy will talk with you tomorrow and give you a tour of one of the aquaculture facilities on Altair Minor...Anyone else?" glancing around, He noticed that Ton looked lost in thought, "Alright well then it is time to get you back to the city, now that you have a better idea of what we as a clan do, I think you will have a better idea of who you want to talk to tomorrow, I'll let you chose who you follow around for the next couple of days."

Standing up, Aaron went around the room hugging the prospectives and kissing his Lovers, "I'll see the rest of you at home shortly, and some of you tomorrow." After most of the prospectives had left the room, Aaron smiled at Edward, "I know you love your horses Edward, but being the King of your kingdom will have to be your full time job until your son takes over, but you can help out if you want. Come on, I'll take you home and drop an idea or two into your grandmother's ear." Steering Edward to his office through the bathroom, Aaron stared for a moment at the empty office and started to slip on his clothes, once finished; he hugged Edward tight and ported them out to the palace.

Editors' ramblings

RadioRanchers note: It is coming along very nicely. I can see many possibilities ahead. Why do I have the feeling that something serious is going to happen pretty soon? I don't know for sure, but I often get these sorts of feelings and then the other four thousand pairs of shoes drop.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

A/N