Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:00:45 -0400
From: Ron <wolfwalker2@verizon.net>
Subject: TEEP chapter 62

				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