L'Gem

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Full crews 'arrived' on every ship, as they approached Alliance space. The four worlds weren't any closer together than those in other settled areas, so the fleet just chose a spot about three days' journey from each. They slowed, stopped and shut down fields.

  Sixty large objects that sensors saw as rocks 'dropped' beneath the fleet and began their journey to a rendezvous point, where three of the ships going back to Liberty Gem would 'net' them to take them home. The position field projectors had only used eleven percent of the charge in their power storage towers, and over half that had been to brake the fleet. Everyone on the bridge was in a new uniform when Ronnie comm connected to the flagship of the Alliance fleet. Nev spoke again.

  "This is my combat star. This little heart is the great honor our government bestowed. It means we tried 'with all heart' to reduce loss of life in conflict. This diamond means no one died in battle. That's our 'way of life.' We exiled the families of the oligarchy and gave them what they needed to build new, and respectable, lives. We brought you home. Think on that when you call us 'criminal.' Live here as you choose. That is your right. We will live as we choose on our world. That is our right. If others choose to live as you do, as we do, or in other ways, that is their right. Only those who have known violence and oppression truly understand how precious peace and freedom are. You are free to go. Go in peace."

  "Let's go get stuff off ships and get rid of it."

  "They don't want it and they don't want to store it. That's nice."

  "Yes, Blade, it is."

  "It's a lot easier to keep a file secret than guard a warehouse, Knight, and the shield file is ours."

  "It's still out there on a lot of cars."

  "No, just a few, Knight, eleven outside the neighborhood and only you three, Case and Stats have it on more than one vehicle in the garage there."

  "They all decided to remove them?"

  "Yes. There's one vehicle capable of towing a heavy trailer and moving twelve people at a time per adit and ours. They built a plan to get everyone there in a fairly short time, but don't expect to need it. Trina said no one needs its shelter any longer and it's only homey for about sixty now, those we call to help build things fast. Basically, it's our playroom and they'll all carpool when we have a party in it. They asked we not shut down any hydro tanks. They're the 'first taste of freedom' for them all, and sometimes they will ask for something to be brought to them. No one took out a message system, but the shields would be too easy to abuse."

  "They made the decision because the space corps did."

  "Exactly. They'll always watch over our freedom and be ready to aid if a little light flashes, but the right people are doing it now."

  "It hurts a little."

  "Yes, Blade, it does, but the friendships aren't gone. Tate said, 'It's like moving out of the condo complex plus.' We'll have an anniversary party, but not there. It's still secret, and they don't want one they can't share with loves and children. If we ever choose to share it, they'll take them all to see it."

  "We should think about it."

  "What?!"

  "Explain, Stats."

  "Isn't it important, Ronnie? It's the place the freedom of this world was built by the only rebel organization that could come to exist on it."

  "We just got a very private entrance to our playroom. I don't want it to be part of a museum. That sounded very selfish."

  "Enclose the comp and work areas and don't tell them about the tunnel, Nev. Put a screen behind the enclosure and project shut-down comps and equipment on it, or just opaque it and say, 'ours,' and tell them what's in it, or not. It's the place we built our freedom, not the equipment used to build it, that's important."

  "Like the book, Nev, in front of everyone, so it can't be secret."

  "We'll think about it, Danny. I like 'enclosure and screen,' but it will still require…"

  "Nev, we're going to get windows people think they're looking through."

  "Yes, Blade, we are."

  "Let's steer him to a comp."

  "Don't everybody run for a comp. We'll figure out who's needed when he starts doing something. I doubt this will take long or be complex, and until we meet the other ships, somebody needs to be paying attention to this one."

  "Ow, me, Drand and Day, Blade."

  "Thanks, Ronnie."

  "You're not really welcome, Nev. Neither are you, Stats. Move over."

  "Ronnie, if you hadn't said, 'ow,' Day and I would be growling."

  "We can cover the watch and still peek over shoulders, Drand. The others would get too distracted."

  "Drand and I will elbow each other frequently."

  "Danny will notice if I'm more there than here, Day."

  "Ronnie, this is going to be a real quickie, for everyone but me. He's already designing the tech."

  "He's just combining a couple things."

  "Oh, that is too elegant."

  "Help!"

  "He's 'locking' the first view through a shield field into it, Drand. It'll be the same every time it's turned on and no one will realize it."

  "I'm not sure the explanation helped, Sweetie."

  "He's been working on it for the doorways! That's why it's almost done."

  "Yes, Nev. The answer was get the image, then put it behind the doorway and put that against a wall. Your turn, Danny."

  "This is going to be interesting. Blade, I could do this, but you make it so much faster. Math assignment."

  "Approaching rendezvous. Hello, everybody. They've got rocks."

  "Comm connect Alden. Hi, at rendezvous. Ships with rocks just ahead. We'll do them first."

  "You all did perfect, Knight. Larry said Nev 'planted the seed of change, in soil killed by sixteen days of knowledge we could have destroyed them all.' I hope, with all my heart, we never need what you're taking out of those ships again."

  "We all do, Alden. I don't think they'll come back, but keep watch. They wouldn't all come from one direction again. Neither would anyone else."

  "It was how we knew they thought a show of force would give our 'loyalists' courage to protest our takeover."

  "They can't imagine the abuse, so they can't believe the unity. We're about to dock with a rock net ship and get busy."

  "We'll come visit in the morning."

  "Goodnight."

  "Yes, it is, but I ache for those people who had such pride in their service."

  "They knew we all did. Comm out."

  "Docking commencing. Ship lines forming. Looks good."

  "They're excited and ready to head out or head home, Dawn."

  "Done, Danny."

  "Thanks, Blade. No more assignments."

  "All ships, we forgot to do one thing. Hurrah!"

  "Hurrah!!"

  The flagship had to dock with the three net ships individually, but the five trippers didn't have to wait for them to do it. By the time they'd docked with, and removed "cloaking shields," two weapons and a program from the three ships, two lines of seven and one of ten were waiting to dock with them. There was no reason to put good parts in a waste cycler, but the reason all the ships had to dock was two big installations to dismount and move. The equipment to do it was on the flagship, but they had four sets and a loader. The ship crews could aid with some of the work, so it moved quickly.

  They averaged twenty ships an hour while working, but docking took time. The others insisted Knight, Nev, Blade, Case and Stats stop to eat twice, as well. Ten hours, forty-eight minutes after they reached the rendezvous, they finished the ships and turned the ship toward 'adventure.'

  They'd chosen Mandolin as their first destination. The president had invited them. They were rather sure an old treaty had made them next on the Alliance list. When they were on course, five went back to Liberty Gem and five went to bed.

  Eleven hadn't been to Teal Valley in sixteen days. Larry had, and was very much anticipa
ting the return of five, the visit of five and Kail's return to work in two days.

  Six ugly warehouses were gone. Three large business structures were also gone. The former occupants of all had moved to larger and more convenient locations. Even the company, for which the area on the northwest side of town had been zoned residential-commercial, was sure the new agra-industrial park northeast of town would be more convenient. It had been planned for their type of business, including parking for oversized equipment trailers, transports and many cars, and it was beautiful.

  Trees and hedges hid the huge parking and equipment areas. All were accessed from a road that went around the 'park,' by curving, not abruptly turning, drives. The front of the buildings faced a loop with a fountain in the median. Parking there was not skimpy, either. They'd been about to outgrow the west side facility. It would be a long time before they outgrew their new one. It was designed to grow with them. They, and all the other businesses, also agreed the "northwest corner" really should complement the university.

  Nev was losing his nobody-there-at-night neighbors, but Larry was sure he wouldn't mind. The walls had been removed, his line of trees moved back, his hedges lengthened and sound dampers installed in them. The other house on his block also had a two-lot-wide lot, trees and hedges, and would face the other way.

  It was going to be a huge, four-bedroom beauty. Bram and Jenlin Terschell planned to have their grandson's family company plan their outdoor-indoor entertainment area, build their viewroom and do the greenscaping, other than trees and hedges, which matched theirs.

  Jason told Jaril his daughter and son-in-law hadn't "specifically" moved in next door. It had been their "sneaky way of making one house on four-plus lots fit in." He told Jaril they'd have never figured out how the land had actually been contoured before it was "scraped flat," without the images in the town planning commission records and it had a pretty shape.

  Jaril went to look and laughed all the way home. Nev was going to like his new neighbors.

  The small shopping center, going where the large business had been, between the West Side Flyer Lot and the golf course, would be convenient and pretty storage garages behind it wouldn't hurt Nev's business. The student flyer lot going between the six-plexes and Tiara Road made sense, and pulled it all together. Duplexes were being built behind it. The big homes with big yards going north of Dandy had all been purchased by people who planned big families.

  Kail's grandparents and great-grandparents weren't all neighbors. Jason and Maureen had chosen one of the six big homes with big yards being built on the two narrow blocks, the west corner of the east block.

  The four older couples had chosen smaller houses and yards, in the two-by-four block north of them. All had neighbors, as soon as the plans for houses were complete. Many professors had still been looking, but most were claimed by lifelong residents of the area.

  Expanding families and older couples, who no longer needed large homes, chose new ones. More expanding families found homes in those they listed for sale. More professors found homes on the north and east sides. People bought duplexes that would help pay for themselves. They had no difficulty finding tenants. Every duplex had enough yard for children. When Kail drove into the campus the next morning, Larry was waiting.

  "What happened?!"

  "Your family."

  "What?"

  "Your family, three generations, decided to 'fix the ugly blotch' over here. The businesses all moved to two industrial areas, one agra-industrial, perfect for them, that eight construction companies built in seven work days. A small shopping center, designed specifically for West Side families and students is going south of the golf course. There's a student flyer lot, duplexes, homes. The university now owns the land north of it, the other side of Harvest Road Two. The College of Agriculture has five 'fields,' one each of the types in use in the area. West Side said, 'Thanks for working not to intrude on our community, but we're claiming you.' The north side said they'd object, but it was obvious they belonged. This morning, Milla called and said their entire family, including her sister's in-laws, are moving to Veil Lake, except the grandnephews enrolled in BNU. Nev's yard got longer, so your dad and mom had an excuse to put a house on a wide half-block. I think your grandfathers started it, but it was Jason Andrev and Jaril Ressen who teamed up to give us, Bressler and about a dozen other universities room to expand."

  "Everyone knew but us."

  "And the ones from the neighborhood, on the ship and in Lodestar. Most of the houses and duplexes are already sold. Most were sold to lifelong residents. Others are buying homes they're selling and getting about-to-be families with children out of condos and apts. People in apts are leasing condos, and one complex is going entirely owner-resident. Older people are buying those and more expanding families are moving to family-size homes they no longer need. The whole town is in a happy real estate shuffle, and the land and funds for an elementary school have been set aside. One of the other north side businesses decided to get in on it and is moving east to a new facility. Their building is being renovated and remodeled to be the home of the Northwest Elders Club and Daycare Center."

  "My father lengthened Nev's yard?"

  "He had the whole block sculpted to match the pre-warehouse-scrape images. There are sound dampers around the yards and their house will face north. They added to the sprinkler system and sodded the extended yard with grass to match. I don't know where they had to get it from. They asked Kendra to ask the ones in the neighborhood here, and West Side, if Nev, Knight and Blade would be mad if the walls came out and their yard grew, and told them what they planned. Dozens showed up to help move and plant trees and hedges."

  "Comm connect Nev. Forward call. Did you talk to my dad? All of them? Both sides. I don't know if it's, 'Uh, oh.' Did you like being surrounded by an industrial area? Yes, I said, 'did.' All of them. Your yard. Yes, your yard is behind you. My dad's is beside you. It's the biggest block. Comm out. Comm connect Knight. Forward call. No, he won't recover soon. I'm trying to get this call done before I start. Briefly, West Side is sure my family belongs in the neighborhood, all of them both sides. Lillen's is remodeling Veil Lake. He said he missed them and hoped they'd be close when the baby's born! Comm out! Larry, park my car!"

  Gant and Joel, Nev's mom's cousins' kids were backing a loaded vehicle transport up to the drive when Knight, Nev, Blade, Case and Stats tripped home. Nev whooped and ran out the door. The others were close behind. The two boys, seventeen and eighteen, yelled they were glad they were there. They'd really prefer not to learn if they had enough muscle to push "them" up the drive. None of them ran, but they had most of the parts to rebuild all six.

  "Where did you find them?!"

  "All over… Nev. Joel said you should have the best ever to show off, so we called Resto Baskert, president of the racing association. He polled the members for us and these are the five cars and light hauler they voted best ever built on Liberty Gem."

  "This one was number one by a wide margin and no one expected us to find one not in a collection or museum. Know what it is?"

  "Uh, huh. I don't believe it, but there's only one 'best ever' that… They only built two hundred of them."

  "This is number two."

  "What?!"

  "One went on a pedestal. Two went to a mining corp exec's kid. Best guess is he got drunk, overrode the comp, wrecked it and had it towed to an abandoned mine shed. When we advertised for one in any condition, we got a quiet call from a girl about nine or ten. She told us where she'd seen one. We told her it was worth a lot. She said it was called 'a missing work of art' on the infonet and that made it worth calling, but not her parents' smiles and disconnected."

  "The amnesty program works."

  "Everyone knows what it is but me."

  "Fifty-eight years ago, three engineers, a racecar driver and her artist husband had a dream, Blade."

  "A
Jenetta Muse?!"

  "Yes."

  "That's yours, Nev. This one is Blade's."

  "I don't know what that is either."

  "A silver Caston Vehicle Engineering Windblade, forty-two years old."

  "It's yours because of the car, not the name, but we did laugh when the one we found was silver."

  "Case, you know what this is."

  "A Broletta Virtura, an engineering masterpiece with a nice-looking cover, about thirty-five years old?"

  "Thirty-four. Stats, this one is yours."

  "A Granton Selene. How did someone do that to it in fourteen years?"

  "We think they worked at it. Knight, this one is yours."

  "What is it, besides scorched?"

  "No one else would sell one. An insurance agent called and told us this was in a salvage lot. It's a four-year-old Shellin V-T Land Dragon, with enough intact under the burn to be worth holding onto it."

  "I knew our LH was good. I didn't realize it was the best."

  "Resto said three years ago there would have been heated debate. These drove right through the thirty-year-major-repair wall. They still just need a part and a pat."

  "How long do you have on the transport?"

  "Until we sell it, Blade. We can get liability insurance and repair it if we do stupid. Rental companies don't have that option."

  "At our age, we'd have paid for one in ten days, anyway."

  "You did this all yourselves."

  "It was fun. We have one more, a twelve-year-old Lostollin Wander transport. It doesn't need work of any type. It just wasn't used much. It'll be delivered to the ships."

  "We're going to brag we found them and helped work on them at our new school. It's not because you're our cousin."

  "You finished secondary."

  "No, we finished secondary Ed programs."

  "Good point. Veil Lake?"

  "In time for track."

  "We'll come to meets."

  "If we make the team."

  "Comm connect… This drives me crazy!"

  "We have to go in anyway, Nev. We need to move cars out to get these in to work on them. Did you look over there?"

  "The wall's gone!"

  "Aunt Milla said they expect to be loud lots more often than you are. They surrounded the place with sound dampers."

  "Nev, we have yard behind the yard, a lot of it, and it's green, and the sprinklers are on."

  "They wouldn't have left that out, Blade. Veil Lake?"

  "We may spread out a little more, but maybe not. We like the lake. Currently, they're all looking at lakefront and not-so lakefront. It's nice all around. Both our moms are pregnant and both plan another, maybe."

  "My mom does."

  "She does?"

  "Yes, Blade. Both their moms are thinking about one maybe two, too."

  "They are? Nev, how do you know?"

  "Sort of happy-stunned looks on your dads' faces, Case, and a discussion of 'better with sibling' I overheard."

  "I knew it was coming. Dawn's mom is pregnant."

  "They'll time for work, Stats."

  "That's what I figure. This was a big yard. It's now a grass farm."

  "It reminds me of the lawn at the mansion and I'm reminding myself they don't need a place to store furniture, Stats. Let's get cars moved."

  They moved cars out, put two in the garage and four in the workshop. Danny staggered across, up the drive and into the house, then collapsed in giggles. They'd just flown in. Drand had looked down and said, "Kail's family are here. They fit right in."

  Nev, Knight, Blade, Case and Stats went back to work on ships and others, including Gant and Joel, went to work on the cars. After the crew they were teaching went home, they tripped back to the house. By then, people were working on a car in the workshop, too.

  Deely and her grad students were among them. The grads said the campus still felt really empty in the evenings, without the campus crew, and made them appreciate having something to do "with a bigger bunch" much more. Deely said she had to "chase them out of the lab" and the others learned they'd found an interesting application. One gave a little more detail about where they were stuck and Gant made a suggestion. Deely and the grads all turned and looked at him.

  "Oops. I don't know enough to make suggestions."

  "He doesn't know enough to realize we're all stunned, but he sure knows physics."

  "You're still in secondary."

  "Yes and no. Joel, I got myself in it."

  "When you don't go to school, you can get a long way ahead in things you like."

  "Like doctoral project level?"

  "We didn't live close, Brell."

  "You didn't… Oh, shit. You didn't have anything else to do."

  "Of course we did, but working together on stuff on a comp was fun. We always did assignments together. We weren't ahead of everyone. We were working in standard texts. Comm monitoring ended just when we were about to run out."

  "We've never been in a physics lab and we'll be there when term opens. We'll take the comprehensive bank, just like every other entering student. We aren't going to be grad-student level in everything."

  "We don't want to be. We want to try for the track team at Veil Lake this spring, then for the one at BNU. We've both practiced a lot and we think we'll at least get on the teams."

  "We're not well-rounded. We know it."

  "No wonder you're all moving here."

  "It's a great place, Dent."

  "Yes, it is. The only thing it doesn't have is a place for physicists to work after they graduate."

  "Get a trip chair. Go to work on Sapphire, Gaylana or Earth. They'll probably even pay the comm bill. They need you at universities."

  "Blink, blink, he's real right."

  "Comm connect Kail. They've got another year before they can start doing research. That doesn't mean their U's should be waiting to teach kids to be ready. Seminars there, not just here, would get a lot of them started. No, I don't. It's what they're doing here, getting all the universities ready to teach it. I got blinks when I said U's on other worlds would pay their comm bills to teach there. They like it here too. Yes, that may be a problem. Comm out. He said if every transfer student decides they don't want to leave, this town is going to get to be a city fast, and the Planning Commission is not ready for that, either."

  The ones sleeping on the ship got a comm call and ran for trip chairs. Essa had begun labor. They tripped home, ran out the door and got in Dandy's transport. Silky and Essa's daughter was "a West Side kid, for sure." Essa was not going to be in labor long.

  At three sixteen, local time, Serena greeted the world with a loud complaint it was cold outside. The clinic was packed with people there to meet her. Silky's family, everyone from the neighborhood and a bunch from Channel Forty-eight formed up to get their turns waving hello, when Silky carried her into the nursery and to the viewing window.

  The greeters didn't stay long. Three other bunches of greeters were waiting to hear loud complaints and their turn to say hello. Serena and mommy would be home late that afternoon. Family and friends were making appointments, according to the clinic's don't-tire-them-too-much schedule, as they walked out the door.

  Three more babies would soon be born. Larry and Kendra's son was due in fourteen days, Kail and Lillen's daughter in sixteen and Mike, Loren and Elise's boy in twenty-eight. The five from the ship left from the clinic parking lot. Four hours later, they tripped to work on ships.

  It was the last morning they'd be training the building crew. That afternoon, they'd begin training the two finishing crews. Each of those had an interior designer on them. They both knew what was going in the ships and shuttles and had helped choose it. The training would be in how to prepare, stock and secure everything for an improbable, but remotely possible, loss of internal gravity. When the work day was over, they tripped home. They had that evening and the next two full days to work on car
s.

  Boats, skimmers, glides, a sailing yacht and a transport would begin arriving the work day after. Most were already "perfect." Some were custom beauties. A few they'd work on themselves. One of the things their ships had that most would not were "playrooms to do just about anything." The building and finishing crews knew most of the equipment to go in the tech shop had been delivered to the flagship.

  Work on the cars had continued, while the five had worked on ships that day. They went to meet Serena personally first, then returned to the house to help finish the first two vehicles, the LH and Stats' Selene. By the time they went back, all that was left to do on the Virtura in the workshop was colorbond and install the interior. They finished it in the morning, loaded the three on the transport and moved the Windblade into the garage. They were still restoring parts for the Muse, and it was easier to scrape off scorch and fill holes in the Land Dragon in the workshop.

  Case and Stats complained it "killed" them to have to wait until the ships rendezvoused, then got to a planet, to drive their cars more than around the block. Night, Nev and Blade sympathized. Gant and Joel grinned.

  They got everything done except "appearance" on the Windblade that day. Interior restoration took longer than tech because it wasn't easy to match some of the materials. Some were produced in the BNU physics lab, but they had everything for the Land Dragon. The next morning, they finished both of those and went to work on the Muse. Everything in it had been handbuilt when it was made, so they knew exactly what-and-how each piece, from disk to solar panels on the top, was made. There were twenty-three working on her and almost everything but the body had been prepared. They finished her at twenty-two seventeen. Nev open the doors and motioned for Gant and Joel to get in.

  "No, to drive. Take her around the belt road twice, once each."

  "You should be first."

  "I didn't find her and you did more work on her than I did. This is the work of art a child risked her family's new life to give you to restore. She wouldn't have called if you hadn't been kids too. It will be you two in this car she looks for on the news and infonet, not me. I'm the one who'll take it for all the worlds to see, but you're who made it possible."

  "Get images for her."

  "We'll meet you at BNU, Joel."

  "Thanks, Bance."

  "You guys bring the transport with the others. Now that they're done, it's news."

  "I wish it wasn't a long drive to Lodestar."

  "You think they should go tonight, Blade?"

  "Yes, Nev, I do. If I could figure a way we could trip to the transport, I'd say sleep and trade-off. Too many people will be trying to make an appointment to see them and there will be news crews from everywhere. They should be in their places in the ship and part of its show, not the main attraction."

  "We can take alternate drivers in a follow transport. Someone can bring your flyers, plus one to meet us, and we can deliver and get back in time for our school enrollment appointment. Track practice is starting, so we're officially staying with Carler and Milla until we get moved."

  "You two will sleep almost all the way, so you can deliver them, Gant."

  "Yes, Knight."

  "Take her out. We'll see you at the campus."

  "Thanks, Nev. Muse, you were a victim of the old gov too, but now you're free."

  They timed the transport to arrive when the ship construction company opened. Joel and Gant whooped, as they drove into the spaceport, then called Nev. The transport with the Wander was ahead of them. Nev laughed and told them "everything else" was behind or above them. The finish crews would be doing garage work that morning. Even the yacht was coming in the next half-hour. Joel said that was too much to be coincidence and he suspected their great-uncle Carler had been busy. Nev agreed it was too well-timed even for his luck.

  The two boys had enrollment appointments at eight-thirty in Veil Lake, nine-thirty Lodestar time, so they had time to stay for all the deliveries. The crews worked fast to get everything in and they recorded images of it for the kids at their new school, before they ran for the return flight.

  The vehicle transport was already on the way back. It had been purchased by the half-junkyard used car dealer in Teal Valley, for a nice price and a promise to call if he found anything "half as interesting" as Blade's Bolt. Carler hadn't been the only one who'd been busy that morning.

  That evening, the five men tripped home "just to be home." It was the first time they'd had time to drive around and look around, since their yard had grown. They went to "view construction" in Nev's T. It was a beautiful evening and domes were down, so they saw everything so far. The domes would be moved to other places the next day.

  Mid-spring rains would make wet days more common than dry ones for sixteen days, then rain would "just be frequent." When they watched the weather before going back that night, Nev said the weather in Richland was "about to enter excuse pattern, day after day of drizzle following a short break after two half-seasons of glimpses of the sun." Streams and rivers were "channels through two hundred K long lakes" and the fields beneath them were getting ready to show the city name was appropriate.

  "Almost a year."

  "Danny says I'll have a lot of editing to do soon, Blade. Some years, it freezes and snows this late up here."

  "Nev, why does editing bother you?"

  "I haven't read it since they wrote me in, Blade. I'm not sure I want to know how they see me."

  "I understand that perfectly. They're about to start every one of your family's houses."

  "They're all ready to move to be here for my sister's debut. I'm the only descendent of six families, with my two cousins, fourteen. I'm the only Braighton-Haverly-Lancesta, Moskone-Andrev-Terschell descendent. In two more generations, if we married in our financial class, we'd have had half the wealth of the world, outside the oligarchy."

  "Why one child each?"

  "It kept us from becoming inbred, avoiding being pushed into merging with the oligarchy. If these families had one and those families had one, they weren't cousins or a few that might be cut from the herd to get attachments to the money."

  "Seven generations."

  "Yes. Dad and Mom both looked 'outside.' Everyone did. Ritzi's family was big and sturdy, no one in it, out to fourth cousins, was interested in money, and I did and do love her, but I don't miss her, not even like I would Case and Stats."

  "I want to be Bard Loden, but I don't know if anyone else wants to go back to previous names."

  "I don't. My mother said Harim was 'old family,' but nobody from that old family came. I may be the last one too."

  "I understand why you want to go back to Bard. You were named 'poet-teacher' and Knight was what you had to become to be free to be who you are. He chose to be the silver blade."

  "Case and Stats?"

  "Will probably stick with Case and Stats, even if they used their surnames, but those are who they always were, too. I like Nevin Curran, but my family may need me to be Tarse Terschell. I told my mom the custom of taking the man's name had been dropped on Earth well over a millennia ago and people should keep their names and kids 'take turns,' when I was four, and realized there wouldn't be any more Braighton, Haverly or Andrev families. She told me every extended family who came to settle had been put under one name by the mining corps and changing names and taking the husband's hadn't been an option. It was how the mining corps did it, and you weren't married, and your children weren't your husband's too, so no one was entitled to insurance or anything else, unless the woman's name was changed. Trying to change the man's to the woman's got you a form for legal name change and the bill for it, and you still weren't married, just two with the same surname."

  "I keep finding out more things they did to us."

  "Are the family names important? Why are there so many of some? They had that many sons?"

  "Some 'extended families' were actually settlement groups, Knight, but they'd ha
ve had to have a lot more in equipment and supplies, and they might have been scattered, if they weren't families, so they all took the surname of the patriarch and just needed one of the required-per-family items."

  "You about know who was poor by how common the name is."

  "They did a lot of things they weren't really supposed to, Blade, but they always had some kind of excuse; insurance, recordkeeping cost, comp capacity limitation, possible social conflict, something. One of the reasons they left the truly wealthy alone was they could have made things extremely difficult for them legally in the first seventy-five years. They didn't because it would have made it difficult for those settlers without much in assets. They chose to be 'one big family' to start new lives here. Wealthy families did the same. Most of the non-mining industry on this world was funded by eleven families. They were the banks of the world. Most people who came here had money to trade for colonial funds. It was used to import things to build industries like agriculture manufacture, clothing manufacturer and others. That's first-stage settlement, and there are always wealthy families in it. There are also always artisans and farmers. On this world, there were huge numbers of people with high technical aptitude to be miners, as well."

  "So many, the whole world is tech crazy."

  "Far more so than most, Blade, even other mining corp supplemented settlements, because so much of the equipment used here was new tech at the time. It's interesting we use comps to do less than most worlds, but they can actually do more because our programming is more efficient."

  "A couple worlds, where people were surprised we drove haulers places, instead of just entering the destination, and that we didn't consider that usual in a car."

  "The daytrippers are teaching us how diverse we really are, Blade. Traders didn't really teach us that like the trippers do. They visited a few regularly, or came back and said, 'all different' and people saw clothes, cars, sports contests and such that look alike, and even sociologists and anthropologists thought we were generally homogeneous. 'Instantaneous' comm has been around for one hundred twenty-two years, but only businesses and settlers on three worlds had people to call. Mobile comm connect the Prime Minister. Identify callers, all present."

  "Hello, gens. I want to see your cars."

  "We were sure you'd hear. We'll arrange it. We've been thinking."

  "Share, please."

  "A good job for space corps trippers might be exploration. Leave a transpatial comm node and drop relays, when a world is discovered. Seed worlds we've ignored that could support our type of life, with a few hundred years growth. Find more pleasant green worlds, but make some. We netted a fleet and moved it. Could we do it with the moon to give a world some nice tidal action? How about a planet? What could we do with the mental image of a self-contained-everything enviro suit and a shuttle full of equipment to make a nice atmosphere mix?"

  "I'm not going to take part credit for that idea, Knight."

  "Neither am I."

  "You were the ones talking about settlement and trippers."

  "It's a very propitious environment for growth in there."

  "Yes, Blade, it is. It's a great idea, Admiral Pyramid."

  "Ow."

  "Make it Admiral Loden, Bard Loden. I'm Tarse 'Nevin' Terschell."

  "You're going to do this now?"

  "We weren't. Nev?"

  "My family can't all be there for my sister's birth without Tarse, Bard."

  "He's the Knight of the Pyramid. Make it an honor society, or order or something. Don't make it as hard for others to get into it as it was for these two."

  "If we're in it, you are."

  "I wasn't there when IS tried to kill you, and you decided that was it. You were going to get Bard back and the gov and IS were coming down. Bard knew you'd find a way, as soon as he learned you were still alive. I hope she rewrote that book to put you at the place where you came in. You are the beginning, the indomitable will that brought about the change."

  "Without a prince, a knight is just a man in armor."

  "I hope she changed the book too, but you're still the right fleet admiral. It's a superb 'final order,' before you officially go on reserve status."

  "I thought we were."

  "We decided to wait to make it official, until you send the ship back. We don't want to decommission it."

  "You're making our visit official."

  "Say official hello, then go on leave, until your ships rendezvous. No business, you're admirals on vacation."

  "Thank you. I think."

  "It's a space corps ship, but its business is deliver a greeting. It's just still there while the crew have shore leave. Attend one formal function, then put on play clothes and run off. If you're still in the space corps, business deals would be conflict of interest. After this one, we'll have things spread around enough you won't be the best chance to 'get in on it.' Do visit Earth. Their Space Force Command is putting a lot of time and thought into helping us keep you from being mobbed by businesses waving contracts and governments waving treaties. The others are just 'out and bought my old ship.' You know everything and everyone. In a half-season, someone down the road will be setting up production."

  "Nice people. We'll dress-up for them, and get a list of their favorite golf courses. Like some that have been played almost seventeen hundred years."

  "One admiral said the only thing wrong with daytripping if he'd play every course perfectly, and be even more disgusted with his usual game, Blade."

  "It's just not the same when you know you'll do everything right, unless you expect to do it wrong. It's an interesting way to find out part of the reason you slice is you expect you will."

  "You just gave us a sports 'approach,' Blade, and it's going to reverse that but-I'd-play-perfect-so-why-go attitude. Thank you. I suspect half the hitch in my backhand is mental. When?"

  "When Nev needs to tell his family he loves them in that way."

  "The perfect time, Admiral Loden. I'll run off to see those cars tomorrow."

  "See you then. Comm out."

  The Prime Minister arrived with the Defense Minister, just as they finished the ships the next afternoon. They got a real tour of both, then sat down in the "bridge lounge, what you call the family room in the house," to talk. They got the ships' comms set up and called Danny, Ronnie, Dawn and Larry. He'd be known as one of the five hundred forty-eight when they merged the identities. He was least bothered. Blade was most. They 'tracked' it to how many knew what he'd done before and called 'the man.'

  He told them everyone knew some had to be stopped, and many had learned what the assassin had used money to do. If someone linked it all, he'd ask them what they'd done to stop the murder and abuse of children. Blade smiled and nodded. Danny asked Nev if he was ready to edit and he winced.

  "He's not sure he wants to know how you wrote him, Danny."

  "I know, Blake, but it's who he is and better us than historians making us the 'revolutionary cadre under the adroit leadership of.' In the story, he's the half-faerie prince, who rides beside the knight and elven companion, not the mastermind. He's always been a hero, but many are. He could do more than most, and we, and his family, are why. That's what's in the book. He's heroic and a bit silly-romantic, with a terrific sense of humor about it. The trip chairs were actually the finishing touch, the magic spell that let's the heroes go adventuring, but be always near, watching over the realm from the castle on the hill."

  "You don't expect to do rewrites."

  "Of course I do. I just hope I've already done them all. Ronnie thinks we have."

  "I hope we have, and our moms like it, but they just catch boo-boos. They don't edit."

  "We think we did a good job."

  "You've been working on it too, Case?"

  "We all have, Nev. They do ideas. Dawn, Stats and I point places with holes, or things that support and Danny writes. Your turn."

  "What do you think o
f the prince?"

  "It wouldn't be a book without him. At the end he keeps trying to give away the magic purse. People with big smiles bring it back, show him their full purses and tell him they put a bit in it to help the next person, so he tries to just leave it somewhere. People with big smiles bring it to him, show him their full purses, tell him they realized it was his, when they learned it was magic, and added a bit because it helped them so much. He just gives up and puts it on his belt. Because so many put a bit in, it runs over frequently. He spends a lot of time looking for places to dump it that it will help people. It always does, so everyone figures out the thing to do with money is help people and they're all doing great, and he's got coins piling up in a corner of the castle. Every time they leave, he takes a bag full and looks for places to dump it that it will help people, and to dump the magic purse. One day, he realizes the pile in the corner is bigger than before he filled the last bag. He asks the faerie king about it and he bursts into laughter, pats the prince on the back, tells him he's proud of him, and suggests he find a large room they don't need. Every time someone he's helped decides to 'pay back,' by helping someone else, the pile grows. So they pick a big room and put the pile in it. He stops taking bags along, but the purse does run over."

  "That's cute."

  "It's also true, Alden. The ships are ready to leave."

  Bance, Jason and Silky drove down. They'd been discussing what they'd need to take in a flyer and Essa told them that was silly. She and Serena would be fine, and she'd have more help than she needed. Everyone would love the excuse to spoil them rotten. Silky called his mother and told her she had an excuse, if she hurried. She came down from Talon Peak in a flyer. Silky was still laughing when they went over the pass.

  The five men tripped home and went to the mine. Danny, Ronnie, Dawn and Drand were already there. It didn't take them long to build the projector. It did take a while to 'set the stage.' The tunnel entry had to be invisible from all directions, and the comp and lab area "should look like they were used." They laughed at themselves when Blade told them he'd dropped a stylus on the floor four times and someone had picked it up every time, moved chairs out and they'd pushed them in, put the micrometer out on the lab bench twice and the next person by had put it away. Everyone just watched when he walked into the tunnel and got in the railcar. When he wasn't back in about ten minutes, they decided to gather some produce. They had enough for everyone in the neighborhood before he got back.

  He grinned and handed Nev a fairly large package. He began opening it and burst into laughter. It was one of the big vertical BNU banners. It was designed to hang on the side of the building. It was taller and just a bit wider than the tunnel entry. They hung it, making sure it didn't move with thin metal strips on the wall and small magnets behind the gold border of the banner.

  Blade moved them out of the image, put chairs in just-for-a-break, slightly out and turned, position, laid the micrometer out, dropped the stylus and got out of the image. Knight keyed the remote 'capture,' then turned it off. He walked over and picked up the stylus, then turned on the field. He yelled, "Hello!" and could tell they hadn't heard him. He turned off the field.

  Blade burst into laughter. The micrometer was put away and the chairs pushed in properly in less than two seconds. He told them the stylus was "intended to drive people crazy." They'd be sure no one had been there, because it would have been picked up by the first person who walked by. They decided to move the banner over, not take it down. It added to the aesthetics.

  They did that, switched on the field and went back to work. They still had several hours before Bance, Jace and Silky got to the spaceport in Lodestar and the new tech was probably going to take days. They wouldn't be sharing it, and they didn't plan to look for other applications, but all were sure there would come a time when tripping was not enough. By the time they needed to leave, the theory was complete.

  The ships had been moved out of the huge construction hangar. They were going to show them off, then start them on their journey. Knight, Nev, Blade, Case and Stats walked out of the big ship and were waiting when the mobile unit arrived. Bance was driving and talking. Jace had a cam on the ships. The president and chief engineer of the company that had built them arrived in a car, just before they got to them.

  They were big ships and there was a lot to see in them. They started with smaller one. The cars and transport, and who had recommended them, were first, then the shuttle was shown off. They didn't know something was going on until they left that ship. A government and space corps car and one of their flyers were between the two ships.

  Silky told Bance to follow the plan. The addition was on the end and still being worked out. Bance told the five men and two women he didn't know why the cars and flyer were there, but they'd been told to do the tour as planned. They began in the garage.

  Nev said the "second Muse made" had proved the amnesty program was working. A child had chosen her "parents' smiles" over money for the car, but had called with the location when she learned the "old wreck" she'd seen was a lost work of art. It was obvious, from both her call and her priorities, that her parents were "someone's nice neighbors" and teaching their child the right values. He was sharing the confirmation, because there was no way the child could be traced, and he knew all of them wished only good things for the nice family.

  After they'd shown everything but the bridge lounge, Silky told Jace their timing was perfect. They walked off the lift and there was a space corps honor guard at attention. The five trippers 'changed clothes,' as soon as they saw them. Bance noted it. They hadn't. Knight thanked him and the admirals returned the honor guard salute and walked to where the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, several representatives, Kail, Dandy, Day, Danny, Ronnie and Dawn, in uniform, were waiting. The admirals returned the salute of the officers and stood at attention. The prime minister smiled widely.

  "When the Defense Minister chose you to command our fleet, when a four-world alliance declared war on us, people said they'd had picked 'the BNU bunch.' But we knew more than they did. Today, you gave the fleet one more command. In a few days, you will perform your last official act for us, carry our greeting to a world that learned it too had been threatened by a terrible error that had made well-meaning people see us as enemies. You found a way to end that conflict without loss of life. Today, you gave our space corps the task of exploration, finding new worlds, and bringing life to those around us that can support it, with the aid of daytripping Space Corps personnel. Would you three please join ranks with the admirals. We have created an order of honor. By order of the Congress of Liberty Gem, we name the eight of you Knights of the Pyramid, for your actions of the past two years. The book is written. The story will be told as allegory, as you chose to plan the freeing of your loved classmate and his companion, right under the noses of the IS, from Horgen Field. I want an autographed copy. Knighton Pyramid, step forward to receive your order, and state your true name."

  "Bard Loden."

  "Silverin Bladesly."

  "Harim Havadan."

  The knight and the half-elf companion. Nevin Curran, the half-faerie prince."

  "Tarse Terschell."

  "Danniera Tracy, the princess who wields the air magic."

  "Ritzinna Schermacher."

  "You four are called the 'Hands of the People' in the book. Cascony Laudren."

  "Garil Hobart."

  "Statton Sharp."

  "Panner Santiago."

  "Veronica Neardon."

  "Shelima Oberetta Neardon."

  "Dawn Valens."

  "Brimileena Hannaloahala Valens."

  "Day, would you speak for all?"

  "Yes, they have asked me to do so. I asked a question, and sought an answer. I caught a glimpse of truth, was convicted as a rebel and sent to a pit of despair, chained and forced to make dream dust. Others killed those who murdered and raped with impunity
because they were IS, or selling the horror we were forced to make. They were sent to inescapable boredom and brutality as punishment. You found and freed us all. You prepared a place of safety for five hundred forty, freed us to be others, gave us the tools and led us to free our world, and no one mourned. And then you wiped out all that kept us from our families, even the news archives of our truthless convictions. We don't want to be known. We don't want the attention, but you didn't either. You accepted it as an act of love. That is the truth of who you are and all you've done. All the Valens and Terschell's gather for the birth of a child. You wouldn't allow people to believe Kail and Lillen's son was not among them. So, on the anniversary of our freeing, we will all gather in the place you prepared for us and show the world there really are five hundred forty and eight of us."

  "Now you know that all we did is hand uniforms to those already doing the job."

  The Teal Valley group 'grabbed' Bance and Jace and a space corps driver got the key code for the mobile unit from Silky, as he ran for the flyer. The prime minister led the rest of the government group off the ship at a run. The people from the shipbuilding company ran out of it with the space corps honor guard, and ran for their car. They cleared the safety zone and stopped. The other cars kept going. Seventy-three seconds after Bance said, "Wrap," both ships lifted from the spaceport.