L'Gem

by Sharon L Reddy

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Quinn ran for a young man who'd taken a dive and yelled for transport. The kid was "broke not bent." The fall hadn't done it. He rolled with that well, into a lamp post. He thought it was hilarious.

  "That's the second time I've done that!"

  "Hit a lamp post?"

  "Last time it was a tree. I was nine. I rolled into it after falling off a porch rail I was using as a balance beam. I hit the same clavicle the same way."

  "Bramton!"

  "I'll be patched in a few minutes, Francine."

  "Your mom warned me you were going to introduce me to another doctor when she saw the float scoots."

  "Mom has been taking me in for patching at somewhat regular intervals since I learned to walk. I decided to try stairs after I could take three consecutive steps. I might have made the stairs, but I fell off the gate across them. This time no one has to come along."

  "He was eighteen yesterday. I thought this was the perfect present."

  "It is, most wonderful I ever got."

  "I believe him, Frankie."

  "So do I, Quinn, but he's still my little cousin, and I'm going along. He hasn't introduced me to a doctor in three years."

  "It may get crowded. Christopher and Lawrence are shedding gear."

  "Everyone from Cloverlea may be."

  "I know. I'm not really complaining, Quinn. I got to tag along more than any other kid I know. Mom considered it a good way to keep clinic bills down. When I was with them, I stayed out of trees, off roofs, didn't string wires to tightrope walk, didn't see if I could ride a piece of plas down a wet grassy hill standing up, and several others."

  "He did try to catch glowfish in one of his shoes, see if he could ride a float down Trippet Rapids, and several others. We bought several pairs of shoes, pants and shirts and applied quick-heal many times. Adventurous is an understatement. So is curious."

  "You didn't see the post?!"

  "It was a choice. I picked roll over splat and the lamppost was just a bit too close."

  "He said it was a repeat performance, Topper."

  "He had to break something again, Quinn. There's nothing left to be a first."

  "I learned to roll with a fall at an early age."

  "We taught him to use rock-climbing gear when he was six. He said it worked better than what he'd been using for rappelling down the side of his house."

  "Much better. I lost my grip on the bed sheet several times, but I did have how much to stack on the bed so it dragged across the room at the right speed figured out. I just had to unstack it to move it back every time. Climbing the rocks to get to the top was more fun."

  "Did you have to prove 'Bam' was a suitable name?!"

  "Well, you were talking about chemistry, Labs."

  "The doctor at the clinic is probably trying to figure out how you broke a clavicle rolling into a lamppost. Do explain you were doing a very good imitation of a bowling ball at the time."

  "I will, Blade."

  "I'm going along. I'm sure he's going to say something else about stuff he tried, and I'm comparing it to my list."

  "You did that kind of stuff too, Quinn?"

  "No, Bam, I have a list of things I decided not to try until I had the right equipment because. You're doing a good job of confirming my estimate of the results."

  "Rope swing from a tree branch and hit the tree on the back swing?"

  "Check."

  "Use a piece of elansa to bounce the ball back and find out how hard you bat it extremely personally?"

  "Ow! Check. Get in carefully."

  "I've had a lot of practice at it. I once rode to the clinic with my ass carefully highest. I fell off the mower when it turned to avoid the red thorn flowers. Dad decided to put blue cushion flowers in that flower bed. I said thanks every time I landed in it after that."

  Blade grinned at Bard and he nodded. Nev said he felt like they still had one "partner" to find. Bard turned and pointed. Frets gave him a hug. He raised an eyebrow in question.

  "Louisa is the girl every society caster droolingly awaited to debut in society, who didn't. Her parents bought a huge farm about ten years ago, after a kid on an opposing soccer team said her mother was a slut and everyone knew she wasn't her dad's kid. Society casters had been proposing every successful man on the planet, except him, as her father since before she was born. Her parents locked the gates and didn't appear in public again. They're the heirs to the two largest fortunes on the planet, Culbertson and Sanders. Their families began CLD industries and Farmers Bank of Mandolin. She's twenty-two. She has a doctorate in Agricultural Engineering. She's got a patent on a bumpfruit picker arm control and a trophy for custom flyer design. Neither has her complete name on it. Not all of them. Frankie wants a husband, kids and a big house everyone visits."

  "Basically, what Loopy doesn't."

  "She thought she did, Blade, then she told him who she really is, and he told her he has two little sisters and goodbye."

  "Ow."

  "Yes, Nev, but she did realize she doesn't want to be Louise Sands any longer."

  "Who is Bam?"

  "Bramton Ambrose, the family association is Ambrosia Foods. You'll find their products in the best restaurant kitchens on the planet, and in grocers' gourmet aisles. They also have several subsidiary companies that assure those restaurants have the best equipment to prepare their foods. Labs is Lawrence Blackburn. His family built Millsap Technologies. The float scooters and what you brought with you may be the only complex equipment on this world that doesn't contain a component they made. Topper is Christopher Strand. His father's family began Cornet Vehicles."

  "Is Cloverlea a neighborhood?"

  "You're wondering how they escaped the society casters?"

  "Yes, I am.

  "Cloverlea is a town with a college. A degree from Cloverlea College is considered to be a head start on a career in law or politics. Cloverlea has the highest per capita income on the planet. It's gone up considerably every year for the last twenty-two."

  "But no one sued them or charged them with defamation of character."

  "One woman tried, very early, Blade. The questions were 'request for verification of a rumor, not statement of fact.' They're always questions and lists of reputed affairs."

  "They aren't going to back off, are they?"

  "I don't know, Nev, but I'm not worried about the outcome."

  "Comm connect Mandolin Offices of the Interplanetary Superior Court. Identify. Fem Wares, I was informed someone intended to bring suit, or press charges for 'attempt to limit free speech by coercion,' against me. At issue are extreme differences in the definition of free speech and the right to privacy. Can I, as a citizen of another world, be sued in planetary courts? As a non-citizen, in what court would I request an injunction against what I'm sure is at least gross invasion of privacy, and believe is abuse for profit, and they term free speech? No, I believe the intent is to tell gross lies, described as 'overheard rumors,' about my family and companions, possibly before suit is filed. I believe society casters intended to say they 'heard' we're all having affairs, probably with several each. Even if I had one, which is highly improbable considering affluent young women here are too terrified to carry on a private conversation with a man, I don't think the casters have a right to talk about it. Of course they're terrified. They're pilloried on planetary broadcasts as sluts. 'Ooh, we caught her' is literal. They're going to say obscene things about her, and she can't escape it. Blushes and tears sell well. They're not going to use our shafts to verbally rape women for the entertainment of the planetary audience. I prefer an injunction, but I'll blast their broadcast satellites to stop it."

  "Nev!"

  "They were warned it would cause an interplanetary incident, Frets. Yes, Fem Wares. A feeling it was considered a challenge. Add Bard."

  "Answer comm. Hello, Fem Wares. Absolutely. The duty is minimize damage.
That's less damaging to this world than being branded as a diseased society. They've caused gross warping of the entire culture. Float scooters and costumes are organized effort to repair the damage quickly, at the request of the president and with expert sociological guidance. If the basis was anything else, or included any other factors, that would be impossible. Yes, Fem. That too."

  "Presidential Study Group report S G one-one-six. Thank you, Fem Wares. Comm out."

  "Thank you. Comm out. You got the right person."

  "I was being carefully 'legal,' and it just boiled over. She's going to stop it."

  "I'm sure of it too."

  "Who is she?"

  "The court answering service operator."

  "The last question was if the casts were responsible for her six-year-old great-grandson being ashamed he's good at drawing."

  "She has to know quite a bit to do the job."

  "Yes, Blade, she does."

  "Answer comm. Danny, are you going to be able to tell me… Bard, they're at Danny's!"

  "They?"

  "The five of them, the treatment unit, and a giggling doctor."

  "Oh, shit."

  "Take Loopy."

  "I didn't know I was going, Frets."

  "Aren't you glad she warned you?"

  "Danny… Comm out."

  Bard left the three of them laying on the ground, giggling. He was giggling by the time he got to the place Loopy was practicing. He motioned her to follow him, let her around some bushes and held out his hand. As soon as she touched it, they were in Danny's crowded bedroom. Bard collapsed on the bed. The floor was full.

  Loopy stepped over people, looked to see who was in the treatment unit, walked to the window and looked out, walked back to the bed, sat down and burst into laughter. A few seconds later, the people she'd seen coming that way got to the bedroom.

  "What happened?!"

  "Quinn!"

  "Quinn happened?"

  "Yes."

  "You want to try, Bance?"

  "No, Drand. I'm just going to sit down and laugh."

  "The power fluctuated. I was going to take him out of the unit, Quinn said, 'Whoops,' and connected it!"

  "Quinn, the wish was a bit wide!"

  "I didn't bring the chairs, Bard. That's how they… ended up on the floor!"

  Nev, Blade and Frets were suddenly on the bed on Bard. He said, "Oops." Danny screamed with laughter, and everyone else found places on the floor. Loopy fell off the bed. The unit beeped and the Doctor opened it. Bam sat up and said, "And I thought my stories were funny." The doctor felt his clavicle, and slid down the wall. Bam reached out, got his tights, leotard, cutoffs and shirt off the shelf on the unit, got them on and climbed out, then he looked out the window.

  "Welcome to Teal Valley!"

  "Thank you. It's obviously an unexpected visit."

  "Yes."

  "A piece of tech that doesn't work quite as wished?"

  All the others roared with laughter. Bam watched two cats jump from person to person. He sat down and they both came over to meet him. He checked his chron and began to giggle. He hadn't been in the unit long enough. Eventually, some people began to recover enough to talk. The gorgeous redhead who welcomed him was not one of them. His first info came from Bance.

  "Quinn wished you here. New tech and it's not working as expected."

  "I got that. A clean break doesn't take long, but it takes longer than it took."

  "When we recover enough, we'll see if it was the unit or Quinn. Or Bard. Or Danny."

  "Or the cats!"

  "They do like him, Dawn."

  "I like them too. I always wanted one, but they're not allowed in Cloverlea."

  "Why?"

  "An endangered low-nesting animal, too endangered for even indoor-only restriction. It's dying out, but we're not contributing to it. It actually does a little better in our hedges than the wild."

  "Doctor, what have you found?"

  "An odd record, Bard. It begins with the power fluctuation."

  "Have you had previous fluctuations?"

  "One, the matrix tech couldn't find anything wrong and all our equipment tested in optimum range. I've got a feeling it's this unit."

  "Something too right or dangerously wrong and we got lucky. Let's get it apart."

  "Wait, Dawn. Let's do some scans first. Danny, link the lab comp. Trace scanner?"

  "On the bring list, Nev."

  "How many arms do you need, Drand?"

  "Two more sets, Bance."

  "Let's go."

  "Uh, oh, he's wet. I'll tuck him in at home and get on the comp for numbers."

  "Actual medical numbers, Kendra."

  "True, Danny, even if not quite my type."

  "Medical numerologist, she was one of the first 'rebels' the gov shoved in a hole in the ground. Others changed jobs fast."

  "I realized a lot of medical professions had to 'not exist,' Blade. Here's the first fluctuation and test record."

  "It looks like a power fluctuation."

  "Everything was affected, Nev. I had a patient in it. I pulled her out quick, but the treatment was nearly complete. We finished it with the equipment in the mobile unit, while we checked everything. I hope you plan to explain this to the staff. I wouldn't get through an explanation if I knew what to say."

  "Every piece of new tech doesn't work exactly as expected. Since this unit wasn't either, we took it apart too."

  "Blade… They'll believe they wouldn't believe me if I attempted to explain."

  "Dr. Brewer, what is this reading?"

  "The cell construction monitor, Danny. I'm Bruce."

  "Bruce Brewer?"

  "I told my mother protesting the name simplification of the charter signers, with me, was mean, Quinn. She said she was too tired to remember what they planned, Dad wasn't there and her uncle Bruce was. Dad said it was a sneaky way to encourage me to become a doctor, like he is."

  "Why did they require name changes?"

  "It was a piece of who they wanted as settlers, Ronnie. If you didn't want to 'meld' into that new society, there were four other worlds being settled and three more being prepared. Any name pronounced as spelled was acceptable, but most chose one from a very long list comp selected from Earth comm directory. Stanislavski said if theirs was spelled as pronounced they wouldn't be listed in a media pronunciation guide and chose Stanhope. Mandolin settlement wasn't sponsored by mining corps, social services and such. It was funded by business people who paid their own way, and often that of many employees. Some of those business people chose new names to disassociate themselves from extremely old businesses that threatened legal action every time they tried to use their family name on something. We've wondered if our odd charter actually set the 'name simplification' precedent that the mining corps used to force people to adopt one family name."

  "It may have been convenient, Frets, but it wasn't contributing. They'd have forced simplification if they weren't using 'simplification of record-keeping,' as an excuse. Did you guys hear twenty-three other worlds joined the suit?"

  "This morning, Danny. Greening is going to press charges too. They were chartered as a nature conservancy planet, and the corps took three times as much as was legal, and reported a third of what they took. Their assets are going to be seized and sold."

  "I think we're going to find out there's a lot more illegal activity than just taking too much and lying about it, Frets. What were they financing with what was stolen from us? Who had a hidden agenda and what was it? They're probably long dead, but somebody had one, or the corps would have taken legal and moved on, not pushed social oddities and falsified reports. We may find Liberty Gem was financed with stolen minerals and… I don't know what was intended, but I don't think it worked. I think the greed of the oligarchy messed it up."

  "I agree, Bam. Too weird to be just profit motive. The cost analysis doesn't make sense. Some of what they did th
ere reduced efficiency. Not all of it. There's a timeframe of about forty years that's real odd, and spread from one to another."

  "You think they may all be one, Quinn?"

  "I'm wondering about it, Loopy. Why are you here?"

  "I don't know. Bard was laughing too hard to talk when he… zapped me here."

  "You five are a set. You belong with him."

  "What?"

  "Ooh, I missed that one, Ronnie."

  "I would have if they hadn't looked at each other to 'share the laughter' several times, Danny."

  "I'm… engaged."

  "And just realized it's to the wrong girl?"

  "No, Ronnie, that I may be engaged to an office. Comm connect Mandolin, shortcut Regina. Hi, I think I'm going to turn down the offer and stay with the clinic until you get your degree. You haven't said where you plan to start your career and the resort may be a better place than a hotel in Sonata. If not, I can find a clinic there or somewhere else. Yes, there's no doubt it's a successful practice, but it would keep you in Sonata and limit your opportunity to advance, and I'm not sure I want that type of practice. I enjoy clinic work. Really? You'd do that? Are you sure? You do? I know the perfect place. There's a small town that needs a doctor to do it all, office and clinic. It's a great place to raise kids. Why? I see. Regina, find another doctor. Comm out. Comm connect Mandolin, shortcut Dad. Tell Dr. Marshall I'll be ready when she is. I decided not to marry the most successful practice in Sonata. No, I arranged it. Because I fell instantly in love with the most beautiful laugh, and cutest giggle in existence. Frankie. No, but I expect she'll tell me when I'm sitting down. She's from Cloverlea. Comm out. I'm not engaged. I'm going to live and work in Heart Falls, population about six thousand, but the clinic serves about fifteen thousand and they need a doctor."

  "Yes, they do. Dr. Marshall is eighty-eight and she's been trying to find someone for them for a decade. Dr. Wilbur is doing most of the on-call hours for both Heart Falls and Ricky Lake and he's pooped. The Winslows are selling their house and moving into one of the condos the Brocks built. It's huge and gorgeous and way too much for them now, even though they've been leasing the fields to the Marleys for fifteen years. The Anders family do have use of the riding ring in winter, because they helped build it, but there's plenty of open time to give several horses good exercise."

  "Horses, that's how you knew about it."

  "I've been going to Heart Falls with Grandma, to help exercise the horses she has pastured and stabled there, since I was four. It's my favorite place."

  "We've all been there many times. We learned Bam can find more adventures on a farm than three of us can keep up with the first time we took him, but with the whole town helping watch, we have kept him out of the clinic since then."

  "I'd have gotten the saddle on the horse, if it had been a little lighter, Topper. When I pushed it off the rail with my foot, I shot into the air, hit the ladder I used to get to the beam I had the rope over, then the wall. At that point I was low enough to let go. It seemed like the best option, until the saddle came down me."

  "The usual notification he wasn't with any of us was a series of crashes."

  "Saying, 'Stay right behind me,' did not work. He stayed, but he could be half-dressed, with an animal or bug in various clothing items, which he was attempting to carry, when you turned around. He never actually got bitten or stung, but we can describe the smell of most small creatures on Mandolin that use odor as a defense."

  "That's how Labs got interested in chemistry, trying to find things to deodorize me, without having to get in a vehicle with me."

  "I know every plant, which grows in settled areas, that produces a natural deodorizer and how to extract it."

  "He carried a portable chem lab in a backpack when we left our yards for three years."

  "By then, I could personally identify most strongly odorous critters and plants."

  "Life with you is going to be fun."

  "Blink, blink. He hadn't gotten that far, Quinn."

  "You did, Loopy."

  "I've wanted 'best friend forever' my whole life. Frets said I'd find 'them' someday."

  "I realized I wanted 'partners,' when I asked Bard to teach me what they do."

  "Yes! Oh, yes, I want to do that."

  "So do I."

  "Christopher, we were waiting for something."

  "Yes, Lawrence, and Bramton had to grow up first, just like you said."

  "Ready for little diamonds?"

  "Uh…"

  "Right ear, Quinn."

  "Yes, Danny, right ear."

  "I'm ready for a big one for a finger?"

  "Yes, I'll marry you."

  "Now we know how you got them all here, Quinn. How Bard got us here is still a large question, but they all had a wish, and this was the place to grant it."

  "Scanner, scanner, scanner, gauge, gauge, multi-wrench."

  "Thanks, Drand. Jace, Bruce is going to have difficulty leaving to ring shop. Take a cam and show him selections at Haggetty's?"

  "On the way. I'll bring the judge back with me."

  "Uh…"

  "Bruce, do you want ten thousand people and fifty reporters at our wedding?"

  "Bring the judge. Can your judge marry us?"

  "Yes. We'll make sure of it after we figure out what this did."

  "Thanks, Nev."

  "Don't worry, Bruce. Bance and Silky went too. You'll have everything for perfect memory."

  "Thanks, Ronnie."

  "What?! Bard, look at this, and look when it was."

  "I don't want to, Danny. I knew I didn't want to."

  "Bard, this unit, with a not-quite perfect circuit right here, may be why you and Quinn, could use the device when it wasn't powered. It may also explain how you got us here. These traces say this unit was 'aiding' our device."

  "Scan the circuit, Nev. Blade, get a datpad."

  "Datpad."

  "Math assignment."

  "Oh, this one's going to be fun."

  "Blade, I didn't plan to do this part."

  "I knew we'd end up doing it, Bard. Still no device to do mind control?"

  "Can't exist. You're about to prove it, and that telepathy is common, but mind reading isn't possible."

  "Telepathy is common?"

  "Very, Bam, but it's not talking. It's 'I know what you're thinking about' between people who know each other well. Much of that is still deduction from minute physical clues and familiarity with circumstance, but some is the 'psychic connection.' It's a talent. Like any talent, it can be trained. If Blade gets the answer I think he will, it's possible for some people to train it to the point of deliberate symbolic communication, almost language. We're beyond the realm were devices can 'do it all.' Bruce, how often and specific-desperate-when have you wished with all you are, this unit could work a little faster?"

  "It's Emergency Unit One. It's closest to the door. We get something scary once in one hundred days, on average. Five since I've been there. This unit arrived nine days before I did."

  "Here's the circuit, Bruce. Onscreen"

  "It's fuzzy there."

  "It operated and tested properly, but the path was shallow. Instead of burning deeper, it fuzzed. That's you pushing it to do what this circuit, if constructed properly, couldn't. Now, here's your power fluctuation. This path, through this way, across this gap, through here, jump there and… it worked faster than possible, because it's a different piece of equipment, but it takes a mind to 'wish' it."

  "The woman's son, age five. 'Fix my mommy, now!' She was teaching him to ride a bike, running beside him. He had kneepads. She did not."

  "It has to come out."

  "Drand!"

  "It can go in his pocket, Dawn, but it has to come out of this unit. It's not needed in ordinary circumstance, even to reduce suffering, and the tech would find it next full check on the unit. He's more likely to need that 'fan' where people ride horse
s, and there may have to be a device there to use it."

  "This one's done, Bard."

  "Thank you, Blade. There doesn't have to be a device there, but he didn't 'do it,' alone. Next one."

  "Oh, this one's cute too. Give him the circuit. He can yell for them when he needs help. Teach him to change it fast."

  "Yes, Blade."

  "Answer comm."

  "Got a selection for Bruce."

  "You just left!"

  "Silky saved a pre-cropped image that has Haggetty's best in it, Danny. He remembered it as we were coming this way. He doesn't know he selected one, but we do."

  "Show me, please. Yes, no doubt."

  "Now Frankie for Bruce."

  "Perfect."

  "We put Silky and Essa on anything 'artistic,' Frankie."

  "Call for an account code, Bance."

  "I will, Bruce."

  Case and Stats bought the wedding gown in the display in the formal shop in the resort. They told the clerk the couple were going to get married in the sculpture garden in Teal Valley, but the bride wanted a real gown to wear and that one was "perfect fantasy real." She agreed and promised not to tell why the gown was changed, until the bride came back in it. Case told her the groom was being "outfitted Teal Valley style" at his request. She said he had good taste too.

  Bard 'picked up' Case and Stats. He yelled check before they wished and took them back. Case fell out of his shower with the wedding dress box before it got wet. Stats crawled out. Bard turned off the water, stepped out and took the towel Blade, laying on the floor laughing, held up for him. He got dressed and took the gown to Danny's. Nev, Blade, Case and Stats were still laughing too hard to walk.

  It was later in Teal Valley and everyone in the neighborhood was home from work, when he assembled for the wedding. The judge said she had no doubt she was performing a legal marriage, even if it became legal after the marriage. She did warn Silky loaning the sculpture garden for daytrip weddings might not be a wise precedent. He began working on criteria with "dodging a guest list of ten thousand and fifty press passes." Frets told him he'd narrowed it to a few hundred of Frankie's friends.

  Bruce realized no one had told him Frankie's name for a reason. He told Quinn images of his surprise were liable to include a faint. Quinn said the only girl from Mandolin that would cause that had a diamond stud in her earlobe.

  "The 'heiress in hiding,' she never was."

  "No, but she hid she was the heiress. She's been a thousand places none of us could go because we couldn't be just kids. Bruce, you know she's from Cloverlea. You know what that means. If we have to pick you up off the ground when you hear her full name, it'll be a very funny wedding memory in a day filled with laughter, and no one will doubt you married the girl, not the family."

  "Especially the family."

  "They know she'd recognize that instantly. The truth is, we wouldn't surprise you if she was from anywhere else. It wouldn't be fair not to warn you about all the lies plastered on her."

  "I don't watch. My mom said it's the most disgusting filth being broadcast and the ugliest lie ever told on the planet is calling it news. She never understood why someone didn't demand it be shown as fact, which any legal entity whose name or image is shown on a newscast can do, under section nine, article fourteen of the broadcast license code."

  "What?"

  "They call it news. If it's news, it comes under the codes for news. That code is primarily to protect businesses and politicians, but they can't exclude society casts during newscasts, without a disclaimer stating they're not news. If they're not, they have to get legal consent to use your names or images."

  "Who is your mother?"

  "She's a librarian. Her hobby is word definitions. 'News' has a very tight definition for public consumption. It's even tighter on Mandolin than most other worlds. They're assuming they can call them 'society updates,' or various others and not have them subject to licensing stipulations, but 'insertion of material to promote as factual by association' is not allowed under article seventeen."

  "We could have stopped it?"

  "Mom said you could, but you have to defend yourselves as not being public properties first. They're defining you that way. The onus is on them to prove you are, that your profession or, quote, 'chosen other,' makes you such. She said that's the piece you probably didn't find, or you'd have realized they have to be just as factual about you as politicians. The word in there with the definition they can't overcome is 'chosen.' Did you choose to be born rich and have a surname everyone knows? Sorry, but your parents choice to have a child isn't yours and your choice is the defining… You didn't know any of it."

  "None. I didn't know the licensing code had… There was no section nine."

  "What?"

  "I asked for it when I was fourteen for a school project. It had eight sections."

  "It has ten. Where did you get it from?"

  "The Association of Broadcasters."

  "Comm connect Mandolin, shortcut Mom. Hi, I'm getting married. I don't know her name, but I know her to her beautiful soul. No, no one will tell me. She's from Cloverlea. We're avoiding ten thousand guests and fifty reporters. My best man promised to hold me up if my knees buckled when it's dropped on me. Mom, they didn't apply articles fourteen and seventeen of the Broadcast License code because they don't know they exist. Request a copy from the Association of Broadcasters and see if only people with 'known' names get copies with only eight sections. Quinn, my best man. In the sculpture garden in Teal Valley on Liberty Gem. We'll be back at the resort as soon as it's over. The clinic does not know how, or to where, I disappeared. They're missing a healing unit too. This all started with a circuit in it that didn't always work right. Big power fluctuation and that unit was out of there until fixed, and I fell in love. I had a long engagement. I decided not to marry an office. My girl knows Dr. Marshall is eighty-eight, Dr. Wilbur is pooped, the Winslows want to sell their house, and the names of the horses in the stable. Mom, that's part of why Liberty Gem. She gets mine. We avoided asking options. It's right for us. See you at the resort. I'm going to learn to ride a float scooter, and probably spend my honeymoon in the healing unit. Comm out."

  "Ready?"

  "Yes."

  "Any doubts?"

  "No. I'm even sure I'm not dreaming or crazy."

  "Your dad didn't want you to marry an office."

  "No, he didn't. He and mom didn't get married immediately, but he proposed the day they met. Neither of them think I'm crazy either."

  The judge said, "Francine Denton," and Bruce giggled and said yes. Shortly after the bride and groom went back up the path, the wedding party and tripping guests disappeared. Quinn said, "Oops," Bard groaned and others sank with giggles. They were on Dancy. Bard took all their float scooter costumes out of the healing unit and told Quinn to take it back.

  "I don't seem to be succeeding."

  "Don't you wish it there if one of your friends gets hurt?"

  "Yes, but it's not working. Help."

  "All right. Let's try…"

  "It worked."

  "We were just supposed to bring the unit!"

  "We could try taking everyone… Oops."

  Danny fell on her bed and screamed with laughter. They were all back in her bedroom, and she'd been in Silky and Essa's house. Quinn noted they were making progress. They didn't had the healing unit with them. Bard began to giggle, and they were suddenly all on the ship, including Danny.

  "I can try to take her back."

  "No! We'll send her home using the device."

  "Do you think that's wise?"

  "I don't know, Blade, but I'm sure things can't get more interesting."

  "Shuttle!"

  "Good idea, Nev, but I'm not going to get to it yet!"

  Bard fell on the couch and laughed. The math said they could control it. It also said they were all helping, and learning. Some would al
ways need the device, and those below a quite specific, but unknown level of talent couldn't use it. The only way to learn who could and couldn't was integrate psi test results with device results.

  There was no doubt they could all use the device. All knowing who belonged with whom, meant they had a high psi talent 'rating.' Who could train to not need it at all was unknown, but he and Quinn didn't need it 'turned on, and he rather suspected none of the others did either.