L'Gem

by Sharon L Reddy

  Chapter Forty-four

  Nev dove through the Blast Room door. Bard, Blade, and nine others were right behind him. Nev was yelling equipment into his comm chron and fastening vents with one hand. Bard and Blade took over fastening and the other nine worked on theirs, as they ran behind them. Case, Stats and Danny 'went.' Nev 'went,' then Bard, Blade, Quinn and Bam 'took' the rest. They arrived in sleet.

  "Get out of here!"

  "We have to be here, Bard! We're sure of it!"

  "Coats and gloves!"

  "Bless you, Danny!"

  "Tarps, 'til equipment!"

  "Toss, Case!"

  "We'll cover that end!"

  "Middle! These animals are starving!"

  "Some are sick!"

  "This is the middle of nowhere! What the hell is going on here?!"

  "We don't even know what planet it is, Quinn, but we're going to get answers!"

  "I've got a bulge! Nev!"

  "I brought our vets, Bam! They need more light!"

  "Hand lamp!"

  "Thanks, Labs!"

  "Projector, a big box with a hole on one end!"

  "Billie!"

  "They've got flu! Nobody who touched anything can leave! Everybody else has to get stuff to cure it! You got to have Johnny!"

  "Go home!"

  "You got to have me, too, Bard, or I wouldn't have got here! I was going to comm! I'm cold!"

  Tarse grabbed her and wrapped her in his coat. She hugged him and said he'd "saved everybody." He said he'd just planned to save one kitty, but wasn't sorry his subconscious knew better.

  Stats left and Bance, Corinne and Gant arrived with Dawn, Drand, Ronnie and the rest of the equipment to hook up the projector, including power tower. Bard got their location from the transpatial relay number, then yelled, "Quarantine!" across human space. The president of Riverdine was patched to him.

  "We haven't got any reports of disease!"

  "You've got fifty-some sick animals in cages in a sleet storm in the middle of the open land on… Grassand continent. They're sick and starving. Someone knows you do. They left them to die out here."

  "You're not actually there."

  "Fem president, I wish the hell I wasn't. We'll have a transpatial comm node set up in a few moments, so no one else teleports in to defend our species. One who did is a five-year-old girl. She arrived in summer play clothes and yelled, 'They've got flu, nobody leave.' We've got a pair of veterinarians, and my great-great-grandfather-in-bond, who was looking for a cat that needed rescuing, and was suddenly in a sleet storm. How many trillions of our species' survival instinct focused on the people who are here? Comm out."

  Nev reached for the tool being held out, then stopped. The hand that held it wasn't human. He looked at the alien, said, "Thanks," and took the tool. It was human. Seventeen people of three different species were handing out tools and setting human-style stools and lab benches in the area that would be covered by the field.

  "Who… are you?"

  "Havadan, hereditary Harim, keeper of wisdom, of my people. I have the same job you do. Figure out what we did in the past that made the mess in the present and fix it."

  "Blade's name."

  "His parents' families sought to keep them apart because they were sure they'd die if they married. That huge thing with the orange mane is Loden, legend-singer of his people. He has the same job, too. The little gray thing in the too-many colored coat is Curevrakshisk, Curren, prince of his people. All the names of our peoples translate as 'people,' so we'll give them to you and let you find 'call names' that don't sound very odd to you. It's what is 'always done' when a species is ready to meet others."

  "We're ready?"

  "We're rushing it a bit, but we no longer doubt you're going to straighten out the mess the premature discovery of transpatial comm made."

  "You're here because this…"

  "Is a surprise."

  "Yes, it is. I'm sure it's… wrong, that it's evil, and we shouldn't need to be fighting it."

  "We've known something was going to happen since your legend singer, your Bard, reached into the future for a device that aids those who cannot move themselves with their minds. We are looking at your early development of transpatial comm from a different place, as well. Perhaps all was to prepare for this moment. So, we have come to aid."

  "You don't have the device?"

  "We don't have trip chairs either. Those, we want. We also want cats, dogs and horses, and to invite bluebibs to our worlds, but we suspect they'll prefer settling new ones with you first."

  "They may. You came to me and the prince went to Blade."

  "It seemed wise to let him tell him I shattered nine crystal meditation medallions with my whistle of rage, when his parents were murdered, and it took six of my family to keep me from going to get him, even though I knew I must not. Bard's parents knew the government would kill them eventually. Blade's had almost twenty years of sharing, and knew, but I wanted to kill the ones who did it, which I was supposed to be too civilized to desire."

  "We're going to kill what's killing these animals. They were obviously deadly, and the things killing these animals didn't choose to be."

  "Which is the lesson we learned from your Harim, and your world. Your path to this point was far more rocky than ours. We were less civilized."

  "What?"

  "The concepts of equality and democracy didn't arise until one tribe controlled everything, and got tired of having to run it all. My job is a leftover. They wouldn't let us drop it. Loden was 'appointed,' when he teleported into a Council of Worlds meeting and yelled they were all idiots. He was four years of age. They were delighted. They hadn't had a Legend Singer in almost two hundred."

  "We were the subject of the meeting?"

  "Yes. We were considering nudging you downarm. You're about to run into them."

  "The prince?"

  "An elected hereditary office. Someone in his family gets elected to it by the people. He can retire, but he's stuck with it for another ten years if they reelect him anyway."

  "Your species are all bisexual?"

  "Almost everything above a certain level of complexity is, plants and animals. We're all omnivores. We followed totally different evolutionary paths, but we're all upright bipeds with an opposing digit on our hands. Our vertebrae are all different, but we're all vertebrates. We followed very different paths, but arrived near the same place. We're not sure we'd recognize something that didn't, like the bluebibs. Our scientists are as stunned as yours. That's a unique evolution and we don't know why, other than something totally different had to happen somewhere. We've found a dozen species of sea creatures we're quite sure are sentient, but we can't communicate. Hello, goodbye, that way, yipe and yippee, but not truly communicate."

  "We haven't progressed beyond that with those of Earth. Others?"

  "Many, but we're the neighbor kids, who've been watching you get big enough to come out to play, for six hundred thirty-seven years."

  "We're all kids."

  "Yes, we are. There are older species who've looked us all over, warned about dangers, such as trying to change our genetic structure to make ourselves immune to everything, and a few space anomalies, told us where our yards ended and others began, and said, 'play nicely.' We think they're watching to see we do before they invite us to more 'adult' occasions, and yours is the key species."

  "Why us?"

  "Because you did develop the concepts of equality and democracy so very early. We didn't have to survive our nuclear ages. One culture had already overrun all the others. Diplomacy and alliance were not part of our history. At about the stage of your Roman Empire, we had one that just kept going. We knew our worlds were round by then and 'scouts' sought ways to go from one side to the other in the far north and south and found more continents."

  "Your mathematics were more advanced than ours at that stage."

  "Our 'Romans'
had different concepts of God. Ours lived in the Sun, so the world went around it, of course. Theirs was the world and their three moons danced for Her, and they wouldn't dance only part of the time. Theirs was watching over them, every star was an eye, and they believed the sun was the closest."

  "All monotheisms."

  "The conquering cultures were. Theirs developed technology fastest, because they brought every invention and discovery they found to the equatorial capital to show God they were working hard to make themselves interesting to watch. Since God was obviously focusing the closest eye on something else part of the time…"

  "The world was turning and there was someone too interesting on the other side."

  "Yes, and the way to deal with it was make them part of them, assure they were interesting all the way around where the 'gaze of God' made the land warmest."

  "Your people?"

  "Much simpler, make sure everyone said hello every morning, so God didn't get irritated as often. We always knew when someone wasn't. Crops drowned in floods or withered in drought, and the great storehouses had to be opened to feed people. After we were all one, it became obvious God wanted us to 'commerce,' and that's when we began to develop philosophically."

  "You fed all the conquered peoples."

  "It's hard to smile and say, 'Good morning,' if you're starving."

  "You were philosophically advanced in your belief system. In most of ours, those were punishments. You deserved it or you wouldn't be starving. Theirs?"

  "Godworld is beautiful and bountiful, see as much and taste as much as possible, and don't let anybody bother farmers."

  "They didn't have to conquer. Farmers made lists of natural wonders in their area to visit, and merchants assured there were nice souvenirs, like pouches for dried fruits and grains and containers for tasty spring water."

  "They weren't that nice. Farmers belonged to the worldgod and their children were taken somewhere to farm. It might be next door, but it might be another continent. Everything the farmer didn't need to eat or plant another crop went elsewhere. A house and barn were built and furnished and people 'put' there, with animals and seed for a crop. People with artistic talent were escorted places to record them for those who couldn't travel. No option. They outgrew it fairly quickly, but it's an interesting period in their history, and the visual record of the exploration of their world is incredible."

  "Two hundred-plus worlds?"

  "We expected you to have more than everyone else when we met."

  "You don't expect to be immune to this."

  "No, but we expect to help you find a treatment that works for all."

  Bard and Loden screwed the support posts into the ground, then got the canopy attached. Blade, Havadan and Curren unrolled the walls around the support posts. Bard and Loden unrolled the posine floor and waited in the field 'box' until it charged, then walked onto it and began shoving the roof canopy up with the curved supports that would arch it and assure water and snow didn't accumulate on it. They would use fields to make a larger sheltered area, but the specifications had to be built in, and fields didn't give the feeling of a cozy place for beds and dinner tables.

  Bance appeared with five big containers and disappeared. The four finished sealing the canopy to the walls, came through the door on the end and sat down at the table Corinne had just delivered. Gant was moving lab equipment into the field-sheltered area fast.

  "This was a good idea, Blade."

  "Thanks, Loden. I hope we're done out there."

  "We are. Everything else is inside work, including reassembling the pharmacology lab Johnny, Deely and Roma are disassembling and sending. We needed your help to keep the rest of our families and neighbors from joining us."

  "We've waved hello every time a group brought something to remind him we are here, so they should go home, Bard."

  "We appreciate it, Curren. Hi, Billie, you did it without training, like their people do."

  "I think I used it, Bard. Bruce and Frankie are getting stuff together too, but he had to wait for his dad to get to the clinic. Bren and Becks are going to the Braightons' house to keep Buddy, Boston, Chirp and Cheeky company. My mommy is better after Tarse talked to her."

  "Why did you have to stay, Billie?"

  "I ask lots of questions, Havadan."

  "An essential person to have when looking for answers."

  "Explaining things to Billie is a good way to see things you've overlooked, Curren."

  "I have a grandchild her age I talk to a lot for that reason, Bard. Vlinst! Neat."

  "Great, Corinne!"

  "Thanks! Bye!"

  "Bedrooms, preassembled will save time here. Some are using the device?"

  "The ones with packs on their chests."

  "Now we know why so many of your family just showed up to learn how, Nev."

  "Yes, Blade, we do. Gant!"

  "Big load, Nev! I'll rest a few!"

  "Comm connect Joel! Did he get back?! Sit on him! He nearly fell over. Watch Bance and Stats. Great-grandma Corinne will know better, I think. Thank you. Bruce just started moving things. Tell them to rest while we get the medical equipment set up. Grandpapa, you got into real big mischief."

  "I certainly did. You yelled what I was about to."

  "Sit down."

  "Yes, Bard. I know I'm old. The person not being able to fetch and carry is driving crazy is Danny, Nev."

  "Thanks, Grandpapa. Let's start getting her comp connected to the medical equipment guys. Integrating it will give her work she can do best. A brewer! Bless you, Grandma!"

  "Lots of tea and water! Coffee coming!"

  "Bard, is there any way to develop an isolation field?"

  "There should be, Blade. If we had one… No, I'm sure all it took was a touch, as long as they don't touch and stay in the upwind area…"

  "In here isn't."

  "Your feeling?"

  "They'll be done before it gets dangerous, Nev. Stats is not going to leave once everything is here."

  "I know. He would if he felt it was needed, but… he'll move our sleeks and the Blast Room and come here. Danny! Let's get your comp integrated into this hodgepodge!"

  "Bance is bringing the device chair from your ship so everyone can get back, Nev! I'm worried he's getting too tired!"

  "I yelled, 'Break!' when Gant came last time. Joel is yelling for people to sit on them a while."

  "Thank you. Hodgepodge is right. Kendra's standing by. She's yelling at the med people here to find out where those animals came from and get ready to move to do whatever is required. Bard, they're not talking."

  "They're not sick, yet."

  "Oh, shit."

  "Yes, Blade."

  "Are we going to have time to find a way to cure this before we are?"

  "Yes, almost, we won't feel good, but we won't be bad sick."

  "Thank you, Billie."

  "You're real welcome. I didn't know until you asked, and I really don't like being sick!"

  "Neither do I. I'm mad I'm sick all the time I'm sick. Billie?"

  "You were sick and this sick isn't going to be as bad for you."

  "Comm connect Kendra. Billie said last summer's flu gives us a bit higher resistance. Find someone who didn't mention they got something on it."

  "Get this connected! That diagnostic comp and mine don't speak the same language and we need a translator."

  "Confirmed it's a virus!"

  "Thanks, Renna! Can you save them?!"

  "We don't know! Food, water and warmth are helping!"

  "Billie?"

  "Somebody made them sick on purpose!"

  "That's your 'evil,' Nev."

  "Yes, Havadan, it is. You wouldn't have gotten it."

  "We don't know that, and we wouldn't have been the nice people came to help, either."

  "Good points."

  Bance didn't 'stop.' He had one more load. He brought Jace with his cam. Seventeen
people glanced up, waved and went back to work. Bard, Loden, Nev and Havadan moved the diagnostic comp. Jace used a chair, which he hadn't recorded, to go back, Bance got back to the mobile unit and Jace yelled he was sitting on him out the door.

  "Bance, you need to talk."

  "There they are, 'the neighbor kids.' One said they'd been waiting for us to 'get big enough to come out to play for six hundred thirty-seven years.' They're really there. They don't have trip chairs. They want to buy them. A few extremely gifted of our neighbors felt a few extremely gifted of us suddenly teleport, to fight a threat to our species, and came to help. They haven't been spying on us. They've been watching our news and our broadcasts of concerts and comedies. They learned our language, but the carefully planned future meeting was canceled, and they came to help. They know they're not immune, but there they are. What are their names? Limman, Colp, Halasa, Gund… Their species? They gave us what they call themselves and their languages and said, 'pick something that doesn't sound weird,' to us. So, they're the tonnid, yomal and brevvy, the best kind of neighbors to have, ones who just show up with tools in their hands when something needs to be fixed. All of them didn't 'bring' themselves. All of our people there didn't either, but a few brought themselves and others. And a very few have made many trips to bring what they need, because no one who touched anything can leave. A five-year-old girl 'arrived,' to give that warning. They have about as many worlds as we do. Their ships go about as fast as ours. Their cars and homes are much the same. They're not 'bigger, stronger, smarter, faster.' They're people who talk about their kids, and brag about their grandkids. They like our pets, and are sure we'll like theirs. They said there are older species, but not in this spiral arm. One of those said, 'This is your big yard and that's theirs, play together nicely.' So, they been waiting for us to get big enough to come out to play. This isn't how they wanted to meet us, but the planned meeting was canceled, and the neighbors came over to help. Wrap."

  "They've got catch those people fast, Bance."

  "It's not an alien attack. It's human foolishness."

  "You're both sure someone created the virus."

  "I'm not sure 'created' is the right word, Silky. Dogs, cats, humans, tonnid, yomal and brevvy, what were they trying to do or learn?"

  "Whatever it was, Bance, animal experimentation is illegal, and has been since we reached ninety-nine-point nine six percent accuracy on comp simulation, a millennia-and-a-half ago."

  After Gant had eaten two of Loren's energy bars and taken a short break, he took Drand, Dawn and Joel to the site with one more system. He and Joel laid 'tubes' and extended the transpatial comm antenna, while Dawn and Drand set up the system, then the four of them camouflaged the intake vents for the wind generator, the tubes and antenna with brush. Drand switched on the shield, the area became invisible and Gant took them home. Loden motioned over and Bard nodded.

  "They decided no one should see us. Since I feel more comfortable, it was a nice addition."

  "I prefer soft glow to dark day. Do we truly need the rest now?"

  "It will be easier to heat and it's still nice to have an enclosed area. The shield is a drape, not really roof or wall. It's not airtight. It just extends to the ground. However, it adds a bit to our insulation on uneven ground, covers the gaps under the field walls. The fields are far more versatile. 'Invisible' is actually a side effect."

  "What was someone trying to do, Bard?"

  "I don't know."

  "Neither do I, and it worries me."

  "You've never…"

  "Not this far along in the search for an answer."

  "Blade says figure out how to stay alive first, then work on everything else."

  "Very practical advice. They've begun to use trip chairs. Only their spirits are here, but it's such an amazingly physical manifestation."

  "Do you have the device we call magic trowel, yet?"

  "Yes, though you use it more effectively because of your materials. We have most, but convincing my people a house does not require rock and wood to be livable is difficult."

  "The trip chair is an application of the fill type."

  "Using the power of the comm burst?"

  "Yes. As long as the person maintains the identity cohesion, by an act of will, it's completely stable. They don't have to be conscious of maintaining it, but they do have to want to be there. So, when they stop wanting to be, they return."

  "My people are going to love it. They have lists of things they want to see and do on your worlds. Your float scooters have gotten another burst of petitions to rule your patents not applicable in our space."

  "You… respect our patents?"

  "We do on things like that and the trip chairs, which we'd be copying, not concurrently developing. We thought we'd be trading our ship fuel to you, but you developed it. We were a bit ahead of you, though not enough to damage you, since you proved physical laws don't have exceptions, but you then packed twenty years of application development into a season and we're wondering if you'll like lupberries."

  "We decided we like coffee."

  "I think you worked at it."

  "Yes, but we got used to it quickly and very few are still having to remind themselves trade is important before they take each sip. Enough changed their minds, it's not necessary. Hi, Billie. How are we doing?"

  "Pretty good, but some people have to be all the way here and aren't."

  "Why?"

  "Because they think of things when they're asleep and they won't start fast enough to remember if they're not here when the thinking wakes them up."

  "Johnny and?"

  "Milla and Kail."

  "Johnny! Milla! Kail! Billie says you're going to wake up with an idea sometime during this and need to be here!"

  "It doesn't look much like places I usually get ideas, but I'll go pack essentials."

  "I'll see if I can convince Milla 'essentials' fit in one container."

  "One container, Kail?"

  "A small one."

  "We'll have Carler put away the two containers' worth you take back out."

  "I'm sorry, Johnny, but I'm sure. Get real hugs and kisses. Yes, you should! They're your family! The hugs and kisses are important too! And pet Mews and tell her it will be… seventeen days. That's long, isn't it, Bard?"

  "We will be bringing back a few regular trip chairs. I promised Carler I'd go fishing with him."

  "Good idea, Milla. See you when we've left most of three rooms in a pile for Carler to put away."

  "Bard, comm Johnny's house and make sure."

  "Comm connect Dandy. Billie says we need Johnny 'really here' seventeen days, and don't let him leave there without hugs, kisses and kitty rubs."

  "He's all achy inside."

  "She says it really hurts him, so don't let go until he does. If daytrip hugs were enough… Comm out. Comm connect Stats. Milla gave you an excuse. Bring trip chairs and floor flop pads for more. Stats, you're the last one we want here because you're usually the first to get sick. Stay upwind until we're sure you're done. Thank you. We really appreciate the idea. Comm out. Nev! Blade! Stats is taking Patrick to Dandy's for the duration! He's our cat, just one season old, and he'd get lonely, even with visits by neighbors."

  "All of you ache for the sick animals, and are so very angry."

  "It's unlikely they're all homeless, Loden. Some, most, or all, may be people's loved pets, abducted members of their families, made sick and left to die of thirst, hunger or disease."

  Stats drove the Blast Room into its garage, set everything to maintenance levels and went to get Patrick. He gathered his things and then 'dressed' him, set him atop the pile and took it to Dandy's. He arrived as Dandy and Cole were working on assembling things for Johnny to take for seventeen days. Stats made sure Patrick saw where he put everything, then took the three soccerball cat toys he'd found to the living room, clapped and the balls took off. Both cats
took off after them. Johnny clapped and they stopped. He looked so surprised, Stats burst into laughter. He clapped and they started moving again.

  "Johnny, we all agreed someone who didn't know how they worked would go crazy trying to figure out how to stop them, and you just proved us all wrong. We're a set. They're sure you're needed there and you don't want to go, for good reason, not even one night at home. I usually get flu first and worst, could do what I do best from here and I'm going anyway. That's where Case is. Don't do what I did. Case has been my best friend, and I've known we'd share our lives for seven years, but I have no physical interest in men, and I thought that was relevant. For seven years, I didn't give the one I love to the depths of my soul a loving kiss. When I finally did, I learned I'd placed 'interest' above love in importance. Call when you're prepared. We all know you can't be ready. I'll know if you gave those loving kisses, Johnny. Dandy and Cole will be disgusted they can't think of good reasons to go with you, but they'll be prepared too."

  Dandy walked into the room, said, "Thank you," to Stats and told Johnny to get in the car. He yelled for Cole to get in it, then made a comm call. Stats smiled and left. Dandy and Cole were older, and wiser men. So was Johnny. His childhood had ended terribly, many years before.

  Stats gathered and moved trip chairs, then decided there was something missing in the supplies. He picked up ale, beer and wine and moved them. By the third trip, Case was singing and many were laughing. Stats moved an entertainment system and two racks of vid and music chips, thirty kilos of coffee, more teas, another big tank of water and recycle system, his comp, then sat down in his and Case's kitchen and considered what else was needed to make people comfortable. He finished his tea and went shopping again. He delivered a portable spa filled with water, then a tub. Bard called him after he had.

  "Bruce said, 'Brilliant.' We told him you were too aware of how much help a cooling bath could be."

  "Case is happy with everything I'm bringing, except me."

  "He loves you too much to want you here, but Billie said your bout of flu last summer will aid."

  "Kendra said she found good info on it."

  "She did. Your comp helped. It gave Danny more to do. Milla 'took over' the sample prep area. She's got Kail, Shrind and Ganka 'arranging it pleasantly.' Bruce said he's 'taking notes.' It's going to be very easy for one or several to use to do one or many types of prep."

  "Bard, I love you all too, but I'd be there until I couldn't stay awake, and back as soon as I'd napped enough to wake. That's a dangerous place and I'll sleep better if I'm in it with Case."

  "We know. Johnny?"

  "I added a personal-experience thump and Dandy felt it. He and Cole aren't dealing with Case."

  "Who would never need anything you didn't really want to give."

  "My dad said it was about time I quit ignoring I knew it, and they're all pleased I finally got us ready to accept a request to be daddies."

  "We aren't yet, but Nev's working on it, and the rest of the family is helping."

  "The family name accomplished just what Bram intended."

  "Yes, that's our great-great-granddad in there telling Billie and many a story."

  "Her mom?"

  "Will trip here almost as often as her big brother, sister and cousins. What have we forgotten, Stats? There's something."

  "I know. I can't think of anything else people…"

  "Not people, the animals. I'll have Milla call you. Comm out."

  Dawn, Drand and Ronnie made pet beds, while Stats picked up 'covers,' rugs, litter boxes, puppy pads and posine strips and material to make 'rooms' for the animals, then he got samples from healthy cats and dogs. Gerta and Renna didn't need them, but they'd aid others with lab work.

  The sick animals were bathed and moved out of the cages, by people wearing dispo gloves, or day tripping, then the cages were broken down and put into the waste cycler. The ground where the cages had been was sterilized, then a posine floor was unrolled over it. When that was done, Billie said they were going to save all the animals, because they knew they were "supposed to get well" and the flu wasn't "really their kind."

  They'd found what was missing, and she was suddenly interested in dinner from Teal Valley. Mike and Loren tripped in to prepare it. When it was ready, the only things still to move were Johnny's, and the only ones not there, who would be, were Johnny and Stats. Renna sat down beside Milla and gave her a hug.

  "They're perfect. They're easy to clean and every dog and cat feels cared for in a way I didn't realize…"

  "Simple molded bed units with flip-up tops and nice soft pads, rugs, and places to potty the way they were trained, would make us feel better, so they feel better."

  "Yes, but the baths helped them a great deal. Each animal was given gentle handling, and that was needed. Gerta and I knew it, but we learned we think like vets. It didn't occur to us to ask you all to help give it for longer than we could, with that many."

  "Sick animals are your job. You'd probably assure they got strokes of reassurance from their owners, if you had to keep one more than a day or two."

  "The only ones I've kept that long were wild and the usual reason was to rebuild their muscle tone. I moved them into areas they could get enough exercise and left them alone to do it."

  "It bothers you not to be there for all those that will run into humans disastrously."

  "Yes, but that was becoming less frequent and I built a good database for other vets."

  "You have plans for my grandson."

  "I have a plan that includes him, but it's quite long-term."

  "Yes, thank you, I'd like a great-grandchild."

  "I doubt ours will be first, but Bard and Blade won't be ready for the idea until he is, so the plan is important."

  "Agreed. My curiosity is killing me."

  "Going crazy trying to figure out how you'll come up with a middle-of-the-night idea?"

  "Precisely. My son-in-law thinks it's hilarious."

  "He's just as curious, but far more accustomed to it."

  "Another precisely. My husband is going to visit here a lot. He didn't say he was wrapping up everything he's been working on recently, but I know he and several others are."

  "I noticed every work area got bigger."

  "We're rather sure my husband, son and grandnephew are assuring we have expert assistance of any type we decide we need, at any time we yell for it."

  "Planner, builder, mover, each with a staff of volunteers that includes families, neighborhoods, universities, space corps, and the governments and populations of at least two planets as auxiliaries."

  "And those are just the ones who knew who to call to give their comm codes. What did you see?"

  "An influenza virus with extremely tenacious H and N factors. That's all so far."

  "Type A, of course."

  "Of course."

  Dandy called Stats. None of them were ready, but they were prepared. Both he and Cole gave Johnny one more long hug, then stepped back. Johnny stooped down, patted Mews, then nodded and Stats moved them and the container. When they arrived, he told Johnny he liked sapphires, but was looking forward to seeing a diamond there. Johnny touched the little stud in his right ear, smiled and nodded, then touched his left ear.

  "Don't rush that. Make sure all the rest of your family agrees with that personal decision. Family members have said, 'Huh, uh, we love you too much to let you do that,' a couple times. 'Can be faithful' is not the right reason. Most of us could be. The people who love you most will know if you need, not just want, to make that vow. It was the first time you really wanted to say something and couldn't? Wrote it on a datpad? Don't worry. The time will come when you accept the reflection of you in the eyes of those who love you, and realize you're big enough to just step over the defensive barricade. Ooh, surprise. You were working on how to dismantle it. Not necessary. You built it when you were little. You built as high as you cou
ld reach, but you've had to sit behind to stay out of sight a very long time, and you don't realize how tall you are now. It's not a low step, but it's just a step over. Last two reporting for quarters assignment, Admiral."

  "Stats, that smug may cause you to 'run into' more than one opinion."

  "Thanks, Bard. Who should I watch for besides Case and Nev?"

  "Bruce, Drand, Dawn, Danny, Case's mom… quite a list."

  "I'll work on smug reduction. There they are. You didn't know they'd trip in to help you get settled and spend more time with you? That's silly. Being with you is important. The comm bill isn't."

  "Johnny, your family is going to have several very nice incomes. They'll probably let you make a budget, but I doubt they'll pay attention to it. Those two both know the time they needed to is over."

  Johnny had a bed in a cubby for four. There wasn't much space, but panels around each of the tier beds gave quiet and privacy. The beds had thermal and respiratory sensors. If someone got sick, closed panels would not keep others from noticing it, but they could be delayed an hour, just in case someone planned to get quite warm. Johnny hadn't planned to check the delay function.

  By the third day, they knew the head start they'd gotten on the influenza was all that would prevent it from killing thousands. Nothing they had did more than slow it a little for a little while. They needed two things, a cure and an inoculant. That night, Milla had an idea. She awoke and yelled for Renna and Gerta. A little over an hour later, Bance and Gant, in full biohazard gear as ordered, delivered about thirty kilograms of plant leaves and eighty steam pots.

  Milla's idea had been a childhood memory of a woman inhaling over a small pot to reduce the congestion caused by an allergy she considered "too mild to medicate." The plant leaves Gant and Bance delivered hadn't come from Liberty Gem. Gant had wished himself to a bush and gone back for harvesters. They didn't know what it was or where it came from, but they were all sure it was the right herb. Within an hour, all the animals were breathing easier, and plant leaves were being analyzed.

  Kail's idea, two nights later, was so obviously a dream he "almost rolled over and went back to sleep." He'd dreamed he wished himself to a plant with magic berries, and if he made a pie, it would cure everyone, but he had to find the right pie recipe. He wished himself to a screen with the recipe on it. That's when he'd awakened. They were sitting around the table talking about the dream when Johnny grabbed a datpad and wrote, "Wish to formula to start from. Too many."

  A few minutes later, Bance was standing beside a bush with small brownish-gold berries. He knew he was outside human space when his comm didn't work. He went home and got a harvest crew and a cam. He wished himself to nightside, got images of the stars, then went back and took the crew home. The expressions on faces when he delivered a large container of "magic berries" were amazing. A half-hour later, he called with the right extraction process recipe and the planet location. It was in the 'yard' of the yomal. Bard told Loden to let him know how many trip chairs they owed for berries.

  They had something that was different. The organic compounds were unusual, but none skilled in medicine or biochemistry could identify what was killing some of the virus in their tests. The animals were beginning to recover by the ninth day, but most of that was because the flu had run its course. They began developing an animal inoculant. The twelfth night, Johnny awoke, thought, "Silly idea," jumped from the top tier and ran for the lab.

  Pies had to be baked. He began cooking the extract, using various methods and temperatures. Midafternoon the next day, he had a compound, the same one from four methods. They tested it, and got high enough kill to begin working on just that compound.

  The morning of the sixteenth day, eleven of them were sick. Bruce began treatment with the compound. By evening, everyone there was sick, but those who'd had the flu on Liberty Gem the summer before were "just miserable."

  Bruce and Johnny were still working. Milla said the reason was "half symptomatic treatment and all stubborn." At ten thirty-seven the seventeenth day, the trip-in staff cheered and put the rest the bed. They had both pieces, the formula for the medication went everywhere. The method to make the vaccine and the culture from the people who'd had the flu on Liberty Gem went to forty biomedical labs. with healthy and sick samples from animals and people. They'd identified the immunity factor.

  Over five hundred cases had been reported in the last eighteen hours, including six people from ships that had turned around.

  The pharmaceutical producers, bio labs, Public Health and medical professions on Riverdine were prepared. Within four hours, inoculant and treatment were spreading across Riverdine. Six traders were aiding investigators looking for people who had intended mass murder, with a virus as agent. They made a connection that evening. Nearly everyone was moving out when the Director of the Planetary Investigation Bureau call Bard at seven thirty-two the eighteenth day.

  "We found money, but not people. We don't know if they even realized the flu would be spread."

  "They were just hired to do a job, illegal because of the animals, but they were needed to check the factors."

  "Looks like. It didn't come from here. We've got a money connection to the mining corps hidden agenda. The intent was obviously to end the increase in interplanetary travel. Two of those traders would have been on two planets each before they got sick."

  "Which was why here. You have more close neighbors than anyone else."

  "Yes, even if we didn't visit much. The finance records we found show there was propaganda."

  "The animals?"

  "Thirty-six missing pet reports that fit descriptions, spread across the planet."

  "Your personal feeling about the tonnid, yomal and brevvy?"

  "How soon can we daytrip to visit?"

  "They said comm service in twenty-eight more days. My feeling said we're going to get impatient."

  "We needed to find the connection, Admiral."

  "There are always some who want to blame everything on some 'them' who are different. There are still going to be a lot of sick people."

  "Yes, but they won't be sick long. Thank you. Our president is working on an official thanks to you all."

  "I'll warn Nev he's doing the talking."