Chapter 6

"Good." Tom was emphatic about that. "We can talk with Enid before anything happens. She is my wife, and must have a full input into any such arrangement. Agreed?"

She looked up with a small smile. "Agreed. I greatly admire Enid."

They returned to Tom's office, where he had work to get dealt with. Jeannette thought she could work on her planning for the book publishing venture in his office. Tom's work would not distract her. Once she got absorbed in composing a document, she was able to shut out all the noise and bustle around her. As she worked on, she remembered that she needed a publisher's reader, to go through Tom's manuscript and make sure it was worthy of acceptance for publishing. In Tom's case, she was sure that it would be well written, but she had to have all the facts checked over, typing errors corrected, and slips that every author makes when the mind runs ahead of the fingers typing the words.

She would normally have been able to take on that duty, but was aware of her many shortcomings in knowledge about Rehome. She had to find a person who knew Rehome in considerable detail, had an eye for detail, and could do editing with some degree of confidence and accuracy.

She had a thought. "Tom," she enquired, "What happens to the paper when you need a holiday break? You surely don't work on it every week of the year?"

"No, that's true. When I need a break, Tim Fellowes fills in for me. He is a teacher and takes a holiday break to work on the paper. He claims that working on the paper is a holiday for him. He says that getting away from kids and doing some adult work gives him a real boost! It may actually be true."

"Do you think, Tom, that he could do a good job of reading your manuscript and editing it to remove errors, typos, and so on?"

"I expect so. He is good at sorting out these in our stories for the paper. You want him to do that for you?"

"It will be the best way to get you to finish writing your book, if he is waiting to proof-read it. In fact, we could get him to proof it chapter by chapter as you complete each chapter. Do you think you can do that, Tom?"

"If I must, I must, I suppose. You seem in rather a rush to get my book. Don't you want to set up your publishing company first?"

"Having a book waiting to be put through the company's procedures is the best way to test them out, Tom, believe me."

"Are you in a rush to take over the paper, then?"

"Financially and legally, yes I am; but it will make no difference to the way you run it, Tom. We can have a look at your costs and income later, and work out how we can make it more profitable."

"You are taking charge already, I can tell. You are talking like a CEO, Jeannette. I like it. Can I kiss you, or is it not allowed as you will be my boss soon?"

"Yes, you can kiss me, Tom. I imagine you will be doing a lot more, before too long." Tom came over to her and she stood up to meet his advance. They put arms round each other, and indulged in a passionate embrace. As his lips left hers, he commented, "Now that is what Enid would call a Proper Kiss."

"Yes, I think she would approve. Now let's get back to work, my man."

His heart leapt at these words. She was accepting him as a probable lover, if he read her words correctly. He became desperate to speak to Enid, and confirm that he was allowed to have sex with Jeannette. He was consciously not using the words "make love" for the action yet.

They finally got home for dinner, and Tom grabbed Enid for a quick cuddle in the kitchen, before she shooed him off to be out of her way while she completed the food.

Chat at the table during the meal was minimal: the food was too enticing to ignore, so no substantive talk happened until afterwards.

Tom sat back with a satisfied sigh. "That was great, darling. I was ready for a decent feed." He looked across and found that Jeannette had similarly emptied her plate. "is there any dessert?"

Enid glanced at him, "Still hungry? I have an apple pie just out of the oven, cooling down. Mrs Trevino gave me some small apples from her new trees. She said they were too small for selling, but I think they will be tasty enough."

"Sounds great. I have room for a slice. Jeannette?"

"Hmm, yes. I fancy that as well, but not too large a slice for me."

Enid got up to fetch the pie on plates. "I'll switch on the coffee percolator now, when I am through there."

At the end of the meal, they took their coffees through to the living room and the easy chairs. When they were settled, Enid asked, "So, how did it go today, with the Governor?"

Jeannette left it to Tom to reply.

"Pretty well. He accepted that it made sense to have the newspaper in private hands, as long as the Colony retained ultimate control of what appeared in it. He also approved the book publishing business. What we wait for now is the Director of Finance to come back with a sale price for the paper. We are hoping it won't be too high."

"Good. Are YOU happy with today's negotiations, Jeannette?"

"Yes, I am Enid. The Governor was very nice, I thought, despite some odd comments he made."

"Really? What did he have to say that upset you?"

"Not upset, exactly. Just ... odd. I was unclear what he meant, but Tom thinks the Governor assumed there was something between Tom and me."

"How perceptive of the Governor! So what have you done the rest of the day?"

Jeannette answered carefully, "I worked on my outline application for registering the publishing business, while Tom concentrated on his newspaper duties ... Oh, and we kissed."

Enid looked at Tom, who blushed guiltily. "It was her idea, Enid!"

"Of course, dear. You refused to kiss her back, didn't you?"

"Well, no. I couldn't find it in me to refuse."

"Thank goodness for that. You would have had me worried if you insulted Jeannette. She is my friend, remember." She paused, then continued, "And the mother of your next child after this one." She pointed to her abdomen.

Tom simply said, "Yes, dear.", while Jeannette grinned across to Enid.

Enid remarked, "Now we have that settled, was there anything else that came out of your discussions?"

Jeannette announced, "Yes. We are going to get Tom's alternate, Tim Fellowes (have I got that right, Tom?) to proof-read Tom's book and get it ready for publication, so Tom has to get it finished smartish."

"At last! I have been waiting for that for ages, Jeannette. Your appearance here has been all good, I think."

At this point Enid's phone rang. She picked up the call, and it was Mother Narech.

"Mrs Enid Pfeiffer, would tomorrow afternoon, around two p.m., be suitable for me to bring my charges over to your house on that visit?"

Enid was startled, but happy to acquiesce. "Certainly. We would be delighted to meet the children then." She glanced over at Jeannette, who nodded vigorously. "I shall be here, along with my friend Mrs Jeannette Reagan. My husband, Tom might be here, depending on his workload at the office. What do you suggest in the way of drinks and eats for the children?"

"Drinks can be anything normally imbibed by human children. Eats should be restricted to simple biscuits/cookies – no chocolate please. We do not want their diet to be adversely affected."

"That is fine, Mother Narech. We shall prepare as suggested. Thank you for being able to bring them over."

"The pleasure is all mine, Enid, and meeting more humans is good for the children's social development. Goodbye for now, Enid."

"Goodbye, Mother Narech." Enid closed her phone. She looked over at Tom and Jeannette, saying, "My goodness, that felt weird: me talking to a machine, just as if she was a person."

Tom remarked, "Technically speaking, she IS a person; actually a Person."

He explained to Jeannette, "The Personalia is the collective name for the spaceship entities. A single one is a Person, with a capital P.

"Mother Narech is almost a full Person, in behaviour. The real thing is much bulkier, but sounds very similar to meet."

Jeannette was still learning. "I see. So Mother Narech is more powerful than she appears. She is not just a nursemaid, or a nanny."

"That is correct. Much more powerful. She is mother, father, big sister, nanny, cook, AND bodyguard. You could shoot her with a gun and it would not harm her. I don't know what her skin is made of, but it is damned tough. Once, a deranged man tried to attack the children in their home, and Mother Narech not only stood steady in the doorway, and withstood a shot; but she grabbed him, notified the Security Service, and held him securely until they arrived. I remember writing the story, and was amazed at how calm and steady she was throughout. The assailant hated his capture, because Mother Narech gave him a telling-off, as if he was a miscreant child, a naughty boy!"

Jeannette laughed at the word-picture Tom had painted in her mind. She was feeling more at ease with Tom Pfeiffer with every day that passed. She could feel herself more than willing to let him have sex with her, to give her a baby of her own. Having worked with him, and listened to what Enid had to say, she was sure he would be accepting of his responsibilities as a father.

By next day, Jeannette had her documentation whipped into shape, after checking with the Colony officials regarding what was suitable for their purposes. It was surprisingly simple, to her mind; possibly another aspect of Rehome's dealings with its citizens. She was now ready to submit it once she had the newspaper to attach it to.

Before lunchtime, she had a message from the Director of Finance, stating a figure which the Colony would find acceptable as a price for the newspaper. It was lower than she was expecting, so her heart lifted at that. She had already offered Tom a 25 per cent of the paper's equity as his personal share as Editor, and he had given his assent to that plan, so now she could tell the Director of Finance that the price was satisfactory, and that her payment would be sent to the Colony's bank account as soon as she could arrange it.

Enid informed her that Tom would not be home for lunch, as he was too busy, so the ladies made lunch for the two of them. Enid commented, "I wonder if he is trying to get more work done so he can join us for meeting the Malans; or he is so busy that we won't see him until this evening?"

Enid had set her phone to remind her of the appointment, fifteen minutes early, so when it sounded, she rushed to finalise her preparations: were all the chairs in the places she intended, did she have the right number of glasses out for the drinks? Did she have the choices of drinks set out; were the table clothes straight? Were her clothes correctly ordered; skirt hem level, hair in order?

Jeannette was more blasé, not being the hostess. She just checked that she was decent for visitors, and left the other worrying to Enid.

On the dot of 2 p.m., there came a knock on the front door. Enid hurried to answer it, and was confronted by Mother Narech, and a train of children behind her. "Here we are, Mrs Pfeiffer. How nice to meet you." The mechanoid offered a hand to shake, which Enid took automatically. It felt perfectly normal, which helped Enid to relax a little.

"Do come in, Mother Narech, children." She stepped back to allow them to enter, and the procession trooped inside. Jeannette stood up to greet them, and Enid did the introductions.

"Mother Narech, allow me to present Mrs Jeannette Reagan, lately arrived from Earth in search of her child."

Jeannette solemnly shook hands with Mother Narech, and then proceed to go down to the children's level and shake hands with each of them. "It is a pleasure to meet you, children. What are your names?"

Mother Narech pointed to each in turn: "This is Nargo; this is Amech; this is Tuchgar; and this is Usgar." She went on, "They are all around the same age, just a month or two apart, and all were born on Earth, just as you ladies were."

Neat touch, thought Jeannette. Forcing us to recognise them as Earthborn, and so the same as us. Clever.

"I am very please to meet your acquaintance, boys and girls. It seems we are all colonists together. Have you any ideas what you want to do in the future?"