Chapter 31

TGIF! Thank God It’s Friday! 1-1 hasn’t slackened off a bit on my training, which I guess I should be thankful for. Maybe one day soon we can go to doing HER torture/training every other day!

Ryker called me and said that he had sent a photo of the motor yacht and if I approved it would be built right away. He said it should be available on my wall screen. I brought it up and it looked beautiful! It looked pretty much the same as the photos I had looked at but the paint scheme matched the Wayward Sons’ exactly, and you could see the difference in the gear in the pilot/wheelhouse and the newer power plants.

I told him I definitely approved and to go ahead with the build. He said it would be done and placed at the Marina for when we arrived. He also said that Furst were checking out every race they came upon for items that may be of interest to myself or our future Arkadians.

Sam pops in so I tell her of my talk with Ryker and ask her to have the photo of the motor yacht put on the website asap.

She tells me we now have 242,962 people approved and verified going to Arkadia made up of the following groups; 123,373 in “Families”, 19,500 “Orphans”, 2325 “Grandparents”, 44,162 single men, 41,499 single women, and 3724 men and women with 8379 “Concubines” between them. That leaves us with only 12,038 seats still to fill. I told Sam if we went over before we left we could always transport people in my ship as well as the BC’s. I also said we’d be going as soon as everything we had going on was completed even if we hadn’t filled every seat as 240,000 plus people were enough to ensure our races’ viability.

Dalilah showed up and came over for a kiss before going to see Chef for breakfast. Between bites she let me know she should be getting some lists from several countries today regarding which landfills we could empty and in which order they’d like us to empty them.

Dalilah changes the subject by asking me how much of this bacon stuff we will have on Arkadia. I tell her I have no idea. She tells me she knows how much ... NOT ENOUGH! Hahaha. She says I should get as much as I can because bacon would be a HUGE hit on Elven, all the while chowing down on hers.

I told the ladies I had a few things to do today and that I would see them later. I specifically told Sam that Security team #1 would be with me so NO transporting to wherever I might be.

“1-1 can you show yourself please?” I asked and she immediately appears.

“What can I do for you Sire?”

“Your team is on duty today and I want to take the Wayward Son for a trip to a little store I know in Montreal, Quebec, and buy some things for Sam, Dalilah, 2-2, and 2-3. I don’t want them to know what I bought until I give them the items. I will be seriously pissed off if someone tells them anything. I will tell you that the place is a little known private jewelry store that makes custom jewelry. I need to know that you and your team will keep the secret even from the other Furst.”

“Of course we will Sire. My duty and the duty of every member of your Security teams is to you first, then to each of your ladies, and then to each other. Please, have no doubt that we won’t talk about something you don’t want talked about. Unless there may be harm done to you if we don’t.”

“Excellent! Let’s get our butts in gear then and go on a little trip!”

1-1 transports me to the shuttle and we were off. This little jewelry store is known mostly by word of mouth and makes exquisite pieces. Wow, I have to say this is the FASTEST trip I ever made to Montreal as we arrived!

We transport down to the area just outside the store then enter and I say in my best francophone accent, “Joseline, good morning! How is everything in beautiful Montreal this fine morning?”

Joseline whipped her head around to look at me then yelled, “Yves you better get out here! There is some wretched englishman in here that looks lost.” She made her way over and grabbed my head pulling me down for a kiss on each cheek. Her husband Yves comes out of the back looking around as if expecting trouble, then smiles when seeing me and came over to give me a “man-hug” and handshake.

“Yes you are right my Joseline, he does look a little lost. No visit for what? 5 years? It is good to see you again DD, in person that is. We see you and your girlfriends on the TV sometimes though. Where are your lovely ladies anyways?” Yves asks looking around the room for them.

“They are not with me today Yves as I came to talk to you and Joseline about getting something made for them.

But first, tell me why you haven’t taken the Enhanced CAP test? Do you plan on staying here on Earth?”

“DD, this is our home, we are old and want to stay here. We figure the soldiers will at least slow the Swarm advance if they don’t stop them completely so that by the time the Swarm do arrive, we will have already passed on. This is our decision so please respect that.”

“Ok, I can and will respect your decision. However, I will be asking again before we close everything down here on Earth for good. Ok?” They both nod their heads ok.

I then explain to them that I am looking for 4 identical, 5 stone, round cut diamond engagements rings, PT 950 Platinum (95% pure). For the center stone, I want a 3-carat diamond with 2 1 carat diamonds on each side of it. The center diamond will sit slightly higher than the side diamonds and each diamond will be the very best round cut diamond they can get. I will also want to get 5 platinum wedding bands, again PT 950, 4 women’s bands, and 1 men’s band, with 5 hands in some sort of pattern etched into each band.

“Bad part of this is I need them within 2 weeks if possible. Can you do all of them in that short a time frame?”

“I think I have what you are looking for as far as the platinum bands and rings themselves are concerned so I might only need to mount the diamonds. Let me call my neighbor about the diamonds. They just got a shipment in the other day. The diamonds will be expensive though DD, very expensive.”

“I hear what you are saying Yves and I have more than enough for what I am buying. I will pay half upfront or all if that is required.”

“Let us see what my friend has in diamonds first,” Yves calls his friend and I can hear Yves tell him to bring over his very best 3-carat and 1-carat round cut diamonds as he has a customer in the store that he might need them for ... if they are good enough. He tells the guy the customer is his personal friend and that Yves will be checking the diamonds and they better be the very best.

“My friend will be over in less than 10 minutes. His store is only a couple stores away from here. In the meantime can I get you something to drink? Water? Coffee?”

“A coffee is fine Yves thank you.”

“We were so sad to hear about the deaths of your mother and father DD. We never met them but we knew just from meeting you that they were good people. I hope the ones responsible pay dearly for what they did.”

“They paid with their lives Joseline. They were all killed either during the mess in the restaurant or afterwards by the Confederacy.”

Yves brings me my coffee just as the door chimed and an older, short, balding man comes in yelling to Yves that he is here. Yves gives me my coffee, greets the man that just arrived, and introduces us to each other. Yves then leads us into a back room and locks the door from the inside.

Yves spread a black cloth on the table then brings out 2 trays of wedding rings and bands that he said were all PT 950 platinum. I take a look at the bands first and find 5 right away. I liked that the topside of the bands are flat and not rounded like most are and that they should be wide enough for the hands to be etched in.

I pointed them out to Yves and asked if the same style was good for the engagements rings or should the engagement rings have the round topside as far as mounting the diamonds was concerned?

“I have rings that are an exact match to these bands and the flat topside is no problem to mount the diamonds on.”

He puts 4 rings out on the black cloth and then moves the 5 bands nearer to them. I look them over and tell him that I like them and will take them.

Yves now asks Michel to show us the diamonds. Michel pulls 2 cloth bags from the inside of his overcoat and opening one, pours the diamonds into his hand before putting them on the black cloth. He does the same with the other bag and then points to each area of diamonds telling us which are 3-carat and which are 1-carat.

I tell Michel that Yves will check them out for me as I wouldn’t be able to tell one from another. Yves gets a loupe and a small digital scale and starts checking out each diamond. Michel and I watch him for a few minutes as Yves will weigh a diamond, look it over using the loupe, then move it to another spot on the cloth. The 1^st 2 diamonds he checked went to different spots on the cloth.

I moved off to the side to let Yves concentrate on what he was doing and Michel came with me. We talked quietly about Arkadia and my girls after Michel said he knew who I was. I described the design I had talked to Yves about, admitting I was buying the rings for the girls and that I’d be marrying them once we were on Arkadia. If they agree to of course!

Michel said it sounded like the rings would be very nice indeed and he didn’t think I had to worry about them saying no, but how would I be able to marry all 4 of them as that was illegal. I told him it might be illegal here on Earth but it wasn’t on Arkadia. Or in the Confederacy either for that matter.

Yves said he was done and called us back over it the table. I saw one group with 6 of the larger diamonds, 2 other groups with the remaining larger diamonds, and 2 almost equal groups of the smaller diamonds. Yves pointed out each group that he thought had the best quality diamonds. I tell Yves to pick the ones he thinks are best and he takes 4 from the group of 6 and places them nearer to 1 group of the smaller diamonds.

Yves then hands the 4 larger diamonds to Michel who weighs them on the digital scale. Michel holds his hand out to Yves who grins and outs a piece of paper in Michel’s hand telling me, “He knows I wrote down the serial numbers for all the diamonds I was going to choose. The diamonds are all certified and have a serial number lasered into them so he can easily give us a total price after checking the serial numbers.”