Chapter 372

The Retreat

... Charlotte and Ada sat for a moment as Diana's words sank in.

Both mother and daughter were clearly skeptical as they furtively glanced at the other three women. Diana let out a chuckle. "You can say it; we won't get mad."

Ada hesitated. "This is no joke? You're actually telling us that Susan is your mother and Arlene is your daughter?"

"Got it in one," Diana said with a grin.

"But..." Ada began. Then, after studying Susan's and Arlene's faces some more, she continued, tentatively, "Uh, you look maybe twenty, Diana." After turning to Arlene, "I would guess you to be about sixteen or seventeen." Finally, she faced a grinning Susan, "And if I had to guess your age, I would say maybe thirty-one or thirty-two. And ... I'm usually pretty good at guessing ages..." She had left the sentence hanging because she didn't want to accuse Diana of lying to her.

Why are they saying this? Ada wondered. They're obviously sisters. If all three were nearer the same age, they could probably pass for twins, or triplets as the case may be.

"That's what we look like – now. But I'm thirty-one, and Mom is forty-eight." There was shock and a bit of skepticism on both Ada's and Charlotte's faces, but Diana resolutely went on. "Not only will the two of you look younger, Ada, but you can gradually change your appearance until you look, basically, any age you prefer. But expect to look years younger by morning. I imagine that by breakfast, unless you concentrate on a younger age, your apparent age will be something like Susan's, and Charlotte's age will look similar to mine."

Charlotte had remained sitting quietly, an inscrutable look on her face as she listened to her mother and Diana. Finally, she spoke to the Prime. "Jeff, you've helped us a lot – saved our lives – and we sincerely appreciate it, but please don't, any of you, get Mom's hopes up."

Charlotte hesitated a moment before going on. "I grew up with a very active mother. She took me to everything at school, played volleyball and other sports with me when there weren't other kids for me to play with. She helped me with my lessons, taught me to cook and take care of the house, budget and buy groceries, and later, worked two jobs to pay for two years of college for me before the arthritis struck. I was lucky beyond my dreams to wind up with the tunneling job, but the job meant I had to leave Mom alone even as this disease took more and more of a toll on her. Please don't build her hopes up and then dash them to pieces."

Arlene, seeing the sparkle of unshed tears in Charlotte's eyes, hugged her. Pulling back, she responded, "We won't do that – none of us. Despite what you must think, healing Ada isn't impossible. Oh, with Earth technology it may be, but Little One didn't come from Earth. She's a Healer constructed specifically for a Prime. And that Prime is Daddy. We have many things to tell you two, but there is no way you'll ever believe most of them until both of you realize that Daddy isn't lying and she," Arlene said as she focused her attention on Little One for a second, "is capable of doing everything we say she is."

Ada cleared her throat, her voice hoarse with emotion. "Uh, what do I have to do? The doctor has tried different drugs, but I don't seem to respond very well to any of them. The arthritis just keeps getting worse. I'll do whatever you tell me to if there's any chance this thing, uh, this Little One, can make me better."

Jeff winked at his daughter-wife, silently thanking her for paving the way for him. Then addressing Ada, "I need you to lie back on the couch and pull your top up enough to expose your belly so Little One can touch you there."

"Touch? That's all?" Ada questioned, not moving. "Is she going to inject me with something?"

"No. No," the Prime said, shaking his head. "Her technology is ages past anything like that. She will make you sleep for awhile. When you awaken, the arthritis will be gone and most of the major healing will have occurred. The rest of the process will happen over the next hours and days, but by morning, you will look far younger, and chances are, you will feel better than you ever have in your life. She will do far more than just heal your arthritis and make you look younger, though. But everything she does will be to your advantage. Not only will you look and feel great, but your brain will also function at a much higher level. Among other things, you will soon be reading faster and remembering far better."

Turning to Charlotte, he continued, "Little One will enhance you as well. Your body, like your mother's and ours, will be perfect when the process is completed. You'll never be sick again a day in your life. I'm not going to mention everything just now, because you wouldn't believe me yet, anyway."

Charlotte tried to hold her enthusiasm down, not quite letting herself believe it yet. "How long will it take?" she asked, nodding at her mother.

"It varies. Sometimes, only a few minutes if the person is young and healthy. With Ada's problems, it will take longer, probably a good bit longer – for the initial process. Once the process is started, it will continue for, probably, several days before it is entirely completed. By then, her body, and yours, will be perfect in every way."

Charlotte locked eyes with her mother. "Mom..." she questioned.

Ada didn't hesitate. "The disease is killing me," she responded. "I think the doctor has basically given up, although he hasn't told me that in so many words, but he keeps trying more and more obscure things – none of which have worked to date. So what have I got to lose? Jeff and his ... uh, team did save my life, and probably yours, too. That man came to kill me, so I imagine they would have tried to kill you sooner or later."

Turning to Jeff, she took a breath, hesitated, then said in a firm voice, "Do it."

The Prime grinned. "Attagirl. Just put your feet up and lie back."

Arlene and Charlotte helped Ada get situated with a cushion under her head. Ada pulled her top out of her pants, baring her stomach. "Is this enough?"

"Perfect," Jeff replied as Arlene placed Little One on the fifty-year-old woman.

The faint blue glow surrounded Little One as a thin blue beam reached out to touch Ada's forehead. Almost instantly, her features relaxed in a deep sleep.

"Is she okay?" Charlotte worried aloud.

"Perfectly. If her reaction is like everyone else's, she'll wake up waiting for Little One to do something, not even realizing that she has already slept," Arlene assured Charlotte.

Jeff came to his feet. "I need to check with the General. Be back in a little while," he finished as he kissed his women.

Charlotte didn't pay any attention or she would have noticed that he kissed Arlene the same way he did Diana and Susan – the two wives she knew about. As he left, Charlotte dragged a seat closer and sat to watch her mother sleep. "Want something to eat?" Arlene asked with a smile.

Charlotte shook her head. "No, thanks. I guess I'm too keyed up to be hungry, but nothing is happening. All I see is that blue glow under the alien thing."

"That's all you will see," Diana assured her.

"Why don't we finish putting up your things?" Susan asked as she stood.

When Charlotte hesitated, Arlene picked up the theme. "We'll only be a few steps away in the bedrooms. You can check on her any time you wish."

"You're sure she'll be all right?"

"I'm positive," Arlene, Diana and Susan said as one.

Charlotte looked from one to the other, but none of the women commented, so she quickly dismissed it.

Susan grabbed Charlotte's hand. "Come on. Let's get the rest of your things organized, then we can work on your mom's things."

Reluctantly, Charlotte took the bag containing her cosmetics and followed the others into her new bedroom. A few minutes later, her makeup, what little there was of it, was in the vanity area and she stood looking at the still mostly empty big closet. "Guess that isn't much, huh?" she said with a grin. "I do have a couple of week's worth of work clothes in the construction trailer, plus a few more cosmetics and a couple of decent outfits should I want to go out during my off time. I need to get everything, and also assure Danielle that I'm okay. She'll be worried."

"Hmmm," Diana said. "We need to ask Jeff about that. He will want to make sure Security accompanies you when you go over there."

Charlotte turned to fully face Diana. "What's going to happen to my job? I can't just hide forever. I need to work to support Mom and myself."

Diana reached to take Charlotte's hand for a moment. "My husband didn't have time to tell me everything that happened on the mission, but it's obvious that he and his team captured the assassins. But ... the person behind all this has proven that he never gives up. If you go back to your job, he will kill you, somehow, some way. Probably when you least expect there to be danger."

"But living here, how will I support us?"

Diana sighed as she glanced at her sister-wives. "It won't cost either of you a dime to live here." Before Charlotte could say anything else, the Clan Queen went quickly on. "We'll keep your house payment and utilities going, and in the end, probably wind up buying your house. Please, just let Jeff and Dave take care of the details. As far as a place to live, remember, we told you this was your home. Everything will be furnished here that you and your mother could possibly want. As far as income and money of your own, we'll discuss that later, but it will be taken care of." As soon as I find out what your account number is, she thought.

When it was obvious that Charlotte wanted to say something, Diana held a hand up a little, forestalling the young woman's objections. "We have accomplished the first step, and that was to get you and your mother safely here with us. We'll visit the other problems and overcome them one at a time. Next thing on the agenda is to tidy up Ada's things, then have your session with the Healer."

"My session?" Charlotte replied, mystified. "I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me."

"Look at us," Arlene broke in to say. "Just look at us. Everyone here has been enhanced by Little One. We have more energy than we can use, and we sleep only a few hours each night, and ... if we have to, we can go for quite a while without any sleep while continuing to function better than you could possibly believe at this stage. You don't want your mother to have more energy than you have, do you? As soon as Little One is done with Ada, it will be your turn to sleep a while as our little Healer sits on your chest. When Ada awakens, she'll convince you in a heartbeat. In the meantime, why don't we finish with your Mom's things first, then check out that chocolate cake on the serving cart. When you wake from your nap with Little One, we'll feed you a couple of steaks and baked potatoes to get you started resupplying your energy reserves just like we'll be doing for Ada very soon."

Charlotte grinned at the teenager, knowing that she (Charlotte) could never eat two steaks at one sitting. "Two?" she said with a faint giggle. "Not me. No way."

Arlene inserted, "I'll bet that those two steaks will be followed by more before the night is out. We'll have extras cooked and in one of the refrigerators awaiting your midnight visit. All you will have to do is pop them into the microwave."

Charlotte just looked at Arlene, wondering.

The Prison Planet

About halfway up the steep hill in front of the cave, Morales wished he had left off a few of the beans. Once he and Lobo had the rolling case inside the cave, he grabbed a bucket and went to pick up the beans that had fallen off the overly-full case on the way up.

The next thing on the agenda was to restart his cook fire and warm up his breakfast coffee. While it was warming, he took a pot, grabbed a handful of the green limas and began shelling them, being careful to discard the few beans with bad spots. When he had enough shelled, he added water and put them on the fire to simmer.

I need to work on the apples first. The dried beans can wait because they won't spoil, but the apples will.

The beans were on top of the apples, so he had to unload the limas first. They made quite a pile by the time he had gotten down to the apples, but first, he had to do some reading. It didn't take him long to find the instructions for drying food. Shortly, he was reading about how to dry apples. Dehydrator? Nope, that was out. Didn't have one. Oven. Nope, same reason. Car hood or the dash during hot weather. Chuckling, he eliminated that method too, and continued reading.