Chapter 662

The Retreat

In the giant living room, Diana had asked the women at the Retreat for a short meeting as she explained to them about Selina’s parents. There were several cross conversations in progress as Diana finished, as well as the big TV going only a few feet behind where Jeff was standing. Not wanting to get bogged down answering questions that Diana had probably answered already, he motioned to his wife. She nodded back, said something to Evie and hurried over to him.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your meeting,” he apologized.

“Oh, you didn’t. We had reached the speculation stage by the time you motioned for me. Are we still going to 2214 this morning?”

“We just about have to. It would be a shame for all that food to go to waste, and ... we have nothing concrete to go on concerning our coming search for Selina’s parents — yet.”

They were partially facing the group as they conversed. “Jeff, I know that Selina has talked to her brother and sister, but I think...”

“Yeah, I’m with you, but I don’t want to hurt our little genius’ feelings. The obvious implication would be that I thought I could find out things she couldn’t because she’s a child, and that just isn’t true.”

Selina was over near the big window, practically surrounded by the women. When Jeff had called his Clan Queen, Selina’s curiosity had piqued. There was too much noise in the big room in addition to the distance between them for Selina to hear what Jeff and Diana were saying. Consequently, the child in Selina “couldn’t help” reading their lips, at least enough to get the gist of their conversation.

After excusing herself, she hurried across the room. “My Prime and my Queen, might I insert my thoughts into your interaction concerning the question at hand?”

“Certainly,” Jeff responded.

“I would be grateful if you, My Prime, would converse with my brother and sister for any light they might shed on the possible location of my parents. I think my brother and sister informed me of everything they knew about the situation, but because of our relationship, they might have assumed I knew something that I do not.”

Jeff glanced toward the group of conversing women. If he concentrated, he could make out most of the conversation going on there, but even with his hearing, he had to strain to accomplish it with all the other conversations and the TV competing. Selina was super intelligent, but he knew she shouldn’t be able to hear their conversation that far away, especially with all the noise going on at the moment. That resulted in only one possibility.

His focus left the other end of the room and centered on the child genius looking up at him, but before he could voice his train of thought, Selina spoke.

“Your assumption is correct. I am not efficient with it, but with people I know, I can usually get the gist of a conversation by reading lips and the expressions that accompany speech. Please forgive me. It isn’t something that — once learned — can be turned on or off. My infamous curiosity sometimes leads me to places I do not expect to go.” Turning to face Diana fully, “I was curious when My Prime motioned to you, and I eventually invaded the privacy of the both of you. I apologize.”

Diana leaned to hug the little genius. “No apology necessary, and I know that I speak for my husband as well. Besides, I’ve always wanted to learn to read lips, but I understand that it is quite difficult for the average person to become efficient with the process. And as you, uh ... read, we only wanted to keep from hurting your feelings, but, well, Jeff is the Prime and might discover something that none of us would think was important but could very well be in the long run.”

Then Selina addressed Jeff, “I fully agree that you should discuss my missing parents with my brother and sister,” she said tactfully. “Perhaps, you will, indeed, learn some useful information.”

“Back to the lipreading course,” Diana insisted. “With your perfect memory, I imagine that you set new standards for the course,” she said while smiling. “Did you get a personal note from the lipreading firm’s management offering you a job?”

Selina’s blush was answer enough, causing both Jeff and Diana to chuckle.

“The person who contacted me, at first, thought I had lied about my age, but after I convinced him, he wanted my parents to call him. He finally gave up, but I think I can count on having a job when I am old enough,” she finished with a giggle.

Selina gave her siblings’ numbers to Jeff, and he committed them to memory. “I’ll call each of them after we get back from 2214.”

Turning to Diana, Jeff asked, “Who is going with us today?”

“I would like very much to be part of the group again.” Selina inserted.

“Good,” Jeff returned. “Then Morales and I can have a shelling buddy. Charlotte and Ada want to go again, and with their experience, that will be a blessing.”

“Mom wants to go, and as you know, she’s an experienced canner,” Diana offered. “However, she said that she couldn’t go this trip, but asked that we not forget her if there are future trips.”

“Arlene said that she and Ann would be training on Mars again, so Ship is going to be busy moving the interceptors and teams to orbit and retrieving them, besides giving us a ride,” Jeff remarked.

“Nat, Nicki, and Whitney are practically begging to go,” Diana offered. “They are always some of the first to volunteer for any type of work, so I think we owe them an opportunity to come. Jennie and Melissa have also asked, and with Kayla, we should have plenty of workers to process what we have picked. We may even go over the field again for anything that has ripened since we were there.”

The Prison Planet

A little later in the morning, Ship came to a hover just above the nearest tree to the cave on 2214. Morales was sitting at the shelling table working on a pile of peas and was unaware of them until the group was suddenly standing nearby. It took a second for him to notice, but when he did, he started.

“Damn,” he exclaimed as he rescued his ice water that he almost spilled.

“Getting old, are we?” Jeff teased. “We’ve been standing there for a good two minutes,” he lied.

“Bull,” Morales griped, “three seconds maybe, but you definitely got my heart started.”

The cave door was open, and Morales’ women must have heard, because they came out to hug and welcome everyone. “You guys want some iced tea? We have a gallon each of sweetened and unsweetened already made up. We didn’t have any more lemons, but you guys brought us several large bottles of ReaLemon for our tea and to cook with. To tell the truth, I can’t tell the difference, so we made a jug of lemonade with it.”

Jeff glanced at the double-scale thermometer attached to the nearby tree. It already read 90 F, or roughly 32 C, as he turned to address Jasmine. “I know we mentioned it yesterday, but do you think there will be anything ripe in the garden today? If so, I’ll be glad to get started picking it before the day gets any hotter. And a few glasses of that iced tea would go good while I’m doing that.”

“The girls and I had decided to check it out just before you guys arrived,” Morales commented.

“Is all this to be canned?” Nat asked while motioning to the many baskets of vegetables still sitting on the table as she, Nicki, and Whitney stepped closer.

When Jasmine assured them that it was, the three girls shared a glance, and Nat went quickly on, “We three know little about canning, so we would probably be of more use in picking vegetables. We’ll be glad to go with you, Husband. You can show us what needs picking — if no one minds, of course.”

“Mind?” Jasmine said with a laugh. “Are you sure you know what you’re letting yourselves in for?”

“Well, we heard the others complaining about tired backs and sore hands, but we’ll chance it, right, Ladies?” she asked her sister-wives.

When they all quickly agreed, Jasmine motioned and said, “There are the stacks of empty baskets, and there is a stack of gloves over there. I would advise you to keep your caps or hats on, and if you have them, long-sleeve shirts will help keep some of the direct sunlight off you as well as some of the insects, but I would advise to use sunblock on any exposed skin, anyway. There are several bottles sitting on the table next to the gloves, all of which your family has brought.”

Nobody had to ask Kayla where she wanted to be.

“The keys are in the crawler,” Morales said as he motioned to the vehicle sitting only a few feet away.

“You might need it,” Jeff responded. “I’ll have Ship drop us at the field. She can look out for us so we can concentrate on what we’re doing.”

“We all brought our pulse rifles,” Kayla said. “Not much of a sporting chance for whatever should attack, but then again, we came to pick vegetables, not play with the animals.”

“Be careful,” Morales said, “These guys play rough.”

While handing Jeff one of the two-way radios, Morales said, “Here, take one of these. It will easily reach between here and the field — just in case. It is 2214,” he finished as if that explained everything, which to Jeff, it did.

“The ladies have their pulse rifles, and I have my belt full of steel balls and my TK. Ship will be overhead to guard us as well.”

No one told Morales how odd his worry sounded, and Jeff certainly didn’t kid him about it. After all, Morales had survived more harrowing experiences than any of Jeff’s women probably ever would, and he had done most of his fighting with a bow or a crossbow. Only lately had he, Jasmine and his other women been graced with rifles to protect themselves. No one there other than Morales had ever winched themselves and Lobo high into a tree and still had to fight off an animal bent on killing — and eating — them.

Selina wanted to go with Jeff, but she knew she was actually accomplishing a needed function here, and indeed, she had gotten very good at it with all the practice yesterday. However, there were several extra people today, and she expected to have more help. She put a basket of peas in front of her and a glass of sweet tea within easy reach. Peas were soon falling into her bowl as she slid the hulls off the table and into an empty basket at her feet. Trying to get her mind off her parents, she mentally forced herself deep into a project she had been setting up in the lab. She wished she could work out a way to involve Jeff in her project when they returned home. Despite her efforts, though, the vague unease about her parents crept back into her mind, and before she realized it, her vision was blurring from unshed tears.

Aggravated, she quickly pulled a tissue from her pocket and surreptitiously wiped her eyes, hurriedly putting the tissue away.

The Clan Queen had just stepped to the door of the cave to check on Selina and Morales. When she saw Selina wipe her eyes, Diana’s instinct fairly screamed at her to hurry and hold the child in her arms, but this was Selina. She wanted, oh so badly, to be an adult, and considered her tears that of a sniveling child. Better to let Selina pretend the tears never happened. Sympathetic tears misted Diana’s eyes, and she was faced with a curious look from Jasmine, who had just walked up beside her with her sister-wives. Diana knew she would not be put off.

With a sigh, the Clan Queen quietly brought Jasmine, Ashley and Christine up to date. As the canning continued, the women were becoming more and more efficient as completed batch after completed batch found its way back into the darkness of the cave or into one of the large freezers.

Jeff and four of his women were soon to find out something about gardens sitting on very rich soil and watered from beneath while in the hot 2214 sun. As Ship put them down near the bean section, the Prime stopped to stare.

“What’s wrong?” Nat, Nicki and Whitney asked a split second before Kayla could.

“There were more beans almost ripe, but where did all this come from?” he asked rhetorically. The plants had shed some of their leaves, which allowed even more of the heavy-laden plants to display their yield.

Had their picking some of the beans contributed to the plants shedding more of their leaves, or was it just time? Whatever? There seemed to be every bit as much on the plants as the group picked yesterday — maybe more.

Jeff, followed by his questioning women who had not seen the garden yesterday, carefully moved through the garden. There were ripe tomatoes galore, as were several types of beans and two different types of peas. As before, there was an abundance of cucumbers, as well as squash. He didn’t bother looking at the other plants.