Chapter 33

In a moment we were in the large shower. Rebecca held her sister as I washed her hair then did the same for Rebecca. I did backs and the girls did the fronts. These were not my mates and perhaps not Chuck's or Jerry's but I was not going to fall into a trap of my own making.

I had a quick shower of my own then I dried the girls and got them to lay down in the bed. Silvia was still very upset so I laid down on one side and Rebecca on another.

I gave my own assessment to the family and especially to the Doc. Even just below the speed of sound it takes time to get here. Forty minutes later the ship landed and the med unit came with the family. The girls were nearly asleep and the door was left open just wide enough for the unit to fly in just off the floor then around the bed. From a metre away it started to put out a vibration designed to make us sleep. The girls were under and I was almost too before it stopped.

The Doc came into the room checking on the girls with his eyes as well as the data from the unit. Chuck and Jerry were right behind him.

The Doc said, "You did that very well. There was no undue violence and the girls were not harmed physically. Mentally may be a problem."

"My suggestion is to take Rebecca to Wendy and Chuck's room. Silvia goes to Jerry and Ashleigh's. They can wake up to friends and perhaps love."

"That may be a good idea."

The guys picked up the girls and walked out into the hall. The family parted as the naked girls were taken away. Wendy and Ashleigh followed right behind.

Mom said verbally, "I never knew you could fight like that. I also saw that you did not hurt those men in vengeance. I am proud of you Wally."

"Thanks Mom. Anger does come into it but I try to keep it under control. It can destroy me or kill me if I am not careful."

"You treated the girls as good as I would want to be treated if that ever happened to me. I was shocked at your suggestion about how the girls should be treated next but your girls told me that your idea is the best."

"They have to feel loved and that is one of the best ways I know of."

Betts came up to me and said, "We need some love too Wally."

"That's good because I need a lot too."

The girls awoke with a lover on both sides of them. There was a lot of crying then a lot of tender love. This time the Augusto girls didn't care if it was their man or their woman that they made love to and I felt good.

My girls were making me feel good too and I gave them everything I had been saving up for a week.

When we finally climbed out of bed Rebecca and Silvia were ready too. They got dressed in their lovers' clothes and we all went out to do some shopping. The guys felt bad about not being here and spent lavishly on the girls. Right after we went out to a nice restaurant and splurged again. We made it a party now to celebrate the family's return.

When it got late the girls phoned their foster parents and told them they were safe and staying over our house tonight. There was no confrontation but I knew that at some time this would come even if it was pushed by the police.

We stayed at home that night but got up early the next morning and went down to the house I had broken into. Angelina was up early and getting ready for her day at work when I knocked on the door.

She opened it and I asked in Italian, "May I come in for a moment please."

"Certainly. You are very polite and your Italian is perfect. You don't look Italian though."

"I'm not. Yesterday two men were in this house when your daughters came over to visit you. One of the men said you would be back momentarily. When the girls came in the men tried to seduce them and finally resorted to force. I got here before that happened. I was the one that broke the front window to get in."

"Were they hurt?" The woman was very distraught now.

"No, but one was down to her shredded panties and the other not far behind."

"Oh, my god."

"They're safe at my family home now."

"I have to talk to them."

"I called your place of employment and the secretary and then the manager refused to call you to the phone."

She disregarded what I said and mentioned, "The men said that somebody broke in and robbed them. They didn't say anything about my daughters."

I brought out my cell phone and called home. When it rang I said, "Hi Mom, it's Wally. Will you wake up our guests. Their mother would like to talk to them."

The communicators in the girls heads told me one then the other was shaken to awaken. They grabbed for clothes and then to get the phone. The girls talked in English and the mother talked in Italian. The girls had to shift to some Italian words now and again. They cried and then so did the mother.

I went into the kitchen and put some water on to boil and made some tea. There was some espresso left but that would be too stimulating just now. Since she was using my cell, I got her to sit at the table. Soon enough I put some tea there too along with sugar and milk. While I was at it I had some myself.

My own family was up and questioning me on what was happening. I explained how the mother had to know. She would be living with the two would-be rapist and needed to know what her two new boyfriends were like.

When the call came to an end, Mrs Augusto handed the phone back to me but her mind was far away. "Rebecca said that you came in here and beat both men. You're only a boy."

"Perhaps more than a boy."

"Yes, I meant young man. I do not use all of my language these days. We talk of simple things. How did you do this?"

"My friends and family now take karate five days a week even when there is no school. We are determined to learn. Many times we practice for sport even when we are away from the dojo."

"Why did you risk your life for them?"

"They are important to my friends and family. Two young men think they are even more important."

"They are not virgins any more?"

"You will have to ask your daughters that but a woman has to give up some things to be happy. I know one fact, you will not have any grandchildren until your daughters are ready. The boys that now protect your daughters would have done what I have done and perhaps more. We are not strangers to death."

"My daughters would not tell me but they say that you may have killed before."

"I have and it was to protect my family. Our home was invaded. What are your plans now?"

"I would like to kill the two men that tried this to my babies."

"That is not the answer or I would have done it. Find another man."

"Men are easy to find but good men are almost impossible." She paused and then said, "How did you know that they were here?"

"That is my secret. I watch over my friends."

"How?"

"That is my secret Mrs Augusto. Please do not pry."

The woman would not let it drop. She was very hard headed. I wrote our home phone number on a paper and left as if to catch a bus.

I went home for breakfast and then left for the assembly building alone. The rest could come if they found time but my skill was by far the most in demand.

Summer ended with only a fraction of the armaments shields, computers, drives and containment bottles made for the missiles. All of these required modified crystals.

On the good side we had a construction facility started. We could now make all the small parts necessary to run a ship. The tiny crystals though had to be left out until I had time. The components for the Quest, Curiosity and even some for The Beagle were stored. More components for additional ships were made and stored too. There was no point in having equipment stay idle.

I received word through Nadac that I was to devote more of my time to the 72. I didn't mind this as it gave me an opportunity to experiment. Rontem could also order me not to go to school. This I could do by claiming I had a private tutor but this was not done. Rontem had long term plans and he was not worried much about the 72 or the missiles. They would all come in time. He must want me in school and not to please me. I wanted to interact with others and he must want this to happen too. He was not like a kind grandparent so there must be ways for him to test me more.

Doc had put in his two cents with the school and school board. There were a lot of grade nine classes in the high school and each class was aimed in one general direction or another. We, as a group, had talked about this and decided that we split up even though the school would like us all overachievers to stay together. My goal was still to help those in need.

We split up along subfamily lines. Sam, Jerry, Chuck and I would be in four different classes with our ladies. The Augusto girls were where Betts wanted them to be. The two guys did not bitch. They loved the girls too and it was a good thing that Wendy and Ashleigh liked the comfort of a girl.

Greg and Lasha were in Sam's class. He promised them that if they acted oddly he would see that he split them up. I hoped that love and lust could be contained by orders from a superior. The guys and gals that needed the most help were sorted and placed with us to be watched over.

Connie was still in our former school taking care of those that had not been old enough to graduate. Paul and his girls would now be the ones helping Connie.

The Doc still had his practice but he was not working full time at it. He and Irene were now talking to the government authorities about some assistance in setting up a private school. It was not just money but the ability to get the government to expropriate land that we needed to build. He presented a document promising half a billion dollars with the money deposited in Ontario if the government would act with us.

A preliminary site was found near Dunnville. This was south of Toronto, across Lake Ontario and on the north shore of Lake Erie. It had the benefit of also being near Buffalo, New York. The location was not given out yet. Politicians would talk and land prices would go up. Our requirements though were for twenty square kilometres of land. Some of it on the shore of Lake Erie and some on the Grand River would give us water access for some of our activities.

There were thousands of issues to be resolved even beyond acquiring the land. We required an agreement with the province to recognise our graduated students. They wanted us to follow their criteria for what a child had to learn. We saw the benefits of history as an example but we were not going to learn Canadian, American or English history the way they were presently taught. We wanted a more cosmopolitan version with world history so that important contributions from small countries could be mentioned.

We needed building permits and permission to set up our own pollution control plants, wind generating farms and water treatment plants. Nobody was going to give us carte blanche but we were going to try to get the best deal possible.

The first day brought a lot of tears of joy and sorrow as cliques of friends were broken up. High school was quite different from what we had before. The class had to get up and move and not even all together.

All of our group though ended up in one particular math class. I guessed that it was made specifically for us. It turned out after the first few days that we would get Jack Lee as an additional student. He was a year older than us and acted both mature and dedicated.

The teachers seemed nice but I missed Connie and told her so. She missed us too but had work to do with her new class. Some high school teachers gave us an outline of what was going to be taught that semester. There were a lot more opportunities for specific subjects but usually not until the higher grades.

After school we gathered at the bus and Gail took us to pick up Connie and the youngsters. In this group Connie could kiss me. Rebecca and Silvia were being kissed by their respective mates too. There had been no lapse in karate so we started in as we usually did. We all had moved up in belts but we would never get to black and the accompanying legal requirements that this sport entailed.

Karate should have been taught in schools in place of Phys Ed but that was not possible. A karate club like a camera club could get started with the right teacher but this would not help us at all.

During the first week we made friends with the newcomers and strengthened the friendships we had before. Some were invited to go to karate with us after school. These were the ones that might make it into the academy.

The math teacher, Mr Racine, was young and bright. He had spent a lot of time preparing this special course for us. He spent a while finding out if there had been a mistake in our marks or abilities before really teaching us.

He started teaching at mid level grade ten level and this was beneath all of us including Jack. The girls wanted more of a challenge and I had to find a way. "Sir?"

"Yes Wally?"

"This class is made for just us. I am positive that all of us are able to handle this sort of work. Since the idea is to educate us how about we find our own level?"

"How can you do this? The school board has some say in this."

"Sir, I am not a child though I look young. This math course is designed for the overachievers. There will be no limits except our own intellects. You look to be a recent graduate and as such must know that there are other ways of teaching. The one I like is to give us questions and simply say do them. We find the methods to answer the questions independently or together through the net."

"I've studied that and as you say this is more of a freestyle class. Is there anybody here that does not want to try this?"

We all looked at Jack and he looked around but said nothing. The teacher wrote on the chalk board: Find a way to derive the circumference of the earth.

"Is this kind of question what you would like to see Wally?"

"That's simple for us." I called out, "Jack, I don't like to put you on the spot like this but I have no idea of what you know or don't know. I like multidimensional mathematics at the moment but that is not everybody's cup of tea. We can plot orbital courses. This requires us to know calculus and matrixes. Do you have any arcane knowledge that we could use?"

Jack said quietly, "I am fair at most everything. I too have plotted orbits and know calculus."

"Then there is an ulterior reason for you to be in this class." Jack looked upset and I said, "Don't worry Jack. We will teach each other. How about trying this. You are flying to Sol in direct course from Alpha Ursae Majoris. You are travelling at 0.98 C. At one light year from here and at that instant the date is November 23 2006. You can sustain 10 gravities of acceleration with no damage. What courses and methods would you use to arrive at earth in the least amount of time and with no residual velocity other than that of our planet?"

"That requires a computer to gather the information."

"Let's fire up these old play-toys. Your other task is to give us a question that you have not answered yet that will make us work."

"That may be fun."

"Permission to use school property, Sir?"

"Go right ahead. I'd like to see how well I would do too."

We started the machines and had to be given passwords to start and another to get on the net. Nadac gave me a list of sites that would have the information and I sent this off to all the computers including the teacher's.

This sort of question could be answered in our minds but we did it the old way. There were no planets in the way to stop or cause a space ship to alter course so it was just a matter of seeing how long it would take to slow down and where the planet earth would be when that happened.

Jack and Mr Racine were last but we had worked on similar questions before. Sam got the task of laying out a much more difficult problem dealing with a binary star system an orbit for a planet that would have ripped the world apart soon after it was captured. He gave the Fonduush as an example and used only the sublight engines to make an orbit. As an added problem the shields were mentioned as being damaged and could not repel more than five percent of the radiation emitted from the stars. He gave the radiation levels of both stars and what a human body could take during the time the ship was in transit and in orbit.

Chuck asked what amount of radiation there would be on the other side of the planet.

Sam said "Work it out. There is no magnetic field."

This took a lot more of our abilities. Again we could not use our internal computers for this. We worked up to the last second even after the bell rang and we rushed out of class.

Phys Ed was next. Sam's class and mine were in this dual class. We donned our shorts and told to run laps to see how good we were. Greg and Lasha ran with us and we took the first four places but others had raced during the summer. These we greeted as kindred spirits. They were surprised at the way we acted but happily complied. Two had been those that we fostered during the summer.

The gym teacher seemed happy to see how much we competed even against each other but actually they hung back just a bit to let me finish close to them. My knee had healed but I had not done enough running or swimming.

We ate our meals together when possible and an old friend or Wendy's came by. It was Margrette Ruur. The girl was offered a seat and we all nodded to her. It was our equivalent of standing when a lady took a seat. Since ladies would be combat officers too the standing had been dropped. The guys and girls did reach over and shake hands as the partially stood. This came under the classification of informal occasion number five.

Margrette said, "You guys are acting weird."

Wendy said, "We were being polite to you Margrette. In this sort of occasion, certain procedures are called upon and executed."

"I'm sorry, I guess the word weird was uncalled for. It's kinda nice in a way."

"Your apology is accepted. Now tell us how you were doing in the last year."

"Just school and some new friends. Nothing much is new. My aunt lives down the street from you. She talks of your father dying, gunshots in the night and then in the day, police and some body bags."

"They were just uninvited guests."

"The newspapers said almost nothing about it."

"You could have come over and asked."

"It felt odd to go over after all that happened."

"Lots of good things happened. Carmen got his throat sliced and somebody killed Tony. When those guys were out of the way then everything quieted down. These guys here sent us into orbit a lot. All of us slosh when we walk."

"Really! We'll have to talk later. Do you want to come over to my house? It will be like old times."

"I am very committed to Chuck. We do things as a... family I guess is the best way of saying it. We are going steady."

"Are we still friends?"

"We can be but now you have to be friends with my family too. We can be casual friends too when we just visit. We have to talk about this in private I guess."

"We can walk around the school like we used to."

"That may be fun but again it brings conflict into my life. We go to karate after school. You are welcome to come with us and take free lessons. We can talk a bit and exercise. Nobody is pushing us the way Tony use to."

"There was a lot of talk about your friends Betty and Wally doing the killing. The rumour got to us here too."

"My friends were protecting us. I would do the same now that I'm not afraid."

Margrette looked at Betts and me and said to Wendy, "You have some... strong friends. I thought Tony was that way too."

"Tony was an asshole. You did what he said or you paid for it. I have the world now and I'm free."

"You stay together all the time."

"We have a lot in common. We work hard toward goals we set. I'm learning at a fantastic rate. We protect each other and others. We are trying to change the world for the better in many ways."

"Changing the world from grade nine?"

"We were asked if we wanted to go from grade eight to ten but we turned it down. I know we could have gone to college if we wanted."

"You are into smoking again Wendy?"

"Ask our teacher, Miss Lime. She wanted us to go to eleven and then complete school the next year. To do that we have to work hard all the time except for the break we get when we are in school."

"That's a laugh Wendy."

"Don't make any judgements Margrette. Wait and see with your own eyes."

We hurried to finish our own meal. I personally felt that Wendy had gone overboard in justifying us but we were still kids inside.

Music was the last class today. We could sing or play an instrument. We had a vote and took vocal. Instruments would not be as much of a challenge and the new talent would help us as officers. So would playing a sax or a trumpet but we could learn those on our own.

I had never been good at singing before but I was not afraid like I was when I was younger. My brain and computer could be used for more than combat situations and dancing apparently. It assisted us in singing too. Silvia and Rebecca went with us and they were not assisted the way we were. They did have good voices though and only needed encouragement and training. Some of the others we had helped nominated for voice too. This must have been the largest grade nine vocal collection yet.

We had some scheduling problems because the teacher wanted us to all practice together as well as doing solos. Gail now brought the munchkins and Paul to listen and it was not long before the children were singing with us. The teacher was very pleased.

Our sensei did not mind us being a bit late but he had other classes to think about. This brought us into contact with older students on occasion as we had double classes.

We were doing very well in all our classes. Mistakes were made purposely to not be perfect some of the time. Math was the same way or we would have too many people noticing us. In the real world, we now had an army of lawyers if we needed them when we made mistakes.

The number of birthday parties we were invited to increased. We usually split up and visited a few and left again. The singing teacher used up our weekends too by having us go to some events and perform. All of us liked this because we did not have to fake it here. All this weekend work meant that we had to scrimp on sleep or at least I did. The mechanical side was far ahead of where I was.

The 72 got more of my efforts simply because it was simpler and I could hide as I worked on noncrystalline matter. I was getting a slightly higher portion shifted but I was doing it blind.

Nadac stepped up his efforts to find more people that could do at least some of what I could do. There were lots but they all would have minor talents. The Aristis had a method of categorising abilities like mine. They had not judged me accurately because I was not exactly like an Aristis but now they should be able to do a good job. The search went to other cities, provinces and countries. What we were able to do if we found somebody, would have to wait. Each person had to be assessed. A scholarship at the academy was our best chance though the academy was not set up yet.

My love for my ladies changed to a more mature emotion. It got deeper. We were always just a thought away so I knew they felt the same way. Connie still wanted a child but not to hold me to her. We seemed to be tuning into each other in our wants too. This is what made me nervous because I might breakdown and give Connie what she wanted before we were ready.

Two of us were drifting away. Silvia and Rebecca saw how they were not as intelligent as we were and felt superfluous. We had a vote and they were invited to join fully. Chuck and Jerry had more to do with this as they would be the ones to sponsor the girls.

Near the end of September they had their communicators activated. We had found out nothing new about their natural ability. Ultrawave communication was so easy that their telepathic abilities would suffer as it had with the Aristis.

The girls saw the promise now of a very bright future. They may be harassed by the police or even taken from us but we would always be as close as a thought. This meant that the old folks had to let the new girls have the Curiosity now and again for training flights.

I had a contingency plan going. The girls mother was directed to one of our companies soon after I met her. She was given a job that would show the authorities that she had turned over a new leaf. To be on the safe side, I sneaked into her new home and implanted a communicator. My idea was to monitor the woman and when she chose to gamble then her 'conscience' would talk to her and say how this was such a foolish thing to do.

Nadac started to act oddly. He was asking a lot more about the 72. He was either ready to make a copy of his personality and memories and install them or to booby-trap the 72 to kill a copy of Rontem. He had shown that I did not have all of his memories. It was possible he was deriving new theories in his spare time but the subtlety of them showed that he knew more. It was only because I suspected them of traps that I was able to find out what was happening.

I was not ready to give up the 72 yet because there was a simple computer being built inside of the device. It was pushed as far as it could into the other dimensions. This was a backup plan of mine. The 72 had my ego and memories in it ready to emerge as they did in Hal. It was very rare for the computer to be actually entered unless it was in need of repair or alteration. This second computer would lie beneath the substrate and access the memories that were pushed into the ceramic case. It was a very weak computer but it could produce the nanobots that would build a device to cut off power to the primary processor and make sure the smaller processor was able to take command. Since this second computer was completely independent, it would not be detected in the diagnostics.

To make the plan work better I suddenly discovered that I could compress crystals. I made it look like an accident that I had to own up to so Rontem would not think we had been able to do this all along. It was actually a crystal pushed partially into the other dimensions that had fallen to the floor when I was bumped. This had to be carefully choreographed as Betts came into the room.

The king would be eager to know more. It would also account for some of the odd design of the machine. I was forced though to give a completion date and could not put it off further than the first of March. I was also given dispensation from working on the missiles now that I had a better computer to make.

I worked with Nadac showing him crystals that I had been able to do almost the first day. I could not appear too good yet. Nadac talked less to me now and I suspect that he figured the truth and was wondering why I did this. All Aristis were paranoid and he would have more reasons to doubt me now.

Like Nadac, I had my own surface personality now and a deeper one that kept more of my secrets. The communicator and computer in my mind had subtly changed to interface with my surface thoughts and a second and much more powerful computer had been added that did not communicate to my real personality and not to Nadac at all.

To keep Nadac guessing, I made crystals that would hold him and his memories. I let my upper personality think of Nadac more as I tapped them. Getting rid of Nadac was much more of a problem.

The family built the Quest as the nanites went after the construction of a ship of the same size but made of ceramic materials. None of them had crystals in them yet because of my orders to work on the 72 took precedence.

Rebecca and Silvia adjusted well to making space ships and going to school while mostly living with their foster parents. They absolutely knew that they were loved and especially by their respective families. I was not loved so much at school though.

The guys in the upper grades and especially those that played contact sports resented that I had done something they had not done. They would never kill anyone or seriously hurt another human but they resented that I had. They knew people that knew people that gave them all the info about the two attacks. Though Sandy had killed one perp they knew that I had taken out the other with my hands. They scoffed at this last piece of data but not completely. I was jostled in the hallways and this happened to everybody. When I got hit too hard I waited and got the guy back later. Nobody wanted to fight me directly.

The rumours came out that Greg and Lasha were gay. We had already gone to dances and the boys had danced with the girls and kissed them in public. They were not afraid of girls now and knew that they were loved no matter what their orientation. The boys laughed openly at the assertions and within a few weeks the talk stopped. They smiled a lot but I knew they were trembling inside.