Chapter 7

Béla stood at the front of the room. She looked out at the eighty-odd members of her chosen family who were present. There was her husband, Jake, of course, and Alicia, and the three children Alicia had borne with Jake over the years. Then there was Frank, Tanya, and their son, Frank Junior. He was still unmarried – for a hundred and thirty years now. The others were descendants of Alicia's children, and she'd had quite a few, and their families – those who considered themselves to be part of the Tabor clan.

She sighed, not wanting to tell them. But she knew she had to, even though it would destroy all hope they had for any kind of a future – on Earth – or anywhere else.

"Thank you, Frank," she acknowledged his introduction as he sat down. She looked over the group – her people – once again.

"I requested this meeting..." she began, then faltered. "I realize that you weren't expecting to hear from me for several more months – to tell you that our great journey to a place of safety was at hand.

"But, I cannot tell you that," she continued, her voice beginning to shake with emotion. "There will be no great journey. There is no great ship to take us to safety. It has been lost to us. Destroyed."

She bowed her head, hiding the tears that had begun, once again, to flow down her face. There were murmurs and cries of consternation. Béla knew she would have to explain a great deal. This entire project, this incredible family of long-lifers, was now a lost cause. They would die after all, along with their planet, when it became too desolate to support life.

Tabatha Hedron stood up, her face a study of confusion. "Béla," she began.

Béla looked up. "Yes, Sister?" To the rest, she called out, "Tabatha Hedron has the floor for a question. Please be polite so I can hear." Everyone quieted down.

"I've seen the future of this world," Tabatha said. "It isn't a place where we can live. Please tell me what happened. In the reality that I lived in, the ship was also lost, but the circumstances ... Well, I didn't get a chance..."

Jake Hedron, her husband, stood up. "I know what happened to the ship in that other reality – the reality we avoided when Lisa rescued us. I spent three months going through and cataloging data that had been downloaded from the Praetor Archives at Northern. Pardon me. For those of you who are relatively new to our family meetings, Northern is a supply and storage facility in New Eden and..."

"What happened?" Béla asked quietly but in a curt manner, interrupting him. She knew what had happened this time. The Praetor on board the ship had sent a distress message. She wanted to know what Jake Hedron knew. She had a cold feeling in her stomach. If he had known all along...

"The ship was coming to Earth to search for survivors of the genocide that was practiced against our family. It encountered a ... how can I explain it? A device ... that was left over from some interstellar war..."

"It was an Arcadian Smart Bomb," Béla said coldly, interrupting him. "You knew this! And you kept silent?" Béla was shaking with fury. It was his fault – his silence that had doomed the great ship and all those aboard. The telepaths in the room couldn't help but hear her mental accusation.

"I am aware," Béla said coldly, "of the differences in your laws here on Earth and Justice as it is practiced in New Eden. If you were in New Eden now, you would be charged with dereliction of duty that resulted in the loss of an invaluable piece of equipment and the lives of that crew. I knew each and every grand being who was on that ship!"

Jake Hedron shied away, as did many others, never having seen true fury in the vampire girl's face.

"Be glad you're on Earth, Mister Hedron, else I would seek your head! Do not let me see you again!" Béla finished curtly, then turned quickly and left the room, leaving Tabatha and Jake standing among a roomful of people – people who were beginning to realize their chance to escape earth's doom was destroyed.

Frank rose quickly and stepped up to the podium. As the senior member of his family, he presided. Every person in this room was related to him by blood except for Béla, her husband and her daughter, and Béla was blood-sister to both Frank and Tanya.

"Let's have order, please," Frank called out. He had a commanding presence when he wished, and this was one of those times. He didn't even have to shout. Everyone quieted down.

"All right, thank you, gentlemen, and ladies," Frank acknowledged their acquiesce to his request. "So, it appears that we have a problem. There is a habitable planetoid – out there – " he gestured with his arm, "somewhere. And we have no way to get to it. Any suggestions?"

Everyone spoke at once. He heard ideas that ranged from burrowing deep into the earth, to traveling back in time to warn the alien ship and so on to building another ship. After a moment he held up his hands. Everyone quieted down.

"Jackie, you were saying something?" he asked. Jacqueline Burke was another of his granddaughters sired by Jake Pestova and illicitly bore by his daughter, Alicia. Jackie was CEO of Camden Research and Development. It was her research group that had determined something was wrong with the sun, and had worked out a partial solution of moving underground until the sun started behaving itself. But now, Frank thought he heard her saying something else. He listened.

"Thank you, Gramps," she grinned at him and remained standing while everyone else sat down. She admired the oratorical power her grandfather had over her diverse family.

"There is no reason we can't build our own ship," she began, actually sounding cheerful. "We have the technology – have had it for a century. But after the collapse of the US government and all its subsidized organizations, such as NASA, the giant corporations that took over running our society abandoned exploration of space as 'economically unfeasible.'

"The strato-cruisers used today are the nearest thing we have to actual spacecraft. Those in use today are actually space-worthy, but they don't have interplanetary capabilities. By that, I mean they can't build up enough speed to break free of earth's gravitational field.

"But we at Camden's development division, which NASA is now incorporated under, have several designs ready and waiting for commercial development which will be as large and comfortable as the strato-cruisers currently in use. Plus, they will have enough thrust to travel beyond earth's planetary system.

"I would like to suggest a meeting of minds with my more immediate family – specifically my mother and brothers – to discuss this project for the rest of today and tonight. Then we could meet here tomorrow to let the rest of you know what our options are.

"But I want to assure everyone here that we are not helpless! And we will win out!" Jackie sat down to cheers and a thunderous applause.

Frank cleared his throat. "Thank you, Jackie, any-questions-this-meeting-is-adjourned-'til-eight-AM-tomorrow-thank-you!"

Bam!

He stepped down, wiping his brow, ignoring everyone trying to get his attention and ask questions as he fled the room. Tanya broke loose from several people trying to yammer at her and ran after her husband. As she reached him, she found herself half-running and trotting just to keep up with him. By now, they were halfway around the garden of the Convention Hall.

"For God's sake! Slow down!" Tanya called out breathlessly. "You're going to run right into them again coming around the other way!" Frank seemed to hear that, and suddenly stopped, sitting down stiffly on a decorative stone bench. Tanya almost tripped over him catching up, then sat down, too. She breathed heavily, catching her breath.

"What is it, darling?" she asked, anxious but not clinging. She was behaving more professionally than was expected of a wife. "What happened back there?"

Frank looked up at her. His face was tortured. His eyes angrier than she'd seen for a long time. "It's my fault!" he said. "All those people – my descendants – marooned on this dying world. Why didn't I think to ask Jake what that future held? I assumed that, since Jake and Tabatha were returned to us and we found out about Walter Madigan ... I assumed that everything else in that future would be different. No! That's not right!" he cried out angrily, correcting himself. "I didn't even think about anything else that might happen!"

He looked at Tanya as he tore his soul apart with guilt. "It was an incredible opportunity to find out what happens in the future! And I didn't even think to ask..."

Tanya stared at her husband, becoming angrier with every passing second. "There is going to be a ship!" Tanya said, her voice low and serious. "You don't even begin to understand the opportunity we have, as a race – as a species! Everything we've done for the last hundred plus years has been at Béla's behest!" Tanya spat her dear friend's name at him. "I love her as much as you do. But now, we will find a solution! Humankind will come up with an answer! Those almighty aliens built us poor little humans a sanctuary. We can find a way to crawl to it without her help! Have some pride in us, for God's sake!" Tanya stood up, too furious to sit still and watch her beloved beat himself up.

"Besides," she added as an afterthought, "your grandson still has those memories of the future. Why don't you go ask him what else might happen and let Jackie built us a ship!"

Frank stared at his wife glaring down at him, his eyes slowly clearing. Then he actually smiled at her. "You always know when to sympathize with me and when to kick me in the ass, don't you?" he said, starting to grin. He shook his head. "And whenever I think you're going to do one, you always do the other." He stood up and kissed her. "You always know what I need."

Tanya's fury dissipated as she looked into his eyes. She tried to kiss him back, but she was smiling too hard. She finally managed it, though. Frank closed his eyes, loving the feel of her soft lips on his.

It was suddenly quiet, as though walls had come up around him. He opened his eyes to find Tanya gazing intently at him as they kissed. Her eyes were dancing. It was the way she looked when she needed...

Frank laughed, breaking their kiss. Then he kissed her again; a quick, light peck on the lips. He looked around, his eyes widening as he realized that she'd done it again. They were in their bedroom inside the hotel.

"And you always seem to know what I need, don't you, darling?" Tanya murmured. He could feel her warm breath on his mouth, and her breasts as she pressed her hard nipples through the thin fabric of the gown she was wearing.

"Don't you ever wear underwear?" Frank asked, grinning and enjoying the feel of her body through their clothes.

Tanya nodded. Frank got the image of a thin piece of cloth tightly wedged between her legs, putting pressure on her clitoris whenever she moved. As the image grew brighter and easier to see, he could tell her thong was damp down there and itching fiercely.

Frank reached behind her to unfasten her back. He couldn't find anything that fastened, zipped, or buttoned. Tanya finally put her arms up between them, backing away slightly. She lifted up her shoulders and crossed her arms. She pressed on the fabric at each shoulder and the gown fell away, splitting into a front and a back half.

"Nano-technology," she explained, grinning. "The threads actually sew themselves into whatever they're pressed against. Then they back out just like when a hem comes undone so you can take it off."

"Half the fun of sex is undressing the lady," Frank pouted. "This could be as catastrophic for men as the invention of panty hose." He tweaked a nipple, making Tanya yelp as she put her hands under his jacket and shirt combo and started to run her arms up his sleeves.

Her movements forced him to raise his arms over his head and forward. The back of the jacket slid over his head, mussing his hair, then Tanya was standing in front of him, no longer bare, wearing his jacket backwards on her arms. Frank deftly lifted it off her and turned away to hang it up. When he turned back, she was clear across the room, already on the bed.

"Can I learn to do that?" he asked, pointing from where she was to where she was now.

Tanya grinned and shrugged, making her lovely oversized bare breasts bounce a couple of times. "I don't see why not. Do you think you can't do it?"

"I've never tried," he confessed. "I always assumed that since you could do it, I didn't have to."

Tanya laughed at that, curling up on the bed in her mirth. "That is so typically male!" she laughed, looking up at him. "Come over here, lover." She beckoned with her finger. Frank closed his eyes and imagined he was standing next to her. He opened them again, realizing he hadn't moved. Tanya looked at him like he was a new puppy that had just wet on the kitchen floor.