Chapter 26

Dear Brother,

They must have sent your letter special delivery somehow. I actually have a couple more days until I test. I'm nervous and excited. Mom and Dad at least have agreed to the plan that Erica and I have for our testing. I believe I told you about that.

As for kissing Marilyn. I wouldn't have minded, but right now that isn't really possible. She's too busy enjoying the fact that she can chase any guy. She's been rushing off at the end of the school day to head over to the high school or the college and find a boy to test drive. From what she told me at lunch yesterday she's tried out more than thirty boys and she only tested five weeks ago.

As for your suggestions about who I should look for. If I score high enough to take two people I already know who I want to take. And the people I'm considering have talked to me about it. They understand that I can't promise anything, but both of them believe in me. It's heartening.

Erica has found one person she likes. I think I told you about Larry. He's a gentle man and looking forward to finding out if Erica and I can pull off the scores we hope for. I think Erica is still looking for a second person, but she definitely has some ideas.

Your ship is carrying grain? Now I'm a bit confused. The trainers don't say much, but from everything they have told us humanity isn't supposed to be talking anything from Earth. The aliens appear to want us to be completely dependent on their technology. The AI units enforce that is what we were told. Has someone convinced the AI units to allow some exports from Earth? It makes sense, but it's a bit of a surprise to me.

You are thinking of using cockroaches? Why not just ask the pickup marines to round up a few lawyers. Knowing your love of bugs you'll grow attached the rats and cockroaches you catch and be unwilling to send them into Sa'arm tunnels. And anyways, there are a few things that rats just won't do.

Sorry, but I'm really getting sick of lawyers. Grandpa Pickering is back and he is trying a couple of new tactics. First he found out about the agreement Mom and Dad have entered into with Becky. They even sat and explained the agreement with me. As long as I haven't tested and don't have a qualifying score, should Mom and Dad get picked up, Becky will allow them to take John with them as a dependent, but should I score as well as we hope, they will transfer primary custody to me. It's not that Becky doesn't like children or John. Becky expects that she'll be sent to a very high risk location and she would prefer to give Mom and Dad the peace of mind of knowing their grandchildren are all safe. I have no idea why Becky believes that, but Dad did say that Becky has been going through her own training program and that it's one of the toughest available.

So Grandpa found out about that, and he's trying to get a judge to void the deal based on my age. Becky was upset and hired lawyers, and then Erica's Great Aunt got involved. The only problem is that Grandpa Pickering managed to force a change of venue claiming that the local judges were faced with a conflict of interest. Mom has been driving one hundred miles each way every day there is a court session. It's wearing on her.

And worse, Mom is pregnant. She hid it from me for over a month, but finally admitted it this past weekend. Mom and Dad are thrilled.

Erica and I are done with the tank training. We'll its more that the local trainers have no more they can teach us. We still show up regularly to allow them to take more readings on our performance and because it's a lot of fun. Major Pervert would have loved our last run. We decided that since he wasn't around we'd try out the outfits he kept demanding, but we went a bit further. I was in a lacy bra, garter belt, thong panties and stockings. Erica was in the same. We wore our jumpsuits while getting into the tanks and then pulled them off and fought. It wasn't one of our best performances. We were giggling way too much. But we did have a ton of fun.

I still can't tell you who I kissed. It's a secret I promised to keep for now.

Well, I should get some sleep. It's Monday and Erica and I will be going to the testing center on Wednesday night. She'll start testing just before midnight and I'll start testing after midnight. We'll know our scores before the sun comes up again.

Your excited sister,

Willow