Chapter 70

Will,

OMG! I remember your early letters. You and Katy seemed to have built a bond based on your shared youth and fear. To hear that she is missing has to be devastating to you. I know that Bree and Violet always want to be touching Erica and me since we returned from our ride through hell, but they knew we were still alive. To have someone you love just vanish ... I don't know what to say.

Well, I guess I can to a point. Violet just said I should remind you to believe. Believe in the fact that you have no evidence that Katy is dead, only that she is missing. A solar system is huge, and from what you told me there is no wreckage just a missing IFF signal. I should note that communications equipment is one thing the Confederacy doesn't do all that well. Our tank loses its radio about every fifth battle. We can all hope that Katy's problem is a minor, well I guess a bit major if you haven't heard from her for a couple of days, engineering failure.

The only other thing I can think of is she ran into the ghosts you've talked about in the past. Hopefully that doesn't turn out to be a bad thing.

Either way, my concubines and I will pray for her safe return.

Here things have been hectic. I wrote that Meiling was going into labor at the end of my last letter. Well, your sister can now tell you that you have two new siblings and can consider yourself an honorary uncle to four more babies. Remember that Katya and Violet both had father get them pregnant so they could give birth to my half-siblings since they couldn't have my children.

Our baby ratio is two boys and four girls. Violet's baby girl is named Sage, she wanted a name close to mine. Bree calls her daughter Cecilia or Cee, Meiling gave birth to a boy she calls Marcos. Your other half-sibling is a boy named Piotr. Then we have the two new girls who were also pregnant. Alexis named her daughter Lexy, and Jennifer's daughter is Jocelyn. Erica and I treat all of the babies the same so we don't have anyone worried about the fact that Larry was the father of only two of the babies, or that Piotr and Sage are my half-brother and sister.

I do now understand your complaint about crying. Sage and Cee are usually quiet, but Piotr is quick to wail out when he is upset and he sounds like some kind of siren. With all the people in the house, and especially Phoebe, someone always rushes over to calm him. Of course that worries everyone since we don't want him learning to throw tantrums for attention. Louisa has been helpful there. A couple of times she's told the AI to close the door to the room Piotr is in. She then waits outside, listening over a speaker. Once Piotr stops crying she'll wander in and pick him up. How she can tell it's nothing major is a mystery to me, but she always seems to know when its just your half-brother trying to get attention. Fortunately the other babies are good babies and tend to be quiet.