Aaron spooned tightly to Edward who was still asleep and noticed that not only did he have his morning bone to contend with, but sometime in the morning he had slid back inside Edward. Moving in and out slowly testing to see if he was still slick enough Aaron fumbled around for the lube and pulling almost all the way out let some lube drip onto his shaft and sliding in and out a couple more times, he felt Edward was slick enough and capped the lube before dropping it to the floor and worked on waking his partner up in an enjoyable way.
Edward was having the most intense enjoyable dream, he was reliving the evening before, all too real his mind thought, as he slowly came to the realization that he was not experiencing a dream and groaned in pleasure as he felt a hand stroking him as he opened his eyes, "God you're a Satyr," he groaned as he felt the hand be replaced by a warm mouth at the same time his own mouth was captured and he screamed his pleasure into the person kissing him as he climaxed when he felt something splashing deep inside him.
Kevin rolling around the last of Edward's cum in his mouth, climbed up and shared it with the person who it originally belonged to as he heard Aaron tell Pete and him, "Good morning loves, did you come to join us in the shower this morning?"
Staying inside Edward, Aaron maneuvered them both so they were standing and then walked him to the shower without coming completely out of his partner, which caused no small amount of groaning. Once they made the shower, Edward leaned back into Aaron slowly rocking his hips back and forth enjoying what the hard cock was doing to him.
Feeling Kevin brush up against him with his morning hardness, Aaron reached out and captured it with his hand and smiling as he kissed Kevin he drew him close to Edward's back then he quickly switched positions so Kevin was buried deep inside Edward, and giving him a slight nudge he chuckled as Edward groaned when Kevin started to thrust, intent on release.
Touching the controls for the shower they were hit from all sides by the warm, almost hot water, pulling Pete close, Aaron picked up the soap and once he built up a good lather, he started to wash Pete as Pete started to wash him and they both grinned as they watched Kevin and Edward go at it., "So why the wakeup call this morning," Aaron asked, as a way to start off the conversation.
Looking at Edward, even though he looked lost to passion, for safety Pete pathed, "We both wanted to get back to those other two messages, at least before we had chores to do plus you need to introduce the core to Mark and Tommy..." he trailed off as he looked up at Aaron, "I never thought to ask when they are going to be released, how long does the process take," he turned around so his back could be washed as Kevin groaned in climax and he felt something hit his leg now that the surround water was off, looking down at the white globs dripping down he looked back over and giggled at the expression on Edward's face, he never realized he had hit him with cum he was so lost to the sensations he had experienced.
Chuckling, Aaron reached down and soaped up Pete's leg before answering, "It varies between forty five and forty eight hours, depending on how much damage has to be repaired along with the resequencing, I expect Brian to take longer as Tommy has already gone through the bio-tube once already to repair and fix the damage to his body while a prisoner at the reeducation farm." Handing the soap back to Pete so he could turn around and get his back washed, "though I need to release them together so they can help each other release sexual tensions, otherwise I would be spending my whole morning in and out of the shower."
Pete laughed at the image that popped in his mind, "What a way to spend the morning though," he handed the soap to Kevin so they could start washing up.
Five minutes later after Kevin had thoroughly washed Edward and washed himself Aaron touched the controls and turned on the surround jets one last time to make sure everyone was good and rinsed and laughed at the drowned expression and coughing Edward experienced before turning on the drying cycle causing more laughter as Edward's face was certainly expressive this morning.
"Do you guys wake up this early every morning," Edward saw it was only half past five in the morning according to the clock on the night table.
"Early..." Pete glanced at the clock, "well shit we're late," he giggled before placing a hand on the confused Brit's shoulder, "actually, we all are pretty much early risers, we get most of our morning chores out of the way before breakfast and then most mornings we spend working on the tutor and then our own personal projects until lunch."
"After lunch before afternoon chores, we pretty much do whatever we want, though most of us hit the tutor again for a short bit and finish off any homework or whatever we want until supper," Kevin added in as they walked up the stairs to Aaron's office.
"We try to eat as a family, and supper especially, but unless like the night Tim and Pete spent with you and Andrew and your cousin, after supper we spend as a family doing something together, after all, we have this huge recreation center, and as you saw last night unless there is a reason otherwise we break up into groups within the Clan for bed partners, which like this morning, does not mean you won't find someone else in your bed for a little morning fun." Aaron explained before smiling at the rest of the Clan waiting outside his entrance so they could port up to the farms for chores.
Spotting Richard over with Fred and Kenny, arms around the shoulders of Pat and Doug, he thought about it and did not remember giving those two the talk about what and who they could play with and how far they could go, so he hoped that nothing happened last night that they were not ready for, "Richard what time did you plan on setting out this morning for your day's events?"
David, who saw the speculative look on Aaron's face moved over close enough to be heard, "I gave those two the talk last night, they know that the most they can do with someone other than Damien and Kenny is oral if the person agrees and it does not hurt their mouth during the blow job. They watched Richard and Kenny last night so I told them anything they wanted to do outside their age group they had to ask you first," laughing, David leaned in as he looked at the blush on Richards face as he realized he was being talked about, "Richard was a perfect gentleman last night and Kenny was in seventh heaven, he screamed out in his orgasm that he finally was one of us," he whispered the last, as Richard had moved close enough to hear.
"I didn't know when Tommy and Brian would join us, not knowing we would be spending the night here instead of on board the Asclepius, so I did not plan to leave until ten this morning," Richard smiled tentatively, not sure what had been said about him.
"Relax Richard," Aaron grinned, feeling the nervousness and dipping in his surface thoughts, or as he was trying to teach the new Alteran's the public mind, "David just told me you were the perfect gentleman last night and Kenny enjoyed himself immensely."
"What about Sunday, did you plan anything for tomorrow?" Aaron asked, as the Clan started to break up into groups and port out, those that could port taking those who could not port yet with them.
"I originally did not plan anything, but after your comment about horses yesterday, I called Edwards Pony Club and they are setting up several breeders in the area to showcase some of their stock for sale, they know you want pleasure ponies for first time riders, so they'd better not bring their expensive show stock or I'll be cross," Richard frowned.
Aaron laughed as Richard was as cute as Mark when talking about his dealings with Livestock Sales, Damien and the young group came over, ready to go topside, "Alrighty, time to start our day," he closed his eyes and pulled at the gestalt that was still active across the lawn and grinned when he was successful and ported the entire group to the vet barn. Making for the gestalt chair, Aaron sat down, logged into the terminal and activated the gestalt.
"What happened? Last time you guys did that teleporting thing, there was this big light show, how come it did not happen this time?" Edward was confused, as he looked around at the barn, and Richard giggled at him as he raced Kenny for his hauler when Edward glared at him.
"Come on over here a minute, Edward," Aaron waved him over and once Edward made his way over to stand next to the chair, he smiled at him, he had already planted the secrecy trigger in all three princes, long ago, "the reason there was no light show, is that none of us were wearing the LSB, or the light show belt as Pete calls it, teleportation is a natural ability all Alteran's can do it, along with telepathy and telekinesis."
Pulling Edward close, so that he was sitting on his lap, "We do not want to let the world know about our abilities, well, except for certain people we know we can trust, otherwise one of our biggest fears is that we would be hunted as breeding stock, so as long as people think it is all technology, the younger ones are safe when they go out into your world."
Surprise, hurt and then understanding and pride raced, one after the other in Edward's mind as he realized the trust they were showing his brother and cousin, "As much as I would like to say it would never happen and that your being paranoid, the grownup in me that is starting to come out, says you're right and to be careful."
"As careful as a virgin in a room of horny perverts," Aaron smiled, as Edward dissolved in laughter, relaxing into his body as his intended joke had the desired effect.
Tim, having finished filling the feed hoppers at the Aquaculture facility, spent the last half hour before heading back, checking his email, not finding anything worthwhile really, he was about to log off when one last email appeared in his in box opening it up, he noticed the little icon that appeared next to the sender's name, showing he was logged into one of the chat programs. Reading through the email, he frowned as it was a plea for help and bringing up the chat interface, he logged into the chat room and sent a private message to the sender.
Alteran_Security: You're lucky I was at the terminal when your email came in
Baby_Brother_69: Prove it how did I sign the second paragraph
Alteran_Security: A frightened and confused brother
Baby_Brother_69: Oh gods, you are real
Alteran_Security: What is going on that you need help
Baby_Brother_69: My brother was sold by my parents last week
Alteran_Security: SOLD????
Baby_Brother_69: Yes, look someone is coming I need to go before he gets here
Alteran_Security: Wait can you get to the Grand Street station in half an hour, wear a red hat or something so I know it's you
Baby_Brother_69: Yes
Tim stared as the screen name blinked off the screen and tried to think who he could get to go with him and how to do this; finally he sent out a message, "Aaron I need to see you in private, it's important."
Aaron reading through the med bay logs and bio-tube scans of the twenty two new patients tilted his head sideways as he logged out of the system, "Where are you, I'll port over?" hearing Tim's reply of "Sea Farm," he apologized to Edward and the others and told them he would meet them for breakfast in a few minutes, he had something he needed to talk over with Tim, and ported over to the Sea Farm office, "what's up Tim?"
Standing up so Aaron could sit, after patting the seat Tim settled down onto his lap as he pulled the terminal over and replayed the email and chat log so Aaron could read it. After finishing it, Aaron wrapped his arms around his lover and settled back in the chair to think about it, "What do you want to do about this?"
Tim looked up in surprise, "You're going to let me handle this anyway I want to?"
"Of course I would, within reason, just like I would let Kevin, Pete or any of the others handle it. I'm not about to wrap you up in cotton wool to keep you safe, if you want to handle this, then go ahead, if you want me to handle it, I'll do so," sensing the confusion from Tim, he smiled, "Tim, I trust you...you'll do the right thing. Tell me what you want me to help with or even just bounce your ides off of me, for feedback."
Sighing as he melted into the embrace, Tim thought about it, "I think I can handle this, but I'll need a team and since Friedrich is not up and about like normal, I figure he got back late last night, so I don't know who else to contact."
"Kyle I think, he is head of Altair Minor security, so tell him to put together a team, remember, you don't always have to do everything yourself, you know you need security so pick one person and then have them put a team together, it works better in the emergency extractions, like this is going to turn about to be," Aaron pointed out.
"Well, would you contact him, I don't ever remember meeting him, so without a face, I can't path him, the only other thing is, I wish I knew where the hell this subway station is, the terminal just pulled up the closest one to his house," Tim not only sounded frustrated, he fidgeted as he found the huge flaw in his plan.
"We can fix that one easily, by hacking into the New York subway system's cameras and using them for our eyes," Aaron pulled the terminal over and while his hands were doing the hacking, he pathed Kyle, "Kyle, I need you and a team assembled at the Sea Farm in ten minutes, this is an extraction; Tim is in charge." Chuckling at the image of Kyle jumping in the shower, he pulled up the video feed of the subway station.
Closing his eyes, Tim visualized the out of the way corner he saw in the monitor and feeling that he had a good visualization, he ported his clothes from his closet then started to get dressed and went over his plan as he pulled up his pants, "So we port in to that corner over there, out of sight of everyone but the cameras, so we won't cause a huge stir with the crowd, giving us a bit of time before the cops show up, we can be gone by then, we just need a place to port to, after getting baby brother 69. Then we find out what is going on, and then find out who his parents sold his brother to, before setting up a rescue...where the hell does someone go to sell people to and where do they end up?"
"I know of an out of the way place in central park," Kyle said, as he and his three man team walked into the open sided office," very private, and no one goes there except after heavy rains to check out the drainage ditch."
"Most of those sold into slavery; end up in the middle east in a brothel or possibly in a whore house in the states or Japan," Terry told them, as everyone turned to stare at him, fidgeting, he got defensive, "What? I worked as a cop for a while until they made it clear that the only good thing my kind was good for was being bait," he looked down as he remembered hearing his training partner discuss him, "easily expendable bait."
Tim grinned, "Sorry Kyle, but your man here just became leader of your team, he knows what we are dealing with."
"Better than any of the rest of them it looks like. Terry, unless Tim says otherwise or you pull something stupid, your team leader," Kyle told him, as Aaron noticed the young Asian kid looking frightened, hugging a pack that looked just right for a laptop.
"Well, I think your extraction target just walked in," Aaron pointed out the kid wearing the red hat sideways on the screen, "I'll do the honors and port you over, stay safe or else." He told them as Tim smiled that he was ready.
Arriving at the subway terminal, Terry asked as the team moved out, "What did he mean or else?"
"Just what he said, stay safe or he turns New York into a lake, spread out, while I go approach the kid asking for help," Tim told them, as he looked into the camera and felt the seconds ticking by as their time started to run out.
Being careful not to appear threatening, Tim slowly walked around the edge of the subway station towards where the kid was standing, sensing the fear coming of the kid, Tim leaned back on the wall near the kid and tried to decide what to do, the kid was scared out of his mind. "I hope baby brother 69 isn't too scared to show up," he muttered to himself, loud enough for the kid to hear, catching the kid perking up out of the corner of his eye, he held back the smile that threatened to cross his face. "I would hate to be a frightened and confused brother in this city," that did it, as the kid launched himself off the wall in his direction the relief the kid was feeling was palpable.
"Please, we need to leave quickly before my father finds us, I think I lost him," the kid said as he ran over.
"We'll leave the same way I and my team arrived come on," Tim pointed back to the way he had come as the rest of his team closed in, sensing the fear returning, "relax, they are part of my team, their job is to make sure we get out of here without getting hurt." Pathing as he walked quickly, as he heard sirens getting louder, "Kyle, give everyone the visualization of where we need to go, I think we overstayed our welcome."
Getting a very good picture along with part of an old feeling of sex, Tim grinned, "Take hold of my hand we are about to be ported out," Tim held out his hand, as the sirens stopped, he knew what would be happening next. Once the kid touched him he ported to the drainage ditch and took a minute to glance around as the kid rubbed his eyes and Tim thought he was deciding whether to freak out or not, but worry over his brother seemed to have won out.
Dropping to the ground, the kid pulled the old laptop out of his pack and turned it on, "I copied over father's emails and everything I could find on my brother."
"Why in the world would your parents sell your brother?" Tim asked, as he walked around so he could look at the screen.
"Because my baby brother is the second born son and in his eyes worthless, so when he needed money, mother suggested he sell him, I almost told them I was dôseiaisha, so they would not sell him but feared for my life, my shame drove me to ask you for help, instead of my death." Ichiro told them as he opened up the files for them to look at.
"Where is your father now?" Tim asked, as he walked away, thinking how to best get the information they needed, "Do you know who your father sold you brother to?"
Ichiro looked up, "Yes, he sold him to Yon Kim over at the produce market in China Town, I can take you there," he quickly turned off the laptop and folded it, as he stuffed it into his pack, looking around, he had no clue where he was, or which direction to start in.
"I know an alley near China town, Pell Street, we can port there and walk in," Terry offered as he pictured the alley clearly, so everyone would have a clear idea of where they were going.
"Yes, it is a short walk to the produce market from Pell Street," Ichiro shouldered his pack as he looked around to see who he should follow.
"If you promise..." Tim thought about the few kung fu shows he had seen, "Promise on your honor, that if we take you with us instead of sending you someplace safe, you will stay within touching distance of Kyle," Tim pointed Kyle out, as he moved closer to the boy.
"I give you my word of honor," Ichiro promised, as he moved over to Kyle, and then remembered he did not introduce himself, "I am Ichiro and my brother is Shoji, thank you for helping me."
"Everyone know where we are going?" Tim asked, and waited for each to look at him and say they were ready, "Ichiro, hold on to Kyle and he'll take you the same way we came here, teleportation."
Being the last to port in, Tim was surprised to hear the scuffling as two of the guards took out several men who had jumped them once they arrived. Before Tim had a chance to ask what was going on, Terry lifted the sleeve on one of the men, "Chinese tong, one of the local gangs more than likely, not nice people, generally."
"Leave them...disabled so they don't follow us, we need to get a move on," Tim glanced at them for a moment before dismissing them as he pointed for Ichiro to take the lead.
Following Ichiro closely, the five of them quickly made it the few hundred feet to the produce market and Ichiro pointed out Yon Kim, an older bald headed man, sitting at the table off to the one side, "The market is closed," Tim told his people, as they moved into the room and he went over and approached the old man, pulling the seat out and sitting down as his guards cleared the store; Tim looked closely at the old man and dipping into his surface thoughts, he smiled at the anger he found there.
"You bought someone that you should not have, tell me where Shoji is, and before you say Shoji who, it would be Ichiro's brother," Tim pointed to the kid in question, and listened in to the thoughts that ran through the man's mind. So they had left two days ago by a cargo freighter, the Yin Kong, Tim smiled at that bit of information, "your sure he is aboard the Yin Kong then, I would not like to have to come back here after finding out you lied to me."
Kim was frightened, "Yaoguai," he spat out in fear, as he tried to get as far away as he could from the demon child.
"Oh I'm not a demon," Tim smiled, as he motioned for Terry to take the man, "I'm so much more frightening than a simple demon...I'm Alteran, from the kingdom of Altare."
Closing his eyes and concentrating on the gestalt bridge on the Ares, Tim smiled as the visualization was clear and precise, meaning they could port into the Ares, "He comes with us, next stop the Ares, if you need a clear visualization, take it now."
Kyle, taking a good hold of the kid, ported to the gestalt bridge he had taken the visualization from Tim's mind, and shortly, he was joined by Terry with the prisoner and the rest of the team along with Tim. Tim, after sitting down in the center seat, logged into the terminal and opened the bridge doors while activating the alarms, plunging the bridge into a deep blue and causing the crew to have a mild heart attack as the computer droned out "Battle Stations...Battle Stations."
Joe was sitting, talking to his second in command, discussing the results of the readiness tests when he heard the wall behind him start to move and jumped, dropping his coffee as the lights plunged into deep blue and the battle stations alarm started to go off, swiveling around in his command chair, his eyes bugged out as he saw Tim sitting in the middle chair surrounded by guards and one of them was holding a Chinese man to the ground, "Tim? What is going..."
"You are to target a freighter out of New York as of two days ago, named Yin Kong, Enroute to ..." Tim glanced at the prisoner and dug deeper into his brain causing him to scream out in pain, as he clutched his head, "En-route to Thailand, plot an intercept point."
Standing up and walking over to the gestalt deck railing, Joe looked at the serious expression on Tim's face, "Do it," he ordered, as he glanced at the old Chinese man sobbing on the floor from the mental probing. "Release an SE110, let's put an eye in the sky Mr. Trenton," Joe continued to eye the prisoner before glancing up to Kyle for an explanation.
"That is a slaver, seems he bought Ichiro's brother, and two days ago, loaded him and others aboard the Yin Kong for their final destination as pleasure workers," Tim turned his head and glared at the man, "sounds so much better, in his mind at least, instead of calling them whores." Directing his mind towards the man who cried out in pain once more, Tim sat back stunned, "Two hundred and fifty kids?"
Joe stood there gripping the railing as he swung his head around so he could glare at the man before releasing the rail as his navigator called out, "Contact, Yin Kong sighted and targeted, dropping locator beacon and commencing multiple portation of SE110's, now blanketing the ship."
Activating the gestalt generator, Tim glowed with energy as he concentrated on what he wanted to do, and the rest of his team stepped back, several feet away from the chairs as the energy hit them. Thankful that Aaron had taken the time to show the Clan how to do this, Tim felt for the mass of the Ares and with a sharp bob to the ship to get the feel for it, he ported them to the sonar beacon.
Joe glanced over his shoulder to see Tim sitting there taking all the power that the gestalt was putting out, he had tried a smaller version during training and the power rush was incredible and Tim sat in the center of one that he could feel the power surging around him, all the way across the deck, incredible.
Tim was getting overwhelmed with power, placing the gestalt in hibernation he still had too much power, "Aaron it hurts...it's too much power," he finally pathed, as he winced. And he instantly felt Aaron's presence in his mind, "push the power towards me love, where are you?"
Relaxing as he did what Aaron asked after being shown how, Tim pathed back, "Sitting 200 meters under and to the stern of the Yin Kong, a freighter with over two hundred fifty slaves on board, we're waiting for the scans to complete so we can rescue them, not sure yet what to do with them once I get them on board, but they will be free."
"Since you've proved to yourself you can port large objects like the Ares over distance, "Aaron sent a chuckle along, "port yourself near Altair Minor and have Joe dock, we'll deal with them at the hospital, once you get here. I'll come up with something that works until we find out how many need to be reunited with their families, remember when you use the war gestalt, you need to not accept the power until needed, it is too easy to sit and let it flow into you like the other gestalts."
Tim smiled as he felt Aaron leave, but there was still a slight presence near in the back of his mind, the smile happened just as the SE110's started sending video of the freighter and its crew and his team took the smile the wrong way, thinking he had come up with a plan, which in a way he did as he still had a lot of energy left over, and seeing the captain walking into a cabin alone, he prepared to port him over. "Kyle, prisoner incoming," Tim warned them as he picked up the captain of the freighter and ported him to the gestalt deck.
Kyle, forewarned, grabbed the man as soon as he appeared, had his arms behind his back and on his knees facing Tim within seconds.
Tim, remembering finally, the neural imager and crystal in his pocket, brought both out and stood up, Kevin could use the image to track down all this jerk's money and contacts, he thought, as he placed it on the slaver's forehead, freeing up Terry from guard duty. Terry on his part, was fascinated as he had heard about the neural imager but had never seen one used before.
Standing in front of the captain of the Yin Kong, Tim stared at him like one would a diseased rat that was about to be put down, "How do we safely get those kids and other slaves out of the holds they are in?" he was curious at all the safety features that flashed through the man's mind, before he became furious after finding out about the failsafe they had installed, if they were boarded and it looked like their human cargo would be found; a switch could be pushed which would flood the holds where the slaves were chained to the decks, with crude oil, making them unseen, unless it was pumped out.
Furious, Tim stalked down the two steps to the bridge with tears in his eyes, as he approached Joe, "Those monsters chained them to the decks so they could not move and they have a button they can push to flood the holds with crude oil to keep the people from being discovered." Calming down, as he felt Aaron's comforting presence grow stronger, he closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, telling himself he could do this, then opening them again, he moved to the screen and pointed, "This hold here and here, and this is the last one, these are the holds with the captives in them."
Not even waiting to be ordered to do so, Rod directed the three closest SE110's to the air shafts leading to the holds and sent them down so they could get a visual on what they were dealing with and none of them were happy as they saw the filth and cramped close quarters of the holds.
Tim sighed, "It would be an ecological disaster to sink the freighter, and didn't I read that at one time captured ships were condemned and their cargos sold off for doing things like this, or was it all made up in the novel I was reading?"
Terry walked down to stand near Tim and handed him a clipboard with a stack of papers, "Kyle ported in his manifest, or the legal one, not sure what else he is hiding on the ship, we would have to dock it somewhere and pick it apart to truly find out."
Tim glanced through the papers at least the ones he could read, and tried to make sense of it, there were a lot of things listed as being in those containers and must be worth a lot of money he thought, remembering seeing similar ships unload in Florida and all the expensive, at the time, things he could not afford to have. Handing the clipboard to Joe, he watched the monitor for a moment as he listened to the ideas floating around him on how best to secure the pipes leading into the holds so no oil could be dropped, along with Kyle's suggestion to port every single one of the crew over here first, so that there is no chance of someone hitting the button before they could secure the pipes.
"Can't you just port all of them in, just like you did the Captain?" Rod asked, as there was a lull in ideas, and he twisted in his seat to look at Tim.
"Not until they are out of the chains, the distance is too far for me to break them even using the gestalt," Tim answered, distracted as he glanced over his shoulder towards the captain who was now bound and still on his knee's the glimmer of a plan forming in his mind. "Now I know next to nothing about ships, but how long could a ship like that run without a crew?"
"If the auto pilot is engaged until they ran into another ship or hit land," Joe told him, as he handed the clipboard back to Kyle, "and as far as you asking about seizing the vessel, well it was done all the time in the past, and mainly it still happens in certain countries today. But I never did ask how Aaron wanted to deal with something like this; if you seize that freighter and her cargo, it will be worth hundreds of millions after being sold."
"Enough to give those that decide not to join us a good start at life again," Tim smiled before turning to Joe, "so what needs to be done to seize the vessel, besides capturing the crew, I can port it to just outside the kingdom barrier, but it would not be able to sail in under its own power."
"If you're going to be porting the freighter, I think shutting it down would be the way to go, I could have a crew shut it down safely without damage in half an hour," Rod looked at Joe for permission who deferred to Tim.
Tim, his eyes on the Captain as he skimmed his surface thoughts felt sick to his stomach with some of the panicked thoughts going through the man's mind, thoughts of things that he hoped no one would find out about. Being a telepath had its benefits, and also its drawbacks, as Tim felt dirty, "So how many controls or buttons are there on that ship to control the failsafe," he asked, as all eyes turned to him and then followed Tim's gaze towards the prisoner who was wincing, as some of the newly resequenced had yet to learn to control their power.
Satisfied at the answer of two, and the location being in his quarters and on the bridge, Tim turned away as one of the other crew members asked, "is it an open circuit that needs to be closed or is it something that the power going off would cause it to open the valves, or is it a timer that you have to push it every so often?"
Raising an eyebrow Tim looked at Joe who laughed, "Tyler Cook, weapons officer and explosives expert."
Tim looked at the skinny young man and smiled, "So, a person with an insatiable need to make things go boom," smiling sadly at Joe, he shook his head as he cast his eyes towards the deck, "Must be a virgin," he sighed dramatically, "otherwise he would trade in his weapons for something a little more close and personal to fire off."
Tyler's smile suddenly left his face as his crewmates laughed at him, "Hey now, I'm not a virgin, just horizontally denied," he joined in the good natured laughter.
Tim, all business, now that his tension was relieved glanced at Joe, "Do you have security on board that can join with Terry and his team to go over there and secure that ship, and the good captain over there will tell Terry how to unlock the chains and then I'll start porting them over in groups." Tim started to look around the bridge as people started to suddenly get busy, "I'll need to have the crew of the Ares try to calm the kids down as they are brought over and..." Tim started to walk back to the gestalt deck, "I'll port them into the hanger deck."
Sitting down but not bringing the gestalt out of hibernation, Tim looked across the bridge, "I want that ship dead in the water and without power as soon as possible, Terry, you'll take your teams to the holds and free the kids and round them up in groups of ten, so I can port them to safety," bringing the monitors to life he brought up the live feed to the main hanger deck, before typing in a query to bring up the feed to the brig.
By now, twenty people had made their way to the bridge and Tim pointed to one side of his chair, "Terry's team over there, and the bridge team on the other side." he let his fingers activate the gestalt and this time, did not let the power sink into him, which was a lot harder to do as he started to port the freighters crew one by one into the holding cells in the brig.
Once he had only the bridge crew left, Tim looked at Terry's group, "Porting in three," he warned them so they would not be startled before porting them over. He felt slightly drained which surprised him, as he had all this power available to use, he made a mental note to ask Aaron about it later as he looked at the bridge crew on the monitor and ported them as quickly as he could to the holding cells before porting Rod's crew over to the bridge. "Joe, surface the Ares," he sounded incredibly tired as Kyle went over towards the red cabinet near the door, remembering red always seemed to stand for high energy food and drinks. Finding several of the energy drinks he picked up two of the bottles along with some type of packaged bar and brought them over to Tim.
Seeing a red bottle appear before his tired eyes, Tim smiled; even his smile was tired, he thought as he took hold of the bottle and twisted the top off so he could take a gulp. "Thanks, for some reason, even with all this energy around me, I'm beat."
"Not sure what it is, but the outside says standard fifteen thousand calorie bar," Kyle handed it over as he stood there in the energy storm next to the chair, he was finding it easier to ignore it now that he had been exposed to it for a while.
Taking a bite of the bar, Tim made a face, "This tastes like shit," before chuckling, "well it really has no taste, this sucks compared to the stuff Aaron keeps around," he complained, even though he ate the bar in four bites, thankfully Kyle handed him another energy drink to wash the taste out of his mouth. Feeling less tired and more human, he wondered if he was going to be able to handle this rescue, after all, it was a lot of porting to do in a short amount of time and something he was going to have to watch, not to overdo it.
Watching the monitors, Tim missed the spectacular view of the Ares surfacing, he only glanced over to the windows after they surfaced as the battle plate lowered to let in bright sunlight and it distracted him. Checking the monitor, and seeing several members of the crew on the hanger deck, mostly pilots, he thought from their clothes, the first group of rescued kids were ready to port over and he opened himself to the gestalt and finished the energy drink before porting the first group over.
Tired, grumpy, eating more of that bland energy shit instead of Aaron's nice tasty donuts, Tim glared at Joe when a voice came across the speaker, "Unidentified vessel, state your intentions towards freighter...this is the USS Howard, please identify yourself."
"Well, if it isn't by the book Sterns himself," Joe spat out in disgust, "Standard Alteran protocol, send a text message to the Howard, identifying ourselves, and that we are in the process of a rescue mission," twisting around and seeing the frown on Tim's face, so much like Aaron's. "Find out where she is, in relation to our position, I need to know if she can see us or they if only have us on radar."
"Trenton to Ares, Yin Kong is dead in the water, all systems shut down, we are regrouping to bridge for teleportation."
Tim thankfully took another of the energy drinks and went back to work he was down to the final hold now, and hopefully he could get everyone ported over before the other ship got close, if worse came to worse, he would just have to deal with the job while under water.
"Alteran ship Ares, state the nature of your rescue mission."
"Jeesh it's none of his business what the nature of the rescue is," Kyle handed another energy bar to Tim, while noticing the bridge crew was now back on board as the last of the kids just ported in.
"`The Howard is in visual range and a mile and a half stern of us, and she is actively pinging us," Rod called out as he took his seat.
"Well that is very rude of the piss ant," Joe grumbled, as he felt eyes boring into the back of his head from the direction of the gestalt deck, looking over his shoulder he paled at the anger on Tim's face.
Glancing back at the monitor, Tim felt for the mass of the Yin Kong and pulling massive amounts of energy from the gestalt, he ported it to the place he knew best that could hold ships. Tim ported the massive vessel to the underwater construction docks and as it appeared in the empty slip, it caused all sorts of alarms to ring out and the automatics to kick in. hearing endless veiled threats once again over the speaker, Tim growled out, "Standby porting...now" before porting the Ares to just outside the dock at Altair Minor, and collapsing in the chair holding his head.
Aaron standing near the docks waiting for the Ares to show up, let a wave of pride in Tim's accomplishments show, as the Ares appeared a couple of hundred feet from the dock, "Well done Tim," he pathed happily, but became concerned when all he received back was pain. Grabbing his scanner and porting a med kit to his hand Aaron took a step and ported to the gestalt deck on board the Ares.
"Attention on Deck."
Running the scanner over Tim, Aaron looked at Kyle, "What the hell has Tim been doing to have his endorphin levels this out of whack? It's almost like he's been constantly using..." he trailed off as he realized his error, he had been constantly porting large numbers of people and objects around, and that was the cause of the strain. Opening up the med kit, he pulled out the sensor and applied it and pulled out a syringe with a mild pain killer and injected it into Tim's thigh muscle.
Pain starting to go away, Tim opened his eyes and tried to smile at Aaron, "Home...I made it," he whispered as he felt Aaron touch his face.
"You did real good Tim, and I'm sorry that I did not think things through, rest now love. Rest Timothy Stranton, rest," Aaron smiled at Tim's attempt of a smile as he scooped him up in his arms and glanced over to Joe, "Dock and start getting the kids unloaded, I'll meet you and the entire crew on the dock in ten minutes," he smiled as he ported the two of them directly into the Clan Med Bay.
Laying Tim down on the bio-bed Aaron quickly removed Tim's clothing and then placed the chest sensor and activated the bio-beds systems. "Aaron you have to see this, it's incredible," came the duel pathed message from Pete and Kevin.
"Where are you two, I thought you went with the others back to England?" Aaron pathed as he got flashes from their minds of them being in the core, finishing stripping Tim down, he decided to attach the IV cuff to help stabilize Tim faster.
"Aaron where are you, I saw Tim lying asleep with medical sensors on?" Pete was worried over the flash he had gotten from Aaron's mind.
"Clan med bay, and yes, Tim is slightly stretched at the moment is the best way to describe it I guess," Aaron sighed as he read the scan reports, Tim needs to be careful for a week or so but no lasting damage was done, deciding against a limiter for the moment, he was about to walk out when Pete and Kevin rushed in.
"What happened," Pete was beside himself with worry as he stopped next to the bio-bed and pulled his hand back as he was about to caress Tim's hair.
"I screwed up...when Tim told me his trip to pick up one kid for rescue turned into a rescue of over two hundred fifty kids sold into slavery, I did not take into account that none of the people on the Ares had learned to port yet." Aaron sighed, "He'll be fine when he wakes up, though he will miss out on your outing today, he'll be sore and achy as if he overdid it exercising, that and it looks like he continually munched out on high energy bars, which is a good thing in the long run, but he will want to sleep as his body is demanding rest right now."
"Why didn't he call for backup, he had to know one of us would have come and helped him?" Pete pulled a chair over so he could sit and be with Tim while he slept.
Kevin laughed in relief, "You have to ask that?" This is Tim we're talking about, if he thought asking for help would count against him in his ordeal, he would refuse to even consider it. Remember how he would look out for us while on the street."
"I guess, who would ever think that he was the one looking out for us, of the three of us, he was the youngest," Pete pulled himself out of the pity he was starting to feel by reminding himself how great his life was now, "how long does he have to stay here? It's not too bad if he is not in a bio-tube, right?"
"The system will keep him asleep until morning, after that, he'll wake up when he is ready to, but he will be on complete rest for the next couple of days, meaning not using his gifts at all, and he'll tire easily over the next couple of days, so chores are out of the question." Aaron moved out of the hug he was giving Kevin and moved over to Pete's side so he could give Pete a much needed hug, "What was so exciting about the last two messages that had you so fired up?"
"Oh yeah," Pete bounced back smiling, "You would not believe what your future self did?"
"You mean beyond the space station he built that is more like a colony ship?" Aaron sounded intrigued.
"Oh much more interesting, and way beyond that little old station," Kevin chuckled. "Seems he rebuilt the colony on Sigma Gamma Alpha Centaur, the message was notification that it was ready to be moved into."
Aaron froze as he thought about that little tidbit, what the hell, he thought, why are things happening so much faster than they had planned for. A few hundred people is a far cry from the thousands he expected to have before he even thought about checking out the system this restart began from. "And the other message?"
"That's the coolest one of all, it's an AK019 ready for trials," Pete sounded ecstatic and got a dreamy look in his eyes.
Aaron looked at Pete like he lost his mind, glancing at Kevin who was silently chuckling, "I'm almost afraid to ask."
"It's a huge space ship, not only that, but it has a list of forty eight different life supporting planets on the opposite side of the galaxy, seems they will all support human life and let us prosper, but they all had one small flaw when the others went looking for a new world," Kevin pointed to Pete's obvious boner, seems he had gotten stiff at being reminded about the ship. "They all have some form of animal life on them, though not intelligent by any stretch of the imagination, so these messages have created more problems in the long run than they were worth," Kevin's dig hit home and he laughed at Pete's outraged expression.
Aaron grew thoughtful, "We'll discuss this later on tonight, but we might have to go into extreme active recruiting mode to be able to utilize the new options given to us and it might give us a way to channel some countries into another outlet...we'll have to think on it some more, but I have to get back to help with the new kids Tim rescued, I'll see you at supper time."
A kiss to all three of his lovers and Aaron ported to the docks still deep in thought over the new revelations and the problems it created, "Sorry, Eric." Aaron apologized as he bumped into the teen on his way to help some of the younger kids out of the shackles. Receiving a smile in return, he watched Eric bend down to touch another shackle and it to fall apart before directing the boy to the waiting medical staff for a quick checkup.
Seeing that most of the kids had been taken care of, and spotting Joe and the crew of the Ares off to one side, Aaron made his way over and groaned when he heard someone shout, "Attention on Deck."
"Well shit, I don't have to take this," Aaron groaned to their laughter before waving the double bird at them, "At ease or whatever you want to call it." Grinning he waited until they all settled down, "First off, well done, you successfully pulled together and pulled off the biggest rescue to date."
"How's Tim doing?" Joe called out from the front row.
"Tim will be fine, sore for a week or so, but no permanent damage; he just over stretched his abilities," seeing the glances of confusion, Aaron looked up to think of the best way to describe what happened. "I think the easiest way to understand what happened is if you think back to a time you exercised and pushed yourself a little too far, you were sore and in pain at first, but after a few days of rest, you were back to normal." Letting his eyes scan the group he smiled, "which brings up something I overlooked when Tim contacted me from the Ares, none of you know how to port yet."
"The way all of you have fit in so well after your resequencing makes it easy to forget you are still wearing limiters and have yet to be shown certain things," Aaron smiled so they would know he was not blaming them, "so now that the kids are safe and in the healers hands, it is time to get you back to Altare and start learning how to teleport." now, what to do about the prisoners he wondered. "One last thing before we break up and I take the prisoners off your hands so you get cast off."
"Reach out to your friends and contacts; we need to ramp up recruitment, so if you think you know someone that is a good fit with our way of life, get them to send in a resume we could use some more people and I'm not above a little discrete recruitment from active military personal if it gets what we need." Aaron grinned, as he waved at their laughter and started towards Kyle, "what did you do with the prisoners from the gestalt bridge?'
Porting directly to the gestalt bridge Aaron sat down in the center chair and pulled the terminal over, and after logging in, set the video pickups to record the proceedings, "This session of the Kings bench on July 25 year 2004 TR is in session."
Pointing at the man with the imager still on his forehead, Aaron ported in a box of recording crystals, "Front and center with that one; he has already been judged, it seems. Remove the crystal first then the imager, please." While the man was being moved into position, Aaron's fingers played over the touch pad on the terminal and entered in a new set of commands so the gestalt when activated would have four settings with the default being quarter power. Accepting the imager and crystal, Aaron placed the crystal in a the secure box for later processing and gazed emotionlessly at the man, "You have already been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, sentence to be carried out immediately," Aaron activated the gestalt and was satisfied with the power output and ported the man to just outside the chromosphere of the sun.
Glancing at the Captain of the freighter, Aaron sighed, as he motioned for him to be brought up next. A long half hour later, Aaron rubbed his eyes as he sentenced the last prisoner and ended the Kings court, as he sent the man to follow all the others, being burned up in the sun, powering down the gestalt, letting it slide back into hibernation, he looked up to see the stony faces of the most of the crew who had gathered on the bridge to witness justice being done.
"I'll get a crew on tracking down all those leads for the people in charge of running this operation, we may have taken out one of their ships and middle men, but there are still others out there that will eventually lead us to those in command," Joe then stood at attention and saluted, holding his salute as the rest of the crew followed his example.
Agreeing as he had enough of death for today, Aaron stood and returned the salute, "I'll leave this project in your hands then, to be effective, we need to ramp up our fleet, the next four Ares class vessels are almost ready; in a month's time I want them to be actively patrolling international waters and they will not set to sea without fully trained Alteran's in all of their gifts this time."
Once Aaron had ported away, Joe turned to face his crew, "You heard the King; let's get this bad boy home so we can get to practicing and emailing."
Appearing inside the Atrium where he assumed most of the kids would end up after getting cleaned up, Aaron waded through the crowd accepting hugs from many of the relieved kids, so what should have taken a minute to cross to the kitchen took another half hour as he comforted those he passed on his way. As he finally made his way to the kitchen, He smiled as the staff was practically running around as they fixed simple foods like hamburgers and hot dogs for the kids, as Scott and John argued about needing to go shopping for ingredients versus just ordering them through the terminal, it finally ended when John told his brother and lover, "Look, if we order this shit, then Aaron will have to find time to go pick it up making his day that much longer, we can go to the food service center with Mom and Dad's van and pick up what we need and then have the whole lot ported back."
"You're right, I forgot all about being a week away from opening, and Chris is off island so he can't pick up what we need for the weekend, but if we order everything, he can bring the extra back with the load already waiting. If we order right now, it can be delivered to the dock before he gets there and then we will be set, plus we need to ask him about bringing Mom and Dad here anyway?" Scott agreed, as he sat down and started to paste his order into an email.
"Ask me what about bringing your parents here?" Aaron smiled, as he walked into the office, "After all, if your parents accept the both of you, I don't see why they would not fit in, or is there some other problem I need to know about them?"
John whirled around in shock at being caught talking about Aaron when they thought he was not around, "Um...well besides being a help here in the kitchen, mom could help out with mothering those that need it," he pointed out the serving window, "the drawback is my sister and her family, they might not want to move halfway around the world from her and the grandbaby."
Aaron stared at him for a moment before pointing to all three of them, "Teleport, remember. Travel for your parents would not be a problem, plus, there are the jets that will be making daily trips to wherever, they can hop on anytime they feel like it. What do your sister and husband do for a living? Maybe they would fit in here," laughing, Aaron winked, "I have no problem with nepotism as you are well aware."
Laughing, after getting the confirmation of his order, Scott looked at Aaron sadly, "Unfortunately, my sister's husband is not the accepting sort, especially when he found out about us sharing the same bed."
"That is being polite about it, but I think I can convince Mom and Dad to move here. But if we are going to have the ingredients to feed three hundred some odd people pizza for supper, we need to get a move on, Lover Dear, or is that Brother, Dear," John playfully swatted his brother's ass.
"How are you two getting wherever you're going?" Aaron wondered, as they started to walk towards the receiving cooler.
"That hunky Mike is going to port us to Miami House and from there, they're going to take us to something called GFS, he said something about knowing where one of their terminal warehouses were," Scott drooled at his brother, before laughing.
"As long as you have it all figured out," Aaron laughed as he exited the kitchen to run into Terry and two oriental boys.
"Your majesty, I would like you to meet Ichiro and Shoji, Ichiro is the one that started the whole rescue, and made it possible to save all these boys," Terry told him, as he embarrassed Ichiro. Ichiro, Shoji, I would like you to meet Aaron Stranton, King of Altare, Prime of Clan Stranton and Medical Director of this hospital."
Aaron smiled at the two youngsters and had to wonder how old they were as he remembered Asians looked a lot younger than they were, he also noticed how quiet it became in the atrium as those closest to them started to whisper in awe about him being a king. Sensing that they were embarrassed and the younger one was still frightened, Aaron pulled them into a hug, "You're safe now." Looking out at the crowd of boys, he smiled and raised his voice, "all of you are safe now, those that want to be reunited with their families just need to talk to one of the medical staff and we will make arrangements to get you home, those of you who were sold by your families now have a new home where you will be free to chase your dreams and become something greater than you even dreamed of being."
Steering the two towards the food line, "I know it probably is not what you are used to, but try to eat something, even if it is just a little bit, go on, grab a plate and eat as much as you are comfortable with," Aaron nudged them towards the line.
Finding an empty table, Aaron sat down across from the two boys so they would eat, glancing around, he noticed every eye in the room on him and he hid his sigh.
"The one who rescued my brother and the others, is he well?" Ichiro asked slowly, as he did his best to follow the instructions to eat, from the one who had the answers to his questions.
"Tim will be fine, he just tired himself out, after a good night's rest, he will be up and around harassing the security department to work harder," Aaron laughed as Terry grumbled, "Are you sure you can't maybe keep him in bed for a couple of days, that way we get a break...just once, I would like to let the sun wake me up instead of Tim's yells."
"Yes Majesty, give Tim a few days off, I will be more than happy to whip my people into shape," Friedrich joked, as he walked into the atrium arm in arm with Colin, and he was positively glowing.
"Ah shit, there's two of them," one of the other guards whimpered, causing the kids to laugh.
"May we properly thank Tim for saving my brother," Ichiro asked, eyes directed to the ground.
Picking up on the kid's thoughts, Aaron jerked his head around and stared at the two, wondering what the hell he meant by Shoji now belonged to Tim, to do with as he wished. Picking his words very carefully, "Tim did not save you from one master, only to replace him with himself," he looked at Shoji until he looked down.
Raising his voice so everyone could hear him, "If you think by your honor, or whatever else you hold dear, that you owe Tim something for saving you, the only way to pay him back is to pass it on." Aaron stood up so that everyone could see him; "we are Alteran's..." the room was very quiet as they hung on his every word." Our mission outside our kingdom is to rescue gay youth in danger, or that have been made homeless. Some of you are gay, some Bi and some straight, but you were all rescued because it was the right thing to do, and all of you will be given the chance to reach for the stars, if you can accept and embrace the idea that it is alright to be different, those that stay that is, for the others, we will see you safely to wherever it is you wish to go. The only payment Tim or any of us expect is to pass it on, when someone else needs saved...save them or arrange for them to be saved and we will call it even."
Glancing down at Ichiro and Shoji, Aaron lowed his voice and the others had to strain to hear, "The way you were raised, tells you that you owe a life to Tim, a life that honor demands that you give him the most precise thing you own, in thanks...yourself." Sighing, Aaron tried to get through to them, "Tim thinks you are too young to be bed partners, even if he was not already involved with several people and he does not have sex outside of the Clan, even if he was looking for someone to warm his bed."
"I am seventeen and Shoji is thirteen, Japanese look younger than we are. What else do we have to give, if not ourselves, we have no money?" Ichiro was near tears.
Aaron smiled gently at him, "But you have much to offer, other than your bodies, you have to understand, Tim will not accept your bodies in payment for something he did because it was the right thing to do, you will have to find another way to thank him."
"How do you know this, how do you know he would reject us?" Ichiro sounded defiant yet at the same time desperate.
"Simple really, let me tell you who rescued your brother and the others. His name is Timothy Stranton, of Clan Stranton of the Kingdom of Altare." Aaron sat down as they made the connection, "I should know my lover, as I am Aaron Stranton, Prime and leader of Clan Stranton, and King of Altare."
Catching the disturbing thought from Shoji, Aaron leaned over the table so he and his brother could hear him clearly, "Seppuku will not gain you honor or the chance for your brother to be brought into Clan Stranton, Shoji, to do so would cause pain beyond belief to the one who saved you and you want to thank...your word, your word of honor right now, Shoji, that you and Ichiro I include you in this too, will not take that path and dishonor Tim in a way he might not recover from," he had nothing left but to play on their traditions until he could get through to them, and it might take Tim giving them something that they could do to repay him before they would finally start to heal.
After getting their promises, Aaron relaxed but he still had doubts, so he would need to get detailed scans of both of them and then maybe it would be a good idea to take them back to the Clan Hall where an eye could be kept on them until they could get through to them, seeing that they were finished, he stood up and motioned for them to do the same, "Let me show you where you can place your dirty dishes, then we need to get you checked over."
Pointing out the conveyor belt, Aaron waited until they had placed their dishes on it before walking towards the hospital proper. Stopping, as he met Carl and Larry at the door, he briefly talked with them and asked them to do a full scan on each boy and a DNA profile, he thanked them before steering the two down a hallway towards the wing with all the bio-beds and entered the first pod they came to. "I need each of you to get on one of the beds and lie still while the scans are run, Ichiro, you need to be naked like your brother, for the scans, there is a small cart near the bed to place your clothes on while the scan is being run."
Smiling, as Shoji hopped on the bio-bed and lay down as he looked around curiously, Aaron explained what was happening, "What we are going to do is run a full scan on your body to make sure that you are in good health and that there is not some hidden health problem that will later on rear its ugly head and make you sick, the scan does not hurt, you just have to be still for half an hour while it runs. If we find a problem we can correct it easily."
Seeing that he had a far larger audience, Aaron pointed to the free bio-beds, "Hop up and we'll get your scans done at the same time," he smiled at their shy faces as he walked around and activated the scans and chatted with them, most wanting to know about Altare and the island they were on.
Moving back to Shoji as the scan was done, Aaron typed Shoji's name into the system and linked it to the scan; that's when he noticed the DNA profile showed seven out of eight and smiled, "Hop down Shoji, you're finished, no problems it seems." Breaking out in laughter as Shoji's feet hit the floor, another boy hopped up grinning for his turn, Aaron tousled his hair as he entered his name into the system and moved to the next bed.
Almost two hours later, Aaron finished chatting with the last boy and out of the hundred and fifty boys that wanted him to do their scans, only thirty were straight and ten were kidnapped and wanted to go home, that made things simpler and harder. Sending the last group to the atrium for a snack, Aaron looked at the scans from the other seventy boys and the numbers were the same, five percent of the boys wanted to go home and roughly twenty percent were straight, the surprise was that of all the straight boys, only four wanted to go home.
Tomorrow he would deal with housing for all the boys, some of the youngest ones were those that were straight, so maybe living here would be the best thing, he could play with the numbers later tonight before bed. Seeing that Ichiro and Shoji were standing near the desk waiting for him, he logged out of the terminal and smiled, "Time to go home, for the next couple of days you will be staying in the Clan Hall." Tilting his head sideways as if listening to a conversation, Aaron pathed Carl, "I hoped you wanted to be a daddy someday Carl...congratulations, its fifty five sets of quintuplets."
Carl stopped in midstride and stumbled before glaring back the way he came, "Not funny Aaron...not funny at all, am I to assume this is your way of telling me I am on babysitting duty tonight?" before giggling back, "I want to watch Gordon's face when you tell him that, it'll be hilarious."
Laughing mentally, Aaron agreed and even supplied a picture of Gordon's face looking like a cross of being constipated and frightened out of his mind, "if you would, take them on a tour of the island to burn off some energy before supper, then bed them down for the night in the endocrinology wing, we'll come up with something more permanent after breakfast, If you need me I'll be home and a thought away."
"Will do boss, I can't wait to share that image with Gordon tonight," Carl chuckled as he continued towards the atrium and wondered if he could round up enough volunteers for swimming and maybe baseball or soccer.
"I need the two of you to touch my arms so we can port to the Clan Hall, a lot of things about us will be explained after we arrive," Aaron smiled as Ichiro grabbed his clothes and rushed back to place his hand on top of his brother's.
Arriving in the Clan Hall, Ichiro and Shoji looked around in wonder, not only because of the way they traveled here, but at the splendor of gardens and grounds that resembled the imperial gardens. Stripping out of his clothes quickly, Aaron pathed Pete and Kevin and informed them about their guests and that they should be considered suicide risks for now, even though he had their promise not to go down that path.
Kevin, walking out of the med bay after being contacted by Aaron, smiled as he was picked up and kissed before being twirled around, "Ichiro, Shoji I would like you to meet Kevin; he will show you around while I go soak in the hot spring." Aaron patted each of them on the shoulder as he left his clothes on the table to be taken to his room later and started down the path for the hidden hot spring where he could relax until it was time to fix supper, or the next problem reared its head.
Richard was pleased that everything he had planned was going smoothly, glancing at Edward he saw him deep in discussion with Tommy and Brian, he had thought he would have to tie Tommy up to get him to leave the salmon farm. Giggling, he remembered Mark's quiet threat of no nookie for a week from anyone if he did not get in the hummer and the shocked look on Tommy's face as he finally said his goodbye's and ran for the limo.
Fred glanced at the manager who had waited on them, he was more distracted than he thought he should be, considering that there was advanced notice that they were stopping for dinner, catching his eye, he motioned him over, "The steaks were excellent; please tell your chef I said so," he smiled at the man. "If I can, I would like to get four more steaks cooked medium to go, just the steaks, I have a promise to keep to a very brave little boy, I promised to have a huge steak for his protector. And after the dog took Bobby under his wing and kept him alive after he was dumped by his mother he deserves it."
The manager froze and the fear mixed with hope was so palpable that every Alteran at the table turned to look at him, wondering why he was projecting both of those emotions. "Bobby...a wee lad about this high and six years old," the manager held his hand about waist high, "brown mop of hair and green eyes." The manager fumbled with his wallet nervous fingers spilling the contents on the floor in his haste to get to the picture.
"My grandson Bobby went missing three weeks ago, his no good mother said he ran away, but the strange thing is, a couple of days later they up and disappeared and I've been spending every spare pound hiring investigators to find me grandson," shoving the picture towards Fred he asked, "is this be your Bobby that ye found?"
Taking the picture, Fred looked at it and there was no mistake it was the same boy, nodding that this was the same boy, Fred was surprised as the manager fell to his knees crying, "Saints preserve us...ye found me Bobby."
Fred looked at Mark who smiled, "Your call, he's your rescue, you know we'll back you so will Aaron. Scruffy can safely be released tonight, the only thing he'll need is several good meals and a lot of love, Bobby was ready to be released this morning but you ordered him to stay asleep until Scruffy was ready."
"What be a scruffy, lad?" the manager was helped up by several of his staff who were overjoyed to learn Bobby had been found.
"Scruffy is the part German Sheppard that adopted Bobby and protected him and tried to keep him fed, almost at the cost of his own life," Mark informed him.
"As Bobby puts it, Scruffy kept the bad men away, so they are bonded and I promised that Scruffy would get the biggest steak I could find and the two of them could have supper together," Fred watched the man carefully, "Both were pretty sick but that was easily taken care of, the question is, are you able to take care of both of them properly, and are you willing to undergo questioning by mind healers to prove you have his best interests at heart?" Holding up his hand at the manager's protests, "You have to see it from our point of view; Bobby was abandoned for a medical problem that was easily corrected, because his mother did not want to deal with it anymore. He's been hurt enough, prove to me you will love and care for them no matter what, and I'll make arrangements for you to legally be his new guardian and you can take him home, it's that simple."
"Hey now you can't keep him from his family," someone in the crowd shouted.
"Actually he can, as Bobby is no longer on British soil, he's being treated at the Alteran hospital ship which is considered an Embassy so their laws take precedence," Edward stood up and glared in the direction of the heckler.
"It really is simple; all he needs to do is stand in front of a telepath and promise and mean it with all his heart, to love Bobby no matter what and do his best to raise him into a fine young man, that's it," Fred raised his voice to quiet the crowd.
"If money is an issue, taking in a six year old and a dog can be a strain, we will find him a better job all he needs is the Love to do the job properly," Andrew told him, but loud enough for the crowd to hear.
"I be getting me coat laddie, you be calling your mind reader I have a grandson to bring home," turning around, halfway to the back room, "And a protector that needs a fresh steak."
Thomas, sensing they would be leaving in a few minutes, went to settle the bill and call for the Limo to be pulled around.
Editors section:
RadioRanchers Musings: Very good chapter, indeed. Poor Tim, I wonder if that gestalt thingie was made by Binford? Then Tim could growl like on 'Home Improvement'. I can just picture him asking for more power, and being told, "I don't think so, Tim!"
I'm really glad that Ichiro and Shoji were rescued. I hope they can come to realize that their safety and happiness along with their willingness to do something for others will be all the payment that Tim would ever want from them.
Bobby and Scruffy will get to have a good life. That is wonderful.
What's next? I guess we will find out in the next chapter, won't we?
Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher
A/N: I'm posting from my backup account as the main computer has went on the blink, actually it went and died. So it is a very good thing I back up my files hourly to a jump drive and an external terabyte drive along with my laptop. So I have three copies of all my stories at all times just in case