Hearing a noise from the med bay, Brian walked over to the door and listened, hearing it again, it sounded like crying and sniffling, peeking around the corner, Brian saw Kenny sitting in a chair next to Pat's bio-tube, "Kenny, are you okay? What's wrong, Love?" coming up behind Kenny he hugged him from behind and held onto him as he sobbed several times.
"I'm scared...I'm scared Pat is not going to be okay," Kenny sniffed, as he used his arm to wipe the tears off his face.
Brian held Kenny for a moment as he looked at Pat floating in the bio-tube, "Pat is going to be just fine, it's going to be a tough week without him around, though, I miss him too, but he will come out of the bio-tube just fine...I know it!"
"How," Kenny looked up to stare at Brian's face, "How can you be so sure, he is having breakthrough sickness so early...he can die from that," he was getting hysterical at the end.
Squeezing Kenny tight to stop him, Brian told him with conviction, "I know he is going to be okay...I know he is not going to die...it's obvious if you think about it," seeing that Kenny was not believing him he hugged him again. "It really is simple to figure out, if Pat was not going to be okay Aaron would be in here, he would not have gone off to do other things, no matter how busy he is we will ALWAY'S come first. So by Aaron not being in here all the time, I know Pat will be fine."
"But..." Kenny started but stopped when Brian picked him up and sat on the stool and placed him on his lap.
"No buts, Kenny," Brian held him close to his chest as he looked in the bio-tube, "Pat might have a rough time of it, though Aaron said he thinks he could kick start puberty and increase his growth rate before he is released, Aaron did change a lot of the settings last night after doing his research, he stopped by this morning and smiled when he left." Placing his head on top of Kenny's, he said "I saw him myself when I came to check on Pat."
Kenny stared at Pat taking comfort in the fact that Brian was holding him and realized as he went back through his memories, Aaron would still be here if Pat was still in danger and finally relaxed slightly. "You're right, Aaron never did leave someone's side until he knew they were going to be fine, I guess I'm being silly."
Squeezing Kenny once more, Brian smiled, "You're not being silly at all; you're scared of losing someone that you love. It's what family and lovers do," kissing Kenny's cheek, Brian smiled, "Now do you want Pat's memories when he wakes up to be all about you sitting here crying or shouldn't they be of you telling him about everything he is missing."
"Do you think Aaron would let me erase the recordings for the past couple of hours," Kenny sighed, as he felt better; it only took someone to remind him of what he already knew.
"Recordings? What recordings?" Brian asked, confused as he looked at Kenny.
Giggling, though sounding horse from the crying, Kenny slid off Brian's lap, "Aaron has the system set so when someone comes in here and talks to the patients it is recorded, so that later when they wake up, they can watch what happened while they were asleep."
Stunned, Brian looked around the room, "Oh...well...damn, I guess that is one way to do things, I wonder how it works, it would take hours to watch everything in real time.
Placing his hand on the bio-tube Kenny shrugged, "Dunno, something tied into the sensors I think." Kissing the top of the bio-tube Kenny turned to face Brian, "Okay, I should go study or something."
Staring at Kenny like he was mad, Brain finally got out, "You passed all your exams with almost straight A's, so what are you planning to study? Congratulations, by the way, you shamed the rest of us into doing better in our other subjects, I expect the rest of the guys will be graduating soon, we just have to study hard on the subjects we really aren't interested in."
Frowning in thought, "I'm trying to decide what I want my first masters in. I've been thinking of designing things, but I'm not sure I want to do that all the time, there are a lot of other fun things out there so I can't decide." Kenny followed Brian out of the med bay.
"I can understand what you're saying," Brian put his arm around Kenny's shoulder and steered him towards the hot spring, "All my life I wanted to farm and work with plants, and now I find that I am studying genetics and biology with the thoughts of hybridizing and creating new food crops, not only that, I've been studying the database of the food crops they have on Altare Prime." Laughing as they started down the steps into the hot water, "You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out I not only could do what I wanted, but to do it the way I always dreamed of, I could get a doctorate, me Mr. Famer boy, a doctor."
Giggling, Kenny still sounded horse so Brian ported a pitcher of juice and several glasses to the pool side and poured the juice before handing one to Kenny, "There are a million things you can do with your life and a million things that can change before you hit my age and have all the freedoms of an adult in the Clan. You can spend the rest of your life doing nothing but learning and never holding a `profession' as they call it instead being a master of all trades a doctorate in few...like Aaron." Refilling both their glasses he sat down across form Kenny and let the warm water work on relaxing his muscles.
"I'm not sure I understand," Kenny was confused, how was Aaron a master of all.
Laughing, Brian snorted his juice through his nose, "that was fun...NOT," smiling at Kenny's laughter, Brian thought about it, "Well, we know Aaron is a medical doctor, so that is one doctorate, and I'm not sure if he holds more, but probably. Then we have evidence that he has mastered the art of cooking,"
"Very Yummy evidence," Doug said, as he walked down the steps into the pool, going over to the side and pouring some juice before sitting next to Kenny.
Grinning at that comment Brian pointed out. "He's mastered gardening and growing things, to the point he has his own experimental plot where he has new things growing I've never seen or heard of before. He's also mastered to a degree farming and raising animals for food."
"It's like he sees something he is interested in and he learns everything he can about it, mastering it before the next thing pops up for him to master," Doug said between sips of the juice.
"He's a renaissance King, or what my granddad would call someone like him," Damien told them as he sat down at the edge of the hot spring pool and dangled his feet in the water. "It's what makes him such a formidable leader and someone that everyone in the city would follow into hell and back, and one of the main reasons I love him so, besides the fact that he truly loves me just as I am."
Besides taking his mind off his fear for Pat, this conversation was actually opening Kenny's eyes and he smiled, "I think then I want to be like Aaron, I'll start collecting masteries like he did, and when something clicks I'll grab a doctorate in it," Kenny smiled as he sat back against the rock back of the pool.
"A wise move, Kenny," Brian told him as he smiled, "And one I plan to follow myself."
Rolling over he felt something staring at him, opening one eye a crack he noticed Kenny huddled in the corner with a blanket around him staring his way, opening both eyes he lifted his head from the pillow, "Kenny? What..." lifting the edge of the covers so Kenny could get in, he thought he was going to have to get up to pick him up and bring him to bed when Kenny bolted to the bed and snuggled up next to him, dropping the covers and pulling Kenny close spotting the clock he held his sigh, he had been asleep about an hour.
Twisting around so he was face to face with Aaron Kenny looked into Aaron's eyes for a long time before finally asking, "Pat is really going to be okay, right, and you're not just saying that?"
Lightly linking their minds, Aaron told him, "Pat is going to be okay, he'll have a few rough patches to get over like dealing with his fear and then the fact he woke up in the morning in the body of a ten year old only to wake up in a bio-tube in the body of a thirteen year old." Kissing Kenny gently as he let the link fade, "It was the only way to make sure he did not have problems down the road, or spend the next twenty years stuck before he entered puberty, I'm also almost one hundred percent sure, he will not have damaged any of his gifts." Snuggling close to Kenny, Aaron smiled; he turned over so they could spoon together, "He'll be in the bio-tube as long as it takes to force his body to go through two plus years of growth."
Sensing Kenny's brain was in overdrive as he thought things out; he felt him shiver slightly and held him tighter, waiting for him to speak first.
"I don't think I could go through what Pat did just to get my gifts early, even to grow up faster so I can have any of you in my bed," Kenny's voice was getting quieter as he started to fall asleep, "it's too scary..."
Snuggling up next to Kenny again, Aaron agreed as he fell asleep, it was too scary, closing his eyes, he drifted off to sleep.
Early the next morning at breakfast, Aaron smiled as he remembered the excitement from the youngsters when he told them to start packing so they would be ready to leave this afternoon, he had met with the Shaolin Elders right before hug patrol and they had told him that everyone needing to have their DNA repaired had done so or were currently undergoing resequencing. At the end of the conversation, he had found out that a good couple thousand of the Shaolin who were in charge of the old farms had already moved down to a corner section of Altare Prime, they had also checked on the section that the youngsters were to move into and had everything ready for their arrival.
"Excuse me Sir..." Aaron heard over his communicator and tapped it after extending the mic wondering what now, "Yes."
"Sorry to bother you, but I thought you should know that a dozen youngsters carrying everything they own just showed up. They said they are moving over to Prime...Um, how do you want me to handle this?"
Laughing, Aaron picked up a plate and started to load it, ignoring the questioning looks from the rest of the clan, "Well, that was quick; I expected them to at least eat breakfast before showing up first."
"Well Sir, they're eating breakfast now, it looks like they grabbed a sandwich and their stuff and ported up."
Pouring syrup over his waffles, Aaron shook his head, "Well, I expect the gestalt teams to be busy today and the rest of the weekend, the youngsters are getting a head start on the move because we are moving the livestock today, so I guess start sending them over in groups that you feel comfortable with, there are several Shaolin waiting on the other end to help them out."
"Um...it seems you're right on that Sir, another group of a dozen just showed up...Sol Station out."
Sitting down with and amused expression on his face, Aaron glanced around the tables, "Were any of you talking bets on when the first of the youngsters would show up after I told them this morning they could move over to prime early?"
Mark started laughing along with the others, "That took longer than I thought, I expected them to start showing up minutes after they got home."
Edward was confused, after arriving last night, he had not seen much of Aaron, he had been told he and several others were working on a special project and would be home late. Glancing over at Andrew to see if he knew anything, his brother also looked confused.
Spotting the confusion on Edward and Andrew's faces, Aaron smirked as he ate, swallowing so he could talk, "After breakfast, I have a surprise for you two, I think you are going to enjoy it." Laughing at Andrew's pouting look before he giggled at being tickled by Brian, Aaron thought, at least I hope it won't cause more problems with you, Edward.' He still had no clue what to do about him.
Washing his dishes, Aaron placed them in the drainer before seeking Edward out; pulling him into a hug he kissed him before looking into his eyes, "How was your week, Edward? Pretty busy I expect."
"You're really okay, I was starting to worry when we got here last night and I couldn't find you," Edward sighed as he looked at Aaron trying to find the place he had been shot.
Confused for a second, Aaron picked up that Edward was trying to see where he had been shot and smiled, "You won't find anything, remember, we can fix pretty much anything medically, without leaving a scar," or at least not a physical one he thought. "Anyway, I have a surprise for you and your brother today," glancing at him as they walked into the dining room, "how would you feel about a trip into space with us today?"
Stopping suddenly, Edward barley registered Aaron's arm dropping off his shoulders as he stared at him, excited at the prospect, "Really...we get to go up to the space station," grinning, he ran to catch up with Aaron, "I never believed I would ever get to go off planet, I always hoped I would. Someday..." he trailed off as some of the jealous feeling he had for his brother and cousin came to light, examining them he finally realized he was not being treated differently, not really, and it went a long way to start the healing process.
Waving the Clan to gather round, Aaron smiled at Andrew and Edward, Andrew finally caught on to what was going on and was excited to finally see their new home, "Alrighty...Xon, how goes the transport of the fields and crops?"
"All the crops and fields have been relocated; I also placed the livestock from the poultry house in the buffers, cages and all. They will be ready to transport to the new building as soon as we arrive," Xon referred to his P.A.D.D. and his notes, "I will be ready to transport the contents of the Clan Hall as soon as we get back this afternoon, that is, once everyone packs their belongings into the appropriate containers."
Smiling at Edward's confusion, he decided to tell him, "Were moving the Clan Hall to a new location, you'll see it shortly in person, actually you will be the only person from Earth to ever see it unless they are Alteran." Aaron ported a small bracelet that looked like a limiter and motioned Edward forward, placing it around his wrist, he smiled, "This will make sure that the security defenses don't attack you."
Edward looked down at the bracelet in wonder, he was trying to figure out where they were moving to that he would need something like this, after all, he thought, he had been to every part of the kingdom, hadn't he.
Glancing around, Aaron saw Andrew frown and realized he had yet to be altered and ported another of the recognition bracelets from his workroom to his hand and held it up smiling at Andrew, seeing the relief in his face as he moved close, holding his arm out, "Sorry about that, I forgot for a moment, which means I need to sit down with your grandmother and talk about the best time to get your pert little butt into one of the bio-tubes," giving Andrew a hug as he beamed back at him in joy he looked over at Mark, "Alright Mark, Brian, Tommy and whoever else is planning on staying the night at the new farm, don't forget the hug patrol is already moving over today."
Laughing, Aaron shook his head, "Actually some of them are already there, I got a call from Sol Station," staring at Tommy who was grinning, "I think some of Tommy's protégé's had already packed, it seems they ran to the dining hall picked up a breakfast sandwich and their belongings and showed up for transport."
Joining in the laughter, Aaron looked at the rest of the Clan who were teasing Tommy and his list making skills, whispering that he was perverting the younger generation. "One last thing before we break up to start our morning and I head over to the Reliant with Edward and Andrew," smiling he waited a moment until everyone was looking at him, "Good news on Pat, he's responding well to treatment and he will be okay," Aaron stared at Kenny and Doug as he said this.
Seeing the obvious relief in their faces, he knew he would have to keep reminding Kenny of this, it looks like this hit him harder than the others, they looked relieved but not to the same degree. "I'm still thinking at least a week in the bio-tube, in this case it is not going to be as easy as a simple this is wrong and it takes X number of hours to fix, he will be in the bio-tube until his body finishes the growth cycle of forced puberty."
David moved around behind his brother and pulled him into a hug, "Are you alright with this Kenny? I know how much you want to be taken off restriction so you can go all the way with all of us."
Nodding his head into his brother's chest, Kenny looked up, "I talked with Aaron about some of it last night, I don't think I want to go through what Pat did just to be able to have sex with all of you, not really. I'll wait; I don't want the nightmare that Pat is having."
Aaron, hearing that, turned around and slipped off heading for the med bay, stopping at the end of Pat's bio-tube, he stared a moment at the monitor, reading the stream of data he noticed the soma unit was active so there should not be any brain activity, including nightmares, but the way Kenny said that, it was like he was reporting on something he knew as a fact. Placing his hands on the bio-tube above Pat's head Aaron closed his eyes and sought Pat's mind, several moments later, he was surprised to find it reliving the fear that caused his traumatic breakthrough, pulling power from the gestalt line he had installed on the bio-tube, Aaron interrupted Pat's nightmare and merged their minds.
Standing in the mindscape, Aaron looked around and saw Pat looking around in shock as the dream froze, finally Pat noticed a second Aaron standing looking around and launched himself at him. "SHHH, Love, its okay now, I never realized you were stuck in a nightmare." Rubbing circles on Pat's back Aaron changed the mindscape to his bedroom and sat down on his bed and brought Pat down next to him, "I don't know why you're not asleep, truly asleep, you shouldn't be dreaming let alone being aware enough that I could contact you mind to mind."
"You're alive," Pat looked up as he held onto Aaron, calming down as he felt the love radiating from Aaron he picked up on what he said, "I'm dreaming, wait a minute I remember you picking me up and then nothing just the constant reliving the horror."
"You're in one of the bio-tubes right now; I'm standing above you on the outside," Aaron looked around, "this place and the fact we are interacting should not be happening, you're safe and I'm safe and that is not a dream induced fantasy, it is the truth."
"Let's try this, shall we, it's been two days, Saturday morning outside the mindscape, you are undergoing forced puberty and forced growth, the only way to keep you from having problems later on is to force your body into puberty and you will wake up when released in the body of a teenager. I think Kenny has been picking up on your nightmares, the scene you kept reliving," Aaron looked down and kissed him, not the same as the real thing he decided. "Somehow, your mind and his are close enough he was picking up on your nightmare and reacting to it. Maybe this is why the few people who underwent traumatic breakthrough had such a rough time of it, their brains never went to sleep like we thought they did."
Hugging Pat tight, Aaron sent love and comfort through the link, "Before I go on with my day, I'm going to try something, well two something's, the first is I'm going to try adjusting the soma unit so you are truly asleep and if that does not work, I'm going to adjust the system so you are given an interactive environment to interact with, that way you have something to keep you occupied, you're going to be in here at least another week."
"So none of this is really real then," Pat looked around and felt the bed, it felt real he thought, but if Aaron said it was a dream it was a dream.
"Real...In a way it is real, it is happening in your mind, the nightmare I stopped, no that was not real, in fact it is over and done with and the people responsible for shooting me are well and truly dead, the Shaolin stood in judgment so it would not be seen as vindictive on my part," Aaron smiled. "I want you to lay down and try to go to sleep, I'm going to seem to disappear as I try a few settings, if it does not work like I hope it will you'll think I blinked in and out and then I'll set you up with something to keep you occupied, but I want you to try to fall asleep, maybe if you want to be asleep it will be easier to make it work."
Letting go of the link and slowly pulling away Aaron logged into the system, fingers flying across the controls as he noticed Fred walk in, adjusting the soma unit he went back and tried to contact Pat again and while not totally out of reach, it was harder to reach him which could be because he was trying to sleep, changing several settings, he finally resorted to adding a sedative to the mix and finally could no longer find Pat's mind.
"I saw you slip off, is everything all right?" Fred moved over so he could see what Aaron had done.
"Not really," Aaron replied, as he thought this was as short term solution, "I heard Kenny say something about not wanting the nightmares that Pat was going through, and it got me thinking," pointing to Pat floating in the bio-tube. "Pat was caught in a nightmare, the soma unit was not putting him all the way to sleep like it was designed to do, somehow, he was either broadcasting to Kenny or Kenny was picking up on it." Locking the controls, Aaron stretched, "He's in a drug induced sleep right now, which is a short term solution, meaning I have to come up with something to keep him occupied during the day followed by helping him sleep at night."
Walking over to Fred, Aaron hugged him, "This might be why the few records of those undergoing traumatic breakthrough always reported them having a rough time for a couple of months, if they were stuck for all the time they were being forced into puberty and healed in a nightmare it might have made things difficult to differentiate between the nightmare and the real world. I can keep him drugged today but starting tomorrow, I have to withdraw the drugs so they don't interfere with the rest of the treatment."
"Maybe we should make several recordings that we can feed in through the temple sensor, that way he won't be lost when he wakes up," Fred looked back at Pat floating peacefully, "maybe even find a way to hook the tutor system into the sensor so he can occupy his mind."
Almost being caught off guard, Aaron grabbed onto Kenny as he was running towards them in a panic, "Whoa there, what's wrong?"
"I can't feel him," Kenny screamed with tears running down his face as he tried to wiggle free so he could run to make sure Pat was alright, when he realized he could no longer feel Pat or his nightmare he was thankful, then he realized he could not feel anything and panicked.
Holding Kenny tight Aaron turned around and walked back into the med bay so Kenny could see Pat was fine, Aaro[TbA1] <> n pathed "He's fine, Kenny. If I knew he was not asleep like he should have been he would not have been stuck in a nightmare this whole time."
Looking back at Aaron hearing his explanation in his mind, Kenny stopped trying to get down and hung on, "I've been able to feel Pat in my mind for a long time now and when it went away all of a sudden, I got scared."
Sighing as Aaron carried Kenny out of the med bay, "I wish I knew right away that the soma unit never put Pat to sleep, he would not have spent the last two days suffering, and it's not your fault, you did not know to tell me, did you?" seeing Kenny shake his head no he smiled, "now that we know what happened, we can plan around it, I had to give him some drugs to make him sleep for the rest of the day, after that, we will come up with something to keep him occupied if he wakes up again...can Doug feel Pat like you do?"
"No...Or at least not in the same way I can feel them," Kenny though for a moment before responding, watching Aaron carefully, he wondered what Aaron was thinking so hard about.
Figuring testing could wait, after all, Kenny needed to calm down and relax to be properly tested, "Right then, let's get Andrew and Edward, it's time to start pranking them or maybe just Andrew, as Edward is still feeling sad from what he had to do the other day to those guards that hurt me." Aaron let Kenny down and kept his hand on his shoulder as they joined the rest of the guys, "Alrighty, time to get moving, all those going to Sol Station I'll see you at our destination shortly, Andrew, Edward if you want to hang onto me we'll start with the observation lounge on the Reliant," Pulling Doug close for Kenny's sake he waited until Edward and Andrew touched him before porting to the observation bubble on the very top of the Reliant.
Letting go of Kenny and Doug, Aaron looked around as he saw most of the Clan minus the three in charge of the farms followed him, leaving Kenny to drag Edward over to the window he walked over to Kevin, "is there a way to hook the tutor system into the med bay sensors? It seems Pat never went to sleep when the soma unit was activated, and Kenny has been picking up on his nightmares."
Kevin's eyes got big as he realized all the pain and fear that Kenny he must have been picking up on, shuddering, he thought about it, "I'm not sure, but that med bay is different than the others, is there a reason?"
"I designed that one to be able to feed the recordings through the temple sensor, I got the idea after Kenny spent all that time talking to his brother, several times a day he would go into the med bay and tell him what was going on and all the new things he discovered. I fiddled around until I found a way to link the recorders to the sensor, that's where Colin got the idea of trying to create a neural imager that could be used for brain trauma, implanting the recovered memories so we truly never lost the person." Aaron looked over and smiled as he saw how much Edward was enjoying himself as he looked down at the Earth below them.
"Speaking of Colin and that discovery, how is Denny doing?" Kevin asked as he thought about what Aaron had asked him and if it was possible.
Frowning in thought, "The first attempt was a failure, the image being placed back actually damaged Denny's brain, and the second attempt seems to be going alright, Colin has the image being imprinted, for the lack of a better word, as Denny's brain is being healed. He seems pretty confident that it is working," Aaron shrugged as he sensed Kevin was thinking hard on the problem.
Finally Kevin sighed, "I'm not sure I know enough about the two systems, to tell you the truth, when we get back, I'll grab one of the sensors to play with and see what all I can do with it, you might be safer for the moment to just record our day for him to watch."
"I can't expect miracles, give it a shot, worst case we make a lot of recordings and each of us spend time during the day talking to him," Aaron looked around as he felt power building up, smirking, he nudged Kevin, "we're about to port, this should be fun."
Edward was enthralled as he stared down on the earth below, to be up in space looking down at his planet was a dream he grew out of long ago, about the time he realized he had duties being a Royal. Blinking in surprise when the stars went black for a second, he was no longer looking down at the Earth, just blackness and a lot of planets that a moment before weren't there. Rubbing his eyes as if there was something wrong with them he turned to ask Aaron what happened and noticed the two brilliant planets behind him. Slowly walking over to the other side, he plastered his face against the window as he saw another station between two worlds, and one of them looked like Earth, but the other one was just as blue and green as Earth but very different.
Walking quietly behind Edward, Aaron placed a hand on his shoulder, "Welcome Edward...Welcome to the Centauri system and Altare Prime and the Farm...our new home."
Edward stared out of the window in awe; he was in another star system, above another world or worlds, tearing his eyes away finally, "How...When..." not being able to make a coherent question he just stared as he looked between the new worlds and Aaron.
"Well, the fifth planet is a duplicate of Earth for the most part," no reason to tell anyone other than the Clan how much of a duplicate Aaron thought, "the fourth planet is the one we will be living on, the fifth or as it is nicknamed the Farm, is where we will be growing all of our food." Hugging Edward close, "these are two of the sixty five worlds in my empire, in a couple of weeks, we will be visiting some of the other worlds, I plan to open four of them up to colonization, as you know from the talks you heard the other day, as far as when, well, last week the city was finished and ready for us to move into."
Feeling the sense of loss from Edward, Aaron picked up his limp arm so he could see the bracelet, "This, Edward, is your passport to our new home anytime you want to visit and just because we are moving here does not mean you will never see us again, I still plan for you to be visiting us every weekend, you saw for yourself how quickly we made the trip. You will just have to keep this a secret from everyone; I'm not ready for the world to know we are not going to be living on Earth anymore.
Aaron laughed as he pointed out the window, "I plan to tell your father and grandmother about taking you on trips around the galaxy with me, I bet your father becomes jealous." Feeling Edward was still unsure, he tried another way, "you know how we can travel anywhere in the world in the time it takes to blink, well it takes twice as long to go from world to world, you are not being abandoned or left behind, I'm just making sure my people are as safe and happy as I can make them. Come on, let me show you our home," Aaron smiled as he noticed they were the last ones in the observations bubble, holding Edward tight he ported them to the tropical farm.
"We're on the Farm, this is the section that houses the tropical farm," Aaron told him as he waved back at some of the youngsters who were walking around exploring, that was until they realized who he was and ran over all excited for their hugs.
Edward was an emotional rollercoaster even though he had been assured he would be included, the shock of finding out Aaron was moving to another planet, for goodness sake, was frightening, he felt lost and as if his world was ending. Starting to tremble he felt himself being hugged, it wasn't Aaron and he felt better as he looked down at the young lad hugging him tight who whispered to him, "You needed a hug," before squeezing him tighter as if that would make it better, and surprisingly, Edward felt it did.
After the youngsters took off once more, Aaron pulled Edward over and ported both of them to the new Clan Compound, taking the path leading past some monstrous looking flowers, Aaron led Edward to a hidden hot spring and pulled him down the steps. Sitting in the warm water, the wind blew through gently, dislodging some pollen from the sparkling flowers and it fell in a rainbow shower only to hit the warm air around the pool and rise on the warm air currents after changing colors, leaving behind a peaceful calming scent.
Looking up at the flowers that seemed to change color all by themselves, Edward snuggled up next to Aaron and listened to him talk.
"With the way things are going on in the world right now, I wanted to make sure the children are taken care of, the only way to make sure they would be safe was to fortify this system and make it so that nothing in the universe would ever dare approach us, there are weapons systems around this system that would give anyone a nightmare, my predecessor did everything in his power to encourage, I guess you would call it, every scientist to come up with a more lethal defense than what had been produced so far. Then the city foundations were laid and started to be built," Aaron sighed as he laid back in the warm water, pulling Edward closer, "The samples and unborn children will be moved here tomorrow night, after that, there will be no chance in hell of something happening to them."
Edward looked up at Aaron, "So this move has been planned for a long time then? It's not because you've been found out and are in demand all over the world."
Shaking his head no, Aaron closed his eyes in thought, "This world was chosen because it had no animal life develop on it at all and it was tropical, the other factor is that it had a second planet that was also life bearing that was a close match to Earth, in fact it was easily terra-formed and now matches Earth exactly. NO this move has been planned for almost two hundred years, and all the planning and testing on top of building, finished last week, it was perfect as we started to create sons and being exposed like we are, it is time to move."
Kissing Edward and picking up his hand and placing it in his lap so he could feel the hardness there, Aaron whispered, "I still plan to have an office so to speak on Sol Station and we of course have the island or Altair Minor. The big difference is that at the end of the day when I go home it will be here I come home to." Aaron started to skim Edward's surface thoughts, he wanted to be sure Edward was okay with what was being said and he understood it completely. "Because of our gifts Edward, even the least of us can travel back and forth to Earth in several minutes at most, being leaders of our people, we both know our duty is to them."
"A darkness is coming, Edward, something I would not have believed possible, but yet we have the United States fracturing and as a world power it has crumbled. Your own Kingdom is the foremost power in the world right now, and your grandmother took control of your government, and with the stroke of a pen, rolled back several hundred years of laws. On the other hand, we have a country that actually asked for an interdiction barrier to be erected around its borders to protect its citizens and its children, then you have me and my Kingdom, we've come out of the shadows, and not stealthily either we came out in a bang and we've shaken the very foundation of the world." Aaron received a message from Tim asking where he was and gave him directions, "with my policies of rescuing gay youth around the world, we were bound to be found out sooner or later, but we controlled the way we stepped into the world, and now we again will control who steps off the world."
Glancing at the flowers above them dancing in the waves of steam, Aaron sighed "Do you want to know my deepest fears, Edward, the ones I think of each night as I fall asleep and the first thing that runs through my mind when I wake up in the morning?"
Edward was curious, but did he want to know something like that? If it truly frightened Aaron then it would scare him shitless. Looking around at the strange flowers and moving away from Aaron's side so he could face him, he decided even if it ended up giving him nightmares, knowing that Aaron was willing to share this with him was too important to say no to. "Not really. But then I do because you are willing to trust me with it. So tell me what scares you like that."
Closing his eyes and bowing his head down he felt around with his mind and none of his lovers were around, taking a deep breath, "What scares me the most Edward is that I'm capable of killing all life on Earth if someone would harm one of my Lovers, and I fear that eventually I will have to invade and conquer the Earth just so I can keep those I love and care for safe." Opening his eyes, Aaron did not see horror in Edward's face and relaxed somewhat, "So my answer to controlling my urges when dealing with France and the Middle East is to move my people to safety. You see Edward, I have a dark side to me, and unlike what you did the other day after I was shot, to those prisoners, I could do that to whole countries including innocents without even thinking about it."
"The Middle East and France worry me, I can't prove it with the woman who gave the order disappearing like she did, but I know deep in my gut that one of those Middle East countries was responsible, so I do the only thing I can, I get as many of my people as I can to safety so I can afford to watch others...so I can oversee you and your people being safe if something happens," Aaron was silent after that, allowing Edward to concentrate on his words.
Edward spent several minutes thinking about what Aaron said and didn't say, comparing it with what his grandmother and father had been discussing, finally he accepted why Aaron was moving, he also accepted that he was not the reason or the time he spent with those he had given his heart to would be over, "Learning to be a leader is tough, doing what you do because you lead and others look to you is one of the hardest things I've ever thought of, no wonder it was so easy all those years ago to become rulers instead of leaders." Moving closer to Aaron, Edward kissed him, "I found I have a dark side too, and it came out when I thought you were hurt, the problem is I'm not scared of my dark side and I should be."
Feeling the others approaching, Aaron smiled, "We'll pick this up later, we're about to get company," happy that Edward was finally over the thoughts of being abandoned, it would take time he thought, after all, he could not expect years of neglect to be healed the old fashioned way overnight.
Standing, Aaron smiled as he held out his hand for Edward to take, "Come on let's go rescue the guys from Tommy's obsession," he laughed at the look on Edward's face, "Tommy's frozen at the beginning to the path looking at the Monsteria."
Edward laughed, standing, he got a closer look at the vine covering the hot spring, and the fantastic color changing flowers, "If it's anything like these beautiful flowers, I can understand his enthrallment."
"You should see them at night, absolutely breathtaking," Aaron smiled as they walked down the path in the direction that Tommy was standing in awe, coming around the corner Aaron's laughter broke the spell and Tommy turned towards him.
"Where did all this come from, it wasn't here the other day when we explored the place," Tommy pointed to the flower bloom that was bigger than he was.
"Well I found several visual records of what the compound looked like before, and picked several specimens that I liked from the list, not everything is like it was before, but it is close enough. I think I chose different plants for different things, like the flowering vines I enclosed the hot springs with," Aaron pathed to everyone at once. "Come on guys the bedrooms here a slightly different and I think you will have some fun choosing one, I know I did when I found the bed that sleeps ten in my room."
Leading the group into the house section past where the hologram greeting message had played, the first thing Damien noticed was that it was a hall within the compound. After going through the rooms they ended up into another plant filled room and this one was more like the Clan Hall back on Earth.
"Where did all this come from? It wasn't here last time we explored the place." Damien asked as he looked around and noticed now that he looked at it; it was not like the Clan hall like he thought.
"Well, when I looked at the blueprints, trying to find out where the bedrooms were I noticed several different designs, and at the bottom was a footnote that the bedrooms had not been built yet, so I could chose from the plans the one that would work best for us." Grinning, Aaron glanced around towards Pete, "After picking out one I liked, I uploaded it into the replication center and built this place."
Pointing out the features of the new living area, Aaron smiled in glee, "For the most part, the center of the area is mainly the dining and kitchen area, with enough flora around to make it comfortable. If you look up at or around to all the openings along the walls, those are the bedrooms, mine's behind the dining area on the other side of the common room style gathering pit."
Leading the group around to the back of the dining hall, Aaron watched as they all were shocked to some degree as they took in the clear span roof over the sunken pit common room, or the huge plasma screens mounted to the back of the dining hall with their console workstations facing the screens. Taking a seat on one of the comfy built in chairs Aaron giggled, "Now for the really neat things, I changed the design of the bedrooms, besides the same style of closet leading into the bathroom we had back at the other Hall, each bedroom has its own library and workroom off the other side."
"The workroom offices outside, facing the Clan Compound can act as your public offices, the ones in your bedroom are your private ones, a place you can work without being interrupted." Smiling as he watched heads swiveling around taking in what he was pointing out, he laughed again, "Go on, go explore and chose a bedroom, feel free to check my bed out if you want."
As everyone took off as if in a race after the starter fired his pistol, Aaron leaned back to relax feeling a lot of the stress he normally dealt with absent, glancing over, he blinked in surprise seeing Ichiro and Edward still standing there, "Edward, why aren't you off exploring and looking for a room?"
"But...but I'm..." Edward started before seeing Aaron frown at him and point before rushing off throwing over his shoulder, "Thank you."
Patting the seat next to him, Aaron smiled at Ichiro, "Come sit by me, Ichiro." Once Ichiro had snuggled up next to him, Aaron let his hands run through his hair as he curled up in his lap. "We will find your bedroom in a moment." Watching everyone having fun looking at all the bedrooms, as each was different, he occupied his mind trying to figure out if his Loves would chose the bedrooms he thought they would.
"HOLY SHIT..." Kenny screamed as he looked in one of the bedrooms and saw the back wall behind the bed was a floor to ceiling window into an underwater world, slowly crossing the floor, he plastered his face against the glass and noticed the small undersea world on the other side.
Having run over hearing his brother scream out, David chuckled as he watched Kenny plastered to the window, turning around to continue exploring, he knew which room his brother had chosen.
Starting to feel frisky as he heard Kenny shout in shock, Aaron moved Ichiro's head some so he could adjust himself and seeing the pleading look in Ichiro's face, nodded his head and bent his stiff erection so he could place it at Ichiro's lips, "Enjoy yourself Ichiro, I plan to," he whispered as Ichiro licked the head of his hardness before parting his lips.
Xon walked into yet another bedroom, so far each not only had the area's Aaron had told them about, but each held one extra area behind the bed, like small private park for meditation or relaxation, glancing around he noticed the sand behind the clear wall, intrigued he walked closer and noticed that the area was a white sand desert. Touching the sensor lock he walked through the open door and glanced around as the dry heat hit him; it reminded him of Katha' during spring, right before the rainy season started. Making his decision, he chose this room, it now had the perfect place to meditate, if and when they contacted Katha' once more, he would be able to plant it with some of his favorites.
Placing his hand on the sensor panel outside the bedroom, he was pleased to see his name inscribe itself on the door plate, walking over to the railing, he looked around to see if the others had chosen yet and noticed movement from below and glanced down, seeing a head bob up and down slowly in Aaron's lap he became instantly aroused, eying the circular ramp at the end of the walk he ported instead right next to Aaron and Ichiro and pulled the tiny bottle of lube out of the second pocket next to his P.A.D.D., after squirting some on his finger he went about stretching Ichiro as he started to leak in anticipation.
Kevin finally chose a room he liked, one he thought was perfect, started back towards the common room and met Tim and Pete on the way. Smiling at them, "Did you also find a room that as soon as you walked in screamed that it was yours?"
Laughing, Tim nodded his head as Pete glanced back over his shoulder again. "I take it yours is a programmer's wet dream, like mine had a private dojo behind the bed."
Laughing, Kevin nodded, "Like the virtual holo world behind my wall, and the wall to wall server racks. I think Aaron knows us and what we like to do to relax, a little too well. How about you Pete, what did you find in the bedroom you picked?"
Glancing back over his shoulder trying to believe what he had seen, "A starship bridge, like in the movies. It looks like the bridge like one of the Star Furies." Looking towards the common area now he noticed they were being left out, "I think they started without us," Pete told them as he pointed to the threesome on the couch.
Seeing three more of his lovers walking over, getting aroused the closer they got to them, Aaron grinned, "So who wants to join us."
Grabbing Ichiro's head to stop him Aaron picked him up off his hardness and stood capturing Tim's lips about the time the rest of the guys made it back to the common room, deciding that what was going on would quickly descend into an old fashioned orgy Aaron started to pull people around and place them with partners, seeing Shoji there without a partner he quickly pulled him over and placed him under his brother so Ichiro could take care of him while he took care of his brother.
Grabbing onto Doug and Kenny, Aaron moved slightly away and sat back down on the couch some distance away and kissed Kenny as he let his hands roam, releasing his lips, he looked in Kenny's eyes and seeing the need there nodded as he guided his head towards his crotch while pulling Doug around so he was standing in front of him at the right height.
Several hours later, Aaron lay on the couch with Andrew sitting on him after climaxing for the fifth time, pulling him around so he could stay inside Andrew as he pulled back so he could lay back on top of his chest he thrust a couple of times to stay hard before snuggling back into the cushions, slowly thrusting so he could tire Andrew out or that was his goal as he nodded at a grinning Doug who knelt down in front of Andrew's crotch. Hands roaming as Doug had his fun Aaron kept the pressure going against Andrew's prostate by sliding in and out over it, it did not take long before the teen was panting heavily and moaning as he unloaded a very small offering into the waiting mouth, chuckling as he felt Andrew go limp in exhaustion he decided he was good for one more time and picked up the pace as he felt himself getting close. Firing off one last volley for the moment at least Aaron picked his head up grinning to see that Edward was in the same position as his brother, only with Kevin behind him.
Waiting until he started to soften and Andrew to expel him sealing all the precious seed inside, Aaron kissed the side of his face as he slid out and moved carefully so not to disturb him and faced his laughing lovers, "Well, once again I have to ask, where is the stamina of youth, I mean come on it's only been a measly three hours, PFFFTTTTT."
Pulling out his P.A.D.D. Aaron activated it and looked at the floor plan, only one person did not choose the room he thought they would, moving over, Aaron smiled at Ichiro, "Come with me Ichiro," walking to the room to the right of his, he stopped outside the open door and pointed to the metal plate near the opening, "go ahead and place your hand on the sensor so it assigns this room to you, Xon's room is right above yours." Smiling encouragingly at Ichiro, Aaron waited until he had done as instructed before nudging him into the room, "Go ahead and explore the room," sensing Xon behind him, he stepped to the side, "In fact, why don't you and Xon shower while you explore the room."
Leaving them to explore and clean up, Aaron laughed as Kevin and Mark helped drag the half conscious royals over to his room, "We figure we can give you a hand getting these two cleaned up, after all if your bed is big enough for ten your shower has to be just as large," Mark giggled as Edward sleepily nodded his head.
"Sure thing love, and you're right it is huge with a large sitting bench, let's get them cleaned up before we have to get back to Earth to start packing and for afternoon chores," Aaron laughed as he helped carry Edward into the shower.
Tzu smiled at the latest group released from resequencing, they had finished taking care of their needs and cleaned up before meeting with him, "Greetings, I am Tzu of the Shaolin, I am one of the healers and will be giving the twenty four of you an introduction to the racial history of your new people, after that I will answer any questions before letting you go back down to the island and pack your belongings, your group will be allowed to transport over to Altare Prime, the home world right after supper. What you are about to witness will change your lives; answer many of the questions you have secretly been to afraid to ask while leaving many needing answers."
Moving to the front of the room so he could stand next to the large plasma screen Tzu felt the emotions of those in the room, he had to wonder if any from this group would not vow to uphold what those that gave their lives to make sure during the restart the future they lived would never happened. "The presentation is in two parts, with the second part being a small insight into the lives and thoughts of the Shaolin; it will give you an idea of why we serve the Prime."
After the first part played Tzu looked at the stunned looks on the faces of the teens as they came to grips with what they just witnessed. "Your history young Alteran's and your burden if you so chose to accept it, I shall give you a few minutes to come to a decision before we move on to the next section, for those who do not wish to accept this burden and leave please see me before we start." Tzu moved back to a quiet corner and let his mind wander around skimming surface thoughts, as the newly resequenced had yet to learn control.
"I have a question, what do you mean by accepting the burden? Are you talking about what was said and the whole guardian of humanity part that the other King told us about, or something else?"
"Indeed, that is a good question," Tzu smiled as he stood, moving to the front of the room he stopped in front of the screen, "if you were to pack and move to Altare Prime and never have dealings with those not Alteran that would be acceptable, and understandable as some of you have not been treated fairly or justly by those in the world." Stepping forward so he could see all their eyes, "What it means to accept the burden of guardian of humanity, it means if you were amongst those outsiders and saw some needing rescued you would be expected to do so, by stepping in and doing it yourself or calling security over the communicator to do so, you would not stand by or turn away." It means, depending on your profession, you may be asked to be tested by one of the Clan...though if you feel not adequate you may decline."
Unlike the other group, he sensed from their minds, no one was turning down the burden laid on their shoulders, "before I start the next presentation, the one you will gain insight into the Shaolin and our history, I must share with you a fear I have. I am older than all of you and have achieved the rank of Shaolin master, once I accepted the burden of our race and learned what you are about to see, my fear grew," Tzu had all their attention focused on him and gave a tired smile, "My fear is a simple one, I fear if I am called to be tested I shall falter, thus letting down those who gave their lives to start the Shaolin for a single most important purpose, and those who gave their all so I could stand here today. No one knows what they will do when the test that is life descends on them, some rise up and become better than they knew they could ever be, and I pray I am worthy." Bowing his head slightly he started the next section of the presentation.
"In a unanimous vote the surviving clan members of Clan Stranton have agreed to send twelve of the Shaolin fighters back in time without Aaron's knowledge. Their mission is to reestablish and modify the present Shaolin with the past Shaolin, creating a waiting army of fighters for our leader and lover to have at his side if things start to go horribly wrong in the restart.
Even though all twelve are gay and Alteran they will gladly sire as many children as possible during the first year or two as they build the hidden temple, creating a small city outside the temples wall where the females will be kept and their families will grow and hopefully flourish. It is our hope that over time these children will sire other children creating a waiting source of trusted warriors to be later altered once Altare is reestablished if genetic drift occurs."
Another voice took over the narration at his point.
"We know that we must buy breeding age females or to kidnap them if needed. And as distasteful as this is to us, we shall do so to ensure our plans come to fruition. Each of us have pledged to sire fifty sons, which leads to our small planned village becoming a town. As well, we will bring whole families into the new enclave and alter minds when needed so that some of those females with their husbands shall bear our sons instead by their husband's seed."
A third voice entered the conversation.
"We have created a recording device that shall chronicle our achievements and failures; it is a seal with the Alteran Dragon rearing on both sides and our descendants shall carry this on them until it can be returned to you our king. This seal is both the fruition of our sacrifice and our damnation.
Do not hold our crimes against humanity against our descendants. We know what we do will ensure our race survives, but the cost is so great that once the Shaolin are established and thriving. We twelve shall pay for our crimes against humanity in the only way we are able."
The message blanked out. With the time it took to inhale twice, another section started.
"The elders have met and voted unanimously to pervert one of the healing generators so that it will damage the DNA of all of our children, cutting them off from their heritage, they will lose all that makes us Alteran. It was not an easy choice to make as the widespread famine that has hit the land makes it impossible for us to save our sons from the sickness of their gifts breaking out for the first time, we have lost over half of our sons and if we do not do this the Shaolin will falter and fail, thus failing our King in the Future. Without doing this when Aaron has need of us we will fail in our mission, the vote was taken in secret and none of the other masters or elders will know why this action takes place or what it truly means to our children, all they will know is that our children will survive and prosper."
"The keeper of the chronicles will return and he alone will know why all twelve of us that made this decision lay dead, the first of our children are being mutilated right now. We stand in judgment and deem those elders that lead clan Shaolin shall be dealt death for their treachery, even though our children will live and grow, what we have done so they may do so can NOT go unpunished, I hav..."
The silence was oppressive as those in the room looked at each other with eyes wide in shock and the second voice stunned them further. "I am Wu Lee of Clan Stranton...Keeper of the Chronicles, all twelve elders have succumbed to poison and are dead, a terrible price to pay to save our people, but justice has been done."
After another stretch of silence, the recording picked up again. "I am Josh Lee, the last of Clan Stranton amongst the Shaolin. I have caught sight of our beloved Aaron; he is getting close to the key of the puzzle that is the Shaolin and once he has that key, I am the lock To remove the chronicle device from my body means death; even though the skill and technology exists to save me, I shall forbid it as is my right."
"Forgive me my Aaron, I knew the day you accepted the Shaolin into your service, the day you captured me with kinetics as I snuck up behind you, that I would finally achieve my sought after release. With my death, the crimes of my part of the Clan have been cleansed."
"Kenny, I thank you for your love and the hug when I was most lost. It proved that what we gave up all these thousands of years so your army would be ready is worth it; that you are worth it."
"My love, do not grieve for me, for as long as every member of Clan Stranton has vowed to lead our people I shall die knowing your love."
"I am Josh Lee of Clan Stranton...this is the last Chronicle that will ever be added to this device, as I have removed it from my body and have minutes to get it to my love before I shall pass."
Tzu stood there after the presentation ended with tears trailing down his face.
Editors' ramblings
RadioRanchers note: What a sad and powerful way to end this beautiful chapter. I will say no more, since anything else I could add would be anti climactic. Thank you WolfWalker for another great chapter.
Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher
A/N
[TbA1] <> Subject and verb needed, otherwise the sentence is just a dangling object.