Teep

Aaron rolled over and kissed Brian. Grinning at the sleeping form of his lover, he reached down and found Brian was still very slick and he was able to get all three fingers in him before replacing his fingers with his hard cock. Sliding inside him slowly in one smooth move, the gentle rocking motions woke up Kevin and Aaron slowed down as he felt Kevin's fingers exploring his backside, preparing him for his lover to make him the middle of the sandwich.

Twenty minutes later, Aaron was sitting on the bench in the shower eyes closed while the steam billowed around him opening his pores and sweating out any dirt that had accumulated since yesterday. Hearing the door open, Aaron opened his eyes wondering which of his lovers was wanting a rematch when he heard Brian tell Glen, "Good morning Glen, what brings you over here this morning?"

Spotting the thatch of red hair, Aaron reached out and snagged the giggling youngster and pulled him into his lap. Kissing the top of his head, he opened his mind up and felt the rest of the youngsters nervously hovering outside the shower stall. "Brian Love, the rest of our sons are outside the door wondering if it is safe to come in, would you invite them in?"

Looking back down at the youngster snuggled into his lap, Aaron grinned as he heard the excited voices being escorted back in, "So little Dragon, what brings you to our shower this morning?"

Glen looked up at his Sator and smiled shyly, "We wanted to shower and then go flying to dry off. Patris Doug and Kenny told us all about it. They told us we could only fly to dry with you."

"Oh they did, did they?" Aaron grinned as he heard the other chuckles from his lovers. Putting Glen back on his feet he stood up, "Well then, let's get all of you washed so you can get to the fun part." Aaron started to wash Glen's hair and back before washing Jay's hair. Once finished he then dropped to his knees and washed both youngsters' fronts thoroughly. Standing he felt hands washing his back and grinned as he looked over his shoulder and saw Calvin and Shane trying to reach as much as they could.

Once everyone was good and lathered up Aaron grinned as he moved to the control panel. "Kenny cycle in three," he laughingly warned them as he tapped a few commands into the panel and they were half drowned with water as the program he had created to prank Kenny started. All too soon he heard the shocked sputtering from the youngsters turn to laughter. Watching the countdown Aaron grinned, "Here we go hold on..."

Warm blasts of dry air buffeted them and within seconds the intensity increased tenfold and the youngsters were giggling and screaming in delight as they were blasted off their feet and found themselves floating mid air. Amidst shouting of Sator, we're flying' or Sator, look at me' Aaron enjoyed the emotional broadcasts of the youngsters before touching the control pad and cycling down the intensity of the air jets very slowly. All too soon ,as far as the youngsters were concerned, the drying cycle was finished and he let Brian and Kevin herd the youngsters into the bathroom so they could brush their teeth before starting the morning.

Aaron let his eyes roam around the fields. Hug duty was over for the moment and he was watching their youngsters giggling as they helped their Patris collect the eggs. Joshua was cute as he struggled to fill the feeders with Doug's help. They were taking their chores so seriously, he thought. Sensing a presence Aaron smiled as Thunder came over, placing her head over his shoulder she pulled him into her body giving him a hug. Rubbing her nose, Aaron grinned as he ported to her back and lightly linked with her mind as she reared up with a loud whiny and took off at a full gallop across the pasture. Several dozen steps later he ported both of them to the other side of the island near the aquaculture facilities, a quick wave at Tommy as he galloped through the tanks, he ported them to the fields to check up on Brian.

Aaron laughed as the youngsters started for their wing and their tutor session. He poured some more juice as his eyes left the last of the youngsters as they moved out of sight and fixed on Xon, "How goes discussion with Sesek? Have you progressed to the point we can move Volosh station back where it belongs and open that system as the galactic contact point for the other space-faring races?"

Xon thought about it for a moment before slowly nodding his head to the internal debate he held. "I believe so. Fred told me last night he will be ready to repair the damage to Oboxa today. The day after she is released I would think we would be open to a formal alliance." Xon looked over at Tim for a moment, before turning back, "Rolph has been a tremendous help. At this point everything is pretty much done. I have held off on formal introductions and the alliance signing until Oboxa has been treated and can attend."

Aaron looked up for a moment as he thought things over, "We'll move the station back to Volosh 9 tonight." Glancing around the room and noticing who was already gone to start their day, Aaron needed to get a move on himself, he thought. "Make sure they know how to get to Volosh 9. Tim love," Aaron glanced at his lover that was the head of their galactic security, "could you join me for lunch? I'd like to go over our Earth side holdings and their status." Getting a grin and nod, Aaron went around the room and kissed the last of his lovers before porting out.

Five minutes later, Aaron was looking out his office window down at Earth trying to come to several decisions as Toshi walked in for his morning meet and greet. Seeing Aaron standing pensively in front of the wall looking out he slowly made his way over. Standing next to Aaron he glanced sideways, "The British have a saying that the Americans have copied, `a penny for your thoughts', I believe is what they say."

Aaron chuckled as he glanced over, "Good morning Toshi." Moving away from the window to one of the couches, Aaron looked at Toshi as he walked over so he could sit next to him and gave him a hug, "I'm afraid it will cost you a lot more than a penny with all the thoughts running around in my head right now." Laughing he let Toshi out of the hug and twisted on the couch so he was facing him, "I've just been going over things in my mind. There are so many things pulling at my time again, it will eventually calm down before the next crisis rears its ugly head." Changing the subject Aaron stared at Toshi for a moment, "So are you meeting one of the clan this morning, or were you planning on hanging around here?"

Toshi looked at Aaron for a moment, "If needed I can stay here. I am meeting with Derrick to go on the final walkthrough of both hospitals this morning, then I'm not sure what we planned to do this afternoon." he trailed off as Aaron turned away from the window so he could look at him.

Smiling Aaron went over to the couch and sat down, "No, go on with your day as planned. I'm hoping for a quiet morning." Spotting Derrick along with Ton walk in he smiled, "Good morning, Loves." Sensing the hint of surprise and longing from Toshi at his choice of words, Aaron glanced at him out of the corner of his eye so he could watch how he reacted to his cousin. Not seeing any jealousy Aaron smiled as Derrick kissed him, "I'm going to let the three of you get on with your morning." Standing up he kissed Ton then hugged Toshi before moving over to his desk. Once the three had left, Aaron let his fingers dance across the terminal activating every plasma in his office, each showing different data streams, and sat back for a few minutes letting his eyes take in the flow of information.

Tommy walked into Aaron's office. Noticing all the plasmas going at once, he glanced at each of them after stopping near Aaron's desk. Seems half of them had updates on the colony worlds, but the one directly to the left of him caught his attention. It dealt with the old United States. The four states that were the only ones left in white, or under control of democratic leaders, were blinking. That alone was enough to catch his attention, but the rumors being reported coming from those states were troubling to read.

Picking up on the direction of Tommy's thoughts, Aaron sighed, "I know. I sent in the spook squads yesterday, most of the rumors and such being listed there are from their reports...I'm playing with the idea of placing an interdiction barrier around them and ignoring them afterwards." Twisting his chair around so he could face the plasma, "Almost all of the criminals and trash, for lack of a better word, moved to those four states because they could deal with the old system. Some of the rumors are about gangs crossing the borders; so far nothing has happened to our people, but they are getting bolder."

Moving over to one of the empty chairs in front of Aaron's desk, Tommy continued to stare at the plasma deep in thought. "Maybe you should line the border with weapon drones. There should be several thousand left over at the shipyards; they never were deployed."

Changing one plasma to show the hanger over at the shipyard, Aaron smiled as he saw row upon row of weapons drones silently sitting in their racks. Sending a few emails to Chris and Otto about the drones, and how he would like them deployed along the border to the democratic states, he sat back after they had been sent, "Thank you, love. I think they might make a difference, and surprise a thug or two. Now, what has brought you away from your playground to my stuffy office?"

Tommy smiled as he faced Aaron, "Two things. I saw Pavel and Darren this morning, and I wanted to give you a heads up that they are going to talk to you tonight about going through a bonding ceremony like you did for Shoji and Riku. They want a son together, to grow up with Darren and Lee's son, and want to be bonded first. They plan to let the recording be posted to the system live."

Aaron grinned, "It was only a matter of time before someone would post their bonding ceremony and, after everyone sees the recording, I bet it is only hours before the first request comes in looking to have their love acknowledged the same way." He grinned at Tommy who started to fidget, "I wonder how long it will take before all of you are asked to officiate instead of me," Aaron ended up laughing at Tommy's blush.

Looking away for a second, Tommy finally grinned. He could think of a few of the teens he worked with asking him to officiate. "Well, the second reason I stopped by has to do with several of my guys." Pulling his feet under him like Aaron liked to do, Tommy looked over Aaron's shoulder at the Earth. "They released the first of the thesis studies they have been doing on their ocean projects, and the scientific community is in an uproar. If it was not for the fact they had all the video evidence to back them up I think most of the journals would have called them liars and frauds. None of them are very happy. Not to mention all the offers to work under some doctor or another, with the thinly veiled explanation of showing them how it should be done," he ended sounding disgusted.

Aaron stared for a minute at the plasmas ignoring the information, before pulling up the tutor logs for anything to do with oceanography and saw the six master level thesis papers that Tommy was talking about. "I'm going to read their thesis papers, but why don't you have them stop by my office tomorrow, I'll be on Centauri station. I'll act as their adviser for now; we can get their masters out of the way." Grinning as he opened the first of the papers, "Why don't you have them politely turn the offers down, well as politely as they want to respond with I guess. We'll handle their doctorates in house if that is what they want to do."

Tommy hid his smirk, "That sounds like a good idea. Eventually I would think we could be known as the best and most exclusive university in the universe." Not smiling like he wanted to as Aaron pierced him with his stare, he became horrified when Aaron told him, "Keep it up, Love, and you will find, instead of running your farms, you are running our university stuck in an office all day long."

Taking one last look at the horror on Tommy's face Aaron broke out laughing, "Maybe we need to give consideration to opening our own university. We can set it up on one of the empty worlds...I wonder if Theo has a group of associates that would like to move and start a new project."

While Tommy was grinning, Aaron quickly tapped out an email and sent it off to Theo before looking through the files of the worlds in the empire to see if one stood out to build the academy on. Before he could get started he was interrupted when Friedrich walked in, "Aaron, there's been an earthquake in California; pretty severe to the point several buildings have collapsed trapping people inside."

Head snapping up to look at Friedrich, Aaron quickly found what he was looking for in his security chief's public mind as he contacted the OOD, "Parkfield, California was just hit by an eight point six earthquake, which means Fresno and surrounds have suffered a lot of damage." Bringing Governor Tides into the connection, Aaron nodded towards him, "Lieutenant, I need the ready Eagles in the air and dropping around Fresno and the outer small cities and towns. I need accurate firsthand accounts of the damage."

Not bothering to sigh at the salute as the OOD took off to get the Eagles in the air, Aaron turned to Bill. "Bill, I will have the Reliant back in system shortly. Once he is here we will use our MCA's to remove the rubble freeing the trapped people so we can get them to the hospital as needed. I need you to activate all local hospitals in the area where we can send the less critical patients to them."

"Right away, your Majesty," Bill picked up his phone and started contacting his staff.

Richard closed his eyes for a moment as the information started to filter in through the re-designed teaching sensor. He had Corey help design it so he could download knowledge and skills directly into his mind. The only drawback was that he had to be actually doing the work for the knowledge that went along with it to sink in. Sighing he looked back at the plasma and nodded. It was done; the requested cats for the Beastmasters had finally been created and a full two dozen embryos were floating in the incubator chambers happily going about cell division.

Mark looked into the lab with Andrew close behind. Glancing around he noticed that Richard was wearing one of the temple sensors and became worried, "Are you okay, Richard? Maybe I should call Aaron or Fred if your pain is bad enough to use one of the dampeners."

"Pain," Richard looked clueless for a moment before touching his head in dawning realization. "Oh...Um, I'm not in any pain. This is different from the normal sensor; this one is a teacher," he told him as he tapped it three times to deactivate it before pulling it off and stowing it away in a case he pulled out of his scanner's pouch pocket.

Walking in slowly, Mark looked up at the plasma and back at Richard before whipping his head back to the plasma and the cells dividing into embryos on the screen. "What in the name of the winds are those?" Moving forward Mark looked perplexed as it sank in that Richard said something about a teacher as he took the sensor of his temple, "And what is a teacher?"

Sighing, Richard felt Andrew's arms wrap around him from behind. "Those twenty four embryos are the new species of great cat Aaron asked me to create. Unlike any of the other great cats gestation on this new species is going to be one hundred twenty to twenty five days, almost a good two weeks longer than the tiger which has the longest at one hundred and eleven at most." Smiling at the pride rolling off Andrew towards him, Richard turned back to Mark, "And the teacher is another modification of Aaron's sensor to play recordings from the med bay. I had Corey design it so I could learn at an accelerated rate by implanting the knowledge directly into my mind while I did the work."

Worried, Mark moved over and looked Richard over carefully before brushing his mind against Richard's, asking to be let in. "Please let me in, Love. I want to make sure nothing bad happened to your mind." Once he had been invited in, Mark looked around and felt that nothing had changed in Richard's mind. Leaving with a smile he looked at the grinning face and kissed him. "How in the world did you ever come up with the idea to build something like this?"

Grinning as he backed into Andrew, and wiggled his bare butt against his cousin's crotch getting the desired reaction, "Well...two things hit me as I was cramming, trying to get as much information possible into my head after being declared the healer of the Kesol. I wondered if I could merge the tutor with Aaron's replay sensor, and when I went down to the Core and was talking with Corey he mentioned that it sounded like what I wanted to do was what the version 1.0 crew came up with to reprogram the brains of the youngsters and teens we rescued. Once Corey explained what happened I had him reprogram one of the sensors so it could do what I wanted it to." Moving forward after feeling something long and hard start to snake between his legs, Richard grinned when he moved back and felt a hardness nestle itself in his butt cheeks.

Mark stared at the plasma for several minutes as he thought through things. Blinking several times as he considered all the ramifications, he was brought back to the here and now by sounds coming from next to him. Glancing over he noticed Andrew slowly thrusting in and out of Richard while Richard was very hard and groaning in passion. Knowing his questions were not going to be answered until Richard and Andrew had satiated their desires, he knelt down and took Richard into his mouth, eager to bring his lover to completions and receive his tasty treat.

Standing back up and waiting for Richard to come down from the pleasure he had experienced, Mark smiled as he kissed him, "Love, I have several questions about the neat little gadget you invented." Glancing around and seeing Andrew still inside Richard, Mark ported all three of them up to Centauri station, Aaron's office. "You know, when Colin finds out what you've done he is going to be after you to not only write up your findings and plans on how to make the teacher, but have you build several of them and walk him through their use."

Looking down at Mark's erection, Richard slid off of Andrew and sat down on Mark after reaching for and adjusting Mark's erection so he could slide it inside him. "Not going to happen." Sighing as he slid down on the hard shaft Richard grinned at the shocked look and quiet moan of pleasure, "I tied this sensor to the Clan Stranton marker so only we can use it, and I have decided all information about it is considered a Clan Secret." Bouncing up and down slowly, Richard grinned as Mark threw his head back as the sensations started to get to him. Picking up the pace, ten minutes later as Andrew had his head between their chests doing his best to swallow him which caused him to fire off another tasty treat and clamp down hard on Mark's hardness he was riding. The extra pressure was all it took to send Mark over the edge, firing his load deep inside of his lover.

Touching the drying cycle after the three of them had fun washing each other in the shower, Mark looked over at Richard, "Can any of us use the teacher or did you tune it to your brain alone?"

Shrugging, Richard started to strap on his scanner and P.A.D.D. "Any of the Clan can use it..." looking up in thought, "Well, any of us that have had our gifts released or started puberty." Kissing Mark and Andrew he smiled, "I never gave it much thought as I never planned to use it past tomorrow when I finish up my last project...Why?"

Dragging Richard over to the terminal, Mark wanted to know if his suspicions were correct, "Log into the tutor program please, then have it list your academic achievements."

Wondering what Mark was getting at Richard did as asked and stopped frozen in place as the tutor listed his achievements under his name.

Richard England Stranton

Doctorate Kesol Medicine

Doctorate Genetic Engineering

Masters Exobiology

General Education Degree

Mark grinned as he nodded, his hopes when he heard about the teacher had just been proven true. Grinning at the shocked faces of both Andrew and Richard, he leaned over and placed his hand on Richard's shoulder grinning when there was no movement, evidently he was still in shock. Reaching over he kissed Richard soundly and finally let up when he heard the moans of pleasure.

"How...When...I never thought that would be possible," Richard finally got out as he shook off his shock.

"Well, it seems your invention did everything you hoped for, Love," Mark grinned before looking at Richard with a serious expression. "After your next project I would like to be the next to use it. I want to get my Veterinary doctorate out of the way as quickly as I can, that and the genetics one like you did."

Nodding slowly, eyes still on the plasma with his achievements boldly printed there, Richard logged out of the tutor. "Okay, I'll give it to you once I finish the project with the transporter integration as a healing device..." He trailed off as the plasma went black before blinking back with the notification call for disaster assistance. Taking a quick look between Andrew and Mark, Richard ported out, destination Aaron's office on Sol Station. Mark and Andrew ported out following him half a second behind him.

Appearing in the situation room, the three looked around taking in the multiple screens of data and images on the large plasmas behind Aaron. Richard glanced at the plasma showing the damage, eyes widening in shock at seeing the eight point six flashing next to the word epicenter meaning it was an earthquake. Moving to one of the empty desks he logged in, changing several of the terminal screens to see who was responding. Finding only the reliant he glanced back at Aaron, "Prime, we need to bring all the scouts back to earth. They can use their transporters to transport the trapped out of danger a lot faster than we can rescue them with the removal of inorganics, less damage to their bodies besides."

Aaron snapped his head so he could look at Richard and smiled, "And we can hold them in the buffers, releasing them in a controlled stream...Very good idea, love." Standing up he quickly tapped out a few commands in the terminal causing a good section of the wall to blink and go dark before splitting into a large number of screens as the signal went out for all Star Scouts to respond. After a minute or so Aaron looked at the plasma with all the ships captains looking back worried at him, "Twenty nine minutes ago an eight point six earthquake hit central California. We have a large amount of damage to deal with and quite a few people trapped." S eeing the worried looks turn serious with concern, Aaron nodded once, "I want every single one of you back here as quickly as you can. Once you reach Earth orbit descend to search grid beta and use your life form scanners and target every trapped person you can find, then transport them into the buffers. We can release them slowly in the med bays after we rescue every one of them."

Aaron smiled and shook his head as they all saluted him before the star scout fleet started appearing near Sol Station on their way to California, muttering under his breath, "Damn pig headed military jar heads..."

Giggling, Andrew pulled Aaron around and kissed him, whispering once he let Aaron's lips go, "They're military, Love. Like I was told, it takes longer to train them than normal people."

Staring at Andrew for a moment in shock, Aaron slowly chuckled as his words sunk in before breaking into laughter. Once he calmed down he noticed the main plasma showed over a dozen star scouts spaced out around the epicenter moving outwards. Glancing to the left he smiled up at the territorial governor, "Bill, it looks like this will be the quickest rescue on record. I want inspectors in the affected area as quickly as we can get them there so we can remove and rebuild all the damaged building and infrastructure."

Grinning, Bill looked into his pickup, "Aaron, this is unbelievable. I can't believe how quickly the rescue is going. I'll alert all the local hospitals on my end to prepare for any injured."

"Bill, all the serious cases will be transported to one of our hospitals." Aaron smiled as he sat back and relaxed, "Most of what you are going to get is the walking wounded, so to speak."

Fred hugged Rolph close to his side, wishing they did not have shorts on as they waited patiently for the Kathat to show up. Xon was supposed to bring Oboxa, along with Opoku, to the med bay before taking Sesek back to Aaron's office to finalize the alliance treaty. Afterwards Aaron would stop by and sign the document, and Volosh 9 would be open for interstellar visitors, the only safe access into their empire for now. Fred grinned at the memory, the excitement from all the youngsters , his grin growing wider at the thought of the rest of Earth finding out they were not alone in the universe. He couldn't wait to see the shocked looks on the world leaders' faces when they met Sesek for the first time.

Releasing Rolph's lips when he heard footsteps behind him, Fred glanced over his shoulder as Xon entered the med bay escorting their three Kathat guests. Smiling as he and Rolph stood, "Right on time. Nest Mother Oboxa, if you would make yourself comfortable over on the bio-bed we can get started."

Setting her cane down next to the bio-bed, Oboxa carefully sat down before swinging her feet around so she could lie down comfortably. Adjusting the pillow behind her head she nodded once, "I am ready for the procedure, healer."

Nodding, Fred moved to the terminal activating it as he pulled the sensors over, "Opoku," Fred glanced her way as he laid the tray next to Oboxa. "If you would place these two sensors for me, the smaller one goes on the left temple, press firmly to activate. The larger of the sensors please place midpoint on Oboxa's sternal arch. The bottle contains cleansing agent for the skin."

Opoku nodded, "Yes healer," as she watched him squirt a generous amount of the cleansing agent on the white pad and cleanse Oboxa's right arm before attaching a cuff with several tubes attached. "May one ask about the function of the device you just emplaced?"

Fred looked over his shoulder after activating the bio-bed, eyes moving to the scan report he had brought up from the other day to compare to the scan he was doing now, "The IV cuff administers specialized nanites along with any medications we would need to administer. The small sensor you emplaced on Oboxa's temple is designed to monitor her brainwaves along with pain control; it also has the ability to act as a soma unit placing the patent into a deep sleep." Pointing to Oboxa's chest he smiled, The second sensor will give us second by second information about her biological functions, blood chemistry is only one of them."

Tapping commands into the terminal once more, Fred leaned back and kissed Rolph after he placed a chair behind him so he could sit down, "Thanks, Love." Administering two units of nanites, Fred pulled up the spinal damage on the plasma and started to work on repairing the damage as he explained what he was doing, "The nerve endings through the spinal bones are compromised, so I plan to repair and regenerate the spinal bones. At the same time it will relieve pressure on the nerves thus allowing the regeneration of the cartilage."

Opoku raised one eyebrow before staring at the screen and raising the other in shock as she watched the bones move back into position and come together whole once more; not only whole she saw but as if they had never been broken, "How is this possible?"

Fred shrugged as he concentrated on programming the next procedure in, "We control things on the micro cellular level, pretty easy actually." Rolph was the only one who noticed that not only did Fred shock both of them, but that awe and then just a slight bit of fear creep into their expressions before they got themselves under control.

An hour later, Fred stiffly rotated his neck and smiled as Rolph quickly moved over and started to massage his stiff neck, "Thank you, Love...Oboxa, you need to stay still for another twenty minutes while the system finishes. Afterwards you may get up." Grinning as he stood Fred glanced over, "I think you will find you no longer need your cane, or have to worry about further injury leaving you paralyzed."

Oboxa had been quiet after the revelation of the ability to control people on the micro cellular level. Nodding her head still deep in thought, "I thank thee for your skill, healer. I am in your debt..." she trailed off after noticing the young healer and his companion snap their heads up towards the ceiling, eyes closed in concentration.

Turning away from the wondrous equipment when Oboxa's voice trailed off, Opoku was surprised once more as she watched the healer and his companion looking up with their eyes closed. It reminded her of someone listening closely to someone speaking from above and far away.

After several minutes Fred blinked and quickly walked over to the desk and logged in bringing up a map of the available staffed trauma bays. Only Sol Station was fully staffed and the other hospitals down Earthside were seventy five percent full. Several commands later Fred was staring into the pickup, his image being transmitted to Altare Prime Trauma Center. "Prime Trauma, this is Fred Stranton...All available healers report to Volosh 9 Trauma, prepare to receive wounded from Earth." Tapping a few more commands he tied his pickup into the central command net and smiled as he saw Aaron look up and nod back at him in thanks, "Star Scout Fleet, this is Fred Stranton of Clan Stranton...Volosh 9 trauma is ready to accept patients."

"Roger that Volosh 9... Star Scout Omega inbound with ninety in five."

Nodding his head Fred stood straighter as he pulled his mic down as his hands traveled across the terminal. Finger hovering over the red flashing square, his voice rang out over the station, "Disaster Stations...All healers report to Med Bay...Incoming crush force trauma." Touching the blinking square blue lights starts flashing in the hallways and his voice started to repeat as alarms rang out over the station. Not bothering to explain, Fred walked out quickly making his way to the triage bay, his thoughts concentrating on praying that he had learned enough to do this.

Rolph seeing the questioning looks softly sighed, "One of the planets in our Empire has had a disaster hit one of the communities half an hour ago. Every Trauma Med Bay is on alert to receive injured." Stopping as he heard a noise from the hallway, Rolph stared at a long line of Bio-Tubes rushed past. Frowning in thought he notice one of the Star Scouts appear on the plasma that showed the docking area where the alien ship was docked, "Xon, I need you to watch our guests. I need to go help keep people calm." Glancing back at the two sharing a look, Rolph politely told them, "I have to leave you to go help with the injured. Xon will be here momentarily."

Opoku stepped forward, "I am an experienced healer. While I may not know how to use your equipment or your species' physiology I can do basic first aid."

Rolph stared at her a moment before nodding his head, after relaying the offer to Fred and getting back a reply. "Place your hand on my arm so we can port out. The hallways are not safe to travel with the automatics moving Bio-Tubes around right now." Appearing in the corner of the triage bay Rolph looked around as he steered Opoku out of the way so incoming healers had a place to appear. Rushing over to Fred's side he left Opoku with him before moving over to the area where the walking wounded were being transported in.

Fred, not bothering to look up, motioned for Opoku to move to the other side of the Bio-Tube, "Your offer of help is appreciated. It would be a huge help if you can remove the patient's clothing and apply the sensors and IV Cuff as quickly as you can. Then we will place the patient in the Bio-Tube so we can treat them. All except code patients will be sent to the appropriate healer...Before I forget, you need to stay out of any area where the floor is red, the automatics will not stop their movement in time for you to escape injury."

"Understood, Healer," Opoku picked up the scissors and started to remove clothing from one of the injured patients. After applying the sensors, she watched carefully as Fred placed a tube down the patient's throat and glancing up at the screen she noticed it went into the patients lungs and nodded her understanding. What shocked her was the lid moving back and sealing before a liquid rushed in, totally submerging the patient. Watching the tube leave the bay at speed she shook herself slightly before quickly moving over to the healer's side to continue working.

"Star Scout Capricorn to Volosh Trauma,"

Tapping the side of his head Fred continued working, "Go ahead, Captain Bridges."

"Be advised, we are holding multiple Code patients in the buffers...Sorry Fred, but Sol Station is swamped with Code and trauma patients," Bridges continued in a quieter voice.

Sighing as he smiled when Theo appeared, "I understand, Nathan. Theo just came aboard, he'll handle the code patients, I'll handle the traumas." Glancing around Fred spotted one of the residents, "Gordon, you're in charge of the Triage bay." Seeing the fear hidden quickly, Fred moved closer, "You are ready for this, Gordon, trust me. If I can be considered ready for all this shit you certainly are." Placing a hand on Gordon's shoulder and squeezing it, Fred smiled before motioning Theo to follow him.

Walking across the hall, Fred took a deep breath as he picked up the black servo gloves and slipped them on. Repeating the mantra of, `brain alive, the rest can be re-grown' several times, he took a deep breath and nodded as Theo placed a comforting hand on his shoulder before moving over to his side of the room as several Shaolin healers and apprentices rushed in. Closing his eyes as one of the Shaolin apprentices moved past Opoku, Fred took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he opened his eyes focusing on the bio-Tube and the apprentices; the one near the terminal, and the one slipping on his own servo gloves. "Right, let's do this people...Nathan, initiate transport. We have position one and three staffed for code patients, the other four positions are staffed and ready for the surgical traumas."

Opoku watched in shock as patients started to appear in a display of photons. It was a choreographed display of skill that amazed her. The patients would appear in the Bio-Tubes with their clothes removed, and the person nearest the terminal and screen jumped in and quickly placed the breathing tubes and sensors before pushing the red button and jumping back. She watched as the screen came to life showing the internal damage. The healer she had been assisting, who seemed to be in charge of the area, glanced at the display before his hands started to move. She moved closer and watched in wonder as damaged areas were removed, or sealed, before the patients skin was closed up. Listening to the orders given, she finally realized that the removed organs would be re-grown in place and she shook her head slowly in wonder.

Fred, on his third patient, looked at the shell shocked expression on Opoku's face for a moment before looking down and concentrating on his patient. The Shaolin apprentice's question about what to do about the damaged liver made him smile in remembrance. "If you circle the damaged area on the screen before placing an X through the middle and then tapping the question mark it will give you a perfusion rating. Personally I am not comfortable with anything under eighty percent, unless we would have to remove the whole liver then I will accept anything over fifty percent."

Following Fred's direction the apprentice smiled as he circled the lower lobe of the liver and got the answer he wanted. Circling the second lobe he tried again and grinned, "Both lower lobes being removed returns a reading of ninety nine percent."

Fred smiled as he lifted his head, "That series of questioning commands can be used for any part of the patient including broken bones. By circling the area and then tapping the question mark the system will give you very detailed information, then YOU will make the decision...If this was a true disaster the system would initiate treatment if we were overwhelmed, giving you time later to take control...or at least that is what Aaron told me. I've yet to see us get truly swamped, and with the buffers I don't foresee that ever happening."

Letting the apprentice close up, Fred removed his surgical frame before stretching the kinks out of his neck and shoulders. Smiling as Kenny pushed a straw towards his face, "Hello lover..." sighing he glanced down at Kenny who was grinning, "How goes the rescue?"

Pushing the energy drink back towards Fred's mouth, Kenny frowned, "The Star Scout Fleet evacuated everyone. Richard's idea saved a lot of people. The aftershocks are starting to roll through, and some of the buildings that looked okay collapsed..." Putting a straw in the second bottle of energy drink, Kenny moved over and offered it to the Shaolin apprentice before continuing, "There are two more Star Scouts waiting to transport their patients out of the buffers. Aaron looks happy, which is confusing."

Fred smiled at Kenny, "Remember, Love, Aaron loves being a healer, and misses it because he has all the crap he has to deal with being King." Glancing over at Kenny who was lost in thought, he noticed him smile when he worked through what he said. "Thank you for the energy drink, it will help."

Kenny looked over at Fred, "Do you want a donut or two?" Not waiting for an answer, Kenny went over to the wall with the small replicator built in and placed all the empty bottles on the pad and hit recycle. Once they were gone he tapped a few commands in and was rewarded when the transporters beamed in a box of energy donuts. Opening the lid he broke one of them apart into small bite size pieces on his way back to Fred's side and started to feed them to him.

Letting the delicious calories melt on his tongue as another patient appeared Fred grinned, "You're a life saver, Kenny. I love you."

Smiling back Kenny fed the rest of the donut to Fred before breaking up another. After Fred had eaten three donuts Kenny stared at him wide eyed as he offered one to Fred's helper, who was also looking at Fred with an awed expression as he could only get half a donut down before he felt sick.

Opoku was curious. The eating or drinking of nourishment during surgery was foreign to her training, though as she looked around she noticed that the patients were sealed in a separate environment. She also noted several people were not offered drinks, or the donuts as they were called. Instead they were offered other nourishment and refreshment from containers that were not red. Very curious over the reasons, she noticed several of the patients were definitely female. So this must be a sub-species, she concluded, as such there might be a dietary reason.

Kenny stopped as he was walking past the Kathat healer grinning as he thought of a new inexperienced race he could prank. Considering his words carefully he got a flash of her thoughts before it disappeared, grin widening as his mind turned over the information. This would need to be a several layer prank, he decided. "You're thinking really loud." Seeing her shock he lifted the red box, "Unless you're Alteran anything packaged in red would make you sick. Each of these energy donuts contain the full calories and nutrients for three days worth of meals. Our metabolism is very different than the rest." Nodding his head he grinned as the first seed was planted and he walked away leaving behind a confused healer behind him.

An hour later Fred sighed as Nathan's vice came over the speakers, "That's the last of them, Fred."

"Thank the Winds," Fred sighed as he glanced around the room. Removing the servo gloves he dropped them on the cart as he smiled at his two helpers. "Job well done, guys. Why don't you go get something to eat. I'll talk to Aaron about putting off morning rounds tomorrow; that will give us time to go over treatment plans without busting our balls."

"I heard that, Fred," Theo grinned as he walked over with the other healers now that the surgical area was empty. "Actually it is a very good idea. We can move morning rounds back to just before supper, a quick update as it were, to touch bases to make sure no emergencies need to be taken care of and back to normal the day after." Grinning at the quiet groans from several of the apprentices, Theo walked towards the door and looked out making sure the floor had returned to the normal gray.

Opoku was confused once more as most of the healers, and the ones called apprentices, made their way out of the room without cleaning up behind them. It went against all her training to leave a surgical area looking like this.

Fred stopped near the door as he tapped the commands into the terminal to start the cleansing cycle. Looking up he noticed the concerned and disgusted look on Opoku's face along with her stiff posture as she scanned the room, "Opoku...We need to vacate the room so the cleansing cycle can start."

Walking toward the young healer with both eyebrows rising towards her forehead Opoku stepped out of the room. Turning once she reached the corridor she stared back into the room, stunned as a blue glow descended on the room. The shocking part was that the blood stains were slowly fading away.

"The cleansing cycle removes everything organic from the room, then it will sterilize everything in there so it will be ready for the next emergency." Fred glanced up as he sent a message to Xon, "Xon, I'm exhausted. Where are you so I can drop off Opoku and get some rest?"

"I see. Very efficient and logical," Opoku looked back into the room in wonder, trying to come up with a way to broach the subject of getting training in their equipment and techniques; not only that but getting several working models for their use.

Looking away from Sesek and Oboxa for a moment, Xon replied to Fred with a smile, "I moved us to Aaron's office, Love...I can feel how tired you are through the link, I don't want you porting back home. Let someone else do it, love."

Escorting Opoku down several corridors, Fred finally came to Aaron's door, "I need to leave you now. I desperately need to get some rest. You'll find your friends inside with Xon." Giving her a half bow, Fred turned and saw Kenny stick his head out of the security office door and smiled at him as he made his way over. Hugging him close he sighed, "I need a hot soak then bed. Let's get someone to send us home."

Worried as he looked up at Fred and seeing how wiped out he looked, Kenny nodded as he glanced over his shoulder to his escort, "We need a ride home, please."

Aaron sighed as he sipped his juice. Looking over his desk at the plasma with the colonization numbers on them, he turned to stare at the door when he heard someone knocking, "Hello Adrian, how are you doing?"

Seeing how tired Aaron looked Adrian was glad he stopped by the kitchen first. Setting a large double chocolate brownie sundae down in front of Aaron, he chuckled as Aaron went wide eyed looking at it before picking up the spoon. "I am doing a lot better than you are right now." Waiting until Aaron had eaten about a third of the sundae and perked up, he smiled before sighing, "I don't want to add to your stress levels, but I have some curious rumors and findings from England I want to talk over with you."

Aaron peaked up over the huge bowl, "Hold that thought until I call a few others to discuss this," searching with his mind he called out, "Andrew...Richard...Edward, can all of you come to my office? Adrian walked in, he needs to discuss something about rumors in England."

Aaron had just finished his sundae and pushed the bowl away when Andrew and Richard walked in; a minute later Edward appeared and put his pack down as he pulled one of the chairs over. "Alright Adrian, we are all ears." Aaron smiled as Adrian sighed.

Looking out the wall at the Earth below Adrian sighed again, not wanting to breach the subject adding to Aaron's stress, "I have been hearing some pretty disturbing rumors from some of the immigration centers." Closing his eyes and slumping into his chair he sighed in frustration. "Unlike what we saw in New York and then California, when the worst of humanity left their children behind as they fled the territories, we have gotten several very strong rumors that the parents are abandoning their kids in England; but this time they are not fleeing, and it looks like it has been going on for decades."

Edward jumped out of his chair and stormed over to the wall and looked out, angry beyond words, trying to stay calm as he got out, "Tell me what you've heard, please."

Adrian stared at Aaron for a minute before he looked at Edward's back, "I don't have proof, mind you...well, I have proof of a small number of teens, but not as widespread as we think it really is. We're talking about thousands if what we think is true." Adrian had kept this eyes focused on Edward and saw he stiffened, "Your former Prime Minister accomplished his goal of turning your people into serfs. He created the largest welfare state the world has ever seen. Rewarding people for having as many kids as they could monetarily, but penalizing them for taking proper care of them. Add into the mix his government totally turning your education system into the biggest joke around...Well, hundreds of thousands of your people have been beaten down, then dumbed down. The thousands of children of the next generation not only will have a poorer life than their parents, but to be truthful, it won't be long before the next generation has the highest mortality rate of any generation, including during the war."

Edward had tears in his eyes as he looked out at the Earth. Melting into Aaron's embrace he turned his head and sobbed into Aaron's chest, letting all the pain he was feeling for his people's betrayal out. Aaron turned them around so he could look at Adrian, "Do you have a solution? We have to plan as if your worst estimates are true."

Andrew sat silently in shock, turning his head to look at Richard when he spoke up with conviction. "We build a series of Crèches around the country, and we send the Shaolin in en masse."

Edward pulled his head up and looked at Richard confused. Mouthing `what' at him, he listened carefully as Richard explained, "Simple really. Grandmother already gave Aaron the Letters of Marque, then the world placed all the children under our authority. So it really is as simple as going in and doing what we need to. We can model the new crèches along the lines of the ones in New York. We educate and train the teens and children, and then offer them first right after they graduate to colonize one of the worlds and grab their dreams."

Seeing that Edward and Andrew were hanging on every word, he smiled, "It will take time to revamp the education system, time these teens just don't have, but we can save this generation; or at least as many as want something better."

Aaron thought about it, "That is going to make a large portion of the teens jealous as hell. Those that have not been abandoned will be hurt that they don't have the same chance that their `poorer' age mates do." Shaking his head Aaron grinned, "No, the only way this will work is if any graduate to our standards gets the option of immigrating to one of the colonies."

"You'll have to do this to any coalition country, you realize this right?" Adrian asked, then turned as Andrew snorted.

"Only if they agree to let us build crèches in their countries," Andrew snorted as he thought about it. "Those in our crèches are going to be completely supplied with whatever is needed when they emigrate off world." Thinking some more he smiled, "Well, it's not like it is costing us anything really since we have the replicators now."

Standing up and stepping away from Aaron, Edward dried his eyes, "I'll get with Derrick tonight after talking with Grandmother. We will have areas set aside to build the crèches by noon tomorrow." Glancing back at Adrian he smiled, "Adrian, would you join me explaining to Grandmother what we've heard and decided?"

Watching Edward and Adrian leave Aaron turned back to Andrew and Richard, "It's is a step in the right direction, but ..." Aaron looked over his shoulder at the window, "Maybe it just might be better to move them all off world instead of to a Crèche. I was talking to Tommy before the emergency popped up. He was asking me about an idea he had for opening up a university; actually, he wanted it to become the premier university in the galaxy." Looking back at the staring faces, "I think what we need to do is pick one of the planets and just build our schools and Crèches on up there, and move all the rescued there instead of plopping facilities all over the world."

"A very good idea," Tommy smiled as he walked back in Aaron's office. "While porting the MCAs around I did a search with Corey and found the perfect planet. It was the backup planet from the previous timeline; the only difference is it is not tropical." Tommy hugged everyone before sitting on Aaron's desk and hijacking his terminal to pull up the data. "It has four very distinct seasons and two large continents."

Aaron stared at the plasma for several moments as he read the overview of Tommy's choice. Changing the screen he gazed at the blue green world orbiting Proxima Seven, "All right, borrow half a dozen of the replicator ships and build the Crèche schools and the University." Hands flying across the terminal as he sent emails, Aaron grinned as Derrick, along with a confused looking Toshi, appeared in his office after he called him.

Smiling at Derrick, Aaron motioned him over, "I have a project for you, Love." Pointing to the screen, "The fourth planet orbiting Proxima Seven, the new home of our galactic university; and on the larger continent, the home of our new crèches, or it will be once you build them."

Derrick looked around frowning as he pulled chair over and sat down, "I think I'm missing most of the picture here. Someone want to fill me in, please?"

Once Andrew and Richard finished re-telling what was said and decided, Aaron looked over at Derrick, "I need you to take some of your replicator ships and move them to Proxima as quickly as you can. Concentrate on building a duplicate of the youngsters' row from Altare Prime. We need housing before noon tomorrow if possible; the schools and infrastructure can wait a couple of days."

Derrick pulled his P.A.D.D. out and started to scroll through designs, smiling when he found the one he was looking for. "Okay, I can have the first of several villages built before I come back for supper tonight." Chuckling he placed the picture of the village on the plasma, "There is going to be a group of teens very happy to learn their design is going to finally be used."

Standing so he could move closer to the plasma, Aaron stared at the design concentrating on the layout before chuckling, "Someone has been perverted to the dark side, I see. Either that or Pete has taken up design when I wasn't looking." Staring a moment longer at the ultra modern futuristic looking cityscape Aaron nodded, "Go ahead and build it. Build it on the smaller land mass, near the tropics if you can so the seasons are milder on the kids." Moving back to his desk he smiled as the first responses of his emails walked in through his office door, "Greetings Shaolin, thank you for coming so quickly."

Shaolin Xi bowed as he smiled, "Greetings Great Dragon, I came as soon as I received your message. How can we be of assistance?"

Richard smiled, "Thank you for coming. It's Edward and me, I guess, that need the help of the Shaolin the most." Seeing he had the undivided attention of the Shaolin master, "Adrian recently discovered something rather frightening to us. It seems the old government rewarded the citizens for treating their children badly and abandoning them; not to mention the education system was designed to keep them uneducated and at the level of a serf." Taking a breath he pointed to the plasma with the plans for the city on Proxima Seven on it, "Derrick is going to build that city on one of our worlds, the one Tommy found to build our Universities and schools on." Shifting in his seat Richard tilted his head as he looked between the plasma and the Shaolin, "Derrick told us he can have the city built by tonight and ready to move the children we rescue into it tomorrow afternoon." Taking a deep breath he leaned forward, "Now, my request is twofold: the station and the city needs to be manned, but, more importantly, we need the left hand of the dragon to scour my cousin's country and rescue all the children and teens who are unwanted so we can move them to their new home."

Xi stared at the plasma with a small smile on his face, "Is this world to be set aside for only males?" Shaking his head he smiled openly, "Forgive me, I realize you said this would also be the world you will be building the schools of higher learning on. Our junior apprentices and their teachers will be relieved to have a proper environment for learning...how long until the schools and housing will be built?"

Derrick looked up from his P.A.D.D. where he was going through schedules and how the replicator ships were being used. "I can have them done by the end of the week." Looking over at Aaron he grinned, "I'm assuming you want the whole gamut of higher level doctorate programs?"

Grinning, Aaron nodded, "Everything from accounting to medicine, the whole range; and Tommy suggested that we make this university the most sought after one in the empire." Tipping his chair back as he thought about it, "We can even use the campus to train the healers in our equipment. It will streamline our resources." Setting his chair upright once more, he saw a small flashing icon on his desk and wondered which of his loves had done something to cause the tutor program to email their results to him.

Seeing that Aaron was distracted by something on his desk Xi smiled, "A worthy project. My clan shall be ready to assist Edward tomorrow. We shall make sure the station is properly staffed and the city has someone to welcome those you rescue tomorrow, Dragon Lord...Until tomorrow, Great Dragon." Bowing once more he quickly made his way out of the office, before porting back to Centauri station on his way back to his clan compound.

Waving goodbye, distracted by what he was reading, Aaron shook his head in wonder before looking up at Richard. "Is there something you want to tell me, Love, about your accomplishments?" Seeing the confusion on Tommy's face and the pride on Andrew's, he looked over at Richard and rephrased it, "Calling Doctor Richard England Stranton..."

Richard looked over, broken out of his thoughts, "Yes well, according to the tutor that is." Shrugging his shoulders as if it was not important, "I had Corey's help creating the teacher. I guess the doctorate in genetic engineering came about this afternoon after creating the new species of cats for the Beastmasters. Anyway, there are twenty four embryos that will be decanted in around one hundred and twenty five days." Tapping a message out on the terminal to Donny asking him to stop by in the morning, he looked up at the shocked expression on Aaron's face, "What?"

Shaking his head, Aaron stared at Richard, "I'm still trying to figure out how you earned two doctorates and a master's degree in a week's time. Even with our modifications and Clan enhancements a week is just a little on the short side."

Blinking at Aaron for a moment, Richard smiled shyly, "Well, that would be the teacher's doing. It is designed to implant information and skills directly into the brain while wearing it. The only downside is you have to be actually doing the work for the skills to settle in permanently. I had no clue that using it would give me the degrees, I just wanted to be able to be what you called me."

Scrunching up his face in thought, Aaron stared at Richard, mind racing to figure out what Richard had done and how. "Okay...I can see how it works, and I can even vaguely understand why you did something like this, but I think we need to keep it within the Clan."

Grinning, Richard jumped up and hugged Aaron, "I already designated the teacher as a clan secret, plus when I had Corey help me build it we tied it directly into the Clan marker. No marker, it won't work...Oh, I also added a failsafe so the person using it had to be well into puberty before it would work."

Aaron slowly let out the breath he was holding, "Good! While I'm all for giving our people a helping hand the possibility of misuse can be frightening. Hopefully Corey programmed the teacher so it could not reprogram our brains, only install knowledge." Sitting back and pulling Richard back with him he looked over at Andrew and then Tommy, "So, which of you are going to be the next person to use Richard's invention?"

"Mark asked to be next. He wants to get his vet certification out of the way, and his genetic engineering one too." Andrew smiled, "I am still deciding what I want to specialize in. I finally got the assignment you gave me weeks ago done, including finding the staff for the project. My only question is, when do they leave?"

Aaron looked at the grinning imp across from him and shook his head. He should have known, "It will be a few months yet. After all, I haven't even told Pete and Xon that I want the searcher built." Chuckling he winked, "Though I have to wonder if Pete snooped into the files and found the searcher plans yet."

Tommy snorted in amusement, "I can almost guarantee he's not found them yet. If he had, he would be whining and hounding you to let him build it."

Calming down after laughing, Aaron looked over at Tommy, "I think we need to wait before telling him about the project. We need to get the treaty signing out of the way, plus all the rest of the little projects and problems we've been working on before starting a new one." Standing up while still holding Richard close, Aaron kissed him before letting his legs slide through his hands so his feet would touch the floor, "I think we are done for today. Why don't we go home and play with our sons, maybe take them swimming?"

"It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, it is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning, it is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion."