by Pam Uphoff
Ryol snickered. “I’ve heard all about the tradition of escape by orgy.”
“Yeah. Worked like a charm that time, too.” Rael shook her head. “And I was born ten months later.”
Arno blinked. “Oh. So you’re half-Fallen, too. Or . . . we’re three quarters . . .”
“Yeah. Didn’t matter when I was just your aunt. But . . .”
Ryol clutched her hair. “But you decided to not lie to us by not telling us.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry to keep hammering you guys with this but . . . you have a right to know.”
Arno relaxed suddenly. “Yeah, well . . . I’m still a citizen of the Empire and, and, well, sort of a Oner.”
He was promptly grabbed and hugged, and Aunt Rael only let him go enough to add Ryol to the hug.
She let them go abruptly. “All right, you two. Let’s get you back home before I decide to keep you!”
Which was sort of what I was afraid of when you were so tense.
“The only problem is figuring out what to call you. I mean, Biomom’s kind of clunky, and BM is . . .”
“Arno!” Ryol shrieked.
Aunt Rael laughed. So they tried all the possibilities—the more absurd the better—all the way home.
Where Princess Magnificent Mom dropped them at the curb and didn’t come in to talk to anyone.
Chapter Twenty-two
And Changes at Home
"So, this position with Interior Relations is right up my alley. I’ve got year and a half to go on the External contract, which is right about when Subdirector Isku plans to retire. I talked with Izzo, and neither of us think we’ll need an extension, so long as everything stays smooth. I work with Interior Director Ajki and his people regularly. Good people, the kind of job I like and am good at. So a position there is irresistible."
Arno remembered to chew, swallowed. Subdirector! Dad’s going to be a subdirector! "So are we going to move to Paris? I mean, I know you’ve been commuting to Gate City but . . ." He stopped, because both the parents were nodding.
Ryol was silent, big-eyed and thinking.
"From Paris, the time zone jumps are just brutal, even for weekend commutes. We'll keep this house, of course. Because there’s no telling where we might be, longer term. And with the corridors we can come home regularly, so you'll see your friends, lots." Mother was eyeing them worriedly.
Ryol gulped. "But we'll go to school there?"
Erk! Good or bad? I mean, no problem with the work . . . but all new fellow students? Arno took a deep breath. I can do this. No big deal. I'll still see my friends . . . I haven't told them about . . . my biofather. I haven't told anyone. The longer I wait the shorter time I'll have to be harassed in school about it. Good. And Ryol swore she'd kill me if I let it out, so she . . . will probably not tell her girlfriends.
“We’ll stay here for the rest of this school year and all of next year. Then over that summer, we’ll move to Paris. Or, at least that’s the plan, for now.”
"So we’ll do the first year of high school here?" Arno relaxed a bit. We’ll be with friends. So even if it leaks, it won’t be horrible. Or if it is, we’ll be moving away, anyway. This will work.
"Yes." Mother's shoulders relaxed. "In fact, while you two were busy last week, I've been looking at houses in Paris. I know the area where I’ll be wanting to buy, and there’s an excellent college prep school close by. Rael’s house is in the area—and she suggested we live there for a while and really get to know the area before we buy. So we'll move there, first. Sort of, since Rael’s going to leave her furniture there." Her mouth turned down, unhappily. “Of course she offered that before . . . well, when the possibility was first floated. Maybe she’s not too mad at me.”
Arno winced. “She was fine, while we were on Embassy.” At least where it showed. ”Umm, a private prep school? Aren’t they expensive?”
“Yes, but you two need the advanced curricula. They have a very good reputation for their science program.”
Ryol swallowed. "A College Prep School. In Paris! OhMyOne!"
Arno nodded. “We’ve actually met some kids from Paris, on this trip. I don’t know what high schools they’ll go to.”
Ryol perked up. “Of course! I’ll ask them.”
“Well they’re our age, so they may not know yet.”
Their mother shook her head. “We’re actually a bit late, there’s already a waiting list for the 1413-14 school year. All my plans may be in vain.”
Arno considered Aunt Rael’s house. Remodeled by Xen Wolfson. All the cool things, the windows, the bathrooms . . . “Is Aunt Rael going to still live there?”
“She said she’d stay in the barracks. That she rarely stays there more than a day or two a week. So there will be room for us all.” Mother smiled wryly. “Without a cook. And Little Ox will be starting school, so Jess said she’d only come long enough to get Razzie and Ox settled in and off to school.”
Arno nodded, a bit uncertain. The nanny. She helped raise us all. She’s been family since . . . forever. It’s going to be really weird. I seem to be losing old family as fast as I’m gaining new.
***
“Gior’s going there. She was impressed that we weren’t scared off by the cost.” Ryol eyed Mother.
“We can afford it.”
“Voyr’s not, but while we were talking her mother walked in and said Voyr was going back to Embassy for another week of training. Next week.”
Mother frowned and reached across the back of the couch to snag her comp. “I doubt they . . . never mind . . . The One agrees with Wolfson that the most magically strong should return soon, so they have arranged for you to go . . . Next week.”
Ryol smirked. “So when do they want Arno back?”
Mother blinked. “You’re both going next week.”
Ryol yelped indignantly. “But he hasn’t touched the One!”
Arno pinched his thumb and first finger together and formed a bright spark. Opened his hand and let it fade away. “Master Xen said I blossomed so quietly, no one noticed, including me.” He shrugged like it was nothing much.
“You, you! Why didn’t you say . . .” Ryol stopped as her mother whooped and jumped up to grab her idiot brother to hug him.
Great. Now we get the out-to-dinner and the party with his friends. Well, they’re my friends too.
It’ll be fun. Except for not telling them where we went, or where we’re going. Or why we’re missing a week of school. Pity Oners don’t get very sick very often. Maybe I won’t say anything. I’ll just mysteriously disappear.
Chapter Twenty-three
Disco Days
“Voila! One more room added to the Kids’ Lair!” Xen stepped back and waved Lala in.
The new room, between Wavelength’s and Styx’s, was exceedingly barren.
Kassy followed Lala in. “What color are you going to paint it?”
“Want to see ours? I did mine in mint green, and everyone says it looks like a hospital.” Styx snorted. “It doesn’t. At. All.”
Lala poked her head in . . . the bed was covered with a picture quilt of a forest, with half a dozen shades of green and brown. “Wow! That’s fantastic!”
Xen looked in and grinned. “Want to shop for a bedspread first? Then we can coordinate the paint with it. And rugs, and however much furniture you want.”
“Can we come too?” Kassy grinned. “Shopping with Dad is fun. He’ll buy anything you want.”
“Oh, surely not anything!” Xen failed to look serious, relaxing as Lala’s glow perked up. Definitely in need of coddling. “Why don’t we start at that fantastic quilt store on Earth 1960?
***
“So. Were you all suitably impressed by Comet Fall building techniques?” Xen grinned at his fellow agents.
Why the wary looks, guys? I’m just going to put you to work, if I can.
Trace frowned. “But you’re just dumping the sewage into the big tunnels. It’s going to stink.”
“Nope. I’ve got the
molecular breakdown spells to put on all the side pipes. By the time it hits the tunnels, it’ll just be highly mineralized, completely sterilized water.
“So, who among you wants to come learn the techniques? Both building and purifying. And, of course, anyone else in your embassies, and the kids and all.”
Warric and Trace exchanged grins. “We’re coming. Arbolia needs those purification spells.”
Cactus sniffed. “And where are you going to put them?”
“Anywhere we can.” Warric shrugged. “Pity we can’t put it on the whole river.”
Trace frowned. “Can we put it on rocks and drop them in the river?”
Xen snickered. “That would probably work in a small way. Much better to purify it closer to the source.”
The Cove Island pair exchanged stares, and the younger one nodded. “I’d like to see it. Try to learn it.”
Poor kid, but you’re doing well at the beginning exercises, and I suspect your Admiral will be wishing he’d been a bit less stiff necked from the start. I don’t think he realizes just how far behind he is already.
Noah Verd shrugged. “I’ll come, and no doubt a bunch of the teenagers will want to learn as well.
Great. Now I’m training Sea Wolves.
Inso and Jiol had been trading looks, and no doubt words. Now they both looked at Xen. “We’ll be there. Just so there are responsible adults around.”
Which, given the number of kids—well teenagers—that followed, was not a bad idea.
But he had to hand it to the Rip Crossers. About every third manhole was not at the top of the arched tunnel, but rather up a vertical ladder to the side.
And most of the bas-relief artwork was innocuous. He spotted Ra’d shaking his head at some of it. And snickering at others.
Opposite the Earth Embassy’s residential tower, Xen stopped at the side pipe. “Now, for you who don’t think plumbing is beneath you, the tower has a two drop pipes to their septic system which in turn connects to a large drain field.
“We’re going to connect to the two drop pipes.” He looked back at the audience. “Now everyone in the tower has been told to not run water for an hour. But of course people will forget, so, umm, you might want to not stand right in front of the pipe.”
The Compass had shoved a two foot diameter pipe up to the wall. Probably overkill even for a tower that size. He hoped. Should have done a bit more research!
He opened his shields to outgoing outer thoughts and actions. And shoved the hole deeper, compacting the sediments all around. Pulled out a block of granite and sent it down the hole to line it all in rock, pushed again, right up against the basement wall of the tower.
“Now, before we connect, I’m going to put the purification spells on this pipe. Those of you with the training, and ability to see magic . . . this is the spell. It finds large molecules and breaks them down into smaller and smaller units, allowing specific combinations to remain. Water, of course. Most organics are composed of varying amounts of Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen. This part of the spell right here, prioritizes the formation of Nitrogen gas, N2. This one H2O. Then solid carbon. Not CO2 because we need to oxidize the trace minerals, and because we don’t want the, umm, art connoisseurs to be asphyxiated.”
That got a laugh, but also an uneasy shift.
“We’ve built in ventilation, and we’ll be checking regularly that we’ve got enough air blowing through to maintain a breathable atmosphere in the main tunnels.” Xen rolled up a dozen copies of the spell and shoved them down the pipe, impressing them invisibly into the rock liner.
Then through the basement wall. He could feel the drop pipes, right where the schematics said they’d be, and the maintenance workers skittering nervously away from the pipe growing through their wall. Xen tossed a couple of iron bars down the pipe to turn into support straps. Why they wanted the pipe up by the ceiling rather than on the floor, was a mystery, but he made sure it was going to stay there as he extended it and surrounded the ends of the drop pipes. A stub past the second one, and molded to the standard pipe end with a screwed on cap they’d asked for. And that some brave fellow was holding up while Xen molded the rock around it.
“Right. Now we back up to the drop pipes and just sort of smear them out and angle them a bit so the water coming down them doesn’t smash straight down on the horizontal rock pipe and overstress the hangers.”
The water didn’t spray very far, and dropped off quickly.
“And that’s one hook up done. Anyone want to work on the next hook up?”
Zodiac, who was sort of a semi-unofficially-not-really-adopted cousin volunteered.
A batch of his age-mates, eighteen to twentyish, from all over closed in to watch carefully. All four of the Discordian boys, mingling with the older set of the Farmer kids. A couple of the Oner girls looked a bit put out because the new boys were more interested in Kyle and Vero than them.
Sticking to Comet Fall girls, or are they impressed with the girls’ level of expertise?
He caught a snatch of conversation. “. . . you can do dimensional gates?”
“Not yet, still working on corridors.”
Then again, their fathers may have suggested that recruiting some gate makers would be a good idea. At least they’re trying to charm the older girls and aren’t homing in on Lala. She’s hanging with Styx and Kassy . . . and the Purple kids, who are younger and three of the five are girls. Good.
“Right. For this hookup, we’re going to push a pipe in here to meet up with the end of the sewer that runs through the Disco housing. All the piping already has purification spells on them, so it’s just a matter of draining them this way instead of the other.”
Zodiac had had training with Nil and with the Rip Crossers (when he could get away from his grandmother long enough) as well as learning various sorts of magic from Xen here.
“Think about how you’ve worked wood, compacting and drying it for strength. That’s what you’ll be starting with, here.” Xen talked him through it, and then rock molding, and the final hook up.
“Good job.” Xen thumped him on the shoulder and walked down to the next side pipe. “Disco HQ. Volunteers?”
He called it quits at noon and chased everyone out. He and Q could have done the whole system in a day, but as a teaching experience it was priceless. Three or four connections a day, and I’ll have a dozen trained magical engineers.
But now I suppose I’d best get back to the office and find out if anything is going on.
***
Chris Hanger was back. “. . . to smarm Otilia, and she led him on just far enough, close enough that she could dodge over and get a good look in one of the crates. Rifles for the friendly natives, that they were encouraging to drive out the natives who didn’t want to lease their minerals.” Chris shrugged. “I suggested they go mine on an Empty World. When the company flack said they couldn’t get a permit for one, from the government, I suggested—to the government rep who’d showed up by then, that letting the company apply to Disco for an Empty World might preempt one of those uncomfortable visits, sorry Xen, from Captain Wolfson . . . well, I think they’ll expedite the permits.”
Xen snorted. “Always happy to be wielded like a club.”
Lon just shook his head. “At least it works. Nothing else seems to.”
Chris grinned. “Really. I had no idea that the mere mention of your name can make grown men break into a nervous sweat. Or turn beet red with anger.”
“Yeah. You’ve got to apply the club with some degree of finesse. Maybe I’d better go talk to these natives. They may have changed their minds about the gate to Earth. Or not been properly sampled in the first place.” Xen eyed the cheerful man. “I take it the office is otherwise working out?”
“Oh yeah. I think the entire staff is undercover military intel. Bright, well trained, good hard workers. The various companies just love coming to us first for a browse through the catalogue. That mining company we had the issue with actually
jumped on a Barren World as their preferred place for mining operations.”
“Excellent.”
Chris grinned. “You won’t say that if every company that came to talk to us actually proceeds with the purchase and permitting.”
“Want to bet? An actual reason to go out and explore more worlds? I’ll jump for it.” Xen grinned. “Do you suppose they’re in competition with the Empire, with their forty Evacuation Worlds?”
Chris shook his head. “Earth has more in their ‘catalogue’ than the Empire does. The whole issue is having to pay Disco—you—for a gate, or having to spend that much for a few minutes of powered gate time. Every time. It really irritates the government.”
“And everyone else. I need to train more of those Purple kids, and hopefully find some with dimensional talent. I don’t know if that will help calm the Earth down, or turn the kids’ lives into a nightmare of being controlled and used.”
“Ouch. And only one way to find out.” Chris chewed on that like he didn’t much like the flavor.
:: Xen! ::
The mental feel of a witch he knew. :: Ultramarine? ::
:: Thank the Old Gods you’re here! Lady Gisele’s away and I’ve got a really nasty genetic disease here . . . ::
:: Be right over. :: Xen looked back at Lon, who had enough experience to recognize a mental interruption. “Ultramarine, one of the medgicians at the hospital needs some help. I’ll be back . . . whenever.”
“Good luck.”
As he headed back down the stairs, he heard Chris behind him . . . “I know he works there, sometimes, but I don’t remember anyone ever calling for him to come help.”
Lon chuckled. “It’s either something genetic, something huge, or someone acting up.”
***
