Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:22:44 -0400
From: Ron <wolfwalker2@verizon.net>
Subject: TEEP chapter 35

"Aaron, where are you?" Kevin's mental question intruded on his sleep and
opening his eyes, Aaron looked up to the night sky and grinned, "In my large
hammock near the hot springs with a luscious body on either side of me, want
to join in for round four?" he sent a giggle and a loving caress.

"Round four, are you trying to wear them out or something?" Kevin sent as he
sat on Aaron's bed and laughed at the image Aaron sent of a sleeping and
exhausted Pete and Tommy on either side of him. "Is there a reason why all
three of you are sleeping under the stars? That is besides the threat you
uttered to Andrew and Tyler to lock them in a bedroom until they drained
each other dry. Tyler, in the back of his mind, is thinking you are upset
with him."

Sending back an image of him wearing a sheepish expression, Aaron sighed,
"Oops, I had hoped that I could nudge him and Andrew together for the night.
I had already promised Tommy the two of us would be together at first and
after talking with Tyler, I had hoped they would get too busy to remember
that each of them wanted to try to drain me dry."

Snuggling closer to his two lovers for the night, "Is there anyone else on
my bed but you? If not can you step off to one side and let me borrow your
eyes and I'll port us back without waking these two."

Jumping off the bed and pulling back the top sheet and blankets Kevin held
back his giggle as Aaron holding onto Pete and Tommy appeared on top of the
bed, with Aaron in the middle with a nice hard on pointing in the air. Not
wanting to wake either of the two exhausted looking teens, well alright
sleeping peacefully Kevin pathed, "Dear god I know for a fact you got some
yesterday morning and now several hours ago, so good lord talk about
stamina."

Laughing mentally Aaron maneuvered to create some room in the bed, "Love, if
those two are still awake, drop a hint in their ears to get here before I
wake up and Tyler will see I'm not hiding from him, then crawl your ass in
bed with us, so we can snuggle," closing his eyes briefly, he opened them
slightly as Kevin crawled back onto the bed pulling the covers up as he
snuggled between Pete and Aaron, kissing Kevin, he snuggled up and all four
were soon asleep.

Early the next morning, Aaron woke when he felt air movement near his face
and reaching out with his senses he found Tyler not that far away. Rolling
over in the direction he sensed Tyler was standing Aaron slowly opened his
eyes to see that the disturbance he had felt was Tyler throwing the blanket
over himself after pulling his chair over to block the path to the bathroom
so he could curl up in it, glancing at the clock he quietly groaned, four
thirty, another hour of sleep... of what could have been sleep.

Being very careful not to disturb any of his sleeping lovers, Aaron finally
made it off the bed and silently walked over to the chair and knelt down
next to it and looked Tyler in the eyes and whispered, "That not only will
make you sore and uncomfortable,  you will barely be able to move in the
morning, follow me."

Standing up and moving around the chair leading towards his closet, Aaron
glanced over his shoulder to see Tyler drag the chair to one side and rush
to his side sleepily too tired to chuckle in amusement, Aaron led Tyler into
the shower, touched the panel and programmed the shower for sore muscle
relief and laughed when Tyler screeched out in surprise as the water hit
him. Grabbing the soap, Aaron started to wash Tyler's hair when the shower
cycle paused; the jets stopped and instead filled the shower stall with hot
steam.

Tyler, feeling his head being massaged and washed, leaned back into Aaron
and was pleasantly surprised with how good it felt, "Were you hiding from us
last night? We came looking for you twice and you were not here."

Lifting Tyler's arms so he could wash the underarm area, Aaron made his way
down Tyler's body, lathering him up before the timer hit zero, "Not hiding
from you so much, more like seriously occupied and we moved from the hot
springs to the hammock in between round two and round three."

Soaping himself up, Aaron smiled as Tyler turned around in awe, "Three,
round three? How many rounds did you guys do it before you came back?"

"Depends on how you want to count them I guess," Aaron held his arms up as
the timer hit zero and the jets blasted them from all sides, catching Tyler
by surprise once more. Laughing, Aaron waited a moment before the shower cut
off once more and the cyclone effect of the extreme warm dry air started to
buffet them. Once the cycle was complete, Aaron opened the door and ushered
Tyler towards the sink and started to brush his teeth after finding a spare
toothbrush in the drawer and handing it over to Tyler.

Once clean and ready for the day, Aaron placed his communicator over his ear
and strapped on his scanner and P.A.D.D. and placing his arm around Tyler's
shoulder, walked out of the closet and smiled at the sleeping trio before
heading towards the upstairs kitchen for a quick glass of juice. Pouring a
glass of juice for Tyler and handing it over, Aaron stood on the other side
of the small counter and looked at him as he drank half the glass in one
steady gulp before refilling it and asking, "So was your night with Andrew
everything you had dreamed it could be?"

Setting his glass down on the counter, Tyler smiled at the memory,
"Everything and more, he made me feel special and wanted, and we talked a
lot in between, it was not all sex," Tyler quickly added as he picked up his
glass for another sip of juice, "This is good, what kind is it?"

"My own special blend," looking through the glass front Aaron read his
handwriting, "this one is a blend of five different tropical fruits; the
predominant one in this blend is Pomegranate."

"So why were you hunting us down last night, I would have thought you would
be busy getting to know Andrew better?" Aaron asked, as he grabbed a bottle
of the high energy drink out of the fridge, "before I forget, has any one
warned you about eating or drinking anything out of red containers?"

Tilting his head as he looked at the bottle, Tyler thought about it, "Not
that I remember, why?"

Reaching back into the freezer compartment Aaron pulled out the container
with his donuts in them and opened the lid, "Each one of these donuts have
as much food as you would normally eat in three days all concentrated down
into a convenient tasty treat, the high energy drinks probably have as many
nutrients besides calories for a full day in them.they will make a non
Alteran extremely sick, I think you already can guess our metabolisms are
vastly different than yours." Looking wistfully at the container as he
started to put it back, Aaron thought what the hell and pulled one of the
donuts out. Munching on it Aaron let the bliss of the calories hit him and
held back groaning in pleasure.

Tyler was awed once more and then thinking about what Aaron was eating he
turned slightly gray as the thought of a big breakfast after three days
worth of food was sickening,  "Right, if it is wrapped in red don't eat it,
ever."

Laughing, Aaron shook his head as he popped the last bite in his mouth and
swallowed, "Not ever. Once you're altered, then you can safely eat anything
in red," looking at Tyler as if examining him for a flaw, "that is if you
want to join us as much as we want you to join."

"That's one of the things Andrew and I talked about last night, and Kevin
showed me THE TALK so I know how things are supposed to work," Tyler giggled
before placing his glass in the sink and giving it a quick wash before
placing it in the rack, "Did Thomas really get drunk after Pete was finished
with his explanation to him?"

Laughing, Aaron pulled Tyler close so they could walk next to each other and
put his arm back around his shoulder, "He sure did. Friedrich carried him
out of the local pub outside the naval gates in Elswick. Had to let him
sleep it off."

"So what happens with me now, I mean did I get to be number four on your
list?" Tyler asked shyly, as they entered Aaron's office and he sat down
logging into the terminal to check his mail.

Pulling Tyler around so he was sitting on one of his legs and then closing
them, trapping his legs between his, "Yes, you're number four, what did you
and Andrew decide about having a son together?"

Leaning into Aaron's chest, Tyler smiled, "You know it is very strange to be
talking about having a son after all, I still had three years until grads."

Picking and choosing emails to open, Aaron smiled back down at Tyler who was
absentmindedly twirling his fingers around his hard nipple, "Well, there are
two ways to handle this, both of you wait a couple of years until you're
both ready and you have a son then get altered, or you both create a son now
and place him in stasis sleep before he is born, and then get altered. The
advantage of option two is that you both become Alteran's before Edward has
his own sons."

"This is way too weird," Tyler looked towards the monitor and noticed the
email about finances, and became interested in what he was seeing.

"Talk it over with Andrew later; after all, it is both of your decisions,"
Aaron told him as he typed out the orders to convert a good portion of the
income into gold bullion before going on to the next email.

A half hour later, a freshly scrubbed Kevin walked into the office and
kissed Aaron, and to Tyler's surprise, included him in the morning kiss
routine before heading out to the gestalt point. Logging off, Aaron opened
his legs letting Tyler up, and gave him a nudge so he could stand and they
followed Kevin to the Hall. Then Aaron walked around greeting everyone
before it was time to start porting out for morning chores.

Tyler, spotting Andrew, drifted over to his side and joined his work group
as Edward left Derrick and David's side to join with Aaron who was going to
cover for Tommy this morning so he could fix breakfast.

"Good morning Edward, are you ready to get to work?" Aaron smiled as he took
Edward's hand and ported them to the aquaculture facility where they met
Tommy's crew, and Edward jumped in with the feeding duties while Aaron
oversaw operations and scheduled the harvesting of several tanks before it
was time for them to move to the sea farm to feed.

Finishing up the chores, Aaron went round to give all of Tommy's crew the
hugs they wanted, before they were happy and lined up to port away. Grabbing
onto Edward, he ported them to the Clan Hall and after a quick wash, they
made their way through the line. Aaron grabbed some sausage and waffles with
his scrambled eggs, smiled at the open mouthed shock that Tyler sent his way
and turned back to his plate to enjoy breakfast.

The whispered conversation eventually made the rounds of the table and
Kevin, along with Pete and Tim picked up their plates, plopped them down
across from Aaron and glared at him, "What?" he questioned, fork halfway to
his mouth.

"No more skipping meals, you're still too skinny," Tim scolded him, as Aaron
shrugged and continued eating. "It's not like I'm not eating, you know," he
thought he should point out some aspect in his defense."

"No nookie on days you skip meals," Mark called out from across the room,
and everyone laughed at Aaron's horrified expression.

Shoji in a bold move for him, due to his upbringing, filled another plate
full of food, came up behind Aaron and transferred it over to his plate and
leaned over whispering in his ear, "We are having lo-mien with lunch," he
left the table after Aaron perked up with a smile on his face.

On his way back, he stopped by Brian's place and handed over a chip, "Would
you please add these vegetables to your gardens, they will help with my
lunch preparations and his Majesty's health."

Looking up and seeing that almost everyone was done Aaron stood causing the
trio of watchdogs to glare, "If I could have your attention before we break
up, as soon as I finish breakfast there will be a Clan Meeting in my common
room, so for our honorary members I must apologize for asking you to stay
out here until we are finished. The rest of you, please make your way to the
common room and as soon as my minders agree that I've eaten enough for five,
I'll join you." Aaron sat back down and ignored the glares, before leaning
forward, "I appreciate you caring, guys, but I don't think I am going to get
any fatter than I am now, no matter how hard you try to stuff me, it's not
going to happen."

Standing up, after spearing his last sausage link, Aaron went into the
kitchen to wash his plate and glass; he smiled at the six people being
excluded from the talks and walked with his concerned nannies towards the
Clan common room.

"What do you mean when you say you will never get any fatter than you are
now?" Kevin wanted to know; maybe they were being too harsh on Aaron.

"What you see is what you get, I will never get more than two percent of
body fat, but more like one percent, my DNA is designed that way," Aaron
stopped when they passed through the entry and flipped a hidden switch
erecting a bright red energy field across the doorway. Counting heads from
the top of the balcony as he looked down into the common room he had to
smile before making his way to the steps so he could make his way to the
chair someone had pulled over near his bedroom door, and he sat down.

"What we are going to be talking about probably would be considered way past
Clan Seal, we are discussing things that will find their way to the Clan
Secrets files." Seeing the serious looks on everyone's faces, even Kenny the
prankster, Aaron smiled, "Before we get to the problem Pete and Tommy
discovered yesterday." Aaron trailed off as he noticed Damien rubbing his
leg and then wince in pain and rub his temple.

Pulling out his scanner before he had realized it, Aaron had it pointed at
Damien and halfway across the room before his brain caught up with the fact
he stood up, "How long have you been in pain, Damien?"

"Off and on for a couple of days now," Damien looked up as he watched the
scanner move down his body and saw Fred standing next to Aaron watching the
readings closely. "I thought I overdid it or something."

Confused at the readings, Aaron did the data dump to Damien's records before
turning the scanner on Kenny for comparison; "Hey, I'm not hurting," Kenny
was scared, as Aaron frowned very rarely when dealing with them.

Patting Kenny's knee reassuringly he nodded towards Doug and Pat and caught
Fred's scanner moving over Doug before he changed some settings, after doing
a dump to Kenny's file and pointed it at the medallion. There Aaron let his
expression show his surprise, "Well shit, no one ever said the medallions
could do that."

"Do what?" the concern was evident in David's voice, as he moved closer to
his brother.

"Alter a person to make them Alteran," Aaron looked at Fred who nodded his
head, "They're the same as Kenny, forty percent Alteran."

Porting one of the high energy drinks to him, Aaron caught it and handed it
to Damien who looked at it like a snake about to strike, "Don't worry
Damien, it's safe for you to drink now." Sitting down so he was facing
Damien, he motioned for him to drink up, "Trust me, it will help with the
pain and soreness, it seems that besides identifying you as Clan, those
medallions do one extra thing the archives never mentioned."

Smiling when Damien took a tentative sip and smiled before gulping it
greedily, "Damien's DNA has been altered slowly, and he is starting puberty,
well at least the first stage so far, I had done a little bit of research on
the medallions before handing them out, as I wanted to make sure they were
safe for those that had not gone through the alterations process yet."
Glancing back at Kevin, "This ties in with your curiosity yesterday about
how I knew the Shaolin was not a descendant of Clan Stranton, all Clan
members DNA are altered slightly away from the Alteran norm so that our
technology will respond to you without fail, a just in case failsafe."

Smiling at Damien who looked confused and happy alternating between the two,
"Damien here was closest to entering puberty of the four non altered Clan
members, and when I gave them the symbol of the Clan to wear, I assumed they
would stay dormant until they had undergone alteration when they reached
full puberty.I was wrong. The programming in the medallions decided to alter
their DNA to Alteran slowly, so that it could complete its primary
programming of inserting the Clan alteration sequences into their DNA."

"I'm sorry you four, I never even thought the matrix programming in the
medallions had that type of fuzzy logic, or I would have asked you before
putting the medallions on each of you," pointing his finger at Damien.
"Damien here is entering puberty, so his metabolism is speeding up which let
the medallion increase the alterations to an accelerated level, right now he
is fully Alteran and his body is preparing itself to go to the next stage of
puberty and unfortunately, you will experience breakthrough sickness, in
truth, as if you were one of our children born as Alteran."

"Does this mean I can get off restriction on bed partners now?" Damien
smiled, as he looked slyly at his future lovers who all laughed.

"Well, I can see you're not all that bothered by this," Aaron laughed, as he
stood up and went back to his chair and sat down as he considered the
request, "Six inches if it does not hurt," he told Damien to his huge smile,
as he sat down. "But the downside is, you will be the first to experience
breakthrough sickness, you can drink those energy drinks when you feel sore
or in pain, that is the signal your body is telling you it is seriously
lacking nutrients and is very unhappy."

Letting his eyes fall on the other three he smiled, "Which means you three
that you should pay attention to how Damien handles the next few months, as
when you hit puberty, you will be going through the same thing." And
glancing around the room to the smiles and congratulations from the older
members of the Clan, "And it means I can no longer offer the medallion to
Tyler like I had planned, unless he and Andrew decide to make a baby now and
place it in cryo stasis, otherwise he would be DNA wise Alteran by the time
they got around to making babies.so no mentions of this, ever. I will amend
the clan secrets archive about this, and place a notation in the general
database when the medallions are issued in the future, so they know to seek
out someone who can look the answer up for them."

Laughing at Damien who was acting like it was his birthday, Aaron pulled out
his P.A.D.D. and brought up Damien's file, his actual birthday is in
thirteen days and he sent that to the Clan so they had time to properly
plan.

"As I started to say, before we got a huge welcomed surprise," Aaron
grinned, "Tyler will be joining the Clan and will be the other father of
Andrew's son whenever the two come to an agreement to get around to using
Pete's most luscious female." Aaron added his laughter to the others as
there were catcalls trying to get Pete to blush.

Settling back in his chair, Aaron got serious, which caused the others to
settle down quickly, "I'll let Tommy and Pete explain the problem before we
discuss it, I will take your wishes under advisement, but the decision is
still mine to make. I'll listen as you all try to cover all the angles as I
think about what to do."

Tommy gave Aaron an unreadable look before glancing at his lovers, "One of
my crew in an offhand comment wondered if we used fencing like they do
worldwide when building net pens for the ocean, or if we have some nifty new
toy for them to play with. That got me thinking and looking through the
system as I never gave it much thought; I assumed, like Aaron, we would just
use the tanks and such that we had built on the island. But after thinking
about it and some of the benefits of creating net pens over the trench,
where the spare feed and waste would be swept away and diluted appropriately
into the surrounding system." Tommy smiled, "I'm getting off-track here,
let's leave it that his comment made me go looking for a solution and I
found one. It was after pulling up the plans for the shield generators and
finding that the settings could be modified to keep in or out certain DNA,
to be able to keep something in or out, I thought I had the perfect
solution."

Frowning, Tommy looked at Pete, "Unfortunately, after inputting the plans
into the recyclers and automation lines, I found the problem.it will be a
little over a year before there is a line free to build the altered shield
generators and they start to roll off the assembly line, we've maxed out our
production capabilities and the year estimate is if we don't add any other
project to the construction yards." Glancing around the room and seeing the
concern on most of their faces, though Aaron's showed nothing, Tommy pointed
to Pete, "I called Pete and asked him if he could build one of the
replicators like in his favorite SCIFI show, a big one, I'll let him take
over now."

"Tommy's right; we are maxed out. Sure we can move some of the new work to
the asteroid belt assemblers and ferry the finished products back to Earth,
the problem is, those lines are set up for ship building." Pete sighed as he
stood up and paced, "We could use the assemblers on Centauri, but then we
have the issue of not being ready to open the planet yet and them transport
back here."

"Replicators are the way to go.the only problem is, it would take a year to
build one and then I'm not sure exactly yet how the damn things work, for
sure," Pete fell back into the couch he had been sitting on.

"Why so long to build one?" Derrick asked, as he looked over to Aaron for
direction and found he was closed off, thinking, it looked like.

"Because I have to build the tools that will build the tools that can build
the components, and I am going to run into the same problem Tommy did, a
free assembly line." Pete sighed before smiling, "Though once we get one
built, it will be better and more powerful than the ones they use. Because
when it comes to system components we are far ahead of them, they use
something they call an Isolinear chip, but theirs is so slow and the size of
an oversized credit card. Compared to the ones we have that are the size of
our thumbnail which are also faster and more powerful."

"Can't we just steal one from the other dimension or at least the parts?"
Kenny asked, as he looked at Pete, "if you had the parts, could you put one
together and then make a new one by using the one we took, we could give it
back after building ours, so it's not really stealing, more like borrowing."

Aaron had been waiting for someone to suggest this, and wondered if anyone
would think to shoot it down, but he never thought about borrowing one long
enough to build their own, listening to the conversation, vaguely he thought
of the possibilities and drawbacks.

"Not the best way to be neighbors, stealing something from them, other than
knowledge that is," Kevin grinned as he looked at Pete, "borrowing it on the
other hand, how long would it take for you to get all the components, if you
borrowed one of theirs, could you do it in a few hours and then send it back
so they never knew it had been used?"

Aaron turned to Pete to listen to his answer, as that might very well affect
his decision which was hovering on either side of the wire right now.

Pulling his P.A.D.D. out of his pouch, he linked it to the monitor, using it
like a terminal he brought up schematics for the replicator and transporter
system then split the screen and pulled up the emergency files for
replicating a replicator in a disaster scenario.

"Borrowing something like this with someone's permission is all well and
good, but we are doing this without their permission, so I think if we go
through with this, we need to compensate them in some way for the use,
otherwise it is no better than stealing in my mind." Mark leaned forward and
caught everyone's eye, after all, he was the one most experienced with
people borrowing for their own use, things that did not belong to them.

"But what could we offer them in trade? We know next to nothing about them
and we could make things really bad, if we gave them the wrong technology or
advanced them too far in advance of where they are now." David added as he
looked around for support.

"Like a cure for one of the diseases that is affecting their people," Fred
leaned forward brows knitted as he was thinking, "I probably could pick out
one that would be a godsend to them, and at the same time, target youth."

"Almost every one of our medical cures rely on Nanite technology, Fred, that
would be a problem right there," Aaron spoke for the first time, watching
Fred carefully as he formulated his reply.

"But if they are truly an advanced dimension, they already have nanites,
they just don't know how to program them like we do, and we could send them
one of the containment cartridges you designed to alleviate." Fred trailed
off as he stared into Aaron's eyes. "If they have AIDS like they still do
outside the kingdom, your cartridges would be perfect. We could give them
enough for half a million doses. And if they have the Nanite technology,
they should be able to figure out on their own how to program nanites for
themselves."

"I would be more comfortable if they could not find out how to program
nanites; what if they were not accepting of gays and used them to wipe them
out?" Brian looked at Fred, "would you like to know we were responsible for
genocide?"

"Alright, so if medical is out, how about just paying them with gold or some
other precious metal and let them buy resources they can use to do what they
need to." Kevin sat back, this is the one he was most comfortable with.
"That way we're still paying them, but not advancing them, even if by
accident."

Fred stopped digging through the system for something medical that would be
useful and sat back frowning, "As much as I would like to go with my plan
that might be best. If they did not have nanites, my plan would be a
benefit.what am I saying? My plan would give one person or government the
power of life and death over others, not cool."

"Do they even use gold or precious metals for currency, how about jewels if
they don't?" Pat asked as he smiled at Damien, happy for his friend and the
possibilities they had agreed on if one of them was removed from
restriction, he licked his lips in anticipation.

Pete looked up, now that he had an answer, "They are a curious mix of
present day technology like that outside our kingdom and technology like
that from several SCIFI shows we've all watched; in their dimension, the
Kathat race initiated first contact early, and they are not like the Earth
Confederation in the movies or books, more practical." Tilting his head to
the side as he thought back to what he read, "They do still use gold as
currency, so we could drop off a couple of bars for four hours worth of
work.that's how long we would have to borrow the system for."

Tapping the screen a few times, he stood up and moved to the monitor, "Two
things would have to happen, we would have to shunt our power source to
their system, so they would not know something was up and I think it could
be done easily. And the second is, we have to use and create the parts over
there, and bring them to us, the whole thing is too big to move, or at least
the one that is the most advanced, and the one I have been studying." Pete
smiled as he winked at Tim, "I tapped into the R and D department of their
space academy and have been downloading their whole tech base, including
ship designs."

Tim laughed and pointed his finger accusingly at Pete, "I just knew you
couldn't stand not having access to space ships."

Laughing after coming to a decision, Aaron looked at Pete, "You do know that
we, with our gifts, out match anything their piddling little space warping
engines can do, don't you?" seeing the look on Pete's face, he twisted the
pun, "Of course if you would rather spend a week being bored to death
traveling between planets when you could be there in a blink of the eye,
well I think I have a Lego set around here somewhere you can play with."

After Pete surrendered gracefully, Aaron smiled and looked at him, "Is there
anything we need to know about this place and the people that man it before
borrowing their equipment?"

Secretly screaming "yes!!!!" and jumping up and down in glee, Pete blanked
the monitor and put his P.A.D.D. back in its holster, "Well, it is fully
functional but the place it has been installed in is not up and running
fully yet, it's in something that when finished and turned over to the
Confederation will be turned into a research hospital for kids, and right
now they are about a week from opening, they had planned to be open and
ready for business but had to close for a problem," looking over at Aaron
Pete smiled, "this is perfect timing for us really, no one is supposed to be
around while some work is done to the power source except maybe a few
roaming patrols, afterwards, they will be bringing it online for good and it
will be a lot more difficult to sneak the time to use it between the times
they do."

"How long would it take you to modify the.no, it would be safer if we just
built theirs here, and then modified the plans and built a new more advanced
one," Aaron changed in midstream, and seeing the confusion on Pete's face,
"just in case we would be interrupted in mid process, nothing of an advanced
design would be available for their study. They would just assume something
went wrong and do a check through to see what happened before forgetting
about it, if a part would appear there, if we had to leave in mid cycle."

"So we are definitely doing this, then?" David asked, as he looked around
the room.

"I think so, as long as we are only replicating the parts, and we pay them
for the use, even though they never knew we used it. I can't see where there
are any risks.can any of you?" Aaron asked as he looked around the room.

After everyone told him no, he chuckled at Pete's enthusiasm, "When do we
get to do this?"

Smirking, Aaron glanced at him and smirked until he paled before laughing,
"Get to bed early; we're going to do this around two in the morning, less of
a chance of them needing or noticing the equipment being used, then."

"Grinning, Pete looked at everyone present and wiggled his eyebrows, "Well,
after dinner everyone can just help tire me out, so I can go to sleep early
then," he giggled as he ran up the stairs out of reach, only to stop at the
top of the steps and sit down, "Um.where are we going to do this at, it's
not like it would be safe to do it in the Core."

Looking away and his smile disappearing Aaron stared at the wall, "There is
a room deep inside the mountain base that has everything needed to make a
dimensional rift, I'll have the Core prepare it for use, and it is totally
separate from the kingdom, being in the trench, so if something goes wrong,
we'll just eject it and let pressure do the rest."

Pete got up and went over to Aaron then knelt in front of his chair and
placed a hand on his thigh, trying to wordlessly offer comfort, when Aaron
turned around, he had a small tired smile on his face and he patted Pete on
the head, "Nice doggy," before breaking out in laughter at Pete's
incredulous expression.

Laughing hard, Aaron pulled Pete up into his lap and hugged him, "I couldn't
resist your puppy dog eyes," he got out between bouts of laughter.

"Alrighty.we've ignored the others and held up in here long enough, thus
ends this session of the Clan Stranton meeting and the two incidents will be
added to the secret Clan archives for future generations to learn from."
Aaron stood up and motioned for Damien to come close.

Kissing Damien and picking his feet up off the floor, Aaron laughed as he
looked into Damien's eyes,
"Now, what is this about a pact to feed your fellow hunters?" he laughed at
Damien's blush before he set his feet on the floor and spotted Kenny
slinking off towards the steps. Giving Damien one last kiss, Aaron shot out
and around him, chasing a giggling and screaming Kenny up the stairs.

Glancing at the clock, he had an hour and a half before lunch so deciding to
see what was going on in the city, Aaron ported down near the med bay and
started to walk around, greeting people as he passed them in the street,
which, of course, was easier said than done, as everyone wanted to chat with
him, even if only for a minute, to let him know how happy they were now. A
lot of the younger ones wanted to show him their placement testing scores,
proud of what they had accomplished, and Aaron paid attention and made sure
to congratulate and encourage each and every one of them as they smiled at
him. Even the older teens got in on the hugs as they were infected by the
excitement of the younger guys as they were praised for doing well, where
their parents had mostly ignored them.

Aaron smiled at one of the teens who had missed the party the other night
because they were in the bio-tubes, "Not like I'm whining or anything, but
everyone had a cookout while we were being altered in the bio-tubes, and I
was wondering if. I was wondering if we could have one too."

Pulling the teen down to his lap, causing him to blush and stiffen up before
relaxing when he did not find his ass in the air to be beaten, Aaron hugged
him close and releasing him when he relaxed, "You just gave yourself a job,
how about tomorrow starting at three., That gives everyone a chance to get
ready and you are in charge of making sure everyone knows about it?"

"ME.?" the teen squeaked in fear, before relaxing after Aaron grinned and
nodded.

"Post a message to the system, and have it sent to everyone; that should do
it. Then send a message to Scott Stewarts, telling him about the cookout and
ask him to suggest something to cook. We can make this an every Sunday
thing, if all of you want, I'll even move my hammock over, so I can nap,"
Aaron giggled before whispering, "like that is likely to happen." Getting a
hard hug, the teen bounced up off Aaron's lap and rushed towards the dining
hall and the terminal over on the side wall, for those wanting to work and
snack.

"That was a wonderful thing to do, your Majesty; the way you care for these
kids is unbelievable," one of the Marine recruits told him as he sat down
across from Aaron after the teens and younger kids left to go plan the
party.

Aaron tilted his head to look at the young man and smiled at the obvious
Marine crew cut the guy was sporting and glanced down and saw the limiter on
the young man's wrist. "Our mandate is to get as many of the gay teens and
kids off the street and on the way to a better life. Taking time out to host
and cook for a party lets each of them know they are valued and cared for.
It's nothing, if it makes them feel valued, plus it gives me an excuse to
have a day off to relax, they'll start it and I'll show up around four
thirty or five o clock like the last one, and we'll have a lot of fun."

Seeing that his Majesty was looking at him curiously, as if trying to place
him, Mike smiled, "Mike Carlton, your Majesty, former U.S. Staff Sergeant in
the Marines; I was released yesterday," Mike lifted his wrist and jiggled
the limiter. "Not sure yet where I'll be assigned, but I'll get to chose
that tomorrow, I guess."

"As long as you chose something you will be happy doing and find rewarding,
remember that," Aaron pointed out with a smile as he noticed the time and
stood up, "I think you will enjoy wearing our dress blacks, they will remind
you of your former uniform," Aaron grinned as he reached over and held out
his hand for the Staff Sergeant to shake. Moving away from the table, Aaron
stopped and glanced back over his shoulder, "out of curiosity, what do you
think about science fiction?"

Mike laughed as he swept his arm around the street, "You mean like all of
this," he grinned, "let's just say I am an old friend with some of the
better space opera's."

Grinning, Aaron started to walk away, "When you go in for assignment
tomorrow, tell them you want to hear about the Reliant project." Once past
the park, Aaron entered the med bay and stopped to check in with Gordon and
get a face to face update.

During supper that night, Aaron had to hold his laughter as Pete was
bouncing around from table to table in his excitement. Looking back at his
plate of food for the next bit of stir fry, Aaron came face to face with
Andrew and Tyler sitting across from him, "Hello you two, something I can do
for you," he asked with a smile, as he used his chopsticks to pick up some
of the stir fry.

Glancing at Tyler for support, Andrew looked back to Aaron, "Edward spent
all of last weekend with you in bed, alone and with other Clan members that
joined you in bed over the weekend. I had hoped this weekend would be my
turn, and I.we could not find you last night as you came home late and we
were already asleep," Andrew accused, the last with a finger shaking Aaron's
way.

Hiding his smile behind filling his mouth with some stir fry, Aaron used the
empty chop sticks as pointers and pointed them at Andrew, "I was not aware
that you three were taking turns."

Tyler decided to try to salvage the situation, "If one wanted to spend the
night with you, sharing each other intimately, what would we have to do?"

"Ask," Aaron looked at him with a smile, "That is, before anyone else does
or show up after midnight when the rules go out the window. Mostly people
show up in the middle of the night to sleep if they want a turn come morning
time, and they missed out the night before."

Tyler looked at Andrew, and as he turned back to ask, Andrew beat him to it,
"We want to spend the night having sex and all that it entails, the two of
us. I want you inside me, to cum deep inside me while you show me pleasure.
And Tyler wants you to not only be the first to suck him off, but to finish
what you started yesterday and cum deep inside him too."

Tyler grinned and pointed to Andrew, "He speaks for me in this, and I really
want this to happen."

Seeing the amused expressions from around the dining area, Aaron agreed, "As
long as both of you understand that tonight I have to leave at eleven for a
project that needs to be completed, you both can show up at eight in my
bedroom and I will do my best to see to it I give you what you want." Aaron
smiled before leaning across the table, "And if both of you happen to be
asleep in my bed when the project, if the project finishes early.well there
is no reason why I can't just have my wicked way with both of you once more
before falling asleep, now is there?"

Grinning, Andrew shook his head no, before grabbing Tyler and rushing off
back to their seats while Aaron chuckled in amusement as Edward sat down and
asked, "Out of curiosity, how come you're sitting eating alone tonight?"

"Since I didn't cook tonight, no one had a chance to stop by for their one
on one talks if they needed anything, so by sitting here alone, it serves
the same purpose, and as you've just seen those who would have searched for
me in the kitchen to talk about whatever, have found time to pop over to my
table to chat over what's on their mind." Aaron shrugged before continuing
to eat, waiting for Edward to bring up what he had on his mind.

Before the silence got to too long and someone else came over, Edward looked
at Aaron, "I spent all of today talking with people to go over different
things I have been thinking about all week, now I need to sit down with you
and go over what I've come up with as ways for you to invest some of your
money in our economy." Blushing with how forthright he was being, he glanced
away to see Derrick and Tim grinning at him, which only caused the blush to
deepen and travel down past his face.

"You're planning on being at the UN on Tuesday with your grandmother right?"
Aaron decided he was full, "don't be embarrassed for seeing an opportunity
of helping your people and taking it, if I was in the kitchen you would not
have hesitated would you have? We can meet sometime after I finish with
those idiots."

Nodding his head but staying silent as he watched Aaron, Edward finally got
the courage up to ask, "Speaking of Tuesday, if it is not a secret, um.why
are you meeting with the UN? I mean in the past it has been very clear that
your kingdom was to be left alone, so what have they done that has every one
of you angry when it is mentioned?"

Eyes flashing in anger that he controlled after seeing Edward sit back
trying to get away from him, Aaron sighed, "You mean besides the demands
that I sign all these accords and abide by their laws and courts, or the
fact they are demanding money and technology that they think should be
shared because they say so, or how about the fact they are demanding to know
troop strengths and answers to questions they have no business asking in the
first place." Aaron looked away to take a deep breath, "I'm sorry Edward,
it's not you, but those fools, well they are going to be in for a rude
awakening come Tuesday when I get finished with them, all those who have not
signed the treaty will sign it, or else."

Glancing back at Edward, "Suffice it to say that Tuesday will be a day that
will be more than memorable for a lot of people and because of the Asian
delegations and how quickly the Shaolin have spread the word, I think you
are in for a treat with some pretty nifty illusions, just remember when it
seems I morph into some strange alien creature, it is an illusion," Aaron
smiled.

"Why would you do something like that, I mean how is that going to help keep
people thinking you're not aliens?" Edward was curious and leaned forward.

Laughing, Aaron winked at him, "Because I plan on showing up to that meeting
in a full combat suit and ceremonial over robe designed to inspire fear in
our enemies, which is why the Asians call us dragon, it's not because of the
Clan crest, well not really." Seeing he had thoroughly confused Edward,
"Trust me, it is easier to see it than explain it, but you should get some
enjoyment out of it anyways."

"O.K, if you say so. Are you planning on warning grandmother before hand?"
Edward asked as he stood up to go back to his talk with Derrick.

"I just did, through you," Aaron pointed out, as he also stood up and picked
up his plate and glass, so they could be washed.

Catching Friedrich's eye and giving a head nod towards the path, Aaron
walked down it towards the hot springs, out of hearing of everyone else and
waited for Friedrich to follow him. Once Friedrich joined him, he sighed and
looked at Friedrich, "I am going to ask you to do something I swore to
myself never to ask you, as relying on precognition to base decisions on is
not only foolish, but reckless. Being around the Clan, you should be aware
by now of the term Clan Seal and what it means. There is one more level you
have never heard of, and I am not even going to go there. A decision was
made and even as I made it, I'm second guessing it because of the other
Aaron's memories of something similar, but where they were searching without
knowing what they were looking at, we do."

Glancing away long enough to take a deep breath, "Right, this is not making
any sense and it does not matter," Aaron steeled his expression, "I want you
to turn off your limiter.all the way off and I am going to touch you
thinking about my decision, and I need to know if you see anything."

Deciding that whatever it was must be extremely important, Friedrich lifted
his arm in front of his chest and touched the jeweled limiter in a certain
specific order that turned it off, "I'm ready, your Majesty," and held out
his hand for Aaron to hold.

Hesitating, even after asking, Aaron looked into Friedrich's eyes, "Are you
sure? Really sure, I know most of the time this is not pleasant, and I don't
want to cause you pain on purpose."

Dropping his voice almost to a whisper, "Aaron, if this is worrying you to
the degree you broke down to ask me to do this, then it must be vitally
important, and I am willing to deal with a little pain," Friedrich hoped he
conveyed how sincere he was.

Taking a deep breath and concentrating really hard on his decision, Aaron
reached out and hesitating above Friedrich's hand as he stared at him,
finally he grabbed the hand. Cracking an eye open when he did not hear
anything, Aaron opened them both wide at the quizzical expression on
Friedrich's face, after several minutes, Friedrich reached over and
activated the limiter to its previous setting and looked at Aaron
quizzically again.

"At the rate the Clan is growing, you're going to collapse from exhaustion
servicing all these horny guys," Friedrich looked at Aaron with a funny
expression on his face before adding to the confusion, "Nothing painful
happened, so whatever you're planning is not a danger to our people, but
tell Xon that he is loved and wanted, no matter what, when he joins the
Clan," before he walked away leaving Aaron standing there looking at his
retreating back.

And that is why one should never rely on precog, Aaron thought, as he
distractedly made his way back to the house to await Andrew and Tyler.

Gazing down at Andrew and Tyler who were sound asleep, Aaron wondered where
the fabled energy of youth was. Really, you would think that they would have
more stamina then a measly three hours. Chuckling, he grabbed a quick shower
before porting down to the entry chamber outside the core, waiting until the
system verified him, he ran over in his mind once more the cryptic precog
that Friedrich had given, who or what was a Xon and why would they be
joining his lovers and Clan.

Seeing Pete lying back on one of the recliners, Aaron was about to say
something when he noticed he was asleep, that might not be a bad idea he
thought, as he made himself comfortable on the recliner, "Identify and
Verify." The white light came down to scan his DNA as expected and the voice
that was the Core spoke.

"Identity confirmed.Aaron Stranton.Prime Clan Stranton.King of the Alteran
Empire and the known sixty four worlds."

Time to get answers, Aaron thought; "Query.Expand reasoning behind Title of
King of Alteran Empire and sixty four known worlds."

Pete opened his eyes at hearing voices and rolled over this should be good
for quite a few laughs he thought, as Aaron had the most expressive face.

"Core directive 00195.search out and secure habitable worlds for Alteran
colonization.core directive 10011 all worlds outside of earth space fall
under Alteran rule."

Aaron looked gob smacked and glanced open mouthed towards the giggling from
the next recliner, "I thought you were asleep, did I wake you?"

"Not really, I had just closed my eyes when you came in," smirking in the
dim light, Pete picked his head up to get a better vantage point to look at
Aaron, "So, you're Emperor-ish sir, what do you plan to do with all your new
worlds?"

"I have no fucking clue and I'm almost afraid to ask about the worlds the
system skipped because they were unfavorable, including sentient life,"
Aaron closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hand. "No, I do know what
I am going to do with one of them at least, It will be the new home for the
Shaolin, it will take them at least a month to pack everything carefully, so
I have time to pick out the right one and send the assemblers to get housing
and a temple set up, after all, it can't take all that long to set up for a
couple of hundred people," he was relying on the memory provided by his
other self, but it couldn't be that far off could it, he would have to sit
down with the Elder Shaolin soon to find out for sure.

"How long will it take you to upload the specifications for the parts, once
we connect?" Aaron wanted to know, as he was thinking about starting early
so they could get some sleep.

"The file is ready to go and I set it to feed the specifications only one
part in advance of the part being replicated. That way if something goes
wrong, there is not a huge file of parts being created in the queue if we
disconnect." Laying back on the recliner, Pete looked up at the ceiling.
"Also, I was able to shorten the list after glancing through the manual. I
think we can use our computer systems to run the replication system and the
simulation that I finished before you came in showed that it will work; so
it drops the time needed to be connected to that world to two hours."

"Better all the time, the risk drops by fifty percent, which is a good thing
to my mind. So let's bring this world up, so I can take a look around while
you make the connections for power and upload your files," Aaron smiled as
he got up off the couch, confusing Pete.

Pete looked lost for a moment, "Why are you getting up, don't we have to
control everything from here?"

"I suppose we could, but what we are getting here is a feed from the lab
where the actual connection is taking place. I think I would be more
comfortable being in the actual lab, not controlling things through an
interface that could conceivably fail." Aaron gestured for Pete to stand up
as a door slid open on the opposite wall to the entry.

Puzzled, Pete followed Aaron into a small room where a small torpedo looking
vehicle was nestled in a tube with the hatch open. Watching Aaron get in
first and spread his legs, he smiled as he saw Aaron adjust himself so he
would not get smashed and quickly climbed in the torpedo and snuggled back
into Aaron from the front as the hatch closed and sealed.

"I never did ask if you liked roller coasters." Aaron grinned, as he
whispered in Pete's ear as the now sealed vehicle shot down the tube after
Aaron inputted a destination into the on-board computer.

Eyes wide in anticipation, Pete nodded, "Oh hell yes, its right there, two
behind sex on my list of most favorite things."

Laughing, Aaron pulled Pete back into his chest, "I'm not going to ask."

Two minutes later, the vehicle slowed to a stop and as the barrier in front
of them opened up, Pete craned his head back and saw another one drop down
behind them. So far, the trip while fast could not be compared to a roller
coaster, so he was eager to see what happened next, which happened to be the
tube flooding with water and a blue shield snapping into place around the
torpedo shaped vehicle.

"Well, here we go," warned Aaron, as the vehicle started forward again and
suddenly dropped straight down nose first. Wiggling his finger in his ear to
clear out Pete's shout of glee, he joined in Pete's laughter as the shuttle
rode the tube track up and around the curves and dips as it traveled down
into the trench.

Fifteen minutes later, they shot into an opening in the trench wall and
started to slow down until they stopped and in a reverse process of when
they stopped before leaving the city, the tube was flooded with air pushing
the water out before they continued on for another minute then finally, they
stopped and the hatch unsealed and lifted.

Pete jumped out of the vehicle all excited from the trip and turned towards
Aaron who was just getting out. "Well, that was a lot of fun, and I wouldn't
want to miss it, being a big coaster freak, but why didn't we just port
over?"

Pointing to the door in front of them, Aaron initiated the DNA scan so the
door would open, "Because you can't port in or out of this lab, a security
feature, in case something would happen, though we can port out of this room
just not into it."

Walking through the door, Pete craned his neck as he looked around the huge
room, "How are we going to get everything out of here then, once we bring it
over, that is."

"There is a way to drop the shield so everything can be ported out, but it
needs three Clan members cleared for Core access to DNA unlock the shield,
we'll do that tomorrow, after the beach party," Aaron walked to the control
console and brought it out of remote standby as he sat down in the chair and
looked to the screen. Pointing to the empty chair he grinned, "It's your
show, for the most part, so dial us in to this dimension and let's take a
look around."

Grinning, Pete almost bounced out of the seat as he jumped in it and let his
hands fly across the touch pads of the terminal as he modulated the
frequency to the right dimension.

Glancing at the dimensional frequency, "Well, I don't think we have much to
worry about, this wave form is so far out of balance that anything living
that comes through will not survive long in our dimension, not without the
help of a stabilizer, so we should be pretty safe." Aaron glanced around the
room on the monitor before bringing to life one of the SE114's and sending
it through the rift that formed in the circular room two steps below their
station. "Area looks clear, Pete, go ahead and create the power shunt to
their system while I take a look around."

Opening his eyes as his scanner beeped a warning note; Xon sat up, pulled
the scanner over and stared at the readings. The wave form that matched his
perfectly had appeared once more, this time it was in the transporter room
on the tenth floor, the one modified to act as a replicator, slipping into
his shoes; he carefully slipped past the roaming security patrol and started
up the stairs, eyes glued to the scanner.

Standing outside the transporter room, Xon looked at the scanner once more
and examined the wave-form, the signal was stronger and another power source
was evident and being picked up by his scanner.

"Excuse me, but this is a restricted area, I'm going to have to ask that you
identify yourself," one of the roving patrols had come across Xon.

Coming to a logical decision, Xon turned off his scanner and pulled out his
ID, "I am Xon of Kathat, Security Elder for the Kathat Ruling Council." Xon
handed over his ID that showed a nova level clearance. "I must order you to
evacuate the tenth floor immediately, and keep all persons from entering it
for the next three point seven hours, my orders have the authority of the
Ruling Council behind them and can only be overruled by the Ruling Council
directly, Ensign."

Handing back the ID, the ensign knew he was caught between two conflicting
sets of orders and tried to find a middle ground, "If you will hold on one
moment, Security Elder Xon, while I confer with my superiors to get
permission."

Xon turned and faced the ensign, "There is no further authorization needed,
this is a Kathat Facility.as such, as the ranking Elder here, my commands
can NOT be questioned; you have your orders Ensign. Carry them out." Xon
turned away and turned the scanner back on; all thoughts of the ensign
leaving his mind before he walked into the transporter room, the doors
closing behind him automatically. "So the way home is stable and the rift is
on the transport / replicator pad."

Aaron froze as someone walked into the room muttering about the way home
being stable as he lifted a scanning device towards the rift, looking at
Pete, who was rapidly looking the control settings over, "Can this pile of
junk tell me why no alarms are going off right now as that." he pointed to
the monitor of the teen walking towards the rift, "Is definitely a life form
that should have set off the alarms."

"But, it is working. It recorded the guard outside the room a minute ago,
and him walking away," Pete sounded frustrated as he looked back up at the
screen, "It should be registering him," he threw his finger towards the
screen as if accusing the teen of being at fault.

Standing outside the range of the transporter pad, Xon noticed the
components being created and sent through the rift, they seemed to be vital
for the creation of either a replicator or transporter system, glancing over
his shoulder, or the combined system like this one. "I am called Xon and I
am not a native to this dimension, and my scanner indicates this rift is of
the right frequency as my home dimension, are you able to communicate with
me?" Xon spoke to the rift, wondering if he could be heard or even
understood, if all else failed he was prepared to jump into the rift the
moment his scanner indicated it was starting to lose stability.

Pete looked at Aaron for direction after hearing the teen's words and
rapidly reset the scanner settings before going back to stare at Aaron who
was looking back and forth between the console and the screen, when suddenly
the system came online and showed the intruder.

"Pete, what did you just do so he showed up on our system scans?" Aaron
said, very slowly, not taking his eyes off the screen.

Swallowing the bile taste, from Aaron's earlier words, he whispered, "I
added Alteran DNA to the scan."

Aaron's stomach plunged, and he felt sick as he gazed at the image, and
finally breaking his gaze away long enough to look at Pete, who just pointed
and nodded. Dispatching the SE114 back through the rift Aaron activated the
projector feature, and appeared before the teen, "As far as I know, it is
impossible for a life form from either of these two dimensions to exist in
the other, please clarify how you do exist if what you say is true?" the
image looked away which fascinated Xon, as he heard, "Pete, how long until
replication is complete and we have all the components?"

"Another twenty minutes, though I could disconnect now, I did a reverse
order for the list, so anything created now could be done in a couple of
months, if we had to," Pete pointed to the teen on the screen who had placed
his hand through the image, or attempted to and was stopped by the forces
creating the image.

"Fascinating, such a solid hologram without visible emitters," Xon sounded
as excited as a Kathat possibly could, even though he knew he was not of
that race and subject to their limits.

Without thinking about it, Aaron had stood up and moved closer to the screen
as he looked at the teen on the screen hold up his arm. Remembering the
questions, Xon held up his hand and displayed the device attached to his
skin, "That would be true, if one was not wearing this stabilizer, though
when the Kathat scouts found me, they had to repair the device to keep me
alive, and they modified it from its original configuration." Slipping his
hand into the seam of his shirt he pulled it off one handed so his chest was
exposed, that and the medallion resting on it. "The stabilizer on my wrist
and this medallion were the only things found on me when the Kathat medics
removed my unconscious body from the barren planet where I was found."

Aaron fell back against the console, as Pete zoomed in on the medallion
around the teen's neck.

"This pendant resists all forms of scanning and removal, so far, all
attempts have met with no results," Xon was curious and leaned closer to the
image, eager for information, "Do you recognize it.can you tell me what it
means, as I have no memories other than the ones I have experienced since
waking on the Kathat home world?"

Xon was concerned, the image seemed to stumble and fall and the person who's
image was being transmitted looked to be in distress and the image suddenly
widened so he could see another and some sort of control room,
"Fascinating."

"Aaron, is that what I think it is?" Pete questioned as his hands started a
detailed scan of the teen, "Both of those items are definitely Alteran, the
system is positive."

"This should not be possible, no, not possible," Aaron could not take his
eyes away from the Clan medallion around the teen's neck.

"Logic states that you take into consideration what your eyes tell you," Xon
calmly looked down at the medallion and the person in the image. "This means
something to you, something important."

Squatting down across from the image, "The reason Kathat initiated first
contact with Earth is that they thought this was my home world, as I share
enough genetic material to be roughly called human, though I am not. It was
erroneously assumed that if this was my species, then they had achieved warp
travel and they were open for first contact. This has since been proven
false, and until I discovered dimensional theory, after the Montgomery
returned from a mission where they encountered a rift that allowed the
transporters to cross dimensions. After some experimentation, I created this
device which detects dimensional rifts," Xon held his scanner up so they
could see it. "It is the only scanner that can detect rifts and their wave
forms, in existence."

"Aaron." Pete's voice sounded lost, "DNA profile has Clan Stranton
markers.We should bring him home, and worry about the rest later."

Coming out of his shock, Aaron stood up and looked at Pete who looked at his
list, "The last three components are initializing now, two minutes until we
are finished."

"Pete, you're going to have to go get Kevin and Tim and return with them,
once Xon steps into the rift and is transported here, security protocols
will initiate and lock this lab up securely," Aaron glanced back as he moved
around the console, so he was standing in front of the touch screen and
started to input commands.

"Right, I'd better get a move on, give me ten minutes to get everyone on the
way," Pete jumped up and was halfway across the room before he skidded to
halt. "How the heck do we unlock the lab once we get back?"

"Command the system verbally to deactivate the shield at the same time you
demand identification, you have to do it from the Core recliners, this lab
is EL1.remember that as once you are out of the room, all contact is cut
off, even mental."

"Five minutes then," Pete was through the door and gone by the time Aaron
looked up.

Seeing the hope and confusion on Xon's face, Aaron smiled, "I'm sorry, we're
confusing you," holding up his ring so Xon could clearly see the same
design, "I am Aaron Stranton, Prime of Clan Stranton." Aaron saw the joy in
the teen's eyes at finding a connection and then shocked Xon, "King of the
Alteran Empire and you, Xon, are a son of Clan Stranton."

"Though I have no idea how it is possible, do you need a minute to leave a
message that you are leaving." Aaron asked, as he initiated overrides.

"Core override.Disengage lethal protocols.I tell you three times," Aaron
gazed up at the ceiling towards the Core recorders.

"I hear you three times," Xon said, a second before the core system did,
"Why does that phrase mean so much to me?"

Aaron finally believed the whole thing was true when Xon acknowledged his
order, before the Core system did and looked at the confused teen. "Because,
Xon, only my Clan has knowledge of those two phrases and what they truly
mean, hurry now, the longer it takes the greater chance of being
discovered."

Nodding his acknowledgement, Xon went over to the transporter console,
stripped out of his clothes, activated the recorders and set it to transmit
his message to Kathat when it was played for the first time, here on earth.

"I am Xon Security Elder of the Kathat Ruling Council; this message is being
transmitted simultaneously as it is being viewed here on Earth by those we
have tasked with creating this hospital. After two hundred years of
searching, I have not only found my home world, but have found my family, I
have strived and yearned for this day for a long time and finally I am going
home. The image you see behind me is a rift created by my people to bring me
home. The person you see in the background is the head of my family and even
though I still do not have my memory, the proof offered is conclusive. To
the Kathat Ruling Guild, those who have acted as my guardian these two
hundred fifty years, you have my appreciation."

Aaron telekinetically moved the pile of gold bars through the rift and set
them on the floor in the middle of the room before turning his attention
back to Xon, "Son of Clan Stranton, it is time to come home," Aaron held out
his arm towards the rift so the pickup could clearly see his crest.

Hesitating only a moment, Xon walked through the rift and into Aaron's arms,
his stabilizer falling off as he entered the rift.

The rift closing, the only thing left was the stabilizer next to a discarded
shirt on the transporter pad and a stack of gold bars.

Kissing Xon on the forehead, Aaron let him sob out his triumph and
frustrations over being lost and then found, and that was how Pete along
with Tim and Kevin found them several minutes later, after not only
disengaging the defense protocols, but lowering the shields.

Fred, along with all the other Clan members walked into the room and ever
practical, removed his scanner and started to run a detailed medical scan on
Xon starting with his brain; after experiencing the memory dump by Pete when
he woke the clan up he thought it would be the wise thing to do. "Aaron, we
need to get Xon to the med bay, whatever the Kathat healer's did with the
stabilizer froze the damage at the time, but if he doesn't want to lose
everything, we need to get him in a bio-tube like yesterday."

Holding the sobbing teen, Aaron closed his eyes and ported directly to the
Clan Med bay then quickly scooped Xon up and slid him into the bio-tube
while Fred started to attach the sensors and activate the soma unit. Aaron
quickly intubated the teen and seeing Fred was done, activated the bio-tube
and watched as the lid sealed and the regen fluid rushed in, displacing all
the air "Three units of nanite's Fred, while I start a complete brain scan
and stabilization."

Hands flying over the terminal, Aaron quickly stabilized Xon's neural
pathways, "Well, he's stable now and luckily none of his current memories
were affected, but after his brain is repaired, he should have access to his
gifts again." Looking at the Clan who were in turn, looking on in concern
and confusion, "I don't think we will ever really know who he was and how he
came to be in that dimension."

Looking up and back at the clock, Aaron sighed, "We'll handle this on Monday
when he is released from the bio-tube." Opening the clear acrylic panel on
the top of the bio-tube, Aaron held up the medallion for everyone to see and
placed it in the box before sliding the panel closed, at his touch it had
come off in his hand when he had embraced Xon.

Pulling Pete close, "We'll move all the components over to the assembler
area in the morning and maybe when he is released, Xon might help you put it
together," Aaron kissed Pete good night after all of them had made it to the
common room, and smiled as he looked into his room, Tyler and Andrew were
still asleep which is where he needed to be. Snuggling up behind Andrew,
Aaron pulled the covers up and was asleep a moment after his head hit the
pillow.

Editors section:

Scott's musings:

RadioRanchers Musings: Well I finally have seen this chapter in its
entirety. I actually got to see the final scenes that included Xon, some
time ago, when WolfWalker asked my advice on a couple of things about it. I
made a mental note to myself not to cheat and read the rest of the chapter,
because I had been several chapters behind at that point. Now that I have
caught up and know what has happened, I am very impressed. Just in case you
haven't noticed, there is still a mystery here. I am sure that WolfWalker
will be interested to see what readers' reactions are going to be to this
chapter. I know I will be very interested in hearing from you about this. Do
any of you have an idea what happened and why we are curious to see what you
think happened and where? I will say no more at this time, but I will be
waiting to hear from readers, and please let us know what you think.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

A/N: for those keeping track of things this starts an interesting shift in
the story line.

As always if you wish to receive chapters early there is now two ways to do
so; you can email me to be placed on the list or go to wolfsnest.n40c.net.