On Haven Ma stops in to check on the babies.

"Ma, we're talking to GD about another baby."

"So are we." All three women hug.

"I guess it's time to say that Elena and I are pregnant." Maria says in the doorway with the babies laundry. All four women hug. "This is probably the last time we'll be able to have kids ourselves, we are nearly a hundred."

"It doesn't seem like it, does it?"

"No, it seems like yesterday that we got the call from GD that somebody needed nannies and we went in for our first interview."

"At least we're not the only ones to have babies this year."

"Nope."

The news is told at lunch and everybody's hugged.

"Josette, how are you coming along on your last quilt for next year's kits?" Abby asks.

"I'm putting the layers together after lunch, I should have it quilted and the binding on by next week."

"Offworld harvests?"

"One a week until the harvest Festival, then the rest afterwards."

"How is everything coming on the ninth planet?"

"Laundry's finished, all the new parents are seeing how much easier one big load of laundry is than four or five smaller ones, especially Ma Hunkel and Dr. Cross and McNider since they've got two babies. Clark, Doc, and I are working on a growing area in the empire state building, they're in the first day of the rains." Everybody chuckles. "Work inside while you can."

"Yep, when the rains end and the ground's dried up enough to bring stuff out we're bringing out a library and tv station for them, putting up their growing building, hydroponics, and greenhouse, and starting similar growing areas to Doc's at the JSA headquarters and Dr. Cross's home."

"Yearly crops?"

"Coming in, some of the students leaving after Thanksgiving when they finish university are getting in some money working in the fields, so are Billy, Courtney, Hank, Mary, and Maxine."

"This way they know what needs to be done when their tree crops start coming in." David says.

"Exactly."

Josette has Dr. Cross and Doc looking over her shoulder as she lays out everything in the smokehouse, lighting the fake wood and putting green wood on top.

"Do you use the same wood every time?"

"Nope, depends on what you're smoking and what flavors you want to add. Sometimes we just add the chips, like now it's a whole piece of wood soaked so it lasts several hours."

"This is probably a dumb question, but do you grow mushrooms."

"Yeah, that's the mushroom building over there." Doc and Dr. Cross look at everything in satisfaction. "We don't grow every year, half of the crop is put on the drying tables while the rest is in stasis for whatever recipes we're using. When we begin to get low, we grow again. in addition, some of us have those kits where you could grow your own. . ." The two men nod. "That way they have a crop coming in of whatever they want."

"How are you on spores?"

"Good, we've got enough for a thousand years." Josette brings out the kits along with small packets of spores and they nod thanks.

"What do you plant in?"

"In the building it's straw, sawdust, and coffee grounds. In the boxes it's coffee grounds and sawdust. Maybe one day we'll grow in wood but. . ." The two men nod.

After the crops are in and Josette's delivered orders to the other planets she joins Michael and Dr. Cross inspecting the tree crops on the ninth planet.

"We'll be harvesting this year."

"Yep." Josette looks over at Dad where he's supervising bringing out the new buildings. They talk about what they're going to need to store the tree crops.

"Olive oil?"

Josette sends a few different options to press the olives. "The first one is the one I have on Haven, it also takes care of limited runs of veggie oils beyond the manufacturing satellite. The second is one I use on the first planet. It's more rustic and is all muscle power, the olives are crushed between the two stones and put in the containers, then a weight presses out the oil. It's meant for smaller batches."

"Which we will be doing for a while. What do you do with the leftover olives?"

"Olive paste. I spread it on sandwiches, but then I eat olives by the handful. I put everything in a barrel, add brine and let it sit just like the olives, just bring out enough to eat in a few weeks." She sends them her recipes and they nod.

"We've got barrels and bottles among our supplies."

"Do you always make the same amount of oil?"

"Nope, it all depends on how much I have left. If I have a good supply on hand, I put more olives in the barrels. If I'm running low I press more olives. It all works out in the end."

Back on Haven Josette heads to the yarn store to pick up more supplies for baby bags. After dinner she's walked to the dining hall.

"Josette, really." Clarinda, James, and Mary sigh looking at their newest grandsons. David comes up behind her smirking and she aims an elbow at him. He dances away, laughing.

"Oh I know. After the others got pregnant twice without me, I knew I'd be the next one hit and it'd be multiples again. Hopefully," She turns to look at David. "this will be it for a while." He smirks again. Josette pulls a pair of hedge trimmers out of subspace, making snip snip motions that has everybody laughing.

After the hustle and bustle of the Harvest Festival everything begins to settle down.

"Getting all the new buildings up on the ninth planet?"

"Yeah, and they're expecting visitors from their dimension in a couple of days.

Josette's up on the roof of the new library installing solar panels when the visitors from the other dimension arrive. Billy looks that direction also and grins before helping Josette with the next panel.

"You bringing them out of subspace is very handy."

"Yep, no need for machinery to lift the panels, just pop them out, fasten them down and hook them together. Josette looks down as Todd comes out of the library, giving them the thumbs up. He'd gone inside to see if the batteries were accepting power from the panels.

"Josette?" The walkie-talkie on her belt asks.

"Yeah Dad?" Josette hits the hand free option as she keeps working on the electronics.

"How are you coming on the library?"

"We've got three of the eighteen solar panels installed and connected. Checking inside the batteries are accepting power. They're working on two more on the ground and we should have those installed after. . ."

"Lunch." Ma Hunkel calls from the ground. James chuckles on the other end, obviously having heard her. Josette laughs and ends the call. At the tv station James puts the walkie-talkie away. Alan looks at him.

"They've got three of the solar panels up and connected, the batteries are accepting power and they're working on two more they should have up after lunch. Which Ma had just announced while we were talking."

Josette walks to the edge of the roof and jumps down.

"You're going to break something doing that." Todd says, rolling his eyes.

"Nah."

"Let me rephrase that, Doc, your father, Dr. McNider, or Dr. Cross are going to bust your ass if they catch you doing that." Ma says firmly. Everybody in earshot laughs as they settle down to sandwiches, lemonade, and three different types of salads."

"Two more days?"

"Yes, we should have the two solar panels you're working on now installed in a couple of hours and. . ." Hank comes over with the last one. "The sixth one before we stop for the day. Thanks Hank."

"Welcome, be a couple days for the rest of them."

"No hurry, the library isn't a building that's going to need continuous power even as big as it is." The others nod. "Everybody's busy with the fields, gardens, other buildings, or getting your visitors settled."

Hank nods. "I don't expect we'll be using the library until this fall when the last crops are in."

"How long until we can start planting in the buildings?"

"The buildings will be finished in a couple months, I'd start partway through the fourth growing cycle. That way stuff is beginning to ripen after you have all the harvests in." The others nod.

"Josette, this is probably a dumb question but could you harvest offworld. . ."

"Twice for you in the time it takes you to finish a year? Nearly. We could have last year since the year was so wonky. You don't need it though."

"No we don't." Dr. Cross says as the visitors walk up for the tour. "Everything's looking good."

Josette nods. "We've got three of the solar panels up, the batteries are charging. By the time the rest are in it should handle all the needs for the building."

"Josette, how hard is it to add the alternate power source after the fact."

"Not that hard, just a few days work. Both to add the source itself or the machinery to tap into an existing power source. About the same when you were having the alternate energy sources added to the buildings in the first place."

That night is the first full moon and Josette garbs herself in her working robes as she greets the moon, chanting the prayers that are as timeless as magick itself. She feels the magick of the world welcoming her and smiles as she turns from the cliffside and flies down to Hidalgo for a few hours sleep.

"Do many of you work through the night?" Sand asks when he finds Mr. Terrific working in a lab at JSA headquarters.

"With the day being sixty hours you learn to adjust your schedules."

He shakes his head. "I thought I just had insomnia when I woke up and it was still dark out."

"No, you probably slept a good eight hours." Dr. McNider says as he walks into the lab. "It's easier when you're not looking at the time on your PADD and you can work at your own pace. That's why all our bedrooms have heavy privacy curtains so we can sleep in the middle of the day."

"Are all of the worlds days longer?"

"All of the ones that have people living on them full-time. The fourth planet is the most like Earth, the days are three hours longer, there's an extra day in the week, and two extra weeks in the year. Like Earth they only have one growing season. The fifth planet is nicknamed the animal planet since it was primarily labs for bringing back endangered animals. They've got 30 hour days, 8 day weeks, five week months, and thirteen months in a year. There's two growing seasons on the planet plus several extra weeks but nobody grew commercially until recently when students from the school started growing commercially on the other settled worlds. The sixth planet has 36 hour days, nine day weeks, five week months, and fourteen months in a year." Sand shudders. "The body adapts, they've been on their planet over fifty years. For them it's a normal day."

"The seventh planet is 44 hours while the eighth planet is 48 hours. Like us at the beginning they split their days into eight hours working, at least eight off, then eight hours working again and off for the rest of the day."

The door opens again and Dr. Cross comes in with Camilla, he takes her by the elbow into the infirmary. Dr. McNider snickers. "Camilla Marlowe. . ." Sand nods. He recognizes the name. "That's his friend that can't be outside during the day?"

"Xenoderma Pigmentosa, sunlight burns her. Sometimes even fluorescent lights can be too much for her. She generally wears a cloak even indoors, that way she can pull up the hood and pull on gloves. She's been ducking Pieter's 'hints' about a physical and he had enough." Sand sniggers. "After he gets done with her, he's going to track down Josette."

"Does Josette live here?"

"No, she lives on the sixth planet actually but she's here often enough helping out with everything as we get settled. We've told her to build herself a home, and she's got a room at my house, Pieter's, or Doc's headquarters."

A couple weeks later Josette heads to Archimedes for the first testing week, sliding into a seat at the pushed together tables after her tests.

"Catching up on degrees you've had on the back burner?"

"Yeah, this year and next."

"The others are settling in well on the ninth planet."

"Yep, last year was about getting in crops and preparing for their first winter, this year is about building their community."

"Get the library finished?"

"The outside work, they'll work on the inside over the next few months."

"TV station?"

"Same thing, and Dad's bringing out the radio station in a couple weeks."

"Growing buildings?"

"About the first testing period next year, I'll be glad to be out in the sun." The three men look at her, knowing her habit of heading off to the first planet or the satellite when she wants some sun. "And the others have been nagging me about setting up a home of my own there." They nod, that makes more sense.

The boys come out of the switching station the next day.

"Checked on the raised beds?" David asks, leaning out of his room.

"Yeah, I'm picking green peppers in a few weeks to dry and stick in stasis then letting the rest ripen.

"Has anybody on the ninth planet asked if we could harvest offplanet twice since their year is longer than ours?"

"Yes, Dr. Cross agrees with me that we don't need to with the growing areas they're adding to their homes and the buildings I put up. One year I might grow cover crops when they start running low in the supplies they've brought with them but . . ." Nods from the three boys. "Getting your classes in?"

"Yeah, I got in the last class for one masters and I'm halfway through the second class for my bachelors, I'll have the degree finished in the next couple weeks, then get in two classes for my other masters."

"You picking up another bachelors?"

"Maybe, taking more than three classes a semester for a masters is *hard*." The others laugh as they head different directions.

"Show?"

"We had one earlier, Josette's got one when we head out to visit. Got everything?"

"Yeah, I've been working upstairs on stuff for a while." Josette grins. "No idiot celebrities making fools of themselves in front of the cameras at those shows." The boys chuckle.

"Still on track to be finished by the Harvest Festival next year?"

"Yes, even with finishing early to help with the crops." Michael looks at Josette. "How are we on supplies?"

"Good, I'll start bringing more in in a couple years for the rest of Haven's and the animal planet's orders."

"Do you see an apartment complex going up on the ninth planet?"

"If they do it won't be for years." David nods.

After dinner Josette heads upstairs and starts sorting through supplies for the baby bags. Susan looks in the door of her workroom and her eyes glaze over. "You'll need more, the visitors from the other dimension on the ninth planet?" Josette nods. "Babies, at least two sets of twins. And at least one in the gestation chamber."

"Awww." Josette looks at the supplies and starts another list, replicating yarn and other materials before starting to work. "Twins in our gestation chambers?" Susan's eyes grow dark as she tries to see and nods. Josette doubles the supplies again. "If I make too many, there's always the next batch of babies."

Susan chuckles and heads downstairs.

The next few weeks pass quickly and Josette heads to the first planet, picking green peppers she pops in stasis and strings up on lines to dry. Looking at the grape vines she spends a few months in the fortress and on the satellite.

"Get the green peppers taken care of?"

"Yeah, they're either in stasis or on lines to dry, I'll take batches around to sell to the other planets in a couple weeks."

"Aquaponics?"

"I'm heading there tomorrow with some of the others from the ninth planet so they can see how we have everything in stages, that way they can plan the same thing for their growing areas and hydroponics."

Josette triggers the tesseract to the aquaponics the next morning, the others looking around.

"This is nice," the botanist says looking at the growing areas. The others start making notes on how everything's at different stages as they harvest stuff.

"Do you keep this running year-round?"

"Oh yes, we always have at least herbs growing, just switching out which ones depending on what we're running low on or want to introduce to the planets. With the drying tables or even just bundling them together and hanging them up to dry you can keep them for a while."

"How many students do you have graduating this year?"

"2100 from high school, another two years and all but our oldest kids still in school, the Amish kids who will be starting in two years, and the offworld kids who are at the education center with them will be finishing high school. 827 students are in their last semester of university and will be leaving the dorms after Thanksgiving for permanent housing, with their floors emptying the floor monitors will be moving too."

"Aren't the Amish children going to be older thanks to the year difference?" Dr. Cross asks.

"Yes but like the Little House books they don't start school until after the harvests are in so they'll be at the same class level when they start high school. And they'll be attending a special class about what happened to Earth and why we settled the planet. It will get them used to attending classes year-round."

"When are you starting the Haven order?"

"Year after next our time, the sorting planet factories finished their orders and I delivered the last of it before the Harvest Festival. I'll be delivering our planets orders after finals, the last of it will be delivered before the Harvest Festival."

"Did they bring out the animal planet apartments?"

"Yep, they got most of the outside work done before their winter, they're working inside right now and when spring comes they'll finish the outside stuff and have everything done by the Harvest Festival."

"Do you expect people to start moving into the apartments."

"By the time the first large group of students finish university yes. They've been growing commercially on the sorting planet for a while now. The fourth planet apartments are getting people moving into them as they finish their internships at Stark or Wayne."

"And with the longer days and switching stations people don't have to live on the planets they work on."

"Nope." Josette says as they start starting shelves of seeds.

Lee catches Josette when she returns to the dorm.

"Josette, did you have a chance to work on the ship with the new babies?"

"Yes, the frame is well underway." Josette sends him pictures and he nods in satisfaction. "I've got the first batch of timber for the interior and exterior, I figure it will be another two years before the ship is completely finished and then we'll start furnishing it, including the sails."

"Are you expecting another batch of timber?"

"Yeah, the end of the year."

Maria comes down the hall with the delivery from the diaper service for her and Elena's boys and Josette settles on the couch for a few minutes while David finishes his last lesson on teacher before lunch.

"How was ..." Josette disappears and David counts to five before she reappears. "Do I want to . . ." He disappears and comes back a few seconds later. "Oh-kay," he says slowly. "Yeah." Josette snorts. She heads off. "Be back in a few."

"We'll be there." David says. He gets the triplets in the stroller and heads to the dining hall.

"Josette head off again?" Anna asks.

"Yeah, can I just say that's weird."

"Which part of being yanked from our dimension to others is normal?" Abby snorts.

"Point."

"At least we weren't in class."

On the screen Principal Madison and Professor Druid squeak and disappear. David smirks and calmly counts off seconds on his fingers. Principal Madison looks at the others in the back room when they reappear. He points a finger at the group in the back room and David laughs.

"Is it always like that?" Professor Druid asks.

"Sometimes." Josette walks into the back room a few minutes later, kissing the babies on the forehead before filling her tray and sitting down.

"How's the aquaponics building looking?"

"Good, we planted new seed trays while we were there."

David nods in satisfaction.

After lunch Josette heads to the ranch to check on the crops and livestock, pumping water to irrigate them before sliding into her seat at dinner.

"Take care of everything?"

"Yeah, the gardens and fields are watered.

"Is the cistern going to hold out for the rest of the cycle?"

"No, but we can pump directly onto the fields and garden." The others nod. "Once the cistern is empty we need to clean it and the filters for the winter."

"Do that before everything's asshole to elbows with the crops coming in." Nods from the others.

"Is there anything else that needs to be done before the crops come in?"

The others stop to think a minute then shake their heads. "Not that I can think of. We inspected the automatic feeders in the barns this summer."

The next several weeks pass and Josette heads to the first planet to pick the raised beds, coming back after a week on the planet.

"Josette?" Vincent asks on two planets when she comes into the cafe. She waves a hand and baskets of tomatoes, peppers, and bundles of herbs settle on tables. He wipes his hands on a towel and comes around the counter.

"Ohhhhh, these are wonderful. You've got more in stasis and dried?" He says, picking up a pepper and tomato in either hand.

"Yeah." They start haggling on prices and Josette helps put everything in the back.

"Everything finished on the first planet?" David asks when she comes to dinner.

"Yep, the plants are in the compost bin and everything that wasn't sold is in stasis or drying."

"Crops are going to start coming in next week."

"Yep, and week after that Alexander, Michael, and I are heading to Eureka for our finals."

"How's CJ in his degree?"

"Finishes it next year and being 'talked' to by his Dads about going on for a Masters and eventual doctorate." David sniggers. "You've been talked about as what not to do." The others snicker as David preens.

Josette is busy bringing in the garden and crops the next couple of weeks, taking a break from canning to take her finals.

Dr. Cross chuckles as she slides into a seat at the pushed together tables. "How's everything coming in?"

"Good, the crops are in and I took the wheat to the sorting planet since there's too much to be handled at the manufacturing satellite. The factories and satellite took in a lot of the students finishing university classes this year." Dr. Stark nods. "And the ninth planet Eureka has been talking to the students finishing high school this year about internships."

"And the garden?"

"More stuff ripening every day." the others nod. "Everything should be in by the end of the week and I'll till the garden under for the winter."

The rest of the week flies by and Josette takes Haven's orders to the sorting planet, delivering everything and sending the payments to various places when she arrives back home.

After Thanksgiving Josette and the others head off to the other dimensions for Josette's show and to visit family and friends, coming back with the ships full of stuff.

The next day Josette joins the others at the Albatross Nest, grabbing sandwiches, slices of pizza, and other snacks as she settles down on the floor as everybody talks about their harvests and plans for the future as containers of cookies are passed around. The kits are talked about then and Josette sends everything back to her workroom before joining the others at lunch.

After lunch Josette looks through the records of everything that they'd brought out from the other dimension on their trips before going upstairs and starting to sort through the boxes and bags from the Albatross Nest, putting everything away. Since a third of the quilts are hers she's got less quilt kits than the others and she looks through them before turning to the quilt top she's got partly done and working on it until dinner. She'd taken pictures of her quilts to the show and they'd been oohed and ahhed over by the people who count to her, other artists.

The cookies are put in stasis to eat throughout the year before Josette joins the others at dinner.

"What's the word on the chicken place?"

"They're settling in well in the kitchen, the recipes are now on the food replicator and they hope to start offering specialty nights starting next year. If the demand is good they'll open it afternoons and evenings a few days a week."

"If they do, are they starting a garden?"

"Probably. Potatoes, corn, and wheat for flour if nothing else." The others nod. Josette nudges David. "We're going to be talking about expanding the soybean crop for vat meat if they do at the government meeting after the Lights Festival." David nods.

Over the next couple of days they start decorating the dorm for the Lights Festival and plant the growing areas for winter as the first snow of the season that will stick starts falling.

"Do they do this on the ninth planet?"

"Yeah, they're starting at the end of their year, they like the idea of celebrating during their winter letting go of one year and welcoming in the next."

"Are their friends staying long?" Josette chuckles.

"Oh really." David laughs.

"The woman they called Dinah, the woman called Soranik, she's a surgeon so she's been checking out the medical units on the planets and my ships, and Alan's daughter Jennie-Lynn. Dinah's pregnant by artificial insemination by Drs. Cross and McNider, she and Dr. Cross had dated in their dimension, Jade and Soranik are pregnant by Kyle." David waggles his eyebrows and Josette laughs.

Josette heads to the first planet, spending a few months in her fortress and on the satellite before coming back to Haven. The visitors look around at the decorated buildings during the Lights Festival.

"You'd think winter on an agrarian planet would be gloomy but . . ."

"They celebrate winter just as much as they celebrate the other seasons. Winter is a time to relax, plan for the next year's harvests, and work on machinery or other stuff you haven't had to work on during the rest of the year. Josette, how long will the education center be open?"

"Year after next, once it's shut down maintenance is going to be swarming over the building for at least a year cleaning everything and seeing what repairs need to be made. They were on top of the small stuff but being in operation almost constantly for over seventy years is going to leave some stuff that needs done."

"Did any more dorms close?"

"Yeah, maintenance is doing the same thing there, taking everything out of the rooms and giving it a good cleaning before they see what else needs to be done. We did the same thing to the dorms when they emptied after we lost Earth, we'll do the same to the school buildings after the school closes again."

"Yes, there's nothing like a good cleaning to make everything seem new." Wendi says. "Even just a coat of new paint and different curtains can make a room ten times better." Every other woman who've decorated nods.

Josette slides into her seat in the government building the first morning of the new semester.

"Growing buildings on the ninth planet?"

"I'm going out first testing period to help get everything set up. And deliver the flour, grits, and cornmeal they had made."

"Are they having pasta made?"

"Yes, I'm delivering some of the flour to the pasta factory. Right now they're using what they brought out and are either making it by hand or using the homemade pasta machines"

"Are we having pasta made?"

"Not for a few months, I figured by the time the flour is ready the end of the semester we'd be running low on stuff." President Bartlett checks the supplies and nods. "Pick up before the Harvest Festival when you deliver the last of Haven's orders for the sorting planet apartments?" Josette nods and he makes a note of that on the schedule.

"Supplies for Archimedes' apartments?"

"I got in extras since I knew we'd be starting this next batch of orders when this one was finished. This year and next I'll be planting cotton offworld for their towel factory order, that will let them start working the second and third year along with the light bulb and glass factory." Nods from the others. "The other supplies I'll start getting in second year, that will give the wood two years to start drying for the animal planet order and any other furniture they need to make in the future."

"How is the ninth planet coming on the new buildings they wanted to put up?"

"Good, the library and TV station are up and the exteriors finished, the radio station was going up after Thanksgiving. They're debating this year or next for the school building, they want to be able to offer classes for the adults as well as the kids."

At the dorm after lunch Josette holds up the finished quilt top she'd been working on and starts putting together the layers, going into her studio and starting to quilt it. She's finished later that week and takes it to Sue's store to show off.

"Oh yes, this works much better with this back and binding." Agatha says when she, Marilyn, and Sue look it over. "Now, are you helping out in classes?" All the babies in the gestation chambers had been born by the Lights Festival and were being doted on by their loving parents. In addition to Professor Parker's twin daughters, Frances had twin sons when the chambers were opened. Everybody had flocked to help the new parents get settled.

"Yep, I already told Frances and Elaine I'd help out, all the students who've wanted to take the classes have and it's the advanced students left." Agatha nods as the bell over the door opens and a group from the ninth planet arrive for their classes.

Josette grins and heads back to the dorm, putting the quilt away with the others before heading to the textiles building to talk to Sue and Frances about the classes this year and next, plus their plans for the future.

After Josette comes back from Eureka for her third testing week she heads to the ninth planet, throwing off her cloak and taking a deep breath of the fall air. The offworld harvests are moved to the building and Mary, Courtney, and Freddy start stocking the shelves, putting the cases aside to put the jars in after they've been washed for reuse as Josette walks to the growing buildings where Dr. Cross, Mr. Terrific, and Billy are waiting for her.

"Will we be able to use the greenhouse over the winter?" Rick asks as he starts setting out supplies.

"Oh yes, with the alternate energy you'll have plenty of light and heat. It's just like how you grow inside. You can even put up a temporary building around them this winter."

"With staggering crops, we're going to have something going all winter."

Josette nods as she starts putting together the shelves for the seed trays as Michael starts working on the lights. "That's how they do them in Town and Albatross. We do it to a lesser extent in the dorm but ours is mostly everything coming in at once."

"Is this going to drain the batteries, solar panels, or alternate power source?" Billy asks as he puts the cover on the last tray of seeds two days later.

"Oh no, the alternate power source can handle ten thousand times this amount of draw. They're used in spaceships and are continually making energy."

Dr. McNider comes out of the JSA headquarters, walking over to the group and clapping Michael on the shoulder.

"Congratulations Daddy, you've got a baby in the chamber." Michael smiles. "If it's a girl she'll be Paula after her mother, if it's a boy Jacob Alexander."

"Better think of two names just in case." Michael nods.

Dr. McNider looks at the buildings in satisfaction. "Is everything done?"

"Yes, we've got the first set of seeds in the trays, A week or so they should be ready to transplant in the greenhouse. The hydroponics unit will start operation in a few months, that way we have something growing at all times."

"Get everything finished?" David asks when Josette slides into her seat.

"Yeah, the growing areas at Headquarters, Dr. Cross's home, and the buildings are all started. And Michael has a baby in the gestation chamber thanks to DNA from his late wife. If it's a girl he's naming her Paula after her mother." Everybody nods. "I delivered their offworld harvests while I was there too."

"Our crops?"

"I should be able to spread manure next week and start planting the week after that." Everybody nods before they start going over plans for the babies first birthday party in a couple days. The babies are more interested in the cake than the party, conking out in the playpen Josette brings out as the adults talk about the new babies and plans for the year. Some of the party food is from the 'chicken place' and everybody congratulates them. Josette helps clean everything up after the decorations are taken down, heading back to the dorm and getting ready for bed.

The next day Josette starts spreading manure out on the fields and garden, letting it sit for a week before she tills it under and plants.

"Everything in?" David asks when Josette slides into her seat at dinner.

"Yeah, everything's planted. I gotta check the septic units."

"Already taken care of, I moved it to the ranch before we came to dinner after David cleaned them."

"Anything else that needs to be taken care of beyond normal 'open the windows, wash the curtains, blankets and windows, clean up around the dorm, and put everything away for the spring'?" Susan asks.

"Nope, just basic stuff though . .. " Josette nudges David. "We need to have Dad or somebody come in and look over the mechanicals. It's been a few years." He nods and makes a note on his PADD.

"I think we'll probably get the call to bring out a laundry to the vampire planet next year."

Josette nods. "People are moving into the apartments and next fall the first big group of students will be leaving for internships or jobs. Two of the apartment complexes will be completely furnished and we'll have a year in for Archimedes." The others nod.

The next week Josette and the boys head to Eureka for their finals. Meanwhile James brings pictures of the new Sanders son along with a team of engineers to start going over the dorm's mechanicals, then when that was done start on the other buildings at the school since it had been a while since those were inspected also.

"Getting everything ready for spring?" Dr. McNider asks when she slides into a seat at the tables.

"Yep, the dorm's aired out after the winter, we've been washing windows, blankets, and curtains and Dad brought out a team of engineers to check the mechanicals at the dorm and school since it's been a few years." Dr. Stark sighs and nods. "We've had to do the same thing in Eureka this year and last."

"You don't stop to think how long it's been unless something goes wrong." Dr. McNider says.

"Yep, we want to catch problems early before we get caught in a winter storm and the furnace goes out or the hot water heater starts leaking, the toilets back up, faucets break and water goes up instead of down, doors fall off their hinges when you touch them, the roof falls in. . ." Dr. McNider's sniggering as Josette's list of problems gets more and more elaborate.

"No accidentally being launched into space?"

"No, Headquarters could survive that, the dorm can't. At least not yet."

"You know, I can actually believe that."

"Oxygen scrubbers, the windows all have airtight covers that would block them off in case of a violent event such as an earthquake. Force shields coming up to keep the building intact. . . They've been expanding Headquarters since we arrived on Haven just like I have the dorm."

"I'm surprised they're not linked like you linked the dorm and ranch or Clark linked Headquarters and the Empire State Building."

"Doc's planning on that within the next couple years. I fully expect to be able to walk down a hall one day, open a door, and be in any building on the planet, just like the planets that are nothing more than huge hallways that take you anywhere."

Dr. Stark chuckles.

Back at the dorm David chuckles as his Dad looks at the new room off Josette's first floor room.

"They're hooked to the dorm's system?"

"Yes, though you can also use the wood. There's a switch that allows you to select what source you want to run it off of, there's another down in the basement off that kitchen, one at the ranch, and one in the huts."

"The lords and ladies?"

"Yeah, I keep wanting to make Pern jokes. Josette uses it when she's going to be gone all day, it's dead handy for soups, stews, and putting stuff on to soak overnight."

"You've enlarged the kitchens."

"Yep, in one of the Lords and Ladies renovations when the garden got so big and we needed the room in all the kitchens when we're canning."

"Drying screens?"

"We bring them out a couple days before they're needed, then they're folded up and put away until needed again like the others." Dad Sanders nods as he and an engineer start going through everything. That takes two weeks of work and everything gets a clean bill of health before they start on the school.

"That's good to know."

"Yes, not that we expected otherwise, we keep ahead of problems."

"Yes, but something can always happen. A pipe can burst and flood a room."

"Or a shower head can fall off and crack the pipe."

"Flooding can ruin the floor and the ceiling underneath."

"Are we going to need to work on the kitchens?"

"Not unless we want to do something cosmetic. All the appliances are still good and it's foolishness to get rid of something that works perfectly fine because it's old. No matter how many people did it on Earth." Nods from the others.

"What are you working on on break?"

"Chemical engineering and a comic book degree. I figure on finishing five to seven degrees next couple years after I get in my main degrees next year."

The first crops start coming in shortly and Josette's busy bringing in the garden and crops, spreading compost on the fields and tilling it under before the second crops are planted after the rains. Alexander and Michael come home from Hank's shop early one day.

"Done?" David asks. They nod. "Josette's moving the last of the orders to the ship. We'll relax tonight and start working on stuff for our show. We've been working nights and weekends, now we can concentrate on it full-time." David nods as Josette comes in from the ranch.

"How's everything coming along?"

"Good, I moved the chicken coops to the new areas." She looks at the boys. "Done?"

"Yep, that way we'll be able to help with the harvesting."

"Theses?"

"Been working on them off and on, we'll work on them nights and weekends. Unlike some people," Alexander looks at Josette and smirks. "We'll present our theses the semester before our last three classes." Josette sniggers. "Yeah, I gotta talk to GD and maybe Rex since he's a chemist about a project for my masters."

"Hello Josette," Rex says when she walks into the room where Ma Hunkel, Rex, Wendi, Charles, Drs. Cross and McNider, Michael, and Doc are talking. "Let me give you some privacy."

"Actually, you're one of the people I wanted to talk to." Rex looks at her, his eyebrow raised. "I'm going for a Masters in chemistry."

"How far are you?"

"Starting my second year, Masters are four years here, two years of classes for the area you're studying and two years of classes identical for all the degrees for that school for your thesis."

"And you're getting at the stage you're going to need a project as well as your thesis." Michael says.

"Yep, I got a list of areas I could work on from GD but. . ." She sends that to main screen in the room.

"It's like quilting or any other crafting project, if you don't get one that clicks it will fight you every step of the way." Ma Hunkel says, a needlepoint hoop in her lap.

"Exactly." Wendi nods. She's been a designer in her younger years and knows what the two women are talking about. Josette nods.

"Have you worked in these areas?"

"Yes, either during my bachelors or projects for my Masters." Josette sends the list of her projects, reports, and grades to the screen next.

"How's David coming along on his Masters?"

"He'll be one semester from them both this fall, he's working on this project and theses this this summer and plans on presenting one next year and the other the year after that."

"Michael and Alexander?"

"Be three semesters from their masters this fall and working on their papers along with stuff for their show in the other dimension now that they're finished with the sorting planet orders."

"Did David start another bachelors?" Dr. Cross chuckles.

"Of course he did, if he didn't he'd have to take more than three classes a semester for his Masters." Josette sniggers.

"CJ?"

"Finishing his second Oxford bachelors this fall, Clark and Thomas are talking to him about going on for his Masters and eventually a doctorate."

"Are you two still taking classes on the other dimension's teacher?"

Josette nods. "So are Clark and Thomas."

Josette slides into her seat at dinner.

"Get some ideas about your project and thesis?"

"Yeah," Josette rubs a hand over her head and yawns. "We'll have a thunderstorm by bedtime."

"The gardens can use the rain, that way we don't have to water tomorrow." David says. Josette nods. "We're going to have to fill the cistern this weekend."

"Thought we'd be getting low."

"Watering would have drained it."

"Offworld cotton?"

"Growing this year and next so the towel factory can start Archimedes order year after next. I'm going to be bringing in supplies of wood then too, scrub paper for tp and wood for furniture." She looks at Alexander. "Are the others ordering furniture?"

"Ohhh yeah, they've got good supplies of furniture in their homes and in the containers yet and can bring out more like we can but they're making plans for the future."

"Children?"

"Dinah, Lantern Soranik, and Jade are pregnant while Michael's got a baby in the gestation chamber. I took out the bags and everybody thanked me. Did the engineers finish their inspections?"

"Yes the school passed with flying colors since maintenance is so good about keeping ahead of problems."

The next morning Josette puts on galoshes before she walks outside, checking the fields and garden to see if they need more water before letting the animals out and pumping water into troughs.

"Everything okay on the ranch?" David asks as they knock on the door of the studio to let the boys know it's time for lunch.

"Yeah, I gotta look in on the yearly crops after lunch."

Josette slides into her seat at the back dining room a few weeks later.

"Finished with the yearly crops on the first planet?"

"Yep, the olives are pressed and bottled, I left some to ripen to black. The wine is bottled, I put out the information on the server and deliver tomorrow. The cacao and coffee are in bags until they're needed, the grapes, oranges, mangoes, papayas, and coconuts are in stasis."

The next day Josette splits off duplicates to deliver the orders. The yearly crops on Haven start coming in and once that's done Josette delivers the last of the orders for the sorting planet. Back on Haven Josette sends the last payments to the others before sliding into her seat at the dining hall. The back room's full with their guests from the other dimensions talking to the others.

"Josette, the offworld cotton harvest?"

"On Hidalgo, I'll take it to the towel factory next year after that harvest is in." David nods, that makes sense.

"Charmin brand?

"Third offworld harvest, that will give the other planets a good supply of tp and we'll need napkins and paper towels again."

David nods. "We should start running low on supplies by that time. Furnishing all the apartment buildings kicked our usual plans right in the teeth."

"Is the animal planet apartments done?"

"Yep, they finished a couple days ago."

"9th planet buildings?"

"Finished and they should start transmitting in a few weeks." 9th planet Dr. Cross nods. "We're getting in a mixture of people who were working in Eureka and here on Haven along with former students who don't know anything about the business but are willing to learn."

Nods from the others. David looks at Josette. "Yes, I'll look into the other tape libraries on the ships." She looks at Dr. Cross again. "Movie theater?"

"Yes, we're talking about putting one up next summer. If you want you can put one up on Haven or Archimedes since ours are digital and your movies are still on tape."

"And if you want a copy of ours you can have it." Josette says. David nods.

The next several days has the visitors touring the other planets after the Harvest Festival.

"I don't think I could live on so quiet a planet." the visitor Dr. Cross says from his spot on the beach where they're cooking out.

"Neither could we, but it's so peaceful." Mary says, then sniggers as David's shoved into the water. "Some of the time." She looks over to where Clarinda's talking with Josette, Michael, and Alexander about the boys upcoming show. He follows her gaze, once again looking at this other version of his beloved daughter.

He returns to his dimension with the others, hard drives filled with information that he plugs into his system. He sends out a signal, getting a flying figure appearing that gives him a look, the man with him gives him a longer look.

"Look over this information." He tells the two men. They start reading, shaking their heads as they see footage. Batman blinks at one figure and moans quietly at another.

"Things could have easily turned out that way here. Not the meteorite hitting the moon, but Luthor taking over the country and not stopping there."

"We have just as many fanatic fringe groups that would have set off the rockets in the atmosphere if they could have. Are they settling in well?"

"The dimension where Luthor took over is in their second winter on their new planet, they've been bringing out buildings and have plans on working on a library, a radio station, and a TV station over the winter. They've added growing buildings both outside and areas in their homes for fresh fruit and vegetables over the winter beyond what they canned over their harvests and what was grown offworld for them. They're in constant contact with others from their original dimension but have no plans to return."

"I wouldn't, not until Luthor was permanently dealt with along with all his cronies because I can see somebody attacking once they thought everything was done." The other two men nod.

"So how many degrees are you finishing next year?" David asks when their guests have all headed back home and the dorm is quiet.

"At least four, the three I'm taking on the school computer though I'll probably finish the one I'm taking three classes a semester in second semester and the first of the musical instruments hands-on degrees from Edinborough. Oh they plan on enlarging again so I'll take a year off classes from there to give them time to finish everything they want to do. I've only got one other degree going there, sunpainting and it's all books."

"Sunpainting?"

"It's where you put fabric in the sun or under a heat lamp, put objects on it, then add dye or paint and then remove them when they're dry, showing the outlines. One of the new degrees they added over the years. I'm going to experiment with it for a top of a quilt. . .eventually."

"The opposite of woodblocking."

"Basically, two sides of the same coin of adding designs to fabric." Josette heads upstairs to work on her loom for a few hours. The next couple of weeks pass quickly and Josette, Alexander, and Michael head to Eureka for their first testing week.

"What are your plans for the winter?"

"Doc wants us to upgrade our growing facilities so I'm going to be planting on the satellite again."

"It has been a few decades." Dr. Stark says dryly. Josette sniggers at his bland tone. "Exactly, that will give me more time on the satellite, I want to see if I can find a library on there this time."

Josette looks up at the knock on the doorframe that weekend when she's up in her growing area at the dorm.

"Oh my god. . ." Dr. Cross says, looking around. Doc is doing the same.

"Offworld plants, to clean the air and water on ships, used in medicine, used on planets that have had natural disasters to help them recover, or just plants from worlds that naturally have harsh climates."

"Is this the only area?" Doc asks after Josette takes them on a tour of the five floor, fifteen rooms per floor area.

"Oh no, we have several offworld growing areas that were started before we started arriving on the planets, Dr. Kane on the fourth planet has a growing area in his Sanctuary, Doc's got one, GD has one, I just have the largest since I go offdimension so often and I've talked a lot to farmers and other agricultural specialists on other planets from my visits to Momma Clarinda's dimension."

"Josette, did everything get straightened out over there?" Susan asks.

"Yes, the leaders of the planet who wanted the Legion to face charges have been removed from office and they're looking at multiple life sentences as the charges rack up. The authorities figure it will be years before all the charges are in, they keep finding records of nasty, evil, or just stupid shit they did." Susan sniggers. "Sounds like most governments."

"Can we get samples?"

"Sure if you got a place to put them separate from your food growing areas."

Dr. Cross nods. Josette brings out clippers and sample envelopes and they start to work.

"What's this?"

"Samples of Alien plants Josette has in a growing area of the dorm, she sent along information on each one." Dr. Cross says as he and Dr. McNider get to work putting in grow liquid. Meanwhile at headquarters Doc and Charles are doing the same.

Josette's on the ninth planet when Dinah cries out and a wet spot appears under her. She lifts her into her arms and carries her to Dr. Cross's home.

"Josette?" Dr. McNider jumps to his feet on the couch. He lifts Dinah into his arms as Dr. Cross leads them to the basement.

"Where's Charles and Pieter?" Alan says, coming to the door as Josette gets ready to leave.

"Basement. Dinah's water broke a few minutes ago."

Alan sighs, ducking his head. "Jennie-Lynn just did the same thing."

"Call Eureka, if your Dr. Blake isn't used to delivering babies, ours is from being there for all our kids. Because once they've delivered and are recovering Soranik should if Koragur physiology is similar to humans."

He sighs in relief. "I hadn't thought of that." and heads off. Josette chuckles as Dr. McNider comes up, the computer alerting him to the new arrival. He looks at the door then Josette. "Alan just arrived quietly freaking out since Jennie-Lynn's water broke too. I told him to call Eureka, if your Dr. Blake can't deliver the babies, ours can. She's had years of experience with ours." Charles laughs and heads back to the basement as Josette heads back to Haven.

"Josette says Alan was freaking out because Jade's water broke too. She told him to call GD, if Allison can't deliver the babies Archimedes Allison can since she delivered theirs." He says coming back in the exam room where Pieter's checking Dinah.

Josette grins at the news of Dinah having a boy and girl while Jennie-Lynn had two girls a few days later.

"Three girls and a boy, and two yet to go." She announces at dinner. The others smile, then Susan shoves David out of his chair since she's closest.

"No, we don't need babies right away. It's eight years before Josette's as old as how many children we have." She says calmly. The others snigger. "Let's get the twins graduated high school at least."

After Thanksgiving and the visits to the other dimensions, Josette settles in her usual spot in the Albatross Nest for the meeting about the kits.

"Josette, does the ninth planet have growing buildings?" Marilyn asks.

"Yes about half again the size of Haven's and Doc and Dr. Cross both have growing areas in their homes."

"They're in their late winter?"

"Yep, in a few weeks they'll be planting their first harvest. This year they're planning individual gardens as well as the communal garden." Everybody nods in satisfaction.

After the meeting Josette takes everything back to the dorm and heads to Hidalgo, returning a little under a year later for her. She drops into her usual seat at dinner and sends Clark a message that has him appearing a few minutes later.

"I found a library on the satellite. . .and an AI."

"Really?" Clark asks, dropping into a seat.

"Yep." She sends him a file.

//"I don't suppose you have a library?" She says one day and squeals when a series of arrows lights up and she starts following them.

"Thank you." She pats the wall and takes a picture of the room to show Clark, Thomas, and CJ.

"You're welcome." A quiet voice says and Josette throws her arms around the nearest wall. "Thank you for talking to me."

"It's been years since I talked to anybody, but you always made an effort to thank me and talk to me when you're here, and seeing how you interact with the others proves you're not bothered by AIs." Hidalgo's AI appears next to Josette and laughs.//

"So the ships, yours, and mine are all talking."

"What did you plant?" Josette sends them the list. "Everything's in stasis right now, I figured we'd work on it the next few days after we decorate the dorm."

"The visitors on the ninth planet?"

"Heading after the Lights Festival. Everybody's itching to get outside with winter nearly over. It's not just planting crops, it's being able to open windows, air out buildings that have been shut up for months for more than five minutes without the furnace coming on and be outside for more than a few minutes at a time moving from one building to another." Everybody nods, knowing that feeling well from winters blocked in by storms.

"Awwww, congratulations." Josette coos when she gets a message.

"They open the gestation chamber?"

"Yep, Michael's the stunned but proud daddy of a little girl named Paula after her mother."

"Is that it on the babies?"

"They're talking about letting Courtney and Billy become pregnant later this year. They're going to be busy with bringing out the movie theater and building classrooms."

Camilla looks around the lights a few weeks later at the Lights Festival on the other planet. Nobody's looking at her sideways for being bundled up, everybody else is. Even if Josette's hood keeps getting pulled up around her face for her by the others. They stop at the dorm to pick up the babies that are sleeping in cribs, getting diapers changed, or being given a bottle then head back to the 9th planet, hugging their friends and getting pictures of the babies before they head back to the other dimension. No matter how long they'd stayed there, they'd be arriving back minutes if not seconds after they'd left.

Kyle hands over a box. "Genetic samples from the others for the database."

Batman nods in satisfaction as the new genetic samples are placed in the banks. Then looks at the babies in Dinah's arms as Soranik and Kyle check in with the guardians, their son in his green bassinet behind them.

"At you okay?"

"Sore, the twins weighed nearly six pounds each thanks to the clean air, good food, and plenty of exercise." Dinah's eyes grow dark as she remembers some of that 'exercise'.

Meanwhile on the link to OA the guardians look at the baby in the bassinet. "A male infant?"

"Yes, Jade had a set of twin girls, they are with her in the other dimension."

"Have you set up times to visit the others?"

"Yes, Black Canary had a boy and girl, we want the children to know their siblings."

The Guardian nods as they form a ship around themselves and fly through the watchtower into space. Dinah puts the babies down in floating cradles and lowers herself into a chair.

"How long has it been since you delivered?"

"Six weeks their time. I had my two month examination before I left."

"Their names for the records?" Batman asks.

"Lawrence Pieter Charles McNider Cross Lance and Dinah Alexandra Cross Lance McNider. They have an older brother and sister on the other planet."

"How are they handling the last names."

"A variation on how the twins are named, all three parents last names in varying order. They were DNA tested at birth, they do it on all the planets to determine paternity, the other planets want to make sure children are taken care of and in case of donated sperm or genetic material the kids don't get together." Nods from the others, they're doing the same. Lawrence makes a mewling sound in his bassinet and Dinah picks him up, throwing a blanket over her shoulder as she nurses.

"How many children do they have?"

"Fifteen with our three though the doctors were talking about letting Stargirl and Captain Marvel become pregnant later their year when we were getting ready to leave. Mr. Terrific had a weeks old baby girl from the gestation chamber. There were seventeen children under the age of two on the sixth planet. Hippolyta, in my bag is letters from the others. There's also video of how they're settling in. Their planet has much longer days and years, they get in four harvests before winter."

The video is played, the others talking about what they see.

"Their garden is well set up, but so large? Unless its. . ."

"A communal garden for everybody?" Black Canary nods as she puts Lawrence down and picks up her baby girl to nurse. "Yes. Josette started the original garden before they arrived, in a year or so they plan on having their own gardens as they branch out into other foods. They'd put up growing buildings for fresh fruit and vegetables over the winter beyond what they can from their harvests and grow offworld. Clark Savage and the drs. Mid-Nite had similar growing areas in their homes."

"Grow offworld?"

"There's a number of offworld growing areas for the six occupied planets, think large gardens on a gigantic scale. They're off six months harvesting all the food but are only gone an hour thanks to the time difference. That food is canned, dried, or otherwise stored and passed out for the winter. They only have two offworld areas while the other planets that have larger populations have three."

"Growth?"

"They have a small population growth, they don't want to overwhelm the planets and most people are staying in the areas they've settled in rather than spreading out to farm their own land. There's also the problem that a lot of people are sterile thanks to radiation from the solar flares that ultimately wiped out their Earth's population."

"How much?"

"Almost the total population of two of the worlds, they're former students from Josette's school. 90 to 95 percent of a third, depending on when they came up. Their new world and most of the inhabitants of the other two worlds can have children, depending on their age and if they came up after the radiation. Those who are too old or are in same-sex relationships use the gestation chambers too. The other worlds have had children over the years in the chambers but only about fifty over thirty years. With the gestation chambers and bodies adapting to the longer years, they're waiting to have children."

"Industry?"

"Fourth planet has Stark International, yes from the Iron Man movies, and Wayne Industries." Dinah's getting her daughter settled in the bassinet and adjusting herself in her shirt so she doesn't see Batman's look. "Or I should say both Wayne Industries since they brought out the second after their Earth was lost, they've been integrating stuff for years. Fifth planet is mostly scientific, their nickname is the animal planet since they started out as a way to save endangered wildlife. Though they started growing commercially there within the last couple of years. Sixth planet is primarily agricultural but has limited small factories, the seventh planet has more small factories, some open year round while others are opened when they're needed then shut down. They've started growing there commercially a few years ago, before then it was just the factories and recycling. The eighth planet is their GD, between them, the two Wayne Industries, and Stark they hire a good percentage of the recent graduates when they finish their university degrees."

"What's the populations?"

"I'm not sure about the fourth planet, a lot of is small farms but the fifth planet is around seventeen thousand inhabitants, the sixth planet is under eight thousand and will fall to under four thousand when the last of the students finish their university classes and leave the school. The seventh planet is over 23,000 people while the eighth has maybe fifteen thousand among GD, the other two towns they brought up over the years, and the independent groups that have settled there."

"So around eighty thousand people on six planets?"

Dinah nods. "I know on Earth that might not be a sustainable population but it works for them."

"They've learned from Earth's mistakes. We've got less, so do the colonies. You said they've been settled about fifty years?"

Dinah nods as a familiar noise makes her get up and reach for the diaper bag. Hippolyta takes one of the babies and they change them, cleaning them, and putting them in clean clothes before settling them back in the bassinets.

"About twenty-five thousand students, support staff from the orphanages, and others came out to the sixth planet in two groups about twenty-three, twenty-four years ago for them otherwise the population would be smaller."

"That's a bit of people to take in."

"Not as bad as the 40,000 students that were in school when they lost Earth. Some of them might have come back to the planets, but not all of them."

The others nod. "That would have been a large number of people to integrate into their society, for all that they'd already been there."

Dinah nods. "They were in temporary barracks like housing for several years until they brought up apartment buildings. Being in temporary housing for so long though allowed them to pay down their scholarship loans and put money away for permanent housing. It took I think two or three multi-building apartment complexes on each of the planets before all the students were out of temporary housing."

"How did they assign housing?"

"Lottery, everybody knew they'd have places eventually so if they didn't get in this time they had another chance. With the new students from the second dimension they learned from their mistakes and started putting up the apartment complexes early so once the students left the school dorms after they finished their university degrees, they could move right into their new homes." everybody nods in satisfaction.

"Why didn't they leave the students in the dorms after they lost Earth?" Somebody asks.

"At the time they felt that being at the school might be a reminder of what they'd lost on Earth. Getting away and starting new." The others nod. "In the orphans case, they'd already been treated as second class citizens since they didn't have families but they'd made their own among the others and the orphanage personnel were their parents. The school closed four years after they lost Earth, opening and closing periodically as student were old enough to attend classes. They'll have been open twenty-one years when the last of the students leave in five years. The last four years will be less than fifty students from the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh planets. The last of the dorms will be closing as the youngest orphans move to permanent housing."

"Will they reopen?

"Maybe in the future, right now schooling is changing on the sixth planet. The building that was the day care and taught students through the eighth grade has been in operation since before they left Earth, they're closing it this year their time for a good cleaning and to see if any repairs needed to be made. Josette and the others are teaching their younger children at home. Their next youngest was going to be starting second grade in a week when we left, their oldest after that was starting eighth grade, they were going to be the sixth planet students attending high school before it closed. Their oldest four still living at home were going to be finishing their last year of university classes this year."

"And their youngest?"

"Triplets turning two in three months."

"Are we seeing many changes as people adapt to their new planets? Besides people living longer?"

Dinah nods. "I haven't seen it personally but pregnancies started getting shorter as people adapted to the longer days, months, and years. Pregnancies are about twenty weeks on the sixth planet now, fourteen on the eighth planet. The others told them it would be happening, it takes about ten years for their bodies to adapt. With the good food, fresh air, clean water, and plenty of exercise everybody's in their best health ever. They've gained weight, but it's all muscles."

"How are they adapting to the much longer days on their new planet?"

"They're handling it, like the eighth planet they work for a while, are off for several hours, get some sleep, then go back to what they'd been doing. The only time everybody's working non-stop is when the crops are coming in, then it's picking, canning, drying, or storing everything until dark or everything's put away." Superman nods, remembering life on the farm when the harvest comes in.

"What are their plans for the third year?"

"Bringing out at least a movie theater and a building they can use for classes. They've been slowly going through all their supplies they sent out before they arrived but there's still containers they have to go through and they plan on bringing other buildings out of 'limbo' as Josette refers to it."

"Anything new to bring up?" President Bartlett says at the government meeting the first day of the new semester.

"Possibility of a second TV and radio station? We've gone through the library even with limited broadcast hours." Josette says. "Ninth planet is bringing out their own movie theater later this year along with a building for classes."

"Maybe in a few years we can bring out an existing one, with ninth planet broadcasts, we've got new channels." Josette nods. Josette nods and makes a note for the records. "No more a hundred channels and nothing to watch."

"Thank you god." President Bartlett sighs. "What's the possibility of original programming?"

"Good." Josette sends the tentative list to the screen, everybody nodding. "Anything else?"

"Expanding the store or moving clothing into it's own building?"

Back at the dorm Josette heads upstairs and plays eeny meeny miney mo with her quilt kits to start a new one. Opening the bag she pulls everything out and starts copying the pattern onto plastic and starts a new envelope for the pattern, copying it and putting the original away, she'll add the plastic pieces to the envelope when she's finished with the quilt. Looking over all the fabric she reads the pattern before David calls her down for lunch.

"Going to be finishing your school computer degrees this year?"

"Yeah, I'm finishing the third year for the shipwrecks degree this semester, I'll pick up extra classes next semester and the break to finish second break."

"Cooking?"

"Halfway through it this semester."

"Herbal medicine degree from Oxford?"

"Next year, that the second degree for the shipwrecks, and probably a lit degree since I'm finishing all three this year. I might even pick up a second three class a semester degree next year."

"Old home week at Hank's?" David asks when Josette's absorbed her other selves before dinner.

"Yep." Michael leans back in his chair. "Everybody's settling into starting the new orders for Archimedes's apartments. Going to seem weird not heading there the first of the year when we're finished with the last two complexes."

"Like when the school closes and Josette and the girls aren't heading to work."

"Exactly, you've become used to it over the last several years."

"What's the status on the chicken place?" Susan asks as they walk to the dining hall.

"Good, they're going to be announcing special nights pretty soon."

"Helping with classes?"

"Nope, Frances and Elaine only have a handful of students they're working with so they're offering one on one time instead of regular classes. They're not looking at regular classes again until year after next when the kids are in tenth grade."

"What's the latest on the other dimension?"

"Luthor's scrabbling to keep his head above water, his 'allies' dead and gone when they attacked the wrong countries and got taken out with extreme prejudice. He's trying to bluff it out but the war's turning against him but it's going to be worse before it gets better. The rough estimate is millions of people dead and the death toll is just going to keep going up."

"Josette, how's the ship coming along?"

"I'm working on it again the next couple of weeks. End of the year I'll have the frame put together."

"First planet?"

"I gotta see what we're running low on in a couple months." David nods as they walk inside the back room, getting the babies settled in their booster seats.

"Now, do the others have enough formula?"

"Yes, they're going to be in operation for another year just to make sure, anything left over can go in stasis."

Nods from the others.

"Recycling?"

"End of the semester, I picked up everything last fall."

"Empty containers?"

"They've been putting some together on the 9th planet for workrooms and summer kitchens for canning. Like they were talking about on Earth when they were talking about using them for housing, you can't easily add plumbing but buckets of water from an outside faucet handles all the needs since they're not going to be in use all the time." Everybody nods.

"Workshops?"

"For quilting. Not everybody has workrooms in their homes. . .though that probably will be in the next round of renovations, but they can sit out there, sew blocks, put together the layers together, and bring them to the stores to be quilted. I 'tweaked' everything while I was there so they got heat and electricity." The others chuckle. "And I took some of them for a permanent house for me on land I found." She sends them pictures of the building and surrounding area, getting nods of approval.

Josette sends pictures to Lee and Harry of the progress of the ship when she heads to Eureka for the first round of tests a few weeks later. Josette slides into her usual seat at the tables.

"Is CJ starting his Masters?"

"Yep."

"The boys?"

"Michael and Alexander are going to be three years into their Masters and working on their theses, David is going to be three classes from his end of the year and uploading his Mechanical engineering thesis to the server this summer. He's pouting he's going to have to present the comic book one in person." The others make fake sounds of sympathy. "He's more upset because Dr. Blake will probably be arriving at the dorm after Thanksgiving and dropping 'hints' about a doctorate for him and other degrees for the others." Suspiciously twitching lips from David's godfather and uncles.

"Josette, are you growing on the first planet this year?"

"Yeah, I was going to check the supplies in a couple months. The biologists need me to plant something for them?"

"Please." Dr. Stark sends her the information. "Same terms as last time?"

"Yep, you get most of the produce both green and ripe, dried and fresh and they get the rest and the plants. They don't have the room to store everything you do."

"I'll have to set up another raised bed, I use both since the 9th planet was settled." Dr. Stark nods. He sends Josette the information and she nods. "Do they mind if some of these get sold?"

"Don't mind at all. Do you still have seeds from the other pepper?"

"Yep, I was going to start a batch in a couple years."

"What's Doc doing to your growing center?"

"No idea, it's already three times as big as it was and he says he's not done, he's talking to Dad about that part of the dorm. We might be growing offworld again this fall." Dr. Cross snickers at her hangdog look. The boys come over when the buzzer sounds for lunch.

"How are you on your papers?"

"Good, we made a lot of progress on them over the break and when we weren't working on stuff for our show last year."

"What's the plans for the education center when it closes this fall?"

"Taking everything out of each room, giving it a good scrubbing and making a list of anything that needs to be worked on. Next spring we'll do the same to the outside of the building and check the others in town."

The others nod. "No use looking over one building without checking the others. You're just asking for trouble."

This time Josette nods.

Josette heads to the first planet later that week, talking to the satellite's AI as Aztec makes the parts for a third raised bed she sets out and fills with dirt and a couple scoops of the compost before heading back to Haven.

The next few weeks pass and Josette slides into her seat at the pushed together the second testing week, nodding at the bag Dr. Cross hands her. Looking inside she nods and puts it on the floor next to her as they talk about plans for the spring planting, washing blankets and windows and the need to bring new sheets out of storage.

"What about the school's sheets?"

"I've been getting bags of wore out sheets and towels as the students leave and their floors are cleaned. We've got tons of sheets from the other dimension, both separates and made up in sets and of course there's the replicator." The three men nod. "Do you see a factory for sheets and blankets?"

"Not for a while. Eventually yeah, I even have them picked out."

"Toothpaste?"

"Should be running low this year, I'll check the supplies when we get home and put up a poll sometime this year if we are. With all the work for the apartments, the usual orders kinda get forgotten." Dr. Stark chuckles and nods. "Same for the tp, paper towels, and napkins. Stuff you don't think about until you run out."

"How are the others coming along on their plans for a chicken restaurant?"

"Good, they plan on offering specialty nights later this year. Last year was putting all the recipes on the food replicator and seeing what the difference is between cooking at home, the church kitchen, and a commercial kitchen." The others nod.

Josette fills the manure spreader and takes care of the garden and fields. The others were busy washing windows and putting away blankets and quilts now that the last of the snow had melted. Every window in a room where somebody lived was open, along with the doors as fresh air replaced the funk of 'lived in' for the last few months.

"Everything done?" Josette asks at lunch.

"Yep, the dorms airing out and we cleaned up after the poochies."

"Anybody else need new sheets?"

"Yep, I ripped a hole in my bottom sheet this morning even with switching the thin spot to the head of the bed." Susan says. "I replicated a new one and I was going to head up to the storage area this afternoon." She looks at Josette. "The dorms sheets and towels?"

"Been brought to my workroom as the floors empty." Everybody nods. Being open nearly twenty five years meant a lot of them were getting thin even with being new when they'd come out."

After lunch Josette grabs a bag of towels from the workroom and starts cutting them up for a batch of handmade paper, shredding some of the recyclable paper from the other dimensions and starting to to soak before heading to the storage area of the dorm and getting some new sets of sheets.

"How are we on sheets?" David asks at dinner.

"Good, we've got tons of separates and put together as sets and I've got more on the ships from taking the ships to the other dimensions. I have a factory for sheets and blankets selected that I plan on bringing out in a decade or so. And there's always the replicators."

"What have we been doing with the wore out blankets?"

"Replicator as raw material for new ones or used as batting for quilts if they're large enough. A lot of flannel quilts use blankets as batting since they're already heavy." Frances nods as she comes into the back room. "Josette, we're having a special meeting at the textiles building an hour after dinner."

"I'll be there."

Josette grins at Agatha, Sue, Joan, Suzie, Moira, and a handful of others as she comes into the room. They talk for a couple hours and nod at the tentative plans before Josette heads back to the dorm.

"Plans for what we're going to do after the school closes, holding classes here as well as in town, Albatross, Assyrian, and Edinborough. And talking about the sunpainting degree I started."

"Weaver halls." David sniggers. "Basically yeah. Talking about maybe Hank making looms when he's finished with the orders for the apartment complexes, tables and cabinets for sewing machines, what I have still on the ships or what we can make. I have a factory for sewing machines and I can bring one out for knitting machines, from the small ones kids get you crank by hands up to the big mack daddy ones like I have in my studio and from the supplier."

"More cloth beyond your building?"

"I'll bring out a larger factory." David nods and they talk about what needs to be done that spring.

"Somebody needs to go check the roofs." David nods. "I can do that in a couple months when I'm not taking classes."

"Thesis?"

"I'm uploading it to the server with the project specs after my last class this semester."

Josette's planted the first crops on the first planet and Haven when their finals arrive and she slides into her seat at the pushed together tables.

"Get everything planted?"

"Yeah, and I'm bringing the first batch of orders up later this week and pick up the recycling at the same time." Dr. Stark nods, making a note on his PADD. "Other supplies?"

"Starting next year, I've got good supplies of everything for these apartments, I'll start getting in more for the animal planet and to have on hand afterwards.

"Clark get everything he wanted done to your growing area yet?"

"No, he says he'll be finished by our first harvest. I'm going to be busy keeping an eye on the new plants so it doesn't bother me. David's planning on looking over the roofs on the other continent, it's been a few years and the sooner we catch any problems the easier it is to fix." All three men nod.

A few days later Josette slides into her seat at dinner.

"Get everything taken care of?"

"Yep, the furniture and other stuff is in the apartments and the payments sent to everybody. The recycling is all picked up and I need to break up the glass tomorrow." The others nod.

"What are you taking over break?"

"Four classes for the naval academy degree and finishing the third year for the pulp fiction villains degree. I'll get five more classes in next semester and finish it second break."

"How are Dr. Cross and Billy coming on their cooking degree?"

"Good, they're taking four classes a semester and plan on picking up a second degree. The others are looking over the cookbooks from the classes and the ones they brought from their dimension and plan on expanding their own cooking abilities in the future."

"They're planting their own gardens this year?"

"Yep, one of the reasons they want to take cooking classes. Introducing new foods to them and new styles of cooking."

"If you don't learn something new, you might as well be dead."

"Yep."

The next day Josette signs in at Agatha's and starts doing inventory of what's in the stockroom. Agatha looks through the door and sighs. "Yeah, I was going to start that soon. Are you growing cotton?"

Josette nods. "I noticed the stores were getting a little low. With all the apartment complexes going up, regular stuff takes a back seat." Agatha nods. "But once everything's done I can't see the need for new housing for a while."

"Stuff like underwear and bras?"

"The factory's starting up next year. A mixture of old employees and some of the kids finishing university classes this fall. We've still got supplies from before the other dimension was lost." Agatha nods.

"Is everybody settling in well on the 9th planet?"

"Yeah, they're planting their own gardens as well as the communal garden."

"Always a good sign." Agatha nods. "I heard rumors of a movie theater?"

"Yeah, they're planning on bringing it out, they were trying to decide where they'd put it so everybody could come when I reminded them of the link between the stores."

Agatha nods. "That way it doesn't matter where it is, set up the links and you can easily travel there."

"It won't be opening this year, they'll have the same work that ours did. And they're putting up a building for classrooms, both for the babies and the adults when they're taking university classes." Agatha nods. "Our movies?"

"Theirs is digital, ours is still tapes."

Agatha nods. "I remember them talking about that, foolishness to make people spend money to change everything that worked just fine."

Josette nods. "But they can always bring out a copy of ours and we can always bring out a copy of theirs." Everybody in earshot nods. "From the lists of what I brought out both before they arrived and afterwards, they have a good selection of movies both on tape and DVD, plus whatever they had at the theater and new digital movies. And I pick up new stuff when I go over."

The first crops start coming in and Josette's busy for a couple of weeks bringing everything in and canning, drying, or storing food. The new crops go in and Josette heads off with a group for the offworld harvest before sliding into her seat at the dining room.

"Is everything in?"

"Yeah, I gotta start working on cleaning the cotton tomorrow." Josette stretches backward in the chair.

"How soon until the offworld harvests start coming in while it's still winter?"

"I say year after next, maybe the year after that. Won't know for sure until the year before it happens." Everybody nods.

"First planet?"

"Taking the plants and a portion of the crop to GD after lunch. I'm stopping to Vincent's while I'm there. I already sold some of the peppers to Dr. Kane."

Vincent smiles as Josette comes in. It's a lull and she waves a hand to bring out stuff. Vincent moans.

"I understand you were planting again for GD?"

"Yeah, here's some of the green and ripe. Careful, a little goes a long way."

"From the others I can understand." He sniffs one of the peppers and turns his head. "Yeah." They sit down to haggle and Josette gets a plate of food placed in front of her after they take everything in back.

"I know you probably just ate but with the harvests coming in you're doing fifteen different things at once."

Vincent on the 9th planet looks over at the knock on the door. He recognizes Josette and opens the door.

"First planet?"

"Yep, herbs, peppers, tomatoes, and a new pepper that GD asked me to plant." They sit down to haggle over everything and Josette helps move everything into the back before heading back to Haven.

"Get everything sold?" Susan asks when Josette slides into her seat.

"Yep, the rest is in stasis or drying."

The next morning Josette splits a duplicate off that goes the supplier's complex in the dorm to start cleaning the cotton. It's a couple days later when Josette delivers a batch of yarn and plain cotton for spinning to the yarn store.

"Thank you Josette, with all the attention on the apartment complexes the little things get overlooked. Are you growing offworld?" The woman behind the counter says after the payment is transferred and she puts everything in back.

"Yes, this harvest and what I grew last year that's on the ship will be enough for Archimedes towel factory order. I gotta plant again next year for Charmin brand tp and take scrub trees out there for that, paper towels, and napkins."

"Toothpaste?"

"I was going to put up the poll end of the year."

"Are we expanding the ranch house?" Alan asks after dinner. They had when the school first closed and again a while later.

"I'd been thinking of it." Josette says, sending a file to the screen. She starts pointing things out, getting nods and suggestions that she updates the file with.

"We need a second kitchen when the garden is coming in." Anna says.

Nods from the others. "Maybe a summer kitchen? Bringing in water like they do on the 9th planet."

Josette brings up another file. "I'd been working on this. Primarily designed for canning." They nod at the large room with tables, multiple cooking surfaces and multiple prep areas.

"Not bad. Similar to the big building but more. . .us."

"The big building is meant for multiple uses with everything being moved when it's no longer needed.

"I've also been working on another area to store everything." Josette brings up another file, getting a nod. Everything starts twinkling and Josette hears a familiar chuckling.

"Thank you Lady Hestia."

"You've needed the work for a while, like the houses in town the ranch was meant as a starting point, children." All of them nod.

Josette drops into the couch three months later.

"Is everything in now?" Susan asks.

"Yep." Josette opens one eye to see the visitors moving around the living room talking to each other. "Next year will be easier with everybody but the kids out of high school so we have more people to harvest or whatnot." David nods. "First planet?"

"Everything's in and I planted the raised beds."

"Orders?"

"Delivered the second batch and dropped off the cotton at the towel factory."

"You added onto the . . .well, I can't really call it a ranch anymore." Dr. Cross asks.

"Yeah, we've had plans for a while to add onto it when the school closes again and we needed another kitchen for when the garden comes in. The others are meant for general cooking, this one was designed with taking care of the harvests in mind. More cooking surfaces with burners farther apart for larger pots, more prep areas, and plenty of tables for the food to be moved to after it's been canned. We also enlarged the pantries, including a new area to use for the harvests since we were running out of room."

"This is nice work boys, do you sell beyond the orders for the other planets?" James asks, looking at some of the cabinets and furniture the boys have been working on, both for the apartment complexes and their own use.

"Yes, we made special order furniture in the other dimension before it was lost, now we're doing it in the other other dimension. Josette, Michael, and I have at least one show a year and we routinely take over furniture when we go over after Thanksgiving since we're not working at Hank's all day. David?"

"Yeah."

"You hear about your Mechanical engineering thesis?"

"Yeah, the project and thesis got a wave from GD, I gotta present the lit one in person though." David's lips start to twitch.

"So do we."

"Yeah, on comic books." Josette snorts.

"So speaks the woman who's taken all three of the Masters we're going for. Hey, did they bring out the movie theater on the 9th planet?"

"Yeah, they're working on the exterior work and attaching storage by . . ." Josette opens her eyes and looks at David, who starts typing. "Yeah, we'll bring that up at the next meeting." Everybody looks at them. "Our first meeting of the year, Josette brought up the point that even with limited hours we've gone through the TV and radio station libraries. The radio station that's not a problem since you can switch up the music but. . ."

"New radio and TV station?"

"We tabled it for a few years since the 9th planet ones opened. The main problem was the stations didn't have the room for another tape library. . ."

"But if you link a building by a tessaract or even just expand a room. . ." Josette nods. "Right now we hope to have original programming up and running by next year."

"Josette, you working on your chem project?"

"Yeah, I try to get in a few hours a week in in a lab at GD."

"So are you thinking of settling out here like the others?" Dr. Cross looks over at Clarinda in the living room a few hours later after the kids have headed to bed. How things are different in the various dimensions, at least three where Clarinda gave birth to Josette, two where Josette never existed because Charles didn't, one where Charles gave birth to Josette, and his where he gave birth to Josette. His eyes grow dark a second as he thinks of another difference in the dimensions, it's only this one where Josette lived.

"We've been thinking of it, we couldn't live on another planet like the others have even if a copy of the city's on the first planet." The others nod. "But the others have said that they could bring out a copy of our rooms and attach it to a building on the other continent. Along with our other homes."

"Rooms?"

"We're rather high in the government, we live in New York on the 198th floor of a highrise, you need a pass to get on our floor, we have the entire floor and there's no windows for our security."

"Nothing above you either?"

James nods. "Again our security. But even with only 50,000 people New York gets a little overwhelming and we head to our homes for a few days, the kids brought an old ship to go out on the ocean for the same reason."

"Josette, is the Legion's Eureka still on Earth?" Susan asks at breakfast the next morning.

"No, like ours they moved lock, stock, and barrel to another world when the government started getting heavy handed, telling them what they had to do. Like the Legion they're totally autonomous and the government who forced their move got their hands slapped. They're a good sized research facility now with links to major universities and shaking their ass at Earthgov who's looking like big bullies now trying to tell an independent company what to do. All the other companies they work with are up in arms and threatening lawsuits and canceling contracts." Josette smirks.

"Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of assholes." David smirks. "Always have to be one power-hungry fool who has nothing better to do than try to push his weight around."

"Then blubber that they should have done what he wanted when his house of cards falls down around his ears." Susan snorts. Josette nods. "I'm going to be taking care of the cotton and fleeces. With the offworld harvests coming in earlier, the building was in use last shearing."

The others nod. David grabs his PADD and makes a note to bring up the possibility of another building for taking care of the cotton and fleeces. Josette nods. "We've probably had the need for a while. Especially now that we have the ninth planet animals too."

"Are you making socks and whatnot?"

"No, they've got a good size stockpile from their last harvests. We'll make cloth when the last of the fleeces are finished." Everybody nods. "Once it's all been turned into thread, I'll get a list of colors from the 9th planet and dye it after the cloth is made."

"This is magnificent." Dr. Cross says, looking around. Josette had suggested an outing for everybody who hadn't gone offplanet yet, stopping at the first planet to check on the raised beds while they were there.

Josette smiles and nods as she looks around. "Yes, that's one of the reasons we come out here after Thanksgiving for a few days. It gives us time to relax and unwind after the last harvest is in."

He'd seen the city the others had been talking about, shaking his head when he hears about how they're nearly self-contained.

"Oh I know." Clarinda chuckles. "That's why everybody is outside as often as possible, there's small markets on nearly every street like the Harvest Festival and with the trains there's nearly no traffic. Parks and nearby green land is well occupied during people's off time. But as we said, even with only 50,000 people sometimes it's a little overwhelming."

"Depends on what you're used to," Josette says. "The Harvest and Lights Festivals can get overwhelming with everybody milling around. The dorms can see like a madhouse when the students are moving their belongings to their permanent homes over the summer before they start their last semester of university, that way they don't have that much to move when they leave."

"Exactly."

Everybody sighs as they watch the sun go down on the beach.

"How long is the day here?"

"Only twelve hours. The perpetual summer offsets the shorter days." They look in on the other planets on the way back to Haven.

"Are those the satellites Earth used to save everything they could?"

"Yeah, the satellite that people actually escaped the solar flare on is in orbit around the fourth planet, used as a space laboratory by GD, Wayne Industries and Stark International. One was all the banking information and mints, one is filled with servers filled with university books and classes since so many of them were closing thanks to the epidemics. A couple are filled with manufacturing machinery, machines to make cloth, yarn, and whatnot, and the last is filled with everything they figured they'd need after the ice age ended." Josette sighs and Dr. Cross touches her shoulder.

"Josette, what about the machinery on the satellites?" Principal Madison asks at the government meeting.

"I'm going to head up after Thanksgiving. Unlike the manufacturing satellite, these weren't meant for permanent living and working on without a lot of work. Tesseracts will help with the space problem but there's not docking spaces and so unless I bring everything up or down. . ."

"No way to easily bring down the products made there. Yes." President Bartlett says.

"And while there's no lack of planets we can put the machinery on. . ."

"You'd still need buildings to hold it. Yes." Doc says this time. "Can the satellites be expanded by tesseract to include living areas?"

"Yes, but unless we somehow merged it with the manufacturing satellite, there's still the problem of easily being able to bring out products. Now I bring out the flour made on the satellite but that's because it's easier for me to move the pallets of wheat, rice, and flour where they need to be."

"How do they get on and off the satellite now?" David asks.

"Switching station, just like. . ." Josette facepalms. "A setup like the other planets do now when they bring out food for the flea market building. Send somebody through to get a flyer and wagon, then fill the station with boxes for the person to put on the wagon on the other side."

"Unlike the manufacturing satellite, it wouldn't be in operation all the time, just as it was needed."

Josette nods. "They don't even need to live on the satellite, work there a shift then go home. I could even pick up the orders when I'm offplanet if they're too large to go through the switching station."

The others nod. "Now, you had other business."

"Yes, a workaround for the problem of the TV station's tape library. Either expanding the room by tesseract so they have room for more tapes or putting up a link to another building with the tapes." The others think a moment. "The only problem is the building needs to be climate controlled." Josette nods. "It's a thought. What brought that on?"

"The 9th planet brought out their movie theater and they're going to need storage for the movies. . ."

"Beyond what was at the theater when they copied it." Principal Madison nods, making a note of that. "Now there was talk about maybe bringing theirs out here?"

"If we do I thought we might put it up in Albatross. That way we have new movies for us but it's not right by ours. There's talk about bringing ours to Eureka on the ninth planet once they get everything up and running." Nods from the others.

"Anything else?"

"A second big building just for washing the fleeces and cotton, Josette did double batches during the Harvest Festival because it was in use for the offworld harvests when the first shearing happened."

President Bartlett nods. "And they've requested more cooking areas in the big building."

This time Josette nods. "We just added another kitchen to the ranch among other things. The other kitchens were meant for normal cooking, this one was meant just for working on the harvest. We added more storage space too."

"Table that until we can talk to the people at the communal kitchen and get their input on what they'd need. Perhaps the communal gardens shared by the businesses would like to use it when they harvest?"

Josette holds up a hand and runs to the communal kitchen, grabbing one of the heads who's giving orders to the others. She's also one of the heads of the people who handle the offworld harvests.

"It should only be a few minutes, we're talking about the request for more cooking areas in the big building." She nods and takes off her apron before following Josette to the government building where they talk about what would be needed.

"Would you use this for your communal gardens?"

"Definitely, depending on when the offworld harvests are coming it it would give us one or two harvests we don't have to work on in our buildings after work."

"Is the building big enough? Would more room help."

"Definitely more room would help.

"Double the space or half again as much?'

"Double the space would be perfect."

"We can have the new building up by first snow with the rest of the work happening over the winter." David sends a message off to his Dad. "Permanent cooking stations and whatnot on the first floor with storage for the drying tables on the second along with the cooking utensils plus whatever else is needed?"

They nod in satisfaction.

"What about the school's gardens?"

"We use the empty kitchens and prep in the dining rooms."

"Did you get your degree finished over the break?" Anna asks when she slides into her seat at lunch.

"Yeah, that way I'm only taking eight classes on the school computer this semester." Everybody snorts. "How many classes are you taking all together?"

"Figured on 31, that will give me four degrees finished this year, all but one of them is multiple degree curriculum. I'm two semesters from finishing five degrees, two more I'm three semesters from finishing, with another I'm one semester from completing."

David blinks. "That's a good chunk of degrees with the ones you finished this year."

Josette nods. "That's why I've been concentrating on knocking down degrees the last two years. Now I lied about not starting any degrees the last couple years, I'm a year into the sunpainting degree." The others snigger. Josette blows them the raspberry. "Did you contact Dad?"

"Yeah, he's coming out tomorrow to go over the details for the new building with the heads of the restaurants, communal kitchen, and the sub place plus anybody they bring out?" The twins look at them. "We're starting a second building for the offworld harvests. Twice as big with larger cooking surfaces and more prep areas. We'll have the building up quickly since it's all modular, then work on the rest over the winter. Josette is the other building going to need any work for the cotton and fleeces?"

"I'll talk to the others and get back to you and Dad about what we need."

After lunch Josette slides onto a stool at the Albatross nest, sticks her fingers in her mouth and whistles. Everybody looks at her. "We are putting up a second, larger building for the offworld harvests, leaving the other for cleaning cotton and fleeces plus whatever else it's used for during the year. Make a list of what we want to do to the building now we don't have to share it with the offworld harvests. Nothing that can't be moved upstairs when the building is used for fruits and veggies during the winter."

"Are they putting in permanent fixtures in the other building?" Marilyn asks.

"Yes, including both more and larger cooking surfaces for the large pots. More prep areas and more room to put everything once it's canned to cool and the seal to set. It's asshole to elbow in there now when they're working. And the restaurants, communal kitchen, and sandwich place plan on using it for their gardens, depending on when the harvests come in. Right now they're working in their kitchens after they close."

Everybody nods in satisfaction. "With the permanent fixtures you could use the building for making sausage and pickled bologna."

Josette nods. "If it's not in use at the time or use the original building. Last time we made it we had to do it early thanks to the offworld harvests."

"Would we be keeping the current fixtures?"

"I can't see why not with permanent going in the other building." Everybody nods.

"Are you going to be expanding the original?"

"If we do it will be by tesseract. We could have before but . .."

"It wouldn't have taken care of the need for more cooking surfaces." Agatha says. She's sending off a message.

"'xactly. We added a second kitchen to the ranch in the latest round of renovations and additions since most kitchens are made for cooking, not bringing in giant harvests." The others look at her and she brings out the original plan and then the pictures, passing around her PADD. Everybody nods in satisfaction as she puts it back on her belt.

The first testing week Josette slides into her usual seat, talking to the others about the plans for the new offworld harvests building, getting nods of satisfaction. "I don't know how everybody managed to work in the old building."

"Not the first time we outgrew something. With so many offworld harvests coming in bing bang boom . . ." Dr. Cross nods. "When you were doing two a year before we lost Earth it was different. But with all the planets having offworld harvests, you need more space."

Josette nods. "That's the same reason we added the second kitchen at the ranch." Josette shakes her head.

"Are you growing for the 9th planet this year?"

"Yes, and next year I'll plant a cover crop of rye and barley." They nod in satisfaction.

"How is everybody handling the education center closing?"

"They're looking forward to it. It's not for the same reason the school closed after we lost Earth." Dr. Stark nods. "Education has been changing over the last few decades."

"'xactly. Oh, they might reopen in a decade or so as the students who have formed attachments start having children. You might see parents switching off babysitting too as they work separate shifts." Dr. McNider nods. "I can't see too many parents being able to educate children in different grades." Josette nods this time.

The talk turns to the satellites and the engineers who'd be coming out to help her with the inspections and what they'd be making sometime in the future.

David sniffs the next morning when he smells something coming from Josette's first floor room.

"Baked beans?"

"Yep, they'll cook for hours in the kettle." Josette stirs everything one last time and puts the lid on before they head to the dining hall for breakfast. After breakfast Josette heads into town to check on the progress for the new offworld harvest building then heading to the ninth planet, looking at the progress they're making on the movie theater and the school building as she looks at the bags of beans, rice, and wheat in the food building.

"Need me to take wheat in when I pick up recycling?" She leans in the slightly open door of the meeting room in JSA headquarters after knocking on it.

"Thank you Josette, that would be perfect. What are you building in Town?" Jay says, turning to look at her. Ma had told them something new was going in when she'd returned from Haven yesterday.

"A building just for the offworld harvests, we finally had to admit we outgrew the old one. Twice as big with larger cooking surfaces for bigger pots. . ." Ma, Joan, and Nora nod in satisfaction. "More cooking areas, more prep areas and more areas to put the food as they're waiting for the seals to take. More room." The three women nod in satisfaction again. "The old building?"

"Still going to be used for fleeces, cotton, shelling peas and beans once they're dry, whatever building is empty at the time we'll use for the sausages and pickled bologna and we'll use it over the winter for the offworld food."

"Josette, does anybody make rice flour?" Dr. Cross asks.

"Oh yeah, I take in nearly as much rice for flour as I do the wheat. We use part of it for rice noodles and the rest for cooking. We've made chickpea flour too, but that's a special order at the mill when I plant it."

"Chickpea flour?"

"On Earth it was used a lot in gluten free baking."

Josette nods. "We've found that getting away from all the chemicals used to preserve food back on Earth really helps with food problems. Oh it doesn't cure everything, I still belch and fart for days when I eat chickpeas and edamame raw in salads, Anna still snores when she eats chili." Mary's giggling in the corner of the room and her mother's lips are twitching suspiciously. "And food problems are not the same as food allergies. Something we've seem to moved away from thank you gods and goddesses."

"As you said, the lack of chemicals seems to help with allergies."

"Even environmental ones like pollen, fresh cut grass, or dander seem to ease. Or at least nobody complains about them."

"Would it be a problem to take in rice as well as the wheat?"

"Not a problem, the flour factory and the manufacturing satellite are used to making both types of flour. Want a batch of rice noodles and pasta?"

"Please, we'll check the list of what they can make and decide which ones we want. How do you handle it?"

"Like the first planet raised beds, what you're running low on at that time and something new...in this case to replace something that might not be selling as well as the rest. The communal kitchen makes a lot of their own noodles and there's the home pasta machines."

Josette blinks when she comes out of the barn and sees the new exterior of the . . .as Dr. Cross had said you can't call it a ranch house anymore just as they can't really call the dorm a dorm but they still do anyway. It's been turned into an antebellum mansion like something you'd see in a southern movie but larger and Josette snickers and brushes off her boots before walking inside, putting them in a box in the entryway and walking into the dorm. She stirs the beans one last time and flips the switch to shut off the heat before joining the others walking to the dining hall.

"Josette, what happened to the ranch?" David asks the next day at lunch.

"Lord Strife happened."

"Ahh."

"Really Josette, an antebellum southern mansion?" Doc asks, coming into the back room. The twins blink. "Lord Strife."

"Ahhhh, I didn't think you were the type to dress in your finest, say 'ah do declare' and sip mint juleps on the veranda. I'm going to be linking Headquarters and the dorm over the next couple of days. Things might be a little . . .wonky."

"Whoa." Alexander says as he comes through the pocket doors.

"Doc's linking the dorm and Headquarters. He said it might be a little wonky." David says from his room. "Josette was up on the third floor seeing if she could surf the floor in her socks as it moved." Michael chuckles.

"How long?"

"Next couple of days."

After dinner Josette starts sorting through her dressers, tossing threadbare socks and underwear in a bag and bringing more of the supplies from the various dimensions. She 'tosses' the bag upstairs to shred and use in making paper.

The crops start coming in a couple months later and Josette is busy canning, drying, and storing everything for two weeks, taking her finals in Eureka and drops into a seat when everything is in and stored for winter.

"I want to talk to everybody about a few crop ideas I've had." The others look at her from various spots in the living room.

"Growing more than one plot of potatoes, different kinds."

"Could."

"Harvesting some of them as baby potatoes."

Nods.

"Leeks. Now the only problem with that is it's a yearly crop. But I think we could sell part of it."

"That's the ones that grow in sandy soil and you cut them apart and rinse them?" Alexander asks, Josette nods.

"Planting more tomatoes to pick green for various stuff?"

"Could, we've been thinking about that one ourselves."

Josette leans in the doorway of the kitchen part of the communal kitchen the next morning, catching the head's eye.

"Problem Josette?"

"No, just wanted to ask a question. If we grew leeks next year, would you be interested in buying some."

"Definitely. That's on the list of foods I'd love see in the future."

"Put a list together and I'll bring it up at the government meeting first month. That gives you time to talk to the others." She nods and heads back into the kitchen as Josette walks into the bakery, buying some donuts before going back to the dorm.

"Are we ready for winter?"

"Yeah, we'll have to start closing the windows for good in a couple of weeks. When that happens we'll clean the outside before it snows." Josette nods. "Did you get everything taken care of?"

"Yeah, I picked up the recycling on the other planets and took wheat and rice to the sorting planet and manufacturing satellite, both for us and the 9th planet."

Josette looks over the new growing areas after lunch, making plans. David looks over her shoulder and nods. "Do you have enough canning supplies?"

"I replicated extra." He nods as they walk downstairs, joining the others for dinner.

"Is the cistern empty?"

"Yeah, it needs to be cleaned before winter though."

"Alexander and I can do that tomorrow."

Josette settles in her usual spot in the Albatross nest a couple weeks later, her plate on her knees and a bottle of pop next to her.

"Josette, how's the work going on the new harvest building?"

"Good, the exterior is all finished and they're working on the interior over the winter, it's piggybacking the building to the kitchen's backup power supply."

"How is everybody handling the last of the big classes ending this year?"

"Things are getting back to normal, the large sizes we had won't happen again for centuries. . .if ever." The others nod. "We don't need to have that many children again." Nods from the others again as they hand out the kits and the Christmas cookies. They talk about their plans for the next year, everybody in Albatross grinning at the possibility of a movie theater there. Josette talks about what she plans on growing next year, getting nods from the others.

"I've got a ton of recipes for green tomatoes." a few minutes later Josette nods at the file appearing on her PADD. "Thanks." Josette puts up a picture of what the 'ranch' looks like now and the others shake their head and laugh.

"Doc told me he didn't think I was one of those southern belles who say 'ah do declare', dress in their finest, and sip mint juleps on the veranda."

"You'd look like one of your daughters playing dress up." Agatha snorts.

"Exactly, except the shoes wouldn't be too big on me." Everybody cackles.