The others come out a few days before the Lights Festival, looking around at the changes happening at the dorm.

 

"Stuff Doc wanted to do, we figure he'll tell us when he's ready. Josette had to get it somewhere." David snorts. Josette rolls her eyes, then pulls Bronwen down onto the couch when she comes downstairs and they talk about the plans for a building for the looms. Josette chuckles as four Docs huddle together to talk about the plans for the dorm.

 

"Josette, the building for the mirrors?"

 

"Dad's starting it next spring, the ventilation is the part that takes the longest."

 

"Mirrors?"

 

"Hank and the glassblowers are going to be working together to make mirrors after the animal planet order is finished." She inwardly smirks when the others shudder and they add them to the list of stuff they'd like made. "That's why the plain glass order is two years this time, the colored glass and the other stuff for stained glass work should be another three years, then they're going to be working on the glass formula for crystals."

 

"Chandeliers?" Professor Druid's mother asks.

 

"Yep. Somebody. . ." David looks at Josette who smirks. "Had the bright idea for the glassblowers and Hank to work on that after they were finished with the orders for the animal planet."

 

"Please, they're like the rest of us. They'd be bored stiff without something new to work on." Josette snorts. "That's why 9th planet GD is working on expanding their research now that they're settled in." The others nod.

 

The next few days pass and the business at the burger place is brisk the first day of the festival.

 

"This is new." Professor Druid's mother says.

 

"Kinda, we refinished the tables and chairs here and in the back room. Maintenance cleaned everything and painted here and the front room at the pizzeria when I grabbed the furniture to show the manager what it'd look like furnished like the traditional pizza place. We won't have booths but that makes it easier to clean without them. We took care of the furniture of the floor above us, but they weren't able to get to the rest of the building before winter. It's easier to open windows than run fans or heaters to dry the paint and carpeting." Everybody nods. "Right now they're replacing flooring in the other buildings that need it then we'll go back to cleaning the dining halls and refinishing the furniture. With the first floor of our building in constant use, we're going to move to one room while they work on the other, then back." Everybody nods in satisfaction

 

"Paint and flooring?"

 

"Right now we're going through what we have in storage or replicating it but we've got a list of factories and manufacturers to bring out in the future."

 

"Josette, rug yarn?" Marilyn asks as they're walking through Town.

 

"I'm looking for a good location right now. Once it's out we'll start looking everything over and seeing what we'll need.

 

"Fabric?" President Bartlett asks, walking past them.

 

"Not this year but next year they'll start on the satellite. I was going to bring it up at the meeting after my finals."

 

"Will you have enough for the looms?"

 

"Yes, between the cotton and linen, we might have to grow offplanet for that too. Edinborough and Assyrian have been experimenting with smaller batches for yarn and cloth blends."

 

"Basket weaving?"

 

"A couple of years when we get finished with the sunpainting degree."

 

"So how many classes are you going for this semester?" Doc asks at the government meeting a couple weeks later.

 

"25. I'm starting my third year for the sunpainting degree and the one comic book degree I'm taking on the school computer and finishing my chem doctorate this year."

 

"When are you uploading the dissertation?"

 

"Finals."

 

"Are the boys glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the orders?"

 

"Yes and no, it's like when the school closed. . .you know it's coming but it's still a shock when it happens." The others nod.

 

"Mirrors?"

 

"Dad's starting the building this spring, they'll be nearly done with the interior work on the movie theater and pizzeria then. I delivered more scrub trees for their first order of supplies."

 

"Their other buildings?"

 

"I'll bring them out while Dad's busy here." David nods.

 

"Rug yarn?"

 

"I'm still looking for a good spot and might bring out one of the big bulk warehouses I have of yarn." They nod.

 

"The other dining halls?"

 

"Maintenance will start working on them starting with the back room of pizzeria and the second floor as soon as they can open windows in the spring, working on the rest of the empty rooms before they start ours. It might take a couple more years." The others nod. "They won't get all the floors replaced this year either."

 

"We weren't expecting them to." Principal Madison says. "Weaving building?"

 

"We're deciding what we need first then where it's going to be put up. We've already got the textiles buildings." The others nod. "And we're going to be talking about if we want to continue to use the big building and my outfit for dyeing or if we want another place just for that."

 

"How are you on the dyes?"

 

"I was going to start looking through that and see if I want to bring out a manufacturer." Josette nearly inhales her arm covering her mouth for a yawn. "Snow again by dinner."

 

"To be expected, we knew it would be a cold, snowy winter."

 

"Yep, but all the snow helps the water table."

 

"Yes thank gods," Principal Madison says. "I remember the years of droughts California had and the snow pack being only a quarter of what it should be."

 

Josette detours to the new bakery, buying stuff she takes back to the dorm. Putting everything up she checks the animals food and water, dropping the baggies of dirty litter into the replicator before washing her hands and dropping into her recliner with a doughnut, bottle of Haven Dew, and a book. Doc chuckles as he looks in her first floor room and starts working on something.

 

"I'm surprised Grammy Allie didn't come out to 'talk' to you four about more degrees over the break." David says at lunch.

 

"Dr. Stark might have had something to do with that." Josette drawls with a smirk.

 

"Ohhh really." he purrs, laughing.

 

"Yeah, she was giving him a disgusted look when I was out there to sell the tomatoes, peppers, and herbs to Vincent." The twins laugh. "Did you send over a gift bag?"

 

"Yep. She had a little boy named Marshall James a couple days ago." she sends them the picture of the new baby laying on Daddy Jack's chest.

 

"Awwww."

 

After lunch Josette heads upstairs and starts looking through the quilt patterns, grabbing one and laying it out when she suddenly disappears. Reappearing seconds later she splits off a couple duplicates, one that gets in her linked TARDISES while the other flies to Hidalgo.

 

The TARDISES appear back in the room in a couple minutes and she absorbs her other selves before copying and cutting out the pattern pieces on plastic, checking the store of what she has and making a mental note to either get or make more before copying the pattern and laying out the fabric.

 

"Did you guys make a decision on the possibility of grab bag projects?" Alexander asks at dinner.

 

"We're going to be working on that over the next few days, with plans for putting up a poll at the stores and offering them at the Harvest Festival if there's enough demand. If they sell well there, making them permanent."

 

"I can see something like hats, gloves, and scarves selling more than quilts or sewing projects."

 

"Probably, we'll see what the demand is. Lots of online places had grab bags of stuff marked down." The others nod.

 

"Are you finishing anything this year?"

 

"Just the Flash comic book degree, I'm a year from finishing that entire curriculum and I'm getting in one semester this spring. I'm three semesters from the second and starting the third year for the third so I'll get those next year."

 

"Feel nice to finish the multiple degree curriculum?"

 

"Feels damn nice to finish them." Josette says. "Probably the same way you felt when you finished your doctorates and David will when he finishes his mechanical engineering course." David sighs and nods.

 

The next few weeks pass and Josette makes her way to the linked warehouse for the factories, bringing out the doors to start linking the slipper and socks factories. She hides a cackle as Dr. Blake swats a smirking Dr. Stark in the testing center her first testing week.

 

"I'd planned on coming out last fall after Thanksgiving to talk to everybody about their degrees Josette, but somebody had other plans. What are the others up to?"

 

"The twins are keeping busy, talking with the other teachers at the school about the projects they want to work on now that the school's closed, checking on how the burger, chicken, and pizza places are doing at the school, and helping out with the kids classes at the dorm. I brought back a *lot* of textbooks from the other dimensions and they've been going though those."

 

"Did Clark tell you he wanted to work on your dorm?"

 

"Yeah, he's been working on it since just after Thanksgiving, on and off." Dr. Blake nods in satisfaction. "Mirrors?"

 

"Dad's starting the building as soon as the ground's clear, I'm taking over the job of bringing out the factories and the other buildings on the 9th planet."

 

"Did I hear rumors you're weaving rugs?"

 

"Yes, now that the school's closed down and education is changing on Haven we have the time to start projects like that. I've got a rug factory that we plan on bringing out in a couple year, both area rugs and the braided circular rugs since most of our rags go to quilts."

 

"I hear rumors you take care of the recycling on the other dimension."

 

"People recycle yeah, but nobody wants to take care of that recycling, let it be somebody else's problem. 'We did our parts'." Josette says in a snide tone. "Even those charities that are always bleating about needing money won't go to the drop off centers and work for a few hours. But they'll hold their hands out for you to give them the money."

 

"Whatever happened to helping those who help themselves?"

 

"Some do and some don't." Dr. Cross sighs. Josette nods and pats him on the hand. "So anyway the others and I flatten cans and run them through the machines, run the cans that you can't through the machines, do the same with glass and plastic, and I can fill bags of deposit cans and bottles. Tearing apart appliances for recycling. We can all make a couple thousand dollars. The only place I saw the dropoff centers bare was in Vegas."

 

"Gambling." Dr. Stark chuckles.

 

"Yep."

 

"Do they drop off clothes?"

 

"Yep, and I take a ton of those, the glass, plastic, and paper. And what I take is a drop in the ocean, let alone the bucket. Some if it's just like new."

 

"Socks?"

 

"Cotton, various styles and colors. We have a good stock on hand but .. ." The others nod.

 

Coming back to the dorm Josette looks out the front of the dorm at the black sky. She'd been glad to get out of the house for a few hours, everybody else was holed up until the storm passed. Pulling on a sweatshirt she heads upstairs to her workroom to grab a knitting kit, opening it up, looking at the pattern, and casting on.

 

"Factories?" David asks, leaning into the room.

 

"Going to start bringing them and the extra storage areas out next week."

 

"Heard from Dad?"

 

"Yeah, he's going to ask me to start copying the movie library in a couple of weeks. I'll deliver it and the paper factory order when I deliver the first part of the animal planet order and pick up the recycling." David nods and heads back to his room to work on his dissertation and project.

 

"Did you start your dissertation for the herbal medicine degree?" Alan asks at dinner.

 

"Yeah, and the papers for the art history degree. Get them started and out of the way even though I still need three semesters to finish the bachelors."

 

"Are you two getting the same degree?" He looks at Alexander and Michael.

 

"We don't have the smarts for Oxford." Michael complains.

 

"Buffalo chips." Professor Druid says in the front room. "Of course you're smart enough to go to Oxford. You're smart enough to do whatever you want as long as you apply yourself." The other teachers in the room nod. "Even if it is boring ass shit as Josette would say."

 

Josette slides into her seat at the government building after her third testing week.

 

"Factories?"

 

"Socks and slippers are brought out along with their supplies. They'll start working on them after they finish everything else."

 

"Mirrors?"

 

"Dad's starting work in a couple of weeks, I start bringing out the buildings for the 9th planet in what would be my second testing week this summer. I'll be there a couple weeks but I'll be on one of the ships so I'll only be gone an hour since the yearly crops and offworld harvests will be coming in. I'll enjoy the time off of only having one thing to do before coming back to the asshole to elbow crops coming in here." The others laugh but nod.

 

"Nails?" Principal Madison asks

 

"We could bring out a factory sometime in the future, lord knows we've got enough steel for it, but the replicator works just as well right now and you don't need different forms for each type of nail. The boys use wooden pegs on a lot of the furniture, that I need to look into." The others nod.

 

The next few weeks pass and Josette heads off after her second testing week, landing Hidalgo on the ocean and flying to her place in the middle of the night, joining Doc, Charles, Rex, Dr. Cross, and Dr. Stark the next morning to start bringing out the new buildings where they wanted them. Once they're up they have a walk through to see what work would be needed before Josette heads to Eureka, starting to bring out the copied tapes for the movie theater, the people who'd be working there starting to shelve everything.

 

Josette slides into her seat at dinner an hour later for Haven but six weeks later for her.

 

"How'd it go?"

 

"The new buildings are up, crews will shift over when they're finished with the pizza parlor and movie theater. I copied the tape library and the people who'd be working there shelved everything so they'd know where it was. I got nagged by Doc, Dr. Cross, and Charles to sleep more while I was there. . .' The others snigger.

 

"Aww did you decide to stay up the full 60 hour day? Not once but twice?" David smirks. "In a row?

 

"No, that would have got me shot with a trank and shoved in Doc's special room.. I lost track of time working on my papers while I was there. Charles took the laptop, saved everything, and shut it down while Doc carried me to my room. I was already in my pajamas since I'd tried to go to bed when the damn papers howled at me to write." She frowns. "I think they might have locked my bedroom door to keep me in there since I'd been writing for hours and they'd gone to bed after I did, but they actually slept." The others snigger again. "After that I headed back to my house and set up the 'do you really want to be slowly disintegrated, please bother me then' alarms. Not that it stopped anybody. Of course I got the 'shouldn't you at least finish the bachelors, let alone start your Masters before you start working on your thesis' looks."

 

"Sooner you get the damn things finished, the less you have to think about them." David says.

 

"Amen." Michael says. "'Cause not only are we going to have the comic book dissertation, I know the others will start dropping hints with the force of a sledgehammer about going for the same art history course Josette is taking."

 

"D'awwww." David says.

 

/Has anybody noticed that Mom Clarinda and the others aren't aging as fast as they. . ./ Susan says on their tightest mental link.

 

/Should be? Yes, and I think they dosed us with whatever they use. I woke up one morning to a suspicious mark on my arm like an injection and a strange taste in my mouth./ Michael says.

 

/Then I wasn't dreaming when I woke up in the middle of the night to pee and Black Jack was there and helped me to the bathroom./Alexander says. Everybody looks at each other. /Whatever./ Nods from the others.

 

"Factories?"

 

"I'm heading off to start making a list of what is going to need to be done in a couple of days."

 

"Don't most companies make just one type of slipper?"

 

"Yeah, that's why I went looking for one that had the machinery for all the types, they're the fallback supplier for manufacturers who have an emergency. We've got to adjust the feet though, the damn things always wear out on the side since they're too small." Nods from the others.

 

"Finishing any degrees beyond the Flash and chem doctorate?"

 

"I might try to finish the art history or other comic book degree this year, I'm three semesters from each but more likely I'll get those next year along with the other degree."

 

"How are you coming along on your mechanical engineering diss?"

 

"Good, I figure on having it done next year and uploading it summer year after next when I'm a semester from finishing it."

 

Josette looks over from the machinery she's crawling over at the sound from the doorway, finding Doc and Clark in the doorway. She 'flips' the PADD she'd been making notes on to them and they start looking them over.

 

"Everything looks good."

 

Josette nods as she flips herself off the machinery, putting the PADD back on her belt.

 

"Now you were talking about bringing out warehouses?"

 

"Possibly one of the big ones for rug yarn before we bring out a manufacturer and one for dyes since we're beginning to run low on what I brought out." Josette sighs and grabs her PADD again. "Fabric paints, if we're running low on dyes, we'll be running low on them too. I'll talk to the suppliers to see who they ordered from before I start looking."

 

"Do you plan on opening the factories for limited production?"

 

"Yeah like the others. The slippers we're working on adjusting the bottoms since they always wore out on the side if your gait goes to one side or the other." The two men nod.

 

"Do we need factories for the stains and sealers?"

 

"The factory I looked at for the paint can handle them, all it is is different formulas." The two men nod as they walk outside. "No use having different buildings that can do the same thing unless we need them like the pizza places and bakeries."

 

"And speaking of pizza parlors and bakeries?"

 

"Awww, you found them? I've had the pizza parlor for years, I brought out the bakery when we were talking about this one, since I had plans on a baking degree." They walk into the building and Josette buys a bag full of doughnuts, fudge, brownies, and snack cakes.

 

"I've got a bad habit of adding stuff that we'll need and making sure it works before it's brought out."

 

"That's not a bad habit, and like you said it's stuff that we're going to need. Are you setting up a linked area like we have then moving them?"

 

"Yes, that way I'm not taking up tons of room. Yes, we have plans for another round of expansion now that the school's closed but. . ."

 

"You don't have to fill it right away and unlike the bakery and pizza parlor they're not going to be in use that often or at the same time." Josette nods as they walk to the dorm. She shakes off and hangs up her cloak, then pulls off her boots, putting them up to drain and pulling on shoes. They settle to talk about the plans for the dorm in the living room, David coming out from working on his paper to go over what has already been done, what Doc has planned for the future, and the expansion plans.

 

"Papers?"

 

"I'm uploading my diss after finals, David's uploading his year after next when he's only six classes from finishing it. I finished the other one while I was on the 9th planet working on stuff for six weeks. I'll present it next year. Is CJ presenting his this summer?"

 

"Yes, that will leave him three classes and we want him to go on for a doctorate. Thomas is starting another degree next year, so's Bruce." Doc nods. "Bethany and Susan have been talking about the degrees they have in common, though theirs are different areas. The twins?"

 

"Been going over the textbooks we've been getting from the other dimension and talking about what degrees they want to go for in the future when they're not at the school talking about their plans for future projects now that the school's closed."

 

"How are you coming along on your rug?"

 

"Finished the first one and got bit by the second, I started that one and when I have that done I'll put the backing on them bot. . ." Josette sighs and makes another note on her PADD. "Gotta see what we'd need to make that and the stuff that goes on hospital socks for extra traction." Everybody else nods. "I'll talk to the suppliers or chemists at GD since there's different grades of the stuff. We'll need it for the bottoms of the slippers that aren't fabric anyway."

 

"And the ones that are usually have tiny dots of it."

 

Josette sends a message off to GD, getting a list of formulations and uses, the chemicals to tint it to match the fabric, and 'yes, you'd need a different factory or to clean the machines really well, which you'd do anyway switching from paint to stain'. She passes the PADD over to David at dinner, he nods and passes it back. Principal Madison looks at them from the front screen. "Formulations to make the backing for rugs, that goes on the bottoms of hospital socks, and for the bottoms of shoes and slippers." Josette thinks a moment. "I gotta check a factory for those, I know we could make them on the 3D printers, they did it on Earth but doing them one at a time is kinda stupid." Everybody in the front room nod when Principal Madison repeats what Josette had said.

 

"With everybody walking everywhere, soles wear out."

 

"We make the good shoes and heavy work boots since we do do all that walking." Principal Madison says. The others nod. "We've got everything to resole them if the uppers are still good."

 

The snow finishes melting and Josette spreads manure on the garden and fields, tilling it under then planting over the next couple of weeks. She heads to the various places to pick up the orders for the animal planet and heads to pick up recycling and deliver the orders after her finals. The payments are passed out when she gets back to Haven and she picks up a batch of tables and chairs to work on so maintenance can clean the back room of the pizzeria.

 

"Did you pick up the order from the paper factory?" David asks.

 

"Yep, delivered them to the 9th planet and the pizzeria, picked up the stuff from the back room." Alexander nods around a mouthful of food. "Once they get the first and second floor done for when they open later this year, they'll start on the other floors in case they're needed, then finish the burger place building."

 

"The chicken place."

 

Josette waves a hand. "One night after they opened." The others nod. "The front and back rooms anyway, maintenance can handle the other floors, then they'll start on ours."

 

"Been a while since the buildings got a good cleaning and the furniture worked on."

 

"Since the first time the school closed."

 

"Shit." Josette says, facepalming. "The others look at her. "Our tables and chairs in the dorm?"

 

"I'll look them over after the Harvest Festival."

 

"Did you upload your paper?"

 

"Yeah, before I left. I know I won't hear about it for a couple months."

 

"Are all the offworld harvests going to be in by the Harvest Festival this year?"

 

"Yeah. Next year we'll have the harvests coming in during the winter."

 

"9th planet?"

 

"Not this year but next year they'll get both. That way they've all got cover crops."

 

The others nod.

 

"Just finishing the Flash degree this break?"

 

"Unless I pick up a semester for the Cambridge male youth lit degree. I'll be two years in if I do. If I don't I'll pick it up next break and finish the third year for the art history degree this fall."

 

"Two multiple degree curriculum down and two to go." Josette says the government meeting the first day of the summer semester for her.

 

"How many classes are you taking this summer?" President Bartlett asks.

 

"Only 19 with all the offworld harvests coming in before the Harvest Festival, plus the yearly harvests."

 

"9th planet?"

 

"Not this year, I'll harvest twice for them next year with the cover crops." The others nod.

 

"Are you only finishing the chem doctorate this year?" Principal Madison asks.

 

"No, I finished a comic book multiple degree curriculum over the break."

 

"Amanda was looking at those."

 

"She's got time to take them now. David's going for the doctorate in comic books when he's done with this one."

 

"Soooooo, have the others started nagging you for degrees yet?" Josette gives her father a look and everybody laughs. "Gods, have they." David moans. "That's one of the reasons the girls are looking through the textbooks while Susan and Alan have been looking at other degrees. Josette doesn't need the encouragement, I've got my doctorate, and the boys have the apartment orders, that's the only thing that kept us from the nagging."

 

"Speak for yourself, Doc, Charles, and Dr. Cross were hinting about a medical degree until Abby told them I already had one." David chuckles.

 

"First planet crops?"

 

"I'll head off to take care of them after our crops are in."

 

"Olives?"

 

"This is a more oil year, we're getting low and I've still got a good supply of green ones in the barrels."

 

"Black olives."

 

`"Last year since I had to go out for the tomatoes, peppers, and herbs."

 

"Do you see a need to expand the crops there?"

 

"Not for a while, but maybe eventually."

 

"The factories?"

 

"I've been working on them for a couple weeks now and looking over the other things we'll need. There's a factory that makes the soles of shoes, they'd be sent to the factory that makes the uppers to be joined with the insoles. I'll bring that out, the rug factory, a warehouse for dyes, a warehouse for fabric paints, a warehouse of paint and stains, warehouses for the various types of flooring, and a warehouse for the rug yarns. The factories will go on the first floor, but I might put the warehouses on the second."

 

"Do we have the room?"

 

"Yes, we'd always intended to add to the warehouse in the future, that's why there's three hallways on each level. When we start running out of room, we can expand it by tesseract. Both longer and more hallways on each floor. Possibly more floors but we'd have to take employees into consideration who work in the factories on the upper floor if they get too big. or add a freight elevator."

 

"Are you still looking for a spot for the rug yarn manufacturer?"

 

"No, I have a few good spots for it and anything else we might need to bring out in the future, including on the other planets." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

"Sooo, anything else."

 

"How is maintenance coming along on the dining halls?"

 

"Good, they have the back room of the pizzeria finished then moving up to the second floor."

 

"The chicken place?"

 

Josette waves a hand in a 'I did it' manner and they nod. "They couldn't do it while they're in operation so I did after they shut down one night."

 

"Just the front room."

 

"Front and back just in case they spread out and it gives the workers a place to sit." The others nod. "They should have the pizzeria and burger place buildings done by this fall and started on the chicken place building."

 

"And next year we'll finish the others." Principal Madison says. "With the buildings that need new floors done afterwards." The others nod. "Exterior painting?"

 

"Over the next few years after we finish the dining halls since some of the buildings will probably need it. And you can't really paint inside in the winter even with the VOC paints." The others nod. "We can only open our windows or doors for fresh air fifteen or twenty minutes before the furnace starts running."

 

"Movie theater and pizza parlor on the 9th planet?"

 

"Should be opening by the Harvest Festival."

 

"Hear anything about your dissertation?"

 

"No, but I wasn't expecting it. I don't need the automatic acceptance I would if I had another degree to sign up for in the series." The others nod.

 

"Show?"

 

"Me this year, I'll be taking more dollhouses back with me along with the furniture the boys and I have been working on."

 

Stopping at the bakery for a bag of snacks Josette heads to the ranch after putting the bag up, checking on the garden and crops before heading upstairs to start coating the chairs to be stripped. Instead of using a foam brush on them she lays out plastic and uses a hand-held sprayer, making sure everything is coated before starting on the rest of the tables until dinner.

 

"How are we on the the tables?" Alexander asks as she comes downstairs.

 

"I got about half of the remaining tables and a quarter of the chairs coated. If they're not done after dinner we'll start staining and sealing the others." He nods as they walk to the dining room, walking past the freshly cut grass where maintenance had been mowing.

 

"CJ's thesis?"

 

"He's presenting it in a few weeks. Once the crops are in and they've planted for the second batch but before their tree crops start coming in."

 

After dinner Alexander heads up to their woodworking building. The furniture isn't ready so they start staining tables, working for a few hours until they rinse the brushes, putting them up to dry before heading to bed.

 

The crops start coming in and everybody's busy in the gardens or fields, Josette taking wheat and rice to the flour factory for the 9th planet and putting bags of theirs in the basement of the store until they're running low after the new crops are planted.

 

"Flour?"

 

"We've got a good supply on hand and I'll pick up the pasta before the Harvest Festival."

 

"Are all the other planets growing wheat?"

 

"Yes, either taking it to the flour factory for their bread, having it sent to the pasta factory for pasta, or making their own bread and pasta if they have the time and want to cook."

 

"Are we seeing any pairing off among the former students now that they're in permanent housing?"

 

"Not yet. We think they're arranging schedules and putting away money for when they're not working and for the future children." Principal Madison says.

 

"Speaking of future children?" Principal Madison smirks. "Since you are turning as old as how many children you have."

 

David smirks as the others chuckle. "Probably after Thanksgiving. The kids will be ten when we deliver if we get pregnant then. It's not like we haven't been trying, it just hasn't happened yet." Doc chuckles and nods.

 

"You know, you could have sex more than once a year with the school closed." Principal Madison says like he's giving them the secrets of the universe.

 

"We have, maybe that's why we haven't been getting pregnant." Josette snorts. David sniggers.

 

A couple weeks later everybody heads off for a couple hours to the other dimension for Josette's show, Josette and Alan moving the furniture and doll houses to be delivered before heading up to the rooms, putting their clothes away in their rooms then gathering in the living room since the others are away for a few more hours.

 

In another building Clarinda looks at her beeping computer, typing quickly. "Ahhh, the kids are here for the show."

 

"Did they deliver stuff to Dexter?" James asks.

 

She types more. "Yep, a few roomfuls of furniture and tables full of dollhouses with a note on each order. He's bustling around with his helpers."

 

"Stuff?

 

"Alexander, Michael, and Josette build custom furniture. Josette also makes custom dollhouses, the ones that start at a thousand dollars and are miniature mansions. They're all artists. Who's got the show this year?"

 

"Josette." The art fan in the room looks at them. "You might know them better as Madison, Jalex, and Jakahawa."

 

"Oh god yes, I was at the boys last show and I've got a ticket for hers. They are fantastic artists, the boys work with wood and metal while she's a textiles artist."

 

Josette shakes her head at the laughing boys as she comes back from the spa for a pampering before she show, getting dressed and joining the others for a fancy sit down dinner at a restaurant before the show.

 

"Josette looks good walking the red carpet."

 

"Years of practice smoozing the reporters with the boys." David says. "Better them than us."

 

"I know Josette hates dressing up but she looks good."

 

"Josette's of the mindset, if I have to do it, I'm going to look damn good while I'm there."

 

"In other words, try to make me look bad and I'll bury you." Professor Xavier looks over at Clarinda and chuckles, Josette is definitely her child. He looks around and the others look at him. "I swear I just heard somebody cackling." The kids grin.

 

 

 

 

The offworld harvests and yearly crops keep Josette busy and she heads off to the first planet for a few weeks of peace and quiet as she's bringing in the yearly crops there, pressing the oil and putting paste and olives in barrels of brine that go in an area of the ranch before she starts bringing in the crops, then helping with the garden and putting the last of the orders on the ship to deliver to the animal planet.

 

"Josette's chem doctorate?" Mom Clarinda asks when she comes downstairs from putting away her clothes when the others have started arriving from the other dimensions a couple days later.

 

"She uploaded the dissertation to GD before she took the first batch of orders to the animal planet this year." David says.

 

"Yours?" His mother from that dimension asks. His other mother looks at him.

 

"Working on it and planning to upload it year after next around this time when I have six classes left."

 

"Is Josette done with hers?"

 

"No, she has one more class she's getting in next semester."

 

"Herbal medicine Masters?"

 

"She's going to be done next year since she's already taken the classes for all degrees from Oxford for her other degrees. She's going to be presenting it next year, one of four degrees she's got to do in person. That, the doctorate, and her art history thesis and dissertation."

 

"Where is Josette?"

 

"Upstairs in the woodworking building stripping the old stain and sealer from tables and chairs in the other dining rooms with Alexander. That way Alexander can see if there's any work that needs to be done on them maintenance missed."

 

"Are they done?"

 

"Yes, Josette delivered the last of the orders yesterday. Everybody was looking a little stunned, there's a difference between 'yeah, this batch is done but we've got another apartment complex to furnish in a few months so enjoy the break' and 'Thank you gods and goddesses, it is o-vah." The others chuckle.

 

"Has the pizzeria opened for sit-down service?"

 

"It's opening the Harvest Festival, we figure it will take a couple weeks for the new to wear off even with the four dining rooms. Ours is different from the others in that we have the salad bar as well as the pizza bar. Maybe in the future we'll offer soups or grinders."

 

"One kitchen or two?"

 

"Two, the top two floors they're reserving for delivery orders." Alexander and Josette come downstairs for dinner.

 

"How are you coming?"

 

"We've got half the tables and nearly a quarter of the chairs stained and more with the stripper on them. We'll start sealing everything that's stained tomorrow and keep working on the rest."

 

"How long has it been since they were worked on?" James asks on the walk to the dining hall.

 

"Since the first time the school shut down. The dorms and school buildings also got good cleanings that time."

 

"And this time?"

 

"Yeah, since everything had been open over 20 years."

 

"At least the school's not seeming so empty this time with classes being offered at the textiles and fine arts buildings and the dining halls are getting more business." The others look at them. "This isn't the first time we opened the dining halls to restaurants, but back then it was just replicators like the movie theater."

 

"We've got better recipes this time and there's the whole 'we made this, we didn't replicate it' thing. And there's others to talk to as they eat."

 

"Are they turning the tvs on while they're open?"

 

"Yeah, with five stations something should be on while they're open. If not, there's always DVDS."

 

"More original programming?"

 

"Yep, they've been taping this year and last, they'll be editing the footage for shows over the next year and start airing the new episodes. They're expanding into some of the food that we don't grow right now. Balaclava is in love with that idea so we can expect some shows there. Cambridge and Oxford are talking with their tv station about stuff they're doing, if they're not interested we'll handle it."

 

"Then the person who turned down the proposal will pout since it succeeded." Bronwen laughs.

 

"Yep." Josette smirks.

 

"Doesn't Cambridge and Oxford have their own TV or radio stations, we saw them on the brit shows."

 

"Yes, they didn't have enough people at first, then they've been overhauling everything since the students came over from the other dimension."

 

"Josette, have you had a chance to look over everything you got when you came over earlier?" Bronwen asks.

 

"Not yet, I've been busy with bringing out factories here and buildings on the 9th planet, classes, planting, and checking everything we're going to need in the future." The others look at her. "A supplier went out of business and I got all his stuff. It's on my TARDISES and Brigadoon."

 

"As big as ours?"

 

"Combine them, then multiply by at least fifty." The others whistle and shake their heads.

 

"Excuse me TARDISES? As in more than one?"

 

"Thirteen, linked. These two," she points at Time Lord Doc and the Doctor from his dimension. "Got me into the Academy since I'm already used to living and working under time dilation thanks to the ships and visits to the other dimensions."

 

"And we still don't want to look up and see the ships moving through the time stream." the Doctor from Clarinda's dimension says dryly. "For all that we know that's the next step."

 

Josette snorts. "Please, I see myself waving at the Atlantis from that fanfic as we pass in the timestream and cackling at the hopping up and down screaming fit every version of you would be having." Everybody laughs.

 

"What was the interest on the grab bag kits of patterns and supplies?"

 

"Good, we're bringing them out for the Harvest Festival. If the demand is as good as the interest was, they'll be permanent."

 

"Josette, the factories and warehouses you were talking about?"

 

"Going up after the Harvest Festival, that way I can work on everything over the winter.

 

"Did you hear about your dissertation?"

 

"It's tentatively approved, they'll have the official word for me when I finish my last class next semester."

 

The grab bags do brisk business at the Harvest Festival, almost as good business as the pizzeria and everybody heads to the beach for a cookout after it's finished.

 

"Have you started growing the clams, mussels, and oysters?"

 

"We started this spring. We might harvest this fall but we're planning on next fall to make sure." The others nod.

 

"What are you working on?" Godly Clark asks as he sees Josette drawing on the PADD.

 

"A windmill to bring water to the crops on the first planet and help augment the solar panels." Josette hands the PADD over. "I've been toying with it for an engineering degree if I go that way in the future."

 

"Is the shorter day a problem with charging batteries?"

 

"Not really, yes with the shorter days the batteries don't charge fully but they're not drained as quickly and they start charging again sooner. And we don't use that much power when we're there to drain them further after dark. If we had a permanent place there it would be different, then we'd link to the building's alternate power source."

 

"How do you water now?"

 

"Rain and drip irrigation on the roots for the raised beds. I have containers hooked up the the lines with a sensor that opens a valve when they need water and closes it when they don't."

 

"Raised beds?"

 

"Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. Everything that grows well in a high temperature climate."

 

"Do you grow them continuously?"

 

"Two crops a year, every other year. One crop a tomato or pepper we're running low on, the other something new."

 

"Heirloom tomatoes?"

 

"Yep."

 

"Beds plural?"

 

"Three, each 20 by 20. It was two then GD asked me a couple of times to grow an experimental pepper they wanted. When the 9th planet inhabitants came out I added the third one permanently and sold to their Vincent as well as Archimedes Vincent and somebody on the fourth planet. He uses them in herbal medicine, his mate eats them and the growing conditions on the first planet make them hotter than normal."

 

The others head back to their home dimensions and Josette heads off to the factory warehouse, adding the factories for the soles and rugs and the warehouses on the second floor.

 

"Did you get that semester in you wanted for Cambridge over the break?"

 

"Yeah." Josette says, lacing her fingers together to stretch over the back of her chair.

 

"How was the demand for the grab bags?"

 

"Good, they'll be permanent after the Lights Festival."

 

"Has the crowds at the pizzeria let up?"

 

"Hell no, I'm expecting it to die down around my second testing week."

 

"Chem class?"

 

"Started that first to get it out of the way. I'm finishing the third year for my art history degree and starting one of the new multiple degree comic book curriculum this semester. Next year will be the other two comic book degrees I'm in my last degree for, the fabric painting hands-on degree, the herbal medicine masters, and the art history bachelors."

 

"Did the others talks to the boys about degrees?" Josette nasty kitty smirks and everybody laughs.

 

"Amanda talking to the others at Montague about the degrees?"

 

"On and off for a couple months now. She's planning on starting next year since it's been decades since she took classes."

 

Back at the dorm she starts making an inventory of everything that's in her TARDISES while another is doing the same on Brigadoon. She'd just been moving stuff and while she's got a list of what she has . . .somewhere, she doesn't know what's in each room. Working under time dilation in both places she gets everything sorted out months later before joining with her other selves and walking with the others to dinner. She's waved to the front room by Principal Madison, nodding.

 

"The first room on the pizzeria third floor is finished, I'll deliver everything tonight and pick up the back room's furniture." Alexander nods. "We'll start work on it tomorrow when we're not working on the other stuff." This time Josette nods, even with as many orders as she brought out for the show she's got still more on the list and some people are buying multiple houses in different styles. And she's still got requests for her sheets and other stuff. The others snigger at her sour look.

 

Josette's dancing in her room at the end of the next week.

 

"Finished the chem doctorate?" David asks, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. She grins and nods.

 

"We need to celebrate." He purrs. She holds up a hand in a halt gesture. "Uh-uh buster, that kind of celebrating needs to wait until after we visit the other dimensions so I'm not pregnant when we head." The others snigger but nod as they walk down the hall, whistling for the kids.

 

"How's the work coming on the factory and the warehouses?"

 

"Slow but none of them are needed right away." The others nod.

 

"How's the crews coming along on the other buildings on 9th planet?"

 

"Good, they set the alternate power source up right away and they're busy installing the solar panels and water and septic systems." She looks at Melissa and the others. "Have you talked to GD about internships?"

 

"We're going to Stark and both Waynes, we figure the kids can take Archimedes GD, and the triplets 9th planet GD when we take over the worlds, ruling with an iron fist in a velvet glove just like you taught us Mom." Their parents cackle in the back room as everybody laughs in the front once Principal Madison repeats Melissa's words.

 

"Intern housing?"

 

"For the first few years then apartments there or here on Haven or building houses."

 

After dinner Josette heads upstairs to work on the dollhouses, bringing up a new order and on the screen and starting to work.

 

"Congratulations on finishing your doctorate, Josette. You'll get the official confirmation in a couple days but your dissertation has been approved." Dr. Stark says at the testing center on GD when Josette heads off for her first testing week. Josette grins. "Did you get everything out you wanted this year?"

 

"Yes, I figure to get everything hooked up by Thanksgiving."

 

"Rug yarn manufacturer?"

 

"I'm bringing it out next year."

 

"Fabric?"

 

"A group is going to be working on it next year on the satellite." the others nod in satisfaction. "Assyrian and Edinborough are working on blends for cloth."

 

"Weavercrafthall?"

 

"We've settled on a location and plan on starting construction next year, Hank and the others are looking over the files for the looms."

 

"Mirrors?"

 

"The exterior work will be finished by first snow, then the interior work and it should be ready for them to start work by the Harvest Festival next year. Once the glass for the stained glass workers is done, including the specialty stuff, they're going to be working on the crystal stuff for chandeliers. The glassblowers are working on the formulas now."

 

The others nod as Josette puts her feet up in another chair and yawns.

 

"Yes, we're expecting rain starting tonight." Dr. Cross says. "Four days before we can plant our last crops of the year."

 

"Josette, did you find large supplies of cotton?"

 

"Yes, both yarn for socks, cloth for underwear, and raw fiber. I'll bring them out in a couple years as needed. Assyrian and Edinborough are working on fiber blends for future needs."

 

"Fabric painting?"

 

"Be finished with that last year along with the two comic book multi-degree ones I'm two semesters from finishing the whole kit and kaboodle, the art history bachelors, and the herbal medicine Masters. I'll finish the dye degree that I'm partway through we went on hiatus for since the teacher teaches them both, and we'll start working on making baskets from grasses and other plant fibers."

 

Back on Haven Josette absorbs a burst of solar energy to wake herself up before she heads upstairs to her workroom. Patting her TARDISES Josette brings out a new kit from the containers on the shelves and copies the pattern pieces to plastic, cutting them out and labeling them before copying the pattern and starting another envelope for them. Sighing, Josette grabs her PADD and makes a note before she starts looking over the fabric. Grabbing pieces of paper she starts sketching out ideas for quilts, looking at the three pages she's filled before joining the others for dinner.

 

"How are we on the dining rooms?"

 

"I'm picking up the tables and chairs from the fourth floor front room after dinner." Josette says. "We all took a couple days off over the weekend." Principal Madison nods.

 

The next day Josette walks to Sue's store, looking over her notes and the fabric.

 

"More quilt ideas?" Marilyn asks with a grin when Josette starts making notes on the papers in her hands and making different piles of fabric on the table.

 

"Oh yeah, the freaking bunny grabbed me by the shirt and shook me like a rag doll yesterday after I got back from taking my tests on Archimedes. Everybody in the building sniggers but nod in a been there, done that manner.

 

"Is that everything?" Marilyn comes over to help Josette measure and cut fabric.

 

"Hell no, I'm sure I'll have to hit Agatha's too." Josette sorts everything into different tote bags she pops into subspace and helps put everything away, paying and heading to Agatha's where she repeats the process, double checking with Agatha she has everything.

 

"Did Josette make it to your place, I saw her stopping at the bakery and pizza parlor." Marilyn asks after the stores close for the night.

 

"Yes, those quilts are going to be magnificent but she won't be done for a few years."

 

"They can go in the pool of projects." Sue says with a grin.

 

"How many?" David blinks as Josette continues to bring out bags of supplies in her workroom.

 

"Thirteen." She says sourly. "The fucking bunny was psychotic. I figure three quilts a year to go in the pool of projects to draw on." Swearing fluently she grabs more paper and starts sketching and making notes.

 

"Are you going to be working on furniture after dinner?"

 

"Yes, I need a break from the screaming banshee in my head."

 

"You know, there's medication for that. . ." David sniggers as he walks downstairs.

 

"Thirteen quilt ideas?" Susan asks.

 

"And I got another shitload of drawings and ideas dumped on me but I'll wait on those, I gotta work a few extra shifts to pay for everything I brought today." Everybody laughs at her and she blows them a raspberry.

 

"Factory and warehouses?"

 

"Be finished by the end the term. Unlike the factory, the warehouses won't draw a large amount of power." The others nod. "We selected where the weaving building is going and Dad will start building it next spring."

 

"Are you okay?" Sue asks when Josette signs in for work the next morning.

 

"Yeah, the damn bunny jumped me again when I got home with the other quilt stuff and I have another dozen quilts planned out." Sue lays her head down on the counter and laughs as Josette starts grabbing bolts from the 'gotta replace' bin and starts measuring them to go in the remnants bin then heads to the back room to refill the shelves.

 

"Yeah." Josette says when Sue runs to the bathroom she was laughing so hard.

 

"Oh god Josette, that's priceless. I know I shouldn't laugh but. . ."

 

Josette snorts. "Didn't stop the others when David 'innocently' told the others what happened. And they weren't impressed when I said I was holding off on those since I was working extra shifts to pay for everything I brought yesterday." Sue and Marilyn, who'd just come into the building, make rude sounds.

 

"Yeah, that was their reaction."

 

"Josette, how are we on cotton?"

 

"I have warehouses of cotton yarn for socks, cotton fabric for underwear, and raw cotton. I haven't brought them out since I didn't think we needed them for a while yet." The other two women nod as Marilyn heads to the shelves to help make 'grab bags' for the store with Sue.

 

The next few weeks pass quickly with Josette working at the stores, taking classes, and working on the factory and warehouses. The second testing week she slides into her seat at the testing center.

 

"How is everything coming?"

 

"Hopping, we've got the dining hall the pizzeria is in finished, the inside at least. Maintenance is starting on the remaining floors of the burger place. They should get those done by Thanksgiving. After that it will be too cold to have the windows open for the paint."

 

"Did the pizzeria ever slow down?"

 

"It should start slowing down after this week."

 

"Does they have their own garden?"

 

"Yeah, the burger and chicken places share one. Or rather they took over the ones the school used when the dining halls were full." The others nod.

 

The rest of the semester flies by and soon everybody's busy bringing in the crops and garden, canning, drying, or otherwise preserving everything for winter and getting in supplies while Josette's off taking her finals.

 

After Thanksgiving they start heading off to the other dimensions, coming back several months later for them.

 

"How lazy are people that they'll dump perfectly good clothes, shoes, belts, scarves, and purses in recycling bins rather than take the time to donate it to a resale store?"

 

"But I'd have to pack everything in bags and take it there." Abby says in a whining voice that would etch glass. "Ohhh, they're poor. They don't deserve the good stuff." Josette says in a mock airhead voice. "I don't want them, they're last year's clothes." Susan says in another pouting voice. Pat who'd come in to see if they were back chuckles.

 

"Yes, people like that kept me in business for years. I take it you brought clothes back?"

 

"Tons. Along with plastic, paper, glass. . . Spent days cleaning up the recycling drop-off sites, making a couple thousand dollars for a couple weeks worth then headed to Vegas with the girls. Principal Madison and Professor Druid was introduced to his Da's school when they took over for about six weeks when he had to leave for meetings, expos, and symposiums, they were nearly crying when they found out they'd been running a private school for years so they didn't have to babysit them."

 

"You were there too." David snorts. "Josette was running the library for a few weeks since the woman who normally handles it broke her ankle and needed surgery. The look on her face was priceless when she found what she thought was a student behind the desk calmly working away and Principal Madison introduced her as his school librarian."

 

"When are. . ."

 

"Tomorrow after breakfast."

 

The next day Clark, Thomas, and CJ, Pat and the others come though and they all head to Atlantis, smiling as they soak up the heat and start switching to lighter clothes and putting on sunscreen. Renny, Clark, and Doc go over the plans Josette had for the windmill, nodding at the points Josette brings up and bringing up others.

 

"How about linking to the alternate energy source for the city?"

 

"I'd thought of that as well. It's not like we need the extra power."

 

After a few weeks of sunning, swimming and sex everybody heads back to Atlantis and back to Haven. Thomas and Clark settle on a couch as CJ starts shelving his books from his latest degree.

 

"I. . ."

 

"Want another baby? I was just thinking that myself." Clark says. "The others kids are turning ten next year and they're talking about more children. The twins will be leaving next year for their internships on the fourth planet." Thomas laughs then repeats what Josette had told him Melissa had said, making Clark chuckle.

 

"Did Principal Madison's family talk Josette, Michael, and Alexander into a similar setup to the one with the others?" CJ asks, coming in from the library and settling into an easy chair.

 

"Last year, they were just waiting until the boys finished the apartments before they started working on the details."

 

"Who's got the first show?" Principal Madison asks as they get ready to head back to their house after picking up Samantha.

 

"I do." Josette sighs. "We were talking about what we'd be bringing to the shows, including examples of our work while we were there. We'll talk more when they come out for the Lights Festival."

 

"Is maintenance back to replacing flooring?"

 

"Yeah, they moved over as soon as they finished the fourth floor of the burger place. The furnace was beginning to come on in the morning." The others nod and everybody splits up, heading in different directions. Josette takes her books for the two degrees she finished this semester upstairs and sends the file with the pattern, pictures, and details for the first quilt she'd gotten jumped by before starting the second to Agatha.

 

After lunch they start planting in the hydroponics and greenhouses, sighing as the furnace kicks on as they're walking downstairs and see it's snowing.

 

"Already?"

 

"It's too early, it won't last." They dress in their winter clothes for the walk to the dining hall for dinner, coming back to get the kids ready for bed and settling in the living room to talk about their plans for the next year. Josette had brought out books for the others classes when she'd stopped to pick up hers and David's from the previous semester when she'd picked up the recycling.

 

The next day Josette comes through the link from the other store with the others from Town for the meeting about kits. While it might not stick, it's certainly coming down outside and the lights are on since it's so dark out. After everybody eats they talk about how the grab bags are selling, jokes are made about the weavercrafthall, and what the demand would be for the portable looms before kits and cookies are passed out. The leftovers are parceled out and Josette heads off since she'd not been tapped to help clean up this year. Back at the dorm she puts everything away and hangs up her outside clothes to dry as the door to the basement opens.

 

"Any news on when this shit is supposed to last?" Anna asks as she and the others come up with the decorations for the Lights Festival.

 

"Through the next couple of days."

 

"At least it won't last."

 

"No, but the next storm will." David snorts as they start setting up the trees by the windows. After the storm the outside decorations start going up and the next few weeks pass with everybody coming out for the Lights Festival. Bronwen laughs about the bunny attacks but nods she's had that happen to her too and they take a flyer out to the locations Josette had pinpointed for the new complex, getting a nod as they talk about what would be needed.

 

"Josette, does the water wheels work on the mills?" Dr. McNider asks at the Lights Festival.

 

"Yes, we keep them ready in case we have to move them to switch to water. Or if we're feeling nasty and stick somebody in there to walk inside the wheel to run the machinery."

 

"Go do something useful before I beat you?" Ma Hunkel says in a 'I have one nerve left and you're getting on it. Get out of my sight before I kill you. I'd go to prison but right now it would be worth it' voice. Everybody around them sniggers.

 

"Exactly, not the first piece of machinery ran by people power. So you want a mill brought out?"

 

"In a couple of years, we don't have water near enough to run it that wouldn't freeze. Now harvests?"

 

"Next year they come in early enough that we could harvest twice. So we'll have rye and barley coming in when we plant the cover crops. You'll get both."

 

"Has the glass factory been replicating extra lids?" Professor Druid comes over.

 

"Yes, every time they replicated them for the apartments. They've got a good stock of rings and lids for when we need them. They've also got a good stock of jars in too."

 

"Glass factory?"

 

"Another couple years for the stained glass workers, including the specialty glass. They they'll start working on glass for chandeliers and stuff, I'm going to be working with the glassblowers to make goblets and wine glasses over the next couple of years."

 

"Cutting and grinding. . .the mirror place."

 

"Yep, they should be able to do that when they're not working on mirrors."

 

"When will the building be finished?"

 

"Harvest Festival, the weaving building is going up in the spring. After that we're talking about a building just for dyeing." Everybody nods as they walk back to the school, stopping at the pizzeria for a meal of salads and the pizza bar, then picking up pizzas to take home with them.

 

"Josette, is this the bakery from town?" Bronwen asks when they find Josette in a large kitchen bringing out supplies.

 

"Yes, I brought it out when we brought out the other since I'm working on a baking degree from Assyrian and they've got everything I'd need here."

 

"Did you get more books?" David asks

 

"Yeah, another shelf and a half of them."

 

The cooks in the family nod, they'd had just as many books when they went to culinary school.

 

Josette sighs as she slides into her seat at the government meeting the first day of the new semester.

 

"Mirror place?"

 

"Be finished with the interior work by spring planting then I'll start bringing everything out."

 

"Do we have any larger mirror factories?"

 

"Yes, but we won't need for for a while."

 

"Cloth?"

 

"Started work last week, they're working six hours a days, six days a week and will have a good supply of stuff I need to pick up by finals when I take out wheat and rice for flour and pick up recycling."

 

"Weaving?"

 

"Selected the location, construction starts this spring. After that's done we'll start a building for dyeing."

 

"Any other news?" Principal Madison looks at Josette and David, smirking.

 

"Yes, we're pregnant. Only one baby apiece. Lord Apollo confirmed them this morning."

 

"Anything else coming out?"

 

"Yes, the rug yarn manufacturer, but not until before the Harvest Festival when Dad's got a crew free to work on everything. I've got a list of others to bring out over the next few years as needed." The others nod.

 

After lunch Josette heads to the yarn store, grabbing a cart.

 

"Really?" Marilyn asks as Josette grabs gift bags and tosses skeins of yarn into the cart.

 

"Yep, all four of us but only one baby. Clark and Thomas have one in the gestation chamber and I think Pat and Bethany will probably get pregnant this year if they're not already."

 

"Did CJ go on for a doctorate?"

 

"Yes, he's starting his first classes today."

 

"The others?"

 

"Are all starting classes, it's been a while since all of us were doing that. Three classes a semester for everybody but David, Alexander, and Michael since they're going for their doctorates."

 

"You?"

 

"Finished the chem last year and I'm finishing the Masters for herbal medicine this year, I'll start the doctorate next year if I'm approved." Marilyn makes a rude snorting sound. "Hey, I gotta present it in person since it's Oxford, I don't get the free pass I normally do."

 

"Art history?"

 

"A semester left after this one. I'm signing up for pre-admittance this summer and finishing it this fall."

 

"Sun painting?"

 

"Also done this year along with two comic book degrees and the Masters."

 

"We're going to have to offer weaving classes now that the buildings going up."

 

"Yep, we're going to announce them at the Harvest Festival."

 

"Is this a double crop year?"

 

"Yes, the offworld harvests will start coming in while there's still snow and I'll pick up cover crops this fall."

 

"Quilts?"

 

"I'm quilting my second one next week and I'll send the file to the others when I'm done and bring them out to the meeting after Thanksgiving. I should have another one or two done by then." She sighs. "Then start buying the supplies for the others."

 

"Thread?"

 

"They're starting production next year."

 

Stopping at Sue's Josette grabs some more supplies and gets a bag of snacks from the bakery as she walks to the dorm, finding the other girls checking the supplies in the nursery while Maria and Elena grin.

 

"How are we on baby clothes?"'

 

"Good, as well as the other supplies. We'll let the diaper service know our second testing week so they can bring out supplies to us our third testing week."

 

"Dr. Blake will come out with a proctor for our tests then and our finals." Susan says, the others nod. "Your thesis?"

 

"I'll call for an appointment after our finals, that will leave me four classes. If I'm not up to it, one of my other selves will head over. And I'll sign up for the doctorate then too. Did you send out the announcement?"

 

"Yep, not that the family wasn't expecting it since we said we'd be having more children when the school closed and it's been three years. And the boys finished the apartment orders."

 

"Do we see anybody coming over from the other dimension?"

 

"If the war ends without a grand 'I may be over but I'm taking you bastards with me' gesture on either asshole's part and the schools can't reopen."

 

"What's the population?"

 

"Hovering around the four billion mark, we expect it to be under that by the end of this year. We wouldn't be keeping them if we did get orphans."

 

"No, they'd be needed to rebuild their own world. Not that there might be children to raise since the birthrate's got to be low with everybody fighting or working long hours in the factories."

 

"Especially with how long this war has been lasting." The others nod.

 

The next few weeks pass and Josette looks around at the tables as everybody but David has headed to Eureka for their first testing week.

 

"Feel a little strange to get back in the grind after being off for a few years?" Dr. Cross asks.

 

"A little." Susan says with a smile. "Josette, did you ever get to look through everything Bronwen was talking about before the Harvest Festival?"

 

"Yeah, I spent a few months on Brigadoon and my TARDISES taking an inventory then sorting everything."

 

"Complexes?" Dr. McNider asks.

 

"The thread complex is starting work next year, the one for the rug yarn is going out after the Harvest Festival when Dad has a crew free."

 

"No factories to bring out this year?"

 

"No thankfully."

 

"Candy?"

 

"I'm putting up the poll Harvest Festival and they'll start next year."

 

"Toilet paper?"

 

Josette sends a message to David to check it. "David will look, probably not for a couple years, we've got the glass factory already running making colored glass for the stained glass workers."

 

"Were the ships ever able to duplicate those colors you were talking about?"

 

"Yes, we're working on duplicating it in glass and paint now."

 

"Josette, you've been talking about crystal?"

 

"Yeah, for chandeliers, goblets, and whatnot. The mirror building can cut and grind them." The others nod. "The glassblowers can make goblets, bowls . ."

 

"Do we really need that kind of stuff?" Susan snorts.

 

"No, but it will fly at the shows." Alexander and Michael snort but nod. "Where's your first show?"

 

"Portsmouth, that way I can stay at Dr. Cross's instead of having to deal with a hotel."

 

"Will maintenance be finished replacing the floors that needed it this winter?"

 

"Should." Josette says. "They stopped early last year to get an early start on the other pizzeria rooms before they opened for inside dining, this year they won't need to and should be able to keep working until everything's done."

 

"Painting?"

 

"After the dining halls are done."

 

Everybody heads home after lunch, looking at the dark skies that's threatening to dump snow on them and heading to their rooms until dinner. After dinner Josette starts working on her latest quilt, making notes as she starts cutting out pieces for the first block. By the time of her second testing week they're all wearing maternity clothes and Dr. Blake makes plans to come out for the girls their third testing week along with Mom and Mom, Leland and Asa staying home with their Dads to keep them from destroying the houses while their wives are gone.

 

"Is the interior work done?"'

 

"Yeah, I'm going to be bringing out the chemicals and equipment. That should take a couple weeks. And bring out some of the glass finals when I take in wheat and rice for flour and pick up the recycling."

 

The next few weeks pass and Josette looks up from her knitting to see Mom and Mom leaning in the doorway. "We wondered if you were alive up here."

 

"Offworld harvests coming in, classes including the cooking and sunpainting hands-on stuff, working on stuff for my new show, including dollhouses and stained glass lamps, experimenting with cute stuff and crystal, and moving the chemicals and equipment to the glass cutting building. I just needed some mindless knitting."

 

"I scrub the bathroom for that, it's something I don't have to think about."

 

"I vacuum." Mom Sanders says. "So boy or girl?"

 

"This pregnancy has been a breeze, so I'm going to say girl. The boys were all pissing me off even in the womb." The two older women chuckle. "Cute stuff?" Josette brings out a glass insect. "Awww, they're adorable."

 

"Yep. I'm working on those and painting glass."

 

"So how are you all getting used to being back in classes after a few years?"

 

"It's like pulling on a pair of old shoes, they just fit if you know what I mean." Both women nod. A week after the third testing week, Josette splits off a duplicate to start spreading manure on the fields and garden.

 

/SUNNABICH!/

 

/BLEEP!/

 

/WHAT THEY SAID!/

 

/DITTO/

 

Josette lays her head down on the spreader's steering wheel and laughs. Back at the dorm the boys are helping the twins and Susan up to the medical unit and Josette disappears with Lord Apollo. They reappear a few seconds later with the baby in a basket on her arm.

 

"Sophia Anne Covington-Sanders. Eight pounds, 21 inches long." They look over at the door to Headquarters opens and Doc, Pat, and Bethany come into the nursery.

 

"She's adorable. The others?"

 

"Upstairs in the medical unit, they all had their water break within a minute of each other." David sends out the message to the diaper service to let them know the babies were there or on the way and gets back a 'I'll deliver four batches of diapers in ten minutes'.

 

"They'll be out in ten minutes with the diapers." Josette nods. "She's three days old, there's two bottles in my bag and I just fed her." Elena chuckles as Bethany leads Josette off to her first floor room to soak in the tub.

 

By the end of the next day two more girls and a boy are delivered and pictures are sent off in e-mails to the other dimensions. Josette looks up from nursing Sophia as Susan drops carefully into her chair and gets ready to nurse.

 

"Garden?"

 

"I was spreading manure the day our water broke." She nods and takes Summer from Lois who immediately latches on and starts sucking like she was starving.

 

"Slow down greedy guts, it's not going to disappear on you." She gently strokes her head with one finger. "You know some twit on Earth would complain about the babies being born bald."

 

"Until they realized that being bald was cool and shaved their babies heads." Abby snorts, coming into the room. She looks down at Ian who's loading a diaper in his sleep by his face. Sighing she waits a couple minutes and changes him, Lois stripping his crib and remaking it before taking the laundry to the laundry.

 

"So anyway I'll till it under and plant in a couple weeks. That will have everything done at the ranch before our finals."

 

"Is everything planted now?" David asks a couple weeks later when Mom and Mom have headed off. The girls and babies are coming to meals at the back room and slowly walking around the school to get their strength back and working out in the pool to water aerobic DVDs.

 

Their finals come and Josette and the girls settle in the first floor lounge as the boys but David head to Eureka. Josette finishes the last test after lunch and sighs, rubbing her eyes as she hands the PADD over to the proctor.

 

"How is everything?" Dr. Blake asks.

 

"Asshole to elbow with the offworld harvests coming in so early. They'll be finished by my first testing week." She hisses. "Yeah, the only good thing about being offplanet so often is I'm soaking up a lot of solar energy. The supplies for the glass cutting building are all in and Dad's started work on the weaving building. Everything's just happening at once earlier this year." Dr. Blake nods.

 

Meanwhile another Josette is walking into Sue's store and moving bolts of fabric to the cutting table as she looks at the notes from the second batch of quilts.

 

"I'd wondered when you were going to get around to buying for the other quilts." Sue says, coming over to help measure, cut, and double check fabric amounts.

 

"I can afford them now with the bonuses I'm getting from all the offworld harvests." Josette says, her eyes twinkling with humor. Rude snorts and catcalls greets that outrageous comment. "How are the babies?"

 

"Getting so big." She sends pictures to Sue's PADD. "Aww, they're adorable. Glass for mirrors?"

 

"I'm picking it up later this week along with the recycling and dropping off wheat and rice to the manufacturing satellite for flour. Another month and all the offworld harvests will be in, though I'm leaving them on the ships so they don't get mixed up." Sue nods. "Now, are you heading to Agatha's next?"

 

"Yeah, I gotta get the rest of the stuff." Josette sorts everything into separate bags and checks out, going to Agatha's for everything else and heading back to the dorm.

 

A couple days later Josette heads offplanet, delivering the wheat and rice to the manufacturing satellite and picking up the glass and recycling, dropping off the metal on the sorting planet before going back to the dorm.

 

"Get everything taken care of?"

 

"Yes, until the last of the offworld harvests are in and the first crops are picked."

 

"How are they coming on the original programming?"

 

"Editing it and they should start airing next year."

 

"I've got the glass on my ship." Josette says, leaning around the door of the woodworking building the next morning. "I figured it'd be easier for me to bring it out one or two sheets at a time. Just let me know what sizes you want it cut into before I bring it out. You're not really laid out to handle 20 by 20 sheets."

 

"Thanks Josette, that will be perfect."

 

"Gonna finish a degree over the break?"

 

"No, I will summer semester, then the second break and get the other three in third semester."

 

"Presenting your thesis?

 

"My appointment is in a few weeks, my show is a few weeks after that."

 

"What are you taking?" Josette goes down the list and the others nod. The last of the offworld harvests comes in and Josette heads off to Oxford, talking for several hours about her thesis and arriving back at the dorm a couple days later. Josette absorbs her other self that had been offplanet and grins at them.

 

"Like there was any doubt?" David snorts.

 

"Well Yah, I've actually got to present the thesis, unlike most of them that get a wave by Dr. Stark." Josette says, rolling her eyes. She signs up for her doctorate and they head to the dining hall.

 

"Another one down." Josette leans between Principal Madison and Professor Druid.

 

"Josette, congratulations. Have you signed up for the doctorate?"

 

"Just now."

 

"How many classes?"

 

"Two more, I'll take them third semester. . ."

 

"Tables and chairs?" President Bartlett asks.

 

"I'm picking up the first batch after lunch."

 

"Do the others know?"

 

"I'm telling them after I put the furniture in the woodworking building."

 

Josette taps the door frame of Doc's office, making him look up from what he'd been reading. "Another one down."

 

"Congratulations Josette, did you sign up for the doctorate?"

 

"I did. I won't officially hear anything until this fall when I finish the last two classes but Oxford told me I'm in, I just had to sign up."

 

"Art history?" Pat asks, hugging her from behind.

 

"Finishing it over the next break. One degree this semester, one the break, and the other three this fall."

 

"Show?"

 

"In a few weeks, I'm moving everything I'm taking over to Hidalgo."

 

"How long are you staying?"

 

"Probably a week. Principal Madison and Professor Druid are coming along for the trip since the others want to talk to them about a few things."

 

"Like turning the school into another of his father's?" Doc says dryly. In addition to crawling over the school and checking their curriculum while they were out, they'd talked to them about the homeschooling curriculum they used.

 

Josette nods. "I've seen it too, we'd need more school buildings, dorms, and dining halls since some of ours are restaurants now and they took in younger children. Opening the bookstores back up. More floor monitors. They'd have databursts from the other dimension."

 

"The years are longer." Long Tom says, coming up to them.

 

"That wouldn't bother them since they'd be entering their third year of university when they graduated or could even have a degree finished by the time they graduated. They're one of the best prep schools in the country, with long waiting lists, opening up our school to other students would help."

 

"The government wouldn't pay most of the tuition." Ham says dryly.

 

Josette snorts. "This is a super exclusive prep school, they wouldn't turn a hair at the costs we charge, hell we could double our prices and they'd still line up to pay. The movers and shakers of the business, industry, and political worlds come there."

 

"With students changing out yearly you'd be able to get new trades coming in."

 

Josette nods. "That's what I was thinking."

 

Back at the dorm Josette nurses Sophia and heads to the pool with the others to work out to a water aerobics class then soak in the hot tub.

 

"Good lord children, the babies can't be three months old yet." Lady Simone says when they arrive.

 

"Yeah, Josette always lost the baby weight fast." David says.

 

"Well yeah, I only gain about 20 pounds and eight of that was the baby. I only gained 40 pounds with the quintuplets." Josette snorts. The doctors in the extended family shake their heads.

 

"How much have you lost?"

 

"Fifteen pounds according to our last checkup. That's the only time we bother to weigh ourselves." They pass out the baby pictures.

 

Josette sighs at a high-pitched squeal and high speed babble as another debutante finds something they 'just gotta have'. They're filling out order forms and passing along partial payments for the dollhouses and furniture.

 

"And the boys are artists too?" An older gentleman asks.

 

"Oh yes, the brunette Michael works with metal with Alexander works with wood. All three work on the custom furniture and the boys help out with the dollhouses while they're not working on their own projects.

 

"Is Josette always working on new stuff?"

 

"Oh yes, she's working with the glassblowers in town on crystal for bowls, platters, and stemware." More than one woman nearby shudders and marks that on the list.

 

/Silver?/ Josette smirks to Michael. He mentally groans. /With custom boxes by Alexander./

 

/We'll talk about it./

 

"Hey." Michael says a couple days later, looking in on a workshop.

 

"How can I help you kid?" The older man there grins.

 

"The evil genius had the brilliant idea of adding sterling silver to what we already make since she's planning on crystal bowls, platters, and stemware."

 

"And you need to know what you're going to have to do." Josette nods from the doorway and he walks them through what they'd need to have to make and polish them.

 

They arrive back on Haven a week later for them, Michael looking up the factories on his PADD as the girls check on the babies and Josette and Alexander look at the list of items they have orders for.

 

"Do you have supplies?" David asks.

 

"Yes, that's part of what Alan I was moving the last two days. I'll start bringing it out over the next few days." Michael reaches over her shoulder with his PADD and they talk quietly about everything, nodding. "I'll bring it out after I bring out other supplies."

 

The next few days has Josette moving supplies and working on more orders in various rooms of the dorm. The yearly crops start coming in and Josette heads to the first planet, taking care of everything there before coming back. The second batch of crops start coming in and the others arrive early for the Harvest Festival, cooing at the babies in real life.

 

"Awww, you finally got some hair." Summer blinks up at everybody from Mommy's shoulder and waves a hand.

 

"Did you get the flooring finished in the school buildings?" Calvin asks his son.

 

"Yes, we're planning on painting inside and out over the next couple of years when the dining halls are finished.

 

"How are you on that?"

 

"We've got three buildings finished and partway through ours, they should be working on our rooms before Thanksgiving."

 

"Josette, rug yarn?" Bronwen asks.

 

"I'm bringing it out tomorrow now that there's a free crew to work on it."

 

The next day Bronwen and Josette take a flyer to the location, the other woman blinking as the complex shimmers into existence on Haven. "That is neat. Now, did you find a place for the silver you wanted to make?"

 

"Yes, I added it to the dorm a couple days after we came back. David's been working on it with his Dad and we should be able to start in there by Thanksgiving."

 

"The crystal?"

 

"They're experimenting with the different formulas right now to see what's the best for what we want. The first glass factory has the forms for the platters and bowls, while we can make the stemware at the glassblowers."

 

"I heard glass painting?"

 

"Yeah, I'm going to be experimenting with it. Assyrian and Edinborough picked up on it and they're talking about hands-on degree."

 

"Did the boys have a show in the other dimension?"

 

"Yeah, a couple weeks before we came out for mine."

 

Bronwen blinks as she looks in Josette's workroom after dinner, finding her pinning a binding onto a quilt. "How many?" She waves a hand at the piles of fabrics on a shelf with plastic separators between them.

 

"25. The psycho bunny jumped me after the last festival with 13 quilts, the next day I had barely got back from buying supplies for them when he got me with the remaining twelve. I brought that stuff after the babies were born. This is the fourth one."

 

"Are they going to be kits?"

 

"They're going in the pool of future kits. I send Agatha the pattern, pictures, and notes after each quilt is finished. Sue and Agatha try to keep three years worth of projects in there, plus whatever old stuff they're introducing to the newbies."

 

The next night is Josette's party and then the Harvest Festival, Josette sighing as she settles into a steaming hot tub and closes her eyes.

 

"Don't fall asleep in there." Anna chuckles. "Long day?"

 

"Finicky fiddling stuff." Anna nods and Abby comes into the bathroom, circling the firepit and settling on a padded bench with her feet in the water. "Oohhh, feels nice."

 

"There's room for all of us." the girls strip and slide into the water. "Needed something?"

 

"Am I nuts or is Principal Madison's father. . ."

 

"Looking to annex the school to his? Yes, I've got that feeling too, so has Doc, Principal Madison, and Professor Druid. Probably not the younger kids since they could board as early as 4th grade but the high school kids. If they can get the schools there to accept the degrees from our schools, they could even get a degree in while they were gone since the years are so different."

 

"What would we need?"

 

"We're good on dorms, we'd probably need more school buildings, and we'd need at least one more dining hall, possibly two depending on how many students we get."

 

"Is that why he got you into the textbooks expo?"

 

"And why Principal Madison took over at his school for six weeks when he had a perfectly competent second in command."

 

"Not right away."

 

"No, he's taking the long in a few years viewpoint. I'm sure that soon there will be mentions at our shows about our school, how they're associated with theirs. . .which is one of the best prep schools in the country with admission tests and a waiting list, even students from other countries attend. Pictures of the school buildings and dorms, lists of classes we offer. . ."

 

"Get your degrees finished?"

 

"Yeah, a comic book one this summer and the art history over the break."

 

"No more boring ass shit degree." Abby's lips twitch

 

"Fuck no, I start the masters next year and that will be even worse. The boys were looking over my books to see if I was overreacting."

 

"And they found out it was worse?" Anna sniggers. "The music appreciation degree is worse."

 

"Music appreciation?"

 

"Symphonies, operas, all that shit. None of the schools that came out, one of the schools on the server."

 

"How many classes are you taking this fall?"

 

"I'm looking at twelve since I'm finishing three. If I get them in early, I'll pick up another semester somewhere."

 

"Or use the extra time to work on the stuff for the others." Anna sniggers.

 

"Eyeah." Josette does a good impression of Dr. Hazlitt.

 

The next few weeks pass and Josette and the others head off to Eureka for their first testing week. looking at the box on her belt when it beeps.

 

"Josette?" Dr. Stark asks.

 

"That's the emergency signal for the 9th planet."

 

"Go, your tests can wait."

 

Josette heads to the switching station, the others looking that direction before Dr. Blake has them go back to their tests.

 

"Josette?" Dr. Cross says as she comes through the switching station and not on one of the ships.

 

"I was on Archimedes for our first testing week. What happened?"

 

"A missed databurst from our dimension. It's not something we'd normally worry about but with Russia getting more and more desperate as Luthor keeps nibbling away at the borders. . ."

 

Josette grabs her link to the ships, sending off a quick message and soon Hanover hovers over them.

 

"We're going with you." Drs. Cross and McNider say.

 

"Okay, then stand next to me." The lifting ray brings them into the ship and they hurry to the control room as the ship is already underway. They arrive in the other dimension twenty minutes later, already sending out messages and getting a response from the moon.

 

"It happened, didn't it?" Dr. McNider sighs. On the screen the woman nods, wiping away a tear. "Yes, Russia launched nuclear bombs when it was certain that Luthor was going to take over the country, sending them at the US. They retaliated, the other countries attacked since they feared they'd be next and the world's in a world of hurt. We knew it was coming and saved everybody and everything we could." Josette nods. She can see domes of stuff on the moon and Mars as people bustle around.

 

"Are you going to be okay?"

 

"Yes, it's . . ."

 

"different knowing it's going to happen and it actually happening." Josette sighs. "Is the entire world involved?"

 

"No, but the Earth is under a nuclear winter that the computers say will last at least a hundred years."

 

"The ones the radiation didn't kill, either right away or slow lingering deaths the winter will. Earth isn't prepared for that kind of climate change."

 

A man comes up behind the woman and nods. "Temperatures have dropped at least twenty degrees in the temperate areas and are still falling."

 

"Josette. . .I . . .I hate to ask but . . ."

 

"I can bring out what was saved and bring it out to Mars, the moon, or the 9th planet when we're home, we did it when we lost Earth and it expanded our homes and other buildings. And," Josette sighs. "We can stay until. . ."

 

"Thank you Josette." Hanover settles on the Moon and Josette heads to botany to plant crops.

 

"It happened." 9th planet Dr. Stark says when they return five years later for them.

 

"Yeah, Russia's president knew he was in trouble and sent out nuclear weapons, Luthor retaliated. The other countries that had bombs sent them out and the world went to hell in a handbasket in less than a day. The world's population started falling as people died immediately from the radiation, slowly from the radiation, or during the nuclear winter when they ran out of food or fuel."

 

"We they able to save anybody?"

 

"Yes, they saved everybody and everything they could, they had domes of stuff on Mars and the moon. We brought out the original buildings to add to what we have here, we've got experience in it after we lost our Earth." Josette closes her eyes and a hand pats her on the shoulder.

 

"Thank you for . . .taking care of the dead."

 

"Something I've unfortunately had practice doing." Josette says a silent prayer for the dead. "Okay, this is what will happen when we add the buildings I brought up to the ones that came out. . ." The conversation lasts for a couple hours.

 

"Are you okay?" Doc pats her shoulder.

 

"There's a difference between coming back and finding everybody on Earth dead and watching the world's population falling every time Hanover scanned the Earth."

 

"Can Earth recover?"

 

"It will be centuries, there's no life left there now. Chernobyl and Japan's exclusion zones, the animals took them over but . . . The water, soil, and air is radioactive thanks to all the bombs going off."

 

The news is send out and there's memorial services for those left on Earth.

 

"Josette?" She returns to Archimedes and slides into her seat at the pushed together tables.

 

"It happened, didn't it?"

 

"Yeah, Russia attacked the US with nuclear weapons, Luthor retaliated, and every other country that had nukes launched them because they were afraid they'd be next. Everybody knew the Russian President was psychotic. Luthor shouldn't be taking over the world, He should."

 

"Shit."

 

"The announcement will be going out in a couple hours."

 

"How long were you gone?"

 

"Five years. Earth was lifeless in less than six months, either from the radiation or dying when they ran out of supplies or fuel during the nuclear winter Earth was in when we arrived. We stayed to help those they were able to save settle on the moon or Mars and bring out what they'd shielded."

 

The others come over when the buzzer sounds and they talk about what the 9th planet will be going through over the next few months."

 

"Knowing you're going to lose Earth and it actually happening is two different things."

 

"How long were you on the 9th planet?"

 

"A few months, they were beginning to incorporate what I salvaged on Earth while we were there."

 

The news comes in while Josette's getting ready to finish her tests, the others staying with her instead of heading home, then heading back to the dorm afterwards. David and the others are waiting for them, obviously having heard the news.

 

"You okay?" Doc asks.

 

"It's different coming back to Earth and finding everybody dead and watching the lifesigns keep going down and down every time you checked it and knowing that was people dying. It's like somebody you love having a terminal illness, you know it's going to happen but it still hurts when it does. Nearly four billion people dead thanks to two men's greed and stupidity."

 

"How long were you there?"

 

"Five years. We were burying the dead and helping the others settle on the moon and Mars."

 

The next few days Josette's quiet, going out with David to look at the oysters, clams, and mussels they're farming, spending a couple days harvesting everything. Sending out the call the orders start coming in and Josette is busy dropping off containers to the various communal kitchens and restaurants.

 

"Oh god, they're marvelous." Vincent looks everything over before putting it in the back and dishing Josette something up. "Who else brought?"

 

"9th planet, both the other cafe and a handful of people who know how to prepare them. The cafeterias at both GDs, Cabot Cove has been growing their own for years, that's why they were placed where they were. . ." Dr. Stark, who'd come into the building, nods. "The communal kitchen will start offering chowders when the weather starts turning cooler."

 

The second testing week comes and life begins to get back to normal. Josette brings out the bags of cover crops, finding various visitors from the other dimension on the 9th planet when she delivers there, checking out how they're settling in and spreading out. A green bird that had been flying around turns into a young man and Josette chuckles.

 

Dr. Cross looks at her when she comes out of the foods building.

 

"Cover crops of rye and barley." She sends him the updated inventory.

 

"Thank you Josette. How is everybody taking the news on Haven?"

 

"A lot of realizing for all that humanity has progressed, they're still not crawled out of the mud when it comes to war. A lot of prayer services. The memorial garden and fountain have a lot of people, it's a good place to sit and think."

 

"We knew it was only a matter of time with the Russian President getting his ass handed to him for his attacks against the US and losing more and more ground to Luthor as Communism died a slow death. And he couldn't have that."

 

The rest of the semester passes quickly and Josette starts bringing in the crops with the others, splitting off duplicates to handle the garden while everybody but David heads to Archimedes for their finals.

 

"So did you get the extra semester in?" Anna asks at dinner after the recycling had been picked up on the other planets.

 

"No, I only took the fifteen classes I had planned." Josette sighs. "If . . ."

 

Everybody nods. "Are you starting work on the crystal next year?"

 

"That and the silver. We'll make about five different types, if they want them personalized it's more money."

 

"Dollhouses?"

 

"Working more on them and the furniture over the winter now that the dining rooms are finished. Along with the other stuff for my show." Josette stretches and yawns before standing up to fill her tray again.

 

After Thanksgiving and the oldest kids moving to the fourth planet for their internships Josette and the others head to the other dimensions, dropping off what they'd been working on and bringing back more supplies as well as other stuff. Josette is busy working on the recycling, tearing apart old appliances running metal, plastic, and glass through the machines into large dumpsters that are moved to trucks.

 

"Josette, this is probably . . ."

 

"No, I wasn't able to salvage anything, the radiation was too high. That and the others had already taken everything they could save before it happened. I only take when there's nobody left or like the other dimension when I had the permission from Clark, Thomas, and CJ. I did drain off some of the radiation into energy crystals for power, the others were doing the same to supplement their solar panels and other power sources."

 

"That much radiation could power them for life."

 

The next day the girls head to Las Vegas for a few days then Josette heads to Calvin's school with Principal Madison and Professor Druid to talk about their school with the teachers while she's also working on recycling with the others in the new area.

 

Josette slumps into her seat in the living room when they return from the other dimensions. Pat looks around the door and comes in.

 

"What were you sniggering about?" Susan looks at Josette.

 

"I found over five thousand dollars in cash in purses and clothes that had been put out for recycling. I found credit cards that were shredded, jewelry. . .including some good stuff, makeup, condoms, tampons. . .you name it I found it."

 

"New York?" David snickers.

 

"And Hollywood, and Los Angeles."

 

"Do you bring back all the clothes?" Bethany asks.

 

"Hell no, I took armfuls to every consignment place I could find, the fancy places and it flew off the shelves. The big designers whined about their clothes going in the recycling centers or being sold second-hand and tried suing to stop it, the courts handed them their asses."

 

"Well, I'm going to pick up my marbles and go home." David says in a mock sniffling tone. "Yep. Closed up shop for about three months and got a lot of bad publicity because they had to pay for orders they had coming in from their vendors."

 

"But don't you know I'm not selling to anybody because people are reselling what I make..." Anna says in a 'big business huffy asshole' voice that has Pat nodding and Bethany giggling.

 

"Anyway they finally had to open back up when the courts found they had to pay for their orders, they had to pay their employees the time they'd been without a job because 'well, we're not in business but we don't want you working for anybody else, you might tell them something', and they had big announcements in the papers but they planned on doing the soup nazi bit and only selling to who they wanted."

 

"No clothes for you."

 

"Basically yeah, then walked off pouting when nobody begged them to sell to them." Bethany sniggers.

 

"First planet?"

 

"Tomorrow, we're going to plant in the dorm this afternoon."

 

"Do you bring clothes back?"

 

"Stuff that's still serviceable we'll actually wear and clothes that can be used in quilts."

 

"Did you take stuff over to the other dimensions?"

 

"Yes. we'll take more out for our shows. I've got one in mom's dimension next year while the boys have their intro show in the other dimension."

 

Josette wriggles into the sand on the beach the next day, soaking up the solar energy after swimming and playing in the water with the others. They come back six weeks later for them, kissing the babies and heading to their rooms. Josette finishes sorting out the textbooks for the degrees she finished this year and takes them upstairs to shelve before they walk to lunch.

 

The next day is the meeting at the Albatross Nest in Albatross, Josette filling her plate and opening a bottle of pop before settling against the wall. The cookies and kits are passed out after everybody has eaten and they talk.

 

"Josette?" She waves a hand and the quilts appear on the table.

 

"Oh these are even better in real life." Agatha says. "How many?"

 

"I'm starting the sixth one after the first of the year, right now I'm working on stuff for the shows and Dad's coming out in a couple of days to talk about plans for expanding the dorm again."

 

"Crystal?"

 

"Yeah, if something doesn't work I can bust it and start over." The others nod. She looks at Sue. "How are we on clothes for quilts?"

 

"We'll need some next year."

 

"I'll bring some out second month then after my first testing week."

 

"Thread?"

 

"They're starting operation next year."

 

"Rug yarn manufacturer?"

 

"I brought it out before the Harvest Festival, I figure another year before people start crawling over it."

 

"Cotton?"

 

"I've got supplies of raw cotton, yarn for socks, and cloth for underwear I'll bring out as it's needed."

 

The Lights Festival is well attended a couple weeks later, visitors from the other dimension who'd come out to see how the 9th planet was settling in and teachers from Principal Madison's father's school who stare up at the two suns in the sky, blink, then walk into the larger auditorium so they can meet the teachers.

 

"How many houses could you put up over the next couple of years?" Principal Madison asks in the back room of the dining hall as the teachers are touring the school.

 

"A dozen a year, but I think they'd be more comfortable in apartments. Yes, there's no thermostats, but there's heat when it's needed and they could turn on the heaters or burn wood for extra warmth during storms."

 

"We can handle that, putting up apartments for them similar to the apartments you have on the school grounds and linking them to the other buildings like you have them, the same with the new dining halls and school buildings. That way like the other buildings on the school grounds they'd have unlimited power and walk to their classes like the teachers who already live at the school do."

 

"Floor monitors?"

 

Calvin sighs. "Or we could enlarge their rooms into regular apartments."

 

"Kitchen workers? Most of ours headed off to other jobs as the dining halls emptied." Calvin sighs and makes another note on the paper in front of him.

 

"Accounts at the bank for the students to purchase stuff."

 

"Can your registers take cards?"

 

"Yes."

 

"Your students wear uniforms. . ."

 

"They'd be picking them up on Earth while they were over for Christmas or breaks. They'd be stocking up on snacks too."

 

Josette nods. "Our students did before we lost Earth, when we came down for breaks they'd head to the warehouse store or the mall or take the shuttle into Boston for the other malls."

 

"Do you do this every year?"

 

"Yes, since our year was different than Earth's we could have Christmas twice a year."

 

The next week passes and Josette slides into her seat at the government building. "You spent more time with the teachers, how were they handling the school?"

 

"At turns excited, nervous, and disbelieving."

 

"Know that feeling quite well." Josette sighs. The others laugh and nod. "Congratulations on getting five degrees in last year, how are you on the others?"

 

"I'll be a year for Cambridge with this semester, I'm partway through three other degrees, including the baking degree from Assyrian."

 

"Starting the dyeing degree back up?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"How is it on the 9th planet?"

 

"Quiet, they're getting ready for their winter and dealing with the loss of Earth, just like we did. I know they planned on staying but. . ."

 

"Even if it's not your home anymore, it still hurts to lose it." President Bartlett says. Josette nods. "Did your Dad get in contact with you about adding onto the dorm?"

 

"Yes. We're putting in that linking area for what Josette has brought out. . .maybe we'll finally find out everything Josette brought out. . ." Josette blows David a raspberry.

 

"Are you going to the 9th planet before the finals?"

 

"Yes, I'm going out in a few days to take wheat and rice to the flour factory for them."

 

Josette breathes in the beginning to cool air on the 9th planet, looking at the visitors milling around in Eureka as she stops there too for wheat and rice. Moving everything to the ships Josette heads to the pizza parlor.

 

Superman, dressed in civilian clothes, waves a hand at her.

 

"Josette was picking up wheat and rice to deliver to the seventh planet for us to be made into flour. She generally comes out twice a year for us."

 

"The seventh planet?"

 

"Yes, they have a large factory to make flour there, generally for the bread and cracker factories they also have. They deliver bread to the other planets once a week beyond what they make themselves. Part of the flour will be made into pasta and rice noodles at a pasta factory on the planet, while the wheat from the pizza parlor's garden will be turned into flour for them."

 

"How is everybody settling in after the loss?"

 

"A lot of prayer services, we knew that the situation was going to go to hell but everybody hoped that somebody would be able to take out Luthor and the Russian President before it came to this."

 

"You and everybody else on Earth who hated that damn war, but everybody knew if they took out Luthor Russia would take over the world when everybody was trying to recover."

 

"They were both power-hungry assholes. They're probably trying to take over Hell."

 

"Nobody who wants to be in control should be in control." Vincent says as he walks past.

 

"Exactly Josette's in 'charge' of Haven along with Doc, her husband David, Principal Madison who's also her foster father, and President Bartlett. They devote three whole hours a month to it, more if they're bringing out new factories or something else is happening. Everybody on Haven knows them and if something needs brought up it's 'Josette, we need . ..'"

 

Josette taps Ma on the shoulder since she's at a table. "Do you need more old clothes for patchwork quilts? I gotta bring out some to Haven next month."

 

"No, we're good Josette. Come join us."

 

"I was just going to hit the pizza bar."

 

"You can still join us." Nora says as Mary laughs. Josette chuckles, pays and fills a plate with pizza and gets a drink before coming back to the table.

 

"What was going on at the Lights Festival? I recognized James and Katrina's families but. .." The whole story comes out and the others shake their head. "You'll be able to bring in new trades with the school open continuously."

 

"That was something we'd been thinking of."

 

"Josette, shoes and boots?"

 

"We're opening the factory again in a couple years, unless you've got an offsize and place a special order it's going to be the sizes most people wear." The others nod.

 

"Josette, rugs?" Mary asks.

 

"I brought out the factory to make them year before last. Last year I was a little busy." the two mothers chuckle and nod. "How old are the kids?"

 

"Kinsey and her crew are turning sixteen and started the eleventh grade today, Gods it seems like yesterday that they were pouting about not starting pre-school at the education center like their older brothers and sisters then excited because they were going to be home-schooled and that was something the others hadn't. The triplets will be turning eleven and they're starting the sixth grade today. And the babies will be turning one."

 

"Did you bring out the rug yarn complex?"

 

"Yeah, before the Harvest Festival, they should be finished with everything that needs to be done by the end of this year, then they'll start having people going over everything before it starts operation."

 

"The loom building?"

 

"The interior work will be finished later this year and Hank's working on looms, right now the small portable ones since that was the greatest interest. Assyrian and Edinborough already offer degrees on looming and they're working with the school to offer looming classes."

 

"Do you have looms?"

 

"Yes, Dr. Cross and Billy found me working at a loom since it relaxes me. I don't have all the looms that are available, I'm going to be having Hank and the boys make some more for me when this latest batch of additions and renovations. I might get a couple and put one in my workroom here."

 

Josette slides into her seat at the dining room for lunch.

 

"Get the rice and wheat delivered?"

 

"Yes and talked to Ma, Nora, and Mary when I stopped at the pizza parlor for something to eat."

 

"Are they looking at the births we did after we lost Earth?"

 

"Probably, Mary had the 'just getting over the morning sickness' look. In about three more years their bodies should be adapting to the longer years. And they don't want the kids to be only kids, even if they're not." The others laugh but nod.

 

"They've all got to be in classes."

 

"Yep, the youngest two are in kindergarten I think. GD and Tesla have been adjusting their school and class lengths over the last few years."

 

After her first testing week Josette brings out old clothes to Sue's store, everybody there grabbing seam rippers and starting to work removing zippers and buttons. They cackle when Josette tells them about selling 'oh, these are last year's clothes, let them be recycled because I'm a selfish shit and too good to donate them' and the designers trying shit and not getting everybody running back bowing and scraping like they wanted.

 

"Do we need me to bring out more thread before the first batches start coming in?"

 

"No, we're good. We've already been talking to the threads complex and have orders in. Buttons?"

 

"We're deciding what type we're starting first this year with the factory to start operation next year. I'm going to be checking the warehouse and stores to see if we're low on anything in particular, if we are that will be the first batch. And let me know if you guys want something in particular too."

 

"Perfect."

 

Josette works on her own worn out clothes for quilts bags in the studio over the next couple of days during a storm that shuts everything down for three weeks. She'd brought out similar containers to sort the clothes into and once she's got a good supply of cloth in starts working on sorting out buttons and zippers, putting them up to be reused. The storm finally passes through and Josette clears off the solar panels for the school buildings, the big buildings in town and the houses on the other continent before lunch while maintenance and the boys are busy digging out at the school and the ranch.

 

"Has the 9th planet had storms like this?"

 

"Yes, like us they have enough advance warning to get in supplies and make sure the animals are inside and the feeders have enough supplies. Then they can start digging out after the storms. That gives them time to work on projects if they have labs at home or bunker down at GD unless they send them home."

 

"How are you coming on the stuff for the shows?"

 

"Good, I've been experimenting with the crystal and we're going to have a sampler for the silver at the boys show in the grandparents dimension and showing them at my show in the other."

 

The next week everybody David heads off to Eureka for their second testing week.

 

"Are you done with your online classes?" David asks at dinner a couple days later when everybody's finished their tests.

 

"Yeah, I don't have to go back until our finals."

 

"What classes are you taking beyond the Masters, Doctorate, and cooking classes?"

 

"Working on projects for the dyeing degree, finishing the third year from Cambridge for the boys lit and starting the third year of humor comic degree."

 

"Finishing anything this year?"

 

"Probably not. This summer will be the crops coming in and this fall will be the offworld harvests."

 

"Plus your stuff, whatever work the others want to do on the school, plus the work we're having done on the dorm."

 

"The boys have a show in one dimension, I have a show in the other." David nods. "Papers."

 

"Yep, three to work on over the next few years. I'm going to be finishing the Naval Academy and dyeing degrees next year anyway so I'll get Cambridge in then too."

 

Josette grins one night as she walks into the back room. "Twin girls for Bethany and a boy for Pat. Both are saying up, down, and sideways they're never doing this again." The others snigger.

 

"New pictures from Clark and Thomas?" They'd opened the gestation chamber to welcome James Arthur to the world after the Lights Festival.

 

"Yep."

 

The snow starts melting within a month and once the ground is dry enough Josette goes out to spread manure on the fields and garden, tilling it under a week later then planting the first crops before joining everybody but David heading to Eureka for their finals.

 

A few days later Josette heads offplanet to pick up the recycling, then to the other dimension to pick up the first batch of supplies for the school, sliding into her seat at the dining hall and nodding at Principal Madison's questioning look. Grabbing her PADD, she sends the file to him before starting to eat.

 

"Supplies for the school bookstores. Next will be the supplies for the dorms, then the classrooms, then the kitchens and dining rooms."

 

"Anthology comics?"

 

"Comics that had multiple stories, sometimes one was a series sometimes not.

 

"Like short story collections."

 

"Exactly."

 

The next couple of weeks pass quickly and Josette is busy with classes, checking on the new weaving building and going over plans for a dyeing building, working on everything, and bringing in the first round of crops. After everything is in and the second crops are in, they head off to the other dimensions.

 

 

 

"Josette?"

 

David snorts and chucks a pillow at her, pointing at Dr. Cross, then her ears. Josette holds up a finger and removes earplugs she puts in a container she flips over her shoulder into subspace. James and Mary start sniggering.

 

"Haven't figured out how to turn down my hearing like that tv show and all the squealing was getting on my nerves. You'd think there was a boy band nearby the way some of them were carrying on. Christ, I was three rooms down and I could still hear them. And no, not just me. The others who were looking at stuff in the room couldn't believe it was a show for furniture and other stuff making that kind of noise. Good thing my glass wasn't there, I think some of those squeals would have shattered it."

 

"How many requests did you get for the silver and crystal?"

 

Josette holds her hands about 18 inches apart. "Each. Even at the prices we were asking. You could tell who was buying for the investment and to pass down in the family and who was buying it because they just had to have it. I thought Marcus was going overboard when he ordered five boxes of the order forms copied when we brought everything in. They had to run out for more."

 

"Website?"

 

"Went live with this show."

 

"How is everybody on the 9th planet dealing with the loss of their Earth?" Mary asks.

 

"It's hard, there's a difference between knowing that Earth is on a downward spiral and losing it to one stupid man who couldn't believe that he was losing and set off a nuclear holocaust. Yes, Earth was going downhill the longer that damn war lasted but Earth was alive. They didn't plan on going back, but it was there. Once they got the assholes out of office, Earth could rebuild."

 

"The coalition of governments fell apart thanks to petty arguments and it ended up destroying them.

 

"They'd have had to take them both out." Dr. Cross says.

 

"Yep, because Russia would have attacked immediately if they only took out Luthor, because only the fucking Soviets could rule the world, not some upstart businessman." David says. "That's why they went on the attack after Luthor took over China, before that they were 'oh, we don't want any part of this war'."

 

Josette spends the next few days taking care of the recycling and putting money away before bringing back a new batch of supplies along with another group of teachers and others from the school.

 

"Ohhh, this is magnificent." The woman who'd found Josette sitting behind her counter says, turning around in the front room of the library, filled with tables for sitting to work at and comfortable chairs to read in. "Is your library the whole building?"

 

"Yes, first floor is non-fiction, second floor is our research area. The difference between the two is the second floor you have to be escorted up and can't check out anything. It's separated into areas, and has the watching rooms a student can reserve time in to watch the DVDS that aren't available to check out. Third floor is our fiction and the top two floors are more rooms for watching DVDS and study rooms students could reserve."

 

"Is this all your microfilm?" She sees the two cases behind the counter and looks around for the readers.

 

"No, the microfilm is down in the basement with the readers, this is music and multiple disk DVDS that don't have locking cases." She takes her down to the basement.

 

"Ohhh my, are students allowed down here?"

 

"They have to schedule a time with the readers and whoever's on duty will get them the tape they need. There's three keys for the microfilm vault, I have one, there's one up in the desk for whoever's covering the library, and Professor Druid has one. This is one of the areas that they want to expand when they expand the school library."

 

"They want to expand the library?" She looks around in disbelief as they come back upstairs. This is three times larger than her library and hers is a good sized school library. Most school libraries are only a single room.

 

"Yes, there's our books, the books from the other dimension that was lost, then your books and materials that are coming up. I think they want to take care of the library in town while they do it."

 

"Whoever's covering the library?"

 

"Yes, except for midterms and finals, there's at least two people here. The teacher covering the library, a student working, and myself depending on what my schedule is that week. The week before midterms and finals the students don't work since they're studying and midterms and finals itself I'm the only one here since the teachers are busy with their tests. The library has shorter hours those days."

 

"What's your semester?"

 

"20 weeks, two weeks off between first and second semester and five weeks off between the end of the year and the start of the next. We adjusted our schedule so school years started the first of the year."

 

"That makes a lot of sense."

 

"Is this normal?" Professor Druid's mother Hannah asks, looking out the front of the dorm at the pouring piss from a boot rain after the yearly and second round of crops are in.

 

"Yep. We get three of them a year, they put the crops off to a good start when we plant after this."

 

"I can see why."

 

Josette sniggers. "We warn the others when they come out about the rains but they always think we're exaggerating until they live through their first one. We get other storms, but nothing that lasts beyond a day."

 

"I'd go stir-crazy."

 

"We're used to them." David shrugs. "Good waterproof clothes for when we have to go outside and we keep them in good condition." He's busy waterproofing his farm boots, putting them up to dry as he checks his winter boots.

 

After the Harvest Festival everybody heads back to the other dimensions, the teachers shaking their heads when they see it's only been a couple minutes they were gone.

 

"Are there any problems with their curriculum that you see?"

 

"No, they're easily on our standards. Adding classes wouldn't be that difficult. They've got a good selection of electives, some of those I'd expect at a sociology university."

 

"The fine arts and textiles classes aren't anything to sniff at either, and I love that they all had to take a year of home economics, not just the girls."

 

"Offworld harvests?" David asks when they settle in the government building after the festival.

 

"Will be coming in hot and heavy next month." Josette sighs. "I'll be going at least once a week after the first testing week until our finals and the crops are in."

 

"What's the schedule for the school?"

 

"Three to five more years. I'll bring out one more batch of supplies before they start on the buildings. Then it will be stuff like textbooks and food before the teachers and other employees come out, then the students."

 

"Wages?"

 

"They'll be coming out to talk to those employees who are going to be working."

 

"Your degrees?"

 

"I'm a semester from finishing my doctorate and uploaded the dissertation this summer before we left for the other dimensions." He looks at Josette.

 

"I just started my masters and doctorate, but I'll be finishing them the same year."

 

"Josette, window treatments?"

 

"Roman blinds, plastic slats, wooden slats, curtains, and the vertical blinds for sliding glass doors?" She asks. President Bartlett nods. "I've got a workshop in mind for them, about eight people could work there and we'd make them as ordered?"

 

"That sounds perfect."

 

"I've been looking into it for a couple years. We wash the curtains every spring but the shades and blinds need replacing every so often."

 

Principal Madison nods, they do the same every spring when they're opening windows and doors to air out the house.

 

"The weaving building?"

 

"The exterior work is finished, they're going to be working on the interior over the winter, and we should be bringing out the looms next year. Hank's working on the ones we don't have right now."

 

"Were there any births on the 9th planet after the loss of their Earth?"

 

"Yes, five in Eureka, Mary, and Maxine. They both had girls."

 

"How many children does that make?"

 

"19 with Kyle's son in the other dimension, though they were talking about more children. They don't want to grow too quickly."

 

"No they don't."

 

 

Back at the dorm Josette works on her third quilt of the year as she shivers slightly, going to her closet and pulling on a sweater. It's a little early for a cool fall so a storm has to be coming in.

 

"Josette, the weaving building?" Elaine asks at dinner.

 

"Exterior work is done, the interior work will be done over the winter and I'll start bringing out the looms Hank's working on next year. I have the time I'm going to be working on some looms of my own."

 

"Dad starting work on the dorm?"

 

"Yeah, next week now that a crew's done with the weaving building. I'm going to be working on plans for the dyeing building over the winter."

 

"Multi-floors?"

 

"At least three, one workrooms to work on projects, one to store everything, and one to hang everything up to dry. We can expand it as needed."

 

"Dyes?"

 

"I brought out a warehouse of them, when that runs out we can bring out a factory." Elaine grins and heads back to the front room.

 

"Bronwen wants to expand your textiles building workroom, she's stunned you get as much done as you do in there." David says.

 

"Yeah, she said something about that over the Festival."

 

"Especially when you're going to be doing it for two dimensions."

 

Josette heads to bed early after dinner, she's not the only one yawning and nobody's surprised when it's raining the next morning, they just pull on their rainy weather clothes and walk to breakfast.

 

"Offworld harvests?"

 

"In a couple weeks, we'll be finished just before Thanksgiving."

 

"You guys got stuff to take out?"

 

"Yeah, I was going to put it on one of the ships anyway since we're running out of storage area. Which Dad wants to work on over the winter." David nods. Even expanding by tesseract and keeping the raw materials in the carrying cases they were running out of room working on two different sets of mammoth orders.

 

"Okay, this is probably a dumb question but. . .

 

"The wood?" Second growth like we use. They harvest very carefully. Like us they're trying to keep the old growth old growth. People who came in and cut everything whether they wanted it cut or not lost their jobs, their businesses, and went to jail."

 

"Good, I'm glad some people can learn."

 

After the first testing week Josette heads off on another offworld harvest, sliding into her seat at the dining hall a couple hours later.

 

"Coming in hot and heavy?"

 

"Yep, I'm going to be off at least one a week until Thanksgiving."

 

"Dad wants to talk to us after lunch." Josette nods. She eeps and disappears, returning a few seconds later. Sighing she eats quickly while sending out some messages and Doc, Clark, CJ, Bruce, and the Time Lord Doc appear in the back room a few minutes later. She tells them something and they head off.

 

Meanwhile in another dimension a few hours after Josette had left another Doc comes out of the medical unit. Instead of the others cleaning up the debris he'd been expecting he finds his associates settled in chairs in a clean room. He looks at them.

 

"Josette brought out some of her family and friends to take care of everything. . ." A beeping in the corner has Doc looking that way, finding a man at a computer. "Yeah, I'm getting a signal." He says into an earpiece. "Only data right now."

 

"Okay, let me keep working." Josette says outside, twenty feet in the air where she's rewiring the antenna tower. CJ and Clark are working on the structural details while she handles the wiring since she's got the smaller hands and a more delicate touch.

 

Meanwhile inside Doc and Time Lord Doc are working on checking interior rooms, bringing out another batch of debris and dumping it by the replicator Josette had brought out from Hidalgo. They'll be sorting out what can be fixed and what is junk later.

 

"How is your grandson?"

 

Doc blinks at seeing another version of himself, let alone two, but quickly recovers.

 

"Out of surgery and sleeping off the anesthesia. He should be waking up in a few hours."

 

"Okay Josette, we have video. . .No audio yet but. . .Clark, turn it back, we're getting massive interference. Okay, that just cleared up. We have data, visual, and audio now."

 

"The tower needs a complete rewiring, I'm bridging the broken areas now and I can do that later. The other direction is the better one according to Hidalgo."

 

"Okay, turn it back then. Josette, do you have everything you need?"

 

"Yeah, on the ship or I can replicate it from the debris out here once Doc's gone through everything. Hidalgo can act as the antenna until it's fixed. . ." a squawking sound has Bruce sniggering.

 

"CJ just tuck her under one arm?" Doc chuckles.

 

"Yep, they're coming in now." Like Bruce and Doc had said, Josette's being carried under one arm like a football and she's blistering the air with invective. Doc blinks at a third version of him, all three giving Josette indulgent looks.

 

"You've been up for hours, sleep." CJ says, taking her to the ship as the others talk. Josette swears at him again but it had been fiddling work and she gets a hot bath and goes to bed for several hours.

 

"Josette?" Doc asks a couple days later.

 

"This is what I'll need to rewire the antenna." She slides the paper down to this world's Doc and Long Tom, getting nods from both men. "Do we need anything here while we're making the wire?" Long Tom looks at her. "Get with me and we'll talk."

 

"Do you have a degree in electrical engineering?"

 

"Through her bachelors, we've been . . ."

 

"Nagging." Josette grumbles. CJ and Bruce snicker.

 

"Talking to her about going on for her Masters and doctorate." Clark says firmly. He looks at his sons and they give him innocent looks nobody believes.

 

"Haven't found a decent project for it yet." Josette shrugs.

 

They return back to Haven a couple months later for them, promising to stay in touch. Time Lord Doc talks to Josette for a few minutes before he heads off.

 

The rest of the semester flies by, Josette busy with the offworld harvests, her quilts, working on stuff for the other dimensions, and her classes. The crops start coming in before their finals and everybody's busy for the next two weeks getting the crops and garden in.

 

After Thanksgiving Josette makes sure they have everything before they head off to the other dimensions. Josette shakes her head and starts filling bags at the recycling drop-off areas, looking over at the others as they come in.

 

"You know kids, people tried suing to force you to stop doing this." The woman behind the counter smirks when they cash out their slips at the end of the day.

 

"For cripes sake, why? There's more than enough for everybody."

 

"Ohhhh, taking care of the recycling was beneath them. And since they didn't want to do it, they didn't want you doing it either. They pouted when the judge called them damn fools and told them to grow the fuck up."

 

"People might grow old but they never grow up."

 

"Exactly."

 

A few days later Josette heads to Vegas with the girls then attends several expos, the ship filled with stuff for her and the school when they return. Josette looks over at Principal Madison who's sitting across from her on another couch.

 

"Your plants?"

 

"This afternoon. Tomorrow is the meeting at the Albatross Nest, after that I'll start bringing out the stuff for the school and putting it in various buildings so they can have the containers back when they come out."

 

"Did you take out stuff?"

 

"Yes, and got more orders."

 

"Show where you'll be selling stuff?"

 

"Next year. Me, then the boys, then me again."

 

"Josette, I know we asked you this before but nails? Beyond the factory we already brought out?"

 

"I've got two different factories selected, one that makes them from sheets of metal, those are the spike type nails, the other used steel wire to make the round head nails. Again, something we can make with the replicator and we've got good supplies in the home centers that we haven't brought out." Principal Madison nods.

 

"We'd also need the machines to make the wire." David says. Josette nods. "And in different gauges for the various sizes of nails."

 

"Staples and strips of nails for the nailers."

 

Josette nods. "One reason we've been using the replicator. Too many machines. I need to see if the factory I have in mind has the machinery for making the glue strips."

 

"Glue strips?" Principal Madison asks.

 

"Nailers have strips of nails held together with glue, the heat caused by the machine firing melts the glue, setting the nail."

 

"Do they make different types of nailers?"

 

"Yep, beyond the big ones for flooring they make several hand-held models for different needs."

 

"So for the time being, the replicator can handle all our needs."

 

"Exactly. I've got plans for the future but. . ."

 

"Dad's looking into ones for the nailers."

 

"What's the list of supplies that came out this time?" Josette finds it on her PADD and sends it to Principal Madison. He nods. "Stuff for the dorms and the floor monitor rooms."

 

"I'll start bringing everything out over the next few weeks."

 

The next day Josette settles in her usual spot in the Albatross Nest with a plate of food and bottle of pop.

 

"Josette, what's the latest of the rug yarn?"

 

"They finished work on it a couple weeks ago, people are going to be going through it and they should start operating year after next."

 

"And the plans for the school?"

 

"They're bringing out two new dining halls, an apartment complex, and expanding the library along with updating the bookstores. The library in town, our home, and my workshop at the textiles building are also getting an upgrade."

 

"Kitchen workers?"

 

"Coming out along with teachers and others. They were talking about turning the floor monitor rooms into full apartments as well as bringing out an apartment building."

 

"Any problems with their kids being gone for so long?"

 

"Not when they're going to be graduating with at least two years of a university degree if they can get the degrees acknowledged. They were working on it for my Art History Masters. They'd have to check that option before they enrolled at the school and take the classes in their free time."

 

"Many schools had students enrolled in dual courses."

 

"And this is a super prep school, they'd expect the students to be partway through university by the time they graduate. Because they have the kid's whole life planned out for them."

 

"So they'd have to pre-apply for that option."

 

"Yes, and talk to their advisors every semester to make sure they can keep up in their classes. Like the students, they'd take their classes on a PADD, but unlike the students they'd have books too. If they finish their degree, they get two diplomas during graduation."

 

"What about those students who were like the Covingtons and have close families?"

 

"They'll probably stay in the other dimension. Calvin's going to be charging twice as much for our school as he does his. They don't have phones at their school so they wouldn't have them here, but they'll have letters they can write and e-mail during the databursts."

 

"Expenses?"

 

"They're opening accounts at the bank for expenses, either putting money on it monthly or by the semester."

 

"Breaks?"

 

"Ours, they're making arrangements for picking up and dropping off beyond me and the ships."

 

"Laundry?"

 

"That's a difference, there if it's in the bag it gets washed. Here they'll have to wash their own laundry. I'm sure some of them will be horrified."

 

"Awwwww, pooooorrrr babies." Agatha smirks. Everybody else cackles.

 

"Yeah, especially at having to clean up after themselves strip and remake their own beds and throw the sheets and towels down the laundry chute. Any complaints and they're gone, we want students who can live together, not cause troubles. Cause it's not just the girls that are spoiled little monsters." Every parent in the building laughs and nods.

 

"Some come by it honestly."

 

"Amen, some people really should take a test before they're allowed to be parents. Or stick with their spoiled lapdogs."

 

"Josette, quilts?"

 

"Got another three finished." Josette lays them out on the table.

 

"Beautiful Josette, as usual. This makes . . .?"

 

"Eight out of 25 quilts."

 

Back at the dorm after helping clean the dishes and put everything away in the back room, Josette puts everything away and joins the others in the back room for lunch. After lunch she starts bringing out the containers of supplies from the other dimension, spending the next two weeks moving everything to various buildings while Dad is talking to the others about the work going on at the dorm and they decorate the dorm after coming back from the island for a few days.

 

"Did you head over to the Legion's dimension?"

 

"Yeah, split off a duplicate to go there with Clark and CJ while we were in the other dimensions."

 

"9th planet dimension?"

 

"I'm still there another couple years Earth time. We set up probes to check on the radiation and everything else before we left.

 

Josette delivers the empty containers back to the other dimension before the Lights Festival, settling in a couch when she comes back with the others.

 

"This is probably a dumb question but why don't you expand by adding onto the building instead of doing it all internally by tesseracts?"

 

"We'd thought of it but we'd lose the view from our windows. There's nothing sadder than looking outside and just seeing another building. On Earth that was okay. . ."

 

"Even though our view is of another building out the sliding glass door." David sniggers.

 

"We could do like I saw on Nova that one night, four connected buildings around an inner courtyard."

 

"Or Buckingham Palace with extensions everywhere?" Alan says walking by. "Can't you do the same thing on the windows you do on the other rooms to switch the view?"

 

"Could."

 

They draw up plans over the next few days, attending the Lights Festival then selecting where the new buildings would go on the school property before they head back to their dimensions. Josette's looking out her bank of windows after her shower the night before the new semester starts when David taps on the door and comes inside. Leaning over her shoulder, he shows her the plans they'd drawn up.

 

"Well, it definitely wouldn't look like a dorm anymore." She chuckles.

 

"Nope, definitely not."

 

The next morning Josette and David head to the government building, shaking off the snow and hanging up their coats, dialing up hot chocolate from the drinks machine before they settle in their usual spots.

 

"So how many billion degrees are you finishing this year?" Doc asks with a chuckle.

 

"Only three for sure, the dyeing degree from Assyrian, the degree on German U-Boats, the degree from Cambridge, and possibly the first degree on humor comic books."

 

The others look at David. "Yes, I'm finishing the mechanical engineering this year. I'm starting the doctorate on the comic books next year, I can already hearing Grammy Allie sighing at me being an annoying brat."

 

"You realize the twins and triplets are finishing twelfth grade this year?" Josette asks.

 

"Yep, seems like yesterday they were trying to decide if they were mad about not getting to go to the education center like the rest of their siblings or proud because unlike their siblings, they were going to be the first ones home schooled."

 

Doc chuckles. "The kids felt the same way about attending high school with their cousins when the school opened again."

 

"Supplies you've been bringing out?"

 

"In various buildings, this year they're bringing out stuff for the bookstores, expanding the library and administration building, turn the floor monitor rooms into full apartments, and bring out an apartment building and two new dining halls."

 

"Plus link them all to the tunnels."

 

"These aren't going to be permanent homes?" President Bartlett asks.

 

"No, everybody knows this is temporary housing. They've all got homes back on Earth. For the school, the school was our home." Principal Madison nods. "Right now they're talking about five year shifts at the school, so people are rotating in and out."

 

"How are they handling the dining halls?"

 

"Hiring new people and training them under their current kitchen crew. They needed to anyway since some of theirs are reaching retirement age."

 

"Their homes?"

 

"Giving up apartments if they live alone or have roommates. If it's a condo they own the school's making sure it's in good condition and removing roommates if they cause trouble with their mortgage or dues being auto drafted from their checks. If they have families their pay will be auto drafted to pay rent or mortgages. I can see single people coming out more than I can those in a strong relationship." The others nod. "Unless they both worked here." More nods from the others.

 

"Josette, any factories coming out this year?"

 

"No, we're good on everything for a few more years."

 

"First planet?"

 

"Peppers, tomatoes, and herbs."

 

After the meeting Josette heads to the bakery before walking back to the school, heading up to her glassblowing workroom to work on projects until lunch.

 

"Working on something new?"

 

"Yeah, glass fusing. And painting glass."

 

"More degrees?" David chuckles.

 

"Maybe."

 

The next few weeks pass and soon it's the first testing week. Josette and the others head to Eureka. settling in chairs with the PADDS once they're unlocked.

 

"So is David going to piss Allison off and start his comic book doctorate next year?" Dr. Cross asks, his eyes twinkling as Dr. Stark sighs.

 

"It is a doctorate." Josette says with a grin.

 

"Your degrees?"

 

"I'll get four classes for my German U-Boats degree over the break and get in the last five next semester. I'll finish Cambridge over the second break and the dyeing degree third degree."

 

"Only the three?"

 

"I'm a year from another degree but it's the first of a multiple from the comic book school." The others nod.

 

Back at the dorm Josette shakes her head at the dark skies, looking over when David comes through from the ranch with a half-dozen of her other selves.

 

"Yeah, we're expecting a storm. The alert went out and things are already beginning to shut down."

 

"Everything in?"

 

"Yeah,"

 

"How long?"

 

"Two weeks of snow and freezing temperatures, another week to dig out afterwards."

 

Josette heads up to add a couple extra quilts to her bed after pulling on warmer clothes, the others doing the same. The next few weeks pass slowly, Josette working on her classes and stuff for the show and pushing the doors open a couple times a day so the snow doesn't build up there.

 

Two weeks later Josette looks out to clear skies and she sighs in relief, pushing open the doors again and letting the dogs out before breakfast. She stands at the door breathing in fresh air and lets the dogs back inside before they walk to breakfast. Afterwards Josette splits off a half-dozen duplicates to clear off solar panels at the school and in town before heading off to the other continent and getting them there.

 

"Get all the solar panels cleared?" David asks when she comes back into the dorm. He can hear the snowblowers outside as the boys clear the paths to the sidewalks as maintenance works on the main sidewalks.

 

"Yeah, Abby was up there brushing off the solar panels when I came in." Ten minutes later Abby comes down, hanging up her outside clothes and the push broom.

 

"Oh these are gorgeous." one of the glassblowers says when Josette brings what she'd been experimenting with to the building a couple days into her second testing week. The glassworking teachers from Assyrian and Edinborough nod.

 

The snow finally melts and Josette's busy spreading manure on the fields and garden, tilling it under several days later then planting. After her finals she heads offplanet to pick up recycling then sliding into her seat at the dining hall.

 

"Everything in now?"

 

"Yeah, is Dad shooing us to the ranch again?"

 

David nods. "For two weeks at least. I know he talked to you about working ahead on your stuff."

 

"What are we going to do with ourselves for two . . .ATT don't even think it." David smirks at the finger Josette waves under his nose.

 

"A two week vacation at home." David smirks. "Working on anything beyond the four classes for the German U-Boat degree?"

 

"A few batches of sheets."

 

David makes a buzzing sound. "Nope. Granda and the others are supposed to be coming out tomorrow to start working on buildings. Bronwen really wants to work on your workroom there."

 

"I can work on some stuff on the ships." Josette stretches and goes to fill her tray again.

 

The next morning everybody begins arriving and shooing them off to the ranch house.

 

Bronwen blinks as she walks into a huge building. Principal Madison chuckles. "Josette's studio."

 

James sighs as he looks around. "I think I recognize this place. Or rather somebody who would have had something like this."

 

"She inherited it from somebody in Eureka when they died and nobody else was a crafter on the same scale Josette was."

 

"Jessica Anderson?"

 

Principal Madison sends off a message to Josette. "That was her. Josette says it's 75 floors tall, she thought it was only 15 at first until Dr. Blake went looking for the control panel and realized the sliding door was stuck." A second message comes through. "And she thinks she still hasn't found everything."

 

James looks at him. "When Josette was off work the first time Dr. Blake talked her into making the socks for Eureka since she already made them for sale at the school, the flea market, and online. That morphed into a federal contract for socks, that's the two sock machine buildings on the school grounds and in town."

 

"I'd wondered why you had so many." Professor Druid's mother Hannah asks.

 

"It was 750 machines and 2500 pallets of yarn. They went up on the fifth floor of the library since it wasn't in use yet and we had 12 students working four five hour shifts six days a week either taking care of the machines or filling boxes and putting them on pallets for Josette to move to a portable building Sundays when she brought out more pallets of yarn and moved the empties to a second building."

 

"Woolease?"

 

"Yes, the big 2 pound skeins, 30 in a box and 25 boxes to a pallet. About a year later they asked me if Josette could double her order so that became 1500 machines and 4500 pallets of yarn every six months with the socks picked up every other month. We were already planning on putting up a building for the machines, the machines and yarn orders grew as the government brought more and more."

 

"What were they doing with them?"

 

"Kids in orphanages and foster homes, adult foster care homes, and for sale at prison canteens. As things started getting worse, they wanted a stockpile of them for emergency supplies. Then there was our orders, when the kids couldn't take classes for a semester thanks to the dumbasses of education I asked Josette if she could make a different style sock and . . ." he leads them down the hall to the two sock rooms. "One thing led to another. The room on the right is the sock machines Josette brought for the school, the other room is the machines from Eureka."

 

"Oh good Lord." Hannah stares at the tables filled with sock machines.

 

"Yeah, Josette went to the Albatross Nest and brought an advanced machine and enough skeins of yarn to make nine examples. I had her order five more machines initially, when they sold well at the flea market she brought four more machines so one machine was making one sock. Over the years woolease brought our more sock yarns, which meant more machines. I'd ask Josette for more sock samples, which also meant more machines. The yarn orders went up too until it was 1000 boxes every other month of the basic sock yarn and 750 each for the white and natural woolease and the new sock yarn, but that was every four months and the manager over Josette's accounts staggered the orders in so we had two orders coming in every other month. Before we left Earth we arranged for them every six months like the other yarn shipments and after we moved to Haven they increased to 2500 boxes for the original and 2000 for the others. We went down to Earth twice a year, for Christmas plus the seniors graduation and the new students arriving so we were on Earth when they arrived."

 

"And everything that was delivered came back with you."

 

Principal Madison nods. "And most of our construction work happened on Earth and was incorporated into the school when we moved."

 

"That would have been handy."

 

"Yes, we could have whatever we needed done and weren't bothered by the construction noise or debris. We had pouting students the few days it took for the dorms to be moved off propane before the move to Haven. As Josette put it once, they might be mutants but they're also hormonal, bitchy, whiny, moody teenagers. And those were just the boys." Every parent in the room cackles, nodding vigorously.

 

"What does Josette have here?"

 

"List is on the computer." He opens the door to the computer station behind the stairs.

 

"What's all that?" Hannah points to the neat piles of large 30 gallon bags that are stacked floor to ceiling and look at least three bags thick.

 

"Bags of sheets, towels, and worn out clothes that Josette picked up from the resale stores in Killingmesoftly back on Earth. The other stores sent stuff too. It couldn't be sold but Josette could use the sheets and towels for her art and the clothes were turned into patchwork quilts. She picked up stuff whenever she went down, either with the school or when she was picking up supplies. This isn't everything, she's got more on the ships. She also shared with Albatross. Not counting the stuff she brought out from Clark's dimension or yours."

 

Hannah nods.

 

"Ahhh, I knew she had to have a long-arm machine as many quilts as she makes." Bronwen says from the computer station

 

"Yep, Josette quilted her first one by hand and swore up, down, and sideways never again." Principal Madison chuckles.

 

"I take it she didn't keep that promise?"

 

"Nope, she's hand quilted three after that, one for a class that was all hand-sewing." Bronwen shakes her head. "I wouldn't have the patience."

 

"They reminded them during the class was that they could work on blocks sitting while listening to the radio."

 

"Just like Grandma had a basket of mending sitting by her chair or they made rag rugs."

 

"Yep."

 

"Three sewing machines?"

 

"Josette was reminded a few years ago that her machine's over eighty years old and has been in nearly constant use all that time. We take care of our machinery but. . ."

 

"It's eventually going to wear out." James sighs. Principal Madison nods. "That's when we brought out the factories to make sewing and knitting machines."

 

Josette's waved up to the front table at lunch. "Josette, rugs?"

 

"The manufacturer will be making rug yarn starting next year, we can start the factory up after the Harvest Festival if it's needed. It shouldn't be, we've still got a good supply on the ships."

 

"Do you have the factories selected for the flooring?"

 

"Yeah, we shouldn't need to bring them out for a few years."

 

"Is there anything you need in the dorm?"

 

"Expanding my library again?"

 

"Already on the list."

 

"When we're done crawling over your kids homes, yes we're going over the ranch house too we'll start on the other buildings."

 

"Josette, dyeing building?" Frances asks.

 

"Started going up a few weeks ago, the outside stuff will be done by Thanksgiving with the special stuff we need done over the winter and into next year."

 

"We won't need it before then anyway. The towel factory dyes their own cotton when you grow offworld and nobody grows large enough crops of cotton on Haven to need a larger area."

 

"No, most of what we do is specialty dyeing. That's why a good portion of the new building is going to be workrooms."

 

"How is the 9th planet Eureka handling their schooling?"

 

"As students finish years, they're adjusting them to start at the first of their year like the others are. They're looking at having three thirty week semesters with 22 weeks left over when everything's said and done. The others are 'we're working on a year's worth of this, then taking a couple weeks break and starting on another subject. And taking breaks when the crops are coming in, the youngest are either handing stuff to their parents or otherwise helping to bring in the food."

 

"Other dimension?"

 

"Settling in well, they're taking their classes on the computer part of the day and working in the growing areas or interning at the various places that are coming out. Like us at the beginning, they're harvesting asteroids for ores and have a couple offworld growing areas."

 

"Any news?" Principal Madison asks at the government meeting the first day of the summer semester. The kids are back in classes a few hours a day though they're still living at the ranch house for another couple of weeks. Josette had gone back to work on her sheets around Bronwen's work on her textiles building workroom.

 

"We have three announced pregnancies among the former students. Our population growth is small but we . . ."

 

"Don't want to repeat the problems of Earth. Have your children when you can afford them."

 

"Exactly."

 

"Crystal?"

 

"Been working on it." Josette says. She checks her notes. "I'll have a good selection to take to my show."

 

"Basket weaving?"

 

"Starting next year when I finish the dyeing degree this fall."

 

Hannah comes into the room and nabs Josette, talking to her for a moment. Josette says something else and the other woman nods before heading off.

 

"Calvin wants a similar setup that I had with the school to offer socks."

 

"I'd been thinking of it, we still live in ours come winter." Principal Madison says.

 

Josette nods. "And while they're not as warm as pure wool, they don't have to be washed by hand and laid out to dry in a shared bathroom. Calvin's setting up an order for me when they return. And they might be talking to the government about selling the socks too."

 

"Be more jobs." Principal Madison says. The others nod. Making a note of it in her PADD Josette turns her attention back to the here and now instead of what might be.

 

"How many classes are you getting in this summer?"

 

"27, I'll be taking less this fall since I'll have all the offworld harvests coming in."

 

"German U-Boats?"

 

"Got in four over the break and I'll finish the last five this semester. I'll get in the degree from Cambridge over the second break."

 

"Supplies?"

 

"Bringing them out when I head off for my show." Josette laces her fingers together and throws her arms over her heads, stretching backwards until her back pops. "Then again when we head out after Thanksgiving."

 

"Green peppers?"

 

"Yeah, I'm heading off in another week to pick about half of them green."

 

The next several days pass quickly, Josette heading off to the first planet and picking green peppers, selling them to Dr. Kane, Dr. Cross, and the two cafes before splitting the rest between stasis and running a line through them to dry.

 

"That's a hot one." Calvin says, waving a hand to his mouth.

 

"Yeah, the constant heat and dry conditions makes the peppers hotter than they'd be if they were grown here. Dr. Kane on the fourth planet uses them in his herbal medicine for colds. So does 9th planet Dr. Cross."

 

"You wouldn't have a cold left." Dr. Cross says. "You wouldn't have a head left."

 

"There's hotter, GD has had me plant two peppers they'd been working on. The ones I planted on the first planet were off the Scoville scale."

 

 

Josette looks over as a new apartment building appears on the school grounds, yesterday had been two new dining halls and before that the school's bookstores had been worked on. Taking to the air, she flies to an area by the beach, looking around before she starts looking at a file on her PADD. Double checking everything, she starts the process of bringing out a number of buildings.

 

Josette sighs as she takes off her shoes at the hotel after the show finally ends. The others had ordered from room service and the food arrives when she comes out of the bedroom in sleep pants, a t-shirt, and the hotel robe.

 

"Get many orders?"

 

"Oh yes, and the 'backstory' fliers for the school were snapped up. Especially since Granda was nearby and talking to me. The rumors that the schools were associated were already spreading since everybody knew him."

 

"The show was sponsored by the school." David says, smirking. Josette hiccups/belches from drinking too fast and everybody laughs.

 

"Boys show is next, you won't have to make nice with the idiots who want publicity." Alan smirks. Josette idly flips him off as she heads to the bathroom.

 

"We're going to have to find our own place." Anna's saying when she comes back.

 

"Yep."

 

Josette brings up a file on her PADD and passes it around. "Good sized plot of land and the others are already demanding the right to build a house once we've settled on the land."

 

David nods. "There's a difference between working with what we already have and starting from scratch. Even if the dorm does have two new additions on either side with plans for more in the future."

 

"And the medical unit is a hospital now."

 

After a couple weeks in the other dimension where they arrange for the purchase of the land, spend a few days working on the recycling in various cities, and bring the supplies to Aztec Josette and the others arrive back on Haven, Josette moving the containers to various places before they head back to the dorm. Alexander, Michael, and Josette head to their newly enlarged woodworking buildings and studios after she puts the new orders on the server, settling in to work on stuff for the boys show in a few weeks and the requests from the website. At dinner Josette hands Principal Madison a thumb drive.

 

"School catalog, tentative admission form, school pictures from the show, the brochure that was put out at the show, and a tentative agreement for the socks. Both for the school and for a government contract. I've got my own copies."

 

"We'll look them over after dinner." Josette nods and heads to the back room, filling her tray and sitting down. "Did you look at the crops?"

 

"Yeah, we'll have stuff ripening in the garden in the next couple days. First planet?"

 

"I'll be harvesting there too in a few days."

 

After dinner Josette joins Principal Madison and Professor Druid in the administration building, bringing out their PADDS and looking at the files.

 

"Good lord." James shakes his head as he watches people fawning over his father.

 

"Yeah, you'd think he was a rock star and not the principal of a school. Yeah, it's one of the top schools in the world but. . ."

 

"Who would really recognize a school principal?" Katrina snorts.

 

"Exactly. It's not like he was . . .well Doc."

 

"These are decent contracts, I was afraid. . ."

 

"That the government would try lowballing me? So did Granda, that's why he insisted on handling them."

 

"I hadn't thought of some of this."

 

"Neither had I."

 

"Josette, what's this?" David asks a few weeks later when she has him bring everybody out to the beach.

 

"A block of New York brownstones that had been turned into boarding houses, the bare bones are good. I need to do a bit of work but it's going to be magnificent when I'm done."

 

"Are you doing most of the work?"

 

"With the help of Sanders. It'll take a while but we'll have the time. I'll do most of the demo once we get plans set up."

 

"Exterior needs some work?" Alan asks.

 

"Yep, all new windows and I plan on spraying the exterior to clean up the bricks. The paint's probably three layers thick and we need to check the joints."

 

"Solar panels?

 

"Along with alternate energy, I want to put some sitting and growing areas up on the roof."

 

They wander through the buildings, shaking their heads but like Josette had said the bones were good and they'd needed a place to stay when they're going to be on the sailing ship, farming the clams, mussels, and oysters, or having a cookout on the beach, or just needed to get away from everything for a few days. Especially with students descending on the school again in a few years.

 

"What's the insulation in the roof?"

 

"That's the first thing they'll going to be doing after they check the roof. Or should I say roofs. If they need to be replaced no use insulating." David nods.

 

"Yeah, you need to clean the bricks up." David says, looking at them.

 

Josette nods. "I'll so that in a couple days. This will be the project for my electrical engineering thesis. And dissertation." Everybody nods in satisfaction before they head back to the dorm. The front of the dorm had been changed, with iron fretwork in front of glass panels that could be opened for air and a mudroom. They'd kept the line in the front of the dorm, after the rain the previous year they'd realized why the kids had put up a clothesline out there. Putting on slippers, Josette sits down on a couch and puts up her feet.

 

"What brought that on anyway?"

 

"One of those home improvement shows that are on in the other dimension. They were redoing a brownstone and I thought 'hey, that would look interesting on the hill by the beach. And we needed a place to stay anyway out there. The ships are out there, the shellfish farms are out there, and that's where we have our cookouts."

 

"Easier to hike up a hill late at night than head to various homes."

 

"Contracts?"

 

"Good, I'm going to be delivering a couple times a year. Both the socks for the government contract and the ones for the school. I pick up the first batch of yarn when we go out for Thanksgiving, that will give us a good supply of socks on hand when the school opens. They're going to be setting up areas for me to pick up the pallets of yarn and drop the boxes off. The government will be coming out yearly to pick them up."

 

"Are you going to be supplying their school too?"

 

"Yeah, they liked the idea of having the containers in a room and handing a couple pair out as part of the 'new student package'."

 

"Both buildings?"

 

"Yeah, all the machines won't be in use, the government is planning on starting slow and if they like the socks buying more." David nods. "And the others are as needed."

 

The yearly crops start coming in and Josette's busy with the crops on the first planet and on Haven, bottling olive oil and wine and starting the new grapes aging in barrels as she makes a batch of non-alcoholic beer and spirits for cooking with for the communal kitchens and the cafes. Then the second crops start coming in and everybody is busy in the fields or gardens and they drop into seats in the living room one night.

 

"Are you going to be working on the Brownstones?"

 

"Yeah, after the Harvest Festival and through the winter when I'm not busy with everything else."

 

The next day the others arrive and after Josette's party and the Harvest Festival Josette heads off to the first planet to plant the second batch of herbs, peppers, and tomatoes before sliding into her seat at the government building.

 

"Did you talk to Dad about the contracts?"

 

"Yeah, I'm going to pick up the first batch of supplies after Thanksgiving.

 

"How was the boys show?"

 

"The usual. We don't have the 'OMG, they're new artists, I gotta have a dozen of everything' we have in the other dimension." President Bartlett laughs and nods.

 

"Did you get your Cambridge degree finished?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"Starting your last year for the baking degree?"

 

"Yeah, and got another shitload and a half of books and other supplies." The others chuckle. "I'm only taking sixteen classes this semester since I've got the offworld harvests starting soon, the baking classes are ramping up since this is the last year, and I'm finishing the dyeing degree plus I have the stuff for the shows."

 

"And you're going to be halfway through your masters and doctorate."

 

"Yep. I gotta start working on getting the papers wrapped up next year. And starting the papers for the electrical engineering degree and art history dissertation."

 

"Good, I was going to talk to you again about that degree." Doc says. Josette and David exchange a grin and Doc and Principal Madison sigh. The kids are up to something.

 

After the meeting Josette runs into the bakery, coming out with a bag of stuff about ten minutes later before she walks up to the house, going upstairs to her once again expanded workroom and picking out another knitting project as one of her other selves works at one of the sewing machines.

 

Over the next few weeks Josette starts gutting the interiors of the Brownstones, tossing the debris in a commercial replicator then using a sander on the floors once linoleum or other flooring is pulled up.

 

"Did you gut them all?" David asks, coming into one building where she's taking out the doors to fix and refinish.

 

"Nearly."

 

"The roof?"

 

"Passed inspection. We added insulation where it was needed there and in the window bays when we replaced the windows. Cleaned three layers of paint off the bricks with the paste and a water blaster. That was all ran through one of the three big mack daddy sanitation units set up for the bathrooms and kitchens."

 

"Repointing?"

 

"Spot repointing in a few places, right now I'm running through painting choices. I don't want them all the same color, I'd never know where one stopped and the other one started." Someone moans on the floor under them and Josette walks over to the stairs, looking down and seeing Ham looking around.

 

"Yeah Ham?"

 

"Doc says to beat you." he calls from the stairs.

 

Josette cackles and goes back to pulling off the molding around the door, writing numbers and location on tape. "We needed a place to stay when we're on the sailing ship, harvesting the oysters, clams, and mussels, or cooking out on the beach." Ham comes up, busy taping everything for Doc.

 

"Electrical?"

 

"Gutting the whole thing and making sure they can all run on one alternate power source, that's going to be my thesis and project. How wiring has evolved over the years will be my dissertation."

 

"Plumbing?"

 

"That too, these were transformed into boarding houses and they cut it in wherever they could."

 

"Growing areas?"

 

"Planters on the roofs along with sitting areas. Stuff that can come in over the winter. Nobody's going to be living here over the winter so we won't need anything more permanent."

 

"Furniture?"

 

"We're working on it over the winter when we're not working on our other stuff."

 

Josette heads off to Eureka the next day for her first testing week with the others. "Josette." Dr. Cross shakes his head when Josette slides into her seat. "A row of Brownstones?"

 

"We needed a place to stay when we stay after cookouts instead of sleeping in the sand or heading home dragging our asses." Josette snorts. "I'm using the rewiring for my Masters Project."

 

"Good." Dr. Stark says. "Now, how is Hank coming on the looms?"

 

"Good, we should have everything in the building by the Lights Festival. That includes the looms he's making for my places and the schools."

 

"Including the 9th planet."

 

"Yep. Once the building's done, the classes will start."

 

"How many classes are you taking this semester?"

 

"Only sixteen, this fall is asshole to elbow with the offworld harvests coming in, the stuff for two shows, the last year of the cooking degree starting and the last semester for the dyeing degree."

 

"Contracts?"

 

"Picking up the supplies after Thanksgiving and opening the jobs the first of the year." The three men nod in satisfaction.

 

"Are they coming out next year to complete the renovations to the school?"

 

"Yeah, we expect to start seeing students year after next. They'll be arriving third semester, that will give them time to settle in and talk to their advisors before they start classes the following year."

 

"You're getting a mixture of grades?"

 

"Yeah, just like in any school."

 

"How many students do you expect?"

 

"That's something they're going to be working on before we start bringing them out."

 

"Personal mail?"

 

"Weekly databursts and me blipping over at the same time to pick up the mail that's been held for them. Just like we did before we lost Earth."

 

"Are you going to be having student workers?"

 

"Yes, both in the kitchen, in the laundry handling sheets, and handling the mail. Any sneering from the other students and they get a polite lecture from the teachers about how they're going to have to have jobs once they leave school and looking down at their fellow students who are already planning for their future isn't making them brownie points. By the end of a twenty week semester, we should know if a student isn't going to be a good fit and ship their ass home at the end of the semester."

 

"Trying to bring in stuff that's not allowed?"

 

"Their bags will be examined at the school and contraband taken away with a demerit given. No 'I'm so spe-shul your rules don't apply to me' bullshit allowed right from the beginning."

 

"There's always going to be one who thinks Mommy or Daddy's money is going to make the school roll over on those pesky rules."

 

"Yep, and they're going to be stunned when they're laughed at and told to grow up."

 

Josette heads off to her first offworld harvest the next day, returning an hour later and delivering food to the people waiting then heading to the government meeting.

 

"9th planet?"

 

"Yeah, with the harvests coming in so late they're getting them this year and possibly next year."

 

"Cotton?"

 

"Our stock is beginning to dip, next year I'll plant offworld again."

 

"Are you going to be showing the students doing the sheets and towels the ropes if they sign up for that job?"

 

"Of course. I'll work with them at least a month to make sure they're not overwhelmed before I let them fly on their own. They can teach the younger students who will be taking over their jobs." Josette makes a note on her PADD to check they have supplies of single use detergent, fabric softener, bleach, and other stuff for the school's laundry for the students.

 

"Are you using the laundry in town?"

 

"I'd planned on it." Josette says slowly. "We're going to need to anyway when the dorms are full, especially if nobody wants that job and former students get hired for it."

 

"How is work on the Brownstones coming."

 

"The floors are tore up and they're working on the plaster now. The rooms that were tore up to make individual places are being put to right. We're also putting in roof access for the sitting areas and the container gardens. Everything that can be moved inside come the winter."

 

"You won't need anything more permanent with nobody living there over the winter." Principal Madison says. Josette nods. "The botanists have been experimenting with container gardening so I'll know what works and what doesn't."

 

"Green Peppers from the first planet?"

 

"Going out our second testing week." Josette says. The next day she moves the looms and other stuff she'd planned on taking to the 9th planet to Hidalgo and flies off, landing near her home there and moving everything to the rooms set aside for them, looking up to see Dr. Cross, Dr. McNider, Doc, and Charles looking at her when she finishes putting together a loom.

 

"Is this new?"

 

"Yes, some of Hank's work. It's meant to make wide, not long, fabric lengths. Designers use it for fabric they drape on walls as part of their designs." Josette straightens up, her back cracking before she stretches.

 

"Are you staying a while?"

 

"Yeah, I needed a break from the offworld harvests coming in and wanted to see what kind of crops I can get in from the rooftop garden."

 

"What are these?" Doc motions to the wall of tiny round objects.

 

"The robots that plant and pick the offworld harvests I just pick up, we don't use them on Haven because we want everybody to be self-sufficient." Everybody nods. "They'd prepare the harvest and either can or freeze it on the ships since they have the machinery and a place to keep it. In the offworld growing areas they bundle up the cotton in large bales or bag everything else."

 

"Speaking of cotton?"

 

"I've got various warehouses in mind for the raw cotton, cotton for socks, or cotton for underwear to bring out if and/or when it's needed and I'm growing it again next year offplanet since we're going to be running low."

 

"The towels factory?"

 

"They've got a good supply of cotton in for regular orders now that the apartments are furnished." Josette sighs and grabs her PADD, making a note to check the stock of toilet paper.

 

"The school?"

 

"Our family is coming out again next year to finish the stuff they wanted to do to the school, I'm going to be bringing out more supplies probably every few months like I did with you guys until the students start coming out year after next for us. We plan on bringing them out over the course of several days and letting them get used to the school before classes start. If the first batch of students settle in well, they'll open the school to more students the second year."

 

"Different grades?"

 

"Yep. We're looking at three years before the first batch of students graduates."

 

Several weeks later on the 9th planet but only an hour on Haven Josette returns to the dorm, pulling out another pile of fabrics and notes for another quilt, looking up as the Josette who'd been offplanet for another offworld harvest comes into the room.

 

After coming back from the second testing week Josette heads to the first planet to pick green peppers, selling them to various places before splitting the rest between stasis and drying. The rest of the semester flies by and Josette's busy with the crops, the garden, and the first planet plants before and after her finals.

 

"Is everything in now?"

 

"Yes, the tomatoes, herbs, and peppers were sold and what's left is either in stasis or drying on lines, the recycling is all taken care of and we need to make another batch of paper this winter." David nods.

 

"Offworld harvests delivered?"

 

"Yep. I'm vegging tonight and concentrating on the stuff we're taking to the other dimensions until Thanksgiving."

 

"Do you have a list of what you're going to be bringing out?"

 

"Not until we return. I figure year after next when the students start coming out I'll be heading over more often to pick up supplies." The others nod and head to bed early.

 

The next week passes and Josette looks at everything she'd moved to Hanover for the trip before joining the others walking to the dining hall for Thanksgiving.

 

"Josette, did you. . . ?" Hannah smiles as Josette sends a list of what she'd brought out over. "Oh good, I was telling Marcus that you'd be arriving soon."

 

"Yeah, we talked to him when we delivered stuff. He said he'd have the remaining payments on what we brought out and the new list of requests in about a week." When Josette's not busy moving supplies to Hanover she's working in the recycling drop-off areas in various cities, part of the money going for stuff they want while the rest goes into their bank accounts. Josette and the girls head to Vegas and they deposit the other checks before heading back home. Josette starts moving the supply containers to various buildings for maintenance to move stuff before they head off to the other dimension, Josette delivering the other three rooms of stuff to Dexter who starts checking the order numbers and sending out messages as they head to their building and start wandering the malls and museums since they'd got the message the others would be busy until later that night.

 

Six weeks later for them they return to the school with supplies that go to various rooms while the Josette who'd been off in the Legion's dimension arrives back home.

 

"Josette?" Principal Madison asks at dinner. Josette holds up a finger and sends off a file. "What I or maintenance will be moving over the next few weeks. I'll put the sock jobs up on the server before the Lights Festival."

 

Josette settles into her usual spot at the Albatross Nest in Albatross, a plate on her lap as she opens a bottle of pop. They talk about the changes to the school and everything that's coming out, the fact that Sue and Agatha have children in the gestation chambers.

 

"How are we on old clothes for patchwork quilts?"

 

"Pretty good, we might need some in a couple years, but not next year." Josette nods and they start passing out the kits. They talk about the various kits for a couple hours until Josette brings out the three quilts she'd finished that year, putting everything back in subspace before heading back to the dorm and putting everything away.

 

The next couple of days Josette is busy moving the pallets of sock yarn to various buildings on the school grounds and in town.

 

"Been a while since this was full." David says, walking into room 204 and looks at the pallets of yarn.

 

"Yeah." Josette puts three pallets in the left-hand room of the studio before they go downstairs to bring up the decorations. They'd been getting decorations from the other dimensions and it takes a few days to get all the rooms decorated they'd wanted to decorate and they stand outside after the suns have set looking at the lights in the windows.

 

Josette sorts through the containers in her closet, taking the books for her finished degrees upstairs and shelving them in various rooms. The next day they head to the island for a week, swimming in the lagoon and having sex in the sand for hours.

 

Josette looks at the townspeople and former students who'd applied for the sockmaking job after the Lights Festival.

 

"Hello everyone, welcome to. . ." Josette says.

 

"Ms. Takahawa, is this a permanent job?"

 

"Semi-permanent depending on how the first batch of socks goes over. We might be shutting down for a few months but when we reopen, these are your jobs unless we're hiring more people if the order increases or you choose to step down." Josette goes over everything they'd be doing as part of their jobs for a couple of hours.

 

"When are you going to be taking in the orders?"

 

"After we plant the first time, before the Harvest Festival, and after Thanksgiving. At least until I find out if the order is going to increase, if it does I'll be delivering more often."

 

"Are they settling in with the socks?" President Bartlett asks

 

"Yes, it's only six hours three times a week but that's all we need right away."

 

"And your socks?"

 

"I'm working on filling containers that I'll take over when I take the socks over. I'll take stuff for our orders then too." Principal Madison nods. "When I'm not working on them I'll get a good sock. . .err stockpile in before the students start arriving next year." The others chuckle.

 

"Are the offworld harvests going to be coming in before the Harvest Festival this year?"

 

"Nope, they're starting just after it. Earlier and I won't be having two offworld harvests in a week but still third semester."

 

"Are we possibly expecting an announcement?" Principal Madison asks.

 

Josette grumbles and pushes David out of his chair at his smug look. "Yes, we're all pregnant, yes it's all multiples. Twins for me, triplets for the twins, while Susan's swearing about quads again. Lord Apollo confirmed it this morning." She looks over at Doc whose lips are twitching. "Bethany already told us when we called to let them know."

 

"Really?"

 

"Yes, and we're pretty sure it's multiples as well since Lady Hera was sighing and Lady Aphrodite giggling. And speaking of babies, are the 9th planet pregnancies changing?"

 

"Yes, Billy became pregnant last year and his pregnancy was shorter. He gave birth to twin boys while I was there last year. Dr. Cross and McNider were keeping careful track of the pregnancy since they figured the pregnancies would start changing by now."

 

"Awwww."

 

"The kids are starting university this year."

 

"Yep, they're already talking to Archimedes GD about their internships."

 

"The three pregnancies among the former students?"

 

"Two boys and a girl, there's sixteen babies in the gestation chambers from the sorting planet and another dozen each from the fourth and fifth planets."

 

"Oh really" Marilyn says when Josette grabs a cart and start tossing yarn over her shoulder into it then heads over to the other supplies.

 

"Yes, I'm pregnant, we all are. And this time it's multiples for all of us but this time I'm having the least."

 

"Twins?"

 

"Yuppers, triplets for the twins and Susan swore a good ten minutes about having quadruplets again. Pat and Bethany are pregnant too and are not happy with Doc right now since the babies will just be turning two when these are born. And Doc says it's probably multiples for them too." Agatha lays her head down on the counter and cackles. "There's sixteen babies in the gestation chambers on the sorting planet, a dozen each on the fourth and fifth planets, and Billy had a pair of twins on the 9th planet last fall. They're in the 'our bodies are adapting to the new year length' time and his pregnancy was shorter than they had been but not settled into their new lengths stage of settlement."

 

Josette stops to the bakery and heads back to the dorm, setting up the gift bags before joining the others heading to the dining hall. Principal Madison's lips are twitching at the disgusted looks the girls are giving the boys.

 

"Oh really." Professor Druid says.

 

"Yeah, Josette announced the pregnancies at the meeting. She's having twins, the twins are having triplets, and Susan's having quadruplets. Doc says Pat and Bethany are pregnant too and they think it's multiples for them also."

 

Professor Druid moves her tray away as she lays her head down on the table and cackles.

 

"Yeah. And Pat and Bethany's babies are going to be turning two when they deliver."

 

"Any other news?"

 

"The 9th planet pregnancies are in the 'getting shorter but not settled yet' stage, Josette says Billy had twin boys while she was there six weeks last fall. There's 16 babies in the gestation chambers from the sorting planet and a dozen each from the fourth and fifth planets."

 

"I'm sure they're happy about that as long as their days are." Professor Ziegler says. Everybody nods, whether they'd been pregnant themselves or used gestation chambers.

 

"How long do you think it will be before their bodies are totally adapted?"

 

"I'd say another two years just to make sure, they've been settled fifteen years by the Harvest Festival and their years are not quite 2 to one to ours."

 

 

After lunch Josette checks on the supplies in the nursery, finding the rows of cribs set up before she heads back upstairs and casts on for the first pair of booties.

 

"So what are you working on this semester?" Susan asks at dinner.

 

"I'm finishing the first of three degrees for humor comic books and I'll finish another one this fall along with the baking degree and I'm starting another degree on shipwrecks. That and wrapping up my art history thesis and herbal medicine dissertation so I can present them next year."

 

"D'Awwwww." David cooes in mock sympathy. "That's right, you have to present them both in person since they're from Oxford."

 

Josette idly flips him the bird.

 

"Isn't that why we're all pregnant?" Abby snorts. "How's the work coming on the Brownstones?" On the screen to the front room Principal Madison looks at them.

 

"The interior work will take another year before we're ready for furnishings."

 

"Your electrical engineering Masters?"

 

"Starting in a couple years, that gives me time to finish the work and start the papers. This is a new school so I have a full four years of classes." The others make the world's smallest violin motions and she flips them the bird again.

 

"Brownstones?" Principal Madison asks calmly.

 

Josette sends him the files. He looks over everything and moans.

 

"Well we did need a place to stay when we're cooking out on the beach." Professor Druid says, looking over his shoulder.

 

"And when we're harvesting the mussels, clams, and oysters. When we're on the sailing ship that's moored nearby, or out on the ships." Josette says. "They were originally single family homes that were turned into boarding houses, I've been turning them back."

 

President Bartlett takes the PADD. "It's got good bones and they're going to be magnificent when you're done. Are you painting them all the same color?"

 

"Hell no, I'd never know where one building ended and the next one began."

 

"That is the problem with buildings that follow the same general outline." President Bartlett says.

 

"Like Philadelphia's Rowhouses." Josette nods.

 

The next few weeks pass quickly, Josette finishing the degree on humor comics and attending the first class at the school on the portable looms. Orders for more are handed off to Hank and Josette starts moving pallets of socks to the ship before they head to their first testing week in Eureka.

 

"Girls, really?" Dr. Stark asks at lunch.

 

"Blame your godson, we are." Josette snorts.

 

"How is interest in the looms?"

 

"Good, Hank's got an order for another half-dozen of the portable looms for people to share. I brought three others out to my home on the 9th planet and there's always somebody in the weaving building working on a project."

 

"And the plans for the school?"

 

"We're expecting the first batch of students next year in grades eight through twelve, if they settle in well we'll get more the following years until the dorms are full and the students start graduating. And with dual enrollment some of them will be graduating with a bachelors. Even those who don't sign up for it should have enough AP classes to be two years into their degrees when they graduate."

 

"Are they having graduation here?"

 

"No, in the other dimension when they have their graduations. That way the uptight parents don't get in Principal Madison or Professor Druid's faces about why their precious offspring didn't get a degree while they were gone."

 

"Wouldn't they have had to sign up for that program when they enrolled?"

 

"Yeah, but you know some uptight assholes. It's got to be everybody else's fault, can't be theirs or their kid's. And don't get me started on the whiners who sued to get their own way because the school wouldn't kiss their asses and bend the rules for them."

 

"Are the students sharing rooms?"

 

"Yep, I'm sure people will howl about that even though they share rooms at the other school."

 

"Of course, don't you know I'm spe-shul and everybody should bow down and kiss my ass?" Josette snorts.

 

After lunch everybody heads back to the dorm, Josette heading upstairs to her room to start on another set of blocks for her twelfth of 25 quilts.

 

"When is Grammy Allie coming out?"

 

"Around our third testing week, we should be popping just after that." Susan says. Then she grins. "Mom and Mom will be coming out then too and the kids are nearly teenagers." The others chuckle.

 

"Josette, recycling and taking the order to the others?"

 

"I'm still on track to handle it. Or rather splitting off a duplicate to handle it."

 

"Are you bringing in supplies too?"

 

"Yeah. Every time I go out now with more deliveries next year when the school employees and students start arriving."

 

"When are they coming out?"

 

"After the Harvest Festival, it looks like three weeks with the school employees and students with more coming the next year if everybody settles in well."

 

"Are we expecting any problems?"

 

"Beyond idiots demanding to know why their precious offspring wasn't in the first group? Not really."

 

"Because they're spoiled snots and come by it honestly from their parents?" Susan snorts. The others laugh. "Shows?"

 

"The boys in the other dimension, me in Mom's."

 

"Are you keeping up with the orders?"

 

"Yeah, I'm ahead as a matter of fact. I've had two selves working on my dollhouses and another two working with the boys, plus assorted others working on . . .stuff." She waves a hand and everybody laughs.

 

The next month passes and Josette moves socks and more stuff for the shows to the ships as she's taking classes. Long Tom and an electrician from Sanders work with her on the rewiring of the brownstones and starting the paperwork for the project.

 

"How are the socks coming along?" Principal Madison asks after dinner when he comes over with Professor Druid. Josette's sitting in a chair knitting as the boys rub the girls feet.

 

"Good, we'll have at least a quarter to a third of the order ready to deliver by the end of the semester. If they want them sooner we can start more machines running."

 

"Lord knows we don't have a lack of them." Professor Druid says. Josette nods. "Are you expecting the orders to start going up?"

 

"I am." Josette nods. "Not for the reason ours kept going up but because they have so many people." Professor Druid says. Josette nods again as she holds up the blanket she'd been working on and adds another skein.

 

"Do we expect them to start colonizing planets like the other dimension did?"

 

"Not for the same reason but yeah, they're looking into other planets that can support life. They're going to have to eventually."

 

Dr. Blake and the grandmothers arrive before the third testing week.

 

"Good Lord Josette."

 

"Yep, I'm bulging in all forward directions, my ankles are swollen, I have to pee all the time, and I'm napping every time I sit down. It's boys." The three older women chuckle. "The others?"

 

"The twins are finishing a class and Susan's napping."

 

"Do I want to know how many classes you're taking this semester?"

 

"Only 25, that includes the first degree on humor comics that I finished this semester. The only hands-on stuff I'm taking this year is the cooking degree, that and another comic book degree is going to be done this fall. Most of my time is busy with stuff for the shows, working on my papers, and working on the project for my electrical engineering thesis."

 

"Where's the boys?"

 

"David's with Principal Madison talking about the plans for what else the others wanted to do this year, Alexander and Michael are upstairs working on stuff for their shows and the special orders along with a couple of my other selves, while Alan's at Headquarters working on a research project with Doc and another of my selves."

 

A snort from the slightly open door of Susan's bedroom heralds her arrival a few minutes later.

 

"I hate this part of my pregnancy."

 

"You are having quadruplets." Alice says, patting her on the shoulder.

 

The girls make it through their third testing week and Josette is walking down the hall a couple weeks later when Susan's water breaks. A couple seconds later the twins go too and Josette swears, then vanishes with Lord Apollo. David chuckles and sends out the cleaning robots before Josette appears a few seconds later, a basket on her arm.

 

"Liam and Damian Alan Covington-Sanders, ten pounds and 21 inches each. They're two days old." The babies are put in their cribs as David takes pictures and heads to the medical unit. "The diaper service is coming in ten minutes with fifteen batches of diapers. I sent a message to Headquarters but got a canned recording back."

 

"Pat and Bethany must be going today too." Josette hands over a bag to Mom Sanders. "There's five bottles in there, I just fed them before we came back."

 

Mom Covington helps Josette into her tub, crushing the herbs into the water and turning on light music before settling on the toilet seat by the tub. "Shouldn't you be heading upstairs?"

 

Mom waves a hand. "Mary's up there and the girls won't deliver while you're in the tub, no matter how many times you've given birth. Once you lay down for a nap I'll head up."

 

By the end of the week the others have delivered five more girls and five more boys, making the boys dance that they're two ahead in this latest batch of pregnancies, getting 'looks' from Dr. Blake, Mom, and Mom while Abby clobbers them with pillows. Doc comes in to look in on the babies, telling them that Pat had had twin girls while Bethany had had triplet boys. Pictures are exchanged before he heads back to Headquarters.

 

The crops are in by the time Josette and the girls sit down to their tests with the proctor while Alan, Michael, and Alexander head to Archimedes for their tests. After she's done Josette puts the last of the orders on the ship and splits off two duplicates, one heading off to pick up the recycling while the other heads off to the other dimension and delivers stuff to Marcus, the building Calvin had set up for the sock orders, then walks into the school's administration building.

 

"Good morning Josette, do you have socks for us?"

 

"Yep, a few hundred pair for you. . ." she brings out the containers, Calvin's second in command helping her count and move the socks to various boxes, "And a couple hundred pallets in the building Granda set up. I know you're going to have to call somebody and they'll want to inspect some of the pallets to see they're all there." Jane nods and makes the call. "I brought out the empty pallets, cardboard, and plastic too."

 

"Good, how much did you bring out?" Calvin asks from the doorway of his office.

 

"Just over a third of the order, the exact number is in the paperwork." Josette sends it to Calvin, along with pictures.

 

"Oh good lord Josette."

 

"Oh I know."

 

Josette checks the list of supplies she's bringing back, including supplies for their art and the custom stuff, picking up recycling and checking on the status of their new home before hugging everybody and heading back. Dropping off the cargo containers, she joins with her other selves that had been out and about all day.

 

"Get the payments from Marcus?"

 

"Yep, and picked up more supplies. The house is coming along good, we'll be able to stay there when we come out for the boys show. Sent out pictures and got a 'oh good lord' from Granda." The girls chuckle.

 

"Josette?" Principal Madison comes into the living room and Josette sends him the file. "Oh good." He sits down to read.

 

"Any news on the sock orders?"

 

"If there's an increase it probably won't be until next year." Josette is handed a fussing Damian who settles down once he's touching Mama.

 

"School socks?"

 

"I took in a couple hundred socks, our school has just as many socks." Principal Madison nods. "I'll keep making them and put them up until they're needed."

 

"Classes?"

 

"I'm starting a degree on Dark Shadows over the break and plan on getting in 19 classes over the summer. The ones in the degrees I'm going for and picking up a semester on Pearl Harbor from the history school."

 

Josette comes in from working on the brownstones a couple weeks into the second semester, finding the others in the nursery cooing at the babies.

 

"They're adorable Josette but really. . ."

 

"Oh I know." Josette sighs. "We already said this was it for at least seven years. This was just a multiples year, not just for us since Pat had twin girls and Bethany had triplet boys." The others shake their heads before they settle around the living rooms and talk about what still needs to be done.

 

"Are the shipping containers empty?"

 

"Yes, I was going to bring them back when we come out for the show." Calvin makes a note to look everything over before they start working on stuff.

 

"Do you have anything for Marcus when you come out?"

 

"Just what we've been working on the last few weeks, I took over everything we had finished. Depending on what we have, I'll bring it out after the Harvest Festival but more likely I'll bring it out Thanksgiving." The others nod.

 

"Socks?"

 

"Working on the order and for the schools. If you need more I'll take them out after the Festival, if not Thanksgiving. We'll be on track to have the government order completed by then."

 

"And I got a lot of good news from the government about the order, it's permanent now and if you can deliver another batch of the same size after the fFestival they want to double the order." Josette nods and sends that message off to Principal Madison. "We'd been expecting it."

 

Calvin nods. "The new shipment of yarn and other supplies will be waiting on you when you deliver after the Festival. By then we should let you know if we need more socks at the school." Principal Madison comes in and is greeted by his family. He settles in a chair as Josette heads to her first floor room. "I gotta shower, I was working in the Brownstones and I'm grungy."

 

"Brownstones?"

 

"Josette brought out a block that needed some serious work out by the beach where we cook out since the ships are out there, their sailing ship is out there, and that's where the mussel, clam, and oyster farms are. This way we can head up the hill for a few hours sleep instead of having to head various places."

 

"Sailing ship?"

 

"Yeah, they built one a few years ago." Principal Madison finds the file and puts it on the screen.

 

"That's magnificent."

 

"Yeah, they like to declare 'we're vegging out' days and grab whoever they think needs a mental health break and head out on the ocean for most of the day, coming back in time for dinner." Principal Madison puts up the file for the Brownstones next.

 

"That's a lot of work. But I can see where Josette thought it'd be worth it."

 

"Yes, the bones are magnificent and Josette's slowly bringing back the original look, but with updated lights, plumbing, wiring, and other conveniences. She's going to have sitting and growing areas on the roof, bringing the pots in over the winter."

 

The twins and Susan come in from a walk around the school grounds.

 

"You're looking good, girls. But don't try losing the weight too soon." Hannah chuckles. "Even if Josette does."

 

Susan snorts. "Josette always loses the baby weight within a few weeks, we're just happy in our own skin. . .even if it is stretched out a little." Susan looks down at herself with a grin before checking on the babies as Maria comes up with a cart of laundry,the girls grabbing stuff and putting everything away. A door down the hall opens and Ham, Monk, and Johnny come out with covered pails, putting them out in the front of the dorm for the diaper service to pick up. Abby floats out their diaper pails and a flyer comes out a few minutes later, delivering new batches of cloth diapers and clean pails that are carried off.

 

A couple days later the rest of the renovations the others had wanted to do the the dorm start happening and Josette grins when she finds her library is now 18 stories tall. Michael and Alexander moan when they look up.

 

"We'll start on more furniture and bookcases when the orders slow down." Josette nods and heads to the ranch to check on the crops. The first crops start coming in and everybody's busy in the fields, the garden, or the kitchens.

 

"Josette, wild rice?" Susan asks.

 

"I've got an area set up on the ship and we got a crop planted here on Haven."

 

"Hybrid or regular?"

 

"Both."

 

"You don't have the machinery to parboil it."

 

"No, but roasting it in a pan a few minutes or letting it soak for about fifteen minutes really takes care of the grains blowing out. Soaking helps with the cooking time too."

 

"How many types of rice do you grow?"

 

"About six with the wild rice, I'm counting both types under the wild rice umbrella. We have a crop of white rice at least once a season somewhere, the other varieties are grown as needed."

 

"Do you sell all your crop to Haven?"

 

"No, we have supplies of wheat, rice, and corn along with other stuff in the root cellar. The other outlying homes either sell their crop to the government and buy flour or like us, take stuff to the mill to be made up as needed or do both."

 

"Being on another continent, you'd need a supply of the larger bags. You can't really go grocery shopping every few days."

 

David nods. "Mom and Ma come out a couple times a winter, but it's to get out of the house, visit at the stores. . .Mom's not a crafter but she helped out at the Albatross Nest for years for extra money. Maybe pick up clothes or other non-food stuff at the store, wander the mall, check in on the kids. . . Stuff like that."

 

"Get out of the house before you kill each other?" Bronwen chuckles.

 

"Exactly. Josette works shifts at the stores in town to get out of the house, especially during the winter when we're not working outside. With the seasons different on the other planets we can head off for a few hours if we absolutely positively have to get out of the house."

 

"Having everybody taking classes helps too, especially now that the school's closed. We have to get out of the house to go for our tests. Josette has a home on the 9th planet she spends a few weeks at or she heads to the first planet for the satellite or her fortress."

 

"There's also the yearly crops there or the raised beds when we plant them."

 

"How often do you plant?"

 

"Twice a year every other year, one time planting stuff we're running low on and the other time introducing something new." The gardeners in the family nod in satisfaction.

 

The work starts on the remaining school buildings and the library in town. They're done in a few more weeks and Josette, Principal Madison, and Professor Druid walk through the new additions.

 

"These are magnificent but. . ."

 

"They've already got plans on expanding again when we run out of room." Josette chuckles. Principal Madison walks off swearing mentally.

 

"They have plans for getting stuff straight from the publishers. Multiple orders when it comes to stuff we'll need for the stores." Josette says.

 

"That makes sense." Professor Druid says as they walk back to the school. "How are the boys planning on handling the new need for furniture and shelves?"

 

"They're bringing out shipments of wood and we'll be working on the ships under time dilation. That way the boys aren't having to work on our stuff and the orders from the other dimensions."

 

"That makes sense. How are you coming on everything?"

 

"Good, I won't have stuff to take in since I did it before and I might not have enough to take in at the Harvest Festival, but I will have come Thanksgiving."

 

"Socks?"

 

"Splitting the socks between here and Granda's school, that way if they say they need some at the Harvest Festival I've got a good batch to take in when I take in the second batch of socks for the government and pick up the next batch of supplies." The other two nod. "Your classes?"

 

"I'll be three classes from finishing the baking degree at the festival, and four from finishing another comic book degree. That makes three this year."

 

"The boys show?"

 

"Next week. I'm taking the last of the stuff for the show to the ship this weekend. Mine will be a couple weeks after that."

 

"What was Dad looking at land for?"

 

"Eventually bringing in a second dairy."

 

The next week they arrive in the other dimension, finding their home finished and settling in. Josette spends a few days at the various recycling drop-off sites and attending the show, sniggering at celebritwits making fools of themselves for publicity back in their home that night after the boys have talked to Marcus about the show.

 

Picking up supplies takes another couple of weeks and they head back to Haven, arriving an hour after they'd left. Josette spends a couple days bringing out supplies for both themselves and the school, putting everything going to Mom Clarinda's dimension on the ship before they head off. Delivering stuff to Dexter, they talk about Josette's show and arrive at the hotel the morning before the show, Josette gets beautified before the show, taking off her shoes and dropping her feet into David's lap to be rubbed after the show.

 

A few weeks later they return to the dorm, bringing out more supplies and updating the list of orders before bringing in the yearly crops, returning from the first planet six weeks later for her. Once the yearly crops are taken care of the second crops start coming in and then the first of the offworld harvests Josette slumps into a seat in the living room.

 

"Is everything in now?" Principal Madison asks.

 

Josette waves a hand. "Yes, I brought out everything and they're working on it now. I'll have a second harvest come in before the festival, but I'll keep it on the ship until after everything's done." The others nod.

 

"9th planet?"

 

"This year, I'll hold onto it for them. Next year we'll see when the harvests are coming in compared to their year." The others nod.

 

"Are we going to be expanding the offworld harvests for the students?"

 

"No, we added another one because they were going to be staying on, these students have family, friends, and lives back in the other dimension."

 

"Okay, this is probably a dumb question but when did you become a goddess?" David asks later that night as he finds Josette in her studio.

 

"I thought it was when I became pregnant with Clarinda and Yoriko, Lord Apollo left me some stuff to drink a couple times. But. . ." Josette looks up from the socks she'd been painting over her shoulder at him. "Remember the freakout Dani had after Lord Strife took me to Mount Olympus? I think then actually. When I knew I was a goddess was when I delivered the girls."

 

"The other stuff you were wrapping your head around? And you didn't say anything because it was so new, we had the babies, and . . .the problems caused by the fuckups of humanity?"

 

Josette nods. "Remember Lord Ares talking with Doc and Dr. Stark when I brought the babies home then the talk at the party?"

 

"Yeah, they knew what was going on before we did."

 

"Yeah, we had the new babies and just like we think the students who were in school when we lost Earth are still kids even if they're in their seventies. To the others we're still kids." Alan, who'd been coming into the room, nods.

 

The Harvest Festival comes and the others are talking in the auditorium before Josette heads back to the other dimension to deliver the socks, taking in another batch of the socks she'd made for the school and picking up the supplies they'd been getting ready for them for the school and libraries. Back on Haven Josette starts delivering everything and slides into her seat at the government building.

 

"What did you bring out?" Josette sends Principal Madison the files and he nods. "I'll split off duplicates to start moving everything, then start working on the books that I brought out for both libraries."

 

"Just books?"

 

"DVDS, Music, e-books, and audio books are in the next shipment along with magazines. I'll pick them up Thanksgiving when I bring out the last of this order. Then the socks are shut down until next year."

 

"Did you bring out the supplies?"

 

"Yep, and I've got the feeling that if we can deliver on a timely manner next year too, the order will increase. Are we looking at many students who are dual enrollment?" She looks over at Principal Madison.

 

"About fifty with more expected when the students start arriving after the Harvest Festival next year."

 

"How many are we expecting?"

 

"Five thousand scattered among six years. After the first year if everybody is settling in well we'll open the school to more students until the dorms and floor monitor rooms are filled."

 

"Supplies for them?"

 

"Everything but the food by the end of first semester, I'll be bringing that out over the next few months until the Harvest Festival next year. Then bringing in the support personnel a couple days before the students start arriving. That way they're settled into their apartments or floor monitor rooms and they're ready for the students when they come."

 

Josette checks over the new supplies after the meeting, nodding at her employees working on the socks, packing boxes or splicing the yarn. Looking over the remaining yarn she brings out another batch for the next couple of weeks before walking to the bakery.

 

"So did you get in anything over the break?" David asks as she comes into the dorm.

 

"Yeah, I got in the second semester for Dark Shadows."

 

"Finishing two degrees this semester?"

 

"Yeah, the baking degree and the first of three for comics based on other media." David looks at him.

 

"Comics like Zorro, other books, radio. ..stuff like that. The Lone Ranger and Green Hornet were radio shows before they became tv shows and they both had comics. Zorro was books before they became movies and tv shows."

 

"Dr. Kildare was books before they became movies and then tv."

 

"'Xactly."

 

"Working on your thesis and dissertation?"

 

"Yeah, I'm good on them. Hard to think that I'm going to be graduating with them both next year. After I'm done with them I gotta start the art history dissertation and turn my notes about what I've been doing on the Brownstones into plans and papers for the electrical engineering masters and doctorate."

 

"We've got to start thinking of our dissertations, we're sixteen classes into our degrees." Michael says, Alexander sighs and nods. "You can do that when we're on the ships working on the shelves and furniture for Josette's new library and the new rooms. What about the libraries here and in town?"

 

"They took care of everything." David nods and grabs his PADD. "Now books?"

 

"Tons. . .literally. Plus everything else I'll need to put everything in the systems. I'll start bringing everything out over the next few days."

 

"We'll come out a couple days a week to work on stuff when we're not taking classes or working." Alan says. The others nod.

 

"And it's not like you're scrambling to get everything into the system."

 

"Nope." Josette says.

 

"How are the offworld harvests coming?"

 

"I'm going out tomorrow since they're working on the food I had on the ships."

 

"Have they figured out the schedule for the Christmas and graduation?"

 

"Yeah, I'm taking them over for a day one weekend and they'll be home about four weeks or so while I'm off doing this, that, and who shot the cat." Samhein gives her a disgusted look and she sniggers. "Sorry guys, I know you hate that expression. This also gives the teachers and floor monitors face to face time with the others about any problems that might be popping up."

 

The new semester starts and sooner than they'd thought possible everybody but David is heading to Archimedes for their first testing week.

 

"How are you coming along on the offworld harvests?" Dr. Cross asks after Josette's finished with her tests.

 

"Good, we were off for a few days for the Harvest Festival so we had one being worked on while I had another on the ship a couple of times but we're caught up now. We'll have everything in by our third testing week."

 

"Good. Papers?"

 

"Working on them, Alexander, Michael, and CJ are starting theirs since they're 16 classes in. The twins might be starting lit Masters, they're looking at my degrees and talking to Montague." She smirks at the look arrowing her direction from Anna. Who sighs but nods. "Yeah, we've been thinking of it. If we do it won't be for a while." Abby nods. "It's a 'because we want to, not that we have to' degree."

 

The others come over to the tables when the morning buzzer sounds.

 

"How many classes do you plan on taking this semester?" Dr. Stark asks.

 

"Only 19, I'm busy with the offworld harvests and getting the new books ready to go into the system for next year." Dr. Cross looks at the others. "We've been helping out a couple days a week when we need a break from our classes or working on stuff for shows in the boys case."

 

"You don't have to hurry to get everything in for the next semester."

 

"No, and after we're done here we've got the library in town to work on. Then shipments every couple of months of stuff from various publishers."

 

After lunch Josette helps Vincent pack everything up before heading through the switching center to the dorm.

 

"The boys?" David asks.

 

"Should be back tomorrow."

 

"Are you both going to have stuff to take to the other dimension?"

 

"Yeah, we've both had to move stuff to Quetzatlan since we were running out of room. Not to mention the last batch of socks. And I'll take in more for the school just in case." David nods.

 

"Now. . .teacher?"

 

"Ours, the one from the other dimension, or the system that Granda's been hinting at? I've got information from schools in the other dimension we'll be bringing back after Thanksgiving." David nods. "I've got tons of degrees on both systems to take yet."

 

"So you're still taking classes on the other teacher?"

 

"Oh yes. Me, Clark, Thomas, CJ, and Bruce."

 

The next morning Josette splits off three duplicates that head to the library to start putting in the system the last batch of books that they'd got ready 9th day. Josette has the windows open and Principal Madison looks into the building, smiling at Josette.

 

"How are you coming along?"

 

"Partway through the first room of stuff, I've been bringing it out several pallets at a time." The Josette at the front counter says as the Josette at the table on the laptop finishes another book and puts the piles on the book cart. "I've got three more rooms of stuff before I bring out another batch from the container."

 

"How are. . ."

 

"The others are coming over twice a week and we're working about eight hours to get boxes of stuff ready to go into the system, then I come over and get everything in the system and shelved. I usually come in a day every week or so and split off eight duplicates to work on more stuff."

 

"Good, good. It's nothing that needs to be taken care of right away." Josette nods as the Josette at the table stands up and stretches, grabbing the full cart and heading off to shelve books. "Have we decided on how the library's going to be staffed?"

 

"Most of the older teachers aren't going to be teaching. . ." Josette nods. "They can handle longer shifts at the library, just like before. We're looking at a year before opening the specialty classes. The only one I know for sure will be taught is home ec." Josette nods, that's what she'd been expecting. "Recycling?"

 

"Being taken back there. I'm sure I'll probably be taking care of it at the drop off centers and bringing a good chunk of it back here." Principal Madison chuckles at her hangdog look. "Ahhh, if people are too lazy or stupid to do it themselves it's good money for me."

 

"Mail?"

 

"Forever stamps with larger items needing more postage being weighed at the school. Since I'll be going over ever week or so, I can deliver it easily enough." Principal Madison nods. "Joyce or whoever's covering the desk can weigh packages. I believe the students and employees will be urged to buy four or five books of forever stamps to bring with them when they come out and they can put more on an account at the school for me to pick up if they run out before they return home." Josette shrugs. "It's not like I won't be there at least once a week."

 

Principal Madison nods, looks at some of the books on the table, desk, and checkout counter before looking at the rooms filled with boxes. "How are they on the 9th planet?"

 

"They're getting over the loss of Earth, the 9th planet was going to be their permanent homes but. . ."

 

"It still hurts to lose your planet thanks to two madmen."

 

"Josette, goeducks?"

 

"They've been planted, but they're not a big seller, both the difficulty harvesting them and the whole 'you eat these things' mindset people have when they see them. Both of the Cafes buy them though, so does the communal kitchen and dining halls. They don't mind how they look and once they're prepared, nobody knows. Same way the dining halls sneaked liver in forever.” Principal Madison chuckles as he heads off, stopping at the door.

 

"Socks?"

 

"The ones for the school I'm taking over our second testing week so they're ready for the new students next year. The last of the order for the other dimension will be finished by finals and I'll take them over after Thanksgiving, then we'll start the new order next year. If the order is increased like I think it will be we'll either hire more people or increase the hours. I'll take a batch of socks for the school too, if it's not needed I'll bring them back." Principal Madison nods and heads back outside.

 

"How is Josette getting along on the books from the other dimensions?" Katrina asks when he comes into the administration building.

 

"Good. The others come in twice a week and have days of getting stuff ready to go into the system, then Josette works on that stuff. She says once a week or so she'll go in and split off about eight duplicates to work on stuff. Now, the kitchen gardens?"

 

"Will be started next year, as we get more students we might have to expand them again but we shouldn't have to."

 

"We'll have to see what the demand is for the fresh fruit and veggies after the first full year." Katrina sends off a message, getting a response in a couple seconds. "Josette will start bringing everything out for the kitchens next year when she starts heading off every two weeks for supplies."

 

"Will perishable food keep?"

 

"Yes, all the stasis units have been expanded. We'll be getting shipments of food monthly from Earth once the school is in session."

 

"I can see the cooks using canned stuff more than fresh at first." President Bartlett says, poking his head around the door frame. The other two nod. "Katrina, sorry to bother you. James, have we thought of expanding the aquaponics unit either here at the school or the fish farm? GD has some plans they want to work on."

 

"Not really, David should be at the dorm. Talk to him about theirs, it's been in operation longer than ours. If he's not there Josette's in the library working on books from the other dimensions."

 

"Another thing, winter gear?"

 

"We'll have a good selection of stuff on hand for the students to buy if they end up needing winter clothes. Beyond the socks. Hats, gloves, scarves, and the others will make sure they have good winter wardrobes before they leave."

 

"Does Josette have a batch for us?" Professor Druid asks.

 

"Yes, she said she was bringing ours over the second testing week to have everything ready before they arrive. She's taking another batch over to the others after Thanksgiving when she delivers the last of the government's sock order for this year."

 

The weeks pass quickly and Josette heads off to the second testing week after delivering the socks.

 

"Looking good Josette, will you be working on them next year too?"

 

"Oh yes, I'm expecting to pick up a new shipment of sock yarn when I head off after Thanksgiving."

 

"Was your home finished in time for the show?"

 

"Yes, we slept in our own beds after the boys show." Josette sends pictures to Professor Druid's PADD. "It's beautiful Josette, and is there room for your interests?"

 

"Oh yes, I have a good sized library as well as workrooms, the boys have a good sized studio and we have a building for our woodworking."

 

"Speaking of library?"

 

"I'm heading to the ship later this week with the boys to work on furniture for mine. That way we have the time to get everything done and still have time to work on stuff for the shows and special orders."

 

"Good, I know you probably have tons of books to shelve." Josette ducks her head but laughs since it's the truth.

 

After her tests she heads to the library for a couple days, then heads to Vallejo with the boys to work on furniture and bookcases for a few months. The three of them look at everything in satisfaction when it's brought out, the others grinning at them.

 

"Looking good guys." David says, turning around with a video camera in his hands to get in everything.

 

"The others?"

 

"Yep."

 

Josette stretches and yawns, not surprised to find it raining the next morning when they head to the dining halls for brunch.

 

"The gardens needed it."

 

"And it will help fill the cisterns. I was going to check them next week anyway."

 

"Did you take socks to the ship?"

 

"For the school? Yeah, I'll take more out when we go out for Thanksgiving. The government order will be done just before then."

 

"Ours?"

 

"I took some in before we left for tests, I'll take more in next year before the Harvest Festival. Have them ready for the students when they start arriving."

 

"You're going out every two weeks?"

 

"Next year, probably starting somewhere in our first semester through at least the Harvest Festival until I start bringing people over, then once a month for food and other supplies."

 

"Universities?"

 

"Yes, representatives are coming out third semester next year to make sure the plans to have the degrees taken here be valid there happens. They're going to be installing the servers then too."

 

"Your papers?"

 

"I'm presenting them next summer. Doing two at once is going to be hard." Josette smirks at the rude sounds the others make. After eating they head to the library and finish the first room of books by dinner.

 

The rest of the semester flies by and Josette's busy bringing in the crops and garden, putting empty containers and the socks on the ship before Thanksgiving. Afterwards they head off to the other dimensions, spending a few weeks in each and picking up more supplies before they head home, picking up the kids and heading to the first planet for a few days.

 

"Have you been talking to GD about your internships?" David asks at breakfast when they return home.

 

"Yes, we're going to be inspecting the intern housing next year when we go over. Since we're the only interns we'll have the full run of the place." Kinsey says. "Dr. Stark's been talking about extra classes he wants us to take for future degrees."

 

"What does everybody else have planned?" Susan asks when she checks that everybody has their laundry down.

 

"I've got to start bringing out containers for the school buildings and dorms before the new students arrive next year and start shelving books that have been in containers for years."

 

"Stuff for the libraries?'

 

"Yep, more books, DVDS, audio books, and music. Plus stuff for me." Josette affects a hangdog look makes everybody snigger.

 

"We're taking a few days off from orders and our shows to work on our dissertations."

 

"We're bringing up the decorations."

 

Susan calls 'Laundry' a few hours later and everybody grabs their stuff, putting everything away.

 

"Josette, what are you doing?"

 

"Looking at land on the first planet for a possible permanent home there." Josette says absently. The others start to say something but stop a second, really thinking about what Josette had said.

 

"You spend a lot more time there than we do. And while the huts are okay for vacations. . ."

 

"Exactly. I've been toying with the idea of a windmill for extra energy and to water the crops. A permanent home would need more than the solar panels we use for the huts."

 

"Alternate power?"

 

"I've got the city or my fortress."

 

"The second planet?"

 

"Clark, CJ, and Thomas want to expand the lab too. They've always planned to. . .eventually."

 

"Just like we had the huts as the first step for the first planet."

 

The next day Josette settles in her usual spot at the Albatross Nest, her plate settled on her knee as she opens a bottle of pop.

 

"How are you coming along on the plans for the school?"

 

"Seems weird to be going back to how it was at the beginning, the students coming out and going home after they graduate to their own lives instead of how it's been for so long. But life is all about change." Everybody nods.

 

"Quilts?" Frances asks as Josette fills her plate a second time.

 

"I finished the twelfth of my 25 before Thanksgiving. I'll probably be hit again once these are finished." The others snigger at her hangdog look but nod that that would probably be the case. After the cookies and kits are passed out Josette helps clean everything up before heading back to the school.

 

Over the next few days Josette is busy bringing out pallets that go in various buildings.

 

After the first of the year a notice on the server has a handful of people coming to the first laundry room at the school to open boxes in the storeroom and start putting together sets of sheets and towels for the dorms. The next week Josette sighs as she settles into her seat at the government building.

 

"How is everything coming?"

 

"Good, for all that it's only been a week. The sets are being put together and when they're done they'll be delivering them to the dorms and filling the other storeroom with more supplies. Everything will be ready when the students arrive."

 

"Floor monitor apartments?"

 

"Furnished since that won't be their permanent homes, same with the apartment buildings."

 

"Dorm inspections?"

 

"Maintenance and Sanders are going to be doing them this summer."

 

"Are you still going in every other week for supplies?"

 

"Yes, In fact I'm gone right now on Ulonda. Are the school buildings ready for the new students?"

 

"They are. The bookstores have a good supply of snacks and other necessities, there's the store and the mall for whatever else they need. And they'll be heading back home at the end of the semesters. And Christmas depending on when it falls in the year."

 

"Anything else?"

 

"Yeah, I put a poll up on the server, we're running low on toothpaste. And would there be any interest in a steakhouse?"

 

"Hmmm, high end or something like Ponderosa?"

 

"Ponderosa definitely. Not here, but maybe someplace like Albatross since they have the other movie theater or even the 9th planet."

 

"Something to think about." Doc says. "We can see what the demand for steaks is first." Josette nods.

 

"Josette, food?"

 

"Part of what I'm bringing back."

 

"Did the second year of the socks start?"

 

"Yes, and they were glad to hear the order is permanent. Yeah, the jobs are only three days a week and we're off after Thanksgiving to the first of the year unless the orders increase but. . ."

 

"It's a paycheck coming in all the time."

 

"Exactly, not like the factories that shut down when the orders are finished. Not that people mind, there's plenty of other stuff to do." The others nod. "They're actually working more hours than they would have a full-time job on Earth, it seems less with the longer days and weeks."

 

"They can afford whatever they need, they're putting money away for the future."

 

"The bread factory?"

 

"Starting the second shift up again once the school opens again."

 

Principal Madison looks at the list of what Josette is bringing out and putting in various places. "I've heard of refrigerated train cars but . . ."

 

"Not freezers this large." Josette says. "They gave it an 'oomph' to be able to store everything that needs to stay frozen." Her other selves start bringing out boxes of food that goes on various shelves as they walk out.

 

"Classes?"

 

"I'm a year into one from the Naval Academy with this semester and started a second four class one on the school computer for a new comic book curriculum. I could have just switched over to one of the comic book degrees I already had a year in but. . ." Josette shrugs. "That gives 22 classes this semester and ten I have to take next semester. I'm going to be presenting my thesis and dissertation next semester, the offworld harvests are coming in early, we've got shows and special orders, plus the offworld harvests."

 

"9th planet?"

 

"Not this year."

 

"They're growing their own crops and don't have that big of a population to need the harvests every year for all that they have had 20 babies just from your friends, not counting those born in Eureka or Kyle's son."

 

Josette nods. "For all that their Eureka is smaller physically than Archimedes Eureka since they were busy putting up new buildings on Earth that they incorporated when they went down for inspections and other government nonsense, the 9th planet Eureka has more people since they were saving as many of their friends as possible."

 

"And they're growing as they bring out buildings."

 

"Anything else beyond the food?"

 

"Books, music, audiobooks, and DVDS."

 

"Did you take back the recyclables?"

 

"Yep, and like I thought I ended up taking care of everything at the drop-off areas but it was good money for me." Josette shrugs.

 

The next three weeks fly by, Josette having made another trip over before their first testing week.

 

"One thing about it being winter, I didn't have to move the containers as they were emptied, they were still on the ship." Josette says as she slides into her seat at the government building after her tests.

 

"The others?"

 

"Should be back tomorrow."

 

"The socks?"

 

"On track to have a third of the order going in after my finals. Along with socks for the school. I'll have another batch of socks for us by the Harvest Festival." Principal Madison nods. "Supplies for the dorms?"

 

"The floors and dorms Granda says they'll be settling in first have full storerooms on the floors with the rest of the order in locked storerooms in the basement for maintenance and more on the ship. The sheets and towels are on track to be moved to the dorms along with blankets before they start arriving."

 

"Food?"

 

"Coming out every shipment to be ready for them when they arrive."

 

"Are there any complaints about students not starting their classes right away?"

 

"Nope, officially they're working on independent projects and those students who signed up for dual enrollment are using the time to talk to their advisors before the school year starts. Each incoming group of students will be doing the same thing when you bring them out." Josette nods in satisfaction. "Library?"

 

"Opening when they come out, like we said the older teachers will be covering longer shifts since they won't be teaching. We're looking at four to five hour shifts."

 

"That would give whoever was covering the library in the morning a late lunch while the one coming in in the afternoon had an early lunch. Same with dinner."

 

"Two a shift until the students started signing up for jobs?" Josette asks. "Plus me when I'm there would be good coverage."

 

"Okay Josette, this is probably a dumb question. But why do you head to the first planet on one of the cities when we have a switching station?"

 

"Because a lot of the time I'm working under time dilation," Josette ticks off one finger, "the cities talk to the satellite and a good chunk of the time I'm there too or the fortress," A second finger is folded over, "and I bring back the harvests on the cities." A third finger is folded down.

 

"And speaking of the harvests?"

 

"Raised beds this year and I'm seriously considering growing grapes, berry bushes, nut trees, and olives on one of the cities." Josette covers her mouth, stretching in her chair.

 

"Supplies?"

 

Josette sends Principal Madison the list of what she's bringing out. "And Granda wants to talk to you about a couple more orders, crayons definitely. There's been a lot of housecleaning and closing unsafe working conditions in various countries."

 

"Good, I know they were talking about it. Just like we were before it hit the fan thanks to China's stupidity."

 

The rest of the semester flies by and two of the ships lift off, one picking up the recycling from the other planets and the other heading to the other dimension with two batches of socks and the empty shipping containers along with the other recycling. She returns a couple weeks later for her, delivering containers to various places.

 

"Look this over, it's a tentative list of what Granda and the government are planning in orders." Josette sends the file to Principal Madison. "Yes, the sock order was doubled with this next order, I brought out half the supplies this time and I'll bring out the rest Thanksgiving along with other supplies."

 

"Are you talking to GD about the aquaponics?"

 

"David's talking to them right now."

 

"Sheets and towels?"

 

"We've got half the order finished and the supply rooms filled. The rest should be finished by the Harvest Festival. We've got extra sets made up in the basement storerooms for the other floors as students come out, same with the other supplies that I brought out."

 

"Maintenance can refill the storerooms when the students come out." Principal Madison says. Josette nods. "They've also filled the linen closets in the floor monitor rooms, they'll be doing their own laundry." Principal Madison nods again. "Now is everything ready for the students?"

 

"The school buildings yes, the dorms are nearly ready and I've been working on the books and other stuff in the library. Granda and the school reps are coming out in a few weeks to talk about what needs to be done to make sure the degrees transfer."

 

"Offworld harvests?"

 

"Starting to come in around the same time I bring them over. We'll be harvesting after the Festival again but will be done by the second testing week third semester, even with the break for the Festival." Principal Madison nods in satisfaction before starting to look through the list his father had drawn up.

 

"I don't see any problems. . ." he says at the next government meeting. "All this is stuff we were either doing for the other dimension or in some cases for ourselves but in lesser quantities."

 

"And it would give the former students more jobs. The bread factory is opening a second shift later this year for the school, they start delivery after the Harvest Festival." President Bartlett nods in satisfaction.

 

"Wine and olive oil?"

 

"I'd planned on growing more anyway. It will be a few years but I see it as a niche market rather than a large cash crop." The others nod. "Your papers?"

 

"Contacted Oxford for dates to present them this morning." Josette suddenly cackles. The others look at her. "Just remembering something that happened at the school while I was there delivering socks. An industrialist was stunned that his son was on academic probation because of his grades. 'What, you mean grades matter at a school?'"

 

"No, whether you look good in thigh-high leather boots should matter at a school." Principal Madison sighs.

 

"Basically yeah." Josette snorts. "So the kid will either get yelled at by his father over the break since he disgraced the family by being on probation or be told they're too good to worry about their grades and leave school the end of the next semester when he fails something." The others nod.

 

"Now, any factories coming out?"

 

"Not for a while, the only things I can see us needing in maybe a decade might be the animal food factory but we've got the formulations the vets made up in a file on the replicator database. That and possibly factories for the flooring."

 

"Sheets and blankets?"

 

"Still got tons in storage."

 

"The recycling bins set up in the dorms and school buildings?"

 

"Yep."

 

The next couple of weeks pass by as Josette presents her art history Masters and heads off to the other dimension for her show, bringing back stuff and defending her dissertation.

 

"Done and done." Josette slumps in her chair later that night at dinner.

 

"The Masters and doctorate?"

 

"Yep, I just need to get the last classes in."

 

"Offworld harvests?"

 

"Will start coming in along with the yearly crops in a couple weeks. At least the first crops are harvested and the second crops in." The others nod. "We've still got your show though."

 

"Yeah, and I'll be bringing back the others and school reps to make sure the classes transfer." A couple of days later they head off and return a month later for them, the newcomers looking around them when David opens the tesseract before Josette and Alan start bringing stuff out. Principal Madison and Professor Druid leads the others off.

 

"Are the crops in?" David asks several weeks later when Josette drops onto the couch in the dorm.

 

"Yeah." She opens one eye to look at him. "Thankfully everything only comes in bing bang boom every few years but the offworld harvests coming in at the same time as the others makes for some long days."

 

"One thing about having the crops and garden, all the kids grew up bringing in the harvests and canning, drying, or otherwise storing food for the winter. Every one of them has land and a garden in once they have a house or apartment." Anna says. The others nod.

 

"The first world stuff?"

 

"Picked and sold, what's left either drying on wreaths or put in stasis."

 

"Are all the offworld harvests like that?" Bronwen asks when she settles down next to Josette. She'd come along on the one Josette had just brought out.

 

"Not all of them, some of the offworld harvests like the wheat, cacao, coffee, potatoes, corn, and cotton the robots harvest, I just pick up the bags or bales. But we wanted the settlers to be self-sufficient from the beginning."

 

"If they expect to get the food without working for it, they won't put the efforts into their gardens."

 

"Exactly. One winter we had bad storms sweeping in, the last one when we would have been planting our first crops. We've had years where it snowed or we had a frost before we were able to harvest but the domes protected everything and after a couple of days it usually was nice for harvest. Once we had snow on the ground while we were harvesting but the domes had heat but if the crops were delayed more than three weeks we'd have been harvesting in real winter. So we had to decide if we were going to plant a third time or not."

 

"Did you?"

 

"No, but we enlarged our fields and the garden on the continent to help offset the third harvest and we told everybody to make sure they planted their whole garden. Everybody on the continent and in Albatross planted their full gardens."

 

"And they didn't?"

 

"Nope, when the offworld harvests came in and the shelves were emptier than usual they realized they should have listened to us when they had to make do with replicated after the canned food was gone and the growing buildings weren't ready to harvest."

 

"They plant the full gardens next year?" Professor Druid's brother asks.

 

"Yes they did and every year since, and started experimenting with new foods. We're farmers, so's Albatross. We think of the gardens and fields as our primary source of food, people in town didn't. Oh I can't say everybody didn't listen, Sue did, Agatha did, the communal gardens for the pizza parlors and communal kitchen all planted full gardens."

 

"It takes something like that to make people stop and think."

 

"We've been lucky, yes we had some late harvests but we were able to get in a third crop before then. And we're damn lucky in that we had two harvests that year. And had the growing buildings to plant something for over the winter." The other two nod as Josette mentally pulls her big girl pants on and gets up for dinner.

 

"Get in your classes?"

 

"Yep, I need my last herbal medicine and the other two art history classes and I have another masters and doctorate. I'll start the art history doctorate and the electrical engineering Masters next year."

 

"This is going to be beautiful when you're finished." Lady Simone says as they go to the Brownstones a few nights later. Most of the interior work was completed and Josette would be painting and furnishing rooms over the next year.

 

"Yes, being able to sit on the roof and watch the suns set over the water."

 

"If anybody painted the roof would be a good spot to work."

 

Josette nods as they head to the beach for the cookout.

 

"First planet?"

 

"I'm heading in a few days to plant the peppers, tomatoes, and herbs."

 

"Classes this fall? Beyond finishing your Masters and Doctorate?"

 

"I'm starting the third year for three other degrees I want to get finished eventually: Dark Shadows, parody and pastiche, and Pearl Harbor from the history school."

 

"Naval academy?"

 

"Finishing the third semester this fall. Three years I'll be finishing that and the comic book degree I started this year."

 

"And of course you're not at all interested in the classes from the other dimension." Principal Madison snorts. The others laugh. They'd all seen Josette checking the server.

 

"How are the students getting the textbooks?"

 

"Replicated just like we are, there's going to be a unit in the administration building. They'll be updating the server there too, both with classes, supply lists, and prices. The students books, tuition, and supply will be charged to the accounts set up at the school."

 

Calvin nods. "We've got a good selection of students already signed up for the dual enrollment. And a good chunk of students interested in the jobs you're offering."

 

"How are the cooking crew settling in?"

 

"Good, they're inspecting the new gardens for their use and making plans to slowly incorporate the fresh food into their meal plans. They've been talking with the other cooking crew, the others at the communal kitchens, pizza places, and restaurants about what to expect from the garden and the tricks to sneaking in those ukky foods so students shouldn't taste it." Principal Madison looks at Josette. "Wha? I inherited Doc's taste and smell. As the shrimp in our freshman year proved."

 

"Oh god." Professor Druid moans. "We made sure everybody had plenty of toilet paper and thankfully there was enough empty rooms so that the others could live on the toilets that weekend."

 

"Bad shrimp?" Calvin asks.

 

"Yes, the supplier had the freezer go out but he thought everything was still good. He thought differently after the police became involved. He'd had the freezer unit go out before but the repairman told him it was just a quick fix that wouldn't last and it really needed to be replaced. But that would take them out of service for six weeks, the quick fix only took a day."

 

"And they didn't want to take the loss on their insurance."

 

"Yep. The fines was a helluva lot more than the cost of the new unit. We went through two months worth of toilet paper that weekend and everybody was dumping rid-x down the toilets the following weeks so we didn't have to pump the septic tanks."

 

Josette splits off duplicates and heads to the other dimension a few days after the Harvest Festival to start picking up the students, some with families who all look up at the two suns in the sky then around them at the school before they head to the auditorium for the orientation.

 

A week later Josette slumps into her seat at the dining hall for lunch, looking at the screens with students and teachers.

 

"Is that everybody for this year?"

 

"Yes."

 

"Offworld harvests?"

 

"I've got six more, not counting the one that they're working on right now. Are the students getting settled in?"

 

"Yeah, and inspecting the town. The teachers who've been here a while are leading tours of the town for the new students so they know where everything is. Once school is officially in session, they'll have to sign up in the administration building to leave the school grounds and tell whoever's covering the office where they'll be going." Josette nods.

 

 

"Josette, books?" Professor Druid asks from the front room.

 

'Working on them two or three times a week like I have been." the others nod. "We'll go over tomorrow and get another batch in since the library doesn't 'officially' open until next year." The library was on limited hours for the students to come in and do research on their independent projects.

 

"How are you coming along on your doctorate?"

 

"I'll finish the class this week, then start on the art history Masters. Once that's done I'll get in the others."

 

"And did you finally break down and open the new teacher?" Susan snickers.

 

"Don't have the time right now, I'll open it, download the update, and sign in after our second testing week, I'll have all the offworld harvests in and I've got the degrees finished." The others nod.

 

"How are you coming on your quilts?"

 

"I'll have fourteen finished, like I told the others once these are done I'm sure the bunny will slam me with others." The others snigger but nod.

 

"The socks?"

 

"We'll be done with this order by Thanksgiving and I'll pick up the rest of the order then plus the stuff for the other jobs."

 

"How are you handling the socks? More employees or longer hours?"

 

"Both, we'll have three more employees and they're working eight hour shifts four days a week starting after Thanksgiving when this order is complete."

 

"Working year-round?"

 

"Yeah, I have the idea that if we can handle the increased order they'll order again in a couple years." The others nod as Josette stands up to fill her tray again.

 

"If the orders get as big as they used to do you plan on opening the building here at the school?" In the front room Professor Druid and Principal Madison look at Josette.

 

"Probably. I can't see it before a decade or so though." They nod and turn their attention back to the front room.

 

Back at the dorm after lunch Josette counts her blocks and lays out another strip, pinning it together before going to the sewing machine. Susan looks through the closets, taking out the blankets and quilts to air out on the lines as the twins start taking down curtains, shaking them out outside before taking the carts down to the basement to wash them.

 

Josette sighs as she slides into her usual seat the second testing week.

 

"Get your degrees finished?" Dr. Cross asks.

 

"Yes, and the last offworld harvest is coming in today."

 

"The jobs?"

 

"I'm picking up supplies for them Thanksgiving, the jobs start the first of the year. They're opening the jobs up today." Dr. Stark nods in satisfaction as the buzzer sounds and the others arrive.

 

Back at the dorm after lunch Josette absorbs her other selves and opens the new teacher bag, plugging it in and starting the large update downloading before joining the others heading to the dining hall for dinner.

 

"Get it started?"

 

"Yeah, according to the status bar it will be at least three days for the download to be finished." David nods, his had taken that long when he'd started at the beginning of the semester. "Clarinda called, she wanted to see you."

 

"Already saw her. . .she's got the 'i'ma gonna gut my husband' look." David chuckles. "Are you the only one who's taken the step of the gifts?"

 

"Yes, everybody wants the kids to grow up normal. When they're old enough it's their choice. We're heading off to Krypton to visit the family and whatnot. I already told the others." David nods and turns to feeding Liam a spoonful of food. Mom and Ma are taking care of the other babies with the others.

 

"Next summer we'll have to start potty-training." Lois says. Josette nods. Meanwhile in her dorm room, one of the new students is reading a letter from home and snorting. "Bad news?" Her roomie asks.

 

"No, my idiot father is already divorcing his new wife for adultery. She's upset because it's only been six months and she's not getting a dime under the prenup. Tiffani with an I she always drew a heart over because it's cuter is already in deep shit with the authorities for stealing my education money, the judge ordered Dad to put sixteen years of tuition, room and board, books, and other supplies, plus a weekly allowance away in a trust account that he, my mom, or his new wife couldn't touch. It's under control of the lawyer and he called the cops when she hired somebody to hack the account, having small amounts sent daily to another account in her name since 'they shouldn't miss small amounts'. Stupid bitch."

 

"How's your mom handling it?"

 

"She's laughing. He thought that he'd found true love with Tiffy, everybody knew she was just looking for a sugar daddy while she kept a string of boyfriends on the side. He's suing to get all the money back she spent. She's howling at the injustice of having to pay for her own stuff or take everything back. She'll be howling even louder when the bank and attorney charge her with bank fraud and theft for stealing my money."

 

"Sixteen years? Your parents only divorced two years ago."

 

"Yeah, the judge wasn't happy about Dad trying to refuse to pay for my schooling. That was the compromise they reached to make sure I could stay in school. Sixteen years should handle any tuition increases through high school and possibly get me through university and maybe even into graduate school. I get anything left over when I turn 25 along with the trust my grandparents left me. They didn't want that stupid bitch getting her hands on it and changed their will the second my father married her."

 

"But it's not fay-urr." the woman whines and hiccups in the courtroom in the other dimension several weeks later. "I don't have the money anymore. The man I hired to steal it stole it from me."

 

"That's your problem, you shouldn't have been taking it in the first place."

 

"But I thought he was hiding the money from me. Why else would he have money in an account I didn't know about? And it was in his kid's name, why would it be in her name if he wasn't trying to hide it from me?"

 

"Because it was for her schooling, the family court judge ordered the money put away during the divorce when he tried refusing to pay for her education unless his ex dropped her demands for child support, alimony, and the house. You're hereby ordered to repay the money stolen from the account plus interest plus fifteen years in prison and twenty years probation." He bangs his gavel as she's dragged off.

 

"Josette, what are you working on?" David asks later that night.

 

"Oh, I was watching a show on Vikings one day when I was waiting for a last shipment to be delivered and saw kids on a Viking long-boat. They had about sixty kids rowing and I got hit by the idea of 'we can do that'."

 

"You're weird."

 

"Yeah, I know."

 

That weekend Josette sits down at the new teacher system, smiling as she signs in and sees all her information already in the system. Checking the list of 'you should be interested in these degrees' Teacher points her to she selects one and signs in.

 

"Wonder how long it will take her to come up for air?" Alan quips as he comes down the hall with the laundry an hour later. Josette finishes the lesson and comes out to grab her laundry. Putting it away she makes a note on her PADD and joins the others in the living room at the front of the dorm.

 

"Did you start the olives and grapes on one of the cities?" David asks.

 

"Yes, plus cherries, both tart and sweet. Eating, pies and other baked goods, and the possibility of cherry wine sometime in the future." She looks over at him. "You and President Bartlett were inspecting the u-pick farms, are they going to need expanding anytime soon?"

 

"No, we planted new when the students came over and the trees and bushes have been growing good. Are you planting on the first planet?"

 

"I'd planned on it in a few years. I wanted to see if they were needed here first." David nods. "Berries?"

 

"Yes. I'd always planned on planting but . . ."

 

"Stuff happens."

 

Josette heads to the pizzeria the next day after working in the library for several hours, getting a nod from the register as she walks to the buffet and settling at a table to start eating.

 

"How are you coming on the books?" Professor Fletcher asks, sitting down across from her.

 

"Good. I'll be finished with this batch from the other dimension the end of the week."

 

"Good, good. That just leaves monthly shipments now, right?"

 

"Yep, no more working two weeks after going to the mall and buying books for the semester before the senior trip."

 

"The library in town."

 

"I'm starting there next week."

 

"Josette, do we have any plans for harvesting asteroids again?" Professor Eppes settles in a seat next to Jessica.

 

"Limited. We've got a good stock of stuff and we don't need big stocks of raw materials right now."

 

Both of them nod. "Now I take off once a year or so to harvest, so does the ship on the sorting planet for special requests."

 

The next week Josette heads to the library in town after breakfast, bringing out pallets of books and other supplies from the containers and starting to work.

 

"Josette, flour?" Principal Madison asks at the meeting after Josette comes back Archimedes the third testing week and taking the students over the other dimension for Christmas.

 

"I'm taking more wheat and rice to the manufacturing satellite after our finals and the crops are in."

 

"Supplies for the bread factory?"

 

"I delivered some today. Along with the monthly food orders for the school. Books for the libraries, and supplies for the bookstore. I'm sure that a lot of the students stocked up on supplies while they were home for Christmas earlier this month judging by the shitload of bags and boxes they were bringing back. I'm sure the floor monitors had fun inspecting everything."

 

"I'm sure they did." Principal Madison chuckles. "We've had a good number of students interested in the jobs and vouched for by the teachers, they'll be starting after the first of the year when the school officially opens.

 

"Did anybody have any troubles getting used to be gone six weeks but only a hour here?"

 

"I haven't heard any problems. Your new classes on teacher? I notice you've been using the replicator to get your books and other supplies."

 

"I'm four classes into a new degree, right now there's a good sized download from the other dimension that's going from Ulonda to the server, then the server to the computers. The students who are dual enrollment?"

 

"Will be getting their books for the classes they're allowed to take each semester after the previous class. We'll have a list of students and classes in the administration building, when they sign up for a class they come over and get their books and supplies, the money being billed to their account at the school."

 

"Have we heard any problems having the students here?"

 

"No, Granda didn't say anything while I was there. And I didn't hear any scuttlebutt from Maria or Jane while I was delivering socks for them.

 

"Special orders?"

 

"Bringing them out when we go over after Thanksgiving."

 

"Seafood?"

 

"I'm harvesting with David and the twins this weekend."

 

"First planet?"

 

"I've got a good selection of green peppers picked and sold to the others, the rest are either in stasis or dried on wreaths. I'll pick the rest in a couple weeks before the crops and garden starts coming in. Now, how are we on fish?"

 

"Shouldn't need a new shipment until next year but I'll check the stock at the communal kitchen, store, and the dining halls." President Bartlett says. "Now, among the stuff coming out is there anything for the restaurants?"

 

"Oh yes. At least one shipment every couple of months."

 

The next few weeks pass in a flurry of harvesting at the clam, mussel, and oyster farms, on the first planet, and at the ranch. Soon everything is in and the garden tilled under for next spring and after Thanksgiving Josette starts the trips to the other dimensions, bringing out a handful of people from the 9th planet to the other dimension to see how the Justice League and the others are doing.

 

"Are you finished?" David asks when Josette comes in with Clark, CJ, and Thomas.

 

"Yep, all the dimensions have been visited. There's a difference between checking on the others by databurst and actually going out to check on them. They're spreading out from the watchtower and are setting up areas on Mars for research."

 

"What's the latest on the radiation?"

 

"Centuries before the nuclear winter ends, they're tapping all that radiation to supplement the solar panels." Josette thinks of the crystals of energy she'd filled while she was there with the others that was just a drop in the bucket. After lunch they head to the first planet to relax for a few days, checking on the new bushes Josette planted while she'd headed to the planet and coming back to plant in the dorm's growing areas then decorating the dorm over the next couple of days.

 

Josette fills her plate for the third time and opens a bottle of pop at the Albatross Nest the next morning.

 

"Josette, did you still get three quilts made with all your trips to the other dimension this year." Agatha asks after the kits and cookies have been passed out and basins filled with the dishes taken into the back room to be washed up later.

 

"No, I've got 14 out of the 25 quilts finished now, the files are all in the pool of stuff to work on." Josette puts the quilts on the clean table and the others look at them. The leftovers are passed out, most going to Josette with a grin and she helps wash everything up, everything being claimed or put in the back before she heads back to the school.

 

The students are busy decorating their dorms for the lights festival, students touring them and voting on the best decorations.

 

"The supplies for the new jobs?" President Bartlett asks at the meeting between Thanksgiving and the Lights Festival.

 

"Delivered and we've got a mix of the first and second batches of students ready to start working them. The new order of the socks is being worked on. The students?"

 

"Their grades for the independent work are in and they're ready for classes after the first of the year. The students signed up for dual enrollment have been at the administration building over the last couple of days getting their books and supplies. Their classes will be unlocked the start of the semester. Yours?"

 

"I'm a semester into a degree and I'm starting a second when the semester starts." Doc nods. "Your other degrees?"

 

"Starting the electrical engineering Masters and Art History doctorate, finishing the third year for at least one degree, and possibly starting a new degree. That would put me at 24 classes for the semester, plus whatever I pick up on the other systems."

 

"Brownstones?"

 

"I'll be finished with the renovations by the Harvest Festival, we're going to start painting and have everything finished by the end of next year. Including the plantings and sitting areas on the roofs. I'm not sure whether I'm going to have everything coming in before the winter or doming it and leaving them up. I'll see after the first winter we have plants." The others nod.

 

The night before the school officially opens again the students are checking their bags and making sure they have everything they need for their classes the next day while the teacher, both old and new and Josette settle in seats at the auditorium.

 

"Did you do this before every semester?"

 

"Yep, it was a time to talk about upcoming classes that was being added to the school, whether Josette was helping out at the textiles. . . Back on Earth we'd be talking about the senior class trip.”

 

Josette sits in her office at the library the first day of the school year and smiles.

 

"Almost feels like old times, doesn't it?" Professor Fletcher says, leaning against the doorframe with Professor Eppes. Everybody smiles and nods. "Josette, how are the kids?"

 

"Sophia and her group are starting kindergarten today, the triplets are starting tenth grade while Kinsey and her brood are starting their third year of university. Two more years and they'll be moving to Archimedes to start their internships at GD while the boys finish high school. And in that same two years the babies will be starting pre-school."

 

"They all grow up, no matter how often you don't want them to." Professor Fletcher smiles, thinking of her own children. "I never expected to become a mother, Frank and I were never blessed with children but we helped raise Grady into a fine young man."

 

"He sounds like a wonderful man."

 

"Oh he was, gone way too soon." Jessica pulls her thoughts away from the past. "Now, I heard rumors of a possible Ponderosa type restaurant?"

 

"Possibly, we're looking into seeing what the demand for steaks turns out to be before we decide one way or the other. The one selling point is they had the buffet as well as chicken and steaks."

 

"And we have something similar at the pizzeria, but we don't have the hot food they had. Maybe focus on the buffets and dessert bar instead of the steaks." President Bartlett who'd come into the library and was standing behind them nods. "Something to think about, but we wouldn't need one for several years." Everybody nods. "Josette,the library in town?"

 

"Working on stuff two or three days a week either splitting off duplicates or when the others need a break from their classes or work, it will be end of the year before we get everything in and like the school library, down to monthly shipments. Sanders is working with Agatha and Sue to put up a building for a crafting library."

 

"The boys doctorates?"

 

"Michael and Alexander are two years in, they'd been working on their papers during the summer and over the break when they weren't taking classes and working on orders. David's a year into his and is going to start his either this summer or next since all the work is done at the school, the houses, and in town."

 

"CJ?"

 

"Two years in to, he's also been working on his dissertation. Clark's going to start hinting to Thomas about another degree, Thomas will turn around and start hinting to Bruce about the same thing." President Bartlett chuckles and heads upstairs to get some books. Professors Eppes and Fletcher do the same as Josette signs into another lesson on teacher.

 

"How are you settling into having the school open again?" Dr. Stark asks when Josette slides into her seat at the testing center their first week.

 

"Just like it never closed." Josette smiles. "The new and old teachers are all talking about their classes and the students are settling into them. There's a good bit of interest in the classes we offered, I'm already been told to expect to be covering classes at the textiles building. They're going to be touring the yarn and fabric stores and the factories as part of the first semester's classes."

 

"Degrees?"

 

"Alexander and Michael are going to be two years in this year, they'll be working on their papers again this summer and over break when they're not taking classes and working. David's going to be a year in and plans on starting his either this or next summer since all the work at the dorm. the houses, the school, and in town are finished for a couple years."

 

"CJ?"

 

"Two years like the boys. Thomas and Bruce should be starting new degrees next year." The three men nod. "This is my first masters from MIT so I gotta go the full four years." The three men make the world's smallest violin motions and Josette laughs. "Yeah, I know. Sucks to be me. But this way I'm not finishing a Masters and Doctorate at the same time." Nods from the the others as the others start coming over as they finish their tests.

 

"And your doctorate?"

 

"I started my dissertation while I was working on my thesis." The others snigger.

 

"Shows?"

 

"Me Mom's dimension, the boys Granda's. I'm taking the first batch of socks for the government over Finals along with socks for the school and I'm taking another batch of socks to the administration building second testing week."

 

"How are the students handling recycling and having to do their own laundry?"

 

"Good, the floor monitors had to sit down and talk to a few of them, about keeping their rooms clean too but they're good kids for the most part. They also talked to the one girl whose stepmother had stolen part of her money, making arrangements for her to get a scholarship loan for her schooling if the court wasn't able to return her money. They weren't, the hacker that had stolen the money from the account for the stepmother stole it from her." Everybody sniggers. "Oh yes, she was heartbroken about that. The court ordered her to the medium penal dimension to pay back the amount of money she'd skimmed from the account and transferred to her own, plus interest before she served her prison sentence."

 

"What a miserable woman."

 

"B. . .bu. . . but he's got to be hiding money from me, why else would it be in her name?" Josette says in a mock-trembling voice. "But yeah, for every decent stepparent, you have those type, only in it for the money."

 

"Is she okay?"

 

"Yeah, she's one of those who have a good head on her shoulders and was closer to her mother anyway. She's already looking into a part-time job as well as taking as many electives as she can and really, really, really wants to enroll in dual enrollment when she's old enough. The others are trying to rein her in while everybody who knew me at that age is wishing them luck."

 

"Are you moving stuff to the ships?"

 

"Second testing week."

 

"How are you on the other system?"

 

"Starting my fourth class for the first semester. I want to get three in this semester." The others snigger. "Original teacher?"

 

"I'm starting a new degree and hope to be three years in for three degrees by the end of the year, I lack three semesters on two of them and four on the other but I'm taking one this semester."

 

"You spent more time with the school reps, did they have any problems with ours?" She asks the twins.

 

"No, they were quite taken with how they've added degrees through the years. And were stunned that we had Oxford and Cambridge."

 

"Do you see any of them picking up degrees on our system?"

 

"Probably, that was the reason for making sure our degrees would cross over. After all, I can't see too many people who wouldn't pay money hand over fist to be able to say their children attended Oxford while their friends kids attended high school." The others nod.

 

"That and our shows." Alexander snorts.

 

"Yep. So when are you starting Oxford?"

 

"When we're done with the comic book Masters. Oh, we could be like David and take classes in two different degrees at the same time, but not when we're working." Dr. Stark nods. "Are the orders slowing down any?"

 

"Hell no." Josette snorts. The boys nod.

 

A few weeks later Josette starts moving stuff to the ship, orders from the factories, hers and the boys special orders, and the socks for the school before heading off. Jane sighs in relief as Josette comes in and starts filling the containers.

 

"Thank you Josette, I was going to send off a message we were running low."

 

"I thought you probably were."

 

"Any problems at the school?"

 

"Not that I've heard beyond some of them having to be nagged by floor monitors to clean their rooms and do their laundry during room inspection or because their roomies complained but that's something that every kid goes through." Nods from all the other parents.

 

Josette drops off all the partial orders and special requests after her finals, moving everything to trucks that head off after accepting the payments. Moving containers to various rooms on Brigadoon she works on the recycling for several days, putting the money away in her account before picking up the students from their break and heading back to Haven, the students heading back to the dorms before she starts delivering shipping containers to various locations.

 

"Was everything okay?" President Bartlett asks as David, Josette, and Principal Madison slide into seats at the government building.

 

"Yes, there wasn't any problems with the students they couldn't work out themselves and we're expecting more students after the Harvest Festival. I can see our dorms being as full as they were before we lost Earth eventually." The others nod.

 

"The orders?"

 

"Good, the payments were sent to our account and I fully expect them to be increased in a couple of years." President Bartlett nods. "I'd had that feeling as well from what is happening over there, factories shutting down in third world countries and manufacturers having to find new sources for their products."

 

"Awwww, big business is having to pay a decent wage for their products. Pooo' babies." David coos, then laughs.

 

"Pretty much it." Josette sniggers. "Have their been any problems with the students in dual enrollment?"

 

"No, they've been keeping up their grades and unlike some of us usually take only four classes a semester." Principal Madison smirks at his daughter. Josette rolls her eyes. "How many classes did you get in?"

 

"22 on teacher and the school computer, twelve on the new system and maybe six or eight on the other teacher?" Josette counts a second. "Yeah, eight. I only took that many on teacher because I'm trying to finish three degrees I'm three semesters from finishing. And I started another degree beyond the Masters and Doctorate. I'll probably only get 16 classes in over the summer since I'll be busy with the harvests on teacher, plus whatever classes I pick up."

 

"Shows?"

 

"Me Mom's dimension while the boys are in the other."

 

"Did you deliver special orders?"

 

"Yep, we shouldn't have that many to take over for the show. We will the other dimension though." Doc nods. "Now textiles classes?"

 

"This summer will be the sewing and knitting projects from home ec, with sign up for the next year's classes the next semester after the new students arriving."

 

"The assignments for the school gardens?"

 

"Starting this semester. They'll be able to see the first garden of the year harvested, the second planted, and see how everything is canned, dried, or otherwise stored. Third semester they'll be heading to the farm market and buying offworld produce to work with, with a complete meal their final project for the class from each group." The others nod.

 

"When will the Brownstones be finished?"

 

"Harvest Festival, then we're going to be looking at colors and working on it next year. It will probably take a while to decide on the colors."

 

"And painting over the winter isn't really feasible."

 

"Nope, even if we were going to be there. But that will give us time to get everything ready for painting. With so many rooms, it will take a while." Josette looks at David. "Aquaponics?"

 

"Expanding over the next couple of years."

 

"Fish?"

 

"We're good, probably next year."

 

"Around the same time I'll need to make chipilotes." Principal Madison nods. "Are the home ec students visiting the cheesemaker and chocolatier as part of their class?"

 

"They are, along with the soap and candlemakers. And a visit to the beekeepers."

 

The morning of the second semester Josette settles in rooms at the town library, splitting off duplicates to start getting everything ready to go into the system. Stopping at the bakery on the way home that afternoon she puts everything away and absorbs her other selves that have been out and about all day.

 

"Do you have the list of what we're making this harvest?" Josette asks at dinner.

 

"Yeah, I was going to talk to everybody after dinner." After the kids are in David sends them the list and they talk about everything, Josette making a mental note to head to the satellite that fall and planting some more stuff for more recipes. David nods and she heads upstairs to her workroom.

 

"How's the summer been?"

 

"Good, it's been less hectic since I'm not presenting a thesis, defending a dissertation, or picking up supplies every two weeks even with more of the offworld harvests coming in early and growing for the 9th planet. I will be going over after the Harvest Festival to pick up more students but the worse of the year will already be over since I won't have offworld harvests, yearly crops, and our crops coming in."

 

"You boys?"

 

"We're going to be two years into our doctorate third semester and we're working on our papers some more. We should be finishing them next year and plan on uploading them to the server at GD the year after that. That will give us six classes and yes, we'll start the Art History degree from Oxford after that."

 

"Good. Josette, your degrees?"

 

"I'll be defending and finishing the Art History Doctorate the same year the boys are finishing theirs. I started the Electrical Engineering Masters this year but it's a new graduate school so it's the full four years."

 

"The Brownstone?"

 

"We'll be finished with the last of the renovations but painting Harvest Festival, that will give us all winter to select paint colors."

 

"You can't paint during the winter." Black Jack says.

 

"No we can't, then the boys and I will probably spend several weeks on the ship under time dilation working on furniture."

 

"Outdoor furniture?"

 

"I've got a good selection for the rooftop areas and plan on checking out planters."

 

"What are you eating?" David asks a few days after they come back from the school.

 

"Vat chicken sliced into strips for chicken tacos and fajitas." Josette says after chewing and swallowing the mouthful of food.

 

The crops start coming in and everybody's busy canning, drying, or otherwise preserving everything. Josette looks at the shelves and barrels of various pickling liquids and the refrigerator filled with quick pickling stuff before walking into the dorm.

 

"Finished?"

 

"Everything's in, the new crops are planted, we're going to be making pickled baloney and sausages over the next couple of months. The yearly crops and offworld harvests should start coming in while we're working and by the time we're done the second crops will start coming in." Everybody else nods as they head to the dining hall for dinner.

 

Josette brings back the school reps with Calvin a few weeks later, this time they devote themselves to the universities on Haven and the vampire planet, walking through the grounds and talking degrees.

 

Josette puts the containers of pickled baloney in the ranch's basement with the other food, the sausage either being put in stasis, being smoked in various machines, or being dried in the trays. As Josette had said, she's had to split off duplicates to handle the offworld harvests while they were working and the yearly crops were in.

 

Josette slumps into a seat in the living room after the crops are in at the ranch, and she's delivered rice and wheat to the manufacturing satellite for flour.

 

"Is that everything?"

 

"Yes, thankfully. They were running low at the store on flour so I took some in, and I took some in for Mom and Ma."

 

David nods. "I was going to say something, and this way they're getting their supplies in early for the winter." This time Josette nods. Josette's waved up to the front table at dinner, Principal Madison nodding at what she says.

 

"Going to remind you to check the store?"

 

"Yeah, and seeing if I was ready for bringing out the new batch of students after the Festival, and how far we were in the offworld harvests."

 

"When are we going to have students graduating?"

 

"Three more years, we're getting a mixture of grades again this year and for the next couple of years until the dorms are filled and students start graduating."

 

"Graduation?"

 

"After the end of the third semester, just like the students were before." Anna says. "Did anybody check the cistern?"

 

"Yeah, it's gotta be filled after the festival."

 

"We can do it. Give us a break from working on special orders, stuff for our show, or our papers." Alexander says. Michael nods.

 

"TP and cotton?"

 

"Year after next for both. Everybody should be running low on supplies then." The others nod. The students walk up and down 'Main Street' in Town, looking at the tables full of stuff or on rides or playing games at the carnival, or stuffing themselves at the food tables just like any teenager. The mall and movie theater has its share of students there and they're tired but happy when they head back to their dorm rooms. After the Harvest Festival Josette starts bringing out the new students over three weeks.

 

"Did you get in anything over the break?"

 

"Finishing the third year in my history school degree on Pearl Harbor. I'll finish the third year for Dark Shadows this semester and should have all three completed year after next."

 

"Did you have another download for the server?"

 

"No, I expect to have one when we go out after Thanksgiving."

 

"Orders?"

 

"Took them out when the students went out for Christmas. Brought back more supplies for all of the jobs."

 

"Take out more socks?"

 

"Yep." They talk about how the older students are helping the new ones get settled and what the interest would be for a Ponderosa restaurant in possibly the second floor of the burger place dining hall.

 

"Now, are the twins and the others going to be able to work on the projects they'd started after the school closed?"

 

"Yeah, most of the teachers aren't working, or only have one or two classes for their areas of expertise like Amanda's sosh classes, the home ec classes, and probably next year the fine arts and textiles buildings." Principal Madison says. "I know the English department is working with the historians from GD about writing the history of Haven, including the loss of Earth."

 

"How long until we start seeing interest from people out there to bring stuff out?"

 

"Already doing it. Bronwen is in talks with the supplier that we brought out, the city wanted the land and took it by eminent domain that's the only reason he had to go out of business. They didn't do anything once they got the land and he turned and sued, they got their hands slapped because they couldn't come up with a good enough reason for taking the land then not doing anything with it. Granda's talking with dairies about coming out here to offer more milk for the students and townspeople. That and cheese."

 

"Sour cream and yogurt?" President Bartlett asks.

 

"Possibly in the future."

 

"Did you have the smokehouse going this summer?"

 

"Yeah, we handled fish, the chipilotes, and various cheeses for Benton."

 

"Do we have more jalapenos?"

 

"Yes, both dried on wreaths, in stasis, and sliced in brine. I was working on those and pickles this year and last since we were running low on supplies."

 

The first testing week of the third semester comes and Josette slides into her seat at the pushed together tables.

 

"How many classes are you getting in this semester?"

 

"19 between teacher and the school computer with the cooking degree I'm starting. The others at least a semester, possibly two. Things are easier this fall with the last of the offworld harvests in this week."

 

Back on Haven Josette gets some pizzas from the pizza parlor, taco salads, and other stuff from the pizza parlor at the dorm, putting them up in her first floor room after eating a few slices before absorbing her other selves that have been out and about all day.

 

"Are you finished with the books and other stuff for the town library?" Principal Madison waves her up at dinner.

 

"Nearly, will be by Thanksgiving, that just leaves the monthly shipments."

 

"Brownstones?"

 

"Finished and we've got all the rooms in the program that allows to to choose paint colors, we should have everything decided by the end of the year including how much we'll need. We can start painting and furnishing next year, including the rooftop seating areas and starting the planting areas."

 

"Are all the offworld harvests in now?"

 

"Yes, I'll take this last one to the 9th planet when it's done." Professor Druid nods. "Did we hear anything about our degrees transferring?"

 

"Yes, we're going to be taking the new students on tours of the schools here and the 4th planet over the next couple of weeks just like we did last year. Classes at the schools will be available starting next year."

 

"Are you growing offplanet?"

 

"Yes, I'd planned on going out this fall and experimenting with some new crops and recipes."

 

"How are the students graduating in two years going to handle their classes if they signed up for dual enrollment?" Amanda asks.

 

"With the classes they're taking here they'll have their degrees. Just like any student who didn't sign up for dual enrollment but goes to school over there will be starting as a junior." Professor Eppes says. "That's how we did it at Cal-sci."

 

"And that's how it was set up here." Principal Madison says.

 

"This is probably a dumb question, but student clubs?"

 

"They started them this year."

 

The rest of the semester flies by and after Thanksgiving Josette loads the recycling and special orders for the other dimensions on one of the ships and they head off, Josette just chuckling as she takes care of the recycling she'd been bringing out. After a few weeks in each dimension, Josette slumps into a seat at the living room.

 

"Supplies?" Alexander asks as the others head down to the basement to bring up the decorations for the Lights Festival.

 

"I'll start bringing them out in a couple days. We don't need anything right away and we can use a break." Michael nods. Once everything is out and food for a few days on the island is purchased or replicated they head off, returning the following second day. Kissing the kids on the heads, they fill their trays and settle in their seats.

 

"Josette, supplies?" Principal Madison says in the front room.

 

"I'm delivering them right now."

 

"Did the orders get renewed?" President Bartlett asks.

 

"Yes, and like Josette I think that they'll be growing when we can show we can deliver."

 

"Josette, are all the offworld harvests going to be in before the third semester?"

 

"No, next year."

 

The next day Josette fills plates and opens a bottle of pop as she settles in her usual spot in the Albatross Nest.

 

"So how many quilts does this make?"

 

"Seventeen out of the twenty-five."

 

"Did you decide on the paint colors for the Brownstones?"

 

"Yeah, we've been getting in supplies and the furnishings that the boys and I aren't making over the last couple of months, when it's warm enough to open windows without the furnace coming on we'll start painting. We're lucky in that we're not covering old paint for the most part so it will only take one coat of primer and then paint." Everybody who's ever painted only for the old color to show through nods.

 

"Is everything delivered now?" Principal Madison asks at lunch.

 

"For the jobs yes, I'm going to start bringing out the stuff for the libraries this afternoon. Then the stuff for the school over the next few days and finally the stuff for us unless there was something special you wanted first."

 

"No, the special stuff we had with us and Alan delivered right to the house."

 

"Growing?"

 

"The others were planting this morning and I'm heading off tomorrow to work on some more stuff we don't grow yet." Professor Druid nods. "Keep records."

 

"Yep, on both the growing and what recipes I make from them." She heads into the back room. "Did you plant enough tomatoes for me to pick green?"

 

"Yep, and if you want more you can start more. In fact. . ."

 

"Yeah, if I do we'll have green tomatoes coming in longer. I'll do that after the Lights Festival."

 

"How many quilts are you in now?"

 

"Seventeen that are going in the pool for the kits and a couple patchwork quilts."

 

"Interest in the textiles classes?"

 

"Good, same for the fine arts stuff from the students after the Harvest Festival. I'm going out with Frances and a list of students to put names on containers for their supplies in the classrooms since they get them with their books."

 

"Quilt tops?"

 

"Not until the second semester but the knitting students have all their projects, as do the other classes."

 

"Damn, I remember the boxes you'd get for your projects."

 

"Yeah, and I had more room for my projects than the students. Especially since the knitters and fine arts students will be getting that many every semester. Hell, everybody but the bed quilters will." The teachers nod in the front room when Principal Madison repeats what Josette's been saying.

 

"Do we have any students taking classes at Assyrian or Edinborough?" Josette asks at the meeting later that month after everything has been delivered and put away.

 

"Yes, a handful with more at Montague. Oxford, and Cambridge have the majority of the students. For the prestige." President Bartlett says. The others nod. "That's what I said last year at the testing center when we were talking about our degrees transferring over there. People would pay money hand over fist to crow to their friends that their child was attending Oxford while theirs was in a regular high school."

 

"Hands on classes?"

 

"Nights and weekends."

 

"Would there be any interest in opening Disney World on the third planet for the students?"

 

"Before or after the Lights Festival."

 

"After, the weekend before the new school year starts." David says. The others nod. "Josette, did you bring back any more cardstock?"

 

"Tons, plus more photo paper so the students can take more pictures."

 

"Stamps?"

 

"Tons. . . literally. Now, students working?"

 

"A good selection for all the jobs but the sheets and towels, those are still going to be handled by the adults in town."

 

"Covering the front room?"

 

"Yep, you might check supplies every couple of days, the others will be doing the same thing. The teachers covering everything have been going over the students job duties during the break."

 

The Lights Festival comes and goes, Josette starting seeds in the greenhouse for her green tomatoes. The new school year starts and Josette unlocks the library, automatically checking the drop box before she settles in her office. She smiles as Professor Druid and Fletcher walk the student through signing into work, checking the drop box, then going to check the new additions to the school since this early in the year they didn't have homework to work on.

 

"How were the grades this last year?" Josette asks when Professor Druid comes in and shuts the door.

 

"Excellent, Calvin was pleased. The students work together to make sure their grades are good, new students are taken under the wings of the students who have been at the school longer since the teachers grade harder than they did in the schools they attended before." Josette nods. "Now, how are you coming on the new system?"

 

"I'm going to be finishing two degrees this year. Once those are done I'll either start two more bachelors or go on for a more advanced degree. It's damn weird to have Masters two years instead of four." Katrina laughs and pats her daughter on the shoulder. "You'll survive. Degrees from our dimension?"

 

"I'm a year from finishing three degrees, I'll have them all finished next year. That's not counting the two I'm taking on the school computer, I'll be finished with those next year too."

 

"Brownstones?"

 

"Starting to paint and furnish as soon as we can have windows open without the furnaces coming on. The boys and I will be starting furniture in a couple weeks, heading to one of the ships and working out of time just like we did when we were furnishing my library."

 

"Good, the houses are going to be beautiful when they're finished. They already are even without the paint."

 

Josette nods. "You can walk through the rooms and imagine everything in place."

 

The weeks until the first testing week fly by and Josette heads off to the other dimension for supplies after her tests.

 

"Are you still going out for supplies monthly?" Dr. Stark asks when Josette sits down at the pushed together tables.

 

"Every other month now, just like it used to be."

 

"Do the students head home for their breaks?"

 

"Mostly, to get the books for the next semesters, either to get the uniforms altered or new ones. To spend time with their family, and to stock up on supplies for their rooms. Just like the students did when they came down for graduation and for the new students to arrive." The three men nod.

 

"Graduating students?"

 

"Next year."

 

"Any factories?"

 

"Not for the next few years. We're good on everything for the time being. What we don't make at the factories we replicate, make do with something else, or it's not that damn important."

 

"Nails." Dr. McNider says, something he knows they've been talking about.

 

"Yeah, that's something we've been talking about for a while beyond the factory we brought out that made hardware stuff. I've got factories in mind for both the square spike type nails and the round head ones, but we'd also need the machinery to make the wire. And there's various types of fasteners used in flooring and carpentry. We don't need multiple factories."

 

"No we don't. Is James looking into them?"

 

"Yes, that and the nail guns themselves. Right now it's just easier to replicate them since we're not needing massive supplies." The others nod. "You don't need the massive orders they had on Earth."

 

"Exactly. With the computer they can usually come within a percentage one way or the other in the way of supplies needed. Sometimes they have too much because things change and they can put the extra up, sometimes they're under and they can replicate more or get into the stockpile."

 

"And there's the occasional 'whoops' at GD." Dr. Stark sighs as an explosion can be heard in the distance. "Allison can take names and kick asses. Now, papers?"

 

"David's starting his this year since he's a year into the classes, CJ, Alexander, and Michael started theirs last year. They should be finished next year and presenting them the year after that summer when they only have six classes left."

 

"Yours?"

 

"Started the art history when I started the thesis, MIT is a new grad school so it's a full four years. I've got tons of notes for both papers so I'll start them eventually. That's it for a while."

 

"New system?"

 

"Finishing two degrees this year, I'll either start another bachelors or go on."

 

"Did you have another big update?"

 

"Yeah, and possibly a second this fall. Granda's coming out with reps from our schools to talk to their counterparts here this summer and he's going to be seeing how everybody's settling in. This way if the teachers, students, or other employees have problems they don't feel comfortable bringing up with Principal Madison, they can bring it up with him. Not that they'll get any more satisfaction for their petty bullshit than they got from Principal Madison."

 

The others begin coming over after they finish their tests and after lunch everybody heads back to Haven. Upstairs Josette looks at the plants in the growing areas before coming back downstairs and leaning against David's doorframe. "Did Dad ever say anything about factories for the nail strips, brads, and guns?"

 

"Replicating it until we need one. . .which should be decades." Josette nods then looks over her shoulder at Alexander. "Yeah?"

 

"Paint and other stuff?"

 

"Been brought out over the winter, everything's ready for us to paint when it's warm enough to open windows and doors. I've got the list of furniture ready and we can start working on that after we've painted so colors don't clash. Once we get everything finished we'll probably do some rearranging and might end up making more stuff but that's life." The boys nod.

 

"Stuff from the other dimension?"

 

"Only going in every two months since we got the bulk of everything done." David nods in satisfaction and unpauses teacher again.

 

"First planet permanent home?" Susan asks at dinner.

 

"I've got a couple good locations, one inland on a hill and one on a stretch of land that's surrounded on water by three sides."

 

"Windmill to supplement the solar panel and help irrigate the crops?"

 

"Planning on going out this summer with the supplies and put it up. Dr. Stark agreed that it would be a good project for my Mechanical Engineering thesis." David cackles. "Yeah, I know. Putting the cart before the horse again."

 

"The horse hasn't even been born yet."

 

The week before her second testing week Josette heads off on Brigadoon to the other dimension to pick up supplies, delivering socks to the school office.

 

"Any problems with the students starting to work?"

 

"Not that I've heard. We don't have the snobs that you get here. Not that they usually stay long."

 

"No, those type think their money means everything and end up flunking out at the end of the year."

 

Josette comes back six weeks later for her. "Work on recycling?"

 

"Yeah. Took in more socks. Talked to Granda about how the students working are settling in. Sniggered at the latest celebritwit trainwreck on the news."

 

"How are you on green tomatoes?"

 

"I'm picking some this afternoon for some recipes. They're all coming in hot and heavy."

 

Josette looks at the shelves of full canning jars that weekend, grabbing Alan and heading to the ranch where they do inventory of the remaining food they have and what they need to work on that year.

 

"Are you tapping trees?"

 

"Yeah, I'd already planned on it. I knew we'd be running low."

 

"Olives?"

 

"This is an oil year. Everything I planted on the first planet should be nearly ready to harvest next year."

 

"Olives?"

 

"I've got three barrels left, though I gotta let some of them ripen to black again. I've only got half a barrel left of those." They finish the inventory, sending it to the others before heading back to the dorm. David's looking at the file when they settle in seats in the dining hall.

 

"Yeah, I knew we were getting low on some stuff, but not this much. Flour for us?"

 

"I'm taking it in in a couple weeks. The big order for the store will be going off the end of the semester." The others nod and head to dinner, Josette heading up to the dorm's pizza parlor for more food afterwards.

 

The next day they head to Archimedes for their second testing week, Josette and the boys working on new books, DVDS, music, and audiobooks for the library a couple days that week.

 

"Is anybody else going for Masters when you finish?"

 

"Probably not, at least not right away." Susan says, looking at the twins and Alan. They nod. "David's going to be finishing his bachelors next year."

 

"Yeah, I'm picking up the degree on Tarzan Josette just started from Montague to keep from killing myself with my doctorate."

 

"Diss?"

 

"Starting it next summer. Yours?"

 

"Working on them summers and over break when we're not working on special orders or shows, plus taking classes."

 

"Shows?"

 

"Josette Mom's dimension, us the school. We're good on special requests, if we have to we'll spend some time on the ship with Josette to get them done." Josette nods and heads upstairs to pick more green tomatoes, leaving the rest to ripen on the plants and go into stasis for sandwiches.

 

Josette and David start going over the crops and garden plans over the next couple of weeks, spreading manure over the fields and garden and tilling it under before planting a week or so before finals. After they're done the twins help the teachers grade and get everything in the servers before Josette heads off with the students for a few weeks, coming back with more supplies and watching the students head back to the dorms with their books for the new semester, new or altered uniforms if they needed them, and more goodies for their dorms. Josette brings out shipping containers and drops into a chair at the dorm, getting a lapful of cats and kids.

 

"Take in orders?"

 

"Yeah, and worked on the recycling I took out. Not that I didn't bring part of it back. . ." David snickers. "Yeah. I know. Did you check the stores supplies?"

 

"Yeah, we're going to have to do toothpaste, paper, and tp next year."

 

"Yeah, figured on the tp. I'm growing cotton offworld this year for it."

 

"What are you doing in your candy factory."

 

"Working on different candies, including a batch of five pound candy bars. I'll bring out a few scrub trees when I go offplanet in a few weeks." David nods and makes a note on his PADD. "And we can put up the poll for toothpaste at the Harvest Festival. Will next year be okay to start the order?"

 

"Yeah, if we run out we've got the stuff in stasis on the ships or replicator."

 

The others nod at David's reasoning at the meeting the next day in the government building. "Josette, the Brownstones?"

 

"I've got duplicates starting the first coat of paint this week, everything should be finished next week. The boys and I are going to be going to the ships after that to work on the furniture."

 

"How are we on clothes for quilts?" Josette asks Sue when she ducks into the store.

 

"I was going to tell you we're running low." Marilyn says from the counter. Sue looks at her. "I ran upstairs a few minutes ago while you were in the back with Agatha to check."

 

"Okay, I'll bring some out in a couple of days." They set the day and time and everybody starts sending out messages so they have enough people there to work on that and cover the store.

 

"Is everything finished in the growing area now?" Alan asks walking to dinner.

 

"Yeah, I tilled everything under before I went out."

 

"Offworld harvests?"

 

"Starting between my show and the boys. I might be getting in two a week a couple weeks."

 

"Twice yearly harvest?" Principal Madison asks when he waves her to the front table.

 

"Should be three years. I'll know for sure the closer we get." He nods and Josette heads into the back room. Filling her tray she makes a second trip to the salad and pizza bars before sitting down.

 

"What's your plans?" David asks. Josette points her fork at him, chewing and swallowing.

 

"I talked to Sue and they're running low on old clothes for patchwork quilts so I'm bringing a batch out in a couple days. The painting should be finished next week, I'm still working on the stuff at my candy factory. Until my show I'm pretty good unless I get the 'get over here' call from Assyrian and the others for some reason."

 

"Keep telling you, you might as well work for them as many classes as you've taken." David snorts.

 

The root vegetables start coming in, Josette wiping the dirt from them and putting them in the containers down in the cellar before planting again. The rest of the crops are in and Josette and the others head off to the other dimension, dropping off stuff with Dexter before putting their clothes away and dropping into seats in the living room.

 

"Okay, did they have a growing area here before we arrived? Or was it seeing our example that made them start planting."

 

"They probably already had it, we just never went that direction while we were here the first time." Susan says. "There's still a lot here we haven't seen."

 

Josette nods. "Show?"

 

"Couple days. I'll head off that morning for all the beautification crap." The others snigger. Clarinda has just come into the rooms and she laughs too. "It's a necessary evil. I've had to do it for political dinners."

 

"Ahhh, thankfully that's something we don't have to worry about yet. Since our political dinners is Doc staying over and eating with us in the back room when we have a late meeting."

 

They head back home a week later, heading to the dining hall by the tunnels since the dark skies look like they're going to open up at any minute.

 

"Did anybody check the cistern?"

 

"I was going to this afternoon but. . ." Josette looks out the window. "A couple days won't matter."

 

"No, the rain will help fill the cisterns and water the fields. Offworld harvests?"

 

"Next week. They're already on the schedule."

 

"They're? Two?"

 

"This week and next yeah, then one a week after that. No 9th planet this year, they're going to be planting in a few weeks."

 

It's miserable raining when they get up the next day and after breakfast Josette, Alexander, and Michael head to Ulonda to work on furniture.

 

"Are you going to need more wood?" David asks that night at dinner.

 

"Yeah, I'll bring some more out when I get the cotton and trees for the tp."

 

The next week Josette heads off with a group for the first offworld harvest, including several people from the 9th planet who needed to get the hell away from now for a while. Josette had laughed but nodded and they return an hour later, the others getting naps, washing laundry, and getting something to eat.

 

"You said two offworld harvests this week?" Courtney asks Josette, pointing a forkful of salad at her as they eat in the communal kitchen.

 

"Yeah, this week and next, then one a week until the Harvest Festival. Sometimes it happens this way, I'll leave the food on the ship so they don't get mixed up. The harvests will all be in, but we'll be working on them for a couple weeks after the festival."

 

The first harvest starts coming in and Josette's busy with everything for the rest of the summer, sighing one day several weeks later when she sits down in the living room at the dorm.

 

"Get everything in?" Alexander asks.

 

"Yeah, this was the last offworld harvest, that includes the trees for the paper and tp factories and wood for us." She turns her head to look at him. "Where is everybody?"

 

"Talking to the schools here or on the vampire planet or on the 9th planet seeing how they're settling in. There's a difference between just existing and living. Did you get the windmill put up on the first planet?"

 

"Yeah, while I was harvesting. I took notes of everything for the Mechanical Engineering degree."

 

"Okay, this is probably a dumb question, but could we use the. . ."

 

"robots for our harvests? Yeah, they could take everything to one of the ships to can, dry, or otherwise store it once I programmed the controls." Josette opens one eye and looks at him. "I've been thinking about it, especially for times like this when it's asshole to elbow. But. . ."

 

"Yeah, I'd rather not go that route right now. Most of us aren't working so we can go outside and harvest, the kids are old enough to help, even the babies." David says, coming over to them.

 

"And we all can use the fresh air and sunshine after we've been working on stuff for hours." Michael says. Josette and Alexander nod. "It's not like the offworld harvests where everything is staggered and you're gone a good six months."

 

"Even if everything is coming in asshole to elbow for two weeks. And that's after the early stuff has come in." Josette nods.

 

"Did Bronwen find a place for her supplier friend?" Bronwen had brought him out and he'd been talking with the suppliers and manufacturers on the planets, sighing with pleasure at being around people who know the business. And then he found out about the textiles universities on Haven.

 

"They're talking it, or bringing out one for here. The city near where he was is pouting since their claims of why they took the land were proven untrue and they're facing losing their jobs, massive fines, and prison terms."

 

"D'awww." David coos then laughs. "Yeah, so they're scrambling to wipe the shit from their face. 'Oh we're sorry, you can open back up. Oh shit, we demolished your buildings. Our bad. But you can move into this empty store. . .It's too small? Oh yeah, your complex was nearly a hundred and fifty acres big'."

 

"What the fuck did the city claim they needed that much room for?"

 

"They couldn't say. Especially when the complex was twenty miles outside of their city limits."

 

"Then how the fuck could they have claimed it?" David asks. "Not that Killingmesoftly wouldn't have pulled the same thing over the mall and other stores back on Earth if they could have."

 

"The government's seriously investigating the whole thing. Something's seriously wrong there. We're thinking bribes somewhere."

 

"Yeah, have to be. Normally the government isn't that fucked."

 

"Josette, your classes?"

 

"I'm finishing two degrees this coming semester on the new system. I'm going to be halfway through the art history doctorate. The Electrical Engineering Masters is a new school so it's a full four years. . ." the visitors look confused. "Masters are four years in our dimension, not two. Two years of classes geared for your degree and two years of standard classes common to every degree from that school that deals with your paper and project if your degree has one."

 

The supplier and visitors look up and down the street in Town, grinning before they start wandering the tables. The students who had arrived after the festival last year are doing the same.

 

"Does everybody come here?"

 

"Pretty much. Archimedes has their own celebration after the harvests are in, Haven is different in they just planted their last crops but the yearly crops have all been harvested and the school is on break."

 

"So was there any problems brought up to Granda?" Josette asks at the meeting before she heads off to start bringing over more students.

 

"Yeah, but it was mostly whining and they walked off pouting when he told them the same damn thing. They're teenagers, you have to expect it. Kinsey and her crew?"

 

"Inspected the intern housing on Archimedes and have been busy taking over clothes and other stuff before they move over after Thanksgiving. They're arguing apartments versus houses. And how much land they want to get so they have gardens beyond the communal gardens."

 

"Did you take in everything?"

 

"Yeah, when I picked up the last batch of supplies before the Harvest Festival. I'll take in the last Thanksgiving when we head off." Josette stretches in her chair.

 

Josette gets the nod from the register at the pizzeria, filling plates and sitting down at a table.

 

"Is this all the new students?" Professor Eppes asks, coming over with his own plates.

 

"Yeah, Principal Madison and Professor Druid are handling orientation."

 

After a good meal Josette heads out to the ranch to check on the garden, then heading back to the dorm and working on a quilt until dinner.

 

"Root crops?"

 

"First ones are ready to harvest in a few days."

 

Josette slides into her usual seat in the testing building a couple weeks later.

 

"Degrees?"

 

"Finishing five next year, the two I'm taking on the school computer plus three on teacher. I'm one semester from all three end of this year."

 

"And finishing two degrees on the other system in as many years." Dr. McNider chuckles. Josette rolls her eyes. "Did the school representatives have good talks with the others at the schools?"

 

"From what the others have said, yes. I'm not as familiar with everybody at Cambridge and Oxford as I am Montague, Assyrian, and Edinborough and even Balaclava to a lesser extent."

 

"Well, the city council that stole the land from Bronwen's friend Ellis is facing federal charges." Josette says when she comes back from picking up supplies in the other dimension. In the front room Principal Madison sighs and puts down his fork.

 

"For god's sake, why? Did Congress finally pass a law making it illegal to be too stupid to live?"

 

"If they did, Washington would be gutted." Abby snorts.

 

"Nope, they were bribing people to be on the short list for a new federal airbase, they were howling when they didn't get it. Complaining they already stole the land and paid bribes to all the right people, they deserved that airbase.'

 

"Oh jeez, they really said that?" Alan says, rolling his eyes. On the screen Principal Madison is sighing as he repeats what Josette said.

 

"Yep. Just when you think the government can't get any more crooked or stupid they prove you wrong. They're bleating about how they're out the money now and have to pay to replace the buildings they took down, plus all the other damages the court ordered. They tried passing a millage to pass the buck and surprise, surprise it didn't pass. So the money's got to come from the budget somewhere and they won't let them cut essential services so their pet projects are getting the ax."

 

"Aww, and the people who wanted that stuff are complaining now?"

 

"Yep, so they're getting nibbled on at both ends. 'But if we had the federal base, we'd have all sorts of spending in town'."

 

In the front room President Bartlett is sighing but nodding. "Yes, that's some governments for you."

 

"But if we'd have got the airbase, everybody would be happy." Josette says in a mock trembling voice. "Who cares if he's inconvenienced. Into every life a little rain must fall, you need to break eggs to make an omelet and all that goody-good stuff."

 

"People are dumb."

 

"Yep, they were never in the running and are incensed that their bribes didn't get them what they wanted. They're gonna sue."

 

"What I just said." David rolls his eyes. "Deliveries?"

 

"Going out over the next couple of days," Josette sends the list to him and Principal Madison. Principal Madison passes it over to President Bartlett who reads it, nods, and hands it back.

 

"Quilts?"

 

"I managed to get four in this year, that puts me up to 21 quilts out of 25. I get in the last four next year and I'm done. . .Probably in time for the muse to attack again." Frances and Elaine chuckle and nod in the front room.

 

"Books and other stuff for the libraries?"

 

"Yeah, I'll have everything ready for both by the finals if everybody helps out a few days." Everybody nods. "Early crops?"

 

"Some corn, some tomatoes. The 'go out and fill baskets in the garden every day' won't start for another month with everything coming in a couple weeks after that." The others nod.

 

"Finish your degrees on the other system?"

 

"Yep. Be finished with everything but the cooking by the time the garden is asshole to elbow."

 

"And our finals."

 

"Yep. Papers?"

 

"Good, we'll be finished with them next year. And present the year after that. Finish the year after that and get off our asses and start the art history from Oxford the others have been patiently hinting about." Josette and David snigger but nod.

 

The early crops start coming in and Josette's busy until their finals, looking over at the others when everything in finally in and the students have been taken back to the other dimension to pick up supplies and spend some time with family.

 

"Are the floor monitors talking to the students graduating next year, reminding them that they're going to have to take stuff home?"

 

"Yeah, they've been moving old textbooks and other stuff back home. Everything they take back home now is. . ."

 

"One less thing they have to move when they graduate."

 

"Exactly. We all remember the mad rushes the winter semester as the seniors realized 'oh shit, we gotta move all this crap?" The other snigger.

 

After Thanksgiving Josette and the others head off to the other dimension, dropping off stuff for their special orders and the orders from the government plus the socks in the school's dimension, spending about two months with family and friends. Lips twitching suspiciously, Doc hands her the envelope from her degrees and two framed diplomas.

 

"Awww," Alan coos as he leans over her shoulder. "You're going to have to add another floor for more diplomas." Josette says something rude in Ancient. Everybody sniggers.

 

"You only pull the pigtails of the girl you like."

 

Three months later for them Josette and the others arrive back on Haven, looking at each other. "First planet?"

 

"Please."

 

A couple weeks later for them, they arrive back on Haven. Everybody who's in the know chuckles as the suspiciously darker skin even with the sunblock.

 

"How long until you have everything delivered?" Principal Madison asks.

 

"Probably around our meeting this month. Tomorrow's the meeting at the Albatross Nest, then we'll be planting. We'll be doing that on the islands this year to give the growing area a break." Pat looks around the door, coming in when she sees everything. Tapping her foot, she holds out one hand and Josette sighs and hands over the envelopes and framed diplomas.

 

"Good. Now I'm sure the others have made plenty of room for these and the ten billion degrees you'll get on the other systems." The others cackle and Josette rolls her eyes. "I'm going to strip my bed and throw my laundry down."

 

"I'll do it tomorrow." Abby says. Anna nods.

 

"Congrats on getting four in this year Josette." Agatha says at the meeting at the Albatross Nest. "I know you were busy finishing the Brownstones. They look magnificent."

 

"How many students do we have currently in dual enrollment or planning it when they're old enough?" President Bartlett asks at the government meeting. He, Principal Madison, and Josette are the only ones attending this meeting, Doc and David busy elsewhere.

 

"Currently in the program or starting next semester five hundred. Over four years with the seniors next year. And more who signed up but are too young to start." Principal Madison's voice trails off as two figures appear in the corner of the room.

 

"Hold on a second." he tells Doc and the younger man who has to be related to him. "Josette's down the hall, she just had to use the bathroom." Josette comes into the room and sighs, nodding at Doc and Chip. Both have bags over their shoulders.

 

"Did you start your Electrical Engineering Masters?" Chip asks as they walk outside, stopping and staring up at the two suns.

 

"Yeah, I'm a year into it. It's a new school so it's a full four years." Doc nods, the others had told him that Masters were four years here.

 

"How far are you from your suns?"

 

"We're the sixth of sixteen planets. All are habitable thanks to the twin suns goldilocks effect and terraforming, though the last six planets are permanent winter ones." Josette's busy sending off messages on her PADD as they walk. "We have permanent populations on six planets from three dimensions, with several thousand students and employees here at the school from a fourth."

 

"I thought you'd said the school was closed." Doc says, watching a group of teens throwing snowballs.

 

"Yeah, it reopened officially two years ago for us." She opens the door of the dorm, taking off her boots and putting on shoes. They take theirs off, putting on shoes from their bags.

 

"Josette. . .Oh hello Clark, and this must be Chip." Doc smiles at the still young Pat. His own is growing younger thanks to the herbs the others have started taking again. "Josette, are the boys here?"

 

"No, they're planting on the islands. Needed something?"

 

"To put in an order for more furniture."

 

"They'll be home for dinner." A door down the hall opens and Doc and Clark come out. The Visitor Doc blinks, seeing the large room they come out of.

 

"I linked our Headquarters to Josette's dorm several years ago. They'd already linked it to their ranch on the other continent years before that." They turn at the sound of a TARDIS and Chip moans. "I remember catching episodes of that tv show. But. . .not who I was expecting." he says when Time Lord Doc comes out.

 

"Yeah," Josette sniggers. "He's there too. I know about three of them and they all complain about the show." A door down the hall opens and a blonde with short hair leans around the door. "Anything at the meeting we need to worry about?"

 

"No, just wanting to know if I got all the supplies in, talking about how many students we had in dual enrollment, who'd be heading home next year, how many students we can be expecting next year, and the Lights Festival." Anna nods and heads back into the schoolroom to work on the schooling plans for the next year.

 

The four men head into Headquarters to talk as Josette head to the ranch after helping Chip make up two beds upstairs, checking on the livestock then working on plans for a permanent home on the first planet. The Lights Festival has the two visitors looking around.

 

"Do you get visitors from all the planets?"

 

"Yes, depending on how their years are falling and if they're in the middle of harvesting. Sometimes it's just for a few hours when they need a break."

 

"Does everybody decorate?"

 

"Pretty much, it's become a way to ring out the old year and bring in the new."

 

"What are the days like?"

 

"Ranging from 27 hours on the fourth planet to 60 hours on the 9th. That's just the planets that are actively settled, the planets that have buildings on them like my stuff on the first planet, Clark's lab on the second and the third planet have days ranging from 12 hours to 23."

 

"How was it?" Beau asks when they return six weeks later for them laden down with extra bags.

 

"Good, I have tons of information to go through, including how to adjust mirrors to take the most of the light we have for arctic growing conditions. They've done a lot of research into that since their Earth is in an ice age."

 

"They'd need it if they ever go back." Chip says. "Seems sad to go from talking about global warming to ice ages."

 

"The cure worse than the disease?" Beau asks as they start bringing out items. More arrive in a pile in a corner of the room.

 

"Thank you Josette."

 

"Welcome." her voice says over the computer system.

 

"Did you get them home?" David asks at dinner when she slides into her seat.

 

"Yep, everything's delivered. . .even if Doc did sigh at some of the stuff I sneaked in on them."

 

"Did you get in the degree you wanted to finish this semester?"

 

"Yeah, and I'll get in five classes over the semester to leave four classes for the Naval Academy degree, finish that and another degree this summer, then the last two this fall."

 

The others make fake tsk-tsking sounds and Josette grins. "'swhat happens when I have five degrees ending at once."

 

"Are you near finishing any other degrees?"

 

"I'm starting the third year for two other degrees. I figure I'll have them done with the doctorate. If I don't I'll have them with the masters along with the cooking degree." The others nod.

 

The next couple of weeks pass and Josette slides into her seat at the testing center her second testing week.

 

"Is my fool godson going to be getting in more classes for his doctorate when he finishes his bachelors this year or picking up another to piss me off?" Dr. Blake asks since Dr. Stark is at GD sighing at the latest damn fool stunt of the week.

 

"He already said he wanted to start the degree on Tarzan I'm taking from Montague." Josette says innocently. Dr. McNider chuckles at the look on Allison's face. "Of course he is."

 

"He is starting his this year, and the boys are wrapping theirs up, they plan on presenting them next summer."

 

"How are orders from the other dimension?"

 

"Staying steady, I was surprised considering how styles change."

 

"Yes, but good furniture never goes out of style." Dr. Cross says, sipping his blood-infused coffee. "The same with good clothing." Dr. Blake nods. "Your first batch of students is heading home this 3rd semester?"

 

"They've been already taking stuff home so they shouldn't have too much to take back third semester. Their floor monitors have been reminding them that they're going to have to move. And with limits on what they could have in their rooms they didn't go hog wild."

 

"Did the orders increase like you and Jed thought they would?"

 

"Yes, I got the formal notice by e-mail last week, "Like with the socks I'm picking up extra supplies when I go over first and third semester. And the sock order increased too. I opened the jobs to students this year." Dr. Blake nods in satisfaction. "Next step is possibly a second shift making another product."

 

"Yeah, we're expecting that soon too." Josette sighs.

 

"Okay, this is probably a dumb question. But how do they handle overcrowding?"

 

Josette looks around and waves her hand, putting up a silence bubble around the table. "For some strange reason, once or twice a century there are no births for about twenty years. Never less than twenty years, a lot of times twenty-five, and a handful of times twenty-nine years. They've never been able to find out what causes it. There's no warning. . .it just happens."

 

"The entire world?"

 

"Yep. The last time was in the 1980s. Twenty-nine years. That kept them from the giant population jump that happened with Clark and our dimension." The others nod. "It's like somebody counts kids, says 'okay, you've got enough kids that will be able to have kids in a couple decades, and flips a cosmic switch." Josette sniggers suddenly. "Nobody would be whining about 'you can't just shut down the schools until there's students old enough to attend' there." Josette waves the bubble down when she sees everybody pushing away their PADDs. Vincent smiles and starts handing over plates. "Ahh thank you Vincent. Did you have a nice talk with the reps from the cooking schools that came over?"

 

"Oh yes. Are they still planning on teachers shifting around to teach here if there's interest?"

 

"Yeah, David's going to be checking with Granda about locations for housing them, the supplier friend of Bronwen's, and the new dairy. They're also bringing out a massive supply of books for different degrees or are different than the ones used for classes. Including cookbooks and videos." Vincent moans. "Yes, you're getting a batch, so's the 9th planet."

 

"Thank you Josette."

 

"Assyrian's got a good cooking program, but they want to add more degrees since they're in contact with the other school."

 

"Temporary housing?"

 

"Like for the school, furnished apartments. They'll be staying for at last four years. Possibly longer depending on the demand for the classes and having to schedule them at different times for the different planets."

 

"Is the city council still pouting about getting their asses handed to them over the supplier."

 

"No, the entire council was replaced and the new one is having to pull their big boy pants on and make some pretty drastic cuts to the budget to pay for everything over the five years they've been allocated. Taxpayers are howling but everything was laid out in the millage and they were told that if it hadn't passed that there'd be cuts. The city only had so much money and everybody's tightening their belts."

 

"You gotta feel sorry for everybody who wasn't involved." Susan says. The others nod. "Not the first time government's tried going for the gusto by any means necessary and having it blow up in their face."

 

"Then whining like two year olds who got their hands slapped by Mommy because they were told not to do something and got caught doing it anyway."

 

At the dorm after eating lunch and helping Vincent put everything away Josette starts putting together the layers for her quilt, looking out the window at the snow falling down. They're in the middle of a storm, so everybody had been more than happy to head off and get some fresh air and sunshine on the 8th planet. David is on the islands picking early stuff with a half-dozen of Josette's other selves.

 

The rest of the semester flies by and Josette heads off on two ships, one delivering students back to their dimension and dropping off recycling and orders, picking up more supplies, and working on the recycling for a few weeks before bringing the students back, floor monitors lining up to check bags as they walk off the ship. The other ship lands after picking up the recycling from the other planets along with orders from the factories, delivering flour, pasta, and rice noodles to the store.

 

"Reps?"

 

"Coming out later this year with Granda to talk to the schools, the kitchen staff here, the communal kitchen, and the restaurants about cooking degrees and other stuff along with me, Vincent, and Vincent after the kitchens are closed for the night. They'll probably want to inspect them too, get a good idea of what they have to work with beyond the classrooms at Assyrian." President Bartlett and Principal Madison nod. "We'll probably have to have two or three classes to allow room for everybody." More nods.

 

"Orders?"

 

"Delivered and supplies are heading off. I didn't want to head to the seventh planet with the students on board." The others nod as Josette covers her mouth and yawns.

 

"The boys papers?"

 

"Finishing them this summer and documenting them before they upload them next summer."

 

"Shows?"

 

"Me school dimension, the boys Mom's. Theirs is first this year."

 

"Taking stuff out?"

 

"Yep, we try to deliver twice a year so we can walk around in our areas."

 

"Degrees?"

 

"I finished the degree on Dark Shadows first semester and got in five classes for the naval academy shipwrecks degree over the break. I'll finish that and probably the parody and pastiches degree this summer, leaving the Pearl Harbor and horror comic book degree for break and this fall."

 

"How many classes are you taking?"

 

"Only the ones I need to finish degrees or keep on track. Four for the comics, six to finish a degree, four to finish the Naval Academy degree, three for the masters and doctorate, plus the three cooking classes. Because Granda and the cooking school reps are coming out, plus they're talking land near Assryian for a temporary housing unit."

 

"How are you on your degrees?" Dr. Cross asks when Josette and others come out for the show.

 

"Three degrees down this year, I'll get the others done this fall."

 

"Your dissertation?"

 

"I've been working on it and the thesis a lot while I'm on the ships." Josette stretches and yawns.

 

"And our classes?"

 

"I'm a year into a third bachelors. I haven't signed up for a masters yet since I'm finishing five bachelors this year." Dr. Cross nods in satisfaction.

 

"Doctorate?"

 

"Next year, I'm four classes away from it this summer, I'll present it next summer when I'm one or two classes from finishing it."

 

Returning six weeks later for them Josette leans between Principal Madison and Professor Druid. "Granda's coming out in a couple of weeks with the reps, I brought back stuff that's in a couple containers. When it's needed, I'll bring it out." She sends him a file.

 

"Thank you Josette. Did you have a good show?"

 

"Hell no, nobody would have been there if I'd had a good show." More than one snigger from the teachers in earshot. "I had a normal show, sold out of everything, had to make nice with the reporters, and watched the celebritwits with camera seeking senses make fools of themselves because somebody might forget who they were otherwise. 'Why are you raising money for a hospital? Isn't that like for 'sick' people?"

 

"Aside from people just too stupid to live?" Professor Eppes says. The others nod.

 

Josette brings out pallets of books and other stuff for the libraries over the next couple of weeks, working on that and the offworld harvests, plus attending meetings with the reps Calvin brings over from the cooking schools, smiling at both Vincents as she brings out the books and DVDS for them.

 

Josette slides into a chair a few weeks later. "Get everything done?"

 

"Yeah." Josette stretches and yawns. She eeps and disappears, reappearing seconds later with an evil grin on her face. "Ahhh, nothing like an ass kicking to get my blood pumping."

 

"Do we want to know?"

 

"There's a dimension where Buffy is real."

 

"Kick their asses?"

 

"Yep, Buffy's now in prison because she's a whiny bitch who didn't want normal people around her because she's 'spe-shul' but when they left she stormed off after them for daring to have a normal life and refusing to come back so she could treat them like shit again. Shot at people, destroyed apartments, attacked people, in other words a typical two year old tantrum but with real people instead of toys. She was stunned when she got her ass handed to her by a normal person then had her ass blistered since she was acting like a two year and should be treated like a two year old. Willow was incensed that Buffy was having to be punished for her own actions and be in prison, she made a pretty bonfire when she tried magicking the police and courts to get her out. Bitches like that give magick a bad name. So she's probably in whatever afterlife got her bleating about how it isn't fair, don't you know Buffy's the Slayer, she can't be held responsible for her own actions. And don't they know she's spe-shul."

 

"Bullshit."

 

"Yeah."

 

"Josette, do you. . .?" Calvin looks at the clams, mussels, and oysters Josette is putting in stasis. She grins and opens another section. "These?"

 

"Yes, I was wondering if you grew them."

 

"Yes, but we don't sell them except to the kitchens and Vincent on the other planets because of the 'eww, you eat those' factor." Calvin laughs and nods. "The kitchens sneak them into chowders and soups, they've had plenty of experience hiding ukky foods from picky eaters."

 

"What's the latest on the fish farm on Archimedes?" Alan asks, leaning around the doorframe.

 

"Should be ready to start harvesting in a couple months."

 

"Archimedes fish farm?"

 

"Prawns, shrimp, sardines, and anchovies. I'm going to take one of the ships and some of the robots to harvest and prepare them for sale. We use them for our fish farms." Calvin nods and heads back outside as Josette puts the rest of the stuff that hadn't sold in stasis and joins them walking to dinner. She'll bring it out at the Harvest Festival next week.

 

"So did that stupid celebritwit sue to have the donations taken from the hospital fund and going for a new mall because she was tired of all the ones around them?" David asks.

 

Calvin blinks as Nathan guffaws and Walter moans.

 

"Yes, and she walked off pouting when the judge just gave her a 'you are a dumbass' look and told her to grow up." Dr. Cross sighs.

 

"But a hospital's for sick people." Josette says in a whiny, hiccupy voice. "A mall would be better for the community. You can't buy cute stuff at a hospital."

 

"Please tell me you're joking?" Calvin sighs.

 

"Nope. She's one of those fool women who have a yappy purse dog they coo at because they're the only ones who understand her."

 

"Or can stand her." Alan says sourly. The others laugh, remembering everybody giving her disgusted looks at the show. The donations had picked up after her little complaint, giving the hospital fund a good sized donation by the end of the night. More had come in when the court case made the news and entertainment tabloid shows.

 

The new students look around the tables at the Harvest Festival and then the carnival, the school reps ignoring the carnival but enjoying the tables.

 

"I do like how they've settled in and grown," they say after returning to the school a bare hour after they left. "But I would like it . . ."

 

"To have been for other reasons? So do they. They've seen three worlds much like our own fall, one to solar radiation, one to a meterorite that hit their moon, sending debris rocketing that tore away their atmosphere, and one to the manipulations of two greedy men who both wanted to rule the world, and if they couldn't rule it. . .they'd destroy it."

 

"Anything new?" Doc asks at the government meeting after the Harvest Festival.

 

"Yeah, bear with me for a minute." Josette says. "Fire control. Hear me out." She holds up a hand as everybody starts talking. "Yes, all our buildings are safe and we keep an eye on the fires when we're outside, but we've been damn lucky. What if we get a wildfire like they had on earth thanks to a lightning strike? It could get a good start before we were even aware of it. We need to expand the probes anyway, we could add the programming to alert us to wildfires at the same time."

 

Doc thinks a minute then nods. "We need some type of firefighting vehicle. And foam."

 

"And to make sure the foam won't hurt the land."

 

"And quickly refill the vehicle if it's needed. And a way to keep the foam stable if it's not." Principal Madison says. Josette starts a list of concerns to go over with somebody from GD.

 

"Students coming and going this semester?"

 

"Fifteen hundred students in various grades in a few days, three hundred eighteen graduating at the end of the year." Principal Madison checks his notes. "Next year will be another 470 students graduating."

 

Josette heads to GD after the meeting, tapping on the door and finding both Dr. Starks in conference along with Dr. Blake, Doc, and Rex Tyler.

 

"Sorry to bother you, we've been talking about fire suppression. We've got all the buildings covered, inside and out but. . ."

 

"What happens if there's a wildfire like happened on Earth?" Sheriff Carter asks, coming up behind her. Everybody in the room blinks, then moans.

 

"Exactly."

 

"The firefighting foam we use might work, but we've got to think of a way to carry the foam, distribute it, and . . ."

 

"make sure it takes it out with the first drop." Doc says. The others nod. "Chemicals that mix in contact with air?"

 

"Yes, if they don't find the heat of a fire, they turn the consistency of concrete but water takes care of it."

 

"Does the cities have fire suppression equipment?"

 

"Yes, like the buildings, I'm not sure if they have the equipment to turn into flying tankers like you saw dropping water."

 

"If they could, I'm sure one the ships would get the job done a lot quicker than the helicopters you'd see on the news."

 

"See how the Legionnaires handled fires on their worlds?"

 

Josette nods. "I'll head over in a bit and ask."

 

"Books from this summer's classes?"

 

"That's the other reason I came over today."

 

"New students?"

 

"Heading off to start picking them up in a few days."

 

"Degrees?"

 

"Got in my fourth degree over the break and plan on finishing the comic book degree on the school computer this semester."

 

"Other system?"

 

"I'm going to get in the second year for another bachelors this semester. And possibly starting a fourth." Josette suddenly smirks.

 

"Nope, no trying to finish an entire degree in one semester." Dr. Blake says. Archimedes Dr. Stark smirks as the others blink at them. "Yours or theirs."

 

"Poo." Josette snaps her fingers in a curses, foiled again motion then laughs. "Only doing one degree at a time would be boring anyway." Josette heads off to pick up her books from the summer semester.

 

"A degree a semester?"

 

"Josette once figured out if she could do it back on Earth when our semesters were fourteen weeks since David can get in a year a semester when he's not screwing around or going for more than one degree at a time. She figured it would take sixteen weeks for a low paper degree so she couldn't. Principal Madison said it was close enough to count but not to try."

 

"And it would be boring anyway?" Doc's lips twitch.

 

"Exactly."

 

Josette starts bringing in the new students a few days later, everybody arriving after a week of going back and forth. Josette slumps into a seat at the administration building, Joyce grinning at her after all the students have their folders are have headed to the auditorium for orientation as their luggage is delivered to their new dorms.

 

The first testing week comes and Josette slides into her seat at the testing building.

 

"Are all the students settling in well?"

 

"Yeah, the floor monitors and older students are taking them under their wings. There's the usual trauma after their first bad grade but they learn that's why the students work together."

 

"The students leaving at the end of the year?"

 

"Going through everything they haven't taken back home already. We've got a box in the admin building for uniforms, I can't see them taking them home and it would give students in a growth spurt emergency uniforms until they can get home." Dr. McNider nods. "And it's a source of good cloth."

 

"So did you get the last of the quilts done?"

 

"I will by Thanksgiving." Josette sighs in relief. "Hard to think it's been eight years since the muse attack."

 

"Are you getting in a good stock of used clothing being over there so often?"

 

"Yes. . ." Josette disappears then reappears a few seconds later. Sighing she splits off a couple dozen duplicates. "We've got another Earth that has been lost to harvest. Do you want to come?" She looks at Dr. Stark. He nods. "Let me call in some people.

 

"Yeah, I've got a list of people to contact too." the duplicates head off to start getting ready.

 

"Bad?"

 

"Terror group that decided to take out all humanity for whatever whackjob cause they had. Morons didn't take into account they'd die too and are probably whining about it's not fair as they rot in whatever version of hell they wanted to send everybody else to." Josette snorts. A couple hours later Josette has the ships picking up people before they take off, some blinking because they hadn't realized that Josette could split off multiple copies of herself.

 

More years than anybody wants to think later Earth is cleared of all signs that life ever existed there aside from a small satellite in orbit telling the story of what happened as the ships head off. Josette says a silent prayer for the dead as they head home, detouring to their Earth to download the information on the probes before heading back to Haven, Josette sending the files to various servers as everybody packs up and heads off.

 

"That's ..."

 

"Something." Clark says. "On one hand it's tons of supplies that we can count on for years, but on the other hand it's because billions of people died."

 

"Josette, are you still toying with the idea of cherry wine?" President Bartlett asks at the next government meeting.

 

"Yeah, I've got a crop growing on the ship along with grapes and olives that I need to look over this winter. They're all growing well and should be ready to pick soon."

 

"Did you plant on the first planet?"

 

"Berries and others, I checked on them while I was picking the raised beds and yearly crops. I'm heading off again in a couple weeks to pick the green peppers."

 

Josette knocks on the door of the cafe on the 9th planet a couple weeks later. "Vincent, I know you're busy. I've got the first planet green picked peppers." The door opens and Vincent lets her inside, Josette waving a hand and baskets of food appear on the tables. They haggle over the prices then put everything away before Vincent dishes Josette up a plate and they talk about what the other schools had brought out and the possibility of classes.

 

Josette spears a piece of ham on her fork and points it at Vincent. "What I'd like to see and what we really need is having the classes on more than one planet." Vincent nods. "If they're on multiple planets they can be held when it's convenient for them instead of having to schedule time to head to Haven. Not that that's a big hardship." Josette nods. "Winter would be the perfect time for the classes, the crops are in and people have the time to settle in for classes." Dr. Stark and Charles nod behind her. Vincent pours them both coffees. Grabbing her PADD, Josette makes a note of that to send off on the latest message to the other dimension.

 

The rest of the semester flies by and Josette harvests the rest of the plants on the first planet, detouring to the other planets to sell them and pick up the recycling before coming back to Haven.

 

"Is that everything left?" David asks.

 

"Yeah, the tomatoes will go in stasis, the herbs I'll dry, and the peppers split between stasis and dried as usual."

 

"Do we have room on the ships for anything we'd be bringing out from the other dimensions? With all the stuff you brought back from the other dimension? And the students and their belongings."

 

"Yeah, the ships are a lot bigger than you expect and a lot of raw material got shoved in gems or carry cases to be brought out as needed."

 

"And we've got room for our deliveries?"

 

"Plenty. The ships just snicker when I ask if we're sure we've got the room." After Thanksgiving the graduating students walk through the tesseract to the ship, settling in the rooms used for the offworld harvests for the trip back to Earth. Friends and family are waiting for them and they head off for a graduation ceremony as Josette starts delivering everything, picking up supplies before heading to their home and spending a few months on Earth, taking care of recycling and talking to Marcus about shows and special orders. Picking up more supplies they hug everybody and head off to the other dimension, delivering more special orders before walking to the rooms and settling on couches and chairs until the others arrive from whatever meeting they'd been attending.

 

"Did the seniors get back home okay?" Mary asks when she comes into the room.

 

"Yeah, we had a ceremony at the school after finals and they were having another one at the school when we delivered them to their waiting family and friends where they'd get their diplomas."

 

"Did you have another download for the server?" Susan asks.

 

"Yeah, it should be about three days when we get home."

 

"Did you get the last degree you wanted in this year?" James asks as the others come into the rooms.

 

"Yeah, I gotta put all the books upstairs when we get home. I won't have the books for the last Pearl Harbor semester until I go to Archimedes for our books when we get back." David sighs. "Yeah, I'll take my books upstairs too. And we'll be planting in the growing areas and staggering some things so we've got stuff coming in most of the winter." The others nod. "And I've got to check the stuff I have growing on the ship when we get back."

 

"I heard about the other dimension you go tagged with clearing up, are you okay?" Black Jack touches her on the shoulder.

 

"Yeah, it's not the first time I've done it and thanks to how they died there wasn't any bodies to bury, but they died in agony. We had a lot of time to think and talk things over as we were harvesting everything." Josette's eyes grow dark a second then she visibly pulls herself back to the here and now. The next several weeks finds more than one person seeing a sad look on Josette's face that she seems to visibly shove away.

 

"Was she like this. .."

 

"after our Earth, Clark's, and the 9th planet's Earths? Yeah. She'll get over it, time helps. Intellectually we know that there's probably billions of dimensions where Earth has gone the way of the Dodo, but actually coming in to find it still hurts. No matter how often it happens."

 

"When we think humanity has crawled out of the ooze." Professor Xavier says. "We're proven that man is still an animal."

 

"Yep." David tucks his hands into his pockets as the wind coming off the water ruffles his hair and the scarf around his neck. A call has both men heading back into Ulonda since they're expecting a storm.

 

"A little different being on one of the ships than being on a ship, isn't it?" Jack asks, watching the water bead off the shields.

 

"Yes, wave action like this would have sent everybody into port." James says.

 

"If it gets bad, I'll go under the waves." Ulonda says. "Josette, you are at least three years from finishing your Electrical Engineering Masters. The thesis can wait at least eight hours. Go.To.Bed. Because I said so." Anna cackles down the hall.

 

"Work on papers on the ships when you start taking Masters through the other system and you only have two years to complete it, well four taking two classes a semester." Susan says, coming up behind Josette and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

 

"Not helping."

 

"Wasn't meant to." Susan snickers and heads off. Josette rolls her eyes but saves everything and heads to her room.

 

"What is Black Jack working on? He's been looking at the medical unit and making notes, then going over the boat." Alan asks, leaning into the doorway.

 

"I think he plans on getting a ship and adding a medical unit like he has his house." Abby says, walking past with a cart. Opening the hamper in Josette's room she grabs the dirty clothes and sheets in there.

 

"Gimme a couple minutes to get out of these clothes." Josette says. Abby nods and snags the flying clothes coming out of the bathroom before heading to the laundry.

 

They return to Haven a couple months later, settling in chairs and couches in the living room.

 

"Albatross Nest?"

 

"Tomorrow. I'll start bringing out the stuff we brought the day after that."

 

"Meeting about the increased orders?"

 

"Tomorrow afternoon. While Josette's bringing stuff out, we'll be planting."

 

"Books?

 

"I'm bringing the books out for our last semester in a couple days. David and I have books to take upstairs." Alan nods. "If you don't get to it in a couple days, I'll bring them out."

 

"Thankee."

 

The next afternoon Josette slides into her usual seat at the government building. The contracts are put on the screen and talked over.

 

"I don't want to get too big too soon." Nods from the others. "Second shifts would handle this all easily." Doc says. "We're not getting as many orders as we were from the other dimension."

 

"Part of that was planned jobs for the students when they graduated." Principal Madison says. "While the rest was they didn't have cheap imports anymore and were scrambling to find new stocks instead of paying a decent wage." Josette snorts. The others laugh and nod.

 

"Not next year."

 

"No, we'll get another year of supplies in and open the jobs after Thanksgiving. They can start working after the Lights Festival." Principal Madison says, checking the orders and the supplies Josette has brought out, knowing more would be arriving as part of the stuff Josette picks up. "Are you still going over every couple of months for the big deliveries?"

 

"Yes, in addition to going over weekly for the mail."

 

"Sheets?"

 

"We've still got a good handle on it. It's not as bad as when the dorms were all full." Josette says. "I usually check in once a week to see how everything's going."

 

"Are the jobs open to the students?"

 

"Yes and no, they don't do the laundry themselves, but they pick up the carts and deliver them back to the dorms, putting them back in the basements and filling the shelves in the storerooms. Seeing what all goes through putting the sets in their storerooms made them stop and think." Principal Madison smiles.

 

The next few days Josette starts delivering the shipping containers, calling in the managers of the factories to talk about the new orders. They nod at the reasons for starting in a year and talk about which workers could be moved to the second shift and what they'd need to do to get everything ready between the two shifts.

 

Josette hugs Alan in thanks when she finds the boxes of books and other stuff on her table when she comes back from the sorting planet.

 

"Getting everything ready for the new orders?" President Bartlett asks at dinner.

 

"Yeah, they're talking about who's going to be handling the second shifts and how long it will take to clean the machines for the two different orders."

 

He nods. "Most second shifts are making the same thing. Not something entirely different." Josette nods. "Most factories making two different things are running different lines or machinery, not switching like we are." Josette sniggers. "Which would have most factory owners horrified." The others laugh and nod.

 

After dinner Josette starts opening the boxes, dl'ing books into her mental library and filling containers that she pops into subspace. David's upstairs when she comes into the library and she starts shelving her books.

 

"So do you have a bare wall again?"

 

"Nearly, I've got containers of books for six degrees, not counting the cooking degree in my room."

 

David turns around. "I don't see any books from your cooking degrees?"

 

"We set up a separate library for those when I got the big batch of stuff last year." David nods and they drop the empty containers in the room down the hall before they go downstairs. The next couple of weeks pass and soon it's the Lights Festival.

 

"Josette, dairy?" David asks at the government meeting the first day of the new semester.

 

"Granda plans on it coming out this summer. They're a small dairy, about the size ours was when we first came out and they have the same mindset we have, no breeding animals until they can't be bred anymore. Right now they're getting in a lot of supplies before they come out."

 

"Cooking classes?"

 

"They're setting up the temporary housing and another, larger building of classrooms." David says. "Or that's what was in the latest databurst." Josette covers her mouth, belches, and nods.

 

"Are the triplets heading to the 9th planet for their internships?"

 

"Yeah, their older brothers and sisters might have meant taking over as a joke but they've all chosen different companies for their internships."

 

"Four years and the triplets are gone. Five years and somebody will be celebrating a hundredth anniversary." Principal Madison says with a smirk. Josette nods and sighs as David smirks.

 

"Degrees on the other system?"

 

"I'm finishing my third degree this year and signing up for a masters." Josette says. "Yes. I know . .finally." She says as David starts to open his mouth. He smirks. "Anything else beyond Josette tormenting?"

 

"How is Earth?"

 

"Good, like Clark's they're big on alternate energy and mass transit." David snickers. "Story?"

 

"Yeah, I was turning the channel there and hit TMZ and saw where old Paris Hilton brought a 250,000 car and the valet had to remind her how to turn it on. Had her dog sitting on her leg behind the wheel."

 

"Well yah," Josette snorts. "Her dog keeps the spells going so she can speak English instead of too stupid to live celebrity."

 

"So where's the Kardashian's dogs?" President Bartlett's lips twitch.

 

"in the wings waiting for the two younger girls, they're not going the celebritwit route, the older girls are media whores, so's mommy dearest. The son tries to be a media darling, but he can't compete."

 

After the meeting Josette stops to the bakery then heading back to the dorm. Heading upstairs to her workroom, she starts going through the kits she's been getting the last several years and selects one, copying the pattern to work with then bringing out a new sheet of plastic for the pattern pieces. Laying out the fabric, she starts cutting out block pieces and setting up her sewing machine.

 

"How are you coming on classes?" Principal Madison asks when she's waved up to the front table at lunch.

 

"Good, I should get in 25 this semester on the school computer and teacher. I'm starting new degrees on comics books and Pearl Harbor from the naval academy and a class on WWII prisoners of war from the history school." Josette sniggers suddenly. "Idiot patrol at the school you were visiting?"

 

"Yeah. 'But why are you taking classes on that, isn't it like hard and depressing'?" Josette says in whiny tone. "Can't you take classes that are less serious?"

 

"Ahh yes, the debutante patrol." One of the new teachers sighs. "I got lectured by the chancellor of the university I used to work with because the students were pouting to their parents that my classes were hard. When I refused to dumb it down for them they fired me. But it blew up in their face when somehow my classes, the idiot students whining to their parents, their parents howling because I was making their precious children work for their grades and worse of all think and the chancellor of the school telling me to dumb it down was all released to the news. He lost his job, the parents were shown as nothing more than bullies, and the students spoiled airhead brats disrupting the classes. I sued and won and they went pouting to the Supreme Court but they upheld my judgment against the school."

 

"Lemme guess, but it's not fay-urr that we have to teach the students."

 

"Basically yes, they became the laughing stock of all the universities. All the 'just doing the minimum I have to' teachers all got fired and all new ones brought in. The students who didn't like having to work for their grades complained and got told to grow the fuck up. This wasn't a day care."

 

"What were they going to do with their lives?" President Bartlett snorts as Josette heads to the back room.

 

"Live off Daddy's money?"

 

"Basically, yeah. Thank god none of the students here will ever be that bad."

 

"No, I refused to allow those type in my school. The parents threatened to sue, how dare we demand our students take entry tests, don't we know who they are? We should be falling all over ourselves to grant every little demand they want." Principal Madison says sourly. "Then when they did sue, they were told the same thing. . .No."

 

"Pooo' babies." More than one teacher coos, then laughs.

 

After lunch Josette heads off to the thread manufacturer, looking over everything before she visits the other suppliers.

 

The first testing week Josette slides into her seat at the testing center after handing over her PADD of tests.

 

"Is this a two harvest year?"

 

"No, probably next year. Maybe the year after that."

 

"New degrees?"

 

"Three, one comic book, one on Pearl Harbor from the naval academy, and one from the history school dealing with prisoner of war camps during WWII."

 

"Cambridge and Oxford?

 

"Starting bachelors next year when I finish my doctorate."

 

"Other system masters?"

 

"Signing up for it this fall after I finish the doctorate." The three men nod."Masters?"

 

"Finishing the major classes this fall, I'll start getting three in a semester next year since it will all be basic classes after that."

 

"Papers?"

 

"Working on them."

 

The others start arriving at the table a few minutes before the buzzer is due to end the morning session.

 

"Dissertations?"

 

"We're uploading them this summer when we're six classes from our degrees." Alexander says. Michael nods.

 

"CJ?"

 

"Like me he's defending his in person this summer."

 

"Are the crops coming in in the growing area?"

 

"Yeah, David was going to harvest the root crops after we left. The early peppers, tomatoes, and other stuff will be ripening in a couple weeks."

 

"Green tomatoes?"

 

"Start picking them about the same time. I planted about three different varieties, six to eight plants of each so I'd have extra for new recipes I hadn't tried yet."

 

"Aquaponics?"

 

"Going to be done this year. The reps from the cooking school were really interested in that and the growing areas so the new cooking building might have their own growing areas."

 

"That makes sense. Vincent has his own growing areas for the cafe."

 

"Trip to the other dimension?"

 

"Second testing week. I'll take socks in then. The government order is being delivered after finals. I'm picking up more supplies for the jobs."

 

"Christmas?"

 

"Mid-summer, we're going out the same time for the boys show. Mine in the other dimension is later, just before they come out for the Harvest Festival."

 

Back at the dorm David looks over from taking the root vegetables to the ranch as the switching station alarm sounds and the others come out.

 

"Get everything finished?"

 

"Yeah, the veggies are in the root cellar and we should have the early stuff coming in in a couple weeks."

 

"That's what I figured. I'll start on the green tomatoes then too."

 

"Yeah, they're getting big enough to start harvesting." David says. "You'll have plenty for what you normally make, the new recipes you wanted to try out, and still have tomatoes ripening."

 

The next few weeks pass and Josette heads off to the other dimension after their second testing week, picking up the supplies and dropping off more socks in the school office. Dropping off the recycling and empty shipping containers, Josette spends a couple days visiting malls and museums then working on the recycling until she returns.

 

"Take care of the recycling you dropped off again?" David asks when she slides into her seat at the government building.

 

"Of course, people are lazy and stupid. It's good money but taking care of the recycling is beneath them." President Bartlett sighs but nods.

 

"Did the boys upload their papers?"

 

"Yeah. CJ and I uploaded our papers to the server and sent in requests for appointments. We should hear in a couple weeks after they've had chances to look them over."

 

"Thesis?"

 

"Good. I should be finished with it next year and the dissertation is well in hand. I'm also starting on the thesis for the Masters I plan on signing up for this fall."

 

"Classes this summer?"

 

"I'm looking at nineteen classes, not counting the single semester I need to finish the degree from the other school. I doubt I'll be able to get in right away with the difference in the years and more people are signing up for the same spots so I'll probably start another bachelors this fall if I get the semester in this summer."

 

Josette delivers special orders to Marcus when they arrive for her show, the four of them talking over the lists as his assistants check them into the system and start sending out notices that their order was ready.

 

"Are the orders slowing down?" Calvin asks as Josette opens the door of their home, grinning as Josette sighs.

 

"Hell.No." Michael sighs, looking over from a couch in the sunken living room. He's reading a book as the Sirius radio system plays oldies.

 

"No Christmas music?"

 

"Hell.No." Josette snorts. "Bad enough radio stations and malls start playing it the day after Thanksgiving. The first time it might be cute, by the fifth rendition it gets annoying, and by the fifteenth you're ready to scream."

 

"Josette, did you bring out supplies?" President Bartlett asks at the meeting after they come back.

 

"Yeah, not stuff for the new orders, that will be this fall when I take the graduating students home. But stuff for the libraries, the dining halls, and other stuff."

 

"Do you see bringing in the supplies for the orders more often?"

 

"Possibly as the orders increase. Right now the socks have increased, we've got second orders for some stuff, and they're talking about selling the crayons under a different brand name."

 

President Bartlett nods. "Offworld harvests?"

 

"Still on track to be finished by the Harvest Festival. I already delivered the 9th planet's orders including socks, gloves, scarves and hats, they'll have snow on the ground by the Harvest Festival. And it's looking to be a bad winter by the probe data."

 

"Twice harvesting?"

 

"Probably next year, I'm planting cover crops for the 9th planet anyway. They'll be running low in a couple years."

 

"How are the others in the other dimension doing?"

 

"Good, they've got some good sized growing areas and plan on setting up a second living area on the moon. And they're running tests to see if they can build on Earth, digging into the ground and using the radiation as an energy source."

 

"Didn't they have underground bunkers?"

 

"Yeah, they're setting up radiation counters to see if they're habitable and enlarging them if they are. Some of the government ones were meant for this end of the world occurrence."

 

"They'd need work." President Bartlett says.

 

"Yep, they were meant for living through the bombs so there'd be a form of government for rebuilding, not the kind of radiation we've seen in the instruments."

 

Doc nods. "They probably would have had several years of supplies, but they weren't meant to be self-sustaining. They'd be better off building new if they could."

 

Josette nods. "They've got the technology used to build on the moon."

 

"Dissertations?"

 

"I've got an appointment tomorrow. CJ's is the same day so Clark's going over with us both. He insisted even though we both said we'd be perfectly fine doing it by ourselves."

 

"Not getting away that easy, it doesn't care if it's your first, second, or sixteenth." Doc says calmly. "Have the students been going to Oxford and Cambridge."

 

"Oh yes, we've arranged for trips there as well as Disneyworld during the semester they're not taking classes here at the school."

 

"Are the seniors starting to take their stuff home?"

 

"Yeah, like last year their floor monitors are telling them the more they take over now, the less they have to take when they graduate this fall. Generally they only have two bags of stuff, one of books, music, and their computer, one of clothes." The others nod.

 

"Did any students have to bring their uniforms home because Mommy and Daddy insisted?"

 

"Yes," Josette says sourly. "Stupid twits. What the hell are their kids going to do, point to the uniform in their closet as a status symbol?"

 

"More like Mommy and Daddy wanted to point to it as a status symbol. 'Why don't you wear your uniform so everybody knows what school you went to?' Like anybody with a brain gives a shit."

 

"Exactly."

 

The yearly crops start coming in and Josette's busy with the first planet crops, delivering stuff to various places before the second round of crops start coming in and they plant, heading off to Mom Clarinda's dimension for the show. Dropping off the special orders, they talk with Dexter about more orders and head to the rooms, dropping their bags in their rooms before checking the note the others had left and heading off.

 

Josette's sitting on the couch in the living room rubbing her feet when the others start coming in from whatever government function they'd been at. Clarinda comes over and wraps an arm around Josette, then looks down. "Ahhh, new shoes."

 

"Yeah, I've been trying to break them in. . .just ended up breaking my toes." She 'puts' them in the bedroom.

 

"Did you three get your dissertations taken care of?" James asks.

 

"Yep, the boys have six more classes but I'll be done this fall. David started his officially this summer."

 

"Did he start another bachelors?"

 

"Yes, the three degree course on Tarzan. I'm three semesters from finishing the first one."

 

"Tarzan?" Mary sighs. She counts to five then laughs. "There's a degree about him?"

 

"There's a bunch, Montague has the three degree curriculum that deals with the books, movies, and tv show. The comic book school has the character as part of their jungle adventures series. Montague has a similar one that deals with all the jungle movies."

 

"Does that include Abbott and Costello's Africa Screams?" Alan asks, his lips twitching. Josette sniggers.

 

The show is a few days later and several days after that they head back to Haven, the others arriving a few seconds after they land.

 

"How often are the roofs inspected?" James asks, seeing maintenance up on the administration building roof.

 

"Every few years, the school buildings were inspected when the students first started coming over. In town it might be longer, especially if they don't have solar panels."

 

Frances comes out of the textiles building. "Oh good, I was going to leave you a note. Josette, are you growing the colored cotton again?"

 

"Figured on it next year."

 

"Colored cotton?"

 

"While most cotton is white, it actually comes in several different colors." Bronwen says, coming over. "They don't usually grow it commercially because they're afraid the colored cotton will affect the white."

 

"The same reason you don't grow different types of squashes in the same garden." Mary says. Bronwen nods. "The colored cotton is more a niche crop."

 

"And the fabric color tends to fade in the sun. But we make it into stuff that won't be out in the sun that long."

 

"With two suns that's something to take into consideration."

 

"Makes it easier to lay stuff out to bleach in the sun though."

 

"That's how Grandma used to do it."

 

"Have you thought of a second energy source beyond the solar panels?" Calvin asks one night after dinner. Doc looks their direction.

 

"Yeah, we've been considering windmills, solar panel farms, and hydroelectric but each has it's downsides. And we have a turbine on the other continent we run during bad winter storms when we're going to be socked in for a couple weeks and the solar panels will be buried, when all the crops are coming in at once, or during emergencies. The school buildings, Headquarters, the houses on the other continent and the high energy usage buildings have power collection units to collect the energy from the turbine without wires. The turbine came from Momma Clarinda's dimension several years after we first arrived on Haven, and Renny and Long Tom invented the boxes with some hints from Brainy and the others."

 

"Like the gardens, you want the settlers to be self-sufficient."

 

"Exactly. They have to think about what happens when the batteries are low and it's going to be hours or even days before the solar panels can start charging them. If they have solar panels."

 

"How do you power the turbine?" One of Principal Madison's brothers asks.

 

"Muscle power. CJ, Clark, Momma Clarinda, or I will go out and give the turbine a spin when it's needed. A spin like you see on the Price is Right generally gives us two weeks steady power. If we need more one of us goes out and gives it another spin. Right now the power production buildings handle all our needs."

 

"You'll have to think of other power sources."

 

"Yeah, far in the future we might have to build a larger power generation facility where a generator is powered that runs a turbine. But that would be decades in the future, we don't have the population to need one and we don't have the massive power need to need one running constantly. We'd also have to have a power company with meters and bills."

 

"You'd probably need taxes to build the power production building."

 

"Yep, the ones we could bring out would probably need way too much work to be feasible." Josette makes a note to check with the electricians and engineers about that and puts her PADD back on her belt.

 

The Harvest Festival comes and Josette starts bringing out the new students over a couple of weeks, passing them along to the teachers who lead them to the administration building to sign in officially then to the auditorium for orientation.

 

"So when's the day to go to Disneyworld?" David asks at lunch.

 

"After midterms, that way the students can have some fun after their finals and the seniors have a break from preparing to leave the school after their finals. They're working on the dates right now."

 

"Taking stuff home for them?"

 

"Yep, I brought out another shipment of boxes for them, they'll go in the administration building. Those students who don't have family who can come get them will have them shipped home."

 

"Foreign students?"

 

"Their embassies will be handling it."

 

"Are you finished with your art history degree?"

 

"First class I started on teacher this semester."

 

"Sign up for your masters?"

 

"Yeah, I'll probably hear something in the next databurst. I already started my thesis since it's only going to be two years."

 

"Did the new dairy come out? They were here for the Harvest Festival."

 

"Yep, I've been delivering supplies to them beyond what they brought up. They were able to get one crop of hay in shortly before they arrived and they'll have a second before winter. They have in a good sized garden, that with the supplies they brought out and I'm dropping off will last them through the winter until they can put in the first crops."

 

The next couple of months fly by and Josette takes the first batch of students to the vacation planet eighth day, teachers and some of the newcomers from the dairy volunteering as chaperons. The babies are old enough to come this year and everybody troops back to the school tired and excited late that night, having eaten lunch and dinner at the replicators. The next day Josette takes another batch of students out, the remaining students making the trip the next weekend.

 

"Hear about your masters?"

 

"Yeah, I was accepted. I start first semester next year."

 

"Two harvests?"

 

"Next year, they'll start coming in before spring so I'll take them over to the first planet."

 

"Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs?"

 

"Next year."

 

"Growing area?"

 

"I've got a list started," Josette sends the file to the others. "If there's anything you want in particular, put it down on the list." More than one person starts writing.

 

"Take back much stuff?"

 

"Yeah, it's not like when the other students were leaving, they all had more stuff."

 

"How are you coming on your thesis?"

 

"Good, I'll start wrapping it up next summer."

 

"And you've already started your other thesis."

 

"Wanted to get it laid out before I signed up for the degree. With only two years of classes it's going to be tight getting them in and working on the paper." Assorted sounds of derision greet that and Josette grins.

 

"When does the first batch of teachers and employees switch out?"

 

"Next year, the new employees will be coming out with the students so they're here for a while before they start working." the others nod.

 

"Has GD, the Institute, and NIMR been talking with the students?"

 

"Yes, and we're expecting some of them to stay for at least a few years for internships."

 

"With the knowledge they could write their own ticket anywhere on Earth if they wanted or stay." Alexander says. Josette nods. "And they've got that much seniority at the associated places on Earth."

 

"Are you still planning on taking three classes next year for your Masters?"

 

"Probably, I want to have that and my cooking degree done before I start another degree on musical instruments."

 

"Are you the only one taking the degrees?"

 

"Oh no, most everybody at the Institute is. Especially when the family started talking to them about shows. And I think that we're not the only ones who are going to find themselves with family of one type or another in a pantheon." The others nod.

 

The rest of the semester flies by and after the students finals and Thanksgiving they start walking through the tesseract David opens to the ship that's bringing them back to their own dimension. While the students are greeting family and friends before heading to the auditorium for the graduation ceremony Josette is busy delivering the government's orders and dropping off special orders with Marcus's assistant.

 

 

The next several weeks are busy with Josette and the others taking care of recycling and picking up stuff they wanted beyond the orders coming in that Josette's putting on Hidalgo. The students who'd been spending break with family or friends to get their books or have their uniforms altered and pick up supplies for the next few months head back to the ship and they fly back to Haven where the floor monitors start inspecting bags as they round up their students and Josette starts delivering containers to various places. Their next stop is the other dimension and Josette delivers more special orders, all three of them talking to Dexter for a couple hours before heading to the rooms.

 

"Is everything delivered?" David asks at dinner when they've returned to Haven several weeks later for them.

 

"Everything but the offworld stuff, I'll do that tomorrow when I pick up the recycling." Josette leans back in her chair.

 

"Are you making jerky?" David can see the containers of spices on the counter.

 

"Yeah, I planned on starting it marinating after dinner then starting it drying tomorrow morning before I head."

 

"Albatross Nest?"

 

"Day after tomorrow. Everybody's been working on quilts since this is going to be a cold winter." The others nod. "Maintenance has been checking the buildings and we brought out another supply of blankets for the dorms."

 

"And for ourselves and for sale at the store." David says as they walk out into the hallway, getting their outside clothes on with the kids before they walk to the dining hall for dinner.

 

"Is the dairy prepared for winter?"

 

"Yeah, I brought out the last of the extra supplies to last them the winter. They've got a growing building started and are making plans for next spring."

 

"Our growing area?"

 

"Everything will be in by this weekend when we head off to the first planet." Josette says.

 

"Did you and the ships ever settle on a small experimental garden to see how other crops handle the heat?"

 

"Yeah, I'm setting up the area while we're there."

 

"Cherry wine?"

 

"I'm picking them in a few days to squeeze, I'm going to bottle this crop. If the wine turns out and the demand is good we'll plant more trees. Even if the demand isn't good for the wine, we'll probably plant more trees." The others nod, including a couple people in the front room.

 

"I heard something about a two harvest year?" One of the new teachers asks quietly.

 

"You've noticed that every year the harvests are coming in earlier?" Nods. "With how our years are, there's going to be one where we could harvest offworld twice. The second harvest we plant cover crops of rye and barley, the robots that harvest the other offworld crops will handle them and Josette will pick them up and deliver them to various places." Nods of understanding.

 

"Are there going to be any problems with the switch out next year?"

 

"No, everybody is arriving for the Harvest Festival so that they're settled in and over the third semester we'll be packing up our personal belongings just like the students are and returning to the other dimension then. We'll be talking about how the switchover went and the lottery for the jobs here will go up again in a couple years."

 

The next day Josette puts the meat in the dehydrators as another one of her other selves lifts off to pick up the recycling from the other planets. Taking the last of her art history Oxford books from the desk shelves she puts the container on her shoulder and heads upstairs, shelving her books and heading to the workroom to start putting the binding on her latest quilt. The weather's still nice but it should start snowing by that weekend and this time it would stay.

 

The next day Josette fills her plate at the Albatross Nest, taking her usual spot against the wall and starting to eat as the others settle at the tables. After even Josette has eaten her fill and the cookies passed around the kits are handed out and they talk about the plans for the next couple of years before everybody starts washing dishes and sorting out who brought what. The leftovers are pushed on Josette before everybody starts heading home. Back at the dorm she shakes off the light snow on her cloak and hangs it up, taking off her boots and putting on indoor shoes before checking the dehydrators and putting everything away before checking on how David and the other boys are getting along planting crops.

 

"You two starting Oxford when you finish the comic book degrees next year?" Josette asks at dinner that night.

 

"Yes, the others are insisting." Michael says, sighing. Alexander chuckles. They look at Susan. "Are you starting a history masters?"

 

"If I am it's going to be at least a year. I'm getting too old to finish one degree and start another." Snorts of laughter greet that outrageous statement.

 

"You three?"

 

"Possibly." Abby says. Alan and Anna nod. "I know the others wanted to talk to us over the Lights Festival about doing the same thing Josette and David are, taking classes on more than one system."

 

"Are they going to be talking about the cooking classes when they come up?" Susan asks.

 

"Yes, they're bringing out another apartment unit by Assyrian now that the new buildings will be completed by next year. Once the buildings are done they're settling down with the other planets to set up times for their classes so they're not missing classes since it's the middle of their harvests." Nods from the others. "And there's still the possibility of additional setups on the other planets." More nods.

 

"CJ finish this year?"

 

"Next. He's going to wait a couple years before he starts another one."

 

That weekend they head off to the first planet, returning the following first morning before breakfast noticeably darker to those who know what they're doing. Josette leans between Principal Madison and Professor Druid, sending them a file.

 

"The robots started work on the first permanent house on the first planet. Solar panels, a windmill to augment those and we can tap into the alternate energy source of the building. A summer kitchen for canning, a good sized root cellar and pantry, plus two more good sized kitchens."

 

"Did you plant the trees you wanted?"

 

"Yeah, though it will be a couple years before they're ready to produce. If the demand is good for the cherry wine we'll plant here." Nods from the others at the front table. "They won't go to waste, what we don't eat or sell at the festival will be dried or made into pies and other baked goods."

 

The next couple of weeks pass quickly, Josette picking up the books for hers and David's teacher classes from GD and coming back to find the others arriving. Josette hands David his boxes of books and supplies and he nods, taking them into his room.

 

"Did you two get your books yet for next year's classes?"

 

"Yeah, I got them yesterday while Josette was upstairs transplanting stuff." David says. "Do we got the list of stuff to start next?"

 

"Yep, between the gardens on the islands and upstairs, we'll have stuff coming in until it's nearly time to harvest next spring."

 

"You hear from Doc and Chip?"

 

"Yeah, they've finished the lighting and are started on an arctic growing area of their own. They're looking into areas of being self-sufficient in case anything like what happened in our dimensions happens there." Nods from the others.

 

A couple days before the Lights Festival Josette looks out into the first floor hallway. "We were just talking about you." She says when she sees the visitors. Leading the way out into the front of the dorm, she gets everybody loaded up with bedding and towels and headed up to the third floor, putting them in the remaining rooms. "We're going to have a full floor with you guys for the Lights Festival."

 

"Lights Festival?" Beau asks. He'd been looking up through the glass to the two suns in the sky.

 

"It grew out of Christmas, with the differences in the years we could have Christmas twice in the same year." Doc nods as they head outside for a tour of town for the others. "We're expecting the students to have two Christmases next year."

 

"Do you take them home for their Christmas?"

 

"Yes, with the time difference we're only gone an hour here but we're generally over there about four weeks. That gives the students time to be with their family, do their Christmas shopping, get supplies in for the next few months. We're doing the same thing there and in the other dimensions we visit after Thanksgiving."

 

"How often do you go out?"

 

"The school dimension at least four times a year, after our first semester to take in the orders we've been working on for the government or socks for the school, take in special orders the boys and I have been working on, take in recycling. . .which I usually end up taking care of myself but it's good money, and take out the first batch of belongings for the graduating students. Christmas, whichever one of us has the show in that dimension, and after Thanksgiving to deliver another batch of orders for the government, special orders, and take the graduating students home."

 

"Take the graduating students belongings home?"

 

"Yeah, because I remember the students scrambling to sort out four years worth of belongings as they realized 'oh shit, we've got to move all this stuff'?" More than one chuckle. "We had drop boxes in the office and library, and the closer to graduation the more often they had to be emptied. Of course back on Earth our students also had dorm fridges, microwaves, tvs, radios. . .all stuff that the school doesn't allow now."

 

"DVDs, CDs, books?"

 

Josette nods. "Outgrown clothes. We had sales in the summer when the student body started exploding open to the students. The appliances, DVDS, and music mostly sold, books and outgrown clothes we had on tables at the flea market in town. Anything left after Labor day we donated to a local second hand store. The clothes took a hit the couple weeks before that as parents went back to school shopping."

 

"How many different orders do you have from the government?" Ham asks.

 

"About a dozen, the first few were increased as we proved we could handle it and new ones added. It's not quite as bad as Clark's dimension, but then Clark's dimension both had to find new sources of stuff as cheap imports from overseas dried up and they were falling over themselves to give the students a steady job. With our needs we've already know what amount we need to fill the orders for all the planets plus ten percent extra, open the factories to make that amount, then shut them down. It's only with the other orders that people have a steady job as factories work year-round one or two shifts."

 

"Do the bakeries make all the bread?" Shoshanna had seen people buying loaves of bread both places.

 

"No, the bread factory on the seventh planet has two shifts working, one handles all the planets and the other is strictly for the school, it started back up again when we started getting offworld students. Most of us make our own bread as well, it's easy enough to make it, let it raise over the day, then bake it. The bakeries make a good selection and the sandwich places make their own."

 

"Sandwich places?"

 

"Yes, we've got a sandwich place that split off from the communal kitchen when they needed more room. They have both sandwiches already made and make them to order. The pizza place in Albatross makes them to order. The burger place makes large batches of buns three nights a week, putting them in stasis as needed."

 

"And the pizza parlors do the same?"

 

"Yeah, they make large batches of dough, separating it into balls."

 

"Does anybody still make their own bread?"

 

"Oh yes, most people still make their own, especially in the outlying areas. I make bread usually on the weekends and not only do we live on the school grounds, I can walk to the bakery. Eventually they plan on making stuff like Pita and other types of bread."

 

"Indian fry bread." Beau says.

 

Josette nods. "Stuff like that and tortillas are generally made at home in large batches and froze or stuck in stasis, being brought out a bit at a time." Josette sighs and makes a note on her PADD then puts it back on her belt. Doc looks at her. "possible future Chinese, Indian, and other ethnic cuisines, real cooking instead of fast food, especially now that we're bringing out teachers from the other dimension." More than one nod from the others.

 

"Chocolate and cheese?" Anton asks.

 

"Yes, they were in the store but outgrew that area years ago. We specialize in softer cheeses, the original dairy that came up makes hard cheeses. The second dairy is still settling in, in a couple of years they should be producing milk and cheeses."

 

"Goat and sheep?"

 

"Humans are somewhat squeamish about drinking those milks, but they don't have problems with the cheeses. We make special batches of soap with the milk too."

 

"Does everybody recycle?" They see wagons pulled up to the recycling building with bags being brought out.

 

"Yep. What little garbage that's left is turned into power for the replicator."

 

"Does everybody have replicators?"

 

"We do, both personally and in the dining halls. Clark does, I think Thomas had one installed at his Wayne Manor. Bruce has one at his Wayne Manor, Headquarters has them, The Banzai Institute and NIMR have them, but I don't think anybody else does. With the flyers it takes an hour to come to town from anywhere on the planet and that's towing a full wagon."

 

"You've got to bring out your recycling anyway. . ." Pat says. Josette nods. "And you're stocking up on supplies."

 

"Is this a farm market?" Monk asks as they look in at a building.

 

"Yes, as the students started finishing their university degrees they needed jobs. With more people we were able to start growing commercially on the fifth planet, seventh, and eighth planets, before that it had been communal gardens or kitchen gardens. With the differences in seasons there's always something coming in. It normally has it's own building, we brought out the flea market in town for it but the building isn't heated and it would be too much work to renovate it so we just move buildings over the winter. This is the first of the 'jack of all trades' buildings, we outgrew it and had to build a second larger one. They're used to process the food when the offworld harvests come in, they're used to clean fleeces, they're used to make sausages, kimchee, sauerkraut, and pickled baloney, before we built a building just for weaving they were used to dye cotton and wool, and the communal kitchens use them to process the food from their gardens."

 

"Offworld harvests?" Pat asks.

 

"Fall into two types, one is a single crop like potatoes, corn, wheat, coffee, rice, or something else that the robots handle. I just pick it up. The second are giant gardens where I take a group of people and we harvest for a good six months but with the time dilation we're back within an hour, I bring it out and the people who are on duty start taking care of it. It's either canned, dried, or otherwise stored and passed out after the last harvest on each world to help out with the food that's been canned for the winter. Yes, the communal gardens are large, but you only get one or two batches since you're feeding so many people. That's why so many people have signed up for spots in the garden plots at the apartments or the gardens outside of town, you can grow your own food for one season to add to what you're getting from the other garden. Of course those living outside of town have large gardens and have fields of staple crops they either use themselves or sell to the government."

 

"Do you grow every year?"

 

"Most of the time yes. The difference is so great on the 9th planet that we could harvest twice for them by the time they need it for winter. They only have two offworld growing areas and we harvest every other year for them. With the year difference the crops come in earlier every year and we could harvest twice. Those years we plant cover crops of rye and barley, this year was one of those years, the first offworld harvests were coming in while it was still winter here and I took the drying racks to the first planet until something put outside would dry and not freeze."

 

"Okay, who wants to go on a little trip . . ." Josette points straight up a couple days later.

 

"Space?" Beau asks. She grins and nods.

 

"Is it safe?" Doc asks.

 

"Oh yes, we're just going to take a trip around the solar system."

 

"Oh. . ." Shoshanna sighs, looking out at the view Josette had just cleared for them.

 

"It's different with just the viewscreen showing you where you're going." Josette taps the view back to frosted a few minutes later. She clears it again when they near the suns, polarizing the glass and handing out sunglasses.

 

"Is that a building?" Anton asks as they near the first planet.

 

"Yes, it's one of superbuildings from Mom Clarinda and Professor Xavier's dimension."

 

"What's the day length?"

 

"Twelve hours, but the permanent growing season offsets that for the crops."

 

"Is that a permanent home?"

 

"Yeah, we've been staying in huts when we come to the first planet for vacations, I thought it was time we finally had a permanent home there. I added a windmill for additional power there and in the growing area and the house piggybacks the alternate energy source in the city."

 

"Huts wouldn't take that much energy. . ." Long Tom says. Josette nods. "But a permanent house would with all the mechanicals." He'd been crawling over the mechanicals with Doc at the dorm and the Brownstone, making notes on what they'd need.

 

Josette nods. "Oxford is talking about a new Electrical Engineering degree specializing in alternative energy since we don't have power grids anymore, I might end up taking it and using my work on the first planet for my thesis and dissertation."

 

"How are you coming for this Electrical Engineering degree?"

 

"Good, I just finished the two years of specialty classes, now I've just got to take the two years of basic classes identical for all degrees."

 

"I wouldn't be able to handle four years of classes for a Masters." Pam shakes her head. "Two years is bad enough, though I can see why some people need the extra help for their thesis. Though by this time they should be able to work on a paper that's acceptable."

 

Josette nods "I can understand all the ABDs, most grad students are used as a pool for cheap teaching by their schools. If you're busy teaching you don't have the time you need to concentrate on your dissertation."

 

"And if you don't have a degree, they don't have to pay you what you really deserve." Johnny says. The others nod.

 

"The second planet?"

 

"Eighteen hours, Clark has a growing area there to see how they handle the shorter days. The third and fourth planets are the most like Earth, growing wise. You'd have to start inside to have a full growing season on the third planet though. The fourth is longer in that you could plant right in the ground unless they had a bad storm that either delayed the harvest or delayed planting."

 

"Those frames with plastic over them?" Chip asks his grandfather.

 

"Could probably work once the ground was thawed enough to plant. For the larger crops anyway. You said the tenth planet is the furthest one out that actually has seasons?"

 

"Yes, it's five growing seasons, 72 hour days."

 

The others head to various places over the next couple of days, checking out different places on Haven and the other planets before they head back to Earth after the Lights Festival. Doc looks over all the information they've brought back and makes plans in case something happens and they have to leave.

 

Josette slides into her usual seat at the government building the first day of the new season.

 

"The babies getting settled into first grade?"

 

"Yes, this means they're really getting to be big kids. Pre-school, myeh." Josette snorts. Doc chuckles. "Kindergarten. Same song, second verse. But they've got assignments this year." David lays his head on the table and laughs.

 

"The others degrees?"

 

"Alan and the girls finished bachelors last years and are taking a year off. The boys finish their doctorates this year, including CJ."

 

"I'm going to be two years into my doctorate and a year into the bachelors. I'm going to be working on my dissertation this summer and hope to have it finished and presented next year."

 

"Josette?"

 

"I'm starting the second semester for the other dimension Masters and I'm two years into the one from MIT. This is all the basic classes now so I can pick up three a semester."

 

"Trips to the other dimension?"

 

"Possibly looking at an extra two or three this year for early Christmas, the employees coming out and the teachers for the cooking classes. Depends on how soon it is to the show. I'm bringing in a last batch of supplies for the new buildings as well as the teachers." The others nod.

 

"Are we looking at possibly having the dorms full?"

 

"Not for a while, but we're getting more students every year. We're getting more employees over the next couple years, not just replacing the ones that are switching out." Principal Madison nods. "We've been adding extra classes over the last couple of years."

 

Josette looks over the boxes of kits back at the dorm after the meeting, finally picking one and copying the instructions before breaking apart the pattern pieces. Marking them she copies them to a new sheet of plastic and lays out the fabric.

 

"I didn't notice you saying anything about starting new degrees?" David asks at lunch.

 

"This is another couple years of 'finish what you already have started woman'." David nods. "I've got ten degrees currently started, not counting the bachelors and Masters from the other dimension. I wanna get at least some of them finished or nearly done by the end of next year."

 

"And with the new employees and cooking teachers coming in this summer you're going to be even busier than normal." Josette nods. "Yeah, I can split off a duplicate to handle the classes but still. . ."

 

"There's more to life than classes."

 

"And I'm just doing this for me, nobody else."

 

The first few weeks fly by and they're digging out from a storm when Josette, Alexander, and Michael head to Eureka for their first testing week.

 

"Do you think that Doc is going to be coming out permanently?"

 

"I do, they spend a lot of time at the Fortress, the world's going to hell just like it was in our world. . ." More than one prayer and fervent hope that their world doesn't end up the way Earth did, "and I think that's why he brought the others out. I can see him doing like Clark had planned, coming back and forth as needed. This gives him the time to study and work and still be available at a moment's notice there. And there's the fact that they're slowly getting younger now that Doc's got them on the extract again. Chip and the others you can't really see the difference but the others are getting noticeably younger."

 

"While Chip and the others could pass it off to good genes, clean living, or even careful plastic surgery for years."

 

"While here it's 'yeah, they're older than they look. Isn't everybody?" Alexander shrugs.

 

"Exactly."

 

"Josette, how are you on your degrees?"

 

"Working on them, I want to knock down some of the ones I have started this year and next."

 

"Good, the next graduation ceremony is in three years, not counting this one. You'll be finished with your MIT Masters. David won't be finished with his doctorate but it will be close. The others will have their degrees finished and might be working on another one by then."

 

Josette, the students, those employees heading home for Christmas, and Principal Madison and Professor Druid walk through the tesseract with the others to Brigadoon.

 

 

"Josette, you got a few minutes?" Calvin asks, seeing a familiar figure bent over the sock boxes in the outer office.

 

"Sure, lemme finish counting these." Josette double-counts everything with Jane then follows Calvin into his office. "What's up, another increase in the orders or more stuff being ordered?"

 

"They're talking about it but what I want to talk to you about right now is. . ."

 

"Anything new?" Doc asks as Josette slides into her seat at the government building, she'd been off delivering shipments to the other dimension and taking back the first batch of stuff for the students and employees leaving that year as well as picking up the first batch of recycling for the year.

 

"Yeah, Granda wants to talk to us about Llamas and Bison."

 

"The Llamas could be used for wool." President Bartlett says slowly. Josette nods. "And he's talking about a niche market for bison milk soap and cheese. Many small farms did it back on Earth."

 

"You'd have to talk to the others."

 

"Balaclava, Assyrian, Edinborough, and the people outside Albatross who have the alpacas." Josette starts ticking off items on her fingers. "Somebody from the animal planet should have some idea about bison."

 

"If not somebody from the other dimension can come out and give them a crash course before they start coming." Josette nods. "The government is talking about new orders, Granda's going to be talking to us about that later this year. . .I got a e-mail from Doc, he wants me to talk to a government bigwig about doing the same thing for them since they want to back off the contracts with so many third world country sweatshops and cut out some of China's contracts. And they're talking about bringing out the uniforms here so students don't have to wait until breaks to get them altered."

 

"Making the uniforms or just altering them."

 

"Just altering them right now, they're talking about bringing out a factory to make more than just our school uniforms." The others nod and make notes on their PADDS. "Ours works for us right now but . . ."

 

"We'd need a factory dedicated to that depending on the sizes of the orders. Especially if we get orders from the other dimension." President Bartlett says. Josette nods. "Doc's coming out for the Harvest Festival with at least Chip and somebody from the government to look over our setups."

 

"Do they have a way to leave if the shit hits the fan?"

 

"Yep, they have the links to bring them to Headquarters or the Fortress then to the third planet in case of an emergency. They're looking to that or the tenth planet for a permanent area."

 

"Power?"

 

"Alternate power plus solar at the Fortress. They're got another as backup for Headquarters. Both buildings will be coming out if they have to, though it will be the middle of the night so they're not bringing anybody extra in the Empire State Building." The others nod, that's one of the reasons they'd all moved in the middle of the night, that and everybody should have been asleep at the time."

 

"And being out here they'd have time to work on the buildings. Unless it's an emergency."

 

Josette nods. "Then all bets are off. But if they come on schedule they'll have supplies waiting on them. And crops already started."

 

Nods from the others.

 

"The cooking teachers?"

 

"Picking them up in a couple months along with the school employees and taking out a second batch of belongings for the graduating students and employees leaving at the end of the year."

 

"Teachers and employees coming in before the Harvest Festival."

 

"Students coming in after the Harvest Festival, plus the offworld harvests."

 

 

 

Josette cocks an eyebrow at the ceiling when she arrives at Assyrian and finds everybody she'd planned on talking to at one table in the dining hall.

 

"Okay, either this is going to be a wonderful day or this is just lulling me into a sense of false security." she grumbles. The others nearby look at her.

 

"You planned on seeing all of us and finding us here is either the start of a good day or just the only good thing that happens today." the 'beastmaster' at Assyrian chuckles.

 

"Yeah, Granda is talking about bringing out bison and Llamas." She grabs a nearby chair and pulls it over.

 

"I'd wanted to expand to Llamas one day," the head of the cooperative outside Albatross says slowly. The man doing the same job at Edinborough nods, as does the woman doing the job at Balaclava. "The wool would be excellent but bison?"

 

"Soap and cheese made from the milk?"

 

"Granda says a niche market, the rich people with more money than brains would flock to buy it since it's expensive and to them rare."

 

"Do we have people to take care of them?"

 

"Some of the younger people would jump at the opportunity." the woman from Balaclava says. Edinborough and Assyrian nod.

 

"Is anybody from Earth coming out?"

 

"Not permanently but to inspect the grazing areas once we have them set up."

 

"I don't have to ask about the cheesemakers and soapmakers, they'd jump at the chance to make something new."

 

"We'd need to find good grazing land and have some type of buildings for the animals." the woman from Balaclava starts a file on her PADD as the others make suggestions. Grinning Josette heads off, landing at the dorm and looking over at the boys as they come from the ranch where they'd been checking on the crops and livestock.

 

"Talk to the others?"

 

"Yeah, everybody was at Assyrian so I could talk to everybody together, they were talking about grazing areas and what buildings we'd need to put up when I left."

 

"Cheese and soap a raree." Michael shakes his head.

 

"Just like lobster was a luxury on Earth but in the 1800s people ate so much of it they complained if they had to eat it." David says. Josette nods. "But then these are the same people who went gaga over painted sheets."

 

"Cooking classes?"

 

"They're coming out for the Harvest Festival, taking the rest of the year to get settled in and set up the classes."

 

"Yours?"

 

"I'll be finished with it next year."

 

"Masters?"

 

"Starting the thesis this year, I'll be halfway through it end of the year."

 

"Signing up for the doctorate?"

 

"Probably, be at least a year though. I gotta present this in person." Sniggering from the others has her idly flipping them off.

 

"Are you getting more stuff going back?"

 

"Yeah, with the employees as well as the students heading home. I've got two pickups this year, the teachers for the cooking classes and employees coming out this summer, and the normal pickup for the new students."

 

"We're getting more students arriving."

 

"Yep, more attending school and more graduating every year."

 

"I noticed there's two boxes in the office."

 

"Yeah, one for outgrown uniforms still good and one for ones that are worn out to be turned into raw materials for cloth or to be made into quilts."

 

Josette has David open the tesseract directly to the new buildings when the first batch of cooking teacher comes out. Some of the others from Assyrian and Edinborough are there to greet them, taking them on tours as Josette starts delivering containers of supplies and their belongings. Meanwhile the newcomers are staring up at the two suns in the sky.

 

"You'll get used to it but I strongly suggest hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen every time you go out. And yes, we do it too. It can get too much even for us, especially when we're out harvesting sunup to sundown. And we've been here years. There's maps for you on your PADDS and we'll be showing you around for your first couple of weeks."

 

"I understand there's two settlements on this planet?"

 

"Yes, Town. . .and yes, that is its name. Or First Town actually. And Albatross."

 

"There's how many eating areas?"

 

"Each of the four universities on Haven has their own cafeteria. The school Josette works at has several dining halls, each are four floors with two dining rooms and a kitchen on each floor. There's also a burger place, a pizza place, and a chicken place in other former dining halls there. There's a sandwich place, a pizza parlor, a communal kitchen, and two bakeries in Town. Albatross has a pizza parlor. That's just the places that cook professionally. Most everybody cooks, the list of people interested in your classes is three pages long on the server, and that's just the people here on Haven. There's the eighth and ninth planets who are also interested in your classes plus whoever might sign up from the other three planets."

 

Josette slumps into her seat at the dining hall a couple weeks later. It had been a busy few weeks, bringing out the cooking teachers, going out for the shows and delivering the special orders they'd been working on, then bringing out the new school employees.

 

"Is this everything until the Harvest Festival now?" Alexander asks.

 

"Yeah. I'll be able to relax until I start bringing in the new students then the offworld harvests start coming in." Josette sighs and takes the spoon Abby's waving in front of her. "This year is nuts with the turnaround in school employees and the new cooking instructors coming out."

 

"And the offworld harvests coming in late."

 

"That too. It's making for a long year."

 

The government official Doc had invited along with Chip is looking at the factories in stunned disbelief. "They can bring out any they need?"

 

"Yes but what the others have said it usually takes them about a year to check the machines and get them converted to work on the alternative power sources." Doc says. They're walking down the street when they hear the sound of breaking glass, following the sound to a large container. Doc taps on the door and it opens, Josette peeking around the door. "Hi Doc, I was just smashing the recyclable glass for the glassblowers, it was beginning to pile up."

 

"Ahhh good, I'm glad it's reused. I know a lot of recyclers won't even accept it."

 

Josette nods. "They didn't on our world either, too much work to make it usable again. But it's not that hard for us, what the glassblowers don't take the glass factories on the sorting planet does. Once's it's broken down."

 

"Do you recycle everything?"

 

"Everything we can, what we can't is tossed in the replicator's recycling bin and broke down for energy. Once you get rid of the extra packaging you had on earth, there's very little that you can't reuse. Even at the school, the most garbage generated is by the female students and David or I disintegrate their garbage once a semester." Chip chuckles and his grandfather looks at him. "Hair stuff, makeup, and that time of the month." The government official, who has three teenage daughters, laughs and nods.

 

After the Harvest Festival Doc, Chip, and the man they'd brought with them head back to their dimension.

 

"Do you expect them to have orders?" President Bartlett asks at the first meeting after the festival.

 

"I do, Doc passed along the information on what happened to our dimension and the JSA's dimension, they really don't want it to happen in their dimension, if cutting China, Russia, and North Korea off at the knees keeps another war from happening, they'll be doing it. If that knocks the wind from the sail of terrorist groups, so much the better."

 

"Do you see them going into space?"

 

"Not until something major happens. Which I think might still happen. So does Doc, that's why they were looking at the third planet and planning what supplies they'll need."

 

"Now, the new employees?"

 

"Settled in well and working with the others to get comfortable in their jobs." Principal Madison says. "The floor monitors are introducing themselves to the students on their floors, both the ones graduating this year and the ones still in school."

 

"Did you talk to Granda?"

 

"Yes, since somebody was busy with other stuff." Principal Madison smirks. Josette twirls a finger in midair.

 

"To quote my inner valley girl 'whatevah'."

 

"Somebody's coming out next summer to look over the grazing areas the others are choosing, to make sure we can handle them, and to look at the areas we've already got set up here or on the animal planet. Dad's got a list of new orders for us, we might be bringing out three more factories. . ." he sends them a file. "And we're looking at an area for a shop to alter the uniforms as needed. Students would have to make an appointment with the office so somebody is there."

 

"Not a lack of people in town or Albatross who can't handle a needle. And from what I've seen, the pants and skirts are meant to be let out as the students grow."

 

Principal Madison nods. "Dad's got a list of what we'd need to make the uniforms, the factory should be able to handle it. And he's got a list of other uniforms we can make."

 

"If we do it that way we'd have to make a second permanent shift or even bring out another factory just for the uniforms." President Bartlett says. The others nod. "Once we get a good idea of the numbers we can decide which way to go. Josette, the other orders?"

 

"Doc said he'd have the information for us probably by the Lights Festival. The government guy was taking video and seeing what kind of orders we've filled in the past." President Bartlett nods.

 

The students start coming in and getting settled in their dorm rooms over the course of a week, then the offworld harvests start coming in. The new cooking teachers stare at the people working then start pitching in.

 

"Do you do this every year?"

 

"Oh yes, and this is just the first of seventeen this year. The next one should be coming in by the end of the week."

 

"Seventeen of these?" one of them stares at her.

 

"Yep, three each for the fourth through eighth planet with two for the ninth. They don't have three offworld harvests because they don't have as many people as the other planets and they have four growing cycles plus a couple extra months, if they plant during their fourth cycle they can get in a fifth before the first hard frost. This is passed out before winter to supplement what you've been able to can from the other harvests and what the growing areas plant over the winter."

 

"No trucks to bring in food from somewhere else." One of the teachers says. The others nod. "With the difference in years between the areas the crops come in earlier every year, last year they were all coming in while snow was still on the ground and we could have harvested twice. This year they're coming in late."

 

Josette slumps into her seat their third testing week.

 

"Is everything in now?"

 

"Yes, they're working on the last right now. Then they've got a week and a bit before the communal gardens start coming in."

 

"Lot less food to take care of then." David smirks. Josette nods. "Everything's done coming in bing, bang, boom this year. Even with the extra Christmas after Thanksgiving, but that's when we'd be going out anyway." Alexander nods. "Did you move everything to Hidalgo?"

 

"Everything we had finished, I'm sure we'll have one or two more things to take out when we're ready to leave."

 

The crops are coming in when Alexander, Michael, and Josette head off for their finals. They're sitting at the table when the buzzer sounds.

 

"Are you nearly finished with the harvests?"

 

"Yeah, a few more days will have everything in and everything tilled under for the winter." Alexander says. "Josette, you're taking wheat and rice to the satellite for flour right?"

 

"Yeah, when I pick up the recycling. Most of it's going to be going to the pasta factory and replacing the flour the outlying areas purchased for the winter." The three older men nod.

 

"How are you coming on your degrees? You said earlier this year you were concentrating on trying to get some of them finished." Dr. Cross asks.

 

"I'm one semester from having two finished and I'm nine classes from having the cooking degree done. I'll finish those two over the first semester break and work on the others. I won't get them done but I'll get them knocked down so I can probably finish them year after next."

 

The three men nod in satisfaction.

 

"Other dimension?"

 

"Working on my thesis, I'll present it next year and should be done soon after that."

 

"Masters?"

 

"I'm three classes from finishing my third year, I'll get in nine more next year and finish it the year after next."

 

By the end of the week the crops are all in and Josette heads off to deliver the wheat and rice and pick up the recycling.

 

"Everything in now?"

 

"Yeah." Josette says. "I gotta shred paper for pulp, both here and at the mill. It's piling up." David nods. He was going to say something. After Thanksgiving the graduating students, returning school employees, and the others head over to the other dimension.

 

Calvin calls a meeting a few days after everybody's returned to give them a chance to get settled back in.

 

"Okay, were there any complaints about living offplanet?"

 

"No, the few things that the students thought they needed they quickly realized they didn't. Same with us. The databursts kept us updated on everything happening here. We came out often enough that if we really needed something we could get it."

 

"The box set DVDS, magazines, and books coming out to the library kept us entertained." Somebody else says. Nods from the others. "Life was simpler, it's going to take a few days to get used to the hustle, bustle, and noise. But it's no different than living in a big city after being raised in a small town." Nods from the others.

 

"Any problems from the students misbehaving?"

 

"No, the usual 'my daddy's wich so you gotta do what I want, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta' students never make it that far."

 

"I refused to allow them in my school, so did James." Calvin says with a smile. "You're students on the basis of your grades, not who you know." Nods from the others. "Those type never go very far, they usually turn to drugs when real life doesn't go their way and end up dead, in jail, or going through multiple rehabs."

 

After Christmas Josette brings back deliveries, dropping off Professor Druid and Principal Madison at the school before they head to the other dimension, dropping off the special orders and heading to the rooms.

 

"Hard year?" Clarinda asks when she sits down next to Josette who's laying back against the pillows on the couch.

 

"Long year." David says, Josette nods without opening her eyes. "We had two Christmases for the other dimension, teachers and school employees either leaving or coming in, the teachers for the new cooking classes coming out, and the offworld harvests all coming in late this year. Josette was offworld a lot this year, and with the students it was multiple trips."

 

"And I'm concentrating on getting degrees either finished or nearly finished this year and next." Josette finally opens her eyes. "But we learned from this year and next year will be a lot smoother when the next batch of employees heads home." The others nod.

 

"That's how it works, learn from your mistakes and everything will be smoother next time." Professor Xavier says. Everybody nods. "Did Calvin talk to you about his plans?"

 

"Yes, we're expecting people from the Llama and bison places next year, we've got a list of people who can alter the school uniforms if nobody comes out when we bring out their store and he's in talks with other schools to make their uniforms too if we bring out a factory. Or having a second shift in one of the ones we already have if they don't need to make a second shift for the larger contracts that might be coming from the government. We're also looking at contracts with Doc's dimension, they're trying to get away from the third-world sweatshop horror stories that had been on the news and not giving China, Russia, and North Korea the economic power that would allow them to start what happened to us and the JSA." Nods from the others.

 

The next several weeks pass quickly and they head back home, getting in supplies and heading to the island to plant and relax in the sun for the weekend. They return early first morning, settling in chairs and on couches in the living room.

 

"Next year the boys will be talking to 9th planet Eureka about their internships, looking at the intern housing, and making plans for what they'll need when they move there after they finish university. And that will turn into what they'll need when they set up permanent housing of their own."

 

"Cooking classes?"

 

"Start the first of the year, there's three different classes right now, times are set up for each planet so they're mostly scheduled during the winter when we're not asshole to elbow bringing in the crops. Four ten hour sessions for fifteen weeks. No real degrees but we'll all have certificates when we're done with each block of classes. Right now they're working on what they want to grow beyond the major crops in the growing areas and talking with the communal kitchens so they don't duplicate what the others might be growing." The others nod.

 

Josette rubs a hand over the back of her head and yawns. "Storm coming in."

 

The others nod. "First official storm of the season, we'll have a good foot by the time it's over."

 

"Fishery?"

 

"We figured on selling to the kitchens and store next summer, they should be running low." The others nod. "I'm growing jalapenos for chipilotes, and I'll be talking with Benton about cheeses." She comes up to the cheesemaker that night at dinner.

 

"I'm smoking next summer." He nods and makes a note to go over what he'll want.

 

"Smoking?" one of the newcomers asks.

 

"Smokehouse, we use it for fish, soft cheeses, and chipilotes." President Bartlett says. "I think Josette will probably have sausages out there too next summer." On the screen Josette is nodding firmly. "I gotta see how they're coming along on supplies on the 8th and 9th planets."

 

"Do you see them putting up their own smokehouses?"

 

"It wouldn't be used enough to make it worthwhile, not when we've got one they can use." The others nod.

 

Josette ducks into the JSA headquarters, the scanners had told her that most of them were in . . .ahh, going over the winter clothes since the last crops are in for the year.

 

"Josette, needed somebody?" Ma asks with a grin as she peeks around the door.

 

"We're going to be opening the smokehouse next year, make a list of what you want."

 

"Ahhh good, I was going to ask if you were planning on it. Talked to Vincent?"

 

"That's my next stop, then talking to Archimedes Vincent."

 

"Sausages?"

 

"Planned on making them then since we'd probably have the smokehouse going a couple months with the fish, the cheese, the chipilotes. . ." The others nod and Josette taps on Vincent's closed door ten minutes later.

 

"Josette?" Vincent asks, opening the door.

 

"Not staying long, I know you're busy." She can see some of the new cooking teachers at the tables. "We're going to be opening the smokehouse next summer, make a list of what you want."

 

"Ahhh, thank you. I was going to ask you about it since we're running low."

 

Josette slides onto a stool at Vincent's, getting a mug of hot chocolate put in front of her. "Thankee. Smokehouse is being opened up next year, make a list of what you want. I figure it's gonna be in use at least three months." Vincent nods. "I'll let the fish farm here know in case they want to smoke any of theirs."

 

Josette comes out of the switching station, waving a hand towards David and having boxes appear in front of him. He nods thanks and starts opening them to put away. Josette takes care of hers in her room and joins them walking to the dining hall for lunch.

 

"Talk to the others?" Principal Madison asks, waving her to the front table.

 

"Just got back from the 8th and 9th planets, they'll get back to me in a few weeks with a list of what we're going to be smoking."

 

"Do we have any offworld harvests before the festival?"

 

"No, they're all third semester again next year. Maybe the year after that we'll have a couple before the festival. Neither building will be in use so we can make big batches of everything." Professor Druid nods in satisfaction.

 

"Trees on the first planet?"

 

"Might be ready to pick the end of next year, I'll have to check and see when I'm taking care of the first world harvests and the olives. I don't expect a full harvest until year after next. Did Granda get to you about contracts?"

 

"No, I expect him to talk to us at the Lights Festival, same with Doc." Josette nods and heads into the back room, taking off her coat and hanging it up before filling a tray and sitting down.

 

"How are the cooks going to be handling their classes?"

 

"Those people who are working are splitting their classes so they're not taking the full ten hour block, they might have to take classes more days but they'll be getting the same classes anybody else is." One of the cooks nods in the kitchen.

 

The next day Josette settles in her usual spot in the Albatross Nest, a bottle of pop in her hand and a plate on her knee.

 

"We're opening the smokehouse next year, pass the news to anybody in Albatross."

 

"Sausages?"

 

"Yes, we're running low and with all the offworld harvests coming in the fall we'll have the buildings free for sausages, pickled baloney, sauerkraut, kimchee, anything else we want to make big batches of that will last for several years." the others nod in satisfaction, grabbing their PADDs to send messages to people not there.

 

The cookies are passed around along with the kits.

 

"Josette, we're going to need more old clothes for the store." Sue says.

 

"I'll bring it out my first testing week unless you need them earlier."

 

"No, we're good. We're getting hints that next year is going to be a cold one and we're expecting the stocks to take a hit as people make extra quilts for their beds." Marilyn says. Josette nods. "I'll bring them out then then, that will give us several days to get everything in the boxes." The others nod. Josette suddenly swears and 'brings' out a notepad, her fingers flying over the pages as she writes down the details on the quilts doing a conga line in her subconscious.

 

"These are going to be beautiful." Agatha looks at the papers as Josette stops writing. "And a good bit of work."

 

"I'd wondered how long the spastic muse in my head was going to let me be after the last megabatch." Josette takes the pad after it's been passed around and pops it into subspace. "I'll start them after the first of the year."

 

The Lights Festival finds Josette in the warehouses picking up supplies for the stores. She's waved into the government building after the festival ends and they talk about the contracts from both dimensions for a couple days, hammering out the details for everything and talking about which additional factories would be needed.

 

"How is it there?"

 

"China's sulking because they lost a lot of contracts over the last couple years. They've had to let a lot of people go so their economy took a hit. They're trying to get business from the other communist countries but they're in the same boat. The economy's bad everywhere so they can't really pick a contract and say 'because of this, our country is in trouble. You have to make them buy from us again'. Not that anybody would, the contracts weren't broken. . .they just chose not to renew them. They'd been puffing out their chests and threatening not to renew on their end but they never expected the others to say 'piss on you, we don't need them . . .or you.'"

 

"And the sweatshops?"

 

"Closed, it started when there was a massive earthquake and the news that American companies were among those that had work done there made the news. Those few that remained had to improve working conditions."

 

"Just like the US had to after the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire and unionization." Principal Madison says. Doc nods.

 

Doc and the other man head back after the contracts are all haggled over. "Ladies, Gentlemen, we have an answer from them and revised contracts." The contracts are passed out and looked over.

 

The first day of the new school year starts and Josette slides into her seat at the government building.

 

"How are you on your degrees?" Principal Madison asks.

 

"I'm finishing two this semester, they're part of multiple degree curriculum so I'm not really finished but. . ." The others nod. "I'm finishing my cooking degree this year and I'm at the new cooking school for the first day of classes. Next year I'll have one of the online degrees I'm taking and my masters. That's half of the degrees I have started."

 

They look at David. "I'm going to be eight classes from my doctorate. I'm working on my dissertation this year and plan on uploading it next summer."

 

"Are you two the only ones taking classes?"

 

"Right now, this gives the boys more time to work on special orders and stuff for their shows."

 

"Your other dimension degrees?"

 

"I'm three semesters into my masters this year, I'm going to be heading offworld to present it next year." Doc nods in satisfaction. "And speaking of degrees?" She purrs at Principal Madison.

 

"Yes Dad nagged me into signing up for a degree." Josette sniggers at his hangdog look. "Katrina's in the same boat." David lays his head down on the table and cackles.

 

"Factories?"

 

"Two on the list to bring out, plus a second shift on two others." Josette says, looking at her notes. "This doesn't include uniforms." Nods from the others as the information is sent to their PADDs and the main list.

 

"Once we get the confirmation on the orders Dad will bring out the factories."

 

"Do we have an area for supplies?"

 

Josette nods, putting up a picture and pointing to a couple of areas. They make notes on everything to bring up when the contracts are finalized.

 

Afterwards Josette heads to Sue's store, nodding at Marian and grabbing a cart and the notes she'd made for her quilts, cutting the fabric and handing it over to be scanned and put in bags. She shakes her head at the price of everything but puts the bags in subspace and heads off to Agatha's to get the rest of the supplies. Back at the dorm she puts the bags on the shelves to work on in the future and joins the others walking to lunch.

 

After lunch she joins the boys in their workrooms, working on stuff for her shows and their special orders. The weeks pass quickly and Josette shakes her head as she heads off to Eureka.

 

"Been a while since you were the only one here." Dr. McNider says at lunch. Josette nods. "But this lets the boys concentrate on stuff for their shows and the special orders. Yes, they've worked and taken classes for years but. . ." the three men nod.

 

"Your other degrees?"

 

"I'm starting my third semester for the Masters, I'm going to working on my dissertation again this summer and presenting it next year."

 

"This Masters?"

 

"Again, finished with it next year. I'm finishing my third year this semester so I'll have it done next summer." Dr. Stark nods in satisfaction. "I'm finishing two degrees this semester, the cooking degree this fall, and at least two degrees next year. That's five out of ten degrees I currently have started and I'll get the others down or done by the time you have the graduation ceremony."

 

"The triplets are starting their third year of university."

 

"Yep, and they're visiting the 9th planet Eureka this summer to look over the intern housing to see what they need to bring with them. And making plans for permanent housing when they're done."

 

"Do you see an apartment complex going up on the 9th planet?"

 

"Not for years, they didn't have two large jumps in population like we did." The two men nod.

 

"How is it over there? I know you went over before the Lights Festival."

 

"They were investigating the underground bunkers the US had to protect the president and other important people in the possibility of a nuclear war."

 

"Those were meant for people to live out the blasts, not for something like the nuclear winter they're in now." Dr. Cross says.

 

Josette nods. "They wouldn't have survived even if they'd had been able to get to them, the radiation was too great. They're settling in well on the moon and Mars, and terraforming some of the smaller moons for industry or research."

 

"They had planned on it. I know they'd hoped to be able to return to Earth but. . ."

 

"It will be centuries if they can. Even then they wouldn't be able to do much, all the buildings would be destroyed after the long winter, the water, ground, and air would be affected. . ."

 

Josette nods. "We've got probes recording everything to see if Earth can ever be habitable beyond domed cities that produces everything they need." The others nod.

 

"Orders?"

 

"Going to be increased over the next couple of years, once we get the final information we'll start bringing out the factories."

 

"Uniforms?"

 

"The place to alter them is coming out next year, there's not any lack of people who can lower hems, sew on buttons, replace zippers, etc. Most of the uniforms are brought a little big so they can be worn more than one year." The men nod and Josette thanks Vincent as he puts another plate of food down in front of her. "Granda's talking to other schools to make a factory for the uniforms more feasible. The factory that makes them now is getting away from uniforms."

 

"Ahhh, I'd wondered why Calvin was talking to you about them."

 

"It's not cost effective for them anymore, even though there's tons of schools that wear uniforms. They want to get into the big leagues."

 

"Shooting themselves in the foot."

 

"Exactly, instead of keeping the orders they do have they're trying to make more money and are going to end up regretting it."

 

"But they're small orders, we want the big ones." Vincent mock-whines. "They will keep the doors open, but they won't make us rich."

 

Josette nods. "They think that since they were big fish in a small pond it will translate into instant orders when they hit the big league. When it doesn't magically happen they'll pout and complain because their old customers have found somebody else."

 

"It's usually the new generation who are taking over a well-run business their parents spent decades building." Dr. Cross says. Vincent nods this time. "If they're lucky they can recover from their stupidity and realize 'Mom and Dad did know what they were doing'."

 

The next day Josette starts bringing out some of the old clothes from the ships, everybody grabbing seam rippers and starting to remove buttons and zippers, sorting them into containers that go upstairs to the boxes. Within a couple days the boxes are filled and there's extra set aside to refill the boxes when they get low. Even with a bad winter it should last years.

 

"Boxes filled?" David asks the next first day as Josette slides into her seat at the dining hall for lunch.

 

"Yeah, they're set for a few years."

 

Over the next few weeks they're heading to the island to harvest the three gardens, enjoying the warmth of the sun and talking about the garden plans, their shows, trips to the other dimensions, the new orders, and how old they're feeling.

 

"Three more years and we're going to be celebrating a hundredth anniversary." Josette shoves David into the water when he starts to smirk. "Yes, yes, you want us to have four more babies by then." She rolls her eyes as the boys snigger.

 

"We don't stop and think about time until something happens to pull us up." Alexander says. "The school's been open again for six years, It's been twenty years since we met Calvin and the others, it's been ten years since the 9th planet Earth was lost, it's been twenty-two years since they came out." Sighs and nods. "It's been 32 years since the loss of the other Earth, 38 years since Clark, Thomas, and CJ moved permanently to Haven, and sixty years since we lost Earth."

 

"Twenty-one more years and we've been on Haven a hundred years."

 

Josette and Alan bring out the bags of food, setting up assembly lines to wash and can, dry, or otherwise store everything. By the time all the crops are in on the islands and they're tilled under it's time to spread manure on the fields and garden, tilling it in a few days later and planting before Josette heads off to Eureka for her finals.

 

"Do you plan on doing anything when you've been on Archimedes a century?" She asks at lunch. Dr. Stark blinks, then starts thinking. "It is getting near our 75th anniversary." He says slowly.

 

"Yeah, I was just thinking while we were harvesting on the islands. In three years we're going to have a hundredth wedding anniversary, eighteen years after that is our hundredth year on Haven. It's not the official founding of Haven since there were settlers on Haven a year or so before we came up but. . . "

 

"You don't stop and think about how much time has gone by . . .until something happens." Vincent says. "And it's not really a hundred years since you changed the calendars since the loss of Earth."

 

"True. If we kept the old calendar it's probably been a hundred years already. That really would make us feel old." Chuckles from the others.

 

Later that week Josette checks she has everything and heads off to the other dimension, dropping off the special orders with Marcus, dropping off the government orders in the warehouse and sending them and Calvin a note saying they were there, then bringing out the socks at the office and counting them with Jane. Calvin waves Josette into his office when they're done.

 

"Information on the alterations place Granda's bringing up this summer, what we can expect in orders, and sizes." Josette sends the file to Principal Madison and President Bartlett. "He wants to look over the factory before we bring it out." They nod on the screen as she sends the file to David and Doc.

 

"The other factories?"

 

"Dad brought them out and he's got a crew working on them right now."

 

"Good, 'cause Doc sent out the message saying we got the contracts."

 

"I saw, I'm off on Brigadoon right now talking with them." Josette stands up to refill her tray again, getting another plate of salad at the bar. "I'll probably be bringing in supplies by the Harvest Festival."

 

Josette is checking the hydroponics and growing sections in the dorm when her other self comes back from Earth, nodding as she lets the memories slot into place.

 

"Get your two degrees finished?" David asks at dinner.

 

"Yeah, I already took the books up to the library."

 

"How are you coming on your other degree. You said you'd be done with the one next year."

 

"I'm two years into it this summer. I'll have it finished year after next in time for the ceremony." David nods. "Masters?"

 

"Both of them next year, I'm working on both papers this summer and will have to present the other one in person." Everybody makes a world's smallest violin motion and Josette snickers.

 

 

"How far are you?"

 

"Starting my fourth year this summer, I'm uploading it after Thanksgiving."

 

"How are we on supplies for the growing area?"'

 

"Good, We just finished the first container of supplies and we'll start the second this fall." Alan nods in satisfaction.

 

"Have you been out to the 9th planet recently beyond picking up recycling?""

 

"Yeah, I was there third testing week to check on the growing area at my place. I was there a few months."

 

Calvin brings out some people about the bison and Llamas, talking with the people from the cooperative, Balaclava, Edinborough, Assyrian, and people from the animal planet.

 

Josette brings out more special orders at the show, dropping off belongings for the students and school employees returning home that fall. After the yearly crops are in Doc comes out for the Harvest Festival, Josette coming out with the first batches of supplies, putting them in the area set aside for them as Doc and the government rep look at all the work being made on the factories and the building coming up for the alterations.

 

"Is this from the first planet?" Doc asks.

 

"Yeah, I grow tomatoes, herbs, and peppers twice a year every other year. The high heat and limited rainfall makes the peppers hotter than normal. I pick green and ripe."

 

"Is this cheese smoked?" Anton asks.

 

"Yeah, we have a smokehouse that we use every few years, this year we smoked fish, cheese, made chipilotes, and smoked some of the sausage we made this summer. The eighth and ninth planet used it too, that way we all have enough supplies made up for a few years."

 

"Sausages?"

 

"About fifteen different kinds, depending on the spice mixture. We also made barrels of pickled baloney, kimchee, and sauerkraut."

 

"Do you smoke all your fish?"

 

"No, we dry some of it, we've been experimenting with salting, though most of it goes in stasis." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

"Do you have the only fish farm?"

 

"No, the government has one and Archimedes has one too, though they grow other things. Both are near the aquaponics buildings." Doc looks at her and she chuckles. "I'll take you out after the festival."

 

"Your fish tank in the dorm?" Chip asks.

 

"The first trial, we still use it for herbs. There's one at the school in the admin building and one on Archimedes. Like us, they started out small and once we knew what we were doing we enlarged it."

 

Doc looks around at the vats of water with plants growing in them. Josette is busy picking food and transferring small plants from growing trays to a tank.

 

"What did you do with the fish water before aquaponics?"

 

"Put it on the fields, we still do sometimes. It's perfect for the crops." Doc nods, making notes on systems. The unit in the dorm would be perfect in Headquarters for medicinal herbs, while a unit like this wouldn't work in the Fortress it would do well somewhere else.

 

Josette can see the thoughts flickering across Doc's face. "Talk to Clark, they had something similar at his Fortress. Still do."

 

"Thank you Josette." Several days later everybody returns to their dimension by their time but only minutes have passed on Earth. Checking the computers to make sure nothing had happened in their absence they start talking about what they'd seen.

 

Back on Haven Josette starts bringing out the new students, the new school employees had already arrived before the Harvest Festival. A couple weeks has all the new students settled at the school and most of the belongings of the students and employees heading home delivered back to the school.

 

"The only thing now is your classes and the offworld harvests until after Thanksgiving when the students and returning employees head back home."

 

"Not quite, I gotta make another couple trips over to Doc's dimension to pick up the supplies so they're ready when the jobs open next year." President Bartlett nods in satisfaction. "The uniforms factory?"

 

"Will be ready then too, Granda's got the list of orders and I'm picking up more supplies when we go out next time. The factory that's making them now had to make triple orders for their customers for breaking the contracts, they howled but the courts insisted. So they're good until we can start delivering them."

 

"Toothpaste and candy? It's been a few years since we made batches."

 

"We'll put up the polls before the Lights Festival and they can start next year." President Bartlett says, looking at the notes on his PADD.

 

The offworld harvests are coming in before they know it and Josette's busy taking out groups to harvest and moving the crops. She slumps into her seat the third testing week.

 

"Is everything in now?"

 

"Yes, thank you God." Josette sighs. "I just got back from the last offworld harvest. I gotta start delivering next week when they're done." The others nod. Josette heads off for her finals while the crops are coming in, not that she doesn't have a dozen of her other selves already working in the fields and garden and the others are all there to help.

 

"Nearly finished?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"Are you planting in the growing area this year?"

 

"No, I'm planting on the satellite this year, I'm going to be experimenting with more crops we don't grow right now and it's not that much more work to grow what we'll need over the winter while I'm there. How are the classes coming along Vincent?"

 

"Good, it's different cooking something and learning from. . ."

 

"Somebody who does it all the time." Vincent nods. "The instructors are really happy about the vat raised meat, it tastes much better than the vegetarian . .."

 

"Crap you got in the stores?" Josette grins. Vincent and Dr. Cross nod.

 

After the crops are in they invite everybody out to the beach for a cookout, laying out on the sand until the second sun sets and the moons are beginning to come up. Walking to the brownstones they head inside various rooms for a good night's sleep before heading home the next morning. After Thanksgiving and the visits to the other dimensions Josette flies to the satellite and settles in for a year, planting two different batches of crops and making notes on how stuff is growing before coming home. Putting the saved food away she sends her notes to various people getting thanks back.

 

"Getting a storm."

 

"Yep, the boys are already at the ranch getting all the livestock in and making sure they have food for a few weeks." Susan says, coming up from the basement where she'd been checking the batteries from the solar panels. "Got a couple extra batteries in the rack and everybody in town is stocking up on last minute items before they head home. Everything but the communal kitchen is going to be shut down until the storm passes and we're dug out."

 

Josette joins the others at the Albatross Nest after the storm, bringing out the two quilts she's finished over the year, sending the files with all the information to Sue and Agatha.

 

"They're adorable Josette, these will sell well in the kits. Are you keeping track of everything?"

 

"Yeah, Bronwen wants me to send a couple of the quilt patterns into a magazine for publishing or even make them into a book." The others nod in satisfaction. Josette puts everything in subspace and heads back to the dorm after the dishes have been washed, packed up, and the leftovers handed around. Putting everything away she joins the others walking to the dining hall for lunch. They find Doc and the others waiting on them when they return, Shoshanna is staring out the front at the piles of snow Maintenance is moving.

 

"I didn't think you got bad storms."

 

"Yeah, every so often we get a winter that's colder than normal or has storms coming in from the other direction that are pretty bad. The snow's wet and heavier, it takes time to dig out even with the snowblowers. Forget shovels, they won't make a dent in this kind of snow. We put the livestock in the barns and with dial up extra food in the automatic feeders, it gives them food for the storm since we can't get out and extra while we're clearing paths and the streets. We already knew this was going to be a colder year than normal so we stocked up on supplies."

 

"Not as bad as when the second sun's orbit was shifting and we intersected." David says, coming up from the basement where he'd been checking the solar panel readouts.

 

"Yeah, those were a few pretty bad winters, we had more than one storm coming in from the other direction, by the time we dug out from one they were forecasting another one. One year we got one just when we'd be planting, it delayed everything so we would have been harvesting our third crops during winter, we only planted twice that year." David stops and thinks a second. "Damn, has it been over forty years already?"

 

"Yeah, Clark and Thomas were still living in their dimension, they hadn't even made plans to move to Haven yet."

 

"Is that liable to happen again?"

 

"No, the astronomers say the orbit of the second sun is as settled as it gets, it was just our bad luck to hit the 'turbulence' on our orbit." Doc nods. "This isn't the first we had a storm blow in before the festival, it won't be the last time."

 

"Not as bad as the 'storm of the century' back on Earth."

 

"Storm of the century?"

 

"That's what the media called it." Abby snorts. "Those of us who lived through it called it something a whole lot worse. A giant storm came through Massachusetts and just stayed there dumping snow on the area, by the time it finally moved away from us there was up to twenty feet of snow in some areas. . .including the school."

 

"And this was before the rockets went off stirring all that shit up in the atmosphere so nobody was prepared for it. Power was off at the school nearly a month, the National Guard was delivering supplies to us since we had so many people at the school. We were piling our garbage up in an empty room in the front of the dorm since we couldn't get out to the dumpster, Principal Madison told the students to pile their garbage out front or in the tunnels for maintenance to grab while they were digging us out."

 

"It was a little easier when we installed the replicator, we went out and 'shot' the garbage with a handheld unit, it got rid of the garbage bill for the school."

 

"And after we'd had the main replicator a while we installed the food replicator."

 

"Does a food replicator give you all your nutritional needs?" Doc asks.

 

"No, at least at first they didn't. People were whining on Earth about having growing areas, why couldn't people just eat replicated food? It wasn't until people started getting sick that they realized, yes you still need fresh fruit and veggies. Somebody was coming up with a pill that would give you all your nutritional needs. . ." The others shudder. "Yeah, if you gotta eat those instead of real food. . .they're handy in case of an emergency when you're not sure when you can get real food but. . ."

 

"That's the reason why starships had gardens in science fiction stories. And took on supplies from starbases or planets." Josette nods. "With the vat created meat it's different. You've got the nutrients you need from the soybeans and other raw ingredients, and it's not your only source of food." The others nod.

 

Josette slides into her seat at the government building the first day of the new school year.

 

"Did you get the last of the supplies delivered?"

 

"Yes, this is it for a few months. I'm going to be taking the first batch of orders out when I take out the others." Nods from the others. "Factories all up and running?"

 

"Yeah, with it mostly being stuff we already made we've got a mixture of experience so it's 'ehh, let's go over the details and start working' instead of having to be told exactly what to do."

 

"Toilet paper?"

 

"I'm growing cotton offworld and bringing out scrub trees for tp and paper towels."

 

"Your degrees?"

 

"Finishing the one online this fall, my Masters probably over first break. Granda's already got me an appointment to present the other one while I'm out for the show."

 

"Your thesis?"

 

"Uploaded it this morning."

 

"Doctorate?"

 

"Start it next year when I'm finished with both the Masters."

 

"Other bachelors?"

 

"I'm two years into two of them, including the other one I'm taking online. I'm three semesters from finishing two more, and I'm two semesters from the last one. If I get at least one more finished this year I'm good, if not I'll get them over the next couple years."

 

"David?"

 

"I'm uploading my dissertation this summer, I'll be a semester from finishing it then."

 

"Next year is your graduation ceremony?" David nods. "I suspect Grammy Allie will be out to talk to the others after Thanksgiving. CJ?" He looks at Josette.

 

"Is looking at another degree but he, Clark, and Thomas are also planning on being on the second planet doing some experiments."

 

Back at the dorm Josette selects a pattern and starts working, looking out the window and shivering as she sees snow blowing. The next few weeks pass quickly and they're digging out of another blow when Josette heads to Eureka for her tests.

 

"Your thesis has been approved." Dr. Stark says at lunch. Josette grins and thanks Vincent as he puts a plate of food in front of her.

 

"How are the cooking classes?"

 

"Good, they're really good at scheduling them when we're not busy. I'm two blocks in and I'm starting a third." Vincent says.

 

"I hear rumors you're going to be an author?" Dr. Cross smirks.

 

Josette sighs. "Bronwen wants me to show my quilts at a show, with the thought of either putting out a pamphlet of patterns for sale at the shows, possibly submitting them to magazines, or even coming out with a book." The three men snicker at her hangdog look. She rolls her eyes and sighs. "Yeah, that was everybody's reaction at Agatha's too." She disappears a second later, the others calmly counting off seconds until she reappears sighing.

 

"Not again." David sighs when she tells them what happened at dinner. She nods for Principal Madison and Professor Druid to come to the dorm after dinner.

 

"People are stupid." Josette says, slumping into a seat and opening the bottle of Haven Dew David hands her at her look when they've returned to the dorm with the kids.

 

"Amen, but what brought that on?" Michael asks, looking at her.

 

"This dimension was a mixture of Mutants ruling the Earth and the timeline where mutants lived in concentration camps until somebody went back in time to their younger body and changed history, Mutants outnumbered normal humans and had the power but there weren't detention camps for human or mutants. Instead there were areas where only normals lived and areas where only mutants lived as well as mixed zones. This absolute twit signed papers to have his neighborhood converted from mixed then was stunned when because his daughter had been left the house and all the furnishings by his mother. . .his normal daughter. . . the rest of the family had to move since that had been declared a normal area since there was a normal homeowner."

 

"But I didn't mean for it to affect me?" Alan says in a fake hiccupy whiny tone.

 

"Yeah, he figured that way he could get rid of the stigma of having a normal child. His family had been mutants for generations."

 

"Sounds like the purebloods in Harry Potter talking about squibs." Susan snorts.

 

"Yeah but they might as well be squibs themselves since they're latents and they'd have a weak mutation if they did become active. He's positive his younger daughter has an active mutation. . .she has purple nose hair." Josette says in a sing song voice.

 

"Oh Jeez!" David sighs. Principal Madison moans and Professor Druid's lips twitch.

 

"Yeah, so when he found out he'd have to move he tried claiming that his older daughter didn't own the house, his younger daughter did. It had to say her granddaughter and he was positive that should mean the the younger one. Nope, she gave it to the older one by name because she knew her son was an idiot and would pull something like this while his wife was a shrew. Then he tried demanding the girl turn the house over to her sister, with a mutant owner the area should become a mutant area. She refused. He sued and lost and had to move into a studio apartment in the new mutant quarter. Which was the baaadddd part of town."

 

The others laugh in appreciation.

 

"Now the older girl is a certified genius on Reed Richard's scale, she's going around making oodles of money with her discoveries and they have to work." Snorting, catcalling, calls of serves them right, and more laughter. "So he keeps suing her, trying to get her to turn over her discoveries to him. . .nope. Get her to support them in the manner they'd been accustomed. . .nope, sued her for what he would have got selling the house that wasn't his. . .nope. Tried suing her for him losing his job because he kept suing all the time. . .Nope. He got hurt and sued to make her pay his medical bills insurance wasn't covering because it wasn't on the job. . .nope. Finally the court ordered him to leave her the hell alone or face jail time. Meanwhile his 'precious' mutant daughter lost her job, got expelled from school, was running with a gang, doing drugs, got pregnant as a teenager, and ended up in prison. His life was ruined."

 

"Couldn't have happened to a nicer asshole." Principal Madison says. They head back to their house as Josette walks outside, looking up at the sky and shaking her head at the folly of men.

 

The next several weeks pass quickly and the ground is beginning to thaw when Josette starts spreading manure on the fields and garden, tilling it under several days later and planting the spring crops. She's returned from her finals and picking up the recycling when Josette, the others, Principal Madison, and Professor Druid disappear. They arrive back to Haven an hour later on Aztec, shaking their heads as they head back to what they had been doing.

 

Josette heads off to Doc's dimension, delivering the first orders to the government warehouse, going over everything with representatives before it's sent off and an additional payment sent to the account set up before she takes off to the Fortress, Ulonda settling on the water nearby as they look over the changes Doc has been making to the Fortress.

 

"Is that. . ." Josette rubs her eyes.

 

"Uh-huh." Ulonda says, looking over her shoulder. "A volcano in the middle of the arctic. With what looks like the wilderness around it. And that's Doc and the others." Meanwhile Doc looks down at the device beeping on his belt. "Josette's here." Anton nods and checks the computer. Josette arrives a few minutes later on a flyer.

 

"Wha?"

 

"There's been a lot of volcanic activity recently. While it means a growing area in the arctic. . ."

 

"More global warming and sea levels rising. Plus the possibility of dust being kicked up in the atmosphere."

 

"Which would actually bring the temperature back down."

 

"As our world proved."

 

"So we're putting up a shield around the area and the Fortress in case we have to take off suddenly."

 

"Using the same technology we used to bring the islands."

 

Doc nods. "We hope to be able to stay for another decade but things are getting bad."

 

"We were planning for nearly as long before we finally made the move. I was pregnant with Clarinda and Yoriko when the rockets exploded in the atmosphere, they were nine when we moved to Haven and we'd already been making plans towards having to leave eventually. We were lucky in being able to stay on Earth so long."

 

Beau and the others nod as they head to Headquarters. Josette sits down with Doc and makes a list of what they're going to need, finding they'd already been working on many of the same items. Josette heads back to Haven six weeks later by Earth time.

 

"Oh good, you're here." She says, finding Lee and Harry talking to Dr. Stark when she heads to Eureka to pick up her and David's books from the first semester. "Expect to have Doc wanting to talk to you when he comes out this year, there's been a lot of volcanic activity on Earth, including one by the fortress that's created a growing area they're shielding."

 

"They're looking into bringing it up?" Lee asks.

 

Josette nods. "They're thinking a decade before they come up, they're in the stages of getting supplies in right now. There's a lot of volcanic activity . . ."

 

"Which will cause more global warming, melting of the ice caps, and sea level rising."

 

Josette nods. "But if the volcanic activity keeps up it might kick up dust in the atmosphere. . ."

 

"Which will bring the temperature back down, causing the ice caps to start recovering." Dr. Stark sighs. "Have they settled on a place?"

 

"They're leaning towards the tenth planet, I'll do a little exploring and find them a few good spots."

 

Josette puts the boxes in David's room when she returns to the dorm, dl'ing the books into her mental library and putting them away in containers in her closet before joining the others walking to the dining hall for lunch. After lunch the last of the supplies from the other dimensions are delivered by her other selves and she holds up the finished top to another quilt in her workroom, looking it over before laying out the backing and batting and pinning everything in place.

 

"How many does this make?" David asks from the doorway.

 

"Too many." She grumbles. David laughs and walks away. That weekend Josette washes the quilts they'd been using all winter as the windows are opened in various rooms and spring cleaning starts with taking down curtains and washing windows, Josette splitting off a half-dozen duplicates to get the outsides of the windows on the upper stories. They look around in satisfaction a week later, everything seems ten times better after that long winter.

 

"Did you get your masters finished?" Doc asks at the government meeting the first day of the summer semester.

 

"Over the break. That, a semester in another degree I'm close to finishing, and doing some spring cleaning. The others nod they'd been doing the same thing. "We opened our windows as soon as we could, everything had been shut up so long with having such a cool fall."

 

The next few weeks pass and Josette heads to the other dimension, delivering special orders and presenting her thesis before the show, picking up supplies, taking care of recycling, and spending time arguing with Bronwen about the quilting book. She'd been amused. . .amused to hear Josette had been bit by the quilting muse again, laughing at the image of the quilts doing a conga line through Josette's subconscious.

 

"Masters?" Mary asks as Josette takes off her shoes after the show.

 

"Finished the one from MIT over the spring break, I've got two more classes for this one." She nods in satisfaction.

 

"And your other degrees?"

 

"I'm working at getting them down, I finished one degree this semester and I'm one semester left on two more, not counting the ones I'm taking online. I'm finishing one of them this year too, that will give me eight out of the ten degrees I had started done for the graduation ceremony next year plus the ones I already had finished. Everybody will have something but David will be two classes from getting his doctorate unless Dr. Stark nudges him into getting them over the summer."

 

"Too late." David says in a hangdog look and Josette laughs. "He and Grammy Allie sat me down and told me that I'm getting at least one class in this summer. If not two. I've played around quite long enough, thank you very much." Everybody sniggers. "That means she's going to be turning her attention to the rest of you next."

 

"Are the boys getting ready for their internships?" James asks.

 

"Yep, they went to the 9th planet last year to look over the intern housing and made a list of what they'd need to bring with them and a second of what they'd need when they moved into permanent housing. They're working shifts in the factories to have money put ahead." The others shake their heads but they can understand the reasoning of having money put aside so they can move directly from their parents home to intern housing then to their own homes.

 

"How did the first batches of uniforms turn out?" Josette asks as Calvin comes back into the room. He'd been expecting a call from the other schools who were looking over the uniforms Josette had delivered.

 

"Good news across the board. Expect larger orders by the Lights Festival." Josette nods, makes a note on the PADD. Back on Haven six weeks later for them Josette lifts her face to the sun and floats aimlessly for several minutes.

 

"Josette, how is the cherry crop coming on the first planet?" Principal Madison asks a few days later at the government meeting.

 

"I'll have enough to make another batch of wine this fall, Samuel is coming up to help me." The others nod in satisfaction. "I gotta open the brewery to make vodka, bourbon, and near-beer. we're running low." The others check the supply on their PADDS and nod.

 

Josette looks over at the door opening as she fills the last cask, putting it on the racks with the others. Samuel looks around the brewery with a grin. "How long do you age it?"

 

"At least a year, some I age in the bottle, some in casks to give it a different flavor. I make vodka, bourbon, and near-beer." She waves a hand at the rooms of racks. "Some I hold back to age longer." he nods in satisfaction as she shuts up the brewery and they head to the first planet on Vallejo. By the end of two weeks work back on Haven they have several pallets filled with boxes of cherry wine and Josette puts a note on the server, getting immediate orders.

 

"That was quick." Samuel says.

 

"They were waiting on me, the cherry wine has been talked about since my first batch. If the demand is good they're going to plant more trees on Haven."

 

Samuel looks at the orders. "I think we can say there's a demand. I'd never heard of a pure cherry wine before but anything with a high enough sugar content will ferment."

 

Josette nods. "Most of the wine gods concentrated on grapes because that's what grew in their areas, but humans had tons of fermented drinks to get drunk and stupider on." Calvin had come up behind them and snickers. "Too true, as Spring Break proves."

 

The Harvest Festival comes and Josette picks up more containers of supplies for the offworld orders, delivering a second batch of orders and chuckling as she sees Lee, Harry, and Doc talking about enclosing the growing area at a table during the Harvest Festival.

 

"How is it?"

 

"We're getting a bit of climate change, you wouldn't notice it unless you were looking for it. What is happening is being blamed on the greenhouse effect and global warming." Beau nods. "Everybody's ignoring it, have for years. It's going to take a major catastrophe before people realize that global warming, greenhouse effect, and carbon footprints are more than just catch phrases."

 

"Oh, it's not going to affect me. . ." Josette says in a huffy 'go away, you're bothering me' tone. "Until it does."

 

"Exactly. And by then it will be too late."

 

Josette puts away the books from the degrees she finished over the break and that summer when she picks them up along with David's books at Eureka. The offworld harvests start coming in while the new students are arriving and Josette's kept busy. She slides into her seat at the dining hall after her midterms.

 

"Get the degrees finished you wanted?" Susan asks.

 

"Everything but the one online, that won't be done until finals. I got one of the degrees I was a semester from finishing over the break and got in the last two classes for the Masters and the other degree this semester." The others nod. "That just leaves me two degrees. I'm three classes from being three years into the one and I'm three semesters from finishing the other."

 

"Did Grandpa Nathan tease you about only taking thirteen classes this semester?" David smirks.

 

"Yeah, he says he'll let it slide this time since I'm finishing three degrees this semester. Including my second masters this year." David sniggers at Josette's sour look.

 

"Did you sign up for your doctorate?"

 

"Yeah, this summer. I'm in, I'll start the classes next year."

 

"Are the offworld harvests all in now?"

 

"Yeah. I've got a few weeks to relax until our harvests start coming in."

 

The rest of the semester flies by and after Thanksgiving and the trips to the other dimensions everybody heads to the first planet to relax for a few weeks. The house is finished and they 'christen' most of the rooms as well as the nearby growing area. They return and see the triplets settled into their new rooms on the 9th planet before Josette heads to Agatha's for the party, bringing out the quilts she'd finished that year and sending the files to Agatha and Sue.

 

"How many do you have left?"

 

"About 78?" Josette says then shrugs. "The muse landed on me like a cargo container of potatoes when she finally showed back up." The others laugh and nod. Josette puts everything away when she returns to the dorm, bringing out quilts to put on her bed and checking the supply of her winter sleepwear. She'll have to make some more next year, these will last this year but that's about it. She makes a mental note to check the rest of her clothes over the break and joins the others walking to the dining hall for lunch.

 

"Is anybody else sorting out clothes that are getting worn out?" Susan asks.

 

"Yes, my winter sleepwear will last this winter but that's about it."

 

The others nod. "Our sheets are getting worn out and the triplets had to sort out a lot of clothes before they left. Something else you don't think about until your elbow or foot goes through something." The others nod. By that night there's a large bag of stuff for Josette to either shred and add to pulp for paper or use in patchwork quilts with more stuff being brought out to replace it. Josette spends the next couple of days sorting through everything, removing zippers and buttons and soon has containers filled with material for more patchwork quilts.

 

The others start showing up for the Lights Festival and as Calvin had said he's got more orders for uniforms with him. He finds Josette going over plans for what she's going to grow on the first planet the next year while David is upstairs transplanting some of the new growth in the greenhouses. Hannah looks around her in satisfaction.

 

"You haven't grown here lately."

 

"Not for the past two years, last year Josette grew everything while she spent a year out of time on her satellite and the year before that we planted on the islands. We knew we weren't going to be planting here and planted extra over the year to make up for what we can't grow on the island. Or rather won't grow on the island so the ecosystem isn't thrown out of whack." Hannah nods in satisfaction.

 

"You grow potatoes in hydroponics?"

 

"Easier to get to the baby potatoes that way, we weren't sure about growing them at first but we did it as an experiment. Along with Josette picking green tomatoes for recipes. The experiment turned out well so we grow them both."

 

"How many quilts?" Hannah asks, looking in Josette's workroom a couple days later and finding shelves filled with bags.

 

"About 75? 78? Somewhere around there, I got six of them done already. I thought 25 was bad, the muse was letting me off easy." Bronwen snickers behind her mother. Josette finishes cutting out the pattern pieces from the plastic, putting the sliver in the box to recycle later. "We were planning on stopping at the suppliers. Want to come along?"

 

"Please. I need to pick up a few things, including more plastic."

 

"You don't reuse pattern pieces?"

 

"I could but then I'd never know what envelope had the piece I was looking for." Bronwen nods. "It means multiple copies of the same basic shape but it also means I have everything I need when I open an envelope."

 

Josette brings out her purchases from the suppliers, David chuckling. "Hush annoying one." She puts everything away and joins the others for a late dinner. The Lights Festival comes and goes, Calvin talking to the manager of the uniform factory about the new orders.

 

The first semester of the new year comes around and Josette shoves David out of his chair as she sits down.

 

"Ahhh, you too." Doc chuckles.

 

"Yeah, Pat called this morning and told us that she and Bethany were pregnant."

 

"We have a baby in the gestation chambers." Principal Madison says. President Bartlett nods. "Us as well."

 

"A lot of people are getting empty arms when they're confronted by the fact their babies are going to be leaving home this year." Josette snickers. "Professor Parker and Mr. Storm?"

 

"Yeah, Franklin told me he was going to be a cousin again when I went out to pick up the books from our fall classes. He was amused by that. . .not so amused to find out he's going to be a big brother again."

 

Everybody chuckles. "Isn't that everybody's prerogative, to be embarrassed by the idea of your folks still having sex. Aren't they old?"

 

"Anything else?"

 

"Nothing in my notes, the factories are all working on the orders from the other dimensions, I gotta pick up more supplies after finals. Took the trees and cotton to the tp factory last year, I should be picking up the orders when the first crops start coming in. We're good on supplies for everything else. . ."

 

"We might need another batch of towels in a couple years." Doc says, looking at his PADD. Josette pulls up that file and nods. "Yeah, I'll grow cotton again offworld this year and next for the towel factory." She sends the message to Brigadoon who passes it on to the robots. "Okay, all set. I'll put up the poll at the Lights Festival this year, I'll take the cotton out next year, and the towels, washcloths, and bath mats should be ready the year after that." The others nod in satisfaction and the meeting breaks up, Josette heading to the bakery for snacks before hitting the yarn store.

 

"Really?" Agatha chuckles as Josette tosses yarn over her shoulder into the cart.

 

"Yes, all six of us, President Bartlett has a baby in the chamber, so does Principal Madison. I haven't heard from Mom and Dad yet, but I expect they will this year along with Mom and Dad who will see our babies, the newest Covington, and get empty arm syndrome."

 

"Your youngest are turning nine this year."

 

"Yep, that's a good age between children. We told the boys seven years after they were born."

 

Josette grabs a handful of gift bags and heads back to the dorm, finding Susan already making a list of what they'll need in the nursery. Josette nods and starts looking through the baby clothes, shaking her head and putting most of them in a bag to be used for blankets.

 

"We had to expect it." Abby says, looking at the now nearly empty dressers. "I'll go to the store after lunch, between the baby store and the resale stores we'll have a good supply. This time's only one baby each, next time we won't be so lucky."

 

"Yeah, stock up on what we can for next time." Josette heads upstairs, putting the bag in her studio before putting everything else away. After lunch she goes to the warehouse to check the orders as the twins head to the resale store warehouse, coming back to the dorm with a couple bags of baby stuff. The dressers are soon full again and Josette joins them at the table for dinner.

 

She's not the only one heading to Eureka for her first testing period, Susan had started her Masters in History while the boys had started their Oxford Art History bachelors. They were attending a different school than Josette had taken her classes from though, to make things interesting. Alan and the girls had started another bachelors to complement the ones they had already finished.

 

Josette smiles at the picture of the newest McNider-Cross daughter who's sucking on a bottle in her daddy's arms.

 

"Ten bucks says Rick, Courtney, Kara, or Billy is pregnant by the end of the year."

 

"Sucker bet. Billy's boys must be three or four. A good age between children when you want them to be close."

 

Josette heads to the 9th planet later that week, loosening her cloak and lifting her face to the sky. It's very early spring and Josette chuckles as she looks at Rick and Courtney. They look at her and laugh too. Doc and Pieter are nearby.

 

"Josette." Doc sighs.

 

"Yes, I'm pregnant. All four of us, Pat, and Bethany. It's all one child thankfully and we'd wondered if you were pregnant when we saw Dr. McNider giving the baby a bottle when we were in Eureka for our first set of tests."

 

Pieter laughs and nods. "The twins are starting pre-school."

 

"I thought they must be about ready. David had empty nest syndrome when the triplets left the dorm, even with sixteen younger children still living at home." She finds the triplets at work and musses their hair, hugging them and generally embarrassing the hell out of them. Much to the amusement of everybody watching.

 

"Mooommmm." Anderson whines. "Ah jeez. . .again?" His brothers look at him, then their mother, and facepalm.

 

"Yes, your dad was blubbering about how his babies had left home." Josette sighs. Dr. Blake smirks at Dr. Cross and nods.

 

"He does realize we've got sixteen brothers and sisters still living at home, right?" Samuel asks, his hand still covering his face.

 

"Doesn't matter, one of his children has left home. He'll do the same thing when the others leave too."

 

"They're already pregnant." Josette says as she slides into her seat at dinner. The others but David laugh.

 

"Dr. Cross and McNider have a little girl, we were wondering how long it would take the others on the 9th planet to become pregnant." He grins. "I also embarrassed the hell out of the triplets while I was there." David sniggers. "Who?" Abby asks.

 

"Rick and Courtney, good thing I brought extra yarn. The twins are starting pre-school this year." The others grin, that's always a good reason to have children."

 

Josette looks up from her knitting several weeks later when a head pokes around the door of her workroom.

 

"How are you doing Josette?" Mom Sanders asks as she, Mom Covington, and Dr. Blake hug her.

 

"Good except for not being able to see my feet. So I'm having a girl."

 

"Have you told the others? I know Clarinda's in her own dimension for a while."

 

"Yes, I sent out 'you're going to be grandparents again' messages and once the babies come I'll send out another message with pictures." Josette rubs her stomach where a foot had kicked her.

 

"Did you send bags to Rick and Courtney?"

 

"Yep, finished theirs first since they'll deliver before we will from the way they looked."

 

"Two girls, Jessica and Elaina." Dr. Blake sends pictures to Josette's PADD and she smiles at the exhausted but proud parents. David pokes his head around the door.

 

"What do you think of Zebulon and Zachariah?"

 

"Hell and no. Put the name book down before I have to hurt you." Josette says firmly. David grins. "Abby hit me with her slipper for five minutes."

 

"Hopefully her foot was in it for that suggestion." His mother says dryly. David sniggers, kisses the three older women, gooses Josette, and heads off.

 

"Did David finish his doctorate?" Mary asks Allison as they get settled into their rooms.

 

"The first thing he did this semester, he knew I'd be watching him after we made him take extra classes last summer so he'd be finished for graduation." Mary sniggers at Allison's nasty kitty smirk.

 

"Josette, do you have any idea how many bachelors you have?"

 

"231, I'm not counting the cooking degrees. the three degrees I have finished on shipwrecks from the Naval Academy, the comic book degrees I have one or two degrees in out of three, or the Tarzan multiple degree curriculum I just started. I am counting the multiple curriculum degrees I finished since the last graduation ceremony since I did finish them."

 

"You're weird." David shakes his head.

 

"You just figure that out?" Josette drawls. "This way I don't have to sit down and realize how many fucking degrees I actually took. Bad enough I'm graduating with 29 bachelors, 3 masters, and 3 doctorates this year."

 

"Doctorate from the other dimension?"

 

"I signed up for it after my masters was completed but there's a waiting list. I start next year. That gives me a year to work on the papers." Allison nods in satisfaction.

 

"Deliveries from the other dimensions?"

 

"After our finals. I'll split off duplicates to handle it and take care of the fields and garden."

 

A couple weeks later Josette is waddling down the hallway when her water breaks. Swearing she heads off with Lord Apollo as the others swear and are herded upstairs when their water breaks. By the end of the week two boys and two girls are born and the news that Pat and Bethany had given birth to two girls had been passed along along with baby pictures.

 

Josette and the other girls take their finals in the first floor lounge and Josette splits off duplicates to handle the recycling and deliveries to the other dimension, bringing back supplies that are sent to various places before Josette absorbs her other selves and settles in her seat at the dining hall. Mom, Mom, and Dr. Blake were heading home that weekend now that the girls were up and moving around slowly.

 

"Has Doc decided on a site yet?"

 

"No, but he's got it settled down to three possibles. I took the last batch of probe data out while I was there."

 

"Is he still talking ten years their time? From last year"

 

"Yes, so about six years for us now. He should start sending out supplies as soon as he settles on a place and if he wants to bring anything out early like Clark did. or just have me bring out supplies, with the ships and the satellites and build barns and other outbuildings for animals before they come up, then plant." Allison nods. "If he brings the Empire State Building out early, the work it needs can be done before they arrive. It wouldn't want to be out too soon. . ."

 

"And they're going to want to bring out their homes. Plus probably some other buildings. . .either in the future or already waiting on them." Allison says. Josette nods. "You can't just live on a planet without some form of entertainment. That's why we have so many people from the fifth and seventh planets beyond just doing their laundry. Even with the television and radio stations broadcasting." Everybody nods. Josette adds that information to the list of what they'd have to talk about, she can easily 'copy' whatever they need from the other dimension.

 

With the babies arriving they're a little late with the spring cleaning but a couple weeks into the summer semester has all the windows washed, curtains washed, starched, and hung back up. Windows and doors are all open to the warming air and David inspects the mechanicals with a crew from GD while another inspects the solar panels and roofs.

 

The first crops had come in when they head off to Eureka for the graduation ceremony. Her loving family and friends are sniggering in the audience or on the stage with her.

 

"How does the ninth planet handle their degrees?"

 

"They put all their degrees on servers, for the colonies, the people on the moon and Mars, and for the ones who came out here. When Luthor closed all the schools the classes on the servers were all that was left until the schools hopefully reopened. Now it's like our degrees, when one is finished they print out the diploma. We brought out universities, so we started adding new degrees early, they might do the same thing as things change. And Doc's bringing out a server with *their* school degrees."

 

"We had an early start with the schools closing." Principal Madison says. Josette nods.

 

Back at the dorm Josette sighs as Pat makes a big production of counting the diplomas for framing. Heading downstairs she picks up Alanis and changes her, handing her off to Anna when the other woman comes in already pulling off her shirt.

 

"Damn kid, you suck like a hoover." She says as the baby latches on. Bethany giggles from the doorway.

 

"Shows?"

 

"A couple of weeks."

 

Josette leans between Michael and Alexander's shoulders at dinner that night. "Silver tea services?"

 

Michael looks at her and Alexander facepalms. The others snigger. "You're harvesting this year?"

 

"When I pick up the offworld harvests." The others nod and they talk about the latest databurst from Doc who'd picked a spot on the 10th world.

 

The trip to the other dimension is a few days later and they spend several weeks in the rooms and visiting malls, museums, and whatnot. Back on Haven the yearly crops start coming in, followed by the second round of harvests and the offworld harvests. Josette slumps into a couch at the dorm one night after checking in on the babies.

 

"Where is everybody?"

 

"Looking over the information on the area Doc selected and talking about what is going to be needed before he comes out. And what's going on in the other dimension, the volcanic activity is picking up." Josette nods and closes her eyes, taking a quick nap on the couch. The others chuckle as they come down, Josette waking up in time for dinner.

 

"Did you start your dissertations?" Calvin asks as Josette pokes the last piece of salad in her bowl with a fork.

 

"I did, gives me a head start on the other one before I start the classes. I had an outline and notes already laid out for the electrical engineering diss." Josette gets up to fill her tray again, filling her bowl with another salad she 'puts' on the table before sitting down. "The other paper I'm starting from square one but I've got years before I'm at the stage where I can defend it." The others nod.

 

After the Harvest Festival Josette is busy taking the others on a trip to the satellite, bringing in the offworld harvests, and hitting the stores in the mall warehouse to get new clothes for the next few years. She replicates more stuff, looking in satisfaction at the filled dressers and closets. She hates shopping but her dressers were getting a little bare. Looking through the linen closets she heads to the supplies and brings out sheets, towels, and other stuff.

 

"Get everything you needed?" David asks at dinner.

 

"Yeah, I hate having to get new stuff but after the last couple of years nearly everything is gone." The others nod.

 

After Christmas Josette splits off a dozen duplicates to help bring in the harvest, working in the kitchens with David canning, drying, or otherwise storing everything while the others are in Eureka for their finals. Everybody's done the next day and by the end of the week everything is put away for the winter and the food from the offworld harvests is delivered. Looking at the full shelves in satisfaction Josette checks the list of what she'd planned on making this winter, David nodding. The ice cream toppings is something that won't go to waste, when a jar is opened it goes in stasis until it can be used up. Same with the dressings for salads and condiments.

 

"Do we have enough jars and crocks?"

 

"I replicated extra just in case."

 

After the trips to the other dimensions to deliver orders, pick up supplies, and spend time with their families. . .shopping much to Josette's disgust and the others amusement they return to Haven.

 

"Did you pick up the first batch of supplies for the 10th planet?"

 

"Yeah, it's on the ship, I'll start bringing it out next year after winter's over there when I'm putting up their outbuildings."

 

"I know Doc's got money but . . ."

 

"I insisted that he use part of the proceeds from the orders to get in supplies. And there's people in the government who can read the writing on the wall and are giving him as much help as possi. . ." Josette disappears. She reappears a few seconds later, sighing and sending out messages on the PADD. Soon a dozen people arrive at the dorm.

 

"Another world gone?"

 

Josette sighs and nods. "Moron governments outlawed super-heroes. They left in droves but surprise, surprise that didn't stop villains from attacking. And the police and military units were defenseless against them."

 

"Morons."

 

"A mad scientist invented a mind-control ray to take over the world, but when his companions opened the door of the shielded room, they were affected too. Since the last order was to do nothing everybody just stood there while a dangerous experiment released an experimental gas into the atmosphere, killing everybody on the planet." Josette splits off duplicates as Clark heads to his ship and two Josettes head to Brigadoon, one being dropped off on the satellite as the others split up and head to various ships.

 

Everybody returns an hour later, you can tell it's been a long time by their faces.

 

"There but for the grace of god go I." Dr. McNider says.

 

"But it should have worked." David says in a fake bleating voice. "If there was no heroes, there shouldn't have been any villains."

 

"And when they found out otherwise it was too late."

 

Josette nods. "Not the first time humanity has done something so stupid." the others sigh and say silent prayers for the dead before they head various directions. A few days later Josette takes Dr. Cross and McNider to visit the Justice League. They return six weeks later their time.

 

"How is it there?"

 

"Good, they're building a second settlement in one of the canyons on the moon, a dome over the rift and building down. It was that plan that made them wonder if any of the underground areas on Earth was salvageable."

 

"I don't think I'd be able to stand living like that but sometimes there's no choice." Josette nods.

 

"Are they in contact with the colonies?"

 

"Yes, the news that Earth was lost was a heartbreak to them. They'd cut their ties with Earth but. . ."

 

"It was home and there was always the chance they might come back if things got better." David says, the others nod.

 

The next day Josette settles in her usual spot at the Albatross Nest, opening a bottle of pop as she balances her plate on her knee. They talk about the patterns for the next year, the sales on everything, Josette moans as Agatha twits her about a possible book, and pass out the cookies and kits.

 

Josette is shelving the books from the degrees she finished that year when the others arrive for the Lights Festival. She puts the containers down the hall and joins them walking to the dining hall for dinner. After the Lights Festival Josette takes the others to the tenth planet, allowing them to see the area they'd selected in winter, then bringing up a holographic picture so they can make plans on what they'd need to do during the winter.

 

"When did the 9th planet put up the library?" Doc asks.

 

"Their second year, along with the growing buildings, the building for their food, the tv and radio stations, and the building for their classes. They had Eureka's library until then, plus whatever books they had in their homes."

 

"They brought them out?"

 

"Yes, we built new but the others either already existed when they came up or were brought up later and worked on."

 

"How many solar panels does the library have?"

 

"Eighteen, plus they can piggyback on the alternate energy source. They expanded by tesseract on the inside and were bringing out books, magazines, DVDS, and other stuff until they lost their earth."

 

"We'd be doing the same thing." Doc says. The others nod. "We have good sized libraries at Headquarters and the fortress but they're tech heavy."

 

"We can order directly from publishers and visit bookstores until those orders start arriving."

 

"And there's the option of what we did, copying libraries, museums, and everything else you'll need to bring out in warehouses." Doc thinks a second and nods. "The way the volcanic activity is increasing, that would be a way to preserve everything. Especially the way the oceans are rising."

 

They head back a few days later, checking the computers for alerts while they were gone before settling around the table. "Do we want some way to get between the buildings during the winter? Especially during a storm?"

 

"That would be prudent, either tunnels like the school has or enclosed breezeways. Calvin has offered to help us whatever we choose."

 

Josette slides into her seat at the government building the first day of the new school year.

 

"Have you checked to see how the bison and Llamas are settling in?" David asks, checking the list of what they were going to talk to at the meeting.

 

"Yeah, the others say they're doing fine." Josette says. "The Llamas were sheared once before winter and we nearly had a fight over the fleeces even though there's plenty for everyone in a couple years."

 

Doc chuckles.

 

"Orders?"

 

"On track to deliver at the end of the semester and pick up more supplies. Doc chose the outbuildings and I've got the first batch of plastic framing being made up." The others nod.

 

"Do we expect them to increase?"

 

"In a couple of years. We've proved we can deliver the goods."

 

"Dad's orders?"

 

"On track. We might get asked if we can make more things but. . ." Principal Madison nods, rubbing the back of the little boy on his chest while President Bartlett changes his daughter in the corner of the room.

 

"Did you hear from your parents?"

 

"Yes, Abraham Jonathon Covington and Gabriella Louise Sanders are being doted over by their parents."

 

"Apartments?" Josette looks at President Bartlett. "How are we on empty apartments?"

 

"Good, the furnished apartments are a quarter to a third full. The other apartment complex here on Haven is a quarter full and there's still empty apartments in the others. It will be decades before we have to bring more out." Principal Madison's lips twitch. "Yes, even with the way we're having children."

 

"Josette, your doctorate from the other dimension?"

 

"Started the classes this morning. I'm finishing a degree on boys literature this semester nad finishing the degree on Pearl Harbor over the break."

 

David smirks. Josette rolls her eyes at him. "Dr. Blake's going to beat you if you only get in three classes this semester when you've done a year a semester." Principal Madison nods as Doc and President Bartlett chuckle.

 

"I'm picking up another degree from the other dimension. Grammy Allie already gave me a look until I told her what was going on. I started it last fall."

 

"Are you going to be able to handle going for two doctorates at the same time?" Principal Madison asks.

 

"Yeah, I'm taking two classes for that one I'm getting in first and taking the class for this doctorate last."

 

After the meeting Josette stops to the bakery before heading back to the dorm, eating a doughnut as she walks upstairs and opens one of the kits, copying the pattern pieces onto plastic as she lays the fabric out and copies the instructions, starting a new envelope for the quilt she pins to the corkboard until she's finished.

 

"Are you going to be able to handle two doctorates at once?" Dr. Stark asks at lunch their first testing week.

 

"Principal Madison asked the same thing. I took the two classes for over there first and I'll get my doctorate class here last. That gives me a break between them if it's needed."

 

Dr. McNider nods in satisfaction. "I hear you're finishing two degrees this semester?"

 

"Semester and break. I'm finishing a boys fiction lit degree and I'll be three classes from the Pearl Harbor degree to the Naval Academy. I'll finish that over the break."

 

The three men nod in satisfaction. "New degrees?"

 

"Beyond the doctorate over there? I'm a semester into a degree on Japanese internment camps from the history school and a year into the bombing of London."

 

"Cooking?"

 

"I'm in my fourth block of classes."

 

"How are the Llamas and bison settling in?"

 

"Good, we expect to have milk for cheese and soap within a few years and yarn from the Llamas."

 

"Is the new dairy making cheese?"

 

"Yes, but not all the varieties they want. They're looking into putting up an orchard and starting a vineyard to infuse wine and cider into the cheeses by soaking. Right now they're making small batches to introduce the cheese to us and learning what cheeses we make."

 

"A lot easier to buy wine and cider on Earth." Dr. Stark says.

 

"But there's also something to say 'yes, we did this, we grow our own grapes and make our own wine, the cider is pressed from our own apples... It's a lot of money and upfront work before you can start reaping the benefits of your hard work." Dr. Cross says. Josette nods.

 

"Are you growing more grapes for wine?"

 

"Yes, I started new vines a couple years ago when the dairy came up and talked to me and Alessandro about our wines. He's semi-retired, letting his children take over the business. He planted more vines and I also planted more offworld."

 

"Forget how time goes by some days."

 

Josette nods. "I miss Harvey." Harvey had died a couple years ago at nearly a hundred and fifty years old surrounded by his three problem children. His ashes were compacted into the gem that hangs on the wall of remembrance in their home.

 

"He was a big part of your lives for nearly fifty years before you lost Earth and was still a good friend after that." Dr. McNider pats her hand. "Now I understand you're making silver tea services?"

 

"Yeah, we're taking out examples of the silver and porcelain ones this year for the show, see if there's any interest." Dr. Cross chuckles at her bland tone as the boys roll their eyes at her.

 

"I take it the special orders aren't slowing down?" Dr. Stark chuckles.

 

"Hell.No." Alexander sighs. Josette and Michael nod.

 

Back at the dorm Josette slides into her seat at the dining hall with the others. "Have you started the plans for the gardens?" She asks David.

 

"Yeah, I wanted everybody to look at them after dinner. Get your doctorates classes finished?"

 

"Yeah, and I'm two classes down to finish the boys lit degree." After dinner they settle in the living room, David sending out the file he'd been working on and they talk for a half-hour before getting the babies ready for bed and making sure the older kids have gotten their baths and headed to bed after working on their schoolwork. The next day Josette heads off to plant on the first planet, coming back six weeks later for her.

 

"Everything in?" David asks, leaning against the doorframe of her workroom.

 

"Yep, tomatoes, peppers and herbs in the raised beds and a full garden by the house to see how they grow in the heat."

 

"Plastic order?"

 

"Be done midterms, I'll take one of the ships out to pick it up. By the time I can start bringing out supplies, the second batch should be ready." David nods. "By that time Doc and the others should have a solid plan for me to work with."

 

Josette heads off to Archimedes on Brigadoon the week of midterms, picking up the first batch of building supplies. She slides into her seat at the government building when they return to Haven. The meeting lasts about twenty minutes and she stops to the bakery for a bag of doughnuts before she heads to the dorm.

 

"Did Dad talk to you?" He'd been arriving as Josette was heading out the door.

 

"Yeah, we're getting some interest from the vampire planet on new buildings or bringing out other ones. He's going to be talking to everybody over the next few years since it's not anything they need right away, it's all planning for the future." He sends her the file of possible options and Josette nods. "Once everything's finalized we'll talk the to the plastic replicators and the others." Josette looks over everything, then makes a couple suggestions. David facepalms and sends that information to his Dad.

 

After lunch Josette heads to the factories, moving the orders already completed to the ships so they have more room and bringing out more supplies for them from the containers. This empties several of them and she moves them to the ships to return to the other dimensions, knowing the spots will be full again in a couple of months when she brings out more supplies. Josette stops to the clothing factories last, talking with Pat as they go over the supplies and see what they need to make next.

 

"Underwear?" one of the women sewing asks.

 

Josette nods. "It's been a few years since we had the factory going." She checks the supplies and nods.

 

"Towels?" the man at the next machine asks as he takes the garment and pins another piece to it before starting his sewing machine..

 

"The announcement will be going out at the Harvest Festival. Once all the orders are in, they'll start working. Possibly by the Lights Festival but more likely next year." He nods, clips threads, removes the pins, and hands the piece down before turning and accepting another garment.

 

The sweater factory is next, Josette looking around in satisfaction as the scarves, hats, mittens, and sweaters on the shelves before she and Pat walk to the communal kitchen. The party for the kids is after they come back from their third testing week and Josette heads off to check on the crops growing on the first planet with one of the botanists from GD, taking video footage she sends off to Professor Druid's family who'd wanted to see how a regular garden handled the first planet's growing conditions before they return several days later for them.

 

Josette heads to the other planets with the green peppers, selling a good portion before drying part of the remaining bushels and popping the rest in stasis. The snow is beginning to melt and Josette spreads manure on the fields and garden as windows begin being opened, if only for a few hours just to air out the dorm until the furnace kicks on. The finals come and Josette is asked again if taking two doctorates at the same time is too much work but she assures them she's fine.

 

Stopping to various factories to make sure she has the last of the orders to take to the other dimensions she picks up the recycling on the other planets, dropping it off various places before heading off.

 

"Get everything delivered?" Doc asks when she slides into her seat at the government building.

 

"Yeah, and I'm delivering supplies right now. I got another batch of supplies for the tenth planet, I should be able to start working out there after the Harvest Festival. Oh, we might be getting new orders/increased orders then too. There's been a bit of flooding in some areas with the sea levels rising and some factories had to shut down. They've got a stockpile of items but. . ." The others nod.

 

"Is anybody besides Doc keeping an eye on the situation?"

 

"Yeah, the best guestimates is if the volcanic activity decreases, the ice caps will be melted in ten years. If it keeps going the way it is, half that time. And they're already seeing the effects of all the dust being kicked up in the air. Winters are getting colder. Another couple years and they'll see the problems we had. They say the volcanic activity should decrease. . .eventually."

 

Josette dances when she finishes the Naval academy degree then turns her attention to spring cleaning with the others, washing windows from the outside and cleaning gutters. She looks over the exteriors of the buildings, they'll have to paint in a couple years she thinks as she lands on the ground.

 

"Everything finished outside?" David asks as he comes up with another batch of curtains to go on the windows as a pair of Josettes shake out the quilts to air outside.

 

"Yeah, we gotta think about painting in a couple years." Alexander nods behind David. "Yeah, I was noticing the same thing. Inside and out." The others nod, it has been a few years since the dorm had work done. "And a major cleaning."

 

Josette nods as she joins them walking to the dining hall for dinner.

 

The next few weeks pass quickly, Josette scrubbing the outside of the dorm buildings when she's not taking classes or doing one of a dozen other things. The special orders for the shows are taken in and Josette waves a hand, boxes appearing against one wall. A smaller pile appears against another.

 

"Thank you Josette, students who's parents can pick them up?" Josette nods. "Embassies?" Jane points at the second pile. Josette nods again. She sends a file to the other woman. "Students and number of containers." Jane nods. "I'll bring the last of them out during our third semester, I'd say the students can't have that much left in their rooms but I know damn good and well how much stuff can accumulate over several years. Even without the big stuff." Nods from the other two women.

 

Marcus smirks at Josette as the extra forms he'd had made up for the show to see if there was interest in the silver tea services flying off the table. And the interest in the other special orders is still going well. The other show is just as hectic and Josette slumps into a chair at the rooms, closing her eyes and toeing off her shoes.

 

Back on Haven the offworld harvest, yearly crops, and second harvests are beginning to come in and Josette's kept busy, heading to Archimedes to pick up the second order of building materials a couple days before the Harvest Festival.

 

"Is everything in now until after the festival?" David asks.

 

"Yeah, the remaining offworld harvests, the first planet crops, and the last harvest here is it."

 

"When are you heading off?"'

 

"After the festival, I figure it will be at least six months. About the same amount of time I was gone putting stuff up on the 9th planet and getting everything ready for us to come up." The others nod. "I'll start the first planet crops while I'm gone."

 

After the Harvest Festival Josette heads off, returning an hour later and showing Doc the progress she made on his place before the meeting with the government official about the increased orders.

 

"Thank you for agreeing to help us out, with the problems caused by the climate changes we lost a lot of contracts this year." He outlines the new orders, then the increased orders.

 

"Josette, sock orders?" David asks.

 

"I've got a second shift running the machines for us. Right now I'm working on a batch for the fourth planet, then the eighth planet. The others either got in their orders last year or will next year."

 

"Our supply?"

 

"Filled it last year along with a shipment for the 9th planet. Fifth and seventh planets should be putting in orders next year." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

"Are you going to have another order of plastic by the end of the year?"

 

"Yeah, I'll take it out next spring when I get another one. By the end of next year will have a good start they can build on." The others nod.

 

"Are they bringing out animals?"

 

"With them when they arrive, they've got a nice selection coming up."

 

 

 

 

"What happens if it's before they planned?"

 

"The tags bring them to the first planet if they have to come up early, that way they don't have to worry about arriving in the middle of a winter. We've got enough empty places on the various worlds to house people until everything can go to their permanent places and they can start work. That way nothing freezes in houses that are empty." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

"Is everything coming out in the way of supplies?"

 

"No, they're keeping back a good selection of them just like we did when all of us came up. This way if something happens they have supplies there before they can move offworld."

 

"Did you get everything planted?"

 

"Yeah, and I've got more barrels of olives to put in the root cellar. Both green and black." David makes a disgusted face and Josette sniggers.

 

"The Llamas?"

 

"Yarn is being spun from the fleeces right now."

 

"Cotton?"

 

"Delivered it to the factory, the announcement went out this morning."

 

"Underwear?"

 

"The factory is starting up again next year. Male underwear, then female, and finally kids. Bras. Then finally socks." Josette looks up from her notes. The others nod. "The orders should take two years to complete." More nods.

 

The last offworld harvest is coming in at the same time Josette is off picking the green peppers on the first planet. Heading to the other planets she sells part of the green peppers and puts the rest on strings to dry or in stasis. The last harvests start coming in and everybody slumps into seats in the living room.

 

"First planet?"

 

"All in, I took the ripe peppers, herbs, and tomatoes out while I was picking up the recycling." Josette says without opening her eyes.

 

"Good. So we're all ready to head off with the students, Principal Madison, and Professor Druid in a couple days.

 

Josette nods. "Three trips, one to Granda's dimension, one to the other, and a third to Doc's."

 

"Extruded plastic?"

 

"Picked it up while I was picking up the recycling. I'll go out after the next batch and start constuction again. That will give the others something to build on."

 

Josette delivers the last of the orders for the year at the warehouse while the boys handle the special orders. The students trail off to an auditorium for their graduation ceremony or meeting their family if they have later ones or are spending break with their family. Josette talks to Calvin for a few minutes and heads home. They take care of the recycling and spend a few days shopping for stuff while spending time with their families before taking the returning students, Principal Madison, and Professor Druid home. The floor monitors greet the students to make sure they haven't brought back anything they shouldn't have. Because there's always one student who thinks they can sneak something in past the floor monitors.

 

Six weeks later for them they return from the other dimension, the others joining her on her visit to Doc's world. . .or rather the Vegas of Doc's world.

 

"Is everything delivered now?"

 

"Everything but the latest batch of supplies for the 10th planet, I'll take them out when I get another batch and pick up the rest of the framing." The others nod as they walk to the dining hall for dinner.

 

A few days later Josette brings out the quilts she'd been working on at the Albatross Nest, the others looking the over.

 

"How many do you have left?"

 

"Too damn many, it will be a couple decades before I get them all done." Josette grumbles something. Agatha chuckles. The others look at her. "Ahhh, Bronwen won the argument?"

 

"Yes, the first book is going to be on sale at my next show, self-published and I'll be signing copies. The run starts the first of the year. Yes, you'll all be given a chance to purchase them when they're available, there will be copies at each store." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

"You're going to be famous Josette." Sue smirks.

 

"Buffalo chips."

 

"Changing the subject, but how are things coming on the tenth planet?"

 

"I have some stuff up, I'll have another batch of extruded plastic next semester and finish what I have started, that way they can decide on what they want next."

 

"When are they coming up?"

 

"About five years. . .give or take. They're working on getting stuff ready to bring out when they do leave. The closer we get the more the more exact the date."

 

"Are you bringing out supplies?"

 

"Got a batch on the ship right now, I'll take them out when I get the other stuff next semester and the plastic." Nods from everybody as they gather up the dishes and put the leftovers in containers. Everything's washed up and Josette is handed the leftovers as everybody heads to their homes. At the dorm she puts everything away and heads upstairs to the growing area, starting seeds in the hydroponics unit since the twins are in the greenhouse and the boys bar Alan is planting in the growing areas.

 

"Josette, blue corn?" David asks from the door.

 

"Yeah, plant me about three rows." He nods and heads back to the growing area.

 

Josette yawns after lunch as she puts a couple extra quilts on the bed.

 

"Snow by morning." David says.

 

"Yeah, it's not going to be a lot of snow but it's going to be damn cold for the next couple of weeks."

 

It's snowing when Josette gets up the next morning and she puts on a pair of thermal underwear on under her regular clothes before breakfast.

 

By the Lights Festival Josette has replicated advance copies of her book and the printing building is ready for the order as the others talk in the living room, shooing the kids away. The fact that Momma Clarinda had just come back from the other dimension has Josette sighing.

 

"We should be afraid of all our families plotting, shouldn't we?" David asks facetiously. The others nod slowly.

 

"Yep." Josette drawls, looking over her advance copy of the book she'd just replicated. Bronwen takes it when she's done and nods in satisfaction. "How big is the initial run?"'

 

"Five hundred copies?" Josette asks. Bronwen looks at her. "Five thousand copies?" She looks at her again. "This is a vanity press type book, it's not going to get all that much demand." Bronwen still looks at her and Josette sighs. "Okay, fifty thousand but I still think I'll have rooms full of books forever."

 

"Good insulation." David smirks.

 

"Not between all the planets and the shows." Bronwen says. "I wouldn't be surprised if you have to do a second printing after the second book is announced."

 

"OI Vey." Josette facepalms then disappears, the others following her seconds later. Josette reappears and sighs. "We'll be back in an hour, I'm heading off on Ulonda." She splits off a duplicate and heads off.

 

"Do we wanna know?" Mom Covington asks, her eyebrow raised as she joggles Gabriella, who's fussing as her mother warms a bottle.

 

"Not the only ones this time, a group from the 9th planet got tapped too."

 

Josette shakes her head when she merges with her other self after they return. "My life is fucking weird."

 

"At least you weren't the only one this time." David says. "Can somebody check this out? A few ideas I had for a fire unit." The file is picked up on various PADDS, the others talking after lunch over that.

 

"Do you need this?" Doc asks.

 

"All our buildings are protected inside and out but what happens if a lightning strike causes a wildfire? Better safe than sorry."

 

"Do you have a way of detecting them?"

 

"We're going to be expanding the probes over the next couple of years, both the number of probes and updating the programming. If they detect smoke we can investigate."

 

"Are you thinking foam?"

 

"Yeah, but we need a way to carry it, distribute it, and make sure it takes the fire out with the first drop. Or quickly reload." The others nod. "Now the cities could easily drop the foam like the flying tankers did on Earth but. . ."

 

"A smaller unit is more maneuverable."

 

"And a drop that big would be overkill."

 

After the Lights Festival Josette talks with the printing press operators, getting chuckles and nods. The first day of the new semester Josette slides into her seat.

 

"Check in on the factories?"

 

"Yes, everything's coming along well. The underwear and towel factories started operation last week, the printing building is chugging along and the other factories are dealing with the new or expanded orders."

 

"Doctorates?"

 

"I'm a semester into the one from the other dimension and plan on working on my dissertation again this summer. I'm starting the second 'semester' for the other one and plan on finishing the dissertation this year so I can present it next summer."

 

"10th planet?"

 

"Working on that over the break this semester when I pick up the next batch of building materials. I'll be dropping off more supplies then too."

 

"Are they still on track to be coming out in about five years?"

 

"Yeah, barring a total cluster fuck emergency that brings them out ahead of time."

 

"Tea services?"

 

Josette sighs. "Me and my big mouth. But yes, we should have the first ones finished for sale this year."

 

"The orders still not slowing down?" President Bartlett's lips twitch.

 

"No. Who is buying all this stuff?" Josette waves her hands. Her loving family .. .and yes she counts President Bartlett as a doting uncle after being around him so long laughs at her. "Did you get some input on the fire stuff?" She asks David. He nods, bringing up his original ideas first, then the suggestions the others had made.

 

"Cooking?"

 

"I'm five blocks in, I try to take two a year. I started another cooking degree last fall."

 

"Are the teachers overwhelmed by all the students?"

 

"No, they're enjoying themselves. They love the idea of students from the other worlds taking the classes during their winters, there's always a block going. They're passing along everything to the others back home and we might have another batch of teachers coming out in the next few years as they add more blocks."

 

"Are they staying five years?"

 

"Somewhere around there." Josette makes a yes, no, maybe hand waggle. "They're not real certain. They love the range of students, not just professionals but housewives."

 

"Not really the typical student they'd have on Earth." Principal Madison says, his lips twitching. "How are you on your classes David?"

 

"I'm not quite halfway through the second year for the bachelors over there. And three years into the degree on Tarzan this year."

 

"The others?"

 

"Susan's going to be a year into her masters, she's starting to pull together the notes for her thesis, the others are three years into their bachelors. And CJ's starting a bachelors from Cambridge this year." Josette says. "Are you two going a semester or a year a year?"

 

"A year a year, we can handle four classes with the longer semester."

 

"You're going to be making quilts for decades." David says, looking at the bags of material lined up like books on the shelves.

 

"Longer, I keep getting hit by more ideas. I write them down, when I fill another pad I'll buy the stuff to make them. I want to get some more of these made up first." Josette looks at the full shelves and sighs, then grins. "Yeah, I know. Idle hands are the devil's workshop and a clean room is the sign of a sick mind." David snorts.

 

"Is this your book?" David picks up a book with a familiar picture on the back.

 

"Yeah, it's an advance copy I replicated to make any changes that was needed before the order went to the printers."

 

"Are the books going for sale at the stores?"

 

"Yeah, Agatha's throwing a party at the Albatross Nest when the print run is finished. She's done it before for other new authors. . .It makes me realize just how damn influential she was in the crafting community."

 

The next few weeks pass quickly and Josette heads with the others but David to Eureka for their first testing week. CJ comes through a few minutes later and they stand outside breathing the warm air before starting their tests.

 

"Books?"

 

"Order should be done by the end of the semester." Josette hands Vincent a handful of books she brings out of subspace. "Advance copies of the cookbooks that are going to be printed over the next couple years." Vincent smiles. "I'll look them over and get back to you Josette."

 

"Thanks, we can proofread all we want but there's always something that slips through. We're hoping multiple eyes can catch any oops before they go to print. After lunch Josette heads to the 9th planet, dropping off advance copies at the cafe and JSA headquarters. The others stop what they were doing to pick up the books and start to read.

 

Josette grins and heads back to the dorm, taking off her outside clothes and hanging them up in the front of the building.

 

"Get all the cookbooks handed out?" Principal Madison asks, waving her over at dinner.

 

"Yeah, Mom, Ma, and Mom all have copies. Vincent has copies on Archimedes and I dropped off copies at the cafe and JSA headquarters on the 9th planet. If everything looks good they should start printing the first ones after the Harvest Festival. If there's problems, we can catch it early, update the files, and they can still print after the Harvest Festival." Everybody in earshot sniggers.

 

The end of the semester comes sooner than anybody had expected and Josette is busy picking up the extruded plastic and recycling, then heading to the other dimensions to drop off orders and pick up more supplies.

 

"Do you have everything done?" David asks when Josette slides into her seat at dinner.

 

"Yeah, everything is now up on the 10th planet along with the supplies, I sent pictures and other information back to show them how everything is progressing so they can make additional plans. The new supplies are all delivered and part of the book order is on Atlantis, the rest is in the dorm. That way we've got the books for the show." The boys snigger at her hangdog look. "Harvey would be rolling on the floor laughing his ass off over the book. At least until he realized that you'd dedicated it to him. Then he'd be cussing like Sarah." the others laugh and nod.

 

"Towels?"

 

"I'll be delivering the orders before the Harvest Festival. Men's underwear was delivered to the planets and the stock at the store is refreshed, I'll deliver the women's then too." The others nod.

 

"Pasta and flour?"

 

"At the store or at various homes. Including ours." David nods. "We were running low on stuff. Are you growing chickpeas this year?"

 

"Planted them with the corn and the butternut squash."

 

A few days later Josette arrives at the Albatross Nest for the signing party, bringing out boxes of books that Agatha opens and puts on a table in the middle of the room. "Sue's store?"

 

"I delivered the books, they'll put them out tomorrow." Agatha nods in satisfaction as the links start activating and people start coming in either from there or the doors.

 

Agatha raises her voice. "Thank you everybody for coming to Josette's first signing party. The first of many." Josette moans as everybody laughs.

 

"Josette, what's the status on the cookbooks?" Marian asks.

 

"Advance copies were passed out and are being looked at. If there's no problems they start printing after the Harvest Festival." The others grin. "First book will be available at the store after the Lights Festival.

 

Josette's shaking her head when she slides into her seat at the dining hall for dinner. "Bronwen was right, 458 books sold today."

 

The others snicker. "Everybody was there, Smallville, Cabot Cove, the Amish women. . ."

 

The crops are in when Josette heads off Calvin's dimension, signing books at the table set up as people line up for them.

 

"Who was Harvey?" More than one person asks as they read the dedication.

 

"My first agent, the boys second. He got me beyond thinking 'old sheets are art? You're nuts.' and made me what I am today. We lost him a few years ago. Our youngest son is named for him."

 

"How many books?" Calvin asks after the show.

 

"They're still counting. But Marcus had a stack of boxes this tall empty." David smirks, holding out his hand to nearly his waist. "And they were flattened to save room."

 

"That's why I had you print so many." Bronwen smirks. "How many books sold at the party?"

 

"458." Bronwen laughs. "I signed more for Sue's store."

 

"Did you leave Marcus any for later sales?"

 

Josette nods as she stands up. "7500 books beyond what we brought out for the show."

 

They return to Haven six weeks later for them, Josette working the recycling and hitting various malls and warehouse stores.

 

"How many books?"

 

"4,702. Out of the five thousand we brought off Atlantis for the show." David sniggers. "Who buys self-published books by a quilter nobody has ever heard of?"

 

"You're a well known artist and you've shown your quilts at the shows before." Susan smirks. "Tea services?"

 

"Yeah, we took out nearly a hundred and had just as many requests as the first show."

 

The book sales are nearly as good at the other show and Josette shakes her head as she takes off her shoes in the rooms. The boys are nodding off on the couch and David shakes his head as he gets everybody up and moving to bed.

 

The second crops are coming in and Josette's busy with the offworld harvests, sliding into her seat at the dining hall a couple days before the Harvest Festival.

 

"Did you get your dissertation finished?" David asks.

 

"Yeah, I'll check the file this fall and winter so I can upload it next spring."

 

"Towels and women's underwear?"

 

"Delivered to the other planets and the stocks are refilled at the store. The kids underwear will be ready for delivery at the end of the year along with the bras, the socks will be ready for delivery spring next year. That will hold us for several years." The others nod.

 

After dinner the boxes of towels and other stuff is opened and passed around to various bathrooms, the rest being put way in the storeroom at the front of the dorm. Josette nearly inhales a mouthful of water as she yawns in a hot tub and she turns in early. She leans around the door of her first floor room at Principal Madison's quiet call and chuckles.

 

"I take it this is the reason why you disappeared before the Lights Festival?" Josette laughs and nods, getting hugs from various people then taps on David's door. "David, they're here." David leans around the door and nods. "Heading?"

 

"Yeah, I'll be back in a few. Take them upstairs to the second area for rooms while the others are. . ." Josette catches Harvey as he runs from the nursery, putting him in David's arms before she uses the switching station. More than one blink and waving hand.

 

"Switching station, it allows us to travel between worlds beyond Josette's ships." David says.

 

"They're here." Josette says in a sing-song voice, leaning around the door at JSA headquarters where a quick x-ray vision glance has shown the others to be. "Or rather, they're there."

 

"The dorm?" Rick asks.

 

Josette nods. "Principal Madison said he just sighed when he found people standing around looking confused and took them to the dorm when he recognized the latest Mom." Rick laughs as he sends out messages to the others.

 

The others have come back out of their rooms when Josette and the others start arriving from the switching station, people hugging those lost from their world, and talking as everybody heads to the dining hall for breakfast.

 

"How many children?" More than one person asks as everybody fills trays and settles down in the back room, Principal Madison among them.

 

"A hundred twenty-six, twenty still living at home. Summer and her age group are 14 and in the 9th grade, the younger kids are 11 and in the sixth grade, while the babies turned two a few months ago. The older kids range in age from 98 to 24."

 

"Why so many . .." Charles McNider asks. His fellow doctor Kent Nelson is interested in the answer as well.

 

"Children at one time? The Covingtons have a genetic quirk that causes multiples in the family more often than normal. With them being pregnant so often, it's resolved into a 'one kid per momma' pregnancy and a 'oh shit, we're having how many kids?' pregnancy. It doesn't help that when one of them ends up pregnant, they all generally are pregnant."

 

"I couldn't handle that many children. . ." more than one person says. "Especially home-schooling them. I understand that. . ."

 

"Sarah was the oldest, she died when she was 55. She was married to my oldest son, they would have been 101. Katrina and Susan gave birth within days of each other."

 

After lunch they walk back to the dorm, getting a small tour when they see the ranch house in a doorway. They shake their heads at some things, nod at others, and sigh when they come across the wall of remembrance.

 

"How many books?" Inza moans as she sees boxes stocked five high filling nearly three rooms. When she'd asked, David had shrugged and said they were copies of Josette's first book.

 

"About 24,000. Bronwen is positive that a 50,000 run was a good idea but I'm still not so sure." Josette says, rolling her eyes. "I thought 500 was a good run for a self-published book by somebody they'd never heard of, she just laughed at me and said that we'd sell that many just here."

 

"And she was right, Josette sold 458 at the signing party Agatha had at the Albatross Nest. There's more at the stores for those people who couldn't make the party. And sold five times that many at the shows." Josette walks off grumbling under her breath, much to the amusement of the others.

 

"Oh my . . ."

 

"Josette's studio, where she does a lot of her work. She's got more workrooms down the hall where she does more, a work building she shares with Alexander and Michael where they work on special requests, and a work area in the basement of the textiles building."

 

"How big?"

 

"75 floors. Each floor is about three times as big as the entire dorm."

 

"And I'm still not sure I found it all." Josette says, peering around the door of the sock room. "We gotta splice skeins this weekend." David nods.

 

"Splice skeins?"

 

"Josette makes socks for both this school and Calvin's in the other dimension. It started back on Earth when she was making socks for the school, to sell at the flea market, and on both the school's webpage and hers. Each skein in two pounds and produces four one color socks or eight two color with a little left over. We splice the partial skeins when Josette gets a container of them, four partial skeins makes a hank and we can get two pair of socks out of them."

 

"And after those socks are done?"

 

"The scraps are put in a bag and given to the textiles building to use for projects. It's usually enough to tie a quilt."

 

 

 

"Josette, how many books do you still have?" Bronwen asks when she comes out for the Harvest Festival.

 

"About 24,000, give or take. Don't tell me that Marcus is running low. I know there was probably a good bit of interest on the website after the show but really. . ." Bronwen chuckles.

 

"Ellis wants to offer them at his place, though there's a good bit of demand on the website. People are buying tickets so they can get a signed copy." Josette rolls her eyes up at the ceiling at the cackles of laughter from Lords Strife and Loki. "Can they do another run?"

 

"Not unless they add a second shift at the printers. After the festival they're going to be starting runs for the cookbooks. That's going to be through at least the end of next year."

 

"Gimme." David cackles and ducks into the replicator room, handing her over an armful of books.

 

"Did you start on another book?"

 

Josette grumbles as David cackles. "2nd one finished." He jerks a thumb upward, his face buried in Alexander's shoulder. "A third one finished?" Jerked thumb upward again. "Four?"

 

"Yes, all the quilts I currently have finished, including a book on my patchwork quilts." She shoves David who laughs again and prints advance copies again.

 

"I'm definitely going to talk to the printers." Bronwen sighs as she puts the books on the coffee table, her mother and a brother grabbing some of them.

 

"Cookbooks?" Hannah asks.

 

"We've been working on them for a while. We've got about a dozen sets of the advance copies out so that we can see if anything was wrong before they were printed."

 

"This one is stuff most people don't grow?" Bronwen's brother asks.

 

"Yeah, we're hoping the cookbook will get more people interested in them when we do grow them. The serious cooks know them of course. . ."

 

"So you're gearing this one to the common housewife." He nods in satisfaction, turning the pages again. The book is arranged strangely, with a section on the food, then the recipes. He'll have to remember this format when he works on a new book.

 

 

 

"Does Josette sleep in here?" Clarinda asks, looking at the twin bed in the room Josette had walked out of a couple days ago. She's got so much room, why doesn't she. . .

 

"Not anymore." a male voice behind her chuckles and she turns to see the man she'd been introduced to as Dr. Pieter Cross who, strange as it might seem, had given birth to Josette in his dimension. It had been . . .interesting to meet the other women who Josette had called Mom. Katrina was married to Principal Madison and even if Josette didn't call them Mom and Dad it was obvious they were her parents.

 

Mom Clarinda was like her, a single mother until Josette had died while in Momma Clarinda's universe Josette's father had lived and they had other children. While Pieter and Josette's father had given birth to her in their respective dimensions.

 

"That door." he points to the first door on the left, "Goes up to Josette's second floor bedroom. It's also got an opening to the second floor so she doesn't have to run up and down the stairs every time." During one of the many expansions of the dorm the linked rooms had been given their own doorways so the original rooms were also there. "She's got a circular staircase up to her library on the third floor."

 

"And it needs to be expanded again." Alexander says around the two pieces of yarn in his mouth. Spitting them out he lines the ends up and starts rolling it on the table, making it one piece of yarn. Finding the other end he grabs the next partial skein in front of him.

 

"Do you have plans?" James asks. David drops the yarn he'd just picked up and sends the file to his Dad. "Josette and I have been working on it for a while. Still the same basic outline but expanded and rooms on the different floors between bookcases. So expanding out and up." James snickers at one page.

 

"Oh tell me you didn't put that picture up of the library being in a tower." Josette rolls her eyes. She turns to the chair with it's back to her and starts winding the yarn around it, twisting the hank and tucking the ends in to make it neat before dropping it into the container on the table. Without her having to say anything Harvey brings out more skeins from the container, putting them on the table to sort into colors with his brother and sisters.

 

"Well, it is 18 floors already." David smirks.

 

Josette calls him something rude in Ancient. Clarinda looks at the door and Josette. She waves a hand and Clarinda opens the door, nodding as the lights come up automatically. "Motion sensor?"

 

"Ten minutes if there's not activity, in rooms where we're liable to be working quietly we can shut it off and leave the lights on. That way the lights don't go out on me when I'm reading something or taking classes." James follows her up the stairs, going to the other staircase in the room as she looks around in satisfaction.

 

 

 

 

"Do they always do this?" Dr. McNider walks down the streets filled with tables.

 

"Every year since nearly the beginning. The eighth planet has a smaller version when their third harvests come in. They have a second festival at the end of the year that grew out of Christmas since with the longer year they could be celebrating twice a year." Nods from everybody. "There they decorate the buildings with lights, have hot cider for the kids, mulled wine for the adults who want it, and roast chestnuts over the same setups that make the paella."

 

"Is everybody from the other planets here?"

 

"Pretty much, with the time difference they can come out and look then either head home for work or stay in the temporary housing units. There's usually something different on the tables every day of the festival."

 

"How long do they last?"

 

"This one three days, the Lights Festival is two days, the end of the current year and the start of the new year."

 

"Students?"

 

"The festival always takes place during the second break for the school, so that students could both attend and run errands for the adults to make a little extra money. Josette will be heading off after the festival to pick up the students who are going to be starting school next year, this stretches out the arrival time over a couple weeks so everybody's not overwhelmed at the school, gives them time to talk to their advisors. . .especially if they're in dual enrollment, and gives them time to get used to everything before they start school. And take in orders to the other dimensions and take more belongings back for the students who are graduating this year. That way they just have a couple of bags when they head home."

 

"Is your school just a high school?"

 

"It was at first, but Dad's school takes students in as young as ten. Most people don't want their children being gone for so long at that young an age but there's always some who can't be bothered to be parents. We have students in several years, starting in sixth grade through twelfth grade. A good portion of them are signed up for dual enrollment and taking university classes while they're here."

 

"Is there any problems with being gone so long?"

 

"No because even those students who aren't taking dual enrollment will enter university as a junior." The others nod in satisfaction. After the Harvest Festival they head to the 9th planet, either staying in the hotel, the guest houses in Eureka, or extra bedrooms of family and friends. The children are a shock to some of them but they get over it quickly.

 

Kent shakes his head as he sees where the other version of his eldest son had lived. If he and Carter were on digs they'd both call it a nice little base camp but. . . The building upstairs being converted into a home is a little better but Kent still has to wonder what kind of life his children lived in that other dimension.

 

"What's that building?" He points to a building by the edge of the cliff.

 

"Josette's house when she's on the 9th planet. She put it there since about fifty miles out is where the ships land when they're here. The sunsets and moonrises are wonderful on the water."

 

"It's so small."

 

"It's bigger on the inside than it looks." Billy chuckles. He heads that way.

 

"It's not locked?"

 

"Biosensors, that way nobody's got to bothered with keys and the doors open if somebody's got their arms full. During harvests we just leave the doors open since so many people are going in and out all the time."

 

"Good lord." Kent looks around the room.

 

"Josette said it was five levels above her and eight below? Or was that five levels below her and eight above. Plus outlying areas."

 

"Outlying areas?"

 

"An enclosed roof garden, a growing area inside. A medical unit. Gymnasium levels and library." Billy looks at the large open area then the ceiling. Kent blinks. "Josette said she got it from the Great Hall ceiling in the Harry Potter books."

 

"The view is magnificent."

 

Billy nods. "Josette's got a whole wall of windows that you can't see from the outside. I think she's added onto it over the last couple of years."

 

 

"Did Bronwen talk to the printers?" David asks when Josette slides into her seat at the government building while a half-dozen of her other selves are offloading food from the offworld harvests while another has just brought out another batch of students.

 

"Yes, they're starting a second shift for the books. I took about five thousand out to Ellis's warehouse complex for him to sell when he opens again."

 

"How are they coming on putting up the new buildings and giving him a new stock?"

 

"Good, a good chunk of the buildings are finished and they'll be filling them over the winter while they can't build more. He should be back in business in five years. He's going to have a grand reopening sale, with a number of one day free memberships for the looky-lous."

 

"If they see what they like they may buy memberships." Doc says. Josette nods. "The real crafters will enjoy not having to pay shipping. The posers will whine about the prices and 'they don't have anything you can find at Walmart'." David leans his head on the table and cackles.

 

"Did you talk to Dad?"

 

"Yes, after looking at my library and shaking his head they're working on a plan to incorporate six rooms in a snowflake pattern on each floor and add more floors. Once we get everything figured out, the boys and I will make furniture on one of the ships for the new areas."

 

President Bartlett slides into his seat at the government building. "Sorry I'm late."

 

"You really didn't need to come, I know you're busy with the new students."

 

"I needed a break." he smiles. "It's not as bad as before we lost Earth but . . ."

 

"It's still a lot of students to talk to." Josette says.

 

"Offworld harvests?"

 

"Done by the second testing week."

 

"Are we going to have one for the tenth world?"

 

"Not unless they show they need one, even then it would probably only be one offworld harvest." President Bartlett nods in satisfaction. "Now, deliveries?"

 

"Yep, I've got one on the ship I'll drop off along with the one I pick up after Thanksgiving."

 

"How is it there?"

 

"The dust in the air from the volcanoes is beginning to affect the growing seasons like we expected. It might be getting warmer and the ice cap melting, but it's also. . ."

 

"Getting colder." President Bartlett nods. "To be expected. It took a while before we found out what was going on with all the shit in the air."

 

"Are you copying anything for them?"

 

"Oh yes." Josette says. "Every time I go out I either copy something new or update the copies I have." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

"About five more years?"

 

"Unless something drastically happens one way or the other. The volcanic activity isn't letting up, ranging from the Hawaiian volcanoes that increased the islands to massive eruptions that took out a lot of people or just kicking up dust. The vulcanologists are having field days at all the activity. Earthquakes are picking up, they don't know if the earthquakes are causing all the volcanic activity or vice versa?"

 

"And Doc's in the middle of it?" Josette nods. "This way he keeps an eye on everything and passes his findings on to those in know of the government."

 

"Is all the dust being kicked up causing lung problems?" Doc asks.

 

"Yeah, just like the smog we used to have on Earth and after Mount St. Helens. In a way we were lucky in that while we had everything kicked up in the atmosphere, it was in the upper atmosphere and we didn't breathe in all that shit. They are. If you're in the range of a volcano, you don't leave the house without a mask covering your face."

 

After the meeting Josette stops to the bakery then heads to the pizzeria at the school, nodding at the woman behind the register before filling three plates at the buffets and sitting down. A chuckling has her looking up as Professor Ziegler sits down with his own plates.

 

"Orientation done?"

 

"They were starting the tour when I came in." Josette nods and starts eating her salad. "How many more days?"

 

"Eighth day."

 

"I expect in a few years it will be three weeks." Josette nods. "We're getting more students arriving every year, we're getting more students graduating every year."

 

After her five plates of pizza and three of various salads Josette stacks plates on the table and heads to the dorm, working on a quilt for a few hours until dinner. Joining with her other selves she walks to the dining hall with the others. They look at the full tables on the screens, not just with the students but with the new teachers and other school employees who had come out that summer.

 

"How are you coming on your degrees?"

 

"I've finished another bachelors from the other dimension, this makes five. I'm three 'classes' from my electrical engineering doctorate, I'm checking the dissertation over the break before I upload it next spring, and I'm a year into the one from the other dimension. I gotta send the diss to my advisor and get it approved before I go too much farther."

 

"Your bachelors here?"

 

"I'm going to two years into three degrees by finals, nine classes into the degree from the naval academy I started this spring, and a year into my fifth degree from Assyrian's cooking school. Means I'll be getting another year's worth of books over the break when I get the supplies for spring semester."

 

"How many blocks have you taken from the other cooking school?"

 

"Eight blocks by Thanksgiving."

 

"It's been five years, are any of them heading home?"

 

"Not for another three years at least. Another batch of teachers is coming out next year since this year ends another five year contract for the school. They're going to be adding new classes."

 

"Does everybody have most of their belongings back in the other dimension."

 

"Most of them, I'm making another trip with the ship over our midterms to take the last of the containers out." On the screen for the front room Principal Madison nods in thanks.

 

"Is the second printing of your book going to be finished by Thanksgiving?"

 

"Should." Josette points her fork at David. "Yeah, I know we'll probably need to take more books out. I'll move some of them to the ship as they're printed." David nods then yawns. "Going to be rain by bedtime." Josette nods.

 

Frances comes to the back room and talks quietly with Josette. She nods and Frances smiles before heading back to the front room. "Wanting to know if I had yarn scraps, they're needed for a class on tied quilts. I'll take them over tomorrow." Josette sighs and covers her eyes.

 

"Another book, tied quilts this time?" Anna asks, her lips twitching suspiciously.

 

"Yes, thankfully I don't have enough tied quilts for one."

 

David snorts. "I'm sure between Frances, Sue, and Agatha, you'd have enough tied quilts for a book." In the front room Professor Druid is giggling while Principal Madison is smirking and repeating what David's saying to Frances who'd nodding so hard she looks like a bobble-head doll. Josette makes a rude gesture in his direction under the table figuring if they can't see it from the other room, they can't call her on it. Professor Druid giggles again. Principal Madison sighs. "Josette, just because we can't see what you're doing, doesn't mean we don't know what you're doing."

 

"How many books does Josette have finished?"

 

"Four, right now the printers are working on a second run for her first book, then they'll be printing the others."

 

In the back room Josette suddenly smirks. "You know, I'm really being very selfish."

 

"Okay, I don't wanna know but I'm gonna ask anyway." Alexander drawls. "How?"

 

"I'm taking all the glory of being an author for myself. I should get Bronwen to talk to the others at the Albatross Nest. They've all been quilting a lot longer than I have and they're really the ones to write a book on Americana and quilts. Some of the old quilts are works of art that need to be archived for the future. I know the Amish quilters probably wouldn't be interested, but there's a quilting group in Smallville. Or there was."

 

"Ooohhhh, way to pass the buck." Anna cackles. "And it's even a good idea, some of the old quilts do need to be preserved. Back then there were no quilting books, blogs, patterns, or magazines, it was all handed down by grandma." She grabs her PADD and sends that along to Agatha, who sighs when she gets the message. She sends back one and gets the full story.

 

Mischief managed for the night Josette fills her bowl with salad again and 'flips' it to the table, filling her tray again and sitting down.

 

"Anything besides the students and the last of the offworld harvests for the next couple weeks?"

 

"Nope the crops are all in, this isn't a year where I'm growing on the first planet, and the boys and I are busy working on special orders to take in after Thanksgiving. I'll have one more new quilt finished by the meeting at Agatha's, plus at least another scrap quilt. That's pretty it until our test and the crops coming in before our finals. How are you coming on your degree over there?"

 

"I'm halfway through it. It's gonna be tight," David mock-whines. "But I'm going to try to get them both finished at the same time."

 

"Awww, pooorrrr baby." Josette coos."You're just upset that if you start another fluff degree or don't start one for a year Dr. Blake will have her arms crossed over her chest, she'll be tapping her foot, and calling you an annoying brat." the others laugh. Josette thinks a moment then shakes her head.

 

"Thinking about not taking any degrees for a year?" David smirks. "See if the shock kills anybody?"

 

"I've always got at least one degree going." Josette says.

 

"And Doc would lock you in his special room until you came to your senses." Abby smirks.

 

"True." Josette says. The rest of the week passes both quickly and slowly for Josette, slowly because she's off every day picking up the new students and quickly because it seems almost immediately after she's brought in the last offworld harvest she's off again.

 

She slides onto a stool at the Albatross Nest, ignoring the look Agatha is giving her and sips a bottle of pop.

 

"And what brought about the idea of archiving old quilt styles for a book?" She asks when Josette looks like she'll live whether she wants to or not.

 

"I'm being selfish writing all these books." snorts from everybody in the store. "Why should I write a book on tied quilts when I've only made a couple."

 

"We'll be more than happy to let you write about ours." Marian says with a smirk.

 

"Yeah, that was David's argument. That between Frances, Agatha, and Sue I would have plenty of tied quilts for a book. But I don't wanna write another book." Sniggers from the others. "Yeah, that argument doesn't work for the kids when they have a bedtime either. Or a bath."

 

"Are you still being hit with quilt ideas?"

 

"Yeah, once I get another pad filled and have more quilts knocked down I'll buy the materials again."

 

"Are all the students in now?"

 

"Finally. This year was rough with bringing out the new employees for the school."

 

"Is Calvin thinking of making the shifts ten years?"

 

"Possibly, in the future. Five years proves to both him and us that the teachers can handle being off the planet and to give everybody who wanted a chance a chance." Nods from the others.

 

"I saw Bronwen talking to the printers." Sue gives Josette a level stare.

 

"She wants a second printing because I took out a batch of books to her supplier friend to sell at his complex when it opens again." Sue continues to stare at her, her lips twitching. "Yeah, I've got three more books being printed, they started a second shift for my stuff. The last book should be available Lights Festival next year."

 

"We don't need to do an 'americana quilts' book." Agatha tells her.

 

"Didn't think we did, I was just sharing the pain."

 

"Brat."

 

"Ayuh." Laughter from everybody in the room. "Unlike a lot of home quilters everybody's documented their quilts and their family's old quilts, those few families that don't have quilters right now had theirs looked over so they can be recreated. And both Assyrian and Edinborough have tons of information on their servers."

 

"Are all the offworld harvests in now?"

 

"Nope, three more weeks according to the schedule." Somebody says in the room. Josette nods. "I just brought in one before heading over. This was the last of me pulling double duty, bringing in students and harvests in one day."

 

After lunch Josette grabs a bag from random in the kits, copying the pattern and laying it out on plastic. The envelope is stuck on the corkboard with a thumbtack as she starts laying out the fabric.

 

"Talk to Agatha?" Anna leans in the room.

 

"Headed there after I brought in the students and offworld harvest. She told me they didn't need to do an 'americana quilts' book. I told her I didn't think we did, I was just sharing the pain."

 

"Did they offer to lend you quilts for a book?" Anna smirks.

 

"Yep."

 

"So many things were lost because it was 'old-fashioned'." Anna sighs. Josette nods. "And we're proving the old ways aren't necessarily bad."

 

"Life is a helluva lot calmer here." Anna says. "You can sit outside and just veg." Josette nods and starts cutting out pieces for her first few blocks, pinning them and setting up the sewing machine before dinner.

 

"Gotta head to the threads complex tomorrow and get in some supplies." she thinks, looking at her getting empty shelves. Grabbing the PADD after dinner she checks her supplies then sends off a message to Ma and Mom seeing if they wanted to come along. The next morning after breakfast the three women get in a flyer and head off, eating a late lunch at the chicken place when they return. Josette hugs both women and delivers their purchases to their homes before they head off. Bringing out her own she starts putting everything away.

 

"Get everything you needed?" David asks as Josette empties the last container.

 

"Yeah, I didn't realize I was running low on a lot of this stuff. I really got to do a proper inventory over the break." David nods as Josette puts the containers together and drops them in the paper recycling bin before they walk to dinner. She'll either take them back to the threads complex to be reused or recycle them.

 

The first testing week finally arrives.

 

"Last of the offworld harvests in?" Dr. McNider asks at lunch.

 

"I'm off with a group right now. Everything will be finished by the end of the week and ready for delivery."

 

"Did Doc look over everything?"

 

"Yes and I've got another order in with the plastic extruders for the next set of building preps. By the time the order is finished next fall and everything is up, they should be about ready to come up."

 

"Did you get more information when you dropped off the orders and picked up supplies?"

 

"Yes, the volcanic activity and earthquakes are continuing. They're keeping an eye on the weather since an early frost nearly destroyed a lot of crops."

 

"They're on the downward spiral then?"

 

"Looks like it. If not starting it on the rolling around the edges before they start down." Vincent chuckles and hands puts another plate down in front of her. She disappears and reappears a second later. Picking up her fork she looks at the others. "We're heading off after lunch, remember Alexander Wayne? I was just there." Grabbing her PADD she sends off a message to David and they head off after lunch.

 

"Whoa." The Flash breathes at the huge spaceship that just shimmered into view by the Watchtower. Cyber grins and pushes him aside.

 

"You're late."

 

"Sorry, I needed to pick up the others." Josette appears on the screen. "Everyone, this is Hidalgo." The woman with them waves and disappears.

 

"Settling in the Bermuda triangle?"

 

"Well it is pretty much our home away from home." Josette chuckles. "And Hidalgo's a little too big to put anywhere else and not affect shipping traffic." The ship begins shimmering and moves through the atmosphere cloaked until it lands in the Bermuda Triangle. Josette's outside standing with her face up to the sun when the green of a power ring bubble transforms to a boat that floats off the pier.

 

"How do you know them?" the senior Batman asks Cyber.

 

"I was kidnapped one night, I was only gone a couple seconds here but in that other dimension we were traveling for a few years. Josette and her friends were also there, they're originally from Earth in another dimension but they settled on new worlds."

 

Several weeks later Josette walks through the tesseract to the dorm with the others. She drops into a seat.

 

/Why didn't you tell us Bruce and Thomas had been Batman?/ David asks on their tightest mental link. Josette smirks at him. /Yeah I know, we didn't ask. That explains why you sniggered at the Batman degrees you took./ Anna sighs. /Doe . . .never mind, that's probably how they met./ Josette laughs and nods.

 

The looks on their faces had been priceless.

 

Midterms finds Josette and the others taking boxes back for the graduating students and returning employees as students and employees alike greet their family members who'd come to pick them up for Christmas. Josette and Jane count the socks Josette brings out before she joins the others at the house. The next several weeks pass in a haze of Christmas and other shopping, working on the recycling, heading to Vegas, and moving supplies to the ship. They return the second week in January Earth time and the floor monitors check their bags before the students return the their dorm rooms. Josette starts moving everything to various places before slumping into a seat in the living room with the others.

 

"Is that it for the stuff going back?"

 

"Unless the students or employees have anything else to take back with them, yeah." Josette sighs, lacing her fingers together and stretching her arms over her head, nearly turning the chair over backwards as she stretches. "We're going to have rain by night as dark as it's getting."

 

"That will help the crops and we won't have to check the cistern for another couple days." Alexander says. It's looking like it's going to be rain by the time they get back from dinner and they take the tunnels to the dining hall.

 

The rest of the semester flies by and everybody but David heads to Eureka for their finals, Josette splitting off a dozen duplicates to bring in the crops and get everything prepared for the winter. After the crops are in and tests taken for the year Josette takes care of the recycling on the planets. After Thanksgiving Josette takes everybody out to the other dimension, the graduating students being greeted by family and friends and either heading to to the auditorium for graduation if they're up first or heading home with family. After the last of the orders are offloaded along with the returning recycling and empty containers Josette joins the others in their home.

 

"Is that everything now?"

 

"Until I start bringing stuff out next year." Josette says, sitting down on the couch. A few weeks later for them they return to Haven with the students and employees who'd been on earth picking up stuff or visiting family, seeing them all off before they head to the other dimensions. Several months later for them they finally return to Haven and Josette splits off duplicates to start moving things.

 

The next couple weeks pass quickly, the others are planting in the growing area upstairs when Josette comes back from picking up the orders from the printing building, finding Alexander Wayne, his family and friends standing in the front of the dorm with Principal Madison.

 

"Oh good, there you are. Josette, did you stop by the printers?"

 

"Yeah, the cookbooks are at the store, the announcement will go out a couple days before the Lights Festival and they'll have an area set up for them then. I picked up mine and they're going upstairs with the others."

 

"Oh good." He heads off and Josette grins.

 

"Where's the others?"

 

"Upstairs working in our growing area. Let me show you up to our guest areas." They'd been working on it over the last few years with hallways branching off into workrooms, study rooms, living rooms, dens, and anything else they might want along with bedrooms so they can sit and talk privately. Alexander and his father Thomas insist on seeing the growing area and after they've dropped their bags off they follow Josette to the growing area.'

 

The room isn't as big as his growing area Thomas thinks, until he sees more rooms up and down the hallway.

 

"This is something." Alexander says. "You say there's another one on the school grounds?"

 

"Yeah, ours was originally bigger, it was meant to be self-sufficient while the school's was meant to grow. We added onto ours by adding more areas." David says, waving from the hydroponics unit where he's planting stuff the twins just brought from the greenhouse as the boys take more to the growing area.

 

"Do you transplant or sow right into the ground?"

 

"Both. Root crops we sow directly, stuff like corn we sow directly. Others we get them started in the greenhouse and transplant. We do this all during the winter so something's coming in all the time. So does the growing areas in town and at the school. . .though we plant later. We used to just plant it all at once, then we had everything coming in at once. We've been experimenting over the last couple of years."

 

"Are those potatoes and peanuts?" Alex asks.

 

"Yeah, we grow them in here so we can harvest without hurting the plants. Baby potatoes and Josette makes boiled peanuts every once in a while. There's so many varieties of potatoes out there nobody has heard of." Thomas nods. "We grow new ones every once in a while to expand our tastebuds."

 

"Got enough tomatoes?" Alex smirks at the plans. There's three room marked tomatoes.

 

"Josette picks this room for green tomato stuff." A room down the hall is pointed at. "The other two are heirloom tomatoes and hybrid tomatoes."

 

"Sauces." Thomas says. Michael nods. "We make about five different base sauces, that turns into about twenty-five when you add other stuff to it."

 

By the time the others have arrived. . .including the others from the other dimension Thomas has inspected the growing areas at the school, in Town, and at Albatross, Thomas and Bruce had been introduced to Thomas and Bruce and been talking shop and how things are going at their Wayne Industries. Both of them had blinked however when they realized that CJ was Clark. And that the Ma and Pa Josette was talking about one day were the Kents. Josette had 'innocently' made a comment about heading to the first planet to make sure that the raised beds were ready for next year and check on the yearly crops. She's got a dozen offworld visitors with her when she lands Vallejo on the first planet, David opening the tesseract to the growing area.

 

Thomas and Alex had brought out the inventory of what Giles had sent them from the Watchers, going over what Josette had taken as a spoils of war from the dimension she'd been to, comparing books and other materials. Alex had laughed himself into a coughing fit when he'd found out about Josette being kidnapped to Hogwarts, ending up in the medical unit at the dorm for a couple of days. The fact that Josette had just thought it was a dream until she'd found all the shit on one of the ships had been the tipping point.

 

Alex had been introduced to the quilters and had shown off pictures of the quilts he made. They'd congratulated him on the painted quilt top he'd made. Quilting isn't a hobby most young men had and he'd sighed as the women just shrugged and said they started all their kids off quilting early.

 

The three of them return home a few weeks later for them, Alexander patting the walls as he walks into his room and starts putting stuff away.

 

"How long were you gone?" Jason asks as he sees stuff appearing in the hallway.

 

"About five weeks." Alexander starts sorting out stuff. Meanwhile Thomas is nodding as he accepts a large download to the compound's server. An equally as large upload is coming up from the compound to Josette.

 

"Okay, I'm really beginning to get a complex." Alexander complains after everybody's gone back to their various dimensions after the Lights Festival. "Everybody asks about my family, either I'm the long-lost son of some hero or the child of a mega-villain." The others laugh at him.

 

"With your luck your mother is a hero." David smirks. "Everybody loves a bad boy." Alexander sighs then laughs.

 

"Sales were brisk for the cookbook." President Bartlett says at the government meeting the first day of the new school year.

 

Josette checks her PADD and nods.

 

"Doctorate?"

 

"I'm going to be halfway through it this year. I have an appointment this summer to talk to my advisor. Once the dissertation is accepted, I can start concentrating on the paper and defend it in a few years."

 

Everybody looks at David. "I'm three years into one bachelors and two years into the other. I'll finish them both next year."

 

After the meeting Josette heads back to the dorm, heading up to her workroom as David checks on the growing areas before settling into pick up a couple lessons on teacher before lunch. The first few weeks of the semester fly by and soon everybody but David is heading to Archimedes for their first testing week. Josette's talking with Drs. Cross, McNider, and Stark while the others take their quizzes or tests.

 

"Do you see the others coming out to the ninth planet?"

 

"Eventually, though it will be more like the Legion and have a revolving group of people out while the others are there. There's too many familiar relations not to stay away, hell only Momma's got me here but all the Legionnaires consider their compound their second home after Legion World."

 

"Is this year the last of the employees heading home for five years?"

 

"Yeah, unless we start bringing out more to handle the increased number of students Principal Madison and Granda are expecting to start filling the dorms."

 

"Are you planting on the first planet again?"

 

"Yes, I'm planting another crop by the house too, including a couple new to us varieties of potatoes. Got something else you'd like grown there as an experiment?"

 

"Yes please, we'll have the seeds ready for you by the second testing week."

 

The others start coming over to the table and Vincent puts plates in front of everybody when the buzzer sounds.

 

Heading over to the first planet on Atlantis a few days later she starts another planting bed for the GD plants before spending time at the fortress and on the satellite, coming back to Haven a year later her personal time.

 

"Get the new raised bed up among other things?" Alexander asks at lunch. Josette nods since she'd just put a fork of salad in her mouth. Chewing, she swallows. "Yes, spent some time in my fortress and on the satellite. I might grow another batch of stuff we don't normally make on the satellite in a couple years." The others nod. Back at the dorm Josette finishes the top on a quilt and cuts the backing and batting off the rolls in her expanded workroom. . .though like everything else it's been expanded over the years and she can't really call it a *room* anymore.

 

"Is this one of the kits?" Anna asks from the doorway as Josette comes out with the two items.

 

"Yeah, I'm taking a break from working on my quilts for the year and knocking down some of the kits." Anna helps Josette lay everything out and pin it together before she bastes it in areas and takes it to her studio to quilt.

 

Josette heads to the first planet after midterms, planting everything and relaxing on the beach for a couple days with the others. They return a week later their time and settle back into picking the crops ripening in the growing areas, sending information back on the plants to Thomas in the other dimension, and making plans for their garden and crops for the year. By the time of their finals Josette has delivered a batch of the green picked peppers to GD and sold others, putting more on strings to dry and popping the rest in stasis.

 

The rest of the peppers are brought out ripe, along with the plants. Some of the potatoes are sold too and Josette travels to the other planets to sell tomatoes, peppers, and herbs before dropping into her seat in the dining hall.

 

"Have you heard about your dissertation?" David asks.

 

"No, I hadn't expected to hear about it until I'm nearly ready to graduate. I don't have another degree in the curriculum that I need the paper taken care of right away."

 

"Your meeting with your advisor?"

 

"In a couple weeks. We'll go out for the show and bring back the new employees at the same times."

 

"Pick up the new books?"

 

"Yeah, Agatha is planning the party right now." Josette sighs. The others snigger. In the front room Principal Madison repeats Josette's words, the others chuckling.

 

"Second cookbook?"

 

"Going on sale at the Harvest Festival along with the third. We'll have a table set up for them. Afterwards they can be picked up at the store as usual."

 

"Did we put some in the library?" Susan asks.

 

"Yes, five copies of each book. Including mine. They'll be held back until the others are available."

 

"Can you see a need for a bookstore?"

 

"Not for a while, we don't print enough different books to merit one. The stores can handle the few purchases we have right now. The major book sales are the textbooks." In the front room Principal Madison and President Bartlett nod.

 

The next couple of weeks pass quickly and the first crops are in by the time Josette and the others head off to the other dimension, delivering special orders to Marcus and talking with her advisor along with Calvin before the show. Her dissertation is formally accepted after she'd shown some of her other work, the outline for her dissertation, and sample chapters.

 

"Everything good to go?" David asks when Josette comes back from getting gussied up for the show.

 

"Yep. I'm good to go."

 

"Josette, your other doctorate?"

 

"I'll be finished by the Lights Festival. I haven't heard anything back from Dr. Stark about the dissertation but unless I have another degree in the curriculum I don't until I finish my last class."

 

The new batch of employees come back with them and settle in, talking with the employees who came out last year and those going home as they settle in.

 

The others laugh as Josette sighs at the Albatross Nest. "Are we going through all this for every book?"

 

"Yep." Agatha smirks as she looks around the room and opens the door, people start coming in the door and through the link at the same time.

 

"Now I understand this is just the first this year?"

 

"Yes, when I was selecting the quilts for the first book I realized I had enough material for three books, four with the patchwork quilts. The third book is being printed right now and will be done by the Harvest Festival, the last will be printed by the Lights Festival."

 

"Which is why you didn't wanna do a book on tied quilts?" Agatha's lips twitch. "Betcher bippy I didn't, not after finishing four in two years." Josette grumbles. The others cackle.

 

"Are you working on your quilts this year?"

 

"No, I'm working on kits. My containers were getting full." The others laugh but nod.

 

"Are you debuting the new books at your shows?"

 

"Not until next year."

 

A few weeks later Josette and the others head out to the other dimension for the show, returning several weeks later for them. Josette drops into a seat in the living room

 

"Yearly crops?"

 

"Should start coming in by the end of next week." David says. Josette nods. "I'm heading off next week to take care of everything on the first planet."

 

"Offworld harvests?" Josette nods. "All but three will be in by the Harvest Festival."

 

"Extruded plastic?"

 

"Picking up the next batch before the Harvest Festival and the last one this fall. Next year I'll have the second batch of construction done before they come out."

 

"Have you been copying stuff?"

 

"Every time I go out. Especially with the earthquakes and volcanic activity kicking up." The offworld harvests, yearly crops, first planet yearly crops, and second harvest starts coming in and everybody's busy for the next several weeks. The others are coming in for the Harvest Festival when Josette returns from delivering the second batch of orders to Doc's world and picking up supplies for the orders and for the tenth planet. Coming back from delivering to the factories she finds the others arriving at the dorm.

 

"What was that?" Alex Wayne asks as the dorm seems to ripple.

 

"Granda and the others wanted to do some renovations to the dorm, starting with adding rooms to my personal library." Josette sighs, dropping onto a chair in the living room. "It's a lot less disturbing then expanding by tesseracts, everything seems to be moving around you like you're on a roller coaster in the comfort of your own home and once you're done you've got more room yes, but you also have to paint and work on the flooring, wall to wall carpeting can look like an area rug depending on how much room you're adding." Thomas chuckles but he seems to agree.

 

"Personal library?" Alex asks.

 

"Yeah, we have the original school library where we keep our textbooks, we have a central library brought out from Earth in the dorm, and we all have our own personal libraries. I shouldn't say it's only textbooks in the school library, the boys keep their art books there too." Thomas and Alex look interested and Josette takes them up, waving a hand as the lights come on when the door opens. "We've added onto it over the years."

 

"Good Lord." Thomas sighs when he finds Josette's buildings of books.