Josette sighs when she's brought into the dining hall after dinner one night.

"I thought we might miss this this year with everything going on."

"Nope, somebody's got a birthday to celebrate." David smirks.

"Remind me I'm getting old, why don't you?" Josette sighs. She looks around the room. There's five Docs in various conversations. Two Clarinda's are talking quietly in the corner and look over at Josette.

"Be afraid, be very afraid." David says in a bad b monster movie voice. Both of his mothers roll their eyes.

Alice, Andrew, and Lady Morrigan are talking in a corner. Three Doctors are talking and Josette suspects at least one trip before the others leave.

"We've got two celebrations tonight. Not only is somebody turning 95 but you've been married 75 years."

Josette looks at the others and rolls her eyes as they start goofing around. "Sometimes I wonder why I bother." Everybody laughs and the party starts.

Josette looks over from filling a bag at the Harvest Festival to see Courtney and some of the others smelling the soaps and candles. She grins and rings them up as they start filling bags.

"Josette, do you need volunteers for harvesting, even somebody who doesn't know what they're doing?" Courtney had seen from the server that they'd be harvesting offworld soon.

"Always, and you'll have to know what to do when your crops start coming in." The others with her nod and Josette puts their names down on the list. "I'll team you guys up with experienced harvesters to show you the ropes."

Josette starts bringing out food when they return from harvesting a few days later. "Go get a hot shower and a few hours sleep at the dorms, a hot meal and do laundry." She tells everybody.

Rick whistles as he sees the food moving to the big building or being laid out on frames that had been brought out, either whole or being sliced. "This is a good bit of work."

"Yep, this is just as much work as harvesting. But once you've got a few harvests under your belt this will be old hat. And you guys won't be harvesting anywhere near this scale, this is meant to help feed an entire planet over the winter." Josette chuckles. "Though when everything starts ripening at once in the communal garden, you'll swear you're feeding an entire planet."

"How often do you do this?"

"Seventeen times with your two, three each for the other planets."

Rick shakes his head as he heads to the dorm. Josette chuckles. "They'll get used to it." David says, coming up to her.

"Yep, their first harvest will start coming in in a few weeks." Josette heads back to the dorm.

"Classes?"

"Finishing the last year for the electrical engineering, comic book, and buttonmaking degree." She shakes her head. "I'm a disgrace, only finishing four degrees this year." Cackling and rude noises from her loving family greet that statement.

"Are you heading to the other dimension after Thanksgiving even with them here?"

"Yeah, I'm picking up supplies that are being delivered to various warehouses, mostly books, magazines, DVDS, and other stuff like that. Plus checking up on the people they left behind for them."

"Eleventh planet labs?"

"Another year of bringing in supplies and they'll send people out for the next round of experiments."

"Seventeen classes again this semester?" Alan asks.

"Probably 23, I need two semesters to finish the second degree on the Flash. If I get one in this semester, I can finish the degree next spring along with the cooking and chemistry degrees."

"Still having trouble picking classes?" Anna asks.

"Yes, and it's disgusting the hell out of me." Again her loving family cackles and she flips them the bird with a smirk.

"More to life than taking classes." David says, Josette nods. Then shoves him out of the chair with one foot. "And no, that doesn't mean getting pregnant."

The others laugh again. Looking at the time they head to lunch. Josette's waved to the front table.

"Offworld harvest?"

"Food's been brought out and they're working on everything. The next one will be end of the week or early next week."

"Thank you Josette. Ninth planet?"

"Their first harvest is going to be ripening in a few weeks. I took a group of the kids on this harvest when they volunteered so they have an idea what to expect. I'll walk them through the first harvest and canning sessions, there was victory gardens during world war II but unless you lived on a farm you didn't can your own food after that. Mom and Ma have volunteered to come out to help a few days since our harvests won't be for a few months yet."

Principal Madison nods in satisfaction.

"So how many degrees does this make?"

"200 bachelors, 17 masters, and 13 doctorates with the degrees I'm finishing this year, not counting the medical school degree. Dr. Stark was tormenting me about it earlier. That doesn't count the ones from the other dimension either."

The others shake their heads and make tsk tsk sounds, Josette flipping them off mentally. "I'm sure once the others are settled they're going to be looking into classes."

The others nod.

A few weeks later Josette takes Atlantis to Archimedes, picking up the first delivery of extruded plastic for the ship and a batch of supplies for the eleventh planet. Delivering to the eleventh planet she slides into her seat at lunch. David looks at her.

"Supplies for the eleventh planet and our first load of extruded plastic for the ship. I left that on Atlantis until we have a place set up to build."

"We'll need a dock for it too." Susan says. Everybody nods.

A couple of weeks after that while Josette's still on the ninth planet she looks over and smiles as she sees two familiar women walking into the large kitchen.

"Everybody, this is Mom and Ma, also known as Alice Covington and Martha Kent." They roll up their sleeves and start walking everybody through the daunting process of canning their first garden crops.

"What are we doing with the corn?" Pieter asks.

"Take if off the stalks and put it in an empty container for now, we'll have a husking party later tonight. You can either cut it off the cobs and can it then or dry it, remove it from the cobs and bag it to either eat over the winter or make into grits or cornmeal." Ma says. "The cobs and stalks can be cut up and used for animal feed over the winter."

"Thank you for coming out to help, we've read plenty of books but. . ."

"There's a difference between reading something and actually doing it." Ma says briskly. Courtney nods. She's busy rinsing out jars with boiling water. "Once you've got this harvest finished you'll know what to do next time." Billy comes in with another basket of tomatoes.

"Rinsed?" Mom asks. Billy nods.

"cut an x lightly in the bottom of the tomatoes and put them in the water, that will help remove the skins." She orders Mary and her foster mother. They nod.

"How long?"

"Only a couple of seconds, we're just loosening the skins so we can peel and core them."

"Core them?" Nora asks.

"Take out the spot on top where the stem was." Mary nods. "Then we'll cut them up, remove the seeds for the future, and cook them."

"Are we cooking all the tomatoes?"

"No, you'll want to save some to eat fresh and I see Josette's got the drying tables up. If you've grown something like grape or cherry tomatoes you can slice them in half and save the seeds or dry them whole, larger tomatoes you can slice, seed, and put on the screens to dry."

"Peppers?"

"Run a string through the tops and hang them up to dry unless you have a stasis chamber to keep everything fresh."

A week later the harvest is in and every home has cases of food set aside for the winter. Mom, Ma, and Josette have showed them how to dry the seeds and put them away for later crops.

"Thank you Alice, Martha. Between you and Josette you saved us from making a lot of mistakes." Charles says. Josette comes over to the container they'd set up for bulk foods, bags of rice and wheat appearing on the pallets. They hug her and head back to Haven.

"Get them over the first terror of 'oh my god, what are we supposed to do with all of this?'" Pa asks when Martha comes back to the farm.

"Yes, they were beginning to relax once Alice and I showed them it wasn't all that hard. Josette found them a beautiful spot to settle."

"She's got a good eye for farm land and beautiful scenery to enjoy after working in the fields." Pa agrees. They stand on the porch watching the first sun go down before walking inside.

Josette slides into her seat at the testing center their second testing week.

"Did you get everybody walked through canning their first harvests?"

"Yep, and saving and drying heirloom seeds for future crops. They've learned the difference between heirloom and hybrid tomatoes and have good selections of hybrid seeds in their supplies, then the replicator when those are done. They survived their first pouring piss from a boot four day rains too. I think it was probably Larry who wanted to build the ark." Everybody sniggers. "We warn them."

"Yep, but until they live through their first one they think we're overreacting."

"Are they looking through the recipes on the servers?"

Josette nods. "And we've had more volunteers for the offworld harvests and processing the food on Haven. This way they're getting an idea of what else they can plant in the future and what they can make from it."

"Good. We don't want to overwhelm them this early in their settlement."

"Exactly, they were already a little freaked about all the different types of food beyond what they saw in their grocery stores. I suspect I'm going to see more than one of them at the cooking classes at Assyrian."

"Are these hybrid tomatoes?" Courtney asks a couple weeks later when she comes out with some others to help with processing the last harvest.

"Yes they are, they're not as flavorable as heirloom tomatoes, but the low seed count makes them perfect for sauces." Ma says, pulling another wire scoop of tomatoes out of the boiling water. Peeling them she cuts out the core, cuts them up and drops them in the large kettle on the back of the stove. "We can make a half-dozen varieties from the main sauce, so every garden plants them at least once a year. The communal gardens shared by the pizza parlors and communal kitchen grow them year-round."

"I can see why." Dr. Cross says. The pizza parlors had been doing brisk business during the Harvest Festival.

"There's another one in Albatross, opened a few years ago. They offer grinders too."

"Grinders?" Courtney asks, knowing she sounds like an idiot.

"Sub sandwiches." Her mom says.

Ma nods. "That's why we opened the sandwich place in town, they used to offer them at the communal kitchen but they needed more room."

"Do they make their own bread?"

"Yep, they make bread overnight three times a week, letting it raise and bake it the next day. Before the festivals they bake every night for a week straight."

"Festivals, plural?"

"Yes, we also have a Lights Festival that grew out of Christmas since our year was longer than Earth's and we might have Christmas twice a year." The others chuckle. "We put up trees and decorate our homes after Thanksgiving."

"You celebrate Thanksgiving then?"

"Yes, a couple of weeks after our last harvest is in and the school is closed for the rest of the year. Of course the students have work assigned to them over the break, the poor dears." Suspiciously twitching lips from the other adults. "When there's students graduating high school, like this year they'll have their graduation ceremony after Thanksgiving."

"Are the university students leaving the dorms?"

"Yes, they'll be taking their finals this week and leaving after Thanksgiving. If a floor's empty of students, their floor monitor moves to their permanent homes too and robots come in to clean the rooms. Once the dorms are empty, maintenance comes in during the spring to go over everything to see what needs to be done to the building."

"How long is the school going to be open?"

"21 years with the Amish children, the kids from the animal and sorting planet, and the kids six. The babies will be starting school next year at the home schooling area set up at the dorm so the education center can shut down in four more years. It's been open continuously since we moved to Haven.

"It's going to need a good cleaning at least." Courtney's mom says. The others nod. They'd all opened windows and given their homes a good cleaning when they moved before the rest of the renovations they needed started.

"You don't think of how long it's been."

"Exactly, they were able to clean the buildings and work on repairs while the school was shut down over the years but there was always classes going on at the education center except over school break."

"And you can't climb over buildings during the winter."

"Exactly. Even if you had more than five weeks to do the work. Each dorm room has the furniture taken out and gets a real good cleaning. That took a few months for each dorm after we lost Earth and students were moving to the other planets."

Nods from the others, cleaning carpets and walls in preparation for painting, washing windows, it all takes time. By the end of the week the crops are in and Josette delivers wheat and rice to the manufacturing satellite for flour and dropping off the corn to the grist mill to be made into cornmeal and grits.

"How is the ninth planet on rice and wheat?" Doc asks at the government meeting after finals.

"They'll have a few dozen bags by the time the second harvest is in. Since they brought plenty of supplies they're going to wait until their last harvest and I'll take the wheat in to be turned into flour. That way they don't have pallets of wheat and flour in the container."

"They're big but not that big." Doc says. The others nod. "Alexander is going to be working on shelving for another container when I take out their first offworld harvest. They're planning on putting up a building for bulk foods and the offworld harvests, the shipping containers will do this winter."

"Is it strange being in two different times and interacting with yourself?"

"Not really, no worse than when I was on Earth for the expos and I was already there." Josette shrugs.

"Delivery to the sorting planet?"

"Delivering them right now."

"Sorting planet orders?"

"I'll start delivering them next fall. I'm delivering the cotton for the towel factory while I'm there."

"Good, first planet tomatoes, herbs, and peppers? I know you were growing extra for the ninth planet."

"Harvested and sold to the other worlds." Josette says. "The rest is in stasis or drying."

A couple days later everybody is gathered on the beach including people from the ninth planet for the cookout.

"Dr. Cross, the red marked rock ring is the veggies pit. The other is the vat meat."

"Vat meat?" ninth planet Dr. Cross asks his counterpart.

"Meat created from soybeans made to look and taste like real meat. Much better than the vegetarian meat substitutes they had in the stores. I eat it." He raises his voice. "No real meat?"

"Not this year. We've got tons in stasis on the ships but I didn't bring any out."

"Is this the wood substitute GD created?" Ninth planet Dr. Stark asks, looking at the fire under a kettle.

"Yes, we limit the amount of trees that are cut down so the Amish use this for heating in their homes, one log keeps a five room house around sixty degrees for a week, but you have to keep the doors open so the heat can spread unless they have vents. During storms, they can add a second smaller log to bring the temperature up. They started using the wood in the houses on Haven a few years ago since like the dorms they only have the ceramic heaters for heat. They were intended to be temporary housing, being incorporated into houses when people left Town for their own land. They have stoves like you see on patios in their houses to supplement the heaters."

"No thermostats?"

"No, it would run down the batteries and there's no use keeping rooms you weren't going to be in most of the day at a constant temperature. A couple hours running the heater made the dorm rooms warm enough for sleeping and a lot of the mothers baked bread before bed, leaving the oven and kitchen doors open to let the heat help warm the house."

"No furnaces?"

"Only the buildings brought up from Earth or homes built here. Sue had a house built before she came up, she brought her belongings and stayed at the dorm the weekend we came up. We convinced Harvey to come up to wrangle us and the rest of the artists on the planets, he had a home built before he arrived. Agatha had her house come up to Town, as did Daniel and the others we brought up over the years. We had two people buy land and build their own houses, Alessandro who owns the other winery and Susanna Charles, she lives outside of town with her partner and their children. They live near enough to town to come for their jobs and whatnot, Alessandro domes his grounds after the last harvest and lives in an apartment over the winter with his son.

"Cooking?"

"In their stoves that both heat and can be cooked over. It's not really convenient for baking, they'd need multiple logs and the only way we've found to stop them burning is douse them in water. They have a communal kitchen like we have and take their bread, cakes, and whatnot there to be baked." Ninth planet Dr. Stark nods. "That's one of the reasons we put the project on the back burner."

"I have to say it's nice to see you pick everything and find something to make of it."

"Nothing goes to waste, I saw a program on Earth last time we were there where they said about 40 to 50 percent of a crop is just left in the field." Josette says. "With so many people going hungry that was just wasteful. If it's not perfect looking you can still make something delicious with it."

"Yes, that's something that won't happen anymore. Make enough for everybody but not so much you can't use it."

Everybody nods.

"This is a beautiful area." Dr. McNider says after they've eaten and the first sun is beginning to go down.

Josette nods. "We come here when stuff is getting hectic and recharge our batteries. We head to the island or on the first planet for the same reason." David starts sniggering and he's shoved into the water. "The fact we're usually pregnant when we come back is beyond the point." Chuckles from the others.

"The babies will be turning four in a few months." He chuckles.

"Yes, and the boys and I are going to be working on the sorting planet and Archimedes's apartment complexes for the next seven years, then the animal planet's after that. You've got two theses to work on in the next couple of years, Susan's going to presenting her thesis and finishing her Masters next year you should be finishing yours a few years after that. And your bachelors."

"When you're done with your masters, we'll be six semesters into ours and should start working on our theses." Alexander says, Michael nods. "We should be finishing ours the year all the apartment complexes are finished." Courtney's mom frowns and Josette leans towards her.

"Masters are four years in our dimension, not two."

"Really?"

"Yeah, every other dimension we've been to they've been two years. There's two years of classes geared towards your degree and two years of basic classes geared towards your papers that are the same for whatever degree you're going for. Everybody who's looked at our classes say they're more intense than their degrees, almost like their Ph.Ds. And the boys are only taking three classes first semester and three third semester."

"Even David for two degrees?"

"He's only taking three classes for each degree a year, plus finishing a semester for his bachelors."

"Taking two masters at a time is hard." David whines. Everybody sniggers.

After Thanksgiving the decorations for the lights festival start coming out and they decorate the dorm before heading off to various dimensions. On the ninth planet Josette looks up at the beep from Macchu Picchu as more containers begin to be delivered.

"Thankee." The others look at her. "We generally go dimension hopping after Thanksgiving, this is books, magazines, DVDS, and other stuff that been delivered since you left. I also checked on the others, the Justice League is doing well in the other dimension, they're settling in well, working on the growing area on the moon and Mars, making plans for the future. Queen Hippolyta was visiting with her daughter, she was glad that you are all settling in well and sent letters."

"Thank you Josette." the others smile as she sends them the file of what's where that she'd been sent.

Back on Haven Josette starts moving the rest of what they'd brought back from the other dimensions to various rooms or buildings and settles into the couch with a sigh.

"Are you done now?"

"Yeah." Josette looks out the window and yawns. "We're going to have snow by dinner, and it will stick." the others look at the darkening sky and nod. "How was the stock of candles at the candlemaking building?"

"Good, they're all set for this winter. One of the reasons they have two shifts going. That and they were able to get in a few batches of candles for the ninth planet for winter."

"This is beautiful." Mary's mother says when they come out to Haven for the Lights Festival.

"This is what Christmas was before all the commercialism took hold." Doc says, the others nod. They see Josette heading off to one of the warehouses, following her and looking around in disbelief as the shelves of fabric and whatnot as far as the eye can see. She chuckles and looks at her PADD, bringing out supplies for the fabric and yarn stores. "This is one of our tesseracted warehouses filled with supplies. Some of the others are like the factory warehouse." The others look at her and she smirks, motioning them to follow her, they walk into a warehouse that's empty except for doors on the outside wall and the opposite wall down the first of several hallways on the first of five floors. Doc begins to frown, those doors weren't on the outside of the building when they came up and Josette opens one, everybody blinking as they see an entire building inside.

"This is the one for the factories we've been bringing out over the last several years, this way we can make what we need but you don't see them. The toothpaste factory was the last one that we brought out that was its own building. We wanted to put up a multiple floor factory building but the floors wouldn't hold the equipment weight so we went this way instead. Each factory has at least one area for supplies." She nods at the doors across the hall.

"Do you have other buildings like this?" Dr. Cross asks when Josette locks the building back up.

"Oh yes, we have multi-floor warehouses with links to libraries, museums, malls, university libraries and bookstores, second hand stores, shipping centers for large chainstores, warehouses for various manufacturers before it's shipped to stores. . ." The others shake their heads. "After weeks of linking the buildings I was dreaming of opening a door and finding another warehouse instead of the exit." The others snicker.

"Thank you Josette." Sue says when Josette delivers the supplies to the stores.

"Easy enough for me to grab everything and bring it out than you guys trying to fit everything in a flyer. I know where everything is in there, you'd be backtracking constantly. Just like you know where everything is in your stockroom and I have to check the shelving numbers." The others nod. "Or you know where everything is in the libraries and we'd have to hunt for a particular book."

After the Lights Festival Josette starts working on the kits she'd got from the Albatross Nest, cutting out pieces for blocks as she looks at the snow falling outside.

"How are they coming on the ninth planet?"

"I'm taking the shelves and first offworld harvest over our second testing week. Their second harvest will be in by then."

"Need help?"

"I'll be good, I'm just delivering the shelves and harvest." Josette stretches and yawns.

"You'll be finished with the cooking and chemistry classes this semester anyway."

"Yeah, and I'm starting the next degree this fall so I'll be finished at the end of the year."

"Chemistry Masters?"

"Signing up for it this summer."

Josette grins when she sees Billy and Dr. Cross in one of the classroom/testing labs at Assyrian when she heads to her first class of the semester, waving at the teacher.

"Josette said she was taking classes here."

"Yes, she's been taking three classes a semester since the classes are all work." The teacher smiles. "She's taking her last three classes this semester and we're going to be talking about what degree she wants to sign up for next this summer. Now I understand you're both interested in vegetarian cooking?"

"I'm vegetarian by choice." Dr. Cross says.

"And while I wasn't vegetarian by choice, where I lived I couldn't keep meat long." Billy says. "And there's so much more in the way of fruits and vegetables than we're used to." She nods and they settle at tables to start the class.

The weeks pass and Josette slides into her seat at the testing center her first testing week.

"Finish the comic book degree you wanted to get in?"

Josette nods, covering her mouth and yawning.

"Are you bringing out any more factories?"

"No, we're good right now, we don't need to bring them out just to have them." Everybody nods. "The only one we might have brought out was for animal feed but we're doing good there. Maybe in a few years."

"Toothpaste?"

"The poll closed a couple weeks ago, we've accepted the offworld orders and are due to start operation in a couple months after the order from the plastic factory."

"Towels, light bulbs, and canning supplies?"

"They start work on them next month, I'll take the first delivery in this fall unless they need a pickup next semester." The three men nod.

"I understand the others are looking at classes?"

"Dr. Cross and Billy are taking vegetarian cooking classes at Assyrian, as Billy said there's so much more fruits and vegetables than they were used to on the shelves. They were relieved that we're still introducing new foods to the planets."

"Do you have a weather satellite in orbit?"

"Yeah, and at the tenth planet in case anybody ever settles there."

"That's the last planet that has seasons and you can grow crops outdoors."

"I did a little planet hopping with the legionnaires while I was on their world and found out how they handle life on ice planets." Josette says in an 'innocent' tone. Dr. Stark gives her a look as the other two men chuckle. "Hanover is looking over everything right now, I also got information on low moisture farming from desert planets and tropical growing." Josette smirks. "And samples of plants. We want to make sure they don't destroy the ecosystem before they're brought out."

"You are an evil, conniving brat." Dr. Stark says slowly.

"And?" Josette snorts. "You've known me how long?"

"You were talking about growing grapes for eating on the first planet?"

"Yeah, the constant conditions make it nearly perfect for growing grapes. We don't need more grapes for wine. . ." the three men nod.

"The u-pick farms?"

"Big enough even with the added business from the ninth planet since they started new fields last year. The berries and apples will take a few years for the new trees and bushes to produce but we've had extra."

"Animal planet commercial growing?"

"Starting this fall when the students finish university, they're setting up their homes or apartments this spring and summer."

"Apartment complex?"

"Going up next year, the renovations should be finished about the time we're finishing the sorting planet order." The three men nod in satisfaction.

"Josette, your sailing ship?"

"I'm picking up another batch of supplies the end of this semester when I come to pick up the supplies for the eleventh planet. David is looking for a good spot to moor the ship and build it with Lee and Harry. If I have to I can build it by the ships."

"How are the kids enjoying pre-school?" Dr. McNider asks.

"Good, this means they're big kids now." Josette chuckles. "They were kinda upset by not joining the others at the education center but they were doing something their brothers and sisters hadn't, they were taking their classes at home." Everybody chuckles.

After lunch Josette heads back to the dorm, absorbing her other selves that had been working, up in her workroom, or taking classes and walking to the dining hall for dinner. After dinner she goes back to her workroom, starting to sketch out ideas for quilts and jotting down a few notes.

"Here, look at these will you." She sends the file to Marilyn when she goes to Sue's store the next morning.

"Oh these are going to be beautiful Josette, how long have you been working on them?"

"I got the inspiration last night." Josette looks around as everybody arrives and starts bringing out the old clothes she'd been saving on the ships, people grabbing items and starting to remove buttons and zippers, sorting the clothes into boxes by color and fabric. Ma Hunkel smiles as she comes into the store, grabbing a shirt and being handed a seam ripper and containers for the buttons and zippers.

"Are you cutting them apart?"

"Not right now, that happens when the clothes are sold for patchwork quilts. Right now we're just removing everything that can be reused or recycled." Sue says. "Our worn out clothes took a hit year before last with the early winter. Josette had these saved from the other dimension on her ships, we'll sort the clothes out by fabric and color and the boxes will go upstairs."

"How do you sell them?"

"A bag for five dollars, that's usually enough for a good sized patchwork quilt with your leftovers." The others nod. "Not many people have workrooms in their homes or apartments so they keep everything here." Agatha waves a hand at the wall of shelves and totes.

After the boxes are filled Josette flips them upstairs and Sue takes the boxes of zippers and buttons to the counter to sort through as Josette starts walking the aisles, checking the fabric and making notes for her quilts before bringing them over and cutting the fabric. Bar codes are scanned and amounts punched in as Josette gets everything she needs for the projects and pays, flipping the bags to her workroom.

"New quilts?"

"Yeah, I got the idea last night. Yes, you can use them in kits." Agatha nods in approval as Josette sends her the sketches and plans from last night, plus the fabrics she'd decided on.

"Next year Harvest festival?"

"Probably, I'll have samples to look over this year.

Ma looks the question at Marilyn.

"Deadline to have projects for the next years kits is the Harvest Festival, that gives them four or five months to select the kits for the year and get ours together. We generally get together after Thanksgiving to talk about the upcoming years kits and get ours before they're on sale at the stores."

"Who do I talk to about socks, hats, gloves, and scarves? I know the factory makes them and there was orders being taken at the festival."

"That'd be me." Josette says. "I'd planned on bringing out a supply for the winter after the fourth harvest. The factory will start working on yours in a couple months. We're working on the animal planet order right now."

"Thank you. Does anybody make wool socks?"

"Almost all the knitters. We don't sell them because they have to be washed by hand. The woolease people can just throw them in the machine." All the knitters in the room nod.

Josette joins the others at the dining hall for lunch. David looks at her. "Spent the morning at Sue's. Brought out some of the worn out clothes I'd saved from the other dimension since our stock took a hit a couple years ago. I got the inspiration for some quilts last night so I was choosing fabrics for them, stopped at the hat & gloves factory to see how the animal planet order is coming along. When that's done I'm starting a batch for the ninth planet.

"I think I found a spot for the ship."

"We can look after lunch."

"Perfect, deep enough water to moor it, close enough to swim or paddle out. Room for a building for supplies. Close to the ships."

"That was one of my thoughts." David says as they head back to the dorm. The twins look at them. "Perfect spot, the second shipment of framework will be ready by the end of the semester, and I'll start building next year when I get the third shipment this fall.

"Eleventh planet?"

"Last shipment of supplies after Thanksgiving with people due to head out the first of next year."

"When are they growing on the animal planet?"

"When the next batch of students finish university this fall. The apartment complex is going out next year, partway through their summer and the work'll be done as we finish with the sorting planet order. That will be enough apartments for everybody from the other dimension with apartments left over to grow on."

"How are you on classes?"

"I'll be done with the cooking degree by the testing week and start on the chemistry classes. I finished the Flash degree and I'm picking up another semester for the chemical engineering degree. The projects will be on the computer like the electrical engineering ones, I don't think Eureka needs me blowing anything up."

"No, that's the scientists job." David snorts.

After dinner Josette heads upstairs and starts laying out the fabric for the first quilt, walking her way through planning out blocks, strips, and contrasting fabric for the top. The other quilts go through the same planning steps before Josette starts cutting out the pieces for her first block a couple weeks later.

"Get your cooking degree done?" Dr. Stark asks at the second testing week.

"Yeah, now I want to get in the chemistry degree." Josette yawns and stretches in her chair. A couple days later she heads to the ninth planet, delivering the shelving and the first offworld harvest outside the empty container. On the planet Josette shakes her head and starts putting together the shelves.

"Is this our offworld harvest?" Dr. McNider asks.

"Yeah, the first one. I'll bring out your second one before the fourth harvest." She puts the cases of food in the container. "And before you ask, no this isn't all of it. I delivered to Eureka and the others."

"Can these be moved?"

"Yep, Alexander designed these to be taken apart and moved. I'll tell him what you need when I get back home, if you outgrow these we can make more." Josette grins.

Back on Haven Josette heads to the ranch, checking on the livestock and working on the garden and crop plans the rest of the morning. She passes them along to David after lunch and they talk about everything when the others come home from work.

"Are you growing cotton this year?"

"No, we've got a good stock of it on hand yet. I'll grow corn, squash, and beans first and third harvest and potatoes the second." The others nod. "Next year I'll see what the stocks are before I decide whether to grow again or leave the field fallow for the year."

The next day Josette heads to the islands to check on the gardens.

"Ripening?"

"Give it a couple of weeks."

Everything's coming in on the islands by the third testing week and Josette looks at the list of food in stasis and the jars on the shelves in satisfaction before walking to the dining hall for lunch.

"Are the crops all in?"

"Yeah, everything's dried, canned, or in stasis. I updated the list on our server." Josette says, putting down her tray and sitting down.

"We should be able to open the windows for a few hours in a couple weeks." Abby says. The others nod. "Start spring cleaning by washing curtains and airing out the blankets before we put them away for the year."

"See what minor repairs need to be done around the dorm and ranch." Alexander says. The others nod again.

"We need to paint."

More nods. "It's been a few years and while it's not bad it's getting dingy."

"And the ships are working on duplicating the colors I showed you."

"Those were gorgeous pictures, even being underwater for so long you could see the color pop."

"Isn't there that technology that allows the paint to change colors?"

"Yeah."

"Josette, candy order?"

"I'll be picking it up after finals. The toothpaste order will be finished around the Harvest Festival."

After lunch Josette heads into town, stopping at the bakery for some doughnuts and then the chocolate store before heading to Agatha's and looking through her library for more patterns.

"How is everybody settling onto the ninth planet?"

"Good, they've got two harvests in under their belts and I delivered the first of two offworld harvests. A bunch of them are taking classes, they're getting their homes ready for their first winter and making plans on what else they want to bring out, including a tv station, library, and movie theater. Their movies are digital instead of tape. They'd been talking about the conversion when we lost Earth."

"They have their own tv station?"

"Yeah, two of the newcomers owned television and radio stations, and a third worked for one of them at one of the stations. Between them they had most of the major channels."

"I understand they're at war?"

"Yeah, the asshole in chief is a megalomaniac, the people who put him in office thought they could control him." Snorts of disgust from the others. "He's not satisfied with the US, he wants the world under his thumb. He's incensed that people are leaving the country and even the planet to get away from him."

"Just them?"

"No they had ten multi-country colonies planned and when he took over they kicked into high gear. And another group similar to theirs are establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars, and talking about terraforming planet moons." The others look at her. "Their Mars didn't lose their atmosphere, but only a ring in the center of the planet was fertile. There used to be natives, but they died from disease, there was only one survivor who was accidentally transported to Earth. Not even the asshole in Chief could claim Mars or the Moon for the the United states, NASA didn't have space flights anymore and the other countries mothballed theirs rather than let him get his claws on them. So they're safe. Another group live in a pocket dimension and they've cut ties with the outside world. He's declared everybody that left enemies of the state and ordered them arrested or shot when they return."

"Because of course they'll come back because he says they will."

Josette nods. "And they sheltered everything they'd brought with them when they left. He wanted to take it but the courts wouldn't let him and they boobytrapped it so that if he tried running roughshod over the courts like he tried the constitution, they'd be destroyed along with everything else in the area."

"How bad?"

"He's already shut down universities, forcing students into the military and jailing the teachers in concentration camps for 'actions against the state'."

"Shit, it's the Nazis and the Soviet gulags all over again." One of the women says. The others nod. "He took over the media and outlawed religion. He was sending out attack squads to kidnap whoever he wanted under his control, whether they were originally American or not or targeting people he wanted out of his way and the squads were taken out with extreme prejudice by the other countries. He complained about it and those members that weren't killed felt his wrath when they were returned to him. Prisons have been emptied, they went on the front line of the war. There's no unemployment, everybody's working shifts in the factories for the war effort. . .without pay." The others shake their heads. "He took over Mexico and took out the drug cartels, putting his own people in charge so he's got a steady stream of money coming in. He's allied himself with the countries that have been declared terrorists, we're sure once they're of no use to him he'll take them out too."

"And I'm sure their Russia is like ours, they don't want to be involved in the problems until they're attacked, then demand to know why he wasn't stopped." Somebody snorts. The others nod.

"Are the colony worlds like ours?"

"No, they were like the colony worlds in science fiction, starting out from scratch on worlds that had their own ecosystems. The ships did get delivered to their new planets though before the others moved permanently to their moonbase. I stopped to check on them after Thanksgiving for the others." Shudders from the others.

"I can't imagine coming to Haven without what we brought up with us or was already here." One of the women says. The others nod.

"Josette, are you growing cotton this year?"

"No, not until possibly next year, we've got a good stock of everything."

"Shearing on the ninth planet?"

"Yeah, they sheared once already and Balaclava says they should have two more before they need to keep their wool for warmth. They're selling to us and I'm using it for wool hats, gloves, scarves, and socks for their winter." The others look at her. "No, I'm not doing it alone, I was going to send out a message after the second shearing. With everybody living in their own homes, they can wash everything by hand and lay it out to dry." Nods from the others.

A couple weeks later windows start opening all over Haven to air out buildings that have been closed all winter. Out in the fields Josette fills the manure spreader and starts working the fields, a job that will take a couple of days. Looking over at the others with her telescopic vision, she sees Dad and Pa doing the same thing. The manure is tilled in a few days later and they've planted by the time Josette, Alexander, Michael, and Susan head to GD for the finals.

"Have you been working with the others about degrees?"

"Yes, except for those schools on Haven or the vampire planet the others will be taking their classes on the computer and taking the tests at their testing center." Dr. Stark says.

After her finals Josette heads back to the dorm, absorbing her duplicates before joining the others at the dining hall.

"Eleventh planet supplies?"

"I'm delivering later this week along with picking up the second batch of extruded wood for the ship and the candy order. Dr. Stark says they have a short list of people for the labs, they're going through all the information right now."

"Sorting planet order?"

"Going out the same time. Might as well do it all at once. And I'm picking up recycling. Including some of the empty containers from the ninth planet."

"Josette?" Courtney asks the next day when the recycling containers empty in front of her eyes.

Josette jerks a thumb up at the sky, shorthand for 'it's me again'. "I pick up the recycling on the other planets a couple times a year. Right now it's finals week for the first semester of Haven's schools. I'm off delivering supplies to the eleventh planet, picking up the recycling and. . ." Outside somebody squeaks. "It's me." Josette calls. "I'm picking up the containers that are empty and the recycling on the other planets as I deliver stuff."

"Thank you Josette, that's a little startling."

"Isn't there laws about crossing your timeline, knowing your future?" Doc asks. He'd been talking with the Doctors and his counterpart that's a Time Lord.

Josette makes a yes/no/maybe hand waggle. "I generally pick up recycling after my finals first and third semester, that keeps it from stacking up on the other planets. I knew I'd be delivering the sorting planet order and the supplies for the testing labs. Dr. Cross passed along the news that we needed a pickup of the containers, I figured since I was already here I could pick them up, that's why I put them together as they emptied."

"Thank you Josette, what's going to happen to them?"

"It's good quality steel, I'll recycle it and put in the supply crystals to be reused as needed. Or use the containers for storage or other uses."

"And the recycling?"

"Metal goes to the sorting planet, glass goes to the glassblowers on Haven or the glass factory, I smash it for them. Paper goes to the mill on Haven to be recycled into new paper. The rest goes in the recycling bin, being broke down to be reused while the garbage is disintegrated for energy. With the composting and recycling we don't have that much garbage." The others nod.

Picking up the candy order Josette starts delivering to the other planets, passing along the payments before landing on Haven and taking the order to the stores. A box goes on the shelf with the rest going in the basement. Back at the dorm she puts her portion of the order in stasis and slides into her seat at the dining hall for lunch.

"Get everything done?"

"Yeah, candy's at the stores and the other planet's orders were delivered with payments sent to our account. Eleventh planet supplies were dropped off along with the sorting planet order and the ninth planet containers are on the ship. I'll take care of them later." Josette sends the payments from the sorting planet to various places, getting thank yous before she puts her PADD back on her belt.

"Flour?"

"I dropped some off at the manufacturing satellite for pasta. We were beginning to run low." David nods.

"Crackers?"

"We'll get a new shipment when I pick up the flour."

After lunch Josette goes out to the ranch, standing outside with her eyes closed just enjoying the warmth of the sun. It's quiet on the ranch, just the sound of the animals. After a few minutes Josette checks on the livestock and heads back inside, heading to Assyrian to talk to the teachers about what cooking degree to go for next.

"Animal planet order?" David asks at dinner.

"Delivering it in a couple of weeks. Then we'll start working on the ninth planet order."

"Everybody else has good stocks of winter clothes ahead." The others nod.

After dinner Josette goes back to her workroom, laying out the strips for the first quilt top and starting to pin them together before she goes to the sewing machine.

"Are you taking classes over the break?" Alan asks at breakfast the next morning.

"Yeah, I'm planning on finishing the first year for the comics based on tv shows degree, it's the second of two degrees and finishing the second year of Nixon and Watergate from the history school." Josette snorts. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of books on the problems in the other dimension if they survive." She pushes the morbid thoughts out of her head.

After breakfast Josette, David, and Dad Sanders talk about the plans they have for the dorm. Dad and David shake their heads at a few things but when Josette explains her reasoning, they nod in agreement. They're sitting down in the living room when everything begins changing around them.

"Thank you." Josette and David call to the empty air.

"Welcome." a number of voices chuckle.

"Josette, did you sign up for your chemistry Masters?"

"Yeah, since it's a new Masters it's a full four years."

"Herbal medicine?"

"I gotta pick up a second bachelors, Johns Hopkins doesn't offer a Masters in it and the classes don't transfer."

"And you're devastated at having to take more classes." David snorts. Josette flips him off with a grin. "You know if we still had Earth somebody would be trying to push daylight savings time down our throat."

Mom snorts as she comes through the tesseract. "That was foolishness invented by some man to cause trouble. The nonsense that it gives farmers another hour of daylight in the fields is just that . . .nonsense."

Ma comes through behind her, nodding vigorously. "Real farmers don't work by the clock, they work sunup to sundown when the crops are ripening." Everybody nods. "How is the ninth planet handling time?"

"Morning hours, midday hours, afternoon hours, evening hours, and night hours. Since most of the planets have variations on the twelve hour clock, we haven't had to change it. Though GD is working on clocks. Adjusting the clockworks to the longer days and weeks will be the hardest part."

A twinkling in the corner of the living room is revealed to be a new grandfather clock. Josette's PADD starts beeping and she looks at the files being sent. "Thanks you Lord Hephaestus."

"Nice."

Josette grins and sends the files along to everybody who'd be interested, James looks at her and she sends it to him too.

"Thank you Josette."

"Is this the only clock?"

"No, there's fifteen more in the dorm."

"Electrical?

"Mixture, electrical and the ones that need to be wound."

James looks back at the list they'd been working on, marking off items and they start talking about what they'd planned on doing.

"Is this some of the stuff Headquarters has?"

"Yes, and we've been talking about adding them to the others." Josette's eyes grow dark a moment before she shoves herself away from the bad thoughts of what might be.

After lunch Josette heads upstairs to finish putting together the strips for the first quilt top, adding the strips of contrasting fabric and looking at her PADD.

"Good." She says when she sees Agatha and Sue talking behind the counter. She lays the top out on the table then brings out the back and binding she'd planned on using.

"Oh, that's beautiful." Agatha says. "But . . ."

"Yeah, it doesn't seem quite finished." Josette says. "I held it up when I had everything put together and it just felt wrong." They start bringing out contrasting fabrics, finally settling on a different back and binding.

"Not the first time this has happened." Agatha says as she's rung up.

"Won't be the last either and I can use the other for another project."

David looks at her when she slides into her seat at dinner.

"I was working on my quilt top and it didn't feel done. Sue and Agatha helped me select a new back and binding."

Frances nods on the front screen. "Had that happen many a times. And your other fabric won't go to waste."

This time it's Josette's turn to nod on the screen.

"How's your thesis coming along?" She asks Susan.

"Good, I'll be presenting it sometime this summer. Be nice to get the degree finished."

A few weeks later Josette and David are working in the fields, bringing in the early crops.

"When are you taking in the corn and wheat for the ninth planet?" David asks at breakfast they day after they've got everything in.

"After their third harvest, that way the flour and cornmeal is ready as it's beginning to turn cool."

"Grits?" Alan asks.

"Not this year, maybe that and oats next year."

"Are you growing chickpeas this harvest?"

"Yeah, we're running low on flour."

"Did you sign up for your Masters?"

"Yeah, I'm taking two classes in a couple of weeks."

"What's the latest on the sugar beets?"

"We might be growing them next year, Marilyn's been working with the manufacturing satellite and the flour factory on how to turn them into sugar."

"How many classes are you getting in this semester?"

"25 with the two Masters classes." Back at the dorm Josette continues working on the second quilt top. The yearly crops start coming in on the first planet and Haven and Josette is busy with everything, dropping into her chair at dinner one day.

"Is everything in now?"

"Yes, thank you Gods and Goddesses." She sighs, looking at the tray Anna sits in front of her.

"Yawm, yawm, yawm Atlantis, open your mouth for the puddlejumper." Abby sniggers. Josette rolls her eyes and takes the spoon.

"Do you have the wine and olive oil finished?"

"Yes for both planets, I'll start delivering tomorrow."

"Did the others get a lot at the commercial farms?"

"Oh yes, they've got the tables full of stuff drying and being put in stasis." Josette yawns. After dinner Josette heads upstairs to her workroom, working on putting together the layers of her second quilt and putting it in the box with the others, the binding on top before sorting out the fabric for the third.

The next morning Josette starts delivering the orders, coming back to find the first of the offworld harvests being offloaded by her other self. Checking on everything in town Josette heads back to the dorm.

"Get everything delivered?"

"Yeah, we'll have more of the oil available at the Harvest Festival." Josette stretches and yawns.

"Did you deliver the wheat and corn for the ninth planet to the manufacturing satellite and sorting planet?"

"Yeah, I'll pick it up when I drop off the socks and other stuff."

"Second offworld harvest for them?

"I'm delivering it after the Harvest Festival."

"Are they settled in for the winter?"

"They're getting there. Their homes are all set for the winter and all the buildings have solar panels. The alternate energy isn't big enough to handle all the buildings yet, but they can use it to recharge batteries."

"How many buildings besides their Eureka has alternate energy?"

"JSA Headquarters, Dr. Cross's home, and Headquarters. All three are heavy power usages like the dorm and have medical facilities. I'm sure more will be added when they bring out more stuff next year."

"Did you plant offworld harvests for them this year?"

"Not with the year so wonky, I'll start again next year." The others nod.

Josette's party comes a few days later, their visitors taking home bottles of wine, olive oil, and other food.

"Did you plant the grape vines for eating?" David asks when she slides into her seat after delivering the toothpaste order after the Harvest Festival.

"Yeah, we won't have a harvest until the year after next but. . ." the others nod.

"Did you get in classes over the break?"

"Yeah, I'm starting the second degree for the Green Lantern from the comic book school. The first one was the golden age comics, the second was the silver age, and the third will be the comics about other characters. I also started the second year for the villains as the main characters degree from the sosh school."

"Chemistry Masters?"

"I'll be four classes in next semester."

After the meeting Josette heads to the bakery, buying some doughnuts and then the sandwich building, moving the orders for the sorting planet to Aztec before heading to the dorm.

"Pick up everything?" David asks at lunch.

"Yeah, I'll deliver everything after lunch. I'll deliver the second offworld harvest for the ninth planet and pick up the flour, taking part of it to the pasta factory."

"Offworld harvests?" Abby asks.

"Picking up again tomorrow now that the festival's over."

After lunch Josette heads off, talking with Aztec as they fly to the sorting planet. Josette spends a few days delivering everything to the apartments after picking up the flour, delivering part of it to the pasta factory. Her next stop is the ninth planet, delivering the offworld harvest to various places and picking up more empty containers.

"Get everything taken care of?" David asks at dinner.

"Yep, the rest of the flour is at the store, the pasta and rice noodles should be finished around the Lights Festival. The payments are with Hank and the others."

"Sorting planet stuff?"

"Taking that up at finals. They'll be finished by Harvest Festival next year." Nods from the others.

"How are you on your quilts?"

"I've got two of them ready for quilting and I'll have the third top finished by our third testing week, I'd just been putting them aside after I had them basted."

The next day the new semester starts and Josette splits off duplicates before breakfast to start her classes and work in town. Back at the dorm she grabs the box with her two quilts and heads upstairs to the quilting machine in her studio, stopping to join the others at lunch.

"How are you coming along?"

"Okay," Josette looks at the screens of the other buildings and dining rooms. "The tables are getting empty again."

"Going to be even more empty when more students leave after Thanksgiving." Anna says. "Going to be just us again after the school closes, they might turn the extra rooms back into restaurants again." She pushes David out of his chair. "No, that's not an excuse to knock us up again."

Josette smirks. "They're talking about children on the ninth planet, they have their own gestation chambers and brought out genetic material from the other dimension." The others smile. "It probably won't be until next year at the earliest, they want to get settled in and they've been concentrating on getting their homes ready for winter."

"Are you still there?"

"Until the end of next week. First testing week I'm going to be taking out their flour and cornmeal and the socks, sweaters, hats, gloves, and scarves. Both from the factory and the ones the knitters in town have been working on from their fleeces. They'll just be beginning to turn cold them but they won't see snow for a while."

"What are you taking this semester?"

"Starting the second year for the chemical engineering degree, starting the second degree on the Flash, and starting the second cooking degree. That will put me 28 classes in this semester, I might pick up three classes from Oxford for the herbal medicine or art history degree."

"Don't you already have one of those?" Abby asks.

"Yes, and it was boring ass shit but Mom's been nagging." Sniggering from the others. "And Johns Hopkins doesn't have a Masters and doctorate in herbal medicine like Oxford medical school does."

David plays an imaginary violin. Abby shoves him out of his chair. "I was closer." She says at his fake hurt look. Josette cackles.

Upstairs after lunch Josette starts setting up the loom in her new new newly enlarged workroom.

"Tell me you don't do all your cloth by hand." A voice sighs behind her. Josette looks over her shoulder and grins at Ninth planet Dr. Cross and Billy. "No, I purchased the business of a Canadian supplier before we came up to Haven, that's one of the reasons I won the bid. . .I had plans for the future and the others were. . .I can sell this, and this, and this. He was divorcing his cheating wife and selling the business with the court's blessing so she didn't get a dime from it. He didn't have family to pass it along to, testicular cancer when he was younger and it had come back and spread." Dr. Cross sighs. "He made and painted his own fabric, the machines handle the fabric for Haven, I use the loom for special projects. I could use the machinery for this but I've got a project in mind and working with my hands relaxes me."

"Can I look at your medical unit?"

"Sure." They head upstairs, Dr. Cross nodding in satisfaction. "How many operating rooms do you have on Haven?"

"One here, one at Headquarters, two at the Empire State Buildings, one at Buckaroo's Institute. One at Clark's fortress. One in the vets building, and one in the medical unit in town. The ships all have complete medical facilities. Thankfully we haven't needed one for an emergency yet, all scheduled surgery is performed at GD."

Dr. Cross and Billy head back to the ninth planet after dinner and Josette finishes setting up her loom.

A few weeks later after Josette's first set of tests she heads to the growing area to harvest the cranberries, putting them in various brines before being dried, drying them on the racks, or putting them in stasis. The larger crop was likewise handled, most of it going for chutneys and sauces for the winter as well as being dried.

"I was wondering if anybody grew these." Dr. McNider says coming over.

"Yeah, this is our original bed, we've got a field of them outside of Town." Josette looks over her shoulder as she puts the cover down on the tray. "President Bartlett asked about them first, once we introduced them people realized there was more to cranberries than that 'glop' that comes in the cans at Thanksgiving. Part of the harvest is dried, some of it's flavored before it's dried for bags of snacks, some is made into sauces and chutneys, and the rest plopped into stasis for later use."

"Peanuts?"

"We only grow them in hydroponics right now, that way we can harvest when we want to." The botanist from GD on the ninth planet nods. "We've had the question on the server if anybody wanted a larger crop, but people don't stop to think of everything peanuts is used for besides eating and peanut butter."

"How many hydroponic units do you have?"

"Three, not counting the aquaponics units. One here, one at the school, and one in our home. That doesn't count the small test aquaponics unit." Josette stops at the bakery and gets a bagful of doughnuts before heading to the school, the botanist whimpering as she takes them upstairs.

"How often do you grow?" She looks at the units and the list of food they normally grow.

"Usually every fall, we start our crops after Thanksgiving, Town and the school have more people to feed so they plant their growing areas after the the last harvest so they have it sooner. Every few years we don't plant so the ground can recover, planting on the island, my ships, or the satellite instead. The last time I grew on the satellite, I grew some crops we normally don't, including other types of lettuce."

"Is the school's this big?"

"Now it is, ours was bigger originally but we were meant to be completely self-sufficient while the school's was meant to grow. If we want to enlarge we'd have to add new areas. That's not that hard, we've got all the machinery and the room. . ., we just don't need it right now." Dad nods as they come downstairs, he's talking with an engineer from GD about the additions to the dorm.

"Your tests?"

"I generally finish mine for the online classes within a day the first testing week. Susan, Alexander, and Michael should be coming back. . ." The alarm on the switching station beeps and they walk out. "Any time." She looks at the boys. "Are you going to be working on the orders this week?" Josette wasn't but that didn't mean anything.

"No, Hank told us to take the rest of the week off, we're still on schedule." Michael says. They head to their studio for a couple hours before dinner.

"David's taking all his classes on Teacher so he takes his tests here."

"How far is David in his degrees?" Dad asks.

"Six semesters into his two Masters this semester and seven for his bachelors."

"What's he going for?" Dr. McNider asks despite himself. He knows David's got a sense of mischief a mile wide.

"His bachelor's in comic books, number seven for him. I can't say anything I've already taken the degrees he has and more besides. His Masters are in literature--specializing in comic books and Mechanical Engineering. Susan's finishing her last semester for a Masters in office administration, specializing in politics, and the boys are going to be three semesters into their masters in comic books, other degrees than David is though it's the same school."

"Three different comic book Masters?" The botanist blinks.

"And Josette's already taken them and the doctorate that goes with them." James snorts. Josette laughs. "I have. The degrees can't all be serious and the history, sosh, and lit degrees work for my librarian job."

"How far are you in your chem masters?"

"Four classes this semester, Johns Hopkins I haven't taken a masters from yet so it's the full four years."

David comes out of his room and plays the world's smallest violin. "You done with your classes for the day?" David, who's busy stretching and yawning, nods. "Are we expecting rain? I've been yawning all afternoon."

"Not that I heard but not the first time we've had a storm come in from the other direction the probes haven't forecast yet. Course could just be laziness when it comes to you."

"Ha ha ha." David snorts as his father laughs. "So Droll." He heads outside to get in some fresh air and sunshine. He grabs a leash and whistles, one of the dogs coming up for a walk.

"Are you taking toilet paper, towels, canning supplies, and light bulbs to the sorting planet apartments finals?" Alexander asks, leaning around the door to the boys studio.

"Yeah, they'll be finished with their orders by Harvest Festival next year." Alexander nods and heads back into his studio.

"Are we still on track to bring out the apartments?"

"Yep, we'll be finished with all the work by the time you're finishing with the orders for the sorting planet apartments."

"And that with the other apartments will be enough housing for all the students plus room to grow."

After dinner Dr. McNider and the botanist head back to the ninth planet.

Josette fills her plate with sandwiches, pizza slices, and other assorted food brought to the store by everybody, opening a bottle of pop as she settles in a spot on the floor as everybody talks about how things had went that year before the kits start to be handed out and talked about while they eat. Once everybody's had their fill the cookies that everybody had made to pass around as gifts are passed around along with the leftovers and Josette flips her stuff to the dorm as she helps clean dishes, pots, pans, and slowcookers in the kitchen that Agatha had had added to the Albatross Nest.

"Josette, how are you coming along on your quilts?" Josette waves a hand and they appear on the table.

"Oh Josette, they're gorgeous." Sue says. The others gather around the tables and nod. "They'll be perfect in the kits."

"I've got the pictures and patterns for these three." Josette sends that information to Agatha who nods thanks. "And I'll have the others ready by next Harvest Festival."

"I wouldn't have thought about this backing or binding." Lynda says at the first quilt.

"Neither did I, but when I assembled the top it didn't feel finished."

Agatha nods. "She brought it to Sue's and we felt the same way after looking at the backing and binding she'd selected."

"And I've already got a quilt half-way planned out for the others." Josette says. "That's how they come." Everybody in the room nods, they've all had runs like that. "Feast or Famine."

"How is everybody settling in for their first winter on the ninth planet?"

"Good, their furnaces were all inspected this year and any work that the buildings needed before winter was handled. They've got in stockpiles of the fake wood and stoves to keep warm during storms when their solar panels are covered and the batteries are dead. The high power usage buildings have the alternative energy source and they can charge their batteries there if there's an extended storm."

"Are they talking children?"

"Yes, now that they're settled in. They have gestation chambers and banks of genetic material from the other dimension."

"And if things get better over there."

"They're still staying. The various governments of their Earth have a lot to make up for, they threw a lot of people under the bus trying to placate a megalomaniac and it didn't work. Even they're not stupid enough to think that they'll come back if they say sorry. They might come back to help clean up the mess but they'd leave again, Earth has to sink or swim on their own."

"Cynic in me says serves them right, they made the mess now they can deal with it. Just like how the government ignored the 'friends' of humanity until the fucking rockets entered the atmosphere and people realized what they'd done." Somebody says. More than one person nods. Everybody starts heading to their homes, Josette joining the others at the dining hall for lunch.

"Good meeting?"

"Yeah, we talked about this year and next year's kits, everybody liked my quilts and I passed along the files for the three I had done to Agatha. We've got everything we need to head to the first planet after lunch for a few days."

"Are you planting there next year?"

"Yeah, and I want to spend some time in the fortress and on the satellite." After hugging the kids they head to Brigadoon, settling in the huts and changing their clothes. Walking down to the beach, they go for a swim in the warm water. Laying on the sand they start making love as the sun goes down.

"The grapes are looking good." Alan says, looking at the new vines when they head to the growing area a few days later.

"Are the beds large enough for the ninth planet too?" Alexander looks at the raised bed forms.

"Yeah, they don't look it but they're twice as big as they were."

"How was the first planet?" Pat asks when they come back an hour later.

"Better than here, we're going to have a storm and it's going to be a doozy." Josette says, her eyes growing dark a second. The others spring into action. David grabs his PADD as the boys head for the ranch and Susan heads to the basement. "How long?"

"Three weeks, we'll be socked in for two of them." David starts sending out messages. Meanwhile, Doc and Dr. Cross from the ninth planet are looking at everybody.

"Josette's got a touch of weather magic." Pat says chuckling. "It gives us a few hours notice when we get an unexpected storm coming in from the other direction. . .before the probes that way pick it up. How long?"

"Snow by morning, expect a good six feet by the time the storm blows through." Josette blinks, her eyes returning to normal.

"Well we've all got supplies in for the winter and the orders for the sorting planet are finished for the year." Anna sighs.

Doc looks at them. Pat chuckles. "The boys are off to the ranch to get the livestock in the barns, put out food for them and make sure the automatic feeders have enough food in them for the three weeks Josette said. The cleaners will take care of them. David sent the message to everybody as an emergency announcement letting them know of the storm. All non-essential businesses will start shutting down as people start getting in supplies and start charging batteries."

"This early in the winter everybody will have good supplies of food in, they'll be busy getting in candles and charging extra batteries. Susan just went downstairs to take out one of the charged batteries in the pack and put in an extra to charge."

"Thankfully all the students and floor monitors who were moving are settled in their new homes. And they know enough about bad winters to get in supplies before they moved."

"And we don't have to start the commercial farming on the animal planet right away."

"How do you handle storms like that?"

"Everybody at the school uses the tunnels to get around. We try to open the doors every few hours to keep them from being blocked but sometimes it can't be helped." Abby says. "We have a place upstairs for the dogs if they can't get out, every building has a place set up for that."

"Everything in Town but the school will be shut down by nightfall. Once the storm passes we'll start digging out. How are Clarinda and the others settling in on their world with the problems they had with the that world's government?"

"Good, they've been 'banned' from returning there but since everybody knows the truth of what happened that world is the laughing stock of the United Planets. Like any government caught in wrongdoing, blame the people who saved your asses instead of pulling on your big boy pants and take responsibility for your own actions." Ninth planet Doc and Dr. Cross nod. "There's sanctions against the planet and their demands the Legion be disbanded and face charges on their world was laughed out of the interplanetary courts. They're facing charges of terrorism and plotting attacks so they're frantically trying to shove the blame on anybody else they can and still stay in power."

"Did the Legionnaires own planets try to recall them?"

"Can't, once they took over their own world they became citizens of Legion World first and the other worlds second. That keeps worlds from recalling members of the Legion and trying to make the Legion accept others in their places."

"Has that happened?"

"Once. She came in all big man on campus and the others quickly put her in her place. He ended up returning and she stayed on to learn what being a hero really was, it wasn't powers it was who you were. The government who'd been sending people to the Legion got its ass kicked in the media when one of the youngsters died in battle because he was depending on technology that failed at the wrong moment. The young man the government had put in charge of the team for that battle gave the position back to the man it really belonged to and it made them stronger. The government official who'd tried to control the team lost her job, was arrested for trying to kill people, and was sentenced to the rest of her life in the same prison cell she'd stuck Brainy in because his time platform might undo everything she'd created, including the war she'd created to make herself the big hero."

Susan comes up from the basement as the boys come back from the ranch. Mom and Ma use the tesseract to get in extra supplies and Josette heads off with them to put everything in subspace. They come back a couple hours later and Josette delivers their orders back at the houses.

The computer starts beeping as they're getting ready for dinner and David checks it. "The probes are just beginning to pick up the leading edge of the storm."

After dinner it's beginning to get dark and Doc nods as he and Dr. Cross head off to the ninth planet.

"I'm glad they had a little warning, though I've never heard of weather magic."

"I have, it's rather rare." Dr. McNider says when they come into the JSA headquarters. "What's going on? You were expected back a few hours ago."

"Haven's got a storm coming in that looks to dump six feet of snow on them over the next two weeks. Josette knew the storm was coming in before the probes of the weather satellite alerted them to the storm. It was just after dinner but growing dark when we left."

Dr. McNider nods. "That's generally how weather magic works. It's not a really useful gift except on worlds like this where you're growing your own food or need a heads up on foul weather. The experts think that it was more common back in the days before industry became common and everybody grew their own food."

"I didn't know Josette was magical." Charles Savage frowns. "Are they going to be okay?"

"Yes, once Josette announced the storm they all jumped into action. David put the announcement on the server as an emergency announcement so everybody would be listening while the boys headed to the ranch to get the livestock in the barns, put down food and program the automatic feeders and cleaners to handle the next three weeks. Susan put a extra battery in the system to charge and non-essential businesses on Haven started shutting down. Once everybody had gotten supplies in the pizza parlors, sandwich place, bakery, and store were going to shut down."

"The barns in town?"

"The same system as the ranch, the animals inside and the automatic feeders handling everything until they can get out again. When they had shelter animals in the other buildings they did the same thing, but all the animals have been adopted over the years. Once the storm starts, the only thing open will be the school and they'll be using the tunnels until the storm is over."

"This early in their winter they have plenty of food."

Dr. Cross nods. "Martha and Alice came into town when we were there to stock up on last minute supplies."

"How do they handle supplies?"

"They've got root cellars for stuff like potatoes, onions, and other vegetables. More are up in the attic or an empty room dried on strings." Everybody nods, they'd done that as well. "They have bags of bulk foods open in barrels."

"Makes sense, unless you live right in town where you can get to the store regularly you'd need the bigger bags of supplies."

"They usually come to the dorm a couple times a month to get out of the house, talk to the kids. Depending on what Martha's working on she'll at least look at the pictures of the kits from the stores, she might buy one but more often she works on her own."

"Alice?"

"Never was one to sit down and do that kind of stuff, though she's a regular in Agatha's store. Both on Earth and Haven when Albatross came up. Her family gave her stuff that she gratefully passed along to Josette when she became interested in textiles, she was more than happy to get it out of the attic. She worked at the Albatross store when she needed extra money, even with the kids paying for their own schooling it was tight with only Andrew working full time on Earth. When the kids were in university or working they all got together to pay for the first of two or three additions to the farm before they left, including the solar panels, adding the septic unit, and getting them off propane before the move."

The next morning on Haven it's snowing heavily when Josette gets up and she checks the weather report before dressing and joining the others in the walk through the tunnels to the dining hall.

"Have they had their first snow on the ninth planet?"

"Yes, though not one that's stuck yet. I expect they'll have see snow that stays by the Lights Festival."

"Did they stock up on ornaments at the glass store?"

"Yes, and there's at least one tree in every building they either live in or spend any amount of time in. They haven't gone as far as decorating them with lights like we do but . . ."

"They're settling in."

"After the last few years on their Earth they're relaxing and looking towards the future. The crops are in, the houses are ready for winter, and they have the time to think about what they want to do next."

Everybody nods. After breakfast Josette heads upstairs and starts looking through the kits that she'd got at the store then starts working on her current quilt. The next couple of weeks pass quickly and one morning she looks outside to find the storm's over and shoves open the doors. After breakfast the boys start clearing the paths at the dorm and ranch, Josette cleaning solar panels on the other continent, the school, and in town before flying back to the dorm. She comes into the building to find the switching station operating.

"We thought the storm would be ending soon." Doc says. He looks out the sliding glass door, shaking his head at the snow partway up the glass.

"Yeah, it cleared up this morning, maintenance is busy clearing paths between the buildings, we're busy clearing paths to the barns for the livestock."

"Will this delay the Lights Festival?"

"Nope, not the first time we've dug out from a massive storm just in time for the festival. Crews of people in town are clearing the streets and areas set up for the festival."

"Solar panels?"

"Already being cleared." Susan comes down from brushing off the solar panels, hanging up her outside clothes in the front of the dorm. The push broom is put up until it's needed again.

"You use a broom on the panels?'

"Only to clean them of light snow after the heavy stuff was removed." Josette says, chuckling. She checks the solar panel readout on her PADD. "Batteries charging?" Susan asks, looking over her shoulder on the way to her room.

"Yeah. Need me to take your books upstairs?"

"Already did it."

"Books?"

"Once we finish a degree, we take the books upstairs." Josette leads the way upstairs. "This was the original school library, only three floors and the computers took up the third. When I started working in the library we started running out of room and built the computer building and new library, incorporating the old one into the dorm. First it was our high school texts, then as Dr. Blake 'talked' to us about additional degrees our university books. This way they're close if we need to look something up or use them as references in our papers but they're not in our rooms." Both men nod. "We've been adding to it over the years when we added onto the dorm."

"Oh good lord." Doc looks at the addition for Josette. She rolls her eyes. "Yes, I've got my books separated out by school, then area of interest, and finally degree."

"Your degrees are up here too?" Doc looks at Josette, there's not one diploma on the walls for her. She sighs and opens a door, the lights coming on.

"Oh good lord." Dr. McNider breathes. There's framed diplomas covering the walls. They walk into the building, it's certainly not a room.

"Like the books, separated by school and area. The second floor are the degrees from Clark's dimension."

"How many?"

"Over three hundred and fifty bachelors, about forty-five Masters, and not quite thirty doctorates. That's between the two dimensions. Not all the degrees are here, I've got six bachelors finished since our last graduation ceremony at GD. That was just before you arrived."

"Are you taking classes right now?"

"Not over the winter break, I stopped taking classes over every break nearly thirty years ago. I pick up classes over the other breaks though. The others don't take classes over the summer, I do, a leftover from the old school year where I was finishing years."

"Josette, did you get the last batch of plastic for the ship frame?" David asks when she comes downstairs.

"Yes, when I picked up the last batch of supplies for the eleventh planet labs. I'll start working on it in a bit."

"Ship frame?" Josette brings out the plans, sending them to their PADDS.

"This is magnificent. Extruded plastic made to look like wood?"

"Yep, that way the old growth forests stay old growth. And the plastic is stronger than wood in some cases."

"A solar impeller to move you to supplement the sails."

"Yep, that way if the wind fails us we're not stranded. Radio to keep in contact with Town in case we're needed home early."

Dr. McNider looks at the classroom they'd set up in the dorm. "Room for up to twenty students?"

"In this room, there's a second one for when we've got kids in two different grades." Josette sends him the plans for the room. "Thank you Josette, we'll have need of it in a few years."

"Awww. Which one?"

"Kara and Rick have agreed to become pregnant over the winter. Rick is, we're still waiting to see on Kara. And they'll have friends and family their age since there's at least five children in the gestation chambers."

"Does the school have a power generation building?"

"No, but we have one in the dorm, it's a copy of the one the school built out by the road on Earth when the power problems started on Earth. The second building in town is another copy we brought out."

"Is it self-contained?"

"No, it sent power to the grid, it had to be taken off propane for the furnace, hot water heaters, and the kitchen for the cafe/juice bar, and it had to have a septic unit for the showers and toilets." Josette finds the file on all the alterations they'd done bringing out the power production buildings and sends it to Dr. McNider before taking them to the building in the dorm.

"Thank you Josette." They look around. "We shouldn't need one of these for a couple of years." Josette nods. "Not with everybody having solar panels in their homes. We built the first one since not all the dorms and houses were going to have solar panels."

"What are your laundry facilities?" Dr. McNider asks, then moans at the two areas they're shown to. "David and I had been to'ing and fro'ing about this one for a while, we'd needed to enlarge our personal laundry facilities but if we did we'd have to enlarge the sewage unit, ours was the first one at the school and intended as a test. It hadn't been upgraded like the others." The other two men nod. "Clark's got this one at his Headquarters, they needed extra machines and David showed them this. It was originally a 'u drop off, we wash' place so it wasn't set up for keys or coins, that's something we had to work on when we brought out the other laundries."

"How is it handled now?"

"The laundries in town the machines are unlocked, you tell whoever's on duty how many machines you're using and the money's taken off your card. At the school they take the card directly."

"Did you upgrade your septic?"

"Added a second big mack Daddy top of the line unit. That will last us for centuries. Then we upgraded the original unit once it was offline." Doc nods.

"You won't be dug out today." Doc says, picking up a handful of snow.

"No, this is wet heavy stuff. Forget shovels, even the snowblowers will take a couple of days to get everything cleared, that's why we added another week of supplies to the feeders. Gives us a few days to dig out."

"That makes sense."

"Do you normally get this wet, heavy snow?"

"No, only in storms that come from the other direction. Usually it's light fluffy stuff that while heavy when it's on the ground can be handled in a couple hours with the shovels and snowblowers."

"Is the storm over on Haven?" Charles asks when they return to the ninth planet.

"Yes, and they're already clearing the solar panels and starting to dig out. It's wet heavy snow, even with the snowblowers it will be a couple days before they're all dug out. But they say the Lights Festival won't be affected."

Archimedes Dr. Stark nods. "They've had experience with storms coming in after Thanksgiving. This isn't the first year they've had a storm blow in after Thanksgiving, it's not even the first storm that blew in from that direction that's socked them in for a couple weeks."

Josette heads up to her workroom after lunch, working on the quilt top until dinner.

"How are you coming on your quilt?"

"I'm nearly done with the top, I should have it put together and quilted by the Lights Festival."

A couple days later Josette goes to the pizza parlor in the dorm, putting the pizzas in her stasis unit an hour later after eating several pieces.

"Get your quilt finished?" David asks as they walk the streets for the Lights Festival.

"All but the binding."

"Have we thought about flash freezing vegetables?" Alan asks as they come up to Ma and Mom.

"Like the canning factory, we don't grow large enough crops to need them." Overhearing the question, the two older women nod. "Canning we can put the food anywhere, we'd need a large scale freezer to store the frozen vegetables until they were delivered."

"So does this mean you have one in the dorm?" David smirks.

"Maybe."

Courtney takes a deep breath and smiles as she looks around.

"Nice and peaceful." Billy nods. "What Christmas was like before all the hustle and bustle . . ."

"And the damn ads for the latest hottest gotta have it electronic thing." Andrew snorts as he walks past. Everybody nods. "This is the ending of one year and the dawning on the next, a time to reflect on what happened and plan for the future, whether it's the crops you want to grow, buildings you want to put up or children."

"Really?" Josette says, coming up to them. Andrew reaches over and pulls up her hood.

"Yes, Alissa and Arissa are going to be teenagers in a couple of years and we're not getting any younger." Josette cackles.

"I expect David will be getting the call he's going to be a big brother again soon." Andrew nods. "Hannah's only a year younger than Alissa and Arissa."

Rick and Kara look down at their stomachs, just beginning to pooch out with the life growing in them. Josette hugs them, sending the file of herbal remedies safe for pregnancies, and heads off.

"Josette, maple syrup?" Andrew calls after her as the three doctors in the group look over the remedies.

"Yeah, I'm tapping this year, we're down to the replicated and stuff from stasis. And I'm growing sugar beets again."

"Animal planet apartments?"

"Going up finals, that gives them a little over a year to work on it both inside and out and it will be done next year around the same time we're finished with the sorting planet order."

"Supplies?"

"I'll start bringing them in in a few months. This year and next I'll grow cotton offplanet for Haven's towel factory order, two crops will be enough for that plus extra for towels that are wearing thin on the planets."

"What do you do with the worn out ones?"

"I shred the cotton and add it to my hand-made paper, the boys and I have shows in the other dimension we head to a couple times a year. The family insisted."

"Did you bring out one of their buildings?"

"Yes on the first planet, my fortress robots are handling everything." Josette grabs a bowl of paella that's being dished up.

"Cities?"

"They have megaskyscrapers, 200 floors that are basically self-contained cities. Hospitals, factories, shopping malls, hotels, whatever you need. They also have maglev trains that can go from Boston to say Chicago in twenty minutes and overseas in a couple hours." Andrew says. Everybody blinks or moans. "Their dimension lost about 85 to 95 percent of their population after WWII, their New York has one of the mega cities but they only have about 50,000 people living there. The others are very big in the government there."

"I can see that happening on one hand, if it's self-contained foul weather wouldn't keep anybody home." Andrew nods. "But you could also go days without being outside."

"Which is why everybody went outside as much as possible, with the trains there wasn't cars except for city vehicles and there were small markets set up every few blocks. Parks and other green areas were well taken care of and everybody went there when they had the time. The others had homes outside of the city to go to when they needed a break from the city."

"I can understand that." Dr. Cross sighs. Andrew smiles. "Sometimes you just have to get away from it all for a few hours. Even on Haven. And sometimes you just have to get out of the house and be around others."

Nods from the others.

"Even if most of Town did have the room to work on their quilts at home, everybody would gather around the stores to talk or expand their knowledge with classes." Josette says coming over. "No matter how long you've been knitting or quilting, you can always brush up on your technique or learn something new."

"That's what they do in Albatross and everybody has their own workrooms at home there." Andrew says. Josette nods.

"Josette are you growing on the first planet?"

"Yeah, I need to check the records to see what I'm running low on before I go out."

"Chipilotes." Principal Madison says, walking by them.

"Already on the list to grow and smoke. GD is experimenting with canning them in adobo sauce as well as just drying them like I am now. I'm going to be talking to Benton in a few months to see what cheese he wants to smoke while I got the smokehouse going."

"Chipilotes?"

"Dried, smoked jalapenos."

"Fish?"

"I was going to check the supplies before our meeting and bring that up."

"Chicken?"

"They're working on recipes in home kitchens, now that dining halls are closing I was going to bring up the possibility of letting them use a commercial kitchen to see if a chicken place would be possible beyond the replicator. If it is I don't see why they couldn't turn one of the dining halls into one." Principal Madison nods and walks off.

"Chicken place?" Nora asks.

"They've wanted one beyond KFC for several years, as long as we've had the pizza parlor in Albatross. The sticking point is some recipes take a helluva long time to make." All the cooks in the group nod vigorously. "Unless you had something like theme nights, walking in and ordering something wouldn't be possible. But if they have good recipes that can be replicated it would take care of that." Nods from the others.

A week later Josette slides into her seat at the government building the first day of the new semester. Doc hadn't been able to make this meeting but they hadn't expected anything major to come up.

"Everybody getting back to work on the sorting planet order or taking classes?" President Bartlett asks. Josette nods. "Alexander and Michael are going to be halfway through their Masters this year and plan on working on their theses this summer and again when they're finished with the order next year."

"And I'll be 1 1/2 semesters from my masters this year and finishing my bachelors." Like a tennis match everybody turns back to Josette. "I'm not finishing any degrees this year."

"Or starting new ones?"

"Nope, I'm concentrating on the degrees I already have started this year and next."

"Are the others settling in well on the ninth planet?"

"Yep, I expect that we'll be receiving birth announcements by the end of the semester." And Josette shoves David out of his chair.

"Awww!" He coos.

"Yes dammit." Josette sighs. "Lord Apollo confirmed it this morning. Just me. And it's triplets. I'll be delivering around the third testing period."

"Is there something we should know?" Lana asks with a smile when Josette returns to the dorm.

"Yes, I'm stuffed up. Yes, it's triplets. It's only me this time. I sent out messages before the meeting so . .." The switching station comes on and Mom Sanders comes out. "Should I hold my son while the four of you beat him?" She smirks.

"No, it's only me this time and I already shoved the annoying one out of his chair at the meeting."

"Delivering around the finals?"

"Third testing period since it's both triplets and we went to the first planet a couple weeks early."

"Is there anything that needs to be done?"

"No, Lady Athena made a second room for the kids since we'll have two grades in a few years. Everything's ready in the nursery and I'm heading to the yarn store after lunch. Oh, and yours and Mom's room has been redone."

Mom shakes her head. "I knew it had to be a possibility with the fun we had on the first planet after Thanksgiving." The computer beeps and various faces appear on the split screen.

"You two too huh?" Josette asks Bethany. She recognizes that look, it's probably all over her own face right now. The 'dammit, here we go again' look.

"Yes, at least me. Pat's looking a little green and Doc was dragging her off when I read your message." Bethany presses a button on the intercom. "Josette's pregnant. . .and it's triplets."

"Josette, really." Doc says as Josette and Bethany count off seconds on their fingers and his picture appears on the screen. Pat crowds into the picture next to him.

"Halfway expecting it after the fun we had on the first planet. It's only me this time."

"And me." Clarinda sighs from her screen.

"And Andrew and I are talking about using the gestation chamber again." Alice sighs. "How many are we expecting on the ninth planet?"

"Nora and her husband, Pat and his wife, Alan and Molly, Rex and Wendi, Ma, and Jay and Joan are using the gestation chambers. Rick and Kara are pregnant. So at least eight babies not counting anybody in Eureka that might become pregnant or use the chambers this year."

"Are they starting growing buildings this year?"

"Yes, I've got the request to bring out the supplies in a few months."

"Oh really" Marilyn laughs when Josette starts filling a cart at the yarn store.

"Yes, this time he caught me. I'm having triplets." The other woman shakes her head and laughs again. "Pat and Bethany are expecting too, so is Momma Clarinda." Agatha laughs in the doorway. "Andrew and Alice are talking about using the gestation chamber."

"Yep, Dad told me over the Lights Festival. And some of the others on the ninth planet are pregnant or having babies in the gestation chambers."'

"How are you coming on your quilts?"

"Finished the fourth one a couple days ago." Josette sends the file with all the information to Agatha who nods in thanks as she looks everything over. "Looking good Josette." Marilyn looks over her shoulder and nods.

"Oh, and you guys can tell the others. We talked about this at the meeting this morning and we're turning one of the empty dining halls over to you guys for the next step in seeing if you can have a chicken restaurant." Marilyn squeals like a girl finding a boy band in the mall. "There's a difference between cooking chicken at home and in a commercial kitchen, though I know you've been borrowing the kitchen at the church.

Agatha nods. "Talk to Principal Madison?"

"Yep, all the dining halls have food replicators so we you can see put the recipes in the databank and see if there's a difference between home cooked, commercial kitchen cooked, and replicator. And thank you for passing along the recipes, I'm been doing some cooking of my own."

"Oh really?" Abby purrs when she and Anna come home from work.

"Yep." Josette sighs. "Been a while since only one of us was pregnant."

"Yes, especially since our cycles have synced when we went off the birth control."

"The others on the ninth planet, Pat, Bethany . . ." Abby's voice trails off as she counts gift bags.

"Momma Clarinda, Mom, and Mom. Though the last one I'll hold back."

"Really?" Susan purrs.

"The girls are nearly teenagers." Josette says. "Dad said they were talking about it at the Lights Festival and I expect Mom and Dad to be looking at Hannah, the youngest Covington, our three, and getting empty arms." The others laugh.

"Is everything ready here?"

"Yep. The factory's making formula for the ninth planet. They've got good supplies of diapers and covers in storage, and we've alerted the diaper service so they can pick up and deliver when they arrive."

"They'll probably need a laundry."

Josette nods. "Doc and Dr. McNider were looking at ours when they were here after the storm. We're bringing one out as soon as the snow clears there and they have a spot selected for it."

"Oh good lord Josette." Doc sighs as he comes out of the switching chamber a few weeks later, finding Josette dressed in maternity clothes.

"Yep, our little vacation on the first planet after Thanksgiving turned into triplets. I knew after the last two pregnancies the others had being multiples and not getting caught when I did become pregnant it'd be multiples." Josette pulls her hair off her neck in a loose knot. "Just to prove it runs in the family, Momma Clarinda, Pat, and Bethany are also knocked up. So what can I do for you?"

"I wanted to talk about a growing area in Headquarters."

"On your floor or one of the others?" Josette grabs her PADD, sending him a file. "That's what Clark and Thomas settled on when they decided to add a growing area for the winter about ten years ago."

"This is exactly what I'd been thinking of. How long would it take?"

"Cleaning out the floor under you should take a couple weeks. The machinery's not that difficult, I can have it ready for you in a few months."

"Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I'd be miserable if I didn't have something to keep myself busy. The machinery's the same as what I'll be bringing out for the growing building, hydroponics, and greenhouse." Josette shrugs. "Dr. Cross is interested in a growing area at his house."

Josette sends out a message and CJ and Clark arrive a few minutes later.

"What's up?"

"Doc wants a growing area like yours at Headquarters. We'll have a few weeks clear after the crops go in to help clean out rooms." Clark nods and the three of them start talking as Josette starts working on the list of supplies they'll need for the growing areas.

"Did you talk to Josette?" Charles asks when Doc comes back to the ninth planet.

"Yes, Clark and Thomas had set up a growing area on the floor below Headquarters, they were able to give me a few good suggestions and they're coming out to help clear the rooms before Josette brings everything out. Oh and she's pregnant. . .with triplets."

The others stare at him. He sends a file to the screen, a picture of Josette in maternity clothes as he'd first seen her.

"One child is daunting enough," Rick says quietly, a hand on his rapidly growing stomach. "I can't imagine three at once." Then the baby in his womb kicks and he smiles.

"Josette sent a file on what you might want in the way of a growing area for your house." he sends the files to Pieter who thanks him and starts looking everything over. "I've also got the files for what the laundry will need when they bring one out and talked to the diaper service. They'll pick up and deliver ten batches of diapers a week once we deliver and the chambers open. Josette says the formula will arrive a couple weeks before then."

"They've got the facilities and experience to wash diapers." Dr. McNider says. Doc nods. "And Josette's bringing out stuff once we get the spot for the laundry selected. When I asked if she shouldn't be resting she said she'd be miserable if she wasn't keeping busy."

"How hard is it to get back in shape after the birth?" Kara asks when she and Rick come to Haven to talk to Josette a couple weeks later.

"Not that hard with the good food, clean air, sunshine, and walking everywhere. I generally start working out in the pool after I've stopped bleeding like a stuck pig, the water supports your weight and if you get tired you can float. You're not like those fool women who say 'oh, I'm pregnant, this means I can eat whatever I want' then expect the weight to magically fall off once you've delivered and are stunned when you're still 40 pounds overweight when you delivered a six pound baby." Rick snorts, rolling his eyes. "Yes, we already got the 'take it slow after you deliver, nobody expects you to lose every pound overnight' talk from the doctors. We're all gaining weight but we're in the best health we've ever been in for years in some cases."

"Yes," Dr. Cross who'd also come out says. "You're losing body fat and gaining muscle. And if you were on Earth I don't doubt some fool doctor would look at your BMI's and tell you to lose weight. I never took them into account during physicals."

"Nobody does on Haven or Archimedes anymore."

"Breastfeeding?"

Josette nods. "We all do, at least through the first six months. You should probably start lactating a week or so before you deliver and Pieter will tell you to pump and freeze it, it's chock full of stuff to help the baby's immune system. For about two weeks you'll be producing pre-milk, but it will start tapering off as you produce more milk." Pieter nods. "We supplement with bottles since there's usually more than one baby but we all pumped when we weren't breastfeeding. As the baby grows your milk will start tapering off, us girls started drying up when the babies were nearly nine months old. I know there's some women who breast feed longer and more power to them but I'm not going to be putting a two year old on my tit." Kara shudders. "I've seen those magazines."

"Those are the mommy gangs, you have to breast feed and you have to feed them as long as possible." Josette rolls her eyes. "There's no difference between children who were raised on formula and breast fed, that's just a way for them to make themselves better than everybody else in the universe."

"Now, how long do you generally stay in the house?" Pieter asks.

"I generally start attending meals at the dining hall about a week or so after I've delivered, the others bring back meals before then and Mom and Mom are usually here cooking too. When the girls all had twins, Pat and Bethany came out instead since Alissa and Arissa were nearly two and Hannah was one. Having people around who've been though all this and can help you through the day to day life of a new baby really helps." Pieter nods. "In the old days, a girls mother or other women in the village came out to help. Back then the woman went into seclusion until she delivered and up to a month or so afterwards."

"And the babies?"

"We bring them out when they're two weeks old and have had their first shots. Once we're bringing them to meals Mom and Mom usually head home." Josette gets up and they walk upstairs to the growing area.

"This is nicely laid out."

"Decades of practice." Josette says.

"Do you grow corn up here?"

"I have in the past, but I generally grow it at the ranch when I'm not growing cotton. When I do I grow beans and squash in the same field. When I grow corn up here it's blue corn and I only plant a couple rows."

"Blue corn?" Kara looks at her.

"It's generally used in Mexican cooking." Pieter says. Josette nods. "I either turn it into flour for tortillas or use the corn whole in tortillas."

"How often do you make tortillas?"

"Every few months, I generally make several different recipes and freeze them." Josette stops to think a minute. "I gotta check my stock of cactus paddles."

"Cactus?" Dr. Cross asks.

"Yes, we put together a growing area of numerous cacti, some endangered, when we started getting ready to leave Earth. I usually harvest paddles once a year. We have some on the food replicator too."

"After we deliver?"

"Think of it as the worse period of your life. It will be heavy since you're sloughing off the uterine lining as it contracts and it will be longer. Pads, a tampon would get lost in your body. Loose clothing, you're going to be sore. Soaking helps, there's a list of herbs that can go in the water and you can drink as a tea."

Pieter nods, he'd looked at the files Josette had given them. "Soups, soft food at least for the first few days."

"Like after first time anal sex."

"Exactly. I've got the vampire healing but the girls are usually recovered by their two month checkup, that's why there's so many women going in and finding out they're pregnant again."

Kara shakes her head. "More power to them but I couldn't imagine having a baby and being pregnant again. Yes, you can't go back on birth control while you're nursing but that's what they make condoms for."

"You don't try to lose all the weight at once, do you?"

"No, as long as we're comfortable we're okay. The girls usually lost about fifteen pounds by their two month checkup, but that's the only time we get weighed. As long as we're healthy it's all that matters. I'm usually back in my old clothes by then but I don't tend to gain much weight with my pregnancies. The most I gained was 40 pounds with the quintuplets."

Dr. Cross moans. "Quintuplets?"

"Yes, they're turning 24 next month and in their last year of internship at GD on Archimedes."

"Stretch marks?"

"Oil during the pregnancy helps, GD has a wonderful line of products for after the birth to help fade them."

"Josette, what's the latest on the u-pick farm?" David asks, coming out of his room.

"Not this year but next year they're planting more fields. This year we've got the first two harvests on the animal planet." David nods and starts typing on his PADD. "Dad wanted to know. He knew they were planning on expanding since we've got more students going to be leaving school over the next few years." Josette nods. "800 last year and 827 this year finishing their university classes and moving to permanent housing."

"And 1800 students finishing university year after next and 2100 students finishing high school this year. Plus the last 2400 graduating high school year after next."

"Yep, the last of the students will be leaving the dorms when Melissa and the others are finishing high school."

"Is Grammy Allie and a proctor coming out for your third testing week?"

"No, I finished all my online classes when I realized I was pregnant and don't have any tests in those until finals. The others I'm taking the finals along with the classes on teacher." David nods. "I figured I'd be a little busy that week." David sniggers. Josette gives him a look and Rick and Kara lean on each other, laughing. "They're coming out for my finals. Alexander and Michael heading to GD as usual."

A couple weeks later Josette swears and disappears with Lord Apollo, David sends the cleaning robot to take care of the wet spot from Josette's water breaking before he starts composing a message.

"Albertson, Samuel, and Anderson James Covington-Sanders." Josette says, reappearing a few seconds later. He sends out the message after taking pictures as the grandmothers take the babies to the nursery. "Anderson's the blond, Samuel's the redhead." David strokes a finger over the babies heads. "They're two days old, there's six bottles pumped." Lois nods and takes the bag, shooing Josette off. Mary's already drawing a hot bath and crumbles the herbs into the water in Josette's first floor room. She gratefully slides into the water.

"Congratulations Grandma, it's three boys." Chuck Taine says when he comes in with the message, and attached pictures.

"Oh, they're adorable." Clarinda looks at the pictures of the three babies in the nursery. She looks down at her own stomach. "You could make an appearance." Charles chuckles next to her.

"Three boys." Ham says, coming into the dining room where everybody's eating a late lunch. He sends the message to the others PADDs.

"Awww, they're adorable."

"We can visit tomorrow, I'm sure Josette's in the tub soaking or already asleep." Pat and Bethany nod.

"Josette delivered three boys." Billy says, looking at the message. The others look at him and he puts the message and pictures on the large screen in JSA headquarters.

"Good sized for approximately 38 weeks gestation and triplets." Dr. Cross says. Rick and Kara look down at their stomachs. "I'm sure the others on Haven are just as ready to deliver."

"I wouldn't have expected a redhead." Alan Scott blinks.

"Michael and Alexander are foundlings, since the orphanage was safe harbor under the laws nobody ever looked for family so there's no telling what their parents hair color was. They've had other redheads before." Dad says, sending off a message then putting his PADD away before they turn their attention back to the new buildings they'd planned on putting up.

Henry King, the former Brainwave comes into the room. After getting some food at the replicator he slides into a seat, yawning and rubbing his neck. The others look at him. "I've been looking through all the courses available at GD and fell asleep reading." He moves his head on his shoulders, his neck cracking loudly.

Dr. Cross looks at Billy. "Yes, I'm looking into degrees and talking with people at GD." He looks at Mary and Freddy next. They both nod.

A couple days later visitors start arriving at the dorm, finding Josette nursing Samuel as Lois changes Anderson.

"They're adorable."

Billy, Mary, Freddy, Courtney, Maxine, and Henry talk for a couple hours before they come back to the ninth planet. "Josette gave us a lot of good advice on degrees. She's had experience talking with young people uncertain about what they want to do with their future."

"You shouldn't have monopolized her time."

"She insisted, she recognized the 'oh my god, how do I choose? I've got my whole life ahead of me on a new planet' wide-eyed look." Henry says. "We sat in the living room and talked, the others were home and they added suggestions." Henry sends the list to the server, sorted by person, area of interest, what they'd need for the future, and finally degrees.

"I hadn't thought of a good half of these." Pieter says.

"They've had experience in leading young minds to future degrees." Dr. McNider and the older JSA members nod. "Now. . .the botanists say we should be able to plant by the end of the month."

Billy nods. "I'll go out and till up the gardens and fields. We've got good supplies of manure and compost from the other planets until we can start using ours."

Pa comes out after they've got their crops in and nods in satisfaction at the fields and communal garden. "Good work for your first solo planting."

"Were the others delayed planting with Josette's pregnancy?"

"No, they're old pros at planting with new babies." A yell has Pieter and Charles sprinting off as Hank picks up Rick and carries him to Pieter's house. He looks over at Kara as she flies in for a graceful landing even with the baby belly. "You?"

"No, I became pregnant a few weeks after Rick. And from what I've read first pregnancies take a while. They'll call the rest of us in when Rick's close to delivering." Pa nods and they walk and talk as the others start emerging from the JSA headquarters where Michael had been opening the gestation chambers.

"Introductions?"

"Meet our youngest son, James Arthur Bromfield." Nick says, looking down at the baby in his wife's arm, then at their older children. And he's quickly counted Freddy in that group. Ma Hunkel comes out next, a baby in hers and Maxine's arms. Kara squeals and carefully hugs them both. "Billy, Ma had twins."

"I'll go bring out another cradle from the supplies." Mary calls. "And I'll grab bags of supplies." Freddy says. Billy smiles and hugs Ma and Maxine before sending the message to the diaper service on Haven. A few minutes later the switching station opens and Alan comes out, waving a hand and diaper pails and stacks of diapers appear, being run to various homes by the others.

Alan and Molly come out, their daughter Alexis in her momma's arms.

"Thank you Alan."

"Easy enough for me or Josette to deliver everything." James comes out behind him with David and they smile at the babies and proud new parents before walking to the area where everybody had decided the laundry would be going.

"Oh wow." Billy blinks as the building shimmers into view a few minutes later. "Does that ever get used to?"

"No."

"How long until it's up and ready for operation?" Michael asks as Joan, Courtney's mom, and Rex come out carrying their new son and daughters.

"About six months Haven time, we've got to bring out the large septic unit, unlock all the machines, and get everything on the solar panels and alternative power. Do you want the building on it's own power source or piggyback off one of the others."

"It's own, when we bring out other stuff it can piggy back off that one." Michael looks around. "Charles and Pieter?"

"Rick's water broke."

"Ahhhh." Michael's eyes grow dark a second, thinking of his late wife Paula and the child she'd been carrying that they'd named Terry after the first Mr. Terrific when she'd come to him after his heart stopped.

"Do you have good supplies of detergents?"

"Yes, and more on the server to replicate though . . ."

David nods. "We've got the factory and we're starting operation this year."

"How's Josette?"

"Getting back to . .." David smirks as the switching station operates and Josette comes out. She brings out bags for the new parents, getting hugs and smiling at the babies.

"Nothing like holding your baby in your arms to make everything right with the world."

"Yep, and holding your older children in your arms helps too." Nick hugs Billy, Mary, and Freddy after they come back from setting up everything in Ma's home.

"Josette how are you feeling?" Dr. McNider asks when he comes out of Pieter's home to let the others know how Rick's doing.

"Getting back to normal. With spring here I can get outside a lot more and I'm working out in the pool."

"Josette." Charles Savage says, coming over. They hug. "You're looking good." he looks at her.

"Yeah, another couple of weeks and I'll be able to get rid of the stretchers in my pants." She blows David a mental raspberry at the cackling. He knows just as well as she does that she doesn't need the stretchers for her pants, she's already lost all the baby weight. But she wasn't going to tell the others that.

"How are the others?"

"Momma Clarinda had a girl, Pat and Bethany had boys." Josette shows off pictures to everybody, getting coos from the new parents.

"Dad asked me to come out and see how you were coming on the supplies for the growing area."

"I'm a little over halfway getting everything on Salem. It will be another couple of months, probably after the Harvest Festival. But Clark, CJ, and I are coming out in a few weeks to start clearing out the area and see if the rooms need any work before we start work." Charles nods. "Now, how did the supplies handle the winter?"

"Good. Michael's talking with James about a permanent building for the supplies." Jay says. Josette nods. "Josette, how hard would it be to add electricity to the containers?"

"Not that hard. Are you thinking of using them as something like workshops? I know they were talking about using them for living space on Earth, they'd be the perfect size for one person but there's the downside of you can't easily add plumbing." Jay and Rex nod.

"It would give us an extra place to can food if we combine two or three of them."

Josette nods. "When we've got the kitchen garden coming in, I've got all four kitchens going."

"Four kitchens?"

"The ranch, my first floor room, the twins room, and the basement kitchen."

"It would give us a place to quilt until we put up a building." Nora says. Courtney's mom and Ma Hunkel nod. They get together to start sketching out plans.

"Josette, hold up a second and settle an argument we've been having. Even though they're in the same brine, whole pickles cut up and . . ."

"And hamburger dill slices do not taste the same?" Kara nods. "Yes, they had a segment on one of the cooking shows about that. That's why I make different varieties of pickles in the barrels." Kara nods. "When we start growing more, that's what we'll have to do. There's so many different varieties of pickles." Josette nods. "Ma, Mom, Mom, and I all make different types beyond what goes in the barrels."

"Josette, this is probably a dumb question but pickled baloney?"

"We make it every few years along with sausages both real meat and vat raised meat. Ma's got the machine for sausages and we spend a few days mixing everything up, stuffing them, then putting them up to dry, smoke, or in stasis. We gotta make batches this year if anybody's interested in helping out and learning how to make their own."

More than one nod. "It's will be in a few weeks, we usually take over the big building so we got room to work and we'll be offworld harvesting in a few months." Josette heads off through the switching station, finding Ma in the back room with Mom and Mom.

"Some of the others from the ninth planet are going to be helping when we make sausage." the other three women nod.

"Are you making baloney too?"

"Yes, that's what got us talking about the sausage."

"I'll adjust the recipes so we have enough for everybody."

"Did you see David and James?"

"Yes, they were . .." they walk into the room. "Nearly finished bringing out the laundry."

"I'm going out in a couple of days to bring out the tv station and library."

"New babies?" Ma asks in a 'don't make me raise my voice' tone and Josette chuckles. "Pictures, names, and new parents." She sends over the files."

"They're adorable, is Ma going to be able to take care of twins?"

"Yes, the others are already pitching in. Mary was bringing out a second cradle and Freddy was getting out more supplies for her. Rick's water broke, I expect he'll be delivering in a couple days."

"First babies always take a good bit of time. Kara?"

"Not due for a couple more weeks, she got pregnant later."

"That will give Rick time to start recovering before Kara delivers."

After lunch Josette starts working on her last quilt for next year's kits the news that Rick gave birth to a seven pound, eight ounce little boy coming a couple days later.

Rick lays back in Billy's arms as the baby is weighed and examined as Charles delivers the afterbirth.

"Welcome to the world Richard Pieter James Tyler McNider Cross." Everybody kisses the baby's head before he and Rick get settled. Wendi cries over her son as Rex looks at the baby.

"Are we saving umbilical cord blood and stem cells?" Charles asks Pieter in the lab.

Pieter nods and they settle down to work. Rick is vainly trying to stay awake when they come into the room a few minutes later and they kiss him on the forehead. Rick sighs and goes to sleep. Charles and Pieter let him rest then check on the others.

Rick's getting up and slowly moving around when Kara squeaks one day. Three days later Alura Brigid McNider Zor-L Cross is born.

"You weren't kidding about being sore and the worse period we've ever had." Rick says when Josette comes out to check on the newest addition to the family.

"Nope, though the vampire enzyme helps. And so does your child in your arms." Both Rick and Kara nod.

"Now are you two alone here?"

Rick waves his hand in a yes, no, maybe gesture. "We convinced everybody we could be alone for a few hours. Dad's in GD looking over what needs to be done now that Tylerco was brought out, Billy and Alan are talking with James and Billy's boss about bringing out a tv station and tape library. Dr. Cross and McNider are down in the lab with Mr. Terrific."

Josette sends James a message on the PADD. "I hadn't thought of that, thank you Josette." Everybody looks at him. "Josette just reminded me that she can copy your tape libraries so you're not using the original tapes. She's copied everything for the stations on Haven and Archimedes." The three of them nod. They get in the flyer and mark locations for a tv station, radio station, a library, and a building where the babies can attend classes before coming back for a landing. They head to JSA headquarters and start working on the list of what each would need when they're brought out.

On the way out Alan and Billy stop at a 'gone but not forgotten wall'.

"You must think we're morbid."

"No more than the police, fire departments, and other agencies that had similar memorials to those they lost. Who were they?"

Billy points to the pictures one by one. "Sand, he was our first chairman when the Society reformed. He was one of the older members of the Society, his former mentor Sandman killing himself to stop a villain from finding out our secret identities is what got the Society reformed. He stayed in the other dimension, working with the League."

"This was Johnny Thunder, he was one of our members and had Alzheimers. He died in an attack by an old villain, the t-bolt he controlled going to a young man who died tragically a few months later when his home was attacked in a gang initiation. He threw himself in front of his aunt to save her from being shot. She was horrified when she found out her 'no-good' nephew was a hero and her precious children were common thugs."

"This was Black Canary, the original one. Her daughter was like Courtney, Rick, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Mr. Terrific, the younger generation taking on the heroic identity of a lost member of the JSA. She died of cancer caused by an incident that killed her husband shortly before Sand's partner killed himself, the JSA was caught in limbo at that time. The original Mr. Terrific was killed by an old enemy of his."

"Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Black Canary, and Atom Smasher chose to stay behind in the other dimension, Josette talked to them the last time she was over and at least Black Canary has plans to visit us. Hippolyta was a member of the JSA during World War II, taking over the duties of Wonder Woman when her daughter was badly injured fifty years later. She and her daughter took their people to the other dimension it inhabits, breaking off contact with Man's world as they call it when Luthor took power."

"This is Hector Hall and his wife Lyta. He was one of the incarnations of Dr. Fate, she was a super-heroine called Fury. They died during a case. The two young women worked with the same group Hector, Lyta, Hank, and my kids belonged to. They were killed by an supervillain along with other heroes. Sylvester was the leader of that group, he was killed by an old enemy of mine, he was Pat's former partner. Courtney found his gear in a box of Pat's belongings and became Stargirl to tick him off, then realized she liked being a heroine."

"This young man is Norda, he was part of the group Sylvester run and Hawkman's godson just as Hector was Hawkman's son. His father was human but his mother was from a race of bird people. He underwent an evolutionary change and became more bird than man. This was Alexander Montez, he and the young woman next to him died in the same fight."

"Hawkman was Hector's father? I'd have said the other way around. Though I shouldn't say that considering the kids all look younger than most of their children."

"Yes, Hector's white hair made him look older than he was. Hawkman and Hawkgirl were under a reincarnation curse, every time they died they'd return in a new life. The last life Hawkman and Hawkgirl had before they died was as Hector's parents. And to prove Fate has a sense of humor, Hector and Lyta were the parents of a grown son when they died."

"This was Al Pratt, we called him the Atom. He was a pint-size scrapper and Atom Smasher's godfather. We lost him in the same fight that we thought we lost Rex and Charles, I was more than happy to take their pictures down from this wall." Alan lays a hand against the wall, remembering another wall of lost heroes they weren't able to avenge. James puts a hand on his shoulder as they walk out the door.

"Did you get everything arranged?" Pieter asks as Josette and James check on the progress of work on the laundry before heading back to Haven.

"Yes, the sites for everything is set and we'll bring out the library first. Josette's going to be copying the tape libraries so we have duplicates. She did it for the others too." Everybody else nods. "Once we get the exterior work done we can work inside on everything over the winter."

"Do we have a place set up for visitors? I know the others want to see how we're settling in."

"Yes, when the fourth planet was being made ready for settlement they brought out a couple hotels for the workers building the communal kitchens and whatnot. They'd already done all the work to be self-sufficient so we just have to bring it out. We can put it up nearby so they can walk or during foul weather use a flyer."

"How did they handle food?"

"They had shifts in the restaurant kitchen cooking while the communal kitchen was going up. They can do that as well or use a food replicator."

"Do we need a communal kitchen?" Billy holds up a hand as everybody starts talking. "For harvests and canning if nothing else when everybody is busy in the fields or watching the babies." Everybody starts thinking and nods. "It would save everybody from having to make food for the next day in the slowcookers and leave it to cook over the next day. Or making food ahead of time and freezing it."

"Or everybody making a dish and getting together to eat."

"Anything else?"

"Plans to alter some of the cargo containers for workshops and a summer kitchen during canning."

"The only problem is fresh water unless you have somebody filling buckets."

"That we can do. Since it would only be in operation while we're canning we wouldn't need anything more permanent."

"And without plumbing it wouldn't freeze over the winter. The building for the canned goods and bulk supplies?"

"Josette's bringing the material out with the supplies for the growing buildings."

Back on Haven, Josette slides into her seat at the dining hall for lunch after filling her tray and kissing the babies.

"How's the progress on getting the laundry factory running?"

"Good, we'll work on powder and liquid detergent and dishwashing liquid this year, maybe next year we'll make a batch of the pods."

"And from the disgusted look Professor Druid is giving Principal Madison, there will be a baby Madison as well as a baby Covington by the end of the year." On the screen Principal Madison is looking smug while Professor Druid nods. The others look at the back screen, Josette points at the baby stroller then her parents and they laugh. Professor Fletcher looks at Dr. Hazlitt.

"Really?"

"Ayuh, I'm taking a year off from the health center here and in town to take care of him or her. The kids are excited at having a new baby brother or sister.

"You're not the only one." Frances says. Elaine nods. "We've got babies in the chamber too."

"Are you going to need a year off?"

"Our classes are at the stage where everybody who wanted to take the quilting, knitting, and sewing classes will have by the end of the year and the later classes will be small enough we'll be able to have the babies with us in the office while we're not covering classes." Frances looks at the back room screen and Josette nods, she'll help with the classes.

"And this is the time to tell you Johnny and I are going to be fathers again." Professor Parker sighs. The others laugh.

"Okay, with all the new children being born, are we going to be able handle early education with the education center shut down?"

"Yes, we've got time to teach the kids when we're not in class for the older students. By the time they'll really getting into their education, school will be in the last year or closed." Nods from the others.

"Josette, what classes are you taking?"

"This and that, like I said this year and next I want to get in semesters for degrees I've had started for a while but haven't been working on continuously like the others."

"How far are you on your naval academy degree?"

"Halfway through it with this semester."

A group of the others come out a couple days later and they start working in the big building on sausages and baloney, making different varieties over the next couple of weeks.

"That's not hard." Jay says when they're finished five weeks later and Josette is bringing in the first of the offworld harvests and they've finished a day of bringing in the crops and canning, drying, or storing everything.

"No just time intensive." Alan says, leaning back in the green energy chair he'd created.

"Do we have everything we need?"

"If we don't we can replicate it. And we've got the recipes on the server so we can make smaller batches at home." Pieter says, Richie laying on his chest. The others nod. "What's the status on everything?"

"Laundry is finished, James is bringing out a tv station and the library after the ground dries from the rain." Charles says. "Josette, Clark, and CJ are working on the floor under Clark's Headquarters for their growing center, then they're working on the one here, Pieter's home, and the buildings. We should have a radio station and the school by our fourth harvest, once they get the outside work done, we can work on everything over the winter."

"Hotel?"

"Going up with the tv station and library. It doesn't need the work the others do, we just need to make sure whoever comes out has the supplies they need." Nods from the others before they get up to head to their homes. Pieter kisses Richie's head before he's put down in the cradle next to Rick's bed. Rick's already asleep and Pieter kisses him on the head before going upstairs to his room. Charles wraps his arms around him before they go to sleep themselves.

Kara's looking out the walls of windows, watching the rain slide down them as she nurses Alura.

"On Earth this would be gloomy but here. . ."

"It's a symbol of rebirth, putting the new crops off to a good start when we plant."