Imagine: The List
Fic posted by members of Vo's Imaginings YahooGroup


The next couple of weeks fly by and soon Josette and the others are busy bringing in the last harvest. They head to Archimedes for their finals one day, Josette smirking at Dr. Stark as he gives her chiding looks at the tables as Drs. Cross and McNider chuckle.

 

"I'm sure there's already books being written about what happened in the other dimension so nothing like that ever happens again, I passed along the option of using our printing operation if they wanted hard copies." Dr. Stark nods. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Are you going out after Thanksgiving?"

 

"Yeah. It's been 22 years since the bombs went off, so around 30 years there? Whichever ship goes out will be seeing if Earth is beginning to recover."

 

"Do they have the notes for the cities?"

 

"Yeah, if they have to they can settle on Earth in one of them after the nuclear winter has passed. The shields will absorb the lingering radiation and change it into energy while they're seeing how the radiation changed everything." The three doctors nod.

 

After the finals Josette starts picking up the recycling and dropping off wheat and rice to the flour factory and manufacturing satellite for various planets. Back on Haven she slides into her seat at the government building.

 

"Josette, is there any plans for the other satellites?" President Bartlett asks.

 

"Yeah, we're looking into starting orders again next year. They'll be in operation at least three years." Doc nods in satisfaction. "Once we get an idea of what we're making, the ordering information will be sent out."

 

"Okay, trips to the other dimensions?"

 

"Taking the graduating students home, recycling, and last of the orders out to Granda's. Taking Doc's orders out. Picking up supplies and harvesting lost countries on Thomas's world. I'll probably take three ships out. Going to the 9th planet Earth to see how the nuclear winter is going, it's been 22 years for us so maybe 35 years there. They don't expect it to clear out for decades yet but. . ." The others nod. "Keep on top of it so they can hopefully return to Earth one day."

 

"Once the nuclear winter is over they'll have to see how long it will take Earth to recover."

 

"See how any lingering radiation affects growth, see if the water and earth can recover. . .they took a lot of dirt away from Chernobyl and the ground was still radioactive."

 

The next week Thomas and the others smile as they walk though the tesseract David opens. Dawn looks around at the large number of people, not only from the eighth, ninth, and tenth planets but from the other dimensions.

 

"Tara, red ringed pit is the real meat, the other one is the vat raised meat."

 

"Th. . thank you."

 

"Dr. Cross is a vegetarian too." She waves at the three men and Tara sighs in relief that Josette's not going to any extra trouble just for her. Alexander's stirring something in a large pot over one of the fires.

 

"Is that your famous soup?"

 

"Yep, a double double batch." Alexander waves a hand at the pickle jars nearby. Thomas looks at them. "A vegetable soup that a family friend of the Covington's passed along back when we were in high school and Josette fell one day. She wasn't concussed but something twisted in her screwy mind. . ." Josette blows a raspberry in his direction. "And she couldn't stand the smell of meat for a few months. The school offered more vegetarian main courses and she brought what was available in the stores but that shit was godawful." Everybody who's eaten anything like that nods. "She lost weight and a family friend passed along a jar of the soup and the recipe. There's a couple rules for the soup, when you make a double batch you only use half again the spices and you put the leftovers up in pickle jars. It doesn't taste the same otherwise."

 

Alex nods. "We had it on the bus during the road trip and after the first time it was put up in plain mason jars we hit various restaurant and warehouse stores to stock up on pickles and pickle jars." His dad looks at him. "Yes, that's why I was buying so many pickles suddenly, I'd just come back from the road trip. That's why I always saved the pickle jars, I've got a good selection of various sizes in the compound."

 

"So do we, everybody knows to save pickle jars for us. It helps bringing out so many supplies from the other dimensions and we need something to put the pickles in when we take them out of the barrels."

 

"How did you . . ."

 

"Suddenly start eating meat again? Whatever in my head must have unkinked because about three months later I woke up craving a hamburger with all the trimmings."

 

After Thanksgiving everybody walks through the tesseract David opens to the school while Josette is busy delivering everything.

 

Josette grabs the historians in the pantheons, talking to them about the plans for either a show or a series of books about the first hundred years of Haven, getting nods and ideas that none of them had thought about. Hannah is looking that direction and Susan tells her what Josette was talking to them about.

 

"Different writing a book of on quilts, socks, t-shirts, or cookbooks and a coffee table book of the history of something like settling Haven." Calvin says. "Though working on that would be a good dissertation."

 

"Yeah, we'll have everything done before I even start it though." Susan chuckles. Several weeks later after trips to various places and working on the recycling David opens the tesseract back on Haven. They lift off again, going to Mom Clarinda's dimension. Several weeks later they return and Josette joins with her other selves that had been to the other dimensions with Thomas and Dr. Cross and McNider. Delivering containers various places she starts unearthing old photographs, sorting them out for various book ideas. The school should be a book by itself she thinks as she remembers all the information on the school in one of the rooms of the administration building.

 

"Josette, what are you doing?" Joyce asks a few days later, finding Josette digging through file cabinets, a table covered with papers and photographs. A table that hadn't been in there before has a laptop, scanner, and hard drive. Josette turns to look at the older woman and grins. "I'm doing something that will make Principal Madison cuss for at least a week."

 

The other woman laughs. "What's on your devious mind?" Josette outlines her plans and Joyce expands on them. She'd always been a bit of a history buff and had used the time when the school was shut down and now that she had three other women covering her office and a fancy title as office manager to get degrees in history as well as the office management courses Susan had taken.

 

"There's a difference between ..."

 

"Writing textiles books and writing coffee table history books." Josette nods. "I'm talking to Professors Parker and Fletcher when the others come out for the Lights Festival."

 

"I'd hoped that we were going to be doing something for the 100th anniversary of settling on Haven."

 

Josette nods. "I talked to some of the historians in the other dimension, they don't normally come out but they're going to be working with us. They've written several of these type of books." Joyce nods in satisfaction. "Work with the experts, Peter for the photographs and Jessica to . . write personal histories?"

 

"Yep."

 

Josette leaves the stuff she's been digging through in the room, it's not used very often and won't be touched. After getting a hot shower to get rid of the dust she joins the others walking to dinner.

 

"Thomas and the others ready for winter?"

 

"Yep, they've got good supplies of the fake wood in for fireplaces, woodburning stoves, and furnaces, they've got the alternate energy, the Manor has been off the grid for years, they've got good stocks of food for themselves and the animals, and they have tesseract devices so they can pop around when being out there gets too much for them. Martha's able to work on her quilts and whatnot, Thomas is able to do research, Clark's working a couple of books. . ."

 

"Alex, Jason, and Tim are taking classes?"

 

"Yep, they're all at stages where they're all doing bookwork. Alex won't have projects until next year. And while our gifts take care of the book classes, they don't give you an edge in the classes where you have to work." Nods from the others.

 

"How long were you gone?"

 

"About three years, we cleared out three countries and there's five nearly as bad. Mars and the Watchtower have plenty of supplies for now and the future, we moved entire buildings of supplies and domed them. They're cleaning the water and earth right now and once they're sure it's good, they're going to be planting. Africa is like ours, it's going to take a while to recover."

 

"Luckily the Earth has time to recover." Susan says quietly. The others nod.

 

Josette settles in her usual spot at the Albatross Nest a couple weeks later, a bottle of pop next to her along with a plate while a second is on her knees.

 

"Josette, books?"

 

"The third one should be finished next week. The next three will be printed next year and I've got eight more to be printed after those are done." Everybody grins.

 

"Okay everybody, I've got jobs for you." The others turn to look at her. "I'm looking for pictures of Albatross from before it moved and how it's changed over the years."

 

"Are you planning a history?"

 

"Yep, we're working on a history in pictures for the 100th anniversary of Haven and coffee table books. Agatha, can we use your scanner for old photos?"

 

"Yep, I'm sure there's plenty of old information in various attics around town. Have you talked to the universities?"

 

"Yep."

 

"Please tell me you're not doing everything yourself?" Sue says.

 

"Hell no, Doc would shoot me with a trank dart and lock me in his 'special' room for the rest of my life. I've been talking with the historians on the 8th and 9th planets, Archimedes is planning something similar. I've been talking with the historians Calvin and Hannah's family work with, they've done these types of books before." the others nod in satisfaction. "It's going to take a few years to get the pictures together and work on the timeline and everything."

 

"Let the experts do it."

 

"Exactly. Susan's using the notes from all this stuff for her dissertation, but like she already said she's waiting until this is all over before she starts." Chuckles and nods from the others.

 

Talk turns to other things and the kits and cookies are passes out. Food is put into containers and by common consent it's all shoved at Josette. Sniggering she puts them in subspace and starts off after dishes are washed and sorted out or put up. Back at the dorm she puts everything away and heads up to where the others are in the growing area transplanting seedlings in the growing rooms, hydroponics, and aquaponics.

 

"Talk to the others about the plans?"

 

"Yeah, Agatha agreed to use her scanner for old photos, it will be a few years to get everything together and depending on how much information they have from before they left Earth. . ." Alan snorts at the growing racks where he's spreading seeds in the trays.

 

"Tons, just in attics let alone the historical society."

 

"We might be looking at a couple books on Albatross alone, one from before they came up and one afterwards." Anna grabs her PADD and sends out a message. "The historical society has wanted to write a book for years but it's always been too much money. Even a vanity printing."

 

"Now they can."

 

Josette brings out the third order of books from the printing operation the next week, putting them in a room. Sending off the message to the Albatross Nest about the books she heads to lunch.

 

After the Lights Festival Josette sends out the message about the satellite going into operation and what they'd be working on, the order information going out and the jobs being announced before sliding into her seat at the government building.

 

"Announcement for the satellite out, order information on the servers with the orders due by the Harvest Festival and the jobs starting next year." She puts her PADD on her belt as the others nod in satisfaction.

 

"Plans for this year?"

 

"Clarinda and the others turning a hundred." Josette shakes her head. David shakes his head. "I swear it was just yesterday Josette was cussing as she was trying to get behind the wheel of her van." Thoughts then turn to the friends of humanity who started Earth's troubles. Shaking her head Josette turns her attention to other matters.

 

"The printing operation is starting the fourth book today."

 

"Agatha settle on a date for the party?"

 

"A couple of weeks. The first book will be available at the shows."

 

"Who where?" Principal Madison asks, the verbal shorthand for whose show is in which dimension.

 

"The boys first in Granda's dimension, I'll be signing books and delivering them to Ellis when we go out. My show is in Mom's, I'll sign books after the show." He nods.

 

"Are all the book orders the same size?"

 

"Yeah, I wasn't too sure about that many for the t-shirts and socks books but David and Bronwen convinced me the looky-loos at the shows will buy them just because they're there." The three older men laugh but nod.

 

"The other books?"

 

"We're looking at the same size run, they'll be in the various libraries as well as for sale." Nods from the others. "We're looking at from ten to fifteen, one or two from the exhibit itself for those who couldn't make it or want a reminder of it, the rest with more pictures and other information. That number includes Albatross, Eureka, and Cabot Cove." the three men nod in satisfaction.

 

"What's the supply on the toilet paper and toothpaste?"

 

"Good, I figure the toilet paper next year with the candy and toothpaste the year after that." The others look at the numbers and nod, if they run out of toothpaste or toilet paper before they can replicate it.

 

Stopping at the bakery Josette returns to the dorm, shaking the snow off her cloak and taking off her boots. She heads upstairs to her workroom to start a quilt as David heads to his room. He's been working on his thesis during the summers and over breaks and will be meeting with his advisor this summer about it. The others were starting classes from the other dimension, Josette had brought out her supplies and their books out before the Lights Festival.

 

"How did you divide the stuff from the countries?" David asks at lunch.

 

"The ships cleared out the garbage dumps, a lot of the raw material went into crystals for the others use. Other stuff we split."

 

"Are you going out again this semester?"

 

"Yeah, probably third testing week since I'm going out to Calvin's midterms and finals to pick up school supplies and drop off the orders. And taking out orders to Doc's dimension."

 

Doc sends her a message the day after their first testing week and she goes out with him, returning with containers of supplies from ruined warehouses and factories. He calls for a meeting after they return and joins the others at Headquarters later that night.

 

"How bad?"

 

"Volcanic activity is picking up, some volcanoes that have been dormant for years are stirring to life."

 

"Shit."

 

"We picked up a lot of supplies from warehouses and factories that have been covered with volcanic ash. Everything would have been destroyed anyway once the magma started flowing." He says at their looks. "It was already starting to move, we just emptied buildings and sorted afterwards. Like Thomas's world, some of the countries are empty, the world court had us going in and burying people. They were sorting out supplies with us."

 

"Communist countries?"

 

"Gone. Those were the first countries we checked after we harvested everything under the ash. Governments are moving people out of the danger zones. . .finally."

 

"About damn time."

 

"How long were you gone?"

 

"About five years. Once the land was clean, they started planting and were already on their second or third crops."

 

"Good, even with all the deaths there's still problems feeding everybody."

 

"And the extra crops coming in will mean jobs in canning factories." Nods from the others. "We're planning the same thing as countries fall."

 

The next day Agatha is looking around the Albatross Nest. Josette had brought out the boxes of books the previous weekend and Agatha had sat down with the books to read. Five boxes of each book are set out under the tables that are covered with the books so Josette shouldn't have to bring out more until the end of the show for her and Sue to sell at the stores.

 

More tables are full of food and drink and she opens the door, people starting to come through the front door and the link. Looking at the books longingly, everybody turns to the food, talking about this and that.

 

"Are you done with your first notebook of quilts?"

 

"About 2/3rd done." Josette drops her head and the others snigger.

 

"How many books?" David asks at dinner.

 

"About 1500 between the three books, Agatha doesn't have the final count yet. I took three hundred more of each book to the stores afterwards so they have them on hand. I'll take out about fifteen thousand copies of the first book out for the boys show and Ellis. I run low I'll bring more out for Ellis, it's not like I won't be there multiple times." Nods from the others.

 

After dinner Josette dials up eggplant and chicken parmesans from the food replicator and eats while she works on one of the projects for the hands-on classes she's taking from the other schools. Since she's off to the other dimension so often it's not that hard to send off her projects. Alex and Jason are at Assyrian and Edinborough once every couple of weeks to talk with the teachers and show what they've been working on.

 

Midterms Josette heads off to the other dimension, picking up the school supplies and dropping off the empty containers and recycling. Dropping off socks she settles into a seat in Calvin's office.

 

"I understand you went to Doc's world?"

 

"Yeah, he got an emergency call and we went out to salvage stuff that had been buried by ash in an eruption. Since it was going to be destroyed by the magma coming we figured it was fair game." Calvin nods.

 

"Communist countries?"

 

"Gone. We were clearing them out and they'd started planting once the land was clear."

 

Calvin nods in satisfaction. "Thomas's world?"

 

"We cleared three countries while we were out there. And there's five that were just as bad. I expect them to be gone by the time we go out next year."

 

"Are they moving to the other countries?"

 

"Yeah, not all the buildings were emptied, same with Doc's world so they got places to live when they're working in the fields." Calvin nods in satisfaction. "They've got in enough supplies on the moon and Mars for decades."

 

"Earth is a consumer world." Josette nods and heads off to the house. Over the next few weeks she takes care of the recycling and visits various places, including Las Vegas. Back on Haven she delivers the new supplies to the school and slides into her seat at lunch.

 

"How long were you gone?"

 

"About a month. I took care of the recycling and went a few places while I was there."

 

"Are you visiting your school?"

 

"This summer along with teachers from Edinborough and Assyrian. We're going to be visiting about five schools. Granda's coming out with more teachers from schools similar to Montague when we come back and next year I'm coming out with teachers from Montague to tour their schools."

 

"School employees?"

 

"First batch going home next year, more cooking teachers are coming out either next year or year after next. They came out in 79 and the older teachers went home in 81." The others nod. "Either way you're going to be bringing out two batches of teachers plus supplies." Josette nods. "Followed by students."

 

Thomas is talking to Doc at Wayne Manor, walking into the compound a couple days after Josette had taken him back to the other dimension to pick up supplies. Knowing he was there on one of the ships he can see in orbit had been . . .interesting. They'd stayed a couple of weeks, Josette delivering empty containers to a drop off point and moving the new containers from the ship to the compound when they'd returned.

 

"This reminds me a lot . .."

 

"Of Josette's ships." Thomas nods. After seeing Headquarters, the dorm, and the ships he'd started telling the others about the compound.

 

"I was going to say one of the TARDISES or the other ships but yes." He looks at Thomas then chuckles. "You're not saying anything but half of us are the same way." Thomas nods. "Now are you sure you have room for the stuff you're bringing out as countries are lost?"

 

Thomas nods. "The compound is a lot larger than it looks. You can walk anywhere in a few steps. . .or so it seems." Alex, who'd come out of the medical unit after his breathing exercises, sniggers and heads for his workroom. He'd set up his own personal area before they'd left after seeing Josette's work area but still works with the others in the general room cutting up clothes for patchwork quilts. Josette had refilled their supply of old clothes for them when they'd returned.

 

"Alex?"

 

"Yeah Dad?" Alex leans against the door frame.

 

"Projects?"

 

"Coming along good, I was out yesterday with Jason. Tim's at Montague today. Dawn's looking through the degrees on the computers deciding what she wants to take. She's heading to Oxford with Tara, Oz, and Josette in a couple days to talk to teachers about classes because . . . Hello, it's Oxford." The two older men nod. "Yes, we're looking into classes there too. . .but not right away."

 

"Have you made the plans for the gardens?"

 

"Yes, we're working on them now. We want to add another area for herbs. Haven grows a good selection but. . ."

 

"There's a lot more out there." Doc nods. "Josette always has different herbs growing in the aquaponics units. She sells a lot of them to Vincent at the cafes."

 

 

 

Josette checks her list of supplies. "We're going to have to make sausages next year." David nods. "It's been a few years. How are we on fish?"

 

"We need to check the end of the year, same with the chipilotes. We'll smoke herbs, cheese, and the sausage." David nods and Josette makes a note on her PADD and puts it back on her belt. They turn their attention back to the plans for the gardens while the others are upstairs in the growing area.

 

At the dining hall Josette comes up to President Bartlett since Principal Madison's talking to a teacher.

 

"We're tentatively planning on making sausage and having the smokehouse running next year."

 

"Fish and chipilotes?" Mrs. Bartlett asks since Jed is chewing.

 

"We figured on checking the supplies at the end of the year." Both Bartletts nod and Principal Madison catches her eye and nods. She looks over at Benton and he nods as well.

 

"Josette, the wine?"

 

"I picked the new grapes last year, they're aging in barrels right now, I figure two more years and it will be ready to bottle. the dairy's buying it by the barrel for their cheese. Hannah and the others want me to grow a few more grapes and experiment with blending them in wine, they're looking at land right now." Everybody in earshot grins.

 

"The outdoor movie screen?" Professor Druid asks.

 

"They found the perfect location and are starting on it this year."

 

Josette heads to the back room.

 

"How are you on your cooking classes?"

 

"Partway through a block and starting the third year of the degree classes this summer. I'll have another year's worth of books and other supplies to bring home in a couple months."

 

"Did Alex pull his big boy pants on and sign up for the handsewing a quilt class?"

 

"When he realized it was two nights a week for the entire year, yeah." The others snigger.

 

"How many classes are they taking?"

 

"Three a semester spring and fall, they take their projects out once a week." Anna nods in satisfaction.

 

Third testing week Josette starts moving the orders for Calvin and Doc's worlds to the ships. The ground is bare in a couple weeks and Josette grins as she sees the others opening windows and spreading manure on the gardens and fields. A few days later an apartment building goes up on their land, followed a week later by a couple of orchards. Everything is in before Josette, Susan, and the boys head to Archimedes for their finals.

 

"How are Thomas and the others getting along?"

 

"Good, a couple orchards and Clark's apartment building came out over the last month." The three older men nod in satisfaction. "First crops are in, including the gardens at the farms and Wayne Manor."

 

"I hear rumors of a new cookbook?"

 

"Breads, rolls, pastries. . ." The others nod in satisfaction. "There's a number of people who make their own bread so there's no lack of recipes." More nods.

 

"Other books?"

 

"I'm picking the fourth one up from the printer and the first one is going on sale at the shows this summer. It's the boys one at Granda's dimension so I'll be signing books most of the night, I'm taking some out to Ellis too so he can sell them just after they premiere at the show."

 

"Are the others coming out early to do some work this summer?"

 

"Yeah, they're already out working on the outdoor movie screen and the growing areas of the dorm now that we're done for the winter except for the aquaponics." Dr. Cross laughs. "Are you ready to take out the orders and recycling?"

 

"Yeah, I gotta check the factories for last minute finished orders."

 

A few days later she slides into her seat at the government building.

 

"Recycling?"

 

"Brought in from the other planets, I'm picking up more in the other dimensions, a lot of the ends of newspapers that the printers can't use. In the replicators it can be made into new rolls." Nods from the others. "I'll probably be bringing out more recycling from the other dimensions, stuff they don't have a use for but we do. Printers and recyclers are more than happy to pass it along to us."

 

"Is Clark going out?"

 

"No, we're still there. This is a in and out, dropoff and pickup. I'm going out this afternoon." The others nod.

 

That 8th day David opens the tesseract for the students and employees who'd come out to get in supplies and whatnot, Josette delivering the orders, recycling, and dropping off the first batch of belongings for returning students.

 

"This is strange, knowing we're on Haven right now for you but . . ."

 

"You've already lived it. I'm used to it being out of time so long on so many worlds. I was dropping off orders and recycling a couple days ago on Doc's world while I was there from our first testing week when we'd gone out to salvage supplies and machinery that would be destroyed by the volcano. I remember it from both sides, seeing the ship arrive in orbit and being there calming Doc down and telling him it was just me delivering the orders."

 

Six weeks later for them David opens the tesseract back at the school as Josette's delivering containers of supplies. A couple hours later she absorbs her other selves and heads back to the dorm.

 

"Did you get your grades back for the projects?" Bronwen asks, peeking into the living room when she hears Josette return.

 

"Yeah, a perfect 4.0." Josette points at the projects on the coffee table and Bronwen looks over the notes in satisfaction. "Books."

 

"Boys show in a couple months, I'll be signing copies and I'm bringing some out for Ellis to sell right after the show." She nods in satisfaction. "Now how was the sales?"

 

"524 for the first books, 478 for the second, and 518 for the third at the show, there's 500 each at the stores." Bronwen nods in satisfaction. "Not bad considering. . ."

 

"Everybody here is already familiar with the quilts." Josette nods. She takes her graded projects upstairs and puts them away before going into the library to add more room to her libraries, adding more hallways for new schools from the other dimension.

 

"Josette, are you gonna be growing on the satellite?" Principal Madison asks at dinner.

 

"Yeah, I wanna plant more stuff we don't normally grow and stock up on herbs. I'll get the requests list out at the Harvest Festival."

 

"Scrub trees for tp?" President Bartlett asks.

 

"I'll bring a batch out this summer. That and next year should be enough for the orders."

 

A couple weeks later Josette stops by the administration building to get the books and supplies for her classes from the other dimension, putting them and the new year of books for her cooking degree away when she gets back to the dorm. She'd added a new area to the library for the cookbooks when she started running out of room and now she has two areas, one for the degrees she's taken and one for the blocks she's taken. Lady Simone nods in satisfaction as the books take their new places. "I was going to say you needed more room for those. Yes, having them near where you work is more convenient but. . ."

 

"Not if they're all boxed up since I ran out of room years ago."

 

"Exactly." Both women look at the shelves in satisfaction, there's plenty of room for future classes and more shelves can be added in the future.

 

A few weeks later Josette heads off with the others for the show in Granda's dimension, Ellis's eyes sparkling in pleasure as Josette brings out the books the morning of the show.

 

"It's premiering tonight so you'll be able to put them out tomorrow."

 

"Thank you Josette, you said you've got more?"

 

"Three more already printed, one that's being worked on right now, and more on the schedule including a book on the socks I tie-dye or paint and one on t-shirts I decorated." Ellis grins as they settle in a room and talk over hot chocolate.

 

Josette looks up at the line going out the door and grins. "We had a lot of interest on the website when we announced that a new book would be debuting tonight."

 

After the show Josette takes care of the recycling and heads to Vegas with the girls, returning six weeks later for them. The crops are beginning to come in and Josette's busy the next couple of weeks. Up in the aquaponics area after the last of the crops are in Josette's transplanting seedlings as Alan removes the dead plants in the oldest area and puts them in the compost room of the growing area, giving the containers a spin before they go downstairs.

 

"Did you ever find the land for the new grapes?"

 

"Yeah, we've selected thousand acres and planted the vines on the ship. If it takes off there's more land to expand in beyond that."

 

"A thousand acres?"

 

"Two different types of grapes."

 

"Forgot."

 

"And we're not planting all of it, not at first."

 

"Do you have the area to keep everything separate?"

 

"Yeah, they're working on the wineries again this year." Josette waves a hand as the room shimmers around them. She looks at the tanks for the clams and checks the size of one before putting it back. "Harvesting this year?"

 

"Yep."

 

"Josette, are these pearls?" Hannah asks when she sees the shelf of baby food jars filled with what looks like marbles in varying colors in Josette's library.

 

"Yep, I keep meaning to string them one day. They're from the clams, mussels, and oysters, both in aquaponics and the farms." She points at the two different shelves. "I've got more on the ships, from the other worlds I've visited."

 

"I'll have one of the pantheon's jewelry makers come out over the Lights Festival and work on them, he's going to be busy through the Harvest Festival." Simone, who'd come up behind them, nods.

 

"As is the one that I'd have brought out." She opens a jar and rolls two through her fingers. "It's nice to feel natural pearls, so many nowadays are the cultured ones."

 

"This way they can chug out the jewelry instead of waiting on mother nature." Nods from the other two women. "Easier to implant the grit instead of taking a chance." Both women know Josette has a good selection of diamonds, gold, and other precious gems and metals on the ships so they shouldn't need to bring anything up but their tools.

 

The yearly crops are starting to come in and Josette's busy over the next couple of weeks with the first planet crops, pressing the grapes, bottling the oldest wine and putting the newest in barrels then working with some of the others in the brewery. Heading off to Mom Clarinda's dimension Josette drops off special orders and the books with Dexter.

 

Six weeks later for them they return to Haven, Josette detouring to pick up a load of scrub trees from one of the forest planetoids for the paper factory.

 

"Is that it for the yearly and offworld harvests until we start picking?" Susan asks at dinner.

 

Josette nods, her mouth full. Chewing she swallows the mouthful of lasagna. "Yeah. The trees for the paper factory was the last one."

 

"Is Thomas's orchards producing yet?"

 

"Yeah, they were picking over the last couple of weeks, slicing the apples into chips, making applesauce, making pies they stick in their freezer section, and just sticking them in stasis to eat over the winter."

 

The second harvest starts coming in and once everything's in Josette sends out the notice that she'd be growing on the satellite that fall. She knows it will take a few weeks for everybody to get their requests in as they look through what they have on hand and what they plan on growing themselves.

 

"Do you have the grapes finished?"

 

"Yeah, I just got done spreading the skins and stems around the vines."

 

"Have you been bringing out stuff for Thomas and Doc?"

 

"Yeah, I've made a few trips out to both places to pick up supplies. Most of it is stuff that you'd normally be getting in, books, movies, magazines, tv shows, stuff like that. They've made trips back to Earth to check up on stuff and do some shopping." The others nod. "They're stocking up on food stuffs for the food replicators, mostly stuff that they won't be able to make for several years. The others on Mars and the moon are doing the same, getting in a lot of cookbooks, cooking videos, stuff they'll need when it's time to rebuild."

 

The Harvest Festival happens a couple days later and visitors from Thomas' dimension come out, staying in the temporary housing units as they check out the planet that the Batmen, Superman, and Supergirl have settled on. The news about the outdoor theater had been going around for a while, so there's a number of people sitting on blankets with meals from the various restaurants, including pizzas as the second sun goes down and the screen comes to life.

 

The others head home after the Harvest Festival and Calvin and Josette are on the same page timewise when she starts coming out for the students.

 

"Did you and the others come out to visit the schools?" Calvin asks, waving Josette into his office when she delivers another batch of student belongings and socks.

 

"Yeah, when I came out midterms." Calvin nods. "We were out here about six weeks and visited five schools with Bronwen."

 

"Good, I'll be bringing out the teachers to Montague a couple days after Thanksgiving." Josette nods and heads off with the students.

 

"Are we full?" David asks at dinner.

 

"No, Granda thinks it's going to ebb and flow, some years more students and some less." Nods of satisfaction from the others.

 

"Satellites?"

 

"I went up to check on everything this summer. The jobs are on the server, we should start operation after the first of the year.

 

The offworld harvests start coming in and everybody's busy the next month, either off harvesting or taking care of the food once it's on Haven. Josette slumps into a seat at office when she brings out the last of the student belongings midterms.

 

"Is everything in now?" Calvin asks.

 

"We've got two more harvests then everything will be done until the last harvest."

 

"Are you going to the island or the first planet after Thanksgiving?"

 

"Both, we're planting on the island this year, the stuff we'd normally plant in the growing area except for the aquaponics that we don't grow on the islands will be on the satellite along with the food we don't normally grow and the herbs." Calvin nods in satisfaction. "How often do you introduce new foods?"

 

"About every ten years or so. Last time we grew a couple new varieties of potatoes on the first planet. Before that it was rhubarb, fennel, and celery root." Calvin nods in satisfaction. "Nothing too outlandish and it's something that can be used up."

 

A month later her time Josette returns to Haven and slides into her seat at lunch. After lunch Josette finishes the top for her latest quilt, splitting off duplicates to help lay out the layers and baste them together until she can take it upstairs. Looking at the number of quilts she has set aside she decides to take some of them in to Agatha's at the meeting before heading downstairs.

 

"How is the sewing a quilt class coming?" Josette asks Alex a couple days later when they go on offworld harvest.

 

"Good, like a lot of stuff once you pull your big boy pants on its not as scary as you think it will be." Josette sniggers but nods as Thomas chuckles. "Hand quilting it would be totally different."

 

"Been there, done that." Josette says. "My first quilt I hand quilted since that was before I had the studio. It took me about a year working a couple hours on it here and there. Swore up, down, and sideways never again once I was done, I'd use the long-arm machine at the school or take it to the Albatross Nest for one of their quilting bees."

 

"And you did it anyway."

 

"Three more times." Josette facepalms and makes a note on her PADD before they get back to work. Thomas looks at her. "A book of handsewing, start to finish."

 

"Are Frances, Elaine, and the other teachers taking classes?"

 

"Granda's world? Yeah, that's one of the reasons they talked to the teachers and toured the schools. Granda's coming out with teachers to tour Montague after Thanksgiving."

 

Josette leans over Agatha's shoulder after lunch. "Soooo, a book on handsewing a quilt, start to finish?" Agatha blinks at her then moans. Suzie, who'd been talking to her mother, stifles a cackle with her hand. Agatha looks at the daughter she gave birth to and her heartdaughter and sighs. "What brought this on?"

 

"Talking to Alex this morning when we were picking offplanet and asking him how he was enjoying his hand-sewing class. He said once he pulled his big-boy pants on it was fine and how he's not actually hand-quilting it. I said I'd done it three times and . . .well, you get the idea."

 

"I can see it . . ." Everybody in the store starts throwing out ideas and Josette and Suzie write them down.

 

The rest of the semester flies by and Josette, Susan, and the boys head to Archimedes for their finals, Susan sliding to her knees and loudly thanking the Gods that she's finished with her Masters. Alexander cackles in his chair as Josette sniggers.

 

"How is David coming along on his thesis?"

 

"Good, he talked to his advisor during the summer and he's starting on it again over the break. He's further along than he admits." The three men nod.

 

"Alexander and Michael?"

 

"Also talked to their advisors, they're talking dissertations as well as thesis."

 

"Are they picking up more classes now that it's general classes?"

 

"They're thinking about it, see how the classes stack up against the general classes from other schools. The classes they've already taken qualify them for the Masters from Granda and Mom's dimensions, I expect them to have the degrees in their hands when we go over after Thanksgiving." Susan nods as she sits down at the end of the table.

 

The boys squeak in under the buzzer and after lunch everybody heads home. The rest of the week passes in Josette picking up recycling and the last of the orders for the other dimensions, plus taking wheat and rice to the sorting planet for the other planets. The last of the crops are in and the plants tilled under for the winter when Josette slides into her seat at dinner.

 

"Is everything taken care of?"

 

"Yep, dropped off wheat and rice for three planets. Granda and Doc's recycling is on the ships. The orders are on the ships."

 

"How is Doc's world getting along?"

 

"They're . . .getting along. Unless you're directly involved people are ignoring the volcanic eruptions. The flooding was more problematic, there's still a lot of places that don't have clean water or sewage treatment."

 

"Units?"

 

"Waiting lists on them. Even with them they still need the plants." The others nod, it takes a 'big mack daddy unit' to handle the apartment complexes and other large buildings.

 

"Dark ages."

 

"Yep, mankind lived through it before and they will again."

 

A few days later they're gathered on the beach for the cookout.

 

"Josette, do you have the list of what you're growing or can grow?" Doc asks. She sends it to him and he adds a couple things. The others add a few things and Josette nods before she puts her PADD down. After Thanksgiving David opens the tesseract for the students and employees as Josette delivers empty containers, recycling, and the last of the orders before heading to the house. Six weeks later they return to Haven, Calvin and the teachers he'd selected coming back on the ship with them. The students head to the auditorium to have their bags inspected before going to their dorms. A week later he returns back to Earth with the teachers. Josette and the others come back from their trips to the other dimensions, Josette joining with her other selves that had gone to Doc and Thomas's dimensions, checking the list of recyclables she'd brought back that the other worlds hadn't been able to use.

 

Josette and the others head to the islands with the supplies for the gardens, changing their clothes and tilling up the three gardens. They return to Haven first morning in time for breakfast then sit talking in the living room about what they planted and the oldest kids plans for their last year of university classes and making lists of what they'll need for intern housing and their permanent houses after that.

 

A few days later the others start arriving and Josette takes everybody to the first planet, she ducks away for a 'couple hours' and returns from the satellite.

 

"Get everything planted?"

 

"Yeah, it's all in stasis on the ship." Hannah looks at her and she hands over her PADD, already open to her notes before she goes for a swim. Hannah and the others look over everything after dinner and the others have gone to bed. By the time they return six weeks after they'd left there's some rather interesting additions to the first planet. Josette starts delivering the requests to the other planets, the others nodding in satisfaction as they look everything over.

 

"Is this the last of the books?" Bronwen asks when she returns from the printers, putting the boxes in a room and marking which one it was on the door.

 

"Yes and no, these are the last of the ones that I had ready to go, I've got seven more ready to be printed starting next year, including the socks and t-shirts books." Bronwen nods in satisfaction. "Oh, and Agatha might be writing a book on hand-sewing a quilt all the way." Josette says innocently. Bronwen grins and heads off to talk to her. Hannah chuckles.

 

She settles in at the Albatross Nest a couple days later.

 

"Anything new?" Sue asks, the quilts on the table in front of her has everybody grinning and getting up to look. Agatha nods as the the files appear on the server. "You'll have to wait for the others until the books come out."

 

"Do you have any more books ready to print?" Marilyn asks.

 

"Yeah, seven more with the one on the socks and t-shirts. They start printing again after the first of the year."

 

Talk turns to other things, plans for the next year, the schools they'd visited over the summer, classes they were going to be giving or taking. . . The kits and cookies are passed out and the leftovers packed up and dishes and containers washed up before everybody heads off. Josette goes back to the dorm and puts everything away, sorting through her towels, sheets, and clothes until dinner. Mary taps on her door then nods in satisfaction at the pile on the bed.

 

"It's been a few years."

 

A couple of days later it's dark and dreary out. It's sleeting out, refusing to turn into true rain or true snow.

 

"Fuck it, I need a mental health break." Josette rounds everybody up and David opens the tesseract to Atlantis once the others have arrived. Some people are looking around but the others know where they're going and soon they land on the mud planet.

 

"Guys on that side of the rocks, ladies on this side. No clothes in the mud, it rots them. Once it's dry you're good but . . ." The others are already stripping and after a few blinks the rest of them follow suit, pinning hair up on heads and sighing as the hot mud loosens muscles they didn't even realize they had, let alone were tense.

 

"The mud is warmer that way and cooler the other."

 

"Just like hot springs."

 

"Yep."

 

"Volcanic?"

 

"Yeah, there's a vein that runs right under us according to the ships."

 

"We needed this . . ."

 

It's finally decided on snow by the time they return to Haven, the others smiling as they return to their homes. Josette hadn't been the only who needed to get away from it all for a few hours.

 

"Supernova?" James chuckles at the handwritten level on the heater in the room he'd just found.

 

"Josette, she likes to lay in here and soak, and the hotter she can get it the better."

 

"And a pool heater only goes up so far. Not that it could get that large a body of water that hot anyway." David nods. James looks around the roman bath, the room itself is made to look like a grotto and a hidden waterfall shower is tucked up in the corner. Thick towels line a shelf over a row of thick robes and shower shoes. "Not that we're not in here ourselves quite a bit, it reminds us of skipping off to the island after the dorms were shut down nights, weekends, or during storms to soak in the the hot springs during school before the generators were installed."

 

"How did you handle things?"

 

"Flashlights and extra blankets in the winter were handed out and everybody blocked their doors open. Everybody got a case of bottled water daily. The dorm monitor rooms had gas fireplaces in their shared wall. If you had warning that you were going to lose power, like a bad storm was coming in they filled tubs in empty bathrooms. Otherwise, use a little of the water to brush your teeth and rinse, pour a little in the sink if you wanted a cool wash up. We got a little heat but the blowers wouldn't kick in. Either stay in the lounges or crawl in your beds with all your clothes on and try to stay warm, plus work on your schoolwork while you had sunlight." Josette, who'd been walking by sniggers. "Yeah, after we got the dorm we had a bitter cold winter. We'd had the furnace looked at by maintenance and we thought it was just it being cold made it cold in here but a circuit or something had gone up in the furnace and it wasn't kicking on the blowers for the first floor. The first floor was a good twenty degrees colder than the second floor. When we realized water would freeze if it was left in the hallway Grammy Allie sent out sensors and she saw the temperature difference. That was before we had the pocket doors so the first floor hallway was open right to the front of the dorm." James shakes his head. "The circuit got fixed, we added film to the glass to block some of the cold air, we added the pocket doors and once they were in we uncovered the vents in the hallway."

 

"They were . . .no use having them open without a way to keep the heat in like the rooms." James says.

 

David nods. "Principal Madison added the film and pocket doors to the existing dorms and had them added to the new ones during construction. It means moving them every time somebody goes in but. . ."

 

"It keeps in heat during the winter and allows the students some measure of privacy on the first floor."

 

The Lights Festival comes and it's lightly snowing, once Mother Nature finally decided she wanted it to snow it had snowed at least once a day. The falling snow makes hissing sounds when it hits the hot wood under the paella and roasting pans. More than one camera is busy taking pictures and Josette's sure many pictures are going to be sent home to family and friends.

 

The others head home after the Lights Festival and Josette picks up the books and supplies for their offdimension classes, handing them out to the others when she gets home. Susan's the only one who's not taking a degree and she's working with Agatha and the historians getting all the information together for the planned project and books and making notes for her dissertation.

 

"Did the jewelry makers go through your stuff?" Michael asks. David smiles slightly, he's hiding something they know but it's nothing harmful.

 

"Yeah, I've got several cases of jewelry on the ships for the shows." Josette stretches and yawns, lacing her fingers together and arching both forwards and back, then side to side.

 

"Thomas's world?"

 

"We're going out the end of the year, that will be about three and a half over there. The countries that were on the verge of collapse should be gone. If not they will when I go out for more supplies midterms next year."

 

"Going to be busy this year."

 

"Yep, the first batch of teachers and school employees heading home I'll have more belongings to take back.

 

"Cooking teachers?"

 

"Next year." David shakes his head. "It's only one year of many that I have so many groups coming out."

 

"Degrees?"

 

"Looking at finishing three this year, the musical instruments. . ." the visitors had been all but drooling over the classes, "Civil rights, and the first of three degrees on the Spider, I'm starting my fourth year on all of them next week."

 

"Cooking degree?"

 

"Three semesters left so next year."

 

"How many degrees do you have finished now?"

 

"Fourteen at the end of the year if I get all three in."

 

"Offworld?"

 

"I'm starting my third year."

 

"Alex?"

 

"He's going to be two years in, they're only taking three classes twice a year. He and Jason are at the hands-on stages of their degrees, Tim's are all bookwork. The others are deciding if they want to go for additional degrees, and if so where."

 

"Are you two getting in two classes?"

 

"At least this year, if they're easy we might pick up a third but this gives us time to work on special orders, stuff for the shows, our papers, and whatever else." David nods in satisfaction. "Your paper?" Josette points a finger at him.

 

"Coming along. I'm talking to my advisor again next year. That will put me six classes from finishing it."

 

"I'll have my second book debuting next year."

 

"What's the order?"

 

"Me Granda's then the boys Mom's. Did you two get your diplomas from the schools?"

 

"Yep, they're on the walls and Dexter and Marcus have already added that information to the sites."

 

"Signing party?"

 

"In a few weeks."

 

"Have they started the new order?"

 

"Next week."

 

"Okay, is everything finished here?"

 

"I think so." Josette looks over the new additions to the dorm listed on the server. "How much longer for the crystals?"

 

"They looked at them over during the Lights Festival, it should be a couple more years."

 

After lunch Josette heads to the islands to check on the crops, adding mulch around the plants now that they're coming up.

 

"How's the gardens looking?"

 

"Good, I mulched now that they're coming up. A few more weeks and the root veggies will be ready to pick." David nods at the pictures as they walk to the dining hall for dinner. After dinner they talk to Damian and the others about their plans for their last year of university, their internships, and their permanent housing.

 

"First planet?" David asks the next morning at breakfast.

 

"I'm going out in a couple months to plant, the beds and the mushrooms." David nods in satisfaction.

 

After breakfast Josette heads off to Brigadoon and starts putting ends of paper rolls in the large scale replicator.

 

"I swear the ends take up more room than the full rolls." Brigadoon sighs as the last of the rolls is fed to the unit.

 

"Probably because there's so many." Josette says. Dodging the cleaning robot that comes into the room she turns to a room of ruined machinery that had been brought out from the flooding on Doc's world and starts tearing some of them apart.

 

At lunch Principal Madison waves David to the front of the room when Josette doesn't join them. He chuckles.

 

"She's on Brigadoon doing a little room clearing. Getting all the paper ends into the large scale replicator and tearing apart more of the ruined machinery from Doc's world. In other words, 'Do something with this shit'." Principal Madison chuckles. "She'll be back in time for dinner."

 

"Does she have a lot of paper ends?" President Bartlett asks.

 

"Paper ends?" One of the younger teachers asks.

 

"What's left that the machines can't use when they print newspapers." Professor Parker says. "I used to work for a newspaper years ago, a photographer but there was always tons of it left behind."

 

David nods. "Granda says most of the recyclers are glad to take it off their hands. Josette puts it in the recycling bin of the large scale replicators and bing, bang, boom she uses it to make more rolls of paper."

 

"Didn't she do that with a lot of the scrap paper that had been ruined on Earth?"

 

"Yeah, that immediately went into the recycling bin along with clothes and fabric. After being wet so long it was moldy. This stuff was clean and dry and just piling up."

 

Josette nods when she slides into her seat at the dining hall for dinner. "Got three floors empty of paper ends and six rooms of large pieces of machinery broke up enough to be chucked in the recycling unit."

 

"Is that the last of the destroyed machinery?"

 

"Nearly, I got two more areas to take care of. Which isn't bad considering how much stuff was destroyed by the flooding." The others nod.

 

"Thomas's world?"

 

"I'm going out midterms to pick up supplies, by the Harvest festival we'll have left so I won't be double-timing."

 

"Doc's world?"

 

"Third testing week unless something comes up sooner. Just in and out picking up the normal supplies since I'm still there."

 

"How long?"

 

"'Bout the Harvest Festival next year? The ships will have the exact time." Josette shrugs.

 

After dinner Josette finishes the top of the quilt she'd been working on, laying out the layers and basting them together to quilt the next day. It's finished a few days later and Josette finishes the pattern the night before the new school year is due to start then joins the others in at the pool for a swim after the kids have gone to bed.

 

Despite their thoughts they didn't need a 'dive-in' movie theater the screen by the pool is showing an old jungle movie as the heaters in the room are turned up and the lights turned down to give the room an 'atmosphere'."

 

The next morning Alex and Jason take the tesseract to Assyrian while Tim heads to Montague, the two older boys smiling at Joan as they enter the classroom. Joan looks at Alex and he brings out his hand sewn quilt, the older woman looking it over before they start class.

 

At the government building Josette shakes the snow off her cloak and hangs it up as the fireplace in one wall adds its heat to the furnace.

 

"Shit, it turned cold sudden." David wraps his hands around a cup of hot coffee.

 

"Gonna blow in something." Josette says. The others nod.

 

"New grapes?"

 

"Looking good on the ships, I'm putting up the supports and doming the land this year and planting next." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

Doc comes into the building and waves Josette into the hallway. They talk a minute and Josette stifles a cackle. Doc looks at her and Josette says something, getting Doc staring at her. She pulls him into the room.

 

"Oh yeah, the Institute is here on Haven, the 9th planet, and yours if they come up."

 

"Buckaroo?"

 

"We talked while we were in the other dimension, Josette was busy with the lost countries. They were settling in one of the cleared areas and I just asked Josette permission to bring them out for visits in case they wanted to move."

 

"We can do that this year for the Harvest Festival if you're not there at that time. The ships will know the date for certain." Doc nods in satisfaction. "Bring Buckaroo and whoever he wants to come out before the Harvest Festival. Once he's sure it's safe I'm sure more people will be coming up."

 

"And Buckaroo will be able to expand the Institute for research both in another country and on the 9th planet."

 

"Did both expand after they came up?"

 

"Oh yeah, the Institute has nearly quadrupled in size over the years here on Haven and it's growing by leaps and bounds on the 9th planet, especially after they added the original buildings. It's close enough to Eureka they can come and go with the links, but far enough away they have room to grow their own crops and have plenty of room to expand."

 

"Josette, what degrees are you finishing this year?"

 

"The musical instruments degree, the civil rights degree from the sociology school, and the first of three degrees on the Spider from Montague."

 

"Cooking degree?"

 

"Next year, I'm also bringing out the new cooking teachers next year."

 

"And taking out the belongings for the graduating students and returning school employees this year and next."

 

The meeting ends and Doc and Josette settle down to make plans about going out to talk to Buckaroo. Josette shuts down the extra heat in the board room after Doc heads off and heads to the bakery, picking up a bag of snacks before heading back to the dorm. Putting the snacks away she heads upstairs to her workroom, laying out the fabrics for another quilt and turning her rough notes into a rough pattern as she lays out the block patterns and starts to cut them out before setting up the sewing machine.

 

"Soooo, you think Buckaroo's coming out?"

 

"I do, they're already set up in another country, another planet in another dimension shouldn't be that big a step. Earth is going to be dealing with climate change for decades."

 

"And everything they bring out means something that's saved."

 

A couple weeks later Agatha sighs in satisfaction as she looks around the Albatross Nest, tables full of food or the new books with more in boxes under the tables as she opens the door. Everybody starts filing in either through the door or the link from Town.

 

"Party for the books from last year?" Dr. Stark asks at the first testing week.

 

"Had it a couple weeks ago. The new books are being printed, if they don't take a break they can get all seven printed by the end of next year. If not the last one will be printed year after that."

 

"Are you done with the books?"

 

"For a few years, like the quilts they all come at once."

 

"Second book?"

 

"Being debuted this year at the shows. So I'll be signing books at the boys show in Granda's dimension, then after my show in Mom's dimension."

 

"The boys classes?"

 

"Still only taking four, they're using the extra time to work on their theses and stuff for their shows and special orders."

 

"New grapes?"

 

"I'm putting up the supports and doming the land this year and planting next." Dr. Cross nods in satisfaction.

 

"First planet?"

 

"Planting in a couple weeks."

 

"Students and returning school employees belongings?"

 

"I should have a good batch by the time I go out finals. If I have to I'll make a trip out early. I don't want to overwhelm Jane and the others at the school."

 

A couple weeks later Vallejo settles on the ocean by the growing areas, Josette flying over and starting to bring out supplies, putting the logs in the soaking pit and checking the compost.

 

A few weeks later her time she returns to Haven.

 

"Get everything planted?"

 

"Yeah. How are you and the boys coming along on your theses?"

 

"Pretty good, I've got an appointment after the boys show to talk to my advisor about it. I should be presenting it next year. The boys are working on theirs and figure on presenting them in a few years."

 

Josette checks the admin building after lunch, waving the containers of belongings to the ship.

 

"Thank you Josette." Joyce says where she's cutting herbs at the fish tank. "The drop offs are light right now but I expect them to start picking up as the students and employees start working on their plans for their last year."

 

"It will start picking up by the end of the semester as windows start opening and people start looking around their rooms." Joyce nods.

 

Midterms Josette delivers the first batch of student and employee belongings back to the school along with the socks when she picks up the school supplies.

 

"We're looking to have the dorms full this year and a few more after that. If they have to, they'll add more floors and more buildings." She leans between Principal Madison and Professor Druid at lunch. Both sigh but nod. "Granda told me when I saw the supplies were picking up."

 

"Doc's world?"

 

"We're going out during the first drop-off of orders and picking up supplies so he can talk Buckaroo into coming out to the 10th planet. Doc will bring out letters from the others that only he would know about to prove there's others out here."

 

"That makes sense. Video could be faked." President Bartlett nods.

 

"Getting Buckaroo on whatever ship comes out and going for a trip around the solar system should be a first good step." President Bartlett says.

 

"9th planet Earth so he can see the visible changes, then the progress on Mars and the Moon." Principal Madison says. "Thomas's world should have the physical changes to prove it's a different world even if the empty countries are the same."

 

"They're not, the Institute is setting up in the bread basket of what used to be China, close enough to a large city where the workers who are planting commercial crops are living but far enough away to expand when they want."

 

"Do they have a canning factory or are they going to be exporting the food."

 

"God I hope not, they'd be picking before it was any good to export if they do it that way. Otherwise everything would be rotten by the time it arrived just like the 'fresh' fruit and veggies in the winter."

 

"I'm sure they have canning factories somewhere, they made everything else in China." Professor Parker snorts. Everybody in earshot laughs. Josette makes a note on her PADD to check into that before she walks into the back room.

 

Josette brings out the green picked peppers and some of the mushrooms to various places the week after her third testing week. Doc comes running into the 9th planet Cafe.

 

"Josette, sorry to do this but I just got an emergency message from my world. Buckaroo's in trouble."

 

"Pay me later Vincent." Josette says, running off with Doc. Vincent nods and starts putting everything away as they take the switching station to Haven. David immediately opens the tesseract to Hidalgo and they head off as soon as they exit the tesseract.

 

Buckaroo blinks as he wakes up in what's obviously a hospital ward and sighs when he sees somebody familiar standing next to the bed.

 

"Everybody make it?"

 

"Yes, though some of your associates will be recovering for a couple months." He smiles. "Josette took great exception to what was going on and had a little fun with them, they were begging the army to save them from her, even being put to death by them would be quicker than what Josette had in mind."

 

"Josette?" Buckaroo sips on the water Doc holds in front of him.

 

"An associate of mine, she's been helping with the clearing of the lost countries, she's currently demolishing everything right now at the government's request. It's sad with all the problems in our world that some groups still want to cause trouble."

 

Buckaroo looks around. "How, since I know you're currently in Russia and you showed up way too coincidentally?"

 

"Josette's ships can travel in time and space and exist in two places at the same time. Like you said I'm currently in Russia with Josette." A young woman leans in the doorway. "Get everything finished?"

 

"Yeah, Hidalgo's busy sorting out what we can recycle and dumping the rest in the replicator to be turned into energy. I calmed down Perfect Tommy but you need to talk to him now that you're awake."

 

"Josette, are you going to be okay being in two places at the same time?"

 

"Done it plenty of times before. I'm going to pick up paper ends while I'm here." Doc nods and Josette heads off. A few days later Buckaroo is sitting in a wheelchair talking to Tommy in the control room then trying to pretend he's not looking around at everything after ending the connection. Josette comes in with another batch of paper ends, putting them in a room and grabbing a meal from the food replicator.

 

"Is that it for the paper ends?"

 

"Yeah, Hidalgo scanned for them in areas I couldn't get to, if they were just being wasted I grabbed them. In the replicator they can be made into new rolls of paper."

 

"I can't see many recycling places being able to handle them."

 

"Paper ends?"

 

"What's left over by the newspapers that they can't use." Josette brings up a picture on her PADD and Buckaroo shakes his head. "I can't see many people being able to use them either. Replicator? Like how you're getting food from the slot in the wall?"

 

"Yes, this is a food replicator, it gives you most of the nutrition needs for single meal but it's got a limited recipe base. You can update it with more recipes but it's not meant to be your only food source. I've got a botany section we're growing food in while we're here and on Haven."

 

"Josette, are those grape vines?" Doc asks.

 

"Yeah, Granda wants me to grow a couple new varieties for blended wines. I'm putting up the supports this year and planting them next." He nods in satisfaction.

 

"Granda?"

 

"Principal Madison's father from another dimension. Since Josette thinks of him as her father, his father is her Granda. Oh sorry, Josette Takahawa, my granddaughter in another dimension."

 

"I noticed you were gone for long periods of time, then appear?"

 

"Yes, I moved to her dimension several years ago. I can return when needed, like when we got your distress signal."

 

"Are there other replicators?"

 

"Several, there's a medical replicator in the medbay. There's general use replicators that come in different sizes, ranging from ones that are in a wall like this one to ones that take up an entire room. Each replicator has a recycling bin that you can drop waste in to be converted into raw materials or energy. There's also disintegrating 'guns' you can use when you can't bring stuff to the recycling bin."

 

"Convenient."

 

"They're energy hogs, we've been disposing of the garbage we can't recycle and running them on solar power for years."

 

"Food waste?"

 

"We compost everything we can."

 

Buckaroo and his associates are put in ambulances a few days later. Doc sends along notes on their conditions to New Jersey before they get on Hidalgo and head off again.

 

"We can check on Buckaroo again when you come back out to deliver the orders." Doc says. Josette nods. "I don't think we'll have much problems getting him on the ship now." Doc chuckles and heads off. Chip is waiting for him when he returns to the 10th planet.

 

"Everything okay?"

 

His grandfather nods. "Hidalgo was shielded the entire time so we didn't realize we were there until we went. Josette's going back in a month to deliver the orders for the government and get in more supplies, I'll check on them then."

 

Josette puts the bushel baskets back on the ship to fill when she returns to the first planet for the rest of the garden.

 

"How are you on your classes?"

 

"Good. On track to have the three degrees finished this year and the cooking degree next year. I'm gonna be three years into the degree from the other dimension, being out so often it's not that hard dropping off my projects." David nods in satisfaction.

 

"Crops?"

 

"I'm going to check the garden next week, we should be able to spread the manure then." Alexander nods as they walk to the dining hall for dinner. "Should be able to open windows in a couple weeks too."

 

Josette's spreading manure by the end of the next week and tilling it under by the middle of the following week. The crops are all in by the time she and the boys head to Eureka for their finals. With only two classes the boys are finished around the same time as Josette and they talk about the plans for the year. She'd gone out to the first planet to pick the ripe tomatoes, peppers, and herbs and plans on delivering them later that week.

 

Calvin and the others are there when they return home and Josette puts her graded projects up in her workroom after Bronwen's seen them then moves her books to the top shelf of her desk now that she's done with the semester.

 

Dr. Cross is shaking his head at the pile of containers that take up half of one wall in her closet. Josette snorts. "When I finish my degrees this fall, some of these are going upstairs to the library."

 

"How many degrees do you currently have started?"

 

"Ten, that includes the hands-on musical instruments and cooking degrees. Except for the one I'm taking on the school computer, most of them I revolve through, once I hit the fourth year though, those are the degrees I stick with until they're done. Most of them are multiple degree though so I'm not really done with them."

 

Calvin and Dr. Cross nod. "How often do you clear your shelves?"

 

"When I finish a degree, when I run out of room, or at the end of the year. That gives me clear shelves for the next year. It's superstition probably but even if it's books I'm taking for the next class I'll take them down and put them with the others for the next semester until after the first of the year. It's one of the things we do around the Lights Festival to ring out the old year and bring in the new." The two men nod in satisfaction. "I hear you and Doc went out unexpectedly." The story gets head shaking but nods that while it wasn't the perfect way to introduce Buckaroo to the ships and interdimensional travel, it certainly had done the job.

 

"Thomas's world?"

 

"We're going out before the Harvest Festival, that will be about three years and the countries that were failing should be gone. If not, we'll go out after Thanksgiving." The two men nod.

 

"Is Buckaroo coming out?"

 

"Probably, we'd planned on offering a trip out for the Harvest Festival. I'll be going out right before then to take out the second batch of orders."

 

"Are you delivering?"

 

"Yeah, both planets this week. I gotta check the office for other containers of belongings to take back. Cooking teachers still on track for next year?" Calvin nods as Josette checks the list of what she's got to do this week.

 

A couple days later Josette grins as she delivers the first order, the recycling, and another batch of belongings from returning students and employees. Jane helps her count the socks and they talk about the plans for the 100th anniversary before Josette heads to the house. She heads to Ellis's a couple days later with a list and drops off another batch of books.

 

"They'll be debuting at the show later this year, I'll let you know a couple days before it happens so you can set up the area."

 

"Thanks Josette, are there any more?"

 

"Four more that have already debuted on Haven, and one out of seven printed but nobody but me has seen it."

 

The list is checked and double checked and Josette fills several rooms with supplies over the next few days. Recycling is worked on over the next couple weeks and soon David is opening the tesseract for the students and employees. Josette heads to Thomas and Doc's worlds over the next couple of days, delivering supplies to various places. Josette replicates her books and supplies for the summer classes when she's done and settles down to work on the projects.

 

The first crops start coming in and Josette's busy bringing in the crops, everything in over the period of two weeks and the new crops planted after the rains. Josette brings out more supplies and takes out more belongings for the returning employees and graduating students. Josette heads off with Doc, chuckling as Buckaroo and two of his most trusted associates come on the ship and stare at the screens and out the window as the ship takes off.

 

"When are you going out to Thomas's world?"

 

"Before the Harvest Festival but after I bring out the new school employees." The chair straightens up and Josette stretches as she gets up.

 

"How long is. . ."

 

"A couple hours. Scenic trips take hours or even days depending on where I'm going and if I've got company. Yes, once we're on Haven I can take you and the others on a trip. Around the solar system if nothing else." Buckaroo and the others stare at all the ships as they come in for a landing, walking outside on one of the piers and looking up at the sky before getting in the flyer and talking quietly with Doc and Josette.

 

"How far from your settlement are we?"

 

"We're not even on the same continent."

 

"Does everybody come out on the ships?"

 

"No, there's devices that allow you to travel between dimensions. Most of the families use them. They're the same type of devices that allow you to bring up whole buildings or stuff like Josette's school. You can literally go to bed on Earth and wake up on Haven or whatever planet you settle on. . ., gives new meaning to the phrase picking up house and moving."

 

"Supplies?"

 

"I was bringing out shipping containers for everybody who was coming up and those who had the room had supplies on their grounds or in their homes."

 

Doc nods. "Josette brought up supplies for us, we had supplies on the floor under us at the Empire State Building and elsewhere."

 

"How do you keep in touch with Earth?"

 

"Databursts, we get one that has the news and other information every couple of days. Josette goes out three times a year to deliver the orders for the government and picks up deliveries that have arrived since the last visit. Not many newspapers since most of them are online, but magazines, trade journals, books, DVDS, music. . ."

 

They talk the entire trip about this and that until Josette comes in for a landing at the dorm. Buckaroo blinks. "My family has a strange sense of humor. This used to be a school dorm but we've added onto it over the years."

 

"This is a school?" Reno asks.

 

Josette nods. "Students in grades five through twelve from Granda's dimension. With the year difference they're gone longer but even those students not dual enrolled will start university classes a junior."

 

"And those in dual enrollment will have a university degree?"

 

"Yep, we have Oxford and Cambridge on the fourth planet, we have four universities on this planet, plus the others that are online. All the degrees transfer." Buckaroo, Reno, and the other man head to the 10th planet by the switching station and Josette sits down on one of the couches.

 

"Show?" Principal Madison asks, coming into the room.

 

"We head tomorrow."

 

"Books?"

 

"I took a batch out to Ellis when we went out break." He nods in satisfaction. Alexander comes out. "You got any last minute stuff for me to take out?"

 

"We're good. You?"

 

"Nope, got the books and special orders on the ship when I took the other stuff out."

 

"Buckaroo come out?" David asks.

 

"Yeah, he, Reno, and somebody who used to work with NASA went to the 10th planet with Doc."

 

"So we should be seeing them exploring the planets for the next couple months."

 

"At least through the Harvest Festival. Buckaroo perked up when I mentioned Cambridge and Oxford."

 

The next day the eight of them fly out to the other dimension, Josette and Alan taking care of the rooms of paper ends on the trip out much to Hidalgo's relief. "This stuff really does take up a lot of room."

 

"Yeah, most of the paper recyclers can't use it, too much work and too little profit."

 

Josette looks at the line as she signs a book, it's still out the door and she's been signing a couple hours. The boys chuckle.

 

Josette sighs and rubs her hands back at the house after she takes off her shoes, seriously considering sleeping right there on the couch before deciding to get her lazy ass to bed.

 

 

 

"Four thousand and twelve, that's just the second book." Josette says when she walks into the Albatross Nest and finds Agatha behind the counter as Buckaroo and Doc look over stuff in the corner. "A lot of them had the first book for me to sign too." She laughs.

 

"Book?" Doc points to the shelves of quilting books and Buckaroo sees Josette's name on some of them. "Josette's got ten quilting books out and another one printed but not out yet with the printers working on a second?"

 

Josette nods. "There's five more ready to print. Like the quilts, they come in batches."

 

"They debut them in Calvin's world at either hers or the boys shows. That would have been . . ." Agatha points to a book. "And this is the first book Josette was talking about."

 

"Shows?" Reno asks.

 

"Josette is a textiles artist, Alexander works with wood, and Michael works with metal. In addition to the shows, they make special order furniture." Doc finds the list and shows it to the three.

 

"Quality stuff."

 

"Josette always complains about manufacturers who make shoddy stuff so it has to be replaced within a few years. They build to last."

 

"Stuff that will be antiques some day as opposed to just old. If they last that long."

 

"Exactly."

 

"Who's in the brewery?"

 

"Professor Druid's brother, he's helping me experiment over the summer while the others work on whatever it is they wanted to do. A few years ago I experimented with a stout so we're working on other stuff now."

 

Reno takes a deep breath. "This is what Earth smelled like before all the industrialization." Buckaroo nods. They walk down the street to the glassblowers.

 

"How do they handle other glass needs?"

 

"Factories on the seventh planet for the wine bottles and canning jars. If something special is needed, it's usually replicated. And those who can bring out supplies."

 

"The school."

 

Doc nods. "Josette goes over to Calvin's dimension every other month to pick up supplies for the school since it reopened."

 

"Do the teachers and other school employees. . .?"

 

"Five year contracts, a group of them are heading home after Thanksgiving with the graduating students and another batch of school employees will be coming out this year. Next year the last of the old employees will be heading home and the rest of the employees coming out. Next year will also see Josette bringing out another batch of teachers for the cooking school by Assyrian. They stay out ten years." Buckaroo had seen the cooking blocks on the server.

 

"Nice selection of cuisines."

 

"Calvin and the others believe that if you want to learn something you should go to the experts."

 

"I thought this was the summer?" Buckaroo looks at the crops outside of town.

 

"This is the summer crops, Haven has three growing cycles." Reno shakes his head. "I know a couple people who'd give their left nut to be here."

 

"My planet has five. We're starting our last crops of the year and getting prepared for winter."

 

"Left and right nut." the astronomer mutters. Buckaroo stifles a chuckle but nods.

 

"What's going on?" They can see people moving around a couple large buildings in town.

 

"Josette just come back from one of the offworld growing areas and people are canning, drying, or otherwise storing the food for winter."

 

"How much?" Reno asks, staring at all the boxes of food.

 

"Tons. This is food that's going to be passed out before winter to supplement what you can can and store from your own gardens."

 

"How large?"

 

"Huge gardens that cover nearly an entire planet. Anywhere from two to four hundred people go out and spend months picking food and putting it in stasis until they return to Haven. Then just as many people are working on it. This is just one, each planet but mine and the ninth planet have three offworld growing areas, Josette just added another one so the 9th planet and mine share three. It looks like a lot of food but like the communal gardens by the time it's all passed out everybody's only getting one or two batches of food. That's why the planets also have growing buildings and hydroponics for the winter."

 

"That's. . ."

 

"Eighteen offworld growing areas, not counting the ones that the robots handle and all Josette has to so is pick everything up. That's usually one or two crops growing areas, potatoes, corn, cotton, wheat, rice. . .stuff like that. It might seem like a lot of food when you're putting it away, but the shelves are bare come spring."

 

"How do they handle flour?"

 

"Josette takes wheat and rice to either the manufacturing satellite or the factory on the seventh factory for the planets. Smaller batches Haven uses the grist mill, and the 9th planet has one too. They also handle corn for corn meal, grits, and polenta. Josette grows chickpeas every few years, they turn part of it into flour."

 

"Does anybody make wine?"

 

"Josette has one of the wineries, Alessandro has the other. They've both added onto their wineries over the year, the newest dairy is buying a bit of wine for their cheeses. Same with the cider pressing houses."

 

"I thought I heard you and Josette talking about putting up supports."

 

Doc nods. "Calvin's talking her into growing a few more varieties for blended wines. They're getting the ground ready this year and planting next year. They currently grow four types of grapes for five wines, one an ice wine."

 

"Is this all the crops?"

 

"No the crops they only pick yearly should be coming in soon, the berries, apples, stuff like that."

 

"Are you the latest person to come out?"

 

"No, that would be Thomas and his family, they have a place on the other continent, their Earth is also in bad shape, a 'religious' group released a virus that sterilized everybody on their Earth. It was only supposed to take out the 'heathens'. . ."

 

"In other words anybody who didn't believe their fanatic viewpoint." The astronomer snorts. "So their chosen could take over the world."

 

"Yes, but it got everybody and killed anybody over the age of fifty and under the age of five where the virus was released. They were found guilty and are currently rotting in prison, whining that somebody has to be having children, they're just hiding them to make them the bad guys." Buckaroo sighs as Reno moans. "Deaths are picking up, some of the smaller countries are already gone, Josette and Thomas went out a couple years ago to help clear out three countries, and five more were nearly as bad, Josette's going out with Thomas in a couple months to check on them, they were out three years. If they're not gone then, they should be by the end of Haven's year, that will be about six months after they left."

 

"How bad off are they? As bad as ours?"

 

"Getting there, they don't have anybody under the age of twelve there now?" Doc looks over at Thomas who is walking down the street. He nods. "Dr. Thomas Wayne."

 

"Yes, anything under seventh grade is gone now. It will only be worse as more schools close, unemployment is starting to creep up, though a lot of jobs are going unfilled. In another ten years I expect to see problems with the power grid and people working two jobs. The math experts gave Earth fifty years, I don't see it lasting past twenty, twenty-five at the latest."

 

"Can people have children?"

 

"Those who were offworld at the time, there's currently. . .five?"

 

"Eight. Another child on the moon and two more on Mars. We're cleaning up countries as they're lost so we don't have to do it afterwards. Once everything is . . .done they'll come back to Earth but they won't have anything like New York or Boston for decades. Places like Town, Albatross, Eureka, and Cabot Cove is going to be the norm, not the exception."

 

"It's got everything you need, I'd like more libraries or museums. . ." Thomas snickers and leads them to one of the warehouses in the distance after grabbing Josette. She smirks and opens one of them, then one of the doors.

 

"Oh . . .my. . ." Buckaroo walks into a building he knows.

 

"Libraries, museums, opera houses. . . though we haven't had a need to get into them yet, we've got tons of them on the server, university libraries and bookstores. . ."

 

"Everything you'd need."

 

Josette nods and locks everything up.

 

"Josette, toothpaste?" Principal Madison asks, waving her up to the front table.

 

"The orders should be finished by the Harvest Festival, I'm picking up the other scrub trees in a couple weeks and the toilet paper and other stuff will start next year, the order information will go up on the server after the festival." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

"Are all the offworld harvests going to be done by the Harvest Festival?"

 

"Should, if not it will only be one, two at the most."

 

The yearly crops start coming in and Josette's offworld at least once a day, taking out a large batch of student and employee belongings when she goes out to pick up supplies and the new school employees.

 

A few days before the Harvest Festival Josette lays down on the couch.

 

"Everything in?" Josette nods from where her face is buried in the pillow. "Thank god, that way I'm not offworld harvesting and picking up students at the same time."

 

"Did you go out with Thomas?"

 

"Yes, they're not there yet so it will be after Thanksgiving." Josette looks at the time and joins the others walking to dinner.

 

"Do they do this every year?"

 

"Yes, the summer crops have been harvested and the fall crops planted. The yearly crops are picked and they're enjoying themselves."

 

Josette drops Buckaroo and the others back off after the Harvest Festival, smirking at the bags of information they'd brought back with them. Perfect Tommy blinks but takes them off, the boss will tell him where all this stuff came from when they were only gone an hour.

 

"How is the plans for the new Institute coming along?"

 

"Good."

 

Josette drops off another batch of belongings at the school along with more socks, hugging Calvin since they're in the same time now. "Buckaroo get off okay?"

 

"Just dropped them off."

 

David opens the tesseract and the students file off, being led to the auditorium for orientation as Josette moves their belongings to be put in their rooms by maintenance.

 

The first four weeks of the semester pass and soon Josette's sitting in the pizza parlor, a tradition after the last of the students has been brought out. A chuckle has her looking up at Professor Eppes. "Are we full?"

 

"Yep, and we're going to be full for a few years, Granda's already talking about new dorms, adding onto them, or both." Charlie shakes his head. "I know, that's why we had more employees come out this year, the newest apartments, and more school buildings. Bronwen wants to add at least one more textiles and fine arts building. Professor Parker is in love with the larger photography building."

 

"When you think you have too much room. . ."

 

"You find out there's no such thing." Professor Ziegler says, sitting down with them as Professor Fletcher takes the last seat.

 

"Exactly."

 

The next first day Josette slides into her seat at the testing center.

 

"All the students in now?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"Work with Katrina's brother on new stuff?"

 

"Yeah, they're aging right now, I'll bring a variety out for you when I bring out the ripe tomatoes, peppers, and herbs."

 

"Thank you Josette. New cooking teachers?"

 

"Coming out next year. They want to add on before they come out." Vincent nods as Josette covers her mouth, stretching and yawning. "You're going to have snow by night."

 

"We'd been expecting it. The meteorologists are predicting a cold, snowy winter. Are you going out to Thomas's world?"

 

"Yeah, they were close but not there when we went out before the Harvest Festival."

 

Josette heads to Calvin's school the next day with more belongings.

 

"Is that the last of it?"

 

"Should. There's a notice on the school server to get everything to the office by midterms, anything after that they'll have to bring home themselves." Calvin nods in satisfaction.

 

Josette drops off the recycling and empty containers next then heads back to Haven.

 

"That all the belongings?"

 

"Should be, the note on the server says midterms otherwise they hike them home themselves on the ship."

 

The next month flies by and after her midterms Josette heads off again with a double batch of belongings.

 

"Good Lord. . ." Jane moans.

 

"Always gonna be somebody who has to wait until the last possible second." Josette shrugs.

 

The supplies are loaded on the ship and Josette drops off recycling, staying several days and working on it at the drop off areas since they can't really handle that much scrap. Josette chuckles as multiple trucks carry it off before she heads back to Haven.

 

"Lemme guess, drop off the recycling and take care of it too?" David asks.

 

Josette nods. "Even with the cans flattened, it still piles up. Brought back tons of paper, clothes, glass, plastic. . ."

 

"Everything the others didn't want or wouldn't bring them large amounts of money. Because it's not that hard to put plastic and glass in crystals to reuse later."

 

"Nope, just takes time."

 

"And speaking of glass, I gotta see if they need more."

 

"How are you guys on glass?" Josette asks, leaning into the foundry. "I picked up tons on Earth."

 

"We could use some."

 

"I'll bring it out tomorrow and break it up for you."

 

"Thanks."

 

"Did you get the rest of the destroyed machinery torn apart?" Alan asks at dinner.

 

"Yeah, I was doing that while I was off with Doc rescuing Buckaroo and the others. I stocked up on paper ends while I was there." Josette grabs her PADD and looks at something.

 

"Seeing if we needed to start a batch of recycled paper?"

 

"Yeah, we're good." Josette puts the PADD away and picks up her fork again. "The kids got everything ready to head to Eureka after Thanksgiving?"

 

"Yep and they're looking at permanent homes after they finish their internships. Saving money for those and furniture if they don't get furnished apartments."

 

"How are we on housing?"

 

"Good, we've got decades before we need another apartment complex. . .the others worked on them." Nods of satisfaction. "Anybody going over what they did to the ranch."

 

"There's a list. The biggest thing was the summer kitchen."

 

The rest of the semester flies by and soon they're bringing in the garden and crops. Josette and the boys head off to take their finals, relaxing at the table when they're done.

 

"Theses?"

 

"Working on them and our dissertations, we're looking at finishing them year after next. We talked to somebody at Oxford while we were out for both shows and while we've officially got the masters there they still want to look at the papers before we start the doctorates." Dr. Stark nods in satisfaction. "Josette, your degree from the other dimension?"

 

"Finishing my third year, I want to get in another couple bachelors before I start a masters." Dr. Cross nods in satisfaction. "Just like Assyrian at the beginning."

 

"Just the one degree next year?"

 

"Three with the other dimension degree, I'm three years into the degree from Cambridge on the occupation of France. Everything else I'm halfway through or haven't started yet."

 

The rest of the crops are in and Josette's busy with the recycling, picking up the last of the orders, the school's recycling, dropping off wheat and rice for other planets and picking up orders for Doc on the 10th planet.

 

"Everything taken care of?" Doc asks at the government meeting after finals.

 

"Yep, recycling where it needs to be, Doc ready for winter on the 10th planet. Orders are on the ships . . ." Nods from the others.

 

"Thomas's world?"

 

"We're going out the same time I'm taking out the graduating students and employees home. I'm also off to the 9th planet dimension so they can catch up on stuff face to face. Taking in the orders for Doc's world."

 

A few days later Josette is busy delivering the orders, empty shipping containers, and the recycling as David opens the tesseract. Once everything's delivered she heads off to the house, the others coming over over the next couple of days.

 

"Did you take some of the new stuff to Vincent?"

 

"Yeah, I took samples to both cafes when I took out the ripe tomatoes, peppers, and herbs."

 

"Mushrooms?"

 

"I only grow one batch on the first planet every other year. We don't need that much mushrooms." Nods from the others. "Even with what the others buy I still end up drying over half the crop, the rest going in stasis."

 

A few weeks later they return to Haven, the students heading to the auditorium to have their bags checked while Josette is busy delivering shipping containers various places. They head off to the other dimensions while Josette, Clark, and Thomas head to Thomas's world.

 

Josette sighs when they settle in orbit and Brigadoon scans the Earth.

 

"Are they gone?" Clark asks, looking over his shoulder from where he and Thomas are talking with the Watchtower.

 

"Yeah, and we're looking at another three or four on the cusp. Including Ireland and Wales."

 

"Shit, the U.S."

 

Brigadoon puts up a map. "The red sections are areas I find no life forms. Every state has some." She sends off the probes to find and bury bodies.

 

"They didn't tell us. . ." Whoever is on monitor duty on the watchtower contacts the United States government, passing along that information.

 

"How long were you gone?" David asks when Josette absorbs her other self when they're back home.

 

"Nearly ten years, not only were we clearing out countries, we were clearing out areas of the United States and Canada that were empty."

 

"More that's done now means less at the end." President Bartlett says, coming into the back room. Josette nods. "They were already having problems with the power grid, even with so many areas gone."

 

"Because even with the lesser demand it's just old."

 

"Exactly. They might be able to keep the plants opens in areas that are gone and send it on but if they're smart they'll shut them down, go over everything with a fine tooth comb, and see what needs fixed and what needs to be torn down."

 

"They shouldn't need more than one power plant for decades. . .if they need one at all."

 

Josette nods."Which is why they're looking at taking them all down when the end comes and doing like we did, using solar, wind, and other power sources in addition to the alternate energy."

 

"At least losing so much industry should be helping get rid of the greenhouse effect." Alexander says.

 

"Scientists are looking into that. Especially after what happened in Doc's world."

 

"So you've got more supplies?"

 

"Tons.

 

"How many. . .?"

 

"All five that was nearly gone by the time we left last time and eight more countries while we were there. They were down to four billion by the time we left. Doc's world is nearly as bad but they're realizing that life has to go on, The schools were all closed by the time we left and governments were scrambling to make sure everybody had jobs. They had to after so many unemployed people caused economies to tank."

 

"I didn't think they did it out of the goodness of their hearts." Alan snorts.

 

"More like if we don't we won't get re-elected." Susan rolls her eyes, the others nod.

 

"The baby boomers were dying off when we left, people were already starting to work two jobs. . .especially in countries that were on the brink so they could keep the necessities running."

 

"Electricity, water, natural gas or propane, garbage. . .?"

 

Josette nodded. "I cleared out a lot of dumps when I first went out there, when countries were lost, and again while I was there. We're good on power crystals for millennia."

 

"Earth always was a consumer planet." Josette nods. "I've got tons of supplies in storage even after Mars and the Moon took theirs. There's only so much stuff people can use." Nods from the others as President Bartlett returns to the front room.

 

That weekend they head to the first planet for a few weeks vacation after the kids have headed off to Archimedes to settle in before their internship starts. The kids are old enough to be on their own for the hour they're gone.

 

"Who's got the garden plans?" Susan asks

 

"I do." Alan says, putting it up on the screen in the living room. They talk over various things and head upstairs, the kids helping in the various rooms.

 

Josette opens a bottle of pop at the Albatross Nest, her plate on her lap.

 

"Books?"

 

"Four more yet to go, first semester year after next."

 

"I'll have the party that summer then so we have all four." Agatha makes a note on her PADD. Agatha and Sue look at her and she waves a hand, quilts appearing on the table and files being sent to the server.

 

"More books?" Marilyn chuckles.

 

"Give me a few years. Like the quilts they come all at once."

 

Buckaroo looks around the streets of Town during the Lights Festival. "This came from Christmas?"

 

"Christmas and to a lesser extent New Years. How it used to be, ushering out the old year and welcoming the new."

 

"Like the ball dropping in Times Square."

 

"Yeah, except we don't do that. Or have the massive parties." David says, walking to the paella dish.

 

 

 

Buckaroo moans as he finds Josette in the library putting away the textbooks from the degrees she finished this year after dinner.

 

"Is this all textbooks from degrees?"

 

"Yep, I sort it by dimension, ours, then Clark's, then Granda's . . ." She waves at the stairs. "Each floor has a hallway for each school, then rooms for each degree or degrees for those that have more than one degree, that includes the multiple degree curriculum and graduate degrees." Buckaroo nods as Reno moans, Buckaroo looks at her and his lips twitch.

 

"Doc says you take degrees from multiple schools in the same area?"

 

Josette starts ticking off items on her fingers. "Alternative medicine from Johns Hopkins and Oxford because JH didn't have higher degrees in that field and the bachelor didn't transfer. Art history through all three degrees from a school in the states then Oxford because *everybody said they could get the degrees transferred and it would look good for the shows." Reno chuckles. "A lot of sosh and lit degrees because while it's on the same topic, they go at it from different avenues, a lot of degrees on fictional heroes because they focus on different areas where they had comic book careers, tv shows, books, movies. . .stuff like that." The other two nod.

 

They head off a couple days later and Josette slides into her seat at the government building.

 

"Degrees?"

 

"Finishing three degrees this year, cooking from Assyrian, the textiles degree from the other dimension, and the occupation of France during World War II from Cambridge."

 

"Are the others coming out?"

 

"Yes, they want to expand the dorms again." Doc shakes his head. "I know, you wouldn't think it would be needed, the old dorms are already forty rooms and sixty floors, along with the new storerooms on each floor and enlarged lounges on each floor."

 

"While the new dorms are sixty rooms and enlarged storerooms and sixty floors. We had to hire more people to do the sheets, towels, and blankets but it's semi-permanent jobs."

 

"More sheets, towels, and blankets?"

 

"In the supplies I brought out. We opened the job for extra money." President Bartlett nods in satisfaction. "That way they're already ready for the new storerooms when the students come out."

 

"I wouldn't have thought we'd ever get this big, not even on Earth after the dumbasses of education lost what passes for their minds."

 

"If we'd stayed on Earth we probably would have." Josette says. The others nod.

 

"So what are we looking at, we're already at fifty dorms."

 

"Sixty? Five more of each kind at least seventy-five floors?"

 

"Gods I hope not. What the hell would we do with all the empty rooms?" Principal Madison mumbles.

 

"I think the precogs are seeing trouble in some countries, that's why we're getting an influx of students. And we can always remove the empty dorms if they're no longer needed, or merge them like they did the temporary housing dorms." Nods of satisfaction from the others.

 

"The kids settling in well in Eureka?"

 

"Yeah, whatever planet they choose they have older brothers or sisters who can check on them as they're settling in and they know we're only a call away."

 

Josette stops to the bakery and walks to Sue's store. "No babies?" Marilyn asks with a grin behind the counter. Everybody knew that the oldest kids would be leaving home after Thanksgiving last year and they'd halfway been expecting an announcement of new pregnancies.

 

"We want to see what an empty nest feels like."

 

"Mighty damn empty at times. But then there's eight of you. The babies?"

 

"Starting second grade, they're not too happy that the assignments that meant they were big boys and girls will happen every year." Sniggers from the parents in the room.

 

"Are the others taking classes?"

 

"Yeah, the boys will be three years into their Masters and figure on finishing theses this year, then working on their dissertations. They figure on presenting them year after next."

 

Awwws from the others.

 

"David's finishing his Masters from the other dimension this year, he's got an appointment this summer to present his thesis."

 

More awwws.

 

"Susan's still working with everybody for the 100th anniversary thing whenever we do it, making notes for her dissertation, and working with the historians on the books." Josette smirks, she'll have at least one for the school by the end of next year. "The others will be two years into their bachelors, including CJ."

 

"Thomas's kids?"

 

"Starting their third years? Like the others they're only taking three classes a semester. Tara and Dawn might be starting Oxford next year."

 

More awwwws.

 

"How is it in their world?"

 

"Pretty bad, there was five countries gone when we went back after Thanksgiving and eight more were lost while we were there. No fully lost states or provinces, but there was big hunks of land where nobody lived anymore."

 

"How long were you there?"

 

"Ten years. Economies took a dump when all the schools closed. Governments had* to step in and make sure there was enough jobs."

 

"Because if they didn't nobody would keep them in office and they'd have to work." More than one person mutters.

 

"Exactly."

 

"How are you coming on your quilts?"

 

"Nearly done with the first notebook and should be hammered with ideas to finish the second anytime." Sniggering from the others. Josette heads back to the dorm, dumping the cat baggies in the replicator before going upstairs. Checking on the growing area she heads to her library.

 

"What classes are you taking this semester?"

 

"First of two semesters for the occupation of France, starting degrees on anthology comics and Tarzan. Tarzan is the second degree, anthology is the third. Starting the fourth degree on shipwrecks from the naval academy, there's one more after this, and three classes for the cooking degree."

 

"Plus the last year for the degree from the other school."

 

"Yep, I might pick up the other France semester over the break."

 

"Projects?"

 

Susan snorts. "Did them ages ago."

 

Josette sighs and nods, the others laugh.

 

"Mail?"

 

"Going out after lunch. Taking in projects then too." Jane smiles as Josette walks into the school.

 

"Mail already stamped." A cart appears. "Mail that needs postage." A pile appears next to a desk and the file sent to the secretary. "And my projects."

 

Jane smiles and waves a hand to the next room, Josette bringing out the three carts and multiple boxes before heading back to Haven.

 

The woman behind the counter sends out the message when the carts appear. Josette heads to the library next, the boxes that don't have a specific name on them going in there. She knows some of them are microfilm for the tape library, the major newspapers and magazines that aren't in the databursts. There's still some left with their names on them and she flips them to the dorm.

 

Josette's eyes glaze over a second as she walks into the dorm.

 

"Storm?" David asks.

 

"Yep, big one due to hit us by third day." Susan and Alan head to the basement to put in extra batteries to charge as the boys put on their heavy clothes.

 

"How long?"

 

"Four weeks, two weeks of storm and two weeks to shovel out. Cold, wet, heavy snow." They nod as David starts sending out announcements.

 

"Shit."

 

"Yep."

 

Josette sees the announcement going out as she heads upstairs.

 

"Is Josette overreacting?" Thomas asks Doc when he gets the message.

 

"No, this is going to be wet, heavy snow. The probes should be picking it up by tonight, Josette's weather sense gives us a few extra hours of warning. Get the livestock in, dial up the food and cleaners for a month and settle in for the next two weeks. Once the storm passes it will take at least a week to dig out, when Josette predicts these storms she tacks on another week to give everybody time to dig."

 

"Wet, heavy snow?"

 

Doc nods. "Shovels won't touch it, even the snowblowers will have a tough time moving it. Josette and the others push open doors a couple times a day to keep the doors from being buried. Once everybody has stocked up on supplies everything but the school will be shutting down until the storm passes."

 

Thomas still thinks everybody is overreacting but he has Alex check the supplies while Jason, Oz, and Tim are getting in the livestock and setting the automatic feeders while Clark checks on his parents. It getting dark earlier in the afternoon the next day has him changing his mind, along with the wet snow that's piling up by nightfall.

 

"Okay, I'm officially glad that Josette passed along the warning." Alex says when he gets up the next day and he can't even see outside for the snow. Clark comes in, brushing off the snow a few hours later when Tara taps on the door of the work area and reminds them of lunch.

 

"Your parents?"

 

"Talking about blizzards they lived through back on the farm when you might have been snowed in all winter."

 

"The turbine?"

 

"Set spinning last night, the boxes show that we've got a steady supply of electricity coming in. Ma and Pa have oil lamps and candles for when the solar panels aren't producing along with the fake wood for the furnace and fireplaces. Kara's offered to uncover the solar panels, Ma said if it gets bad she can but for now they're settled in."

 

"They can come out here."

 

"If it gets too bad, Kara and I will bring them out. If we get many bad storms like this though I'm putting a box on the farm. Or adding an alternate power source to my apartment building and the box to tap into it on the farm. Or both."

 

Bruce chuckles as he settles in his seat as the boys wash up. "Will they fall behind on classes?"

 

"No, they've had enough storms like this that they're used to them. Alex and Jason are working on projects and taking their classes on the computers while Tim and Daniel are doing the same for their classes. Once the weather is better they can visit the schools for quizzes or tests."

 

"How do the kids handle it?"

 

"They take their quizzes and tests four times a semester on Archimedes." Bruce shakes his head. "They've been doing it for years. On the other system they take their tests and quizzes as part of the class. The twins, David, and Alan are taking classes from the other dimension, Josette's taking classes on the school computer, the other system, and taking classes from the other dimension. Alexander and Michael are taking classes on the school computer, while Susan's not currently taking classes but she's taking notes on what the historians are doing for the 100th anniversary for her dissertation."

 

"How far is David in his Masters?"

 

"Finishing it this year, he's got an appointment this summer to present it."

 

"Alexander and Michael?"

 

"Be three years in theirs, though the others have already gotten it approved in their dimensions. They're finishing their theses this year and plan on presenting it in a couple years and working on their dissertations."

 

"Is Josette going for a Masters or doctorate?" Thomas asks when the boys settle at the table.

 

"Not right now, she wants to get a couple more textile degrees in before she starts another masters. She's looking into a degree in mechanical engineering sometime in the future since she's already got the windmill supplying extra power on the first planet for the watering system."

 

The others nod as they pass around the food.

 

"How is the United States?"

 

"There wasn't any states completely gone by the time we left, but a lot of states had huge areas where nobody lived. All of the major cities had lost part of their populations."

 

"Continents?"

 

"We expect Africa and South America to be the first completely gone. All their countries have lost nearly seventy percent of their population by the time we left and what infrastructure they did have was failing because they just didn't have the people to keep them up."

 

"Africa was in trouble before with the wars and whatnot."

 

"Josette and the League have plans to let Africa and South America go back to the jungle, several years without Man's misuse should get them on a good start back to what they were."

 

"Are the others making plans for the future?"

 

"Yeah, they've got beehives and gardens set up in the empty areas where somebody can easily get to them."

 

"It would give the moon and Mars an extra food source." Clark says. Thomas nods. "They don't have the growing areas the 9th planet has on the moon."

 

"We don't need the long-term plans the 9th planet has."

 

Back at the dorm Josette straightens up from pinning the binding to her latest quilt and flips it into subspace as she walks to the studio, popping the pins in the open container as she sews the binding down.

 

"Is that your latest?" David asks when she comes down the hallway.

 

"Yeah, just got it finished, I'll take pictures and work on the pattern after dinner." She puts it in her workroom with the pin box and joins the others walking to the dining hall.

 

Alex sighs in relief when he looks out the window on the way to breakfast and sees the snow's stopped and the suns up in the sky.

 

"As the others said it will be at least a week to dig out completely." Thomas says. "Clark's going to be uncovering the solar panels after breakfast."

 

"How is everybody on Haven?" Dr. Cross asks when Josette slides into her seat at the pushed together tables.

 

"Everybody's dug out and the animals are outside again, when they want to be anyway. The others thought we were overreacting about the storm until they lived through their first one, just like the rain." Chuckles from Dr. McNider. "The boys were able to head out to Montague and Assyrian this week with the stuff they'd been working on to talk to their teachers."

 

"How are you coming on the supplies for the new dorms?"

 

"Started back up this week, if we have to they can add second shifts a couple weeks to make up the time lost for those but they should make up the time just fine, it's not needed for a while." Nods from the others.

 

"Orders?"

 

"Started again this week, they're working two shifts a couple of weeks to catch up. We don't have to, they want to." Dr. Stark nods in satisfaction. "The printers were already planning on working into next year so that's fine, nothing else is at a stage where they have a deadline." Nods from the others.

 

"Thomas's world?"

 

"We were there ten years, the five countries that were on the cusp when we went out before the Harvest Festival were gone by the time we came back after Thanksgiving, along with eight other countries in the ten years we were out there."

 

"How bad was it?"

 

"There were around four billion people when we left, there was big empty areas in the states and Canada though no empty states or provinces, the schools closed and governments had to scramble to make sure everybody had jobs when the economies tanked thanks to the new unemployed." They shake their heads. "They were having problems with their power grid when we left, trying to decide if they wanted to keep power plants in empty areas running to send power to the grid or shut them down, inspect them thoroughly, and decide what to do after that."

 

Dr. Stark shakes his head. "So knowing how big a consumer world Earth was, I can guess you're overloaded with supplies even with sharing with the moon and Mars?"

 

"Oh yeah, there's only so much they can use. If they even take a portion of what is left on Earth, they'll be set for centuries. I'd pass on some to the 9th planet moon and Mars but they say they're good."

 

"They wouldn't need the massive resources that Earth does. . .or thinks they need."

 

"That's going to be what? Somewhere around twenty years by the time you leave? It had been over five years when Thomas arrived, plus however long it's been on Earth since he arrived on Haven."

 

"Yeah, people were working two jobs . ..especially in the areas that really needed people. . .the power grids, waste and water treatment plants, garbage pickup. . .though I cleared out a lot of dumps. . .We've got enough power crystals for millennia."

 

"And you'll probably be clearing out just as many when it's finally over." Vincent says. Josette sighs but nods. "Medical care is getting bad, a lot of older doctors have retired and people are traveling hours for medical help or doing without and dying of something that could have been handled a decade ago." Nods from the three men.

 

"Shortages of propane and other necessities for winter?"

 

"In the less developed countries, which makes the death toll rise faster. Even in the more developed countries, they're having to ration. They haven't got the power outages yet but it's just a matter of time. Thomas was surprised they made it to the twenty years he predicted with all the problems they've been having. He was right about the troubles they'd be having." Josette shakes her head. "You'd think that they'd have learned after the problems they had in Gotham City after the earthquake. They've had years to prepare for the end."

 

"No," Vincent snorts. "That would make sense, something a lot of governments don't have." The others sigh but nod.

 

"David's masters?"

 

"Appointment to present the thesis this summer, he's finishing it third semester. And no matter how much anybody nags he's not going on for a doctorate." Dr. Stark snickers. "Yeah, that was everybody else's reaction, we'll be sitting back with popcorn for the arguments."

 

"Your theses?" Dr. McNider asks when Alexander and Michael come over to the table.

 

"We're finishing them this year, going to talk to our advisors next year about them and the dissertations. We're planning on presenting them year after next."

 

"Josette, party for the books?"

 

"In a couple weeks. The party next year will be after the Harvest Festival for the last four books."

 

"Doc's world?"

 

"We'll be in the same time period after the Harvest Festival."

 

"How long for Thomas's world?"

 

"About seven years Thanksgiving. We'll see the closer we get. About ten years our time we'll be clearing again."

 

"Counting this year?"

 

"Yeah."

 

Vincent starts putting plates down in front of them. "How are the kids settling in their internships? We're all scattered on the planets but we're still close. They say they're fine but . . ."

 

"You want proof. Yes, all the reports I've gotten have been excellent." Josette nods in satisfaction. "Your kids are all highly sought after by everybody because they're highly adaptable and can work in any area."

 

Josette and the boys arrive home a couple hours later, finding David letting the dogs back in. "Ask about the kids?"

 

"Yep, they're good." Josette hangs up her outside clothes.

 

"What are your plans?"

 

"Tomorrow I'm heading up to the candy making area."

 

"Paper factory?"

 

"Orders figure to be done by the Harvest Festival. I'm picking up flour for various planets after finals." They nod in satisfaction as Josette picks up a new book and starts to read.

 

A couple of days later Josette heads over to the school with the mail. Jane's not there and the secretary points to the closed office door. Josette nods and brings out the cart of mail.

 

"Nothing that needs extra postage?"

 

"Not this week but we need more stamps." She nods and unlocks the special closet, Josette taking a box of stamps and she scans the barcode, adding them to the account for the other school. Josette grabs the carts and boxes, heading to the office.

 

"Thank you Josette." Joyce says when the box of stamps is handed over. "We're good on the rolls yet until the end of the semester but we needed books."

 

"I'll get the rolls then." She nods as the students who handle the mail come in to start sorting everything out. The sorting center pre-sorts the mail by dorm and by floor, but they'll have to combine the different days mail before delivering it.

 

"Get everything?"

 

"Yep, mail's being sorted right now and we're good on books of stamps for a few months, we'll probably get more when the new students arrive." David nods. "Taking a break from your classes?"

 

"Yeah, I was about ready to fall asleep so I shut teacher down for the rest of the day."

 

"We're going to have snow by night."

 

"Hopefully not like what we just dug out of?" Alexander asks, looking over as he comes into the living room, Michael a couple steps behind him. "This must be a day nobody can concentrate on anything, I've been staring at the same piece of wood for fifteen minutes until Michael nudged me. Mail?"

 

"Picked it up and the students were arriving to sort it when I took in the box of stamps. I gotta pick up a box of roll stamps when we go out for finals. And we figure we'll get more in our supplies when the new students come out." The others nod.

 

A couple weeks later Josette is at the Albatross Nest in Albatross for the party, putting the last of the boxes under the tables. The tables are full of books and Agatha has already grabbed three and put them behind the counter for herself after Josette signed them. She's looking over the party planning and opens the door and link to Town, the others starting to pour in.

 

"Josette, are you premiering another book?"

 

"Next year, that will leave me ten books."

 

"I noticed people are making up more sets of sheets, towels, and folding blankets."

 

"Yes, Granda and the others are adding onto the school again. We're working on them ahead so they're in the storerooms when the students arrive."

 

Midterms Josette takes out empty shipping containers, recycling, socks, and containers of returning student and employee belongings. Calvin waves her into his office before Josette heads off to the house.

 

Josette leans between President Bartlett and Professor Parker at lunch. "Possibly ten more dorms over the next couple years, three for sure. Five of the older ones, five of the newer. Seventy-five floors tall and they're adding to the other dorms." President Bartlett sighs. "Another couple dining halls."

 

"Why?"

 

Josette shrugs. "No idea, they're expanding the other school too." Principal Madison just shakes his head.

 

"How long were you out?"

 

"Six weeks, taking care of the recycling that I took out. The supplies are being delivered right now."

 

"Thank you Josette."

 

After the third testing week they're able to open windows for more than ten minutes without the furnace coming on and Josette spreads manure on the garden and fields. Tilling it under the next week she plants the first crops.

 

The next week Josette, Alexander, and Michael head to Archimedes for their finals, talking with Dr. Blake since Dr. Stark's busy lecturing somebody at GD about their stupidity of the day.

 

"Are the others out?"

 

"Supposed to arrive in a couple weeks since this is all new work, not altering existing buildings." She nods. "Thomas's world? Nathan told me what you'd been talking about."

 

"Losing more and more people every day to old age, illnesses that were nothing back before people had to travel hours for medical care. . ." She sighs but nods. "In about seven years we should be in the same time. In ten years our time we expect the world's population to be down even further. They made it past the twenty years Thomas predicted but they're already having the problems he foresaw and it's just getting worse. By the time we left they were at four billion people, having problems with the electrical grid, people were working two jobs, especially in the services that were desperately needed, and they were already beginning to see shortages of some stuff. Including stuff like propane for the winter. By the end of ten years, I expect at least one continent will be empty."

 

Dr. Blake shakes her head.

 

Josette delivers the orders and drops off the empty containers and recycling as David opens the tesseract for the students and employees. Josette delivers another batch of containers for the graduating students and returning employees at the office before heading to the house.

 

A couple of days later Josette is at the school when a moment of silence is held. She looks at the others after it's done.

 

"A former student of ours died a year ago today. She'd been on the transplant list for years, she was supposed to be receiving a heart but some stupid bitch stole it for her son. He had an enlarged heart but was at the bottom of the list because he used drugs."

 

"And she couldn't have that." Josette snorts.

 

"Exactly, she had the heart hijacked and given to him, after all why should her darling baby suffer?"

 

"Stupid bitches like that should be beaten to death for being too stupid to live." Jane grumbles. "She was stunned when she found out the person who was supposed to get the heart was her daughter. She'd moved out years ago because her mother always favored the boy. Then she was bleating about how her baby girl should get the next heart, it was a travesty there wasn't a heart for her. . ."

 

"There would have been if she hadn't given it to her son, who could have lived for years on medication. But that wasn't good enough for him. He's currently in the medium security dimension, little bastard was selling the drugs they gave him to keep from rejecting the heart two days out of the hospital for money for his drugs, then bleating about how he shouldn't have to go to prison, he wouldn't be allowed the drugs and he needed those drugs to live."

 

Josette rolls his eyes. "Then he shouldn't have been selling them to get high. And lemme guess, his mummy's bleating about how everybody's being mean to him?"

 

"Yes, she was horrified when she was charged with first degree murder after her daughter died, stupid bitch still was expecting a heart to magically appear for her."

 

"How many people die on the transplant list waiting for an organ? If you're that high on the list, you're pretty bad off."

 

"Yes, and she was incensed when her daughter dared to change her will after her mother stole the heart to make sure she didn't get a dime. She was a world famous author, writing multiple series. Why would her daughter let a little thing like stealing her heart get in the way of leaving her mother everything she has, she's dying. . .she won't need it."

 

"What a bitch."

 

"She's currently rotting in the maximum security dimension working her ass off, whining about how it's not fair. She's got a huge judgment to pay off, she went to the publishers of her daughter's books claiming she was the heir and would allow them to be published after her death, then tried breaking into her daughter's house to find her manuscripts and whatnot. The publishing company sued and she's got fraud, breaking and entering, vandalism, and theft convictions in addition to her murder conviction. There's a line of people who would cheerfully beat her to death because the lawyer for the real heirs announced they wouldn't be releasing any more of her books thanks to her mother's greed. The publishers tried suing but they didn't have a contract anymore and didn't know who the heirs were they were laughed out of court, then fined when they tried blocking any other publishers from printing the books if the heirs do come forward."

 

"Nanny nanny boo boo, if I can't have it nobody can?" Jane snorts and nods. "Okay, what do we need for the school?"

 

"We need another box of 100 stamp rolls." The secretary unlocks the door and scans the box, adding it to the school's account. "We're getting more in the supplies when the new students come up?" Josette asks as she puts the box in subspace. Jane nods. The rest of the list is dealt with, Calvin leaning against the door of his office listening to them talk.

 

"The bookstore?"

 

"I've got their request list here." She sends it to Calvin. He nods. "All of this is in the batch of supplies you just picked up. And we're bringing up extra over the summer."

 

You must login (register) to review.