"Textbooks?"

"Coming out this summer, the publishers plan on updating them again so we've got another expo when you come out again. Your shows?"

"Me here, the boys Mom's dimension. This year we're going there first."

"Books?"

"Will be finished printing next year, the storm delayed everything just like last time. Since we'd already planned on printing into next year, it's not that big of a deal."

"Third book?"

"Debuting next year."

A few weeks later Josette starts delivering containers as David opens the tesseract for the returning students and school employees. Josette walks the box of stamps into the office.

"Oh thank you Josette, we're down to three rolls." Joyce puts it in the closet with the other stamps. "Do you . . .?" She smiles at the list of supplies being delivered. "Is it all for us?"

"No, some of it's for the library in town and some of it's going to the factories here and on the sorting planet for the orders." Joyce moves through the list. . ."Ahh good, everything the bookstore had on their list. Textbooks?"

"Coming out this summer, they're updating them again so I gotta hit the expo with Granda."

"More supplies coming out over the summer?"

"Yeah," Josette sighs and grabs her PADD, getting into the drawing screen and starting to work. Joyce chuckles and continues looking through the files of supplies. Josette sighs a couple minutes, sends what she'd been working on off and looks up. "Okay, now that the insane muse isn't howling in my ear."

"Quilt?"

"Pipe organ, one of those huge ones that have hundreds of pipes. The ones you saw in the great cathedrals in Europe that have teams of people pushing the valves and pumping the bellows."

Joyce shakes her head. "That's going to be marvelous." Josette nods. "Supplies this summer?"

"1 1/2 to 2 times what we normally get so we don't run out when the new students arrive, depending on how many we get this year."

"You said they're expanding the other school too?"

Josette sends the pictures to the screen, Joyce and the other women nodding as they see the overlaid changes. A couple days later the supplies for the factories have been delivered and Josette sits down in her normal seat at the dining hall.

"Everything moved now?"

"Yeah, I've got a dozen other selves moving supplies for the factory managers."

The others arrive a few days later, starting to go over plans as Josette replicates the books and projects for her summer classes from the other dimension. Bronwen comes up to her workroom and looks over her graded projects, nodding in satisfaction.

"How are the dropoffs for student and employee belongings coming?" Calvin is asking Principal Madison when they come downstairs.

"They're starting to pick up now that winter is over and people are spring cleaning." Principal Madison lifts his foot for the robot vacuum that comes by.

"Josette, books?"

"The first run just finished a couple days ago, they're checking everything and packing it up before taking a couple weeks off and starting the second book." Everybody nods in satisfaction.

"Hey Kara." Josette says when the younger woman peeks around the pocket doors.

"Hey Josette, Ma was wondering if anybody made maple syrup?"

"Yeah, I gotta check the supply I'll probably be tapping the trees next spring. And tell her we'll be making sausages, baloney, and sauerkraut after the first crops are in." Kara grins before heading off. Josette checks something on the PADD. "And we gotta grow a crop of poblanos for ancho peppers, we're running low."

"We can plant them this summer and have them drying through the Harvest Festival." Josette nods.

"Did GD ever come up with anything from their plans for canning chipilotes in adobo sauce?" David asks.

"No, but I'm looking into it." The others nod.

Kara lands at the Kent farmhouse, grinning as she sees two Pas outside and two Mas inside sitting at the table. One looks at her in question.

"Josette's checking the supply, she figures next year. And this summer they're making sausages, baloney, and sauerkraut."

The other Ma nods. "I knew the supply was getting low." She types in something on her PADD, getting a response seconds later. "Yes, she's also smoking the chipilotes, fish, and cheese."

Kara blinks. "No, not all at the same time." Ma recognizes the 'that's an interesting combination' face. "Cheese, whatever sausages we plan on smoking, the fish, and the jalapenos one after the other."

"Do we have the only smokehouse?"

"The fourth planet has a communal one for the Amish and whatever other farms want to smoke to preserve but most of the other planets use ours."

"No use building one that would only get used every few years." Pa says, coming in to wash his hands. The other Pa behind him nods. Ma nods too. "Josette sends out the alert and a group of us from various planets work a few weeks on what we want, making enough for the planets for a few years. Did Josette say anything about smoked herbs?" Kara shakes her head and Ma sends out the question, getting an answer back.

"Didn't think so, that's not something we smoke every time we have the house open." Ma takes the others out to look at it after lunch.

"This is huge."

"And it will be crammed full when we're smoking." Somebody moans behind them and they turn to find Josette and Dr. Cross. "Yep, every possible inch that holds something, including hanging the sausages from the hooks in the ceiling will be full."

"We can enlarge this before you need it." Dr. Cross says as the others head off. He returns a couple hours later with Katrina, Simone, and a couple other people. Josette comes in with them and tells them how it's used, they nod and get to work.

Josette starts bringing out the supports for the vines, three dozen of her other selves zipping around the land getting everything set up. She checks on the vines growing now then heads back to the dorm, smiling as she sees the third textiles building going up. Even with tesseracts they needed the room.

Ma, Kara, Tara, Dawn, and Alfred look around as everybody gathers for the first day of making sausages. "Tara, I know you've got a good hand cutting, the list of herbs we'll need is on the server. Dawn, can you start dicing peppers?" She waves at the dishes on the table and the barrel. "Cut the top and bottom off. then cut them into matchsticks after you've seeded them. Save the pepper around the stem if you can." Ma takes a knife and they start chopping. "Small dice?"

"Yes."

Everybody works together for several days, making tons of various sausages, sauerkraut, kimchee, and baloney, pickled or otherwise. The barrels are moved to various buildings to age and Josette puts the last of the meat to be smoked in the now five times larger, multiple room smokehouse. The chipilotes had been brought out and are busy being put in containers.

"Chipilote sauce?"

"Half of this batch will be made into sauce, the rest either ground into powder or sold in small packages at the store and I'm growing jalapenos again to experiment with chipilotes in adobo sauce."

"I'd wondered why we had so many even with it being for all the planets." Alfred says calmly.

"Josette, the new grapes?"

"I'm bottling the first year, the dairy has plans for buying the wine in barrels for their cheese."

"Easier than emptying cases of bottles in the cheese tubs." A week later Josette delivers a half-dozen barrels to the dairy, pouring one over the cheese in the large tub. A second and third is poured in and the cheese is floating now. A second tub gets the rest of the wine and Josette flips the barrels back to the winery.

"Thank you Josette, if we need more we'll adjust the order next year."

"Lemme know when you need the cider delivered and I'll pour it like the wine."

"Thank you Josette, that would help out a lot."

"Deliver to the dairy?" Susan asks at dinner.

"Yes, it took three barrels to fill each of the two tubs for the wine cheeses. I told them when they needed the cider I'd pour it for them. They'll adjust the order next year if they need to."

"Get the supports up?"

"Yep, and the machinery is ready to dome it over the winter."

"Bottles for the new, new grapes?" Everybody sniggers.

"I gotta design a label before we order them."

"Do you have the room?"

"Yeah, the others doubled everything again when we talked about the new grapes. Same with the brewery." Josette frowns a second. "At least doubled everything. And put up tons of racks for the barrels and bottles to age."

"Did we warn the glass factory?"

"Yeah, they know we're growing more grapes and making more brews. Calvin and the others made sure they could handle it before we started." Nods of satisfaction from the others.

The new grapes start coming in and Josette's busy for the next couple of weeks, then bringing offworld harvests and more supplies for the schools.

Josette sniggers silently when she sees a familiar group on the grounds of the school when she comes out for the show. Calvin just looks at her. "I know you have Stark on the fourth planet, you've got kids working there."

"Yes, and there's been the Avengers movie on a few dimensions I've been on." She shakes her head. "Anyway, expo?"

"Paperwork is right here." They go over it for a few minutes. "Good selection of new books and new editions."

"David?"

"Rolling his eyes behind Mom's back at the suit and tie she's trying to get him in for presenting his thesis." Calvin chuckles. "No contest."

"Nope, Mom wins every time. I gotta dress up, he's gotta dress up."

The next couple of days pass, Josette heading out to Ellis's with a list from the others. The show comes and Josette gratefully takes off her shoes after the show. "I swear, somebody must be putting brain dead bimbo drugs in the water, that's the only way to explain all the idiots at the show." Snickering and nods from the others.

The next day Calvin picks Josette up for the textbook expo as David heads to his university to present his thesis and talk to his advisor about a doctorate since he knows the others will be giving him hints.

The expo lasts most of the week and Josette moves boxes of books to various rooms at the school, copies of the same books going on the ship to be looked at back on Haven. Josette picks up supplies for the schools and the teachers and school employees personal belongings.

David opens the first tesseract when they land and the cooking school instructors walk off as Josette starts delivering their supplies. The rest head off through the tesseract with Principal Madison for their version of orientation as everybody but Josette walks to the dorm. Josette arrives a couple hours later.

"Sorry, got the databurst with the orders while I was on the ship."

"How many orders?" Michael asks, shaking his head.

"Too many. I think this one woman brought three dollhouses for every room in her house. Including the bathrooms."

"Wouldn't surprise me at all, like Agatha says some people grow old but they don't grow up." David rolls his eyes. "Do you have enough supplies?"

"Picking up more when I bring the new students out. Ha, that's why we have so many. They're saving the smart ones so when the braindead people die out they can rebuild." Principal Madison cackles as he comes into the living room. "True. Mean. . .but true. Belongings?"

"Maintenance was delivering the ones here since everything was tagged. The cooking teachers Assyrian was helping get them settled." Principal Madison nods and heads off again. The new employees sigh as they find their belongings in their apartments after dinner. "I think I'm going to like this place." More than one of them says over the next few days.

The second crops start coming in after the yearly and offworld harvests are finished. Josette starts the second crop of jalapenos smoking and they head off. Jane sighs as Josette starts bringing out belongings, pointing to each pile as she names things off.

Josette heads off to take care of the recycling with the others a couple days later, putting the money in her bank account and starting to move containers of supplies to the ship.

"Is this supplies for us too?" Josette splits off a dozen duplicates to move supplies after the students and school employees have walked off the ship.

"Yeah, it's a mixture. Supplies for the school, more supplies for the factories, books for the libraries and me personally, stuff for us, and supplies for our special orders." Josette sends the list to David's PADD as they walk through the tesseract. David looks at the number of shipping containers and whistles.

"They're all stuffed too." Josette takes the boxes of stamps to the office, using her card to put them in the closet since the outer office is empty. Listening, she can hear Joyce talking down the hall. Sending a message to Principal Madison she heads to the dorm.

In his meeting room Principal Madison looks at his PADD and grins. "Josette brought out more boxes of stamps, two of the books and another of the rolls. They're in the closet." Another message comes in and he whistles. "Maintenance will be busy moving stuff after the Harvest Festival." He has a thought and sends off a message to Josette. Joyce looks at him. "Seeing if we need to make a batch of laundry detergent at the factories." She nods and looks down at the PADD on her lap. "Okay, what's next on the list?"

"Supplies for the new students?"

"Storerooms are full, with more in the basements. Both the new dorms, new floors, and the existing storerooms." Professor Druid says. "Ahhh, more supplies for the laundries are in this batch of supplies."

"Laundries?" One of the women who works in the office asks.

"For the students, the small boxes you get in the dispensers and larger containers for the sheets and towels." Joyce says absently. "And more plastic to wrap the sets in."

"Sets?" One of the new teachers asks.

"When students arrive at the school they get two sets of sheets consisting of flat sheet, fitted sheet, and a pillowcase, two blankets, and two sets of towels that consist of two bath towels, two hand towels, two washcloths, and a bath mat. They use one set and strip their beds, throwing sheets and towels down the laundry chute when it's their floor's turn for laundry, bringing out the other set to use. The next day they get a new set of sheets and towels from the storeroom on their floor."

"So they're using one set and have one in reserve."

"And twice a semester they throw down their blankets and get clean ones."

"Why are we getting so many students?"

"Josette said it was to keep the smart ones safe so when the braindead people died out they could rebuild but that was after her show." Sniggers from the others.

The next day Josette heads off with Doc to his dimension, dropping off the orders and picking up supplies while he heads off to talk to Buckaroo. Josette's asked to take more paper ends and she has nearly a building full of them by the time they lift off. Josette spends a few weeks outside time after Doc heads off to take care of them.

"How is Earth?"

"They're recovering, it will be a while. At least they're getting more sewage and water treatment plants back up and running."

"Orders?"

"Factories are low man on the priority totem pole so for the foreseeable future we've still got them. It's going to be at least a decade our time before they're finished recovering."

"No cheap imports anymore, they'll be heartbroken." Susan mutters. Josette sniggers.

"Doc came out before you did." David looks at her.

"I had nearly a building full of paper ends to deal with. I spent a couple weeks outside of time taking care of them."

"Don't they recycle?"

"The smaller stuff, they can't handle anything that big, neither can Granda's dimension. Even major recycling companies don't want to do the hard stuff because they can't make a profit."

The Harvest festival comes and afterwards Josette is busy bringing in the new students. Josette sighs as plates of food and a bottle of Haven Dew are put in front of her and she looks up at Professor Parker.

"I wouldn't have thought we'd ever have this many students again, but at least they're not all in the same grade." He looks at her, Josette's chuckling. "James told us about your theory."

"It was after my show in Granda's dimension."

"Ah the airhead patrol was in full force?"

"I was asking if somebody was putting bleached blonde bimbo drugs in the water. One woman brought 45 dollhouses. The only reason she didn't buy more was her credit card was maxed out, so she had to wait."

"Ohhh." He hisses. "The 'oh my god, I gotta have it' brigade." Chuckles from next to them herald the arrival of Frances and Susie.

"You guys got a list started of what you want for the new building?"

"Yes, and thank you for taking us out after Thanksgiving to visit Ellis's place to talk with him." Ellis had passed along the invitation when he'd heard about the new building and representatives from Assyrian, Edinborough, and the school were visiting for a couple days.

"Josette, this is probably a dumb question, but do you recycle the plastic from the sheets?"

"Yep, it goes in a crystal to be reused. If we were still on Earth it would be stuff like that, plastic wrap, bags, and the stuff on frozen meals. I pick it up when I take care of the rest of the school's recycling." Frances nods as Josette picks up a piece of pizza and starts to eat.

"I can't believe we've got fifty dorms, some 60 rooms a floor while the rest are 40 rooms and they're 75 floors tall."

"I know." Josette shakes her head.

"What happens if . . ."

"They're be merged like the temporary housing dorms were or removed. We made sure because we had the same misgivings."

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

"Dorms?"

"They added floors to a third of the dorms and put up three along with a dining hall and the third building for the textiles curriculum. They wanna put up another building for the fine arts stuff next year."

"Figuring on three years to get everything done?"

"Possibly four, they gotta enlarge the bookstore again. But that gives us time to expand without a massive influx of students."

"Slow and steady is always good." Josette nods.

"How was the textbook expo?"

"Good, I've got a lot of new books to go over this winter. Granda sent electronic copies up, didn't he?"

"He did, like you we've been slowly going through them."

"Granda's talking with Dad about them when we go out after Thanksgiving."

"Are you taking belongings back this week?"

"Yeah." Josette gets a message on her PADD and she nods, typing on the PADD for a couple minutes before she puts it up. "Agatha, she asked me to pass along a request about a new library for Albatross. David can go out, he'll want a break from his lessons anyway."

David looks around the library and shakes his head. "How do you find anything?"

"Lots of practice but we desperately need more room. Before everything started falling apart."

"So does the Historical Society by what I've heard." One of the women with then nods. James comes in a few minutes later with an architect and they start talking. "I'll have a good start of the plans by the end of the year, we can finalize them next year and start construction."

"And it will give us time to consider how we're going to pay for them." the mayor says.

Josette heads off the next day, Jane shaking her head at the number of containers brought out.

"Lotta people coming back and people are sorting out what they don't need. More they send out now means the less they gotta carry home." Jane and Calvin nod.

"Out long?"

"Couple weeks, I'm hitting the universities and taking out projects. Talking more bachelors and their grad schools."

"I need you to come out with me to meet the Avengers one day." Josette nods and heads off for the house.

Josette returns to Haven two weeks later for her.

"Vegas?" David knows that look.

"Yeah, I went out for a couple days while I was there."

"Get everything done?"

"Yeah, my projects are graded, I talked to the schools about new degrees, toured their grad schools. . ."

"Recycling?"

"Working on it when I come out midterms. I'll probably be bringing back some then too." The others snigger. Josette puts her feet up on the coffee table in the living room. A cat immediately jumps on her stomach. "Good day to nap." The others nod, it's been drizzling all day but by the darkening sky they should be getting a storm coming in by night.

Jane shakes her head at the piles of containers Josette brings out midterms. "I know, there's always somebody who will wait until the last second then whine about having to bring it themselves."

Josette arrives at Stark Tower with Calvin a few days later, sitting and talking with a number of people about students coming out next year. The next day they're at a meeting to talk about the charities that the school contributes to and Josette starts working on the recycling she'd brought out.

Back on Haven four weeks later her time she starts delivering everything.

"Did we have anything?" David asks when Josette slides into her seat at dinner.

"Some, more is coming out after Thanksgiving."

The rest of the semester flies by and Josette and the boys head to Archimedes for their finals. The crops are in and the recycling picked up on the other planets by the end of the week. After Thanksgiving everybody heads out, returning students and employees greeting family and friends as some of them head to the auditorium for the first graduation ceremony.

A couple days later Josette heads out to Ellis's with the others, everybody who hadn't been there before marveling at the buildings before going inside. Josette starts shopping as well and there's rooms full of stuff and more ordered by the time the others head back a couple days later.

Josette starts working on the recycling she brought out a couple days later, putting the money in her account then heading to Vegas with the others. Four weeks later for them the returning students head for the auditorium to have their bags checked as Josette splits off duplicates to deliver shipping containers to the school, factories, and at the dorm. She lifts off to deliver the offworld supplies and flies to the dorm, absorbing her other selves that had been to the other dimensions.

"Awww." Josette coos when three baskets are put in front of her by David. She pets the five adult cats, three younger ones that are curled around a couple puppies, then the kittens. "Russian blues." She looks up at Calvin.

"Yep, they're some from a puppy mill that was found and shut down." Josette growls. "The animals have all found new good homes. These guys are yours. Pat's got some from another breeder, so does Bethany, Frances, and Elaine so if you want future kittens they're not inbreeding. And we have seed from other breeders, they hated these guys and are glad they're going away forever."

Josette's new cats and dogs quickly settle in at the dorm. It's snowing lightly when they head upstairs to work on the growing area over the next couple of days. The decorations for the Lights Festival are brought up a couple weeks later. Buckaroo comes out with Doc and David chuckles.

"Ten bucks says Buckaroo ends up on the tenth planet in a couple years."

"Sucker bet, they're already getting in supplies." Josette snorts. David cackles. "How is it there?"

"The climate change people finally stopped saying I told you so. The whining about 'why do we have to do this' ended when their businesses either went under or were brought out by people who knew what they were doing. Recycling in mandatory now. . .everywhere and not just in large cities. New companies to handle the recycling and turn it into new material. With all the problems they're having, they've realized they have to make do with what they have."

"About time." James snorts behind them. He waves to the librarian, historical society president, and mayor of Albatross. "Got preliminary plans for you to look over."

"Come out next week third day, we'll go over everything before and after lunch." they make the plans and James heads off again.

The next few days pass and Josette slides into her seat at the government building.

"Start a new degree offworld?"

"Yeah, another textiles, this one is all bookwork for the first two years then very intensive hands-on stuff the last three years. As in triple the projects I had for the other degree. . .for each class." The others shake their heads and moan. "Yep, this is a special degree. More books too. I already got the projects and I'm working on them." Doc snickers. "Not my fault nobody thinks to get the projects ahead of time."

"Three years?"

"Yes, I'll have another masters when I'm done."

"Why's James talking with Albatross?"

"New library and historical society."

"They've needed a new library for years."

"From what the others told me the other nearby libraries were even smaller."

"Did you go out to Thomas's world?"

"Just for supplies since we're still there."

"Do you have libraries?"

"Tons, we just swooped them into limbo. same with bookstores. Anything we might need for the future unless it was too old and going to fail or badly damaged, then we salvaged what we could and recycled the rest." The others nod.

"Books from the other dimension?"

"They've been coming in, they want to work on the library again this year. They're talking building a second or even third building and linking them." the others shake their heads. "Just passing on what they said."

"How are they coming on construction out there?"

"Good, like ours it's a two or three year job so people don't wonder what the fuck is going on." Sniggering from the others.

Josette stays by the door of the dorm when they come back, David looking at her until a kitten comes back into the building cussing as only a cat can.

"I told you you didn't want to go outside, the white stuff is cold." The kitten gives her the stiff back as he cleans his paws while Josette takes her boots off, putting them on the grate over the containers for the snow to melt and puts on her inside shoes. The kitten walks inside, getting pounced on by his sister as Josette walks into her first floor room with her bags from Town.

Josette heads upstairs after putting away the doughnuts and snacks, going to a room and starting to work. She'd finally started her Masters in Chemical Engineering and was working on a project for her thesis.

The next few weeks pass quietly and Josette picks up the second to last book from the printers a couple days before their first testing week. She puts it in the honeycomb of rooms.

"Show?" David asks.

"Boys Granda's, me Mom's."

"Third book debuting?"

"Yeah, I'm taking the books out the day before the show when I pick up the order for the school. I wonder if that fool woman paid off her credit card so she can order more stuff?"

"Pay it?" David says in a horrified shriek. "You mean the credit card fairy doesn't wave his magic wand and make the balance disappear?" In the front room Principal Madison chokes. Professor Druid cackles and repeats the conversation for the others. "I hope you got at least half down from her."

"That big an order betcher ass."

"The last book?"

"The printers are on break for a couple weeks, a 'woo hoo, only one more to go' celebration." Snickers from the others.

"Signing party?"

"Probably after the Harvest Festival now. Before then we'll be busy with the crops and offworld harvests."

"Are you still experimenting with adobo sauce?"

"Yeah, I'm growing more peppers on Vallejo for that." David nods in satisfaction. He looks at the boys. "Three years into your masters."

"Yeah, we're finishing the thesis this year and talking to our advisors about our dissertations. Next year we might pick up more classes. I swear it *seems* like we've been going for our Masters forever." The others nod in unison.

Josette slides into her usual seat at the testing center a couple days later.

"How is the plans for the new library coming?"

"Good, we're looking at a three floor building for the library and maybe five for the historical society." Dr. Stark shakes his head but nods. "We're looking maybe two or three floors for the show for the founding of Haven. We're not sure if we need that much space but. . ."

"Better more space than you need than running out of room."

"The only problem with that is . . ."

"What do you do with it after the show?"

"Exactly, we're already planning the books for after the show. That will handle anybody that might possibly have missed it. . .and it's going to be open for a couple months so everybody can come in on their own and look everything over."

"You don't need an empty building just sitting there."

"No, that was part of Earth's problems. Keep building because new was always better then bitch because having all sorts of empty buildings makes the town look bad."

"How is Thomas's world?"

"They're coming in as we clean up the lost countries to see what needs to be done, there's a lot of places with water or soil contamination."

"London was the worst." Nods from the others. "They're working on cleaning that stuff up, deciding where they're going to be settling when they return to Earth, and setting up growing areas once the land is clean. They were settling in the Earth city in one of the lost countries when we left. They had a growing area in another for the moon and Mars."

Josette picks up the kitten trying to climb her pants leg when they return home, putting her on the couch as she heads upstairs to check on the growing area. She should be able to start picking the green tomatoes after midterms.

"When do you plan on going to the ship?" Alexander asks at dinner. "You said you needed to check on your peppers."

"Tomorrow. I've got the cafeteria set up."

The next day Josette sends out containers of chipilotes in adobo sauce to various places with the recipes she used and other information. She gets a number of thank you messages back and requests from both Vincents to grow again if possible.

'Yeah, I got plenty of seeds.' Josette sends back. 'Maybe not this year but in a couple.'

"How long were you out of time?" David asks as Josette puts the remaining containers in stasis.

"'Bout six weeks."

"With you making adobo sauce, I see the cooking school looking into growing the peppers."

"So can I, they were talking about expanding the Mexican cooking class and making it fresh means none of the shit manufacturers added. Same with Vincent at the cafes." David nods as they walk to lunch.

"Sooo, how does it feel not to be taking classes?"

"Waiting for the other shoe to drop from the others. 'Yes, you're on the waiting list for your doctorate, you're working on a dissertation, and you're working on the new library and building for the historical society in Albatross, but we've got our eye on you buster'." The others snigger. They look at Susan.

"I've got a good outline for my dissertation. Now. . .building for the show."

"I was talking to Dr. Stark and the others about this yesterday. If we put up a building we've got the problem of what do we do with it after the show." Susan nods. "Even if we leave it up for a couple months so everybody's got a chance to look at it."

"I'd suggest the new building in Albatross because they'll be using part of it for a museum anyway." Abby says slowly. "But that leaves the problem of getting to Albatross."

Josette sends off a message to the historians then the president of the historical society in Albatross.

"Let's see what they think of that before we make any more plans."

"Or . . .the others have plans on updating the library in town. . .we could put them there a couple months then move everything to storage and use the building for that purpose."

"Talk to Dad later about it." The others nod.

Josette goes out to the first planet a couple weeks later to plant peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and other stuff. She spends a couple weeks out there beyond the planting laying in the sun and swimming in the ocean.

Back on Haven she moves some of the special orders to the ships to give them more room in the woodworking building. Alexander and Michael sigh at being able to walk in the storage rooms and Josette grins.

Midterms Josette goes out to the school, nodding at the construction around her after she's dropped off the special orders, recycling, and picked up the supplies for the school.

"Good." Josette says, seeing James in the office with Calvin. "Do you have any plans for the building for the 100th anniversary show?"

"We've been talking about it, and I suspect you have." Josette nods and calmly sits in midair.

"We don't really need an empty building after the show's done."

"That's been the big sticking point with us." Calvin says, nodding.

"We could use the historical society building in Albatross, they plan on using part of it for exhibits." The two men nod. "But that leaves the problem of getting to Albatross, it's not as central as Town." Josette nods. "Or there's the thought of how you want to add onto the library in town."

James grins. "Perfect, once the exhibit's done you can use it for it's intended purpose."

"Has anybody thought about a building for the 100th anniversary thing?" President Bartlett asks the next day at the government building.

David sniggers and everybody looks at Josette. "The others want to add to the library in town, we'll use that for the show then put everything up and move into the new area."

President Bartlett nods in satisfaction. "I talked to Granda and Dad yesterday, they had the same problems we were talking about, having an empty building after the show was done."

"Did you plant offworld?"

"A couple weeks ago, everything was going good when I left."

"How long were you out there?"

"About six weeks, I planted the raised beds and by the house." Josette looks out at the snow coming down. The others chuckle but nod.

"More adobo sauce?"

"Gotta grow more peppers. If the demand is good it's something we'll start growing more frequently."

"Homemade is better, don't get all the preservatives you have in the commercial stuff. And it's easy enough to freeze?" Principal Madison looks at her. She nods.

"Did anything ever come of the cooks looking into making soup mixes?"

"Yes, we've got a ton of recipes on the server and have plans for planting more crops so they can make individual servings or large pot of soup packets." Josette looks up from her PADD. President Bartlett nods in satisfaction. "Right now it's vegetarian soups and dips, they're working on how they'd use vat-raised meat in mixes from the beginning instead of having to add it when the soup is cooking."

Principal Madison nods. "Can't do that with single-serve packets."

Josette nods. "Which is why we were looking into soup packets. Those people who live alone or just don't want a big pot of soup."

"Can't make a big pot of soup when you got the munchies in the middle of the night." Everybody nods.

"Textbooks?"

"Should be arriving over the next supply shipments. That way we have them on hand for next year. A lot of the 'updated' textbooks were just an excuse to make money. Handouts can give students the same information where there's something new added."

"'Bu bu bu but but but . . .New has to be better than old, right?" Josette says in a fake shocked voice.

"Yeah, that's why there was so many 'fixes' for the latest, greatest icrap a few days after it was released." David snorts.

Josette stops at the bakery before walking back to the dorm, checking on her other selves working on projects, taking lessons, or working on papers. Eating a doughnut, she looks at the list of stuff to go in the libraries once the work is done on them.

"We're going to need to triple the libraries to have enough room for all this." Josette mumbles. David looks over her shoulder, whistles, and nods.

"And then some. And your personal library's going to be an entire building now."

"Probably." Josette sighs. "I keep dreaming of walking through a regular school and unlocking what looks like a closet, walking down a set of stairs to a hallway that seems to go on forever with rooms of books or work areas on either side." David sniggers and pats her on the shoulder before walking to his room.

A month later Josette is green picking peppers on the first planet, delivering them to various places. She slides into her seat at the dining hall.

"A good chunk sold and the rest in stasis or drying?" David asks. Josette nods. "The rest should be ripening during the break."

"Are you growing an extra crop?"

"Yeah, I wanna see what the difference is between peppers grown on the ship and on the first planet. That way I have a good supply for more adobo sauce." The others nod.

A couple weeks later everybody starts opening windows and Josette's not the only person spreading manure on fields or gardens. She looks over towards the others to see if they need any help after she's done, finding the other farms either finished or nearly done. By the end of the semester everybody's planted their spring crops and Josette sits down at the pushed together tables in the testing center.

"Get everything ready for spring?"

"Yep, all the windows are open for fresh air, the crops are in and . . .Vincent, I should be coming out in a couple weeks with the first planet crops."

"Thank you Josette. Are you planning on more adobe sauce?"

"I'm planting peppers this summer. I want to see what the difference in the sauce is between those grown on the ship and on the first planet." He nods in satisfaction.

"Soooo, I understand somebody finally started their chemical engineering Masters." Dr. Cross chuckles.

"Yes, I know. . . finally." Dr. Stark looks between them. "And how did I miss this little bit of information?"

"You were off inspecting a lab because they were stupid." Dr. McNider says. Dr. Stark smirks. The next day Josette takes care of the recycling on the planets and later that week heads to the school. The construction that had been started when they were out last was completed and Josette nods in appreciation before walking into the administration building. The secretary's on the phone and she lets herself behind the counter. Containers are brought out and a student worker helps Josette counts the socks.

Several weeks later for her she comes back to Haven, delivering supplies to various places and absorbing her other selves that had been off with Doc and Thomas to their dimensions.

"How is Doc's Earth?" Alexander asks at dinner.

"Slowly recovering but it's going to be decades. Thankfully they learned their lessons about the climate and those remaining big businesses have to be eco-friendly or they're shut down permanently. All current vehicles have to be adapted to run on alternative energy sources, vehicle manufacturing is going to be strictly limited."

David snorts. "People will be pouting about that. Most of all the manufacturers."

Josette snorts. "A good half of the plants are now closed and won't be reopening. And that's just in the US, overseas was hit harder than that. The Japanese auto . . .you might as well say is gone, they don't have the manpower anymore since the islands were so hard hit by the flooding. They lost at least half of their population, so did Great Britain."

"That happens when you're an island nation." Susan says. Josette nods. "The smaller nations that didn't have the resources those two had are gone. Jamaica, the Bahamas, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba. . . Wiped out either by the flooding or the economic collapse. Hawaii is gone completely, the governor put his foot down about measures that would have kept them safe, it might interfere with tourism." Josette says in a sing-song voice.

"Moron."

"Yep, everybody died. . .everybody but him because he flew away and left his state to their fate. The President wasn't happy and threw his ass it Gitmo. I understand that he's visited nightly by visions of the people he murdered, seems Pele isn't too happy with him."

"Couldn't happen to a nicer asshole."

A couple weeks later Josette walks into the cafe on the 9th planet, it's a quiet time and Josette helps put everything away before Vincent puts a plate in front of her.

Back on Haven she finds the others arriving. James shakes his head at her personal library, David gets whapped upside the head by his mother at the comment that Josette's library will need to be an entire building soon but he chuckles and nods.

"Josette, is the last book in?"

"No, the storm last year first month delayed everything. They should be finished in a month."

"Josette, special orders? I know you took a batch out midterms." Calvin asks at dinner.

"We're working on them, more will come out for the show. That socialite wannabe who ordered so much stuff means more money for us, but also means more work for us."

"More times Josette takes stuff out to the ships so we've got room to move in the woodworking building." Alexander says. "'Cause we're working on orders for both dimensions. Oh speaking of dimensions. . ." He looks at Josette. "Is Buckaroo coming out again this year?"

"Yeah, he's looking at a spot for the Institute though since it's still winter on the 10th planet. . ." Josette shrugs. "Once he's decided I can start bringing out supplies. At least with the Institute settling in their China, they'll have experience both growing food and planning large gardens for both eating during the summer and canning over the winter."

"No handy stores to run to, either in China now or the 10th planet."

After dinner Josette is drug off to the first of several meetings with the teachers about the new textbooks. This takes place for about three nights to give those teachers who have night classes a chance to attend.

A few days later Josette blinks as she sees Calvin with a familiar group of people, she knows damn good and well he's on Archimedes for the week.

"Yes, I'm crossing my own timeline since I know I'm not here." He hugs her. "Ladies, Gentlemen." They stop looking around, especially up at the two suns overhead. "I know you've seen her around the school, this is Josette Takahawa. Second in command of the Hanford Institute for exceptional children behind Principal Madison and Professor Druid, my son and daughter-in-law. Like my school the Institute goes year-round, but their school year starts the first of the year and ends the end of the year."

"What's the semesters?

"Three twenty week semesters, four months of five nine day weeks. Each day is 36 hours." Shudders from some of them and most of them look at Tony Stark. Josette sniggers, recognizing the look. "The eighth planet is 48 hours, the ninth planet is 60 hours, and the tenth planet is 72 hour days. Those planets people work eight or so hours, are off another shift, might work another shift, and then are off the rest of the day. Everybody in Eureka is used to keeping different hours."

Tony Stark moans as Clint Barton sniggers. "Eureka is real?"

"In at least three dimensions besides yours, the one from our dimension is on the 8th planet, from a second is on the 9th, the 10th planet Eureka was a tv show and not just a fictional recreation of things that actually happened. . .as a way to make money for the DoD." Granda snickers at the others blinking as they realize there's a real Eureka. "And we met somebody from another Eureka a lot like ours but ours is ahead of his by about a decade or so."

Calvin looks at her at that slight bit of misinformation.

"A decade?" He asks quietly as they go on the tour.

"Century. Some of the stuff that was happening in his world had happened when we were just out of high school. The 9th planet Eureka was around the same point in time when they came out nearly 40 years ago."

The school buildings are inspected, including the new textiles building. "We're furnishing it this year, it takes a while to get everything." Tony Stark nods. "I've had scientists pout since everything isn't magically refilling and if they run out they have to order it."

"We've had a few students who still expect Momma to magically appear, make their beds, clean their rooms, replace the toilet paper when it's empty, do their laundry, and take out their garbage instead of doing it themselves even after being told they have to do it themselves."

Sniggering from the others.

"Do you have nearby stores?"

They walk into town, everybody looking around in satisfaction. "While school is in session students gotta sign up at the administration building to be allowed off the school grounds. They sign out when they leave and sign in when they return. During the breaks you can leave the school grounds whenever you want but there's still curfews."

"Breaks?"

"Two weeks between the first and second semester, two between the second and third, then five weeks at the end of the year with school starting the second week of the new year. Josette will bring students back one day during the breaks so they can pick up more supplies than is available at the stores."

"Chocolate, pop, other stuff?"

Nods from Josette and Calvin. "With the time difference we can be on Earth for weeks while only an hour has passed here thanks to the ships."

"Holidays?"

"The students come out for Christmas, usually spending a month with family and friends."

"Those students who don't have families?"

"Usually have friends who will put them up or have host families." Nods from the others.

"Rooms?"

"Keep them clean. The floor monitors do pop inspections and if there's a complaint. There's a list of items you can't have and we inspect bags before students get on the ship."

"And their bags are inspected when they return from a trip to Earth. Between that and most of our students are teenagers who will tattle in a heartbeat if you have something you shouldn't have, there's little to no chance of somebody sneaking in anything."

"Television, microwave, dorm refrigerators?"

"No on the first two and the last only if you have medication that needs to be kept chilled like insulin. Those and epi pens are the only medications that they're allowed in their rooms. Anything over the counter they have to go to their floor monitor, prescription they have to go to the health center on campus. And they take them in front of somebody." Nods of satisfaction.

"How is your recycling handled?" They'd seen the dropoff area in town where the recycling was sorted into containers and the garbage dropped in . . .something.

"Everything is sorted in the dorms, one of our rules. The bins in the hallways are emptied into basement containers when they get full. Every month Josette takes the recycling to the ships and brings it back to Earth."

"End up taking care of it back on Earth too?" One of the women chuckles at Josette's look.

"Most of the time, but it's good money."

"Every couple of months Josette or one of the others disintegrates the trash in the dumpsters, more often during the summer and it's beginning to stink."

The others spend three days on Haven, blinking as they return to Earth only seconds after they left.

"That is convenient." Steve Rogers says once they're back at Stark Tower.

"Yes. I don't have to worry about the kids now. The school is academically excellent and they can't come to harm on Haven." Phil sips a glass of ice water.

They're adding floors to more of the existing dorms over the next couple of weeks as Josette heads off to the first planet again, planting mirasol chiles to dry into guajillos for another batch of adobo.

The first crops are coming in when James comes up with a plan for her new personal library. Josette comes back from an offworld harvest and looks over everything.

"I swear I remember a day when we thought the school library was way too big." Alan sighs.

"I know. My personal library is already about five times bigger than the increased library and they're both getting bigger. And we thought Town's library would last us decades."

"If we hadn't had so many lost planets. . ." David says as Josette disappears then reappears seconds later. She sighs and walks over to the communications unit.

"Alfred, I need Thomas. Yes, it's important. Tell him that the library's curator has been lost and there's at least three more places like the compound that need to be gathered." A few minutes later she can hear running footsteps and Thomas comes into view on the screen.

"Josette?" She holds up a familiar key that catches the light before it goes back around her neck. "You've been chosen as the new protector?" She nods. "The others are in lost areas though one is under a building we cleared, but we'll have been there and gone by the time we arrive."

"Can you find them all with that?"

"Yes, we're just gathering the ones that don't currently have guardians." Thomas nods. "If Alex had been on Earth, he would have been chosen."

"I'd thought he might be." Thomas looks over at Clark who'd come up behind him. "We'll meet you on. . ."

"Brigadoon." Josette says. "Bring Alex with you, he can be my second." Thomas nods.

The others look at her. She looks at David. "Remember that dream I told you about?"

"The door at a school."

"Yep, I was having it more often when we were on Thomas's world, now I know why." The others look at her in 'answers now' tone of voice. "There's an area that is supposed to be the fount of all knowledge. . ." Josette says as everybody gathers stuff and walks through the tesseract. They find Thomas, Clark, and Alex waiting on them. "Only certain people have access to it, if you dream about opening a door and finding a hallway that. . ."

"Goes on as far as the eye can see with rooms on either side." Alex says.

"Exactly." Josette gets in the chair, it starts moving around her. "If you have the dreams you're a good candidate, our gifts give us an edge. I was chosen because I was close a number of times and it 'grabbed' me."

"Rarely is it just one person, most of the time there's at least two people who can handle the duties. Not that it's that difficult." Thomas says as the chamber closes around Josette and they lift off.

It's six months later when they return and Alex is carried off by his father while Josette is busy soaking up solar energy. Clark flies Thomas and Alex off as the others head back to the dorm.

The first crops start coming in and everybody keeps an eye on Josette and Alex but they seem totally recovered from taking on the duties of protecting the library. The offworld harvests start coming in and Josette and the others head off for the boys show.

"Thank you Josette, when is the show?"

"Tomorrow night, that gives you time to get the display set up."

"How many more books?"

"Ten, four that haven't been released on Haven yet."

"Josette, we're waiting on a couple more things for your order. It will be a few days." Ellis says as they sit in the office, Josette blowing on a mug of hot chocolate to cool it.

"We'll be here for a couple weeks at least. And expect more people coming out to make a large order, we're adding another fine arts building to the school." Ellis smiles and hands over some catalogs to give them an idea of what's available after Josette finishes her drink and starts shopping.

The next night David sniggers as Josette sits down to sign books. They're already lining up and he sees more than one person has older books for her to sign.

"Please tell me Josette's getting paid for this?" Mary sighs.

"About five dollars a book, not counting the price of the book themselves."

Mary shakes her head. "I thought Marcus was going overboard on buying a case of pens for each signing event."

Josette sighs and takes off her shoes after the show. "What's the damage?"

"Marcus will have the final tally in a couple of days but thousands of new books plus nearly as many old books."

"Did that woman order more stuff?"

"Judging from the pile of papers in front of her, oh fucking hell yes. Probably one of those women who have paths through their rooms since everything else is covered with good stuff."

"They don't have homes, they have masterpieces where you can't move something an inch."

"Exactly."

The next day Josette starts working on the recycling, spending a couple weeks hitting various places before they head back to Haven.

Josette heads off to the first planet with Hannah and one of Professor Druid's brothers a couple days later.

"These are new." Richard picks a mirasol pepper and sniffs it, then bites into it.

"Yeah, I'd been experimenting with chipilotes in adobo sauce. They freeze well and with stasis you don't need the high fructose corn syrup or preservatives the commercial ones had." Nods of satisfaction from both of them. "I grew a second batch to see the difference between growing on the ship and growing in a tropical environment and to sell to Vincent on the 8th and 9th planets once they're turned into guajillos."

Nods of satisfaction from the others. "Are you going to be planting again?"

"The second batch of tomatoes, herbs, and peppers we normally grow on the first planet."

Josette finishes putting the last wreath of peppers in the drying tables and straightens up. Richard and Hannah were looking at the yearly crops on the first planet.

"Do you have plans for more grapes here?"

"Not for a while, I added more vines a while ago and we've got the new grapes on Haven." Richard nods in satisfaction.

Back on Haven Josette plants the new vines, Calvin and the others looking in satisfaction at the new vineyard since Josette is off selling the new guajillo chiles.

"It will be a while before she can pick and even longer before we see the first blended wine." Calvin nods.

Josette returns a couple hours later. "A good demand for the chiles?"

"Yes, Vincent was already plotting dishes, I could see it in his eyes." The others laugh. "The communal kitchen take some?"

"Yep, and the rest is in stasis to be used as needed."

"Bronwen, last books are here." Josette says over the intercom a few days later. Bronwen grins and meets Josette at her workroom, opening a box of books and looking at the book in satisfaction.

James looks in the door and shakes his head, he'd have thought they couldn't possibly sell that many books but he's seen the stacks of boxes in the earlier rooms vanish after a show.

The next day Josette and the others head off for Josette's show in Mom Clarinda's dimension. Dropping off the special orders with Dexter, they also bring out books for the show and the website. Heading to the rooms they drop off their bags and head off again since the others are in a meeting.

In another building Mary receives the double beep of an alert and checks on the rooms. "The kids arrived, they dropped off their bags and headed off again." The others nod. They're home at the rooms when the kids arrive, Alan and Josette bringing bags out of subspace.

A couple days later Josette heads off to be gussied up for the show as the others snigger.

"Are the others on Haven?"

"Yeah, they're adding more floors to another chunk of dorms, putting up yet another one to bring us up to fifty-four dorms, putting up a third building for the fine arts curriculum, enlarging the school bookstores, and adding onto the school, town, and Josette's libraries." The others shake their heads. David sighs. "We know, but we're already got the rooms spoken for."

"Do you have enough school buildings and teachers for all the new students?"

"Yes, they put four or five new ones up besides the fine arts and textiles buildings and enlarged the others."

Josette takes off her shoes that night after the show and book signing, rubbing her feet and wriggling her toes.

"How long were you writing?"

"Three hours after the show ended. Dexter's going to have the final tally for me tomorrow. . .after he gets some sleep." The others nod in satisfaction.

"How many books did you sell at the other show?"

"Over five thousand, and I swear I signed just as many old ones." The others snigger but nod.

"Did you get in a batch of wood and other supplies before we left?"

"Yes, and I'm expecting another when we go pick up the students, and a third when we head out for Thanksgiving." Josette says. Alexander blinks but recalls the number of orders and nods. David looks at Michael. "What were you talking with Bruce and Thomas about?"

"They wanted to see if I could use my metal powers to move the tumblers in locks and unlock handcuffs."

"Can you?"

"Never tried." Michael shrugs. "I'd probably just move the metal instead."

Several weeks later for them they return to Haven, small boxes of supplies and other stuff going to various rooms.

"Josette, how is Archimedes handling their new library and historical society building?" Lady Simone asks at lunch.

"A portion of the sales from the commercial garden is going in a fund for the buildings, a portion of sales from the pizza parlor, movie theater, and Agatha's store is going there, those people who are harvesting offworld are donating part of their bonuses, those who don't need the money for their own home repairs and whatnot. It's going to be a few years because they're not just paying for the buildings, they're paying for the furnishings and in the case of the library, more books."

Everybody nods in satisfaction.

Josette shakes her head at her new, new, new, new, newly enlarged library, reaching for her PADD and making a list of what she'll need as they walk through the new building. She looks out the window to see the school bookstores being expanded and nods in satisfaction, she'll bring the containers of textbooks out now. Calvin follows her gaze and nods in agreement. "Now, how many books do you have for the new library buildings?"

"Tons, I got at least four shipping containers full of books. That's not counting music, audio books, DVDS, and microfilm."

"And your books?"

"About fourteen." David sniggers as he walks through. "Also not counting music, audio books, DVDS, and microfilm."

"Shaddap from the peanut gallery." Josette rolls her eyes. "Not quite that many, but close."

Josette's working on something the next night and hands her PADD to James. "Look that over would you? I've been thinking of harvesting salt on the first planet."

James takes the PADD and sees a small area that can be blocked off after the water's entered.

"You're thinking blocking it and letting the water evaporate then dry the salt and bag it?"

"Yes, we wouldn't be doing it often, every other year. . .if that often." James nods. "You don't want to damage the environment."

"No, I'm going to be experimenting first with filling up containers of salt water and letting it evaporate." Calvin and Hannah nod in satisfaction. "You won't need a large scale operation."

"No, we don't need anything like they had on Earth."

Josette heads off with Doc to deliver the orders for his Earth, coming back with more supplies that are delivered to various places. When she's done with that she drops off recycling, containers of belongings from the seniors and teachers from the cooking school, empty shipping containers, and the orders. Picking up more containers of supplies for the school and the jobs she spends a couple weeks on Earth before returning to Haven.

The Harvest Festival comes and everybody is staring at the large sculpture Josette made with a chain saw that goes up in front of the library.

"Can you do these more often?"

"Yeah, but not in large enough quantities to add to a show." Josette snorts.

"No, but we could show one at the shows and raffle it off. You'd get ten dollars a ticket for sure. And we're talking thousands of tickets."

Josette shakes her head as she walks off muttering, everybody grinning behind her.

After the Harvest Festival they're back in the same time period when Josette starts bringing the new students out. Calvin waves Josette into his office one day. "The wards of the avengers are in this group." He shows her a few files and she nods.

"Welcome to Haven," Josette tells the students when they walk through the tesseract David opens. "Please follow Professors Fletcher and Jackson to the auditorium for your orientation, your belongings will be delivered to your dorms."

The students look around them as they follow the teachers to the building indicated. Frances chuckles. "You'll be going on tours of the campus after Principal Madison talks to you and you have a semester to get settled into your dorms and figure out where everything is before you start classes. You'll all be talking to your advisors over the next couple of months, especially those of you who are dual enrollment students."

The last of the new students are finally brought out and Josette settles into a seat at the pizza parlor. The seats around her are filled by teachers. Sandra grins at her. "Next year to have the rest of the dorms enlarged and the new dorm up?"

"Yeah, that should fingers, toes, and eyes crossed hold us for a few years. The next step rather than building more dorms or adding more rooms would have to be adding more beds to the dorms, making them three or even four student rooms as students graduate and the rooms are empty." The others shake their heads. "Yes, not an ideal situation, but we're at the upper limits for elevators. Adding more floors would mean having to add a concourse or other type floor where students could switch elevators. Which would mean more work on the dorms."

"Thankfully we have more than one elevator now."

"Because you can't really walk down 75 flights of stairs. As they proved at the World Trade Center attacks." The other three nod.

"So 54 dorms when the last are finished next year."

"Yeah, I can see it ultimately going up to 60 dorms but not for a few years. If it gets that bad we'll have to add more floors to the dining halls, more buildings, or both."

Back at the dorm Josette pins the binding to her latest quilt and takes it into the studio to sew, looking it over and working on the pattern before dinner.

"Get your quilt finished?"

"Yeah, and the pattern is done. I should have six quilts for the pool by the end of the year."

"Last crop for the first planet?"

"I'm planting in a few days. I'm also growing on the satellite after Thanksgiving so if you want something special put it on the list." She looks at the screen to the first room and Principal Madison nods.

Josette lays in the sand on the first planet, soaking up solar energy for a couple hours after the raised beds are planted.

"Get everything in?" David asks when she slides into her seat at dinner.

"Yeah.

"Project for your chemical engineering degree?"

"Been working on them for a while along with the papers since I only got fifteen more classes." Josette mock sobs and her loving family makes oooh laaa sounds as Principal Madison sniggers in the front room. The others look at the back room automatically, then him. "Josette's only got two years for the masters she's taking now, or rather fifteen classes after this semester."

"So she's got to work on a project and her thesis, and knowing Josette she's working on them for her doctorate at the same time." Professor Ziegler snorts.

"Yep."

"Well, she did take a page from David's book and wait several years between the degrees." Amanda sniggers.

"What degree is she working on now?" Professor Parker asks.

"Chemical engineering."

"We need to harvest the farms pretty soon."

"Before midterms, that way I can take them and the green picked peppers and tomatoes from the first planet." The others nod. After their midterms Josette heads off, picking the green peppers and tomatoes. The others harvest the mussels, oysters, clams, and goeducks and Josette delivers them to the various planets.

"Everything done until the ripe tomatoes, peppers, and herbs?" David asks at the government meeting.

"Yeah." Josette yawns. "We're going to have rain by dinner."

"We need it, the cisterns are getting empty."

"And we're at the point where the crops are gonna need the extra water." Everybody nods.

"Speaking of cisterns." President Bartlett says. "Do we see a need for a water tower?"

"It's been a few years since we talked about one." Doc says slowly. The arguments for and against take about twenty minutes and at the end they agree to table it again for a few more years or until they have a bad year where they need the water.

Josette looks over as Agatha taps on the door, going out and talking to her then nodding. The others look at her when she comes back. "Part of the plans for the new library, they want the potters to make bricks for the outside and pavers for a courtyard."

"People buying them and having their names on them like they did in other fundraising projects?" President Bartlett asks.

"That's what they're thinking." Josette looks at her PADD. "It will take a few years of work to have enough bricks and pavers, but it will take that long to construct the library."

Back at the dorm Josette brings out the fabric for a quilt and starts making notes, laying out the fabric for a couple blocks as she sets the sewing machine up.

"Is this your last quilt for the year?" Susan asks from the doorway.

"Probably. I'm running low on quilts." Josette's lips twitch as she looks at the rapidly dwindling bags of quilt projects. Susan snorts. "How many more do you have on paper you need to buy the stuff for?"

"A good notebook and a half." Susan sniggers as she walks off. Josette counts the quilts she has yet to make, the quilts in the notebooks, and sighs. "My muse is demented."

"Going to have to write some more books." David sniggers from the doorway.

"Shaddap."

The next morning Sue doesn't even blink when she finds Josette in the store when she arrives. She's been there a while, there's piles of fabric everywhere and the remnants cage is nearly full. Since she's busy making labels Sue starts measuring the remnants, calling out the information and taking the labels Josette hands her. Grabbing the now empty bolts Josette heads into the back room and brings out new ones that go on the shelves.

"Is this everything?" Sue asks as she runs the card Josette had been scanning the labels on through the machine, the list of materials and other supplies then the total quickly scrolling through the screen before Josette sends the payment. The receipt takes five pages and she shoves it in a bag before everything get popped in subspace with the wave of a hand.

"Nope, gotta hit Agatha's for the rest." She puts the bags in subspace and heads off, hitting the bakery and pizzeria on the way. At the school David's waved to the front room.

"Josette's in town getting everything for her next batch of quilts." he says before Principal Madison can even ask. Frances and Elaine chuckle. "Only had three shelves left of quilts to work on?"

"Somewhere around there, Josette said she had a notebook and a half of quilts to buy for, Sue and Agatha are going to have to put in an order with Ellis when we head out Thanksgiving." David looks at Frances and Elaine. "You have put in an order since you went out before the babies were born, haven't you?"

"Oh yes, we usually order at least every other year or so."

Josette arrives back at the dorm a few hours later, bringing everything out of subspace before joining the others for dinner.

"Lemme guess, good thing you get bonuses every offworld harvest, that's the only way you could pay for everything?" David sniggers.

"Something like that." Josette says, rolling her eyes.

"Not to mention the employee discount." Anna says dryly. Back at the dorm Josette starts sorting through the bags, making notes for each one before putting them in order on the shelves. The notes are also on the server, the first step for the files for the kits.

About a month later Josette heads to the first planet to pick the remaining peppers, herbs, and tomatoes, making the rounds of the planets and putting everything else in stasis when she returns home. The crops start coming in and one day Josette, Alexander, and Michael head to Archimedes for their finals.

"Who's working on the growing area plans?" Josette asks when she returns from picking up the recycling on the other planets.

"I am." Susan says. "Get all the recycling done?"

"Yeah, the school's is on the ship to take back after Thanksgiving."

"Shipping containers?"

"Took batch a bunch of the empty ones when I was picking up students. Not that they won't be returned when I pick up the supplies." Nods from the others. Josette touches the key around her neck.

"Five years and you'll be in the same time back on Thomas's world?"

"Yeah, a few years after that should see a continent lost." Josette grins. "Next year and you'll be starting your doctorate." David's lips twitch and he chuckles. "Anybody check the download?"

"Just under halfway done." They'd had a large update for their computers in the last databurst.

"Masters?"

"Starting another one from one of the textiles schools next year." The others nod. "Are you going to handle only having two years for a master?"

"I don't know, it'll be tight." the others snigger.

"Thesis and project for your other masters?"

"About halfway done and nearly done. I gotta turn the notes into a proper presentation."

After Thanksgiving the food from the offworld harvests are passed out and the graduating students return home, Josette picking up supplies and dropping off the last orders for the years, both at the warehouse set up by the government and the special orders with Marcus, drops off the recycling and empty shipping containers.

"Get everything taken care of?" David asks when she joins them at the house.

"Yeah, everything's on the ship now. I dropped off the orders for the others with Ellis, and I'm going to do some shopping myself in a few days." The others nod and check the food in the ovens.

Several weeks later after doing some shopping, picking up the orders from Ellis, and working on the recycling they return to Haven, David opening the tesseract for the returning students as Josette and a dozen of her other selves start moving the supplies to various places.

"Is this everything?" Principal Madison asks at dinner.

"For here, I've got stuff for the sorting planet I'm delivering tomorrow. Thomas and I are going out to his world, I'm taking a group to the other dimension to check on their Earth, Moon, and Mars. And we're going to the other dimension tomorrow so we'll have four of the ships off." Principal Madison nods.

A couple days later Josette slumps onto the couch after all the trips to the other dimensions are finished.

"Growing area?"

"Next week, I wanna lay in the sun for a few weeks." the others nod. It had turned bitter ass cold after Thanksgiving. They didn't have any snow to speak of yet but they were expecting it within the week when it began warming up.

The following first day Principal Madison chuckles when he sees everybody slightly darker than they had been the previous weekend when they pile into the back room with the kids. Who are also darker than expected.

"They are eight and fourteen, old enough to enjoy themselves on the first planet." President Bartlett says, nodding.

"And Victoria's group is going to be moving offplanet in seven years."

"Where are they going?"

"Ninth planet Eureka probably, they seem to make a loop of Stark, Wayne, Archimedes Eureka, and 9th planet Eureka for the kids."

After breakfast everybody heads upstairs to start working in the growing area, harvesting clams, oysters, and mussels and fish in the growing area while they're planting. By the end of that week everything's planted.

Josette puts the plates on her knees in the Albatross Nest, opening a bottle of Haven Dew as everybody starts settling down.

"Josette, quilts?" Sue asks a couple hours later after the cookies and kits have been passed out. She waves a hand and quilts appear on the table as files are sent to the server.

"Oh these are beautiful." More than one person says as the quilts are examined and put back in subspace along with Josette's kits and the cookies. Cleaning up with the others Josette heads to the dorm, putting everything away before joining the others at lunch. After lunch she checks the growing areas and looks through the kits before she starts putting everything away.

"I prefer the snow over the damn bitter cold." Susan says, shaking off her coat when she comes in from checking on the barns just as Josette was going out to do the same thing. Sitting down she pulls off her barn boots and puts them on the grate to dry and stay warm, putting on house shoes and walking through the ranch to the dorm.

"Anything to go up to the library?"

"No, I didn't finish any degrees this year."

"Cooking?"

"I'll probably start a new one year after next. How are you coming on your dissertation notes?"

"I'm starting the degree next year."

"Congratulations. You and David both going for a doctorate, the boys and I going for a masters, and the others are three semesters from bachelors." Susan nods. One of her other selves comes out of the switching chamber with the school computer books for the next semester as the others come in with the first book and other supplies for their classes on the other system. Josette puts all her books for the next semester in her first floor room until the new year. The others from the other dimensions start arriving a couple days later.

"How are you coming on your project?"

"Good, I'm working on my notes and figure on having that and my thesis done and handed in by the end of next year." The others nod in satisfaction.

"Has Susan said anything about her doctorate?"

"She's starting it first semester."

"Awwww."

"The boys?"

"Still planning on making an appointment to present their papers this time next year. And pre-applying for their doctorates while they're there." Calvin nods in satisfaction. "David?"

"Picked up the first book for his doctorate a couple days ago. He and Susan will be finishing their doctorates the same time, the boys and I will be finishing our masters and starting our doctorates the same time."

"And the others will be finishing their bachelors at the same time."

"Have you started experimenting with the salt yet?"

"Yeah, I filled three basins of water on the first planet on Ulonda while we were gone. The water evaporated, the salt's drying in the sun here on Haven. I've got the same number of basins evaporating here on Haven."

Richard nods. "See what the difference is between the planets."

"Okay, probably a dumb question but what's the difference between the salt they mine and the salt from the sea?"

"Nothing mostly. The salt underground is left behind as salt water aquafirs are filtered by the ground into fresh water. The big companies usually crush it fine and add stuff to make sure it doesn't cake and iodine. I'm leaving it in the natural state and not adding iodine."

The others nod.

"Josette, when you make sausages have you ever thought of drying it for any length of time beyond the drying tables?"

The others look at Hannah.

"I have, the downside is we'd need a climate controlled building for long drying. I've been thinking of experimenting with hams and more types of sausages." Hannah and Richard nod in satisfaction.

"Okay," Josette says a couple weeks later at the government meeting. "Hannah asked me something before the Lights Festival." Everybody but David looks at her. "Making more sausages that age months or even years like they did on Earth."

"We'd need a building just for that." President Bartlett says.

"Hannah's got a few ideas and is sending me plans and lists of what we make."

"Power?"

"Piggyback off the smokehouse's." Principal Madison nods. "Cooking teachers?"

"Going home this year. Like the teachers and students they'll be packing up their belongings and I'll drop them off at the school."

"20 years. The cooking school has been open 20 years." President Bartlett shakes his head. "I can't believe it sometimes."

"We don't see the passage of time creeping up on us until something like this happens and we're reminded how long it's really been."

"Thomas's world?"

"We went out for supplies after Thanksgiving. About six years with this one and we'll be in the same time again."

"Your hard degree from Calvin's dimension?"

"Nearly done, I've got a good half of the projects done and I'm a third of the way through the classes for the third year."

"The boys theses?"

"Still planning on presenting them after Thanksgiving."

"Your thesis?"

"Plugging along. I'll probably upload it and the project then."

After the meeting Josette stops to the bakery then returns to the dorm, shaking off her cloak and putting her boots up before pulling on house shoes. Heading upstairs to the growing area she checks on everything before heading to the workroom where her chemical engineering project is going along.

It's snowing again by the time they head to lunch, by common agreement walking outside so they can get some fresh air. After lunch Josette flies to Brigadoon, checking on the containers of water she has evaporating and talking to the ships about what kinds of sausages she can make by aging for months. By the time she's back at the school for dinner she's got a room full of sausages and hams she's got drying.

The next morning finds her at Wayne Manor talking to Thomas, Alfred, Ma, Clark, and Doc.

"I'd wondered why you hadn't made different sausages." Ma says.

"We never thought of longer drying sausages because we always needed the drying tables for the crops but . . ." Josette shrugs.

"So you've got a batch on the ship?"

"Yes, I've got five different types of sausages that will be aging for a few months and hams that will be drying for at least a year."

"Are you seeing if there's a demand?"

"I already know there's a demand, I sent the message out yesterday to the communal kitchen, the cooking school, Assyrian's cooking teachers, and Vincent on the 8th and 9th planets. The 'Hell yes messages and suggestions on what to make started pouring in." Alfred chuckles at Josette's hangdog look.

"We have the room and can make the vat-raised meat." Nods from the others.

"Here's what I have currently drying, I thought between us, Clark and Thomas, and Doc we could make a good selection. . ."

"And know what we'd need to do before we have the building up and running." Clark says, looking at the file.

"And we've got the old family recipes passed down that we can use." Ma says. More nods from the others.

"And we've probably got the information on the servers too from the commercial ventures."

"Talk to the others?" David asks at lunch.

"Yeah, Clark, Thomas, and Doc are going to be setting up areas to dry meat for an extended time too. Ma's got a number of old family recipes and we're going to be looking on the servers for the commercial ventures." Nods of satisfaction.

"Okay, we don't normally age cheeses that long but I know some places did, do we want to start making more cheese to age too?" Alan asks.

"We can look into it. We'd have to build a place to store the aging cheeses." Benton says in the front room after Principal Madison has repeated what they're saying in the back room. In the back room Josette nods.

Josette slides into her seat at the testing center a few weeks later, talking with Vincent over the plans to start making more hard cheeses that are aged and the other sausages and hams.

Vincent nods at the plans of the others making and drying different sausages and hams. "Sometimes you miss the obvious."

"Exactly, everybody concentrated on sausages that could be smoked or quick dried, but nobody realized people have been hanging them from the rafters for years. We wouldn't have needed to tie up the drying tables."

"Sometimes nobody sees what's right in front of their eyes." Dr. Cross says. "Now I hear this year the second batch of cooking instructors is going home?"

"Yeah, we're talking with them over this year about the sausages and other meats before they head off after Thanksgiving. The school's going to be keeping in touch with them just like we did the first batch after they left."

"Last of the new dorms going up this year?"

"Yeah, that will bring it up to 54 dorms, each 75 floors with either 40 or 60 rooms a floor. I never thought I'd see the day they got that big."

"Expecting the bubble to burst again?" Dr. Stark's lips twitch.

"Betcher bottom dollar." Josette grumbles. "Yeah, I know the extra dorms can be taken down if we don't have the students but. . ."

"Trust your grandparents." Dr. McNider pats her hand. "I hear there's talk about making them four bed rooms?"

"Yeah, switching them to four beds as they empty if we need to but. . ." Josette shrugs as the boys and Susan come over.

"Are there any belongings to go back next month?"

"Not yet, everybody's got the full year ahead of them. I expect them to start packing up stuff when they open their windows to get rid of the lived in small from over the winter and realize, 'Oh hell, I gotta move all this stuff now'." the others snigger. "Some of the students have been here for seven years, nearly as long as the cooking school teachers. I figure two shipping containers will be nothing but packing supplies, maybe even three since this is a dual year."

"Do you normally get that much materials in?"

"Depends on how many students we have graduating and how long they've been here. We always get at least one shipping container full of supplies like boxes, totes, tape, bubble wrap. . .stuff like that first midterms."

"Josette, do we need to open the shoe factory?" Dr. Cross asks.

"We probably should, it's been a while. I'll bring that up with the others and put up a notice on the server to see if there's a demand."

"Excuse me." Josette walks into Headquarters after they come back from the testing center, finding Doc, Doc, Clark, CJ, Clark Kent, Thomas, and Thomas gathered in the library. Doc looks over at her. "If I don't think of it at tomorrow's meeting, shoes and boots."

"It's been . . . nearly fifteen years since we had the factory open?"

"At least."

"Shoes and boots?"

"When we have the factory open we make a stock of shoes and boots, all good quality merchandise since we walk so much. It's mostly the common sizes so if you've got an off-size and don't get a special order in when the factory is open you use the replicator."

"Soles?"

"We've got a supply of them in the factory warehouse and can make more since we walk the soles off them. Some boots are on their fourth or fifth soles." Doc says. "Slippers?"

"Yeah, we'll put that on the server too, if there's demand we'll open the factories next year." Doc brings up the list of styles and sizes and everybody starts making plans.

The next morning Josette looks at the others. "I talked to Doc about this yesterday. Shoes."

"It's been a while since we had the factory open." President Bartlett says. "Has anybody checked the supply?"

"Yes, I did last night. We're good for this year, so I'll put the orders up after the Harvest Festival." Principal Madison nods in satisfaction. "Josette, this is probably a dumb question, but when we harvest the fish why don't we pickle them?"

"I've been looking into it but the short answer is. . .it's a matter of preference just like the olives." President Bartlett nods. "You're thinking something like pickled herrings?" Principal Madison nods. "Put up a notice on the server to see if there's interest and we can make up a special batch of them, leaving them at the store."

"And anybody who wants them can buy them there."

"Josette, the new, new grapes?" Principal Madison asks.

"I should be able to pick them next year, Samuel will come out to help me blend them. Alessandro's grandkids are coming out to learn too." President Bartlett nods in satisfaction. "Aging it?"

"We're splitting this first batch, half aged and half not. Seeing which one gets a greater demand." Principal Madison nods in satisfaction.

"Shows?"

"Me Granda's, the boys Mom's."

"Carving?"

"I think Granda's off his rocker but yeah, I'll have one ready for the show."

"Books?"

"Fourth of the second group will be debuting next year."

"Thomas's world?"

"In five years, including this one, we should be at the same time. Eight years and we'll be harvesting again."

The next few weeks pass quickly and Josette heads to Eureka with the boys and Susan.

"How are you coming along on your special orders?" Dr. Cross asks.

"Good, hopefully that fool woman won't be ordering any more stuff." Alexander grumbles. Josette sniggers.

"Are Harvey and his crew planning on coming to GD for their internships?"

"Probably, Liam's crew went to the fourth planet so the babies will probably take on GD and the other companies on the 9th planet unless Drake, Wayne, and Dayton come out first."

"Seven years."

"Yep, Harvey had just turned two when Ma and the others came out."

The next day Josette heads to the other dimension, dropping off the recycling and picking up the mail and supplies. Back at the school she splits off duplicates to start delivering everything as she heads to the dorm.

"What's this?" A woman asks at the cooking school.

"Supplies for packing." One of the older teachers says. "We'll be packing up ahead of time, Josette delivers it to the school when she goes to Earth. That way we have the entire year to pack up belongings we don't need and just have a couple bags when we step on the ship. She does the same thing for the graduating students at school and the employees when their shifts end."

"What . . .?"

"Pack up the boxes, slap on a label with your name and where you're sending it, and bring it to the office. There should be a hints list on the server about what order to pack up belongings."

In the office Joyce and Principal Madison nod as they see the list of supplies arriving on the server.

Back at the dorm Josette checks on her chemical engineering project before joining the others at lunch.

"What are your plans for this afternoon?"

"Heading to Oxford with Doc, Doc, Thomas, and Thomas to talk to them about the new electrical engineering degree that specializes in the alternate energy." David blinks. On the screen Principal Madison does as well.

"They've been talking about it for a while, since before Doc settled on the 10th planet."

After lunch Josette joins the others in Oxford along with engineers from the various companies and some people from the 9th planet dimension. They talk for several hours, breaking for a meal and make plans to talk again the next day.

The next couple of months pass quickly, Josette having to toss out most of her winter sleepwear since it's worn out. Sheets and towels are next and she's not the only one visiting the various stores or pulling stuff out of the supply containers.

Josette isn't the least bit surprised to find Calvin nodding in satisfaction as he looks at the sculpture in the woodworking building when Josette comes back from planting the gardens.

"Oh yes, this will be perfect for the show. Have you talked to Marcus about it?"

"Yes, I've been sending pictures to him as the work goes on. He's over the moon and purchased fifty rolls of tickets before it was even finished." Calvin chuckles. Josette rolls her eyes. "Once it was done he purchased another fifty rolls."

"The other special orders?" He looks around, the room is empty.

"I just moved everything to the ship yesterday. We're taking a couple days off before we start up again." Calvin nods in satisfaction. "Relax while you can."

"If we need to we can spend a couple weeks outside time on the ship working on stuff before we go out. Especially if that one fool woman buys as much as she has the last few shows." Calvin sniggers. "That woman cannot possibly have any room to walk in her house."

"She probably brought a second one to fill." Michael snorts as he comes into the room.

"What's the latest on the Albatross library and historical society?"

"Good, the total took a jump when the pavers were announced. I'm working with the potters this year making them and putting them outside to dry. They figure they can start construction year after next." Hannah nods in satisfaction.

"I see you've been hitting the supply containers? Clothes finally wearing out?"

"Yep, clothes, towels, sheets, curtains. . ." David sighs. "It either went into the replicator to be used for new material or got tore up to braid for rugs."

After the students finals Josette and the others head to the other dimension, coming back with the students, Professor Druid, and Principal Madison four weeks later their time. Putting everything away Josette and the boys start working on the next batch of special orders having delivered the other batch to Marcus.

"Stuff for the shows?" David asks, looking in the room.

"In a different room on the ship, we've got a good selection for both shows even with all the special orders."

"Paper?"

"I gotta shred what I brought back today. I've got enough for the show but . . ." The others nod. "See what the supply is at the store?"

"Yeah, I'll do that after lunch." They finish what they're currently doing and walk to the dining hall. Where she's waved to the front room.

"Josette, paper?"

"I asked David to check the stocks after lunch. I gotta shred some for my shows. I can bring some out to the mill today."

President Bartlett nods in satisfaction. "We can have somebody shred it and start it soaking."

She taps David on the shoulder as she walks past him to fill her tray. "Don't bother checking, President Bartlett just asked about it." He nods. "I'll bring it out and somebody will shred it and start it soaking. I gotta check the supply of old clothes for quilting too, we knew this was going to be a cold year.

After lunch Josette splits off three more duplicates before walking to Sue's store and checking the boxes.

"No, we're good on clothes, everybody's got a good supply of quilts on hand over the last few years." Sue says, looking over her shoulder. "Make them ahead of time and put them away until they're needed."

"Josette, how are you on your quilts and books?"

"Plugging away on the quilts. Like the quilts the books come in batches, I figure by the time the muse slams into me with more quilts I'll have plans for a dozen more books."

"You got all the quilt supplies purchased?"

"Nope, don't have the room or money for them yet either." Everybody in earshot sniggers.

"Josette, paper?"

"I'm delivering a batch of recyclable to the mill, somebody will be shredding it and starting it soaking over the next couple days."

"And we can replicate if we need something." Agatha says. "Order from Ellis's?"

"It should start arriving before the Harvest Festival with everything in by the Lights Festival. I'm heading off again next year when I debut the next book."

"How many books are available over there?"

"Next year will be the fourth of the second batch."

"School?"

"The rest of the existing dorms and putting up a new one. Possibly another dining hall."

A few weeks later Josette and Professor Parker head to the other dimension for a photography expo, Josette coming back with supplies, mail from the school, and other stuff.

"What's this stuff?"

"A type to print stuff using light and heat." Josette looks over her shoulder at David. "You take a picture, transform it into a negative and print it on a film. You put light reactive dye on whatever you want to print on, lay the film on, then pull it off after a certain amount of time. So far it only seems to be in black and white so it doesn't replace silk-screening but . . ."

"It's something to look into. Do you have the supplies on the replicator?"

"Yeah. I just brought a starter pack to see what it was about."

"Professor Parker get some too?"

"Yeah."

"The hundredth anniversary program?"

"Books are at the printers. We've got about three years worth of books working two shifts year round and will have them ready for the show in three years. Both batches of teachers will be returning home before the show but we're offering them and the cooking teachers books."

"What about taping the exhibits?"

"Yeah, we're looking at that too."

"How many books are we looking at?"

"Twenty-four, the last books are going to be available after the Harvest Festival in four years, just in time for the show to open."

Josette moans and complains that night when she's woke up out of a sound sleep by the book plans running through her head. She puts the notebook in front of Bronwen and inhales the pot of coffee she had poured into a travel mug after she fills her tray. "Books." She says at her look.

"How many?" Hannah asks, looking over her daughter's shoulder.

"A good sixteen, some of them can be split into two or even three book series." Josette moans. "Damn muse woke me up screaming in my ear."

Professor Fletcher nods in the front room. "I've had that happen many a time. I'd write down the basic outline and any special bits the muse told me then tried to go back to sleep. Didn't always work, especially after I switched from the typewriter to a computer."

"Are any of the other towns writing histories?"

"Yeah, the historical society in Cabot Cove is working on about five of them, so is Eureka. 9th planet Eureka is working on multiple books too. And they've offered our printers for books from the other dimension."

"How long?"

"I've got about six more books I can write from the quilts I already have made. We'd figured on about twelve, not counting the books on the socks or the t-shirts. How's Agatha coming along on the hand-sewing a quilt start to finish book?"

"Good, I planned on having Frances and some of the others beta the file this summer."

The show comes and like Marcus and Calvin had thought the sculpture has a lot of interest and the tickets fly off the rolls. Josette shakes her head.

A few weeks later Josette and the others return home, delivering stuff to the school, factories, library, restaurants and other stores, and the dorm. The list of what she's bringing out is sent to various places, people wiping hands and looking at the message before going back to what they'd been doing.

"How are we on rolls of paper?"

"Pretty good, we've got tons in the boxes and I can move them to the mill to be made up when we need it. So far there hasn't been that big a demand for it except for the printers."

Over the next few weeks Josette and the others are busy moving stuff to various places in the dorm and bringing in the yearly crops. Josette smirks as she settles into a chair for the boys show in the other dimension.

"How is everything coming along?"

"Good, I sent the chemical engineering project and paper to a couple people to look over for anything major before I formally upload it to the server after Thanksgiving. We started printing the books for the hundredth anniversary show this year, we're looking at having the last ones printed just before the show even with two shifts working on two different books and three books a year." Professor Xavier shakes his head. "The boys sent theirs to Oxford and they have an appointment in a couple months to present theirs and find out whether or not they can go on for their doctorates. Or should I say whether they have to go on for their doctorates since nobody will let them just stop at the Masters." Mary sniggers behind them, nodding.

Back on Haven nearly four months later for them Josette delivers more supplies before dropping onto the couch, her feet going up on the table as she reads papers and other stuff in the latest databurst.

The second crops start coming in and Josette gets her books from Archimedes before the Harvest Festival, then delivering the next two books for the 100th anniversary show to the storage area.

"Is this all the belongings coming back?" Jane asks at the piles of boxes Josette brings out.

"Doubt it, there's always somebody who has to wait until the last possible second." Josette brings out the next batch of projects for the textiles degree.

"How far along are you now?"

"This batch brings me into the fourth year of projects but I'm partway through the second year for the degree."

"Josette, you're getting a larger than normal upload this time, we're adding new schools. You're sending to the teaching units, the school server, and the replicator database." Calvin says. Josette nods and stretches from where she and Jane are counting socks.

"Are you going out to Ellis's?"

"Yes, I'm picking up the next batch of stuff for the new fine arts building, dropping off orders for the others, and picking up stuff for myself along with hitting a couple expos."

"Thomas's world?" He asks when they walk into the office.

"We figure five years plus this one and we'll be at the same time again. Eight years and we expect at least one continent to be gone."

"Have they selected a place to settle when Earth is. . .gone?"

"They're working on it while we're still there. Coming in behind us when we've cleared a country and seeing what needs to be done with the land and water."

Josette sighs as she slides into her seat at the government building for the last meeting before the Harvest Festival.

"Orders?" Doc asks.

"Delivered to both dimensions. We might be getting more orders from Doc's world, it's going to be a couple decades before the factories are back up and running." Nods from everybody. "Is Buckaroo coming out?"

"Yes, they've found a place on the 10th planet for the Institute and I brought up the first batch of supplies for them, we figure five years their time."

"Are they settled into the former China?" President Bartlett asks.

"Yes, they've grown their first gardens and plan on their first large crops. I took out one of the mills for their corn and wheat. They don't need something like the bread factory yet." Nods from the others.

"Glass factory?"

"Starting again next year to make glass for the speciality stuff." The others nod in satisfaction.

"Shoes?"

"The announcement went out and will be repeated every week until the orders close at the Lights Festival."

/Guys, turn on your teaching units and somebody get mine too. We got a mega download./ Josette says mentally. In the dorm the others do so. /How long?/ David asks since he's not at the meeting.

/At least a couple days after the Festival./

"Damn." David whistles. The others look at him. The kids had just ducked into their rooms. "Josette says she's got a mega download for the teaching system. School server and the replicator?"

/Yeah, I gotta let the others know./ Josette looks at Principal Madison. "You and Mom need to turn on your teaching systems, we've got a major download. New schools." He nods and sends off the message to Katrina. "Replicator?"

Josette is typing on her PADD. In the office Joyce looks up at the beep from her PADD and heads out of the room to turn on the server connected to the replicator, starting the download before starting the download to the server and sending a message to Josette. In the government building she gets the message and nods. "Joyce just started it."

"Damn, Josette wasn't kidding about how big this download was." Katrina whistles as she checks her system.

"Have you been working with the potters for Albatross?"

"Yeah, we've got a good selection of pavers and bricks in various colors drying on Haven and the first planet. Next year we'll probably start putting the names on them." President Bartlett nods in satisfaction.

"Twice yearly harvests?"

"Next year, since I'll be there for the other stuff anyway it's not a hardship."

After the Harvest Festival Josette starts bringing over the new students, sliding gratefully into her usual seat at the pizzeria the last day and not at all surprised to find a plate full of food and a glass of pop put down in front of her . . .though who's doing it does make her blink a second.

"Is this everybody?" Dr. Hazlitt asks as Amanda and Professor Fletcher join them at the table.

"Yes, the dorms are full until the seniors graduate, next year the student size will go back down since we don't have the room."

"I heard rumors about making the rooms four students?" Amanda asks.

"Yes, so have I but we'd need more teachers and classes beyond what we have now with the 54 dorms. . .and can you imagine eight girls sharing one bathroom?" Everybody shudders and nods. "Hell, even the boys. I've seen summer camps where there was that many sharing a bathroom but . . ." Dr. Hazlitt murmurs.

"Exactly." Josette starts eating the first of four slices of pizza on her plate as one of the workers who knows how Josette eats brings over a bowl from the salad bar. "Thankee."

"100th anniversary show?"

"Four years from now, I have four of the books in storage ready to go out for sale and we plan on having all 24 ready for sale when the show starts by keeping the printers running two shifts year-round, weather permitting."

"You can always add a third shift or hold off on some of the books." Amanda says.

"Ayuh." Dr. Hazlitt and Professor Fletcher chuckle. "They're not all for the show, we've already put them on the end of the list."

"Cookbooks?"

"They're working on them again, we figure on having another ten ready for print by the show along with my next six books."

"Is this everybody?" David asks after dinner.

"Yes, the dorms are full until the graduating students leave. The waiting list that they had for the school is gone now so we should be good for a few years."

The next week Susan and the boys join Josette in Eureka for their first testing week.

"Paper and project?"

"I'm uploading them after Thanksgiving."

"The boys?"

"They've got an appointment next week to present their theses."

"And you've already started your dissertation?" Dr. Stark snickers.

"Ehhhh." Josette waves a hand as Susan and then the boys finish their tests and hand over their PADDS, going to the bathroom then joining them at the tables.

"Your super intensive textiles degree?"

"I'm on the fourth year of projects, hopefully by the end of next year I'll be done with the book classes."

"Assyrian cooking classes?"

"I'm starting a new one next year since I'll be done with the masters and not starting the doctorate until the following year."

"Your school computer class?"

"Starting my third year. I'll start picking up semesters here and there in various degrees I've got running to try to knock some of them down."

"How are you coming along?"

"I'm two semesters from finishing the degree from Cambridge on the London Blitz. I'm three or four semesters from various other degrees, but they're all multiple degree sets."

"If we had graduation today, how many degrees would you have?" Dr. McNider chuckles.

"Sixteen bachelors and the electrical engineering doctorate."

"Are you finishing any degree sets?"

"One, the anthropology comics degree. The others I'm only halfway through the second degree, haven't started it, or in the case of the sosh super degree programs, two or three semesters from finishing the first ones."

"It's nothing you have to finish right away."

"Exactly. There's plenty of other things to do beyond finishing degrees left, right, and center." Dr. Stark points a fork at her.

"And these are all degrees that I want to take, it's nothing I need for my job."

On Haven Josette heads to the cooking school, moving boxes to the ship to take back to Earth next month, then stopping at the school to pick them up there and heading to the bakery, filling a bag with doughnuts and other snacks.

She's eating one as she settles onto the couch, putting her feet up on the couch and waving a hand at Anna when she comes into the front room.

"The boys?"

"Checking the databurst for the new batch of special orders and updating the list." Josette looks over her shoulder as they come out into the front room. "Did the Kents ever get the alternate energy source?"

"Yeah, they had a backup generator installed after that storm. . .they felt they didn't need it but Clark insisted, then he put one in the other farm. Both Pa's just looked at him." The boys snigger. Josette looks at the PADD. The others look at her. "Light bulbs. We made a suger big batch years ago."

"And we've got them in the supplies from the other dimension and they're on the replicator. We can always make more if the supply is too low."

"No, we're still good." Josette puts her PADD on her belt as the kids gather around and they walk to the dining hall for dinner.

"Dad's coming out tomorrow to look over the furnace and generator."

"Thought the others probably would have."

"Probably did but they didn't say anything about it." David says as they settle in the back room.

"Anybody checked the weather for the winter?"

"Another light snow the whole winter years."

"Good, that will help the water table."

"And with the solar panels we keep the roofs clear so we don't get the roof collapses we saw on the news." Everybody nods. Even those buildings that don't have solar panels will have somebody go up to clear off the roofs to keep the weight off them.

The next day Josette slides into her seat at the government meeting. Doc looks at her then David's empty seat. "Dad's coming out to check over the furnace and generator before winter, not that the others probably didn't do the same thing while they were here but . . ."

"Is there anything we need to talk about? I saw you were looking at the supplies last night Josette." President Bartlett says.

"I was checking to see what the supply was on light bulbs. It's not something you. . ."

"Think about until you go looking for some and you're out." Principal Madison says. "Do we need to open the factory?"

"No, we made that super large batch several years ago, we've got them in supplies from the various dimensions, and it's on the server. But. . ."

"Toilet paper, paper towels, napkins." Doc says. "I was going to say something."

Josette nods. "It's been a few years since we had the factory going. I'll grow cotton next year and pull a couple scrub trees for the factory."

"The information going up on the server after the Harvest Festival and the factory starting the year after that?" President Bartlett asks. Josette nods. He makes a note on the minutes for this meeting.

"Shoes?" Josette looks at Principal Madison.

"The orders are coming in." He checks the file again. "Slippers?"

"I'll see if there's any interest next year and we can start the factory running again year after next. Socks and underwear too, it's been a while since we had the factories running." The others nod.

"Are you expecting a lot of containers to go back next month?"

"Betcher ass, it's the last trip out, if they don't get it out now they have to huff it onto the ship themselves. And there's always somebody who will wait until the last possible second." Principal Madison sighs but nods.

"I've got the floor monitors checking rooms and talking to the students. At least with this latest dorm the waiting list of students is nearly non-existent." Josette nods. "Josette, have you heard anything about why the massive influx of students?"

"No, the other school's been getting more students for the last few years too."

The next month passes quickly and Josette heads back to the other dimension after her tests, dropping off the recycling and empty shipping containers before picking up the supplies for the school, factories, and other stuff then arriving at the school and bringing out the containers of belongings. Jane shakes her head but nods when the last of the boxes comes out of subspace.

"I'd say there can't be that much more but I know better." Jane says.

"Exactly." Josette sighs as she perches on the counter. "Anything I need to bring out next time I'm here like socks?"

"We're good, how long are you going to be here?"

"At least a week, I've got an appointment with the school."

"Ahhh, I'd wondered why you didn't have any projects for us to pass along."

Josette nods. "Yep, and I'm picking up from Ellis's. This should have the third building completely furnished."

Bronwen is waiting for Josette when she comes out of the meeting. She gives her a look.

"I'm on track for everything and just brought in another batch of projects." Bronwen nods in satisfaction.

At Ellis's Josette has the muse strike and starts sketching something she puts away as they check on the orders then starts checking out the new orders.

Two weeks later her time she heads back to Haven, splitting off duplicates that send shipping containers various places before flying back to the dorm.

She's waved to the front table.

"Yes, this is everything for the new fine arts building." She says. Principal Madison nods in satisfaction. "Good news on your degree?"

"Yep, I'm on track for everything."

"Josette, have you thought about growing quinoa?" Thomas asks a couple days later.

"Yes, I'd planned on planting a field of it next year to see if there's any demand. I'm also planting different types of potatoes on the first planet."

"Cotton?"

"I'm growing offworld next year for toilet paper, I can grow for the next few years if there's more of a demand. We're keeping an eye on the supply of the socks, underwear, bras, and clothes to see when we need to open the factories again."

"And they're on the replicator." Thomas says.

"And they're on the replicator." Josette nods. "And we have them in storage from worlds I've had to clear. Not to mention what we've brought back over the years in supplies."

"Do you often grow new foods?" Alex asks.

"Every few years or so, there's so much food that we don't have." Alfred nods as he comes over to them in the store where Josette is bringing up supplies from the basement so they don't have to run up and down the stairs.

"Is that why that one cookbook. . .?"

"Is like that, exactly. It's introducing new foods to home cooks, giving them an overview of each food and then giving them simple recipes. Since the interest was good we're bringing out another like that. Richard liked that format and is using it for some of his cookbooks."

Josette brings out more pallets of wine and olive oil, putting the empty pallets on the ship.

"Thank you Josette." Mrs. Hudson says.

"I saw the supply was getting low. I took care of the empty pallets too."

"Flour?"

"I'm picking it up along with pasta in a couple months. I figured we'd be getting pretty low by then. This will be the last delivery of flour for us and the outlying areas.

The next couple months pass quickly and Josette is busy bringing in the last crops and the garden, splitting off a couple dozen duplicates to handle everything with the others while she, the boys, and Susan head to Eureka for their finals.

"Crops coming in left, right, and center?" Dr. Cross chuckles.

"Yep, and it's going to be asshole to elbow the rest of the week as we can, dry, or otherwise store everything for winter as it's coming in, I'm picking up the flour and pasta from the sorting planet, and taking care of the recycling."

"Plastic for Buckaroo's outbuildings?"

"Dad called about the first batch last night, I'm picking it up right now."

Josette slumps into her seat in the dining room that seventh day.

"Get everything taken care of?"

"Finally. The recycling for both dimensions is on the ships. Our recycling is sorted out into various places. The first batch of plastic is on the ship, when the next batch is done I'll start putting stuff up." The others nod as Josette yawns and starts eating.

"Orders to go back?"

"On the ships too. The only thing we need before we head off is the graduating students and returning teachers."

David opens the tesseract and people start walking through at the school as Josette starts delivering everything.

"Get everything done?" Susan asks when she joins them at the house.

"Yep."

The next few weeks pass with shopping and taking care of the recycling, the returning students walking through the tesseract back on Haven as Josette joins with her other selves that had been in Thomas, Doc, and the JSA's dimensions before they head off to the other dimension. A few months later for them they return back to the dorm.

"Ships?"

"I'll start delivering everything over the next few days. Who started the plans for the growing area."

"We did." The boys say. They put the file up on the screen, switching pages and making notes.

"Next week?"

"Yeah, I want to go to the island for a couple days."

"First planet?"

"Growing there next year, including some stuff we don't grow right now. And planting quinoa here next year."

"It's been a while since we added new crops." Alan says.

"Flour?"

"I took the last wheat crops out, should be picking it up finals first semester."

"Is everybody else who lives outside of town set for the winter?" They'd gotten in supplies for the winter at the dorm and the ranch over the year.

"Yeah, I delivered bags of flour to the outlying farms before I brought the rest to the store and Albatross. I noticed other supplies was being picked up." They look out the sliding glass door at the fat fluffy flakes.

A week later they're in the growing area with the kids planting in various rooms or harvesting the clams, mussels, oysters, and goeducks. Those join the fish in stasis.

"How is the salt coming along?"

"Done, dried on the ships and it's in canisters to use."

"Fish?"

"We're harvesting the farms next year, we might be salting part of it depending on the harvest."

"We've been talking about it for a while."

Josette nods. "We've never had a large enough harvest to preserve the fish all the ways we do now and salt them."

The dorm is decorated for the Lights Festival, Josette splitting off a dozen duplicates to handle the outside of the dorm.

Josette puts a plate down on her knees in the Albatross Nest, opening a bottle of Haven Dew. She takes part in various conversations as she eats three plates of food.

"Josette, are you premiering another book next year?"

"Yes, that will leave me two books in the second set and the third set yet to debut."

"Are the offworld harvests coming in before spring next year?"

"Yes, I'm going to be on the first planet planting anyway. Not only the normal crops, I'm growing more stuff we don't normally have."

"Is there going to be another 'intro to new foods' cookbook?" Somebody asks.

"Another in this group and we will have others eventually since the interest was so good." Somebody says from across the room.

"Josette, how many more books?"

Josette holds up a hand in a 'wait a sec' gesture and finishes the mouthful of food she's got. "Too damn many. Six from the last group that will be printed when the cookbooks are done plus a good dozen that the damn demented muse dumped on me earlier this year, some of which can be turned into two or even three books." Sniggering from the others.

"Are we harvesting on the islands?" Susan asks when Josette returns to the dorm.

"Yeah, the berries, oranges, cacao, and coffee should be ready again. It's been a few years."

"Pie factory?"

"For the dorm or Town? We don't have enough need for one in Town. Most people make theirs at home. I've been looking at a few with the plans of adding one to the dorm."

"Dessert pies and fruit pies?"

"Yeah, that's what I've been looking into." Josette brings up the files with the choices and they sit down and talk about each one before deciding on what they want. Josette starts the process of adding it to the dorm before they walk to the dining hall for lunch.

Shaking the snow off her cloak, she hangs it up and puts her boots up after lunch, going upstairs to check on the progress of adding the factory before going to her room and settling by the windows with a book she's been trying to read for a week but ending up napping in the chair instead.

A couple days before the Lights Festival Josette brings out the new books, putting them in storage with the others until the show.

"Cookbooks?" Richard asks when she returns to the dorm.

"About eight or ten books ready to start printing as soon as these are done." Josette says. "Plus Agatha's book should be ready to print then. Then it will be the rest of my second set of books."

"How are the third books coming along?"

"Good, I've been working on them on and off."

"Theses?"

"The boys presented theirs and are accepted for their doctorates. I uploaded mine a couple weeks ago. A few people at GD already saw the project and the paper so I'm not worried about not hearing anything. Dr. Stark will probably tell me I'm in after I apply for the doctorate next summer."

Josette slides into her seat at the government building the second week of the new year.

"How are the books coming along?"

"On schedule, we have six books in storage for the show and should have the last right before the show in three years."

"Then the cookbooks?"

"That or the other six quilting books I have finished. Agatha's book should be ready to print then also. They're all at the same stage, the files being proofread before they're on the replicator and advance copies printed."

"Josette, I see you're getting into new classes?"

"Yeah, I'm going to be starting another cooking degree from Assyrian after I finish my Masters. And I'm signing up for the ten week blocks on pies, quiches, stuff like that."

"Are we looking into another cookbook coming out of it?"

"Possibly." Josette says. "Quiches or refrigerator pies as they're also called can be made from nearly anything."

David suddenly sniggers. "The doctors on Earth would be horrified at our diets, real milk, real cheese, real eggs, real butter. . ."

"Yep, everything they claimed was bad for us and nobody has high cholesterol or anything else they claimed would happen." Josette sniggers.