"Well hell, look at all the eating disorder clinics there are out there because people can't be bothered to eat a healthy diet because they want to be size triple zero. . .anything over a two is fat." Josette sneers. "I got tagged by some fucking debutante fools for being fat because I'm not skin and bones and eat actual food. Because eating disorders is fashionable in some circles." Calvin and Principal Madison roll their eyes. "It doesn't help that the 'recommended serving size' on some foods is pure crap, I remember when a can of pop was nearly three servings when they first started doing it to try to make them look low calories." Principal Madison sighs and nods. "After enough complaints they had show actual servings and calorie count. We had whiners in the school who didn't like our recipes because we weren't trying to starve the students, they threatened to shut down the school until we kicked their asses."

"Is this the same group who tried wanted everybody to only be allowed one tray of food and limited seconds. With the kitchen people serving us?"

"A different group of morons."

"Limiting food to one tray?"

"Yes, they also wanted us to stop serving breakfast and dinner, and only offer one snack if that. We had to remind them we're a boarding school and the students don't go home for the other two meals. They hated that students could fill their trays multiple times but we had the studies showing mutants new to their abilities can lose too much weight. Even if they don't have metabolisms stuck permanently on high like Josette. They finally walked off pouting because they couldn't make us do what they wanted." Jane rolls her eyes. "Yes, that sounds like some of the morons we've had to deal with over the years. Anything else?"

"Why do you have so many dining halls? They wanted us to only use the original two rooms until they realized how many students we had at that time. 'ooohhhh, I guess you do need the other rooms."

"Yes, that's why you built them." Calvin says dryly as Maria cackles in the other room again.

"Anything else?"

"You spend too much money on fresh fruit and vegetables, canned is cheaper."

Jane moans as Calvin shakes his head. "Yet the government wants more fresh fruit and veggies in the school menus."

"We were able to ignore most of their requests, though some of the smaller stuff I did implement. . .like adding orange juice with pulp to breakfasts."

"One of the whiners told me I should be drinking it when I got a bottle of the other, I told him I didn't feel like picking the pulp out of my teeth all morning." Jane sniggers behind her notebook.

"You drank it when you returned from the senior trips." Principal Madison chuckles.

"Yes, it wasn't so bad because we were home. . .especially after the damn trip that moron so-called efficiency expert fucked to hell and back."

"We never did that again for all that we were able to see more sites." Principal Madison sighs. The others look at them and he repeats the story, his father wincing as Jane and Maria nod. "Yes, I can see some of the morons doing exactly that. Was that the only problem you had?"

Josette sniggers. "One year we had a hotel try to make us come back the next day, some 'debutantes' that were supposed to have checked out hadn't so they couldn't give us a block of rooms together. I pulled out my inner badass and told them if we left we wouldn't be coming back. . .and we'd be suing for the return of the deposit we'd made for that trip. I got us five rooms on another floor at 40 percent off and we kept the rooms the entire week we were there. The clerk didn't like it but the management knew we had them over the barrel because we'd called earlier that day to confirm our reservations and they didn't tell us about any problems."

"Which they should have." Jane says.

"So anyway we took up three groups of students who could take care of themselves, me and Professor Fletcher, Amanda and another teacher to keep an eye on them and settled in. Of course the dumbass debutantes caused problems, whining about us hiring a caterer for our meals at the hotel while they had to leave the hotel to eat since it didn't have a restaurant. And of course they didn't wike sharing a floor with students."

Maria snickers in the front room. "They tried claiming the students were making noise and the police found all our students asleep in their rooms when management opened their rooms. They were told again to leave, the police had to come to the hotel again because they had a fit about that and tore up their rooms."

"If we can't have them, nobody can." Jane sighs.

"Yep, we ended up getting another ten percent off our bill for the problems they caused. The only other real problem we had on the trips was the one time there was an accident on the interstate that blocked the road so the busses had to back up to get off the last exit. We were able to go around it but it would put the drivers over their limit so we had to sit in the parking lot of the local greyhound station for a couple hours. We got home six, seven hours late with stopping in Boston to do laundry and eat lunch at the mall."

"Nine hours. That was your first senior trip and back then we still had a week of overview before the finals. Later on you were coming back before breakfast the first day of finals most of the time. You couldn't be coming back late those trips."

The others shake their heads. "That had to be hell."

"That's why we had drop-off boxes though students knew they'd be returning to their finals so they should have had everything but the clothes they'd need for that last week and toiletries already packed up." Principal Madison says. "The only difference here and there is they're not tripping over boxes after midterms."

Josette delivers the containers when they return home, returning to the dorm.

"Are we heading to the first planet?"

"In the morning, I figured we'd stay out there a couple weeks." She leans in the door of Headquarters and passes the invitation along to the others. She'd already invited Principal Madison.

Josette is the first one pulling off her shirt as they walk to the beach but she's by no means the last.

President Bartlett shakes his head as he watches the beach ball match in the water. The ball goes flying and stops in midair, snagged by Abby's tk and tossed back.

"We needed this." he tells Professor Druid as she comes up next to him.

"Yes we did." She opens the cooler and pulls out a water, draining half of it in one gulp. "We knew the school would be shutting down but when the last student graduates it still takes a few days to get over."

"No matter how many times we've done it before." Principal Madison settles down next to them.

"What are the plans?"

"The buildings are going to be looked over over the next couple of weeks with a list of any major repairs needed put together."

"With the work started come spring when we can open windows."

"And the buildings shut up until they're needed again. The only ones that will be permanently open is the administration building, library, textiles, fine arts, bookstores, and the laundry."

"Did we sort out all the old sheets and towels?"

"Over the last couple of years. The remaining supplies from the dorms are going to the administration building to be used as needed, Dad will supply us again when new students start arriving. . ."

"No use letting them sit in empty buildings."

Principal Madison nods. "Josette's taking the remaining sheets, linens, and blankets because they'd be useless by the time the dorms were opened again."

A Josette comes up to them nodding. "Yeah, I'll do that after everything is washed when we get back." Professor Druid nods. "I'll stick them in stasis until they're needed."

"Use them as you see fit, like I said Dad will resupply us when we start getting students again. Dad will tell you the same thing when they come out for the Lights Festival."

Back on Haven a few weeks later their time they head to the dining hall for lunch, Josette and the twins heading to the dorms to grab the overflowing carts of laundry afterwards, Josette checking the buildings with her x-ray vision before they head to the laundry, working for a couple of days to get everything washed, dried, and folded.

The others start coming out for the Lights Festival, Calvin coming early to walk through the buildings. . .nodding at everything Principal Madison has been doing.

"Did you replace the mattresses and box springs?"

"Yes, thankfully we only had the two dorms to do but we still had five people with disintegrating guns working two weeks to get rid of them. We'll bring out the new ones in the spring when we've cleaned the buildings and inspected the rooms."

"Did you get all the supplies out?"

"Yes, Josette has the sheets, towels, and blankets on the ships for now while everything else is in the administration building."

"Where is Josette?" Doc looks around.

"Picking up the last recycling from the other planets for the year." Anna looks at the clock. "She should be back any minute."

True to her words Josette walks through the pocket doors a couple minutes later.

"Thank you for passing along the files from the other planets, our government is already making plans for a second trip. Is yours still wanting to explore the oceans?"

"Yes, but they're hitting the roadblock of paying for the ship, building the ship, and paying for the supplies for the ship. They had all the benefits of the first city-ship without having to put the effort into building it. Now. . ."

"They're looking at all the hard work and whining. . .instead of pulling on their big boy pants and making plans for the future." Calvin sighs.

"Oh yes, one young punk was stunned I wouldn't build him a new ship . . .out of the goodness of my heart since I could have it done quicker than they could have the materials ready. He was stunned when I told him no and the reason I was able to do it so quickly was people working round the clock who had extra abilities and I already had everything there. Oh yeah, and I own the city-ship, the government is just leasing it from me."

"Awwwww. . .poooo' baby." Josette coos. "I'm sure he was heartbroken at hearing that."

Becka smirks. "Eventually people in the government will realize trying to cut corners will just make things longer and will start coming up with a real plan for their own city-ship."

"I can see a group of scientists or even big business pooling money together to build a ship for experiments." The others nod.

"That would make the government get their heads out of their collective asses and come up with a real plan." Thomas says from the door. Nods from everybody in earshot. "Because it would be showing them up and proving what everybody knows, the government is incompetent." Half the people in the back room vanish then appear a few seconds later as the others were starting to get up. Josette just waves a hand and heads off.

"She'll be back in an hour. . .more or less." David chuckles. He looks at Becka and the others.

"If it was the idiot who couldn't believe school busses didn't have showers, it happened for us months ago." Becka says, waving a hand. "It was just before our Christmas, I was feeling my age and wondering where the hell the years had gone."

"Been there, done that." Anna sighs. "Usually when we look at the kids who are taking high school classes."

"In my case it was realizing I'm 61 years old, feeling it was yesterday that we announced we were pregnant with Suzanne and Emily and they're halfway through their sophomore year of university, the horde will be descending on Huntington and Golden Arrow in a little over four and a half years, the second sets are in the second grade, and the real babies are nearly two."

Ray shakes his head and sighs. "You weren't the only one feeling your age. In my case it was Maxwell being born before you moved to Mars and he was a senior at Golden Arrow. And I'm the father of quadruplets while we already had eight children still living at home."

"Isn't that why you're the father of quadruplets?" Idina asks with a smirk, Marilyn pushing her head with a grin since Ray was too far away. "We'd expected them a few months earlier after that fool woman at the mall." The others stare at her and the story is told, people either moaning or laughing.

"Was the first road trip like that?" Doc asks.

"More or less, we didn't have a schedule on the first trip, so it was a lot more downtime. Though we kinda shredded that thing." Anna snorts as she looks at Principal Madison. Who's shaking his head and sighing. "Much to the dismay of that fool man." The others who hadn't vanished look at him. "Think the two week bus trip without hotels. . .multiplied by six months . . .at the very least. And have somebody in the government pushing supplies on you because of course a school bus has showers, bathrooms. . .tons of storage space. . ." Sighs, moans, and a few scattered swear words from the others. "Everybody had five flatbeds of containers of supplies that he wanted us to take with us for the trip. . .people were lying on top of them on the school busses. Somebody with a brain wouldn't let the other busses leave. . .we were on a private bus that's been . . ."

"enhanced?" Professor Ziegler smirks.

"Indeed, since we had room to sit and the drivers could see behind the bus with the help of cameras we were allowed to go on the trip, the government had to buy coaches for the others. The little fool broke into a bus garage in town, he was sure somebody had taken the bathrooms, showers, kitchen. . .off the school busses because of course they had to have them."

"Even with all that shit they'd have been running low on supplies by the end of the trip."

"Just like we did at the end of the senior trips."

"That's why we had the cards for warehouse stores and had money coming in weekly beyond what we were getting for the trip." Nancy says with smile.

"Just like we had the school cards and stopped at warehouse stores while the students were at a museum." Josette says. In the front room Principal Madison nods.

David looks at the message on his PADD the next day.

"Peter's going to beat you when they come out for the lights festival. You delivered the movie to them?"

"Yep. I could hear Peter moaning before I even got down the path. Though I gotta agree with Josette, somebody has to be writing a Ghostbusters/Avengers crossover. Hopefully a good one."

"Have Kevin be the mortal form of Thor like Donald Blake was in the early comics?" Abby asks, walking through. "We need a library just for scrapbooks and photo albums."

"Yeah, especially after that trip." Susan says as she comes out of one of the storerooms with a package of toilet paper. "Everybody took pictures then put them on the server for the others to print out."

"And the video from the cameras."

"DVDS?"

"Duplicated and put in the library upstairs. The originals that we got for ourselves are with our stuff. Which we'll go over a little bit at a time, Lord knows we've got plenty." The others nod. "Anything we needed right away we already took care of."

A knock on the panel doors has them looking that way and grinning. "You made it." Josette says, looking at Josette Grover. "We didn't hear the bus."

"We're parked by the administration building, the others are just staring at everything and whimpering that this was a school?"

"Yeah, that's been the reaction from a lot of people when they see 75 story dorms. And realize. . .'oh shit, if all these rooms were occupied. . ., you had how many students?"

"We'd have brought the hall of War but with it being winter on Haven. . ."

"There'd be no place to park it that wasn't snow covered. You can bring it out if you come out for the Harvest Festival. Sometimes you just have to get away from your normal life. . .even if you're only gone an hour."

"We traveled to Sheriff Carter's dimension for a while. And we visited Xander and his brother Peter. And we brought them out with us since they wanted to see Haven."

"I'm glad we're staying in touch with the others beyond e-mails."

I nod. "How long has it been since the trip?"

"Yesterday. Though it's been a few months for Becka, her family, and friends."

The others start arriving after a tour of the school. They'd added rooms to the third floor for anybody who didn't want to stay on the bus even with it moved to the parking lot behind the dorm. Mostly it's people who'd been in the middle of something or other at the end of the bus trip and were still working on it.

"Do you take all your meals here?" Somebody asks when they walk to the dining hall. Josette had ducked in and let them know about the extra visitors, hand waving extra food for that meal.

"Most of them, Josette and the twins each have kitchens in their first floor rooms while we have another in the basement. Then of course there's the kitchens in the ranch."

"We usually eat at home eighth and ninth day, those days are quiet at the school. The dining hall offers brunch those two days, with the school closed lunch will be buffet style all afternoon during the week so people can can come when they're not working on something. Between semesters on Earth all the meals would have been buffet style as the teachers and employees were busy getting ready for the next semester, especially between summer and fall semester when the new students would be descending on the school."

Principal Madison nods from the front room.

"Which is why you didn't have any problems with buffet style lunches."

"That and offworld harvests." The others look at Josette and she explains, moans and swearing at the pictures of rooms full of food waiting to be offloaded. A picture of the pantries after the food has been passed out and the last garden harvested is shown next and they sigh but nod. "And that will be empty come spring even with us eating most of our meals here."

"How long did it take the students to arrive?"

"When we were in school it was one day. When Adam and later Aaron started it had grown into three days. . .then the week between classes. When we started getting the huge incoming class size it was the entire month of August, class starting the day after Labor Day."

"Huge classes?"

"When we left Earth we had nearly five thousand students per year, three of the last four years the school was open we were graduating over thirty thousand students." Whimpers from the others. "This last year was our smallest, six thousand and two students graduated."

"You must have had not only had every room occupied but . . ."

"Two students per room except for the last few years of students since they were the youngest. With all the rooms full we had over three hundred thousand students in grades five through twelve, a good half of the students in grade nine through twelve were dual-curriculum, getting a bachelors while they were taking high school classes. The closer to the school closing, all the students were dual-curriculum. Most of the students had enough classes to get a second bachelors or Masters when they returned home."

"Which some parents no doubt crowed about." Sandra mutters. Nods from most everybody in both rooms.

"How did the students arrive?"

"Before we lost Earth we'd go down for the graduating students, allowing them to pack up their rooms and head off and the new students to arrive before the new semester started. That also allowed our younger students to stock up on supplies, be they clothes, feminine stuff, or snacks beyond what they could pick up at the school bookstore. After Granda started sending us students I'd go over several days to pick the students up after the Harvest Festival, they were off until the new school year started the first week of the new year, that gave them all time to get settled in, talk to their advisors. . .especially if they were dual-enrolled, and join study groups."

"Josette?" Peter's purring voice says behind her. Josette tips her head back and smirks, pointing. "The Ghostbusters from the roadtrip we went on years ago, in their dimension Peter's the older half-brother of Xander. They weren't on this second trip but they stopped in their dimension to pick them up since they wanted to visit Haven." Peter looks at the other version of him who's shadowing a younger man. He catches his gaze then stares . . .blinking. The Egon who'd been sighing follows his gaze.

Ray comes over and musses with Josette's hair, pulling her hood back up at her complaining. "Then keep the damn hood on." He snorts as he walks by, the others laughing.

"I take it that is a common occurrence?"

"Oh yes, Josette is forever pulling her hood off and everybody will walk past and pull it back on, telling her to keep it on."

Josette waves a hand a couple days later, her supplies for her new degrees settling on the tables before she moves the rest to the other building, putting the boxes of comics on shelves.

"Ready to start classes in a couple days?" Alan asks as she joins them downstairs.

"Yep."

"What are you working on now?"

"Starting my fourth degree from National Comics and a fourth on tv." Josette says. "I'm going to go out for graduation sometime next year."

"Did you look over the looms you got from dumbass in Doc's dimension? You said you were going to?" David asks as they walk to the dining hall for lunch.

"Yes, and put in a large order of thread at the complex for them. I was running low on supplies for my loom anyway."

"Can you only use it with thread?"

"These since that's what she purchased. I've got a few looms for different yarns on the ship. And we've got one of each in the textiles buildings." Susan nods in satisfaction. Josette detours to the front room and talks with Frances and Elaine.

"We'll check our supplies, thank you Josette. With the school closed we'll be turning our attention to projects now."

"And it's not something you tend to think about until you reach for something and find you're out. I know you guys were turning your attention to your art instead of classes your last few shipments, but . . ."

"It's something we've got to check." Principal Madison looks at them. "Josette put in an order at the threads complex for the looms she brought from the other dimension, she was asking how we were on supplies."

"Josette, when is the trip out to Ellis's?"

"Week after next, third day. I was going to send out the reminder this afternoon."

"Thank you."

Ellis and his second in command smile as the tesseract opens and women start trooping through. His employees pair off with the women, the two of them walking with Josette and Pat.

"Anything in particular ladies?"

"I need to put in orders of yarn for a loom but after that anything goes."

"Thread?"

"I put in a huge order on Haven for the ones that take it." Ellis nods and they start off, everybody trooping through the tesseract on Haven nearly a week later for them.

"How's the fund?" Alan asks back at the dorm.

"Emptier than the dorms, I'm going to be moving stuff for weeks. Once everybody has made room for their purchases." The others snigger but nod.

"Did you stop to Vegas?"

"Yes, they had a special sale at a nearby manufacturer. . .so no, it wasn't just to replace everything I spent. That was just a fringe benefit." Pat sniggers behind her.

"We'll have a few years to replenish the fund before we go out again."

"Yep, everybody's been adding extra money with this trip in mind." Josette says.

"Book tour?"

"Couple of months, I'll be out nearly three weeks for the tour then picking up the shipments that should be arriving." Principal Madison, who'd been coming in the front of the dorm, nods. "Dad sent a message saying he'd probably have something for you to bring back when you return from your book tour."

"Then come spring we'll be working on the dorms and other school buildings."

Josette drops backwards onto a couch a couple months later, waving a hand to bring stuff of out subspace before falling asleep. David chuckles and pulls a blanket from off the back of the couch and drapes it over her.

"Eventful book tour?" Susan asks after she's woke up for lunch.

"God save me from whiny assholes who think they're sssssoooooo much better than everybody else. I had one sneering across the room at a hotel function during the tour, then when they found out I was richer and more important than they were they pouted and tried sucking up to me."

"Fucking fool."

"Always going to be people like that."

"Do you have more stuff to bring out?"

"Oh yes, I went all over during the tour. I'll be bringing stuff out for days." Josette stretches and yawns as they walk into the dining hall. She detours to the front room and leans between Frances and Elaine.

"Your one order was delayed for a few weeks," Josette sends them the receipt and the pair look at her. "The factory was shut down for a while thanks to a problem with a manufacturer. They were shut down for a couple weeks thanks to a flu epidemic." Frances smiles. "If we run out of something we can work on something else for a while."

"That's what I told them when they tried apologizing for the delay, that and you can't help being sick. Some damn fool was wailing because they'd had a fit about their order not being ready right then and all the other people were giving them disgusted looks. Don't we know we were supposed to take their side?"

Snorts of disgust from everybody in earshot.

"Yah. . .pooo' baby didn't get what she wanted. She was hoping to get them in trouble and all the customers were placing extra orders." Sniggering from the others this time. "Yeah, so she was having a lying on the floor kicking and screaming fit until she was escorted off the premises. They'd already refunded her money so her attempt to sue was laughed out of court and she was told to grow the fuck up and get over herself."

"Fool woman never went to a store to find out what she wanted wasn't in stock?" President Bartlett drawls.

"B. . .bu . .. but daddy said I'm spe-shul. . .only common people have to wait. Since it was one of Daddy's factories that was the holdup on the orders. . ." Cackling from the others. "Yeah, he wasn't the least bit happy about her giving him bad publicity. She was gulping and stammering she didn't know it was his factory that had shut down due to the flu. The manufacturer is sitting pretty, her oh-so-special order wasn't that damn big anyway so losing her as a customer didn't bother them a bit."

"Which no doubt hurt her all the more." Professor Druid snickers.

"Yep, anyway I'm delivering stuff. . ." Josette sends Principal Madison the list of what she's bringing off the ship.

"Orders?"

"Next time I go out. Everything should be in by then."

"How are you on your degrees from the comic book school?"

"Starting my fourth degree from National. . .pre-DC, then I'll switch out and get the last three from Timely. . pre-marvel." She tells Amanda. "I'm in my fourth tv degree and even though we enlarged the building I'm already running out of room." The others snigger. "Yeah. . .world's smallest violin, own damn fault. Once I get the last three from National I'll start the mega block of degrees that handle the comic code and many smaller outfits going under because 'oh my god, they're tainting our children." she says in a sing-song voice. Snorts of disgust from everybody in earshot.

"Isn't that the excuse they all use to try to shut down something they don't like?"

"Yup."

"Are they still doing well on the mail-order comics?"

"Oh yes, you know the damn fools . . .if they can get mint copies of something they will so they can crow about it to their friends. Whether it's something they're interested in or not, it's . . ."

"I've got something you don't." Frances says in a sing-song voice.

"Exactly, which is why my quilting books sell so well at the shows."

"Speaking of shows?"

"Me Mom's dimension, the boys Granda's. I go first. I'm debuting two of the new books."

"Are you graduating from there soon?"

"Yes and no, I'm going out sometime next year for graduation, but since I'm going to be taking more degrees it's like Assyrian and Montague. . .just the first of many visits." The others laugh and nod before Josette heads into the back room.

The next morning Josette swears as she looks at her rapidly emptying shelves, she cannot be getting low on quilts already. Yes, she's nearly finished with the books but still. . .she shouldn't be out of quilts already, should she?

"Josette, quilting books?" Frances asks at lunch.

"Start print next year, I'll be done with all of them year after next."

"Already?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it. I was looking at the shelves and realized I could get all the bags on one. . . and have room to spare."

"Been a while since the muse hit you." Principal Madison chuckles.

"Don't give the damn thing any ideas." Josette mutters as she heads to the back room.

"It's not like you don't have anything to work on." David chuckles, patting her hand in a there, there gesture.

"No, but still, I didn't think I'd made that many quilts."

"How many books do you have left?"

"Five, all mostly done . . they just need two or three quilts then edited."

After lunch Josette heads to GD, leaning in the door of Dr. Stark's office.

"I'm heading to Earth to download probe data next week."

"Thank you Josette, I'll make a list of people who will need the information once you pass it along."

"As opposed to people who just want the information?" Josette snickers.

"Exactly."

"When do you want me to upload my thesis for the Mechanical Engineering degree?"

"You're . . ."

"Three semesters in this semester."

"Your second semester then."

"Josette, are you finishing any degrees?" Doc asks when Josette comes out of the switching station.

"The Mechanical Engineering degree, I'm three semesters in this semester and asked Dr. Stark when he wanted me to upload the thesis while I was over there to tell him I'm going to Earth next week to download the probe data."

"Are you going out to the 9th planet to check on their Earth?"

Josette shakes her head. "I asked during the Lights Festival since it had been so long. They know the radiation levels are falling but even then it will be decades before Earth can be habitable again, we all know how long radiation lingered on Earth thanks to Chernobyl, three mile island, and the Fukushima plant." Doc nods. "They're keeping an eye on it."

"Are the others out there permanently now?"

"Yeah, they keep in touch with their Earth but since it had been so long for them somebody would notice they weren't aging as quickly as they should." Doc nods and heads back in Headquarters while Josette heads to her room, pulling on a sweater since it's turning colder. Looking out the window she nods when she sees snow, even though the weather had been good it is still winter and they have to expect snow. More heat starts coming out of the registers and Josette smirks, one of the other had just tossed a fireball in the second furnace.

Alexander can be heard muttering about hibernating during the winter as he comes down the hall.

"I'm sure some of the outlying places do if they don't have jobs or other duties to make them have to get out of bed in the morning." Anna chuckles from the stairs.

"Hell. . .can't even do that. Needing to piss usually drags me out of bed in the morning."

"Wear a bodysuit that takes care of that or sleep in a fully functional medbed?" Josette snickers.

"I hate those bodysuits. . .damn things make me itch. And no matter how comfortable you can make a hospital bed. . .it's still a hospital bed." The others nod as they look at the time and head to the dining hall for dinner.

"I wonder how many quilts people sleep under even with heat?"

"Probably four or five. I'm sure more than one person is working on them in the textiles buildings now that the school is closed, easier to reserve time on the machines. Yeah, they could use them during the breaks but. . ."

The others nod as they walk in the back room.

"Anybody check the weather?"

"Below zero as far as the weather probes are predicting. Thankfully all our buildings have been insulated to a tee by now and the large-scale replicator was turned on so people could stock up on extra wood."

Josette sighs and grabs her PADD, working for a few minutes before heading to the front room, leaning between Frances and Elaine. She asks something, both women nodding frantically.

David looks at her when she returns to the back room. "Those damn designer purses that cost thousands of dollars and don't hold more than a cheap purse does. I had a few pop in my head for the show."

"Oh god, I can hear the squealing now from the old fools now. And the middle aged ones."

"Yep, Frances and Elaine are sure they'll be a big hit."

"Oh yes, they will. Because of course people will spend oodles of money for designer since it's so better than off the rack. I know Paddy made purses to go with his outfits, Becka worked there whenever she was needed."

Josette's PADD beeps. "Speak of the devil." She opens the message, viewing the attachments and heading off. She's grinning as she slides into her seat a few minutes later.

"Don't tell me you went to Becka's dimension just to talk to Paddy."

"Nope, she told me about a small manufacturer who had sent out a message they needed help."

"So you put in an order?"

"Yep, and once the others see what I'm getting I'll be putting in another order."

"Did you talk to Paddy?"

"Yep, and got patterns and whatnot. I'll make a couple examples and have them to show for my show. . not this year but probably next."

"Did everybody get extra wood?" Principal Madison asks the next morning at breakfast.

"Yeah, the building was hopping as everybody came in, got a few to a couple dozen extra sticks of wood and headed off. Not just the smaller sticks either."

Josette sends off copies of the probe data various places the next week, laying on the pier of Ulonda and soaking up solar energy since it's still so damn cold at the dorm. Doc chuckles as she comes into the building an hour later.

"Josette, did we ever send the data to the other dimensions?"

"Yes, Becka has copies of everything, those in the know in their government is making damn good and well nothing like that ever happens there. Doc and the others have copies too, along with information on the Mars colony and everything else they'll need." Doc nods in satisfaction as he heads back to Headquarters.

"Have we seen any interest in land outside town?" President Bartlett asks at the next government meeting.

"Yes and no, we have requests more land and to build houses. . .but they're all around Town. Anybody who wanted to buy land outside town to farm has already brought the land." The others nod as Josette puts up the information on the screen. "Nobody's buying land to lord it over anybody else, anybody can make as much money as they want." Nods from the others again. "If you want the land it's because you want more children or you've got a hobby you need the room. Did Sue's niece ever expand into the other floors of her condo building?"

"Yes, so did the others who came up in apartment buildings on Archimedes. I know you and Clark are still expanding Headquarters into the other areas of the Empire State Buildings, so is Doc on the 9th and 10th planets."

"As we need the room."

"Exactly."

A few weeks later after the third testing week and the weather starting to get better Doc gets the alert that Josette has headed off. Josette comes back to the dorm, Doc looking at her. "Becka sent me a message about a small manufacturer that was making 'retro' prints, she and some of the others were using them as backs for quilts, I put in a large order while I was there and told them to expect more in the future when the others saw the fabric. I just came back from picking up the order, Silas let me put it in one of the warehouses they use for supplies to Mars."

"Knowing you'd have it picked up within a day or so."

"Yep."

She calls the others a couple days later and they run to the rolls of fabric on the tables.

"I got three different weights, one lightweight, the second slightly thicker, and then the thickest. Becka showed me skirts made of the lightweight fabric, some fool was whining in the media that her 'couture' outfit was based on common fabric."

Agatha snorts as her daughter giggles. Pat is nodding vigorously. "Lightweight skirts?"

"Yeah, you know the long flowing ones that look cool but are absolutely useless because unless it's like a hundred degrees out they won't keep you warm."

"Keeps their stupidity out of the gene pool." Elaine snorts. "Since they usually freeze to death because it's not cool to wear warm clothes. I shouldn't say that though, fabrics like that were used a lot in the motion picture industry because they kept the actors comfortable under the hot lights." The others nod.

"Is this all you have?"

"Hell no, this is just a sample I brought off the ship. I told them to expect more orders when I showed this to my friends and they start running lines of more retro prints."

"Where did you find this?"

"Becka says a small manufacturer put out this line, some small houses are using it and there's some quilters using it for backs like they used to in the old days." The others nod. "The manufacturer put a notice out on the list for the expo she attends saying they needed customers to stay in business. Becka put in an order, she sent the message along to Paddy and Melissa, then sent it along to me."

Frances snorts. "Our orders will keep them in business for years."

"Yep."

"Do you have. . ."

Josette puts a file up on the screen, the others nodding at the patterns and notes of when they'll be ready to start printing. They start a file of orders, it grows by leaps and bounds as the news about the fabric is relayed to the others. Josette ends up flying out again to make another order and put in standing orders for when they start the other runs. She smirks as the stupid young fool who'd pouted about her 'couture' outfit being based on oh god the horror common fabrics is ignored in the media for being a spoiled little brat and her tantrum not shutting down the operation like she'd wanted.

"How is the second city-ship mission on Becka's world coming along?"

"Pretty good, they've settled in well around the sun."

"How much longer do they have to go?"

"Not quite eight years, with the return trip so long they'll be able to work on experiments up until a couple days before they land on Earth again."

"Have you heard anything about a colony dimension in Dad's world?"

"Yeah, some old fool went wailing when she found out she'd have to work the land she was interested in buying, that was for the little people. And there was no malls, cars and drivers, beauty salons. . .everything she needed in her life. The government told her to grow the fuck up, what the hell did she think would happen when they left Earth?"

"But. . .but won't it all be waiting for us when we arrive?" David says in a whiny, hiccupy 'too fucking stupid to live but haven't managed to get my fool ass killed yet' voice.

"Yeah, she howled when she found out that the city-ship didn't have any of that either."

"Do we have any records from the colony worlds in 9th planet's dimension?"

"Yes, and I've passed them on to Granda, that's more what a real colony is like. . .having to spread out from the ship and build from scratch. We were lucky in being able to move everything in one fell swoop." The three older men nod. Doc looks at her and she finds the files on the server, passing them along to the others.

Josette slides into a seat after the planting and moans, her loving family snickering at her.

"Susan, are you finished with your degree this year?"

"Next. David?"

"I'm only five semesters into mine this year."

"We're only a semester into ours this semester." Alan says. The twins nod.

"We're only partway through ours from Oxford."

"Granda wanted to talk to us about our degrees, why I asked. But since none of us are finishing any, he'll hold off for a while."

"How long until they start having births?"

"I think this year or next. Of course this doesn't mean they will be having kids right away.' Nods from the others. "People are busy and they'll have to start making baby supplies and whatnot again." More nods from the others.

"Did they close a lot of schools? or rather decide not to reopen them?" Susan asks.

"Thousands, usually they were poor preforming or the buildings needed way, way way too much work so they tore them down. It will be decades before they need more than one school in a community again."

"Speaking of schools, has maintenance started going through the buildings?"

"Start next week now that the crops are in. Anybody from Town who wants to make some extra money has signed up to come out, grab a bucket of hot soapy water and start scrubbing."

Abby snorts."Lord knows there's enough rooms that they can make extra money all year."

"Yep, if not scrubbing walls cleaning carpets or even painting while we can have windows open."

"Hell, this summer, next summer, and maybe even the summer after that, it's going to take a while to get everything done. And we need to start thinking about what we need to do to the dorm."

"And the ranch, we keep everything clean but we need to do a major cleaning and see if we need to paint. At least all the major appliances are nearly new."

"When is the next shipment of books, music, and DVDS?"

"Next week, I gotta take in socks and spa stuff in."

Josette returns to Haven the next week, delivering containers of supplies various places before flying back to the school.

"Get everything?"

"Yeah, stayed an extra week and listened to some stupid woman whining about how it wasn't fair that she couldn't have the gallery the night you have your show. . .she's an arteeste and sssooooo much better than you. . .until she got her ass handed to her by the court and realized how much money we all make from these shows."

Snorts of disgust and rolling eyes from everybody.

"Shipments?"

"One for the school library, one for the town library, and one for my library."

"Awwww, you're going to expand them . . .again." Josette rolls her eyes at the snickering from the front and back rooms.

"Josette, did our order arrive?"

"Yeah, I'm bringing everything out now." Josette yawns and stretches before filling her tray again and sitting back down.

"Did you get your yarn?"

"Part of it, the rest will be waiting on us when we come out for the show."

"Vegas?"

"Went while I was on the book tour. Oh. . ." She looks at the front room. "Ellis is talking about another cruise next year."

"It will be that long before the fund is replenished." Elaine snickers.

"I'll let the others know so they can start putting extra money away towards it."

"Thank you Josette, any idea when?"

"Tentatively after our Thanksgiving. Ellis will have more information when we go out for the boys show."

"That will give us two offworld harvests to put money away."

"And two Harvest Festivals."

Agatha and Sue say much the same thing when she tells them and she knows the news will be all over the planets by dinner.

Josette returns from GD with a file she sends Doc and a container.

"What's that?"

"Somebody at GD is experimenting with artificial spider silk."

"I knew somebody had tried to replicate it."

"Yeah, they succeeded and now a bunch of us are working on it."

"Figuring out what to do with it now you got it?"

"Yeah, I remember somebody saying if they could make the strand large enough or combine enough of them they could use it for ropes and whatnot."

"Are you the only one looking at it? You and Doc?"

"9th and 10th planet, Clark and Thomas, Thomas and Clark. . ." David sniggers. "And Dr. Kane."

"You know if we were on Calvin's world and it was during a population period. . ."

"Some damn fool would be trying to make fabric from it? Yeeessss, I had the same damn thought."

"And it came from the same source. . .Wild Kratts." Alan says as he comes through. "Josette, are we opening the paper factory back up?"

"Next year, I'd planned on growing cotton offworld for a couple years for that and towels."

"Have it operating a good three years?"

"Between the toilet papers and other stuff. . .yeah."

"Josette?" Doc asks, finding her on one of the ships a few days later.

"An experiment. Farro. It's not something we normally grow. . .or eat. For all that you could find it on store shelves as part of the Bob's Red Mill brand line."

"And a small crop won't be wasted as much if it's not something people like." He says with a nod.

"And if it is something we'll grow in the future somebody can write a cookbook." He nods and follows Josette back to Headquarters in the flyer.

Josette and Alan spend most of the day replicating supplies for hers, the twins, Alan, and David's degrees, one set of books and comics going into buildings while the other is set up in the library.

Josette squeals suddenly a couple weeks later, handing Amanda a printout at dinner.

"I'm in." she says, looking everything over.

"I'll send out the money tomorrow."

Principal Madison looks at her. "Comicon being held by my comic book school."

"Another cruise?"

"Yep, the first one was good so they're holding it again."

David opens the tesseract and Josette and Amanda walk through.

"Enjoy yourself ladies?"

"Oh yes, we stayed an extra two weeks so Amanda could talk to a lot of other teachers about this, that, and everything in between. Amanda has tons of books from various schools and Granda's arranging for more to come out."

"We can make a library for you." Principal Madison says.

"You'll need it." She grins as she brings a familiar bag out of subspace. "Jane handed it to me before we left. All the schools that we talked to are on it." Amanda smiles and takes the bag.

"Are all the schools on the system now?"

"Most of 'em, it's mostly the larger or niche schools, like Oxford, Cambridge, and my comic book school. If they offered a specialty degree it went on the system. Most degrees though were generally the same, they might use different books. . ."

"Teachers might take it from a different direction. . ." Amanda says. Principal Madison and Josette nod. "We've been updating the servers as schools close, there's not that much that needs to be added unless they come up with new degrees. . .which they've been doing thanks to having all these years to concentrate on their curriculum." This time Amanda and Principal Madison nod.

A few days later Black Jack looks up at the beeping from the alarms on the rooms. Checking the cameras he snickers as Josette waves at him from her spot face first on one of the couches.

"The kids?"

"Yes, Josette's planted face first in the couch but still waved at the camera. The others are just laughing at her as they walk past."

"Clothes shopping for the show." James chuckles.

"Yes, Alan just dumped the bags on top of her as he walked past. She just tossed a pillow at his head."

They arrive back at the rooms an hour later to find the kids putting meals down on the table. They can see the bags and containers from restaurants vetted by them and the government.

"How are you handling having the school shut down? I know. . ."

"It's not the first time we've closed, everybody's had plans for this time almost since we found out about the zero-population time and everybody seems to be settling back into retirement. Winter being over so we can get outside without ten layers of clothing on since it was so damn cold for a couple weeks helps." Abby says, everybody nods.

"It's still going to take time to get used to."

"Exactly."

"Did you grow on the first planet?" Before they'd left Josette had been looking at the lists of what they normally grew on the first planet to see if they needed anything.

"Not this year, we didn't need the food." The others nod.

Josette sits down on a stool in the Albatross Nest after the boys show and moans loudly.

"That good. .huh?" Suzie sniggers.

"God save me from whiny fools. We had an old fool who was pouting at the boys show, she'd tried suing to make the gallery cancel their show so she could have the building that night. . .she's an arteeste."

Ooo la la sounds and gestures.

"Yeah, she went off whining when she found out how much money one of our shows makes the gallery, it wasn't fair. . .that should have been her. What do we have that she doesn't?"

"Talent?" Somebody says dryly, making the other laugh. "Couldn't get a spot selling at a flea market?"

"That would have been beneath her."

"How was the book sales?"

Josette moans again, getting more laughs. "I was signing books for hours."

"How long were you out there?"

"About two weeks." She waves a hand. "More information on the cruise." The brochures are passed around, a sign-up list already starting.

"Did you send this to the other planets?"

"Yes, I know that the representative for the Amish will be coming at least. They'll have a good sized order for me to pick up before the cruise." The others nod in satisfaction.

"Josette, books?"

"Starting printing next year, I've got five left .. .two or three quilts for each one then editing before they print."

"Shelves empty?"

"Yeah, I've got half a shelf of bags left. Of course that's not counting any of the kits." The others snigger. "Nobody's going to be running out of projects."

Josette cusses and creates notepads and a half-dozen duplicates who all start working. Agatha and Sue chuckle as the 'original' Josette starts wandering the aisles, bringing out items she piles on the counter.

"Frances and Elaine told me you had an idea for designer purses for your show." Marilyn says.

"Yep," Josette waves a hand bringing out half a dozen examples. "I worked on these while we were coming back from Mom's dimension. If the interest is good I'll talk to Ellis to find out where to order the clasps." The others nod as they look them over.

"They'll sell . . .for all that. . ."

"You can get more in a cheap purse at the store. It's the 'oh my god, this is designer. . ." Josette drawls, rolling her eyes. The others nod. "A big name has to be better than off the rack."

Three hours later Josette's duplicates. . .who all have a good dozen filled notepads in front of each of them finish and look up. Waving them into subspace they stretch and rub sore fingers.

"Major bunny attack?"

"Ohhhhh yeah, I'll be making them for years."

"Two purchases?"

"Seven or eight. . at the least."

Josette joins with her other selves when they return to the dorms, putting the notepads in a cabinet. Looking at the full cabinet she replicates three more for that room and another half-dozen in the other room for her finished projects before joining the others.

"What were you replicating?" David had got the message about a heavier than normal use.

"More cabinets for my quilt designs, three more for the not started yet room and a half-dozen for the other room." Alexander smirks at her. "Yessss, I got a massive dump at Agatha's complaining about that fool woman at the show. It will be a couple years, I gotta finish this batch first before I even think about making these or more books."

"Did you show them your bags?"

"Yeah, and I'm going to show them to Pat and Paddy when they come out." The others nod.

A few weeks later the second harvest is in and Josette looks up as the others start coming into the dorm. Paddy looks at her and Josette waves a hand, bringing the bags out before turning her attention back to the PADD in her hands. "What do you think of taking plain reusable bags and painting them?"

Ray and Becka moan and make notes. "Kids projects."

"Yep, I'd suggest painting plates too if they had a kiln handy."

"Yes, that's the downside of that project, though the potters could have a special day for kids." Becka makes a note of that on her PADD and puts it up.

"I'd see that at a day-care or after school program." Principal Madison says. His father nods as he makes a note.

"Josette, is this all the quilts you have left?" Bronwen asks a couple days later as she looks at the empty shelves. The half shelf of bags looks so . . .so small.

"Yes, but I got dumped on by the muse a couple weeks ago. As in I split off a half-dozen duplicates to get them all down and each of them had a dozen filled notepads by the time they were done."

Bronwen whistles. "Yeah, fool me was complaining that I didn't have any quilts left. Own damn fault." Everybody sniggers and nods.

"Josette, are the sales of your books good even with the lower populations in both worlds?"

"Yes, there's always going to be buying them because of the show, unlike here and Ellis's where they buy them because they'll actually make one or more of the quilts." Everybody sniggers again and nods. She looks at both Pats and Paddy, "Yeah, I know.. . those people have kept you in business for years." All three of them laugh and nod.

Josette chuckles as she sees a couple temples by the school as she walks to town, doors and windows opening to get air into the buildings. Greta and Josette Grover walk over and they follow her into town where tables are being brought out of buildings.

"So how is your original dimension doing?"

"That moron Trump is doing everything he said he'd do if he was elected, people are stunned that he would."

Agatha looks over at us.

"In Josette's original dimension they just elected Donald Trump president."

"Oh Lord. . ." more than one person moans.

"Yep, he's already announced he's building a wall with Mexico. . .which they're going to pay for either voluntarily or by him imposing a 20 percent tariff on anything they export to the US, the peso is going to collapse. He's already announced he's dismantling Obamacare. . .the health plan the president before him passed because he doesn't wike it. Because the damn bigoted Republicans can afford health care, anybody else can go spin in the wind. He's closing the borders to refugees and people from predominantly Muslim countries. . . because like Mexicans they're all crooks or terrorists. Oh he's sure there might be honest citizens . ..but they're all rapists, crooks, or terrorists."

"Asshole. Guilty until proven innocent. . .and even then they're guilty because he says they're guilty."

"Oh yes, he already tried claiming he had the largest inauguration in history. . .pictures showed him a liar but oh the media has to be lying because they don't like him. He won the damn presidency but he's claiming voter fraud because he didn't win the popular election." Swearing from everybody in earshot. "The only damn reason he did win was Russia was hacking the election databases and whatnot and sending out Clinton's private e-mails. Of course the damn FBI would not shut up about that. And he couldn't believe his good friend Putin would interfere with the US election."

"E-mails?" President Bartlett asks, coming up.

"She used a private server, who knows what she did with the information." I drawl. "Oh my god, she could have had national security secrets unprotected. . .even though the only documents the government did find that were classified were classified long after she received them. Of course it wasn't a smear campaign. We're just worried about her use of a private e-mail server, even though our own guy did the same damn thing. We're just bringing it up multiple times after she was cleared was because we're worried. The last time was ten days before the election. Of course she was cleared again but by then the damage was done. The only good thing is now he's being investigated for that and may face charges. Of course the previous President ordered that, not Trump."

"It's our world all over again." Ma Hunkel says.

"I fucking hope not, they don't have other dimension, colonies or places on the moon or Mas to escape to in case of a nuclear war." I shudder. "But yeah, they're bracing in for hard times. Of course the bastard's already making plans for his next four years. Because of course he's going to be re-elected." I growl something rather rude.

"Dad will be complaining."

"Who do you think I learned that phrase from? I hope everybody who voted for the bastard lose everything thanks to his stupidity."

"Yeah, but he's still complain."

"Bu . .bu . .bu . .but I didn't mean for it to affect me." Josette bleats. "Just those evil people who use government programs because they *need* them."

"Oh of course not, god forbid the government help its citizens."

"Yes, this is the same asshole who would not shut the fuck up about Obama not possibly being a citizen because he was born in Hawaii. . .two years after they became a state. Kept demanding he show his birth certificate. . .not the short form. . .the long form. Of course this is the same asshole who kept refusing to show his taxes because he was being audited and he couldn't release them. . . not because the asshole was cheating on his taxes for years."

"Oh of course not." Agatha drawls from the crowd around them. "And I'm sure the Republicans are rallying around him."

"Oh yes, even those people who spoke out against him. They're already telling the Democrats not to even think about blocking his candidate for the Supreme Court since they wouldn't allow Obama to replace a justice who died his last year, it was the job of the upcoming president even though they've done it in the past. And they're already putting out commercials accusing the Democrats of politics for not rubberstamping his candidates for his Cabinet." Rolling eyes and rude sounds. "He said he wouldn't act like this after he was elected. . .anybody with a brain knew it was a lie."

"Of course it was, but his supporters thought they could control him." Ma Hunkel says quietly, getting hugged by everybody around her.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"You didn't, it's just a reminder of how easily things can go to hell. Our world could have been lost so many times before that."

"So could ours, and we didn't have megalomaniac villains out to rule the world with their gadgets. . .ours are just crooks out to rule the world. Or bigots out to destroy it in the name of religion. Or idiot celebritwits and debutantes off doing stupid shit." Ma Hunkel chuckles despite herself.

"Did you have a show called quiz central? It would have been on PBS." I ask Calvin since he's walked up behind us.

"Yes, it was local schools answering questions. And some of the missed questions made me wonder what the hell the schools were teaching the students." Nods from everybody in earshot.

"Bu. . .bu. ..but if you have hard classes, my precious darling daughter or son will have to think." Principal Madison drawls behind his father. "That's the kind of parent that ended up suing when I turned their darling child away."

"And then they wonder why the kids turn out stupid little shits who end up in prison." Somebody snorts. Greta and I are busy helping set up the tables and bring stuff out, conversation moving to small chitchat about quilts, patterns in magazines from various dimensions. .both good and bad, and stupid shit celebritwats had pulled in the other dimensions.

"Some people never learn."

"Nope. They still believe there's no such thing as bad publicity and don't know or care that all they're doing is making fools of themselves."

"They only want the damn power rush the publicity brings them."

The newcomers stand in the middle of the street, staring at everything. It seems so like the Lights Festival, but so different. The tables are the same but filled with more items and there's more people there.

"There's more to do during the Harvest Festival, people will stay over in the temporary housing dorms because with the day difference between planets they might miss something. Each table will have different things on it all three days."

"Josette?"

"Yo!" Josette Takahawa yells somewhere in the distance.

"Are we putting together a trip to the holiday planet?"

"Yes, it's scheduled for mid second month next year, that will give us time away from all the winter we'll be sick of by then." Sniggers from everybody in earshot. "The sign up will be going up on the server after Thanksgiving. After we come back I'll be green picking tomatoes and peppers on the first planet again.

"Holiday planet?" I ask.

"Disneyworld. We copied it before we lost Earth, when the school was in session we'd take students out."

"I'm staying after the Lights Festival then .. .or coming back out." I say with a grin.

"You've been to Disneyworld. . .multiple times." Ares says, looking at me.

"Yeah, but never when it's been so empty. No waiting in lines."

"Even with no children in our world, the amusement parks still do brisk business." Calvin says behind them.

"Sometimes you just need to relax." Principal Madison says. "Our parks were still open even during the war."

I nod vigorously. "After 9/11 some of them shut down thanks to Bush and his yellow, orange, or red stages of alertness but they soon reopened. And after attacks in the name of 'religion', they reopened after a couple days . . .saying 'in yo' face' to the assholes who attacked."

"Religion has always been the excuse of little-minded people to cause trouble." One of the priests from Albatross says, walking through. The people with him, who Josette introduces as other religious leaders nod and smile. "We've learned from our mistakes and grew up, hopefully the rest of the multiverse will as well." Nods from the others around them.

"Ooohhhh." I look at the picture of the kits on the wall in the Albatross nest a few days later. Chuckling some of the women start cutting fabric and making up bags. I gladly pay for them and drop them in my bottomless bag along with copies of Josette's new books. The yarn store is next and the women chuckle as I buy more stuff.

"No good yarn stores near you?"

"Nope, it's all acrylic red heart. I could order it online but. . ."

"It's nicer being able to actually look at the yarn you want."

"And be able to talk with people if you're having problems."

Everybody starts heading off after the Harvest Festival and Josette slumps onto a couch.

"Get everything taken care of?"

"Yes, beds were already stripped upstairs and remade. Everything was tossed down the laundry chute and they even cleaned." David chuckles. "The boys are doing the laundry and I'm upstairs working on the quilt I need to finish a book."

"Offworld harvests?"

"Coming in hot and heavy in a couple weeks."

"How's the fund coming along?" Anna asks, her lips twitching.

"Growing steadily. I expect it to start growing by leaps and bounds when the offworld harvest bonuses start coming in."

"Did Amanda's library get finished?"

"The exterior, the boys are busy making bookcases for her."

Josette brings out the supplies for the others the next day, duplicates going in the buildings. Anna looks at the shelves and whistles.

"Four degrees from Timely, three from national. . .I'm just counting the ones I have finished. . .and four tv degrees. This building would be a hundred times this size for all the degrees. . .and by then I'll probably have a second one for the tv degrees."

"More power to you, I doubt I'll ever need that big a building." Alan snorts as he puts his 'mint' supplies away. "Are you still picking up original comics?"

"Yep, both at expos and stores. That building will probably end up just as big some day. Dad's already got plans for adding elevators and whatnot." The others snigger as they look at the time and head to the dining hall for dinner.

"How is the building cleaning coming?"

"Good. It's going slow but we don't need to hurry, scurry, worry over this." in the front room Principal Madison nods. "We've got plenty of time to do it right the first time, once a building is cleaned and then painted it's shut down until it's needed again."

"The furniture?"

"Still good, the only things that really needed to be replaced were linens, blankets, pillows, and the mattresses and box sheets themselves because they eventually wear out. Everything we can bring in in bulk if and/or when the buildings are needed again."

Principal Madison nods again. "We'd be getting in large batches of those and other supplies before the school reopened again."

The next week people are waiting for them at the big buildings when David opens the tesseract for the returning harvesters. Josette starts bringing out food and as soon as containers are put on the ground it's moved various places.

Josette slumps into her usual seat when the buzzer sounds to end the morning testing session on Archimedes their second testing week.

"How are the offworld harvests coming?"

"Hot and heavy, I've got a duplicate on one right now and a second harvest in a couple days. But they should all be done in a couple weeks."

"And cleaning and painting the dorms and other school buildings?"

"Fast and furious, we've got about five buildings be worked on at once, even with the dorms so damn big they're coming along well."

"You didn't make thousands of gallons of paint did you?"

"Yes and no, not individual containers but rather large vats of paint on their sides like wine barrels. They fill individual buckets there and with the special coating nothing is wasted, any dry paint peels right off and can be put in the replicator for raw materials. Maintenance brings out about. .." Josette thinks a second. "I think about fifty gallons a day? When the containers are empty, they'll be shot and turned into raw materials again."

"Ahhh, that makes more sense than thousands of individual cans of paint."

"We've got to look into it for GD." Dr. Stark sighs.

"And individual houses, we keep forgetting how long it's been since we've redecorated."

Josette sighs and nods. "Yep, even with regular maintenance it gets old. The others did a lot of work over the years when they come out but . . ."

Josette yawns as she looks out the window. "You're going to have snow."

"Yes, it should be the last of the winter."

"And we're going to be looking at our winter in a couple months."

"Did you finish your masters?" Professor Eppes asks a couple days later as he and a half-dozen Josettes work at getting the latest shipment of books, music, audio books, and tv shows ready to go in the system. They'd already finished the shipment for the library in town and were now starting the school's shipment.

"Yes, I got the last three classes I needed when the semester started. I'm taking a year off before I start the doctorate though."

"You don't need it right away."

"Exactly, we've got enough engineers thanks to everybody at GD cross-training."

"Did Calvin's world do the same thing?"

"Yes, in limited quantities. . .mostly older people training younger ones before they retired. Unlike Thomas's world they knew they'd be having children again . . .eventually. Thomas's world did a lot more cross-training. . .to keep everything running."

"What's the world population?"

"Hovering around two and a half-billion. A lot of urban renewal happened over the last couple decades there, schools like you used to see on tv that were falling down around the students ears were torn down. More schools were sold, they're in use now as stores and whatnot." Professor Eppes shakes his head. "Yeah, I had the same thought because I probably had the same dreams, schools that had stores in them and trying to find your classrooms because everything changed overnight." Professor Eppes chuckles and nods. "Did any of the schools remain schools?"

"Yes, at least one school in the larger cities. . .they won't need more schools for decades. Unless it's like ours or Granda's, a school in town and a private one outside school." Professor Eppes nods in satisfaction.

The next month passes quicker than Josette swears is possible and soon the gardens and fields are harvested, she's taking her finals, and townspeople are busy getting in extra supplies of the fake wood for the winter and making room for the extra food that would be delivered in a couple weeks.

"Fields and garden?"

"In and put away. Everything that could be tilled under for the winter was, the other fields got compost or manure."

"Cistern?"

"Drained, cleaned, and ready for winter. Are you planting on the first planet next year?"

"Yeah, I've got a few requests. Storerooms?"

"Full, they should last the winter. If not we can replicate or start opening the new containers upstairs."

"Are you going to be making candy?"

"Yeah, after Thanksgiving. It's been a few years. I got a list started but if you want anything special put it on the list. If we need to we'll get in more supplies and you can help me make it." The others nod and they look at the time.

"The candy factory?"

"Starting new orders year after next, the poll is going up Lights Festival. After that will be toothpaste."

"Did you pick up the cotton?"

"Yeah, it's on the ships until needed. Same with the scrub trees."

Thanksgiving comes and goes, they head out to the other dimensions for a visit. . .coming back loaded down with stuff that is moved to various rooms. Josette, Alan, and Michael look over at the door opening in the candy factory, finding the others looking around and moaning.

"Josette's got a bad habit of adding the factories that are being brought out to the dorm to make sure they work before they come out."

"Makes sense." More than one person says.

"It's been a few years since we made candy and we had a couple requests so we've been working with her on and off for a week."

"What all do you have added to the dorm?"

"What doesn't she have added to the dorm would be the better question." Doc says dryly as he walks through. "Are you nearly done?"

"Another couple of weeks but we can stop until after the Lights Festival."

Doc from the latest dimension just looks at her and she lists off the factories and whatnot she's added over the years, even Calvin and the others moaning at some of them.

"What would be your next addition?"

"Probably a pet food or kitty litter factory?"

"That makes sense. . ." David says slowly. "it's not anything that would go to waste."

"Nope. It's been something we've been talking about on and off for years. Right now we either get the food from other dimensions or replicate it. Same with the litter."

"Would the additive be part of the food?"

"I've been thinking of one run with the additive, one without."

"Additive?"

"It chemically neuters dogs, cats, and smaller animals like ferrets, guinea pigs, hamsters. . . if you want to breed them you stop giving them the additive. We have barrels of the additive to put in the food, most of the replicated food already has it added."

"Not larger animals?" Doc asks, looking over the information.

"No, we generally separate them when the females are ready to breed if we don't need more."

"How do you . . .?"

"Keep the inbreeding down? When we do breed them we tend to spread them out, so one of our stallions might breed Ma and Pa Kent's mares. . . Pa's stallion might breed some mares in Albatross or even the other worlds." Nods from everybody. "We keep records to make sure they don't breed back together and we've got *tons* of frozen sperm and ova in the genetic banks."

Josette's waved to the front room at dinner. "Josette, is there a need for the glass factory?"

"Lemme check the supply, I know the last time we made tons to have on hand for years."

"Glass factory?" Doc asks in the back room.

"We have two, one that makes bottles and jars. . .the other makes sheets of glass. Not just plain but also colored for the stained glass workers and specialty glass. We make huge batches every ten years or so for the glassworkers. I think it's been fifteen years since the last time it was open?"

"Eighteen."

Josette looks at the supply list after dinner.

"No, we're still good for a few more years." She says the next morning. Principal Madison nods in satisfaction. "Good, saves me bringing it up at the meeting."

Josette and Alan bring out the containers for the Lights Festival after breakfast, including the three new trees that would be going up in various rooms.

"How are the school buildings coming?"

"With at least three buildings being worked on at a time they're coming along. We can't paint now but we've got groups of women cleaning the rooms."

"Lemme guess, with part of the money going to replenish the fund for purchases in our dimension since Ellis is holding another expo cruise in a couple years."

"Yes, the fund was growing steadily it doubled, doubled again, and doubled again as people put part of their bonus money from the offworld harvests in the fund."

"And it will be doubled again, again, and again by the time everybody's done next year?" Calvin chuckles.

"Oh good lord. . ." New Dimension Doc moans as he walks into a building.

"Yep, this is Josette's building of books taken for degrees from a school in Calvin's dimension." He looks at the two walls then back at Doc. "Yes, they're the same books. The school specializes in comic books, pulp magazines, tv and radio shows, movies. . .one of the perks of the degrees is that when you are done you will have mint copies. To do that, everybody gets two copies of everything when they sign up for the classes. One set you work on during the class, the other is the mint set that you put away. Josette takes so many classes she has more than the others."

"Barely." Josette snorts as she walks in. "David is finishing his third? degree next year? The twins and Alan are nearly two semesters into theirs."

"These are . .. comics?"

"Yes, yes they are. The school's name is on them so people can't try selling them as mint copies. The school does brisk business, they have limited online classes apart from the systems Josette and the others use. And they offer limited sales to non-students. Online students pay ten percent over what students taking them at the campus do, people who are just buying them, not taking classes pay fifteen percent over what the online students are paying. Even so Josette has said they put in a fed-ex facility nearby to handle all the shipping. Which is extra."

New dimension Doc shakes his head. "I can't understand it though I *know* there are expos for collectors."

"Yes, comics, dolls, baseball cards. . ."

The other man nods. "Where is Josette?"

"The Albatross Nest in Albatross. Every year Agatha and her friends put out monthly kits for various crafts. Today they're having a potluck dinner and going over details of all the kits available next year. They're also trading cookies. Josette should be coming back in an hour with over forty dozen various cookies, boxes of kits, and probably all the leftovers after they wash everything up."

True to his words an hour or so later Josette arrives back at the dorm, her eyes glazing over momentarily as she moves everything various places.

"How are you on worn out clothes for patchwork quilts? I gotta bring out some for Sue in a couple weeks." She asks at dinner.

"We can use some too. As cold as it is we've been making extra quilts for the beds."

"Has anybody ever thought of electric blankets? Not in the homes with limited power but here?"

"The damn prongs get damaged too easily and then they don't work." Anna says.

"That is the downside of electric blankets."

Josette pokes a fork her direction. "What she said." The others nod. "Quilts or wool blankets work just as well. . .Yes, you can't turn them on to warm the bed before you get in but a hot water bottle or other heating device can do the same Lights Festival Josette is approached by one of the glassworkers. She listens and nods her head.

"Need the glass broken up?"

"I already did that. . .no, they're experimenting with making glass buttons. I'll work on them in my workroom this year and we can compare." The others nod.

New dimension Doc trills as box after box after box come out of the replicator, going in piles as Josette gets the books and supplies for the next semester's classes.

"Is this just for your classes?"

"No, before the school closed the students who were dual-enrolled would be getting their books and supplies at the beginning of the semester. They could only sign up for one or two classes at a time though, so they'd be coming back to the office and getting the books and supplies for the next class from Joyce. The twins and I would help her before the semesters started, I'd be running the replicator and the twins would be running back and forth with bags and receipts for their class. Even then the line was out the door. Especially at the end when all the students were dual enrolled."

"Did you always get the books for the students?"

"From the time we were in school, when the students first arrived they'd go to the bookstore for supplies during orientation and when they were ready to sign out they'd get their books for the first year ready for them since they couldn't sign up for their own classes until the second year. Then they'd hand over their receipts for the semester's classes, get their supplies, and workers would fill their book orders. It kept the lines half-way short. Especially when we started getting so many students."

"You did this?"

"Yeah, before the job was turned over to temporary workers we'd be putting together boxes of first year books, a laptop, printer, and computer programs for the first year students. That was generally after the girls and I had been opening boxes of sheets, towels, and blankets and putting together sets for the new dorms."

"Yes, and we were very thankful when the school did turn that job over to the temp workers. It was a lot of work for the four of you."

"Yes, but that was a good two to three months pay for the girls before they started working."

"Only the girls?" New Dimension Doc asks quietly.

"The boys were usually busy working on the new construction during the summer. Josette was the only one officially employed by the school at that time but they'd check the hours she'd worked and cut checks for the others. . .the boys always helped them out in the bookstores. ..either getting their books, bringing up more textbooks when they ran low, or shelving the books."

"Why was Josette . . ."

"Josette had been working at the laundry all but her first semester of high school, washing the sheets and towels for the dorms. At first it was only five hours a night twice a week but her sophomore year it went to five hours four times a week as more students on the second floor of the dorms meant another night of laundry. Her senior year it went to six hours a night and she picked up an eight hour shift in the front of the laundry Sundays. Nobody stepped up to take the laundry job so she continued until the school started sending the laundry out. That was just before the school went from two dorms to four."

"That's a lot of work."

"Yes. . .which is why we were so pleased when the school started sending out the laundry. Josette had a semester before she got her library science bachelors and started working full-time at the library, before then she was covering the library finals when the teachers were busy and buying books, DVDS, and music for the library."

"No wonder Josette isn't bothered . . ."

"by a little hard work? If she's not working hard she's bored. Let me tell you about the times the government screwed her over." The stories are told and new dimension Doc moans as Pat cackles at Josette 'fwightening' the guy from the Department of Education.

Everybody in Sue's store looks over as the door opens and Josette walks in, waving a hand and bringing out piles of clothes. Seam rippers are grabbed and they start taking off buttons and zippers, putting them in boxes that Josette moves upstairs once it's full.

"Did you bring out clothes for yourself and Pat?"

"Yeah, and the 9th world. Everybody was running low on old clothes."

"Books?"

"I finished two last year, I'm a quilt from finishing a third and I'll get the other two done by the end of this year. The printers have already started on the remaining books and should have everything printed by year after next."

Josette replicates a few cookie tins when she returns home and starts working in her kitchen. Alice. . .who'd come in to pick up a few things, looks in on her. "Ahhh. . ." she looks at the fruitcakes in the tins. "Grandma would have used an old coffee can."

"Nobody used the metal cans before we left Earth. Same with paint cans."

"Yep, it was all plastic."

Josette looks at her PADD later that night, making a note to look into putting in a few orders before she goes to bed.

She's waved to the front room at breakfast.

"Josette, how are we on raw materials?"

"We have tons on the ships, in the crystals and in the raw state." Principal Madison nods in satisfaction. "Printers?"

"Started working, we've got plenty of supplies for the books. . .mostly because most of them will be sold in the other dimensions." Professor Druid sniggers but nods.

"Josette, were the offworld harvests early last year?"

"A little, not the first time this happened. It just means the interval until we can harvest twice in a year will be shorter."

The next few weeks pass and Josette comes back from planting on the first planet.

"Do you have a tour this year?"

"Cruise, our second testing week this summer. I'm a speaker this time. . .there was a hoopla with some fool at the publishing house trying to fire all the authors who oh god the horror write fiction." The others mock boo and hiss in the back room. In the front room Professor Fletcher is nodding as Principal Madison sighs. "He only wanted a line of textbooks and scientific stuff . . .but then he realized with the zero-population period going on for so long and so many schools closed .. .nobody was buying them. Old fool quickly shut his mouth but the damage was already done as authors got up in arms and threatened to leave the publishing house for greener pastures if this is the way they were going to be treated."

"Some people are born fools." President Bartlett rumbles.

"And have to prove it every time they open their mouths." Josette snorts. "He's sulking because it's the fiction lines that keep the house open. . .the ones like he wanted have already shut down. Because it would be years if not decades after people started having kids again that schools would need to buy more books."

"Are Joanne, Madison, and Jessica retiring?"

"Yes and no, they're down to working only with special clients. . .I'm one of them."

"Just like the others basically only deal with us in the other dimensions." Josette nods.

"Shows?"

"Me Granda's dimension, the boys Mom's. . .and we got a dual show in Doc's dimension."

"Do you have enough stuff for two shows?"

"Yes, Josette's already took a shipment of stuff to the ships." Alexander says absently as he starts sketching something. Michael looks over his shoulder and grins.

A few weeks later Josette raps her knuckles on the Cafe door on the 9th planet. "I know it's early Vincent, but I got green-picked stuff from the first . . ." The door opens and she walks in, waving a hand and bringing out bushels and bags. Vincent smiles as he looks everything over and Josette helps put everything away.

"Am I the only one getting these?"

"Nope, I dropped off deliveries just as big to Doc, Dr. Cross, and Dr. McNider. I grew extra since they came up permanently."

"Get deliveries to everybody?" David asks when Josette comes back.

"Yep, and got tons more in stasis. And we'll have just as much when the rest start ripening." Josette looks at her PADD and sends off a message, getting instant responses back. "Purple Krim. . .I can't pick them green but that means more ripe tomatoes."

"Are you going to be planting a separate crop?"

"Yeah, probably. . .or planting them hydroponically on the ship again."

"Or both." Principal Madison says dryly in the front room as Professor Druid giggles. Josette checks the supplies again and sends off another message. . .getting more responses back. "Vodka, bourbon, and near-beer, it's been a few years since I made batches." The others nod. Josette sends a message to the offworld areas to grow another batch of potatoes, corn, and hops before putting her PADD up and starting to eat.

The end of the semester finds Josette bringing the ripe tomatoes, herbs, and peppers from the first planet.

"Did you plant again?" Principal asks as she comes into the dining hall.

"Yeah, after adding compost to the raised beds. And planted on the ship."

"Did Grandpa Nathan talk to you?" David asks when she sits down with her first tray of food.

"Yes, I'll grow the peppers for GD next year. They don't need them right away."

"Maple syrup and sugar?" President Bartlett asks from the front room.

"Boiling the sap right now."

The next couple months pass quickly and Josette heads to Calvin's dimension, returning three weeks later for her. She falls face first on the couch. "Duplicates delivering containers to the school and the library in town. More coming upstairs for my library. Stopped to Ellis's and some other suppliers, spent a week in Vegas. . ." the others snigger.

"When is your show?" Principal Madison asks with a chuckle as he walks into the dorm, finding Josette face first on the couch.

"Two weeks. The one to Mom's is just after the Harvest Festival and our combined show in Doc's dimension is midterms. We'll be done with our tests before the show." Principal Madison nods in satisfaction. "How was the cruise?"

"Oh god, spare me from fools. He's still whining about how it isn't fair that his grand scheme got derailed by that nasty old reality. He was at the cruise and wailing because this wasn't his authors making money. Or should I say it wasn't his authors making him money."

"Ummmm, most people don't buy textbooks unless they're in school?" Principal Madison snorts. "Josette is the only person I know who reads textbooks for fun."

"Yeah, he's missing the massive purchases from schools. This means he's going to die poor and alone. . . mostly because his stupidity pushed his family away."

"Fucking fool, but that's humanity for you."

"Amen."

"How is the school buildings coming along?"

"Good, we'll be finished painting them by next year."

"The money will go back to refilling the offworld fund after the cruise." Abby chuckles.

"Amen. And I'm sure most of them are looking at their own homes and going honey. . .we need to paint ourselves'." David drawls. Everybody laughs and nods. "Did you pay for the cruise?"

"Yep, while I was out there earlier this year. The money's already been replaced."

In various homes and businesses, people start looking over the updated information on the cruise Josette had sent out before she went to the dorm.

At the show a couple weeks later Josette gives a whining fool saying that it wasn't fair, that could have been his money a disgusted look.

"The moron from the publishing house?"

"Yes, he was going to be magnanimous in allowing crafting books. . .as long as they weren't that evil fiction. He was rubbing his hands in glee when he found out how many books I sell. . .until he realized I don't have a contract with the publishing house for those. How can I do that to him. He was gonna sue. . .at least until the house's lawyers told him to sit down and shut the fuck up. Even his own authors had contracts with other publishers for books he didn't want."

"I heard rumors that the blacksmith is doing sandcasting again?"

"Yeah, we start after the Harvest Festival, working all through next year."

Josette wraps her hands around a mug of coffee the next morning.

"How long were you signing books."

"Most of the night, Marcus is going to have the total when he comes out this afternoon." Her PADD beeps and she reads the online newspaper while eating.

"How was the show?" Principal Madison asks as they come back into the dorm an hour later for him.

"Sold everything, signed books for hours. . .ignored the wailing old fool from the publishing house who was pouting because he wasn't making any money off my quilting books. He was magnanimously going to allow crafting books since they weren't that nasty old fiction until he found out they didn't have a contract for my books. He's devastated. . .absolutely devastated." The others snicker.

"Did you pick up new supplies for your art?"

"Yep, everything's being put away now. I'll pick up more supplies in Mom's dimension and probably more in Doc's for their shows."

"Do you have bookcases for Amanda?"

"Yeah, we have five more sets, Josette was going to deliver them as soon as the protective coat is dry. Probably tomorrow since we put it on this morning."

"I'll let her know, thank you boys."

Josette slumps onto the couch, three cats immediately jumping on various parts of her body.

"When are the tomatoes ripe?"

"I'm going out in a couple weeks after our crops are all in. I'll be out long enough to harvest them, the yearly crops, and plant the raised beds again."

Several weeks later for her Josette returns to the dorm.

"Get everything taken care of?" David asks from his spot on the couch.

"Yep, the tomatoes are harvested and I sold tons to the others with more in stasis. All the yearly crops are in and either sold or put away until we eat them. I've got seven barrels of olives in the basement since we still have a good stock of oil left from the last couple years. I picked up the hops, corn, cotton, and potatoes while I was off Haven and the last of the grapes have been harvested."

"Ice wine?"

"Yeah, I left some grapes on the vines for it."

"Do you have bottles?"

"I will . . .I put in a huge order for bottles when I decided to make vodka, bourbon, and beer this year. They'll be finished before the Lights Festival."

The others start coming out, Bronwen shaking her head at the empty shelves in the room Josette is straightening and organizing. Not that it's empty empty, there's boxes of kits from the Albatross Nest, sorted by year and craft.

"Taking inventory?" One Josette's calling out numbers and another is typing on the PADD.

"Yeah, now's as good a time as any." Pat, Pat, Bethany, and Paddy nod nearly in unison.

"Is that a treadle sewing machine?"

"Yeah, I got it at Ellis's. . .a small company is experimenting with various machines. . .including knitting, embroidery, and long-arm sewing machine. The government is thinking about stuff like this for a colony that won't have electricity right away."

"Do you have any information. . .that's something that our colony dimension is going to have to think about. They can bring in stocks of clothes but eventually they'll wear out. They'll have to be able to make more." Josette's eyes glaze over a second and a folder is in Silas's hands. He smiles and makes copies, settling down to read them. The others take them after he's done.

"Do the Amish use them?"

"Not really. . .I've heard of them having sheds or outbuildings with electricity. . .of course that was in a book." Josette says. "Ellis is going to have samples on the cruise, if they do use them their helper will see them and put in an order."

"And if we don't have somebody experimenting with them in our dimension I'll see if there's interest."

"The larger machines they'll probably need to have a building for them and set up times for them to use."

"Looms."

"Yes, those too. . .those are the original non-electric textile machine."

"They'll probably have to put up something like a mill."

"Keep everything in one place. ..that makes sense. Not many people will have room for a sewing machine at the beginning."

"And not many people would know how to run one." Nods from everybody. "But they can either buy them at a store like the Little House books or take lessons."

"I can see people who make clothes having a good business."

Nods from the others. "Back then girls learned from their mothers. . .not many make their own clothes on Earth. Even in Albatross clothes were generally from a store unless it was something special."

Bronwen nudges Josette. "That old fool at the publishing house tried his shit again and got his ass handed to him. The brass finally had enough of his stupidity and gave him the old heave ho."

"Finally. What did the old fool do this time."

"Ended up firing a number of authors for daring to have outside contracts or like you sell on your own. Well. . .as you imagine the authors weren't too fucking pleased about that and turned around and fired the publishing house by refusing to sign new contracts."

"And they didn't like that." Josette drawls.

"Nope, the publishing house is taking all the judgments for breaking contracts out of his hide. He's wailing that they should have done what he wanted. He would have let them come back to the publishing house. . .once his section started making him money."

"Moron doesn't realize that the type of sales he wants won't happen for decades?" Calvin drawls."He won't see the massive sales he was looking for."

"B. . .bu. . .buh . . .but every school in the world has to open their doors the second the zero-population period is over and buy massive supplies for the students. . . Who cares if it will take decades*before they're needed. . .if they're ruined in that time they'll have to buy more."

"I didn't get anything . . ." Josette says slowly.

"Nope, the receptionist was suspicious about why he'd be sending you a letter since he's been howling about your quilting books and grabbed it out of the mail before it went out. She gave the letter to Madison who opened it and let him have it with both barrels."

"Fucking a-hole."

"Well that's people who believe their own shit and have to push their opinions down your throat. Look at that fool woman who had Jasmine Snyder fired because 'oh she has to be making fun of me by only eating a few bites of food, I think having an eating disorder is cool. Then went wailing like a banshee when she found out there was a medical reason why Jasmine only eats a few bites of food several times a day."

"Miserable woman." Everybody looks at them and the story is told. "Fool woman kept petitioning the court to be allowed to come to Haven. . .demanding that she be allowed to show us how our diets were all wrong. The judge told her hell no and to grow the hell up. She was sure she'd be one of those overnight celebrities with the next hot diet and be instantly rich and successful. Yes, many young people need help with their diets. . .but fools like that won't be able to teach them how to have a balanced diet. I'm sure having ready sources of healthy food so they're not eating fast food thanks to all the stores going in and access to fresh fruit and vegetables in community gardens helped."

"Fad diets come and go. . .as Jasmine could probably tell you since her mother tried all of them instead of pulling on her big girl panties and loving her daughter the way she was. She kept trying to change her instead of taking her to the doctor and seeing there was a medical reason for her weight gain."

"How is her health?"

"Reasonably good, gets most of her nutrition from her feeding tube since so many years of malnutrition at her mother's hands thanks to those fucking fad diets and the tumor meant she was never able to eat normally again."

"Like a patient who underwent gastric bypass."

"Exactly. At least it's not like those people who are on the tv weight loss shows who lose 21 pounds in a week because all they do is exercise then when they get home they can't keep that up." Everybody rolls their eyes.

"The other one was halfway good. . .they took an entire year to lose the weight and were on their own after the first 90 days."

"That was a much better premise. .. they had to make it or break it on their own."

"They were doing it for themselves not for the chance at money and throwing their teammates under the bus for not losing enough weight."

After the Harvest Festival Josette goes to the publishing house, walking past the old fool wailing outside on the sidewalk. He grabs her arm and she glares at him. . .making him gulp.

"Get your hand the hell off me before I take it off at the shoulder." she hisses.

"But wwwwwwwhhhhhhhyyyyyyy wouldn't you let me be your agent." he wails.

"Because you're a miserable old fool who hates fiction? Dumbass."

"But I would have let you keep your quilting books." He wails as the police drag him off.

"Effing moron." Josette snorts as she walks into the building.

"Yyyyeeesssss. . ." the receptionist drawls. "If he whines enough out there they'll have to hire him again. . .so he can start his shit all over again."

She stops at Ellis's to bring out older books and goes through details on the cruise and picking up information from the company working on the machines, picking up the machines themselves.

Agatha screams like a little girl as she runs across the room. "Is this treadle powered?"

"Yep, you can either charge a battery pack to run the machine for three hours or operate it by the treadle itself. I don't know many people who could move it fast enough to sew . . .at least at first."

Sue and the Amish representative nod as they come over. "Did you make this?"

"No, a company in Granda's dimension is experimenting with them."

"Them?"

"I've got a knitting machine and long arm sewing machine on the ship yet. I sent copies of all the information on the other machines to Silas, colonies are going to have to make their own clothes after the stock they bring out wear out."

"And they might not have access to unlimited power right away."

"Yep, even if they do have solar panels it would drain them rapidly."

"And unless you grew up with families that made their own clothes. . ."

"You wouldn't know how. . . thanks to the schools getting rid of stuff like home ec. Now. . .any of our students would just sit down and go to work."

"Exactly. . .even in Albatross where everybody starts quilting at their mom, aunt, grandma, or other adult's knee I don't know many people who could make their own clothes. . .especially stuff like underwear and bras."

"Okay, how do the Amish handle sewing machines? Sheds with power . . ."

"They did back on Earth, now it's communal sewing machines they can sign up for time on. ..some families might have an older treadle machine passed down in the family."

"How long does it take to power the batteries?"

"About 90 minutes, you can set your kids taking turn pedaling if you need to do something. Keeps them out of trouble. . .same thing with husbands." she glowers at David smirking in the doorway. The other women chuckle.

"How long for the other machines?"

"About four hours but the batteries last two days. No, I didn't sit down and pedal for hours to find out. . .that's part of the information I got." She sends them the files and everybody starts going over it when they reach homes or businesses.

"Did you finish your quilting books?"

"Yes, they're being edited right now and will join the others in the queue waiting to be printed."

"Have you talked to the publishing house in Calvin's dimension?"

"Yeeesss, the old fool was wailing outside the building. . .grabbing my arm demanding to know why I wouldn't accept him as a client. He'd let me keep my quilting books. . .once he started making money on his line. Old fool is sure that if he keeps whining enough they'll have to rehire him. So he can start his stupidity all over again."

"Are they out of the zero-population time?"

"The experts think another six months? But even then they're not going to be popping out babies. .. they gotta get in supplies. ..which means factories what were working on other stuff starting to make that again."

"Diapers."

"Yep, and formula. . .baby clothes. . .baby furniture. Even if they had some stuff put away everybody's working one .. .maybe two or even three jobs it's going to take time."

"And make sure there's enough teachers."

"Yep." Josette talks to Vinetta after the show, visiting a couple manufacturers and Vegas. Doc had got her a guest pass to a textbook expo and she gets three copies of everything, Jane thanking her as she drops one off at the school.

"Did you get more?"

"Two more sets of everything. . .one for the school and one for our dorm."

"How was the show?"

"Sold a lot of stuff. . .so in a few years I expect to have a show on par with the other dimensions. Brought out four more of the oldest quilting books and was signing books for hours. Not as many books as the other shows but still a good number."

"Are you going to be able to have shows next year. . .your year?"

"Yeah, we've been working on stuff for a while since Doc told us about the show in his dimension.

Back on Haven Josette takes inventory of what she has made up and starts making a list of what she has to work on. Filling the cart with sheets and dye she heads to the laundry.

"Oh good, I wasn't sure if you were back yet." Suzie's voice says from the doorway of the back room she has blocked open to air out. Josette looks over her shoulder. "What's up?"

Josette nudges David and waves Principal Madison and President Bartlett into the back room as she comes into the dining hall with Doc. "This is only going to take a second, Assyrian wants to start a fruitcake making operation at the old cooking school."

"They probably have all the machinery they'd need for a large-scale operation." President Bartlett says slowly.

"Yep, and we don't lack for people who can make them."

"No we don't, do they need anything?"

"They're going to be making a list of supplies they'll need and bring it up at a meeting in a few months. I know I'm going to have to put in an order of tins. . .I had to replicate a couple when I made fruitcakes earlier this year."

"Cookie swaps?"

"Yes, we'll need to order there too."

Several weeks later she heads to the first planet, harvesting everything left in the raised beds and after drying a third of the peppers into wreaths she heads off.

"Get everything taken care of?" David asks when she slides into her seat at the dining hall.

"Yep, everything that didn't sell is either dried or popped into stasis." Josette stretches backwards and yawns. "Just in time for our crops to start coming in."

"Yep." Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later. "Goddamn old fool."

"That miserable old bastard who only wanted his line to be part of the publishing house?"

"Yes, the fucker wanted me to take care of him for the rest of his miserable life. . .it was my fault he'd been fired because it was Madison reading his letter to her author firing me for daring to write fiction got him terminated. The judge told him to grow the hell up and get a life. He'd tried suing Madison too for daring to read his letter and got no satisfaction there either. He tried suing for wrongful termination and got his ass handed to him then too. The judge had ordered a psychiatric exam for him, the consensus was he's not mentally ill he's just a miserable old man who's pouting because he can't control the world like he wants. He was drug off to the work dimension to pay off his fines for frivolous lawsuits still wailing that he'd have let me keep my quilting books when he took over the publishing house. ..why won't I accept him as my agent?"

"Miserable old fool."

"Yep, he's howling that it's not fair that while the zero-population period is ending. . .his sales aren't magically soaring into the stratosphere."

"Ummm because schools won't need new books for decades?" Principal Madison snorts in the front room.

"Amen. . .but he was expecting to wake up one morning and crow 'see, see I told you my line was the only one that mattered' when books started selling again."

Josette wipes down her table in the library after putting away the supplies for the classes she finished.

"Eight comic book degrees?" Susan asks as she shelves the books from her latest finished degree.

"Yeah, four from each school. . .six more and I'll be hitting the comic code 'oh god, they're harming our children' hoopla bullshit that happened with the music industry too. That's the huge sucker since it covers so many publishers. . .many that went out of business because of that bullshit."

Susan snorts. "If parents were actually parents, they wouldn't worry about their darlings running wild. They would probably still listen to music their parents hate, but that's human nature."

"Amen."

"Did you finish a tv degree?"

"Next spring."

"Finishing anything else?"

"At least four, but they're all degrees that are more than one in the set. I'm one semester from seven degrees from the sosh school but these are all the mega sets, seven degrees and up." Susan shakes her head. "I'm three years into a degree from the naval academy about submarines in war but that's the second of four degrees."

"How many degrees does that make?"

"Fifteen bachelors and a masters. There's not that big a demand for a graduation ceremony yet, I'll have at least one more before then. . .might even have the doctorate too." David sniggers as he walks through to take care of his books and supplies. "And you'll have nearly as many degrees from the comic book school when you attend their graduation ceremony next year."

"Only a baker's dozen, the Doctor who degree, the four general tv degrees, and the four degrees each from DC and Marvel."

"Are they going to have degrees about the movies based on the comic books?"

"They're talking about it. . .they might have a dual degree with another sosh school .. .them handling the comic book aspect, the other school handling the movies aspect."

"Sounds interesting ...I'll look into it when I'm finished with the lit degree I'm starting next year."

Two long weeks later they slump into seats, their finals taken and all the crops in for the year. The offworld harvests had been passed out and Josette and the others having come back to Haven from the cruise.

"Damn fool."

"Your dear friend from the publishing house?"

"Yes, he came back from paying off his fines and was wailing his life was over. . .he was going to kill himself. We'd all be sorry for the way we treated him, then walked off pouting when nobody came rushing to stop him." Principal Madison facepalms in the front room.

"So anyway. . .he may have finally figured out he's not all that." Josette drawls. "Like a kid having a tantrum if you ignore him he'll either stop or go away."

"Or be like that damn fool kid throwing a tantrum on America's funniest Hollywood videos and follow you around the house throwing himself on the floor crying because nobody's paying attention to him."

"A good slap on the ass would stop that nonsense in it's tracks." President Bartlett rumbles in the front room. His wife nods vigorously.

"Did you pick up much stuff that wasn't sold after the cruise?"

"Some. . .Ellis learned from the last cruise and if it didn't sell well the first time it didn't come on this one. We had a *lot* of demonstrations and talks. It will take me a few days to go through everything. . .when I get around to it." Everybody snickers.

"Comic expo?"

"Yes, I attended one while I was out there. . .nobody sleeps during them anyway so me not needing to eat or sleep wasn't all that unusual. I got lots of stuff on the ship. I also hit Vegas and visited a couple new to me manufacturers."

The cruise is talked about a lot at the Albatross Nest a few days later. . .after Josette is congratulated for finishing her books. They'd had a book party for the last two before they'd left on the cruise. Everybody eats and the cookies are passed around, then the boxes of kits. Josette helps wash everything up and returns to the dorm, putting everything away before looking out the window to see the decorations going up all around the school grounds.

"Oh that goddamn fool." Josette moans a couple days later when she reads the databurst.

"What is . . .Oh that fool!" Bronwen snorts, reading over her shoulder.

"Do we want to know?"

"Dumbass from the publishing house. . .he's demanding the city-ship return so he can go into space and write about his harrowing journey into space. He'll write a book that every school in the world will want to buy. He'll show the publishing house . . .they'll come begging to be allowed to print is book. He'll let them down easy." Josette puts her wrist up to the top of her head, her fingers moving in a damsel in distress 'oh la, I fear that I shall faint' imitation. "And best of all . . .it will be real."

"That old fool wouldn't know real if it hit him upside the head with a clue by four."

Josette cackles as she reads the databurst a couple days later. "Dumbass pouting?"

"Yes, the government told him not just no but hell no. No he's going to write about his harrowing adventures in colonizing a new dimension now."

"Why doesn't he just write about being a total dumbass who can't get a life? That would really be real life." Bronwen snorts.

More wails when he finds out how much money it would take to open a dimension to a colony. . .how many supplies they'd need. . .having to build his own house by hand. . .with no toilet, running water, or ready source of heat at the turn of a dial and having to grow his own food. Howls of how that's not fair is greeted by snorts of derision and 'too damn bad'.

"I wonder if this is the last we'll hear of the old fool." Calvin asks once they've returned to Earth and are in the same time period as the databursts they'd been reading on Haven.

"Probably not. . those type of people never go away peacefully. When is Josette's graduation?"

"September 21st. The school is already planning on printing out a diploma for the tv degree Josette's going to have finished in a few months."

"How many degrees will that make?"

"Thirteen, not quite the 'it will take them fifteen minutes to list off all your degrees and the pretty papers will be yay thick' Alexander said about Montague. But she'll get there eventually."

"Is Josette still taking classes at the other schools?"

"Of course. . .they're her second home as she's said more than once. They're already back to adding more classes."

"You know. . I'm sure Cambridge and Oxford started out the same way." Maria says. The others laugh and nod.

"Shows?"

"The boys here, Josette in her Mom Clarinda's dimension."

"Is Josette premiering two more books?"

"She'd planned on it."

"Are you god damn retarded you miserable old fool? Hell NO am I going to take your oh so special lawsuit demanding the woman you tried having fired buy you a damn new house because you were too lazy or stupid to pay off your house when you knew that the zero-population period was coming and you should pay down your bills since the textbook sales would be dead for a few decades. . .even after people starting having children again."

"But you've gotta!" he wails. "I . .I have to work to pay my bills now."

"Too damn bad. That's what the rest of the world does."

"But they're threatening to foreclose on my home."

"Then run your miserable little ass to the courthouse and file paperwork freezing the foreclosure while you go to the work dimension and pay off your mortgage." He walks off wailing. "Miserable old fool." His legal secretary calls once he's gone. "Want me to call the courthouse?"

"Yeah, let them know the old fool is going to be making a scene. If he's too stupid to get off his ass and work. . .he deserves to lose his damn home. Probably had one of those damn McMansions to lord it over his neighbors."

"Madison, how big is your home?" The boss of the publishing house asks as he leans in her door.

"Twenty-five thousand square feet. Eight bedrooms, seven bathrooms for the big house. Why?"

"That old fool Flannery had a two hundred fifty thousand square feet home . ..and he added onto it again after the zero-population period started."

"For god's sake. . .why? The only reason my house is so big is because of all the kids. Now that they're out of the house Jessica, Joanne, and I were rattling around in it before we moved back to our smaller homes. Hell, the only house that I know even bigger than ours is Josette's .. .and that's the main house and several outbuildings."

"Because he had to lord it over everybody that he was soooo much better." Jessica snorts from the doorway of the office. "I hope the old fool at least had the sense to pay for everything upfront?"

"Of course not." Joanne sneers behind Jessica. "Lemme guess, he was trying to sue to make Josette pay his mortgage? Because he blames her for everything that goes wrong in his world because she won't accept him as an agent. He'd let her keep her quilting books once his precious textbook line took off. Out of the kindness of his heart."

"Worse . . he wanted her to buy him a whole new house. . .because his bank is threatening foreclosure."

"Of course. . .the little bastard couldn't be bothered to pay his bills?"

"But he wasn't making the kind of money he used to. Moron couldn't cut back on expenses or get a second job because lord knows there's not a lack of them." Madison snorts. Jessica and Joanne nod. . .all three women have picked up second jobs over the last decade and all their kids worked during school. They could build ten houses the size of their big house . . .but they don't need to.

"Moron needs to be put in a home because he's too fucking stupid to live."

"Well. . .not quite that bad." The boss chuckles. "But he had a fit because a lawyer wouldn't take his lawsuit demanding Ms. Takahawa buy him a house. He was sent to the work dimension to pay off his mortgage, make enough money to live on the rest of his life, and is being put under conservatorship."

Guffaws from everybody. "People telling him what to do instead of him telling them how to run their lives. He'll hate it."

The news soon makes the round of the building and 'couldn't happen to a nicer old fool' is the general consensus.

David nudges Josette at dinner. "I saw all those ads on tv saying Corn oil is helpful at lowering cholesterol."

"Because of plant sterols. Yep, GD has been looking into it and we can use the same machines for the olives and vegetable oil if we ever want to start using it. Same with peanut and coconut oil, there's not that big of a demand for it. Though I plan on getting some coconut oil from the other dimensions for soapmaking."

"All the fresh food and exercise means nobody has high cholesterol." Alan says. In the front room Dr. Hazlitt nods.

"Frances, Elaine. . .we're having a dyeing party in town next week."

"I thought we'd be running low on pretty soon."

Josette nods. "We can all dye small batches but. . ."

"The mega batches means room to spread out and a lot of hands."

"Do we have supplies of dye and vinegar?"

"Yeah, I got batches in from Ellis's."

A couple weeks later a rainbow of color is hanging in the dyeing building. In addition to the yarn they'd died fleeces and cotton and the shelves are full of those now that they're dry. Josette had been taping the work with cameras in different areas of the room, Paddy and both Pats in the other dimensions had wanted video when Josette said they'd have a massive dyeing party.

"Oh . . .wow. I'm not a crafter and I can say that's beautiful." Alice says as she looks at the building on the screen. "That's what they mean by dye lots on yarn." She points to one section where you can see it going from darker to lighter.

Pat nods. "It doesn't matter with mass-produced fabric, woolease, or acrylic yarns but you can see the difference in home dyed fabrics, fleece, cotton, and yarn."

Josette takes out the 9th planet's part of the work, Ma and the others looking at the full shelves in satisfaction as the others whistle or whimper at the file showing how much work they did.

"Yes, while we could have made many smaller batches. . .it was much easier to bring everything together and work on it together."

"Ventilation?"

"Yes, they added extra to the building when they put it up. Beats having to open a door in the middle of winter."

"Is that the only . . .?"

"One they have? No, Assyrian and Edinborough each have their own operations. I think the school might have one . . .or just Josette for her art. I think the cooperative outside Albatross might an operation too."

"Will the school building finish being cleaned and painted this year?"

"Yes, Josette says the offworld fund is slowly growing again. Not only was it tapped for the cruise and our purchases, there were a couple orders in there too."

Josette slides into her seat at the government building the third month of the year.

"Get the GD peppers planted?" President Bartlett asks. They're the only two people in the room right now.

"Last week." Josette stretches in the chair. "I stayed out the entire time, giving them green picked, ripe, dried, and the plants. Sold some and the rest is either dried or popped in stasis. Dr. Stark thanked me for growing them before he had to go deal with the explosion of the day. The botanists thanked me for everything as they fell on it like a pack of wolves." Doc chuckles in the doorway.

"What was that in the databurst about that fool old man?" David asks, looking at Josette as he pours himself a mug of coffee from the wall unit.

"Ohhh, that miserable old bastard was incensed that the court would tell him what to do with his life."

"Yeah. . .he's supposed to tell others how to run their lives." David snorts.

"The court told him he was too fucking stupid to live and he'd better shut the hell up before they toss his ass in a jail cell for 90 days for contempt of court."

"Oh I bet he didn't like that."

"Oh not at all. So his useless ass is sitting in a jail cell whining about how it isn't fair. How can they do that to him." Principal Madison snorts as he joins them in the room.

"Any news on the zero-population period?"

"It should be done by the end of the year. . .factories are gearing back up to start making baby stuff. Of course that doesn't mean they'll start popping out babies. . ."

"Look how long it took us to start having kids after we moved to Haven." David says. Josette nods. "Same reason except they didn't move to another planet."

"Anything new?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of growing yucca as a test?"

"Yucca?"

"It's used to make tapioca." Doc says.

"Yeah, it was largely grown in the US for that, but in Mexico and Central American countries you could find it in stores."

"It would probably cost more to grow and process it . . ."

"Than buying it from the other dimensions? Yes, that's one of the bad points I wanted to talk about. And not many people would know what to do with it."

"People ate what they were comfortable with." President Bartlett says.

Josette sticks a donut in her mouth and puts the bag with the rest in the refrigerator before going upstairs. Looking in her workroom she closes her eyes and blindly reaches out to select a kit to work on, opening the package and laying everything out.

"Do you have everything you need?" David asks in the doorway.

"Yeah, I brought out a lot of supplies from the ship after the Harvest Festival once I knew what I was running low on." Josette covers her mouth with her arm as she yawns. "More snow coming in."

"Yep, the probes already let us know. Nothing that we can't get outside for. . .just weather you want to curl up in a blanket and read or nap."

"Yep. . .sleeping weather."

"You know. . .somebody on Earth would be wailing at you filling the entire wrap with food." Susan chuckles as she sees Josette making one for a snack in her room.

"Of course they would. . .you wouldn't have all that tortilla left over after you eat the food." Josette snorts. "Just like there's stores that sell subs where one end of the sub is just plain bread."

"Because god forbid they add a couple more slices of meat and cheese to cover all the bread." Abby snorts as she comes into the room. "Josette, did you grow for GD?"

"Yeah, I stayed out there the entire time so they had records. After delivering to GD and selling to the others I have tons of dried and fresh in stasis."

The snow starts melting and windows open for as long as they can until the furnace starts running to get rid of the 'lived in' smell of the dorm. They're shut but everybody knows this is the turning point and in a couple weeks they'll be able to keep the windows open.

"Thank god for replicators." Susan says when she drops a baggie of cat crap in the recycling bin and watching it disappear.

"Yes, I've seen people carrying buckets of crap to the replicator. I'm sure in the farms they probably have a place set up where they can dump buckets year-round."

"It's giving back to the land that way." Josette smirks. The others laugh and nod.

Josette heads off with the boys for their final tests.

"Are you going to be done with the tv degree in time for your graduation?"

"Actually, I just finished it. Once I heard about the graduation ceremony I picked up an extra semester over break." Dr. Stark nods in satisfaction.

"Aside from that, how many degrees are you looking at finishing?"

"Four, three of them the massive mega-set degrees that I've been running through taking a semester for each degree. I've got three this year, three next and one the year after that. I'm finishing the submarine in war degree this year and the plane crashes and my doctorate next year."

"Are you replicating your cap and gown?"

"Yeah, in a couple months."

"When is your graduation?"

"Midterms second semester, I have a book tour after our Harvest Festival and I'll have books for Jessica, Joanne, and Madison when I go out for graduation."

"Did I hear rumors of graphic novels or computer games from your books?"

"Yes, but the first scripts were like the first script for the movie."

"Absolute crap written by somebody who couldn't be even bothered to read the damn source material but thinks since he's all that and a bag of chips everybody will be falling over themselves to accept it?" Dr. Cross snorts.

"Yep, they're quickly going back to the drawing board and actually reading the damn books."

"Show?"

"The boys Granda's dimension in three weeks. . .me Mom's dimension just before our finals third semester."

"Have you been able to get back a supply. . .?"

"We spent a few weeks in time dilation on the ships to make sure we were caught up."

A beeping has Josette disappearing. She arrives at the mansion, checking the security system and grabbing a shotgun before calling the police.

Josette cusses the old fool trying to break through the gates, the police dragging him away.

"But the people you put over me won't let me add onto my home. She can find another home. . .I want that one." He wails before a judge the next morning.

"Get the hell over yourself. . .you don't need to add onto your home. You just want to add onto your house to Lord it over your neighbors. That's what got you under conservatorship in the first place. You having a fit in the courthouse because you might be losing your home for not paying your mortgage."

"But . .but it's not fair that she has that big and beautiful a house. If I can't have the home I want. . .neither should she. She can buy another house. . .that one should be mine." He wails as he's dragged off again.

"Didn't that old fool just get out of here?" One of the jailers asks another as he's tossed in the cell he just left less than a week ago.