"Are the books going to be available here?"

"Yes, and I'll stockpile them for when we're not showing on Granda's world. The other worlds are we haven't had enough shows or 'yeah, you're older than you look. . .isn't everybody' on Mom's world and here." Nods from the others. "Do we have anything else we need to talk about?"

"How do you know what's going to be happening in the databursts?" Doc asks dryly.

"I got a call last night to deliver some stuff to the moonbase and talk to experts about a real colony trip to another planet since I mocked up those generation ship plans. I'm . . .actually out there for another three weeks."

"I wouldn't think they were talking colonies yet after the zero-population period ending."

"They're not but they're making plans for the future. . .including another city-ship mission. They're not looking at other planets yet, but they want to expand on what they learned from being on Mars. They're talking twenty or twenty five years but that would be way too long in a city-ship."

"Yes, but it would be a perfect example of what a trip to another planet would be like."

Josette nods. "But it would be a long time away from their families. And families are what would be traveling to another planet."

"They'd also have to have a set of laws already in place."

Josette takes a doughnut out of the bag she'd picked up after the meeting and puts it in her mouth before putting the bag away. A pot of beans is cooking on the fire hearth and she gives it a stir before adding the last of the spices.

"Smells good." Susan says from the door.

"Yeah, it will be done in a couple hours."

"Is that a brisket?"

"Yeah, it will be done the same time as the beans."

"David says the government wanted to talk to you?"

"Yeah, about the generation ship plans I made last year. They're looking at a longer trip on the city-ship. ..twenty to twenty-five years."

"Dear god, that would be a long trip. Which a colony would be."

"Yes, but I don't see it happening for a very long time. One. ..with the recent zero-population period there's no need for a colony and the government is running the city-ship as almost a military operation. A colony would be families and civilians. . ."

"The civilians on the city-ships would be because they have important jobs. . .and definitely no families." Alan says behind Susan. The two women nod. "We brought up the school. ..they'd have to think about that."

"GD handled the medical needs, including delivering the babies."

"Jobs would be needed. . .on a generation ship I can see the kids learning their parents duties unless they had a talent for something else. And the teachers would have to recognize that."

"Having people to take over important duties when a woman has to go on maternity leave. If they even had important duties."

"Yes, I can see women being pushed aside because 'oh, you'll be out having the babies and raising them'. Ignoring the fact that everybody would be needed to start the colony at first, there wouldn't be any children for a few years."

After lunch Josette starts wandering the dorm, looking in on the others who are either working on quilts, working on the books, or taking classes before going up to the growing area and starting seed trays. Alan comes up a few minutes later, nods, and walks over to hydroponics to remove the plants that are done and have gone to seed to dry.

"I miss having the tomatoes, peppers, and herbs everywhere." He complains.

Josette nods. "The others do to, we're going to start them again this fall."

"Are you planting on the first planet again?"

"I gotta look over the lists but probably." Finishing the seed trays she looks through the lists and the pokes her head through the door to Headquarters. 10th planet Doc looks over at her along with Doc. "Planting on the first planet?"

"Are the stocks really low?"

"No, I thought I'd put out a message asking if there was anything in particular that everybody wanted grown after growing so many different tomatoes and peppers. . .otherwise I'm not growing."

Both men nod and Josette leans between Professor Druid and Principal Madison, looking over at President Bartlett. "Something we didn't talk about this morning. . first planet growing. Nothing is low low, so I thought I'd send out a message that if there was anything that people wanted grown after we all grew different tomatoes, peppers, and herbs last winter."

Everybody in earshot nods. "Okay, I'll put up the message then and everybody can start listing them. . .adding a vote if what they wanted is already listed. Whatever gets the most votes gets planted."

That message is sent out after dinner and the list is already growing when she checks her PADD the next morning. She walks to the front room at breakfast.

"Okay, two things. One, towels?"

"It's been a while since we had the factory going but we've got a good reserve. I was going to say something later this year." President Bartlett says. Josette nods. "And two, a garden for tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. . .here, in Town, and Albatross. A large garden that can grow all the different types."

"Hmmm, not a community garden but extra." Professor Druid taps a knife on the table. "That was my thought. Not grown every season. ..hell not even every year."

"Put out a message and see if there'd be any interest. We've got plenty of manure and compost for it. . .not that it should be needed the first year."

"Yep, and the plants could go in the compost piles with the others."

"Josette, how is Pat doing with the plant dyes?" Elaine asks.

"Good, once the plants go to seed they can be dried, ground into powder, and used in dyeing projects." Josette heads to the back room and fills her tray with her first breakfast.

"Plans?"

"After breakfast Doc and I are going out to the 9th planet with 10th Doc and some of his crew to help with bringing out stuff from the ships they share with the 9th planet. They don't need much, this is more a 'go explore the ships' trip."

"Are we going to be able to make the boxes?"

"Yes, the ships are busy making them because they want all those damn boxes out of their rooms too. Boxes of boxes take up a helluva lot less room. I'll go out in a few weeks when they all have massive batches done and start filling them. This way I can start an inventory. We tried to keep one but it was a matter of. . .okay, we found these here, they went there. . ." the others nod.

"Recycling?"

"There? Only what was done when they were running low on raw materials for what he wanted. And of course it had to happen after they'd already put in a full day's work."

"Moron."

"Yes, I'm sure everybody who died thanks to his greed and stupidity are taking their pound of flesh in the afterlife. Because if he hadn't tried controlling the world. . ."

"He could have had what he wanted? Figures."

"Exactly."

Josette joins Doc at the switching station, taking a breath of the late fall air on the 9th planet as the others from the 10th planet arrive. There's wagons attached to the flyers and Josette sighs and takes them off. "I'll put everything in subspace, no use filling the wagons multiple times and then emptying them multiple times at the switching station. The others nod and they fly out to the ships. "Damn, if you laid the building from the first planet on it's side. .." Beau whistles.

"It wouldn't make a dent. Yes, I had the same thought and as big as my and Clark's ships, they wouldn't make a dent in them either." The flyers land and Josette moves to hop over the side, both Docs giving her looks so she walks out through the door. The others are stifling laughter.

"Okay, am I nuts. . ."

"Yes, the ships are floating, it's an anti-gravity field. The ships weigh tons upon tons upon tons, they'd kill the ground underneath thanks to all the pressure."

They open the door to the one that have been set aside for the tenth planet and walk inside. Beau whistles and the sound echoes.

"How big are the rooms?"

"Easily as big enough as one of the floors in the dining hall and I couldn't see the other wall." Josette says absently. "Okay, where are we starting first?"

Josette returns to the dorm later that night and Doc joins her for dinner at the dining hall.

"Get a lot of stuff out of the ships?"

"Yeah, hundreds of boxes in different areas. I split off a couple dozen duplicates to carry it all, otherwise they'd have filling and emptying the wagons multiple times, let alone getting everything from the 9th to the 10th planets. And did anybody see a wall in any of the rooms?" Josette looks at Doc.

"No, I suspect they're tesseracts."

"How big are the rooms."

"A floor of the dining hall. At least as far as we could see."

"Damn."

Josette bites the bullet the next morning and flies to the ship, walking into the one she'd been in with Doc and looking in one of the rooms marked fabric. Bringing out one of the boxes she silently 'opens' it and moans. Dozens of rolls of fabric are inside. If each box holds just as much. . .Putting everything back inside she looks at the other rooms, making notes on the map that updates the other copies. Putting the boxes she brought out into subspace she puts them in the room that had held Eureka's sock machines when she arrives back at the dorm.

Pat looks behind her. "Fabric?"

"Fabric, yarn, thread. . . Tell Doc I counted back a hundred rows of boxes and I was still nowhere near the wall. . .the rooms are definitely tesseracts. From what I could see, each room held a different type of fabric. . .one of these is cotton, one is wool, one denim. I found rooms that were full of patterns. . . machines. . ."

"Oh lord." Pat moans.

"Though I did find an area where we can put the empty boxes."

"That will be needed." Doc says behind them. "Do I want to know how . . ."

Josette walks over and unlatches a box. "Empty." she says quietly. Rolls of fabric shoot out into a nice pile beside her.

"Oh dear god." Pat moans. Josette opens a box of the others to show them everything then puts everything away. "Oh Doc, I counted back a hundred rows of boxes and. .."

"Still didn't see the wall. Yes, that's why I came up."

"Machines?"

"Sewing machines, knitting machines, long arm quilters. . .everything we'd need to make stuff." Josette passes along a message to Pat on the 10th planet with pictures of the boxes and the contents out, getting a moaning back from her and Doc.

"Everything that would be needed for the planets."

"Yep. We won't need anything for decades. Unless it's for the orders from Granda's world." Her grandparents nod. "I know Calvin has been wanting to slowly send out more sock knitting machines, yours are ancient."

"But working perfectly since I took a page out of Greta's book and 'whomped' them up a few degrees." She holds up a hand. "Though I did not put a thing on the yarn warehouses that instantly replaces a pallet of yarn once it's brought out. . .that was the others." Doc nods as Pat blinks then moans. "Yes, they got your storerooms too. And mine. . .and the businesses. . .and the warehouses. Anything new that comes in is instantly replicated."

"Oh dear lord." Pat moans again as Doc trills. "Did they bring out the big mackdaddy replicator to Headquarters they were talking about? Not the smaller ones we have, a larger one that will make everything we currently don't make because we'd need the factories? Food or otherwise?"

"Not that I know. . ."

/It's here./ David whistles mentally. /They put it in the area with your factories. They plan installing larger ones than we currently have later this year. You should be getting the stuff in your next batch of supplies./

"Never mind, David just said they brought it out here instead, it's by my factories. And they're going to be installing larger ones here and at Headquarters later this year?" On the first floor David is nodding. The others look at him and he repeats what he'd just told Josette.

"We don't need them."

"No, just like we don't need the ships. . .but the others wanted us to have them." Nods from Doc and Pat. Josette gets the location of the new replicator and takes them to see it."

"This is huge."

"Yes, this would be the size to handle a city-ship or starbase."

"The others?" Doc says.

"The compound has one. ..so does CJ's fortress. The 9th planet has one of course. . .and it can be used by the 10th planet. The others? They'll get them in the future as needed." Doc nods.

Josette looks at the time and Doc and Pat join the others walking to the dining hall for dinner. Pat is waved up to the front room and she talks with Frances and Elaine for a few minutes.

"Asking about the plants?"

"Yes. You can remove a leaf and dry it but the color wouldn't be as vibrant as a plant that's gone to seed." Pat says as she sits down with a tray. "Do you have examples?"

"Tons, both the immature plant dye and the mature version. We don't have anything to dye right now or I'd be bringing them out to show everybody."

"Cotton?"

"The machines started the crop, I'll pick it up when I get the second batch of offworld harvests."

"First planet?"

"I'm giving the poll another couple weeks before I go out. This year is a double harvest so I'm going to be out there a few times."

Josette pulls out her PADD and sends a file to Frances and Elaine. "Since you're going to ask. Cotton, the first is the immature leaf. . .notice how the color is almost transparent?" The file goes up to the screen and the others nod. "The second is the gone to seed leaf. You can see the difference."

"Yes, the first one is almost translucent, let alone transparent. Companies would have killed for that effect on Earth." Frances says. Elaine nods vigorously. "Is the color stable?"

"Yes. Both from one dye to the next and in terms of laundering." Josette brings up another file. "Some yarn that had been dyed with both leaves. . .notice the sheen to it? In the right light it would almost sparkle."

A couple weeks later Josette makes a list of what she's going to grow and heads off to the first planet, soaking up the sunlight for a few days before she plants.

"How many did you plant?" Doc asks when she comes back and makes an announcement of when everything would be available at the flea market building.

"A dozen plants each of the top five, that will give everybody a good variety and I've got some left over."

"The plans to have a garden for tomatoes, herbs, and peppers is a go." Professor Druid says.

"Here?"

"Here, Town, and Albatross. The others are talking similar plans on their own planets."

The bushel baskets are full when the building opens and people start trooping in to fill bags. Agatha corrals Josette as she puts a full bag over her arm. They finalize a date for the trip to Ellis's and Agatha heads off.

Josette comes into the Albatross Nest and passes over two pair of socks.

"These are the plant winter weight yarn." she pats one pair.

"Hmm." The socks are passed around the room. "Hand wash?"

"Yes, the buildings don't have a washing machine as we know it, cubicles that you could put the dirty clothes in to wash. The plant buildings have their own soap and toilet paper but liquid laundry detergent works just as well. Now these are from a batch of fleeces I picked up on another planet." The second pair of sock is passed around.

"How do the plant socks wear?"

"They're not as warm as pure wool but still warm. In a pair of winter boots, your feet would be toasty warm." Nods from the others as Josette puts the socks back in her pocket. "Not as convenient as woolease but since everybody's used to handwashing the socks. . ."

"It's not bothering anybody. If they were bothered they wouldn't be wearing wool socks anyway." Sue says briskly. Nods from the others. "Thankfully we don't have to deal with those whining fools anymore."

"Speaking of whining fools, the kids in the other dimension?"

"whining about how everybody's being mean to them in prison. . .it was just supposed to be a prank. They don't want to take responsibility for their own bullshit and are miserable. The school is blubbering about all the bad publicity they're getting, but it they'd yanked the leashes of those miserable brats years ago. . ."

"Own damn fault then." Suzie says briskly.

"Yep. The girl who was targeted is now in a better school with her friends and due to graduate the end of the year. She's already got a full scholarship to the university that's associated with the school, so do all her friends."

"She'll go far, they'll die in prison."

"Yep. Their parents are wailing everybody's talking bad about them but if they'd yanked the damn brat's leashes years ago."

"But that would mean being a parent. . .not your kids bestie." Suzie drawls, looking at her mother then pretending to cower. Everybody laughs at them.

"And everybody knows they can't have that." Sue drawls. "But the kids came by their stupidity honestly."

"Yes, and I'm sure the bloody morons will be bleating to celebrities to get somebody to take their side and get them out so they can screw around again. Because no way in hell has any of them turned over a new leaf or wants to take responsibility for their own actions."

"Yep. They just want out of prison. . .because it's hard. . . everybody's being mean to them."

"Offworld harvests."

"Five more weeks, at least three trips I'll have to take the drying tables to the first world." The others nod.

"Quilts?"

"I've got ten books done and should have another six by the end of the year. I figure the printers will be in operation four years. .. a good chunk of the books are nowhere near done." Nods from the others.

Sooner than anybody could have thought humanly possible people are gathering in town for the first offworld harvest.

A few hours every night Josette has a dozen other selves doing an inventory as she fills some of the boxes that the ships had been making.

"How was the trip?" David asks later that night when Josette's delivered the food to people waiting and the trays had gone to the first planet.

"Good, every night for a few hours I was busy taking inventory and filling boxes. I cleared out a few areas that we just 'picked it up and moved it'."

"Some of it I'm just going to end up tossing for raw materials if the other dimensions don't want it. I found thousands of cases for cell phones. . ." Doc sighs and Principal Madison moans. "Hundreds of thousands of cell phones and the latest apple crap. Again. . .raw materials if it's not wanted. There's enough tvs that I could fill the walls of the dorm rooms and not made a dent in them. Right now they're in the containers with the other. . .stuff."

Josette sends off a message to the other dimensions about what she found. "Okay, if I don't get a 'we'd like some of this. . .which I doubt like hell I'll get. . ." the others nod. "I'll start chucking it in the replicator."

"Have you found anything we could use so far?"

"Tons of DVDS and books. Literally. A lot of stuff we recycled while we were there, so no paper ends or stuff like that. Tons of toilet paper I've been shoving in boxes by the pallet. I guess even he had to admit that it would be needed."

"How magnanimous of him." David drawls. Josette snorts. "I've found tons of bath stuff and perfume. . .but it's all scents that females usually like. . .I guess he was trying to use it as bribes for 'female friends'." Snorts from the others. "It's all shoved in boxes until. . ." She gets responses back from the other dimensions. "Nope, they don't need any of that shit. . I'll shove it into the replicator when I get back out."

"No need for you to do it all yourself, I can open a tesseract and we can either drop them in the replicator or shoot them with a gun." David says. The others nod.

"Kids?" Ulonda asks the next morning after breakfast when the tesseract opens on one of her piers.

"Josette sent out a message last night asking if any of the other dimensions wanted the cell phones, cases, and apple crap you've found so far."

"Ahhhh, and none of them jumped at it?" She drawls.

"Nope, we said we'd toss it in the replicators or shoot the boxes with guns instead of little miss stubborn doing it all herself. She's going over some of that stuff she got off the ships with Doc."

"Okay kids, it's all this way. We left it out of the boxes since we figured it would end up being tossed in the replicator in the end."

Three days of work has everything turned into raw materials. The ship that had gone out earlier to harvest lands and David opens a linked tesseract that moves everybody to town.

"Get everything done?"

"Yeah, you've got a lot more to sort through."

"Oh I know, this was even worse than a normal Earth's consumerism. . .this was all. . .'me, me, me, I want you to make everything for me'." Dr. Samson and Peter who'd been on this trip with her snort. They'd seen all the boxes and just moaned until Josette had told them what happened. They'd helped fill boxes and do inventory after that.

"Am I nuts. . .don't say it please." David holds up a hand at Peter's smirk. "Have we not found. . ."

"Boxes of one component for something? No, if they couldn't make an entire product they made as much as they could then were shut down and their workers sent elsewhere. He wanted finished products until the factories making his playtoys had to shut down for the lack of parts. Then he opened the others back up and 'allowed' them to make the parts needed to make more. . .shit."

"That man should have been in counseling years ago."

"He had the power to do whatever he wanted. And screw anybody who told him no. Just like a pureblood from Harry Potter."

"Dumbledore."

"Yep." They split up, Dr. Samson and Peter going to get a hot meal at the communal kitchen as Josette's duplicates deliver food. The food that had been dried on the first planet had been put in containers and the tables filled on the ship to take out tomorrow.

"Are you getting stuff sorted and moved?" Principal Madison asks when she comes up to the front room.

"Yes, the others said they're done with the stuff I'd set aside on Ulonda to see if any of the others wanted some." David nods in the back room. "I was working nights on Vallejo, first me and a dozen duplicates, then Dr. Sampson and Peter Venkman when they found all the boxes. I got a 'really Josette, isn't this a little much' look until I explained where it had all came from. They helped me with inventory and moving stuff into the boxes after that."

"Have you made anything with the fleeces?" Elaine asks. Josette had brought out a couple for her and Agatha.

"A sweater, hats, gloves, and socks. I thought about a scarf but I never wear them."

"Did you short anybody taking all those fleeces?" President Bartlett looks at her.

"Hellllll nooooooo, I could take that much daily for a million years and not short anybody. The animals grow like weeds and are shorn four or five times a year. They were bred to be heavy wool producers. Which is needed for all of their damn scientific advances they don't seem to be able to heat their buildings comfortably during the winter. Which isn't a problem on the agricultural planet, just the others."

"About like that guy on Alone in the Wilderness?"

"Yes, but instead of a small cabin it's. . .ohhhh, a place like the dorms in the forties in the middle of winter. A lot of fireplaces for extra heat. . .though they were something like gas and not wood. All the buildings are ancient. . .hundreds of years old and medieval looking. For all that spaceflight is common."

The others shake their heads.

"Yeah, the weavers and spinners have pretty much a year round business making yarn and cloth. I'm in the rotation to get shipments of the fleeces now and next time I wanna experiment with making cloth."

"Drying tables?"

"The stuff from the first harvest is in containers, the drying tables were filled on the ship and I'll take them out tomorrow. Another week should have everything drying and not freezing here." Professor Druid nods as she heads into the back room.

The next morning Josette is on the first planet, laying out the tables and moving the food to containers when it's dry. Josette gets everything dry and in the containers before returning to Haven.

"How long?"

"About three weeks, we've been drying more stuff over the years." The others nod. Pat comes out of Headquarters and takes Josette upstairs, obviously having been waiting for her. The others snicker.

"More clothes?"

"No, Pat wanted to see if there were any kits on the ships like we have in the warehouse and if so. . ."

"Are they all the same?"

"Yes, and in the case of the looms that made potholders if they had the loops. I'll go out after lunch."

"We'll go out after lunch." Pat says calmly. "I've seen pictures of the ships and you've told me about the rooms. . ."

"But it's different seeing in in person." Everybody nods. Josette puts out a call and three flyers with attached wagons head out after lunch. Besides Pat, Agatha, Frances, Elaine, and Professor Druid are in the flyers.

"Oh my god." Professor Druid says as she first sees the ships.

"Yeah, and we've about ten miles out yet." Josette says over the radio. "The ships are huge."

The others look around as they walk inside and Josette checks the map.

"Okay, I know that you put the stuff that the other dimensions didn't want. . ."

"In the replicator, and yes, we scanned some of the boxes so we could have them if we ever need them in the future." The others nod in satisfaction. The first room is come to and they whimper at the room.

"I know you said they were big. . ."

"But you thought I was joking. No, you don't realize how big it is until you see it firsthand."

"I can see how you counted a hundred rows back and still didn't see the wall." Pat sighs as she pulls boxes out of each room. Josette waves them to their wagon for the trip back as they go to the next section. The wagons and flyers land by the Albatross Nest, the textiles building at school, and Headquarters and everything is moved inside. Josette had picked up some stuff of her own and that's waved to the dorm as Josette, Frances, Elaine, and Professor Druid head to the dining hall for dinner.

"Josette wasn't kidding about the rooms being big." Professor Druid says at her husband and President Bartlett's looks. "We brought out enough boxes to fill the wagons and strap stuff down in addition to what Josette brought out in subspace herself and it didn't scratch the surface, let alone make a dent in the rooms. Josette, I'll let you know when you can take the empty boxes back to the ship." Josette nods in the back room as she fills her tray.

The ground is bare enough for manure to be spread a couple days later and Josette walks into the dorm to find Grandpa Charles and a man she doesn't know looking over the three different 'sizes' of boxes in the living room. Charles hugs her, checking her and grinning when he finds just a general tiredness from spreading manure all morning.

"Yeah, it's a bit of work but it's needed. Where are the others?"

"The boys said something about emptying the containers?"

"Chicken manure, the barn sweepers sweeps it into containers over the winter and we let it age a few years before it's bagged. It's been a few years so that's what they're doing."

"Yep, we've got eighteen 40 pound bags filled and three pails." Alexander says as he walks through from the ranch. "Ahhhhh, I needed the damn fresh air."

"Yes, you don't have to work on the art all the time."

"Damn thing was howling in my ear. . ."

Josette snorts. "that's why I have so many books in the pipe waiting to be printed. Both the fiction and the quilting books." Looking at the time she heads into her first floor bedroom and comes out a few minutes later in different clothes. Ones that don't smell of eau de barnyard.

"Do you have any of the big boxes here?" Charles asks.

"Yeah, we've been bringing out different boxes from the ships." Josette leads the way upstairs. The man nods at the boxes then sighs as she brings out smaller boxes and much more than their boxes could have held come out of their boxes before they're refilled.

"That . . .is disturbing." Charles says as he looks at the small box on the palm of Josette's hand.

"Yes, while it would be easier to transport. ..hell this could handle everything on one of our trips to the warehouse store and other places. .. and we fill twenty carts at the stores easy. . .I'd have a clip on the handle to attach it to my belt."

"As would I, while it's easy to slip it into a pocket. . ."

"It's easy for the damn thing to slip out of the pocket if you're sitting. . .that's why so many cell phones slide out of pockets. And women have bigger pockets in their pants then men." Both of them nod. "Maybe a beeper so if it got a few feet from the person. . ."

"Say the box and a watch? Now if it was in a suitcase or shoulder bag and the person left it in their seat or the rack on a train while they went to the bathroom or got something to eat. . .it would get damn annoying. I'd say a braided cord attaching it to a belt would be better, this way if the box slides out, it's still swinging from your belt."

"And if you're a courier. . .you'd have to have a way to make sure the right box went to the right place beyond opening everything."

"Yes, I can see . . .'okay, the one with the two rubber bands on one end goes here, the one with rubber bands on either end goes there, the one with the rubber bands longway goes somewhere else." David drawls from the doorway. "Josette, Calvin sent off a message, the new knitting machines and yarn are ready to pick up."

"Yeah, I figured it would be pretty soon. The boys have finished making the new tables for the machines here and both buildings."

"Buildings?"

The whole story is told and Josette shows them the sock and other knitting machines that had been in the rooms they were standing in before.

"How many sock machines?" The man whimpers. He'd deny it, but he's whimpering.

"9000 machines in each building, before we lost our Earth they kept wanting more and more socks. . .especially when they realized the ice age was coming and they'd need to get in sock .. .err stockpiles of them." Both men snicker. "Right now they're used to make socks either for the planets or to send to Calvin's dimension, they announced last year they wanted to increase the orders. They sent out more machines since ours are old but well cared for."

"I know the others asked about this, but glass?"

"Not taking it out anymore since I'd be bringing it back anyway. The couple cents I'd get per bottle. . .Granda just passes that along in the money for everything." David nods.

"Do you see the glass. . ."

"recycling ever being used? Not unless the government forces people to use recycled before they use raw materials. Or the colony dimension expands and they have the need for more windows. People are lazy and don't want to take the time to break up the glass and melt it before using it in new stuff." The man with Grandpa Charles laughs but nods.

He heads back to the other dimension's Earth a week later his time. "Ohhh, that was nice."

"The planets?"

"Nice and quiet, the planet that had the other boxes is starting their spring and was planting their first crops when I was out there. I saw the boxes, they're smaller and hold more. The young woman had concerns about the box that can shrink to the size of a matchbox car being lost. . .she said she's want something that attached the handle to her belt to keep it from slipping out of a pocket."

"We'd want the same thing." A voice rumbles. "Have they been using the gifts?"

"Yes sir, I saw containers in a room and they were planting some of the seeds in pots indoors while I was there."

"We are pleased then. The smaller boxes can be introduced in the next few years."

Josette slumps into a seat in the dining hall after getting a call from Calvin's dimension, everybody looking at her. "I was stuck in meetings for days." In the front room President Bartlett and Principal Madison laugh and nod. Professor Ziegler's just laughing.

"Why?"

"Oh my god, you'll take the students from the school in town. Ohhhh, you do run the school in town. Never mind. You. . you. . you have a whole building for your school library, how can . . .ohhh, the school in town has a building for a library too. You make the students buy their own books. . .ohhhh yeah, they do it there too. Y. . .yo. . .your school runs year-round. . .oh yeah, the one in town does too." Principal Madison is cackling by now. "They didn't like the school using different books than 'mainstream' schools but couldn't complain since the classes the school offers are better. Same old, same old. They complained that Granda's school doesn't have a credit union but realized the bank does a ton more business thanks to the businesses out there. . .You name it, they complained."

"How many students in the school?" Mrs. Bartlett asks as she nudges her husband to get up off the floor, it wasn't that damn funny. Even if the look on Josette's face is making her want to laugh too.

"Fifteen in the fourth grade though kindergarten, the fourth graders are looking at electives they might be taking at Granda's when their families have to start paying part of their tuition and the morons in government are up in arms about it. Oh god, we're traumatizing the students by having classes all the in same room. . .oh yeah, multiple years in the same room will be the norm for a while still." Nods from the teachers up front. "The damn local governments want to replace the schools that were either torn down or turned into businesses over the years but the courts told them hell no, they're not needed."

"No, but they want them." Professor Eppes drawls, everybody nodding around him. "So in other words things are back to normal after the zero-population period except that less babies are being born everyday."

"Yup." Josette yawns. "Sorry, I was busy most of the trip back sorting out stuff into the boxes Macchu Picchu has been making. We're slowly weeding the shit out."

"The other ships?"

"Busy making their own boxes and taking inventory. The ships talk all the time so they all know what can be tossed in the replicators." The others nod.

"Shows?"

"Me Mom and I go first. ..that's in six weeks. The boys Granda after the Harvest Festival."

"Twelve more books?"

"After this year. Gods, when I think about how long it's been since I started. .."

"Yep."

"Did you go to the comic book school?"

"Yes, they're going to be holding more talks with movers and shakers in the industry when we're out for my show. I'll be both places."

"And probably a dozen other places while you're out there. . .at the same time." Principal Madison says dryly.

"To quote Dr. Hazlitt. . ayuh." Susan drawls. Everybody laughs in the front room, Dr. Hazlitt laughing the hardest.

"Okay, is anybody finishing a degree this year?" The others look at each other and shake their heads.

"Josette?"

"Nope, I finished one last year but that was the only one even close to being done."

"Comic book school?" Principal Madison asks dryly.

"You got me there, two. The last Timely degree and a tv degree."

"Fawcett or the comic code?"

"Hmmm, I'll decide when I sign up for the degree." Josette stretches and yawns. "I need a nap, my brain hurts from all the whining." she says in a pouting tone as the others sniggers.

Josette does get her nap. . .she's not surprised when it's raining when she wakes up and they take the tunnels to the dining hall instead of messing with their rain gear. Everybody else must have done the same thing by the lack of raincoats or umbrellas dripping in containers.

"So I noticed you got into the file on the cabin?" President Bartlett asks as he waves her to the front room.

"Yes, the damn bunny is howling. There's no way in Hell I could last an entire year on my own. .. but I might be able to last a winter if I was around other people. Anyway Dr. Stark wants to see if he can use the cabin in an experiment."

David snorts. "Some of those lab geeks would not have a bit of trouble living in one of those over a winter. . .hell, they'd be like that guy on Alone in the wilderness and be out there years on their own." James laughs and nods from the steps, obviously he'd used the tunnel too when he saw the rain. "After dinner Nathan wants to see you and Josette about that."

Dr. Stark smirks at David's assertion and Josette knows he's using this as a way to get rid of some of his problem employees. The others in the room agree with her from their knowing smirks. After the cabin they talk about other topics.

Josette looks out the window at the sleeting rain when they come back from Archimedes, it's early but she's ready for bed. The lights are off in the others rooms so she's not the only one. David snickers. "Good sleeping weather."

"Yep."

Josette has an evil grin on her face the next morning. "Okay, what happened?"

"Weird dreams. . .I dreamt Willow from Buffy was bellyaching about Xander until I knocked the stupidity out of her. When Smuffy complained I ran after her with a chain saw. Giles was going oh dear lord while Cordy was laughing and eating a bowl of popcorn."

"Dr. Covington says, cut back on the fanfiction before bed." Alan smirks. "Though I would have loved to have seen it."

"Oh yes, I'm sure Doc would have been giving me a 'look' but Pat would have been beating sense into both of them . . .with a 2x4 upside the head applied as often as necessary." Doc and Pat look at her from the door of Headquarters and she repeats her dream, Pat nodding vigorously. "You got a double dose of not taking any shit from anybody, from me and your mother."

"Yes, it's called being a damn grownup." Principal Madison hears Josette saying as she walks backwards through the door, He looks over . . . ahhh, Clark and Patricia are with the group. Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later.

"Goddamn retarded whore."

Everybody looks at her. "Some fool woman trying to claim that we'd stole the land from her during the zero-population period. Since I could prove we've owned the land for years and the fool woman is involved with that fool who tried getting on the property saying 'they should want to sell by now. . .I can build malls, houses, apartments. . .'."

"Idiots."

"Yep, now they're going to be facing fraud charges and won't like it. I expect she'll be turning on him and he'll be blubbering that he didn't know they'd be facing real charges. 'WWWWWwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyy won't they sell the land to me?'" Rolled eyes and snorts of disgust.

"Because that's their home you goddamn retarded little sack of shit." Dumbass's own lawyer snorts a few days after Josette left in Calvin's dimension. "They don't have to sell to you for the damn piddling amount you could offer them."

"But it's not fair they have all that land. They don't cut down their trees, they grow crops. . ."

"Yes, like I said. . that's their home."

"But don't we need more houses and apartments?"

"Gods no fool, we've got tons of houses and apartments sitting empty. We don't need them and we don't want them. We also don't need any damn malls, movie theaters, pizza parlors, nightclubs. . .or anything else you want to build. You were told this once, didn't you listen?" the judge says in disgust.

"But if my girlfriend could have got the land away from them . .."

"He's too damn stupid to live, toss him in a jail cell for a few decades." his own lawyer snorts.

He turns to stare at him with wide eyes. "You mean I'm not getting out of here?"

"Hell no you little twit. You're going to prison for trying to steal their land." He's drug wailing back to his jail cell.

"God damn useless idiot." Josette snorts as she reads the latest databurst.

"Oh you know those type, they think they're gods gift to humanity and who are we to tell them no." David snorts as he reads the databurst over her shoulder. "A few people getting their asses handed to them for their stupidity will make everybody realize what a stupid idea it is to try to bother people for their land. Now, changing the subject. . . machines?"

"I put them in the stockrooms so they could be hit with the replicating charm before bringing them out and putting them up. The new jobs were on the board for a whole hour before they were picked up." David leans on the back of the couch and snickers. "I was thinking. .." Josette starts typing on her PADD as she clears the databurst. "If we get as many sock machines as Granda thinks we're going to be getting, put up a building in Albatross?" She looks over her shoulder and he blinks then nods.

"Doc, Josette has an idea." David leans against the door to Headquarters and two Clarks look at him. Since the second is Godly Clark it's killing two birds with one stone. "If we get the knitting machines Calvin thinks we'll be getting, put up another building in Albatross." Both men blink then slowly nod. "Did Josette bring everything out?"

"Yes, and she says the jobs were on the board for an hour."

"Okay, Godly is in Headquarters talking to Doc, they both nodded." David says when he comes back to the dorm.

"Okay, something I was thinking of earlier today." Josette looks over at Principal Madison and President Bartlett in the front room when they walk in for lunch. "If we get as many sock machines as Granda thinks we'll be getting. . .putting up a building in Albatross."

The two men blink at her then slowly nod. "If they want it. . .it's not that hard to commute with the link between the Albatross Nests."

"I'll ask after lunch."

"Ladies, a couple things." Josette brings out a box from subspace. "Some of the seeds we brought out when we were in the ship." Agatha nods as everybody looks through them and takes some. "Second, Calvin thinks we're going to be getting more sock machines in the future. . . this little operation is going just beyond the US. . ., if we get as many as everybody thinks we'll be getting, would you be interested in a building here? I know it's just as easy to commute to the buildings now with the link and hell. . .I think most of us are at the school now for classes anyway." Agatha chuckles and nods. "Let us talk about it hon. You can always put one up in the future, right?"

"Yep."

"Okay, you said you added three buildings to the dorm and you put the school's and Eureka's sock machines in one. . ." David says at dinner.

"I'm putting the machines for the spa and the school in the second one, both because those orders will be increasing over the years and I was planning on adding more machines in the future. The third building is for the stuff from the ship." The others nod.

"Josette, do you see those orders . . ." President Bartlett asks in the front room.

"Becoming jobs. . .not for a while, they're still small enough I can check on them a couple times a day. Moving it from a room to a building is the first step." Josette says, everybody nods.

Josette looks through the boxes in her studio, opening the machine boxes and bringing some out. Setting them up she makes a mental note to have the boys make more tables and starts them running.

"Is that a loom?" David asks, pointing at a box.

"Yes, it's got to be put together. Easier to pack this way."

"Do you have any of the bigger machines?"

"Yes, they're still in the boxes." She waves a hand. "Did Professor Druid bring out her new greenhouses and hydroponics setups?"

"No. They had them?"

"Oh yes." Josette brings out the information they'd found and David moans. "We don't need it yet, even if the evil bunny is trying to get me to put one up in the ranch."

"No, the growing areas here handle all our needs." David rolls his eyes. "Add one to the first planet. We're out there long enough often enough."

Josette grins. "Yes, that would work just fine, the others have been wanting to update the house there." David shakes his head. She adds that note to the list of what they'd wanted to update and David helps her unpack and put together the loom.

A few weeks later they head off to Mom's dimension, Josette rolling her eyes as everybody sniggers at her having to get a new outfit for the show. A fool man huffs over and tries nagging but the looks the others give him make him scurry off.

"Always going to be an idiot. He thinks you can't possibly afford this outfit."

The moron moans when the picture he took from the video surveillance doesn't show a con artist but instead of successful artist who's having a show in a couple nights.

Josette slumps into her usual seat the afternoon after the show.

"Talk to M'Lynn?" Clarinda knows it's not worth trying to get Josette to sleep after a show, especially one where she was busy signing books afterwards.

Josette nods around a mouthful of coffee.

"Didn't you have a book tour in New Dimension?"

"Going out tomorrow."

"How many books?"

"About 6000 each. Not as bad as Granda's. ..they're hearing rumors that the shows are going to stop in several years and they might miss a chance to be seen as there by having a signed book. I've been averaging over ten thousand books a show. For each book." Clarinda snorts but she can't say anything about it since that's pretty much the same reason Josette's books are sold and signed here.

"Has anybody misplaced a shrunken box yet?"

"Yes, and the morons who were ranting up, down, and sideways that hooking it to a belt wouldn't be necessary very quietly slunk off. Now they have them in bags hooked to their belt and using identifying marks to make sure each is delivered to the right place."

"Well yah, that would only make sense. And the people bitching the loudest have the least amount." Anna snorts. The others snigger but nod.

Josette heads off the next morning after breakfast, returning back to Haven several weeks later her time.

"How was the tour?"

"Long." She moans, facedown on the couch. She waves a hand and boxes and bags appear from subspace. "I spent the trip back filling boxes and doing inventory like we did yesterday." The others nod. "Since we don't have a place there yet I dumped all the pens in the ship's replicator to refill. Doc was giving me a look at collecting the empty pens until I told him why." Nods from the others. Most pens are cheap and made to be thrown away when they're empty or you can slide a new ink cartridge in them.

"Are we done now?"

"Until we go out for the boys show and the comic con." Josette drawls. "I read the databurst before coming back so I already saw that moron's whining and I sent off a nasty e-mail to him and his lawyer. And put in a complaint. They've both going to be whining, the old fool for not being able to live off his asshole son the rest of his useless life and his lawyer for the fine he'll be getting for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

"Serves the little bastards right." Is the common opinion of everybody over the next couple weeks on Calvin's world when they get the stupidity slapped out of them. The father runs off wailing he's going to kill himself. . .his former lawyer telling him he can after he pays the fine he got, he got him to sue. . .he can pay the fine.

"The bastard's going to make a fuss."

"And an even bigger one when he realizes people are ignoring him."

Josette comes out for the comic con and talks at the school from the bigwigs in the comics community. Buying a set of DVDS from the talks she wanders the floors. Josette returns to Haven to find the dorm shimmering.

"They putting in the replicators?" She asks David who's sitting in the living room reading a book.

"Yeah, how's everything coming on the ship?"

"Getting there, we've got buildings empty and are slowly sorting through boxes in the rooms and containers we haven't gotten to yet. We still gotta check the boxes that were already full but that can happen later when I'm off picking up the offworld harvests later this year."

Calvin looks out the door. "Josette. . .? Oh, you're not the one who went to the ship with Clark and Clark."

"Nope, I'm the one who was at the comicon." She snickers. "I'm on the ship?"

"Yes, Clark wanted to see what you'd been talking about and you wanted to pick up more stuff for the new building. We could almost hear the 'oh dear lord' from here. And I do like how you set up the new buildings. But you need tables in the third building."

"And more plugs. And more lights." Josette pulls up a file with those plans on her PADD and Calvin nods in satisfaction.

A few hours later the flyer lands with the wagon loaded with boxes. Josette knows more is in subspace and stuff is waved to the studio before the Josette who'd been on Haven merges with the Josette who'd been in Calvin's dimension.

"Okay, this is going to make Calvin splutter when it happens his time." Josette says. "So nothing until the Lights Festival." Josette says the next morning after breakfast when she grabbed President Bartlett and Principal Madison. "There's fools in Granda's dimension that want another city-ship and a colony. ..so they can show off their importance."

"Oh dear lord." President Bartlett moans. "Yes, the whining was just starting when I was out. It should be in full swing in a couple databursts."

"So the whining that Becka's dimension went through."

"Yes, people thinking they're all that and running off wailing when they find out how much money the city-ship will be, how much money they'd need for supplies, having to learn to make stuff when they run out. . ."

"Wailing that the government won't supply them forever and they'd have to make their own homes, plant their own crops. . ."

"No heat at the turn of a dial, they'll have to dig their own outhouses, cook their own meals, wash their clothes by hand."

"They're expecting people to come flocking to them basking in their magnificence and it's not going to happen." Josette snorts. "Okay, I'm heading offplanet to pick up some of the offworld harvests like the cotton, the coffee, and so on." They nod.

Josette returns an hour later. "Okay, the two coffee harvests are in. so is the cacao. I took part of the espresso beans and cacao to Benton. The cotton is at the rug yarn complex being worked on. The rest I'll pick up after the Harvest Festival."

"Wheat?"

"Wheat, rice, soybeans. . ." Josette grabs her PADD and gets in a file. "Sugarcane next year?"

President Bartlett looks at his PADD and nods. "Did you tap trees?"

"Yes, it was warm enough during the day for the sap to run. Last year wasn't."

Josette walks into the dorm, picking the ripe peppers and tomatoes in the pots before making a sandwich. Adding some of the fried green tomatoes she'd made earlier to the plate she sits down to eat.

"Get everything taken care of?" Alan asks as he walks into the room.

"Everything that was ready. Benton has some of the espresso and cacao, more are in stasis. I'll get the rest after the Harvest Festival, dropping off wheat to the flour factory then."

"Cotton?"

"At the rug yarn manufacturer. The yarn should be ready for us to dye after Thanksgiving." The door to Headquarters opens and Pat, Frances, and Elaine walk out. "Experimenting with the plant dyes?"

"Yep." Pat looks their direction and grins when she sees Josette at the table eating. "Cotton?"

"Rug yarn manufacturer, the yarn should be ready for dyeing after Thanksgiving."

"When is the trip to Ellis's?"

"Just before Thanksgiving, this way the harvests are all in." All three women nod, even if Frances and Elaine just have to deal with the school gardens. "Josette, you back?" Susan pokes her head around the pocket doors and looks down the hallway.

"Yeah."

"Gimme a hand, the cheesemakers called us to pick up our shipment and I don't know where Alan is."

"He's here with me." Alan comes out and put the big wheels and other cheeses in subspace so Susan can unhook the wagon and put it and the flyer away.

"That means ours will be arriving soon." Frances says. Elaine nods.

Josette comes into the dorm a couple days later and waves boxes of soap into her workroom.

"Goats milk." She says at Hannah's look.

"Ahhh." While people might not feel comfortable drinking goats milk or eating cheese made from it, they'll be more than happy to use it in soap.

"Yeah, some of the goats milk is kinda . . .funky, it's an acquired taste." The others nod.

Josette takes the boxes of DVDS and books to the tv building, putting everything away now that the degree is finished.

The Harvest Festival is a couple days later and they see more boxes of soap on the soapmakers table and while nobody gets as much as Josette. . .she'd said absently that she helped out a lot there and that was her share, the soap sells well.

Josette slumps onto a couch a couple weeks after the Harvest Festival.

"Is this all the offworld harvests now?"

"Yep." Josette closes her eyes for a twenty minute power nap. The others chuckle and head off different directions. Abby and David are working on the third building, adding the items Josette had planned on incorporating into the building.

"How's the databursts?" Principal Madison asks at dinner.

"Full of whining morons who can't believe the government won't spend oodles and gobs of money on a city-ship for them. If they have their own city-ship, they can lord it over the 'leetle' people. ..they'll be bowing at their feet for the privilege of serving them."

"Idiots are idiots in any dimension, they didn't do this when the city-ship made it's first or second trip or the moonbase came up."

"No, they're looking at the possibility of colonies and you know. . .it will be just like Earth, but on another planet." Susan snorts. "Even listening to the stories of the long hours on the missions won't stop them. . .they're just saying it to keep space travel to themselves."

"Oh please," Hannah says as she walks through the room behind them. "these are the same people who kept bleating the colony dimension had to be for show. The government will stick them in VR and they'll see what a real trip to a colony world is like. .. not on a city-ship but on a regular ship with shuttles and you'll be building your own home."

"Hell even on the city-ship you'd be stuck in one room for years on end and then when you finally get to your planet you'd have to build your home, plant your crops, dig an outhouse. . ."

"Yep, the VR specialists are going to have a field day."

"Superhero?" David asks later that night after they've returned from the show.

Josette makes a pfft sound and waves a hand. "They've had spaceflight and settlements on the Moon and Mars for years."

"Like the 9th planet."

"Exactly, their Mars is almost identical to the 9th planets except for life never evolved there. There's still only the strip along the equator that will grow food right now, they've got labs in the desert areas. From what I understand they're trying to figure out what caused Mars to . . ."

"Be like that?"

"Pretty much. They've got ships in orbit around Jupiter and Saturn to examine the planets. . .I passed that information along to Silas and Calvin since their instruments are more advanced than the city-ships."

The others nod before they head to their rooms. James arrives the next morning and sniggers at the signs on the wall by the gates.

/No, you DON'T own the land, we do. And no, it's not for sale. Don't even bother trying your 'magnificent' cunning plan to take the land from us, you'll just look like an idiot and spend the rest of your life in prison. . .because yes, the laws about trying to steal a person's land are still in effect./

is by one gate while

/Okay, if you're that damn stupid, go right ahead. Just don't come complaining when our security system hurts you so bad you'll wish you were dead. And yes, it's legal./

is by the other.

"Kids." He says as he walks into the mansion. Everybody points at Josette who's sniggering.

"Anybody who comes near the gates who isn't on the list gets a nice special effects show of the gates glowing and electricity flickering off them, the humming getting louder and louder as they realize they can't move since they're caught in the field. The electrical sparks will get worse and worse until. . .blooie." Josette claps her hands together. "They'll be waking up either in a hospital or in a jail, the lingering shocks to their system will make them twitch for days. Of course everybody's biocodes is in the system and if somebody comes accompanied by one of us, just click the controls three times to shut it down after the light show starts."

"If anybody tries forcing their way through in a vehicle?"

"They'll be caught in the field and the 'hidden' sub-machine guns will come out of the top stones and make a very loud cocking sound right before a 'bang' and the jolt will make people think they were shot."

"And if anybody complains?"

"Lights and mirrors, everything is legal. . .they were trespassing. If they continue to be stupid and try to get somebody in government to take the land. . .they'll see a grand fire destroying everything as the land is put behind a protective shield. Hopefully it will never come to that but we all know there's assholes everywhere who believe their own press. If they go that far. .. the kid gloves are off and I'll be destroying them at the molecular level in the media. And they'll be wishing I'd destroyed them to the molecular level literally since the damn shame of everybody knowing how fucking stupid they are will destroy them."

James laughs and nods vigorously. "I'm sure some of the idiots whining the loudest about not getting a city-ship of their own for a colony that will be just like Earth, but you know . . .on another planet where everybody will be kissing their ass will be wishing the same thing as people with two brain cells to rub together talk bbbbbaaaaaaaddddd about them. Not even VR will stop them from wanting the ships because. . .ohhh, you're just giving us horror stories. ..you're not telling us the truth."

"Hell, do you even have planets located that could serve as colony worlds?"

"No, so they're in for a world of misery if their precious city-ship had to travel for years to find a planet, explore it, come back, gather supplies and people to colonize their new world, then make the trip back."

"Put that scenario in VR."

"Fuck, put together enough for a home, supplies to plant a garden, and shove them in another dimension, telling them this is what living on another planet would be like. Check in on them in a few weeks and they'll be begging to come back to Earth. Because god forbid they have to live without running water and heat at the turn of a dial."

"Oooohhh." Susan hops in her chair. "I'm sure you had video from the first and second trips, incorporate that into VR and make them see what a real trip in a city-ship is like, If not the trips to the moon and Mars, the second trip in Becka's dimension where they went to the sun."

James grins and writes those scenarios down on a message he sends to the others. "Like you said, they're expecting it to be just like Earth. . .except another planet."

"These are the morons who'd be horrified at Haven. Hell, they'd be horrified at Eureka. Here." Everybody sniggers and nods.

"Speaking of Eureka?"

"You need socks. I'd been expecting it when I heard rumors your supplier was going out."

"Yes, we've packed everything up and since you already moved the sock machines. . ."

"I'll pick everything up before we leave. I know you've got good stocks on hand."

"Yes, they made sure they made extra before they went out. . .and it's early spring here."

"You've been busy making socks for Archimedes." David looks over at her later that day. "Both Eureka and the other sock machines."

"Yeah, they're predicting a winter like we had a couple years ago, cold and wet."

"And they'll be changing socks three or four times a day so they'll need extras." Everybody had a bag of socks in their wash every week that year. The box in the front of the dorm had been emptied multiple times and they'd had to break out their extra socks. And they weren't the only ones. Once they knew what kind of winter they'd be having they'd ordered extra socks made and handed out.

Back on Haven Josette brings out the new sock machines and yarn in a new building. One that hadn't been there a few days ago.

"Josette.Kiriko.Takahawa." Pat says in what she thinks is a calm voice. Since everybody had been waiting for her reaction and they're sniggering, she knows it's not very calm.

"Eureka."

"Ahhhh, the people went out there too."

"Nobody to take over the business. The orders while good sized for them. . ."

"Isn't enough to have another business take them over? Figures." Pat snorts. "So you got everything lock, stock, and barrel."

"Yep."

"Our Eureka?" Like the others she'd seen the extra socks being made and had seen the boxes set aside for Archimedes at the knitting buildings.

"They're expecting a winter like ours year before last."

"Ahhh bags of socks in the wash unless you don't go outdoors. And you don't wanna be inside all the damn time." Everybody nods. "Our box was empty about three times a week and I don't even wanna know how many times we tossed all the socks on the line in a basket and washed them. Because not only did they get wet. . .they stunk. You didn't get it during the rest of the year with the windows open but. . ."

"Pure wool would have stunk worse."

"And you had to dig into the extras?"

"Yep."

"Are these all the same socks?"

"No, and they must have planned on me making them, there's a new storage area and it's already been 'fixed'."

"Are you expecting more sock and other knitting machines from Calvin's dimension? Beyond. . .?" She waves a hand at everything that's being set up.

"Ohhh yes." Josette sighs. "I got the message while we were out there. First of the year I'm to pick up more sock machines and yarn, putting the machines in the buildings first so they're replicated. And probably adding them here too."

"Yes, I'd gotten a few. . .'aren't these out here already' doubletakes." Pat chuckles. "The other buildings?"

"Will get hit as needed." the others who hadn't realized what had been done moan. "Yep."

The crops start coming in a couple months later and everybody is busy canning, drying, or other preserving everything. The shelves are straining to hold everything after the offworld harvests are doled out and David opens the tesseract to the ship for everybody going to the other dimension.

"Oh god, it's worse in real life." Agatha moans at the pallets of fabric that were still being brought out that day.

"Yep." Josette sighs. "Definitely remaking it into a more neutral color." Josette talks to Ellis and they stop moving the pallets, Josette putting it in subspace and moving the contents of a shipping container all at one time.

A couple weeks later their time David opens the tesseract to Town, everybody walking through. "I'll move everything over the next couple of day."

"No hurry Josette, we need to make sure we have the room for everything. . .beyond putting them in boxes." Everybody nods and either heads into the Albatross Nest to head home or head directly home. Josette brings out her purchases over the next couple hours once she's decided where she wants everything.

"Did the others get in their orders?" Pat asks, she'd had her own order Josette had put in for her.

"Yes, and. .." she brings out a box filled with pallets of the hot new fabric in various weights.

"Oh dear god, that's even worse in person." Pat moans.

"Yup, I'm going to be experimenting with replicating into more neutral colors and dyeing it. Ellis wants pictures in case the manufacturer decides they want to print it again, Ellis can show them pictures of what people might actually buy." Pat nods vigorously as Josette puts everything back in the box. "How much?"

"Tons, they had shipping containers full of it, enough to fill three buildings. I saw how much they still had after we were done shopping and moved everything by subspace. Ellis was very happy to get them all off his land.

"Anything new coming out?"

"Yeah, I got tons of information." Josette tilts her head and a bag full of brochures and other information appears in front of Pat. "I got a lot of sample packs too. We all got something different and were replicating them on the trip back."

Josette tips her head again and a large bag is in front of Pat, similar bags in front of Josette. "I'll take stuff out to the other planets tomorrow." Pat nods in satisfaction.

"Thank you Josette," is said on both the 9th and 10th planets. They settle down to look over everything and Josette returns to Haven.

"Get everything delivered?"

"Hell no, I haven't even started yet." Josette snorts. "The others are making sure they got the room before I move anything and even my rooms I gotta make space. I could bring everything out in boxes but then . .."

"You still gotta have the room when you open the boxes."

"'xactly."

"Are you working on the new fabric?"

"Yes, I've got a couple dozen bolts of each type fabric out and making notes to see what colors I can either dye it or. . ."

"Pass some along to us, we've had our own ideas and with the programs we can see what it will look like before we do anything.' Frances says from the front room. Elaine nods. "Yarn?'

"Just got an update saying everything will be ready to pick up before the Lights Festival. I'll put up a message when we can get together in the dyeing room after the first of the year and work on stuff. It's going to be weeks of work so this is just the first batch." Elaine nods again. "And put up a list of colors we plan on dyeing them. If somebody else wants something special they can write it down." Nods from everybody in the front room.

After lunch Josette delivers some of the fabric to the textiles building on her way to the knitting buildings to bring out yarn. Professor Druid moans as she looks at the fabric.

"Different colors for the designs. . . different colors for the backgrounds."

"Or both."

They each scan a section of the fabric and start working on the programs, putting their results in a file on the server.

Thanksgiving is hopping at the school, everybody belching as they sit at tables in both rooms as they talk.

Josette takes Professor Druid with her when she goes to pick up the yarn a couple days later, the other woman moaning at all the containers.

"Yes, there's a difference between an offworld crop of yarn turned into towels and the same cotton turned into skeins of yarn." Josette grins as she puts everything in subspace and walks through the facility as they talk about what they'll be working on next. Josette flies to the ship next, bringing out more boxes that go various places.

"Did you finally decide what comic book degree you're picking up next year?"

"The comic code, then the other publishers that should have come before them, then Harvey, and then Fawcett and then the big superhero explosion, that's a good twenty degrees and covers both DC and Marvel. Then I'll start on the individual characters."

"TV?"

"Movies and tv shows based on comic book characters, it's a seven degree set." Josette yawns as she slumps into the couch. It had started snowing on the trip home and both women had known this would be sticking. The others follow her gaze and nod. "Did the socks get sent off the Archimedes?"

"Yes, I either dropped them off when I picked up their recycling or just dropped them off to GD and in Eureka."

"Other socks?"

"Working on them, it's both more socks and different styles so I'm getting so see more in case we want to make them ourselves. Fuck it, I'm taking a nap."

"Yeah, nothing we need to do for a while. Tomorrow's good enough to start bringing out the decorations." Everybody nods as they head to their rooms.

Susan is up on the roof cleaning off the solar panels the next day when Josette and Alan bring out the holiday decorations. Josette takes the first batch of lights and starts popping them into the clips on the walls as the girls start putting up the trees and other decorations inside.

"What a difference a year makes." Principal Madison says as he walks over. They're not the only ones decorating their homes for the Lights Festival.

"Yep."

"How are you getting on sorting all that shit and putting it in boxes?"

"Good, it's going to be a while but we're slowly getting it moved. After we get that done it will be 'okay, lets start bringing out boxes of boxes and see what's all in there."

"Have you planted in the growing area yet?"

"Granda's wanting to work on it, incorporate some of what we brought out, I'm going to the ship tomorrow to plant for the winter and we've got crops started on the other ships." Principal Madison nods and pulls Josette's hood up before he walks off, the others sniggering.

Alan blinks then looks up the map of the ships.

"The only one actually set up for hydroponics is the one on the 9th planet that would carry a crew." Josette says, hovering upside down as she attaches a new set of lights. Looking down she finds David opening the next box of lights. "Thankee. I already thought about that and so did the others." Alan snickers and puts his PADD away. Grabbing a different area of lights he starts setting them up with Alexander's help.

The next day Josette goes to the ship, helping clear multiple rooms while she's growing in botany, talking hours with the ships while she should be sleeping. An hour later on Haven she returns with bags and bushels of fruit that goes in stasis.

"Getting everything cleared up."

"Yes, another few months and we'll have the rooms cleared as well as the shipping containers."

"Ahhh, I wondered if you'd got those yet."

"First things I took care of, no use them sitting everywhere on the piers or in any building that will hold them." Josette sighs. "Okay, got a question. Pasta? Do we need to make megabatches?"

"We . . .should." David says. "It's been a few years."

The others begin coming out to find lines being loaded with drying pasta. Headmaster Doc looks stunned for a moment, then looking at the kids. "Everybody likes pasta but not the same type so we make these mega batches, when they're dry they'll be broke up and put in containers. We have a room just as large that will be filled with stuff like dumplings and dim sum. Anything that we can't dry on lines."

"This gives us something beyond what the pasta factory makes."

"And it's something to do when we can't get out of the dorm thanks to winter storms, we'll get back to it after the first of the year."

Hannah chuckles and pats Headmaster on the shoulder. "When they say the rooms will be filled. . .the rooms will be filled. Have you thought about making phyllo?"

"The bakery makes it every once in a while. . .they plan on introducing baklava samples at the Lights Festival."

"So, did anybody complain about the signs?"

"Oh yes, who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do? I don't care if this is a private driveway and private property. . .I wanna scream and shout until you shoot my useless ass. Some stupid bitch was whining why won't we sell her the house and land, it would be perfect for her reality show. A group came to protest us not allowing a certain group to live in the community. . .who cares if it's all private property. They were quickly arrested and blubbered they'd been hired by that stupid bitch for publicity for her new show. The protest would be 'leaked' to the news and of course everybody would watch the show. The morons actually tried suing me to get me to pay them what that dumbass had promised them and I told the organizer to blow it out her useless ass, she was trespassing on private property and damn lucky I wasn't asking the prosecutor for prison sentences, just demanding that they pay for the damages to the grounds. Meanwhile bitch was whining because the court wouldn't make me sell the land to her, wouldn't make me allow her to 'rent' the house to film the episodes, and wouldn't press charges against me for having a perfectly legal security system."

Snorts of disgust from everybody but Becka who rolls her eyes and tells her own story about an idiot producer wanting to 'use' her land for his masterpiece and destroy everything because it didn't fit his vision. And to what lengths the fool went to when she told him no.

Serves the little bastard right had been the general consensus.

Josette is looking at factories on her PADD as she waits for the others the first government meeting of Haven year 122.

"Josette, did you sign up for your degrees?" Doc asks.

"Yeah, I'm at the administration building getting everything right now." There had been a large update when Josette and the others would have been signing up for their degrees from Calvin's dimension so they were doing it today.

"What are you looking at?" David asks as he slides into a seat.

"A larger pasta factory, in case we ever need it in the future."

"No, we don't need to add one to the dorm." David snorts.

"Please, if I thought we needed one I'd already have one." Josette snorts. "I just had a flash of some morons on Earth wailing about making pasta by hand."

Principal Madison sighs but nods that this would definitely happen. "And whine that our bulk packages actually are filled by the amount of food we buy, not half again bigger so you think you're getting more than you do until you open the damn package and see half of it is air. Because some 'settling' may occur."

"Yup then the same morons who want a colony whining that they'd have to make it by hand themselves after their supplies ran out." President Bartlett rumbles.

Josette arrives back at the dorm, the Josette who'd been at the replicator shoving bags on David. He nods thanks and heads upstairs to the library to start his classes. Josette goes upstairs to check on the pasta being made, nodding in satisfaction at the filling lines in one room and the filling containers in the other.

She suddenly disappears and reappears a few minutes later, shaking her head and muttering some very rude phrases. Doc looks at her.

"Damn fool woman wanting a city-ship to start her own planet, wailing because the government wouldn't kiss her ass, They put her in VR showing her what it would be like to go to a colony in a ship that couldn't land, in a city-ship where again it would take the same length of time, then having her see what the trips were like on the city-ship. She wailed like a siren at not having everything she wanted, I got called out as a representative from Haven and she wailed louder when she found out we cook and grow our own food, make our own clothes, make quilts to keep us warm at night. We worry about getting in the crops before they freeze and we lose the harvest. Somebody on the vampire planet where they only grow once would have been a better one to talk about that though. Stupid bitch pouted at having to grow our own food, can't you just buy it at the grocery store?" Pat had come up behind Doc and calls her a number of names. "How can we live without cars, malls, cell phones, manis, pedis. . . There's no grocery stores? You don't have heat at the turn of a dial? You work? The leetle people don't do everything for you for the privilege of being part of your colony? I've said it before and I'll say it again, the people who demand the loudest to be able. . ."

"To go to another planet are the last ones who should go since they'd never be able to handle it." Pat snorts. "Amen. Anything else?"

"Oh some stupid college was having a fit about a student taking a class independent study, they put her in a class but the teacher was an asswipe and didn't want her there, had the students try to pull pranks on her but the head of the school saw them and yanked his ass. . .hard. He got fired and his butt buddy students got expelled since they'd been pulling this on other students. He tried saying she'd never be anything, moron didn't know the woman was a self-made millionaire and her net worth was just going up. Unlike the morons who are all 'ohhh, lets build new stuff' she was renovating existing structures. Hers was selling, theirs weren't. In fact the building the school was in was one of her buildings."

"Always going to be a miserable bastard." David says as he walks past them in the hallway.

"Yup, they were very quickly backtracking their 'oh, we don't want you in the school anymore, you're causing problems' some asshole buddy of that miserable teacher tried pulling. He was wailing he didn't know she owned the building and land when he said it."

"Of course not, he could suck up to her and drop that miserable old bastard. Because there's always going to be people like that too." David snorts. "Are you done with working on the buildings?"

"Yeah, all except for the new tables the boys are going to make for the other sock machines."

"Speaking of which. . .?" Pat asks.

"In the shipments I'm picking up in a couple weeks. The first of many I'm afraid." Josette yawns. "Gods, dealing with whiners always makes me sleepy."

The others chuckle and push her towards her second floor room.

A couple weeks later Pat nods in satisfaction at the filled rooms of drying pasta as Josette heads off to Calvin's dimension. Chuckling Doc shows her the plans Josette had been looking at.

"Not for decades." She says. "Yes, David says not to add one to the dorm, Josette said. . ."

"If it was needed she'd have already added it?" He nods. "That sounds like Josette, she's always five steps ahead of everybody else when it comes to things we need. Or will need." Pat looks at the list of socks the others are asking for and shakes her head. "Yeah, Josette's made some examples and James and Calvin jumped at them. So have the others."

"They'll sell well."

Josette opens the door of the dyeing building, the others coming in behind her and bringing out boxes of supplies as they set up everything. Those who hadn't had a chance to look at the new yarn yet finger the skeins and nod in satisfaction.

"Any chance of using the plant dye?" Frances asks.

"I'd been thinking of growing another batch of cotton in a few years and using them." Frances nods in satisfaction. The others look at them and Josette explains about the plant dyes, showing examples and getting emphatic nods from everybody as they start to work.

"Are you done?" Principal Madison asks Frances a few days later.

"With this first color." Elaine's got a mouthful of food and just nods. "We figure on making another dyeing party in a couple of weeks, it will give us something to do besides complain about the weather." It had turned bitter ass cold a few days before and everybody was bundled up for the trips they had to make outdoors. Because sometimes they just had to have some fresh air.

"We're lucky, we can take the tunnels."

"And we're not having to deal with fighting students who are as damn tired of the cold as we are." Professor Eppes snorts. "The furnace in Josette's house hasn't malfunctioned, and nobody's coming down with the flu."

"Oh yes, that was a miserable time." Principal Madison sighs. The teachers who hadn't come up from Earth look at them and the whole story is told. "And that was before the friends of humanity."

"Yes, we'd had a few bad winters before that. . .that year when we had the cold snap that seemed to last forever and another year when a storm came in and just dumped snow on us for weeks. By the time it finally moved out of the system we had ten feet of snow in some areas and the first floor of the dorms were nearly buried."

The second dyeing party is a couple weeks later and Josette brings out more boxes of yarn. Everybody settles down to work and talk about the plans for spring.

"Josette, did you get more sock machines? For yourself, not the orders." Agatha says at Josette's opening mouth.

"Yes, because everybody saw the socks being made for Granda's Eureka and the list of what they want is ten feet long." The others snigger at her hangdog look. "I'm also getting more yarn and sock machines for the school and spa, they saw examples of the socks and want them too." The others snigger again.

"Did you get the pasta made?"

"Yeah." Josette brings up her PADD and puts pictures of both rooms on the split screen, passing it around. The others shake their heads or sigh. "Yes, we have the pasta factory but sometimes we just want something different."

Frances nods. "What the factory makes is what is brought most often. We've got enough pasta machines to make batches of what we want for ourselves. No matter what. . ." Josette is bent over cackling. "Do we wanna know?"

"Oh some damn fool on Calvin's Earth learned of our offworld harvests and was having a fit about everybody not being allowed to harvest as often as they wanted, I told the fool that people can sign up for as many harvests as they want, they just can't do it back to back. He huffed that my name is on every trip, then went 'oooohhhhh' when he found out. . .welllll yah. . ."

"It's your ship. Moron."

"Then he was. . .you're out of time at least six months, you have eighteen harvests a year. . .oh god, that's an extra nine years you live every year."

"Yes, that's one damn reason you have us off for a few days. That and harvesting all the time would be tiring." Josette's PADD makes it's way back to Josette and is put on her belt. "Because I know you get damn tired by the end of the offworld harvests."

"Any news on the order?"

"Ellis sent out an update in the last databurst. It's just under halfway filled, I figure it will all be ready after we've planted our first crops." Everybody nods. "That will give everybody time to actually deal with it." More nods from everybody.

Josette returns to the dorm with her and Pat's share of the yarn they've dyed, putting Pat's in Headquarters before she heads upstairs to the building set aside for the spa and school's orders and walking around, making plans on where she's going to be putting the new machines and tables. The work that had been done on the third building was repeated on the other two and the first building had partial walls separating the three sets of sock machines. Pat finds Josette drawing up plans and nods as she looks everything over."

"Okay, I know the comic book and tv degrees are time consuming. . ." Pat looks at her. Josette snickers. "No, I'm taking classes from other schools on the system too." Pat nods in satisfaction. "As soon as I finish one of the other degrees, I'm starting the space degrees David took, by that time they should have a fourth one planned from the second trip. And yes, there's a number of sosh degrees on the city-ships and the colony dimension and the abject stupidity of people who were whining about not going on the first trip or not getting their own colonies and ships now. There's a textbook expo later this year I'm attending, I'm sure I'll be making multiple copies of what I bring out." Doc had come in behind Pat and nods. Then sighs as Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later.

"Oh dear god." Josette moans. "That retarded fool who was stunned I wouldn't let her use the house and land for her damn reality show. Now her damn reality show is going to be about her fight for justice. . .because I'm a miserable human being by not letting her run roughshod all over me." Everybody around her snorts in disgust. "Stupid bitch is wailing because all the feedback is bad, people are telling her to grow the fuck up and get the hell over it already. Quit trying to live your life through your grandkids, great-grandkids, and great-great-grandkids like you lived your life through their parents. The authorities will throw her ass in jail for ninety days if she's found on my land again, I've got a permanent protective order against the bitch. She goes back again after that it will six months in jail, and if she pulls her shit a third time it will be five years in prison. The authorities already told her that and told her that again in their reply to her threat to sue. Dumbass is wailing because everybody is telling her it serves her right."

"People like that deserve what they get. I'd say the family is well rid of her but her stupidity probably bred down through the lines."

"Not according to Granda, with the zero-population period a lot of these 'gonna act up and misbehave' shows got canceled and without living in the damn spotlight some of the younger kids might actually become human beings instead of media whores. Emphasis on might."

"Yep." David drawls. "Now, I understand Doc wants to go back out to the ship?"

"Yeah, he wants to explore it some more. Whoever filled it made sure it was all stuff we could . .." Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later. "That goddamn retarded whore, she tried suing claiming we stole the land from her. Ohhhh, fucking hell no. Now she's wailing in front of every damn camera she can find that she's the damn victim and nobody's believing her. She got slapped with a huge fine for filing a frivolous lawsuit and is wailing that having to pay it would destroy her financially."

"Which is why she wanted the damn reality show." Alan snorts. "Yeah, the retarded whore took a swing at me and I damn near knocked her head off. She went wailing to the court but since she started it she got 90 days in jail for it. She's wailing that now she can't pay for the kids education if she's gotta pay her fine and will be tossed into the work dimension to make enough money for the kids education. ..not that she probably meant to pay it before."

"No, that was an excuse not to pay the fines." Principal Madison snorts from the doorway. "Ready?"

"Yep." The others look at them. "I think it's time I saw the ships myself."

"Hell, we'll all do it. Nothing else to keep us here." David says. A few minutes later they're all gathered and David opens the tesseract onto the ship, the maps quickly updating to show all of them there. Several hours later, they'd all devoured the snacks brought back from the dining hall they walk back out to the dorm, Josette bringing everything out of subspace before they go to the dining hall for dinner. Professor Druid looks at her husband.

"Clark wanted to go to the ships again and I thought it was time I got to look at them in person. While I was there Josette got called back to Dad's Earth because that stupid fool who wanted to use the mansion for a reality show is claiming they stole it from her. After she claimed the new show would be about her seeking justice for not being able to film on Josette's land." Snorts of disgust and rolled eyes from the others. "Oh yes, everybody's calling her a damn fool so she was pouting and tried saying the land was stole from her. She got fined for filing a frivolous lawsuit and went wailing this would ruin her financially. . ."

"Which is why she wanted the damn reality show." Professor Druid snorts.

"Oh yes, she tried hitting Josette and our little brat. . ."

"Kicked her ass up around her ears?"

"Yes, she went wailing to the court again but since she started the fight she got 90 days in jail. She's wailing that if she has to pay the judgment she won't be able to pay the kids schooling, not. . ."

"That the bitch would have paid it in the first place." Frances snorts. "Get sent to the work dimension to make enough money to pay the kids education? And no doubt wailing about that?"

"Yep." Josette snorts from the back room.

"Bring out anything new?"

"Yes, Josette brought out some boxes from the cheesemaking room, she brought out boxes from more of the 'hobby' areas. We brought out more seeds and hydroponics." Principal Madison raises a hand. "From what I understand they're supposed to be able to grow about half again one the same size would, I know the others set up an area in the dorm to see." In the back room Josette nods. "We got into some of the ready made clothes rooms."

"A colony would need that as well as fabric." Professor Fletcher says.

"Josette brought out boxes of DVDS and music. We've made sure to mark which rooms on the map in case they're not complete. Josette brought out boxes of magazines and books on knitting and quilting. . .stuff we'll have time to look through. Ohhh, are the shoes done?"

"No, they'll be done by spring planting. The orders were bigger this year."

"A lot of people picking up multiple pairs?" Professor Eppes asks. Josette nods. "Now the knitting factory is finished, Bronwen wanted to look at it this summer."

"The printers?"

"Started the first of the year and will be operating four years. Agatha's already making plans for the party for the first two." The others snicker.

The snow is melting and Josette spreads manure on the fields and garden, it will be tilled under in a few days. The shoe factory had closed and everybody was busy either picking up their orders or having them sent to the other planets. Josette had took the remaining supplies back to the containers and the building had been cleaned up until it was needed again. Josette had also took out more fabric for this next batch of clothes to the sewing factory and taken the boxes of scraps to Sue's where they were quickly scooped up to be added to quilts.

The file on the server for suggestions for the fabric is growing and Josette takes a day to remake samples of everything and drop them off at the Albatross Nest, Headquarters, or the textiles building.

"Lady, are you fucking stupid?" A lawyer snorts in Calvin's dimension. "No, my client isn't going to drop her lawsuit against you. You were told repeatedly to leave her alone and you haven't. You are interfering with the peaceful enjoyment of her home with your stupidity about a damn reality show. You're not that damn special bitch, nobody's going to want to turn on tv to see your ugly face and listen to your stupidity." He tears her apart and she runs out of the office building wailing. "Damn fool. Maybe this kick in the ass will make you grow the fuck up."

"She's whining because she's going to lose her fantastic home." His secretary snorts. "Rumor has it she's got it so far in hock. . ."

"Sounds about right." He snorts.

"Josette, was there any shoes in the stuff from the other planet?"

"Yes, and some of them were useless on Haven so I tossed them. I kept copies of some of them though, and saved the ones that were works of art in their own rights. Same with handbags."

"Like that 5000 dollar pineapple clutch?" Susan says about something they'd seen on a news show on Earth.

"Exactly."

"Yeah, it's cute. . .but Christ, that's something a kid would have. . .not a grown woman."

"Exactly. I wouldn't pay fifty cents for that. . .let alone five thousand dollars. But then some people are goddamn stupid. . .that fucking bitch I'm suing in Granda's dimension case in point. The stupid bitch will not leave me the hell alone."

"Knitting machines?"

"On the ship right now. The buildings are big enough but the boys are busy making tables for them."

"Are you goddamn stupid? Trying to hire somebody to kill that woman because she won't bow down and kiss your useless ass? Enjoy this cell you goddamn bitch, you'll be in it for the rest of your natural life 23 hours a day." Her own lawyer snorts.

"You gotta get me off."

"Fuck you bitch, you were told to get the Hell over the idea of a damn reality show and to LEAVE.HER.ALONE!"

"But I thought she'd change her mind and let me film." She whines in the courtroom after a judge quickly looks over her history with trying to get on Josette's land and sentences her to the rest of her life behind bars.

"You were told repeatedly there would be no damn reality show but you would not listen."

"But that house and land is perfect for a reality show."

"Too damn bad. . .get over it."

"But why won't they let me film there." She pounds her fists on the table in front of her.

"Because that's their home you retarded bitch." Her own lawyer snorts. "Grow the hell up you goddamn miserable excuse for a human being."

"But I would film in my house." She wails.

"That's because you're a damn media whore, they're not."

Her 'loving' family turn their backs on her when she's sentenced to prison, the banks taking her house since it's been mortgaged so much. She wails as she gets the judgments against her and not only has to pay Josette but the other banks too.

"But why?"

"Because you borrowed the money from all of them and only one of them could take the house. Dear gods woman, how fucking stupid are you?" Her own lawyer snorts.

"Make her pay them. . .it's her fault I couldn't pay the mortgages because she wouldn't let me film on her land." She huffs.

"Fuck you bitch, no she's not going to pay off your mortgages. You're the goddamn fool who took them out. . not her."

"But if I could have filmed on her land I could have paid them off." She wails before a judge. Who slaps her with yet another judgment to pay off.

The new machines and yarn is put in the storage areas at various rooms and the boys bring out the tables they made for the machines in the second building. The new machines had been registered in the other dimension and the patterns are selected as the yarn starts moving.

"Look this over, will you?" Josette hands David a set of plans later that night. "Ideas on expanding the shields over the land so they can't get on it at all unless their codes are already in the system."

"If there's more than one person in the vehicle they're stopped at the gate?"

"Yep."

"Is that the last of the yarn?" David asks a few weeks later when Josette comes back with a box.

"Yep, we were dyeing the special orders, that's why it took so much longer this time. Everybody's been taking their share and the rest is in the yarn store for sale. We're looking at possibly growing again in a couple years and use the plant dyes." The others nod.

"So did you break down and start the metallurgy masters?"

"Yes, I took two classes in it this semester since it's such an intensive degree. At least in the bookcourses." David nods, a lot of degrees are like that. At least at the higher levels when you're supposed to know what you're doing."

"Offworld harvests?"

"Coming in hot and heavy third semester, We're looking at three a week for six weeks, last of them coming in just before we have to harvest the last crops."

A few days after the first crops are in and the second planted they head off to Calvin's dimension for both Josette's show and the textbook expo. Josette slumps into a seat in Ellis's office and gladly accepts the mug of hot cocoa. "Okay, there's twelve more books after this, We're currently printing the first two of twenty-four planned."

"Thank you Josette, and thank you for passing along the 'alterations' you and the others have done to that fabric. Now all but one part of your order is ready to go, that's been delayed two weeks."

Josette waves a hand, "I can wait that long, I've got the show, hitting a few expos, including a textbook one with Granda, and a comicon. We planned on being down at least six weeks."

"How is Calvin's school doing?"

"Good, they're offering electives twice a week, four hour blocks. People are pouting but since they don't have a damn thing to do with anything, they've been told to go sit in a corner."

"Sounds about right."

Six weeks later for them Josette and the others arrive back on Haven. Leaning in the door of Headquarters Josette waves a hand. "Your copies of the newest textbooks in the areas I thought you'd be interested in, I'll have copies of everything. . .I scanned multiple college and university bookstores while I was out there to have a 'lot' of books to refer to. Dad's going to have copies of everything too." She sends Doc two files. "First file is the other books sorted by specialty. The second list is what I copied from university bookstores and libraries. Sorted by universities, if they're part of degrees or just on the shelf. Yes, I had way, way, way too much time on my hands. I took the ship out one day while I was there to mine asteroids for raw materials for Granda and the others, got all that sorted. . .and got everything put away on Hanover. Much to her gratitude. What was multiple buildings full of boxes and piers full of shipping containers is now ONE building half full of boxes. I'm working on the others right now."

"Get some sleep." Doc shakes his head.

"Slept a good ten hours on the way back." Josette chuckles. She walks into the administration building and waves a hand. "Three rooms of boxes, everything I got at the expo." She passes them a different list than the one she sent Doc. "What's in each container sorted by specialty. I copied university and college bookstores and libraries while I was there if you need another book."

"Thank you Josette." Joyce says as she starts looking through the files.

Josette walks into the Albatross Nest after lunch the next day. "The order from Ellis's is in. Tell me what goes where and I'll deliver it over the next couple days."

"Thank you Josette, we'll let you know where everything goes. Talk to Edinborough and Assyrian?"

"I'm there too. I've got the easy job, I'm just moving even if it is a lot of stuff, you're the ones who have to put everything away." The others laugh but nod.

Over the next week Josette delivers everything and takes the first larger batch of stuff to the school. The spa is full and Josette just marks down what she's delivering on a piece of paper that goes on the desk. The receptionist nods at her and she walks to the administration building, looking over at the construction going up nearby.

"Hotel?" She remembers Calvin saying something about putting one up in the future.

"Yeah." Jane says. "This way the old biddies who don't wanna share dorm rooms can book rooms for several days at a time. We're planning on hosting a special event to kick off the hotel before opening it to reservations."

"Not just the old biddies at the spa, classes."

Jane and Maria nod. "Ohhh yes, these are going to sell very well." Jane says as she puts the new socks in containers.

Josette brings back the second batch of sock machines and yarn, putting them in the storage area until the rest of the tables can be made.

"How are we coming along?" President Bartlett asks at the meeting that afternoon.

"The clothes will be closing just before the Harvest Festival, the supplies we'll have in should last us several years." Josette looks over the latest information Pat had sent her. "They want to get in three more items before they close."

"Socks?"

"The orders are due to start getting larger with next first month's delivery. The boys will have the tables in the buildings in another two weeks and we'll announce the new positions then. I just got back from delivering the new socks and other stuff to the school and spa, they're building a hotel on the school grounds."

"Dad did say something about that. That the old biddies wouldn't want to sleep in a twin bed and share a bathroom."

"Yes, now they can have all the fancy bedding they want. . .I think if they do they'll take a hint from casino store and have everything available for sale." Nods from the others. "They're planning on having a special event to kick off the hotel. And they can use the rooms for people taking classes." Nods from the others.

"Is the 'we need a city-ship to start our own colony on another planet' hoopla dying off?"

"Yes, once they realized there's not millions of planets out there they can just pick up and move to, it would take a trip out to find the planets. . .we lucked out in that the planets had already been found for us and terraformed so by the time we had to leave we could. . ." the others nod. "If I remember right Becka said it took sixty years on the ships to find fifteen planets within fifteen light-years that could be colonized. . .any trip that went out to find colonizable worlds would be at least even longer since they'd have to travel, inspect the worlds with probes, go over all the information, and then travel back. There'd be no way to send the information back to Earth, it would almost have to be a generation ship of it's own."

"Josette, we brought out the hydroponics setup from the ship."

"Have you found a place to set it up. Granda wants to put another one in the house on the first planet for emergencies and since we're there all the time."

"Yes, it's going in the administration building but I swear. . ."

"Yes, there was an aquaponics area. . .like ours meant to be used in conjunction with a fish farm. Once we see what the differences is between our units, we'll look into bringing one out. Okay, is there a need to grow avocados beyond what we grow now. Sticking in them in stasis would mean ripe ones year-round."

"Something to think about in the future. Party for your first two books?"

"Tomorrow." Everybody chuckles at her hangdog look. "Be nice," Doc chuckles. "The others have been waiting years to get a glimpse of what you've been working on."

"And the parties here are a lot better than the shows."

"True."

Josette chuckles as at the crack of eleven the next day everybody starts flowing into the building either through the door or the link to Town.

"Josette, do you see getting as many sock machines in the future as you have now?"

"God I hope not, we have eighteen thousand now. I think this is more. . .you've got to be joking about how many sock machines they have. Send them extra so we can make sure they'll be able to handle the orders." The others nod. "They didn't have the need for them our Earth did."

"Do we need help with the orders?"

"I have enough set aside for the full increased order on the ships right now. That's before the new sock machines and extra jobs. If it goes the way Granda thinks, I'll put the new machines in both buildings." Nods from everybody.

"Is Calvin's school reopened?"

Josette makes a yesnomaybe hand waggle and holds up a finger, chewing and swallowing. "Yes and no, in that they're offering elective classes twice a week for four hours at a time. But so far the kids are all taking their classes at the school in town." Everybody nods in satisfaction. "They're building a hotel by the school, I'm sure the old biddies who. . ."

"Would be horrified at sleeping in a twin bed and sharing a bathroom will be flocking to it." Agatha snickers. The others nod.

"Yep, they're going to be holding a special event to open it, from the way the others weren't quite laughing I'm sure it's probably some sort of book event and I'll be a damn guest. . ." the others cackle but nod. Nobody knows how to torture you like family. "They're going to have the good linens and what and I think they're going to have a store in the hotel where you can buy it."

"Sometimes you gotta pamper yourselves. And Calvin can offer a package for charity concerns."

Josette nods. "The hotel will also be used for people taking classes."

"Do we wanna know?" David sniggers as Josette walks into the dorm.

"About seven hundred of each sold, I left about three hundred more signed books with Agatha. Whatever was left of the thousand each I brought out." Everybody nods. "Are we bringing the books out to the bookstore?"

"No, the knitting books will be at the yarn store, the other books at Agatha's. . .we decided that long before the need for a bookstore. Now, we've enlarged that area in all the stores. . .now they're rooms nearly as large as the main building and there will be plenty of room. Yes, even for my books." Josette rolls her eyes at David's knowing smirk. "Has anybody been keeping an eye on that thunderstorm?"

"Yes, everything that could be was brought in, all the crops were domed, the livestock is in, it's just a case of waiting it out."

Josette sits at the window that light after dinner watching the lightning flicker and before she knows it she's sketching out plans for a fashion quilt top. Putting the drawing in the top drawer of her nightstand she draws the curtains and goes to bed.

"When is the boys show?" Frances asks the next morning as windows are reopened in all the buildings. All the water in the air makes it seem even wetter than it already is outside.

"Just after the Harvest Festival."

"Oh dear god." Pat says as she sees what Josette's working on when nobody's seen her for hours a couple weeks later.

"Yeah, I got the idea during that storm we had earlier, I was sitting at my window and watching the lightning flash in the distance."

"This isn't going to be put on a bed."

"No, this is an art quilt like the view from the cliff over the ocean from Black Jack's house and the cats." Josette straightens up and laces together her fingers, stretching first backwards, then forwards, and finally side to side. The evil imp in her makes her look over to see Pat's out of the way and she floats upwards, doing a loop de loop. Pat just chuckles when she lands on the floor. "I don't know why all this finicky fiddling stuff makes me more tired than working in the garden harvesting all day."

"You're absorbing sunlight constantly and always moving, not stuck in the same position for hours on end." Pat says in a good imitation of Doc, Professor Xavier, and Dr. Essex. Josette snickers. "That's why everybody needs some time outside in fresh air and sunshine. Especially since in several months it will be asshole to elbow bringing in the offworld harvests."

"And then our own crops will be coming in." Josette sighs. "Oh well, we knew it was going to happen and thank god it's not happening while we're trying to harvest our own last crops."

"How long?"

"Estimates are three years between midterms and our own crops coming in." Pat shakes her head. "Yes, this is going to be like back when we were first planting offworld."

"Clark told me about that old fool wailing because we didn't keep exacting records when we came to Haven and didn't start the calendar right at day one, year zero. Is he still wailing?"

"Oh yes, the moron didn't realize we're agricultural and complained about . ..why is all they're talking about crops? Where is the angst, the drama, the heartbreak at being on another planet. . ." Pat rolls her eyes. "There should have been more angst at the loss of your Earth, all those poor children being orphaned. . ." A snort this time. "H. . .ho. . .how can you just write, 'brought up a factory today, will work on it over the year and open it for shifts next'. Where's the howls of glee at bringing back a little bit of the civilized world?"

"He doesn't want to be a historian, he wants to be a damn fiction writer." Pat snorts. "Haven is civilized, we don't need factories everywhere."

"Yes, but nobody would ever read his work, moron would probably write down how many pieces of toast were eaten at breakfast, how many steps it was from the dorm to the dining hall, how many squares of toilet paper was used when we took a shit. . ." Pat rolls her eyes but nods. Then she smirks. "Or how many pair of socks somebody made every day?"

Josette roars with laughter. "Oh yeah."

"Speaking of socks, still only one machine?"

"In my room, the others are up in the third building, a mixture of ones I picked up in Calvin's dimension and what was brought off the ship." Pat nods in satisfaction as they walk down the stairs. There's a nice breeze through the open windows and doors and Pat and Josette both sigh. "So nice to be able to keep the windows open for a few more months yet. But winter coming gives the ground time to rest."

"Yes, that's why even if I lived on the first planet year-round I wouldn't be planting all the time. Because it's not just the ground that needs time to rest."

"Oh god, somebody would whine about you having windows open all year and not having air-conditioning." David snorts as he walks past. Josette shudders. "Oh god yes, because the morons can't live without it. That's what they made windows for moron, to air buildings out.

"Josette, how are we on raw materials?"

"Enough for centuries, do we need anything in particular?"

"No, it was just about time we looked into it at a meeting."

"We've got a shit-ton. Something else that old fool would be whining about. . .you've got have precise measurements of everything. . .just saying a shit-ton is not good enough." David snickers as he walks off. President Bartlett is coming their direction and he snickers as he repeats what Josette had just said, the older man nodding. "When Josette says enough for centuries, she means enough for *centuries."

Josette snorts as she walks past. "Granda's dimension, the government got on the asses of glass makers and they have to start using at least 50 percent recycled glass in anything they make now."

"Good, it won't be piling up everywhere anymore."

"Yep, some moron was whining about having to break up the glass before it's melted to be used and the senator just 'looked' at him and snorted tough." David cackles and even President Bartlett chuckles. "I don't see them using it yet."

"No, not until they get hit with fines. Because I know somebody will go whining to the courts to complain. Meanwhile the companies that already use recycled glass are going on business as usual. Meanwhile the glass will keep piling up and I'll be bringing it back with me."

"Glass factories?"

Josette looks at her PADD. "We should open them both back up in a few years." President Bartlett and David look over her shoulders and nod. "Do we have enough glass and sand?"

"Yes, I have . . ." Josette's lips twitch.

"Shit-tons of both on the ships?" Doc asks dryly behind her.

"Exactly. Since we haven't been running either factory I haven't had to bring larger amounts out."

"And unlike the fools on Earth, we have no problems using recycled glass." Principal Madison says as he comes over. "Josette, can you move some containers for maintenance?"

"Yeah, I figured they'd need moving pretty soon." Josette says and follows him to where they are, emptying three more and moving them to the ship.

"So, is everything from the other planet is in boxes now?"

"Yes, Each box is marked with what building it came from and each box has a number on it so we can find something relatively quickly. Of course there's still a bit of work to do in the future, I gotta go through the shipping containers and what was in the boxes already filled. . .but nothing's overflowing out of a room now."

"That's the way to do it. Eat the elephant one bite at a time." President Bartlett chuckles. "Do you have any containers about ready to fall apart from the other planet?"

"Nope, we recycled those while we were there, along with the paper ends and other stuff that was either on it's last legs or what we couldn't use in that form."

Nobody's surprised the next day when the domes are up and the sky looks like it's going to pour any second. This rain will be needed as plants start to ripen and it means less time filling the cisterns. Calvin and the others came out that day and look at the shuttered dorm in question until a crash of thunder makes them nod.

"Can't expect good weather all the time, means less we have to water. And all this water will help everything ripening."

"Did you move the hydroponics unit to one of the ships?"

"Yep." David opens a tesseract right to the control room and they lift off. They return a few months later for them and arrive back at the dorm.

"Get everything set up?"

"Yep, thankfully it's for emergencies and not because we need it."

"Amen."

Josette is called back to Calvin's dimension a few days later.

"Fuck you moron. No, there's no goddamn reason in Hell I'd allow this useless twat to 'take a trip' on my ship to see what space travel is like. Go to Hell, go directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars." The woman throws herself at her ready to scratch and claw and Josette lets her run right into a wall.

"Grow up you miserable bitch." She hisses in her ear. "You just want people to bow, scrape, and kiss your ass and think thousands of people on a colony would do that. they'd kill your useless ass first thing. This ain't Downton Abbey and you're not the lord of the manor. Everybody works on my planet, sometimes they have two or three jobs. Including Me." She runs off wailing. "Useless asshole."

Josette returns to Haven. "Wanna know?" David asks.

"Some old fool wanting a trip on my ship to see what space travel is really like. It can't possibly be as bad as VR is making it look to be. I told her No and the dumbass bitch ran into a wall after trying to run at me with her damn claws out."

Calvin rolls his eyes and Simone sighs. "I told the dumbass bitch her 'beloved' colonists would kill her ass first thing when she started lording it over them. This ain't Downton Abbey, she's not the lord of the manor, and everybody on Haven works, usually two or three jobs. She ran off wailing."

The yearly crops are starting to come in and everybody's busy over the next couple of weeks. Wheedling attempts to get her to change her mind are met with derisive laughter. Attempts on her part to sue for not taking her into space are met with coverage on all the networks of what she'd done and the fool woman is soundly booed everywhere she goes. The horror of everybody knowing what kind of miserable old fool she is sends her to her 'deathbed' but she soon gets up when nobody comes begging her to live and huffs off.

Fucking idiot is the general consensus on both Earth and Haven. The second crops will start coming in in a couple weeks so they're enjoying the break.

"Second book party?"

"A week after the Harvest Festival?"

"Is the cotton yarn selling well?"

"Yes, while some will just buy socks. . ." Josette checks the supply on her PADD. "A lot of the knitters are buying the yarn. Or just continuing to spin their own. There's still lots of baggies that can be spun and turned into yarn."

Nods from the others. Josette can be seen many a night with a drop spindle working on yarn.

Josette leans next to President Bartlett that night at dinner. "Okay, do we need me to bring out supplies of socks, underwear, and bras in a few years?"

"No, we've got plenty of stock on hand." Principal Madison says, holding up a hand to the person he's talking with. "I was looking at the stocks the other day with Dad." Josette nods and goes in the back room.

David looks at her. "Asking if I needed to bring out socks, underwear, and bras from the ships. I got tons in various sizes from the other worlds. Dad says he and Granda were looking over the supply." Nods from the others.

"When are we going to have to take back empty containers?"

"Next year, we're slowly winnowing them down and Earth doesn't need them yet. Granda asked me a couple days ago."

"The new tables are nearly done, you're still planning on bringing out the sock machines and yarn after the Harvest Festival?"

"Yeah, I'll have a third shipment of yarn and machines the end of the year. This will be the first of two for next year. . ." The 'oh god' look on Principal Madison's face is replaced by a 'okay, that's better' look. "This next two batches are going in the building here at the school. After that we'll be looking at the output before we get more sock machines and yarn beyond personal use." Josette looks over at Elaine. "There's going to be a special thing after Thanksgiving at Ellis's to introduce a new yarn line, interested?" Elaine nods vigorously. "Okay there's about ten of us going then. You, me, Pat, three people representing the suppliers here and the other planets, Suzie, somebody from Edinborough, and two from the 9th and 10th planets, other than the four of us they haven't decided who yet." Nods from the front room.

"Josette, this is a stupid question but yarn?"

"And fabric on the lost worlds? Tons, right now everything's in boxes. Not so much from the last world because he mostly made what he wanted or what he thought he could use to bribe ladyfriends." Nods and snorts from the others. "We won't need acrylic for centuries. I'm sure there's probably planets out there that are nothing more than huge factories to make cloth and yarn. And dammit, I just jinxed myself. . .didn't I?" Everybody in both rooms snigger and nod.

Josette walks out into the garden after lunch, coming in with a basket of early ripe stuff. David looks at it and nods. "I thought we'd be getting some stuff in early."

"Anybody made plans for the growing area?"

"I'm working on it now." Susan calls. She puts what she's working on up on the screen and they talk everything over.

"More rain?" Alan asks when he sees the girls looking at the weather probe reports.

"Yep, this will be the last oomph needed to start everything ripening."

"At least it's not like Becka's dimension where it rained solid for a month, everything still in the fields was harvested early or rotted."

"And no crops lost to an early frost like you saw in the Little House books."

"Little House books hell, Ma and Pa can tell you about storms that took out crops." Everybody nods.

The crops start coming in hot and heavy in a couple weeks and everybody is busy canning, drying, or otherwise storing everything they haven't already eaten. Josette had brought out boxes from the food preserving and storage area and found boxes of canning jars, boxes of lids, boxes of books on how to can and recipes. They make mental notes to try some of the new to them recipes in the future and plant the third round of crops.

After the Harvest Festival everybody heads out for the boys show in Mom's dimension, returning six weeks later for them. A couple days later Josette comes into the Albatross Nest and pushes a bunch of books in Agatha's direction. "Cookbooks from the ship." She smiles and starts passing them along to the others as Josette heads back off again, dropping another pile in Sue's store and getting similar results.

"Get the books took out?" Principal Madison asks when she comes back.

"Yep, they were already reading them when I left."

"Your party?"

"Next week."

Susan is laughing when she comes out of the dorm. "They're already whining about having to break up the glass and melt it in Calvin's dimension."

"Of course they are." Principal Madison snorts. "God forbid bottles and jars not just pile up until they're as tall as the Empire State Building. . .because 'we' don't. . ." Josette eeps and disappears, coming back a second later and splitting off a half-dozen other selves that fly off. "Not a lost world?"

"No, prospering worlds that need extra taken away because they produce too much. It would just go to waste otherwise." Doc and Principal Madison both nod.

"Where was I?"

"Businesses don't want to be bothered to break up and melt the recycled glass bottles and jars." David snorts.

Josette returns an hour later, showing buildings of stuff in stasis.

"Are you sure you didn't take too much?" Doc asks.

Josette shakes her head.

/Like Earth where the big commercial farms would leave stuff in the fields. While some groups would go in and take stuff for food banks, a lot was left to rot. I was in a second round of gleaners./ She says mentally since her mouth is full with a sandwich she'd just made. /Others were taking whatever they could too. The planets grow it with the idea of sharing it. The whole grow an extra row movement./ Doc nods in satisfaction as he sees before and after pictures and sees there's still some left.

"Grow an extra field is more like it." He says as he looks through the pictures. Josette pops the last bite of her sandwich in her mouth, nodding as she chews and swallows. "Starship crews will come in and gather up the rest, they'll be glad of the fresh fruit and veggies after replicated." Doc nods. While you can grow some food on starships, most of their supplies would be coming from replicators.

"Soooo, was there planets making nothing but fabric and yarn?" David drawls. Josette sighs and nods. "Not as bad as the damn planets that are nothing but malls but close. At least they didn't have to ship their food in."

"So, found a plant yet that grows books, DVDS, or music?" David snickers.

"No, but I'm sure some mad scientist is trying somewhere." Josette snorts. "Have a plant in your cabin on a long trip for entertainment."

"You mean you want the crew members to relax?" David mock-yelps. "If they do that they might not work themselves to death for us. But yeah, that's something they'll have to think about on a twenty or twenty-five year trip. . .won't be able to pick up tv."

Nods from the others.

"First of all, they're going to have to find a way to go ftl."

"Can the current city-ships do it?"

"N. . ." Josette tips her head sideways a second. "Welllll, yes and no. Not without some modifications. They'd be better off either taking the ships into tractor beam or building new ships if they make ftl engines."

"Warp factor four Mr. Sulu." Michael orders imperiously.

"Aye aye Captain." Alexander pretends to move slider controls and pushes his hand out, palm forward while making a whooshing sound.

Principal Madison snickers behind them. "They'd need plans for a real colony before then, not. . ."

"A damn pipe dream from somebody who thinks they're all that. Yeah, and I don't see that for several decades. They've got a good start of a space program but it needs to be better. And that will take a lot of work. Which. . ."

"a lot of people on Earth aren't interested in. They want the glitz and glamour, a quick fix and not the hard work associated with it." Nods from everybody. "It took us years to get where we are now. Yes, we were able to bring up our homes and can bring out other buildings but we had to work on all of them. We grow our own food and muck out stalls. While we don't have to dig outhouses we have to check the septic units and the dry stuff goes on the gardens."

"We have power but we need to watch the solar panels or batteries so we don't drain them. We don't have heat at the turn of a dial, we have the ceramic heaters we can run a couple hours and the wood. Even the homes with furnaces have to be careful not to drain the batteries during a storm."

"They're expecting everything to be the same. . .Eureka is the largest town on Archimedes and the 9th planet, it's a tossup between Town and Albatross here. On the vampire planet it's Smallville. On Earth all of those would be. . . " Josette snickers. "Yeah, I was telling Dad on Earth that the old fools who wanted the colonies and city-ship would be horrified at Eureka. . .theirs." Nods from everybody. "The dorms and Empire State Building wouldn't be the exception, they'd be the norm on their planets."

The following week Josette is in the Albatross Nest, Agatha looking over everything in satisfaction before the clock strikes eleven and everybody starts coming in either through the link to the other store or the front door.

"Thank you for the cookbooks Josette, have you tried any of the recipes yet?"

"No, but we've got a list of additional stuff to grow in the dorm over the winter with them in mind." The others laugh and nod. After everybody's eaten their fill the books are all grabbed and Josette starts signing them.

"Another around seven hundred for each book?" David asks when Josette returns to the dorm.

"Yep." Josette sighs as she drops into a seat. "I took out a thousand of each and quickly signed the rest after the party. Took a whole five minutes since I didn't want to rip the pages. . .or set them on fire." The others snigger. If Josette had wanted to do it the easy way she'd have just handwaved it. A crash of thunder has Josette sighing. "At least it held off until after the party."

"Yep." The rain starts a few minutes later and it's still raining when they go to dinner a couple hours later.

Josette eeps and disappears, reappearing a few seconds later. "Damn fool idiot who tried suing to get a trip on the ship. Now she petitioned the government, because I had to be funning her about working, right?" Snorts of laughter from the others in both rooms. "Dumbass ran off wailing when I told her all I do on Haven. From plowing the fields and planting the crops to harvesting them, canning the majority of it for the winter. Making soap and candles, quilting, spinning yarn for socks, hats, and mittens. Doing the laundry and hanging it outside to dry when it's good weather. Having to use candles at night to keep from draining the battery unless you have solar panels. No heat at the turn of a dial so you have to burn limited wood to keep your home halfway warm."

By now everybody is nodding and sniggering. Everything Josette is saying the truth but making it seem so much harder. "Dumbass ran off wailing because she . . ."

"Figured a colony would be just like on Earth . ..except you know, on another planet." Everybody choruses.

"What happened to that stupid twit who wanted to film her reality show?"

"Ohhhh, she's wailing that it's not fair I won't bow, scrape, and kiss her useless ass daily in prison. The other prisoners are laughing at her. She wanted better accommodations, a five star chef planning her meals. . .moron is working twelve hours a day at two jobs and going to be there for the rest of her life most likely. I'm sure the bitch will probably start planning a real life Orange is the new Black."

The next several weeks pass quickly and soon it's the first offworld harvest. David leans over Josette's shoulder as they wait for everybody in Town and sniggers. "And what's going on through the twisted mind of yours?"

"Oh, just realizing how miserable that fool woman would be at one of our offworld harvests. But. . .Why are you canning all this food? Can't you just buy everything at the store?" The story of the fool woman going to the government whining that Josette had to be lying about having to work on Haven had had tongues wagging for a while.

"And where does she think the stuff in the store comes from?" One of the women from Edinborough sighs.

"She doesn't think." Josette snorts. The last person comes over and taps PADDS and David opens the tesseract for them. Hanover lifts off once everybody's in their rooms.

"But I thought she was funning me about having to grow their own food." Dumbass wails in Calvin's dimension as she looks at pictures of Haven that show gardens everywhere. "Where are the cars, where are the trucks delivering everything?"

"Moron, this is another fucking planet. Unless they make it themselves, they do without it. There are no trucks delivering stuff."

"But doesn't the government supply everything?"

"She is part of the government you goddamn idiot."

"But you mean you wouldn't be shipping us stuff all the time?"

"No moron, you're limited to what you can take with you."

"Even a city-ship?"

"Yes Moron, even on the city-ship. They filled up with supplies and lifted off for both missions, if they ran out they were out."

Dumbass runs off wailing, she'd been so sure Earth would be delivering supplies to her whenever she asked.

"Goddamn moronic twit."

"Well, always going to be one you want to beat to death with a shoe because they're too damn stupid to live. She's one of them. Because no matter how many times you tell her something's not going to happen, she won't listen."

The next several weeks pass slowly on Haven and Josette slumps into a seat one night.

"Is that everything?"

"Yes, the last of the crops are in, the plants are tilled under. The cisterns are empty and the filters cleaned." David says. "Did you pick up the recycling?" Josette nods. "And dropped off the other food, either to be stored until needed or handed out." Josette looks at the clock and sighs. "Fuck it, I'm taking a power nap. Wake me in twenty."

"Is everything in now?" Pat asks ten minutes later as she looks around the door to Headquarters and finds Josette leaning back against the couch.

"Yes, she'll be up in. . ." David looks at the clock. "Another ten minutes."

True to his words Josette's eyes snap open ten minutes later.

"You going to live?" Pat chuckles as Josette stretches and yawns.

"Yes, it's just everything coming in bing bang boom. A good night's sleep will do wonders. That and knowing I don't have to go through all this again when I wake up tomorrow morning." The others laugh and nod.