It's storming again when they go to the dining hall for breakfast the next morning.

"Well, at least this shit held off until the crops were in. Am I nuts or. . .?" Professor Parker asks.

"No, we've been getting more storms than normal this year. If this was Earth it might be a magick user meddling but I can feel it's been a normal if bad for storms year and so can Ms. Munroe." Josette says from the back room. "It's just been a bad couple of years." The others nod. "The forecast?"

"Days of this and it will be turning to snow." David says, looking at his PADD. The others sigh but nod.

A week later a group of nine people arrive at the dorm and David opens the tesseract to one of the ships. They return an hour later Haven time but several days later for them. They've got samples and information that Josette had duplicated on the trip back and shake off their rain gear when they go back to where the others are waiting.

"With some work .. .we passed on a few suggestions and got some nods so the manufacturers had been thinking the same thing. Nothing truly garish and they're going to be offering basic white with the thought of dyeing your own colors. We put in larger orders for each color and quadrupled that for the white. . .each."

The others look over the copied information and nod in thanks.

Thanksgiving is bustling at the school, there's a number of topics being discussed in the front and back rooms between mouthfuls of food. Josette had passed along the cookbooks to the kitchen staff and they'd rapidly been replicated and new dishes had started entering the menu.

"Have you planted?" Professor Druid asks Josette.

"Yes, and we've already started making notes for the others.

Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later.

"Some asshole complaining about us blocking the land. We can't possibly be the only landowners there. . .that's a public road. . .isn't it? When he was told no, we do own all the land and it's a private road he broke down wailing. How. . .how. . .how can we do that to him?" everybody in earshot rolls their eyes. "Yes, the moron was drug off wailing about how it's not fair. He'd brought an action before the local board trying to say that was a right of way that would take him to another road. He could get to the same road in twenty minutes by staying on the main road and turning onto that road. . .which goes the damn opposite direction from the way he wanted to go. . .something the fool couldn't explain when somebody at the board meeting asked him that."

"Course not, he wasn't expecting people with some damn sense to be in charge and ask questions, he was expecting everybody to rubber stamp what he wanted." David snorts. "Idiots who think they're all that are the only people who try to control other's lives." Nods in both rooms.

Josette settles in her usual spot at the Albatross Nest with a plate on her knees and a bottle of Haven Dew next to her. They talk about the yarn, the order that was slowly getting put away, how damn wet that fall had been . .which morphs into other years of foul weather both on Haven and back on Earth, the sale of the grab bags at the Harvest Festival, and other stuff. The kits and cookies are passed out later and Josette is elbow deep in a sink of hot soapy water as the dishes and other stuff is washed. Everything is sorted out and she heads back to the dorm.

The others had started arriving the night before and she finds Pat and Pat in her book room.

"Yeah, you can see the difference when the books have been released in Mom and Granda's dimension."

"How many printings have you had?"

"The first couple sets are on their second printing except for the first book. . .that's on it's fourth printing. The rest. . .still the first printing."

"How many more books?"

"Eighteen books, three more years. That will put me at nearly all the books that I can finish finished and printed. The others can wait."

Josette eeps, disappears, then reappears cussing a few seconds later.

"Goddamn asshole. Fucker tried going to the board trying to claim the road on our land had to be public and got his ass handed to him. Now he's 'disabled' mentally and we're keeping him from his home. Bastard had a fit when I proved that the only people that live on the land are the eight of us. If his sister had been able to steal our land their brother could have cut down all the trees he wanted. Now he actually has to pay people what the trees are worth. He can't go in, clearcut everything, take what he wants and leave the land owners to deal with everything else. It's not fair." Josette mock sobs crodile tears as both Pats roll their eyes. "Yep, asswipe not only did not get what he wanted, he's facing serious charges now for continuing to harass us and steal the land. And his brother is getting looked at. . .especially if what he said about his business practices is the truth."

"Whole family is crooked." Dr. Hazlitt murmurs in the front room at dinner when Josette tells the story.

Everybody nods nearly in unison.

"Enjoy prison you damn fool, it's what you deserve."

"But they own all that land. . .it's not fair. We could turn it into a whole community. . ." he wails as the door slams behind him. "But they could have sold for what he was offering. . ."

"The others are going to beat him to death for his stupidity." one guard says to the other.

"Yep, same with his idiot sister and her boyfriend. And his brother if he did what the moron claimed. If the cons don't beat him, his brother will for getting the authorities on him." Nods from the other guards as they continue their patrols.

Josette slides into her usual seat the first 'government' meeting of the year. "Oh, that old fool is back to his complaining." Doc looks at her. "Now we don't read the minutes from previous meetings."

"Oh dear god." President Bartlett moans. "We're all here, we don't need the damn minutes read. . .or taken. If by any chance one of us misses a meeting, the others will tell them if something important was talked about. That old fool just wants to complain."

"Yep. Okay, the first of the new tables are up in the sock building on campus, the new employees are setting them up and starting them running." Everybody nods in satisfaction. "I'm taking out the first larger order tomorrow. The hotel is 'unofficially' open, there's going to be a special event while I'm out there. Yes, it's a book party and yes, I'm one of the featured authors." The others chuckle at her hangdog look. "The morons who complained about the school having stores, a spa, and now a hotel were told to go blow in the wind and they walked off sulking. The fool who wanted a trip on my ship was told to get the hell over herself or find herself in a home, her family wasn't putting up with her shit anymore. The old fool who wanted to film her damn reality show on my land is now wailing that 'why can't I have a colony. . .that would be the ultimate in reality shows? Ummm, because you're in prison? Moron.'" Everybody shakes their heads or sighs.

"Always going to be those type of personalities."

"How's the sales on the cotton yarn?"

"Good." Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later, splitting off a duplicate that settles in the seat as Josette flies off. "Another pickup of the fleeces. It's been a very good year. If the pickup is as massive as I think it is, I'm going to look into turning it into yarn and cloth." Doc nods.

"Okay, your degrees?"

"Going to be finishing the second degree on the Titanic this year. David's going to be starting the second semester for the third degree on space travel?" David nods. "Are they still planning a fourth on the second trip?" He nods again. "As soon as I finish one of my other degrees on the system, I'll start the same set of degrees. The experts in Calvin's dimension has the information from the trip to the sun from Becka's dimension. . .I could almost see a degree about that."

"That would be another set of degrees, probably on each planet." President Bartlett says. Principal Madison nods. "Especially if they took another trip and put probes around the other planets."

Josette waves a hand. "Her grandparents did that ages ago. The information comes to their ships and is relayed to NASA."

"Josette, supplies for the laundries?"

"Won't need to open the factories for years. I was looking through everything last week." The others nod.

Josette comes back an hour later and drops into a seat on the couch, leaning back and looking at Doc, David, and her other self that had just come back from town. "Got the fleeces and stopped at another planet and picked up massive amounts of fabric and whatnot. They were glad to have it actually used instead of being recycled. It had all been ordered by some absolute fool who had plans to overthrow the government of her world. . .because they weren't doing things the way she wanted. They were treating everybody the same and she's 'spe-shul'. . ." Doc sighs as David rolls her eyes. "So anyway, the nitwit is in prison for the rest of her life and the order was just sitting there, I got it before the order to start recycling it went out."

"Oh please. . ." Josette snorts a week later as she reads the databurst. "Even if you got a damn colony you'd be whining to come home within a week because you have to do everything yourself. . . it's hard." A guffaw from behind her makes her grin at Monk. "If they had any brains they'd settle on the planet a month or so before the were due to start planting so they could get settled before planting crops. Then they'd really see hard."

"They cannot get it through their heads that a colony is not just like Earth. . .you know, just on another world. Or that nobody's going to be kissing their ass for existing." Ham says as he walks through. "Is Susan here, there's a meeting in Eureka for. . ."

Josette points at a powder room door just as the toilet flushes. "She ran in just before you two came out. And if the people who wanted the colonies weren't so damn stupid, I'd suggest bringing some out to Haven like we did the others, show them what real life would be on a colony world. . .but they wouldn't last a week."

Doc nods as he comes out the door of Headquarters. "Meeting?"

"Already got one out there. I'm at the book party for the Albatross Nest."

"Ahhhhh, I thought it was soon."

Josette comes back from the party and joins with her duplicate that had been on the couch reading the latest databurst. She sits down and starts checking the list of what she'll need to grow on the first planet that year.

Josette is upstairs in the buildings taking care of everything when the others come back from Archimedes, putting the socks and other stuff away in the containers before joining the others in the living room.

"Anything important?"

"Not really, just some nonsense." Josette snorts. The others sigh but nod.

"You are a fucking idiot." Calvin says, scowling at the man in front of him who'd demanded a meeting about Haven. "The colony has been in operation for over a hundred years. Do you really think that they haven't considered the need to switch jobs by now? Most people on the planet have multiple degrees and work in multiple areas, just like they do here at my school."

He runs off wailing and Calvin sighs. "Is it just me or are people getting stupider?"

"It's not you. That's why there's so many people whining about Josette keeping her land." Jane snorts as she walks into the office.

"How are reservations at the hotel?"

"Good, the hotel was booked nearly solid for the book thing. .." Jane sniggers as she remembers Josette's disgusted look. "We're getting some walk-ins but a good two-thirds of our reservations is spa related. Which is getting more business now that the old biddies have a place to stay that's 'suitable'." She rolls her eyes. "Oh well, can't complain. We're soaking them for their stays, that lets us offer rooms for the classes at half-price. The meeting rooms and banquet halls get a lot of business, as does the restaurant."

"Have we had requests yet about offering a package as a charity donation?"

"Not yet." Jane flips a page on her clipboard. "Libraries?"

"We've got shipments coming for both in a couple months." Calvin says. Jane makes a note. "Anything on the orders?"

"They're very satisfied Josette and the others can handle them but still want to send out more machines as part of the supplies to make sure." Jane looks at the notes from her calls. "I expect the orders to increase over the next five years." Calvin nods.

Josette yawns as she walks into the dining hall, holding up a hand. "Damn bunnies howled and I was up most of the night working on outlines for more fiction. Don't ask me to do anything too hard today. . .like think." the others snicker. "It's good sleeping weather anyway." The others nod. The snow falling outside is making everybody want to doze off and there's nothing anybody has to do. Josette eeps and disappears, reappearing wide awake a few seconds later.

"Goddamn idiots still trying to take the land, now they're trying to claim we have a mortgage and hadn't paid so we need to be evicted and the land foreclosed on. But there was no proof and they misspelled my name three times. They're wailing in prison that it should have worked. . .we don't deserve that land. There's more 'damn you morons, the fucking laws are still in effect. . .leave them ALONE' statements in the media and a law was just passed, trying to take any land is now a capital offense and will see you in prison for the rest of your damn life. Not even the bleeding heart groups that try to get prisoners off will touch them now. Too many people realize just how easily it could have been them. The damn sad thing is, there's tons of vacant land for sale and tons of empty houses and apartments. And half full or completely empty malls. Hotels. . .except for Granda's have a lot of empty rooms. But rather than deal with already existing businesses or homes, they'd rather try for all new stuff that would sit empty because nobody fucking needs it. But everybody should come flocking to it because it was built by them." Josette drawls. Everybody sighs but nods.

"Do you see this stopping it?"

"Hell no, the morons are up in arms at being told they can't snap their fingers and get whatever they want. They'll show us. . .the realtor dimension is back on."

Hoots of laughter and snorts of derision meet that declaration. "Idiots are going to find it's a lot of work."

"Well yeah, but they're the fools who see instant massive profits with people falling at their feet in thanks. Because there could be a thousand malls, but we need a thousand and one." President Bartlett snorts but nods.

"Bu. . .buh. . .but waddaya mean there's no electricity in the other dimension?" One of the cooks snorts as Josette fills her tray. "I thought all the buildings without power lines in the colony had the lines underground. You mean electricity isn't magic and you have to create it? And you need a power plant for that? That's how many millions of dollars?" She mock-wails and everybody laughs and nods.

Josette stretches and yawns when she walks into the dorm, the others laugh but agree this is a good day to do nothing but relax.

Pat chuckles as she finds all of them in various stages of sleep when she opens the door to Headquarters an hour later. The story of what had happened is already all over Haven and will be on the other planets by that night. Josette looks over at her and decides she's lolligagged long enough, getting up and following her inside where she tells the others what happened.

"Dear lord."

"Well they believe their own damn press and think that they can do anything they want." Josette waves a hand, "Always going to be some absolute idiot who believes his own damn press and thinks he can get away with anything. Because it's for the 'Greater Good', the world needs more malls and whatnot rather than standing forests of trees, farms, and of course we don't need our home." Josette snorts. "The judge asked if I wanted their homes as part of the judgment against them, you should have heard them howl until the judge asked them what they thought they were doing to me. You could have heard a pin drop then."

"Figures, they never thought about how this might happen to them." Pat snorts. "Are you awake enough to help me with a few things?"

"Yeah the fight with the morons wanting the land woke me up from the damn muses howling in my ear most of the night. It's just the weather making everybody sleepy. Since we don't need to get out and do something, we're being lazy."

"At least one saving grace, no families are being ruined by this." Ham murmurs.

"Nope, the morons would have waited until they were filthy rich and then women would have been flocking to them. They'd be able to have their pick of them. It wouldn't have been a real marriage."

"No, it would have been a marriage of convenience. . .for both of them. And the children . ..if there were any, would be sent off to the 'right' boarding schools in the old days." Pat says as they walk to the containers and she starts calling items off, Josette bringing stuff out then rearranging the contents so she can move containers to her ship when she asks Pat if she wants it done.

Hugging her when she's done and thanking god that their extended family will never be like the fools she has to deal with all too often in Calvin's dimension she heads back into the dorm, finding David talking with his Dad. David looks at her. "Told the others what happened and Pat asked me to move some stuff, I was able to empty six containers for her and move them to the ship."

"Yeah, we should probably start looking through our containers." Alexander stretches and yawns as he walks to the nearest bathroom.

Over the next few days they consolidate containers and Josette walks into the office. "Dropped off nearly a hundred empty containers, anything I need to handle?" She asks Maria.

"No Josette, what we'd be sending you isn't in yet." She grins. "Congrats on yanking the wind out of the morons sails. Now that they realize 'yes, you will be punished for this shit, we done fucking told you that repeatedly the realtors are keeping their heads down as they vainly try to find a way to turn their dimension into whatever they want. And failing miserably."

"Well yah, that's why the damn thing didn't go through before." Josette snorts. "But then they're sssssssoooooooo much better than everybody else." Maria nods frantically. "Anyway, I passed along outlines to Madison for books and she demanded I get my ass out to talk to her or she'd track me down and lecture me severely." Maria's cackling as Josette heads off. Madison looks at the camera and pulls Josette into her house.

"Damn, I think I left my shadow out there." Josette straightens up. "I am here as ordered, oh mistress."

"Yeah, right." Madison snorts. "As if I could really order you to do something you didn't want. So?" She knows she didn't make a trip out just for her.

"Dropping off empty shipping containers. ..ours, Pat's, the school's, and what I picked up from the others order from Ellis. We don't need them sitting around somewhere." Madison nods and sits her down to talk.

Doc is waiting when she returns to Haven. "Dropping off empty containers, working on the recycling, and talking to Madison about the new books." He nods in satisfaction. "I heard rumors they're expanding the moonbase?"

"Yes, they've been talking about it for a while. In the beginning it was meant to be temporary. Have you heard anything about the city-ship?"

"They're still talking about what the next step is going to be, where they're going and how long the trip will be. Despite the morons wanting a colony and city-ship of their own, there's no damn need for them to find new planets to colonize. Becka's dimension the planets were found but with all the damn deaths thanks to that fucking machine they won't be needed for centuries. Personally, I see future expansion of the colony dimension with a second or third round of settlers more than I see a space colony."

Doc nods in agreement.

"Are you goddamn retarded? No, you can't sue the woman whose land you tried stealing for wrongful imprisonment. You created false mortgage papers to try to steal her land. . .that's fraud and attempted theft." one of the jailhouse lawyers sneers a the man across from him. "Now get the fuck out of my face."

"But she's still got the land, isn't it no harm, no foul?" he whines. "She's walking around free and I've been in here for weeks."

"Get used to it, you're going to be in here for years you damn fool." He runs off wailing. "Damn idiot." Another man snorts. "Yes, the little fool firmly believes that since she was able to keep her land he shouldn't have been punished for trying to steal it."

David finds Josette up in the growing area, taking video of both hydroponics sections.

"I thought the others would start demanding video by now."

"Yep, unlike Professor Druid who . .." is walking in the door right now. David and Josette snigger.

"Ahhh yes, I can already see the difference."

"Yes, the plants are sturdier. I don't know if it will carry over to increased yield but. . ."

"We'll see. . .though how the different formulations can work in fish water. . .?"

"I don't have any of the manuals. . .but it would have to be in the seed trays." Professor Druid nods. "Have we looked at the additive to make sure it's not harmful?"

"Yes, it's stuff that has been used before in other areas but not in this combination before. Doc's sprinkling some into the soil as he plants in Headquarters." Josette sends off the video off to the others and comes downstairs.

"Another year after this one of back to back offworld harvests and our final harvests?"

"This year for sure. . .next year might find us harvesting both places at once."

"Oh dear god, that's going to be bad. But I can understand, the drifting doesn't follow the same schedule every time."

"Nope." Josette sighs. "That's why we harvested early one year after a dual harvest and why some cycles were longer." Josette's eyes glaze over a second. "Storm, bad one. Coming in tomorrow night, wet heavy shit that will just dump on us."

"How long?" David asks, starting the message.

"Five weeks, three of wet heavy snow that you can get out in but you won't want to because you'll be wallering through snow up to your ass the entire time. Two weeks to blow out." David sends off the message and then the second to stick to the tunnels. In Town people grab their PADDS at the alert and the large scale replicator is turned on, people running in over the next day to pick up extra wood. ..even the people in apartments and homes with furnaces.

The candles are also hit and extra boxes they held back for emergencies are brought out and quickly emptied. The batteries won't last long in this type of storm and charging it with the exercise bike will be for heat, not lights.

"Thank god this isn't Earth where a storm like this would probably mean more than one death when the power failed. At least before things started getting so bad." One of the cooks says to the others as they put the leftovers away in one of the walk in coolers and otherwise get everything ready for the next day.

"Yep."

Three long weeks later Josette pushes open the doors for the dogs and breathes in the cool but fresh air before flying up to uncover the solar panels at the school and splitting off duplicates to handle those on the other continent if they're not taking care of them themselves. The others are beginning to get up and the doors are shut a few minutes later. After breakfast maintenance can be heard with the snowblowers as the boys bring out theirs to clear around the dorm and waller out to the barn to crack open the door for fresh air for a while.

Josette comes back from planting on the first planet and leans back against the couch. David walks past and chuckles. "Spend the entire time out there?"

"Yes, and sold what I could. Everything is either now dried or put in stasis." Josette yawns. "Are we producing upstairs?"

"Getting there, a lot of tiny little tomatoes, peppers, and other stuff. Including baby corn." Josette snorts, there'd been a hoopla in the last databurst from some moron trying to get baby corn outlawed because they had to be genetically modified so you could eat the cob. . .they'd huffed off when they realized baby corn was just corn that hadn't got big yet. Same with baby potatoes. Unlike baby carrots which were just cut down regular carrots.

"Idiots. There's been modified food for years, farmers have been breeding crops for increased yields for years before genetically modified became a 'baaaaddddd' thing." Professor Druid had drawled.

"Did GD have another plant they wanted you to grow on the first planet?" She'd got a request to come out the night before.

"They're working on something, but it will be a couple years yet. No, they wanted to see if I was growing seaweed again. Either edible or to be used as raw fiber for . . .any of a hundred things." She waves a hand. David nods. "I've been thinking about it, but we don't have a need for it right now." David nods again. Looking at the time Josette floats up in midair and lands on her feet, heading to the bathroom. Professor Druid would be coming to the dorm in a bit.

"They did that on Pern, gathered up seaweed and other natural plant material in the beginning to see if it was edible or they could make something with it." Professor Druid hears David saying to the shut powder room door as she walks in.

"Josette?" He waves at the door. "GD called last night, wanting to know if she was growing seaweed again." Professor Druid nods.

"It was used in sushi much like corn tortillas for Mexican food. Real Mexican food and not our version." Josette says through the door. "If I did, I'd grow it in an enclosed area. Either something like Nori in small batches. . .though I think it's on the new replicator, or another of the edible seaweeds that could be dried, powdered, and added to fish stocks. Or chowders." Professor Druid nods. "Or growing it in an aquaponics unit."

"That's a thought." Josette makes a note on her PADD and they head upstairs. "We don't need the additional fiber of growing a non-edible version but I'm sure GD would have a lab experimenting with it." David nods. "Didn't want to duplicate your work if you were already growing it." Nods from both women.

"Oh yes, this is good, you can already see that there's more blossoms on these tomato plants. And the peppers too. I know Doc will have been taking notes on his plants." Josette nods. "it's slower because they're not in the formula all the time, more like adding chicken manure as the plants need it." Professor Druid nods in agreement. "Between the formula in the beginning and the fish water if that's how it's handled.. . I gotta call GD and see if either of them got into that section yet." Professor Druid nods. "If neither of them have gotten into it yet I'll break down and start looking."

"Unless they just add the additives to the fish water." David says slowly.

"Could, have to look and see." Josette yawns and walks downstairs, the others following them to the dining hall for lunch.

Josette gets hold of both GDs and the group from the other dimension a couple days later, getting blank looks and shaking heads at how the additive would work in a fish farm setting. So, pulling on her big girl underwear she flies out to the ships and starts looking through the boxes, thankfully everything had been sorted into individual areas so she's not having to search through everything for what she needs. Floating in midair she reads through the manuals and nods, putting everything away before flying home.

"You were right, it goes right in the fish water." She says as she slides into her usual seat in the dining hall. In the front room Professor Druid is nodding. Everybody looks at them. "We were wondering how the additive worked in an aquaponics setting. We thought it might be used on the seed trays." Nods of understanding from the others. "Is the difference noticeable?"

"Yeah, the second unit's plants have a lot more blossoms. Have to see if the fruit itself if bigger when it comes time to pick."

Josette snorts as she reads the databurst a few days later in the dining hall. "People are up in arms about an ag dimension. They need it for future food production. They don't need it, too many people garden as it is. Oh my god. . .you mean we'd have to plant the crops ourselves. . .they wouldn't be there waiting for us?" Rolled eyes and snorts of disgust from everybody around her. "The lumber people wailed like sirens when they realized if they'd want to be harvesting trees in their own dimension. . .they'd have to plant those self-same trees and it would take decades for them to grow to the size they wanted." More rolled eyes and snorts of disgust. "The realtors are still wailing because there's no power in the other dimension, they'll have to rely on solar power and that would mean nothing is open 24/7. H. . .ho. . .how can their precious malls function on limited power? The government had to build a power plant, then whined when they were told no and that the power plants had to have a way to create the power, that means they'd need their own fuel." More rolled eyes but President Bartlett and Professor Ziegler are nodding.

"They'd be horrified at how we survive on limited power." Principal Madison snorts.

"They'd be horrified at Town anyway, we don't have McMansions, ten malls in one city, a hotel, everything that they swear they can't live without." Josette snorts. The others nod. "All our stores are full. . .we don't have strip malls with at least one empty store."

Susan cackles. "The morons who look down their noses at plain food would be horrified. . .the only person who eats an eight course dinner is Josette. . .who eats eight dinners as a matter of course." Everybody sniggers.

Josette pretends to faint. "Oh my god. . .you walk everywhere? H. . .ho. . how can you do that me? My two thousand dollar shoes aren't made for walking, they're made to be seen in. Because I can afford them. . .and you. ..you can afford them? But you won't buy them because you don't waste your money on stupid stuff. . .but that's not fair." More snickering from everybody in the rooms. "Some morons never grow up."

Josette pokes Principal Madison on the shoulder a few weeks later as she walks into the meeting room for their government meeting. "Cherries."

"Yes, we were talking about adding more trees." President Bartlett smiles. "It's been several years since the farm was last expanded. Do we have more trees?"

"Yes, I've been growing them on one of the ships, if we don't plant them here I'll plant them on the first planet."

"Tart, sweet?"

"A mix of both."

"Are you going to make cherry wine again?"

"Planned on it in a couple years. . .'course, that was a couple years ago." Josette checks her PADD to see what she's got in storage as the three older men chuckle. David comes into the meeting room, they'd been running a little late as the others came out to look at the two hydroponics units in person.

David opens a window in his room when he gets home, the dorm is hitting that 'lived in' stage and everybody is opening windows for a few minutes until the furnace kicks on. The ionizer had been brought out and it was helping, but windows open for even a few minutes is more a mental relief than helping the air quality.

"Is the rug yarn people working on the fleeces?" Principal Madison asks at dinner later that night.

"Yes, we should be getting the first batch of yarn in a few months." Josette says. "The thread complex is working on the other half and should have some thread ready for weaving in about the same time." Principal Madison nods in satisfaction.

"Has there been any interest in the treadle machines in Calvin's dimension?"

"Yes, there's three sewing machines in a building for seamstresses to take orders for clothes. They built a building with solar panels, but so far it's the only one and it only runs the radio to connect the colony to Earth." Nods from the others. "They're planning on getting in the panels with wire connectors to put up inside cabins in the future and generators that are crank powered but that's going to be long in the future. Mostly because there's nothing there that needs electricity."

"Lights would mean winding the generator constantly."

"Yes, and a small ceramic heater like we have wouldn't put out that much heat. A refrigerator would have to be brought in by wagon, if they have sense they've already dug into the earth to make cold areas."

"Not that there's much that needs refrigeration out there."

"Butter and milk if they have cows, eggs if they have chickens. They'd need a blender to make their own mustard and mayo if they grew mustard seed. Not that it would be needed, they don't have the lunch meat and stuff we have. Now if it were Eureka it would be coffeemakers. . ." Snickering but nods from everybody. "But then they'd have to have a coffee plantation, it's not something you can just have a single plant for your own use."

"Those and solar panels would be part of a second wave of settlers though."

Josette sighs as she shuts the window, it's warming up but still not warm enough to have the windows and doors open for more than a few minutes without the furnace coming on. A thud in the twins room tells her they had their door open for a few minutes to get some fresh air too. Her plant is blooming and she picks the fabric, the rolls growing on her and she puts them up in her studio. That reminds her she probably should check the building.

"Oh thank you Josette, there's about five blossoms that need to be picked but I'm the only one here." Frances says when Josette walks in, once again marveling at how the plant's furnaces can keep the large building warm. She picks them and puts them up, bringing out some rolls and cutting fabric for herself. "I'll put out a note for us to come out and cut fabric a couple days."

Frances nods, "We've got enough empty bolts." Frances finishes bagging her fabric and other supplies and they head back to the school.

Agatha nods as she gets the message and picture, the others doing the same. They settle on a time to go out, three flyers landing by the building a couple days later. Three days work has bolts filled and everybody nods in satisfaction.

Of course not all the fabric had made it on the bolts, some was going out the door in the bags everybody had brought along with the yarn that had been made into skeins. Josette flips bags to the dorm and the door shuts behind them.

"Okay, is there a place. . ." Pat asks as everybody gets in the flyers or in Josette's case settles in midair.

"If a person wanted to sleep out there? Yes, in one of the other areas there's a small room with a bed, shower unit, and a bathroom beyond the one we use out there. I started a couple food plants but. . ."

"the building's too big and too far away for anybody to want to stay out there even if that would be some of ours dreams." Agatha says briskly. "Surrounded by all that crafting supplies and being able to work out there to your heart's content."

"Just like I dream of being surrounded by books and being able to sit down in a comfy chair and read as long as I want." Josette smirks. Then she facepalms. "Oh yeah, I can." Pat chuckles and pushes her granddaughter's head as the flyer lifts off and Josette follows it to town.

Pat and Josette walk into the dorm and go to their workrooms, putting what they'd brought from the building away.

"Are you done?" Doc asks, looking into her workroom.

"Yes, we've got enough bolts of fabric made up for a few months from all the rolls." Pat says, looking over her shoulder at him. The window of her workroom is cracked open an inch for air as she puts everything away in containers on the shelves. "How is the socks going?" she knew he was going out to the buildings after breakfast.

"Good, another Josette had been moving the full pallets of socks so they weren't getting too crowded in the buildings." Pat guffaws at his bland tone. She remembers the year they'd come back from England for Josette's Oxford graduation and Josette had said she'd moved stacks of sock pallets as well as empty pallets the yarn had been on before they'd left. And that was a helluva lot less sock machines and orders back then. Doc nods in agreement. Of course now the buildings were a lot bigger and they had more space for the socks. "I believe she intends to take them out in a few weeks."

Over the next few days the snow begins to melt and windows are opened for longer amounts of time before the furnace kicks on. When the ground is cleared Josette and the other farmers start spreading manure on the fields and gardens, tilling everything under a few days later then planting crops.

Josette nudges David as she comes into the dorm. "Are we growing rhubarb again this year?"

David looks at his PADD. "Yeah, we should the stock is getting low. And we can always pass it along to the others." Susan nods. "I'll grow it this fall then. Along with pumpkins, squash, and a second variety of corn."

"Did you ever decide where you're planting the cherry trees?"

"Yeah, I'll plant them in a couple weeks and start more for the first planet."

"Grapes?"

"We've expanded both areas over the years. Between stasis and wine they don't go to waste, that's one of the reasons we've expanded them over the years."

"And we can always turn extra in raisins." Doc says from the door of Headquarters. Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later.

"That old fool who didn't like how we ran the colony, he was demanding to come and show us everything we were doing wrong. I told the fucking bastard to go to hell, our colony ran just fine without his input. Any colony he ran would have every damn second of the day allocated if he got his way." The others snort and nod. "Bastard wailed like a siren when he tried telling me I had to obey my elders and I told the fool I was twice his age. Even older than that if we'd kept Earth's calendar. He then tried the whole 'obey your betters' argument and his own lawyer called him an effing fool. He wasn't better than anybody else. No matter how much he bellyached."

Principal Madison sighs and President Bartlett snorts as Josette tells them what had happened at lunch. "You're right, any damn colony he'd be associated with would run like a damn clockwork mechanism. . .if they didn't kill him for his stupidity. Because people have their own minds."

"Yep."

Josette and Professor Druid go over what they plan on growing later that year after lunch, nodding at the explanations for each crop.

"Fleeces?"

"I'm picking up the thread and yarn in a couple days and everybody's chomping at the bits to start working."

"Is all the fabric going to be made in the loom building?"

"While they'd like to, I'm only dropping off a portion of the thread there. More will be going to the schools, I'm taking some. . .all these will be for special projects since you can only do a few inches of fabric on a loom in one sitting." Professor Druid nods. "I'll turn the rest into fabric in my building. Now I'm just going to leave the fabric plain for that cloth, I know some of the others want to dye the thread for plaids and other designs." She nods again. "Won't be any damn problem to scan some of the thread into the replicator and have extra." Josette nods this time. "We could have the yarn dyed at the rug yarn manufacturer but. . ."

"This is something we did."

"'Xactly." Josette leans back against the chair. "and yes, I could have just put the fleeces in the replicator and turned it into thread or yarn but. . ."

"We want people involved in the process from beginning to end. That was one of the problems with Earth, nobody had to work for what they wanted. They didn't have to worry about growing their own food, heat, power. . .we're all happier here." Josette nods. "I could bring out a power building like Becka's but if we put it to the vote. . ."

"They'd chose the way we're already living." Principal Madison nods from the doorway. "That's why none of the houses without solar panels have added them over the years. They prefer candles after dark and during winter storms the batteries wouldn't be charging anyway."

"'Xactly." Josette says again. "they might buy an extra battery and charge it for bad weather but otherwise it's life as normal."

Anna brings down the last curtain she'll wash in this load, dropping it in the cart as Alan, Alexander, and Michael come up behind her and start washing the windows. This and being able to keep the windows open for more than ten minutes is one of the true signs that spring has arrived. Anna goes down to the second laundry and fills the commercial washers, starting them running as she brings the other curtains out of the dryers and takes them back upstairs, Susan and Abby hanging them up and spritzing them with spray starch to hold their shape.

David comes in from the garage.

"Got the snowblowers looked over?"

"Yep, everything is officially put away until next fall." This late if they do get snow it will melt in a couple days. Grabbing a squeegee and spray bottle he goes to another window and starts cleaning. Josette has a half-dozen duplicates washing the outside of the windows and they make faces at the others inside when they meet at a window. Doc chuckles at his granddaughter's antics. The door opens and Josette sends a file to his PADD. "What the school is growing beyond the gardens and what we're planning." He nods, no use duplicating crops beyond something like wheat everybody grows and the gardens.

A couple weeks later Josette walks into the office of Calvin's school. "Okay, the first order of socks is ready to be picked up, I dropped off the spa's orders, here's the other socks. . ." Josette waves a hand. "Sorry, I gotta run. I got back to back to back to back . . .well, you get the idea. . .meetings. Between the assholes whining because they can't steal the land, some asshole in the government who doesn't like how we protect our land. . ." Calvin rolls his eyes from the door of his office. "To the whiny asshole who's wailing that I won't take him to Haven so he can show us how to run the colony the 'right' way to that fool bitch who is trying to get her conviction for hiring somebody to kill us for not allowing her to film on our land overturned I'm about ready to kill somebody. Expect huffing complaints from assholes who think they're all that about how I won't kiss their asses for existing."

Josette slumps into a chair in Calvin's office the next morning. "The morons huffed and puffed but since the laws were firmly on my side they were told to grow the fuck up and leave me the hell alone. The land is mine and it's staying mine. The fool who wanted the colony to run like a damn clock with every second of every day being allocated to something or other was told if he bothered me again I could fucking shoot him." Calvin snickers. "The bitch whining about being in prison for trying to hire somebody to kill me for not letting her film on my land is being sent to the maximum security dimension until she pays off a huge judgment. . .if not longer. She's got a list of infractions as long as my arm and the prison is debating just dumping her ass there permanently."

"Serves the stupid bitch right then." Jane murmurs as she points at the containers, Josette waves them into subspace. "Okay, now I recognize the looks. . .what else beyond the socks do you want me to start making for you? I'm already going to Ellis's for more machines, Eureka not only wants more socks they want hats, mittens, scarves. . .which I suspect you do too." Everybody laughs but nods. They talk over everything and Josette arrives at Ellis's the next day. The orders of new yarn is waiting for her and she moves everything to the ship. Walking through the buildings she orders more machines beyond what she buys that day. As well as putting in a semi-permanent yarn order.

She looks over at Michael and Alexander when she walks into the dining hall. "You're on tap for more tables, not only does Granda's Eureka want more stuff, so does Granda." Alexander pushes his tray aside and lays his head on the table to cackle. He's not the only one.

"Not gonna be the only ones."

"Yes, I fully expect Archimedes and the 9th planet to be requesting the same things when they realize I'm making more than socks." Josette yawns. "Yarn orders were in, I'll bring everything out over the next few days. I put in a semi-permanent order for the yarn when I ordered more machines." Elaine nods in the front room. Principal Madison starts to open his mouth and Josette raises a hand. "Yes, we have enough room for the other machines in the buildings and in a while we can offer the other stuff to the other planets." Professor Druid snorfles as Principal Madison honest to god pouts. "Oh don't start Dad, I had a whole day of dealing with assholes who thought they were all that while I was on Earth. . .though I did get permission to shoot that old fool who wants to come to Haven to show us how to run a 'proper' colony if he bothers us again, miserable bastard probably would have it figured in when and how long somebody could take a shit and if they took three seconds longer than that he'd complain." President Bartlett sighs but nods, he'd dealt with plenty of fools like that in DC. Professor Ziegler is snickering but nodding.

"I got a huge judgment against that dumbass bitch who wanted to film her reality show on the land, she's being sent to the maximum security dimension to at least pay off the judgment. . .possibly permanently depending on whether the prison wants to bring her back. The moron's got a list of infractions as long as my arm already."

"Well of course, don't the prison know she's special?" Professor Druid drawls.

"The moron who tried stealing the land from us is pouting in prison, since he didn't get the land he shouldn't be in that horrible cell. Isn't it no harm. . .no foul? Now his brother is mad at his business practices being looked at." Cackles from both rooms.

"Okay," Josette yawns as she leans between her parents and looks over at President Bartlett. "These are the machines I brought out. . .the second list is the ones I ordered. I'll probably end up doubling or even tripling the numbers depending on the demand from the other planets." Josette yawns again. "Damn it, I don't know why I'm so fucking tired."

"The morons in the meetings drained your strength." Professor Druid snorts. "The damn meeting with parents who thought they were all that and we should ignore the rules for their darling child wiped our asses out. Toby and Jed can tell you political meetings were ten times worse."

"At least." President Bartlett rumbles. He looks at the lists and nods.

Josette leans against the counter in the Albatross Nest. "Okay, the yarn orders are in. Let me know where you want them and I'll start delivering it. I've got a semi-permanent order in since both Granda and Granda's Eureka want more stuff." Agatha snickers at her hangdog look. "I've got a bunch of new machines for them and got more on order, I'll probably end up tripling that number and offering them up for the other planets."

Josette snorts a few days later as she reads the databurst. "Another attempt at a colony, some fool is trying to drum up support so people can buy any land they want. . .no 'no you can't steal this land from the rightful owner' nonsense for them."

"Ooo la la." David snorts. "That won't fare any better than any of the others."

"Yep." Josette drawls. "I don't care how damn special you think you are, there's no way you can afford trillions of dollars for a colony just so you can get any piece of land you want. . .probably think they're the damn lord of the manor and the 'serfs' are going to be happy living on her land and working for her."

"Yep. And the 'serfs' would tell them to shove it up her ass." Michael snorts. "This ain't Downton Abbey and you're not Lord Granville, this ain't Pern and you're not a Lord Holder. . ."

"Morons just see people working for them, they don't see them having to take care of their servants and holders."

"Yep. Ain't no little people going to sign up for your oh so precious colony if everything they own can be taken from them because you think you're so damn special."

The talk about the colony soon crashes and burns as people call the woman wanting it a damn fool. She runs off wailing as everybody mocks her stupidity on social media. 'I never thought people wouldn't give me money if they thought their land could be taken from them' she wails.

"You didn't think period." is the nicest thing about the stupid fool over the next few days.

"Oh, she just wanted to own land as far as the eye can see while the 'little' people took care of everything." Somebody snorts. "Now that large plot of land she's complaining about . . .it's got farms on it. The land isn't just sitting there, it's being used. Just not the way she wants it to be used. Making her look good."

"Figures."

David shakes his head as Alexander and Michael put the tables in the storage areas until they're duplicated then bring them out for the machines Josette's setting up as another Josette brings out yarn that is also just been duplicated. "Might as well use it since they put it on there." Josette shrugs. Selecting the patterns the machines are started and they move to the other building where they repeat the process.

"Is this everything?"

"Until the rest of the machines are delivered to Ellis. Should be picking them up when we go out for the boys show."

"I can't believe another five years and we'll be 'retiring'. There's days I feel like chucking it now." Alexander snorts.

"We've all had days like that." Susan snorts as she walks past the doors. "Did Doc say anything about a show?"

"Yeah, just before Thanksgiving. I'll take out the books I've already debuted there and a half-dozen more. I'd take more out this year to the other shows but I don't want to be signing for days and they already know the shows are going to be ending soon so even more books will be sold in Granda's dimension." Nods from the others as they walk out of the building and down the hall to the steps.

"As it is you're already signing over ten thousand books. ..each book."

Josette slumps into a seat in Calvin's office, he looks at her. "Ahhh, don't mind me. . .I'm just tired of morons who think living an agrarian lifestyle makes you a damn fool who doesn't have any technology." she snorts. The man who'd been talking with Calvin rolls his eyes. "You have flush toilets and running water? Yes. You have electric lights? Yes, though most people would rather just light a candle even if you have solar panels that can power the lights. Especially during the winter when the batteries might not start charging again the next morning. You. . .you have farm machinery? Yes, they all run on battery packs. We can charge the battery packs with solar panels or ride an exercise bike and charge them that way. You .. .you have tvs? Yes, we have tvs, we also have tv stations, radios, radio stations, DVDS, movie theaters, and books. But you don't have cars? No, we don't have cars, we walk everywhere. But you drive a car here! Yes, I drive a car here because they have cars here, they also have trains, busses, and airplanes. But you don't have them on your planet! No, because we don't want or need them. Bu. . .bu. . but how can you live without cars?" Calvin and the other man are sniggering. "Oh my god. ..you speak English! Yes, I speak a dozen languages. ..how many do you speak? That's when the person usually slinks off. Much to the amusement of the others who'd been waiting for them to fall on their faces."

Josette is shaking her head when she returns to Haven. "We might be chucking it early, some fool in Calvin's world had a fit about not getting the gallery for her oh so precious show that night and the owner dropped your show like a hot potato. Calvin and Marcus are letting the damn gallery sink in its own shit by sending out notices that the show was canceled thanks to them. They're blubbering that we can have another night. . ."

"We don't want another night." Michael snorts. "For that matter. . .they could have had another night."

"Exactly. . .the dumbass is wailing because now they're seeing how much money they could have been making from the show that's gone now. That stupid bitch won't sell a thing."

"No, the ones who wail the loudest they deserve* a night that had been booked by somebody else never do. If they have any damn sense they realize what miserable people they are and slink off, the others wail it's got to be somebody else's fault. . .can't possibly be theirs. Everybody's out to get them."

"Are you fucking stupid?" Marcus sneers. "No, you can't fucking make them take a different night. You violated the damn contract by giving our night away, not us." The fool had sued trying to demand they accept a different night when he realized he was getting a lot of bad publicity from taking away their night. Marcus had countersued demanding the judge enforce the cancellation clause in the contract.

"He is correct, your own actions invalidated the contract and the termination penalties are on you. . .not them. Pay the man." The judge bangs the gavel.

"But they can take another night. . .why won't you make them take another night?" He wails in the courtroom.

"Because they chose that night specifically. You should have made that other person take another night. And if you act out like this again, you'll be facing contempt of court charges."

He runs off wailing. Marcus snorts. "Little fool, trying to 'turn the gallery around, bring in new artists'."

"Instead of sticking with the established artists who are making them money." The judge snorts. "My clerk will have the order making them pay your damages in a few minutes. Your clients?"

"Don't need the money from the show but they're talking with a friend of theirs to use one of their buildings for the show."

"But why won't you. . ." the fool tries screaming at Marcus outside the courtroom before he lays him on the ground with one punch. "Because they had already arranged the publicity for that night you goddamn little fool. Now you're sulking because instead of being a big hero in the media, you're being treated like the goddamn fool you really are. Now grow the fuck up, my clients have no intention of taking another night from you. You would have made thousands of dollars in profits from the boys sale, I hope you don't see a damn dime from theirs." Marcus walks away from the fool as security comes over to toss his ass out.

"But they promised me a couple thousand for that night. . .there's no proof that the other show would bring in more than that." The man who'd given away the boys night wails as his grandfather scowls at him. The show had happened the night before and the few people who'd came walked away after looking at her oh so special stuff in disgust.

"Really. . .if you'd googled the damn names you'd have seen they were big names in the business. She's never had a show. . .gods, the woman should stick with selling at the damn flea market." His mother snorts. "And what are your plans to fix this mess?"

"Can we get them to take another night?" He whines. If he asks enough they'll have to change their minds. . .won't they?

"They don't want another damn night and we're the damn laughing stock of the community now. I was at their last show, the gallery took in nearly half a million in profits." Her son whimpers. "So was your damn two thousand dollars for stealing that night worth it?"

"No." he ducks his head.

"Good, you might make a damn good businessman after all." His grandfather says. "Now pull your damn head out of your ass and apologize to the artists whose night you hijacked. . .otherwise we might as well shut the doors because we won't ever be able to get any artists to come to the gallery."

"But they could have taken another night." He wails. His mother throws her glass of water in his face.

"They didn't want another damn night fool, they'd already sent out all the notices about the show being at our gallery that night." She hisses as he chokes and splutters. "Needless to say, you're no longer in charge of the gallery. I'd suggest you trot down to the unemployment office and find another job."

"Shut up you fucking bitch!" his grandfather bellows at the stupid woman who'd burst in whining about her show flopping. He cusses her out long and loud and she runs off wailing. "And go back to selling your shit at a flea market. You're not a damn hotshot artist. you're a goddamn moron who should have got her ass beaten to death before she cost this gallery nearly half a million dollars in profit from the show we should have had last night." He yells at her retreating back. She fumbles in the back of her car and turns with a tire iron, finding a gun in her face. The police take her away from the security guards and she wails at all the bad publicity. Her family flatly refuses to bail her out, telling she she's a goddamn idiot and is finally getting what she deserved. Not everything she thought she deserved.

"Always going to be idiots." Josette sighs. Marcus and Calvin had hurriedly arranged for the show to go on in the complex the school had built during the zero-population period. A lot of other artists had been invited to show their work and the media was all over it, raving about how the artists had overcome the loss of their original venue . . .and hissing at what a worthless person the other person was who'd stolen their night when they weren't on camera.

Everybody had sold something and Josette had spent hours signing the sold books. One old biddy who'd come just to complain starts to sniff until she sees everybody gathering up to have the books signed. Including some people that she feels are just as important as her.

Josette slumps into a seat. "Was that moron wailing until he ran off the fool who took the night from us?"

"Yes." Marcus says in disgust. "Idiot couldn't believe that we wouldn't take another date. Now he saw what kind of business he could have had if he'd left the damn night alone. Not only didn't we give the fool another chance, we came out on top. We're in the gravy and he's looking like a damn fool. His family's not at all happy about him and they're losing a lot of artists, they're afraid he'll do the same thing to them he did to us and they won't be able to recover the way we did."

"And that stupid bitch that was the cause of all this?"

"Still in jail, her family refused to bail her out. She's wailing that everybody's being mean to her. Because everybody who knows her is calling her a damn fool who's finally getting what she deserves and the jail won't put up with her shit."

His grandfather slams the paper down in front of his grandson. "Did you see what they did? This is how a damn show is really ran, they found another venue and they brought in local artists to give them much-needed publicity and backing. Not only are we out all those profits, all the publicity is bad."

"But I would have given them another night." He wails.

"They didn't want another goddamn night, you should have told her to either take the other night or find another gallery. Gods man, didn't they teach you anything in that fancy university? Hell just common sense would tell you not to toss away the artist you already had for somebody else."

"But she said she'd have a lot of people talking about her show."

"Well, at least that was the truth. People are talking about her show. . .but it's nothing good." His grandfather snorts. "Grow the fuck up you stupid little fool. You messed up. . .now you have to live with the consequences."

"Five more years." Josette sighs as she settles on the arm of the couch after delivering supplies here and there to the dorm and other buildings. "and we won't have to put up with uppity morons who think they're all that and fools who will turn their back on one artist to try to please another. Though one good thing did come out of this mess, the new artists got much needed publicity and money coming in." Nods from the others.

"Crops?"

"Should start seeing the early ripening stuff in another week. Another week after that it will be picking baskets every day until the plants are done."

"Canning supplies?"

"Washed up and either put away until the gardens start coming in or sent back to be reused for the offworld harvests. We've got plenty. we could double the harvests every year for a decade before we needed more. And yes, that includes the offworld harvests. I was looking at the supplies on hand to see if we needed to open the glass factories." David says as he pushes himself to his feet and heads to the powder room. Josette stretches backwards and to the sides before straightening up.

"How many books did you sell?"

"Over thirty thousand thanks to all the publicity." Josette yawns. "Granda and Dad both suggested I bring double out of what I normally would bring. That doesn't include what I would have normally took out to Ellis." Looking at the time she straightens up. "Lemme start bringing out the other machines before lunch. Did anybody check the septic units?"

"Yesterday, they're cleaned and the dry waste put out by the garden." Alexander says. "Come on slug, we gotta put away our supplies." Michael sighs but nods as he opens his eyes and gets up from the chair he'd been lounging in. "At least we can move around the studio. . .for a few months anyway until it's time for the dual show." Josette splits off a duplicate that follows them. "Lemme move everything else to the ship."

"Thank you Josette." Everybody knows they don't really need the room but the good-natured bitching is relaxing everybody. Doc's lips twitch from the doorway of Headquarters, they do this every time they come back from a show,

The crops start coming in and baskets of food fill every counter, table, and a good part of the floor as they're being worked on. A good chunk of it goes right into the containers in the root cellar and soon everything is finally put away, either canned or put in stasis. The cookbooks had gotten a good workout over the last few months and more than one person is putting up a supply of a new food to have on hand for later.

"How are the nut trees? Do we need to plant more?" Principal Madison asks at lunch after the new crops and gardens are in and everybody has a chance to breathe.

"Ours are producing good, the other planets orchards are producing just as good, I fully expect to see bushels of nuts to start appearing in the building in the future."

The others nod.

"Soy?"

"First batch is being made into milk right now. When the second batch comes in we'll start making cheese. Which would have people up in arms. . .the damn vegans would be disgusted at us not only eating cheese made from real milk. . .we drink that selfsame real milk."

"Those damn fools need a foot up their ass." Dr. Hazlitt murmurs. "You shoving your opinion down other people's throats just pisses people off." Everybody in the room nods. "They do it to make themselves look better."

"Yes, and most of the vegan crap is just that, crap. . .I'll eat real chocolate thank you very much. Even soy milk chocolate is better than that commercial crap."

David goes out to the fish farm to check on the plants growing out there with Doc.

"I don't think we need to add another aquaponics unit." David says, looking at Doc.

"No, you grow a good amount of food here, we won't need to add a unit for several years with the population staying stable for the foreseeable future." Doc says as they transfer the seed trays to the water and bring out plants that have gone to seed to save for the seeds. Josette had already taken care of the plants drying from earlier and David smiles at the containers of seeds that have been added to. "But we will need to harvest the fish."

Doc nods. It's been a few years and they're big enough to harvest. "We can do that this fall and put out the announcement." Beyond Haven the other planets will buy some. Just like they buy from the 8th planet when they harvest their fish. David opens the tesseract back to the dorm and they arrive as Josette comes back from delivering the last of the yarn. Another of her selves is in the dyeing building with the others, dyeing both the thread for the looms and the yarn.

"You goddamn retarded idiot." An editor bellows as he looks at the attack story that's 'somehow' made its way into his paper and is now getting it sued. "How fucking stupid are you?"

"You mean none of this is true?" She whines.

"No asshole, none of this is true. Which you'd have known if you'd been a damn real reporter. That land has been owned by the same family for over fifty years. . .it wasn't stolen from anybody. These morons are the ones trying to steal it from the rightful owners because they want to tear down all the trees, rip out the farms, and build more goddamn malls and houses. . .none of which we need. Now, we're going to be printing a retraction to this goddamn shit along with a full apology and hope to hell they don't ruin us in the courts."

"You mean they'd actually sue?" She wails.

"Of course they'd sue asshole. And they'd win. . .this ain't a fucking tabloid. . .this is a serious newspaper. Now I want the names of your sources so I can turn them over to their lawyers and let them rip them to shreds. . ."

"Ummmm. . .the sources asked not to be disclosed."

"I don't give a shit about how they asked not to be disclosed, give me all the damn interviews now. This ain't a case of a person in fear for their life, this is pure greed and another attempt to steal their land."

"Another attempt? You mean they've done this before?"

"Dear gods woman, yes. Dozens of times. . .do some damn researching." He sends her out so he can start drafting a formal apology and a wail in the outer office an hour later has him sighing. "Now she does it." Ten minutes later a shamefaced reporter comes in and puts a box of notebooks, cds from taped interviews, and DVDs on his desk. "I wasn't given proper introductions. . .they just ask me to call them Misters X, Y, and Q."

"Q? Not Z?" Her boss snickers despite himself.

"He didn't want to be seen as being the last. . .you'll hear the argument in the DVD that's the entire interview. . .not the edited one. I did a little searching and was able to make positive identifications of them though. They played me like a fool."

"Yes, but we can turn this around in our favor. Here. .. read this. . .you too Morgan." He says as a furious man comes into the office. He takes the release and nods. "I'll send it out now and print it formally in the paper tomorrow."

"We'll release it formally on the news programs."

"But we didn't try to take the land from her. .." One of the morons wails in front of the judge.

"Gentlemen, going around our orders and trying to force them to give up the land by bad press is still trying to steal the land." The judge sighs. Why do idiots like them keep causing trouble by thinking they're sooooo much more clever than everybody else in the world? He orders him back to his jail cell to await his trial and takes the bottle of aspirin his bailiff hands him.

The yearly crops are starting to ripen and the u-pick farms are busy sunup to sundown either with people coming out to pick or them picking and sending it off. Josette nods as the root cellars in the dorm and ranch are getting full.

"Are you harvesting on the first planet?"

"Yeah, after the Harvest Festival and my show when I go out to plant again." Josette cackles. "If the morons think Haven is boring. . ."

"The first, second, and third planets would put them in a coma?" David smirks. "Too bad some more of the idiot genes didn't die out thanks to the zero-population period."

Calvin and the others had started coming out and he holds up a hand when he hears the conversation.

"Oh please," Josette snorts, waving a hand. "The morons are like cockroaches, not even a damn nuclear bomb dropped in their laps could get rid of them."

The man who'd come up with them guffaws despite himself and David and Josette look over at him and grin. They both recognize him, Josette from that day in Calvin's office where she was complaining about idiots and David from tv appearances. Unlike most of the tv talk show psychologists he's a serious doctor and not in it just for the publicity. His wife is grinning and nodding.

"What were you muttering about the other day? Cage free?"

"Ohhhh, you know the damn catch phrases, cage free eggs. ..free range chicken, grass fed cattle. . .no antibiotic added. . ." Josette waves her hand in a and so on, and so on, and so on motion.

David rolls his eyes. "All of which real farmers have been doing for years? Because they eat what they raise."

"Yeah, some damn fool was whining about why do we raise chickens for our own eggs? Can't you just buy them at the store?"

"And where does she think the stores get their eggs? Big farms." Their female guest snorts.

"Oh please," Josette snorts. "Half the people complaining about stuff are just doing it to complain." Her husband sniggers but nods. "Of the other half a good chunk of them believe stuff magically appears at the factories or the store shelves. ..you mean people actually grow the tomatoes that are put in these cans? A good chunk are greedy stupid and dreaming of great big honking profits and not realizing you gotta work for the same great big honking profits. Of the rest a good portion really believe what they're talking about and the rest . . ." Josette shrugs. "In it to make themselves look better to others."

"Or lord it over others." Becka mutters. "That old fool dropping off her 'recycling' case in point."

"Yep." Her grandmother sighs. The others look at them and the story is told, everybody nodding and rolling their eyes. "Always going to be some fool trying to make themselves look good."

"Do you only make. . ." She asks, looking around the loom building.

"No, we use them for special projects, we've got the machinery to make cloth."

"This gives us a few hours away from the house. . .especially in the middle of winter." Agatha snorts.

"This is Agatha, she owns one of the fabric stores here in town. Sue Dixon owns the other one." She points to a woman who's walking down the street pulling a wagon. "There she is, must be taking in her garbage and recycling."

"You recycle then?"

"Oh yes, everybody recycles. . .and composts. What we can't reuse is tossed in the replicator and turned into energy. Or raw materials for new items."

"Patchwork quilts?" She asks when she finds a group of women removing zippers and buttons from old clothes in Sue's store.

"Yes, a bag is five dollars and with your own scraps is enough for a quilt." Sue waves a hand at the wall of containers. "Most of us don't have the room in our homes for this so they keep them here and buy time on the machines."

"You have money then." Her husband smiles.

"Everything's electronic, you just scan your card and choose which function. . .credit or debit."

"You have credit cards?"

"From the beginning but you're not charged any interest." They both smile. "The only interest charged is on mortgages and that's a flat rate added right to the top. . .no paying thirty years on a mortgage and it's only paying interest twenty of those years, every dime you pay goes right to the balance. We don't have monthly payments, a lot of us paid off chunks of our mortgages with the offworld harvests."

"And the interest goes into an account for planetary use. Mostly for stuff we need. Including new buildings when we need them."

"Offworld harvests."

The stories are told and the pictures shown. "If we're not putting away part of the bonus from the harvests for our homes or something major we need, we're putting it in a fund to pay for offworld purchases. . in our case fabric and other supplies."

"Ellis's new cruise. . ." Josette says as she walks past. "I just got a 'we're going to have another one in a couple years' message in the databurst."

"Cruise?" He asks.

"Ellis. . .wait. . .you mean Ellis Manchester? The textiles supplier?"

"Yes, we've been buying from him for years."

"Cruises? You mean like the gambling cruises?"

"Yes, he'll get together with representatives from various manufacturers and offer classes and other stuff during the cruise. . .think of it as a longer expo. Josette usually ends up bringing back whatever wasn't sold after one of these cruises so nobody has to take it back with them."

"They'll probably be clearancing a lot of stuff too. . .and by the time the cruise is over the next big hit will turn out to be the next big miss." She's leaning on her husband cackling, he's grinning broadly. While they don't have wardrobe on his show like do others they do have friends in the industry and have moaned at the fabrics.

"More fabric for you to either cut into fat quarters for quilts or for us to experiment with to make it into something less . . .hideous." Suzie snickers.

"And this fabric?" She picks up a shirt that's seen better days.

"Also have everything removed and be torn into strips for braided rag rugs. And clothes worse than this goes in the replicator to be remade into new fabric."

"Ahhhh, the ultimate in reuse, reduce, and recycle."

"Yep."

"Do you make. . ." He asks at the glassblowers.

"No, we have two factories on the seventh planet we open as needed. One makes bottles and jars and the other makes huge sheets of glass. . .including colored glass and specialty items for the glassworkers. I've got tons of glass on the ships yet to use when needed. .. unlike most factories we don't have any problems breaking and melting glass." he snickers, remembering the wailing that had been all over the news as manufacturers tried and failed to get the laws making them use at least 50 percent recycled glass overturned. Whiny fools had been the majority of the comments when they'd took their pleas to the people. . .hoping there'd be enough complaints the government would have to change their minds.

"How long have you been together?" Their female guest smiles as she sees the love between the eight young people and the teachers when they look at them.

"Our first year of high school, Josette had been here for a couple years already. . .Principal Madison had brought her to the school when she became a ward of the state."

Josette nods. "I finished the sixth grade at the school in town on Earth but the school felt they couldn't engage me after my mother had . . .died. The teachers tutored me for the next two years and I started ninth grade with the others. I'm a year younger than everybody but Alan, I got early admittance to school since I was already reading and writing at a first grade level even though my birthday was past the cutoff and I skipped kindergarten."

The pair look at Alan.

"My birthday was past the cutoff and the school the three of us. . ." he nods at his sisters, "Attended didn't offer the classes needed to start here right off. So I took a year off and studied, the twins studied with me and we took the tests to all start at the same time. We met over the first couple days of school and . . .well, we've been together ever since."

"What do all of you do?"

"Josette's the head librarian here at the school and in Town, she also works shifts at various stores in town as needed. The twins are teachers and work shifts in town when needed, Alan's a doctor who covers shifts at the medical center here at the school, the medical unit in town, and at GD's infirmary on the 8th planet. Susan is a lawyer who works in town and GD and has other positions. Michael and Alexander are artists, and David is a lazy bum who's gainfully unemployed." David blows Principal Madison a raspberry and the couple laughs, they can see the affection between all of them. "We've all had multiple degrees over the years to handle whatever is needed."

"Did all the planets come out at the same time?"

"No, Eureka came out to the eighth planet first, our school came up a year later. The fourth planet was settled a couple years before we lost Earth, settlements coming out to the various planets over the years. The 9th and 10th planets were settled after we lost Earth."

Josette sighs and slumps back in the chair she'd just disappeared from a few seconds ago a couple weeks after the Harvest Festival.

"Another lost world?"

"Yes and no, like the 9th planet people had left before it got too bad. Damn Dumbledore and his second chances and 'oh they mustn't be punished for their actions, they must be led back to the light. . .it's for the greater good'. Senile old fool. They fucking left him by the droves and went to another dimension. . .purebloods on the light side, half-bloods, muggles and muggleborns, squibs. . .even house elves and other sentients. They also took libraries, schools. . .anything they'd need for the future as they recreated their world. Back on Earth the death eaters took over and dumbass was wailing about how they must stop what they were doing because it wasn't bringing them back to the light side." Snorts of disgust. "Yeah, old fool finally realized that he should have took them out with extreme prejudice but by then it was too late. . .they had killed all the remaining muggles and then fell to fighting amongst themselves. The last of them just died in a 'I'm taking you out with me' move." President Bartlett sighs. "Yep, the others can't come back . .whatever asswipe did poisoned everything. Nothing will grow on the planet again." After breakfast the others arrive and they head off.

"Were you in contact with the others?"

"Yes, and passed along everything they could use, their settlement is a mixture of magical and electric. . .no matter what the old fools said about electricity not working around magic. Other countries had fixed that years ago, but. . ."

"The European wizarding world was still stuck in the 1600s technology wise."

"Yup. And meanwhile muggleborn students left the wizarding world in droves because there was nothing there for them. They were treated like second-class citizens and only there to bring in much needed fresh blood to the community. And even then they weren't really 'wanted'."

"Nope, nor the kids who were born." Principal Madison sighs. "At least a good chunk of what was left we were able to send on to the others."

"Yes, and they were already writing the histories of why they'd moved. . .this will be another chapter in the 'this will never happen again' book." Nods from the others. "All children are equal. . .just some of you can do things the others can't, doesn't mean you're better than them or they're better than you. If we find anybody tormenting another person with their gifts, you'll get punished. No excuses. If you're protecting yourself or someone else. . .they'll be dealt with, we will no longer tolerate bullying. . .no boys will be boys."

"Something Dumbassdork is no doubt wailing about in Hell. . . trying to proclaim everything he did was for the greater good." Nods and snorts from the others.

"Unfortunately his version of the greater good and reality weren't on speaking terms. Old fool should have been put out to pasture decades ago."

"Yes, if somebody with some damn brains had been in charge the damn war never would have happened. Riddle would have put somewhere else and got the help he needed or would have been taken out early in the war. . .long before he could have done all the stuff he did." Nods from the others. "In war you can't always 'show them the error of their ways and bring them back to the light'."

"It wasn't a war. . it was a goddamn game of chess with people's lives." Professor Parker snorts. The others nod. "Sacrificing his pawns to get the other side where he wanted them."

"Grindelwald was at least honest about being a dark lord." President Bartlett snorts. "Dumbledore reminded me too damn much of so-called 'presidents' who were little more than dictators dressed up nice."

"Luthor."

"Yep, and the moron from the other dimension."

"Josette, when are you going out to the first planet?"

"Week after next, I'll be out there the whole time."

"Have you figured out for sure if the last of the offworld harvests will be coming in the same time as we're harvesting next year?" David asks. Everybody in the front room moans.

"No, we'll have to wait and see. . .not the first year some planets ran long and not gonna be the last." Josette sighs. "Every planet is different. . .every year is different."

"Have you started your thesis?"

"Yeah, I'll be halfway through the degree this semester." Josette sighs again. "Work on it while I'm on the ships when I'm not clearing stuff, my advisors will want to see what I'm working on. And if somebody tries talking me into a metallurgy doctorate. . .I'm going to be very, very upset." Everybody sniggers at her. "And of course I could be doing this on Earth and getting 'you have no idea what you're doing, run along little girl' crap from somebody."

"Here it's a matter of 'read and rubberstamp, she's been doing this for decades'." Principal Madison says. "David, the degree on the Mars trip?"

"I'm going to be a year into it. . .Grammy's making me take four classes a semester." The others in the front room smirk at him.

Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later. "Be back in an hour." The others look at each other. "Another dimension?"

"No, a group of dumbasses wailing in Granda's dimension about not having their own colony. They want me to find them a spot and take them out. Granda just gave me a look when I asked if I could leave them there. One of the others said don't tempt him."

She returns an hour later. "Okay, that was an exercise in stupidity. The government had enough and gave them enough basic supplies to sink or swim on their own. . .they had tents and could put up cabins like in the colony dimension. Had to kick their stupid asses off the ship, they were wailing because 'oh my god, there's nothing here'." Sniggering from the front room and guffaws from the back. "I told them that yeah, we had to build our colony, they had to build theirs. Morons didn't make it a week . . .life was hard. . .their manicures were ruined. And that was one of the guys." Guffaws from the front room this time.

"Always going to be some people you can tell something a million times but until they live it."

"Oh yes. . .morons spent days wailing because everything we told them couldn't possibly have been the truth. There was no grocery stores, no malls, no neat little rows of houses waiting for them. When they asked where their homes were I pointed to the stacks of logs and told them to start putting them together. When they asked about bathrooms I handed them a shovel and told them to start digging, the kits for the outhouses were in the piles. They whined they couldn't find the microwaves in the supplies. I asked them where they thought they'd be able to plug it in and pointed to the kettle and said clear a spot to build a fire and make a pot of soup or stew. They wailed they didn't think they'd actually have to cook."

"They didn't think period." President Bartlett murmurs in the front room. "Did they have a source of clean water?"

"A nearby river a mile away. Oh, and they'd better start trying to find a spot for a well unless they want to carry water from the river everyday. And in the winter they'd have to make a hole in the ice for the water. Oh dear god, you'd think I told them that they were going to have to walk a million miles barefoot in the middle of winter when I told them they'd better start laying out the gardens. The food they'd brought out wasn't going to last forever and they'd be pretty damn hungry come winter. Their homes had wind-up generators and small ceramic heaters so they wouldn't freeze to death. . .if they got the cabins weather tight."

"Oh god, I can imagine the looks of horror at that." Professor Druid is cackling. "No heat at the turn of a dial?"

"Nope, and when they asked about lights after dark I handed them a box of candles and a couple flints." Snickering from the others. "The ship taped everything, they all tagged out after a few days and I brought everything back to Earth. The tapes are all over the news. . .you should be getting copies of everything in the next few databursts. People with brains are laughing at them and the morons who wanted the colonies are all . ..'everything they said was true? How can it be true?'"

Professor Parker is snickering. "If they do have a colony now, they'll have to make real plans."

Calvin is sighing and shaking his head. "Always going to be idiots who make fools of themselves doing something because what we tell them can't possibly be the truth." Jane snorts. "They will weep, wail, whine, wring their hands. . .damn it, I can't come up with another thing that starts with W. . ."

"Walk the floor." Maria says from the front office.

"Thank you. . .walk the floor until something new happens to get them out of the spotlight. Unfortunately for them. . .even out of the spotlight their stupidity will live on forever."

"Yep, this is proof that colonies won't be just like Earth. . .just you know on another world." Calvin sighs. "I'm sure Josette had a bowl of popcorn and was laughing her ass off over them whining."

"Yah." Josette says, leaning in the doorway. "I'm here picking up the orders from Ellis and dropping off the second batch of stuff." She sends off the inventory and he nods.

"Socks? For us?" Jane asks, putting up her clipboard.

"Yep." Between the three of them they count everything.

"Have you started offering these yet to the other planets?"

"Not beyond Archimedes and 9th planet Eureka, we figure on the others year after next. . .our time." Josette yawns and looks out the window. "Yes, we're expecting one last rainstorm and then it will start turning to snow. Haven?"

"We're about three months from having to shut windows. Another month and I'll be offworld three times a week for the offworld harvests. Then we'll be bringing in our own harvests."

"Are you staying long?"

"At least three weeks, Ellis told me about an expo for rug latch hook people and I'm stocking up on kits. I'm taking books out to Ellis and the retreat house and Madison is not happy with the last few outlines I sent her." Jane cackles at her hangdog look. "Yeah, I know, own damn fault for writing so much. It's the only way the psychotic muses shut up."

Josette looks behind her as Madison yanks her into her home. "Damn, not only did I leave my shadow behind. . .I think I left my socks, shoes, and underwear too." Joanne snickers. "Did you get paid for taking out the twits?"

"Betcher ass, both for finding the planet. . .which is now registered in my name and hazard pay for dealing with the whining fools. Damn fools. . .wailing 'where is everything' when we arrive. Well duh people. . .you have to build the damn colony. . .just like we did."

"Well these were the fools who kept thinking that life on a colony would be just like Earth. . .just you know on another planet." Jessica drawls as she walks out of the kitchen. "We all laughed our asses off at their sheer stupidity. They never got to their cabins, did they have heat?"

"Ceramic heaters like we have run by wind-up generators when the solar panels weren't producing. . .it wouldn't keep them as warm as a furnace but warmer than being without heat. Since they never planned on the morons staying out there, there wasn't a cookstove that would have served as additional source of heat. But the morons would have just. . .'what do we do with these, where's the knobs. . .where's the burners. . ."

The other three women nod. "Are you staying out long?"

"About three weeks, Ellis found me an expo for latch hook people and I'm going to stock up on kits. . .either the ones they're selling there or ordering them. I'm taking out books to the retreat house and Ellis."

"How many books . . .?"

"Ten books out of the last set, I've got another ten from this batch, two that are being printed right now, and another twelve yet to print before the printers shut down."

"How's Haven?"

"Good. . .which means everybody is waiting for the shoe to drop, a few years ago we had a cold, wet winter. The following year we had a mild winter but a cool fall, last year we had a lot more thunderstorms than normal . . ."

"So you're waiting to see what this year will be."

"Yup, it doesn't help that all the offworld harvests are so late this year that no sooner than we get done with one, we're working on the other." The others sigh, they have small gardens and it's asshole to elbow when everything is coming in. . .they can't imagine what it would be like for gardens those size.

Jessica suddenly moans. The other three women look at her. "Survivor. . . on another planet."

Josette makes throttling a bunny gestures and grabs her PADD, making notes.

Josette returns to Haven three weeks later for her. It's sprinkling and looking at the sky she knows it's going to pour any second and she flies to the dorm, Abby holding the door open for her. "How was Earth?"

"Quiet. The morons who were on the planet are sobbing brokenheartedly since everybody is talking bad about them. I'm sure some other damn fool will take their place as high king of the morons mountain." Principal Madison snickers from the couch. "Orders?"

"Dropped them off and we're looking at the orders increasing next year." He nods in satisfaction. "Picked up the last shipment of machines and put them in the buildings before I came off the ship."

"Drop off the books for Ellis?"

"Yup, and the retreat house." Josette yawns. She looks through the sliding glass door at the darkening sky. "Fuck it, I can nap this afternoon." The others snicker but nod. "Did you take back the empty containers?"

"Yep." Josette sighs as she kicks off her shoes and wiggles her toes. "We've got enough damn containers as it is. . .we don't need more."

"Do we have any bad ones left. . ."

"Nope, we empty them as we find them on the other planets and recycle them right then and there." Everybody nods in satisfaction. "And they're getting rid of them on the other planets. Even if it takes a little work to cut them apart."

A month later David opens the tesseract and people start walking through to the ship for the first offworld harvest. Agatha stands by Josette as they settle in orbit around the planet and send down probes.

"Anybody saving for something special beyond the cruise?"

"Maxie wants to buy a couple containers and turn them into a studio like on the 9th planet." Agatha says. "Ahhhh, a she shed as it would be called on Earth."

"She shed, man cave. . .a place to get the hell away from your mate." Suzie snorts as she walks past. "We've got the room but sometimes. . ."

"You just gotta have your own." Everybody nods. "At least at the school there's no lack of empty buildings you can walk into for some peace and quiet." Frances nods from the doorway.

"And places with other people when you need the noise."

Boxes and other containers of food starts arriving in town and people start grabbing them and heading to various buildings. David gets the alert and opens the tesseract, everybody walking through and heading various directions. The last of the food is offloaded by Josette and she flies to the school.

Two long months later the last of the food is in and the plants tilled under for the winter. Josette has passed out the food to the other planets and picked up the recycling.

"Is that. . .it?" Susan asks.

"Yes, thank you god." Josette yawns. She mumbles something then yawns again. "I'm getting too old for this." Everybody sniggers. "Ohhhh. . ." she makes a semi-rude gesture.

"Going to have to actually sleep tonight." David sniggers. Another semi-rude gesture.

"It's the weather, we're going to have rain by bed." Josette says. In the front room everybody nods.

"Did you finish the Titanic degree?"

"Yes, and I picked up the books from GD while I was there. Talked to my advisors. Talked to Grandpa Charles on the 9th planet, he wants me to go back with him for a special . ..thing or other." She waves a hand.

"Josette, not to ask you to do more but the vat-raised meat?" Alan asks.

"Decanted, sliced in the case of the lunch meat, and put away in the stasis unit. So is all the dried pasta." Everybody nods in satisfaction. "Are we making bread this weekend?"

"Next weekend, we weren't in ten different places like you are but we're bushed too." Alexander says. Josette nods. "We can do that after we come back from the show? Is everything on the ship?"

"I'll pick up the last of it tomorrow."

Josette snorts and waves a hand in Superhero Doc's dimension. "The offworld crops coming in then our crops. . .add in rain for three days off and on that's been mixed with snow. Everybody's ass has been dragging on Haven but it's done and we'll have the entire winter to relax."

The entire family snorts at that outrageous comment. "Ohhh, we didn't tell you." The story about the 'colony' has everybody either sighing. . .Richard and Kent, lips twitching. . .Doc, or outright howling with laughter. . .the others.

"That's the only way anybody's going to finally get it through their heads that if they want a colony they're going to have to work for it." Pat says. "Which since they already have a colony dimension you'd. . ."

"Think they'd already know that. But there's always going to be fools who think everything is for show. . . it can't possibly be the truth. A colony would be just like Earth. . but you know, on another planet."

"If it would be just like Earth, why would you leave Earth?" Richard asks dryly. "You leave Earth because of climate change, massive overcrowding, or other reasons."

"Exactly."

The show is a few nights later, the books selling well. They return to Haven two months later their time.

"How was it?" Principal Madison asks when they return.

"Not bad. . .not good because. . ."

"Nobody would be there if it was a good show." Everybody says in unison.

"It's the damn truth." Josette snorts. "Sales of the books was good for a show where we're not big names. . . I get more recognition for the fiction. About two or three times what I sell here." The others nod.

Thanksgiving is a few days later and they make the trips to the other dimensions, Josette shaking her head when she comes down loaded from Granda's dimension with the new boxes full of stuff. Courtney snickers, she's been treated to the same thing by Sylvester who flatly announced he was now her godfather. Pat. . .both of them had just shook their heads and turned their attention back to what they'd been working on.

The others are planting in the growing area when the others start coming out for the Lights Festival.

"Josette?"

"Albatross Nest in Albatross for the kits and cookies party."

Josette sits down in her usual spot at the Albatross Nest with a plate and a bottle of Haven Dew. The talk ranges from what they plan on growing next year, what they grew this year, new recipes they made up. . .

"Josette, what happened to the cabins?"

"Going to be part of the supplies for a second wave of settlement in the colony dimension. That's what they were meant for anyway. . .everybody knew the damn 'colony' would not last." Nods from the others. "They'll be more expensive because of the generator and solar panels but will still have the cookstove for the majority of the heat. And be able to bake."

Agatha cackles. "Fools will have to learn to cook and cookbooks won't help. . .you can't set a cook stove to a certain temperature and letting it sit there for however long it takes to cook."

"Yep, you gotta actually check your food. Something all of us have been doing for years." Nods from the others. Josette waves a hand. "Quilts not in these books. . .in the next batch but it will years before I have enough books finished to print them. I might end up running the printers for three years then another three years to finish them." Nods from the others as the quilts are looked over. "And this one isn't going to be in a book, this is my first quilt made with the second fabric, I did a lot of stamping to make it less. . ."

"Fucking ugly. the first batch was at least gaudy. . .this was just ugly." Agatha says. The quilt is quickly turned over. "Oh yes, this is much better. Did you send pictures to Ellis?"

"And got a 'this is what the fabric should have looked like back. . .both from him and the manufacturer as an attachment to his letter."

The kits are passed out along with the cookies and Josette wipes her arms after helping wash the dishes. The leftovers are shoved on her and she puts everything in subspace before flying back home. Putting everything away she looks at the time and then the shelves that are getting empty. There's enough quilts for another couple years though so she shuts the door of the workroom and goes downstairs. Clark, Doc,and Superhero Doc are doing something somewhere. . .the noise of work is coming though the registers.

David jumps at a loud thud and shakes his head. "I hope we'll have heat."

"Yeah, the registers are just picking up the sounds and sending it through like a megaphone." Josette yawns and looks out the window. "This will turn to snow by morning and stay snow."

"We've been expecting it." Alexander comes through with new boots for the farm, taking the waterproofing tin David slides down the table and starting to use it. "Yours?"

"Already waterproofed both pair."

The three men chuckle when they come up a couple hours later to find the three younger people sleeping in chairs and couches. "Good day for it, just wet enough that nobody wants to be out unless they have to be."

"This will be turning to all snow soon." Doc looks out the sliding glass door.

"Josette said by morning." Abby comes out of the closet floating stuff in front of her. She chucks a package of toilet paper at Josette, waking her. "Madison sent a message in the databurst, she wants you to come to the publishing house." Josette sighs but heads off. The others look at her. "The fools on the 'colony' trip were blubbering about how the book is making fun of them. . .they're gonna sue."

"Oh dear lord people, you're just making yourself look like complete idiots. . .again." Calvin sighs. "And the truth is always a defense."

"Yep, and this will mean lots of publicity for the book which will lead to increased sales. Just like when people whined 'they're making fun of me' when the bimbo colony books came out."

Josette returns an hour later and hands out advance copies of the book. "Morons ran off wailing when nobody took their side. The courts refused to hear the lawsuit, they're wailing they're out their court costs and they were told they could have been slapped with fines for filing frivolous lawsuits. They couldn't believe nobody would take their side. . .they're the victims. Everybody snorted that they're not the victims. . .except of their own stupidity."

"Amen."

"But everybody's talking bad about us." Susan mock-wails. "Morons should be used to it by now." She snorts in her normal voice. Over the next few databursts 'somebody' had leaked the attempt to sue about the book and they wail louder about everybody being mean to them. Morons is the nicest thing said about them. . .especially when they threaten to write their own story. . .one that would be the truth. Their own lawyers had knocked them upside the head and said this was fucking fiction and the things they were complaining about the loudest were the absolute truth. . .backed up by video and their 'true story' would be nothing more than a pack of slanderous lies that would get them sued the second the book was released. They ran off wailing louder and sulked with bonbons when nobody came around to kiss their foreheads and tell them how sorry they were everybody was being so mean to them.

The advance copies were quickly replicated and the book is read by everybody before the Lights Festival. . .fucking fool is the nicest thing said about them. Josette is summarily summoned back to Earth and spends a good fifteen minutes railing on that old fool who doesn't like how Haven is run, telling the miserable old fool to grow the fuck up before somebody shot him. He wails when she walks out of the room. . .looking at the people he'd talked into this meeting so they can see how horribly treated he was and seeing nothing more than looks of pure disgust on their faces. . .and they're looking at him.

"Why won't you make them do what I want?" he wails.

"Because you're a goddamn miserable fool who can't or won't understand that people don't live regimented lives. You want everything run the way you want and the rest of humanity won't put up with it. Now leave her the fuck alone and forget about running a damn colony like a fucking clock."

"He doesn't want to run a colony," one of them says as he runs off wailing. "he wants to run a damn prison world. With him in control of everybody's lives." The others nod.

Josette slumps into her usual seat for the first meeting of the government in Haven year 124, she snorts inwardly. "Okay, now that that fucking fool was told to sit in a corner what's up?"

"Nothing much, you've got two years left at the printers. . .that's the only thing going right now." President Bartlett looks at his notes. "You've already said the increased orders for 8th and 9th Eurekas would be happening this year and you'd be opening it to the other planets next year."

"Yup, I'm moving out some of the new machines right now, I'll have them in both buildings and the new jobs opened by the end of the year. Because not only will we be having the orders from the other planets, I expect the orders from Calvin's dimension to be increasing too." Nods from the others. Josette and Principal Madison disappear, Josette is laughing when they return. Doc just looks at her since James is muttering sourly. "Dumbass who wanted to come to Haven to show us what we're doing wrong. . .he got tired of talking to me and demanded to talk to somebody else but didn't get any satisfaction from Principal Madison either. The government finally had enough of him and put the old fool in a home before somebody shoots him." Principal Madison sighs but nods. "Old fool would not get over the idea that Haven and the other planets can run just fine without him."

"He sees himself as Dumbledork and Haven as his little fiefdom." Josette snorts. "I don't need no moron telling me how many times I can go to the bathroom or how many sheets of toilet paper I can use."

"Did you start working on the wool fabric?"

"Yes, it's done and we're going to be cutting it into bolts and dyeing it later this year." Josette says, looking at her PADD. "The sales of the cotton yarn was good and I'm planning an offworld harvest next year and dyeing it with the plants the year after that." Nods from the others. Josette sends off a message to various places, Doc looking at her when she puts her PADD up. "Asking Elaine, Agatha, Sue, and the other schools if we wanted to keep the cotton crop the same size or double it. Personally I'd grow two years so it's double but I'm either erring on the side of we don't need this much or making more than we need." Doc nods. "If you make more than we need it won't go to waste."

"No, it means an extra year or two of not having to make it."

Josette suddenly collapses cackling on the floor, David sighing. "the so-called colony, their reaction at having to cook over dried crap."

The others shake their heads or laugh. "There still was places on Earth that squared off cow dropping and put them up to dry for the winter as their main source of fuel." President Bartlett sighs.

"Yup, they're drying the 'fuel' in the colony dimension for newcomers until they can start. . .or rather their animals, can start producing their own. Both as fuel and aged as manure for the fields." Josette chuckles. "Poo' babies would never get that smell out of their hair. . .or their fancy clothes. Which they'd howl at having to leave behind since they'd be useless. . .and oh my god, they'd have to wash their clothes in one of those old washers you crank to move or metal washtubs, wring everything out, and hang it up to dry. And you'd have to heat your own water for that and baths."

"Idiots."

Josette cackles again as she gets up from the floor. "Their manicures would really be ruined." Her PADD beeps. Looking at it she nods. "Okay, everybody says double so I'll plant two years." Doc looks at the messages and nods.

Josette walks into the dorm and into her first floor bedroom, popping a doughnut in her mouth and putting the bag in her refrigerator.

"Did you ever sort through the stuff you brought back from Charles dimension and what you got from the expo?"

"Yeah," Josette covers her mouth and belches. "Ewww, what the hell did I eat that tasted that bad coming back up?" David laughs. "Do we have lists of all the new stuff we're making?"

"Yes, I sent everything out already." The Josette who'd been working at the buildings says. They've got copies of the hard drives so they can select different patterns if they want them too." Josette and David nods as she heads upstairs to bring out new machines in two of the buildings upstairs and supplies of yarn in all three.

Susan walks up to the growing area after dinner, checking on the seed trays and transferring the larger ones to the hydroponics tanks. Alan nods as he comes up behind her, grabbing more trays and starting in the other tank.

"Our fish?"

"Not this year, maybe next?"

"Sounds about right."

Josette comes back from the ships where she'd been planting samples of various seaweeds for GD and the cooks. She disappears and reappears a few seconds later.

"Goddamn miserable old fool. Bastard tried 'escaping from captivity' because he didn't like being told what to do." Josette drawls. "The guards there damn near beat him to death when he tried grabbing a weapon, he's going to be sent to a facility where he's locked away for at least twenty-three hours a day."

"Ha, bastard won't like that at all. Anything else?"

"Morons who tried whining about being made to look bad in the book tried suing and were told to shove it up their useless asses. They're on their 'deathbeds'." Snorts from her mates while Doc sighs and Principal Madison shakes his head. "Yeah, everybody's laughing at them. . .at them." Josette says the last words in a 'oh god, the horror' tone of voice.

"Goddamn morons." Pat says.

"Exactly, their own families have told them to grow the fuck up and get over themselves. They're frantically looking for somebody to pat their heads and tell them how horrible everybody is treating them but everybody's tired of their whining."

"Is anybody working on a real colony? Beyond the colony dimension?"

"No, they're working on the colony dimension first. The scientific dimension is going well, as is the ag dimension. There's no need for a space colony for centuries." The others nod vigorously. "Hopefully they won't ever need a reason for a space colony beyond what they're already doing on the moon."

"Or setting up on another planet like they did Mars."

"A semi-permanent settlement. . .people moving in and out as needed."

The others nod. "A real starbase, you can't dock with the city-ship."

"Yep, something they'll have to think about for the future."

"A permanent satellite like in Becka's dimension."

"Yep, that's one of the reasons why the government is sacking away extra tax money and whatnot in a special fund. Both for future colony needs and space exploration."

"Did you get the seaweed planted?"

"Yeah, nori which was used in sushi wraps, another edible seaweed, and one that can be used for raw fibers or whatnot." Josette shrugs as they walk to the dining hall.

"Book party?"

"Tomorrow."

Josette grins as the doors almost blow in as the clock ticks on eleven. Agatha chuckles as the others spread out, eating, talking, and comparing what they're working on. After everybody's eaten and wiped their hands the books are picked up and they start lining up. Agatha chuckles at the half-dozen Josette's sitting at the tables signing books.

"Look this over?" Another Josette asks, sending her a file. Agatha looks it over and chuckles. "For the colony?"

"Yeah, this is what they would have had to use if they didn't have a metal washtub. . .one that could be used for washing clothes, dishes, and yourself."

"And and a tin washboard."

"Yup. . .and they'd have to learn how to make soap." Josette makes a mental note.

"People in the colony who make soap for both clothes and humans?"

"Yep."

"Ha. . .stupid bitch." Josette says a few days later reading the databurst. "One of the stupid bitches wailing about how the book made her look bad, she had an absolute fit on a plane and is now sulking when she tried to attack people because 'oh my god, they were reading. They might be reading something bad about me'. The headshrinkers all agree, she's just a stupid selfish brat. Her own family turned their backs on her for this latest stunt. No rehab for you to ad lib the soup nazi, just the same four walls until you're shipped off to the medium security dimension. . . probably for the rest of your life."

"Stupid cow, she deserves to be sent off for the rest of her damn life then." Susan snorts. The others sigh but nod. "Whole damn bunch needs a foot up their ass until their brains are kicked into gear." David mumbles.

"But why won't anybody take my side?" She wails in her cell.

"Because you're a goddamn retarded dumbass sack of shit." Another convict yells back. "Now shut the fuck up about how the book is making you look bad, it's the goddamn truth. You're a goddamn moron."

Josette comes back from the ship. Doc looks at everything she brought out.

"Candles. . .books on candlemaking. Soap, books on making soap. . .both the old fashioned stuff for clothes and for humans. Books on making cheese, cheesemaking supplies."

"What brought this on?"

"Talking to Agatha about what kind of laundry . . .thing would be needed in a colony. Either an old fashioned wringer washer that could be cranked by hand or an old fashioned washtub that would wash clothes, dishes, or humans." Doc nods. "That made me wonder what they had."

Josette looks through the books and nods, Doc looks over the same books and nods. "It should work, either hand washing in a washtub or being used in the crank wringer washer.

Josette nods again.

Pat looks at Doc when he walks back into Headquarters. "Josette brought out some books on soap and candle making from the ship after talking to Agatha about how the colony would do their laundry."

"Either a hand-cranked wringer washer like they have on the first planet or a old fashioned washtub." Pat nods. "And she found recipes for soap that could be used there? Could be made there?"

Doc nods. "It's something we won't need unless we have a major technology failure that includes all the planets and all the ships but you know Josette. . .she wants to have backups in case stuff something happens. Which isn't a bad thing. . ."

"She wants to be prepared. If she's prepared. . ."

"Nothing bad happens."

Josette guffaws as she reads the next databurst. "The realtor dimension is a bust. . .again. Nobody's rushing to buy lots in their planned communities. . . they blame it on Earth not allowing them power. They're funning us about there being no electricity . . .right? How can they live on solar panels?" She says at lunch. Mock hisses and boos. "Morons won't take responsibility for their own actions."

"Yep. They expected people to come flocking to them once they have something glitzy and glamorous, ignoring the fact that there's not need for more houses, malls, and all that other crap. And there won't be for decades."

"Yep. For every new home they want to build there's five sitting empty, for every apartment building they want to build there's a dozen only half-full. And don't get me started on the malls and stores. And they're pouting because now they can't turn around and try to get people to sell them their land on Earth for the pennies they want, they gave up that right when they took over the realtor dimension. They figured they'd be rich beyond their wildest dreams and it would be theirs. . .all theirs."

"And this would keep the people who had some damn sense from jumping on the bandwagon?" President Bartlett drawls. "Oh. . .sorry, this would keep the losers who hadn't had their vision of trying to get the dimension away from them. Because they would have."

"Yep, you have Earth and we'll have our own dimension. Now they're sulking because everybody knows what they already know, that they're greedy fools who need a good swift kick upside the head."

Josette snorts at the next databurst. "Oh, they're already whining that all the paperwork they signed that is keeping them from 'acquiring' the land on Earth they want. They didn't mean for it to affect them. . .it was just to keep the losers on Earth from stealing their land, not keep them from stealing others land."

"Of course not." Principal Madison drawls. "Damn fool idiots, just looking for the glory and not the hard work."

"Amen."

"No, you're not getting the papers you signed overturned. I don't care if you don't like it, you agreed to that."

"But we thought you were funning us about there no being any electricity in the other dimensions." The moron suing to get the agreement overturned wails. "It. . we didn't mean for the paperwork to affect us. . .just the losers on Earth who didn't see our vision and wanted to take it from us." He continues to wail about how it's not fair they won't overturn the decision. . .they didn't get what they wanted so it's no harm, no foul . . .right? The look of disgust the judge gives him makes him run off wailing to the court of public opinion but he doesn't get any damn sympathy there either.

"The colony world. . .Haven?" He blusters as he is shown in Calvin's office.

"Yes, what about it?"

"Their realtors, would they allow us to come up and build there?"

"No."

"But they've got electricity there. . .right?"

"They have solar panels. And the government deals with all the selling and buying of homes and property, there is no independent realtors."

Dumbass runs off wailing. How can they do that to him?

"Well if the damn fools didn't dream of fantastic profits, they wouldn't be running around crying that they're going to go out of business." More than one person drawls during 'man on the street' interviews. Along with telling the fools to grow the hell up.

"Moron." is the nicest thing said about him on Haven. . .especially after Calvin had passed along him wanting to build on Haven.

"Josette, is that one of the soap recipes from the books?" Pat asks when she finds her in the ranch house laundry room using the old crank machine one day. She points at a jug half full of something.

"Yes, I wanted to see how clean it would get the clothes. These old dirty clothes we wear for the barn chores, it won't matter." Pat nods as she starts draining the soapy water into the utility sink. Drawing pails of water she sets it rinsing and puts it through the wringer.

"Not bad." Pat says, holding them up to look over. Josette nods and tosses everything in the dryer. "Is the soap hard to make?"

"Nope, just gotta remember to give the kettle a good scrub after you make it or keep separate stuff just like you'd do with other soap." Pat nods. "They have a recipe for turning it into a bar soap, just scraping off what you need and adding it to the water, just as easy to pour it into a jug and use as needed here." Pat nods.

Josette walks into the Albatross nest and smiles. "Ha, killing two birds with one stone." She brings out books. "Stuff on soapmaking I got from the ship, I went looking when we were talking about. . ."

"What kind of laundry facilities they'd have on the colony planet or dimension." Suzie says as she looks over the books that Josette put on the table. "I know you have a couple old wringer washers you can run by hand."

"Yes, one on the ranch and one on the first planet. I was washing some old barn clothes with one of the soap recipes since. . ."

"It's nothing that would be harmed if it didn't work." One of the Edinborough teachers who's a historian says. Everybody nods.

"I used the liquid recipe since I could put it in an old jug, they'd probably use the bar soap recipe, scraping off what was needed into the water as they did the laundry.

Agatha nods. "Easier for it to travel that way. And probably safer considering how much lye was in the old recipes."

"Not these. . .not a hint of lye or even wood ash, they're all vegetable based."

"That would make the moron vegans happy." Marilyn snorts as she grabs a book and starts looking through it. "Huh. . .I swear I remember my grandma making something like this. But they wouldn't be able to make this in a cabin."

"No, people would have to learn to make soap. I'd suggest people living in town make the soap and sell it as people come in and sell their crops." The others nod. "Because we've all done shifts at the soapmaking building. . .but how many of us beyond Josette could make it at their homes?" The others nod.

Josette walks into the soapmaking building and brings out the books. "Soapmaking books from the ship." the women grin and immediately start reading.

"Okay, am I. . ."

"No, you're not missing it. There is no lye involved in the recipes. I already made the liquid one on page 72. It's easy enough to just pour it into a jug. It won't last as long as the commercial stuff, but. . ."

"They won't need to last that long. Did you use the batch you made?"

"Yep, on barn clothes so if something happened. . ."

"Nothing good would be damaged. You didn't wash them by hand?"

"Nope, I could have used a regular washing machine but I've got one of those old hand-crank operated wringer washers. I poured water in, cranked it for twenty-five minutes then let it drain into the tub before adding rinse water."

"Okay, why?"

"Agatha and I were talking about laundry in the colony dimension, not as hard as scrubbing it by hand in an old washtub that would do for humans, dishes, and laundry."

They nod.

"Can you help out a few shifts?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I passed these along to Edinborough, Assyrian, the Albatross Nest, and the soapmaking building." Josette says as she hands books over to Frances, Elaine, and the soapmaking teacher at dinner. "These are books on soapmaking from the ships, I've been experimenting with the recipes. . . they're all vegetable based, no lye used."

The soapmaker teacher immediately starts opening the book. "I used the liquid recipe on page 72, it's easy enough to keep it in a jug. Anywhere else would probably use the recipe to make it into a hard bar that you can scrape enough off enough for what you need."

"What did you wash?"

"Old barn clothes, nothing that would be harmed if it didn't work. I used the old hand-cranked wringer washer I have. . .not as bad as scrubbing it by hand in a metal washtub that would work for humans, dishes, or laundry but not as easy as just tossing it in a washing machine."

"You had to do some work for it." President Bartlett says in satisfaction. "What bro. . .ahh, the colonies."

"Yep, they'd either have to wash everything by hand in the washtub and scrub board or have a machine like mine. Even then it wouldn't be as often as ours."

"Day of the week towels."

"Yep, and unlike us who hang outside when the weather's good they'd be hanging outside year-round."

"In the winter it would be freezing solid."

"In the winter I doubt they'd be doing laundry all that often." Nods from the others.

Josette heads to Calvin's dimension, getting in the face of the fool demanding to be allowed do come to Haven to build his dream and calling him a miserable little fool who needs to grow the hell up. "In case you didn't understand that little boy, that's NO. We don't need your damn planned communities and we don't want them. We have enough homes for all our citizens and enough left over for at least several decades. We neither need or want McMansions, planned communities, or anything else you want." She turns around to walk away and he screams, rushing towards her. She grabs him arm, tossing him to the floor, and crouching on his back as she cusses him out.

His own lawyer sighs as he packs up his briefcase. "You are a goddamn fool." He tells the other man as he drags him off by the ear. "What the hell did you think you were doing trying to attack her?"

"But she didn't even look at my plans." He whines.

"Because your plans are a piece of crap. They have planned communities, they plan them out when the communities are needed. They're not putting them up just anywhere and expecting people to come flocking to them."

"But they could put them up." He whines.

"I could hop up and down on one foot, doesn't mean I'm going to. Little twit." He tells his family what they did when they toss the fool through the front door of his house, getting yelled at by his family. "Maybe the little fool will finally realize he's not all that and a block of cheese."

"But they could have. . ." he starts whine.

"They don't WANT to stroke your damn ego by putting up the damn buildings moron." His sister bellows in his face. "Get the hell over yourself.. .it's not that damn hard. You thought the damn realtor dimension would make you rich beyond your wildest dream. . .when that didn't happen you tried turning your attention to their planet. Dear god you fucking fool, they don't need your damn communities."

"But wouldn't people come flocking to their planet to live?"

"No moron, no more than they came flocking to your damn realtor dimension." his mother snorts. "Get the hell over yourself you stupid little sack of shit." his entire family cusses him out for most of that night. He sobs brokenheartedly in his room until his family tells him to quit the damn blubbering and get over himself. If he wants to make money, get off his ass and go to the work dimension.

"Okay, is it just me or are people really fucking stupid after the zero-population period?" She asks Maria as she leans against the desk.

"It's not just you." She sighs. "People got used to being the center of attention and now that babies are being born they can't deal with it. They try to make names for themselves but they're going at it the wrong way."

Josette returns to Haven a few days later for her and drops onto a couch. Doc and Principal Madison are waiting on her. "Dumbass from the realtor dimension. . .he couldn't believe that we wouldn't allow him to come up and build his fucking masterpiece." Josette snorts as she settles into the couch with a cat on her lap.

"Who would come to another planet for nothing any more than they would the realtor dimension?" Principal Madison snorts.

"Nobody, he was stunned when I told him that we had solar panels. . .our planet has to have electricity by now, unlimited power at the flip of a switch. . .not just solar panels. How can his dream come true if people have to 'ration' the power and don't have heat at the turn of a dial?"

"Idiot." Principal Madison snorts.

"Yeah, I asked Maria if it was just me or if people were really stupid after a zero-population period, she says they're used to being the center of attention and with babies being born, they're trying to . . ."

"make a name for themselves and going about it the wrong way." Doc says. Josette nods. "Anyway, the little bastard tried charging me when I wouldn't even look at his damn drawings, I grabbed his arm, put him on the floor, and was cussing him out. From the rumors his attorney dragged him to his parents and they cussed him out.

Josette looks around. "Bad weather?"

"Yes, we're expecting colder weather and sleet by morning. The girls are charging extra batteries while the boys are taking care of the stock. They're getting in extra supplies now in town."

"Clark, Clark, Kara, or I will be melting ice on the solar panels then." The others nod.

"Little fool's no doubt wailing people are being mean to him." President Bartlett rumbles at dinner. Everybody nods. Josette puts a plan up on the screen and they wince. "Dear god, he must have put a damn house on every square foot of land. I don't think you could get the houses any closer together unless they were sharing walls."

"Well yeah, nobody needs room, do they? That's why they have parks. Not that I doubt the parks would last long. And megaskyscrapers. . .hundreds of floors." everybody shudders. "I've read books like that and I don't want to live it."

"Amen, the buildings are bad enough. . .they make damn sure they protect their green space on Mom's world."

Josette pulls on an extra sweater the next morning, not at all surprised to feel extra heat coming through the registers from a fireball thrown in the second furnace. In the Kent farmhouse Ma looks out the window at the ice that's rapidly coating the window.

"I do like the automatic feeders, no need to get out in this weather." Pa says as he walks up behind her.

"Yes, this weather on Earth would have seen hundreds of car accidents. Here it's. . .we don't need to clear the shelves out of bread, milk, and toilet paper so we'll stay inside until it's over. Clark would have been out in this. . .I know he and Kara don't really feel the cold but. . ."

"No need for them to be out rescuing people." Pa says. He wraps his arms around his wife of two hundred years. "Can you imagine back then where we'd be now. . .that night?" The night they'd found a baby from the stars that became their beloved son.

"Nope, Not having left Earth to live on another planet. Family farms were disappearing on Earth but here. . ."

Farming is a fine profession here and everybody grows their own food. Most everybody quilts and Ma had made fine friends along with Jonathan. Not least of all their other selves from this dimension. So much of their lives had been the same but so much was different. After breakfast she heads up to her workroom, with the weather foul but a steady supply of power thanks to the boxes she should be able to get that new quilt finished. While she's not the quilter that Josette and the others are she's got a nice hand.

"Martha?" Jonathan asks when he sees her reading some books on the computer a couple days later.

"Copies of some books from the 9th planet ships. Soapmaking, cheesemaking, candlemaking. . .the soapmaking is all natural. . .no lye. . .not even wood ashes. There's a note that Josette made one of the recipes and used it on barn clothes so if it didn't work nothing would be damaged." Pa nods. "They have the recipes for the cake soap that grandma would have used."

"I hope she didn't wash them with a metal scrub board." Josette does go a little overboard on experimenting with things that will help people on Haven, bless her heart.

"No, she's got an old wringer washer but it's hand cranked. She used that. . .thinking about what would be used in the colony dimension in Calvin's dimension." Jonathan shudders. "Yes, they'd either have had one of those or an old metal washtub that washed clothes, people, and dishes."

It begins warming up a few days later and a flash is followed by the batteries starting to charge as the ice that had covered the solar panels and house melts. A few minutes later Kara walks in the front door.

"Morning Ma."

"Morning dear, how was GD?" Kara had been on the 9th planet to talk to GD and the others from the other dimension about their scientific achievements. As well as working with the others on the other Krypton. . .though Argo had never been colonized in their dimension and the closest she had to another self was the oldest daughter of Clark's father's younger brother and his wife. . .who had both immediately adopted her into their family as Jor-El had Clarinda and Josette. Clark and Kara had been building fortresses similar to Josette and CJ's on the twelfth planet. In their fortresses they were taking the same classes that Clarinda and Josette had taken to learn about Krypton and it's technology since Clark had been a baby when he had been sent away and Kara had grown up on a world that had lost it's technology in Krypton's explosion that had shifted Argo's orbit.

"Good Ma, there were the usual . . .incidents while I was there." Kara's lips twitch. She'd thought Josette and the others had been exaggerating until she spent the day there and there's been four different explosions. Josette had snorted it was a light day and Dr. Stark had just sighed but nodded.

Josette comes back from thawing buildings in town and the school, landing outside the dorm and walking inside. Alan comes up the stairs from the basement. "Ahhh, thought you were up when the batteries started charging again."

"The boys?"

"Got hit upside the head by the muse and are in their studio, I'm sure we'll have to drag them out of there for meals."

"Yep."

A closet door is propped open with a recycling bin and things start floating out. Abby makes a face at the door that would otherwise have shut in her face and heads to her room to start putting things away. She knows good and well the others are sniggering behind her but dammit, she's tired of the door shutting right in her face.

"Are we expecting more shipments for the bookstore?"

"Yeah, I gotta pick one up next week in Granda's dimension when I go out. I should be getting the notice in the next databurst that it's there."

"Will the colony book be out?"

"Yeah, and Madison and the others say the pre-orders are already sending it up the bestseller list. . .much to the dismay of the fools who were out there. They're wailing about slander and libel but one hello. . .fiction. And two, everybody already knows the damn shit happened. . .the damn video proof is all over the damn web. If the morons try to sue, they'll be paying me damages. Because I'd destroy the goddamn morons in court. No lawyer is taking their side, not even the damn ambulance chasers who advertise on tv all the time."

Susan nods as she walks past and pushes open the door to get a few breaths of fresh air. "The governments are cracking down on frivolous lawsuits. . .not even one of the court shows would accept the lawsuit. . .and they'll take any suit." Nods from the other two.

Josette pulls back a fist and the woman who'd been in her face complaining turns pure white.

"Lady, I have no goddamn intention of kissing your useless ass. You're a whiny bitch and either tell me what the hell your fucking maladjustment is or go the hell away. NOW!"

"But you brought your stuff at a warehouse store." she wails.

"And where the hell should I have got it. . .pulled it out of my ass? Moron."

"But you could have gone to the mall." she wails.

"I didn't want to go to the goddamn mall you stupid little bitch." Security drags her off.

"Goddamn moron, she's trying to drum up business for a local mall that's in danger of closing since more than half the stores went out. If the owners put a little money into the damn building they might have more businesses coming in." A woman who's trying to put a large box in the back of her van says. Josette helps her put it in the van.

"Thanks."

She drives past the mall, shaking her head as she sees a for sale sign up front. Pulling into the parking lot she looks at the outside improvements that can be made before walking inside, making notes and shaking her head.

Josette drops the notebook on Jane's desk. "The mall on eighth street."

"Is it up for sale yet? Calvin's been looking into buying it."

"Yes, there's the number. I took notes of improvements too."

"Oh yes, this is along the same lines of what Calvin was thinking." Jane says as she looks over the notes and Maria calls their financial guy to make an offer on it. "How'd you find out about it?"

"Some fool was wailing outside the warehouse store three blocks away because I was shopping there and not the mall."

Jane sighs. "I know who you're talking about, Her family built the mall years ago but bigger and better malls popped up in the area. She means well. . .but she's going at it the wrong way."

Josette learns the school brought the mall in the next databurst when she's back on Haven. Principal Madison looks at her but nods at her reasonings. "Most of this work could be handwaved after the mall closed for the night."

"The painting and cleaning definitely."

"Advertisements announcing it was under new management, a new grand reopening after the mall was shut down for a week?"

"Special events at the mall. . .grand prizes being a gift certificate worth. . .x amount of money."

"Oooh, a race at one of the chain stores. . .fill a cart with everything you can get in five minutes? Make it a contest with a five dollar entry fee? The publicity would be good."

"In a few years when kids are older and there's larger families, have a contest where they can win back to school shopping sprees."

Professor Druid is writing everything down and sends it along to Calvin in the next databurst. Maria looks through everything and nods, printing it out and handing it to Jane as she walks in. "Suggestions from the others about the new mall."

Jane reads through them and nods. "We can easily do all this."

"Add in events for social services as they're needed in the future." Maria says. Jane nods.

Josette moves everything various buildings over the next week and takes empty containers to the ship. The orders for the new items start coming in from Archimedes and the 9th planet, the other planets nodding as they learn the items will be offered to everybody the following year when the rest of the machines are in. The new jobs had been up for a whole ninety minutes before being filled and Josette had made a list where others could put their names in for the jobs when the rest of the machines were in.

"Josette, did the order increase?" President Bartlett asks as he finds her in the school building.

"Yes, and yes. . .I'm expecting more machines to be sent along in this next shipment." Josette stretches and stands up. "I don't know if we'll need them but I expect them to be sending more out." President Bartlett nods. "Can we handle the expanded orders?"

"Yep, even with setting some aside for us and the other planets."

"I notice you have two more boxes of socks in the front of the dorm."

"Yep, we emptied the boxes three times a week a few years ago, and ended up tossing all the socks on the line in the wash multiple times because they fucking stunk. And yes, I know pure wool would have stunk worse but you'd have tossed them in a pail of water to soak so . . ." Josette shrugs. "Lord knows they won't go to waste."

It finally starts to get warmer and windows open all over to get some fresh air in various homes. It's still cold enough that the furnaces come on so windows shut but they're beginning to stay open longer. Josette comes back with the next shipment, showing pictures of the improvements going up at the mall. "There's already three businesses making plans to come into the empty stores." Principal Madison nods in satisfaction. "Now the moron is wailing about the 'wrong' type of people coming to the mall but everybody's ignoring her."

"Some people are just born miserable."

"Yep. . .oh that little fool tried suing to force us to put up his grand masterpiece. . .no court would take it and every person who looked at his magnificent plans called them absolute shit. . .just like we did." Professor Druid's lips twitch, she's desperately trying not to burst out laughing. Especially at Josette's next words. "Little fool lowered himself to go to the work dimension and start putting money away for his future. And he had to get a job." Sniggering from everybody around them.

"Am I nuts. . ."

"No, the mall plans on extending upwards and outwards, the roof needs to be replaced over the next couple of years so they're planning on adding a few more floors. They've got a commercial growing area planned, a place to leave the kids while you're shopping area, an 'adult' playground, and a few other things. The top floor addition will be just the adult stuff. . .nightclub, fancy restaurant. . .a mini-golf course. . .stuff like that. In the new construction the first floor is going to be a multiple screen theater . . .one that brings you food right to your seats."

"How's the drive-in theater doing?"

"Good, there's been a resurgence of them over the years. Add in special events. . ."

"And people who poo-poohed the idea whine like babies?" Professor Parker snorts. "Figures."

Josette looks at the pairs of winter socks that had been soaking in the tub with some of the soap from the book, draining the tub and filling it with cold water to rinse since everything came clean. Pat had come looking for her and picks one up. "Is this the winterweight yarn?"

"Yes, the soap recipe is similar to what would be used by the buildings and I wanted to see how it would work on regular wool. It works for the socks anyway since I just let them soak."

"Haven't tried it yet on a sweater or anything else?"

"Not yet. The socks were beginning to stack up." Josette yawns. "Did you see the newest insanity in the databurst?"

"No, what are the idiots up to now?"

"Some moron is up in arms about us having 36 hours in the day, how can we change the hours in a day like that. Then went wailing that it wasn't fair when the NASA experts called her a fucking fool and told her every planet has different day and year lengths."

"How can they do that to her?" Anna warbles in a 'oh god the horror' tone from the doorway.

"Oh yes. . .always going to be somebody opening their mouth when their brain farts instead of actually damn thinking before they say anything." Josette looks over at Anna. "You got a call from Atlantis. . .you won't believe it. And that was her exact words."

"Okay, I don't fucking believe it." Josette says as the ship comes up on. . .a garbage dump in the middle of space. But it's not garbage. . .she can see it's stuff. "Okay, we'll have to call the other ships. Are any of the others nearly empty?"

"No, but we can move stuff around if it's needed." Atlantis sighs.

Five hundred years later for them they land on the water on Haven, Josette being nudged from the command chair where she'd gladly fall asleep to her bed.

Josette holds up a hand when she walks into the dorm. "I'm an energy duplicate. . .I'm asleep on Atlantis. We found a . . .wellllll I guess we could call it a garbage dump in the middle of space. It was like a million billion trillion freighters dumped their loads in that exact spot. Every day. And it was growing. It took all of us five hundred years to clear everything out and we finally found a . . .welllll, I guess you can call it a machine like on Grandpa Charles Earth. We put it on standby since there was a switch with three settings. I sent off a message to the 9th planet once we got in range and they. . ." The switching station activates, Grandpa Charles and a man come rushing into the room.

"Where is the machine?"

"On one of the ships. We moved the switch to the middle position since it was extremely low on power. From all the stuff surrounding it, it's been putting stuff out for centuries."

"Probably." Josette grabs Doc's PADD and pulls up a picture of the machine. "Since it seems to absorb energy we put it on one of the piers to see if it would help. Atlantis says it's charging."

"Yes, you did everything exactly right. It's one of the machines like ours but. . ."

"It's brand new and yours is extremely old?"

He nods. "It will be decades before it's stable enough to start supplying again."

"We don't need it to supply anything for a while, we've got tons of stuff on the ships. We got the call to deal with the stuff since it's finally got big enough to start being a danger to ships." The man with him moans as he sees the area of items from space.

"The switch got moved somehow and without any input. . ."

"It started just making stuff and kept going since nobody was there to tell it to stop." Doc sighs.

He nods. "If the power levels had got any lower it would have burned itself out. Now, there's some things you will need to know. . .the machine will grow over the years, you'll probably want to put in a building where it can get power if possible. And . ..it's sentient. . .not at this time but as it gets bigger." The man looks at Josette. . .who just snorts.

"I've got fourteen sentient spaceships. . .fifteen with Clark's, thirteen sentient time machines, another machine is going to fit in just fine." He sighs in relief. "The machine can stay on Atlantis unless it's going to grow too damn big."

The man gives measurements for their machine and Josette nods. "Yeah, we'll have plenty of room for it on Atlantis." He looks at her and she brings up a video of the thirteen ships and then the others.

"Sir." The man says when he returns to his own dimension. "Dr. McNider's granddaughter. . .'

"Yes?"

"She found a lost machine."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, she'd been called out to deal with a . . .debris field that had gotten so big it was inhibiting travel." He brings up a picture of the field. "Dealing with it she found one of the machines severely low on power. Thinking quickly she put the switch to the middle position. . .the machine is now recharging. I told them it would be decades before it could be used but they reassured us it would not be needed."

"No, seeing this field it would not be needed. Not even the ships filled with the smallest boxes could hold all this."