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


 

"Towels?"

 

"Yeah, and seeing if we need to reopen the laundry detergent factory. And maybe the soap factory."

 

"Paper towels and napkins."

 

"They'll work on them after the toilet paper. I'll harvest extra for them."

 

"And your personal products?"

 

"We order toilet paper, paper towels, and other stuff by the pallet." The others nod.

 

"Offworld harvest?"

 

"Yeah, they'll be finished by our second semester's midterms."

 

"How many?"

 

"Eighteen, three each for the inhabited planets except nine and ten, nine gets two and ten gets one. They don't need more yet." The others nod.

 

"Are we still looking at year after next to be a dual harvest year?" Susan asks as she walks past.

 

"Yeah."

 

"Dual harvest?" Headmaster asks from the door of Headquarters.

 

"With the years so different between the planets the harvests get earlier every year. Some years they start coming in our winter and I put the drying tables on the first planet until anything that is put outside dries instead of freezes. It usually takes about four harvests. Since the harvests are so skewed we could plant twice, those years we plant cover crops."

 

"Rye?"

 

"And barley. It gives all the planets a good supply beyond what we can grow ourselves."

 

"Have you looked into expanding the rice crops?"

 

"Last year, we don't need it yet. Anybody who wants to grow rice can and can make the crop bigger if they want. The sales have been steady." Josette looks over at Doc. "I checked it while I was on the first planet."

 

"We don't want to get too big."

 

"Yeah, that was the problem on Earth, they grew too much and left part of it in the fields. Charities could come in and pick it for food pantries but still a lot of it ended up wasted." The others nod.

 

"Are the cucumbers at the store?"

 

"Yeah, John was filling the last of the barrels for pickles while I was there." Susan says as she walks into the room.

 

"That just leaves the new to us potatoes?"

 

"Yeah, I'll plant them this fall."

 

Josette grins as she checks into the hotel for her graduation ceremony and the comicon, the signs are starting to go up and rooms are being opened. She returns a couple weeks later her time and sighs as Pat holds out a hand for the diplomas and other paperwork.

 

"Yes, we're going to do this every time you graduate. .. no matter what school it is." She says calmly. "Are you looking at more degrees from Hamberg?"

 

"Not until Doc and the others calm down." Superhero Doc nods as her loving mates snigger. Absently she flips them the bird.

 

Josette gets a call and heads off, returning an hour later and putting out a notice on the server and dropping off orders at various places. Doc looks at her when she returns to the dorm. "Picking up the order from the supplier in Becka's dimension. I got rooms of fabric on my ship, dropped off more various places, and expect to have just as big an order to go out in a couple weeks." Pat chuckles but nods behind Doc.

 

"Is their city-ship back from their trip around the sun?"

 

"Yeah, I got video of their landing. There was a nearly audible whoosh when the shield went down and fresh air started coming in. Even with all the plants the air had to be foul by the time they got back. And yes, I . . ." She looks at the beeping from the computer that's the databurst coming in. "Already got a thank you back from Calvin for sending him that footage." She sends it to the server at their looks and the footage immediately goes on the screen.

 

"Something they're going to have to think about for longer voyages."

 

"Yes, even with plants, air scrubbers, and air fresheners. . .which are sometimes worse than the bad air. . ." she says at the opening mouths around her. Principal Madison nods from his spot at the doorway. "they're going to have to come up with a way to really clean the air on longer trips if they're going to seriously start colonizing other planets or have a city-ship permanently on another planet."

 

"The others are looking into it for their own ships."

 

"Yeah, the 9th planet Earth can't just drop the shields with all that radiation for all that they're on Earth." David says. Nods from the others.

 

"We've passed along that information." Superhero Doc says calmly.

 

"Yep, but this is something humanity has to figure out for themselves as one of the steps they have to take to colonize planets. We've got the cleaners on the other ships too, but. . ." the others nod.

 

"Is this their first trip?"

 

"Second. The first trip was five years and they settled on the moon for that trip, this second trip was ten years and were orbiting the sun and receiving data from the probes they'd set orbiting around the other planets on the way. Calvin's dimension has their own ship that had a similar five year trip the first time, they're settled on Mars for a ten year mission. Their Mars is like ours. . .not habitable."

 

"While Becka and her family live on their Mars."

 

"Yes, their Earth already knows they have people living on Mars, the morons wanted them off so they could claim Mars. They were told if they wanted their own planet to find a planet and put together money for a colony. Oh no, they didn't want to live on another planet. . .they just wanted to say they had one so they could sell honorarium plots that nobody could even step on but they could say they owned land on another planet. They'd be rich. They're looking for the glory and not the hard work, Becka and her family live on Mars but they commute daily to Earth with the switching stations for work or school."

 

"They don't see having to grow and can your own food, they expect a colony to be just like Earth. . .but you know on another planet." Josette snickers and nods. "That was the problem with that old fool Becka was muttering about. .. the government should put up houses for his colony. And the power facility has to reach their new dimension. . .right? If they have to pay for their own facility people will be paying hundreds of dollars a month even before the electricity they use, moron didn't stop to think there'd be no way to make money in another dimension."

 

"Just like Mars." Doc sighs. New Dimension and Headmaster look at him and they tell the story. They shake their heads. "This wouldn't have been feasible for Mars.. ." New Dimension Doc looks from the list of supplies to the window.

 

"Yeah, we figure they just switched their sights from Haven to Mars."

 

"They tried to take Haven?"

 

"Oh yes, the president at the time and his butt buddies were arrested for treason for trying to take Haven from us because Susan and the twins were pregnant with the first citizens of Haven. If they delivered on the ship they could swoop in and steal our planet. . .this way they'd have a whole new planet to destroy. These were the same morons who kept suing to get our charter overturned from agricultural to industrial. If they had Haven they had a free supply of ore instead of having to buy it from us. . .not knowing we were just the middleman."

 

Josette snorts and waves a hand. "Please, these are the same fools who bleated to Congress that can't they just pick it up off the ground when they wanted their own colony. . .but they'd learned from Mars. This one had to have it's own atmosphere. Congress just gave them disgusted looks and said no, you can't just pick it up off the ground. You have to mine and refine the ore. Interestingly enough, the idea of their own colony didn't go anywhere."

 

Susan snorts. "These were the same morons who didn't think we work on Haven, we had to just be funning people when Vinnie's documentary showed life on Haven." The others look at them and Josette finds the footage on the server, then the reality shows after they come back from lunch.

 

"Are any people trying to establish colonies . . ."

 

"Or build private ships in Becka's dimension? Oh they're trying, but they're like that old fool who was whining about the power facility. .. they want Becka or the government to do everything for them. They think they're special and they'd be overjoyed to do it. . .then walk off wailing when they learn they won't. The more moronic try again. . .one young twerp didn't get no satisfaction from Becka and went to her grandfather figuring he'd get it that way."

 

"Do you see a serious colony in her dimension?"

 

"Not for years with all the deaths and power problems. We were at a billion people when we lost Earth, they're nearly that bad but they're having children." Josette looks over at David. "How are you on the degree about the space program."

 

"I'll be finishing it next year. You started the first degree yet?"

 

"No, but I dl'ed the books for the first degree." The visitors look at them. "David's taking classes in a degree on space travel. It's two degrees so far, the first degree deals with the moonbase while the second deals with the city-ship."

 

"And they're going to have third as the information from the five year trip is released to the public. Though with it on Mars they'll already talking a degree on that mission too."

 

"If it hadn't been so bad on Earth I could see a degree on Haven and the other planets."

 

"As opposed to the degrees and classes on the morons from Calvin's dimension."

 

The second semester draws to a close and soon the boys are getting dressed up for their show in Mom's dimension. Josette settles at a table a couple hours into the show and starts signing books for the people already lining up.

 

"How is Haven?"

 

"Quiet, we're nearly finished with the offworld harvests?" David looks at Josette.

 

"Are, today was the last one. I'm also harvesting the new to us potatoes."

 

"Did Doc and the others finish what they were working on?"

 

"Yeah, so we can move from the ranch back to the dorm."

 

"How are the students coming in Calvin's dimension?"

 

"They're in second grade, we've got two in first grade, and five in kindergarten. They figure they'll start splitting up the classes in a couple years when the portable is full. Some fool wailed about how we were destroying history when they found the main building had been changed and immediately tried suing. Since they have no bearing in the case it was immediately thrown out. People are trying the same sort of crap from before the zero-population period, wanting to make names for themselves before having more kids means they're forgotten." Snorts of disgust and rolled eyes from everybody in the rooms. "They don't realize this type of nonsense doesn't make you famous, it makes you a damn fool."

 

Josette joins with her other selves that had been on Haven while they were gone.

 

"Get everything taken care of?"

 

"Yeah, everything's on the ships until it needs to be delivered. The store's got a good supply of potatoes and Granda is looking for a spot to put up the bookstore he wants to bring out."

 

"Did we get new shipments?"

 

"Yeah for the library here and in town. I've been picking up stuff from the channel stores."

 

The Harvest Festival ends and Josette sighs as she settles in a steaming hot tub of water up to her neck. Pat taps on the door and looks at her. "Bad night?" She asks as she settles in the easy chair in the bathroom.

 

"Weird dreams. Mom was Wednesday from the Addams family." Pat snickers despite herself. "Yeah."

 

"And your father?"

 

"Eddie from the Munsters."

 

"Oh dear lord." Pat sighs.

 

"Yeah, I was like Marilyn. . .the normal member who kept trying to keep Mom from killing people. . .though some of them I wanted to fucking scream give me the damn sword so I could hurt the annoying assholes." Pat sniggers again. "And your father?"

 

"The third time he woke me up howling at the moon under my window I tossed water on him. . .followed by an old shoe. I hit him too. He just gave me a look. I told him to shut the fuck up, I had finals in the morning. He . . .you know the dance move where they shuffle off with a cane?" Pat nods. "Him, Fester, and Pugsley were doing that on the fence, I had it rigged so I hit a button and it flipped up from the bottom, sending them flying."

 

"Were Doc and I Lily and Hermann?"

 

"No, you were there but you were Grandmama Frump or whatever her name was on the Addams Family. Doc was Grandpa Munster." Pat slides to the floor and howls with laughter. "Yeah, Gomez and Morticia, Lily and Herman were all 'oh that poor child' until I finally had enough and started breaking bad. Then it was all. .. 'oh yes, it just took her a few years but she's doing the family proud'."

 

David leans around the side of the door. "Grandpa Nathan wants to know if you're finishing any more degrees."

 

"Two this year, the metallurgy from MIT and the last degree on the Spider from Montague. Is he looking at another graduation?" Josette turns her head to look at him as Pat gets back up in the chair.

 

"Next year, he's got a bunch of people finishing degrees this year at GD."

 

"And the rest of you?" Pat asks.

 

"Only Susan and I will be finishing a degree next year and they're from Calvin's dimension."

 

"Are you getting close to having taken every degree from Montague."

 

"Oh dear god, not even close. I'm looking at signing up for the Anne Rice degree in a couple years."

 

"Other degrees?"

 

"I'll be three years in another one but only a year or a single semester in the rest."

 

"How many degrees does this make?"

 

"Three hundred or so?" Josette does a quick mental count. "282 bachelors, 23 masters, and 19 doctorates. But most of the bachelors are in multiple degree sets so I'm not really counting them. . .though I know everybody else is." she says at Pat's look. She nods. "I'll be finishing two multiple degree sets from Montague when I graduate next year, one on the Green Hornet, and the other on the spider."

 

"How many degrees will you be graduating with?"

 

"Seven with the five I finished a couple years ago. I've been flipping through degrees and it takes a while to get to the fourth year. Of course when I get at a stage to finish the degrees I am flipping though it will be a good fifteen or so." Pat nods. "I've got five I've got one more degree in the set, two of them I'm taking classes in the next to last degree, the others are either single degrees or the megasets."

 

"Your comic book school?"

 

"I'm finishing a degree but it's not part of that count. . .it's the first one in the new count for that school. A couple years I'll have the last National, the last Timely, and a tv degree done. David?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Montague is starting a degree on Mystery Science Theater 3000."

 

"I'm in."

 

"It's part of the bad horror movies genre."

 

"Also part of the campy." He snorts from the doorway.

 

"Well yeah, that's why they riffed the movies on the show." Josette snorts. She leans back in the tub and sighs. Pat and David look at her. "Ahhh, I'm just feeling my age today. Six years and Thomas's group is going to be turning a hundred, nine years and it's the Quints. It's been 85 years since Clark, Thomas, and CJ came up to Haven, 74 years since we lost their Earth?"

 

"Over a hundred years since we lost our Earth."

 

"The quints were only babies when we . . .'misplaced' Sarah and Jason. The youngest are turning 40 next year."

 

"Five more years and we'll be married the big 150."

 

"Three hundred and eighteen."

 

Pat and David look at her. "How old I'd be if we'd kept Earth's calendar." She sniggers. "I showed Sarah that earlier today, she just moaned . . .it was so pretty." David laughs. "That's the perfect excuse not to be counting birthdays anymore."

 

"Some people. . ." she looks at David and Pat. "Won't let me ignore them." They pat her on the shoulder in a there, there gesture with suspiciously twitching lips. They can be heard laughing as the door shuts. Anna comes in and raises an eyebrow.

 

"I'd be 318 if we kept Earth's calendar, Sarah would really have a reason not to celebrate birthdays. . .but some people won't let me forget mine." Josette grumbles as she drains the tub. "I'm feeling my age, Thomas and the others will be turning 100 in six years, in nine years it will be the quints. It's been 85 years since Thomas, Clark, and CJ moved to Haven, it's been 74 years since we lost their Earth. It's been over a hundred years since we lost Earth, the quints were only babies when we 'misplaced' Sarah and Jason. The babies will be 40 next year."

 

"Ohhh yeah, you don't think of how many years it's been until the numbers hit you in the face." She sighs and helps Josette dry off. "Anything else?"

 

"Five more years and we've been married 150 years."

 

"Shit, that means Mom and Dad, Mom and Dad, Ma and Pa, Ma and Pa. . .some of them are going to be having two hundredth anniversaries coming up soon. If they haven't already."

 

"Yep. Not anything you would have seen on Earth but here on Haven and the other planets?"

 

"Yep, either they got together and stayed together or they had their children but never got together beyond that. Not that I miss the damn celebrity divorce dramas."

 

"Please, I think some of them just got married for the damn publicity .. .Kim Kardashian was just upfront about it." Susan snorts from the doorway. "Laundry? I'm going to do it in the morning. It's early but everything's stacking up."

 

"Yeah, I'll have everything down before I go to bed." Anna says. Josette nods. "I was going to say something tomorrow, we've all been busy with the offworld harvests or the Harvest Festival. Stuff like that just fell to the wayside." The others nod..

 

"We gotta wash windows and curtains." Alan says behind Susan.

 

"Susan and I can use the school laundry after breakfast while you use ours." The others nod.

 

Susan and Josette push two full to the brim carts to the laundry after breakfast, sorting them out and starting the machines. All the commercial washers are full and Josette pushes a cart down the hallway to the front room to fill the washers there. Principal Madison shakes his head as he walks in.

 

"Yeah, the wash was stacking up. Everybody was busy and let it go. Now that the offworld harvests are in and the festival is over. ..we're picking up everything we let slide the last few days."

 

"That happens, you're not like the school kids who were expecting Mommy and Daddy to magically appear to take care of everything."

 

"No, any of our parents would tell us to get off our asses and do it ourselves." Susan snorts. "The girls are washing curtains at the dorm while the boys are washing windows." Susan looks at Josette. "Are we expecting another early winter?"

 

"Yep, cold and snow. . .a lot of snow. They're already predicting that we're going to be doming everything before we can harvest. Snowing at least once but we'll have good weather for harvesting after that."

 

"Not the first time and not the last." Principal Madison sighs. "Sue and Agatha's?"

 

"Everybody's busy getting in more quilts. Even with the wood they'll want extra on their beds."

 

"Especially during the bitter cold snap. The replicators will be coming online soon."

 

"Yep, and people are already moving stuff so they can get in extra supplies of the fake wood."

 

Josette gets an emergency call from Calvin's dimension, splitting off a duplicate that heads off.

 

"Thank you Josette, this. . ." Hannah sighs as she looks at the rolls of fabric that are being moved to subspace and then Ulonda, "Well, it's all covered by insurance but it would be a mess to have to throw away."

 

"While I can toss everything through a cycle on the replicator and either clean it or remake it." They both smile. They walk through the other factories with the adjusters and Josette ends up taking more stuff that would just have to be thrown away.

 

Principal Madison is waiting for Josette when she returns to the dorm.

 

"There was a fire, a major manufacturer had a major supply of cloth, thread, lace. . .you name it, they made it. The fire wasn't there but everything reeked of smoke. Hannah called me because while insurance would cover everything. . ."

 

"it would fill a landfill if everything had to be tossed." Pat says from the door of Headquarters.

 

"Exactly, I spent the trip back working on everything. The stuff that was in the boxes I was mostly able to run through a cleaning cycle, but the fabric I had to turn into raw materials and remake." Josette shows off the rooms of new material. Pat moans. "Like I said, they were a major manufacturer. If the fire had happened a couple days later. . . the warehouses would have been empty."

 

"That's usually how it goes." Pat snorts.

 

Josette nods. "Anyway, the machinery is being torn apart, inspected, and cleaned before they start running again. Because we all know smoke gets everywhere." They nod as the Josette that had been off merges with the one who'd been home.

 

"Did you tell the others?"

 

"Yeah, before I flew back. They're. . .okay, better than being thrown away and we have it for the future. We don't need it right now." Pat and Doc both nod. Josette yawns and settles on the couch with a cat. "We're going to have rain by dinner."

 

"Yep."

 

Frances and Elaine moan at the pictures Josette sends them at dinner but agrees with the others that better remade on the ships than sitting in a landfill and they'll use it. . .eventually.

 

"Josette are you starting a quilting book run?"

 

"Couple years, I'm at the 'damn near finished' stage for a bunch of them."

 

"How many books?"

 

"Eighteen. Nine more years, our time. By then the boys and I will have to stop our shows for a couple decades and start new identities as our grandkids. Not that we're complaining." Alexander is cackling and Michael is nodding vigorously.

 

"That's one reason why you didn't go back to the publishing house."

 

"Yeah, but I got a note from them wanting me to allow them to start another printing run. Madison is looking through the contract but they're mostly using the ones that she made up for me." The others nod in satisfaction.

 

"Oh dear god. . .really?" Josette asks a few days later as she looks at the databurst.

 

"Fire not an accident?" Michael drawls as he walks past her to the buffet line.

 

"Yup, they were trying to put the other factories out of business so they could swoop in and get everything at rock-bottom prices, They wouldn't sell to them for the pennies they were offering."

 

"Oh dear lord." Principal Madison moans in the front room.

 

"Oh yes, they're now all been arrested and they're blubbering that with the zero-population period ending they should be allowed to do whatever they wanted. They were stunned that anybody would take the other businesses side. . .don't they know. . ."

 

"Who I am?" President Bartlett drawls. "Oh yes, big business is stupid. Not that I doubt the business would have made a success out of any of them."

 

"Nope, they were just seeing all the money coming in and whining because none of it was going to them." Josette drawls.

 

"Dreaming about all the profits but none of the hard work that made *them* successful."

 

"Yep. Just like any other young kid." Josette puts the PADD back on her belt and takes the tray Michael had brought over.

 

"Well hell, look at all the problems with other agents at Harvey's, wanting us to go to them because they didn't 'wike" Harvey having us for clients."

 

Anna snorts. "Look at all the trouble Josette had with the damn publishing house wanting her quilting books. Ignoring the fact that the only reason they sold so well is because they were offered at the shows."

 

"Like these guys they just saw all the profits and wanted it instead of the people actually doing the work." David snorts. Josette returns from the other dimension a couple days later, putting a video up on the screen in the dorm.

 

"Oh, that's beautiful land."

 

"Yep, and it's ours now. The state sold it to me because they want it protected."

 

"I can understand why." Alan says as he looks through all the information. Doc has his own copy of the file and he nods in satisfaction. "It's beautiful land."

 

"Yep, we're protecting it from the morons in big business who would raze it to the ground and build giant malls and other shit."

 

"None of which was needed even before the zero-population period started." David rumbles.

 

"Yep, they're pouting that the realtor dimension fell through because it needed all that infrastructure before anybody would buy their megamansions and whatnot. Yes, our places could easily fall in that category of housing but we built them to be used, not as a damn showcase for morons."

 

Everybody nods.

 

"Are they still whining about the laws making realtors pay what the land is actually worth still in effect?"

 

"Oh god yes, how can we do that to people?" Josette mock faints. "Idiots."

 

"Always going to be fools out there only in it to make a quick buck." James snorts as he walks out of the switching station. "Oh, that's gorgeous. Yours?"

 

"Yep, we just brought it from the state in Granda's dimension to keep it from being razed by developers."

 

"Thank god that's something we won't ever have to worry about again."

 

"Yeah, I just had a flash of the Grand Canyon's walls full of apartments, malls, hotels. . .all the way down to the river."

 

Everybody shudders, now they can see it too.

 

Josette shakes her head at the latest databurst from Superhero Doc's dimension. "Oh dear god." Doc is looking at all of them. "Some damn fool school trying to kick out of student who wears leg braces, saying it takes too much of the school's resources to. . .pander to her needs. They were stunned when the court showed she didn't need any special requirements." Doc sighs, they've all been with him long enough to see it. "They finally had to admit they wanted her and her friends gone because they'd dared complain about the way they were treated on a field trip. It had been a couple overnights at this place and a group of their 'real' students were all having sex in her and her friends rooms, they trashed them, stole their money, ruined their belongings. . ."

 

Pat snorts and calls the principal and whoever else had been trying to get rid of the group a miserable group of assholes.

 

"Oh yes, this has all blown up in their faces now. Now every person who was involved in the 'prank'. . .they'd just wanted the girls to loosen up. . ." David sneers. "Is now facing charges of theft, vandalism, malicious mischief, and destruction of property. Their darling parents were up in arms about their precious darlings being yelled at for 'high spirits' on the trip, now they're facing a helluva bigger backlash for this."

 

"Oh yes, you tried to get my darling child punished. How dare you." Susan drawls. "Assholes, the little shits got their attitude honestly."

 

"Oh yes, they're being punished in the court of public opinion. . .everybody's talking bad about them. They're going to be facing a lot of years in prison. . . not just a few hours overnight in jail for getting high and stupider." Josette snorts. "That girl's going to have a damn good judgment against the school and those miserable bastards."

 

"Yep." Susan smiles. "I'm sure the biggest, baddest lawyers are lining up to take her cases. They won't charge a cent, the publicity will pay for everything ten times over."

 

"Yep."

 

"Anything else?"

 

"Oh yes, the damn 'experts' are up in arms again. This time about coconut oil being bad for you. Because it's full of saturated fat, even more than lard and butter."

 

Pat rolls her eyes. "Nobody's eating the damn stuff by the spoonful. . .are they?"

 

"You never know."

 

"Ladies, the damn idiots trying to tell everybody how to run their damn lives instead of getting one of their own is up in arms again." Josette says, looking at the cooks when they walk to the dining hall. Principal Madison just looks at her. "Now coconut oil is supposed to be bad for you."

 

"Oh dear god, now why?"

 

"Ohhhh, it's full of saturated fats. Lard if 40 percent, butter is 60 percent, coconut oil is 81 percent."

 

"Well dear god, nobody's going to be using gallons of the stuff except in soapmaking." One of the cooks sighs. "It doesn't stop anybody from cooking with lard or butter does it?"

 

"Oh you know idiots like that, they gotta tell everybody else how to run their lives. Cholesterol is bad for you, no. . .some cholesterol is good for you. Eggs are bad for you, eggs are good for you." Professor Druid rolls her eyes. "They'll find something new to complain about soon enough."

 

"We're all living proof that the so-called experts are idiots." One of the cooks snorts. Everybody laughs and nods.

 

"Josette, are you making a trip out to Ellis's?" Frances asks.

 

"After Thanksgiving, I already put out the 'have a list ready if you don't want to go' message to the other planets. The manufacturer that I got their entire stock isn't one Ellis usually uses so he won't be bothered by the loss of the order. A lot of smaller places. . .well, they're hoping they don't run out of stuff before their orders can be remade."

 

"Agatha and the others?"

 

"Still have a good supply of stuff on hand, I figure year after next for a major trip."

 

After lunch Josette flies to the Albatross Nest, coming in for a landing and walking in the front door. "Ladies, is everybody still good on supplies from Ellis's?"

 

"Yes, we were just talking about another trip out in a couple years." Agatha says briskly. "You're going out?"

 

"After Thanksgiving. I put out the 'have a list ready if you're not going' message out to the other planets and Frances asked me at lunch when I was going out."

 

"Is the manufacturer. . ."

 

"Not one Ellis buys from, but a lot of smaller people are hoping their stocks hold out until the new orders are complete."

 

"Because they only buy what they can afford."

 

"Or don't have endless warehouses to keep the extra in."

 

"Or spaceships." Suzie sniggers.

 

"Yep." Josette drawls.

 

"How are you coming on your comic book degrees?"

 

"I'll be done with the last National degree end of the semester, then it's the last Timely degree. I'll have a new tv degree done when I have that one done."

 

"Timely, National."

 

"Pre Marvel and DC, the names changed when the comic book hero exploded."

 

"Yep, the next group is the brouhaha about the comic codes and parents up in arms about violence in comics. That's 12 degrees but it also includes a lot of companies that folded because of the controversy." Most of the others nod, there's a couple people who don't get it though. "think the labels on music." They nod they understand now. "After that I wanna start the Fawcett group, that's a few degrees even beyond the brouhaha of DC suing because 'oh my god, Captain Marvel is a ripoff of Superman." Everybody rolls their eyes. "Everything's a damn ripoff of something else."

 

"Yeah." Josette snorts.

 

"You're going out after Thanksgiving?"

 

"Yes, we'll have our crops in and the other planets will be at a time where they can head off for a day." The others nod.

 

"Are we going to have a second harvest next year?"

 

"Possibly, but I say more likely year after that. I'll have to see the sooner we get to the harvests." The others nod. "No use getting ahead of ourselves."

 

"No use counting chickens before they're hatched." The others nod. "Are you planting on the first planet again?"

 

"Not this year, I already harvested twice. Beyond the new to us potatoes." The others nod. "Not that hard to plant a new tomato or pepper in a pot." The others nod. "Hell or even more than one of us plant different varieties and trade the extras."

 

Josette lands at the dorm and walks inside.

 

"Talk to Agatha?" Susan asks, looking up from a box from the publishers that had come up in the last batch of supplies.

 

"Yeah, they'd already figured a couple years before they went to Ellis's." She grabs some of the magazines and settles down to read. "I don't miss the damn post office mangling magazines."

 

"Nope." She grabs her own armful of magazines and sits down to read.

 

"Have you heard anything from Jessy?"

 

"Yeah, her Rupert, their Stark, and their Banzai Institute are working together on a other dimension growing area like Becka has, while making plans for having to move if things keep getting bad. Their power grid is bad.. . they didn't have the problems like we did or Becka, theirs . . ."

 

"Is just old and never meant to last this long?" Pat asks from behind them.

 

"Exactly. They've had their second big multiple state outage and a good chunk of the country is using the boxes since they've got millions of miles of power line to replace."

 

"And with everything going to the new power grids. . .it will be years before the lines can be replaced." Doc says behind them.

 

"Exactly, and they've got to replace at least one power plant that fried all those lines." Josette snorts. "The owners of the plants and power companies will be up in arms, but I can see people keeping the boxes even after the power is restored."

 

The others nod.

 

Doc finds Josette up in the growing area a couple days later starting seeds. He looks at her. "They asked at the Albatross Nest if I was harvesting on the first planet again, I said no. they said it wouldn't be that damn difficult to plant a pepper or tomato in a pot. ..or even everybody grow different varieties. . ."

 

"And trade the extra. So you're starting stuff we don't normally plant." David says behind Doc.

 

"Yep."

 

"List?" Doc asks.

 

Josette jerks her head at the direction of the clipboard. He picks it up and starts writing. "We can do the same. And I'm sure the others will as well."

 

Over the next couple days everybody starts seeds.

 

Josette claps her hands over her head a couple days after her third testing week.

 

"Get your comic book degree finished?" Alan chuckles.

 

"Yep." she pushes away from the table, standing up and stretching. Putting everything away she starts loading the boxes on the cart and takes them to her building, putting them on the shelves and nodding in satisfaction. Alan snorts since that didn't clear off Josette's tables by a long shot.

 

"Ahhh, I thought Josette was nearly done with her comic book degree." Doc chuckles from the doorway.

 

"Yeah, she should be back any minute."

 

Josette walks in a couple minutes later.

 

"Josette, did the others send out seeds?"

 

"Yes, we've got the first batch on the ship and the others plan on sending more." Josette pulls her PADD off her belt and begins looking through the inventory. Finding the list she hands it over to Doc who nods. "We've got tons in storage yet from the other dimensions and save heirloom seeds." He nods. "The 'everybody grow some things we don't normally do' idea you had is making me double-check our seeds."

 

"Yep, I had the same idea and so did Richard and Hannah. Who are also looking at what they normally grow and adding a few 'new to us' plants."

 

"Are you growing blue corn again this year?"

 

"I've got a crop started on Vallejo."

 

"Trees for the paper?"

 

"Dropping them off when I go to pick up the recycling. That will give them all next year to work on everything. By then we'll be running low on most of it." Doc and Alan nod as they look at the time. Dinner Josette calls mentally, Doc heading back to Headquarters as they walk to the dining hall.

 

The domes are up a couple weeks later and Josette sighs.

 

"We knew it was coming." David says behind her as she looks out the window.

 

"Yes we did and the worse Haven winter can't compare to Earth."

 

The dome is down by the time everything is ripening and everybody is busy canning or drying the food and putting it up for the winter. Their part of the offworld harvests is passed out next and Josette shakes her head. "We'll have snow for Thanksgiving."

 

"Not the first time, not the last." President Bartlett hears David say as they walk into the dining hall.

 

"Snow?"

 

"Yup, it's already starting." Professor Parker says from the window. The others look that direction and nod as they see the flakes.

 

"Is all the offworld harvests passed out?" Principal Madison asks.

 

"Yes and the growing buildings planted early, everybody knew this would be a long winter and got in supplies over the last few months. The food was the last of it." The others nod.

 

"You okay?" David asks as Josette walks into the back room.

 

"I keep imagining what it would be like living on Earth in one of the domes during the ice age."

 

"It would be like living on one of the city-ships permanently but worse since you were on Earth and not in space." Alan says. "Probably what it's like on the 9th planet Earth since they're still in their nuclear winter."

 

Josette nods. "They limit the trips to Earth to six weeks, they have a list of experiments and go down. And they're working to get the experiments done in the six weeks so they don't have to stay a second longer than needed."

 

"I can imagine they'd have to." President Bartlett says in the other room. "Being surrounded by all that snow and radiation. . ." He shudders. "Even during the ice age, there's still some temperate areas on Earth to check on to get away from all the snow. And speaking of Earth?"

 

"We figured on going out next year to check on the probes. Dr. Stark was talking to me about it last night." Josette says at David's look. "He's making a list of people who really need the information. . .not just think they deserve the information." Everybody sniggers and nods.

 

"Ellis's?"

 

"Week after next, fourth day. I was going to send off the reminder after lunch." Josette does just that while Susan fills her tray again.

 

"Josette, did you only bring back the stuff from the manufacturer?" President Bartlett asks. "I'd looked at the other factories in the area. . ."

 

Josette guffaws. "I was wondering if anybody would ask. No, I brought back everything we could use. A lot of it I had to remake but . . ." Josette puts the rest of the file up on the server, the others looking over everything after wiping their hands.

 

"Oh yes, we'll have a use for this. , . eventually. How long until the bookstore is open?" Mrs. Bartlett says.

 

"Dad figures on the grand opening during next year's Harvest Festival." Principal Madison says absently. "It's going to be about three times bigger on the inside with multiple levels."

 

/So did you copy Powell's?/ David asks mentally. Josette's silent sniggering is his only response.

 

"Josette, paper ends?"

 

"I'm picking them up in all the dimensions and turning them to cardboard and paper that they can use, it gets them out of the way." The others nod in the front room. "Becka's dimension is the only one that really found a good way to get rid of them." The others look at her. "You didn't hear? They send out a call to have them sent to Warner. . , about three times a year in the beginning and now once a year and Becka and the boys use the guns on them since they don't have the big honking replicator I use for them. That clears the space up and gives them crystals full of raw material."

 

"I bet they had to do it multiple times a year in the beginning." Professor Parker snorts.

 

"Oh yes, they didn't have any lack of people sending it off. Recyclers can't use it, like the shredded paper it's a lot of work and not a lot to show for it."

 

Professor Fletcher looks at the back room.

 

"Shredded paper means the paper strands are small, it's good for crafters. . .Josette shreds the paper for her handmade paper but it's not worth it for the commercial paper makers." Professor Parker says from the front room. In the back room Josette is nodding.

 

"Just like the idiots in the glass industry were whining they couldn't make anything because they didn't have the materials but had tons of glass sitting around, smashing it to reuse was beneath them until the government got on their asses." Principal Madison snorts. "But that's big business, only in it for the quick buck and not the work an honest buck would bring."

 

The others nod.

 

"Josette, the glass?"

 

"Smashing it when I bring in the recycling."

 

"No use smashing it then filling the container again with the glass from the other planets."

 

The pails in the foundry begin filling and one of the workers smiles as she walks outside to find the container door cracked open and glass that had been piled outside disappearing. A few minutes later Josette comes outside. "There, everything's smashed, what didn't fit inside is in here."

 

"Thank you Josette, while we weren't low low. . ."

 

"You needed the glass." She can see it being shoveled into the blow furnace to melt down. "I figured better to wait until I got the recycling from the other planets."

 

"No use emptying it to refill it."

 

"Get the glass taken care of?" Principal Madison asks at dinner.

 

"Yes, both in Town and mine."

 

"Do you take the glass to the other dimension anymore?"

 

"Nope, ever since the rush for windows for the colony in Granda's dimension wore off I'd be bringing it back. Easier just to take care of it here." The others nod.

 

"As it is you're still bringing glass back?"

 

"Yep."

 

David opens the tesseract to the ship several days later, Josette settling in the chair as everybody talks about what's been going on on their planets, where they are in their growing system . . while Haven has finished their growing seasons and were hunkering down for a wet, cold winter the 9th planet was looking forward to their first plantings in a couple weeks. And the tenth planet was in the middle of their second growing season.

 

Josette splits off numerous duplicates when they return home to deliver everything that the others had purchased. Doc shakes his head when Pat returns to Headquarters. "Did you see everything Josette brought out?"

 

"Yes, and the list and pictures did not do any of it justice. Everybody was talking about the loss of all that material, the owners of the factory that had caused all this mess were sentenced to years in the maximum work facility to repay the other factories everything they lost not covered by insurance, the cost to clean everything, and the insurance companies every cent they had to pay out. Then they're going to prison for at least fifteen years."

 

"Lemme guess, kids who took over a successful business?" Dr. Stark snorts as he looks up from the plans he and Doc had been going over for work on both Headquarters and the dorm.

 

"Yep, and weren't making the profits they thought they deserved." Josette snorts as she walks through the door. Her eyes glaze over a second. "There you go Pat, everything's in your rooms."

 

"Thank you Josette."

 

The others start coming out after Thanksgiving and the kids trips out to the other dimensions, Hannah and Richard nodding in satisfaction at the plants in a room. Or rather the neat tags on each pot. "Are the others growing too?"

 

"Oh yes, and when Agatha and the others learned I'd taken an offhand remark and ran with it they sat down and made a list of plants they could grow in their own homes."

 

"What brought it on?"

 

"I was at the Albatross Nest to see if they wanted to come out on the trip to Ellis's for us and the other planets and got asked if I was going to be harvesting on the first planet again. . .beyond the new potatoes. I said I'd already had and that morphed into . . . not a problem to plant a tomato we don't normally grow in a pot, that morphed into we can all plant different stuff and trade the extra."

 

"And that morphed into this and the others."

 

"Yep."

 

Josette chuckles at the three pots in the Albatross Nest, one pepper and two tomatoes she sees from the tags. A window box of herbs has been started too.

 

"Yes, every building has at least one pot and many have several." Agatha says briskly. "The old cooking school, Assyrian, Edinborough. . .even beyond the food we regularly grow over the winter."

 

"Seeing green is an antidote to all the white outside." Marilyn says as she walks in.

 

"Oh yes, and we could be on Earth where we wouldn't be looking forward to spring in a few months.'

 

"Oh yes, and this type of growing would be all we'd be able to do." Suzie sighs. "Instead of walking to the big building and seeing what was just picked fresh on the other planets."

 

"Josette, quilts?"

 

"Working on them as usual and hope to have eight books ready to start printing year after next. The following year at the latest. And yes, I gotta get stuff for more of the quilts after the first of the year, right now I'm cleaning my workroom and doing inventory." The others sigh and nod.

 

"How many years?

 

"Nine more years will have all my current books out in Granda and Mom's dimension. We're going to have to take a break for a couple decades in Granda's dimension, it's going to be nearly eighty years we've been having shows."

 

"Can't just say . . .ahhh, she's a vampire of course she's not aging." Agatha smirks.

 

"Yep, I just had a flash of one of the kids looking over at me . .'no, that's not my daughter. . .that's my mother, grandmother. . .'." The others nod.

 

"Are you still writing?"

 

"Yeah, the others are looking into making it a 'syndicate name' so the books would still be printed and with the lessening of shows and whatnot I should be able to hit comic cons and other stuff out there. Some people in the know will know that yes, Josette Takahawa is Josette Takahawa, she just lives in another dimension. My comic book school case in point."

 

"Didn't you have a graduation ceremony there?"

 

"Yeah, earlier this summer before they had a comicon. I finished another degree from them a couple months ago."

 

The new kits and cookies are handed out after everybody's eaten and Josette takes a turn at the sink washing everything up. The leftovers are pushed on her and she puts everything in subspace before heading back to the dorm. Putting everything away she breaks down and finishes putting away everything she'd brought to Ellis's.

 

"One of these days I'm going to have to fly up to a second or third floor in this room." Josette mutters as she flattens the last box. Anna snickers but nods from the doorway. "Is that the last of it?"

 

"Yeah." She waves the boxes to the cardboard recycling bin and walks down to the first floor.

 

"Does Agatha still offer the kits?" Superhero dimension Alice asks, she'd seen some very familiar plastic bags in Josette's workroom.

 

"Oh yes, and we've added more over the years. I usually have a dozen or so quilts in the pool of kits to offer for the future and they've been slowly introducing the older stuff by designers we lost on Earth." the others nod. "We also have grab bags, hats mittens scarves quilt tops. . .just pick the size and you get what you get, this way we can weed out some of the older stuff that's sitting around." Alice nods in satisfaction. "How many kits do they make up?"

 

"Two dozen a month, after that you wait as the materials are cut. Since you're buying the back and the batting at the same time. . . " Josette shrugs. Alice nods. "Today was the party for everybody involved in the kits, we get the years kits except for the ones we designed, talk about our plans for the next year, exchange cookies. . ."

 

"Gab?" Alice chuckles.

 

"Yep, ask about when my new books are going to be printed, when I'm going to be coming out to fill the bags for more quilts. . ."

 

"Josette, did you sign the contract for this latest printing?" Hannah asks.

 

"Yes, and I sent it to Madison along with the latest batch of what I'd been working on. She moaned so purdy in the databurst." The others snigger.

 

"How many books quilting books are we looking at?" Frances asks at dinner.

 

"If I start the printers again year after next it will be at least eight, if I wait another year I'll have nearly twenty. I gotta go in after the first of the year and stock up on more quilts."

 

"Stock up on more quilts?" New Dimension Pat ask.

 

"You've seen the bags on the shelves? Every year or so Josette will go to the stores and stock up on everything for no less than twenty quilts." Susan says. "And from the last few megadoses of quilts it will be a while before she finishes everything she has sketched out."

 

"Yep." Josette says. "I've still got a good half-dozen sketch pads full of quilts. By the time I get those done, the muse will. .."

 

"Be slamming you again?"

 

"Yep. I figured fifty books with all the quilts made up but since I got an eighteen book backlog in Granda's dimension and even more books in the chute in the others. . ."

 

"These can wait."

 

"Yes, people have got to be getting tired of seeing all my books on the shelf by now."

 

The rude laughter in the other room makes her roll her eyes. "We're looking forward to seeing what you've been working on."

 

"So did you finally break down and make plans for a cabin like in Granda's colony dimension?" David snickers. the sigh tells everybody the answer is yes.

 

"Yes, thanks to catching a few minutes of 'alone in the wilderness' on PBS when I was out for graduation. I made some modifications though, instead of a fireplace the cookstove that would be heating everything is using fake wood not dried crap. The plastic logs fit together tight enough that they shouldn't need chinking but we have the spray if we need it. I'd have a couple lean-tos on it, one for a hand pump. . .he walked to the lake for his water even in winter and the other for the wood."

 

"That's something we didn't think about when we started using the wood, now everybody has it stacked wherever, there's not enough room for room just for the wood." Principal Madison sighs. The others give her 'give it over' looks and she sighs and puts everything up on the screen, showing everything off. "I'd have flooring, I know its usually bare ground but that would be damn cold in the winter. I watched the entire show, he says he was toasty warm . . .it was 40 degrees inside, barely above freezing. . .but that would have been warm compared to zero and thirty, forty below outside."

 

The others nod. The newcomers had been quickly told about the colony dimension and they pass along suggestions.

 

"Solar panels?"

 

"I'd have them in a second or even third expansion when I added onto the building. Separate sleeping rooms and a bathroom. I know they took baths in a washtub in the Little House books but damn. . ." The others nod.

 

"Are mental health authorities keeping an eye on the colonists?"

 

"Yes, like Haven for every ten thousand person who applied we accepted maybe a handful." Calvin says. "They didn't go right out to stay, they were there for several months to select their land and start getting supplies out then returned to either the town they'd put up or back to Earth, it was their second year before they stayed out on their land over the winter."

 

"Either in their cabins or pulling the covered wagon into the barn and trading the smell for the heat the animals bodies gave off."

 

"Even here on Haven you have to get out of your house once in a while. . ."

 

"Usually after a storm when you need some fresh air and to hear the sound of somebody else's voice. That's why solitary confinement is used as a punishment."

 

"And why in the Little House books the family moved to town for the winter, Pa going out to the homestead to take care of the animals."

 

"Yes, that's one good reason to be outside in the winter. Even with the cleaners in the dorm. . .the whole place has a 'lived in' smell by spring. Gotta be even worse living in a barn that doesn't have the amenities ours do." Everybody nods.

 

Josette is nabbed by Agatha at the Lights Festival.

 

"We need to make fat quarters."

 

"Yeah, it's been a few years. How's the inventory?"

 

"Good, we figure year after next we'll have to hit the warehouses again."

 

"Warehouses?"

 

"A lot of our supplies are in tesseracted warehouses. Every few years Agatha and Sue will do inventory and set me off with a list of stuff to get for them."

 

"Just basic supplies?"

 

"No, we have a lot of kits too, from the hobby stuff a kid might get all the way to high-end stuff. We stocked up on stuff like that to have on hand for the winter months. Then once we got settled we expanded on a lot of the stuff. . .we've got the looms set up for weaving, we have the potteries at the schools."

 

"If we want to tie-dye stuff we've got the schools and the dyeing building." David says as he walks past.

 

"Yep." Josette shows them the warehouse of kits and they nod in satisfaction.

 

"Hook latch kits?"

 

"Yep, a lot of us come up with designs that can be either be printed on them or lay out patterns like you would knitting and just cut the back. Bind the edges and you got something pretty to look at, that and the rugs are one of the reasons we brought out the rug yarn factory."

 

Nods from the others, they've all seen rugs in various stages on looms, from plain rugs to lay on a floor to fancy ones that would hang on a wall as art.

 

Josette slides into her seat at the first government meeting of the new year.

 

"Starting a new degree this year?"

 

"Second degree on the Titanic on the school computer. First one dealt with the building of the ships, this one will deal with the sinking of the Titanic and it's sister ship, the third one will be theories about what happened. The latest theory from Granda's dimension is there was a coal fire in one of the bunkers near where it was hit, the continued heat of the smoldering fire made the metal brittle and. . ." Josette makes a that's all she wrote noise and hand gesture. The others nod. "I'll be finishing a degree from the Naval Academy, subs in war. The other degrees I'm only one or two years into them."

 

"And they're all the multiple degree sets?"

 

"Yep."

 

"Metallurgy masters?"

 

"Probably." Josette yawns, looking out the window at the snow falling outside. "Everybody agrees I know more than the books from doing it for so many years. Becka's in the same boat since they've been harvesting asteroids for what they need beyond what she buys for her business." The others nod.

 

"Paper?"

 

"The factory started work on the paper towels, napkins, and toilet paper today. I'll harvest more scrub trees and offworld cotton for the charmin brand toilet paper." She covers her eyes and moans, David sniggering as he sees what the imp is doing. "The Empire State Building, filled with nothing but toilet paper."

 

"I'm sure that somebody on Earth would do it if they could." President Bartlett snorts. "What brought that on?"

 

"Okay, long story. Years before Becka and the others moved to Mars, she was talking with her uncles and Silas about being off the grid and people being up in arms over more deaths than 'normal' being reported. With her alternate power to take over the studio and whatnot her power bill went from over five hundred a month down to fifty and most of that was the damn fees." The others nod. "They were joking that Becka was nearly off the grid then that morphed into what people would need to live on another planet, including toilet paper. The next day she came back from Warner with a couple sheets of paper. . .how much toilet paper a family of four would need for a hundred years. A lab tech didn't have anything to do. . ."

 

"Always a bad combination." Dr. Stark drawls from the doorway. "And he went overboard?"

 

"Oh yes, he used the huge mega packages and had everybody going through a package a week." President Bartlett and Principal Madison sigh. "Earth and the supplies when the orphanages came up."

 

"Exactly. When Becka found out about the ships and that they were going to take over Mars she joked they might actually have a use for all that toilet paper. Fast forward ten years or so, Tony had just come back from the road trip and the coup he'd seen morphed into the power problem and he told Becka to start working on her version of the power building. They took him back to the manor to sleep off vision and they were talking about supplies. . .including the toilet paper. Pepper said toilet paper is a huge part of their budget, they have closets full of nothing but toilet paper. . .if they had a free floor they'd probably fill it with nothing but toilet paper."

 

"Which morphed into the Empire State Building full of toilet paper." Doc says dryly.

 

"Yes, they were also talking about supplies on the satellite and whatnot, if they could fill containers of toilet paper and shrink them somehow so you could have. . .ohhh, our big room full of shipping containers in a space the size of a drawer in a underbed compartment." The others nod.

 

"What would happen when the container was brought out and enlarged?" Dr. Stark asks.

 

"Yep. Because they'd still need to find a place for all that supplies unless you could bring it out, take something out, shrink it again, and put it back."

 

"This reminds me of years ago when we were talking about not having white paper and pure white soap anymore and people replicating rooms of it to lord over people."

 

"Yep." Josette sighs and yawns, idly waving a hand and a mug of coffee is poured at the maker and floats across the room to her. She turns to Dr. Stark, knowing he's here for a reason. He looks at them and David waves up a shield.

 

"Are we going to be able to keep the ships?"

 

"Yes, it's not common knowledge but the other dimension has 'something' that spurts out stuff. I don't know what it is, neither do any of the others. It's alien technology. . .but nothing the others recognize. I talked to the ships, they don't recognize it either. When more ships are needed. . .they'll be made. The government doesn't see it needed for several decades, they're not in the state that we were that sent us off planet or the 9th planet's Earth. Now. . .we might be shipping them back in a couple decades and getting them filled again. . ."

 

"Have they been keeping records? The colonies on 9th planet's Earth?"

 

"Oh yes, all ten colonies have been keeping histories from the beginning and I passed it along to Becka and Calvin's worlds so they have an idea of what a colony built from scratch on another world will entail. They had the ships and supplies and limited contact with the Justice League yes, but. . ." Dr. Stark and Doc give her looks and she holds up a hand, finding the files and sending them to their PADDs and then the others at their looks.

 

"They were on their own, not like Becka or us where 'I gotta get the hell out of here, the damn weather's driving me nuts', we can go to one of the other planets for a stress break. Before we break." The others nod.

 

"That's why the psychologists don't see. . ."

 

"The domed communities wouldn't have been able to survive on Earth. Oh yes, we were talking about that before Thanksgiving when we planted peppers, tomatoes, and herbs in pots. . .on Earth we wouldn't have been looking forward to spring in a few months and indoor planting would have been all we knew." Dr. Stark nods. "Sick is it to say, losing everybody to the EMP's radiation. . ."

 

"Was a mercy killing." Josette sighs. Doc and David wrap their arms around her while President Bartlett, Principal Madison, and Dr. Stark pat her hands or shoulders. "Now, shouldn't you be annoying Dr. Blake?" David cackles as his godfather honest to god pouts. "I wanted to talk to Clark after the meeting."

 

"We're just talking about stuff, hell. . .there wasn't any real reason for the meeting except we needed to get out of the houses for a while." The others nod.

 

"Fat quarters." David says as the meeting breaks up and they walk back to the school.

 

"We're going to be working on them next week, I'm going out tomorrow to get the supplies for more of my quilts."

 

"Thread?"

 

"We're making a trip out in a couple weeks. Nobody's low low but we want to keep ahead." David nods. Doc and Dr. Stark are talking quietly behind them as they walk into the dorm, shaking off their outer clothes and either taking off their boots to replace them with shoes or brushing off their boots before they walk inside.

 

"Awww. . .fuck, the boxes." David says suddenly as Doc opens the door of Headquarters.

 

"The toilet paper? Yes, you could probably get three or four dozen shipping containers in them but you'd still have the problem of where to put everything unless you took out what you needed and put it back in the box. And then you'd have the problem of what to do with the empty containers." Josette says as she heads up the stairs.

 

"Do I want to know?" Pat asks as she walks out of Headquarters. "Josette, fat quarters?"

 

"Next week, Agatha's putting out a reminder a couple days before we start working on them."

 

"Boxes?" Doc tells her of their conversation and she shudders. "Oh dear god, I can just imagine the whole output of the paper factory in toilet paper for a hundred years filling the building."

 

"More like a few dozen paper factories for a hundred years." Josette snorts.

 

"Josette, did you put in a second order for the retro fabric?"

 

"Yeah, after Thanksgiving. I figure it will be around the Harvest Festival when I go out to pick it up." Pat nods in satisfaction. "The next line will be announced the end of the year."

 

Josette walks into her workroom and grabs the sketch pads, counting off the quilts that she still needs to get supplies for and grabs a second one for the morning. She won't get all the way through it but she'll probably get halfway through it.

 

"Josette, shows?" Doc asks from the doorway a couple hours later. She's busy bringing out other supplies and putting them away. He nods at the case of manila envelopes being opened and put on a shelf.

 

"Me Granda's, the boys Mom. I go second this year but I also have a book tour since I got a couple books debuting as well as the reprint of the older book. I figure this will probably be my last hurrah except for the comic cons and expos for me."

 

"Book fair?"

 

"Yes, a big one this year in both Granda, Superhero, and New Dimension dimensions. I'll have to start the tours and whatnot in the last two dimensions." Doc's lips twitch at the put-upon look on his granddaughter's face.

 

"Yeah, yeah. I know. ..own damn fault for writing so many books." Josette sighs and waves a hand. "Damn psychotic muses."

 

The next morning Sue snickers as she walks into her store and finds Josette cutting fabric and scanning labels. There's a pile of bolts in the remnants bin and Josette plops two more on the pile before she stops.

 

"Is that everything?"

 

"For everything I'm buying here." She scans the last label and starts putting the bags in subspace as Sue measures the remnants and Josette brings out the new bolts, putting them on the shelves. Her card is scanned and Josette moans at the total, Sue sniggering. "going to have to dip into your bonuses from the offworld harvests."

 

After a stop at the bakery she walks into the Albatross Nest, Suzie sniggering as she brings out her bags and looks over the notes of what she needs and already has before the others start grabbing bolts of fabric.

 

"Fat quarters?"

 

"Third day next week, when's the Amish coming out?"

 

"Day after tomorrow."

 

"I'll be here to help cut fabric."

 

"Thanks Josette."

 

A couple days later Josette slides into her normal seat at dinner. "Amish trip out." she says at everybody's look. In the front and back room people nod and turn back to what they'd been doing. When the Amish come out it's all hands on deck to help them.

 

The next week Ma Hunkle and the others from the 9th and 10th planets walk into Sue's store and look at the bolts that are going to be turned into fat quarters. Josette waves a hand as she walks in, more bolts appearing next to the piles. "Oh god, that's even more garish than when you first got it." Frances snorts.

 

"I know. We can use it for accent pieces in quilts." The others nod.

 

"This isn't everything." Frances looks at the pile.

 

"Oh hell no, I've got rooms of this shit on the ship yet. I didn't want to overwhelm you guys. I'll make fat quarters of it on one of the trips." The others nod and start cutting the fabric, more than one layering fabrics with a quilt in mind. At the end of three days all the bolts are empty and put aside to reuse and more than one person leaves with a bag of fat quarters. Josette waves her fabric to the ship and puts her bag up in the dorm on the way to the dining hall.

 

"Get everything done?" Principal Madison asks as Frances walks into the front room.

 

"Yes. There's a reason why we don't make fat quarters all the time. Though a bunch of us were putting together fabrics with quilts in mind as we were cutting them. Josette brought out a few bolts of the 'hot new fabric' from Calvin's dimension that bombed horribly. It was even more garish now than it was when Josette picked everything up at a huge discount. Josette says there's rooms of it more on the ship, she'll make fat quarters out of it on one of the trips. . .she didn't want to overwhelm us."

 

"Yes. . .especially considering by the time I go out with the other next year the next big hot fabric should have horribly bombed and I'll be picking up more fabric at a huge discount." Frances and Elaine snicker but nod.

 

Josette snorts as she reads the latest databurst from Superhero Doc's dimension. "The attempt to get rid of that girl blow up in the school's face?"

 

"Yup, they're begging her to drop the lawsuit. . .they're 'sowwy' they tried to get rid of her. They were led by the nose by their now former principal and the parents of the kids. They were arrested and are out on very high bonds, the parents will be destroyed if the kids take off. They're whining that the courts are being mean to them."

 

"Boo hoo hoo." David mock sobs crocodile tears.

 

"Yes, the school is better off without him and the fucking brats he let run roughshod over the rest of the students."

 

"Just like Dumbassdork and the Slytherins."

 

"Yep. The girl's going to a better school for the rest of her high school years, along with her friends. One that is semi-attached to a major university. Her old school is going to be going through every complaint against the group that were 'oh. . .they're just high-spirited' that was ignored."

 

"Thank god the school never did that."

 

"Yes, and we never will. Any 'real' school would have kicked the students out years ago." Principal Madison says from the doorway.

 

"Oh please, if the kids were kicked out. . .the principal couldn't get their parents to do 'favors' for him." Josette snorts. The others nod. "Because this shit wouldn't have been tolerated at Granda's either." Josette copies the stories in the databurst and sends them off along with the knowledge this nonsense would not have been tolerated at either school. She gets a response back a couple days later. . .Josette sniggering at the rude turns of phrase that describes the other school and the possible ancestry of some of the people involved. Josette passes that along to Principal Madison who just laughs. Professor Druid gives him a look and he passes the response along, she nods in agreement.

 

Josette sighs as she slides into her usual seat at the dining hall. "I gotta hit the containers today, I just cleaned everything out of my closets and dressers."

 

Susan and the others think about their clothes and sigh. "Yeah, it's been a few years since we cleaned everything out. Unless it's something like the bottom sheet wearing out we don't normally think about it."

 

"Go up after lunch then?"

 

"Yeah, it will give us time to go through everything."

 

Josette shuts the window she'd opened to get some fresh air into the room after a few minutes, it's still too early to have the windows open for more than a couple minutes at a time. She's not the only person doing it, windows are being opened for a few minutes all over the dorm and in every building people spend any amount of time in. . .or else doors are held open for a few minutes.

 

Bags of extra peppers and tomatoes start to be traded, Josette putting everything in the stasis chambers.

 

"I know it's just tomatoes and peppers, we've got more growing upstairs but. . ."

 

"They're different because you decided to grow more than one variety." David says from the doorway. "It's not even that they're ripe, we have ripe tomatoes and peppers upstairs. It's because we made an effort to plant something we normally wouldn't." Principal Madison nods behind him. "we all knew this would be a long, cold, wet winter and this is helping us realize. . ." Josette vanishes and the others count the seconds off until she reappears. "That winter will eventually end." Principal Madison says when she returns.

 

Josette just gives him a look at waiting until she returned to finish his statement. David smirks as Principal Madison just gives them a smug look. "Anything important?"

 

"Nah, just some moron whining in Granda's dimension about how his life is over because the state sold the land to me because I wouldn't let it be developed. The court told him to grow the fuck up. Granda moaned when I told him the imp had shown me the Grand Canyon developed from top to bottom and he nodded that probably would have happened if people hadn't started protecting natural areas. Oh. ..there's talk about another industry dimension."

 

Principal Madison rolls his eyes as behind them Doc sighs. "Yeah, that was Jane's reaction to both that and the Grand Canyon being developed top to bottom. Always going to be idiots who only see huge ginormous profits and not all the hard work."

 

"As opposed to the people making all those ginormous profits because they actually did all the hard work." David snorts. "Anything else?"

 

"Nah, just whining. People thinking they're so much better than everybody else and everybody should bow, scrape, and kiss their asses until they're proved to be damn fools." Josette waves a hand. "Human nature."

 

"Always going to be somebody complaining."

 

"To quote Dr. Hazlitt. . .ayuh." Susan snorts as she walks by. She'd been off on a mental health break on the first planet.

 

Josette waves the bags of stuff she'd brought at the chain stores to her rooms.

 

A couple days later Josette heads off with one of the ships to the New Dimension to visit the book fair, bringing back boxes of books and other stuff from both the fair and what the others had been gathering for them.

 

"Your books out there?"

 

"Yeah and I got some recognition but not the 'omg' moments. Thank you god." The others snigger.

 

"Awwww. .. poo' fuckers are going to get their asses beaten." Josette coos. David looks over at her. "The stupid ass 'kids' from the superhero dimension are going to be in prison for at least five to twenty-five years. The judge was not happy about their blubbering that it was just a joke." The others snort in disgust. "Of course their lawyers tried getting them off but since they'd admitted to everything. . .there wasn't a damn thing he could do but tell the court they're stupid ass brats. She got a huge settlement from every single one of them. . .they're going to be working decades to pay them off since the parents can't pay them for them. Of course their parents are blubbering, their precious babies are going to prison."

 

Disgusted sounds from the others. "Everybody is talking bad about them. . ." More disgusted sounds.

 

"The school is wailing, she got millions of dollars in the civil trial. They're going to be cutting everything to make the payments to her the judge ordered. They tried passing a millage for the judgment and the judge told them hell no. . .it didn't even make it to the ballot. The principal who kissed their asses is gone, he's never going to be able to work at a school again and he's got his own judgment he's got to pay."

 

"Good, I hope the bastard is miserable for the rest of his life and the stupid ass kids get beaten ten times a day in prison."

 

"Oh yes, the cons won't put up with their 'pranks'." Principal Madison sneers. "Stupid little sacks of shit."

 

True to Principal Madison's words, the dumbass kids wail the first night in prison because everybody has been so mean to them.

 

"Ha!" Josette says when the next databurst comes in. "Dumbass kids cells were trashed by the other prisoners, when they went wailing to the guards they were told 'it's a prank, you need to loosen up' just like they told the girls. They ran off wailing that everybody's being mean to them."

 

"Boo hoo hoo. .. I hope the stupidity gets beat out of the stupid kids. . .but that will take a lot of beating." President Bartlett snorts. The other teachers in the front room nod.

 

"Josette, shoes?" Principal Madison asks.

 

"I checked the stocks and planned to bring up the topic of opening it next year at the next meeting. And reopening the clothing factory."

 

"We can talk about it, it's been a number of years."

 

"Since just after Alex and the others came out for the shoes, longer than that for the clothes."

 

"Knitting factory?"

 

"Yes, we'll have to look into that too. The stocks took a hit this winter since it was wet and cold."

 

Josette looks up from counting the socks with Jane. "Josette, did those fool kids get what they deserved in prison?"

 

"Oh yes, how could everybody be so mean to them? Some cons trashed their cells just like they'd trashed the kids room and they ran off wailing when the guard told them it was a prank, they needed to loosen up. Just what they'd told the kids." Jane and Maria snigger and Calvin nods in satisfaction.

 

"Are you staying long?"

 

"A couple weeks, I'm dropping off books for the classes and checking out a few places."

 

"Good, I need to talk to you about increasing the order of socks. . .both kinds."

 

Josette yawns when she returns to Haven, they're getting a warm rain that should knock down the last of the snow. She leans between Principal Madison and Professor Druid and looks over at President Bartlett. "Granda is working on a contract for more socks. . .both kinds."

 

"I was expecting it." Professor Druid says. The others nod. "Births are picking up and the prisons are full with people being made to take responsibility for their own stupidity. Finally."

 

"Yep, Granda asked if the morons from that school were getting their asses handed to them in prison. They were more than happy to hear they were."

 

"They're not the only ones." Elaine says. "Josette, did you pick up more yarn while you were out?"

 

"Yes, it's on the ship right now, let me know when you want some. I brought out a couple pallets for my own use." Josette looks over at President Bartlett. "Do we want to think of an offworld cotton harvest for yarn?"

 

"Hmmmm, something to think about. Right now we spin the cotton by hand then dye it. The towel factory. . .?"

 

"Dyes the cotton before they make it into towels. I can easily dye and spin it with the machinery I have from the supplier. The woolen mill could do it. Or the rug yarn manufacturer could spin it."

 

"Harvest cotton offworld next year and do it." Principal Madison says. "If there's enough interest we can do it every few years." Josette nods.

 

Josette walks into the Albatross Nest in Albatross the next day, being handed a bag of tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. "Thankee but not why I'm here. Okay everybody listen up, I'm going to be harvesting a cotton crop offworld next year for yarn, pass that along to the others so if they want yarn in a particular color to let me know and I'll leave part of it plain, otherwise it's going to be about five basic colors."

 

"Is this going to be permanent?" Agatha asks as everybody grabs their PADDS.

 

"Depending on what the demand is I could be harvesting for yarn every few years."

 

"Do we have the machinery?"

 

"My supplier complex, the woolen mill, or the rug yarn manufacturer." Everybody nods in satisfaction. "We brought that out with the thought of eventually using it for yarn in the future."

 

"Do you plan on doing the dyeing yourself?"

 

"I could. ..but it's just as easy for a bunch of us to use the dyeing building."

 

"If anybody wanted something different, they could even dye it then." Marilyn says. The others nod.

 

Josette detours to the cloth and yarn building, picking the fabric and yarn that had been ripe and puts it either on the shelves or puts them in subspace, bringing everything out when she comes back to the dorm.

 

"Okay, I passed it along to the Albatross Nest that I'll be harvesting cotton offworld for yarn next year, rather than me dyeing everything, we'll use the building in town. With all of us working it won't take long and if anybody wants a special color they can dye it then." Frances and Elaine nod in satisfaction, followed seconds later by President Bartlett and Principal Madison.

 

"Knowing everybody they'd help dye it." The others nod again.

 

Manure is spread on the fields and gardens, tilled under a few days later and the first crops of the year are planted. Bethany is looking through the list of books Josette had brought back from the New Dimension and copying a few for Headquarters.

 

"Josette, book fairs?"

 

"Next week for Granda's dimension, I'm going to be out a couple months with the book tour." Josette yawns. "The last one is just after the Harvest Festival and I'm going to be talking with my agents about the books." The others nod.

 

"Offworld harvests?"

 

"Two this week, three next, two the week after that. . .then two or three a week afterwards. And yes, the others are signing up for multiple trips this year and next to put money in the account for a trip to Ellis's next fall."

 

The others laugh and nod. "Ya know, if we were still on Earth we'd have people up in arms about people actually harvesting by hand."

 

Josette waves a hand. "Oh yeah, and the mental health people would be fussing about the effects of being out of time. That's one of the reasons I won't let people do back to back trips, they have to have a couple days off. With so many trips, there's more than enough times to go out and make all the money you want for the trip and other expenses."

 

"They'd complain that you go on every trip. . .then walk off going 'oh' when they realize it's your ship." David snorts. Everybody nods.

 

Josette slumps onto a couch next to Madison at the book fair, the other woman looking over and sniggering. Josette's wearing a ballcap pulled down.

 

"Hiding from your loyal fans?"

 

"Hiding from the squealing. And it's not the girls that are the loudest."

 

Madison snickers again.

 

"What are you doing here?"

 

"Ms. Sinclair. ..is this. . person bothering you?" A officious toady comes bustling over. Both women give him go away looks. "This is one of my former authors, we're talking." Madison says sourly. The officious twit tries grabbing Josette only to find himself on the floor with his arm twisted behind his back.

 

"Are you fucking stupid? Madison said that I was one of her former authors. What part of try to grab me did you think that meant?" Josette hisses.

 

"Anderson, you were told to quit bothering Ms. Sinclair and any person she might be talking to. You're not her damn social secretary, you don't get to say who she can and cannot talk with." His boss hustles over.

 

"But I don't believe she's an author. . .she has to be bothering Ms. Sinclair."

 

"Idiot." Josette takes off her ballcap. "I'm Josette Takahawa."

 

"Ohhhh, you are an author." He whines. He's seen her picture on a number of books.

 

"God damn moron, little toady's been bothering me all damn day. He figures he can use me as a stepping stone to a better job." Madison snorts as they settle back on the couch. "I'm here as a representative from the house, everybody else is busy and Duncan begged nicely." Josette sniggers. "Now, while I dearly wish you had stayed with the house after we retired I can understand why."

 

"Yes, seven more years and it's going on eighty years we've been having shows. Once these last books debut at the shows. . .we'll have to take a break. At least here. The others we just started showing and having my books published."

 

Josette returns to Haven three months later, Earth time. The others had been just about to come down for her show when she left.

 

"Get a lot?" David asks when she slumps onto a couch.

 

"Oh yes, I'll be sorting out books and information for years." Josette yawns. "Madison was covering the fair for the house because everybody else was busy. I had to take down some damn fool who was trying to control who could talk to her, his boss yanked him back after he tried grabbing me and I put him on the floor with his arm behind his back. I 'had' to be bothering Madison. .. he didn't believe I was really an author until I took my cap off."

 

"Idiots like that always think they're better than everybody else in the world and they're doing you a favor by trying to run your life." Pat snorts as she walks past. "Did you get the rest of the stuff from the manufacturers?"

 

"Yes, I've got a dozen duplicates delivering it now. I returned just before we would have come out for my show."

 

"Did we get shipments of books?"

 

"Yeah, they're on the ship too. I just got information and picked up books at the fairs." David looks up and opens the tesseract when the Josette who'd been off harvesting tells him they've landed, people walking off the ship into town as Josette starts delivering containers of food.

 

"Did the others come out?"

 

"Yes, the work on the bookstore is starting tomorrow."

 

"I know I asked this before but. . ."

 

"We're getting books from all the other dimensions? Yes, They want to expand the library eventually to have room for all the dimensions, some of the work on the bookstore is separating the books out by dimension so we know 'okay, this series is from superhero earth, we'll get the others there when they come out. Right now the books I'm getting at the book fairs are just for me." The others nod.

 

James checks the cameras at the rooms.

 

"The kids?" Professor Xavier chuckles.

 

"Yes, the boys have a show in a couple days. They must be busy delivering everything, it's just the twins, Alan, and David there right now."

 

"M'Lynn wanted to talk to Josette about her books." Jack Harkness says absently. "She had to 'retire' earlier this year in Calvin's dimension, in another seven years they'd have been having shows eighty years there."

 

Josette arrives back at the rooms a few hours later.

 

"Get everything handled?"

 

"Yep, M'Lynn loves the other books and like Calvin's dimension some of the earliest books are being reprinted."

 

"Are your books being printed everywhere now?"

 

"All but Headmaster's dimension. I expect they'll be offered there eventually." Josette yawns.

 

"Don't start," Alan says, poking her. "I've been yawning all damn day." Josette pokes him back and it devolves into a poking war that gets the others involved, the so-called adults in the room laughing at them.

 

Josette slips off her shoes behind the table as Dexter finishes putting the books on the tables. The doors open and people start flocking to the exhibits, a few scurrying over to the tables to get their books early.

 

"How long were you signing?" Black Jack asks the next morning.

 

"Hours, Dexter is still counting the books." Josette yawns. "The pile of flattened boxes was damn near as tall as I was before I sent them back off to the ship to reuse when we get home."

 

"With more books." Anna sniggers.

 

"Yeah, I'm going to start printing again next year, I've got seven books finished, I'll have three more done by the end of the year and more in the chute to be finished by the time these are printed."

 

"One or two shifts?"

 

"Probably two, it's only going to be a few years since I'm going to be breaking up printing on all the books, there's some I'm nowhere near completing."

 

"And by then you'll be hit again." David chortles.

 

"Ahhh, shaddap." she shoves his head lightly and everybody laughs. Mostly because it's the truth.

 

"How many sketchpads do you have to still buy for?"

 

"At least six, I gotta look when I get back home. That's counting the partial one I started when I brought for these last ones."

 

Josette settles on the couch when they return to the dorm six weeks later their time.

 

"Get everything done?"

 

"Yeah, the last of the offworld harvests is tomorrow. . .the yearly crops are on track." Josette looks up at the crack of thunder.

 

"Yes, we'll going to have a storm coming through."

 

"Means we won't have to water tomorrow."

 

"And less water we have to pump to fill the cisterns." Since it's David's turn to pump everybody laughs at him. Josette eeps and disappears, reappearing a few seconds later and flying off. She arrives back at the dorm an hour later.

 

"Welllllll, we won't have to worry about wool for yarn for decades. . .I found a planet that is mostly agricultural with herds of animals that have two or even three babies at a time. Even with the people using everything they could the fleeces were stacking up, I have tons of them to work on and I can pick up more whenever I want."

 

"Cleaned?"

 

"Yep, and put in huge bales." She passes along pictures to the others, Frances and Elaine arriving at the dorm a few minutes later along with Agatha and Sue. She tells them the story and they shake their heads.

 

"Normally this is passed along to other worlds. . .I'm just one of the latest to take a share. We can use it." The others nod.

 

"Is anybody working on plant based dyes?"

 

"Do you have some?"

 

"Oh yes, I've got tons of information on that too. Like Haven, they're agricultural by choice. They have all the machinery and whatnot they can use if needed." She passes along files, Doc and both GDs getting copies as well.

 

"Do we have the plants?"

 

"Yes, I plan on growing them on the ships or putting up another offworld plant growing area for them." The others nod.

 

"Gimme." Pat says as she walks out of Headquarters, Josette passing over a box of seeds and sending files to her PADD since she knows Pat has an area they can be grown separate from the others. "Once I get them growing, we'll start working with them." She tells the others. They nod in satisfaction and head off.

 

"How much extra. . ."

 

"We could pick up as many fleeces as we do every month for a million years." Josette says. "We have no need for that, I just got caught by a 'what are we supposed to do with all these' moment." The others nod as they look at the time and head to the dining hall for lunch.

 

"Okay, I know I asked this before. . .but the planet the orphans on Thomas's world?"

 

"Their government was overturned because with the loss of all the orphans and their schools the so-called good people had to do a lot of scut work." Josette snorts. "They're slowly trying to recover everything they lost. The people who actually ordered the orphans sent away are in prison now. Birth rates are low, people are working long hours and not having sex." The others nod.

 

"Hopefully this knocks some damn sense into people's heads." Principal Madison mutters from the front desk.

 

"What are you plans after lunch."

 

"Doc and I are going to be bringing stuff off the ships, mostly books, DVDS, music. . .stuff like that."

 

"Okay, this is probably a stupid question but when you decided. . ."

 

"What ships went where we checked the inventories so each planet got the same supplies so nobody was shorted." Everybody nods in satisfaction.

 

After lunch Josette gets in the flyer at Doc's look and they head off to the ships. The ship opens for them and they look around to get their bearings before heading up to the 'leisure activities' area on the map.

 

"I can't see the wall." Doc sighs as the door slides open.

 

"Neither can I." Josette sighs. "Grab boxes and put them in the wagon until it's full?"

 

"How many boxes?"

 

"We can get thirty these size in the flyer with the cover. Any other day I'd say pull the cover off and tie them down but with the rain we're going to be having when we get back. . ." Doc nods. "If we get more you can put them in subspace for the trip home."

 

Josette nods. "How many rooms do we have?"

 

"Ten." Doc looks at the map.

 

"I say bring five out of each room, mark them by room that way. . ."

 

"We can come back to that room if we get a partial series of books or DVDS." Doc nods. Josette starts bringing out boxes and marks them by room number before moving them to the wagon or putting them in subspace. The cover is brought up before they lift off, they can see the rain in the distance and they head back to Headquarters, flying into a large work building and the doors shutting behind them, the lights coming on overhead as they land and the cover on the flyer going down. Josette hops up and plugs the flyer in to charge after looking at the dials. Doc nods in satisfaction, Josette waving the boxes into subspace as he goes to pick one up. He just gives her a look and pulls her through the link into the main building.

 

Josette brings the boxes out of subspace and looks at them. "I think these are boxes like Mom's dimension."

 

"Yes, these aren't cardboard." The undo the straps on the box and Josette 'empties' it, stacks of smaller boxes are everywhere. These boxes are cardboard. Josette does a quick count and moans. "Eight hundred and sixty-four."

 

"Six dozen dozen."

 

The others shake their head when she walks through the link to the dorm for dinner.

 

"We'll ask when they come out for the Harvest Festival." David asks. The others nod.

 

"When are you heading off to pick up the last of the retro fabric?"

 

"Tomorrow, I just got the message from Becka's granddad that the rest of the order was in."

 

Silas grins as he sees the pallets of fabric that had been filling the warehouses are gone. Josette looks over her shoulder at him. "Is that everything?"

 

"Yes, thank you Josette."

 

"Thank you for letting me use your warehouses."

 

Agatha looks at her PADD when it beeps. "Josette's back with the second retro fabric order, are we still putting it in the cooking school?"

 

"Yeah, for the time being." Sue calls. Agatha sends off that message and Josette starts sending the fabric off before flying back to the dorm.

 

A couple days later they head off to Calvin's dimension for the show, Josette signing books for hours after the show ends and Marcus shows up a couple days later with the totals for the books. More had been taken out to Ellis's and the retreat house before they head back to Haven a couple weeks later Earth time.

 

The yearly crops are starting to come in before the second crops of the year are harvested and Josette nods in satisfaction as she sees Dad from Mom Clarinda's dimension sitting with Doc and Grandpa Charles talking about the boxes.

 

"Is everything in now Josette?"

 

"Yes and the third crops and garden planted. We're looking at a cold fall but a mild winter."

 

"Good, Susan wasn't the only one who needed to go to the first planet to get away from the cold and snow last winter." Abby shudders.

 

"Yes, we made multiple trips out with the others so they could enjoy some sunlight and warm weather too." Josette suddenly shakes her head. "Ohhh lord. . .I just realized how much fabric the rooms of fabric on the inventories must hold."

 

Grandpa Charles lips twitch. Dad openly laughs at her. She walks off muttering rude words. Heading into her room she strips off her clothes and gets a hot shower before dinner. She comes out to find three Pats looking through her dressers and closets.

 

"Everything's good?"

 

"Yes, I cleared damn near everything out last winter. Lord knows we don't have any lack of stuff in storage. And brought more when when we went out to the other dimensions." The others nod.

 

Josette nudges Doc on the walk to the dining hall for dinner. "You know. . .there's probably an Empire State Building's worth of toilet paper on the ship." He moans and Josette sniggers.

 

"Empire State Building worth of toilet paper?"

 

"Ahhhh, the hundred years of toilet paper spawned?" Becka laughs. Doc nods. The others look at her and between the three of them the story is told.

 

"I'm sure there were buildings of toilet paper on the city-ship." Calvin chuckles.

 

"Yep. ..because they and a colony would have to stock up on supplies. Anybody else it would be lording it over somebody unless it was something like . . .ohhh, the war and people were buying stuff to either have on hand or sell on the black market."

 

"We didn't have a war but thanks to the damn power problems there were a lot of empty spaces on shelves." Silas rumbles.

 

Danita guffaws suddenly, everybody turning to look at her. "A building just of stuff for that time of the month."

 

"Ohhh yeah, especially on a ten year trip. 'A package a month per person is good right. . .multiply the number going by twenty-five years'."

 

"The orphans?' Becka sighs.

 

"Yep." The others who hadn't heard about all the supplies that came up give them looks and the story is told. Everybody's moaning or sniggering as they walk into the dining hall. Josette is waved to the front room. Principal Madison just gives her a look.

 

"The boxes on the ships are similar to the boxes from Mom's dimension. They're bigger and hold a portion of ours. . .one of the boxes we brought out held six dozen dozen boxes of books." Josette chuckles. "I was teasing Doc about there's probably an Empire State Building worth of toilet paper on the ship." President Bartlett guffaws. "And there's probably a ton of fabric on the ship."

 

"Yes, I was moaning about how much fabric there probably was earlier today. The toilet paper morphed into the story about Becka and the hundred years of toilet paper." The story is told to the others who laugh. "That morphed into there probably was buildings of toilet paper on the city-ship."

 

"They'd actually use it all. . .especially on a ten year trip." Professor Druid snorts. "And a colony would be stocking up on supplies."

 

"Yes, then Danita saw a building full of supplies for that time of the year. That morphed into 'a package a month, right? We'll send off enough for twenty-five years' and the rest of the supplies." Everybody in the front room snickers.

 

"Speaking of a colony?"

 

"They'd have to have drone modules. . .either attached to the outside of the ship or big cargo bays like the ships that came to Pern. Or both."

 

"Yes, especially if it's a generation ship." The others nod. "Now, my ships could take the drones into tractor beam. . .I did it with the satellites when Earth was lost, but I don't think the city-ships have the tech."

 

"No." Calvin says. Silas nods. "It could be added easily though. They've been talking about that and a sort of pushing beam to move asteroids and whatnot out of the way."

 

Josette shakes her head. "Just keep the damn ship out of the way people. Hell, they did it on the trip to Mars. . .go around the asteroid belt, not through it. If you see it early enough, you shouldn't have to go through it."

 

A couple days later Josette sends a file to the server. "Damn psychotic shit would not leave me alone. A breakdown of the supplies that would be needed for a generation ship that took fifteen years to travel to their new planet. . .since that's the furthest you said you'd found habitable planets."

 

Silas nods. "By the time any further planets would be needed they'd have found them on their own and have a way to get there beyond the city-ships. What protocols did you use?"

 

"The information on the city-ships, going from Earth to Haven since it's about the same. Three city-ships per planet with about two thousand people per ship." The others nod. "With no need for shuttles, they'd be able to get in more supplies. By the time they landed they'd have had about forty children per ship. I didn't add animals. . they'd have been overwhelmed with them."

 

The others shake their heads but laugh as they read the file.

 

"Thank you Josette, this will be a good stepping stone for future colonies."

 

"Same here. We'll have to find a way to move faster before we start colonies with animals. . .as you said they'd be overwhelmed. . .they couldn't muck stalls for fifteen years, and the shorter lived animals would have been lost on the trip."

 

"Yes, that's something they'd have to think about. . .Pern's trip was fifteen years but the crews took five years shifts while the colonists and their animals slept in coldsleep. The ships would have to be either faster than light or they'd have to make the trip in coldstorage and hope the hell the computers woke them up in time."

 

"Which is why so many early colony ships were lost." Momma Clarinda says.

 

"What about when you brought up shelter pets and livestock for the others?"

 

"Stasis, it was like they went on the ship and woke up on their new worlds."

 

The bookstore opening is a big hit, everybody coming out with reusable bags of books.

 

"Okay, I won't complain about having turned 63 anymore." Becka says as she walks into the room where her grandparents are sitting after dinner. "Josette just said she'd be turning 324 if they'd kept Earth's calendar after moving to Haven."

 

"Oh yes, that beats turning 63 all hollow." Idina drawls. "Are we going out to the movie?"

 

"Yes." They grab blankets and folding chairs and join the others walking to the open area.

 

 

 

"Okay," Josette says as she slides into her usual seat at the government building for the first meeting after the Harvest Festival. "I don't have to ask about the sales at the bookstore." The others chuckle. "Knitting factory, clothes, and shoes."

 

"Yes, we have the time to talk about them now." The files are brought up on the screen and they talk about everything.

 

"Josette, the cotton?"

 

"I'm picking it up in a couple weeks and dropping it off with the scrub trees the end of the year when I pick up recycling and this year's order."

 

"No use making multiple trips." Doc says. "Your last book fair?"

 

"I'm going out next week."

 

"What's the latest on those fool kids?" Josette asks a couple weeks later, Earth time.

 

"Blubbering in prison that it was all a prank, everybody's being mean to them in prison. She shouldn't have been that upset. ..well yes, they did destroy her belongings. The hotel is falling all over themselves to apologize to the young woman for the damages to her room. . .they'd sued her after all but the case had been dismissed because of their age and the fact that they had been the victims of a 'prank'." Pat sneers. "Miserable bastards deserve everything they're getting in prison. They've got that judgment to pay off too. . .and looking at more time in prison."

 

"And their 'loving' families?"

 

"Wailing that their darling children are making them look bad."

 

"Well if they made the little brats behave. . ."

 

"Not going to happen, the fools don't want to be parents."

 

"Amen," A woman at a nearby table says at the expo they're attending. "They want to be their kids besties instead of being parents." Josette grins and goes to the buffet to fill her plates again, the others at the expo agreeing it's nice to see a young person who can actually behave. Pat silently snickers, if they only knew Josette was older than everybody here. But even when she'd been a teenager she'd never acted like one. . .she'd been forced to grow up too early thanks to her mother's death and having to work to help pay down the scholarship loan for her schooling.

 

"Are you talking to Vinetta?"

 

"Yeah, she's off for a couple days yet, her youngest fell and broke his ankle. She was going to call me when he's driving her to distraction. . .again."

 

Josette yawns as she settles in bed at the hotel, moaning as the fire alarm starts to go off. "Oh lord," Pat sighs.

 

"Ten bucks says it's some fool kid who doesn't 'wike' her room and if she can't get what she wants since the expo is being held here, nobody should be able to either." Josette snorts as she pulls on slippers and a robe, following Pat out the door to where hotel employees are ushering the guests. Bringing a knitting bag out of subspace she settles in a corner and starts working on a project for something to do as everybody else wanders around the large room.

 

A couple hours later a hotel employee walks in and immediately begins to apologize for the inconvenience. "Some fool called in a complaint that this wasn't an expo for textile mills and workers, it was a cover for gangs dealing in stolen property."

 

"Well, that's new." Josette snorts. "The other time it was some fool wanting the expo shut down because she didn't want any competition. It was in Las Vegas and she was afraid that people might see men going into certain rooms at all hours of the day. She called the police and said that it wasn't fabric and other stuff they were selling out of their rooms. It was drugs."

 

"Oh dear lord." One of the older women in the room moans.

 

"Yep, the police came in and didn't find anything in the rooms and they told her to grow the fuck up. She could have been arrested for filing a false report. The hotel told her to leave but she didn't go quietly. . . she called in a bomb threat. That would get rid of us. . .she didn't realize the entire hotel would be evacuated." Rolled eyes and sounds of disgust.

 

"And the other time."

 

Josette cackles. "Oh, it didn't seem so funny at the time. We were in Boston and police came in with sirens blaring and put everybody in a meeting room so they could examine the rooms. Somebody had heard hemp and put two and two together and got seventeen and a half and that we were selling drugs. By that time the expo had ended for the year but when we returned the next year. . .welllll, an officer with a clue realized it was a knitting expo and that our drug of choice was yarn. They apologized to everybody but still examined all the rooms. Everybody got about four hours sleep between the time they could go to their rooms and breakfast the next morning."

 

"Ohhhh, that's the night you spent on Sue's couch?" Pat asks, looking at her.

 

"Yes, I admit it. . .I'm cheap. I wasn't interested in spending two hundred dollars for a room I'd only be in a handful of hours since I'd planned on driving back home for the night because I lived close. Yes, I'd just spend nearly as much money just a couple weeks before for a quilt but that had been for a degree. If Sue hadn't been there, I'd have slept in the truck. . .it wouldn't have been the first time. . .that was that other expo when I came back from going out to eat and finding everybody milling around outside the hotel."

 

"What happened then?"

 

"Well, unless the rooms were open all night everybody would have lost a day of sales so the expo was canceled. Those of us who weren't vendors were allowed to go up to our rooms with a hotel employee to pack up. I signed up, got my stuff, and headed home."

 

The others nod as they're allowed to go back to their rooms for the remainder of the night.

 

They arrive back at the Tower, Pat shaking her head as she reads the blubbering from some little shit in the local government who was swearing up, down, and sideways that he hadn't meant to inconvenience so many people at the expo. . .he didn't know it had been a real expo, he'd thought it had been a cover for something or other. . .until he'd seen all the fabric in the rooms.

 

"Moron."

 

"Oh, always going to be somebody trying to make a name for themselves. . .it's just human nature." Pat snorts. "Then they whine forever they hadn't known this would happen. Vinetta?"

 

"I'm seeing her tomorrow."

 

Josette returns to the Tower the next morning. "Vinetta is a nudge, she actually looked over all the books I had in the pot and asked for more." Pat sniggers. "I reminded her it would take years to print everything she already had and she just waved a hand and said 'details'." Doc's lips twitch at the sour look on Josette's face as Pat laughs. "Yes I know, it takes a strong person to stand up to me."

 

 

"Ohhh bullshit." Josette snorts as she listens to a commercial for Dr. Phil. "It's not the first time a mother tried to get a grandchild for money. Vergie Arthur." The others look at her. "You don't have an absolute trainwreck of a celebrity called Anna Nicole Smith here?"

 

"Ohhh, that fool woman." Alice moans. "Yes. . .the woman who was slurring and throwing her arms out on tv the other night." The others who'd seen that clip with her moan.

 

"Yes, that sounds like the fool woman. In our world she had a baby girl and her son came out to see them, dying of a drug overdose in the hospital. Rumor is it was her drugs."

 

"Sounds like it, the woman always seemed half drugged out of her damn mind every time she was in front of a camera." Andrew snorts. "She end up killing herself? From the same drugs?"

 

"Yes, did she marry this real old guy and been trying to get. . ."

 

"His money for years?"

 

"Yes, anyway her momma Vergie Arthur. . .who she hadn't spoken to in years was one of the people trying to get custody of the baby. The baby's father. ..a photographer named Larry Birkhead finally got custody of her. But the baby didn't get the money Anna Nicole was fighting for. . ."

 

"and old Vergie dropped out of sight as soon as she found out she wouldn't be getting that money? Figures. Some families are just leeches.'

 

"Oh god yes, for every good set of parents out there. . .I don't know if Britney Spears. . ."

 

"Conservatorship after shaving her head, yes."

 

"Lindsay Lohan?"

 

"Oh god, the family that puts the fun in dysfunctional."

 

"Oh god yes, the little bitch tried putting out stories that I was cheating on my wife with her. Of course she didn't know Jakahawa was a woman, she just saw the name in the news because I'd recently had a show and 'of course they won't mind me dragging their name through the mud in the name of almighty publicity'. Because nobody was talking about her. And nobody minds publicity." Snorts from everybody around her. "Yeah, I sued her damn ass. . ." the whole story is told, including her family's antics and they sigh.

 

 

 

 

The information on the new line of retro fabric comes from Becka's dimension and she passes it along to the others along with the note the first order would be going out after Thanksgiving. The first orders start coming in and Josette doubles the orders for herself.

 

Josette binds off her latest pair of winter socks, putting them in the drawer with the others.

 

"Are those the plant yarn?" Pat asks behind her.

 

"Yes, I've been experimenting. They're not quite as warm as pure wool but close enough. But like wool you wash them by hand. The plant buildings didn't have washing machines as we know them. That's why they had the special soap and toilet paper. Liquid laundry detergent works okay on them."

 

"Have you been passing along the information to the others?"

 

"Yep. The others really like having colors in the winterweight and summerweight yarns beyond dyeing." Pat chuckles and nods. "Pat passed along the information on working with the heavy-weight fabric so we're all set."

 

"Have you made an outfit out of it yet?"

 

"No, just used some of it as batting for a cold-weather quilt." Looking at the time Josette closes the window in her bedroom and joins Pat walking downstairs. The furnace has already been running mornings so windows are shut at night now.

 

"Soon enough the windows will be shut permanently." Anna says when they walk downstairs.

 

"Yes, we're enjoying the fresh air while we can." Susan says.

 

"Aren't all quilts cold-weather?" Anna asks.

 

"No, they usually have thicker batting and are made of flannel or another thicker material." Josette brings two quilts out and they can feel the difference between Josette puts them back upstairs. They walk to the dining hall, the others shaking their heads when they see the windows there are shut too. Some windows in buildings that don't have people in them all the time have shut for the winter.

 

"Okay, am I nuts. . ." David says as he walks through the dining hall doors.

 

"You're nuts." Everybody choruses in unison.

 

"Ha, ha, ha. Okay, you just finished the degree on plane crashes from the history school. . .yet according to your degrees in the pipe, you've got another degree from the history school on plane crashes."

 

"Yes, this one was a little on the history of planes and basically why they crash. The other degree is on famous or infamous in the case of the Hindenburg air crashes. The second one is a multiple degree set. Yes, it sounds damn similar to the multiple degree set on plane crashes from the Naval Academy but. . ."

 

"they're focusing on military crashes." President Bartlett rumbles from the front room." Josette nods.

 

 

 

 

After Thanksgiving Josette pulls out a couple fleeces from the huge bales and starts spinning them, making up a sweater, hats, mittens, and a few pair of socks. Dyeing them a rich cranberry she puts them in her dresser before they head off to the other dimensions.

 

"Oh dear god, that's worse than the other stuff." Josette moans as she looks at samples of the hottest new fabric. "At least we can dye it."

 

"Then I should put out an announcement I'll take everything if it bombs?"

 

"Yes, I'll come pick it up next year my time when I come out with the others for their shopping and order. I'll let you know when we have a formal date."

 

"By that time they'll be giving the stuff away."

 

"Ehhh, like I said. . .I can dye it. Or remake it like I did the smoke-damaged stuff. But I do I'll make it into a nice neutral color."

 

"Have you been using the other?"

 

"Yeah, earlier my year we were putting together fat quarters and I brought some of it out. It was even more garish then but we can use it for accent on quilts. Is everybody caught up from the fire?"

 

"Yes, all the orders have been replaced and they're getting more orders from new customers thanks to the . . ."

 

"How 'dare' you try to put them out of business? Yeah. That's human nature though." Everybody in earshot nods.

 

"How many books?"

 

"Fourteen more yet to debut at shows, another eight that are finished that I haven't printed yet. I figure on doing it year after next, my time. . .everybody's going to be making clothes and shoes this next year."

 

"Yep, they come before books."

 

"The stocks took a hit, we're coming off a cold, wet winter. This winter's looking to be mild. . .but we had a colder than normal fall to make up for it."

 

 

 

Josette waves a hand at the Albatross Nest and brings out a handful of the quilts she's been working on, the others looking them over.

 

"Printers will start operating year after next, next year we're going to have the clothing, shoes, and knitting operations going. The stock on hand took a hit this year and last." The others nod. "The announcement is going out at the Lights Festival and be open at least two years."

 

"I hear you've been looking into a small cabin like Calvin's dimension."

 

"Yeah, but there's no way in hell I'd be able to stay out there for an entire winter like that guy did in Alone in the Wilderness. . .let alone 36 years even with the changes I made to it." She puts the file up on the screen and points out everything. The others nod.

 

"For all the times you gotta get out of the house because your family is on your very last nerve, you gotta get out of the house to actually see another human being." Marilyn snorts.

 

"Yes, that's how I felt in the library back on Earth for finals. I had the radio going, I could turn on the tv or put a DVD in the computer, I could turn on a screen and see everybody heading home. . .but for all that it was like I was the only person on Earth."

 

"Ohhhh, I know that feeling all too well working nights here on a project. Working at home was different because you could open a door and see your family."

 

"Exactly, Susan and later Alan complained the dorm was dead with nobody there. Susan that same last day of finals waiting for the rest of us to get home so we could take off. . .Alan when he was back from his residency at GD and the rest of us were either at GD taking our tests or at work."

 

The cookies are passed out and the leftovers given to Josette after she helps wash everything up, everything is put away when she returns home.

 

"Josette, thank you for clearing out all those old trees." Headmaster Doc says. Alexander looks at her. "An old quarry half full of trees they'd tried sending down the river. Most of them didn't make it. I cleared it out when I got out there. Some of the trees were huge and woodworkers were falling all over themselves to buy them. And yes, I brought back our share." He nods in satisfaction.

 

"Did you get the cotton and scrub trees delivered?"

 

"Yes, when I picked up the order and recycling."

 

"Did the sock orders get increased?"

 

"Yeah, I took out pallets of yarn at the buildings for when they reopen the first of the year and my room is stuffed with pallets for the machines." Josette stretches and yawns. "I also ordered more machines and added a building to the dorm for them. Well actually I added about three buildings and moved the sock machines to one of them."

 

"Both rooms?"

 

"Yeah."

 

Josette disappears and reappears a few seconds later. Everybody knows the look on her face.

 

"Another lost Earth?"

 

"Yes, Some damn fool took over the world and had everybody working in factories to churn out shit nobody needed. But he wanted it. People were dying on the line until a group finally took him out. . .but he had a failsafe that took out everybody still alive."

 

The others shake their heads. Always going to be greedy assholes. . .he didn't need it but he wanted it. And he destroyed a world in the process."

 

Josette sends off a message, Doc doing the same. Soon the others are arriving and those who hadn't seen Josette splitting off duplicates eep as she absorbs energy and fifteen of her are standing there. The others join her on various ships, one of her other selves and Clark detouring to pick up their ships.

`

"Ohhh my fucking god." More than one person moans. There's boxes everywhere.

 

"Yep." Josette sighs. "He didn't care what they were making as long as they were making it for him."

 

"How the hell did he keep people from revolting and taking him out before now?"

 

"He had to have some sort of control over them."

 

"Subliminal commands, by the time people were immune to them they were trapped in the factories under the command of the robots. Until they were disabled. Of course I can't say it was all robots. . .there's always greedy sumbitches who will throw their towel in with a madman. . ." Nods from the others.

 

"Robots?"

 

"Shut down with the large switch handle in his compound like you'd find in a mad scientist movie." The ships split off and start beaming up the boxes everywhere outside covered with waterproof tarps when buildings became full.

 

"Can this planet recover?" Headmaster asks a few months later.

 

"I think so, the weather probes say it's normal. . .empty areas. . .not that there's many left. . .are all going back to nature."

 

"We've seen it before."

 

"Yep. A few decades of rest instead of being over cultivated yearly will see Africa returning back to the dark continent of legend."

 

Centuries later the ships either settle back into orbit around their planets or land on the water after everybody but Josette is delivered back to town by the loading and unloading beams. Josette arrives back in town about ten minutes later via tesseract David opens.

 

"Have you been keeping track of what we picked up?"

 

"Yes, while I haven't been opening everything I've been grouping it by similar items." Josette yawns. "Goddamn fool, I'm sure he's blubbering he needed all that in whatever damn afterlife he ended up in."

 

"Yes, just like any megalomaniac." Headmaster Professor Xavier scowls. He'll be passing along information on what happened to the others when he returns, hopefully this will make some people think about what they are doing.

 

"We will not need raw materials for centuries. Even with breaking down the bad shipping containers into raw materials I have thousands on the ships." Josette tells Principal Madison and President Bartlett later that night after dinner. "I'm going to be moving a lot of this into boxes over the next few months to clear a lot of it out. Ohhhh. . .noooo." Josette shakes her head and quickly heads off after bellowing for David to open a tesseract to the ships.

 

"Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuck." Josette mumbles on one of the ships. Looking behind her she finds Clark and Superhero Doc coming in for a landing. She figured somebody would be coming soon after David opened the tesseract for her. These two were able to travel the fastest.

 

"They're boxes." She holds up an item the size of a matchbox car.

 

"Oh dear lord." Clark sighs. There must be thousands in the boxes around her.

 

"How would you keep from losing them?"

 

"More importantly, are they full?"

 

"In answer. . ." Josette puts the box in front of her. "Grow." It resumes normal size. "Empty." She yelps and jumps back as things shoot out of the box.

 

"Shit, they hold even more than the others." She says after everything is out.

 

"Fill." It all disappears again.

 

"How did you know?" Superhero asks after Josette climbs off of the boxes she'd jumped onto in a nearby room.

 

"I found the schematics in the files I was looking through. . .but I didn't realize what they were until I was telling Principal Madison and President Bartlett I'd be putting some of this. . ." she waves a hand at the hall of rooms full of boxes. "Stuff in boxes. Then my tired brain kicked my ass and I realized what I'd been reading about. And went looking."

 

"I'll tell the others and we'll keep looking to see if we find any more, Josette." Ulonda says. "Though they can't have had many of them, they. . ."

 

"wouldn't have boxes stacked everywhere otherwise." Josette sighs. Superhero picks her up and flies her to the dorm with Clark. the others are waiting when she returns.

 

"I found boxes. . .thousands of them. All full. . .shrunk to the size of a matchbox toy." Josette says as she gets to her feet.

 

"Oh dear god." Principal Madison moans.

 

"And they hold even more than the ones we have now." She find the schematics and sends them to PADDS. "I was looking at this on the trip home but I was so tired from . . ." She waves a hand and the others nod. "I didn't even realize what I was reading until I said I'd start putting stuff in boxes. The ships are going to see if they can find any more but they must not have been able to make more otherwise. . ."

 

"they wouldn't have had stuff sitting everywhere." Doc says.

 

"Exactly, probably the person who knew how to make them died from working extremely long hours on the line."

 

Marilyn moans. "Well, that would handle taking care of supplies on a ship."

 

"Yes, you could have hundreds in an underbed drawer but it would be a bitch trying to remember which one held what. Let alone dealing with the packaging. . .including shipping containers and pallets if they were put in like that." Josette drawls, settling down on the couch and getting a lapful of cats. If Josette is quieter than normal during the Lights Festival everybody knows why and they pat her on the shoulder, hug her, or otherwise try to comfort her. She sends off pictures of the latest 'hot fabric' and snickers when she can almost hear the complaints.

 

"That is awful." Agatha says at the picture when she finds her at a table.

 

"Yes, I told Ellis at least it could be dyed. Or I can even toss it in a replicator and remake it in a more neutral color."

 

"That's the only thing that could be done with that monstrosity." Frances shudders. Pat looks over at them and they show her the picture.

 

"Oh dear god. . .I thought our fabric was bad."

 

"Yeah, depending on how thick the fabric is. . ."

 

"Backing for quilts. Yes, I had the same idea. Lighter stuff can be shirts and whatnot."

 

Josette slides into her usual seat the first meeting of the next year. She's the last one in.

 

"Sorry I'm late, I got a message from Vinetta about a book tour as I was getting ready to leave."

 

"You've been expecting it."

 

"Yes."

 

"Did the information on the other boxes get sent back to the other dimension?"

 

"Yes, and we got a bubbling thank you. They didn't know they could be made smaller and hold more stuff. This will really revolutionize shipping."

 

"As long as the damn boxes don't get lost shrunk that small." David mutters. The others nod. "Four more years, 150 years married." David looks over at Josette and smirks.

 

"Yep, and sometimes I still wonder why." She smirks back. "Oh. . .expect some rolling eyes and muttering about idiots from Granda in a couple databursts. Some asshole in the government is complaining."

 

"Because we didn't build government buildings, it's beneath him to have government business in a board room at a law office?"

 

"Nope, we didn't keep exacting records in the beginning. . .example I'm turning 166 but I was only 38 when we came up and it's only year 121 by our records. Oh yeah, and our hundredth anniversary was in year 94 by our calendar." Rolled eyes from Principal Madison and President Bartlett. "Oh, he's one of those old fools who has to have everything written down in triplicate every day and exacting records must be kept."

 

"Well, we were a little busy starting our colony to keep records on our colony." President Bartlett drawls.

 

"Well, that was no excuse." Josette mock-huffs. "Yes, even his own people told him to go blow it out his ass. . .we'd had better things to do. He's one of those miserable people who nitpick everything and that will bring up something that annoyed him ten years ago to complain about. Of course the idea that we have more than one planet and more than one calendar is giving him conniption fits."

 

"Good riddance to him then." President Bartlett snorts. "Is everything open now?"

 

"Yes, I was bringing out supplies before the Lights Festival and Pat says we're good for at least a year at the clothes factory. I figure that will be open at least two years to get stocks in on everything again." Nods from the others. "The knitting facility and the shoes will close as soon as we get everything in. Probably the end of the year but if it goes into next year nothing will go to waste."

 

"Printers?"

 

"I figured on next year with everybody busy with the other factories." Nods from the three older men. "I've got ten books finished. ..two of them are in the editing stage though. Another year will put me at around sixteen. I figure it will be four years to get this batch of books printed, some of the others are nowhere near done. of course by that time the damn bunny will drop more books on me." Everybody sniggers.

 

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