Pesabro sat by the bed of his friend, while his other friend dozed lightly in the chair beside them.

He worried. Of course he worried. He shouldn’t have to worry anymore. Neither should Enti. They were citizens, damn it, and even if they hadn’t successfully passed their tests, they were Class One Sentient Beings. That was the law.

At least, that was what they said. But the peacekeepers had done as the clerk had done – refused to even acknowledge him or Enti. And when Terta had spoken up, had insisted that Enti had nearly been murdered….

Well, they’d left before the peacekeeper made good on her threat to arrest Terta for obstruction. But they’d been tailed home.

He worried about Terta almost more than he worried about himself and Enti. When Terta had found them, living in the closet of her college apartment, hiding and scavenging, she’d been rather shocked, and slightly amused.

That amusement had dissipated, though, the longer she knew them. She had come to understand what they’d tried to tell her – that they were people. And as the Zeramblin Bill made its way through the legislature, she’d done everything she could to make sure that he and Enti were able to become citizens when it passed. She’d taught them to read, then found them study guides for the citizenship test, then studied with them for the test. And then she reached out to others with human pets – which hadn’t gone over well with many. But a few had seen what Terta had seen, and they had brought their pets to Enti and him to learn. They weren’t great teachers, but they did their best, and of the eleven pets who had taken the test, three had passed, and three more were very close, and could probably pass soon. The other five had farther to go – but none of them had failed to learn.

This wasn’t Terta’s fight, and yet she’d fought it, quietly. And when the Zeramblin Act passed, they’d celebrated, and waited for their documents to come, and when they didn’t, Terta said she would go with them to make sure they got them.

And now…well, when he and Enti had run away from the pet shop, they’d known they were risking their lives. They’d accepted it. But he hated that they had to bring their friend into it. He hated that now she had to fear…..

There was a knock at the door, and Terta sat bolt upright.

“Oh, Gods,” she whispered. “Pesa….”

He shook his head, though he kept an eye on the door. He wasn’t going to abandon Terta, even if he couldn’t help much. Enti had been awoken, and she, too, looked at the door in fear; she squeezed Pesa’s hand for strength, but she wasn’t going anywhere, either.

They’d agreed the night they’d run that they would live or die together. They didn’t need to talk to each other to know they had both added Terta to that list during the time they’d known her– and that Terta felt the same way.

As for Terta, she lifted a non-lethal, quasi-legal electric shock weapon from her purse, and quietly walked to the door, hitting a button that activated the external camera.

She gasped at what she saw. There were two rather rough-looking people outside, one male, one female, but they were not what drew her attention. It was the man in the centre, standing patiently, looking at the door with his bionic eyes, which glowed with a soft purple light. His face was scarred, but she knew it immediately. It wasn’t that she knew him, she didn’t – but she’d seen him dozens of times on the news.

“Oh, dear Emperor,” Terta said, opening the door.

“I assume you looked at the video screen first,” the man said as he strode into the room, artificial larynx buzzing slightly. “You seem too intelligent not to have.”

Terta lifted the stun weapon, and nodded. The man smiled.

“Smart girl. I assume the woman who was assaulted is here, too?”

“Yes…yes, Councillor Temis. Over there.”

Palsa Temis walked over to the table, and knelt down next to the two humans. His billboard-sized face was riven with scars on its left side, even with the replacement skin that had been used to close his wounds. His nose was crooked, and if you knew nothing about the man who stood there, you might have been frightened. Indeed, there were many people who would be precisely because they knew him.

“Councillor Temis…it’s an honour,” Pesabro said. “I’m Pesabro Jae, and this is my friend, Enti Jae.”

“The honour is mine, and I regret that we do not have longer to talk right now. But I am afraid that we need to move, and right quick. The Black Block is coming.”

Terta blanched white. “How…how do you….”

“There will be time to explain on the way. Grab a change of clothes and your credits. Leave your pad here. Quickly.”

“But…shouldn’t we call the peacekeepers?”

Temis smiled tightly. “As I said, they’re coming – at least, a few of them are. Peacekeeper Oiane, the one you talked to at the station? She’s the leader of the local clade. Now, hurry.”

As Terta ran to her room, Palsa Temis knelt down next to the two humans. “I am sorry,” he said, as the rough-looking woman brought him a small cage, “it is hardly appropriate for two citizens of the Empire. But I did not have time to dither.”

“I won’t say we like it,” Enti said, sitting up on her cot, “but…well, we’ve just met, Councillor, but I have been following you. Know if I ever do get a vote, I’ll be honoured to cast it for you.”

Palsa smiled. “Ms. Jae, know that I would do this even if you intended to vote against me. Life is precious. If I can save some along the way, well…ain’t got a choice, do I?”

“I have a bag, and some credits,” Terta said. “Are you sure I can’t call my parents….”

“Yes,” Temis said. “Quite. Let’s go. We have about five minutes.”

About five minutes later, a peacekeeper violated her oath, and opened the door to the apartment to five members of the Black Block. They planned to assault Terta – not kill her, she was a Titan, after all, but teach her a lesson about messing with the way things were.

The non-Titans…well, they would not have survived what the Black Block had planned. But fortunately, the three Imperial citizens they had targeted were already in a small aircraft bound for Nuvotuaut.

****

“We’ve been over this Moze.” Alesia said as she carefully unpacked her suitcase into the plastic, pre-fab chest of drawers beside her plastic pre-fab bed frame that sat in her two bedroom pre-fab apartment in the Tau Ceti colony’s rapidly growing maiden city.

“And I still don’t see why we can’t live together!” Moze paced in the living area outside the bedroom.

“It would be lovely to live together but that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to help look after the millions of helpless people who are about to be dropped on this planet. If we live together then we deny two scared individuals the direct support and mentoring they’ll require to get them through this.”

“You’ve said this before and I know it sounds selfish but I don’t see why we can’t mentor during the day and come home to each other at night.” He sighed. They were arguing in circles. They’d been having the same discussion for a week now.

“You of all people should know Moze! The time when people need the most support, when they need someone to be there for them is when it’s night, it’s dark and they’re sitting in their beds alone feeling as if the universe is about to swallow them up!”

Alesia pushed the drawers closed and zipped up her empty suitcase and carried it out of her room and across the living room to the storage closet.

“Can’t you put these two with someone else!?”

“No I can’t! There’s no one else!” Alesia replied clearly frustrated.

“There has to be something you can do! You’re in charge here Alesia.”

“I’ve already put us in the same building! I’ve already made sure that I get a female and you get a male! I’ve put us both in one to one groups rather than in the larger groups where we could both do more good! I don’t know what more you want from me Moze!”

“I want to be together Alesia!” He said almost tripping on his own words. He sat on the sofa and rubbed his eyes with his hands.

Alesia slowly walked to the sofa and sat down beside the man she loved and put her arm round him. The light in the room dropped momentarily as an enormous figure walked past their apartment building carrying an entire apartment floor along the wide city streets.

“I want to be together too Moze, and we’ll still see each other a lot. We’re still in the same groups and living in the same building…”

“It’s not enough though. I want us to be together as husband and wife. To have a family together.” Moze sat up and stared into her eyes.

“I do too.” She said and gently stroked his face. “We just have to wait a little longer.”

Moze exhaled deeply and stood up, pacing in front of the long row of windows across the front of the living room. “You always say that. You always say we have to wait! I’ve been waiting for two decades Alesia! I don’t know how much longer I can wait!”

“Moze, what…what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I love you Alesia! I’ve loved you since the moment you stepped into my cage. You say you love me and rush in and out of my life, back and forth between Archavia and Avalon, giving me hope for a life with you and tell me it’ll just be a little longer, it’s torture. You removed me from that cage on Titan Station just to leave me in another while I wait for you…I’m not sure how much longer I can do it.”

“Moze…I…”

“Hey folks, getting settled in ok?” a loud voice said rattling the windows a little.

Moze turned to see the top half of the face of Sorcha Freeman staring in through the window of Alesia’s twelfth floor apartment and felt his heart ache a bit more.

“And there’s always Sorcha! She always needs you for something! Or wants you to go somewhere or has some crisis! Never mind humanity! How can we be together when you two can’t be apart?”

“I’m going for a walk!” Moze said storming off towards the door.

Alesia called after him but he didn’t stop. As he slammed the door she turned around a looked out the window to see her friend looking in concerned.

“What was that about?” Sorcha asked.

Alesia walked to the window and slid it open enough to poke her head out.

“Moze is upset.” She said. “He stormed off.”

“That’s not good. Want me to grab him when he comes out and hand him through the window?” Sorcha said.

Alesia wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.

“No, no. I think that’d just make things worse. Besides, this is as far as the windows open anyway. It’d be messy getting him in here.” She joked back.

“We couldn’t afford windows that open any wider?” Sorcha said hoping to distract her friend.

Alesia shook her head. “It was more expensive to make them this way. Suicide prevention…”

“Well that’s grim.”

“A grim necessity.” Alesia reminded.

“I suppose you’re right. Want to tell me why Moze is so upset?” Sorcha asked.

“He wants to move in together…start a family…” Alesia sighed.

Sorcha’s face scrunched. “I thought you two were a done deal? Why all the drama?”

“Because we can’t move in together!” Alesia slumped against the window. “And that pretty much rules out a family any time soon as well.”

“Sorry Lessy, I’m not sure I’m following you. Why can’t you move in together? Your apartment looks big enough.”

“Because I’ll be mentoring someone. He’ll be mentoring someone. There are already married Avalonians who are agreeing to live separately to help support the refugees. What sort of message does it send if I move my boyfriend in?” Alesia replied.

Sorcha grimaced.

“I see your point…”

“Where do you want these boss?” Joseph, who was carrying a stack of residential units, said interrupting the conversation.

“There’s a crew working at the top of Nineteenth Street. Stick with them until they’re done.” Sorcha replied. She spotted his shorter colleague looking worryingly overloaded with a stack of residential units. “And no more than two units at a time from now on. I don’t care how many trips it takes. We can’t afford any being dropped. Understood?”

“Yes boss…” Both men replied and headed off up the streets looking slightly sheepish.

“How’s the city coming along anyway?” Alesia asked deliberately shifting the subject.

“Good, I think. “ Sorcha said. “We’ve got around nine hundred twelve storey apartment units placed. So nearly half way ready. We’ll probably still be putting them in place when the first few groups are getting settled but I don’t think the heavy lifters will really be needed until we get the bigger numbers in.”

Alesia whistled and looked across the skyline of the sprawling city. “We’ll need bigger units.”

Sorcha nodded. “Yeah, we’ll try to get some lifting equipment in after the initial build is completed. The city is fairly sizeable as it is and we’re not even near a percentage point of how many people we have to accommodate long term. We’ll need to go higher and use bigger units. But the budget is tighter gnat’s chuff…”

“Ew…”

“Sorry.”

“Well I’m glad I don’t have your job…” Alesia replied.

“Tell me about…” Sorcha said and stopped mid-sentence as she saw something that both terrified and enraged her at the same time. “Seriously!?” She shouted and stormed down the street. “How many times have I said to all of you not to cut corners?”

Sorcha lifted the top four units from the stack of six the diminutive Myrell was carrying.

“It’s ok,” Myrell said “I can carry them.”

“Not a chance. Two units if you’re a Titan and four if you’re a hybrid. How many times have I said that?” Sorcha said exasperated.

“Sorry boss…” Myrell blinked her pink eyes.

Sorcha sighed. “It’s fine. I know we all want to keep on schedule but we can’t afford breakages. Even with the gravity dampeners these are heavy and we don’t want you hurting yourself. Please be care ok?”

“Sure boss.” Myrell smiled.

“Sorry Lessy, can we pick this up later?” Sorcha said returning to her friend.

“Yeah no problem. I’ve plenty to do as well.” Alesia replied.

“I promise we’ll talk.” Sorcha said and headed down the road.

Alesia watched her friend walk away feeling a slight queasy sensation. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The future of her species and the future of her relationship. On top of that, that was the closest she’d had to a meaningful conversation since the incident in the holosuite.

“You ok Alesia? You look sad.”

“Oh hey Myrell…yeah I’m ok…” Alesia replied.

“I can tell something’s weighing on you. Why don’t you vent to me a bit?”

“Are you sure? I mean, you’re carrying two apartment floors, they must be heavy.” Alesia said.

Myrell smiled and shook her head. “These things? They’re not that heavy. Mostly air. Besides, I’m used to lugging big boxes of feed around. These are nothing. Go ahead, vent.”

And Alesia did vent. She didn’t want to. She didn’t know the pink haired, smiley woman that well but there was just too much going on inside to hold in.

“It’ll be fine.” Myrell said waving her hand. “Though I think Moze is right. You met what? Nearly two Human decades ago. Hells, you’ve been official for two years. Most people are moving in together by that point.”

“We just can’t. There’s so much happening. This is huge! The biggest thing we’ll ever do!” Alesia’s voice strained.

“You’re right. It is. But you’ve put your life on hold to work with vulnerable people on Avalon. And then you branched out on your own and built an entire system for rehabilitating people into society. You ran an entire world’s education system and helped thousands of people get their lives back. And now you’re putting your life on hold again for this.” Myrell looked into the worried woman’s eyes. “You’re over fifteen years old. Probably over thirty physically. You’re the first generation of extended Humans. Who knows who long you’ll be fertile for?”

“I know this Myrell! It keeps me up at night!”

“So move in together.” Myrell held her hand up to block any interruption. “After this group is finished. They will be mentoring the next group and it frees you up to move on with your life a little.”

“That’s not all of it though…do I really want to raise a child here?” Alesia said.

Myrell shrugged. “You’re about to unleash millions of people with a new found freedom and responsibilities. I’d think you’re going to have lots of babies on our hands soon enough. They’ll need schools and teachers and I imagine if you have anything to do with it they’ll be the best in the Empire.”

Alesia smiled.

“And it’s a good spot.” Myrell continued. “Not far from Earth. Close to Avalon. A whole new world to explore and a whole new civilisation to help grow. Your kids could be movers and shakers here. I can’t think of many places better to start a family!”

Alesia nodded slowly. “You may be right.”

“I occasionally am.”

“Thanks Myrell…I think…I think that could work. And Moze could agree to it.” Alesia said.

“Excellent! Just promise me I get to name your first born.”

“No deal.” Alesia smiled.

“Moze will let me when he hears I talked you round!” Myrell grinned. “Now I better get back to it.”

“Yeah I probably should as well. Thanks for helping. I really appreciate it.” Alesia said.

“Any time roomie!” Myrell said and skipped off down the road with two apartment floors in her grip.

Alesia’s brow furrowed as she watched the small Titan skip away. It wasn’t how easily she seemed to carry two whole apartment floors containing a couple of two bedroom apartments but also the manner of her movements. She hadn’t noticed it when they first met but she had noticed it in the week or so they lived together. “There’s something very odd about that girl…”

****

“Do you have a spare locking arm?” Sorcha said to Joseph who was working on digging out a hole in the ground two units down from the residential tower Sorcha was building.

He was prepping the ground in order to receive the base unit for the residential tower that would sit there. He would need to dig a hole as deep as his forearm and half a unit by half a unit to contain the modular base and lower it into position and secure it to its neighbours before and Avalonian crew would connect the utilities.

“Sure,” he said pausing for a moment to hand Sorcha the shining metal tool. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Sorcha replied.

She started to carefully work the locking mechanisms into place using the locking arm, securing two residential units together. It was delicate work. Overdo it and the locks would snap and ruin the unit. Underdo it and the unit would be loose and could potentially come free in a high wind or tremor. She gently eased each lock into position, this set wasn’t too tricky at least being just above her eye level. The bottom and the top were the worst. Both were awkward to reach and hard to see. It resulted in accidents and units being written off which the colony could ill afford.

Happy all locks were secure Sorcha crouched down several floors until she spotted the Avalonian crew, she tapped the window and gave them a thumbs up to tell them the next floor was on and ready to be set up.

“You spent a bit of time on Earth didn’t you?” Joseph asked.

Sorcha knelt down and started to prep the floor of the town for installation. “Yeah, begrudgingly. Just after first contact.”

“Begrudgingly?” Joseph raised a brow and then tossed a shovel full of dirt over his shoulder. “I thought you’d have been applying for citizenship.”

“I didn’t have to. The Irish European Authority gave me European Citizenship due to being the daughter of a British/Irish citizen.” Sorcha replied as she gently removed the safety latches from the next floor to be installed.

“And the begrudgingly part?”

“My Dad said he wouldn’t go back to Earth until he was a citizen of the Empire, he wouldn’t lie to the people there. I wanted to support him on that but I was given community service helping setup the embassy on Earth.” Sorcha said.

“Given community service?” Joseph asked.

“Yeah, yeah. The one time I do something right I get punished! Though it’s not like it was a bad punishment so I’m not going to complain…” Sorcha grumbled.

“What do you mean something right?”

Sorcha rolled her eyes. She was trying to focus on her work and didn’t want the distraction.

“We don’t have to talk about it!” Joseph protested. “I’m just trying to make conversation.”

“No, no. It’s fine.” She said. “During the Titan Station debacle I beat up a bunch of guards while protecting some Humans. I may have also punched my uncle. Going to judge me now?”

“No way. If I was there I probably would have busted up a good lot of them. They got off easy with you. You did good there.”

“Heh…” Sorcha smiled. “Thanks. I didn’t expect that.”

“So how was Earth then?” Joseph said getting back to his original question.

Sorcha looked up and shrugged. “I stayed in the Embassy mostly. Didn’t want to break my promise to my Dad but he insisted I go see Iceland for him. He always wanted to go. And it’s not like I just go for a wander!”

Joseph laughed and wiped some sweat from his brow. “So did you go?”

“Yeah, just to Reykjavik at first. But I got invited back for a holographic tour of the country.” Sorcha said continuing to prep the final floor of the residential building.

“Nice. What was it like?” Joseph asked and stopped digging. He had finished his hole and decided to take a breather before lugging the base into position. It would probably be two man job anyway.

“Pretty stunning…” Sorcha said finishing her own task “It looked a lot like Jutuneim actually. Rugged, icy terrain, mountains, glaciers and frozen waterfalls. That sort of thing. Really cold as well. And I say that as someone who grew up in Tannhauser. There’s a few countries like that in Northern Europe; Norway, Sweden and Finland.”

“No wonder that’s where the Jotunn chose to set up their camps when they visited Earth before the red line went up. It probably felt like home to them.”

“If you ever go to Earth I’d recommend visiting. Though take a jumper. It’s cold even as a hologram.” Sorcha smiled and grabbed the sides of the last residential unit and lugged it skywards.

She stood and carefully raised the final floor over her head and positioned herself in front of the tower. A few of the Avalonian technicians working nearby stopped what they were doing and decided to watch. It was always a sight to behold watching a person over one hundred and forty feet tall lift a fifty tonne building piece and drop it onto a towering structure.

Sorcha lined up the edges of the final floor with the guide rails on the top of the building and eased it forward.

“Frak…” Sorcha said missing the guide rails and started her second attempt.

The second time wasn’t as close to the first as her arms started to shake from holding the heavy object at an odd angle over her head.

“Here…” Joseph said stepping beside her. “Let me do it.”

“I got this…” Sorcha protested with a slight strain.

“No you don’t; it’s shaking. You always say to ask for help so you don’t drop anything. I’m taller, let me do it.”

“You’re only a twentieth of a unit taller…” Sorcha said before her arms dropped a little and she refocused.

Joseph put his hands firmly on the side of the unit, getting a little too close to Sorcha’s personal space for comfort. “Relax, I do this for Myrell all the time. “ He said as he carefully guided the unit onto the guide rails and slid it into place. “There…all done.”

“I had it.” Sorcha said taking a step back trying to hide her laboured breathing. “I’ve done it plenty of times.”

Joseph shrugged. “Suit yourself. They’re heavy, even for us. I give the other Titan men a hand with the last floor too. And usually the last few for Myrell.”

“Yeah well I’m not Myrell. I’m a big girl.”

“Ok then big girl,” Joseph grinned. “Help me get this base unit into position.”

Sorcha let out a long breath and decided to stop trying to hide her exhaustion. “Fine! Just give me a minute!”

“No problem your worship, I’ll just secure this for you.” Joseph smiled feeling quite pleased with himself.

“Oh leave it out you scruffy looking nerf herder.” Sorcha fired back.

“Scruffy looking!?”