Chapter Seven: The Other Half

Chapter Seven: The Other Half

The tour of the Expo continued, the second day showing them some of the older technology involved. Hugh learned a few things he didn’t know about grafting, about preserving the fruits his orchard turned out.

“This is the oldest jar of honey in the world.” Leonardo told them. “It was found in the vaults of an Egyptian King, several thousand years old… And it’s still good. Honey is the only food in the world with no known expiration date. Our people are trying to isolate why, in the hopes of transferring that particular gift to other foods. In the meantime, this jar will never be eaten. It’s possible there is some upper limit to how long honey can last, and if there is, we’ll find out what it is, and we'll find out first!”

~~/*\~~

The Expo had all sorts of displays for largely forgotten skills, such as making candles and grinding flour by windmill.

“This mill was one of the oldest in western Europe. It survived A-Day, and was brought over here, piece by piece, specifically for the Expo. It has been running for hundreds of years and is still in full working order. We’ll take you through the construction and design of the structure next.”

~~/*\~~

After the Guided Tour, there were the seminars. Various people from the Expo were in attendance to tell them stories about how things worked in their time. Everything from spinning silk cloth to running woodworking lathes on wind power.

“My name is Asher.” The next speaker said grandly. “When I was last alive, I was what your people would call a Stone Mason for King Khufu; what the common language now calls a Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt. I worked for his Chief Architect Hemiunu , who designed the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was, until the modern age, the largest structure ever built by man… But less impressive than its size was its longevity. It lasted more that four thousand years, right up until A-Day, when all the tombs and temples were torn down, even the elaborate ones.” The man gestured over to the screen. “I’d like to show you what some of my people are working on here, because in a lot of ways, stonework is still the most durable form of construction we have, at least for now. A little later, we’ll be showing you some of the structures we’re building using these old materials and techniques, as well as some of the ways these buildings will be maintained, without a constant need for human assistance.”

In the audience, Kasumi nudged Hugh. “Look who just came in.”

Hugh looked. Nick had arrived in the doorway, looking pretty pleased with himself. Nick gestured for Hugh to follow, and headed back outside. Hugh and Kasumi traded a look and quietly slipped out to go after him.

~~/*\~~

“Where have you been all day?” Hugh asked, but his brother was at the edge of the street, attention on something else.

“Hugh, check this out.” Nick commented. He was bent low, down at the base of the tram. “Look at these tracks.”

Hugh knelt down to look. “There aren’t any tracks. Just this narrow gap.” He pulled out a pen and probed the gap a little. “They’re narrower than I thought… And they go at least a foot deep.”

“14.3 centimeters, to be precise.” A voice commented.

The Alman brothers turned to see a woman in a jumpsuit come over. Clipboard under her arm. “You look familiar.” She said to Hugh.

Hugh studied her face a moment. She had distinctive silver hair... “Actually, so do you.” He searched his better-than-ever memory. “Yes! We met once, over a century ago. I remember, because it was the day I came back. You were telling me about the Screen I had just been gifted.”

“Ahh yes, in New Paris.” She agreed. “To explain the tracks, I should tell you that they aren’t tracks, exactly. The gap underneath works on the same principle of Japan’s high speed rail network. Instead of moving parts that wear out every few years, the tram is held in place magnetically. The narrow gap is because the magnet on the tram widens beneath the surface of the road, making derailment impossible. No moving parts, no metal running on metal, and as a result, the tram will maintain peak efficiency for many, many years to come.”

“Also means you have to dig up the street to lay the tram-lines, rather than just lay tracks over the top.” Nick observed.

She smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. “We’ve got a whole other timeline to work on, so we have to find methods of development and construction that will let things work like new for centuries instead of decades.” She gestured at one of the streetlights. “There were people in OS that could make a living by just going back and forth, changing lightbulbs as they burned out. But if you change the bulbs with something a little smarter, you can save yourself a lot of time and expense in the long term.”

Nick smirked, despite himself. “And we all have to think long term now.”

Hugh didn’t answer out loud, but inside he declared victory.

Nick was still going. “Here’s the part I don’t get. The towns have power sources with the turbines, and most homes have power sources from Solar panels, but does that do enough? To have a high-speed railway be worth any of the effort, you’d need it to be a mass transit system. This is the sort of thing you build between cities.”

“He's right about that.” Kasumi nodded.

“You’d need to cover the whole thing over.” Hugh added. “You lay one of these tracks between two towns, and dirt gets down the gap? How would you clean this out?”

“That’s why we need the Fair.” Rachel nodded. “I’m working on Mass Transit, but that needs work. One team figures out construction; another team is working on power generation, and we all bounce ideas off each other, work out some things as a team.” She looked over Nick again, eyes flicking across the signs of age. “You guys feel like lunch?”

~~/*\~~

There was a Lunch Room, but it wasn’t a huge communal space like most places. Instead, there was a buffet in the center of the room, and plenty of small tables.

“This town has a very… flexible schedule.” Rachel excused. “You put some smart people onto a project they care about, and you’d be amazed how many of us would rather work than sleep. We have regular morning worship, and the rest of the time we basically eat when we notice hunger and sleep when we notice we’re tired. See the circular tables? You’ll always find at least one team eating at odd hours and covering a table in screens or notepads.”

Nick grinned. “I’m exactly the same way.”

The four of them got food, and sat down, while Rachel told her story. “When OS was coming to an end, there were some places where Renewables were nearly 100% of the power they used.” Rachel grinned. “That was my job back then, figuring out ways to improve Solar Power retention. A job that I considered an almost spiritual quest. I knew the numbers. The world was coming to an end, and nobody who could do anything about it seemed to care. I worked with a lot of climatologists. From the start, their findings were watered down to make them more acceptable to people who didn’t want to hear the truth. It made me want to scream. The world hated hearing the truth, and bent over backwards to stop anyone from speaking it.”

Nick nodded. “My brother said the same thing.”

She nodded. “It was obvious that nobody was going to fix the problem, so I switched my major to get into engineering. I wanted to innovate the world out of trouble. I figured if the world was willing to let everything die in the name of a little more money, then finding a way to save cash and do good was the only way to save the world from total collapse.” She took a sip of coffee. “It was a disaster.”

Kasumi was surprised. “You couldn’t crack it?”

“Of course we cracked it.” Rachel waved that off. “We had all sorts of ideas to make the solutions we had even better, but even the ones we had already would have worked. But we couldn’t get anyone who mattered to make use of any of them. We could have solved the world’s climate problems in less than five years, but all the money went in the opposite direction. So we had to get the money ourselves, and then it just got ridiculous. You know they sought court orders just to stop us trying? Not only would the people running the world refuse to do anything to help the problem, they’d refuse to let anyone else even try to fix things either. Allowing someone to try and fix the world would have been an admission that there was a problem.”

Hugh shook his head. “I don’t get it. I mean, I've seen the records, and I've heard this story told a hundred times, but I just can't comprehend that kind of... deliberate ignorance.”

“Neither did anyone not working for an Oil or Coal company.” Rachel shook her head briefly. “They could see that if the world went to renewables, then they’d have to settle for the hundreds of billions they already had, instead of the tens of billions they might still get as well. So they shut us down. I had a great team full of people who were eager to save the world and knowing exactly how to do it. But we all had to eat, and that was the end of it.”

Nick made a snort of disgust.

“I was about ready to give up.” Rachel admitted. “And that was hard for me. I saw the world in danger and I knew I could help, and back there and back then, it seemed like the only hope of every living thing. And nobody cared. In a lot of ways, I identified with the Witnesses long before I met any.” Rachel looked around with a smile. “I never had any problem believing in God. I knew enough about the incredible… intricacy of creation to know it couldn't be an accident. My teacher thought that to give God credit for the universe was the height of arrogance on the part of religious people. He said the Law of Big Numbers proved God was a lie.”

“What did you think?” Kasumi asked.

“I thought that the Law of Big Numbers said that if I put a load of washing in the dryer often enough, then one day it would all came out perfectly folded, pressed and stacked. But that thought seemed laughable to me. My problem was never with God, but I couldn’t believe half the things that the churches were telling me. Predestination. Hellfire. Transubstantiation? All seemed like such a joke. Then one day I get a knock at the door, and the Witnesses were there. It was one of the lowest points in my life. I had given up on my job, I was… I was giving up on the future. About earth itself. I just didn’t see any reason for… hope.” She shrugged. “Whatever else there was to say about Witnesses, and believe me, the world had plenty to say: They were hopeful. They were so full of hope that I actually felt too cynical to be part of them for a while.”

“But obviously you got over it.” Hugh observed.

“Barely. I was an Eleventh Hour Witness.” Rachel nodded. “I got close, let me tell you. A few more weeks, and it would have been too late. But I couldn’t be happier. For the first time, the Future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.”

Nick smiled broadly at her. Kasumi nudged Hugh when she saw his expression, and he nudged her back. He saw it too.

Rachel remembered himself. “But anyway, that’s my story, and you had questions about the railway. First of all, we had all sorts of innovations for Solar back in the day. Solar panels that are completely transparent, panels that are completely flexible, panels that are self-repairing… And that’s not even counting the train itself.”

“Right. Put a few turbines on the train, and you can generate plenty of juice just from the motion.” Nick nodded.

“That was our thought too.” Rachel nodded. “We were also looking into using the tracks themselves. Like you said, motion is power. If you can figure out how to harness it.”

Nick leaned back in his chair. “And you have that idea?”

“There are many.” Rachel excused. “There are no small number of people who want to get their heads together on stuff a lot more basic first.”

“What do you mean, 'basic'?” Kasumi asked.

“Take an expert in any field of science.” Rachel explained. “Probably any field at all. Find the leading expert. I'll give you a hint. You won't find him or her. You know why? Because you put three experts in a room and ask a question, you'll get five answers.”

“They don't agree with each other.”

“Never do.” Rachel agreed. “Pride, for one. Funding for another. But mostly, it's the fact that they're all taught to think a certain way, and most ways to prove any new theory are hard to come by.” She sipped. “I'll give you one of the most modern examples. A man named Peter Higgs was one of a team of scientists that came up with a downright brilliant theory on how the universe was constructed. He came up with it in 1964. The way to prove it was to build a huge piece of equipment called a Superconducting Supercollider. And it was expensive. The scientific community spent years trying to make it a reality, because they would be able to learn more about the universe in ten minutes than in all the history of physics put together before that.”

“But the only word anyone ever heard was 'expensive'.” Hugh guessed.

“They got laughed out of every room they tried to sell the plan to.” Rachel nodded. “They finally got it built, and proved Higgs was right. In 2015.”

Nick let out a whistle. “Fifty years is a long time to hope you're right about your life's work.”

“It is.” Rachel agreed. “The guy I was living with at the time... He was there, the day of the announcement. He said there wasn't a dry eye in the house. But it made him so mad, because he knew that if they were offering something that could blow a country off the map, they would have gotten the funding right away.”

All three of them snorted, certain she were right.

“Now, if that was today, then they could have gotten the funding themselves if they had to. Put away pennies over a thousand years...” Rachel smiled a little. “There's a lot of professional rivalries and hatreds being put aside at last. We finally get a chance to do some actual study of the world around us, without money, or ego, or office politics getting in the way. We've sorted out more question marks in the last hundred years than we ever could have done in the Old Days.”

“So you figure before we get into building a sci-fi future, we can actually agree on what the facts are first?” Nick chuckled.

“Peter Higgs was lucky. He was able to see his life's work vindicated in his own lifetime. Not all researchers were so lucky.” Rachel toasted. “My own ministry involves telling 'academics' out of the Dark Ages that the earth does indeed go around the sun, and that a woman can indeed have an education.” She grinned. “They have an easier time with A-Day.”

“My brother’s fascination with the future comes from the old Flash Gordon movies.” Hugh put in. “His dream is space travel.”

“We aren’t even close to that.” Rachel nodded. “Just between us, there’s a lot of us looking into that one. The fact is, to get any further than Mars, we need a whole other kind of technology. Solar radiation and such would have been fatal in the Old Days, and nobody’s quite sure if that sort of thing is covered by ‘perfect health’. But unless we figure out something downright Sci-Fi, then it’d still take a century to get to the next star over. Plus a hundred years back, if we don’t find anything there worth staying for. Easily doable for us now, but no human machine ever made has operated that long without someone going out and getting a whole lot of spare parts, or putting it in the shop for serious repairs.” She gestured back toward the door. “You’ve heard them talking about thinking long term, but that doesn’t even come close to saying it. If we’re going to have technology of any kind, we have to redefine what words like ‘technology’ and ‘useful’ even mean.”

“A big job, but I bet the people to do it are here.” Nick said with a grin. “And if they aren’t, they’ll be returned sooner or later, won’t they? Even if it takes a thousand years.”

Rachel looked at him sideways, and for the first time, her impression showed on her face. She took in Nick’s graying hair, the lines around his eyes… He looked old enough to be her father, but she was his senior by a few centuries. And there was only one reason why anyone would look older than the standard. “Y'know, you look like one of the guys who shut me down back in the old days, but you talk like one of us here at the Expo.”

Nick actually looked embarrassed. “Um… Well, I only just prayed last night. Dedication, I mean. Late to the party, I know.”

Kasumi jerked in her seat and Hugh felt his heart stop. “You what?!”

Nick flushed. “I was going to tell you, but-”

Hugh practically dove across the table and wrapped his brother in a tight hug. “You did it!”

“I did it.” Nick whispered back. “I’m sorry I took so long. I should have done the right thing years ago.”

“I don’t care. Close only counts with hand grenades, bro.” Hugh hugged him tightly. “Believe me, time is on our side now.”

Kasumi had tears in her eyes. She had just seen someone gain Eternal Life. So had Rachel Bridger, and she was having a similar reaction. She didn’t know this family, but she knew what she’d seen, and she felt the same joy that all brothers and sisters felt at this moment, even if she’d never met them before.

Kasumi wiped her eyes. Welcome to the family, little brother.

~~/*\~~

Their Tour was ending, and everyone was packing to return home. Hugh and Nick had spent most of the day together, comparing notes on all the things they had learned. They planned to come back, but there had been a lot of ground to cover, and Nick had missed almost a full day of it. But after a while, Hugh couldn’t help himself.

“What changed your mind, Nick?” Hugh asked suddenly. “I’ve been watching for it for decades, bro. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Nick looked down. “The second day of the tour, I was missing for a lot of the morning.”

Hugh nodded.

“I ran into your one of your Legionnaire friends. His people, anyway.”

“Here?”

“Offshore, actually. We took a plane ride. There was something of a meeting going on.” Nick explained. “And I’ll tell you this, none of them have declared either.”

Hugh looked over sharply. “You’re kidding. I mean, I know that not everyone is accepting of the world, but you’re telling me that they’re getting organized…”

“I don’t know about that. I think they know they can’t exactly take over, but… Like seeks like, I guess. Who wouldn’t want the company of people who agreed with them? You know what Alec told us, about how back in OS they held onto the hope for this world?” Nick explained. “It feels like there’s a fair number of people hanging onto their memories of the old days. They want the ‘good times’ back.”

Hugh was silent a moment. “I thought that was what you wanted too.”

Nick snorted. “They sort of took turns, talking about how great they had it back then. About how unfair it is that Socialites and Nobles had to be ordinary now. About how unfair it was to expect them to live on a half acre when they used to have palaces and mansions. There were people from the Free Love movement ranting about how what prudes everyone is now. One guy? He was a Pharaoh. I mean, an actual, Egyptian Pharaoh.” Nick waved a hand up at the stars. “The way he described himself… Talking about how back in his court, he had all the hosts of the world hanging on his every word, people who revered him as a living god, and how he could declare day to be night and it would be carved in stone as Law…” Nick shook his head. “It was like I could see through them all suddenly. It was an ‘Emperor Has No Clothes’ moment.” He gestured up to the sky again. “Hugh, I’ve spent a lot of my time here looking up at the cosmos. It’s infinite. Billions upon billions upon billions. More stars than we could ever hope to see from earth. Back when that guy was king of the world, they were just lights in the sky, and nobody knew what they were. But now we have five thousand years of learning to compare to, and… The guy was waiting for the 'good times' to come back. The days when he was the only god people worshiped, and…”

“And because you know more about the stars than most, it suddenly seemed so ridiculous.” Hugh chuckled.

“What I know about the universe is about the same that any determined schoolkid with a library card would know. At least, one from our century.” Nick snorted. “King Tut, or whoever he was, had no idea what a joke he was making of himself. He honestly believed that the stars moved at his whim. And nobody called him on it. I couldn’t figure out why nobody called him on it, and then it hit me: It’s because they either didn’t care, or because they all had their own fantasy lives to live in.” Nick shook his head. “I couldn’t believe the things that guy was saying. He was a joke to me, and it suddenly hit me that I must seem like just such a joke to you and Alec and Kasumi.”

“You are my brother.” Hugh said immediately. “You are never a joke. For one thing, you’re not funny.”

Nick swatted him, and they both laughed.

“Nick, if there’s something wrong with the world, then it has to be fixed, and it doesn’t matter if the people who disagree with that have you outnumbered a thousand to one.” Hugh told him. “I know, because that’s how wide the ratio was when A-Day hit. A thousand to one. But you know what? What if there’s nothing wrong with the world at all?”

Nick shook his head. “I feel like such an idiot. I feel like an ant demanding an elephant turn aside.”

“It’s what Rachel Bridger was talking about at lunch. We both grew up in a world where people would punish you for telling the truth, instead of the liars.” Hugh counseled. “The world isn’t like that any more. You have the future in you, little brother. You always have. You just got used to having a certain future ahead of you, and now you find out it was always going to be something entirely different.”

Nick looked up at his brother. “The guys here… They have the future in them too.”

~~/*\~~

Kasumi was watching the small city of the future outside her window while she made tea with her ancient set. She could see things floating like kites on strings, she could see people setting up telescopes…

There was a quiet knock at her door. She smiled to herself, already having a second cup waiting. “Come in, Hugh.”

He came in, walked over to her and put a kiss on her cheek. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. He got there on his own.” Kasumi waved it off, pouring the remaining tea over the teapot, as she had done several thousand times before. The tea drained into a pan beneath the pot, and she pushed his cup over toward the other chair.

He took the hint and sat down. “Thought your grandmother took this back.”

“Oh, she did, but only briefly. She had me perform the ritual a few times while she watched, and then she gave it right back to me.”

“Really? Why?”

“She said that it was the sort of tradition that should be passed down through the generations, and that I was the last one to receive it. She was looking at a world where there would never be something that we do after our fathers and mothers are gone. I was the last one to receive the tea set. And if the original pottery masters that first created it are going to come back too and pick up their trade…”

“That’s sweet.” Hugh sipped his tea. “And you do make a good brew.”

She thanked him and the two of them sipped for a while, as Hugh briefed her on everything that had happened.

Kasumi chuckled. “Interesting, isn’t it? All the things we said and did to try and get through to him, and it’s the ones running in the opposite direction that finally gives him the breakthrough.”

Hugh chuckled, agreeing with that.

“Here I thought it was Sister Bridger that won him over.” Kasmui chuckled. “Did you see the way he was looking at her?”

“That wasn’t love, Kas. It was awe.” Hugh shook his head. “Our time in OS? Women were barely a part of the workforce. The war had taken a whole generation of men away and women were barely working on the assembly lines, let alone research, development, invention…”

“Interesting.” Kasumi thought about that. “I think that Rachel Bridger represents a future he didn’t expect. I think that he wants to be part of it.”

“I know he does.” Hugh nodded. “He’s on his way to her right now, asking for an application to live here at the Expo.”

~~/*\~~

“The answer’s ‘no’ isn’t it?” Nick sighed.

Rachel squeezed his shoulder. “Something you have to learn about this world, Nick. The word ‘no’ has been replaced with ‘not yet’ or ‘here’s a better plan’.”

Nick chuckled.

“I have no doubt that you’ll get here. But the place is semi-open to the public and every tour has at least five people who see the 'magic show' and want to stay.” She cupped his wrinkled face between her smooth hands. “Hey, don’t let this one hurt you. The Expo is a laboratory combined with a Museum, combined with a Exhibition. But the vast majority of things that get invented? They happen in people’s garages. The vast majority of projects being planned? It happens by correspondence between people on opposite ends of the earth. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

Nick blushed a little. “We do, don’t we?” He said, as though the idea was new to him. “We really do.”

“I’m glad you made your Dedication, Nick.” Rachel told him. “Send me a message when you get baptized. I’d like to attend, if you don’t mind.”

“I’d like that too.” Nick nodded. “Next time you see me? I’m not entirely sure how it works, but I think I’ll look a lot better than this.”

“Don’t stress too much, brother.” Rachel told him with a big smile. “You’re only old once.”

~~/*\~~

The Tour ended and everyone boarded the airship; waving energetically at the ones they were leaving behind. Nick was gazing out over the futuristic city with a distinct longing, and Hugh knew his brother had found his own dream. As the ship pulled away from the Docking Port, heading back out over the ocean, Hugh noticed something extra in his brother's luggage.

“What’s that?” Hugh asked, curious.

Nick pulled back the cloth covering. It was a bell jar, over a small clay pot. In it was a seedling. Just a single stick, with a few leaves starting to bud. Hugh had to look closer to make sure, but as they passed into shade, he was certain. The leaves were glowing a faint blue. “Parting gift from Rachel Bridger.” Nick told him. “One of their prototypes.”

“Since when do you grow trees?”

“It’s not for me.” Nick commented. “It’s for you.”

Hugh blinked. “For me?”

Nick smiled. “I wanted to thank you. For bringing me out here.”

“Thank Kasumi. She organized the pass.”

“Oh, I did.” Nick nodded. “But this one is for you. I’m told that the leaves will glow in the dark.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It’s a mix of some phosphorescent fish and regular trees. They’re looking into using them like streetlamps. They grow and produce oxygen like trees, but when they absorb all that sunlight, they save it up for dark and glow after sunset. No power, no powerlines, no construction of any kind.”

Hugh laughed delightedly. “What about you? You get a souvenir?”

Nick smiled softly. “Ohh, I think I found what I was looking for.”

~~/*\~~

Alec’s phone rang, and he answered. “Hello?”

“Evening, Alec.” Hugh called. “I apologize for the hour. Am I interrupting?”

“No, not at all. What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to let you know that Kasumi’s idea worked. Nick’s declared.”

Alec smiled broadly and sent up a quick prayer of thanks. “That’s wonderful news, brother.”

“It really is…” Hugh hesitated. “Look, Alec… He made a point last week that’s sort of stuck in my head… About how I haven’t really put down any roots of my own. He thought it was because I was hedging, and I swear I’m not. At least, I don't think I am...”

“I’ve seen this with a few returnees.” Alec agreed. “It’s called Analysis Paralysis. When given nearly limitless options, it can be hard to settle on any one of them.”

“I have my own home for the first time in my life, and I have no idea what I want to do with it.” Hugh sighed. “I think Nick’s right. I can draw up a long term plan for the plane I'm restoring, but not for my own living room?”

“Hugh, let me ask you something… You were in Europe for years. When you came back, what was the first thing you did?”

“I…” Hugh actually had to think about it. “I checked the trees, checked the workshop-”

“Those are projects in progress. What made you go inside?”

“I… made lunch.”

“Where did you eat? Did you take something into the living room? Did you take it into your bedroom? Did you eat in the kitchen?”

“The kitchen, but there was… I had Kasumi with me.”

“Oh.” Alec commented. He said nothing more, but Hugh could tell he was smiling.

Hugh sighed. “Yeah. I think I may have a problem there.”

“A problem? You know what I think? I think the the only reason you can’t figure out what to do with your house is because it’s missing something. Something specific.”

“I think you may be right.” Hugh agreed.

~~/*\~~

Kasumi was packing her teaset back into its travel case, when someone knocked, and she smiled without even turning. “Come in, Hugh.”

He did so. “Have I thanked you enough?”

“I think that the Undecided and Rachel Bridger did more than I did.” She demurred. “I just got him the invite.”

Hugh chuckled. “So, where do you plan to go next?”

“I’ve been on the Welcoming Committee for years. I was due some down time, still got a few months left…”

“I’m due back on Rotation for the Restoration work, but…” He paused a moment, searching for the words. “I met some people in Europe, who split their time between Restoration and Trade Routes. They gave me a standing invite to come back. It occurred to me that we haven't traveled together since I made the trip home when I first came back.”

Kasumi smiled. “A working holiday?”

“If you’d rather put it off and go laze on a beach somewhere...”

Kasumi smirked. “Can you picture me lazing on a beach with nothing to do?”

Hugh chuckled. “Not really.”

Kasumi zipped up her travel case. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

~~/*\~~

Nick split off from them and went home. Hugh called ahead and promised that Alec would be waiting for him, and Nick promised to go over the lessons again, and to schedule his baptism for a day when Hugh and Kasumi would be there to attend.

Hugh and Kasumi took a ship in the other direction, heading toward Northern Asia.

The voyage took the better part of a week. Hugh and Kasumi spent most of the time talking, catching up, discussing the future…

Something had changed between them, but Kasumi wasn’t sure what it was. When Hugh talked about the future now, he always included her in it. They had been close friends for over a century. She’d watched him grow in his faith, and he’d supported her through times of weakness or exhaustion. She had always admired his… loyalty. His loyalties had usually been reserved for his family or his crew, but his crew had all gone their separate ways, and his parents had split up. Hugh’s close friends had taken their place, but…

Kasumi shook her head any time she went too far along those thoughts. She had helped him with Nick, and now Nick was part of the Brotherhood. That had made it paradise for Hugh, and he was just showing his gratitude.

The ship docked in Shanghai, not far from Kasumi’s home. Hugh booked them a flight north on a light aircraft. There was time enough for them to stop and share a meal with her grandmother and sister. Her sister had cooked, and Hugh was full of compliments, teaching her how to cook a few Italian meals in return. None of them were chefs, but it was easy to memorize recipes now.

“He cooks.” Her grandmother whispered to Kasumi. Kasumi had been traveling so long she had forgotten that her grandmother wasn’t as she remembered. In fact, they looked more like twin sisters now, family resemblances working to make them nearly identical. “I didn't think a guy from the 40’s would be so… domesticated.”

Kasumi swatted her gran. “It’s not like that. We’re on rotation with the Restoration, and we just had a day to kill before we headed north.”

Her gran smiled. “Does he know that? Because he seemed oddly pleased when I mentioned that you’d never brought anyone home to meet your family before.”

Kasumi rolled her eyes. “I know that you and May keep trying to set me up with-”

“We don’t do that any more.”

“But, you should know that he’s involved with someone.”

Her grandmother reacted. “He hasn’t mentioned it.”

“To me, either.” Kasumi snorted. “Which stings, given that I thought we were closer than that. But he has an engagement ring. I saw it in his house, and that was months ago, when he got back from a year long tour of Europe. And this little Working Holiday? It ends in Eastern Europe. He invited me along, and said he wanted me to meet some people.”

Her grandmother twitched. “You think he wants you to meet his Consort?”

“This is the 23rd Century, we don’t have Consorts any more.” Kasumi corrected absently. “But yes. I asked him about it, and he said that he wanted to focus on his brother. Now that Nick has declared, I guess he feels like he’s free to act on his feelings.” She shrugged. “If I had to guess, I think I know who he’s going to see... And if it is who I think it is, then it makes sense he’d want me there if he’s going to propose or something. I was her first contact in the world, and the one that studied with her… Which, I guess, explains why he never mentioned it.”

Her grandmother hugged her tightly.

“I’m fine.” Kasumi scoffed. “You’re sweet, but I’m not upset.”

“Tell that to your face.”

“I told you-”

“You don’t have to be in love to worry about your relationship with someone changing dramatically.” She was told firmly. “The only thing left that still changes as fast as it always did is people.”

Kasumi sighed. “I love traveling, Gran. I can still feel that giddy thrill I get from just being able to breathe normally, even two centuries later. But there’s a downside, and that’s that I tend to leave a lot of people behind. Especially in a world where there are no enemies now.” She sighed. “I remember, years ago, praying that I’d get a chance to meet some of those people again. People I studied with. I never got to see any of the results, you see. My assignment was to welcome and guide the returnees. And I loved doing it, and I loved seeing the world evolve as I went… But I remember I used to pray real often that I’d get to see it through with someone; see the results.” She smiled. “I never told Hugh this, but that was when I met him.” She sighed. “And I got my answer. I was there for the whole duration with Hugh. Him and Alec, and then Nick? I got to see the story through with this family… I felt like I was part of it, in a way I never got to be with any of the others.”

“And now you feel like you’re not in the family any more.”

“Ohh, I’ll always be welcome.” Kasumi sighed. “I just won’t be needed any more.”