Chapter Nine: Everything's Different

Weeks passed; and Megan couldn't help but feel like things were Transitioning, all over the world. She was starting something new with Biggs; something she'd never had before.

Her 'Aunt Izzy' was starting a new phase of her life, organizing her wedding.

Her mother, Kasumi; had been away for almost two months, with the crew of the Nemo; taking one last Tour of Duty on the submarine before it was decommissioned. Kasumi had made the ocean and its creatures her focus for most of Megan's life; but most of the projects she'd taken part on were all done now.

Hugh had been a pilot, then a flight instructor for centuries. Transport was still a major industry, but with automation taking over most of the Transportation Services; and most of the more common aircraft being based on technologies that Hugh had never been trained to use; his flying was personal, and not professionally required.

Megan had grown up with her Uncle Nick as a tutor, off and on, and they'd kept in touch. Megan couldn't help but notice that for the first time in two centuries, Rachel wasn't anywhere nearby when they'd spoken on the phone. Nick hadn't mentioned it, but Megan was a lot more perceptive than she'd ever been before; and knew there was something not being said.

She'd also heard from Sydney, who was practically her cousin, thanks to the close friendship between Hugh and Alec. Alec and his wife had both volunteered for a tour with the Service Corps. They were somewhere off the eastern coast of India; helping restore the Oceans.

Sydney was staying behind at the family house, observing an experiment in progress; but he hadn't told Megan what it was about; except that it was the 'key to keeping things permanent'.

Everywhere that Megan looked; there was a sense of things ending, or starting. And in this world that was almost the same thing.

~~/*\~~

"Everything's different." Kasumi marveled.

Karen nodded. "You remember how we kept coming up with new ideas for the next tour?"

"I remember it felt like everything needed 'a little adjustment' whenever we hit a new patch of ocean." Kasumi nodded. "So, they finally put the upgrades in?"

"And a lot more than what's visible at the control panels." Karen nodded. "Took me months to figure out how the thing worked. She's had every part replaced so many times she's barely the same Nemo anymore."

"She was designed that way." A young voice chirped. "The first refit changed her interior to a modular design. We can mix and match parts as needed on a mission-to-mission basis. The Printers can give us upgrades mid-voyage, too."

"When did the Nemo get Printers installed?" Karen asked in surprise.

"Her third tour." The young woman reported. "It was decided that we could just cycle the crew out at sea, give them a nice flight home; and have the next mission start without having to dock. The Nemo refits herself every time a new crew comes aboard."

"But she's being decommissioned?"

"The Printers can replace the parts, but the truth is they're assigning the Restoration work to the new ships, rolling off the line. Every class of sub built today is based off some part of the Nemo. I was lucky to get assigned to her before she was stood down." She smiled up at the two women. "By the way, I'm Judy. Assigned to give you the full tour; and answer any questions you might have."

"Nice to meet you." Kasumi nodded "I'm-"

"Oh, I know who you are, Ma'am. There's a crew photo from her Maiden Voyage in the Mess Hall. And even if I didn't, I spent my entire Oceanography class reading the papers you wrote on that first trip. This is really an honor. I've been wanting to meet you both since school."

Kasumi couldn't help the wry smirk. "How old are you, Judy?"

"I'll be fifty-four next month." The woman reported.

She still counts her age by the year. Kasumi fought down the urge to laugh; and she could see Karen reacting the same way. "Well, as long as I'm here, mind if I check my old lab? See what you've done with the place?"

"Oh sure." Judy chirped. "If you'll follow me."

"I know the way." Kasumi chuckled, and went to the hatch, keying it open.

Judy held up a hand, too late. "Oh, that's not-"

Kasumi opened the hatch, and a mop fell out. What had been the airlock between her diving pool and the rest of the ship was now an overstuffed janitors closet. "Oh."

Judy looked a little embarrassed for her. "The airlocks were rather redundant after our last Tour. Something that hasn't changed, space is a premium. I think the original janitor's closets are bathrooms now. The Expo made self-contained heads, no need for pipes. Make a lot of sense for a small-space boat like this."

Kasumi was still trying to wrestle the cleaning tools back into place, blushing. "Of course. Maybe you'd better lead the way."

~~/*\~~

Sydney came back to the house with a basket of food from the markets. Rachel had been on duty with her new experiment for weeks. Sydney had been back every few days to check on her. Nick had warned that she got tunnel vision when onto something new; and he was right. Rachel had barely noticed when he visited.

But today, when he returned to his family home, something was different. He couldn't put his finger on it at first, but when he saw Rachel grinning like a lunatic, it hit him.

The house looked new. Not just clean. New.

The paint was solid on the walls, the wear on the solar panels was gone, the door didn't even squeak when he swung it open to meet his houseguest. "It worked?"

"Success!" Rachel exulted. "The nanotech worked!"

Sydney looked around the house in awe. It had always been kept clean, but the signs of centuries had given it an inevitable 'lived in' quality. Now it was brand new. "This is incredible."

Rachel grinned wider. "You like that? Check the bookshelves."

Sydney did so, taking down his mother's Bible. It was her fourth. The first one, used through Tribulation, had been put into preservation after the pages had aged to near-dust. This one had finally reached the age where it yellowed and the words faded. But now, as Sydney turned the pages, it was brand new, with the notes and markings written in the margins looking fresh and sharp; as though they'd just been added.

Rachel was smiling so wide her eyes were watering. "A swarm of machines, the size of molecules, moving through the whole house, deciding where things should be put back together, at the molecular level. The only thing that didn't work was directing them. They could weave together the iron molecules in a steel girder that was starting to fray, but getting them to tell the difference between an ink-stain and deliberately written line was near impossible. Took seven centuries of refinement to make it happen, but it worked! Tell your mom to get her first Bible out of storage. The pages will crumble to dust as soon as they're touched by human hands, but I can put them back together again like new!"

Sydney let out a breath. "This is insane. It's beyond sci-fi, it's like magic." He burst out laughing as the idea occurred to him. "In fact, if I went outside and set a bush on fire, what are the odds your nano-machines could keep it from getting burned up?"

Rachel laughed. "The line between science and magic has been blurred since Frank Baum wrote 'The Wizard of Oz'." She told him. "Back in OS, a skilled doctor could stop a man's heart, cut it apart, put it back together differently, and wake the patient up. It happened every day. My friend Ingaret, she was from the Middle Ages, and when she learned how 'solar power' worked to create light at midnight; she thought I was either an Angel, or a sorceress of some kind."

"But God got there first?"

"Nothing I'm doing is defying the laws of physics. It's a smarter way to recycle." Rachel told him. "God got there first and he didn't need a laboratory."

"Yeah, but… Could you turn loose a swarm of those nano-machines and turn clouds into Manna, ready to fall from the sky? Could you toss them an eaten apple core and have it turn out a fresh apple, just like new and ready to be eaten?"

"Organic, living things?" Rachel shrugged. "Maybe one day. But if you're asking whether or not I'm trying to replace God..."

"I know you're not, but…" Sydney looked down. "It's come up, once or twice. I study with some people. Almost everyone has a their own study group now. Mine is made of up people who, well…"

"Were born after A-Day." Rachel nodded. "You are the minority, I grant you; but that's only because there are so many to Return."

"Time will come when we outnumber the people who even remember OS, but that likely won't come for another thousand years or more." Sydney nodded. "But we talk about OS; and we talk about the end of the Millennium."

Rachel shivered. "I don't like to think about it."

"The question comes up." Sydney nodded. "How can anyone turn on God after a Thousand Years of utopia? Part of me wonders…" He changed his mind. "No, forget about it."

"Nothing I'm doing is replacing God." Rachel said it for him. "If you think I can raise the dead or grant eternal life, you have more faith in my ability than I do."

~~/*\~~

Kasumi arrived back at the house; and Megan keyed the Auto to wait. The Alman family home hadn't had a garage of its own in years, and hadn't needed one. Today, however, Megan was quick to stop the Auto from driving off to its next nearest customer. "Our flight leaves in an hour!"

"I'm already packed!" Kasumi complained to her daughter. "Why are we taking the Airship, anyway? Your father has two planes parked the backyard-"

"Yeah. Antique planes. They aren't made for vertical take off or landing." Megan countered. "I put your 'good' clothes in with mine; and Dad's meeting us at the Terminal. We both thought we'd meet you there." Megan got into the car; looking sideways at her mother. "Why did you change plans anyway?"

"The Reunion Tour was a little shorter than I expected."

"The rest of your original crew didn't show?"

"They did." Kasumi said with a nod. "I thought we were in a hurry."

"The car drives itself; it's not like…" Megan got a proper look at her mother. "Something went wrong?"

"It was fine." Kasumi said immediately.

~~/*\~~

The Caravan had provided a feast; and all the guests had contributed. Such was the way at gatherings now. Everyone brought one plate, and left with two.

"Sometimes I wonder if it's miraculous." Kasumi quipped to her daughter as they added their contribution. "There's precedent for a basket of food never running out."

The Caravan had musicians playing instruments from all eras. Paradise had always been a place where ancient methods and modern ones co-existed, and music was no exception. Some of Isobel's people had learned to play lyres and harps from Bible times, and others played synthesizers, technologically evolved enough to be travel sized; but playing music that sounded like a grand piano.

The wedding ceremony was a Christian One, with a more open setting. There had been no rule set about what a wedding had to look like. This outdoor ceremony had the Caravan, plus a few other people, all gathered around the bride and groom, seated in a semi-circle. There was no aisle, no bridal march.

Hugh and Kasumi had a seat in the front row for the wedding talk. Isobel looked beautiful in her dress; and Vano beamed at his bride. The happiness they both felt was clear. The brother giving the talk spoke to them, but they only had eyes for each other; like there was nobody else present.

"Scripture says 'Now, however, there remain faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love'. Faith is barely needed, when we're given proof positive with every new day. We've seen our hope be justified a thousand times over. Love? That hasn't changed. If anything, it has become so much greater." The Caravan Elder said warmly. "But what all these qualities have in common, is that they are dynamic and energetic. They are not passive states. They're full of life and joy. Faithful people celebrate their faith. Joyful people share their joy. And love? It's the whole point of life. Indeed, under Jehovah, love is life."

Megan twitched a little at the reminder; but not so much that she didn't notice Nick reacting the same way.

~~/*\~~

As part of the ceremony, a bottle of fine brandy was passed around. The bottle was wrapped in colorful silks, with a necklace of coins attached. Vano's father put the necklace around Isobel with a teary smile and hugged his daughter-in-law; as the bottle made its way around friends and family. In the front row, the Almans all took a sip, passing it on. "Romani tradition." Hugh guessed. "The bottle gets refilled and becomes part of the party."

Megan didn't even blink. The line between cultural and religious ceremonies was an odd one at times; and Megan had attended Viking and Italian Weddings alike in her career. The vows varied a little, the outfits varied a lot, the scriptures were shared at them all. Her own parents wedding album had a fusion of 1970's Japanese and 1930's American styles.

"Isobel asked me to thank you in particular for coming. She wasn't sure you'd make it." Kasumi mentioned to Megan. "Neither did I, to be honest. I know it's a tough week for you."

"You can't ask the bride to rearrange her special day around one of the guests." Megan told her mother. "It's been ages, mom. I don't even observe the year anymore. Just every ten years."

"I know, but this is one of the ten year marks; and I was worried…"

"You always are." Megan waved it off. "Y'know, I've been to almost a hundred weddings in my life. Each and every one of them, someone asks when it's my turn. Erica once told me that she got the same question from one of her foster families. Big, extended family. Lots of weddings. She retaliated by waiting for the next funeral; and firing the question back at them."

Kasumi scoffed. "Well, it could happen soon. Your turn, I mean; not the other thing."

Megan looked around. "Does this all seem kind of rushed? From what I've heard, the Groom has only been back for a couple of months."

"Apparently, Isobel knew him Back Before. They didn't want to wait; and the Caravan they live with doesn't exactly go for the big flashy ceremonies. Why wait, if you can organize it in a week?"

"To give the rest of us a chance to get here?" Megan guessed.

"You can't ask the bride to rearrange her special day around the guests." Kasumi returned with a smile, and then glanced over her shoulder. "But since you bring it up… Did something feel odd to you? About the Ceremony?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've only spoken to Vano once; but it felt like he was trading odd looks during the whole thing. The Wedding Talk, the Prayer…"

"I don't know about 'odd' but there was another dynamic. Dad tells me that the Speaker is the Caravan Elder. The Caravan's almost a hundred people at this point, and they're always on the move, so they are their own Congregation." Megan caught a snack off a plate that was carried past, in the direction of the tables. "The speaker was Vano's father. It's a fact of having a private community."

"I suppose that makes sense." Kasumi nodded. "It's amazing, the way people react at weddings. Last one we all attended, Nick could barely take his eyes off Rachel, sitting beside him. Today, he could hardly look in her direction."

"Uh-oh." Megan observed. "Did something happen?"

"Maybe." Kasumi sighed. "Probably the same thing that happened to me."

Megan looked at her. "Are you going to tell me what happened on the Nemo now? Or would you prefer I keep guessing?"

Kasumi looked at her daughter for a moment, weighing up which option would be worse. "It was… harder, Megan. It was just so much harder than it used to be."

"What do you mean?"

"The Nemo. Everything about her had changed. They refit her once or twice after that first Tour. It's what they were meant to do; testing the new technologies meant making changes afterward. And then they made a dozen more like the Nemo; then they upgraded all of them a few more times, seeing what worked; and then they made a hundred more; based on those upgrades."

Megan nodded, to show she was listening.

"I could barely figure it out." Kasumi admitted. "I was part of the shakedown cruise, and part of her First Tour. And the whole last month; I was afraid to hit the wrong button. The whole ship changed."

Megan chuckled.

"It's not funny! I literally wrote the book on how Dolphins talk to each other, and how they can be taught. They had teams on the Nemo; using gear and signals based on my work that I couldn't imagine when I started out. I felt like a Dinosaur on that boat. It is- was my career; and I don't recognize it anymore!"

"I know the feeling." Megan nodded. "Every time Biggs and I find a home for one of our kids… The Expo has done the math. We figure a century before the end of the Millennium; we'll be the ultimate 'Empty Nest'."

"Or maybe you'll have a few of your own by then." Kasumi offered.

Megan hesitated. "I haven't told Biggs. About Erica."

"You should." Kasumi nodded.

"There's no reason to, is there?"

"You told him about us." Kasumi offered. "Whatever else she was, Erica was family to you. Biggs is a Tribulation Survivor. He can handle it."

~~/*\~~

The Trip back towards The Expo was quiet. On its own, this wasn't unusual. Nick and Rachel were always working on something. But they often bounced ideas off each other in private moments like car rides. This time, it was a very loud silence.

"It was a nice wedding." Rachel offered.

"It was." Nick agreed.

It was the first thing they'd said to each other in half an hour.

And Rachel was worried; but she wasn't sure why.

~~/*\~~

"So, how are you enjoying married life?" Kasumi asked Isobel, via the holo. "We didn't get a lot of time to talk back at the Ceremony."

"It's been less than a week." Isobel retorted. "I don't kiss and tell."

"You know what I mean." Kasumi laughed. "You've been back for… what? At least three hundred years, maybe closer to four now."

"Are you about to launch into your impression of my mother?" Isobel warned. "Because I still live with them, you know."

"Just looking out for my former student." Kasumi said, keeping it light. "I was the one that taught you all about the great opportunities that come with eternal life."

"And you're wondering why I waited so long?" Isobel sighed. "I did kind of dodge this question before; didn't I?"

"It's not polite to pry, and it's none of my business, of course." Kasumi admitted. "But you matter to me, so Vano matters too; and I don't know him yet."

"I knew him back in OS." Isobel hurried to explain. "We were in the Camps together. I was mad for him back then, and… Well, we both died there. We know not to wait for happiness when it comes by. Paradise is all about giving back the second chance, right?"

Kasumi smiled, relaxing. "There it is. I had a conversation or two at the Reception that made me wonder how this was all happening so fast, but if you're telling me it's just the happy ending you were waiting for all this time…"

"I may or may not have been waiting for him." Isobel admitted. "I wondered if maybe the reason he was taking so long to Return was so that I'd move on, or even just to see if I was really willing to wait-"

"Mm, don't go looking for signs and portents in everything. God isn't shy about letting us know what lessons we're meant to be learning." Kasumi told her. "But I'm happy for you. It's been my experience that people who stay on their own for so long are either running from something, or waiting for something."

"That include your daughter and her beau? Because I hear she's been talking about inviting someone to Family Dinner..."

Kasumi chuckled. "Ohno, you don't. This is my interrogation." She teased. "Tell me everything."

~~/*\~~

Megan had been distant with the kids all day. It was the first time she had been 'coasting' in as long as Biggs had known her. After centuries of teaching, listening and parenting, Megan could cover a lot of it on autopilot, so only the most intuitive of the foster kids noticed. But the true power of living in Paradise was not just experience. Doing things by rote could make someone a master of any skill, but the real reason the world was turning into something so incredible was that people invested themselves in their work personally. Love made them work harder and longer, but be happier with their work at the same time.

Part of the work at the Orphanage was teaching the kids some practical skills, like cooking. The older kids helped get food prepared for everyone, helping out the rest of the staff. Once the kids were settled with their lunches, Biggs took her into another room to ask about it. "Something on your mind?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure you want to hear it." She admitted. "Or at least, I'm not sure it's fair to lay it on you."

"Now you have to tell me." Biggs said simply.

"I guess so." Her eyes flicked to the door. "The kids have free time for lunch, and then apprenticeship work for a few hours. Can we go to the cafe? I don't want the younger ones to hear this."

~~/*\~~

Most people worked a four day week. Some worked more, some less; but four days had become the average; giving a whole day for spiritual focus, and others for personal interests and favorite hobbies. Biggs worked his spare day at Megan's Orphanage, so the Cafe was closed. Biggs let them in the back door and she slid into her usual spot at the counter while he made the coffee.

Biggs slid a cup in front of her. "Megan, I'm always here to listen. A cafe barista is the JW equivalent of a bartender. I listen to people's woes all the time. Such as they are."

"I guess so." Megan bit her lip. "I just got back to town. A friend of the family got married last week."

Biggs' eyes flashed. "Oh, really?"

"Ohh, I love that look of panic guys get when a woman they know starts talking about marriage." Megan smothered a smile. "But it's not that. It's… The reason I took so long getting back is because I went to Brooklyn. The wedding also covered the date of an anniversary for me; and it was the first one I missed in… ever."

"Anniversary of what?" Biggs seemed interested.

Megan struggled to word it. "The tragic and permanent demise of the first person ever to show me any kind of actual love."

Biggs took her coffee back. "Aaaand this just became an 'Irish Coffee' conversation."

"Is that on the menu?" Megan was surprised.

"It is if you know the owner. Lucky you're on such good terms with him." Biggs took the cup into the back room. "Be right back, and you'll tell me everything."

Megan felt a wave of affection for him. Before he came back, she pulled out her phone and dialled a number. It rang a few times, and Rachel answered. "Hello?"

"Rach, it's Megan." She said carefully. "I need to talk to a wise and knowing female role model, and I definitely don't want it to be my mom. Not about this."

Rachel laughed. "What's his name?"

Megan lowered her vice. "He's kind of close by. Can we talk tonight? You're somewhere we can talk via Holo, right?"

"Oh, sure. I'm back at the Ducard Family Home, as a matter of fact." Rachel nodded. "I'll have the place to myself soon enough. Call me anytime."

Megan made her goodbyes and disconnected as Biggs came back with her cup. "So. Tell me everything."

Megan took a sip. "Her name was Erica."

~~/*\~~

Later that night, Megan called back, and Rachel hit the button on her Device. The house Holo responded by projecting an image of Megan in the room, as though they were sitting together on the couch. "Hi." Megan said, looking around. "Beckah mentioned you were doing something groundbreaking here. Something about a new preservation method?"

Rachel nodded. "Tell me, Megan; do you know what a 'quantum leap' is?"

"I believe I've heard the term." Megan nodded. "I take it you've just created one?"

"It seems to have worked, but I'm keeping an eye on it for a few more weeks, just to make sure the nano-tech doesn't go off the rails." Rachel agreed. "But you didn't call to talk about that, I'm sure."

"No." Megan agreed. "Isobel's wedding was the first time I missed Erica's anniversary. I told Biggs all about her." She bit her lip. "It's the first time I've told anyone about Erica. Anyone who didn't know already, at least."

"Big step." Rachel commented. "For people like us, there's three big steps. First date, meeting the parents, and sharing the deep wounds."

"Yeah, but that's the thing. It's not an open wound anymore." Megan explained. "The last few Anniversaries; I've almost missed one or two. The work I'm doing isn't one that can always be scheduled. Dealing with kids who don't trust anyone, you have to fit to them, not the other way around. This is the first time I've missed it, but the last few years…"

"Megan, we didn't know each other that well back then." Rachel said sagely. "But you know I've been through 'permadeath' myself."

"Yeah. Part of the reason I called you."

"When the Blue Letters started coming, my best friend was afraid to tell me when her loved ones started coming back, because she was afraid it would bring up bad things. But it's centuries later now, and when I think of my mom, I only remember the good. That's what makes this world special. Everything here is focused on the good."

"I know. In fact, I've given this speech to a few of my kids." Megan said quietly. "But it's never… I mean, whenever I was tired, or wanted a moment of solitude, or wondered if I'd chosen the wrong career… I would think of Erica, and how she didn't even blink before taking me in. Her loss… It felt like I was given a limitless amount of motivation, thanks to that."

"Do you feel any less motivated now that the pain is fading?"

"No." Megan admitted.

"Sounds like you're healing."

"It does, doesn't it? Some of the kids here will never see their families again. They're scared that if they stop hurting, then they lose everything they had left of their families. For a lot of them the bad stuff is all that stuck."

"Then they're very lucky to have you looking after them. A street kid who learned in Paradise how to replace hurt with love, and let that be a source of limitless motivation."

Megan was quiet for a moment. "I told Biggs about Erica. I told him everything about how we lived, how we survived. Things even Kasumi and Hugh don't know. I've never done that before."

"How'd he take it?"

"So, so perfectly." Megan admitted. "So perfectly that I would have thought it was a con, back in OS. In fact, Biggs is a Trib Survivor himself. He knows more about Permadeath than I ever will."

Rachel smiled at her de-facto niece. "So, you're officially in the 'serious relationship' category now. Your parents were starting to wonder if you'd ever get here."

"Right. So now I need you to tell me I'm doing the right thing, with Biggs." Megan said awkwardly. "He and I have been… whatever we are, for a couple of months now, and it's been awesome. I've never had anyone where… Everything I see and learn? First thing I want to do is tell him all about it, and hear what he thinks."

Rachel smiled at her, letting her talk.

Megan leaned forward a bit. The holo meant they were effectively sitting in the same room, even if they were miles apart; so her posture mattered. "Biggs is a Tribulation Survivor. Seven hundred years, he's been walking the world. I asked him why he'd been on his own for so long, and… He was doing all the things he had planned to do; back in OS. Took him centuries to see it all. But then he said: All his OS Plans were about the things he never got to do alone… And then he said he still had a list of things he would do if he had someone to go with him. The way he said it? I think he wants to get even more… serious."

"Congratulations." Rachel said automatically, and then she looked at Megan's face. "Or… condolences?"

"I'm almost positive I'm in love." Megan admitted. "I have lived for years and years, and I've dated a bit, but… That was company, or even curiosity; just to see if it'd work out. This is the Real Thing."

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is, I feel like I should know better." Megan explained. "I run an orphanage. A lot of my kids? Some of them even have their parents here in the world; but… I've heard the story a hundred times: They had kids because they were worried they'd 'wait too long'. They got married because they didn't want to 'lose their chance'. I have a dozen photo albums full of kids who were born 'just in case'; like they were a contingency plan. I mean, think about that for a moment. I was one of those disposable kids, before Hugh and Kasumi. I've been alive for centuries, and in love for only a little while. How am I supposed to trust something so… new? My folks were friends for almost a century before they started dating. Once they started, they were engaged by the end of two months. Married by the sixth month. They had all the history to know it was the right choice. What if I'm just wrong? Backing out isn't an option for us anymore."

"And you want me to tell you you'd be doing the right thing by waiting?" Rachel queried. "I'm not sure why me…"

"Uncle Nick." Megan explained. "How'd you convince him to wait until you were really, absolutely, a hundred percent sure?"

"That's not why!" Rachel protested. "I am sure, about Nick. I have been since our first joint-project. Seeing his mind work, interacting with him, working together that closely..."

"And that was ages ago." Megan nodded, as though this was a good thing. "I guess what I'm asking is, how did you convince him to wait so long?"

Rachel nearly swallowed her tongue. "I-I didn't."

Megan froze. "Oh."

Dead silence.

Megan reached for her device very fast. "Well, I should be going now-"

"Wait a second… Am I treating Nick badly?" Rachel balked. "I mean, we haven't talked about it since… Well, since I told him I wasn't ready yet, but that was-" She did the math in her head. "Oh, wow. That was a long time ago."

Megan very carefully said nothing.

"Stop trembling." Rachel pushed her. "Answer me: Am I treating Nick badly?"

"Badly? I-I-I…" Megan shook her head hard. "What I told you, about how people in OS rushed things because they had to? That's not always true. And-" She caught herself. "Don't tell Kas this part?"

Rachel nodded.

"The reason things fizzled with Chogan was because I waited too long." Megan explained. "I told my folks that we talked about it, and decided we weren't compatible as anything but friends. That was… half the truth."

Rachel gasped melodramatically, but there was no real shock behind it.

"I know; I probably wasn't fooling anyone." Megan waved it off. "Chogan changed my whole world view on certain things, but… I just couldn't do it."

"If you didn't think he was right for you, you have nothing to apologize for."

"I know. But he waited for me, almost seven years. But when he finally noticed that I wasn't encouraging his interest, he stopped waiting around, found someone who was actually willing to be with him; and…" Megan bit her lip. "I didn't say anything. He told me something was starting with his new lady-love, and he asked if I could think of a reason why he shouldn't take it too seriously. To anyone looking, it was just him asking a friend's approval of his girlfriend. But I always wondered if-"

"If he was making sure there was no chance with you first?" Rachel bit her lip. "Could be. Do you feel like you made a mistake?"

"No." Megan admitted. "And even if I did, they're married. Happily. Chogan and I are great friends now. I wouldn't change that, even if I could. But it's a 'road not taken'."

"And we all have many of those." Rachel looked down and noticed she was wringing her hands nervously. "Do you think I've made a mistake with Nick?" She pointed a finger. "And tell me the truth!"

Megan finally broke down. "I think you told him you weren't ready. Centuries ago. I think Nick has noticed, and I think you would too, if you stopped to think about it for ten minutes."

Rachel withdrew a little. "Right. If something was going to happen on its own, it would have happened by now."

"Pff." Megan said profoundly. "You and Nick always have your heads in seven different places. He was fine waiting, because he was living his dream in the meantime, but… We all live forever now. How does that change things?"

"You want to know if you're not ready to go forward with Biggs, does it mean you're going to wait too long?" Rachel summed up. "And since I seem to be a pro at stringing the right one along for a thousand years…"

"Sorry." Megan winced. "I honestly thought that it was by design. I figured that you and Nick were waiting for something because you both wanted to." She hesitated. "And forgive me for putting it this way, but you've had him on the hook since the first time he saw you at The Expo; or so I hear."

"First conversation with him, and he'd just made his Dedication; because of what he'd seen at my Expo." Rachel said softly. "We'd just met, and I had tears in my eyes. Our second conversation, he wanted to join the team. He was way too green for it; but I had no doubt he'd be back… And then another four hundred years passed; and I hadn't even noticed it had been that long until you brought it up."

Heavy silence.

"If something was going to happen, it would have by now." Rachel said, as though trying out a new law of physics. "Because back in OS, when we had no time for anything, people made time for what was really important. Including me. Because I was as devoted to my work then as I am now, but I found the time to be in love. And then I got the truth, and changed about 90% of my life in less than six months. I made the time for it."

Megan nodded. "We have zero free time at the Orphanage. Biggs and I still made time for each other."

"A few months, and you're talking about forever." Rachel guessed. "You told your dad yet?"

"Not yet, but I think he knows." Megan sighed. "Biggs is the first guy I've ever thought about inviting to Family Dinner."

"Amazing." Rachel said faintly. "That was… fast."

"It's not a competition, Rach." Megan assured her. "Biggs and I got closer because of the kids. He needed someone like… well, someone like me, when he was that age. Time's going to come when the Returning is over. Given the ratios, I'm betting kids will still be needing homes until it's over. Or at least closer to over."

"Is he okay with waiting?"

"We haven't talked about it yet, but after telling him about Erica, it's pretty clear that conversation is coming. If I know him like I think I do, I'm betting he will be. Some of the kids are more comfortable with a single woman looking after them. They know Biggs, but… having a guy walk in and promise to be nice to their Foster mom? For some of the kids I've got right now, that's going to bring up some bad stuff. The most important step with a newly Returned Person is drawing a contrast between what they had before, and where they are now."

Rachel had no answer to that. "You're right. I've been hedging my bets too long. It's not right."

"Beckah has the same thing with her house." Megan commented, gesturing around. "I've been hearing this from people all over the place. It's like we suddenly woke up and noticed how long we've lived."

"The final markers are passing." Rachel nodded. "Back in OS, there were buildings that were centuries old. They were mainly Temples and Cathedrals… None of which made it past A-Day. The places we've built for ourselves are falling apart beyond repair. The things we bothered to salvage from the Old Days are gone. Back in OS, the stuff that wouldn't degrade for centuries was a major problem. Now we're seeing the end of its cycle. I'm outliving plastic, and my face hasn't changed since Day One."

Megan nodded. "Time's sneaking up on us. We don't see it coming because time doesn't affect us, but it still affects everything else. Those 'markers' have never been a factor for me. Whenever you hear an adult remark on how fast a kid grows up… I've spent the majority of my life watching kids grow up, dozens of them, one after another. I was sick of being alive before the age of twelve; and now I'm going to live forever. I measure my life in how fast people come and go. Time never snuck up on me."

"So you don't waste time." Rachel gulped down the rest of her tea like she was doing a shot. Then she focused her eyes on Megan. "You know, somewhere in this conversation we went from you asking my advice to you counselling me."

Megan hid her smile. "So we have."

"Nick asked you to bring this up, didn't he?"

"No. He doesn't know about this conversation." Megan said honestly. "But I heard him talking about you to my dad. Felt like some girl-talk was in order, and if you go to Beckah or Kasumi, it'll get back to Nick eventually."

"But not you?"

"Rachel, you've got a hundred IQ points on me; and you made a career out of fixing problems that people were so used to they forgot to wonder if there could be a solution." Megan drawled. "Now that you've noticed something, I wonder what you'll think of next."

"And the only way that could happen would be if I thought you were the one that wanted advice. Is there even a 'Biggs'?"

"There is, but I may have exaggerated things a tiny bit." Megan teased.

Rachel couldn't help the smirk. "You're good." She admitted. "I can only imagine what you can do with a room full of kids."

"The kids in my Orphanage are way more suspicious of people than you are, Aunt Rachel. They'd have seen this coming." Megan said with a grin. "Take some advice from one of the few people still watching the clock. In a life with unlimited time, you can still be too late for things. Especially with people. Uncle Nick would walk into the ocean for you. And you're about to lose him."

~~/*\~~

"I'm not asking for forever." Nick promised. "But most people have moved on at some point. Oftentimes, they go back. Not all commitments last forever now."

"Kasumi and I aren't engineers, Nick." Hugh reminded his brother. "Kas is working on the Ocean Cleanup, and figuring out how to talk to Dolphins in her spare time, and I've never been prouder. I'm a pilot."

"Does it seem odd to you that you've never changed careers?" Nick put in. "I mean, not to change the subject, but most people have two degrees in things by now."

"I fly. The first plane I ever flew was made of paper and twine. I've got your new sci-fi planes now. Trust me, my career is reinvented every time you make a breakthrough and rewrite the rules for what machines can do."

"We gotta get you in training, Big Bro. At Year One, post-millennium; I launch something way better than an airplane." Nick waved it off and got back on topic. "The growing population has prompted a rethink in how we manage resources, and how we design cities. We were both there when the Skyscraper Age was just getting started in OS, Rachel was there when it was ending. We've had towers, before; but right now…"

"The Arcology Project?" Hugh guessed.

"It'll be five times the size of the Empire State Building, house thousands of people, and be totally self-enclosed." Nick told him. "Air, water, food, sewage: All of it within the one building. Total land mass taken up, less than a kilometer square. It'll be a beautiful place."

"And you want me and Kas to build it?"

"We want you to live there. The building will include landing pads for Vertical Take-Off Craft. Once the main structure is built, it'll be faster to build the insides from both ends. Kasumi did three full Tours on the Nemo, and her notes were instrumental in the Nemo IV. She knows enough about ship mechanics to carry that over to something 'above ground'."

Hugh scoffed. "Yeah. The Nemo's first Tour was testing new methods for the Cleanup and Restoration, but in truth, Kas spent more of her time field testing equipment."

"You know why Kasumi left the Cleanup? She felt like it was time for someone else to take over. She and Karen had come up with improvements to the Submarines, but they were trained the original way. The next crew were trained the newer way, and built their own improvements…"

"I know the Principle. Fresh eyes, and nobody gets stuck in their ways forever." Hugh nodded. "But that's for things like Congregation Elders. To be honest, part of me wonders if we can avoid it."

"We have to avoid it." Nick said seriously. "The Principle is sound in a lot of places, and it's… Well, it's got to be done in a place like The Expo. The place was built on new ideas. Rachel's the only one left from the Original Team. I'm the only one left from my own era..."

Hugh regarded his brother. "Nick, are you… Are you trying to rescue me and Kasumi?"

"Humanity is improving every day, Hugh. There's a Team at The Expo doing studies. The change has been gradual, but you compare us now to what we were… Physical constitution, athletic ability, memory recall; intelligence, imagination… We're becoming perfect. And our kids are starting out faster and smarter than any of us were at that age. There are a lot of hotshots out there who love to fly. They're in The Expo building new kinds of aircraft, just to see if they can. The average age for your first Doctorate is seventeen. A WW2 pilot could get left behind. If nobody needed you to fly them, you'd still fly. But what would you do with yourself?"

Hugh said nothing for a long moment. "Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing, to have a fresh start. I'll talk to Kasumi about it."

"Please do so. We're taking on people who can help build, and we're setting up what the permanent residents will do once we're there. I can keep a place open for a few weeks."

~~/*\~~

"I don't want to do it. I don't want to move." Kasumi said in a small voice. "I thought we were happy here!"

"I've never been happier anywhere else, Kas." Hugh assured her. "But we've been here for three centuries now. Nick's not wrong when he says people can… stagnate."

"I spent over a century touring the world, Hugh. I got my wanderlust out of me."

"I remember. You never sat still. But I'm not talking about exploring." Hugh countered. "Y'know, at the two hundred year mark, when I Returned? A lot of the Trib Survivors were trying to start over. Back then, everyone was looking at their lives, wondering how it would have been if they'd never had to worry about hunger, or war, or sickness. Everyone was going back to school, setting up a new home…"

"I remember." Kasumi nodded.

"Well, it's five hundred years after that now." Hugh nodded. "All those people have settled into the lives they wanted. The majority of people getting their degree are student age again. But the thing is, school marches on, long after the students do. I remember, back in OS; doctors always went to seminars to learn about the latest techniques, the latest medicines. It's because Medical Science kept improving. I remember one of the Medics in my old unit lost his qualifications because things had changed during wartime, and he didn't know how to… well, give orders that his newly trained nurses would understand. The terminology changed on him; and he got left behind."

Kasumi looked stricken. "She told you."

Hugh blinked. "Who told me what?"

Kasumi flushed. "Never mind. We were talking about-"

Hugh's lip twitched. "Actually, I'm curious about this now. Where did your mind go when I gave that little speech?"

Kasumi looked sick. "Don't laugh." She warned him. "My degree in Oceanography and submarine life is out of date by more than a century of exploration and examination. You asked me once if I wanted to go back on the Nemo; but I would have had to get a whole new degree. I wrote some of those papers that the new crews were being trained on, but the other stuff…" She looked down, embarrassed. "I don't know why this makes me feel so silly, but if I wanted to go back to a life I loved three hundred years ago, I'd have to go back to school first. I know less about my old job than a first year student!"

"Well. If you feel silly, imagine how I must look." Hugh confessed, voice low. "I'll tell you a secret? I restore old planes… because I'm better at flying them than any of the newer aircraft made. Autopilot wasn't even a word when I was trained. And none of my planes have..." He trailed off. "I tried to check out on a few helicopters? I flunked out."

"You're kidding." She blurted.

"The tech is just too far removed from what I was trained on. Nick says that the average human brain is now 'professor level' good right off the bat." Hugh shook his head. "If I want to work as a pilot, full time? I have to go back to school myself. Start over as a near beginner. Learn how to fly all over again from scratch." He looked sideways at her. "I've been a pilot for five hundred years. And I did it because this world always had enough people on the move that there'd always be work for a pilot. And I was able to fake it this long because someone always has a place for the older ways of doing things. You get a returnee from the fifties, and they'll be happier with me flying a prop plane than a passenger drone flying on Auto."

Kasumi was silent for a long moment. "It's a problem no other generation has had to deal with. Look at us. Still all 'hale and vital' as we were at twenty five. So why does the idea of starting over from scratch make me feel so…" She waved a hand for a moment, and then it hit her. "Angry! I'm angry about it." She clapped a hand over her mouth, surprised at herself. "Why?"

"Maybe because the culture you came from honored its elders?" Hugh guessed. "My grandfather was at least allowed to retire, stay in an easy chair. We have to keep up."

"Don't know why that intimidates me so much."

"Because you'll be going to school with actual twenty-five year olds?" Hugh guessed. "Back when we first met, you asked me 'what would I do with eternal life'? Well, it took me a while but I've crossed everything off that list. And most of the world is now doing things that frankly, I didn't have the imagination to dream up when I first came back."

"Me neither." Kasumi admitted ruefully. "I remember, years ago, you told me that everyone you knew had one eye to the past; and the original ways. My teapot, your sketchbooks… You also said we all had one eye to the future."

"Except that the past is set in stone, and the future kept moving." Hugh nodded. "There are people from Bible Times who won't cook on anything but a firepit. People from the Middle Ages who won't use aircraft, no matter how often they're told it's safe. My Gran won't use a tablet, no matter how inconvenient it is the other way. And even tablets are falling into disuse at The Expo."

Kasumi pulled her head in. "I don't know." She admitted. "I want to keep things as they are, Hugh. I like it this way."

"There's no scripture that says a person has to 'keep up with the times'." Hugh reminded her gently. "And one of the things I love about Paradise is: No matter what you like, there's someone in the world who agrees; someone to share it with." He took a breath. "But I think we have to go. If not the Arcology, then something. Because if we don't start again somewhere… Then I can't be a pilot anymore. And you can't go back to the Nemo. Nick nearly Aged Out, worried that Humanity was doomed to atrophy, thanks to Eternal life. Now we know it never will… But that's not necessarily true of individuals."

Kasumi looked at the clock. "Let's go to bed. It's late." She said quietly.

Hugh nodded. Kasumi needed to process for a few minutes. They didn't exchange a word as they went about their routine, settling in for the night.

As they got into bed, Hugh spoke quietly. "We've outlived almost everything from the Old Days." Hugh turned out the light. "And I am terrified that we might… outlive our usefulness, too. It's not the technology. It's the way of thinking." He glanced over at her. "If you did go back to school? The Underwater Restoration has rewritten the book on what Ocean Life is like. You wrote a few papers, but there's gotta be hundreds of others."

"Thousands, after this long." Kasumi admitted, turning off her bedside light, settling in beside her husband tightly. "And if I went back to get my degree over again, it'd take me twice as long to unlearn the wrong stuff I already know. The Restoration has remade the bottom of the ocean. Everything I know is out of date." Kasumi bit her lip. "And so am I. At least on the Nemo."

"We need a fresh start, love. Something we've never tried before. Something we can come to as beginners, and work our way up again. It's not like we're too old to start over." He put an arm around her. "And Eternal Youth-"

"I know. This is not the last 'fresh start' we're going to need." Kasumi admitted. "Is that why you picked the Arcology? It's never been done before, by anyone; so you don't feel quite so… obsolete, starting as a beginner?"

"Because we'll all be beginners." Hugh nodded. "The thought occurred."

Kasumi shivered. "Okay. Let's do it."

"Yeah?"

"Well, I could take a month to think about it, but that's only going to make the current problem worse. We don't age. We've gotta find other ways to stay young."

"I'll tell Nick we're interested in the Arcology Project." Hugh yawned. "But I will miss this house. We've had a lot of our lives here."

"I've lived in hospital beds, a lot of Dormitories across the world, three Submarines, and two houses with you. The two houses? They're the only place that felt like my home." Kasumi held his hand. "The only thing they had in common was that my family lived there."

"We should tell Megan." Hugh said finally. "She hasn't lived here a long time, but the Arcology won't be anywhere close."

"Wow. We're really going to do this." Kasumi said. And despite herself, a part of her was excited.

~~/*\~~

"Do you know where they're building it?" Megan asked.

"You ready for this? Israel."

Megan smiled. "You're kidding."

"We've been there before."

"As visitors, sure. I don't think there's anyone over the age of a hundred that hasn't made a pilgrimage at some point." Megan nodded. "They're building something that… new, in the Bible Lands? I remember reading that they keep the place as close to Biblical as possible. Especially all the places in the Bible Record. They're building a sci-fi tower in the middle of the same places that Moses walked?"

"Well, it's only Science Fiction until it's finished." Hugh countered. "But it's not like they're putting it on the Mount of Olives. Modern Israel may have been a small nation by global standards; but for a world that puts as much focus on history and Bible lessons as this one…"

Megan nodded. "Mom still performs that tea ceremony every day; and the method hasn't changed in hundreds of years. We've got holographic projectors and wood-fired ovens in the same home. It makes sense we could have futurist towers in ancient lands."

~~/*\~~

"You're telling me the house is going to keep standing?!" Beckah nearly exploded. "After all that?"

"Don't know what to tell you, mom. The Mad Scientists pulled it off." Sydney chuckled, his projection wobbling ever so slightly. "You should see the place. It's like something out of a catalogue now. The doors close all the way, the gate doesn't even squeak."

"Unbelievable."

"Well, it's not perfect yet." Sydney hastened to tell her. "I painted the gate a different color yesterday, since it was apparently going to last; and by morning, the new paint had been eaten away to the original color. Rachel tells me the nano-tech viewed the alteration as 'off program', and fixed it. If dad ever tried to remodel the house again, it might not let him."

Alec heard that and burst out laughing.

"Rachel's still working on it, but apparently the time of 'temporary' things is over." Sydney finished. "Should I tell my kids that you're cancelling your trip before they get settled here?"

Beckah and Alec looked at each other. "We'll get back to you." She said, and disconnected the call. "We've made commitments here. And if I'm honest, I'm enjoying myself."

"The house wasn't the only reason we did this." Alec agreed. "And if Sydney's going to take over the vineyard, it's good to know the house will keep standing."

~~/*\~~

Nick Alman's job at The Expo was more than just research and development. He had risen through the ranks to a fairly influential position, managing the use of The Expo's facilities. Everyone with an idea was welcome to work at their laboratory.

Once a month, this also involved managing the Roster. A job that routinely disappointed three out of five applicants.

Nick had the Roster posted, and everyone crowded around. "Alright folks, as you can see, we've cycled the availability. I know some of you are mid-project; but you've been using those facilities for two months, and there is a line forming."

Coelho looked at the list and groaned. "Nick, I swear, we're close. If you take us off now… I need the lab to finish my observations, and if I interrupt the process now; it sets me back by six months of work. Plus, I have to wait eight months for another lab that can handle the experiment to get free-"

"Closer to ten months now." Ingaret put in regretfully. "It can't be helped. Abigail has been waiting for the electron-'scope for over a year. She's being very polite about it but it's her life's work."

"So is mine." Coelho reasoned.

"The list is final." Nick declared with no room for argument. "Remember, we've all got the time; no matter what the delay is. See this as an opportunity to refine your theories and take part in… other… projects." He shook his head. "You've all heard the speech before. I know it's not convenient, but The Expo's job is to educate people about all facets of human history and culture, as well as future technology."

"We don't mean to complain, Nick." Abigail countered without any real anger. "But you know how it is. Inspiration isn't something that can be put off until a more convenient time. You get the hot idea and you've gotta chase it. You were lucky. You applied at the perfect time. It was far enough into Paradise that The Expo was established, and still early enough that there was plenty of room to make your mark without going on a waiting list. With your reputation; you've always got access. The rest of us have to wait three times as long to get half the work done."

"I know." Nick admitted. "I'll see what I can do."

He headed back to his office. Ingaret kept pace with him, waiting until they were alone. "You know what the problem is, right?"

"I do." Nick sighed. He'd been doing that a lot lately. "A hundred years ago, we could have built a new lab or research centre to make some room. We can't do that anymore. The world's filling up with people, and The Expo is already bigger than any number of countries you would have found in OS."

"The problem is that we're turning into a world full of Company Towns." Ingaret told him. "The Expo is where you go if you want to be a scholar or an inventor. We've got enough smart people here for two Expo's; and only enough facilities for half of them."

Nick snorted. "Back in the day, more things were invented in garages and dorm rooms than anywhere else."

"Yeah, you know why?" Ingaret teased. "It's because back then, they didn't have a better place to invent things."

Nick was silent as they reached his office. "Two Expos." He said quietly.

"I hear the gears turning." Ingaret smirked at him.

~~/*\~~

Rachel had returned to The Expo, and presented her latest finished invention. "The Preserver is now ready for mass production. The hard part will always be defining how far it's meant to go as it repairs wear and tear, but the 'preparation' is already out there. Every time we 3D-Model what a house or a product will look like, we do something similar. We just have to increase that to simulate what will be removed, as well as what will be added."

"The timing is perfect to expand the use of Preservation Tech." Nick had chimed in as they made their presentation. "The Balance Equation is coming together at last. Everything added, everything taken away. Adding all the world's garbage dumps into the mix gives us some breathing room. Lets us fine-tune the calculations without anyone having to wait for supply."

"But more importantly, between the Balance Equation and the Nano-Tech, the closed system is perfected at last." Rachel summed up.

Benedict laughed joyfully. "You did it. The two of you together."

"We all did our part. The Balance Equation only works because everyone was on it. Even the people outside The Expo." Nick offered. "I just took it a step further, since we had so much of the groundwork available."

Rachel nodded. "And while we're on the subject, the Preserver has its roots in all sorts of things. Everything from 3D modelling to Crowd-sourced manufacture. How many millions of people have been making this place work?"

"Do you realize what this means?" Benedict addressed the room. "Garbage turned into usable material. No matter what it is. Recycling at its best can't do that. Our two superstars over here just eliminated all garbage dumps and turned them into gemstones. We can build homes that don't need so much as a sewer pipe, ever again. Because all that stuff can suddenly be turned into anything we want. Total conversion, right down to the molecule."

"More than that, if we can figure out how to miniaturise it; we can take a totally closed system wherever we go." Nick added. "Put it on the 'Chariot' and we can turn sewerage and food scraps into air and water. Heck, even into toilet paper and rocket fuel if we want."

"You did it, guys. You really did it." Benedict beamed. "What on earth will you do next?"

"I had been thinking that it was time I got serious about anti-gravity." Rachel quipped, not noticing Nick's twitch. "There's always something more. But for now at least, everything we've got already can last forever."

"Oh, is that what you were waiting for?" Nick quipped, mostly to himself.

~~/*\~~

The meeting broke up and the rest of the Science Council was discussing how best to make use of this new breakthrough. Rachel and Nick called it a night, heading for their respective rooms at the Dormitories.

"By the way, I never properly congratulated you on the Balance Equation." Rachel said to him as the elevator gave them privacy. "I've been checking the math, and it's perfect. It's potentially the most important Math problem ever solved." Rachel fed a little more to her smile; trying to get him to smile back just as much. "I wish I'd been on it."

"You had your own thing to deal with." Nick excused. "Don't trouble yourself."

'Don't trouble yourself' was how most conversations between them ended now, and Rachel was starting to really worry. Her conversation with Megan had thrown things into sharp clarity; and she could suddenly see it happening, over and over again.

Nick was tired of waiting for her.

And she hadn't even noticed it happening.

~~/*\~~

"I'm going to be mailing my parents their life, one box at a time." Megan complained good-naturedly. "They've got centuries of memories built up, and the place they're living in now is essentially two storage containers, done up to look like an apartment."

"I know. My sister lives in that part of the world." Biggs nodded. "Her workshops have been getting a lot of work building the modular sections for the Tower."

"Yeah?"

"Modular housing isn't new. But they were never meant to stack up on top of each other like this. It's a whole new design." Biggs handed her the empty box as she started taping the first one shut. "How much of this are they planning to take?"

"Not all of it. That's why they're doing it this way. If they ever need something, they make a request, and I send it on to them. If, at the end of the construction, they find that they've gone seventy years without the stuff they left here; then they don't need it anymore."

"And in the meantime, you're the one moving house for them." Biggs grinned. "Well it could be worse."

For a while, they packed silently.

"By the way, since this is my house now…" Megan said carefully. "I have to give some thought to what I'll do with it."

Biggs felt his ears prick up. "Oh, yes?"

"I have plenty of time on that score, but…" Megan smiled brilliantly at him. "Well, it's my turn to host Family Dinner."

"Ahh, the famous Family Dinner." Biggs suddenly understood.

"Right. I've never hosted before, since the Orphanage isn't really the place for it, and of course the Arcology isn't set up yet. So we were planning to have it here…" She looked nervous suddenly. "So… look, just read my mind, would you?"

"I'd love to help you out." Biggs reported promptly, identifying her nerves quickly. "Having the whole family over for a big dinner, with yourself as Chef, and hostess? That's a big thing to do for the first time; no matter how long you've lived. First is forever, and that's scary."

Megan nodded. "You understand, then. Tell the truth, I've never done this before. Back in OS, I never exactly had Thanksgiving Dinners or birthday parties; and such holidays weren't kept when this world began. Come to think of it, I don't even know when my birthday is. So… cooking for everyone, hosting the get-together… After I came back, Mom and Dad always did that. For more than half a millennium. Now they'll be guests."

"It'll be fine." Biggs promised.

"I don't want 'fine', I want…" Megan waved a hand around, trying to put it into words.

"You want it to be so good your mom is choking on jealousy while she's here and yet bragging about you to all her friends the second she leaves?" Biggs guessed.

Megan smiled like a shark. "You can read my mind! I'm so glad I met you." Her smile froze for a split second. "Oh, and… you're invited too, of course. I mean… I know you've met all the people involved before, but that was when-" She pulled her head in a bit. "I'm saying this all wrong."

"Megan, are you asking me to host the 'Family Thanksgiving Feast' together with you?" Biggs guessed. "You're asking me to help cook, set the table; welcome the guest-list, which will include your entire family; make witty conversation, and let them all get a preview of what would happen if this turned out to be 'our house' one day, with the two of us having everyone over?"

"Yes." She said simply.

"I'd love to."

~~/*\~~

In what used to be called 'The Holy Lands', Hugh and Kasumi were working to build a small city, standing vertical. Like everything else built in Paradise, the towers were alive; like technology was making nature grow taller; the natural and the engineered wrapped in each other. What made the Arcology different than anything else was the scale of it, the huge Dome over the top hundred meters, and what happened within the tower.

"One level built." Kasumi reported to Hugh as they walked to their Quarters for the night. The workforce was in the thousands; and they had something of a shantytown built around the construction site. "Couple of thousand to go."

"Think it's a good idea? Building it level by level? When we get to some of the really clever bits; it won't be quite so easy."

"Well, I'm looking at the blueprints, the construction timetables; and everything else in between; and we aren't at that part yet." His wife explained. "But I think with the whole tower to handle the shared load; and much larger, heavy-duty air and water reclaimer models for the common areas…"

"It's the same principle as the Micro-Grids." A man said from their left. "Decentralize all the needed services. Creates redundancy; and makes the equipment more modular. The flaw in this kind of 'self sufficient' community has always been that at some point they need something from outside the system." He held out a hand. "Eben, son of Jethro."

Hugh shook his hand. The terminology identified him as someone Returned from Bible Times; but he knew the name already. "You're the Project Manager."

"I am, sir. The Arcology is my Design. Also my Dream." Eben said with a smile. "And a pleasure to meet you also, Sister Alman."

"Kasumi, please." She said reflexively. "You know me?"

"Only by your work. Your refit to the Nemo after her first voyage was instrumental in correcting for condensation and water damage to some of the electrical equipment. You'll find a few of those improvements in our blueprints for the water reclamation in the Tower."

Hugh smiled secretly. Kasumi wasn't used to being the centre of attention, but she had a small following of people who had built on her career achievements.

But this time, Kasumi was more than willing to meet her 'fan' halfway. "I've been reading your work as well. The Arcology wouldn't have been possible without you. Even fifty years ago, this would have all been crazy."

"It's been a long road." Eben nodded happily. "When I was first Resurrected, I looked through some of the video Archives. I was stunned by it. 'Video' wasn't even a dream in the days of Solomon's Rule. One of my descendants was there to teach me. The only one of my line to accept the Messiah, and have his descendants do the same with the Witnesses."

"Must have been early days; if you were all Gold Letters." Hugh commented.

"It was." Eben nodded. "I spent my first week just… staring at pictures of towers and cities from OS. I was taught how they were built, and the fatal flaw in the whole way of doing things. My second week I spent walking in the Gardens that had been restored, learning about things like taking power from sunlight, or the movement of the ocean waves. By itself, none of these things were Revelations. My generation were taught the fatal flaw of super-cities with each lesson about the Tower of Babel. It felt like the skyscrapers of the Last Days were making the same mistake: Putting the world at your feet; so that you can be as God."

Hugh laughed. "Hadn't thought of the Empire State quite like that, but I guess it's true." He gestured at Kasumi's tablet. "You realize, of course, that the Arcology is easily five times the size of any tower ever built before."

"I know." Eben chuckled. "After a month of walking in a near-daze between towers and gardens; I began to dream of something like this. Something that made reaching up to the sky an act of devotion instead of defiance. Something that could take flowers to the clouds and…" He broke off. "Sorry. I tend to wax poetic. The Arcology design is the result of almost five centuries of education and revision. I started my classes within six months; trying to figure out how to make it work. Until recently, it couldn't be done."

"Centuries of planning, plus another seventy years to build." Kasumi smiled broadly. "Eternal Life."

"Six hundred years of study; I finally get to see the practical result!" Eben was bouncing in his chair. "It's possible I may not sleep for the next seven decades."

Hugh chuckled. "Well, it's going to be amazing. If you don't mind my saying, it's an incredible project to be part of."

"I hope you'll stay on afterwards." Eben nodded. "I'm guaranteeing 'Permanent Resident Status' in the Tower for all workers. With the modular design, the living quarters will be done sooner than the rest of the Tower." He smiled a bit. "Of course, we'll be adding more living quarters up on the higher levels too. I assume you're not scared of heights."

Hugh couldn't help the laugh. "Ohh, it's a tempting idea."

"Think it over. We're building a vertical city, and farm, and forest, all in one. Watch it be built; and see if you can see yourself here." Eben told them warmly. "You'd be welcome."

~~/*\~~

Ingaret let herself into Rachel's office, looking nervous. "Got a second?"

Rachel waved her in, eyes still on the equations she'd written.

"Your forehead is doing that crinkly thing it used to do back during the early days of the Conference whenever we ran out of coffee." Ingaret observed.

"Praise God for coffee." Rachel agreed, eyes glued to the board. "James Clerk Maxwell theorized the existence of radio waves in 1886, by building on observations of the visible light spectrum. By 1895 Guglielmo Marconi had sent and received a working radio signal. By 1902 he had sent the first trans-atlantic wireless message."

"Okay." Ingaret nodded, letting her tell the tale.

"At the turn of the 1700's, William Gilbert and Thomas Browne coined the term 'electricity'. 1752, Ben Franklin flew a kite and proved that lightning and static charge were both electricity, and by 1800, Alessandro Volta was the first to generate a steady current. Within two hundred years, the whole world ran on electrical power." Rachel continued.

"Yes." Ingaret nodded. Such history came long after her time, but she'd met several of these people over the years.

"Observing something in nature is usually the first step in creating it." Rachel yawned, stepping away from the board. "We first figured out how to detect gravity waves in 2016. Why, after seven hundred years, can I not figure out how to generate anti-gravity?!"

"Because you've been busy coming up with about forty zillion other things first?" Ingaret took a breath. "Listen, we need to talk about something. You know how they've been discussing a Second Expo?"

"We need one." Rachel agreed with a grin. "Who would have thought so many people would have great ideas?" She reached out to her whiteboard and changed one of the equations. "By the way, tell Coelho-"

Ingaret reached out and turned her friend to face her. "Will you give me your full attention for just ten seconds, please?"

Rachel blinked, suddenly noticing Ingaret's nerves. "What's wrong?"

Ingaret licked her lips. "When we were talking about setting up a new Expo, the Arcology came up as a natural place." Ingaret said. "You know I've been helping Nick with the designs... There's a lot of new technologies involved in the construction. And if we succeed in getting the tower built, it'll be the natural place to start. The surface area will only be a few hundred meters, but it'd have enough floorspace for a hundred laboratories, a whole university; living space for anyone who wanted to work there, plus their families…"

"I agree with everything you're saying, so why are you so nervous?" Rachel nodded, trying to figure her old friend out. "What's wrong? I voted in favor of a second Expo, it's been approved. If they decide to base it at the Arcology tower, it's fine. Anything more is Nick's area, since he's the one… who planned…" Rachel broke off, suddenly realizing. "They offered Nick the new Expo."

Ingaret nodded.

~~/*\~~

"Were you even going to tell me?"

Nick looked up and found Rachel in his doorway. She looked… still. Like there was something hiding under the skin, and she didn't dare show anything on her face; keeping it hidden away. He knew immediately what she was talking about.

Nick sighed. "I was… trying to tell you. They offered it to me. I haven't given them an answer yet." Nick nodded. "I've been trying to discuss it with you for weeks, but-"

"But I've been busy." Rachel nodded. Now that she knew, she could suddenly see all the moments when he was trying to tell her something. "How long would you be gone?"

Nick was unreadable. "The position is permanent."

Rachel's eyes flashed. "You'd never take leadership on a permanent basis. It'll keep you out of the Lab."

"It's never kept you out of the Lab when there was an idea you wanted to chase." Nick pointed out.

"I was able to do that because I had you backing me up. My Chief Administrator?" Rachel pointed out. "You keep the place running when I'm working on something."

"That's why they offered it to me." Nick agreed. "Look, Ingaret was keeping all the plates spinning long before I showed up. Even before I was Returned. She can do it again."

Rachel was fumbling for the right words to say that would change his mind. "Yeah, but… You like being in the trenches, doing things."

"Maybe times have changed." Nick shot back. "I can spend a few hundred years at a desk before the Thousand Years are up. You know what my Lifelong Project is. It's all just theory until then. When they offered it to me, the first thing that went through my mind was 'this is the job a grown up should have'."

"But-" She stopped, jaw working. "I'd never see you again."

"We teleconference all the time. When I was young, people kept in touch as penpals. Telegram, if they had money, or if it was urgent. These days, we don't just telecommute, we tele-presence. We can be in the same room from different continents. You took how many meetings from the Ducard home? We'll work together all the time."

"Yeah, but that's work. What about us?"

Long silence.

"Rachel, let's be honest here." Nick said softly.

Rachel stared at him, stricken. "Oh." She said finally. "I see."

"You really want to do this?" Nick sighed hard, squaring up for a hard conversation.

"Better now than after you've left."

"Fine." Nick took a breath. "At first, I thought you wanted to see how I'd change over a century. Perfectly valid. Then, I thought you were just caught up in a project; which is also fine, because I'm the same way. But then working together on a project became working together on thirty, and then working separately on another forty; until finally…" He spread his hands wide. "I love you. I've known you for centuries, and I've been in love with you for almost all that time. But this is nothing but a holding pattern."

"I thought you loved it here as much as I did." She offered.

"I do." He said honestly. "But that's not why I stayed so long. I meant what I said: I can be anywhere in the world and still be part of The Expo. I stayed here, because seeing you via projection wasn't nearly enough. I stayed, because even when the whole planet is a Paradise, the very best place in it is wherever you are. Except I've done the math on how long we've been 'co-workers who happen to sit together at conventions' and it's starting to get ridiculous. We're smart people, Rachel. We make time for things. For work, for God, for the whole world… but not so much for each other."

"You asked me to marry you." Rachel reminded him.

"Years ago. Years that can be counted in centuries." He reminded her. "You said 'not yet', and I'm wondering how long 'yet' is, when you live forever."

Rachel took a breath. "When we first met, you had grey hair. You nearly aged out, thinking that the human race would just let every chance go by… That we, as a species, would take everything for granted."

Nick nodded. "I was wrong."

"You weren't entirely wrong." She told him. "Because we're all guilty of having taken some things for granted. Kasumi took for granted that she'd always have her job waiting on the Nemo; or that the oceans would always be as she remembered. Hugh took for granted that he'd always be relevant in a field that never stopped updating… And I took for granted that you would always be willing to wait for me."

Heavy silence.

Rachel reached into her pocket, and pulled out the ring box. "This… I actually had to think about where I left it. And when I found it, it was dusty." She had tears in her eyes. "I waited too long, Nick."

Nick just looked at her. "Isn't that up to us?"

Rachel finally met his gaze. "Yeah?"

"We've done things that remade the world. How we talk, how we learn, how we worship. It's not like I was waiting by the phone the whole time." Nick looked heartsick. "Rachel, when you picture the future, either with The Expo or not... Am I there?"

"You're always there." Rachel vowed vehemently.

Silence.

"Why do I have trouble believing that?" Nick asked seriously. "I mean, I believe you, and I believe you mean it; and yet when you said that just now, my first reaction was 'since when?'."

Rachel nodded, stricken. "There it is." She whispered. "I waited too long to give you an answer."

Silence.

"We both let it last too long, didn't we?" Nick said quietly. "It's easy to ignore time when you never feel it passing." Nick spread his hands wide. "The upside of Eternal Life is also the downside, Rach. We've still got eternity ahead."

She sniffed. "I always thought the upside of eternal life was that there was no such thing as 'too late' or 'too long'." She held out the ring box. "But some things won't wait forever. And they shouldn't have to. And I'm ashamed of myself that I put this off for so long."

The moment hung between them. It was fragile and hushed. Part of Rachel was hoping he'd say something. Part of Nick was hoping she'd take the ring out of the box and put it on her finger. But neither of them did so.

After a while, Nick shook his head. "You don't ask for it back." He said quietly. "Not even when..."

"When it's over." Rachel said it for him painfully, and she darted forward to hug him tightly. "Be happy. You'll do amazing in Israel, but make sure to be happy and loved. You deserve that."

And then she turned from him and left the room without a word.

~~/*\~~

"Hey, Stranger."

Biggs looked up. "Kit!" He smiled, and came around the counter to give her a tight hug. "Hey, sis. What brings you to this part of the world?"

"There's a gallery that wants one of my paintings." Kit smiled. "And you know I can't face public attention without coffee. Your coffee, specifically."

Biggs started brewing. "Where's Kasuf?"

"He went ahead. He's handling transport for the artwork. The gallery is new, just opened a few months ago. There's a lot of people hoping to get their start there."

"Well, they'd be crazy to skip your work." Biggs replied dutifully. "You have dedicated fans all over the place. Especially around here." He gestured over at the wall mosaic of Kit's postcards. "Every time Megan brings one of the kids around, I get hounded with questions about the places you've drawn."

"Shouldn't be too hard for you." Kit observed. "Most of them were places you recommended to me." She smiled as Biggs set her coffee down in front of her. "This is the same Megan you told me about last time?"

"Yup. She runs a halfway house nearby. All the Returned kids who find they have no families waiting for them. She takes them in and finds them homes. But unlike the Old Days, she goes personally with the kids to meet foster families. There are five or six adults working there, usually part time. Megan runs the bulk of it."

"I thought Returned kids came back to meet their foster parents directly." Kit sipped.

"Yeah, they did back in the first five hundred years. Megan herself came back at ten and found her new family waiting for her. But the demographics are balancing out at last, and the truth is, there are more kids than parents. So Megan's job is to get the kids used to the world before they settle."

"Sounds like a rough job. Put the effort into a kid, and then not get to raise them." Kit murmured.

"That's what I said, but you should see her with her charges. She's fearless. She brings them in here at least once a week; always someone new. I asked her about it, and apparently there are two kinds of 'parent' skills. Some kids are desperate for a mom and dad. Some are fighters. Megan's charges are the kids who don't know how to be in a family. According to her, the most important part of the job is to outlast the suspicion, and the rest is just time and affection."

"Well, we spent some time in 'the System' ourselves." Kit offered. "A lot of people who thought they could handle it got broken by being given a 'problem' kid. If Megan can handle it, maybe it's best."

"Well, according to Megan; the whole world is running on the idea that it's not blood that makes a family." Biggs nodded. "We already knew that, even in OS."

Kit was smiling broadly at him.

"What?"

"Nothing just… You just said her name six times in one minute. I've never heard you talk this much about a woman before." Kit commented. "It's nice, seeing you like this."

"Preoccupied?"

"In love."

"I wouldn't say…" Biggs looked down. "Yeah, I am; aren't I?"

"I'm more than a little relieved that it's finally happened." Kit observed. "I was starting to think it wouldn't come."

Biggs snorted. "Took me a while to sort myself out."

"We were both pretty damaged after OS." She admitted.

"You, less so than me." Biggs countered. "You still haven't told me what happened to you in there, but you came out of my cage on A-Day, and you seemed… whole. Way more than I was with wide open spaces around me."

"Mm." Kit sipped her coffee. "Y'know, I never told you this, but I was really ticked off at you in the months after the Now On Earth convention. You insisted on sorting yourself out alone. Took me a while to remember that 'yourself' was all you had for most of your life. You didn't even have a window to look out of. Seven hundred years of people having to unlearn old ways; I forgot that you had plenty to unlearn too." She looked sideways at him. "Please excuse me for not sticking with you, no matter what you said."

"I'm glad it happened that way." He said lightly. "I saw more of the world in that first two centuries than most people have in seven, even today."

"Even so, I'm glad you sorted yourself out." Kit told him. "I get that you wanted to do that first; but now you're helping with foster kids; chatting with the regulars… You're an emotionally healthy, adult male. You're gainfully employed with well rounded interests. You know what that means?"

"Time for you to come and fix something that isn't broken for the first time in my life?" Biggs guessed, unsurprised.

"Bingo!" Kit told him happily. "Of course, the file of eligible bachelorettes that I've been saving up is worthless now, thanks to this Supermom you're waxing about; but there's still plenty of room for me to make improvements!" He was about to protest, but she talked over him. "Now, as far as I know, you've never done the chasing before. First rule when you're interested in a Witness girl: You have to win over the family. Have you met them yet?"

"Not officially. But I help out at the Orphanage. She brings her charges here when they're adopted out."

"Ohh, perfect." Kit nearly drooled. "Fastest way to a woman's heart is through her kids. Your Megan hands them off to their forever family; you get the approval of the little'uns and you get to hold her hand as she makes a teary goodbye. This is gonna be easier than I thought."

"Alright, stop that!" Biggs barked. "Remember, I'm your brother; and I can still put you in a headlock any time I want."

"I know you don't approve of meddling, but this is for your own good." Kit insisted primly. "You've dealt yourself out for way too long."

"Stop it!" Biggs snapped, before settling. "Look… Real talk?"

Kit nodded.

"I dealt myself out because I was a criminal." Biggs told her. "For the first hundred years, the only people coming back were the faithful ones. The world filled up with lifelong believers. I was a ten minute Witness with a record longer than your arm. I spent more years as an Enforcer for a Prison Kingpin than most people spent pioneering. It wasn't just 'what I was in for'. Violent crime."

Kit cut herself off. "Yes."

"All the jokes people make about Prisoners and women…" Biggs waved a hand. "It took me longer than you did to fall in love, Kit. Longer still to trust myself with it."

"I get that. But this much I know: Life isn't meant to be lived alone, big brother."

"No, I guess not." Biggs admitted, and after a long moment he spoke again; his voice going weaker and vulnerable. "The Old World screwed me up, sis. It left scars deep."

Kit nodded. "Yeah." She said simply. "You more than a lot of people."

"I learned how to act properly pretty early, but… I look in the mirror, and I see that the old shiv scars are gone. The surgical scars are gone. The tatts I had have faded, the broken nose is straight, the chipped tooth is whole again… I look in the mirror, I look clean-cut and Christian. But whenever I walked away from the mirror, it was all still there. Know what I mean?"

"I do." Kit agreed. "I talk to women who survived assaults back in OS. They say they can move on, but it stays with them for life. But then they get here, and they discover they have no idea just how long 'life' is. If the marks of the old days took centuries to fade on you, and only decades for someone else, then that's fine. You've got forever."

Biggs bit his lip. "While we're being real, can I confess something?"

"Sure."

"My great fear is that I'm still just acting."

Kit chuckled. "I had the same fear before A-Day. But I know you're really better now. It's the real thing."

"How do you know that?"

Kit gestured. "Look at your cafe. Huge windows. The little apartment over that storefront on Year One? The windows were small. Then the Dorms. You had the shades pulled in every picture you sent me. Then the place in Tibet? Small windows, but huge views. The bungalow in the south Pacific? Bamboo walls that rolled up for airflow. Now this place. Windows big enough to take up the entire front wall. Everywhere you go, you've gotten more open to the world."

Biggs sniffed, conceding that.

"You want to be with this girl, you've gotta convince everyone involved that you belong at the family dinner table. And you should start with yourself." Kit summed up.

"Megan is hosting the next 'family dinner' and she asked me to help her prepare the food."

Kit's mouth became a thin line. "Are you going to give me any room to meddle here, or not?"

~~/*\~~

Hugh woke up as Kasumi shook him awake. She was holding out her tablet. "News." She told him quietly. "You should see this."

Hugh took the tablet. Rachel was on the screen. Ingaret was there, as was Benedict and a few other founding members of The Expo. Rachel was centre-stage, making the announcement. "When we founded the World's Fair Expo, it started out as an improved form of an old dream. To bring together people that had been blessed with inspiration and innovation. To give them all the time and resources needed, and see what wonderful things they can create; purely to share it with the whole world. Scripture says that 'Iron sharpens iron'. This isn't limited to spiritual education. Even in OS, we knew that when people with questions and perspectives come together and share what they think; they improve each other. Back in OS, this led to bitter rivalries, professional sabotage, and long held academic grudges. Here in Paradise, we thank Jehovah God every day that we've made a place where the old dream has come true. The Expo has succeeded in its goal of remaking the world."

"Nick's not there." Hugh commented, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Trust me, keep watching." Kasumi warned.

"In recent years, it's become clear that far more people have been blessed with that inspiration than ever before. More people than we ever anticipated. There's more Research being done in our laboratories now than in all the Universities of OS put together. It's no secret that we've expanded the definition of 'creativity' to include history, education, and the Restoration… How many people in history had an amazing idea that could vastly improve the world, but never got the chance to follow it, due to social constraints, or financial limitations?" Rachel continued. "And more importantly, how many people want to pursue that now, only to find out that The Expo is full to bursting?"

Rachel let that thought sink in as the screen lit up with a montage of pictures and video clips from the people working at The Expo.

"It's clear that The Expo is a successful concept, and in our business, when something works; you expand on it." Rachel summed up. "We have come to the same problem that many research labs have: Not enough room for every good idea. To get time with our resources, it's often down to trading favors, or asking for help from a personal contact. That's not what we had in mind when we founded The Expo. After prayerful thought, and conversation with the Overseers, the decision has received unanimous support: The Expo has to be expanded."

"Only reason they didn't do that sooner was that Transportation was spreading faster than their laboratories." Hugh offered, and Kasumi shushed him, pointing him back to the screen.

"With that in mind, we're rechristening The Expo as 'The Foundation', in the grand tradition of benefactors to worthy causes." Rachel declared. "Auxiliary Expo's will be founded under our administrative care. One in Israel, one in Australia, and one in Japan. People have booked time, sometimes decades in advance; and come from across the globe to meet us here in California and pursue their academic dreams. It is our hope that with these new Campuses opening around the world, that others won't have to travel so far; or wait so long to add their inspiration to our own."

The screen changed again, this time showing concept art, modelling new places. One of them looked just like the artist rendition of the Arcology Tower that Nick had shown them.

"The first of these new Expo's is to open as soon as the Facilities are finished; and to tell you more about it, meet Nick Alman. He's been part of the management here for years now, essentially the second-in-charge. In a world where the Managers and CEO's need never retire, most companies and hierarchies are finding other ways to offer advancement. Nick, why don't you take us on a tour of the new Expo?"

The screen changed to show Nick, out at the construction site of the Arcology. "Thanks, Rachel. As you can see behind me, the Arcology we're building is unlike any other construction in human history. Most of the innovations that make it possible were conceived, tested; and ultimately approved in-house at the Foundation. The Expo here in Israel will be more than just a tower, it's effectively a city; built into one structure-"

Hugh turned off the screen. "Nick's coming here?"

"Permanently." Kasumi nodded. "Rachel's staying in California. You know what that means."

"Why didn't he tell me?" Hugh was stunned. "Y'know, I never approved of how long they were dragging out their relationship, but I figured they were… inevitable. It felt like something guaranteed. Borderline ordained."

Kasumi sniffed. "I know. I had the same thought." She gestured at the Screen. "It's not a live broadcast. It went up on the Database this morning. Nick's probably waiting for your call."

Hugh hadn't even gotten out of bed yet. She was holding out his robe before he was done throwing the covers back. "I'll call him right-"

Knock knock.

"-now." Hugh sighed. "Let him in. I doubt he's eaten, either."

~~/*\~~

"I'm sorry to land on your doorstep, but the workday doesn't start for another hour." Nick summed up.

He was carrying one bag; and nothing else. Hugh knew his brother well enough to know the one bag was all he had with him. "We saw you on the Announcement video, at the construction site-"

"I filmed it a week ago." Nick excused. "It was a showcase piece for the Arcology. The Foundation made the offer a day later. Change the intro a little, and it's also showcasing The Expo."

"You've spoken to Brother Eben?" Kasumi said from the kitchen island, putting breakfast together for them.

"Just once, when he made the original proposal. His mortal fear back then was that he'd get the Tower finished and have empty apartments. For all the safety of this world, how many people still don't want to fly, much less live at cloud level? With The Expo opening a branch, we'll have the whole Arcology booked out." Nick told her. "Plus, the Foundation in California is planning to build one of their own; but it'll take another century. Eben has turned this dream into a franchise."

Kasumi placed a platter between them. "Breakfast. Enjoy." There were only two seats at the kitchen dining table, so Kasumi settled into her husband's lap. A moment later she saw the flash of raw jealousy on Nick's face at the show of intimacy. He covered it quickly, but she saw it, and rose, busying herself so the brothers could talk.

"I'm sorry about Rachel." Hugh said quietly. "I'm assuming that's why you came back early enough that you can't start work yet?"

"Been on the road all night. Even with automated vehicles, it was a long haul. Didn't want to stop, because… Well, I figured I'd sleep better with half a planet between us." Nick said quietly. "Listen, I'm not the only one having trouble getting a place to land."

"Oh?"

"Well, the idea is that these apartments are where you live during construction, and then they get put into the Tower as complete pieces once they build up to the right floor. But some of my people from The Expo are having trouble getting an apartment."

"They're building them every day." Hugh nodded. "Is there that much of a lag?"

"Not exactly, but…" Nick waved a hand. "Not to be prideful, but the people you need for this phase of construction? They're still waiting for somewhere to live when they arrive. This early, they've got to be the priority. They're the workforce."

Hugh frowned and pulled up his schedule for the day. "I can get you a meeting with Eben. I'm flying in people who are off the waiting list as rooms open up. He can shift the waiting list around a little if there's a priority."

"Thank you." Nick nodded and pulled back the shades on the window. He was looking up at the sky, as though he could already see the Tower there among the clouds. "It's going to be impressive when it's done."

The construction site was like any other. Huge collections of equipment and material dotted around, the workforce milling about, all of them hard at work on something. There were manifests and timetables projected for public viewing, and smaller worksheets on paper for different departments.

Like any construction site in the new world; everyone was getting a quick refresher on the procedures; and letting the crowd support the effort. With their eyes improved so, the brothers could see as a foreman directed almost twenty people to help carry a load that had fallen from a truck. Other crews worked to clean bricks and stir cement, but everyone was smiling. Somewhere, they could hear music playing; and the smell of strong coffee and fresh baked pastry for the workers…

"Not a bad place to settle." Hugh edged back into the other conversation. "Especially if you plan to open another Expo here. The apartment will be plenty large enough for one person."

"You aren't gonna… y'know?" Nick winced. "Tell me what an idiot I'm being? Given what I gave up to get here, I was expecting a little 'big brotherly' abuse."

"You didn't give anything up, Nick. She did." Hugh said quietly. "I'm sorry it didn't work out." He paused, reading his brother's face. "Or rather, how long it took to not work out."

"If she was going to break my heart, I would rather she'd done it two centuries ago." Nick said darkly. "I know it puts you and Kasumi in an awkward spot too. You've known her as long as I have. Alec and Beckah have known her since A-Day; and they're your oldest friends. What's 'Family Dinner' going to be now?"

"The one thing we have to live with forever in the world is each other." Hugh said seriously. "You're right that our connection to Rachel doesn't just go through you; but I don't want it to be like that. We're a family. I don't want us all choosing sides." He saw Nick's face. "Obviously, I'd pick your side." He said patiently. "But that can't be how we handle this. Especially if you're going to take over the new Expo; and her managing the Foundation. You and Rachel will still be working together."

"I know." Nick admitted. "I think it'll be okay. The worst part about the breakup is that we agreed with each other. We did everything short of shake hands on it, in fact." He shook his head. "Let me see that waiting list. Some of my people are already placed, I'll see if they'd be willing to have housegue…" He trailed off, looking at the list. "These are the people you're flying in today? The ones that are already approved?"

Hugh was about to respond when there was a knock at the door. Hugh answered it to find a local man with dark eyes. There was something familiar about him, but Hugh couldn't place what. "Can I help you?"

The man gave a polite bow. "My name is Zann. I was looking for brother Alman?"

"You found him." Hugh and Nick said in perfect unison. It was a natural enough point of confusion. Nick was the one more likely to be sought out, given that his posting had now been announced. But it was Hugh's quarters, so the man could have been looking for either of them.

"Oh good, you're both here. I was hoping to speak to you both, individually. Most of the people assembling the Living Quarters for the Project are local. I've known them for close to six hundred years now, so I liaise their contribution to the more international projects." Zann said agreeably. "Could I treat you to coffee? There's something we should probably talk about."

Nick nodded, studying him. "Then you are definitely the man I need to talk to. We were just talking about the Roster for quarters among the workforce. Some of my people are stuck on the waiting list."

Zann smiled. "Ah. I thought this might be a problem. I understand your Team from The Expo need to be involved at an early stage, so I've managed to find living quarters for them." Zann tapped at his device. "As a matter of fact, that's why I'm so pleased find you both here. Brother Hugh, I understand you're flying these people in. This might affect your schedule."

Hugh's device chimed with the incoming message, still in Nick's hand. Nick brought the message up. "You've found temporary dwelling for my wait-listed team?"

"The ones that aren't approved already." Zann nodded agreeably.

Nick glanced at the other room, where Kasumi was. "We should probably go get that coffee." Nick looked back at Zann. "There's a small matter I need to finish up with my brother first. Can we meet you there?"

Zann nodded, gave them the location, and left. Nick tapped at the screen, underlining names. "Bro, I think we might have a problem."

Hugh blinked. "What's wrong?"

Nick turned the device to show his brother. "These are the people stuck on a waiting list. These are the ones approved. And these are the ones Zann has found temporary accommodations, away from the site. Notice anything about the names?"

Hugh looked, then blinked, then checked again. "It's gotta be a coincidence. I mean, this is Israel…" He trailed off. "Okay, how you wanna handle this?"

"Let's see if we're imagining it first."

~~/*\~~

Zann had taken them to one of the conference rooms. Food was not hard to find, but this was a good distance from the Communal Tables where lunch was being set out for the workers.

"Well, I appreciate your finding a place for the new workers." Nick said casually. "But the location is going to be… inconvenient."

"I know, it's a fair way from the site." Zann said apologetically. "I had some trouble finding a place big enough for all of them-"

"Surely it would be an easier matter to just scatter them about. Most homes have a guestroom. Until the supply of quarters catches up with the waiting list, all they need is a place to sleep when they're off-shift." Hugh pointed out.

"Well, as I told you, I've been working with the locals almost since Paradise began." He caught himself, as though just thinking about it. "Oh. You're not Tribulation Survivors, are you?"

"We are not." Hugh confirmed.

"I thought so, but it's best to make sure." Zann nodded. "If you weren't there, I doubt there's anything to compare it to, a nearly thirty year period when the only people in the world were the ones Chosen and Saved by Jehovah directly; from the start of the Bible to the end of the System. Longer than most people can imagine, let alone have records of. There's a long history in this part of the world. This is a region that has a very particular history with Jehovah God."

"Can't dispute that." Hugh agreed. "Maybe more history than any other spot on the planet."

"So, you can understand, we want to respect that history." Zann nodded. "It's one of our proudest features, in fact."

Nick wasn't smiling. "Which has what to do with our construction workers, exactly? There's precedent. Even in OS, when the JW's had construction projects, they found brothers only too happy to take them in."

"True, but this is not a typical project. In fact, I would go so far as to say this Tower will change everything for the whole Region." Zann nodded.

"Zann, what exactly is it that you're afraid of, with the Tower?"

"Oh, we have no problem with the Tower." Zann said agreeably. "I, for one, consider it a marvel. The sort of thing that my time could only dream of." He looked at Nick. "But I'm given to understand that your appointment as Director of The Expo is a 'spur of the moment' development. As I said, there's a long history of-"

"Which was announced an hour ago, and I wasn't even in my office before you knocked on my brother's door." Nick cut him off. "You were coming to see Hugh before you knew about my new job."

Zann paused. "I was." He said finally.

Nick held out the tablet. "Zann, I can't help but notice your 'living arrangements' for the people still on the waiting list is a long way from the Site. In fact, it's over the border."

"There are no borders anymore, really." Hugh put in.

"But thousands of years ago, when this was 'the promised land', the borders were very clearly defined." Nick followed up. "I find it hard to believe it's a coincidence."

Zann sighed. "No. It's not. But you have to understand, the people that I've been working with all this time… The ones currently doing the most work in assembling sections for the workers to live in, and other sections to be added to the Tower… Israel has a long history of being under siege from foriegn enemies; and an even longer history of being led astray. I can literally draw the boundary of what Jehovah God promised us since before the nation existed."

Hugh gestured back and forth between himself and his brother. "We died in the Second World War. Israel didn't exist as a nation when we were alive. We came back to this world, when borders had long ceased to exist, and country names didn't matter to anyone but the mailmen."

"Those were borders drawn by men. I'm talking about something that came from a far more permanent Authority." Zann responded, sounding reasonable. "Israel has always been part faith, part nation. I died long before the Messiah came. You died long after. We're part of the same faith now, and it took my people a while to come to terms with the idea that Paradise was open to gentiles as well. God says that you are my brother, I accept that wholeheartedly, but-"

"But you'd feel better if the nation of Israel was kept apart from all those foreigners, and their long history of leading your people astray?" Nick said.

Zann sighed hard and looked down. "I'm not prejudiced, Brother Alman." He insisted. "But history remembers that Israel lost her identity and her way, over and over. All the people, not the false gods, not the 'disgusting idols', but the people of God all came back. They were the first ones to come back, in fact. A lot of people can trace their bloodline from Adam to their descendants, all the way to A-Day. There's no other nation in the world that can do that."

Nick studied him. "You would feel better if someone who can 'trace their lineage' back to those original twelve tribes was in charge of things at the new Expo?"

"I'm sure you're perfectly qualified, my brother. I've taken the liberty of studying some of your work. It's an impressive list of credentials. You could have your pick of any job, in any Expo. Any of the three others you could work at. Also, your life story was published when you rose to a position of leadership in the original, so it's a matter of public record that you died in OS on recon of those awful death camps where my people were held during the War-"

"That war was fought almost two thousand years after the Covenant between Jehovah and the Jews ended." Hugh reminded him.

Zann stopped talking, and his mouth became a thin line. "I will concede that point." He said finally. "But times have changed, have they not?"

Hugh and Nick traded a look. What do we do here?

"You have someone you'd rather take charge when the Tower is finished?" Nick asked, noncommittally. "I mean, you have a name? Someone qualified?"

"One or two." Zann agreed, pleased.

~~/*\~~

The brothers Alman told Eben all about it an hour or two later. "We didn't take any position with him." Hugh said quickly. "To be honest, it caught us off guard. He just came out and said that he'd rather a gentile wasn't in charge of The Expo here."

Eben took a deep breath. "It's not just The Expo. There's a percentage; a minority, but a percentage that aren't comfortable with abolishing the way we did things in Bible times."

"And Zann is one of them?"

"Yes." Eben said with dark gravity. "I've never heard of him saying or doing anything so overt; but I guess the Tower, let alone The Expo announcement this morning must have changed things." He took a breath. "It's a pattern. At least with a few people. They prefer to do business with people they knew back then, they prefer their kids to marry 'in the tribe'..."

"How has this been allowed to continue?" Nick was stunned.

"Because he hasn't done anything wrong. He treats visitors well. He just hasn't had anyone permanent come to stay in his circle before. I don't think he's ever left Israel, even after this many years." Eben explained. "But he's not the only one. Something you have to understand, gents. For most of their lives, and the lives of their ancestors, going all the way back to Moses; keeping 'outsiders' away from the nation, away from their children; was the best chance at survival. The Paradise that the nation of Israel was expecting? Not at all what the Christian believers were expecting. And the fact that one was more right than the other doesn't overturn all of it."

"The pre-Christian believers came back in the first century of Paradise. Seven hundred years later, how is this still lingering?"

"It's not just what they were raised into." Eden said quickly. "As you said, those that were faithful servants of Jehovah came back first, and then almost a quarter century passed before any of the general population came back. Even the direct opponents of Jah started to come back. Or at least, those that served in their armies, their nations... "

"And a lot of those people were based out of Israel too." Nick nodded, getting it. "Hell. We went through something similar in the States. All the displaced people… For that matter, every country that was colonized by another… All different people come back thinking the same land is their home."

"Zann keeps his nose clean. He's followed all the commands given to people today, including showing love. He's never refused anyone anything. There's no rule that says you have to do business with people from other nations just to show equality."

"Those instructions also include 'unlearning' all the old prejudices." Nick pointed out. "All the people who are 'approved' to live on-site in the finished Living Quarters? They all have Jewish names. The ones Zann found 'temporary living quarters' for are all being kept outside the border that doesn't exist anymore."

Eben looked sick about it. "He has a genuine love for God. But for him, part of that love has always been how he treated others." Eben was silent a moment. "Some of the people who came back from those days, they still stay kosher, just because it was habit all that time. They do most of their study on 'Saturday', because they were used to observing the Sabbath. There's no rule says they can't do that. There's a man I know who was in the postal service before computers were invented. He still won't use electronic messages. Only paper mail. There's no rule that says he has to keep up with the times. Is it opposition, or just his personality?" Eben winced. "Zann had two wives, in his old life. He loved them both, treated both of them very well. He said it was his 'duty before God, and his joy before Man' to make their home a place full of peace and love and faith… First thing he was told when he came back was that he couldn't keep them both-"

"You know him." Nick suddenly observed. "Zann. You know him, personally."

Eben nodded. "He's my younger brother."

Heavy silence.

"Eben," Hugh began. "My part in the Arcology project is transportation. Right now, I'm making supply runs. When the tower goes up, the schedule calls for work to be done on the interior and the exterior simultaneously. The Tower is designed to be so high that we can airlift equipment up to the midway point. There are helicopter pads and such dotted around the exterior… Eben, my flight schedule changed this morning, so I spend most of my time outside the Region, gathering things for transport to the Site."

"And you're wondering if someone changed things so that the Gentile pilots spend most of their time outside the border?" Zann guessed. "No. I put you on that route because I know you're still taking classes for VTOL piloting. When the Tower passes the forty story mark, that's when we'll need you here."

Hugh pulled his head in. "I'm sorry. I never should have implied-"

"See, this is why you don't even want the appearance of prejudice to creep in. It makes people wonder." Eben sighed. "For the record, Nick is the new Manager of the local branch of The Expo." He declared. "I look forward to seeing the great things he does, with the people who live in this part of the world, and with our united brotherhood across the globe. If my brother seeks to 'rouse the rabble', he won't get very far. The Expo is international, so is the workforce on the Arcology." He looked at them both. "If my brother doesn't change his thinking, he'll be the only one to suffer for it; but these things are matters of personality more than prejudice. If Zann ever sought to outright mistreat anyone, we'd know it, because he'd fail."

The brothers Alman nodded and rose from their seats. "We're getting back to work." Hugh said kindly. "We're not worried, you understand; but it's the kind of thinking that can fester." He took a breath. "And I'm a little amazed I'm only just finding out about it now."

Hugh and Nick made their goodbyes and left Eben's office. Eben let them go and looked out the window as the Tower started to grow. Suddenly realizing he was alone, he started to pray for his brother, and for the people working under his charge.

~~/*\~~

"By the way, in case nobody said it, welcome to your new job in Israel." Hugh said to his brother with grim understatement.

"I've seen lingering prejudice before. Ingaret told me this story about a scholar that came back long before I did, and the hardest thing he had to process was female professors." Nick commented. "You and I went through something similar when we came back. We went through it again just recently, facing up to the last reminders of the Old World that still had their hooks in us."

"I guess that's true." Hugh nodded. "When you came back, I was worried you'd react badly to Kasumi. How many people did we know that died at Pearl, or Midway?"

"Two battles in a war that took place before she was born. It's hard to blame Kasumi for that. Harder still when you find out that all those friends are back safe."

Hugh looked at his brother sideways. "You're giving all the 'correct' answers right now. I remember you did the same thing when your first girlfriend dumped you a week before Prom."

Nick winced. "I… I just want to get back to work." He said thickly. "Make my apologies to Kas. We never got to have breakfast. I'm going to see if they've got an office for me yet."

~~/*\~~

Hugh came back to the living quarters he was assigned to with Kasumi, and found they had more guests. A Caucasian woman, and a Middle-Eastern man, whose manner with each other said they were married. Kasumi was showing them the living quarters. "It's more than three times the size of most mobile homes you see, but about a fifth of the space is dedicated to recycling air and water. The design is modular, with every section taking some of the load, generating power, handling waste. As a result, the Tower will be self-contained in producing food, water, power, air... "

"I've seen those aerofarm grids that produce a farm's worth of food." The woman was saying, looking around the living space. "A few of those in the Tower, plus some industrial sized meat tanks?"

"Yup. The whole place will have almost no footprint, resource wise." Kasumi told her, excited for the new project. "Right now, the workforce is being paid with room and lodging, but the really clever part is that the Tower is designed to snap together like toy bricks. The workers can make up these 'apartments' however they like, because they'll be added to the Tower itself, one layer at a time. Today that's my front door, but in another forty years or so, it'll lead to the hallway."

"It's an excellent design." The man nodded. "We've actually been looking into something similar with the Restoration. You clean up a section around 'your house' and then the house is moved to connect with a few others, and you get a whole living complex, complete with neighbors that you already know."

Hugh came over to stand closer to his wife. He'd just dealt with one blatantly opposed houseguest; and now his house had two new people in it. Kasumi read the tension in her husband, and even if she didn't understand the source, she knew what he was wondering about now. "Hugh, meet Kit and Kasuf. They've lived in Israel for a long while now, and wanted to welcome us personally." She gestured over to the table where an impressionist painting was laid out. "Look at this!"

"A little housewarming present." Kit said modestly.

Hugh examined it. "It's very beautiful." He agreed. The tone he gave was polite. Which was an immediate red flag for Kasumi.

Everyone had developed their intuition, same as any other skill. Kit was aware of the tension forming in the room, but didn't know what to make of it. It could easily have been the sort of reserve that an introverted personality had around strangers. But the way Kasumi reacted to her husband make Kit think it was something else. "Well," She tried again. "I thought we should meet, because I'm half convinced we'll be family someday."

Hugh blinked. This was the exact opposite of what Zann had come to him with. "What do you mean?"

"My brother, Biggs? I'm almost completely certain he wants to marry your girl Megan." Kit said with a borderline-demonic grin. "And as his only family, I can't let that pass without some kind of response." She held up her device. "So, could I trouble you for a photo?"

Hugh burst out laughing, a lot harder than the comment deserved.

~~/*\~~

"Well." Megan said in a voice that promised swift and terrible destruction.

Shoulder to shoulder with her, staring down at the photo, Biggs agreed. "Well."

Megan sighed. "I meant to tell you: Family Dinner has to be rescheduled. Give the 'Nick and Rachel' situation time to cool; and with Nick's new job, and my parents' new living arrangement, it's not the time. But…"

"But." Biggs agreed. "Stakes have raised."

The photo was of Biggs' sister and Megan's parents, sitting around the table, with big friendly smiles on their faces. The photo had been sent to them on one of Kit's postcards, with a short message on the back. Looking forward to Family Dinner night!

***

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