Marathons are boring to watch in the middle. Axe throwing is pretty fun all the time, so whomever decided to have axe throwing in the Parkway while the Marathon was going on is the kind of person I want planning events with me. The organizers invite passers by to try their hand after the competitors move to archery and my efforts at axe throwing are embarrassing, while Camacho was a fucking sniper and Naomi chose not to participate.

I decide to send Consul Mercer a heads up about the urban planning meeting, that he was welcome to attend, but we would discuss the meeting at length at a later date in either case. Naomi advises me on a casual dinner outfit before excusing herself for the evening.

A knock at the door comes minutes after and Camacho lets in a woman wearing a black rashguard-style turtleneck and green cargo pants. Black boots and a shoulder harness holster complete the ensemble.

“Admiral Astoria, this is Ensign Bethany Moses. She’ll be your overnight watch.”

I stand and walk from behind my desk to meet her. “Good call on the name change from Kim Possible, wouldn’t want the wrong sort to follow you out here.” Camacho snorts and coughs. Ensign Moses smirks.

“I’ll take that over a bowel movement joke any day. Good to meet you Admiral.” She salutes before shaking my offered hand.

“Same, Ensign Moses. You serving on Alaris?”

She shakes her head, “Currently assigned to Shuttle training squadron, Mercy. Want to be a fighter Pilot.”

“Yeah, Senior Chief Beecham has been on my ass about those. Have the hull design finished, but the Omni-thruster and the Quick-recharge Micro-Warp array are giving me headaches.”

“What about the ripple drive, cant you use those ripple pulses for micro-warps?”

“I could, if the ripple drive was an aether-based tech, but unfortunately, the way it currently works is aether runes mimicking a mechanical technology that in no way works the same as Space magic. And my space magic is not advanced enough in the right areas to create portals with just aether.”

“Ladies, as much as I am enjoying this nerd-fest, I want to go home and make out with my girlfriend. Moses, I am ready to be relieved.”

She smiles and shakes her head, turning to face Camacho at attention. “I relieve you.” They both salute and Camacho heads out.

“So, college before the swarm?”

“First year, Embry Riddle. I was on the warp and thrust track before everything went nuts. I actually took this gig so I could meet you. Been a fangirl since your paper on spontaneous matter manifestation at high energy concentrations.”

“Hells, that paper was eons ago. I started pouring through LHC data after an astrophysicist I respected published some theories on why some of the largest stars don’t make black holes. The model we built to test her theories was the basis of the first AM-propulsor I built. Andromeda, was that an exciting time.”

“You say, as though you aren’t the Ruler of Humanity.”

“Heh, that part isn’t as exciting as people might think. Well, not for the reasons they’d think, anyway. I get a lot less time to dive into intellectually stimulating ventures now. I can’t just disappear for a week in an inventive fugu without affecting a whole bunch of things. But I can enlist the help of others to help work on my ideas. That shakes my nerves a lot, but it’s better than not seeing my work develop.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Yeah, design me a fighter. Ignore everything I’ve come up with, and build one of your own and see if we can’t come at this from a different perspective.”

We chat for a while longer before I’m due at the restaurant the group of developers picked. Bethany asks me if I did anything to deal with the stress of engineering, and I say video games. She shrugs and says they’re okay, but the ones she liked you needed friends or groups to play so she lost interest early. Instead she got into gymnastics, but finding friends with common interests in that group didn’t end up panning out.

I floor the bike toward Aelea and guiltily enjoy the arms wrapped around my waist. I may or may not take the long way back to the new Chez de Empress. To my surprise, I pull up to a seafood restaurant with a table laid along the lakeside with a mock throne set up for me.

I can’t help but laugh at how ridiculous it looks out here. I shrug and accept the chair and have Bethany sit next to me. She protests for a moment, but when I tell her Camacho ate with me for lunch at my side, she no longer had professionalism to protest with.

“Empress, it’s an honor to meet with you.” A graying man says with a polite bow. “Thank you for this opportunity to showcase our ideas for Aelea.”

“I’ll admit that I’m curious as to why the Governor’s office isn’t presenting me with this.”

The man’s eyes go wide before he looks away and tugs at his beard. “The Governor has said several times that the current budget does not support expansion, and that we should approach you. He won’t even meet with us.”

“Ah, well, send my Aide those messages or conversations, and I will refer him to those when he complains that I’ve stepped on his toes. Please sit, and tell your compatriots that I don’t bite.”

He has a chuckle at that, waving people in while he takes a seat on the side opposite to Bethany. Eight more people approach the table and all but one take a seat.

“Empress, it is our pleasure to serve you. Would you like anything to start?” the waiter asks.

“Mm, yes. I would like a sampler of your appetizers,” I tap my chin a second, “do you feature any Astorian fish?”

He nods, “we have a farm-raised variant from Summer Farms that is less . . . hazardous to procure.”

I chuckle at that. “I will have that then. If I can impose, a few different preparations?”

“As you desire Empress.” He then quickly takes the orders of the other men and Bethany.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Conversation rounds the table from business to family matters and it’s really just good to hear happy people chatter. Before the topic of my home life can come up, the food arrives to save me from myself.

“Five plates of fish? I’m impressed. I might be here a while, gentlemen.” They politely laugh at my joke.

“Well, while I continue to nibble,” I say after the eating has slowed down, “please tell me your thoughts on expansion.”

They show me different radial patterns that are based off the existing layout of the Lake district, but the most interesting show me branching parkways behind the government buildings, and even another parkway on the opposite end of the Lake from the Capitol that would require removing a bank of buildings but would allow for more efficient expansion and additional ring roads with large parks or event centers. The brainstorm-bubble layout is somewhat appealing, but a tad chaotic for me. The one I like the most is a combination of the building moving parkway and the branching parkways before the Parkway reaches the Capitol Commons.

“Do you think that is workable? Detailed plans for ten thousand more residents and a concept sketch of this idea scaled to a million? I want to ensure we’re not passing to much hassle to our future selves.”

“Yes, with a way forward, I do believe we can get the proposal together for ten thousand, and each of us would likely submit a ‘sketch’ of what we think a million would look like.” We shake hands, each of the gentlemen pay for their meals and I pay another credit and a half for my shenanigans.

It’s dark by the time we’re done with dinner, and after not sleeping last night I’m pretty tired. The road into my estate hasn’t changed, but just about everything else in view has. The new “Manor” is a freaking tiered, lit garden . . . compound? Castle? With a deep-set central spire with a moat and a sneaky draw bridge. I zoom through into a courtyard lot big enough for my shuttle. Outdoor arcuate stairs frame the entrance doors and lead up to the first terrace of the garden. From this vantage, that spire is easily a hundred meters tall, and that far away.

The tinted glass doors open to a colonnade lit with golden light emitting from the Corinthian stylings of the columns. A second row of columns outside of the central walkway appears to house offices and the middle archways split toward meeting spaces at either end. At the far end there appears to be an elevator but what strikes me as we get closer, the courtyard in front of the lift raises dozens of stories to a decorative glass roof and garden features on every level of the courtyard.

“Tessa, holyshit, did you build me a city?”

To my further astonishment, Tessbot decends in the lift and walks over to give me a big hug. I hug her back for a long time. “Andromeda, how I’ve missed you Tessa.”

“Missed you too, Penny. And no, we built you a castle. It just so happens that in old times, castles were designed to hold small towns. A thousand people could live here pretty comfortably. With tier 3 defenses for both energy and ballistic, you can bunker half of Aelea here during an assault.”

“I love you, you beautiful Intelligence you.”

“I warn you, Atropos helped me design this, but it will be the last time we work together for you. She’s not being very objective concerning you and for an AI, that is . . . beyond reproach.”

“Oh, Tessa, I’m so sorry.” I pull her in for another hug. I hear my friend sniff and I chose to ignore that she wipes an eye as she pulls away. I did not know she could cry, and now I want to punch Katie and Atropos for hurting Tessa.

“You want to introduce me to the pretty girl behind you?”

“Oh! Bethany Moses, Meet Tessa, she’s my Symbiote. She figured out how to use my parallel minds to inhabit a Magitech body. Tessa, this is my current bodyguard.”

“Pleasure to meet you Bethany Moses. Welcome to the Garden Castle of Astoria.”

“So did you pick part synth flesh, part mechanism to not fall in love or something?” Bethany says, looking at me.

“I chose this mixture, Miss Moses. Though that is an extremely rude question. I suddenly want to eject you out of the Mag lift.”

“Wait, it’s configured to shoot people?! Am I dreaming?”

Tessa laughs at me, “The whole canister can be ejected. You only have one spare on hand, so don’t get too excited.”

“Got it. Need a code word for voted off the Island. That rocks so hard. Show me around my room please?” I ask her. She smiles and offers me her hand, I take it and she pulls me toward the lift.

The lift has 48 floors worth of buttons, very hex of her. She explains that was the point, but the top eight floors are tapered up with the shape of the building up to the 47th, with the top floor being a private garden patio.

“Technically, the 47th floor is the waterslide and hot-tub bar floor. Forty Six is your bedroom, bath, and breakfast platform that descends into two half levels that are the Kitchen and office level as 45. The indoor park and water feature levels span 44 through 42. Forty one and forty are designated as lab areas but are by far the largest floors. The indoor sky illusion is on the core of floor 42, so doors on levels 41 and 40 lead to the central garden column view, but the floor between 40 and 39 in the column is two meters of transparent aluminum. The lift accesses levels 41, 43, and 47. The slide exits into the Olympic sized pool on 42, as do the other water features.”

“Tell me the water levels have adjustable light features.”

She smiles at me with a soft, knowing look. “Yes, though for security reasons, the direct light is yet another illusion of refraction and splitting arrays.”

The lift stops and we exit the 47th into a crescent platform with a 5m wide jacuzzi with a wade-up bar to the right, and two slide interfaces to the left.

“Tessa, there are two slides,” I say dancing as I start peeling my clothes off.

“Ah yes, the right one goes to the lazy river on 44. The left to the lap pool on 42.”

“Okay, Ensign Moses, stay here on 47, shoot anyone that comes up that lift. Anyone.”

“Shouldn’t I be with you to protect you?”

“Nope, you are to remain outside my quarters. After insulting an integral part of me, I don’t intend to share my personal space with you.” I tap a few screens and plop a cot and some bedding on the ground next to the elevator. “Stay here for the night. Call if anything of import happens.” I command in my underwear. “That settled, RIGHT SLIDE!” I pick up an innertube and jump on and immediately start giggling like an idiot.

“Penny, I’ve taken the left slide and will meet you in a half hour or so. Feel free to continue conversing once you hit the Lazy River.”

I’m not prepared when the slide water hits the sideways river path and it dumps me over the tube when I hit. I sputter and stand to hop back onto the tube and laugh more freely than I have in months. “Tessa, love, that was simply delightful.”

“I figured you’d enjoy the non-traditional transportation. Every floor connects through at least an open hallway worth of space so that you can fly the length of your space in a hurry. Please make a few trips before attempting to teleport within the building. I’d be very distressed if I had to dig your brain and bones out of the concrete to grow you a new body.”

“I could seriously see doing office work like this. Consul meeting? Lazy river. Paperwork? Lazy river. Interviews . . . I’d put pants on and go downstairs. Then come back up and Lazy River.”

I get a light electronic giggle from Tessa and it feels really good to hear. It takes me twenty minutes to get to the picknick area on the pool deck and walk up the stairs as I beach my innertube.

“I don’t smell or feel any chlorine or iodine, what . . .”

“High-powered UV stations and a series of cyclonic separators. This allows this whole space to be converted to a self-contained Topiary with the river becoming an oxygen and protein creating algae factory.”

“That’s a little gross, but a lot brilliant. You two put a lot of work into this.”

“We spent the money you gave us. The whole castle can be a private biosphere and support all the residents with the food grown on site. The water and the power are also private. The moat connects to the main river though.”

I can’t help how thoughtful and personal this all feels to me so I pull in and kiss her softly and then hug her close. “You’re so amazing, Tessa. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” I can’t help it, feeling the unconditional love from her just sets off my tears.

“And you will never have to, Penny. I love you in all the ways I understand. You would have to pull me from your soul to change that.”

I laugh through my tears into her shoulder. “Well since you don’t have to die, I guess I’ll live forever then too.”

“Heh, you better, my host. You better.