I awoke with Vickey shaking me "sir you are needed on the planet ASAP". In my office "what's going on Vickey?" She looked at me "all I know is she is in a meeting and needs you now. She called 7 minutes ago".

I booted up the VR and opened my eyes. There was nobody in the conference room and the same for the beds. Just bots standing And waiting with her crew.

I scanned and found Sandy in a conference room so I went there. I found her yelling at some of the staff.

"I want to know who made this decision," Sandy yelled. "It was me," a man stood. "I took advantage of the situation to increase our funding"

"And you are," I said in a booming voice, attracting the attention of the room. "My name is doctor Andrews and I run this facility" he said smugly.

"Well Mr Andrew's nobody gave you permission to charge for our services" Sandy shot at him. "This is my hospital and I will do what I wish" he spat out.

"Then so shall we" I looked at him then Sandy "where are your crew?"

"They are on the ship awaiting orders". I smiled then looked at everyone "I guess we are ready to pull up stakes". That drew faces of shock. "If you can't respect that our services are free, we will find another to deal with. Sandy shall we".

"You mean you're leaving?" Dr Andrews asked with desperation in his voice. I looked at him "yes we are. You took it upon yourself to charge for free services so I will find another that wants to play by my rules". We walked out of the office with Sandy in front of me. We got on the elevator and went to the crew and they agreed with me so it was an easy decision to leave.

We locked down any equipment and took to the skys. I contacted Becky and told her to put an update on the site explaining why we left and use the video of the conversation. The minute we landed the ship started modifications for its next site, the BC Children's hospital.

I disconnected and found Cora there with a coffee and a smile. "I think I felt it, did I get it right again?". I nodded and hugged her that lasted for some time. "I'm still getting used to all the new emotions as they flow through me". She leaned in for a kiss when Lisa came in. "I got it right," Cora said to her. Lisa smiled "I knew you have them, it just took some fine turning". That ended in a 3way hug.

I made my way to the flight deck and met with the medical crew. We were up to 7 now and they were excited to be here. I looked at Sandy "well that sucked but hopefully it will be better next time".

"You have no idea how pissed I am at that. I have an idea I'm going to work on to stop this".

"We'll take time off for a day or two. Have you thought of where on the ship you're staying?" She smiled "the twins said we can use the upper floors in their area". I smiled "having everyone together is best I think". She nodded "go all get settled and we can talk later". They all nodded and went on their way.

I went back to my office because I have a call to make. I called the mayor of Vancouver and he answered right away. "I was expecting an answering machine," I joked. "There are some calls you just take," he laughed.

I let him know what happened in Miami and we wanted to relocate to his city. He was more than happy with that news and he assured me he would talk to the hospital and make sure it doesn't happen again. We talked for about 30 minutes then ended the call.

I left my office to find nobody there. I went to the kits to find nobody. "Vickey, where is everyone?"

"Shaun showed up and took everyone to the beach". I shook my head "still the mushroom of the family" I laughed out loud.

Back in my office I sat and let my mind wander. I thought about Pegasus and how to get people access. Why not let Amazon do the leg work for me, all we would need a manufacturing spot. "Vickey how fast can we produce the cards and devices". She appeared "we could make 50K cards an hour with one replicator, or 1K of the devices". I thought for a moment "make 20 more replicators onboard and prep them. For now we will manufacture them onboard till we have ground resources".

She nodded "is B finished with his devices?" He appeared "I've made 4 models for now so people will have a good choice".

He smiled "the first looks and acts like an ordinary cell phone but with lots of horsepower and memory. The charge time is one hour for a week's worth of heavy use. The second looked like a thick bracelet. It had all the same features as the phone but it also had a holo projector. We can do it in silver or gold easily enough, we can offer more metals in the future. The third and fourth are a combo unit. The watch that makes all smartwatches today look like basic calculators. It has the holographic projectors but the holograms are small. When coupled with the gauntlet the unit is amplified 4 fold. The gauntlet has a battery life of about a month with daily use with a 2 hour recharge time. There are 3 module compartments that can be used for expansions. We can make dozens of different modules so people will be able to customize" I had a huge smile "what kind of expansion units?" "More memory, more processors or tools, maybe even scanners. We can made modules to do anything you want really"

"Could you please follow me to my mind office please". I closed my eyes and we switched. I stood and went to B "I can't do this out there" I shook his hand.

He smiled and nodded his head. "I can't believe you did this while training the kits. Thank you B".

"No need to thank me Brad, we are all on the same team. Me on the Pegasus was more of a joke". I looked at him "I love it, don't change it. Let's see how long it takes people to notice" I laughed and he joined me.

A appeared and said hello, he had info to share.

"The abandoned ships are now gone. I've been monitoring them and the crews that came to salvage. They left some garbage that we can clean up later easily enough. The large ship was scanned for 2 days before they towed it away. I recalled the drone but first I put a tracker on the ship. It's outside my network now so it might take a while for a reply". I sat on my desk "thank you A, your work is invaluable to us" He nodded.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"One more thing, there has been a ship that has been probing our network. Every time I expand it backs up so I can't get a detailed scan. I can tell you it's a large ship, 700 meters but beyond that it's speculative".

I looked at him "let's jump one of the explorers close to them. If they can detect our scans, let's see if they can detect a cloaked ship". A snapped to attention "recalling one now sir ETA one hour real time".

I nodded at that and looked at Vickey "what is C doing?" She smiled. "He is on the planet with your brother. I think Shaun is getting to know the old you". I smiled "well we are strangers as far as brothers go". A looked at me "it would have been nice if they were there when we were kids". I huffed "I know me too but they were adults then and had their own lives. Hey I want all of you to have friends and associates of your own like C. Talk to my brothers and get the answers you are looking for" That got smiles.

"Is there anything else?" Vicky stepped up "the medship for BC is ready. It's a bit smaller and it's 2 stories, this model has 40 beds. It will integrate with the building providing access on two floors. I thanked everyone and opened my eyes.

I found nobody there and I sighed, I've grown accustomed to my kisses. At that moment just on cue they walked in. Lisa and Cora came to me and they smelled like the ocean, I hugged them close and breathed deep. I grew up near the ocean and I will never tire of that smell. I asked them how their day was and they were all smiles. They tried swimming and snorkeling for the first time and they fell in love with it. Lisa closed her eyes "we need to save the planet just for the beauty like that". I smiled "it's just a matter of time".

We went to the table and got something to eat when Carla, Shaun and B came in. Shaun had a look on his face, not bad, just odd. I got up and got a hug from Carla and asked Shaun to join me in my office.

"C and I had a long talk about you, he gave me access to your full life. I had no idea what you went through growing up. We grew up in the same house and that is the only common factor between us. C showed me your memories of growing up so I now understand your decisions regarding the sisters. He helped me understand what your mental state did to you. Why didn't you reach out for help?" I smiled "I didn't have the strength to ask and I didn't know how. I was stunted emotionally and never had the right words".

We left my office with tears in our eyes and the girls ran to me. Carla clung to me and I got kisses from Lisa and Cora. Carla raised her arms so I picked her up. She whispered in my ear "I don't like to see tears in your eyes". I assured her that they are tears caused by old memories and hugged her tight. She pulled back and looked at me "I love you daddy". Ok that brought more tears from me and none of them bad. Cora looked at me "not too many kids get to pick their daddy" with a tear in her eye.

We made our way to the table and I finally got to eat. After we ate we sat on the sofa and watched the news getting up to date. They were all talking about why we left Miami. What shocked me is they were on our side when it came out that they were charging for our services. There were still talking about the dump cleanup showing the growing hole. Nobody noticed the satellites yet so no news there.

A appeared so I went to my office. "I am sitting in front of the ship now, they can't pick it up obviously. I have only done passive scans as not to spook them. I essentially walked up to the front door waiting for you to knock".

The ship was odd in the sense that I couldn't tell front from back. It had spikes that grew and shrank as we watched. "There are no heat signatures at all so I don't know what kind of propulsion system they have. I'm not picking up any transmissions but they have an EM field as shields so they could be interfering. I sense no weapons of any kind and only one door on the entire ship".

"Can we send a message from earth as not to tip them off that we are here?" He smiled "I can send it from the network. The lag time will be about 4 minutes

"Do it". We composed a simple message and beamed it directly at the ship. We chatted till the 4 minute mark and one of the spikes retracted and then reformed as a dish of sorts and we got our reply.

"No harm, garble garble science mission static then silence. I looked at A "compose a message stating we mean no harm as well and we to are explorers. Hopefully that will give the bots more to work on". He did as asked and we sat and waited.

"They want to know if we want them to leave".

"Let's try a hologram and hope they have similar tech". We quickly composed a message and I sat at the desk and read it loud and clear for them. Welcoming talks and peaceful intent between our races. I let them know I was cloaked close to them and don't be afraid when we decloaked.

I decloaked as soon as they got the message, they didn't move so I assumed they understood. I booted up VR and took control of the explorer. I had limited control at this distance but I could communicate better with less lag.

I was standing on the bridge with B at coms when the screen flickered. Then before me what could only be said was a bird. It had long spindly arms and I'm assuming the legs were the same. The plumage slash hair shimmered as it looked around. It didn't have a traditional beak but you could tell where one was long ago.

I smiled with no teeth. "Hello there". I think it smiled "it seems we are curious about one another" it flicked its head up twice quickly "I am lucky you are a peaceful (static) based on how easily I was snuck up on" I think it laughed. "My people will be thrilled by my discovery unless you wish to be left alone".

I smiled again "we are new to space and you are our first contact so I welcome talks". Its plumage ruffled, I hope that's a good thing. "I shall report this to our people and they will be thrilled then".

We talked for about 20 minutes and the bots were translating loud and clear after a few hiccups, I'm assuming they had the same type of tech. He told me that they have been listening to us for a while now but would not approach. We ended our conversation on an upbeat note and we gave them a frequency to contact us directly.

I shut down the VR and my bookends were there with kisses. "They seem ok" Cora said "have you ever run into them". She lowered her head "those memories are gone now, we totally forget after we change". I hugged her to me "good that means you're all mine". Lisa was smiling and completed our hug. "I'm tired, I'm going to bed". We did just that and slept wonderfully.