Charlie stood speechless, over a month of thinking he was the last man on Earth and finally, here stood another. He wore no shirt under the longcoat, except for a piece of material kind of like one of those infinity scarves wrapped over his neck and ran behind the back. And his ribs were visible on the mostly bare torso. Scraggly, matted hair running down the shoulders matched the wiry and patchy beard under the mask.

He pulled out a sonic pistol and aimed it at Charlie, "I am terribly sorry to employ such crude tactics, but it seems that you have something we need badly."

"The transport needs to be repaired before it will fly." Replied Charlie. "Even so it isn't worth violence."

The strange other man laughed, "oh, we are not after the craft, Charlie. It is you we are here for."

Charlie laughed along with the stranger then casually added, seemingly to no one, "load number five."

The harpoon arm sprung to life and, following Charlie's arm, pointed right at the newcomer. "I know those sonic weapons are non lethal. But unfortunately, I cannot promise the same about my harpoon."

The stranger's eyes were wide, staring at the vicious point of the weapon, then the gregarious smile returned. He put both hands in the air, taking the end of the pistol off Charlie, "my apologies. I seem to have taken the wrong tack in this negotiation. You are correct, there is no need for violence." The stranger dangled the pistol off one finger before lowering it back into a pocket in the trench coat. "I should have started with introductions it seems. I am Corsair, and this is my faithful companion Dudge. And we have been looking for you Charlie, to save our little community of outcasts."

"You have a strange way of treating saviors, sir." Charlie said, still with good humor. "Though I can say no better about the last two hosts I have received hospitality from. But how is it, pray tell, that I can save you?"

Corsair laughed, "oh Charlie, surely you must be aware that what dangles between your legs is the most valuable thing in the world."

Now Charlie was lost, it seemed. "And mine differs from what you have, I assume then?"

This prompted another round of laughter. Even Dudge could be heard snorting behind her scuba mask. "Don't let my brusk appearance fool you, Charlie. Dudge and I are hermans."

"Hermans?" Charlie was growing more confused by the second.

"We are the result of Contessa's little experiment to solve the growing problems with their little birthing process." Corsair said with a flourishing bow. "Hermans is the little label her grace the Grand Magistrate gave us. Not quite males, but not female enough to be considered women by them. There were fifty of us in the trial originally, but when none of us were 'viable'… that is, when none of us had what they were after, they sent us away to a remote complex out of sight of the rest of society. You see Charlie, I may look like you but it's just superficial. You might say I have the rod, but not the tackle."

Charlie looked at him still confused for a moment, then the realizationdawned on him, "oh. I see. Hermaphrodites, hermans. I assume you are all sterile then?"

"Basically mine is vestigial. I mean, I don't even pee out of it." Corsair replied with zero tact. "I pee out of the more lady-like bits behind it."

"Ok, more detail than I needed. Thank you." Charlie closed his eyes and put a hand to his temple. The corresponding whirr from the arm on the trike reminded him the harpoon was still out. "Sorry." He said, touching the icon on the screen under his bracer and folding the arm back away.

"But, not all of us were sterile, it turned out." The now apparent she continued. "Some of us were still close enough to females to be able to be mothers." Corsair was now less jovial than she had been since they first appeared. Charlie could tell this was an emotional subject. "You see the guards they left us with had us doing all the work to care for ourselves as soon as we were fit and grown enough. We didn't realize this was because as soon as we were mostly self-sufficient, our guards left us to care for ourselves. They only returned to harass us every so often. So after a few years of toiling just to survive, when we found a better place we left. Of course they found us again eventually, but we were our own society, not beholden to them. But out of Fifty original subjects, we are less than thirty now." She took a moment to take a deep breath and compose herself, "but as I said, a small amount of our number have fully functional female systems. We bartered with another citadel to get them impregnated. It cost us most of what we had and only six were successful. And some of those unfortunately, weren't without the loss of the mothers. But with you Charlie we have the chance to grow our number. You know, the natural way." Corsair emphasized this with a double pump of her fist.

"You want me to have sex with your daughters, so you can survive as a society." Charlie asked, growing steadily more uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was heading.

"Well, not immediately. The girls need some more time to mature." Corsair said hesitantly.

"How much time?"

"Oh, just four… to… six years… at the most." She offered with an unsure tone.

"So they are about seven right now?" Charlie said a little louder than he intended. "Were you planning to hold me hostage till the girls came of age?"

"Oh, no. Sorry about that. As I said they found us again a few years ago and they have been haranguing us every few months or so, to remind us we aren't proper people." You could tell from her face this statement hit like a punch in the gut. "However, this time besides the normal roughing up, they had questions about the missing male. That is of course, how we found out about you Charlie. We started to tail troops in the wastes hoping to get sight of you first." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm sorry, but seeing you take a transport out single handed and run off the guard had us worried the savage myths of men were true, and we decided to be cautious."

"Well, I promise that you'll have no problem with me if you don't give me problems." Replied Charlie. "But right now I'm scrapping, so if you'll excuse me I need to return this to my citadel."

"Wait," Corsair practically yelped, "you have your own citadel?"

"Well, I found it, and it's mostly in disarray." Charlie replied in a strained tone, trying to be honest, "I did design it years ago, but it was abandoned and now I'm fixing it up." Charlie looked about at the vast expanse of wasteland. "Do you actually have a transport of your own?"

"Not in so many words. We have been hoofing it, you might say. In an attempt to discern your location, without revealing ours you know. That, and we don't really own one."

Charlie looked at the haggard and emaciated duo, "climb on. I'll drop off the transport and then I can take you home."

The two were amazed at Charlie's tower when they arrived. Corsair was looking at the emblem Charlie had welded onto the building on the first taper over the entry doors.

"It means hope." Charlie told his passengers as they stared.

"It's an S." Replied Corsair skeptically. "An S in a diamond. In what language is that 'hope'?"

"Trust me, it means hope." Responded Charlie. "We decided to call it Hope Citadel."

"We?" She responded.

"My roommate, I suppose you'd call her."

When they saw the vine gardens Dudge was wide eyed and manically pointed, trying to get Corsair's attention.

"I take it she recognizes this plant?" Asked Charlie.

"It springs up here and there in the wastes sometimes." Said Corsair. "It has on occasion tried to invade our shelter but we fought it off."

"You do realize that almost every part of the plant is edible, right." Charlie added as he rode up the embankment to the hanger on the surrounding hills. "I've been making tea by drying out the larger leaves. And," he continued, opening the front plate and visor on his helmet, "makes the air breathable in a half mile radius."

"Well, we do now." She remarked in embarrassment, as both also removed their breathing apparatuses and took a deep but strained breath.

The trike roared into the large prefab building to find another transport waiting. Discorda was dragging a berserker down to a cart at the bottom of the ramp.

"We are running out of room in the freezer, Dis." Laughed Charlie, as she plopped it onto the flat bed and stood there, blood soaking her front. "I think you can stop now."

'They killed some of my friends, so not as long as I keep seeing them.' She signed.

"Merciful heaven!" Gasped corsair, who could only sit there staring at the large woman.

"Dis, this is Corsair and Dudge. And this is Discorda." Said Charlie, as he dismounted the trike. "Though, I suppose you should both know each other, being part of the same experiment."

"She's the Magistrate's Beast?" Corsair commented, wide eyed. Discorda just snorted derisively and turned to push the cart away.

"She is NOT a beast." Charlie said, anger unmistakable in his tone.

"No," replied Corsair, still watching her leave, "she's amazing is what she is."

The herman settlement was four hours into the wastes. Charlie calculated the sun will have set by the time he made it back to the tower.

"We are here at last." Cheered Corsair.

Charlie saw naught but a couple piles of rubble, but as he drew closer he could make out a few glass enclosures, like greenhouses sticking out of the ground. He pulled up next to one and looked in, discovering the floor inside was dozens of feet below the dirt. They had planted gardens under all of the skylights in a buried shopping mall. A nearby hole into one of the piles of rock and metal adjoined the mall parking garage that they used to enter the building.

Charlie entered the cavernous old mall, and could see and smell the haze from the fires for cooking and warmth. They had left no openings to vent it and it gathered on the ceiling to slowly drift down as soot. The coughs of the people echoed in the empty space.

The hermans were thin and covered in dirt. Their clothes were patchworks of what they could find in the abandoned shops. To Charlie they looked sickly and malnourished. Their food amounted to mostly gourds and melons, and vegetables that would grow in the dusty, sand-like soil of the wastes. It appeared that they collected rainwater in whatever containers they could, but were rationing the water between themselves and the crops. Like them, the crop was undersized and shriveled.

A large number of them gathered around a large screen showing a movie outside an old music and movie store. They appeared to have run power from some old camping solar cells to power the screen and player as well as a unit that gave them air, for the building and the few masks they had. Dudge appeared to be the entertainment arranger to the group, as she walked over after arrival to pick out the next movie to load. She held up the next disc to 'ooos' from the assembled crowd. It was all they had to distract them from not having enough food and water.

Six small girls ran up to Charlie. Their gait was more slow and unsteady than he felt it should be.

"Corsair, Corsair! Is this him?" One of them sang in her happy little voice that belayed her circumstances.

The pirate bespangled herman nodded, "indeed Sunshine. This is Charlie.

The girl looked up at Charlie, "are you really going to give us all babies of our own?"

Charlie attempted to give the girl a smile without breaking out in tears and replied, "we'll see. You ladies need to get much bigger before we can even talk about that."

The girls toddled off, smiling and laughing, but Charlie knew they were dying. They would not survive long enough to die out from lack of births. He doubted these girls would even survive to puberty at this rate. His head now knew what his heart already decided.

"You cannot stay here. You will die." He said to Corsair.

"This is our home. It is the only place where we are free." Was her reply. "Don't worry about us Charlie. We are determined, we can endure."

"You don't have enough food and water. I have hundreds of thousands of gallons under that ivy at my tower. And five berserkers worth of meat thanks to my roomate."

Corsair looked at him in confusion, "you would open your doors to us? Why? We have done nothing for you. I even tried to threaten your life."

"There is a lot of work still to be done to make Hope Citadel a thriving city. More than Discorda and I can do alone. You all provide hands and labor and I will provide shelter, and enough food and water for everyone. And clean air." He picked up one of the young girls and she laid her head on his shoulder. "These little ones need clean air and room to run. And all of you need a chance. There you can not only survive but thrive."

The head herman was silent for a full minute, then spoke almost crying, "Charlie, you have to be some kind of saint. Okay, we will take you up on that offer."

"Have everyone gather anything personal to them. Then make water containers for traveling and drop your crops into the remaining barrels. I will be back first thing tomorrow to pick you all up. Then we can come back for anything useful here for supplies."

"Tomorrow?" She asked.

"Yeah, I need tonight to convince a very large and intimidating woman that this is a good idea."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It turned out Charlie had less to worry about than he thought.

'Why would you think I'd say no?' She signed. 'And why is it up to me? This is your tower Charlie."

"I just thought, you know," he began, "this is your home now, too. And they were rude to you earlier and I was worried you might resent it."

Dis gave another round of her clucking laugh. 'I know how people talk about me. I know they call me a beast. And yes, it hurts sometimes. But I know I'm not a beast. Rose doesn't think I'm a beast.' She looked into his eyes, giving him a good opportunity to see how pretty they were, how they matched the shade of green that Rose had. 'And I don't believe you think I am a beast, do you Charlie?'

"No," he replied, feeling ashamed that he underestimated her self confidence. "I think you are awesome, Dis." He gave the big woman a hug, and when he was done stepped back with a big sniff to tamp down some errant emotion.

'So why is it so important to help them?' Her hands asked.

"Because they are your people more than mine. And because they might die if we don't. And they have six little girls that will die if we don't"

Discorda nodded in agreement. They spent that night clearing out as much space as they could for the arrival of the refugees.

Charlie arrived at dawn the next morning. He had three trailers being towed behind his trike. Landing next to it was the transport he had retrofitted for her. Six fans and twice the cargo space than before. She would be loading all the sick and the younglings first, and then as many as she could fit as her craft could move faster.

They were loaded and ready in two hours. All the plants and supplies they could gather, and apparently Dudge's movie collection, as it was apparently counted as vital. It was an argument Charlie was doomed to lose.

The transport left with most of them, as the remainder, which was all the strongest members that they had breathing masks for, boarded Charlie's wagon train for the trip. They cared for the plants in transit and kept watch for danger. By the time they arrived at Hope Citadel the little ones were already playing in the waters of the ivy gardens. They ran and laughed and Charlie couldn't help but laugh too.

That night, after the crops were moved to the garden and planted. Dudge's film library was moved to the old media offices, then they all had more berserker meat and kudzu salad than they could eat.

Everyone was found as comfortable a place as could be to sleep for the night.

"There are plenty of offices on every floor with numerous rooms in each. Everyone can have their own room, or to share as they like. I'm making bedding in the printing room, but it will take time to make mattresses for everyone." Charlie told Corsair in the penthouse where he had set up shop. He had found the old CEO's liquor cabinet and opened a bottle for the two. Blueprints of Charlie's plans for the citadel were spread out on a table as Charlie went over them with the leader of the hermans.

"We will make do," the pirate said. "We are already one hundred percent better off than we were yesterday."

"Tomorrow we will start makIng trips back to the mall for anything we can use here. I can teach you how to fly a transport, I just have to finish the fan I broke when I brought it down."

"And what happens when they find us gone?" Corsair said, her tone suddenly more somber. "They found our last refuge in under five years. When they find it empty they will double their efforts to find us. Then they find you Charlie."

"I have an idea about that once we have emptied it." He smiled

The metallic heels of the Grand Magistrate clicked across the floor intently as she strode through the hissing door of the detention area. The two guards women who had been until that moment a bit more lax than they should have been snapped to attention. She simply threw them a withering stare as she marched past the cells where they had placed the ladies of squad three, each isolated to a cell. It was hardest on poor Petal, the socially dependent girl was frazzled from being incarcerated alone. But the Magistrate didn't even look at them as she walked, she headed straight to the last cell. She stopped before the polymer bars and looked at her daughter. Rose sat on the bunk looking out the window.

"Let's try this again, where is he?" She asked in a flat voice.

"Ah, You still haven't caught him yet." She said in a tone that danced with mockery.

"It has been a month since you set him loose on our world. You will tell me where you sent him if you ever wish to get out of this room." She recited, keeping her demeanor emotionless and logical.

"As I've said, even if I knew I wouldn't tell you, mother." Rose finally turned to face her. "You had no right to treat him like you did. To hold him against his will, torture him and threaten to exicute him for things he didn't do."

"You have no idea what you are talking about, young lady." Her calm facade beginning to crack, "I have every right to do whatever I feel I need to in order to protect our society."

"From what? Charlie?" Rose stood up and walked to the bars. "Charlie isn't a threat to anyone. He's no warrior, no despot, in fact he's kind and thoughtful…"

"He's a man!" Her mother screamed, her anger finally breaking her calm. "His very existence is a threat to the world! To the peace we have had for centuries!"

Rose's eyes narrowed at her mother and her voice dripped with disgust, "who do you think you are fooling, you don't care for justice or peace. He is simply your chance to be the one to strike the final blow in a war that ended over a hundred years before you were born." Rose was panting in anger now, her eyes burned holes through the woman she had called mother all her life. "Bit you bring any harm to him and I swear I will no longer be your daughter."

"Oh Rose," Celeste said in a heavy tone of forced disappointment. She moved to take the upper hand now, "I had such a bright future for you. You would have been the greatest of us. There would have been statues to you greater than Lilith. But you let your heart soften for this male. He has ruined you." With a sigh the Grand Magistrate turned to leave.

"That's funny," said Rose quietly, "compassion, tenderness and caring used to be associated as female traits in his age, Charlie said. I guess we didn't really eradicate the enemy. We became them."

"Do not compare us with them!" Her mother turned back at the cage and strode up to the bars. "I am compassionate, young lady. He just doesn't deserve my compassion. His kind ruined our world, and you would defend him?"

"Compassion? You?" She replied, looking up and down the cell row, "have you found my sister? The one you actually gave birth to. Are you even looking for her, or just Charlie?" Rose shook her head, grasping the bars and pulling herself as close to her mother's face as she could, "you never cared for her, she wasn't perfect enough for you. You treat her like she's stupid. You and mom tried to make a son by fiddling with her DNA and now you despise her because she's a little too masculine? You care more for glorifying yourself with Charlie than you do p4otecting your own blood. Don't talk to me about compassion. You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"I have the world to worry about. You bury your nose in the sand by spending all your time in the archives. There is nothing in the past that will save our future. And your future will be in this room until you tell me where I can find that male." Celeste turned again to leave.

"Ma'am," Petal called softly, "we thought it was just a training exercise, honestly. Why are we still here?"

Celeste looked into eyes sullen with weeping, "I believe you sweety. Really I do. But until your commander gives up the fugitive, here is where you stay." With that the Grand Magistrate left the cell block.

"I'm sorry, Petal." Stated the sad voice of Rose. "You are here because of me. And while I don't want you all incarcerated alongside me, I don't know where he is or if I would say if I did know." Petal and the rest of squad three could hear her deep sigh. A sniff followed, and turned into a light sob. "Everything changed when I met him, I thought he was a savior but people have also been hurt since he was found." She continued through a cracking voice, "The whole way the world looks has changed for me, and I don't know if that is a good thing or not. I feel so lost."

"Do you love him ma'am?" Asked Petal quietly.

"I don't know." She weazed, "sometimes when I am around him I feel I have never been happier. But I may very well bring down our whole society, destroy our very world. And that makes me, as my mother says, a traitor to our kind at worst and blatantly selfish at best." She wiped her tears on the heel of her hand and sniffed in again.

"Sounds like you love him to me." Said a voice Rose recognized. Butterfly had entered the room behind her mother and had stood out of sight, listening this whole time. She stepped into view of Rose as she tried to clean up the sobbing mess she had allowed herself to become. "I asked you, when you first brought him to our citadel, if he had done something, anything to you. You told me no. That was obviously a lie. Did I ever make you happy?"

"Of course," sobbed Rose.

"But not as happy as HE makes you?" She countered, taking from Rose's own comments.

"B, that's not what I meant." She pleaded, "it's not the same. And besides," she added, her eyes narrowed and she suddenly seemed stronger than before. She had been caught off guard but now she remembered their fight that night, "did YOU ever love ME? Or did you love what I could get you. Apprentice to my mother, social status, and clout with your peers. Have you ever known me, or just what I represented?"

"How can you say that? You mean everything to me." She said as her voice rose in volume.

Rose remained calm and quietly replied, "then what is my favorite book?"

Butterfly just stood there, silent with her face a blank mask as she thought. She didn't know. She could guess but if wrong her relationship would be destroyed. As Rose looked at her a tiny smile curled on corner of her lips, "Posturing and the Art of Debate. That's your favorite. Isn't it?"

Butterfly turned on her heel and ran out of the room. She was well out of sight before the tears began to run down her face.

Charlie stood with Corsair and Discorda in the power room. With the extra people, power and ventilation coupled with still running the microfactories full out day and night, the power levels were dropping.

"A week, maybe two, before our consumption overcomes our production." Charlie said grimly.

"Is there a way to make more?" Corsair asked.

"We only get power from the wind when it blows, and the sun shines all day but we can't collect it as fast as we use it. And unless the wind blows at night we can only run on our reserves."

"Maybe we just need to make more sun." Joked the herman pirate.

"Yea, I wish," said Charlie, absently. Discora bumped Corsair's side with her elbow and pointed at Charlie's face. Just like the big warrior, the herman chief had learned to recognise when the cogs of his brain were turning. "No, we don't need more sun," he muttered, "we just need to collect more of it." He suddenly departed their company shouting, "we need more surface area."

"You know, I truly believe with the right push we can get him to make anything." Added Corsair with a smile.

Discorda returned the smile with a nod. 'But he is lonely." She signed.

"You and he aren't?" She asked with a meshing of her fingers.

Dis shook her head, 'I like Charlie, I really do. But he is just a friend. A very good friend. Besides, I am not the one he needs or wants.'

"Ah, he has a lady love." She replied, dramatically. "The enigmatic Rose I'm guessing?"

'She likes him. More than I do. Cares for him. But I don't know if she knows it is love.'

Corsair took the warrior's hand in hers, "you have the heart of a poet my dear." Kissing her hand before turning to depart herself, "we must talk more often."

"A.R.I.A, fire up my drafting screen, please." He said as he entered his workshop/apartment. He fell back into living and working in the penthouse office for all but large and communal projects ever since the hermans had spread out into the rest of the building.

"Of course Charlie." The A.I replied, "but first I have news Charlie."

"Rose?" He asked hopefully.

"No, I'm sorry," she replied in her pleasantly designed voice. "No word on the captives yet. But I have finished compiling the archives from the building and have made a discovery you may find interesting."

"Ok, show me." He replied facing the main viewscreen mounted over his windows.

The screen scrolled through headline after headline, starting at dates less than a hundred years after he went to sleep. Charlie read frantically as they flashed by, his heart rate elevating as she sped through them.

"Holy crap." He whispered, "this changes everything. A.R.I.A, please compile this into a presentation. I need to find a way to get this to the other citadels."

Contessa paced in her lab. Her samples were still missing, as was one of her daughters, and the other she was forbidden to see. Her own significant, their other mother, had barred her from seeing Rose. And her works couldn't continue until Charlie could be found. Her eyes were red and swollen. She knew she had duties to attend to as a Magistrate, but she could not let the residents see her crying over her children.

"Madam Magistrate?" A soft voice came from the doorway.

"Yes Beulah." She said with a quick sniff, quickly gathering herself. The young girl was too quiet, she spoke quietly, she moved in silence, Contessa often didn't realize she was there. Beulah picked up Butterfly's duties ever since her assistant had been co opted By Celeste.

"Ma'am, a herman arrived at the front gate a short while ago. It delivered this and said it should be brought to you directly."

"A herman?" She pondered taking the small package. The top slid open to reveal a plant cutting, some kind of vine, a cryo sample transport tube, and a note.

She set down the box, waved away the assistant, and unfolded the note to read as she sat.

"Dear Magistrate Contessa,

Here is a replacement for the sample that was lost. I apologize for the seminal fluid but that is the best way to gather the sample that I know. I may not appreciate how the last ones were taken but I in no way desire the end of the human race, and know your work to be vital.

Also this plant thrives in the wasteland. And as I am an engineer and not a biologist, I don't know for sure but I feel it may be connected to your work if you study it.

I also ask for word of Rose and her squad. I worry and have had no way to find out how they are. If you need to contact me you can reach me at the social channel at the bottom of the note.

Your former prisoner turned (hopefully) contributor -

C"

She tortured him, well not intentionally but she didn't care if what she put him through hurt or not. She didn't consider his feelings. This man, this member of a sex that subjugated and enslaved women, he wanted to help. He saw how important her work was and even though he had escaped their imprisonment, he was still making sure her work moved forward. He even admitted in the letter she knew more than him. It was completely against how the legends of men describe their attitude. The tales spoke of men seeing women as inferior. The lowliest man considered any woman beneath him. But not this Charlie. He spoke to her as an equal and deferred to her expertise in what he admitted to not knowing. No wonder Rose was so fond of him. They were wrong. They had to be. Science cares not for gender or politics. Facts are facts. Inarguable and intractable, when something is true when put to the test, you cannot call it false. They had made a mistake.

The golden guard limped off the ramp into the bay, bloodied, bruised and broken. Celeste waited to see the male in chains but he was not among them.

The captain stood before her to report, "there was no sign of the male or any of the hermans at the underground structure, Ma'am. The complex was filled with trogs. We barely made it out without loss of life."

"My sources told me Contessa received a message from the male via a herman messenger. He has to be among them." The Grand Magistrate was livid. This was failure, plain and simple.

"All due respect Ma'am, if they were there they either fled or they were eaten." She offered in her expert opinion.

The back of the Grand Magistrate's hand across the captain's face echoed in the chamber, and forced the guardswoman to one knee.

Before the captain could get back to her feet she growled and stalked away screaming, "idiots! Incompetent fools!"

The monster trike roared as the line through the block and tackle raised the golden material higher for each foot the vehicle crawled. Eighteen hundred pounds of photoreactive nanopolymer climbed the tower in the dawning light. Herman workers scrambled to attach anchoring points as the material reached it. As the top turnbuckle clanged against the mount below the turbine level, Discorda attached the hitch through the mounting ring and pulled the lever to start the winch Charlie had installed. The machine whirred and all the precisely engineered lines were pulled taught spreading the material out to catch the golden light of the now rising sun.

"Corsair! Do we have power?" Charlie cried into the communicator in his helmet.

"Power loss, slowing," she replied. "Power storage levels, now rising! You did it Charlie! It's amazing!" Called the pirate over the com. "What do you call this thing Charlie?"

"It's a solar sail!" He shouted back, even though the radio system didn't require such volume. He immediately brought his tone down when he realized he was yelling in his excitement. "Well now you have sails. You are now truly the pirate queen of the waste."

"Charlie, there is a pending announcement on the social channels you will want to see." A.R.I.A's voice filtered over the coms.

"I'll be right there A.R.I.A." he responded, as he disengaged his trike from the load and turned back to the tower. "Captain, you are in charge of the sails. The winch will lower the sails, which needs to be done at night and during storms so as to not tear the material." He added with a salute, even though Corsair couldn't see him from the power room.

When Charlie arrived at the main entry hall the screen was already playing the broadcast. Center screen was Celeste and behind her shackled, gagged and spread eagle were the troops of squad three, and Rose.

"A.R.I.A, where is this?" Said Charlie into the air.

"In the Citadel of Justice's main audience room." The A.I replied.

Celeste was already speaking, "and while it pains me to include my own daughter in this sentencing, the treasonous actions if these disgraceful women leave me no choice but to slate them one week from today for summary execution." You could hear the gasps and cries from the assembled crowd there and over live feed at the other citadels. "It is, however, not too late for them. If the fugitive male or my other still fugitive daughter returns the male to custody these charges will be mitigated to ones less severe."

Discorda tried to sign to Charlie that she would never turn him over, but he was not looking at her. His eyes were locked on the bound Rose, whose hands were also signing in Discorda's language over and over, 'don't do it Charlie. It is a trap.'

"A.R.I.A, open all the social channels you can." Charlie called out suddenly. "Ready the presentation."

"I thought we agreed that could do more harm than good." Commented Corsair from the balcony one level up overlooking the lobby. He had shown the presentation to all of Hope Citadel. But some of them made arguments about what unrest it could cause in the other citadels.

"I have to do something." He pleaded. "If I can prove I'm not a threat then they would have no reason to execute them."

'And the truth deserves to be free,' added Discorda.

"Oh my big, beautiful lady. We are living proof of how unstable our society is." Corsair replied. "If they freak out over our existence, how do you think they will react to learning their whole history is a lie?"

"I have to try something, Corsair. They might kill them. They are in trouble because they helped me. How can I do nothing to help them?"

"A fool in love." She commented, with a shake of her wispy bearded head. "Her, you mean. Now I know you wouldn't not save the imperiled little soldier girls. But who you are desperate to save is Rose. So you can wow her and be her hero. You are hoping to throw it all into chaos. You plan to go rescue her, don't you?"

Charlie looked up at her, knowing she was right and relented, "Yes. I do love her. But that isn't why I have to. I know I'm not worthy of her. I know she is so out of my league I'm not even in the stadium. But I would be the one on that screen if those women hadn't taken pity on me for being tortured for a war that didn't happen. So yes, I intend to go get them. And yes, I want to use this as a distraction. And if the truth destroys something, maybe it needs to be torn down."

'We saw it and we're fine.' Signaled Discorda. 'And I plan to go after my sister as well.' She cast a judgemental glance at Charlie, 'no arguments, don't try to stop me.'

"Sweety," he said in a low tone out the side of his mouth, "I don't think I could if I tried."

"I don't want to stop you Charlie." Corsair said in a softer voice, "in fact, I will help you without needing to be asked. Who else here is willing to help Charlie?" She directed at the assembled citizenry of Hope. The response was nearly completely unanimous.

"No, we won't risk you all. This Is our fight." Charlie replied.

"We can do more together than apart, lover boy. But is there another way to sew your chaos? I mean, I am not fond of the parents of your amorè, but I have no ill will toward the rest of humanity. Surely with our help we can hatch a different plan. Surely chaos comes in more flavors than social unrest."

The chief herman gave a knowing look to Charlie, and saw the wheels turning again.

"Shock and awe." He said quietly.

"Come again my boy?" The pirate pleaded.

"My father was fond of a tactic in his military career called shock and awe." He continued, "a loud, bold and useless show of force to cause fear in the enemy to soften them up for a more surgically planned strike."

"And you can provide this… shock and awe?"

Charlie smiled, "I do believe I can. And if I can, we will require only a minimal strike force."

Charlie was going over the formulations for his distraction in his apartment that night when the soft tone from A.R.I.A beckoned his attention. "Charlie, you have a communication incoming. It is from the Magistrate of the Citadel of Enlightenment."

"Put it through." Said Charlie cautiously.

Light beams zigzagged out of the egg shaped unit in the center of the room. The rapidly moving beams coalesced into an image of Contessa.

"Hello, Charlie." The image said, with a hint of eating crow on her face.

"So she does know my name." Childed Charlie, unable to resist a dig at her for the treatment he received.

"I apologize for how you were treated. There are many prejudices against your kind that I have no excuse for. But I know you care for my daughter, and I assume you have heard."

"I have." He replied. "And I am more than a little surprised your significant would put your own daughter to death just to trap me. And I care for BOTH your daughters, actually. "

"Discorda!" Contessa gasped, "she is safe?"

"I found her in the wastes a few days after the escape. She is fine. She's happy in fact. She has found solace among the rest of her kind."

"So you are working with the hermans?" She replied with an tone that suggested he just confirmed a suspicion.

"They deserve to be treated as the people they are, not just a mistake to be covered up. They were dying in the wastes." Charlie lectured her.

"Not my decision. But not unexpected from Celeste. As to your comment before, I'd like to think she wouldn't put our own daughter to death…"

"But that you are calling me implies you can't be sure." Charlie finished for her.

"You are correct," she sighed. "She used to be quite different, my Celeste. My research into the fertility problem landed me my position as Magistrate first. Soon after that she was driven. Her willingness to participate in the herman experiment cinched her promotion to Magistrate at Justice. After she had Discorda though, she was so different. Obsessed with a need to succeed in the aftermath of the experiment's failure. We tried to mend our relationship with Rose, but even while I was still carrying her, Celeste was too busy trying to nab the title of Grand Magistrate. Rose barely knew her growing up. But her reaching captain of the guard so young I think, was just about gaining Celeste's approval."

Contessa seened on the verge of tears. "Before you ask, yes I am going to rescue her. Plans are already in motion." Charlie told her.

"Then this may be of use to your effort." She waved a hand and another image was sent to A.R.I.A. An image of Justice Citadel formed next to her's. Full schematics of the tower and all its floors.

"Thank you." He replied, "I promise not to let anything bad happen to your daughters."

"Thank you," she said, with even a smile trying to peer through weep weary eyes. "Oh, by the way, Charlie. You were right about the plant. It has adapted its missing Y chromosomes with a third option. Not X or Y but something in between. I theorize that most of the surviving life in the wastes is employing some similar tactic. But what this has to do with human fertility, I can't guess."

It was Charlie's turn to smile. "Then I have some eye opening data for you. Information that changes everything. A.R.I.A send Contessa the presentation."

"Yes Charlie, right away." Responded the A.I.