e before the subjugation, vehemently resisted the idea of moving the community. He was almost irrational in his position.

"Listen, Leamon," Jason barked, stopping a shouting match between the tall black man and the much shorter Julianne. "There's more to this than _just_ the exomech. There's lots of space here, but we're stretching our resources. We've expanded the walls three times now, and it looks like we're going to have to expand them _again_."

"And our farmland is sitting in a floodplain," Clem added. "One flood, and we're in trouble."

Jason put his hand up to Clem to silence him. "We've had no luck getting water going here, and the electrical grid's getting stretched thin. We do have viable reasons to move, to find a place with a better foundation to build on than this. But it comes down to one very simple thing, Leamon. Remember when they dropped that container?"

"Yeah," he said.

"_Where_ did they drop it?" he asked pointedly.

"Well, out in the field at the foot of the bridge," he answered.

"That's right. Now think about that. They dropped a container holding an exomech literally right beside our community. Whoever dropped that container _knows where we are_. And though whoever it was is friendly _now_, do you really want to take the chance that they're going to be friendly forever? I don't know about you, but I'm not going to sleep very well knowing that someone in the Imperium knows where my house is. We've all been so wrapped up in that exomech to think about other things, and I'm probably more guilty of it than anyone else. Now I'm thinking clearly though... and I don't like what I'm seeing.

"I know it's going to be a nightmare to uproot the community and move it, but I think it's for the best. We can spend the winter finding a suitable site and getting it ready, then we move when the weather breaks. We'll try to find a place where we _can_ get the water working, and where we can secure a larger area with the resources that we have, and have access to more farmland that we can defend better than what we have here."

"What about everything we've done here?" Leamon asked. "You're asking us to abandon what we _have_ and move to someplace where it's not guaranteed we can do it again."

"Actually, I _am_ guaranteeing it," Jason told him. "We can easily put up a new power grid in the new location. Well, not _easily_, but it can be done. We find a place with better geography than here, a place we can wall off and defend where we can enclose a larger area, and enclose our farmland. I don't like the idea that our farms are hanging out of the perimeter like they are here, fences or no fences. Someplace very close to a river, where we can use it as a natural barrier."

"They'll just see us move," Leamon told him. "Moving won't accomplish anything but making us do a hell of a lot of work."

"You're right, they _will_ see us set up in our new place. Hmm," he said, sitting down and scratching his chin in thought. "If we do move, we'll need something that fixes that. Something that will fool cameras, because we can defeat their other sensors. We-a _hologram_," he said, his eyes widening. "We need some holographic projection units, the kind they use for outdoor theaters, the _strong_ ones," he said. "We station them in a staggered array with each one projecting a _piece_ of the hologram, and just make sure their borders line up. They'd have to be _over_ the area they're covering, though. Each projector would have to be shielded-hell, I need to go through this with Tim and Steve. But I think we can wrangle something that works."

"Why can't we do that here? Make them think we left?" Leamon asked.

"Because if we all vanished, the first thing they'd do is come down and see what happened," Juli reasoned.

Clem cleared his throat. "I'm sorry Leamon, but I'm putting this on the floor for a vote. I motion that we start making plans to move the community to a new site."

"I second," Paul.

"Alright, all in favor?"

Everyone but Leamon raised their hands.

"Opposed?"

Leamon glared at them, and defiantly raised his hand.

"What's with you, Leamon?" Juli flared. "We're talking about keeping everyone _safe_!"

"I think we'll be safer _here_, but I seem to be the only one. I lost the vote, and I don't like the decision, but I'll live with it. And do my part. I may think we're making a mistake, but we'll make it _together_. That's what this place is all about."

"That's good to hear, son," Clem said sagely. "Alright, we need to start making plans for packing up, and draw up a list of qualities we're looking for in a new place."

"What we need to do is put this on the floor for a vote by the _community_," Paul said. "They deserve to hear our reasoning for the vote, and then they deserve the right to make that same decision themselves. This has to be a decision made by all of us, not just the six of us."

"Yeah, you're right, Paul," Regina said, and everyone nodded in agreement. "Let's call a meeting. Right now."

                                        * * *

The meeting went generally the way Jason expected it would.

What he expected was a vote to move, and that did in fact happen. After the council fully explained why it had brought this up for a vote, and explained the reasons, they had a long debate session. Quite a few people got up to give their opinions, both for and against the idea of moving, and the people asked quite a few very observant questions about the process of moving: what it would entail, what kind of qualifications they'd look for in a new site, the proposed timeframe for the move, and so on. But, in the end, it came down to Jason's simple statement that he _did not feel safe here anymore_, not with the Faey knowing where the community was located. Andy Wilson also summed it up quite nicely when he got up to speak.

"Well, from the way I see it, Mayor Jason is right," he called after standing up for his turn. "This is something that's been eating at me for quite a while, since we got the power going. At first, I thought it was fantastic. Real power, lights, air conditioning, even TV... but then I got to thinking about how the _blueskins _were gonna react when they looked down from their ships and saw electric lights running down here in the wildlands. Think about it. They know where we are, and I don't know about your communities, but ours got raided by the blueskins every few months because they knew exactly where we was. It was always the same group of blueskins, coming down to take anything they fancied. I know in my bones that they'll come with a raiding party soon, because we're a big group and they know exactly where we are. And with all our blueskin stuff, I feel it won't be pretty. When they come, they'll take everything that makes our power work, and they'll take Mayor Jason's airbikes and his guns, and then they'll our techs, cause they _built_ it all. And then they'll see the mayor's skimmer sitting under the bridge, and that's when it'll get really ugly.

"It's a simple issue, folks. We gotta weigh the risk of moving to a new place against what we stand to lose if we stay here and just wait for the blueskins to come down and raid us. If the techs think they can hide our new place so it can't even be seen using blueskin tech, then hell, I'm all for it. I'd like a better house anyway," he chuckled nervously. "If they can't find us, then they can't raid us, and we never have to worry about losing our power and our blueskin equipment."

The community as a whole voted to move, by an overwhelming majority, which Jason expected.

What he didn't expect was their reaction to the news of the exomech. When they found out it was broken, that it had intentionally be sent down broken, the community reached a completely different conclusion. Lisa Wheeler summed up that conclusion when she got up and stated that the exomech was a _trick_, that the blueskins were trying to goad the community into fighting, and that Andy was right that a raiding party was coming, and it was coming _soon_. "They dropped that thing here as part of some kind of plan," she called. "They want to come down here and say 'oh look, we found squatters with an exomech, that means that someone's trying to start a revolution.' Then the house that runs Earth can crack down, cause all the ruler has to do is run to the Empress and show her the evidence, squatters hiding in the lawless areas with military weapons. That would let them do things that the Empress wouldn't otherwise permit."

Jason had to admit, he had never thought of it from that angle before, and Lisa had a very, very good point. Give a large band of squatters an exomech that doesn't work, then turn around and raid them. Recover the exomech, immediately run to the Empress with this evidence, and demand more troops or a relaxing of the laws, or maybe discredit some other noble house. For all he knew, the exomech would be traced back to some rival house, which Trillane would immediately accuse of trying to disrupt the farming operations of the very important Terran farming colony to hurt House Trillane. Given Terra's critical importance to the Imperium as a farming colony that supplied nearly 20% of the Imperium's food, the second largest farming colony in the Imperium, that would definitely invoke the wrath of the Empress on that framed house.

The opposing factor was Kumi. He doubted that she would willingly partake in that charade, and she was an informed enough young lady to know if that was indeed what it was. But, if that third party managed to slip it past her and get her to help, then... Well, it was something he couldn't ignore.

After the meeting, Jason lounged in his kitchen at the table, with Symone, Danielle, and Mary sitting with him, and Paul Meredith and Luke standing by the stove. Jason had been a bit quiet since Lisa had made her observations, and it seemed that Paul was as well. "You really think that Lisa was right?" Mary asked.

"I'm not sure, but she had a point," Paul answered.

Jason nodded. "I don't think she's right, but she does raise some valid arguments that I can't refute," he agreed. "Her thoughts about why they dropped that thing on us aren't a far reach. But I think she's wrong. But since I can't _prove_ that she's wrong, I'm going to respect her point of view, and keep it in the back of my mind. Kumi would never cooperate with someone that meant to drop that thing on us as bait in a trap, and she's got enough fingers spread through the Imperium to know if that's what it was for. But, since I can't completely depend on my faith in Kumi's ability, I have to respect the possibility that someone _did_ dupe her."

"Well, one thing's for sure, then," Mary said. "We can't let that robot out of our sight now."

"Yeah," Danielle said. "We have to keep it, that or melt it down into something that couldn't even remotely have been an exomech."

"We'll keep it," Jason told them. "For parts if anything else. This holographic projection idea I have will demand some serious power, more than any PPG we have. Hell, more than every PPG we have all put together. It'll take a full-blown _power plant_ to power it, and we only have two. One is in my skimmer, the other's in the exomech, and using it means we have to all but destroy the machine we take it out of. We might have to take the exomech apart and use its engine as a power source for the hologram. We know for a fact that the engine in the exomech _does_ work. It's the _only_ thing that works," he said with a short, cynical chuckle.

"The skimmer's more useful than the exomech, once Jason's cloaking device is installed in it," Symone agreed. "Besides, the exomech's power plant will be bigger. It's _military_, the skimmer is _civilian_. It's designed to power an MPAC cannon, after all," she chuckled.

"That's our next project," Jason said, looking at Symone. "We want the skimmer up and in the air as fast as possible. Steve thinks we'll do it in three weeks. We're going to need it to find a good site to move to."

"You don't sound to convinced of that," Symone said.

He grunted. "Putting that cloaking system in the skimmer is going to be _way_ harder," he admitted. "It won't be as easy as just installing components on a blank piece of metal. Just installing the emitters and preparing the hull won't even be half the work. We're going to have to splice in their dataline and conduit connections into the skimmer's systems, and me and Steve are going to have a chore ahead of us writing a TEL module to upload into the skimmer's computer to control the cloak."

"But it'll work, right?"

"Yeah, it'll work," he nodded. "I'll finally have my skimmer back in the air. I'm really looking forward to that."

_I know a certain someone down in New Orleans that can't wait for that too,_ Symone sent with a mischievous tilt to her sending.

_Hush_.

"Well, it sounds like you're going to need lots of help, Mister Jason," Luke said. "I'm sure we can round up a couple dozen steady hands. They don't have to be techs, they just gotta be able to follow instructions."

"I'm counting on that, Luke," Jason nodded. "We'll have to all but gut the interior to get at the skimmer's internals, install the cloaking system, then put it all back together. It's going to be a major project."

"Then we need to get started," Luke said.

"We have to figure out how we're going to do it first," Jason laughed. "We can't just run down there and start ripping my skimmer up, Luke. We have to lay out where the emitters go, then take a long look a the schematics to see how we're going to tie them into the existing wiring."

"Oh, I thought you did that already."

"Not yet. That's going to take us a few days to figure out, at _least_." He held up three fingers. "Steve's hoping for three weeks, but I figure it's going to take over a month. Maybe even two. Steve's idea of three weeks is us working around the clock with a full crew of trained assistants. That's what he's used to, but we just don't have that here."

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to sit in when you make those plans," Luke said. "I've never worked on Faey stuff, but I'm a good mechanic. If I get a good look at its drawings, I can help when it comes to the taking apart and putting together."

"You're right, Luke. You're in," he agreed with a nod. "Be here tomorrow at six. That's when we're starting."

"I'll be here."

_Jason, someone's calling on your panel, it's up here beeping,_ Tim sent.

"Jason, someone's calling your panel," Symone said aloud. "Tim just told me." To explain the sometimes miraculous passing of information among the _clique_, as it was called, Symone had spread the impression through the community that she had constant telepathic contact with Tim's mind. She used that communion as an excuse when Jason or Temika seemingly knew things that couldn't have been passed to them... she just explains that _she_ told them, or she told Tim to tell them. It worked well enough, because not everyone knew about the exact way that telepathy really worked. The fact that she could "send" to humans, speak directly to their minds, was really all the proof they needed.

"Be right back guys," he said, then he got up and went up to his room. Now that they had another panel for handling the security system, he had his back. It sat on the desk in his room when he wasn't down in his shop in the basement. He flopped down in the chair and opened it, then checked to see who was calling. It was Jyslin.

He answered it, and a picture appeared. She was standing in front of a monitor that wasn't in her room, it looked to be in some kind of locker room, for there were rows of lockers behind her with a bench running between the rows. She had her armor on, but a few Faey women passed behind her that didn't. They were dripping wet and wearing towels, and Jason recognized them. They were Maya, Sheleese, and Yana, three women from Jyslin's Marine squad. She was calling from the dressing room of her barracks? What got into her? "I hope you have audio only on your side," he said quickly.

"Pft, we don't need that here," she said. "Hey guys, come say hello to Jason!" she called over her shoulder.

"Jason!" they all called quickly running over. They crowded Jyslin, waving to him and smiling.

"Are you crazy, woman?" Jason asked.

"Oh please, they _know_ I talk to you," she told him.

"It's good to see you doing well, Jason," Maya said seriously.

"No, you're calling me from your _locker room_," he said.

They all laughed. "Ain't nothin' here you haven't already seen, baby!" Sheleese called with a grin, opening her towel and displaying herself to him. That was more or less true; Sheleese was one of the two Marines that had followed Jason around naked after he destroyed their armor, back when Jyslin was trying to force him to go out. She then gyrated against the towel against her back, doing a little twisting dance. The other two laughed, and Yana pushed her back behind Jyslin.

"So, what's so important that you couldn't wait to get home?" he asked.

"Orders, babe, orders!" she said excitedly. "Aunt Lorna came through! The unit's being transferred! All of us!"

"Wow, where you going?" he asked carefully, silently praying she was going to say something like California.

"_Washington_!" she said happily, clapping her gauntlets together. "We're gonna be right near my aunt! We're being attached to the Fourth Special Division, the Marine battalion that does the police work in D.C. It's all part of the realignment! We report to the Fort Lee Marine Barracks in Alexandria next _Chiira_, which is about eight _shakra_ south of Washington. I'll be just a few minutes away from the Pentagon."

Next _Chiira_? That was ten days from now.

"It's gonna be crazy. The whole company's going. We got so _much_ to move, but we're used to it. We're Marines, after all," She chuckled.

"The whole company?" Jason asked. That was three hundred soldiers.

"Yeah, there's a major realignment of Imperial forces coming down the pike. Lorna told me about it. The Empress ordered the number of Imperial troops halved, so now army units are gonna take over some of our jobs. Our unit's one of the first to be moved. Having a general for an aunt has certain advantages," she winked.

"We love you Lorna!" Sheleese called from the background. She became visible to Jyslin's left again, without her towel, now with her back to the monitor as she shook her butt back and forth. Yana appeared again to keep her from disrupting Jyslin's conversation, but Sheleese snatched hold of her towel and tore it off, then grabbed hold of Yana's arm and pulled her against herself. "Let's dance, Yana!" she called, yanking her smaller companion back and forth.

Jason looked at Jyslin. "What's with Sheleese?"

"Her old boyfriend's a weather scientist stationed in Richmond, which is just a half hour's ride on a transit train," she said. "So she gets to see someone too."

"I haven't seen Beran in a year!" Sheleese shouted, spinning Yana around, then pulling her back against her and turned her to face the monitor. "Let's do a special dance for Jason, Yana, cause he ain't had nothing but human girls to look at, when he can get a look at all," she said, then she cupped Yana's breasts and jiggled them brazenly.

"Sheleese!" Yana barked.

"True, that ain't what a healthy guy like him would be interested in, is it?" she said, whipping a hand down to grab Yana by the crotch.

"Sheh-_leese_!" Yana gasped, tearing herself out of her squadmate's grip. "Get a grip, woman!"

"I had one," she taunted with a grin. She was about to say something else, but she yelped when Maya snapped her with a twisted up towel, striking her buttocks loud enough for Jason to hear it over the monitor.

"Dammit Maya, that _hurt_," she complained, rubbing her backside with both hands.

"Stop acting like an idiot and let Jyslin talk," she said soberly. "You know she doesn't get much time to talk to him, and you're using it all up by being stupid."

"Sorry," Sheleese apologized, though it wasn't all that sincere.

"I'm surprised that you'd call _me_," Jason told Jyslin pointedly.

"It's safe enough. This is my personal panel, I just have it hooked up to this wall monitor, in about the only place I can make a call that won't get picked up on the station's security system. That's why I'm calling you from the locker room, so no, it's not just so you can watch Sheleese dance around naked," she winked. "And I don't keep your number in it. When we're done, I'll delete this call out of it and purge the memory blocks that worked the process." He nodded in understanding, because he knew that that would indeed work. As long as the only place she kept his number was in her own head, it was safe. Jyslin jostled a bit as someone pushed her from behind, and Jason saw it was Yana, working on the seams of Jyslin's armor, helping her take it off. "Lorna got the mindbenders off me, so I don't really have to worry about that anymore. As long as nobody sees me talking to you that doesn't already know I talk to you, we're just fine. Hope you don't mind, hon, but I'm gonna talk while getting out of my armor."

"I don't mind, Jys," he answered.

"Good. I got in late cause I had to take my shift report to the watch commander. I always get to shower last," she chuckled ruefully.

"She just wants to let you see her naked, don't be fooled, Jason!" Sheleese called from out of his view.

"Shut up, Sheleese," Jyslin barked, looking towards her and shaking a fist. "Trelle's garland, she's been bouncing off the walls ever since we found out about our reassignment. I though Ilia was going to anneal her into the squad car." Jason laughed, which made her smile. "You still have my panel number?" she asked after looking back to him.

"Yeah, I have it."

"Okay, use that for the next couple of weeks. They're renovating my house to get it ready for a new tenant, so I had to clear out of it early. They sent movers there today, after giving me all of two hours to pack a travel bag of stuff I wanna keep out," she growled. "My stuff's being packed right now, and then it'll be in transit to Fort Lee. I'm staying in the temp housing now, you know, Hotel Marine," she chuckled. "At least I have a room to myself. Sergeants and above don't have roommates."

"Lucky you."

"Yeah. We'll be packing gear and taking army regulars out on our patrols to train them for the next few days, then we leave next _Chiira_. Those army bitches can't wait 'til we're gone," she grunted. "I'm not sure why they're reducing the number of Marines. I hope they leave enough behind to keep an eye on these House troops. They're almost frothing at the mouth at the idea of having free rein. You know how House Trillane sees natives. Without us here to remind them about the Empress, they're gonna give the citizenry grief, I just know it."

"Yeah, I know too well," Jason said darkly. "You think it's gonna be okay?"

"Probably. There might be a few incidents, but the nobles know that if the soldiers harass the natives too much, it's gonna start impacting food production, and that the Empress will _not_ tolerate."

"No doubt. You gonna have a house on Fort Lee?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't have any base housing," she answered. "The Marines are going to live in Imperial-contracted apartments not far from it, some place called _Van Dorn_. But I'm not going to be there. Aunt Lorna got me an apartment in a place called Crystal City, north of Alexandria, in a high-rise, just two blocks down from where _she_ lives. Most of the Imperial brass lives in Crystal City, which I'm not too keen on. I don't like the idea of being a Sergeant living in an area full of Imperial officers."

"Lucky bitch!" Sheleese shouted.

"Bite me, Sheleese," Jyslin called back, looking to her right. "You can see the Pentagon and the, uh, _Washington monument_ from it," she said, speaking the name of the monument in English.

"Sounds nice."

"Yeah, Lorna showed me a hologram of it earlier today. A two bedroom condo, meant for a mid-grade officer with a family, but she pulled a few strings and got it for me. Sometimes having a general for an aunt has, perks," she grinned.

"I hate you, asshole!" Sheleese shouted.

"Shut the fuck up, Sheleese, or so help me Trelle I'm gonna come over there and kick your ass!" Jyslin threatened.

"How high up is she?" Jason asked.

"Part of the command staff," she answered. "There's only two ranks above her, full General and the Imperial Marshall of the Corps. Aunt Lorna is a Lieutenant General, but it's custom to simply call her _General. _But there's only _one_ Imperial Marshall, so really there's only one more rank for her to go. She'll get it, there's no doubt about that. When Empress Dahnai says publicly that you're one of her best officers, promotion is a _lock_."

"Even with what happened with me?"

"That had nothing to do with Aunt Lorna, and the Empress knows it," she answered. "It was just coincidence that her niece happened to know you."

"I always wondered. If your aunt's a general, why aren't you an officer?"

"We aren't allowed to carry officer rank during conscription," she said with a sour look. "I have to serve four of my five years before I can even apply to the officer's academy, and if you get in, the last four months of your conscription is spent in the academy. You graduate on your last day of conscription, then re-enlist as a Lieutenant. Nobles can't be true officers either, but only for the first two years, for the initial involuntary assignment. So, they have a different rank system for them, called Warrant Officers. That way they still outrank us enlisted, but aren't outranked by the other officers. Me getting a gold diamond would be more or less guaranteed because my aunt's a general. In fact, she's gonna see to it a couple of applications in my squad get through," she told him, her eyes glancing off camera.

"Why can't she get you into engineering then?"

"Cause it's a lot easier for her to wrangle me a spot in the officer's academy than it is for her to get me an engineering post on an Imperial starship," she answered. "Now if she was in the _Navy_, it might be easier for her. An Admiral can get a relative put about anywhere she wants."

"Ah. I see," he nodded.

"Too bad you can't come see me," she said. "I'd love to see you, Jason."

"You mean you'd love to fuck him!" Sheleese called from somewhere beside Jyslin, out of sight.

"That too," she admitted with a laugh.

"Well, say it with more than words, girl. Say it with tits!" Sheleese called as the back of Jyslin's armor came free. Jyslin caught the breastplate before it fell as Yana pulled the back piece off, but a blue hand pulled it out of Jyslin's grip and off camera, then pushed her back far enough so that her breasts were visible on the monitor. "Woohoo, look at those nips! They're reachin' for ya, Jason baby!" Sheleese called, a hand appearing and cupping Jyslin's breast. She slapped the hand away, but it returned to pinch her purple nipple, rather roughly.

"Maya, drag Sheleese out back and shoot her!" Jyslin shouted to her right, slapping the hand away again.

"Right away, Sergeant!" Maya said with a laugh.

"How have things been on that side?"

"Well enough," he answered. "We're more or less done with getting ready for winter, so barring any kind of disaster, we're relatively well set. I'll just be puttering around 'til spring comes, doing a few minor projects and such."

"How are your new friends over there?"

"They're doing fine," he answered, but he could see in her eyes the warning not to say anything more.

"That's good. Any trouble I should know about? Anything I can help you with?"

"Nothing right now, hon, but if anything comes up, I'll let you know."

"Good. Well, I'd better go, I have to grab a shower and get going, and we can't talk for very long, you know. Aunt Lorna came down for the weekend, and I'm taking her to Copeland's. I just wanted to tell you the good news, and warn you that you have to call my panel 'til I move."

"Not a problem, hon. Congratulations on your new assignment."

"Thanks. I'll send you some pics of my new apartment when I go back up."

"I'd like to see it."

She put her fingertips on the monitor on her side. "I miss you, love," she said.

"I miss you too," he said, putting his fingertips over hers.

"Wimp! Show him you care, show him some pussy!" Sheleese called outrageously.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have an ass to kick, and I'm still wearing my boots," Jyslin said in an ominous manner, cracking her knuckles as she leveled a narrow-eyed glare to her right, off camera. She left the link open as she stalked off, showing nothing but the lockers and the bench, and Jason heard Sheleese clearly. "Now come on, Jys, you know I was just playing, right? Right? Jys? Sarge? _Ow_!"

Yana poked her head into view, gave Jason a bright, mischievous smile as Sheleese started howling, then waved to him. "See ya later Jason. We all love ya and we all care about ya, remember that. Come home soon now. Oh, sorry about the shower thing, this was the only place Jys could set up the call without them tracing it, but I don't think you minded the view all that much," she said to him with a wink, then she reached down and pressed the button to terminate the call.

Jason just had to laugh. He'd known Sheleese for a while, knew she was something of a prankster and a tad hyper, but he had to admit... that was _funny_. Crude, but funny.

But Jyslin had said something that caught his attention. The Imperial Marines were cutting their numbers by half, partially withdrawing and letting House Trillane take over more of their operations. In a way that was good, but in a way that was bad. It was good that they were dropping their numbers, for it meant there was a lesser chance that Jason or his community might be facing off against Marines. God help them if they fired on Imperial Marines... that would be _it_. But it was bad because that meant that there would be less Imperial oversight of House Trillane, who already had something of a very bad track record concerning how they treated the humans of Terra. At least the Imperium treated them as subjects... House Trillane treated them like _property_. For some reason, Jason foresaw a sudden jump in the number of involuntary reassignments of humans to farm jobs the day after the Marines finished their reali