gnment and the troops reassigned off Terra left the planet. He also saw quite a few incidents of lawbreaking coming as well... and that worried him. Without Marines to oversee the House troops, there was going to be stealing, abuse, and maybe even some deaths as they ran roughshod over the _natives_. The Faey didn't _respect_ the human race, because they had complete power over them... and that lack of respect caused those abuses. And that was going to become very apparent, very soon.

Well, there was little he could do about it, because he had his own problems. They had a long, hard road ahead of them. They had to get the skimmer's cloak installed, then they had to find a new place to move the community, then they had to design and install their holographic camouflage, then came the nightmare of logistics that would entail packing up the entire community and then moving it... and doing it all before spring was over, so they could get some farms plowed and crops planted.

_I take it you're done? Who was it?_ Symone sent.

_Jyslin._ He went over what she'd said, including the troop realignment.

_Damn, she's gonna be pretty close. Think we might manage to go see her?_

_We can't do that, I'll bet money that they're watching her. If I showed up, they'd swoop down on us._

_Yeah, probably. Still, I'm happy to hear that she's getting reassigned. What's so funny? Your sending's streaked with something you find funny._

_Nothing, nothing, it was Sheleese. She was acting silly._

_Sheleese? What was she doing there?_

_Jyslin was calling from the locker room of her barracks,_ he told her. _I got to see her, Yana, and Maya. They were in the locker room._ He shared a memory of Sheleese's antics, which made Symone laugh through her sending. _That _is_ funny,_ she agreed.

_Omahgawd, she really did that?_ Temika asked, her sending a bit surprised, and tinged with embarrassment.

_Yeah, she did,_ Jason answered. _The look Yana gave her could have peeled the paint off the walls._

_If she woulda grabbed _me_ like that, they'd have been peeling _her_ off the walls,_ Temika sent, her sending tinged with outrage at the very idea of it.

_They're all friends, Mika,_ Jason told her. _They're very close, a very tight-knit group. Two of them are even sisters. Yeah, that was a bit out of bounds, but Yana'll get over it. After all, she knows that Sheleese was only trying to make me blush. It goes back to when I first met her, I told you that story. She was one of the ones that ended up naked, because of the chemical I sprayed on her. Unfortunately for her, I've been around Faey too long to get embarrassed most of the time,_ he sent with an audible chuckle.

_Ah don't see how you do it, sugah,_ Temika told him.

_It's easy. Faey are the _men_ of their culture, Mika. Think of a Faey as a man, and you've more or less got it pegged._

_I beg your pardon!_ Symone sent with a mental laugh. She accompanied that sending with an image, a memory of her looking at herself in the mirror... naked.

_That's not what I mean and you know it, woman,_ he retorted. _What I'm saying is that personality wise, think of a Faey as a combination of man and woman, instead of _just_ a woman. Remember, they're the dominant gender. But they _are_ women. Lots of those traits you'd think of as _feminine_ are still there, they just don't display them publicly. Think of Symone. She acts more _feminine_ in private, but in public, she's much more _masculine_._

_Yah, I noticed that,_ Temika agreed. _And she certainly ain't embarrassed by _nothin'_._

_She has her reputation to uphold,_ Jason sent, his sending sly.

_That's right, cutie! Too bad the only reputation I care about is the one I have with Tim,_ she added.

_And that's the core of the Faey personality,_ he sent grandly, open sending but aimed at Temika. _The underlying genetic need to pair-bond is still the backbone of a Faey woman's personality, just like the genetic need to spread genes through as many mates as possible is at the heart of a Faey man's personality. But their roles are a bit reversed from human roles. Women chase, and they chase _hard_, while the men try to put them off as long as they can._

_Wow, Ah nevah thought of it that way. How did you learn all this?_

_From my Advanced Plasma instructor,_ he answered with a mental laugh. _He was the one I talked to when Jyslin started in with me. He was a physics professor, but he knew more about Faey behavior than the psychologists did, and he was able to explain it to me in terms I could understand. He taught me what to expect from Faey, both men and women._

_Smart fella,_ Symone sent. _I wonder if he's married._

Jason laughed aloud. _One husband per customer, Symone,_ he teased.

_Not for me, goof. When a married gal finds a good man, she tries to hook him up with a friend. I would look at Mika, but I don't think she'd be ready for a Faey man in her life, it'd be too much of a culture shock Besides, 'til Mika gets over her hangup about being touched, no Faey man would even think about it. What kind of relationship can he have if she won't fuck him? She'd never get past the first date._

The silence was deafening. Jason had no idea where the others were, they were probably conducting the conversation from every corner of the community, but he had no doubt that Temika was blushing furiously.

_I think Ailan's married,_ Jason mused.

_Damn, all the good ones are always married._

_That's why they're married,_ Jason told her.

_True. You okay over there, Mika? You're looking a bit-you're blushing!_ Symone sent with vast humor.

_Be nice, Symone, remember that she's not a Faey,_ Jason sent privately to her.

_I won't push,_ she answered him privately. _I should, though. I'm still trying to get her into your bed, cutie. You need a girl sexy enough to substitute for Jys, and I don't see how she even functions. Never in my life have I ever met a woman in more dire need of a good healthy fuck than Mika._

_Just leave her alone, Symone. When she's ready for a relationship, she'll look for one herself._

_As much as she needs me to, but I can still suggest,_ she told him.

_What are we doing for dinner?_ Jason asked in an open sending, changing the subject.

_You're cooking, so you decide,_ Symone sent.

Ah'll_ cook,_ Temika sent. _Ah promised y'all some jambalaya, remembah? Ah don't have no shrimp, but Ah think Ah can work around that. Ah got everythin' else, even the rice._

_How'd you get rice?_

_Tradin',_ she answered.

_Oh yeah, that reminds me. Mika, do you still sneak across the border?_

_Sometimes,_ she answered. _Not as much as Ah used to._

_Well, I'm finally going to collect my side of our bargain,_ he warned. _Sometime soon, you're going to show me and a few other people how to get across the border._

_It ain't that hard, sugah,_ she said. _They ain't all that serious about guardin' it, and they've let the fence go to pot. It's got so many holes and broken sensors that Ah could herd a pack of elephants through without them seein' it. And if the right guards are workin', all it takes to get across is a little tradin'. There's a few of them that'll just let you through for the right price._

_Well, after I get the skimmer fixed, we're going to go have a look._

_Any time, sugah,_ she assured him.

                                        * * *

_Kaira, 23 Demaa, 4393, Orthodox Calendar_
_Sunday, 29 November 2007, Native Regional Reckoning_
_Chesapeake, Ohio (Native designation), Orala Nature Preserve, American Sector_

In some ways, Jason had found that their chaotic little group was capable of great things.

Operation Phoenix, as Steve has mirthfully called it, was just such an example of just what they could do if they rolled up their sleeves and put their minds to it.

It had taken 36 days to complete, from the initial planning stage to the final step. 36 days. Five days of planning, four days of layout, and 27 days of actual construction. At its smallest, it was a project involving four people. At its greatest, it directly involved 31 people in some form. They had worked around the clock for over two weeks straight at one point, each of the techs taking a shift and supervising a work detail that was involved with the actual installation of the system into the skimmer.

It had been a thing of beauty... at least after everyone had been taught what they were doing, and got the hang of it. As one team all but gutted his precious skimmer's interior, another team began installing the emitters, as a third team covered the hull with the layers of material it would need in order to carry the matrix. They had Sam Watson, a painter by trade, handle the application of the insulating layer and the Neutronium, for it had to be applied with a molecular sprayer _by hand_, and its thicknesses had to be very close to spec, if not exact. Sam had a viable talent and a very steady hand, and he had managed the job quite admirably. Before Sam did his work, the emitter team did their job, who went by an exacting diagram Steve had made and put into a datareader with a holographic emitter, providing them with a three-dimensional diagram of the skimmer. Using that diagram, they cut the holes in the hull and install the emitters, then Sam came behind and applied the two layers. He used the emitters as his thickness guide, covering the insulating material to the edge of the emitter lenses, and then the rest covered with Neutronium until it couldn't be seen, until the hull was smooth. The emitters would be covered over by a millimeters-thick layer of Neutronium, and through that metal the matrix would be conducted. The Neutronium they used was standard metal, but they used a Faey trick of molecular alignment to cause the metal to look blue, to be the exact same color as the original paint. That hadn't been necessary, but it did make Jason feel better. It took Sam and his four helpers twelve days to "paint" on the insulating layer, inspect it, and correct thickness errors, and it took them ten more to apply the Neutronium, inspect it, and correct thickness errors. The emitters were placed in a staggered array all over the hull, each emitter responsible for five square feet of hull, but there were also sensors in the cabin door, the cargo doors, and the landing skid bay doors. Those doors were removed, their edges insulated from the hull, and emitters installed on their surfaces. Each door's outer surface was an independent matrix, separated from the main matrix because the break in the hull where the door was would create a distortion field that would feed back into the matrix and destabilize the entire structure. All "hard edges" had to be insulated so the energy didn't reflect back into the matrix once it reached a border.

While that was being done, the wiring teams were hard at work inside the skimmer. Every single emitter had to be tied into the skimmer's power and data networks, meaning that datalines and microconduit had to be run from the wiring bundles and to the devices. Once that was run, a tech had to come behind and perform the actual joining, using a panel to access the emitter's simplistic internal computer and assign the emitter an address, so the skimmer's computer could tell them apart and access them, then hook the emitter up to the skimmer's systems. Once all the emitters were installed, the interior of the skimmer had to be put back in, but they decided to do that last, after it was started up and tested. If there was a problem, they'd have to tear it all out again to get to the internals anyway.

The only real issue they had with the installation was with the windshield. The windshield was made out of metal, made of _transparent_ vanadrium, which, thank the Lord, was compatible with the shield matrix. They'd been forced to take out the windshield and insulate it from the rest of the hull at the mounts, then attach the emitters to the outside edges and reinstall it. The matrix in the windshield would be invisible, and would take just a little more power than the rest of the system, because of the properties of vanadrium.

While most of that was being done, Jason and Steve split their time between the installation and the writing of the TEL module. It had been easy in one way, and hard in another. They used the TEL program that they used for the box as a base for the skimmer's program, but they had to make so many changes that they simply scrapped it and started over from scratch. When they did start over, however, they already had enough familiarity with the system and with the requirements of the program that they were able to finish it in 16 days. The program did everything they needed it to do in simulations. It knew how to form the matrix and how to maintain it, and also how to shut it down safely, without the matrix doing any damage to the molecular structure of the metal that surrounded it. It was able to detect errors and phase shifts in the matrix and make corrections. It was able to recognize a fatal error or hardware malfunction, and enter an emergency state where it concentrated on maintaining as much of the matrix as possible while the pilot got the ship down and turned off the power. It was also able to detect an impact from an MPAC projectile and immediately shut the matrix down to prevent a cascade overload that would burn out the shield emitters. It was able to communicate with the skimmer's computer and other modules, relaying matrix status, power, emitter status, and preventing the use of MPACs and the shield while the matrix was operational. It made for plenty of sleepless nights for them, but they managed to complete it before the installation of the hardware was complete.

Jason was relieved beyond measure that Steve was there. Jason knew TEL language, but Steve was _much_ better as a coder. Steve was the one most responsible for making that program work, and it would have taken Jason three months to write that program and make it work by himself.

Exactly 36 days after they began, it was done. The work had been cold at times as a cold snap had blown in from the north, and a week of it had been done as rain pounded down on the bridge over their heads, making for an unpleasant walk back and forth. The ship's cabin was laying out on the tarp-covered earth and concrete, all except the pilot and copilot's chairs. Everything else, seats, walls, floors, ceiling, all of it, was sitting under plastic on those tarps. Jason, Steve, and Tim stood there with Luke, Zach, Irwin, and all the people who had helped with this project, as well as the city council, just standing there and looking. In Jason's arm was his black panel, and in it was the final TEL module version, ready for download into the skimmer's computer. They'd gotten the backup PPG he'd been using to run a backup generator back into the skimmer, which would be what would power the computer without him having to bring up the engines and power plant. The last things to do were left to the techs, as they went in and disabled all automatic telemetry so the skimmer didn't transmit its position.

There was one slight alteration, though. Having seen the phoenix emblem on his and Symone's armors, Sam had used his painting skills to paint that same design on the nose of the skimmer, just under the windshield. At first he used standard paint, but after seeing it and being impressed by it, Jason told him that the matrix would eventually burn the paint off. So they went back and used the alignment trick to change the way the metal of the emblem absorbed light without disturbing the metal's molecular structure, causing it to appear black instead of blue. So, he had the phoenix emblem emblazoned on the bow of his ship in jet black, surrounded by the blue of the skimmer.

"Well," Steve said mildly, pushing his glasses back up on his nose. "Let's go see if it works."

"Remember, Clem," Jason warned. "If the matrix fails once I start the engines, I'm going to be taking it out of here, and _fast_. They'll pick it up very quickly. I want to be far enough away that they don't trace it back to the community before a sensor tech manages to lock onto it."

"Makes me wonder how you got it here, Mister Jason," Luke said.

"They weren't _looking_ for it when I came here, Luke. They're looking for it now. And also remember, if you think for any reason that they're going to send a patrol down here to investigate if I fail, _run_. Just grab what you can and run away, then come back after they leave."

"We'll be careful," Clem assured him.

Jason nodded to him. "You got everything you need, Tim?" he asked.

"Yeah," he said, pointing at his equipment. Tim would be outside the ship as they did the test, taking sensor measurements and observing. "I'm ready."

"Let's do it," Jason said, then he and Steve climbed up into the skimmer.

They sat down and got to work. Steve tiptoed along a rail girder because there was no floor, balancing his way back to the back of the skimmer to start the backup PPG as Jason put his panel on his lap and brought up the download program. "PPG is on!" Steve shouted, and Jason wasted no time. He quickly brought the computer online with a few deft switch presses, which caused a holographic keyboard to appear over the control stick. He prepared the skimmer computer to accept a new module just after he backed up the entire skimmer computer to a stick, just in case the module crashed the skimmer's computer, then connected the panel to the skimmer with a dataline as Steve tiptoed his way back to the cockpit. He flopped into the copilot's chair just as the panel began downloading the module. They watched in tense silence as the module was uploaded into the skimmer, and watched the display as the skimmer computer updated its system and then executed a soft restart, reinitializing its processes without shutting down and restarting.

"Looks like it's working," Steve chuckled.

"Let's find out," he said as he ordered the computer to perform a complete diagnostic. That took it almost five minutes, as it systematically went through its own files and hardware, then carefully checked the software and hardware for all other systems in the skimmer. They watched most keenly at the end, when it executed a diagnostic on the cloak matrix system, or CMS, as Steve had coined it. How that system responded depended _entirely_ on how well Steve and Jason had written the program that made it function.

Much to their relief, it responded _exactly_ as it was supposed to.

Jason flipped on the external speaker. "Okay, people we're about to turn on the matrix. Clear all magnetic materials away from the skimmer, and _don't touch it_. There's going to be a few hundred thousand volts of static charge on the hull when the system starts up, and it can kill."

"Remember, there's going to be holes in the matrix because of the landing gear and the open doors," Steve told him. "We have to close the door before we start the engine, or we're going to have a hole big enough for a signature to bleed through. I don't think the gear will be a problem, because they're on the _bottom_ of the ship. The earth will mask the signature that bleeds through."

"Yeah, and the open areas will be a good test for our program. Let's see if it really _can_ determine that the doors are open and disable the emitters powering those sections. Ready?"

"Let's rock," Steve said, giving him a thumbs-up.

"Okay then, starting the CMS module," he announced, his fingers dancing across the holographic keyboard. They watched carefully as the computer accessed the CMS module, and it came into the forefront, became the primary process with control over all others but the core computer process, propulsion, guidance, communications, and climate control. All other systems were now governed by the CMS module, allowing it to override them if their actions threatened the stability of the matrix. "CMS is up. Beginning matrix formation program."

Steve watched his screen, to which was being dumped the debugging data as the CMS module performed its task. The module tried to access the primary power system, but found it down. It then shifted to backup power, found that operational, and then continued on. It surveyed all emitters and ordered them to report status, then waited for the replies. After all emitters returned a _ready_ response, it then checked the internal sensors by accessing the ship status sensors. It found the pilot door and landing bay doors open, and removed those sections from the startup sequence... _exactly_ as it had been programmed to do.

It had better, they spent nine hours with a simulator ironing that bug out of the program. It had been a _bitch_ to code it.

Now it was ready. They could hear the PPG back in the cargo area suddenly give out a whine of protest as the CMS spiked it, drawing considerable power as it primed the emitters to fire. They watched a holographic display of the ship, projected over the dash in front of the windshield, as all emitters that were there were represented by green dots, which turned red as they reached priming potential and were ready to fire. The emitters that would not fire because of open doors were grayed out on the hologram. "Stand clear!" Jason barked into the microphone as the last of the green dots turned red.

The emitters fired. There was no sound, no indication that they had fired except for the hologram in front of them. It displayed the result as the emitters fired and energized the outer layer, as the field matrix formed within the Neutronium covering the hull. The hull of the ship, represented in gray, suddenly flared red, then that color stabilized as the matrix balanced itself under the careful control of the CMS module, as the emitters adjusted themselves and made the transition from initial firing to maintenance. Section by section, that red turned to green, indicating a stable field matrix and optimal operation within the program's designed parameters.

"Well, I'll be dipped in grease and renamed Bob," Steve laughed. "No programming errors!"

"After five days running it through a simulator, I hope not," Jason said seriously. "Alright, Symone. What ya got?" he asked, calling into the ship's radio.

_Well cutie, we saw a sudden little blurb, but now we don't see _shit_!_ she sent, her sending literally joyous. What she had to say was _not_ something they were about to put on over a radio. Everyone knew that Symone could send telepathic messages to non-telepathic people, so that's exactly what he told her to do with him, sending her response rather than calling it over the radio. _And the blurb wasn't much, it went by so fast I'd have missed it if I wasn't looking for it._

"So, you don't see anything?"

_I don't see anything,_ she answered.

"Okay then," he said, blowing out his breath. "Keep an eye on it, hon. Here comes step two."

With deliberate movements, Jason primed the reactor engine that powered the skimmer, then flipped the switchguard over the main switch and pressed the button. The familiar whine immediately flooded the chamber as the engines powered up using primer PPGs to power it, then the engine became self-sustaining and began to power up, which powered the generators that quickly took over primary power. The whine was much louder than usual because most of the interior was laying on the ground outside, starting as low thrum and ascending until it was that familiar high-pitched sound to which he was accustomed. Steve watched intensely as the debug data showed that the CMS module detected primary power within accepted tolerance levels, then executed its power protocol. It switched over to main power, and it did it quickly and smoothly, without even making the matrix field so much as fluctuate. If it detected that main power was failing, or main power fell to within ten percent of minimum threshold level, it would immediately revert back to the backup system, a backup PPG that was dedicated _only_ to the CMS.

"Engines are on," Jason called to Steve, his voice noticeably nervous, then he picked up the microphone again. "Symone?"

_Nothing, cutie!_ she sent happily. _I didn't even see the sensor display _twitch_!_

Jason resisted the urge to get up and jump up and down in the cockpit, because they had more to do. "Okay, let's see if the rest works," he said. "Watch carefully, Symone," he called over the radio, then he took hold of the controls. Steve hit the button to close the outer door to the cabin, and they watched the display hologram carefully. The door emitters went from gray to green as the program detected the closed door, then they turned red as the program primed the emitters to fire. Then the door flashed red as the matrix was activated in the door, then changed to stable green.

"Well, that worked," Steve said with barely contained glee.

"Taking her off the deck," he said, pulling back on the vertical position slider with a light touch. He picked the ship up just enough for the Weight on Skids sensor triggered, telling him the skids were completely off the ground. Once they were, he retracted the landing gear.

Again, they watched carefully as the matrix module went to work. It detected the closing of the landing gear doors, then primed and fired the emitters that provided the matrix into the doors. The doors turned red, then blinked to green.

The module performed exactly as intended.

"Symone?" he called over the radio.

_Nothing, baby! Absolutely nothing!_

"Symone doesn't see anything," Jason relayed.

"Let's not get excited yet, we got more to test," Steve said with cool professionalism.

And they did. First they tested the prevention protocols, as Jason tried to activate the skimmer's shields and defensive MPAC weaponry. In both cases, the module intervened with a warning that _using_ those systems would disrupt the field matrix. It didn't outright stop them, because there might be an emergency that would demand instant activation without turning off the field matrix, but it did force them to acknowledge that warning before proceeding. After a few minutes, the hologram vanished from the dash, as it was programmed to do. It wouldn't return unless a change in the field matrix caused a change in status, there was an emergency, or the operator told the computer to restore the hologram manually. Then they tested the automatic disabling protocols by extending the landing skids. As soon as he hit the switch, the TEL module detected the command and immediately shut down the field matrix to the landing gear doors. The hologram reappeared, the doors flashed red, then that red faded to gray as the field was turned off to those sections, and _then_ the module permitted the doors to be opened and skids extended.

Exactly as intended.

Jason put the ship back on the deck and opened the main cabin door. Again, the module detected the door open command and deactivated the matrix on the door before allowing it to open. "Powering down," he said in a voice barely containing his excitement as he began the power-down sequence, turning off the main engines, then the main computer. The matrix was on an independent, always-on, shielded PPG, so it remained in operation. The main computer was also on its own stand-alone PPG, but wasn't shielded... yet. That was first on their list before they put the interior back into the ship.

"Shall we get the champagne?" Steve asked, then he laughed brightly.

Jason picked up the microphone. "Ladies. Gentlemen. Congratulations! It _works_!" he called over the loudspeaker. "Aaat, the field is still up, you dinks!" Jason shouted quickly as those outside started towards the skimmer. "Let us shut it down first! I don't think the first thing we do after our test is scrape some overexcited yahoo's charred remains off the hull of my ship. Hell, it'd ruin the paintjob!"

That made those outside laugh, as did Steve. "Shutting down the field matrix," he told Jason with a grin. They watched the hologram as the module executed its shutdown protocols, as the entire display turned red and started flashing, and then faded to gray. The emitters were stepped into standdown mode, and then, after a poll by the main computer to assess operational condition, to make sure no emitter was damaged when it came down, it turned them off one by one, as they reported their condition. It then made a log of the status of those emitters, executed its self-shutdown procedure, and then turned itself off. The hologram vanished from the dashboard.

The test was complete. And it was better than any of them could have hoped it would be.

"Sending logs to a stick and shutting down," Jason said happily as he had the main computer dump all logs into a stick, so they could go over them, then shut down. When the monitors winked off, he got up, turned to Steve, and shook his hand gravely. Steve laughed and gave Jason a rough hug, clapping him on the back.

"It _works_!" he declared in glee. "We actually did it, Jayce! A ragtag bunch of human rejects invented something that _works_!"

"We couldn't have done it by ourselves," Jason laughed. "Not one of us. This took all of us. You, me, Tim, Luke and Leamon, hell, even Kumi for getting us the supplies."

"Amen, but see what we can accomplish when we work together?" Steve said. "It's off, guys!" Steve screamed, making Jason's ears ring. Steve could be _loud_ when he wanted to be.

"Now we have to go over the logs and make sure there weren't any bugs," Steve said.

"But at least they can put the interior back into the skimmer while we do," Jason chuckled, looking at the empty cabin, nothing but girders, bulkheads, and bundles tracks of dataline and conduit. "Tonight we have to test the light absorbing system, and take the ship out and see if they pick it up when it's on the move. But the biggest test is out of the way," he sighed in relief. "The matrix _works_. Once we're sure this thing can fly without detection, we can start looking for a new site."

"Step one, _almost_ complete," Steve chuckled.

"Almost. But we can see the end of the tunnel."

"We can indeed."

                                        * * *

That night was the happiest that Jason had been in a long time.

Alone, in a cabin that was little more than the two pilot chairs, Jason took his precious ship out from under that bridge for the first time in months and _flew_.

It had taken a little work beforehand, though. They had to install an inverse phase emit