“Calm down, Karine. Can anyone hear us?” he asked, “No. I’m in a crowd, but no one is that close to me.”
“We aren’t going to war, but we are getting ready for an outside threat. I can’t tell you anymore over the phone. You shouldn’t worry, my dear. Your grandfather and I have this whole matter completely under control.”
“My grandfather is dead, and he took my grandmother with him. Besides, he worked all his life on asteroid mining. What could he have to do with the Unity,” I asked?
“Yes, he is gone, but he left you with his name, Fuller, and the fruits of his life’s work,” Dredge explained.
“Outside threats, like way outside, like an asteroid strike?” I yelled the words into the phone, unable to contain my fear.
“There will be widespread panic soon enough. You won’t be the only one to notice the shuffling around of original family children. Jason loves you, my dear. Our family’s survival is all that concerns me. We will talk later, but I must return to my work now. We will speak again soon. “Dredge ended the call abruptly.
It wasn’t war. It was something far worse that I hadn’t considered. I filled my arms with soda and beer containers and walked back to my friends through the rowdy crowd. Everyone I walked by was ignorant of this new threat.
A timeframe floated in my mind, a year, six months, longer. There wasn’t much time left judging by what little I understand about our planet’s defenses against wayward objects. If people are already scrambling for lineage names, there may be less time than I imagined.
I found Jason in the crowd and watched his face and animated arms while he talked. He noticed me walking toward him and smiled, it only took a half a second, but he lost his train of thought. Everyone laughed at him and took their fresh drinks from my overloaded arms.
Aqua and Blue arrived while I was waiting in line. Both girls grabbed and sniffed my new chocolate leather and admired my bracelet with bouncing high pitched squeals. Jason seemed pleased with all the attention his gifts were getting.
“Hey, you two need a third. For that kinda swag, I can become very flexible.” Diff ‘s new friend jumped on the table and began dancing suggestively right in front of Jason.
“Nope, we don’t need a third breeder, yet.” I offered the young man my hand to help him off the table, but he jumped off with a summersault and landed square on his back. Everyone in the vicinity started to clap and cheer.
He popped up like nothing had happened and took my hand in his. “Chicago Smith pleased to meet you.”
“What kind of name is Chicago?” I asked. The young man’s hands were incredibly warm, but his cologne was almost weaponized. The scent was so intense my eyes began to water.
“Worker’s found me in the Old Chicago project buildings. The nurse that took care of me, her last name was Smith.” All the women at the table nodded their heads in swooning approval of his sad story, including me. Jason took my other hand and pulled me towards him and wrapped his arm around my stomach.
“So, you are all protection path? When do you start your first territory patrols?” Jason asked, changing the subject.
Difference and his crew answered in unison, next week, Monday, Wednesday. You could see Aqua was too interested in Diff to join in the conversation. Her face scowled in defeat when she heard he had a fiancé, but her flirty smile returned when she learned the girl was years underage.
The people at our table began to cluster together in smaller groups leaving two of Diff ‘s friends chatting with us. Jason spotted two female classmates at a neighboring table and called them over to join in. The women were meant for Diff ‘s friends, but they seemed more interested in Jason’s every word.
Chicago was quickly able to gain the interest of one of the girls Jason encouraged to join our table. But, the second girl would not be distracted, soon we had several more people mingling around our table. The food vendors flashed their lights, signaling they would be closing in a half hour.
“Let’s go grab another round of drinks and some sandwiches before everything closes down.” Jason pulled me away from the table and towards the lights of the food vendors.
“That fat girl won’t stop touching you. What is her problem?” I asked, thoroughly annoyed.
“Ooo jealous. Not like that walking cologne bottle wasn’t planning on taking you from me,” Jason noted.
“Oh please, that was never going to happen. A third, we haven’t even been a two yet.” We reached the churro vendor first. I signaled the vendor for a dozen sticks.
“Speaking of two, I don’t want you to feel like you are obligated, you know, do anything you’re not wanting to do because of anything we did. There is nothing we have to do right now. Not that I’m opposed to doing whatever you want. Just know it’s not a big thing. For me, in general.” Jason caught the eye of a drink vendor and requested a mixed box of sodas and beers.
“Oh, well. What if it’s something of a minor thing for me. I may want to sample the goods before buying this whole shipment.” I pushed my way to the churro vendor’s payment circle and swiped my new bracelet over the credit machine light.
“You do? Of course, you do. Why would you want to go blindly into a lifelong agreement with me?” Jason grabbed the box of drinks from the vendor and bumped his watch against the crude rubber payment post.
“Lifelong. I do like the timeframe you’re suggesting. Though I haven’t heard a formal proposal yet, I like the idea and scope of the project,” I mused.
“That’s good to know because upper management has some huge plans for your future.”
