Lance – Return to Paradise

Serina and I were finally alone with Dad in his suite. A more delightful and more comfortable place you will never find. All automation was carefully hidden; what was visible was warm woods from Terra accenting traditional looking plastered walls painted a relaxing warm grey. It is interesting how some things never really change over the years. I guess if it works—then why improve it, although I knew that this plaster-like material descended from something called ballisticrete that was first invented in the early twenty-first century. Back then the original material was resistant to multiple rounds of .50 caliber, now it was even more protective, but it still looked like good old plaster. Back it up with appropriate protective fields and the right wall construction, and this was probably one of the safest places in the universe.

Greenery was strategically placed everywhere; there was room for it. The chairs were automated and adjusted to my body as I sank into its embrace. The main accent piece in the room drew my immediate attention, an aquarium that took up most of one wall. It was populated with everything that you would typically find in a Caribbean coral reef back on Terra. Basically, the same thing as was imported to create Carribia. Flashbacks of Serina in her white bikini occupied my mind for a moment until the real thing demanded my attention. "Lance, what did Tori say?"

"Do either of you know what a Faraday cage is?" I replied.

"No," "Not the faintest idea" their replies in the negative came on top of each other.

Then I need to get Betty to explain it to you. Shortly Betty's voice came over the speakers, "It had its beginnings back in 1836. Michael Faraday was the first to notice that electrical charges stayed on the outside of a conductor wrapped object. Then in 1755, Benjamin Franklin discovered what we now call "A Faraday Cage." Electromagnetic radiation cannot penetrate a properly designed Faraday Cage. The higher the frequency then, the tighter the metallic screening surrounding the area that you do not want electromagnetic radiation to penetrate has to be."

Betty continued, "To us that means that the Duke's signal not being what we call string communication or quantum entanglement but rather old-fashioned radio frequency can be blocked if you are inside a space surrounded with the proper materials to create a Faraday cage, or if the specific location happens to suffer from destructive interference from a multipath signal."

I saw blank looks and said, "Serina, think back to just before we left Terra to return to this time. Remember your cell phone?"

Serina replied, "A most disruptive technology. What about it?"

I replied, "You remember those five bars that were supposed to tell you how strong your signal was? Did you ever notice how you could be holding your phone still and the bars would get stronger and weaker without you moving the phone? Or better yet, in the city specifically sometimes it worked great and others, a few feet away, your call just dropped? Well, that was constructive and destructive radio interference at work."

Betty interjected, "The Dukes kill signal used good old reliable RF technology in a way that we had long ago forgotten. The bad thing was that we were not blocking that approach and it worked all too well. The good thing for us was that the signal did not reach every Xiǎo Māo. It means that we have captives that we can interrogate."

Serina added, "And while that interrogation is going on, Lance and I are going to see what can be done to get us some trustworthy troops."

Serina walked over to her Dad and leaned down to give him a hug and kiss, "Dad, while we are gone take good care of your grandchildren, will you? Oh, and as we have a little bit of time, Lance and I are going to stop by the Marine hospital and get my fertility reversed so we can get you even more grandchildren...."

After dropping that bombshell on Dad we took care of getting Serina's fertility reversed. Then we ported directly from the hospital to Endor's marine base. Imp took care of all programming, so we did not cause a security breach by porting from somewhere else than the secure port in Dad's suite.

We stopped by the armory to grab two sets of light armor, which with Bit's help were eventually adjusted to fit in record time. Serina had wanted to visit her old quarters from when she was in charge of the base to configure our suits, and until we stripped down to bare skin to start the process, I had no idea as to why. Let's just say that Serina did not leave me in the dark for long and that it took much longer to start the actual adjustment process than usual….

As we jumped into the gorge both of our faces were blushing bright red. Somehow, just because Serina was fertile, it felt different than it had in years, almost like our wedding night. But—we had a job to do.

Serina and I drifted down towards the amphitheater where I had blasted the head shaman to atoms long ago or yesterday depending on your perspective. It looked like not much had changed. Beauty, Giant, and Youth were again facing a tribunal, although it appeared that this time it was a discussion rather than precipitous action that was happening.

I had checked on Beauty the first day that we had arrived on the Enterprise and, while I took pains not to be seen, all was quiet. People were cleaning up after the mess I made of the amphitheater, but no one was threatening Beauty or Youth. They appeared to be treating Youth with the utmost respect. I had also done some reconnaissance. Now it seemed that the local power structure had not learned their lesson yet and were challenging Youth's authority.

I had to stop and think that just because it had been almost two hundred years since I was last here, to Beauty and her people it had only been a few days.

[Slow learners, aren't they?] I sent to Serina.

[Apparently. Last time you fired a disruptor into the air to get the attention of the shamans. Think it will work again?]

No reply was necessary as action spoke louder than words. Both of us let loose, and the lighting and thunder that we rained down from the sky were even more appalling than the last time. Heads jerked up all over the amphitheater before slamming their bodies down in supplication. Everyone except Beauty, Giant, and Youth were on their knees faces planted on the ground as Serina, and I drifted to a soft landing.

Beauty was dressed, much as she was when I first saw her, in leather breeches and not much else. That strange exotic scent, reminiscent of a rose, still hung about her. Beauty took advantage of a running start and launched herself at me. Her legs wrapped about my waist and she planted kiss after kiss on my face and lips. It was a good thing that Serina herself had figuratively tripped me way back when we had started our extended family; otherwise, Beauty's behavior would have been sure to create some jealousy.

Once she slowed down enough to let me, I thoroughly kissed her back. For a woman that had only recently learned what a kiss was, she was a fast learner. Then I saw that Serina had not waited to be introduced and had Giant in a hug and was being kissed by him with every bit of expertise that Beauty had kissed me, which answered the question of where she had been practicing.

Youth in the meantime had dismissed the tribunal and audience, and they had meekly accepted his right to do so. Then he embraced me with all the fervor that he would if I was his father. Serina was busy hugging and kissing Beauty as if they were longtime friends and had not just met. I suppose in way Beauty was familiar to Serina from all the stories I had told of my time with them. Beauty? Beauty was just a born diplomate.

Other than being larger, the home that Beauty lead us to was not much different than the place that Beauty and I had been held captive by the shamans way back when. But to Serina that was all new, although not strange because of my stories.

I don't need to go back over things that you have heard about, but Serina was loving being shown around and learning what everything was, and becoming tight besties with Beauty. This time Serina and I talked to Imp through our implants and let him translate both directions using the speakers on our armor.

One thing that almost tripped us up was a tradition that I had not encountered my first time as I was a single male in their eyes, well in reality actuality as Serina and I were not married then. In fact, if I had the opportunity, it was fifty-fifty that I would have killed Serina, as a traitor and an assassin on the spot then.

It turns out that one of the customs is for spouses to trade for the night when visiting from a different tree. Serina and I both had to use every bit of diplomacy that we could muster. But we only traded to sleep, nothing more. What saved us was that Beauty felt compassion and understanding that Serina wanted me to be the father of her first child although I suspect that Beauty was only backing off and not giving up.