Her Brother's Keeper: A Story of Alpha Centauri

Christiana started a vid’ call to her friend Samantha. Ever since their chance encounter at the middle school a few months ago they have been calling each other regularly, every few days. They usually chatted for half an hour each time, and Haruhi-nee often joined in as well.

Amelia-oneechan, in an attempt to work on her burgeoning business plan, had hijacked her womb-mate for the evening. Johnathan-nii was currently playing vid’ games in his room to give her some privacy. Of course, he only did this after she had promised to spend the rest of the night with him once she completed her conversation.

Samantha quickly answered. “Hey there chibi!” she said cheerfully.

“I’m not short. I am vertically challenged!” she retorted with a grin. While The two were only a Year apart the other girl was quite a few see-emms taller than she was. The difference in their heights was a running joke between them

The older adolescent broke into a fit of giggles. She quickly followed with more than a few chuckles of her own.

“How have you been?” she asked.

“Well, I got a new top,” the other young lady announced. With that, she panned the camera down to show the casual shirt she was currently wearing. Since royal blue was her favorite color, the blouse was mainly of that hue. It also had black piping and an ebony collar, thus showing her status as a Keeper.

“I like it,” Christiana replied. She also loved azure, although she preferred a slightly darker shade. Not as dark as navy or midnight, but not as bright as the one on the screen. “It complements the color of your eyes.”

“Thanks!,” her senpai acknowledged with a big grin. “How have you been the past few days?”

“Things have been going okay,” she responded. She was hesitant to tell her friend about the conversation she had had with her mother earlier in the week. Since Haruhi-nee sometimes talked with Samantha, it would be an issue if their mutual companion let it slip that Christiana had already completed the basic level of training. If her siblings found that out, then they would constantly pester her to stop her evening instruction and spend more time with them. While that would be fun in the short term, it could be highly detrimental in the long run.

After all, she wanted to gain every advantage that she could over the competition. Besides, because of her patSister Sakura-nee’s prior experience in a Keeper competition, she was pretty sure that the other girl would have quite a few tricks up her sleeves. She needed to get as much martial arts practice as possible during the remaining handful of weeks.

“How are things progressing with your weapons training?”

“They are going well,” she replied. As always, she wanted to tell the truth whenever she could. She just didn’t elaborate any further.

“That’s great to hear! I can’t wait until you get here. I desperately need a reliable ally at the academy.”

“What happened at school?” she asked, concerned by Samantha’s statement.

On the screen, her normally cheerful friend looked quite down, and she wanted to learn the reason.

“Yesterday was not a good day. You know I am only average in athletics. I came in third out of six competitors in the physical half of the competition. I only got the position because I had a perfect score on the written test. I told you this before, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you mentioned that when we first started calling each other.”

“Well, that matter is coming back to haunt me. That, and the fact that they have labeled me a ‘brocon.’”

“What’s a ‘brocon?’” she asked. She had never heard of the word.

“I had to look it up myself. It is a term from Old Earth that means a sister who is in love with her Brother.”

“Eww, that is kind of gross!”

“That’s how I feel about it too. You need to remember that I treat Matthew in a much more humane fashion than all the other Keepers care for their Brothers at that facility.”

“So they are making fun of you because you regard him as a person?”

“Exactly.”

“So what happened that upset you?”

“Yesterday while at lunch I was escorting Matt-otōto as required. We had gotten there early for a change, so we got our food from the counter and took a seat nearby. While we began eating, the line continued to cycle through with every Keeper accompanying their brothers. That was when I saw it.”

“What did you see?”

The other adolescent sighed deeply before she proceeded. “A schoolgirl named Tasha was attending to her patBrother Charles. This girl takes great pleasure in tormenting the poor boy whenever she has the chance, so he is extremely meek around her, hoping she will let up on him. If anything, it’s the opposite. The more he acts submissive the worse she treats him.”

“That’s awful! How would she like to be tormented each day?” Christiana asked in a thoughtful manner.

“Those are my thoughts as well.”

“Why would she do that to another human being?” Christiana asked, genuinely confused by the actions taken by the girl that they were discussing.

“I think she does it because she can. That and she does not look at him like that.”

“She doesn’t see him as what?” Christiana was confused yet again, unable to fathom what Samantha was getting at.

“As a person. Most of the Keepers view their brothers as little more than a commodity. Something that will make their matFams and House a lot of money when they graduate and are old enough to be married off to the highest bidder. Some even treat their male kin as nothing more than a burden.”

“If that is the case, why did they decide to become Keepers?”

“That’s easy. They did it for the prestige and the perks of the position. Who wouldn’t want an increased dowry compared to their Sisters? Who would not prefer the rewards given to those who wear the Black? It opens up a lot of doors in the future, from preferential admission to most universities to lofty positions in any family-owned or House affiliated businesses. Simply by successfully fulfilling their duties as a Keeper a high school graduate has many advantages over their siblings.”

“I have never thought about it that way.” Christiana replied. “All the perks that Keepers get almost sounds like cheating in life. Especially for those who don’t properly care for their Brothers.”

“They put these privileges in place to act as payment for protecting their Brother over the Years of middle and high school. Since that is a pretty lengthy commitment, it makes sense that the reward is fairly large. However, this process assumes Keepers treat their assigned males well. Unfortunately, in the case of Tasha, this is the furthest thing from the truth.”

“Go on,” Christiana urged her friend.

“She was rushing the poor boy like she always did. Yelling at him to choose his food quickly, place it on his tray, and follow her to a table. It was because of her shrieking that I looked up from my meal.” At this point, the older girl paused, as if she was trying to control her emotions.

“What happened then?” Christiana inquired, yet again gently urging her friend to continue her story.

“As the boy was turning around to accompany her, she stuck her foot out and tripped him.”

“You’re joking, right?” Christiana replied in shock.

“No, I’m not. The sad thing was this was only the beginning of the scene she caused. I thought Tasha was shouting before, but I was wrong. As soon as he landed face-first on the floor and his food flew everywhere, she started screaming at him. Her voice was so loud that everyone in the bustling lunchroom fell silent and looked at them.”

“Go on,” Christiana urged her friend to continue when she paused once again.

“The poor boy was down on his knees doing his best to scoop up his spilled meal with his bare hands, while she was shouting insults at him. Then she began flat out abusing him!”

“What do you mean?” Christiana asked in trepidation. Her face frowning at what she heard.

“After looking up and making sure that her goons blocked the view of the kitchen workers, she started kicking him in the thigh, the side, and finally the stomach. That’s when I got involved…”

“Good for you!” Chrisiana exclaimed. She was proud of her friend for trying to protect an innocent person from being physically abused.

“Honestly, it didn’t go over too well. I jumped up, ran up to Tasha, and placed myself in between her and her crying and cowering Brother. ‘Stop it!’ I yelled. ‘You can’t just assault your charge in public. That’s not only dishonorable that is illegal!’”

“What happened next?” Christiana asked, totally engrossed in her friend’s story.

“She glanced at me and stated, ‘What are you talking about, brocon? I have done nothing wrong.’ I immediately came back with, ‘You were kicking your Brother in front of half the school! With that many witnesses, even you can’t get out of this.’ She simply laughed and loudly said, ‘No one saw anything, right, girls?’ and looked around the room. I followed her gaze and not a single girl would look us in the face. ‘Listen, brocon, my mom told me not to mess with you since your Mother is the head of police here in Simmon’s Town. Haven’t you wondered why you have made no friends here? Well beyond your love of your Brother? It’s because they know they will become my target if you ever piss me off. While your Mommy protects you two, any allies you make won’t be so lucky. Just keep that in mind.’”

“Wow! What a bitch!” While Christiana rarely swore, she felt it was justified in this case. “So that’s why you want me there with you. So you have someone to help you out.”

“Yes, I wish you had been there. You would definitely back me up,” Samantha said with a smile.

“Of course! What she did was wrong on so many levels,” Christiana stated, doing her best to hold back the anger in her voice.

“Plus, you are even more untouchable than I am.”

“Why do you say that?” Christiana asked, her eyes wide in astonishment at what Samantha had just said.

“Well, your House owns half the town for one. Second, you were the best athlete in grade school…”

“Haruhi-nee is just as good as I am,” Christiana interjected with pride.

Samantha rolled her eyes at this comment. “Yes, but you’re the kid who’s taking martial arts class. So I think you can probably take her in a fight at this point.”

“I’m not so sure. I have been training her and Johnathan-nii in some unarmed combat moves on the weekends. They are both making excellent progress.”

“Wait!” Samantha exclaimed with a startled look on her face. “You are teaching fighting techniques to a MALE? Isn’t that technically against the law?”

Christiana simply shrugged. “If anyone gets past me, at least he will be able to protect his chastity long enough for me to come to his rescue.”

“I never thought of it that way,” Samantha admitted. “A few basic self-defense moves might be okay. While slightly illegal, it is probably a good idea to teach Matt-oto a few holds and throws.”

“You can’t be with him every second of the day can you?” Christiana pointed out.

“Actually, we are,” came Samantha’s unexpected response.

“Even in the restroom?” Christiana inquired.

“Let me just say that all the school’s bathrooms are coed,” Samantha said while wrinkling her nose.

“Ewwwwww!”

“Now let’s get back to the subject. I was telling you the reasons you would be the perfect ally at school.”

“Oh yeah,” she responded. Christiana wanted to change the topic as quickly as possible.

“The third reason is that you are a gee-emm. No-one, not even Tasha, would be stupid enough to mess with you.”

“What makes you say that?”

Samantha covered her face with her hands. After a moment, she uncovered her eyes before continuing. “Did you know that the government has instructed the police to look the other way if an underage gee-emm commits a minor crime? Even if they commit a major transgression, they just take them home so their parent can punish them.”

“What would they consider ‘major?’”

“Murder for one.”

“Huh?” Christiana’s jaw literally fell open in surprise upon hearing this information. Did this mean that both she and Haruhi-nee could kill someone and not get arrested? ‘That’s crazy!’ she thought. ‘I can’t accept that something like that could be real.’

“I know that expression. You don’t believe me!” Samantha said, looking slightly hurt. “If you look it up, I am sure that you will be able to access the information on the network, although it may require multiple forms of biometric eye-dee.”

“You’re serious?”

“Deadly serious,” Samantha said.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Christiana exclaimed. “Just because you are one of the Founders’ geneDaughters, the basic rules of society don’t apply to you? That’s lunacy!”

“I did not create the governmental orders. I only know what my Mother told me when she found out that I was buddies with you and your Sister.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Christiana asked.

“I thought you knew already,” Samantha responded.

“So was your Okaa-san telling you not to associate with us?”

The older girl shook her head. “No, it was more of a ‘be careful’ than anything else. You two never even mentioned that you were gee-emms until I asked you about it. I realized you were my friends and would never hurt me. To be blunt, you are both too nice to do that.”

“Aww, thank you,” she replied with a smile. During lunch and before classes began, she and Haruhi-nee spent most of their time with Samantha-senpai. Despite the slight age difference their shared interests more than made up for it. The three of them had had some interesting discussions about history over the Years. Unfortunately, they had fallen out of touch after the upperclasswoman went off to middle school.

Back then Christiana had wondered why the older girl had stopped calling her, but now she knew it was because of her friend’s position as a Keeper. That’s why their friendship was returning to where it had been the previous Year. Part of the reason she was working so hard to wear the Black was that she wanted to spend time with her at the academy.

“So did this Tasha person say anything else?”

“No, but then we didn’t have any chance to continue our conversation. Right after she finished telling me that she would go after my friends if I made any the headmistress showed up. One of the kitchen staff had summoned her when the girl started screaming at the top of her lungs.”

“So what did she do?” Christiana asked, genuinely curious as to how the principal would react to the situation.

“She immediately asked what was going on. Tasha, being the sleazeball she is, stepped away from me as soon as she heard the Principal’s voice and put on an innocent look. She looked up at the administrator and said, ‘I was just yelling at my Brother for being clumsy. I guess I was a little too loud.’”

“That girl is a real piece of work!” Christiana exclaimed.

“Tell me about it. What’s worse is that her goon squad backed her up. Then when the Headmistress asked the crowd if what Tasha reported was true, and no-one would answer her.”

“So she got away with it?” Christiana asked in horror.

“Not totally. While she could silence the students, the lunch ladies came forward and gave their account. They were able to get the girl suspended for a little while.”

“Well, at least that’s some form of punishment,” Christiana said in relief.

“I doubt she will pull something like that again where there are adults within hearing range, but I feel sorry for the boy.”

“Why’s that?” Christiana asked innocently.

“How is Tasha going to ‘take revenge’ on her Brother when they are alone at home during those days off?”

----

After finishing her call with Samantha, she snuck past Johnathan-nii’s room towards the door to the ‘public’ sectors of the dwelling. If he had seen her, then he would have wanted to tag along and that would have eaten up a lot of time. Because of their ‘adventures’ when they were younger, the boy now had to get permission from their Mother to exit the ‘private’ section of the house. Even after gaining authorization, he would have to be escorted by a sentry. Just getting all that straightened out would take thirty to forty-five minutes. Christiana could probably complete her entire task in that period, so it simply made sense to leave her Brother behind.

Upon reaching the ‘inner’ security station in front of the exit portal, Jessica looked surprised to see her leaving at this hour of the evening.

“Miss, may I ask where you are going this late?” the guard politely asked, making no move to activate the egress.

“I want to say hi to Sara-nee,” she replied. This was the truth, but only partially. While she planned to visit the friendly security member, she mostly wanted to go to the main control room. There was identification equipment located there that couldn’t be found anywhere else inside the complex.

“Ah, I will let her know you are coming,” Jessica returned. It wasn’t uncommon for one of the children to stop in to see Sara. Not only did they all get along with her, but she seemed to keep a nearly endless supply of candy hidden away in her workstation. So, while it was not a daily thing there was regular traffic back and forth in the evenings. It just rarely occurred this late.

“Thank you!” Christiana responded with a grin and a small wave as the heavy metal door slowly opened.

She quickly made her way to the security wing where the main control room was located. This section of the ‘public’ part of the complex housed the sentries. Besides the guards’ private sleeping chambers and bathrooms, there were two common rooms, a miniature kitchen, and an eating area. There was also an exercise chamber, although this was situated between their sector and that of the servants. While both groups shared the modest gym, the sentinels were the ones who used it most often.

Upon reaching the passageway to the annex, she scanned her palm on the scanner and spoke her daily passcode. As soon as the entrance opened, it revealed Sara-nee standing there.

“Hey there. I haven’t seen you in quite a while, so I decided to greet you at the door!” the tall young woman explained.

“Sara-nee!,” she exclaimed with a blossoming grin as she ran up and hugged the youthful lady.

Due to their height difference, Christiana’s face only came up to the other person’s sternum. While she was short for her age, Sara was unusually lanky. As in one hundred seventy-five see-emms. That was why she towered over the child’s one hundred forty-five see-emm frame.

After stepping back from the hug, one set of blue eyes looked into another.

“Come inside before the door auto closes.”

“Okay,” Christiana promptly responded as they both went deeper into the corridor and onward into the control center.

Sara sat at her normal workstation and she motioned for the girl to sit in the chair next to hers.

“I’m glad that you decided to visit!” Sara said as she rummaged around in her desk drawers. Just like secMother Karen, the guard’s hair color changed on a biweekly basis. She naturally had deep brown, curly locks, but the schoolgirl had only seen her shoulder-length mane that hue a handful of times.

After a few moments, Sara let out an “Ah-Ha!” before revealing what was in her hand. There were suckers of various flavors, butterscotches, and mints wrapped in cellophane, and even a plastic wrap clad blow pop.

“I’m sorry but I am out of gum, but I am sure if I rummage around a bit more I can find some more gum-filled lollipops.”

“That’s okay,” she responded. It was Johnathan-nii who liked gum. That is why she and Haruhi-nee always asked for it when they visited. Since she didn’t want him to know about her covert meeting, it was a good thing that the guard was out of chewing gum.

“Take as much as you wish,” she was told as the double handful of treats were laid out before her.

Thinking ahead, she only took five of the wrapped candies and the larger treat-filled sucker. If she kept the number small enough, she could smuggle it into her room and stash it away. Even if Haruhi-nee was nosey and found it, an amount this tiny could have been hidden and later misplaced. Her memory wasn’t perfect after all, and a few pieces of candy could easily get lost in the bottom of her sock drawer.

“Is that all you are taking?” Sara-nee protested. The older girl loved to give the kids sweets. That was a good thing because there were no candies to be found in the “inner” house. If it was not for the friendly guard, they would have been tempted to sneak off and buy candy from the vending machines outside the middle school. Since that would have put the younger girls at risk, the sentry was performing a service to keep the youngsters safe.

“I’m full from dinner, so this is enough.”

“Are you feeling alright?” Sara asked, out of concern for Christiana.

“I am fine,” Christiana promptly answered. She could tell by how the sentinel frowned that this response bewildered her.

“Okay,” Sara said, in a relieved tone. “I assumed that you would have liked a lot of sweets since you haven’t been here for a while.”

As Sara put the remaining candy away, Christiana quickly thought of a good reason for her to refuse the extra treats. After all, there was a plausible excuse staring her directly in the face.

“Remember, I have access to the vending machines daily at the school where I am training.”

“Ah, that’s right!” Sara replied with a grin. “I guess you can buy all the snacks that you want.”

“Exactly!”

“Aww, but how will I lure you to stop by to see me?” Sara joked with an exaggerated pout.

The youngster giggled at the older girl’s antics. “You don’t have to do anything to get me to call on you. I enjoy talking with you.”

“That’s good!” Sara exclaimed happily. “So…. did you have a reason other than candy to show up at the control room?”

“Ummm,” Christiana responded, trying to come up with an excuse for her visit.

“It’s fine,” Sara reassured her. “I know you are tired in the evenings because of your combat training. It doesn’t help that I always work the ‘Dead Shift.’”

‘Dead Shift’ was how Sara-nee described the time that she consistently worked. Back on Old Earth, they called it the night shift, but that didn’t always apply her on Cooper’s World. Last shift was the more common way of referring to her job schedule, but then this woman never did things in the normal fashion.

“That’s why I don’t believe that you are just here for a chat,” Sara pointed out.

“Well, I need to use the terminal with the multiple biometric eye-dee systems,” Christiana admitted.

“I am pretty sure that I know what you are up to,” the sentry said with a knowing smile.

“Oh,” Christiana asked, attempting to sound as innocent as possible. “What do you think I am trying to do?”

Her companion simply smiled while pressing the keys on the top of her workstation. Sara then activated her com’ and announced, “Carmilla please report to the main control area.”

Christiana wondered why Sara-nee had called her fellow sentry to come to her. Meanwhile, her friend kept tapping away on her keyboard.

Moments later the door opened, and another young woman walked into the office. This was Carmilla, the other officer who always worked the ‘Dead Shift.’ While tall for an Asian, this person was shorter than her coworker by a good ten see-emms. Both her eyes and her hair were black, and her long tresses had a healthy sheen.

Unfortunately, her haircut obscured her face when she looked downward, which was most of the time. This made it impossible for the girl to get an unobstructed view of her visage, only seeing the parts momentarily unobscured by her mane.

“I’m here,” Carmilla reported as she walked over to the third and final workstation in the chamber. This left only the identification terminal at the rear of the room unwomanned.

Without even asking why Sara-nee summoned her, the newcomer sat down, started typing, and quickly took over monitoring the security of the property.

“Thank you,” Sara responded as she continued tapping away at her keyboard.

The youngster knew better than to be offended by the dark-haired girl’s timid attitude. This was how the sentry always acted when Christiana was present. Sara had once told her that the coworker in question was very bashful in the presence of people that she did not know well. That was the reason for her slightly odd behavior around the children. The blonde hoped the Asian would eventually warm up to her, but the two rarely interacted. At this rate, it would take Years for the sentinel to act normally while in her company.

After another minute of typing, Sara placed something on the large view screen at the front of the room. The only thing displayed was a text message that read ‘Proper authorization is necessary to access this file.’

“What record is this?” the child asked, unsure of what exactly needed to be authorized.

“You tell me, Miss gee-emm Harris?” Sara replied with a large grin.

“Oh!” Christiana exclaimed. “How did you know I was looking for something related to the fact that I am a gee-emm?”

“I have been waiting for this ever since I learned you were friends with the Daughter of the local Chief of Police,” came Sara’s prompt response. “I figured you would eventually learn about the order from the Federals and that you would come down to verify it.”

“But how did you know about it?” Christiana asked, curious.

“You silly girl,” Sara said with a smile, “All the members of this security team are ex-policewomen. Therefore, we have close ties with law enforcement. Otherwise protecting you matFam would be much harder.”

“So you’ve known about this for Years?”

“Yep” Sara admitted. “Before you ask your Mother ordered us not to tell you about the decree from Cooper’s Landing.”

“Why?”

“You can go talk to her if you want the answer to that.,” Sara said with a shrug. “Now shall we provide the proper authorization? I’m itching to learn precisely what is in this thing.”

“You don’t know what it says?”

“Not exactly,” Sara said. “We were only told a brief overview, so I am curious to see it for myself.”

“Okay,” Christiana replied, eager to get things over with. “Then let’s move over to the identification terminal so I can give it the biometrics.”

“All righty then!” Sara answered.

After Sara transferred her data link over to the proper machine, Christiana sat in the chair at the terminal.

Because the authorization screen was on a comp’ with the appropriate scanners, it listed what it needed to prove the identity of the person attempting to open the file. Much to Christiana’s surprise, seven tests were required to do this. In fact, it demanded every method of testing available on a standard security eye-dee machine.

“Wow! Is this a top-secret document?” Christiana stated with a chuckle.

“Actually, yes it is,” came Sara’s reply.

“Wait, I was just joking.”

“I’m not,” Sara replied in all seriousness.

“Why would something like this be classified?” Christiana asked, confused once again.

“Because the average person would see this as showing favoritism to the double handful of gee-ems that are born every decade. If this became public knowledge, it could cause a scandal large enough to end the political careers of many of the people involved.”

Christiana’s eyes grew wide as she realized how important this order was. Even she was taken aback by this news. While she knew that gee-emms were given abnormal amounts of privilege because of their genetic heritage, she couldn’t fathom exactly how influential they were. She simply could not understand why they received special treatment, especially while they were still kids.

“Okay let’s get started with the tests,” the Sara urged.

This reminded Christiana she had to hurry and return to Johnathan-nii. Otherwise, she’d have to spend the rest of the evening apologizing.

The retinal scan, hand and fingerprint scan, and voiceprint were all completed quickly and painlessly. While a bit gross, the saliva scan also took very little time. The hair follicle test was slightly painful when she had to puck out a strand from her head. Otherwise, it went smoothly.

However, while Sara-nee was helping her take a skin sample, she pressed too hard, and lightly scratched her arm. For some reason, the guard hurried over to the tiny med kit located in the control room and then handed it to Christiana.

“There are adhesive bandages in the kit,” Sara said curtly. “Please put a couple on your cut. You don’t want it to get infected.” She then inched backward from the child, all the while looking away from the girl’s injured arm.

It surprised her that Sara insisted she bandage a scrape that small. ‘I guess she doesn’t like the sight of blood,’ she thought as she dressed her insignificant wound with two little padded strips.

It was only when her scratch was covered that Sara-nee walked back over to stand next to the girl’s chair. “Ahh, that’s an improvement,” the tall guard exclaimed as a look of relief spread across her face. “Do you feel better?”

While a bit confused by what her friend just said, Christiana responded, “I guess, it never really hurt, to begin with.”

“You still need to take care of yourself, even if it’s only a scratch,” Sara replied. “As a kid, you don’t think about it, but people used to die from small scratches that became infected back on Old Earth.”

“They carefully sterilized the starships while in the Sol system, so most of those harmful microbes aren’t present here on Cooper’s World,” Christiana muttered.

Meanwhile, Sara put the medical kit away on the other side of the room.

“Now all that’s left is the blood test,” Sara announced with a cheerful grin. She then handed the youngster two small glass plates and a plastic item roughly the size of an adult’s thumb.

“What do I do with these?” Christiana asked in confusion.

“I need for you to prick your finger, put a drop of plasma on one plate. Then place the other piece on top so all four edges are even. Then you have to deposit it in this slot so the machine can complete the final test.”

“Umm, I’m not sure how to do that,” Christiana said. “Do you mind doing it for me?”

“I will show you how it’s done. Okay?” Sara said.

Christiana just shrugged before responding, “Okay.”

After Sara-nee showed her the proper procedure, it only took her two tries to get it right. During the time required to do things properly, she noticed that Sara had stood away from her once again. ‘Wow, she must really be sensitive to blood if she can’t stand to see a drop of it,’ she thought as she placed the completed slide into the machine.

“What should I do with this one?” she asked, referring to the improperly made slide, with the ichor located too far from the glass’ center. She was careful to only show it to her friend briefly due to her apparent dislike of blood.

Sara-nee quickly looked away from the child when she saw what the youngster was holding up. “You should take it with you and dispose of it once you get inside of the inner quarters. That way it won’t fall into the wrong hands. It can be used to falsify your identification after all.”

“I never thought of that,” Christiana said as she slipped the item into her pocket.

Just as she did the console beeped and the words on the screen changed to “Access Granted.”

“Now let’s see what’s in this puppy,” Sara said as she looked at the words appearing on the screen.

“What’s a puppy?” Christiana asked, not understanding her friend’s comment. “I mean I know it’s a young canine, but what does that have to do with opening this document?”

“It is a saying from Old Earth,” Sara explained. “It is a way to refer to an item.”

“Why are you using an ancient expression like that?”

Sar-nee simply grinned and shrugged. “Okay let’s look at what is in this file.”

With that, the guard scooted her chair from her workstation so that it was next to Christiana’s. “Scoot over a little,” she commented as she tapped away on the keyboard.

She shifted her seat without complaint, her attention now fixated on the screen in front of her.

On the display was the text of the memo. At the top of the document, in full color, was the Seal of the Alliance and underneath of it were the blue-tinted words ‘From the Office of the President.’ The rest of the black on white text began simply, ‘By order of the President of the Colony, with the unanimous consent of both Houses of Congress, the following is now in effect.’

The document went on in a numbered bullet-point fashion. ‘1. Any and all misdemeanors perpetrated by the following which occur within your jurisdiction are to be overlooked and ignored: a. Christiana Washington gm Harris b. Haruhi Washington gm Hirohito’

“Wait,” Christiana commented. “I thought this record was for all gee-emms in the Colony. Why are the two of us mentioned by name?”

“I am not sure,” the security agent absentmindedly responded as she looked carefully at the document. She had a troubled look on her face for a moment, but that expression dissolved into her normal approachable smile. “If I had to guess I would say that they put out these directives individually to the prefecture in which the gee-emms live. Then it would make sense to name the individuals covered by the order.”

“But this memo is from the President’s Office,” Christiana pointed out. “Wouldn’t that mean that they would have to issue a decree whenever a new gee-emm is born?”

“Well, if they issued them at birth then it would follow that both you and Haruhi are on the same document,” Sara explained. “You were both born on the same day after all.”

“Then shouldn’t it be time-stamped on the date of our birth?” Christiana continued. “Why don’t we…”

“Ahh that’s not important right now,” the sentry quickly interjected with a troubled smile. “Let’s keep reading.”

“Ohhh kay…” she replied while looking at Sara-nee strangely. Even though she was very naïve, she was smart enough to realize when an adult was trying to divert her attention. ‘What’s going on here?’ she wondered as she returned her scrutiny to the screen.

‘Any and all felonies perpetrated by the following which occur within your jurisdiction are to be punished by the head of their corresponding House: a. Christiana Washington gm Harris b. Haruhi Washington gm Hirohito’

“What does that mean?” Christiana asked. “What’s a felony?”

“A felony is a major crime, such as aggravated assault or grand larceny,” Sara explained. “These are violations that people commit, which gets them put in jail for a very long time.”

“So we really can get away with murder,” Christiana whispered.

“I wouldn’t say that.” Sara-nee said. “Keep reading.”

‘If you suspect either of these individuals of such acts they are to be taken into custody, returned home and released to their Mother’s care.’

“So Okaa-sama would be the one who would punish us?” Christiana said, her disbelief clear in her tone. “What could she do that would be worse than the police?”

“Oh, I don’t know. She could make you old and wrinkly!” Sara said in a bantering tone while reaching over and tickling the youngster.

Taken totally off guard, Christiana burst into a fit of laughter. After a minute or so of torturing the poor child’s belly, the sentinel stopped.

After getting herself under control, Christiana asked, also in a joking manner. “So what happens if I am good and don’t break the law?”

“Oh, well, then you will never grow old and you will never die!”

“You know, you are the silliest grown-up I have ever met,” Christiana replied with a huge grin.

“Yep, I’m incredibly silly,” came Sara’s quick reply.

----

After the youngster left the room with her pocketful of candy, Sara returned to her workstation and sat down.

“She’s a lovely child. She smells delicious, too,” Carmilla commented. The individual was actually looking upward for a change, her hair falling back to reveal an exquisitely shaped Asian face with unusually enormous eyes. If she had been born on Earth in the early twenty-first century, she could have been a leading star in the Korean film industry.

“Don’t remind me,” The orange-haired guard replied with a grimace. “If I had known she was coming, I would have had a pint beforehand. As it is, I haven’t fed for five days.”

“They donate blood in bags of five hundred milliliters, or emm-ells, as they now call them. As I have explained to you many times, they do not donate it in the archaic unit known as a ‘pint.’”

“And as I have told you before, it’s an old term from Earth meaning a large glass of beer or other alcoholic beverage.”

“Yeah, as if either of us has ever set foot on Earth, you Lunee.”

“I am proud of the fact that I was born on Luna. Just like you are glad to have come from Mars.”

“Yep, I’m a Marsie through and through. Oh, and by the way, it would not have helped.”

“What wouldn’t have helped?”

“I had a bag of B positive an hour ago and she still smelled good enough to eat.”

“Hands off, she’s big sis’s kid in more ways than one. She would beat us both into a month-long hibernation if we drank a single drop from her.”

“Is that why you had her take the ruined slide with her?”

“Yep. It would have been too much of a temptation if she left it anywhere we could get to it.”

“Well, what Christy doesn’t know won’t hurt us.”

“You forget she’s going to be my niece and your second cousin in a few short Years. No matter how good she smells I still wouldn’t lay a fang on her.”

“You’re assuming she makes the cut.”

“I have heard Duflot is happy with her progress. If the head honcho is satisfied, I have little to fret about.”

“But…”

“Look I will worry about Princess One. You just concern yourself with Princess Two. Okay?”

----

It was the middle of the Night when her portable beeped.

As always, she was awake and fully alert at this hour, and she quickly answered the incoming call as voice only.

“Harris here,” she answered while typing away on the terminal in front of her, the text that she was typing hanging in midair before her.

“It’s Cooper. We have an emergency,” came the voice on the other end of the connection.

Her fingers immediately stopped. The lively motions from before ended in the blink of an eye.

In all seriousness, the young-looking blonde asked, “Is it an alien invasion? Should I contact law enforcement planetwide about the weapon garrisons hidden in each of their headquarters?”

“No, it’s not that...”

Before the person on the other end could respond, Harris cut her off. “Then are the humans revolting against us? I mean only the President, Speaker of the House, and the Senate Majority and Minority leaders even know we exist. That would make them a laughingstock if they went public even with their prestige and positions...”

“No, it’s not that either it’s...”

“It’s Rose,” the blonde guessed, her voice holding a tinge of both relief and of exasperation.

“Yes, it is Rose.”

“NOW of all times, she decides to go on one of her romps? We don’t have time for this,” Harris responded with a groan. “We are up to our ears with work on the experiment.”

“I know, but as Christoph pointed out, it’s been twelve Terran years since she let herself go wild. While he’s angry, he isn’t as furious as I expected to be when I informed him of the matter.”

“So it’s the same old story. Rose ‘repented’ for a decade or so until we couldn’t afford to keep guarding her.” Harris sighed before continuing, “Now she’s gone back to seducing lone women in the outback.”

“At least she can wipe the humans’ memories of the actual event, although her abilities aren’t perfect,” Cooper pointed out.

“So why are you contacting me about this?” Harris asked, her tone showing that she already knew the answer to her own question.

“I want you to go out and fetch her before the rumors start up again,” Cooper admitted.

“Why is it always me? Why not send out Keiko or Emma? The tournament is about to start in a couple of weeks. I don’t have the time to go hopping around the planet trying to track down our escaped diva,” Harris complained. “Why not send out Sara or Camilla?”

“The younger members just don’t have the physical speed needed to match hers. Nor do they possess the prestige for Rose to surrender to them willingly. Meanwhile, everyone else is already on mission-critical assignments. There simply aren’t enough members of Stellae Sanguine to do everything that needs to be done.”

“So my mission isn’t mission-critical as well?” the blonde grumbled.

“You at least, have a brief break before we need you on-site at the event hall. Besides, I will shift your administrative duties over to Sara until you can track our escapee down.”

“Well, Sara-imouto can definitely do the work, so that is a relief,” Harris admitted. Then, after a breath, she continued, “I’ll never understand why Rose prefers blood fresh from the source. I cannot tell the difference between it and donated hemoglobin in bags. Besides, if she wants to feed directly from humans why not go to one of the paid donors? We help support how many families financially in return for a few mouthfuls each month?”

“Rose claims she misses the thrill of the hunt and that there is a distinct flavor if she drinks from someone in the height of passion,” Cooper replied, her disgust clear in her voice.

“I think she just needs an excuse to mess around on Duflot every few years,” Harris quipped. “I’m sure one of our salaried donors would be happy to ‘play’ with a woman as beautiful as Rose even with no additional financial incentive. Louis XV did not nickname her the ‘Rose of Versailles’ for her ability to embroider flowers.”

“I think it actually comes down to the thrill of the chase. She enjoys being both the hunter and the prey like in the old days in Europe. The legends of hunters like Van Helsing had some truth to them,” Cooper pointed out. “Meanwhile, there were no blood donation centers to feed off of, so the only way to survive was to feed off a human every twenty-eight days or perish. In the meantime, there were always animals to drink from.”

“I can’t imagine having to hunt while being hunted,” Harris said with a shiver. “Plus, having to drink from a stranger directly from their bodies is disgusting. I’d much rather sleep with a stranger than do that.”

Cooper simply laughed over the audio. “According to Rose all of us who were turned while in space are prudes who wouldn’t last a week back on Earth.”

“Well, we think of her as overly promiscuous, so the feeling is mutual,” Harris replied smugly.

“People will do whatever they have to in order to survive, and it leaves a lasting impact on their psyches. We shouldn’t judge her too harshly,” Cooper pointed out. “That is something we both need to keep in mind when dealing with Rose.”

“You are right, as usual. It just seems that we are always so busy when she pulls one of her stunts. It is always so frustrating to have to drop things without notice to go chase after her while she is out gallivanting around the planet.”

“We are always busy,” Cooper admitted. “But we have to keep our numbers low until the population breaks a billion. Until then, overwork will just be a fact of our existence.”

“Why a billion?” Harris asked, her curiosity clear in her voice.

“Because at that point the population will be large enough to sustain itself for centuries without the Labs. In other words, our kind won’t starve. Men are only the backup system after all and inbreeding will be a potential problem without the Labs ensuring genetic diversity.”

“Who knew that creating a stable colony in an alien star system would be so problematic?” the blonde asked in wonder.

“Duflot,” was Cooper’s one and only answer.

----

Christiana was laying in bed wearing her pajamas, her hair still wet from the bath. She was reading a history book concerning the Chosen on her portable. Meanwhile, Haruhi-nee was across the room in her own bed and was presumably doing something similar, judging by the way her eyes rarely left her own handheld terminal.

Since it was just before bedtime patMother Sydnee had sent Johnathan-oniichan to his own room to give the womb-mates some privacy roughly an hour beforehand. Otherwise, he would still be hanging out in the girls’ room, reading along on his own computer.

‘I love Johnathan-nii,’ she thought as she read, ‘but he has been so clingy lately that it’s annoying.’

Christiana was abruptly pulled out of her musings by her Sister’s loud exclamation.

“There’s been another one!” Haruhi-onee suddenly crowed.

“Another what?” the other child asked, genuinely confused.

“There has been another incident involving the ‘blood-sucking strangers!’” the dark-haired Sister explained. “They found a young woman wandering around in a daze about fifty kay-emms outside of Planetfall. She had been out servicing a broken down harvester the Alterday before and had never returned home.”

“Wow, she was lucky that her filters hadn’t run out in that amount of time,” was Christiana’s first reaction.

Being outside past the expiration of one’s filters could lead to long-term health issues and severe headaches in the shorter term. Cooper’s World had the same partial pressure of oxygen at sea level as the city of Flagstaff, Arizona back on Old Earth. Therefore, oxygen deprivation wasn’t an issue. The high levels of see-ohh-too were.

“According to this article, she is fine except for two puncture marks on her inner thigh. So I wouldn’t worry about that.”

“Where did you find that article?” Christiana asked, hoping to look it up and read it herself.

“It’s on ‘Tales of the Weird’ in a special bulletin for paying members only so you can’t access it, I’m afraid.”

“Wait, you pay creds’ to read that urban legend stuff? I know you love folklore, but come on Haruhi-onee that’s taking things a bit too far.”

“Don’t mind that Chris-mouto,” Haruhi-nee insisted, changing the conversation back to the matter at hand. “What is important is that the incidents are happening again, just like they did back when we were first born.”

“How do you know that this isn’t just some copycat? It has been fifteen Years,” she pointed out. She often tried to use logic to pick apart Haruhi-nee’s wild stories. Sometimes it would derail the older Sister’s enthusiasm, but tonight it did not work.

“These incidents date back to the beginning of the Second Wave. That is why such an outlandish tale became such a prominent urban legend and made its way into folklore,” Haruhi-oneechan pointed out. “Compared to that time span a Decade and a half are nothing.”

“Even assuming that it is an actual phenomenon, who would drink blood? Humans can’t digest it,” the younger sister posited.

“Well,” Haruhi began before launching into a long and fanciful set of outlandish ideas that had been put forth over the centuries. Needless to say, the duo were up well after their bedtime discussing this matter.