The glow of a worm inside a child's eye...

[Blade4]

Not seeing it though. Kowloon is a primary, perhaps only, shipyard of warships and mass producer of jumpships. It is also the home of a casper. The Steiner-Davions should be keeping a close eye on the place. The state of its people and nobility should be a concern. Hell Melissa should be seeing about good matchs for the kids perhaps even Liz with her youngest...

[Cannonshop]

Silly question: I think you mentioned Sampans for this story are "stretched Type 51 gunboats with a compact core".  I think that means they're 100,000 tons (the technical minimum to install a compact core).  Isn't that one heck of a "stretch"?

I WILL need a writeup for a 105,751 ton corvette.  Anyone feel up to it?

[Lupuseverto]

This maybe  the first time we see a stonecipher who doesn't  go fully lyran.

[Cannonshop]

It arrived mid-summer.... 

To: Ngo, Elizabeth Anne, Baroness Spider Moon, Kowloon system

From: The Office of Her Majesty the Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion

RE: You are Hereby invited

Lady Ngo, you are hereby invited to attend the tenth celebration of the birth of Arthur Steiner-Davion, youngest son of Her Majesty the Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion on the 14th day of July, 3047.  Dress will be semi-formal (including permission to wear Cadet uniforms) , celebrations to begin at 12:00 Triad Local time.  Please be prompt.  Gifts not to exceed 1200 Kroner value, Food and entertainments will be provided, please have one (1) Adult chaperone.



"it is a requirement of your station."  Tabiranth lectured, "As a young noble, it is a social and societal requirement that you attend such functions when you are invited."

"But I don't even know him!!" Liz complained, "I don't know what to bring, or why ME!"

"You're the same age." Tabiranth stated, "Probability is that his parents are pre-screening possible mating choices.  As a Baroness holding some of the most critical assets in the Lyran Commonwealth and in line for yet MORE critical assets as part of your present and potential inheritances, you may represent a possible acceptable match when you get older."

"Ew."

"Don't make that face, Lizzie, you're a noble, and being invited to attend the birthday of a royal scion, this is good for your status as you get older.  Neofeudal systems rely on interpersonal relationships such as friendships and marriages among the ruling elite-which you are among."

"Who should I bring?"

"I doubt they will allow me to assume a low-orbit position to run a remote." Tabiranth observed, "it would be...a security concern for the Royal Family, and poor manners besides."

"So...who?"

"Consult your human staff, Liz." Tabby said, "it's part of the duties you will have to assume when you reach your majority, so selecting appropriate and capable subordinates is good practice."

"They didn't invite my parents." Liz observed.

"Was the last visit that good?" Tabiranth asked, "because I seem to recall it consisted of a recording from your Mother delivered by a Comstar adept, and you crying for six hours after throwing a tantrum."

"Yeah..'happy birthday'." Elizabeth snorted.  "Evelynn Mosovich at least showed up, and she had to burn all her leave time to do it!!"

"I would suggest your brother's fiancée might be a good choice.  Evelynn Mosovich is a respected junior officer in a demanding combined arms role, and will have already satisfied the security screening requirements, and as baroness in waiting for Golden Lake's district on Kowloon, she is of appropriate social standing to act as your guardian for such an event."

"can you bring us there?" Liz asked.

"Of course." Tabiranth stated, "It will even be good for your social status over Tharkad, to arrive with a rare and valuable warship as one of your armsmen...provided the Royal Family are not offended, of course."

"It's in four months. It will take Evvie three to come home..."

"We'll meet her halfway...and in the meantime, I can finally start giving you practical examinations for your Navigational Certification test!"

[Blade4]

Maybe they hit it off maybe they go ew at each other but eh see what happens. But yeah no reason not to be interested in her since they probably dont know about the disease yet but she is brilliant and fraking rich. A good potential match to strength the family and bind critical assets closer.

[idea weenie]

Very true.  Showing up with a CASPAR drone as your transportation would be a massive boost to any social event in the 3040s era.

Of course everyone in Orbital and Deep Space Monitoring is going to have a very interesting reaction.  Bonus points is if the Archon knows what is going to happen, has some of her trusted people in place, but merely told them that Elizabeth Ngo will be arriving in a top-secret ship.  The trusted people are expecting a fancy Dropship, not a 680 kiloton Warship.  At least the Archon knows they will keep their mouths shut, even if they know they were set up by the Archon to watch their reactions.

Even if other Jumpships and Dropships are not nearby, they will know that Elizabeth arrived via FTL jump and there was no Jumpship left behind when she accelerated in-system.  Measuring the engine emissions vs observed acceleration will tell them the mass of Elizabeth's ride, and the various crews observing the event will appreciate the once in a lifetime opportunity.  The usual rumor mill will let all the surface participants know how Elizabeth arrived, while will cut down on any hazing of the new noble.  Elizabeth might take more pride in her skills at FTL navigation than getting to ride in a CASPAR, commenting that getting the ride was fortune smiling but her skills are all her own.  Elizabeth will then turn that around and ask the other nobles what they have done that didn't rely on their family's name or fortunes.

Tabiranth might wind up being parked near Tharkad's moon instead of in orbit, and as long as Tabiranth is there I am sure the local ASF and similar ships near Tharkad wouldn't mind testing their capabilities vs the ship.  A good training exercise might occur, either virtual or physical.

Once Comstar realizes what is going on I am sure there will be a very interesting HPG message to Terra.  Perhaps the First Circuit will panic-react and send some Warships to destroy Tabiranth?  Good thing the local Tharkad defenders got all that practice in.

[nroe03742]

that is a suckers bet in regards to comstar the best thing that they can do without revealing that they have warships is send cv dropships loaded to the gills with fighters that are loaded to the max with nukes to ensure a kill

[croaker]

I sincerely doubt that Tabby would be allowed to be shown off even at this point. We're talking totally black secret that lives have been spent to secure, and word of is not for any reason to go over HPG....

[Dave Talley]

Yah no Tabby

But a surprise delegation of sampans with  a newly certified navigator would be fun

[misterpants]

I suspect one of the problems is that even a world as important as Kowloon is in this scenario can get lost in the bustle of running something as huge as the Federated Commonwealth. Particularly with a very large war and it's aftermath to cope with.

Stonecipher was picked because he was trusted and is only expected to be a short-term measure - checking on him will be a low priority and conflicting reports may never even reach Melissa's desk, because she has to have staff that filter the flood of information reaching Tharkad (and just what does get that far) to a quantity that one person, however intelligent, can process in the finite amount of time available to her. So things may be shuffled sideways to be checked, eventually, once someone else is free to do so, or when someone in the Coventry province administration can get out to Kowloon, which is a long way out.

And I'm sure Comstar wouldn't 'lose' an unofficial message that might alert Melissa to instability on a valuable world. Surely not.

Or another layer, Hanse/Melissa expect Stonecipher to skim a bit off the top in his role...and in doing so hope to use that to hide any financial anomalies in, say, funding off-the-books yards and Sampans.

They may not expect Stonecipher to be such a tyrant about it, OTOH...

[Blade4]

It has been long enough that Tabby might be a open secret if not a known item from participating in the war. Showing up as Elizabeth ride is both funny and reinforces her apparent prestige. Perhaps even give tours? Comstar or others could try something but intercepting Tabby is space would be damn hard even if you have her itinerary. And trying to attack her at Tharkad functional suicide. Could still happen with fanatics or fools.

Though what i find myself waiting for is the clan invasion. The clans are going to be in for a very big shock after the first wave or two when the house reorient their fleets. On the ground the clans will still dominate but most all clans are crap with warships. Their ships will give a initial advantage but frankly the houses can afford to trade several sampan or combat dropships for every clanner ship they literally cant afford to lose and ever lose will be a kick in the balls for lose troops and supplies. Clans might be rapidly depleted to the point of being targets of absorption. What happens if the Wolves Werewolf gets nuked with Ulric on it?

[Cannonshop]

"I'll make something.

...since the invitation set a kroner limit on gifts." Elizabeth mused. 

"That's creative, Liz, and something to do during the rest of the journey, but why make something?" Evelynn asked.

"Because it will be unique." Elizabeth stated, "everyone else will buy something, or have it made, but if this is about impressing them, something unique is going to work better."

"He's your age, Liz, I doubt he'll have an appreciation for handcrafts."

Elizabeth shrugged, "Maybe? maybe not. Maybe he'll see it as trash-but he's a Royal Scion, anything that can be bought for twelve thousand kroner is going to be trash for him, so it's...what's the word?"

"Symbolic.  what do you have in mind?"

The girl frowned.  "Boys don't like jewelry...but, the boys I've met so far on air-breaks and gravity leaves like to play with guns.  I'll make a gun."

"Richard Cameron was murdered with a 'gift gun' Liz, that's not the right kind of gift." Evelynn stated.

"Oh, right...um..." Lizzie was crestfallen.  "I don't know what-"

"Even boys can appreciate art."

"RIGHT!! and gadgets!!"

"Remember we only have sixty days until we reach Tharkad, Liz."  Evelynn cautioned, "isn't htat right, Tabiranth?"

"Fifty four days, but you're essentially correct, Leutnant Mosovich." the AI stated.

"I'll be in the machine shop!!" Liz announced.

"Not before you've finished your lessons you won't!" Evelynn barked, "history paper, get on it!"

"awww.."

"No buts. we both agree you need to keep up with your peers in that." Tabiranth's remote stated.  "you can do your art project AFTER your homework."

[Lupuseverto]

You know, showing up in a warship does send a subtle message to comstar. "You missed, nice try ******"

[Nikas_Zekeval]

You know, showing up in a warship does send a subtle message to comstar. "You missed, nice try ******"

Even worse, Comstar understands about "The hand that rocks the cradle."  And the most active parent figure in Elizabeth's life is "that cybernetic abomination!"

[monbvol]

The only parent in the Commonwealth that can tell the Royal Heir he better have her Daughter back by 10 and it'll stick.

[Cannonshop]

What do you get for a boy who can have anything...
?

Liz sat in the 'machine shop' area of the Tabiranth, just off the port access to the Flight Deck, where three Blackwasp class fighters and two SB-27D (Dual Control Trainers) were parked.

Must be a gift, worth no more than twelve thousand kroner...no, a gift that costs no more than twelve thousand Kroner.

Her current pressure suit cost more than that, and it wasn't even made of custom materials.

what do boys like?  It was a strange question for Liz, she'd kind of never bothered to think of it, simply assuming all boys were more or less like her Brother Henry.

Weapons were 'out' and even if she was skilled enough, she couldn't fabricate a custom blade without knowing a lot more than she presently understood.

her other tools, made as part of her 'Arts and Crafts' education, were also inappropriate for a boy who was going to grow up to manage a portion of an empire larger by a million to one greater than her own inheritance-a task that still demanded she learn ins-and-outs of administration and bureaucracy, history, and politics.

None of which were nearly as much fun, as orbital mechanics, thrust ratios, or KF Physics.

The book says a gift must be personal, relevant, and unique to have meaning. 

It would be easier if she were going to attend the birthday of a girl, like Arthur's sister, Yvonne...but she wasn't.

"it must be thoughtful and tasteful, but it has to appeal to boys." she muttered.

The puzzle was impossible...

Puzzle.

Boys like puzzles, don't they?

It would have to be something compact, because space is always limited and volume needs to be kept free for emergencies.  It can't have loose parts, because those foul environmental systems and get into places they shouldn't, and it needs to be challenging without being boring.

something nobody else has done, because it must be unique.

Scratch that, If I can think of it, someone else has thought of it.  the personal touches can make it unique.

she went to the modeling screen and began laying out a three dimensional model of a four dimensional theoretical shape...

By dinner time, she was working out the 'art' portion using interstellar cartography files from Tabiranth's navigation database.  the parts would shift according to crude modeling of jumpship calculation, and the image displayed would show a different system for each solution.

Simple, interesting, a puzzle, and solvable.

It will take most of the rest of the trip to actually put the pieces together after fabrication and tuning, but the materials didn't cost anywhere NEAR twelve thousand Kroner, and it was a puzzle that was made of the most fascinating thing in the universe-science.

[Cannonshop]

The birthday was more his mother's idea, than his own...

Arthur Steiner Davion could have gone today with something quiet and small, a meal with his brothers and sisters, maybe a cake, and holovids, or an outing with Uncle Ardan to hike the passes, or maybe a visit to the spaceport to count ships.

Nothing big. Certainly nothing that requires him to wear a small model of the Uniform of the AFFC, with 'toy' medals and badges and an itchy collar.

He can't even play in this.

He has to keep it clean.

and mind his manners. Momma said so.  But the invited list doesn't really have anyone he KNOWS, beyond knowing they're all Nobles from 'good families' on the Lyran side.

I have to be nice, because I don't want people to think I'm stuck-up.  it was a burden for a boy who just wants to go out and play, or better yet, go out and watch the spaceships and remember the history stories about the pioneers and the first colonists, and the breaking away from old Earth.

He had the urge to be a brat...but he fought it down.  Victor wouldn't like it and neither would Peter or Katrina, and being a brat to Yvonne would be bad-he loved his little sister and hated it when someone made her cry.

"Can I come?" Yvonne asked.

"Yeah!" Arthur said, "Of course you can.  It's going to be a buncha strangers anyway, and we have to wear nice clothes and can't do any fun things on our own! but if anyone's mean to you, I'll beat them up." he promised with the sincerity only a ten year old boy can have for a little sister who is never a brat or mean to him at all.

"Arthur! you might want to come see this!" His Mother called from her office.

what now?? "coming mother..."

He entered.

she had the big holodesk lit up.  "What is it?"

"Tell me." Melissa urged.  "What are we seeing?"

"That's a Lola Two with some customized fittings and paint." Arthur recited, "Originally a Terran design, Lola Twos were exported to the member state militaries or converted to M-5 Caspars...I don't recognize the recording."

"That's because this isn't a recording." his mother told him.  "that one, is home-ported in the Kowloon system, and serves a loyal family."

"But...warships are extinct..?" he asked, confused.

"Not all of them, and not extinct." Melissa told him, "We are, after all, running new corvettes in the Naval branch...and this one, was restored by loyal vassals.  She's in private hands, but she's one hundred percent Lyran in every way that matters...and she's bringing one of your guests."

"can I go see it?"

"You should ask Elizabeth Ngo." Melissa said, "it is, after all, her decision whether to let you aboard her ship, not mine, though I can influence her if you're very good next week at the party."

Temptation flared in blazing fires in his mind, Arthur nodded mutely, studying the six hundred eighty thousand ton vessel.  I want to see it in real, I want to touch it!!

[Cannonshop]

They didn't make her wear a dress, at least...

Elizabeth stepped through the doors with Evelynn flanking her.  The invitation said 'Cadet uniforms' were acceptable wear.  She didn't attend an Academy per-se...

but that didn't mean she had to wear a boring old dress.  Her outfit was helped by Evelynn and Tabby conspiring with The Commodore and consulting with Regent-Colonel Stonecipher, who was openly pleased at her idea for a special Coast Guard Academy for the Militia.

The result, was the prototype she was wearing tonight.  The Jacket was black, with a narrow 'ribbon bar' above her nameplate, the ranks indicated by braiding on the sleeves and pins on the shoulder-straps, a lyran Lyre on the right lapel, and a FedCom Sword-and-fist-over-sunburst on the left.

Her ribbons were coded.  Right now, she had the one for passing Vaccum suit operations, sublight Navigation, and Jump Calculation.  The Right shoulder sported the Coast Guard Militia's Orca Rampant. Her trousers were cadet-gray, contrasting with the almost-black jacket and the polished 'shore boots', shined to a mirror polish.  The hardest thing to master, was tying the tie in a respectable double-windsor knot.  It wasn't like the other Junior school rags, worn at the hip, but then her hip was occupied by a polished leather belt.

"Baroness Spider Moon in waiting, Elizabeth Anne Ngo!" the herald announced.

Lizzie stood out, and she felt it.  Most of the other kids here were in established primary academy uniforms, or ball gowns.  She felt a little provincial, especially with her lack of visible medals, the narrow single bank of ribbons wasn't as impressive, and she remembered to take her hat off and carry it since she was indoors without a weapon (per SLDF regulations that were even now being taught to kids on Giap Island back home.)

her carried cap held a legend in gold lettering.  "SLS Tabiranth" and the same Orca rampant on the cap-badge...which would be hella more impressive outside where she could wear it.

"Uhm, Cadet...what? Leutnant?"

"No sir, the correct term is 'Cadet Apprentice', sirrah." she answered the very imposing gentleman with AFFC General's rank whose name she didn't know.  "I bring Gifts for Arthur Steiner-Davion, where do I put it?"

"bring it this way...Leutnant Mosovich, if you would join the adults in the next room?" Her Majesty the Archon smoothed.

Liz took the box from Evelynn.

"You followed the rules I set down?" Melissa asked.

"Ayeh Mum." Liz said promptly, "Ship-square mum."

"I have no idea what that mumbling means. does it mean 'yes your highness'?"

"AYe-Yes, Your Highness." Liz said, finally remembering her decorum.

"Good.  do you often mumble in spacer babble, Baroness?"

"Yes Mu-Yes Highness, I do." Liz half-stumbled her response.

"Well, at least you answer clearly, your Grandfather always lapsed half into Vietnamese or Hebrew when he visited Mother, it was often infuriating to try to keep track of their conversations." Melissa confided.

"My Grandfather was the strongest man I have ever known." Liz defended him unconsciously, "Alessandro's interrogators broke instead of him."

"So they did." she nodded approvingly.  "That is quite a lot to live up to. Are you up to it?"

"I don't know, Highness." Liz confessed, "Grandfather said you never know who is strong until they must be."

"Very true...do you believe it so?"

"I do." Liz asserted.  "I just would do my best."

"SO must we all..." the doors to the party opened. "He's over there-by the fireplace."

Elizabeth marched a quick-time like she'd been taught by Colonel Stonecipher during a gravity-break in Ia Drang.

Arthur saw her, then he saw her nameplate, and then...he brightened visibly, "Hi!!"

"Hi." Elizabeth studied him for a moment. Dark red hair, pale features, what her grandfather would call an 'english chin'.  "I brought a present-" she extended the box to him.

He opened it quickly.

"What is it?" He asked.

"If you do the calcs right, it shows you your destination in a jump." she told him, "it's a...puzzle thing. I didn't know what to get you so I made it with the navigation charts..."

"can you show me how?" he asked

She relaxed and started showing him how to interpret the box's controls and unfold the display.

It only took once, and Arthur was engrossed in trying it out.  'this is so cool-you made it?"

"Ayeh." she asserted, smiling at the praise.

"Wow!! PETER!! You've GOTTA see this!!"

[Blade4]

Yep they totally getting married. Hopefully he does not die young here.

[Artifex]

Wewt ... if that wasn't the perfect first intro to Arthur, I don't know what else would be.

[idea weenie]

Any bets on her 'toy/gift' being used to design manual calculators for FTL navigation?  A 3D version of the E6B

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Hmm, a few things.

One, her father mentioned having their first born, Patrick, checked for Cholman's.  Was Elizabeth checked at birth as well?  Did she come up negative, or are her parents keeping her distant because she is positive and don't want to get attached to the child they will live to bury?  While hiding this diagnosis from Elizabeth.

Two, Stoneclipper seems, better here.  Maybe it is both Kowloon being more important, and move vitally seen as more important.  In most timelines a Regency there is probably seen as "in the ass end of the realm, where someone has to do it."  Implied the someone couldn't get something better.  So if Stoneclipper thought this was almost a backhanded insult and the height of what he could expect?

He decided to ****** everyone, and squeeze a maximum retirement fund in graft and corruption out of this dead end assignment.  Not like anyone cares about it.

OTOH in this timeline?  Kowloon is still the back of beyond, but here it looks more like a strategic decision.  The Archon restarting a warship yard far from any borders with the League or Combine to protect it.  It is an important system, one that despite the isolation is probably seen as a nice feather in the cap of anyone tapped to be a regent for it.

And more importantly not a dead end assignment.  Indeed a regent who handed over a system that was running even better than when he took office, say not just warships but a naval academy and training organization turning out officers and enlisted to crew them?  Well when the regent handed over the job to the heir, he might find not just another nice regency to move into, but even be considered proven for a nice fief of his own as a reward.

[glitterboy2098]

Any bets on her 'toy/gift' being used to design manual calculators for FTL navigation?  A 3D version of the E6B

might be tricky depending on how it was made, given the sheer number of possible combinations of destination, origin point, and resulting distances. but i could see them being used to help teach astrogation principles to navy and merchant marine recruits. get them used to thinking in the correct fashion, allowing them to be taught the calculations needed to plot a jump.

[glitterboy2098]

i'd say that in this timeline Kowloon just has more oversight on it, which helps limit the damage. in then ormal timeline kowloon is basically a backwater, for all that Ngo industries is an invisible bedrock of lyran infrastructure. once the regent in in place, pretty much no one pays any attention to what is happenign  there. which is why he eventually gets so corrupt. (though it has been established a few times that it was a gradual process, and pretty much every time Liz has to take over early as a kid, he's mainly just guilty of skimming off funds, not the totalitarian stuff that shows up in the older-liz versions. apparently that extra decade saw a major slide downward.)

in this timeline, Kowloon is not only much more important due to its role in building the new navy, but also has its own live-in witness in the form of Tabbie.. who while not in the chain of command for Stonecipher, would certainly not be above keeping an eye on him and acting as informant about any really corrupt stuff she notices. and the main-timeline stuff was really obvious even before he went totalitarian. so the Lyran estates general and intel community is going to be keeping a closer eye on the events on kowloon this time around, limiting the types of corruption he can use, plus tabbie is there to play whistleblower in case the lyrans miss anything.

[nerd]

I'd also expect Tabby to have some way to 'deliver' messages to a friendly local agent of Heimdall. Quietly, as if from a friend.

[Nikas_Zekeval]

The thing is?  Stoneclipper's actions, at least as filtered through Elizabeth's perception of them?  Is more than just fear of the big scary ship looming overhead.

While I doubt he is 100% clean?  At worst I think his corruption is limited to 'acceptable' levels of graft and kickbacks in the Lyran system.  Basically sure he is corrupt, but no more so than the vast majority of nobles who keep their skimming to sheep shearing, not skinning, levels like is typical in Ngo stories.

He seems to be actively cultivating Elizabeth as a future contact worth having.  Encouraging her interest in space naval operations and even growing a local naval military academy.  Which he is actively involved in setting up with Evelyn, the woman first in the running to be the future Duke's wife, Commodore Li, and Tabby herself.  If he was the standard issue slimy we get in other stories all three would be warning Liz off about him, not having him give her personal lessons in military decorum.

So this argues Stoneclipper isn't up to the normal level of shit we see him do.  Really the way Liz mentions him mentally he comes off as a well liked Uncle figure.

[Lupuseverto]

My memory  is that he always  starts out as a trusted associate to run things and then slipped into corruption over time. So far it looks like he avoided that. So far.

[Cannonshop]

"She's a great kid, always has...

...been." Evelynn noted.

"I've had a question for years about that."  Victor Ian Steiner-Davion leaned on a column watching the kids below from the balcony.  "What's the deal? I've heard of parents being distant, but Kommandant Ngo specifically said he wouldn't come and I want to know what the hell the deal is?"

"Mmh...Not my story to tell." Evelynn said, "did you ask Pat?"

"Patrick's currently giving the CO of the 8th Lyran Guard eight kinds of hell with IG."  Victor observed, "I could make it an order.  What's the deal with his little sister?"

"She won't make it to forty five." Evelynn commented, "It's not a state secret.  Pat and Hank both came through their tests clear, but Lizzie?" she shook her head.  "The reason her parents treat her like she doesn't exist, is because her dad doesn't want to go through what his father did...thus proving the son isn't as strong as the father."

"walk me through it." He said, "I heard the stories, but...from your view?"

"Liz has Cholmann's syndrome.  She's asymptomatic,so we don't know how long she's actually got, but sometime before she's thirty, she'll start having seizures, lingering sensation, and chronic, constant pain."  Evelynn held her drink carefully, and glanced down at the children, gathered around Arthur as he showed off Lizzie's gift.  "Sometime before age forty, she'll be taking the kind of drugs they use for surgery to stay conscious and functional, and at some point?  The pain doesn't stop, and neither do the seizures-her body will spasm hard enough to break bone and rupture veins, and the only pain-relief that works after that? is Euthanasia.  She's incurable and has dog years."

"god, that's horrible!" the Crown Prince and Heir shuddered.

"Yeah, and her parents have already written her off."  Evelynn stated.  "Her brothers haven't, I haven't, and the Captain of the SLS Tabiranth hasn't...but minus something truly miraculous, Lizzie's going to die before she hits middle age."

"Does she know?"

"if I know, then you can bet she knows." Evelynn stated, "Pat confessed to me, but he had to find out, because he had the same questions you do, only we were still kids.  which is why we won't be inviting his parents to the wedding."

She took a sip, and let out a bitter laugh, "Hank thinks a miracle's coming, he's still a kid, he doesn't know that wishes don't come true."

"Maybe miracles can happen, Mosovich." Victor suggested.

"Seven hundred years of research says otherwise." she countered.  "the syndrome's too rare, it should've bred out by now, but those idiots at the Hanoi Genome Research Clinic in the 22nd century? they were just good enough to make something persistent by trying to cure epilepsy and Huntington's.  It's why recombinant DNA research was banned under the Terran Hegemony."

"How'd you find that out?"

"Armor was my second choice, but I couldn't pass the SAT's for Medicine." Evelynn told him, "Not talented enough to get into the program.  I was aiming for that, because I wanted to see if I could beat the best doctors in seven hundred years of medical research...but instead, I tested up just about well enough to be a tanker.  she's like my little sister too...and you better watch your brother there."

"WHat?"

"I think he has a crush on our girl." Evelynn stated, "she's not showing it, but if this gets deeper, he'll have to learn to live with it too."

"It?"

"Dealing with loving someone who's going to die horribly when you don't have any way to save them."  she stated, "I told you, Dave Ngo's not the man his father was-he's too much of a coward to deal with it."

[cawest]

well.... that sucks. 

[Artifex]

It does indeed.

Bet Tabby knows it too ... welp, Evie already said so. At least ITL I hope she won't get her face murderblended.