Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Five (section)

==My Friends...Farewell==

===Goodbye, Remilia===


That evening, Remilia packed the last of her bags into the aircar for shipping to Alanaster’s dorm.  She closed the trunk as the autopilot accepted the coordinates the driver was punching in, and stepped back from the car to look at the Dorn manor one more time.  “All right…this is it,” she said to herself.

Her mother stood next to the car, looking down at her daughter with worry on her face.  “Now…you stay safe and write when you get there, all right?” she asked.

“Sure will,” Remilia said.  The driver stepped out of the vehicle, since, at Remilia’s specific request, she would be keeping the car for a time upon arrival.  As he nodded his farewells, Olivia leaned down to hug her daughter.

“I love you, Remilia,” she said quietly.  “You go have fun.”

“Thanks, Mom.”  Remilia hugged her back.  “Say Hi to Dad when he gets back, okay?”

“I will,” Olivia promised.

“All right.”  Remilia grabbed her slate from the butler.  “Thanks, Warren.”  She checked the charge – full.  “Welp.  I gotta seven hour flight ahead of me.  I’ll head out now.  Bye, Mom.”

Olivia waved as Remilia started the aircar and sat down behind the controls with the chair all the way back for comfort.  She watched as the yellow car rose into the sky and took off into the sunset.

Remilia settled into the chair and braced herself as the car accelerated, rising to its cruising altitude.  The car took off for Alanaster like a shot, as Remilia switched on her slate to watch a movie on the flight.

Within minutes, she had switched it off.  As she raced over the hives of Terra, she looked down at the shimmering metal skins below, and her mind wandered.

She thought about the way she had spiraled down after Morticia had been shot.  She thought about lying in bed at Freya’s, shattered, and how a stranger and a cousin – sister – had helped her out.  She thought about a trip to a planet of volcanoes and dragons, and how crime could turn even the hardiest people against each other.

Remilia leaned back in her seat, staring through the skylight.  She couldn’t see Mars, and couldn’t see the Iron Tide docked in orbit around it, but she could imagine it well.  She thought about the grit and ash of Nocturne, and the snows of Fenris melting in her boots, and the feeling of basalt grinding in her hands.

The blond soccer player flattened her seat out and lay down, snuggled under a jacket she had draped over herself.  She thought about how inspired she had been at the boys, Alex and Jake, both mere mortals, bouncing back so thoroughly from things that could have ruined them.  She made a point of not thinking in what Miranda called ‘The Eternal Mindset,’ that ever-present knowledge that she and her cousins were genetically-engineered superwomen, with the kinds of lifespans and sex appeal that no mortal womb could birth.  It was still there, though, at the back of every day and every thought, quiet and half-forgotten, until something brought it up.

She closed her eyes and tried to relax.  She thought of Chuck Kines, and the way his professional smile of greeting gave way to a bashful but honest smile of attraction.  She remembered the way he had never forgotten her favorite drink, even once, and the soft feeling of his hair against her cheek when he fell asleep on her shoulder.

Remilia smiled to herself as the lights of the day faded under cloud, then came back brighter as she flew into the sun faster than the earth could hide it.  She remembered the way Chuck had looked at her arms and her pale skin and her freckles and her uneven haircut as they lay down to make love, and the way he had run his hands over her body and called her beautiful.  She remembered the way she had shivered with nerves and anticipation as he replied in the affirmative to her clumsy attempts to invite him to her room, and the funny feeling of pressure in her stomach as he had appeared at her door.

She remembered the looks her cousins had given her the next morning, and the sudden fear when Haarlan had decided to interfere, and the sorrow she had suppressed when she had said goodbye for the last time.

Remilia lifted her slate to capture a picture of the hive skins for Jake, then lay back down, her mind wandering.  She thought about the way it had surprised her to see her mother admit she loved her, and the way it felt to hear Miranda give her a clean bill of soul health.  She reflected on how much fishing on Fenris had made her long for Inwit’s frozen oceans and twilight-shrouded hills, and the jealousy she had felt when she saw Freya reduced to tears by the strength of her feeling of belonging in the Fang.

She switched the slate off after sending her message to Jake.  What, she wondered, would she have to do to make herself as comfortable at Alanaster as she had become on the trip?  At Imperator, she had been one of the Royal Daughters that were least reliant on her status to get what she wanted, but would she have a chance to change that?  Or even a reason?

She thought of Michael, who had just been born next to Angela.  She remembered how Alex had introduced himself to Freya by noting that she had a cute butt after a wrestling match, and how Jake had been the shy kid in the corner until Hana and Farah had taken pity on him.

No, she decided, she didn’t need to change her approach.  Remilia straightened up her seatback and watched as she flew into the west, over trillions of people who would never know her privilege or influence.  This had to be her story, not her father’s story.  Maybe there was something to his philosophy of strength through pain…but he had abandoned it for a reason.  The only chance she would have to write her own story, she knew at that moment, would be to go and find out who and what she could be, on her own…and if another person became a part of that, more’s the better.

Remilia settled back into her seat and switched her slate back on.  She had a seven-hour flight ahead of her.  Philosophy and discovery could wait.  For now, she had a season’s backlogged holos to watch.


===Goodbye, Freya, Goodbye, Alex===


As the final days of summer wound by, Freya and Alex reassembled their belongings for transport in Freya’s father’s truck.  Alex had retrieved his belongings from his mother, but had, on reflection, decided that since he would moving in with – and staying with – Freya for so long, he would try to bring as much of it as he could to their apartment on the New Cyprine campus.

Freya herself, however, took off as soon as she could after unpacking the things she had brought home from the trip.  The very next morning, she made her way to the hospital in the relatively isolated Navigator’s Quarter where her grandmother was staying.  After a talk with her ailing matriarch, Freya had returned home to her own manor to collect the last few things she wanted to bring with her to the hive school.

As she carefully packed away the subdued jewelry she preferred into boxes, Freya felt the soft sounds of one of the manor serfs approaching from down the hall and straightened up to view the door.  The serf walked in and bowed.

“Lady Freya, the transport vehicle is prepared,” he said.

“Thanks, Lanc,” Freya said, lifting her jewelry box.  “What will you do, now that only Mom is in the house?”

“Oh, we keep busy, ma’am,” Lanc said, glancing outside.  “Groundskeeping and such.  And of course the house still needs maintenance, just less indoor cleaning.”

“Right.”  Freya grabbed the last few items and walked out.  “See you in a few months.”

“Have fun, ma’am,” the serf said.

Alex leaned against the side of the door to the Russ manor, waiting for her.  Gairwyn sidled up to him as he waited, a sly little grin playing over her lips.  “Now, Alex, just to be sure, you and she aren’t going to disappear into the old college trap, right?” she asked in Juvjk.

Alex blinked.

“Sorry.  You and Freya aren’t going to fall into the college trap, are you?” she asked in Gothic.

“What trap might that be, Queen Russ?” Alex asked.

“I know you’re going together, which is great, but don’t think you can’t go out and meet new people too,” she said.  “College is supposed to be a place where you make new friends.”

“Of course, ma’am, and I plan to.”  Alex peered up at her.  “Did you go to college?”

“I did, a two-year degree in Military History.  But, really, it was only so that if I felt the need, I could join the Household Guard myself,” she said.  “There was no chance of me going private sector once I met Leman.”

Alex nodded hesitantly.  “He made his dislike of me clear on Fenris.”

“I think you don’t know how ‘dislike’ looks from my husband if you think his cold shoulder treatment was dislike,” Gairwyn said drily.  “But yes, he’s made his ambivalence clear.  Still, from what Freya tells me, you handled it quite well.  He was impressed, I’m sure.”

“I suppose.”  Alex shuffled a bit nervously under the Royal Mother’s keen eye.  “Thanks, by the way.”

“For what?”

“For supporting me even as much as you have since I got back,” Alex said.  “I never really felt like I had a lot to lose with Dad, but Freya…she’s been amazing to me.  And your being there to help…”  He grimaced.  “I’m terrible at this.”

Gairwyn chuckled and shook her head.  “It’s not easy for anyone to thank others for providing something they didn’t ask for.  Regardless, you’re quire welcome.”

“Your daughter is a hell of a girl,” Alex said.  He heard Freya’s laden steps from inside the house and straightened up.  “Thanks for trusting me with her for four whole years.”

“Just keep her happy and we’re square,” Gairwyn said, stepping back to let Freya pass.

Freya dumped the rest of her things in the rear sets of the truck and spun about.  “All right!  We’re set to go!”

Her mother walked up to her to give her a parting hug.  “All right, little pup…you go have a fantastic time, all right?” she asked in Juvjk.

“Mom!  That’s what Bjorn calls me!” Freya huffed.

“Well, it works.”  She held her daughter close for another moment, before gently directing her to the truck.  “All right.  When you’re done writing, send the truck home.”

“I will.”  Freya pecked Alex on the cheek as he stepped into the truck.  “Bye, Mom.”

“Goodbye, Freya,” Gairwyn said.  She stepped back and shielded her eyes as the airtruck lifted and swooped off to Cyprine, and watched as the vehicle shrank into the distant sky.


===The Workshop===


Venus was hard at work in the forge at that moment.  The rivulets of sweat down her bare back were testament to just how much time she had spent there that day.  She was in the same outfit she had been in while in the Hall of Deathfire; a simple metalworker’s apron over shorts.  The bottlecap had been stripped of its rubber component, and was melting in one tiny crucible, but she had spent the majority of her efforts that day on something else entirely.  The small metal bauble that was growing on the work surfaces in front of her at that moment was the centerpiece of an anklet, the slender metal lines beside them were a pair of stands for the slate she was loaning Jake until he had saved enough to buy it from her, and the little gold coil she was making at that moment was the beginning of a tiara she didn’t plan on wearing.

Farah saw forging as a means of expressing herself, certainly, and for passing time and working with her unusual abilities, and Hana liked it for the simple pleasure of making something, but for Venus and her family, there was a spiritual element to it that she doubted anything else could replace.  This was meditation, this was prayer, this was sacrifice and supplication, and she loved it.

A light from the other side of the room flickered as her father moved in front of it.  He was taking the opportunity to work with his beloved daughter, though he was making a Power Glaive and she was making the tiara, but the effort was well appreciated.  The beaming grin on her face when he bothered to look pleased him to no end.

A shadow fell over her forge as she slid her gloves on to lift the tiny mold the anklet bauble was in, and she glanced up to see her mother walking by to deposit a small platter of cookies on the table in the middle of the massive workshop.  Venus flicked sweat out of her eyes and nodded her thanks as Misja walked past.

Her mother had to raise her voice to be heard.  “Are you having fun?” she asked.

“Hell yeah,” Venus said.  “Can’t do this on a patrol ship.”

“Excellent.  Don’t forget to snack when you get the chance, you’ve been down here a while,” Misja said.

“Yep, thanks.”  Venus slid her goggles on and gingerly moved the mold, examining the cooling silver.  “Damn, it’s asymmetrical,” she muttered.  She grabbed one of her shaping tools and gingerly tapped at the metal, trying to reshape it.

Misja wandered over to where Vulkan was threading the power conduit down the haft of the weapon.  She stood beside her husband and watched him work for a moment.  “Kind of makes you proud, doesn’t it?” she asked quietly.

He flashed her a smile sidelong as he worked.  “Hah.  It does.  I wonder if there’s a metals shop on the Kouthry campus.  I’d hate to see her have to give it up for school.”

“Oh, I bet there is,” Misja said.  “I just hope it isn’t for majors only.”

“Mmm.”  Vulkan finished threading the cable and cinched it at one end.  “What is it?”

“Are you going to leave when she does?” Misja asked.

Vulkan looked at her again, his face blank.  “No.  Not at first.  Give it a few years.  I’ll make sure she has time to be sure about Kouthry being the right call.”

“Good,” Misja said.  She looked up at him, towering over her.  His physique, size, and utterly alien appearance hadn’t intimidated her much when they had met, given that he had been, from nearly the word ‘hello,’ the kindest soul she had ever seen, and now she barely noticed them.  However, the news that the Salamanders would be amongst those Legions participating in the Solar Expansion, still formally classified, had been an unpleasant reminder of his role.

“You won’t just leave, right?” she asked softly.

Vulkan turned his eyes to her again, hurt.  “Of course not.”

“Good.”  She looked down at the floor for a moment.  “Perhaps…perhaps Venus had the right idea.  I think I may go back to Prometheus for a time.  Just long enough to get the Residence ready and check in with No’dan.”

“Do you want to make the journey now?” Vulkan asked.

“No.  I think I’ll wait for a while, too.”  Misja gestured for his hand as he reached for the bolt cutters to slice the armored power cable at the spool.  “You know…I have to wonder.  Do you think Venus will ever join you and your brothers on the Expansion?”

This time, Vulkan’s gaze was one of complete denial.  “Absolutely not.  Misja, I am endlessly proud of her, but she is not a killer.  Her hands will sculpt wonders and guide the people, not soak with blood.”

“Is that your will, or hers?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said coldly.  “She will be a princess and a mother, I hope, but never…EVER a warrior.  I have not fought for so long, watched so many brothers die, so that innocent souls like hers could be drawn into the fires of war.  I fought to prevent that,” he said, squeezing the haft of the glaive.

“You fought so that people would not fight…or would have the option not to fight?” Misja asked.  “They’re not the same.”

Vulkan’s massive shoulders bunched as he fought his impatience down.  She was right.  “No.  No, they aren’t,” he said.  “But it would horrify me.  It would sadden me.  And even if she didn’t care about those things…I think she loves the civilian life too much to risk it in war.  I don’t have that luxury.”  He turned to regard his wife, his stance softening.  “I’m glad she does.”

Misja remained silent for a few more seconds, until Vulkan turned back to his weaponsmithing again.  “I suppose.”  She looked over to where their daughter was still working.  “I think she’d take to it.”

“Naturally.  Like she and the other Progenitors take to all tasks, given time.”  Vulkan grabbed a pair of wire cappers and gingerly snipped one errant feed cable.  “Have you asked her to give her own opinion?”

“No.”  Misja looked over the weapon her husband was crafting.  “What are you even making, here?”

“Just something I wish to present one of my battle-brothers from the Liberation of Seadelant task force who distinguished himself,” Vulkan said.  “Polearm users are rare in the Assault ranks, but he’s gifted.”

“Mmm.  Well, don’t go hungry,” she said, gesturing to the food she had brought down.

Vulkan smiled as he hefted the unfinished weapon and balanced it on one finger.  “You take good care of me, Misja.”

“Oh, I know,” Misja said drily.  She walked back to where Venus was now setting the tiara aside to cool.

“I don’t plan on joining the military at all, Mom, fear not,” Venus said without preamble, crouching to stare at the tiara at eye level on her work station.  “Blasted gem settings are so damn fragile…”


Misja closed her eyes for a moment, chastising herself for forgetting her daughter’s highly refined hearing.  “Okay, good.”  She placed her hands on her daughter’s bare shoulders as Venus rose to fix the tiara.  “Venus, sweetheart…I just can’t stomach the thought of losing you to the Emperor’s wars.  It’s hard enough knowing what Vulkan’s gone through.”

Venus relaxed and let her eyes slip shut as she felt the cool weights of her mother’s hands.  “I know, Mom.  Believe me, I know.  I may be able to put on the uniform and fire off a few rounds at the range, but I’m not a warrior.”  She reached up with one un-gloved hand to rest it over her mother’s.  “I like being able to choose.”

“All right.”  Misja let go and stepped back.  “What are you working on?”

“Just some stuff for Remilia and a thing for Jake’s slate that I loaned him,” Venus said.  “The crown’s just for kicks.”

“Why don’t you ever wear a bra when you’re working down here?” Misja asked, glancing at her daughter’s scarred back.  Aside from the ties at her neck and waist, there was nothing obscuring the view.

“Flammable underwear is never a good idea around an exposed element,” Venus chuckled.  “I’ve got something on under the boots and shorts, rest assured.”

Misja rolled her eyes as her daughter heated the crown back up.  “Good to know.”  She stepped back as Venus got back to work, and snagged a cookie for herself as she walked back to the stairs.


===A Wise Father===


Several hundred meters below, and nearly five klicks south, Jake brushed his hands as he rose.  “Moment of truth,” he muttered, sliding the power switch on his old computer on.

It started up with the quiet hum of electronics turning over, and a muted buzz of fans.

“Superb,” he chuckled proudly.  His old computer now contained a new, massive hard drive, and his old drives were tucked away for transport to college.  “Now I can use this as a server when I’m home,” he said.

“Did you blow it up?” his father asked from the door.

“Not yet,” Jake replied idly, turning the computer back off.  “Hey, check this out,” he said.

George appeared at the door.  “What?”

Jake gestured to a custom case mod he had installed earlier that day.  A small metal switch, with a safety cover over it, now decorated the top of the black box.  “What is that?” George asked.

“Watch,” Jake said, flipping the cover off.  He flicked the metal switch, and an audible *clank* resulted.

George blinked.  “I think you just launched all the missiles.”

“No, it’s an emergency hard drive formatter,” Jake said.  “Hit it while the computer’s on and it blanks the drive, flushes the memory, and resets the BIOs to factory.”

“Uh.”  George looked at it askance.  “And…what happens when someone just flicks it idly?”

“Nothing, since the cover is biometrically linked to me,” Jake said slyly.  “Remilia gave me a lot.”

George raised an eyebrow.  “How much, exactly?”

“Enough that I could build two or three more computers’ worth of parts like the ones I brought home, switch included,” Jake said.

George shook his head.  “She’s a generous girl.”  He shut the door and sat on the tiny bed as Jake assembled his machine on the floor.  “You understand that they’re going to work your ass off at Kouthry, I’m sure,” he said.

Jake suppressed a sigh.  “Sure.  I can handle it.  I doubt Vulkan would have made it conditional if he thought I couldn’t.”

“Right.”  George hesitated for a moment before waving it away.  “Right, of course, sorry.”

Jake set his old computer on its table and booted it as soon as it was plugged in.  “You want my old power strip?  I bought a better one for myself.”

“Absolutely, we can always use more at the shop,” George said.  “You know, Jake, I gotta admit, you sure got used to having met Vulkan quick.”

“I lucked out,” Jake remarked, rooting around under his desk for the power strip.  “Vulkan’s probably the nicest one to mortals.  Can’t imagine dating Kelly or Morticia.  Nice girls, if distant…but man.  The Night Haunter and the Reaper.”

George flinched.  “Yeah.”  His son rose and started coiling the power cable around the strip, dusting it off with his hands.  “Well, I guess I still can’t quite get used to it,” he said.  “I mean, I grew up during the end of the Crusade.  Day in and day out, we would get word of how the Primarchs and their Legions were ‘over there,’ were cleaning house at the edge of the Compliance zones, all of it.”

He leaned back against the bare wall and remembered.  “You’d think you would get used to it, but the old-timers, my grandparents and co-workers, they were so excited over it.  Apparently the whole galaxy was getting tense and anticipatory, the Crusade was going to end within their lifetimes.”

“Yeah?”  Jake looked back at his father as he groped about in the pile of packing material for a twist-tie.  “What was it like?”

“Scary.  Nobody knew what would come next,” George said.  “We all wondered if the Legions were going to be forced into peacekeeping duty, you know.  That intimidated some people.”

“I can only imagine,” Jake said, tying up the cord.

“Don’t.  We didn’t like it.”  George shook his head.  “When the Primarchs came home…started families, like your mother and I were doing…we wondered what they would even be doing.”

“I bet the image of nineteen strategically adorable, squealing babies probably kicked off a baby boom like nothing the galaxy had seen,” Jake said drily.

“Oh my goodness, you have no idea,” George chuckled.  “Half of the Terran Praetors coming home at the same time didn’t help things.  Hell, we probably wouldn’t have rationing as harsh as we do if the planet’s population hadn’t gone up by a full third in the span of ten years.”

“That much?  Yikes,” Jake said.

“Yeah, it was quite a thing,” George said.  “Well.  You grasp the concept, I think.”

Jake shrugged.  “I think so.”  He dropped the power strip in his father’s lap and sat in his computer chair, swiveling it to face his dad from across the tiny room.  “So, what brought this on?” he asked.

“Well, it’s just that I don’t quite know how to react,” George admitted.  “The Primarchs were always, even during the Crusade, supposed to be the epitomes of humanity and accomplishment.”

“Dad, Vulkan can intimidate the hell out of me,” Jake said.  “Don’t think I don’t respect him or anything.  It’s just that he’s a deeply humanist guy, too, and he finds worship and fear distasteful.  Really.”

George nodded, accepting his son’s wisdom.  “Now…I suppose I have to give you the birds and bees talk,” he said heavily, hiding a smirk with serious effort.

Jake rolled his eyes.  “Let me save you the trouble.  Venus isn’t baseline.  I physically can’t get her pregnant.”

George stared.  “She isn’t.”

“Nope.  Which has its upsides, of course, but still,” Jake said.  “We’re good.”

His father turned that over in his mind for a moment.  “Well.  That’s a shame, really.”

“Yeah, but she says there’s ‘options.’  She also gave that to me in confidence, so lips sealed, m’kay?” Jake said pointedly.

“Sure,” George said.  He rose to his feet and opened the door.  “All right, I’ll let you pack.”



The day before the final pair of travelers departed, Jake flew up to Venus’ house for a final exchange of things to be packed, and to pick up his new slate legs.  Breezing past the single, token Treasury guard, Jake walked into the house, glancing about for anyone.

“Oh, hello,” Misja said from the far side of the huge sitting room.  She rose from her seat and walked over as Jake closed the door.  “Venus is in her room, packing up stuff.”

“Great, thanks,” Jake said, making for the stairs.

As he poked his head into her room, he spotted her lying on the bed, staring at the holo over her head.  “Hey, baby,” Jake said.

The door lit as she looked over.  “Hey, Jake, come on in,” she said.

Jake shut the door and walked over to the bed, kicking off his shoes and flopping down next to her.  “How are you?” he asked her.

By way of response, she held out one arm, and he rested his head on her shoulder, joining her in watching the holo overhead.

“Where are the Cities?” Jake asked.

Venus’ arm rose from the far side of her head and pointed at a nearly invisible silver dot on the black ash wastes.  “There’s Heliosa.  There’s Clymene…and in the ocean there is Aethonion.”

Jake gripped her other hand and clasped it to his side.  “Hard to believe we were actually there.”

“It is,” Venus chuckled.  “I’ve been staring at it for so long, then I was there.”

“We’re lucky the deserts were so dark from all the ash and obsidian dust, or I could have burned my eyes out on the glare,” Jake said ruefully.

Venus narrowed her own eyes to slits and smiled, letting her hand fall onto her bare stomach.  Her halter top was decorated with a new necklace, Jake noted.

“Like it?” she asked, spotting his gaze.  She lifted the little pendant to reveal the tiny silver bauble she had created a few days before.  “I’ve been spending six or seven hours at the forge every day since I got back.”

Jake leaned closer and looked at the tiny spiral pattern in the middle, as if it had been made by filling a seashell with silver.  “Cool.”  He sniffed the air from an inch above her.  She smelled like flowers, at that moment.  “You don’t smell like you’ve been at the forge,” he observed.

She rolled her brilliant eyes and let the pendant fall back to her breast.  “What am soap?” she drawled.

Jake leaned back, smirking.  “Is that new too?” he asked, pointing at the tiara on the nightstand.

“Oh, yeah,” she said, flopping over and crawling to the stand to grab up the circlet.  “Check this,” she said, setting it on her head.  The single tiny diamond she had set in the middle was from the small supply her father maintained for just that purpose.

Jake rose to his knees and looked at her.  She settled against the headboard and drew her knees up to her chest, gazing over her legs.  “Do you like it?”

He felt a slow smile spread across his face.  The shimmering light from her eyes brightened as he leaned forward and lifted the gold circlet from her hair, setting it aside as he leaned in to kiss her.  “It’s beautiful,” he said quietly, running a hand across her cheek and leaning in for another, slower kiss.

When he finally pulled back, she was grinning a bit.  “You didn’t even look at the tiara, did you?” she asked.

Jake blinked.  “Tiara?”

Venus sighed and took the pendant off.  “Boys.”

===Goodbye, Venus, Goodbye, Jake===

On the morning of moving day, Jake packed up the last of his things, and tucked them into the back of his parent’s car for the trip to the manor.

Sandra and George rode with him to bring the car home.  They were quiet on the way, for the most part, with only the occasional bout of actual talking.  Once they were nearly there, however, Sandra turned to her son, who was practically bouncing in his seat.  “Jake, honey, calm down.”

“Sorry, I’m just so fired up!” Jake exclaimed.  “Kouthry!  This is awesome!”

“As staff, yes.”  Sandra looked up at the looming buildings all around her.  “I really hope you enjoy working there.”

“I hope so too,” Jake said eagerly.  The car slid to a halt outside the Vulkan estate, and nearly ran up the steps.  Venus met him at the top of the flight, her arms already laden with stuff.

“Hey, baby, just drop your stuff in the back of the truck,” she grunted, lifting a massive container of clothes into the back of an airtruck.

“Sure,” Jake said, carrying a bag over.  Sandra and George emerged from the car with bags of toiletries and other detritus, as Venus walked back for another armful of junk.

“Venus, do you need any help?” George asked.

She shook her head, scattering black hair everywhere.  “No, thanks, Sieur Seager,” she said.

Vulkan himself emerged with a computer chair in one hand.  “All right, that’s it,” he said.

“Excellent,” Venus said, checking her watch.  “We are way ahead of schedule.”

“It’s a four-hour flight,” Jake reminded her.

“A pittance,” Venus scoffed, “with ten unwatched LaffTrax movies on my slate.”

Jake laughed.  “Outstanding,” he said.

Vulkan held the side panel of the airtruck open as George deposited Jake’s own computer chair.  George raised an eyebrow upon observing just how little was in there.

“How…restrained, Venus,” he said.

Venus peeked into the truck.  “Heh.  I don’t want to drag along a ton of shit I don’t need,” she said.  “I can always send home for stuff if I really want it.”

George nodded as Jake started depositing his computer components with the greatest of care.  As he stepped back to give Jake some room, he caught Vulkan’s attention and looked meaningfully at the door to the house.

Intrigued, Vulkan followed George into the manor, and crossed his arms as George nervously licked his lips.  “Vulkan, sir, I want to thank you for giving my son this opportunity,” he started.  “He’s over the moon.”

Vulkan half-smiled.  “A good choice of words.”

“Pardon?”

“‘Opportunity,’ you said,” Vulkan observed.  “George, I like your son and Venus likes your son, but I wouldn’t have helped them out if this was all there was to it,” he said.  “I think your son is a brilliant young man, denied a chance for greatness by poverty, and there’s no waste like wasted potential.”  He slid his hands into his pockets and watched the much shorter man with a critical eye.  “May I ask why you – and subsequently, he – didn’t enter the Mechanicum?”

George bristled as his line of profuse thanks became a line of uncomfortable questions, but he answered.  “I find the mandatory augmentations of the Mechanicum disgusting.”

“The augs themselves, or the fact that they’re mandatory?” Vulkan asked mildly.

“Both.”

Vulkan sighed lightly.  That hadn’t been the answer he wanted.  Despite that, he inclined his head with a gracious nod.  “All right.  Then you’re most welcome, George, and congratulations.  I know how momentous it can feel to send them off, now,” he chuckled.  “It’s unforgettable, isn’t it?”

“Unforgettable and slightly depressing,” George sighed.  “I remember being his age.  I miss the Seminary’s environment of learning and exploration.”

“I attended Kouthry myself, incognito and online, for the most part,” Vulkan remembered.  “The look on the Dean’s face when I showed up to receive my degree in person was the funniest thing I had seen in years,” he laughed.

George cracked a smile.  “I imagine.”

Vulkan opened the door back up.  “Now, go say farewell to your son as I do the same for my daughter, eh?”

Outside, Misja was tearfully hugging her daughter farewell.  “Mom, I’ll be calling home tonight,” Venus managed.

“I know, I know,” Misja said sadly, squeezing her daughter’s shoulders once more.  “It’ll be really late, though, so just turn in early and be sure to get up in time for the convocation address!”

“Mom, the convocation is three DAYS from now!” Venus said exasperatedly.  “Really, move-in today, a day of Orientation,  day of Faculty meetings, then the Convocation day, then the weekend before classes is more Orientation, then classes start.  I’m fine.”

Sandra pecked her son on the cheek as he sat down in the truck.  “You stay safe out there, Jake.  Don’t feel pressured to take a high classload,” she advised.  “You’ve got time.”

Jake grinned with anticipation.  “I know.  I’m looking forward to it.”

George shook his son’s hand as he walked back up to him.  “You have fun at Kouthry, Jake,” he said.

“I will, count on it,” Jake said.

Venus climbed into the driver’s seat and began the autopilot’s sequence.  “All right…bye Mom, Dad!” she said happily, as the gravlift engine lifted the truck off the ground.

“See you at semester break,” Vulkan said, waving as they lifted.

Venus leaned back in the driver’s seat, eyeing the autopiloted car of hers which was following behind in their wake.  “It took off fine,” she said.

“Cool.”  Jake leaned his seat back and settled down on the padded cushion.  “I wonder when I start,” he said idly.

“Chat with your new supervisor,” Venus suggested.

“Yeah.  Think he knows Vulkan got me the job?” Jake asked.

“Probably,” Venus said wryly.  “The smartest thing you could do is just build your class schedule around your works hours and then kiss up to your boss for optimal shifts.”


===Summer's Over===


Jake snorted.  “How cynical.”  He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back in the bucket seat, eyes half-shut.  “You know…I didn’t tell my parents about our mutual realization.”

“Hmm?”

“On the Observation Deck of the Fang,” he reminded her.

Venus half-smiled, crossing her arms over her stomach.  “I implied it to my parents when they specifically said they were wondering if you were going to propose.”

“Mmm.”  Jake sighed at the ceiling of the airtruck.  “I don’t think they’d trust me to make that kind of commitment.  My mother actually had the stones to ask me if I ever felt you and your cousins were being nice to me because they thought it made them better people, or absolved them of moral burdens, or some shit.”

Venus shrugged uncomfortably.  “What did you say?”

“I said ‘of course not,’” Jake said.  “But the fact that she even asked…I mean, the context was Remilia giving me all those clothes and gifts and stuff.”

“Well, I guess to someone who doesn’t know just how grateful to you she was, I suppose that could look like graft or condescension,” Venus said.  “But do you think it was?”

“Of course not, my mother’s just stubborn,” Jake said, waving his hand.

Venus twisted in her seat to look her boyfriend over.  He was idly rubbing one finger across his chin, thinking.  “So…do you think we should talk more about this?”

“About what?” he asked.

“About getting married.”

Jake’s stomach tightened up a bit.  “Well…honestly, no,” he said.  “Don’t get me wrong…I think we should, someday…but hell, I bet every seventeen-year-old thinks that at some point.  And what’s the odds?  Something like seventy-five percent of high school marriages end in divorce?”

“So you think we should wait?” Venus asked.  “But not rule it out?”

Jake smiled ruefully.  “I actually considered buying a ring with the money Remilia gave me, on Nocturne, but then I remembered.  You’re a jeweler.  You’d make a ring nicer than anything I could buy.”

Venus shook her head.  “You’re incorrigible.”

“I have my moments.”  Jake reached over and caressed her hand.  “But if you want to think about something longer-term…”

She caught his hand in hers.  “Mom specifically asked me if we were going to be using this as a test bed for something more permanent.”

“Well, of course we are,” Jake said.  “We’re living together.”

“Yeah, but –”

“Also, ‘test bed’ sounds like a great idea,” Jake mused.

Venus sighed through her grin.  “Jake, baby, come on.”

“Sure,” he said, pulling his hand back.  “So…where are we going with this?”

Venus shrugged against her seat.  “Who knows?  I don’t.”

“Well,” Jake said, pushing his seat back as far as it went, “as long as the air conditioner in our room lets us do the ‘fire in the freezer’ thing, I’m good for now,” he said innocently.

Venus laughed, slapping her hand over her mouth.  “Is that what we’re calling it?”

“If you have a better idea,” Jake said, sounding so very hurt.

“Nope, I like it,” she admitted.

He grinned happily as she fought down her giggles.  She was beautiful.  She was funny.  She was, as far as he could tell, the ideal woman for him.  And for the next four years, they’d be growing and learning together.

Jake leaned sideways to stare out the window at the hundreds of tiny fluctuation in the surface of the hive skin below.  Life, he decided, was good for him, right then, and he was looking forward to it.

Venus stood up in the cab to grab her slate from its bag on the floor of the truck behind her.  She started it up and paged through it to the movies directory, and sat down to watch one.  As she did, she glanced over at where Jake was looking out the window, and smiled to herself.  Kouthry would be demanding, she hoped, and she had no idea how her relationship with Jake was going to end, but she knew it would be fun finding out.

The truck and the pilotless car behind it sailed over the hives towards the school, unmarked and unremarkable.  Inside, two seventeen-year-olds thought about the future, about school and love, and about how life was better for the other’s presence.  They soared east, to where Jake and Venus' desires had drawn them, and to lives they could enjoy together.


The End.



[[File:ROAD_TRIP.png]]





[[Category:Warhammer High]]