A Parliament of Ravens
Fred looked up from the contract on his desk and studied the parrotlike avir in front of him. The man had dropped in out of the blue, claiming to represent an engineering firm that wanted to license Fred's manablossom power pods. He had been pushy and rude and demanding, and Fred had told David to pass him through, just to shut him up.
As soon as he was in Fred's office, the obnoxious little man had shoved the contract across Fred's desk at him and pointed at signature lines, all the while talking at auctioneer speed. "Just sign here, and here, and here, and we can have your product on shelves all over the galaxy by this time next week."
Something about the way the man was acting bothered Fred, so he went back to the first page of the contract and flipped through it, as if looking for the signature lines himself. Once he'd flipped past every page in the document, he picked up a pen. The avir began quivering and making the odd little chirruping noises that particular subspecies always made when too excited for silence.
Got it all? Fred thought to Edgar.
Got it, Edgar replied. Adam just confirmed my initial impression. If you sign that, he'll not just own the rights to make your power pods, in five years he'll own the power pods, and you'll be working for him under indenture. Not only that, the contract includes a nondisclosure agreement that covers every provision in it, and an agreement that if you have any complaints, you may only use an arbitrator from his personal arbitration staff.
In other words, Fred thought, he's worked out how to legally enslave people?
Not only that, Edgar replied, he's specifically targeting successful, creative people, the kind no one would believe could be tricked into slavery, so if they're in that position, they must have chosen it for themselves.
Publish it, Fred thought. Validate it, verify it, and publish it the same places we publish anyone who refuses to make restitution. And check to see what arbitrators have free time in their schedule, just in case this scumbucket decides to make trouble.
"It's posted," Edgar said through David's speakers. "We've shared it with the Avir, too."
The avir looked from Fred to the speakers and back again, his attitude changing from excited to worried in an instant. "What's posted?"
"The contract you so foolishly gave me without demanding a promise of secrecy first," Fred said. "You know, the one that makes anyone who signs it your slave? Nice trick, that. Unethical as hell, but you must have spent a long time working it out."
"Are you kidding?" the avir laughed. "It took an evening. I've been in business long enough to know how to write a contract. Once I settled on what I wanted, the terms were easy." He snorted derisively. "You inventors think you're so smart. You look down on us businessmen, but without us, you wouldn't be able to sell what you create. All I did was make the terms honest."
"If they're honest, why the nondisclosure agreement?" Fred asked.
"Because if everyone knew how I achieved my success," the avir said, "they'd all copy me. And I can't stand copycats."
"Damn, Dad!" David laughed. "So far, twenty-six people have already filed challenges to that putz, and someone claiming to be from his family has filed a request to be allowed to take him into custody as an incompetent."
"That's impossible!," the avir exploded. "I don't have any family! I k - I mean, they all died!"
"I see," Fred said drily. "How does the request from his family look?"
"The petitioner says that he survived laughing boy's attempt to murder him," David said, as the avir's eyes got wide with surprise, "because he was wearing a MacManus. I'm checking that ... oh my, look at this. A recording of the attempted murder. I'd say this guy has a very good case. Of course, so do all the challenges."
"He can't do that!" the avir shrieked. "I'm an adult!"
"You are?" Fred asked. "I'm afraid the question of whether you are an adult is going to have to be settled between you and him. I've taken care of your aggression against me. I wouldn't be surprised if every one of the people who want a crack at you is someone you've aggressed against. Get out of my office." He withdrew a Radu's Revenge from the desk's top drawer and pointed it at the avir. "Before I have to remove you. In pieces."
The avir squawked and fled for the door, while Fred kept the 12ga. SMG trained on him. Once the door was closed, he sighed and tucked the weapon away.
"Do you want me to let you know what happens?" David asked.
"Not really," Fred said, then sighed, while turning to look out the transparent outer wall. "But I suppose you should, since someone is going to ask, sooner or later."
Will do," David said. "Aribeth asked me to remind you that since you took her on a date last time, tonight she's taking you on a date, so don't forget your tweed."
Fred smiled, then chuckled softly. "Don't forget my tweed, huh? OK. Tell her I'll be there. In the meanwhile...." He reached out to a spot on the outer wall, which changed from a transparent sheet to a rippling pool. Once the ripples had settled, he walked into the pool and vanished, followed a moment later by the pool itself.
# # #
In the Lodge, Fred was cooking something in the kitchen, while Fred sat in the library reading, and Fred was in the workshop, discussing whether his world's tech level was high enough to support the regular use of some of the devices Fred had invented. Fred stood just inside the portal from his office and said, "I think we need to have a meeting and catch up with ourself. Is whatever's in the oven at a safe place?"
"Just fine," Fred said. "Hazel would never let me hear the end of it if I screwed up something as easy as pig candy."
"All right," Fred said, then raised his voice and called, "Everyone! Meet at the conference table!"
People began moving toward the large table in the library, which began to expand as chairs were filled, until the far end of the table vanished into the distance. Fred looked around and groaned. Well, he'd called this clambake, and he knew he'd seen a few of himself pop in from whatever worlds they were living on, so it was pretty clear his call had gone out to all of his selves, and not just those in the Lodge.
"OK," Fred said. "Thanks to Azura, all of us, even those who were still living as mortals, know who and what we are. So, a few thoughts to ponder. First, do we want to keep using the name Lorkhan? The only real advantage I can see is that it pisses off the elves, which is also a disadvantage, since it pisses off the elven aedra. Second, I'd like to hear what we think as far as cooperating and working together."
Fred jumped up from his seat at the table, muttering, "Be right back." He dashed to the kitchen and took trays of pig candy out of the oven, set them on racks to finish, and returned to the table. "Sorry. Was making pig candy. So anyway, you were saying? Yeah. It'd make things a lot easier. Hazel and your wives have been working on helping her get her sense of self back. I think similar programs might be good for the rest of us."
"You're right," Fred said. "Shalei caught me slipping up when I listed your crew," he pointed at another self down the table, who was wearing a Starfleet admiral's uniform, "instead of mine. Let's see if we can pool our experience and help ourselves out, as well as stabilizing things some."
The gathering quickly settled into discussions, with small groups forming, mixing, and reforming, that lasted long enough for every single one of him to need to slip backward in time when returning to his home world.
# # #
Rook and Cook
# # #
"Here you go, love," Fred said, offering Hazel a bag of maple-brown sugar bacon pig candy. "We had a meeting today and I made this while I was waiting for the meeting to start. I made sure to bring some home so you could suggest how I could make it better." He chuckled and reached out to embrace her.
# # #
Knights in Tarnished Armor
# # #
Fred put his bag of pig candy into a jar on his desk, where anyone visiting during office hours could take some. Miri wandered in a few minutes after he returned, flopped down, and grabbed a piece of the candied bacon.
"I saw David's post," Miri said. "That guy really thought he could get away with that?
"If I had signed it," Fred said, "the contract would have been unbreakable. Luckily, the kids were able to analyze it and warn me before I was finished scanning the pages. You should see the recording."
"I did," Miri said, then blinked and looked at the bacon, surprised. "Who made this? It's good! Anyway, the guy impressed me as being a textbook sociopath, bordering on psychopath."
"I did," Fred said. "Well, one of my other selves, anyway. Hazel's Fred. Yeah, the guy reminded me of Deb."
Miri blinked, slid out of her chair, and around the table to wrap her arms around Fred. "Are you OK, love? You've never been able to say her name like that before. Not without having flashbacks."
"It's been better since Azura put us back together," Fred said. "A lot better." He held Miri tight and whispered, "Thank you, sweetheart. Even if I am doing better, I still need you."
"You need all of us," Miri said, while holding him tightly. "For instance, I came in to help you find your tweed before you go out to dinner with Ari tonight."
Fred buried his face in Miri's hair and broke into laughter.
# # #
Millenium City
# # #
"Seriously?" Fred asked. He pulled a teddy bear out of his lab coat pocket and threw it at the VIPER goon. "I just got back from a conference, and you morons decide to try to invade my home base? I don't need this horse shit!"
He aimed a sonic pistol at the VIPER goons and held down the trigger, sending out a cone-shaped pulse of ultrasonics that knocked the goons down and pushed them back into the spot directly beneath a special portal above the center of the base. He hit the trigger on a special device he carried in his pocket, and the portal opened, revealing the blackness of space ... and a satellite with a single brilliant red eye.
Fred coughed and waved away the ashes that had once been VIPER goons, took a piece of pig candy out of his pocket, and gnawed on it while considering the discussions in the Lodge. Things looked as if they were going to be very interesting in the future.
# # #
USS Aribeth United Federation of Planets Privateer
# # #
Admiral MacManus called his command staff together, passed around his bag of pig candy, and briefed them on what had taken place while he was away from the USS Aribeth.
"So, now that you're reconnected to the rest of Lorkhan," Arith asked, "does that mean you're going to be using your recovered abilities when we go after the Iconians?"
"To some extent," Fred said. "I have to be careful, though, so I don't end up like them. Believe it or not, the Q are right. If we do it all for the mortal races, we take away from their ability to grow stronger. Instead, what we have to do is guide them and help them get stronger.
"So what can we do?" Rell asked.
"We can use Aribeth to introduce new technologies that are reasonable extrapolations from their current tech base," Fred said. "Ari? What new tech are you comfortable trying out where Starfleet can see us using it?"
"How about the new Boson Array?" Aribeth answered. "Since Starfleet's phasers already use photons in their beams, it's not that much of a stretch to introduce them to a new array that can be tuned to produce other types of bosons."
"I love this plan," Fred said, grinning. "I'm proud to be a part of this plan. Let's do it!"
"He's jazzing again," Mar said drily.
"He's your husband," Kar'ra snorted. "Just tell me when you want the new arrays built.
"Yup," Arith and Mar said, in stereo.
"How soon can you build it?" Fred asked.
"I can have a prototype ready in three days," Kar'ra said. "Where do you want it installed?"
"Front array," Fred said, "where we can use our main sensors to analyze it during test firing."
"Got it covered," Kar'ra said. "It'll be ready in three days."
# # #
The Aribeth I Know
# # #
"Finished," Fred said, stepping back to look at his work. The break for the conference in the Lodge had been a good thing, especially since it had reminded him he needed to take the time to discuss his new condition with Kelemvor "Good job, everyone. Meet back here for evening prayers, so we can consecrate it."
"So where were you, sweetheart?" Aribeth asked, once all the initiates had left for the afternoon. "You left for lunch, and were gone for nearly an hour, by the water clock."
"I had a conference," Fred said. "All of me gathered in my Lodge, so we could discuss what to do now that we're all Awakened. It was an interesting experience."
"I'll bet," Aribeth said. "Do you want to tell Lada, or should I?"
"I will," Fred said, chuckling. He stole a kiss and twined his fingers in Aribeth's. "So where is she?"
"Helping Storm, of course," Aribeth said. "We have time to get down and back before evening prayers."
"Plenty of time," Fred said, opening a gateway between Castle Krag and Storm's farm.
In the barnyard, Lada and Storm were involved in jointly strengthening a nanny goat that had apparently just given birth to a pair of kids. Storm looked up as the portal opened and threw a wave in Fred and Aribeth's direction, then returned to helping Lada with the goat.
"So," Storm said as she and Lada walked toward Fred and Aribeth, while the farmer with the goats led them away, "what brings the two of you down off the hill?" She grinned sideways at Lada and added, playfully, "As if I didn't already know."
"eep!" Lada squeaked, blushing a brilliant crimson.
"Look at her!" Storm laughed. "Priestess of Sharess, and even a hint of praise is enough to make her blush.
"I shred stuff," Lada squeaked. "I'm not one of those, umm...."
"No doubt about that," Storm said. "Anyone who's heard any of the stories of the three of you in Neverwinter knows what a threat you are to anything evil. And a good thing, too!"
"We're down here because I need to consult with Lada and Ari," Fred said. "Now that I've been fully Awakened, I need to find someone to turn the Abbey over to, and to find out what Lada and Ari want to do. Being a fully-Awakened god means I can't just go on the way I have been for the last fifteen years."
# # #
Daughter of Mystra, Paladin of Tyr
# # #
"Gah! Puff!" Fred sputtered and pushed Puff out to hold her at arm's length. The silver-haired girl had tears streaming down her cheeks, and she was sobbing as if she were terrified. "What is it, sweetheart? What's wrong?"
"You vanished!" Puff wailed. "You weren't in the house, or in the Mansion, and I couldn't feel you anywhere!"
Fred blinked and gently squeezed Puff, while running his fingers through her hair. "What about Lada, or Imoen or Aribeth or Linu? Could any of them feel me?"
"Lada's being weird," Puff sniffled into Fred's shoulder. "Ever since you had that horrible pain in your chest, she's been talking about you being so much more that it confuses her.
"What about you, sweetheart?" Fred asked, and kissed Puff's cheek gently. "What do you feel now? It's OK. I promise, I'm not in any pain."
Puff looked into Fred's eyes, still sniffling, and slowly opened her eyes wide, transfixed in his gaze for several minutes. Eventually, Fred pressed his lips to hers with a gentle peck, and she squeaked. "You! You! You! When? How?"
"It happened when my chest hurt," Fred said. "That's when all my memories of being Lorkhan came back to me. I know Ao's going to demand my presence sooner or later, and all of us are going to have to decide what to do about it, but for now the only thing that's important is that I love each and every one of you, without reservation or hesitation."
"Even though you're a god now?" Puff asked uncertainly.
"Why should that make a difference?" Fred asked. "If Ao demands that I do that whole 'responsible' thing, I'll just start by taking responsibility for the five of you."
"Good!" Puff said, "because we're not letting go of you!"
