“We just have one huge building right now, but we are working on dividing it into individual flats. Plus, there are large rooms we can convert as well,” Calan said. “We have power and running water, too.”
“Calan is my mate, and I am living there,” Ajha said. “Do you want to come to live there with us with Jory and Tasha?”
“What do I have to do?” Vera asked, eying Calan suspiciously.
“Just help out with the work. Rax and I will teach you. We are going to plant food crops in some of the fields surrounding the building. I have bots, but they can only do so much. We’re just getting started,” Calan explained.
“We’ll come back and get you in Calan’s hover tram in a few hours if you want to come…” Ajha said. “No one will make you stay if you don’t want to---and I will be there.”
Vera looked around the remnants of the building where she lived now. The old concrete floor was covered with dirt and debris. There was no furniture, and their bed was a pile of tattered blankets on the floor. None of them had shoes, and their last bath had been far in the past. If the kids were going to eat any time soon, she would probably have to trade sex for food. Although, fucking someone as handsome as Calan wouldn’t be such a hardship as long as he was not too kinky.
Calan smiled as he caught the stray thought but didn’t comment. “We have plenty of food and clothing, and beds for the kids. My tram only seats six, but there is room for many in the cargo hold. Talk to your friends and invite them as well. It will be much safer for your children and you, than here,” he said.
“And you’ll give us food?” Vera looked at them hopefully.”
“We will. There is plenty and more coming while we work on growing our own,” Calan assured her.
“We’ll go with you. We’ve got nothing here,” Vera agreed. “You taking men too?”
“Everyone is welcome, but troublemakers,” Calan said. “We’ve got a cyborg heading security.”
Her eyes widened.
“Rax is a good man. He will keep you safe,” Calan assured her. “We will stop by on the way back to our tram to see how many you have ready to go. We can make two trips with the tram if we need to.”
“We’ll be waiting.”
Calan opened a compartment on the scooter, took out six protein bars, and brought them to Vera. “This will give you something to eat while you’re waiting for us to come back. No children should go hungry.”
Vera looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears as she took the packaged bars from him. “Thank you!” she said. “Thank you.”
Calan gave her a sympathetic smile and inclined his head acknowledging her gratitude. He used to lament that his existence was the result of his father’s research experiment but growing up he had lacked nothing. His parents had loved him since the moment of conception.
While he proved his father’s theory of psion factor, he was far more than an experiment. They were either going to save his embryo and implant him when they went back to Oltarin or grow him in a nurturing tank in the lab on Velran. But once he was conceived, his mother couldn’t bear the thought. She carried him to term in her own body.
Calan looked at the faces of Vera’s children as she gave them each one of the protein bars. The only time Calan had gone hungry in his life was when Uncle Delmran had dropped him in the wilderness for survival training. These poor kids looked like they had been hungry far too often, and there were children just like them all over the city.
Long ago, his mother had been one of them.
He climbed back on the scooter in front of Ajha and set it in motion at a moderate speed.
They stopped at a couple more locations where she knew of people who needed help then headed for the place she dreaded to go, Redmyn Berke’s gated estate. He was a dangerous man who had been an overlord in Farringay since Calan’s mother was a little girl living in the streets there.
Berke’s compound had uniformed armed guards at the gate.
“State your name and your business here,” said the burlier one on the right.
“Calan Narcaza to see Redmyn Berke,” he said confidently. Even though they were scary looking, their weapons would do them no good if he wiped their minds before they could even pull them out.
Of course, he wouldn’t, but he could put them on the ground with a thought. Neither one was Tregan. They were immune to psion telepathy, but not telekinesis. He could just pick them up and throw them fifty feet instead. Parlor tricks, his brother Jamerin called them.
The guard called Berke’s assistant, who told him Berke had never heard of Calan.
“Tell him I’m Michelle Marlow’s son,” Calan said when the guard relayed the response. He gave a slight smirk as he sensed Berke’s surprise and curiosity at his reply.
“Are you armed?” the guard asked.
“No.” Calan shook his head.Not in the way you mean.“You can check my scooter as well. All we have is food and water.”
