Francesca: These kids have potential after all Francesca looked over the carnage. Devina is dead. Along with Juniper. And Teylon. Was it really too hard for them to have a happy ending? Yeah, Esmeralda is totally a bitch. But... Those anonymous rulers are also dead. She looked at Sarsaparilla and Adalace, currently sitting on the floor, holding each other, and crying. Yeah, these kids did the right thing. Even if it did cost them. I'm impressed. I'm happy to grant them my allegiance. So - what happens now? She looked sideways at Sarawatch, just as Sarawatch looked at her. Without saying a word, they came to an agreement. Looks like I'll be taking over for a little, with help from Sarawatch. And Tamara. First thing- "Say, Shane, can you extend you shield back over the corridor, while me and Maggie deal with those automatic guns?" Ten minutes of fusion and magnetic violence later, the guns, and the false walls and part of real walls and some of the ceiling, no longer existed in a functional state. Actually, I suppose I could have just asked Adalace to turn off the automatic defence system from the computers, but, nyah, this was much more satisfying. Second thing- "Ah, kids, how about we all leave this room? I'm pretty sure I saw a dining room as we were coming in..." Third thing- Tamara came back to the dining room from her brief exploration. "Yep, there's a morgue, just down that corridor." So Francesca looked at the kids. "Hey, you all, just sit down and try to relax, will you? Or maybe raid the fridge which is just over there. Us ladies need to do the sad bit, now." In the next half hour Francesca, Sarawatch and Tamara wrapped the bodies into body bags and moved them all into the morgue. Which had more than enough room for all of them. "Just how many dead were they expecting at any one time, anyway?" asked Sarawatch, when they took a short break at the end of this operation. "Who knows?" said Tamara, "But, more to the point, what is next on the agenda?" "Securing our perimeter." said Francesca, "We ask Sarsaparilla to supply Adalace with some passwords, and then Adalace locks down the maglev spur line to us." "And then, I suppose, we hand control back to Sarsaparilla. Who, it appears, has been duly appointed by an Angel of Death to take charge of all of this." said Sarawatch. "Don't worry, I wasn't forgetting that," said Francesca, "I have no intention of crossing an Angel of Death. At least, not any more than I already have." "But, right now, they are all deep in grief and shock over the deaths of Teylon and the two others. After all, Teylon is the one that brought them all together." said Sarawatch. "Well, they will just have to drag themselves together! There's plenty of time to mope when this is all done!" said Francesca. "Now, now, I'm sure they will be all right, they just need a little bit of a push..." said Sarawatch, "Hmm, I may have an idea to help with that..." This is where the hard work starts- Francesca led the other two ladies back to the dining room. Good, good, they're all in their couples. Apart from Shane, that is. Indeed, Shane was sitting by himself, at the table furthest from the door. Adalace and Sarsaparilla were sitting on one side of the largest table, with Leroy and Kaydence on the other side. Maggie and Erasyl appeared to have taken it upon themselves to serve the others a snack from the pantry. Just now, Erasyl was offering Shane a few slices of cake on a plate. Shane kept on staring at the tabletop without looking around or speaking, but he did take the plate without any protest. "Sarsaparilla, do you think you will be able to supply Adalace with a few passwords?" said Francesca. A slight pause, then Sarsaparilla nodded. "Well, just through here is a row of offices, each with its own computer system. How about Adalace now claims their whole computer system as your own? Oh, and also, make it your first job to prevent anybody else from using the maglev line to here?" After that was out of the way, Sarsaparilla and Adalace came back to the dining room. Now Sarawatch stepped up to have her say. "Basically, right now Sarsaparilla and Adalace are the key players here. Now, I'm assuming you all still want to release all of the esp data to the public at large?" Nods from six teenagers. Shane remained immobile at his solitary location. "Instead of just dumping it all without any warning, we're thinking it would be nice to have each of us star in our own short little video. We each talk about who we are and how we got to this point. And, of course, we can also talk about Teylon. And Devina and Juniper. Doing so will be a nice way of getting an initial hold of our grieves. And it gives the public some idea of where all of this is coming from. Oh, and this includes you, too, Shane." Shane flinched in his chair, but otherwise didn't say anything. By early evening they had four and a bit hours of video tape. Francesca's talk was the only one which was anywhere near professional level. Sarawatch's was close, after all she was a police officer who had experience in public talking. After that the quality dropped off dramatically. Tamara was reasonable, although she elected to simply read her story to the camera. Each couple decided to do theirs together, so there were three segments of video, wherein each person of the couple interrupted each other, got their cues wrong, mumbled their speeches, spent more time looking at each other rather than the camera, and made just about every other mistake a rookie could make on television. And Shane's was the worse. He also read his story, but he never looked at the camera, and he spoke in a totally flat voice with frequent pauses. Sarsaparilla, going by the soul readings she had received, also added a summary of the committee's early years to her segment. After doing their part, Adalace and Sarsaparilla retreated to one of the offices, and Adalace started her task of working out how to publish a few petabytes of data. Adalace is going to be busy for quite a while, and Sarsaparilla is supporting her, but for the other teenagers - "Erasyl and Maggie, how about preparing an evening meal?" said Francesca. "And, Kaydence and Leroy, we need some sleeping arrangements done." Naturally I can't let Kaydence and Leroy sleep in the same room by themselves. Totally out of the question! And Erasyl and Maggie would be too embarrassed to do so, so obviously- "This room over here, if you clear out a few tables, you can set up six mattresses on the floor, Tamara will show you the store room that has everything needed." That'll satisfy them for now. As for Shane. "You can just change the bed clothes in this single bedroom, ah - apparently, according to the door name tag, it was used by the acting technician on duty." "And us senior ladies will occupy the other single bedrooms, just as well they had plenty available, isn't it?" said Francesca. Adalace kept on working, taking a short break to be fed tea by Sarsaparilla. And everyone else kept on waiting. Finally, about one o'clock in the morning, she leant back on her chair and stretched her arms. "OK, that will do for a first pass. As promised, I excluded any detail description of Devina's abuse. I couldn't bring myself to erase it outright, but at least it won't be going out in the data dump. But, everything else that looked like it was connected to the esp business, I included. There's probably a lot of irrelevant detail, but, well, there's only so much I can do in such a short period of time." "Ah, also, the Futures Group appeared to have collected a whole lot of blackmail material, in connection with their horrible and utterly despicable fake slave clone trade. For the sake of my sanity, I decided not to look at any of it myself. Instead, I decided to pass the buck and I made sure that it only goes to the police computers." "That's fine. In case you all haven't worked out yet, we are under a severely limited time constraint. The rest of Mars is going to start wondering what has happened to all the communications they should normally be receiving from here, so we have to get the data out as fast as possible." said Sarawatch. "In that case, shall I press the GO button right now?" said Adalace. Nobody objected. Click. Two loading bars appeared on her screen. "The first one is the data being dumped to personal computers all over Mars. Any one computer can't hold anywhere near all of it, so the data has been divided up into sections. Tomorrow morning everyone will receive our covering video, plus a random section of data." said Adalace. "That's a good way of doing it, to extract any coherent story from the data dump, people will have to coordinate their efforts and do multiple searches across multiple computers - it'll keep them occupied for quite a while. Gives us a bit of a chance to work out what to do." said Francesca. "And the second loading bar shows the data being loaded via the main data uplink to Earth. That will take a week to complete." said Adalace. "Oh, and another thing. In my survey of the committee's minutes, and their recordings of us, there is absolutely no mention of Esmeralda. Nothing. Not the slightest trace. There is plenty of stuff about Sarsaparilla's and Teylon's judgement powers, what with us talking about it, and the committee discussing it - but absolutely nothing connecting that power to any supernatural stuff." said Adalace. "Err, what does that mean?" said Kaydence. Sarsaparilla and Adalace looked at each other. "Well, I think it means that Esmeralda doesn't want people in general to know about her. So, I guess, my brand new super power, which is obviously not a standard esp power, will just have to go unexplained. I guess." said Sarsaparilla. "That's going to puzzle everyone." said Maggie. Sarsaparilla shrugged her shoulders. "Can't be helped." "Oh, what about Sister Celeste?" said Leroy, "Remember, she knows about our Angel of Death, also." "Oh, well, tomorrow I will have to ring her up and politely request that she puts it under a seal of confession." said Sarsaparilla. "And, one more thing - the committee was aware of at least thirty or more other groups who were actively trying to find out who ran Mars. All the groups had differing motivations; some wanted to get in on the action and make money or gain power, while others were more interested in questions of justice and transparency. And, in the past, there have been many others. But, since the committee had almost total oversight of our community, they were easily able to hold off all of those groups. Apart from us, of course. And, most interestingly, Napoleon was in one of the groups, one of those interested in various justice concerns." said Adalace. Sarawatch blinked and looked surprised. Her face went just slightly red. "Oh, right..." she said. Francesca looked around. Nobody seems to have any more to say, so "Very good. Now Sarawatch and I have been discussing things, and we think we should act now and contact a few people..." she said. Sarawatch made a call. Adalace set it up so that it went over the official line used by the committee to relay its orders. "Ah, Napoleon. You are no doubt aware that today, well, technically yesterday now, there has been no communications with our hidden leaders?" "Yes? It's a bit of a puzzle... but why are you ringing me at this time of the night to tell me? And, how the hell are you ringing me on the official line?" "Well, you see, me and my friends have, ah, how can I say this, well, we have just removed those anonymous rulers." "!" "Quite so. In fact, they're all dead. It's a long story, and you will be finding out all about in only a few hours time. But, in the meanwhile, can you get together a team of eleven other people? Mostly police officers, but include two journalists. Please make sure that they are all nice people. Nasty people have an unfortunate tendency of dropping dead when they meet us. And tell them to all present themselves at a maglev station sometime round about six in the morning? Because there's going to be a lot of shit hitting the atmospheric fans soon, and we all need to start managing things as soon as possible." "What the fucking hell have you been up to?" "Well, now, you will have to wait to find out, won't you?" Big smile on her face, Sarawatch disconnected the call. Her face went back to her normal look, which at the moment was a combination of tiredness and sadness. I had better give a little pep talk here. Francesca cleared her throat to get everybody's attention. "There is now a power vacuum in our little society. The top positions are all vacant. Which means that every slimy power hungry creep on the planet will suddenly be extremely interested in getting their hands on as much power and influence as they can possibly manage. Which is why we are calling in Napoleon and his friends so soon. They will keep the initial peace as we work out how to go on from here. And, of course, we have our very own Sarsaparilla, who will no doubt be judging the various people who turn up, and quite possibly Judging a few, with a capital J, if Esmeralda so desires." "Ah, yes, I guess so." said Sarsaparilla. She didn't look all that enthusiastic, but then it had been a long and stressful day. "Think of yourself as being our quality control." said Francesca. Tired nods from the teenagers. "And now, kids, and this includes Shane: you're all off to bed and don't argue. Meanwhile, us senior ladies will set up a watch and take turns to look after this place. OK?" said Sarawatch. Nobody argued with her. Ha! I think Sarawatch was a little annoyed by my calling us senior. Poor girl, she's now the oldest of us. Sigh. Teylon is still dead, not to mention Devina and Juniper. How about I volunteer to take the first watch? Everybody else needs some sleep.

Maggie and Erasyl: Have a talk about relationships The first day after was very tiring. Apart for Adalace, who was basically spending all of her time exploring the computer system, nobody else did much actual work. However, they did spend a lot of time answering questions, both directly from the police officers and journalists who had been allowed in, and indirectly from interviews conducted over the Mars internet. These last were not very constructive nor very coherent, since everyone was still scrambling, madly trying to get abreast of the data that had been dumped. On the second day, to take a break, Maggie and Erasyl, hand in hand, strolled out of the main operations building and across the floor of the cavity. "So, this is called Futures City." said Erasyl. Right now, they were walking across the flat rock floor of the cavity. For a hundred metres in any direction, it was completely bare, apart from the occasional bit of junk. Maggie, deciding to take a closer look at one of the pieces of junk, used her magnetic ability to levitate it and get it to drift over to them. "Looks like an old bicycle. Those tyres have started to deteriorate - it might have been out here for a decade or more." She sniffed her nose. "Not much of a Futures City, they couldn't even be bothered cleaning up their mess and recycling the materials." "I suppose they were always far too busy with the esp stuff." said Erasyl. "Yeah, far too busy, and since they kept it all to themselves, they had far too few hands to do any extra work." "Well, at least they planted that grove of trees." They walked up to it, and walked under the shade of mature trees, some as much as ten metres tall. "These trees must have been planted as soon as they put an atmosphere in here, about twenty or more years ago." said Erasyl. In random sized patches sprinkled about, the rock floor of the cavity had been evacuated to several metres deep, and filled with manufactured soil. And from this soil grew a variety of trees. Big ones, small ones, deciduous, evergreens. There were also plenty of fruit trees. To one side were some beehives and Maggie had to duck at one stage as several bees buzzed by. To grow a tree required a complete ecology, so it was just as well that the Mars society was an expert in making such things. Holding hands, Maggie and Erasyl walked under and around trees, their footfalls making rustling sounds as they stepped through leaf mounds, then making scrunching sounds as they walked over the rock floor to then next patch of soil. "Thought so, a lot of the trees have a name tag on a stick next to them, just like the ones at the maglev entrance." said Maggie. She let go of Erasyl's hand and flitted from one tree to another, reading the tags. All the while, they were drifting in the direction where the trees were smaller, and thus more recently planted. At last, Erasyl said. "Here's the one you've been looking for!" He pointed to a small tree, only a metre high, which was obviously newly planted. Maggie jogged up, and knelt down to read the tag. "Chantell" She sat down, on the leaf litter, and Erasyl sat beside her. He reflexively brushed off an ant as it tried to climb along her jeans, then put his arm around her. After a while she took out a hanky and blew her nose. "I think this needs washing..." She settled into Erasyl's embrace. "We must remember to put in three more trees." she said. "Yeah. Actually, I really think we should put in five more trees, also, you know." he said. "I, ah, suppose so. After all, they did give the last thirty years of their lives to this place." "Say, tell me, how does this bisexual thing work? I've got my heart set on a committed exclusive relationship with you, just so that you know." said Maggie. "Well, that's fine. I'm happy with that committed exclusive relationship idea, also. And, let's see, just because I like men as well as women doesn't make me all that different from you. It just means I have a somewhat broader range of people I'm attracted to. And if I'm committed to you, then I just have to make an act of moral willpower to ignore all of the other attractive men, as well as women. It's like what the books on relationships keep saying, no one person will satisfy all of one’s needs, so we just have to put up with it. After all, you obviously like big men with lots of muscles, but you certainly won't be getting that from me." "Humph, I guess we will can just fantasize, if it comes to that. I'm sure we are both definitely experts at that!" "Oh, yes, that's for sure!" The laughed, and then became silent. The surroundings were mostly silent, apart from the buzzing of bees, the calls of a few birds, and the distant sound of the atmospheric fans. Looking back the way they came, they could see a few figures moving around the maglev entrance and the buildings, but no one appeared to be any closer. Maggie looked at her wristband. "It's still another hour or so before we need to go back and get ready for the meeting with the delegates." Erasyl looked at Maggie, her head resting on his shoulder. "What should we do in the meanwhile?" Maggie turned her head to look directly at Erasyl, centimetres from her face. "Oh, I dunno, can you suggest anything..." Adalace: I might still be a victim, but I certainly no longer have to feel like one A couple of hours later a small group held a last minute pep talk, before moving to the main meeting room. "Now remember, there is going to be an incident, but if you can all control yourselves and wait till I explain things?" said Sarsaparilla. She was currently talking to the police officers and journalists who were going to be observing the meeting. Looking puzzled and wary, if not downright suspicious, they nodded. Isn't she nervous? I'm certainly am. I mean, we are going to be telling the future leaders of Mars how to go about their jobs. Adalace glanced at Sarsaparilla, currently standing beside her and holding her hand. Ah, her hand's sweaty. Or is it mine? Whatever, we're both nervous. "Shane, if you can provide crowd control, and prevent anyone from leaving before I have finished?" Shane nodded. He did not say anything, but then, he barely talked anyway. "Maggie and Francesca can put up a fancy fire show if things demand it, while Erasyl and Sarawatch do the mundane task of guiding people to their chairs." she said. "Right, let's go." At that, Sarsaparilla let go of Adalace's hand, and they all moved into the meeting room. It was a bit of a mystery why the committee had added such a large auditorium to their building, but it was well appreciated by the usurpers. It was easily large enough to hold the forty or so delegates, each sitting at their own little desk with a computer terminal on it. There was even room to sit the police officers and journalists. Sarsaparilla was most insistent that they had their own screens also. The only ones that didn't have their own computer screens where Sarsaparilla and her companions. Erasyl and Sarawatch guided in the delegates and directed them to their chairs. There was a rustle of papers and an expectant hum of quite conversations, which died down to a murmur as Sarsaparilla stepped up. Adalace felt the tension rising within her. Here it comes, another intense Angel of Death moment. Only we're not allowed to call it that. So, I suppose, does it become a Sarsaparilla Judgement moment? I certainly have one very cute but definitely super scary girlfriend! Sarsaparilla cleared her throat, stammered a little on her first word, then managed to speak clearly. "O-on behalf of myself and the others in my group, I would like to welcome this delegation to Futures City. You are volunteer members of the public of our Mars society who have, by one means or another, been chosen to represent the public and come here to discuss how to run our society in future. You need to work out a transition plan to keep things running on a temporary basis, and you need to work how run Mars on a permanent basis." She took a breath. "Naturally, this is currently being live streamed to the internet; no doubt half of Mars is watching us now. So, now is as good as time as any to make some things formal." Oh shit. Here it comes. One extremely scary girlfriend! "Somehow, I not sure how, I have been granted a power which, for want of a better name, we have called Judgement. It is definitely not an esp power. I don't have a clue what my own esp power, which the committee christened 'Bad Hair Day', actually is, but whatever it is, it has been completely overwritten by this Judgement power. Teylon also had it, so obviously it doesn't come from the esp Artifact." Sarsaparilla straightened up and squared her shoulders as she looked over the gathered throng. Her friends also tensed up. "My Judgement power allows me to evaluate a person's character and personality and his or her past, and allows me to detect those who are evil. Not ordinary mild bad things we all do, but the outright evilness that results in the destruction of people's well being or people's lives. The sort of evilness that, once explained, everyone will agree that that was evil. You were all warned, before coming here, that only nice people were wanted." "You have all seen the videos of the committee being judged, and now, I will demonstrate my Judgement powers, yet again." Sarsaparilla looked to the side and up for a moment. Adalace clearly saw a brief look of total revulsion and disgust in her face, before Sarsaparilla managed to get herself under control. She spoke a word - "Judgement" - and one of the delegates, a middle-aged man who, up to now, had been totally indistinguishable from anyone else, abruptly stood up, half screamed, then collapsed forward, flopping over his desk. He remained there, no longer moving. There was what could be called a slight amount of consternation. Or, more likely, full blown panic and outrage and fear and anger from the delegates. The police officers managed to keep themselves in check, since they had been forewarned. Nevertheless, they did not look too impressed, either. Sarsaparilla tried to shout over the uproar, but her voice was completely drowned out. So she glanced at Shane. He took his cue, and as they had practiced before hand, he put a shield around everyone in the auditorium, except for Maggie. She had, very conveniently, been standing in a corner, away from everyone else. Now she joined in the fun. She launched a roaring, twisting, band of fire and fury, completely surrounding them all. But, since it was on the outside of the shield, and everyone except for Maggie were on the inside, no one was hurt. But they were shocked even more, not to mentioned frightened. So Francesca screamed out "Everyone shut up! As soon as you shut up and get back to your computer screens, we will explain exactly why that bloke was judged!" She casually created a few little fireballs that drifted up from her hand before harmlessly dissipating. That's my cue. As soon as Sarsaparilla gives me some usernames and passwords... Sarsaparilla did so, courtesy of her Angel. Adalace twitched furiously, and within a minute had the necessary access to that man's personal computer, and the most incriminating files possible unlocked and ready to run. Meanwhile, Sarsaparilla was having her little say. "Just remember, my ability is not a joke! It is real, and things can get extremely nasty!" She looks thoroughly pissed off, in fact she's in a vile humour. I had better be as nice as possible to her after this is over. I suppose seeing what that bloke was up to really sours her mood. "And now, you are also going to see what that man was up to. So, you too, can feel totally horrible!" Sarsaparilla nodded to Adalace. "Ah, everyone? Please plug in the earphones provided, and either twitch out this code, or type it into the provided keyboard..." said Adalace. Her voice was not very loud, nor was it all that confident, but by now everyone was sufficiently cowed by the displays of violence that they were willing to be quite and were ready to obey her suggestion. Of Sarsaparilla's companions, only Sarawatch and Francesca bothered to also get to a computer screen and have a look. But everyone else certainly took up the offer. Adalace divided her attention between watching Sarsaparilla's face, and the audience's. Yes, just like Teylon told us about Vicanef's Judgement, her memory of it must be fading. A small blessing from Esmeralda. She looked at the audience, and saw the opposite. She watched in morbid fascination as their expressions gradually morphed, from fear and anger to something more like fear and horror. In fact, one man's face was starting to turn green... Fortunately, Erasyl was onto it. He briskly strode up to him, with a barf bag in his hand. "Here sir, you might like to..." "Ah, perhaps if you would like go to the washrooms now..." Erasyl pointed him in the correct direction, then came back to the front. Sarsaparilla waited until it appeared that most of the audience either had finished watching the supplied videos, or had decided to give up. "I would like to now point out the little fact that that man-" Whose body was still folded over his terminal. "Was the worse of everyone here. But, that doesn't mean that everyone else gets off scot free. Oh, no, no way. There are about five others who got a little warning signal - you know who you are. I would strongly advise those people to not come back here. And, the rest of you? Remember that I will be judging people in future! So watch it! Some of you are a bit too close to edge for your own comfort. Either get your act together and become better, or stay away, where you are unlikely to attract my attention. Got it?" For the time being, nobody protested. Sarsaparilla glanced at Sarawatch, then took Adalace's hand, and together they stood back, and became passive observers. Sarawatch tried to smile sweetly at the audience, but she was one of the ones who had chosen to watch the videos. Her smile turned out to be more like a snarl. Realising this, she gave up on the gentle touch, and just glared at no one in particular. "Well, I suggest you all return to Verdant for today, and think things over. We'll hold this meeting again tomorrow, at the same time." The delegates, minus one, all left. Sarawatch glanced over to Napoleon. "I don't suppose you'll like to do the honours this time?" Napoleon, and the other police officers, decided to take this as an order. Francesca handed them a body bag, which she just so happened to be holding, and the police removed the body. Ten minutes later, the auditorium was almost empty. The police officers had also left, and the two journalists had somehow gotten the impression that it would be wise to also leave and do something else. "Sarsa, has the memory of what that bloke did faded?" said Adalace. "Yeah, it has, thank God. But, I tell you, no one is going to object to him dying like that." Francesca had crossed her arms and was looking disgruntled. "You did a good job there. Again. I hope you're not going to plant a tree for him?" "Like hell no." said Sarsaparilla. "Although I still think that planting a tree for each of the committee is justified..." said Maggie. "Hmm, whatever. As long as they are nowhere near the trees for our friends." said Francesca. "For sure." said Maggie. Shane, still present, said nothing. But he kept listening. Sarsaparilla grabbed the nearest chair, and flopped down on it. So Adalace also dragged over a chair and sat beside her. "This all is going to take some getting used to. From nobody with a nothing esp power, I am now bossing around, and sometimes killing, the future rulers of Mars. Bloody hell." said Sarsaparilla. Maggie had the giggles. "Remember when we first met the Girls in Pink? And now Sarsaparilla is practically a full member of them. Not to mention bossing them around!" "Well, I don't mind. Although I think that, without Devina, we should now be called the New Girls in Pink. Or something. But, apart from that, I don't have any objection to such a situation." said Francesca. Silence for a while. "Say, did you find the tree for Mirabella?" asked Sarawatch. "Ah, sorry..." said Erasyl. "Well, then, I'm going to walk out to there right now and find it. Anyone else like to come along?" Consequently, Sarawatch, Francesca, Adalace and Sarsaparilla all went for a stroll. Shane mumbled an excuse, and departed for his own quarters. Maggie and Erasyl decided to go and find Leroy and Kaydence and Tamara, and have a talk. The auditorium was left in a state of disarray, but that could always be fixed later. Their shoes making slight scrunching sounds as they walked across the cavity floor, Adalace kept a hold onto Sarsaparilla's hand, and had a few extra thoughts. I'm no longer a nobody either. The future rulers of Mars will be taking careful note of my words, also. The pain of being raped might still be present, but hopefully it will be drowned out by the rest of my life. Thank God.

Leroy and Kaydence: Having a discussion Two weeks after the Great Disruption, as it was starting to be called, Leroy and Kaydence were in one of those houses that the committee and their staff used to occupy. It was evening, and no one else was present. They sat in one of the sofas, not quite touching each other, and watched a news channel. "After an intense week of negotiation and consultation, the delegates have reached an initial agreement on the future political arrangements, and have produced a trial constitution. In summary, the main points to be noted are: Public elections will be held in three months time. The job of running Mars is to be divided into five portfolios, roughly corresponding to the jobs held by each of the five committee members. Each portfolio has three elected members controlling it, elected for a term of three years. For the first election, one will be elected for the full three years, one for two years and one for one year. Elections will be held yearly, and the rules for voting will be ..." At this point, Kaydence made a sign of annoyance. Leroy glanced and Kaydence, then took the remote and froze the replay. He raised his eyebrows in a query. "I'm sorry, but I just can't get all that excited about such boring details." said Kaydence. She folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them, avoiding Leroy's eyes. "I see you, and the others, getting all wrapped up in such stuff, I know it's important, but, I don't know, I just can't get into it at all. I really agreed with Juniper, when she said that she envied you all for being so grown up and mature. I'm not really that at all, am I? It's so depressing, three of so years of my life wiped out, just like that. I have to go to a special school to catch up. I have to be looked after by you and Adalace and Sarsaparilla. And, meanwhile, my friend Sarsaparilla gets to control Mars." She wiped her eyes with her hands. "I'm not jealous of her, mind you. Not jealous at all. But I wish I wasn't so far behind." Leroy took her hand in his. "It's all right, you may be behind, but you will surely catch up in a few years time. Sister Celeste and her staff are confident about that. And we will all help you." A few sniffs for Kaydence. "I suppose so. And, of course, Sarsaparilla has now got Adalace, so we can't spend all that much time together, like we used to." "Ah, but you now have me as a good friend. I'm quite happy to spend time with you!" "Yeah." Kaydence smiled. "In fact, you want to be my boyfriend, don't you?" "Ah, well, err, you see, I have this agreement with Adalace and Sarsaparilla, to, you know, just be a friend for the next few years, until you have settled down..." Another smile from Kaydence. "I know. Those two have also talked to me about that. Like, they said that if you ever bothered me, they were perfectly capable of taking you down all by themselves without any effort what so ever." "Yes! Definitely! I mean, I have no intention of taking advantage of you!" Kaydence giggled. "Very good, I shall tell them! But, really, I don't mind you wanting to be my boyfriend. But only sometime in the future. I just can't see myself doing anything like that at the moment. It's too, ah, sort of, scary?" "That's fine!" "And, of course, I know perfectly well that the reason why the four of us are living together in this house is so that those two can keep an eye on you, all the time!" "Ah, I didn't think you would work that out." "I may be a bit slow at growing up, but I'm not stupid you know!" "Of course not, ah, how about I skip this replay forward to the bit where it does get interesting?" "There's an interesting part?" So Leroy fiddled with the remote, and the video replay jumped to another part of the announcement. "Now we come to the general arrangements for Sarsaparilla and her companions. They have all agreed to be bound by certain limits: Unless by special arrangement, they do not leave Mars. They never hold elected positions, nor do they ever hold executive positions in any companies or organisations. They agree to continued oversight by the appropriately appointed officials, such oversight being adjusted to best suit each person's individual circumstances. And in return, it is agreed that: Mars pays them a suitable retainer, details to be worked out on a case by case basis. Public access to them is to be kept to a minimum, requests for interviews and such like are to be pre-arranged and will be dealt with as required. They are allowed to live in Futures City if they wish. And, apart from that, they retain the same freedoms as any other citizen. In particular, there will be no legal repercussions for their actions. " Leroy froze the playback. Kaydence frowned for a moment, as she worked this out. "I get it, this is mainly about Sarsaparilla and Adalace, isn't it?" "Yeah, that's right. Nobody but ourselves care about us. But everyone is extremely interested in those two, and all the other details are just to keep them happy." "Wow, my friend Sarsaparilla is awesome, isn't she?" "You bet she is. And her sweet heart Adalace. But, wait, there's more!" Leroy turned it on again. "And we have come to some specific arrangements that were demanded by Sarsaparilla and Adalace: For a start, she and her friends are very insistent on letting Sarsaparilla be free to use her so-called Judgement powers. Apparently, she is not necessarily restricted to judging people who are right in front of her, which means she can judge anyone, anywhere on Mars. Given that the ones that she and Teylon have already judged appear to have deserved it, beyond any reasonable doubt, then the delegates have decided for the time being, not to attempt to put any constraints on Sarsaparilla. Secondly, there is possibly a third person with Judgement powers somewhere on Mars. And it appears that such people always test out with an esp level of zero, which is a score that normally never happens. Accordingly, it is proposed to write into the constitution that compulsory testing of people's esp power, and testing a person's esp power without their consent, is forbidden. So it looks like we won't be finding out who that third person is. Thirdly, Ajaeren’s ability is to be totally banned. If other abilities of the same nature are found, they will be dealt with on a case by case basis. Fourthly, Sarsaparilla is insistent that the conditions of all orphanages on Mars be considerably improved. Also, Teresa’s child Keltain is to be looked after has he has always been. And, finally, it is obvious by now that Adalace has access to all computers on Mars. She also appears to be making some progress in accessing extra functionality from the esp Artifact. In light of the importance of this, and various practical concerns, then it has also been agreed to let her be." "In other words, Sarsaparilla and Adalace are really, really important. And they are to be left alone!" said Kaydence. "That's it!" There was ten minutes of silence, as they sat there, still not quite touching each other, and ruminated over all of this. Then Kaydence stretched and yawned. "I think I'll go to bed now." So she gave a little hug to Leroy, and disappeared into her bedroom. Leroy, not having anything else to do, retired to his own bedroom. The third bedroom, belonging to Sarsaparilla and Adalace, remained empty, awaiting their return from yet another meeting.