Peers Ch. 08

It was now seven weeks before the unveiling of Cel and the search for good people continued. The top four couples were in South America, Labiba and Akari were in Australia, the rest were in Asia.

Labiba and Akari fell behind schedule but the top four couples had exceeded their number by a quite a bit so it was never a problem. Rapa, Mara, Eji and Sonia did fine work but also came up short; apparently their husbands had difficulty in making decisions.

The Peers got regular updates on the progress of Cel and learned that there were a thousand people there working on it. The construction itself was done but the electrical and electronics work had just begun. The electrical system and the communications systems were new to Earth and the workers had to trust their blueprints but not always did.

During a hiatus for the birth of their last set of children Marc and Hu published their findings on Nemesis in the most prestigious astronomical journal and stated that the Oort belts had been set in motion but did not mention the catastrophe. They did note in their essay that Voyager One had apparently ceased to exist.

They wanted each country to see the catastrophe coming for itself after having decided that sending Peers to each country with the bad news was not a good idea.

Jordan and Carmen were back in Akkad giving the Federation updates in the progress of Cel and hammering out some of the details of the population ratios. So far the number of women outnumbered the number of men by ten percent. The Emperor urged them to keep the number at no more than that. When they came back they brought billions in gold and platinum metal and diamonds for the Cel treasury. To the kindred gold and platinum were very common metals and to the Devil diamonds were just rocks. In exchange Carmen and Jordan agreed that any Devil or Kindred on Cel would have unlimited spending.

Cel was eventually ready. It was a six terraced mountain kingdom with a peak of a thousand meters high with an alpine environment at the top and rainforests and savannas by the coast. Each of the six bays had one large island twenty kilometers wide, two medium islands five kilometers wide and three small islands each three kilometers wide. The islands held factories, warehouses, and special conservation habitats.

There were no real streets anywhere on Cel as there were no motor vehicles and no fuel. There was a free metro train system to every town and natural area and everyone could have a bicycle or adult tricycle.

The capital city had golf type carts available for the Peers and on a reservation basis. There were special pathways for them.

The Peer were in Cel a week before the comet struck the moon. Two days before impact Marc welcomed Mr. Wu and his youngsters at the passenger ship island dock. He led them to their quarters on Victoria Island then assigned them jobs for the next day.

They would be greeting the new citizens and directing them to the proper metro train and their city. The special people of the other peers had joined them in that task and were waiting for them at their town's metro station.

Each day for the next four days nearly two thousand people were welcomed and placed in their homes in Cel.

All passengers had been briefed during their sea voyage on their real purpose on Cel and all were given the option of returning home on a vessel the following week. The eight people that showed up for the return voyage got off before the ship set sail.

All citizens except those on Felicity Island would live in five story buildings in spacious two or three or four bedroom homes with balconies. All had the most reliable appliances; queen sized beds, and comfortable chairs and loveseats.

Each bedroom had its own bathroom.

There were computers on desks in each bedroom and a visualizer in each living room.

The kitchen was spacious enough for two people to cook at the same time and had a dining table for six.

For over ninety percent of the new citizens they were the most luxurious accommodations they had ever had.

Each that had not selected a companion prior to arrival was assigned one that seemed to be a compatible mate however all had the option of switching partners. Only a very few lived alone at first but most of those had acquired a companion in less than six weeks.

Each residential building in each town had the people whose work was nearby and all quickly became friends. Nearly all were friendly people anyway.

The Peer lived in compounds. Their home environment was different in that they all had four bedrooms. They also had offices and three different sized meeting rooms all with every electronic device they would need.

The compound itself were surrounded by a tropical forest on the back and on each side and a large plaza in front.

There were seven other residences in their compound for the staff and grown children although all their children also had homes on Natalia Island Spaceport close to their ships.

Their homes circled the upper terrace of the island and it included the Royal compound. All were within a twenty-minute walk to the neighbors and a ten-minute golf cart ride to the furthest compound. Marc and Natalia were neighbors of Carmen and Jordan and so were Claudia and Hu. Both of those couples were a bit upset over the arrangement but understood Carmen needed them close to her so went no further than to show mild disappointment.

Natalia's other neighbors were Jim and Mizuki then Akira, Labiba, Carlos and Moesha then complete the circle back to Claudia and Carmen.

The other Peers were in the Queens territory further down the mountain.

Each territory went down to the sea and included the islands in their bay. Each territory had five cities capable of holding ten thousand people except for the towns on the islands that could hold one thousand or one hundred depending on the islands purpose.

None of the cities were going to be near capacity for many years.

Capital City was the largest city with room for twenty-five thousand people and occupied the rest of the top terrace. It would have a large entertainment district between Natalia and Mizuki's compound and an outdoor concert shell between Claudia and Moesha's compounds. All artists that did not live in Felicity would live near one or the other. The electronics designers would live in Hu's district, the Meteorologists in Labiba's, the communications people in the Queens.

The controls for the shield ended up near the Queens compound in its own building.

All citizens were issued a card that along with identification had one thousand credits of purchase power attached every two weeks. The bank was in London and the cards currency was in pounds.

There would be purchase deliveries from the world until two weeks before the Gulf asteroid struck. The delivery addresses were Singapore and Panama City. Ships would deliver the items to Cel after they were inspected and repackaged. Their containers were then filled with liquid nitrogen.

No weapons were allowed on Cel so their computers would not allow any such purchases but every sex toy, porn movie, or liquor any one wanted was delivered. Marijuana could not be purchased on the web but was grown on one of the smaller islands and could be purchased by the gram or by the four-cigarette pack.

Cigarettes and cigars however were not allowed in Cel.

Capital City had one hundred parks and plazas. The only nod to religions on the island would be around a plaza that had houses of worship for each major religion. The capital was the only one with such an arrangement.

It was expected that people would go in, say their prayers and move on but there would be a team of life coaches in each house.

Capital City also had three large hotels although they would be empty for a while, the island visitors coming would be staying at the resort and the B & B's in Felicity.

Once the first wave of citizens were situated Marc took Mr. Wu's oldest daughter Jing Li to Natalia, and as he had hoped and expected it was love at first sight between them. Natalia stole her from the restaurant and proclaimed her a Baroness and member of their duchy staff.

Jim and Mizuki immediately did the same with Greta and Moesha did the same with Carlo's special girl.

Claudia made Hu's lesbian friend a Baroness and her personal assistant with unspecified duties.

Cel was populated with eleven thousand people by the third week and there were another four thousand coming the following month then perhaps another thousand before the asteroid hit the gulf. There were also eighteen more full cargo ships coming.

The rest of the planet still did not know Cel existed.

Mr. Wu had moved his business into a replica bay-front restaurant in New Felicity; the original had been a seafood restaurant that had gone bankrupt before it had been destroyed by the hurricane. He had the place running and full of customers by the third week. He had alien species dining there by the fifth.

Five weeks after Cel was occupied Marc and Natalia, Hu and Claudia, Carlos and Moesha, and Jim and Mizuki, Akira and Labiba went to the Felicity Intragalactic Spaceport to greet representatives of the seven alien species.

They had first expected four beings but learned those four came to Felicity Island when the townspeople moved in. They had already been there for a month and had not cloaked or hidden their form since. Every single human they met told them they were happy they had decided to stay. Every woman kissed them. Many of them had whispered, "Yes I would."

Those four were considered permanent citizens of Felicity.

The young Akkad living in Felicity, Grandma's daughter Ahn was tasked to act as interpreter for the non-oral language beings, two of which were enclosed in capsules. Their life support systems had already been installed in their Bed and Breakfast suite on Felicity Island and two suites had been modified and filled with the beings ambient conditions.

A crowd gathered and all saw a dome shaped ship silently approach and settle inside a circular building. Soon the Envoys and their staffs came out to the terminal to be greeted by First Friend Clara.

She introduced Carmen and Jordan then Carmen introduced the Peers. Natalia and Claudia introduced themselves to Clara and kissed her with their thanks.

Carmen said to Clara, "They were the ones that suggested that Clara should be the name of the Capital City of Cel.

It is now so.

When you come up you will see a life size statue we commissioned of you and Ohm holding hands in the middle of the main plaza.

This is Labiba, she carved the sculpture."

Clara hugged Labiba and the Peer women then hurried away in tears. The Devil envoy and the Kindred envoy went to her and as soon as Clara had explained they ran to the peer and kissed the ladies and their men.

As soon as the formal greetings ended a Devil woman ran to Clara and gave her a long hard kiss then a Kindred and a Sprite followed suit. The Akkad envoys held her hands as they walked away.

Ashel the Sprite and three other newly arrived Sprites were taking a visuals of the greeting that would be seen in Cel and all seven planets. That scene would cause tears to be shed.

As Jordan, Carmen, Clara and Mr. Wu, now a Baron, and his assistants led the envoys to their Bed and Breakfast suites Jim told the other Peers that lunch would be with their mothers at the new Chinese restaurant.

The Peers took off the robes of office they had worn and were wearing shorts and t-shirts when they sat at a reserved area of the restaurant.

Sehel and Rah introduced themselves and officially requested they be allowed to stay and to be of assistance.

The Peer all said, sure, welcome to Cel. The wives then kissed each on their lips.

By the time the Peer had food in front of them Ashel came to them and made the same request.

"Kiss me first," Natalia said and got a nice kiss from her. Claudia put out her arms and got another kiss. By the time Ashel made it to Akira she was almost being ravished.

Ahn came in and before she managed to ask permission she was nearly ravished by each Duchess.

The women told her they loved her mother and expected to love her too; soon.

A few moments later Natalia asked, " Wait. What was the question?"

All laughed and everyone became friends with everyone. The Peer met the citizens of Felicity that were lovers of Grandma, which included the world famous singer that Marc and Natalia had seen, perform in Vancouver.

"You were in San Francisco too, I remember you. I wanted you that night," Melody said.

"Do you still want me?" Natalia asked in all faked innocence.

Before she answered a Kindred couple, a Sprite couple and a Devil couple walked in. Sehel, Rah and Ashel quickly walked to them and bowed then jumped into their arms.

"Everyone, these are our parents," Sehel said. They rode here with the envoys."

All the men stood and introduced themselves. The Mom's kissed every woman there. Some of those kisses were personal particularly the kisses to Jim's Mom.

Jim met and very much approved of his mom's new husband. He met Mizuki's mother and was immediately in love with her too. Natalia's Mom and Marcs Mom had apparently met before; their kiss for each other was torrid.

Three older women came in and almost everyone there drowned them in kisses. It took several moments for even the Peer to see one of the women was blind; she was the sightless one. The Peer ladies all went to them and kissed them as they explained that Grandma had told them all about the three.

"She was exaggerating," the older one claimed.

Natalia later whispered to Claudia, "We have a lot of pussy to eat just from this room."

"Wait until you meet Madam Olga's young ladies," Claudia responded.

Clara joined them and was immediately besieged by all as they kissed her and told her they loved her.

The envoys joined them and before the day turned into night at Mr. Wu's all were very good friends before they went home that evening. The duchesses stayed with "friends" in Felicity overnight.

The men joined the husbands of their new wives friends in a poker and drinking night at Adrian's house then went to sleep there.

Their wives apparently got no sleep that night; they fell asleep on the train back up. Natalia and Claudia thought the whole sleepless night would have been worthwhile anyway but it became enormous to them when they got to make love to Clara and Fiona.

During the month they were in Cel the Federation Envoys were greeted with respect and gratitude. They made friends, even the two species enclosed in capsules. They had postponed their return trips twice and went back only when the others did.

The Sprites seemed to have done a special broadcast of every alien/citizen encounter on Cel. Ashel and the three that came with the envoys almost wore their wings off getting from place to place. Those broadcasts were shown in each Federation Planet and on Cel, but nowhere else on Earth.

The people of Cel began to realize they were no longer Syrian, Colombian, Thai; they were Celians, they were Earthlings. They were one of eight peoples. The rest of the planet began to fade from their consciousness.

Cel itself was still not on the rest of the planet's radar.

When the Envoys left vacation groups from Kindred, Akkad and Devil arrived and mingled with the population. Their arrival forced the opening of one hotel in Clara. The Kindred and the Sprite preferred to stay there but traveled to the entire island. The Devil tended to stay in Felicity and the resort there.

Sehel, Ashel, and Rah's parents formed an impromptu sightseeing tour company and guided the visitors to the parts of Cel they would be most interested in.

Ahn's cousin Le had joined her from Akkad when it became obvious the parents of the alien residents of Felicity would not be going back home. All knew Ahn's parents would not be able to join her.

Le, a young lady that had been a childhood friend of Ahn, had brought twenty five thousand multi-language earpiece translators with her and every citizen of Cel was wearing one within three days. Ana the manager of the hotel that had just opened in Clara was the first to get one and her staff got theirs moments later.

Every restaurant staff got theirs that first day.

The alien visitors were wearing one when they got off their ship but the only languages they could translate were English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Within a month those became the principal languages of Cel.

The Devil people were giddy over their acceptance. They were seen at symphonies and rock concerts. They had been seen at wildlife habitats, hummingbirds seemed to love them.

They had been seen most often at the lesbian biker bar in Felicity. Even the male Devil loved the place.

The Devil kissed everyone. They loved many.

Everyone soon realized the Devil were a gentle and fun loving people.

The Kindred were a lot like Japanese tourists in that they tended to go in groups. They were mostly vegetable eaters but would also eat seafood. Marc got Rah to talk to all the restaurants and show them what the Kindred diet was like and all soon had a menu items just for them.

When very happy or very sad the Kindred sing. There were a lot of happy songs at the restaurants.

Shortly after that Sehel suggested menus to all restaurants and so did Ahn. The gratitude of the aliens knew no bounds.

The Devil preferred the seafood and the Italian restaurants in downtown Felicity. They also loved empanadillas.

The Sprite preferred pastries ant the TexMex restaurant by the parrot sanctuary near Carmen's compound. Many thought that what they really liked was flitting over the rain forest with the parrots.

The Kindred love Mr. Wu's and particularly the balcony over the water.

Three months before the asteroid was expected to impact the Gulf Queen Carmen was very happy with how the new nation had come together and by how well the visitors had been welcomed so decided to go on the visuals to commend everyone. It would be her first State of the Nation speech.

She began, "Thanks all of you for making our visitors feel welcome. The new human race will be what the old human race should have been thanks to you," she said.

"First Friend Clara will be leaving for her new post as Earth's ambassador to Akkad in three days. Everyone please thank her before she leaves. All of us owe our lives to her. And please thank Fiona for taking care of her.

Those of you who insist on kissing the statues of Ohm and Clara every time you walk past them please wipe any lipstick off before you continue. Thank you.

All the glitches and problems we encountered the first few weeks have been fixed, it is now time for you to see all the nooks and crannies of our new home. I recommend you stroll the various nature reserves and marvel about life on Earth. Put a week in Felicity at the top of your list especially if you want to meet the remaining space tourists.

The first set of symphony performances in Clara's theater district will begin next week. Our Opera House and our theater venues have already begun their season. Melody's band has a second concert scheduled at the outdoor performance shell in Clara in two weeks.

Many of you wished that you had seen them perform in Penza and we apologize for not letting you know ahead of time but that was an impromptu performance so we did not know about it either until the show had begun. Let's all make plans for this one.

Over a thousand ladies have just realized they are pregnant. All of you need to make an appointment to the hospital here in Clara; we need to space out the births.

Each of you know who the father is and they would like you to know that they want to be a part of their children's lives.

We have been given permission to use the incubators we have for your children but we have just forty-two of them and your child would need to be in it for three weeks so we need to map things out. We have been granted two hundred more but they will not arrive for two weeks.