All That Glitters Ch. 36

"We will do whatever is necessary, mate of mine," the Kumaraie reached out and cupped his face, looking adoringly down into his eyes.

"Something has put you in the mood, my mate?" the Kumaroe asked, hearing titters around him from the Kumir-Rai.

"Seeing that family together, the little one waving at us, has tugged unusually at my heart," the Kumaraie admitted. "I look forward to the naming ceremony and seeing the children in person, and I look forward to the birth of our brood."

The Kumaraie lent forward and rubbed her forehead against his, the Pod-Drran method of showing affection. The Pod-Drran did not kiss, but they did show affection in many different ways, including rubbing foreheads and holding hands.

"Let us finish our work for the day and retire to our apartments, my mate," the Kumaraie stated. Hand-in-hand, the pair moved to their apartments.

The Kumir-Rai/Ro watched as they left the small throne room. It had been a long time since they Pod-Drran had seen a Kumar-Pair showing such signs of love and affection for each other. They all smiled at the site of their charges holding hands as they escorted the Kumar-Pair to their private apartment...

Piscium Family Quarters, Liramor-23, Piscium System

Fiona Marsh, with Cdr. Malteyea in tow, had stopped in to see the family after Junelliya had returned their quarters after her stay in the hospital. It was the second time she had visited them, the first the day of Zarrenia's birth when she had stopped in briefly at the hospital.

"How are you and the baby doing, Junelliya," she asked.

"Very good, Fiona," Junelliya replied, sitting on the couch. "I am waiting for a reply to my request for an e-mail vid-link to my parents. They need to be informed of the birth of their new grandchild," she told Fiona with a wink.

"I bet they will be excited when they see the pair of you sitting on the couch," Fiona said, with an indulgent smile.

"No more issues with pregnancy spikes?" she asked.

"You will have to ask Vangeliya that question," Junelliya advised. "She is far more familiar with these things than I am."

Just then the comms unit beeped.

Fiona smiled. "I will leave you to your family reunion, Junelliya. Have a good day," Fiona said, blowing a kiss to the baby and waving at Ikekia, who smiled happily, before leaving.

Fayad opened the link and sent it to the big screen. He then took her place behind the couch with Junelliya, holding Zarrenia, and Hanalei, holding little Ikekia, who was suddenly began baby-talking to her little sister, Zarrenia.

Zallene Falta, Junelliya's mother, was looking at the image in front of her, trying to make sense of it when it finally registered in her mind. Junelliya had had the baby!

"Oh, my daughter! I am so happy for you!" Zallene shouted for her husband to come quickly. The scene shifted to the Harlen living room, where Penat was taking his place on the couch, with his twin daughters, Herra and Zerra, their respective husbands standing behind their wives. Zallene quickly found a seat in the empty spot beside her husband.

Everyone was chatting together, loudly, which upset the little one.

"Shush, all of you," Junelliya warned. "You are upsetting Zarrenia," Junelliya said to instant silence from the other end of the link.

"Mother, Father, sisters, and Salv (brothers-in-law, Salv is both singular and plural), meet the newest members of our family, Ikekia Fatima Dosri Piscium and Zarrenia Henadi Latti Piscium," she stated formally, while Ikekia gave uncoordinated waves of her little arms at the images on the screen, causing the others to coo at her antics.

The Cats landed on the couch, Hanaya reaching out to Ikekia who tried to rub the Cat's head as she had seen her mother do, with limited success due to her less than fine motor control. Hanaya was happy though and rumbled her purr in delight.

That set Juneya off, as she felt she was being left out of the exchange and she hissed at Hanaya, setting off a hissing battle between the pair, which upset Ikekia.

"Stop," snapped Junelliya, instantly bring the battle to a halt. Ikekia reached out a hand to each of the Cats, who rubbed their heads against her and began to purr again, bringing happiness back to Ikekia.

"Does that happen often?" Zallene asked of her daughter, worry showing on her face.

"Juneya is the dominant member of the Pod, mother. If she feels she is being left out of something, she lets her temper get the better of her. It is usually resolved quickly, especially if I step in," Junelliya informed them.

They watched, fascinated, as the Cats took obvious delight in being with Ikekia.

"Cats love children, so they tend to want to be involved when children are paying attention to them. They will settle down once Zarrenia is big enough to play with them like her older sister," Junelliya finished.

Junelliya lifted her daughter into the crook of her arm so her family could see her face as the image zoomed in on the child. Bright, curious eyes looked back at the extended family, who cooed to the child. The child's eyes had just begun to change to their final colour. Like her mother and father, her eyes would be a deep, dark blue, that seemed to be purple, a trait that ran in the family.

The door of her parent's house chimed and Zallene got up to see who it was, surprised to see Fayad's parents, Naadir Ouihya, Ikekia Houll, and Gelarah Laghmani, at the door.

"Fayad urged us that we should come over to visit with you, though he did not say why," Ikekia explained.

Zallene smiled and brought them into the living room, where they could see Fayad and his two wives and the babies. The twins got up to give the others places on the couch.

The door chimed again and it was Humza Anar, and Lamees Sarraf, Hanalei's parents with Hanalei's sister, Fatima, now a Matriarch of her own home, and her husband. "Hanalei insisted we visit today. I hope that it is alright?" Fatima asked.

They too were ushered into the living room where they could see Hanalei and her family on screen.

The exchange was lively and genuinely a happy affair, as the extended family reconnected with siblings, children, and grandchildren.

Hanalei noted a baby bump on her sister. "Fatima! You are pregnant!" she exclaimed.

"Just over three months now, Hanalei," she replied happily. "I hope my child is as bright, as healthy, and as inquisitive as yours seems to be."

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Junelliya asked.

"Our ten week medical scan was delayed because of an emergency at the hospital," Fatima explained. "It is rescheduled for later this week. We had planned to send out an e-mail after the scan when we have more information."

"I look forward to receiving it," Hanalei stated.

They chatted for awhile before it was time to end the call.

The Piscium's called out their good-byes and waved, including little Ikekia, who couldn't get enough of waving to people, and the Cats, calling out their distinctive 'good-bye' sound as the link ended.

"That was pleasant," Fayad said from behind his wives, leaning in to kiss both of them. The Cats found their respective bond-mates shoulders and rubbed their heads against their ears, their rumbling purr telling them of their happiness.

While his wives put their children down to nap, Fayad put some food out for the Cats and then was joined by his wives at the table for some snacks and tea.

All and all, Fayad was a very content. A father for the second time, in only three months, he still was trying to take it all in. He smiled at his wives, who returned the smile.

Hanalei and Junelliya left Fayad to clean up as they went for a short nap, they had to catch what sleep they could between feedings. Fayad sat on the couch, watching an adventure show as the Cats sat with him catching a day-time nap. Fayad didn't worry about fading off. If the children woke, the Cats would let him know.

Interspecies Embassy, Liramor-23, Piscium System

More and more of the embassy recognitions were coming in until, finally, all of the embassies were acknowledged by the Union.

Michelle Halten was pleased. Her position as Ambassador for the Union Embassy at the Interspecies Embassy of Liramor-23, was confirmed now, while Charles Demoiné would be flitting about doing the leg work for the UDC as Ambassador at Large to the Interspecies Community working out of Liramor-23, going where necessary when humans wound up in trouble with local laws in the Greater Sentient Community.

Charles was working on a pamphlet that explained the differences in law for each of the respective species, a warning to spacers of what to expect if they did stupid things in another species' area of control.

Fiona dropped by.

"Good morning, Michelle, how are things at the embassy today?" she asked.

"Doing your daily rounds, Fiona?" Michelle asked with a smile, getting a nod in return.

"Things are going good, but we have an issue coming up," Michelle told her. "The embassies are all certified now, however, the ambassadors must present their papers to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Terra in order to be accredited to Union space.

"The issue is the time of the year. There are so many different festivals and activities going on in the summer that space at the local hotels is not only at a premium, it is non-existent.

"I don't think the ambassadors will want to wait for four or more months before they could present their papers to the Minister," Michelle told her.

"You know, Hanalei is a major stockholder at Denders Resort on the West Coast. I heard that Denders usually has plenty of space over the summer months. We could ask her if there is space for the ambassadors there. By shuttle, it is less than an hour from the Capital," Fiona stated.

Fiona opened her comp and contacted Hanalei.

"Hi, Fiona," she replied.

"Hello, Hanalei. I am with Michelle Halten and we have a little bit of an issue. We are trying to decide what to do with the different species when they go to Terra to present their papers to the UDC and the Minster.

"The issue is two-fold, first, there is almost no space available in the hotels in the capital due to the summer festival series. Second, the hotels would not be appropriately set up for some of the different species at our embassy, I'm thinking of the Djinaëte, the Toolend, the Asocan, and the Paacon in particular. They cannot sit on the toilettes nor can they use human style beds.

"I know that you are a major stockholder at Denders, do you think that they would be amenable to being the hosts for our ambassadors and their staff?" Fiona asked.

"Depends on how long they would be there and what kind of modifications would be necessary. Also, Denders is a commercial enterprise, who will pay for all of this?" Hanalei asked.

"The individual embassies would pay their way, though I am sure that UDC would pick up some of the tab considering who is coming in," Michelle responded.

"We have eleven ambassadors to register with the UDC. To make each distinctive, as this is the first time these embassies will be registering their ambassadors, they will be presented twice a day, morning and afternoon. That would mean a minimum of a six-day stay, with at least one day for acclimatization and possibly one day at the end for an afterparty for all.

"We would have to poll the embassies to see how many people they would chose to send. But we would have to place a limit of six per embassy to be offered assistance from the UDC, though I don't think that these embassies would have an issue with cost. Any numbers over that would have to be paid for by the embassies governments or the individuals coming for the event," Michelle finished.

"Could we be part of that, I wonder?" Hanalei asked. "That would be a wonderful vacation for us. It would also allow me to check in with the people at the Johal Compound and find out what I can do with them and the compound."

"I think that can be arranged, though you would have to pay your way," Fiona stated. "What do you think it would cost for an eight-day stay?"

"Well, average cost during the high season is 440 credits a day per person, though a ten-day stay will set you back 4,000 credits, however, that is an all inclusive cost, so you don't have to worry about food and drinks, though only a few of the other Sentient Species are effected by human alcohol.

"During the off-season, that would come down to 3,500 credits for a ten-day stay, and a group rate would reduce that even further, to say, 3,000 credits. Anything less than a ten-day minimum you would be charged by the daily rate, which would cost 400 credits per person during the off-season.

"My recommendation would be to go for the ten-day rate, even if we do not stay for ten days, and then see about group rates on top of that. The larger the group, the better the rate that would be applied, but I don't think they would go below 2,500 credits per person," Hanalei stated.

"I can contact Denders and ask them if they can do the modifications for those species that require it for us but I would need some numbers before I could do that," Hanalei told them.

"OK, I can canvass the embassies today and ask them how many of their people would want to attend the registrations as guests, though the official delegations will be restricted to six. Then we can talk about final costs," Michelle replied.

"I believe we will get a lot of the members of the Byandi, when we tell them that Denders is on the ocean, the Asocan, when we tell them that there is a swamp nearby, the Paacon and the Umick, when we tell them that Denders has twenty kilometers of beaches with hard-packed sands for them to run on after every low tide," Hanalei said with a laugh.

That brought a smile from Michelle who knew Hanalei was correct.

"Call Denders, Hanalei, and confirm that they would be willing to do this, then we will get some numbers for them," Fiona ordered. "It could be anything from a minimum of sixty guests to several hundred guests. Can they accommodate that many and would they be willing to make the changes necessary for the individual rooms? We need confirmation on their willingness to host such a foreign delegation, though if you pitch it as the first resort ever to hold alien guests, that could catch their interest."

"I bet it would," Hanalei laughed. "I will get back to you later today, Fiona, Michelle, with costs."

Denders Resort, South-West Coast of North America, Terra, The Sol System

Sylvie Triand was taking calls from her office, doing what she could to keep things moving during the summer doldrums, the low point of the resort's season as the heat and humidity of the area kept many people away from Denders.

The resort only had 823 guests staying on-site, a number that barely made cost for the minimum number of workers Denders had to employ to keep itself open and operational. Their profits from the remainder of the year made up for the difference, but the Denders stockholders were always edgy at the loss of major revenue at this time of the year.

She got a request for an internet vid-link and primed herself for another angry customer complaint.

"Denders Resort, Sylvie speaking, how may I help you," she asked politely as an image came up of someone who looked vaguely familiar.

"Hello, Sylvie, I am Hanalei Anar. You may not remember me, but just a little over a year and a half ago, you came to my aide when I was accosted by several drunks and a few rather nasty people."

"That's why you looked familiar, yes I do remember that incident. The 'special guest' we always had here was arrested as a major criminal figure. I had heard that you had something to do with that arrest," Sylvie said with a smile.

"Yes, I kicked him hard in the balls and he lost all interest in fighting after that, allowing for his smooth capture by the police," Hanalei replied with a warm smile.

"Oh, my! I had not heard that part of the arrest," Sylvie laughed. "What can I do for you Hanalei?"

"I now live on Liramor-23, with my husband and second wife, Junelliya," Hanalei explained. "As part of the compensation package that I had received over the criminal activities that had affected me at the Johal Compound, I was given the Denders stocks held by Wassim Andjuran. That amounts to forty-three percent of the stock issue for Denders, which makes me the major shareholder.

"I have an issue with the lack of people staying at the resort during the off-season. In this case, however, I may also have a partial solution.

"You may or may not know, but Liramor-23 is the location of the Interspecies Embassy between the Greater Sentient Community and the Union." Hanalei flicked her comp and the Interspecies Fact Sheet came up on the screen for Sylvie, who let out a gasp at what she saw.

"The embassies here have acknowledged by the UDC," Hanalei continued. "Now the various ambassadors must register at the UDC, however, due to the summer festival season, there is no hotel availability for them in the capital.

"As I am a stockholder, I wondered if Denders would be willing to accommodate the members of the embassies, here, during their registration. That would be a minimum number of sixty guests for ten days. Likely considerably more as many of the different species' elite would want to be guests at the registration as it would be an historically significant event for each of the species.

"We could have anywhere from two to four hundred additional guests for ten days.

"Given this, I need three things from you. One, contact numbers for the directors so that I can confirm that they are willing to do this thing. Two, a price from Denders for the ten day stay. Three, confirmation that the modifications listed for each of the species can be made in time for them to come in the next couple of weeks.

"I think that this would be a major boon for Denders when it got around that Denders was the 'resort of choice' for the Interspecies Community.

"What are you thoughts, Sylvie?" Hanalei asked.

Sylvie had been at Denders for almost ten years now, and had to deal with all kinds of issues, but this was definitely a first!

She looked at the physical requirements of the species and found that they would need to remove toilettes from many of the rooms to put a 'hole in the ground' for some of the guests. That was definitely doable as it was something that she herself had seen in other countries while travelling, mostly in the Far East, where people squatted over an open hole, the local populace not inclined to use a throne to do their thing as they didn't tend to use chairs.

It was uncomfortable for those who were used to using a toilette featuring a throne, but otherwise was quite efficient, as the flushed cleaned the floor and sprayed everything down into the 'hole'. One just had to remember to be out of the water closet before one flushed. Fortunately, the pressure switch was usually mounted near the door...

Some of the other guests would be subject to issues with the heat and humidity of the area, so she would have to ensure that special air conditioned tents would be available for these guests on the beach, something that they had plenty of.

The only other issue then came down to food.

"What do they eat, Hanalei? There is not much here on the list other than to indicate that the Djinaëte will have to eat their own food, as their systems can not handle the local foods."

"Yes, that is correct," Hanalei confirmed. "They have different biology that requires specific nucleotides not part of human fare. They would have to bring in their own food sources.

"Most of the other species can handle human food, so that will not be an issue, though I am sure they will also bring in a few items that they will be familiar with for their stay. We will have to touch base with customs on that issue.