FSE

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2593-04

Eric sat at the conference table and connected to the communication network. Immediately two of his brothers appeared at the table.

"Don't you guys have lives?" Eric asked, holding back a chuckle.

"Yes," Edward replied, "but it's well scheduled."

Eldwyn nodded.

Eugene appeared seated next to Edward.

Then Uncle appeared, a few seats removed.

"I didn't expect you to come," Eldwyn commented.

Uncle shrugged. "It's simple enough for me to participate, so I figured why not."

Edison appeared in the process of sitting down. "No one talk to me right now." He put his head in his hands and set about slowing his breathing.

A fifth tiger appeared, and looked them over.

Eric had a moment of stunned silence. "Dad? Why are you here?"

"Eugene said you'd called a family meeting. I figured I'd listen in."

"Sure, I thought you'd be busy with your art."

"Family takes precedence. What's the reason for the meeting?"

"I want to way until Elliot's here. He is coming, right?"

Uncle looked away. "He should be here shortly. He's in a conference."

Eric nodded. "while we're waiting then. Have you had a chance to go through the applications?"

"I'm doing that right now. I should be done during the night."

"Thanks. I want to find a replacement tomorrow so I can grab an array and head off."

"You're already leaving?" His father asked.

"Yeah. The array has been assigned."

"But I wanted you to come down for a visit."

"I'm already scheduled on the array dad. I'll visit next time I'm here."

His father slammed his hand on the desk. "Damn it! It's been three fucking years since you visited me. I'm your father, I thought you'd at least want to spend time with me!"

"Dad, it's not that, it's just that..."

His father stormed off, the image of his chair tipping over. Eric sighed. He hadn't cut the connection, just gotten out of the sensor's range.

"That must be a record for a dad tantrum," Edward said.

Multiple nods. They were used to them. their father was extremely emotional. He could go from pleased to angry faster than turning on a light. He always took himself away when he got angry like that. he didn't want to inflict that on them.

"You do realize that if not for his high emotions, none of you would be here, right?" Uncle pointed out.

"We know," Eugene said, "and we're not angry or annoyed at him. you should know that by now."

Uncle studied them carefully, one after another. "You're right, I apologize. I'm going to have a tech take a look at my processors, I should have caught your expression without trouble."

"Maybe you're due of an upgrade."

Uncle shuddered. "I hope not. The last one scattered my memories throughout the territory. It took six months to start feeling like myself again."

Uncle was the corporation's AI. he predated the war, although that had left him in pieces, Eric knew. By Uncle's own recollection he wasn't like the ancestor he was based on anymore, the one who had founded the corporation. He had been an exact copy before the war, not in control of the company, but guiding the Corporate Head. Now he acted as adviser more because of his centuries of data rather than because he knew what the initial plan had been.

"Eddie, can the hookup to the array be pushed back a day? I know I can make up the time easily, but how is the staging area? will it cause a ripple in the other hookups?"

"Let me check," Edison replied.

A text field appeared in Eric's vision.

'do you want me to find a reason why you have to take it on schedule?' Edison.

'No. Dad's right, it's been too long. I should have visited before.' Eric.

"I don't see any problem. The volume's light right now. I can have the other pullers navigate around your array."

"Thanks. Dad?" Eric called. "Come on dad, I know you're still listening in. I'll come down the day after tomorrow."

His father's face appeared. "Really? You're not joking, you'll visit?"

Eric smiled at the joy on his father's face. "Yes dad, I will. I'm sorry I haven't visited before. Tell you what, I'll set aside a few days from now on each time I'm back to spend on Earth."

"That would be a grand idea," his father beamed.

"Are you going to be spending the night?" Eldwyn asked.

"No, not the night. I'll get in early, say seven in the morning, but I'll have to be back here by midnight if I want to hookup in the early lull."

"I can probably be there around dinner time," he said.

"I can be there before that," Edward said.

Their father raised a hand. "Alright, let's make it official. It's going to be a full family gathering. See about clearing your schedules. Uncle, let everyone else know. It isn't often that Eric is home so let's celebrate it."

"Dad, you realize that except for Samuel and Samson," Eugene said, "the rest of us have pretty vital positions. Clearing our schedule isn't going to be possible for everyone."

"But Eric's going to be home. That's worth making time for him, isn't it?"

"Of course, it is. And I'm not saying we won't be there. I know everyone misses him. I'm just saying most of us won't be able to spend the whole day there. Just be prepared for that dad."

Their father's face fell, but he nodded. "I guess. I keep forgetting what the corporate life can be like."

"At least we're all in the same time block, so even the guys on the east coast will be able to be there for a few hours"

"Be where?" the newest arrival asked. "Sorry I'm late."

"Eric's coming home for a day. we're making it a celebration," their father said.

"Cool. when?"

"On the sixteenth?"

Elliot groaned. "I'm at the Council Hall all day. We have to go over a bunch of changes proposed by the businesses."

"Come on Eli," the older tiger said, "you can't tell me that you won't even be able to come for a couple of hours."

"I'll try dad. at least the Hall is in Halibury's time block. that puts them five hours ahead of us. So, unless the meetings run until the early hours of the morning I should be able to make it."

"I can try to schedule you one of our high-speed shuttles," Eldwyn said.

"You can do that?" Elliot asked.

"I can try. a day's notice is kind of short, they're in high demand, and because you don't know when you'll need it I'll have to lock it out of the system for the whole day, that's going to piss off a lot of people, but I'll still try."

"Thanks, Eldy," their father said.

"What delayed you?" Edison asked his brother. "And your fur's a mess."

"I've been trying to convince Amaritech to a joint venture in building a land bridge to connect our two Corporations."

"Why in Hell would you want to do that?" Their father asked.

"Dad, please. I don't have the time for your dislike of them. But the reason is that I want to use it as pasture land for our cattle to mix."

With visible effort, their father kept his comments to himself.

"Why do you want to spend that kind of money on that?" Eldwyn asked.

"To strengthen both our stock. We don't have competing markets so it's to both our advantages."

"It's cheaper to do gene retyping," Eric commented.

Elliot grinned at him. "Speaking like a true Doctor. Except you're forgetting what we got when the wall glitched and let in an oxany in the Glouceter's pen. The Oxglout we got out of that accidental breeding has characteristics that none of the typists ever through to put in. It's let us create an entirely new line of cattle. And our Sol Gov markets have been loving it."

"Okay, okay. That's why I stay out of corporate decision. So... who's corporate head at Amaritech?"

"Santiago."

"So that Santiago isn't keen on the Idea?"

"No, he's convinced it's a ploy for us to steal their cattle."

Eugene smirked. "You have pointed out that we're not Vanguard, right?"

"Won't work. Old Lady Emiolet is leaving them alone. Anyway, I'm not here to talk politics. You called the meeting Eric. what do you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to see if any of you have plans for having kids?"

"Not me!" Edison exclaimed. "I raised the lot of you, that was enough for me."

"Bullshit," their father said. "All I got you to do was babysit Edward, and you complained all the time."

"And that was enough for me, dad. I knew then I didn't want to have to deal with anyone below sex age."

"I have no plans for it either," Elliot said.

"Same here," Edward and Eldwyn said at the same time.

"Eugene?" Eric asked.

He shrugged. "To be honest I never thought about it. I guess it means I'm not interested." He chuckled.

"Okay. If you're all sure, I'm going to have them."

"Congrats," Elliot said. "You going to go the old fashion way? like dad did?"

"Ahhh. no. No offense dad, but I'll stick to the tried and true way."

"No offense taken," his father replied grinning. "I know that having sex with women isn't for everyone."

His father was the exception within the family in that he enjoyed having sex with women. He was fully female and male compatible. That's how the lot of them had come about. Francis had fallen in love with a tigress in his youth and had had a lot of sex with her.

"You know," Elliot said, "Now that I think about it, how come you never fucked Emiolet? I'm pretty sure a cock up her ass would do wonders for her attitude."

Francis shuddered. "No way. She's old. She was old when I was corporate head. And she's ugly. I have standards you know."

"Speaking of which, have you heard from mom?" Eldwyn asked.

Their mother had lived with them until Edward, the youngest, had been eight, then she decided it was time to get back to her passion. She was one of the corporation's top stellar researcher. Their father had been heart broken when she'd announced her departure, but he'd gotten over it, and they still talked.

"She's on the Andromeda, at the edge of the Orth cloud. In her last message, she said they were looking at NXLP-2386."

"Where's that?"

Francis laughed. "No idea, but she described it as a blue dwarf with a ten-planet system. not that it helps."

"Are you two going to hook up again?"

Their father shook his head. "No. She hooked up with her research assistant. She's very much in lust with him, and I understand why, he's hung."

"You've seen him?"

"Yeah, she sent me a still with her last message." He had a dreamy smile.

"Well, come on dad," Edward said, "share."

Francis chuckled and a moment later Eric received a data packet. Because his dad was an approved sender and the file size was minuscule it quickly went through the vetting program. An image appeared before him. Like his father had said, it was a still.

He recognized his mother by the stripes on her head, it had been so long since he'd seen her he was surprised he knew it was her. She had her muzzle under a kangaroo's balls. He had to be her assistant because dad had been right, he was hung. That cock had to be at least thirty-two centimeters long and it was thick.

"Oh fuck." Edison said, "I'd love to have that fuck me."

Their father nodded in agreement. "Steven is male compatible, so she invited me to come over and have fun with them. I'm actually considering it."

Everyone stared at him. Francis didn't like space, they all knew that. He'd never left Earth. he hadn't even set foot on the station, and he told them often that he never would.

"I've been looking into which ship would go there."

"You're serious?" Eric asked. He couldn't believe it.

Francis shrugged. "I'm thinking about it. I mean, to be fucked by him, it could be worth risking space travel."

"If you want," Elliot said, "I'll go with you. A cock like that is quite the incentive."

"You can't go," Uncle said, "You have a corporation to run."

"Spoil sport," Elliot replied. "Let me dream."

"Why just dream?" Uncle said. "Her current research rotation ends in two years. I'm sure Francis can convince her to come back to Earth for a vacation, and bring Steven with her. He's from Philadelphia, so the lot of you can have sex with him and he isn't going to freak out."

They looked at each other, smiles creeping on their faces.

"If you can arrange it for when I'm here," Eric said, "I want a piece of him."

"We all do," their father replied. "I'll mention it to her in my next message. I'm sure she'll be happy to see you again."

That news was received with shrugs.

* * * * *

Eric untangled himself from Xavier, William, and Brack, who had had joined him in bed. he showered and dressed, he tried a few variations, and opted for going bare chested under a light jacket and denim pants. Not finding anyone in the kitchen he pulled out a handful of emergency food packs from the hiding place he kept them in, then headed for the office he'd rented to do the interviews in.

He'd eat a couple of the packs on the way and the rest would be to keep him going throughout the day. Eric hoped Brack wouldn't question why he hadn't come back for a real cooked meal.

Uncle had left him sixty-nine candidates with no connections to Vanguard. That was still a lot. much more than he could see in one day, so he'd arranged them in order of qualifications before heading to bed, rented the office and sent the first thirty an interview appointment. That's the most he could see in a day, if he stretched it into the evening, and quite a few of them failed the first test. If he couldn't find one today, Eric might have to let Xavier act as Cargo master for this trip.

The office was a privacy guaranteed room Sol Gov offered to anyone having to do business on the station, but that didn't stop Eric from scanning it. Like anyone high enough within an Earth corporations he didn't trust Sol Gov, they had been looking for a way to get control of Earth back ever since the war, when they had been kicked off, and he wouldn't put spying on him passed them

With the room cleared he settled in, and a few minutes later his first candidate arrived.