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2593-21

Eric watched the sparsely tree covered field. He'd known this would be where the picnic would be held. Anytime the company held one, this was where it happened. Gerald and his wife showing up at his father's house, with the implication that others were coming, made it clear to Eric this wasn't going to be a simple family affair.

Elliot slapped him on the back. "What do you think?" Indicating the families settling down around the trees and in the open areas. "I got the idea from you."

"Me?" Eric stuttered. "What can I have said to give you this idea?"

"You said William was one of your few friends, and I realized that with all the time you spend in space, locked together in that ship, you probably haven't gotten any chances to just hang out socially. Life isn't just about work and sex, you know. And I also realized we hadn't had a company picnic in a long while, so I set this up."

"In two days? How did you manage to get the whole company to agree to it? And there's no way we'll fit everyone here."

"We're not getting the whole of the building, today it's only the top three floors. What can't be stopped is being covered. Next week, it'll be the next three, and so on. This is the only one I'll be fully enjoying, but I'll drop by the others, as will some of the uncles. It lets everyone see me and our family, gives them a chance to approach us without the constraint of the organization. And as for how? I'm the boss."

Eric shook his head, unsure if he should be amused or horrified. "Isn't there a clause about abuse of power somewhere in the contract that governs your position?"

Elliot shrugged. "I didn't hear anyone in the family calling me on it, you want to do it?"

"No, it probably means I'd have to take your place."

Elliot grinned at him. "Well, I'm off to mingle and enjoy myself. You coming?"

"Give me a minute to get over the shock of being responsible for this mayhem."

"Just don't spend the day by yourself, you're supposed to get to know the employees."

Eric watched his brother head out to talk to a couple of foxes, shaking their hands and smiling. He then moved on to a trio of canines, Eric couldn't tell their markings at the distance. They talk for a moment, then one of them leaned in and kissed Elliot.

Eric leaned against the old wooden wall and looked over the park. The structure used to house the food preparation area, when he was young. It had included a food fabricator, fridges, stoves and ovens. It had an awning, which was why Eric had gone there as soon as he'd arrived.

The shack wasn't used anymore, newer food fabricators could fit in a large pack and contain enough protein, amino acids, flavoring and everything else needed to make basic meals. Also, there had been a shift to grown food a few years before he left for space. Now Fabricators were used mainly as backup, or with people like Eric, who had never come to enjoy cooking.

Gerald and his wife, Helen, had arrived with him, and were now seated with a group of six people, four women and two men. Helen looked slightly uncomfortable. Gerald had told Eric he'd informed her on what to expect from an Orr gathering, but it looked like either he hadn't given her a full picture, or she hadn't taken him seriously.

The rest of his crew was also there, talking and enjoying the company. Jeff had already found someone to have sex with. The mules had a group of young teens around them, who demanded to be lifted three at a time. Marc had vanished with a couple of ladies. Robert and William had been talking to one of Eric's great uncle, but now only Robert was with him.

Eric's gaze landed on the toddler's play pen. A ten meter by ten-meter area with cloth fencing to keep the infants from wandering off. He'd seen a dozen families place children in it, and he know at least two of his sons were there, the others still being paraded by his brothers. That he couldn't tell who was where bothered him. He knew he should go to the pen to make sure they were okay. He also knew they'd be fine. Someone regularly stopped by it and would say something if there were troubles.

Not that Eric through he'd be able to do anything if there was. There was a good hundred fifty meters of open space to the pen. He wanted to be there for his children, but here, outside, like this, he didn't know if he'd be able to.

He knew he couldn't stay where he was. Someone in his family would notice and come ask why he wasn't taking part. He found the closest tree, forty meters away or so. Unfortunately, it was away from the play pen, but the closest in that direction was at least twice as far. He thought he could make forty meters, after all, what were the odd that the gravity would shift in that distance?

The odds were zero. He knew that. This was Earth, gravity didn't change. It had been, and would always be one G. He was a fool for letting this irrational fear control him. All he had to do was start walking.

He took a step, looked up at the edge of the awning, saw the sky, blue with a few passing clouds, and backed up. He could do this. It wasn't like he didn't know the gravity wouldn't change.

He rested his head back and did his best not to think about what his brothers would think of him if they knew.

Voices caught his attention coming from the side of the shack and getting closer. A man and woman. He went to the corner and looked around. Rabbits, the man wore only tight briefs and was carrying a pack. The woman looked a lot like him, so a sister probably. She wore panties the same color, and also had a pack in hand.

As they came close Eric took the step separating him from them, threw an arm around each of them and smiled.

"Hey, how are you doing." It took a lot of effort not to tighten his arms around them.

"We're good," she said, after getting over her surprise.

"I'm Eric." He gently guided them toward the tree.

"I'm Amanda, the blushing one is Georges."

Eric looked at the other rabbit. His ears were red among the white fur, and his gaze was down at Eric's crotch. Eric had experimented with his belt, and instead of going for something pre-designed, he'd draped a cloth so fine and sheer over his cock and balls that he might as well not be wearing anything. He checked the rabbit's crotch and he was getting an erection.

"There's no need to blush, you know," Eric said. "This can't be the first cock you've seen."

The rabbit shook his head, but didn't say anything.

"Georges is extremely shy. I'm afraid that being approached like you did his going to have him clamming up for a while."

"Ah, well, in that case I'm sorry." They were next to the tree now. He removed his arms. "I'll let you go on your way." He squeezed Georges' ass. "But if you want to have some fun, come find me."

The rabbit's ears turned crimson as they walked away. Eric leaned against the trunk and kept his hands behind him so no one would see them shake. He looked up to confirm the foliage blocked the sky and his heart slowed.

More people had arrived now. Clusters had formed, coworkers, Eric expected, with their families. Further back, someone had step up a free-ball court And a few tigers were playing, with others. They might not be his family, at this point the number of tigers in the park had tripled. So, at a distance he couldn't tell his family from the others.

"Hey Eric!" William called, coming closer.

"Will." Eric nodded to the wolf.

"Man, there's a lot of people. When I got the message about having a picnic, I didn't expect this."

"My brother decided the employees should enjoy this too."

"I think I talked with him, well, with one of your relative, a Baltar?"

"No, that isn't one of ours. He'd be another employee. My brother's names start with the letter 'E', my dad's generation with 'F' my grandfather's with 'J' my great grandfather's with 'C' and my two great great-uncles with 'S'."

"You have great great-uncles? How old are they?"

"Hundred twenty or thirty."

"I didn't think they had advanced medicine that far back."

Eric chuckled. "You have to remember, we own the company, we've always had access to state of the art technology. But life preserving medicine dates from much earlier than that, you have to know that."

"To be honest, I never looked into it. My dad's favorite subject is how the corporations use medicine to control us, so my household never was the most informed."

Eric shook his head. "If he thinks that, he's definitely misinformed. Even Vanguard doesn't bother trying to control its citizens. But you had to realize that a two-hundred-year lifespan didn't occur without help."

"Never thought about it. My grandpa's only eighty, and there's no one older than him in my family, on either side. Say, I've never met anyone that old, do you think you can introduce me to them?"

Eric looked around. "I don't know if they're here. They spend most of their time in the wild animal preserves, and they visited yesterday."

"Well, let's go walk around, if we see them you can introduce me."

"I don't really feel like it, I just want to enjoy the shade for now."

"Come on, Eric, I just want to meet some of your family. You introduced them to Xav, why not me?" William looked at Eric with worry. "Shit, Sorry. I didn't mean to bring him up."

Eric shrugged. "It's okay, but I didn't introduce him around."

"Really? He said you did, your father even kissed him, he liked him so much."

"Okay, I did introduce him to my dad, but he was waiting for me on the landing pad, it would have been rude of me to just leave with him. As for kissing Xavier, my dad will kiss any guy he comes across. He's forward like that."

"So, he didn't meet the rest of your family then?"

"He walked in on the orgy, he might have gotten some names, but I didn't introduce him. I did offer for him to join, but he didn't."

"So that's another lie he told me." William sighed. "I wonder if he ever told me the truth."

"If it revolved around me, you're better off assuming he lied."

The wolf nodded. "Well, okay, but you can still introduce me around."

"Will, I really don't-"

"Come on." William grabbed Eric's hand and pulled him along.

The surprised kept Eric from resisting, and the next thing he knew, he was under the bright blue sky. He tightened his grip on William's hand as he looked around for any cover.

William stopped with a 'ouch' and tried to pull his hand out, which made Eric tighten his grip even more.

"Eric, what's wrong?"

The closest cover was the tree he'd been under. He should get back there, but he couldn't get his legs to move. William grabbed his arm and tried to pull his hand out of the grip.

"Don't!" Eric grabbed William's other hand.

"Eric, what's going on. You're crushing my hand."

"Don't let go of me." Eric looked in the wolf's eyes as he loosened his hold on the hand. "Take me back to the tree."

Confused, William escorted Eric to the tree. Once under the foliage, Eric slumped against the trunk, his whole body shaking.

"What happened?" William asked.

Eric shook his head.

"Eric, come on, if something's wrong, I'll help."

"Just drop it, Will." Eric straightened.

The wolf studied him for a moment, then looked at where they had been thoughtfully. "Are you? Do you have a problem with open spaces?"

"Will, don't worry about it."

"Don't worry? Eric, if you can't even step out from under this tree, I think it's something that you should be concerned about. Does your family know?"

"No!"

"You're joking. Why not?"

"Because it isn't any of their problem."

"Eric, you can't keep that from them, they should know so they can help you."

"I said no. Will, you're going to drop this, right now."

"Come on, Eric, you're making this worse for you by keeping it hidden."

"That's my decision, you're going to respect it."

Will grumbled something too low for Eric to hear, then said. "I'm not going to stand by while you make yourself miserable, if you won't tell them, I will." He turned to head away, but Eric grabbed his arm.

"No, Will."

The wolf pulled on his arm. "You're just being stubborn."

Eric didn't let go. "Maybe, but that isn't your problem."

"Eric, I'm trying to-"

"No, Will. I order you to never talk about my agoraphobia with anyone else."

The surprise made William stop pulling. Eric realized what he'd said, and looked away, releasing him.

"You ordered me..."

"Yeah, sorry."

"Why?"

"Will, you were about to go tell them."

"Couldn't you just have asked me not to talk to them?"

Eric glared at the wolf. "I tried that."

William opened his mouth, then closed it. "Right, sorry. I just don't understand why you won't tell them, it isn't like it's a big deal. Hell, how come you don't just have it taken out?"

"Because I don't want to risk it changing something else about me in the process."

"Come on, they're good enough not to mess with the rest of your personality. It didn't with me."

Eric sighed. "It isn't that simple for me." He turned and walked to the edge of the foliage. It was close to noon, so the shadow on the ground almost matched it. He looked up.

"Talk to me, Eric. Just explain it to me."

"I went in space because I can't stand it down here." He indicated the sky. "I love it up there, but what if by taking away the agoraphobia, I stop loving being in space?"

"How would losing your fear of open spaces cause you to not want to be in space anymore?"

"It's not open spaces, not in and of itself. My fear is that gravity will flip and I'll fall up forever. So, I'm fine if there's something over my head, or for me to grab on to."

"That doesn't make sense. This isn't like on a ship, the gravity can't change."

"I know."

"Then can't you just tell yourself that?"

"That isn't how phobias work. I know it isn't rational, but I still can't get myself to step out from under this tree."

"I never through I'd hear you talk about being irrational."

Eric looked over his shoulder. "Why?"

"Because of the lot of us you've always been the rational one, the logical one."

The tiger grinned. "My emotions are dampened, Will, not turned off."

"If they're dampened, how come you have such an acute reaction?"

Eric joined him and leaned against the trunk. "Because the process didn't take properly. It was done by a professional. My dad had it done at the hospital almost as soon as we were born."

"Why not before? I mean when he had you made."

"I was made the old fashion way."

William gave him a confused expression.

"The really old method." Eric grinned as the wolf still didn't understand. "A man and a woman have sex. The genes mix."

"Wait, you're randomized?"

Eric nodded, although he'd never hear that term before.

"I didn't think anyone did it that way anymore."

"It wasn't planned. My dad's very emotional, and he fell in love hard with my mom. He hadn't had sex with a woman in years, so he didn't consider she might get pregnant. She was planning on donating eggs to a fertility clinic, so she was fertile. Seeing as no one in my family had gotten pregnant this way in a very long time, neither realized it was happening until she unexpectedly started gaining weight. That was Edison. She could have had him taken out and finished at the clinic, but mom was the adventurous type, so she carried him to term."

"Wasn't it painful?"

Eric shrugged. "I guess not, because they decided to have the rest of us the same way. That's why they had to do the emotional dampening afterward. The problem is that they did it too early. They should have waited until my brain had finished maturing. Because it was still growing, the change didn't work as it normally does."

"Why not? It's just adjusting your DNA."

"But after birth, it's adjusting billions of cells, not just one strand. And the brain growing adds stress to it."

"So all your brothers are like you?"

"No. Just me and Elliot have an aberration. For him it's his temper, for me." Eric indicated the sky again.

"How do you manage? I caught some of the local news on the shuttle down, you and your family were out on the town the other day."

"In that case, by hanging on to people. My family's used to me clinging to them, well we all cling to one another. As you know I'm tactile. So, if you check it again, you'll see I always have an arm in someone else's arm, or holding hands. If I'm not surprised I don't crush their hands."

William opened and closed his hand a few times.

"That's how I made it from the flier to the shack over there. To make it here, I grabbed on to two strangers, acted real friendly and guided them to here."

"How did you get your kids to the pen?"

"Only two of them are there, as far as I know. The others are still enjoying being introduced around. My brothers and uncles couldn't wait to make the introductions so I didn't have to do anything." Eric looked at the pen longingly.

"So, you can't just go there to look after your kids."

Eric shook his head. "I know it's stupid. I want to go. I want to pick them up, hold them, play with them. It isn't even two hundred meters. All I have to do is walk there." Eric fell silent.

"But you can't?"

"Just the idea of crossing that space makes me nervous."

"But that's because there's nothing for you hold on, right?"

"Yeah. If there was a handrail I'd been good." Eric smirked. "But I think people might wonder why it's there."

Will stood next to him and put an arm around Eric's waist. "How about if I'm your handrail?"

Eric looked at the arm. "You don't have to do that, Will."

"I know, but I'm still your friend. I really think you should tell your family. But I'm not going to make your life more difficult just because you won't. Come on, let's go see your kids."

The tiger placed his arm around William's waist. "Thanks." And they started walking.

"How does it feel like?" William asked.

Eric kept his eyes on the fence around the play pen. "It feels like I'm one step away from the end of the world."

"You seem pretty calm for that."

"Pure willpower. I've had lots of practice not showing how freaked out I am. Right now, I'm afraid you'll pull away from me."

"But you know I won't."

"Just like I know the gravity isn't going to change. There's nothing rational about this."

"I'd be pissed if I had to deal with something like that."

"Dampened emotions, remember?" Eric forced a smile and looked at the wolf, then back ahead of him.

A few others were around the play pen, pointing to the babies and toddlers in it. Terrence and Tony were the ones there, and there was another tiger, a tigress maybe two years old ambling around.

"Eric," Will said, "Grab on to one of the posts."

With a frown the tiger did as instructed. The posts had a flat top, a little smaller than his palm, and were spaced every meters or so.

"Try pulling it out."

Eric glanced at Will, who had a grasping one too. Eric pulled, and then pulled harder. The post was securely in the ground. Understanding what William meant, Eric released his hold on the wolf, and placed his other hand on top another post. It wasn't freedom, but at least now he wouldn't have to drag William around if he wanted to change position.

"Please don't go too far," Eric whispered.

"No worries, I'm not leaving. Watching the tots pester each other, scream and cry." As he said that two small boxes detached from the side of the pen and headed for one of the crying babies each. "It reminds me why I don't want one of my own."

"You just say that because you don't have one. You'd feel different if you did."

"No, I wouldn't."

The first box to reach the baby extended two delicate appendages and picked up the small lion, or maybe she was a cougar, at that age it was difficult to tell those species apart, and carried it back to where it started from. That section of the fence had low shelves. It placed the baby on one, then extracted a bottle from a compartment. The baby sucked on it as soon as it touched its lips. The other box arrived and deposited a slightly older deer next to the feline and proceeded to change its diapers.

Eric shook his head. "That seems so artificial to me."

"You want to change and feed them yourself?"

"Of course. They're my responsibility. It feels wrong to let a machine to the work for me."

"Well, that explains why you do it. None of the families I've known bothered. That's why we have automation, so we don't have to deal with inconvenience like this."

"But it shouldn't be an inconvenience. If someone has a child, don't you think they should be willing to handle all the responsibilities?"

"I don't want one, remember? If I did end up with one, somehow, I'd want to have as little with it as I can."

"You're male exclusive, right?"

William shrugged. "Mostly. I enjoy curves and soft bodies once in a while, but just for the sex. Nothing more."

Eric chuckled. "Not that it's meant anything for a long time now. With the fertility clinics, even male exclusives like me can get kids. Even sterile ones can, if they don't mind the genetic disconnect."

"Doesn't it get weird bringing kids to events like this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, people are having sex."

Eric chuckled. "Come on, you can't be weirded out by that. You know how Orr Corp is by now."

"You've explained it, and I read up on it, but What do kids do while the adults are off fucking?"

"Not everyone's having sex." Eric took a breath and turned around. He pointed to a group of children. "Look at them."

William did and then gasped.

There, eleven of them, ranging from maybe nine to sixteen, seven girls and four guys. One of the boys, maybe twelve wasn't wearing shorts, and was showing his erection to the others, the youngest boy was looking at it in amazement, his own shorts at his knees. The oldest girl was showing her breast to the boy next to her, who had to be close to thirteen. His movement were tentative, but he took hold of one of them, his shorts tenting as a result, and she encouraged him. The others were a mix of show and touch.

"Just like that?" William asked.

"How else should it be? They're old enough to have a sense of what they like. Or they don't yet and just wonder at the changes." He indicated the nine-year-old who was looking and touching the other boys and girls. It was clearly curiosity that drove him, and not any sexual desire. His ears were canted quizzically and the others answered his questions.

"My awakening was nowhere near that calm."

"How was it for you?"

"Me and my friend's older brother. We were roughhousing, lots of accidental touching, and uncontrolled reaction."

"How old were you?"

"I was thirteen, he had to have been sixteen. I enjoyed it, but it was uncomfortable. No one had talked to me about sex. He told me it was okay, natural, but in the back of my head I had this worry. Afterward I told my dad, and how I'd felt. He laughed at me for being such a wuss, that at my aged he'd already fucked half the town." William was silent for a moment. "It took me a while to get over that."

"No one taught you about sex? I didn't think Ameritech was that repressed."

William chuckled. "I'm a Halibury citizen Eric."

"Right, sorry. Still, even there."

"Education's more regional than here. There isn't any 'sexual curriculum' like I'm sure you guys have. But after that talk with my dad I did find courses so I knew what to expect the next time. And it's not repressed. It's just not as...blatant, as it is here. Different mindset, it must be hell on tourists."

"Sex tourism is one of our big thing."

William looked the park over. "Yeah, I'm not surprised." He turned back to the pen. "So, you want to spend time with you kids?"

Eric looked at his sons, beginning to stir, then at the section where the boxes would bring them and his hand firmly holding on. "I can't Will."

"I'll get them, don't worry about it. We can go find a large tree and you can sit under with them."

Eric nodded grateful for William's offer. A few moments after that he had Tony in one arm, his other around the wolf's waist and William holding Terrence. They walked around and said hello to those who introduced themselves, then Eric sat under a large oak, with a plaque stating it had survived the war.

He played with his sons there, sometime joined by his family, or by others. When he had someone to watch over his children, he played with some of the guys who joined him. The rabbit he'd met and commandeered earlier in the day came to him, at his sister's insistence, she was close by, making sure he didn't lose his nerve. And while he blushed the entire time, Eric had fun with him