Coffee Break [IC]

[Supercape]

"That would be splendid" replied Quentin, brushing off thr crumbs of cheddar as he stood up. He didn't need supersenses to detect her stress - she as distracting herself. Works well enough - in the short term at least.

He took the last wedge of cheese as his eyes fell on it.

"Where too first? I imagine the whole planet is at your disposal?"

[Electra]

"Most of it," Stesha agreed. "There are some places where there are no plants at all, and some places that are so blighted it's actually physically painful to visit. I'm going to get to those areas last, I think, in my development plans. But there's still plenty to see." She started the tour by walking out the front door with him, an entrance he had not had occasion to use before. From the outside, Stesha's hideaway looked like a little leaf cottage done up in all shades of green and brown, with flowers growing in a carpet spreading out from it. There were other buildings as well nearby, some finished but rougher, some not completed at all. It looked as though she'd gone through several rough draft forms of her building before completing it, and had not yet repurposed or recycled her earlier work.

"I keep seeds in there," she told him, pointing to one small building with no windows, "and gardening supplies, extra mulch, soil testers, things like that. And over here is my safe zone." Rather than walk the half mile, she touched his arm and teleported him into a big open field, ringed with flowers, that had various shelters set up around it and a thick hedge border. "I realized I needed someplace safe to be able to send civilians during a fight or a disaster. Leaving them inside the plants is too scary for them, even for a short time. So this is someplace that they can at least understand. And I wrote out some instructions." She pointed to a series of signboards along one side of the field, written in different languages. "There's food supplies over in that shelter," she pointed, "and some first aid supplies over there, and I'm hoping to get some sleeping bags when I can afford it, not that I plan on anyone having to stay that long, but you never know."

[Supercape]

"Very practical", answered Quentin politely. "Perhaps some first aid kits too. Although knowing you, you have probably cultivated some plant that probably oozes penicillin somewhere. "

He gazed around. "Hedge is a nice touch. Stops the cattle wandering... err... so to speak. " he fiddled with his lapels. "You know, what with it being disorientating and everything. Actually, come to think of it, I hope they have a leaflet or something with 'WELCOME TO PLANTWORLD' on it. "

[Electra]

"I do, a little bit," she told him, leading him over to the row of signs that stood on one edge of the field. "They're a little bit primitive, and some of the translations are probably off, but I figure it's a start. I'd like to get some kind of computer system eventually, but that's way out of my price range. Maybe eventually I'll collaborate with someone to get something set up. And I've got a couple of those big Red Cross first aid kits over in the medical supplies, but again, nothing more sophisticated, expense and all that. It's a work in progress," she admitted cheerfully. "And hopefully nobody will be here longer than a couple hours at most anyway."

The first sign was in English, and looked to be the model for the other signs. It was a simple laminated board with large typed letters.

Welcome to Sanctuary!

If you are here, you have probably just been removed from some dangerous place. Your host, Fleur de Joie, will be returning you to where you came from as soon as it is safe. Please don't be afraid, nothing is going to hurt you and you'll be home soon.

This whole area is free from danger, but please do not wander beyond the hedge so you don't risk getting lost. As soon as you arrive, if someone would do a headcount, that would help a lot. There is food in the shelters on the north side of the field, and medical supplies in the southeast shelter. If there is an emergency medical situation, please use the beacon to contact the Freedom League.

Please be comfortable and enjoy your brief stay in Sanctuary. Everything is going to be all right.

[Supercape]

Quentin peered at the sign, nodding with approval. "Very eloquent. Perhaps some pictures may be in order for those not versed in those languages, or illiterate even. "

"Sorry my dear, ever the pragmatist" he apologised.

"Sanctuary is a good choice of word, however. Very fitting". He gazed around. "Very fitting indeed. "

"I'm not badly off, Stesha, I'm sure I can help out buying a few sleeping bags and first aid kits if you want. Even a computer if it would help. "

[Electra]

"I built some signs in other languages," Stesha told him, gesturing to the row of signs right next to the one he was reading, "but I couldn't think of pictures to explain any of that, I think. And don't worry about it," she assured him breezily, "I've never even had anyone in here for more than an hour so far, I think it's pretty unlikely that I'll need sleeping bags for a long time. And if anyone's that badly hurt, I can usually heal them up myself. This is more a someday wishlist than a list of things I need right now. Here, I'll show you something else."

Taking his hand, she teleported them both to the edge of a cliff that overlooked a large valley. "This is the edge," she told him, "I haven't managed to get outside this valley so far in terms of complete eco-rebuilding, a couple hundred square miles. When we captured the Beekeeper last time, I got his confiscated colonies, little ones and big ones, and they're settling in very nicely. I need to find a biologist to help balance the rest of the ecosystem. But isn't it beautiful?" Stesha was very proud of the green lushness of the valley, now just starting to turn to gold and amber with the advent of fall. It looked like some kind of sylvan paradise, and the idea that it was both planned and mostly free of animals was a little strange.

She turned and looked behind them then, where the other side of the cliff dropped away into the rest of the world. It was easy to see what she meant about this world being a fixer-upper. Though the sun shone and the water flowed, only the occasional tree or shrub grew, and those were sickly and stunted. More startlingly, perhaps, were the piles of old, old refuse and the occasional standing wall that stated that not only had this planet once been nicer, it had once been inhabited by people besides Stesha and the odd friend or refugee.

[Supercape]

"Very nice" commented Quentin. He arched one eyebrow, "although I'm surprised you don't qualify as a biologist yourself. "

He turned to face the less scenic view. "Ah. Not quite so nice. I see what you mean now. Rather desolate and bleak. Still, I suppose it serves as a juxtaposition to the more vibrant lively side to the planet. "

He peered more closely. "Looks like something out of Ozymandius...My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

"Rather depressing, really, sorry."

[Electra]

"It is sad," Stesha agreed, looking over the barren landscape. "I honestly have no idea what happened, but whether there was some kind of disaster or people did it to themselves, it's tremendously sad that there were once people here and now they're gone. But I feel that at least I can bring life back here, can make it beautiful again. The whole planet was like that when I first arrived, but it still called to me, as though it were crying for help." She shrugged at the fanciful notion, smiling a little. "And I'm an excellent botanist," she told him, "but an indifferent animal biologist at best. And what I really need is not only someone with the knowledge to help me revitalize the biome, but someone with the contacts, too. I can't just go out zoo raiding," she laughed. "Someone would probably notice."

[Supercape]

"With your abilities, I am not so sure... I mean, is there anywhere on earth you can't go."

He thought quickly "other than lifeless places like the poles, or deserts?"

He scratched his chin. "Anyway, I would have thought flora before fauna. Algae, maybe. Keep it simple. Monocellular, even. That's what I remember of ecosystems, been a while since I studied exobiology. Could perhaps hook you up with someone from the university. "

"What's the sealife like? equally barren?"

[Electra]

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I could do it, if I decided to steal animals out of zoos, I just think it would be wrong," Stesha told him with a laugh. "Maybe if it was a really bad zoo, or a circus, but I don't want to get too close to the line of being the personal decider of right and wrong. It's that healthy doubt thing we were talking about earlier."

She took his hand again, and suddenly they were back where they'd teleported from, in the valley of the giant bees. "These guys are actually sentient," she told Quentin, "they're about as intelligent as ten year old children, from what I've been able to figure out. They were part of the Beekeeper's apiary, and when he went to jail, they had nowhere to go. They really shouldn't be this big, of course, what are they supposed to eat, where can they live? They were causing a lot of trouble in Freedom City before we rounded them up and I brought them here. I can at least give them a nice place to live, flowers that are sized for them, and somewhere they're not going to bother anyone or be bothered. Sometimes I come and talk to them. Let me see if any of them are in the mood.

Stepping forward, Stesha raised one arm and waved wildly. "Hello, bees!" she called to the massive insects droning lazily in the field. "How's it going?"

[Avenger Assembled]

From the sky, an enormous bee, easily the size of an 18-wheeler, descended from the sky to confront Supercape and Fleur de Joie. The great insect studied them with eyes nearly as large as their bodies, arms longer than they were tall waving in the breeze, before saying in a jovial, buzzing voice that boomed in the air: "HELLO! WELCOME BBBBACK TO BEEDOM VALLEY! I ZEEEEE YOU BBBBROUGHT A DRONE!" Stesha recognized Bee-atrice easily enough. "NIZE TO MEEEET YOU!"

[Supercape]

"Good gracious me!" exclaimed Quentin, visibly shocked. "I've never seen such a thing! An exoskeleton based life form of such magnitude and mass! The energy co-efficient of the wings must be incredible!"

Realising he was blabbering again, he stopped himself mid-lecture. "And delighted to meet you to, my apoidean friend!" he exclaimed. "It certainly is a wonderful valley you have here... this...um... beedom valley."

He leaned over to Stesha and whispered rather nervously "they don't sting do they?"

[Electra]

"They can, but they won't. They're bee-, um, benign here, like most bees who aren't threatened," Stesha murmured back reassuringly. More loudly, she said, "Quentin, I'd like you to meet Bee-atrice, one of the fire-breathing bees here in Beedom Valley. Bee-atrice, this is Quentin, a good friend of mine. How have you all been getting along lately?" she asked the giant bee. "The new flowers working out like we'd hoped they would?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"OHHHHHHH YEZ!" exclaimed Bee-atrice loudly. "ZEY ARE DELICIOZ! WE WILL GET ZO FAT WE WILL NOT FLY!" She made a great screeching buzz that it took a moment to recognize as a laugh, seeming to regard that as the height of merriment, waving her arms and swooping around in the air overhead. "ZOMETIMEZ WEEE WIZH FOR A BIGGER HIVE," she confessed, "BUT WE ARE DOINK OK FOR OURZELVEZ."

[Supercape]

"Spiffing!" encouraged Quentin. Not really knowing what else to do, he clapped his hands.

He leaned over to Stesha again "Well they certainly seem rather jovial. Can't say I would want to get on the wrong side of them to be honest. Probably good for all the pollen and fertilization and all that. But that's your forte, I would imagine."

Friendly as Bea-trice was, he couldn't help but be scared of the immense bee. The raw power and size it had was enough to scare anybody, he imagined.

He shuddered again, thinking of what Stesha had said. "Fire breathing you say?"

[Electra]

"Yes, apparently it was a genetic variation that popped up in the mix somehow. It's very impressive to watch," Stesha told him enthusiastically. "When I get some prairie areas up and running, I might ask them to help me with the yearly burns, just to keep things growing. The problem for them is that they don't have a queen," she explained. "Or at least not one that's here. I think there is one, but unless I can find her and bring her here, they don't have a sustainable hive. But at least the flowers are nice." It was a conundrum that worried her, but one more thing she hadn't been able to think up a solution for.

[Supercape]

"Hmmm... no queen heh?" Quentin scratched his head. "Won't that mean..." he gazed at Bea-trice, not knowing how good the bee's hearing was.

"E X T I N C T I O N" he spelt out.

"Scary as those things are, biodiversity and all that. And they are actually rather jolly chaps. And chapesses" he added hastily. Damn, I cant even remember if bees have genders... he must be getting old, he concluded. Biology text books seemed so far away.

"If that's the case, it would behove one to find the queen as soon as possible!" he deflated "although I suppose you have tried your hardest already. "

He gazed at the bee. Fear had turned to sadness. "Rather tragic, really."

[Avenger Assembled]

Bee-atrice curtseyed to Quentin before saying, "I ZZZZINK I'M GOINK TO GO HAVVVE ZOME MORE TO EEEAT." Giving a gigantic insectoid smile at Fleur, she said, "YOUR DRONE IZ NIZE! MUCH NIZER THAN THE BBBBOYYZZZ HERE!"

Distantly, a passing bee exclaimed "HEY!"

"ITZ OK, LARABEE," she said "I'M JUZT KIDDING!" Whispering back in a voice like a bomb, she added, "NOT REALLY."

[Electra]

"All right, you have a good night, Bee-atrice," Stesha told her. "You know how to get in touch if you need anything." She watched the giant bee fly off into the sunset, then turned to Quentin. "You're right, without a queen, there is no hive, no next generation, no nothing. I need to go talk to the Beekeeper in prison and see what he can tell me, but I've been putting it off." She made a face. "He's such a slimy and unpleasant person, and I'm afraid that if he learns I have his bees, it'll just increase his fixation on me. So it's a hard question."

Putting a hand on his shoulder, she moved them again, this time to a seashore on the edge of her valley. It was quite pretty, full of smooth sand-washed seashells and tumbled stones, but again, not particularly lively. "As far as your question about the ocean, I just don't know. I know there are plants down there, but I can't breathe underwater any more than any normal person, and I don't really know how to tell. I do know that a lot of these seashells seem to have been vacant for awhile, but that's about it."

[Supercape]

"Sounds like an odious kind of gentleman, this Beekeeper. Good mind to pay him a visit myself. "

Turning his attention to the ocean again, Quentin continued, "well, after our last underwater escapade, no great hurry to submerge ourselves again, eh? but perhaps there is some algae near the surface? Not an expert, of course, but these things would seem to be important for ecosystems and all that. "

He stretched his legs. "Besides which, everyone loves a day out at the seaside don't they? fresh air, ice creams, jellied eels..." he winked at her.

[Electra]

Stesha made an exaggerated face at that. "Jellied what?" she asked. "Do people really eat that sort of thing? I mean, I won't even eat eel in sushi, much less in jelly form." She stepped out of her shoes and walked out onto the beach sand, enjoying the warmth of it between her toes. "Swimming doesn't do it for me, especially ocean swimming, but it's nice to come to the beach. I've already started collecting some shells for the walkway in front of my little house in the valley. Derrick and I..." She hesitated, frowned, then continued. "Derrick and I went to a freshwater sea on one of our first dates, somewhere out in the Pleaides, I think. Swimming without salt or chlorine is nice."

She gave Quentin a wave, inviting him down onto the beach. "Come on, I promise there's no malfunctioning sub or wayward bathtub around here," she joked.

[Supercape]

Quentin slowly took off his shoes and rolled up his trouser legs. He strode into the wash a few feet "Jolly good show, yes. Jolly wet. Lots of water. Marvellous."

"Bucket and spade, paper cup of fizzy pop, and an iced lolly, and I would be back at Brighton for the family holidays thirty years ago!" he beamed.

Struck by what Stesha said, he couldn't help but ask "Freshwater sea? I can only presume this was an extra-terrestrial date? twenty four hours ago that would have surprised me, of course. "

He hesitated. "I'm guessing you don't want to talk about him?"

[Electra]

"No, I mean, I like to talk about him," Stesha began, sounding uncertain. "I love him, and I'm proud of the work he does. He's stopping interstellar wars, for God's sake. But I miss him, and sometimes talking about him just makes it worse. He set up this wonderful weekend for us out on this uninhabited paradise world, where there was hardly any salt in the ocean and the biggest creatures were these little bouncing fuzzy balls the size of soccer balls who tried to eat our granola bars. It was amazing." The memory made her smile, and chased off a little of the melancholy. "I guess beaches are a good place to build good memories. Maybe I should lay in some beach towels and sand toys for visitors. Have you ever been off the planet?" she asked Quentin.

[Supercape]

"No, I haven't" said Quentin, enviously. "But I would love to. The possibilities! The sights! it must be marvellous! Alas, but an earth - bound creature am I!"

He kicked some water up, absent mindedly. "I suppose that's enough, really. Just greedy. I already see more than most. Atoms just peel themselves apart to my mind. Its quite beautiful. Tricky, but beautiful. I guess I live in the micro rather than the macro. "

"But I still appreciate a good view. I mean, to soar through the universe. New suns, new planets. New life! I couldn't imagine anything much more fantastic. Too be honest, I am envious. "

[Electra]

"Me too, sometimes," Stesha admitted with a smile. "I love my powers, but sometimes I'd just love to be able to fly for a day, just to see what it's like to do it on my own. Flying in space would just be that much more of a rush. But then, what we can do is pretty spectacular, too. I wouldn't give up my own powers for anything." Though she stayed carefully on the shore, she came closer to the water to chuckle at Quentin abusing his poor tweed pants in the surf. "You know, you're going to shrink those if you aren't careful."