Page 30 of Jorhee

“Let’s go see how the building is going,” I suggested, wanting something normal.

“Great idea!” Jesse agreed, taking my hand. “But first, I’d like to change my clothes.”

I smiled. “Then we shall do that first.”

20

JESSE

The basement and utilities trenches had been dug, and the construction bots were busily 3D printing the walls, flooring, and drains. And by walls and floors, I meant all of the outer walls, both above and below ground, and the floor supports that stretched between them.

“This is unbelievable,” I said. “At this rate, the house will be finished before the end of tomorrow.”

“Mostly yes,” Yithym, a construction specialist who was helping oversee the building work. “The floors and walls will be in, and the roof on, but the flooring, lighting, heating and cooling system, the staircases, elevator, cabinetry, and hygiene fixtures will all need to be put into place.

“How long will that take?” Johree asked.

“Another two days, as we’re waiting for some fixtures to be fabricated and there’s only one replicator in New Haven large enough to produce several of the items, and we also have things to make for the courthouse.”

He turned his attention to me. “What do you want us to do about the windows? The stained glass ones, I mean. They aren’t here, and you’ve indicated you wanted handmade ones thatyou’ve ordered from Earth, but we can’t simply leave the frames empty. We can either print a similar effect onto clear glass to give an impression of the finished effect, or put in plain ones for now.”

I bit my lip, feeling torn. “Will it take longer or cost more to do the effects?”

“At first, yes, but since they’ll be recycled afterwards back into their original base matters, they actually will ultimately cost nothing at all. As for the time, you’re talking about a few more breaths difference in time.”

“Then the stained glass effect, please. Bob has the description of what we ordered, and they said they’d have some renderings to show us for approval before they start making them, so you can work from either of those.”

It would be six weeks from approval to finish, then another four days for them to arrive, and another day to have them fitted if nothing else pressing was in the schedule.

“We ordered two large ones for the courthouse too,” Johree said. “Humans have a depiction of an ancient goddess who balanced the scales of justice, so she will be in one of the windows.”

“I’d heard you’d done that, but not what they’d depict. That’s fascinating. What will be in the other window?”

“A Human and a Dragonii shepherding kilt-ha with a hop-a-long at their feet,” he replied.

Yithym looked pleased as he nodded his approval. “That sounds very fitting. These will be the two large windows on either side of the front doors?”

“They will.”

I listened to them talk, my eyes unable to come away from the sight of the large construction bots and the smaller droids busily printing out and assembling our house from literal atoms they extracted from the base matter stored in thedrums attached to the large bots and the portable construction replicators on site that made beams and pipes.

“Why can’t these replicators make the stuff we have to wait for?” I asked.

“Those are only programmed for construction materials,” the foreman explained. “Beams, pipes, conduit, stair stringers, that sort of thing. The rest has to come from the general purpose one the colony owns, which right now is busy printing out panels for a set of chicken condominiums.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

He hadn’t said what I just thought I’d heard him say.

“Bob issued a set of animal welfare guidelines he said Prince Johree was going to look over before signing into law.” He shifted from foot to foot. “Did I misunderstand?”

Johree blinked. “No. When I approved the human livestock to be imported, I asked Bob to consult with Xeranos and to draft those. After hearing about the factory farming practices, I wanted to ensure that animals in New Haven were always treated with only kindness and respect, as all living things should be.”

I melted hearing those words.

Just another bit of proof that the test was indeed accurate.

I pressed the comm button on my tablet. “Bob, can you send over those animal welfare guidelines, please?”