”Women came out from their cottages offering glasses of ginger beer and cigarettes. There was talk of a bumper crop, the best since the old war.When...Tommy and I got home, Mum waved a tiny Union-Jack; last seen on VE day. “The harvest is home,” she cried.The radio blasted out Glen Miller adding to the party mood. Tommy playfully smacked mum’s bum and she giggled. As always, my sisters ignored me; busy chatting with a young woman that I’d never met before; cascades of champagne hair curled. You are now listening to the new colony Xurthyn, daughter of Xynthan which lays on top of this host. Congratulations. You will be treated well and live long and prosper under the direction of the Council of Xurthyn. What? You speak to the Xurthyn leaders. You may address us as Xurthyn but only if we ask you to respond or to answer a need. This will be rare. Your body is under our control and may be shut down briefly as repairs are conducted or new installations are made. It will be several days. What about it?”“I’ve got a crazy idea, but I’m not certain on the details.”“Okay,” I said and waited for her to spell it out.“We lease the land around the station, and irrigate it to produce crops. As part of the station build-out, we include shelters for staff and a couple of extra for a school and field hospital.”“Then what?”“We teach the locals how to farm responsibly and set them up as tenant farmers. I’ve done some rough figuring, and one station should be able to irrigate a several square. My next science course will be chemistry – if I can pass a biology exam in about a week."We discussed the issues associated with skipping a course, and Pamela described how relatively easy it was to skip a grade in middle school."Hey, you haven't made out for a while," Cathy suddenly said. "Are you embarrassed by me? I can look the other way." It hasn't embarrassed me or your sister, as far as I could tell before. But a good suggestion," I said, and proceeded to kiss Pamela thoroughly. She must.