" I could never hate you, silly."Holding her once more, I pulled all three of us back underneath thecovers. I didn't want to think about it, too tired...to care. Maybe afterlunch it would hit me one-way or another. I didn't think I would fallback to sleep but I did.Lunchtime however wasn't much better. I called into work, telling them Iwould be working from home. Kaylee called her mother, and got a goodscolding that we could hear from the kitchen. Passing the phone toTabitha, she also got one. Next, we had to figure out how to get Mel into the storage room without Jeri knowing that he was even in the house. We figured that we cold "sneak" Mel into the house while Jeri was at the store. Then we had to come up with a way for Mel to relieve himself in case he had to take a piss while he waited in the storeroom. An empty coffee can with its plastic lid would work OK. Since there would be no easy way to signal Mel when to come out of the store room, we agreed that he would just have to. The tugs began arranging the raw material stockpiles and the intermediate structures in the vicinity of the factory replicator and shipyard facility.When the AI requested control of the lighter in the hangar bay rather than building another one, Celeste asked, "Why didn't you tell us you could operate the lighters?"The AI replied, "You seemed to be have fun piloting the lighters, and I didn't want to disappoint you by taking over." Then, why are you doing it now?" Tuan asked.The AI explained,. )I also HAVE to do this free form kind of peripheral wandering in mywords here because it comes naturally to me. I don’t pay attention tomost people around me, I’m terrible with names and worse with numbers,and I really do think about what kind of mascara to use sometimes.It’s also a defense mechanism, I suppose. It hides the blade.I give people a chance, a glimpse at what I’m really like, and if theydon’t pick up on it, fuck them, right? I separate the sheep.