Vita Per Nex, simulations scene.

This takes place at least five hours after General Vijay's visit to Mischa and Leland's quarters, as Lori's simulaitons are being processed.

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That howl certainly carried. Admirals Faizah and Asha pushed themselves out of their seats and ignored the chairs, glasses, and silverware that crashed to the ground as they burst into the hallway. The laboratory doors burst open and Mischa slid out, twisting around to grab the door frame before she hit the opposite wall. Leland's arm appeared, grabbing her wrist and yanking her back inside as another howl reverberated. This close, Mischa's laughter was audible over Leland's baritone bellows. There was a curious trilling, three-part harmony, and the two Admirals pushed into the suddenly full room right behind the Mother Elder.

“I told you!” Mischa shrieked. “I told you!”

“I must caution prudence!” The Senior Guest was waving his arms, trying to calm the growing hysteria. “This is a simulation only! Promising, yes, but yet still a simulation!”

“Then test it!” Mischa gasped after Leland finished kissing her. She held him tightly and the smile on her face was the truest smile she'd worn in over five years. “Mix it up and test it!”

The guest trilled at his companions, and they carried on a brief conversation. “It . . . does seem sound,” he admitted reluctantly. “Yet I must still caution prudence.”

“We're Family Members,” Leland told the creature. “We're naturally cautious. Please, you understand how important this breakthrough is, don't you?” He held Mischa's head against his chest and kissed her hair.

“I understand, Admiral Leland. We will have a testable serum in a few days' time. It would be of great benefit if the woman who created these were present with us.”

Mischa broke free from Faizah's and Asha's embraces. “How do you know it was a woman?” she asked.

The guest blinked at her, and his spine crests rippled. “It has a woman's essence to it, a woman's unique perspective on life.”

“The New Agers are going to have a field day,” Leland laughed. “Well, Mother? Elders?”

The Mother Elder was leaning over a screen, facing away from the group. The Senior Elders looked at each other, and Vijay cleared his throat. “We're willing to cede Doctor Tencha Probationary Citizenship for her continued work on the H Serum,” he said through stiff lips.

“You're going to give her full Citizenship ---”

“Don't push your luck, Mischa,” Vijay snapped. “You may be our golden child, but your impudence is catching up with you.” He rubbed his face. “We're not a police state, Mischa, which means that we have got to pay heed to the desires of the populace, as provided by the politicians that they elect.”

“General ---”

“She's got Madison's, hasn't she? Poor girl,” the Elder Mother murmured to herself. Hers was not the place to be taking sides in arguments. “And she's employed at the Med Centre regardless. She must have an awful time, always having to prove herself, not being able to do as much physical activity as her peers . . . She must be quite the strong – willed, talented young lady.” She jerked back from a Venus Rose as it snapped at her. “Mischa, get these blasted plants out of here, will you?”

Mischa was staring at the woman, then she smiled slowly and nodded. “As you wish, Mother.” She turned to Vijay and the other Senior Elders with a raised eyebrow as she gathered the two pots. The roses snapped at her. “Stop it,” she ordered firmly. The roses subsided.

“That's creepy,” Leland remarked. He slung his arm around her waist and squeezed. “Well, shall we go tell our little prodigy that she's a Probationary Citizen? Will the paper work be done by eleven hundred the day after tomorrow?”

“For you, Leland, we jump through flaming hoops,” Vijay commented dryly. “But only because you ask so politely. Mischa, however, just browbeats us into it. Or, more often, we end up post-approving things she's already done.”

Mischa smiled. “I'm putting these in your room, Leland.”

“Why?” he asked, edging away from the roses she held out to him.

“Because I don't know how the cats will react. I don't want them getting hurt.”

“But you willingly toss me to the rabid plants? Thank you.”

She shrugged. “I don't want them getting hurt,” was all she said. “So. Eleven hundred the day after tomorrow, and as soon as I've secured Doctor Tencha's continued cooperation, we'll hold an Assembly to announce things, at which we will also need Doctor Vu's mother's baklava.”

“I already had Liaison Tanaka contact the Vu family in regards to that,” the Mother Elder put in. “They were quite willing to accommodate you, Mischa.”

“Thank goodness,” Mischa replied. “I really do want that recipe.”

“I'm sure you'll harass the poor woman into giving it to you in time,” Leland said as he tugged her toward the door. “Let's go; we have to be at Grand Central in an hour.”

“We'll be back just in time to visit Doctor Tencha,” Mischa assured the Mother Elder.

“You'd be back in time to visit the Doctor even if it took cutting your mission short to do it,” was the retort. “Get out of my sight. Senior, what is it that the Doctor did that we've missed?”

“Come on,” Leland murmured in Mischa's ear. Faizah and Asha followed them out of the room, grinning.

“This is wonderful, just wonderful.” Asha bounced slightly as she walked, her arm linked with Faizah's. “I feel like breeding, now.” She paused with a wince, glancing at Leland's broad back. “Uhm. So. Grand Central in an hour, huh? Moon base?”

“Moon base,” Leland confirmed. If he was bothered by Asha's ill – thought – out remark he didn't show it, but the fact that Mischa was letting his arm stay around her waist was a good indicator of his current mood. “We don't anticipate it taking very long; it's just a couple of days of testing the new long – range missile systems.”

“Well, good luck,” Faizah said cheerily. She clamped a hand over her partner's mouth as the group stopped at a lift. “We'll see you at the Assembly, then?”

“At the latest,” Mischa confirmed. She pulled Leland into the lift and turned to the two Admirals. “Good day, Admirals.”

“Good day, General. Good day, Admiral.”

Leland wasn't quite meeting their eyes. “Good day.”

Then the lift doors closed and Faizah whirled on Asha with a glare. “Are you stupid, Asha? Mikhaila just died, you know.”

Her partner scowled and looked away. “My apologies, all right? I'm sorry. It slipped my mind.”

“I'm not the one you should apologise to, and how could it slip your mind? I swear, Asha, you're denser than dirt, sometimes.”

“Look, Faizah --- oh, heck. It was a stupid remark, all right? I'm sorry!”

“Yes, it was stupid.” Faizah crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her partner some more. “You could have the foresight to not rub things in, you know, and to keep your breeding urges to yourself, especially around Leland.”

“He's still got Mischa.” Asha turned and punched in a lift request with rather more force than she needed.

“You know that the person you're partnered with doesn't matter!”

“Sure it does,” Asha bit out. “If those two weren't the pinnacle of Family Breeding, do you really think that Leland would have stayed Mischa's partner? The woman's as cold as Pluto, and you know it, Faizah. Besides, he's as head – over – heels for Mischa as he was for Mikhaila, for some reason.”

“So it seems, but that's not my point. My point is that Leland just lost someone he was very close to, and regardless of his partnership, that still hurts. And you aren't helping that.” Asha wrapped her arms around her stomach and looked down, and Faizah pet her hair gently. “It's all right, Asha,” she whispered as she drew her partner into an embrace.

“No, it's not,” Asha whispered back. “We shouldn't have lost Mikhaila. We shouldn't lose any Family Member; do you know what the public will start to think?”

“That we're in a war, and people die in wars?”

“No, that we're losing.”

“Asha, we are losing.” Asha grunted as the lift door opened and they stepped in. “We haven't lost either Mischa or Leland, and I'm sure they'll make some moving speech about losing people to war, how it was inevitable, but we have to keep up our spirits, and so on and so forth. They're good at that.”

“Tencha had better produce results, and quickly, is all I'm saying,” Asha muttered.

“She will. I know she will; Mischa wouldn't choose wrong.”

“Of course she would; we just all tend to fall under the spell of her insanely uber – enhanced charisma, but we don't realise she's messing with our minds because we assume that Family Members are immune to our own effects, and forget that Mischa and Leland are darn near god – like in their enhancements. They got me to walk into the Assembly in my underwear, and nothing else, for Vijay's birthday five years ago, Faizah. You remember that, right? They're even better now than they were then, too.”

Faizah was quiet, until her giggles burst out, and then she hugged Asha tight and kissed her forehead. “All right, all right. I remember that. Then I asked you to be my partner.”

“Which, apparently, was their plan all along.”

“So we owe Mischa and Leland a debt of gratitude, if nothing else. Look, as soon as they get back and get their little Probationary Citizen all moved in, we'll take them to the Muffie Pump and celebrate, shall we? They've never been to the Muffie Pump, so it won't bring up memories for Leland, and Doctor Tencha will get to meet more Family Members in a casual setting. Who knows? Someone might remark on her Syndrome, and then we'll get to be in a fight. How's that sound?”

Asha was laughing, now, and nodding. “That sounds wonderful. And I promise, I'll think before I open my mouth around Leland from now on.”

“Good girl,” Faizah murmured. “Good girl.”

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"Muffie Pump" was a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) prompt.