The Portal on Shakespeare [a week later]

[momslilassassin]

A mattress had been bought for guests, the house had been scrubbed from top to bottom and then bottom to top, and Ben, even though he knew that Luke wouldn't care in the slightest, had stressed out about what they'd have for dinner for the last three days.

Now he was a half-hour early for the time his father had sent him for the portal, bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet.

He was excited and terrified in almost equal measure.

Sounds like a fun vacation, huh?

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[momslilassassin]

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaad," Ben said, good-naturedly exasperated. "We haven't had a chance to build a structure around the portal. It's not all like this."

[endsthegame]

Ender chuckled. "The planet was settled decades before we got here, by the military forces that came out here to fight the formics," he said. "They couldn't return to Earth, so they landed here. Miranda Village, our chief settlement, is quite civilized."

[momslilassassin]

"They want to build a shopping center," Ben added.

[notsoreckless.livejournal.com]

"That makes it much more interesting than Tatooine already," Luke said, slinging an arm around Ben's waist and giving him another hug. "Did you both get taller?"

[endsthegame]

"Ben didn't get nearly as much taller as he really wanted to," Ender said wryly.

[momslilassassin]

"Hush, you," Ben said, making a face at him as he headed back to the skimmer. "And here I was going to let you drive."

[endsthegame]

"Oh, I think your dad might enjoy it more if you drive anyway," Ender said, climbing into the back. "Bunch of speedaholics that your family is."

[momslilassassin]

"We aren't speedaholics," Ben declared wrongly. "Your stuff is just too slow."

[notsoreckless.livejournal.com]

"Don't be a snob," Luke scolded lightly, getting into the skimmer. "A good section of our galaxy still uses pack animals to get around."

[endsthegame]

"Oh, he gets the flip side of being a snob," Ender said, shooting Ben a fondly exasperated look, "Which is that he has to help upgrade everything we've got if he insists on smack talk."

[momslilassassin]

"He thinks that's a punishment," Ben said with an equally small smile.

[endsthegame]

"Sometimes it is," Ender said cheerfully. "You have to come do construction with me next week."

[momslilassassin]

Ben would have made a crack about shirtless Ender not being a hardship either, but not in front of his dad. "I'll have to check my schedule," he teased. "We'll be back to Miranda in an hour or so."

[notsoreckless.livejournal.com]

"Take your time," Luke said. "It's nice to sit still. My route here went through six different dimensions."

[endsthegame]

"Nothing with shrimp, I hope," Ender said, settling in.

[notsoreckless.livejournal.com]

Luke looked momentarily puzzled. "No, but there was a waiting area of nothing but sentient towels."

[momslilassassin]

"...towels?" Ben repeated.

[endsthegame]

"Towels?" Ender echoed.

[notsoreckless.livejournal.com]

"Towels," Luke confirmed. "I didn't really speak their language, but they were apparently what happens when you don't do laundry."

[endsthegame]

"Okay," Ender said, blinking. "Every time I think the multiverse can't surprise me any more..."

[notsoreckless.livejournal.com]

"It gives you towels that can think," Luke replied with a small laugh. "So tell me about your planet, Ender."

[endsthegame]

"The original settlement, Miranda, was built by our veterans, as I've said," Ender said. "Most of those veterans are now very old, and it's the second generation and their children that were running the place when we arrived. Our ship's arrival about tripled the amount of people here, so we've been constructing three new settlements to accommodate that, as well as the new colonists that will be arriving in a year and a half."

He shot Luke an amused glance. "And a good portion of it is temperate," he promised, "The sand and rocks won't go on forever, I promise."

[notsoreckless.livejournal.com]

Luke smiled back. "I grew up on Tatooine. I have a much higher tolerance for sand than the average person. So how large a population are we talking about here? A hundred thousand or so? More?"

[endsthegame]

"Five thousand, actually," Ender said wryly.

[notsoreckless.livejournal.com]

"So I overshot a little," Luke replied, laughing.