Vampires in Space

Claremont

I have not been to Earth in a while. I have been busy on Mars, planning for this moment.

My son Ben and his family have the Casa de Gato campus now. Most of it still stands as it did when Casa de Gatos was mine and I started my Vampire life with Jessica. Three hundred years ago. I bought Casa de Gatos from my parents, who built it to their specifications. The main house and other buildings are still mostly there. When I say mostly, the only changes were to add on and modernize. The core is the same. My parents built that place to last.

My other primary home on Earth is the one I am headed to now. Was this my home? Whatever. This campus is still in the family, so I suppose it is my home even if I am not currently Adrian Claremont. Given upcoming events, who knows if I ever will be Adrian — or any other name — Claremont again. Being a Claremont is unusual for me since Vampires usually keep their first name and change their last one. Keeping the property in 'Claremont' hands is more important than that particular tradition, so I have been many different Claremonts down the years.

Up in space, where it is mostly Vampires, I usually just go by the mononym Adrian. My last name only comes into it when we are talking about Sagan Industries. In that case, I am one of the Sagans. Sagan Industries is largely Helen's invention. A conglomeration of all her businesses merged and aimed at the goal of making out space owned and operated by Vampires. What used to be IE fully absorbed into SI, even if, in some cases, IE still appears separate to humans and their bookkeeping.

IE was never anything but a massive shell company hiding what we were really up to. Sagan Industries is the core of it. Fed by the inventions and technological advantages we have.

SJ is flying herself right toward Claremont. If Jessica were here, she might be at the controls. Neither Helen nor I get the kick out of flying that Jessica does. I prefer to leave things like reentry and landing to the pros, and no one knows how to fly SJ better than SJ. SJ flying herself is strictly illegal in Earth's atmosphere, but for one thing, I don't care, and for another, they have no way of knowing. We went for orbit to Claremont. Claremont is certified for small ships like SJ. We make sure no one from the aviation authorities is on her when she flies herself. They have no technology that can look inside her and see who is at the controls. SJ is full of bleeding-edge Sagan tech at all times. The powers that be come up with a scanner? We already have the countermeasures in place. If they look at her during an inspection, they will see all the manual controls that Jessica uses to fly SJ. I'm flight-rated, so the official papers say I'm the pilot. The Earth authorities do not need to worry their heads about it.

SJ landed herself smoothly on her vertical thrusters in the designated open area well away from the primary building of Claremont Estate. Spaceship landings have to be well away from buildings and grape vines because SJ's thrusters are hot and can kick up some dirt. Even on a spotlessly clean area like the Claremont landing pad.

The Claremont 'castle' is even older than Casa de Gato. The building was constructed as part of the human Lord Claremont's original setup of the winery. Like most any castle, it will last millennia. As long as no one knocks it down with a bomb, and we take care of the roof when it leaks. Roofs are the hardest thing to make last a long time on any building.

None of that — bombs or roof leaks — has been a worry. Claremont Estate is run for the moment by a few very trusted and very special people.

SJ pointed her nose toward the main house upon landing so that Helen and I could look out at the 'castle' through the forward displays. She could have landed in any orientation and made the forward screen have that view. Some orientation paradigms live on in the absence of windows, even in sentients. SJ had no reason to land in such a way that when we got out of her, we'd suddenly be backward. Helen sighed at the view. "Damn. It looks like it has since the day I walked in there 700 years ago. More vines and foliage, but... there she is."