Profession

Seasons change

And so, unbelievably, the next few years were pretty smooth, overall. The villains were thwarted in their plans to damage New York, so I didn't have any mass casualty events, my friends happy and productive, and things were going well for my family. Grandpa Damian recovered most of his zest for life, which relieved me no end.

But there were changes, too, as are inevitable in life. Everybody was growing older, and retirements were on the horizon for Uncle Tony, Aunt Ann, and Grandpa Damian. But because they were such workaholics, they couldn't fathom the notion of ... doing whatever retirees did, and before handing the reins of Stark over to the next generation of my cousins, they founded another company. It made me laugh. This one would fold into Stark when they finally got tired of working or died, it wasn't meant to be a lasting, long-term thing, and in some ways existed to be a feeder of prototypes or data for Stark. All three could investigate whatever they wanted, and even Grandpa got into the act. He didn't have nearly as much work to do in the new subsidiary, so he took up botany and horticulture, getting certified as a master gardener, and built greenhouses where he could work on making new crosses in flowers, manipulating strains for different growing conditions. He started consulting with Aunt Dagny, and they made the gardens at her cabin upstate, Sif and Frigga's home, the public memorial garden for Grandma, and my house into sort of trial plots. Some things worked beautifully, some didn't, so the gardens were always evolving. He also got into botanical illustration, producing beautiful artwork of his scientific work. I loved meeting him at the club a couple times a week to catch up. My cousins still consulted with Uncle Tony and Aunt Ann, so they still provided guidance and information when asked. I suspected that Aunt Ann sat on Uncle Tony some to keep him from providing unsolicited advice, but at the same time, he was proud of his kids and the nieces and nephews who were leading Stark now, and wanted them to shine.

Jon and Z's book about humanity's flight to the stars was enormously successful and more influential than they'd imagined was possible. As a result, masses more tried their hands at emigrating, or at least exploring the cosmos with our alien allies. The population of the planet dropped dramatically, and this was aided by the UN decision to colonize an M class planet around Tau Ceti, twelve light-years away. The Shi'iar earned goodwill and resources by transporting groups of people there and providing faster-than-light communications; the planet was five times the size of Earth and could support an immense population. Staggeringly, about half the population took advantage of the opportunity, especially since there were few restrictions such as the Asgardians had imposed on the migration to the Dark Elf planet. Even some of my family took to the stars--Grandma Martha's two kids relocated, along with Arie.

That was a huge shock to the family, but she had gone ahead with a PhD in organic chemistry even after losing her enthusiasm for perfuming, and she had a valuable position in the science community there. I could understand, intellectually; even though she was incredibly smart and made contributions of her own, she was too often slotted in behind her notable parents and brother. This allowed her the opportunity to shine on her own. Emotionally, it was pretty crushing; I loved my sister-in-law like my birth sister, and this immense separation was hard to process. The pups were crushed, too. The Bifrost didn't extend to the Tau Ceti system, and the only way they'd get to see her again in person would be if she came back. But the opening of the colony planet represented a great opportunity for Stark, in particular, who promptly opened up a division dedicated to supporting the colonists. Cousin Chris was placed in charge of that division, and he'd be going back and forth with his family on a yearly basis. Uncle Steve and Aunt Emma were resigned about not being able to see them as much as they'd like, but at least his home base was on Earth. His two kids were fine with the adventure for now, but a lot would depend on where they'd want to go to school when that became more of an issue. By that time, though, Stark should be well established and able to make whatever personnel decisions would be needed. I liked knowing that Arie had some contacts from home there, and Chris and his family were pleased too.