Lana gave them the day off school to plan their area and work on building it. She then went to inform the teachers there would be 30 more students that were 7 years old.
"There will likely be a short man with them. Do not ask any of them where they are from. They are brothers and sisters of my husband and are to be treated with respect. They have been through a hard time and need you to be patient with them. You'll need to assess where they are in their education journey."
To make things easier, they decided to cut the Blade children into four different classes rather than five. This meant the other students could have one class while the Blades could then be focused on by their teachers. Lana gave Sirus more details because he was the abilities teacher and he needed to understand how their abilities worked.
By the end of the day, they had a blueprint and had already started it. They were to have free meals in the Travelers' Center until their place was set up. Lana would need to assign someone to tend their needs while they focused on their training while they were there. She had no idea how long they would be staying. Ultimately, she pulled Winnifred off working at the orphanage to help Borden with the kids.
Her job would be to feed them, primarily. They were old enough and mature enough to make their beds, do laundry and such. This was part of the reasoning these kids should be kept separate. The only opportunity they had to be a child was in the evening after their dinner but before bed. Sometimes they got to play in the morning.
Lana should have been in her lab but for the first week, she insisted on checking up on them frequently. That was all it took them to build their apartments which had bathrooms but no kitchens. They put in a common area where meals would be cooked and eaten. They had a room to play Power Fighter on a private server. Logan had sent her some chips to put in a card reader to protect their identities for now. They'd be able to play with abilities without hurting anyone at the moment.
The kids had no toys and Borden told Lana not to get them any but books were welcome. They had started building a library for Lana to populate when she was able. Dobin also found himself looking in on the kids. Seeing these children and how they acted unlike normal kids, Dobin suddenly felt bad for his brother-in-law. At the same time, he was proud. Sil had prevented these children from having to kill each other. Instead the real monsters were taken out. Lana sure did pick some in-laws… He shook his head at his thought and sat down to watch them finish the library.
Over the next six weeks, while Sil followed Quinn's direction and solidified his standing after gaining six more planets and the factions that came with them. The last attack, led by Quinn was on the popular video streaming platform. Most news reporters refused to go into combat. There was one named Bonnie who was willing and she had a huge following. Lana was quite confused when she was told Bonnie was sharing footage of Quinn because she knew Bonnie as a rank C traveler, a telekinesis user part of her own faction. Well, this is going to be confusing…
Sil was not part of that event. He was on another planet making sure the faction they took over was going to be loyal to Quinn and the Cursed Faction but more to Quinn. Sil only cared about the Cursed Faction because it was Quinn's group. There were three groups sent out. Each was assigned two different locations. Quinn had trouble getting people to join Sil because he was anti-social.
Peter was also on his team. Peter had gone from a timid boy as a human to being one to resort to violence before anything after being turned into a wight by Quinn. It made for an interesting but powerful team. Lana knew they would take the planets. Quinn had to assign Wevil from the former Parasites to the team so they could have someone who was a bit more… diplomatic on the team as well. It worked out very well. The Cursed was getting noticed but the footage was not flattering. Only one camera was used and the angle they got was not a pleasant one.
Lana smirked at the footage. Quinn was indeed strong. Not one civilian was injured by the strong beasts he unleashed. It was quite an effective way to function. This had been a base taken over by Pure and Quinn's tactics got Pure to leave the planet which made the faction there quite happy, especially with the minimum casualties they suffered.
While they were busy showing their strength, Lana's people were busy building theirs. The Blade children now had a functional housing area. She did want to have a security system in place to keep people out who had no business being there but they were able to sleep in their own beds rather than the floor.
Borden felt they might be okay to take out hunting but he felt 30 at once was too much. Lana had Shalt and Dobin help with these excursions for the time being. Once they became comfortable with the hunting grounds that were authorized, Borden could do it on his own.
Fiza and Dawn were learning from Mandy while Mandy was learning from Lana how to use the Plant Master ability. Lana's days were quite full but she still was making progress in all the areas she was working in. That was except for looking into where her mother's lab could have been. She felt it was selfish to delve into her history when the present needed her. She was also working through the nightmares she was having but the rate was way too slow for her.
Frankly, she was being too impatient in every aspect because she took on too much as she usually did but she refused to give anything up. Her sword practice was not going too bad but she did have an incident where she hit a button on the sword and the tip went flying. Steven was almost killed in the incident but he had really good reflexes. The blade tip ended up embedded in the wall with Steven having a deep gash on his shoulder. Alex had provided her with her sheath and she was wearing it everywhere now.
Lana was itching to go back out and hunt some beasts. She needed to break the monotony of her life. Her problem was they had the planets they were planning to get which meant Sil would be home soon. Taking the babies out to go hunting would upset him. He only allowed it last time because he was the one doing the combat. She smiled softly thinking about it while she put the finishing touches on her latest attempt at an energy bar. It tasted okay to her and it did have some effect. She felt it could have a better effect but at least it worked.
She was so focused on her work that she didn't realize she wasn't alone until warm and loving arms enveloped her from behind. Lana jumped and he chuckled in her ear.
"So focused today. What are you working one?"
"Energy bars. Want to try one?"
Sil nodded against her neck and she giggled. She put a small bite in his mouth and he chewed.
"Not bad. I feel a bit more energy."
Lana nodded, "I think I can make them stronger and maybe tastier. I'm not done but progress is being made."
Sil nodded, "where are the babies?"
"Napping."
"How long have they been down?"
Lana laughed, "just kiss me already!"
He turned her around and planted a long-awaited passionate kiss on her lips. A few moments later, they heard a baby cry from the other room. They went in together, changed diapers and got them fed together.
"How were the kid while I was gone?"
"I put them in school and they have a place to live in the area you designated for them. They are enjoying hunting trips periodically as well. They are logged in as part of the Plantwell family under aliases."
"In that case, we can keep them in school but I still want them moved back on the ship."
Lana nodded. "I told them you wanted them with you and they would be here when you were away from the ship. Dobin and Shalt are helping with them as well."
"Let's go get them moved back."
"I bought them extras. They are to have two sets of everything so when they move between, they just bring themselves."
Sil nodded and smiled, "Still so thorough." He kissed her again and they left the lab to go below, each carrying a child in one arm while holding hands with the other.
****************************
Join me on discord at https://discord.gg/wuNsfeGP Or Patreon at patreon.com/MindyLeeCrouch