It was fully dark when I emerged from the water. I pulsed Carla for a pickup, I waited by teh No swimming sign for her. Napier beach is dangerous with rips and sudden drops, and I ignored all that. When she pulled up, it was in the Ute, which held all three of them, plus two birds and a rabbit. I joined Rich on the back tray. Carla drove to a restaurant with an outdoor area, and everybody piled out. Before they would let me in, Ata made me put on pants, a shirt and shoes. It didn’t look that fancy a restaurant.

  The meal was nice. I had the fish of the day. It was nice, and I got the feeling Ata and Soph needed to decompress. Unfortunately, they were both abstaining from alcohol.

  “What was Lewis’ reaction?” I asked Ata.

  “He wasn’t angry, but not all that pleased either,” Ata said.

  “He was feeling resigned to the fallout,” Soph said.

  “He expected this would cost him his position, but it was coming eventually anyway. The political pressure swaying strongly to remove all anomalies, monitor all enhanced people, and curtail the dangerous ones,” Ata said.

  “I see, so I suspect they will be pushing our geographical isolation to protect us,” I said.

  “Probably. The two coalition parties in power are leaning that way, and getting the greenies on board with ‘protecting our environment’ means they are quite strong.”

  “And they are going to try and lock us all up?” I asked.

  “I doubt they will go that far, based on our history of freedom, but it might get uncomfortable for a while,” Ata said.

  “So Captain Grumpy Pants, is their man who is positioned to take over then?” I said.

  Ata nodded, “Lewis is planning on staying until he is kicked out. He is not going to make it easy for them. His career is over after this.”

  I looked at Soph, “I don’t suppose your Mum owns a super yacht by any chance?”

  Soph laughed, “No, but her boyfriend does.”

  “You want us to sail away?” Ata asked.

  “You are the sailor, and Lewis will be looking for a job. I am pretty sure I can find us a more compatible anomaly out in the Pacific.”

  “Don’t you hate boats?” Carla said.

  “Hate is such a strong word. Dislike would be a better word. When I was complaining about that trip, I was particularly grumpy.”

  “Yeah, right,” Carla said.

  “You want me to find out if it is available?” Soph asked.

  “Wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

  Soph nodded,” You know they cost well over $150,000 per week, and that's Aussie money. We would get a discount, but all of us throwing in would not manage that for more than a week.”

  “Your Mum doesn’t want to go on a cruise?”

  “Generally, not for more than a week at a time.”

  I grunted and looked at Carla, “How’s the wine piss coming?”

  “That is really hard to tell. Lie down, and I will let you have a taste so you can make your own assessment,” she replied.

  “Days or weeks?”

  “I really don’t know, and I probably won’t until we try it. I certainly want to give it as long as possible,” Carla said.

  “So we stay here until we are kicked out, then?” I said

  “Or arrested,” Ata said.

  The other two nodded.

  The gate guard let us through without a problem. Soph and Ata settled down for the night. Carla started eating grapes for dessert.

  I grabbed Rich and went to continue my experiments. Rich would regularly use his skill to see what was around him, like using his other senses. His Skill lit up the same section of his pattern every time.

  I grabbed my laptop and ordered a high-spec machine online to collect from a Hastings store tomorrow. I realised I was going to need better internet than my little mobile, so I also ordered the same satellite link I had in Anawhata, but this time, I got the mobile version and the solar panels to run it. I then found an online 3D design software and paid for a month’s subscription. I first checked that I could export my work in a form that could be imported into other software. Some of these subscription software crowds only provide very basic outputs as they want to lock you into using only their product.

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  I started a Rich model and tried to plot the primary lines of his pattern. That wasn’t easy. I was primarily free drawing. Where the free drawing points managed to form a curve, I had the software calculate the best-fit curve. The three dimensions were not easy. I spent a couple of hours starting it as Rich went to sleep beside me. Eventually, I also went to sleep.

  In the morning, I ran through all my senses again. My growing immunisation to the anomaly is making everything slightly less grating. It may be time to see how close I can get to the centre. I grabbed Rich because we decided to always go in pairs and armed for safety's sake. Rich is the only one who didn’t bug me with questions.

  The Anomaly was stronger than before. My hearing and smell both confirmed that. It is growing stronger as it spreads. Yagoonya showed that, but we have a new confirmation. I actively repelled the essence with my waves.

  I sat for a bit. My waves were repelling the external essence, but were they also making me more visible to the essence senses? My large essence pool was visible anyway, but was this making it worse?

  Skin. Skin is the barrier to keeping our insides inside and the nasties outside. I can enhance my skin, but my enhancement makes me process oxygen from moisture easier, unlike the other three, making their skin a stronger barrier. Ata is also a bit different, just having her feathers on her back. I need to find out what that does to her skin outside the feathers. I remember it feeling lovely and soft, particularly in the chest area. Soft enough for the brats to kick me.

  However, the essence affects our whole bodies since we flooded it through our circulatory system. The nonmutated parts are only about 5% affected.

  I slow down my waves and only leave my whirlpool going. I can sense the green/tan starting to invade my essence pool, but I have some time as I have such a large pool. I focus on the essence forming a barrier at my skin and stopping the foreign essence there. No, that didn’t work. My essence is like water. Maybe if I had green or brown essence, it would make a barrier, but not blue water.

  I started the waves again to clear my system while I thought.

  Clear my system. My fluorescence blue was pure. To purify water, we need to filter out the gunk. Can I create a filter to at least limit the foreign essence to what my pool can absorb? Commercial filters are very effective in purifying water, but what can I create with essence?

  Not much in the hour, I tried. I left it there and went to collect my new laptop and internet system. The rest of the day was spent setting it up and downloading the software. I ran through the tutorials in the software and watched some videos from their website. The new internet was great. It is slower than the fibre connections but better than the mobile by far, and cheaper.

  The solar panels ran everything fine during the day and charged batteries for night use. I would need to find a system for cloudy days and winter, but it was a start.

  I made some progress on mapping patterns the next day. Carla made progress on eating out the vineyard. She was thoroughly sick of grapes. Soph went and spent the day with Amanda at the hospital. She wanted to explore Barb’s skills more.

  In the late afternoon, Ngoi, Neke and Kai turned up and talked to Ata. I could have listened in, but I didn’t bother. I was concentrating on the significant pattern lines in Rich and was getting somewhere.

  Ata had us all assemble for dinner. The barbeque was a fantastic device.

  “Things are moving faster than Commander Lewis expected,” Ata said. “We might only have two more days before the change of command. I have a proposal for you. We can’t afford a super yacht, but we could afford this.” She showed us a yacht for sale site.”

  “A catamaran?” I asked.

  “Yes. It is fast, stable and bluewater-capable. It will get us to the tropics in about a week. I can’t sail a Superyacht, but I can sail this and train you to crew. This one has three cabins and a large storage area, which could be a den for Rich. The Cat has more deck space than a single hull, which is good for the animals. With the animals, we can’t be totally ship-based, so we always will need to be within a day or so of a land base. This is available now and will get us out to the islands and to any anomaly. It will be cramped, but we can always toss Bob overboard if he gets grumpy.”

  “When he gets grumpy,” Carla said.

  “The trouble is I can’t afford it,” Ata said.

  I looked at the price, just under $800k.

  “We will need to stock it as well,” She said. “I have $350k saved, which I was going to put into a house back up north, but I can spend it on this. I could get a loan for the balance, but if the political winds are changing, we may find ourselves unemployed.”

  “That is a good point,” I said, “I am currently renting Anawhata, so I have the capital from the sale of my flat available, about $750k. We are going to need an income source if the military drops us.”

  “There are severance clauses which will give us each a lump sum payout,” Soph said, “Around a 100k each, I think.”

  “This being paid by the military was a cruisy gig.” I said, “Going back to earning an income will be hard.”

  “I did ask Mum about Anton’s superyacht,” Soph said. “It is in Sydney at the moment. The $150k a week is about right. However, Mum did ask about being enhanced and whether this anomaly was a good one to use. It sounds like they may run out of time if we only have a couple of days.”

  Soph paused. “I also have a better handle on Barb’s Skill. It is an essence healing ability, which only partly translates to physical healing, with the same limits as self-healing ability. It is better on mutated parts than non-mutated parts. That still helps with all healing, but that is not its primary purpose. Essence healing can help with initial mutations. It helps smooth out the essence and increases the flow, and I think we might have saved a couple of lives today. I want to try it when Carla changes form as I think it will be a big help.”

  “Did the fact that they were Green/Tan and you were blue have any effect?” I asked.

  “Yes. I found it very difficult with the Green/Tan, but Barb didn’t. I think I am going to be fine with Carla. Amanda wants me back tomorrow.”

  “I am not keen on changing for no purpose,” Carla said.

  “Of course, there is a purpose,” I said. “You are helping your Fiance with her skills and providing us with some scales because the piss wine is taking too long.”

  “Piss off.”