Facing it.

A tall, literally black skinned woman spotted her from across the room, and waved for her to come inside. The second set of double doors behind her closed with a thud, and Astra 1 walked over to the small gathering of woman in the room who were gathered at a small table next to several stands with detailed charts and diagrams.

She recognized one flamed haired woman as Astra 2, her sister and the closest duplicate of all the analogs she knew of. Astra 2 had changed her hair style to a pageboy, and was presently wearing a blue cape with a blue jerkin with a white griffin upon it's chest. The others she had never met, but she knew them from their descriptions.

The small fox eared and tailed woman could only be one person: Astra 4. Presently, she was dressed in a simple green and brown tunic and pants. She smiled and nodded a greeting, tail wagging.

The tall, ebony woman who appeared to be WELL into the last stages of pregnancy must be Astra 5. Astra 1 blinks, and then decides that she must have been seeing things. She could have sworn to her gods that....for a brief second.....a trace of......pity flashed across the woman's face as her eyes fell upon her!

The last woman was the same height as Astra 5, but there was something.....different about her. Alien. She was dressed in a green and brown jerkin and pants: a yeoman's outfit. She was wearing ebony gloves, boots and cape. That in of itself was not the alieness. There was a clue in her forehead to her alien nature, and then Astra 1 nodded. This woman was the golem/AI known as Inquirer. Astra had heard several things about her, mostly positive. Still, Astra 1 was amazed at how at ease and accepting her sisters were around this being who wasn't....technically alive.

If they can trust her....so can I! Astra 1 silently says to herself as she sits down at the table with the others.

"I hope that I'm not interrupting anything," Astra 1 demurrers politely. "Please, by all means, continue."

"We were discussion names for my children," Astra 5 says with a slight smile. "The chart is to show the names already used."

Astra 1 idly noted that the children's names were lined up to match their analogous brother or sister.

PARENTS ............... BOY NAMES ......................... GIRL NAMES

Astra 5 didn't goes so far as to tenderly cradle her swollen belly when she said that, but Astra 1 saw in her sister's eyes light up in love when the as of yet unborn children were mentioned.

Astra 1, the budding diplomat, suppressed a slight frown before it showed on her face.

Of course they embrace the encumbrance of their children, Astra chided herself. They chose to keep their children, where as you didn't! Of course they're enthusiastic about them and will talk about them fondly!

Silently, a small part of Astra 1 laughed derisively at the rest of her. It said Astra 1 knew exactly why she was here, why she woke up at night with a word on her lips, what she really knew she felt about her decision.

The rest of Astra 1 told the small part of her to shut her gob.

"Really?" Astra 1 asks, managing to sounding enthusiastic.

"That and an interesting proposal to lighten the upcoming work load for the mages," Astra 4 says, shaking her furry head in wonder (she'd changed into her hybrid form).

The demifox woman gestured up at a series of diagrams that might have well been written in Greek (well, actually in San Script.....since the Astras could read and speak Greek).

1. "They are called incubators," Inquirer explained to the perplexed Ambassador. "They mimic the functions of the womb......"

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