Vampires in Space

Problem Statement

Humanists.

Misnamed assholes. Like 'Right to Work' means you have no right to work, or 'Privacy for Citizens Act' means you have no privacy, Humanists is just the modern version of every other supremacy group ever, based on utterly specious grounds.

I do not like Humanists. I do not think I would have liked them before they captured me and tortured me. Tried to capture me again. I do not share any values with those who think their species, skin color, or whatever makes them somehow better than others. I would not have shared that type of thinking even before I turned Vampire.

I also do not particularly like the city of Dallas. As long as I have been alive (not long by Vampire standards, but ancient by human ones), Dallas has been big, crowded, and full of rich people. I can smell the entitlement, and that does not even take my special Vampire enhanced senses. Dallas is not the only place like that. Rich people have always had carve-outs to keep the hoi polloi out and away from their line of sight. Rich people are usually very uncomfortable around not rich people. Homeless people drive them right up the wall.

"You are driving down my property values! Get thee gone!"

I have always been far more comfortable in places where the rich are not. I don't have to wear the right clothes, carry the right kind of wallet, or wear the correct shoes for this season—none of that. When the current fashion rolls around to whatever I am wearing anyway, it's always tempting to move away from my favorite wardrobe. Since I was a kid, that wardrobe has been tennis shoes, jeans, and T-shirts with fun things printed on them.

I have never understood why a rich man, for example, would bow to peer group pressure to wear a suit jacket and tie. A rich woman to high heels, push-up bras, and various other uncomfortable-looking things. It is some sort of admission they are not actually rich. Or that they are worried that to stay rich, they have to look, act, and be a particular way. Get out of line, and you are out of the club.

There may be more to it than that, but whatever the reasons are for people to conform to some weird social standard of dress, it is all foreign to me. When I 'dress up' I do it for my wife who cares about such things. I treat it the same way I do a Halloween costume. I do not have to understand why Helen thinks suits are nice. I just have to know she likes it when I dress up how she likes. She wears her hair longer than she likes for me.

Fair is fair.

Sure: I am technically a rich person. My savings aside, as a Vampire who has invested in things, I am married to Helen. Secretly the single richest person on Earth, even if 'On Earth is not completely accurate. Lately, she has spent most of her time in space building the new La Grange colony. With my savings, I am a multi-millionaire. As her spouse, I could not even begin to guess how many billions I am theoretically worth. Start with a 'T', not a 'B' though.

I go up to the La Grange colony Helen is building all the time to help out on the technical aspects. Helen rides herd on the supply line, budget, and quality. Helen acts like she is not technical about things, but she has learned all there is to know about space construction. Hell: She invented some of it with the help of Laura, Dad, Jessica, and me.

Helen did the same thing more than a century back when she built her Cruise line. She was right there at the boatyard making sure all went as it should.

When Helen calls for a La Grange consult, I'm on the next shuttle up. That is not some silly way to say 'bootie call'. I am fully capable of consulting and loving on the same trip. Not that I would not go if all Helen wanted was loving.

Under Helen's guidance, Interplanetary's latest outpost in space is nearly done. Opening it up for immigration will also signal the next great Sagan role swap. We are going to swizzle our human world-facing roles once again. Heather and I will leave behind IE and the corporate world. Ben will run IE next, aided by Laura as head of R&D. Running our corporate entity — and massive blind for what we are really up to — is all about shared pain. Everyone working to the same end. Keeping Vampires hidden and keeping control of the assets we need to leave the planet