Ratchet stared around in awe at the changes that had been made. It hadn't even been a week since they'd made the agreement with Grandpa Wendall – as they'd all taken to calling him in their own heads, if not out loud yet – and he was already keeping his part of the bargain. The farming robots were already tending the farms, bringing in plenty of foodstuffs for the trio and shipping the rest off to be used in the rest of the company. Mines had been set up well away from where the trio normally ventured, designed to do as little damage to the landscape and vistas as possible while extracting the maximum amount of viable resources. And best of all from Vendra's perspective, a state of the art lab had been set up for her to do her experiments in and study whatever she felt like studying…although the first month or so of studies would probably be dedicated to questions such as 'what is this piece of equipment', 'how do I use it', and 'how do I make it explode/keep it from exploding'.

While Vendra wasn't entirely comfortable being inside a building for her lab, it was logical to do so since it contained delicate equipment that needed protection from the elements. Grandpa Wendall had offered to build the trio a house so they didn't have to stay in the caves, but the discomfort in an actual building was universal. As such, they were remaining in the caves while mining and construction robots worked at digging out the inside of a large hill to reshape it into a comfortable dwelling for the three youngsters. In the meantime, they took every opportunity to sleep in real beds, wear clean clothes, and gorge themselves on anything available to eat.

The one part of the arrangement they weren't happy with was the tutor bot. All three had raised a hue and cry when they found out they had, in essence, been enrolled in school without being told, and had been on the verge of dissolving the agreement. Grandpa Wendall proved to be quite clever about it, however, and had chosen to address Vendra directly about it. He'd already put together that Ratchet and Neftin were protective of their wispy sibling, and quite a bit would be put up with if it was for her good, and he knew the best way to needle her was through her pride.

"Vendra," he'd asked simply when she'd complained loudly about being 'stuck in school', "you want to keep making plenty of inventions and prove everyone who treated you like nothing just how much better you are than them, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" Vendra had snapped back. "I'll make them eat their words."

"So you want to be taken seriously as a scientist and inventor to prove you're the best?" Wendall nudged gently.

"Absolutely!" Vendra confirmed as she swelled with pride, thrusting her chest out.

"Well I can tell you right now it's not going to matter how brilliant your inventions are, or what research you accomplish," Wendall countered incisively. "Nobody's going to treat you like anything but a particularly clever child if you can't solve two plus two on a chalk board because you don't know what a plus sign is." He smiled, ready to defend his hyperbole.

"What's a plus sign?" Vendra asked flatly, looking rather uncertain.

"What's a chalk board?" Neftin added curiously.

Ratchet groaned, rubbing his head. "Touché. We'll take the lessons…"

"Now don't be like that," Wendall offered in a conciliatory manner once he got over realizing his hyperbole had been accurate. These poor kids… "The tutor bot I'm providing is programmed to take all three of you forward at whatever rate you're comfortable going, so you'll never be bored or left behind, always perfectly challenged. Give it a chance, it could be fun!"

In hindsight, Ratchet was forced to admit that Wendall had been right again, as galling as it was to have an adult come in and start rearranging their lives. Ratchet had already mastered reading and writing in Solana Standard, and had taken it as a challenge to himself to write out the Nether Tongue in comprehensible symbols. Neftin had gone from reading into studies of combat, eager to enhance his own impressive abilities. Vendra seemed to be going in every direction possible, and seemed to take delight in shorting out the tutor bot by advancing in too many subjects at once. Even at the times when Ratchet and Neftin were feeling ambivalent about their own lessons, the look of delight on her face whenever that happened was enough to keep them going.

Of course, the highpoint of the changes had to be their introduction to Holovision and Virtual Games. The sheer volume of experiences through the game console engaged all three thoroughly – especially when they played cooperatively or against each other – and the sheer number of shows they could watch on the HV was mind boggling. As should have been expected, it wasn't long before all three had developed distinct interests in terms of shows, frequently leading to all out brawls over control of the remote whenever all three wanted to watch their shows at the same time. The most frequent casualty of their brawls was the remote control, leading to Vendra's first non-combat invention being a self-repairing remote control that could completely reconstitute itself even from being smashed completely to bits.

When he heard about this – and the reason for it – Wendall had offered to provide an extra two HVs so they could all watch their own shows. The response had been surprising.

"Why would we want to watch it alone?" Vendra had asked bluntly. "It's no fun if we can't share in it."

Wendall had blinked in surprise for a time, but smiled widely. "Well, how about I add a system that will let you record the shows, so nobody has to miss theirs?"

The trio exchanged glances. "Does…does that mean we won't fight over the HV anymore?" Neftin asked plaintively.

"…we can still fight over whose show first," Ratchet offered. "And since we can watch them all, there won't be a time limit on the fights anymore."

Wendall had promptly facepalmed on seeing the eager grins on all three faces.

While the initial fights over who got their show first were exceptionally intense, their favorite part of watching the HV was when they were watching a quiet movie. Neftin sat back on the sofa, his large weight causing the cushions under him to bow as he sank in. Ratchet sat next to him, the bowed cushions causing him to sit higher than Neftin. Vendra then took her favorite spot, sitting in Neftin's lap while her head rested in Ratchet's, with his hand idly futzing with her hair. So comfortable was the position and state for all three that it often took the tutor bot seizing one or more by the ear to get them to budge, even when the movie had ended.

Yes, their lives had changed drastically since making the agreement, and not in the way they'd expected or imagined when they'd set out to conquer. Still, when they curled up together at night wrapped in a blanket that wasn't threadbare or too small, their heads resting on pillows that weren't rocks, and their bedding arranged into a comfortable nest as they sprawled over each other…

With each day ending like that, none of them could really complain.