"I think we're too young to learn such mighty Sire secrets," Arielle said suavely. "Besides, why don't you ask an elder, instead of bothering us?"
"Shut up, Ara-lee!" Bess-lin snarled. "Are you aware that if you marry Kol-ian you'll end up as mind-controlled as your silly elder brother?"
"I am aware of the implications of my marriage to him," Arielle answered with a shrug. "And you can't do anything to stop us."
"He's mine!"
"You wish!"
"Girls! Ladies!" Stan-luc raised his hands. He didn't want to find himself in the middle of a catfight. "Please! I'm nobody's prize. I will marry whomever I want. And Bess-lin, stop being so mean. I'm not your servant or your errand boy!"
"Of course not, Kol-ian dear!" She purred and rubbed herself against him.
Jarred, he jumped to his feet and started pacing in front of the couch.
"That's enough," he said at last, stopping in front of his grandmother and glaring at her. "I am not Kol-ian. I am Stan-luc Angelle Meraini. I'm your grandson. You're seventy-three. Stop behaving as if you were still twenty-five. You've cut your hair and it won't grow back, because guess what? It's a wig! Your body is fake! And Marc'harid is destroyed! So stop behaving as if you owned the universe! You're a survivor and you live off Maela's love and affection! Start showing some gratitude – to her!"
Bess-lin sprang to her feet, furious. She was shorter than him, but on her tiptoes she was at eye height.
"You're losing your mind, Kol-ian! Or you're lying because you don't want to help me! You don't want to have my baby or tell me the Vaurabi secrets or..."
"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about! I don't know any Vaurabi secrets! And you can't have babies, you have an artificial body!" Stan-luc screamed, exasperated.
Arielle rose and put a hand on his shoulder to calm him. Her eyes seemed to scold him and he quickly regained his composure.
"I'm sorry, honey," he muttered, sliding his fingers through his long black hair.
She hugged him and kissed his cheek tenderly then yelped.
"What? What is it?" he asked, alarmed, seeing her massaging her temples.
"Bitch hurt," Arielle grumbled, closing her eyes with a frown.
Stan-luc noticed Bess-lin was scowling. It occurred to him that maybe the powerful Sire mind was still active enough to hurt.
"Not hard enough," Bess-lin said through clenched teeth. "Lin-sun killed Kay-low! I barely brushed her!"
Stan-luc stood between the two women and stared determined at his grandmother.
"If you try to hurt her again, I will hit you with all my might," he warned. "Now I'm leaving. I've had enough of your tantrums."
"Please stay!" she begged, grabbing his arm. Her grip was way too strong for a biological body. Her fingers were crushing his muscles.
"Ouch!" he said. "Stop, you're hurting me!"
"Then send her away and stay," she replied.
Stan-luc rolled his eyes. Bess-lin's fingers were crushing his arm and he winced.
"Go, Arielle," he said quickly. "I'll manage."
"I don't think so," his girlfriend replied. "I'm fine, she didn't hurt me much." She moved a step forward. "Let him go, bitch!"
Bess-lin put her free hand on Arielle's face and she screamed.
"Bitch!"
"Did that hurt?" Bess-lin asked, triumphant.
"Fucking headache," Arielle said through gritted teeth, holding her head with both hands.
"It should have annihilated your mind."
Bess-lin frowned and let go of Stan-luc to observe Arielle. Stan-luc held his bruised arm and looked at his girlfriend, not daring to touch her.
"Arielle?" he asked.
"I'm fine!" she spat out, glaring at him. "Where the fuck is your damn father?"
"The Emperor is dead," Bess-lin announced proudly.
"Yeah, almost fifty years ago!" Stan-luc snapped, backing away from her. He must leave the damn Villa. He had enough of crazy Bess-lin's antics. He was beginning to think she wasn't so helpless and the artificial body wasn't her only strength.
The sounds of a flying car stopping in front of the house made both him and Arielle sigh in relief. They turned towards the main door and soon enough it opened to let in Maela, Kay-low with Jay-lee and a man in his seventies with white blond hair and blue eyes that took in everything.
Stan-luc's telepathy might be dormant, but he immediately knew the newcomer was a Sire elder. One of the very few of his grandparents' generation who had survived the destruction of Marc'harid.
Bess-lin's eyes narrowed as she focused on the four people entering the living room. She lingered mostly on Kay-low, although she probably wasn't recognizing him for who he was. She was seeing Kol-ian older that she remembered and it seemed to upset her.
"Bess-lin." The elder came forward. "I'm glad to see you remained as youthful as you were fifty years ago. Unfortunately this seems to be the case of the chassis, not the mind inside it."
"Who are you?" she demanded. She couldn't place his face anywhere in her memories. Maybe he didn't look like anyone she'd known.
"Leo-will Khamisi." He smiled. "My mother's colors on my father's face are probably upsetting you? It's been half a century, Bess-lin. You haven't aged because you transplanted your brain in an artificial body when you were fifty. But the new frame wasn't good enough to keep it healthy, obviously."
He stopped in front of her. "You're losing your mind," he said, serious now. "I shall attempt a healing."
He closed his eyes and put his hand over her face like she had done with Arielle. Stan-luc held his breath. His father's hand on his shoulder didn't help him relax. He glanced puzzled at Kay-low and his lifemate.
The Khamisi and the Shermac have a very strong empathy. Their minds heal and link and do good things, Kay-low transmitted. The Vaurabi are more heartless, icy, control freaks. Their minds were powerful enough to destroy someone.
Kay-low Meraini? Killed by Lin-sun Vaurabi?
Yes. Leo-will knows. Just wait until he uses his gift.
Stan-luc nodded, thoughtful. He watched the elder exhale and pull his hand away. Bess-lin seemed frozen. Leo-will slowly opened his eyes.
"I put her mind to sleep," he announced wearily. "It's not permanent yet, but there isn't much I can do for her. I can't remove the plaques and tangles in her brain tissue. Either you upload her mind somewhere or you just pull the plug on her."
He sat in the closest armchair as Kay-low, Jay-lee, Stan-luc, Arielle and Maela surrounded him, ignoring the pretty statue of Bess-lin.
"Will you be all right?" Kay-low asked, worried, crouching in front of Leo-will.
"Yes... I haven't done this in ten years and I'm not young anymore." The elder's smile was frail.
"Do you know something about the Vaurabi destructive powers?" Stan-luc asked.
"Yes. I know how Lin-sun destroyed Kay-low's mind."
"And she took control of Ker-ris's mind?"
"Ah, no, that was done through a device implanted by Kol-ian at sixteen. The Vaurabi were very good hackers of minds."
"Something we haven't really worked on," Kay-low said.
"She did hit me with something," Arielle complained. "I still have a bad headache!"
Leo-will signaled her to come closer. She knelt by the armchair and he touched her face for a moment.
"She tried to replicate what Lin-sun did," he said then. "She missed because she didn't calibrate the blow to the right mind."
"What does that mean?" Maela asked, frowning.
"It means that if she had intended to blow Arielle's mind out, she'd have succeeded. But she thought she was dealing with Ara-lee Shermac, so she aimed her blow at Ara-lee's mind."
"She's getting dangerous," Kay-low muttered, exchanging glances with Jay-lee. "She was never easy to deal with, but this is getting way out of hand!"
Leo-will nodded. "And it will only get worse. If she remembers who you actually are, she can hurt you badly."
Stan-luc stared worried at
his father and then Maela. Arielle sought the refuge of his arms, but she looked worried too.
"How long will she sleep?" Maela asked bluntly.
"An hour or two." Leo-will shrugged. "I don't think that when she comes back to her senses, her memory will have improved. She has gone back in time with her mind, there's no way we can convince her fifty years have gone by for everyone."
"If you want to keep her, take her to Sylvania," Kay-low told Maela. "At least there she won't be able to bother any man thinking he's Kol-ian and he owes her a baby."
"So you don't care what happens to her?" she asked gloomily.
"She's my mother but she should have perished with Marc'harid. The worst survived and she made your life hell since. Yours and Stan-luc's. No, I don't care what happens to her anymore. You can keep her immortal body with an AI inside, I'm sure she'd be a better girlfriend with a nicer personality!"
Stan-luc smiled despite himself. Bess-lin's body was a great android body, why waste it? His father's taste for beauty hadn't faded with the years. But he'd rather see her still like a statue than let her mess with their life for longer.
"I think the Meraini side of the family has spoken." Leo-will rose. "As Sire elder who tried vainly to save her, I can tell you she's better off dead. So the final decision is yours, Maela. Call your daughter when you've made up your mind."
Maela nodded and watched them leave.
"Where's Carissa?" Arielle asked as soon as they were outside of the Villa, sounding excited again.
"She's taken our stuff back home while we came straight here," Kay-low answered, amused. "Why don't you two come over tonight for dinner? I'm sure Selinda would be delighted to have us all back!"
"With Leo-will instead of Bess-lin," Stan-luc said with a grin. Yes, it would be a happy reunion dinner at his mother's. And hopefully Maela would make the right decision in the meantime.
***
Maela stared at the statue Bess-lin had become. What was an immortal body worth if the mind was gone? Did others run into this problem? Not Izzy-lee or Alex Da Vinci, who had become full-fledged S.E.T.H. with humanoid bodies that weren't actually enhanced. Still they were trans-human, a human mind uploaded into an artificial frame.
But both were in their fifties, not seventies. Who else had done it? Ah, yes, Markandeya Sumirasko. His elder lover hadn't made it, or at least hadn't wished for a physical body to download his mind into. But again, it had been a mind upload, not a brain transplant.
Maela pursed her lips and frowned. Was it a decent time to call the Serenaide Labs? She checked on the laptop. Yes, Markandeya would probably be at work now. Could she summon him to Ypsilanti? He was Ypsilantian, after all!
But Leo-will Khamisi had said that Bess-lin's mind was damaged beyond repair. How about S.E.T.H. World, had they run into such a problem? Accessing their database was relatively easy, and she even managed to ask the question in the forum. Someone immediately replied that no, mind uploads weren't the cure for dementia or senility or other neurodegenerative diseases.
So even taking Bess-lin's mind out of the artificial body was useless. The cause of death for some patients, for example, was from external factors due to the body losing muscle mass and mobility deterioration, which wouldn't happen to Bess-lin.
She was trapped in a body that would never be sick, didn't need to be fed and wouldn't catch any sickness, but the biological brain was more and more damaged and couldn't sustain the mind anymore.
Maela sighed and glanced at the colorful statue again. Pulling the plug would only do everybody a favor. Bess-lin might be unaware of her dementia, but Stan-luc was obviously shaken and Kay-low tired of his mother's antics.
Dadina interrupted her search and musing by calling her.
"Mom? Are you all right?" she asked, frowning in worry.
"Yes," Maela answered. "I'm only very tired. I'm not getting any younger and dealing with Bess-lin is taking its toll on me too."
"I'm sorry, Leo-will told us about her mind. I talked to Markandeya and he also thinks we should pull the plug. If you want, he can program Bess-lin's body to be your B.O.G."
"My what?"
"Battery-Operated Girlfriend. The chassis is good, so why waste it?" Dadina smiled. "You can have your custom-made B.O.G. if you want."
Despite the sorrow and tiredness, Maela burst out laughing. She glanced at the still android body and tried to imagine her with another personality meant to take care of her.
"Or you could have her as home caregiver," Dadina continued. "You can change her name, or call her Bess-lin, but she'd be programmed to help you, not use you. You could retire and enjoy some rest. You definitely deserve it."
"And who is going to put in the AI, you or Markandeya?" Maela asked, already feeling lighter hearted.
"I can do it here," Dadina assured her. "We're not going to charge you, and I'll ask Markandeya to guide me, but I think by now I'm quite good at building AIs myself. What kind of personality would you like her to have?"
***
"Don't be so nervous," Kay-low teased, helping Stan-luc into his wedding clothes. The richly embroidered jacket fit him like a glove and Stan-luc worried if he moved too quickly it would rip.
"Don't you think it's too tight?" he asked, looking at his reflection. He tried to pull back his hair into a ponytail, then dropped it again. He preferred it loose, especially all curly after being washed. And he knew Arielle preferred him with loose hair anyway.
"It's just perfect," Kay-low assured him. "Maybe the pants are too tight."
"Oh, Goddess, they're going to rip as soon as I sit down!" Stan-luc complained.
"I'm teasing, Stan-luc! Nothing will go wrong, don't worry. It's the best day of your life, enjoy it and don't let anything or anyone spoil it!"
Stan-luc turned to look at his father and Jay-lee. They'd been together for twenty-six years, mind-linked like only the Sire could, and never had a wedding, but they hadn't needed it. Selinda had always known that even if Kay-low had humored her twice, allowing her to give birth to both Stan-luc and Carissa, she had never been part of the equation.
"Are you proud of me?" Stan-luc asked, almost whiny in his search for support.
"Of course we are," Kay-low and Jay-lee chorused.
And then his mother entered the room and smiled at the sight of him. Stan-luc thought she was still most beautiful in her forties, and she was the best dancer alive, as far as he knew. She might not do that many shows anymore, but she was still very fit and had opened a dance school on Ypsilanti, where she taught both boys and girls her trade.
"My beautiful son." She went to hug him. "Are you ready for this?"
"He's nervous," Kay-low said.
"I'm not!" he snapped.
She chuckled. "It's all right to be nervous on your wedding day. Be ready to be dazzled, Arielle is stunning."
He smiled despite himself. "Thanks, Mom."
"Let's go," Kay-low said. "Carissa is helping Arielle, so we'll see her at the temple."
Stan-luc followed them outside. He didn't like formal clothes, but at least for his wedding he wanted to look sharp. He was too elegant for the motosonic, though, so he climbed in his mother's flying car with his parents and Jay-lee.
At the temple he found Dadina with her son Xavier. Wim had gone to pick up Arielle, and Carissa and Jasmine who were the bridesmaids. Leo-will stood in a corner, smiling benevolently. His friends patted Stan-luc's back and congratulated him.
And then Maela arrived with her home android who had done the driving. It was still jarring to see his grandmother's artificial body, but the new Bess-lin was nothing like the woman that had pestered him for the past ten years.
Soon he'd forget the ordeal. He only needed to remember that now Bess-lin was just a robot, an android programmed to take care of aging Maela. He smiled at her, then he saw Wim's flying car and turned expectantly that way.
Carissa and Jasmine came out first, all giggly and wearing long gowns. Carissa had black hair, Jasmine was blonde
, but they had the same hairdo with little flowers in it that matched their sky-blue dresses.
Then Wim offered his hand to his daughter and helped her out of the flying car and Stan-luc held his breath.
Arielle had pulled up her mahogany red hair and hidden it under a light purple veil. She wore a deep purple gown with lots of frills and laces that made her look like a princess. A black ribbon around her neck held a purple amethyst that matched the veil.
She saw him and smiled as she slowly sauntered forward, holding her father's arm with one hand and a bouquet of deep purple flowers with the other.
Stan-luc remembered to close his mouth and gulped. No artificial, immortal body could ever compare to the imperfect but lovely girl walking towards him with her heart in her eyes. Wim put Arielle's hand in his and all anxiety vanished.
He was doing the right thing. And yes, nobody would spoil that glorious day for him. Grinning from ear to ear, he guided her inside the temple to pronounce the vows.
Acknowledgments
Beta-readers Clyde, Shafali, Sarah, Rebecca, Jennifer, Anna, Chiara, B-Abby, Tori. Editor Tiffany Shand.
About the Author
Barbara G.Tarn had an intense life in the Middle Ages that stuck to her through the centuries. She prefers swords to guns, long gowns to mini-skirts, and even though she buried the warrior woman, she deplores the death of knights in shining chainmail. She likes to think her condo apartment is a medieval castle, unfortunately lacking a dungeon to throw noisy neighbors and naughty colleagues in. Also known as the Lady with the Unicorns, these days she prefers to add a touch of fantasy to all her stories, past and present – when she’s not wandering on her fantasy world of Silvery Earth or in her science fantasy Star Minds Universe. She dabbles into historical fantasy with her Vampires Through the Centuries series and has started post-apocalyptic/steampunk series called Future Earth Chronicles. She’s a writer, sometimes artist, mostly a world-creator and story-teller. Two of her stories received an Honorable Mention at the Writers of the Future contest and one was published in Pulphouse Magazine #5 (March 2019). She writes, draws, ignores her day job and blogs at: http://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com.
Star Minds Third Generation Snippets Page 15