“Gary, my nephew?” He looked at her with his neutral face. “I have a message from Pavel.” In her periphery, she could see his parents were surprised.
“Yes. How is he?”
“He…” She tried not to remember the blackness. “He has been hurt and he is very sick. Fausta’s entire family, and Pavel’s father, are going to do everything they can to make him better.”
“That’s good. What was the message?”
“He said you are his best friend and that he loves you. When he can, he will tell you himself.”
The little boy nodded. “That’s nice. Thank you, Aunt Lily.”
Fausta stood still during their exchange. It was much smaller, but the wet-tentacled thing was still there, just at the base of the back of his skull. I’d best go work on that cutout now.
Chapter 18
Literally kicking her feet against the low concrete wall she sat on, Lily sipped at her coffee – not even close to Ai’s – thinking about how she suddenly found herself alone. The Colonel and his aide had left immediately. The Carell’s congratulated Leslie and Fausta and left, taking Fausta with them. Leslie had hied himself off, muttering about power lines. Callie gave her a quick hug and took Gary’s hand, saying they were looking in on Chibi. And Orloff had left without her seeing. So, after a stop in the mess hall, she sat. Kicking her heels.
It was certainly true that everyone else, except Orloff, had something to do there. This was their job, after all. Had Callie been the one coming to find her, she’d have found herself sitting on the bench in Matt’s garden while I was working. Hey!
She took out her smartphone and powered it up. She knew that Orloff had said there was no service, but maybe Fausta could swing something…. She set it next to her while it started up. There was a little chime she didn’t recognize. Looking at the screen she saw ‘M C Net!’ with Ai’s cute CG face winking in the middle of the ‘C’. Just below the logo was ‘A temporary data & phone service; let’s love one another!’ Oh, you guys! Lily thought, as she pressed an icon.
There were several clicks, then a ringing. “St. Ed’s Home for Children. This is Mrs. Lanning, speakin’.”
“Carol! This is Lily!” She said. “How are you?”
“Lily! We’s was wonderin’ when you’d be callin’!” She didn’t sound surprised at all. “How you doin’?”
“Um, pretty good right now. I found my sister and her family.” She was still confused about how calmly her boss was taking this. “And we’re in Huntsville, not Knoxville.”
“Yeah, I heard. Your huge friend doin’ okay?”
“Sure, Fausta’s fine.” Lily couldn’t take it anymore. “Carol, you act as if you know all this and were expecting my call?”
“Sure,” she easily replied. “That hyper friend of yours, Ai, gave a call last night, lettin’ me know what’s up. Right nice of her.”
Oh. “That’s good. Carol? How are the kids?”
“Mostly all fine. Ken’s new leg buckled when he was holding a pan, so’s his arm got scalded by some hot water. Sides’ that, we’ve been just getting’ by without you’uns.” Lily heard her drink some tea. “Speakin’ uh which, you’uns have any idea when you might be comin’ back? I’d like to tell the kids somethin’.”
She froze. First through the badlands and even after finding Callie, things had gone so fast she’d not even considered that.
“Uh, I really don’t know, Carol.” Just tell the truth. “I know that I am, but… my sister will be here at least another month. And, getting back will probably be just as bad as it was getting here….”
“’Salright. You take you’uns time doin’ what needs doin’! Just give a call now and then! Y’all take care out there! Bye!”
“Bye, Carol.” She said softly. Going back home. To her life, her kids. How long would be before she saw her sister again? Years? She jumped off the low wall and started walking.
She’s already gotten hints from both John Carell and from Wagner that they wanted her to join their ‘Society.’ That would mean leaving with them and starting over – again! – in Knoxville. If she did, would Orloff go back, alone? Fausta said that, unlike Ai’s android, she owned hers, so she could go wherever she wanted. I can’t imagine she’d be happy just hanging around me… for however long.
Not really knowing the area well, she turned and kept walking. That way she could use the reactor building as a landmark. Callie not only has a family, but it seems, lots of friends, too. Human friends, she thought sourly. There’s no way I could ask her family to leave all that. And what they’re doing is so important….
The building housing the mess hall and dorms was now on her right; the reactor to the north of it. So I guess just what I said to Carol: stick around here until they hand everything over to the locals, then trek back home. Back the way they came? Or southeast, through Vicksburg. It would be shorter, but it was all unknown. She turned right again.
Hmm. Due south, to the Gulf? Maybe they could hire a boat to take them to Galveston? That’s right! With power and signal here, Fausta could talk to the Texas Navy and… she shook her head. Why would they bother for three crazy civilians?
“Dang it! Why don’t one of you guys invent teleportation!” She yelled to the cool air. Although she’d spent so much of the last six years alone, after these almost nine months with Ai and Fausta, she discovered that she hated it. A glance at her watch showed eleven thirty. Maybe Callie would want to get lunch? She started towards the reactor building.
Standing in the entryway, she knew that the conference room was on the left, so obviously she took the other door. At the end of a short hallway was yet another, labeled ‘Control Room.’ There was nothing to indicate it was a restricted area, so she twisted the knob and let herself in.
There were stacks of electrical panels down each wall, with half circle of panels on a similar shaped desk just in the center. One man was taking readings from those on the wall, off to her left. The woman in the chair in the half-circle turned around. Her short, dark hair nicely accented her round face. Her hazel eyes reminded her a bit of Thaad. But, her smile actually reached them.
“Hello, there!” She said, standing and extending her hand. “I’m Molly Patterson! You’re Callie’s sister, right?”
“Hello, yes I am.” She shook her hand. Did word get around that fast?
“I saw you in the showers this morning with Callie and that android.” Her eyes glimmered at that. “She is amazing! To think what other places have developed while we’re back to the 19th Century! It was nice to have a glimpse of the future we’re trying to build! Thank you!”
“Oh, don’t mention it,” she said, slightly embarrassed. It’s not like I had anything to do with Fausta’s mind or frame.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Molly asked.
“I… I was looking for my sister,” Lily said. She was curious. “But, since I’m here, do you mind if I take a look at the reactor? Everyone seems so proud of it!” If she complimented my friend, I can at least try to return it.
“There’s not much to see from the outside – you should have been here when we were putting it together – but sure!” She walked to the wall ahead of the circular desk. There was a stout steel door set in it at the right. There was also a keypad. Molly quickly typed something and waved for Lily to follow her.
“Uh… we don’t need radiation suits, or something?” Molly laughed.
“No, no! These are wonderfully self-contained; they can’t even go critical!”
You might want to see Fausta about that, Lily thought as she went into the room. About thirty by thirty feet, with a ceiling of maybe twenty feet, there was a hexagonal steel box in the middle of the room. Several pipes and many conduit lines lead into it. It was much smaller than she thought it would be.
“So small,” she said. Molly nodded with a smile.
“That’s why your sister named it ‘Chibi.’ That’s a Japanese word, I’m told. Callie,” she paused. “Callie li
kes cute things.”
“She always did.” Lily replied, her eyes following the odd little mote of light. Its movements weren’t entirely random, she thought.
“What’s that?” Lily asked, her hand weaving as she pointed. “Some local bug?”
At the word ‘bug,’ Molly frowned. She stared at the reactor. “Where?”
Seriously, how could you not see that? “It was next to it, but there, about two feet above it, circling.”
Molly stared for a bit. She turned to Lily, serious. “I know that your companion, Fausta, is an android. If you don’t mind me asking, are your eyes cybernetic?”
“N… no.” Oh, no. “Don’t tell me: you can’t see it?”
Molly held up her left hand. “Hang on.” She took out a walkie-talkie with her right. “PM Phil; Molly. We’ve a Level One incident in the main room.”
She held it and waited. Less than five seconds later came, “Copy; on my way.” Lily wondered what she’d done wrong now.
Hee, hee, hee!
Lily looked about. That girly pitched voice…
You win, Miss Lily! Here I am!
Dorina? Lily watched the will o’ the wisp slowly fall to just above the top of the reactor core. It slowly sank down into it. A moment later, a transparent, white outline of Dorina poked her head and shoulders out the top.
“What the hell is that!” Molly screamed. Lily guessed she could see her now.
“It’s okay!” Lily called, hopefully before anything bad happened. “That’s Fausta’s sister, Dorina! She’s…” Flighty? Has bad taste in clothes? Lily recalled what Ai said about the things Dorina liked to work on. “She’s amazingly smart.”
Thank you! Hello, Molly Patterson! This is a nice toy!
Molly seemed okay with Fausta’s artificial frame, Lily thought, I wonder how this will go over?
“Hello… Dorina, was it?” Her voice was shaking.
“This is a nice trick, Dorina.” Lily said. “So, y’all can come to our home, now?” The ghost nodded happily.
I’d this idea from a while ago. Too bad this isn’t a fusion reactor; I might be able to make a physical body!
Lily was stunned. To think there was a way for Ai—
The door behind them opened suddenly. A man in his fifties, totally bald with rimless glasses came in, his labcoat a-furl about him. “What’s all this then, Molly? Will told there’s an inexplicable twelve percent power drop!” He asked, looking at her. Her slightly wild eyes spun as she pointed. He looked up and froze.
Hello, Project Manager Phillip Chinon! Sorry about taking your energy! I’m not a thief, so I promise to make it up to you by telling you how to upgrade this unit by twenty-five percent!
The pen he was holding clattered to the floor. Lily couldn’t hold back her grin this time: welcome to my life, you Mundanes.
“Psychoactives in bad coffee beans, that’s what this is,” he said, staring at Dorina.
Nope, nope, nope!
“Mister Chinon? I’m Lily Barrett, Callie Ba—er, Hartmann’s sister.” She waved toward the top of Chibi. “This is my friend, Dorina, of Machine Civilization.”
He noticed Lily for the first time. He quickly looked back to Molly, who nodded.
“I’ve been hearing all sorts of strange things in the past few hours.” He said, striving mightily to keep his voice under control. “Androids, AI’s, something about dragons, for God’s sake… and now… whatever this is!”
The fission reaction creates an EM equipotential flux at a frequency I predicted. With Ai’s help, I can weave together just enough light for everyone to see me! My feet are getting warm, standing on these pebbles, though!
It’s not even a competition with them anymore, Lily thought. Now they’re just making it all up.
“Wait!” Chinon yelled. “That would imply that you could manifest a physical form with a fusion reaction, correct?”
Lily hung her head. Him, too?
Oooh! After my nap, I wanna talk to you! May I call you Phil, too?
Lily watched his entire body shake. “I don’t care what you call me; but, yes, please call me back! I’ve a—“
I’ll find you!
The ghost in the machine vanished.
No one moved for a minute. From the other room, a man called “Power’s back to normal!” That seemed to get Chinon moving again. He turned and stared hard at Lily.
“Tell me everything!”
I just wanted to have lunch with my sister!
“Fine.” She huffed. “On one condition!”
“Anything; name it!” Excitable man, she thought.
“I want lunch.”
“All you can eat; let’s go!”
Lily was half way through her story and her pulled pork sandwich when she saw her sister and Gary come in. When she and Chinon had first entered, Lily’d spied Orloff in a far corner, surrounded by papers. Callie pointed towards the food first and Lily’s table second. She nodded and took a drink from the locally made root beer (the guy at the counter promised her it was safe), which turned out to be really good. Maybe we should take a case back? Chinon was asking yet another question. He’s already come to realize that Lily was not his go-to person for details about her friend’s family, but wanted to know about her interactions with them, nonetheless.
“… you actually think that you had something to do with Henge’s creation?”
Why does everyone keep coming back to that?
“Thaad said he could not have done it without my Path. It was my friend Ai that used the term ‘step-daughter.” She shrugged and took another bite. She swallowed. “Now that you mention it, Ai said she had ideas like Henge she wanted to make… I wonder why she hasn’t yet?”
“That’s easy enough: how can two women make a child?” Chinon said, completely serious. Lily choked as some of the tasty root beer shot out her nose.
“W…what?!”
“If your Path is a byproduct of your person, then I’m sure it would contain elements of your sexuality, as well.” There went her ears. He didn’t notice. “For your friend, Ai, was it? For her to make a child, she would need to partake of masculine co-creation. It’s quite simple when you think about it. Oh, are you all right?”
She nodded again, wiping at her face and the table. Callie and Gary were on their way with a tray held by her. “Hi, guys! What are you talking about?”
“Sex.” Chinon replied. Callie tried to hold in her laugh.
“You’re one fast girl for a virgin! But Phil is already married! Gary, sit there, next to Mister Chinon.” He did without a word. Lily thought about fleeing.
“What does that have to do with anything?” He asked, thankfully clueless. “I was just making the hypothesis that by introducing a human male into their world, perhaps the female AI’s—”
“Don’t say that; it’s rude!” Lily cut in. He paused.
“My apologies. Perhaps the female emcee’s can produce offspring just as the other one, Thaad, did.”
Emcee’s? Oh: MC’s, Lily realized. Clever. Lily looked left to see the odd look on Callie’s face.
“You okay, Callie?” She asked.
“I think… they took Leslie to their… home, didn’t they?” Callie asked slowly. “Does that mean… would he start his own path…?”
“Hey!” She brightened. “If he did, he’d be the first on besides you, right? That’s certainly keeping everything in the family!” She passed a bowl of soup to Gary and started on her own.
Lily thought about that. Ai did once mention that they’re talking to lots of humans, but that she’d not found anyone else like me. So, was Leslie the second? No! That time back in Waxahachie: when Fausta took Orloff, and got scared about something. Oh, well. So much for keeping it in the family.
“You, uh, don’t say a blessing over your food?” Lily asked, trying not seem pushy.
“Huh?” She could tell Callie was genuinely surprised. “Not done that in years. You do?”
Lily nodded while taking another b
ite. I’m not judging you, sis! I was just curious!
“So…” Callie continued, “you still go to Mass, too?” Lily put the last bit of her sandwich down and wiped her mouth. May as well do this now.
“Yeah, every Sunday when I’m back home. And, since it’s a Catholic orphanage where I live and work, we also have prayers in our chapel every morning.”
“Oh. Well… I… uh…” Callie just stared down at her soup. Chinon stood.
“Excuse me ladies. I need to get back to work, and you to need time to catch up.” He shook Lily’s hand. “I’ve more questions, but they’ll keep. A pleasure!”
Gary scooted over a bit on the bench. “So, is Fausta marrying father as well?” He asked. Now it was Lily’s turn to laugh.
“No! He’s not!” Callie cried. She looked at her sister. “Is he?”
“I am most certainly not married to Thaad,” Lily laughed, “so even if Leslie made some kind of his own path, one of the girls would just be partaking of his nature, I suppose.”
“Still sounds kinda dirty,” Callie muttered, taking a spoonful of soup. Lily smiled and ate the last of her sandwich. After a moment, she leaned over and hugged Callie.
“What was that for?” She asked, a little surprised.
“I need a reason? Seriously?” Lily grinned. “And it’s nice to hug someone that doesn’t change form when I do it!” She grinned more at her sister’s incomprehension.
“Elephant,” Gary said suddenly. Lily looked blank. Callie sighed, used to his tangents.
“Yes, Gary?” She said with what she hoped was a tone of patience.
“In the room. No one’s talking about it.” When Lily looked around, Callie laughed at her.
“A figure of speech, Lily! And you’re supposed to taking care of a bunch of kids?”
“Grrr!” Lily said. “At this point of my life, you’d be surprised at what I expect to turn around and see. So, what about an elephant?”
Echoes of Family Lost Page 17