Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  Chapter 13: The Photographs

  The next day Lisa was in the big study using an expert system to look at and catalog her photos. She had stills, videos and holos; several hours of them. She was looking at them when Georgia came in.

  “How do you feel,” Lisa asked indicating for Georgia to sit down.

  “Okay,” the young woman said sitting down, “I can feel the muscles starting to rebuild. Kind of itches.”

  “I’ve been told that the regrowth drugs will cause that. “ Lisa commented. She saw the younger woman wince in pain and asked, “Who’s your Therapist?”

  “Holly Caruthers,” Georgia replied. “I see her tonight.”

  “Good,” Lisa replied, “You’ll like her she’s good. If you want I’ll work with you also.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Georgia replied, she knew how good a physical therapist her charge was reputed to be. She didn’t think it proper for her to be treated by her charge though.

  “All right,” Lisa replied, thinking she knew why Georgia was reluctant to let her treat her. Georgia didn’t want to mix protecting Lisa with her personal business. “Look what we did yesterday.”

  “Okay,” Georgia said. She moved her chair next to Lisa, and began paging through the hundreds of photos and holos that they both had taken. When they got to the picture Georgia had taken of Lisa helping the woman diaper her baby, Lisa turned to the young woman, nodded and went on. After looking at the entire list they began to catalog them. Finally near midday, Maggie came in with lunch.

  “Who took that?” Maggie said seeing her mistress hand a young woman a diaper bag. It caught the hectic scene of the people milling around in the embarkation area. Of people bumping into each other and through it all, the young mother was diapering her baby and trying to keep her other children from wandering off.

  “Georgia did,” Lisa said handing the young woman a cup of soup. “She’s got a great eye.”

  “She does,” Maggie said looking at a few more of the photos, “What are you going to do with these, Milady?”

  “I don’t know,” Lisa replied, “I think it’s important that we document the evacuation. I feel we have to show our children and grandchildren what we went through to get our people to safety.”

  “Lady Wilson,” Georgia said, “Why don’t you send a couple of these to the net services.”

  “I can’t do that,” Lisa said. “It wouldn’t be right.”

  “Why not,” Georgia asked, “You take as good a picture as any professional news net photographer.”

  “Look at this one mistress,” Maggie picked up the photo of the father bringing his family some drinks, and refreshments. The picture showed the worry on the father’s face, and gratitude of the mother for the father bringing them refreshments. “You got the whole essence of this part of their ordeal. The worry of the father of what is really going to happen when they get to Home is clearly all over his face. And the look on the mother’s face thankful that her man had thought to bring them all something, though he was worried to death about what was going to happen.”

  “Lady Wilson,” Georgia said softly, “Look at this one as the family boarded the landing craft. That last look the mother, and father made onto the world of their birth. One last look. Look at the emotions.” Georgia tapped a photo, the husband carrying his five year looking one more time at the world of his birth, a single tear silently testifying that this big strong man was anything but untouched by the emotionally charged events of his departure from Trena. “You say I have the eye of photographer, but these are terrific.”

  “But I’m a bioperson!” Lisa said, “We aren’t allowed to do this!”

  “Who says?” Georgia asked, “We have biopersons here on Trena who are reporters and their work is published all over the kingdom.”

  “But...I’ve never done it I don’t know how to do it!” Lisa said, “As much as I think that we have to document what we are living through, I do this mostly for myself. I don’t know is if it is proper for me to do this?”

  “Lisa,” Francine had walked in towards the end of the conversation, “Georgia’s right, there are a lot of biopeople who publish their work all over the kingdom, but few of them ever have had their work published outside of the kingdom. The publishers in the Empire are afraid that if they do that the escapee’s owners will make it impossible for the clone to collect her royalty. It is not only proper, but something that you need to do for our people.”

  That got Francine a dirty look, “Everyone in this room is our people Francine. I won’t play that game. That caused problems back on Earth during the second century Pre Empire. I am not a Trena Bioengineered Human I am first and foremost a mother, a wife, and a citizen of the Kingdom of Trena. If we published these prints they’ll be published under the name Lisa Wilson. Not Lady Wilson, not CD 1984 AOB; but Lisa Wilson!”

  “Okay Boss Lady,” Francine replied, “you pick them and I’ll hand carry them to United Press Interstellar.”

  “Georgia,” Lisa nodded as she picked up a camera, and handed it to the young agent, “This one’s yours. You have a good eye. Someday you may not be a protective agent, or may want to change professions. Or you just may want to have a fun hobby. Start taking pictures.”

  “But that’s an expensive camera!” Georgia replied. “I can’t take that from you.”

  “Georgia,” Lisa said, “I won’t force it on you; but whenever you want to borrow it, just take it.”

  Maggie locked eyes with Georgia and slightly nodded her head telling the young woman that it was okay for her to accept the gift.

  “Okay Lady Wilson,” Georgia replied as she took the camera. It was the one she used the day before.

  “When are you to go back to duty?” Lisa asked.

  “In a week,” Georgia said, “Mac’s already debriefed me, and he’s cleared me. There’ll be no disciplinary action. By then according to the doctors I should be in good enough shape to take duty.”

  “Good,” Lisa replied, “I want you back.”

  “I want to be back,” Georgia replied. She truly enjoyed her current assignment. There had been a lot of posts in the last few years that she had loathed coming to work to take. The person she was protecting was loathsome, uncouth or just a pain to be around. One young teenager had taken the opportunity to grab her every time he went by her. She had to sit and take it. She had said something to her supervisor. The supervisor saw the recording the surveillance system had made and later had a conversation with the family. That only made it worse. The father decided to do the same thing. Finally it got too much and Georgia just decked the father and walked out. The protective detail then told the family they were on their own. The supervisor then talked to private duty body guards and showed them the video, and let them make the decision whether to take the contract or not.

  The Wilson family was still a little awed about having personal body guards. The Marshal accepted it fairly well but it was hard for him to deal with it at times. He had been a marine for nearly twenty five years. He had made combat drops with the Special Forces. He had walked posts where body armor wasn’t just a good idea; but a life saver. He had been shot at and sent to the hospital for it. So it hurt his pride a bit to have the agents protecting him. Lady Wilson was having the hardest time adapting. Mostly because she still thought of herself first as a cop’s wife, mother, then a clone. The detail truly enjoyed working with Lisa. She had made it a point to know each and every one in her detail. She was beginning to know each and every one of their spouse’s names, kids and even pets. A week or so back she had found out that Mac’s little girl had broken her arm and had made a point of stopping by Mac’s place and checking on the girl. Mac was a single father. Mac’s wife leaving him years before, Lisa had heard about it and wanted to make certain the girl was okay. Secretly the detail called her mom.

  “Just next time,” Lisa said, “Let’s do both our jobs without you getting shot!”

  “Lady Wilson,�
� Georgia said in a very serious tone of voice, “I will endeavor not to be shot in the future!”

  That brought a chuckle to the assembled women.

  Jill had also wandered into the middle of the conversation. She quietly observed the older women as they talked. Listening to her mother talk with her staff and how she treated them was an eye opener. Lisa treated them as equals. That was more educational than being told how to handle the staff. She wandered over and looked at photos. She had to admit that her step mother had a good eye for getting the right photograph.