by Randal Sloan
"Ok", the doctor gently replied. "As you know, we-- we being your father and I, and our company -- have been battling a big organization that is opposed to us. We know now that this man was helping them. We now think that he was the source of information that led to the attack on you and your mother."
Miranda interrupted, "Yes, I now seem to be able to at least remember my mother. My mother is holding me close and saying, 'I love you my darling daughter.' When I look at her picture, it brings tears to my eyes. Now I know I have a father that is alive, and yet can't be found. I intend to find him if at all possible! And you are telling me this man was partly to blame? I'm not sorry about what happened to him either." She stopped to collect her thoughts a minute.
Finally she went on, "So the next question, why Miranda and not Julie all along? Why did you have me thinking I was someone else?"
"We knew something was going on with the Organization. We knew we had a leak, just not where, and we never expected it was that idiot assistant. If you had been Julie, you would have been fair game, but as Miranda we could hide you away in plain sight, so to speak."
"Ok, I sort of get that. But you could have told me the truth, and trusted me to do the right thing. I haven't completely forgiven you guys for that."
Uncle Ted looked a little sad at that. "Yes, I see that now, but we had no idea how stable you were going to be. In hindsight, we obviously made the wrong decision."
Miranda mused, "And even knowing it is true, I still don't see how I can be Julie. She has gorgeous blonde hair, and I have black hair that certainly was not colored to be black. My skin tone is completely different. Even my face looks a little different." And then she laughed and said, "Never mind, I see. Nanites."
Doctor Ted nodded. "Yes, and you can change it all back with a command available to your nanites."
"And the girl Miranda? Does she really exist?"
"Not really. Your identity was obtained from witness protection. The lady killed in the car crash was a Jane Doe never identified, so she was given the background identity to match Miranda's mother."
"That's so sad. That poor woman died without anyone being there."
"Yes, unfortunately those kinds of things still happen, even in our day of facial recognition and DNA records."
Doctor Ted came around to stand in front of her. "Now that the cat is out of the bag, when you are ready, we are going to make an official announcement, probably in the next day or so, and you will have to do things as Julie. I have been and will continue to run the day-to-day work of the company. But with your father's disappearance, you have additional responsibilities whereby you are going to have to step in at times as required. I had kept putting it all off, because your identity as Miranda was to protect you. But you are now the sole heir to your father's part of the company. I, like you, think your father is still alive, but the stockholders are beginning to get nervous. They will be expecting to see one or the other of you at the annual stockholders meeting, which is in a few weeks. Unless your father is found by then, of course. I will try to brief you on the company, and everything we know about your father in the next day or so."
"Ok, one last question." Miranda said with another sad smile. "The librarian, was he my father in disguise?"
"Yes, he couldn't resist seeing you. He was always very careful to make sure his disguise was good, and that no one had followed him, before coming to see you."
Doctor Ted had moved over to look at the monitoring equipment. Looking back up at her, he said, "I know you have a tremendous amount to think about, and based on your nanites readings, I know you need to rest."
"Yeah, bad headache." She didn't tell him the rest of it, because she had suddenly realized she couldn't. Not yet.
Doctor Ted nodded, "Emily has been in and out of this room and Zeke's since you were both brought here. I know she will want to see you, and I have told her to come back in a little while so you can talk."
He turned, slipping out the door and closing it gently behind him. Miranda lay there quietly with her eyes closed, thinking about all she had learned, and working to get better control of her nanites.
#
Miranda knew Emily was coming before she got there. She heard her and smelled the slight fragrance that she was wearing. When she came into the room, Emily sobbed, "Oh, Miranda I'm so glad you're ok, but it really looks bad for Zeke."
"I know," said Miranda, also breaking down into sobs. "He saved my life, but at such a great cost."
They both cried together for a few moments. Finally Miranda dried her eyes. "We need to talk. I think I can possibly help Zeke, but it's not quite that simple. Sit down, it's going to take a while."
Emily pulled the chair closer to the bed, sitting down beside Miranda. Then she turned and looked at her expectantly.
"I've told you in the past about the nanites that they treated me with to bring me out of my coma. What I have been discussing with Doctor Ted is whether or not my nanites can be used to help Zeke. His answer was typical of a doctor. Maybe."
"Of course, it's a lot more complicated than that. In fact, I have another secret that I just now found out myself. I still don't have most of my memories back, but I know some things now that I didn't know before. It appears my name is not Miranda Summerlin. That is the name they got for me from witness protection, and that is what they told me was my name. I believed them since I had no memory. In fact, I am Julie Randolph."
Seeing Emily's shocked look, she went on. "And before you ask, I'm sure of it. Believe me, I was totally shocked when that man told me, too. But it's true, and it makes sense when you think about it. The timing of the supposed accident was really close to the timing of the attack on my family, and the doctors involved were my father and uncle. Just a little trickery with the nanites to make me look almost the opposite to the other me. Most of the time I think I am going to be Miranda to the world. Plus, I am still the same girl you know and I'm not going to start treating you differently."
Emily's shock level had gone from high to off the charts. At first she was almost speechless, just staring at her. Finally she managed, "If you are Julie, then you are rich."
"I guess, but I don't care about money right now. I need you and I need Zeke. Please don't let this change things between us." The last was almost a plea.
Emily quickly assured her. "Oh, sis, I love you. I love you like the sister I never had. That will never change." She reached over and carefully gave her friend a hug, not wanting to hurt her, but knowing they needed the contact.
Emily suddenly sat back. "That means Doctor Ted really is your Uncle. And your father is Doctor Sam Randolph. Do you know what really happened with him?"
"We don't know for sure. Based on what Uncle Ted has told me, I think he is on the missing space ship that disappeared a few weeks ago."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. That's got to be terrible to know who he is, and then find out he is missing."
"Yeah after thinking as Miranda my father couldn't be found, he was here the whole time before that but I didn't get to see him. Now, I know that I do have a father, but he's lost out there somewhere, hopefully still alive. I really think he is, but I will have to work that out later. The thing is, my Dad is the only one that knows how to make the nanites. And with him gone, mine are the only ones they know exist. My uncle is concerned about whether it's safe to copy them to use for Zeke. He thinks we can, but there is probably a limit to how many times. A very small limit to the number of times they can be copied. it might affect my future decisions."
Emily responded, "Oh, sis, I love my brother and I want to ask you to help him, but I won't ask you to do that. Not if we don't know what it might cost you in the future, and we don't know for sure it will even work."
Miranda closed her eyes a moment. "Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Zeke did that when he saved me, didn't he." She sighed. "But there's more." She looked at her friend once more.
"When the explosion occurred, something happened to my nanites.
This you must not tell my uncle or he will absolutely forbid that we do anything. They have somehow been activated to another level. Control of my nanites has moved to my whole body. I'm still trying to figure out what is going on, but my senses are much more powerful than ever before. My movements are barely in control." Miranda demonstrated by moving her hand in front of her. It flashed by in a blur. "That's what a normal movement looks like to me now. I have to concentrate on each movement to slow it down." She repeated the movement in what to her seemed like absolute slow motion. Her hand moved in a motion that looked more or less normal.
"I'm getting better at it, but the truth is I need time to figure it out. The one thing I may not have. I have been pretending that I have not completely recovered from the explosion. But I know that I will not be able to fool my uncle for long, especially with all the monitoring equipment he has. He already suspects something is going on."
Emily carefully gave Miranda another hug. She finally sat back. "My parents are on the way here, and I have to leave to meet them. I will come back to talk to you soon. We'll figure something out, and maybe Zeke will be ok anyway."
#
While Emily was away, Miranda worked on controlling her nanites enough to make slow deliberate movements. She also thought about the status of her nanites, and suddenly she saw a little icon glowing green in her mind's eye. I've never had that before, but I think that is a pretty good sign. Maybe everything is going to be ok.
A theory had begun to form in her mind. When the explosion occurred, she and hence all her nanites, had been caught in a subspace event. Plus she now suspected that device he used on her had frozen her nanites in an input mode. Somehow her nanites were now using that subspace signal to communicate across her brain and the rest of her body. And she thought, somehow some of the control code Zeke had written had also been copied to the nanites, giving her enhanced control of them. She had no idea how she was going to prove all that if it was true. She gave a little laugh at the thought of carrying a near AI around in her brain. What would Zeke think of that? Then her thoughts once again became sad, as she thought about Zeke down the hall in his induced coma.
When Emily returned with her parents, they immediately went to Zeke's room. There they talked to the nurse who quickly told them, "I paged the doctor as soon as I knew you were here and he is on his way."
Emily slipped out, went to Miranda's room, and asked, "Do you want to come with me to listen to the doctor in Zeke's room?"
Miranda's response was immediate. "Yes! Yes! Help me into the wheelchair. I'm still a little dizzy, and I have to work hard to move at all."
When they got to Zeke's room, the doctor had just arrived and he was trying to explain Zeke's condition. It was even worse than Miranda had thought, and she didn't see how he would ever recover without her help. Even if he did, it looked like he might be paralyzed from the neck down. Miranda wished she had help with her decision. Oh Dad, why did you have to disappear now when I just found out about you, and we need you so much? I know you could fix this. She knew that she didn't have long to decide, but so much had happened she couldn't seem to think straight. Finally Emily carried Miranda back to her room, then returned to her family while they worked out their plans to stay close by.
#
Late that evening, Miranda had Doctor Ted paged and asked him to do the procedure to extract the nanites into storage. He placed a small cylinder in her monitoring equipment, pressed a couple of buttons, and in a few moments, the cylinder glowed a pleasant blue. She pointed to the wheelchair and said, "Please, take me to Zeke's room; I need to see him."
Miranda knew Zeke's family had reluctantly left for the night, since the hospital wouldn't let them stay with him. At Miranda's request, Doctor Ted had gotten approval from Zeke's parents for the "experimental procedure" that would involve nanites, if they determined that it was feasible to use them. He did not tell them the details about Miranda being the source or the potential cost to her because she specifically requested he keep it quiet.
Doctor Ted pushed her out of her room and down the hall until he came to another room, with a very still Zeke lying on the bed, and a lot of tubes and equipment hooked up to him.
"If I decide to do this," she asked him in a small, quiet voice, "where do I put the cylinder?"
He motioned to a small port in the monitoring equipment attached to Zeke. "There and press the button on the console beside it to activate it. The equipment will transmit the nanites to Zeke in a safe manner and activate their very basic programming."
"Be aware," he continued, "if you decide to go through with the procedure, it will take weeks for the nanites to complete their work, and I will have to monitor it carefully."
Miranda nodded and said quietly, "Thank you. I need to be alone with him for a few minutes."
Doctor Ted gave her an understanding smile. He turned to leave, once more slipping out the door and gently closing it behind him.
#
Sitting beside the bed in her wheelchair and reaching up to gently touch Zeke's arm, Miranda looked at him sadly and said quietly, "I was looking forward to getting to know you, and I think that maybe we were meant to be together, but I don't know that for sure..."
"And I don't even know if you would want me to do this. But you saved my life and I miss you already. I know I have to do what I have to do, because you're not going to make it without it."
"And... I'm not sure what's happening with the nanites, but there's no time to figure it out. Uncle Ted will stop me if I don't do it now. But I'm sure you would know what to do if you were able to answer. And I think it's your code that is running the nanites, and I bet you could tell me for sure."
Finally she said, "I really have no choice. This is what I must do. Guess I will see you in a few weeks, and we can finish this conversation then, I hope."
Miranda slipped the cylinder into the slot, pressed the activate button, and sat quietly looking at Zeke until Doctor Ted arrived.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Small Steps
Space Tech has just announced a new treatment, involving nanites, has been successfully used on the daughter of their reclusive CEO, Doctor Samuel Randolph. The girl, Julie Randolph, had been in a coma for two years after her injury in a terrorist attack in New York City that also killed the wife of Doctor Randolph. The spokesman at the hospital where she had been treated cautioned that although the prognosis was very good, the procedure was still extremely experimental, and would not be available to the general public for some time. Her mental competence has been verified by the hospital and by an independent review from an external panel of doctors. Julie Randolph is currently expected to be appearing at the upcoming stockholders meeting next month as the representative of the family who owns in excess of 50% of the controlling stock of the world's largest and most profitable company. Speculation continues as to why no word has been released on the whereabouts of Doctor Samuel Randolph, who has not been seen in public for nearly a month now. Many believe that he is being treated for a rare form of cancer, or some other illness.
#
Julie Randolph, who still often thought of herself as Miranda Summerlin, was sitting in her room at the hospital. Earlier in the day, she had posed for pictures for the media. She had used her nanites to change her appearance, the color of her hair turning from black to the original blonde and her other features changing to match Julie's. Although she now knew her real name, almost all her memories were from when she thought her name was Miranda. Even though she intellectually knew who she was now, she didn't feel it and was quite confused by it all.
After giving the cylinder of nanites to Zeke, she had decided that it would be best to come clean with her uncle who was also her doctor. She returned to her room, but told him to come see her as soon as Zeke was stable.
When he came to see her, she explained what she thought was going on, giving him her theories about what had happened. Some of it they had been able to since verify, some of it was yet to
be determined, if they ever understood it. She could tell he was a little disappointed in her for holding out the information for as long as she did. "And what about the risk to Zeke?" he asked her.
Looking up at him, she pointed out, "I felt that I didn't have a choice if Zeke was to be able to survive. So I quickly made the decision that I simply could not worry about the limitations on copying them. I did have to struggle with the same thing you just said, but I have been getting them more and more under control. Plus, I told you about the green icon I can see in my head."
"Ok," he finally said. "What's done is done. Please, please tell me anything that happens with you from now on. It is the only way I can do my job to keep you safe." He left to take another look at Zeke's nanites based on the new information she had given him.
Julie had just gotten a VR from Uncle Ted, telling her he was on his way to see her. She was preparing for a much more in depth conversation with him. One of the things that was apparent to her, as Julie, she was more assertive than she had been as Miranda. But, she had to get some answers.
"How is Zeke?" she asked as he came into the room. She had to know that he was going to be alright, her worries that something could go wrong by far her biggest concern.
Her uncle had a pretty good idea about what she was really asking. "I've managed to lock his nanites down into their basic programming mode, but I think that will only last until he wakes up. Which we know is exactly six weeks, because the nanite programming is completely locked into that time period. When he does wake up, he is going to need a lot of help from you, I suspect." He tried to give her a glare, but he didn't pull it off very well. "And now that you know I am really your uncle, I expect a little more cooperation from you from now on."