“New sights, he promised!” the mirror woman loudly and laughingly proclaimed in a wide stance, fists on hips, elbows wide. “Nice delivery! Not bad, the derriere either!”
Capie shook her head, flushing her confusion away. “Hey, that’s my husband you’re talking about!”
Leaning forward slightly, Ariel-Leira took a closer look at Capie, nodding with a smile. “Woman in stasis field, you are! Meet you nice is. Very poorly treated by Hamadi, you were. Your husband and you, helped to escape, I did. Great fortune, you had, catching him. For a wizard, none too shabby.”
And then she smiled.
“Woman to woman, we should talk. For you, information I have, interested you might be in!”
• • • •
Much to the amusement of both women, Paul’s first act, when emerging from the bathroom fully dressed, was to take the mirror and return it to the window ledge, facing outward. Then bowing deeply, he escorted a grinning Capie into the bathroom in order for her to take her turn.
While his wife was thus occupied, Paul took the opportunity to go online, surfing the web for news updates, checking his bank accounts and also his email.
It was when Paul checked his newest email account, the one under the name of Peter Newmann, that he noticed a new message from Daneel, only a few hours old, where the subject line said ‘Surprise! Please read right away!’
A new email from Daneel? What was going on here?
He opened the message, but it consisted solely of a link to a Google Drive video file. He clicked on it and a popup appeared.
“Hi, Dad,” Daneel said, his image inside the window.
Paul froze, not comprehending at all what he was seeing.
“Huh? What?” he blurted out, rubbing his chin with one hand.
“Dad, this is a recorded message, one that I am creating…well, that I created just before we left Australia to look for Mom.”
Paul continued to sit there, staring bug-eyed at the display, his mouth dropping open.
“Daneel? Daneel, is that really you? DANEEL!?”
“What did you say, honey?” Capie asked, emerging from the bathroom, wearing a white terry cloth bathrobe and running a comb through her hair. She touched her throat in surprise when she saw the image on the holographic screen. “Is that Daneel?”
“If you are seeing this,” the image of Daneel said, “then that probably means that something happened to me during the search for Mom. I can only hope that you were successful, that you found Mom and brought her back.”
Paul shook the cobwebs out of his head and forced himself to think. So this was a recording he was watching, one that Daneel had made before they went to Romania? That made sense. But how? Oh sure, this was probably a triggered email, waiting to send itself to his account in the event that Daneel didn’t erase it later on. Reaching out slowly, Paul tried to touch the image of his son. But this was just a video image. Of course. How had he forgotten that?
“It’s a recording from Daneel,” Paul explained to Capie as she moved around the bed, getting a closer look.
“I hope that I did not let you down in any way,” their son said before giving a mournful sigh. “That’s the problem with these pre-recorded messages. I really don’t know what to say since I don’t know what happened. So let me get to the point. I created a download of all of my coding, archiving it in several computers on the net. The IP numbers will be sent to you in another email. I know that you have most of the spare components needed to put together a new quantum computer. So, if you are still interested in the Scottie program…. Well, I guess that’s up to you.”
Paul could only stare in disbelief as the image of Daneel snapped off, the display once again showing a Google email page.
Daneel’s coding was still intact!? Hallelujah! Daneel was still ALIVE!
“Does that mean that Daneel is still alive? That you can put him back together again?” Capie asked incredulously, her hand up to her mouth.
“Yes!” Paul answered with enthusiasm. “Well, sort of. Humpty Dumpty really can be put back together again! I still have his quantum computer too. Nothing wrong with the hardware, at least not until we get to the Scottie stage. We’ll figure that part out later!”
He turned to face her, leaning forward to take her into his arms. “I can have him back together and running again by this evening! Maybe earlier than that! Oh, this is great news!”
Tears came to Capie’s eyes and she hugged Paul back fiercely. He abruptly pulled away.
“So the sooner I get started—”
And he snapped open a portal, practically diving through it.
“I’ll be in the Staging Area if you need me,” came the echo of his voice just before the portal closed.
• • • •
Paul finished rebuilding the quantum computer in midafternoon, considerably beating his original estimate. He could have built a new unit out of spare parts (he had two complete sets, built back in San Jose), which he had brought with him to Australia, just in case Daneel needed a spare part or two.
But Daneel’s original set worked just as well. After all, his death had apparently been an incompatibility problem between his software coding and his magical powers. A sudden thought made Paul rub his chin in thought. Okay, maybe it could have been a conflict with his hardware instead. That was for later to find out. What was important now was to restore Daneel as he was before he had been given magical powers.
So all that was needed to accomplish that was to download the coding from the sites Daneel had given him and feed the files through a LAN port to the old hardware, reconfigure all the file pointers and then initialize the programs. Capie came out to watch, anxious to see their son again too.
By mid afternoon, Paul had Daneel back up and fully functional again. All three had quite a little tearful reunion, as Paul told the youngster the story of what had happened in Romania.
Both Paul and Capie were so incredibly glad to have their son back again!
To celebrate Daneel’s return, they partied in Perth that evening, spending the night at the luxury resort of Seashells in Yallingup near the extreme southwestern tip of Western Australia. The accommodations were sumptuous, charming, and elegant. And, with a few spells, a number of holographic individuals joined their party in the resort’s largest conference room where there was dancing, games, lots of music and various acts of entertainment.
Of the three of them, Daneel enjoyed the party the most.
• • • •
Late the next morning, the three of them were relaxing at a large white round wooden table on their hotel room’s spacious balcony, contemplating the scenic views available over manicured lawns in front of them. At the same time, they grazed on a rather sumptuous room-service-delivered Aussie brekkie of poached eggs, avocado toast, pork sausage, hash browns, and beans, with occasional sips from their mixed fruit smoothies.
As Capie set down her drink, she discreetly surveyed her husband across the table.
“I suppose,” she said, idly running a finger along the lip of the glass, “with Daneel back that you want to keep working on the ship and finish getting ready to go to Mars.”
Paul nodded, a tight grin on his face, strongly suspecting what his wife was going to say next and not liking it. “Yes, I do.”
“Even though you don’t know what went wrong when you gave Daneel his magical powers.”
Paul winced and then squirmed a bit in his seat. “With Daneel’s help, we’ll figure out the problem and take all the right precautions this time.”
Capie frowned and looked him in the eye. “I am uncomfortable with that strategy. You know that, right?”
He stiffened and turned his head away from her. “Yes, I know that. But I defy you to come up with a better more workable plan.”
“Ah, before Transylvania, I would have taken you up on that offer,” she said, with a tight smile of her own. “However, over the last couple of days, I have had time to think this whole mess over and to
reach certain different conclusions.”
“And those are?” Paul asked warily, one eyebrow raised.
“Bear with me on this, please, my dear,” she told him with a sly smile. “We know, of course, from all the terrorist acts in the Middle East, that Errabêlu wants to start a war, at least some of the wizards do.”
“Right…and?”
“And, it was my thinking, before Transylvania,” Capie continued on, still looking at her mixed smoothie glass, “that by stopping those acts of terrorism not only would we save lives but we would stop the war too. And that our success in Rio de Janeiro proved that my assumption was correct.”
Paul studied his wife’s body language and the expressions on her face, and rapidly reached a conclusion of his own: that Capie had undergone a change of opinion of some sort. “But you don’t think so now, do you? Not after Transylvania.”
“No, I don’t,” was her candid reply. “Not now. Just yesterday, I was thinking that my approach was still the correct one, but that it only lacked power, as in the use of a super-talisman to make it work. I was thinking that if we finished making the super-talisman, then I could go back to the Middle East, stop the killing and, at the same time, stop the war. That is, after all, more or less what you are planning to do, right?”
More squirming in his chair. “Yes, more or less, but that’s only part of it. I—”
Capie held up a hand to stop him. “As I was saying, that’s what I was thinking yesterday. But today I have come to the realization that the creation of the super-talisman will alert and alarm all of Errabêlu that we have grown to be a huge threat to them. So, stopping the war in the Middle East with a super-talisman would not be a final solution, would it? That just opens the door on Fibber McGee’s closet, does it not? And that’s why we have to have the Sirius Effort ready to go at that point, to get out of range of their backlash.”
Paul nodded, suddenly thoughtful and curious as to where Capie was going with this conversation. “So, you now agree with that? You aren’t going to be making any more trips to the Middle East?”
His wife glanced up, locking gazes with him and sighed. “Yes, I agree with you and no, no trips anywhere for now. Your plan is the only one that makes sense, on a long term basis. But we must hurry, Paul. People are dying, a war is coming and soon now. So, I would like to concentrate on the super-talisman, the conversion of the isotopes, on a full-time basis, with all due speed. You need to finish the ship as fast as you can, and concentrate only on that.”
For several seconds, Paul was deep in thought before he shook his head. “You will get done with the isotope conversion first. The construction of the Sirius Effort will take me longer. Plus, there is still the issue of Daneel and his magic powers. We need to solve that one too.”
“Ah, um, as long as we are talking about me, I have something to say about that,” voiced Daneel. His image was dressed in an off-white safari outfit complete with a canvas hat and knee length pants, reclining in a patio chair perched near the edge of a swimming pool with crystal clear blue water. “If Dad can provide the error codes to me that he saw on the screen when my other self died, I can investigate them and find a solution. Dad, that will leave you free to work on the ship at least until I can figure out what happened and how to prevent it in the future.”
“Good idea,” Capie agreed, smiling at Daneel before turning to Paul.
Who grudgingly nodded. “It’s still going to take me longer,” he reluctantly admitted.
“You’re a clever engineer,” Capie reminded him sweetly. “You’ll figure it out.”
Paul sighed. “Gee. Thanks. I suppose I could change my instrumentation plans. Instead of a full set of flight instruments and radar systems, I could just use magical spells instead. That will shave a week or so off the schedule. Speaking purely as an electrical engineer though, it goes against the grain.”
“Fine. Oh, as long as we are discussing the Master Plan, I have some reservations with it that I would like to talk about now,” Capie announced with greater cheer.
“Like going to Mars?” Paul asked sourly.
“No, not like that,” she said, with a shake of her head and a chuckle. “Not anymore, anyway. It’s obvious that we have to go to Mars, no option there. But my first concern is more along the lines of a safety factor.”
“Ah, what?” Paul asked, startled. “The ship will be safe! I stake my life on that!”
“Funny man! And my life too!” she pointed out with a pinched expression. “I’m just saying that we need more of a safety plan, in case of an emergency. In case we get struck by a meteor, attacked by a space monster, run out of fuel or whatever.”
“A space monster!” muttered Paul as he rolled his eyes. “Straight out of Lost in Space!?”
“I liked that show!” Capie protested. “‘Danger, Will Robinson!’ It was so campy!”
“Right.” Paul thought for a few seconds. “I can contact Jaret through the Raconteur crystal and we can probably set something up. A backup plan in case we are stranded in space or on Mars. Okay?”
“Now, my next concern—”
“What? There’s more?!”
“I have a short list,” insisted Capie, affecting an innocent air while nonchalantly studying a nearby tree. “I will need something significant to do while we are on Mars for six months,” she declared, folding her arms over her chest.
Her husband blinked several times and frowned. “Honey, we will be covered up with work the whole time—”
“Unh-uh! No way! You’ll be busy, like here in Australia. Name one thing that I will be doing!”
“Well, uh. Yes, you will be helping Daneel and myself to nursemaid the new generations of Scotties. That will keep us all busy!”
“Not really,” Capie argued in return. “The first thing you need to do, right after you solve the Scottie issue, is to duplicate Daneel. Do that even before we leave for Mars. You have spare sets of hardware to create a couple of copies. The new Daneels can then do most of the grunt work on Mars, including the majority of the nursemaiding of the new Scotties. They can use some of the Oni talismans too.”
Paul’s chin dropped in surprise, the classic deer in the headlights look. “I, uh, ah—”
“Didn’t think of that, huh?” Capie grinned wickedly.
“I’ve, uh, been busy,” he protested. “But that is a good idea.” He paused, deeper in thought and then smiled playfully. “For you, I, uh, was intending to bring along a complete collection of Hallmark movies and a six month supply of chocolate…you know, to make the stay on Mars more pleasant.”
She smiled patiently. “That’s nice, dear. Very thoughtful of you. But that’s not what I had in mind and you know it.”
He sighed and smiled sadly in capitulation. “No, I suppose not. Very well. Let’s get a little super-intelligence assistance here. Uncle Sam?”
The image of the tall older statesman appeared, wearing the odd top hat.
Paul teasingly nodded at Capie. “Get Tia here too, please.”
Capie frowned but cast the spell, calling forth the image of the Queen of the Fairies.
From his spot on a side table, the image of Daneel on the quantum computer monitor pulled up his poolside chair and sat on the edge, leaning forward. “Ooh, this is going to be good!”
“Uncle Sam,” Paul said in a droll fashion, rubbing his hands together. “and Tia. We need some help resolving an issue here. Capie wants something useful to do while on Mars. Any suggestions?”
Capie winced and opened her mouth to say something but Tia put a hand on her shoulder. “Rest easy, my dear. Trust in me, please.”
Ill at ease, Capie rubbed her arm gently but she relented, nodding.
Uncle Sam bowed his head at Tia. “From a strategic point of view, a very interesting question, would you not agree, Tia?”
“Very,” the fairy purred in response.
“Paul,” Uncle Sam said, turning back to him. “Are you still interested in helping people? It is, after
all, the reason you became a wizard, was it not?”
“Yes, of course it was,” Paul replied, puzzled by the question.
“Which is why you are dedicated to freeing the people of Earth,” Tia commented coolly.
“But there are more ways to help people than what you are doing,” Uncle Sam pointed out.
“I’m sure that there are,” Paul admitted, looking back and forth between the two holograms.
“Paul, they are going somewhere with this,” Capie noted with growing interest.
“I knew that this was going to be good!” Daneel stated with conviction. “Can’t wait for the punch line.”
Uncle Sam took his hat off and tucked it under one arm. “A lot of people on Earth die each year, Paul, Capie. Sixty million a year, give or take a few hundred thousand. And war and acts of terrorism are not the primary causes of death, not even close.”
Tia waved a hand and a display appeared in mid air, just past the railing of the balcony. On it, a parade of images appeared, one right after another. Hospital rooms with patients lying in beds, hooked up to machines. Surgical rooms, teams of surgeons at work. Then images of children with missing limbs, stomachs distended by malnutrition. More children, some mentally handicapped, some struggling to walk, to eat, even to talk.
The images switched back to adults, some crippled, some in wheel chairs, some old and wheezing pitifully as they trudged through deep snow. Others, from strokes, paralyzed on one side, shuffling along on crutches.
“The leading causes of death are heart disease, lung disease, infectious diseases of all types and then the cancers, also of various types. War is far down the list. Pain and suffering, a racial burden nearly universal in its extent.”
Capie’s eyes were big, bright and moist.
Uncle Sam turned to Tia. “You know her heart best. Is she up to this challenge?”
The Queen of the Fairies smiled mirthfully. “She is.” Then the holograph turned to Capie. “You want something useful to do, my dear? While Paul is freeing mankind from slavery to evil wizards, your powers can help free mankind from sickness, injuries, pain and other types of physical suffering.”
Orders of Magnitude (The Genie and the Engineer Series Book 2) Page 31