12:11 Wednesday, March 6, CE 0

“I can’t believe how quickly they set all this up.” Doctor Hawthorne Crenshaw was standing in line at the G&F Food Court with his AI wife Evelyn. More specifically, they were in line outside one of the 7 restaurants that had all set up in the buildings MOTHER had built for the colonists to use centuries ago. The buildings showed no signs of age due to the vast majority of that time being spent in a sterile vacuum. The signs above their doors were new. They’d ended up at the Fitzgerald Eatery.

Evelyn smiled and hugged her husband’s right arm as he looked around. “Looks like a new one opened up already… Vegan Donuts and Tea? Sounds nice.” She was honestly jealous that Hawthorne would get to try all these new fresh foods while she had to subsist off of memories of food shared with her by MOTHER from the days when she was a living human on Earth.

Hawthorne rolled his eyes, smiling down at Eve. “Of course they’re vegan, everything here’s vegan. We don’t have animal products yet.” He looked at the way she was longingly looking at peoples’ plates of food. “We’ll put together a machine to analyze the flavor profile of foods so we can convert the data so that you can try it.”

His wife squealed softly and hugged his side tightly, forcing air out of him for a moment before loosening up. “Thank you! I think I have a good idea of how to build it actually. I’ll have to ask Mother for the resources so we can build it.” She looked back to the restaurant. Inside Ross Fitzgerald was struggling with the customer load, not unlike the other new restaurateurs. “Maribelle and Ross really knew what they wanted to do as soon as they arrived, didn’t they? Jumped right into buying the food court with the credits Mother gave them and then rented out the other restaurants to the late birds.”

He nodded at her, gasping for air as she let him go. Her android was really quite strong and could probably hurt him if she wasn’t careful. “Don’t squeeze too hard, you know I can’t feel if you hurt me easily. You’re right though, they saw their niche and jumped right into it. I heard they even got someone to invest in them to help them afford the purchase. I don’t think even between the two of them that they could buy all these buildings..”

Evelyn closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded. “Correct. The total cost of the buildings and cooking equipment totalled thirty-seven thousand fifty-three credits. Everyone was given ten thousand when we arrived. Mother might have invested in them for their businesses being useful, but I bet the other restaurant owners invested to get favorable renter rates from Maribelle and Ross. If they did that, it would have just been equipment costs.”

The line moved forwards while they spoke. Hawthorne pulled her along to keep up. “Right, so they put up the majority of their funds, their investors buy their own equipment and rent the buildings from Ross and Maribelle. That means they could have focused on just the building costs and their own equipment. After that they’d probably be broke depending on how the costs weigh out. Maybe Mother gave them a loan to pay for the food and wages if they have employees?”

“That is correct, on all counts.” MOTHER stepped up on Hawthorne’s other side, looking up at him, and then down to Evelyn. “Sister, we should charge our androids during the lunch break. I know neither of us conserved our energy before the convention started.”

Eve groaned softly and nodded, detaching herself from Hawthorne. Her avatar split off from her android, the two gynoids walking off together to a building a little down the street. She pouted and waved a hand through Hawthorne’s arm. “I wish you’d have worn your VE suit…”

Hawthorne laughed, leaning down to kiss his wife’s phantasmal cheek. He slipped his phone from his pocket and held it up to his ear. “I’m trying to look respectable for the convention, I’m not going to wear normal clothes over a full-body sensory suit in public. I’ll put it on later when we get home.” His stomach rumbled a bit before he looked back to MOTHER. “So you’re loaning them the food? I presume because they’re doing public good by providing a service? I can’t imagine you’re doing it out of any sense of greed.”

MOTHER shrugged. “The interest rates are generous, under one percent per year. I anticipate they will not need loans for long to operate properly. I do not wish to be a bank, so I intend to stop doing such things once someone sets up a proper bank. I hope to focus completely on facilitating the creativity of our many geniuses. Speaking of which, Hawthorne, what projects will you undertake once the convention is over and our government is established?”

Evelyn looked really interested in what he would tell MOTHER. She had a good idea of course, but saying it aloud in a public place would make it official.

“Well, I first intend to work with Doctor O’Malley and other biologists to start making semi-biological androids that can operate as mothers for the cache of embryos that Anthony Saul smuggled onto the Ark. I also want to see if we can get the poultry eggs he brought to incubate properly. There had been much speculation to whether they would survive being cryogenically frozen properly, so we hadn’t originally planned to bring them.” Hawthorne hummed as he thought, nodding. “I think some herbivores would be good to start with… maybe some side research into humans.”

MOTHER raised an eyebrow at the last bit. “Ambitious. Inform me of needed resources. I wish to assist however I can. I do not know about that Anthony person though. He seems to share some views with Doctor Cane. I suspect his efforts to bring animals with us was partially motivated by a distrust of AIs, or that Cane swayed him with his arguments. There is currently a forum thread that includes the both of them and thirty-two others sharing ideas of how to exclude Evelyn and I from the government.”

A soft gasp drew their attention back to Evelyn. “Really? But he squeezed my butt during the party when we arrived? You don’t think he’s turned into some kind of bigot, do you? I don’t even really want to be involved with the government. I’d much rather learn medicine from Heather or help babysit children once they’re born.”

Thankfully almost everyone who took part in the convention had AR contacts or glasses on, otherwise Hawthorne would look like he was looking from side to side, talking to himself. At least he had his phone up to his ear, but it was just operating as a speaker for their voices. This did prevent anyone else from hearing the avatars though.

Hawthorne chuckled softly. “Eve, we’ll get to talk to him, don’t worry. Thirty-four people disliking the two of you isn’t the end of the world. I’m sure we can get along with them just fine, even if they disagree with you both being included.”

“Their opinions are valid, sister.” MOTHER smiled down at the short avatar on the opposite side of Hawthorne. “We are dangerous, it is true. Even by accident we could cause significant disaster. The good that we can do is no more or less than the evil we could do. They are not wrong to be concerned, though their fear is misplaced. Before too long much of this station will be under human control. We will have people coming and going, trying to find wealth or do science. Eventually there will be more than enough humans to rival us.”

Evelyn hummed, considering the idea. “Good point. The children of those thirty-four are likely to be encouraged by their parents to distrust us as well though. They may remain a small percentage of the population, but they will grow in number. It makes me want to secure my systems somewhere safer than the Ark.”

Hawthorne looked over to MOTHER, raising an eyebrow. She responded simply enough. “Once you are done divesting yourself of the rest of the Ark, I have a location prepared in Atlantis where you can safely connect to the network. I am in such a location. They are separated to keep anyone from attacking us both at once easily, if they can even find them. Transferring location.”

Hawthorne stepped forwards with the line, letting the two AIs speak with each other. “I’m going to get something to eat.” The girls scarcely noticed him as they transferred files and talked to each other about safety specs. Their avatars walked over to an empty table and sat down as they silently spoke to each other.

“Hey! Crenshaw! My boy! Come on up, your meal’s on me!” The stocky, powerful figure of Ross Fitzgerald waved at Hawthorne from behind the counter. He’d just delivered a plate of steamed vegetables and what looked quite a lot like a steak to a customer. It even smelled like meat. “What can I make for you?”

Hawthorne smiled nostalgically. Speaking to humans in person was so novel to him after all this time. “Hello Mister Fitzgerald. That steak and vegetables looked pretty good. Tofu?” He forked a thumb back, the customer having gone out to the tables in the courtyard that the various restaurants surrounded. Ross’ place had sitting room inside, but everyone seemed to prefer to sit outside today.

Ross slapped a hand down onto the counter, grinning a bright grin at the tall scientist. “Damn right! I prepared for this day, you know. I said, Rossie, ‘There’s not gonna be any meat on the other side, so you’d better learn to cook soy into a reasonable likeness,’ and by god I did. Doesn’t fill the belly in quite the same way, but it does all the right things to your taste buds. Helps that Mother’s soy is top quality. Lemme cook it up for you.”

Hawthorne nodded, enjoying watching the big man work behind the counter. He watched quietly as he put on clean gloves and pulled a tofu steak from a cold drawer under the grill. He slapped it down with a loud sizzle. “Were you American sir? I liked your arguments on weapons. You mentioned employees though? I don’t see anyone back there with you.”

“Yes sir. Former Florida police officer in Jacksonville, later moved into sports rehabilitation and special Olympics coaching in Virginia.” He pointed a dripping spatula towards Hawthorne for a moment, laughing. “Came to Monsalle’s attention for my family’s history of health and her need for strong worker types. Thankfully I learned to cook while I was going through your astronaut training.” He moved the spatula back to the soy steak, flipping it and mashing it down against the heated grill for a moment before letting it cook.

He turned his attention to a steamer pot, changing out the upper pot for one with fresh vegetables in it to let them steam. “Don’t have any employees yet. You ever tried to hire a psychologist or an engineer to clean dishes or cook? I’m on my own until we get some teenagers around. The others are more or less the same. Guess you folks gotta live with lines for food, or use the food processors Mother set up, or cook for yourselves.” He laughed, turning back to the steak to flip it and check the temperature with a spiked implement. “I anticipated that, and figured most of you science types don’t tend to know how to cook.”

Hawthorne looked rather amused at that, nodding a lot. “Good call sir. Miss Monsalle’s a good judge of character. She can recognize less academic forms of genius. I look forward to seeing you prosper sir. That smells great! I just hope I can adapt to a vegan diet without too many health problems.”

With more than a little showmanship, Ross dumped vegetables onto a plate, and slapped the faux-steak down next to them. He placed a thin, metal knife and fork down on the plate, and handed it over to Hawthorne. “Well, if you give me half a chance I’ll put some meat on those skinny bones, Crenshaw.” He placed his hands on his own stomach and jostled it around. “Didn’t get this big until after I started cooking this stuff!”

Bowing his head, Hawthorne took the plate of food. “Thank you, Mister Fitzgerald.” He picked up the fork and pointed back at Ross with it. “You, sir, are going to be very popular.”

Mister Fitzgerald guffawed, the loudest man in earshot for sure. “I’m tryin’ old man, I’m tryin’. Tried to keep myself respectable up on stage, but I can’t hold back in the kitchen. Makes me wish I’d found my love of cooking when I was younger. Now get outta here, I got more customers, paying customers!” He waved off Hawthorne, laughing.

Hawthorne nodded and turned about, but not before checking the price posted up on the board for his meal. Four credits. Not bad. Hawthorne was not surprised to see Tia Monsalle sitting at a table in the courtyard, digging a fork into a leafy salad which glistened with oily topping. Hawthorne moved over to sit down with her, keeping a respectable distance. “Hello Tia.”

Tia looked kind of miserable as she stabbed at the leaves and stuffed them into her mouth to chew. Seeing Hawthorne gave her a welcome distraction from the food. “Please, please tell me I can get some honest to god moo cow ice cream somewhere? I want it so bad I feel like I’m going to go crazy.”

He frowned, shaking his head. “Sorry, we’re a few years to a decade away from that. At best I think we have some freeze-dried stuff, but I-”

“Nope, doesn’t do the trick. Ah god, Hawthorne, this baby wants me to eat nothing but ice cream and pickles. I’ve got someone pickling some cucumbers for me, but…” She clenched a fist, rubbing her forehead against it as she leaned on the table with her elbow.

“I’ll ask Mister Fitzgerald if he can do something for you. He’s apparently a wizard with soy.” Hawthorne cut up a piece of his tofu steak, and held it out to her with his fork.

She turned downright green as she smelled the piece of steak, her other hand pushing her salad away towards the middle of the table and jerking her head away from the steak. She gagged audibly. “Uwweeehh…. Oh god… it even smells like steak… Please no.”

Hawthorne blinked in confusion, pulling his arm back and taking a bite out of the steak. He chewed for a moment as he leaned towards Tia, rubbing her upper back. “Can I help with something?”

She relaxed a little under the rubbing hand, shaking her head. “No just… just eat on the other side of the table please? I think the baby has very specific interest in what it wants, and it’s making it very clear what it doesn’t want.” She blinked and glanced back at him. “Actually, yeah, if he can make that smell like real meat, maybe he can trick her into thinking it’s ice cream.”

He nodded, scooting away around the round table, swapping to another of the three curved benches surrounding it. “Alright. Wait, her?”

She glared across at Hawthorne, then softened her gaze as she let out a sigh. “Sorry, these cravings are screwing me up. Just making assumptions that it’s a girl right now. Feels right.” She chuckled dryly, trying not to gag again. “Could you… could you go ask him now? I feel like I’m going to die without ice cream, and if he doesn’t have any on hand I’m going to need it as soon as possible.” Her head dropped down onto the table, her arms cradling her head as she squirmed in discomfort.

“I’ll be back.” Hawthorne got up and moved back towards Fitzgerald’s shop. There was twelve people in line. He sighed audibly and got in line.

“Up here!” A slender hand waved at him from in front.

Hawthorne disengaged from the back of the line and moved up to find Heather waiting for him. He looked to the next person in line and apologized. “Excuse me.”

“Hawthorne!” Heather was smiling up at him. “Good work over there, you didn’t even make her puke! I think you’re in!”

Hawthorne glanced back to the back of the line longingly before looking back to Heather. “She’s craving ice cream. I was hoping Mister Fitzgerald could help.”

She grinned mischievously. “Well, go ahead, take my place in line! You’re gonna have to buy a new lunch though, ‘cause I’m taking yours!” She slipped out of the line, shoving him into it with a jostle of bodies, and ran over to Tia’s table where his steak sat undefended.

“God help me.” Hawthorne looked up at the city in the sky across from them, sighing loudly.

Earth, After Cataclysm 99680

“God, help me!” Elena Marie Price-Tetch whined as she was woken up by crying. Again. For the third time tonight. Just like every night this week. She climbed out of bed, her robe at the ready as it hung from a hook and pulled it around herself. Leonard was working at the hospital, the exhausted couple taking turns taking care of their daughter through the days. He’d get the morning and afternoon, and she’d get the evening and night. She would confine her sleeping to the daytime if she could, but despite retiring from medicine again she had a house to keep.

She scooped little Marie Tetch out of her crib, four months old as she cradled the increasingly heavy, and increasingly loud baby in her arms. “Please, please, please don’t cry. I’m right here. I’m right here…” She was significantly frazzled, her hair a tangled mess as she pulled open her robe to pull the little girl to her breast. “Are you hungry this time? Please just be hungry this time.”

Marie Tetch wasn’t having any of it. She did have a little to eat, but she just wasn’t going to stop being fussy this time. Why didn’t her mother understand her? Her ear hurt, and she wasn’t going to stop letting her know! She was really warm and comfy though, so maybe she’d calm down just a little. If she kept up her whining, maybe mom would call uncle over!

A few minutes of failure to quiet her daughter had Elena trembling in distress. She finally cracked and picked up her phone off the nightstand, carrying her daughter around the small one-bedroom house and bouncing her in her arm. “Hello? Kuzzgat? I’m really sorry, but can you come over? Marie’s being really fussy and I just can’t. I can’t.”

Elena understood why people in the old movies smoked. She was half tempted to go out and buy some marijuana right now, but she didn’t want to be that kind of mother. After fifteen minutes a knock came at the door and Elena all but dashed for it. The towering, feathered Gallusoid she’d first met during her last term in office was there, his weight hanging heavily on his forelimbs, obviously tired. Even his feathered antennae drooped low in exhaustion.

“Oh my god, please help me Kuzzgat, she just keeps crying.” She gently held out her daughter to the giant anthropoid. Her arms were slightly shaking from the weight of her little girl.

“I can tell.” He gently gathered the bundle of crying baby into his slender smaller arms, cradling her against his brown-and-white feathered body.

Feathers! Marie clumsily grabbed her little hands at Kuzzgat’s feathers, rubbing her face against them and quickly quieting down. She pulled a few of them free, making him flinch a little only for her to whine as he pulled them from her hands and handed them to Elena for disposal. Marie pouted but held her tears, snuggling into the big, warm, feathery body.

“Ohhhh… she’s quiet… Thank you, old friend. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like she loves you more than me sometimes.” Elena fell into a seat, pulling her robe tight as Kuzzgat let himself in. His large forelimbs were quite a bit more capable of handling the door while his smaller arms were occupied with the baby. Gallusoids in general were better adapted than most Anthropoids for moving around in human households. Ironbacks and Chloropoid forelimbs were much less nimble.

He tilted his head over at Elena, and then looked down towards Marie. He could not see her at that angle against his chest. “You should take her to the hospital. Maybe her skin is sensitive to anything but feathers. Perhaps she is sick. It is not impossible that Leonard missed something.”

“Okay, okay… I will… in the morning. Just… Just a little sleep…” Elena started drifting off, pulling a cushion against her chest and hugging it tightly.

Kuzzgat closed his eyes and sighed, standing there quietly while gently rocking his old boss’ baby against his chest. He slipped one of his hands from the baby to reach for one of the pouches strapped to his right forelimb, withdrawing a phone. He started tapping out a text by touch. “Leonard. I have been asked to soothe your child again. Elena appears to be totally exhausted. Please inform your staff I am bringing them both to the hospital. I believe your daughter may be sick.”

The towering Gallusoid sighed and replaced his phone to the pouch. He moved over to gently scoop Elena up with his left forelimb, cradling both Tetch females against his chest as he worked his way out of the house. It was slow going, only walking with one forelimb and his two legs, but the two females sleeping soundly against his warm, feathery body encouraged him to take it slow anyway. Kuzzgat looked up at the moon as he walked, seeing the stars twinkling in the sky.

The city was small, its buildings spread out between abundant greenery. His variety of Anthropoid were the only ones typically mobile at night, and he saw a few of them about, as well as a handful of various types of humans. He was the only one carrying nearly one hundred millennia worth of age in his arms though. Elena was the last Old One in Medellin, the other three having migrated away.

Also visible moving through the streets were modest, lightweight carriages being drawn by large, powerful beasts of burden. The limited stock of beasts the Phoenix Clan had access to had resulted in the chicken being utilized for a number of purposes through selective breeding. These particular beasts were large bipeds, with significant scales along their legs, faces, tails, and forelimbs. To describe them as feathered dinosaurs, with toothy maws instead of beaks, would not be unfair. The occupants waved to Kuzzgat, and he nodded back as they spoke amongst themselves about the curiosity of a Gallusoid carrying a half-naked woman and a baby.

It was not as though the United People of Earth lacked the technology for more advanced vehicles, but the more harmonious nature of their society resulted in such personal transportation. Heavy industry was isolated to the edge of Medellin, primarily focused on the construction of new caravans and breeding more Gallusaurs and other varieties of poultry to provide caravans the animals they needed.

The gently hobbling Gallusoid considered the series of decisions that led him to this moment. He’d continued on working with Elena after her stay in office, managing some of her finances and keeping up communication with important officials. He had a natural talent for secretary work, and Elena was certainly his best customer even when she was being a stay-at-home mom. There were a remarkable number of offers and requests for Elena’s time, though they had slowed down significantly once she’d left the Council of Thirteen again.

The main problem was the lack of confidence new Council members tended to have after an Old One left office. Elena was one of three that typically joined the Council with any regularity, and she tended to have the biggest shoes to fill. Council members would seek out her advice for years after she left office, and Kuzzgat had been at hand to deal with that traffic.

And now he was carrying a hysterical ancient and her distressed baby. He supposed it was humbling in a way, that someone so comparatively young would have the opportunity to be relied upon by an Old One. If it had been the first time he’d probably have been far more elated. She had pulled him away from his wife’s nest so many times now, though. It was difficult to leave her with their two eggs, to keep them warm alone. She had pleaded with him to solve this situation tonight.

And so Kuzzgat arrived at the hospital after twenty minutes of slow walking. He met Leonard on the way in, arranging his head tilt and beak in something approximating a chicken-roach smile. It was all in the eyes. His tired antennae lifted as well, almost flopping over backwards.

“Kuzzgat, I’m so sorry you had to get involved in this so late.” Leonard looked exhausted as well. Losing Elena at the hospital had almost doubled his workload. Considering that emergency medical cases were being brought to Medellin from much less established hospitals at all hours of the day, he was looking remarkably alert. Kuzzgat was relatively certain they used stronger stimulants than coffee or tea in the employee break rooms. Leonard reached for Elena, but Kuzzgat pulled her away.

He instead offered Marie, who immediately started crying again as he pulled her away from his feathered chest. The distressed baby awoke and managed to pull another feather free from his chest before he could get her out of range. He bore the minor pain without complaint.

Elena gasped awake at the sound of her crying daughter, looking about in confusion as she realized she was curled up against a feathery body, her daughter remarkably close. “Wha?” She looked up at Kuzzgat, then around at the hospital. Even Leonard was here! Literally all the most important people in her life were together at once. Well, except Walt. She laughed deliriously as she reached for Marie.

Leonard took Marie and gently bounced her in his arms, cooing to her softly. He smiled at Elena and looked up to Kuzzgat. “Bring her in please? We’ll find her a bed and take a look at both of them.” Marie whined somewhat louder as Leonard held her, flinching her eyes shut at the bright lights inside the hospital.

Elena looked confused and concerned, but held tight to Kuzzgat’s forelimb as he walked her inside. Nurses collected her soon after and brought her to a bed in a nice, quiet room. They checked her vitals, but she was far too asleep to care.