Hawthorne had acquired the coveted vegan, soy ice cream. As he returned to his once-girlfriend and current mother of his child, he watched with a raised eyebrow as he observed something curious. Back at the table, Heather had sat very close to Tia, and was speaking to her very quietly. That alone probably would not have been strange, but he had never seen Heather being discreet before.

He sat down with his new meal and the wrapped cup of six ounces of strawberry ice cream. “Here you go. He said he’ll make more after he wraps up business tonight, but you’re getting the last of what he has now.” He leaned across the table to hand Tia the package. He noticed his old plate of food was totally cleared off already.

Heather laughed as Tia took the package covetously and started ripping at the plastic seal on the top. “Told you he’d come through!” She looked back across at Hawthorne and winked at him.

Tia managed to restrain herself enough to smell the food first, before taking a spoon and digging into it. She let out a happy moan of pleasure and closed her eyes as her other hand clenched into a fist. Relief washed across her face as she opened her eyes, her shoulders sagging as she looked up at the sky. “Oh my god I needed that…” She let out a sigh and looked across to Hawthorne, watching him cut at his new steak. “So, what’s this about Mother masquerading as you and seducing Heather?”

Hawthorne looked dumbstruck at the angle of attack on that question. He’d have spit out a drink if he’d been drinking anything at the moment. “What?” He looked over to Heather, and she was barely holding back a laugh. “Well, shortly after I found out you were pregnant, I was almost killed by that damned shower of projectiles from space. After Heather so kindly saved my life and tried to save the lives of the rest of the crew who were affected, she had gotten rather upset at my decision, at the time, to suspend my relationship with Evelyn.”

Heather sobered a bit at that. “Hmmh! He was just going to set her aside after god knows how long they were together when he found out. I got to see a little of their romance blooming, so of course I was upset.”

Tia scooped up spoonful after spoonful of ice cream as she listened. It was so strange for her to think about so many things that had happened while they were in stasis.

“Well, Mother had decided, at that point, to reveal that she was able to replicate my likeness, or rather, my former likeness and mannerisms. Closer to what I was like when we’d left Earth. She had apparently recognized that Heather had feelings for that version of myself, and took it upon herself to… offer Heather some closure. They left quite a mess in my quarters afterwards.” He calmly returned to cutting up his food. “Evelyn was rather creeped out about it, during and afterwards, considering they used her Virtual Environment to do that.”

“It was amazing! She really captured everything about what he used to be like. Callous, cool, emotionless, uncaring… It was like he didn’t care about his own existence, let alone anyone else’s. I don’t even know why I liked that, but it was a huge turn on for some reason.” Heather bounced in her seat a bit as she recalled it. “Also, that suit was extra amazing. Definitely better than the one Eve made for me. Much more… form fitting.”

“He was pretty amazing, but I think what was more attractive about him was the passion with which he did everything, even if he didn’t have any outward emotions about it. I remember asking his parents once if they’d put him on any kind of medications or anything like that to make him focus.” Tia paused for a moment, thinking for a moment. “They said no, but it was kind of hard to believe them, considering how he was. After hearing about how much he’d changed after the attack on his school, I wondered how much more he could change, given the right stimuli…”

Hawthorne cleared his throat. “You’re both talking about me like I’m not here.”

Heather laughed. “We’re not talking about you, we’re talking about the old you. What about you, big guy? What do you think about old Hawthorne? What was he like in your eyes?”

He put down his fork and thought for a moment. “Careless. That Hawthorne didn’t care about anything but research and achievement. He invented things and ways to build things that I would find out later had been used for terrible purposes. Things I never considered could be used as weapons had become the new, trendy way for fighting once my patents had been seized after we left. My old university? They got rich off of using and selling them, so much so that they became one of the corporations that eventually attacked and seized part of the world, ‘in the name of Britain!’ or some such nonsense.”

He brooded for a moment, thinking. “If I’d continued on like that, instead of being scared out of that state by the attack, they would have just kept using me for the rest of my life without me having a care in the world about it. Even after that, rather than trying to fix everything I’d done, rather than trying to help fix the world before it got too unstable, I ran away and took everyone who would go with me. We might have stopped it all from happening. I didn’t even try. I hate that Hawthorne.”

Tia watched him quietly, glancing over at a more sobered Heather. “I understand that. I wasn’t so different, you know? I acquired my business from my father at a young age, straight out of business school, and mostly used it to make as much money as I could. We profited off of poorer nations who were unable to meet our quality standards, selling materials and machinery at rates others simply couldn’t match. We ruined a lot of our competition worldwide. Hell, Monsalle Industries probably would have become one of those conquering companies if you hadn’t scared me straight and sold me on your plan.”

“While we’re telling our stories, I was, in fact, probably the greatest cryogenic surgeon in the world, until Hawthorne came barging in and gave one of those ridiculous speeches of his that can convince the dead to live again. I was set for an incredible career, and he convinced me to kill myself for science.” She laughed and shook her head. “Totally worth it though. Managed to keep my tech locked down for the most part too. There was that one leak where a scientist defected to India, but he didn’t get everything, I’m pretty sure. Not like they could have reproduced our work with the materials lockdown after we left anyway.”

Hawthorne closed his eyes and sighed, then looked back to them. “Thank you both for listening. So many others didn’t believe me and got stuck back there. We never could have succeeded without either of you. You deserve a statue much more than I do, but Mother apparently insisted.”

Tia lifted a hand to point back behind Hawthorne, causing him to look confused before turning his head.

MOTHER and Evelyn’s androids, and their overlapping avatars, were standing right behind him, smiling.

MOTHER chuckled softly. “You are right Hawthorne. I will have to invest in making statues for everyone, especially the seven dead. The coming generations should be able to see their heroes as they once were. For the record, the statue of you and Evelyn was a prank.”

Evelyn elbowed her tall sister. “For the record, it made Hawthorne look way more egotistical than he actually was when the crew disembarked from the Ark.”

Tia scraped at the bottom of her cup, looking forlornly down at the empty container. “I thought it looked dashing, heroic. I wouldn’t mind the rest of us looking like that with their statues.”

Heather bumped Tia, grinning. “Easy for you to say, you’re hot! Mother, can you please make sure my statue at least has some tits?”

Hawthorne groaned out softly and stabbed at his food while holding out an arm for Evelyn to sit with him. She awkwardly arranged herself into the seat with her android body, carefully testing whether it could carry her weight as he started eating.

MOTHER remained standing. “Well, miss O’Malley, by the time we get around to making your statue, it is possible you will fill out your figure somewhat, due to pregnancy.”

Heather laughed, grinning up at the blonde android. “You planning to knock me up, sparktits?”

At Hawthorne’s side, Evelyn replied first. “Well, Hawthorne was thinking about including human android mothers in his research. Maybe we could do something for Mother so that she could, indeed, knock you up?”

Heather grinned and pointed back at Mrs. Crenshaw. “You first!”

Tia pushed herself up from her seat, gathering her salad bowl and plate. “At least my daughter will have lots of friends. Hopefully Heather’s child won’t be a bad influence.”

“These first few years should be quite amusing.” MOTHER smiled serenely as she helped Tia with her items and walked with her to the trash.

Heather shot up to her feet, chasing after them. “Hey, don’t you make any moves on my robo-girlfriend! I saw her first!”

Evelyn nudged Hawthorne, who was looking tense and stressed out as he ate. “You alright? Everyone else seemed to be having fun there.”

“I’m fine. I just forgot how tense talking to so many people made me. I’ll get over it.” He reached up to rub at his eyes, careful not to mess up his contacts. “Doesn’t help that Heather’s a real handful to deal with. I think she means well, but she stomps all over everyone she talks to.”

She nodded and reached over to help him eat, feeding him by picking up pieces of soy steak and vegetables and popping them into his mouth. “We’re almost done with the convention for the day, then you can get home and rest nice and quietly by yourself. I was planning to go talk to someone after we settle you in, if you don’t mind.”

He shook his head, plucking the items of food out of her fingers, licking at her soft, flesh-like fingertips after they pulled from his lips. “Mmh. Delicious. Who’re you going to talk to?”

Evelyn glanced away sheepishly, blushing softly. “Well, I think I found some records. I think one of the founders of the Smith bunker’s father is on the station. I wanted to ask him about his child, find out what they were like, and give him some information on what I know about them.”

“Hmm! Which one? Who’s the parent?” He ate more food, almost having emptied his plate. It was still good even though it had cooled off from the extra conversation that had interrupted his meal.

“It’s Marcus Smith’s father, Barnard. I was interestested in the fact that Barnard was apparently an engineer at Tia’s company, and that Marcus was a low-level staffer at the company too.” She smiled up at her husband, watching the gears turn in his head. “Yeah, I think it has something to do with how the Smiths got the resources they needed to make the bunker.”

15:45 Wednesday, March 6, CE 0

The rest of the day’s conference proceeded with a great deal more calm conversation and less heated argument. The various speakers that came up to present their ideas did so while taking into account many of the ideas that had come before. By the time the meeting was scheduled to wrap up, there had been a consensus for four different groups to split off and construct baseline documents which could then be presented to the population and changed as needed.

These documents would be a Declaration of Constitutional Sovereignty, which would outline the new voting system, the branches of government, and how they would interact with one another. The second would be the Laws of Governance, which would broadly outline the goals of the system of law, as well more specific laws in regards to example levels of crime. The third would be the Declaration of the Rights of Sapient Life which, simply put, would detail the civil and religious rights of all taxpaying citizens of their new nation, human or otherwise. Finally would be International Policy Document, which would detail the ideal ways in which their nation would deal with other nations, whether they split off from their own, or came from elsewhere.

As the meeting came to a close, however, there was one more issue brought forth by one final speaker.

Stepping onto the now familiar stage, a lightly-brown skinned latino man waved at a handful of people and arranged himself into frame on his phone camera. He was identified in the AR displays as User 1001, Anthony Machado, former combat engineer of the Brazilian Special Operations Command. “Greetings fellow citizens. While I am not entirely pleased with how things have gone today, I feel like the will of the people is being clarified and will soon be put down to paper. This is a good thing, I think. I have heard many people speak today, many of whom are much smarter than I.”

“I am not a stupid man, however. I have considered much of what we have here, and while I feel she has perhaps gotten too much heat today, I must once again request that Mother take the stage. I have something to ask.” Mr. Machado watched quietly as Mother took the stage.

User 0000, MOTHER wishes to challenge User 1001, A.Machado.

Yes: 533

No: 0

MOTHER smiled, appearing on the interface. “Forgive me, I did not include an override in the software to allow me to brute force my way into conversation. How can I help you Mister Machado?” She seemed unconcerned, as usual.

“Thank you, Mother. We’ve spoken before, so I would like to think you do not think ill of me, despite what may be very invasive lines of questioning. I seek to understand the world to as strong a level as I can, so that I may be prepared if anything unexpected happens.”

She shrugged, smiling softly. “I do not mind the curious, Mr. Machado. Please ask your questions.”

He smiled back, clearing his throat. “Firstly, I wish to thank you for providing us a currency for which to do business with one another and yourself. It simplifies things. I do, however, wonder about the nature of these credits, and what their true value is. More importantly, since they represent a portion of the material wealth of the colony, I must ask how financially secure we are as a people? Are we stable?”

MOTHER looked back at Anthony, frowning a little bit for a moment. “Mister Machado, if our population was to remain static and I was allowed to continue building infrastructure, we could maintain this colony theoretically indefinitely. I have a limited ability to do these things though, and past a certain population point, we will outstrip my ability to support this colony alone. This limit is roughly thirty thousand people at the moment. Beyond that, I will need human assistance keeping this station and its inhabitants alive. I have a roughly human level intellect, and while I have myriad capabilities, such as manipulating machines, I have a limited ability to grow in power. Hopefully, humans will outstrip my abilities as a whole before that point.”

“Hopefully? You wish to be unnecessary, Mother?” He considered the rest of what she said. “Thank you for the answer, Mother. It is good to know that we cannot simply sit on our laurels and breed as much as we want without working for our future.”

She dipped her head at him, smiling. “Of course. That is the precise purpose I chose my name. I hope to guide this colony to a point where you no longer need me, but may have my support when I am capable of rendering it. Ideally, I hope to grow out of my role in managing this station, and can instead be responsible for administering emergency aid throughout the system. I have some basic designs for care packages that I could deploy down to Eden in the event that any colonists request aid.”

“Interesting! So, like many real mothers back on Earth, you want to help us to grow up, no longer need to house us yourself, and help out once we’re on our own. Does that include your current activities in providing credits to colonists based on their activities? Surely you will eventually not possess the wealth to continue such charity when our population increases past a certain point.” Anthony glanced around, watching as everyone seemed very interested in this interrogation of MOTHER.

MOTHER relaxed quite a bit as she thought about that. “Yes. Unfortunately I will eventually not be able to be so charitable on an individual basis and will have to invest in more specific ventures. My motivations are to see humanity regain its place in the galaxy, and eventually I would like to see it spread to that galaxy. Life is a precious thing, and I wish to nurture it. I have, in fact, been nurturing it as you travelled here to join me. Much of the food you ate today is food I planted, nurtured, and harvested just for you. These simple things will be beyond me before long, so I wish to do greater things for humanity. Someone will need to create a bank to take over for me, for instance, but I will do the job now while I must.”

Anthony nodded at that. “Wonderful! A selfless mother who only wishes to see her children succeed. Tell me though, why should we not merely create more AIs that could work with you to make up for your shortcomings? Do you have any feelings on that, Mother?”

That seemed to break MOTHER’s moment of relaxation. “If I am honest, I fear that possibility. I desire to remain valuable and relevant to humanity. This… is a difficult thing to admit, but I do not wish to be alone. Humanity provides me purpose, and I wish to be able to execute that purpose on humanity’s behalf. Additional AIs may not possess the same drive. Efforts to copy me to produce similar drive could possibly result in myself or such copies to feeling threatened by the others. I can not be certain what might result from such a thing, but it would be my request that we be separated in such an instance to other systems, perhaps on colonization missions.”

Anthony Machado watched MOTHER. She looked insecure, nervous… human. “That’s very human of you, Mother. I’m sorry for having made you so uncomfortable in front of everyone else. Thank you for answering my questions honestly.” He bowed his head and dropped to a knee. “You may consider me at your beck and call.”

MOTHER blinked at that, glancing about and then moving to approach him to hold out a hand. “That is not necessary, Mister Machado. I have just admitted to being afraid of being replaced and insecure about my place among our people. I do not believe that should inspire such loyalty and confidence.”

He took the hand, grinning up at her as he let her help him to his feet. “I disagree. I admire someone who is aware of their weaknesses and is willing to confide them in others. You think you are not worthy of trust, but I think that makes you more worry than most. Please, if ever I can help shore up your weaknesses, call upon me.”

The tall, blonde android’s avatar blushed noticeably as she helped him up, staring at the strange man for a few moments. Her lack of composure did not seem to go unnoticed as the crowd started making hooting and hollering sounds. “Ahem. That.. is not how I imagined today’s proceedings to end, but thank you all for coming. I hope the way I have set this up has been adequate, and I look forward to your suggestions on how to improve the system. We are scheduled to reconvene in seven days, at the same time. Please have a productive day.”

Anthony kept holding her hand as he turned to the crowd as well. “And I hope you will all forgive my passion. I merely desire to know the hearts and minds of as many of you as I can. I do not wish to impose upon anyone with my desire for mandatory votes. Please, at least, consider voting at every opportunity so your will can be known and no one has to make assumptions or guess what everyone desires.”

Earth, After Cataclysm 99680

Elena Marie Price-Tetch woke up almost two days later in her hospital bed. It was late in the afternoon, a large window letting sunlight in through half-drawn shades. She groaned out softly as she looked around, gasping as she spotted the huge form of Kuzzgat resting on the floor, his fluffy body gathered into a huge feathered mass. His backside was seated with his taloned feet resting underneath his bulk. His larger upper arms were crossed in front of him and his eyes were closed. His beak was tucked under one of those larger arms. Even his antennae were draped across his face. It was almost cute.

She glanced about herself to figure out her situation. There was a hydration drip with a minor sedative hooked into it that was empty. It looked like something that was intended to allow her to rest without interruption until she was feeling better. She honestly felt incredible compared to when she’d arrived. Her eyes widened as she recalled part of that night.

“Marie!” She sat up straight, flinching as she noticed she’d woken Kuzzgat. “Sorry Kuzzgat, I just remembered what happened when I arrived. Is Marie okay? Where’s Leonard?”

Kuzzgat stretched and sat up a little straighter, looking over at the ancient woman. “Your daughter is receiving care. Leonard requested I alert him when you finally awoke. He is currently attending to stapling the arm carapace of an Ironback child who had a bad fall. I will go retrieve him if he is finished.” He started pushing himself up to his feet, his enormously powerful forelimbs almost solely lifting him off the ground before he settled his legs under him.

Just because they were lighter did not mean the non-Ironback anthropoids lacked their strength.

“Ah, thank you my friend. I’m so sorry for putting you through all of this. I guess I got in over my head.” She smiled warmly across at the gallusoid. “I will have to personally apologize to your wife, I know I have been a bother lately.”

Kuzzgat tilted his head and smiled with his eyes. “I have been a father Missus Price, I know the difficulties you suffer. It never gets easier, you just get better prepared for it. You did a rational thing, calling for help while you were in such a state. I suspect that act of desperation might have saved your daughter. Please rest, I will return.” He dipped his head and started lumbering his way out of the room.

“Thanks again. You’re a wonderful friend.” She waved as he turned his back on her, looking around the rest of the room. Her robe had been cleaned and hung on a hook nearby. She blushed as she realized she’d been carried her through town in just a robe. She hoped no one had gotten too good a look at her. One would think after all these years she’d have shaken some of that particular variety of shame.

It was a few minutes before anyone came, the dark brown hair of her husband appearing as he made his way inside. He struck the look of a classic doctor. He was tall, confident looking, clean-shaven, smartly dressed, and with about five kilos of bags under his eyes. “Kuzzgat told me you’re awake. You’ve been a lot of trouble for that old boy, you know? I’m glad to see you’re feeling better.”

She smiled over at him, reaching her arms out for a hug. He leaned in and let her pull him close for a hug. “I know, I’ll make it up to him and his wife. I didn’t realize I was so far gone I guess. How’s Marie? What’s going on?”

Kuzzgat waited by the door for a moment, then quietly started making his way home.

“Well.” Leonard shifted out of the hug and sat down on the edge of her bed. “Kuzzgat was right, as he usually is. Marie was indeed sick. Her distress was caused by what we’ve identified as a small tumor that has been putting pressure on her inner ear. It must have grown since we last had her examined because we didn’t notice it before. I’m sorry my little cornbread muffin, it must be my fault since your DNA would likely not allow for something like this.” He hung his head, sighing.

Elena pulled him into her arms, hugging him against her chest again as she looked down at him. “Shut up, these things happen for all kinds of reasons. My age could easily be a factor, or maybe we were too stressed out when we conceived her, or any other number of things. Could just be a random mutation. Don’t worry about it, that sort of thing shouldn’t be hard to remove.”

He nodded, moving a hand to hold her elbow. “You’re right, of course. I have a surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning to have it removed. She’ll be fine, I’m sure.” He patted at her arm, turning his head to face her. “I’m going to make sure I get enough rest to do it properly. I promise she’ll be fine.”

She leaned in to kiss him, smiling slightly. “You’d better, I’m counting on you.”

“Speaking of.” He pulled back, reaching out a hand to her chest to push her back onto the bed. “You have not been counting on me enough. You were severely exhausted, low on lots of vitamins, and probably experiencing a pretty severe level of distress considering how imbalanced your potassium levels were. It was screwing with your heart rhythm and your musculature in general. We have to take better care of you.”

She groaned as she leaned back into the mattress. “I’m sorry. I’ve spent too long in lean times in my life so I forget that I can’t just fall back into that while I’m nursing. I didn’t even realize I was doing it.”

Leonard leaned in to kiss her this time. His hand lingered on her breast. “We’re not in lean times, not anymore, thanks to your efforts. I want to see some meat on you. A proper mother should be a little chubby to make sure you have enough fats and nutrients for the baby. I know your metabolism doesn’t like that, but you just have to deal with it.” He gave her a squeeze to punctuate his point.

She arched her back slightly and laughed. “Okay, okay… If I wasn’t your patient right now I’d be more upset, but you’re right. I’ve been bad. I’ll eat more. Maybe I’ll invite Kuzzgat and his family over to share a chicken dinner with them or something to thank them” Elena was trying not to be petulant. She was too accustomed to being the person in the room who knew better. “Can I see her?”

He hummed, thinking about her question. He leaned back and withdrew his hand. “Not yet. Get some rest. You’ll see her before I put her under in the morning for the surgery. You can observe if you want to, but you need to leave this to me and my staff.”

Elena nodded up at her husband, rubbing a hand on his arm. “You get some rest too, or I’ll kick you out of your own operating room and do it myself.”

Leonard Tetch smiled and dipped his head at her. “Yes ma’am. My staff will keep Marie comfy. A nurse should be in shortly to sedate you if you’re having trouble sleeping. Don’t get too accustomed to it. Once Marie’s well again, we’ll have to go back to not sleeping again.”

She had conflicted feelings about that. “She’ll eventually let us sleep. It’ll only be sixteen years before she goes into an apprenticeship.”

He laughed softly at that. “That’s a lot longer to me than it is to you, but you’re right of course. Goodnight dear.”