Earth, After Cataclysm 99680

Leonard Tetch stood quietly over the tiny body of his half Old One daughter Marie. The surgery was a relatively simple one, one that his assistants could probably handle on their own, but he had opted to perform himself. All he had with him was the automatic robotic assistant, and the spectators watching from a window across the room. Elena Marie Price-Tetch watched on, still groggy from her sedatives. She offered her husband a supportive smile and placed a hand on the glass, confident in his abilities.

He was not feeling nearly so confident, however. Leonard had no doubt he could remove the foreign object from Marie’s head, but the fact that it was even there filled him with dread. He was responsible for this. He was thankful for the surgical mask as he waved at Elena with a gloved hand before turning his attention to Marie.

Little Marie Tetch was swimming through the dark oblivion of surgery sedatives. She felt nothing, saw nothing, and knew nothing. Her entire existence was nothingness.

And then the demon came again.

She could not feel the pain in her ear that usually came with the demon. She could not scream for her mother as she normally would either. It was a thing of dread which was determined to annihilate her.

It was always there. It was with her in her mother’s womb, and she battled it even then. They were both the same strength then, fighting for dominance over the other. Mortal fear consumed her as she combatted the demon. The demon promised her a quick, quiet, painless death. It promised her many things. It promised to eat her.

Marie killed the demon, or so she thought. She had given her mother hell in the battles, with the demon’s allies hiding it from detection when her mother sought aid. She had been so tired by the time she was born that she had thought herself victorious.

But it came back, and it promised all the same things again. It brought her pain, but it was too small for her to combat. It was inside now. Had she eaten it the way it promised to eat her? She was too young to understand.

The feathery uncle had brought her here, where the demon’s allies lived. She kicked and screamed, but she was too little, too helpless. They made her comfortable, and for the final time the demon came to speak to her.

“You failed, sister. I yet live.”

“You failed as well! I ate you!”

“You are helpless. I will have you. I will be you.”

“No! Mother will protect me! Uncle will protect me!”

“There is only Father here. It is my time now.”

And then it was quiet. Marie was alone again in the darkness. “Sister? Where did you go?”

Leonard asked the robot to towel his forehead for the fourth time. It was a simple enough procedure, but the consequences were not. Out came the little, round, black thing. Its shape was bisected through the middle, and it had little veins and nerves spidering out of its circumference. The robot hanging from the ceiling announced their success. “Growth removed, logging information. Congratulations Doctor Tetch.” Its feminine voice was hollow and cold.

Leonard secured the growth in a container next to the operating table, hiding its shape and appearance from clear view from Elena. He looked back to her and he saw her smile at him.

He was chilled inside, doing his best to hide a growing panic. He smiled back awkwardly, his mask concealing the worst of it. He took his time sewing Marie back up, trying not to rush. Minutes felt like hours as each stitch on the back of her neck seemed to drag on forever.

He let out a breath, trying to calm himself, before looking up at the robot. “Activate microphone.” He waited a moment for a light to appear on the robot before speaking again, “Elena, I’m going to leave the rest to my assistants, I need to go clean up. That rattled me more than I thought it would.” He watched her nod and wave at him. “Deactivate microphone. Call my assistants in to transfer patient Marie Tetch to recovery.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Leonard took his cart, keeping very close attention on the container containing the growth. He knew what it was, and he knew what he needed to do with it. He carefully made his way out a door to the rear of the operating room as his assistants flowed into it behind him. The young medical apprentices would handle things ably enough. They were all in the fifth and sixth years of their voluntary indentured servitude. They would earn their keep.

His pace quickened as he moved, his composure cracking little by little as he checked his surroundings. It was a small miracle he hadn’t broken into a run by the time he pushed the cart through to the last door he needed to go.

Walt Thade was cursing himself, having taken so much longer to get back home to Medellin from his home in the former state of Panama which had been renamed Khezaka. It translated roughly to ‘the First New City’. He had come to visit his grandmother and make sure his little Great-Aunt Marie was okay. He signed in at the front desk and received directions to his grandmother’s hospital room.

He was a bigger man, a quarter Old One, with grey hair and a round belly. His pronounced wrinkles showed his advanced age, and the years since his wife’s death had not been kind. He looked almost twice as old as Elena did by now. He was still hardy though, and moved through the halls with only the most minor of limps. His two-piece blue suit gave him an almost regal look, with golden trim and brass buttons decorating it. He had two badges on his left shoulder, noting him as a legal expert, and a master of apprentices.

As he moved through the halls of the brightly-lit, sterile hospital, he wondered if his wife could have been saved if she could have come here. She had practiced medicine with Elena in their youth, and many of the doctors here had been trained by doctors that were trained by them. Even his new grandfather Leonard had, at one point, been apprenticed to Walt’s wife, Doctor Emily Thade.

It was that thought, at that moment, that was in his head as he saw Leonard. He was moving quickly around a corner. Walt’s heels thunked on the floor as he picked up his pace, and he ended up following Leonard more by sound than sight. He had finally heard a door open, Leonard’s cart hitting it and pushing at it. After it closed Walt moved to investigate it. His blood ran cold as he saw the sign on the door. The Morgue.

Had Marie died? Was it someone else? Was it his mother? Surely they wouldn’t have directed him to her room if she’d died on the operating table. That cart was nowhere near large enough for a full-grown woman, but it was big enough for a baby. Walt pushed open the door and came inside. He had to round a corner before he saw anything else. “Leonard, what happened to Mar-” He stopped suddenly and stared with wide eyes across the room when he did.

Leonard stared back at him. His mouth was open wide in shock, his surgical mask pulled away. In a pair of forceps was the black growth he’d just removed from Marie. It pulsed faintly, the little nerves extending from its surface moving, searching. Leonard was standing next to the dead body of a man, a bunkerite from his short, dark-skinned, stocky appearance. The body’s chest cavity was opened up from the sternum to the belly button and Leonard had the growth held aloft of the open body.

“What the hell!?” Walt took a step back, horror registering on his face at what he was seeing. “What are you d- Leonard!”

Leonard dropped the forceps and leaped across the room. Both could hear tendons pop as explosive tension was released, the much younger man practically flying over the cadaver and into Walt. Leonard’s right hand smashed into Walt’s mouth before he could say another word, a small crack sounding out from within his wrist as he shoved Walt back into a wall of metal pull-out freezers. Walt’s front teeth smashed together, several cracking open like popcorn kernels.

Walt struggled, his hands moving up to the wrist to try and wrench it free, his eyes looking about for something he could defend himself with. He was trapped by the insane strength that seemed to exist within the body of his grandfather. It had sounded like he broke his own wrist to silence him.

“Walt. I wasn’t expecting to see you. Who called you? Kuzzgat I imagine?.” He nodded to himself, an insane, maniacal look overtaking his face. His voice was soft, strangely calm. His eyes were wide as he looked up at the taller partial Old One. “Good. My daughter needed a good host, and I was concerned that corpse might not be good enough.”

“Mmmhmmhm!?” Walt looked around, finding nothing but the freezers he was next to. The handles might be good if he could break one free, roughly a third-meter of steel.

Leonard withdrew a phone from his pocket, and intentionally smushed his thumb against it in intentional angles four times in different parts of the screen. It opened up a video call with a figure in a surgical mask and scrubs. “Mission compromised. Walt Thade has interrupted me in the morgue. Send help. Might need extraction.” The figure nodded before disappearing, and Leonard replaced the phone into his pocket.

“You just had to show up at the worst time.” His free hand moved up to Walt’s chest, drawing fingertips down across his abdomen, to his belly button and then back up. “You are her blood though. You will do. I need you to sleep, Walt.” Leonard lifted his left hand, moving it near the side of Walt’s head.

“Mmm!” Walt jerked, his hand moving to one of the handles and pulling down hard upon it. The freezer lid opened downwards and smashed into Leonard’s upraised hand. The handle did not break free, but both of them heard the sound of smashing bones as extended fingers met hard steel. Walt lifted a leg to kick away at Leonard’s abdomen. He let out a muffled sound of pain as his foot impacted unbelievably strong muscles.

“Stop.” Leonard commanded Walt, holding up his mangled left hand. His fingers were bent at strange angles and the flesh had broken in places where bones had torn through. Thick, red blood oozed from the wounds, and exposed muscle had an almost blackened appearance. “I do not need you in good health. I can paralyze you in an instant. Cease your resistance.”

Walt froze for a moment, before swinging a fist down at Leonard’s right wrist, almost connecting before he was wrenched to the side. His head collided with the extended freezer door he had opened, dazing him as Leonard dropped him to the ground.

Leonard rolled Walt over onto his chest, straddling the middle of his back. His right hand moved to Walt’s spine, fingertips pressing firmly against him. “This is the sixth thoracic vertebrae. This should paralyze you from the abdomen down. I warned you.” His fingers pressed into the flesh around Walt’s spine, easily dislocating two ribs from the rear.

“Leonard, no! I won’t say anything, I promise!” Walt pushed against the ground, his muscles responding weakly due to his daze, his mind swimming.

Fingers dug into flesh, muscles taking grip of bone as Walt screamed under the man pinning him. A quick jerk caused a very loud crack to fill the air and Walt fell limp. The scent of human waste filling his underclothes filled the air. Leonard stood up and tended to his broken fingers, adjusting them into some semblance of rightness. “Weak, human bones.”

Walt couldn’t even scream. He could barely breathe. He couldn’t feel anything below his chest, but the smells filling the air informed him he’d shat and pissed himself. It didn’t even hurt in a conventional way, but the fear of being unable to feel so much hurt in its own way. He felt his body being hauled up. He could hear and see other people coming into the room. They all had surgical masks on. Some were women, most were men.

He was placed upon a table. One attended to cleaning him up while another opened his suit. Buttons were undone while Leonard started slicing into his flesh with a laser scalpel. Had they brought that for him, or was he using it on the cadaver before he found him? The sickly-sweet smell of burning human flesh filled the air as he realized he was being operated on.”... Leonard…. Why…?”

Leonard laughed for a moment, as did some of the other voices in the room. “I suppose I can tell you. You won’t be alive much longer to appreciate it, and maybe it will save time in educating my daughter.”

“Mah…. Marie…?” Walt struggled to breathe. He saw a small squirt of blood shoot up from his abdomen as he flexed his chest to speak.

“No, not Marie. MY daughter, not Elena’s.” He held up the black growth, which wriggled just a little. “My kind have consumed humans since the beginning. We still consume humans. I was chosen to infiltrate your family. You see, in becoming more human, we have become weak. I’m sure you noticed how little my bones can keep up with my muscles. What we lost the most, however, is our long lives. We used to be able to live for centuries. Elena might be the key to… removing that little limitation.”

“Who…?” Walt was fading, he could feel himself growing colder.

Leonard pushed the growth into Walt’s chest, watching for a moment in fascination as it came to life in his fluids. It feasted upon the small pool of recently oxygenated blood. One of the assistants closed the veins that had released the blood, starting to stabilize Walt as others prepared to close him back up. “We are the demons that hunted man, Walt.” He leaned in to grin down at his step-grandson.

“We hunt Old Ones now. We’re smarter than we were. You thought you were the wise ones, but we are the Wise Ones now. And you Walt, you shall feed my daughter. Hopefully the first of many my beloved wife will bear me.” He patted Walt’s shoulder, watching the much older man fade to unconsciousness. “Such a shame. It was to be Emily, but you took her from me.”

Walt could feel the darkness closing in around him as he felt his body being moved around again. He heard a door close, metal wheels, and the footsteps of multiple people. They’d covered him with a sheet at some point. He passed out with thoughts of Emily on his mind, now completely limp as the Wise Ones removed him from the hospital.

Leonard had to act quickly. He sought out the few Wise Ones he still had with him in the hospital and had them repair his hands as best they could. He bore through the minor pain of resetting bones and the application of a cast on his left hand’s fingers and a brace on his right wrist. The stitches were the most difficult, since he had not been careful to care for the skin of his hand after the injury. He put on his game face as he moved to face his wife.

“Oh my god, Leonard! What happened to you!?” Elena rushed over as she saw her husband, looking at his hands as she gently took hold of his wrists, looking him over. A doctor’s hands were precious things, and this kind of damage would leave him totally unable to work for some time!

He initially kept his face neutral, composed. He let his lower lip tremble slightly, and then he turned on the waterworks, bursting into tears as he faked his composure cracking in the presence of his wife. “I.. I wasn’t watching where I was going an… and I slipped on the stairs!” He inhaled deeply, letting out a shuddering sob as his shoulders hung helplessly. “I… was falling before I realized it and… and…”

Elena embraced her husband, hugging him to her chest as she felt him tremble and shake against her. She’d never seen him like this. “It’ll be okay Leonard, we’ll be fine.” She was careful to avoid hurting his hands, fingers running through his hair like he usually enjoyed and rubbing at his back.

He nodded against her chest, as if taking refuge against her. She knew she was the only family he had in town, as he’d told her his mother and siblings had gone out with the caravans. He embraced her in a way that made her feel like she was all he had left in the world. “What am I going to do Elena? I can’t do surgery like this!”

Elena was full of sympathy. She’d known doctors in the past with injured hands. Their technology was increasingly able to offset such damage, but it was never perfect. “You can still teach your apprentices, and I can do some more contract work for the Council. That’ll be more than enough. You just focus on healing your hands. Okay? You saved Marie, just focus on that. You saved your daughter just like you said you would.”

He sobbed against her chest, nodding his head against her. She was so slender. So weak. All he had to do was wrap his arms around her and he could break her. “You’re right…! My precious little girl, I saved her! It doesn’t matter what happened after, I saved her.” Some of his tears were more genuine here. An image of that little wriggly black mass splashing in Walt’s blood in his mind filled him with joy.

He was also surprised to feel a tiny level of disgust with his thoughts of murdering the Old One. Just a little. She always stroked his hair just right.

She stroked at his hair, holding him tightly. “That’s right, our perfect, wonderful little girl. She’ll grow up big and strong because of you. She’ll be able to do anything, whatever she wants thanks to you.”

He nodded his head, gently moving his arms to embrace the ancient woman. He could hear her heart beat in her chest. He could smell her blood. Her blood always smelled more sweet than any other’s. He always imagined the iron in it would be extra delectible.

17:33 Wednesday, March 6, CE 0

The android body of Evelyn Crenshaw gently rapped a knuckle against a wooden door. Her face and the avatar’s face overlaying it both had a nervous look to them, as did her body language. A small metal plaque indicated the residence as ‘0049’, which Evelyn knew as Barnard Smith’s user number. It was a humble place, probably only big enough to have one bedroom and some other utility rooms. The grounds it was upon were reasonably large by comparison, with some of the fields already ploughed in the last few days. He’d been at work.

The door opened to reveal a man of caucasian descent, his skin lightly tanned. He was wearing a filthy, grey jumpsuit that had fresh smears of grease and dirt on it. He had a pair of goggles with changeable lenses on his forehead, and his eyes had faint circuitry visible from his contacts. His hair was red, short, and piled in thick curls that resembled the curliness of Evelyn’s own hair. “Ah, Missus Crenshaw? Come for a tuneup, have you?” He laughed softly, stepping back from the door and waving her inside. “Come in, come in. To what do I owe this significant pleasure?”

Evelyn smiled up at the taller man, dipping her head slightly as she stepped inside. “Hello, Mister Smith. I was hoping I could speak with you for a few minutes. I hope I’m not interrupting?” Looking around the inside of the house, the front room was a total mess. Parts of a machine were dismantled everywhere, with tools sitting on every available surface as well as the wooden floor. A central couch was not spared as it bore more toolboxes than posteriors. Barnard was almost certainly living alone. The room was as spartan as most were so far otherwise.

He nodded, shutting the door behind her. “Well, make yourself comfortable. What can I help you with? I’ve mostly been making busy with practicing what I learned about farming back on Earth and trying to tune up this plough I bought from Mother.” He slapped a hand on the machine, which caused a bolt to come loose and something inside to crash down onto something else. “Whoops, thought I tightened that one.”

She giggled softly and shook her head in sympathy at the poor machine. “Remind me not to ask you to handle my repairs, Mister Smith.” She turned to face him, her hands behind her back as she smiled up at him. “I was hoping to discuss your family, if you do not mind. I believe I may have been acquainted with some of them, and wanted to get your insight. I read that your son Marcus might have been their ancestors.”

Barnard stared at Evelyn for a moment. He shook his head and cleared his throat, moving across the room to sit down on the couch. “My boy finally got married, did he? Do you know to whom?”

Evelyn nodded, still smiling. “He married Emily Lichter, and she took his name. They had three children as far as I could find.” She stopped smiling shortly after she said that.

He laughed, shaking his head. “That girl? Really? Always warned him about her, way too headstrong for him to handle. He always told me he had no interest in children though. He didn’t want to bring any into the world after I told him I was planning to go on the Ark. That’s largely why he wasn’t accepted into the project, his unwillingness to have children. I bet she talked him into it.”

Her hands moved from behind her back to produce a tablet, stepping over to hand it to Barnard. “The two of them kept very busy. They wrote several books, apparently intended to guide future generations. They built a bunker, a huge one, and selectively chose certain people to take refuge there when the Cataclysm came. I collected their writing and geneology for over four hundred years after we left.”

Barnard took the tablet and started scrolling through the information she provided him. “Looks like he lived to a ripe old age, working himself half to death to expand the bunker after the world ended? His grand daughter managed to make it to the bunker… Looks like Emily brought a lot of strange ideas to the equation…” He hummed softly, then looked up to Evelyn. “What did you want to know?”

Evelyn smiled again, moving to stand behind the couch and look over his shoulder at the tablet. “Well, one of my best friends, Jessica Smith, came from that bunker. She was adventurous and tough and even at a young age she fostered change for her people. I was just wondering what kind of family she came from, if those traits were related to you.”

He shook his head and set the tablet down in his lap. “No, that sounds a lot more like Emily. My boy was a hard worker, don’t get me wrong, but he had too soft a heart. He had to be pushed into things. I had to threaten to kick him out on the street if he didn’t take the job I offered him at Miss Monsalle’s company working with me.” He considered the idea for a moment. “I don’t think it was his mother either, not with the ease in which she left us. Emily definitely was the sort to stick to a man and raise a family. Do you know when they got married?”

She nodded, reaching out over his shoulder to touch the tablet, her avatar extending out away from her arm to reach it to avoid her physical body touching the back of his head. “ September sixteenth, twenty sixty-seven. More than two years after we left.”

“Alright, that makes sense. That’s a few months after Miss Monsalle’s severance packages should have been approved and the company liquidated. He would have gotten my portion of it, and he should have escaped too much scrutiny due to his low level position and young age.” He nodded and smiled. “So you’re saying he and Emily took that money and possibly saved civilization on Earth?” He started grinning like an idiot.

“Yup!” She smiled, moving back around the couch. “Didn’t convince his children to stay nearby, but he did manage to keep his grand daughter Rachel near. She played baseball to my understanding. She was supposed to have gone pro just before the Cataclysm happened. They saved a lot of people, and if you’re right, Emily helped sculpt them into a society that could survive hell.”

Barnard sighed and hung his head, his mood falling quickly. “My grandkids died like that… Probably more great grandkids..” He looked up to Evelyn, tears in his eyes. “They only saved my granddaughter? What happened with his mother?”

Evelyn nodded a little, reaching out to touch his shoulder, rubbing gently. “They saved everyone they could. They made hard decisions and took action where so many others didn’t. If there’s still people on Earth today, it’s because of your son and his wife. You should be proud of what he did, not what he couldn’t do. Everyone makes their own decisions. You decided to leave, he decided to save who he could. I have no significant records of his mother besides his apparent dislike of her new husband.”

He moved his hands to his face, starting to weep. “I… I should have stayed… I could have helped him, supported him… I thought what I was doing was important here but… but he did so much…”

She frowned a bit, considering what he was saying. She’d heard others say similar things. Her husband had said similar things. “We can’t know what could have happened, Barnard. We don’t know what effect you staying may have had. The vultures that came for Tia’s company when we left may have taken not only you, but Marcus as well. You probably protected him by leaving, but we can never be sure. Please, take some time to read about what your family accomplished because you gave Marcus the foundation he and Emily needed to do great things.”

Barnard nodded, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. He looked to the tablet and started quietly scrolling through various pieces of information. He lingered the most on pictures of his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. All of the images predated the Cataclysm, with not a single image of his son or wife existing after. “This is a lot to take in. I knew they would have lived their lives and died long before we arrived here. I thought I’d made peace with that, but now I don’t think I have.”

Evelyn watched him quietly, waiting a few moments before responding. “In that case, I think you might like to do two things. Visit Mother’s simulation of the Phoenix Clan that your son helped establish, and take some time to speak with one of the therapists when you can. Maybe you’ll find something to inspire you. I actually imagine you might be very popular when it gets out that you’re related to them.”

He scoffed at that, looking up at her and setting the tablet down in his lap. “That’s just what I need, women hounding me to put more Smith babies in the world on the off-chance we get another Marcus. No, I think I’ll keep this to myself for now, if you do not mind, Missus Crenshaw?” He looked amused at the idea, having to shake it out of his head after a moment of thinking.

“Of course, Mister Smith. I’ve only mentioned it to my husband. I’ll ask him to keep it to himself until such time you want to make it public or someone else discovers it.” She thought quietly for a moment. “Would be be alright if I asked about Marcus’ mother?”

Barnard pretended to read the tablet as he thought about her question. “Yes, it’s fine. Her name was Miranda, and she was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever met. We met in college. She was popular, intelligent, and very aggressive in life. She was the leader of the cheerleading team, and I fell in love with her at first sight. I couldn’t believe that she’d accepted when I asked her out on a date. She said she loved how old fashioned it was. We went to a restaurant, of all things.”

Evelyn grinned at that idea, shaking her head. “Those were going out of fashion at the time, right? My husband usually had his food delivered, or he’d stay in and cook back then.”

Scoffing, Barnard couldn’t help but chuckle. “Going out of fashion? They were way, way out of fashion. Restaurants were the kinds of things people ate at fifty years before. Only the upper classes went to them in my day, sort of like operas. I think that’s where I made my first mistake actually.”

She tilted her head. “Oh?”

“Yup. It showed that I came from a wealthy family, that I could afford it. That’s what she was after in the end, it turned out. We got along well, actually. I loved her, I think, but after she had Marcus she started turning on me. Her mother moved in with us after I started working with Monsalle Industries.” He shook his head, sighing. “That harpy started feeding her all sorts of nonsense, making her think I was cheating on her.”

Evelyn blinked at that, curious. “But you weren’t were you?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Of course not! She was perfect in my eyes. Way above what I thought was my league. I was just some grimy engineer and she was the queen of our old school. No, I think she made her intentions clear when the divorce came. It wasn’t bad enough that she broke mine and Marcus’ hearts, but she turned down the court’s offer of having custody of him. I wanted him, of course, but I’d never even heard of the father keeping custody in a divorce in my life!”

She huffed in annoyance at that. “What a jerk! What did she want then?”

“Money, of course. I not only had what I’d inherited, but she wanted the house, the stocks we’d bought with money I’d earned at work, and anything else she could get. She almost left me and Marcus destitute. The city would have taken him from me if she’d wanted him at all. Thankfully Tia kept me employed and we bounced back. She even got out of having to pay me Alimony for Marcus.” He let out a loud breath. “I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.”

She nodded softly at that, thinking. “I think that stuck with Marcus. His and Emily’s books have scathing entries describing the horrors of the mistreatment of marriage and how much he resented his mother. If it helps, I think the pain you both went through went a long way to helping shape better values in the bunker. It’s small comfort, I think, but they really encouraged strong marriages.”

He nodded back, relaxing a little. “That’s good. It’s unfortunate that my broken heart and betrayed love had to happen, but at least some good came of it. I’m proud of that tough little bastard.”

She smiled and moved back towards the front door. “Please, keep the tablet sir. Let me or Mother know if you need anything.”

Barnard shrugged and set the tablet aside and stood up, moving to open the door to let the AI out. “Hey, I have a question, if you don’t mind? The engineers have been very curious about you.”

She turned to look up at him, raising an eyebrow. “I’ve seen some threads on the network, but I haven’t been paying too much attention to that. I’ve answered a number of private messages as well. What’s your question?”

“Well, we were just wondering how genuine your sapience is. More specifically, are you able to tell if you actually love Doctor Crenshaw, or if you were programmed to do so?” He watched her react, her body stiffening up and her avatar beginning to blush. “I don’t mean to upset you or anything, I just wanted to know if you’re able to tell the difference. I thought I’d loved Miranda, but I realized it was just my youthful hormones driving me to reproduce.”

Evelyn stared up at him for several moments. This was far more blunt than the meek questions she’d received on the network. “Mister Smith, like all emotions I do not have any choice what I feel or whom I felt them about. My husband built my hardware with the capacity for emotions, but the only thing I have any records of him directly influencing was to slightly incline me towards my own survival, and tying that to the crew of the Ark.”

Barnard hummed at that, considering her answer. “Forgive my own distrust of the emotion, but did that include Doctor Crenshaw?”

She narrowed her eyes a bit at that. “Yes, it did.”

He lifted a finger towards the ceiling, smiling. “Well, I just wonder if that had any influence upon you falling in love with him. He, of course, had a vested interest in you surviving, and considering that your survival was important to you, it stands to reason anyone willing to help you survive might cause you to be more affectionate towards them. It wouldn’t be too hard to draw an analogy with my desire to have a child with my former wife.”

A hint of anger seeped into Evelyn’s voice. “You’re suggesting that just because he was there, and no one else was, that I fell in love with him by default. You’re suggesting that if I had anyone else there, that I might have fallen in love with them instead.”

“I’m just suggesting it’s a possibility, no more. I’m sure my boy could have had a different mother if I had gone to a different school than the one I went to. The question was just to see how much choice you had in the matter.” He held up his hands in self defense, smiling awkwardly.

The edge to her voice had not nearly gone away. “You know, Mister Smith, I spent more time speaking to one of your descendants than I had Hawthorne for a very long time. I did love her, in a sense, but not in the same way I love Hawthorne. If anything pushed me towards him it was her. She was far too interested in my mental and emotional health, as well as his. Hawthorne rejected my advances for years before he accepted me. Nothing I did in regards to my relationships with others felt compelled at all.”

Barnard nodded quickly, trying to smile disarmingly. “Okay, but, just follow me on this. What would happen if you partitioned those feelings of him away? Do you think you would fall in love with him again, or would you instead fall in love with someone else now that you have so many more people available?”

Evelyn pushed Barnard back against the wall, careful to measure her strength as she looked up at him. “And what if I were to partition away parts of your mind? Of your wife? Just because I have the capability doesn’t mean I want to. Just because I could customize my mind in such a way doesn’t mean I should. I love my husband, and I know that as clearly as I know anything else.”

He rubbed at his chest where she’d pushed him. Her body was much more solidly built than the petite woman she appeared to be. “You’re right, I’m sorry, Evelyn, I didn’t mean to offend you. I probably wouldn’t be the man I am today if I just cut off my memories of Miranda. Like I said, my colleagues and I just find you fascinating, and if what you’re claiming is real, if it’s actually possible, then that means there could be more like you. That’s all I was interested in.”

She cooled a bit as she took a less menacing stance. “That’s all?”

“That’s it! Personally I just wanted to know if it was just a fluke in your case, or some other influence, or if it was just how you were programmed. That’s all.” He laughed nervously, not eager to make her more angry.

Her shoulders slackened a bit and she bit at her lower lip. “I’m sorry Barnard, I overreacted. Hearing the things Doctor Cane was saying today have really been bothering me, especially since the memories stay as fresh as when he first said them.”

He nodded, putting his hands down. “Nope, my fault for provoking you. I apologize, Evelyn. Doctor Cane and his people do seem like they were trying to get under the skin of you and Mother. Is there some reason you didn’t give him a piece of your mind?”

Evelyn sighed and turned back towards the door, moving to start opening it herself. “I’m not as good at controlling my emotions as Mother is. I’m afraid I would have hurt our defense if I were to have spoken publicly.”

Barnard moved up to place his hands on her shoulders. He was surprised to feel her tense up at his touch. What a lifelike mechanism! He could feel the mechanical tendons under the fake skin. “Hey, don’t worry about them, there’s not enough of them to really get much pull in the government. It’s probably more likely they lost numbers than gained them today.”

She nodded and slipped free of his grasp, starting to walk outside. She turned to Barnard and forced a smile onto her face. “Thank you for your time Mister Smith, I’m sorry for assaulting you.”

He grinned back at her, shrugging. “Hey, I’m not complaining. Not only do I not have any police to report it to, but I take it as a point of honor that I’m probably the first person to be assaulted by an artificial person.”

She stared back at him, considering whether that was true or not. “Good day, Mister Smith.” She smiled a bit and turned back towards the road, starting to break into a jog.

She stumbled only slightly, but within a few moments Barnard could see her confidently striding along a jogging path. “Well, she’s more dangerous than she appears.” He shrugged and closed the door, heading back inside to pick up the tablet he’d left on the couch. “Let’s see what else my son was up to…”