Dr. Benton said, “That makes sense, but it would increase costs.”
“It shouldn’t be much more. The infrastructure will be in place anyway for exploration of four-b.”
“I like it,” Al said. “Let’s do it.”
Jack said, “Yes, sir.”
“David, you’re the only living person with military experience,” Al said. “I want you to help Jack with the plans for four-a reconnaissance, after your vacation of course.”
“Yes, sir,” David said.
Al finished his beer and turned the steaks. Then he opened more beers for himself, Jack, and David.
He asked Al, “What do you plan to do with Origin?”
“We’re going to put it on display beside the mockup of Origin next to the Quad Fusion Thunder Museum at Vandenberg.” Al shook his head. “I’ve seen the damage to Origin. I’m utterly amazed that you and Claire were able to bring it back.”
“It seems like a sad end for a ship that did so much,” David said.
“On the contrary. The first starship will be in a permanent place of honor in recognition of all you and Claire achieved with it.”
“When would you want us to fly it there?” David asked.
Al shook his head. “You’re on vacation. Robots will fly it.”
“Robots can fly Origin?”
“With Elf’s help, robots can fly anything. Your investments helped Elf become a flying computer hundreds of years ago. It’s been at it ever since.”
When the steaks were done, Al put the steaks in a heated container and took it to the table in the backyard. Then everyone sat down for dinner.
David thought his steak was the most delicious he had ever eaten and resolved to buy a smoker.
Chapter 33
Claire and David took their Parent Aptitude Tests at UCLA on Monday morning.
After they had returned to their apartment and had lunch, Elf said, “Doctor Lindsie Thurston at UCLA’s Department of Psychometrics is calling. She is requesting visual.”
The omniglass wall showed a striking young woman with blue eyes, long eyelashes, and long dark brown hair with a light curl. She smiled and said, “Hello, Doctor Archer, General Archer. I have your PAT results. Confidentiality rules will only allow me to talk to one of you in private at a time. Who wants to be first?”
“Can we waive the rule?” Claire asked. “It’ll save us the trouble of having to tell each other what you said.”
“Yes, if you both agree.”
“I agree,” David said.
“Good. First I should explain that the PAT is essentially a general aptitude test battery with additional elements related to parenting. With respect to parenting aptitude, Doctor Archer scored in the 99th percentile, and General Archer scored in the 90th percentile. With respect to the general part of the test, you both have IQ’s in the 98th percentile, and you’re in the 90th percentile or higher in all tested aptitudes.
“Doctor Archer, you are unusual in that your physical prowess is comparable to champion athletes. You are unique in that you have the fastest reaction times ever recorded for a human being.” Dr. Thurston gave a little shake of her head. “We thought the times recorded in your twenty-first-century records were a mistake, but you showed us they were and are correct.
“General Archer, you are unusual in that you made a near-perfect score on our mechanical aptitude test, and you made a perfect score on our three-dimension pattern analysis test.”
Claire asked, “Do my test scores show I could be a successful doctor?”
“Oh yes,” Dr. Thurston replied. “Your scores are in the 95th percentile of practicing physicians.”
“What does the three-dimension pattern analysis test score mean?” David asked.
“It means you have the ability to be successful in engineering or many fields requiring the ability to imagine objects and patterns in three dimensions.”
“Is that the same thing as situational awareness?” David asked.
Dr. Thurston smiled. “Very similar. It’s undoubtedly part of why you were so deadly in a fighter plane, Tiger.”
Claire and David laughed. She said, “Thank you very much, Doctor Thurston.”
“You’re quite welcome. I’d like to make a very unusual request. Your old test scores are public information. We would like to make your most recent test scores available to the qualified academic community. It could be very useful to the study of psychometrics to compare your present test scores with your old test scores.”
Claire shrugged. “What do you think, Buni?”
He shook his head slowly. “I don’t see that it makes any difference. It’s not like people don’t already know all about us anyway, and it could benefit education.”
Claire said, “Okay, Doctor Thurston. You have our permission to make our test scores available as you requested.”.
“Thank you very much, Doctor Archer and General Archer. It’s been my privilege to work with you."
A few minutes after speaking to Dr. Thurston, Elf said, “Doctor Archer, General Archer, will you meet with the Malibu Parent Licensing Committee tomorrow morning at nine?”
With a surprised expression, Claire said, “Yes.”
“You now have an appointment with the Malibu Parent Licensing Committee for nine tomorrow morning,” Elf said.
Claire exclaimed, “Great! How far away is this committee?”
“About two minutes by taxi, ma’am.”
“Elf, we seem to get fast service when we ask for something. Is it because we’re famous?”
“No, ma’am. The goal of Elf and other service providers is fast, excellent service for everybody. Service delayed can be service denied.”
Chapter 34
Claire and David sat at a table facing three men and two women in a simply decorated room. A nameplate identified the distinguished looking man at the center of the committee as Burton Mansfield, MD, Chairman.
He smiled. “Doctor Archer, General Archer, welcome to the Malibu Parent Licensing Committee. The function of this and other Parent Licensing Committees are to ensure that the physical and emotional needs of children are met.
The quality of life children have individually determines the quality of life they can achieve as adults. The quality of life that the children in our society achieve collectively determines the quality of life that society as a whole can achieve.
“Committee members will ask questions to help us determine if you have the mature desire and the potential to be good parents. All committee members are parents and the procedure is informal. Please try to relax and answer the questions as best you can. I will ask the first question. Doctor Archer, why do you want to have a child?”
“I love children and I love David, and I want to have children with him so we can have a loving family together.”
“General Archer?”
“I want to have a family with Claire like the family I had when I was a child. I want to be the kind of father for our children that my father was for me.”
Stacie Samuelson asked, “General, why did you volunteer to journey five hundred years into the future instead of staying home and raising a family?”
David answered, “I thought our children would have a better future in the future. And I thought our trust fund could do more for children in need than Claire and I could do if we stayed.”
“Are those the only reasons?” she asked.
“No ma’am. I wanted to fly Origin.”
Stephen Carpenter said, “Flying half a millennium into the future is quite a gamble.”
Claire answered, “Having a family can be considered a gamble. We considered it worthwhile, like many other choices people make.”
Jason Kim asked her, “What experience do you have with children?”
“I grew up in a community of families with children. I was a baby sitter when I was a teenager. I had experience dealing with children in medical school as an intern and in the base hospital as a flight surgeon. When my husband and I
were training as astronauts, we visited groups of children. I studied pediatrics and child development while we were in space.”
Bernice Moore’s expression since Claire and David had entered the room was one of sour disapproval, and her manner was consistent with her expression. “Doctor Archer, I understand you intend to return to medicine as a physician. Is that right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“How do you plan to be there for your children while you are practicing medicine?”
Claire’s eyebrows went up and she took a deep breath. “Those decisions will have to be made on a day by day basis, ma’am. But my children will always come first, even if it means I will have to further postpone a career in medicine.”
Moore continued. “What would you do if another child hit your child and he or she came home with a bloody nose?”
“I would comfort my child, treat the bloody nose, and try to see that the child who hit mine received the attention he or she needed.”
“Would you tell your child to take revenge on the child who hit yours?”
Claire was shocked. “Certainly not!”
“Why not?”
“I don’t believe revenge is appropriate for anyone and should not be taught to a child.”
Moore asked, “What do you think, General Archer?”
“I agree with Claire.”
“Why did you treat people who opposed the launch of Origin so brutally?”
David raised an eyebrow. “I don’t recall meeting anyone who opposed Origin’s launch.”
“What about the people who were injured during demonstrations at Vandenberg?”
“I didn’t know anything like that happened.”
“Didn’t you encounter demonstrators when you entered and left the base?”
“No, ma’am. We used a helicopter.”
“You didn’t see it on news programs?”
“Claire and I were very busy during that period. We didn’t have time for the news.
Jason Kim asked, “General Archer, I understand you shot down nineteen airplanes as a fighter pilot. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did anyone survive?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I’m sorry they died, sir.”
“Would you do it again?”
“Under the same circumstances, yes.”
“What were those circumstances?”
“Most of the planes I destroyed were on their way to bomb a refugee camp, a horrific act of genocide. If they had not been destroyed, many innocent men, women, and children would have died horrifically. The others were in aerial combat as part of my duty to help prevent genocide.”
“Under what circumstances do you feel it’s acceptable to take a human life?”
“Only if there is no other way to prevent serious injury.”
“What if you were mad at someone? Would that justify violence?”
“Absolutely not, sir.”
But you have killed and you would kill again if circumstances warranted it. Is that correct?”
“Reluctantly, but yes, sir.”
“Thank you, General. Doctor Archer, How do you feel about taking a human life?”
“I agree with my husband.”
After a brief silence, Dr. Mansfield said, “Does anyone have any other questions?”
Nobody spoke up, and Dr. Mansfield said, “Thank you Doctor Archer, General Archer. If you’ll please wait outside, we’ll consider your application now.”
David put his arm around Claire after they left the committee. “We’re almost there, Cougar. Hang tough.”
She put her arm around him and said, “I hope so.”
▼
Bernice Moore was senior and spoke first after the doors closed.
“Elf’s always been able to provide this committee with a detailed family history and personal background of every applicant. Then these two showed up from the twenty-first century. Who knows what they’re really like? They come from a barbaric, eye-for-an-eye society notorious for violence. David Archer was a fighter pilot—a killer—who destroyed nineteen planes and presumably killed nineteen people. Claire Archer was an Air Force officer sworn to kill if necessary to defend America. They are clearly a product of the brutal society from which they came, and you can’t change your birth culture like a snake sheds its skin. We don’t know what they will be teaching their children, and I do not believe that Doctor Archer will put her child before her career.
“Achievements unrelated to parenting don’t automatically qualify people to be parents, and we’re not here to mollycoddle celebrities. I vote no on this application.”
Jason Kim said, “As far as I know, nobody who has ever killed a person has been given a license to have children. And I don’t think we should make an exception to that precedent. Also, we have no idea how people from what is a notoriously violent culture will adjust to our society. How can they raise a child to be a member of a culture they don’t understand?
“I don’t believe they can be good parents, and I vote against this application.”
Stacie Samuelson said, “Despite the fact that this is only their fifth day back on Earth, they have applied to this committee, completed the required tests, and they’re here. That’s evidence of a strong desire to be parents and rapid adjustment to our society.
“Their tests show very superior intelligence and genetic potential. Doctor Archer’s parenting aptitude score is outstanding.
“Individually and together, they have demonstrated extraordinary courage, self-discipline, and self-reliance. That’s strong evidence they were loved as children and can be good parents.
“Their planning, forbearance, and years of hard work so their children can have a better life is evidence of how hard they will try to be good parents.
“Based on their instructions, their trust has given billions to help children in need, and that reflects how much they care about children.”
Stacie looked directly at Ms. Moore as she said, “Despite the fact that they are celebrities, I think these applicants will be good parents. I vote for a license.”
Stephen Carpenter said, “I agree with Stacie, and I think Jason made a good point. To help them adjust to our society so they can be good parents, I think they should pass current high school graduation exams. And though I personally find their accents quaint, their children will learn to speak the same way. For them, that would be a social and employment handicap. This problem can be avoided if they pass the Standard English pronunciation course.
“With the stipulations that they must pass a current high school graduation exam and a Standard English pronunciation exam, I vote for a license.”
Everyone looked at Dr. Mansfield, who had been reclining in his chair as he listened. He sat up and said, “Elf, has anyone who has killed someone been given a license to be a parent?”
“Yes, sir. A woman who had killed in self-defense was given a license in 2511.”
“Was she a good parent?”
“She and her husband were rated above average, sir.”
Dr. Mansfield addressed the committee. “General Archer’s answers here today and on his application indicate he is a moral person who is not prone to violence. I don’t believe we should hold his duty as an officer in the Air Force against him.
I do agree, however, that this society is very different from the one they left.
“As far as a detailed family history is concerned, that’s not required by law, and this committee doesn’t have the authority to impose such a requirement. Whether or not they’re celebrities is irrelevant, and Ms. Moore’s comment was inappropriate.
“I believe they can and will be good parents. I vote for a license with the requirement that they take and pass the Standard English pronunciation course and pass current high school graduation exams.”
He looked around the table and asked, “Any further discussion?”
&nb
sp; Stacie Samuelson said, “I amend my vote for the license to include the requirement that they take and pass the Standard English pronunciation course and pass current high school graduation exams.”
Jason Kim said, “I object to this license and hereby notify this committee that I may file an appeal.”
Dr. Mansfield said, “Objection noted. Elf, ask the applicants to come in.”
As she and David were seated, Claire was reassured by Dr. Mansfield’s smile. He said, “I am pleased to tell you that your application has been approved and you now have a provisional license.” Claire’s face lit up with joy and relief and David smiled.
Dr. Mansfield continued, “You’ll need to successfully complete the parent training course to get your full license. You can complete the video lessons for the course at your home with Elf. The required classes for the course, which you must attend in person, are available at many locations.
“Because you have been gone so long from Earth, you must satisfy two additional requirements. First, you’ll both need to pass current high school graduation exams to help you integrate culturally. Second, although there’s nothing inherently wrong with the way you speak English, your children will learn to speak like you. They would be at a disadvantage with such an accent: stigmatized among children and handicapped when seeking employment. Therefore, you are required to take and pass the Standard English pronunciation course.
“You have very superior intelligence, and I don’t think the extra requirements will be a significant burden.
“Parents are responsible for giving their children the love they need to feel secure and to help them develop self-esteem and self-reliance. When your children are very young, you are their world. Keep in mind the feelings they can’t verbalize: ‘Mommy and daddy love me, therefore I am worthy.’ Spending time with your children doing things they enjoy and playing with them are ways for you to demonstrate your love. They need to be touched, to be hugged, to be cuddled. Just meeting their physical needs is not enough, not nearly enough.
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