by Guerin Zand
“But you have to admit, Dad, that two hundred plus years is a long time to spend finding yourself.”
“I wasn’t exactly trying to find myself, as you say. You have to understand, when I lost your mother, I had no one to turn to. I couldn’t help myself, let alone you. I figured with all the new experiences Julie could introduce you to, you’d have an easier time moving on.” I was trying to explain my feelings to Maria, but I’m not sure I was doing such a good job.
“I know I was wrong to blame you for Mom’s death back then. I was angry, but you know I didn’t mean it, don’t you?”
“Of course. I understood why you said that, but it was true in a way, wasn’t it? I mean, everything that happened was because of the stupid job I was doing for the Collective. What hurt me more than anything was knowing that no matter what I said or did, you’d never see me the same way again. I guess there is a time in every father’s life when his daughter realizes he isn’t special, he’s just human, but it still hurts. You were looking for me to fix things, and for the first time there was nothing I could do to make it all better. I’d let you down, and I couldn’t forgive myself for that.”
Maria could see how this whole conversation was getting to me, so she got out of her seat and came over and sat next to me on the futon. She gave me a big hug and sat back with her head resting on my shoulder. “None of that was your fault, Dad. I wish things between us had never changed. I miss how I used to come home after a swim meet or some other thing and seeing how proud you were of me. Now, we just seem to always argue about things. I want you to be proud of me again.” Maria was starting to tear up a bit.
“Gees, you know I hate it when you get all mushy like this.” I gave her a little kiss on her forehead. Maria responded with a swift elbow to my rib cage. “You know I’m proud of you, Maria. You don’t have to do anything to make me proud.”
“But it seems like we’re always arguing these days, Dad.”
“What’s wrong with that? You’re all grown up now and you have your own opinions. It’s only natural that we’ll argue with each other at times. We’re not always arguing. We’re not arguing now, are we?”
“No, but…”
“You’re your own person, Maria. You shouldn’t be worrying about making me happy or proud, or anyone else for that matter. You’re the one who needs to find herself now. Stop living your life in order to please or impress other people. Figure out what you want to do and do it. You need to quit whining like a little wussy and get on with it.”
“Thanks for the pep talk, Dad. At least you haven’t lost your touch when it comes to cheering me up.” Maria gave me a sideways smile and stood up. She reached a hand out to me and helped the old man off his lazy ass. “Come on. Let’s go see if dinner is ready. Maybe your favorite daughter will finally put us both out of our misery.”
“I doubt it. Dying would be far to easy of a way out of the mess I’ve gotten myself into. It’s more likely she’s just going to increase our level of suffering considerably over the next few hours.”
◆◆◆
We entered the kitchen area to find my two wives and daughter, Gamma, working on dinner. It actually smelled good, which was probably a bad sign. I walked over to take a look at what was cooking, and I was shooed away by the three women.
“It will be ready in a few minutes, Guerin,” Prima chided me. “Why don’t you and Maria get the table ready.”
Since in this crazy alien life of ours you didn’t really keep dishes and utensils around, you simply dumped them in the recycler when you were done, it meant we had to use a replicator to whip up a set of dishes, glasses, and utensils. Normally, when you dumped the dishes, glasses, pots, or pans into a recycler, you had the option for it to replicate the item being recycled so you would have a clean item ready for the next time you wanted to use it. The recycling of kitchen wares was the same as recycling your clothes. It was the same as washing them in a fucked-up alien way. It was easier to not replicate the dishes when recycling and just replicate what you needed when you wanted it. At the bars, I always had glasses available and replicated them when I recycled. No one wants to wait for a drink when they really need it, right? If you were cooking, one of the first things you would do was replicate the utensils, pots, and pans as your first step.
This is the way that I did these things anyways. Of course, everyone had their own opinion on what was the right way. Some liked to have the pots, pans, plates, knives, and other utensils there and available for when they went into the kitchen. You can see how this would be the source of many arguments when someone like me would simply dump them into the recycler after use, without replicating them, and, well, the rest of my family, who always replicated those items when they recycled. It was basically that same argument that men and women have been having over the toilet seat since, well, since the toilet seat was invented I guess. I mean, if it’s not a big deal for a man to put the seat down, then why is it such a big deal for a woman to do it? Aren’t we supposed to be equals? Isn’t the woman the one who actually wants the toilet seat down? I don’t get it. When a man wants the toilet seat down, guess what? He puts it down. If any of you men have figured this out, please contact me. I’d love to know.
Anyways, Maria and I set the table for dinner. In anticipation of our impending bout of food poisoning, we decided to both get another drink while we waited for dinner to magically appear on the table. We both sat at the dining table sipping our drinks in silence for the next ten minutes or so. Like condemned prisoners enjoying their last smoke. Finally, Gamma appeared through the doors that separated the kitchen and dining area carrying a large bowl containing the evening’s weapon of mass destruction.
“Voila,” Gamma exclaimed. “Beef Burgundy.” Ok, this was one of the dishes that my mother made that I always enjoyed. My mother wasn’t a bad cook, well not entirely. She was Italian, and as long as she cooked Italian you were safe. When she tried to cook anything other than Italian, well, I think that it’s possible that genetic trait was passed on to Gamma. My mother’s pork fried rice was atrocious, while still being edible, and she thought it was great. For whatever reason, Beef Burgundy was the only non-Italian dish she ever made that I could actually say was good.
Gamma looked very pleased with her creation which just made me and Maria cringe a little more. Prima and Scirla followed her out with a salad, some fresh bread, and noodles. Maria of course smiled when she saw the salad.
“Oh, Gamma. That looks so good, but you know I’m a vegan. I’m sure Dad will enjoy it though. I’ll just stick with the bread and salad.”
I wasn’t going to let Maria get away with it. “But your sister worked so hard on this, Maria. You at least have to give it a try.”
“But—”
Gamma frowned at her older sister and used her little daughter magic powers to pour on the guilt trip.
“Ok,” Maria relented. “But just a little taste.”
I smiled as Gamma started to dish out the evening’s punishment. She took my plate and put a pile of noodles on it and then smothered it with her version of Beef Burgundy. When she prepared a plate for Maria, she put a lot less noodles on the plate and then heaped on at least twice as much stew as she did for me. She gave Maria a dirty look as she passed her the plate. After she prepared a dish for everyone, including herself, she took a seat. We all instantly went to the salad that Prima had prepared, even me, in hopes it would somehow protect us from the main course. We finished with our salads and we all sat there for a few minutes staring at the plates Gamma had prepared for us. Gamma was getting impatient with all of us, she had seen us react to her cooking in the past, and she began to get angry. Not wanting to see my little girl upset, I decided to be the first subject for Gamma’s experiment. It was actually pretty good.
“Not bad, Gamma. You made this?” I raised an eyebrow as I looked at my daughter and then her two helpers.
“YES!” She yelled back at me. I wasn’t buying it and Gamma could tell that. �
�Ok, well Kevin talked me through it, but I did it all myself.”
“Kevin?” Our token Frenchie seemed to be quite popular among the ladies and now my youngest daughter was somehow involved with him as well? “Since when have you and Kevin been so friendly, Gamma?”
“Oh, Dad.”
“Don’t ‘Oh, Dad’ me, little girl. You don’t need to be hanging around with that man. He’s a bit too old for you, don’t you think?”
Gamma pouted. “There are no boys my age on the Ryvius for me to hang around with, Dad. You don’t want me to grow up to be a lesbian, do you?”
What’s the old saying, thirteen going on thirty? If we lived on Earth I’d be looking for a nice convent to send her off to. Not a Catholic school, an actual fucking convent! “I don’t want you to grow up period! If I see you hanging around Kevin I’ll space that frog boy and smile while I’m at it!”
Gamma was fuming in her little girl way. She was giving me a dirty look as she sat across from me with her arms crossed in defiance. Her sister decided to help her out.
“Don’t pay Dad any attention, Gamma. He used to make my boyfriends come in for a little chat when they’d come to pick me up. He’d sit there cleaning his guns while trying to act all tough and menacing.”
“KEVIN IS NOT HER BOYFRIEND, MARIA!” Just the thought of that was pushing me close to the edge. “This is why I’m sending you off to Bree-U, Gamma. You need to be around boys your own age, not these ex-Marines of questionable moral character.”
“Questionable moral character? Seriously, Dad? I don’t think your one to be talking about other people’s moral character.”
“And just what’s that supposed to mean, Maria?” This is how it usually started. A family dinner wasn’t complete without a family argument. Maria seemed to enjoy this part of dinner more than the rest.
“Well, Kevin didn’t leave his wife on the ship and go down to some alien planet to find a new wife.” Maria had this smug little look on her face. Scirla and Prima seemed to enjoy where this discussion was going judging by the little smirks on their faces. I, on the other hand, was not enjoying where this talk was headed at all.
“That’s not what happened, and you all know that.” The rest of the family started laughing while I was starting to feel a bit outnumbered. “How was I supposed to know that having a drink with a woman meant we were married?”
Now a family argument isn’t really a family argument without everyone jumping in, so Scirla saw her chance. “So, you don’t want to be married to me?”
To all you men out there, even if they hand you the shovel, don’t be tricked into digging your own hole. “That’s not what I said.” Saying anything more than that would have just dug a deeper hole for myself. The hole was already pre-dug for me and I had stepped into it. The best thing to do was just stop talking, and I did. I went back to eating and hoped that would end the conversation.
Now it was Prima’s turn. “So, you wanted to marry Scirla? Weren’t you happy enough with me?”
“You’re all just putting words in my mouth and I’m not even going to bother to respond to such nonsense.” I took another large portion of my meal and hoped with my mouth full they’d let me eat in peace. This probably would have worked, but that is when Phoebe, one of the facilities fembots, walked in.
“Guerin, would you like me to prepare your bath for this evening?”
I know what you’re all thinking, but it wasn’t like that. Of course the women in my family thought exactly the same thing and the expressions on their faces confirmed that. Maria was the first one to decide to have even more fun at my expense.
“Do you always run a bath for my father, Phoebe?”
“We take turns, except for Julie-bot. Guerin says he doesn’t want any of us to feel left out.”
“Oh, I’m sure that’s exactly what my father says,” Maria said with a sick little look on her face. “He hasn’t accidentally married any of you, has he?” My entire family, except for me, burst out in laughter.
I ignored them and spoke to Phoebe. “Ignore them, Phoebe. Since my wives are here now I won’t need you ladies to run my bath for me anymore, but thank you anyways.”
“As you wish, Guerin.”
Maria looked at the other members of the family as she mockingly mouthed silently what Phoebe had just said. Then she rolled her eyes and made a small gagging sound.
“Shall we cancel game time as well?” Phoebe asked.
Yes, it was getting worse. The family was all looking at me with their heads cocked. Prima couldn’t resist rubbing it in.
“Oh, that sounds like so much fun, Guerin. Perhaps the whole family should join you and your ladies for ‘game time’”.
The best strategy was to ignore the families comments at this point. “Yes, Phoebe. We’ll be canceling game time for now also.”
“Very well, Guerin. We will remain available if you have any need for us later.” Phoebe turned and left the room. I tried to continue with my meal and act like nothing had just happened.
Scirla leaned back in her chair and folded her arms as she looked at me with a bit of an irritated look. “I don’t know, Guerin. You may very well be needing your lady friends. What do you think, Prima?”
Prima didn’t respond. Instead, Maria said, “What were we talking about? Oh, that’s right. We were talking about the lack of moral character of the men onboard the Ryvius, weren’t we, Dad?”
“You all need to get your sick little minds out of the gutter. It’s not like that at all.” I put my fork down and sat back. Mealtime was definitely over for me. “When I was here alone, it could get quite boring. In the evening we would work on the ladies personalities by playing games. That’s all.”
“What kind of games, Papa?” Even my youngest daughter was joining in. She had a sick little smile on her face that I think she inherited from me.
“Monopoly, canasta, cribbage, and sometimes, gin rummy.”
“RIGHT!” The whole family responded rather loudly in unison.
◆◆◆
While we waited for the first lightning class ship to be completed, we all found ways to keep busy. Kelly and a few of the team spent their time studying the security system design that was used to hide the Vaj system we were in. It was basically a large sensor network that tracked all incoming ships. Platforms were placed strategically to create the cloaking field, essentially bending the light from any direction around the body to be cloaked.
Actually, these platforms warped space somehow. It was like a lot of Collective technology. I could understand what it did, but how it did it was the part I had problems with. What this system did was warp local spacetime surrounding the volume of space to be protected, so light, or anything else that would travel through the volume, was diverted around that volume of space. Sort of like anti-gravity or something.
Outside of that volume you couldn’t detect what was inside of it in any way. Even the gravitational effects of the bodies within that space were undetectable from outside. If you knew it was there, you could change your course to offset the effects of the warped space, but that was a little like driving in reverse. Also, if you had access to portal technology, like the Collective, you could just transition directly inside of the protected area. If you made it inside the protected volume, and didn’t have the proper authorization codes, the platforms would generate a portal and kick your sad ass right back out. We theorized that this warping of space would probably not affect our ships when we used our star drives to travel in a pocket universe. We’d have to test that at some point. It could be useful in the future if that were the case.
Unlike the system I suggested for use to isolate a single planet, the number of platforms needed to cover an entire solar system was dictated by the size of the platforms. Using larger platforms, with larger power plants, meant you would need fewer platforms. For Vaj, a total of twenty platforms were used. These formed three circular rings of the same diameter that shared two platforms on their outer circumferen
ce along a line defining the common diameter where the three circles intersected. Six other platforms defined the rest of each individual ring of platforms. The two-dimensional planes of each of the three rings were oriented 120 degrees relative to the other two.
In my initial guess as to what we would need to cover only a planet I determined that we would only need three platforms at the Lagrange points L2, L4, and L5. We still needed to perform a reconnaissance of the planet to determine what size the platforms and their power plants would need to be for this to work, but our initial assumptions were telling us that we could manufacture platforms big enough in the Hell facilities. We knew that the planet had to fall into a certain size range if humans were able to live there. We based our assumption on the planet being Earth-sized plus or minus twenty-five percent.
There was plenty of other work to keep the rest of the crew busy. The ladies introduced everyone to the construction design systems. This was like a smart auto-cad program. You didn’t have to worry about mechanical engineering details of any construction. As you moved things around and created the rough outlines of the facility changes you wanted to make, the system would calculate the materials needed and the load paths. Then it would place the supports where they were needed and compute the size of the of all of the elements required to support the structure.
With this tool, they got to work on changes we needed to make to the facility. Each change was assigned a priority since our construction capability was limited. We started with some basic crew quarters. Nothing fancy, just a simple room with bed, bathroom, and seating area. This design was based on the basic quarters we had on the ship. This was a low priority but a simple design for the team to learn how to use the tools available. Our medical officer, Soo-jin, worked with the other medics to expand the simple medical facility. Prima, Scirla, and Gamma worked on adding a galley where we could prepare food for up to one hundred people, and a mess hall where we could feed them all. The also added a few smaller dining rooms for group dinners.
