by S. H. Jucha
Alex heard a final word from Z before he curtailed his link. Z sent, his humor evident.
Alex closed the comm and regarded Julien.
“The rearing or education rooms are next,” Julien announced. “There are several of these. I would estimate that Faustus must produce a significant volume of replacements for the trained adults. The drones’ poor health conditions and difficult comm interfaces are merely two factors limiting their lifespans.”
“We’ve witnessed a number of detonations since we’ve been in system,” Alex added. “I hazard to guess the loss of life that resulted from those explosions at the mining sites, platforms, and ships.”
“I doubt time and energy has been wasted recovering the bodies,” Tatia surmised. Chills went up and down human spines at the thought of the deceased floating throughout the system.”
“Let’s go, Julien,” Renée directed, and Julien spun and marched down the corridor. He descended two levels and walked more than 100 meters aft before he stopped.
“There is a row of spaces down this corridor that are dedicated to the children’s educational levels, Ser. We can visit as many as you like,” Julien said.
“I want to see the youngest children first,” Renée requested.
“This way, Ser,” Julien said, motioning with an arm. He led the group to a door. They had to wait for a drone to pass to cue Faustus.
When Alex intercepted one, he waited for the eyes to glaze over before he said, “It might be archaic, Faustus, but, from now on, a knock at the door requests it be opened for us.”
“Could you demonstrate?” Faustus asked, and Alex pounded three times on the door. Soon after, it slid aside.
When the group entered the room, the young children were staring fearfully at the door, expecting trouble.
A male drone clapped his hands several times, and the children’s heads whipped back to their tasks. They sat on metal stools connected to pedestal units that supported monitors and panels. Each child wore a small ear comm. Despite their intention to focus on the images that played across their monitors, they stole glances at the newcomers.
“You can imagine their confusion,” Julien said. “We’re adults. We don’t have comm plates in our foreheads and we’re healthy.”
Renée examined the screen of the nearest child, who appeared about five years old. The language displayed was glyph-based. She gazed at the rows of children. They wore shirts and cut-off pants, two or three sizes too big for them. It seemed expedient for Faustus to give them clothing that they would grow into over the years.
The boy next to Renée wore soiled pants and mucus ran from his nose, which he licked at with his tongue. The child sniffed and continued to tap on his panel.
Renée reached out a hand to him, and the boy winced but, otherwise, didn’t move. Reluctantly, Renée pulled her hand back.
A little girl, no more than three, slid off her metal stool and approached Renée. The male drone moved to intercept the girl, but Alex halted the man with a hand on his chest. He was surprised by the frailness of the drone’s body.
The drones’ eyes went blank and Faustus said, “I’ll ensure that my biologicals suspend their routines, while you’re in their company.”
“You’ll do more than that, Faustus,” Renée declared, kneeling down to gaze at the child. “You’ll govern your biologicals to use the minimum amount of discipline on the children until we take over your administrations.”
“Your request lacks specificity. Its arbitrary nature makes compliance difficult,” Faustus objected.
“Employ the mathematical half rule, Faustus, until chaos ensues,” Julien instructed. “Then you’ll know the minimum.”
The child reached out, gently parted Renée’s hair on her forehead, and ran a finger over the smooth skin. Her curiosity satisfied, she hurried back to her studies.
“I can handle one more location, Sers. Then I think I’ll be sick,” Renée declared hotly, before she whirled around and stalked from the training facility.
Alex held up a finger, while he made a comm call.
For the touring group, Julien chose the section where the teenagers were taught. Alex knocked quietly, and they were granted access.
Unlike the young children, who were easily returned to their studies, these youths halted their work. Most of them rose off their stools. They glanced warily at their minders, but, when their minders’ eyes indicated they were in an enthralled state, the teenagers were emboldened.
The youths crowded around the Omnians. Tentatively, they touched uniforms, buttons, and hair. Since the teenagers’ heads were shaved, the girls were fascinated by Tatia and Renée’s locks.
One of the boys reached toward Tatia’s ample bosom, and she gently guided his hand away. Confused, he tried again, and she caught his hand, stroked it, and pushed it back to his chest. All the teenagers gazed intently at the Omnians’ foreheads, searching for the comm plates.
A girl spoke in an alien language to Julien. He shook his head, and she repeated her words. Her obvious disappointment caused Julien to project a feathered cap, and the girl uttered a sound of surprise, which she muffled with her hand. She called to her companions, who focused on Julien. To entertain his audience, Julien flipped through twenty different hats, and the teenagers clapped their hands in appreciation. Soon afterwards, they returned to their training, but constantly glanced at the strangers.
“If nothing else, they’ll be good students,” Tatia offered, as they left the training room, “that is, after they learn our language.”
-22-
New Admin
Alex checked in with Miriam, who, with Julien’s help, was designing the buildout of new areas in the colony ship. The decision had been made that the best way to deal with the New Terra’s children was to keep them aboard the colony ship until they could be normalized, as Etoya said.
Renée and Pia, with Tatia’s aid, instituted the same procedures that were employed at Sol, when the rebels were rescued at Idona Station. The freighter crews were drafted to help, and they welcomed what they thought would be a leisurely break from routine, until they saw the children’s conditions. Then the crews worked furiously and over long hours to construct the spaces, designed by Miriam and overseen by Julien, to suit Etoya and Pia’s requirements.
The new rooms were designed as a combination dormitory and education facility for each age group. Comfortable beds, refreshers, food dispensers, stock stations, tables and chairs, and training stations were installed. Much of the alien training equipment was reconfigured to work to respond to Omnian controllers, and Renée ensured that, this time, the seats were comfortable for the children. Much of the material for the buildout and basic supplies were fabricated from material gleaned from other spaces within the colony ship.
In the course of a few weeks, Omnians eliminated the drones from every operation regarding the children. Pia’s medical staff monitored the embryo development lab and handled the delivery of the babies. Etoya’s staff transferred the children to their new dormitories, but they refrained from initiating Omnian training.
Instead of training, Etoya instituted a series of games for each age group to play. It was the presence of abundant, delicious food, clean clothes, and the games that did wonder for the children’s demeanor. Nurture replaced harsh discipline, hugs soothed children’s cries, and food filled bellies begged by growing bodies.
It took a while for suspicion to die and acceptance to replace it, but eventually the transitions were complete. Then, when the children befriended their new minders, Etoya resumed their training. But, unlike the previous grind the children had endured to learn ship and mining procedures, they participated in courses that attempted to broaden their horizons.
The children were taught the Omnian language, and programs introduced them to the history of human expansion into space. In addition, studies exposed the children to the cultures of the Omnians, New Terrans, Harakens, and Méridiens.
What caught the children’s attention were the career opportunities presented in the various societies: science, engineering, art, music, education, ship services, and a host of others. When the children were confused by some of the examples, Etoya and her staff brought in individuals to demonstrate. Musicians played for the children, Cordelia set up a fantasy display of her vid art, and engineers and techs demonstrated the wonders of their science.
Two subjects, or better said, individuals were held in abeyance, for a while — the Dischnya and the SADEs. Omnians carefully kept the Dischnya out of sight of the children, while they were aboard the New Terra. The vids on Omnian culture weren’t edited to remove that part of the culture, but the children were allowed a slow, long-distance view of the sentients.
Regarding digital sentients, it was unknown how much the children knew about Faustus. They were aware when the adults were overtaken, and they feared the entity behind that control. It hadn’t escaped the teenagers notice that every adult possessed a metal plate, and they knew that they were slowly approaching the age when it would be their turn.
Alex made a point to visit the children’s classrooms in concert with Julien. The young people were fascinated by Julien’s display of haberdashery and effects. Starting with the teenagers, the eldest group of children, Alex introduced Julien as his best friend and a SADE. The teenagers questioned him about digital entities for a while, and Alex answered as plainly as he could.
A teenage girl asked Alex, perhaps, the most critical question, “Why do you say it’s not important what shape an entity displays?”
Alex replied, “I’ve met individuals who appear far different from humans. Entities that would frighten you the first time you saw them. There are sentients that inhabit huge bodies of water and others that inhabit dry lands. Nature has crafted them to survive in those environments, and that makes them appear far different from you and me. I’ve met the Ollassa, who look like walking plants, and then there are the SADEs, who aren’t biological in nature. They’re digital entities.”
Alex looked slowly across the room full of enrapt teenage faces, and asked, “Do you know what they all have in common?”
The girl, who started the discussion, answered, “No,” and Alex said, “Among them are some of my favorite individuals and my best friends.”
“You have some strange friends,” a boy from the back of the room voiced, and the teenagers laughed and tittered.
“Yes, I do,” Alex admitted, grinning. “But what determines their value to me is that they prefer to cherish life in all its forms. They don’t live to conquer.”
“What if we choose to rule rather than to serve?” a boy asked.
“That’s a choice every human, including you, must make.” Alex replied. His face grew quiet, and he stared at the boy until he saw the teenager squirm. “You’re free today and receiving the generosity of many worlds because we believe in protecting life. You should think about that before you make your choice.”
After the children’s transfer to their new dormitories, the only location that Faustus still managed was embryo production. There would be births for another eight months, and Faustus was required to direct the processes that served the embryos’ healthy development. However, while those procedures were automated, Pia and her medical saw to the delivery of the babies.
Once Faustus became unnecessary to the children’s processes aboard the New Terra, Alex directed the entity to move the drones to a quiet place within the ship. Medical staff drafted support to see to the drones’ care. Faustus was directed to add or emphasize programs for the subsumed adults to use the refreshers and change clothes daily. Their overall health improved, but their mental acuity continued to slowly deteriorate.
Omnians employed basic exercises and minor work details, which Pia requested, to keep the drones occupied. Despite their efforts, one or two of the drones were found collapsed every week. They died soon afterwards, blood pooling in their eyes.
Faustus replied.
Pia ended the connection without further comment, and she updated Alex on her conversation.
Pia replied.
