Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  ###

  As Jill sat in the Academy’s auditorium with several of the cadets preparing to watch the interview she remembered her Mother’s impish smile.

  The auditorium went dark as the stage area was filled with a holograph of a man of moderate build with sandy brown hair. He turned to the camera.

  “Good Evening.” he said, “I am Don Least and this is Day One.”

  He let the credits and entry music come to a conclusion and continued, “Tonight we come from the Queen’s Private Garden. This is a small secluded garden that is used by the Royal Family to hold private gatherings or to obtain some measure of privacy from the palace retainers and staff. The Royal Family has graciously allowed us into this very private space to interview a very special lady. Her staff calls her calls her Mom Wilson. She is known as Healer to her protective detail. Her spouse calls her the Boss. She is known to be the anchor for the evacuation command. Simply put Lady Wilson, the lifemate of Lord Michael Aaron Wilson, Knight Commander of the Earth Empire, and Marshal of the Trena Constabulary, is a Lady’s lady. Good Evening Lady Wilson.”

  “Good evening Mr. Least.” Lisa said, “Your words flatter me.”

  “All true though,” The interviewer said. The people of Trena saw a slight blush cross her step mother’s face. “Is it true that you are a bioengineered person?”

  “Yes I am a delta clone, manufactured by Ebio forty eight standard years ago on a small world on the frontier.” Lisa replied, “Named Holly.”

  “The Delta clones are the top of the line models are they not,” Least asked.

  “We are created for perfection. Each of my brothers and sisters, all two million or so of us have been designed to have the highest intelligence, perfect bodies, the AO model of which only two thousandthousands of us exist were specially designed for special abilities. I was designed to be a healer. I have an aptitude to learn medicine and such.”

  “Are you a doctor of medicine?” the interviewer asked.

  “No sir,” Lisa said, “In the Earth Empire the best I could be was a therapist, but not a professional. Imperial law prohibits clones, from being professionals, though our contract holders often used us as professionals in hospitals and such.”

  “Isn’t that how you met your husband Lady Wilson,” Least asked.

  “Yes. His mother had been severely injured during a combat operation.” Lisa replied, “The Interstellar Rescue ServiceHis father Lieutenant Colonel Michael Wilson hired my contract, as they needed a better therapist than they had on station. I went to live with the Wilsons and brought me into his home. I was only about twenty three standard years old then.”

  “Legend surrounds that time.” Don Least said.

  “Legend,” Lisa asked.

  “Yes,” the interviewer returned, “It was said that was when you bonded with your husband, Lord Wilson that he was never the same after you left.”

  “I wouldn’t call that legend, Mr. Least,” Lady Wilson replied with a sad look on her face, “It was a time of great happiness in our lives. Afterward it was a period of great sadness. To be honest; after I was removed from the station and forced to work with a containment team, I wanted to be with Michael. I secretly hoped he would find me and rescue me.”

  “Containment team? Isn’t that is one of Ebio’s Security teams,” Doug Least said.

  “That’s what the company calls them,” Lisa said, “But they are nothing more and nothing less than legal terrorists. They are charged with finding, capturing and bringing bio engineered people back to their owners, or to assassinate them. Often as gruesomely as possible!”

  “You were part of one such team,” Doug asked thinking he had gotten the goods on the woman.

  “For less than six months,” Lisa replied, “I escaped from them after I found out that one of the team members had killed my husband’s father. I had to leave the squad in a hurry.!”

  “Why is that,” the interviewer asked.

  “Since the marines couldn’t touch the squad and render justice I did.” Her step mother replied, and Jill saw her mother look away from the interviewer. The lighting changed so that it put her in the shadows a bit and highlighted her lower face; making her look sinister.

  “What did you do?” The interviewer asked.

  “Mr. Least,” Lisa looked the man squarely in the eye, “I will not talk any more about that.”

  “But Lady Wilson, we the people have the right to know...” Mr. Least started, but a commotion off camera cut him off as they went to a commercial.

  When they came back Mr. Least had changed his questions. The lighting had changed so that it fully lighted her step mother Lisa without it making her look sinister. Jill suspected it had something to do with the sudden commercial.

  “When you escaped from the containment team, Ebio put a bounty on your head for your return. This forced you underground.” Mr. Least commented, “You were underground for what almost twenty standard years.”

  “Yes,” Lisa said.

  “There are rumors, and rumors of rumors of that time. It is hard to separate fact from fiction.” Least commented, “Is it true that you were the only midwife to several hundred women on a Theocracy ship?”

  “More or less,” Lisa said, “I had heard that this ship was heading for one of their colony worlds. The ship was a small passenger ship, and it needed a medic to meet the conventions. All of the women were joining their husbands, who had gone before them a few months before and were now ready for them. Unfortunately the master of the ship couldn’t find a physician to travel with them. I allowed myself to be purchased by the ship. I watched over the women and the ship’s crew on our three month voyage to Homage. I helped to birth 110 children. I lost only one woman, as she wouldn’t let me touch her, as she thought I was an unclean harlot of Satan. Ironically when we got to Homage, their elder’s wife helped me get away. She and the other women set the law down to their men, who distracted and delayed Captain Hozenbur so I could get away. I owe those women my life.”

  “Sounds kind of mutual,” Doug had heard the story; but thought it was rumor. “What was this I heard about you being a governess? Isn’t that kind of out your line as a healer?”

  “Not really,” Lisa smiled, it was one of the better times she had on the run, “I had heard that the King of Rico had a son that was driving the palace staff nuts. They were hunting someone who could teach this kid. He had run off several dozen governesses, tutors, his protective detail was making bets on who would kill him first, his father, or one of them. I needed a job, and I knew that I was only going to be around long enough for Hozenbur or the company catch up with me. I knew though, that I would be living in the palace being this kid’s tutor and governess that the palace protective detail would more or less keep the company away from me. Rico was also one of those worlds that the ruling families hated the company. It had something to do with a couple of so called rouge biopeople who assassinated a couple of them. They were actually containment people sent to teach Rico a lesson. They didn’t like the company, and they were suspicious of biopeople, but they weren’t above using us for certain things. They would also not turn us into the company if they knew we were on the run.

  “So to continue on, the kid was a mess, he was about sixteen, and he thought he could just yell at people and they would do what he told them. He was disrespectful to everyone. His mother had died a few years earlier. He was an only child and he hadn’t learned how to get along with people. More so since he was not just the heir apparent; but the kingdom’s only heir.” Lisa continued on. “I moved into the palace, eventually into a room off his rooms. He thought that since I lived in the palace and lived almost in his room I was to be his concubine. He found out in a hurry that wasn’t going to happen. The first time he tried to bed me he found out what it was like to be tossed around like a rag doll. He tried to get me fired; but his father looked at me, then looked at his son and said, ‘missMiss Lisa, don’t kill him, but if he steps out
of line do what you have to! Oh here’s an extra hundred for the lesson you just taught him.’ needless to say Timothy wasn’t too happy! Then the protective detail started taking bets as to how many more such lessons I would teach. It turned out to be like the fairy tale of My Fair Lady. I stayed with him three years, teaching him not only how to be a gentleman; but how to earn the respect of those around him. I introduced him to Qqueen Jasmine. She is a classy lady! tTheir first child is named after me.”

  “You mentioned a Ccaptain Hozenbur,” the interviewer asked, “Isn’t she the BEbio officer who is gunning for you.?”

  “She is.” Lisa replied. Jill was curious how her step mother was going to answer that question. Her mother didn’t avoid talking about Hozenbur; she just didn’t like talking about her.

  “Why?” Doug asked.

  “I escaped from a company containment and alignment team she ran. These teams were supposed to work inside the company to prevent company officials from doing harm to the company. Things like selling company secrets. Back room deals for selling clones. Or anything else a company executive might do that he didn’t want the board to know about. At first there were two types of containment teams. One was a deep cover team that went into a troubled EBbio operation and ferreted out the things the company execs at the operation were doing. Sometimes they took aggressive operations. Such as terminating employees violently. Sometimes just a quiet conversation with the offending employee, other times an employee’s spouse disappeared. It was always done low key; but the company employee knew what had happened. Then there was the company police type of containment team. These people came in very publicly. They were the arm of the CEO. When they came in they could do anything they wanted. Well Hozenbur is a crossbreed. She worked both undercover and in public. Later when more and more of us were escaping from EBbio, or the people who had purchased our contracts, she headed a third type of team called a Runner Team. Her job was to capture the runners, like me, and then in a very public way, show my fellow biopeople who had not escaped, what happens when you tried to escape.

  “Well a few years back I had helped a couple hundred or so developmentals, as we called the children, who were being sent to Pleasure escape. They were destined to be prostitutes. None of them were over the age of twelve standard years old. They were sending children as young as nine to be sexual toys.” There was venom in her voice, “I couldn’t let that happen so I got aboard as a helper. What I didn’t know was that Hozenbur had set me up. You see I had been on the run ten years at that time and Hozenbur still wanted me. She was still very angry that I had killed one of her team members and ad escaped from her team. The company security apparatus wanted me back for a couple of reasons. Mostly though because to date I was not the only the most successful runner they had ever come up against; but one to thwart some of their operations.

  “I didn’t know this.” Lisa continuedsaid, “All I knew was that I wasn’t going to let these young children be sold into sexual slavery. So mid waymid-way to Pleasure I made my move. When I did Hozenbur, who had been shadowing the ship, boarded. There was a pitched fire fight. She was so intent on getting me, that she killed other company personnel, including a couple of people on her team. She killed several of the children. I finally got her cornered in a life pod. The transport’s captain was going to let her stay in there until we made port. But I said hell no and ejected the pod when we came out of hyper. I truly hoped I had killed her. Anyone who would kill children is not a human being. I thought I was exterminating vermin!” Lisa said with passion, “I don’t know who rescued her or how? I don’t really care. I hope that the authorities arrest her soon. She is a menace to peaceful people.”

  “You’re full name is Lisa, 1984 OAPomega alpha sierra,” Doug asked. “What do the letters mean?”

  Lisa frowned for a second as if she didn’t want to discuss it. You could tell by watching that she didn’t like it; but in the end that she didn’t have any choice in the matter.

  “I was the one thousand, nine hundred and eighty-fourth product, to be produced from the last genome group of the alpha lot. The P means surrogate. I was specifically designed to bring to full term human babies. It was thought that our contracts we would be sold to such families that couldn’t have children the old fashion way and wanted someone to surrogate for them. As part of the design, we were given the best genes for health, longevity, intelligence. Everything a genetic designer thought would help sell the product. We were considered perfect beings. We are based on the Delta Clones, who were designed to be perfect beings. Unfortunately when we were created the company bio engineers messed up. They couldn’t sterilize us like Terran Imperial law demanded as then we couldn’t carry children. So we were literally born almost pregnant. Thankfully, though we can only be made pregnant by a male clone of our same genome, or by artificial insemination.” Jill caught Lisa looking away from the camera catching her lie. Jill knew better. Lisa had told her more than even she had her father. Lisa was concerned that her very public pregnancy might cause problems for biopeople who had escaped from production worlds. They were anything but sterile.

  “You are pregnant now.” The interviewer stated.

  “Yes,” Lisa said and saw a way to help her fellow biopeople in the future, “This is mine and Michael’s second and third child.”

  “Is your husband a bioengineered human being,” The interviewer asked.

  “Not in the sense he is bio engineered.” Lisa said, “His mother, one of the heirs of the original founders of Ebio did do some genetic engineering to ensure her son had a certain look, things that parents have been doing for centuries. Now when you consider that the human population is now over several trillion galaxy wide it isn’t much of a stretch that one of those trillions might have the ability to get us pregnant.”

  “I see,” Mr. Least said. Mitch commented to herself, that she didn’t think Least knew where to go from where he was. “So he is that one in a trillion?”

  “Oh yes!” Lisa said with a dreamy expression on her face, continuing with softness in her voice, “He is definitely one in a trillion.”

  The girls who were sitting with JillLisa saw the look on her step mother’s face and knew without a doubt what their commander’s mother thought of her husband.

  “Lord Wilson,” Least said, “actually retired from the iImperial Marine Corps to be with you. This is almost straight out of romance novels.”

  “Yes,” Lisa blushed, “it would seem so.”

  “Huh, huh,” someone murmured. Jill couldn’t tell who said it.

  “He found you in his brig?” Least asked, “How did you wind up there?”

  “It’s kind of funny,” Lisa saidsmiled, “seven years ago, maybe not that long ago, I needed to be gone. I needed to be underground, and out of sight. Some place Hozenbur wouldn’t think to look and I could do something meaningful. So I signed on with the Imperil sSpace Nnavy Medical Corps. Not the IRS. I got through basic, then the Nnavy decided with my history, that I didn’t need to go through medic school, and assigned me to a small patrol boat as a corpsmen. That suited me. It was a small boat. It had a crew of thirty. I kept them healthy, and bound their wounds for about a year until my competency caught up to me. My C.O. and the Surgeon General for the area both recommended me for O school.

  “Well I tried to refuse; but one of the chiefs sat me down and read my beads like only a good chief can and convinced me to accept the offer.” Lisa continued, “So I packed my space bag and started toward Earth where I was going to attend a ninety day wonder school. It was while I was on the transport, I heard that Michael had just been made a Knight Commander of the Empire. I had never tried to find him, or let him know I was alive.”

  “Why was that,” Least asked.

  “I didn’t want Hozenbur to kill him.” Lisa answered, “That animal would do just that, will do that if she thinks she can get away with it. Besides he had married years before and I wasn’t going to mess with that. So I
learned that Michael was now a Knight Commander and that more or less closed the door on us. A Knight Commander could not be involved with a biowoman. It would bring too much scandal to the Court of Columbus. I knew Michael or thought I did. So I made up my mind we couldn’t be together.

  “So wWhile I was on my way to the Maverick Academy, the Navaly Investigative Service did a back ground check on me. They took my application and vetted it. They found out that I was a bioengineered person.”

  “But didn’t they know?” Least asked, “I would have thought a simple DNA test would reveal that!”

  “Well it would have if I hadn’t messed with my original enlistment physical. I also had died my hair and changed my appearance to not look like a Delta bioperson. I had to do this, as biopeople are not allowed to serve in the imperial military.” Lisa replied with some venom, “I didn’t get a chance to mess with the results of the physical they gave me prior to my departure to Earth. The physical happened literally moments before I had to leave to get to the transport taking me to Earth. I was booked on civilian transport all the way to eEarth. A doctor on Shortfall, where I was sworn in and processed for the Maverick Academy, processed the physical results had no choice but to tell the MPs. The warrant reached Earth several days before I arrived, and was waiting for me when I signed in at the Maverick Academy.”

  She took a sip of water. Gathered her thoughts for a second then continued. “So when I reported to the Academy, the in processing clerk saw that my name was flagged for the MPs. He called the provost who sent an MP to pick me up. Sergeant Bren, who was the MP who arrested me, knew who I was immediately. She escorted me to the brig. Apologizing all the way! I knew Michael was on Earth. That he was with an MP unit. What I didn’t know was that he was the MastSergeant Major of the Marine Corps Military Police unit at the Capital Marine Corps Brigade on Earth. Sergeant Bren was one the MPs that my husband Wilson had trained over the years, and knew of me. I hadn’t realized that he kept a photo of me on his desk in his office. Bren escorted me to the Capital Marine Corps Brigade’s brig. It was where that Michael found me.”

  “You didn’t try to escape in route.” The reported asked.

  “Why?” Lisa replied, “If I escaped from Sergeant Bren she would be given a reprimand for letting a prisoner escape and besides I knew that within a short period of time I would get a bad papers discharge and be out of the military. It didn’t make sense to cause any trouble. Besides I knew how the sergeant’s network works. I knew that even if I could not be with Michael,Wilson he would make sure he saw me.”

  “So he found you in his brig,” Least asked. “What was that like?”

  She smiled and asked, “Before or after he read my beads?”

  “Kind of angry at you huh?” the interviewer asked.

  “You might say that,” Lisa chuckled, “Everyone has a picture of a marine NCO being loud, noisy and profane. That his profanity could blister paint. Michael didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t use one piece of profanity. Yet he let me know how stupid I was. How incredibly lucky I was to be in his brig. Etc etc. Then he yelled at the guard to see that no one disturbed him for a while. Opened the cell door and well he let me know how much he missed me. Over the next few days we filled in each other of what we had been doing for the past few years. I didn’t know he had lost his wife in child birth, and that he had a daughter who lived with Admiral Wilson. I also learned that he was retiring from the marines because of his heritage being a Hazelton.”

  “So you weren’t the reason he left the marines?” Least asked.

  “No,” Lisa answered, “He had just started the process when I was arrested! It was nearly perfect timing on my part. Or so I thought!

  “One day he and the JAG assigned to me came into my cell to inform me that the company in the person of Captain Hozenbur requested that I be released to her. The JAG said he had no other recourse; but to do that. I had been allowed access to both counsel and a legal library, both Military Law and Civil Law. The young officer was correct. Imperial Law required that as I was the property of Ebio that I had to be returned to the company forthwith. No one liked it; but there was nothing we could do about it.”

  “Is that when the Marshall broke you out of the brig and came to Trena,” Least asked.

  “Yes,” Lisa replied, “He had already turned in his papers. His mother had died and left him her entire estate. When he found Hozenbur was coming to collect me, he turned his fortune over to his daughter Jill, and left the Empire with me.”

  then with the help of a couple of friends got us both out of Imperial Space!”

  “So the Marshal is a wanted felon on Earth,” Least asked.

  “Technically no,” Lisa responded knowing she had just messed with the reporter’s hate campaign against her husband, “As a major stock holder of EBio, he had just recovered a piece of missing property. He was legally entitled to take me out of that brig on Earth, to return me to EBio.”

  “But you said you escaped?” Least said, “That implies that you were running away. That maybe someone wasn’t too happy with that?”

  “Well Hozenbur wasn’t,” The biowoman remarked, “She and EBbio Security’s chief were much unhappy about this. If it hadn’t been for some very special friends we wouldn’t have made it to Trena.”

  “Anyone in particular,” Least asked hoping he could find some dirt.

  “Yes,” Lisa said and looked directly at the man. “General Carroll Alphine of the Imperial Marine Corps, Sergeant Nancy Bren, Lieutenant Andy Toliver, and the crew of the Mists of Empire. We couldn’t have escaped from the company without them. To all of you I say thank you.”

  Least looked at Lisa wondering where to go from here. He had suspected that he could rattle her and make her say something inflammatory; but she had been rock steady and cool. So he started on his next questions, “Some say that you have encouraged your husband to promote clones ahead of other people with more experience.”

  Lisa flashed over right then and there. Her step mother was not known to have a temper. Even her father had reflected that it took a lot to anger her. Now, Least had touched a raw nerve and her temper came to the surface, “Mr. Least, it is true that a good portion of the evacuation command staff is made up of bio engineered human beings, but so is our society. My husband’s staff is made up of Thonians, Earth Humans, peopleand people from The People’s Republic of the Stars, defected Theocracy citizens and native born Trenans. Aall of them have two things in common, they are first and foremost citizens of this kingdom of which you are not, and secondly they have a strong desire to help the people of Trena escape the devastating destruction about to befall onf our home. You on the other hand are not more than a pip squeak, who for some reason unknown to the throneCrown, the evacuation command, and the people of Trena, have been working against them since the evacuation was first announced. Your actions have almost; but not quite reach the level of treason. It is only through the good common sense of people like my husband, Queen Agatha and the other souls in positions of authority that you have not been asked to leave Trena. My husband among others may not like you; but he has said time and time again that freedom of press means just that. We have to let you say and do what you do so as to keep people like him in check. Now we don’t like you, and I almost said no to this interview. I didn’t want to wind up on your trophy wall.”

  “Get him mom!” Jill said softly. Mitch and Lamile heard her as some of the cadets yelled, “Get him Lady W. You go girl! “

  Lamile who had been slowly acclimating to her duties as the deputy cadet commander spoke quietly to Mitch. “Think we can put a parade together for Lady Wilson?”

  “I don’t know major,” Mitch said. “We haven’t done that before. Shouldn’t our first parade be for the Queen or the Marshal?”

  “Let me think about it Mitch.” Lamile said. “I wonder what Sergeant Millie would say?”

  Lisa began to speak again getting both girls attention after she had
collected her thoughts, “If you have a problem with the way that the evacuation is being run? Then say so in plain English. But don’t make snide remarks and back stabbing comments.”

  There was shocked silence in the small garden. Then Mr. Least said, “It is true then that your husband has been allowing the press onto the evacuation flights, and has let them go anywhere beside his personal spaces.”

  “That’s right he feels that his personal life is his own, and that his public life is public. The management of the evacuation is fair game. His personal life is not. He feels that all of us are entitled to some privacy. A privacy some of you in the press think we are not entitled to.”

  “Why are you here then Lady Wilson,” The man asked.

  “Mostly because I felt it was time and so did my family that the people of Trena know about me from me.” Lisa said, “We wanted to end some rumors that were going on.”

  “I see.” The man said then saw his floor director was telling him to wrap it up. “I am afraid that is all we have time for this evening Lady Wilson. Thank you, for talking with me this evening.” He turned to the camera and said, “That ends Day One, for this week. Good evening.”