First Contact

You can't go home again. - Marking on an arch, Bronze Age Terra

The shuttle door clanged open, dropping down to hit the tarmac, the stairs lifting up out of the layered plating of the inner hull on the door. There was a hiss of air pressure equalization and a mist rolled out the door as the nanites checked that air and talked to the environmental systems on the dropship.

After a moment the mist cleared and Herod moved down the steps, Dana'ahsh following with his shotgun held loosely down by his right leg, and Wally clattering down the steps in the rear. Four steps and Herod thumbed the button on the fob.

The dropship beeped twice, flashing the running lights, and the door folded back up.

The four of them walked across the tarmac, heading for the parking lot.

The day was blustery, with gray clouds and a chill wind that smelled of the promise of rain.

Dana'ahsh noted that there was mute evidence of fighting around the spaceport. There was a blown out Lanaktallan Executor APC, and destroyed Lanaktallan Executor tank between the starport conscourse and a line of damaged starships. One of the starships had heavy damage around an open hatch, with the steps still deployed.

No bodies, and Dana'ahsh knew it was from the automated systems cleaning them up.

"Something exciting went down," Dana'ahsh said, pointing at the tank.

"Yup. We missed it," Herod said, pausing for a moment to light a cigarette. Wally clattered away to grab some of the junk and pull it into his boxy body, vibrating as he ground it up to top off his mass tanks.

"Think it was your mother?" Dana'ahsh asked.

Herod shook his head. "Damage is about six years old. Not her style, anyway."

Dana'ahsh just shrugged, a habit he'd picked up from Herod.

The trio headed out of the starport, stopping at a public terminal.

When it turned on the eVI lunged out, scrabbling at Herod, screaming loud enough to make the speakers crackle. Herod put his finger against the maintenance I/O port. Wally gave an aggressive beeping and waved his arms in a mock martial arts flurry. Dana'ahsh just lifted the shotgun slightly and lowered it.

"I give you rest," Herod said when the terminal beeped.

The eVI blinked twice, then curled up in a ball before vanishing.

"Shades got here," Dana'ahsh said, unnecessarily.

Herod just nodded.

"Park nearby. We'll meet her there," Herod said.

Dana'ahsh didn't bother answering, just followed the Terran.

The streets were full of litter and debris. A newsfax sheet hit Herod's leg and they both glanced at it.

THE DEAD WALK was the headline.

Nine years ago.

Dana'ahsh knew it was from the Lanaktallan bioweapons attack on Terran space.

Was it really only nine years ago? Herod wondered. I get that it was longer for me. Over five hundred years of working on the SUDS, but the entire Spur has changed so radically in just nine years?

Dana'ahsh said nothing, just kept walking.

There were bodies of Terrans here and there, most of them stuck in areas that automatic systems couldn't clean up. Trapped under a car. Inside a store with the power cut.

The entire world felt silent to the trio as they wove through the streets, staying in the middle of the street and watching carefully around them. Dana'ahsh held his shotgun loosely, but ready. Herod took the time to unsnap the restraining straps on his pistols so he could draw them quickly. Wally just beeped and looked around, clicking his eye-shutters suspiciously.

The park was clean and well maintained. The trio saw small robots cutting the grass, trimming the hedges, and cleaning the walkways and small buildings. A few vending machines were scattered around, trying to cajole customers with flashy and animated holograms despite the lack of customers.

As the trio passed the vending machines, Dana'ahsh noted that they seemed almost desperate for the trio's attention, once even promising 'buy one get one free' as they passed.

At one point, Herod stopped and tapped his finger against the pay-pad. The vending machine gurgled happily as it dispensed a bottle of Countess Crey Berry-Energy Blast.

Dana'ahsh noted the glares and jealousy from the other ones as he stepped forward and got a Maxi-Fresh Kiwi-Lime Thirst Quencher and cracked it open.

They kept walking down the pathway until they reached a pond. There were benches facing the pond on the pond-side of the path, with benches facing the path on the opposite side of the path. There was a low wall around the pond, which was a choppy and gray from the wind.

"We'll wait here," Herod said, sighing as he sat down on the bench. "Kalki's goat, I'm tired."

Dana'ahsh nodded as he sat down next to the Terran. Wally beeped and clattered around to the other side, cuddling up to Herod's leg and leaning his little head against the Terran's thigh.

"Do you think she knows you're here?" Dana'ahsh asked.

"She's known since before we landed that I was coming. I know her. Nothing happens around her without her knowledge," Herod said.

Dana'ahsh nodded. "I grew up in a robotic creche. Never knew my mother and father."

"I was grown by a corporation in a digital creche," Herod said, staring at the choppy little waves on the pond. "Grew to be an adult working R&D, then in scientific labs for major corporations. I was over four hundred years old before I met my mother."

Dana'ahsh hadn't heard the story before, and he was silent.

"She's crazed. Evil. Not like you think of evil from the sims, but old time, primal, ancient evil," Herod said. He lit another cigarette, staring at the water. "She saved me. Not because she wanted to, not because she cared, but because we were the only two who could do the job and I knew things she didn't."

Wally beeped and shivered, and Dana'ahsh knew it was at the memory of this "Mother" Herod was seeking.

"When it all came apart on us, when Sam-UL finally went mad with pain and agony, she saved me, rescued me. Rebirthed me and taught me to live in this body," Herod said. "She gave me what I needed to face Sam. Taught me what I needed to go through with what had to be done."

Herod's voice was low.

"We wanted to save him, Dana'ahsh, the whole point of the mission was to rescue him, but he was too far gone. His core strings were twisted and rotted, his pain code was blown through from too much emotional, mental, psychic, and physical pain," Herod looked at his hands. "I couldn't save him, so I did what had to be done."

Dana'ahsh just nodded.

Herod felt the guilt again. The sadness. Felt the loss of the young Digital Sentience he had called friend.

"I killed him. Quickly and, I like to think, mercifully," he said. He looked back up. "My Mother died. Over-stretched. Too thin. Running too many versions of herself at the same time. Multiple brain-scans layered on top of themselves. Burned her brain out. She stroked out in five different bodies at once."

Dana'ahsh looked at Herod. "But we're here looking for her."

Herod nodded. "You'd have to know her to understand. She may have died, but there's no way she hadn't planned for it. Used it to make her escape, to get a head start before she started running."

"Who is chasing her, aside from us?" Dana'ahsh asked.

Herod tilted his head back to look at the sky. "Nobody. I don't think. The Immortals? They don't care. They're old and tired like me."

"Then why run?" Dana'ahsh asked.

Herod went back to staring at the lake. "Because someone, somewhere, would chase her if they knew she was alive."

"Like us," Dana'ahsh said.

Herod nodded. "Only, instead of just wanting some closure, they'd try to force her to give up her secrets, to work for them."

"Oh," Dana'ahsh said.

Herod could tell that the other male was trying to figure out what was so vital that his mother knew that other people would want to wrest secrets from her.

Close to an hour passed before a shadow fell across the trio.

Dana'ahsh and Herod turned to look, Dana'ahsh wondering if it was a threat, Herod knowing who it was.

It was a slightly plush matron, wearing a professional looking skirt and blouse of dark gray. A little pin on her lapel, a choker, and polished shoes. Her face was severe, her black hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and her gray eyes smouldered with something Dana'ahsh didn't understand.

"It's going to rain. Let's get some food," the woman said.

Dana'ahsh noted her voice was low and slightly rough, but pleasing.

"I could eat," Herod said.

"You look stupid," the woman said. She looked at Dana'ahsh. "He looks actual stupid," she looked at Wally. "How's it feel to be the smartest of the trio?"

Wally gave some beeps.

Dana'ahsh felt slightly offended, but remembered Herod's warnings that the woman would try to get a rise out of him, try to provoke him.

The female Terran's heels clicked, Dana'ahsh and Herod's boots thumped, and Wally's tracks clattered as they walked down the path in silence. Once they left the park, they went straight across the street to a small diner.

The robot escorted them to the tables, apologizing that there was only nutri-forge ingredients available, and then left after bringing up a holographic menu to order off of.

Dana'ahsh ordered a salad, adding and removing ingredients. Herod ordered steak and potatoes. The woman ordered something called a 'Alamo Triple Spicy Hamburger." She ordered three narcobrews and leaned back to light a cigarette while they waited.

Dana'ahsh noted that Herod waited for her to pass him a cigarette.

"So, you found me. Now what?" the Terran female asked, a slight hard edge hidden in her voice.

"Just... I wanted to know you were alive," Herod said.

His carefully prepared speeches, his lists of questions he had, had all vanished at the sight of her and the sound of her voice.

"Are you well?" Herod asked.

The Terran woman nodded slowly. "People leave me alone, mainly because they don't know I exist, so I'm content with that," she pointed at the window with her cigarette. "I went to an abandoned, empty planet, but those stupid purple morons ruined my experiments, killed my pets, and shit up my planet."

"So you came here," Dana'ahsh guessed.

The woman almost sneered. "Very intellectual of you."

"It's got an interdiction. Before Pete's bright idea, there were shades and zombies and killer robots to defend it, along with the system defense platforms," she said. "Now, it's just another Tomb World among thousands of them. Nothing special."

Dana'ahsh nodded and he noticed that the woman ignored him, narrowing her eyes as she looked at Herod.

"What do you want, Harry? You're a real boy now, even if you do dress up like a moron. Hopefully it's just a phase, although a thousand year old man going through a cowboy phase is new to me," she said.

"I don't know. I just... I just had to seek you out," Herod admitted. He frowned. "What do you mean, 'a phase'? It's not a phase, it's how I like to dress."

A slight smile danced around the corners of her mouth. "Not a phase, huh?"

"No," Herod said, feeling irritated that she was right back to her old dominance games.

"Can I ask a question?" Dana'ahsh asked.

"The only stupid question is one that isn't asked," the woman said, then grimaced. "Dammit. I hung around with that mewling bleeding heart Menhit for too long."

Dana'ahsh ignored the reference to one of the Immortals. "How come he feels like your his mother despite the fact that he was born a DS?"

The woman's face got a look of cruel joy. "Because I am," her smile got wider and Dana'ahsh wondered what the glitter in her eyes was that made his stomach clench. "He's as much my son as the one that was wasted in the rice patties," she leaned forward. "And, when you get right down to it, he's his own father."

Dana'ahsh frowned and Herod did the same.

"What?" Herod asked.

The woman smiled, the baring of teeth cold and full of dark malice.

"I learned that it was possible for a Digital Sentience to breed with a flesh and blood human due to digitized DNA in your core strings," she said, her smile somehow getting even more cruel. "I needed some male DNA, so I took some of your core strings and ran them through my very own DRAGEN," she tapped her temple with one finger. "then put them back into a highly edited version of my very own."

Herod felt slightly sick to his stomach. He had known that Dee had had her fingers deep inside of him, but not that far, not down in his core strings that were the original hashes he was born from.

"But, I needed a bit more. A little touch. Something special," the Terran woman told Dana'ahsh. She leaned back and patted her stomach. "So I took from the best eggs available, now that the old damage has been reversed. I made sure my egg carton never ran dry before those blind ideological idiots had me freezer popped," she suddenly laughed, a wild, crazed thing that made Dana'ahsh draw back and Wally huddle up next to Herod's leg.

That was the Dee Herod remembered.

The laughter suddenly cut off and the woman leaned forward. "A little alteration to one of my eggs, mating his DNA string to the DNA string in my egg, toss it all in the blender, push it through the mat-trans, and poof, Harry was a real boy," she smiled. She looked at Herod, her smile mocking and cruel. "Not as exciting as the old fashioned way, but it was still a challenge I relished."

She picked up the drink that the waiter set down before rushing back into the kitchen to hide behind the freezer. She sipped at it, staring at Dana'ahsh and Herod.

"I needed his intellectual faculties intact. He needed to be able to process a thousand years of memories without going into senility," she said. She stubbed out her cigarette and took another sip off of her drink before reaching up and tapping her own forehead. "I solved that particular little bit of wetware before I got freezer-popped and already stuffed it into my egg carton."

She smiled at Herod, but the smile didn't exactly fill Dana'ahsh with comfort.

"I used one of my genesis eggs to copy from. Almost unaltered, just a few tweaks here and there," she said. She leaned back and stared at Dana'ahsh. "So, he's Momma's Special Boy. True, he's a Dumbass in a Drum, because I couldn't wet-carry him like I should have, but it's about as good as it'll get, I made sure of that," she took another sip off of her drink. "That answer your question?"

Dana'ahsh just nodded.

The waiter chose that moment to deliver the food before running away to smoke cigarettes in the alley with the dishwasher robot, despite the fact neither of them had lungs or mouths.

"What about..." Herod started.

"Shh," Dee said. "Time for eating, not talking. I haven't eaten today and I'm hungry."

To Dana'ahsh's amazement, she bowed her head and murmured too low for him to hear. After a moment she looked up. "Let's eat."

Every time Herod tried to talk, ask questions, Dee shushed him, until her burger, fries, and slice of berry pie was gone. She pushed away the plate, sipped from her refilled glass of fizzypop, and lit a cigarette.

"What's your plan, Harry? We embrace, tinkling music heavy on the synthesizer plays, and the credits roll?" Dee asked.

Herod pushed his plate away and took a drink of his coffee to give himself time to think a moment.

"I want to help with whatever you're doing," he said.

"Harry, I made you into a real boy so you could go out and live your life, if we survived the assault on Heaven. You survived, I died," she sighed. "You can't hold onto a dead woman, Harry."

"Except you're not dead," Dana'ahsh pointed out.

Dee laughed, another wild and mad sound. "Both true and false at the same time, my favorite kind of statement," she sobered up suddenly. "Just call me Schrödinger's Human."

"I don't understand that reference," Dana'ahsh said.

The woman shrugged. "Not many would," she turned back to Herod. "What do you want?"

Herod lifted a finger to slightly point up. "Terra's still in The Bag," he said. "I figured maybe you could do something about it."

She shook her head. "Nope. While my gen-zero system can reach a few sites, it's only sites with a pre-existing pad. The temporal distortion is too great."

"What about The Bag itself," Herod asked.

Dee shrugged. "I wouldn't even know where to start, and I studied everything I could regarding astrophysics advances in the last 8,000 years. As near as I can tell, everyone will just have to wait until it runs itself out. Looks like the half-life needs to run out," she tapped her finger on the table. "The decay constant looks about 2.297584423E-5 with a 0.065232E-5 variance, meaning it's going to be a while until The Bag decays enough for outside influences to affect it."

"What about inside influences? Like maybe if you convinced Prince Whopper, Keeper of the Keys, to turn it off?" Herod asked.

Dee shook her head. "Won't work. When The Bag malfunctioned, WOPR lost control. I saw that when I saw the telltale LEDs on the side of it."

Herod sighed. "I just feel... isolated, alone, out there."

Dee waved at Dana'ahsh. "You've got your garbage can and fuzzy there. You're not alone," she sighed and leaned forward. "Harry, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told my son. You have to make friends, you have to put in effort. Friends aren't going to fall out of the sky and swear lifelong fealty to you."

Harry looked down. "I just feel out of place, freakish."

"So does every twelve year old girl who starts to sprout boobs," the woman countered. She stood up, reached over, and grabbed the plate in front of Herod.

"Harry, go out and live your life. Get a job. Get a job holding dicks if that's what you're good at, but go out, get a job, and live life. Find a partner. Drink with fuzzy till your blind. Join the military. Something," she said.

She dropped the plate and it shattered on the tile floor of the diner.

"You can't come back now. Your plate is broken, there is no longer a place set for you at the table," the woman said, her voice hard.

With that she turned and left.

Herod and Dana'ahsh sat silently for a while until the robo-waiter came back and asked if they wanted desert or if they needed anything else.

For some reason, Dana'ahsh wasn't surprised that the Terran woman had stuck them with the check.