Chapter 3.3

We met, the next day in the back room of Heaven’s Rose. I had been ordered by Willem to continue dressed revealingly until or unless he decided I should wear something different. I was also ordered to continue to deny John any sex.

Honestly, that was fine, as long as he didn’t tell me I couldn’t love my husband. We were both old enough to know that sex was not the be-all and end-all. Love was much more than that. Somehow, I didn’t think Willem could ever fathom that.

We were there to discuss any possibility to get Willem off our ship. Technically, John was now in command, and I was his first mate. I thought it was fitting, but I didn’t see that it was a good idea. I had been under Willem’s control, and who’s to say I wasn’t only acting the part of a free woman. For all I knew, he could take control of me at any time.

Of course, he could also listen in on anything we said, anywhere on the ship. Oh, it was all such a confusing gamble.

“I’m acting under the assumption that Willem is a holographic construct,” Marc said. “It’s all that makes sense.”

"Really?" Paula asked. She was not well. Somehow, her nanites weren't functioning. She was coughing up a thick fluid, quite regularly. I had spoken to Winston, and he told me he had seen her dinner be spat up, much like a baby would do before it's nanites were infused. There were also several blisters on her body, probably from burns.

Marc looked at her and I could see his face turn slightly green. He tried to put on a brave face, though. I understood how he felt; none of us had ever seen a sick person. "Yes, Paula. Somehow…" his voice faltered as the subject of our conversation entered the room.

I stood up and moved in between him and everyone else. I felt ridiculous, standing there in lingerie, trying to hold him back. "Don't you dare touch my sister," I told him.

I was afraid that he would take control of my mind, but he didn't.

"So you call Paula your sister? She's nine hundred years older than you, Rose."

"No matter what you think of my love for my friends, you will not touch them."

"Have you forgotten my orders to you?"

I took a deep breath, and maybe I was about to become his permanent slave, but damned if I was going to do what this madman ordered again.

"No, Willem. I haven't forgotten. I choose to ignore them."

He looked at my clothes. "You have, have you?"

Before he finished his sentence, however, I was removing my clothing, such as it was. In a moment, I stood in nothing but defiance.

He glared at me, but turned and walked away. I shakily turned to look at my friends. I saw it, and it almost killed me. Paula was dead. There was a hole from under her chin that apparently emerged through the top of her head.

I screamed.

Doctors Jack and Sylvia were sitting with us in the briefing room. I was weeping while I once more leaned against John for support. Carla was sobbing with her head in her arms on the table in front of her. Winston was sitting, staring at the screen.

"Her nanites were completely deactivated. In fact, many had left her body. We know that there are around twenty pounds of nanites in an adult, and our computers collect information through those nanites constantly. We lost contact with her nanites yesterday, and her body was roughly ten pounds less today than at last connection," Jack told us.

"If they were deactivated, how was she killed?" Marc asked, a look of frustration on his face.

Doctor Sylvia looked extremely uncomfortable. "There were all the signs of a stake through her head."

"How did he drive a stake through her head without us knowing about it, and where did it go?" John was absolutely furious, and it scared me. I had never heard his voice sound like that.

"Why?!!?" I couldn't take it anymore, and it burst from me like my heart was exploding. "He threatened me with slavery. Instead, he killed my sister! The BASTARD!"

I now had my head in my hands, and I was sobbing. "It was my fault. I wanted him to focus on me, not her and he killed her!"

John pulled me tight. "Rose, each of us needs to group together now. I very much doubt that this was your fault. He told her he was going to kill her painfully. If anything, you stopped her suffering more."

"You think so?" I wasn't very logical at the moment, but he was starting to get through to me. "She didn't suffer as much as she would have?"

"John's right, Rose," Marc agreed. "You know what Fred and Paula did to that piece of shit. He suffered way more than she did. You helped her."

It was a small comfort. Very small, but it helped me focus. Carla seemed to be drawing together as well. Only Winston still seemed lost to the world, probably going through memories of the joy they shared.

John said his name, but there was no response.

"Winston," Marc said louder.

Winston blinked, looked around, then stood. His eyes were red and moist, although he hadn't been openly crying. "See ya'," he told us as he turned and left the room.

"I can't imagine what he's going through," John said. "To lose…"

Suddenly we heard something very disturbing. The airlock began cycling. Jack and Marc both leaped to their feet and ran out of the room.

We heard something that will always stay with me. "You have to know! Does he have complete control or not? I don't think he does. He is concentrating on the fields! Not nanites! Somehow he blew his connection. He let Rose go! I'm going to see if we can end it!"

I heard the inner door open, then close. A moment later, the outer door opened. A few minutes later, Winston Reese, a friend for years floated away into the void.

We were in the steakhouse, having a wake for our family and friends. We were determined that we would not give in to the piece of shit we had been subject to for so long. Jack, Marc, and John were all in suits, while Sylvia, Carla, and I were in dresses suitable for the situation.

We were drinking a toast when the particular piece of shit walked in again.

Again, I stood. I was shaky but determined. I had not wanted to do this, but the others, including John, were adamant. He had threatened me specifically, but not carried it out. Why? That was not his style.

"Get out of here," I told him. I sounded scared to death to myself.

"I own the ship. You are violating my rules."

"Go to hell," I told him.

He laughed. "I probably will, but I'll own it quickly after arriving."

Marc stood up. He held a pad that he had been watching while I talked to him. "You are already in hell," he told Wallace. "You're not a real person. You're a virus in our computers, and you're losing the fight. Winston was right!"

"You had power at first, but you lost power over the nanites yesterday. Otherwise you wouldn’t have let Rose go. You couldn't hold on to her."

John stepped to my side and told the virus, "Never touch my wife again."

Marc continued: "you killed Paula with the shaped fields. The same as you're using right now to give yourself a physical presence. That and the holographic equipment. I wondered why you only appeared in this bay. It's the only one with the projectors for either."

"I still have power," the hologram told us.

"Not much, " Marc laughed as he looked at his pad. "In fact, you don't have enough for the fields anymore."

"That doesn't matter!" Screamed Wallace as his voice switched to the speakers.

"You can't control the nanites, and you can't control fields anymore. How will you hurt us?"

"I control the computer!"

"Good for you," said my husband. "But what can you do there? Look around. You will find that you cannot control any vital systems. They have a failsafe that will always be in our favor. You can't even open any doors. They are all mechanically locked."

I watched that horrible face go through several emotions until it faded away.

"Are you still there Willem?" Marc asked.

"You think you've won, but what do you think I've done to the other ships? I'm in each one, waiting to come out and play. And they don't have computers that even begin to compare to yours." His voice stopped in a dramatic pause. "They are dependent on their computers for everything. They can't stop me."

The voice became a vile whisper at the last sentence, then it seemed as though he was gone.

Marc looked at his pad and verified it. He turned the pad around. We saw the screen change from a blinking red eradicating virus to a steady green virus eradicated.

I put down the mic and look at my husband. I'm very pleased that we have been together as long as we have.

Tomorrow will be twenty-five years to the day since my sister died. We are on the way to the next ship's location to see if they need or even want our help.

I suppose I should fill in a few details. Yes, Willem was a virus, as you saw. When he lost control of me, he still had control of Rhoda. He put everything he had into holding her. We finally found her body buried in the ground near the statue of her stepfather. John believes Willem did that because she was Paula’s daughter so symbolically, he was getting his revenge.

A question that comes to mind is, how did he know how his body had died?

Marc was able to take a memory snapshot of the virus, and access its memories. He then placed them into a computer separate from any other. He questioned the thing for months.

He has informed me that what Paula told me about her and Fred's speculations on the making of Willem were essentially correct.

As to his showing up on our ship, he had a dead man switch in his nanites. If for any reason, his blood stopped flowing in his brain, his last conscious thoughts would be sent to his computers. He had kept a running recording of his thoughts, so his death was recorded and the recording process stopped.

When new computers were built, a memory crystal held the read-only memory that allowed a computer to talk to its hardware. That didn't take up much space but he made sure that added to the bios was now his mind at the moment of his death, along with instructions on how to break free and to make his way into other machines. A memory crystal can hold a lot of information.

I'm looking through my notes to see if I've forgotten to relate any information. Oh! Fred Freeman II. He was left without his mother or father, or even any siblings. He has made it clear that he has not lost all of his family, however. He has two aunts whom he loves. We love him too! He is a reminder of our dear sister.

Freddy (he doesn't mind it as his dad did) now owns the steakhouse. He changed the name to Fred and Paula's. It is my favorite restaurant now. On one wall is a holographic portrait of my sister and Fred Sr. When they were married, along with one of her with Winston.

Speaking of Winston, his death was helpful. Marc was worried that Willem would have locked us into his game as he did before. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Wow! What a story to tell! It still hurts to think of all the friends and family that I lost. That we lost. Perl, Brandy, Kari… there are so many. I can't lose my memories of them because of the nanites.

There is a finite amount of information that a brain can hold, but one of the more frightening aspects of nanites is that we all have our brains constantly recorded. We have to, or we would run out of space.

Our nanites are hooked to personal crystals, usually held in some type of jewelry. I almost always wear mine in a necklace. John has his in a watch band. They don't have to be on your person, but most people's are. You want to make sure your memories are safe.

Some people require that after their death, the crystal be destroyed. I have always considered this line of thinking to be silly. With Willem's antics, I'm not so sure now.

So ends my account of Caesar's legacy. It was a horrible part of our history, and may not be over. I hope it is.

I plan on recording any meetings we may have with other ships, so others will know our legacy, and not just Willem's.

And now, I have a special duty to perform. John earned some very dire consequences for something today. I'm not sure what he did, but I'm certain he did it. And if he didn't, we'll just pretend he did.

Talk to you soon!