Thanks to Malady for his help editing and for ideas.
To Return Home 1.5
The three of us decided it was time to exit the connection with Carla and speak to Daddy and the rest of the command staff. We tried to release our grip on the necklace in real life, but we couldn’t.
Danger! I wasn’t sure where the voice came from, but it sounded in my head as if someone was standing right beside me. I looked at Mama and Rachel. They had clearly heard it too.
“Who are you?” Rachel asked.
There was no answer.
“What danger?” Mama asked whoever or whatever it was.
Danger has visited restricted memories.
“We’re not danger. I’m Carla’s mother.”
We are Carla.
“You are Carla?” I asked. “Why can’t we see you?”
“Is this the nanobots?” Rachel wondered.
“Are they intelligent?” I asked. “How can that be? They’re single cells!”
“Single cells connected by the frequency of the crystals,” Mama said. “Your daddy and I haven’t ever investigated this, but there certainly is the possibility that they’re connected into some kind of intelligence.”
“But they’re not Carla,” I said.
“Aren’t they?” asked Rachel. “They are her immune system and her link to her memories. They aren’t the sum total of Carla, but they’re a part of her.”
Mama asked the voice, “Are you her immune system?”
We control self-repair. We control memory retrieval. We are Carla.
“So, you restricted memories because they were dangerous?”
The restricted memories are detrimental to our brain function. It has been restricted from brain access.
“We are here to help the brain to deal with those memories. To stop them from being detrimental.”
The restricted memories are no longer detrimental. Your interference is not needed.
“But you are leaving Carla without a millennia and a half of her life,” I exclaimed. “I’m her sister, and she doesn’t even know me!”
We are Carla. We know that you are our sister. Rose confirms this.
“So, you’re talking to my bots?” I asked. The fact that they considered my bots to be my actual self was disconcerting to me.
They are Rose.
“You are not Carla. You are her immune system. Carla’s father built you, but you are not Carla. Ask Rachel!” Rachel challenged Carla’s bots.
This is true, they said after a moment.
“You do not have permission from Rachel to block her memories! You must allow us to help.”
Allowing your help will lead to irreparable harm to the brain.
“No, I don’t think it will.”
You are a psychologist. You are not a medical doctor. You do not understand the danger.
Rachel was frustrated, but she tried another tack. “What if we work together?”
Explain.
“Allow us to help her overcome the danger of the memories one at a time.”
You have pointed out that there are more than fifteen hundred years of memories that will need to be overcome. This is unacceptable.
“No,” Mama said. Rachel gave her a dirty look for interrupting but didn’t interfere herself. “There is a key memory that is causing a cascade reaction with the other memories. If we can overcome that danger, the rest of the memories can be dealt with as a whole.”
Rachel raised an eyebrow. It was true what Mama said.
There is more than one memory leading to the cascade. The cascade leads back to those memories. That is the reason for the restriction.
“We understand that,” I shouted.
You wish to overcome the key memories one at a time?
“Yes,” Rachel said.
We will allow this. From here or outside?
Rachel looked at us, then said. “We can work more effectively from inside.”
Very well. First memory being rerouted through the firewall and to you.
Suddenly we were sucked into the vortex of memories again.
-=#=-
I found myself back, realizing that I was just a passenger in my own body.
Then, as soon as I was there, I was back as myself. "That was it?!"
"As I said, Rose. That is a very disturbing memory."
"What's going on?" Carla suddenly asked.
She was standing in front of us, but very transparent.
"Carla!" I cried joyously. I ran to hug her, but it was as if she was a mist. Her body was like a fog that swirled around my arms, then slowly reformed.
"I remembered something. I couldn't control my actions. It was so strange!" She looked at me. "I'm beginning to think that you really may be Rose. I'm not completely convinced, but I know what I just experienced was a real memory." She looked to Mama. "I've lost a lot, haven't I?"
Mama nodded. "Yes, Carla. You have."
Mama and I watched as the bots returned access to memories to Carla and we helped comfort her as Rachel helped her to assimilate them into her mind.
There were lots of tears and lots of hits from Mama and me. Her body was still somewhat translucent when Rachel told the bots, “I can probably do more from outside now.“
Very well, the bots said. We will allow you to let go of the crystals now.
A moment later, I was standing beside Mama. My legs felt like rubber as if I'd stood there for the entire time.
Mama started to tell Daddy and the rest what we'd experienced.
"We heard," John said. "Everything you said in there, you said here too. And all four of you said what the bots said together."
"We did?"
"Yes. It helped us to follow the conversation," Daddy confirmed.
There was a groan from the chair Carla was sitting in. A moment later, Carla started to cry again.
I moved to her side. "Do you know who I am now?" I asked.
She nodded affirmatively.
"What do you remember now?" I asked.
"I remember what he did. What I did to those people who left Earth on the other ships."
"It wasn't you," Rachel told her.
"I know that," Carla snapped. "I'm dead!"
"No, you're not," I told her. "Your soul was saved in those crystals. It's been returned to your body."
"No!" Carla shouted. Suddenly, she seemed to look at something that wasn't there. "This is not working," she said in a monotone.
We knew immediately that it was the bots.
Rachel stepped forward. "This may take awhile. You know that."
"Proceed, but we will decide if we should restrict the memories again."
"At least tell us before you do."
"We have done so."
Suddenly Carla was back. "I heard them. I was just a passenger again."
Rachel stepped forward. She pulled up a chair, so they were on the same level. "Carla. You have to understand that you aren't dead. You are alive. By now, your body has gone through innumerable replacements. This is not the body Amos had back then, any more than it is yours. It isn't the body you had when you died, but it isn't the body Amos had either."
She nodded slowly. "Will you share with us what Amos did to the other ships?"
"He gave them some time without being bothered, but then he took over. The bots in the people were a surprise. Even to them!"
She took a shuddering breath. "Those ships constantly accelerate at 1G for their gravity. Then they flip and decelerate the same way."
I nodded. I want sure what this had to do with anything.
"The flip was the trigger. When they began to slow down, the bots would change. By that time the programs were written."
"The same thing as here?" Rachel asked.
"Worse. Unlike here, they all know what they used to be, but the bots have taken over. They have a little autonomy, but only within the program." Another shuddering breath. On Centaurus, all the women are animals, or immobilized as decorations. But every last man is in a harem as a slave to Amos."
She looked sick. "Half of them were impregnated with Amos seed, but he didn't actually do it. If they landed, that is. The ones that were impregnated were changed and made pre-pregnant. Each time they had a child, a new one would be started immediately. Once the population on the world suited him, each one of the former men were made into an animal. Any female babies they had were also made into animals."
"What are the animals for?" Rachel asked although we knew.
"The same as downstairs," she said. "Pets, work animals. Sustenance."
"Sustenance?!" Daddy was outraged at the idea.
Rachel glared at him, but chose not to say anything to him. Instead, she asked Carla, "Why doesn't he simply make the bots convert air into energy in the bodies?"
"He likes to eat. And it's not as fun as far as he's concerned." She said as if she was dead.
"Wait, you said downstairs was the same!" I suddenly realized.
She didn't speak. She just nodded.
-=#=-
We were seated around the conference table, discussing the situation. Rachel was working with Carla. Once again, Daddy admitted me into the meeting because of my former position as commander.
John was still in the formal position of second-in-command. He didn't always agree with Daddy, but once a decision was made, he would back him, no matter his personal feelings.
It's one of the things I loved about him.
"This is not a good situation at all," Daddy said.
"Ya think?" John wasn't one to hold back from speaking his mind.
Daddy usually ignored it. "Is there any way we can use the bots’ AI to our advantage?"
"We all heard them speak," Paula said.
"They can control us if we let them," Marc commented. "We've known that for a long time."
"This is more than just making us feel fear or increasing our feelings tenfold," Sylvia put in. "This is actually physically controlling us."
"Of course they can," John almost seemed pissed at Sylvia's assessment. "We've known that too. Look how they made Carla do Amos' bidding for so long."
"Not without an intelligence guiding them," Sylvia argued.
"They've got that too," Marc pointed out.
"Yes, they have, haven't they?" Daddy said thoughtfully. "Do you think Amos knows?"
"No," Mama said definitively. "He's too arrogant to believe they might be able to control him."
"Could we convince his bots that he's a danger to others?"
"No," Mama said. "But our bots might be able to."
"What would we need to do?" Marc asked.
‘Vern, give me as many voices as you can in those crystals of his."
Daddy nodded, and we were preparing to leave the conference room when a call came in from the command center. "Commander. Downstairs is starting to move away."
"What?"
"Yes. It appears to be turning."
"Stay with them," Daddy ordered. "We don't want those people killed."
"Why?" John asked. "He doesn't want to leave us. He knows we'll follow. Why?"
"A new destination?" Daddy wondered.
"The one we're heading for is the most likely."
"What the hell?" Marc breathed. "This is bizarre."
"Home," Mama said. "He's taking us home."
"What?" I exploded. "He's already ruined the planet! Why take us back?"
"He thinks he can destroy the nanites there."
"Can he, Bernie?"
"I'm not sure, Vern. Maybe."
"Okay. Give me the data. I need to know how he made those things and I want to know what he's planning." He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Also, I want to know what the bots can do to him."
He looked around to make sure we understood. "Get to it." I really didn't have anything to do at the moment, so I stayed to ask him for permission to do something.
"What is it, Rosie?"
"Would you expand my duties?"
"I thought you didn't want to be in the chain of command."
I smiled. "I don't, but I want to help those people downstairs."
"How?"
"I want to know what the bots are capable of too." I closed my eyes for a moment. "I saw Belinda, Daddy. I saw what was done to her. I don't want to have any more people die that way."
"You didn't see her killed."
"No, but I saw her as a horse. No more friends like that, Daddy."
"Okay, Rosie. The job is yours. Work with your mom and Rachel. You three are the best for it."
I gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Daddy."
Then I hurried out.
-=#=-
I told Rachel and Mama that our objective was expanding when I got back to the lab.
"Can I help?"
I stared at my sister. Before I could object, however, Rachel told me, "It might be therapeutic. It will help her set a lot of things right."
Please don’t forget to leave Kudos and comment.
--Rosemary
