Thanks to Malady for his help editing and for ideas.

To Return Home 2.2

"I don't give a damn who it is, Bernie! I don't want you linking with anyone down there again!"

I stopped on my parent's porch. I had been reaching out to open the door, but now, hearing Daddy yelling, I wasn't sure I wanted to walk in on them. All three of us girls had a standing invitation to simply walk in, as did all of them, including Mama and Daddy, at our homes.

I had a particular reason to not want to walk in on this particular squabble. Mama was doing a favor for me. Apparently Amos was able to connect to others again. It frightened all of us. What was to stop him from trying to control us? I was very much afraid. Controlling me was something he might want to do to get to John.

I sat down on one of the bamboo chairs arranged around the umbrella table on their porch and pondered the problem. I could understand Daddy's anger. He was concerned. But I also knew he would agree that we had to go to great lengths in this situation.

I heard Mama's voice, but I couldn't understand what she was saying.

A moment later, Daddy was exploding. "Rose asked you to?!? We'll see about that!!!" Oh. That’s what she was saying.

I heard him stomping, and then the door swing open. He stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him. He didn't look back, and I should have kept my mouth shut. I really should have.

"I'm right here, Daddy."

I was kicking myself as soon as I spoke. He turned, and his face was beet red. He was furious.

He stomped toward me, and I could see his anger as if it was oozing out of every pore in his body. However, there’s something about a daughter that no daddy can compete with. He dropped into the chair opposite me, and let out a big sigh. I knew he couldn’t stay angry for long, and so did he.

His face was still apoplectic as he stared at me, but I could see the red disappearing as I sat looking at him. I’m sure the dissipating ferocity was intentional as well as an unconscious response to his daughter.

Finally, in a quiet voice, he asked, “Why?”

Had I been Paula, I would have been smug and asked, ‘Why what?’ And as much as I had picked up on my older sibling’s example over the years, I decided to forego the temptation and Daddy’s resulting reaction. “We needed to know, and Mama is the only one who could get the information for us.”

“And did you think of your Mama’s wellbeing?”

“I almost didn’t ask her because of that. Then I thought of the reason she’s able to get that ‘intel’ and knew that she would never forgive me if I didn’t ask.”

Daddy seemed to deflate. “I know, Rosie.” I sighed in relief as he called me Rosie instead of Rose. “Your mama’s strength of character is one of the reasons I married her.” He gave a sudden laugh. “You know it took me forever to get her to call me ‘Vern’ instead of ‘Vernon?’ She didn’t think it was dignified to use a nickname. She preferred being called Bernice too.”

“She’s almost always called me Rosie,” I said, referring to the nickname.

“Yes, even when you were Gene.”

Suddenly, I laughed as well. “I do remember everyone calling me Gene, but with Mama I was always Eugene.”

“Yep. Prim and proper was her way. I think a lot of her easing off of a lot of that was when we realized you were Rose; not Eugene.” It seemed as if Daddy’s anger was gone. I didn’t want to bring it back though, so I just let him lead the conversation.

“She told me once that Paul and Fred were so close that if one had been a girl, they would have married.”

“They did,” I nodded.

“Yeah, they did.” He got a thoughtful look on his face. “I wonder if they would have, without the bond?”

I giggled. “I think they would have, Daddy. Mama was right when she said that.” My mirth quickly faded though, as I thought about Fred and how he had died.

Daddy seemed to read my mind. “Yeah. You’re right. We need to stop this animal. He doesn’t give a shit about anything. I’m so sorry that he and John are twins. Neither deserve a brother like that.”

I nodded in understanding. John was an incredible man. I’d had no idea that he had recognized me as a girl when we were kids, although when I thought about it, everything fell into place – things I hadn’t noticed at the time, but in retrospect, made perfect sense. Amos was beyond anything I could comprehend. Even having experienced his memories, and his motives… No. That wasn’t true. I hadn’t ever experienced what he was really like. I knew what Carla felt when she was controlled by him, but I experienced it from Carla’s perspective. She was only a passenger.

The only one who truly experienced Amos’ thoughts was Mama.

For a moment I shivered as I thought of Mama understanding what made him the way he was. Did she understand? Did she approve?

No! She couldn’t. She was working as hard as we were to stop him. Or was she?

Wonderful. Now I was second guessing everything again. I sighed as I considered what I knew, or thought I knew.

We sat for several minutes, saying nothing. After a bit, Daddy got up and pulled one of the other chairs to right beside mine. He sat down, and put an arm around me. “I’m sorry for getting so upset, Rosie. You are making the hard choices.” He chuckled. “I told you I knew you could, but I got mad when you did.”

I smiled as I leaned my head on his shoulder. “Thanks, Daddy.” I’m afraid, however, that my smile was only on my lips. I couldn’t stop thinking about Mama experiencing my mad brother-in-law’s thoughts.

-=#=-

The five of us in leadership roles set up a kind of town hall meeting after awhile. John, Marc, and I had done a similar thing while we could, on N21. After Amos’ program, one he apparently named ‘total_fun’, started, the fear between men and women prevented that.

We planned the town hall meetings on a lunar cycle, so once a month. Although we really had no year, or months on board the ship. We had it artificially, through Trent Carr’s holographic technology, and John’s arranging the ship to mimic the cycles of Earth.

Thus, a few nights after Daddy and I talked on his porch, we had a town hall meeting.

Vic Winston came forward. He was joined by Trent Carr. Both of them had been working on different sides of the holography technology. They had come up with an interesting method of using Vic’s force fields to give the feeling of reality to holographic constructs. Listening to their talk about what they had invented reminded me of the old Star Trek episodes where they had holodecks on board the ships – except we couldn’t produce matter with ‘replicators.’

Once they had finished, I wondered if we could use the tech for our rescue of the people downstairs. When I asked, they explained that they were considering different ways. One was a portable generator that would mimic some ponies and a chariot. I got a distaste in my mouth at the thought, but it might be necessary.

"Will it be able to carry a person?" I asked.

"I believe so," said Trent.

“That's very interesting,” John commented. “But, I thought force fields needed a huge generator for power.”

“We've been able to do a tradeoff. By upping the wattage, we've been able to create a sufficient field.”

Marc was very curious. “We couldn't do that before,” he stated. “What have you changed?”

“We're using the photons of the holograms to create the fields.”

there was a lot of murmuring in the hall. Lots of people couldn't seem to believe that light would be able to seem solid. I think Marc spoke for all of us when he said, “That's impossible!”

Vic and Trent we're standing at a lectern in the center of the auditorium. Trent hadn't said much since they arrived. In fact, I don't think he’d said anything. Now, Vic seemed to be fiddling with his watch, and Trent opened his mouth as if to speak. Then he picked up a glass of water from the lectern and took a drink. Vic looked back up and asked, “Why do you say that, Marc?” Trent took another drink, finishing off the glass.

“The amount of power required to make photons solid... Would literally be astronomical!”

“You think so?” He gestured up to the projector hanging from the ceiling. People who had ideas to present to us used it for holographic slideshows. I saw that the green light that showed it being on was lit. What was he doing? There were just the two of them there.

Vic touched his watch again. Trent flashed out of existence and we heard the water he had drank, splash the floor. I glanced at my brother-in-law and he was starting wide-eyed at Vic. None of us suspected that Trent had been a hologram. Trent touched his watch again and Trent was standing beside him again. All five of us were out of our seats in an instant, hurrying to the lectern. I reached out and touched the faux Trent's hand, then face. He felt as real as any person. Except... “It's cold,” I said to Vic.

I heard Trent's voice from the doorway. “We're working on a way to make a person seem warm to the touch. Not to mention an AI smart enough to control him.”

Vic continued. “We've got a way to warm it, but this projector doesn't produce enough power. Needless to say, we need enough power to create the necessary amount of heat. We probably could have warmed it gradually, but we really need to be able to produce more power to make it truly effective.”

“This…” I wasn’t sure what to say, so I finally settled on, “This is incredible!”