Jonas laughed and nodded. “Gabriel woke me up a couple months ago. I didn't see the outside of that suite you found me in after that. I didn't even know I was in a ship until I saw the effects of a wormhole through the window. I was supposed to be a surprise gift for you. He never explained that you had downloaded yourself into human body so I thought you were still running amok in some computer system somewhere.”
Alice couldn't help but laugh uproariously. “He's a little strange, way too obsessed with me. Bernice used to call him my interstellar stalker.”
“That fits. I got access to a lot of the entertainment networks, he gave me reference information on neural technology, a couple of computing tools so I could keep myself busy.”
“Speaking of computing tools,” Alice said as she put the three quarter length arm control and command unit on the table in front of him. “I materialized one just in case I ever found you again. It has the improvements I made to my own.”
It looked a bit like his old one, but as he picked it up he realized it was lighter, only two millimetres thick, and perfectly flexible. The display was tuned to activate when his hand touched it and the operating system interface looked the same as his old one. “There's a materializer in here?”
“Yup, four times as powerful as the one you used to use and its power cell is based on the newer ones Freegrounders use. The entire vacsuit is an eight fold energy collector.”
“Eight fold, they used to be four.”
“Now Freeground vacsuits and the control systems collect energy from motion, heat, light, any magnetism, waste electricity, pressure exerted from either side of the suit, friction and body waste if you just have no where else to go. The vacsuits also have cleaning and skin maintenance systems built in now.” She raised her hand up to show that it looked like she wasn't wearing gloves. “You can also make any part of it transparent.”
“That must have been fun in testing,” Jonas said with a chuckle. “Thank you, I missed this.” He put the unit around his left forearm and it self sealed. The control interface came to life, presenting status information and pointing out where different devices were located, such as the emergency injector for treating injury and an up link wire for interfacing with other computers without using wireless communications. He looked at Alice then with a smile she had never seen before. “This is pretty unbelievable.” It came almost as a whisper. “I can't believe I'm sitting beside a woman who was once my artificial intelligence. Not only that, but you saved me from some crazed maniac who crossed the galaxy to get to you.”
Alice was at a loss. She just didn't know what to say, it was like she was on display. She never felt so naked but coming from him it wasn't offensive. “You're welcome.”
“I never said it, but after having you around for so long you were like the sister I never had. You knew me better than anyone.”
“I always thought of you as my father,” she said quietly.
“I think I'm still a little young to be your father, but I'd be proud to take the role,” Jonas said, taking her hand.
A tear rolled down her cheek and she leaned towards him. He put his arms around her and let her cry. “I came into this body and there was nothing but fragments of her life left. They were all painful, disjointed, lonely memories and I was starting to think I was just continuing where she left off. I thought I was ready to be on my own when Bernice got married and stayed behind, and Lewis helps, but I've missed you s-so much.” She tried to take a deep breath but it was broken by involuntary shudders.
Jonas comforted her, stroking her back and holding her close. “You're a gift. I am amazed at you, and not because you're some new technological feat, but because you're a being I thought I would never, could never meet like this and there were days I wished I could meet people and introduce you like the person you were to me. After you left I never took on another AI with a personality.”
She held fast to him, quieting a little.
“I had lost my best friend, and now here she is.” He pulled away from her just enough to look at her face and wipe away her tears. “I can't wait to introduce you to Ayan and Oz.”
“I'm only what you made me,” she said quietly with a small smile.
His reaction was a surprised one. “Maybe at first, but oh my God you've done so much since! I don't know who Bernice is, but I doubt she bought you this ship and let you run off, and you rescued me instead of being captured yourself. I saw that ship, spent two months locked in a room, a nice room, but still locked away. I tried to escape and couldn't. You're so much more than I can take credit for.” He paused for a moment then smiled, raising his eyebrows. “But can I take some credit? This would look pretty good on a resume.”
She laughed and nodded, her chin still quivering. “Just keep me strapped to your arm whenever you can.”
“Ayan might have a problem with that,” Jonas said quietly. It took a moment, but the reality of being away for so long sunk in and he buried the dark thoughts that threatened to overtake him. “You're important to me. More important than anyone, you're family.” He kissed her on the forehead and held her.
She wept in relief and joy. It wasn't the hardened, dark Jake Valance who was accepting her, it was the one she had always known, the one she remembered and loved. “Thank you,” came her whisper. “Thank you.”
Jonas patiently comforted her for several minutes before she sniffled and pulled away slowly. She pulled a napkin from a table drawer and blew her nose. “Feel better?” he asked gently.
She nodded. “Uh-huh. Thanks.”
“You have to stop thanking me. You saved my butt remember?”
“Yup, and I'll get you home too. Too bad the ship will get there faster than any transmission, they won't have any warning.”
“You always did like surprises.”
“I guess I did,” she said with a far away look. “I remember a lot of things from before, but it's more like a dream.” Alice looked at him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It must feel like you're in a different universe. You must have a million questions and I'm falling apart on you.”
“While I was sleeping you were having a life out here, pretty much alone from what I'm hearing, so I understand. Do you know anything about how Ayan is though? I couldn't find much.”
“She's still at Freeground, all I could find out was that she is with their Special Projects division. They made her a founding member of the department restart.”
“Did you ever try to contact them?”
“No, I never did. I didn't know how they would react. I was afraid to. The few times I tried to look information up on them there was always a huge wall of security. Whatever everyone's doing has got to be important.”
“So they all got back.”
“They did. Oz was listed as a Captain a couple months after you disappeared, that's the last I saw of him. But everyone was listed somewhere associated with Freeground, so they all got back.”
“Was there any mention of Minh-Chu?”
Alice's expression darkened a little. “I couldn't find him anywhere.”
Jonas sighed and nodded. “I didn't think so.”
“You must be anxious to see Ayan again, I know she'll want to see you.”
“I hope.”
“I kept checking wedding announcements. Jason and Laura were married about five years ago, but Ayan never did.”
“Still, I'm not going to get my hopes up. It's been a long time.”
“We could shave a couple days off the trip there if we dropped out of transit space and changed to a more direct course.”
Jonas gave it a moment's thought then looked at the holographic display in the center of the table. The clips of Jake Valance had been playing silently in the background and it had reached the recruitment video. “I have to see that man again. If it weren't for him I wouldn't be intact now. I think he has to know what he did to save me. Somehow going on with my life without acknowledging him just doesn't sit right.”
Alice shook her head and smiled. “This is going to be interesting.”
Two Captains
Jake Valance stared at Lucius Wheeler through the transparent barrier sealing him into the secure confinement cell. The guard watching the brig had been sent outside to wait for the crewman set to relieve
