Aldous shrugged. “There are benefits to being the chief.”
Craig was nearly flabbergasted for a moment before finally settling on a line of intelligible questions. “If she’s a clone and not the woman I was married to, then why bother telling me? Why dredge all this up? Do you know how painful this is? How painful those memories are?”
“I understand, Craig.”
“Do you?”
“I do. I loved her too.”
“Then why?”
“As I said, she’s a partial resurrection, something more than just a clone. With the A.I.’s help, we were able to insert memories—memories that had been taken from me, from others who knew Sam, and even from you.”
“Me?” Craig reacted, stunned.
“Yes. When the A.I. detached from your brain, it retained a picture—a sort of map of the architecture of your brain at that time. When we cloned Samantha, we included those memories.”
“What gave you that right?” Craig seethed.
“I’m sorry, Craig. I just couldn’t bear to lose her. Anything that would make my resurrected Sam more like Sam was like gold to me. We’ve been together over half a century, and I have never regretted it, not for a moment.”
“Please don’t be angry, Craig,” Samantha spoke.
“Don’t…” Craig responded, shutting his eyes and holding his hand up. He let his shoulders relax and concentrated on his breathing. It had been a long time since anything had upset him so severely. He reminded himself of the hard-won experience he’d attained since.
“I thought…” Aldous began, before restarting, “I think it will be good for you if you speak with her alone. I know that what happened between you has always haunted you. I want to give you the opportunity to clear the air. I’ll leave you to speak. When you’re finished, Craig, the coordinates of your meeting place with James Keats will be uploaded to your mind’s eye.” He turned to leave the room but stopped for a moment and added, “It really was good to see you again, old friend.”
Craig blinked as the doors closed. He turned to Samantha, but he couldn’t open his mouth.
“It’s good for me to see you also,” Samantha said, a slight smile on her lips.
“I-I don’t know what to say to you.”
“I understand,” Samantha replied. She stood still, patiently waiting for Craig to absorb the reality of the situation, appearing like a vision from a dream, bathed in the fading light.
“Why?” Craig finally asked. “Why did you—”
“Leave you? Marry Aldous?”
“Yes.”
“Craig, I can’t speak definitively for your former wife—my memories from her life are a patchwork. But I do know she loved you. She really did. I can feel it now, even as I stand here with you.”
Craig’s throat seemed to close momentarily, but the nans immediately went to work, calming him.
“We can love different people in our lifetimes. Had you not died, I have no doubt Samantha would’ve remained loyal to you. When you died, however, she bonded with another compatible mate. She loved him, just as I love him now. Our bond is extraordinary, Craig. Not even death could break it.”
An overwhelming compulsion to leave the room suddenly gripped Craig. His eyes fell from hers to the chrome floor, where his reflection stared back at him, though blurred by the imperfections of the surface. “
Epilogue 2
“Hey there,
Craig nearly stopped in his tracks as he stepped into the Martian terraforming control room and immediately heard the unexpected greeting from a man whose back was turned. “Excuse me?”
The young man, smooth-faced and still with the slight build of youth, turned with a warm, confident smile painted across his lips. “You are Craig Emilson, aren’t you? Ninety-four years old—not counting the fourteen years you spent in suspended animation, which would make you—”
“Don’t say it,” Craig winced. “Let’s just stick with ninety-four. The years I spent as a Popsicle don’t count.”
The young man laughed in return. “Fair enough, but you’re still the senior member of our team here, so it’s nice to meet you…Old-timer.” He crossed to the much taller man and extended his hand in a friendly, enthusiastic greeting. “My name is James Keats.”
“I figured,” Craig replied, happily shaking the younger man’s hand in return. “You’re not what I was expecting.”
“Why’s that? Too young?”
“No, they told me your age. Twenty, right?”
“Yep.”
“No, it’s not your age. It’s just—”
“Ah,” James nodded, smiling as he suddenly understood, “Told you I was a hot-head, did he?”
Craig nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Well, I think he’s an old stick in the mud and way too set in his ways,” James replied, “but hey, he did get me this gig, and there’s no better gig I could have.”
“No?”
“No,” James replied, turning to the giant windows out of which they observed the Martian landscape as it appeared, three-quarters of the way through the terraforming project. The clouds, though sparse, were getting thicker every day, and small sprouts of green were appearing on what was previously a desert landscape. “Building worlds—making bridges for humanity…what could have more meaning?”
“Bridges? That’s an interesting way of looking at it. I hadn’t thought of it that way before.”
“Oh yeah, Old-timer. These are bridges. Every world we terraform is a giant step for humanity into the unknown universe.” James shook his head as his broad smile persisted. “Don’t get me started. I love my job too much.” He shifted gears, slapping Craig on the chest with the back of his hand with a familiarity that was surprising, but welcome. “Come on, let’s go for a tour! I want to show you what we’re up to here. You’re going to be blown away. Are you up for it?”
“Yeah,” Craig nodded, James’s smile infectiously spreading to him. “I’m up for it.”
POST-HUMAN
PART 1
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
