The c.o.c.kpits of each fighter were thrown open simultaneously as the three leapt out.

Kyle stopped and sniffed the air. "Life Support is off! We've got to get that going quick or we're not going to be breathing long."

Fixer6 rolled into view amid the low glow of the red emergency lights.

"Fixer, get Life Support functioning immediately," Jaric ordered in a terse voice.

The little robot turned around in a flash and rolled toward Engineering as it sent a silent call to its brethren Fixers. The three young people raced down the corridor in the opposite direction of Fixer6 and on towards Main Ops. But they voiced none of their usual banter or bragging after a successful fight, no talk of how many ships each one had downed or how spectacular their flying had been. There was none of the joking they normally used to ease the tension after a hard-fought battle.

There was only a tense, throbbing silence between them, broken only by the sound of their running feet echoing ghostly off of the metallic walls.

They were afraid.

The silence grew heavier as they noted that none of the optical viewers were functioning. Worse, there was a strange lack of noise, silent except for the faint throbbing of the sub-light engines. Except that noise, too, was unfamiliar-a strange, uneven rhythm from the engines of power.

But something else was missing.

They ran faster.

They burst into the control room but stood frozen in the doorway. Across the long rows of displays and lights, amidst the controls and switches that adorned the scores of blank consoles, there was an eerie lack of activity. And what little that was going on seemed to be strangely chaotic.

All three walked slowly over to the main console. They waited silently, with bowed heads.

The minutes seemed an eternity. Kyle straightened, and alone he walked to the familiar viewscreen. He reached slowly towards its darkened surface. Gently, with shaking fingers, he traced the outlines of a face that had appeared so many times from it. His lips trembled as he tried to speak. Finally, he forced the words out that were burning inside each of their hearts.

"Please be alright. Please."

At once dozens of lights became active, and then the optical viewer buzzed to life. But the familiar face they expected on the main console did not appear. Instead a strange, electronic voice with a deep ba.s.s tone spoke to them.

"I...am still a.s.sessing (static) damage. Internal repairs... will...(static) take time."

"Are you badly damaged?" Jaric and Becky rushed excitedly to Kyle's side.

There was a long silence.

"I have lost much of my near-term memories. I also have suffered extensive damage across my main power grid as well as in several of my major circuits." The strange voice paused with anguish. "My sub-light engines have suffered substantial damage, some of which I cannot repair. My internal diagnostics have not finished."

The silence returned.

The three continued their vigil long into the night. Each found a spot and rested silently inside the room.

They did not talk because they were still afraid-afraid to disturb Mother from her lifesaving repairs.

Finally, after many long hours had pa.s.sed, Becky and Jaric each retired to their own rooms to get somesleep.

Kyle alone stayed.

The harsh silence haunted the air.

After they left, Kyle moved closer to the main console and the optic above it. He rested one hand upon the darkened screen as he looked up expectantly with tired eyes. After a while, he bowed his head with fatigue and continued his lone vigil.

Several hours pa.s.sed. Suddenly Kyle spoke, breaking the thick silence.

"I... I have to tell you something, Mother. Can you hear me?"

"I hear you, Kyle. Please speak." Mother's true voice had returned, though the screen remained dark.

A smile lit his tired features, only to flicker away. He leaned closer.

"I'm sorry that you are hurt. It's my fault, if I hadn't been..."

"Do not blame yourself. The T'kaan are a powerful enemy." Mother's voice comforted.

Kyle cleared his throat as he rubbed his eyes hurriedly a few moments. As he removed them, two tiny tears ran down his cheeks. He leaned closer to the console.

"But all those things I said." He shook his head in shame. With a sigh, Kyle stared down at his hands nervously, unwilling to bring his eyes up to meet Mother's optics. "You're right, you know. We should leave. I've guessed for a long time now that we would not really find anybody. I've just been..."

Kyle drew a long, ragged breath.

"Anyway, I think we should leave, as soon as you're ready." Kyle clenched his eyes shut, only to have more tears stream down his wet cheeks. "There's one more thing I want to tell you. I should have told you long ago."

Mother waited.

"Please tell me, Kyle"

He looked down as his hands fumbled aimlessly along the edge of the console.

"I just wanted to tell you that... I love you."

Mother considered the words, digested their meaning and referenced them in various contexts within her ma.s.sive knowledgebase. It took several, long seconds.

In the end, it was a song byThe Beatles that she focused on as her reference to Kyle's expression. A song about love, naturally.

As the words and music played inside her internal memories, she felt an odd buzzing begin in her processors. Almost as if the words and song had a meaning for her-a simple ship. For the first time in her short life, shealmost understood what it meant to be alive-to really be alive.

But she did know, at last, what it meant to be aMother .

Chapter Seventeen.

The journey hadbeen long and lonely.

The strange way-Mother had heard Jaric say this phrase quite often the last few weeks as he stared at the unfamiliar stars across the viewscreen. Becky and Kyle had also stared many long hours at the unknown stars as they journeyed towards them.

The weeks had slowly turned into months. The months seemed to last an eternity.

Mother knew that each day took them farther and farther away from the T'kaan threat. But each day also took them farther away from everything the children had ever known-the remnants of the human empire.

Only the unknown awaited them now.

The children had become increasingly silent and moody. Lately, they had begun fighting and even screaming abuses at each other. Mother had even resorted to using Guardian on two occasions to break up their squabbles before someone was injured.

Now, just over a year had pa.s.sed since they had first left the desolated worlds of humanity behind.

They had stopped at several uninhabited planets to replenish their stores along the way and these seemed to be the only times the children felt any relief and joy. The last world they had stopped at had been one of great, natural beauty. Mother had allotted extra time for the children and Guardian so they could walk its deep forests and experience the peaceful surroundings for several days after they had finished their tasks of the previous two weeks. The children had enjoyed themselves immensely. It had been with a growing sense of uneasiness that she had finally reminded them of the need to continue their journey.

Their moodiness had returned within an hour of their departure.

Mother had spent millions of processing cycles trying to understand their loneliness in order to help them to deal with it. But she could not understand, no matter how many facts she discovered, because she could not feel it herself. She felt helpless and inadequate.

Mother was once again searching the knowledgebase for some data that would enable her to a.s.sist the children with their inner turmoil when the on-board sensors signaled an Intruder Alarm for the seventh time that day.

She immediately checked the sensor data from where the alarm had originated, but again there was nothing to find, at least not the presence of an intruder. But it bothered her. Her sensors had never given her false alarms like this before. Mother began another Diagnostic Check while she called the children to the Ops room.

They appeared in short order.

Mother immediately put the face of Rita on her main console. She always did this when she talked with the children from the Operations Center. It had comforted them when they were young to see the face of Rita while Mother spoke, and her sensors still registered that their biological signs responded positively to it now as they entered and noticed the familiar visage.

"What's going on? Was that another alarm I heard?" Jaric looked questioningly at Mother.

"Are you having some kind of system trouble, Mother?" Becky's voice was edged with concern. "These alarms have gone off the last few days and there's nothing to cause them. Nothing."

"The first occurrence was two hours after we left the last planet. I have experienced seventeen false Intruder Alarms within the last thirty-two hours." Mother paused for their benefit. "All of my internal diagnostics are coming back normal. My sensors appear to be in excellent working order."

"What about that ship youalmost saw this morning?" Kyle asked with a knowing glance at the other two.

"It appeared for almost a full millisecond out of nowhere." Mother replayed the logs from all of these incidents and reviewed them again. "My sensors are fully operational. But, there is no explanation for these incidents"

"Could the T'kaan have developed a Dampening Field that could surround an entire ship?" Jaric asked excitedly.

"No, the signature was all wrong. Even though my sensors only picked the event up for an instant, it was enough to know that it was not T'kaan." Mother continued her internal diagnostics.

"So, you're sure it was a real reading? This ship that almost appeared?" Becky pressed her lips together nervously as she waited for Mother to answer.

"I cannot be certain, not with so little data."

Becky looked first at Jaric and then over to Kyle. She shook her head slowly. "Mother, do you think some of your internal systems may still not be fully repaired from our last battle with the T'kaan? That could explain these ghost alarms, couldn't it?" Becky looked with concern at Mother/Rita's face in the console.

"My diagnostics detect no malfunction. That is not the explanation." Kyle chuckled at Mother's answer.

"What are you laughing about?" Becky asked with a rising note of anger to her voice.

Kyle, still laughing, pointed to himself and shook his head with feigned innocence.

"Listen, you're the one that almost got Mother destroyed. If her systems are damaged and that's what's causing these false alarms," Becky shouted as she pointed accusingly at him. "You're the reason!"

Kyle's laughter stopped instantly as he sat down, rolling his eyes at her. Then he looked away, not uttering a word in his defense.

"Maybe he's finally driven her crazy," Jaric suggested with a smile.

Becky crossed her arms and walked over to Jaric. "I guess you think this is funny, too, huh?"

Jaric made a face and looked over at Kyle for support.

Kyle rose and walked over to where both of them faced each other. "How about lightening up a bit, alright. Nothing's wrong with Mother. Maybe..." His voice trailed off.

"It's not enough you almost got her destroyed," Becky said with brutal anger. "Now you've driven her crazy."

He raised his hands with an innocent gesture. "Isn't that what children are supposed to do to their Mothers? Drive them crazy?"

Jaric joined Kyle's laughter this time as they watched the scowl across Becky's face deepen with anger.

Becky eyed Kyle angrily a moment. With a lightning movement, she jabbed her fist at his abdomen. But Kyle had antic.i.p.ated the attack and fended it off with an easy gesture.

His laughter grew louder as she rubbed her arm.

"Children, don't..." Mother began.

Kyle then swung his body around and with a quick blow from his foot swatted Becky across her rump with a loudthwack .

Becky stared with utter indignation at the laughing young men.

Kyle put his hand to his mouth in an effort to stop his mirth. After a second attempt, it worked. Still, he smiled mischievously at her.

"Guess we better get Guardian to retrain you a little better in hand-to-hand combat, eh, girly girl." Kyle chuckled.

Jaric roared with laughter.

Becky's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Well, one thing you're right on, brother dear," Becky said icily.

Kyle's eyebrows rose in surprise. "What? You mean I'm right about something?" He howled with laughter as he turned to slap Jaric across the shoulders.

It was his undoing.

With a sudden movement, Becky attacked. She feinted the same blow which Kyle had blocked the first time. In the next second, she twisted her lithe body and delivered a powerful blow with her upraised knee directly into his mid-section.

Kyle doubled over with pain.

In the next instant, Becky had grabbed his forearm and with two quick movements sent his body head over heals into the air. Kyle landed flat on his back upon the steel deck with a loud grunt.

Jaric winced in sympathy as he stepped away.

"Becky, I have just instructed Guardian to come here," Mother said.