Chapter Four.

There was noway to go home.

After all, Mother reflected,no home existed in which to take them .

But home was what the children wanted most, what they cried out for when they awoke from their nightmares, what they pleaded and wanted more than anything else in the entire universe.

During their daily playtime, as Mother watched them, their conversations almost always turned to the subject of home-and to the other humans who would live there.

Many times each of the children had separately approached her and begged her to take them back home, begged her with tears and whimpering sobs.

It was not easy, and Mother never explained the real reason she did not take them directly home.

During these difficult encounters, Mother appealed to the vast knowledgebase the human scientists had stored into her long-term memories. She searched, not only on the factual references that would aid her but also on the more abstract references about human emotions, hoping that some concise concept would aid her in reasoning with these small humans so she could understand their illogical behavior.

It became painfully obvious that facts alone would not suffice.

Mother wrestled with these concepts of emotions-fear, hate, love, sadness, and homesickness.

But she discovered that one fact did help. She had finally realized, through the references to child psychology and child rearing, that the mind and emotional makeup of human children were not developed enough to deal with the true facts of their situation.

Still, the children came to her time and again and asked her to take them home.

Kyle was the one who asked the most.

He was bigger than the other two. She could discern not only from the heavier sound of his footsteps, but by his firm and steady gait, that Kyle was the one now approaching one of her optics located at the various junctures of her internal corridors. The mop of blonde hair that framed the hearty cheeks and handsome face appeared and came into focus. But there was no smile today, and he instantly averted his green eyes from her optic once he knew he had her attention.

"Why can't we go home now?" Kyle looked down as he shuffled his feet.

"I have told you before, young Kyle. We are searching for home." Mother's voice answered with electronic precision.

"Why is it taking so long? I want to go home now." Kyle's face froze into a stern, glaring visage as he crossed his small arms, demanding the right answer. "We must evade the T'kaan ships, young Kyle. We are still at war. You know that."

Kyle's faced dropped. "Oh, I forgot." He sighed deeply and began shuffling back down the corridor to find Jaric and Becky. He had almost left the range of Mother's optic and entered the range of the next when he stopped. He turned. "When we defeat the T'kaan, then can we go home?"

"I will contemplate that scenario, young Kyle."

Again his countenance fell into the image of deepest despair.

"My first a.n.a.lysis suggests thatgoing home is a high probability after the T'kaan are destroyed," Mother said after six milliseconds.

"Cool!" Kyle shouted gleefully as he turned and ran toward the library to find his playmates and to share this great news.

Mother pondered her answer a moment, as well as the activity of the children.

The children were either in the library or in their bedrooms these days with one or more of the Fixers.

The Fixers were small robots designed to repair Mother internally, working as her independent and autonomous hands in case her own internal repair capabilities were damaged. There were seven Fixers in all, but Mother specifically a.s.signed Fixer3 to Becky, Fixer4 to Jaric and Fixer5 to Kyle during their sleep periods which seemed to comfort the children and aided them to sleep better. Otherwise, the children interacted with all seven robots.

Each Fixer was painted a different primary color, but each had the same tube-like frame equipped with four robotic arms and a small head. Two arms were located high on their small metallic shoulders and could telescope out far enough to open the maintenance panels on the ceilings. One telescoping arm had been designed with a human-size hand equipped with telescoping fingers that could bend around tight s.p.a.ces so as to be able to grip and perform work. In contrast, the other arm had been designed with plug-ins at its extremity that allowed various tools to be connected to it. These upper arms were designed for delicate repairs.

The lower pair of arms were thicker and stronger, located midway on the body, and were equipped to perform heavier work with larger tools. These arms could also telescope outward, though only half the distance of the upper arms. Once again, the left one had human-like fingers with the exception that these were not extensible and were over three times the size of a normal man's fingers. The other hand, like its upper counterpart, had plug-ins to allow connection with heavy-duty power tools.

All of the Fixers had two large optics attached to the top of their tiny heads via supple cables that stretched as far as their upper arms and enabled them to monitor up-close the work of their fully extended appendages. Below the lower pair of arms, each metallic body spread out into four flexible legs tipped with twin motorized wheels that enabled the Fixers to travel quickly and efficiently in any direction.

With their tube bodies being only four feet tall, the children seemed drawn to the robots almost as if they viewed the Fixers themselves as other children. The Fixer's simplistic speech programming and brightly colored metallic bodies added to this impression, reinforcing the seeming child-like persona.

Many times, Mother would find the children playing hide-and-seek and other childish games with one ormore of the Fixers. One of their favorites was a game that Becky had named 'The Silly Dance.'

In this pretend game, the children would gather all the Fixers together in the library. Becky would order them to form a circle in the center of the room and then ask Mother for music. Sometimes Mother would play a graceful waltz, at other times it might be raucous Fifty's Rock and Roll, or other times some mystical, dream-like electronic music-but whatever the music Mother played, the Fixers performed a dance synchronized with the music.

With all four arms extended, as well as their twin optics-all waving in rhythm-the Fixers would roll, or dance, around the room. Soon afterward, the giggling children would join their comical dance. Mother observed these events with extreme fascination and tried to discern what satisfaction this odd game seemed to provide for them.

But there seemed to be no precise answer.

In addition to ordering the Fixers to spend time with the children, Mother had instructed them to renovate each child's bedroom. They first added more computer terminals-three to each bedroom-so the children could more easily access her knowledgebase and learn from its extensive subject matter. She allocated periods of study for history, science and literature, which the children promptly ignored as much as possible, much to her consternation.

She had also instructed the Fixers to install additional audio speakers so they would be surrounded by music, as this seemed to please them. But their personal choices of music seemed to fixate on single songs or single musical groups for extremely long periods, which again caused Mother puzzlement.

She soon discovered with the installation of these speakers, inadvertently, that the children could not multi-task as she could.

Mother had been listening to over one thousand different pieces of music simultaneously, a.n.a.lyzing their different structures and melodies. To introduce the children to their new omni-surround speakers, she had directed this magnificent output to their speakers in mid-play.

The resulting noise, as the children later described it to her, had frightened them out of their wits. Now Mother directed only one source of music at a time to their rooms, and only directed softer music for the evening hours so they would become restful and sleep.

For the finishing touch, she had the Fixers de-install three large wall screens from her Command Deck and had them reinstalled across a wall in each child's bedroom. In this way, they could access entertainment videos, each according to their individual tastes, if they could not agree on a specific t.i.tle that night. Of course, if they agreed on a video, they usually enjoyed it together sitting around the library's ma.s.sive dome-holovision projectors as a Fixer served them food and drink.

But Mother censored what video t.i.tles they could access. She remembered that Rita had acted similarly, and her research into child psychology via her knowledgebase reaffirmed this approach. The children had to be protected at this impressionable age from certain subject matter.

Mother had to protect them.

Her optics focused on Kyle's racing figuring as it now reached the library, and then her near-term memories buzzed with consternation once again. Her battle with the facts and having to withhold some of them-balancing this strange dilemma in the name of protecting the children-burned through her circuitsand spiked her processors with activity.

Kyle reached the library and began relaying Mother's message.

But there was no home in which to take them, Mother reflected once again.

Later that night, after she had dimmed the lights for sleep, Mother watched the children and studied their sleeping faces. Once again she wondered-Had she been a good mother that day?

Chapter Five.

It was thesecond T'kaan attack that week. Two frigates along with nine Hunter cla.s.s fighters had jumped her at Sector Five Twenty-two.

Mother's weapons had dealt with them with her usual deadly precision. But for the first time since the final human defeat, Mother had sustained damage, not only to her shields, but also to several of her internal systems. It took her and the Fixers several hours to complete repairs and clean up the resulting mess. Fortunately, none had been severe.

Still, this led her to a new train of thought: the fact that neither Jaric nor Kyle had taken a bath in two weeks, as well as the fact that Becky no longer brushed her hair. However, Mother observed that Becky did regularly bathe the acc.u.mulated dirt from off of her organism.

"Jaric. Kyle. Why do you no longer bathe your bodies?" Mother asked as repairs finished.

"I don't know," Jaric continued his play without giving it a second thought.

Mother pondered this quite common answer from the children in her near-term memories. "Kyle, is this your answer as well?"

"Naw, I just don't want to," he said.

"Well, you should." Becky said as she stood above the two boys who were still intent on the computer game they were playing.

"Why?" Both said together.

"Well," Becky said knowingly. "You both stink." She pinched her nose hard to press her point home.

"Who cares," Kyle said without looking up from the screen. "I care," Mother said. But even as she said it, though she understood perfectly the import of the words, she did not really understand if the words applied to her. That is, she wondered if she actuallyfelt that she cared. Her processors burned with activity for a few milliseconds, but she brought her internal question to a halt as she discerned the fact that the children needed to be clean in order to remain in a state of good health. She did not want the children to deteriorate due to uncleanness, thus she realized that she did care. Mother felt her processors smooth out as this small dilemma was resolved.

"I must teach you now," Mother said.

The three children turned with shocked looks on their faces toward the nearest optic.

"This is another primary task required of a parent. I have, unfortunately, not been fully aware of this. I apologize."

The children glanced at each other with puzzled looks.

"I am now allocating a large portion of my processing to ensure I am not overlooking any other parental responsibilities. I will continue to search the data in my long-term memories. For now, I have programmed several of my consoles to begin a progressive program of study in the fields of mathematics, various sciences, and human history that you will download into your minds," Mother paused a moment in order to allow the children to absorb her words.

During this moment, as Mother's processors continued to digest the vast amounts of data in the knowledgebase, she again turned to the enigma of music. Music was so different than the other stored data. It was abstract and yet it was whole.

In contrast, the vast volumes of data in the knowledgebase that contained the acc.u.mulated works of visual art of humanity seemed... well, seemed not to make complete sense. But music made sense in a mathematical kind of way. And yet, there was something else-something more. From the first time in her existence that Mother had discovered music she always kept some playing in her near-term memories, always enjoying and a.n.a.lyzing the melodies and rhythms.

Only in battle was that practice interrupted.

"We will begin these studies in one hour. They will become part of your daily routine of tasks."

"Aww ," all three children groaned together.

"There will also be time allocated for periods of play."

Three faces breathed a sigh of relief.

"In addition, I have awakened the Guardian robot. The Fixers are designed primarily for my repairs. I have discerned that this robot will be of more practical use in physical interactions with yourselves."

"What do you mean?" Jaric asked.

"Because of his appendages." Mother noted the looks of puzzlement from all three children. "He is constructed exactly as a human in all respects. He will use his human-like appendages as a model for you to follow as I direct Guardian to train you in some special games." Mother paused for effect. "He will also ensure your full cooperation." "Okay," Kyle said with questioning suspense.

"You enjoy playing simulation games," Mother began. If she had been programmed for humor, she would have chuckled at his attempt to hide his thought processes. "Even Becky will play them for a limited time. We must leverage those skills you have learned and utilize them for a newGame ."

Mother felt a jump in her processing. She was not sure what it indicated. Perhaps it was the data she had just reviewed on the emotional makeup of human children and the terrible effect war and death might have upon them.

Some of these negative effects would devastate the children. It could damage them permanently.

So, Mother had taken another approach. The young children would not actually see any T'kaan die.

They would only destroy the ships. That is all they would see for now in the simulations. Only later would she explain fully the art of war and all that it entailed.

In addition, if she called it a game, the young children would more likely direct more of their energies into learning the skills required for it. Therefore, they would progress rapidly. After they had developed these necessary skills, they would have a greater probability of survival.

A single millisecond had pa.s.sed.

Kyle and Jaric stepped forward excitedly. Becky frowned.

"I will program Guardian, and he will a.s.sign each of you to one of my primary gun batteries. My consoles will instruct you on the nuances of targeting and destroying T'kaan fighters."

"What about the frigates?" Jaric and Kyle shouted excitedly.

"That will come later. All of you must develop basic skills before you playTheGame . First you will learn from battle simulations I will display on the weapon consoles. Once you have acquired sufficient eye-hand coordination using them, then I will provide actual moving targets in s.p.a.ce that you will destroy using live weapons. After each step I will increase the sophistication of these simulations until you have developed the necessary skills to playThe Game ."

"Cool," Kyle said.

"Guardian will now a.s.sist you in his first a.s.signment"

"What a.s.signment is that?" Jaric asked with sudden apprehension.

At that moment the robot entered the room.

Guardian had been designed to repel any invaders that had managed to enter Mother's interior sections.

Up until this moment Guardian had been in hibernation mode and unseen in his hidden enclave.

The first thing the children noticed was the pure white body-armor that served as his skin. The large robot bent his ma.s.sive body forward as he pa.s.sed under the doorway and then straightened. Guardian's seven-foot frame towered over the children who now slowly backed away from the new creature with frightened expressions. The robot's eyes began to glow and the children became transfixed by their piercing gaze. The twin orbs became startling, fiery rubies that gleamed against the smooth whiteness of his frozen countenance.

Guardian was as strong as he was big. He reached out to the two boys while they stared up at him in total shock and then effortlessly picked one up in each hand and began marching back the way he had come.

"Where's he taking them?" Becky shouted with fear.

"Guardian's first a.s.signment is to bathe the boys. I antic.i.p.ated their continued resistance to this task, so I programmed Guardian to simply take them and place them each in a ready bath. He will repeat this task daily until they decide to do it themselves."

Becky giggled.

"Do not laugh. His next a.s.signment is to brush your hair."