Undaunted

18

Early next morning, Kris woke to a call from the Marine guard at the gangplank.

“Ma’am, Staff Sergeant Tu here. I didn’t want to disturb you, but I got a delivery here with your name on it, and I got to sign for it. Ma’am, I ain’t never signed for nothing so small with this many zeros and commas in the cost box.” That was followed by a clearly audible gulp.

“I haven’t ordered anything,” Kris said. “You sure it’s not for the ship.”

“No, ma’am. It says Kris Longknife, care of the Wasp. And it’s got our pier correct.”

“Kris, it’s for me,” Nelly said, using that little-girl voice.

“Sergeant, I’ll be right down,” Kris said, ringing off.

“Nelly,” Kris said, as she leapt out of bed and started pulling on a shipsuit.

“You said I could order some supplies, Kris.”

“What did you order that cost so much you made a Marine sergeant gulp.”

“My children.”

Kris froze, with her hand on the zipper. “Your. Children?” “Yes, Kris. You’ve been talking about needing better computers for the people who work closely with you.”

“You’ve been talking about them needing better computers.” Kris had been thinking that maybe Nelly was right, but she didn’t remember uttering a word about it.

“You never said anything against the idea.”

“No, I didn’t,” Kris said, pulling the zipper up to her neck, right next to Nelly’s off button. Tempting, but no. I promised.

“Nelly, you know that rule about you not starting a war.”

“Yes, Kris.”

“Here’s rule two. Never sign off on any acquisition without telling me how much it’s going to be.”

“Not even for a new dress?”

“Nelly, Abby orders my dresses.”

“Through me. I keep your budget.”

“How much is this going to cost?”

“Kris, with you out beyond the Rim, you haven’t spent much money. Hardly any in the last three months.”

“So you spent it.”

“And then some,” Nelly admitted.

“How ‘some’?”

“A lot ‘some.’ ”

Kris eyed her hair in the mirror. It looked to be a bad hair day, too. She mussed it more to her liking. “Can I send this back?”

“Please don’t, Kris. I don’t know, Kris. Some of the stuff was special order, fabricated just for me overnight.”

“That cost us extra.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go see what you got us into.”

Kris was three paces down the passageway when Jack joined her, impeccable in undress khaki and blues.

“What has you up this early?” Kris asked.

“Sergeant Tu called me before he called you.”

“And you told him to wake me.”

“Don’t you think signing for kazillions is a bit above his pay grade? I know it’s above mine.”

“It’s not that expensive,” Nelly insisted.

“This is Nelly’s doing?”

“I approved her ordering some supplies. So she ordered a family.”

“Family?”

“Yeah. Her kids. She says everyone close to me needs one.”

“Count me out.”

“Jack, you really need a better computer,” Nelly pleaded.

“You giving this swabby lip is one thing. Sometimes kind of fun. You giving a Marine officer lip? No way. Marines get shot for insubordination, haven’t you heard?”

“She won’t be me. I’m not cloning myself. She’ll be your computer, Jack. You bring her up to be your friend.”

“He,” Jack snapped, then realized what he’d done and gave Kris’s neckline a sour look. “If I had a smart-ass computer, it would be a he. But I don’t need a smart-ass computer.”

“I’m the way I am because I’m Kris’s.”

“No way do I deserve you,” Kris insisted.

“I’m your karma,” Nelly said flatly.

“What is it with your computer?” Jack said. “One week she doesn’t believe in karma, and the next week she is karma.”

Chief Beni joined them muttering under his breath about the injustice of early wake-up calls.

“Who woke you up, Chief?” Kris asked.

“Nelly. She said there was something only I could do for you.”

“For her,” Kris and Jack said together.

“What’s she want?”

“For you to . . . ah . . . deliver, build, construct her children.”

“More Nellys! No way,” the chief said.

“They aren’t going to be duplicates of me. They’ll be Jack’s computer, and Penny’s and Abby’s and yours, Chief.”

“I get one!”

“You’re part of Kris’s team.”

“Don’t mean to interrupt, but just how do you expect each of these computer kids of yours to be different?” Jack asked.

“They’ll have my basic skills at organizing data and forecasting what you humans want. Oh, and they’ll know the two rules . . .”

“And a whole lot more that are coming,” Kris added.

“But most of their self-organizing matrix will be left for them to arrange the way they want, based on what they need to work with the human they are working with.”

“I note the failure to address ownership,” Jack said.

Nelly said nothing to that. Kris left the topic with a sigh. Sooner or later, she and Nelly would have to address the matter of what the relationship was between the two-legged human who walked around and the sentient being around her neck.

Then again, she could always turn Nelly off.

Not.

Kris came to the quarterdeck. A harried twentysomething kid was showing clear signs of wanting out of there, but the Marine sergeant held both his clipboard and his package. A much-larger package than Kris expected, say about the size of a hatbox.

Probably most of that is just packing, Kris hoped.

Kris took the clipboard and whistled softly at the price on the invoice.

“I told you it was high, ma’am,” Staff Sergeant Tu said.

Nelly, This isn’T a couple of MONTHS of EARNINGS for My TRUST FUND. This is a whole year!

BUT you HARDLY SPENT ANYTHING while you were STATIONED on EDEN.

Only Because The ART show GOT SHOT up Before I COULD Buy ANYTHING.

BUT you DIDN’T.

“This better be worth it, Nelly.”

“I promise. It will be.”

Kris signed, and the delivery kid bolted.

“Okay, Nelly. Is the forward lounge available?”

“It’s still reserved for your team. It’s empty just now.”

“Why don’t you invite the godparents of your children up to the lounge for the christening party. You better ask the galley to send along breakfast.”

“If you’ll excuse me, ma’am,” Chief Beni said, “I need to get some gear from my shop if we’re going to be dealing with high-value electronics.”

“Since we are, I guess you better. Do you need a clean room?”

“I’ll bring one.”

Fifteen minutes later, the lounge was serving a light breakfast on one side and Chief Beni had set up a temporary clean room as far from the bagels and bran muffins as he could. Kris circulated among the godparents as they arrived, surprised by a few of Nelly’s choices. Jack, Penny, and Abby were no brainers. That the colonel was included showed that the poor fellow truly was under a life sentence.

“I guess if I accept this little trinket, I really am stuck with you,” he said.

“Last chance to run, not walk, for the door,” Abby said.

Sergeant Bruce, standing at Abby’s elbow, was an even bigger surprise for Kris. The maid and Marine had been spending more and more time together. Kris could easily put his inclusion down to a romantic streak in her “young” computer. Still, the Marine was the usual volunteer for the tough stuff Kris needed doing. He would put the computer to good use.

Kris had to do a check to see if Cara had just snuck in with her aunt, or was actually invited. She was. I HAVE a special Version of Me who I Think will Be JUST GREAT for Cara. NOT EXACTLY Me The way I was when you were TWELVE. I was really DUMB, BUT ME The way I wish I’D Been Back Then.

No way would Kris go back to being twelve again. Captain Drago stuck his head in the room, spotted Kris, and immediately came to her. “You called?”

“Not me, Nelly,” Kris said.

Nelly quickly explained that she wanted the good captain to be the godchild and user of one of her about-to-be-activated children.

The captain respectfully declined. “I’m sorry, Miss Nelly, but I really can’t run the risk of a strange and untrained computer locking up the ship’s main computer.”

“I haven’t caused that computer any trouble.”

“But you are a passenger’s computer. There are certain limitations on your access. The captain’s computer must have total access, from engineering to nav and everything in between.”

Nelly, Don’T. But it was too late.

“Ship’s computer,” Nelly said. “How much of you have I accessed and when?”

Captain Drago’s mouth took on a distinct scowl as his ship’s computer reported, “The passenger Kris Longknife’s computer has accessed all functions and status reports of the ship since immediately upon coming aboard.”

“I had to be able to tell Kris the ship was operating safely.

I’ve been doing this since she was stationed on the Firebolt. The ship was testing the power-plant problems of the Kami kaze class of corvettes and I twice shut down tests before humans could see the impending destruction of the ship.”

“So you have been tiptoeing in and out of every nook and cranny of my ship and not leaving any footprints.”

“I’m very good at not leaving footprints.” Nelly preened.

“And I’m to trust you and this Trojan horse you’re about to give me.”

“I haven’t let you down yet.”

Drago glanced around the lounge. “Everyone in here is getting one of these little gremlins?”

“Yep,” Nelly said proudly.

“Even her?” the captain said, waving at Cara.

“Yes!” Cara shouted and celebrated with an exuberant little dance. “But Nelly promised me that she’d still be my teacher. Dada will just be my friend. We can play games together, and talk and do all sorts of things, just like Nelly does with Kris.”

Drago eyed Kris as the two of them savored the order in which the names came. Nelly first. Kris last. “I reserve the right to return this gift the first time it causes me or my ship any trouble.”

“You won’t. Try me or mine on for an hour, and you won’t ever go back to a dumb computer,” Nelly insisted.

Professor mFumbo was next in. He seemed quite excited about getting a fancy new computer at Kris’s expense. But of course he would.

“Will you be paying for plug-in surgery?” the professor asked, rubbing the back of his neck where Kris had added a net access to the plug-in that gave Nelly a direct connection to her brain. “I understand that can be quite expensive.”

“It is,” Kris said, “and believe it or not, this is setting me back enough for even a Longknife to blanch at. No. You can talk to your computer like you do to your present system. I had to subvocalize to Nelly the first time I found myself under a gun. We survived.”

“I’d never expect to face a gunman,” the professor insisted.

“Never can tell around Longknifes,” Sergeant Bruce said with an easy smile.

“Yes, of course,” the professor said, and went looking for a cup of tea.

“How much longer before the great moment?” Sergeant Bruce asked. “Abby really wants to know.”

Abby’s smile turned into an elbow in the ribs. “Speak for yourself, Marine. Don’t you go hiding behind a working-woman’s skirts.”

“A smart Marine uses anything for cover,” he shot back, but put some distance between his soft side and her hard elbow.

“I think we’re about ready,” Nelly said. “I’ve been bringing them up and loading what I want on them as Beni put them together. Cara’s Dada is the last one. It needs the least work done on it. I’m putting them in Smart Metal^™ skins so you can accessorize them any way you want. Abby pointed out the need for that. Kris, I will want to put myself in a new skin as well.”

“Nothing’s too good for my girl, since she’s already ordered it and paid for it from my account.”

“Will you ever let me forget that?”

“I’ll think about that. Hmm. Nope. Don’t see a good reason to let you forget it.”

“There are a lot of things you probably wouldn’t want everyone here to know about you, Kris,” Nelly said. “I can think of several incidents in high school that you found extremely embarrassing.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I haven’t in the past. But I bet Abby could make a tidy sum for the both of us if I let her in on all the dirt. Remember that time in college . . .”

“I remember nothing,” Kris said, eyeing the overhead.

“Nothing about high school. Nothing about college, and definitely nothing about the cost of your kids.”

“I thought we could arrive at an acceptable settlement.”

“You know, Kris,” Jack said, “I thought it might be good to have someone covering my back like Nelly, but I’m starting to have second thoughts.”

“Me too,” chimed in Abby. “A girl’s got the right to have a secret or fifty.”

“And I’m sure that you will bring up your new computer to recognize those important needs,” Nelly said.

“So how come you don’t?” Kris asked Nelly.

“Look who brought me up.”

“There is that,” Jack said, rubbing his chin. “So, you’re stuck with Nelly the way you raised her.”

“Looks like it,” Kris said. “Hey, anyone here want the one and only original Nelly? I’ll swap you for the brand-new version. Think of all the time you’ll save, not having to train your new computer.”

Kris’s suggestion was greeted by a crushing silence.

“Did I miss something?” Chief Beni said, stepping outside the plastic walls of his temporary clean room.

“Nothing much,” Penny said. “Kris was just trying to escape her just deserts. What do you have for us?”

“Brand-new computers,” Chief Beni said with full hamish flair, “fresh from the hands of a computer god, my friends. I want this one,” he said, putting a tray of personal computers down on a table and selecting one.

“Cara, the turquoise jewel is yours,” Nelly said. The twelve-year-old grabbed it and held it up for a good look.

“How do you tell them apart?” Kris asked, looking at the others.

“There’s no difference,” Nelly said. “Until you download the contents of your old computer into the new one and start using it, they’re all just about the same.”

JUST ABOUT? Kris thought.

MAYBE Jack’s is a BIT More DECISIVE. Penny’s will CAST ITS search PARAMETERS a BIT WIDER. I DIDN’T know WHAT To Do for ABBY.

I’M sure she will Do JUST fine.

The chief did have a surprise for them. Dangling from each computer was a thin wire headset. One by one, he attached it to each new owner’s head at his or her temple, then ran it around one ear and down to the back of the neck. He checked the results of this installation with a black box in his left hand.

“It’s not as fancy as a direct insert into the brain, but it should be able to pick up a lot of your brain waves, and send as well,” the chief told them.

Captain Drago went off to one corner to sit and stare at the ceiling, his lips occasionally moving. Professor mFumbo headed for another. Penny and Abby settled down at a table, put their new and old computers next to each other, and waited for each of them to establish its own separate network. Jack, Colonel Cortez, and Sergeant Bruce took their own table.

Cara started sitting next to Abby, but in a moment she jumped up, announced, “Dada has just so many fab games,” and dashed out, only to return a few minutes later with her gaming gloves, earphones, and goggles. This time she settled down on a couch and was soon waving her hands through a game.

“It’s teaching her the mathematical relationships she was having so much trouble with. But don’t tell her that,” Nelly whispered.

Chief Beni hovered at first one table, then another, making sure no one had any complaints. Once he was satisfied everyone was happy with his work, he went back into his clean lab.

“What’s he up to?” Kris asked.

“Da Vinci is not talking to me at the moment,” Nelly said. “I think they’re doing something they don’t want public yet. I hope the chief doesn’t hurt Da Vinci.”

“You can always wipe it down to basic and start all over again,” Kris said.

“Would you do that to a baby of yours?” Nelly snapped.

“Hold it, girl. You don’t really want to be a person, do you? You’ve got advantages we flesh-and-blood types just don’t have. You sure you want to adopt all our handicaps?”

“I don’t know. I need to think about it.” And Kris found a growing quiet in her head.

She considered roving the tables, but everyone seemed intent on staring at his or her computer or the overhead or the carpet. Even the view ports now showed only the wall of the space station with its disorder of pipes and conduits; nothing fun there.

Kris was just about to go see what Ron was up to when a voice said in her head, Can you hear Me, Kris?

Since the voice sounded like her chief of security, Kris thought, YES, Jack. How’s IT GOING?

This is WEIRD, you SOUND JUST like yourself.

So Do you.

I Don’T HAVE To punch for you. JUST KIND of VAGUELY Think Kris AND SOMETHING I WANT To say To you, AND you GET IT.

SEEMS THAT way. We’ll HAVE To WAIT for SOMEONE else To Try This COMMLINK To see how Much THINKING IT Takes To GET up a PARTY line.

Nelly, you LISTENING To This?

Of course I AM. Don’T BOTHER Me, THOUGH.

Kris: She’s JUST as snippy in your HEAD as she is in your ear.

Jack: I KIND of EXPECTED THAT.

ABBY: EXPECTED WHAT?

Kris AND JACK: YOU’RE here!

Kris: Hey, THAT CAME OUT TOGETHER.

Penny: WHAT CAME OUT TOGETHER?

There was crosstalk for a second that sounded like unintelligible cocktail chatter, then all of them fell silent.

Kris: We’ll NEED a way To SETTLE CROSSED wires like THAT. Nelly, you HAVE any SUGGESTIONS?

Nelly: I COULD GIVE you all PRIORITIES. Kris FIRST, Jack SECOND.

Kris: I Don’T like THAT. Who says I’ll always HAVE The MOST IMPORTANT THING To say?

By trial and error, they found that three could talk at any one time, and that one of them could send a message to appear on Kris’s eye, or in one of the glasses or contact lenses that the others wore to allow them to interface with their computer. Between talking and messaging, they got matters settled.

Kris: IT’s NOT as easy To know who AND when To lisTen To when you Don’T HAVE SOMEONE’s BODY LANGUAGE To BUILD on.

Jack: I Don’T Think This will EVER replace a GOOD OLD-FASHIONED Bull session.

Penny: STILL, IT May COME in HANDY TONIGHT. There were a few TIMES LAST NIGHT I sure WOULD HAVE LIKED To offer Kris My Two CENTS’ WORTH BUT wasn’T ABOUT To open My MOUTH.

Kris: Hey, folks, JUST Because you can say IT in My HEAD Doesn’T Mean I’M MORE likely To Take ADVICE I Don’T WANT To hear.

ABBY: I knew she was GOING To say THAT. I knew IT.

Nelly: A HARD HEAD is STILL a HARD HEAD EVEN when you’re HAMMERING AT IT FROM The INSIDE. I COULD HAVE TOLD you THAT.

Kris: Weren’T you KNITTING BOOTIES or SOMETHING?

Nelly: My CHILDREN are GETTING ALONG QUITE well WITH Their new PLAYMATES.

Penny: Oh GOD, ALREADY we’Ve Been DEMOTED FROM GODPARENTS To PLAYMATES. How quickly The MIGHTY fall.

Kris: Is IT TIME for lunch YET?

The four of them headed for the wardroom, leaving Cara waving through a game and the others frowning nowhere in particular.

After lunch, Kris dropped by Iteeche country, only to find one of Ron’s Marines blocking the door. “My lord is in conference with his advisors and asks that he not be disturbed.”

It was unheard of for Kris to have nothing to do, but somehow it was happening today. She had a long list of questions she would love to have answered, people she’d really like to talk her problems over with, but there was no one she dared talk with about her present mess.

Finally, Kris had Nelly call up a college lecture she’d attended on Group Dynamics and the Problems of Public Policy. Back when she took the course, she thought the upcoming elections put it in good context.

Reviewing it now, it seemed the professor’s choices of historical challenges looked rather tame.

Early in the talk, Jack came in, settled down on her couch, and joined her. The two of them batted comments back and forth. She would have loved to curl up with her head on his shoulder, listened to another human breathe. Heart beat. She couldn’t do that, but still the afternoon and evening sped by in his company.