No Space for Family [Chapter 8]
We passed over Greenmire and continued on our journey to what was supposed to be Hows’ destination. I wondered if they would be able to do something with Grandma. I wondered more if they were going to be mad when we didn’t show up with what we were supposed to bring.
Mom and Dad eventually took back the main stations of the Ora. I went back to sort out my stuffed animals and books and posters and physics models from the pile sitting outside my forsaken room. I knew just behind the heavy, sealed door, Grandma was… resting.
I barely felt hungry for the rest of that day. When dinner time came around, Terren and I synthesized our own meals, which I managed to nibble on. Mom and Dad didn’t eat. I eventually went to sleep. Well, I tried to sleep.
Just when I felt the grasp of my dreams, a low crackling began to sound out around the ship. I jerked myself out of bed and stepped out into the hall. Terren sat up from his bed and squinted into the light coming in from outside. “What the hell is that?”
The ship felt completely still, so it couldn’t have been anything structural in nature. The sound picked at my eardrums, like pieces of metal being butted up against each other before being welded in place. Mom wandered out from the cockpit, eyes dancing about the ceiling.
“Out here too?” She mumbled to herself. “It’s the speaker system.”
“Are we picking up interference from something?” I asked. “A deep space radio wave?”
Mom bit her lip, shook her head and turned back to the cockpit. I couldn’t fathom going back to sleep, so I grabbed a blanket from my cot in Terren’s room and went back after her. She glanced back at me and sighed as I settled into the seat at the charting station, blanket tucked under my chin.
Mom and Dad didn’t even look at each other. Probably like me, they were focused on the stars speckling across the darkness out the front window. My ears eventually adjusted to the crackling speakers. It almost put me back to sleep. But without warning, the crackles began to turn into sounds, then syllables, and then full words. Actually, the first proper utterance was a name.
…on……bu….
…son….bur….
J…son…Umbur…
Jef….son…Umburt…
Jefferson….Umburter…
The sound of my Father’s name shook me awake. It was like how my mom said it when she was mad, or at least upset with an expensive purchase he had made. But it wasn’t my mother calling his name.
“Jefferson Umburter!” The voice was clear then. It repeated like that a few times. It grew louder each time it was repeated. No space within the Ora was beyond her reach.
“That’s her cadence,” My mom said, holding one ear. “I’ve heard her yell like that plenty during my childhood. Especially to my dad.”
“She sounds mad,” I shouted between repetitions of the call.
“Anyone probably would be,” my dad huffed, flinching every time he heard his name.
“Jefferson Umburter!”
“Mom, Aida, we can hear you!” He shouted back. “Listen to me, please!”
“Mom! Talk to us.”
My dad stood up and shifted into my mom’s side of the cockpit where the comms terminal was. He scanned through the logs, shaking his head as everything came up blank. “I can’t think with her shouting like that! The local computer is jammed up too! For—“
“Dad!” I said, yanking on his sleeve. “Grandma doesn’t get all this computer stuff. If she… just figure out how to talk to us, maybe she doesn’t know how to hear us!”
My dad glanced back, offered a nod and a pat to my head before jerking back to the door. “That’s my girl!”
I followed until he reached the entrance to the cargo hub, slamming the door open in the process. He was soon hunched over before the main control panel, typing away furiously at the keyboard there. “She… wormed her way into the voice processor API. Somehow. Through pure persistence, probably. But now if we introduce the talkback feature and input the key manually… restarting…”
The chanting, cursing voice suddenly stopped. For once, the ship went entirely silent. The lights on the AI core flashed off then on, then returned to their rhythmic pulses.
“Jefferson Umburter!” The same syllables sounded out. Mom popped her head in through the door.
“Aida!” My dad shouted out.
“We hear you, mom!”
“Jeffer… oh, so now you respond?” Said the voice. It sounded a bit like something Grandma would say, but not quite in her tone.
“We’ve got you connected to the internal comms now properly, mom,” my dad explained.
“Don’t you Mom me!”
“Aida,” said my dad with a more cautious tone of voice. “I don’t know how much you remember or what it feels like—“
“It feels like I’m in a dream that I can’t wake up from. Like I’m swimming but can’t extend my arms. But I’m not in water, but a sea of words and numbers that seem like nonsense but somehow still make sense to me. And I’ve had nothing better to do than to piece it all together and try to get your damned attention!”
I dragged my hand across the nearest storage array. “Hows’ kernel must still be in there…”
My dad nodded. “The parts of his identity are all overwritten I’d imagine, but he still must have retained a few protocols to complete the transfer. The transfer from your Grandma to… our systems, that is.”
“Hows!” Grandma shouted, her control of the system volume still questionable. “That’s what I remember. I was talking to him about… elevating my feet after my hike to disperse the ashes on Greenmire. And then it got real hot and I felt like I was going to pass out. Did I pass out?”
“Maybe…?” Dad admitted.
“Maybe!”
“But then you were frozen… accidentally.”
“Jefferson Umburter!”
“Mom,” shouted my mom, “That’s enough. This is… hard enough for us to process.”
“Hows transferred you into the core, Aida.” Dad said, head low. “In his place. Your consciousness… your brain has been digitized. If anything, you’re mentally in better shape than you’ve ever been.”
“Ever been? Were there any comments or doubts about my mental acuity? What about my body? I suppose you’ve thrown it out the trash shoot?”
My dad sighed. “Your body is in our care. It’s… on ice in the bedroom.”
“Well, heat that baby back up and get me inside. I like my flesh, as old and as creaky as it is.”
Mom stepped in and shook her head. “We’re… a few steps before making that a possibility. Your body needs the proper medical care before it’s ready for your consciousness to be… reintroduced. And it seems like there’s a big… BIG issue about accomplishing that last part.”
“Oh, I see, give me more excuses.”
“Grandma,” I spoke up, hoping I could say something good. “We can… hook you up to the ship better. Let you see us. Give you access to the main computer for our navigation and stuff so it can feel like you’re still along with us in person.”
“…I’m trying to sigh, but it seems these computer parts don’t have lungs to make that type of sound. Speaking of which, I barely sound like myself. But since I have my lovely family members trying so hard to make me comfortable in this situation, I suppose I too will try my best. But once I’m out of this, I’m never taking another trip with you. You hear that, Jefferson Umburter?”
“Understood, Aida,” my dad nodded. “Terren and Sola will see to your upgrades. We’re a few days off from the deep space station, which means I get a few more days to figure out what to tell them.”
Fifty Shades of Grease Publishing 