Back to the Ground

No Space for Family [Chapter 30]

It was daylight before the Ora roughly touched down, our barely qualified hitchhiker at the controls. My dad said the absence of the cargo pod at the back made it easier. Plip readily jumped out of the back hatch that once was the door to said pod. He shook my dad’s hand before kneeling on the hard tarmac.

“At this point, Mr. Umburter, nothing could ever repay you.”

“Getting our ship back to us is all I could have asked for,” replied my dad. “But the lady captain might end up asking a thing or twelve more of you.”

“Anything.”

My dad stepped up the rungs below the hatch to the inside of the ship, then lifted me by my arms to join him. He then sauntered out into the common room, glancing around. I joined him and tried to look where he was looking.

“Trying to find something?” I asked.

“No,” Dad chuckled. “Just trying to remember the last time it was so quiet in here.”

I smacked at his arm. “When the… real Grandma gets better, we’ll get to hear her voice again.”

“Definitely. Just not omnipresent. Which I can put up with.”

Plip poked his head up into the ship. “There is one thing I remembered, Mr. Umburter.”

Dad glanced back. “And that is?”

“She said she was going to leave a recording.”

A little while later, our whole family was up in the cockpit, ready to listen to the final recording that the digital Grandma had left for us. We were all on our feet, surrounding the main computer console.

“Here we go,” Dad said, finger on the screen and ready to play the file.

“If you’re hearing this, you’ve probably figured out my trick. Hopefully the people hearing this are my family members, and not those weirdos that have been stalking them. I’m not sure how much time I have to get this to you, but I can’t go without my final words. The one thing I want from you all… is to make sure you call my lawyer and tell him what has transpired. I’ve put a copy of his details into the ship’s memory alongside this message. And let him know that Amelia has every right to that inheritance now. Good luck out there.

…

No, there should be more. Amelia, brush you hair properly and more often, else your husband will start to think of you as a slob. Sola, keep that hacking business to yourself or you may find yourself in more trouble than you need. Terren, young man, put on more deodorant, or at least take one more shower a day. And finally, Jefferson…”

It seemed like everyone released their held breath at once as the recording cut off.

“I’m just going to guess she was going to tell me to keep being an amazing husband.”

I hadn’t seen my parents laugh like that together since… probably ever. Even Terren chuckled a bit before double-checking his armpit for any noticeable smell.

“The doctor and medical staff here say that she has a good chance at recovering fully,” Mom said, wiping the corners of her eyes with a smile.

“I’m sure we can help out here while she gets back on her feet too.”

The doctors there on Yuzumaru had said it would take three weeks before Grandma… the real, physical one, awoke again. A lot happened during that time.

Dr. Pois and the other doctors first helped stabilize Grandma as she came out of cryosleep and started treatment to get her better. It seemed she had some burns and frostbite, but the rest of her was just fine. She was kept asleep while her skin healed up.

The doctor obviously wasn’t in a hurry to get out of there. She said that if she went back to her employer— the people who had her develop Hows— that she would be in deep doodoo. I changed a bit of those last words, just so you know.

While Grandma was still stable and resting, Dr. Pois actually turned her attention to the inhabitants of the colony, the old people who were isolating because of the sickness going around. The doctor actually used her expertise to develop an algorithm in the colony’s computer mainframe.

My dad warned me not to bug her with too many questions, but it sounded like a way to keep track of any sicknesses spreading through predetermined groups of the locals if and when they we allowed to hang out again. It’s actually a lot cooler than it sounds. By the end of our time there, I saw some older folks out and about in the sun. Just as Terren had experienced long before, a few of them decided that I needed to hear how cute I was and discover how pinchable my cheeks were. Yes, Terren laughed every time it happened.

My family was quite busy too. Mom and Terren finished repairing the spacedock door and made sure it would hold for our long trip back. Dad tasked himself and me to make sure that none of the ship’s computer systems had been permanently altered by AI Grandma’s antics. It felt kind of sad, but Dad said it was necessary since the ship’s computer needed to be properly working to get back. Honestly, I would have rather been fixing up my old room so that I could eventually inhabit it again.

When it was finally time, Sakura called us. I’m surprised she wanted to help us at all after everything we had done there at the colony, but I guess she still decently liked Mom. We all went down to the medical facility with flowers and a fresh set of clothing for Grandma.

“So we need to remember this, family,” my dad instructed at the doors of the medical building. “We’re better off not having Grandma Aida know about her… other life as an AI.”

“That would take way too much explaining,” I said.

“Yes,” Dad sighed. “That, and she might assume we’d be trying to compare her against her counterpart.”

“Her highly advanced counterpart,” Terren added.

“Let’s say instead…” admonished Mom, tugging on Terren’s ear, “that that version was a completely different person. One that we don’t mention, like your dad said.”

“Got it, mom.”

“Understood.”