Several days later...
I had told the others (Jet, Dick, mom, dad, the 'others') about what Toni and I had learned at New Tower.
Mom/Jennifer was taking a break. She and dad had been doing ther best to find out what had happened to ther son (my brother), Adam Timothy Phelps. To get the job done Jennifer had gotten the 'others' to arrange for a computer hook-up with the UCL. We had full access to all data networks. It didn't matter--with mom at the keys she could get access anywhere she wanted. She had been impressed at the computer systems the 'others' had and had laughed at the systems we used. She said it looked to her like the race had been going backwards instead of forward.
She had traced my missing brother to when he had been revived but there was no record of who he had been adopted by. She had come up with some routine that looked at a particular family, recorded how many births had been recorded for them then did checks to see if somewhere they suddenly had an extra family member, if they did then that person was probably adopted. She had found hundreds of un-recorded adoptions. She narrowed it down by just looking at adoptions that could have happened from the year of Adam's emergence from his capsule and the 200 years after. Only two people fit those parameters--both girls.
It was almost hopeless. That didn't discourage either Jennifer or Jerry. They were real fighters. It kinda made me feel proud. Very proud. That was my mom and dad. They were very special.
Mom and I were outside watching the clouds. To her they were good and reminded her of earth. She still missed the place. I could tell. To me the clouds were like some kind of sky garbage. When mom explained how they could gather together and start raining all over again on ther own I really didn't like them. It was having an axe over your head knowing that some day it would fall.
I changed the subject.
I liked hearing how mom thought about different things. It was interesting to see how the world looked through her eyes. I got her started on Jet.
Jennifer was very interested in computers and programming. The 'others' fascinated her. I think she kept trying to figure out how ther program was written. We had talked about it before and she had told me there was no way to just sit down and write the program. You had to write a program that would write the program as it went along because it would be such a long, involved program that it would be impossible to preconceive it all ahead of time.
She was told me that she was quite puzzled by Jet as of late. She had noticed that Jet had taken a fancy for Percy, the computer that ran one of the two mother ships. I told mom I hadn't noticed anything different about Jet. Mom went over what she had seen:
First, whenever Jet got some free time she would always head for Percy's ship.
Second, she had mentioned that she had talked to him about getting an android body so he could move around like she could.
Third, she had mentioned to us that she was interested in getting a body that was, at least partially, biological.
That last part was interesting. Before, when she had first told me she was going to get a body, the thought of getting a biological body was really repugnant to her. Jennifer told me that it sounded to her like Jet was wanting to get ready to do the 'mating ritual' as she had called it.
I was torn. To me the thought of a machine, be it android or not, trying to perform sex was...ugly yet I wanted Jet try the whole human experience. That would mean she'd need a regular body. Ok, no problem there one could be made by either the 'others' or the humans. Now toss in Percy and you have the same problem all over again, human and machine mating. Oh, that's repugnant to even express it like that. Yuk!
Jennifer, mom, thought it was interesting, for Pete's sake!
***
Toni and I had almost made it a duty to go over to New Tower and get the latest gossip from Mike. You'd be surprised how much you can learn in a bar.
One day while we were there Mike pointed out Sid's whore for me to see. I had to admit she was pretty but there was something just plain dirty about her. I never had it out with her. I didn't want to.
I heard Sid had gotten himself into some band. Mike had even hired them to play at his bar once or twice but I missed the show. I didn't want to go.
Ralph was there once. He had a woman with him. He introduced her to me. She was nice. I liked her but when Ralph excused himself for a minute she told me that she didn't want to see me around Ralph any more. I considered flaring up at her but decided that Ralph might have a good thing going with her and I wasn't going to screw it up for him. I bowed out graciously.
I was talking with Mike once about what he thought the future would be like. Mike said the wave of the future would be shipping. He had gotten an old hover truck and was set to make his way by moving goods from here to there. Things were slowing down in the emergency supplies business and we were slowly loosing all our help. Mike offered Dick a job and Dick took it. Mike would need a good mechanic.
The powers-that-be had formed a new organization to co-ordinate between colonies. It was like the UCL but included both Tower colonies and the new one, Utopia. If you were a CB, a real CB (suddenly it had become all the rage to be a CB), then Utopia was supposed to be the place to be. I planned to go by and check it out. Oh yeh, the new intra-colony government was calling itself the Whole Planet Coalition (WPC). It was doing good so far but I figured it was only a matter of time before it perverted itself into something that would be more interested in feeding itself instead of helping the people.
***
Edward was happy with his new life. Things were tough and he wasn't making anywhere near the money he had been making back at Old Tower, but he had done alright.
He had gotten a divorce from his wife. That had been the biggie. She had turned into a weight around his neck towards the end. When he had come to her with the proposal of divorce he didn't know what would happen. She had really surprised him. She had given him an uncontested divorce--in exchange for the house and car. It had been a bargain.
The second biggie had been his daughter, Shela. Edward wanted custody of her and so did his wife. It had turned ugly for awhile. In the end Shela had been granted the right to choose for herself. Shela had chosen her father and the both of them had moved to New Tower where Edward began making decent money designing and installing water-proof electrical systems for the New Tower Electrical company (also known as New Power). With all the recent problems the power companies had had with water they jumped at Edward's design.
While out on the job one day Edward met Ralph. He didn't remember Ralph but Ralph remembered him. Ralph reintroduced himself and finally made Edward remember when Ralph had been a cop in Old Tower and had come to Edward seeking help in trying to find his daughter. Ralph explained to Edward that the girl that had been in the news from time to time under the name 'Cookie' was really Sue, his daughter. Edward was ecstatic. He had found his missing daughter!
***
I had gotten a message through Scott from Ralph that Ralph wanted to see me. I wondered what it could be about. I remembered his jealous girlfriend and didn't know if I wanted to go or not, but I had told him before that if he ever needed me to just call and I'd come. That put an end to any vacillating I might want to do.
Honor can be a hassle sometimes but it's worth it.
To be on the safe side I talked mom into going with me. She had been to New Tower once and swore she'd never go back again. She had a funny impression of CBs. She thought we were all hoods (except for the ones she got to meet and talk to). I had to tell her about Ralph's girlfriend to get her to agree to go along and 'protect' me. As an extra measure she got dad to go too.
It was a surprise. Ralph had planned for me and my adopted father to get together. With my real parents in tow it was a real surprise. Mom and dad didn't know what to make of it when this older man suddenly ran up, grabbed me, and started hugging and kissing me.
My real dad was ready to knock Edward out and Ralph was ready to jump on my real dad. Ralph didn't know who Jerry and Jennifer were. It was pretty funny--after we got things all sorted out.
I was really really glad to see my adopted father. I hadn't realized it but there had been a hole in my life. People are funny.
He carried me and my new (old? Young? Original) folks over to his home Under Construction (that was the decor of choice in New Tower) and that's where Shela and I were reunited. She was very happy to see me. That was really special. I really thought I had lost her for all time.
There's a special bond between siblings and ours had nearly been permanently severed by the state telling us we were on different sides. How dumb we had been to listen.
My real folks were good sports about it all. They realized that I had had two families. The hard part was trying to make sure they understand that I loved both families. It's like this: You can love your father as much as your husband. You don't love both in the same way, but you can love them both just as much.
Love is something that comes from nowhere and is different for everyone you love. I had two fathers, right? Edward and Jerry. They were both the same thing, my father and I would hate to try to decide which one I loved more yet the love I felt for one was something completely different from the love I had for the other.
Mom and dad and dad were all pretty smart. They figured it out. I was probably the one having the big problem with all of this. It was just important to me.
Another problem was what to call everyone. Mom liked being called mom--but I don't think it went well in public, I mean there were only a few years difference in our ages. In fact we were kinda only five years apart.
Would I have a father Edward and a father Jerry? That made them sound like priests! We finally agreed that Edward Tegor would keep the father's and dad's and daddy's and my other father would have to be just Jerry and Jennifer would just be Jennifer.
Jennifer didn't like for me to call her 'Jen' which was a nickname Jerry called her by all the time. It was one of those 'pet' names which embarrassed Jennifer no end because I had read in her book that 'Jen' had it's origins in, lets say, her sexual exploits. Dad and mom had had it tough on the trip to Seco.
Then we got into how dad (that's Edward, remember) used to call me Peaches. Then Jennifer and Jerry wanted to hear everything about how I had grown up. They were embarrassing me and boring Shela so Shela and I went off by ourselves. There was no problem about what we would call each other. I still liked to call her 'Squirt'.
She was really growing up. In the years I had been gone she had been turning into an attractive young woman. She had been with a boy and everything.
The whole book in zipfile format.
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