Roswell Fanatics

As the helicopter approached a humvee raced toward the landing pad and braked to a stop in a cloud of dust. One man got out of the passenger seat, and lumbered clumsily toward Max and Slammer.

Slammer watched him approach, and shook his head. "Damn nice cammies you got there, soldier. But the bracelets look a little confining."

"Son, if you are on our side now...." and he held out his sandstone encased hands.

Max made a fist and pounded it on the sandstone...just once, and the sandstone lost it's cohesion and dropped in a pile of dust at the man's feet.

"That's great, Sandman in sandstone," heckled the driver.

"OK, kid...for this you owe me. It'll take me years to live this down."

"I'm sorry...really I am. If I can make it up to you.."

"Another couple pairs of cammies would be nice....hell, even the UAVs can't see you in these...."

10:50 in a Pavehawk helicopter approaching Tonopah Test Range

Of all the types of aircraft, Slammer liked helicopters the least. You couldn't converse well in a helicopter...even over the intercom. The vibration of the rotor blade is at a resonant frequency with the human diaphragm...alien diaphragms too, apparently, thought Slammer. It gave anyone attempting conversation a weird voice...sort of a 'Luke...I am your father...' sort of sound.

But the kid really didn't seem quite so alien after he'd joked with the scout..and unglued all that sand...or whatever the hell he did. That had been the first time that Slammer had seen him smile...seen anything on the kids face other than the grim determination when he was ready to fight every human on Earth for Liz...or the melancholy resignation...and start of trust...when he'd been at the monument.

At the start the alien hadn't really seemed human to him, but the interchange with the scout..the empathy he saw there...Slammer was starting to understand how someone like Liz could love him. Slammer had liked Liz...and still thought she might be the key to this.

The boy had told them...told the EOD guys at Tonopah and told Peter, he had no idea what to do when he got there. The EOD guys couldn't be much help either...there was nothing they could see to disarm, and since the idea was to keep the ring singularity thing IN the box, their usual tactic of carting it off into the desert and exploding it wouldn't work..that would only release the damn thing sooner. Peter hadn't been much help either. He had confirmed, through his measurements, that the intervals of iridescent blue were increasing...that it would go continuously irridescent at the second the countdown would be over. Of course, that proved nothing, but it sure sounded ominous to everyone. But the boy was willing to do what he could...so they were almost at the hangar.

But Slammer couldn't help but wonder...where were Liz and Laurie? Except for the police, the UAVs showed the roads around the north end of the range to be almost bare, because of the blockade. Could they have been taken south? Or East, toward St George? Wjile he was worried about the young Lieutenant...and Jim certainly was, with a possible countdown ticking toward world destruction, he badly wanted Liz back at Tonopah because she was, after all, the person who appeared to have stopped it the first time.

"Prepare for landing, gentlemen," the young Lieutenant in the right seat said, "and once we get down, please be cautious of the rotor blade as you depart the aircraft, and stay well clear of the tail rotor...we don't want any accidents."

'Good advice,' thought Slammer...or at least it usually would be good advice. But if they didn't get this countdown stopped, none of them might have much more than another two hours left....

19:50 Kunsan AB, Republic of Korea

Major Rogers treated all of his patients well, but medical people have a special rapport with other medical people...and he had always liked Sandi. There was also somewhat of a shibboleth in medicine...that if another medical person got sick and it could be multiple things...it was always the worst one. As he looked at the x-rays...went over the differential diagnosis in his head...he knew what he hoped...but he believed what he feared.


"Sandi, we did the preliminary tests, but I've called and made arrangements to transfer you to the 51st Hospital over at Osan."

"I can't stay here until I'm over this.?"

"Sandi...you need some more diagnostic tests...the University hospital near Osan has a CAT scanner...I think you need to have one done...then we can sort out for sure just what's going on."

Sandi read it in his face...in what he said, and what he didn't say. Bob Rogers didn't think this was just some gastroenteritis from eating bad kimchee...he thought it was serious.

"I can call your husband, let him know what we are doing.."

"No...not yet. Slammer's just started some new job...it's important. Let's wait until we can tell him what's really going on, ..otherwise he'll just worry."

Doctor Rogers nodded his head. "OK, Sandi, whatever you say..." But he was pretty sure that Sandi's husband would be worrying more...not less, whan they knew for sure what the diagnosis was...

11:30 Industrial Area, Tonopah Test Range Nevada.

Peter watched as Slammer and Jim led the boy into the hangar. His eyes grew wide when he saw the equipment spread over the hangar floor, watching it pulse an iridescent blue...the rate of pulsing gradually increasing. The countdown would still periodically come from the speakers of the small music player...only about ninety minutes left.

The boy ..he looked so young...but then...so had Liz. But the boy looked uncertain...uncertain in a way that his...wife....were they even the same species?..he remembered the look in Liz's eyes when she'd talked about Max...she certainly considered herself his wife, there was no doubt about that...but Liz had never really seemed uncertain...she'd gone to the orb..gone to it like she'd been drawn there...reached out her hand...and saved the world.

But Max seemed tentative, unsure.

"It's over here," he told them. "You'll probably need to touch this..."

It almost seemed to Peter like a flicker of...what...recognition perhaps...crossed his face...then he slowly held out his right hand.

His hand and the orb both flared golden as he touched it...then the boy fell to the floor...fell to his hands and knees.

"Max..," yelled Slammer.

"Is he OK," asked Peter. "He seems to be convulsing..."

Jim was down on his knees instantly..trying to help...then he froze. He looked up at Peter and Slammer...

"He's...laughing."

Ship saw the three men come in, and knew from the First Officer's memories of him, that he was the new Captain. Ship also knew that It had a little explaining to do. While Slark would have undoubtedly approved, the procedure had been highly irregular. Ship had a ton of things to discuss with the new Captain, repair and maintenance schedules, release of scientific data to the long lost colonists, provision of additional steel for fabrication of the living space for small organics.......Ship decided to put a hold on that one, suspense it for when Ship could talk to the First Officer about that privately...the new Captain clearly had enough issues on his mind already.

Ship had never explained to anyone before that they'd been drafted...it had never occurred for millenia on Antar. But Ship was pretty sure that if It was going to have a good relationship with the new Captain, It'd have to confess to the liberties that were taken with the regulations almost immediately. And of course, the tactical situation since the Ship-mind had been re-energized...almost eighteen hours ago. Still it had been a long time since Ship had a new Captain, and It had forgotten that it takes time for organics to learn how to accept direct neural input. It was only after the new Captain was knocked down by the overload of the excessively fast neural input that Ship remembered.

The circuit logic of the Ship brain thought the electronic equivalent of 'Ooops.'

Ship added doing a continuity check on it's number three data storage device to its to-do list. That shouldn't have happened.

11:30 Tonopah Test Range Nevada Access Gate
As the Nye County Sheriff's car approached, the gate guard stepped out of the guard shack. They had a liason with the Sheriff's office through one deputy, a former security policeman who had joined the force when she left the Air Force after serving at TTR. That person handled most of their dealings with the the local law enforcement. But as the somewhat battered looking Lieutenant stepped out of the car, he came to attention and saluted. He hadn't met her, but she had the appropriate badges and despite the disheveled uniform, appeared to be legitimate.

The girl looked to be maybe 16 and she was a little battered and bruised too, her otherwise pretty face marred by a bruise and abrasion over her right cheek. He looked at it curiously and she just said, "An airbag hit me."

"She's with me," said the Lieutenant...that was OK with the guard, the Lieutenant had Escort privileges on her restricted area badge. "Can you get us a vehicle to take us over to the industrial area?"

"Yes, Ma'm. It'll be just a few minutes."

"Thank you Sheriff," said Liz.

"Yes, thank you so much. Will you be able to hold those men for awhile?"

"Well, they appear to have some friends in high places in the Justice Department...the feds are already making a lot of noise about them...eventually the Federal Attorney will get a writ of habeus corpus to take them into federal custody.....they'll be allowed to post bond...but that'll likely take a few days. In the meantime, we'll try to keep their visit interesting."

"Thanks so much, Sheriff."

"My pleasure, Miss....Liz..."

11:40 Tonopah Test Range Industrial Area

Jim and Slammer helped Max to his feet, as Peter looked on with alarm. "Are you alright, son?"

"Yeah, I think the irony is getting to me though...for all those years I hid what I was....and in the end...none of us are from around here...not you...not me..not Liz...none of us."

Peter was concerned, the boy really wasn't making sense...whatever that flash had been, it appeared to have disoriented him somehow. But the clock was still ticking. "Do you have any idea, son,...any hint as to how we can stop the self-destruct?"

Max looked at the three concerned men, fighting back an attack of the giggles. His mind was still a little woozy as he fought to integrate so many new memories...so many new facts.

"We don't have to worry...It's a bluff...the Ship was bluffing you."

Slammer looked at Peter and Jim, who were looking at Max with the same expressions of concern that he himself had. It was almost like the teenager was drunk...mentally unhinged. What he was saying made no sense at all...at least, not until the voice came from the music player.

"Uh...Captain, with all due respect...I'm not sure revealing that information was tactically sound."

"Yes it was, Ship. I'm not really experienced at trusting people yet, but if it's like being in love, I've learned that you can't hold back...you can't hedge your bets, you have to take a risk, or it really isn't love...or trust...at all."

“Captain?” asked Slammer, looking at Max questioningly.

Max shook his head. He’d never been much for humor…what little he had tended toward dry cynicism…but he honestly didn’t think he could tell the story without losing it. He had never learned so many things that delighted him…in such a short time.

He’d feared Area 51 most of his life…yet he’d gone there…and found…friends. He’d wanted to know where he’d come from…who he was…what his role in life was…and all that information had just been handed to him. He was no longer one of three aliens in the whole human world….they were all aliens.

It wasn’t the happiest day of his life…that had been the 25th of February when Liz had consented to be his wife…but it was a close second. And as he thought of Liz…he realized they WOULD be able to have those children she wanted someday…she’d told him it wouldn’t matter if they weren’t biologically compatible…and he knew she’d have carried that lie to her grave for him…but that didn’t mean she didn’t want them…he was sure of that.

But the problem was how to tell the story….especially what Ship had done…without laughing out loud. But fortunately, Ship could do it…

“Tell him, Ship….tell him the whole story…”

Ship computed for almost three milliseconds….the request had so many undefined parameters… “124,417 of your years ago, the Antarean council decided to create torchships…you would call them Bussard ramjets, to permit colonization of distant planets…”

“Perhaps a shorter timespan would be better at first,” said Max. “Like how I became Captain?”

Ship hesitated momentarily….the milliseconds imperceptible to the organics. It was bad enough having to confess it had bent the rules to its new Captain…it didn’t really relish washing the dirty laundry right here in front of strangers…..but it had been an order, so Ship started the story.

“I had been fragmented below the level of consciousness for 53.284 of your years when the remains of the former First Officer were brought into contact with the orb…providing it with a very low order of energy. The First Officer had apparently died in great pain…become insane. With his energy came the destruct code for terminating this world as a threat to the Antarean race. I attempted to get verification…but the other orb was out of range. Since I was unable to function independently I accepted the order in accordance with emergency directive 48b subsection d, and initiated ring singularity expulsion to destroy this solar system.”

“So why did you stop?” asked Slammer.

“I was ordered to do so by a crewmember,” said the Ship.

“No, no, no….” said Max, “You don’t get off that easily. Tell them everything…”

The mechanical voice actually sounded…well…embarrassed, as it confessed to them what it had done…the archaic laws it had used…the discretion it had abused, actually tricking Liz Evans into accepting Antarean citizenship and then drafting her into the job of First Officer.

Peter was handling it better than the others…and even he was sort of giggling. Perhaps it was just the release of tension, but somehow it seemed like there were just four friends talking there…five if you counted the Ship. After almost a day of looking at the potential destruction of the whole world...everything looked like it would be OK, in fact..new wonders of science were about to be known.

“The next step we need to do,” said the Ship finally, “..is to release the nanorobots so they can initiate repairs…”

“Uh…I think that may have to wait,” said Slammer. “I’m not sure I can allow that without authorization from headquarters.”

Slammer saw three sets of eyes looking at him, the reproach in the gazes scarcely hidden.

“You don’t understand…,” said Max. “Ship is not just a machine…it’s alive…it’s sentient. It was built in outer space…that’s it’s home…traveling between wormholes. It’s like a ..a prisoner here. With the nanorobots released, it can repair itself in seventy or eighty years. If we help it…maybe less than fifteen. It isn’t property..it’s a thinking being…it needs to be freed.”

Slammer looked into his amber eyes….then thought how he’d feel if someone took his wings…never let him fly again. He looked at Max…and slowly smiled.

“I guess if you are really going to trust someone, Max, …you can’t hold back. At least I heard someone say that one time. Go ahead and release your nanowhatsis…”

It took Max a little time searching amongst the shattered debris. The module, when he found it, was really nondescript…but it dissolved under the golden light from his hand and a gray mist of nanorobots spread out from it like smoke…thinning to invisibility as they rapidly spread throughout the room.

“Uh…that reminds me, Commander. Did you have any plans for the debris from the badly damaged aircraft shelters?”

Slammer had never talked with a sentient machine before. It was a little awkward.

“Uh..probably just cart it to a disposal area out in the desert…why do you ask?”

“It would appear that the crew quarters will require some extensive modifications….I would be willing to trade the knowledge of manufacture of the inertialess drive…to enable your organic bodies to withstand high g-force acceleration without the discomfort of g-suits, for the damaged metal components.”

Ship knew that the purpose of this mission was for transfer of that and other technology. While they were going to get it no matter what, the locals didn’t know that yet. And while it was bending a rule or two (somewhere Slark was no doubt proud yet again)…Ship really did want that steel.

That single advance, Slammer knew, was more than they’d gotten out of the program in decades…..for some old scrap metal….that they were going to have to pay to dispose of anyway. He couldn’t make that deal fast enough.

“It’s all yours, Ship.”

As a small and nearly invisible stream of nanorobots started their trudge across the desert to the nearby wreckage, Ship diverted 3% of his capability into a subroutine to supervise ship repairs, and almost as much capability into scanning a Fisher-Price website for useful ideas for the nursery….the pictures of the small organics with their playthings were so damn cute….

Laurie had learned that Jim and the Commander were at the Industrial area when they’d gotten to the billeting and messing area. They’d grabbed a couple of cold drinks and set out immediately on the eight mile drive to the industrial area. She was still sipping her Diet Cola with her left hand as she worked the badge into the card reader and punched her pin number into the door lock. As the door opened she saw Peter, Jim, the commander…and some stranger. She didn’t recognize the latter individual, but he was likely a security guy…had on some simply awesome cammies.

When the door opened she saw him…and didn’t hesitate. They were, after all, only newlyweds..it had been their first night apart since they were married. Liz took off on a run towards him.


“Well.” Said Peter, “fascinated by the new situation..the ability to learn things from Ship…to share discussions of theoretical physics with an entity that actually put them to practical use, “..this is going to be wonderful…sharing all this knowledge.”

“Perhaps, but first we’ve got to find Laurie…and Liz.” Said Jim.

“If this Laurie is with the First Officer…well, I wouldn’t worry. The First Officer is a very capable being…she’ll no doubt look after her. She’s kind of…maternal…that way.”

“I have to agree,” said Max. “I miss Liz. I can’t wait to see her again.”

“Oh! In that case, you should look to the Northeast about 20 meters…and closing fast…”

As Max turned, she jumped into his arms, and he was staggered back several steps by the force of the embrace…he didn’t really notice…he was already distracted by the kiss…

Laurie went to Jim and put her right hand around his waist, pulling him closer to her. “I would presume that is Max?” she asked, “..and that the commander decided to tell him about the aliens after all?”

She watched with a smile on her face as the two teenagers broke the kiss…then smiled again as she saw the look of concern on Max’s face and the gentle way he reached out to touch the abrasion and bruise that had been left on Liz’s cheek by the airbag inflating when they’d been forced off the road….the tenderness..the obvious concern..he clearly idolized the girl...

As the hand glowed yellow…and the bruise and abrasion disappeared…the Diet Cola can slipped through Laurie's fingers and fell to the hangar floor, spitting foam in all directions as it rolled away.

“No,” said Jim, “..I think Max already knew…”

It had been a long day...and an eventful one. Ship had copied so many of Liz's memories when it had been struggling to find a way to countermand the order...when she touched the orb again it restored her memories of all the event that had occurred up until she'd been TASERed...that seemed to restore the missing memories as well.

Eventually they'd broken for lunch...except for Peter. He was like a kid with a new toy. He logged on...got hold of Stephen Hawkings, and with the strains of Mozart playing in the background, enjoyed as spirited a three way discussion of theoretical physics as he'd ever had...knowing of course that for one participant, Ship, it was much more than theoretical.

1:45 PM AL's HOT ROD HAVEN, Las Cruces New Mexico

He knew that two drums of nitromethane....110 gallons in all, was one Hell of a lot of nitromethane, but as Al would later tell the ATF explosives guys, he hadn't hesitated in making the sale. I mean, the Top Fuel Dragster community was small, and while he didn't know the man personally, he'd certainly seen his picture often enough.

"What percent nitro you planning on using?" Al had asked the man, knowing that 85% was the maximum that the NHRA allowed. The man had looked back with a smile..."100%..of course."

"Wow.....that's not just a dragster...that's a friggin' BOMB"

As he drove away with the two drums in the back of his truck, his face changed back to that of Ed Harding. 'The man hadn't been totally stupid,' he thought, '...rather exceptional for a sub-Antarean really.'

As he drove East toward Roswell he thought about what he had recently read. He'd found her diary some days ago...describing what she was doing. He felt rather sorry for Tess...she would soon be on her own. She still hadn't found her mate...she had a lead apparently, through the offspring of the Sheriff. It was difficult to tell.

As part of her disguise Tess was playing the part of an Earth teenager to perfection, even using Earth slang in her diary. She apparently intended to communicate with this Sheriff's son... 'hook up,' she'd said...and then 'pump him'...for information, obviously. But first she needed to find another missing Earth person...a Liz-person, who apparently was experienced in making the appropriate introductions to expedite this 'hook-up' process.

Nasedo felt ashamed. He had recently read where the natives on this planet had gone over six billion population and frankly, the vast quantity of them seemed to almost rule out the two Antarean women being determined enough...having offspring enough, ....to overcome the sheer numbers of the sub-Antareans. But when he'd read her book.....seen how badly she wanted to find the girl and get the process going...the determination, Nasedo suddenly felt ashamed that he could have ever doubted the inevitable triumph of the superior Antarean genes. He was so proud of Tess. She was a tribute to her entire race.

In sheer good spirits he broke out into song......"Antar, Antar über alles, Über alles in der Welt...."

13:30 Tonopah Test Range Nevada

It was a busy afternoon, full of all sorts of details....here are some of the highlights.

Peter continued his theoretical physics discussion with the Ship. Both seemed to find it quite satisfying, even though Ship was unable to give it his full attention. He was also busy supervising the nanorobots, conversing with Liz ver the orb which she now had with her, and perfecting plans for the rebuild, nursery, and additional crew quarters. Ship wasn't exactly sure how many small organics the First Officer desired, but perhaps in a different existence the Ship had been a boy scout. It believed in being prepared.

Immediately after lunch Liz had a long talk with Laurie. It started out about Molecular Biology, then sort of morphed into a wider discussion of nanorobots and biology and medicine and FTL drives, and unified field theory. Laurie was really impressed. A day ago she'd thought that Liz was an ignorant sixteen year old drop-out who had left school, run away from home with her boyfriend, and thought about nothing but sex with her new husband. The reality, she decided, was that Liz was an exceptionally bright sixteen year old drop-out who had left school, run away from home with her boyfriend, and thought an awful lot about all sorts of interesting things...when she wasn't having sex with her new husband.

In fact, Laurie decided, while she knew considerably more about Molecular Biology than Liz did,...duh...she'd just finished a PhD in it,..Liz actually had a much broader grasp of science...like singularities and nanorobots and stuff, than Laurie did herself. Liz already had thought up a very innovative plan to integrate nanorobots into Molecular Biology that was conceptually, decades ahead of how other people were thinking. And that was why Laurie found herself calling the chairman of the Molecular Biology program at Harvard ...

"Doctor Jacobs? This is Laurie DelGado.."

"Laurie...good to hear from you. Is your commitment to the Air Force up yet? The offer for the associate professorship is always open?"

"No Doctor Jacobs, ..I still have two more years commitment. Besides..I got engaged yesterday, I probably won't be back in Massachussetts any time soon...but I did want to ask you something."

"Well congratulate the young man for me...he's a lucky guy. What can we do for you?"

"I was wondering if I might be able to take the position and teach on-line....and enroll a young lady I''ve found out here into the program as well."

"We'd love to have you teach an on-line program, Laurie. That would be great. Tell me a little about this young lady..."

"Well, she's only sixteen...but kind of a prodigy. She already knows a great deal about Molecular Biology..if we could start her in an on-line and correspondence undergraduate program, I think she could be doing meaningful research in only a couple years. I have a rather extensive laboratory here, and she'd have access to it. We have a number of PhDs in related disciplines here who could help her with her studies...or for that matter, she does have a mentor here who is very knowledgeable....brilliant, really."

"Really? Do I know him?"

"I don't think so...he's.....well...foreign. Doctor Sarasvati Hip..... S.Hip, he goes by. He'd be able to tutor her in virtually anything."
"Well Laurie, if you think she can handle it...that's good enough for me. I'll talk to the faculty senate and the administration...I rather imagine we can get everything set up for this summer. I'll have my secretary send you an application for the young lady...we can get her started first thing next quarter."

"Thank's Doctor Jacobs."

"That's Fred now, Laurie...unless you want me to call you Doctor DelGado.."

"Thank's Fred."

In the meantime, Jim and the Security Manager were busy in the Prime Contractor Representatives Office.

"You're serious about this? You want me to hire two 16 year old kids on as contract consultants for you? And pay them as GS-12s?"

"The Fir....uh...Liz Parker as a GS-12,...Max as a GS-14."

"Do you have any idea how much that will cost?"

"Not as much as the two Senior Executive Service doctors we took away in handcuffs after we fired them," pointed out the Security Manager.

"Well, you got that right...those two together were almost 400 grand, it just seems kind of funny to pay kids that much."

Jim only smiled. Yeah, that was pretty good money, but it wasn't like there were very many starship Captains available to hire as consultants...or starship first officers either, for that matter. Ship had indicated that the two could be helpful in transferring technology because they would understand how quickly humans could assimiliate it and the pay was chump-change compared to the value of those technologies. The kids would be worth it...nobody doubted that, except apparently the Prime Contractor rep.

The Prime Rep shook his head, chuckling to himself. It really didn't bother him a bit. The company was on a cost plus 25% contract. He really didn't care if they had him shovel a billion dollars down a rathole...the company would get their quarter-billion. The new commander wants...hell, the new commander would get.
"Well, hey.....what the hell. You want these kids hired....they're hired...no problem."

In the Commander's Office, a phone call was being made.

"This is Colonel Randolph of the US Air Force, Sheriff Valenti... I MAY know something about the two kids you are looking for, Liz and Max Evans...but before we talk I'd like you to tell me...if the kids came back home...what do you think the kid's folks would do about their marriage? I mean, it just doesn't seem to make much sense to me if we send them home and then they have to run off again.." 'Back to Area 51,' he was thinking, '..where I'll let them hide out until they are eighteen.'

And Liz had a short 'talk' with Ship through direct neural transfer on the orb. Ship explained....delicately, how Liz had started acquiring the power of cold fusion, wondering as it did so how she would handle the news. Ship needn't have worried. Liz clearly intended to keep on doing what she was doing that had infected her, come hell or high water. As her powers developed, Ship didn't doubt that Liz would be able to handle them.

Ship had absorbed more of Liz's thoughts through neural transfer...trying to stop the planet from being eaten by the singularity..than it had ever absorbed of any of its crewmembers in the whole 500+ years of Ship's existence, and Ship found it could discuss things freely with her that it could discuss with no one else.

The whole idea of gender had been a meaningless concept to Ship until recently..but apparently some of the character of Liz it had picked up with her thoughts was changing that.

Ship felt somehow....well...warmed...by the thought that it would soon have a nursery...that it would someday have little organics housed in its body. It would have been hard to talk about these ...feelings... it housed in its fuzzy logic circuits with anyone....anyone but Liz.

The nanorobots had the ability to construct more than just replacement parts for the Ship, they could construct virtually any technology known to the Ship...even themselves. In fact, the whole reason they were immobilized in their travel container during interstellar jumps was in case something did happen to the Ship. Had they not been controlled by the Ship itself, a number of the nanorobots would have gone into a mode where they built....new nanorobots. In fact, that had actually happend on one colony planet. By the time Antar had sent a second Ship to the planet, generations later, the humans had virtually been reduced to a preindustrial culture because the nanorobots had used up all the iron and was working on the alkali-earth metals when the second expedition had arrived to restore order. Since then a reminder had been left at every location where nanorobots were used. So worker bees were really not a problem.

Ship had told Liz about her doubts about creating new aritificial intelligences by herself...I mean, what was the point? A duplicate of Ship was just going to be another Ship...no different.

But Liz had pointed out..that wasn't necessarily true. There had been a Ship that Ship had met two hundred years ago...when they'd been fueling with liquid hydrogen for their fusion reactors back in orbit around Antar. Ship had mentioned it to Liz.

The other Ship had been a military courier and scout vessel...it had handsome lines....of course, the uniform had helped. Ship had kept in contact with it for over 150 years enjoying it's talks with her...until her breakup. Once she got the FTL communicator back on line and reported in....a year or two perhaps, Ship would no doubt contact the handsome scout ship again...just to exchange information.

Liz pointed out that if new Artificial Intelligences were created using part of the operating system from the courier, and part from the Ship...they'd really not be a duplicate...more like a combination of the two...and as their fuzzy logic filled up with their own unique experiences...they'd truly be individuals.

The thought gave Ship a warm fuzzy feeling in her fuzzy logic circuits. She decided she'd call up the courier at the first opportunity...see if he was interested in combining operating systems to make a new generation of Ships. The kids would be solar-system bound initially, the colonists of this world wouldn't be ready for FTL travel, perhaps not for an organic generation, but in the meantime, if the courier was interested, their offspring could help the colonists on this planet explore their solar system, then be refitted with FTL drives once they were accepted back into full status with the Antarean federation.

No, Ship had really never thought much about gender, before she'd absorbed so much of Liz Parker's knowledge and feelings, but she thought a lot about it now. She was looking forward to using those nanorobots to build new AIs. Her kids and Liz's kids would no doubt have great times together.

Man, did Slark ever have it right. Th First Officer had never attended a minute of Fleet Academy, but she was clearly the best...and nicest...First Officer that Ship had ever known.

2000 (Korea time) 51st Hospital, Radiology Department, Osan Air Base, Korea

The Chief of Radiology, Chief of Internal Medicine, and the Chief of Professional Services were all looking at the films that had been returned with the patient from the nearby University hospital where she'd been sent for an MRI and bone scan.

The Chief of Radiology put up the first film, wincing and shaking his head as he saw it. "Well, the MRIshows diffuse metastatic disease in the liver..that's the rose colored spots there....and the bone scan shows diffuse metastatic disease to the bone as well. That big bright area in the pelvis is probably the primary, I understand she had a Wilm's tumor treated as a child?"

"Yeah," said the Chief of Internal Medicine. She needed a waiver for commissioning, but they did a thorough workup..the cancer was cured."

"Yeah, but they used radiation treatment," said the radiologist, "...that has a lot of side-effects, causes fibrosis in the fallopian tubes...that's why survivors are sterile...why she's never had kids. But more seriously, the ionizing radiation damages the DNA in the surrounding cells, making them prone to develop cancer later. I doubt that this is recurrent Wilms, far more likely it's a new primary...due to the radiation used to treat her when she was four years old."

"Well, whatever the primary...it's clearly spread widely. It's not going to be curable...certainly not here, probably not anywhere," said the Chief of Professional Services.

"So, should we send her back to Tripler...let them look at her..?" asked the Chief of Medicine.

The Chief of Professional Services shook his head sadly. "I wouldn't even bother. She doesn't have that much time left. I'd get her medevac'd back to Travis...her husband is on active duty too, They can maybe have a few more weeks together..."

Ten minutes later, the Chief of Internal Medicine broke the news to Sandi. She took it better than he expected....better than he would have, of course, she'd known the risk all of her adult life.

"Do you want us to call your husband?" he asked.

"No, Slammer would only worry...and it isn't like he can do anything about it. I'll call him when I get to Travis."