Chapter I

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Cenerea, 3rd planet from the star Letria. Regalius, The Homeland,

Central Region, The Capitol City,

114 Darvon Street, Current Day

"Daddy!" the scarlet-headed boy yelled as he heard the front door slide open. He bolted from his bedroom, streaked down the hall, and giggling, flew into the outstretched arms of his kneeling father. "You're home! Can we go now? Puuullleeezzze?" he asked eagerly, his emerald green eyes glimmering with excitement.

"Absolutely, Josh. Go get your coat," the twenty-eight year old Jay Levant said as he hugged the squirming little bundle of energy. He released the perpetual motion machine disguised as a child and watched him scamper toward his messy room once more.

Jay stood in his living room all alone. "I'm home!" he called out. No one replied. "Gertie can you turn up the music?"

"I already have," said the feminine A.I.

            "Sorry, it's a habit."

"I know."

"Hey, where is that lovely wife of mine?"

             "She's down in the basement, Jay," the security system replied. "I'm keeping an eye on Josh. He's not going anywhere or getting into anything but his room or the lab."

            "Thanks, Gert," Jay said with a laugh.

            "You're welcome. If it would help, do you want me to reserve the tickets for you and Josh?"

            "Make it for all three of us. The missus is coming with us, tonight. She needs to take a break," Jay said as he proceeded down the ramp, loosening the front of his Homeland Military R&D uniform jacket.

            "Very well," Gertie replied.

            "Hey! Gert said you were down here."

            "She has her headphones on, Jay," the booming voice of Geneticus echoed through the room. "Were you able to get what we needed?"

            "Yeah, G, I'll upload it to you later tonight, if that's okay with you?"

"No problem, man."

Jay shook his head. "Not you, too..."

The scientist slowly crept up behind a very attractive redhead sitting at a workbench holding a soldering iron. It reminded him of Harold for a moment, only much more gorgeous. As he approached, he could smell the acrid odor of the device melting the solder as she touched it to several places on the surface of a thin graphene circuit board. He gently lifted her flame-colored hair from her neck and kissed his wife on her soft porcelain skin. It smelled lovely in stark contrast to the hot iron in her hand. He noted she had once again placed a flower in her hair and was humming to a peculiar, unfamiliar song.

            The woman turned to look at Jay, smiled softly, and then yelled very loudly, "HEY! HOW WAS WORK?"

            Jay laughed and removed the headphones from his wife's ears. He could hear her favorite new music coming from the tiny speakers. The sound it generated was very thin and high pitched he noticed as he placed the antique black market device down on the bench. Jay knew, however, that the tone was much better with the thing attached to one's head.

            The woman grinned. "Oh, sorry. I just cannot get enough of that, ummm, album, yeah, album. It's the one thing that has annoyed me since I got back...the damn Homeland banning Cenerean music like that?"

            "I believe it was thought of as rebellious," Jay responded.

            "I think that is just lame. Connor really has turned out to be the biggest square the Homeland has ever known."

            "I think I understand what you are trying to say, but why would you call the Chancellor a mathematical shape?" Jay looked at his wife perplexed. "By the way, be careful interfacing with Earth's partition since there are so many natives now living in the CPC. Who knows what could happen..."

            "Oh, like someone creating a platypus or something?" Wendy laughed.

Jay blushed. "Yeah, like that."

The woman snickered. "C'mon, Jay, it's the Seventies down there right now, 'man'. Fight the power. Impeach Nixon. Too bad we can't impeach Connor's ass."

Jay nodded. "No shit."

Wendy sat forward in her seat. "But, isn't it so interesting, Jay, to see that tiny world in such a similar political situation as ours? And Geneticus says it has instructed the Sub-System to shut off their missile systems if they try to fire them, but until they do, well..."

            "Yes, their technology explosion toward the end of this last millennium surprised me," the A.I. interjected. "It was very rapid and illustrated to me that they might be approaching a point in their timeline in which I can reach out and explain to them what they are and why they were so important. Until then, I cannot let them destroy themselves en masse. Although I may not be able to do much right now to fix things here, I can, however, keep an eye on the Earth. Well, somewhat. I did slow their timing clock back down to make sure things did not get out of hand as quickly as it did with their other two world wars. Time was going so fast, the second one was nearly over by the time I adjusted it. Elle really left one serious mark on their souls."

            "Well, we all agreed to leave Cain's legacy alone because of that reason. It was our obligation to let them live out their lives on their own and let them find their way without our interference. There is no reason for those natives to doubt they are special for the moment," Jay said.

"They are special...to me, Jay," Geneticus replied.

"I know, they are to me, too. But at least, until as you have alluded to G, they can collectively understand everything, it would be best if we left them alone. I can only imagine the despair they might feel if they found out at this moment they were nothing more than simulations in a machine."

            Wendy smiled. "Yeah, sims who make really great music. You know I just can't help myself; I do love that little planet and their rock music, especially the Eagles. Glenn Fry and Don Henley, they are groovy, for that matter, Geneticus is the one who's gotten me more of the native's media stuff like music and movies, so, nah!" She stuck her tongue out at Jay. "Anyways, mister, I am not interfacing with any of the CPC's inner workings, G is," she said, grinning. "Oh yeah!  I forgot to tell you there is this movie that just came out down there called The Towering Inferno that I am dying to watch."

            Jay chuckled; he could see one of Wendy's familiar excited expressions formed on the Arcturan's face. He smiled and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Okay, if you don't mind waiting for me, we could watch it together when I get off work for the end of week break."

            "Far out!" Wendy clapped, nearly burning herself. "Oops. Better put that down."

            Suddenly, Josh appeared from nowhere, raced down the ramp, and slammed into the back of Jay's legs. The boy hugged them tightly. "C'mon daddy, let's go!!!" he said excitedly.

            "Okay, okay. You too, mom, you are going with us, tonight," Jay said, tugging at his wife's lab coat collar. "This is the first time in almost fifty years the Homeland government has given access to a foreign state for an exhibition at the Museum. We can't miss it."

            The small boy's green eyes lit up like Letria. "Yay! Mommy is coming, too!?!!"

            Wendy rolled her eyes. "Oh, alright. Hey, Geneticus, we'll be back later. When i get home, I want to finish that optical sensory input board," she said as she returned the soldering iron to its holder. The woman turned off the device, pushed back from the bench, and turned in her chair to detach her son from Jay's legs. She pulled him toward her and kissed him on the cheek. He giggled profusely as Wendy tickled the boy and let him go like a wind-up toy.

            "Don't worry, I have been working on it for the past couple of hours. I should be done with the circuit designs before you get back," the A.I. said lightly in an attempt to keep its voice down since little Josh was running around the room. Its voice used to cause the small human to make a terrible screeching noise.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot..." Josh ran up to the black box and hugged the corner of it. "Bye, bye big brother G."

            "Later Josh, I will catch you on the flip side," the machine said softly.

            Once again, Jay developed an odd expression on his face. "Flip side?"

            "Earth slang," Geneticus stated. 

Jay blinked.

            "You are such a stiff, Jay. Bye, bye Josh. Is that better?" the machine inquired softly and with loads of sarcasm.

"You're an ass, G," Jay retorted with a laugh.

"I try."

Wendy told Geneticus several years ago, when she was pregnant with Josh, that this little being was to be its brother. It was such an odd concept to the A.I. It was, in fact, the only thing left on Cenerea that had Wendy's DNA. Now, she occupied Elle's body. Jay and Wendy then had a child with no DNA even resembling the strands the machine possessed, but Wendy stressed they were related. Nevertheless, because his Creator wished it, Geneticus assumed its role as Big Brother and accepted the little ball of energy into his familial circle along with Gertie the upstairs Security A.I., whom it had grown a particular fondness for over the last few years.

            "We're gonna go see the T'choulian jungle beasts, Gertie! Yaaayyy!" exclaimed Josh as he released the mainframe and bolted across the lab floor.

"I know, little one," she replied.

"I'll wait outside!"

             "No you are not, Josh, you aren't going anywhere until your parents are ready."

            "Awww, Gertie..."

            "You can go play in your room, young man, until then."

            "Okay...fine. Hurry up, mommy and daddy!" Josh shouted playfully, and then darted up the ramp.

            Wendy hugged her husband tightly as she watched their very happy son run off. She closed her eyes; thankful for the warm lovely man she shared her life with on the surface of Cenerea. There were times she missed the moments of pleasure they felt on Earth at the Spawn Point, the place the natives now called Eden. Wendy found it funny to read their strange retelling of the events and their wild ideas about how things transpired, however, that was their world now and no longer JayWendy's. It was their mess to maintain. She, Jay, and Geneticus had enough chaos on this planet to deal with. Still, she would really love to see The Eagles in concert, live that is.

            Jay put his arm around his wife and smiled as they walked up the ramp. He could hear Wendy singing some odd Earth song under her breath.

            "...Welcome to the Hotel Californ'ya!"

...

Cenerea, 3rd planet from the star Letria. Regalius, The Homeland, Central Region, The Capitol City, 114 Darvon Street,

Five and One Half Cenerean Years Ago

            "It's not working G. She's convulsing and I can't disconnect the neural connection! Please don't die Wendy, I need you!" Jay yelled breathlessly.

            "She might be having trouble adjusting to her new body. Hold on!" Geneticus said trying to calm Jay.

            Jay watched Elle's body relax. "What did you do, G? What did you do?!?"

            "It's okay my friend. I rerouted myself back through the neural connection and force disconnected it. You can remove the connector now. The transfer was successful; I verified that all of her information was intact."

            "Is she going to be alright?"

            "I cannot be sure, however her vitals are good. My only real concern is her brain activity, it is extremely elevated. Wendy's intelligence is far greater than Elle's and I can only speculate as to how that will translate into the success of the consciousness upload."

            Jay knelt beside the stasis pod and grabbed the woman's hand, "Please, Wendy. I need you; I cannot live without you." He set his face next to hers and closed his tear-filled eyes. "If you die, I might as well..."

"Jay?"

            He felt a familiar soft hand touch his skin and opened his eyes to find a green pair staring back. "Wendy?" Jay asked, a smile appearing on his face.

            "Am I...? Am I alive?"

            "Yes, you are back on Cenerea with me and G."

            "I love you both." Wendy said and passed out.

            Jay's fear left him and he sank to the floor crying. "Thank you, my friend," he said, looking up at the large black cube.

            "No Jay, thank you."

            "Geneticus?" The young man sat up in realization.

            "Yes?" the machine asked.

            "What did you do with Elle?"

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