Floresta shook her head.
“Lanny, you’re the captain. Besides, there’s nothing for me back there,” she said. “Everything I love is right here, under the Big Donut.”
26
Lan slumped on the old folding chair behind the shop. In the past, Mr. Thamavuong would sit in this chair when he came out to think and smoke. Although Lan did not smoke, she came to this place to think as well.
Lan held Markus’s matrix. Everything her son was—every experience, every idea, every cell in his body—was here. From his first steps as a child, to his first days in the Academy, to the time he piloted a training ship. How proud he was that day! His laughter, his determination, his pride all lay in this grapefruit-like sphere.
But in this sphere was also an anger that had killed two people. Here was the helplessness, impatience, paranoia, aggression—everything that she despised and feared about the Endplague.
Markus could not remain on this planet. At this planet’s current technological level, a being like Markus could endanger this entire world.
“Ah, Lanny, there you are,” said Floresta. “I hope I’m not bothering.”
“No, no. I was about to come back inside,” Lan said.
Floresta saw what Lan was holding. “What are you going to do with Markus?”
“We have to send him back, even if the Empire is collapsing,” Lan said. “At the very least, maybe he can die with his father…”
Floresta nodded, then frowned.
“But how?”
Good question. They were too far away to teleport. The main starship was now integrated with the donut shop itself, so using it was out of the question.
They did have the runabout. It was a fast, agile scouting craft, well suited to this sort of mission. However, as of now, the stargate still lacked the power to send even a runabout. Besides, with Markus in stasis, someone else would still need to pilot the ship to the Empire, and they could not afford to lose another crewmember.
But there was another option.
“We’ll use a long-range probe,” Captain Tran declared. “We’ll place Markus in the instrument bay and send him back that way. The stargate has enough power for a probe.”
“But won’t the probe still need to be navigated?”
“Yes. We’ll use Shirley. Since she’s cybernetic, we can download her directly into the probe’s guidance computer. We’ll just need to upgrade the memory.”
“If she goes, we’ll be shorthanded at Starrgate.”
“Not if we duplicate her.”
Aunty Floresta blinked.
“Lanny, have you asked her?”
“No. Why?”
“Don’t you think she would want to be asked?”
“Shirley is a program I created. To be honest, I should have been making backups this entire time.”
Floresta said nothing as the two of them returned to the shop.
“Shirley?”
Shirley appeared immediately. “Yes, Mother?”
“Prepare yourself for duplication.”
“Mother?”
“We need to return Markus to the Empire, so we are uploading your code into a long-range probe. We’re keeping a copy of you here to continue your duties at Starrgate. But archive your program first. You’re quite complex, so we need to safeguard against errors. Also, we’ll need to add an autodestruct routine should you fall into the hands of Imperial Intelligence. We don’t want them being able to trace your data back to us.”
“Mother?” Shirley said again, as if not quite comprehending what was being asked.
But Lan was already onto the next phase of her plan.
“Floresta, have Windee start readying a probe for the mission. Working will help Windee heal. And let Edwin help where he can. And Shirley— “Shirley?”
“I—I’m sorry, Mother.”
Shirley flickered, then disappeared.
* * *
Shizuka marveled at how Katrina created videos. Her songs might be from an anime, or a game. Katrina recorded. She experimented with orchestration. She changed rosins, strings, even the length of her fingernails.
She made mistakes. She would cry. She would stop crying. She would try again.
And then, Katrina would upload the video, and within a week, one, two, five thousand people would watch it.
Shizuka and Katrina scrolled through the latest comments:
“Something in your music makes me feel like things will be ok.”
“No words … How you played this song … it’s just perfect.”
“I can come to my computer after an argument, listen to this song and instantly let it go.”