until she had leaped into her arms.
"Mama, what's wrong with her? Who is she?"
"She's Mama's best friend - after you."
/
Jon cleared his throat. He cleared it again. "Admiral on deck." He rose to his feet.
"Jon, stop that!" Zakiya pointed him back into his chair. She found a place to sit and then turned her gaze on Jamie.
"We were talking about some kind of big bed and Fleet jumpships, Admiral," Jon said.
"Jon, stop that."
"Stop what, ma'am?"
"Stop saying ma'am and admiral!"
"Sir, could you use another son?" He asked it seriously. "You could adopt me and then I could call you Mom."
Zakiya opened her mouth and then closed it.
Jon continued. "I'm used to having many brothers and sisters. And I can throw in a daughter-in-law and a grandchild."
Zakiya had to turn away from Jamie and look at Jon Horss. She was irritated, amused, and warmed by his outrageous words. No, not outrageous, and she cared about him too much to dismiss it completely. "I'm sure your remark is made for the sake of needed levity, Jon, but I'm honored you would think of such a relationship with me. Thank you! And thank you, Iggy, for the timely shiplink of your discussion about Fleet jumpships! And other topics."
Zakiya turned back to Jamie, saw the look of desperate confusion on her face.
/
"He died?" Jamie asked her mother, and at the same moment realized she had, at last, retrieved a childhood memory of her mother! She bolted across the deck to her mother and hugged her, pulling her out of her chair. "I remember you! I...! I...! Direk is...!"
Jamie let go of Zakiya and turned to Direk, who now stood watching her intently, his face a mask of conflicting emotions. Jamie turned away from him, not understanding him or herself or anything! She took a step toward the exit of the captain's office. Direk moved to intercept her.
"You loved me," Direk said. "It was me, not Direk, who loved you. Direk - the original Direk - was already dead! I would have stayed with you forever, but Mother took you away from me, not knowing how much I loved you! I still love you!"
Jamie emitted a wail borne of anguish and confusion and ran out of the room.
/
"Go after her!" Horss shouted at Direk. "That's an order!"
Direk obeyed the order.
Zakiya stared for several moments at the door which had closed behind Jamie and Direk. She finally turned to see Jon and Iggy staring at her with big smiles. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. "I forget," she said. "What am I doing here?"
"I don't know," Horss said innocently, winking at Iggy.
"Perhaps you could give us some orders?" Iggy suggested.
"Oh." Zakiya's smile faded. "It's been forty-eight hours. How many will be leaving us?"
"No one," Horss answered. "I have to say, the two drop-off locations you picked are pretty awful, but I suspect they had no effect on anybody's decision. The jump out of the Milky Way probably made everybody feel safer than we actually are. But what I think had the most effect was your introduction to Alexandros Gerakis and friends."
"Really?" she asked. "Why? He must have seemed so different from what the commercial entertainment productions made him."
"He was eloquent," Horss said. "Sincere. Touching. And a hell of a baritone!"
"A what?"
"I think they all sang well," Iggy commented. "I heard about it, even in Engineering."
Zakiya looked from one to the other, waiting for an explanation.
"You missed something, Boss," Jon said. "You probably couldn't stand to sift through all the stuff that made you so sad. Someone named Wingren found a reference to some kind of musical rehearsal. It was them. They were trying to sing this song, and they kept making mistakes, and making jokes about making mistakes, except it was all a little sad. They finally got it right and they recorded the thing, and, well, it was heart-breaking and absolutely beautiful. Oh, and it was a love song, and there was no doubt which two women they were serenading."
"And everyone saw it?" Zakiya asked, becoming embarrassed. "He could sing? I never..."
"I wish you had stayed, Boss. I could have seen the look on your face. Your man played pan pipes. Setek-Ren played guitar. All of them took a solo turn singing but Gerakis was the best."
"But the important thing was how the song symbolized what they were giving up," Iggy said, "to do what they thought was a vital service to civilization. It made me feel that I was nothing if I failed to try to rescue them!"
"When do we go, Boss?" Jon asked.
"Are you so comfortable with the ship and the danger, Jon? You have a pregnant wife aboard this ship."
"And I have orders from my wife to help you find those men. This ship is... I'm at a loss for words! It took us to the Andromeda galaxy, just for a training cruise!"
"OK!" Zakiya declared. "Warn the crew. Jump to the beginning of the search route when our safety protocols are effected."
= = =
He always knew where he was. The ship was a part of him and he could easily track almost anyone. This allowed Freddy to wait for Sammy on the brick path that led from the big lake to the pond where the Malay had established a community. Freddy sat on the ground, watching the birds in the trees and listening for Sammy's approach. He enjoyed the anticipation, and he enjoyed it even more when his superior hearing detected Sammy trying to sneak up on him. He pretended not to hear him. Freddy was just a big kid, yet he could appreciate, in an adult way, the quiet and simple pleasures of being young and alive. He sometimes wished his mechanical body was not adult-size, so that he might interact with Sammy more naturally and equally.
"Boo!" Sammy shouted from directly behind Freddy.
Freddy jumped as though startled, which he wasn't, but it was fun to do. "You got me! I was lost in thought! Is that leg bothering you?" Freddy had heard the unbalanced rhythm of Sammy's gait from a great distance.
"It kinda pinches because the knee doesn't bend quickly enough," Sammy complained.
"Let me see what I can do." Freddy touched his fingertip to a data port on the prosthetic leg. At the same time he accessed the operational database for the medical device. He activated another stream of consciousness to remain conversant with Sammy.
"Have you found them yet?" Sammy asked.
"Not yet, but I think we're getting close."
"Seen any Fleet ships?"
"I'm working with Direk and Uncle Iggy on a way to detect them at a great distance."
"How can you do that?"
Freddy knew Sammy wanted a real answer to his question, not an oversimplified one, but he felt there was little point in dragging all the theory into the answer. It was likely Sammy didn't have time for the details, since he was on the path to Abie's home.
"Do you have an hour or two to listen to quantum circuit theory?" Freddy asked.
Sammy laughed. "I'll take the kid's explanation!"
"It's just a matter of searching for a unique signal, like a pulse of gravity. It takes a lot of filtering, and we need verified jumpship jump pulses to set the filter parameters. We may need to build some specialized instruments."
"Wish I could be on the bridge when they find them."
"Run over there and walk back. I made an adjustment to your leg." Sammy took a hop and a skip and ran to a tree. He walked back. Freddy watched closely and saw the function was better but still imperfect. "Feel better now? I can adjust it again when we have more time."
"You can do anything, Freddy! Yeah, it's lots better now. Thanks!"
"Any time, kiddo. What're you going to do now?"
"Abie and I are going exploring. You want to come with us?"
"Gee, thanks, Sammy, but I have to go play grownup on the bridge. I'm the big expert on sensor data."
"Still looking for Mom's lost husband. I hope he wants to be our Dad."
"Me, too. I hope he does."
"Well, I gotta go. Thanks again."
"You're welcome
. What's a brother for?"
Sammy started to walk away, down the brick path through the trees. Freddy sat there watching him. He would not move until he disappeared from view.
Sammy stopped and turned around. "Do you ever wish you were not mechanical?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you ever wish you had a human body?"
"You bet!"
"Even though it can make you feel terrible pain?"
"Even though. There are worse feelings than physical pain. And you always tell me my hands are cold."
"When I grow up," Sammy said very seriously, "I'm going to find a way to give you a real human body. But I like you with cold hands just fine. You are so cool."
= = =
Freddy pondered the meaning of the Twenglish word "cool" as used idiomatically by Sammy. The grammatical references were still a bit cryptic but the way Sammy said it made Freddy feel it was a special compliment. Freddy also listened to the conversations of those on the bridge. Jamie and Iggy were the most entertaining. Jamie would always say lots of things about Direk, and Iggy would always irritate her with disparaging remarks about the Direk copy he had known. He would finally relent and talk about visiting the real Direk when Direk was a child.
"There's still something wrong with him," Jamie said, meaning Direk.
"He's only human," Iggy said, emphasizing it for some reason.
"No, it's not that. He thinks he's forgot someone. He thinks there is someone missing who should be here. It's making him very irritable. I've never seen him be irritable, and I would be enjoying it but he's very serious about it."
"I thought he had better access than any of us to his auxiliary memory," Iggy said. "And if it's someone we all knew, why hasn't one of us remembered him by now?"
"I don't know. It worries me,