“This is Nelly’s doing?”
“I approved her ordering some supplies. So she ordered a family.”
“Family?”
“Yeah. Her kids. She says everyone close to me needs one.”
“Count me out.”
“Jack, you really need a better computer,” Nelly pleaded.
“You giving this swabby lip is one thing. Sometimes kind of fun. You giving a Marine officer lip? No way. Marines get shot for insubordination, haven’t you heard?”
“She won’t be me. I’m not cloning myself. She’ll be your computer, Jack. You bring her up to be your friend.”
“He,” Jack snapped, then realized what he’d done and gave Kris’s neckline a sour look. “If I had a smart-ass computer, it would be a he. But I don’t need a smart-ass computer.”
“I’m the way I am because I’m Kris’s.”
“No way do I deserve you,” Kris insisted.
“I’m your karma,” Nelly said flatly.
“What is it with your computer?” Jack said. “One week she doesn’t believe in karma, and the next week she is karma.”
Chief Beni joined them muttering under his breath about the injustice of early wake-up calls.
“Who woke you up, Chief?” Kris asked.
“Nelly. She said there was something only I could do for you.”
“For her,” Kris and Jack said together.
“What’s she want?”
“For you to . . . ah . . . deliver, build, construct her children.”
“More Nellys! No way,” the chief said.
“They aren’t going to be duplicates of me. They’ll be Jack’s computer, and Penny’s and Abby’s and yours, Chief.”
“I get one!”
“You’re part of Kris’s team.”
“Don’t mean to interrupt, but just how do you expect each of these computer kids of yours to be different?” Jack asked.
“They’ll have my basic skills at organizing data and forecasting what you humans want. Oh, and they’ll know the two rules . . .”
“And a whole lot more that are coming,” Kris added.
“But most of their self-organizing matrix will be left for them to arrange the way they want, based on what they need to work with the human they are working with.”
“I note the failure to address ownership,” Jack said.
Nelly said nothing to that. Kris left the topic with a sigh. Sooner or later, she and Nelly would have to address the matter of what the relationship was between the two-legged human who walked around and the sentient being around her neck.
Then again, she could always turn Nelly off.
Not.
Kris came to the quarterdeck. A harried twentysomething kid was showing clear signs of wanting out of there, but the Marine sergeant held both his clipboard and his package. A much-larger package than Kris expected, say about the size of a hatbox.
Probably most of that is just packing, Kris hoped.
Kris took the clipboard and whistled softly at the price on the invoice.
“I told you it was high, ma’am,” Staff Sergeant Tu said.
Nelly, This isn’T a couple of MONTHS of EARNINGS for My TRUST FUND. This is a whole year!
BUT you HARDLY SPENT ANYTHING while you were STATIONED on EDEN.
Only Because The ART show GOT SHOT up Before I COULD Buy ANYTHING.
BUT you DIDN’T.
“This better be worth it, Nelly.”
“I promise. It will be.”
Kris signed, and the delivery kid bolted.
“Okay, Nelly. Is the forward lounge available?”
“It’s still reserved for your team. It’s empty just now.”
“Why don’t you invite the godparents of your children up to the lounge for the christening party. You better ask the galley to send along breakfast.”
“If you’ll excuse me, ma’am,” Chief Beni said, “I need to get some gear from my shop if we’re going to be dealing with high-value electronics.”
“Since we are, I guess you better. Do you need a clean room?”
“I’ll bring one.”
Fifteen minutes later, the lounge was serving a light breakfast on one side and Chief Beni had set up a temporary clean room as far from the bagels and bran muffins as he could. Kris circulated among the godparents as they arrived, surprised by a few of Nelly’s choices. Jack, Penny, and Abby were no brainers. That the colonel was included showed that the poor fellow truly was under a life sentence.
“I guess if I accept this little trinket, I really am stuck with you,” he said.
“Last chance to run, not walk, for the door,” Abby said.
Sergeant Bruce, standing at Abby’s elbow, was an even bigger surprise for Kris. The maid and Marine had been spending more and more time together. Kris could easily put his inclusion down to a romantic streak in her “young” computer. Still, the Marine was the usual volunteer for the tough stuff Kris needed doing. He would put the computer to good use.
Kris had to do a check to see if Cara had just snuck in with her aunt, or was actually invited. She was. I HAVE a special Version of Me who I Think will Be JUST GREAT for Cara. NOT EXACTLY Me The way I was when you were TWELVE. I was really DUMB, BUT ME The way I wish I’D Been Back Then.
No way would Kris go back to being twelve again. Captain Drago stuck his head in the room, spotted Kris, and immediately came to her. “You called?”
“Not me, Nelly,” Kris said.
Nelly quickly explained that she wanted the good captain to be the godchild and user of one of her about-to-be-activated children.
The captain respectfully declined. “I’m sorry, Miss Nelly, but I really can’t run the risk of a strange and untrained computer locking up the ship’s main computer.”
“I haven’t caused that computer any trouble.”
“But you are a passenger’s computer. There are certain limitations on your access. The captain’s computer must have total access, from engineering to nav and everything in between.”
Nelly, Don’T. But it was too late.
“Ship’s computer,” Nelly said. “How much of you have I accessed and when?”
Captain Drago’s mouth took on a distinct scowl as his ship’s computer reported, “The passenger Kris Longknife’s computer has accessed all functions and status reports of the ship since immediately upon coming aboard.”
“I had to be able to tell Kris the ship was operating safely.
I’ve been doing this since she was stationed on the Firebolt. The ship was testing the power-plant problems of the Kami kaze class of corvettes and I twice shut down tests before humans could see the impending destruction of the ship.”
“So you have been tiptoeing in and out of every nook and cranny of my ship and not leaving any footprints.”
“I’m very good at not leaving footprints.” Nelly preened.
“And I’m to trust you and this Trojan horse you’re about to give me.”
“I haven’t let you down yet.”
Drago glanced around the lounge. “Everyone in here is getting one of these little gremlins?”
“Yep,” Nelly said proudly.
“Even her?” the captain said, waving at Cara.
“Yes!” Cara shouted and celebrated with an exuberant little dance. “But Nelly promised me that she’d still be my teacher. Dada will just be my friend. We can play games together, and talk and do all sorts of things, just like Nelly does with Kris.”
Drago eyed Kris as the two of them savored the order in which the names came. Nelly first. Kris last. “I reserve the right to return this gift the first time it causes me or my ship any trouble.”
“You won’t. Try me or mine on for an hour, and you won’t ever go back to a dumb computer,” Nelly insisted.