Mom’s hands came up to drift over my face, getting the shape of it as she had all my life. Her light, almost reverent touch flowed around my features, and her eyes followed them in amazement. She fiercely blinked back tears to keep on drinking in my face, and I joined her, blinking away tears now freely flowing.
My heart hammered in my chest, joy and relief cutting away a weight I’d carried for way too long. She could see again and be damned to any whispers of guilt that ever came again. I’d brought her sight back; that’s all that mattered.
Her gaze lingered on me for a few minutes, and slowly, as if too shy to be seen, joy filled her smile. Filled with wonder, her eyes drifted over to my sister’s face.
“Hi Mom,”
Jane’s smile, surprisingly fragile, also greeted our mother. Jane, being only nine months older than me, her face was nearly as unknown as mine. Mom searched Jane’s face for traces of the baby she’d known. Her hands drifted over my sister’s face in awe and joy. “Baby Girl, my princess.” Mom whispered. “When did you get so big? You’re so beautiful!”
Mom started bawling, and we all fell with her. Dad again came around and caught Mom in a hug, his quiet sobs and tears soon soaking her back. Jane and I piled in from the front, my sobs joining the family chorus, while Jane soaked Mom’s other shoulder. We held each other, trembling and heaving with released emotion, until Jane snorted deeply against her clogged nose.
“Be right back,” she said and ran off. Soon she returned with a roll of toilet paper. “Dad, you need to get some real tissues.”
We giggled a little and relaxed, breaking up the hug and passing around the makeshift tissue paper. Mom turned to me, curiosity burning in her eyes.
“How?”
“I was on the way to work when a hive flared up in front of me. I stopped a couple of antithesis from killing the civilians and was chosen. Not that I knew it at the time.” I shrugged. “Thanks to Grandma Hatfield, I had some problems with communicating with my AI at first. We worked it out eventually, and I spent most of my day killing Anti’s and rescuing people. I left with more than enough points to heal my family.”
“Then we have two things to celebrate,” Dad said. “I think that this deserves some champagne. Unfortunately, we only have wine.” He headed out to the living room, where the liquor cabinet stood.
“Just bring some glasses,” I called out. “Corie? Can you get us some, please?”
A bottle of sparkling wine appeared on the coffee table. Something about this set a fire in my mother, and she stood up, grabbed the bottle, and started exploring the apartment. “We’ll meet you in the living room!” she yelled. “I want to see this place finally!”
When the tour finally wound down to the living room, we settled in the couches and chairs, each with a glass of bubbly in our hands.
“I’d heard good things about Samurai food, but this is better than I had expected,” Jane said. “So, have you settled on a name yet? Last I heard, you weren’t keen on the one that other guy gave you.”
“It’s grown on me. And it’s spread far enough by now that changing it will be hard.”
“What did you end up with?” Mom asked.
“Xenovir. Which is at least easy to say.”
“It suits you,” Jane said. Then added with a smirk, “Certainly better than those glasses.”
“Glasses? You have perfect vision, or did at your last checkup.” Mom scowled at me in confusion.
“I use glasses to display any necessary data feeds. I bought a Samurai pair today since my old ones couldn’t handle my new gear’s data.” I blinked at myself, surprised at how comfortable I’d become with casually referring to Samurai gear.
“Oh, come on!” Jane protested. “You have to show them.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
With a sigh, I could see that she wouldn’t let this go, so I reluctantly pulled out the data glasses and put them on.
My mother stared at me and blinked for a couple of moments. “Gene, dear. I know I’ve been out of the loop for a while, but have fashions degenerated that much?”
“Yes, but not so bad that they’d dredge that travesty up from the fifties.” My father grumbled.
“At least they aren’t studded with rhinestones.” Jane was struggling to keep from breaking out in laughter.
“They’re not lasting.” I grumbled, my tone accidentally echoing my father’s. I quickly pulled them off and hid them in a pocket again.
“Now, tell me more about how you became a Samurai,” Mom ordered as we settled into a more serious tone.
“Okay, but while I do that, can I have permission to run scans on Jane and Dad? I want to be sure you are as healthy as you seem.” Jane shrugged, but my father seemed more hesitant.
Mom, however, was having nothing to do with that. “Gene Thomas Corin, you will let your son scan you. I had to do it, so do you.”
He had the wisdom to shut up and allow the scan. As the drone did its crawling thing, I covered the highlights of my day with some additional comments by Jane. I wrapped up the tale with the closure of the hive and handing off responsibility to another Samurai. “And that brings me back to the real reason I came here tonight.”
“I’d love to meet this AI of yours. She sounds like fun.” Jane added.
“That’s a good idea. Corie, is there a way you can join in the conversation?”
--I can link up to the stereo system. I’d love to meet your family!
“Hello everyone,” Corie’s childlike voice came through the speaker system. My family jumped and looked around for the source.
“She’s using me to link to the stereo system and broadcasting her voice through it,” I explained.
“You have a lovely voice,” my mother said.
“Thank you, and I’m so happy we were able to help you see again!” Corie spoke in a bright and bubbly voice so rapidly that I could almost hear her bouncing in excitement. “It was so amazing to make a difference like that! And Jane, we’ve met, but you may not realize it. I was in the chat today under Andronym. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Col. Corwin. I like the theory expressed in your latest white paper.” Dad raised his eyes at the praise of the paper. It had not been received well by his superiors and hadn’t been made public.
I shook my head and jumped in before Dad could start in on the topic. “Corie, can you give us the results of your scan for Jane and Dad, please?”
“Sure,” she said, settling down into a more serious tone. “I’ll start with you, Jane. You have a slight buildup of toxins, but that is common for people these days. I can provide some pills that can cleanse that out easily. You also carry the gene in the defective form, but it is dormant and recessive. We can either remove it or repair and activate it, either way. But we should also scan your daughter, in case she’s inherited the gene as well.
“Gene, you too are mostly healthy, but for a slight herniated disk and the same toxin buildup. I prescribe a treatment of nanites, similar to what we did for Sally, and the same pills as Jane.”
Another inhaler appeared on the coffee table, along with a tube of pills. “Jane and Gene only need one of these pills each, but likely Jane’s family will need them too.”
“For context,” I turned to my family, “it turns out Grandma Hatfield wasn’t lying. She did kiss or have some kind of contact with the Samurai Bugeye. You remember how she used to brag about it. He somehow transferred alien DNA to her, which then passed on down to Mom and me, and apparently Jane. It explains several things, including why we don’t need as much sleep. But it’s not fully active either, which causes some neural imbalances. The scan showed that you, Mom, aren’t in as much danger as I was, but it should still be dealt with, and soon.”
“Was? She already treated you then?” Mom interrupted me.
“Marcus has been stabilized and is safe. It interfered with the Vanguard-AI interface, so we fixed it even before we could really communicate.
“For you, Sally,” Corie continued, “the scans indicate that what sleep you are getting isn’t rebuilding your neurotransmitters properly. That means that you are going to have more and more symptoms of sleep deprivation, no matter how much sleep you get. This could cause increasing quality of life issues as you go on. We just fixed your sight. I think we should fix the rest of it now so that you don’t have any more of those headaches.”
Dad turned to Mom, a troubled look on his face. “You hadn’t said the headaches were back.”
“I thought it was just stress. I have several clients that are in tough spots, and you know how that affects me.” She bit her lip a minute, then asked, “How would this fix happen? Would I have to do surgery or what?”
“Fixing it’ll be simple, but you and Marcus each have to make a decision. That will affect what we do and how we do it. You, Sally, need to decide whether to finish the gene’s activation or to remove the DNA modification entirely. Marcus’s decision doesn’t affect your decision, nor does yours greatly impact Marcus’. I’ll be talking with Marcus directly about his decision, since it’s mostly about Vanguard technicalities and options.”
“Why would I keep the DNA? All that’s going to do is make me less human, right?”
“The DNA is integrated into you and a part of you. The only thing wrong with it is how it’s expressed, similar to how some types of Parkinson’s disease or cancers happen. On the other hand, it has influenced who you are. Beyond not needing as much sleep, the gene improves your thinking speed, your ability to handle multiple tasks or thoughts at once, and had a hand in your becoming ambidextrous. If we strip off the DNA, you will lose most of those other effects too. You won’t be less intelligent, but it’ll take you longer to reach any conclusion.”