2043 "Can I just say this is really eerie?" Linna Yamazaki-Chang said, the dark brown haired woman gazing at the photos and then looking up at the video of the little girl playing in another room of the complex. "Tell me about it," Priss Asagiri agreed, her darker hair still in it's usual ragged style. She had dressed a little more conservative today, almost but not quite office lady style in her blue business suit and subtle makeup. "I still can't get over the idea of Priss having a baby," Mackey said, the young man shaking his head in awe and dismay. "And the fact that you kept it from us," Nene added, resentment in her voice. Sylia Stingray smiled wryly, turning to face the group of their friends. "We didn't have much choice," she explained, "considering it was a virgin birth, more or less." "It's true then," Linna's voice hardened somewhat as she said, "what Henderson told me. The child is Galatea?" "No," Nigel said calmly. Everyone waited for him to continue, but the scruffy looking engineer kept quiet. "As our eloquent associate says," Sylia said to the group wryly, "whatever she may be, Sara is not Galatea." "How can you be sure?" Nene protested. "Her physiology is human," Sylia explained patiently, "not boomeroid, and genetically she appears to be a combination of myself and Priss." Sounding faintly amused Priss muttered, "For a while there I was sure Sylia had managed to knock me up somehow." Nene broke into a fit of giggles and poor Mackey nearly choked on a soda he was drinking. "So if she isn't Galatea, then where did Sara come from?" he asked. "Shortly after we recovered Nene, Priss and Linna in the aftermath of the battle with Galatea I had all of you given a thorough medical examination," Sylia said crisply, "at that time we found traces of boomer cells in your systems." "Boomers?" Linna paled. Before anyone could get more upset Nigel calmly said, "We figured it was a side effect of the close bond you all formed with your hardsuits, and since your immune systems were killing them off there was no need to tell you." Before Linna or Nene could think to start yelling at Nigel or Sylia Priss cut them both off. "Later," she told both furious women, "you can yell at them to your heart's content. For now, let's just finish the damn story." "Thank you," Sylia sighed. She rubbed between her eyes, "Somehow the cells survived in Priss' biosystem, and sometime after we became sexually active together my blood, hers and the boomer cells combined to create Sara." "So she's a boomer human hybrid," Mackey asked for clarification. He looked at his sister in confusion, "But you're certain she's not Galatea?" "She shows no sign of Galatea's disruption field or her unique effects on boomers," Sylia explained, "the only unusual thing has been her accelerated aging." "She's less than a year old but Sara looks five," Priss rubbed at her eyes tiredly, "and her mental development seems about equal." "But what if she really is Galatea?" Linna looked around at the others, "She could put the entire country in danger." "You ready to kill a kid for what she might become?" Nigel asked quietly, leaving an long, uncomfortable silence behind. "Yeah, me too," Priss sighed. She leaned forward from where she was sitting on the couch, "But we're being as careful as we can." "I see you're monitoring her," Nene waved to a view screen where a child who looked like a silver haired Priss played with a ball. "I also consider her a second chance," Sylia added. At everyone's looks she explained, "I've often wondered if Galatea might have been a different woman if she had a reasonably normal life, rather than being imprisoned by my father." "So you're trying to raise Sara as a normal girl, so that if she really is a transformed Galatea...?" Mackey trailed off thoughtfully. "Pretty much," Priss nodded. "At least Sara will be less vulnerable to manipulative bastards," she said dryly, referring the what Mason had done to Galatea. Once Brian J. Mason had been a rising star in Genom, but he had realized that Quincy would always stand in his way. Discovering the existence of Galatea he had used her as a clumsy weapon against Quincy, eventually leading to a full scale boomer rebellion. In the end Mason won, in a way, but his actions ultimately destroyed him. Linna got up from her seat with a sigh, stretching. "Well, I still can't say I approve," she said honestly, "but I won't fight you on this, either." She smiled slightly, "Now if you don't mind, I think my wife is waiting for me." Sylia walked her to the door, "Thank you for inviting us to the wedding, by the way." A impish twinkle glowed in her eyes, "I seem to recall you were a little startled by the bachelor party I helped your co-workers throw you." "I'd love to know where you found a stripper willing to take off her clothes for a woman," Linna blushed. "Actually I had a few volunteers after I showed your picture around," Sylia purred. After a still blushing Linna had left Henderson arrived with the portable phone, the older man looking like the model for a perfect English butler. "Miss Nene," he held out the phone, "there's a urgent call for you from AD Police." "Oh come on..." Nene moaned out, taking the phone and talking with a faintly pained expression on her face. "What's that all about?" Priss asked Mackey. "During the boomer attack on AD Police headquarters Nene was forced to use her hacking skills in front of her superiors," Mackey explained, "it impressed them so much that they put her in charge of the new computer crimes unit." "Interesting," Sylia murmured, already calculating how she could use this to their advantage. "Henderson," she smiled, "could you get us some refreshments?" "Of course, madam," Henderson nodded and was gone. "So," Priss gave Mackey a impish look and asked, "when are you planning to make Nene a honest woman?" "Priss," Nene squealed angrily, hanging up the phone as her boyfriend went beet red. "I'd like to," Mackey stammered, "but until we get the body problem solved..." "I asked him to wait," Sylia agreed as Henderson arrived with drinks. He poured, waited to see if there was anything else, then quietly left. "There's a new prototype that looks promising," she added, "I want to test it out before applying the tech to Mackey." "Guess I can understand that," Priss said, studying Mackey with sympathy. The man looked like he was in his teens but in reality he was as old as Sylia, his boomer-like body unaging from when he had first been completed. "Besides," Mackey grinned suddenly and asked, "when are Sylia and Nigel making you an honest woman?" "We're thinking about it," Nigel admitted, taking a pull from the beer Henderson had left him. "Eh?" Nene blinked. "We haven't decided if Priss and I do dresses and Nigel in a suit or Priss and Nigel wear suits or all three," Sylia said with a smile. "Once we get that worked out," Priss drank from her own beer, "we'll set a date." Ends
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