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| Generated by Google Gemini Advanced text-to-image AI software, powered by Imagen 3 |
It’s been about a year since Niobe moved to the Extremus to establish
herself as a passenger. She’s been laying low, of course, instead of making
some big announcement to the whole ship. Right now, she’s living off of her
newborn contribution points. While she’s obviously not actually a newborn,
as a new citizen, she’s enjoying the benefits of the vessel’s amenities
without having to work for them. The naturalization program was created at
the beginning of this project, just in case they somehow came across time
travelers, or human aliens—or regular aliens—sometime during the journey. No
one expected to ever do it, and officially speaking, it still hasn’t
happened yet. No one needs to know that Niobe was born on Verdemus, and that
she immigrated here. All the people she’s met so far have to know is that
she moved here from a different section of the ship, and that she’s not
currently in the workforce.
Silveon is thuh-riving. He’s reaching his developmental milestones at a
healthy and typical pace. He can walk, run, and even climb. His obsession
with exerting his independence has become a bit of a problem, but they’re
dealing with his mischievousness. He can say a few random words, but not the
ones that they expected. He says reframe a lot, as well as
crew, light, and function—though, he fails to pronounce
letter N in that last word, which is funny and cute, and embarrassing
in mixed company. Tinaya has agreed to talk less about work in his presence,
so he starts using fewer technical words. They would rather he focus on
mama and dada. He likes to color, but he does not like to stay
in the lines. Some people in the family think that this means he’ll grow up
to be very rebellious, but his parents know that he’s a toddler, and this is
how the toddler do. It doesn’t mean anything. He’s been rather curious about
the little potty that they set up in the bathroom. He is just about ready to
use it.
They have him set up on it now, trying to encourage him to try. “Go on! Go
potty! You can do it! Just relax.”
He stares at the two of them like they’re speaking a foreign language, which
they kind of are from his perspective. He starts to fiddle with the bidet
settings. They’re on a child lock fortunately, so nothing is happening.
Suddenly, he stops, and they don’t know what’s going on. He takes a breath
as he’s looking around, at them, at the room, and even himself. He
discovered his own body a long time ago, so what was this?
“Do you think he’s developed a rash, or something?” Tinaya asks, worried.
“I’m fine, mom,” Silveon says. He takes another breath before tinkling in
the potty without issue. Once he’s done, he expertly disables the child lock
to use the bidet and dryer. Then he stands up, and climbs the step stool to
wash his hands.
Now they’re the ones staring at him. Arqut seems to realize something. “Who
are you, and what are you doing in my child’s body?”
“Relax, father,” Silveon says as he’s slipping his pants back on, sans
diaper. “I’m your son. I’m just an older version of him.”
“How much older?” Tinaya questions.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“When do we get our baby back?” she presses.
He lifts his little arms up, and they realize that he’s trying to place his
hands on her shoulders. She gets down on her knees to allow him to do this.
“I’m sorry, mother, but your baby is gone. I’ve overwritten his mind. This
was a decision that I did not take lightly. I didn’t want to have to do it,
but it’s the only form of undetectable time travel available. No one can
know who I really am, and they certainly can’t know what I know, and why I’m
here. I have chosen to reveal myself to you purely for practical reasons. I
am not an actor, and would not have been able to fool your for long. It’s
better to be honest now, so you can help me fool everyone else.”
“Why so young?” Arqut demands to know. “Why did you take our son from us at
such a young age?”
Silveon sighs, and walks past them, into the main room. He struggles to get
himself onto the couch, clearly not used to maneuvering such a tiny little
substrate. “As I said, any other form of time travel would be detectable. I
would have come here years ago, but this was as early as I could do it using
this method. Studies have shown that breast milk improves child development,
so I didn’t want to interfere with that, but I didn’t want to experience
nursing at my true age either. This was the only time, really, when you
think about it.”
Both parents start to cry, but desperately try to hold the tears back.
He watches them in sadness. “We’ll tell Niobe the truth, but not Zefbiri,
and not anyone else. Auntie Ni will understand, as she’s no stranger to being
reyoungified. We need her to take care of me for the next few days
while you mourn your loss.”
“What are you talking about?” Tinaya’s eyes are watering even more, and
there’s nothing she can do about it. “How the hell are we going to mourn
this?”
“It’s an ambiguous loss. I know it won’t be easy, but we came up with a
plan before I left the future,” Silveon begins to explain. “I’ll write it up
for you. You will get through this, and one day, you’ll just see me as your
son, instead of the stranger who took him from you.”
“Who came up with this plan?” Arqut asks. He’s doing better with the tears,
but not by much. “Was it us? Did we send you back here?”
Silveon has a really good poker face as he’s refusing to respond.
“We couldn’t have,” Tinaya reasons. “If we were still alive when this
apparent time travel needed to occur, one or both of us would have done it
instead, and gone back to whatever point in the past would have given us the
advantage that he lacks by showing up today.”
“Not if we didn’t want to incidentally prevent our Silveon from ever being
born in the first place,” Arqut reasons better. “November 2, 2357; that’s as
far back as any of us could have gone.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Silveon reiterates. “It’s done. It can’t be undone. I
know what I’m here to do, and you don’t need to know anything beyond what
I’ve already told you. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. Plausible
deniability, and all that. Please. Go on your vacation, and let Niobe
pretend to babysit me. When you come back, I promise you’ll be able to
handle this situation better. I consulted the experts. I could tell anyone I
wanted in the future, because that timeline has since collapsed, destroying
the secret along with it. This is the timeline that needs to exist. We’ll
all move on from here. It will be better.”
“How do we know? Tinaya asks him. “How do we know that you’re telling the
truth? You could be anyone. We can’t test your identity. Even if we
could, we would have to tell this supposed truth to someone who could
actually conduct that test.”
“Yes.” Silveon nods. “That’s a wrinkle in the general plan that we were
never able to iron out. Trust is something that you’re just going to have to
give without any proof. Even if I recited a secret that the three of us had
between us, maybe I’m a psycho who tortured it out of one of us in the other
timeline. You don’t know. You can’t. I wish I could give you a better
answer, but I don’t know what else to say to help. How can I make this
better? How can I make you feel better?”
“We could tell Omega and Valencia...unless they turn into bad guys in the
future.”
“Omega and Valencia’s time on this ship is coming to a close,” Silveon says.
“They’ll be preoccupied with the Ex Wars, and they have their own son.”
“They do?” This was news to them.
“Yeah, he’s a handful. He lives on Dardius. Or he will live there,
rather.”
This conversation has been disheartening, and also exhausting. Arqut
literally can’t stand it anymore. He sidesteps over to the reading nook, and
sits down. Tinaya does the same with one of the dining chairs on the other
side of the bathroom. Neither one of them knows what to say anymore. There
are time travel laws, which prohibit consciousness travel too, but this is
their son we’re talking about. There is no way they’re turning him in, even
though there’s a strong possibility that they’re looking at an entirely
different person who stole his body. He’s right that they’re going to have
to learn to trust him, which is exactly what an impostor would say to
protect his cover. It really would be nice if they could trust someone with
the expertise to test him. As part of their regular checkups most people go
in for yearly brain scans. This becomes optional as they age, but it’s
mandatory for babies. Human minds change over time, which is why it’s
advised to keep doing it periodically, whether you like it or not. But even
with Silveon’s advanced age, may there be a way to definitively prove his
connection to his infant scan? The problem is they can’t even inquire if
that’s possible without revealing too much about the secret. They’re
stuck...stuck in the uncertainty. Or maybe not.
“We’re going to have you tested,” Tinaya insists. “I don’t know if we’ll
come to the right conclusion, but we’re going to take you to the Chief
Medical Officer to try.”
“We can’t trust them. I don’t even remember who it is in this time period,
because they did not factor into the plan. Only the four of us can know
anything.”
“As Captain, I enjoy certain privileges that are not afforded to other crew
members,” Tinaya begins. “I can erase the doctor’s memories once we receive
the results, and I can order him to not pursue the investigation into his
missing time. In case he does keep pushing it, I’ll have him record a
consent video for himself.”
Silveon shakes his head. “It’s not that simple. Memory technology is fickle.
Your aunt knew how problematic it can be.”
“This was years ago,” Arqut contends. “Science marches on. Your mother’s
right, Silveon...if that even is your real name. We need help. I know you
wanted to keep the circle tight, but whatever your mission is, we can’t even
begin to let you move forward with your plans unless we have some
reason to believe that you’re someone we should care about. If you’re really
our son, you were either raised by us, or our most devoted family members,
which means you’ll do what we’re asking of you now. We’re still your
parents, no matter which one of us is the oldest. You will do as your told.”
“I miss your bluntness.” Silveon appears to be thinking it over. “Your words
are wise, and your heart is pure. I agree to your terms, father.”
“And we’re not going on a vacation,” Tinaya adds. “If we can prove who you
are, we will be able to take solace in that truth, even though we have
missed the opportunity to raise our son from youngling to young man.”
“I do apologize for taking that from you,” Silveon laments. “I assure you,
this was the only way. The future of the mission depends on what I do for
the next 31 years.”
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