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Ronan is frustrated. After the initial run-in with Mayumi, he goes back to
his temporary housing, and tries to get some sleep. He wakes up realizing
that none of it matters. It doesn’t matter that Mayumi let her avatar die on
purpose. It doesn’t matter that she cheated on him, or that she’s been
living with the man Ronan thought he was raising as a child. The
only concern is young Talus. While Mayumi is executing her testimony,
he begins divorce proceedings. These days, it’s easier in some ways, but
harder in others. When people live as long as they do, they have time to
accumulate a lot of possessions. Someone could potentially own an entire
colony planet. Redistributing that after a legal separation is complex, but
they don’t have to worry about liquid wealth.
Ronan has his own energy credits, and Mayumi has hers. Credits can be
given as a gift—governments don’t care how they’re distributed after they’re
earned; it’s not like they can be stolen—but the two of them never had any
reason to do this. By design, they don’t own much overall, and Ronan doesn’t
care about what they do own. They have a small storage unit back on
Bungula, where they lived before coming here, but as far as he’s concerned,
she can have it all. So that’s what he puts on the forms. There is no point
in commissioning a lawyer for either side. He hopes Mayumi feels the same
way. But he won’t let her stay married to someone she doesn’t love. He’s
quickly falling out of love with her too, after all this shit. He has Gia
now.
It feels like these proceedings are taking forever, even though he knows
it’s not true. As Earth became a post-scarcity society, there was a profound
dropoff in crime. Why steal someone’s TV when you can get a free TV of your
own, built by automators, which were built by other automators, all powered
by the sun? A lot of the justice system is automated as well, though there
is still a naturally-created component. You don’t have to be human to be an
adjudicator, but you can’t have been programmed. You have to have either
been born, or otherwise created as a blank slate. Then you have to develop
in realtime. That is a key distinction which may never be changed. Even so,
the process is a lot faster than it used to be. Still, he has mixed feelings
about the current state of affairs. He just wants this to be over. He wants
to return to his family in Danmörk, and put this all behind him. He is only
stuck with Talus because Mayumi abandoned them both first. So now he can’t
abandon Talus too, or he’ll look like a massive jerk.
Mayumi showed up because she is technically the boy Talus’ mother and had an
obligation to attest, but she hasn’t been the one to raise him. Like the
changes to the legal system overall, parentage is now determined more by
nurture than nature. Leaving your offspring behind doesn’t automatically
cause you to forfeit your rights, but the more deliberate it was, and the
longer it lasts, the less likely it is that the court will see you as a
rightful custodian. Obviously, this cuts both ways. If someone were to
abduct a kid, and hold them for years, they wouldn’t likely maintain their
parental status. It’s all about intent and action now; not blood. They don’t
care about blood. Which is what makes this so difficult, because Ronan is
genetically not young Talus’ father. But he is by circumstance, which is
precisely how Mayumi wanted it. The older Talus is probably the real father,
and this is just a regular kid who grew in Mayumi’s womb. It was perfectly
timed to the Nordome trip. Had she long-conned him into that timetable? How
long has she been trying to escape? No. Remember, none of that matters
anymore. It’s time.
It’s time for the sentencing.
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