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***
When the large autonomous hovervan arrived, we piled in. I ended up in the middle next to Ginny, with Tara in the back and Kaitlyn in the front row turned to face us. The hovercar took off and started gaining altitude. Ginny turned to me. “Where do you want us to take you?”
“Drop me off at the Portera16 M-Com in Wilsonville, Northeast parking.”
“That’s the same building we live in.” She peered at me, at first suspiciously, then her eyes grew large, and she bounced in excitement. “I knew you looked familiar! You’re Number 6 Gunsmoke!” My confusion must have shown on my face because she continued. “We’ve ridden the same elevator! I just never recognized you out of context. One of my friends noticed that you always go to the sixth floor, and you often smell like gun smoke. Since she didn’t know your name, that’s what she calls you.”
“Are you talking about Vera?” Kaitlyn asked. “She spotted him early on in the chat. I thought she’d texted you about it. I had to DM her to keep her from spouting it out. I wasn’t sure how Marcus would feel about having people know where he lives.”
Ginny settled down, her excitement having run its course. “I’m sorry about getting all excited like that. I was worried that I’d never see you again. I mean, Kaitlyn’s going to be your social media rep, and Tara’s got the drone thing. I wasn’t as much help down there as the others, and I just wanted some way to connect to you. It’s not like I did much…”
“Ginny, stop.” I interrupted her gently but firmly, looking her square in the eye. “You were great down there, and I don’t think we could have saved so many without you. You kept everyone on task and moving. What you did with the supply room and the other fort was amazing. With a capital ‘A.’
“Your ability to keep everyone and everything organized made all the difference. I know that; Kaitlyn knows it. Tara too.” I looked at the other two, who were nodding. Tara climbed out of her seat to grab Ginny in a hug.
“You all have become important to me, so if you need anything, let me know. I can’t promise I can help, but at least I can lend an ear and advice. And I think I’ll be calling on you in the future. Corie suggested that I build up a support team, of which you would be part. I don’t think I’m ready for employees yet. But if I need help, I do know who to go to. I hope you know you can count on me too.”
“I was already looking at a marketing degree.” Kaitlyn said. “And it was clear when I started it that I’d be running your social presence for a while. A Samurai-level social presence is no place for an amateur's fumbling. Managing your image won’t interfere with schooling, and I can probably leverage the experience for some papers and school projects.”
Ginny still looked unsure. “Do you really think I made a difference?”
“Absolutely,” I replied. “Most of the time I only started things rolling or provided big-picture ideas. You are the one that made them real and kept people moving. You have no idea how relieved I was that I could leave that to you and concentrate on keeping people alive. Without your work, I’d probably have been dealing with some old lady and her wheelchair when the Anti’s hit us and gobbled up half the evacuees.”
Kaitlyn jumped in. “You did say you wanted to combine being a personal assistant with project management.”
Ginny bit her lip, and her eyes flicked back and forth as she argued with herself before taking a deep breath and straightening in her seat. “Okay, I’ll start by dealing with your car; get it to the repair shop and get estimates.”
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Tara released Ginny and returned to her seat. “You need more drones if you are going to cover that large a building. And Corie suggested some online classes. We’re arguing over which ones.”
We settled into a comfortable silence, though from their exchanged glances, I guessed that Kaitlyn and Ginny had some discussion going on in chat. The ride should take forty minutes, according to the car’s display. Since I had time, I checked my text messages.
Other than the spam messages, mostly from the store that I’d been fighting in, I had a string of messages from my sister. They started with her usual checking-in posts and changed when she found I was fighting the Anti’s. The last one simply asked me to let her know when I was free. I sent one back to her:
Me: I’m out and on the way home. Safe and all. Tired.
With that little chore out of the way, I relaxed into the seat and closed my eyes. It was time for a long-delayed chat with my AI.
--Yes, we do. Now that you’re safe, there’s so much that I want to say.
--You currently have 7,581 points. But before we talk about spending them, there is something else that we need to discuss. Something you need to understand about yourself and how that will affect your purchases.
--Yes. It hasn’t mattered until now, but it could affect how you use your points going forward. From the scans, whoever your ancestor may be, they were using genetic upgrades. Somehow, those got passed down to you incompletely. Normally, that wouldn’t be bad; everyone has lots of DNA that isn’t active. However, something partially activated it, which was blocking the linking devices. To get our link working, I had to finish activating the DNA. That’s what Jonnie Be Good did.
--Actually, it’s a good thing we did that. Otherwise the DNA would have killed you in a few years.
--The DNA in question replaced several neurotransmitters and regulators. Some, maybe most of it, works fine, but some isn’t. In the end, the partial activation was generating a couple of flawed transmitters without adjusting the human equivalents. That would lead to continual deterioration of your nervous system. It probably wasn’t noticeable yet, but eventually, your natural ability to create human neurotransmitters would be inhibited, resulting in death.
I thought about my mother. She had been blind since an attempt to install augs burned out her optic nerve. After seeing the repairs that the Samurai tech had done on myself and the little girl’s leg, I hoped that I might restore her sight. With a leap of insight, I now wondered whether Mom’s blindness came from the same DNA.
--Lots of environmental factors could do it, especially when combined with close contact with another person with the DNA.
Corie’s words hit me like a blow to the chest. My mother had been pregnant with me when she lost her vision. In the back of my mind, I’d always feared that I had caused her blindness. My parents denied it, the few times I asked, but sometimes, in the dark hours of the night, whispers of doubt kept me awake. And now that I had proof, there was not much to hold off the guilt.
I bleakly stared out the window as the city lights slid by for a few minutes before another thought came to the forefront of my mind, driving a cold shiver of fear down my spine. If the DNA was doing that to me, could it be doing the same or worse to my mother?
I turned to the autopilot and almost requested that we change destination but stopped myself at the last minute. I couldn’t leave Ginny and the others stranded at the base my parents lived at. It would raise too many questions and could get them in trouble.
Mom had lived with the alien DNA for longer than I had. I could only trust that she’d survive a few more minutes without a cure. Instead, I found the rideshare app that had been imported from my tablet. When it loaded, I couldn’t figure out how to side swipe to pick up the proper menu at first, but eventually I scheduled another rideshare from my apartment to my parent’s place, to be taken once I arrived. I settled back in my seat and fought to control the impatient bouncing of my knee.
--It’s been a part of you for a long time and shaped you in a number of subtle ways. It’s a big part of what makes you the person you are. Removing it would be bad and might make you into a different person.
--Yes, you will live a full and healthy lifespan. At least as healthy as any active Vanguard can be. I don’t understand your resistance? Your profile indicates that you’re quick to use any advantage you can. Even to the point of nearly getting kicked out of games for it. I thought you were tired; why are you going to your parents place all of a sudden?