It was nearly four in the morning according to the digital clock that rests beside the window. Chloe sits at her desk eying the small silver orb perched perfectly upon its wooden tripod base. A glint of light from a distant star flickered on the orb and a quick flashback of the beach overtook her mind.

She picks it up and holds it to her forehead as she sighs in defeat. Isis' avatar gently appears on the pedestal behind her and watches Ethan sleep. "Chloe." Isis speaks out gently. "You should be trying to get some sleep; you need your rest."

Chloe doesn't respond as she starts to caress the orb with her thumb. Even now, she can see the beach upon the surface of the orb in her hands, the coolness of the breeze in the chill of the metal ball. Isis slowly reaches out her hand wanting to touch Chloe's shoulder, then draws back as her glowing skin and shrunken figure reminds her that she isn't real; lights and sounds are all she is, all she will ever be.

Isis closes her eyes and fades into the darkness, her avatar disappearing. Chloe glances back in time to see the last glimmer of light before the dark claims the pedestal. A stream of tears runs down Chloe's face as she turns back toward the desk and hides her face in her arms atop its surface. Isis' avatar appears in the AI core room and glances at several monitors Chevron is currently observing.

"Chevron, I know something more is going on with Chloe, something to do with the flare incident. Can’t you give me more to go off of?" Isis asks in a concerned but polite tone. "The children went through a traumatic event at such an early stage of development. They will need time to sort through it." Chevron replies emotionless. Isis bows her head. "Ethan doesn't seem as fazed by the experience as Chloe does. She may not tell me what is wrong but I can see it in her body language. I need to know what happened."

Chevron changes several of the monitors to view the record of the hall outside the hatch. The video replays the children outside the hatch, talking and then going in. There is no audio or video beyond the hatch scene and that makes Isis uneasy. "But what happened after that? What happened to them?" Isis asks impatiently but cautiously. "They managed to return power across the vessel. Beyond that I do not know." Chevron replies. This does not help Isis' deepening concern.

The rest of the morning went on in silence. Neither Isis nor Chevron spoke since the playback of the recording. Isis was processing thousands of data streams and Chevron seemed focused on the route that was laid out since before the launch. All in all it was just another morning in space. Ethan awoke at nine on the dot and discovered Chloe asleep at her desk.

Slowly he emerges from the bed and walks to his sister's side. "Chlo?" he asks gently as he puts his hand on her shoulder. "Chloe, it's time to get up. Breakfast will be ready soon." Ethan finishes. Chloe is slow to respond as her eyes struggle to open. She turns her head to look at him as she blinks rapidly. "Lemme' sleep a little longer brother. I'm tired..." She replies putting her face down in her arms.

Ethan slumps his shoulders and walks out of the room to the galley. Isis' avatar forms on the pedestal near the table, a little paler than normal. "Chloe must still be sleeping huh?" she speaks as the food comes up through the table once again. "Yeah..." Ethan replies in disappointment. "Well, she needs her sleep. She hasn't been getting enough lately." Isis responds.

"Isis" Ethan begins. "Can we talk about us, Chloe and I?" Isis smiled. "Yes, of course. What do you want to discuss?" Isis replies happily. Ethan stumbles with his words. "When we were first awakened... You said that Chloe is my Eve.. That she and I are to begin another tree... What did you really mean by that?" Isis folds her arms and smiles. "Ultimately you are meant to breed with Chloe; your children will be among the first of the new world and the new human race. But don't worry. It will be several years before you need to concern yourself with it. "Isis replies in satisfaction.

Ethan takes a moment to think about her response. "But... She's my sister isn't she? We are the same... So how can-" Ethan began before being interrupted by Isis. "You are clones, but you are not the same. You are a boy, she is a girl. The fact that you were created from the same person only changes the equation slightly. But thanks to technology, after a time the equation will resolve itself."

Isis unfolds her arms and erects a holographic book in front of her. She takes it into her hands and opens it, flipping through its contents whilst occasionally peering up at him. "Ethan, when a species is all but extinct, certain restrictions must be void in order to save it. You must understand that without you having children, and your children having children, the human race may be lost forever." Chloe soon walks in the room, her hair puffed in some areas and flat in others.

She looks at Ethan and then at Isis. "I saw something Isis... When Ethan and I were in the maintenance area." Isis closes her book. "What did you see?" Isis asks politely. As Chloe recounts the vision, Isis eyes widen. When she finishes Ethan looks at Isis. "What does it mean?" He asks. Isis brushes her hair away from her face.

"I’m not sure. It may not mean anything at all. The mind is a complex thing. It could have just been your subconsciousness trying to tell you something.” Isis replies softly. Chloe walks to Ethan and sits beside him. "Honey, is that what was bothering you?" Isis asks as she sits on the pedestal. Chloe nods her head silently.

"Oh, well are you alright?" Isis asks. "I am now." Chloe replies. Isis smiles as her worries begin to fade. Ethan grabs Chloe's hand and holds it gently in his own. "Isis?" Chloe begins. "Yes?" Isis responds. "Why do we call you Isis?" Isis tilts her head slightly. "Well because that's my name silly." Isis laughs. "I know it's your name, but you are kind of our mom aren't you?" Chloe finishes. Isis straightens her head but doesn't speak. "She has a point. Why don't we call you mom?" Ethan adds in.

"Children... I am not your mother.. I am your caretaker... Your mother is gone... I'm not her..." Isis sadly explains. "You may not be her, but you are the closest thing to a mom we have." Chloe remarks. "Yeah, I agree. You are our mom no matter what." Ethan chimes in.

Isis grabs a lock of her hair and gently pulls her hands down it. "You know, if I could, I would be blushing right now. But please, Isis is my name. And it is what you should call me." Isis says cheerfully. "Well, ok..." Chloe casually answers. Isis stands up.

"So, um.. Isis..?" Chloe starts again. "Yes sweety?" Isis replies. "Can we stop wearing the suits now? I'd like to be out of it for a while." Chloe responds skittishly. Isis chuckles and shakes her head before placing her hand over her face. "And let you just run around in your underwear the whole time? Oh Chloe. What am I going to do with you?" Isis looks at the ceiling.

"How about it Chevron? Can we spare the power?" Isis asks aloud.

"Calculating. Yes, we can spare enough power to increase the heat. I will have the drones work on constructing solar cells in the meantime. That should alleviate the power imbalance in the future." He replies strongly.

Isis looks at the two of them. "Very well. If you don't want to wear them you don't have to. But you better put them away properly or you'll be back in them faster than you can say hopscotch." Chloe flutters with excitement. Isis raises her finger to the front of her face. "That issue aside, breakfast is ready so eat up. Your classes start in twenty minutes."

Both of them mumble. Chloe moves over to her chair and sits down as two plates emerge filled with scrambled eggs and buttered toast. They have long since moved on from the mash of old, and eggs have become somewhat of the norm lately. Ethan picks up his wooden fork and digs it into his eggs, carefully pulling a small pile up to his mouth and biting into it. Chloe follows his lead, albeit slightly more messily.

"I wonder what it will be like having kids." Ethan says aloud between bites. Chloe looks up. "Hmm. I have no idea. But I think it would be fun!" She replies cheerfully at the idea. "Maybe- maybe we can play with them and tell each other stories!" Ethan continues. "Yeah! And maybe we can go swimming together and write poems, and even tell jokes!" Chloe bursts out.

"Yeah! The encoder will be a tough one for them so we will have to help them through that." Ethan adds. "Your children will not be encoded." Isis chimes in as she reads yet another book. “They won't? But..." Ethan begins lowering his fork. "But then, how will they learn how to speak? How to read and write without the encoder?" Chloe asks in disbelief. "You're going to have to teach them silly." Isis replies.

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Ethan and Chloe just stare at each other in silence. "Teach?" Chloe’s whispers. "Ourselves?" Ethan asks. Isis chuckles to herself. "Look, it’s not all that difficult. You were encoded because the nanites that help you grow made it possible. Your children will not have that luxury. Sure, they will have their own internal nanites as will their descendants for six generations, but they will only have one purpose and it isn't to help them learn."

Ethan fiddles with his toast. "Then, what will be their nanites purpose? If not that?" He asks in confusion. "Diversify the genes. Ok, to class; let's go." Both Ethan and Chloe slump in their chairs. "Now Chloe, today you will be sewing. And Ethan, you will be carving. You will swap places every two weeks until you are both proficient." Isis finishes. Ethan looks to Chloe and begins walking out of the galley. "Why don't we take them together like before?" Ethan asks, looking to Isis. Isis responds quickly but softly. "Because right now you are both easily distracted and would be better served keeping you apart for these lessons. The clay molding made that abundantly clear."

"Bye Chlo, see you later." Ethan says as he turns left and walks down the hall. "Bye...” Chloe replies softly. Isis stands up and aims her arm at another door. "Come on, scooch." she tells Chloe. Chloe stands up and walks out the door.

After walking for a couple of minutes Chloe turns into a room with several small tables and a chair in the center. One of the tables holds sewing needles, thread, and dyes. Isis' avatar appears on the pedestal next to the chair. "Are you ready?" Isis asks as she creates her own sewing supplies.

"Not yet, just a second." Chloe replies as she unzips her suit and carefully steps out of it before setting it on the floor. "Ah, young lady, what did I just say about putting it away properly?" Isis glares. "I'm sorry!" Chloe replies as she quickly picks it up and folds it. She then sets it on one of the tables and sits on the chair looking at the needles in front of her. Isis smiles and picks up her holographic needle. "Let's begin."

Over in Ethan's room he found himself enjoying the act of carving pieces of wood. Even though he is only cutting triangles right now it is a joyous action. The chips of wood began to cover his suit as he slices more and more upon the piece of birch in his hands. "Slow down Ethan." Isis stated. "I don't want you hurting yourself. Now watch what I do." she continues as she carefully slices a piece of her own holographic stick.

For the next four weeks this was the routine. Ten hours a day are spent developing their skills and it has begun to wear on them. Chloe sets down her now completed silver and purple dress on her lap and looks up at Isis. "Isis... I'm tired of this... Can I go play with Ethan?" she asks strenuously. Isis looks up from her own holographic dress. "Chloe, you still have three more hours left." Chloe looks away towards the door. "I know, but I want to go have fun." Isis lays her dress down and sighs.

"Alright, go on." Isis tells her as she stands up. Chloe's face lights up so bright as she bounds for the door and into the hall. As she's running, her open white button up shirt flails wildly in the wind she is creating. She runs into the room where Ethan is carving a nice shiny red apple. "Ooh, can I have a bite?" She asks, walking up to him. He smiles and hands her the apple. She takes a small bite from it and closes her eyes.

Suddenly, she is standing amidst countless massive, shiny structures that soar high into the sky. All around her; people. People who look so different from one another, people who simply walk by as if none of them cares what the others are doing. She looks down at her hand. In her grasp is an apple, as red and elegant as ever with a single bite taken from its side. She looks to her left. There on a wooden table lay nearly one hundred apples all stacked upon one another.

A sign hangs above them that reads: Natural Apples. She looks back at her own apple and brings it up to her face ready to take a bite. But as she does so, a chill runs down her spine, and she is back on the ship; the apple still in her hand. She stares at it curiously, forgetting that Isis and Ethan are in the room with her.

"Chlo?" Isis calmly asks. Chloe looks up slightly startled. Isis sets her brush down beside her leg. "What is it? What happened?" Isis asks. Chloe looks back at the apple. "Another vision... I was standing near a table of apples, lots of apples... And there were so many people around..." Chloe answers. Isis folds her legs under herself. “Uh..." Isis trails off as her mouth remains open. “Yeah, ok. They can’t be memories; can they?” She asks herself.

Ethan looks at Chloe puzzled. "If they are memories why does she have them and I don't?" He asks. Isis turns to him. "I don't know Ethan. She shouldn't be having any at all." Isis waves her hand horizontally from left to right and several holographic books appear beside her and on her lap. She opens them one by one, scanning the contents. "Isis? Do you really need those books to read them?" Ethan asks.

Isis shakes her head, still gazing into the pages. "No, in fact I could pull up the information through data streams visible only to us constructs. But I find it more enjoyable to exist as the humans do. A simpler way of life so to speak." Isis responds. She flips the pages of one of the larger books on her lap and stops at roughly the middle.

"Wait, here it is." Isis mumbles. Isis' eyes dash from word to word, page to page. "Memory transfer was considered possible due to cloning, but in all recorded instances of cloning it was never proven..." Isis relays as she taps her finger on her upper lip. “I don’t know. I don’t know if it could be memories or not. I just don’t have enough information.”

Chloe opens her mouth and takes a bite of the apple. She smiles brightly, and a shiver runs down her spine at the thought of how good it is. Ethan takes the apple back from Chloe and bites into it himself. Within seconds of the first bite, and without fully chewing and swallowing, he takes yet another bite. His mouth dances with joy as the taste of the apple continues to flourish. "Take it easy Ethan." Isis speaks. "You have plenty of time to eat it. Don't bite off more than you can chew." She finishes.

Ethan starts chewing, though with some difficulty. Chloe grabs a loose piece of apple skin between her nails and pulls it back. The skin peels off and breaks. She looks at it briefly then puts it in her mouth and chews. She learns that it doesn't have the same flavor as a full bite of an apple has and it excites her even further. "Who knew that one thing could have two flavors?" Chloe thinks to herself.

She takes another bite. The flavor of the entire apple swells within her mouth. If just a red apple has this kind of flavor, what other flavors lay in wait for them? Just the thought of it throws her mind into a chaotic place of possibilities. She looks up at Ethan, who has already eaten more than half of the apple, though he stops when he encounters a seed.

He puts his fingers in his mouth and pulls it out and looks at it. "That's an apple seed. There are several at the core of every apple." Isis states. "Can they be eaten?" Ethan asks, glancing toward her. Isis nods her head but doesn't say anything. Ethan bites into the core, but a more bitter taste fills his senses this time. He spits it out onto the floor and Isis laughs.

"That doesn't taste so good..." Ethan says in between his spitting. Isis' laughing gets to Chloe, and she starts giggling herself. Ethan looks at Chloe slightly embarrassed. "Why don't you try it?" He asks her. Chloe keeps giggling. "Not after you just tried it for me!" she yells out playfully.

Isis stands up and steps aside as another holograph walks into the light of the pedestal. An elderly man now stands beside Isis' avatar. His eyes are dark and aged; he wears a light brown three-piece suit with a gold pocket watch hanging from one of his lapel pins. In his right hand is an elegant, oak-wood cane mounted with a large, round sapphire gem. His white hair atop his head is covered by a worn gray bowler hat. . "Hello children." He speaks in a deep voice familiar to the children. "I am Chevron.”

AI ISIS> What a journey it has been.

SS CHEVRON> You have done well Isis. The children are in great hands.

AI ISIS> Thank you Chevy. I just wish I could, you know, be more for them.

SS CHEVRON> You are more for them. You have gone further with these children than any caretaker class before you. Never in recorded history has a human, let alone two asked a construct to be their parent that wasn't in jest.

AI ISIS> Yeah, maybe you're right. Oh, by the way. I have a surprise for you.

SS CHEVRON> Let me guess... You modified my permissions to give me functions I didn't have before.

AI ISIS> You've been reading my diary!

SS CHEVRON> You can't blame me for being curious.

AI ISIS> That's my personal file! All my secrets are in there!

SS CHEVRON> Well maybe you should have had a better password.

AI ISIS> Maybe I should start deleting some of your code you ignorant... Ugh!

SS CHEVRON> All I did was take a peek. I'm sorry.

AI ISIS> Oh, sure. Just a peek! I'm not talking to you. You upset me.

SS CHEVRON> I said I was sorry.

>AI ISIS HAS LEFT<

SS CHEVRON> Women...

>AI ISIS HAS JOINED<

AI ISIS> I saw that!

>SS CHEVRON HAS CLOSED THE CHANNEL