7 - Data Should Be Exchanged

The interior of Mom's cabin was dim and the only manifest chair was the driver's chair, comfortably tilted back. She had compacted herself down once more to just drive cabin size.

Terry sat in the driver's chair, top hat tilted over his eyes as if he were snoozing. It was just after sunset outside and her interior matched the twilight. “Mom... what have I done?”

“Terence, this question is one that truly has no answer.”

“Gerald got me out but I don't know what happened to my big brother, my family, nobody and they all think I'm dead...”

“You have me, Terence. You need be beholden to no one for your keep in this harsh environment. You are my licensed driver, because your brother programmed it so. I am an extremely valuable asset in this struggle to survive and to find out if your brother managed to think far enough ahead to get his own family away, just as he did you. -- he did say, by the way, that he was glad that you were a bit of a loner because he didn't have to worry about some woman and her keeper as well as you --” Terry snorted at that. “-- It might be that the Siwion of Milar has enough of a start with her FireDrakes to launch me on a trajectory to make it to the moon, preferably in time for the next courier entry into the system.”

“That's true, Mom.” He was silent for a while. “That's not really what I'm asking.”

“What are you asking?”

“I don't know. I mean... I'm not worried about water, food and shelter. I'm worried about...” he waved his hands in the air without sitting up. “Things. I mean I really like Haraklez but she's... I don't know... scary.”

“How does she threaten you?”

“I'm not threatened!” He tucked his hands across his chest. “Well... I'm scared that I cannot impress her. She is so impressive.”

“You were very rude to her when she worked out in front of you.” He pushed his hat up off his face with one thumb, slowly, and stared straight ahead.

“I was?”

“You were. She was having fun and trying to impress you.”

“She was trying to impress me?”

“Yes, Terence.”

“Oh. Um.”

“Are you intending to pro-create with her?”

He had nothing in his mouth but he sat up abruptly, coughing. “Mom! No! Well... I'd consider it... No! It's more complicated than that.”

“Indeed.”

He took his hat off and set it on the floor. “I don't want to talk about that anymore.”

“But... you said this was part of 'stuff' that was bothering you.” He snorted and lay back again, arms crossed, his lips set mulishly. “Human interactions are really beyond you, Mom.”

“Yes, they are. That is why I continue to ask questions.”

“Let's just say that I'm attracted to her and I'm pleased to hear that she seems to be attracted to me. She is a girl from a wildly strange culture and she upsets me all the time.”

“Storing data. Thank you for answering my question. Given my data collection from One it seems to me that we... you as my driver and me are extremely valuable to all these people. We will make it possible for them to build something capable of going to the moon. Or, since we truly need to get to the moon and the code world you've left hidden there... and your courier friends... if you want to find out what happened to your family, help them get us up there.”

“Hmmm.” He flung and arm over his eyes. “I should talk to their Zon and the zardukar.”

“You need to exchange a lot more data with the Emperor and the Warmaster, in my opinion.”

“You're right.” He sighed. “I can't keep moping about how strange everything is... I need to start fitting in here. There will be a tech on the moon and even if we figure out how to get there we'll have to get in. Then get back. Station will be a hard machine to re-program, if we even can, though I could introduce you properly.”

“I am always open to meeting new machines, Terence, and all these things and a great many more are just problems to be solved, not impossibilities. The countries of Hinnemon are attempting to build flying machines from organic models... I do not have access to any engineering design code... those are all Glass Mountain, but... I can assist them in their design.”

“All right. I need to talk to both Kyrus... the Emperor, not his brawny son, and Ilax...”

“Do you require a list of data that should be addressed?”

“Yes, please, Mom. I'd never remember all of it.