A short addition for a Friday, but there’s obviously a lot going on in this little scene. There, obviously, will be confusion and questions on Graf’s part. Really, I have several, as well. Does 1.0 get deactivated and/or put into storage? She still has live flesh to feed every three days, unless Somi removes it first. Since a Thinking Machine could easily setup and use multiple androids, is 1.0 still out and about, especially in the face of a possible coming religious war? I have no idea.

Let’s all find out, together.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Not at all drunk, as he said, just tired, Graf would wake up now and again as he heard the mother of his children bustling about from floor to floor and room to room, to and from the laundry.  All for what?  He drifted off again.

“Graf!” Pai said, her face inches over his.

“Beloved wife,” he smiled, leaning up the inch to kiss her.

She stood and used her android strength to jerk him up,  off the couch.  That’s unusual.

“Come!  I have a present for you!”

Realizing it was now the late afternoon he’d been warned about, he followed her onto the back porch.  She paused until his father, Mindy, Alix, and Suza and Tér were there.  Pai took his hand and tugged him down to the yard just as a Shcha appeared over the back of their farm.

“A visitor from your mother?” he asked.

“In a way,” she smiled. 

The ship settled to within feet of the sod.  A hatch opened and…

Good Lord, that has to be one of Empress Aurelia’s grandkids.  Mid-twenties, maybe, or later, but long, white hair with a faint hint of Henge’s purple.  Her gold eyes!  No, cannot be imperium, as her jacket has that Imperial Russian patch on it.  The dirty, scarlet pants were not something that matched.

“Graf?” Pai asked.

“Yes?” He looked down.  She stood on her tip toes to give a gentle kiss.

“I love you.  Good bye.”

She turned and walked away toward the Shcha.  The other girl passed her halfway without a glance.

“Pai!” What was going on!  “My wife!”

The young woman, expressionless, her hair nearly to her waist, paused a foot from him as he watched his wife enter the ship and the airlock close.  It was gone.  There was a slight bark in the air from the sound barrier being broken.

“Graf?” The young woman asked.

He tried and failed to recollect himself.  My wife just left me!

“Uh, yes?  I am.”

“I love you.  Hello.”

Frozen, it was Suza and Tér who ran past him and glued themselves to the new woman’s legs.

“Auntie!” they both cried.

What?

She placed her hands on either side of his face, not reaching up, as they were now the same height.

“I am Pai.  I am your wife.  I shall love you until you die and after.  This is my version two point oh.”

Graf could not move.

“Pai?”

“Yes.”

Nothing.

“I am your wife; I love you, Graf.”