Chapter 2 (Blitzkrieg)

Rather than take a courier craft back home. Dylan opted that they take a commercial starliner back. He wanted to give Andromeda some time to get used to her new family, and her new family some time to get used to her. Fortunately Broughton was a popular tourist destination so commercial liners visited the planet regularly. The trip back was tense with Andromeda still alternating between tears and anger, but by the time they arrived at Broughton, she had begun to come to terms with her new situation. The real problems started when she arrived at her new home.

Andromeda's claim that Broughton was uncivilized was patently false, but the two planets were different worlds in more than just the literal sense. Mandlebrot's overall climate was subtropical, while Broughton could be best described as chilly. Mandlebrot was a heavily populated world with most of the population living in large cities. Broughton was, to be charitable, a sleepy backwater of a planet with most of the population living in rural areas. Mandlebrot was known as a relatively high technology planet Broughton was not. It's claim to fame being a resort world for tourists who wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of their daily lives. Outside the planet's few large cities and the space port, people were more likely to walk or use bicycles as a means of transportation than motorized vehicles. The former captain of the most powerful warship in the New Systems Commonwealth had settled on a planet whose Home Guard space forces consisted of, aside from the courier craft stationed at the High Guard communications station, a squadron of obsolete slip fighters and a frigate that was so old it's crew insisted the vessel predated the Vedran Empire.

Cape Breton where Dylan and Rommie, and now Andromeda, had taken residence was, even by Broughton's somnolent standards, slow and slumberous. It was little more than a village numbering approximately 250 families with perhaps a another quarter of that number living on farms in the surrounding area. The towns sole distinction was that it was located relatively near the planet's Home Guard base. Horses drawn carts were more common than motorized vehicles and broadband communications meant a building with more than one telephone. The electric runabout that Dylan used for his bimonthly visits to the Home Guard base, and which over short distances was actually slower than the local horses, was one of the dozen or so motorized vehicles in the town. The larger of the village's two pubs was the town's center of entertainment, functioning as restaurant, tavern and on one day of the week vid theater. To some people the town might have been considered an ideal place to raise a young girl. Andromeda was not one of those people.

Andromeda had never cooked a meal from scratch in her life. Now to her astonishment she learned that she was now expected to not only help prepare dinner but to bring in the wood for the stove and learn how to cook over a wood fire. The girl had prided herself on her knowledge of the newest dance crazes on Mandlebrot. but knowing how to do the rikitiki was no use when it came to sitting astride a horse. Her clothing while sensible for Mandlebrot's climate and reasonably stylish by that planets standards was totally inappropriate for Broughton's climate, and while both planets nominally used Common as their primary language the dialects were totally different. Even the grass was wrong. The vegetation on Mandlebrot was an emerald green in color while the vegetation on Broughton bordered on indigo. In short Andromeda was not only adjusting to a new set of parents, she had to adjust to an entirely new culture.

Andromeda wasn't the only one that had to adjust. Since their godchild was not a member of the High Guard they could simply give orders to and expect them to be obeyed, and convening a court martial when she was disobedient was out of the question, Rommie and Dylan were forced to learn other ways of enforcing discipline. Additionally the cottage they now shared had only two bedrooms; Before Andromeda's arrival Dylan and Rommie had shared one with Dylan using the other as his office and study. He now had to relinquish his office to his foster daughter and complained long and loudly to Rommie about the inconvenience. After a time Rommie began to suspect she had not one but two children to raise.

Time passed, and Andromeda with the resilience of the young adapted to her new surroundings. Tears and anger were replaced first by resignation, then by whole hearted acceptance of her new surroundings. She learned that coming from a different planet made her 'the exotic foreigner' rather than just 'the new girl'. She also found that there were advantages to having famous foster parents; though the advantages weren't as great as she would have liked, since both Dylan and Rommie refused to let her take advantage of their fame. She learned to ride a horse and was soon chattering away in the slang the local teenagers used to confound their parents and guardians. Rommie applied for and was granted an indefinite leave of absence, though it was without pay. To Dylan’s consternation Andromeda soon attracted the attention of the local boys and his life as he had predicted became even more complicated. Andromeda in turn ceased calling her foster parents by their military titles and began calling them Uncle Dylan and Aunt Rommie. Days became months and months years with the family celebrating Andromeda's thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth birthdays together. Their lives were proceeding if not smoothly at least normally until the day a registered letter from the Office of Public Safety arrived.

Dylan had been working on the fence surrounding the family's garden when the mailman arrived; deciding that this would be a good time to take a break he put his tools down and entered the cottage. To his astonishment he saw Rommie sitting in one of the chairs in the family room clutching a letter in her hands and shaking like a leaf .

“What's the matter Rommie?”

Wordlessly Rommie handed him the letter she had been reading. As he read it Dylan felt his own knees go weak. The letter was from the Broughton Office of Public Safety.

To: Admiral Dylan Hunt High Guard (retired)

From: Systems Commonwealth Office of Public Safety, Broughton Department

It has been brought to our attention that the foster mother of your foster child, Andromeda Rihan Lincoln, is not an organic life form but rather the avatar of the artificial intelligence designated as Shining Path to Truth and Knowledge AI model GRA 112, serial number XMC-10-182. In pursuance with the Systems Commonwealth statue AI477.3b subparagraph c, artificial intelligences may not be entrusted with the care of minor children. Therefor you are ordered to immediately release your afore mentioned foster daughter to the care of the local child protection authorities until such time as she can be placed in a proper foster home.

“We're going to fight this aren't we Dylan.' asked Rommie. From the tone of her voice Dylan knew she was starting a fact not asking a question.

He reached up and put his hand on her cheek “Of course but there's something odd about this letter. The child welfare authorities knew you were an AI when we brought Andromeda home, but they raised no objections at the time. I suspect something else is behind this. Andy's visiting her friend Laura, why don't you call her and get her to come home while I send some messages out to our friends. We're going to need some help.”