Small Steps

A Mobile Suite Gundam: The Witch from Mercury story

This story came through the front door one day and announced that I am going to be its stenographer, so I can take little credit. What modest contributions I might have made along the way came from a place of love and respect for everyone who was involved in the making of The Witch From Mercury. It has been an immense pleasure, honour and privilege to have participated in the unfolding of their wonderful work into a new form. Sunrise retains the rights to Mobile Suit Gundam and all characters therein.

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This entire story is basically one continuous spoiler. If you have not finished watching The Witch From Mercury series, you should stop right here.

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PART ONE

From The Ashes

The intensive care ward which contained this windowless private room lay in a module of the Front that was mounted inward from the main ring, placing at at the two-thirds gee level. This was the optimal place to make it easier for patients to move or be moved while avoiding the problems of medical care in micro-gravity. At least that is what Miorine vaguely recalled a doctor saying to her while she was anxiously following the gurney Suletta was being transported on.

Suletta lay on the bed, her upper body slightly elevated. They had changed her into a grey hospital gown, and a sheet covered her up to her chest. Her left arm had an IV drip and sensors taped to her skin. An immersive sensor array which had been covering most of her body had been removed in place of the less intrusive monitors. Earlier today she thought, though time was a bit of a blur. They had assured Miorine this was a good sign, it meant they regarded her as being in stable condition.

Since then, Miorine had held onto Suletta's right hand and had never let go yet.

Miorine only took her eyes off Suletta's face when she felt the urge to glance at the vital signs being displayed quietly on the screen across the bed. The curse of the Gundam still lay upon her face, and her bare arms. And the rest of her body, as Miorine had seen as Suletta's EVA suit and clothing had been removed in the aftermath of that terrible day. The intricate, sickly orange markings were like some accursed alien circuit diagram. Rather than being on her skin they seemed to be something that glowed from within her. Miorine was mesmerized by them, unable to take her eyes away, hoping beyond hope that maybe they were starting to fade, maybe the curse was lifting. But about the only sign of improvement was that her breathing was calmer and more regular than it had been. The wavy red hair framing her face seemed the only part of her not corrupted by the damnable curse.

When they had pulled her into the shuttle and removed her helmet, Miorine had briefly heard Suletta's voice. Maybe she had called Miorine's name, though she probably imagined that. Then people were giving her medications and she slipped into a coma that had still not lifted. She remained still, her eyes remained closed.

The panic and dread of that first day had slowly settled into a grim low burn of anxiety that wavered between hope and despair. Her world was held in a shimmering superposition of the incompatible options that her beloved was getting better and her beloved was dying.

Miorine heard the door open. She turned to see Lilique enter the room. She smiled warmly and walked over to where Miorine was sitting. Lilique was a stout girl with a pleasant round face that somehow seemed both too large and perfect. Her short brown hair held in curls behind her ears helped give her a sort of innocent, girlish appearance. Like the other members of the Earthian House she had accompanied Miorine on the mission to destroy Quiet Zero, then had joined in Suletta's care until she could be transported to the hospital. Since then she had been making regular appearances to be with Miorine as she watched over her stricken fiancee.

Lilique held out a box lunch to her. "I've brought you something to eat," she said in the soft tones that seemed to be the norm when conversing in this room. "I'll take over for a bit, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks." Miorine took the box, walked over to the sofa against the wall, sat down, placed the box on the low table and opened it. She absently noted that it was hot noodles. She separated the chopsticks, lifted up the box and started eating. She tried to just think of nothing else, but could not help looking over to where Suletta lay. Lilique was already sitting where Miorine had been, holding Suletta's hand. It was something Miorine had been adamant about from the beginning. When Suletta woke she wanted Suletta to feel her hand and see her face, but barring that it would be the hand and face of one of her friends. That was three days ago. Maybe four, it was hard to remember.

When Miorine was done eating they traded places. Lilique remained on the sofa. They rarely talked now. It was starting to feel more and more like a wake. There was plenty of time to brood, to regret, to ponder how she could have made things turn out differently. But the thing that had lain this curse on Suletta was so far beyond her understanding that any such speculation had to be placed in the same category as prayer.

After some hours passed, the door opened again. Aliya came into the room, with a knapsack over her shoulder. She nodded to Miorine, then went over to speak softly with Lilique. The two of them seemed to have settled on a sort of tag-team schedule, staying with Miorine on what were probably twelve-hour shifts. Miorine herself had just been taking the occasional cat-nap on the couch or just dozing in the chair now and then.

When Lilique had said goodbye and left the room, Aliya walked over to where Miorine sat. Aliya was a slim girl with an oval face and long straight black hair tied in a ponytail down her back, and also pigtails that were tied and draped down her shoulders. Like Lilique she wore the grey-green school uniform of the Asticassia School of Technology. In contrast to the cheerful, outgoing Lilique, Aliya was more quiet and reserved. She rarely smiled... no that wasn't really true. She only smiled when it seemed appropriate. Now, it seemed, was not appropriate.

"Miorine, I've brought you some changes of clothes," she said. "There's a women's change-room and shower down the hall. You've been here for days. You should go get cleaned up, it will make you feel better. You have your phone, if there's any change I promise I'll call you right away."

Miorine vaguely recalled that during her last time here Aliya had asked her for the passkey to her apartment, to go get some of her things. Since she had gone to the trouble, Miorine felt compelled to agree. She went over to sling the knapsack over her shoulder. Aliya was already sitting down with Suletta's hand in hers.

The hallway was deserted and quiet. She had lost track but she thought it must be night. The change-room was small but she had it to herself. When she stripped down she just stood there and looked into the mirror. Her pale skin seemed transparent. It had not been long enough for her to lose weight, but her petite frame somehow looked frail, her delicate pixie face gaunt. Her grey eyes looked tired and bloodshot. Some of her long platinum blonde hair tied behind her head and come loose.

She was right to send you here, you look like hell.

Miorine took her time, finding she did not feel as compelled to hurry back as she thought she would. It would be an exaggeration to say that the shower rejuvenated her but she did feel a bit more alive. She dressed and examined the result in the mirror. Aliya had chosen sensibly, a business casual outfit with dark slacks and a white blouse. She even took the time to comb out her hair carefully.

Okay, this is more like what I want Suletta to see when she wakes.

She stuffed her wrinkled, grungy old clothes into the knapsack and carried it back to Suletta's room. Aliya looked her up and down and smiled, appearing to approve of the change. "Do you feel better now?"

"A little. Thanks, I appreciate this."

"Have the doctors said anything?"

"Nothing new. They just come in with the same regular checkups."

"Do you want to get some sleep?"

"No, I'll sit with her a bit first."

Shortly after Miorine had sat down and took Suletta's hand, she felt Aliya's hands on her shoulders. "Aliya?"

"I can see from your posture that your shoulders are stiff. This will help you relax."

Miorine just hummed a monosyllable acknowledgement. In short order it became apparent how right Aliya was. Miorine had hardly noticed how hard those muscles had become. Aliya slowly and methodically worked on them.

It also worked on her mood. She was feeling a bit more animated now. Animated enough to actually speak out spontaneously. "This is another talent of yours I didn't know about."

"I'll teach you sometime. Or maybe you'd prefer I teach your groom."

"That would be nice." Miorine could not help feeling, did Aliya really have hope or was she just trying to give Miorine hope? Either way, she felt grateful. It was so hard to feel it now, all the things that she should be grateful for. Her friends... no, their friends.

But she would gladly trade it all for just one thing, just one person. How had it taken her so long to realize? It had been there all along, the red-headed miracle that had walked into her life and turned her world upside down.

After a while Aliya finished and then gently stroked Miorine's hair. "I'll leave you two for a bit, okay?"

Miorine impulsively took her hand and squeezed it, looking up with a smile. "Okay. Thanks." Both her and Lilique would do this, alternately staying with her and leaving her alone with Suletta. Maybe they thought she needed time to cry in private. It was certainly tempting.

More time passed. When Aliya returned, she was not alone. She was accompanied by a tall, pear-shaped man with black hair and a goatee, dressed in the dark blue-grey uniform of a Dominicus officer. Kenanji Avery, the officer who had commanded their operation against Quiet Zero.

For the past few days Miorine's whole universe had been this room and the comatose girl she watched over. But the arrival of this Dominicus officer suddenly brought her mind back to the larger context of her own private tragedy. Suletta's mother had unleashed Quiet Zero, a weapon that could have reshaped or collapsed the entire technological infrastructure upon which human civilization depended. Miorine and Suletta had joined a mission to destroy it. Another doomsday weapon had fired upon them, but had been disabled by Suletta's final act before succumbing to the curse of the Gundam. And as her own parting shot, Miorine's final act as president of the largest commercial entity ever known had dissolved it and sold off its assets to its Earthian subsidiaries, transacting the largest commercial transfer in history and triggering the greatest financial collapse in generations.

Miorine had rather forgotten about all that.

Aliya's expression was neutral, Kenanji's was warm and friendly. There were a number of possible reasons the Dominicus inspector might want to see her, few of them any good. He was not accompanied by guards, so at least it appeared he was not here to arrest her. Miorine got the impression they had not really spoken, except perhaps for Aliya to confirm that Miorine was still here. She released Suletta's hand and rose to greet him.

"Hello Miss Miorine," Kenanji said gently. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay. Is there a problem?"

"No. I won't take much of your time but I'd like to discuss some things with you in private. Would it be okay for us to go into the next room and let Miss Aliya watch over Suletta for a while?"

"Sure." The next room was another single room which had the same sort of hospital bed and furniture, but at the moment had no medical equipment set up.

Kenanji invited her to sit on the sofa, he pulled up a chair and sat across the low table from her. "Have your friends told you anything about what's been going on?"

"Not really, just that everyone in the Earthian House is fine. I'm sure they're doing their best not to give me anything else to worry about." She shut her eyes and sighed. Might as well just face the music. "Okay, so how badly have I messed things up and who wants to kill me?"

Astonishingly, Kenanji actually chuckled happily. "High finance is above my pay grade but it looks like you have triggered continuing rounds of panic buying and selling, and every broker and bean-counter from here to Earth wants your head."

"Are there any formal charges?"

"No, and for the foreseeable future there won't be. Dominicus has most of the Fronts in this sector under martial law. Even if the Assembly League or any of the Houses want to see you charged, you are under our jurisdiction until we say otherwise. They've all been remarkably quiet on this point, so I think they're still scrambling to see whether or not you actually did something illegal." He seemed rather pleased at describing this chaos among the trading classes. His expression now sobered somewhat. "There is another reason we will have to keep you on this Front under our care. All those involved with Quiet Zero have been arrested and are being interrogated, but you and Suletta and the Earthian House are our primary friendly witnesses to what happened at Quiet Zero and..." He hesitated. "What it was that ultimately destroyed it."

"Of course I am at your disposal. But I only witnessed the operation to shut down Quiet Zero. As to how Suletta unleashed the data storm that dissolved it..." She had to look away. "All I know is the price she's payed for it. Anything else, you'll have to ask her when she wakes up." It had been impossible for her to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

Kenanji's expression and voice were remarkably gentle. "There is one point everyone agrees on. You, the Earthian House, and especially Suletta saved the Dominicus fleet from utter defeat and possibly from complete annihilation. And we barely understand what it is you saved everyone else from. Yes we will want to speak with Suletta, but the only thing we are in a hurry to do is to thank her. The rest can wait until she gets the care she needs. Everyone in Dominicus acknowledges her as a hero." He smiled. "Even the sour-faced soldiers I have stationed in this ward."

"I haven't seen them. And my friends haven't said anything."

"They're outside the door, and at the bottom of the elevator. Your friends have all been given clearance to come and go."

Miorine smiled. "Thank you. For everything."

Kenanji nodded. "Have the doctors said anything about her progress?"

"Not really, they're being cagey."

"They always are. I'm no doctor, but I've seen my share of pilots with acute Data Storm sickness. Suletta has a lot going for her. She's only had the one exposure, and having one bad day..." He looked somewhat apologetic, as if over trivializing Suletta's experience, "Even one really bad day, is a whole lot better than repeated exposures. You and your friends got her the first aid meds early, that's important."

"That was my friends' work, I was mostly panicking. I barely remember."

Kenanji nodded sympathetically. "She's young and strong, that makes a big difference too. In my experience, if they've made it through the first couple of days then they'll pull through." His face fell a touch. "But I've seen what the recovery can look like. I won't sugar-coat it, she's in for a long and difficult rehab. A full recovery might take months or even years. She's going to need a lot of help. Let's both make sure she gets it, okay?"

Miorine's lip quivered. She just smiled and nodded. Her voice could not manage more than a little sound of acknowledgement.

"There is one more thing. Suletta's mother is in confinement, and that's unlikely to change any time soon. As Suletta's betrothed, you are the closest she has to a medical proxy, so I have seen to it that is now official. You are now authorized to make medical decisions on her behalf."

That brought up another point Miorine had not been thinking about. "I presume she is being charged."

"Yes, though as to what those charges will be, that's going to be complicated." He had something of a wry expression. "Made even more complicated by the fact that the crime scene and everything in it dissolved and got blown away by the solar winds."

There was one last point Miorine felt some modicum of obligation to ask about. "My father was in stable condition the last time I saw him, do you know anything about his condition?"

"They hauled him out to make an appeal to the League, but he's back in the hospital now. Still stable and resting. He's been asking to speak with you."

Miorine sniffed. "I got his notes, haven't read them. No doubt worried about what I have done to his investment portfolio. He can wait."

Kenanji smiled. "I'll be sure to pass that on." He leaned back and took on a bit more of the air of the commanding officer she had seen from them when he was planning their operation. "When was the last time you got any decent sleep, soldier?"

Miorine blinked. "Soldier?"

"Understand, neither you nor Suletta have been demobilized. As far as we are concerned, you are one of us now. You might not have rank, but you have walked into the fire and paid the price to keep your loved ones safe. We look after our own, but we expect them to look after themselves as well. So, when was the last time?"

Miorine shook her head. "Not since..." She did not know what name to give to the insane catastrophe that had struck her betrothed down. "Before the operation I guess."

Kenanji made a gesture that encompassed the room. "I had them reserve this room for you. Go see Suletta when you can, but you need to be prepared to wait for days before she will be able to see or hear you. We hardly understand what the Data Storm does to the body, but one thing that seems clear is that every cell of her body is telling her that she needs to shut down for a while. You're going to need your down time too. I know nothing I can say is going to make it easy, but you're going to have to be patient. Both in the coming days, and beyond that."

There only seemed one appropriate answer. "Yes sir."

"Good. I'll let Aliya know where you are and bring over your things."

That seemed to settle the matter. As soon as Kenanji left the room again Miorine prepared for bed. Once again, Aliya had packed sensibly, there were some slippers, a light robe and comfortable nightwear. There was less anxiety than she had thought there would be, separated from Suletta like this. She had been given little reason for hope lately, but Kenanji's words had held the feeling of both honesty and hard experience. She found herself believing that things might turn out for them.

"Mommy?"

Miorine blinked. The hell? She looked around, unsure where that might have come from. Her eyes rested on the key-chain plushy that Suletta had given her, seemingly an eternity ago. It was a silly little white fluffy pancake of a thing with a tiny body hanging below it, whose two little beads begged to be seen as the eyes of a face. Without thinking she had placed it on top of the cabinet by the bed. Its eyes were glowing red. Had it been doing that before? She had not thought there were any electronics in it.

Miorine squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the base of her nose against the beginnings of a tension headache. You're strung-out, no surprise that you're hearing things. Do as the man said and get some sleep.

She slept fitfully, and it seemed not long. When she returned to Suletta's room Aliya was still there. Miorine was astonished to learn that she had in fact slept right through one of Lilique's shifts by a wide margin. With equal measures gratitude and reluctance, Miorine resumed something like a normal sleep cycle.

#-#-#-#-#

It was shortly after the start of Lilique's sixth shift that Suletta began to stir. They called for a nurse, and before long one of the doctors joined them. As they had explained to Miorine previously, they wanted to monitor for a while before doing anything to encourage her to fully awaken. Miorine was only allowed to hold her hand. It was maddening. Her movements were sporadic, something between a twitch and a spasm. They had told her to expect that too. In the past couple of days Miorine had taken the time to speak with the doctors in more detail about what to expect with a recovery from a Data Storm.

When they were satisfied that she was really trying to wake up, they gave her a mild stimulant. A few minutes later her eyes fluttered open. At a nod of permission from the doctor, Miorine lifted Suletta's forearm up, grasped her hand tightly in both of her own hands and leaned close. "Suletta, can you hear me?"

Suletta's sleepy green eyes met hers. She seemed confused. Then, recognition. "Miorine?" she croaked.

Miorine smiled like she had not done in many days. She wanted so much to scoop up Suletta into her arms, but she managed to compose herself the way the doctors had cautioned her. They needed to take this awakening slowly and carefully. "Yes Suletta, it's me. It's Miorine. How do you feel?"

She seemed to search for an answer. "Weird." Miorine felt Suletta's arm twitch. "I want... I want to touch you. I'm sorry. It's hard to move."

"You're still sick from the Data Storm. It's going to be hard for you to move for a while." A long while, most likely. But that was for another time. "You don't need to do anything right now."

Suletta seemed to take in the rest of the room now. She smiled. "Lilique is here too."

"Yes, I'm here." Lilique said brightly. She seemed to be barely holding back tears. Miorine knew exactly how she felt. "It's wonderful to hear your voice again."

"Is everyone okay?"

"Everyone is fine, Suletta," Miorine said. She felt obliged to add one thing. "Your mother can't be here right now, but we'll let her know that you're awake. I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that."

"Where's Eri?"

Miorine hesitated. She should have been prepared for that question, but she was not. The doctors had said to try and avoid anything that might upset her, but... "I'm sorry, Suletta. Ariel was dissolved by the Data Storm. Eri isn't with us any more."

"Eri isn't in Ariel any more," Suletta said, sounding more anxious and insistent.

Miorine took in a breath. They said she might be confused. Try to work with it. "We don't know where Eri is."

Suletta was becoming more visibly upset. "Did we lose them?"

Miorine was very much at a loss. "Lose what, Suletta?"

"Our key-chains."

All Miorine understood at this point was that Suletta was very attached to those key-chains, so once again she decided to just work with that. "They're both here, Suletta. Look." She unhooked her own from her belt loop, where it had been since it had been retrieved. Suletta was no longer the only one attached to them, it had to be admitted. She picked up Suletta's matching key-chain from the bedside cabinet where it had rested since Suletta had been admitted. Miorine held up the two little white, round things with silly faces in front of Suletta. "See, here they are."

Suletta smiled and relaxed. "Thank goodness. Eri, can you hear me?"

Miorine was becoming alarmed now. What was this, confusion? Projection? Denial? Hallucination? Should she let the doctors handle this?

"Suletta! I can see you! You look funny!"

Suddenly there was dead silence in the room. Everyone was looking around the room and at each other, no doubt wondering the same thing Miorine was. Where had that come from?

Suletta seemed to be the only one not utterly perplexed, in fact she even laughed a little. "You look even more funny!"

"I know! I'm really small!" It was that same little tinny, vaguely girlish voice. It seemed to be coming from... Miorine turned her own plushy around and looked into that funny little face. Its two beady little eyes were flashing red. "Hey! Turn me around! I can't see my sister any more!"

Utterly dumbfounded, Miorine did as she was told. Suletta's smile was practically rapturous. "I'm sorry you're so small now. That was all I could find."

"It took me a while, but I'm used to it now. I looked for you and Mommy but all I saw was this lady who's holding me so I went back to sleep."

"That's Miorine. She's my fiancee."

"You mean, you're getting married?"

"Yes."

"Wow! She's really pretty!"

Suletta nodded, "Yes," she said, her voice choked up now. A tear streamed down her cheek. "Yes, she's the prettiest girl in the world!" She started laughing and crying at the same time. The little voice from the plushy was also laughing. All Miorine could think to do was to reach out and wipe the tears from her fiancee's face.

#-#-#-#-#

The nurse emerged from Suletta's room. "She's asleep now," she confirmed. "Miss Lilique said she would watch her."

Miorine took a deep breath to try and calm herself. She pointed to the plushy dangling from the key-chain in her hand. In a low, dangerous voice she said "If I find out this is somebody's idea of a joke I swear on my mother's grave I will drag them straight to the nearest airlock and space them right now."

From the looks on the faces of the impressive collection of specialists gathered in the hallway, there was nobody here who did not believe her. After a few seconds, one of the technicians was brave enough to speak. "We have no idea how that could be done," he said nervously. "Each of these rooms is basically a Faraday cage, no wireless signals can get in or out. When the Dominicus turned this into a high security area all the rooms were swept for devices." He pointed to the plushy. "And that thing is just too small for a Permet device."

"I'm not a Permet device!" the plushy protested. "I'm in a data storm that's been entangled with the place Suletta put me. She explained that to you."

Suletta had indeed said something to that effect. She had been rather apologetic about not being able to explain it better, confessing that she did not understand it very well herself. The incessant questions from Miorine, then the doctors, then other specialists that had been brought in had eventually tired Suletta out. The doctor had everybody except for Miorine, Lilique and a nurse cleared from the room, and they had told Suletta she should take a nap. And now here they were with no more idea what was going on than they had at the start.

Miorine tried to think clearly. "Okay, we already know that Prospera transferred her daughter's biometric code into Ariel to keep her alive. So we're talking about something that's possible. In principle this is no different."

"That's dark tech," the same technician said. "Nothing like that on the open market. Who knows where the Quiet Zero project team got their hands on that. One of the people in custody might know."

Miorine nodded. "Well then, let's ask the obvious person. Let's ask Prospera."

"Are we going to see Mommy?" The eyes on the plushy flashed more quickly. "Yay!"

Miorine sighed. "I need to contact somebody in Dominicus. Are those guards still outside the door?"

#-#-#-#-#

Miorine and Kenanji sat in the meeting room, watching and listening to the video feed from another nearby room. In contrast to this functional space, that one was was a bright, cheery looking little room that was clearly designed to be a comforting place for children. The female child psychologist sitting in one of the chairs was continuing her interview in that perfect friendly but professional manner she had been using throughout. Miorine had to admire her. I'll bet when she woke up this morning she did not think that she would be asked to do an evaluation of a key-chain.

"Your fiancee is certainly full of surprises," Kenanji quipped.

Miorine continued to half-listen to the interview, which at some time had slid from the level of the surreal to the rather banal. "I'm not even sure how to think about this."

"Well, you can count me as one of the believers now. Suletta really did what she claimed." He glanced over at Miorine. "I'm sorry, but we've probably got a few more hoops to go through before we can authorize this meeting."

Miorine shook her head. "No, it's okay. I think you're right to be cautious." Once she had informed Kenanji of what they thought happened and who Miorine wanted to speak with, that had triggered a series of reactions within the Dominicus organization, of which this had been just one step. The subtext of this innocent sounding conversation was them trying to assuage a deep suspicion of the nature and motivation behind anything that had originated from Prospera Mercury's mad, mad scheme to give her daughter some sort of embodied existence. Miorine certainly shared their mistrust of her fiancee's mother, the madwoman's scheme had nearly cost Suletta her life. But Miorine's current feeling of resentment had a more immediate source. I know Suletta's in good hands, but I just want to be with her. And here I am trying to deal with this new piece of madness.

Suletta had actually been happy at the prospect of this thing she called Eri meeting with her mother... their mother. Miorine was relieved that her spirits remained high, even after it had been made clear to her how long her recovery would likely take. She was being very understand and cooperative with the doctors and their brand new battery of tests and evaluations. The high point so far had been a happy reunion with the entire Earthian House. They had brought flowers and cards and balloons and great big signs to hang on the walls, all to welcome her back to the land of the living. It had been a happy, teary, cathartic moment that Miorine could lose herself in for a brief moment, before returning to her patrol of the shark-infested waters that surrounded them.

There was a knock on the door, it opened and a man wearing the ubiquitous white lab coat of the care-givers entered. Miorine recognized him, Doctor Anton Battia. She had met him early on when Dominicus was putting together the investigation team for this new mystery, he was now pretty much its point man. She had already known about him, even attended a supplementary lecture he had given at her school. By reputation he was something of a polymath, both a researcher and a clinician with broad expertise but focusing on neuroscience. He was a tall, fit middle-aged man with greying brown short hair and beard framing a handsome face with a ready smile. Miorine had immediately taken a liking to him, both for his warmth and his no-nonsense approach to uncovering the truth. She had already made a mental note to probe him about the possibility of taking a role in Suletta's evaluation and care.

They both stood to greet him. "I'm between meetings," he explained. "I heard you were both here so I thought it was a good time to touch base." He glanced at the video feed. "I've got somebody else monitoring this, talked about what to look for and page me if there are any surprises."

Kenanji appeared to take the hint and turn down the volume on the feed as the doctor joined them at the table. "Honestly I had almost stopped listening, it just sounded so... ordinary." He pointed to the now silent video. "Does the psychologist...?"

"Know exactly what she's interviewing? In this case no. We made up the best story we could about both the remote interview and the unorthodox interface, basically the aftermath of a black tech experiment gone wrong, which I guess is not far from the truth. I figured it was important to gather some blind tests as well, try to get around any possible bias."

Miorine thought she might be jumping the gun, but... "Doctor, there's something I'd like to ask you about that's concerning me."

He smiled. "Anton is fine. What's on your mind?"

"Anton, my fiancee is really invested in the idea that this thing is her sister. I'm worried that the longer this goes on the harder it might be to try and tell her otherwise if we need to."

"That's my concern as well. We're trying to rule out other possibilities as soon as we can. What I can tell you now is that we have pretty much ruled out that this is any sort of automation. What we are talking with there is definitely somebody's biometric code."

Miorine took a beat to absorb that. "I can sort of understand how that would work in Ariel, it had a powerful Permet information device. But this is a toy with just enough memory for a few audio messages. I mean, where exactly is the biometric code?"

"That wouldn't even be a simple question to answer for the Permet device. It works, but we really don't know how."

"Well, we understand the basic physics, right?"

Anton shrugged. "We do and we don't. The physics is not exactly my field but a few years ago I did get kind of obsessed with quantum theories of consciousness and went on a sort of deep dive into its history. Even back before the diaspora when they were trying to first figure out quantum mechanics they were running into mathematics that worked perfectly well but nobody could make any sense of. I mean, you had multiple interpretations of it that were all consistent and could not be ruled out. Wave collapse, permanent parallel universes, splitting universes, you name it."

He smiled and shrugged. "Eventually they kind of threw up their hands and basically said 'shut up and calculate'. Over generations that eventually morphed into 'shut up and engineer'. So you could say that the biometric code is distributed across parallel universes or in strings across eleven dimensions and nobody could prove that you are wrong."

Miorine scratched her chin, trying to take this all in. "Okay, I guess I can set that aside. But I'm still concerned that Suletta is getting led down a garden path to something that's not really there." She decided what she really wanted to ask. "Anton, can we know whether the biometric code is actually conscious?"

He smiled. "Oh, that's even a deeper rabbit-hole. When I was doing my own little deep dive I was delving into things that crossed two millennia of philosophical inquiry and generations of people hooking things up to other people's brains to see what makes them tick. The theories about how pieces of matter lead to subjective consciousness run the gamut. Integrated Information Theory, Panpsychism, Epiphenomenalism, name your poison. All of them compatible and consistent, none of them disprovable. At the end of the day, I know that I am conscious and as for the rest of you, I am just guessing."

"What do you think?"

Anton did not seem at all perturbed at being pressed like this. "The main thing we're looking for is how she integrates information, the more she can learn in a way that makes sense the more sure we are that there's somebody home. Gun to the head answer right now? I'm as sure she's conscious as I'm sure you are."

Miorine decided on a simpler question. "What's special about the plushy sitting in that room over there?"

"Nothing about the thing itself. Some or all of the atoms inside it happen to be entangled with something, somewhere that it is able to interact with. Something that is reading what is coming into the cameras and microphones, making the speaker vibrate, even keeping the battery charged it would seem."

Miorine took a moment to let that sink in. "So how did Suletta do it?"

"Miss Miorine, it beats the hell out of me."

#-#-#-#-#

Miorine scooped the last of the pudding out of the cup and brought it carefully to Suletta's lips. She closed her mouth around it and slurped it down. "Well done."

Suletta smiled. "You're getting better too. We didn't make any mess at all this time."

She was right, the bib strung around her neck was perfectly clean. In the past few days she had been transitioning to solid food, so right now the puddings were just for dessert. She was still in the same room, lying in the same hospital bed tilted most of the way up to make eating easier. They had only taken her out of here a couple of times for some scans and preliminary physio work. The decorations from the party were all gone, but Miorine and their friends had been keeping her practically surrounded by flowers.

"Do you think you could manage a bit more?"

"There's more?"

Miorine pulled the surprise out of her bag. "A tomato!" Suletta said brightly. "Is it one of yours?"

"Yes. There were some left."

That turned out to be a little more difficult, and they did make a bit of a mess. But she did manage most of it, and the bib caught the rest. She was able to move her head and neck more or less normally, so feeding her was quite easy now. After Miorine cleaned Suletta's face and disposed of the bib, she sat back down and took Suletta's hand. "Want to try giving me a squeeze?"

"Okay." Suletta's brow knit with concentration.

"Don't struggle," Miorine said encouragingly. "Just try once."

Her face relaxed. After a few seconds she shook her head. "Sorry."

"Didn't I tell you not to apologize?"

"Okay. I'll try to remember."

Miorine held Suletta's hand in both of hers, slowly stroking it. The doctors said that was a good thing to do, but even if they hadn't it just felt nice. "I have a bit of news. They're going to let Eri visit your mother."

"That's great! They'll both be so happy."

"This time it's going to be just a regular prison visit. One hour in a partitioned room, supervised. They're still being pretty strict. And the doctors will be monitoring the visit. They..." They were still trying to convince themselves this really was Eri. "They're still trying to learn about Eri's condition. Kenanji will be taking her."

The significance of that last part was not lost on Suletta. Her face sobered a little. "You're not going."

Miorine shook her head. She had rehearsed this but it was still difficult. "I'm sorry, Suletta. I'm still not in a place where I can forgive her for what she's done to you. If I went there now, I would probably let my anger get the better of me and I might say things I would regret. I don't want that to happen."

Suletta looked earnestly into her eyes. "Do you think you can ever forgive her?" she asked softly.

"When I told her that we are all going to become a family I meant it. But I have to know that I can trust her first. That's going to take a lot of work and a lot of time." She pursed her lips and let out a breath, trying to contemplate all the different things at play here. Prospera could be in jail for a very long time, maybe even longer than she likely had to live. "I want for us all to be together, and I'll try to make that happen. We're going to have to be patient."

Suletta nodded and made a little sound of acknowledgement. She hesitated before speaking again. "Do you think that I could visit her?"

"That might be difficult for you right now." That was not untrue, but as soon as she said it Miorine knew it was just an excuse. She was done being dishonest. "I'm not really comfortable with your seeing her yet. I'm so angry about how she has manipulated you. When I'm ready, I want..." Miorine hesitated. She knew what she wanted, she wanted to confront Prospera and demand an explanation for how she could have mistreated such a wonderful daughter.

"I understand," Suletta said. "You want to talk with her first." She nodded. "I know she was wrong about so many things, but I still love her so much. I don't really trust myself to say the things I need to, ask the things I need to. It would be too easy to just believe everything she says."

Miorine could see how hard that was for her to say. "Yes, I do want to talk to her first. I want to..." She sighed. Almost involuntarily she squeezed Suletta's hand hard. "Suletta I've made terrible, terrible mistakes, I've hurt you in so many ways. I want for both her and I to try and understand how that happened and how we can make sure it doesn't happen any more. I'm sorry, I don't know if that makes any sense at all."

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, I think it makes sense. Take as much time as you need."

"Thank you."

They just sat in comfortable silence for a while, Miorine slowly stroking her hand, trying to be a little bit playful about it. Suletta seemed to appreciate it. Suddenly her eyes went wide. "Oh, I forgot. I haven't congratulated you yet."

"Congratulated me? About what?"

"I forgot where I heard it, but you were elected President of the Benerit Group weren't you? That's amazing! Congratulations! I'm really proud of my bride."

Miorine just stared at her with her mouth agape. When she finally convinced herself that had not been a joke, she started laughing uncontrollably.

When she was finally able to stop, Suletta said "Did I hear that wrong?"

Miorine just could not keep the grin off her face. "No, you heard right. But it was the shortest presidency in the history of the group. And the last one. My final act was to dissolve the group and sell off its assets to its Earthian subsidiaries."

"You... sound pretty happy about that," she responded tentatively.

"Well, by that point it seemed like everybody and their uncle wanted to dissolve the group for one reason or another. There was even a Space Assembly League fleet on its way to disband it forcefully. I decided I just wanted it done in a way that could comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable as much as possible. Or maybe it was just the temper tantrum of a spoiled little rich girl." She laughed happily again. "I'm sorry my love, I'm just babbling. I can hardly believe I hadn't told you about that, but it's just been so hard to even care."

Suletta's face became more serious. "So... are you in trouble?"

It was a reasonable question that deserved a proper answer. "Not right now. There are some consequences I'm going to have to deal with. In fact there are some things I've been putting off but should get around to soon." She continued in a gentler voice. "In the next little while I might not be around as much as I have been. But any day that I can't come I promise I'll call. We'll set up a voice activated phone for you here. I don't want to go a single day without hearing your voice."

Suletta's smile was unbearably radiant. "Me too."

#-#-#-#-#

Miorine walked in and had a look around the room while she made her way over to where her father lay propped up in his bed, waiting for her. "I see you've managed to scale up to a bigger room."

Even lying in a hospital bed dressed in a simple robe, Delling Rembran, head of the Rembran House and previous President of the Benerit Group, managed to cut an imposing figure. He was a big, tall man with a long, menacing face framed by long wavy grey hair and goatee. As expected he ignored her barb. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever show up."

"I have been occupied with taking care of my fiancee," she said, walking over to the coffee urn beside the bed and helping herself to a cup. She was dressed in a business suit, matching grey blazer and slacks with white blouse, also with business appropriate makeup and hair. She was determined to give every indication this was a business meeting. "She's doing well, thanks for asking."

He also let the sarcasm bounce off him. "I have been kept appraised of developments," he deadpanned.

"Then we can leave it at that. I've read your messages, I agree we need to make some decisions regarding the future direction and priorities of both our companies."

His perpetual frown deepened just a little. "Are you not more concerned with staying out of jail?"

"I did nothing illegal, and I read nothing in your letters that suggested otherwise. Did I miss something?"

"Certainly your dissolution of the Group followed all the rules of the Group charter and the Assembly accords. I've had a team of accountants confirming that, but they are wondering who you consulted in drawing up the terms of the dissolution."

"There was no time to consult anybody, and anyway nobody I thought I could trust. I drew it up myself and sent it straight to the key escrow service."

That got a very satisfying moment of silence from him. His poker face barely moved, but Miorine had plenty of practice in reading him. There was not quite enough disbelief to call her out, and just a hint of one other thing that she was quite sure she was not imagining.

Respect.

"Following the letter of the law does not give you guaranteed protection. If you were not a member of one of the Great Houses then the League would almost certainly have found some excuse to have you confined."

"Well then it's a good thing I am a member of a Great House." She raised an eyebrow. "Aren't I?"

"You also arranged things such that disowning you would be of no advantage to the House. Making GUND-ARM an independent entity under the umbrella of the House has made such a move meaningless."

Meaning that he had been considering it. "Then I suppose we should begin with our intentions for where our respective parts of the business should be heading. Shall I go first?"

He folded his hands, a signal that she had his full attention. "By all means."

"High level, I plan on having GUND-ARM continue to focus on medical technology and expand into related public health infrastructure. The core of its operations, customer base and supply chain will be on Earth. The recent infusion of cash into our subsidiaries there will provide many opportunities for partnerships. The rest... we'll have to make up as we go along."

"Earth is a very chaotic environment." His look became subtly judgmental, so Miorine could recite his followup before he even spoke. "Your actions have now made it even more so."

"I just see that instability as further opportunity for new ventures."

He nodded. "I had expected as much, and as far as it goes I see no objection. What are your expectations of the Group?"

Things got technical for a long while. Miorine sat down on a stool next to his bed and pulled out her tablet phone. Her father swung a laptop in front of him and they went to work. There were some points to negotiate, but for the most part they were on the same page. Some things were hammered out right here and submitted to the key escrows, others were tabled for future review. In the meantime, they both had their action plans.

The entire process had not been at all unpleasant, in fact Miorine had found it quite absorbing. It was just so weird and perverse that her most positive experience with her father of late had been when they were looking at spreadsheets.

"I will be having an operation soon," her father told her. "When a date has been set I'll let you know so that we can plan around it."

This was news to Miorine. "Are there complications?"

"No, I'm getting prosthetic legs."

Miorine stared at him for a moment. "That's what you've decided? I've spoken with your GP, that is far and away the most radical of the options they were considering." She was his medical proxy, so before this meeting she had brought herself up to speed in case he wanted to discuss it with her... apparently he did not.

"It's the quickest fix, very little down time."

"I know, but... there's nothing wrong with your legs, it's a low-spine injury. There are both regenerative and prosthetic options that would give you motion with your own legs."

"They all require longer rehab time. I don't have that sort of time." He gave that motion of his head which always meant the matter was closed and he was changing the subject. "Have you decided on your fiancee's treatment?"

"We're still considering options. We haven't made a decision yet."

"Do you still intend on marrying her?"

"What the hell sort of question is that?" Miorine snapped. "She won my hand fair and square, according to your rules."

"Those rules are still in effect."

"The school is shut down, they aren't in a position to hold any duels." She sniffed. "And I'm hardly the most eligible bride in the sector any more, I don't imagine I have suitors lining up ready to throw down the gauntlet any more."

"Don't sell yourself short," he responded, surprising her. "You are still the scion of the Group. Your asset base might have shrunk considerably, but thanks to your sellout the same can be said for many other houses. Scions of the Great Houses might have less interest now, but there are plenty of bottom-feeders looking for a good match. All they would have to do is expedite the reopening of some school facilities to stake a valid claim."

It was not something Miorine had even been considering. "How long have I got?"

"For what?"

"To hold the wedding, of course!"

He sighed. "If you are that determined, you should plan for no later than the end of next month."

"Okay, I'll talk with Suletta."

"It might not be that simple." His tone had reverted from that of the business partner to that of the lecturing father. "The appearance will be just as important as the legality. You can't just have a Justice show up in a hospital room, read the script and sign the papers. There will need to be a ceremony. Is your fiancee really up to that right now?"

"We'll work something out."

"It will have to be something that will stand up to scrutiny. You cannot afford the image of a flyer who has had their wings clipped."

Miorine stood up fast enough to send the stool circling across the room, its casters rumbling. Whatever it is that her father saw in her face made him show the closest thing she had ever seen to genuine alarm. She could practically feel it from him, the realization sinking in that he was facing not a child but a potentially dangerous young woman.

Her level voice showed equal measures bitterness and resolve. "If it's a show they want, then it's a show we'll give them."

He took a deep breath and let it out, closing his eyes for a moment as if he needed to centre himself. "You might be asking the impossible, or expecting a miracle," he said with a gentleness she did not recall ever hearing before.

"I have found people who do the impossible right away. The miraculous takes us a bit more work. But this?" She drained her coffee cup and tossed it into the waste basket as she stalked out of the room. "Something like this we do before breakfast."

#-#-#-#-#

It was Miorine's first time seeing Suletta's new room. It was in a facility on the one-gee ring floor, twice as big as her old room, with a window looking over a scene of open greenery with scattered trees. She had been slated to be moved here soon, but Miorine had pushed to expedite that move. The room was bigger than her father's.

That had been utterly petty, but she didn't care.

Suletta greeted her happily as she entered. With a voice command she paused the video she had been watching on the big screen that covered much of the wall in front of the bed.

"What were you watching?"

"I was looking for archived news about what you did with the Benerit group."

"Is it that interesting?"

"Yes, mostly because it's about you. They show some of the interviews you did. I like seeing your face and hearing your voice."

Miorine laughed. "So you're using it for Miorine porn."

"Miorine!"

"I'm kidding." She glanced at the screen's paused image. "UNN? That network is pretty much a shill for the League. I can suggest better sources, unless you're just looking at the pictures."

She pouted. "I was listening seriously too."

"OK, later we can watch together and I'll bookmark some places for you."

Suletta smiled. "You can sit beside me and watch now. Want to try it out?"

She was right. This room had a king-sized version of the hospital bed. Since she no longer needed IV or monitors, she could lie on one side of the bed leaving the rest free. "Sure." Miorine walked to the other side of the bed, took off her shoes and climbed in beside Suletta. "Do you like the room?"

"It's really nice. In the morning sometimes I see birds fly past the window."

The Front did have some songbirds roaming free in this segment of the ring. "Do you like birds?"

"I had never seen them before I came here. There are some really pretty ones, but they sort of fly past quickly."

"I wonder if there's something we can hang outside the window that would attract them so that you could get a better look. Maybe they would let us put up a bird feeder. I'll have to look into that."

"I didn't mean to give you more work."

"It might be fun. A little project."

"Thank you."

"How was physio today?"

Suletta gave a mischievous little smile. "I did something new. Watch." She faced forward and closed her eyes. Her face tensed up just a little. She seemed to be concentrating on something. To Miorine's astonishment, her upper body lifted just a little off the bed, then rested back down. Suletta opened her eyes and smiled. "Surprised?"

Miorine's hands came to her face. "Suletta..." She reached out and crushed Suletta to her chest, hardly able to find her voice. "That's wonderful. That's wonderful." Miorine just held her, not trusting herself to do anything else.

Suletta gave an embarrassed little laugh. "Sorry, I can't hug you back. It's just my upper core muscles I can use a little. Everything else is going to take a lot longer."

Miorine already knew that from the briefings. There were so many mysteries with Data Storm syndrome, but somehow distance from the brain was a factor. This was an expected result, she knew everything else would take much longer but... it had been so wonderful to see her do something she wasn't able to do before. It gave her the hope she needed.

And the courage. There were a couple of things she needed to do here today. One hopefully simple, the other maybe not so much.

Miorine knelt facing Suletta so that it would be easier for them to talk. "Suletta, I have some good news about your sister. She has been officially recognized as Prospera's daughter. I know that probably doesn't mean much to you, I guess you already knew that even if the rest of us found it hard to believe. But it's an important step. It means she's recognized as both a citizen of Mercury and a member of your family. Of course, this now raises the question of where she is going to stay. Your mother has requested that Eri stay with her, in prison. They tell me Eri wants that too. But as her sister, you get a say in this decision too. You don't have to answer now, but I'd like to know how you feel about this."

Suletta thought about it silently for a few seconds before answering. "If it's what they both want then I think that's the right thing. Of course I'd love for Eri to be with me too, but if this means mother won't be alone any more then that's okay." She smiled shyly. "Maybe someday we can all be together. But right now I have you. I want mother to have somebody."

Miorine nodded. "I agree. Sometime soon a Dominicus representative will probably be coming to talk with us about this. There might be other issues to figure out, I can hardly even imagine. But if we're both agreed that Eri can stay with your mother, then the rest can be sorted out."

"It's too bad I couldn't put her in both of our key-chains, then she could be in both places at once."

"Suletta, I'm already having trouble wrapping my head around what you did. Please, don't make it even more weird." They both laughed. Miorine took her hand and held it, stroking it in the now so familiar way. She contemplated what she was doing with her fiancee's hand, still etched with the markings of the Data Storm curse.

"You have a kind of serious look on your face."

Miorine looked into her eyes. "Suletta, there's something we need to talk about."

As carefully as she could, Miorine described the conversation she had with her father about the possibility of new suitors challenging Suletta's position as the Holder, and why the risk of that happening could increase over time. Suletta's expression became increasingly anxious.

"So, what are we going to do?" she asked very tentatively.

"If we're going to get married, I think it's going to have to be soon. Next month at the latest. And we'll have to start planning a lot sooner."

"But... how can I do the ceremony? It's too soon." She suddenly looked so frightened.

"I know it is. We can figure out something."

"What? How?" She seemed to be on the verge of tears now.

Miorine did not think there were any words that would be useful right now. She leaned over, wrapped her arms around Suletta's body and gently tilted her up off the bed until they were both sitting up straight, their faces over each other's shoulders. Miorine did not say anything. She had been expecting Suletta to start sobbing now. But she was silent and still, her arms hanging limply. Then she spoke in a soft, slow, desperate voice.

"Miorine, what sort of a wife can I be for you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can't do anything by myself. I can't walk."

"I know."

"I can't stand up. I can't feed myself."

"I know."

"I can't even sit up straight. I can't do anything."

It was a few seconds before Miorine answered. "You can't do anything? What are you doing right now? You're telling me how you feel. You're thinking about our future together. That's the sort of wife you can be. If all you can move is your little finger then you are still the woman I love. I want more for you, I want so much more. But all I need is the woman I'm holding in my arms right now."

They sat like that for a good long time. Suletta did not make a sound, other than her breathing. Gradually, it seemed to Miorine that her breathing became slower, more relaxed.

Eventually, Miorine spoke very softly. "Suletta. Are you asleep?"

The answer came after a couple of seconds. "Miorine, that's a dumb question."

"Yes, I suppose it is. Do you want me to set you back down?"

"Okay."

Miorine slowly and gently set her back on the bed. She sat up straight and looked into Suletta's face. It looked like she had been crying a little. Miorine reached out and softly wiped away the remnants of tears. After another moment, she spoke. "I can see how scared you are. You've been so brave, and today I saw you do something you were not able to do before. I was so proud, and I could see that you were too. So I can't believe this is just about what you can or cannot do. I know this has come out of the blue, and it should have come at a time of our choosing. I want to help, but I need to understand first. Are you just nervous? Is it something else? Please, take as much time as you need. I'll wait."

She waited quietly. When Suletta did speak, it was in a surprisingly wistful tone. "When it first hit me that I really had become your groom, I just kept looking at you. I kept thinking, can this amazing, beautiful angel really be my bride? You were just so far above me." She hesitated, then with apparent difficulty met Miorine's gaze again. "I don't want to blame you. I understand now, even when you... made somebody else your groom, it was for my sake. You had to do that, because even then I was a burden on you." She turned her despairing face away. "And now look at me."

To Miorine, the answer was so painfully obvious. "When you won my hand for a second time, when you came to me then, you so effortlessly pulled me out of the deep pit that I had dug for myself. If you never do anything else for me again, you are already the best groom I could ask for."

Astonishingly, in a way that melted Miorine's heart, Suletta smiled. "When you opened your door and I saw you there, you looked like such a sad little girl. All I could think was... 'My bride, was she really this tiny?' I just wanted to wrap you in my arms and tell you everything would be okay. But somehow I knew what you really needed was for me to hold out my hand."

Miorine managed to smile. "The state I was in, if you had embraced me I probably would have just cried into your shoulder and never left that room. You gave me exactly what I needed."

They sat in silence for a while. At length, Suletta looked her in the eyes again. She did not look as anxious any more, just somehow sad. "I want to be honest with you. I understand what you said, and I believe you. But I'm still scared."

It was Miorine's turn to think on what she had been told. Suletta waited, giving her all the time she needed. "I came here today and saddled you with all the problems the world is making for us. I want to forget all that, I want to rip aside all the million and one things that are making us fear and doubt and hesitate. Then I want to take what is between you and me and push aside everything else until all that's left is the one thing that will never change. I want to start over."

Miorine sat up a little more straight, faced Suletta a little more squarely. "Suletta, I love you. Will you marry me?"

She answered in a remarkably calm voice, with no hesitation. "Yes."

Miorine smiled and cradled her hand. "Thank you." There were a hundred things they needed to talk about, and soon. But not today.

An incongruous thought suddenly popped into her head. I can't believe I've never told her how beautiful she is to me. She absolutely was, even with her face corrupted by the lingering alien imprint of the Data Storm. Would she be sensitive about that? It seemed like any words could be seen as insincere, so maybe... no, right now when Suletta was so vulnerable and so utterly dependent on her asking that would be monstrously unfair, it was absolutely the wrong thing to do but "Suletta, can I kiss you?"

"Yes," she said with the same calm voice and the same smile.

Miorine leaned over and kissed her briefly on her closed lips, then moved away again. Suletta's shy smile changed subtly. It was like she was trying not to laugh. Miorine knew with certainly that her own expression was a perfect mirror. Suddenly the fact that until a few days ago she had been sixteen years old loomed large. She scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "That was my first kiss. It probably wasn't very good."

"It was my first kiss too. I was really nervous. But it was nice."

"For me too."

Miorine wondered if this was the time to speak. But Suletta beat her to it. "Um... want to try again?"

The second one was much better. And when Miorine did speak, nobody could have any doubt that she meant it.

#-#-#-#-#

The campus was still largely in shambles. Most of the tent city had been removed, since most of the students who had been sheltering there had since been shipped back home. A lot of the panels in the ring ceiling above her were dark, dotting the simulated blue sky with incongruous black rectangles. Repairing those had understandably not been a priority. It was a lonely, silent, desolate landscape now, and would likely remain so for weeks or months to come.

Damage to the big warehouse and machine shop used by the Earthian House had largely not been repaired yet. Big orange tarps had been draped over the wall sections that had been blown away or collapsed. Debris had been removed, scaffolding put up and utilities had been restored, so the space was safe and livable again. Or so she had been told, this was her first time here since Quiet Zero.

When Miorine had called Lilique and requested this meeting, she had suggested... now, what had she called it again? Oh yes, a pot luck. Regular food service had largely been restored, but as yet was not necessarily reliable, so this had become the plan.

Miorine entered through the man door and walked across the expansive main workshop to the long general-purpose table. Lilique and Aliya were already there. They had set the table and Miorine noted what was presumably the two food items they had brought.

Miorine held out the thermos box she had brought. "It's filet mignon slices in wine sauce. Heated and ready to serve. I hope I've brought enough."

Lilique's eyes went wide for a fraction, then again when she hefted the box. "That sounds lovely!" she said a little nervously, "Casual food would have been fine but thank you very much."

"It's no imposition." She thought sliced beef was casual, but no matter.

Martin was the next to arrive. He was the official leader of the Earthian House, though frankly since they all started working for Miorine's GUND-ARM company she had largely supplanted that role. His face topped by brown bowl-cut hair seemed to perpetually have an awkward expression, giving the impression that he was not quite comfortable in his own skin. She was quite certain that his leadership position had been obtained due to family connections. As an administrator, Miorine would give him a rating of good plain cook.

Nuno and Ojelo arrived together, as expected. Nuno was a short boy whom Miorine had never seen without his cloth cap and hoodie. He was a first-rate technician with extensive hardware and software knowledge, his hacking skills had been instrumental in the infiltration of Quiet Zero. He tended to be quiet, but Miorine had learned he was well worth listening to when he did speak up. Ojelo was a tall, lanky boy with chocolate coloured skin and shaggy black hair. Miorine had long since dubbed him Mister Angle, he seemed to have the inside track on any means of making money. Or thought he did, he tended to take undue risks. But he was a real out of the box thinker who had often proven to be surprisingly adaptable.

Till arrived soon after. He was a tall, slim androgynous boy with silver hair tied in a knot over his head. Miorine regarded him as the most capable member of Earthian House. He was a good listener and never lost his cool. He was very quiet and Miorine had gleaned nothing about his background, but his skills and knowledge were extraordinarily broad.

Arriving fashionably late in true form was Chuatury, whom everybody called ChuChu. She was a short girl with pink frizzy hair that was tied into two impossibly large pom-poms each bigger than her head. It was fair to say that she was not a people person. Perpetually angry, she would start an argument at the drop of a hat. Miorine had heard it said she had a chip on her shoulder, but Miorine had to concede that the two of them often got angry over the same things. Her piloting skills were phenomenal, she could operate anything that walked, crawled, rolled or flew with both ease and dash. By those skills Miorine might even owe to her the fact that Suletta did not lose her role as Holder, so she had something of a soft spot for the difficult girl.

Miorine rose to greet her as she had at the others' arrival. "Thanks for coming, ChuChu."

"No prob." She plopped down into the last remaining seat and set down a semitransparent container of what looked suspiciously like leftovers. "So what's on the agenda?"

"A number of items, but maybe we can just eat first." People with full stomachs tended to be more accepting, and Miorine would be making pitches and asking favours today.

Almost immediately Ojelo had taken the top off Miorine's offering. His face lit up as he eyed the contents. "Wow, that smells..." His voice trailed off. He took another breath. "Like the pearly gates opening up," he concluded reverently.

Miorine did more listening than talking during the lunch, reading the mood. Everyone was in quite good spirits. Both Suletta's recent awakening and their move back here from the tents had helped with that, to say nothing of the gradual easing of emergency conditions. With the closing of the school they were still in a kind of limbo, unclear about their future. Hopefully Miorine could help with that.

She started the meeting. "The first thing I want to talk about is the future of GUND-ARM. I will cut right to the chase. I am offering all of you permanent executive positions." She tapped her phone screen. "I've just sent you all letters with compensation package offerings. Job descriptions, annual salary and stock options. You should consider this as entry level, they will be going up as business expands. I would caution that they will be going up rather more slowly than you might usually expect. I plan on emphasizing joint ventures where profits are shared evenly, so our own quarterly numbers might be lacklustre. I will be emphasizing long term growth and building a reputation for fairness, honesty and reliability."

Only unflappable Till was giving her his full attention. The others mostly had their eyes on the screens of their phones. Miorine got the impression they were counting up all the zeroes in the numbers just to confirm they were seeing right.

"The bad news is that salaries will be paid in a selection of Earth fiat currencies. However, with the Benerit Group assets distributed across the Earth sphere I think we can see those currencies increase in value in the coming years. It's a bit of a jungle down there right now, but I think there are plenty of opportunities for the medical and public health services we will be offering."

She stood up. Her tone changed to a more personal one. "Everyone, I know this is a big ask. You all came to this school with dreams of graduating. Even before it was shut down, I had disrupted that when I dropped in unannounced and more or less Shanghaied you into my company. You've done so much for me, and for Suletta, along the way you probably saved our lives. No matter what you choose to do, I will always be more grateful than you can imagine. But I would really like for us to..." She had almost said continue to work together. "To always be together. I can't imagine doing this without you."

They all started looking at each other. Soon, they were all smiling. Till was the first to speak. He set his phone down and pushed it to the side as if signalling the irrelevance of its contents. His indulgent smile suggested he was trying to tell her that she was being silly without telling her. With great warmth and gentleness he said, "Boss, you didn't even need to ask."

Miorine smiled. Her lip quivered. She closed her eyes and bowed down low. "Thank you very much."

ChuChu raised her glass of fruit juice up. "A toast!"

Making a speech was mandatory, but Miorine kept it brief. She sat down again. "There will be plenty of things to discuss later about what we plan on bringing to the market first, but in the meantime there is a more immediate matter I need to tell you about. We have not made a public announcement yet, so this is something you will need to keep to yourselves for the time being." She could not keep the happy smile from her face. "Suletta and I will be getting married next month. Of course, you are all invited to the wedding. In fact, I would be honoured if you would all consent to be our attendants."

That got a response of universal shocked silence. She had expected some surprise, since most people probably assumed it would not happen until Suletta was well along in her recovery. Miorine continued. "The ceremony is going to be something of a challenge for Suletta in her current state. I have some ideas that I wanted to bounce off you."

It finally clicked. Suddenly all the girls were squealing and practically climbing over the table. They all tried to hug her at once.

In due course, some semblance of order was restored and people resumed their seats. Everybody looked elated. "That was quite the mic-drop," Ojelo said. "You made poor Nuno cry," he quipped, patting him on the shoulder.

"That's because I nearly had a heart attack!" Nuno cried. He sniffed and wiped an eyes. "Don't drop that on us like it's some merger announcement!"

"Forgive me I know this was abrupt," Miorine said. "I'm happier than I can say that this will be happening soon. But there are also some issues I need to tell you about."

She explained the reasons why the wedding needed to happen soon, and why despite the difficulty it was important that there be a ceremony. She explained some of the ideas she had. In short order they all fell straight into the familiar process of brainstorming. It taught Miorine much. There were some challenges she had not considered, but also some solutions she had not considered. As the afternoon drew on the talk became more specific and more technical. Action plans were hammered out and assigned.

The point came where Miorine was satisfied they had done everything they could for today. "Unless there are any other questions or concerns, I think that's a wrap."

"Just to be clear," Ojelo said a little nervously. "We're talking about a one-shot for the wedding here. I mean, Suletta's going to get better, right?"

Some others in the room were giving him a look that said not the time. Miorine found herself actually wanting to talk about it. "She's definitely going to need treatment. We've been reviewing some options, but... frankly I don't like any of them so far. They're mostly adaptations of treatments for other conditions. None of them really have a solid track record. All of them have risks. Most involve pretty aggressive use of prosthetic devices. None of them..." None of them would leave her looking pretty. "None of them are optimal."

"That's surprising," Till said. "There have been Data Storm syndrome cases for decades now."

"None of them are scions of the Great Houses." Miorine was unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

"Most Spacian doctors have probably never seen Data Storm syndrome," ChuChu said contemptuously.

"ChuChu!" Lilique chided. "That's not true."

"It is! Most people with the syndrome are from Earth and most of them are treated there! There's even this doctor in South New World sector who is so famous they talk about him in my home town on the other side of the planet. Got this big-ass clinic where he treats like thousands of cases."

"I think I know who you're talking about," Nuno said. "Doctor Jordan Lesterton."

ChuChu pointed at him. "Yeah, that's the guy! Probably treated more cases than all the Spacian doctors put together."

Nuno nodded. "If you include his crowd-sourced and Pro Bono work, maybe so."

Miorine was intrigued. "I confess that I hadn't been looking into any Earth-based clinics yet." She smiled. "Thank you, I am definitely going to check into that."

They said their goodbyes and Miorine exited the building, walking briskly to her next meeting. While she walked she pulled out her phone, found a description of the Lesterton clinic and scanned it. It was interesting enough that she decided to text Anton to see if he was available for a chat.

It was less than a minute later that his voice call came. "Question for you. Are you familiar with a Doctor Jordan Lesterton?"

"Sure, we go way back. Whenever I see him at a conference we usually end up finding a gym and doing way too much sparring. Are you maybe considering his program for Suletta?"

"You've read my mind. Could you reach out to him on my behalf?"

"I can do better. I'll gather up her diagnostics, compose a request letter and send it out to him. He's always good about answering back, I'll let you know when he does. I think his program might be a good fit, bit you realize his practice is Earth-side, right?"

"Yes. That wouldn't be an issue. Thanks, I'm really grateful."

They ended the call and Miorine continued walking to her meeting. The greenery of the habitat felt more refreshing than before, even with the lingering signs of the havoc it had suffered. Would that all days were this productive.

#-#-#-#-#

Aliya adjusted the strap around Suletta's waist. "Is that too tight?"

"No, but I feel like it's going against the back of my knee now."

"Probably need to shorten the leg strut by a couple of notches," Ojelo suggested.

Miorine watched the adjustment process from a short distance away. They were borrowing a small lab room in a building close to the hospital. Suletta sat in a chair, strapped into a compact, form-fitting prosthetic. It covered her arms, legs and torso like a thick, black bodysuit. Aliya and Lilique were to either side of Suletta, checking all the straps and making adjustments under Ojelo's instructions. Next to them Nuno was working a tablet, downloading software to the prosthetic.

"Ouch."

"Sorry," Aliya said.

"No, no, turn to the right to shorten," Ojelo said.

"Do you want to do this yourself?"

Ojelo put up his hand defensively. "No, I think you've got it covered. Three turns to the right should do it."

In deference to the feelings of all involved, Suletta was wearing a two-piece swimsuit in lieu of the underwear she would be wearing under the prosthetic during the wedding. Nevertheless, the two boys had been rather nervous the whole time. Miorine had made it very clear that for the male members of the team there was a strict look but don't touch rule with respect to her fiancee. Hence the slightly cumbersome chain of command.

Nuno swiped the tablet. "Pressure and tension numbers all look good. I think we're ready for a standing test. Suletta, you remember what we said?"

"When seated, forward pressure initiates a stand."

"Right. Give it a try."

The forward move of her upper torso was barely perceptible. But it appeared to do the trick. With a smooth, slow motion, it lifted Suletta off the chair and into a standing position.

"Okay, let's just hold that." They waited a few seconds. "Everything looks stable. How does it feel?"

"It's fine. I can feel the micro-adjustments you were talking about."

"Yep, getting good feedback. Boss, can we get you here fore a walk test?"

Miorine walked up beside Suletta. They exchanged a smile. A barely visible motion of her shoulder triggered the arm prosthetic to raise her arm. It was a remarkably natural motion, almost as if Suletta were doing it herself. She linked her own arm with Suletta's. "I'm ready."

"Okay boss, you set the pace. For today we'll just go to the wall, do a one-eighty and back to the chair for another one-eighty. Full test will be for another time."

"Just a second." Lilique tapped on her phone and held it up. It started playing the opening chords of a wedding march. Miorine met Lilique's eyes and raised an eyebrow. Really? Well, it was a dry rehearsal and it would help set the correct pace.

Miorine walked slowly in time to the march. As she had been advised, sensors in the arm prosthetic detected her movement and had the legs keep time. In just a few minutes they had executed the routine, and Suletta was positioned in front of the chair once again. The seating move was a little more slow and awkward than the standing had been, but it worked.

"How did I look?" Suletta asked.

"Elegant!" Lilique enthused.

"The posture was good," Aliya confirmed. Miorine had noticed her walking around them as they walked. There were multiple cameras recording and of course the prosthetic was pushing diagnostic logs out, but the final judge would have to be a human eye.

"Okay, that's a wrap," Nuno said. "Next time the adjustments will be automatic, so it will go a lot quicker."

Ojelo bent over Suletta and gave her a salute. "Nicely done! Still feels okay?"

"Yes. That was fun!"

"Glad to hear it. You're being a sport but I know that's not comfortable so we can get those off you now."

The removal was a lot quicker, the girls mostly just did it themselves without any intervention. Miorine smiled. Sometimes the miraculous takes a bit of work.

Lilique clapped twice and went into what Miorine called kindergarten teacher mode. "Okay, it's time to get the groom changed for her trip back so the male gaze party is over. Let's go, chop chop."

"Wasn't gazing," Miorine might have heard somebody mutter.

Once the female-only space had been established, Miorine went over to help the girls get Suletta dressed. She had been considering hiring the nurse, but it went quite smoothly with just the three of them. The articulated power wheelchair was designed to help the process, so in short order they said their goodbyes and Miorine walked back to the hospital, with Suletta's wheelchair detecting her phone app and dutifully rolling beside her. "It was great working with everyone again," Suletta said brightly.

"Ojelo was right when he said you were being a sport. I'm proud of you."

"It was hardly any work for me at all. Really, it was fun."

"I think tomorrow we'll be trying the glove prosthetic."

"You mean for the exchange of rings?" Suletta asked.

"Yes. I suspect that one is going to take a lot of practice."

"We'll also have to practice the kiss."

Miorine smiled. "I think we get plenty of practice."

"I mean kissing in public. We've never done that. Want to try?"

"Try? Where?"

"Here."

"Here?" Miorine reflexively looked around. They were in front of the hospital now, so there was a bit of foot traffic, also people resting on the green. "You mean, now?"

"Sure."

Miorine stopped walking. She looked serious. "Okay, if you want."

"Can you put my chair in stand mode?"

"Can't I just bend over?"

"This is supposed to be practice for when we're standing."

Miorine was getting a bit irritated. "Put it in standing mode yourself. This was your idea and it will be good practice."

Suletta did not object. She concentrated and the chair started lifting her into a standing position in response to pressure she had put on the safety harness across her upper chest.

When it was done, Suletta looked down at her. She smiled awkwardly. "I knew I would have to bend down a bit, but..."

"It's not a proper test," Miorine insisted. "Look, the chair is holding your feet above the ground."

"Not by much. If you stand on your toes that will even it out."

Miorine sighed. "If you insist." She tentatively raised her heels up a bit, went back down then took Suletta by the shoulders. She looked down at her in puzzlement. "I don't want to lose my balance," she explained testily. She went up on her toes and they kissed. Miorine resisted the temptation to glance around and check whether anybody had been watching. She couldn't help fidgeting. "It's a little different standing up. I guess you're right, we'll need to practice. Let me get that for you." She pressed the button to put Suletta back into a seated position before she got any ideas about trying that again.

They resumed their return to the hospital. "Miorine, I just want to ask, are you sensitive about your height?"

"I am not sensitive about my height."

"That's good. I guess if you had married Guel that would be even harder."

"That gorilla? I would practically have needed to be in a labour exoskeleton."

There was just a moment's pause before Suletta spoke again. "When he was the Holder did he ever-"

"Of course not! I told you, ours was my first kiss." She involuntarily gave Suletta a brief, nervous sidelong glance.

"He didn't try to kiss me either."

"I didn't ask!"

"Will he be coming to the wedding?"

"Why are we even talking about him? Yes, he'll be coming to the wedding. The heads of all the Great Houses will be there." Miorine stopped them some distance from the hospital entrance. This was a side entrance for patients and guests, so it was a light traffic area, especially now when a large portion of the Front's population had evacuated. She sighed. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm nervous. I really want this to go well." She looked down at her fiancee. "Suletta, when the day comes, let's try to set aside all this other nonsense and make it about you and me."

Suletta smiled up at her. "I've never thought of it any other way."

#-#-#-#-#

When the last of the procession of departing wedding guests was out of earshot, Ojelo was the first to voice the palpable sense of relief that seemed to settle over all of them. "I can hardly believe it, we actually pulled this off." Till elbowed him. He took the hint. He addressed himself to the couple. "Congratulations," he said a little apologetically.

The other members of the Earthian House quickly echoed his sentiment. They walked out from the positions they had been keeping to either side of the couple and formed up into a semicircle around them. The last segment of the ceremony had been in this wide hall with one entire wall occupied by a vast window looking out onto the slowly rotating stars. Miorine and Suletta had their backs to that window. The boys were all in their black formal wear, the girls in their gowns. Miorine had insisted upon them and only them as being the attendants of her wedding. They all looked happy, though Nuno still looked a bit awkward as if he really wanted as quickly as possible to get out of this "monkey suit" as he had called it, a reference that was lost on Miorine. As to ChuChu... one of these things doesn't belong here. She had staunchly refused to change her hair, and its contrast to her gown was truly surreal. She had used too much makeup, and her wiping of tears that she emphatically denied were ever there had done it little good.

Suletta, on the other hand, was a vision.

Their matching white gowns were very billowy, multilayered affairs that covered them from the neck down to the floor, a choice more or less necessitated by Suletta's exoskeleton. They included lacy white gloves that covered the exoskeleton finger manipulators over thumb, index and middle finger while leaving the ring finger and pinkie exposed. All the better for the rings.

After much discussion, they had decided to bring in a professional makeup artist and give Suletta a foundation which concealed the Data Storm remnants. She had done a remarkable job of matching Suletta's original skin tone. It was like seeing her exactly as she was before the destruction of Quiet Zero.

One day, she will look like this again for real. We will make it happen.

The ceremony had gone off without a hitch. There had been compromises, it had been a shorter and simpler affair than was the norm. In place of sitting for dinner, Miorine had simply fed both herself and her new wife from the same piece of wedding cake. Many people had declared it to be an absolutely delightful gesture, and Miorine had certainly found it so. Another trick had been to give Suletta a bouquet of flowers held by her hand prosthetic, obviating the need for her to shake hands with anyone.

They chatted amiably for a few minutes about nothing in particular. The Earthians asked about some of the guests, and Miorine talked a bit about some of the people she knew but they did not. Guel had been there, and so now they had a bit of fun psycho-analyzing his reaction to seeing his former fiancee getting married to somebody else. Miorine was not the only one who noticed that he was escorting Felsi, the young pilot who had probably saved Guel and his brother from killing each other during the Quiet Zero battle.

Shortly, Lilique suggested they let the couple have some time on their own here, while they were still in their gowns. Before he filed out with the rest, Nuno approached and gave them an uncharacteristically gentle smile. "Just give the word," he said softly. "and I'll bring out the chair."

"Thank you, Nuno," Miorine said. She understood the subtext. It had been a long day. Suletta would be getting increasingly tired and uncomfortable, they should not linger long.

When they were alone, Miorine faced her wife. She did not care if it sounded corny. "You look like a Princess."

"You look like an angel."

"I always look like a ghost when I'm in white."

Suletta's eyes dropped shyly down to the bouquet in her hands. "I wish I could look at my ring."

"You can look at it all your life." She held up her own. "It looks like this."

Suletta's lip quivered a little. "It was hard, but I didn't cry once."

Miorine just nodded. She centred herself, bringing to the front of her mind the things she needed to say. "Suletta, I'd like to tell you something. You should regard this as an extension of my wedding vows. I've given you many reasons to doubt me and to be disappointed in me. I know you forgive me, and I have forgiven myself. But I still do not trust myself. I am still the same person who hurt you so many times. I had hoped that this day would come later when maybe I have made myself worthy of you. For now, I consider myself to be on probation. I was just starting to learn how to be your friend, and now I need to learn how to be your wife. I barely know what that is supposed to mean. Right now, it means that I will dedicate my body and soul to helping you and protecting you. And what love I am capable of giving is yours. Beyond that, as time goes on I'm sure we will talk many times, setting the terms of our relationship and our marriage. I'm sorry, it all must sound very cold and clinical, but I think it was important for me to tell you this."

Suletta smiled and shook her head. "It doesn't sound cold at all. It makes me feel very warm."

Soon, regretfully, Miorine signalled for Nuno to come bring the happiest day in her life to a close.

#-#-#-#-#

"Miorine, why do you have your suitcase with you?"

Miorine cocked her head, standing just inside the door of Suletta's room. "Why? I'm moving in of course."

Suletta looked very confused. "You mean, into the hospital?"

"I mean into the room." She wheeled her suitcase across the room to the closet. "I just brought the necessities, the rest is being delivered. It's not much, so there's plenty of room." She opened the closet door, laid down the case and cracked it open. "Lights out is at eleven, right?"

"Yes." Suletta answered, still sounding rather confused.

"Good, then there's plenty of time to get unpacked and ready for bed."

There was another pause before Suletta spoke again, rather tentatively. "I was wondering why you were here so late. I thought maybe you couldn't make it today."

"I'm sorry about that, it was sort of busy today."

"Is it really okay for you to live here here?"

"Yes, it'll be fine, they allow family members. It's' en suite with a shower. I can even use the laundry service, it's all been arranged."

There was just a slight pause again. "Where are you going to sleep?"

Miorine turned around and pointed to the bed. "Well right there of course. I've already been lying down in it, its perfectly fine and plenty big enough."

"You didn't say anything about this."

Miorine put her hands on her hips, lowered her head and sighed theatrically. She looked back at Suletta and raised up her hand, her ring visible on her outstretched finger. "You do recall we got married last week, right? It's perfectly natural that we would be living together."

"I thought... maybe after I'm out of the hospital."

"Well, it's still not clear when that will happen, so in the meantime we'll just need to make do." She walked over to the door. "After you are released I'm likely to be your primary caregiver, so we need to get used to living in the same space." She closed and locked the door, setting the privacy light.

"Miorine, why did you close the door?" Suletta asked anxiously.

"Because I'll be changing into my nightwear now."

"You mean, here?" Miorine looked over to where Suletta lay in the bed. Her expression could only be described as one of panic.

Miorine finally lost it. She doubled over, laughing uncontrollably. "Oh my God," she wheezed. "The look on your face." She just couldn't stop.

"Stop laughing already! I was really surprised, you know!"

Miorine finally got herself under control. She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry. I was going to call ahead, but when things got busy and I forgot... I just couldn't resist. Were you really so shocked?"

Suletta's indignant expression was slowly fading into one of just mild puzzlement. "So, you're really moving in?"

"Yes. I was serious about us getting used to living together. But... I also want to. I thought it would be a nice surprise, but I got carried away. So I'll ask you properly now. Is it okay if I move in with you here?"

"Yes. I was actually kind of happy when you said that. It's just... it felt like you had gone back to the way you treated me when we first met."

"Ah, the return of Evil Miorine. She's still in there you know. This probably won't be her last appearance." Without looking and practically without thinking she had been going back to the familiar habit of stroking Suletta's hand. "If I start reverting again, you'll have to reel me back in."

"I'm not sure if you're joking."

"Sort of halfway I suppose. It would be all too easy for bad habits to return. But as long as you're with me, I think I'll be fine."

That got the smile she had been hoping to see. "I guess that was pretty funny. I am glad that you're really moving in."

"Me too." Miorine stood up. "I'm going to change now." She smiled playfully. "You looked so shocked the last time I told you that, so if you're feeling embarrassed you don't have to look. I won't be offended either way."

Miorine made the window opaque, changed and climbed onto the bed. She crawled over and got into her familiar position kneeling down facing Suletta. "I'm sorry I missed dinner. Did you have any trouble finishing?" Miorine fed her when she was here, otherwise a hospital aide helped her.

"No, no trouble. All solid food is fine for me now."

"Good. You're comfortable?" It was code for whether she thought they might need to call a nurse for help with anything before she went to sleep.

"Yes. They gave me a nice hot bath today."

Miorine spoke gently. "About that. I really did decide to move in because I thought it would be fun for both of us. But there's something else. After you're discharged, it's likely that for a while I am going to be your primary caregiver. I am going to be helping you wash and dress yourself, helping you with pretty much everything. I want to help get us in a place where we are both comfortable with that. So have I gone and messed it all up?"

Suletta smiled and shook her head. "No. I think you did it right."

"I'm glad." Her smile broadened. "Suletta, I have some news for you. It's probably the reason I feel so good and I'm acting so strangely today. It's something I haven't talked with you about until now because I didn't want to get your hopes up until I was really sure about it. Today I had a video conference with a doctor on Earth who I think can help you."

That really seemed to take her by surprise. "On Earth?"

"Yes. He has a large clinic in the South New World sector that has treated thousands of Data Storm syndrome cases. He has developed a special program for them. It's a relatively low-tech approach, but it has a proven track record. He's reviewed your case and is quite certain they can help you make a full recovery. Only, it won't be easy. It's heavy on physical therapies, electric stimulation and exercise. Hours of it every day, a lot of it very hard and very uncomfortable. And it's no shortcut. He said that full recovery could take a long time." There was just the barest of hesitation before she was able to utter the unvarnished truth. "Up to three or four years."

Suletta's eyes went wide. "Years? But some of the other options we've been talking about could take just weeks!"

Miorine took in a deep breath, and continued in a voice that was calm but was being restrained by sheer will. "That's true, but none of those options would leave you the way you were before. They all involve permanent prosthetic devices of one sort or another, and none of them would give you the same mobility you used to have."

Suletta contemplated that in silence for a moment. "I'm not sure I can wait that long. I want to walk by your side, Miorine. I want to stop being a burden to you."

Miorine had increasing trouble keeping the desperation out of her voice. "I want to walk by your side too, Suletta, I want it more than anything I've ever wanted in my life. But I'm greedy, I want it all. I want the strong Suletta who I could barely keep up with. I don't want to see you hobbling with all sorts of machines keeping you up."

Suletta regarded her closely. "It sounds like you've already decided this is the right choice." It was not an accusation, just a statement of fact.

"No, I..." There was no point. "Yes, you're right. I am not trying to make this decision for you but I am trying with all my might to get you to make the choice that I want so desperately. Since the day I tricked you into being my groom I still haven't stopped manipulating you. This whole thing of moving in all of a sudden... I do it even when I don't know I'm doing it. I'm doing it right now, even while I'm pretending to confess my sins to you. I already scheduled a video conference with you and them for tomorrow and I didn't even tell you because I was so afraid-"

"Miorine, it's okay."

Suletta's voice had been firm but infinitely gentle. She waited for Miorine to be calm enough to speak again. "Have I messed up again?"

"Miorine, take my hand." She did. "Pretend I'm squeezing yours. Are you pretending?"

"Yes."

"I've realized something too. Something I've been doing. I trust you completely, but I've been using that as an excuse to let you do everything. You tried to make this decision for me because I didn't want to make it myself."

Suletta graced her with a warm smile. "Tomorrow, let's talk with this doctor from Earth. I'll listen very carefully. I'll ask everything I want to ask. Then I'll think very hard about what I want to do. And then we can talk about it. I promise I won't make you do it all yourself any more. Let's do it together."

Miorine found that she had no words. They just gazed into each others' eyes for a while. At length, Miorine asked "Can I stop pretending?" That seemed to puzzle her. "That you're squeezing my hand. I want a kiss, but I have to let go first."

"You can stop pretending." She did, and they did. When Miorine knelt back down again, Suletta continued. "I really am going to think hard about this. But... I know in my heart what I want to do. If this really is what you told me, then that is what I want. I want to go to Earth with you."

Miorine nodded. "There's a waiting list, but he said we can probably expedite it and get started as early as next month." She sighed. "There I go again. Old habits die hard."

Suletta giggled. "You always like to take charge. I'm used to that."

"You're right. But when I heard about this, it was the first time I felt real hope in what seemed like an eternity. I really do think this is the best thing, but... it also just feels right. It just feels like the thing we need to do."

"You did make me promise to go to Earth with you. It would make me really happy if we could do it so soon. Can you tell me more about it?"

Miorine decided this was not the time to pull out the voluminous materials she had been given and do any sort of deep dive. She just showed Suletta some pictures of the clinic, and showed her where it was on the map. Soon, she decided it was time to approach a different matter. "Suletta, now that we're married, and now that we are well on the way to taking this other new step, I feel like I've reached a threshold. Once we have a really good idea what we will be doing, I think I'll be ready to go have a talk with your mother."

They had discussed this, so Suletta understood the implied question. Almost immediately she smiled. It appeared she had already made her own decision. "When you do, just tell mother and Eri that I love them both very, very much."

Miorine regarded her closely. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. "I have forgiven her. But I am sure she has not forgiven herself yet. I think being with Eri will help her."

"If we do go to Earth, it might be a while before you can see her again."

"I know. I think it will take her a long time. I can wait."

Before long, it was lights out. At least so far, it appeared that neither of them snored.

#-#-#-#-#

Miorine stepped out of the change-room that she had been directed to. "Thank you for waiting."

Kenanji raised an eyebrow. "I see you are determined for this to be strictly business."

She gave him a pleasant smile. "That's very perceptive. You are correct." She had changed from her slacks into her formal business attire. The trip here had required passage on a shuttle, and she had never really mastered the art of wearing skirts in micro-gravity. She had much respect for the flight-attendants who had.

They proceeded to the entrance of the military prison, where they navigated the elaborate screening process, including the confiscation of her phone. Not surprising, since they were here to visit the most high-profile terrorist prisoner in Dominicus history. Miorine was one of the few people who could successfully petition for a visit, and she suspected that Kenanji had to pull in some favours to make it happen.

Before the meeting, they were directed to a tiny meeting room for a briefing. With the warden himself as it turned out, a very stern-faced Dominicus officer who gave an impression of perpetual annoyance with people who came asking favours.

He cut to the chase. "Prospera is still being investigated for a terrorist act, and multiple technology prohibition violations. The strict policy in these cases is that the prisoner receive no information from the outside world that could compromise our ability to obtain information from them. She has been subject to a complete news blackout. There are also aspects of her incarceration she is not at liberty to discuss. If either you or the prisoner violates these terms, the interview will be terminated immediately. If you do intend to inform her of anything that has happened since her arrest, I need to approve those first."

"Just two items."

"Those being?"

"First, that her daughter and I are now married. Second, that we will soon be moving to Earth so that she can begin her treatments for Data Storm syndrome. Would that be acceptable?"

"So this is a family visit?" He seemed rather more annoyed at not having been told this previously.

"Technically, yes."

"I can see no objection."

After hearing a rather excruciatingly long-winded checklist of things not to do, she parted company with Kenanji and was directed to a small room with a chair facing a table in front of a window. She was locked in the room with an armed guard. After a few minutes, a door on the other side of the window opened.

Prospera was in a wheelchair which apparently was not under power, since it was pushed into the room by another guard. She was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit. Her face was a rather colder variation on Suletta's, under dark hair that had now been cut short. The beginnings of Data Storm syndrome were now clearly visible on the left side of her face. She locked onto Miorine's eyes as soon as she was in sight, grim and expressionless.

There were a number of ways Miorine could have addressed her, by her assumed name or her real one. But she had made that decision a while ago. A light came on, indicating that the intercom was active.

"Hello, Mother." Miorine's hands were folded on the shelf, her wedding ring clearly visible. Prospera's glance down at it was just long enough for Miorine to pick up on it.

"Congratulations. When did this happen?"

"Two weeks ago."

"It seems you were in a hurry. Suletta must still be very dependent upon you, hardly in a position to object."

It was exactly the sort of quick thrust Miorine had expected. "I told her I want to support and protect her for as long as we live, in whatever capacity she will accept me. She has blessed me by consenting to be my wife. As for the timing, that was due to circumstances unrelated to the family."

"So, you were serious."

Miorine knew what she was referring to. "Yes, I was serious when I said that you and I need to be a family for both of your daughters. But for that to happen, you and I need to come to an understanding."

"About what, exactly?"

"About how we will try to atone for the atrocious way we both treated the ones we are now daring to call our family."

"Atone to them? They would forgive us anything."

"Not atone to them. Atone to each other for them. You already know the first thing they are allowing me to tell you," Miorine said, raising her hand with the wedding ring. "This is the last thing. I will be taking Suletta to Earth where she is going to be treated for the Data Storm curse. It will be long and difficult, and I will give her all the support she needs. Further, I will do everything I can to build a place for her where she can be happy and safe and free. When she can stand by my side in that place, then I will ask you whether you are satisfied with what I have done for her."

Prospera did not react to this in any way. "And me?"

It was a perfect prompt for Miorine to segue straight to the next thing she wanted to say. "Through some miracle Suletta has brought your other daughter back to you. I want to see what you do with that miracle. You are just as muzzled by this place as I am, so if you try and tell me what has been happening with Eri they will probably kick me out of here."

Miorine leaned forward. "But I am more interested in what you will do. I have little idea what she could become in the state she has been brought back. But work with that, raise her to be somebody who we can bring back to Suletta as a sister. You raised one daughter who is a miracle, whatever else you have done to her you also must have given her something that you can also give to Eri. If I am happy with how you have cared for Eri and you are happy with how I have cared for Suletta then maybe you and I can make our peace and become the family they deserve."

She leaned back again and looked intently into Prospera's eyes. "So, am I wasting my time here or are you up for this?"

It was the first time Prospera had not responded immediately. After a moment, she slowly leaned forward, rested her elbows on the table in front of her and regarded Miorine over the steeple of her fingers.

"It appears that we both have a lot of work to do."

It was like being presented the superposition of the same answer given by two people. They were both accepting the challenge, but in utterly different ways. The first was the mother who wanted to prove that she was worthy of her daughters and wanted to do right by them. She spoke clearly. You and I must do this thing together.

The second was a predator sizing up its competition, judging how it could be manipulated, lured, tricked, beaten. She was equally clear. Do not presume to challenge me, you are in way over your head.

It was a mirror into which Miorine found that she could now look without flinching.

"Our work will be to transform ourselves. We are a pair of selfish, arrogant sociopaths who think we are always right. We respond to everything with anger and resentment just because we were dealt a hand we thought was unfair. We are full of pain and hate, and so far all we've done is learn to use the hate. Maybe now we can be driven by love instead. I'm going to try. What are you going to do?"

Prospera put her hands down on the table, closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "Such a beautiful dream. But look at where we are. How can we ever all be together?"

"There are options, appeals we can make. Compassionate medical release, commuting to house arrest. If you can step up then maybe I can make it happen." Miorine leaned forward. She tried as hard as she could to take all the anger and pack it away, tried to be driven only by the one thing that mattered.

"Please, Mother. Let us both try to be worthy of Suletta's love."

There was a wavering, a flickering, a hint at the possibility of a superposition collapse. But the predator still remained as a possible outcome.

By clear mutual understanding, that applied on both sides of the glass.

"There are two things I am allowed to tell you about Eri. She is happy here. And she is happy for the two of you." She smiled. "And so am I."

"I will pass that on. Suletta sends her love." Miorine smiled with equal parts warmth and irony. "Naturally."

END OF PART ONE