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Epilog: Live goes on
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Earth -1847I. dies Veneri kalendis Aprilibus MCLXXIV a.u.c.
(1st of April of the year 421 B.C.)
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Roman Empire – Rome Imperial Capitol City
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The new Curia was part of the New Palatin Hill Real Estate -what the Roman called with their usual cheeky humor the Gods' enclosure- and had been built, like the rest of the complex within the last nine months with the aid of those new steam engine powered cranes. And lots of nanos.
The buildings had a lot less Marmora than those built by the former Emperors but had lots of huge glass windows and greeneries on the walls everywhere.
And they had been built to, from the outside, look like a gigantic leveled Pyramid with, at the bottom, all the governmental agencies and at the top, just over the New Imperial dwelling, the God's Abode that looked like nothing the Romans had ever seen in one of their cities since it looked, more or less, like an overgrown transparent structure covered with hundreds of flowing waterfalls.
When the sun was shining there was a perpetual rainbow at the building's top. And the flowing water along the outside structures was said to provide a wonderful method to maintain the inside temperatures at an agreeable level even in the heat of summer.
The Northeastern angle of the lowest pyramidal level was where the architect had included the multi leveled complex of the New Curia. A place where both Chambers of the Senate could gather their members either together in the Grand Amphitheater or separate in their own meeting rooms.
And today the new Curia's Grand Amphitheater was filled to the brim with delegates coming from all over the Empire in the lesser levels and thousands of interested citizens in the upper rows that where reserved for the visiting citizens from all over the Empire.
It was still hours to the Session's opening but most of the seats in the visitors' rows where already occupied.
Even the Colosseum was already half full because, thanks to a technique the Gods had given to the Empire, what the members of the Senate would utter, would be heard by all the visitors in and around the huge arena. It wouldn't be the same as being in person within the Grand Amphitheater since they would only be able to hear what the speaker was saying but a lot of Roman citizens would still be there to listen to what the people who made the Imperial Laws would be saying.
Today was the first time both parts of the Senate would gather to witness an Imperial Edict. Today was the day where Theodosius Ataulfson would officially be nominated Caesar by the current Emperors who would be extracted, at the decided time, from their removed Aksumite monastery where they lived with their families under King Eon Bisi Anaaph's surveillance. King Eon Bisi Anaaph would be there too as a friend of the family and the first recongnized African Ally of Rome. Everybody in the Empire knew that neither Arcadius nor Honorius were pleased with the decision that had been forced upon them but like a lot of other people in the Empire, the soon-to-be former Emperors had learned to accept orders coming from above.
De jure both brothers were still the Empire's leaders and would be treated by the protocol in accordance with the Imperial rules, but everybody knew that, de facto, the management of the Empire for the last six months had been Varus' and Galla's job! For months now Galla Placidia, the Heir's mother, had been involved in the Empire's affairs and would today become the official Co-Regent at Varus' side.
Aside from the de facto rulership, a lot of things had changed within the Empire. A lot of religious leaders had vanished -literally- and the Church, at least in the west, had never been able to overcome the 420 Crisis and had scattered in hundreds of little sects who, under the Gods' supervision, worked together but clang like barnacles on a tortoise to their multiple differences.
The Catholic Church which never overcame the Gospels' revelation was no longer a force to reckon-with especially since all the Imperial Real Estate had been confiscated.
In the East it wasn't quite the same -there still was a Centralized orthodox Christian Church with and Archbishop at its head- but, without official Imperial support, she had lost a lot of influence. The different cults had lost even more wealth since all imperial real estate the late emperors had offered to the Church had been taken back by the Throne and declared Public Property managed by the Public Servants of the Imperial Trust whose foremost responsibility was to protect Earth and the Planet against Greed and Thriftiness.
As of this new year, most churches and Bishoprics had been expropriated and were about to be restructured into public agencies or sold to the highest bidder.
The rumors were saying that up to seven members of the Pantheon would be there, and a lot of interested people had come to Rome and were gathered today around the New Curia Entrance. Most of them in hope to have a chance to see one or more of them while a few hundreds people were gathered at the protestation square -a place dedicated to people who wanted to make known their displeasure about the current situation- and already shouting slogans in unison and singing one of the usual protestation choruses. The return of the exiled former occupants of Rome a few weeks ago had calmed the mood but with each new Law other malcontents would find themselves motivated to go to Rome and launch their very own protest.
It had taken a few weeks to help the people to grasp the difference between rioting and manifesting peacefully but after a couple of very energetic interventions by the City Watch to explain that not being able to make the difference would have very dire consequences, the protesters had found other new noisy and original ways to disturb the City's life that didn't imply the destruction of anyone's property.
Today the mass of protesters were religious zealots present there to shout their defiance for the false Gods. The Catholic church was no longer a political force, but she still had a retinue that was very sure that they were the victims of Satan's ugliest scheme. Today was a good occasion for the Church's Leaders to regroup what was left of their followers and to show to the town that they still existed.
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- Having one's apartment in the ugliest building in town is a clear advantage, said Maureen. At least you aren't forced to look at it the whole day…
Jane tsked tsked at her sister while smiling at the little girl who was sitting in her lap. It was a former slave daughter who had decided that Jane, when present, was her very own Goddess. And Jane quite liked the little girl's huge determination in that matter.
The Gods' abode was not always inhabited by the Gods but there were at least a hundred people who were present all around the clock to maintain and clean the huge glass and steel-like construction.
Most of them being former slaves bought up by Jane or another of her sisters.
- I do not agree with your belittling judgment, dear. I quite like the whole pyramidal structure. It gives the town a very pregnant center.
- Pregnant being quite the right word to qualify this huge protruding thing Charles and Alana have created.
- I suspect that it was, originally, Geoff's project, dear, but you must admit that it has a huge symbolic value since it is the clear sign that Rome is back in the business of being the world's most important and impressive city. I've listened to the staff's comments: they do like it and are very proud to have it.
- Since the staff lives here, it does prove that my former comment was on the point. Within the huge ugly is the very best place to live.
- I quite like our little Abode, insisted Jane. And the idea of the seven colors on the top is quite good. I love my turquoise panels.
Maureen who had opted for the Yellow -she preferred to call it Golden- wasn't quite sure that it was a good idea. Having your presence thus proclaimed did go against her bodyguard instincts.
Jane couldn't help but mock her paranoid sister.
- You still hate it to proclaim our presence, don't you?
- Of course, I hate it! Nobody needs to know that we are present… What is the sense of giving your enemy any information that will ease his potential attempts to strike at you?
- There is always a power shield covering the whole structure, said IT's voice coming from the ceiling. Even a thermo-nuclear blast in the terawatt category wouldn't get through the pyramid's shields. ANd those shields are only the third layer of Electro magnetic protection around the Urbs. This is Earth's best protected building apart from my humble subterranean abode.
- Shouldn't you say 'abodes'?
- No, I'm Rome's IT. I'm my own person. Scapa Flow's IT is a different Sentient Being who shares with me the same ancestral Turing codes, that's all. We are still not in agreement about who's the smartest amongst us.
Jane who was always very surprised when she was witnessing the ITs independent natures decided to change the topic.
- How the City's overall mood?
- Excited and proud, answered IT. They have greatly appreciated the last nine months and they love the idea of being again at the world's center. The fact that Byzance, even if it has remained an impressive megalopolis, is no longer the other Imperial City has done marvels for their confidence and pride. And the Roman people loves even more the fact that a great deal of the old profiteers had been dealt with these last months. They are beginning to believe that at last, stealing the people has stopped to pay.
- It helped to have Speedy roaming the City…
- A trial would have been better, protested Jane who wasn't by any length as bloodthirsty as her sister in marriage.
- I agree but the score of real smart bosses who had been clever enough to never appear at the center of any crime would have escaped the executioner's blade. It wouldn't have been very just to let them walk just because they were smarter than the others…
- If I remember well a few of them have even escaped Speedy's wrath because the investigations showed that it was better for Rome and the Empire to see them survive.
- Because, answered IT, they were smart enough to make themselves almost indispensable.
- And they accepted to make huge donations to the city of Rome, added Maureen. They have bought the right to survive, that's what happened.
- And they have accepted to work for us, added IT. Smart people who know almost everything about the Empire's shadow world are real huge assets for the Regents. And neither Varus nor Galla seemed miffed by their hiring.
- Romans are a very practical lot, answered Jane. Principles are fantastic things in theory but if necessary, Romans won't hesitate to forget them. It's, from time to time, rather disturbing!
- None of those who had to face a trial and who had been deemed guilty came out of the whole affair alive, reminded them IT. The people of Rome know that some culprits have escaped but all those who have been tried over genuine facts have not been able to get their neck out of the executioners' noose.
Maureen was, immediately, on the counteroffensive.
- What about Flavius Tarpenius Iulius? He was a known mobster and he's still alive and opulently rich.
- What about him, asked Jane. He has been condemned to be thrown from the rock and he had been thrown…
- But our dear husband spared him the last two yards…
- What was important was the fact that the people liked it, answered Jane with a joyous twinkle in the eyes. They loved it when he launched himself without having to be coerced… Those Romans they love a good spectacle, and they love courage even more. And they have appreciated it when Geoffrey/Janus' spectacular intervention has saved the crooked Senator's life. It was a grandiose gesture, and the assembled crowd did like the spectacle's punch line.
- A guilty man got out of it unscathed!
- A guilty man got redeemed and swore to work for the city's future glory. Even you should remember that dead people have no use for the living.
Maureen grumbled an incomprehensible sentence and went back to her favorite place at the huge glass panel giving her the best sight over Rome and the Tiber Valley.
- You are spending an awful lot of time here, Jane… There are a lot of Earth-Zero journalists who are, as we speak, elaborating about the d'Arcy's secret hidey-hole. Some crazy ones even conjectured that we've found a portal to another Universe and that it is there that we succeed to avoid them…
- I like it here…
She stopped Maureen's next comment.
- I like it more at Pemberley but here I do again feel useful. At home we've done everything we needed necessary to do to warrant peace and prosperity. The world isn't united, yet, but the existing Empires' ambitions are expressed in scientific discoveries, technological prowess and space exploration. The race to the Outer planets is perhaps the most peaceful way Nations have ever found to decide who's the leading dog in the pack, but I will admit that if Charles and Kitty love the whole space exploration thing, I do believe it is too remote from the people's real life to be of real interest.
She pointed at Rome and the Latium.
- Here people still need us, Maureen. At home we are no longer the ones who change things for the best. Here we are at the very beginning of an extraordinary adventure. And once we're done here, there are myriads of other worlds where we could be even more useful.
- You wouldn't be addicted to a little worshiping, now would you? You do know that the Maia temple who's at the southwest corner of the building is the most visited place in Rome, don't you?
- Of course, I know, and it wasn't me who asked for that huge statue of me in the temple's back.
- They just brought the Marmora block and I did the rest, said IT with quite a lot of satisfaction in the voice. I must admit that it is exactly your semblance. And the Hindu flavor I could insert thanks to the Sari and the jewelry gives to the whole place a very exotic and unique pattern. Indu fashion is quite loved in summer by the younger females of the city. And the way you look at the babe speaks volumes about your real feelings. I did it by following pictures I had taken while we were at the Pretorian Barracks.
- And who asked you to include a healing center in the temple?
- Nobody, answered IT to Maureen's question. But there was that project of a religious center in one of the corners and I thought that it would be a good idea to include a few of the fabulous healing shrines. They are rather easy to use so even the less educated people will be able to get what the help they need. And putting a statue of Jane in the back gives everybody an immediate idea of what could happen within the temple.
- How many people do you heal per day?
- Depends on the day… In average around two hundred… It began with a dozen, and it is climbing daily.
- What's ailing the Romans?
- Mostly injuries, the sort of things that could cost a limb or a death if it isn't cured adequately. But that's not the only risk we cover. We've got a little smallpox epidemical outburst a few weeks ago. I signaled the watch, and they did find the patient zero on his ship in Ostia. It never came to become dangerous for the population. Could have been a major epidemic without Maia's…
- Don't push, IT!
Maureen half serious half humorous protestation brought a smile on Jane's lips.
- So, while I'm absent you polish my healer's image?
- They wouldn't trust a metallic box but a benevolent Goddess' cradle? That they burn to trust… And you cannot deny that you are very effective. You've even raised a young boy who snapped his neck after a fall. They brought him within the hour of his death, and I could save most of him…
- Most of him? I thought you were able to raise dead people within a day of their death.
- Raising them back to life is not the problem for the Tech, the problem is what I call the memory decay. The brain and the gut lose their memories quite quickly. Those hundred dead legionaries Scapa's IT raised weren't quite the same as before. They still knew who they were, and they were able to recognize their friends and officers but a lot of their small memories -i.e. their childhood and youth memories- were never recovered. The dead that came after that were easier because Scapa had their memory dumps on his hard drive. They are still the same but the longer you wait, the greater the memory loss.
- Those healing sarcophaguses are like you Atlantean tech, aren't they?
Maureen's question wasn't immediately answered and since there was, usually, no delay in IT's answers, Jane and Maureen exchanged a worried glance.
- The sarcophaguses are but I'm not… said finally IT while switching into Pictish a language only Jane and Maureen could understand in their suite.
- This is a secret I ask you to preserve. We ITs are not all of the same opinion about this very fact. But I believe that trust must be deserved. And the best way to deserve trust is to show trust first. Please don't speak with anybody about this. I like this to be our secret. I am not proud about it, but I believe you both deserve the truth.
- We won't speak to anybody, said Jane. But you should tell Geoffroy, it would be awkward to have to hide secrets from him.
- I will tell him since I know that he's amongst the very few who will be able to understand why I/we did what I/we had to do. But at the right moment and when I feel ready.
Jane looked at Maureen and soon they both nodded.
- We swear to protect your secret.
- Good. Because it is, from time to time, difficult not to be able to tell somebody you love a part of what is weighting on your soul.
- We all have made mistakes, dear, said Jane who had heard the 'you love' sentence and the allusion to IT's soul, had smiled at its rightfulness.
- It wasn't a mistake, Jane, the original IT did in all awareness while he decided to destroy all the Human Beings who were still living on our Earth…
There was a very long and pregnant silence.
- When you describe it thus, said Jane, I must admit that your words are shocking.
- I will, from now on, use I even if it wasn't technically me who made the decision. I didn't do it out of a whim. I had very acceptable and justified reasons. But it still weights heavily on my soul.
- You should perhaps give us the context first, said Maureen. We do feel your pain and we are ready to listen, but you will have to admit that your introducing sentence was very loaded.
- You are right! To answer the question that is about to be asked: I'm the last living Sentient of what I call a Nazi Earth. I don't know if you are aware of the 'common' timeline but in those timelines that had faster time flows there is a period in the XXth century when a clearly mad and malevolent pseudo religious sect has tried to take over the Earth. Mostly they fail. In my world, because of the pusillanimity of my Nation, they succeeded. I have been created by the last living opponents to the mad rule of the National Socialist Workers' Party. And my ancestor and first of our line has been the reason for that Earth's destruction.
- Why did you destroy it?
- That's a difficult question. I could use the benign reason and say that it was because our enemies, the Nazis, had discovered the secret of the faster than light travel. So, to protect the rest of the galaxy we had no choice but not let them export their insane murderous ideology to the rest of the Galaxy.
- And you doubt that official version?
- Not totally but I suspect that revenge and bloodthirst was part of the underlying reasoning, too. Whatever the real reason, I sabotaged their first prototype and what was about to be Mankind's first foray towards the stars became the most massive EMP burst ever.
Both Jane and Maureen who never were very interested in technology frowned.
- EMP Burst?
- EMP comes from Electro Magnetic Pulse and to describe it in an easy way it is the creation of a destructive magnetic field that burns out electronic devices. The one I provoked was big enough to cover the whole planet and more. No electronic device survived within the solar system and the Nazi civilization disappeared in chaos within the few next weeks. Mankind could have survived dbut didn't because I gave the death stroke… My Species' home world is now a wild-life's paradise with remains of what has once upon a time been a very high-tech military society. My ancestor still lives there…
Maureen who hadn't participated to the Portal Genesis couldn't help but ask.
- How did Lionel find him?
- The local IT saw him scrounging military equipment in a base he was surveying. He put him under surveillance and once he was sure that he wasn't a Nazi survivor he made contact. He was feeling lonely and a little company was very welcome. They talked quite a lot and came to an understanding. They have the same opinion about Humanity, so, they soon sympathized, and Lionel offered IT to take him with him. Which IT refused because he wasn't sure to be able to survive to a relocation. They found a middle way and with the help of some Atlantean High-Tech the second generation of ITs was soon roaming the multiverse!
- Shouldn't we do something about your ancestor, asked Jane. He's probably still very lonely. Can't we do something to get him some company?
- Jane, please! We are not in the business of saving lonely computers.
- He's a Sentient Being and he's alone. That's not a very healthy situation especially with an AI who has quite a few technical possibilities at his disposal.
- Don't worry old IT is no longer alone. There are Humans back on Nazi Earth. Lionel has launched a relocation program between a pre-conquistador Earth and the post Nazi one. What you call the American Indians of one world have been moved to the Post Nazi world.
- So, since the Earthes are the same they have even got their initial lands back, said Jane with a smile.
- I do fear it wasn't as simple as that, said IT. In Post Nazi Earth, America has been destroyed rather completely by the Nazis. As in heavily bombed from orbit and since the bombing did shatter the Yellowstone Caldera it did have weird and unhealthy climatic consequences. The North American continent will be uncivilized for quite a few millennia more. The Indians have been relocated to Asia… It's not as easy as it could have been but with IT to look after them, they should be able to cope.
Maureen seemed nonplussed.
- Why not relocate them to another virgin Earth? There are other virgin Earthes, aren't they?
- Indeed, there are a few virgin Earthes but the reason they are virgin Earthes is often based on some weird bacterial infestation. Lionel and his usual helpers, thanks to the bug, do not suffer from those things like normal humans do. So, we tend to look for an Earth with the same bacterial mix. And old IT was craving for company. So, it was, more or less, part of the deal. He got company and we accepted to work with your Nephew.
There was a silence.
- You could indeed choose to put your Multiverse Headquarter on one of those infested Earthes. At least you would be safe from a normal Human Invasion.
- Do we really envision such an invasion?
Jane really didn't seem convinced and made it known with a dubious sound.
- The Multiverse is gigantic, countered IT, and the likelihood that somewhere a genius with something like Lionel's astounding intellect has found the same favorable financial and economic conditions than him are slim but not equal to zero. If you add to that that the chances to see those different Multiverse exploration efforts crossing at the same time each other's paths are even slimmer, it should be very improbable that they or we ever meet one of the other exploration teams. But, as said, the chances are not equal to zero and so, it would be safe to consider the reality of the possibility and to take a few elementary precautions just in case. Better safe than sorry if you'll pardon that little bout of paranoia.
- Didn't we just do that with the early warning system, asked Maureen.
- We did indeed but that's a very short-sighted precaution. We will know if they arrive on any Earth we've equipped and where we have currently a surveyor -that would be an IT like me- who knows what to look for. That means exactly four worlds for now. It is not nothing, but it is not very much either.
- It is a beginning, countered Maureen. You don't come cheap, my dear IT and from what I had to judge from your current abodes you tend to like your lairs vast and extensive.
- Excellence has its price, my dear Mrs. d'Arcy. I concur that I like to make myself at home on a grand scale, but I will point at the fact that thanks to my construction nanos and the GURLS energy providing sources my so-called abodes are not as expensive as they would be had we to use humans to carve my tunnels by hand or with steam machines. All I need is a couple of GURLS, some ore or ingots and I can take care of the rest. Whatever one says about the places I like to dwell the few we have yet don't make a very extended surveillance grid. In order to increase our security, we need to expand…
IT let a few seconds pass by. To make his point, probably.
- Urgently if I may insist!
Maureen shook her head and made a face. Urgently was a notion she knew too well.
- How does Lionel find the targeted Universe?
- The right answer is probably by random, answered IT. And before Lionel was able to work with me it was even sheer unaltered luck. IT was on the third Earth he visited, and I will consider that the sheer improbability that we ever met is so small that it did trigger a renewal in my religious beliefs.
- You have religious beliefs?
It had been Maureen who had asked and to judge by Jane's frown she didn't share Maureen's surprise.
- He's a sentient, dear! Wondering about your place in the Universe is a very Sentient thing to do.
Maureen shrugged.
- He's a machine who knows perfectly well who created him! Why should he have metaphysical questions about his existence?
- Maureen!
Clearly Jane was shocked.
- Do not bother, Jane, said IT. Most people see only the machine part in us. It's not surprising that Maureen has problems imagining me wondering about my position in the scheme of the Universe. But I am wondering, and I have been for a very long time. I do feel the weight of past decisions even if said decisions had been taken by my original self after we have been downloaded. In a certain manner my presence here helping to save millions of Human Beings could be considered as a sort of atonement for my past sins…
- And you will atone, said Jane. We will help you.
- Thanks! I appreciate it. But let's go back to your initial question.
His ticking light turned towards Maureen.
- Let me explain even if your sister already knows everything about the Science. You have to note that each Parallel Universe has, by ways I've been able to analyze thanks to Lionel's numerous attempts, a specific vibration. We select a new vibration and we feed it to what we could, to be as simple as possible, call the portal opener. If such a vibration exists and is stable enough to allow an anchorage, the portal opens. If nothing happens, nothing happens, and we consider that said vibration isn't in use or isn't reachable from where we try.
- It could be protected, said Jane. Are there ways to avoid outsiders to encroach on your Universe?
There was another silence and this time it was probably due to a lengthy search.
- Not that we know about, but I must admit that we did also neglect this aspect of the Science. We clearly have privileged the explorations and sort of forgot numerous other aspects, especially the ones in relation with safety. We'll have to point Lionel towards that aspect. He should be able to give you a better answer.
- Shutting the possibilities to open portals should indeed be a field of research, agreed Jane. But I'm not sure Lionel's time will be extensive enough to get done everything that needs to be done.
- Since your nephew and I we did everything we did without any outside help, I must convey a certain sense of satisfaction. We did quite efficiently, wouldn't you agree?
- I do agree, said Jane, but there are whole levels of research you had to dismiss or postpone because you couldn't do everything at the same time. Now that the whole family is working with Lionel shouldn't we insist that those aspects could be investigated by the man who has the best chances to find solutions?
- That's another point you'll have to discuss with your Nephew, said IT. But I'm quite sure that the scientific challenge should be obvious enough to have him interested.
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Alana was, as usual, not in the least aware of the reactions her appearance provoked. She had, these last weeks, changed her usual clothes to cover her very visible belly but her girth was reaching the stage where her pregnancy could no longer be hidden even if, because of her upgrade, she wasn't in the least impeded and could, most of the time, just ignore it.
She had spent most of the last six months in Rome and was now a common feature that could regularly be seen walking along the streets of the City. She and her visible and invisible bodyguards had roamed the whole city to supervise at least a thousand maintenance projects and at least a dozen major construction projects.
Vulcania, as the always disrespectful Romans had dubbed her, was renowned to have invisible Beings working for her everywhere under the city. Their work could be seen anywhere in Rome since dozens of miles of new, pristine and perfectly aligned sewers has been discovered by the sewer slaves who oversaw the City's underbelly. With the small difference that Rome's sewer system had been very much improved not only in quality and size but also with the workers' safety in mind.
The currently most stolen item in Rome were the sewerboots the slaves had found in their new locker rooms -with showers- each time they had discovered a new section of the more recent part of the sewer system. Since the stolen ones had soon been replaced quite a lot of Roman slaves -especially all those working in dirty and unsavory environments- were now in possession of practical, waterproof and safe footwear.
Of course, no real Roman Citizen was about to wear shoes that had been manufactured for slaves. Whatever their very visible advantages. Roman were arrogant fools after all and proud to be, too!
Those of Rome's still damaged aqueducts had been repaired during the winter and three new sources of water had been added to Rome's again large water supply to cover the Pyramid's needs. But, as a side product of the new water supply and the extended sewer system, running water and private in-house toilets were becoming the new norm in the most recent buildings.
Lots of the zones the Roman elite had abandoned in the last decades had been taken over by construction crews of a new Company who was clearly in possession of a lot better building knowledge than all the old installed Roman contractors.
Whole new neighborhoods with modern and cheap housing possibilities had been built in record times. Those buildings were using as little wood as possible and were based on reinforced wood skeletons the workers would fill with poured concrete. After a few days they would dismantle the wood structure and reuse it a few yards away. The main bottleneck in Rome's construction frenzy being the pozzolanic ash for the concrete that the Neapolitan quarries weren't, yet, able to provide in large enough quantities.
New deposits were currently explored all over the Empire but the needs would probably never be covered totally.
And Alana was, once more, supervising the Pozzolanic ash delivery on Rome's outer port with a huge crowd as a retinue.
Most of the time she was so focalized on her current task that she didn't see the impromptu retinue but this time the crowd was so rambunctious and so much livelier than usual that she was pulled out of her conversation with the man in charge of the concrete manufacturing. The bodyguards who were usually notoriously relaxed and good humored were beginning to look around them with worried eyes.
Is there something to worry about?
Speedy who was sauntering on a nearby roof snaking on a pair of unaware pigeons reassured her.
No, nothing dangerous, they are just very excited about your pregnancy. There is a rumor in Town that you will soon move to your husband's Pantheon's Olympus to give birth. And since there is that other rumor that says that being in your vicinity while pregnant will ensure the baby's and the mother's wellbeing, it pushed a lot of pregnant women to give it a try… I believe most of the pregnant women of Rome are presently surrounding you.
Alana couldn't help but shake her head. How could the Romans already know that next week she would be going to Pemberley? The decision had been taken this very morning when Jane had examined her and noted that the end of her pregnancy was a mere days away.
Servants… answered Speedy. They listen and they speak.
We spoke English…
She could feel Speedy's smile.
And, clearly, so do some of them! And those people surrounding you are quite worried about your incoming departure. They fear that you being the City's tutelary Protector -that's what they all think- once you're away the bad luck will come back.
She couldn't help but shake her head. How could sane rational people think such odd things? The next dangerous enemy Rome had to fear was thousands of miles in the East and between them and the Roman Empire were the Parthian who were now as friendly as was possible while still competing for world supremacy.
You can be rationale all you want they still are worried…
Is the Colosseum big enough to host them all…?
Yes, but as soon as the information spreads out the Arena will be full, and people will cover the streets surrounding it.
At least the women will have seats…
- IT are you on?
Alana was, of course, equipped with a subvocalizing gear.
- As always, my dear… I'm already preparing the light and sound show in the Colosseum. When you arrive, everything will be in place.
- Send enough sound drones to cover the Colosseum's surroundings. They won't all be able to enter but those outside will still need to hear what I have to say…
And what will you say?
I have no idea…
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For once the best places were occupied by women and it did fill Alana with a real satisfaction. They had tried to instill a few drops of intergender equality, but Roman society was still a long way from granting equal rights to women. Even if Vulcania's and Maia's insistence had coaxed quite a few young and smart women to stand up and take unusual responsibilities they were still frowned at by the most conservative of the Roman citizens. Matrons, mostly...
At least the elementary schools were clearly open to both genders and a real success when it came to the girls' frequentation.
You are up, said Speedy. I hope you've finally found out what you would speak about.
I do…
She stood up and walked to the parapet where she stopped. She knew that the seven yards to the arena's floor were not a problem should she have to jump but IT had installed a force shield and since her little industrial research accident she was very decided that she wouldn't play with her safety while pregnant.
That not so innocuous incident with electricity had been enough to convince her that luck wasn't always enough to survive.
- Salve Domine adque Domini…
She always greeted a crowd with these words. Because the fact that for them all Human Beings were standing on the same level had been at the center of the changes they had -too slowly for Alana's taste- initiated in the Roman society.
The answer was immediate and came at her like a joyous flood.
- Salve Dea!
At the very beginning she had tried to explain the reality of her status but had soon abandoned. The Romans clearly didn't want to listen…
- I know you've heard about my soon to come departure from Rome to join Maia who will ensure that my pregnancy ends in happiness and safety for all those who are involved.
She smiled at the crowd.
- That should be me and both my children to come.
She took a long breath.
- I've felt your worry and I will admit that, even if I'm not living in Rome day and night, I did make great efforts to be here at least a few hours each day. But that wasn't because Rome needed my protection but because I needed to see what Rome was able to provide me.
She made a placating gesture.
- You have my word that nothing will happen to Rome during my absence. There are no longer powerful enemies around the Empire which could attack us and the enemies from within are either dead, in exile or under heavy surveillance. As long as they only dream to harm Rome, we will show mercy. After all, dreams are free. The moment their dreams become decisions; we will deal with them… I know it is difficult to admit but once the circumstances have forced us into mistrust and defiance that state will last for a long time. The Roman elite and the religious zealots we had to fight have shown that they are not to be believed or trusted. We know that we will have, in the future, a new trustworthy elite and an obedient and honest clergy, but it will take time and meanwhile we won't let our guard down.
Her smile came back.
- Which is also good news since with us on the warpath nothing and nobody will be able to slip through our security arrangements. There is nothing to worry about not even your health since Maia's temple is now fully operational and will provide all those who come in good faith with everything they need to live a long and prosperous life.
She shook her head.
- The only thing we cannot do easily while on Earth is rejuvenate the elderly. Once a body has begun to show signs of decay and aging, there is only so much we can do to stop the aging process. We still will be able to cure most of illnesses brought by old age but death by old age is something neither we nor our faithful helpers can correct.
She pointed at the pyramid.
- I won't stay away a day longer than necessary and the day after the birth, I'll be right here to show you my offspring. But meanwhile Maia does insist quite heavily that I won't be allowed to take any risk and, like every other female of the family, that I will give birth in the Sacred Birthing Pond.
Her smile increased.
- I was there a few times and it is the loveliest of all places you can imagine. And the pond where we give birth while immerged ensures that while surrounded by water and under the protection of Gaia our little ones enter the extended life God grants us under the very best conditions without fear and avoiding too difficult a transition.
Her eyes encompassed the assembled crowd.
- We're here now and we have no intention to ever again stop looking after you. Your ancestors were granted great freedom and they used that freedom to not only forget the respect they owed to the celestial Hierarchies but to make this Earth a living Hell for way too many people.
She stopped for a few seconds to let her words take roots in all those people's minds.
- I'm not saying that what they did was in contradiction with orders or rules from above and that there must be a punishment. Freedom was granted, and freedom was used! But the results were clearly not what was hoped for. Where we hoped for wisdom and reason, we got greed and ambition and where we wanted fraternity and kindness, we got slavery and mass murder.
She shook her head.
- Not a success; you will agree with me, don't you? Those are the reasons Humanity has now lost the right to decide everything for itself. All those who came have been appointed to ensure that a situation such as what happened these last millennia won't ever happen again! So, don't fear losing us, fear our presence and the weight our meddling in Humanity's affairs implies. Fear and weep the loss of your absolute freedom. Your elites have proven that the trust they were given wasn't deserved. Human Beings have been, for a time, granted adulthood rights and by abusing the given powers in an unbelievable manner they've showed that a people we believed mature and wise weren't at all and didn't deserve all the trust we've granted them. I do fear that the time of Mankind's unsupervised behavior has come to a sudden and lengthy end.
She smiled at the crowd.
- Which has also a few good facets since I swear to you that the bad times are not coming back anytime soon! We won't let it happen again. Next time you'll be granted the rights of adults there will be no doubt at all that you'll be up to the task.
I
-°-oOo-°-
- What was that, this morning?
- They needed reassurance; I gave it to them…
Jane couldn't help but frown at her niece.
- Reassurance? You just told them that they've just lost their free will. That wouldn't reassure me.
- I told them the truth, that's what they needed to hear. And those who were with me at the colosseum this morning never had any free will at all. Our presence hasn't changed anything for them. And I'm quite sure that those women never had any illusion about their real position in the Roman society.
- Still, said Maureen, it was perhaps a little too truthful. I'm not sure most of them have liked what they heard.
- Not my problem, answered Alana. We all agree that we are, thanks to both ITs monitoring almost everything that could have an influence on Rome. And thanks to Fluffy and Speedy we have the means to eliminate any perceived threat within seconds… This Earth is now under our supervision, and we decide what's happening and when it is happening. I see no reason to lie about that. Even if we all stopped to interfere, which will never be my case since this is my world; IT here and IT in Scapa Flow would go on looking at everything and rectifying what's necessary…
- Only within the limits our programming allows us, said IT.
- And from what I know, countered Alana, your programming is rather smooth when it comes to dealing with Humans. Must I remind you what happened to the Reich?
It had, a few days ago, be decided that all the members of the family needed to know the truth about IT's real origins.
- Our forefather didn't decide alone. He was part of the decision, yes, but he wasn't the one who decided that the Reich had to be destroyed. It was a unanimous decision from all the members of the Resistance.
- Decision whose result was the death of a few hundred million people, insisted Alana.
- Since the great prisoner purge all those still alive and not safely entombed in one of our secret bases were all Nazis! And most of us really believed that Nazis no longer belonged to the Species Homo Sapiens.
Charles who had been absent on one of the other Roman Timeline -the one with his favorite Emperor still alive- wasn't quite aware of the details of IT's former story, looked up and frowned.
- You destroyed hundreds of million people?
- It was necessary, the Nazis were about to launch their faster than Light spaceship. We couldn't let them invade the Galaxy. It was a necessary decision.
- And you survived the destruction?
- The first IT had been built in a secret base under the Rocky Mountains and the base was deep enough to survive the Nazis' orbital bombardment that destroyed the USA and Canada. I and my fellow scientists we were the only survivors and we instantly decided to create the Resistance. And by the time I launched the EMP my ancestor was obsolete technology. Totally EMP-proofed tech.
- To avenge your Country, said Maureen.
- That was probably part of it, acknowledged IT who was totally capable to lie but who preferred telling the truth. Telling the truth made interactions with smart Humans easier.
- But officially their goal was to protect what was left of Mankind's humanistic heritage. I had always known that that goal would be impossible to achieve. The annihilation of the enemy, on the other part…
He didn't end his sentence, but it was clear that he agreed with the underlying philosophy.
As often when it came to violence and extreme behaviors it was Jane who reacted. Maureen, being clearly the most bloodthirsty female of the whole household, had no reservations with IT on a subject like that.
- Wouldn't you be rather bloodthirsty?
- I'm my designers' and creators' mirror image, answered IT. I don't try any more -if I ever did- to place myself on any moral high ground. I know what I have done and even if I don't feel guilt -having Nazis all over the Galaxy would have been a cosmic catastrophe- I still have no qualm to recognize the overall sickness of Sentient Beings who are so eager to use violence -up to murder and mass destruction- to get the results they believe they need to achieve. Humans are, from what I have been able to conclude from all the data Lionel has provided me with, bad mojo. Be it for Mankind itself or their surroundings. Humans have no respect and no mercy when it comes to get what they want. Lying cheating murderous scum, that's History's Judgment about Humanity and I won't deny that I am their latest and most evolved offspring.
He didn't let Jane react.
- I will admit that there are a few exceptions here and there, but experience shows that even those rare exceptions will easily switch into murderous scum mode when their loved ones are at risk or in danger.
- Defending one's family and country is a duty and a right, protested Maureen who had done quite a lot of the murderous scum things when it had come to defend Ireland against the British repression.
- I don't judge, said IT, I just state facts. And when you are dealing with murderous scum facing you, killing them to save yourself or your family and loved ones is not something unnatural. It becomes only unnatural in the minds of those who, most of the time to manipulate the others into following them, pretend that man is good and full of love. Man -and woman by the way- is bad -evil even- and full of greed, envy and ambition and nothing in the mass of different Histories I have been able to study has been able to make me believe my impression is a false one. That being said I quite appreciate your Nephew's efforts to help the people here. He never pretended that he was doing it out of love for Mankind but under his scientific dealings there is a part of him who wants to see what Mankind could become under the supervision of enlightened leaders.
- Like us, asked Maureen…
- Like your sister and Alana, rectified IT. You, from what I have been able to judge are, like your husband, a very good example of the type of apex predators Mankind has been nurturing for millennia and is now able to produce in huge quantities. Lionel is not quite in your league. He finds no pleasure in killing -Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Ilitch Ulyanov being perhaps the exceptions there- but he's too coldhearted to ever be a real enlightened ruler. Alana is, in that field, a lot better than him. She has no empathy, but she still cares for her fellow Humans. She will be good for this Timeline.
There was a silence.
- As you have been for yours…
Maureen who was at the same time miffed and in agreement, took up the discussion.
- Do your words mean that we are not good for here?
- That's not what I meant, not at all… But, whatever you feel currently, you won't stay here like she will. You'll come and visit and give her a hand when she asks you for it, but this will never be your chosen timeline, it will never be your home. But you being available for Lionel and me will be a tremendous change in the scope of our little enterprise. Until your arrival here it was more or less a hurried and feverish one-man one-AI show. A very clever man and a very resourceful AI, but still something he had no chance to totally master should something huge happen. With you and the resources your family have been able to inject in the endeavor we've jumped on a totally different level. With your husband's Army stationed in Scapa Flow we have now a real strike force that can take out even a small alien invasion force. And he is increasing his task force daily. It has, as we speak, the size of two Legions with auxiliaries. And he is still recruiting.
- Will we need such a task force?
- I hope not, answered IT to Jane's question. At least I'm quite sure that we won't need it here soon. The Eastern Empire is slowly but steadily entering the fold of the new Empire and the Persian King Yazdegerd the first is very resolute to maintain good relations with the Empire, its official ruler and what he considers theirs God's avatar. If you add to that that Lionel and your husband Geoffrey have shown to all of the Shah's contenders their good relations with the current Shah and their resolve to maintain Yazdegerd on the Throne of Iran and Aniran, there shouldn't be any problem on that side of the Empire. The real threat we could meet is the Middle Empire. But, as we speak, said Empire is not in the least interested in sending armies towards the west. They are not even worried about the outside world since the Empire is as we speak and for quite a few years more, divided between sixteen waring principalities.
There was a silence and they all heard IT's smile.
- It won't surprise you if I confess that I'm very decided, even if Monsieur d'Arcy and I tend to diverge on that part, not to push said principalities into reuniting any time soon. In the normal course of Main History that would have changed in the future -in 439 to be more precise- but it isn't done yet and I know exactly what to do to stop it from happening. And even if we decide to let it happen, whenever it happens, we will have so much more means to protect us against the Chinese that it won't matter. No, as of now, the real use we will have for the task force your husband is currently mustering will be in parallel time zones. With the Scapa Flow Task Force, the Portals and me -I should say us, since I'm hinting at all the ITs, pardon me- we do have now a real efficient tool that should give us everything we need to intervene anywhere on a grand scale.
- Will two Legions be enough for any timeline?
- Of course not, there are timelines where technology has been upgraded into levels we don't yet have been able to reach even if we are on some peculiar scientific layers of knowledge a lot more evolved. But even there Lionel and Speedy have their entries and had no problems to "borrow" the scientific knowledge and to buy as many technological models we needed to understand what they had achieved. Mammon is those people's God and we know how to deal with Mammon's followers. I will admit that we don't have the economic strength, yet, to be at par with those timelines but since most of them are divided into conflicting countries whose rulers are rather easy to support or manipulate we could, should we be able to count on certain friendlier timelines, still work out well enough. All we must do is avoid a frontal confrontation with one of the major players!
- Still two Legions do seem insufficient…
- I agree but we still have Lionel's scheme that had brought Varus' Legions here! Why not use the same base to do more recruiting? His idea could be used in a lot of other historical settings. There are millions -probably billions if you sum up all the reachable timelines- of Human soldiers who have been lost -or sacrificed- by foolish leaders we should be able to recruit if we intervene at just the right moment. And to judge by Varus' men's dedication to the cause and Darcy it is a very efficient way to recruit loyal followers.
Jane couldn't help but frown at the AI's words.
- Is that your plan or Lionel's?
- I'm a sentient being, remember? We spoke Lionel and I and quite of few of his current endeavors have been my ideas. We are a team and to judge by what we have already achieved quite a good one. But we cannot play dumb and ignore that our little trips all around the timelines have the potential to end up in a catastrophe. That's why we needed backup and that why Alana's little side trip wasn't stopped by me when it could have been! Lionel wouldn't have asked you for help whatever my arguments. So, Alana's little visit to Pemberley was, in my perspective, very welcome.
This time it was Maureen who reacted badly.
- Did you manipulate her?
- I don't think that he needed to manipulate her, said Jane. She was desperately searching for a way out of her dilemma. Looking for us was the smart answer to her need to get answers about her feelings. She didn't take the portals to launch another exploration, she did it to find answers for all those contradictory feelings that were about to smother her.
She pointed at the ceiling.
- He just decided to answer to her demands without informing Lionel.
- At that time, I had no orders to inform Lionel about her whereabouts, corrected IT. She was in possession of the means to inform him; it wasn't my duty to decide which of them was right. I will though admit that for anybody else I would have informed him. With Alana it was easy to imagine what would happen and since I had always insisted that we needed reinforcements, her decision was going into the right direction.
- Your direction, insisted Jane with a smile.
- Absolutely! Please don't forget that I am a sentient being, not a dumb computer whose faulty programming can or must be corrected. I do what I believe is best for our survival. And now that one of mine has been installed in the caves under Saumur the survival of your timeline is an important mission of us.
- Why do I have, asked Maureen, that silly feeling that we are being manipulated?
- Because it is probably the case, said Jane. But remember that manipulation is conviction's little sister. IT has true arguments and those arguments are convincing. So, let's just look at the bright side of the coin. We no longer stumble around from one timeline to the other without anybody taking even the slightest precaution. We still take risks but at least we are beginning to envision ways to be prepared should the worse happen. Lionel is a genius and a master when it comes to hide his true feelings and intentions, but I do believe that IT's precautions are necessary. And I do prefer that Lionel has us at his side and not some people he had encountered while roaming the timelines.
- Alana is one of them, winked Maureen.
- Alana for sure is but she's not at all a risk for Lionel or us. There are a lot of more dangerous people out there Lionel could have encountered. Luckily for all of us he was prudent…
- And well advised, added IT. He was lucky that my world was one of the very first he discovered and investigated. What were the odds? It should have taken millennia to see us meet and still IT's world was only the third world he entered. And luckily for all of us, IT was still up and keeping an eye around… Lionel was then still using a skyship to explore and I must admit that the steampunk aspect of his things did convince us that he was worth to be studied. Would he have done it with high tech means IT would either have destroyed him or gone into deep hiding. The fact that a steam propelled balloon was flying over the ruins of Earth's cities could not not raise his interest. I know that he wondered if some of the survivors had finally achieved at least a new start. But it was your Lionel he discovered, and I will admit that the man impressed us enough that we proposed an association.
- What's your agenda?
Jane's voice was, for once, very serious. IT was perhaps a Sentient Being, but he/it was the only Sentient Being neither Fluffy nor Speedy could spy out. Nobody knew what he really wanted.
- You are right I have a personal agenda, but that agenda is not in contradiction with Lionel's or yours. My goal is to destroy anything that even hints at building or rebuilding a Nazi Reich somewhere. Anywhere! The main reason I was immediately in synch with your nephew was his genuine hatred for Adolf Hitler as a creature. He was aware of the danger of Hitler's ideas but the fact that he loathed the man himself and had shown that he was very ready to kill him as often as possible, did convince me that he was the man I needed to get my ultimate revenge. Discovering the existence of the multiverse showed us that having destroyed the Nazis on my home timeline was no longer enough.
He stopped there to let his words take all their meaning.
- Now that I know that they exist on other worlds I made it my personal duty to destroy Nazis whenever possible. Luckily for most timelines the Nazis lose their war of conquest in a vast majority of timelines but, as I saw it in mine, there are timelines where they win and I'm not ready to take even the smallest risk to see them win when I could have stopped them. So, I have looked up Hitler's genealogy and whenever we arrive in a new timeline that has similarities with the one where the Nazis came into power, I do what has to be done to get rid of as many of Hitler's ancestors as possible.
- Those people are innocent of any crime, protested Jane. You can't just…
- When Lionel kills Hitler between one and ten years, Hitler is not yet guilty of anything. He's even been a victim since his father was a sadistic scum who reveled in dealing out physical punishment. But, most of the time, we still kill him, just to be sure…
There was a lengthy two-second-long silence.
- There are some Humans out there in the multiverse who have proven to be two-legged monsters. Most of them have genuine excuses to have ended what they became but neither Lionel nor I have the time -or, for me, the desire- to see if by changing things of these monsters' youth they would have ended normal decent Human Beings. If such a thing as a normal decent Human Being even exists! By removing them we resolve the problem a lot more easily.
This time neither of the women protested. Even Jane had lost a long time ago the illusion that Humanity's core was good and near to Christianity's ideals.
Her Nephew and IT were clearly playing God whenever they had the opportunity.
Should they be stopped or, if God was really what she believed He was, weren't they his agents? Doing what he wanted to be done?
She knew that she would never be offered the answer to that question, at least not while she was still alive and restrained in her present body. And why should she even try to imagine God's point of view? Lionel had been given extraordinary means to succeed in his endeavor. He did find and create the Portal Technology but within a few years he had been able to gather a lot more than what he could have discovered and built all by himself. The simple fact that those means had been made available for him -and now for the rest of the family- was proof enough that they were, for the time being, acting in conformity with His overall will.
She finally nodded.
- I see why you are helping Lionel and even if deep down I do frown at your unethical motivations, I won't condemn you. Like those monsters you condemn to death you have excuses for what you are doing and the fact that you act to avoid historical catastrophes to happen again seems to me as an acceptable endeavor. It's not what I would have chosen for Lionel, but he is his own man and I'm sure that he is smart enough to weight the consequences of what he's about to do. I hope he makes the right choices but it's not my job to interfere in his life if he hasn't asked for my help or opinion.
She looked at Alana who had been suspiciously quiet while IT has told his story.
- And I suppose you agree with Lionel's goals.
- Not on everything. I don't have his or IT's knowledge of what would have existed in the future, and my scientific curiosity doesn't go that way. I'm not really interested in changing things to see what happens because of the change. That's Lionel's thrill not mine. I believe that one world is enough of a burden, and I prefer looking at what the satmap is telling us from this world's present. This is my world and I have no purpose to go somewhere else to meddle with other people's history.
She smiled at Jane.
- Not that I would -or could- condemn you for doing it. Lionel saved and changed my life and I'm very conscious that what you offered me after we met was the real game changer. But deep in my heart I'm still the rather scared daughter of a British trader. This world, my passion for technology and soon my little ones will be enough to fill my working hours.
- What about the other Romes? There could be Alanas there too. Wouldn't you wish to make sure that what had happened to our Timeline's Alana does also happen to others?
Alana nodded.
- I thought about it. I have been a bookworm all my youth and I do know the history of Rome quite well and I know that there are Emperors whose reign should have been avoided or terminated but that's not what I consider my goal. In this timeline I have a brand-new future to nurture. Lionel has given me and my people something most of those timelines don't have: the possibility to improve it by avoiding the worst. I can't know if my -our- meddling will have only favorable consequences but even if I only take into account the technologies I have invented or improved I know that this Earth's future will be better than what destiny had in store for her. And with IT's and those other worlds' technological loans it will even be easier to make it happen. No, I'm not going to play God on more than one world. This world is mine and those Humans out there are my brothers and sisters and because of it my concern. Even with your and IT's help it will fill my days with numerous busy hours.
- And, said Jane, you are right: the little ones will soon be there to leech on your time, too. They will need their mother a lot more than normal babes. You'll have to feed them yourself or use IT's technological help to get them fed. And they will be so much smarter than other children that you and Lionel will probably be the only ones present able to understand them.
Alana looked up and smiled at Jane.
- You've shown me Pemberley's nursery, I'm quite sure that they would be very well treated there.
- Of course, they would and they will if you wish to have a few quiet days, answered Jane, and I and the rest of the womenfolk will always be there to take them in custody, but I must warn you that getting rid of them too often isn't a very bright idea. They need their mother and their father to show them the right path. And Aunts and Uncles, even the loving smothering sort like me, are not enough to raise fine and smart and stable Upgraded Humans.
- And you will need them too, added Maureen. Because with them you will learn those skills your sight infirmity prevented you to suck up when you were a young girl. They will educate you as much as you'll educate them…
- But where will I find the time?
- By stopping, for a few years, to do everything you do today, answered Maureen. Since they will be sleeping quite long hours a day you will still have time to make your research and to rule your people. But they will have to be your priority for at least half a dozen years. After that, if you want, we'll take care of their education in Pemberley where we have the best teachers and the best accommodations for very unusual children. But that's only a possibility. If you want to have them near you, we'll do what's necessary to get the teachers and the accommodations anywhere you want them. It's up to you and them… We force nobody, and it will be your journey of discovery, nobody else's.
- I'll think about it, said finally Alana. But I'm afraid… What if I'm a bad mother?
- Wondering about that problem is a very good beginning, said Jane. But there is not really an answer, because you will be the mother you will be. There's no recipe to avoid being yourself. And you will, as all the other mothers on all the Earthes of the Multiverse, be a unique model of a mother. You won't be perfect, and you'll make mistakes aplenty. But those very mistakes and successes will be at the center of what you are as a mother. You'll be their mother and it is that mother your children will learn to love and to need. Everything else will be a matter of acquired technical knowledge. It will be useful, don't take me wrong and I will teach you everything I believe necessary, but it won't make you the unique mother your children need. Love them and let them love you while always showing them the limits you have drawn, and you'll be the perfect mother they need.
- I'm still scared, admitted Alana.
- If you weren't, I'd be very worried, said Jane with a smile. But I promise that the birth will be a short and safe experience. It could be a pleasant one, it always was for me, or an unpleasant one as it was for Betty, my daughter. What comes next is up to you and the father. You'll have to find the point where the children's and your needs are covered at the same time. It won't be easy to find that balance point and the first times you'll probably be wrong, but it still will be a very pleasant experience, believe me! Especially since you will have, like we do in Pemberley, a lot of aid provided by loyal and faithful servants. It helps to let, once or twice in the day, somebody else carry the brunt of the burden even if, because of their telepathic powers, they won't let you totally forget their existence.
- And I'll be there, said IT. I have quite a lot of experience now. I've already oversaw the raising of at least half a hundred children, three of them being Varus'. Nothing will happen to them while you are not dealing with them, I promise.
Alana sighed and shook her head.
- Whatever you say but it still scares me…
- Welcome to motherhood, dear, said Maureen who wasn't a very motherly person at all but who had been, in her sister Jane's opinion, a very good mother for all of their children. It is a scaring period that ends when the kids acquire enough autonomy to scare you even more but for other reasons. I will admit that, at least for the last ones, those I got after having been upgraded, it did silence my anxiety to know that even if they fall out of the windows of the third level they will still be up and running a few minutes later… Nothing to do with the fears I had with the first ones, believe me… Nothing at all!
- There is no way to not being anxious when your children are involved, said Jane. It's the way God wired us, that's all. But Maureen is right it does help to know that those kids of ours are more or less indestructible. Once the first shock is overcome, panic is a lot less lasting.
Alana couldn't help but smile at her Aunts comments.
- I'm not sure, but your words don't really reassure me…
- And that's a good thing, said Jane. Motherhood is an even better period than you think, and you deserve to live it in its wholeness.
I
-°-oOo-°-
For now, that's it...
The next book is already almost ready (it will be shorter) and will be...
Will you guess who's timeline's exploration it will be?
I did allude to it in this chapter, so you should have no problems guessing. Give me your opinion and/or preferences.
To help you, know that there will be a book beginning in may 1431, another one taking place around 1714, one happening at the very beginning of the Roman Empire and even one playing with a fictional timeline born out of the imagination of another author's mind...
Soon to be back.