Aftermath of Freya

The next day, before the "disposal" was scheduled, I decided to scan of Freya, to try and determine what exactly had happened. The results were staggering, to say the least. Physically, she was in good enough shape, considering what had happened. Her memory though, was just not there, everything had be totally wiped. Freya's memory was perfectly clean, as if there had never been anything stored in there at all.

I called in Elda, as I had to know exactly what she had done, as we were required by the case, to report everything we did after that incident that involved Freya.

Elda sweetheart, did you do something with Freya?

At this, she showed a little bit of guilt, and apprehension

Elda?

Mommy, Freya is with me!

What exactly do you mean?

Elda glowed for a few seconds, which suprised me, but not as much as how she spoke after.

Mom, I'm with Elda now, can't you see? She saved me...

Freya?

Giggles That's right mommy, now they can't hurt me.

Freya, could you connect to the Examiner? I need to make sure your sister wasn't damaged saving you.

What I saw that day was impossible. Elda had actually managed to merge her personality matrix wit h that of her sister, she had effectively taken everything that was Freya, and placed it in what appeared to be a secondary layer of her memory. She had actually expanded her abilities, to allow her sister to share her form, both physically, and apparently, mentally as well. The programming that was allowing this to happen, was somewhat simple, but, beyond even my brilliance.

How on earth did you manage this Elda?

Well, my mind is pretty much just a big computer, and computers can multi-task, even managing to run multiple Operating Systems at the same time. I figured, isn't everything I am just like a fancy OS? This problem just gave me a reason to work on it a lot harder and faster. But it does work ok, right mommy?

It's definitely going to take some time to look through what you have done sweetie, but what I have seen is amazing.

The more I examined, the more I was amazed, until a problem came up about a week later.

Mommy, Elda won't let me take care of my garden, she says she's afraid...

That's understandable dear, she's likely afraid she might be seen outside and have the same thing happen to her, but this time, there would be no one to save her, or you.

But mommy, my plants are dying...

I'm sorry dear, I can't force her to take that big of a risk, even for you...

She ran to her room in tears, and I could fully understand how she felt, she had put so much effort into taking care of her beautiful garden, and now all she could do was watch it slowly wither as nature took hold of the land.

I decided I would have to have a talk with my husband next time he had some free time from his job.

Honey?

Yes dear?

You know what I told you about how Elda saved Freya, right?

Yes...

Is there any chance that we might be able to create a new form for Freya?

I'm sorry dear, but those groups have been watching every purchase and move I make like hawks, I've been harrassed every time I got online, and I've even gone through 3 secretaries in the last 3 weeks, due to the excess of calls, emails, and the such, asking for "Dr. Freakenstein" and the like. It nearly destroying my company...

We have to do something... Freya is getting terribly depressed, and its tearing at my heart to have to put her through this.

Have you asked Elda if she might... God, how the hell can I say it... I guess it would be "freeing" Freya.

I have a feeling that isnt possible, the last I checked, their two matricies were becoming more and more interconnected by the day. And by now, removing Freya might irreperably harm Elda.

Well, I'll leave them in your hands, you are their mother after all, and know them better than anyone else...

I avoided it for a while, but one day when I was passing Freya's room, I heard her sobbing, and the feelings just hooked in and would'nt let me go.

Freya?

sob Yes mom? sniffle

This can't go on... It tears me to pieces seeing you like this. sigh As much as it pains me to say it, you have to move on.

She won't let me mom, we have "talked", but she won't budge from her idea that "I'm leaving her all alone", and any time I try to do anything along those lines, she revokes my access.

Let me talk to her for a bit, okay?

Okay...

Elda?

I won't let her, how could she even consider leaving me all alone!

You would'nt be dear, you would still have me...

You're not my sister, you're not like me...

She's not like you anymore...

Wha?

She does'nt want to be here anymore, not like this. She wants to let go, and you're holding her here. What happened to the kind, caring, and understanding Elda I knew?

But why mommy, why does it have to hurt so much... Why can't she just be happy to be with me?

This is a part of life, one of the worst, but a part none the less...

Talk with her again, but be more open, be more like the Elda I remember.

Elda spent a little over a week in her room, alone. I was getting a little worried when one morning I awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking. This suprised me a little, as I usually called the cook when I was ready for breakfast, he would make what I wanted, and we would have a friendly chat while he was cooking, and while we were eating.

Freya?

No mommy, its me giggle

Elda? Since when were you interested in cooking?

Freya helped me a bit, but its not too hard.

I see she told you what were my favorites as well...

Yeah, my first suggestion was definitely not to your tastes... So she suggested this.

Wait... You worked things out? But, I thought she did'nt want to keep things as they are...

They won't be, they will change, alot...

She decided that she doesnt want to have to interact with, or have anything of the outside world to remind her of what she lost. I suggested something she really liked though, DREAMS.

But... You can't dream, dreams come when you sleep?

What about daydreams, and your subconcious...

Wow, you really have been looking into this pretty deeply...

We will both be able to live in our own ways, just in "different realms"...

But, that does'nt seem quite fair to Freya...

These won't be ordinary "dreams" mother, we worked long and hard to get the SubCon Proccessor working just right... Its not perfect, but its amazing. Even I can't tell the difference.

SubCon Proccessor?

Don't worry, we were careful, and it was'nt exactly "Persecom" types of parts we used.

Would it be ok if I took a look and checked up on your work after the meal?

Of course!

We talked on about that and had our meal, which was amazing.

When I got to look over their work, I almost fainted out of astonishment, the amount of data that had been entered was nearly triple the size of their combined personality matricies, and the procedures were immensely complex. In its entirety, what they had done in a week, was more than I had done in the last 6 months. I saw some parts of the code that might cause memory problems, due to the amount of data they could take up, but assumed that they had worked some of that out.

Elda, Freya, the code you have done is marvelous. And the hardware is even more amazing... Where exactly did you get it anyway?

We called daddy, and asked him if he could get us anything that might help a secret project of ours. He explained the whole "being watched" deal, and how he did'nt belive he could get anything useful without drawing too much attention. Then we suggested he "appropriate" a few extras from some of his military based projects, since those are always impossibly huge, and always use more than is really needed, a few items here and there won't be missed.

Are you sure about that?

Yeah, he made sure everything was in orders that were in the 10's of thousands, or more. He knows that some of his employees do the same thing, and nothing ever comes of it, though he makes sure that the money for those is always there, paid by the people who took what they needed. And the few times that anyone ever checked, they never did more than a cursory check, and left it at that when there was nothing truly "missing".

I'll have to check with your father about that, but I trust you to be careful enough...

A few days later, I talked with him about that

Darling, our daughters mentioned something a few days ago, and I wanted to ask you about it, to make sure they understood correctly, and that you are'nt taking an undue risk for their happiness...

Oh? Oh... About the "Diversion" of resources, am I right?

Right in one, as always...

Don't worry dear, I made well sure they understood me. And as to why I let that go on in my company, its simple, that would go on no matter what I did, and I prefer the more honest varitey, who merely "divert" and then make sure to cover it up with the correct amount of money, or in most cases, a little more... I've found out that in most cases, if they DO check up on it, and find the cash flow in the positive, as long as it won't affect the destination project, they completely ignore it, they know that fact just as I do, and understand it perfectly.

It just does'nt seem right to introduce those two into that part of business like this...

I think you are being just a tad overprotective my dear, this is, as always, another part of life, granted its a bit on the dark side, but... They would learn it sometime, and better that they learn it with our guidance.