/ Chapter 16 – Exoplanetary Seasons Greetings /
Athena walked back into their apartment with Caroline, her mother slightly 'tipsy,' as she described it. They'd attended a Plus Ultra Christmas party, which Athena always found interesting. She enjoyed these sort of functions, since there was always great novelty in interacting with humans outside of normal work. However, her mother did give her a secondary mission, which she made no bones about.
"While I think it would be enjoyable and interesting for you to interact with people at functions like this anyway, there is a particularly important reason," Caroline had said in years past. "The fact is, many higher ups in Plus Ultra need to see you as the sweet, ethical, harmless girl you are, rather than a frightening, superhuman monster machine, which is a view they can easily come to have if all they do is read reports about how effective you are in dangerous situations. They need to meet you and talk to you. So I want you to be at your charming best with everyone."
So Caroline dressed her up in a pretty party dress (at least according to Caroline; she was not a good judge) and Athena took her request to heart and talked mostly to people who didn't interact with her very often – and particularly ones she sensed were uncomfortable with her. The truth was, she was often very popular at parties, since many people had only heard about her but had never interacted with her. Since she was quite versed in a broad variety of subjects (and was curious about nearly every subject), she could usually have very interesting conversations with people once she found out their interests. The reactions among humans varied. Some seemed to genuinely enjoy talking to her as somewhat of an equal, while others appeared to see her as an entertaining novelty. Her favorite interactions were with people who didn't realize at first she was a machine, but once they heard her name and connection to Caroline, they usually realized who and what she was.
Caroline kicked off her shoes and plopped down on the couch, looking exhausted. "That was very fun! But I shouldn't have stayed up late last night reading that engineering journal."
"I found it very enjoyable as well," Athena said. "In particular, I find the effect of alcohol on human minds very interesting. It's regrettable I can't experience it myself; it would be fascinating."
Caroline laughed. "I don't think we need a drunk Athena getting wild at a party and showing off to people by tearing door units out of walls."
"Do drunk humans normally destroy things?" Athena asked. "That would be particularly interesting to watch."
"Well, the effects vary, but fortunately we don't have anybody particularly destructive like that, at least at the Plus Ultra party. Maybe at the science and engineering party we'll get someone who'll break out the explosives."
"I'll look forward to that," Athena said seriously.
Caroline snickered. "I know you will. Oh! By the way, I was thinking about something tonight regarding Frank. With Christmas coming up, I thought he might be lonely for the holiday. I'd hoped his father would invite him home, but regrettably there's been no word from him. What do you think about inviting him over for dinner with us?"
Athena was very excited by this idea, but at the same time, she was concerned that Frank would notice that she wasn't eating anything and become suspicious about her nature, not to mention her mum might say something. A small part of her mind raised the point that perhaps it might be time to reveal to Frank that she wasn't human, but the rest of her pushed down the thought. She was still very concerned about his support system, especially his first holiday away from his father.
Her mother was certainly right; Frank would get lonely over Christmas, and thus it was very important that she arrange for him to be happy over the holiday. It was a risk, but she thought she could manage it with the right moves with Caroline.
"I think that's an excellent idea," Athena said, smiling. "I'm sure Frank would be pleased to come over for dinner."
"I think so, too," Caroline said happily. "I shall extend the invitation… or would you rather do it?"
"I'll do it. I'll be seeing him tomorrow."
"All right, I shall plan on it, then."
Athena inserted a pause, as though something had occurred to her.
"Mummy, regarding Christmas dinner," Athena said, in a curious, off-hand tone. "Would it be all right if I attended as a human would attend, so that I may experience it as Frank would experience it? Eating food and dessert and generally treat me as human? I'll clean my chest cavity afterward."
Caroline raised an eyebrow, but said, "All right, darling. I suppose it would be a novel experience for you."
"May I cook the dinner and make the dessert?" Athena asked.
Caroline laughed. "You really want the full experience, apparently. Of course, dear. I don't mind a day off to lounge around."
Frank stood in front of the Chaumers's apartment door, feeling a little nervous, since he had never actually been to Athena's home before, but also excited and grateful to be spending Christmas with them. He pressed the button to the side of the door, then heard the door announce his name on the other side.
The door slid up and Athena welcomed him in. "Happy Christmas, Frank," she said.
"Thanks! And thanks for inviting me over," Frank said.
Caroline appeared out of another room, smiling. "Happy Christmas to you, Frank. Athena did all of the cooking and baking for us today, by the way."
Frank looked over at Athena, who smiled. "I knew you baked, but you even cook, huh? I'm impressed."
"Athena's quite a good cook on occasion, though I usually do it since I enjoy it," Caroline said. "But if I've had a hard day at the lab, it's good to know she can take over. I must say, it will be nice to have someone else to eat with, for a change."
"Frank!" Athena said quickly, touching Frank's arm and leading him away. "Let me show you around."
"Okay," Frank said, though he wondered what Athena's hurry was.
The apartment was a two-bedroom place, not huge, but very cozy with a lot of interesting knick-knacks. A decorated Christmas tree was set up in a corner, with a few gifts underneath. Athena led him around, showing him a few things here or there that her mother had collected from around the world. He peeked into a small room that Athena said was Caroline's office. He felt too intimidated to walk in, but it had shelves filled with books, papers, animatronic parts, and odd items. He felt like he could've spent hours exploring it.
Frank found Athena's bedroom interesting, if only because of how spare it was. She had a few knick-knacks, but seemed remarkably uninterested in keeping possessions. He smiled, however, noticing that she kept the puzzle he'd given her on her desk. There was a very cool collection of small robots, though Athena said it belonged to Caroline. Frank idly thought he should give her more stuff.
After the tour, Athena had to check the dinner, so he hung out with her in the kitchen and they chatted about school and various other things until dinner was ready. Frank helped her bring it out to the table.
They all sat down at the Chaumers' table, serving up their food. Caroline looked amused as she watched Athena load up a plate of food, which Frank wondered about, but perhaps Athena was having more than usual since she was usually such a light eater.
"Thank you so much for having me," Frank said, between bites of the food. "This is great!"
"We're happy you joined us," Caroline replied. "How's school going?"
"Okay," Frank said. "Some classes were pretty easy, like math, but others were kind of intimidating. It took a while to get a handle on it, but I think I'm getting there."
"What has struck you as unusual?"
"Well, I'm learning French. On Earth, I think they give you a book with vocabulary and grammar and you learn it. But here, they don't use books at all, at least for the first few years. I guess the idea is to learn the same way infants learn, through immersion and picking up grammar through usage. We mostly have a topic of the day and just have conversations with each other, and sometimes we also learn French history and culture."
Caroline nodded. "I know they've had a lot of success with that method, though it was tricky to assess student progress."
"Yeah. I'm also really enjoying history, for a change. They don't actually care whether we remember specific dates or details. They teach history by context. We're supposed to learn the broad events, but then they test if we can explain why the events happened and what the effects were. Like knowing that three ships carried Columbus in 1492 is less important than knowing that the event happened, why the event happened, and what was happening in the world such that Spain wanted to sponsor the trip. It makes things feel so much more real, like these things didn't just happen in a vacuum. We were discussing that time period before December break, in fact."
The three of them spent some time discussing Spain in the late fifteen century, which Frank found very interesting (he raised an eyebrow at Athena's in-depth knowledge on the subject). The truth was, he always found history boring because he hated memorization, but the idea that there were global forces at work behind historical events made the world seem like a dynamic system instead of just a collection of discrete events.
As dinner wound down and Frank finished his enormous piece of apple pie Athena had served him (Athena herself had a very small piece, to Frank's amusement, while Caroline had complained about the size Athena had served her, claiming it was excessive, but ate it anyway), he felt full and satisfied from the good meal and good conversation.
"That was really good, Athena," Frank said, smiling. "Is there anything you can't do?"
Athena looked oddly nervous at this, glancing at Caroline who seemed amused. "Oh yes," she said quickly. "Many things. Frank, would you mind helping me clear the table?"
"Sure," he said placidly, hoping he didn't embarrass Athena with his comment.
"That was excellent," Caroline said. "If you two wouldn't mind, I think I'll let my dinner settle and curl up with my book."
"I'll help with the dishes," Frank said.
"All right," Athena said, as they gathered up the various plates and leftovers and brought them back to the kitchen.
Frank and Athena put the food into containers and began to wash and dry the dishes, which needed delicate hand-washing since, according to Athena, they were china Caroline used for special occasions. As they went through this process, Frank found his mind wandering, reflecting on Christmas and the fact it was his first away from home. Memories of prior holidays ran through his head, particularly of his father back home – and his mother, who would have no more Christmases.
Thoughts of his mother made him feel melancholy, but soon his thoughts turned to his father, making him more agitated. He didn't want to let it get to him and spoil what had been a fantastic evening, but it was just so frustrating and infuriating. The man couldn't even respond to a letter from his son at Christmas. Sure, they hadn't parted on good terms. But it was four months. Was he really still brooding and angry at him? Did he really feel the need to punish him in this way, make him feel really rotten? This could have been an opportunity to build a bridge back, but the man evidently couldn't be bothered. Just who is the child, anyway? Frank thought angrily.
They finished the dishes and he noticed that Athena was looking at him.
"Are you all right, Frank?" she asked quietly. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to; I'll understand."
Frank felt his emotions growing out of control. Clearly Athena could sense it, though he wouldn't be surprised if the entire apartment complex could sense it. He felt an overwhelming need to get away from everything and clear his mind.
He didn't answer her question, but just said flatly, "Let's go for a walk."
Athena nodded. "Of course," she said in a calm voice. "Let me tell my mother."
Frank wasn't sure how she could know, but somehow he knew that she understood exactly what he was feeling at that moment. He was grateful that she realized that he needed to get out of the house.
Athena walked back in and nodded at him. They walked out of the kitchen and straight out the front door, Frank feeling the tension driving his legs and wanting to let it out. Reaching the street outside their apartment complex, Frank turned right, leading away from the city center and toward a park at the end of the street.
He walked quickly and heavy-footed, a dark cloud hovering over his head as his anger grew by the second. It wasn't just about Christmas now; all of his frustrations were getting drawn in, all of the strong emotions he'd kept bottled up. Athena walked with him silently, he could feel her calmness and she seemed to absorb all the agitation radiating off him. Images of his father ran through his mind, all the times he'd subtly looked down on his projects. All the times he was disappointed that Frank wasn't excited about the farm life. All the times he sown the seeds of doubt in Frank's mind, hoping for a harvest of killing his dreams.
They reached the park, Frank walking still more quickly down a path into some trees, almost trying to stay ahead of his anger. Athena was still with him, but Frank didn't want to look over and see her, thinking she probably thought he was acting crazy. Well, maybe he was crazy. Pa thought so, didn't he?
He stomped this way for several minutes, then suddenly stopped. He shouted a curse word in rage, something he rarely did alone, much less in front of someone like Athena. "My father couldn't even reply to a letter!"
He picked up a clump of dirt and threw it with all his strength at a tree, the clod exploding in a satisfying shower around the tree, yet feeling like a completely pathetic and feeble gesture. His father wasn't there to see the anger and would probably feel contempt at the show of emotion anyway.
"What is wrong with him? Yeah! I didn't want to be a farmer. Big news, Sam! Lots of people don't want to be farmers! I wasn't born to be what you wanted me to be! Go find someone else to take over the farm, because I don't want it!"
He looked over at Athena, who was just watching him calmly and compassionately.
"I swear to you, Athena, I will never go back. Never. Even if I completely fail here, I don't care if I have to work next to the cleaning robots and be one of them, I will never crawl back to the farm."
Frank's anger spilled over everything, all of his frustrations.
"And I'm tired of being scared and intimidated," he shouted. "What the hell has been wrong with me? The school is not that hard. I swear to you, I'm done with all this crap. I asked for this! I wanted to be here, and all I've done is whine since I got here. The school is hard, the kids are mean, all of it. I'm amazed you can stand to be around me at all."
Frank stopped and turned away from Athena, his breath coming in labored gasps now from the walking and shouting and emotional outburst.
Suddenly the last of the anger emptied out and all was left was sadness, the loss and rejection from his father feeling deeply painful. Frank felt tears stinging his eyes. He sat on the ground and starting sobbing, hating that he was crying in front of Athena, but helpless to control it. He felt like he'd been holding it all in for months and the lack of any communication from his father had finally blown the lid off the pressure vessel holding his emotions.
"Why couldn't he have just understood?" Frank said, looking down between his knees. "It didn't have to be this way. He made it this way."
He heard Athena sit next to him and then felt her arm go over his shoulders. They just sat that way for several minutes, Frank finally calming down, but still looking down between his legs, not wanting to see anything yet.
After a long silence, Frank felt his life regain some focus. He felt renewed, the storm of emotion had stripped clean the old hurts and old words that held him back and pulled him down.
"It's time to grow up, isn't it?" he said in a quiet voice. "This is exactly what I wanted. The chance to be what I wanted to be. But I had all these… I don't know, ghosts in my head. My father's voice, all these stupid doubts."
He paused again, then sighed. "Time to grow up. You probably think I'm a crybaby."
Athena finally spoke. "No," she said firmly. "On the contrary, this is who I saw at the World's Fair. A passionate boy filled with potential, who will someday be a great man because of this. Your fears will never be a match for the drive in you to succeed."
It's time to grow up, Frank repeated to himself. He chose this life from his own desire. Maybe it was time to remind himself that he wanted this, he wanted the school, he wanted to be out on his own, and it was time to stop being scared. It was time to work toward being the man he wanted to become.
He looked up at Athena and smiled. She smiled back at him, and Frank just enjoyed their unspoken conversation. He knew she understood.
They walked back into Athena's apartment, Frank feeling happier and less stressed than he'd been in quite some time – maybe ever. It was Christmas, he was with his best friend, and she'd made him a great dinner. Life really was good in a lot of ways.
Caroline walked into the room. "Enjoy your walk?" she asked.
"Yeah," Frank said. "It was good to get some air."
"Well, Athena, shall we give Frank our Christmas present?" Caroline grinned.
"Really?" Frank said, looking between Caroline and Athena. "You didn't have to do that! And I didn't bring you anything."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Caroline said, waving her hand in the air dismissively. "And I have an ulterior motive for this gift anyway."
She pulled a card out of her pocket and handed it to Frank. "Here you go, Happy Christmas!"
"Thanks!" Frank said, opening up the card. On the front it showed a movie robot, Robbie the Robot, wearing a scarf and Santa hat, with a dialog bubble that said, "Happy Christmas from Caroline and Athena!"
He opened the card and inside was a photo of a black rectangular box stamped with letters and numbers. Frank blinked, trying to figure what the heck it exactly was.
"Um, thanks…" Frank said, feeling confused.
"No need to pretend you know what it is," Caroline said. "That, my friend, is a WPD199-1025 rocket controller."
"What?" Frank said, now getting excited. "What does it do?"
"Controls rockets, obviously," Caroline said, smirking.
Athena glared at her mother.
"All right, Athena, I'll curb the sarcasm, little miss no-fun," Caroline said, with a mock frown. "So Frank, I've arranged for you to have access to some of the good stuff. I know you think you've seen some good stuff, but there are whole sections of the catalog with the really cool stuff. Unfortunately, most of it you still can't access. But – you'll find this particularly useful. You can use this with your jetpack."
"Wow!" Frank said.
"To tell you the truth, I know you can make your jetpack work, but I'm not convinced it'll ever really be – well, safe. I'd rather you not die, which is my ulterior motive for this. This rocket controller can be adapted to provide excellent control, including stable flight as well as hovering, and further provide you a margin of automatic safety, which I think we all agree is important. And, of course, you'll learn a lot by studying how it works. Now, you need to understand this is a real, full-measure, no-holds-barred, rocket controller. In theory, you could make an ICBM out of this."
"What's an ICBM?" Frank asked, thinking he'd heard of it, but wasn't sure.
"Intercontinental Ballistic Missile," Athena piped up brightly. "That's what they launch nuclear warheads on!"
"Oh," Frank said, a bit taken aback.
"Yes," Caroline said, grinning. "So I would appreciate if you would not make any ICBMs and sell them to unfriendly countries. Or friendly ones, for that matter. That would definitely make me look bad for giving you this access."
Frank grinned in return. "It'll be tempting, but I'll control myself. No pun intended."
"So you'll notice a new little section in your parts catalog," Caroline said. "And there might even be a few other little goodies in there."
Frank shook his head. "Who needs Santa when the Tomorrowland elves will deliver whatever I need via T-Post?"
Author's Note: The chapter title character limit is way too short on this site. Please review!
The official story site is at www. frankandathena .com for discussions of the story! - T.K.