Chapter 25
The day they woke her, she remembered how she’d had her heart torn in two before she recalled anything else. A sad day, and yet she listened, kicking her legs where they dangled over the end of the stasis bed.
Led was nowhere to be seen among those saying hi, of course. Though she did look for him, still hoping. Jocelyn and Smorg were there. Bob Stardrake turned out to be a white-toothed, well-toned, golden-haired boy of a hundred and two, who obviously sampled his own wares.
The salient points sank in despite her feelings of being made of cardboard.
Her siren genes were now integrated. She wouldn’t have full siren functionality, but would be able to attract males more than normal. Bonus points – she was no longer considered a biohazard and all current warrants for her arrest and detainment on homicide or other charges had been withdrawn, except for the ones on BART.
Small drawback – she must, by galactic law, get a siren tattoo on both arms if she wished to reside outside of a siren enclave. But it was gorgeous, according to Bob, and designed by an avant-garde tattooist. She smiled briefly.
Food was given to her – important when she’d been under stasis for so long and with so many genetic alterations done to her body.
They had rescued Led from death.
That made her sit up straighter at the breakfast table, with her spoon dripping cereal and snoggle milk.
“What?” Could this be true?
“He was dead but not quite absolutely dead,” Bob explained brightly. “Absolute death is a little fuzzier ever since we developed advanced data retrieval from defunct brains. He is in stasis now, and they have found an earlier copy of his persona on COG 101. That, combined with what has been taken from the mollok brain framework, means he should be 99.99999 percent intact once everything is merged into a new synth brain.” His smile widened momentarily, teeth shining. “The one drawback is that this will take some time to accomplish.”
“Oh.” Fuck, fuck, fuck-a-trons. This was too much to take in. Hope was doing a dance, a muted one, because he’d emphasized some time. “Clarify some time. Please?”
“About, ahhh, five to eight years.” He rattled on, “He’s had a similar procedure before and it took about five point two years. So. The molloks are paying for it, of course. Suckers. Haha. Made a pun there.”
She eyed him, scowling mildly. How had Bob survived for so long?
Eight years to repair Led?
How could anyone wait that long for someone to return? Could she?
“So now.” Bob clapped his hands together. “You can get on with life! And your mother paid for it all. No outstanding bills!”
Her first act in her new life was to not throat-chop Bob. He was a little irritating. Instead she thanked him and moved out of the Stardrake Private Genetic Hospital ASAP. Then she freed Smorg and Jocelyn of any obligations toward others apart from the normal ones any society expected. That is, she set them free.
Then...she went adventuring.
She perfected her fighting skills, because it seemed wise, and Led would have approved.
She found a partner and tried out sex in a few thousand combinations.
She found the best man ever – though man, as an accurate description of what he was, was probably inaccurate.
She fell in love.
And she married him. And she knew it was the right thing to do, considering everything. No one should judge her. Jocelyn and Smorg went to the wedding, and Doctor S did indeed attend and pose as the marriage celebrant or vow master. He got quite the kick out of that.
And every year she returned to the hospital on COG 101 to check on Led’s progress.
Eight point four years after his death, she woke him with a kiss.