The main hallways of Regent Galactic ships were always made to fit six abreast, a surprising engineering choice considering that not long ago half the primary functions aboard were automated. The berths on most vessels were a third empty until the Regent Galactic Coreward Fleet prepared themselves for the release of the Holocaust Virus. The green and brown decks positively glistened, the walls and ceiling were pristine as well, as though the ship had just been built. It was new, Hampon wouldn't have accepted anything less than state of the art vessels for the Order of Eden Flagship.
Lister Hampon walked with his usual escort; an assistant who knew his schedule better than he did, a publicist who knew who he would and wouldn't speak to, four attendants ready to fetch anything he might want at a moment's notice and a full squad of special forces trained soldiers. They were his, paid directly out of the Order's coffers, their families had been added to the list of the Saved when they signed on to his detail so they would survive the chaos inflicted by machines driven mad by the Holocaust Virus. To betray him was to have everyone they cared for de-listed. Their loyalty was practically written in stone, and he had to admit it, he'd actually gotten to know many of his personal guards. Perhaps it was his child like appearance, but he couldn't help but think there was something more.
When it happened exactly Lister Hampon couldn't say, but some time after most of his conciousness was transferred to a much younger body he started feeling at ease with people. Somehow understanding them had become less challenging and with the crew Regent Galactic had assigned him along with a team of analysts and doctors he managed to feel right with himself after just a few months.
People who didn't know him or what he was capable of were immediately more pliant, whether they were in awe of him because he was the High Seat of the Order of Eden or because he still had the appearance of a young boy just entering his teens didn't matter. The reward to his status and appearance was the pliancy he found in the people around him, and he hoped that Eve would be no different.
He stopped to stand in front of her door. One of his attendants pressed the chime button. Lister and the twenty with him filled the hall, a mix of white, blue and cream robes and armoured troops. Finally he door opened and Lister nodded to one of his attendants, she was a young, heavy set woman carrying a white oblong box level with both arms. “You may attend me, everyone else will remain outside.”
The guards took up positions on either side of the hall, standing at attention while his publicist and assistant stood in front of the door itself.
The small quarters were furnished with a single bed, a desk, a dresser and there was a mini-bathroom with a sink, toilet and pulse shower through a narrow door in the corner. Eve stared at him, wide eyed, standing in a robe beside her bed. Her hair was in disarray and her simple loose fitting jumpsuit had been crumpled up and tossed atop the dresser. It was an emergency vacuum suit with pockets added, and he caught himself before shaking his head.
He smiled up at her and offered his hand. Her eyes were only flicking at him, he was only in the peripheral of her perception, there was so much more happening in her mind, on the network she was connected to. “I'm Lister Hampon, I hope I haven't come at a bad time.”
“Yes, I know,” she replied woodenly. Her arms dangled numbly at her sides, she may have been standing there for hours for all he knew.
“Eve, can I have some of your time please?” he asked politely.
“I'm listening,” she muttered.
Lister shook his head and took a seat on the edge of the bed, his feet couldn't touch the floor as he tidied up his own rich green and brown robes. “Nora is what they called you before your father experimented on you, isn't it?”
That gave her a momentary pause, her eyes rolled in his direction. “Yes, that's my name.”
“May I call you Nora?”
“Yes. My father saved me, you know.”
He nodded. “I know, and we've saved you again, but not so you could waste the gift by becoming part of a cold, digital system all over again. Please Nora, disconnect from the network and give me the gift of your time,” he patted the bed beside him. “Sit.”
She looked confused, surprised and after a moment he could tell all her attentions were on him. The young woman sat down beside him, wary, folding her robe more tightly closed.
“Have you spoken to many people since you arrived here?”
“Many people. The communications systems aboard this ship are very efficient, it's easy to speak to anyone in the fleet.”
“I mean just as we're speaking now, face to face.”
“No, I've been to therapy and my room,” she answered dutifully.
“Well, that won't do. Let's start with something simple. What would you rather be called, Eve or Nora?”
She looked to the attendant, who was trying not to look at either of them as she stood against the wall, then back to Lister. “I don't know, your eminence. What do you think would be better?”
“Oh, please, call me Lister. Well, it all depends. Do you want to be known as the matron of our cause? If that's what you'd like then Eve is appropriate. If you'd rather recover in peace then Nora may suit you better. It may also be a good way to remember your father and who you were before all this changed your world.”
The mention of her father, of her human past seemed to brighten her spirits. “Nora.”
“Good, I'm glad to know you Nora. Now let's do something to make you a little more comfortable. Do you have a brush?”
Nora's attention was back on her connection with the vast network of the fleet around Pandem.
“Please, don't search using the system, come back to us,” Lister said, taking her hand in his. He turned to his aide momentarily; “Can you check the drawers for a brush please?” he whispered to her.
Nora looked to her hand in his then to him, surprised. “You don't want me in the system.”
“Not just now, no. It's time for you to disconnect for a while, to learn what it is to be really and truly alive again.”
“In physiotherapy I learned how to walk again. I haven't missed any of my appointments.”
“I know and that's good, but there's more to being a human being that knowing how to walk, than being in sync with your body.” Lister accepted an oval hairbrush from his aide. May I brush your hair Nora?”
She stared at him blankly for a moment then nodded.
He gently ran the brush through her red hair, starting with gentle, slow strokes. It wasn't terribly long, only a bob cut, but it was enough to brush. “There's a world of good sensations all around us. The physical world is filled with gifts, and many of them come to us as a result of simply interacting with our environment, with other people. Sometimes I wish I was the first one you saw when you woke in this body.”
“But you didn't want me like Gabriel does.”
Her candour was surprising. “How was that?”
“He had a,” she paused a moment, “need to connect with my mind. He hoped to find some kind of fulfilment. I didn't know what to do so I used his cybernetic implants to build a new virus. I thought it was what he wanted, he did it before, I just made a better one.”
“Then he had you transported here.”
“Yes,” her tone softened, the mechanical clarity of it dulled.
“Well, he invited you in not knowing what to expect. I think he should have taken things much slower, what do you think? Would it have been better if he approached you without all those expectations?”
After a moment she turned to him, her eyes fully focused on his for the first time. “Yes, it would have.”
“Well, in a way that's what I'm trying to do Nora. I don't want you to think that I'm here to put you up on some pedestal like some idol for my people to worship. They already have me for that,” his tone softened then, surprising his aide who forgot herself for a moment and stared. “I need you to know that you have friends here, that I can really help you, but you need to start behaving like a person, not just a part of a machine.”
“Why?”
“Because you didn't get the chance to be human for very long the first time and I know what it's like to become ill and have to start over. That's what happened to you, isn't it?”
“You reviewed my file, I saw the logs.”
“But now I'm talking to you about it. There are nuances in speaking to someone about their life, and that's just as important as anything in that file. Gabriel was so focused on his dream of finding a perfect match that he forgot there might be a young woman in there,” he squeezed her hand. “She might want to try having a good life once she was put into a new body, and that life can only be complete if you don't live in machines the whole time.”
A tear rolled down her cheek, her lip quivered. He had hit the nerve he was looking for, the one that led straight back to her long forgotten human dreams, the ones she'd had before she was used as the center of an organic computer.
Hampon offered open arms and she leaned into him, weeping. “No one ever asked me,” she sobbed.
Perhaps it was his new found youth, maybe it was the effect of rare emotional contact, but he felt a deep sympathy for the young woman. Whether her father or anyone else had taken the opportunity to ask the critically ill girl if she wanted to become the Eve Mind. There was a ghoulish cruelty to the thought of having one's conciousness transferred to the coldness of machinery without consent, and as he soothed Nora he genuinely wanted nothing more than to protect her. “It's all right, we're going to make things better. It's going to be fine.” He reached out to his aide, who was quietly in tears herself and she handed him a kerchief.
When Nora's quakes and sobs stopped some time later he drew back from her and looked into her eyes. They were glazed, tears were starting to dry. “Come back to us, it's not time for that,” he said quietly.
Her eyes focused on him again and he offered her the soft white cloth. She took it and wiped her tears away. “Sorry,” she muttered.
“How do you feel when you're connected?”
She regarded him with mild surprise and thought before answering. “Normal.”
His heart sank at the answer. “There's no emotion there, is there?”
She shook her head. “There's noise everywhere but it's all the same. No one's angry or sad.”
“Or happy,” Lister finished. “That's what I want for you Nora, and I know it won't be easy, but anything that's worth having is worth working for. Would you like my help?”
“Help with what?” She blew her nose, filling the small compartment with the sound.
Hampon couldn't help but smile. “I want to help you be happy, in the most human sense. When you're ready you can choose your own road, but I'd like us to be friends for a start. Would you like that?”
She nodded.
“All right, I'm going to have to leave but I'll be back soon.”
“There's a battle going on, I understand.”
“In the meantime, would you like to move to better quarters? These seem small and drab.”
“I saw some on deck twelve, section B I liked in the system, and they're empty.”
“Then they're yours. That's not far from mine either, but you probably already knew that,” Lister teased. “Well then, Mia here will help you with your things. If you can stay focused on just being yourself, on not connecting to the computer system she'll even help you decorate if you like.”
“All right,” Nora beamed.
“But Mia will stop helping if she sees you're not paying attention. She can be your personal assistant all the time if you like, and I think you'll get along well, she's a nice young woman. She's brought a present for you as well,” Lister directed the aide to give the box to Nora.
She took the long lid off and gasped as she moved the thin white tissue paper aside. “Oh, it's beautiful,” she said in a hushed whisper as she drew the upper half out carefully.
“Mia can help you get washed and dressed. You can talk to her, she's here to help you with whatever you need,” Hampon nodded at the young woman knowingly. He had opened the door as per Mia's instructions, and as she had predicted the whole experience was an emotional one for him as well as Nora. Mia would have her work cut out for her, but as the best qualified therapist in her age group amongst the West Watch, he expected her to do well.
“I'll be around to see how things are coming along in your new place,” he offered a hug and Nora took it with vigour.
“Thank you so much, I'll try to stay out of the system.”
“Good. Make sure you eat regularly and get plenty of rest. I don't want to watch you wither away like Gabriel,” he stood and was just about to leave when Nora stopped him.
“Lister, where's Gabriel? I know he left the main fleet but couldn't find out where he'd gone.”
He offered her a comforting smile; “He's on a mission to spread the word of the Order of Eden. Don't worry about him right now, you could concentrate on your own happiness.”