Her Brother's Keeper: A Story of Alpha Centauri

The two women watched as the girl left the restaurant. As she was going through the door, she turned and gave them a friendly wave, which the duo returned with enormous grins on their faces.

Once she finally exited the dark-haired woman ‘Miss Coop’ faced ‘Miss Harrison’ and began speaking, “You’re right.”

“I’m right about what?” Christy Harris retorted.

“After talking to her I realized she is more like Mary than you when you were that age,” Commodore Cooper answered.

“Yes, she has a few unconscious mannerisms that are identical to my big sister’s,” Christy responded.

“You mean the way she won’t meet your eyes when she’s trying to be evasive?” Cooper pointed out.

“Exactly.”

“Did you notice she did it every time she mentioned Haruhi?” Cooper enquired.

“Oh, yeah.”

“What’s so wrong with admitting that she loves her sister? Is that a ‘modern’ societal thing?” Cooper asked, unsure of the situation.

“No, from what I’ve seen it isn’t. I think it’s one of her personality quirks.”

“Interesting,” came Cooper’s measured response. “At least she cherishes Haruhi as much as you loved Mary. That part of the experiment was definitely a success.”

“Yes. Plus, judging from their latest, and most honest test scores they won’t ever have to be separated,” Christy replied with a radiant smile. “Not by death nor by the ravages of time.”

“Indeed, Duflot was ecstatic because of those results. Haruhi scored five points higher than Keiko did at that age,” Cooper pointed out. “Meanwhile, Christiana only achieved three points below your score.”

“We both know that people can fluctuate ten points from day to day. In other words, the marks are essentially a perfect match. Psychogenesis?” Christy enquired.

“Psychogenesis,” Cooper agreed.

“I never thought that it would work on our genetic children. With a cloned embryo, perhaps, but not on our offspring,” Christy Harris revealed sheepishly.

“Duflot hypothesizes that with replicated embryos we can not only duplicate the basic mental abilities but also the personality traits as well,” Cooper pointed out.

“I wouldn’t mind having a few more Christianas running around. She’s a truly nice kid,” Christy said with a wistful smile.

“It seems you will not have long to wait for that. Duflot already has plans to do a second run,” Cooper revealed. “After all, unless you can replicate your results, then you cannot truly say that your experiment was a success.”

“But she hasn’t reached adulthood,” Harris pointed out. “Until then, we won’t know if she’ll even agree to be turned.”

“As attached as she is to Haruhi and as connected as they will be to you by that time I believe we can already guess the answer to that.” Cooper pointed out. “After all, unlike with you and Mary, we’ll be able to offer her the chance to have a child or two before we change her. The same for Haruhi. If Mary had that choice what do you think she would have chosen?”

“She’d still be here,” Christy said in a very sad voice. “She wanted children so badly, but she didn’t want to have them on the cramped ship. In the end, that was why she chose to age and fade away while I lingered on.” After wiping the tear that fell from her left eye, she continued. “Besides, it’s all up to Admiral Duflot. Without his agreement, I can’t even think about offering her my blood.”

“Oh, that’s not a problem,” Cooper revealed with a grin. “I already got permission from Christoph.”

“What!?!?!” Christy Harris exclaimed as if she were a child herself. Then she positively bounced up and down as she rushed out of her chair and bear-hugged her companion. “I love you, Mommy!”

“I love you too short stuff!” Cooper asserted for the entire room to hear. Then, after Christy pulled away, she said in a normal voice, “You haven’t called me that in decades.”

“I realize that,” Christy responded with a laugh.

“I miss hearing you call me that.” Cooper said in a wistful voice. “While I’m not your biological parent, I all but raised you on that voyage.”

“I know. You were the first person other than Aunt Krystal who ever looked after us,” Christy revealed. “With you around, Mary didn’t have to look out for me so much and could finally be a kid.”

“I wish I could have been there for you more often.”

“Please, you had a STARSHIP to run. The fact that you watched over us the way you did was wonderful.” Christy said with a smile. “I mean we got to see you almost every other day to eat and talk and just be silly. That was more than enough.”

“Thank you, sweety. Those were some of the happiest days of my… unlife,” Cooper said as she reached out her hand and took hold of her daughter’s. “Then after I raised you I became your sire, so I turned into your mother in another way when you drank my blood. I was incredibly happy.”

“I was delighted too, and Mary looked so sad,” Christy responded as a teardrop fell down her cheek.

“Well, from here on out, you will be like a parent to Christiana and Haruhi,” Cooper said in a cheerful tone. “Then, when the time rolls around, you’ll also become a mom to your biological daughter in a second way.”

“I can’t believe I’ll have to live in this Hotel for the next six years,” Christy groused despite the smirk on her face.

“Now do not start. That’s the entire reason we built this tower here in this backwater town,” then with an ironic smile Cooper continued. “After all, they get enough business a Year to keep Château Duflot afloat for a full month. Still, it was the best idea we could concoct to explain why they can’t stay with you when they want to. Well, that and the fact that you will be traveling in and out of the area every few days. Otherwise, the kids would wonder why you don’t simply buy a house where they could visit regularly.”

“Yep, just like we always wanted to stop by your quarters to bed down there,” Harris said with a giggle. “We didn’t realize that you did not need to sleep in deep space and it would blow your human cover.”

“Yeah, that made the ‘vampiric bonus’ of interstellar travel into a real nuisance,” Cooper revealed. “No sun nearby equals no requirement to go catatonic every twelve-ish hours.”

“So Duflot plans to keep the experiment running until we turn them,” Harris replied, as if the truth of the situation had not fully registered. “I mean, I wouldn’t have to replicate your role so closely if we planned to discontinue the project.”

“Yes, that’s what Christoph decided,” Cooper responded. “In his own words, ‘Right now we have girls with their mothers’ potential when they first boarded the ships. Let’s see if we’re capable of transforming our little prodigies into the super-geniuses their parents eventually became.’”

“Sure,” Harris said in a disparaging manner.

“Sure what?” came Cooper’s prompt response.

“The super-genius label. Keiko and I are bright, but we are not on Duflot’s level,” Harris pointed out. “Compared to him we can barely keep up.”

“Christoph was the best mind of his century,” Cooper said matter-of-factly. “No one can truly compete with him.”

“Christoph this, Christoph that,” Harris said teasingly. “When are you going to admit it?”

“Admit what?” Cooper responded, her confusion clear on her face.

“That you’re his favorite child,” Harris revealed. “Who else is allowed to call the Admiral by his first name?”

“Well, there’s Rose….”

“Oh please, she’s known Duflot for the better part of a millennium, and they’ve been lovers off and on for half of that,” Harris replied with a playful grin. “Is there anyone other than the two of you who call him Christoph?”

“He told Simmons that he could refer to him that way during our initial return trip to Sol.”

“Does Simmons actually call him Christoph?” Harris retorted.

“No, but…”

Before she could finish her sentence Cooper’s com’ beeped a very specific manner.

“Hold on, I have to take this.”

“Tomoko-sama?” asked Christy.

“Yeah.”

“Put her on speaker. I want to say hi. We haven’t talked for ages.”

“Cooper here, I have you on….”

Before she could complete her phrase, a youthful and very excited voice called out, “Onee-chan! I figured it out!”

“What did you figure ou…”

“The particle that makes the sizzle, sizzle pop sound is probably, no definitely, the free neutron! Knowing that I can hypothesize that the item that goes zing, zing, pow is the tritium, and the one the sounds like hum, hum is the deuterium. With that, I will be able to analyze the zing, hum, pow thingy which acts as a catalyst, but I’m not sure what it is.”

“So, how does that help us?,” Cooper asked in an exasperated voice. “Remember, I am a ship captain, not a physicist.”

“Onee-chan, isn’t it obvious? When I identify the zing, hum, pow, then I’ll figure out how to catalyze the fusion reaction,” Tomoko explained. “Then we’ll be capable of replicating the process in the black box reactors. In other words, we could finally start building our own from scratch.”

“How can you figure that out?” Cooper asked, still a little lost in the sudden conversation.

“I can’t, not until you get that collider completed and I’m able to listen to those reactions,” Tomoko further explained. “Then, once I know how the basic particles all sound, I’ll determine what the catalyst is.”

“Sweety, I keep telling you that trying to procure ten billion credits out of Congress to finish the first phase of construction isn’t something that can be done overnight,” Cooper said for the umpteenth time. “The SecWave party wants that money to go towards additional hydro-electric facilities and the Federalists want us to produce fission power plants with it.”

“Ew… if you don’t build those just right they’ll cause a lot of environmental issues,” Tomoko said with obvious disgust. “However, I am sure I could come up with super safe schematics in about two months…”

“Tomoko, remember we agreed to concentrate on the reverse engineering of the fusion reactors. That would be the safest plan for the long-term growth of the colony.” Cooper explained. “Besides, if we have a reliable fission reactor design we’d never obtain the funding for the collider. Think of all the things you can do once you identify the sounds of the proper particles. Plus, we would never figure out that alien hyperdrive.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking it through,” Tomoko responded in a contrite manner. “You know how thrilled I get when I discover something important.”

“It’s okay, you’re still young for a member of your species,” Cooper said in a gentle tone. “Everyone gets excited from time to time, even after they reach adulthood.”

“I understand.” Then, after a momentary pause, Tomoko continued, “How long do you think it will take? To obtain the funding that we need for the collider?”

“I can probably break it down into smaller parts over five or ten Years,” Cooper explained. “Remember, they believe that this is nothing but pure research so they are being very tight with their money.”

After a sigh, the voice on the other end of the com’ finally relented. “I guess that isn’t very long when you think about it. I just want to learn more about that hyperdrive. Normal particle interactions sound like popcorn mixed with white noise. That thing is more reminiscent of a symphony.”

“I know,” Cooper replied. “But remember, by understanding that FTL technology you’ll not only be satisfying your curiosity, you will also be fulfilling your promise to Amaterasu-sama.”

“Okay, I’ll get back to work, then. You have to learn to crawl before you can walk after all,” Tomoko said. “Talk to you later onee-chan.”

“Bye.”

“Well, she was in uncommonly high spirits,” Christy said. “I couldn’t even say hello. “

Cooper merely sighed. “It’s easy to forget that emotionally she isn’t much older than Christiana, despite her age. Her race matures incredibly slowly.”

At this, Christy shuddered. “I don’t want to think about having to grow up like that.”

“Well, she can’t help it,” Cooper explained. “They have to measure their lives in terms of Terran centuries as opposed to years after all.”

“I guess they have to mature gradually to learn to process all the sensory data that they perceive, which we cannot hope to fathom,” Christy said in a thoughtful manner.

“Not only that, but they have to understand how to focus on one parallel at the time so they can interact properly with their current space-time,” Cooper explained. “That alone takes centuries to figure out.”

“The very thought of having to master such a skill makes me wonder why they aren’t all mad,” Christy said, only half jokingly.

“Speaking of abnormal sensory data Christoph has a theory concerning Christiana’s spontaneous ability to chain multiple Katas into one fluid series of movements,” Cooper revealed.

“I have been wondering about that myself,” Christy said with interest. “Do tell.”

“He hypothesizes it is somehow related to her mage blood and her latent magical abilities.”

“Wait, I don’t have any mages in my lineage,” Christy pointed out. “So, it must be from her father.”

“Exactly.”

“Who was her geneFather, anyway?” Christy asked with interest.

“Baron Robert Devereux,” came Cooper’s prompt response.

“Wasn’t he the parent of one of the two strongest magic users in the past five centuries?” Christy said in wonder.

“He was her grandfather, but essentially you are correct.”

“How did Duflot manage to get a viable sperm sample from a man who died in the late nineteen fifties, much less that of a nobleman?” Christy asked, not really expecting an answer. To her surprise Cooper had a partial answer to her question.

“Christoph himself had independently discovered the use of glycerols for cryopreservation twenty years earlier than human scientists, so sometime in the early nineteen forties. However, back then, he used dry ice for storage since liquid nitrogen was scarce. As for how he got a sample from a noble, I do not know.”

“It would be interesting to find out,” Christy mused.

“Well then, you can ask him yourself,” Cooper retorted with a grin.

Christy’s face formed into a disgusted grimace for a moment before she continued. “Why did he use Devereux’s sperm when he was trying to produce someone of extremely high intellect?”

“Baron Devereux was no slouch,” Cooper revealed. “He graduated with a first from Cambridge University and went on to serve as a trusted advisor to King George V, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth II in the secret post of Court Wizard. The man also worked as a close personal aide to George VI throughout his reign. He rarely left his majesty’s side until the tragic death of both his son and his daughter-in-law made him the sole guardian of his granddaughter.”

“Well, he sounds like he was also an intellectual as well as a mage,” Christy admitted. “With that in mind, I wonder who Haruhi’s biological father is.”

“It was Takaaki Kajita, a Nipponese Nobel Laureate in physics from the early twenty-first century.”

“Ahh, so in her case, he went for a pure academic,” Christy postulated.

“Actually, no. Apparently, the various races of all-female yokai have interbred with the Kajita clan for untold centuries,” Cooper revealed. “Many served as onmyōji during the Asuka period.”

“So he wants supersmart mages?” Christy guessed.

“More like he wishes for super-genius mage vampires,” came Cooper’s cheerful reply.

“Duflot tends to think big,” Christy admitted with a sigh. “I wonder who was the geneFather of Emmas’s child is.”

“Again, you will have to ask Christoph directly about that,” Cooper replied matter-of-factly. “You know how secretive he is of that branch of the experiment. I can only surmise that he is happy with how well it is progressing because of his recent good mood.”

Christy let out an exasperated sigh. “Not to change the subject, but what is Keiko going to be doing while I am playing mother? Haruhi will be under my care from here on out.”

“Duflot wants her to watch over Rose for the next few Years to make sure that she doesn’t have any more midnight snacks,” Cooper revealed with an exasperated face. “The younger vampires just don’t have the speed to match hers, and everyone else is already on mission-critical assignments. There simply aren’t enough members of Stellae Sanguine to do everything that needs to be done.”

“It’ll be the same old story. Rose will ‘repent’ for a decade or so until we can’t afford to keep guarding her,” Christy said with disgust. “Then she’ll be back to seducing lone women in the outback, just like she did three months ago.”

Christy sighed before continuing. “I’ll never understand why she prefers blood fresh from the source. I cannot tell the difference between it and donated hemoglobin in bags. Besides, if she wants to feed directly from humans why not go to one of the donors? We help support how many families financially in return for a few mouthfuls each month?”

“Rose claims she misses the thrill of the hunt and that there is a distinct flavor if she drinks from someone in the height of passion,” Cooper pointed out.

“I think she just needs an excuse to mess around on Duflot every few years. I’m sure one of our donors would be happy to ‘play’ with a woman as beautiful as Rose even with no additional financial incentive. Louis XV did not nickname her the ‘Rose of Versailles’ for her ability to embroider flowers.”

Cooper burst out laughing when she heard this off-color joke. “Do not let Christoph hear you say that. He’ll get more than a little upset.”

“If he does, I will just run and hide behind mommy’s skirt,” Christy cheerfully declared with a grin.

“I don’t wear skirts,” came Cooper’s response.

“Let’s go shopping and I’ll buy you one.”

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