Amelia, Ch 251
Taylor rushed into the room and pulled me into a tight hug. It was enough that it might have hurt, but I was given the full clone package of near perfect physical health. "I missed you so much," she whispered softly, and then she kissed me. The Taylia link was still down, doctor's orders, so I couldn't feel the full emotional brunt from Taylor's end. Though my power's ability to read biological traits was in full force. There wasn't a sense of desire, but there wasn't a sense of obligation, either. Just relief and happiness. Not the perfect reason, but I can live with it.
"Hey, there," I said with a smile after the kiss broke. I noticed the wetness on my face from her tears. "Is that how you're going to treat me every time I come back from the dead? Because if it is, I might have to make a habit of it."
"Don't you dare," she commanded, then she hugged me even tighter.
"Sorry," I gasped. "It's just... to me it's only been a couple hours. You remember what it was like when you died the first time?"
"First time?" a man's voice asked, and Taylor tensed nervously. I glanced toward the sound of the voice.
"Oh," I replied. "Sorry, Mister Hebert, didn't see you there." Oops.
"Taylor, what haven't you told me?"
"Well," she started, turning to look toward her dad. "Remember the conversation we had about me being no different than the original? Same memories and feelings and everything? And the six hours I spent proving it by telling you things about my childhood? I might have forgotten to mention that it happened before. After the Butcher fight."
"Christ, Taylor, why didn't you tell me?" he asked.
"Remember the conversation we had about me being no different than the original and then six hours proving it?" she replied. "That's why I didn't tell you. And don't go freaking out about this a second time, everything we already talked about still stands. I'm the same 'me' as I ever was."
"I..." he hesitated. "I guess you have a point," he admitted reluctantly. "I try not to be overprotective, but you live such a dangerous life."
"I know, Dad," she agreed. "We all do. That's what the backups are for. Our insurance policy. Really, you're in more danger than I am. A single accident..." she trailed off. Like what happened to her mother. She told me about that months ago. There wasn't a lot that Taylor and I hadn't talked about in the last half year we've been together. "You should get a backup made, too."
"I don't know about that," he replied hesitantly.
"You really should," Lisa replied. "Your new body will be you, if you were an olympic athlete twenty year old. I'm sorta looking forward to my first time."
"Taylor and Amelia don't look twenty," he pointed out.
"We kinda turn off the growth acceleration early," Lisa replied. "Or something like that, you'd have to talk to the Tinkers about how it all works. And then you'd have to give up because you have no idea what they're talking about because they're Tinkers. It's easier for everyone involved just to skip to the final stage, which is a quick and inaccurate analogy that at least sounds like it makes sense. Point is, we can make you look any age you like, but the default setting is perfect biological age, which is around twenty for most people. There's no benefits to going older, and we do younger for people who are younger for social, psychological and possibly legal reasons."
"I see," he replied. He looked a little stupified.
"You don't have to decide right away," Lisa continued. "You don't have to at all, if you don't want to. We do it because we have too much responsibility to allow something like death to get in the way of our jobs."
"It's a lot to take in," he admitted. "But I'm glad you're back, Amelia. Taylor's been absolutely miserable these last five days."
The girl I was still holding blushed furiously, and I really wished Taylia was running at this moment, just so I could experience the cascade of emotions and offer my reassurances in real time. Instead, I simply squeezed her slightly and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. The muted intimacy of mere physical contact was nice, but it was nothing compared to our link. "I figured as much."
"So what now?" Taylor asked me.
"I take it the kids are in school?" I asked. "Where's everyone else?" Gotta figure out the way things stand.
"Let's see," Lisa answered. "Crystal and Vicky are with the respective parents. Lily, Eric and Sabah are off finishing up portals in Eastern Europe, Egypt, and some of the Middle East. I'd have to find the exact route. Emma lives in her labs, now. I'm sure if you need her, she'll give you some time, but it's better to let her focus on her work."
She must be miserable, I thought. The muted information my physical contact with Taylor gave showed a level of pity for the girl. "No, there's not a lot I can say to her. I'll have to go visit my parents later. So how's Avalon doing?"
"Surprisingly well," Lisa replied. "We're accepting almost twelve thousand Romanian refugees, maybe a lot more. The Endbringer attack on Bucharest has pretty handedly destabilized the region, and it's looking like a coinflip that they'll be on their feet enough to support a colony program through their own portal. That will be the functional start of our Eurasian colony. Colonies, most likely. Romania's got a lot of very different cultural groups, some of which really don't like each other. They'll fracture pretty quickly. All part of the plan."
"Still don't like how we're profiting from the suffering of others," I muttered unhappily.
"Gets worse, if that's your problem," Lisa replied. "The Gesellschaft made a move on the Prague gateway. Literally during the Endbringer battle. They lost, eventually, but it resulted in the near total destruction of the colony. Plus there's still some Nazis remaining in the colony side. We offered our help to find and remove the problem, but they're dragging their asses because they're afraid of looking weak. You know, typical nationalistic stupidity at its finest. We're seeing a few people think twice about national portals. Especially in the less stable countries."
Taylor gave me a tighter hug, and as much as I enjoyed the physical contact, I continued to miss our real connection.
"And Japan's getting really meta-political," Lisa finalized. "There's a lot of refugees from the country that we're offering colonies in their original homeland, so we've managed to pick up a few thousand of them. Including over seven hundred from Brockton Bay alone. Some have taken to sending messages back home to their families about the offer. Now their government is accusing us of trying to undermine their authority. At least no one's caught wind of our blanket offer to give them their whole series of islands more or less whole cloth. There's the possibility of it getting really messy when that happens."
"Which, of course, they'll blame us for," Taylor added. "And a lot of countries are already suspicious of us trying to poach all their populations. Especially the countries that are already pretty shitty to begin with. Places like America and most of western Europe aren't nearly as worried, but they're more than willing to let the paranoia spread, because they wouldn't mind taking foreign nationals to fill up their population, either."
Well, nothing we didn't already expect, I thought. "And our deaths didn't cause any problems?"
"If anything, it seems to have helped us," Lisa replied. "A lot of arguments against our nation was along the lines of how we're constantly throwing ourselves into dangerous situations, and if we die then who runs the country? There's some nuts that have taken to calling you the 'Eternal Empresses' now. If you'll pardon the language, Mister Hebert, it squicks the ever loving fuck out of potential American colonists. But damn, some of the foreign immigrants are eating it up. Especially governments that are used to constitutional monarchies. Or less than constitutional monarchies, for that matter."
"I can imagine," I replied. I really couldn't. "So... Eternal Empress, huh?"
"No, we can't make it an official title," Taylor smirked at me.
"I know, but it sounds so cool," I pouted. "We could give everyone names like that. I already know what Lisa's title would be."
"Really?" Lisa smirked. "You managed to narrow it down to just one?"
"Okay, fine, titles," I retorted. "Happy now?"
"Yup," Lisa replied. "I'd be incredibly insecure if people could sum up their reasons for hating me in a single word."
"So is that all the major news I missed out on in the last week or so?" I asked.
"One bit of official business," Lisa replied. "Dragon's asking for recognition as a member of the Imperial government. Part of the advisory counsel, specifically for education. But I'm sure she'll do all kinds of other things, too."
"So everything she's already doing?" I summed up.
"Well, it also gives her a layer of protection from the governments she'll be dealing with," Lisa replied. "In case some government gets clever in how they write their internal legal system."
"Any reason why we wouldn't say yes?" I asked. "I mean, she know what she's giving up. She has to, she wrote most of it." Part of our constitutional law. You aren't allowed to be a member, or spouse of a member, of another nation's ruling body and a member of our Imperial rulership. It was the only fair way to keep our colony nations from having too much personal influence over the government, and vice versa.
"I'm not seeing one," Lisa replied. "Dragon's been nothing but good to us. This seems like a mere formality, to me. We just need your permission to make it truly official." Technically, they didn't need that, but it was nice that they asked.
"Well, make it official," I replied. "Are we done, now?"
"Yeah, seems like that's everything beyond what comes next."
"Okay," I took a deep breath, and enjoyed Taylor's scent in the process. "Now, I want to see the Endbringer fight."
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A/N- And exposition over the state of all kinds of things!
