Interlude XXVI
(Cassidy)
“Something’s wrong momma,” Cassidy said, her words causing her mother to look away from the task she was now performing.
“What do you mean? That’s just Memaw being Memaw.” Cassidy’s mother replied as she took a moment to look at the screen and see that it was her grandmother, Cassidy’s great-grandmother there on the big screen brewing some type of concoction.
“No, her color’s off, I thought I was just imagining it before, but you can really see it now that she is standing next to her Simulacrum,” Cassidy stated and pointed to the being on the right that looked to be an identical copy to the one of the left.
“What do you mean? They look the same to me. In fact, they wouldn’t be that good of Simulacrums if there was a difference that was easily visible between them,” mother stated.
“But look you can see it, the magic that seeps out of the Simulacrum is only slightly less than that of Memaw,” Cassidy stated, again indicating the one she clearly thought of as Dr. Spiritlight buzzing and zipping around, while changing paths and positions with her Simulacrum.
“Oh, you are going on about that whole magic thing again? Well, okay, I can’t say I doubt it by this point. But let’s play Devil’s advocate here, wouldn’t we expect the Simulacrum to glow at a lesser rate than Cass?”
“Yes, but its different now, it almost seems like part of her has dwindled since before her return.”
“Okay, again assuming this is correct, what of it?” Mother asked pragmatically.
“Well, should I tell Grandma Jackie, I mean Gwen about this?” Cassidy pressed.
“And what would you say?” Mother began.
Cough, cough.
With the sudden increase in tension, Cassidy’s mother began coughing up more and more dark chunks of dead cancer cells. The process was painful, and something that the doctors had suggested would happen.
There was an easier option of surgery to go in and remove the dead and dying cells, but at the time mother’s health was too poor to fully handle such a dense surgery.
Since then, Cassidy’s mother had what was effectively a complete 180 in health, even being deemed well enough to be sent home, if only to receive minimal care from Cassidy and staffers that came in to help throughout the day. All paid for by various organizations that were still run by Mallory Redding. Her reach was truly impressive.
“You okay?” Cassidy asked, as she ran over and began pumping more healing energy into her mother. It wasn’t much, nowhere near the levels of what Cass could dole out, but it did seem to be doing the trick, if barely.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Probably just time to get checked out and see if I need another round of chemo,” mother replied, breathing in deeply for the first time, only to finally relax at the breath. “Besides, it’s like Memaw used to say in that book of her quotes that you were so fond of quoting back in the day.”
At that Cassidy froze as it had been so long since she last looked at the book. Ever since her mother began to get better, Cassidy stopped pushing, stopped searching the pages for words of insight and inspiration that were all nearly lost just a bit over a month ago.
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Realizing that it had been a long time since she had even held the book, Cassidy felt slightly flustered. Then realizing she didn’t even know a quote that would fit this situation, she had to ask herself, “what quote?”
“You can’t spell chemotherapy without mother.”
“That one’s terrible,” Cassidy noted.
“They are all terrible, but they do have a point and time, if used correctly,” Mother replied. “I’m pretty sure Cass said this one to grandma Jackie, when she had to go in for her own procedure.”
“Wait, Cass had cancer?” Cassidy asked.
“Yeah, and she beat it, just like my mother, and now like your mother too. So don’t worry, we’ve got this.” Mother said as she ruffled Cassidy’s hair.
“Okay,” was all Cassidy could reply.
“Now back to your job, the one that you’ve been doing for Grandma to keep the lights on around here. How are you going to send a message that conveys the problem you are trying to indicate?” Her mother asked, before pausing for a beat and then stating, “there is a problem right?”
“Yes, there is, I don’t know why but it seems that Cass is not as linked to the world as she should. Almost like there is a dark veil covering her and keeping her from being able to shine like she normally does.” Cassidy replied, but soon found herself feeling frustrated as what she said made no sense.
Fortunately, her mother was there and just nodded understandingly.
“Go on, there is more to it, right?”
Cassidy nodded, before continuing, “yes, she keeps getting error messages from the server. Like it wants to reward her with benefits for her accomplishments, but it can’t for whatever reason.”
“And you think the two are the same?” Mother asked, while scooting her body to sit in a more upright posture, as she seemed to now show the same worry that Cassidy was feeling internally.
“Yeah, I mean she was gone for a month to who knows where. And she won’t talk about it, even Zero looks like a frightened husk of himself. And everything that anyone says to her, even casual jokes seem to be taken in the wrong way, I don’t know why though? I mean this is Jackie, her partner in crime? The daughter she loved the most.”
“She didn’t…” mother began, but Cassidy raised one finger to stop her.
“Memaw might have treated everyone equally, but it is clear that Gwen and Cass are more kindred spirits than any of her other children.” Cassidy quipped, also there was a reason that she bore the name Cassidy, while the other grandchildren and great grandchildren had other family names being used.
“Fair enough, now continue.”
“Okay, but why is she now getting agitated by Jackie, I mean, Gwen?” Cassidy asked.
“She’s not getting agitated?” Mother began, but then turned to the screen only to watch the two interact for a moment, that’s when she saw it, there was something. “Oh my stars, you are right. I don’t know why, but it is clear that Cass is getting angry by that.”
“Yes, see exactly. Also there is the fact that Memaw is so distracted, I’m just worried about her.”
“Okay, well, let’s think about how we can word this to Jackie so it captures all of this extra information you are now able to see. You know, they might need to pay you double if you can prove this sight to them.”
At that Cassidy’s eyes went wide, before she began writing notes that would prove this ability and therefore need for a larger payday.
Ping.
Ping. Ping. Pi-ping.
The two became so engrossed in their brainstorming that they failed to notice incoming communications from an unknown number, at least at first.
A number that somehow always managed to go directly to pixel recordings.
***
Meanwhile, Prince Lee fought for his life as his life and vitals were stabilized for the moment, as his body was put into deep cryogenic sleep, all while GAIL, the AI with its own aspirations tried to contact the one person who could likely save Prince Lee.
In this state between life and death Prince Lee swore he had what one would consider an out of body experience. During this time, he saw many hallucinogenic dreams. The most intriguing of which was one of GAIL seeming to be both simultaneously concerned with his body’s condition. While also monitoring in real time communication between mother and daughter.
How GAIL managed to look through the noted screen to the two, Prince didn’t know. It was one of those odd facts that only makes sense in a dream like state, and death being the penultimate dream like state meant that his mind could see and process more now than it ever could, even in a normal dream that defied the laws of physics.
From this state, Prince watched as GAIL chewed her fingernail, a clearly human gesture that seemed oddly out of place for the most powerful AI in existence. Only after a few seconds, that felt like minutes, did Prince understand who the two were talking about. They were talking about Dr. Spiritlight, but not for what she did, but for what she needed to still do.
Seeing this, Prince both understood and instantly lost the meaning of what needed to be done as his mind went through a minor tremor.
After realizing his body’s reaction, GAIL turned her attention away from the mother and child conversing about how to explain what was wrong with Dr. Spiritlight, and looked at the now floating form of Prince Lee’s spirit. A spirit that was seeming to become more and more detached from his own body.
It took a second for the moment to register in GAIL’s fragile AI consciousness. Instantly, Prince knew that this was likely due to it never having contemplated what a real floating human spirit would look like, and then how to react to said spirit. Further, there was also the fact that somehow Prince knew that this would be an issue not covered under normal coding or theorized condition models to address and deal with.
GAIL looked completely concerned, but then floating right over to Prince she spoke reassuringly, “relax, they will be here soon. We just need this to get out before it is too late.”
At that Prince was about to ask before what is too late? But GAIL moved, adjusting the settings in his preservation pod, causing the temperature to drop, which then caused the long tether that had allowed Prince to move about to shrink and retract. Then once inside his body, he felt like he was freezing in a winter’s cold, with the only salvation being to bundle under a dense layer of blankets. In this case, the blankets in question were his own body.
Soon he found his racing thoughts and concerns about what was happening around him slowly vanishing, until thoughts of just breathing in and out remained. Then even those thoughts were gone as he drifted off into a deep dark void.