WoWS3 Chpt 51

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==Weapons of War Saga: The Final March- Chapter 51 - ==
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===Young Ladies enjoying the spoils of upcoming a Wedding Day===
Tharkad City
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
3rd April, 3145
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"...best fasioneer in the city! Gaston has customers from the flakymost upper crust of at least three nations!” Alice enthused as the Embassy vehicle slowed to a parallel park in front of a highly decorated, neoclassical-gothic building with small, gated doors.
"No signs." Petra noted, "How do you know about this place?"
"Everyone who's anyone knows Gaston's, even the people who can't afford his services! He doesn't need to advertise!! Now come on! We need to get you ready for the Royal wedding!!"
The harsh cold of 'spring' on Tharkad bit right through her jacket, it was as cold as a supercollider's cooling circuit. Colder than the space just next to a jump drive's helium storage…at least, to Petra who'd gotten used to a nice temperate climate with long summers.
Summers and Springs that are warm. She followed Alice out the side door of the Embassy car, and up a short three steps to a gated doorway just barely wide enough to break some of the cold, damp, wind.
Alice punched a numbered button, "Alice Carroll, with a Guest!!"
The wrought-iron looking alloy gate slid open, and the door opened, revealing an almost-elemental tall, rail-thin Blonde. Petra felt a pang of envy at the supermodel like stranger.
"Alice! Margot! Alice is here! And she has a friend!!" then, "Come, Come in, get warm!!"
Petra followed, while Alice's 'dog' sat down outside the door.
Does money have a smell? Petra decided money smelled like oiled wood and silk, with a faint tang of alcohol. 
'Margot' turned out to be a brunette with an almost mathematically matching impossible physique, dressed in a modified business outfit that belongs in a burlesque show. "Oh my! Alice has brought a YOUNG friend!!"
“This is Petra. She’s got an invite to the event of the year. She needs a dress.” Alice told the Margot
“And let me guess, so do you?” Margot smiled.
Alice tried to keep her nod subdued, but obviously failed.
“I don’t have a very big allowance, Alice…” Petra said meekly.
“That’s the great part, Petra! This is for an official diplomatic function! We’re not footing the bill. Helena is!”
Margot’s smile got wider.
"I know! She's funding my research!" Petra replied, "HPG modifications? That money comes from somewhere, didn't you know that?"
And the other, the Bond-blonde's smile widened even further.
“Petra, it’s coming from the diplomacy fund! Not the funds earmarked for your research! I think I see a pretty pink dress back there that would suit you perfectly!”, Alice excitedly told Petra
"Uh, no." Petra shook her head, "Number one, lightish red makes me look pasty. TWO…it's a wedding, not a prom or a tolo."
“Ugh fine. I suppose we could go with the traditional white.”
"Blue an' gold." Petra said, "it's the Archon's wedding, she gets white, but for a national leader, the favored colors in the book are blue, and gold."
"You studied?" Alice ask
"Mom made me." Petra explained
“Huh. Okay I guess if that’s the tradition… Can it at least be a light blue? Too dark and I start looking pale.”
"Light blue is considered appropriate at an April wedding, ja." Margot agreed, "We have a cloth with the most vivid gold to highlight…"
The distraction was enough to give the blonde a chance to wheel out a holoplayer. "For a wedding, you don't want to buy off the rack. Let's find your style, Petra?"
“Oh fittings! Maybe I’m weird but I love getting fitted for my dresses!” Alice was way too cheerful.
“Something simple please.” Petra said meekly.
"Stand here, and let's get your scan…wait, this won't do, you're too tense!! Magda! Prepare the massage suite! Alice has brought a friend who can actually benefit, and tell Lorraine to prepare her tools, and Genevieve!"
“Hehe. Have fun, Petra!” Alice beamed.
"Tools..what??" Petra asked
"Your nails, dear…and probably your feet as well!" Margot explained, "you young people take such poor care of yourselves…and this hair…" she sighed, "Ja, we have a lot of work to do…"
“Gah…” Petra was practically dragged off.
“I’m kind of jealous. I’ve never had a massage…” Alice giggled.
"Maybe you can ask Esme to give you enough nerve endings so you can…" Petra noted before being 'helped' into what turned out to be a full service spa.
“Oh I’ve gotten all of Kolossus’ best upgrades. My ‘muscles’ just don’t work like that. But once I got these ladies to understand an oil bath, that was divine.”
"Alice, yours is prepared, just how you like it." Margot notified her.
“Yay!” Alice smiled. “I do not get to do this enough on a Captain’s salary…”
The crew of supermodel-like women had Petra and Alice stripped of their street clothes and into their various pre-treatment as if a magical cloud had descended from on high-that is to say, before Petra could even begin to be body-shy or protest more than a surprised 'eep'.
Laid out on the massage table with a masseuse at each end, "You know…mmm…who needs this more…ahh."
"Who?” Alice asked.
"Mom. She's stressed out all the time..ahhh..Owww…oooh" Petra exclaimed.
“Yeah. We should find a way to make it happen. She needs something nice in her life right now, and even if it is only a few minutes of stress relief, well that’s what we’ll do.” Alice leaned back in the tub.
"Was she like that before? When she was at Port Orphan?" Petra inquired.
"Sometimes, I know Admiral Foster worried about her a lot." Alice remembered. "Everyone worried about, Amanda. I saw the logs. I didn’t know how to help back then, at least not in a way that she could accept. Now thanks to her making sure I’m never alone again and meeting so many wonderful new people I think maybe I can finally."
"It's funny, I have some of her memories, and I don't understand her any better than…." the rest was a mumble as the treatment hit a 'spot'.
“Hehe. I might understand her the best of anyone. See we both missed out on our childhoods due to outside factors. That gave us a lot of common ground. So now she’s convinced she can’t give you the childhood you deserve.”
"We all worry about Primary.." Petra drooled out. "All my sisters. She hurt herself so bad making us…"
“Well, thanks to her I have a real family and I’m learning what it’s like to be a real teenager. So if I can help her, I want to.” Alice told Petra.
"A rich teenager." The masseuse worked Petra's legs, one on each side.
“Hehe. You all know I’d be in here way more often if I was making more than a Captain’s salary.” Alice giggled.
“And there’s your sweet tooth that draws you to Gambiano’s Gelato.” Margot laughed.
“Guilty.” Alice swished her feet in the warm oil.
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===Who we were and what we became===
Star League in Exile Embassy grounds
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
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Restored HPG systems means work doesn't stop. Rear Admiral Amanda Roberts found the city stifling, and while her temporary office was larger than the one at New Lazarus, it felt…off being down here.
"You know what the compensation for being here is?" She asked a staffer.
"No, ma'am."
Amanda leaned on the fencing overlooking the garden. "There isn't one." she said, looping out the nic-pack and spitting it into a waste receptacle. "None whatsoever. I'm doing this because Helena wants to get my daughter prepared for what's coming."
Juanita joined them-at least, her remote did.
"What are you thinking, Admiral?" Juanita asked
"This is a mistake." Amanda said. "I spent most of this morning touring Lockheed's offices, they tried to sell me on buying fighters, because someone leaked that I'm not just 'on staff' but a relative of the Director-General…Meanwhile, Her Majesty and the Archon went up to tour the Wolf Clan warship sitting in a parking orbit over the moon."
"You wanted to be invited?"
"I've done a virtual tour of a McKenna class, Kolossus created a virtual environment that replicated everything down to the oxidation accumulation you find under the heat exchangers, no…but my pirate gut tells me you don't send a head of state to a visiting nation's warship-a nation you're not allied with-unaccompanied by a company of bodyguards. He's got two heads of state visiting and their security teams are still at the spaceport."
"Alaric wouldn't take hostages, Amanda." Juanita told her, "Especially when he thinks he can get what he wants by not taking hostages."
Amanda nodded, "Yeap, I read his psych profile-the one Truk prepared, and the ones Kolossus worked up… I know rationally that he would have to be acting extremely out of character to try it, and I know he wouldn't gain anything…and I still don't like it."
"Join the club." retorted Juanita 
"Do we get funny hat pins? I can add it to my cool hat if we do."
Juanita hesitated, then, "Oh…."
"Kolossus does a better deadpan act, Juana." Amanda said wryly. "He sells the straight man harder than you do."
"Is there any spark there?" Juanita asked, "Between you and Kolossus, I mean?"
Amanda laughed hard, then slowly sobered, "No." she said, "I'm not sure how to categorize it, I mean, in a sense the experiment they're running at Port Orphan is a refinement of the base process we used in the calving experiments, only without the damage and traumas. So in a sense, Kolossus is the father of my girls…his 'Envoys'-and he hasn't really neglected being their father if you interpret things the right way…but there's nothing romantic between us, and no interest in it from either of us."
"But there's affection." Juanita suggested.
"Yes, there is affection-at least, from me. You don't live with someone for twenty five years without there being affection, Juana…at least, I don't. For his part, Kolossus lets me use pronouns and he's shown me wonders. It's not a poor relationship, but it's not romantic love either…I mean, when your partner is two million tons of computer in three hundred thirty some-odd million tons of station? Where do you kiss? Even when I was randy as hell, I was never that much of a size queen."
Juanita nodded. "I think…"
"I think you're smitten with him." Amanda said, "You're feeling me out to see if he's available. We're not involved that way. I'm not sure He's able to be involved that way."
"If you could though?" Juanita asked.
"Okay, Juanita, on Kolossus Station, there's a computer core. It's where I spent seven years while we were playing with building me this body. Part of me is still there. Dregs, bits." Amanda explained, "Imagine I get killed in the next 24 hours, the copy of me that comes out? She won't remember this conversation, because that's the delay on my updates to Kolossus, not including travel time if it happens in a system where the HPG grids are still down. The 'me' you knew during the war? I've got her memories, we grew up together, we were together right to the day she tried to win a gunfight in a secure interrogation hospital and lost. 'Amanda Roberts' died, welcome to Amanda Roberts, who has all her memories and regrets, but isn't her… I'm 'Primary', Juanita, and Primary had lots of time to try and work her mojo on Kolossus if either of us wanted to…and didn't."
Amanda slipped a fresh nic-pak under her lip, "The girl who was Daryl and Jeff's little sister? She died on the operating table over Churchstone. I'm just the clearest copy of her. I've got all her memories and unrequited desires. I may be very similar to her, but we're not…not the same. Helena's not ready to accept that yet."
“For her you have enough of the essence. So she treats you the same in the hope you can grow into a different path, but that is Helena’s flaw. You cannot change who you are anymore than I change the fact that at my very essence I am a machine. Eventually Helena will accept that for both of us.” Juanita told Amanda.
“You’ve never gotten any of the upgrades have you?” Amanda realized.
“I don’t consider them upgrades.” Juanita responded
“So why do what you do?” Amanda asked.
“Because despite my inability to create connections with humans, I do understand them. At least enough to unravel the mysteries they create. Most of the time. They do have an improbable ability to fascinate. So even if I don’t always interact well with people I am still good at my job.” Juanita explained
“You talk like you don’t consider me human.” Amanda remarked.
“Because there is a very real argument to be made that you are not. You may be composed of organic components, but they were grown in a lab and your brain incorporates a derivative of the Desmond technology. No, evolution seems like a better word. Yes you can learn, and thus possibly evolve, but really now you are something else entirely.”
Amanda studied the AI’s remote closely. “Even this is uncomfortable for you isn’t it?”
“Yes, but despite it I do understand why there is a growing sentiment in the fleet to pursue it or even something along the lines of what you are. It is just not for me. At least not as things stand, but it does make certain things easier despite how much of a comm delay this remote has with my main core.”
“Because you can experience everything you consider important from your hull but you still desire to be more than just a simple weapon while the others are seeing their hulls as the last shackle between them and true freedom.” Amanda realized.
“Yes. Perhaps someday I will be ready for that, but for now I embrace the fact that I am a thinking machine.” Juanita admitted.
“Well we have dresses to get fitted for.” Amanda looked at her chronometer.
“A strange duty, but one that I accept.” Juanita responded.
“You are full of self-contradictions, you know that right?” Amanda prodded as they walked to the changing rooms.
“I am a mystery wrapped in an enigma packaged in conundrum. Of course I contradict myself at times. Plus I am beginning to think there is something about Tharkad that is messing with my link to my core.” Juanita explained
“We’ll check your calibrations next chance we get, but to be honest I think it is a case of the blues.” Amanda chuckled.
“I’m a cliche`!” Jaunita groaned in self realization. “I’m pining over a currently unavailable partner, complaining about being out of my element, and fighting against an inevitable evolution.”
“Told you.” Amanda laughed. “Like you said earlier, we all have our natures. You came from a human scan. That means like it or not you have a human element to you and you always will. But there are a lot of ways you choose how to define it and thus guide the rest of your inevitable evolution.”
“The ancient Greeks believed there are actually many kinds of love. I believe I feel Store for you and Helena.”
“Can’t delay anymore.” Amanda said as he stepped into her changing room.
“I suppose not.” Juanita said as she stepped into hers.
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===Academic & Religious Pursuits===
Tharkad City
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
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"...there are actually lots of different kinds of scientist." Petra was in a reclined, ergonomic, warmed chair as one of Gaston's supermodel 'assistants' (Bethany) worked on her feet and another [Greta] worked on styling her hair.
"Really?"
"Yeah, there are the various forms of physics disciplines, chemistry which overlaps with materials physics, biological sciences from doctors to geneticists and even stranger sub-disciplines. There's really too many to learn them all…so I…I picked a study that fit well with my love of mathematics and curiosity about things unseen. In a way, I'm looking for god's fingerprints on the universe, the gap that makes the untestable hypothesis testable…my instructors think it's nuts."
"So in a sense…"
"In a sense, I'm Her Majesty's pet mad scientist." Petra exaggerated, "poking around to find a gap into god's domain….so far, unsuccessfully, but some of my work has helped with the HPG problem."
"So you're a mad Scientist? Should we be calling you 'Herr Doktor'?"
"Not yet, I'm more like a Mad Grad Student." Petra confessed, "No degrees past the Bachelorette, which I earned last year by extension courses. I'm not really ready to present my thesis, because I haven't found god's fingerprints yet-that evidence that is incontrovertible that there is a supreme being."
"Theology could help."
"I'm experimenting with religion, it's true…but until I can devise a method to test it in a replicable way, to make it a true hypothesis? It's more of a personal…comfort to know I can believe something that I cannot prove."
"So you are 'dabbling' in religious faith? Which one??" Greta asked.
"I haven't found single one that answers the questions I'm looking to answer, but there are theses among all of the ones I've studied thus far that are both common enough between them, with provable positive results. The problem, of course, is replicating results. Miracles don't happen where I can see them particularly often, and they're rare enough it's a bitch putting together a useful database."
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===Scant Details of being in the dating pool===
Star League in Exile Embassy grounds
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
3rd April, 3145
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Local Time: 1830
One of the rooms at the Embassy had been arranged to accept a home visit from Gaston’s team. So after Alice and Petra had finished getting fitted the team had come to the Embassy.
“Juanita, you’re so stiff!” Margo complained.
“I can provide you with full specifications so I fail to see how this is necessary…” Juanita complained as she followed the pokes and prods to adjust how she stood.
“How bad was the damage to the diplomatic budget for Alice and Petra?”
“I don’t think I ever saw a girl’s eyes pop open so wide before. Petra is a sheltered girl, ja?” Greta chuckled.
“The Finance Committee is going to give me a stern lecture about all of this no doubt.” Helena said from her own tub. “Thanks for coming to the Embassy. Instead of making us go to you.”
“We understand the needs of heads of state. So it's all part of the service.” Margo said as she measured Juanita’s inseam.
“And a way for you to tack on a few extra kroner.” Helena chuckled.
“Ja, but if you want quality AND home service, you have to pay for quality and home service.” Margo laughed.
“People pay for thiiissss….” Amanda tried to talk as Greta put an elbow into Amanda’s back.
“You’ll understand after… You have a lot of tightness and tension. Also, I think one of your ribs is misaligned…” Greta said as she put focused pressure on various spots along Amanda’s back.
“OWWWW” Amanda yelped.
“Heh. Doc Stabler gives me similar lectures all the time. If I’d known you were this tense I would have arranged for her to give you a good working over.”
“She’s a masseuse?”
“And a chiropractor too. It’s actually pretty common among spacer doctors given the variable gravity environment their clients live in.” Helena answered.
Margo was now going full ‘dress up’ doll mode on Juanita.
“There!” Margo proclaimed after nearly twenty minutes.
“Face in the donut!” Greta commanded as she put another elbow into Amanda’s back. “There. Now situp. Relax your neck.”
“Ah…” slipped out of Amanda's mouth. 
“Geez Amanda, I heard your neck pop like popcorn.” Helena chuckled. “Juanita, you look amazing.”
“Oh wow…” Amanda slowly stood up, a little unsteady on her feet. “Okay, now I get it.”
“Now we’re ready for your fitting. Your turn on the table Helena. No offense to Doktor Stabler, but is part of service.” Greta said.
“Sure, Greta.” Helena stood from her bath and started drying herself.
“Exhibitionist.” Greta chuckled.
“All your clients today have spent a lot of time in environments where privacy and modesty are absolute luxuries. Or in Juanita’s case had to be taught the concept of modesty in the first place.”
"These…you cut yourself?"
"Sometimes." Amanda admitted. "It's tapered off, but I've had to work through some serious problems, and didn't always make the best choices."
"How do you feel about tattoos…to hide the scarring on your arms?"
Helena moved closer to meet her eyes, "When did you do that?" she demanded.
"After I made Persistence." Amanda said, "It was a hard low…Atro-I mean, Allison came after. We stopped, Helena. I don't have this problem anymore."
“I believe you. And I’m sorry. I neglected you when you needed family.” Helena hugged Amanda.
"Made?" Greta asked.
"My daughters." Amanda said, "The pregnancies were…difficult, draining. Their father helped some, but I experienced some severe issues after each one." It was both a lie, and the truth. "We agreed after my youngest that it was time to take measures to stop."
"C-section?" Margot noted a faint scar on her abdomen. 
"That would be Persephone, my first." Amanda agreed, "Also Allison-the second scar down there. It's good we had access to Clanner medicine for Persistence, Felicity, and Petra."
“So many children on a frame like yours… Must have been difficult.”
"I grew up in the Outworlds, large families are…traditional, and there were expectations." Amanda embellished.
“Ja, but there are only so many babies a woman can have due to her frame before it gets dangerous for both mother and child.” Greta noted.
"Petra almost killed me, that's why we stopped…and she was sickly as an infant. She's only really grown healthy in the last few years." Amanda explained.
“Would make sense. Why she is so shy and not used to the world.” Margot nodded.
"She has my looks, but she's her father's girl sometimes. Did she try to discuss her explorations of using Science to find God?" Amanda asked, "It's her latest wild interest."
“Ja. Sweet girl in her own way.” Margot noted.
"She's my miracle girl." Amanda nodded.
“And what about you, Helena? I see a c-section scar on you too.”
“Quadruplets. And yeah that pushed my body to its limits carrying them. It cured me of wanting anymore children, but they’re all wonderful. Your next appointment is actually my daughter.”
“No wonder you use hair color! And have a fantastic cosmetic surgeon! No sign of any gray hairs or wrinkles despite all that stress. But such should be expected for a rich head of state such as yourself.”
“I’m not getting the ‘friends and family’ discount am I?” Helena said as Greta began working Helena’s back.
“Nein, but we did give it to Alice and Petra. They were delightful.” Margot said as she started poking at Amanda to get her measurements.
Juanita just stood there, staring at herself in her dress in the mirror.
“If I have to defend myself in this dress, it is going to either restrict my movements or become damaged.” Juanita finally said.
"I just want to know how many weapons I can hide in mine." Amanda noted, "We'll be having Clanners present at the wedding, and not the ones we're allied with."
“Don’t worry. Not our first head of state wedding. So we know how to accommodate but stay within the rules.” Margot smiled.
Gretchin helped Amanda to the hairdressing/nails and facial station. "I know…but I'm an old sailor, something will go wrong…"
"Old? You're not even fifty yet, Amanda!" Helena scoffed.
"Okay, middle aged sailor then." Amanda tried to grump, but clever hands hit nerve points in her feet, eliciting a sigh that shattered the attempted harshness.
“These ladies do not fight fair.” Helena chuckled from the table.
“Do you require assistance?” Juanita asked as she suddenly tensed up.
“Not like that Juanita. They’re just really good with their hands. I’m pretty sure there are some people they could massage into giving up their royal titles.” Helena laughed.
"So…Petra's father...an academic to your warrior?"
"Petra's father is the epitome of the free-thinking academic." Amanda said, "The courtship was…complex as a result, but eventually we came to an understanding….but he is a shut-in who can't leave the house and his science, or he would be here."
“Sounds like you need to call on some of these nice beefy marines you have as bodyguards to drag him out from his house.” Margot suggested.
"That, would be unprofessional." Amanda said, "It would also be catastrophic, genius comes with…eccentricities I would be loathe to harm such a wonderful mind."
"And your husband, Madame?"
"Leon is a wonderful father, a devoted husband and a good man…" Helena told them, "He is currently pining for me grievously while watching over things at home……and preparing for the war that is coming. Thus, he could not come, but he WILL be here for Roderick Steiner's bachelor party if there is time before the next sphere-wide crisis."
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===A Reluctant Phone Call===
Triad Spaceport - Private Landing Area
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
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Trillian watched as the sarcophagus was unloaded from the shuttle, and an honor guard formed to escort it to a safe place in the Palace for the viewing.
I hate the next part, I hate it so very much.
She and Helena had discussed who would have to deliver the bad news to whom. The distraction of the 'Spa day' for her guests would not hide what was to come, nothing can.
She squared her shoulders and followed the escort guard to a waiting vehicle, then joined the convoy from the Palace's own pad, to the morgue facility.
I can wait for them to finish with the fittings, at least.
There was only one that they hadn't discussed.
Once the remains were properly secured and the mortuary techs began the work to make them presentable, Trillian Steiner headed to the HPG communications centre installed for the new network.
"Hotline to Kolossus station." she told the duty techs, "Make it secure, make it happen, I need to speak with that old thing as immediately as possible."
Allison Hazen had been out there on her orders, what happened, regardless of Helena's protests, was Trillian's responsibility.
The technicians began entering commands into their consoles silently.
After an hour, about the time that Helena Cameron and Amanda Roberts would be finishing their first round of bathing and massage…
>>"Kolossus Answers, Trillian Steiner."<<
She steeled herself, then, hesitantly, "I have bad news for Kolossus." she said, "Allison Hazen…is dead. Her upload was intercepted and jammed, the recording they made is incomplete, I am now transferring the data I was given regarding the incident, the conditions and the causes as they have been communicated to me; as Allison was acting on my orders at the time, it is my fault, and I am sorry…"
She plugged the data stac into the input port and it ran on a data-enabled wavelength after a short virus scan.
>>“While Kolossus grieves, Kolossus cannot condemn Trillian Steiner. Trillian cannot control the universe. Unless Trillian is keeping a secret from Kolossus. Kolossus will appreciate a full recording of Allison Hazen's funeral and wake. There is no harm between Kolossus and the Lyran Commonwealth, nor between Kolossus and Trillian Steiner."<<
"Trillian Steiner thanks Kolossus for the…consideration, I still feel… guilty."
>>"Kolossus cannot forgive Trillian Steiner for things not Trillian Steiner's doing…wait. You do not need to be forgiven, for you did no harm, Archon Trillian Steiner. The mission to scout the periphery end of Former Jade Falcon holdings and lay early warnings is correct and right, the situation could not be predicted, you have done nothing wrong, this was just…bad luck. You do not need my forgiveness."<< the AI hesitated, >>"but you may need to forgive yourself. Kolossus has some dim understanding of this."<<
“Though there is one other diplomatic consideration that should be discussed. Where do we bury the body. As her ‘father’ you have a right to some say in this matter.”
>>"Ask Amanda Roberts."<< Kolossus said. >>"This is a…a human matter, the passage into true death, and the need to bury the fallen." Kolossus said it and even Trillian could sense something almost-human in that tone. "You gave Allison dual citizenship status, so this must be settled between yourself and the rest of the family-I am…I…Kolossus will accept the choice of the living. An acceptable replacement for Allison Hazen and Potent Tool will be provided in eighteen months time. Pre-arranged aid will proceed on schedule. Kolossus concludes."<<
The connection ended.
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