When it's a slow news week...

Our round trip to Ariel was, technically, uneventful. x0x0 suspected there might be trouble outbound which, given the situation, I could understand. In point of fact, she'd already enlisted Emma's help in covering Aurora's departure and Tiny Dragon would be safely living in the Kawanishi Clan compound on Ariel long before anyone even knew she wasn't on Hale's Moon any more. But Wave Equation was a good deal faster than even the hotted up Reavers boats out here, so once we cleared atmo it was a smooth trip.

Still, raw performance hadn't prevented me taking basic precautions like omitting a flight plan and taking a slightly roundabout course in to the Core. All things I'd do on pretty much any flight, actually. I was like most of the independent Rim pilots in playing a bit loose with flight procedures. The only people who religiously filed flight plans were the big commercial transports and some of the larger Indies trying to look professional. Usual process on the Rim was to more or less ignore process.

On the flight home I was proud of my girls. Wife and daughter actually working at getting along, even managing to have some fun playing together. Aurora knew. Even if we didn't talk about it openly, she knew. My parents, on the other hand, know only that little Aurora was legally my responsibility since Lily was my responsibility. Our responsibility.

I wish we'd had longer on Ariel this time. More time to see Grandfather. More time for 'Brina to see Uncle Elsoph. More time with Aurora and my parents. Though seeing her with them the first time just reinforced that we'd made the right decision here. Aurora made me proud. I was sure at some point she'd slip, like any child would, but her behavior was near perfect.

For most people in the 'Verse, respect and honor weren't concepts that had been ingrained in you since you were old enough to speak. For us, it was a deeply held part of who we were. Honor and respect, or the lack thereof, really, almost lead Blackburne and Hale's Moon to blows at one point. But Aurora acted as if she'd been raised with those traditions since birth.

In a way, maybe she had.

But our time on Ariel was all too short. After making sure Aurora was settled in and at least starting to get comfortable, we left them with our farewell's and our promise to come and visit as often as we could get back from the rim.

The flight home was somewhat subdued, but I had 'Brina with me. Sometimes, her presence is all I need.

Aurora being away was ultimately a mixed blessing. She had more insight into the Reavers and the warbots than any of us. At least she had while she was partially synthetic and somehow combined with Blue.

Was she still linked with Blue? I couldn't know yet. I hadn't even spoken to Blue independently in a while, and I sorely wanted to. I knew more about him now and better understood our relationship. Knowing Mindo had tried to subvert the AI, rather than creating him, put things into a different light. I'd even gone so far as to offer the midiframe we'd used for signal processing as a home. While we might miss the enhancement it gave the Navtrak, the AI was ultimately more important.

And what of the Reavers? With Mindo not so much in the picture now and Aurora off world, we'd have thought their activity might decrease. But that hasn't been the case. There've been two attacks since we got back that I know of. Possibly more. While they haven't shown the ferocity and direction that the last attacks did before Aurora and Lily, well . . . corrected . . . they are still Reavers. Still dangerous. Still violent.

The warbots were another story entirely. I knew AuroraBlue had been in communication with them at some level. We knew Mother was down there somewhere, if not exactly where. There were at least two Seeders either complete, partially complete, or recently self-disabled - I hadn't found out which before Aurora changed. And fifteen other machines. What type? Who knew. I had to assume they weren't Wasps or small drones like we'd encountered before. I suspected they were more substantial devices like that machine Nack kept in Firefly's, or one of the large autonomous mining machines that kept Mother fed.

Even before we'd taken Aurora to Ariel we'd seen examples of new scout classes. At least they acted like scouts. Spotted prowling around the town, they hadn't engaged unless they were cornered or shot at.

What'd it mean? As far as we knew the Warbots counted as an Expert System, which meant they could learn and adapt to their situation. That was part of the original core code from the original von Neumann mining machines. Best as we could tell, they weren't fully AI. Which was good. But a learning system could still adapt its tactics and that appeared to be what we were up against. The machines studying us to figure out how best to mow us down.

Not a comforting thought.

They were coming. They were all coming, bit by bit. We'd have to stand against them. All of them. The Reavers. The Machines. The Hardliners looking for another war. The environment itself.

Geliebten Buddha. Was kommt als nächstes?