[Book Four] Chapter 40: Success, suprise, teaching moments

[Book Four] Chapter 40: Success, suprise, teaching momentsChapter 40: Success, suprise, teaching moments

The trials proved to be a resounding success. Everyone was cured, though some as expected lost a bit of their memories in the process but they had been sick for the longest time. In the end it didn’t pose any problem for anyone getting AEND anymore, if it was treated in time there would be no results like that.



The news reached the Milky Way and the council was not happy about it. They demanded his arrest for breaking the law. Rick didn’t even bother to hire a lawyer and simply said that the trial run was done outside council’s space’s jurisdiction. Directly to the news. In the same interview he also announced that he had cured cancer (on the condition that it wasn’t too advanced and beyond healing) by inadvertence while trying to find a solution to AEND and that the price of that would be rather cheap at ten thousand credits. Of course his popularity skyrocketed even further than before and the council got a severe backlash.



To hurt their fragile ego further he sends them privately a message. To leave him alone and know their place. He never got any answer. Perhaps the change of councilor, from the current Dalatrass ruling the Salarian, calmed down the two others? He didn’t know. What he knew was that Lindholm was having fun and she thanked him for that. Not directly of course but through Hannah who told him.



In any case with the AEND curable, Alec Ryder told the truth to his children about their mother. They had not been happy to hear that all this time she was alive. While his relationship with his son Scott was a bit strained as a result, the one with Sara was badly damaged. Damaged enough that Sara moved into Arianna’s room.

It was a difficult time for the Ryder family. While Ellen was pulled out from her stasis and cured, she was welcomed by a divided family with on one side her children and on the other her husband. She tried to play the mediator between Sara and Alec but it was a hard task. Despite all of that, she was happy to be alive and well again. The news of her daughter’s engagement had surprised her but she had no problem with it and quickly accepted Arianna who she thought was delightful and the calming and more mature influence that her adrenaline junkie daughter needed in her life.



Speaking of engagement, Arianna and Sara were not the only ones talked about. Adam during his last shore leave left for Celeste where he proposed to Laura, his and Sandra’s childhood friend but also Garrus and Chloe’s daughter. That surprised everyone except Sandra of course, who has been aware of the feelings the two had for each other for years.



“It’s a pity Adam is such a good young man. I can’t threaten him by showing him my sniper rifle collection.” the turian lamented.

“I know what you mean. I couldn’t do the same with Sara, she’s such a good influence on Arianna.” sympathized Rick.

Unlike his parents, Adam married within the month. Thankfully it was summer break and very few students were on the Celeste. The wedding happened in the garden and the whole family and close friends were invited. Adam picked JJ and two of his army buddies as witnesses while Laura picked Sandra and two of her closest friends.



Ashley, despite being a Williams (and total badass), couldn’t help but cry both in happiness and sadness that her eldest baby boy was now married. Rick did his very best to comfort her but it was Adam himself that cheered his mother up during the mother-son dance. She did threatened her three other sons however. If they married before thirty they wouldn’t like what she would do to them. She was as serious as can be and they all nodded in agreement out of fear.



“They’re all grown up, that’s not fair.” she whispered in her husband’s ear as they slowly danced.

“No it’s not, it’s life.”

“I should have listened to you back then. Let you stop their growth.”

“They would have hated us for the rest of their lives.”

“So? I would still have my babies.”

“See the bright side of it. You only have to deal with it three more times.”

“How is that a good thing?!”

“I have to endure it ten more times.” he replied with a pained and nervous smile.

“...”

“...”

“You’re an idiot... I don't feel better because you have it worse.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Not even a tiny little bit?”

“... Maybe?”



He chuckled at that and she chuckled with him all the while dancing away without a care in the world.





____________________________________________________________





Very quickly Ashley and Rick received the news that they were going to be grandparents themselves. That was like a slap to the face waking them up and telling them ‘You’re old now’. Rick took it the hardest and was sure to show to all his lovers that he was still young and fresh. None of them complained when they would walk with a noticeable limp in the morning.



Thinking for a bit he chose to go with the first option: military. The second option, he would simply give it to Arianna. Biology was more her speciality than his and the challenge wasn’t appealing to him. Sure it could be a way for humans or anyone else to be young longer or live longer but it flirted with the potentiality of immortality and that, he didn’t want to touch it even with someone else’s ten feet pole from the farthest galaxy from him. To him, Death was as much a gift as life and should not be denied. Especially when the love of his life and their daughter were already waiting on the other side.



He started with doodling what he wanted at first. Clearly the amount of nanobots needed for making a helmet and in the end a complete armor were way past the billion, trillion and quadrillion. Potentially past the quintillion too and reach the sextillion. That was a lot of ‘-illion’ and a lot of nanobots. From that alone he knew that this new batch of bots needed a hive mind with ‘queen’ bots to lead them and tell them what to do. That also implied that he would need to have the bots react to his thoughts, so the work done in the PatLabor and EVA would be useful but only the very basics, he would have to code all of the actions they could do. Then there were the helmet’s features too. Multiple types of vision, scan, target tracking... Plenty of things to be specific about and he wasn’t sure he could do that as for some of them it necessitated specific components and materials. In conclusion a worthy challenge for him.



The programming of a ‘queen’ bot wasn’t difficult. Or at least the basics, meaning telling other bots to do things. The hard thing was making sure it had enough processing power to do that plus reading his thoughts. After three hours of trying he found it impossible. So he explored an alternative avenue. One ‘giga queen’ would read his thoughts and transmit them to ‘smaller’ queens who then would delegate to other bots who would delegate to other bots. That hierarchy made things simpler and allowed him to make specialized bots by making a small group of them.



He tucked the idea of using it for the already existent bots and focused back on the matter at hand. By the end of the day he believed he was done with the core of the code and that all that was left was the specific code regarding a specific action. He was about to test it in a simulation when the door to his lab opened.



Looking up he Sandra stormed in. The door closed then locked. He knew he was in trouble when he heard the door locked. The serious look on his daughter’s face didn’t make things better. With confident and intimidating steps, the ravenette walked towards his desk and went around it to arrived by his side. Turning his chair so he would face her, she spoke with authority.



“I’m going to get down on my knees and suck your cock until I’m satisfied then, I’m going to disrobe and lay on back on your desk where you’re going to fuck me with everything you have until I tell you to stop. Do you understand?”

“Oooookaa...”



He was stopped from talking when Sandra put a finger on his lips.



“Don’t talk, just nod.”

“...”

“NOD.” she repeated with even more authority than before and Rick simply did as ordered. “Good. Now don’t talk unless it’s to tell me how good you feel and how good I am at pleasuring you.”



And with that, his second daughter got on her knees and went under his desk. He didn’t know what went or what was going through his pumpkin’s head but he knew better than to go against her.