Mother, May I?, page 1
part #8 of Remnants Series
MOTHER, MAY I
REMNANTS #8
K.A. Applegate
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Prologue
2Face felt numb. Almost.
Tate and Tamara hadn't come down from the bridge. She'd heard Jobs say that they were alive, injured, jut resting before joining the others.
Whatever.
Everyone else was gathered. Olga Gonzalez and Mo'Steel, her son. Jobs and his little brother, Edward. Violet. Dr Cohen and Noyze. A phony, spaced-out Yago. D-Caf. A wounded Anamull. Roger Dodger. Kubrick. Burroway and T.R.
And Billy.
Something unbelievable had happened up on the bridge. Billy had defeated the psycho Baby/Shipwright/Maker.
Billy was the man of the moment. Their hero.
2Face felt the blood rise to her cheeks. Not numb anymore.
Spreading out from the base of the pyramid-like elevator, the fierce battle between the Riders and the Blue Meanies still raged. The Squids, Mother's backup defense team, had been pretty much decimated by the Meanies.
2Face watched the fighting. Billy might have destroyed the Baby/Shipwright/Maker, but was he powerful enough to stop the war?
"What's he doing?" Violet, from behind her.
2Face whirled. Billy was climbing the steps of the pyramid. 2Face watched in disbelief.
When he got to the top, he raised his arms and shouted: "Enough fighting!"
"We have to stop him!" Olga cried. "They'll kill him. Billy, get down!"
"Leave him alone," 2Face muttered.
Olga started to go after Billy. Mo'Steel stopped her.
"Wait," he said quietly. "I think it's okay."
Billy drew his arms to his chest and closed his eyes.
Just like that the Rider environment vanished.
2Face blinked. The hills, the copper-colored water, the weird trembling trees, the pink sky. It all just — gone.
In its place were two towering walls. Impossible. But, 2Face knew, all too real.
Everything and everyone, from humans to Riders to Meanies were contained within the space defined by the massive walls.
The fighting stopped, just came to a dead halt.
"We're all going to have to figure this out!" Billy shouted.
Riders, Meanies, and humans drew closer to the base of the pyramid.
2Face felt someone's eyes on her. She turned. Mo'Steel. She stared at him, aware of the coldness in her own eyes.
Mo'Steel slowly averted his eyes.
2Face stayed where she was and let the others move in closer to Billy. Billy, who'd usurped all power. Billy who'd staged a coup.
Only Yago stayed behind the crowd. He seemed oblivious to 2Face, to everyone. He stared up at Billy but 2Face saw that his eyes were unfocused. Yago and Billy, self-proclaimed rulers. If 2Face knew anything, she knew they hadn't heard the last of Yago's ambition to preside over Earth's few survivors.
Okay. Fine. So she'd find a way to deal with both of them. Strategically.
2Face was a self-preservationist of the highest order. She wasn't ashamed to admit that. And the best way to survive was to be the one who set down the guidelines for survival. The real battle had just begun.
CHAPTER 1
"YOU KNOW IT'S GOING TO CAUSE TROUBLE, RIGHT?"
Three Months Later.
Jobs was big.
This was helpful when you were on a quest through the immensity of space. It was also helpful to be able to travel at exhilarating speeds and unimagined velocities.
He was larger than the vast and various planets he passed. He could put his hand on a star, then right through it. He could peer closely at canyonlike craters and mile-high mountains and tenmile-deep fissures as if he were the lens of a microscope and they were no larger than samples on a slide.
Worlds were his to examine, to evaluate, to own. Jobs collected solar systems like some people collected seashells. He noted one system's double sun, another system's huge gas-giant planets. He smiled at another's tiny moon.
Up here, out here with the stars and planets and asteroids, Jobs sometimes felt like Gulliver from that old book written by a guy named Swift. Gulliver's Travels. In one place he'd gone, Gulliver found himself considered a giant in comparison to the local population who were about the size of his finger.
It was all about perspective in the end. Jobs knew he wasn't really as vast as a galaxy or as large as a solar system. But for the moment it seemed that he was. And that was all that mattered. It was disturbing and it was wonderful.
Most of all, it was necessary. Because Jobs was determined to find a planet on which he and the other Remnants could settle. Life aboard Mother, though better since Billy had taken control, was not a long-term solution as far as Jobs was concerned.
And now he thought he might have found that habitable planet — and it seemed to be something he'd never dreamed he would find. He could go back there now, check it out. And part of him was relieved that Mo'Steel had come along this time for the ride.
"This is some kind of cool." Mo'Steel laughed as he jumped over a reddish medium-sized planet. "I am the monster-giant ruler of the universe! But virtual thrills are still just virtual, you know? Almost, but not quite. Can't feel it in my skin."
"Come on, man," Jobs said. He knew he sounded testy. "This is serious."
"Duck, you know you've been, uh, working, nonstop for, like, weeks. Maybe it's time for a little R and R—Lay back, relax, recharge the batteries."
"Can't."
"You know how many systems there are out here? A lot."
"A lot? Very precise, Mo."
"Ha-ha, 'migo. You know how long it takes you to decide if there's a livable planet in a given system? You want me to do the math for you?"
"I'm learning as I go," Jobs said. "I'm learning about what to look for."
And I think I've found it, Jobs said to himself. The question now: Was he ready to tell anyone what he'd seen?
The answer: Yes.
"Mo, you want to see something?"
"Sure. Is it awesomely amazing?"
"You tell me."
Jobs led Mo'Steel to another solar system. The journey took all of a second.
There was a big yellow star. There were eight planets. There was a spread of gas-giant planets, with the solid planets closer in.
This was the place.
"Why is everything so ... I don't know... fuzzy?" Mo'Steel asked.
"I know. Poor visual resolution. This is the extreme limit of Mother's sensors," Jobs said. "It's the best picture she can get, basically. You have to see this. Look." Jobs moved them closer to one of the planets.
It was a lumpish mess. It looked as if a larger planet had smashed into a smaller planet and both had been welded together in such a way as to preserve something of the two identities. Small bodies of water were visible on the larger chunk, as well as a thin atmosphere and what looked to Jobs like some small, green areas.
The smaller chunk also had a thin atmosphere but no water or possible growth that Jobs could detect. Overall it was gray and pink and pockmarked with innumerable craters.
Jobs didn't say anything else. He waited for Mo'Steel to see it.
"Uh. Okay. Right. When did you find this?" Mo'Steel's voice was hushed.
"Last week. I didn't know what to do about it. Still don't." Jobs looked at his friend. "You know what this looks like, right?"
Oh, yeah. Like a beat-up Earth with a broken-down Moon smashed into it."
Jobs nodded. "I'm pretty sure it's our solar system. But Where's Mars? That might be Venus over there, and that could be Saturn — you can vaguely see the rings — but Jupiter looks all wrong. It's way too bright. The whole thing, it could be our old solar system or not." "Does Billy know about this?"
"I don't know," Jobs admitted. "He's been running Mother but he's got limits. He can't watch every subroutine. He can't keep an eye on every one of us all the time. It's enough he's maintaining all the environments. Wouldn't surprise me if that alone has him maxed out." "I don't know how the little guy does it." Mo'Steel said with feeling. "Billy's tougher than all of us." "Yeah, Duck. You're right about that one."
"Let's go back," Jobs said quickly. "I've seen enough for today." "Evaporate the illusion," Mo'Steel added.
The next moment, Jobs and Mo'Steel were stretched out on side-by-side platforms in the "attic" of the ship called Mother. Their dirty, tattered clothes had been replaced with clean T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. Mo'Steel wore a bandanna around his head, tied in the back.
"You know it's going to cause trouble, right?" Mo'Steel asked Jobs after a while. But it was more of a rhetorical question.
Jobs nodded anyway.
"You tell the others that maybe you've found Earth, or what's left of it, and people are going to want to go check it out. And that's going to violate the Big Compromise. Very messy." Jobs didn't respond.
"Of course," Mo'Steel went on, almost too casually, "you could always decide not to tell anyone, just k
Jobs glanced at his friend but didn't respond.
"Okay," Mo'Steel said. "You obviously don't want to talk about it now. Fair enough."
He grabbed two bottles of Pepsi sitting on a small table at his side and handed one to Jobs.
Jobs unscrewed the top, took a slug, swallowed and grimaced. "I still think the flavor is off. Too sweet."
Mo'Steel grinned and looked down, examining his drink. "Well, it's a little too yellowish. Looks like pee."
"Bathroom humor?" Jobs said, trying to hide a smile.
"Yup. Right now, we need something to make us laugh. 'Cause I don't think things are gonna be too funny around here from now on."
CHAPTER 2
"I'VE FOUND SOMETHING, VIOLET."
Jobs liked going to Violet's house for two reasons: Violet and the house. Of the two, Violet was the more compelling.
In the past few months since Billy had defeated the Baby/Shipwright/Maker, Jobs's relationship with Violet had deepened. He didn't know exactly if they could be considered, technically, boyfriend and girlfriend. It bothered Jobs a little, the haziness, because he liked to define things so he could understand them.
Bottom line was that Jobs and Violet liked to spend time with each other, talking mostly. It was easy and it was somehow exciting at the same time. Because some things had changed since they'd first met.
Violet no longer asked to be called Miss Blake. She was no longer officially a "Jane," though she assured Jobs she still held to certain standards of good behavior and gracious living. She no longer wore old fashioned dresses, either, though she was still by far the most overtly feminine of the Remnants.
Violet also had a way of letting Jobs be himself. That was important considering Jobs could tell that sometimes Violet found his need to understand and explain things a bit annoying. The house — Violet's house — was a whitewashed Greek villa, complete with the kind of red-tiled roof seen throughout the Mediterranean and a veranda with low whitewashed walls and big red clay pots of lemon and olive trees. The villa sat on a rise that overlooked a tiny bright blue sea. The strength and simplicity of the colors — white, red, blue — soothed Jobs, made him feel that things were all right.
From the veranda a white-pebbled path led to a small enclosed garden, in which stood a variety of classical statues carved in white marble. Jobs even recognized a few, though he wasn't sure from where, a class trip to a museum or pictures in a textbook.
Inside the villa, Violet — with Billy's help — had created a collection of some of the world's finest paintings. Jobs recognized a few, even though he didn't necessarily know the titles or the names of the painters. There was the "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci and, one of Jobs's favorites, "Chiffres et Constellations," by a Spanish guy named Joan Miro. In all, there were more than a hundred masterpieces.
Usually, contemplating the works of art made Violet happy. Today, she was far from it.
"Art is supposed to be for private enjoyment and public consumption. But I seem to be the only one who wants to look at these paintings. Nobody comes here," Violet said. "Except you. And Noyze. I'm living by myself in a museum."
"Do you miss your mom?" Jobs asked abruptly.
"No. Yes. Sometimes."
Jobs nodded.
"But I get the feeling you didn't come over to talk about art, did you?" Violet said. "Or my mother. What's up?"
"Do you want to go outside?"
"Yeah."
They walked outside and onto the veranda, which looked out over the sparkling blue water "I'm pretty sure I've found something, Violet," Jobs explained. And then he began to tell her
that he'd shown his discovery to Mo'Steel, and that Mo'Steel agreed it looked an awful lot like what was left of Earth and the moon.
Violet had no discernible reaction.
"Pretty exciting, huh?" Jobs asked, somewhat weirded out by her indifference.
"I don't know what to say," she admitted. "I don't see what good it does us now to have found — Earth. Or what's left of it. It just sounds very, very sad to me. I'm sorry."
Jobs shook his head. "You don't get it, huh? There's a chance, slim but a chance, that Earth's still habitable. That we could go back and with Billy's help and the ship's resources, maybe, just maybe, the human race could be independent again. Owners and not renters. We could start over and —"
Violet began to laugh but her eyes were sad. "Oh, Jobs, you're crazy! Forget what you saw, or think you saw. You're only going to end up being disappointed."
Jobs ran his hand through his already unruly hair He suddenly remembered his mother calling him Mop-Top. Back on Earth.
Back home. He had to try to make Violet understand.
"Honestly, Violet," he said, "can you really just let this go? Don't you want to see what might be what's left of Earth, see where it takes us? Can you really just forget about it, just turn away, go on living aboard Mother for the duration? Not knowing if she'll ever decide she doesn't want us here anymore. Never knowing what might have been on Earth."
"I want to stay here" Violet said angrily. "It's safer Smarten Look, what if the planet is Earth?
What then? Maybe it's not habitable. Probably it's not. What if Billy can't fix it all for us? I don't need to lose my home twice in one lifetime."
"But this is not home," Jobs argued.
"It is now. It is because I've chosen it to be and I've accepted its limitations. All of them. No, Jobs. I don't want to leave. I'm not leaving."
"You're just scared."
Violet smiled. "That's what I've been saying."
"But what if — just what if — the planet is Earth and it is habitable and we can rebuild —"
"What? Rebuild what. Jobs? A fabulous civilization, just like that? With a handful of people, some of whom are not the nicest of folks and who can't even agree on what an extra-cheese taco should taste like?"
Jobs sighed. "Just use your imagination, okay? Please?"
Violet looked at Jobs with an expression he could not decipher. Her eyes were cloudy. "Jobs, I miss home so badly," she said, her voice breaking. "I try not to think about the past but I can't help it. I dream about it almost every night. How can I try to go back to something I truly believe is no longer there?"
"But don't you ever wonder, though?" Jobs persisted. "Because maybe something good is still there. Maybe, I don't know, like trees. Maybe some people. It's probably not true, but there could be people alive there."
"People?" Violet laughed harshly and looked away. "No, Jobs. More like descendants of a few wrecked survivors of the greatest catastrophe our world has ever known. What could we possibly have in common with them? They're probably a completely different species now! They might not have a language, or machines, they might not even have the wheel for all we know! God, Jobs, they might not even be breathing oxygen! I'm saying they're not us. The human race as we know it consists of us. That's all."
"Maybe the Missing Eight are there," Jobs said, his voice nearly a whisper. Violet just stared at him.
"Will you go along If the others choose to?" he said after a moment.
"I'm a captive to the will of the people, Jobs," Violet said. She sounded resigned. "Aren't I?"
