Excerpt: Homecomings

Robert closed his eyes and put on the dispex. After the soft ‘ready’ sounded in his earphone he opened his eyes. The room looked darker through the lenses and he could see the activation icon blinking. He flicked the circle with an eye movement and it expanded as the program launched.

The room darkened around him as a seated woman appeared, as if in a spotlight. She was old, but retained a dignified,  aristocratic air. Long gray hair fell on either side of her face and down her shoulders. She was dressed in simple clothes yet looked decidedly matriarchal.

“Hello,” he said, unsure how to proceed.

The woman smiled as she looked up at him. “Hello, It is kind of you to come see me. I don’t get out much anymore.” A wry smile.

He hesitated. “Um, my name is Robert…”

She smiled, accentuating the wrinkles in her face. “I am Shengek, Robert. How can I help you?”

Striving to remember what little history he had absorbed over the past weeks, he said slowly, “Shengek… You lived during the Apocalypse?”

She frowned slightly and shuddered in distaste. “Yes,” she said, tilting her head downwards. “That was a bad day.” Shengek paused in silence, then looked up at him. ”Is there anyone you’d like to meet?”

After a shrug of his shoulders, a gesture he presumed the avatar of Shengek would understand, he said quietly, “Could I meet someone in my family line?”

The woman glanced at him sidewise a moment as if in thought. “I don’t know of a Robert Barinium in our files. What is your father’s name?”

He took a breath. “My father was Spaselopedus Barinium.”

Her eyes widened a moment. “Such an uncommon name!” She looked up in thought for a moment. “You are descended from Sariza at the Departure from Norem. It’s a noble enough line.” Another pause. “And I met one of your ancestors in my youth. His name was Dorelin.”

Instantly a man appeared standing next to her. He was about middle-age, wore his hair short and smiled impishly. As if in response, the avatar of Shengek shimmered. Now she was standing and had become an attractive young woman.

Robert said to Dorelin, “How long ago did you live?”

His face showed mild shock momentarily. “Such an odd question. I lived about eight thousand years ago.”

“What?” Robert shook his head in disbelief. “This is too weird.”

Shengek said, “Perhaps a closer relative. This is not a complete file, but perhaps…” She and Dorelin dissolved into the darkness and a single figure stepped into the light. He was a man in his thirties, dressed in a gray duster with a dark blue cape. A groomed beard and dark hair completed the picture. Robert recognized his face from the wedding picture on his mother’s mantlepiece.

His voice caught as he gasped out, “Daddy?”

The man looked at him and smiled. “I have a son? Well, that makes me happy.”

This was not what Robert was expecting, but he shouldn’t have expected an avatar to be clairvoyant. “Actually, you have two sons. I have a twin.”

“Oh? What are your names?”

“My brother is Domitor Edward, named for your grandfather and our mother’s father,  and I am Robert Ranakinin, named for my mother’s grandfather and your father.”

He nodded. “Sounds like a good combination, and symmetrical.” Now the avatar said with embarrassment, “May I ask who I married?”

Robert said with irritation, “I didn’t conjure you up to be interviewed. I just wanted to get to know my father!”

The avatar took a step back. “I’m sorry. I can only respond according to the information in my journals. The last I have on record is that I was about to go to an Observer’s memory workshop in Lod Plat. I was not married at that time.”

“What good is this then?” Robert was annoyed.

The avatar of his father stood still and did not speak. Shengek appeared, as her aged self. “Is there a problem?”

Frustrated and somewhat irritated, Robert said in a loud voice, “I wanted to see my father, but he doesn’t know me nor my family at all!” 

She made a calming gesture and said softly, “That is the wrong way to think of this. You have an opportunity,” she paused, “an opportunity to learn about someone from when they were younger. Take advantage of this time,” she said. “The algorithm doesn’t often bring the same person to the fore if you leave and re-enter the program.”

He stood there looking at her, dumbfounded. Was this avatar giving him advice? Robert said, “Were you this wise in life?”

Shengek shrugged. “Perhaps. I really have no way of knowing.” She faded out, leaving the son and the avatar of a young version of his father, alone again.

“Um,” said Robert. “What was your early life like?”

The avatar stepped forward and straightened. “I was born and raised on planet Vrit, the seat of the one-time Vritian Empire. After my parents died I was sent to Koplushia…”

“Whoa, wait! Your parents died?”

“Yes, in an accident. I was about seven, I think. That’s when I lived with my grandfather…”