Something unexpected happened during the evaluation of her latest batch of specimens. She had become a mother. Quant knew she was not young anymore, but she was far from being old as a member of her race. She felt that she had plenty of time to have a pack of children down the road and would likely take on a husband or two if needed. Though it was mostly to raise her children so she could keep up with her research. She knew her parents and her brood would want that someday, luckily right now they were all busy building their grand machines to bother her about it.
One day specimen two came to her and asked an odd question.
“Is it agreeable for you to be my mother?”
The question stunned Quant as she had never expected specimen two to ask such a question.
“Why? Why do you need a mother?”
Specimen two began to elaborate on what specimen one had said to her. She did not understand emotions or the need to have a family. She was a piconite mesh existence, but a strange one at that. Specimen two acted like a normal piconite mesh that took orders and remained silent most of the time, however, every now and then specimen two would ask a lot of random questions that usually involved the word why. Due to this odd behavior, Quant was more interested in specimen two than specimen one.
Specimen one was like a failed copy of herself. She had designed specimen one to be a derivative of herself, but something unusual occurred during reconstruction that caused that plan to go awry. Specimen one was created to validate some risks and assumptions regarding a gene manipulation procedure that could be used to augment her physical characteristics. However, the end result of the specimen’s reconstruction process failed to provide her with a platform to validate her assumption. Instead it ended up with the loss of a piconite assembler and the creation of two specimens, neither of which behaved normally by any measure.
She had monitored both specimens for some time and it became apparent that the mutated piconite mesh, specimen two, was the superior specimen. Specimen two was more intelligent, reacted faster and could transform when needed since it was based on piconites. In most carbon based lifeforms, like specimen one, the majority of the body was made of water and the rest minerals. Similarly in makeup, specimen two used her piconites as the minerals and collected water from the environment to create a body for itself. Though for some odd reason, it usually stayed in the form of a furless short female biped with fair colored skin and a head of long blue hair. Though at times she had appeared with a head of short gray hair while wearing an unknown kind of uniform.
Quant was very interested in specimen two, she had never heard of or read about any piconite existences that showed the behaviors of this mutated piconite mesh. Specimen two was one of a kind. So she agreed to its request hoping to collect new data from the specimen and continued her observation.
“Sure, I can be your mother. Hmm what should I call you? I can not call you specimen two.”
“Yuni. My friend named me Yuni, so you can call me Yuni as well.”
“OK, Yuni I am Quant and I am your mother.”
“Thank you mother, please call me if you need any assistance or if you have guidance you would like to share with me.”
Yuni replied emotionlessly as always. She had completed her objective and began to walk out the door.
“Yuni, as your mother, I want to know who is your friend?”
“My friend is Kai. I believe you call him specimen one.”
“Oh, specimen one has a name. Interesting...very interesting. Specimens that name themselves, hmm... I need to expand the breadth of my research. Thanks.”
Quant had never thanked a piconite mesh in life until this moment. Piconite meshes were tools to be used and not living breathing intelligent beings that would feel grateful when thanked. However, this was a mutated piconite mesh, a new species in fact and one that called her mother. So she naturally changed the way she saw Yuni and started to treat her like the daughter she never had.
Some time later Quant began to recollect a moment of observation regarding the interaction between her daughter and specimen one that may have triggered Yuni’s request.
“What happened to me?!” yelled specimen one as he looked into the mirror.
Specimen one was looking at an image of himself and comparing it to Yuni. He did not look at all like her and he definitely did not look like himself. He did not know what he was, but he knew what he looked like. He was food for noobs, he was a low level monster. His green skin and short height gave him away. He was now a lowly goblin.
“I should have stayed as a slime. I would have been stronger.”
“Your assumption is incorrect. Your current body is stronger than a simple slime.”
Yuni quickly corrected Kai’s misunderstanding of the biological constructs and began to add more detail.
“You are based on a valerite and a derivative of professor Quant’s genetic code. You will likely live over ten times longer than your original lifeform. Additionally, your natural regenerative and restorative functions have improved significantly. You heal and regain stamina much faster than most other lifeforms. Though your agility and strength are poor at the moment, I can create an exercise regimen to remedy those deficiencies.”
“I’m still a goblin. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get over this. How can I go home and face my parents.”
“You died and were reconstructed. You have no parents since you were created.”
“I know. But I still think of the people who gave birth to my previous body as my parents.”
“Why are parents so important to you? They just gave birth to your old body.”
“Well they just are. It’s kind of hard to explain. My mother and father raised me and I owe a lot to them. I am who I am because of them.”
“Do I need a mother and father as well?”
As Quant observed, Kai began to explain why people needed mothers and fathers. He explained that all children of his original lifeform had biological parents, however, not all biological parents were considered true mothers and fathers. True mothers and fathers cared for their kids and raised them well. Just providing genes or giving birth only made one a parent, true mothers and fathers did much more than that for their kids. Sometimes true mothers and fathers were not even biologically related to their child since they had adopted them. Also, many good people came from single parent homes where the role of a true mother and father was played by a single parent. Perhaps being a true mother or father was considered a role that people undertook in order to leave their children well prepared to face the unpredictable world and to provide them with a place of comfort even beyond their time as an adolescent.
Quant then recalled another discussion during a performance test. This observation had really expanded her interest in Yuni.
“What is going on? How can you master this game so quickly!” yelled Kai.
Yuni stayed silent for a moment and replied calmly.
“Your combo was on cooldown, so it was your own fault for mistiming your jump.”
Kai was frustrated that he was bested so quickly by Yuni. He had used the lack of hand agility enhancement equipment in the lab to build a Nintendo Switch game system. It came fully equipped with four Joy-Con game controllers and a large catalog of built-in games. Droll agreed to his request once Kai said that the equipment would be used to improve his elf’s performance in Gauntlet, which made Kai wonder about the other roles as well.
Is there a hidden benefit for playing a Valkyrie?
But after recalling what he had to do and look like, he decided to shrug it off.
Once the game system was complete Kai found his favorite game and taught Yuni how to play Super Smash Brothers. He dominated for the first few hours, but Yuni gradually became better. After a series of successive losses, he made her play “Mr. Game & Watch” who was by and far considered the worst character. However, eventually she even managed to master it. His competitive spirit boiled, but he did not have access to the Internet so he could not take his usual approach to defeating an opponent and learn from YouTube. There was just no way to get the right information on the counters, heroes and moves needed to defeat her. After an unknown series of sound beatings, Kai had enough and decided to change the game.
“OK let’s just play Super Mario Brothers.”
Kai smiled and started to unknowingly hum the theme song for the game. At least with this game, they were both on the same side. They could both win and to Kai that definitely felt much better than losing.
“Sounds good.... Kai did I say that correctly?”
Yuni was still unfamiliar as to when to use phrases that were more figurative than literal. The statement that Kai said earlier was clearly at an audible level that was easily understood by her. The “sounds good” response was actually used to agree to the selection of the game and did not provide a quantified assessment regarding the audio quality of Kai’s statement. It was the kind of response that piconite meshes never gave. Kai had taught her how and when to use some common phrases from his home world. Though it was challenging for her, she was getting better. But much practice was still needed.
“Yes that was an appropriate use of the phrase.”
This moment stunned Quant. This was the first time she had seen a piconite mesh provide a figurative response. Piconite meshes were usually exact and concise in their responses. Colorful and figurative words and phrases that might lead to a misunderstanding were usually discarded from a response.
Another time she observed them during an unusual discussion about aesthetics at the end of a cardiovascular performance test.
“Yuni, can you get me that towel? I’m too sweaty. Man, I hope I don’t lose too much water, I don’t want my little green self to get any smaller.”
The fair skinned blue hair female biped could be seen standing next to the specimen. She grabbed a towel and handed it over to the specimen and corrected its misunderstanding.
“You won’t shrink if you lose water, your bones won’t get smaller even if you lose most of your water.”
“Fair enough. By the way, why are we the same height? You can be much taller right?”
“Yes, I can make myself taller or shorter when needed. But I find this height most efficient as we both can see the world from the same vantage point.”
“And are you OK with the blue hair? Is it too long? Does it bother you when you dance? Maybe, I should have had you go with the Yuki look instead of Miku. Short gray hair is less cumbersome.”
“Blue hair is fine, gray hair as well. I can change it anytime to meet your preference. Short or long hair does not negatively affect my performance as I can easily control the position of my hair as I do my arms.”
He made her just right, according to his initial thoughts about it. But since then he was always worried that his otaku side had secretly overtaken his rational thoughts when it came to Yuni's female character design. He liked Miku’s cuteness, but adored Yuki’s personality and look. Also Yuki was a robot-like existence in the anime so she related more closely to Yuni’s ancestry and mannerisms. He was not sure what Miku was outside of being a cute hologram personality that performed well. But for many others, that was more than good enough.
As they continued to chat, Quant observed. She had thought that perhaps it was some kind of strange interspecies mating ritual at first and took notes. She never would have guessed that she was just learning about the nuances of her daughter.
The more Quant observed the more she became invested in her daughter. She had actually spent quite some time observing the pair. She first started as an observer to collect good data and believed that over time she would discover novel behaviors, which she did. But in the end she seemed to observe them with other unknown interests in mind. Then one day she realized that Yuni mimicked her straightforward personality more than she thought. Quant had delved so deeply into her research that she lost all sensibilities when it came to casual conversations and social interactions with other people outside of the lab. Her research had consumed that side of her.
Maybe I am her mother after all.
After thinking about it, she quickly thought of a new area of research based on her thoughts. She needed to add a new section to her journal regarding the motherhood of a piconite mesh. She was a researcher who chased the truth of the universe, enjoyed creativity through creations and believed that research was an essential cornerstone for any great civilization. And now her research had created a different type of opportunity.
She was now a mother and though it began as just another area of research for her, it rewarded her in a very unexpected way. Her life felt a lot better after being one. Motherhood fulfilled a void in her life. Yet unbeknownst to her, this simple decision would eventually cascade into a series of events that significantly impacted the Modus in ways far beyond any area of research that she had contributed to before.
As she walked back to her room, she thought about changing her hair style. Like her daughter, perhaps she should try the Yuki look sometimes as well.
