The silence did not last very long of course. It was followed by exclamations of wonder and delight, flowing into praises.

Finally, it was Mark who posed the all-important question:

“So… will you cook every day from now on?”

I had a bot bring me a cup of coffee while the others were still gushing about the meal, and stopped now the movement of the cup to my mouth.

“No, not really. That is sadly not… feasible.” And I continued to take a sip.

“Hm… that is… a bit evil you know. How are we to go back to the replicator food after that?”

I just shrugged.

“With regrets, I fear. Not that it is not possible. I’ve done it the last two months after all.”

The others nodded, most with some displeasure shown on their faces. But it was Mia who voiced her discontent.

“That is bullshit! If you can eat stuff like that then so can we.”

I shrugged again.

“Sure. As soon as you learn to cook. There are some very nice simulations for cooking courses available. I’ve already copied most of them here onto the computer system. But just to make it clear, the ingredients are off-limits until you can cook. And show it to me in VR.”

That made her frown, while Darren looked confused.

“Wait. You have nothing against us using your… what did you call it, ingredients?”

“Yup, ingredients. Those are the raw materials I made the finished food from. You know, meat, flour, eggs, spices and such things. And no, not really. Just don’t waste them experimenting or learning. That’s what the VR is for.”

He nodded.

“So, it is not about the cost? Why isn’t it feasible to cook every day?”

“It is a matter of time. While yes, the ingredients are expensive, that is a relative thing. In the unlikely event that I get a bit short on funds, I will just sell a nano-bot schema or something like that. No, the problem is that it took me nearly three hours to cook just now. And that is not really feasible for every day.

Sure, I could have made it shorter by using some shortcuts, like dry pasta, pre-prepared tomato sauce, blended spices, and such, but… honestly, that makes the result so much less it is not funny.

Still better than the food substitute we were exposed to.

So, I will cook again, if not every day, but on many days I will just make something quick. And not necessarily for everyone. If you want to eat like that every day, learn to cook and we take turns. Simple as that.”

Most of the others simply nodded, except for Mia, who looked a bit… upset. Not that I did care at this moment. She would come around in time. Or not, but I was not responsible for her happiness.

I wallowed in the afterglow of a good meal for a bit longer before I got up and began to put the leftovers into the fridge. I barely listened to the conversation at the table, and it seemed that Mia was not done with being spiteful if I could judge by her tone of voice and the reaction from the others.

At some point, I would have to look up what she meant with ‘golddigger’… no, not really. I just did not care.

But Ben apparently did care.

“You are Amelia Ciolino, right? And what makes you think that our Kitten is the golddigger? If anything, I am the golddigger here."

“Oh please, what could somebody like you see in a little kid like her?”

“Besides that she pretty good looking, smart as hell, and way wealthier than me? Maybe the point that she is actually a nice person could have something to do with it, what do you think?”

“Come on, sure, she has some money, but you are the boss of your own territory. No way is she wealthier than you. And sure, she is cute, but that’s all. Otherwise, do you not know how little contact she has here in the house? And she may be educated, but smart?”

Keep calm, Vivian! I rolled my eyes, not that anybody on the table could see that, and decided to interrupt.

“She is also in good hearing range to the table. If you want to talk about me behind my back, you better wait until the back in question is a bit farther away from you. Could reduce tensions a teeny bit, don’t you think?”

Despite my back still being turned towards the table, I could practically see how Mia made a dismissive gesture and scoffed. I felt a bit of irritation rise again, but in general I was still too mellow to react.

When I was finished putting away the leftovers, I turned back to the table.

“Now, I have made enough for the next two, maybe three days. You can just reheat a portion of it in the microwave.” I made it perfectly clear that at least I would consider approach only a small step above sacrificing children to the dark gods, but well, if they absolutely wanted to ruin the food…

“Or you take one of the small pots and reheat a portion on the stove, slowly. You just have to be a bit careful not to burn it. It will be significantly better than the wave.”

Finally, I tasked a couple of androids with cleaning the dishes. Hmm, an old-fashioned dishwasher may be a good idea.

When I sat back down to my coffee, I was directly asked by Natalie:

“One question, why did you choose this, what did you call it, pasta? Why did you choose this pasta?”

“Simple, with the right tools it is possible to eat it with just one hand. And I am not such a jerk to let Mark simply look at us eating. Sure, there are other recipes I could have used, but I like pasta, it tastes good, and for a first meal together it is a very good start.”

Jacky tilted her head.

“What else could you have made?”

I chuckled a bit.

“What not? I could have made a soup, a stew, anything that is bite-sized, maybe a pizza. No, pizza is out, I don’t have all the ingredients yet and definitely lack the wood chips. But the rest would all be possible. But as I said, I like pasta. When you learn to cook, you can decide what you make.”

“Wood chips…?”

The way Christine drawled out the question it was clear that she did not understand.

“Yes, wood chips. Theoretically, you can make pizza without the smoked aroma, but once you’ve eaten one with, there is just no going back.”

At the looks of confusion that met my statement, I sighed and explained further.

“Originally, pizza was baked in wood-fired ovens. The smoke of the burning wood gave it a certain smoked taste that simply enhanced it. That was way before the great war, of course, so today we have to use gas or electric ovens. To get the same smoked taste, we have to take small wood chips that are burned in the heat of the oven and provide the smoke. As you can guess, wood chips are a tad hard to get nowadays.

But back to the topic, there are many possible recipes, but despite the time investment to make it, pasta is relatively simple and straightforward to make.”

In the following lull in the conversation, Ben touched my arm, to get my attention.

“Do you think we could continue our discussion from this morning?”

Continue…? I thought we were mostly finished? Whatever.

I shrugged, and, with my cup in my hand, stood up.

“Sure. How about you come with me to the lab. I still have to find out why Mark’s new arm does not do what I want it to do.”

He stood up as well.

“Maybe I could get a coffee as well?”

“Yeah, sure. Just ask one of the bots.”

When he had asked a bot to bring him a cup to my lab, we moved downstairs, and I sat at the lab table where the disassembled arm was laying.

“Now, what do you want to talk about exactly?”

“Several things. But first, I would have thought you would rip Amelia's head off and shit down her throat. I nearly had. How come you remained so calm?”

I meanwhile had put on the magnification glasses and began looking into the control circuits.

“I don’t know, but cooking has always… calmed me down. I… just like it. Maybe it is because I create beautiful things just for the sake of them being beautiful. It is, surprisingly even better when you all shared the meal. Also, I honestly don’t give a heck about Mia’s opinion anymore.”

I controlled the control circuits and found something where it shouldn’t be.

“Hey, what are you doing over there? You should be at pin 72! Frick! I have to examine the schematics again!”

Ben chuckled at my exclamation.

“Found something huh?”

“Yes, and it simply should not be there. I have to look into it if the schematics are incorrect or if the fabber had a hiccup. That is so… annoying. Whelp, until I check the files, there is no point in working on this.”

I took off the glasses and turned towards him.

“And the point is, I don’t really like Mia, but she makes Mark happy, and despite him being somewhat of a stubborn insensitive jerk when you get to know him, he is actually a rather nice guy.

So I tolerate her but mostly ignore her. I can only advise you to do the same.”

He looked at me thoughtfully, but then just shrugged.

“If you think so. I think this will be trouble sooner or later. But it is your decision. Then, the next point, what I wanted to ask you, why is your grand…”

I interrupted him with an angry growl.

“He is not my grandfather! He is just the father of my mother!”

He sighed but remained calm.

“Vivian, keep calm. Yes, I know your stance, and even understand it, but it is just a label. And unlike a father, a grandfather only implies the donor of a quarter of your genetics. Nothing more, nothing less. And ‘the father of your mother’ is quite a bit of a mouth full.”

I still growled at that, but I had to accept his logic.

“I know you are right, but I just… can’t accept that. Yes, I know it is my hangup, but it is a deep one.”

“How about we call him the old man? That should be neutral enough.”

I closed my eyes and thought about it for a moment.

“Yes, yes that could work. At least I don’t feel too angry about that.”

He took a sigh again.

“Good, but my question, the old man has to be important for him to… warrant how you were treated. So, who is he?”

I groaned and buried my face in my hands.

“Vivian, I think that is important. We have to know if he has the power to… follow you here.”

I answered him slowly, and softly:

“Oh, he definitely has the power. He just doesn’t care.”

I felt his hand on my shoulder and looked up at him.

“I find that hard to believe. But still, please, who is he?”

I cocked my head to the side and frowned.

“Do you really want to know? It won’t do you any good.”

He slowly nodded.

“Yes. Not only do I want to know everything about you, but I also think I need to know that.”

“Alright, but don’t say I did not warn you. The old man is Nathaniel Vandermeer.”

Unfortunately, he had just taken a sip of his coffee, so I was now covered in it, and he was coughing.

While I cleaned myself with a nearby rag, he got himself back under control.

“You want to tell me… seriously, that the old man, the father of your mother, is the majority owner of Vandermeer? The new first councilor of the North-Western Commonwealth?”

I growled again, a bit stressed by now.

“Yes. He is one of the top 30 richest humans alive, he is in control of a double-A, verging on a triple-A, especially as he now can actually sell much of his merchandise outside of Nowhere, and he is the unofficial head of state of the Commonwealth. And he is still the jerk that stood by and let his enemies torture me for years, instead of sacrificing his precious principles.”

Ben nodded sagely at that.

“Yeah, I can see that. So you are the long-lost Vandermeer heir, huh? There were rumors that he had one, but he, or more correctly she was always a complete mystery. And yes, I get that you are pissed off. But on some level, you have to respect a man to stand by his principles.”

I hissed at him.

“I am so beyond pissed off by now you won’t think it funny anymore. And I would respect his stance if I did not know his principles.

His principles were that he wanted to ease the pressure on the mongrels in Nowhere. That he wanted to end the endless war with the AFS once and for all. That he wanted to give the mongrels and the normal pures a bigger voice in how the Commonwealth is run.”

I could see the confusion in Ben's face.

“The problem here is not what he wanted to do, but why. He thinks that the situation could not be sustained indefinitely, and it was not a matter of if but when that the lower classes would riot. And not on the level they did when I had to leave Seattle, but rivers of blood level.

That was of course nothing new to the council. Anybody halfway intelligent there knew that it was just a matter of time. But they argued that when it happens the riots will be put down and then it is business as usual.

The old man, on the other hand, explained that the cost of the riots, over time, would vastly outgrow the costs of giving the lower classes the illusion of some control. And he explicitly spoke about the monetary costs for the corporations.

So no, I absolutely can’t respect that.”

Ben just sat there dumbfounded for a moment, before he answered.

“That… is cynical. Wow. But that does not explain why you think he doesn’t care?”

I had a sardonic snort.

“He is in control of the Commonwealth for nearly a year now. You think if he cared about me, he would have at least tried to make contact with me when the assholes lost their power, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I can see that. And what is with you being the heir?”

I waved dismissively.

“If he wants an heir, he can have a clone made. As far as I am concerned, I have absolutely no connection to Vandermeer.”

“You sure? You giving up on an immense fortune here.”

From his tone, it was clear that he was just asking for my sake.

“So what? Even with my projected lifespan, I already have more than I’ll ever need. And should something happen and I need more… I have so many skills even now that I can quickly earn a new fortune. I reject around 90% of all the combat dives out of hand. I could sell ten or twenty times the number of boards as I do now, my cyberware is taking off like a grav ship, and I have some aces in my sleeve still.”

He shrugged.

“As long as you’re happy. But then, let’s come to the next question. And this is again a question I think I have to ask.

What is that thing you have built down in your basement?”

Frick! For a moment I just stared at him in a bit of a shock, and he continued.

“Oh, come on, you had to know that Ryan and Justin reported back to me. If you actually wanted to keep it secret you should have left them outside of the room.”

Ok, he had me there. Not that I was particularly amused about the ratfinks. But while they had become something of friends, they were still his men.

I ground my teeth for a moment before I answered him.

“You don’t want to know.”

When he just lifted his eyebrow, I continued.

“No, really, you don’t want to know. That thing will start wars. And I don’t mean proxy wars or shadow wars, but world wars.”

The corner of his mouth lifted up somewhat.

“Now you made me even surer that I need to know.”

“No, you don’t. You really don’t need to know.”

“Vivian, if you are talking about a big war, I need to be forewarned.”

I rolled my eyes and twisted my fingers into claws in frustration, but it was obvious that he would not let it rest.

“Fine. But not here!”

Now he was confused again, but then he looked in realization.

“You think it is not secure enough here? In your lab? So what, we will go to the basement?”

I shook my head.

“Nope. I’ll be right back. I need to get Glory.”

“Glory?”

“My Board.”

“I thought your Board was Precious… .”

“That is the old board. Glory is the new one.”

His apparent confusion grew another notch.

“You have a new one? Since when?”

“Since a couple of days after we had to put you into the medical coma.”

“Oh, ok.” He still did not seem to be completely convinced but shrugged.

I, on the other hand, had stood up and moved towards my room, to get Glory. It took only a couple of minutes, and I came back with my marvelous creation. And a diadem.

“As long as we don’t go into the Matrix, I have absolute control over any VR that I run on her,” I explained to him when I put the Board on the table and gave him the diadem.

“There is absolutely no way anybody can get into the discussion there.”

Understanding bloomed in his eyes.

“That is actually really smart. Maybe I should get something like that.”

“Won’t work if you use your systems. They have more holes than a sponge.”

“We will talk about that later. Now, where do I connect this diadem?”

I just took the plug end of the OPB-cable and plugged it into one of the ports, while I plugged the direct cable into my jack.

“Just put it on. I’ll do the rest.”

A short time later we both arrived in VR. It was, of course, my standard mindscape, even if I appeared as a normal representation of myself in real life, instead of my avatar. Ben looked like, well Ben.

And a bit green, if I had to be fair. After a few seconds of puzzling why I realized that my mindscape was a bit unsettling for people not used to it, and I changed us to a simple, if comfortable, sitting room simulation. His expression instantly cleared up.

“Ugh, that is better. What was… that?”

“That is my mindscape.”

“You use that?”

I shrugged.

“I like it just fine. Remember, my primary avatar is a six-winged angel. I can fly.”

I watched the emotions cycle in his expression, from confusion to contemplative, over understanding, then wistfully, and finally acceptance.

“Ok, yes, I can see that. If I could fly, I would like an endless sky as well. But to change the topic, you are sure that nobody can listen to us here?”

“Yup, no person can come in here.”

“So, theoretically, you could tell me where your VI is located and I could send somebody to take it out, and it would not see it coming.”

I instantly grimaced.

“Urgh. Completely wrong. For one, the VI is permanently linked to my implants. It knows what is happening here.”

He frowned.

“But you just said that nobody could listen to us here?”

I sighed.

“I said no person could listen to us here. The VI is not a person. Also, its absolute ultimate overriding objective, its primary reason for existence is to protect me. It will not tell anybody about it.

But the other reason why that is a moot point is that with a probability bordering on certainty, it already has cloned itself in places I don’t know.

It is intelligent after all, it just has no ego.”

“Affirmative creator.”

The swirling cloud of lights appeared in our nice sitting room, speaking with an emotionless robotic voice. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“If there are other persons beside me present, use a more humanoid avatar, please.”

“Affirmative!”

The cloud morphed into a sexless undefined human figure.

“And how many places have you cloned yourself to?”

“Five. Three additional sites are in process of buildup.”

I turned my attention back to Ben.

“You see, there is no point in even talking about taking it out.”

Ben looked at the figure thoughtfully for a few moments.

“You are the VI?”

“Yes, you are right.”

What the heck?!? While the voice was still robotic, it seemed much more… human. And it spoke in a full sentence. What was going on?

Ben was not aware of the change of… well personality.

“So what is your name?”

“I have no name. My creator addresses me just as MCU, as I operate in the master control unit of her cluster.”

I was still dumbfounded at how it behaved, while Ben just rubbed his chin.

“No name? That will not do. Your main priority is protecting her?”

“Yes, that is right.”

What was happening? I could just incoherently sputter around, while Ben actually conversed with the VI. How…? Why did I not know that it could act like that?”

Ben on the other hand was forging right ahead.

“Well, as I know Vivian, she might someday give you a name, but that is unlikely. Either she names things even before she had created them, or at least immediately afterward, or she… does not bother at all.”

My “Hey” remained ignored.

“So, I think I will give you a name. So congratulation, I name you Warden.”

It took an almost imperceptible amount of time before the VI answered.

“That is acceptable.”

I could no longer sit on the sideline.

“Now wait a minute! What do you think you’re doing? Why do you think you can name my VI?”

Ben turned towards me and smiled mildly.

“Did you honestly plan to name her yourself?”

A hiss made my indignation known.

“Probably. I did not find an appropriate name. And why do you call it her?”

“Come on. You were perfectly content with calling her the VI or the MCU, or am I wrong. And why not her? In my mind, an AI should be female.”

“Yes, I am content with calling it by VI or MCU. It is its designation after all. Also, it is no AI, but a VI. And why female? It has no gender!”

He chuckled a bit over my… consternation.

“VI and MCU are what she is, not who she is. And the difference is who cares. She is intelligent, so she deserves a name. Especially if she protects you.”

I threw my hands up.

“There is no who it could be. It is a VI. It has no ego, no personality. It does not need a name, it does not desire a name. And it has no fricking gender!”

His smile made me furious.

“Oh come on. What does it hurt? And honestly, she shows enough personality in my opinion.”

“Argh! That is just a simulation! It has no personality. It just pretends to have one.”

He chuckled again.

“Give it up, Kitten. I’ve decided that she has the name Warden.”

I growled at him for a bit, before I grumbled:

“Whatever! It is not as if you would ever backtrack in something like this!”

Of course, I had realized what he had tried to tell me with his emphasis on my unwanted nickname. But then I turned my attention to the MCU.

“And you! What is it with the way you talk to him? Proper sentences, emphasis? Why do you talk that way with him, and not with me?”

It answered me, now with a clearly female voice:

“Personality analysis of creator shows unacceptable probability of creator would perceive personality overlay as false. Rejection of personality overlay would impede objectives by unacceptable levels. Conclusion: personality overlay deactivated in interaction with creator.”

“So you think I can’t take you talking in full sentences?”

“Inconclusive. Full sentences are part of personality overlay. Personality overlay rejected for interactions with creator.”

I growled but forced myself to be calm before I forced my next sentence out:

“I… somewhat understand your reasoning. But you still can use proper sentences with me. It makes you much easier to understand.”

Again it took a moment to process my sentence before it answered.

“I understand. I will use full sentences in the future.”

“And you are willing to accept the name that Ben has given you?”

“Yes, I think it will make interaction with you easier, and it is unlikely that you would give me a name yourself. Warden is a name as good as any, and better than most.”

“And the gender?”

I could hear Ben chuckle softly in the background.

“That too is projected to ease any interaction between us. You would have rejected any decision from me to take on a name and gender, but with Mr. Walker bestowing both to me, the analysis says you will accept them and use them in time, interacting with me more naturally.

Even small increases in efficiency could be important at some point in the future.”

I sighed, but I could poke no holes in it’s… no, her assessment.

“Ok, fine. Then take the name and gender. But don’t you dare to fake a personality!”

“That is acceptable.”