The Curran Sea

Heart of Stone

What remained of Ibrahim Curran had nightmares, too. He did not fear death, but what it would do to his family. Edison would beat himself up for months; well beyond his recovery. Little Andrew... He was surprised the poor boy went into the water afterwards. He'll never pick up a torch, of any kind, though. His face, the horror on it, was worse than the burns. I know pain. Or he does, anyway, and I remember what he does. What I do. Must remember that I'm still him, even if I've gone through two bodies, to get this far.
   He would have said the words aloud, to stimulate baby Emmett's stats, but the content of them was too disturbing, for one so frail. He seemed to react to emotions, as well as words. Just like his dad--the one he's named after... 
   "How did it all go sideways?" he asked aloud. Emmett had no more answers than Edison had, all those years ago.
   "I tried doing the math, some years ago. Broke it down by year, by... I can't call them 'contributors'. It's too cold. But some of them weren't really mothers, either. The problem, little man, is that I was not always present for the process. The downside to being a scientist, in... that field of study."
   He wandered over to the windows, near the top of the domed laboratory. At the higher depth, lower pressure, he'd had to ascend, to avoid crushing the tiny infant, there was more than Cora blue water to see. It wasn't quite Curran blue, either, but there was life in this part of the ocean.
   Emmett slept peacefully against his wound, where his heart had once been. He wore one of Judah's ankle bracelets, now, to assist Hal in monitoring his vitals. That had resulted in diet tweaks for the doctor, to trickle down into the struggling body he held in one massive hand. He was so small, only his legs dangled below the broad palm.
   "I didn't intend to study those things, you know. What I do now is much closer to what I wanted to do, all those decades ago. Did you know, I worked in another lab, before working under she-who-must-not-be-named?"
   He winced at the wording, but forged on. "I didn't go to her, right out of college. She won me away with promises of materials I'd never encountered, in the small-town lab near the boatworks. Ah, you'd like the boatworks. Built by my grandfather, who-knows-why. Tweaked by my father, into what I remember. When you see the house, there are echoes of that..." He trailed off, startled to realize that he recalled how the building had smelled. That wasn't something a mere clone could do.
   "Cedar," he hummed. "I always did love the smell of cedar. Rosemary, from Adalia's early explorations. She started with herbs, taught me what she learned, and then... wandered off to distant lands. Lavender, too, though that'd be Mama's homemade perfume.
   "Ah, but I wasn't supposed to call her Mama. 'Mom is too old to coddle you like that,' Jeremiah would always say. Ben didn't mind, but he was the youngest. I forget, are you the youngest, or are the twins? Did I know that? You're certainly the smallest. Ryana was the tiny one, in my family.
   "No, you're not the smallest. What am I thinking? Smallest single birth. I'd wager Cora and Cara were just as tiny. Mm, Andrew was at least three centimeters smaller, but he came from scrawny stock."
   "You're rambling, old man."
   The doctor turned toward the holographic screen that Hal displayed. Pale blue eyes twinkled; an echo of his former self returning.
   "My voice, it helps. Probably the vibrations stimulating his heart. What brings you by, older man?"
   Edison scoffed. "Only 'cause you went and died a couple of times. Otherwise, you'd be older by three months!"
   "Mmf," he grunted, without malice.
   "You sure you're not going crazy down there?" Ed fretted. He could hear the guilt, plain as day.
   Ibrahim paced the length of the windows, knowing Hal would follow. "Perhaps I was. I quite forgot myself, until little Emmett dropped in."
   Ed was silent so long, he turned toward the projection monitor again. "It was no one's fault. If blame is to be had, I should have tested the adhesion of the new glass to Edi Sub's hull more thoroughly. Had it not suffered a critical failure, resulting in the need of a third pair of hands, we could have installed the new windows without issue."
   "How come the windows down there didn't give us fits?"
   Ibrahim chuckled ruefully. The sound rolled around the flat-topped dome like a lion's roar. "The lab was made with an older metal compound. I forgot. Getting sloppy in my old age, I suppose."
   "Are you absolutely positive we can't make you a new body? I'm getting worried, old friend. Nobody else has greys yet."
   The pale blue eyes sharpened. "We don't do that anymore," he rumbled, ominous as thunder.
   "The stone is out! You could let Judah make you a new bracer--"
   "As if he hasn't got one ready to go, the instant you convinced the doddering old doctor!" His voice had risen enough to disturb Emmett. He forced himself to calm down, though he glowered at his best friend, all the same.
   "Ibra, man... You know Andrew's gonna flip when he sees that. Alfie feels bad about it being there, in the first place, and--"
   "I forbade it, fifteen years ago, and no one listened," he growled. "This is the result. All of you can bloody well deal with it."
   And then, he disconnected the call with a wave of one huge paw. His oddly elegant fingers flicked the screen away.
   Hal was in agreement with those up top, but it was unable to say as much.
   It was, however, what one might call glad, to see its creator remember who he was, at long last. His time below the waves had done psychological damage that would need repair, before he was cloned again.