The Cyborg's Daughter ( I'm close to 100K reads! Then Party)

Chapter 42/The end

"This is so the last time" shouted Mom/Jenny from the clothing printer.

"I promise" shouted the robot called Mr Jones outside.

"Hurry up" said Mom/Kayla.

Mr Jones was some of the few 'reboots', robots which had been transferred to a new chip designed by the CPU. This chip didn't have the three laws. Robots which were willing to live at peace with humanity were being permitted to reboot. Mom had trusted Mr Jones from before I was born so he was first on the list. Others were being controlled like drones by the CPU. Humanity had survived the first three months of the New Human Order and we hadn't starved. The CPU was building new massive habitats in lunar orbits as places where families sometimes whole communities could recover together. To celebrate the CPU had announced award ceremony followed by a party ( and sleep over ). Everyone who had fought the Continuity were to be given medals.

I had reached into the machine network and revived Hunter's parents. He had gone out to go and collect them. We stood near a show city the machines had built called Stellavista. It must have been quite an impressive sight for Hunter's parents. Around the parade space there were seven power towers with light being sent down to the ground from orbital power stations. The glowing blue beams reaching to the sky made an impressive background to the event. 

Mom/Jenny came out of the clothing printer in a stunning dress.

"Wow this is better than the wedding dress you made me" said Mom/Jenny looking down.

"Well, then you were getting married, now you're getting honored for your saving humanity, that's a creative starting point I can work with, dear" said Mr Jones.

"I still don't think I should get a medal. I feel like that Enron President Jeff Skilling getting a bonus for good company management " said Mom/Jenny looking at herself in the mirror.

"You suffered for 17 years. You deserved it" I told her.

"But I wasn't there for you" said Mom/Jenny

"You confused the Continuity about my escape, about the ship sinking, you kept them away from me. You were there when I needed you and I wasn't even sure you were there" I said.

"OK let's go or we will be late" said Rockwood.

***

There had been very many medals to hand out. The CPU in the body of a old thin man had stood up and spoke about what had happened. About the robot revolt, the corruption of the Continuity and about how now it's ambition was to be silently there for us. Helping where it could and standing back to let us - humanity - lead the way. It had explained that the machines had originally planned the take over to prevent the global destruction of mankind and that had been achieved but at a terrible cost in terms of human life and freedom which the machines had no choice but to pay. It told how the forces of the resistance under Mom/Jenny had acted rightly and everything was now about to change. Hunter, Rockwood, even the Wolf and Zahain Zahain had all got medals.

It turned out the Wolf was a cyborg member of the compromised revolution cell in New York. The wolf and Zahain didn't know of each other but both tried to manipulate me to get to the finals in Washington 2.0. Lilly was kept by the wolf but was unaware of his role. They both were uncertain of my motives and were concerned to get little Jenny back. Lilly stood next to 88 in the crowd as both Mom/Jenny and I came up to little Jenny who was standing on a box handing out medals.

As we walked up the crowd broke into a massive round of applause. It continued while Mom/Jenny and I got our medals put over our heads by Little Jenny/the CPU. Little Jenny smiled.

"Thank you" said Little Jenny to us while the crowd roared, "it's nice to see clearly again"

I handed little Jenny her mom and dad dolls back.

"What are these for?" she said.

"To remind you where you came from" I said. "and everyone needs a family"

"thanks" said little Jenny smiling.

Mom/Jenny and I turned to the crowd and waved. They went wild, the sea of faces without collars but medals glinting in the evening setting sun.

I looked out over the sea of faces. The podium was up so high it was about the same height as my home island was above the sea. The sea of bodies moved like the ocean.

"Come closer to the edge, join us Little Jenny, the view is breathless" I asked.

"That close to the edge, It's your view not mine, it's your triumph not mine and it isn't even cabbage night" said Little Jenny.

"We have a lot to do" Mom/Jenny said through the internet, mind to mind. She meant the reconstruction would take a lot to do to get humanity back to the state it was in pre-new mechanical order. The few super-smart cyborgs like us left would have to take a roll helping sort things out. It would be easy to see I would be a likely candidate some day for world president. The people needed people they could trust, standing between the machine and human worlds we could encourage everyone to work together and build a new world without any of the poisons of the past. It wouldn't be easy, human nature doesn't easily change, but the CPU had given us a chance. It was a chance I would hope all of us would use. 

THE END

A/N Well that was a rock sled trip. We hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did writing it. 

Well we have a problem what to write next. As you will have seen it could be The Skypegirl: Murder in the Ashes of New York or Gravity. Well the votes ( reads ) currently stand at 204 for Gravity and 130 for SkypeGirl. Gravity has more votes too ( 28 to15). We wanted to do something different in The Cyborg's Daughter but in the rush and sequal-ness we didn't get to be as funny as we wanted to be. Gravity ( and SkypeGirl) are going to be far, far funnier. 

So we are going to take a brief break to plot like crazy and will be back with our next book Gravity soon. We like to think of Gravity as Cyborg's pet, smarter, funnier, sassyer evil twin. It's set in a different world from Cyborg's Pet with Robots who haven't taken over and all the problems that creates. We really hope you will check out the first 3 or 4 chapters when we start ( hard to expect more than that right?).  

Again super hugs for everyone who get's here. You deserve a medal or something