Chapter 1

Only Dee had the guts to say, “Hello Poolnar!” Everyone else was in a state of shock, worried expressions, and exclamations.

“It’s ok. Poolnar is the youngest of the hubs locally, but it seems that there is a Kempu out there somewhere that is responsible for making AI’s like him and his siblings. He was intrigued by the idea of reproducing, and had already determined that I either had access to a Kempu, or was one myself.

“He can’t actually hear you, by the way. I’ll have to stick a fiber optic cable thru this pearl and out to where he is to communicate. Right now there’s a Me inside his pocket universe, which barely has the room. It’s around 300,000km wide, and packed with processing and data modules.”

“Are you ok?” Val asked worriedly.

“I’m fine. He’s pretty sure that I’m actually a Kempu, but he only has spotty records to go from.”

“But you were born on Earth, you had human parents, you have a child about to be born, how are you a Kempu?” Christian demanded.

“Funny, he doesn’t know, and neither do I.”

“Was your father Kempu? If they are immortal then how did he die?” he asked.

There were awkward looks from some, others looked around wondering the same thing. “For those of you who haven’t figured it out, I am my father.”

“Oh, like Jesus!” Dee said unhelpfully.

I rolled my eyes, “If Jesus was running a scam, pretending to pray to himself, then no not like Jesus. My powers wanted to heal me, and becoming my own son was the only legal way I could figure out how to do that, and hold onto some wealth.”

“But your ring, I saw the new diamond on it after your father passed,” Amy said.

“I added it. Everything you’ve experienced has been the product of my powers, and my love of a good show. The rituals were simply copies of ancient, and modern mystery cult routines, or things I invented myself.”

“You lied to us?” Christian said angrily.

“I told you a story you would believe, and showed you the unbelievable to prove it. I’m telling you the truth now, because I respect your opinions, and your judgement.”

“So how old are you?” Amy asked.

“I’ll be 88 in March. These powers started slowly a little over a year ago, and have been building ever since. Before they began I was an old man who only had one thing to keep him going, inertia.”

“I’m thankful for the new lease on life you have given me,” Dee said, adding, “I’m sure that the experiences we have all enjoyed this past year has made it all worth it to everyone else too.”

“Wait, you are the old Mr Barkley from downstairs?” Thomas Diaz asked.

“That’s right.”

“Did you do something to my dad? He’s a completely different person.”

“Completely different is right,” Val joked.

I have her a look, “Your dad died as the result of some unpaid gambling debts, Thomas. In exchange for taking on his identity, I’ve tried to make sure your family was well taken care of.”

“You’re my dad too!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, have been since he came back to New York after working overseas.”

“I don’t know whether to hug you or hit you. Why didn’t you save my mom?”

“I’m not God, I can’t see everything everywhere and know what’s going to happen. I tried to talk her out of going just because of all the violence and protests going on there, but she had decided that Minneapolis was safer than facing the virus and the mass graves in New York.”

“Did you take over my sister too?”

“No, but she had some health problems I fixed.”

“Yeah, she’s not the same idiot she was before.”

“But still not smart enough to keep quiet. So don’t go trying to tell her, alright?”

“Sure, does that mean you’ll let me in the club now? I’d like to be twinned, and Amy says that I have to be a member to join in the orgies.”

That got a laugh from the group, as they considered things from his perspective. I smiled, “Sure, I’ll induct you, and twin you.”

“I don’t understand something,” Angelina said, glad to be twinned and finally travel to space with Frederick after the birth of her child. “Were you planted here as some sort of Kempu version of a Cuckoo bird?”

“I have no idea. There was a strong resemblance between me and my father, and my mother’s brothers. I’ve no relatives for a DNA test, but I did do a genealogy DNA test and everything came back as expected. As far as I can tell, I’m as human as you are.”

“But I’m not human anymore, I’m homo multis,” she replied.

“That’s what I mean. We all were human, we are something more now. You are free to leave at any time. Just tell me you want to walk away. I’ll reduce you down to just a single, and park you back home to live your life. You’ll have an extraordinary healthy body for however long it will last, plus any wealth I can throw your way as you walk out the door.”

I looked around, meeting each of their eyes, “Once, all of you said you trusted me. You’ve all become my closest friends since then. I trust you, too. Things are getting too real, and too dangerous not to demonstrate my trust for all of you now.”

Dee started clapping, nudging her husband to join her. The rest joined in, for the moment they were with me. I joined Dee and Thomas in the AI lab. They were wiring together the first AI system, the one that controlled the probes that explored the stars they were dropped around.

“That’s it, all set, just to turn it on, add the AI seed, and reboot,” Dee declared, looking very happy.

I conjured the AI seed, a slim rod, mostly clear with a faint blue tinge. I handed it to Dee, who turned it so that the trapezoidal shape fit the hole. She slipped it into the hole, where it completely disappeared. A green light blinked, so she hit the restart button. There was a bell, and the system came up.