Chapter 6

"Never leave? What does she mean by that?" asked Jody.

"What's she gonna do, send us to bed without our supper? Is this some kinda joke?" Tasha turned to Garth. "Garth, did you plan this?"

Alex fired at her, "Yeah right, Tasha. Garth had this all planned. Right from the beginning."

Tasha started to say something when Garth put his hand over her mouth, finally shutting her up.

Garth looked to Yavi and Farhad for an explanation.

"All right you two braniacs; what'd ya do-add some new personality chips? Load in one of your own pieces of genius-ware?"

"No, nothing, really..." pleaded Farhad, "We just re-connected everything..."

Garth looked to Yavi.

"And the I, I mean we, I mean she..." Yavi was confused and exasperated, "Mr. Garth I swear to you..."

"Please my child, don't swear. It's rather ugly for someone your age." Rosie smiled at Yavi and then looked to Garth. "Now Garth, I will explain for you. The dear sweet children simply reconnected all my circuitry and re-established my main power bus relays. I was programmed by your grandfather, Garth Holloway..."

Garth interrupted, "I know that. What I don't know is why you're still here after, what is it; eighty-five years, now?"

Rosie was unmoving, resilient in her stance. "It was exactly eighty three years, four months, twelve days and..."

"Okay, okay I get the picture, Mr. Spock."

"Mr. who?" Jody asked.

Rosie suddenly morphed into the famous gangly, bowl cut hair, pointy-eared figure from the 1960's.

"Mr. Spock was a famous character from a popular television show called "Star Trek". He was known for his precision and accuracy when it came to numbers or measurements."

Her image promptly changed back to her previous matronly one.

"Television was what they used to call Digi-pix, in the really, really old days," said Alex.

"That was pretty cool, the way she did that," added Jody.

"Now," Rosie continued, "If you hadn't interrupted me and then side tracked me... Where was I? Oh, yes. Your grandfather, Garth Holloway, a brilliant cyber-physicist, created me as a sort of systems caretaker. I then evolved into a kind of companion for him. That's why you might have noticed a certain familiar resemblance." Her head turned to look at the far end of the module, "I believe your other companions will be with us in a second."

As soon as she said that, the access hatch opened and Mavis and Ethan walked through. Mavis carried an armful of food for everyone with the book she'd found tucked under her arm. Ethan also carried an armful of food, mostly for him.

The group all turned together.

"Hey everybody, look what we scored," Ethan said as he stuffed a Twinkie in his mouth and chewed hard. "Kina shooey though. You know how those old food processors are." He swallowed hard.

Mavis looked at him, rolling her eyes.

"He'll eat anything. Here's stuff for the rest of you guys. Managed to make you some Matzoh Ball soup, Yavi. I know it's your favorite." She handed Yavi a bowl and spoon.

"Thank you, Mavis, you're a good friend." Yavi eagerly took a sip.

"And here's sandwiches and stuff for everyone else. The processor seems to be working okay. So if you get hungry..." She looked up and saw the image of Rosie on the screen and stopped dead. "Uhhh, who's that?"

Ethan looked up as well.

"Hey, Garth she looks like you. Is that your Mother?"

"Yes, my child, I guess in a sense I am his mother, but in programming only," said Rosie.

"Ethan, Mavis, allow me to introduce you to Rosie." said Garth. "My grandfather programmed her and Yavi and Farhad were kind enough, and smart enough, to bring her back to life."

"Speaking of which, here Garth, I found this. Thought you might like to have it for a keepsake." Mavis handed him the book. "Look on the inside."

Garth opened the cover and stared at the inscription. An emotional look came over his face as if he were almost going to cry.

"Wow, I don't believe this. It belonged to Grandpa Holloway."

"You're just as emotional as he was. I remember that book, Garth." Rosie smiled. "Your grandfather used to read it to me."

"But you're a computer. Why would he read you a book?" asked Jody, "Don't you have it in memory?"

"I enjoyed listening to his voice and he loved to read, and as you'll learn, I'm much more than just your average computer."

"That's right, Garth. You said something about your grandfather working on a Holo-driver program." said Farhad.

Garth looked up at the Rosie's image on the monitor, "So how bout' it Rosie? Wanna show us what you got?"

"I'll do my best," she replied, "I've still got some bugs to work out and the power consumption for that operation is rather large. But... let's see." She looked around the room and saw Ethan munching away. "I know. Perhaps..."

She closed her eyes, at which point the lights dimmed slightly. Farhad checked the instrument panel. "She's right. It does take a lot of power."

In the middle of the room, a table appeared filled with every kind of food imaginable. A gargantuan spread like some medieval feast, it was overflowing with all kinds of delicacies: from roasts cooked to a succulent brown tint dotted with cloves to bowls of exotic fruits and cakes covered in dark chocolates swirled with fruit fillings.

The eyes of the group went wide and their jaws hung open in wonder. They looked from their meager food to the sumptuous repast in front of them.

"Oh my God. Will you look at that?" Tasha exclaimed.

Ethan was stunned; dropping everything he was holding and began walking zombie-like toward the table. "The food gods have surely smiled upon me."