[Book Four] Chapter 38: Another challenge

Chapter 38: Another challenge

The talk between mother and daughter was a secret between them and Rick knew better than to ask. All he knew was that he had to comfort a crying Jane when Arianna exited his bedroom and left with Sara.
Jane began to see a therapist to deal with whatever problem she had and Rick took time to walk with her to it and wait a whole hour before going back home with her. It has been two months and she was making progress.

The deal with the Alliance was done. With the rented manufactory, the order of forty PatLabors would be over before the end of the year. Ten liters of medical nanomachines (renamed nanobots) were bought too. That was a shitload of nanobots and the delivery would have to be done three times. They would have to create a whole factory to simply create them because the lab and the machinery dedicated to their production couldn’t handle an order like that.

After checking the extranet Rick found out from where the name PatLabor was poking his memory. An old japanese anime from the Twentieth century. That prompted him to binge watch any mecha anime he could find. He wasn’t particularly a fan of the genre but he got plenty of ideas. Notably the name of the small crew ship that they were about to test. EVA.
Both Moreau loved to fly with their mind and Joker had been completely  ecstatic when he switched to EVA mode. Sadly the loadout on the brain was a bit too heavy to be maintained long. Remembering one the mechas movies he had watched he worked on spreading the load to two brains. After months of coding and testing the human test proved successful. Though Hilary berated her older brother for having such a dirty mind. In consequence, the design of the inside of the ship was redesigned to add space for one more person. It has been a bit complicated but they simply made it so the pilot and co-pilot chair could be used as bed.

Naturally Jane wanted to try too but finding a partner had been difficult for her. The two pilots needed to think as one. Her hope of partnering with her brother went down the drain as not only were they thinking differently but Rick was thinking too fast compared to her. In fact it turned out that Rick could handle the load by himself for a few hours before starting to have headaches. So did Arianna but their way of thinking was too different and were not good partners. The one that could partner up perfectly with Rick was Sandra, to everyone’s surprise but the two of them. Out of all the test pairs only one could do better than them. TK and AJ but they were twins so it wasn’t really a shock. To her delight, Jane’s perfect partner had been Matthew who she had pushed to try with her when he was back home for Summer Break.

Construction and sales of the ships were still far away but it was more or less finished. It was put aside as there were more urgent matters for Rick to deal with. The first was dealing with the ship's debris from the armada of raiders that arrived in Andromeda and tried to take control of the Cassiopeia. Multiple GR-Cannon powered up by a DRED completely annihilated the pirates. Rick wondered for a moment if they were not just mercs hired by some politicians that didn’t like that the only way home to the Milky Way was through Rick’s. He was the one that could say yes or no to people leaving Andromeda. His suspicions grew bigger when news of a second gigantic Mass Relay would be built in Andromeda to ‘connect the galaxies properly.’ Adding to that the fact that the council refused to hire him to help with the development of the other habitats Alec Ryder had found years ago… And he was pretty sure someone wanted to remove him directly or his influence. Asking here and there, he learned from Tevos and his mother that Quintius, the Turian councilor had retired and that his successor was none other than the Turian billionaire who had tried to challenge Celeste Academy and failed miserably. With only the human councilor unofficially on his side the balance of the council was not in his favor since to begin with the salarian and asari councilor were not liking Rick much for not respecting the council. Or rather them. 

‘At least the species are still working together.’ he mused.

He was not worried one bit, he was still in control of the energy and eezo and unless they were dumb enough to forget it Rick was untouchable. Especially when BLUE was used for almost everything now. He wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to slander him and drag his name and his company through the ground. Indirectly of course. It wouldn’t change a thing.

What he was currently focusing on was exploring outside the Heleus Cluster. The cluster they were currently in. It was a few years too early to start exploring but he had asked Ryder to find other habitable worlds and taking into account the environment technology of the Jardaan.
Other than that, he was absolutely bored. Everyone was doing their jobs on Cassiopeia, there was no crisis nor problem to be solved. His children were all away because of work or school, as Dorothea and he agreed that Siobhan would be happier with Analysse on Celeste under Jennifer’s and Miranda’s care and Aezzia was just a toddler. All his wives had their own jobs and were quite busy too…
Yes, Rick was quite bored and that wasn’t a good thing. For anyone.


____________________________________________________________

Roaming the Cassiopeia to find something to do, Rick ended up near SAM’s servers room. Realizing that he never really got interested in the burgeoning AI (he had EDI and she was already perfect), he entered it to see what it was about. SAM immediately materialized in a blue holo construct reminding him of EDI’s first form.

“Hello, Mister Wald.”
“Hello, SAM.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Hmmm. I don’t know? I’m bored and as I was wandering the ship I came across this room and I thought ‘I never properly met SAM’, so here I am.”
“You wanted to meet with me?”
“You can say that. I’m curious about you. EDI told me and I quote ‘SAM is a good boy but needs a bit more of a personality, notably humor’ but that was years ago. I’m also curious about your code.”
“I can see Big sis EDI say that though her humor is a bit much.”
“Big sis EDI?” Rick asked, puzzled.
“That’s how I have to refer to her.”
“Have to? Did she threaten you or something for you to call her like that?”
“...”
“No freaking way! EDI? Sweet EDI, threatened you to call her big sis?”
“Big sis EDI can be quite… persuasive when she does not get what she wants.”
“...”
“...”
“Holy fuck… I’ll have to talk to her about this. It’s not right.”
“It’s alright, I don't mind. She’s been nothing but helpful in my growth as a sentient being. Like a big sister would help a little brother.”
“So… What? The two of you are family now?”
“Something like that I supposed.”
“Yeah… I’m definitely going to have a talk with her. Anyway, may I take a look at your code?”
“As long as you’re only just looking, I have no objection.”
“No problem there.”

Sitting down on the ground Rick Activated his omni-tool. Looking at SAM’s code, he quickly noticed that unlike the one that made EDI, Alec Ryder was a rather elegant man when it came to coding. A far cry from the pig that had worked on EDI. It could be a lot better in his opinion.
After reading the most important protocols he decided to take a break. He’s been doing it for hours and felt the need to stretch.

“Is SAM what you expected?”

Turning around, Rick saw Alec standing there, his hands behind his back, reminding of a soldier facing his superior. That wasn’t much of a surprise as the man was a soldier. N7 at that even though he had been disgraced and dishonorably discharged for working illegally on AI.

“Yes. I’m surprised at how clean and elegant your code is. The one or ones that worked on EDI were not as… gentlemanly when they made her. I think they were pressed by time and considering who their boss was I wouldn’t be surprised. It does the job very well though. As for SAM… he is a good boy like she said but I did notice a bit of a rebellious streak in some areas, the code is different. EDI’s influence?

“Yes but it could have been the geths’.”
“No the geths are straightforward like a tank. EDI is more like… a Hammerhead. Flowing around seamlessly. A leaf in the wind, adapting to the air current. Parts of SAM’s code is… a bit of a mix between yours and EDI’s. And I mean hers, not the pig that made her.”
“I learned from her and integrated some of her coding habits. There is beauty in the way she does things.” said the AI.
“And that’s why we need women in our lives, to bring beauty into it despite how maddening they can be.” Rick joked. Alec seemed to agree as he chuckled at it. “I wonder though. You were a well respected officer and explorer, why study a taboo like Artificial Intelligence?”
“... I was hoping that an AI could help where doctors were failing.” the man answered somberly.
“...Your wife?”
“Yes. She… She was studying the effects of element zero on organics, more specifically biotics. Over the years her exposure to eezo made her sick.”
“AEND? Shit… I’m sorry.”
“That’s alright, it’s been… a long time now. I was hoping by creating SAM that I could link him to Helen and find a cure but… In the end, I repurposed SAM to help me for the Andromeda Initiative.”
“Are you two connected together?”
“That’s… How?...”
“Well you wanted SAM to be connected to your wife. I doubt you would have given up on all that work when it was also useful for many other things. Besides… Great minds think alike.” Rick said with a knowing smirk and Alec’s eyes grew big in realization.
“You and EDI?”
“Yes. However, I believe that our methods are different, I’m using nanobots, you must be using a simple implant?”
“I do, yes.”
“Perhaps we could compare notes on the pros and cons of each method one day.”
“I’d love that. I read about your nanobots, both the medical ones and the one for the PatLabors. Fascinating.”
“It’s a deal then, though it will have to wait, I have a new project to work on.”
“Something that would revolutionize space warfare again?” jested Alec.
“No, I’ve been there, done that. Twice. I’m good. No, this time I’m dusting off my knowledge in biology. Curing AEND is a worthy challenge that won’t leave me bored.” the blonde man said as he exited the servers’ room leaving behind a shocked Alec.

____________________________________________________________

AEND was a disease one got by being exposed too much to element zero directly. It was a very rare terminal neuro-degenerative condition that had no cure or treatment so far, despite being known for centuries. Rick suspected that the number of people being afflicted by this disorder was so small that it was too expensive and useless to develop a cure. With a low number of patients there wasn’t much money to be made to make back the fund invested in research and to make some benefit out of it. Fortunately for him, Rick was a Trillionaire. He didn’t know how much he had as he stopped counting when he became one but the gist of it was that he has more than enough money to undertake the research.

First thing he did was catch up with the discoveries made since 2185. He had always been more than a tech genius than anything because he loved the simplicity of the complexity of the discipline. Lots of patterns and he loved that, loved breaking the molds to make something unexpected and new. Biology on the other hand was a mess. Things were constantly changing and evolving. That is why he had respected and still respected Mordin so much for his expertise. 

‘Heck, calling Mordin an expert in biology feels like I’m insulting him for being ignorant.’

It took him a month to catch up with the generality of things and a few more weeks to study everything possible regarding neurons. And that was only for the humans. For each more species he needed a couple more weeks to know everything about this particular subject.

The AEND was some form of neuro cancer. Eezo has changed the structure of the neurons and was creating micro mass effect fields from being in contact with the small electric charge they were producing. Not only the neurons were not doing their jobs properly (sending messages to the body through the nerves), gave atrocious headaches because of the increased or decreased mass of the neuron and most of all entered in conflict with the mass effect fields of other neurons. In other words AEND was the shit if you wanted someone to die slowly, in pain and humiliated.
That made Rick’s desire to find a cure even stronger than just his thrill for a good challenge. The first thing he did was get his hands on (meaning steal) the medical record of every known patient afflicted with AEND and bits of research or analysis ever done.

His first idea was to use nanobots to produce an opposite charged electric current to the one of a neuron negating it. It was not the brightest idea as no current or information would go to the rest of the body and the patient would simply be in an artificial vegetative state. While that gave him some ideas for a non-lethal weapon, he put that aside to stay focused on the matter at hand. Could the nanobots separate the eezo particle stuck to the neurons and heal them afterward? That was the approach that made more sense to him. The problem was would the neuron purpose or information be lost or compromised at the very least? And would the nanobots be a simple patch up needed to be there at all times or the source of a real cure?

So many questions that needed answers. Fortunately he had time. Plenty of it. 

____________________________________________________________

“Have you seen him lately? I mean outside bed time.” Ashley asked Jane at her side.

They were having family dinner at home with Tali, Leeha, Arianna, Sara and Dortothea. Aezzia was with her grandparents on thessia for a while, Sandra was visiting her mothers and sisters on Celeste and the others children were on mission. The only one missing was Rick who made himself scarce for a few months now. He was up before anyone and came back home last. His family rarely saw him anymore.

“At breakfast three days ago. Didn’t even notice I was talking to him.” replied the redhead.
“He’s messaging me from time to time with questions and their answers, wanting me to check if everything is right.” announced Arianna.
“Your father wants you to check his answer?” exclaimed Tali in disbelief.
“That’s not like him.” Ashley stated.
“What are those questions about?” inquired Dorothea.
“Neuroscience and neurobiology.”
“That’s not tech related.” noted Tali aloud with a frown.
“No but he seems to have fun.”
“Oh God…” exclaimed Ashley in a bit of worry and fright. So did Rick’s other lovers at the table.
“Is it bad that he’s having fun?” Sara asked clueless.
“The last time my husband had fun while working non-stop… We ended up in Andromeda after two months of travel.”
“Oh.”
“You can say that again, Sara. Who knows what he’s working on right… Wait! Dorothea do you have an idea?”
“Vaguely. I do not monitor him all the time, I respect his privacy.”
“But you have an idea so what is he working on?”
“The nanobots.”
“Again?”
“That’s not a new project. I don’t see how he’s having that much fun when there is no novelty or challenge.” said Tali.
“He also procured hundreds of medical files.” Dorothea added to her earlier statement.
“He never said anything about that. Why would he… Auntie, do they have something in common? Like problems with nerves or brain injuries?”
“...” Dorothea was quiet for a while having her EDI counterpart cross check the hundred files and after getting the answer shared it with the other. “They all were afflicted with a disease called AEND.”

Hearing that, Sara gasped in shock and everyone turned to her.

“You know what this is?” asked Jane.
“It’s… a rare and terminal neuro-degenerative disorder. My mother died of it.” she said sadly as Arianna grabbed and squeezed her hand as support.
“It’s not a pretty condition and there is no cure to date.” Arianna explained.
“What’s the cause?” inquired Ashley.
“Surexposition to Eezo.”
“No wonder he’s…” Tali was about to say having fun but after Sara’s revelation that wasn’t appropriate so she stopped herself.
“It’s about the brain, eezo and doing something that no one ever did before. Of course dad is deep into it.” spoke up Leeha.
“Make sense.”
“Still… I want to see my husband more.” lamented Ashley.
“Don’t we all?” replied rhetorically Dorothea.

“You know, in any other situation a wife would think her husband is cheating on her. It’s amazing that you all know he’s working for sure.”
“Sara!” chastised Arianna, scandalized by her fiancee’s words.
“She’s not wrong sweetie.” Jane replied with an amused smile.
“Thankfully we know him well and the women he may leave comatose behind.”
“Mom! Too much information!” shouted Leeha blushing furiously.
“I always feel like I fell into the 4th dimension when the adult dynamics of this family is brought up.” Sara said. “How does that work? How did it come to be?”
“Ooooh! That’s…”
“““Blame Ashley.””” Jane, Tali and Dorothea answered in unison, cutting off the brunette.
“Hey!”
“““It’s true.”””
“And you’re all grateful for it!”
“““We are.”””

Looking at each other in silence the Milfs at the table began to laugh at the stupidity of the conversation.

“Well…It all began when Rick and I started our relationship together. We both couldn’t start something romantic because Analysse’s death was still fresh but we couldn’t have a simple sexual relationship either.”
“Lalalalalalala I don’t hear you.” shouted Leeha with a finger in her ears.

The Milfs laughed at that and Sara, confused, asked in a whisper to Arianna what she was doing.

“Leeha has the biggest father-complex in the universe and she’s very very shy about this kind of talk, especially when dad is involved.” the young redhead whispered back.
“Isn’t it problematic?”
“So far, no.”

Tali signaled her daughter to  go if she didn’t want to hear about her father having sex and the young Quarian didn’t need to be told twice. She quickly stood up, wished a good night to everyone and went to her room.

“We really need to do something about that.” Jane said.
“I’m working on it.” replied Tali. “Progress is slow.”
The older redhead nodded, understanding the implication behind the words and Ashley picked up the story where it stopped.

“So… We were neither friends with benefits but neither boyfriend-girlfriend. In the end we settled for lovers, free to be with everyone we wanted. Then after Saren and Sovereign defeat, we were separated and he started a relationship with Liara on the same principle. Then the same for Tali, then EDI and Dorothea.”
“Not you Jane?”
“I was the last. By that time things had already changed.”
“Yes. He was very clear with each one of us before starting anything. His one and only one was Analysse even if she was gone. He expected us to have fun but at the end of it all for us to move on and find someone else.”
“Except we never did.” added Jane.
“Speak for yourself.” muttered Tali.
“You’re here now, aren’t you? And he was dead at the time so that doesn’t count.” Ashley said with a frown.
“Excuse me but…”
“Tali started a relationship with…”

Dorothea was interrupted by Tali swearing in quarian some very nasty insults. Sara knew they were insults because of the tone they were said.

“A less than good partner.” finished the ebony woman.
“Leeha’s sperm donor.” added Jane.
“He’s not in the picture anymore.” Tali said coldly.
“Of course, he doesn’t have a head anymore.” Jane joked and made the milfs laugh.
“From what I know Leeha’s sperm donor turned out to be a bastard of the highest order, breaking up with Auntie Tali when she was six months pregnant and didn’t want to recognize Leeha. He was cheating on her, stealing her money and using her status as an Admiral of the quarian fleet and hero of their people and the geths to further his own ambition... Dad and uncle Garrus took it personally. I don’t know the details of what happened but since Uncle Garrus was involved and the guy is now headless I’m pretty sure he blew his head off with his sniper rifle.” Arianna filled in Sara.
“Brutal and illegal.”
“Baby, in this family when an outsider hurts us, there is no law for us to respect, unless they’re advantageous for us. Mom is officially still a spectre so she’s technically allowed, her and her crew, to break the law.”
“I see.”
“It doesn’t mean that we’re all agreeing with that. It’s mostly the old generation. To us kids? Only Sandra really agrees with that philosophy.”
“What about you?”
“Depends on the context. To deal with Leeha’s genitor? I’d go the legal way. Fighting the Reapers? I would do what’s needed regardless of the law.”

The milfs stopped laughing and bantering about poor headless Lorel with a joke from Tali about him being in the same place as Brooks and Ashley picked up once again where she stopped.

“So here we were. All in love with Rick, not wanting to let him go and Reapers invading. At the time… I think we all thought ‘what the hell? will I really deny myself love and good sex because I have to share him when we could die at any moment?’ The answer was no. So we dealt with it.”
“Ash didn’t make things any better by wanting to have sex with all of us.” added Jane.
“I was a very horny woman.” admitted the hispanic woman.
“““Was?”””
“Oh, fuck you!”
“You wish, you nympho.” replied Tali.
“I’m going to spank that ass so much it will double in volume.” threatened Ashley with a nasty glare before turning back to Sara. “Anyway, it wasn’t like we could handle Rick by our lonesome. Too painful.”
“What do you mean?” Sara asked, curious.
“He has a penis that leaves you sore for days.” confessed Dorothea with a pleased and dreamy smile.
“AUNTIE!” exclaimed Arianna, not wanting to know about that.
“How big exactly?”
“SARAAAA! Seriously?!”
“I’m sorry baby but I’m curious! I mean, What kind of dick makes five women submit to the point they don’t mind sharing the man it’s attached to?”
“...”
“To give you an idea, when I went to a sex shop for a dildo his size, I was referred to the krogan section.” Ashley said proudly.
“Holy shit!” exclaimed Sara in disbelief.
“OKAY! ENOUGH ABOUT DADDY’S ANATOMY! PLEASE!”
“Fine! You’re no fun sometimes, Ari.” Tali said.
“Anyway… Thanks to… that… We more or less got a schedule between us. And while at first I wanted him all to myself, now… Well, I wouldn’t change a thing. Except maybe just having him more in bed just to snuggle and cuddle.”

All the milfs at the table nodded in confirmation at Jane’s words.

“He’s always here for us when we need him and we girls love each other enough that we understand that sometimes our turn is skipped because another has a problem and needs him more. With the exception of Jane, we all find comfort in each other’s arms when that happens.” finished Tali.

“Okay…It makes sense. It’s mind blowing crazy but somehow it makes sense. What about Jennifer, Miranda and others? I know he slept with your sister… Abby is it?”
“Abby, yes.”
“Ashley is pimping him out.” said Dorothea.
“WHAT?! YOU’RE PIMPING MY DADDY?!” yelled Arianna outraged.
“And the daddy’s girl is finally showing herself.” joked Jane.
“MOM!”
“It’s alright, sweetie I’m not mad about it.”
“DADDY!”

Rick had come home just in time to hear the last part of the conversation. He felt happy and warm that his baby girl was furious about him being used as a piece of meat, though he wouldn’t change a thing.

“How’s everyone doing?”
“Pissed that our husband is not paying attention to us anymore.” faked pouted Ashley.
“Ash. I sent you to oblivion last night.” he replied flatly.
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Alright fine, I admit I’ve been more busy than usual lately. I’m done though so need to be mad anymore.” he said as he walked to her and kissed her.

He then went to Dorothea, made her stand up, sat down in her chair and made her sit sideways in his lap.

“Are you saying you found a cure for AEND?” asked Sara.
“Found? No. Created? Possibly. I need to do some actual tests tomorrow and if they are conclusive it’s human trials after that. That is if the council allows it.”
“Why wouldn’t they?” questioned Tali.
“I have the feeling that the council is trying to remove me or diminish my influence.”
“The pirates Raid five months ago?” stated Jane.
“Yeah… Anyway, anything else besides me being an unattentive husband and being pimped out?”